KIRKINTILLOCH, a parish and burgh of barony,
in the county of Dumbarton, 7 miles (N. E. by N.)
from Glasgow, and 40 (W.) from Edinburgh; containing
8880 inhabitants, of whom 6698 are in the burgh. This
place, during the time of the Romans, formed part of
the province of Valentia; and vestiges of three forts on
the line of the Roman wall, which passed through the
whole length of the parish, may be still distinctly traced.
The barony was granted by charter of William the Lion
to William Cumyn, lord of Lenzie and Cumbernauld;
and the town, under the appellation of Wester Lenzie,
was, by charter of the same monarch, erected into a
burgh of barony in 1184. The ancient castle of the
Cumyns, of which no vestiges are now remaining, appears
to have been of great strength in the beginning of
the fourteenth century, when, on the forfeiture of John
Cumyn, it was bestowed together with the barony, by
Robert Bruce, upon Sir Robert de Fleming, in reward
of his eminent services during the struggles in which
Bruce had been engaged with England, in asserting his
right of succession to the Scottish throne. The present
name of the town, Kirkintilloch, supposed to be a corruption
of Caer-pen-tulach, signifying in the Gaelic language
" the termination of a promontory," is minutely
descriptive of the situation of the place at the extremity
of a ridge extending from the south of the parish into a
plain on the banks of the river Kelvin. In 174.5, the
Highland army of the Pretender passed through the
town, upon which occasion a shot from a barn killed one
of their men, and the inhabitants, being unable to deliver
the offender into their custody, were subjected to
a heavy fine. The people suffered severely from the
Asiatic cholera, in 1832, when thirty-six fatal cases occurred;
this was the first place visited by that epidemic
in the west of Scotland, and the alarm which it occasioned
was great. Since that time no event of importance
has taken place.
The TOWN is situated on the banks of the river Luggie,
near its influx into the Kelvin, and consists of numerous
irregularly- formed streets, diverging from each other in
various directions j the houses are of indifferent appear-
ance, and built without any regard to uniformity. The
streets are lighted with gas from works established by a
company of shareholders, and the inhabitants are amply
supplied with water. A public library is supported by
subscription, forming a collection of useful volumes;
and there are other libraries in the parish. The environs
abound with pleasing scenery, enlivened by gentlemen's
seats, the grounds of which are enriched with thriving
plantations. From the abundance of coal and ironstone
in the immediate vicinity, and the facilities of water
carriage, the place has become a seat of manufacture,
and has greatly increased in population. The cottonmanufacture
is pursued to a very considerable extent,
chiefly for exportation to India; the articles are floweredmuslins,
gauzes, and similar fabrics, the production of
which affords occupation to about 2000 hand-loom
weavers, most of them resident in the town. The
printing of calico is also carried on, giving employment
to 120 persons j about twenty persons are engaged in
the manufacture of silk hats, and there are an ironfoundry
and a distillery. The market is on Saturday,
but is not numerously attended: fairs, chiefly for cattle,
are held on the second Tuesday in May, the last Thursday
in July, and the 21st of October. Facility of communication
is afforded by the turnpike-road from Glasgow
to Edinburgh, which passes through the town, and
by numerous good roads that intersect the parish in
various directions; by the Forth and Clyde canal, which
runs for several miles along the northern border of the
parish; by the Edinburgh and Glasgow railway, which
passes through the southern part of the parish, and has
a branch through the town to Campsie; and also by
the Monkland and Kirkintilloch railway, which has its
northern terminus in the town, and connects the rich
coal districts in the parishes of Old and New Monkland
with the Forth and Clyde canal. The charter of William
the Lion was confirmed by Malcolm Fleming, who in
1525 granted to the burgesses the lands of the burgh; a
gift ratified by his successors the Earls of Wigtown.
The government is vested in two bailies, a treasurer, and
twelve councillors, assisted by a town-clerk. These officers
are annually elected by the burgesses, twenty-two in
number, who derive their qualification from the feudal
tenure of one of the tsventy-two portions, called Newland
Mailings, into which the rural district of the burgh
is divided: the tenure of the lands whereon the town
is built affords no right to vote in the election of the
officers. The magistrates are invested with all the jurisdiction
of royal burghs, which in civil cases they exercise
to an unlimited amount, but in criminal cases only as to
petty offences; the town-clerk acts as assessor, and
courts are held as occasion may require. The courthouse,
to which a prison is attached, is a substantial
building with a spire; it is situated at the market-cross,
and was erected in 1814.
This parish and that of Cumbernauld were originally
one, under the appellation of Lenzie, and continued as
such till 1659, when, a church being built for the accommodation
of the eastern portion at Cumbernauld, the
ancient chapel of the Virgin Mary became the church
of the western portion, which constitutes the present
parish of Kirkintilloch. The parish is bounded on the
north by the river Kelvin, and is nearly six miles in
length, and about three miles and a half in extreme
breadth, comprising an area of 10,670 acres, of which
4000 are arable, 300 woodland and plantations, and the
remainder meadow, pasture, and waste. Its surface,
though undulated, is no where broken into hills of precipitous
elevation. The principal river is the Kelvin:
its tributary, the Luggie, nitersects the southern portion
of the lands, and atterwards flows into the Kelvin on
the north-west of the town: both these streams abound
with trout. At Gart.shore is a lake called the Bord
loch, about four acres in extent. Around the town
the soil is a light black loam of considerable depth; in
the southern portion of the parish, a strong clay: other
parts are peat-moss. The crops consist of wheat, barley,
oats, peas, beans, potatoes, and turnips, and there is
much land cultivated as gardens and orchards: the
system of husbandry is improved; the lands have been
partly drained and inclosed, and some large tracts of
moss and waste have been reclaimed. Considerable
numbers of cattle are reared in the pastures, of various
breeds; on the dairy-farms the cows are all of the Ayrshire.
The plantations, which are principally on the
Gartshore estate, are for the most part larch, spruce and
Scotch firs. In this parish the substrata are chiefly coal,
limestone, and ironstone. Coal is wrought extensively
on the Barr hill, the property of Mr. Gartshore, at Stron,
and at Shirva; and limestone at Orchardstown: whinstone
and greenstone, also, are quarried for the roads.
The annual value of real property in the parish is
£18,071. The mansion-houses are, Gartshore, for many
centuries the seat of the ancient family of Gartshore;
Oxgang, Shirva, Unthank, Garngaber, Broomhill, Bellefield,
Woodhead, Luggiebank, Duntiblae, Merkland, and
Meiklehill.
For ECCLESIASTICAL purposes the parish is within the
limits of the presbytery of Glasgow, synod of Glasgow
and Ayr. The minister's stipend is about £250, with a
manse, and a glebe valued at £20 per annum; patron,
J. Fleming, Esq. The parish church, formerly the chapel
of .St. Mary, was erected in 1644, and, though repaired
within the last few years, is still inconvenient; it contains
sittings for 800 persons. St. David's church, to
which a district containing a population of 3414 was for
a time annexed as a quoad sacra parish, was erected
in 1837, at an expense of £2300, raised by subscription;
it is a neat substantial structure with about 1000 sittings.
The minister, who was appointed by the managers and
subscribers, derived his stipend chiefly from the seatrents.
There are places of worship for members of the
Free Church, the United Presbyterian Church, the Synod
of United Original Seceders, and Wcsleyans. The parochial
school is attended by about 120 children; the
master has a salary of £34, with an allowance of £8 in
lieu of house and garden, and the fees average £30 per
annum. There are also a subscription school, and
another for which a handsome building was erected by
a lady of the Gartshore family; the masters receive
salaries of £12 and £4 respectively, in addition to the
fees. The wall ofAntonine may be traced for nearly
six miles through the parish. The three Roman forts
already noticed were at Barr hill, Auchendavie, and
near the west end of the town, respectively. On clearing
the ground near them were found stones with various
inscriptioHH, on one of which was inscribed Li'f^io Scciaida
Auguslii J'uit; and a wedge of lead was discovered, weighing
eleven stone, on which is stamped, in Roman characters,
the date " C.C.L.XX ".