Counties > Renfrewshire > 1829-1842 - Fowler's commercial directory of the principal towns and villages in the upper ward of Renfrewshire > 1830-1831

16 SKETCH OF REXFREV7 AND TOREK.
of Lanark, and erected into a separate sberifAiom, called Ren-
frewshire, between 1404 and 140G.
Aftef the accession of the Stewarts to the crown, this Gas-
tie was committed to the charge of a constable ; and, in the
reign of Jaraes IV, this office became hereditary in the fami-
ly of Lord Ross of Hawkhead ; and also they had possession
of the small isle on which the castle stood, called the King's
Inch, a fishing in Clyde, and they levied certain customs at
the Fairs of Renfrew.
Mr Speirs, the father of the present laird of Ellerslie, a
merchant in Glasgow, bought the castle and lands of the
King's Inch, in 1760. He built an' elegant house, about 1776,
and he unfortunately razed this old castle to its foundation ;
or, it may be called a palace, from the high rank of its former
possessors, and interesting from its historical recollections,
and planted a clump of trees on its site.
Had this old palace been preserved, it would have been a
very curious thing to have shewn to the present Baron of Ren-
frew*, William IV. on his lauding at Pudzioch to take posses-
sion of his barorsy, what accommodation his fathers had about
700 years ago.
The present royal burgh consists of a principal street about
half a mile in length, and some small wynds. It has a spa-
cious market-place, and a Iiandsome, as Crawford says, town-
house, and a steeple covered with lead. It has a kirk" very
large, of an old model. The town has a very convenient har-
bour, called the Pudzioch, made by the tract of the ancient
channel of the river, in which vessels of considerable burden
are carried up to the brig of Renfrew.
The community have a right to fish for salmon from Scots-
toun lo the Kelly brig, near to the borders of Cunninghame.
Though the situation of Renfrew is favourable both for trad^
and manufactures, it has made but little progress in either,^
while all the other towns in this county have been running
sjch a rapid course of prosperity. Had it not been for the
latal eflTects of town politics, Renfrew might have been one of
J lie principal seats of manufactures in the west of Scotland.
Hut the burgh has a considerable property in land, the saU
mou fishing, and an excellent ferry boat. The whole revenue
from these sources is about L.800 a-year. The number of
} eople was ISSO in the year 1821.
liishop Leslie, who lived in the 16th century, says, speaking
«f Renfrew, it had sixty ships plying in fishing during the
whole year round. Crawfurd reports, that the Burgh had
oi.ce some little foreign trade, but that the Irish trade only
occupied the burgesses in IJIO, The witty Isaac Brown, in
IS24, relaies the melancholy fact, the town now, can only-
muster half a dczen boats, with one or two sand punts.