Glas

This name is more commonly spelt ‘Glass’, and is probably derived from ‘glas’, the Gaelic adjective meaning ‘grey’. It may be a shortened form of MacGillieglais, meaning ‘son of the grey lad’. The name is recorded in the Lyon registers as ‘Glas of that Ilk’. Glass of Ascog on the isle of Bute is listed as a notable family from as early as the fifteenth century. Black records a grant of land to Alexander Glas in 1506. Nisbet also lists the family of Glass of Sauchie, whom he declares to be related to the chiefly family, due to the similarity of their heraldry. The Reverend Alexander Glas, possibly of the Sauchie branch, became renowned for the religious sect known as the ‘Glassites’, which he founded. His teachings opposed the established Church, holding that every meeting of Christians constituted a church within itself. He was expelled from the Church of Scotland but he was not otherwise penalised, and he wrote a number of controversial pamphlets which were widely read after their publication in 1762. Anderson, however, narrates the fate of a much less fortunate member of this family, John Glas, master mariner. He was apparently educated into the medical profession and afterwards became captain of a merchant vessel plying trade to Brazil. He became involved in a scheme to form a new settlement on the coast of Africa, but this was not successful and for a time he was imprisoned by Spanish authorities. He was released on the intervention of the British government. In 1765 he set sail with his wife and daughter for the return to England, having on board all that he possessed, including a considerable amount of gold. The crew mutinied near the coast of Ireland and murdered Captain Glas and threw his wife and daughter overboard. The mutineers attempted to conceal their crime by alleging there had been a shipwreck, but they were ultimately forced to confess and were executed in October 1765.