Paisley
Principal Sources
OSA Vol 7 No’s 4 & 5 1793
The New Statistical Account of Scotland, Vol VII, Edinburgh, 1845:
Paisley pp 135-306, dated 1837
OPS I pp 67-73, Appendix p 506
RMS I (407, 540) 1 December 1371, (420, 547) 1371-2, (837) 1391; App. 2 Index A No 1826, Index B No 80.
RMS II (404) 1450, (1137) 1473, (3680) 1511-12
RMS III (183) 1518, (916) 1529-30, (938) 1530, (991) 1530-1 on original of 1530, (2743) 1542
RMS IV (252-3) 1548, (931) 1554, (935) 1554, (1123) 1556, (1363) 1559, (1487) 1563, (1718) 1565-6 on original of 1561, (2057) 1572 on original of 1567, (2077) 1572 on original of 1554, (2098) 1572 on original of 1571, (2193) 1573-4 on original of 1570, (2413) 1575 on original of 1574, (2520) 1575-6, on original of 1571, (2627) 1576-77, (2675) 1577 on original of 1576, (2882) 1579 on original of 1571, (2985) 1579-80 on original of 1574, (3027) 1580 on original of 1565
RMS V (160) 1581 on original of 1580, (264, 300, 302) 1581, (346-7) 1581-2, (1238) 1587, (1239) 1587 on original of 1560, (1320) 1587, (1696) 1589 on original of 1573, (1718) 1589 on original of 1588, (2066) 1591-2, (2070) 1591-2
RMS VI (179) 1594, (509) 1596-7 on original of 1595, (833) 1598-9, (1142) 1601, (1453) 1603, (1623) 1605
RMS VII (672) 1612 on original of 1611, (1314) 1615
RMS VIII (722) 1620, (764) 1624 on original of 1609, (808) 1625, (835) 1625 on original of 1623, (1332) 1628, (2082) 1632
RMS IX (41) 1634, (107) 1634, (454) 1636, (748) 1637, (1271) 1642, (1701) 1646, (1765) 1647, (1802, 1804) 1647, (2145) 1649
RMS X (592) 1657
RMS XI (176) 1662, (279) 1662, (688) 1664, (953) 1666, (1174) 1668
(In the following an expression such as ‘1173 x 1177’ means the document can be dated between the years 1173 and 1177 (both inclusive))
RRS I (254) c. 1163 x 1165
RRS II (184) (1173 x 1177), (218) 1179 x 1190, (219) 1179 x 1189, (220, 221) 1177 x 1185, (310) 1189 x 1195, (378) 1195 x 1199, (518) 1211 x 1214
RRS V (109) 1316, (473) 1306 x 1329
RRS VI (112) 1348, (326, 333) 1364
RSS I (2152) 1510, (3421) 1526
RSS II (3371) 1539-40
RSS III (651) 1543-4, (855, 873) 1544, (1199) 1545(?), (2728) 1548
RSS IV (2295) 1553
RSS VI (1663) 1572, (1788) 1572
RSS VIII (1123) 1582-3, (1809, 1817, 1830, 1928) 1583-4, (2457) 1584
ER XIV pp 528-9 1513
ER XVI p 616 1536
ER XVIII p 395 1545-6, p 538 1552, pp 566-7 1554
ER XIX p 446 1559, p 451 1558-9, p 506 1562-3, pp 559-560 1567
ER XXI pp 433-4 1580, 457-8 1581
ER XXII pp 454-5 1591, p 510 1594-5
ER XXIII p 375 1595-6
GD3/1/7/3/1 1685
GD3/1/10/85/1 1520
GD3/13/3/1 1585
GD20/1/467 1655
GD20/7/171 1625
GD39/5/171 1695
GD103/1/55 1567-8
GD119/47 1569
GD148/163 1544
GD148/402 1886
GD220/1/A/1/1/5 1214 x 1256
GD220/1/G/4/2/2 1567
GD220/1/G/4/2/4 1627
GD220/1/G/4/2/3 1628
GD220/1/H/2/5/1 1662
GD220/6/1965/1 1517 – see Fraser, Lennox I, p 337
GD220/6/1975 1525
GD220/6/1978/1 1529
GD220/6/2034/5 165?
GD220/6/2034/6 1662
GD220/7/75
In the National Records of Scotland, GD86 refers to the Sir William Fraser Charters and GD 86/1002 includes ‘Collection of Inventories of Writs’. Within these, No 7 deals with ‘The barony of Blantyre (including … the lands of Wrightsland, Cardonald, Easter and Wester Henderston’. I have not yet seen this.
Renfrew Retours (16) 1604, (19) 1604, (22) 1606, (25) 1608, (30) 1610, (36) 1615, (49) 1619, (54) 1620, (72) 1627, (75) 1628, (79, 81) 1629, (82) 1630, (90, 92) 1634, (99) 1636, (107-8) 1639, (110) 1640, (112) 1641, (118) 1643, (120) 1644, (121) 1645, (130) 1647, (134-139) 1649, (149) 1656, (151) 1657, (152) 1658, (158) 1659, (162) 1662, (181) 1680, (189, 192-3) 1690, (195) 1693, (208) 1608, (210) 1612, (213) 1643
RS53 ff 17v-18r 1642
RS53 ff 19v-20r 1642
RS53 f 22r 1642
RS53 ff 26r-26v 1642
RS53 f 34v 1642
RS53 ff 41v-42v 1642
RS53 ff 49r-49v 1642
RS53 f 52v 1642
Charter Chest of the Earldom of Dundonald (9) 1529, (10) 1536, (12) 1556, (14) 1600, (15) 1601, (22) 1565, (24) 1583, (80) 1627, (140, 143) 1587, (254) 1553, (255) 1554, (257-8) 1567, (260) 1579, (262) 1591, (263) 1606, (264) 1613, (267, 271) 1636, (272-3) 1653, (274) 1654, (275-6) 1660, (278) 1666, (280) 1656-7, (283) 1657, (284) 1659, (286) 1663, (288) 1634, (291) 1663, (293) 1532, (298) 1558
Laing Charters (1971) 1626, (2382) 1647, (2397-8) 1649, (2440-1) 1653, (2504) 1657
NRAS1209/1111/47 1483
NRAS2600/Bundle10/ Charter 1545, Sasine 1562, Charter 1598
NRAS2600/Bundle 10/ Precept 1548, Sasine 1574, Charter 1532
Poll Tax Rolls, 1695: Metcalfe’s ‘A History of Paisley 600-1908’, gives the Poll Tax Returns for the town of Paisley on pp 471-497, and for the surrounding parish of Paisley on pp 498-529. For further details see under Paisley table.
Robertson, G., A general description of the Shire of Renfrew …, Paisley, 1818 (Hereafter ‘Robertson’). Table of Property pp 313-315.
Descriptions of the Sheriffdoms of Lanark and Renfrew, compiled about 1710 by William Hamilton of Wishaw, Maitland Club, Glasgow, 1831 pp 74-84, 125, 145
Fraser, W., The Lennox, Volumes I & II, Edinburgh, 1874
Memoirs of the Maxwells of Pollok, I, pp 139-142 No 20 1400, pp 146-8 No 25 1413, p 208 No 68 1494
Fraser, W., The Cartulary of Pollok-Maxwell, Edinburgh, 1875.
PSAS Vol 41 1906-7 p 334 No 55 1567-8
Metcalfe, W.M. (ed.), Charters and Documents relating to the Burgh of Paisley, Paisley, 1902, (hereafter, ‘Metcalfe’).
Metcalfe, W.M. (ed.), The Lordship of Paisley, Paisley, 1912.
Lichens from an Old Abbey, Paisley, 1876. (This contains a number of translations and part-translations from charters and other documents).
A.R. Howell, Paisley Abbey: Monastic and Reformed, Transactions of the Scottish Ecclesiological Society, 1935-6, pp 145-157 + Plates.
- Malden, (ed.) The Monastery & Abbey of Paisley, Renfrewshire Local History Forum, Glasgow, 2000, (hereafter ‘Malden’).
- Oram, ‘Paisley: The Abbey and its Estate in the Middle Ages’, Renfrewshire Local History Forum Journal Vol. 18 (2016) pp 5-23.
- Topen, ‘The Castle and Lands of Stanely, Paisley, Renfrewshire’, Renfrewshire Local History Forum Occasional Paper No. 7, 2003, (hereafter ‘Topen, 2003’.
G.F. Duckett, Visitations of English Cluniac Foundations, London, 1890 (hereafter ‘Duckett’).
A.Theiner, Vetera Monumenta Hibernorum et Scotorum, 1216-1547, Rome, 1864
National Library of Scotland Adv.MS.20.3.7 is the identifier for some transcripts, by Hutton and others, made in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. They include some Paisley charters.
National Library of Scotland Ch.17332 is, according to the NLS notes, a leaf containing two deeds which may be from a lost fifteenth-century cartulary of Paisley Abbey. The leaf has one document on each side. It is much browned and blotched and its condition, plus failing eyesight, has meant I am simply unable to decipher much of either side. The longer document (on the recto side) has references to a chapel. The use of the phrase ‘£20 sterling’ suggests it dates before the latter part of the fourteenth century when the Scottish currency depreciated against sterling. The shorter document on the verso side is even less clear. Both appear to be copies, not originals, and I do not think either of them is the same as any document which currently appears in the Paisley Register. I have no doubt that one day someone, with better eyesight and perhaps some scientific help, will be able to read these.
Maps
Pont (33)
Gordon (55)
Blaeu (Renfrew)
Roy (PC)
Ainslie (1796)
Thomson (1826)
RHP 3576 (1835) – Plan of part of the estate of Hawkhead.
The Paisley Register and the Paisley Rental
There are two sources connected with Paisley Abbey which give us an enormous amount of information about early Renfrewshire. These are the Register and the Rental Book (bibliographic detail and access information below). The Register consists of 394 documents (1 is a repeat) from the twelfth to the sixteenth century. It appears to have been compiled in the first half of the sixteenth century and is the Abbey’s cartulary or collection of charters. Essentially it is a neatly written transcript of earlier documents, or of earlier transcripts. To some extent its reliability can be tested because we can compare it with other sources for the same documents. For example we have Theiner’s transcript of the Bull of Honorius III in 1226. We have records from the Register of the bishopric of Glasgow and also some records from the Abbey of Crossraguel, and the various Registers of the Scottish kings (see Renfrewshire General Sources file for bibliographic information). The edition of the Register published in the nineteenth century may be hard to come by but there is an online version available. (Be aware of the pagination error in the printed book). The introduction is in English but the text and footnotes are in Latin. Translations or abstracts of some of the documents can be found in Metcalfe’s ‘Burgh of Paisley’, Archaeological and Historical Collections (Lochwinnoch), MacKenzie’s ‘Kilbarchan’ and ‘Lichens from an Old Abbey’ (for all of which see Renfrewshire General Sources Text file).
The Paisley Rental is a copy of the abbey rental book which runs from 1460 to about 1555, just before the monastic lands were dispersed to lay proprietors. There may well have been earlier rental books but this is the only one to survive. The monastery’s property portfolio encompassed a large range of properties from large farms down to tiny urban holdings of a single tenement or an acre or so of land. The prime concern of this book is to give the lease arrangements which detail who held what land for what rent. Fortunately, in doing this, the scribes also divulge a great deal of other information about their arrangements, the lessees, service obligations, types of render, family relationships, estate practice etc. Quite often, particularly in the later years, we are also given a land valuation. The silver rent (i.e. that part of the rent which was paid in cash) often matched the land-valuation. This suggests that the Auld Extent valuation originally indicated the level of annual rent expected. To a certain extent we can vindicate this with evidence from charters which promised merks for merklands. (For further development of this idea see text file entitled ‘Towards a general theory of Land-Assessment’ in the ‘General Summaries’ section of this blog).
One difficulty is that if a rent was first established in the twelfth century is it likely that it would not have increased at all by the fifteenth century? With rising living standards and price inflation wouldn’t we also see rising rents? What might have happened is that silver rents remained the same but that other forms of payment were raised. Silver rent was only one part of a tenant’s obligations. He or she also had to provide services such as so many days work at critical seasons of the year, or short and long carriages (i.e. carrying freight for the Abbot over shorter or longer distances). There were also payments in meal or livestock, hens, ‘boons’ (small monetary gifts) etc. It is possible that these ‘casualties’ were the ways in which the rents increased but at this distance it is impossible to know. The issue of whether or not the silver rent increased is an important issue to resolve.
The Rental is also important for showing us what was farmed. Some farms paid only, or primarily, in grain. Others paid in animals. In many cases there was a mix of produce. As far as services were concerned the length of long and short carriages is never specified in writing. However, in 1572 (PSAS Vol 41 No 60), we have a document concerning Linlithgow where long carriages are specified as 12 miles. Paisley was not likely to be wildly different.
The fact that we can pin down valuations, and what was almost certainly ‘Auld Extent’ valuation for these farms helps us build a chronology for land-assessment in Scotland. If we have an Auld Extent valuation for a Paisley property then it probably had that before it became a Paisley property. An abbey would have limited interest in an abstract valuation of property, or of preserving it. It is really only of interest to the fiscal authorities when organising the raising of money on the basis of assessment.
We can draw a parallel with the absence of pennyland valuations in places like Islay and Raasay in the Hebrides. The former was probably part of the royal estate, which the king of the Isles had no interest in taxing. The latter was part of the episcopal estate, which possibly had some degree of immunity from taxation when it was under Norse control. (However, this is a tricky point to establish since there may have been ouncelands in Raasay and they had an 8 merkland assessment under the Scottish system of merklands).
Paisley was founded and first endowed in the 1160s. Scotland’s first coins were minted c. 1136. Is it possible that Auld Extent (although of course not yet called that) first became established during the period c. 1136 to c. 1160; i.e. once Scotland had formed its own currency, but before Paisley monastery was founded?
After the Reformation the monastic lands were gradually broken up and dispersed to lay proprietors. We can follow some of this process in ‘The Lordship of Paisley’ (see above).
Both the Register and the Rental are available on microfiche at the end of Malden’s book ‘The Monastery & Abbey of Paisley’ (details above).
The Paisley Abbey Rental is available online at:
This can be downloaded as a PDF file. More than one set of numbers is used for page numbering in this document. For ease of reference I have used the Arabic numerals given at the top centre of the page. These are not consistent throughout the document so care is required. The Paisley Abbey Rental is printed as an Appendix by Cameron Lees but this also has a couple of page numbering errors. What Cameron Lees gives as cxlvi (second occurrence) should read clxvi; likewise cxxvi (second occurrence) should read clxxvi.
The Paisley Abbey Chartulary is available online at:
W.H. Bliss (ed.), Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland, Papal Letters, Vol. 1., A.D. 1198-1304, London, 1893, pp 106-107, Confirmation of 1226, = Theiner (23)
- Farnhill & A. Dobie, ‘The Paisley Abbey Rentals, c. 1460-1550: An Initial Investigation’, Scottish Business and Industrial History, Volume 34 (September 2019).
RRS I (254) c. 1163 x 1165 is King Malcolm IV’s confirmation to the Priory of St Mary and Saint James, later Paisley Abbey, of the island beside Renfrew Castle, the fishing between that island and Partick, and the church of Paisley with 2 carucates of land. (There were also lands in Roxburghshire and the church of Innerwick, East Lothian).
RRS II (218) 1179 x 1190 is King William I’s general confirmation of the lands granted to Paisley Priory by Walter, son of Alan, the steward. William’s charter includes ‘French, English, Scots and Galwegians’ amongst the addressees.
RRS V (109) 1316 is a mandate to confirm charters and confirmations to Paisley Abbey.
The following concern Paisley’s properties in Lennox and the payment of ‘watch meal’ to Dunbarton Castle:
RRS V (473) 1306 x 1329. Also RMP pp 177-8 & RRS VI (326, 333) 1364.
RRS VI (112) 1348. Also RMP pp 208-9, WW Scott No 203.
RRS VI (326) 1364. Also RMP p 177, WW Scott No 182.
RRS VI (333) 1364. Also RMP p 177-8, WW Scott No 183.
Paisley monastery was a large, wealthy, and politically significant foundation. We do not have a great deal of information about the numbers of monks but Cameron Lees, p 230 gives the names which appear as signatories to documents of 1539 and 1559. The first was signed by the Abbot and 15 monks. The second was signed by the Bishop of St Andrews and 15 monks. Six men from the first list appear to have survived onto the second which also implies a steady stream of new recruits.
Paisley was a Cluniac House and so subject to periodic visitation from its own Order. Duckett has translated some records of these visitations from the originals kept in France. These are of considerable interest but mostly concern English houses. There are however, three paragraphs on p 37 which deal with Scotland. Duckett prefaces them with the following remarks:
[The ensuing descriptive enumeration of the English and Scotch foundations of Cluni is undated, but from the contents, appears to have been compiled from Visitation-reports of 1298; 1390; and 1405].
He then translates:
Here follow the different abbeys, priories, and cells directly or subordinately subject to the Church of Cluni, in the province and kingdoms of England and Scotland.
First and foremost, is Paisley, an abbey in the diocese of Glasgow, in which the fixed number of the brethren amount to 25.
Next, the abbey of Crossraguel, in the Glasgow diocese, directly subject to that of Paisley, of which the brotherhood in 1405 numbered 10.
Disregarding what is said about Crossraguel (Ayrshire), it is noteworthy that the number of monks at Paisley was apparently fixed at 25. I am unaware of any evidence to corroborate this.
Rents in kind
In times before there was a circulating currency, all rents would have been paid in kind. Most Paisley Abbey rents involved a cash component, and, as time went on so casualties were often commuted to money payments. The trouble, though, with cash was that it depreciated, sometimes because of government policy, sometimes as a result of inflation. There must have been a temptation to keep some payments in kind.
There is an interesting sub-heading which occurs several times in the Paisley Rental and that is ‘Lands leased for oats’. The lands which follow are not wholly consistent from year to year but there is a core group of properties which include:
Hillington
Riccardsbar
Newtoun
Arkleston
Inch
Berscavan
Over & Nether Gallowhill
Grenlaw
Lylisland
Lincleave
Candrane
If we then compare the rents rendered, in terms of chalders of oats, with their merkland valuations, there is a striking congruity for several properties:
Hillington – 9 chalders, 9 merklands
Riccardsbar – 3 chalders, 3 merklands
Newtoun – 4 chalders, 4 merklands
Arkleston – 9 chalders, 9 merklands
Inch – 18 chalders, 18 merklands
Berscavan – 4 chalders, 4 merklands
Grenlaw – 2 chalders, 2 merklands
The evidence for the other properties ‘set for oats’ is not so clear-cut but Lincleave and Candrane may also have been consistent.
Paisley therefore looked for returns in grain, specifically oats, from a number of properties in its vicinity. Those returns matched their merkland valuations in the sense that 1 merkland was expected to render 1 chalder of oats. Returns of this nature did not suffer from depreciation, as might a return of cash. There was no requirement to increase the rent as a currency lost value. A chalder of oats was still a chalder of oats and fed the same number of people it always did.
We meet a nice example of this in Eastwood parish. Memoirs of the Maxwells of Pollok, Vol I, No 155, 1574, refers to £5 AE Manis (Mains) in the lordship of Darnelie. There was a 24 boll annual revenue of ‘farrine avenatice’ (oatmeal) based on these lands:
Et quod dictus annuus redditus cum pertinentiis valet nunc per annum 24 bollas farrine avenatice; et similiter valebat tempore pacis.
(And that the said annual return with pertinents is now worth 24 bolls oatmeal per annum, and was similarly valued in time of peace [which was a contemporary euphemism for ‘auld extent’]).
The other interesting feature is that Hillington and Arkleston were each 9 merklands whilst Inch was 18 merklands. Does this give us a ghost outline of an earlier assessment unit which was converted at the rate of 1 ‘unit’ to 9 or perhaps 18 merklands.
We can take this theme of consistent returns one stage further. The Paisley Rental gives us a very large number of properties which Paisley owned. These varied from tiny patches of land with only a few roods to very large and valuable farms. From the full list of properties I have sifted out 70, in Renfrewshire, which we might term farms. These range in size from the 2s worth of Todholm to the 18 merkland (£12 or 240s) of Inch. The data is by no means consistent across all 70 farms. Some, as we have seen, did not pay in cash, they paid in oats – but at a consistent rate of 1 chalder per merkland. There are others where either the merkland valuation, or the rent, or both, is not clear enough to make comparisons.
From the 70 we can subtract 9 where the merkland valuation matches the render in terms of chalders of oats. There are another 5 which should be left out because they paid in cheese and stirks, or cheese alone. (But here, too, there seems to have been a standard rental of 120 stones cheese and 6 stirks from a 3 merkland unit).
From the remaining 56 we should omit a further 18 where the evidence is simply insufficient to give us a clear answer. We either lack data on merklands, or on rents, or both, or the data is inconsistent over time. We are left with 38 properties where we can make a clear comparison between the merkland valuation and the cash rent paid. 37 of these match – that is a 40s unit paid 40s rent, a 5m unit paid 5m rent etc. There is only one exception which is the kirkland of Eastwood. It had a land-valuation of 1m and paid £2 (3m) rent.
(For further detail, and a table, of the Paisley properties discussed in the above paragraphs see attached file ‘Paisley Abbey – merklands giving merks’. This can be found within the folder marked ‘Merklands’ in the ‘General Summaries’ section of this blog).
What tentative conclusions may we draw? That Paisley’s rental record strongly suggests that a merkland of ‘auld extent’ was expected to pay 1m silver rent, plus other casualties. That some properties paid either in oats, or in cheese and stirks, but that even here there was a standard rate of return. That ‘new extent’ was always exceptional, and drawn attention to by contemporary documents. (It is not referred to once in the Paisley Rental). That ‘auld extent’ was probably established after Scotland’s first national coinage was instituted in the 1130s. (‘Auld Extent’ is mentioned twice in the Paisley Rental and was, I believe, the default extent for that rental book). That when Paisley monastery received its first gifts of property, in the first decades after foundation, they probably already had an ‘auld extent’ valuation which remained fossilised through subsequent centuries.
What we cannot tell, from the Paisley evidence, is what ‘auld extent’ replaced. It is very unlikely that it was a new system of measurement. It is much more likely that it was just a currency-based conversion of an existing land-assessment system. It is improbable that this former system consisted of carucates and bovates. What evidence there is for these units in Renfrewshire is meagre and scanty. They are almost certainly intrusive. They were foreign imports and did not flourish here.
There is some evidence for a system of pennylands in parts of Renfrewshire. However this will not date from earlier than about 1000 AD. There is some very slight evidence for a system of davachs – but entirely derived from place-names. It remains to be seen whether this can be successfully linked to other evidence of davachs in SW Scotland.
The table shows 326m 4s 6d – making Paisley substantially the most valuable parish in Renfrewshire. It is quite possible that what later became Paisley parish was composed of more than 1 parish prior to the arrival of the Normans. However, we have no evidence for this.
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