Person:James Smollett (1)

Irving, Joseph. The Book of Dumbartonshire: A History of the County Burghs, Parishes, and Lands, Memoirs of... (Dumbartonshire,: W. and A. K. Johnston, 1879), Vol. 2, Pages 182 to 185.^S1

I. Sir James Smollett, son of the preceding John, and the first of Bonhill, was born about 1648. Several of the most prominent incidents in his life have already be alluded to (pp. 290-293), in connection with the Union question; but the following may not be considered out of place in a genealogical account of the family of which he was in one sense the founder. In 1676, James Smollett was appointed Depute-Clerk of the Regality of Lennox, but within three years afterwards a prosecution was entered against him, at the instance of his Majesty’s Advocate, for presumeing to exercise his office without having signed the oath of allegiance. He is likely to have made the required submission in this instance, as there is no evidence that he suffered in etiher person or estate from such cause. The circumstances of his falling under the suspicion of the Episcopalian party as favourer of fanatics, and his subsequent removal to Edinburgh, have already been referred to, but his connection with Dumbarton affairs is brought out still more clearly in other passages of the “Memorialls,” which he compiled in 1708. In instructions forwarded to him by his constituents to oppose the Union as a measure detrimental to the welfare of Scotland, he seems to have thought an undue interference with his own independence, and a communication was in consequence made, on behalf of his constituents, explaining that their instructions “were never designed to invade the liberty of your own conscience, whether as to the Union or any other matter, nor to bind you up from following your own light according to the oath of Parliament.” In his “Memorialls,” he enters at some length into a defence of his conduct regarding the compromise between Dumbarton and Glasgow as to the Clyde dues, and as to the encroachments committed by the neighbouring proprietors on the Town Moor. Each of the questions gave rise considerable discussion at the time, but Sir James’s proceedings therein appear to have been actuated by a sincere regard for the interests of the burgh. This is best shown by the important commissions he afterwards held. Besides being repeatedly elected representative for the burgh of Dumbarton to the Scottish Parliament, he was also frequently chosen ruling elder for them in the Assembly, and in 1720, when the burgesses resolved that no non-resident burgesses should in future be elected a commissioner, an exception was made in favour of Sir James’s family. He was created Deputy-Lieutenant of the county in 1715. Having been knighted by King William, and made a judge in the Commissary Court of Edinburgh in 1690, Sir James resided chiefly in the latter city, and had thus frequent opportunities of serving his constituents at Dumbarton. He was also nominated one of the Commissioners appointed to visit and report upon the universities and schools in Scotland. Sir James had a resignation of Pillanflatt from his father, and was infeft in Stainflett as his heir, and also in Howatshaws, in 1681. He purchased Bonhill from William and Anne Lindsay, 1684; Dalquhurn from Charles Fleming, 1692; and Croslet from David Watson, 1700. In 1721 Sir James Smollett executed a ded of entail in favour of James, his grandson, and nearest male heir, whom failing to James, another grandson, son of George Smollett.^S1

By his first wife Jane, a daughter of Macaulay of Ardincaple, he had—^S1

[Extracted brief information on the children from the record]

1. Tobias, m. Anne Shaw, of Greenock^S1

2. James, m. Helen Ogilvy, of Forglen^S1

3. George, m. Katherine Cunningham, of Bonnington^S1

4. Archibald m. Barbara Cunningham, of Gilbertfield^S1

Sir James Smollett married, secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of William Hamilton of Orbiston, but had no issue thereby. He died in 1731.^S1

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