Renfrewshire Local History Forum > Articles by: helen calcluth > Page 10

Mills on the Gryfe: The Upper Gryfe

The River Gryfe rises on the slopes of Creuch Hill, on the boundary between Greenock and Inverkip parishes, almost into Ayrshire. The river falls quite steeply north for two miles, before it becomes dominated by two dams, completed in 1872. These have the imaginative names of ‘Gryfe No.1’ and ‘Gryfe No.2’ reservoirs. The reservoirs lie directly east of Loch Thom, but instead of following Loch Thom’s circuitous Greenock cut, the water from the Gryfe reservoirs flows down a deep tunnel to supply Greenock with drinking water. In the Victorian period this scheme was a great source of concern for Bridge of Weir residents, as it siphoned off much of the Gryfe’s flow.

Before the Gryfe reaches Bridge of Weir, it is joined by several lesser burns. The largest is the Green Water, which runs parallel to the Gryfe for many miles, before merging at Duchal. Before reaching Bridge of Weir, the Gryfe catchment supplied at least nine mill sites, including grain, waulk and lint mills. Several of the grain mills are ancient. Although often referred to as corn mills, in this area they invariably ground oatmeal.
Bridge of Weir is best known for cotton mills, but they were preceded by a much smaller type of textile mill, the lint mill. In the traditional linen industry, the preparation or dressing of raw flax was very labour intensive. In the 1790s the Old Statistical account noted that although “there are great quantities of lint raised in the Shire of Renfrew, the great expense of dressing it is a discouragement”. From the 1730s a government body, the Board of Trustees, encouraged and funded new lint mills. The lint mills mechanised the ‘breaking’ and ‘scutching’ of the raw flax, to remove the fibre from the stems.

One of the earliest lint mills in Scotland was on the Green Water at Duchal Steps. In 1733 John Wilson in Duchal Steps was granted the cost of building the lint mill there. There was a great deal of sharing of expertise and John Honeyman was brought to Duchal from Clayslaps lint mill on the Kelvin (below the modern Kelvingrove Museum). His brother Thomas Honeyman was working at Barochan Lint Mill in Renfrewshire. In 1730 there was another very early lint mill on the Gaton Burn at Nittonshiel. This was located in the centre of what later became Quarriers village.
Another early type of textile mill was the waulk mill. In waulk mills, cloth or leather was soaked in vats, mixed with soap and other chemicals. The wet fabric was then pounded with water-powered hammers to clean and soften it. Some sites had two or more mills. Recent work by locals has shown that Mathernock had waulk and grain mills as early as the 1580s. By the 1780s, Semple’s History of Renfrewshire, describes a waulk mill and an ‘ancient’ corn mill there. Waulk mills were connected with the tanning and dying trades and a dyster was living at Mathernock waulk mill in the eighteenth century.

A later type of mill which was common in the area was the threshing mill. Threshing mills were added to numerous farms from the 1830s. Mathernock had a threshing mill, which was initially driven by a horse gin, turned by one or two horses walking in a circular rink. Later the threshing mill was driven by water which was stored in a pond above the farm.

The Milliken Mystery

The old Parish Church in Kilbarchan, now used as the West/Parish Church Hall, was rebuilt in 1724 on the site of the former parish church. Two aisles, with burial mausoleums beneath and galleries above, were incorporated in the building. These aisles were owned by the most important landowners in the parish, the Houstons of the old JohnstoneCastle and the Cunninghames of Craigends.

In 1733 James Milliken, a plantation owner who had acquired immense wealth in the Caribbean, bought the old Johnstone Castle and its lands from the Houstons. The Milliken family transformed the lands, now known as Milliken Estate, and were soon to become feu superiors of most of Kilbarchan village and patrons of KilbarchanParishChurch. They also took over the Johnstone aisle, which became known as the Milliken aisle. After three generations the male line of Millikens died out and the Napier family took over through marriage to one of the Milliken daughters.

When the present KilbarchanParishChurch was built in 1901, the old church was converted into the church hall. The renovation work necessitated the removal of the Milliken mausoleum. This mausoleum, beneath the enclosed gallery above, contained ten coffins of the Milliken family and their Napier heirs and descendants. This presented a dilemma! What was to be done with the coffins?

Perhaps fortuitously, Mary Milliken Speirs, a direct descendant of the Millikens, died in 1902. When she was buried in the new KilbarchanCemetery, these old coffins were removed from the old church building and interred with her remains. The names of those interred with her are listed on the reverse of her gravestone. These must be among the oldest interred remains in a modern cemetery.

However, the inscription contains a mystery. Listed above the first Milliken heir, Major James Milliken, is a ‘Sir’ James Milliken who died in the same year as the Major. Strangely, no other record can be found for Sir James. Did he really exist, or was he added to give a pedigree to the Milliken family, who otherwise originated as ordinary seafarers from Irvine?

Mary Milliken Speirs Gravestone

Reverse side of gravestone

Elderslie Mills and Old Patrick Water

Waterfall formed by a breach in the old Elderslie Cotton Mill Dam. (see sbove)

Renfrewshire had numerous cotton mills. The best-known mills were on the main rivers, the Black Cart, White Cart and Gryfe. However some lesser burns, including the Old Patrick Water at Elderslie, also powered large cotton mills from the 1790s.

The Old Patrick Water drops steeply from the waterlogged Caplaw Moss, down through Elderslie, and into the Black Cart between Johnstone and Linwood. Traditionally the burn powered meal mills at Elderslie Mill and Mackies Mill. The name Mackies Mill still survives as the name of a farm half way up the Old Patrick.

In the 1720s Houston of Johnstone got permission from Claude Alexander of Newton to built a dam near Craigmuir farm, just before the Old Patrick drops 60 metres over a succession of spectacular waterfalls. This dam diverted part of the burn’s flow for two miles, across to Johnstone. The purpose was to turn a “water engine” and pump water out of Houston’s Quarrelton coal field. In 1728 an apprentice was indentured by Houston of Johnstone to look after the “Water Wheel, Pumps and Gins, for out-taking his coal of Quarrelton and for draining the water therefrom”.

Elderslie meal mill was situated in Elderslie village, just above the Main Road. In 1791 the site was purchased by John Clark, a wright from Paisley, who built a much larger mill to spin cotton. In 1794 Clark also built Caplaw Dam, up near the source of the Old Patrick on Caplaw Moss, at the former Peesweep sanatorium. This dam was to store water for his new cotton mill. Caplaw Dam and its reservoir still survive up on the moors. Down in Elderslie, Clark also built another large dam to provide a 30 foot fall to power his cotton mill wheel.

Elderslie cotton mill was located on the Main Road, between the Old Patrick and the Wallace Monument. Soon after construction, John Clark sold the mill to the King brothers of Lonend in Paisley, who were partners with Robert Corse at Johnstone Old Cotton Mill. The two cotton mills were run for many years as one business. By 1823 Elderslie cotton mill had 9,400 mule spindles and the water wheel was complimented by a steam engine.

Elderslie cotton mill passed through various owners and, after the decline of the cotton industry, persisted as a clothing factory. The mill was typical of the tall whitewashed Renfrewshire cotton mills, and was finally demolished about 50 years ago. The nearby dam and sluice survive, although the dam is breached, forming a spectacular waterfall.

From 1793 further potential mill situations on the Old Patrick water were advertised in the press. This led gradually to further use of the Old Patrick water to supply power and process water to various other industries further upstream. The first was a large paper mill, built at Patrickbank in 1815 by Vallance and Lamb. This was driven by a 30 foot fall, and the manager’s house was at Leitchland nearby. By the 1820s the paper mill was worked by Walter Millar, with three vats for making paper. In the 1830s it was part of the Collins paper empire and the mill still had water rights to Caplaw reservoir.

By 1841 the paper mill became Partickbank print works. Much of the printworks still survived into the 1990s as part of the much larger Stoddart’s Carpet Factory which stretched further downstream. Both were razed and redeveloped with housing shortly after 2000. Only the dam and lade survive in the glen.

Slightly further upstream, at another spectacular water fall, Glenpatrick Distillery was established by the 1840s. This led to the Old Patrick being more commonly known as the Brandy Burn. Despite the demolition of all the mills, various traces of their dams and lades can still been seen when walking along the banks of the Old Patrick.

Renfrewshire Folklore

Stories! With our history, we should be hoaching with folk-tales of fairies and kelpies, ghosts, tricksters, clowns, and con-men. In fact the Gryffe valley has a fairly good range of ancient and improbable tales, but nobody tells them any more.

Have you ever heard of the fairy ring and the fierce defence the fairies made of it? What about the giant’s teeth, five inches long? – or the death-dealing, satan-worshipping ghost of Duchal Castle ; or the sardonic assassin at Duchal House (not the house you know, but another one we’ve forgotten). What about the shape-shifting housewife who spent her spare time living as a hare; or the minister who consulted the Devil?

And then there’s the thousand lost stories of japes, adventures, scams, triumphs, and tragedies at work and at home. The old mills of Bridge of Weir, the farms, homes, schools, shops, and workplaces across the valley are a rich repository of our heritage.
If you haven’t heard any of these tales it’s because people stopped listening and stopped telling.

We’ve just left the brief interlude when we plan and (sometimes) discard our New Year Resolutions; and we’re approaching the season for spring-cleaning, the time when you find old memories at the back of a drawer. Sometimes you throw them into the bin. Why not make a Spring Resolution that goes something like this: `I’ll pick up a local story and I’ll pass it on’. Don’t under-estimate yourself – you’ll be making a unique contribution to our heritage. If you have any stories to pass on please send them to: Alan Steel at alan@inclusionmatters.co.uk

Who was Habbie Simson?

Natives of Kilbarchan village are known as ‘Habbies’ in memory of the Kilbarchan piper, Habbie Simson, whose statue stands in a niche on the Steeple.

But who was Habbie Simson? What do we know of his life? A contemporaneous poem entitled The Life and Death of the Piper of Kilbarchan, written by Robert Sempill of Belltrees (c1599-1661) laments his death and gives some insight into his life. The earliest extant copy of this poem was published in a broadsheet before 1700.

Robert Simson, known as Habbie, was born in the latter part of the sixteenth century. He was a colourful character who wore feathers on his hat. Tradition has it that he was a flesher (butcher) as well as a piper. The Life and Death of the Kilbarchan Piper tells of occasions and events where Habbie played his pipes, – the kirkyard on Sundays, weddings, Kilkbarchan Horse Races, St Barchan’s Day Feast, and the gatherings of Spearmen. These gatherings, known as wappinschaws, were military musters or training exercises held twice a year in Kilbarchan.

Habbie was also known further afield when he played his pipes at Clark plays. These were stage plays performed on platforms in the open air. Habbie is said to have played at Clark plays in Edinburgh when the author of the poem, Robert Semple of Beltrees, attended court. Habbie was certainly a well-renowned as a piper, a celebrity in his day. His skill was acclaimed in the song Maggie Lauder written by Robert Sempill’s son Francis.

“There’s nane in Scotland plays sae weel
Sin’ we lost Habbie Simson.”

Further information on Habbie’s life is recorded in ‘The Poems of the Sempills of Beltrees’ published in 1849 with edited with notes by T. G. Stevenson. The notes include a brief account of Habbie’s life drawn up by Francis Sempill’s son, Robert. This account gives some details of Habbie’s boyhood. With other village boys he worked as a herd at Barrhill where according to Sempill there was a coalpit. He saved the money he earned as a herd and bought his first pipes from the village bagpipe maker for four pounds Scots. He married, probably Kathrein Pollik, and had at least one son whom he taught to play the pipes.

Robert Semple recounts a famous incident after a wedding in the village where Habbie provided the music. The wedding party retired to a little green at Pennel (Penwold on the road to Bridge of Weir) where Habbie continued to play for the dancing. The music included an exciting new tune, whip-meg-morum. During the revelry a young drunken fellow stabbed the bag for Habbie’s pipes with a knife. Habbie drew his kittoch (dirk) in retaliation and pushed the youth down. He thought that he had killed the man and went into hiding on Craigends Moss.

“But yet the man was hame before him, And was not deid !”

Habbie went home next day to be told by his wife that the man was live and well. However, Robert Simson (Habbie) did get into trouble with the law on other occasions. He is documented in official court records in 1603 when he was banished from the Burgh of Paisley for ‘misbehaviour and certane offences, injuries and wrongs’

After an eventful life, Habbie lived to a ripe old age.

“And when he play’d, the lasses leugh,
To see him teethless, auld and teugh.”

He is buried in Kilbarchan churchyard. His small flat grave stone lies next to the Auchinames enclosure and bears the initials H and S. What appears to be a butcher’s cleaver is inscribed on the stone.

A Kilbarchan Weaver Poet: Robert Allan

Just as Paisley had Tannahill, Kilbarchan had its own weaver poet, Robert Allan. The son of a flax dresser, Robert Allan was born in Kilbarchan in 1774. For most of his life he lived and worked as a silk weaver in the old part of the village known as Tounfoot. In the eighteenth century Tounfoot was a thriving community occupied by weavers and other tradesmen. It had a female school, a poor house and a Baptist meeting house. Tounfoot was demolished in the late eighteenth century. The land at the bottom of what is now Church Street where Tounfoot stood became part of Glentyan Estate.

In his forties Robert Allan was an active Radical and played a significant part in political meetings and demonstrations. He presided over an important Radical meeting in the Relief Church and with other Kilbarchan weavers played a prominent part in the Radical demonstrations in Paisley in 1819 and 1820.

The two poets, Robert Tannahill and Robert Allan, were close friends and literary associates. Both were admirers of Robert Burns. Robert Allan was an active member in Kilbarchan Burns Anniversary Society, founded in 1806, and was much respected as a poet by the members of Paisley Burns Club who greatly admired his work. On 5th February, 1818, they elected him as an honorary member of Paisley Burns Club in appreciation of the quality of poems he had sent to them.

Although Robert Allan had been writing poems since the early eighteen hundreds, none of his poems had been published. In 1819, the year after he received his honorary membership of Paisley Burns Club, several of Robert Allan’s songs were published in the Harp of Renfrewshire and received special mention by the book’s editor, William Motherwell. In 1836 Robert published a book of his own poems entitled Evening Hours: Poems and Songs. As was common at the time, the book was published by subscription. Despite his previous acclaim as a poet and the support of the subscribers, the book was not so well received as he had hoped and was not a financial success. He was disappointed and felt his merit as a poet had not been recognised. He is said to have become ‘irritable in his temper and gloomy in appearance’. According to David Semple (1874) his disappointment influenced his later decision to leave Scotland and emigrate to America.

Two other factors may have influenced this decision. In the 1830s Robert Allan was engaged as an agent for a weaving manufacturer. From around 1840 the weaving manufacturers in Paisley, on whom the skilled Kilbarchan weavers depended for work, were entering a period of financial difficulties. The poor state of trade may have influenced his decision to emigrate.

In the past, some of Robert Allan’s friends had emigrated to America where they prospered. It is likely that James Scouler was one of these old friends. James Scouler, a calico printer at Locher, had fled to America after involvement in a secret Radical meeting which he attended in Kilbarchan in 1816. He subsequently established a large, successful printworks at Arlington in West Cambridge, Massechusetts, and was a wealthy man. In 1838 he left his business in the capable hands of his sons and made a return visit to Scotland where Robert Allan may well have met him in Kilbarchan.

Whatever the reason for his decision, Robert Allan, then in his mid-sixties, emigrated to America with his son Robert in 1841, but six days after his arrival in America he unfortunately died of a chill caught at sea. At the bottom of Church Street near the spot where his house once stood, a commemorative well was erected to his memory by Kilbarchan General Society in 1935. He is the only Kilbarchan weaver to have a commemorative monument in the village.

Robert Allan Well Memorial (Click on image to enlarge)

Limeworks and Mining on the Gryfe

The rural banks of the Gryfe between Bridge of Weir and Crosslee may seem unlikely locations for mine workings but, for at least 200 years, they were the location of an intensive quarrying and mining industry. Local coal was mined for use in the process of turning locally quarried limestone into lime. Today there is little to remind us of the coal mining industry, apart from hints contained in place names such as ‘Coalbog’ but there are plenty of reminders of the lime producing industry.

Quarries were opened to provide lime for mortar for the building of the six-storey Crosslee Cotton mill in the 1790s but the main use of lime from the mid eighteenth century was as an agricultural fertiliser. Old lime workings in the Gryfe and Locher area dating from the late 1600s had their heyday during this later period, when farming improvements were being introduced across the country. Adding lime to the local clay soil could multiply crop yield several times over.

Lime was therefore a very valuable asset to any estate owners who were lucky enough to have it under their lands. It was used as currency, and to pay rents, often resulting in legal disputes. In 1760, Houstoun of Johnstone took one of his tenants to court to recover debts for lime given to fertilise one of this tenant’s fields. In 1808 another local landowner, Cunningham of Craigends, stipulated that half of his coal was to be used for lime burning, and half sold to households. His then neighbour, Houston of Johnstone, declared that “none of my coal shall be sold, but used utterly for burning the limestone”. Limestone was more valuable locally than the coal. (Is this the same H of Jo mentioned in 1760?)

When you walk down the Crosslee Mill lade path from Bridge of Weir to Crosslee, the old lime quarries and clamp kilns can be seen at Goldenlee, and also further down towards Crosslee. Clamp kilns were a crude type of kiln – a hollow dug into a slope, and shaped like a horseshoe. The limestone and coal were laid in alternate layers and the kiln was lit and left to burn for several days. When it was ready, local farmers queued to shovel the burnt lime onto carts, to fertilise their fields.

Crosslee Mill Lade

A better known type of lime kiln was the draw kiln. Draw kilns were substantial standing structures. The only remaining upstanding draw kiln in west Renfrewshire is located in the Skiff Woods at Howwood.

On the south side of the Gryfe, lime workings were more intensive. At Kaimhill, a large buttressed draw kiln was used to burn the lime. All that remains of this kiln today is a scatter of bricks and limestone in a field. The old entries to the limestone mines can still be seen nearby, in a rock outcrop facing the Gryfe.

Further lime working occurred along the Locher Water. There was a “great” limestone work near where the Locher meets the Gryfe. A 1720 map shows a waterwheel, supplied by a lade from the Locher, which turned an engine to pump the adjacent coal pit dry. A kiln and coal pit can still be seen nearby.

Further up the Locher Water, lime was worked around Lochermill and further east at Tweeniehills and Merchiston. At the aptly named Windyhill, the lime quarries were drained by a pump driven by a windmill. All that remains today are hollows in the fields, marking the abandoned quarries.

The old lime quarry on the cycle route behind Merchiston hospital at Brookfield is a typical example. The lime was gradually worked across the field. In winter the workers “tirred” the quarry, to remove the soil and expose the lime. In the summer the limestone was quarried and burnt a in a large draw kiln, now demolished. Today, all that remains of the quarry is a wasteland of flooded woodland, full of piles of quarry waste.

By the Victorian period, the shallow lime had all been worked out. Much deeper lime was then mined, along with coal, from shafts at Fulton and Darluth.

A Weird History – The Lost Palace of Inchinnan

Scotland is famous for its haunted castles, but Inchinnan trumps them all, for it had a moving palace.

In the sixteenth century most Scots families lived in one room, so travellers on the river Clyde must have gawped at the luxurious character of the Palace of Inchinnan, newly built for the Earl of Lennox. The two family suites (one for the Earl’s family, one for their guests), their lounges, and the private chapel were each a hundred yards in length. The lush mysteries of the private garden were hidden behind six hundred yards of walling. The palace boasted nine tall chimneys, a tower, and at least two double turrets. Visitors approaching from the south would see a row of twenty-foot tall windows lighting the chapel, which was as big as the king’s chapel at Linlithgow.

Despite this display of luxury, the Palace of Inchinnan had a short history. It was designed for a range of purposes. It was a holiday home for the earl’s family (the Stewarts of Darnley); a conference centre during political negotiations; and a base for the earl’s private army when the negotiations failed. But the world moves on and, by 1600, the palace was no longer ‘fit for purpose’. Later owners decided to re-cycle the roof, then the walls and by the 18th century nothing was left but the foundations.

Being foundations, they stayed where they were – but officially, the palace moved. An 18th century book recorded it in a nearby field, and that became its official, but incorrect, location on Ordnance Survey maps. So, in the 1970s, Strathclyde Regional Council sent a team of archaeologists to investigate an empty field while a couple of JCBs destroyed what remained of the palace 200 yards away. The old palace site is now a roundabout.

Since then, some members of the Renfrewshire Local History Forum have collected enough information to make a reconstruction of the palace. We peasants may have a chance to gawp at it again.

The Front Committee 1822-1899

The Front Committee, listed as the ‘Committee of Town Management’ in the local Trades Directories, was established in Kilbarchan in 1822 to look after and maintain the public wells, the steeple clock and the village fire engine. Each feuar (property owner) in the village paid an annual levy, known as ‘front money’, to cover the expense incurred. The levy was set at one halfpenny per foot of the frontage of each property in the village. This rate set in 1822 was never increased. Front Committee officers were responsible for collecting the ‘front money’.

The Front Committee’s records are now in the keeping of Kilbarchan General Society and I was extremely fortunate some years ago to have access to the mahogany box containing the Front Committee’s records from 1822 until it ceased to function in 1899. The minute books give details of repairs to wells, the fires attended by the horse- drawn fire engine and costly repairs to the steeple buildings and steeple clock.

Each street in the village had its own pump or public well. Most villagers used the public wells where they collected water for domestic use. The Front Committee appointed contractors to carry out repairs such as the deepening of wells, the repair of steps and wooden housing, cleaning and puddling (making watertight using clay), and the installation of pipes and pumps. Immediate action was taken when repairs were needed.

A Front Committee officer attended to the winding up of the steeple clock, ensuring it kept good time and was in good repair. Over the years, the Front Committee’s responsibility gradually extended to include organising the finances for the maintenance of the whole of the Steeple Buildings. Repairs were often expensive and on occasion the cost had to be augmented by public subscription.

The Front Committee also took over the responsibility of the maintenance of the village fire engine and its attendance at fires. The horse-drawn fire engine had been brought to Kilbarchan from London in 1765 and was in use from then until the end of the nineteenth century. It has been on show in the Lilias Day Parades in Kilbarchan for a number of years now.

Many of the Front Committee’s officers were weavers. The first officers in 1822 were William Stewart, a shawl manufacturer in the village, Robert Climie a weaving agent, and Henry Manson and John Lang who were both weavers. Matthew Houston, who started his working life as a silk weaver and was later appointed Poor Inspector, served as the Font Committee’s treasurer for over twenty years from 1836 to 1858. The men who ran the Front Committee, although now long-forgotten in the village, were a well-intentioned, conscientious group of men who served their village well for over seventy years and deserve an important place in the history of Kilbarchan.

Burntshields Burgher Church

In 1712 an Act was passed restoring patronage to the Church of Scotland. This meant that the patron of a parish church, usually the local Laird, and not the congregation chose the minister. Because of various unpopular settlements of ministers, dissenters (also know as seceeders) from seventeen parishes in Renfrewshire set up their own church at Burntshields on the hills above Kilbarchan. The original congregation included 78 members from Kilbarchan, 47 from Paisley, 20 from Houston, 32 from Killochries in Kilmacolm, 51 from Lochwinnoch, 7 from Kilbirnie, 3 from Beith and 82 from Greenock and Inverkip.

This church called Burntshields Burgher Church was built in 1745 and opened the following year. The walls were built by the members of the congregation and the rafters were dragged up from the Clyde shore by horses. The church had seating for 600 and was referred to as the Big Sclate Hoose – so presumably had a slate roof, a novelty at the time among the thatched roofs of the ordinary houses. This was the first seceeders’ church to be built west of Glasgow.

The church was situated in Minister’s Lane on the north of Burntshields Road, the road leading from Kilbarchan to Lochwinnoch. The manse was across the lane from the church. Burntshields Burgher Church ran its own school in a nearby barn. This school was still in existence as a country school long after the church closed in 1826.

Little evidence of the church remains today. A memorial obelisk to the church is now in the garden of nearby Burntshields Cottage and old gravestones are rather irreverently incorporated in the garden wall.

In 1790s there was some dissension in the church and the congregation split. In 1792 one group removed to Johnstone with the Rev.Lindsay. This was the origin of St Paul’s Church in Johnstone. Another group moved to Lochwinnoch to set up a new church there (later to become Calder Church). The third group remained at Burntshields.

In 1826 the Burntshields Church closed and the congregation moved from the country district and set up a new chapel, in Bridge of Weir, where there was much need of a church due to the rapid increase in the population after the establishment of cotton mills on the Gryffe. This chapel was to become Freeland Church, in Bridge of Weir.

Two square rather ornate communion tokens from Burntshields Church, both dated 1793, are in the collections of Paisley Museum. One token is in almost mint condition. In 1971 the Burntshields communion service, which was discovered in an old basket in a loft where it had lain forgotten for years, was given to Freeland Church in Bridge of Weir . The inscription round each flagons reads ‘GIFTED TO THE ASSOCIATE CONGREGATION OF BRWNTSHIELDS AWGUST 1769’ and the inscription on each cup reads ‘BELONGING TO THE ASSOCIATE SESSION OF BURNTSHIELDS 1774’.