James Meek - Meek's Library

Meek's Library

Meek's library, now in the National Library of Scotland, show that he was keenly interested in the improvements in roads, canals, etc., taking place all over Britain at the time.

Documents owned by Meek include:

• Act and recommendation of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, appointing a general collection for compleating the bridge over the river North-Esk near Montrose. : At Edinburgh, May 25. 1773. (With Meek's armorial bookplate; Previously owned by George Wishart)
• Bill for enlarging the term and powers granted by an Act of the twenty-sixth year of the reign of his late Majesty King George the Second, intitled, An act for repairing the roads from Livingston by the Kirk of Shotts to the city of Glasgow, and by the town of Hamilton to the town of Strathaven, and for making the said act more effectual; also for repairing several other roads in the county of Lanark, not mentioned in the said former Act..(With Meek's armorial bookplate)
• James Boswell and Robert Hope Case of Robert Hope, tenant to the Right Honourable James Montgomery, Esq; of Stanhope, at Minzons, Appellant, from a sentence of the Synod of Lothian and Tweedale, affirming a previous sentence against him by the Presbytery of Peebles..(With Meek's armorial bookplate)

In the Special Collections section of the Library of Glasgow University, there is an extensive, bound manuscript of An abstract of the proceedings of the General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland, from 1560 to approximately the 1630s. (GUL Reference GB 0247 MS Gen 1132). The title page of the manuscript bears the name of Sir William Dunlop, 1699.

Inside is a letter from Dr Meek, which, by order of the Senate of the University in 1792, was to be “securely” bound to the manuscript. The letter was to Professor George Jardine, dated 20 December 1791. It provides some information about the manuscript's likely origins. Meek thanks "the Faculty" for allowing him to see the manuscript and states that

"About the year 1699, Mr William Dunlop Principal of the University of Glasgow, got this work transcribed from a copy that seems to have belonged to the General Assembly, which copy was lost, or more probably burnt about two years after... by a fire, 28 Octr 1701, in the house of Mr Nicol Spense sub-clerk to the Assembly. This circumstance renders your M.S. more valuable; for notwithstanding its imperfections it ought now perhaps to be considered, as the most authentic Register of the proceedings of the Kirk of Scotland for almost 60 years after the Reformation."

Meek then reports that he has compared the document with the manuscript of David Calderwood’s History of the Kirk of Scotland (completed about 1650). Meek is amazed at the “blanks” and “mistakes” and proceeds to list his very extensive corrections in his characteristic small, clear handwriting. In fact it is an extensive corrigendum to this important manuscript, presumably why the University authorities were anxious that it was “securely” bound with the original document. Meek considered that, in general, the language of this manuscript was clearer than that of Calderwood and so, with his corrections, would be a better reference point for settling legal or historical matters. It shows once again Meek as a careful, painstaking scholar, for the work must have involved several months of careful collation.