Grim tale of riots and death rooted in history of Glasgow's Shawfield

Daniel Campbell of Shawfield, who also owned a Trongate town house, is remembered for the Shawfield Riots of 1725.

Campbell (1671-1753) was a tobacco merchant, member of the Scottish Parliament, one of the Commissioners for Scotland who negotiated with England on the Treaty of Union, and a member of the first Parliament of Great Britain.

He made a large fortune, with much of his wealth being acquired in trading tobacco for iron ore and more directly in the trading of enslaved people. This allowed him to purchase various properties and estates over his lifetime.

In 1707 he acquired Shawfield house and estate, near Oatlands and Polmadie; situated on the banks of the Clyde, in the parish of Rutherglen and county of Lanarkshire. He already owned the valuable estate of Woodhall in Lanarkshire.

In 1711 he built Shawfield Mansion as his town residence at what was then described as an extremity of the town. It occupied a site now forming part of Glassford Street at the point where it joins Trongate.

It was built from the plans of a relative, Colin Campbell, who was a successful architect. A central staircase led to the four apartments on the first floor. The front was decorated with a Doric cornice and balustrade.

It was at the time the finest Palladian mansion in the city and possibly in Scotland.

In 1725 the Shawfield mansion was the scene of an infamous riot which long remained in the public memory arising from the imposition of a malt tax on every barrel of beer brewed in Scotland.

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The Scottish members of parliament were generally in favour of the proposal, but a large majority of the citizens, especially the Jacobites, bitterly resented it.

For almost 20 years Campbell represented Glasgow and the neighbouring burghs in the Parliaments of Great Britain, and it is in this capacity that his name survived for centuries.

His support of the government’s malt tax made Campbell extremely unpopular with the people of Glasgow and the surrounding area.

On the day when the tax was to be imposed crowds gathered in the streets and obstructed the excisemen.

The agitation continued next day and intensified with the arrival of two companies of soldiers, who were prevented by the mob from occupying the guardhouse.

In fear, Campbell packed up his valuables and left the city with his family. On the night of June 24, the day after the passing of the Act, rioting Glaswegians sacked the mansion.

On the third night, the crowds re-assembled in the Trongate, and the authorities called in the military to restore order.

The commanding officer ordered his men to fire, without having first read the Riot Act or having fired warning shots, as was legally required.

Nine people were killed and 16 injured.

General Wade, commander in chief of forces in Scotland, was sent to Glasgow with a much larger number of troops quelling the rioting.

Wade was accompanied by the Lord Advocate, Forbes of Culloden, who exacted retribution for the riots. Several of the culprits were jailed, fined, whipped through the town or exiled for life.

A Committee of the House of Commons was appointed to look at the whole affair. The council was fined a total of almost £10,000 to cover the cost of the riots and was forced to sell off most of the city’s common lands to pay the fine.

Much of the compensation went directly to Campbell of Shawfield, who claimed and received more than £6000.

There was in fact only minor damage to the house, with the cost of repairs amounting to a few hundred pounds. The compensation may be seen as a reward for his loyal support.

The compensation was put towards his purchase of the Island of Islay, the ancestral lands of his mother’s people.