List of libraries

• Introduction
• Registers (4)
• Books (345)
• Borrowers (103)
• Facts & figures

Located in Wigtown. Founded in 1795. Type of library: Subscription. Collection: Dispersed and lost.

Library description

Founded at a meeting of forty-four subscribers on 8 September 1795, this library served the borough town of Wigtown and the surrounding area in Galloway, southwest Scotland. Rev. Andrew Donnan appears to have been instrumental in its establishment, with the subscription library at nearby Kirkcudbright (founded 1777) providing an important model. The role of librarian was held by a sequence of schoolmasters in the town and the books were kept in a press in the schoolroom. Treasurer was also a fixed appointment but other officeholders (committee members and preses) were elected on a rolling basis. It is not clear when the library was discontinued - a small portion of later borrowing records exists for 1846-1847.

Borrowing data for 1828-1836 is taken from MS 11.29 and MS 11.30, Hornel Library, Broughton House, Kirkcudbright. The earlier borrowings for 1795-1799 were transcribed by Mark Towsey from the minute book at MS 5.27 and the ledger at MS 11.28. There is accounting information including book purchases in MSS 5.27 and 18.26, and a list of poetry editions in the later 1846-1847 borrowing register at MS 11.31.

Borrower description

Across the period of records included here, subscriber numbers remained broadly consistent: a membership of thirty-five is given for 1828. The subscribers were drawn from a fairly wide cross-section of Wigtownshire society, ranging from a few respectable tradesmen to wealthy landowners. On founding, the initial subscription fee was a guinea, plus an additional six shillings per annum. This was adjusted at intervals, including an increase in October 1807 to an initial subscription of two guineas, plus an annual rate of seven shillings six pence. In 1832, the initial fee was reduced back to one guinea. Most commonly, members were drawn from the professions: ministers and lawyers. There was also a consistent presence of female borrowers. A number of the elite members made little or no use of their borrowing rights, suggesting the wider function of the library as a vehicle for polite association, and a patronage role for members such as the Earl of Galloway. The founding regulations explicitly permits the sharing of books among families but no further.

Holding description

It is not clear whether the initial formation of the library involved any significant bequests. New additions to the common book stock were proposed by individual subscribers at their meetings. On occasion, subscribers donated books in lieu of fees. Book purchases were limited by the availability of funds and in a few cases the subscribers returned editions that proved too expensive. The accounts record purchases from booksellers in Edinburgh and Dumfries. Binding work was done by James McBryde until his death around 1828.

As the book stock has not survived, edition matching has reverted to first plausible editions based on number of volumes, except in cases where the accounts or the list of poetry editions mentioned above suggest otherwise.

Sources

• Other: Minute Book including founding regulations and accounts. MS 5.27, Hornel Library, Broughton House, Kirkcudbright.
• Other: Account Book including minutes and subscribers lists, 1829–1843. MS 18.26, Hornel Library, Broughton House, Kirkcudbright.

Secondary sources

K. A. Manley, Books, Borrowers, and Shareholders: Scottish Circulating and Subscription Libraries before 1825, A survey and listing (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Bibliographical Society, 2012).

Mark Towsey, ‘First Steps in Associational Reading: Book Use and Sociability at the Wigtown Subscription Library, 1795-9’, PBSA, 103.4 (December, 2009): 455-95

Mark R. M. Towsey, Reading the Scottish Enlightenment: Books and their Readers in Provincial Scotland, 1750-1820 (Leiden: Brill, 2010).