Scotland and Poland
A Chapter of Forgotten History
The earliest Scottish contacts with Poland
I am able to present these pages to you thanks to two scholars; Stanislaw Seliga and Leon Koczy Ph.D., who in 1969, published "Scotland and Poland; A Chapter of Forgotten History". In Foreword to the publication Leon Koczy wrote:
"We are publishing these papers with the kind permission of the Editor with a desire to receive an old but forgotten chapter of Scottish-Polish history, and we hope that they will help in fostering friendship between our nations. The following papers are reprinted from the commemorative volume "The University of Edinburgh and Poland" edited by Wiktor Tomaszewski, M.D., Ph.D., Edinburgh 1968, printed at the Aberdeen University Press Ltd, and published as " an act of homage to the University of Edinburgh for the help it gave during the Second World War to keep alive the light of Polish higher education in one of the darkest periods in the history of the Polish nation." [...] Finally, Thomas Campbell's devotion to the Polish cause has been warmly praised by J. A. Teslar in a recently published paper, which includes the text of six letters preserved in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow, in the Actes de la Societe Hist. et Litteraire Polonaise in Paris and in the "Polish Correspondence" of Lord Dudley Coutts-Stuart."
The Scots in Old Poland
In pre-WW II Poland one could see, in the Cathedral of St John in Warsaw, a tombstone, dated 1703, with a lengthy Latin inscription*. It told the story of one of those successful Scotsmen who lived in the old Kingdom of Poland and won for themselves social status and prosperity in their adopted country.
It was the tombstone of Alexander Chalmers (in Polish Czamer), four times elected Mayor of Warsaw, who devoted his great skill and administrative experience to the City, and whose memory the grateful citizens of Warsaw revered in such a worthy place.
That the words, inscribed in gold, were expressing the true sentiments of his contemporaries can be confirmed by one of the manuscripts preserved in the Archives of Old Warsaw under the date of 22 February 1691.
It says that the elected Mayor of Warsaw, the Noble and Worshipful Councillor Alexander Czamer, was a man of importance by reason of a judgment both natural and acquired, and endowed with prudence and skill in the conduct of affairs, a lover of Public good, for long a defender of the ancient rights and privileges of the citizens; who by his meritorious administration at the Treasury for the full period of three years won the commendation of all'. And in another paper relating to his election as Advocate or Judge Ordinary for the year 1692 it is stated that he 'distinguished himself by his administration as Mayor; and his remarkable energy and skill in the conduct of difficult business had been of the greatest service to the City".
With the almost complete destruction of the Cathedral, in the Warsaw Rising in 1944, the tombstone perished for ever.* The Cathedral is now rebuilt. But the memory of the tombstone lives on, as do memories of the commercial enterprises and military adventures of thousands of Scots who centuries ago decided to try their fortunes in a distant land.
The earliest Scottish contacts with Poland are of uncertain date.
However, by the fifteenth century the Scots already feature in the
history of Poland, for they sent military mercenaries and lent
money to the Teutonic Knights. In the second half of that
century- after the victorious war waged by Poland against the
Teutonic Order - large scale trade relations between Poland and the
West were conducted through Danzig (Gdansk).
We know for instance that between 1474 and 1476 twenty-four
Scottish vessels entered this harbour. Through Danzig and
Konigsberg (Kro1ewiec) the Scots immigrated both into East Prussia
and into the purely Polish territories.
There were several reasons why the Scots emigrated to the
Continent : poverty, periods of famine in their country, religious
persecution either by the Roman Catholics or the Presbyterians,
civil disorders**, and lack of good prospects in their native
country for the younger sons of noble families. Sometimes the
stimulus for going abroad was the Scottish propensity to seek a
life of adventure in the world at large.
In the second half of the sixteenth and in the seventeenth century many Scots
entered military service in Poland, as mercenaries. Indeed there was scarcely a
country in Europe which did not have Scots in its army.
There is some information on the number of Scottish immigrants in
Poland, in the accounts of Scottish travellers in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. The most important, and probably most impartial, is the relation of
William Lithgow, from Lanarkshire, who for nineteen years travelled in distant
countries and stayed for some time in Poland, at the beginning of the
seventeenth century.
In his memoir, often reprinted, he writes as follows:
Being arrived in Krakow ... the capital city of Poland I met with
diverse Scottish merchants, who were wonderful glad of mine arrival there,
especially the two brothers Dicksons, men of singular note of honesty and
wealth.... Here (at Lublin) I found abundance of gallant, rich merchants, my
countrymen, who were all very kind to me and so were they by the way in every
place where I came, the conclusion being ever sealed with deep draughts, and God
be with you. Then he calls Poland 'populous of strangers' and continues: And for
auspiciousness, I may rather term it to be a mother and nurse for the youth and
younglings of Scotland who are yearly sent hither in great numbers, than a
proper Dame for her own birth; in clothing, feeding, and enriching them with the
fatness of her best things; besides thirty thousand Scots families, that live
incorporate in her bowels. And certainly Poland may be termed in this kind to be
the mother of our Commons and the first commencement of all our best merchants'
wealth, or at least most part of them.
There is some corroboration of this opinion in the parliamentary
reports of 1606, when a project of union between Scotland and England was
debated in the House of Commons in London. The opposing party pointed out that:
'If we admit them into our liberties we shall be overrun with them.... witness
the multiplicities of the Scots in Polonia.'
The number of Scots in Poland which Lithgow quotes (30,000
families) is accepted in principle by T.A. Fischer, who at the beginning of this
century published two books on Scots in Prussia and Germany. He even calls
Poland the 'America of those times'.
Why did these Scotsmen direct themselves in such great numbers to
Poland ?
The answer should not be difficult: England, until 1603 at least,
offered small scope to Scots merchants; Holland as well as France had their own
merchants, and the former was already saturated with the Scottish immigrants;
A different group of the Scots in Poland was composed of craftsmen such as weavers, tailors, shoemakers, makers of leather goods, saddlers, tanners and brewers. We hear also of Scottish apothecaries.
A specially privileged group consisted of those Scots who supplied provisions to the Polish army and the Royal Court. King Stephen Batory (1576-86) had a high opinion of them and granted them special privileges. Eight Scots were appointed as purveyors to the Court. They were expected to follow the Royal Court wherever it moved and could trade freely in the country as well as in the capital. When a vacancy occurred, the king would fill it with another Scottish merchant. This privilege of Scottish merchants of purveying to the Royal Court was kept for a long time, up till the end of the seventeenth century.
In his edict, signed at Niepolomice in 1585, King Stephen Batory declared:
The Scots who always follow Our Court and who are at liberty in all places, where We and Our Royal Court stay, to exhibit their wares and to sell them, complain that they are prevented by Our faithful subjects from exercising their privileges granted by Us, in Cracow likewise.
Now We command you to put nothing in their way in this business, especially not to hinder those to whom We have given liberty of trading and-assigned a certain district .... For if they on account of the future of their trade should leave Our Court none of you indeed will follow Us into Lithuania*** and other places. Our Court can not be without them, that supply Us with all that is necessary. It is just, therefore, that they should enjoy the same privileges in Cracow as elsewhere. They have also supplied Us well in former times of war. Let a certain district be assigned to them. This We command Our faithful subjects.
Thanks to their bent for enterprise, endurance and shrewdness, the Scots were not easy to compete with in commerce and trade. No wonder that they sometimes aroused unfriendliness in some sections of the community and even met legal difficulties imposed by the towns at the instigation of their competitors. Fortunately the laws in Poland in this respect were more severe in form than in practice. The Scots in Poland had also highly placed and influential protectors to whom they could appeal for help and defence, as for instance, the Leszczynski's in Great Poland, the Radziwills in Kieydany and others.
The local merchants' envy of prosperous Scots receded to a great extent once the settlers received a town's citizenship and became members of a guild. Before a candidate could be enrolled in the list of a town's citizens he often required a recommendation from the king or a letter of introduction from an influential person.
There were instances when disloyalty and bad behaviour on the part of some Scots, especially of newly arrived youths, caused dissatisfaction and raised protests even from their compatriots, as shown for instance in a letter by Scotsmen in Danzig, addressed in 1572 to the Town Council, about disloyal competition from some of their countrymen.
Because of the increasing dissensions among the Scots in Poland, and their complaints, King Sigismund III commanded in 1603 his well‑deserving captain in the Polish service, Abraham Young, to investigate their organizations and take them under his control.
We learn from the declaration of one Richard Tamson (Thomson) in Poznan that in the whole of Poland there were at least twelve organized Brotherhoods to which the Scots who lived in the respective districts belonged.
These Brotherhoods had their seats in the more important towns such as
Danzig, Cracow, Poznan, Lublin, Warsaw, Zamosc and others. The heads of these organizations were Elders (Councillors) elected to this post yearly. They were not only administrators but also judges. We know for instance that in Cracow such judges were wealthy merchants: William Forbes, Gilbert King, Peter Orem, William Henderson, and James Forbes.
The meetings of the Brotherhoods for dealing with the current problems among other things with judicial cases‑took place four times a year, at fairs. Once a year a general meeting was held in Torun at the Epiphany fair in order to take decisions about the appeals lodged by the Scots. Criminal cases were excepted, as they belonged to the Crown law courts. A Royal Marshal established by King Stephen Batory was acknowledged as their highest judicial authority.
The sums of money collected from the penalties imposed by the Scottish law courts in Poland went to meet the needs of the Brotherhoods, in whose official books they were recorded. If not spent at once, they were augmented through being lent out at high rates of interest. These law courts imposed also temporary or permanent banishments or proscriptions. The Brotherhoods collected necessary funds, built and upheld the churches, paid stipends to the ministers, and undertook all activities that concerned the material and spiritual needs of their members. One of the elders of the organization was ex officio the local minister, who played an important role in the administration.
National solidarity and the spirit of charity were characteristic of the Scots in Poland. They helped each other when in need. They married in the first generation mainly among themselves ( their ain folk) and no widow waited long before she married again. Every occasion was good for some monetary contribution. Their care for the poor and the ailing was proverbial.
Although on the whole the Brotherhoods functioned very well there were probably some dark spots. It seems that the results of the action undertaken by Captain Young in 1603 were not satisfactory, because twelve years later the Scottish Resident in Poland, Patrick Gordon, in a letter of 1615 to King James, writes among other things :
Your Majesty's subjects from Scotland trafficking here many years ago for their virtue and good behaviour were esteemed equal ( if not superior) to any Christians whosoever and many of them lived here with credit, and others returned home with riches, without any offence, because good order was observed amongst them; but now, discipline being dissolved the most part of them use such a dissolute form of living that they are odious to the inhabitants, hurtful to themselves and despised by strangers, to ( the) great ignominy of the whole nation.
Therefore he suggests that the king should proclaim an edict, forbidding the influx to the Baltic shores of such debauched people. 'Otherwise'- he continues-'it is not possible that honest minds can abide to see the shame of their countrymen and to suffer for the same, which also the chief nobility of this Kingdom do regret.'
The king, answering his letter, authorized Patrick Gordon to prepare a suitable statute for the Scots in Poland, which he executed conscientiously dividing it into eighty paragraphs. One of them forbade the Scots to wander with wares of less than £50 in value. We have no sufficient information as to what influence this Statute had on the Scots in Poland.
There were also other complaints. Already in 1624 the Scots from Danzig wrote to King James about the difficulties which they experienced owing to the arrival of 'the exorbitant number of young boys and maids unable for any service'. In consequence of this the Scottish king issued in 1625 a proclamation in which he warned the young Scots against thoughtless emigration and forbade the captains of ships, under heavy penalties, to take them aboard unless they showed an invitation from their relatives living abroad, or possessed money sufficient for at least half a year's upkeep.
Though grateful to Poland for being allowed to trade there, the Scots did not forget about their native country.
When in 1651 King Charles II appealed to his subjects living in Poland for material support, and sent to Poland James Cochrane (Cockeran) to arrange the whole matter, they collected among themselves the sum of £10,000. But the unfaithful Cochrane brought to the king only about £800.
In consequence the king disowned Cochrane's authority and appointed two other delegates, namely: William Crofts and John Denham. These men fulfilled the Royal command faithfully-though not without some difficulties, owing to what had happened with the money previously collected. But the third attempt by the king to get a new collection of money through General Middleton, in 1656, did not succeed. The Scots who gathered riches in Poland offered substantial sums for various purposes both in their motherland and in the country of their adoption.
When in the second half of the seventeenth century the academic authorities of Marischal College in Aberdeen appealed to the Scots abroad for material support for the restoration of the dilapidated buildings of the institution they received a good response, and Patrick Forbes brought a substantial sum to Scotland. This sum comprised various contributions. Among the contributors were John Turner from Danzig with £600, the post-master Low from the same town with £290, and Patrick Forbes with £280. From Warsaw twenty-five Scots participated in this collection.
Robert Gordon, a former student at Marischal College and a prosperous merchant of Danzig gave a large sum of money for the founding in Aberdeen of a school which became known as Gordon's Hospital, but this name was later changed into Gordon's College.
Daniel Davisson, who was born in Zamosc in 1647 and later settled in Danzig, left large bequests to poor widows and orphans. Davisson and Robert Brown from Zamosc left substantial bequests for Polish students studying Protestant divinity. The story of these bursaries will be dealt with in detail in the next chapter.
A certain Caspar Achterlon ( Auchterlonie ) from the provincial town of Checiny left a considerable sum of money for the local poor. A Mrs Bell bequeathed in her will money for the benefit of the hospitals in Piaskow, near Lublin, and in Belzyce.
The activities and philanthropy of Robert Gilbert Porteous ( in Polish Porcyus) a citizen of the town of Krosno in the Carpathian region of southern Poland require special mention. Born probably in Langside ( Lanxeth ? ) in the neighbourhood of Dalkeith, he came to Poland before 1623 as a young man. Having received from the Polish king the privilege of wholesale trading in Hungarian wines, he became a rich man. He was married to a lady older than himself and converted to Roman Catholicism. Thanks to his wealth and generosity he became during his life and after his death a benefactor to the town and to the Polish people.
Thus through his generosity the walls of the town and the pavement of the streets were repaired, the parish church and the belfry rebuilt after a devastating fire, and roofed with copper .
We read in his will:
Having acknowledged all through life His Majesty John Casimir as my gracious King and Protector, I wish to give him a further proof of my loyalty by leaving Him the sum of 10,000 florins. I also present Him an altar made of pure gold. My relations Francis Gordon and John Dasson (Dawson) will attend to this my request.
He further bequeathed to the Bishop and parish priest, 2,000 florins and three casks of wine each; to the church organist, 600 florins; to the bell ringer, 200 florins; and smaller sums to other people. He ordered the local beggars to be given a lunch and money on the day of his funeral. Finally he bequeathed for the upkeep and repair of church vessels, the income from a farm which he had near the town.
A street is named after him and his portrait can still be seen in the church of St Peter and Paul at Krosno. In the eighteenth century the wealthy Warsaw banker Bernard Tepper-Ferguson, called the 'second banker of Europe', built at his own expense an imposing Evangelical church in the Polish capital. He was also an honorary citizen of Edinburgh.
The Scots, on arrival in Poland, were as a rule young and often known only by their Christian names. If they had to establish their identity, for instance, when applying for citizenship of a town, or in connection with inheritance, they presented the so-called birth-briefs granted by the authorities of the place of their origin, or birth-declarations, witnessed and sworn by two Scots who lived in Poland.
From these documents scattered in the archives of Polish towns we get to know many interesting things such as, for instance, that almost all Scottish immigrants arrived in Poland from the eastern part of Scotland. We come across the names of such Scottish towns as: Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness, Dundee, Perth, St Andrews, Culross, Crail, Cupar, Cupar Angus, Brechin, Montrose, Auchtermuchty , Berwick and others.
The Scots of Roman Catholic faith arrived mostly from the region of Aberdeen and many such Scottish Catholics lived in the Polish province of Warmia (Ermland) where there was a well known Jesuit College, in Braniewo ( Braunsberg ) .One should add here that all Scots in Poland, with very few exceptions, were strongly attached to their religion. They stood fast, even when, because of the form of their faith, they suffered Some indignities from intolerant Catholics in the seventeenth century, for instance in Cracow or Lublin; which, however, happened only sporadically.
Among the many surnames of Scots who lived in Poland in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries we find: Abercrombie, Allen, Auchleck, Barclay, Black, Bonar, Brown, Buchan, Burnet, Carmichael, Chalmers, CoUtS, Cruikshank, Davidson, Dawson, Dickson, Drummond, Dumfries, Duncan, Farquar, Ferguson, Forbes, Fraser, Gordon, Henderson, Horne, Innes, Johnstone, Kyth, Keith, Leslie, Lindsay, More, Ogilvie, Porteous, Reid, Robertson, Ross, Skene, Smart, Stuart, Smith, Thomson, Watson, Young. ..to cite only some of them.
Some Scots acclimatized themselves to the conditions of life in Poland to such an extent that they were elected town councillors, presidents of guilds and even burgomasters, as Alexander Chalmers ( Czamer) , mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, burgomaster of Warsaw, and for some time secretary to the king. The Scots were also town councillors and burgomasters in the town of Bydgoszcz.
A small but influential group of Scots were those who, having acquired great wealth, advanced money on interest to impoverished Polish gentry and nobility. We read for instance that two brothers, John and Andrew Tamson (Thomson), gave on loan to the Poles 'two tuns ofgold' on mortgage of their land but they could not recover their money owing to the Cossack war. We hear also that Ryd (Reid), Walson and Lowson lent money on interest.
The Warsaw Bank of Tepper-Ferguson gave on loan to King Stanislas August Poniatowski 5 million ducats and suffered bankruptcy owing to the political disaster which overcame Poland at the end of the eighteenth century.
In many cases the Scottish immigrants returned after some time to their native country but some of them remained in Poland for good, and gradually became integrated with the Polish population. It is significant that the so- called 'Green Book' of the Scottish Brotherhood in Lublin which was begun in 1680 in English, has the second part of it, a few decades later, written mostly in Polish.
The Scottish surnames were often changed not only phonetically but also formally, for instance: Argyle-Argiel; Brown-Brun, Bran; Chalmers-
Czamer, Czemar; Cochrane-Czochran, Czochranek; Dawson-Dasson; Drew-Drews, Driowski; Forbes-Frybes; Gavin-Gawin; Gordon-Gordon- oW ski, Gordanowicz; Gore- Gorski ; Hepburn- Hebron ; Jackson -Dziaksen ; Lawson-Loson; Lindsay-Lendze, Lenze; Macleod-Machlajd; Macaulay or Maclean-Makalienski; Ramsay-Ramze; Reid-Ridt, Rydt, Ryd, Ryt; Ross-Rossek, Rusek; Sinclair-Szynkler; Smith-Szmid; Taylor- Tailorowicz; Thomson-Tamson; Weir-Wajer, etc.
Scottish mercenary soldiers who served in various continental armies were also known in Poland and distinguished themselves by their loyalty and bravery in the wars waged against the Muscovites, the Turks and the Swedes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Thus we read in a document of 1571 that Captain Cullane ( Cullen ? ) died in the Polish service.
The Scots took part on the Polish side in the Livonian campaign of 1581 and 1582. They distinguished themselves at the capture of the fortress of Kokenhaus. Two hundred and fifty of them participated in the assault on the fortress of Pskov in Russia. There are interesting observations about the Scottish soldiers written by Father Piotrowski, who kept a diary at the latter siege. He ranks them higher than the Germans with regard to their healthy and sprightly vigour. One should add that the Scottish merchants in Poland supplied the army of King Stephen Batory with necessary provisions.
During the Livonian war of 1601 -2 against Sweden, Fieldmarshal ( Hetman ) Zamoyski had in his service two companies of Scottish infantry with 300 soldiers each. They were under the command of Captains Alexander Ruthven and Abraham Young. Ruthven, later a Colonel, was killed in the attack on the fortress of Volmar. He left a widow for whom his native town Edinburgh demanded a gratuity from the Polish Chancellor .
Fieldmarshal Karol Chodkiewicz, when waging war against the Swedes, had a Scottish unit at Parnau. The fourteen Scottish sappers marched ahead and put mines under the town gates. Mter the fall of Parnau he engaged 155 Scots who had previously served in the Swedish forces and put them under the command of Captain Clarke.
After the victory over the Muscovites at Kluszyn in 1610, Fieldmarshal Zamoyski invited the Scottish mercenaries on the Muscovite side to come over to the Poles, which they did, except for one Captain. A certain Captain David Gilbert, who came over to the Poles from the Muscovite army, later entered Moscow with Fieldmarshal Zolkiewski. He was, however, captured and spent three years in prison and was freed only through the intervention of King James.
About the year 1609 James Murray (Jacobus Moravius ), a naval engineer, was engaged in building naval vessels for Poland. Prince Janusz Radziwill had special Scottish units in his private forces at his Court in Kieydany.
In the year 1613 George Learmonth went over from the Polish army to the Muscovites. According to W. Borowy he may have been an ancestor of the celebrated Russian poet Lermontov.
There is also another version of the poet's Scottish ancestry, given by T .A. Fisher in his book 'The Scots in Eastern and Western Prussia' .I t is known that about that time Colonel Peter Learmonth served in the Polish forces. In 1619 the King of Poland had renounced a heritage fallen to him by the ius caducum in favour of Colonel Peter Learmonth, nobilis, a well deserving officer in the Polish army. The deed says: 'He showed himself a brave and active soldier, not only against the Duke of Sudermania, but also during the whole of the Russian War when we were besieging Smolensk' ...and again. ..'he fought very bravely, and was an example to others'. The Russian poet's ancestor came to Russia in the lifetime of this colonel.
We hear further that Andrew Innes, Captain in the Polish forces, was granted in 1617 a privilege for the post of bailie in Lanckorona. During the reign of Sigismund III Captain Thomas Buck, held in high repute by the Field- marshal Chodkiewicz, was sent to London to hire mercenaries and buy horses.
In the battle of Chocim in 162 I Scots, as well as English and Irish, soldiers fought on the Polish side against the Turks. Peter Learmonth was in charge of three companies of German infantry; Captain William Keitz (Keith) and John Butler were commanding the foreign infantry. At that time William Fourbes (Forbes) was taken prisoner by the Turks and was freed only through the intervention of the English Ambassador in Constantinople, Sir Thomas Roe.
About that time Lord Robert Stuart of Middleton, a relative of King James, and son of the Earl of Orkney, tried to bring Scots into the service of the Polish king. He had once been secretary to the Vice-Chancellor of Poland.
There were Scots in the army of King John Sobieski. To mention only one, George Guthry; we are informed by A.F. Steuart that: 'He was Colonel in the Polish service, and there still exists in his family a silver cup out of which King John drank just before he saved Vienna. This George Guthry, who organized at his own expense a regiment of Hussars, part of the victorious host at Vienna in 1683, is described as a descendant of Guthrie of Guthrie in Scotland.' He was granted a diploma of Polish nobility by King John Sobieski in 1673. His descendants with the name spelled Gut try continued as members of the Polish landed gentry in the province of Poznan till this century.
Among the Scottish soldiers in Poland in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the surname Gordon was probably the most frequent. Thus one Adam Gordon was killed by a cannon ball in 1659 at Marienburg in the war against the Swedes. About that time one Captain Patrick Gordon with the sobriquet 'Steelhand' was a cavalry commander.
Lord Henry Gordon, brother of Lady Cathrine, mentioned below, fought at Czudno in 1660 in the war against the Russians. In the course of the battle he took prisoner Lt. Col. Thomas Menzies who had fought in the Russian army and who died soon afterwards of the wounds received in the battle. As J .M. Bulloch remarks : 'there is something ironically dramatic in the spectacle
of one Scot capturing another in a foreign land'. Dramatic this spectacle may have been, but it was not unique: as the Scots served in various European armies, they more than once found themselves fighting on opposite sides.
In the same battle of Czudno Lord Henry Gordon numbered among his captives yet another Scot in the Russian service, a Colonel Daniel Crawford. Crawford was lucky to have been taken prisoner by a compatriot: according to General Patrick Gordon's Diary Lord Henry 'maintained him at a plentiful table' and released him without ransom. J .M. Bulloch remarks : 'The casualness with which these Scots franked one another in the service of opposing armies is extraordinary'. The last supposed descendant of this Lord Gordon died in Poland in 1921 (J.M. Bulloch).
Mention must be made yet of another Gordon, the famous Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries, whose life story reads like a historical novel. He was born in 1635 in Aberdeenshire of Catholic parents, and, as he himself puts it, he was 'the younger son of a younger brother of a younger house'. Having no great prospects at home he decided as a 16-year-old boy to try his luck in Poland. He attended for some time the Jesuit College at Braniewo ( Braunsberg ) on the Baltic coast but, as he writes, 'yet could not my humour endure such a still and strict way of liveing'. He left the College and decided to be a soldier and enlist with the Scottish unit at Kieydany, Prince Radziwill's seat. As this plan failed to materialize he made up his mind to return to Scotland. Mter some peregrination he arrived in Hamburg where he met one of his countrymen who persuaded him to join the Swedish army of Charles Gustavus who was just preparing an invasion of Poland.
Patrick Gordon thus entered Poland with the Swedish army in 1655 and for the next five years he led a most adventurous and colourful life, being taken prisoner three times, alternately by Poles and Swedes. He ended the war on the Polish side, being quartermaster in the service of Fieldmarshal Lubomirski.
The war in Poland finished, he contemplated at first enlistment in the service of Austria but eventually decided to try his luck in Russia. He enlisted in the Russian army, ultimately to become Tsar Peter the Great's right hand man and to be promoted to the rank of General. In his Diary written with great frankness and ability he gives an excellent account of his adventures in Poland up till 1661.
Years later a Major George Gordon (ennobled in 1673) and John Gordon 'officer of the hussar regiment' are mentioned in a Polish parliamentary document of 1699. Another parliamentary document of 1768, concerning specially the Gordons and cited by J .M. Bulloch, reads as follows :
The excellent service which the well born and naturalized Gordons, ...have accomplished, have received notice and we agree to receive as trusty naturalized persons of the Polish Crown and province by the authority of the Seym [Parliament] the following persons: Joseph Gordon, Major, and Fabian Gordon, Cadet, in the Life Guards; likewise, Joseph Gordon, Lieutenant Colonel in the Crown army; John Gordon of the Genossen [name of a cuirassier regiment] ; and the future descendants of Peter Gordon, Superintendant of Cracow, with his brothers and sisters and their descendants as truly naturalized under the Polish Crown and the provinces by the authority of the Seym. Further we consider them fit to hold our estates and offices. On their behalf we command our Chancellery to give a certificate on account of their good faith towards the Republic.
A Colonel Charles Gordon, born in 1749, died in Cracow in 1820. Francis Gordon, ( 1756- 1826) held the rank of a Major General in the army of the last Polish King. It should be of interest to mention that in the Polish forces in Scotland in the Second World War there were a few Gordons, from a Colonel down to a private.
The last Polish King's Chamberlain was John Stuart who came over from Paris and lived in Warsaw towards the end of the eighteenth century. His son Kajetan (Geoffrey) Stuart ( 1774- 1824) entered the Polish Royal School of Artillery. We see him, as a lieutenant, at the age of 20, in the Kosciuszko campaign in 1794. He later served in the Polish Legions formed in Italy under General J.H. Dabrowski (1797). As Captain of the Fifth Polish Regiment he successfully defended the fortress of Czestochowa against the Austrians in 1809. He took part in the Russian campaign (1812) and in the battle of Leipzig (1813) and was promoted General in 1819.
'It would fill another volume'-writes T .A. Fischer-'to write extensively on the Scottish officers in the service of Poland. Their numbers were. ..very large, their services much appreciated' .I t is owing, no doubt, to their valuable services and loyalty that so many Scots were ennobled and enrolled on the list of the Polish nobility in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
We find that members of the following families were granted titles ofnobil- ity by the Polish Crown: Anderson, Bennet (Secretary to the King), Burnet, Bonar, Chambers ( 1673), Chalmer, Lindsay ( 1764), Mackay, Macfarlant, Ogilvie, Morison, Miller, Guthrie (1673), Forseit (Forsyth) (1775), Tayler (Taylor) (1775), Patterson-Hayna, Freyer, Gordon, Halyburton-Stoddart, Watson, Ferguson, Fribes (Forbes), and Kerkettle, the last four at the end of eighteenth century .
The impression left by the Scottish soldiers in Poland is best illustrated by the picture of Colonel Ketling, a gallant soldier appearing in the popular series of historical novels by Henryk Sienkiewicz known as 'Trilogy'. This brave Colonel together with his bosom friend Wolodyjowski prefers to blow up the fortress which they are defending against a superior force of Turks, rather than surrender.
Let us close these remarks by showing how the links between the two nations were strengthened through two family alliences at the highest level.
The celebrated Polish lyrical poet of the seventeenth century, Count Andrew Morsztyn, who was also a statesman and held the office of Grand Treasurer of Poland, married in 1659 Lady Catherine Gordon, daughter of the second Marquis of Huntly. She came to Poland from France in the train of Mary Louise Gonzaga de Nevers, future wife of King Vladislas IV and later-after his death-wife of his brother John Casimir, his successor on the throne.
Catherine Morsztyn's daughter Isabelle married Prince Casimir Czartoryski, voievode of Vilna. Her son was ancestor of Prince Adam Czartoryski, the great patriot and statesman . Constance, the granddaughter of Catherine Morsztyn and daughter of Isabelle Czartoryska, married Stanislas Poniatowski, father of the last King of Poland Stanislas Augustus.
This alliance was not forgotten by her relatives in Scotland who were proud of it. Lady Mary Coke ( nee Campbell) a daughter of John, Duke of Argyll, wrote in 1768 : 'The Polish Prince ( Czartoryski ) you mention is our cousin. His Grandmother or great Grandmother was a daughter of the Marquis of Argyll's. The King of Poland is the same relation to us.'
The Stuarts were in close contact with Poland. It is well known that the granddaughter of King John Sobieski, Clementine Sobieska , married Prince James Stuart (the 'Old Pretender') the son of King James VII (II) and became mother of Prince Charles Edward. It was he, who in the middle of the eighteenth century with his patriotism and romantic actions conquered and still conquers the hearts of his compatriots.
Stanislaw Seliga
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chapters I and 2
English:
B. W. (Borowy, W.) Scots in Old Poland. Scottish-Polish Society Publications NO.2. Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1941.
BROWN, M. J. E. Chopin. An Index of His Works in Chronological Order, London, 1960.
BULLOCH, J. M. The Gordons in Poland. The Buchan Club, Peterhead 1932.
BURTON, J. H. The Scots abroad, Edinburgh 1864.
DONALDSON, G. The Scots Overseas, London 1966.
FISCHER, T. A. The Scots in Germany, Edinburgh 1902.
FISCHER, T. A. The Scots in Eastern and Western Prussia, Edinburgh 1903.
GORDON, P A TRICK Passages from the Diary of General Patrick Gordon of Auchleuchries,
A D 1635 -1699. Edited by J. Robertson. Spalding Club, Aberdeen 1858.
HEDLEY, A. Chopin. The Master Musicians Series. Revised Edition. Catalogue of Works, London, 1963.
HORN, D. B. A Short History of the University of Edinburgh, 1556-1889. Edinburgh University Press, 1967.
JASNOWSKI, J. England and Poland in the XVI and XVII century. In 'Polish Science and Learning'. Oxford University Press, 1948.
K 0 T , S. Five Centuries of Polish Learning. Three Lectures delivered in the University of Oxford, May 1941. English Version by William J.Rose. Oxford: Basil Blackwell l941.
KRASINSKI, v. Historical Sketch of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of the Reformation in Poland, vols. I-II. London 1838, 1840.
KUKIEL, M. Czartoryski and European Unity, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1955.
LESLIE, R. F. Polish Politics and the Revolution of November 1830. University of London, The Athlone Press, 1956.
LITHGOW, w. The Total Discoveries of the Rare Adventures and Painful Peregrinations by... Glasgow 1906.
MCLACHLAN, H. J. Socinianism in Seventeenth Century England. Oxford University Press, 1951.
NIECKS, P. Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician. VoI. I-II, London, 1888.
NORTH, CHRISTOPHER A Memoir of John Wilson. Compiled by Mrs Gordon, Vols I-II. Edinburgh 1862.
ODLOZILIK, 0. Thomas Seget: A Scottish Friend of Szymon Szymonowicz, 'The Polish Review' (New York),vol. XI, no. I. 1966.
SELIGA, s. Polish General of Scottish Descent (K. Stuart). The Voice of Poland. Glasgow, vol. VI, p. 3. Glasgow, 1947.
SMALL, J. Dr William Davidson. In 'Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland', X, pp. 265-80, 1874.
STEUART, A. F. Papers Relating to the Scots in Poland, 1576-1793.
Scottish History Society. vol. 59, University Press, Edinburgh 1915.
TALBOT, C. H. Introduction to 'Res Polonicae ex Archivo Musei Britannici'. I. Pars 'Relatio of the State of Polonia and the United Provinces of that Crown anno 1598. (Elementa ad Fontium Editiones, vol. XIII. Romae, 1965).
TOMIAK, J. J. A British Poet's Account of the Raising of the Siege of Vienna in 1683 'The Polish Review', vol. XI, no.4, 1966.
Poland and Scotland. Printed for H.M.Stationery Office ( 1940 ), by Cockayne & Co. Ltd.
Polish and others:
BARTKOWSKI, J. Wspomnienia z Powstania 1831r.i Pierwszych Lat Emigracji. Krak6w 1966.
BARYCZ, H. Recherches sur I'histoire des relations culturelles entre les
dissidents polonais et l'Occident. Reprinted from: Historia Filozofii i Mysli Spolecznej, vol. 12, p. 76. 1966.
BILIKIEWICZ, T. Henryk Martini i JanJonston. Fragment z dziej6w kultury lekarskiej polskiego Leszna. Biblioteka Uniwersytecka, Poznan, 1933.
BILIKIEWICZ, T. JanJonston. Wydawnictwo Kasy im. Mianowskiego, Warszawa, 1931.
* The inscription as quoted by A. F. Stewart runs as follows :
D.O.M. Exiguus hit cinis magnusest Alexander Czamer, Roseo Anglorum Sanguine nobilissimus; extra Patriam Ecclesiam Matrem professus, quam inter Patrias Rosas erubuerat, in corde Poloniae, cum ad cor rediisset, semper civis cordium bis cordialis 17Iemidi legum advocatus quater Proconsul cordatissimus id est caput et cor civium Varsaviensium extitit. In consiliis non tam Anglus quam Angelus, magni consilii in executione decretorum Fabius sed non cunctator. In solvendis juditiorum nodis Gordius idem et alter Alexander. Privilegiorum Civilium Altare privilegiatum, legum anima et lex animata. Libertatum Urbis a servitute Liberator. Fundorum antiquorum novus Fundator. Ad coronaria Serenissimi Augusti II Comitis Legatus non jam a latere, sed a corde Regni Secretarii titulum novum accePit, pridem sub Rosa Patria natus ad Arcara tandem post gloriosissima Acta egit animam Die 9 Marti A.Christi I703 aetatis 58. Sed illatam sibi non illi a morte ifljuriam actis aeternaturis inscripturi cum Proconsulisfilio Wilhelmo Posteri scribunt in marmore laesi'.
**Distress and wars drove us out of Scotland' says a young Scots in a law suit in Wroclaw at the end of the fifteenth century.
*** The dynastic union of Poland and Lithuania took place in 1386, and was reinforced by the union of Parliaments in 1369, creating one Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which lasted down to the Partitions.
****NB. To the selective bibliography following the papers I would add the regrettably omitted book of D. B. Horn, British Public Opinion and the First Partition of Poland, Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh 1943, pp. Vll-98, and H. Barycz's new brilliant essay on Thomas Seget just published in his book on Renaissance Poland W blaskach Odrodzenia, Panstwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, Warszawa 1968, chapter: An English Visitor in Poland, pp. 327-351. Biographical notes about Karol Sienkiewicz whose Diary of sejoum in Great Britain 1820~21, discovered in 1948 and published first in 1953 /p.33 and plate 12/ is of exceptional value for the history of Polish-Scottish relations are to be found in Maria Danilewiczowa's book Pierscien z Herkulanum i plaszcz pokutnicy, London 1960, pp. 242-263. Very recently Mrs Z. Skorupska published an essay on Chopin's stay on this island based on unpublished sources preserved in the Kornik Library in Poland ( F. Chopin w relacjach Leonarda Niedzwieckiego. Pamietnik Biblioteki Kornickiej, fasc. 9 -10, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kornik 1968, pp. 97-119).
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