Former provost’s slavery message
DIGGING INTO THE PAST with Dr Murray Cook
John Dick Craigengelt of
Seeking a new walk in lockdown the other day I ventured up Craigengelt Hill, a modest 358m and crowned with a series of very impressive wind turbines.
Now that name is originally Gaelic and might mean‘whitened or bleached crag’or perhaps ‘rock causing fear or cowardice’, but neither made any sense to me! There is also a Craigengelt Farm but it’s not clear which was named first.
The views from the top are excellent - Meikle Bin, Earl’s Hill and The Ochils.
Both the farm and hill were owned by a former Provost of Stirling, John Dick of Craigengelt, and this name suggests he or his family had farmed the land. Provost Dick died at the fine old age of 79 in 1865. This is his tombstone in the cemetery at Mary Erskine’s (now the Youth Hostel next to the Old Town Jail).
However, he is more famous for a stained glass which was commissioned after his death for the Church of Holy Rude. This celebrates the then recent abolition of slavery in
America.
The stained glass shows a man of African descent in chains being freed by Christ.
However, there is a more subtle message here as well - the new panel coincided with the installation of extensive new stained glass in Glasgow Cathedral which was supported by the Stirling of Keir family who had made their very substantial fortune from the Jamaican slave trade.
The intention of the new glass was clearly to shame the Keir family by artistic example.