Who do you think they are? Kilbarchan Parish Churchyard

Before the neglected Kilbarchan Parish Church burial ground completely disappears below the undergrowth, some research into the identity and lives of the people who were interred therein may be of interest. The two stones shown in the image above stand side by side against the wall of the old church. Both stones have the same shape and identical ornamentation, and appear to be carved by the same stone mason and dedicated to the same James Black. The inscription on the larger stone on the left of the image above reads “Dedicated to the memory of James Black farmer in Penneld who died April 1785 aged 64 years”. The inscription on the smaller stone reads “JB MW 1785”. But who was James Black?

James Black, in Lochermiln, married Mary Wilson (MW) in 1751. Mary was the eldest daughter of John Wilson, and Mary Henderson of Sandholes. James and Mary started their married life in Locher Mill where the first two of their seven children, Agnes and Mary, were born in 1752 and 1754. Before 1757, the family moved to nearby Penneld where James converted the old corn mill at Nether Penneld on the River Locher into a barley mill which he operated for some years. By his early forties, James appears to have been a man of significance in the community and a prosperous farmer and miller. In 1760 he was wealthy enough to purchase Glentyan mill in Kilbarchan village from Patrick Crawfurd, the last laird of Auchinames, and in 1763 he was appointed as an elder in the Parish Church. In 1770 he demolished his barley mill and on June 12^th, 1775, he sold the lands of Glentyan with the corn mill to Alexander Speirs, the linen merchant who built Glentyan House. By 1782 he was carrying on both lime and coal work at his farm called Moor of Waterston and at Tween–of-hills, the property of Robert Napier of Milliken. Both John and his wife died in 1785. It can be assumed that Mary died a few months after the death of her husband, and a second stone was erected.

James and Mary’s second daughter, Mary Black, married James Semple, Jun. of Middleton in 1776. The Semples of Middleton (now part of Linwood) were thread manufacturers in the old Kilbarchan Parish. Mary died young, in June 1779, aged 24 years. She too is interred in the burial ground. Her large gravestone lies flat on the grass beside Captain Stirling’s fenced enclosure. (See below)