}

SCOTS MAGAZINE,

AND

Edinburgh Literary Miscellany,

FOR SEPTEMBER 1809:

With a View of the CASTLE of EASTER GREENOCK.

SCOTTISH REVIEW.

1. Kerr's General Review of the Agriculture of the County of Ber

Circuit intelligence,
Marriages,

Births and Deaths,
Stocks and Markets,

-Important Intelligence from the British Army there, respecting two severe Battles at Talavera,

SCOTTISH CHRONICLE.

ib.

THE

Scots Magazine,

AND

EDINBURGH LITERARY MISCELLANY,

FOR SEPTEMBER 1809.

An Account of the ancient Baronies of
GREENOCK, with a View of the CAS-
TLE of EASTER GREENOCK.

THE

"HE town of Greenock, in the county of Renfrew, is better known to the merchant than to the antiquary. In the year 1592 it was a trifling village, and only then erected into a parish. In 1643 King Charles I. made it a burgh of barony, with a privilege of a weekly market on Friday. Since that time it has continued to increase, and at present contains about twenty thousand inhabitants, consists of three parishes, is esteemed the fourth port in point of rank in Great Britain, and one of the most considerable and flourishing towns in Scotland.

During the ancient practice of connecting titles and privileges with possessions, the lands of Greenock formed a barony of no inconsiderable importance; falling to female heirs, it was divided into two baronies, the Easter and Wester. Under the modern system of granting dignities, Greenock was chosen by Lord Cathcart, after the taking of Copenhagen, for the name of the second title which he received for his services on that occasion. The motives which induced his Lordship to make this choice, probably originated in some prospective family considerations. Meantime his Lordship is but a common peer in the town, holding his property there, according

to the feudal principles of the law, as the vassal of Sir John Shaw Stuart, the superior.

The barony of Greenock, till the reign of Robert III. belonged to the Galbraiths. Malcolm Galbraith, the then baron, dying without male issue, it was inherited by his two daughters, and being in consequence divided, remained as two separate baronies till the year 1669, when the ancient estate was re-united.

One of the co-heiresses married Shaw of Sauchie, said to have been a collateral descendant of Macduff Earl of Fyfe, whom Shakespeare has renderred so famous in the incomparable tragedy of Macbeth. Her portion of the barony was called Wester Greenock, the lands of which continued to descend to the lairds of Sauchie till the reign of James V, when Alexander Shaw gave them as patrimony to John, his eldest son by his second wife.

The family of Sauchie furnished two abbots to the abbey of Paisley.. There is still extant a charter granted on the 2d of June 1490 to the town of Paisley, signed by George Shaw the then abbot; and among the Cottonian manuscripts there is an original letter dated the 8th of May (the year wanting) from Robert Shaw his successor, to Cardinal Wolsey, soliciting the influence of his Grace at the Court of Rome in aid of his promotion to the Bishopric of Moray.

The male issue of Alexander Shaw