Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

700
GO VAN.
propriatedteinds£763 7s. The parish-church — which
is situated close upon the river, and is distant about
3 miles from Glasgow — was built in 1826, from a plan
by Mr. Smith of Jordanhill, one of the heritors. It
is a chaste Gothic structure, seated for nearly 1,100
persons. The design of the tower and spire, as has
been hinted, was taken from the church of Stratford-
upon-Avon. The churchyard has a peculiarly ro-
mantic appearance, and is fringed with a double row
of reverend elms. The manse adjoins the church,
and, from recent additions, has been rendered very
commodious. There are four churches belonging to
the Establishment and connected with this parish, to
which quoad sacra districts have been allocated, viz.
Partick church, built in 1834, seated for 580 per-
sons ;. Hutchesontown church, opened in 1839, seat-
ed for 1,024 persons ; Kingston church, opened in
the same year, for 1,000 sitters; and a fourth ad-
ditional church in connection with the establishment
is in course of erection in Warwick-street, Lauries-
ton. Of late years the small village of Strathbungo
has been a missionary-station, in which a licentiate
of the church of Scotland officiated : a church is
now being built there There are three dissenting
churches in the parish connected with the United
Secession, in addition to a school-house, in the par-
ish of Govan, capable of accommodating 100 persons,
aud in which service has been performed for two or
three years. These churches are Nicholson-street
church, built in 1S14, for 910 sitters; Eglinton-
street church, built in 1825, for 1,218 sitters ; and
Partick church, built in 1824, for 600 sitters There
are two Relief churches, viz., Hutchesontown church,
built in 1800, for 1,624 sitters; and Partick Relief
church, built in 1824, for 840 sitters There is also
a small Roman Catholic chapel in Portugal-street,
Gorbals The parish-school is situated in the village
of Govan, and in addition to the school-fees — which
are stated to be very ill-paid — and a school-house and
dwelling-house, the emoluments amount to more
than £80 annually, made up of the maximum salary j
of the heritors, in addition to £1 13s. 4d. from Glas-
gow college; £5 from the trustees as librarian of
Thorn's library ; £1 18s. 10d., the interest of 1,000
merks bequeathed by George Hutcheson ; and £36,
the rent of 10 acres of land, accruing from Abraham
Hill's mortification, for the education of 10 poor
children. In addition to the parochial there are a
number of other schools in the parish, both in the
villages of Govan, Partick, and Strathbungo, where
the ordinary branches are taught; but the majority
of the children of the more opulent classes are edu-
cated in Glasgow. Under grants by David I., con-
firmed by the bulls of several popes, the whole par-
ish of Govan belonged originally, both in property
and superiority, to the Bishop of Glasgow, and was
included in the regality of Glasgow. The church of
Govan — or Guvan, as it was formerly termed — with
the tithes and lands pertaining to it, was constituted
a prebend of the Cathedral of Glasgow by John,
Bishop of Glasgow, who died about 1147 ; and con-
tinued so till the period of the Reformation. The
prebendary drew the emoluments, and paid a curate
for serving the cure. The patronage of this pre-
bendal church belonged to the see of Glasgow ; but
at the Reformation it was assumed by the Crown.
In 1577 the parsonage and vicarage of Govan, with
all the lands and revenues, were granted by the king,
in mortmain, to the college of Glasgow ; and by the
new erection of the college, at that date, it was
ruled that the principal of the university should
officiate in the church of Govan every Sabbath.
This practice continued from 1577 till 1621, when
the principal was absolved from this duty, and a
separate minister was appointed for the parish, to
whom a stipend was assigned from the tithes, and
the patronage was reserved by the university, in
which it still remains. For more than a century
previous to 1825, the university of Glasgow, by suc-
cessive renewals from the Crown, enjoyed a bene-
ficial lease of the feu-duties, rents, and revenues,
which were paid by the heritors of Govan to the
Crown, as coming in the place of the Archbishop ;
but the lease was discontinued at the time stated.
To make up for it so far, however, the Crown
granted to the college, in 1826, an annuity of £800
for fourteen years.
The first minister of Govan after the Reformation
was Andrew Melville, who was at the same time
principal of the university ; and it is related by his
nephew that the Regent Morton offered this "guid
benefice, peying four-and-twentie chalder of vict-
uall" to him, on condition that he would not urge
upon the government or the church his peculiar
views of ecclesiastical polity. For the purpose of
winning Melville to his side, the Regent kept the
living in the hands of the Crown for nearly two
years ; and finally granted the temporalities to the
college of Glasgow, imposing upon the principal the
duty of serving the cure, Morton intending thereby, as
Melville's nephew states, " to demearit Mr. Andro,
and cause him relent from dealling against bischopes ;
but God keepit his awin servant in uprightnes and
treuthe in the middis of manie heavie tentations."
The hospital of Polmadie was situated in this parish,
near the place which still bears its name. It was a
refuge for persons of both sexes, and was endowed
with the church and temporalities of Strathblane,
along with part of the lands of Little Govan. No
trace of the ruins of the hospital now remains. St.
Ninian's hospital, for the reception of persons afflicted
with leprosy, was founded by Lady Lochore in the
middle of the 14th century, and it is understood that
it was situated near the river, between the Main-
street of Gorbals and Muirhead-street. Near the
centre of the Main-street of Gorbals, on the east side,
an old edifice still remains, which from time imme-
morial has gone by the name of the chapel of St.
Ninians. A considerable extent of ground, includ-
ing that upon which part of the district of Hutche-
sontown is built, was called St. Ninian's croft. When
the house of Elphinston obtained the lands of Gorbals
the revenues of the hospital were misapplied, and
the care of the ' lepers' afterwards devolved upon the
kirk-session of Glasgow Hagg's castle, in this par-
ish, is a very interesting and picturesque ruin. It
was built by an ancestor of the house of Maxwell of
Pollock, and was, for a long time, the jointure-house
that family. It appears to have been a building of
considerable strength. It is intimately and painfully
associated with the transactions of those iron times
when Scotland groaned under a ' broken covenant and
a persecuted kirk.' In November 1667, the Episcopal
authorities of Glasgow having heard that a conven-
ticle had been held in Hagg's castle, summoned the
persons reported to have been present to appear be-
fore them on the 20th of the same month. Amongst
others, John Logan was arraigned, and he boldly
confessed " that he was present at ye said conven-
tickle, and not onlie refused to give his oath to de-
clare who preached, or wer then present, but furder
declared he would not be a Judas, as otheris, to de-
late any that wer ther present." The name of Logan,
with others in the same situation, were given in to
the Archbishop, but the punishment which was meted
out has not been recorded. Wodrow, in his history,
states that, in 1676, Mr. Alexander Jainieson, who
had been thrust forth the parish of Govan on account
of his refusal to conform to "black prelacy," "gave
the sacrament in the house of the Haggs, within 2