Workers involved in building the University of Glasgow, 1867–1871

The following documents represent research carried out in 2020-21 by Joseph Sharples, Curator of Mackintosh Collections and Applied Art at the Hunterian, University of Glasgow. The aim of the research was to identify as many as possible of the workers who built the University of Glasgow between 1867 and 1871.

Thompson_Address_high_res.tif
The starting point for the research was this illuminated ‘Address’, presented to building contractor John Thompson of Peterborough (1824–98) by his workers in 1869 (Glasgow University Archive Services, GUA 4058). The Address is inscribed with over 900 of the workers’ names. 

Thompson_Address_numbering.tif
The workers’ names are inscribed in a sixteen-pointed star. Each point is divided down the middle and the names are arranged on either side in a herringbone pattern. Before the research began, a number was allocated to each point of the star. The left side of each point (as seen from the centre of the star) was given the suffix A and the right side the suffix B.

Thompson_Address_names_original_order.rtf
The names were transcribed, beginning with division 1A, starting at the base of the point and ending at its tip. The names in 1B were then transcribed, this time starting from the tip of the point and ending at its base. This was repeated for all sixteen points of the star.

Thompson_Address_names_alphabetical.rtf
The transcribed names were rearranged in alphabetical order for ease of searching. Location references (1A, 1B, etc.) were retained, so the original names could still be found when referring back to the Address. As the research progressed, the alphabetical list was annotated to say if a worker had been identified or if the research had been unsuccessful or inconclusive.
Arranging the names in alphabetical order revealed that some names occurred more than once. In some cases this was probably because several workers shared the same common surname, but in other cases it may have been due to accidental repetition by the compiler of the Address.

Glasgow_University_workers_dataset.xlsx
Once the names had been transcribed, work began on trying to identify individual workers.
The research was mostly carried out using online resources, which made it a suitable project for the period of national lockdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Census returns and records of births, marriages and deaths were searched using the family history websites findmypast.co.uk and scotlandspeople.gov.uk. Because Findmypast was accessible free of charge via the National Library of Scotland’s website, it was generally used in preference to the pay-per-view option of Scotlandspeople. Also useful were the obituaries published in the Fortnightly Returns of the Operative Society of Masons, available online from the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick Library. Newspapers, particularly the Glasgow Herald, were searched using the British Library Newspapers database.
The 1871 census was a logical place to begin searching for the University of Glasgow workers since it coincided with the end of the first phase of construction. Unusual surnames, or distinctive combinations of surname and initial, were prioritised for investigation because there was more chance of finding them in genealogy databases. Identifying one worker in this way sometimes led fortuitously to the discovery of another living at the same address. Having tentatively identified a worker in the 1871 census, efforts were made to identify the same individual in earlier and later censuses, in order to build up a picture of his movements over time. Records of births, marriages and deaths (especially the deaths of children in an age of high infant mortality) helped to fill in the gaps between census years. Patterns gradually emerged, with the same workers repeatedly turning up in the same locations at the same time (notably Ripon in the 1860s, Chester in 1871, Skelton-on-Ure in the 1870s and Egham in 1881). On further investigation, it was found that these clusters were connected with major building projects being undertaken by John Thompson and/or George Gilbert Scott (1811–78), the architect of the University of Glasgow. 
When a worker had been identified, his details were entered into a spreadsheet using the following fields:

-	Name 
-	Location of name on the Thompson Address
-	Occupation
-	Father’s occupation
-	Date of birth or baptism
-	Place of birth
-	Addresses from the censuses of 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901 and 1911
-	Date of death
-	Age at death
-	Life events & family  
-	Notes
-	Non-Glasgow building projects

Archival and other sources were fully referenced on the spreadsheet. In the case of some Scottish census returns, the transcripts available free of charge on Findmypast were used in preference to the pay-per-view images on Scotlandspeople. However, the referencing of these returns on Findmypast was found to be inadequate, so the more comprehensive Scotlandspeople references were also added to the spreadsheet, even if the images had not been viewed.
In total, details of 121 workers were collected. To test how securely they had been identified, a scoring system was applied. The results were entered in the last five columns of the spreadsheet: 
-	1 point was awarded if the name of the worker matched one of the names on the Address
-	1 point was awarded if the worker was documented in Glasgow between 1867 and 1871
-	1 point was awarded for each Scott/Thompson building project with which the worker was associated (apart from the University of Glasgow)
-	1 point was awarded if the worker was closely associated with another known employee of John Thompson, for instance through a family relationship or shared address
In some cases, a single piece of evidence (a particularly unusual name, for example, or the temporary relocation of an English worker to Glasgow) was given extra weight and earned a ‘+’ mark. 
In general, an overall score of less than 2+ was taken to mean that a worker had not been securely identified (an exception was made in the case of Alexander Crozier Yule, where the overall evidence suggested very strongly that he was the ‘A.C. Yule’ named on the Address, even though he scored only 1+).
After reviewing the results, it was decided that the following workers could not be regarded as being securely identified: John Bayliss, Nathaniel Bayliss, Hamilton Black, Casper Caldwell, William Orr Coghill, William Couston, Robert Smith Fairgray, James Grant, Richard Hubbard, Thomas Hubbard, James Little, Walker Lodge, William Oliphant, Ebenezer Oliver, James Reid, John Ward, Thomas Ward and Thomas Young. To indicate their uncertain status, their entries were shown in white against a grey background on the spreadsheet.