George Dempster of Dunnichen (1732-1818)

Member of Lodge St David No.78 - 1761

His Life

Transcribed from the Dundee Year Books

He was born in December 1732, in Dundee, where his father resided. He received his early instruction at the Grammar School, and afterwards studied at the University of St Andrews. Subsequently for the sake of law he proceeded to Edinburgh, where in 1755, he became a member of the Faculty of Advocates. He practised at the Bar for a short period only, but spent a considerable time travelling on the Continent. While reading at Edinburgh, he moved in the best circles in society. His more intimate associates were young men of talent, among whom were William Robertson, David Hume, John Home, and Alexander Carlyle. He was a member of the Poker Club, established by Adam Ferguson, and in 1756 he became a member of the ‘Select Society,’ which was instituted by Allan Ramsay (son of the poet), for the improvement of the members in the art of public speaking. In 1761, he was admitted a member of the Hammermen Incorporation of Dundee.
On the death of his father, in 1754, Mr Dempster succeeded to the family estates. These estates – comprising Dunnichen, near Forfar; Newbigging in the Parish of Monikie; and Omachie, Laws, and Ethiebeaton, in the parish of Monifieth – had been purchased by his grandfather, who was a merchant and banker in Dundee.

From the first, Mr Dempster took a great interest in the manufactures and agriculture of his native county. In 1762, he offered himself for the Parliamentary representation of the Forfar and Fife district of burghs – which then consisted of Forfar, Perth, Dundee, Cupar and St Andrews. He was successful, but at an expense of about £10,000, which led to the sale of his estates in Monikie and Monifieth. He entered the House of Commons as an independent member when it met on Nov. 25th, 1762, and is celebrated by Burns in his address to the Scottish Representatives, as a ‘true-blue Scot.’   
As a member of Parliament, he took a deep interest in the various matters brought before the House but devoted his chief attention to the promotion of commerce and manufactures. He took a special interest in the linen trade; and when the subject came before parliament, he was instrumental in obtaining important concessions to the trade of the district.
In the early part of the year 1763, meetings were held by several merchants and manufacturers in Dundee, to consider whether it was possible to establish a Bank for the benefit of the town and neighbourhood, there being at that time no banks in Scotland except in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Mr Dempster attended these meetings and did his utmost to promote the object in view. The result was a resolution to establish a Bank in Dundee, to commence business on Aug 1, in the same year, under the firm of George Dempster & Co., and under the name of the Dundee Banking Co. The bank continued in existence for upwards of a hundred years and was ultimately amalgamated with the Royal Bank of Scotland on Feb 20, 1864.

In 1786, the Convention of Royal Burghs recognised his patriotic services by the presentation of a piece of plate; and the burgh of Dundee acknowledged the benefits derived from his attention to its affairs by having his portrait painted by Gainsborough, and hung up in the Council Chamber, where it still remains to grace the walls.
Mr Dempster retired from the representation of the Fife and Forfar Burghs in 1790 and devoted the remainder of his life chiefly to the improvement of his estates, and to the introduction of a better state of agriculture, although he was no idle spectator respecting public matters generally. The Act for the encouragement of the Fisheries was obtained chiefly by his exertions; and the institution of the British Fishing Company was mainly due to him, and to his zealous fellow-labourers, Sir William Pulteney, Mr Beaufoy, and the Duke of Argyle. About the same time, he attempted to establish a village in connection with the manufacture of cotton, on his property of Skibo, on the coast of Sutherland; but the disadvantages of the situation precluded success, notwithstanding the cheapness of labour and provisions. He also made a similar attempt to introduce the cotton trade at Stanley, which was more successful.  
When Mr Dempster first began the improvement of his estates, the highland proprietors were driving out their tenantry for the sake of pasturing cattle and sheep. He became the more anxious to find employment for the people and showed an opposing example in the management of his estate. He granted long leases to his tenants, freed them from all personal service, and enclosed and drained his lands. He built the neat village of Letham in 1788, giving of lots to feuars at £2 per acre. Before he commenced his operations, the ground was amongst the worst on the estate, and brought only £5 of rent, which the tenant was unable to pay. In 1813, this same ground yielded £200 per annum in the shape of feu-duty. He drained and improved the Loch moss of Dunnichen and the peat bog of Restennet, by which he added greatly to the extent and value of his property. ‘In short,’ says a recent writer in the Edinburgh Review, ‘it may be said that in George Dempster we have the noble instance of a man of ability, education and public spirit, seconded and made more than ordinary acceptable by a genial and happy temperament, and a grace of manner which commended every scheme and enforced every suggestion.’
The following extract from a letter, addressed by Mr Dempster to the Editor of the Scots Magazine, shows his views to have been considerably in advance of the period in which he lived: -
“For these last forty years of my life, I have acted in the management of my little rural concerns on the principles you so strenuously inculcate. I found my few tenants without leases, subject to the blacksmith of the barony; thrilled to its mills; wedded to the wretched system of out-field and in; bound to pay ‘Kain’ and to perform personal services; clothed in ‘hodden’ and lodged in hovels. You have enriched the Magazine with the result of your farming excursions. Pray direct one of them to the county I write from. Peep in upon Dunnichen; and if you find one of the evils I have enumerated existing – if you can trace a question at my instance in a court of law with any tenant as to how he labours his farm – or find one of them not secured by a lease of nineteen years, at least, and his life – the barony shall be yours.  
The Highland Society’s being silent on the subject of the emigration of Highlanders who are gone, going and preparing to go in whole clans can only be accounted for by those who are more intimately acquainted with the state of the Highlands than I pretend to be. One would think the Society were disciples of Pinkerton, who says; ‘The best thing we could do, would be to get rid entirely of the Celtic Tribe, and people their country with inhabitants from the Low Country.’ How little does he know of the valour, the frugality, the industry of those inestimable people, or their attachment to their friends and country! I would not give a little Highland child for ten of the highest mountains in all Lochaber. With proper encouragement to its present inhabitants, the next century might see the Highlands of Scotland cultivated to its summits, like Wales or Switzerland – its valleys teeming with soldiers for our army, and its bays, lakes and firths with seamen for our navy.
I was pleased with your recommending married farm servants; I don’t value mine a rush toll they marry the lass they like. On my farm of 120 acres (Scotch)I can show such a crop of thriving human stock, as delights me. From five to seven years of age, they gather my potatoes at 1d, 2d or 3d per day; and the sight of such a busy, joyous field of industrious, happy creatures revives my old age. Our dairy fattens them like pigs; our cupboard is their apothecary’s shop; and the old casten clothes of the family, by the industry of their mothers look like birthday suits on them. Some of them attend the groom to water his horses; some, the carpenters shop; and all go to the parish school in the wintertime whenever they can crawl the length.”
His political like his commercial and agricultural opinions, were in advance of the times. When the French Revolution of 1792 broke out, he hailed it as the dawn of more liberal opinions in Europe and was one of the parties who signed the congratulatory address, got up by the local Whig Club, to the President of the French National Assembly. Subsequent events, however, modified considerably the enthusiasm then manifested.
Mr Dempster was Secretary to the Scottish Order of the Thistle – an office which he held for fifty-three years, but which was said to be more honourable than lucrative. He was a Director in the East India Company, and at one period was on the point of being appointed to the high office of Governor-general of British India. He was the first who discovered the mode of fitting salmon to be sent to the London Markets, and thus was a great benefactor to the lesses of the Scottish fisheries. The winters of the later years of his life were spent at St Andrews, and in that ancient city he enjoyed the society of a patriarch like himself – Dr Adam Ferguson – and of the learned professors of the University. He died on Feb 13th 1818, in the 86th year of his age.
A communication by the Rev. Charles Roger, LL.D., at one time chaplain of the forces at Stirling, which appeared in ‘Notes and Queries, in March 1867, seems to suggest that Mr Dempster was the author of the celebrated Letters of Junius, about which there has been so much mystery. This communication was as follows: -
“In reference to the correspondence on the authorship of Junius, now proceeding in your columns, permit me to mention a fact which may be of some use in the present discussion. The narrative has never before been in print. My father the Rev James Roger, Minister of Dunino, Fifeshire – often visited his friend, George Dempster, Esq., at Dunnichen House. Mr Dempster was in Parliament celebrated as ‘Honest George,’ on account of his independent principles, and uncompromising opposition to State Jobbery and political tergiversation. He served as member for the Forfar District of Burghs from 1762 to 1790; and as a man of independent principles, enjoyed the acquaintance of many leading persons opposed to the Government. My father met at Dunnichen House an old friend of Mr Dempster from London. On the day after his arrival, the gentleman remarked to Mr Dempster: ‘Our old friend, Woodfall, has been very unfortunate;’ and proceeded to make some details in reference to his misfortunes. ‘Ah!’ said Mr Dempster, ‘this is very sad.’ He stepped to his desk, and taking up a bundle of bank notes, handed them to the gentleman, saying: ‘Give these to Mr Woodfall, with my kindest regards.’ Woodfall was the printer of the Letters of Junius. My father was struck by the scene; he observed that that Mr Dempster shed some tears, and that he remained thoughtful during the evening. Mr Dempster was silent on the subject of his Parliamentary career. Some years before his death, he destroyed all his Parliamentary correspondence, and stated to my father, who offered to become his biographer, that he was especially desirous that no memoir of him should be written. I possess many of Mr Dempster’s letters to my father; they are noble specimens of composition, and much resemble, in turn of expression, the style peculiar to the author of Junius.

©Research by Iain D. McIntosh, 2022