Strange story of Glasgow eccentric said to 'haunt' Clydeside street

Equal parts comic and tragic, it is the story of a man described in Glasgow City Archives as “one of the oddest of Glasgow’s colourful eccentrics” and the “most profligate debauchee of his time.”

His grandfather, Robert Dreghorn the elder, was on  a number of occasions Deacon of the Incorporation of Wrights. He was succeeded on his death in 1760 by his son Allan Dreghorn, Baillie of Glasgow.

Robert Dreghorn (Image: Glasgow City Archives)

It was Allan Dreghorn, a partner in the Smithfield Ironworks, who built the Dreghorn Mansion in Great Clyde Street in 1752.

He was one of the first people in Glasgow to keep a private four-wheeled carriage. He died in 1764 at his country house in Ruchill, only four years after the death of his father.

Ruchill House (Image: Glasgow City Archives)

Allan Dreghorn was succeeded by his son, the eccentric Robert Dreghorn, who inherited £8000 a year and the magnificent house in Clyde Street, near to the jail. “Strangers came to Glasgow to see Robert Dreghorn’s house, as he was one of the lions of the city,” according to our archives.

He was given the cruel nickname "Bob Dragon" because his face had been disfigured by smallpox - he lost an eye to the disease; his nose was flat and was said to have pockmarks on his face "the size of threepenny pieces".

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Bob was a regular sight in Glasgow’s streets. He usually dressed in a single-breasted coat, reaching below his knees. His hair was powdered, and his pigtail was ornamented by a bow of black ribbon. He always had a cane in his hand when walking the streets, which he sometimes used against vagrant boys.

On one occasion he was rebuked on the stool of repentance in the Parish Church of Govan, for a nameless offence carried out by him in that area, where he had his summer residence.

Details of this spread through Glasgow, and some of the best ladies and gentlemen in the city went down to Govan to see and hear “Bob Dragon” publicly rebuked in the presence of the congregation.

When he was called to the penitent chair to be rebuked, the minister addressed him and said: “Oh! Mr Dreghorn, Mr Dreghorn, surely, surely, you have been well liked, for I have never seen greater congregation all my days in this place… I am almost persuaded that every leddy in Glasgow is doon here the day to get sight of you.”

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His behaviour may have arisen out of a “vacancy of mind”, according to the archive reports, and the need for something to amuse and interest him. He had no close friends and he walked the streets alone.

In 1773 Glasgow citizens were for the first time assessed for maintenance of the poor,  Dreghorn initially paid his dues.

In 1793, however, after regular rises to meet the increasing needs of the poor, despite his wealth, he refused to pay the amount of assessment. An initial action was taken against him by the Glasgow Magistrates and after a long-protracted case, he lost his case at the Court of Session.

Late in life he became obsessed by the idea that he had little money left. He complained to a Baillie that he was so reduced in circumstance that he would soon die in poverty and want.

He was reassured that as he was a member of the Merchants House, his admission into the Town’s Hospital was assured, if necessary.

This cheered him up at the time but soon afterwards, Bob’s sad story came to a tragic end when he took his own life inside his mansion house.

The building, now part of a Clydeside apartment complex, stood empty for many years, with eerie stories feeding rumours that Bob’s ghost haunted the place for decades to come….