BIGGAR, a parish and market-town, in the Upper
ward of the county of Lanark, V2 miles (S. E.) from
Lanark, and on the road from Dumfries to the city of
Edinburgh; containing 1865 inhabitants, of whom 1395
are in the town. The original name of this place, as it
occurs in several ancient charters, is generally written
Biger or Bigrn. It is supposed to have been derived
from the nature of the ground on which the castle of
the Biggar family was situated (in the centre of a soft
morass), and to have been thence applied to the whole
of the parish. From the same circumstance, the castle
assumed the name of Boghall. The manor was granted
by David I. to Baldwin, a Flemish leader, whose descendants
still retain the surname of Fleming; they
appear to claim a remote antiquity, and the name of
Baldwin de Biger appears in testimony to a charter,
prior to the year 1160. Some accounts, chiefly traditional,
are still retained of a battle fought at this place
between the English forces under Edward I., and the
Scots commanded byAVallace, in which the former were
defeated; and though not authenticated by any historian
of acknowledged authority, the probability of the
event is partly strengthened bj' the frequent discovery of
broken armour in a field near the town; by the name of
a rivulet called the Red Syke, running through the supposed
field of battle, and so named from the slaughter of
the day; and by the evident remains of an encampment
in the immediate neighbourhood. On this occasion,*
Wallace is said to have gained admission into the
enemy's camp disguised as a dealer in provisions, and,
after having ascertained their numbers and order, to
have been pursued in his retreat to the bridge over
the Biggar water, when, turning on his pursuers, he put
the most forward of them to death, and made his escape
to his armj', who were encamped on the heights of
Tinto. A wooden bridge over the Biggar is still called
the "Cadger's Brig"; and on the north side of Bizzyberry
are a hollow in a rock, and a spring, which are
called respectively Wallace's Seat and Well. The Scottish
array under Sir Simon Fraser is said to have rendezvoused
here, the night previous to the victory of
Roslin, in 1302; and Edward II., on his invasion of
Scotland, in 1310, spent the first week of October at this
place, while attempting to pass through Selkirk to Renfrew.
In 1651, after Cromwell's victory at Perth, the
Scottish army, passing by Biggar, at that time garrisoned
by the English, summoned the place to surrender;
and in 1715, Lockhart of Carnwath, the younger, raised
a troop for the service of the Pretender, which, after remaining
for some time here, marched to Dumfries, and
joined the forces under Lord Kenmure.
The TOWN is finely situated on the Biggar water, by
which it is divided into two very unequal parts, the
smaller forming a beautiful and picturesque suburb,
communicating with the town by a neat bridge. The
houses in this suburb are built on the sloping declivities,
and on the brow, of the right bank of the rivulet, and
have hanging gardens extending to the water's edge;
the opposite bank is crowned with venerable trees.
Biggar consists of one wide street, regularly built, and
from its situation on rising ground, commands an extensive
and varied view; most of the houses are of respectable
appearance, and within the last few years several new and
handsome houses have been erected. There is a scientific
institution, founded in the year 1S39, and having a
library of 220 volumes, mostly of works on science:
the members meet during winter once a month, when a
popular lecture on science is dehvered, and a discussion
ensues. A public library was established in I79I, which
contains about SOO volumes. Another was opened in
1800, which has a collection of more than 500; and a
third, exclusively a theological library, was founded in
ISO7, and has about 7OO volumes. Attached to the
parish school is a fourth library, instituted in 1828,
and now containing 500 volumes. A public newsroom
was opened in 1S2S; but it met with little support, and
was consequently discontinued.
The trade consists chiefly in the sale of merchandise
for the supply of the parish and surrounding district,
and in the weaving of cloth, in which latter about 200
of the inhabitants are employed. A branch of the Commercial
Bank was established in 1833, and a building
erected for its use, which adds much to the appearance
of the town; and a branch of the Western Bank of
Scotland has since been established. A savings' bank
was opened in 1832, for the accommodation of the
agricultural labourers and others; there are about
460 depositors, and the amount of deposits is about
£3500. The market is on Thursday. Fairs are held at
Candlemas, for hiring servants; at Midsummer, for the
sale of wool; and on the last Thursday in October
(O. S.), for horses and black-cattle; all of which are
numerously attended. An act of parliament was passed
in 1847, authorizing the construction of a branch railway
from the great Caledonian line at Symington to
Biggar and Broughton. The inhabitants, in 1451, received
from James II. a charter erecting the town into
a free burgh of barony, and granting a weekly market
and other privileges, which grants were renewed at intervals
down to the year 1 662.
The PARISH, which borders on the county of Peebles,
is about six miles and a half in length, and varies very
greatly in breadth, being of triangular form, and comprising
about 7370 acres, chiefly pasture land. Its surface
is generally hilly, though comprising a considerable
proportion of level ground, particularly towards the
south, where is a plain of large extent; the hills are of
little height, and the acclivities, being gentle, afford excellent
pasture. The principal stream is the Biggar
water, which rises on the north side of the parish, and
after a course of nearly two miles, intersects the town,
and flows along a fine open vale, to the river Tweed;
the Candy burn rises in the north-east portion of the
parish, which it separates from the county of Peebles,
and falls after a course of three miles into the Biggar
water. The scenery is considerably diversified; and the
approach to the town by the Carnwath road presents to
the view a combination of picturesque features. In this
BIGG BIRD
parish the soil is various: above 1000 acres are of a
clayey nature, on a substratum of clay or gravel; between
2000 and 3000 are a light black loam, resting
upon whinstone, and the remainder sandy, and black
loam inclining to peat-moss. The system of agriculture is
greatly improved, and green crops have been introduced
with success; the chief produce in grain consists of oats:
much attention is paid to the management of the dairy,
and to the improvement of live stock. The cattle are
mostly a cross between the native and the Ayrshire
breed, which latter is every day becoming more predominant;
many sheep are pastured on the hills and
acclivities, and the principal stock regularly reared are
of the old Tweeddale breed. Great progress has been
made in draining and inclosing the lands. Two mills
for oats and barley have been erected, and there are not
less than twenty-five threshing-machines, one of which,
constructed by Mr. Watts, has the water-wheel fifty feet
below the level of the barn, and 120 feet distant from
it, the power being communicated to the machinery by
shafts acting on an inclined plane. The annual value
of real property in the parish is £7329. About 950
acres are in plantations, chiefly Scotch fir, in the
management of which much improvement has been
made by the introduction of a new method of pruning;
and on the several farmsteads are numerous fine specimens
of hard-wood trees, which are better adapted to
the soil, and are consequently growing gradually into
use in the more recent plantations. Of these, the ash
and elm seem to thrive best; and the beech and the plane
also answer well. Among the various mansions arc,
Edmonston, a castellated structure, pleasingly situated
in a secluded vale near the east end of the parish; Biggar
Park and Cambus-Wallace, both handsome residences
in the immediate vicinity of the town; and Carwood,
a spacious mansion, lately erected, surrounded by
young and thriving plantations.
The origin of the parish is rather obscure; but it
appears that a chaplaincy was founded here in expiation
of the murder of John, Lord Fleming, chamberlain
of Scotland, who was assassinated in 1524 by John
Tweedie of Drummelzier, his son, and other accomplices.
For this purpose, an assythment in lands was
given to Malcolm, Lord Fleming, son of the murdered
lord, with £10 per annum granted in mortmain, for the
support of a chaplain, to pray and sing mass for the
soul of the deceased in the parish church of Biggar,
which Malcolm in 1545 made collegiate, and endowed
for a provost, eight canons and prebendaries, and four
choristers, with six aged poor men. On this occasion,
the church of Thankertoun, which had previously been
bestowed on the abbey of Kelso by one of his predecessors,
was given up to Malcolm by the monks, and
annexed to the collegiate church. The parish is now
in the presbytery of Biggar, synod of Lothian and
Tweeddale, and in the patronage of the family of Fleming;
the minister's stipend is £263. 4. 7., with a
manse, and a glebe valued at £30 per annum. Biggar
church, erected in 1545, was formerly an elegant and
venerable cruciform structure in the later English style,
with a tower which was not finished, as the Reformation
occurred while the building was in progress.
This structure, though complete in every other respect,
and uninjured by time, has been dreadfully mutilated.
The western porch, the vestry communicating with the
chancel, and having a richly groined roof, the buttresses
that supported the north wall of the nave, and the
arched gateway leading into the churchyard, though
perfectly entire, and beautiful specimens of architecture,
were all taken down about fifty or sixty years since, and
the materials sold for £7, to defray some parochial expenses.
At the same time, the interior of the church
underwent a similar lamentable devastation; the organgallery
was removed, and the richly-groined roof of the
chancel, which was embellished with gilt tracery, was
destroyed, and replaced with lath and plaster, seemingly
for no better reason than to make it correspond with
the roofs of the aisles and nave. Latterly, the church
has received an addition of 120 sittings, by the erection
of a gallery; it has been also newly-seated, and affords
considerable accommodation. There are places of worship
for the United Presbyterian Synod and United
Original Seceders. The parochial school affords education
to about ISO scholars; the master has a salary of
£34. 4. 4. per annum, about £75 fees, and a house and
garden.
At the western extremity of the town is a large
mound, more than 300 feet in circumference at the base,
150 feet on the summit, and thirty- six feet in height,
supposed to have been in ancient times a seat for the
administration of justice; it appears to have been also
used as a beacon, and to have formed one of a chain
extending across the vale between the Clyde and the
Tweed. There are several remains of encampments, one
of which, about half a mile from the town, is 180 feet
in circumference, defended by a deep moat and double
rampart; and near Candy bank is another, of oval
form. On the banks of Oldshields are some Druidical
remains consisting of four upright stones, near which
arrow-heads of flint have been found; and on the lands
of Carwood, two Roman vessels of bronze were discovered
in a moss: one, having a handle and three
legs, holds about two quarts, and the other, less elegant
in form, about eight quarts. The venerable remains of
the castle of Boghall, which gave so great an interest to
the scenery of the beautiful vale in which they were
situated, have been almost demolished, for the sake of
the stone; and little more is left than a small angular
tower, serving to mark the site. The late Dr. A. Brown,
Professor of Rhetoric in the University of Edinburgh,
and Robert Forsyth, Esq., an eminent advocate, were
natives of the parish; and many of the landed proprietors
have been eminently distinguished in the annals of their
country.