The parentage of Robert Urie,
printer in Glasgow
R. A. Gillespie
THE EARLIEST KNOWN WORK bearing the imprint of Robert Urie
is dated 1740. In that year 'Robert Urie and Company printed
Durham's The dying man's testament to the Church of Scotland and a ;
number of the sermons of the Rev. Andrew Gray. Urie was then
about 27 years of age. Of his activities before that date little or nothing
is known. Gibson states that he was printing from l7351 and it may
be that he commenced his apprenticeship in that year. He is known
to have served an apprenticeship with Alexander Milled. A Robert
Urie who took a Greek class in the University in i7283 may have
been the printer but there is no way of confirming this.
In preparing his paper on Robert Urie for the Glasgow Biblio-
graphical Society* Hugh A. M'Lean made a thorough search of the
Glasgow parochial records in the hope of discovering the names of
Urie's parents and his date of birth. As Urie is known to have died on
9 February l77l6 at the age of 586 Dr M'Lean first searched the
baptismal records for 1713. No Robert Urie was baptised in that year
and he therefore widened his search to find, eventually, the record of
baptism of a Robert Urie dated 28 October 1711. His conclusion that
'while an element of doubt may be present it may be assumed with
a degree of certainty that the entry refers to the subject of this paper
might be thought to be unjustifiably confident.
Dr M'Lean was misled by his assumption that Urie was born in
Glasgow. Had he examined the baptismal records of the parish of
Cathcart (and there is no reason why he should have thought of doing
so) he would have found that a Robert Urie was baptised there on 19
December 1713. If'58' is taken to mean 58th year, and this accords
with the usual practice in the Glasgow burial records, the date is much
more likely than 28 October 1711, but without corroborative evidence
it would be foolish to assume that the Robert Urie born in Cathcart
was the Glasgow printer. Fortunately there is such evidence.
When Robert Urie's will was proved1 the 'nearest of kin decerned'
was 'Isobell Urie, widow of the deceased William Anderson, portioner
of Little Govan, sister consanguinean ... to the said defunct Robert
Urie . . .' The identification of the Robert Urie born in Cathcart in
1713 with Robert Urie the Glasgow printer depends on the fact that
the latter had a half-sister named Isobell.
On 26 August 1698 John Urie, lawful son to Robert Urie in Mill-
brae (Cathcart), and Catrion Waddrope, daughter lawful to umquill
Henrie Waddrope of West Thorn in the parish of Barronie, were
married2. A number of children were born of the marriage including,
in 1704, a daughter, Isobell3. In the baptismal record John Urie is
described as 'of Holmhead'. Catrion (or Cathrine) Waddrope appears
to have died some time after May 1707 (when the last child of the
marriage was born) for, on ,7 February 1713, John Urie of Holmhead
married Isobell Murdoch, lawful daughter of John Murdoch of
Craigton in the parish of Govan.4 Their first (and only?) child,
Robert, was baptised on 19 December that year5.
It could be a coincidence, albeit a far-fetched one, that Robert Urie
the Glasgow printer, presumably born in 1713, and Robert Urie,
certainly bom in Cathcart in that year, each had a half-sister named
Isobell, but the Cathcart parochial records provide one more piece of
evidence, and that a convincing one. On 4 August 1727 William
Anderson, eldest lawful son to John Anderson, portioner of Little
Govan in the parish of Govan, and Isobell Urie, eldest lawful daugh-
ter to John Urie of Holmhead (in the parish of Cathcart), gave up
their names to be proclaimed in order to marry and paid their dues.
They were married in Glasgow on 6 August.1
Some idea of the status of the Urie family can be gathered from the
various marriage and baptismal records. Both of John Urie's marr-
iages were into land-owning families. In 1698, when he married
Catrion Waddrope, the Waddropes were owners of the estates of
West Thorn and Dalbeth. The witnesses at the baptism of Isobell,
in 1704, were James Hamilton, elder, of Aikenhead and John Leckie
of Newlands. James Rowans, proprietor of Heatheriehall, a large
estate in Govan, was one of the witnesses of Robert's baptism. John
Urie therefore was a man of substance and it is certainly probable that
his means were sufficient to enable his son to be educated at Glasgow
University and possibly to supply the capital for him to enter a
printing partnership.
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