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William
Niven of Maybole or, Don’t Believe Every
Inscription You Read.
Recently many of us
have been involved in recording the Inscriptions in Alloway Churchyard. One of
our members, Mr Gordon Niven of Manchester, sounds a note of caution after his
own salutary experience using the dating on a gravestone to further his family
research into the life of William Niven of Maybole.
He writes that: -
"William
Niven was a close friend of Burns while they attended Hugh Rodger’s School in
Kirkoswald in 1776. In fact the three earliest recorded letters of Burns were
written to him ...
Most
references in books identify Niven as a different William Niven. Why? - because
his gravestone records his wrong age! Taking his age from the gravestone would
track him back to a son of David Niven and Jean Johnstone, born 17th February
1759. In fact, the obituary in the ‘Ayr Advertiser’ at the time identified
him correctly as a son of John Niven and Janet Spear born 16th January 1762. A
few years ago," Gordon continues, "I was able to confirm his true
identity by accessing his brother David’s will, where it referred to his
parents as John Niven and Janet Spear and his brother, William of Kirkbride. The
simple error on the gravestone had me tracing the completely wrong family for
fifteen years!"
"William
Niven’s boyhood friendship with Robert Burns is far from being his sole claim
to fame. In his own right he was a colourful, forceful character and probably
the most influential figure in the life of Maybole 150 years ago.
Born
in Maybole, he was the fourth son of John and Janet Niven, a shopkeeper and
owner of the small neighbouring farm of Kirklandhill. Thanks in part at least to
"sterling and friendly patronage" from Hugh Hamilton of Pinmore, a
director of the Bank of Hunters and Coy., the young Niven already a merchant in
Maybole, became the bank’s agent and later a partner. In 1792 he was co-opted
on to the Maybole Town Council, soon becoming its leader" and around this
time built himself a new house on the south side of High Street.
Niven’s
genuine concern for the welfare of the town and its inhabitants resulted in many
real improvements e.g. to the local streets many of which were just lanes with a
gutter down the middle. (One was called, probably aptly, the Foul Vennel). He
urged "that such streets should be paved and new streets formed," and
for this and other practical edicts fully deserved the accolade given him by Sir
James Fergusson who wrote that "the Town of Maybole has also of late been
much improved.. by the exertions of Mr Niven of Kirkbride."
Unfortunately,
so forceful and abrasive was Bailie Niven’s personality that he acted on the
Council like a kind of one-man-band, bulldozing his way through any objection or
opposition with the result that his name appeared with monotonous regularity in
the Council’s business.
In
1798 he married Isabella Christian Goudie whose father had been in business in
Jamaica. The following year Niven bought the farm of Kirkbride and two other
small properties, borrowing £3000 from Hunters and Coy., and giving "the
two markland of Kirkbride as security." The gamble paid off and Niven
flourished. In 1810 he became Lord Lieutenant for Ayrshire, and before the
Reform Bill of 1832 he was the only townsman in Maybole to have a vote.
But
the "Lord God of Maybole and Master of the Lime Kilns in sight" was
far from popular. Perhaps some of the universal dislike can be put down to envy
of a man who had made good financially and enjoyed a position second to none in
the town. It has to be said though that his well known miserliness and
overweening, unattractive personality caused much of the antipathy.
Nothing
better illustrates his aggressive, joyless nature better than the information
given by John D Ross in "Who’s Who in Bums" that apparently
"Niven was accustomed to complain, not however to Burns as far as is known
nor till after the poet’s death, that the poem "Epistle to a Young
Friend" had originally been addressed to him." Far from basking in
enjoyment and pride at this link with the poet, Niven appears to have been
highly displeased and to have given vent to his feelings.
His
wife died in 1841 and the census of that year shows him living in his house in
the High Street with 3 servants and two others "of independent means."
When he died in 1844 there was little mourning for him. It is reported that as
the pallbearers raised his coffin onto their shoulders, someone shouted
derisevely: "Hoist him up, he’ll never be nearer Heaven."
Gordon
Niven has the finishing words to this story: "William left much of his
wealth (over £100,000) to his grand-niece Charlotte Niven Doig Hutchison, who
married Thomas, the 8th Earl Montgomerie-Cunninghame of Corsehill. They lived at
Kirkbride. The 12th Earl now lives at East Ibley, Oxfordshire."
Sheila
Dinwoodie
View
family history charts of the Nivens here.
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