the Forth Naturalist Historian - Forth Naturalist and Historian ...

82 L. Corbett
1782
According to The Scottish Nation (3) an elegantly mounted snuff box was
presented to Lord Buchan, 11th Earl, David Stuart Buchan (1742-1829), by the
Goldsmiths of Edinburgh in 1782. Made from the tree which sheltered Wallace,
and described by the Smith Art Gallery and Museum as –
“of the highest quality … with a gold and silver plated inscription”.
The Earl was a great admirer of Wallace, owned Kirkhill in Uphall (West
Lothian), and bought Dryburgh Abbey and its lands. There in 1814 he had John
Smith of Darnwick build on th slopes of Bemersyd Hill the massive statue of
Wallace, visable from as far away as Berwick (7), and see 1814 below.
(Howie and Mackay)
1792
In 1792 the Earl of Buchan obtained leave to transfer this Edinburgh
Goldsmiths’ snuff box –
“to the only man in the world he thought it justly due” – George Washington, first
president of the United States of America. He had it conveyed to the President by
the portrait painter Archibald Robinson, and it became known as the Washington
Snuff Box. Buchan, a highly respected friend to the United States, named
Washington “the William Wallace of America”.
It was last publicly seen at a Daughters of the American Revolution tea party
in Belleville, Illinois on 22nd February 1923, and under guard by owner Henry
Williams. It is the subject of a detailed report of 10th February 1997 by Robert
Goodrich of the Post Dispatch Belle. This included an illustration of the oval
shaped 6+4+2 inches box, carved from the wood of the Torwood Wallace Tree,
and said to have a secret compartment. Buchan had asked George Washington
to pass the dedicated box to his successor, but the President is said to have
willed it back to the Earl. Goodrich says it never got back to the Earl, but was
‘acquired’ via a US Navy Commander by the pioneer Belleville family Williams.
Another account says it did come back, was ‘rededicated’ by Buchan, and
sent to someone else in America, but en route it was highjacked in a stage coach
hold up.
The Williams family reputedly kept it secure till the death of Henry J.
Williams in August 1931, but he had no survivors, and no traced will. According
to the Belleville Daily Advocate, quote –
“…the Museum of Edinburgh tried several times to purchase the snuff box from
the Williams family, but was rebuffed. – This 1997 faxed report to Forrester also
says – quote –
“…enthusiastic efforts are being made to find this very desirable box by
International Press Service correspondent Jim Leggett, a Stirling Scot and Wallace
admirer, of Charlotte, NC.”
Colin Forrester wrote to President Regan about this in 1985, but without
reply. A note to Forrester by the Earl Buchan also in 1985 says that a number of