The presbytery of Greenock, in the synod
of Glasgow and Ayr, comprises the parishes of Cumbrae, Erskine,
Fairlie, Gourock, Greenock (with its ecclesiastical subdivisions),
Innerkip, Kilmalcolm, Langbank, Largs, Newark, Port Glasgow, and
Skelmorlie; the chapelries of Augustine and St. Paul's (Greenock), and
a mission church (Newark). Pop. (1881) 96,876, (1891) 97,258, of whom
10,713 were communicants of the Church of Scotland in 1895. The Free
Church presbytery of Greenock embraces 20 churches, 10 being in
Greenock, 3 in Port Glasgow, and 7 in Cumbrae, Erskine, Fairlie,
Gourock, Innerkip, Kilmalcolm, and Largs. The U.P. Church presbytery
embraces 22 charges, viz., 7 in Greenock, 2 in Port Glasgow, 2 in
Rothesay, and 11 at Campbeltown, Dunoon, Gourock, Innellan, Inveraray,
Kilcreggan, Kirn, Largs, Millport, Southend, and Wemyss Bay.
Greenock. A parliamentary burgh, seaport,
and seat of manufacture, the seventh town of Scotland in point of
population. It is situated in the parish of the same name in
Renfrewshire, in N latitude 55° 57' 2", and W longitude 4° 45' 30", by
water being 21 1/4 miles WNW of Glasgow, 7 1/4 W of Dumbarton, 4 S of
Helensburgh, and 7 1/2 E of Dunoon, whilst by rail it is 22 1/2 miles WNW
of Glasgow, 15 3/4 WNW of Paisley, and 3 W by N of Port Glasgow.
According to the popular view, Greenock received its name from a `green
oak' which once stood on the shore; but this derivation has no other
foundation than the obvious pun, the oak being wholly apocryphal. Even
when this etymology is disposed of, there is considerable doubt as to
the origin of the name. One suggestion is the ancient British graen-ag,
`a gravelly or sandy place;' another, the Gaelic grian-aig, `a sunny
bay;' and a third, the Gaelic grian-chnoc, `the knoll of the sun.' The
two first derivations receive some countenance from circumstances, the
soil of Greenock being gravelly, while the Highland portion of the
present inhabitants pronounce the name like Grian-aig. The Gaelic
etymology also receives acceptance in some quarters, because of
supposed confirmation of it found in other places, such as Greenan in
Ayrshire, and a farm of the same name in Perthshire, which are
conjectured to have been seats of sun worship. The bay on which
Greenock lies is a comparatively narrow one seaward, but it is long and
expanded along the shore, and thus the view up and down the Firth is
open. For about 1/4 mile inland the ground is flat and not much above
high-water level, and this portion is occupied by docks, quays,
business streets, and lines of villas for about 5 miles. Further
inland, the ground begins to rise, in some parts more steeply than
others, but in every case adding prcturesqueness to the town as seen
from the river. Terraces of villa residences are planted here and
there, and generally the slopes are pleasantly variegated with
garden-plots and other concomitants of the suburban districts of a
large town. Charming as is the site of Greenock, the view commanded by
the town is much more so. Associated in the public mind with all the
customary smokiness and dirt of manufacturing centres, Greenock is
nevertheless striking for the airiness and freshness of its
surroundings. Looking across St. Lawrence's Bay (so called from an
ancient religious house) the eye rests on the fringe of the magnificent
scenery of the Western Highlands. `But a few miles off, across the
Firth of Clyde,' remark the Messrs. Chambers, `the untameable Highland
territory stretches away into Alpine solitudes of the wildest
character; so that it is possible to sit in a Greenock drawing-room
amidst a scene of refinement not surpassed, and of industry unexampled
in Scotland, with the cultivated lowlands at your back, and let the
imagination follow the eye into a blue distance where things still
exhibit nearly the same moral aspect as they did a thousand years ago.
It is said that when Rob Roy haunted
the opposite coasts of Dumbartonshire, he found it very convenient to
sail across and make a selection from the goods displayed in the
Greenock fairs; on which occasion the ellwands and staves of
civilisation would come into collision with the broadswords and dirks
of savage warfare in such a style as might have served to show the
extremely slight hold which the law had as yet taken of certain parts
of our country.' Leaving out the more imaginative portions of this
picture it still shows how Greenock stands on the threshold of the
rather prosaic haunts of industry and the freer but less remunerative
wilds of the Highlands. Pennant, who
visited Greenock in the course of one of his tours, gives the following
graphic account of the view from an eminence in the neighbourhood--
`The magnificence of the prospect from the hill behind the towns of
Greenock and Port Glasgow, and even from the quays of these towns,
deserves notice. Immediately before you is the river Clyde, having all
the appearance of a fresh-water lake (as the outlet to the sea is not
visible), with numbers of large and small vessels sailing upon it. Next
to this, the opposite coast of Dumbarton and Argyllshire, abounding in
gentlemen's seats, meets the eye, and the prospect is terminated by the
western range of the Grampian Mountains at unequal distances, and so
ragged and craggy on the tops, that, by way of contrast, they are
called here by the emphatical name of the Duke of Argyll's Bowling
Green. Along the skirts of the hills there are many eligible situations
for those who have a relish for the beauty and magnificence of nature.
Below them, the towns of Greenock and Port Glasgow, with their
convenient and crowded harbours. On the opposite side of the Firth are
in view the parishes of West Kilpatrick, Dumbarton with its rock and
castle, Cardross, Row, and the peninsular parish of Roseneath, on the
SE of which is a castle of the Duke of Argyll with flourishing
plantations. In ascending the Greenock hills, the prospect is still
varied and extending. From Corlic, the highest ground in the locality,
may be seen in a clear day, besides that of Renfrew, part of the
counties of Bute, Arran, and Argyll, with the western part of the
Grampian Mountains, of Perth, Stirling, Lanark, and Ayr.' The view,
too, from the top of Lyle Road overlooking Gourock Bay (opened 1 May
1880) embraces parts of the shires of Ayr, Argyll, Bute, Dumbarton,
Lanark, Perth, and Stirling.
Of the origin of Greenock nothing
definite is known, though it might be safe to conjecture that the
village grew up round the religious establishment which gave its name
to the bay. There were three chapels in the neighbourhood, that of St.
Lawrence, which stood at the W corner of Virginia Street, and of which
traces were extant till 1760; a second at Chapelton at the extremity of
the eastern boundary of the East parish; and a third, dedicated to St.
Blane, a little below Kilblain. The castle of Easter Greenock stood
about 1 mile E of the present town; and that of Wester Greenock on the
site of the mansion-house of the family of Shaw of Greenock, with whom
the fortunes of the town were for a long time bound up. The Caledonian
railway having acquired this elevated ground the mansion-house was
taken down, the tunnel of the Gourock extension railway now running under the site. John Shaw received permission from James
VI. in 1589 to erect a church in Greenock. The parish was disjoined
from Innerkip and erected into a separate charge in 1594, and was
legally constituted a parish in 1636. (See Greenock parish.) The same
John Shaw obtained a charter from Charles
I. in 1635 (the king acting for his son Baron Renfrew, a title still
held by the Prince of Wales), conferring upon Greenock the rights and
privileges of a burgh of barony, including permission to hold a weekly
market on Friday and two fairs annually. This charter was confirmed by
the Scottish Parliament in 1641. A baron bailie was appointed, and
regular courts were instituted immediately on the granting of the
charter. The laird was not content with these endeavours, and further
benefited the young burgh by building a dry stone pier for the
accommodation of the passage boats for Ireland and of the fishermen.
The next notice of the town is in a report by Thomas Tucker,
a customs official, deputed in 1656 by Cromwell's government to examine
into the revenues of the Clyde ports. He speaks of Greenock, whose
inhabitants are `all seamen or fishermen trading for Ireland or the
Isles in open boats, at which place there is a mole or pier where
vessels might ride or shelter in stress of weather.' In 1670 a French
traveller, M. Jorevein de Rochefort,
visited `Krinock,' which he says is `the town where the Scots post and
packet boats start for Ireland. Its port is good, sheltered by the
mountains which surround it, and by a great mole by the sides of which
are ranged the barks another vessels for the conveniency of loading and
unloading more easily.' The first charter of Greenock expressly denied
permission to engage in foreign trade, which was the exclusive
privilege of royal burghs. So jealous were the latter of this right
that John Spreule, representative of
Renfrew in Parliament, made a stipulation before its confirmation, that
`the charter to Greenock was to be in no ways prejudicial to our
antient privileges contained in our infeftment as accords of law.' Shaw
of Greenock endeavoured to remove this restriction, and in spite of the
opposition of the royal burghs, he was successful in 1670, owing
chiefly, it is said, to the services rendered by his son to the King at
the battle of Worcester. This second
charter, granting the privilege of buying and selling wine, wax, salt,
brandy, pitch, tar, and other goods and merchandise, was not confirmed
by Parliament till 1681, but the knight acted on it before this, and in
consequence a Greenock ship with foreign produce on board was seized by
agents of the royal burghs and conveyed to Newark, the place now called
Port Glasgow. Roused at this, about a hundred inhabitants of Greenock,
under the command of Sir John Shaw, Laird of Greenock, and Mr. Bannatyne
of Kelly, rowed to Newark to recapture their vessel. A number of armed
men were on board, and after a tough struggle, in which several of both
parties were wounded, the Greenock men had to retire discomfited. A
complaint concerning the whole matter was made to the Lords
of Secret Council by the royal burghs of Glasgow, Dumbarton, and
Renfrew, and, though the charter of 1670 saved Greenock from any
penalties, the town was forced to pay an `unfree trade cess' to the
royal burghs for permission to retain the foreign trade. A commissioner
was appointed to fix the sum of this cess, and eight shillings Scots
was named, the amount to increase with the number and size of the
vessels engaged in the trade. This assessment in 1879 was about £75; it
is now abolished. The evidence taken by the commissioner gives an idea
of the shipping owned in Greenock at that period. The baron bailie
explained that only one vessel, the John, was wholly owned in Greenock,
the Neptune belonged partly to Greenock and partly to its suburb
Cartsdyke, and two others, the George and the Hendrie, were owned in
Glasgow and Greenock. Fishing boats were excluded from the
commissioner's calculations. In 1670, the year of the disputed charter,
a company for curing herrings was started, and among the shareholders
was Charles II., from which
circumstance the corporation adopted the title of `Royal.' This company
selected Greenock as one of its principal stations. Cellars and stores
were built, and the company throve for a time, its charter putting
certain restrictions upon all other fish-curers, and thus giving it a
practical monopoly. The injury done to others was found to outweigh the
benefits of the society, and it was dissolved in 1690. To give an idea
of the extent of the herring fishing industry at Greenock about this
time, it may be noted that in 1674 as many as 20,400 barrels were
exported to La Rochelle alone, besides quantities to other parts of
France, to Dantzig, and to Swedish and Baltic ports. The number of
herring fishing boats, or `busses' as they were called, belonging to
Greenock and neighbouring Clyde towns was over 300, about one-half
belonging to Greenock, and the value and extent of the fishery was
indicated by the motto then adopted by Greenock, `Let herrings swim
that trade maintain.' Fifty-seven other kinds of fish were caught in
the surrounding waters, but none of them approached the herring in
importance. Cargoes of grain and timber began to come into Greenock
about this period and thus helped to lift the place into importance,
for stores and offices became requisite, and the town thus increased in
size and wealth. An interesting incident in the history of the port was
the first voyage made across the Atlantic by a Greenock ship. This was
the George, which sailed in 1686 with a cargo and twenty-two
non-conforming prisoners sentenced to transportation for life to
Carolina for disaffection to the Government and for attending
conventicles. In 1696 one of the ships of the Darien
expedition was fitted out at Cartsdyke, the eastern suburb of Greenock,
which had been erected into a burgh of barony in 1636. Cartsdyke, which
was famed for red herring curing is called `the Bay of St. Lawrence on
the Clyde,' in the account of the unhappy expedition. The closing years
of the 17th century were notable, as far as Greenock was concerned, for
the repeated efforts made by Sir John Shaw
and his son to obtain parliamentary powers and assistance to extend the
harbour accommodation of the port, and to levy dues to cover this
expense. Three times these endeavours were defeated by the combined
resistance of the royal burghs on the Clyde, assisted by other burghs
all over Scotland. Sir John Shaw died in 1702, and his son, weary of
the constant contest in Parliament, proposed to the feuars of Greenock
to erect a harbour at their own expense. He suggested that quays should
be built out into the bay enclosing a space of over 8 acres. The funds,
be thought, should be provided by a tax on all malt ground at the mill
of Greenock, by an annual sum of £15 to be raised by the feuars, and by
the anchorage dues of all foreign vessels in the bay, Sir John
reserving to himself the dues of all ships belonging to the town. He
was to advance the money required as the work went on. A contract to
this effect was drawn up and signed in 1703, and, after some money had
accumulated, the work was begun in 1707, gardeners and masons being
brought from Edinburgh, the former being at that period universally
employed in Scotland for excavating. In 1710 the harbour and quays were
finished amid general rejoicing, the whole having cost £5555, 11s. 1d.
The breasts connecting the quays were not built till 1764, the harbours
having been transferred to the town council by the charter of 1751. In
1710 Crawfurd describes Greenock as `the chief town. upon the coast,
well built, consisting chiefly of one principal street, about a quarter
of a mile in length.' About this time the houses were covered with
thatch; in 1716 there were only 6 slated houses in the place. The
harbour is alluded to by a writer in 1711 as `a most commodious, safe,
and good harbour, having 18 feet depth at spring tide.' The bonds given
to Sir John Shaw in return for the
money advanced by him are still extant, and show that the first sum
handed over by the laird was 1000 merks on 25 May 1705; the second, on
28 Feb. 1707, £750, 12s. Scots; the third, on 20 April 1710, 2000
merks; and the fourth, £2439, 12s. 3d. Scots, advanced on 25 Sept.
1710. The immediate increase of revenue consequent on the extension of
the harbour accommodation made it possible to pay these off very soon,
the first bond being redeemed on 92 Nov. 1720, and the last on 5 Dec.
1730. In July 1708 Sir John Shaw, then member for Renfrewshire, applied
to Parliament for the establishment of a branch of the custom house at
Greenock. The petition was granted, and Greenock was made a creek of
Port Glasgow, then the principal customs station on the Clyde. In due
time this relationship was reversed, and Port Glasgow became officially
subordinate to Greenock, as it had then become in reality. The rapid
increase of foreign trade now stirred up more formidable enemies to the
rising port than the Scottish royal burghs had been. Merchants of
London, Liverpool, Bristol, and Whitehaven found that they were being
cut out of continental commerce, and they sought to prove that Greenock
was favoured by collusion between the customs officials and the
merchants of the town. A bill was introduced to take away the foreign
trade privileges of Greenock, and it required the reports of two
commissions, which wholly exonerated the town from the charges, backed
by the strenuous exertions of the Scottish representatives in the
British Parliament, to avert the threatened calamity. The customs
officials, who were Englishmen, were changed, a fresh body of officers
from England being installed to collect the revenues of Greenock. In
1715, the year of the Earl of Mar's
rising in favour of the Chevalier St. George, Greenock espoused the
Hanoverian cause, and ninety-two of its citizens volunteered to the Duke
of Argyll's army. They were taken in boats to Glasgow and marched
thence to Stirling, where they joined the Hanoverian forces. While Sir
John Shaw was away fighting the Jacobites Rob
Roy created a diversion at Greenock by capturing all the boats on the N
shore of the Clyde, and `lifting' cattle from the parishes of Cardross,
Erskine, and Houston. He conveyed the cattle up the river Leven at
Dumbarton to Loch Lomond, landing them at Rowardennan, thence driving
them into his retreats in the Braes of Balquhidder. A hundred Greenock
men, assisted by arms and men from a 74-gun ship in the roads pursued
the caterans, but only succeeded in regaining the stolen boats. The
episode of the Rising of `The Fifteen'
cost the burgh of Greenock £1529, 5s. 4d. besides much anxiety. In
1728, the first year the returns were published, the customs revenue of
Greenock amounted to £133,231, 4s. 4d.; and at that time 900 large
boats were engaged in the herring fishery, these figures amply showing
the prosperity of the place.
Till 1741 the burghal affairs of
Greenock were superintended by the laird, the feudal superior, or by a
baron-bailie appointed by him. By a charter dated 30 Jan. in that year,
and by another dated in 1751, Sir John Shaw
gave power to the feuars and sub-feuars to meet yearly for the purpose
of choosing 9 feuars residing in Greenock, to be managers of the burgh
funds, of whom 2 were to be bailies, 1 treasurer, and 6 councillors.
The charter of 1751 gave power to hold weekly courts, to imprison and
punish delinquents, to choose officers of court, to make laws for
maintaining order, and to admit merchants and tradesmen as burgesses on
payment of 30 merks Scots--£l, 13s. 4d. sterling. The qualification of
councillor was being a feuar and resident within the town. The election
lay with the feuars, resident and non-resident; the mode of election of
the magistrates and council being by signed lists, personally delivered
by the voter, stating the names of the councillors he wished to be
removed, and the persons whom he wished substituted in their room. In
the interval between these two charters, the second Jacobite
insurrection occurred, and the part taken by Greenock in 1715 naturally
draws attention to its action in 1745. This time the citizens were more
passive in their adherence to the de facto government, and Sir John
Shaw, now old and infirm, but always active, raised and drilled a body
of volunteers for the defence of the neighbourhood. In these days it
may be difficult to understand the deep feeling which moved Greenock on
the death of Sir John Shaw, so long the
feudal superior, patron, advocate, and leading spirit of the town,
which sad event took place on 5 April 1752. In 1825 a portrait of this
public-spirited benefactor was subscribed for and placed in the public
reading room of Greenock.
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