Stone No.132
Inscription. |
Sacred to the memory of Bailie JOHN CHRISTALL (Stone is too badly damaged to make out the inscription) Here the weary are at rest. Sacred to the memory of Baillie John Christall, many years one of the Magistrates of Dundee, who died 20th August 1816 aged 87 years. An honest man, rendered vulnerable by his advanced age, but still more so by his virtues and whose last moments spoke the best memorial of a well spent life. Also are entombed here the remains of Robert Cristall, son of the above, who departed this life on the 11th April 1817 aged 54 years. The man who has raised a column to his memory in the hearts of his friends by the goodness of his own, can receive little perpetuity from this small tribute of esteem, erected by an affectionate wife, who survives to deplore the de??ivation. Source: The Book of the Howff,©Libraries, Leisure and Culture Dundee, Local History Centre & is Claimant: Claimed by James Scott, ?? packer. There were two brothers William, Thomas Miller. Miss Farquahson or Scott wife of James Scott Packer in Dundee their brother and the only descendants of Thomas Miller. William has left no descendants, the last of them was Mr Robert Cristall who left no spouse. Mrs Hill was only his widow. (Note glued to page) Source:Register of Tombs and Monuments in Dundee Burial Ground, 1832 JOHN CRISTALL, who for many years held the office of Postmaster in Dundee, died on Friday, Aug. 2, 1816. He had been well educated ; and, to a strong understanding, he added high independence of mind, and a strict impartiality in the discharge of his official duties. Accordingly, in the delivery of letters, those who called first were first served, without regard to rank, wealth, or assumed consequence ; and as an instance of how he carried out this rule, it is recorded that, one evening, when the Post Office was unusually thronged, ' Fletcher Reid, Esq./ of Logie, called out from the furthest circle of the crowd : ' Fletcher Reid of Logie's letters ! ' Receiving no answer, he repeated the order, and in a more peremptory tone ; to which the Postmaster replied, with chilling indifference : ' Francis Reid must wait his turn ! Mr Cristall was for a number of years a member of the Town Council ; but he retired from it a considerable time before his death, because he did not think it proper that he a collector of public revenue, should hold a seat in that body, seeing that all persons employed in collecting the revenue were disqualified, by express statute, from any sort of interference in the election of Members of Parliament, and that Members of Parliament for the Scottish burghs were at that period elected by delegates nominated from each burgh by the respective Town Councils. A characteristic and highly honourable anecdote is told of Mr Cristall. The Magistrates of those days were the patrons of a bursary, consisting of the sum of .£149 8s. mortified by a Mr Bruce, the interest of which was to be always applied in educating one pupil of the name of Bruce. In 1773, this bursary was vacant, and no one qualified applying for it, Mr Cristall was advised to take it for his son ; and he accordingly received the proceeds for the two years 1773 and 1774, being £17 10s. Mr Cristall, however, afterwards regretted having received this money, and in Dec. 1815 he ordered the amount to be repaid to the patrons, with forty-one years' interest, amounting to <£35 17s. 6d.in all, £53 7s. 6d. Although the salary of Mr Cristall, as Postmaster, was very small, he contrived, by strict economy, not only to support his family, chiefly from that source, but to save a competency for his old age, and to leave a considerable sum behind him, a portion of which he bequeathed to the charities of the town. Mr Cristall was in his 87th year when he died. Source 4
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