History of Hutton Lodge
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Hutton Lodge can be seen in the photo at the bottom of the page, taken around 1900. Before the present A75 road was constructed, the main road from Dumfries to Carlisle ran through Bankend, which part of the Jacobite army passed on its way north during the retreat from Derby late in the year 1745. A detachment under Prince Charlie travelled through this area and may have stayed in one of the houses in the hamlet. (The old thatched post office on the right in the photograph no longer exists).
The history of Hutton Lodge, Bankend, Dumfriesshire, Scotland
John Hutton M.D. (d. 1712) was a native of Caerlaverock and began his life as a herd-boy to the Episcopalian minister of the parish. Whilst in Holland shortly before the Revolution of 1688, he chanced to be the nearest doctor at hand when the Princess Mary of Orange (wife of Holland's ruler, William of Orange and daughter of James II) met with a fall from her horse, and thus gained the regard of Prince William, who, on ascending the English throne appointed him his first physician. He accompanied the king to Ireland and was with him at the battle of the Boyne and at the siege of Limerick. Queen Anne continued him in his place of first physician.
Dr Hutton gifted a sum of "Nyne Hundred Pounds Starling Lawful money of Great Brittain" towards the "promoting of piety and Learning and towards releaving, helping and assisting poor and Indigent people being in health of body and mind and willing out of a reall principle of Charity, and that the Interest and profites ariseing from the said sum of Nyne Hundred pound shall apply a yearly allowance not Exceeding the sum of Three pound four shilling sixpence starling yearly for the training of four poor Boyes who shall be natives born in the said paroch of Honest parents and not Bastards." The scribe who maintained the minutes of the School Board meetings would surely have benefited from the Hutton benevolence, for the pen having writ, wrote on: "There shall be allowed yearly a provision not exceeding the sum of ten pounds starling to a school master, examined aud approven as fitt and weel qualified to teach a good hand of Writing, Arithmetick, Musick, Latin, Greek, &c., together with the Rudiments aund principles of our Holy Religion." Further, the Hutton legacy allowed for the provision of a girls school and so, long before the huge Firth of Forth Rail Bridge was constructed, Hutton Lodge was built in 1862 from where the girls could finish their studies by cooking, dressmaking, art and piano tuition. Three sisters, the Misses Glen, were appointed and resided in the house. They were Miss Christine as teacher, Miss Mary who taught art and music and Miss Agnes as housekeeper. The school was closed around 1900 and the sisters remained in the house until they died. After the children had been moved to the adjoining building (now used as the community hall) together with the boys from Hutton Hall, Hutton Lodge was used as a soup kitchen for the children's midday meals. When all the children were moved to a school in the nearby Glencaple village during the 1940s the home was used as the village shop and post office until around the end of the 1950s when it was used only as a residential building.
Two young lads who passed through Bankend School in those early years and achieved recognition later in life were John M. Hunter who left school in 1898 and became a big game hunter in Kenya (the last of the "Great White Hunters" of Africa). He died there at the age of 81 after serving as chief conservation officer with the Kenyan government and recording his adventures in at least one book entitled, "Hunter". Another pupil was James Anderson who entered the merchant service and became an officer in the Cunard Line of Steamers, serving for some time as captain of the ship that was used for the laying of an electric cable across the Atlantic in 1866.
Dr Hutton gifted a sum of "Nyne Hundred Pounds Starling Lawful money of Great Brittain" towards the "promoting of piety and Learning and towards releaving, helping and assisting poor and Indigent people being in health of body and mind and willing out of a reall principle of Charity, and that the Interest and profites ariseing from the said sum of Nyne Hundred pound shall apply a yearly allowance not Exceeding the sum of Three pound four shilling sixpence starling yearly for the training of four poor Boyes who shall be natives born in the said paroch of Honest parents and not Bastards." The scribe who maintained the minutes of the School Board meetings would surely have benefited from the Hutton benevolence, for the pen having writ, wrote on: "There shall be allowed yearly a provision not exceeding the sum of ten pounds starling to a school master, examined aud approven as fitt and weel qualified to teach a good hand of Writing, Arithmetick, Musick, Latin, Greek, &c., together with the Rudiments aund principles of our Holy Religion." Further, the Hutton legacy allowed for the provision of a girls school and so, long before the huge Firth of Forth Rail Bridge was constructed, Hutton Lodge was built in 1862 from where the girls could finish their studies by cooking, dressmaking, art and piano tuition. Three sisters, the Misses Glen, were appointed and resided in the house. They were Miss Christine as teacher, Miss Mary who taught art and music and Miss Agnes as housekeeper. The school was closed around 1900 and the sisters remained in the house until they died. After the children had been moved to the adjoining building (now used as the community hall) together with the boys from Hutton Hall, Hutton Lodge was used as a soup kitchen for the children's midday meals. When all the children were moved to a school in the nearby Glencaple village during the 1940s the home was used as the village shop and post office until around the end of the 1950s when it was used only as a residential building.
Two young lads who passed through Bankend School in those early years and achieved recognition later in life were John M. Hunter who left school in 1898 and became a big game hunter in Kenya (the last of the "Great White Hunters" of Africa). He died there at the age of 81 after serving as chief conservation officer with the Kenyan government and recording his adventures in at least one book entitled, "Hunter". Another pupil was James Anderson who entered the merchant service and became an officer in the Cunard Line of Steamers, serving for some time as captain of the ship that was used for the laying of an electric cable across the Atlantic in 1866.
