Paisley - Paisley

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Paisley. A large parliamentary burgh in the Upper Ward of Renfrewshire and in the NE part of the county. It is a seat of important manufactures, a river port, the political capital of the Upper Ward, and the sixth most populous town in Scotland. It stands on both banks of the river White Cart, about 3 miles from its junction with the Clyde, and is in the Abbey parish of Paisley, which has been already noticed. Paisley has been greatly improved and extended in the last quarter of the 19th century. In the east end of the town especially great extensions have been effected, while in the north, south, and west much advance has also been made.The town has a railway station, with separate platforms for the Caledonian and the Glasgow and South-Western railway companies, and by rail is 3 miles SSW of Renfrew, 3 E by N of Johnstone, 7 W by S of Glasgow, 16 ESE of Greenock, and 33 1/3 NNE of Ayr. On the Caledonian railway St. James' station accommodates the district to the W. The South-Western has two lines running from Glasgow to Paisley, one with Gilmour Street station on the Main line, and the Canal line with two stations, Hawkhead and Canal. A new station has been erected at Corsebar Junction, also a new west-end station. There are two branch lines--one to Renfrew, and the other to Potterhill, with a station close to Gleniffer Braes. Part of the site of the burgh is a gentle hilly ridge extending westward from the Cart; part is the N side of a similar ridge running parallel on the S, and the rest is partly low ground lying between and around these ridges on the W back of the river, and partly an expanse of level ground lying along the E bank. There is good scenery around the town; and from the rising grounds to the southward good views of the valley of the Clyde, the Kilpatrick Hills and some of the Grampians, of the valley of the Gryfe, and of Gleniffer Braes and many of the scenes of Tannahill's poems, may be obtained.
     The municipal and parliamentary boundary begins on the NW between Candren and East Candren, and passes southward along Candren Burn to North Breidland; from that ESE to Potterhill, thence NE to beyond Bathgo Hill (135 feet), and from that north-westward to Knock Hill (84 feet; the traditional spot where Marjory Bruce, wife of Walter the High Steward of Scotland, was thrown from her horse and killed (1316); and till 1779 there were remains of a pillar or cross, said to have been erected to mark the place, and known as Queen Bleary's Cross, although Marjory never was Queen, and Blear-eye was the name given to her son, afterwards Robert II., and not to herself. The monument was destroyed in the year just mentioned by a farmer, who used the pillar as a door lintel and the stones of the supporting steps to repair a fence.) on the extreme end, whence it strikes back to the starting point. The distance in a straight line from Bathgo Hill on the E to Breidland on the W is 3 miles, and from Knock Hill on the N to Potterhill on the S is 2 3/4 miles, but a portion of the area is not built on. The town proper consists of the old town, the new town, and a number of suburbs. The old town occupies the chief ridge westward of the Cart, and covers an area of about a mile square. The new town, which stands on the E side of the river, includes the Abbey buildings, and occupies the ground formerly used as the Abbey gardens. It was founded in 1779 by the eighth Earl of Abercorn, and the streets are pretty regularly laid out. The suburbs of Charleston, Lylesland, and Dovesland form an addition to the S of the old town; Maxwelton, Ferguslie, and Millerston form a long straggling extension to the W. Williamsburgh forms a small extension to the E of the new town, and there are other suburbs at Carriagehill, Castle Head, Meikleriggs, and Mossvale. The streets at Walneuk and Smithhills to the W of the new town were in existence before it, and Seedhills is so old as to have belonged to the original burgh. The straggling nature of the town causes it to occupy more ground than corresponds with the population. The main line of streets runs from E to W along the road from Glasgow by Johnstone to Ayrshire, and the line from E to W bears the name of Glasgow Road, Garthland Street, Gauze Street, Smithhills Street, The Cross, High Street, Well Meadow Street, and Broomlands Street; beyond which is Ferguslie, and further W Elderslie, Thorn, and Johnstone. From the Cross the old irregular Causewayside Street strikes south-south-westward, and from it a long straight street, George Street, passes westward to Broomlands Street. The main cross connection between George Street and Causewayside Street is Canal Street. Below the railway station is County Place, and to the N of the line opposite the station is Old Sneddon Street, from the W end of which Back Sneddon Street (E), Love Street (centre), and St. James Street and Caledonia Street along the Greenock Road (W) all branch off. Many of the streets of the new town are named from the fabrics used in the manufactures of the town. The streets of the old town are narrow, and still contain many of the old houses of the 17th and 18th centuries, but changes in this respect are rapidly taking place, as may be seen in the widening of High Street and the many new buildings recently erected or still being built along it. On the rising-ground to the S there are a number of detached villas. To the N of the main line of streets is the railway, elevated above the level of the streets. Until the line approaches the station it is used by both the Caledonian and Glasgow and South-Western companies, when it branches off, the Caledonian passing north-westward towards Greenock, and the Glasgow and South-Western west-south-westward, till near Elderslie it sends off a branch north-westward to Greenock, while the main line passes on to Ayrshire. The Glasgow, Paisley, and Johnstone Canal, after having lost a large portion of its trade, was in 1883-85 converted into a railway by the Glasgow and South-Western company. In its palmy days the canal is said to have carried over 300,000 passengers a year in its light passenger boats. So late as 1814 the only carriage communication with Glasgow was by a coach, which conveyed the cotton-spinners and yarn merchants to town once a week on the mornings of market days, and brought them home in the evening.
     History.--The derivation of the name is somewhat doubtful. The older forms are Passelet, Passeleth, and Passelay, for which the conjectural derivations have been given of `the moist pasture-land,' from the British Pasgel-laith, or `the flat stone shoal,' from the British Bas-lech or the Gaelic Bas-leac, the latter derivation having reference to the ledge of rock running across the channel of the White Cart near the town. In the 16th century the name was changed into Paslay and Pasley, and in the course of the 18th century it took its present form. Paisley was till very recently looked on as the site of the Roman station of Vanduara, properly Vandogara, mentioned by Ptolemy, the identification resting mainly on the resemblance of the name of the station to the British Gwen-dwr or `white water,' which was supposed to have been the name then given to the White Cart. Principal Dunlop, writing in the end of the 17th century, and Crawford, who published his history of Renfrewshire in 1710, both describe Roman remains in the neighbourhood. Principal Dunlop says:--`At Paisley there is a large Roman camp to be seen. The praetorium or innermost part of the camp is on the west end of a rising-ground, or little hill, called Cap Shawhead, on the south-east descent of which hill standeth the town of Paisley. The praetorium is not very large, but hath been well fortified with three fosses and dykes of earth, which must have been large, when to this day their vestiges are so great that men on horseback will not see over them. The camp itself hath been great and large, it comprehending the whole hill. There are vestiges, on the north side, of the fusses and dyke, whereby it appears that the camp reached to the river Cart. On the north side the dyke goeth alongst the foot of the hill; and if we allow it to have gone so far on the other side, it hath enclosed all the space of ground on which the town of Paisley stands, and it may be guessed to be about a mile in compass. Its situation was both strong and pleasant, overlooking the whole country. I have not heard that any have been so curious as to dig the ground into this praetorium; but when they tread upon it, it gives a sound as if it were hollow below, where belike there are some of their vaults. Near to this camp, about a quarter of a mile, stand two other rises or little hills, the one to the west, the other to the south, which with this make almost a triangular form, where have been stations for the outer guards. The vestiges of these appear and make them little larger than the praetorium of the other camp of the same form, without any other fortification than a fosse and a dyke.' The large camp must have been at Oakshawhead, and the outposts at Woodside and Castle Head, but the extension of the town has now obliterated the traces of them. Gordon, in 1725, traced a military road from the great Clydesdale Road at Glasgow, across the Clyde by a ford that remained till 1772, and on to Paisley. In his Celtic Scotland, published in 1876 (Vol. i., p. 73), Dr. Skene combats the old view, objecting to the Gwen-dwr theory on the principle that rivers do not change their names, and also giving reasons for thinking that Vandogara was at Loudon Hill, on the river Irvine in Ayrshire; and so the matter rests.
     The first authentic reference to the present place must, therefore, be supposed to be in 1157, when King Malcolm IV. granted a charter in favour of Walter, the son of Alan, High Steward of Scotland, confirming a gift (not now extant) of certain extensive possessions, which King David had conferred on Walter. Lands called Passeleth formed part of those specified in the grant; and on these lands, on the E bank of the river, Walter founded the famous Abbey of Paisley. No village appears to have been on the lands when the monastery was founded, but the opposite bank was soon occupied by one inhabited by the retainers and `kindly tenants' of the monks, to whom it belonged. Under the fostering care of the church, and belonging to an abbey specially favoured by the Bruces and Stewarts, it must have thriven, and towards the end of the 15th century it had an opportunity of thriving still more, for Abbot Shaw, who had sided with the rebellious nobles against James III., obtained from the new government in 1488 a charter creating the village of Paisley a free burgh of barony, with `the full and free liberty of buying and selling in the said burgh, wire, wax, woollen and linen cloths, wholesale or retail, and all other goods and wares coming to it; with power and liberty of having and holding in the same place, bakers, brewers, butchers, and sellers both of flesh and fish, and workmen in the several crafts, . . . likewise to possess a cross and market for ever, every week, on Monday, and two public fairs yearly, for ever; namely one on the day of St. Mirren, and the other on the day of St. Marnoch;' and in 1490 the abbot and chapter granted to the magistrates of the burgh in feu-farm the ground on which the old town stands, and certain other privileges. The neighbouring burgh of Renfrew, to which the Paisley people had formerly been subject, looked on all this as an invasion of its privileges, and entered into a series of quarrels with the new burgh, and even went the length of violently seizing goods exposed for sale in order to compel payment of customs. The result of a lawsuit was a decision in favour of the magistrates of Paisley, given, however, on the ground that that town lay within the regality of the abbey, and was not therefore included in the charter granted to Renfrew in 1396, as the regality grant to the abbey was of prior date to that given to the burgh. This settled the matter, and the town remained subject to the abbot, and after the Reformation to the commendator till 1658, when the magistrates purchased the superiority of the town and other privileges from William Lord Cochrane, who was then Lord of Paisley. In 1665 they obtained a royal charter confirming the burgh in its lands and privileges, and in 1690 an act of parliament to allow them to hold two additional fairs. From this time, Paisley, holding directly of the Crown, has had practically all the privileges of a royal burgh, except that down to the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832 it had no direct parliamentary representation. In 1489 King James IV. in the course of his military operations visited the town, and he was here again in 1504 and 1507. It was at Paisley that the Lords of the Congregation assembled in 1565, but on the appearance of the royal troops at Glasgow they moved off to Hamilton. In 1597 there was expectation of a visit from the Queen, and in 1617 James VI. himself made his appearance at the abbey, where he was hospitably entertained; but there is a local tradition that `the bailies supplicated his Majesty not to enter into their bounds, their common burse being then so miserably reduced that they could not entertain him with that sumptuousness befitting their respective estates.' The next visit of a member of the royal family was that paid by the late Duke of Albany, when at Blythswood House, in 1875. Queen Victoria visited Paisley in August 1888, when its fourth anniversary as a burgh was being celebrated, and received a most loyal reception. In 1588 and again in 1602 the town suffered severely from the plague; and the gates, of which there were then five--one at the bridge, one at the foot of St. Mirren Street, one in High Street, one in Moss Street, and one in the School Wynd--were guarded with great vigilance, while no person was allowed to admit any one into the town by the gardens behind the houses. There was another outbreak of plague in 1645. In 1649 the town seems to have furnished a troop of horse for service in the army that was defeated at Dunbar, and subsequently the magistrates again provided six troopers for service against the English--proceedings which procured for the inhabitants the presence of a garrison of Cromwellian soldiers, whose support seems to have been felt as a very heavy burden. Paisley does not seem to have suffered so much as other places in the west during the Covenanting troubles, but the Cross was the scene in 1685 of the death of two farmers named Algie and Park from the neighbouring parish of Eastwood, who were executed for refusing to take the oath of abjuration. They were buried at the Gallowgreen, near the foot of Maxwelton Street; but when it was to be built on in 1779, their remains were removed to Broomlands burying-ground, which now forms part of the cemetery, and an obelisk was there erected to their memory in 1835. Between 1677 and 1697 a considerable number of reputed witches were executed, but none of the cases, except that afterwards alluded to, are of any general note. With the rest of the west the district hailed the Revolution of 1688 with great eagerness, and furnished its quota to the Renfrewshire men who went to Edinburgh to support the Convention. There is no record of the behaviour of the burgh in connection with the Union in 1707, but in 1715 we find a number of the townsmen binding themselves to raise and maintain a body of men because `considering the imminent danger we are in from the threatened invasion of the Pretender, and the danger from many within our own bossoms that are to joyn with him, ... it lyes upon all honest men as their indespensable duty to provid tymously for the defence of our Soveraign and our own sacred and civile interests.' In August of the same year a guard of 20 men was set every night, two flags were purchased, and a number of muskets, and 20 men were sent to the Duke of Argyll at Stirling, and one hundred and twenty Paisley Volunteers also joined the expedition against the Macgregors. During the Rebellion of 1745 Paisley raised a company of militia to aid the Hanoverian forces, and was in consequence fined £1000 by Prince Charles Edward when he was at Glasgow, £500 of which was paid. From this time till 1819 the history of the town is connected with the development of trade, but in that year a body of Chartists from Glasgow, who had been attending a great reform meeting at Meikleriggs Moor, attempted to march through the town with flags, contrary to an order of the magistrates. The police interfered, and serious rioting ensued, lasting for several days. The Paisley Chartists took an active part in the Unions and in the intended rising on 1 April 1820, and many of them had in consequence to flee to America. Except the outbreaks of cholera in 1832, 1834, and 1848, and the troubles thereby occasioned, the subsequent history of the place may be said to be trading and municipal.
     The town is the `Greysley' of Alexander Smith's story of Alfred Hagart's Household, where the town, as it appeared about 1840, and as in some respects it still appears, is described.

    


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