PAISLEY, a burgh and market-town and ancient parish,
in the Upper ward of the county of Renfrew, of which
it is the principal place, and the seat of a wide manufacturing
district, 7 miles (W. by S.) from Glasgow, and 50
(W. by S.) from Edinburgh; containing 60,487 inhabitants,
of whom 48,426 are in the burgh and suburbs; 5626
in the village of Johnstone; 1086 in that of Eldershe;
1504 in the villages of Nitshill,
Hurlet, Crossmill, and Dovecothall; 775 in those
of Thorn, Overton, and Quarrelton; and 3070 in the
rural districts of the parish. This place, the name of
which is of very uncertain derivation, is by most antiquaries
identified with the Fanduaria of Ptolemy; and
of its having been a Roman station of considerable importance,
there is positive evidence in the traces of a
spacious and strongly- fortified camp, which, from the
vestiges yet remaining, appears to have comprehended
the site of the present town, and, in connexion with its
several out-posts, to have extended to the river Cart.
It occupied a commanding situation, comprising within
its intrenchraents the hill called Oakshaw Head, on
whose acclivity the praetorium was seated, overlooking
the surrounding country. Of the triple intrenchraents
by which it was defended, there are still left portions of
the ramparts, of lofty elevation and of great breadth;
and parts of the ancient Roman road from Carlisle to
Paisley are also distinctly to be traced in the immediate
vicinity. The original town seems to have been indebted
for its rise to the foundation, by Walter, progenitor
of the royal race of the Stuarts, of a monastery
for a prior and thirteen brethren of the Cluniac order,
brought from the abbey of Wenlock, in the county of
Salop, in 1163, by the founder, who was a native of that
place. This monastery was built upon the eastern bank
of the Cart, on the opposite side of which soon afterwards
arose a village, consisting chiefly of conventual buildings,
and dwelling-houses for various persons connected with
the religious community, or attracted to the spot by the
vicinity of a rich and prosperous establishment. The
monastery was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, St. James,
and St. Mirin or Mirren; and continued to flourish as
originally founded till the year 1'2'20, when it was raised
to the rank of a mitred abbey by Pope Honorius III.
In addition to its ample endowment by the founder and
his descendants, it received numerous munificent donations
from different families of distinction; and thus
became one of the wealthiest institutions in the country.
Its lands were erected into a royalty, under the jurisdiction
of the abbots, who obtained from succeeding sovereigns
many valuable privileges; and it continued to
increase in importance until 1307, when it was burnt by
the English army under Aymer de Valence.
The Abbey was soon afterwards rebuilt, on a more
extensive scale, and in a style of great magnificence.
The church, a stately cruciform structure, was completed
by Abbot Tarvas in 14.59, and, with the conventual
buildings, and immediately adjacent lands forming the
Abbey park, was inclosed by a lofty wall of hewn stone,
more than a mile in circumference, by Abbot Schaw, in
1485. Thus, constantly augmenting in wealth, the
monastery flourished till the Dissolution, when its revenues
were estimated at £2468 in money, exclusively of
155 chalders of grain; and not less than twenty-nine
parish churches were dependent upon it at the time.
After the Reformation, the site of the Abbey and conventual
buildings, with all its lands and possessions,
was erected into a temporal seigniory by the king and
parliament, in favour of Claude Hamilton, third son of
the Duke of Chatelherault, who was created Lord Paisley
in 1587. The lordship remained in his family till the
year 1652, when it was purchased from his descendant,
the Earl of Abercorn, by the Earl of Angus, who sold
the greater portion of the lands to William Cochrane,
first Earl of Dundonald, and the remainder to various
other proprietors, with whom they continued till the
year 1764, when the lordship was repurchased by James,
Earl of Abercorn. It is now the property of his descendant,
the Marquess of Abercorn. The Abbey was successively
the residence of the Lords Paisley and the Earls
of AbiTcorn and of Dundonuld; but after the demolition
of part of tiie buildings by the Earl of Dundonald, and
the appropriation of the adjacent lands to the different
purchasers, it ceased to be any longer a baronial residence,
and was let in separate tenements. The fine
massive wall by which the whole demesne was surrounded,
was, with the exception of a very small portion
still remaining, entirely removed; and the Abbey park
is now the site of the New Town of Paisley, a considerable
part of which was erected with materials obtained
from the ruins of the venerable and truly magnificent Abbey.
In the year 1597, the consort of James VI. paid a
visit to the Earl of Abercorn in his baronial residence
called the Place of Paisley, while the ancient Abbey was
still the seat of that nobleman; and in 1617 the monarch
himself, on revisiting his native country, was received in
the great hall, when an address in the name of the community
of the town and neighbourhood was delivered in
his presence by a youth of nine years of age, the son of
Sir James Semple, at that time sheriff of the county,
lu the rebellions of 1715 and 1745, the inhabitants of
Paisley maintained a firm adherence to their sovereign.
On the former occasion, anticipating an attempt of the
Pretender to land upon the coast, they appointed a nightly
guard of twenty men to patrol the town, and themselves
remained under arms, ready at a moment's notice to
repel any assault that might be made. In 1745, the
troops of the Young Pretender having entered Glasgow
to levy contributions from the citizens, the inhabitants
of this town prepared themselves for a similar visit.
They concluded arrangements for treating with the assailants,
whom they were not sufficiently strong to withstand
by force; and the magistrates, having been summoned
to appear before the secretary of the Young
Pretender, procured exemption from molestation by
submitting to an imposition of £500. In 1S22, when
George IV. visited Scotland, the authorities of the burgh
waited upon His Majesty with an address of congratulation,
and an invitation to Paisley, in the Abbey of which
many of his royal predecessors had been interred.
The TOWN is pleasantly situated on the banks of the
White Cart, by which it is divided into two portions
called respectively the Old and the New Town, the former
on the west, and the latter on the eastern, bank of
that river. It consists principally of two streets intersecting
each other at right angles; one of them, nearly
two miles in length, forms part of the road from Glasgow
to Beith and the Ayrshire coast, and the other is part
of the road from Inchinnan to Neilston. These two
lines are crossed in various directions by numerous
spacious and well-built streets, of which George-street
and Forbes-street contain many very handsome houses.
Of late years, the appearance of the town has been much
improved by the removal of numbers of the older houses,
and the erection of others of more modern style; and
among the most recent additions, Garthland Place, at
the eastern entrance to Paisley, is distinguished as a
most elegant range of building. The environs are pleasing,
and several of the adjacent villages are seen with
peculiar effect in the general landscape of the jdace.
The streets are lighted with gas by a company incorporated
in 1823, who embarked a capital of £16,000, and
erected very extensive works for the supply of the
neighbourhood. In 1844, an act for a second company
was passed; but a compromise took place between the
two bodies, and a new act for lighting the town was
passed in 1845. Until lately the inhabitants were but
indifferently furnished with water from the river, and
from public and private wells. A company therefore
was formed in 1825, and an act of parliament obtained
for the supply of the town. After a sufhcient capital
had been subscribed, this project was abandoned, from
the objections of some proprietors of land; but a new
company, for bringing water from the GleniiTer hills,
was formed in 1835, and a capital of £40,000 subscribed.
An act was procured for carrying this plan into operation;
and two very capacious reservoirs, covering nearly
100 acres, and having an average depth of almost forty
feet, have been constructed, furnishing an abundant
supply of pure water for the use of the inhabitants, and
of the different works carried on in the vicinity.
There is a public library, supported by subscription
of about 200 proprietary shareholders; it comprises
more than 4500 volumes in the various departments of
literature. In the town is also a library containing
several thousand volumes, maintained by subscription
of the operative classes. A library connected with the
Faculty of Procurators forms a large collection of the most
approved law books; and a medical library is attached
to the House of Recovery, under the management of the
Medical Society. One newspaper is published weekly.
The Philosophical Institution was established in 1808,
for promoting the study of natural philosophy, general
literature, and science, by the delivery of single lectures
by the members gratuitously, and occasionally courses
of lectures by eminent professors: connected with it
are a library of above 500 volumes, and a museum containing
a very valuable collection of minerals and natural
curiosities. An agricultural society was founded
here in 1819, for the advance of improvements in husbandry
by the distribution of prizes; the meetings are
held annually, when a show of cattle and some ploughing-
matches take place. There are likewise two horticultural
societies, one established in 1782, and the other
in 1832; both are well supported, and they have tended
greatly to improvement in the management of gardens,
and the raising of flowers and vegetables. To the east
of the town, in the suburb of Williamsburgh, some
commodious barracks have been erected within the last
thirty or forty years; they are pleasantly situated, and
adapted to the reception of half a regiment of infantry.
In the immediate vicinity of Paisley are also some very
pleasant gardens called Hope Temple, comprising several
acres of ground tastefully laid out, and forming an interesting place of resort.
The almost unequalled increase in the extent and
population of Paisley, which at one time consisted of a
single street, and contained scarcely 2000 inhabitants,
is to be attributed to the introduction of the manufac-
TCRKS of which it is the seat, and for which its situation
a few miles from the river Clyde, affording great facility
of communication, renders it peculiarly favourable.
Not long after the union of the two kingdoms, when a
free trade was opened, the few articles manufactured
here, principally coarse checked linens and Bengals, were
purchased by pedlers from England, who, selling them
among their friends at home to advantage, regularly frequented
this town as the principal mart, and, after acquiring
some little property as itinerant merchants, took
up their abode in Paisley, and became factors for supplying
their correspondents in the south. The impetus
thus given to the manufactures soon excited the attention
of the Glasgow merchants, who bought large quantities,
which they sent to London and to foreign markets.
The manufacture of checked linen handkerchiefs, of
different colours tastefully blended, was soon added to
the articles previously made; and to these succeeded
various fabrics of lighter texture, consisting cliiefly of
plain and figured lawns, and a new sort of sewing-thread,
known by the appellation of ounce or nuns' thread, to
distinguish it from other kinds manufactured at Aberdeen
and Dundee. The manufacture of silk gauze, in
imitation of that of Spitalfields, London, was introduced
here about the year 1760, and was carried on with such
success, and in such a variety of elegant patterns, as
totally to supersede the making of that article by the
London weavers. It soon became the staple manufacture
of the place, and several companies from London
settled in the town for the purpose of conducting it on
a more extensive scale; the manufacture furnished employment
to numbers of persons in the surrounding district
for almost twenty miles, and the manufacturers
had agents for the sale of the article in London, Dublin,
Paris, and other parts of the continent. This manufacture,
however, after a period of unexampled success for
nearly thirty years, dechned with the change of fashion,
and was almost immediately succeeded by that of muslin,
which was carried on by the same parties with much
spirit and perseverance, and soon rose to a great degree
of prosperity. The working of muslins with embroidery
shortly followed; it was pursued with only tolerable
success for some time, but has been rapidly increasing
within the last twenty or thirty years, and now gives
employment to thousands of females in a widely-extended
manufacturing district. The value of the silk and linen
gauze, and white sewing-thread, manufactured here in the
year 1/84, was estimated at £579,185; and about 1790,
the aggregate amount of all the goods of every kind manufactured
annually was computed at £660,385. The
number of persons employed in 1784 in the gauze and
thread works was 27,484. From the reports of the Board
of Trustees for the encouragement of manufactures, it appears
that the linen trade had in 1 7 84 reached its greatest
height; the number of looms that year was 2000, and
nearly 2,000,000 of yards were stamped. About 5000
looms were then, according to the same authority, employed
in the silk gauze manufacture, and the quantity
produced was estimated at £350,000.
At the beginning of the present century, the manufacture
of shawls in imitation of those of India was attempted,
at first only with comparatively moderate success;
but by the perseverance and ingenuity of the persons
who embarked in it, the manufacture at length succeeded
even beyond expectation, and shawls of soft and
spun silk, and of cotton, were produced of admirable
quality. Imitations, also, of the scarfs and turbans worn
by the eastern nations were made, and exported in great
quantities to the islands in the Archipelago and to Turkey;
and the same style of work was introduced in
several varieties for ladies' dresses. This trade flourished
for some time, affording employment to great numbers
of persons; and is still carried on to a considerable extent.
A more perfect imitation of the Indian shawl was
eventually obtained, by mixing fine wool and silk in the
production of what was called Persian yarn; and a still
nearer approximation was made by the introduction of
the fabric called Thibet, originally manufactured in
Yorkshire, but afterwards adopted with improvements
by the weavers of this place. The manufacture was at
length brought to its present state of perfection by the
use of cashmere wool from the east: this had been imported
for some time by the French; and by obtaining
yarn from France, the Paisley manufacturer produced an
article of most beautiful quality. The manufacture of
crape for dresses, and of embroidered crape and damask
shawls resembling those of China, was introduced here
about the year ISSS, and largely carried on, affording
lucrative employment to numbers of females, whose ingenuity
and skill produced specimens in many instances
equal to those imported from Canton: this manufacture
is still pursued, though less extensively than formerly.
At present the shawls chiefly made are of three kinds;
either entirely of silk, a mixture of silk and cotton, or
wholly of cotton. The trade in them has been rapidly
increasing, and the value of the quantities produced in a
late j'ear was estimated at nearly £1,000,000. Cheneille
shawls were introduced into the town by Mr. Buchanan,
afterwards of Glasgow, and are made on a very extensive
scale: these shawls, of velvet on silk, from their extreme
softness and the variety of their colours, are in great estimation.
The thread manufacture, in which cotton has
been lately used in the place of linen, affords employment
to many persons, and the quantity annually made is estimated
in value at £100,000. The total number of looms
in the town is more than 6000; there are 2000 in the villages;
and in the surrounding districts, great numbers of
persons are employed by the Glasgow houses. The weaving
of tartan has of late been carried on to a considerable
extent, and a factory has also been erected by Mr. Ker
for weaving by the jacquard machines. Machinery of
every kind, and on the most improved principles, is used
in the factories; and for facilitating the operations, and
bringing to greater perfection the articles made, numerous
ingenious contrivances have been suggested, and
successfully applied, both by the masters and the workmen.
The printing of silks and muslins is carried on to a
limited extent. The cotton manufacture, which was
first attempted at Dovecothall, is also pursued, and on a
considerable scale: there are at present three factories in
the town, two of which arc very extensive; and sixteen
in the rising town of Johnstone and the village of Elderslie.
An iron-foundry on a large scale has been established
more than fifty years; and connected with it are
works for the manufacture of steam-engines and all
kinds of machinery. There arc also a manufactory for
gasometers, anil iron-boats for canal navigation; three
large brass-foundries in the town; two iron-foundries
and one brass-foundry in the village of Johnstone; and
five manufactories for machinery connected with the
factories of the district. The fastest steamers on the
Clyde have of late been built here by Messrs. Bar and
Mc Nab. A very extensive tannery is conducted with
success. There are three breweries, two of which are
extensive; three distilleries; a large soap-manufactory;
and seven bleachfields, to most of which capacious reservoirs
have been attached by the company for supplying
Paisley with water. Two banks have been established
in the town, in which are also branch banks connected
with Edinburgh and Glasgow, and numerous
offices for fire and life insurance: the post-office has
several deliveries daily; and the annual revenue, before
the adoption of the system of the penny-postage, amounted
to £3'200. The market, which is amply supplied, is
weekly, on Thursday. There are four annual fairs, for
three oays each, respectively commencing on the third
Thursday in February, the third Thursday in May, the
third Thursday in August, and the second Thursday in
November. At the August fair are held the Paisley
races, which have been long established, and attract a
numerous assemblage of visiters. A fair is also held at
Johnstone, in July, for cattle; and a horse-fair is held in December.
The town has great facility of intercourse with Glasgow,
and with all other parts of the country, by excellent
roads and bridges, of which latter, one of ancient structure,
across the Cart, connects the Old and New Towns;
while two others, over the same river, afford communication
between the Abbey and town parishes. One of
these, called, from its situation near the Seedhill Craigs,
the Seedhill bridge, was built with materials taken from
the ruins of the Abbey. The Glasgow, Paisley, and Johnstone
Canal, for which an act of parliament was obtained
in 1805, was commenced in 180"; and that part of it
forming a communication between Paisley and Johnstone
was finished in 1810. In the following year, the
portion between this town and Glasgow was opened.
The whole line of navigation is eleven miles in length,
about twenty-eight feet in width, and four feet and a
half in average depth; and was completed at an expense
of £130,000. In its progress it passes along two tunnels,
one of which, under the Causewayside-street of the
town, is 240 feet long, and the other, near the western
extremity of the town, 210 feet: it is carried across the
Cart by a handsome aqueduct 240 feet in length, twentyseven
feet in breadth, and thirty feet in height, and the
span of the arch over the river is eighty-four feet. It
was not found necessary to construct a single lock. In
addition to the boats for goods and merchandise, three
boats were at first handsomely fitted up for passengers,
each capable of conveying one hundred persons; and
the facilities were afterwards greatly extended by the
addition of lighter craft, called gig-boats, which were
drawn by horses, and left the basin at Paisley every
hour, from nine o'clock in the morning till eight at
night, for Glasgow. The passage was performed in less
than an hour; the number of passengers annually conveyed
was 423,186, and the amount of fares received
by the proprietors more than £9000. Not less than
sixty-four horses were employed for these boats. By a
recent arrangement, however, with railway companies,
the conveyance of passengers is discontinued for twentyone
years, and the traffic confined to heavy goods, of
which 68,063 tons were carried in the year ending 30th
September 1844. The Paisley and Renfrew liailwatj,
from the New Town of Paisley to the river Clyde at
Renfrew, was constructed by a comjjany under an act
obtained in 1835; and the line was opened in May ISS/".
It is three miles and a quarter in length, with a rise of
about sixteen feet upon the whole distance; the earthworks
are light, and there is only one stone bridge
(having a semi-elliptical arch) over the railway, and
four level road- crossings. An act was obtained in 1847,
authorising the sale of this line to the Glasgow, Paisley,
Kilmarnock, and Ayr railway company, and its improvement
by that company. Tlic Glasgow, Paisley, and
Greenock railway W'as commenced under an act passed
in 1837. It begins at the south end of Glasgow bridge,
proceeds to Paisley, and running nearly parallel to the
Clyde, terminates at Greenock, near the harbour; the
whole hne being twenty-two miles and a half. The
portion between Glasgow and Paisley, common with the
Ayr railway noticed below, was opened on the 14th
July, 1840; and the line was opened throughout on the
31st March, 1841. The Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmariiuck,
and Ayr railway, authorized by an act passed in 1837,
proceeds through Paisley on a viaduct resting on several
arches of different spans, according to the width of the
streets and roads passed over, which are seven in number.
Here, also, the railway is carried over the river Cart on a
bold and splendid bridge of one arch, eighty-five feet in
span; after which it curves, and passes over the Glasgow,
Paisley, and Johnstone canal thrice in the distance of a
mile in its course to the south-west. The works of this
railway were commenced in May 1S38; it was partially
opened in August 1839, and the whole line, forty miles,
between Glasgow and Ayr, was opened on the 12th
August, 1840. The easy means of communication with
so many important places now afforded to this town by
these various lines of road, tend materially to increase its trade.
Paisley was in 14SS formed into a free burgh of
BARONY by James IV., in favour of the abbot of Paisley
and his successors, to whom power was given of appointing
a provost, bailies, and other officers. The privileges
were confirmed by a charter granted in 1490 by
the abbot to the provost, bailies, burgesses, and community
of the recently-created burgh; and in 1576,
James VI. bestowed on the burgh a charter of the altarages,
chapelries, and lands here. This charter is regarded
as the foundation of the right of patronage in the burgh
exercised by the noble families of Abercorn (or Hamilton)
and Dundonald (or Cochrane), and acquired from
the latter family by the magistrates and council in 1733.
In 16,5S the corporation, in consideration of certain
sums of money, obtained from Lord Cochrane, at that
time proprietor of the lordship, the right of superiority
of the burgh, with all its privileges and immunities, to
be held of the crown; which liberties, rights, and possessions,
with the power of electing magistrates, were
confirmed to the inhabitants by charter granted by
Charles II., in the year 1666. The government is at
present vested in a provost, four bailies, a treasurer, and
a council of ten burgesses, assisted by a town-clerk,
chamberlain, and others. The provost, who is also a
deputy-lieutenant of the county, the bailies, and the
council, are all annually elected on the first Monday in
November, under the authority, and subject to the regulations,
of the Municipal Reform act; and the townclerk,
chamberlain, and other officers are annually appointed
by the provost and council. The magistrates
have jurisdiction over the whole of the ancient royalty,
and hold courts twice in the week for the determination
of civil actions, the town-clerk being assessor; also a
court of requests, called the Conveners' court, in which
parties appear on summons, and state their cases, when
ulterior proceedings in the civil court are frequently
obviated by the advice given by the magistrates. The
sheriff courts were removed from Renfrew to this place
in 1705. A police court is held daily by the magistrates,
assisted by the town-clerk as assessor, for the decision
of petty offences and breaches of the peace: the police
establishment consists of a superintendent, two Serjeants,
four corporals, and twelve constables, appointed
by the commissioners for the wards into which the town
and suburbs are divided. Prior to the adoption of the
Police act, an organization of special constables had been
established, which, from its efficiency in preserving
order, is still kept up, at the trifiing expense of furnishing
batons to the constables as ensigns of their authority.
Before the passing of the act for amending the parliamentary
representation, the burgh merely shared in
returning a member for the county; but since that time
it has sent one of its own, and the limits of the ancient
burgh have been extended over a wide agricultural district
on the opposite side of the river Cart, which is now
included within the parliamentary boundary.
The County and Town Hall is a spacious quadrangular
edifice in the castellated style, erected in 18'.!0, at an expense
of £'28,000, raised by assessment on the county
of Renfrew. In the front, or western, range of the
quadrangle are a large court-house, county-hall, councilchambers,
and offices for the different departments of
the public business of the town and county. The eastern
range comprises the house of correction, the common
gaol, and a chapel between them for their joint accommodation,
in which divine service is regularly performed
every Sunday evening by the ministers of the Establishment
and dissenting Presbyterians. In the gaol are
nineteen apartments for criminals, and fifteen for
debtors; of the former class of prisoners there were
319, and of the latter 195, committed during a late year;
there is a large airing-yard. The house of correction
consists of forty-two cells, an hospital for the sick, and
two convenient airing-yards. The average number of
inmates is thirty-two: they are employed in winding
yarn, weaving, needle-work, picking wool, and other
useful works; and such as need instruction are attended
by a teacher daily for one hour. Classification and moral
discipline are strictly observed, and attached to the prison
is a library of religious books. The steeple of the
former court-house and prison is still remaining, near
the market-cross; and opposite to it are the coffee-room
buildings, of handsome style, ornamented with pilasters
of the Ionic order, and containing a spacious reading and news room.
The whole of the Paisley portion of the county, at
present so populously inhabited, and forming so extensive
a manufacturing district, was previously to the
year 1736 one parish, now divided into the Abbey parish
and the town parishes. The district is situated in the
upper part of the shire, within two miles of the river
Clyde; and is nearly nine miles in length, and of very
irregular form, varying from half a mile to about five
miles and a half in breadth. It is bounded on the north
by the parish of Renfrew, on the north-east by that of
Govan, on the east by the parish of Eastwood, on the
south-east by Neilston, on the west by the parish of
Kilbarchan, and on the south and south-west by the
parishes of Neilston and Lochwinnoch. The surface
is beautifully diversified, consisting around the town of
numerous gentle eminences, either in rich cultivation or
clothed with wood. To the north of the town the lands
are generally level, being chiefly reclaimed moss; but
towards the south they rise into hills, called the Braes
of Gleniffer, the highest points of which have an elevation
of about 700 feet above the river Cart, but which
afford excellent pasturage for sheep, and in some of the
lower heights are in a state of cultivation. The chief
river is the Cart, or White Cart, which has its source in
the high grounds between Eaglesham and the parish of
Kilbride, and after forming its boundary for some few
miles, enters the Abbey parish on the eastern side, and
flows with a gentle course towards the town, whence it
runs into the Clyde, after having united with the Black
Cart near Inchinnan bridge. Above the town its banks
exhibit much rich scenery, being in some parts very elevated,
and crowned with wood. It formerly abounded
with perch, trout, flounders, and other fish; but they
have not been found in such numbers since the estabhshment
of so many works upon its stream. The river
has been rendered navigable to the town for vessels of
sixty or eighty tons, by the construction of a short canal
to avoid the shallows near Inchinnan bridge; and by
additional improvements of more recent date, for which
an act of parliament was obtained. The Levern, a
smaller stream, on whose banks are numerous cottonmills,
bleachfields, and other works, after forming part
of the eastern boundary of the Abbey parish, joins the
Cart, neai-ly at its entrance into the parish. The Black
Cart has its source in Castle- Semple loch, borders the
parish on the north-west, and falls into the Cart, as already
remarked, near Inchinnan bridge. Various rivulets,
also, descend from the higher grounds; the Espedair
and Alt-Patrick burns are the principal.
On the upper lands the soil is dry and light; in the
lower parts, a stiffish clay, retentive of moisture. The
number of acres is estimated at 16,160, of which about
12,700 are arable, 1000 in woods and plantations, I'OO
moss, and about 700 waste. The system of agriculture
has been greatly improved, and the rotation plan of
husbandry is prevalent; the chief crops are oat.s, wheat,
barley, beans, potatoes, and turnips. The farm-buildings
are substantial and well arranged, the lands generally
inclosed, and all the more recent improvements
in the construction of implements have been adopted.
Tile-draining has been carried on to a considerable extent;
much waste land and moss, also, has been reclaimed
and brought into cultivation. Due attention
is paid to the rearing of live-stock, under the encouragement
of the Agricultural Society: the dairy-lands are
well managed, and the proximity of populous towns and
villages affords a ready market for their produce. The
cattle are of the Ayrshire breed, the sheep generally of
the Leicester; the horses are in general Clydesdales, and
are considered of superior character. A number of
racers and hunters are bred in the district. The woods
and plantations are well attended to, and add greatly to
the beauty of the scenery.
In the higher lands the substrata are mainly composed
of trap rock of the secondary character; and in
the lower, of rocks belonging to the coal formation.
Greenstone, hornblende with quartz and felspar, and
porphyry of a greyish colour, arc found in the hills:
the greenstone is traversed with veins of jasper and
chalcedony. The substrata in the lower division include
ironstone, limestone, sandstone, fire-clay, and aluminous
and bituminous shale. The sandstone is of a yellowish
white colour, tinged more or less with iron; it is extensively
(jiiarried at Nitshill, and the works afford constant
employment to atnuit 100 jjcrsons throughout the year.
The linicstone occurs in beds under the sandstone, and
alternating with coal and ironstone; it is of a grey
colour, and is quarried at Hurlet and Blackball, where
it is thickly embedded with shells, crystal of calcareous
spar, ".nd small masses of mineral pitch. Coal is abundant
in the lower portion of the Abbey parish; it has
been found within the town, near Meikleriggs, and at
Quarrelton, Hurlet, and other places. The coal at
Quarrelton is in ten successive seams, varying from
three to nine yards in thickness: a considerable quantity
is of light inflammable kind, and the remainder
closely resembles the Newcastle coal. It abounds with
inflammable gas, and is liable to spontaneous ignition.
The coal found at Hurlet occurs in a stratum about five
feet and a half thick, extending over an area of nearly
500 acres, and contains a large quantity of sulphur;
while at Nitshill are strata from one foot to almost
three feet in thickness. Coal is also found near the
road from Paisley to Beith, on the high grounds of
Auchenlodmont, at Elderslie, and at Craigenfeoch; in
the last place it occurs in four under-seams varying in
thickness from three to five feet, and is wrought in separate
lofts. The ironstone was formerly wrought to a
great extent, and sent to the smelting-works on the
river Clyde; it is still found in considerable quantities
at Hawkeshead, Hurlet, and other places, occurring
generally in round or lenticular masses of moderate size.
Aluminous schist is abundant at Hurlet, the strata varying
from six inches to three feet and a half in thickness.
It is wrought by a company for the purpose of making
alum, of which, in a late year, not less than 1200 tons
were manufactured here; and about 300 tons of copperas
were produced by the same company at their works at
Nitshill. Large quantities of muriate of potash and
sulphate of ammonia are manufactured at Glasgow, and
sent to the alum-works by the Glasgow canal and the
Hurlet railway. At this company's works and collieries
at and near Hurlet about 400 persons are constantly
employed; and about 200 more are engaged in other
works in the same vicinity. From the abundance of
ironstone and coal diffused through the district, it is not
improbable that iron-works on a very extensive scale
may be ultimately established here, and give a fresh impetus
to the enterprising genius of the inhabitants. The
annual value of real property in Paisley is £132,829,
whereof £66,941 are for the Abbey parish, which completely
encircles, and includes part of, the town.
The principal modern mansions in the Abbey parish
are, Johnstone Castle, the residence of Ludovic Houston,
Esq., a spacious and elegant castellated mansion, in a
richly-wooded demesne forming one of the chief ornaments
of the county; Househill, a handsome residence,
pleasantly situated on the banks of the Levern near its
confluence with the river Cart; and Ralston House,
built by the late William Orr, Esq. Hawkhead House
is an ancient structure, the property of the Earl of
Glasgow. There are numerous other houses scattered
over the parish, inhabited l)y o])ulent families, and surrounded
with grounds tastefully embellished; and in the
immediate vicinity of the town are many pleasing villas,
erected by persons retired from business.
Pai-sley is the seat of a presbytery established in 1590,
and until 1834 having jurisdiction over all the county,
except Eaglesham and Cathcart: in 1834 the presbytery
of (ireenock was formed, chiefly out of that of
Paisley. The county is in the synod of Glasgow and
Ayr. The stipend of the incumbent of the Old or Abbey
parish, the population of which is 28,^46, is £3/6, with
a manse, a comfortable residence, erected in 1824, and a
glebe valued at £67 per annum. A second minister was
in 1641 appointed as a colleague to the incumbent, who
at that time gave five chalders out of his own income
for his support; and this allowance, having been subsequently
augmented, produces to the minister of the
second charge a stipend of £363, but without either
manse or glebe. The church of this parish is part of
the Abbey church, which was fitted up for the purpose,
and will be more minutely described hereafter. The
increase of the population early rendered the erection of
an additional church indispensable; and in 1736, a
church afterwards called the Low Church having been
completed, the burgh was erected into a separate parish
by the Lords Commissioners, and a charter was obtained
from Lord Dundonald, granting to the magistrates permission
to build other churches within its limits, of
which he conceded to them the patronage. In 1756, a
church was erected on the eminence called Oakshaw
Head, and, from its situation, was called the High Church.
About twenty-five years afterwards, a third church was
built in the burgh parish, to accommodate the rapidlyaugmenting
population, and, from its relative position
between the other two, obtained the appellation of the
Middle Church. After its erection, the parish was, by
an act of the Court of Teinds in 1 78 1, divided into three
parishes, called the Low Church, the High Church, and
the Middle Church parishes. The population of these
parishes respectively is 7OSO, 14,798, and 10,363; and
the stipends of the incumbents are £300 per annum
each, paid out of the common property of the corporation,
who are patrons of the livings. A new church
was built by the corporation in the Low Church parish,
and dedicated to St. George, in 1819, by which an
increase of 6OO sittings was obtained, being the difference
between the number of seats in the Low church
and in this, to which the incumbent of that parish was
transferred; and after its erection the original Low
church was no longer appropriated as a place of public worship.
The still increasing population requiring further accommodation,
a Gaelic church and six chapels were at
different times erected. The Gaelic church was built in
1793, for the use of the Highlanders in the town of
Paisley and the vicinity; and to each of the chapels was for
a time annexed a quoad sacra district. Of the six chapels
or churches, that of Johnstone was erected in 1792, the
church at Levern in 1835, and that of Elderslie in 1840;
and in the burgh, the North church, the Martyrs, and
the South church, were completed. The South quoad
sacra parish was partly in the Abbey parish and partly
in the parish of Low Church, and was about half a mile
in length and a quarter in breadth, having a population
of 3135, wholly in the town: the church, built in 1835-6,
at a cost of £21'29, contains 972 sittings. The North
quoad sacra parish was separated from the Middle parish
in 1834; it was in extent about one square mile, and
wholly a town parish, having a population of 2876. The
church was built in 1833-4, at a cost of £1700, raised
by means of collections and subscriptions, aided by a
grant of £300 from the General Assembly; it contains
nearly 1000 sittings. The quoad sacra parish of Martyrs
was separated from High Church parish in 1836, and
extended over about twenty acres, its greatest length
being about 400 vards. and its greatest breadth 220;
this was also quite a town district, and had a population
of 3471. The church was built in 1835, at an expense
of £2120, raised chiefly by subscription, and contains
1200 sittings. There are several elegant and costly
erections connected with the Free Church, and other
places of worship for the United Presbyterian Church;
also an episcopal chapel; places of worship forWesleyan
Methodists, Independents, Reformed Presbyterians, Baptists,
and others; and a Roman Catholic chapel. A
home mission has been established, and is supported by
subscription: under its direction, three licentiates of
the church are appointed to preach in the most populous
parts of the town and neighbourhood. There are
two Sabbath-school Societies, one of which is maintained
by members of the Established Church, and the
other by the different denominations of Evangelical dissenters.
The grammar school, of which the corporation are
trustees, had an endowment in land, with certain altarages,
and revenues of chaplainships in the church of
the monastery, given to the magistrates of the burgh for
its foundation; but most of these endowments have been
lost, and the rector receives only £17 per annum, with a
school and dwelling-house from the corporation, by whom
he is appointed, in addition to the fees. A school for commercial
instruction is also partly maintained by the corporation,
who pay the master a salary of £8. 6. 8., with
a house. There are in the Abbey and burgh parishes
about seventy schools, the masters of which, with some
few exceptions, are supported exclusively by the fees:
the master of a school at Seedhill has a schoolroom
and dwelling-house, and £5 per annum bequeathed by
Mr. Park about fifty years since for the instruction of
children. Schools were lately established in the Abbey
parish by the heritors, who assessed themselves for the
maintenance of three teachers, and a school has been
erected in the New Town with funds bequeathed for that
purpose by the family of Corse, of Greenlaw. The parishes
within the burgh obtained a grant of £700 from
government for the erection of schools, with which, together
with additions by the inhabitants, three new schools
were built; and a salary of £15 per annum was guaranteed
to each of the masters: in these schools are
about 700 pupils. A charity-school, founded in the town
by Mrs. Margaret Hutchinson, has been additionally endowed
with £500 bequeathed by the late Walter Carswell,
Esq.; and a commodious schoolroom has been built, in
which are about 250 scholars. An infant school has
been erected in the New Town, by subscription, on a site
given by James Kibble, Esq., of Greenlaw; it is attended
by eighty children. Of the other schools, one at Johnstone
is supported by subscription of the inhabitants of
that place. The whole number of scholars in the Abbey
and town parishes was returned in 1834 as amounting
to 4876; and since that period it has considerably increased.
The poor have the interest of various bequests
amounting together to £700. The Town's hospital was
built in 1752, and an addition has been made to it for
the reception of lunatics; it is under the control of
fifteen directors chosen annually, and is visited daily by
an experienced surgeon. Inmates who are capable of
work are employed in some useful pursuit; and the
children are duly instructed by the master, who takes
them all with him to church twice every Sunday. The
number of inmates in a late year was 220, and the
expense of their maintenance, £1347. There are six incorporated
societies of trades, and numerous friendly
and benefit societies, that distribute largely among their
members when in need of help. A dispensary was
erected by subscription in 1*86, and a house of recovery
subsequently added; they are under the direction of a
committee of subscribers, and a house-surgeon and
apothecary, and are visited by six medical practitioners
in the town. The building is capable of receiving at
once forty-five in-patients; and in the course of a late
year not less than 463 were admitted, exclusively of
patients who merely received medicines and advice: the
total expenditure of the establishment for the year was
£466. A savings' bank, called the Paisley Provident
Bank, was established in 1815.
Of the ancient monastery of this place, a venerable
cruciform structure in the decorated English style of
architecture, the chief remains are the nave of the
church, which is now the Abbey parish church, and a
portion of the north transept, and of the cloisters, with
St. Mirin's chapel. The western entrance is divided
into three compartments by panelled and niched buttresses,
terminating in conical pinnacles of recent addition
and incongruous character. In the centre is a richlymoulded
and deeply-recessed archway of Norman character,
supported on each side by a series of fifteen
slender clustered shafts. Above the doorway are two
handsome windows of three lights, the upper part filled
with geometrical tracery; and these are surmounted by
one large window of five trefoil-headed lights, with flowing
tracery of elaborate design in the upper part. The fine
nave, ninety-three feet in length and thirty-three feet in
breadth, is separated from the aisles by ranges of massive
clustered columns with plainly-moulded capitals,
sustaining the arches of the triforium, which are of circular
form, richly moulded, and subdivided by a central
mullion into two pointed arches headed in cinquefoil.
The nave is lighted by a series of twelve clerestory windows
on either side, each window of two lights, headed
with elegant tracery. Its original groined roof, embellished
with sculptured bosses at the intersection of the
arches, has been concealed by the insertion of a coved
ceiling, which detracts greatly from the grandeur of
effect produced by the arrangement and style of the
interior. The aisles are lighted by handsome windows
of the decorated style, divided into two, three, and in
some instances four lights, and enriched with tracery of
various kinds; and in some parts the groined roof, in
the same style as that of the nave, is still preserved.
That portion of the transept which is remaining has a
spacious and elegant window of two lights, with flowing
tracery of beautiful design. Of the choir, a few feet of
the walls remain above the foundation; and the bases
of the massive clustered pillars that supported the
tower are to be seen. The cloisters appear to have inelosed
a quadrangular area of about sixty feet, from
which is an entrance to the chapel of St. Mirin on the
east side. St. Mirin's chapel is about forty-eight feet
in length and twenty-four feet in breadth, with a lofty
and finely-groined roof. At its east end is a large window
of four lights headed with trefoil, but now blocked
up; beneath which is a cluster of sculptured figures in
bold relief. In its south wall is a niche in which a
piscina is placed; and in the north wall are two spacious
arches, built up. Under the elevated portion of the
pavement at the east end is a vault forming the place of
sepulture of the Abercorn family. Nearly in the centre
of the floor of the chapel is the altar-tomb of Queen
Bleary, which was found in the area of the cloisters in a
mutilated state, and, being re-constructed, was placed
here under the direction of the late Dr. Boog. The sides
and ends of this monument are divided into compartments,
ornamented with sculptured figures of ecclesiastics,
armorial shields, and other devices in bold relief;
and on the slab is the figure of a female in a recumbent
posture, with the head resting on a cushion, under a rich
canopy, and the hands folded as in the attitude of prayer.
Various conjectures have been made respecting the person
to whose memory the monument was raised; but
nothing satisfactory has been established. The chapel,
from its extraordinary reverberation of sound, has obtained
the appellation of the " sounding aisle". Within
what was formerly the choir of the monastery, and in
the adjoining cemetery, are numerous gravestones, and
monumental inscriptions: Walter, the great steward, and
his wife, and the queens of Robert II. and Robert III.,
were interred in the Abbey church.
There are some remains of the ancient residence of
the Abercorn and Dundonald families, let out in different
tenements. Three miles south-eastward of the town
are the shattered ruins of Cruickston Castle, the resort
of Mary, Queen of Scots; and about two miles to the
south of Cruickston are the remains of the tower of
Stewarts-Raiss, seated on the bank of the river Levern.
Near the Braes of Gleniffer, by which it is overlooked, is
the tower of Stanley Castle, rising to the height of forty
feet, and crowned with a boldly-projecting battlement
supported by corbels; it is still in good preservation,
and forms an interesting feature in the landscape.
Hawkhead House, already mentioned, one of the seats
of the Earl of Glasgow, is an irregular quadrangular
edifice, with a strong tower, round which additional
buildings have been erected; the grounds are finely laid
out with avenues of trees forming an approach to the
castle, and are deeply embosomed in woods. Blackwall
House, situated on the banks of the river Cart, was a
mansion of great strength, but is now a ruin; and Cardonald,
a spacious castellated mansion, formerly the seat
of Lord Blantyre, is let out in tenements. Near the
village of Elderslie is a house in which it is said the renowned
Sir William Wallace was born; and near it is
a tree called " Wallace's Oak", from its having afforded
shelter and concealment to that hero and his friends,
when pursued by a hostile force of superior strength.
About two miles and a half eastward of the town is a
saline spring called Candren Well, on the properties of
which a treatise was written by the late Dr. Lyall, a
native of Paisley. Among other natives may be enumerated,
Andrew Knox, a relative of the Reformer, who
was ordained as minister of this parish, and was afterwards
bishop of Raphoe; Patrick Adamson, archbishop
of St. Andrew's; Thomas Smcton, principal of the college
of Glasgow; Robert Boyd, successively principal of
the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow; Alexander
Dunlop, father of the principal of that name; Robert
Millar, author of the I'npagdlixni of i'hnsliiinity, and
other treatises of merit; John Witherspoon, president
of the college of New Jersey, and an eminent divine;
Robert Findlay, professor of theology in the college of
Glasgow; Robert Tannahill, the lyric pout; Alexander
Wilson, the American ornithologist; Dr. Robert Watt,
author of the Bihliotheca Brilannka; John Henning, a
distinguished modeller; the gifted Professor Wilson, of
Edinburgh; and William Motherwell, the poet, latterly
editor of the Glasgow Courier.