Gartsherrie

THE property of George Frederick Russell Colt, Esq., of Gartsherrie and Inveresk, is situated in the parish of Old Monkland, and county of Lanark, about nine miles from Glasgow.

In the reign of Malcolm IV., the monks of Newbottle obtained a grant of the whole lands in Old and New Monkland, excepting only the lands and manor-place of Lochwood, which belonged to the bishops of Glasgow. In 1587 the barony of Monkland was granted to Mark Ker, ancestor of the Lothian family, then Commendator of the abbacy of Newbottle; and shortly thereafter the whole of the abbey lands were erected into a temporal lordship in his favour. The lands of Monkland became subsequently divided, and were feued out among many vassals, and in 1639 James, Marquis of Hamilton, obtained a charter of the lands and barony, and thereby became superior of the whole.

In 1629 Jacob Stark was served heir of his brother, John Stark of Auchinvoll, in the lands of Gartsherrie, in the lordship of Newbottle and barony of Monkland; and in 1683, his grandson, John Stark of Auchinvoll, was in possession of them.

The last of this old family in Gartsherrie was Anne Stark, who succeeded her brother George in 1751. She was the wife of Robert Dick, advocate, Professor of Civil Law in the University of Edinburgh from 1755 till 1792. He was contemporary with John Erskine, Professor of Scots Law in the same University, author of the celebrated Institutes, the Blackstone of Scotland.

In 1785, Anne Stark, or Dick, with advice and consent of her husband, (1) sold the estate to Robert Colt of Auldhame, whose great-grandson is the present proprietor.

The Colts are an old family originally of French origin, and a branch of them had been settled at Garturk, in this neighbourhood, for about two hundred years.

Robert Colt of Auldhame and Inveresk had, previous to this time, succeeded to the family of Garturk.

The works of the great iron-masters, Messrs. Wm. Baird & Co., being built on a feu of his estate, Gartsherrie has become famous in the history of the Scottish iron manufacture. Messrs. Wm. Baird & Co. have held leases of the coal fields there since 1826, and of the mansion house and adjoining lands since 1834. The house, a portion of which is said to be of some antiquity, has been repeatedly added to. It was for some time occupied by the late William Baird of Elie and Rosemont, and thereafter by his brother, James Baird of Auchmedden, Cambusdoon and Knoydart, and it is now the residence of their nephew and partner, Alexander Whitelaw of Gartshore, M.P. for Glasgow, and the able first chairman of the Glasgow School Board.

THE BAIRDS OF GARTSHERRIE.

The great west window of the High Church bears on it that it is the gift of

These eight Bairds were the sons of Alexander Baird, who began life as a small farmer in Old Monkland, and the eight estates, and numerous other estates, and James Baird's half million to the Church of Scotland, and great sums of money besides, came out of William Baird & Co., of which all the brothers except John were partners. The bulk of all this has been concentrated on the five sons of William, the two sons of John, and the one son of George. (2) The plan apparently has been to form a small but very wealthy Clan Baird, and these eight cousins among them are perhaps the richest family in Scotland. (3)

This, as the result of one generation's trading, can hardly be equalled in the history of commerce. It was possible owing to the coincidence of several circumstances. Just as the Bairds were growing up to manhood, the great Monkland field of blackband was being opened, the hot blast was coming into play, and vast new uses for iron were springing up. This coincidence was an accident. But no accident explains a lasting success. The number of the brothers was, of course, a rare advantage in managing a vast and scattered business. (4) But they brought to the management of it a rare union of shrewdness energy and perseverance. These qualities, which they had in the bone, grew and hardened in the bracing atmosphere of their early home.

They came of a sturdy stock that can be traced as tenants of the same lands up to a regular Dandie Dinmont, known from his great strength as "Double-ribb'd Sandy," who flourished in the Monklands two hundred years ago. This buirdly chiel's great-grandson, who bore his name, was the father of the Bairds. Alexander Baird taught his sons to endure hardness, and set them an example of successful diligence. From a small farmer he rose to be a large and prosperous farmer : he became a miller and dealer : and then he became a coalmaster, at first by himself in a small way, and afterwards, as his sons grew up, on a large scale for those days. Yet he never outran his means, never had to thole a factor's snash, nor stand before mean men; a straight, staunch, gash man, who won the confidence and respect of all who had dealings with him. Finally, he joined his elder sons in the iron trade, and he lived to see Gartsherrie in blast, and the success of the great venture assured. (5)

To his wife, Jean Moffat, to her training and to her example, the Bairds are understood to have owed even more. By all accounts she was a typical Scotch housewife, high-principled, shrewd, humorous, thrifty, of untiring spirit industry and resource, a strict but devoted mother. She might have sat to Solomon; she looked well to the ways of her household, and neither ate the bread of idleness, nor would let others eat it : and her children arose up and called her blessed. She lived to see them rich and powerful. But she had her reward, not so much in this as in the tender and loyal love and duty they yielded her to the last.

Scotland in old days was poor enough in goods and chattels; but we may keep our pity nearer home, if she was richer then in such tough true folk as the father and mother of the Bairds.

The great firm still goes on under the old name, but there are no Bairds in it now. James Baird, who died in 1876, was the last of them. The younger generation, born in the purple, eschew trade, and "the Bairds" are now only represented by their nephews, Alexander Whitelaw of Gartshore, and William Weir of Kildonan. (6)

(1) Richard Dick, who was designated "younger of Gartsherrie" in the Glasgow Directory of 1787, was well known in Glasgow, in the end of the last, and in the early part of the present century, as "Justice Dick," from his devotion to his duties as a county magistrate. He was a partner of the firm of R. Dalglish & Co., soap and candlemakers, Candleriggs, in an old fashioned house west side of that street, nearly opposite "Bell's Wynd." Mr. Dick was also agent for the Leith Bank, the business of which was transacted in the above premises. He was always profusely powdered, and a fine specimen, in appearance and manners, of a gentleman of the old school.

(2) Douglas Baird left twin daughters only. James was twice married, without children. Alexander, Robert, and David died unmarried.

(3) In the famous Blue Book of 1874 only two men, the Duke of Buccleuch and the Duke of Hamilton, are down for a larger income than the sum of the incomes then put down to the Bairds, and this return, of course, only applied to land or real estate.

(4) They had six separate ironworks, Gartsherrie in Lanarkshire, Blair, Eglinton, Lugar, Muirkirk, and Portland, scattered over Ayrshire. They could make 300,000 tons of iron a year. And they had a great coal trade as well. The amount of work this implies is immense.

(5) He died owner of Lochwood, anciently the country seat of the Popish bishops. This was afterwards the property of John the second son, who had stuck to the farming, and had applied himself with the family energy and success to the movement of land and stock.

(6) These are the sons of Janet Baird, the eldest child of Alexander Baird and Jean Moffat, who married, first, Thomas Whitelaw, and secondly, John Weir. By her second marriage she had a daughter, Janet, whose husband, David Wallace of Glassingall, was also a partner of William Baird & Co., but died in 1877. The Bairds had another sister, Jane, the sixth child of the family, and wife of Thomas Jackson of Coats.

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