GOVAN, a parish, which, regarded ecclesiastically,
is wholly in the Lower ward of the county of Lanark,
and Upper ward of the county of Renfrew; including
the village of Strathbungo, and the former quoad sacra
district of Partick; and containing 7810 inhabitants, of
whom 2474 are in the village of Govan, 2 miles (N. W.)
from Glasgow. The name of this parish is generally
supposed to have been derived from the two Saxon
words god and win, " good wine", applied on account of
the superior ale for which the place was celebrated, and
which, after being kept for several years, approached in
flavour to wine. Some, however, derive it from the
Gaelic word gamham, pronounced gavan, and signifying
"a ditch", used in reference to the river Clyde, which
runs through the parish, and which in ancient times was
a very narrow stream. The most remote historical information
relating to Govan is connected with the
removal of Constantine, King of Cornwall, into Scotland.
That prince is said to have come from Ireland, after resigning
his crown, among the followers of St. Columba,
in the year 565, and to have founded a monastery here,
of which he became the first abbot. He is supposed to
have been martyred by the inhabitants of Cantyre, who
thus resisted his attempts to convert them to Christianity,
and afterwards to have been buried in his own
monastery. Many of the estates of the parish were, in
early times, successively made over as gifts to the Church.
David I. gave the lands of Govan to the church of St.
Kentigern, otherwise called St. Mungo, at Glasgow; and
in 1136, when present at the consecration of the cathedral
of that city, he bestowed a part of the estate of
Partick, and subsequently another portion of the same
lands, on the see. These grants, with many others,
were confirmed by the bulls of several popes; and Bishop
John, who filled the episcopal chair for thirty-two years,
made Govan a prebend of Glasgow, the emoluments of
which were increased by Herbert, Chancellor of Scotland,
who presided as Bishop of Glasgow till 1 164. The lands
were consequently long held by tenants under the bishops
and archbishops; but at the Reformation, Walter, coramendator
of Blantyre, was commissioned to feu the
estates, that the tenants, becoming heritable possessors
of their several properties, might be encouraged to improve
them to the utmost. In 1595, the landholders
united in procuring a charter from James VI. to confirm
this privilege; and from that time the crown became
lessor. Afterwards, the college of Glasgow obtained
leases of the lands from the crown, and continued to
hold them for upwards of a century, to the year 1825,
when, in lieu of the leases, a grant was made to the
establishment of an annuity of £800, for fourteen years,
by George IV. The heritors still pay feu-duties to the
crown, as coming in place of the archbishops. But the
parish is not remarkable solely on account of its ecclesiastical
history: as containing the Muir of Govan, it
was in ancient times the scene of several important political
and military transactions. In 1559, the lords who
had confederated together in defence of the Protestant
religion, after the treaty between the queen regent and
the Protestants, at Leith, on July 24th, suspecting her
integrity, resolved to have a meeting with "their kin
and friends, upon Govan Muir, beside Glasgow-", for the
purpose of providing for exigencies. This meeting,
however, the queen regent, by the exercise of no common
address, contrived successfully to prevent. The
moor is famed for the defeat of Queen Mary's army after
her escape from Lochleven Castle.
The PARISH is about five miles long, and from two to
three miles broad. The lands of Haggs, Titwood, and
Shields belong to the county of Renfrew: the remainder
of Govan is bounded on the north by the parishes of
New Kilpatrick, Barony, and Glasgow; on the south
by Cathcart, Eastwood, and the Abbey parish of Paisley;
on the east by Barony, Gorbals, and Rutherglen; and
on the west by Renfrew parish. The surface is diversified
by gentle undulations and acclivities, the e.\tensive
and fertile plain in the centre of the parish being succeeded
on each side by gradually rising grounds; the
fields are defined by well-grown hedges, and the river
Clyde, and the numerous beautiful villas in different directions,
contribute to form an assemblage of very agreeable
and interesting scenery. The Clyde, after being joined by
the river Kelvin, runs through the centre of the parish,
and though not many years ago it was a shallow stream,
it is now a channel for ships of 700 tons' burthen, conveying
stores from every part of the world into the
harbour of Glasgow. In general the soil is of good
qualify, and produces fine crops of grain, as well as of
the best potatoes and turnips. The five years' rotation
is followed; and the ground is largely supplied with
manure from Glasgow, to which it is chiefly indebted
for its fertility: wheat and oats are the chief grain, and
are grown in considerable quantities. Many improvements
have been made, in former as well as more recent
times, in the agricultural character of the district; and
the celebrated moor, depicted in song as " the carpet of
purple heath", now consists of a number of well-inclosed
fields, bearing, year after year, as luxuriant crops as are
any where to be met with. Similar changes have been
effected in other parts, especially about Moss House and
Heathery Hall. At White- Incli, the low ground along
the north side of the Clyde has been lately enriched, and
elevated about ten feet, by soil obtained from the deepening
and widening of the river, in consequence of which
the worth of the land has been nearly doubled. The
annual value of real property in Govan is £30,0*0.
The SUBTERRANEOUS Contents of the parish are
chiefly coal, with the strata peculiar to that formation.
Several pits are regularly worked, in one of which, at
Bellahoustown, on the south of the river, a portion of
the layers consists of parrot or cannel coal, which sells
at a high price for the purpose of being converted into
gas. At Jordanhill and Cartnavel, about fifty fathoms
beneath the surface, are sixteen beds of coal, some of
them two feet thick, and part being, like the parrot coal,
of the finest quality for the gas manufacture. Above
the gas-coal, as well as at a lower depth, are numerous
seams of ironstone, which vary in thickness from five to
twelve inches, and are of excellent quality. The collieries
of Govan, forming part of the well-known Glasgow
coal-fields, have been long wTought; and it is
supposed that, beneath the seven principal seams now
open, lie others, which will afford a plentiful supply if
at any time those at present being worked should be
exhausted. The surface just above the coal is in general
composed of diluvial matter, containing rolled stones,
over which are deposits of sand, fine clay, and marine
shells. The roots of a number of fossil trees were discovered
a few years ago at Balgray, standing close to
each other in their natural position: two feet only of the
trunks were found attached to the roots.
The population of the parish, which has very considerably
increased of late years, from the growing prosperity
of Glasgow, is largely employed in the cotton and
iron manufactures, and a great number in mines and
quarries. In the village of Govan are 340 hand-loom
weavers; a dye-work employs 118 hands; and at a
small distance from the village is a factory for throwing
silk, erected in 1824, and which affords occupation
to about 250 persons. Near Port-Eglinton is a carpet
manufactory, established several years ago, in which
554 persons are engaged; and various large concerns
are actively carried on in different parts, occupied in
the cotton manufacture. In the neighbourhood of the
collieries are iron-works, containing several blast-furnaces,
which produce many hundred tons of pig-iron
annually; and near these is a bar-iron manufactory belonging
to the same proprietor, producing upwards of
400 tons weekl}'. Ship-building is carried on. There
is a fishery for salmon on the Clyde, the rent of which
was formerly £326; but it has fallen since 1812 to £60
per annum, in consequence, among other causes, of the
erection of the numerous manufactories on the banks of
the river. In the villages of Govan and Partick are
post-offices, which communicate with Glasgow twice a
day. Four great roads pass through the parish, one of
which runs from Glasgow to Paisley; another leads to
Kilmarnock and Ayr, a third to Port-Glasgow and
Greenock through Renfrew, and the fourth to the West
Highlands by the town of Dumbarton. The Glasgow
and Johnstone canal also intersects the parish, and a
branch of the Forth and Clyde canal touches its northern
boundary. A boat, capable of conveying horses and
carriages, plies upon the ferry that connects the two
parts of the parish at the village of Govan: steam-boats,
also, land and take in passengers here. The Pollock
and Govan railwayjoins the mineral fields on the southeast
of Glasgow with the city and the harbour, and the
Greenock and Ayr railroad runs for about three miles
through the parish of Govan.
For ECCLESIASTICAL purposes Govan is within the
bounds of the presbytery of Glasgow, synod of Glasgow
and Ayr. At the time of the Reformation, the temporal
immunities of the church came into the possession of
the college of Glasgow. The Regent Morton had offered
the benefice to his uncle, Andrew Melville, principal of
the college, on condition that he would not press his
views of ecclesiastical polity; but this compromise being
refused by Melville, the regent conveyed the temporalities
to the college, devolving upon the principal the
obligation of serving the cure; and since that time the
university has held the patronage. The stipend of the
minister is £315, with a good manse, standing near
the church, and a glebe of seven acres, valued at £25
per annum. Govan church, situated at the west end of
the village, and about 100 yards from the river Clyde,
was built in 1826, and is a plain structure containing
1096 sittings: the design of the tower and spire was
taken from the church of Stratford-upon-Avon, in England.
The churchyard is raised several feet above the
level of the adjacent ground, and is surrounded by a
double row of venerable elms. There are places of
worship belonging to the Free Church, the United Presbyterian
Church, and Roman Catholics. The parochial
school is situated in the village of Govan; the master
receives the maximum salary, with £1. 13. 4. from Glasgow
college, £1. 19- accruing from an ancient bequest
by George Hutcheson of Lambhill, one of the founders
of Hutcheson's Hospital, and £36 arising from a sum
of £200 left by Mr. Abraham Hill in I757. Mr. Hill
was educated in the school as a poor orphan, and his
gift was invested in ten acres of land, now producing
the above sum, for which ten children are taught gratuitously.
The master has also £18 fees, a good house,
and an allowance in lieu of a garden. An infants' school
was instituted at Partick, in 1837, on a very extensive
scale 3 and other schools are supported in different parts
of the parish. There is a good parochial library, under
the management of the trustees of Mrs. Thom, its
founder, and containing above 600 volumes; also a
savings' bank, and several friendly societies. As already
observed, the parish of Govan, ecclesiastically, is situated
entirely in the Lower ward of Lanarkshire, and Upper
ward of Renfrewshire, and contains only 7810 inhabitants.
In a civil point of view, it is more extensive, and
includes part of the suburbs of the city of Glasgow; thus
regarded, it includes a suburban district attached quoad
sacra to the parish of Gorbals, and altogether contains a
population of more than 45,000.
The ruins of the once celebrated Hospital of Polmadie
were, at the close of the last century, among the most
interesting antiquities in the neighbourhood of Glasgow.
This hospital was built at a very remote period, for the
reception of persons of both sexes to be maintained for
life; and was dedicated to St. John. The church and
temporalities of Strathblane were early annexed to it,
with part of the lands of Little Govan; and these possessions,
with many important privileges, were confirmed
to the establishment by Alexander HL, Robert Bruce,
and several others. In the year 1427, Bishop Cameron,
with the consent of the chapter, erected the hospital,
and the church of Strathblane, into a prebend, with a
provision that the person collated to the office should
support a vicar in the parish of Strathblane, and pay
four choristers to sing in the cathedral. St. Ninian's
Hospital, founded by Lady Lochow, in the fourteenth
century, for the reception of persons afflicted with
leprosy, occupied a piece of ground called St. Ninian's
croft, where part of Hutchesontown (ecclesiastically in
the parish of Gorbals) at present stands; and close to
its site a number of human bones were not long since
found, pointing out the locality as is supposed of the
lepers' churchyard. On the south of the Clyde, opposite
the ferry- house, is an ancient circular hill, thought
to have been the sepulchre of some celebrated hero; and
in another part of the parish is the picturesque ruin of
Hagg's Castle, built in 1585, by an ancestor of Sir John
Maxwell of Pollock. See Gorbals, Hutchesontown,
&c.