|
|
The story of
Johnstone is neither as long nor as illustrious as that of many places,
but it is a story well worth the telling. It has deep human interest and
no mean record of industrial achievement. The town of Johnstone is not old
as towns go.
Planned in the year 1781 by George Houstoun, Laird of Johnstone. it is
essentially a product of the first Industrial Revolution. The estate and
lands, on which it was built, however, have historical associations that
go hack for many centuries.
FEUDAL TIMES
There is no clear record of the origin of the name "Johnstone". It may
have developed from John's dwelling or homestead, John having been some
feudal lord to whom the land was given by Walter the High Steward of
Scotland when he divided out his vast domains in the lands we now call
Renfrewshire.
The name Johnstone however appears on one of the earliest maps of Scotland
(surveyed by Timothy Font) which must have been completed about the year
1590. It is written Ihonstoun. In other charts and documents, it is
written Johnstown, Johnston, etc. Spelling of place names was not
standardised until modern times.
In order to understand the history of the town it must be made clear that
the estate and lands of Johnstone lay originally on the left bank of the
river Black Cart and are the lands now known as Milliken (in the Parish of
Kilbarchan). The estate was a very old one.
Crawford, in his History of Renfrewshire, tells us: "An ancient family of
the surname of Wallace did possess these lands for many ages; they
descended from the house of Elderslie by Thomas, a younger son of John
Wallace of Elderslie, in the reign of Robert III. This family obtained the
lands of Johnstone by marriage of the heiress, who was of the surname of
Nisbet. The family failed in the person of William Wallace of Johnstoun in
the reign of Charles 1. The lands were then acquired by Ludovic Houstoun
of Houston and became the patrimony of George Houstoun his second son."
All this is in reference to the estate now called
Milliken (reduced in our time to the "White House of Milliken"). On the
map already referred to, nothing of Johnstone is shown on the right bank
of the river, but a bridge is indicated and this bridge has some
significance as we shall see later. Note the
many names on the map that are familiar to this day. e.g. Cartsid. Mil of
Kart, Quarreltoun. etc. Here we have ample proof that there are few things
more abiding in history than place names.
Opposite the House of Johnstone, on the right bank of the river (where the
town now stands) lay the lands and Barony of Cochran, owned by the Cochran
family (some time Earls of Dundonald) for centuries. The crumbling ruins
of their ancient castle were just visible about 1817 and to mark the site,
the laird of Johnstone erected a tower in 1896. The tower still stands, in
a good state of repair, just off Auchengreoch Road and a little to the
west of the new High School at Beith Road. (picture to come)
To the east of Cochran Castle lay the lands of Easter Cochran (which
included Quarrelton, Greenend, Hag and Nether Cartside). These lands were
also possessed by the Cochran family and after passing through several
hands, were finally acquired by the Houstoun family.
This transaction made history for Johnstone; indeed it made the history of
Johnstone as we know it. In 1733 the Houstouns sold their estate
(Johnstone) on the left bank of the river and moved to Easter Cochran. One
momentous condition of the sale, however, was that the name Johnstone
should be transferred across the river as it were and applied to their new
abode, the name Easter Cochran being dropped.
From that date, the name Johnstone was applied to the castle and to the
lands on which the town now stands.
The old estate of Johnstone, on the left bank of the river, was sold to a
Major Milliken who gave the place his own name of Milliken. There is one
other title we must mention, since it has some bearing on our story; that
is the name of Napier (there was once a Napier Street in Johnstone this
now forms the entrance to the premises of Messrs. Playtex Ltd. (now
Strathclyde Chemicals), at the old Johnstone North Station). As previously
mentioned Major James Milliken bought the lands of Johnstone from the
Houstoun family in 1733. Major Milliken died in 1741 and his eldest
daughter (his son having died) married Colonel William Napier of Culreugh
in Stirlingshire. This Colonel Napier was a direct descendant of the great
John Napier of Merchiston (Edinburgh) the renowned inventor of logarithms,
and reckoned to be the greatest mathematician of his age.
Colonel Napier was succeeded by his son who had a
distinguished military career. He died in 1808 and was succeeded by his
only son William Napier Milliken of Milliken. He afterwards became
Lord-Lieutenant of the County of Renfrew.
The names of Wallace, Houstoun, Napier and Milliken representing as they
do the feudal lords have left us only their names. Their castles have been
swept away. The tower of Johnstone castle still stands (much to the credit
of the then, Johnstone Town Council) the last monument of feudalism in our
midst.
There is some reflected glory, however, in the name of Wallace.
Some historians have tended to question the association of Wallace with
this neighbourhood. There is ample evidence, however, that the Wallaces
were of Elderslie and Johnstone.
Robert Wallace, laird of Ihenstoun, fell at Flodden, and the name Wallace
of Johnstone frequently occurs in the Register of the Privy Council
(1589-1592). The name occurs also in the records of the Presbytery of
Paisley. Sir Peter Houstoun of Houston also fell at Flodden, together with
the laird of Barrochan and Lord Semple of Castle Semple, and who knows how
many of the lesser, nameless folk, tenants and retainers from the land of
Johnstone who followed their lords to that fatal field.
Our lands were not in the main stream of Scottish history.
Many of the great national events passed us by. They did, however, send
ripples into our backwater. After the Reformation, the Church, through its
courts exerted a formidable influence in the Scottish way of life. It did
not hesitate to interfere in the most intimate affairs of people great and
small.
In the year 1605, the Minutes of the Presbytery of Paisley reveal that
William Wallace - auld laird of Johnstone was causing some concern to that
watchful and powerful body.
He is reported as having: "absented himself from communion in 1605 and
again in 1606 he does not frequent the hearing of the word and has doubts
regarding ye treuth of God presently presented in Scotland and established
by His Majestie's Laws."
The Presbytery appointed brethren to confer with him and: "to inform him
in ye grounds of true religion."
Many of the older generation were reluctant to abandon the Church of Rome,
but the Reformed Church gained complete ascendancy in this district, for
we read that in 1670 (during the "Killing Time") "the laird of Johnstone
was apprehended and put to great trouble for having his former Minister in
his own house and having him preach to his family. He was brought before
the Chancellor where it was likely to stand hard with him. With difficulty
his family got him liberated, upon his giving a bond of 5,000 merks and to
compere when called."
During the abortive rising and defeat of the Covenanters at Rullion Green
in 1666, the Presbytery of Paisley were ordered to find and report all
rebels within their bounds. Only one name was submitted William
Porterfield of Quarrelton, but as William had already made good his
escape, it looks as if the Presbytery had turned the Nelson eye on the
order.
The Houstouns were rigid Presbyterians; so were the Cochrans. But we read
of one black sheep of the former family getting himself into trouble at
Glasgow University for making a public oration to the students, which
outraged the Principal and the professors and "struck at the very
mysteries of our religion and was for the encouragement of vice" how
modern it all sounds.
Houstoun was only saved from expulsion by the influence of the Rector,
Lord Pollock who declared that his parents were good Presbyterians and
brought up their children in the fear of the Lord.
This youth, later Doctor James Houstoun, M.D., was a 'character' and a
playboy too. He wrote his autobiography and had it published in London in
1753. He tells us that his father was George Houstoun of Johnstone and
that he was the youngest of fifteen children. He was a pupil of Paisley
Grammar School about 1695 studied at the Universities of Glasgow,
Edinburgh, Leyden and finally Paris. He was appointed Surgeon-General to
the Forces in the 1715 rebellion.
Later he was employed as Physician and Surgeon-General to the Royal
African Company and blithely tells us that he examined negro slaves for
the 'export' trade in 1724. His book is a lively commentary on the social
life of his time. If it was not a 'best seller' it deserved to be.
Unfortunately he tells us too little of his native Johnstone.
Feudal rule was not without its critics. We read in the Judicial Records
of Renfrewshire that one "William Wodrow, miller in Johnstone in the year
1720 having shaken off all fear of God and regard for the Law did within
the half-year thigg many curses and imprecations upon the family of
Houstoun saying God's curse light upon the said family God damn all the
generation of them, with many other such like unchristian and
unwarrantable expressions." No doubt the miller had some justification for
his wrath, but it is not stated. But doubtless if he had encountered Dr.
Houstoun, M.D., the latter could have matched him in vituperation.
Our records of the past are scanty; imagination must fill the gaps. We are
certain of some things and may reasonably speculate on others. Roman
soldiers saw Ben Lomond just as we see it today and no doubt cursed the
British weather as they marched up to the fort at Bishopton. Did Wallace
fish in the Cart as tradition has it? Edward l's men burned Paisley Abbey
in 1307. Was the reek from it visible at Johnstone?
Prince Charlie marched through Glasgow in 1745. We are told that farmers
here about hid their horses in Linwood Moss, at the news of his approach.
They had good reason, for Charlie's men we know plundered Blackstone
House, not two miles away. The reason being that Captain Napier of
Blackstone commanded the local militia that opposed the Prince.
Before we leave the feudal past and cross the threshold of modern times
let us look at "the land on which we stand" as it must have appeared to
our forefathers, before a sod was cut on the site of Johnstone.
Down by the bridge that spanned the dark waters of the Black Cart you
would look up a narrow vale of extraordinary natural beauty, a vale of
wooded slopes and flowery banks, the curving river tumbling and spreading
over shallow falls as it descended from Hag Bank and sweeping gracefully
over the flats of Mill of Cart. The banks on the south rise steeply to an
undulating plateau of good dry land which is now Houstoun Square. Think
away all buildings and you would have a significant view of both Highland
and Lowland scenery. To the north: Ben Lomond and the Kilpatrick Hills. To
the west: the heights of Renfrewshire rising gently to Misty Law. To the
south: the Braes of Gleniffer all around vistas of natural beauty. Of
course there was bog and marsh moor and fen, but it was on the plateau of
'good dry land" that the town was built.
|