Famous People of Linton Parish

William Dawson
About 1760, William Dawson came to live in the farm at Frogden. While the tenant there, he became involved in agricultural improvements, the most famous of which was his development of the drill system of turnip cultivation.

Prior to this time, turnips were not a crop which was included within the normal crop rotation of the farm. Being able to grow them successfully, as a field crop, meant that there could now be sufficient feeding for cattle to be kept on the farms throughout the winter. Previously, some were sold off to farmers in areas with a less severe climate, with those kept being slaughtered and made into salt beef, which would feed the farmer and his family. Sheep could also be kept at these lower levels throughout the winter, grazing the turnips much as they still do today.

He was also interested in the improvement of the land quality and was a keen exponent of drainage and the use of marl from the lochside spread on the fields as an improver. With the addition of the natural manure from the cattle, the yields from the fields rapidly improved.

Improved grazing allowed sheep to be introduced with a better wool and meat yield - the Cheviot and Blackface breeds.

Robert Elliot
In the late 1800's Robert Elliot of Clifton Park was another keen improver of agricultural methods. By then, artificial manures were the fashion, and he was not impressed by the temporary nature of their effect. His answer was what he referred to as the 'ley' system where a grass and clover mix was used as a part of the rotation system with the sown field being left for four years. He wrote a book 'The Clifton Park System of Farming' which outlined his philosophy and the results of his early experiments to revitalise the poorest of his fields.

Thomas Pringle
Thomas Pringle was born at Blakelaw, Kelso on 5th January 1789. He attended Kelso Grammar School and Edinburgh University. He became clerk, Commissioner of the Public Records of Scotland, and co-editor of the 'Edinburgh Monthly Magazine' and 'Constable's Magazine'.

At the age of thirty, he left for South Africa with other members of his family. While there, he wrote poems about life there, which earned him some renown. His early poems were published in two volumes, and his account of life in South Africa was published as 'African Sketches' in 1834, just before his death in London, to which he had returned in 1826 to become Secretary to the Anti-Slavery Society. Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote to Pringle expressing the opinion that his poem 'Afar in the Desert' was one of the 'two or three most perfect lyric poems'.

John Clark
Born at Prior Raw, in 1744, he was the son of the tenant farmer. Educated at Linton, Kelso Grammar School and Edinburgh University, he became a very talented medical practitioner. He qualified with MD from St Andrew's University before settling in practice at Newcastle where he founded the Newcastle Dispensary. He published a series of works in the field of 'climatology and epidemiology'. His son followed him into medicine, becoming Professor of Anatomy at Cambridge.

James Moffat Douglas
James Moffat Douglas was born on 26th May 1839 at Linton Bankhead by Morebattle. The son of John and Euphemia Douglas he was the third of their six children. Both parents were agricultural labourers. [more....]