842 



RENFREWSHIRE. 



in place of bring a royal hurah. \\';ilter continued 

 the poliry ol thU M>\ci-eign by granting pieces of 

 ground tor building, with certain rights of filling 

 in the iiiljacrnt waters ; in particular, he granlrd 

 io the monks of Paisley a full tenement in his 

 hiirdi of Renfrew, ami one net's fishing for salmon, 

 and six nets, and one boat's fishing lor herrings. 

 Walter built a castle at Renfrew, which constituted 

 the principal mansion of the extensive larony. 

 1 lux castle stood on a small height, called the cas- 

 tle-hill, on the margin of that bank of the Clyde, 

 which formerly approached to the burgh, and it 

 was surrounded by a large fosse. After the acces- 

 sion of the Stuarts to the crown, the castle of Ren- 

 frew was committed to the charge of a constable, 

 am! in the reign of James IV. this office became 

 hereditary in the family of lord Ross of Halkhead. 

 They had with it the island in the Clyde called the 

 King's Inch, and a fishing in the Clyde, and they 

 levied certain customs at the principal fairs of the 

 burgh. On the abolition of heritable jurisdictions 

 in 17-18, lord Ross claimed for the office of con- 

 stable of Renfrew, 500, but was allowed nothing. 

 Renfrew was created a royal burgh by a charter of 

 Robert III. in 1396, granting the burgh all its 

 privileges of fishing, trading, levying customs, &c., 

 for a payment to the king, of eight marks yearly. 

 This charter was confirmed by subsequent charters 

 from James V., James VI., and Queen Anne. The 

 old castle of Renfrew continued in existence till 

 past tlie middle of last century, when, along with 

 the lands of King's Inch, it was purchased by a Mr 

 Spiers, a merchant in Glasgow, who here built an 

 elegant house about 1776, and razing the castle to 

 its foundation , planted a clump of trees on its site ! 



Renfrew consists of one principal street, about 

 half a mile in length, with several smaller ones 

 diverging from it. At the west end of the main 

 street stands the jail, and at the east end there is a 

 considerable bleachfield. The parish church, which 

 stands a short way east from the cross, is of a cru- 

 ciform shape, and can accommodate about 700 

 sitters. Though the situation of Renfrew is favour- 

 able both for trade and manufactures, it has made 

 but little progress in either, while all the other 

 towns in the shire have been running a rapid course 

 of improvement. 



Bishop Leslie, who lived in the sixteenth century, 

 ys, speaking of Renfrew, that it had sixty ships 

 plying in fishing during the whole year round. Craw- 

 fiird reports that the burgh once had a little foreign 

 trade, but that a traffic with Ireland only occupied 

 the burgesses in 1710. A few years ago, the town 

 mustered but half a dozen boats, with one or two 

 sand punts. The manufacturing establishments 

 are an extensive distillery at Yoker, on the north 

 side of the Clyde, a bleachfield, a pottery, and a 

 starch manufactory. In the town there are about 

 200 looms employed. The river Clyde at one 

 period, by one of its branches, came close to the 

 town, but having receded from this channel, and 

 in more recent times having been hemmed in to its 

 ] >res-nt course, the intermediate land, once inches or 

 islands, has been greatly improved, and converted 

 into fine arable land, while a portion of the old 

 channel has been employed as an artificial canal 

 l>etwixt the town and the river. This canal was 

 instituted about the year 1786, when vessels of 

 seventy tons or thereabouts were enabled to pro- 

 ceed from the Clyde to the town, but as the canal 

 has been filling up and going into disrepair, it is 

 now unable to bear vessels of a greater burden than 

 forty tons. There is a considerable quantity of 

 grain and other goods landed here annually, chiefly 

 for the Paisley merchants ; and the recent erection 



of a railroad between the btirh and Paisley must 

 Lend greatly to increase this commerce. 



Before the Union, the burgh of Renfrew sent ft 

 representative to the Scottish parliament. After 

 the Union, it joined with Glasgow, Rutherglen, arid 

 Dumbarton in sending one to the British parlia- 

 ment. Since the Reform bill, it now joins with 

 Kilmarnock, Port-Glasgow, Dumbarton, and Ruth- 

 erglen in sending one. The burgh has a much 

 greater revenue than most small towns. It amounts 

 altogether to about 1400, nearly 220 for the 

 ferry across the Clyde, 280 for salmon fishings, 

 and about 900 from rents of lands, property in the 

 town, and feu duties. The market day of Renfrew 

 is Saturday; fairs are held on the third Tuesday of 

 May and the second Friday of June. Although 

 Renfrew is the county-town, meetings of the free- 

 holders and the head courts are only held in it ; the 

 seat of the sheriff being at Paisley. Population of 

 the burgh in 1755, 680; in 1791, 1013; in 1811, 

 1637 ; in 1821, including the parish of Renfrew, 

 2646 ; in 1831, 2833; in 1841, 3079. 



RENFREWSHIRE ; a county in the west of 

 Scotland, bounded on the east by Lanarkshire, on 

 the south by Ayrshire, and on all other sides by the 

 river and frith of Clyde, except a small portion of 

 about 1200 acres, which lies on the north side of 

 the river, opposite the town of Renfrew. It is 

 about thirty-one miles long from south-east to 

 north-west, and about twenty-five miles long from 

 east to west, its breadth varying from nine to four- 

 teen miles. Its superficial extent forms about 

 150,000 English acres. 



Renfrewshire appears to have formed a portion 

 of Lanarkshire, at least to have belonged to the 

 same sheriffdom, up to the beginning of the fif- 

 teenth century. (For the earlier history of the dis- 

 trict, see the preceding article Renfrew.) In 

 1404, Robert III., in order to make a provision for 

 his son James, erected a principality, consisting of 

 the barony of Renfrew and the whole estates of the 

 Stewarts, with the earldom of Carrick, and the bar- 

 ony of King's Kyle, all of which he granted in a 

 free regality to the prince, and which continued in 

 after times to belong to the eldest sons of. the Scot- 

 tish nionarchs. By these arrangements, the barony 

 of Renfrew was dissolved from the shire of Lanark, 

 and put under the jurisdiction of a separate sheriff'. 

 The Sempils of Eliotstoun first appear on the 

 records as sheriffs of Renfrewshire, and the office 

 became hereditary in their family. Sir William 

 Sempil was sheriff of Renfrew in 1471, and held the 

 office for several years. He was succeeded by his 

 son Thomas Sempil, who fell, fighting in the cause 

 of James III., at the battle of Sauchieburn, llth 

 June, 1488. Sir John Sempil, the son and succes- 

 sor of Thomas, was created Lord Sempil by James 

 IV., and fell with his sovereign at Flodden-field, in 

 1513. The sheriffdom of Renfrew formerly com- 

 prehended the barony and parish of Bathgate, in 

 West Lothian, which belonged to the Stewarts. 

 and the jurisdiction of the Sempil family, as sheriff's 

 of Renfrew, extended over that barony. This 

 detached portion was resigned, in 1530-1, to Sir 

 James Hamilton of Finnart, who thereupon obtained 

 a charter for it from the king. Bathgafe became 

 then a separate sheriffdom till the abolition of her- 

 itable jurisdictions, in 1748, when it was united to 

 Linlithgowshire. In 1636, Hugh, lord Sempil, con- 

 veyed to Alexander, earl of Eglinton, the heritable 

 offices of sheriff of Renfrewshire, and bailie of the 

 regality of Paisley, in security for the payment of 

 5000 Sterling, and interest for the same. The 

 money never having been paid, these offices became 

 the permanent property of the earls of Eglintoii 



