James McCowan Bibliography

James McCowan Bibliography
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For the Drama
With I Hope a New Face
The Story of a Newcomer to a New Land

The James McCowan Memorial Social History Society
In Cooperation With
The Scarboro Heights Record
Presents

The Janet McCowan Community Studies Essay Competition

Your Community
In a World History Context

The James McCowan Memorial Social History Society is offering a prize for the best essay on the following subject:

Discuss the impact of the agricultural revolution in Lowland Scotland on the development of rural Scottish communities in pre-Confederation Canada.

Lesson Plans

Learning Objectives -- Building A Country

To identify some signs and effects of over-population
To identify some of the forces that can initiate socio-economic change
To recognize that value systems evolve over time
To acknowledge that value systems contribute to community-building

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D.B. McCowan, To Sustene the Personis: The Agricultural Revolution, James McCowan Memorial Social History Society, 1994.
-Especially the Introduction and pages 16, 22-25, 27-29
-Cumnock, Ayrshire, 1600-1800

BBC-Radio Scotland, 3 Part Series The Lowland Clearances (CD)

P. Aitchison and A. Cassell, The Lowland Clearances: Scotland's Silent Revolution, 1760-1830, Tuckwell Press
-Sets the life of James McCowan (pg. 127-141) within the context of socio-economic change

D.B. McCowan, Neigh the Front: Exploring Scarboro Heights, James McCowan Memorial Social History Society, 2001.

D.B. McCowan, When the Ground Fails: An Economic Watershed, James McCowan Memorial Social History Society, 1996.
-Especially pages 47-48, 56, 62-63
-Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, 1600-1800

D.B. McCowan, The Rise and Fall of a Coal Entrepreneur: James McCowan, 1773-1834, Unpublished Manuscript, 1991.
-beautification of Auchanbeg
-James' library and the "information revolution"
-James' ambitious brother, David

D.B. McCowan, Catching Up with the Market Economy, Unpublished Manuscript.
-sequestration of Stockbriggs Estate and impact on tenants
-detailed case study in socio-economic change

D.B. McCowan, The McCowans of Cumnock, Lesmahagow and Scarborough, 1985.
-pages 1 to 9

D.B. McCowan, John Torrance of Lanarkshire, Scarborough Historical Notes and Comments, November, 1987.
-Torrance leased a farm to McCowans: ref A Man and His Home page 21
-An important figure in the emigration from Lanarkshire to Scarborough

D.B. McCowan, A Man and His Home: William Porteous McCowan, 1820- 1902, Scarborough Historical Notes and Comments, 1988.
-Especially pages 4-6, 13-25
-page 15: value of education
-pages 20-22: values taught and probable anti-reform in politics when left Scotland (re his possible opposition to the Great Reform Bill in 1832)
-page 24-25 notes 3-9: legal battles
-page 25, note 13: Alex Muir and Jane McCowan baptised together
-page 35, notes 99-100: cholera and typhus fever deaths in the family
-page 36 note 109: value of his furniture

D.B. McCowan, Immigration from Lanarkshire and Dumfriesshire, 1797-1850, Scarborough Historical Notes and Comments, 1988.

D.B. McCowan, Coalmining at Auchanbeg, Lesmahagow, 1700-1922, The Scottish Genealogist, March, 1990.

D.B. McCowan, A Lakefront Estate Residential Development, 1890- 1940, Scarborough Historical Notes and Comments, 1989.
-Especially p. 25
-Determination to succeed

I. Marshall, A Field Survey at Coalburn, Lanarkshire, Association of Certificated Field Archaeologists, 1990.
-Especially page 8

D.B. McCowan, Fairs and Frolics: Scottish Communities at Work and Play, James McCowan Memorial Social History Society, 1993.
-Page 6-7
-importance of competition and personal development

D.B. McCowan, How the Works is Going..., unpublished manuscript, 1989.
-Especially pages 2-3, 6-7.

D.B. McCowan, The Successful Teacher, 1830-1988...,
-pg 2: early education
-pg 5: John and Alex Muir
-pg 7: poem on the death of Mrs. Robert McCowan, mother of seven, ages 2 to 14

Letters to James McCowan in Auchanbeg from friends and relatives
-Dec. 6, 1800 from David McCowan, re sailing to Trinidad
-October 1, 1819 from John Black, re funeral of James' mentor, James Whiteford
-July 1, 1820 from David McCowan re his creditors (there are half a dozen or so other letters from him in this respect)
-Aug. 31, 1804 from Mr. Stodhart, James' brother-in-law re the death of James' first wife

Other Papers and Letters
-Articles of Lease of the Farms on the Estate of Stockbriggs, ca 1830
-Petition for the Sequestration (bankruptcy) of James McCowan, Feb. 11 1831
-Inventory of James McCowan's property, Feb. 11 1831
-Letter by James McCowan, Springbank, Scarborough, Aug. 20 1834 (includes account of cholera in the household)
-James McCowan's account book, 1817-1831
-Personal libraries of James McCowan and William P. McCowan
-several large collections from the Court of Session, Edinburgh, Scotland

J. Avigdor, Rebuked and Absolved: Speculations on the Early Life of James McCowan, unpublished manuscript
-family life

Letter from Patrick Cadell, Keeper of the Scottish Record Office, 92/11/9, re Glasgow area Coal cartel

Margaret Heron Carr, James McCowan Family From 1833, 1993.
Especially pages 12-15.
-descendants in Scarborough, Portage La Prairie and elsewhere

Scottish Record Office, The Coalminers, 1983

John Strawhorn, The New History of Cumnock:
-pages 33-51: coal and life in general in Cumnock during the late eighteenth century

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Refer also to this page for a finding aid to source data on this web site:

James McCowan, Coalmaster

Also these Pages for more general history:

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