DALMUIR HOUSE is situated in the parish of Old Kilpatrick and county of Dumbarton; it stands on an eminence on the right bank of the river Clyde, and commands extensive views of this beautiful part of the country. (1)
The lands of Dalmuir have been a distinct property under the same name for many hundred years. We find that, towards the close of the thirteenth century, Earl Malcolm of the Lennox granted them to Walter Sprewl, "the grantee performing the foreign service of the king, as much as pertained to a quarter of a plough in Lennox." (2) The family of Spreull long held lands in Dumbartonshire and Renfrewshire, and their descendants still remain in Glasgow and have property there. (3) John Spreull, who belonged to the Glasgow branch of this family, was a leader of the Covenanters, and suffered severely in consequence. He was confined on the Bass Rock, used at that time as a state prison, and, according to Wodrow, was very harshly treated.
The present house was built about sixty years ago by Richard Collins, (4) paper-maker, grandfather of Mr. Collins, Kelvindale. He was succeeded in the property by his son, Edward Collins, by whom it was sold to the well-known William Dunn of Duntocher, who was in many ways a remarkable man.
He was a native of Kirkintilloch parish, and bred to the trade of a blacksmith there. In early youth he came to Glasgow and soon distinguished himself by his ingenuity and shrewdness. He engaged in the manufacture of cotton spinning machinery, and was very successful. In 1808 he purchased the Duntocher spinning mill; in 1811 the Faiffly spinning mill; and in 1813 the Dalnotter ironworks. On the site of the latter he built the Milton cotton mills; he greatly enlarged the Faiffly mill; and in 1831 built the Hardgate mill, supplying it with the most approved machinery of the day. By this time he had in his employment in these mills 1,417 persons. Gradually he acquired from different proprietors the lands of Auchintoshan, Mountblow, Dalmuir, Balquharan, Kilbowie, and others, and these composed his estate of Duntocher, having an area of more than 2,000 acres of fertile soil lying in compact form, and bounded on the south by the Clyde. On the death of Mr. Dunn, his brother Alexander succeeded "to his estates, and when Alexander Dunn died in 1860, William Park became the proprietor (5) of Dalmuir.
(1) The mansion House of Dalmuir is built not on Dalmuir proper, but on a portion of the lands of Balquharan.
(2) Chartulary of Lennox.
(3) See Linthouse.
(4) The family of Collins is an old Glasgow one, and they have been for long engaged in their present business. In Tait's Glasgow Directory of 1783 they appear as "Collins, Edward and Richard, paper-makers and bleachers, Dalmuir."
(5) Other parts of the lands William Dunn acquired passed, on Alexander Dunn's death, to his nephews John Macindoe, George Park Macindoe, and Alexander Dunn Pattison, the latter of whom succeeded to Mountblow.
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