Background

The original government grant was from 1785 but postdated, so that it ran from 1798, when the existing patent of monopoly expired, the monopoly of printing Bibles in Scotland going with the position as King's Printer.^[12] This grant was political patronage given by Henry Dundas to James Hunter Blair, who became the 1st Baronet in 1786 and died in 1787. Dundas was a Tory political manager, holding sway in Scotland. James Hunter Blair's death meant that the monopoly would pass to the next generation. Either by initial design or as an afterthought, the grant was jointly with John Bruce, tutor to Dundas's son, from 1811 Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville.^[13][14]

Mark & Charles Kerr were the holders to 1798 of the Scottish Bible monopoly, and printed upmarket Bibles. It came out in 1837 evidence that Adam Black had bought at least 4,000 of their Bibles in folio, and they were not quick sellers. Hunter-Blair and Bruce, successors (after the 2nd baronet died) to the Kerrs, produced 18 Bible editions over the years 1802 to 1817; and sold them also in England.^[15][16]

1820s

In 1823 Hunter-Blair successfully brought a legal case to prevent the import of Bibles from England into Scotland.^[17] One of the principal opponents was John Lee, who in 1824 published Memorial for the Bible Societies in Scotland.^[18] In his Additional Memorial of 1826 Lee stated that the legal costs of the defence of the Scottish monopoly were being borne by the holders of the English Bible monopoly; and that the latter would be the major beneficiaries of the restriction of trade.^[19]

John Bruce died in 1826, unmarried; his residual estate went to his niece Margaret Stuart Bruce (died 1869). She was the daughter of his brother Robert Bruce of the Bengal Artillery and an Indian woman. She married in 1828 Onesiphorus Tyndall, and the couple used the surname Tyndall-Bruce.^[14]

1830s

The situation south of the border changed, where Andrew Spottiswoode and his brother Robert (died 1832) took over the monopoly from their uncle Andrew Strahan on his death in 1831, and the printing company became Eyre & Spottiswoode.^[20]

A committee of the British House of Commons looked into the monopoly, from 1831.^[11] Hunter-Blair defended the cost structure under the Bible monopoly for Scotland to the committee in 1832, with the printer William Waddell.^[21] The report was inconclusive.^[11]

A second committee was set up, chaired by John Archibald Murray, the Lord Advocate, in 1835.^[11] Its remit was restricted to the Scottish monopoly. There were hearings in 1837.^[22] William Ellis, a solicitor of the Scottish Supreme Court, gave evidence on behalf of the Edinburgh Bible Society, relating to their Bible imports in 1821 and Scottish feeling.^[23] Joseph Parker (died 1850), associated as a wholesale distributor to the Clarendon Press's Bible trade under the English monopoly, testified that two-thirds of the business was with Bible societies.^[22][24] Adam Thomson of Coldstream gave evidence, and ran a wide-reaching campaign, against renewal of the patent. It was ultimately successful, and the patent was allowed to lapse.^[11] From 1839, therefore, the legal position for Bibles in Scotland was reversed, with imports allowed, and the monopoly for printing them removed.^[17]