History of Dundee
is the fourth-largest city in Scotland with a population of around 150,000 people. It is situated on the north bank of the Firth of Tay on the east coast of the Central Lowlands of Scotland. The Dundee area has been settled since the Mesolithic with evidence of Pictish habitation beginning in the Iron Age. During the Medieval Era the city became a prominent trading port and was the site of many battles. Throughout the Industrial Revolution, the local jute industry caused the city to grow rapidly. In this period, Dundee also gained prominence due to its marmalade industry and its journalism, giving Dundee its epithet as the city of "jute, jam and journalism".
Toponymy
The name "Dundee" is of uncertain etymology. It incorporates the place-name element dùn, fort, present in both Gaelic and in Brythonic languages such as Pictish. The remainder of the name is less obvious. One possibility is that it comes from the Gaelic 'Dèagh', meaning 'fire'. Another is that it derives from 'Tay', and it is in this form, 'Duntay' that the town is seen in Timothy Pont's map. Another suggestion is that it is a personal name, referring to an otherwise unknown local ruler named 'Daigh' or 'Deaghach'.Folk etymology, repeated by Hector Boece in 1527, claims that the town's name was originally Allectum, and it was renamed Dei Donum 'Gift from God', following David, 8th Earl of Huntingdon's arrival there on his return from the Holy Land. The city was referred to by some Gaelic speakers, particularly in Highland Perthshire and Braemar as An Athaileag.
Early history
Dundee and its surrounding area have been continuously occupied since the Mesolithic. A kitchen midden of that date was unearthed during work on the harbour in 1879, and yielded flints, charcoal and a stone axe.A Neolithic cursus, with associated barrows has been identified at the north-western end of the city and nearby lies the Balgarthno Stone Circle. A lack of stratigraphy around the stone circle has left it difficult to determine a precise age, but it is thought to date from around the late Neolithic/early Bronze Age. The circle has been subject to vandalism in the past and has recently been fenced off to protect it. Bronze Age finds are fairly abundant in Dundee and the surrounding area, particularly in the form of short cist burials.
From the Iron Age, perhaps the most prominent remains are of the Law Hill Fort, although domestic remains are also well represented. Near to Dundee can be found the well-characterised souterrains at Carlungie and Ardestie, which date from around the 2nd century AD. Several brochs are also found in the area, including the ruins at Laws Hill near Monifieth, at Craighill and at Hurly Hawkin, near Liff, Angus.
Early Middle Ages
The early medieval history of the town relies heavily on tradition. In Pictish times, the part of Dundee that was later expanded into the Burghal town in the twelfth/13th centuries was a minor settlement in the kingdom of Circinn, later known as Angus. An area roughly equivalent to the current urban area of Dundee is likely to have formed a demesne, centred on Dundee castle.Hector Boece records the ancient name of the settlement as Alectum in his 1527 work Historia Gentis Scotorum. While there is evidence this name was being used to refer to the town in the 18th century, its early attribution should be treated with caution as Boece's reliability as a source is questionable.
The Chronicle of Huntingdon records a battle on 20 July 834 AD between the Scots, led by Alpin, and the Picts, which supposedly took place at the former village of Pitalpin. The battle was allegedly a decisive victory for the Picts, and Alpin is said to have been executed by beheading. This account, while perhaps appealing, should be treated with caution as the battle's historical authenticity is in doubt.
High Middle Ages
Tradition names Dundee as the location of a court palace of the House of Dunkeld. However, no physical trace of such a residence remains and it is likely to be mythical. The origin of this myth is likely to have been a misinterpretation of the ancient name of Edinburgh, Dunedin.Dundee's history as a major town dates to the charter in which King William granted the earldom of Dundee to his younger brother, David in 1179–1182. Earl David is thought to have built Dundee Castle, which formerly occupied the site now occupied by St Pauls Cathedral.
Dundee's position on the Tay, with its natural harbour between St Nicholas Craig and Stannergate made it an ideal location for a trading port, which led to a period of major growth in the town as Earl David promoted the town as a burgh.
On David's death in 1219, the burgh passed first to his son, John. John died without issue in 1237 and the burgh was divided evenly between his three sisters, with the castle becoming the property of the eldest, Margaret and, subsequently, to her youngest daughter, Dervorguilla. Dervorguilla's portion of the burgh later passed to her eldest surviving son, John Balliol, and the town became a Royal Burgh on the coronation of John as king in 1292.
Dundee experienced periods of occupation and destruction in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Following John Balliol's renunciation of Edward I's claimed authority over Scotland, the English King twice visited Scotland with hostile intent. Edward revoked Dundee's royal charter, removing the town's people the right to control local government and the judiciary. He occupied the Castle at Dundee at the outbreak of the First War of Independence in 1296 but the castle retaken by siege by the forces of William Wallace in 1297, immediately prior to the Battle of Stirling Bridge.
From 1303 to 1312 the city was again occupied. Edward's removal resulted in the complete destruction of the Castle by Robert the Bruce, who had been proclaimed King of Scots at nearby Scone in 1306. In 1327, the Bruce granted the royal burgh a new charter. Later in the 14th century, during the conflict between England and France known as the Hundred Years' War, the French invoked the Auld Alliance, drawing Scotland into the hostilities. Richard II subsequently marched northward and razed Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee.
Early modern era
Dundee became a walled city in 1545 during a period of English hostilities known as the rough wooing. The Wishart Arch was believed to be the only remaining part of the wall though a piece behind St Paul's Cathedral may have survived, though this remains unconfirmed pursuant to further investigation. Mary maintained the alliance with the French, who captured Protestant opponents, including John Knox, at St Andrews Castle, in nearby east Fife in July 1547. That year, following victory at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, the English occupied Edinburgh and went on to destroy much of Dundee by naval bombardment. The Howff Burial Ground, granted to the people of Dundee in 1546, was a gift from Mary. In July 1547, much of the city was destroyed by an English naval bombardment.During a period of relative peace between Scotland and England, the status of Dundee as a royal burgh was reconfirmed. In 1645, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, Dundee was again besieged, this time by the Royalist Marquess of Montrose. In 1648 Dundee was badly hit by the plague.
On 1 September 1651, during the Third Civil War, the city was attacked by Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentarian forces, led by George Monk. Much of the city was destroyed and an estimated 2000 inhabitants were killed or taken prisoner. Up to 200 Dundee ships were sunk and/or confiscated. In the aftermath, a large contingent of English soldiers remained in the town and married local women, causing a permanent impact on the composition of the population.
Dundee was later the site of an early Jacobite uprising when John Graham of Claverhouse, 1st Viscount Dundee raised the Stuart standard on Dundee Law in 1689. This show of support of James VII following his overthrow, earned the Viscount the nickname Bonnie Dundee.
Troubles and financial collapses in the 1760s caused the background of the Tayside Meal Mobs on 1772 and 1773 which began in Dundee in the summer of 1772.
Modern era
Dundee greatly expanded in size during the Industrial Revolution mainly because of the burgeoning British Empire trade, flax and then latterly the jute industry. By the end of the 19th century, a majority of the city's workers were employed in its many jute mills and in related industries. Dundee's location on a major estuary allowed for the easy importation of jute from the Indian subcontinent as well as whale oil—needed for the processing of the jute—from the city's large whaling industry. A substantial coastal marine trade also developed, with inshore shipping working between the city of Dundee and the port of London. The industry began to decline in the 20th century as it became cheaper to process the cloth on the Indian subcontinent. The city's last jute mill closed in the 1970s.In addition to jute the city is also known for jam and journalism. The "jam" association refers to marmalade, which was purportedly invented in the city by Janet Keiller in 1797. Keiller's marmalade became a famous brand because of its mass production and its worldwide export. The industry was never a major employer compared with the jute trade. Marmalade has since become the "preserve" of larger businesses, but jars of Keiller's marmalade are still widely available. "Journalism" refers to the publishing firm DC Thomson & Co., which was founded in the city in 1905 and remains the largest employer after the health and leisure industries. The firm publishes a variety of newspapers, children's comics and magazines, including The Sunday Post, The Courier, Shout and children's publications, The Beano and The Dandy.
In the nineteenth century Dundee was home to various investment trusts, including the Dundee Investment Company, the Dundee Mortgage and Trust, the Oregon and Washington Trust and the Oregon and Washington Savings Bank, Limited. These merged in 1888 to form the Alliance Trust. Many of the investors in this trust were notable local figures including land gentry, such as the Earl of Airlie, merchants, ship owners, ship builders and jute barons and other textile manufacturers. The Alliance Trust shared its headquarters with another Dundee based trust the Western & Hawaiian Investment Company, later known as the Second Alliance Trust. The two would finally merge into one firm in 2006. The two Alliance Trusts' original main interests were focused on mortgages and land business principally in agricultural areas of the western United States and Hawaii. The company also leased mineral rights of properties in Texas and Oklahoma, as well as investing in various ventures in Britain and abroad. In 2008 the company was listed on the FTSE 100 Index and the next year moved to new purpose-built headquarters.
Dundee also developed a major maritime and shipbuilding industry in the 19th century. 2,000 ships were built in Dundee between 1871 and 1881, including the Antarctic research ship used by Robert Falcon Scott, the RRS Discovery. This ship is now on display at Discovery Point in the city, and the Victorian steel-framed works in which Discovery's engine was built is now home to the city's largest book shop. The need of the local jute industry for whale oil also supported a large whaling industry. Dundee Island in the Antarctic takes its name from the Dundee whaling expedition, which discovered it in 1892. Whaling ceased in 1912 and shipbuilding ceased in 1981. The last connection with whaling in Dundee reportedly ended in 1922 when a trading ketch owned by Robert Kinnes & Sons, which had been first set up as a trading company for the Tay Whale Fishing Company, was lost in the Cumberland Sound.
The Tay estuary was the location of the first Tay rail bridge, built by Thomas Bouch and completed in 1877. At the time it was the longest railway bridge in the world. The bridge fell down in a storm less than a year later under the weight of a train full of passengers in what is known as the Tay Bridge disaster. None of the passengers survived.
Dundee became the first city in Scotland to gain official city status, after Queen Victoria signed a patent announcing the transition of Dundee from a royal burgh into a city. Dundee would officially gain city status on 26 January 1889. The patent still exists and is kept in storage in the city archives.
Tomlinson et al. argue that Dundee enjoyed a "Golden Age" in the 1950s and 1960s. The collapse of the jute industry, they argue, was well handled for three reasons. First, the jute industry was protected from cheap imports by the state. Tariffs and quotas were not allowed by the GATT agreements. Instead protection came through the continuation from 1945 into the 1970s of the wartime Jute Control system, by which the Ministry of Materials imported jute goods and sold them at an artificial price related to the cost of manufacture in Dundee. Secondly, the jute firms agreed to company consolidation to make themselves more efficient, to increase labour productivity, and to cooperate in developing new fibres and goods. Third, labour unions and management ended the hard feelings that caused so much labour unrest and had come to a head in the dismal decade of unemployment in the 1930s. In the postwar cooperation, employers, unions and the city spoke with one voice. Success in managing jute's decline, and the brief brief of multinational corporations like NCR and Timex, held off decline and there was relative full employment in the city down to the 1970s. The golden age ended in the 1980s as the multinationals found cheaper labour in Bangladesh, India, and South America, and the Thatcher government ended state support for British industry. By the 1990s jute had disappeared from Dundee.
The Timex Corporation was a major employer in the city in the post-war era, but in the early 1980s financial difficulties led to attempts to streamline its operations in Dundee. This led to industrial action and after a major strike in 1993 the company completely withdrew from Dundee.