Down memory lane: City street was named after ‘most useful magistrate ever’
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After this strangest of Burns Nights, it is curious to reflect that next month will be the 220th anniversary of the bizarre death of the man who hosted the Bard to dinner in Inverness, writes Bill McAllister.
Burns was, with colleagues, on a short Highland tour in autumn 1787. They stayed in Aviemore then dined with Sir James Grant MP, before an overnight stay near Nairn.
They visited Cawdor Castle the next day and saw ‘the bed where King Duncan was reputedly murdered by MacBeth’. They then dined at Kilravock Castle and called in at Fort George before arriving in Inverness.
Burns’ group stayed the night at Ettles Hotel on the old Bridge Street. Next morning, Burns travelled to visit Loch Ness, General Wade’s Hut, the Falls of Foyers – which triggered his poem of that name – and, on the loch’s other flank, Urquhart Castle.
Returning to Inverness, he accepted an invitation to dinner at Kingsmills House, which had been owned by the Inglis family, originally from Nairn, since 1700.
The family had interests in Carolina and Guyana but William Inglis, born in 1747, was the one of five brothers who opted to stay in Inverness. He became a leading merchant in the burgh and an influential figure.
Correspondence exists in which Burns expresses his gratitude for the hospitality received on September 4. Now the original building is the focal point of the four-star Kingsmills Hotel, where hospitality, when available, is of fine quality but does not come free!
Next morning, Burns visited Culloden Battlefield before taking breakfast at Kilravock Castle, then lunching in Nairn and dinner and overnight accommodation at Brodie Castle. A poet’s life could be a hard one, with all that eating!
Burns returned south and went on to write ‘My Heart’s in the Highlands’ as a result of his journey.
Four years after playing host to the poet, William Inglis was elected a Bailie of Inverness Town Council and six years later he became Provost. Few, if any, civic chiefs could boast of such achievements as Inglis unrolled.
William took the lead in raising funds for a much-needed new prison, courthouse and steeple. He showed prodigious energy in being the key figure in the creation – and funding – of Inverness Royal Academy, which opened in what is now Academy Street in 1792 and continued there until 1895, when it moved to Midmills.
His younger brother George had prospered with plantations in St Vincent and Demerara, and he used George’s planter/slave-owner contacts to secure donations for the Academy.
George had a relationship in Demerara with Susanne Kerr. In her will, held by Inverness Museum, she described herself as “a free mulatto native of the island of St Vincent.”
Their four children were sent to Inverness to be educated at the royal academy, with uncle William smoothing their passage.
Inglis was also the chairman of the campaign to build a new hospital, the Royal Northern Infirmary. He launched an appeal for subscriptions in 1797 – again including Guyana plantation owners – and work was able to begin two years later, with completion in 1804.
The RNI continued as a hospital until the 1990s, with a community hospital now built in its grounds.
Imagine the shock felt in Inverness when Inglis committed suicide on the night of February 14,
1801.
A letter held in the National Archives of Scotland, stated: “Provost Inglis, who we all respected and esteemed, has destroyed himself; a sudden shock, occasioned by the elopement of his banking clerk, who was also the active partner in the wine business.”
Little wonder, that when councillors came to name the street linking Academy Street with High Street, Inglis Street was chosen by acclaim.
James Suter, in his Memorabilia of Inverness, called Inglis “the ablest and most useful magistrate it (Inverness) has ever possessed, the founder of its finest public buildings and some of its most valuable institutions, and for 30 years the chief promoter of all its improvements.”
Maybe some of today’s elected representatives could stop moaning and try to emulate Inglis.
