BERTHAM-SHOTTS, or SHOTTS, a parish, in the
Middle ward of the county of Lanark; including the
villages of Harthill, Omoa-New-Town, Sallysburgh, and
Shotts-Iron-Works; and containing 3861 inhabitants, of
whom 751 are in the village of Shotts-Iron-Works, 5
miles (E. by S.) from Holytown. This place is generally
supposed to have derived its name from a famous robber
called Bartram de Shotts, who in ancient times signalized
himself by his depredations, and was eventually
killed near the site of the present church. The whole
of this extensive parish, except Blair-mucks and Murdostown,
belonged to the Hamilton family from the
year 13/8 to the year 1630, when the Marquess of
Hamilton disposed of the larger part of the barony.
Not far from the mansion of Murdostown stood the
abbey of St. Bertram; but no portion of this ancient
establishment is now to be seen. The parish, which was
formerly part of that of Bothwell, is nearly a parallelogram
in form, and is ten miles long and eight broad,
containing 25,434 acres. It is bounded on the north by
the North Calder, which separates it from East Monkland
and Torphichen; and on the south by the South
Calder, which divides it from the parish of Cambusnethan.
The surface is in general tolerably level, but in
the middle quarter it is diversified by elevations, among
which are the Hirst, the Tilling, and the Cant hills.
The climate is more than ordinarily salubrious, which induced
the celebrated Dr. CuUen, who commenced practice
iu the parish, to say, that Bertram- Shotts was the
Montpelier of Scotland. The rivers connected with the
district are the North and the South Calder, with a few
small burns not of sufficient importance to demand notice.
There is a loch called the Lily, iu which common trout
and an excellent species of red char are found.
The SOIL is for the most part clayey; on the banks
of the rivers a loamy soil prevails. Nearly two-thirds
of the land are arable; and the rest, with the exception
of a small proportion of wood and common, is unsheltered
moor, annually covered with the blossom of the
heather-bell. About 1000 acres are in wood, consisting
of Scotch fir, spruce, and larch, all of which thrive well;
formerly the Scotch fir was the only kind attended to.
The cows are in great repute for the superiority of the
stock, the improvement of which has been promoted by
the establishment of an agricultural society; and the
horses, which are of the Clydesdale breed, are famed for
their strength and symmetry. Every kind of farmingstock
has been greatly improved within the last thirty
or forty years; and much waste land has been reclaimed
by means of draining and digging, for which two prizes
were some time since awarded to two gentlemen in the
parish by the Highland Society of Scotland. The state
of the farm-houses is generally below that of buildings
of this class in parishes where agricultural improvement
has made much progress, but they are far better than
formerly, and are undergoing a gradual change, several
of them now being equal to almost any in Scotland.
The annual value of real property in the parish is
£19,910. The parish forms a portion of the great coalfield
of Lanarkshire, and its carboniferous and miueralogical
productions are extensive and various, the two
grand general divisions of its subterraneous contents
being the igneous and the sedimentary rocks. The
northern half of the land consists almost entirely of the
trap, or common greenstone; the other half is the coalbed,
which consists of the splint coal, the parrot or
cannel coal, the smithy coal, and the Shotts- Iron-Works
first and second coal. In some parts is a very fine iron-
stone, above the coal, and in others, a considerable
quantity of hmestone, lying at a great depth beneath the
coal, with a succession of 14" ditfereut strata between
them. There is an abundant supply of fire-clay of
various kinds in the carboniferous division of the parish,
lying over the coal, and large quantities of it are used
for making bricks for blast and air furnaces; one of the
strata has been wrought for a considerable period, and
is several feet in thickness, though the portion which is
worked, in the middle of the stratum, is not more than
about three feet deep.
The parish contains two iron-works, one of which, in
the south-eastern quarter, designated Shotts-Works, is
not only adapted for the smelting of iron-ore, for which
there are three furnaces, but has connected with it an
extensive foundry, and a large establishment where
steam-engines of a superior kind for both land and
water are constructed. At the other establishment,
called the Omoa Iron-Works, situated in the south-west
part of the parish, three furnaces are also in effective
operation. These works, which together employ about
1400 or 1500 persons, have contributed to a large increase
in the population; and by the circulation of several
hundreds of pounds weekly in the form of wages, great
changes and improvements have taken place in the
general appearance of the neighbourhood, particularly
through the formation of roads and the cultivation of
the land. Among the principal residences are, Murdostown
House, belonging to Sir T. Inghs Cochrane; Easter
Moffat, a handsome modem edifice in the Elizabethan
style; Shotts House; Craighead House, belonging to
D. C. R. C. Buchanan, Esq.; and Fortissat. Sub-postoffices
have been established at the villages of Sallysburgh
and Shotts-Works. There are annual fairs, chiefly
for the sale of horses and cattle, on the third Tuesday
in June and November (O. S.), both of ancient date,
being held by a warrant granted by James II. in 1685
to the Duke of Hamilton. The parish is intersected in
the centre by the south road from Edinburgh to Glasgow,
the most ancient road between those two cities.
For ecclesiastical purposes, Shotts is within the bounds
of the presbytery of Hamilton, synod of Glasgow and
Ayr. The patronage belongs to the Duke of Hamilton,
and the minister's stipend is £267. 11-, with a substantial
and commodious manse built in 1838, and a glebe
of nearly forty-four acres, in which are two seams of
coal. The church, the position of which is central,
occupies an elevated site; it was built in 1820, and has
1200 free sittings. There is a place of worship belonging
to the United Original Seceders. The parochial
school affords instruction in the classics, with the usual
branches of education; the master has a salary of £34.
4. 4., about £28 fees, and a house. Belonging to the
Shotts iron-works is also a school. Another, called
Murdostown school, has an endowment of £19 per
annum, assigned by Sir Thomas Inglis; Harthill school
was endowed by tlie late James Wilson, Esq., with £500,
and another is supported by Mrs. Robert Haldane.
There are two circulating libraries, in one of which, at
the Shotts works, the collection of books is very superior;
and the poor have the benefit of a bequest of
£500, left by Thomas Mitchell, a native of the place.
Gavin Hamilton, the historical painter; John Miller,
professor of law in the University of Glasgow, well known
to the literary world by several learned publications.
and who was buried at Blantyre, not far from Shotts;
and Dr. Matthew BaiUie, physician to George III., and
brother of Joanna BailUe the authoress, were all natives
of the parish. The Rev. James Baillie, father of Dr.
Matthew Baillie, was minister of Shotts.