APPENDIX 1: THE BURNS PRESS CHAIR

The issue of the Advertiser that records the death of John Wilson also records the death, aged 75, of Walter Graham, who had been Wilson’s pressman for more than 40 years. According to his obituary, Graham had worked the first printing press brought into Ayrshire, presumably that of Peter McArthur, and had, it seems, continued to work the press after it was sold by McArthur to Wilson.1 Graham’s claim to fame was, of course, that he had set and printed the ‘Kilmarnock Edition’, but he must also have had a hand in the setting and printing of the first editions of the Air Advertiser.

The press which Graham had worked, and for which he had been the first in Kilmarnock to dampen paper at a mill-dam, moved to Ayr when the Wilsons rationalised their businesses, and was used to print the early editions of the Advertiser. It was, however, soon replaced by a speedier and more efficient machine.

It then presumably lingered in the premises of the Advertiser until, in 1859, as a method of celebrating the centenary of Burns’ birth, the then proprietor of the paper, Thomas M Gemmell, decided that the press should be converted into an arm chair. Through the pages of his paper, Gemmell announced that the press had never been out of the possession of the successive owners of the paper and, the framework being of fine old oak, he was going to turn it into something ornamental and useful.

‘It is being converted by Messrs Wilson & Co., upholsterers, Ayr, into an antique drawing-room chair. The seat and part of the back is of Utrecht velvet. As much of the ornament as was admissible has been worked up in objects illustrative of the Poet’s writings.’ The chair arms were representative of the ‘Twa Dogs’, and had been based on drawing made by Mr Robertson, animal painter, Glasgow. On the back, ivy-twined pillars were capped with carvings of Tam o’ Shanter and Souter Johnny. ‘The under part of the back is stuffed, but higher up is the form of a medallion, on which is engraved on wood the scene of Meg and Tam o’ Shanter on the keystone of the Auld Brig. Surmounting all, and relieved by thistle and holly leaf carving, rises a miniature bust of Burns, after Nasmyth’s picture, carved on wood from a clay model by Mr Harvey, of Ayr, who also made the drawings for the witches’ chase on the Auld Brig. Underneath the bust of Burns will be a small silver shield, with lines engraved from the Vision.’

Not everyone felt that Gemmell’s approach had been the correct one. One David Blair, who had been an apprentice on the Advertiser, and had known Walter Graham, felt that sending the press to a museum would have been preferable: Gemmell rebutted this in forthright terms in his editorial column in the paper. The chair was used by the chairman, Sir James Fergusson of Kilkerran, at the Burns Centenary Festival in the County Buildings, Ayr. His grandson, in 1953, thanking the paper for a copy of the celebratory booklet of that year, said ‘I never realised before … that my grandfather once occupied that peculiarly hideous chair made out of the Wilsons’ old printing press.’ Following Thomas M Gemmell’s death in 1889, the chair was presented by his family to the Trustees of the Burns Monument, and it has been one of the bigger attractions at Burns Cottage Museum ever since.2

The links between the Ayr Advertiser and the Burns properties at Alloway remained strong, due in large part to the interest of the Dunlop family, who lived at Doonside, in both. At the celebratory dinner held to commemorate 150 years of the paper in 1953, the grace was said by Thomas McMynn, the almost legendary custodian of Burns Cottage, who was a former employee of the Ayr Advertiser.3

APPENDIX 3: AYR OBSERVER

The Ayr Observer was founded in 1832 to provide a Conservative alternative to the Whig or Liberal views expressed in the Air Advertiser. As noted above, a previous attempt to meet this market, the Ayr and Wigtownshire Courier, begun in 1818, had failed by 1825. The Observer was welcomed by William McCarter in his 1832 Ayr Directory:

The Observer was initially edited by John Foster Fraser (1797-1859), who had previously been based in Edinburgh.5 As a deliberately Conservative alternative to the Advertiser, the Observer flourished and ‘captured the old landed families for its readers.’6 Fraser was succeeded as editor by James Paterson, who held the position from 1839 7 until 1846: during Paterson’s period in the editor’s chair the paper’s Conservatism was less uncompromising, and Paterson, in later years, took pride from the paper’s coverage of events such as the Eglinton Tournament (1839) and the 1844 Burns Festival.8

By 1839, when Paterson became editor, there were five proprietors of the Observer, and ‘chiefly from mismanagement, [it] had fallen very low – so low, that several of the proprietors sold out.’9 Originally there had been eight co-proprietors, but three of them had sold their shares to John Dick (1792-1860: a brother of Maxwell Dick) who by 1839 held five of the eight shares; he was also the printer of the paper. Dick, as the leading proprietor, and with a steady editor in Paterson, was able to oversee a period during which the paper matured, with a stable circulation, and clear policies. After 7 years, Paterson left:

Following Paterson’s departure in 1846, a succession of editors worked under Dick including Scott Henderson, who later ran the Edinburgh Evening Courant, and, from at least 1851, the ‘brilliant but erratic’ William Glen. Followed Glen’s departure in 1857, Dick re-appointed William Buchanan, formerly the minister of Kilmaurs, as editor.11 Buchanan was a belligerent editor: he appears to have resented an earlier slight on him made by the Advertiser, and during his tenure the Observer regularly carried articles and editorials attacking the Ayr Advertiser.12 These differences were, of course, partly political, but were also due to Buchanan’s forthright nature and personal animosity to the Advertiser.13

John Dick died in August 1860,14 and was succeeded by his son William Maxwell Dick.

By 1870 ownership of the Observer had passed from the Dick family to James M. Ferguson. Originally published on Tuesday, under Ferguson the Observer became for a period a bi-weekly paper, with a second edition appearing on Saturdays. However, as the Ayrshire Post, formed to advocate the Liberal interest in the county, grew and prospered, especially after it was re-launched in 1890, the Observer declined, reverting to appearing weekly.15

The offices of the Observer moved about considerably. Initially they were in New Bridge Street, but c.1860 they were moved to Sandgate, and again, c.1870, and probably co-incidentally with the change of ownership, from Sandgate to Newmarket Street. About 1887 new premises for the paper were built at the foot of Kyle Street,16 but in 1896 the paper’s offices were moved again, this time to Smith Street.

In 1909 the interests of the Ayr Observer were acquired from Ferguson by Colonel T.C. Dunlop, and merged with T.M. Gemmell & Son. The Observer continued to appear as a weekly newspaper until the final issue on 28th October 1930. During this period, Colonel Dunlop was given valuable assistance by Miss Ferguson, the manageress of the paper, the daughter of James M Ferguson. The last editor of the Observer was John McCartney, who was transferred to the Advertiser, and eventually became, briefly, editor of that paper. [See part 3] The printing works in Smith Street were maintained and used for general commercial and jobbing printing.

In 1956, as we have seen, the general printing business was brought under the same roof at 100 High Street as the newspaper business. The premises were sold; the first subsequent owner appears to have been John J Inglis & Sons, seed merchants.