Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 2

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LANARKSHIRE.
sive manufactures than Lanarkshire. About 1750,
however, the beneficial effects of the union had
begun to be felt, and the industry and resources
of the county to be fully developed. Two banks
were then started in the city of Glasgow — the one
by Dunlop, Houston, and company, and the other by
Cochran, Murdoch, and company. The trade with
Virginia sprung up and flourished, and the various
new trades and manufactures which it called into
existence and fostered, extended their benefits over
the whole county. But its great rise may be dated
from 1784, when the cotton trade was introduced,
after Arkwright's magnificent invention had become
fully understood, and its practice was open to the
whole country from the expiry of the patent. Lan-
arkshire was particularly qualified for embracing this
new trade — first, from its possession of an exhaust-
less supply of coal, and next, from possessing the
sea-ports on the Clyde, by means of which the mer-
chants of Glasgow could hold communication with
almost all the markets of the world. Wealth flowed
into the county ; old coal mines were worked on im-
proved principles with renewed spirit, and new ones
opened. The iron trade was called into existence ;
crowds of population thronged not only into Glas-
gow, but to those localities in the county where
these mineral treasures most abounded ; the super-
ficies of the land, from the near presence of a wealthy
commercial and manufacturing capital, grew in fer-
tility and beauty, and thus Lanarkshire received an
impetus which has long since accorded her the first
rank for population, wealth, and importance among
the counties of Scotland.
Although a commercial and manufacturing aristo-
cracy have now grown up in the county by the most
honourable of all pursuits, for in benefitting them-
selves they have vastly benefitted others, there still
remain many ancient families of note, the ancestors
of some of whom are not unworthily known to Scot-
tish history. A few may be named ; and first,
the Hamiltons, the Duke of which is the premier
peer of Scotland ; to this family also belong the
noble houses of Belhaven and Dalziel, and many
others of the same name of honourable status in the
county ; the old Douglases of the Angus line are
lineally represented on the female side by Baron
Douglas, and collaterally by other families of the
county. There are still, too, the Lockharts of Lee,
with many offshoots from the parent branch ; the
Baillies of Lamington, the Rosses of Bonnington,
the Colebrookes of Crauford, the Veres of Stone-
byres, &c. There are also many goodly and noble
mansions scattered over the county, in addition to
the well-known palace of Hamilton, and the castles
of Douglas and Bothwell,but as these are fully no-
ticed in the description of the parishes in which they
are situated, it is not necessary here to repeat.
The county of Lanark returns one member to par-
liament, and had a constituency of 2,705 voters in
1832, and of 4,001 voters in 1841. Glasgow, within
its bounds, returns two members. Lanark, Hamilton,
and Airdrie, within the county ; Falkirk in Stirling-
shire, and Linlithgow, in the shire of that name, re-
turn a burgh-member ; and Rutherglen in the Lower
ward, is associated in a similar privilege with the
burghs of Kilmarnock, Dumbarton, Port-Glasgow,
and Renfrew. Thus the county is represented in
the Commons' House of parliament directly or indi-
rectly by five members.
The number of parochial schools within the
county, in 1834, was 72, and of schools not par-
ochial, 352. The former were attended, between
Ladyday and Michaelmas 1833, by a maximum of
about 27,000 pupils, and a minimum of about 19,250.
As Lanarkshire derives its great importance from
its modern improvements, rapidly advancing popula-
tion, manufactures, and mineral wealth, it is not
surprising that its former history is much less inter-
esting and eventful than that of many other districts
in North Britain, which are now vastly inferior to
it in population, wealth, or importance. Originally,
Lanarkshire was peopled by the ancient tribe of Bri-
tons called the Damnii, and their language may still
be traced in the names of the waters and various
other places in the district. These barbarians gave
place to the Romans, whose temporary possession of
these parts may still be traced by the remains of
their roads and camps in many parts of the county,
and also by their tombs, utensils, and weapons of
warfare, which have often been turned up by the
ploughshare or the spade in the process of excavat-
ing and embanking. In subduing the original in-
habitants the Romans did much to civilize them,
and introduce the arts of industry and peace ; and it
is recorded, as has been already observed, that they
were the first to beautify and enrich the face of the
country by the planting of those orchards for which
Clydesdale has for ages been so famous. The in-
road, however, of the Scandinavian and other savage
tribes, pressing upon the heart of the Roman empire,
induced them to withdraw their legions, artificers, and
husbandmen from the extremities of their dominions,
and thus Clydesdale was again left in the possession
of the semi-barbarous Damnii. By them was founded
the kingdom of Stral hclyde, which gradually extended
until it included within its ample limits Liddesdale,
Teviotdale, Dumfries-shire, Galloway, Ayrshire,
Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, part of Peebles-shire,
the western part of Stirlingshire, and the greater
portion of Dumbartonshire, forming, indeed, a king-
dom which embraced the greater part of Scotland
south of the Forth, with the exception of ancient
Lothian. Sometimes they were united under one
valorous chief, and at others the leaders of subor-
dinate tribes in the general confederacy contended
for the mastery. Meantime these Strathcludensians
were often assailed by the Picts, from the northern
side of the Forth, by the Scoto-Irish from Cantyre,
or the Saxons from the north of England, who en-
vied them their fair domains on the Clyde. Their
capital was taken, their dominion circumscribed, yet
were they never formally conquered, though it is
believed, that after the union of the Scots and Picts,
they were amalgamated with the other rude ma-
terials which formed the Scottish dynasty under
Kenneth. Many of the Strathcludensians preferred
expatriation to acknowledging any other sovereign
but one of their own choosing; and with heavy
hearts they left the warm vales of Clydesdale, and
wending their path southward, found an abiding-
place among the hills and dales of Wales. After the
formation of the Scottish kingdom, Lanarkshire suf-
fered more or less from the domestic conflicts be-
tween the kings and Gallovidian chiefs, or the wars
of England. The history of this period is uninter-
esting, however, although Lanarkshire continued to
progress in rustic wealth, and its civilization was
accelerated by the foundation of the bishopric of
Glasgow, and the settlement, in the district, of sev-
eral distinguished Flemings, from a family of which
people were descended the once all-powerful and
haughty Douglases. The death of Alexander III.,
without male issue, left the kingdom a prey to in-
trigue, contest, and competition, which only ended
after years of domestic strife by the consolidation of
the independence of the kingdom, which was achieved
by Bruce at Bannockburn. But the precursor to
this was the patriotic exertions of the celebrated Sir
William Wallace, whose first exploit was that of
driving the English out of the town of Lanark. The