James David Marwick

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Sir James David Marwick (1826- 1908) was a Scottish lawyer, historian and town clerk who largely influenced and directed the lines of Glasgow's development in the second half of the 19th century.

During the thirty-one years for which Sir James was Town Clerk of Glasgow the entire city was transformed. Its powers and amenities were improved by countless by-laws and Acts of Parliament, and it attained the reputation as the best-governed city in the world.

A son of William Marwick, merchant in Kirkwall, Sir James was born in Leith, 15th July, 1826, and was educated at Kirkwall and the University of Edinburgh. He was admitted a Procurator at Dundee in 1852, and became a Solicitor before the Supreme Courts six years later. For some time he was a member of the Town Council of Edinburgh, and he became Town Clerk of that city in 1860. He was also Clerk to the Convention of Royal Burghs from 1861 to 1876. In 1873 Marwick was offered a salary of £2,500 per annum (three times his previous salary) to succeed Angus Turner as Glasgow's Town Clerk. He used his influence to promote the expansion of the city's boundaries and the erection of the City Chambers as a symbol of municipal confidence and wealth. During those years he occupied a unique place in the municipal, literary, and social life of the city. He enjoyed the friendship of the successive Lord Provosts of Edinburgh and Glasgow. He gradually built up a reputation as the leading authority on municipal law in Scotland. His knowledge was utilised by successive Lord Advocates, and his opinion constantly sought by the Town Clerks of other burghs; and in no instance was that opinion overturned by the Courts. As a municipal organiser he had the task of framing and carrying out many of the greatest city enterprises of his time - City Extension, City Improvement, duplication of the Water-works, Clyde Purification, Municipal Tramways, Municipal Electricity, etc.

Turning to his literary achievements, he began in 1865 with a "History of the High Constables of Edinburgh," and the "Precedence of Edinburgh and Dublin." It was upon his initiative that the Scottish Burgh Record Society was founded, and he edited the "Records of the Convention of Royal Burghs of Scotland," 4 vols., 1866-85; "Records of the City and Royal Burgh of Edinburgh," 4 vols., 1869-82; "Charters and Documents relating to the Collegiate Church and Hospital of the Holy Trinity and the Trinity Hospital," 1871; "Charters of the City of Edinburgh," 1871; "Records of the Burgh of Peebles," with historical preface by Dr. William Chambers, 1872; "Records of the City and Royal Burgh of Glasgow," 2 vols., 1876-82; "Charters of the City of Glasgow," 1894; "Historical Preface to the Glasgow Publications," 1897; "Miscellany of the Scottish Burgh Records Society," 1881. He wrote "Suggestions for the Conduct of School Board Elections in Burghs in Scotland," 1873; "Suggestions for the Conduct of School Board Elections in Parishes in Scotland," 1876; "Observations on the Law and Practice of Municipal Elections, and the Conduct of the Business of Town Councils and Commissioners of Police in Scotland," 1879; all three of which have been indispensable handbooks to Town Clerks and others concerned. His "Report on Markets and Fairs in Scotland" was prepared for the Royal Commission on Markets and Fairs in 1890; and since then he has written works on "The River Clyde and the Harbour of Glasgow," 1898; "The Water Supply of the City of Glasgow," 1901; "The Municipal Institutions of Scotland, an Historical Survey," 1904, etc. He was understood to be engaged on several important works when he died.

Sir James never lost interest in the island county from which he sprang, and many a young Orcadian, on coming south, was indebted to him for advice and help. Fellow Orcadian and town councillor William Walls was a particular friend. When in Edinburgh he took an active interest in the affairs of Augustine Church, of which the Rev. W. Lindsay Alexander, D.D., was minister; and in Glasgow he also for long took an active part in the management of Trinity Congregational Church.

Among many honours, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1864; he received the degree of LL.D. from Glasgow University in 1878; the Freedom of the Burgh of Kirkwall was conferred on him still later; and in 1888, on the occasion of her visit to the first Glasgow Exhibition, Queen Victoria gave him the honour of knighthood, this being the first occasion in which a municipal officer in Scotland was thus distinguished. When he left Edinburgh in 1873 the Corporation and citizens presented his wife with a full-length portrait of him painted by George Herdman, R.S.A.; and on his retiral from the Town Clerkship of Glasgow in 1904 he was presented with an address and a valuable gift in testimony of the esteem in which he was held by the officials of the Corporation. Subsequently the citizens had his bust executed in duplicate by George Frampton, R.A. - one of these being lodged in the art Galleries, and the other presented to Sir James's family.

His wife, Lady Marwick, was a daughter of James B. Watt, solicitor, Edinburgh, with whom he had a son James Marwick. Sir James died on 24th March, 1908.