Easter Greenock Castle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Easter Greenock Castle is an abandoned castle of unknown design near the settlement of Greenock in the Scottish administrative division of Inverclyde .

The castle, built sometime in the middle of the 16th century, was the focal point of the lands and estates of the Barony of Cartsburn and Easter Greenock. This belonged to the Crawfords of Kilbirnie in Ayrshire , which they had acquired during the reign of Mary Queen of Scots. Cartsburn extends from Bach Carts Burn in the west along the Clyde to the point where the border leaves it at Old Clyde Forge . The lands of Cartsburn originally belonged to the Barony of Kilbirnie and then became the property of a younger brother of the family, whose descendants ended up in the person of David Crawford of Cartsburn in the reign of King Charles I of England .

In the mid-17th century, the lands of Cartsburn and Cartsdyke belonged to John Crawford of Kilbirnie, who was made baronet by King Charles I for his services to the crown in the early years of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1638-1651). He died in 1662, leaving two daughters by second marriage to his wife Magdalen , daughter of Lord Carnegie ; their names were Anne and Margaret . Anne married Sir Archibald Stewart of Blackhall , 1st Baronet, while Margaret became the wife of Patrick Lindsay , the second son of the Earl of Crawford . The lands were given to Margaret and her male heirs, who had to take the name Crawfurd and their family crest.

A confirmation charter dated June 29, 1663 to Margaret Crawford for the lands and barony of Kilbirnie (from her father, Sir John Crawford of Kilbirnie, 1662) contained the 40 shilling land from the old extension of Cartsburn with buildings and fishing grounds , as well as free access to the Greenock Bog and Marsh with the Greenock Millland in the barony of the same name. According to this document, Margaret and her heirs were free to dispose of and sell the land of Easter Greenock and Cartsburn. In 1669 Margaret Crawford, who was then Lady Kilbirnie , sold the estates of Easter Greenock to Sir John Schaw of Wester Greenock , with the consent of her husband , who in 1670 received a charter from the Crown containing a clause stating that Easter and Wester were Greenock were to be united in a single barony, later called Burgh of the Barony of Greenock . But the establishment secured the rights to Cartsburn, which Lady Kilbirnie later passed on to her cousin, Thomas Crawford of Cartsburn, second son of Cornelius Crawford of Jordanhill , later 1st Baron. The decrees of the 40-shilling land of Cartsburn, Datier 1628-1656, which was, and in 1678 sold by Margaret Crawford, Lady Kilbirnie her husband Patrick Lindsay Thomas Crawford, are still available and can in the Scottish National Archives in Edinburgh be viewed . The name "Cartsdyke" could be derived from "Crawford's Dyke", who was named after John Crawford from Easter Greenock, who had a quay wall or a dike built in Greenock in the mid-16th century.

Cartsburn was elevated to a barony and the settlement was given the privilege of a weekly market and various fairs by King Charles II of England `` Thomas Crawford of Cartsburn, 1st Baron of Cartsburn '', in a charter dated July 16, 1669 approved. South of Crawfordsdyke is the House of Cartsburn , the main seat of the barony and seat of the Crawfords of Cartsburn. The first mention of the Barony Cartsburn found in Hamilton of Wishaw s Accompt of the Sheriffdom of Renfrew , published in 1710. He wrote:

“The city is mainly given to merchants, seafarers or showmen who have built very good houses there, and it is a very well-turned out place”.

The Scots Magazine reported in 1809 that "the tower (...) had fallen over and would probably go over a few years the plow over the remains." But it was not the agricultural past, but the industrial revolution that finally put an end to the castle: the ruins stood in the way of the railroad and were removed in the 1830s. Castle Road , today the only reminder of Easter Greenock Castle, reminds of the castle's location .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Barony of Cartsburn - County of Renfrewshire . Barony of Cartsburn. 2013. Retrieved June 30, 2017.
  2. ↑ The Scots Magazine . Sands, Brymer, Murray and Cochran. P. 644. 1809. Retrieved June 30, 2017.

Coordinates: 55 ° 56 ′ 12 "  N , 4 ° 44 ′ 8"  W.