Chapter 7.

THE BORRONS.

The last decades of the eighteenth century saw a technological revolution which transformed the lives of thousands of working people but which had little immediate effect on the miners at Leadhills and Wanlockhead. The lead mines had established industries in both villages long before, and, in spite of mechanical developments, the miners themselves still worked with hand tools as their fore-fathers had done. However, industrial growth did increase the market for the metal. In the first years of the nineteenth century the total production from the mines at Leadhills rose to around 1500 tons of smelted lead, and in 1802 the Scots Mines Company paid a dividend of £10,000 - over 100% on the subscribed capital.

The Company celebrated its centenary in 1829. The previous decades had seen the country wracked by the effects of the Napoleonic Wars and the industrial revolution. Resulting in a brief period of inflation; followed by the chill winds of economic and social change.

One effect was a short lived increase in the price of lead. During the last decades of the 18th century it had held at around £17 per ton, then by 1810 it was over £30. But by 1825 it was back to £17 and would go lower. In that year William Huskisson, president of the Board of Trade, reduced the tariff on imports of pig lead, action referred to as "Mr Huskisson's extremes" in a letter from the agent at Wanlockhead to the Marquis of Bute. Although many British lead mines were owned by noblemen, their protests about the situation seem to have had no effect on the government of the day.

The lead miners fared better than most working people at that time. The cottages were ill ventilated and damp but their inhabitants were not crowded together like workers in the industrial towns, and they had potatoes from their gardens and milk and cheese from their cows.

By 1829 mining companies at Leadhills had come and gone. It could be supposed that relations between others and the Scots Mines Company were not always cordial, but if so any disagreements left no lasting impression. There seems no evidence of any real hardship in the community, or any impression of labour disputes or of any challenge to the Company's authority. The seeming placid situation may reflect only the lack of record, but the tide of change was pressing on the mines and after 1829 the circumstances of the lead miners was to greatly alter.

James Stirling's nephew, Archibald, was succeeded by Alexander Irving. He had an estate on the Shortcleuch and later became a Lord of Session taking the title Lord Newton. In 1820 the Company sent up one of its London staff, William B.Musson, to assist Irving whom he replaced in 1824. In 1828 Musson went back to London, and John Arthur Borron, of Little Woolden Hall, Warrington, was appointed agent at Leadhills where he was joined by his son William. J.A.Borron had a glass works in Warrington but had connections with Scotland. His grand-mother was a daughter of Alexander Telfer, who had leased ground at Wanlockhead in the 1730s; and his wife was the daughter of Archibald Geddes of the Verreville pottery.

The administrations of Irving and Musson were later described as "inefficient", and it is probable that Borron was appointed to shake things up with the sort of strong management that went with his years as a factory owner. The days of paternalism were passing, workers were now "hands", part of the production process. The sort of social control which dated from medieval industry no longer met the demands of new industrial objectives, and everywhere employers were seeking ways of changing old attitudes to meet new demands. Events at Leadhills and Wanlockhead were to demonstrate that the Borrons' approach to this combined a selfish ambition with an arrogant and heavy handed authority. They not only upset the miners but also alienated some of the bourgeoisie in both villages, and it is tempting to see the actions of young William in particular as a turning point in labour relations at Leadhills.

The Marquis of Bute bought out the Crauford partners in 1831, his first wife was a granddaughter of Ronald Crauford, and J.A. Borron secured the management of the Wanlockhead mines in addition to his responsibilities at Leadhills. From the first he was assisted by his son, apparently with a view to the boy taking over at both mines, and in January 1834 young Borron was confirmed as agent at Leadhills. A common management of different mines was not unusual, and that J.A.Borron was followed by his son was an example of a kinship succession which had been established by the Stirlings and the Measons.

William Geddes Borron was born in Edinburgh in 1810, so claimed he was "thoroughly Scotch"; he married his cousin Catherine Geddes in 1832 and took a town house in Glasgow where he registered as a Burgess. His father extended his own mining interests in Scotland for he leased mines on Islay in 1836 and was viewing prospects at Tyndrum two years later

The 1830s saw a recession in operations at both mining grounds. At Wanlockhead, output had been 1357 tons of smelted lead in 1811and the mines had employed around 250 men. By 1830 production was down to 460 tons and the Duke of Buccleuch accepted a reduced tack of one bar in twelve. The landowners' "duty lead" was of course sold and the Duke's agents at Leith, Walker Maltby & Co., were expected to seek the best price for their noble client.

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The miners at Wanlockhead were the first to react to the new management. J.A.Borron altered the date of their annual pay, so the men believed they faced a thirteen month working year in 1833. Borron claimed that bargain rates had been increased and the men were not penalised by the change so no additional advance was needed. The men disagreed and, believing they were going to find themselves without subsistence for the extra month, they combined to break into the funds of their Friendly Society.

Club money was seen as the property of the mining company, and John Muir, agent for the Marquis, was sent to investigate. He met the men in the library at Wanlockhead on the 3rd April, 1833, and questioned them as to what had occurred. As a consequence some of the so called "mischief makers" were discharged, and the management of the Friendly Society was put in the hands of the minister and the school-master.

There seems to have been a general concern about the misuse of Society funds, for one of the Chartists in Disraeli's novel Sybil, asserts his Society had "resolved to devote it's funds to the Struggle".

Nevertheless the discontent at Wanlockhead continued, and complaining, but anonymous, letters were sent to the Marquis. In the same year a pump in the Cove mine was deliberately damaged by having a stone dropped into the mechanism, and Muir believed that relatives of the surgeon, William Watson, were implicated in the mischief.

In 1831 Borron had proposed cutting the contribution which the mining companies made to the salaries of the minister, schoolmaster, and surgeon. After this James Martin, the surgeon at Leadhills, received a salary made up by a levy of 5/- (25p) from the married men and 3/- (33p) from the others. The cost of medicines was entered into an account kept in the mine office and at the end of the year the total was divided amongst the men. It is likely that similar arrangements applied at Wanlockhead. Such actions affected all in the two villages; perhaps adding to a climate of discontent that was not confined to the miners.

J.A.Borron's business in Lancashire seems to have been in financial difficulty when he moved North, and by the end of 1833 he faced bankruptcy. On hearing of this, Muir widened his enquiries and at Leadhills he found that both the Baillie, Robert Martin, and the Minister, Thomas Anderson, were prepared to voice feelings that were "strong against the Borrons". At Wanlockhead Watson was regarded as "bearing no good-will towards them", and Muir, perhaps resenting that an outsider had obtained a post within the Bute interests, asserted that "the constant course of discontent" implied Borron senior was not a "suitable person" to manage the Wanlockhead mines.

Borron's financial difficulties jeopardised his credit worthiness, so he tried to use the reputation of the Scots Mines Company for his own security. A branch of the British Linen Bank had opened at Sanquhar in 1831 and was a convenient agency for the Company's London bankers, Ladbroke & Co. Borron saw this as offering an opportunity to use the Company's name as an endorsement for bills of exchange drawn in his own favour, and by the beginning of 1834 he had obtained £500 in this way.

These transactions were threatened when some of Borron's bills were dishonoured and, in an attempt to clear part of the debt this created, he bought a large quantity of "English" candles to sell to the men at both mines. That the agents might make money from the provision of "furnishings" was seen as an acceptable "trick of the trade"; indeed in 1849 the profit on candles at Wanlockhead amounted to over £135. But in this instance the candles were found to be unsuitable in size and inferior in quality. Their purchase caused a considerable furore and it is probable that it was particularly resented as depriving local traders and shopkeepers of valued business. The poor quantity may also have affected the miners' own perk of selling the unused candles

The transactions had been written into the cash book as if they were the Company's own, so this would prove embarrassing in the event of an inquiry into Borron's affairs. By then his son was the agent at Leadhills so, in an attempt to recover the situation on his father's behalf, young Borron instructed William Mitchell, the Scots Mines Company's cashier, to "alter the books". It was later claimed that this was only to correct what were in fact erroneous entries, but Mitchell did not see it in that light for he refused to comply, and others of the staff, including James Stewart, the senior overseer, backed him up.

Stewart had been appointed soon after the Borrons took over, and William probably thought he would have had Stewart's support; for he had previously offered him promotion on the understanding that Stewart would be prepared to lend £150 to help with the elder Borron's financial affairs. But there had been disagreement between the two men as to the way economies should be made and, instead of supporting his manager, Stewart sided with Mitchell. In February he and the clerk, James Kerr, encouraged the cashier to write to the Company secretary, Charles Ford, complaining of Borron's action.

Faced with taking sides against it's agent, the Company was not prepared to act and young Borron kept his place at Leadhills. But at Wanlockhead, Muir took the opportunity to again press the Marquis that Borron senior should "be urged to give up his charge". However he survived; selling his estate at Warrington to help escape his creditors.

Among the various statements Muir collected was a denial that Stewart had "secretly conspired to injure the Borrons" when he recommended the letters to London. It was an assertion which suggests it was thought the affair implied a plot, and Muir seems to have believed that the strength of feelings against the Borrons amounted to a conspiracy which involved the two villages.

But the evidence is thin. William Watson was among those suspected, but Muir remarked that Stewart bore "no goodwill" towards him. If Watson was indeed involved in the sabotage of the Cove engine, then this ill feeling would not be surprising for Stewart was responsible for the installation. Stewart had been born in Wanlockhead and had once worked in the mines there, so it could be supposed he had a good idea as to who had damaged the pump. That he took no action suggests the community closed ranks against the Borrons. In any event Stewart seems to have been very much his own man and an unlikely agent in the plots of others. But the circumstances demonstrate how the climate of disorder was not confined to the miners.

William Borron may at first have had cordial feelings towards Stewart, but after the affair of the cash book his "head was so turned with rage" that he was determine to get rid of his overseer. To that end he wrote to Ford claiming Stewart was to blame when a cross-cut, aimed at the Laverockhall vein, was belatedly checked and found off course.

Problems with the direction of levels were not unusual and nearly a century later a deep level at Wanlockhead was found to be misaligned by 20 fathoms, but on that occasion the management there agreed that "as little a possible should be said about it". However, the Laverockhall cross cut provided the opportunity Borron sought, and Stewart was sacked on the 4th March, 1834. Borron later took pains to enter a memorandum in the journal to the effect

"that from the gross ignorance of James Stewart, or

his culpable negligence, the course (of the cross-

cut) was most erroneous and £100 thrown away"

Stewart's subsequent career demonstrated his ability, so how did the error arise ? In June, 1834, the clerk to the Leadhills Reading Society had been instructed to write to Stewart complaining he had not returned Fenwick's Subterranean Measurement. So was there a particular problem with the cross-cut ? On the other hand, the Borrons managed both mining grounds and Stewart had been made overseer at Wanlockhead in 1831. As he himself remarked, he not only had "400 men under him", but was also engaged in the installation of the water pressure engine in the Cove mine when work on the Laverockhall crosscut was in hand. It was the first such engine to be built at the mines, so another aspect of the affair was that the crosscut may not have had Stewart's full attention.

Whatever difficulties Stewart himself may have had, the misaligned crosscut also perhaps reflected young Borron's ignorance of mining practice, and his lack of forward-looking competence.

Although fearful for his own position, Mitchell kept his place; but Kerr was another scapegoat and was sacked. A year later he seems to have looked for a post at Wanlockhead, perhaps with Stewart's support, but Muir advised that the young clerk was "a person whom others could tamper with" and one in whom "little confidence could be placed".

The directors of the Scots Mines Company may have felt less than happy with the situation, but discretion and integrity were looked for in the staff. Stewart's actions in complaining about his superior must have smacked of disloyalty and self interest.

In an attempt to get Stewart sacked from Wanlockhead as well, the Borrons accused him of setting "improvident" bargains; but he held onto that position. The accusation led Muir to point out that, if it was the case, then it "recoiled on them (the Borrons) with double effect, they not knowing about it sooner".

Stewart had no acquaintance with the Court of the Scots Mines Company, but he was known to the Marquis of Bute, for had visited the latter at Rothesay, and he also seems to have secured the interest of the Duke of Buccleuch. Although Stewart's actions with regard to the alteration of the cash book were seen by Bute and Muir as "unguarded", it is likely they recognised his worth.

J.A.Borron continued as agent at Wanlockhead but his son was not considered a "proper person" to be the assistant there and instead Stewart was given increased managerial responsibilities. In the years that followed Stewart demonstrated his ability and introduced profitable developments in the Wanlockhead mines. But letters which remain show he had an independent and strong willed disposition, and he was often at loggerheads with his superiors as to the way the mines should be managed. Indeed on one occasion Borron was moved to protest "You misunderstood if you think I made my suggestion in a spirit of hostility". That there may have been a conflict of personalities seems very probable.

Young Borron must have been concerned that his father's bankruptcy could threaten his own career; hence the ill considered attempt to rescue the false entries in the cash book. He had a pugnacious nature, which found expression in boxing and greyhound racing, and may have been something of a bully, but he also seems to have been indecisive and lacking in confidence. It was said that "Mr Borron knew how to act" but the "young gentleman" was "cautious". It was a character that promised ill for labour relations at the mines.

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By 1830 the price of bar lead had fallen to £13 a ton but the Earl of Hopetoun was still due his royalty, or tack, of one bar in six. It was a relatively high figure for many landowners took no more than 1/8th, and in Derbyshire the usual tack was only 1/13th. In 1831 the Earl was persuaded to accept a sliding scale which went from one bar in ten if the price of lead fell below £15, to one in six if it rose above £18. The Duke of Buccleuch was also alive to the situation and reduced his tack at Wanlockhead.

Borron reduced his workforce and output fell to little more than 300 tons of ore. In spite of the depression, some miners continued to have a high level of earnings, as is borne out by William Gibson being able to send his son to the University in 1834. But those thrown out of work were less fortunate. In 1833 an emotive piece in the Dumfries & Galloway Standard reported how mining at Leadhills had "greatly fallen off"; the circumstances of the villagers had "sadly deteriorated"; and many had to "fen" (subsist) on weaving and hand sewing. In 1835 the Rev. Thomas Anderson, who had moved from Leadhills to Crawford, noted in his contribution to the second Statistical Account of Scotland that, while some of the unemployed were being supported by charity, others had become a "burden on the (parish) Poor Fund".

In a letter to the Earl of Hopetoun some years later, his factor, Charles Stewart, referred to Borron "throwing old men on the (Kirk) Session". Borron was cutting wages and laying off men to met the reduced scale of his operations, and his actions could be compared with those farmers who were accused, by a correspondent to the Clydesdale Magazine, of leaving their workers without support in the off-seasons. But tradition has it that, at Leadhills, the Earl "prevailed upon Mr Borron" to take back some of the old men who were "wandering about the toun".

In Scotland, provision for the parish poor lay with the charity of the Kirk Session, and even after the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1845, there was no compulsion on the new Parochial Boards, and no statuary rate of relief.

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Industrial innovations were sweeping the country, and in 1822 the city of Glasgow set out to rationalise an ancient and complex system of weights and measures. The effect was to spread along Clydesdale and young Borron decided that the lead should no longer be weighed in the old Amsterdam system and from the beginning of 1835 all entries in the Journals were made in Avoirdupois weights.

He also tried to introduce a secondary industry for in January 1834 he began to manufacture lead shot. The molten lead was dropped down an old mine shaft, and during the year over 30 tons of lead was sent to the "shot-house". A lead containing about 1% arsenic was required, and in his evidence for the Children's Commission in 1841, Dr James Martin stated the men involved in the work had fallen ill. Which may have been one reason why the business was short lived.

The wage bill was reduced with a cut back in development mining. Work in the once rich Susanna and Meadowhead veins was wound down and instead old works were re-opened via adventure bargains.

The "old men", the early miners, tended to leave ore in the stopes, either because they thought it was not rich enough for profitable dressing, or they did not consider it worth pursuing what might seem a leaner vein. Working over old stopes therefore offered the possibility of recovering any ore left by earlier mining. It was a valid operation since improvements in dressing methods enabled a higher recovery than would previously have been the case.

But Borron made it the main business at Leadhills, and an Agreement drawn up in 1831 particularly included for a cross-cut to Laverockhall Vein to "carry off the water" from old works - the cross cut which proved to be James Stewart's downfall. There was little real mining carried out, and the works were starved of any investment in developing new ground. It was a low cost operation and as Charles Stewart put it one not "aimed at new veins which he (Borron) should be taking measures to discover". All the major veins had been established by the mid eighteenth century, so new ore bodies could only be in the deeper ground. Work costly in both bargain rates and pumping.

By the end of 1835 thirty out of 153 pickmen, 20%, were adventuring compared with 4 out of 166, 2%, in 1801, and the figure was to climb to over 50% in the 1840s. Some of these mining 'ventures proved profitable to strong and skilled partnerships. But others must have proved less fruitful for the records of the Lanark Sheriff Court in the 1830s include a number of actions for debt against Leadhills miners.

Giving an increased autonomy to the partnerships seemed to offer the opportunity for greater profit. But unlike their counterparts in English mines, the Leadhills men were not free to chose a pitch, or sell their ore to the best advantage.

Adventuring also strained relationships for the miner who first secured a piece of rich ground could claim an advantage. In August, 1836, a dispute between two Leadhills men was settled by "giving the station to neither", and this resulted in "such abuse that they were ordered from the office".

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Among the old works which were re-opened were those at Broadfloors. This ground, to the west of the present golf course, was worked by the Lothians in the early eighteenth century, and then leased by the Scots Mines Company, who pulled out in 1829 allowing the mines to flood with water. In June 1834 men began work to the south of Reid's Shaft, with the intention of draining the water into the abandoned stopes in the Meadowhead vein. Since the new work connected with Meadowhead it was given that title, something even then regarded as confusing. Although the flooded stopes were drained without untoward incident, removing the support provided by the pressure of the water left the ground in a dangerous condition. Thomas Weir, who was appointed overseer after James Stewart was sacked, voiced his criticism of the state of the mine, and recorded that its potential was "poor beyond description."

In June, 1835, he himself was injured when he fell in one of the stopes, and his disparagement proved well founded when, two years later, two miners, Isaac Whitfield and John Hastie, were killed by a rock fall. They were among a partnership raising ore, in ground said to have been worked ninety years before, and were loosening a rock when the roof started to move. An account of the accident reported how one shouted

"its coming" and both made a rush to escape, throwing

themselves from the bunning on which they stood. But

their effort was unavailing and when the others called

to them, all was silent.

The fall was so large it took their colleagues thirty six hours to burrow into it and recover the bodies, and the incident was so traumatic there was no work done the following day.

Records show that many such bargains meant the men were working in these dangerous conditions. In one instance the overseer recorded that efforts had to be halted as "the rise is so rotten we durst not go up it". In another it was agreed the miners could give up their bargain because of "the swirl" of water in the level. In January. 1836, a partnership led by James Williamson and including a "widow Paul", took a bargain to open an old drift in Glengonnarhead and lower the flood water there for £3. After six weeks of work "attended with great difficulty", the partners looked for an increase in the price, but all Borron allowed was the agreed rate, equivalent to 10/- (50p) a week between the six, hardly enough to cover their costs.

The dissatisfaction with such bargains was worsened by other changes. The adventurers were only paid for the lead smelted from the ore they raised, and this led to complaint about the long wait for payment. To meet this Borron allowed the overseers to estimate the likely return. But the arrangement proved so badly managed that there was a "series of over-valuations", and some the miners had to pay back the difference "to their serious inconvenience". An even more pernicious practice was that Borron encouraged, or condoned, verbal bargains, and Muir was told these might be "altered to the men's prejudice" when they were later written up.

James Stirling had instigated a measure of specialisation among the workforce, miners mined the ground, and others trammed the spoil and moved the ore to the dressing floor. An aspect of Borron's organisation was that he looked for a measure of work sharing, and, as a visitor later remarked, Stirling's "regulations were abandoned". Work which at one time might have provided a separate bargain for labouring had now to be done by the miners themselves and, in particular, they had to "labour their ore and spoil to the bank".

Smelting could be delayed by lack of dressed ore, so if the smelters were not busy in the mill they could be required to do such other work "as shall appear reasonable". Borron now decreed that no claim for extra allowances arising from this would be allowed. In another instance, miners who took a bargain for dead work found they had to put in the necessary "pipes" for the ventilation themselves. These changes not only meant more work might have to be accomplished within the bargain rates, but attacked long established practices.

Borron alleged his men were "contented", but John Muir claimed this was refuted by others at Leadhills, and later William Gibson probably spoke for all the miners when he wrote to his son: the "power here at present is tyrannical to the utmost degree".

The changes at Leadhills marked the move from paternalism to an calculated and impersonal style of control, and were not peculiar to the district. The mining engineer, John Taylor, introduced "improved" methods at his lead mines in Wales in the 1820s, and in 1849 the young agent, Thomas Sopwith, made changes at Allenheads. All proved so unpopular that the men at both mines went on strike.

Taylor and Sopwith may have had a degree of insensitivity towards their miners, but both were able engineers and both demonstrated they could push through development programmes which were courageous and considered, and which not only realised the investment of the shareholders but could enable the skilled miners at least to realise their "hopes of great success".