BARLANARK, the properly of William Henry Hill, Esq., is in the parish of Shettleston, a district of the Barony Parish of Glasgow, and is about four miles from the city.
The lands on which the house stands are part of and perpetuate the original name of the Barony of Barlanark, confirmed by the Bull of Pope Adrian VI., dated 28th January 1522, in favour of William Balze, one of the Canons of Glasgow. (1)
Barlanark House has no old history attached to it. It was built in 1822 by the late excellent citizen Laurence Hill, LL.D., from plans furnished by David Hamilton, architect. It stands adjacent to the site of the old village of Knockings, situated on what is understood to have been the original highway from Glasgow to Airdrie, now and long disused.
But though the house has no history the proprietors of Barlanark have a very old one. In old pre-reformation times the family of Hill had holdings as Rentallers under the Archbishopric of Glasgow, and when about the end of the sixteenth century the church lands were feued off, they became proprietors of their old holdings.
Thomas Hill of Ibrox was confirmed in the lands of Ibrox in 1595, and is now represented by Laurence Hill, C.E., half-brother of W. H. Hill of Barlanark.
The Hills intermarried with good west country families, Ninian Hill of Gairbraid, (2) son of Thomas Hill of Ibrox, (3) marrying Helen Hutcheson of Lambhill, sister of the two Hutchesons who founded Hutchesons' Hospital.
This Ninian's son, also Ninian, married Jean Caldwell (4) of Caldwell, and their son, also Ninian, married Mary Crawford of Jordanhill. (5) Ninian Hill and Helen Hutcheson had a daughter Helen, who married John Maxwell, a cousin of Maxwell of Auldhouse, now Pollok.
Ninian Hill and Mary Crawford had two sons, Hew Hill of Gairbraid, who married Janet Hill of Greenock, and Laurence Hill, minister, first of Kilmarnock and latterly of the Barony Church, Glasgow. This minister attended the last Lord Kilmarnock on the scaffold, and married Charlotte Maria Gardner, a daughter of his countess.
Hew Hill had a daughter and heiress, Mary Hill of Gairbraid, who married Robert Graham of Barleymills, and their daughter in turn married Alexander Dunlop (one of the Dunlops of Keppoch), and thus the older branch of Hill of Ibrox is represented through the female line by Alexander Graham Dunlop of Gairbraid, lately Consul at Pesth, and Consul-General at Havana.
Laurence Hill and Charlotte Maria Gardner had a son, James Hill of Cathcart, who married Elizabeth Robertson; and this James had amongst others three sons, Laurence Hill, who married Christian Dreghorn, James Hill of Gartloch and Busby, who married Mary Kippen, and Robert Hill of Firth, W.S., who married Barbara Geddes. The last was the father of Thomas Hill, Chairman of the Caledonian Railway Company.
Laurence Hill and Christian Dreghorn had a son, the late Laurence Hill, LL.D., of Barlanark, who married first Barbara Hopkirk, and second Marion Hill. He left two families, and is represented by his son, Laurence Hill, C.E.
(1) This Bull gifted to the College by Mr. Hill, and is now in the Hunterian Museum.
(2) See Gairbraid.
(3) See Ibroxhill.
(4) The Barony of Caldwell originally belonged to the Caldwells of Caldwell, who were a very ancient family, one of them being Chancellor of Scotland in 1349. Gilchrist More or Mure of Coodham, second son of Sir Reginald More of Abercorn, Chamberlain of Scotland in 1329, appears to have acquired by purchase or marriage the lands of Easter Caldwell. The lands of Wester Caldwell remained in the possession of the Caldwells of Caldwell until that family failed in the person of John Caldwell of Caldwell, whose testament is recorded in the Commissariat of Edinburgh, dated 1707. He was a member of the Scots Parliament.
It seems as if the lands of Wester Caldwell had then gone by succession through the female line to the Cochrans of Dundonald, by whom they were sold to the Duke of Hamilton, from whom again in 1766 they were purchased by Mure of Caldwell, and joined with Easter Caldwell together constitute the present property of Caldwell belonging to Colonel Mure, M.P.
Ninian Hill, the husband of Jean Caldwell, was mixed up with Maxwell of Pollok, Sir Archibald Stewart of Castlemilk, the laird of Dunlop, James Hamilton of Aikenhead, Gabriel Hamilton of Westburn and others in the offence of attending conventicles, and after being cited before a commission of Parliament in 1676, was imprisoned in the tolbooth until released on paying a heavy fine.
(5) Crawford of Jordanhill - cadets of Crawford of Kilbirnie. Hew Crawford of Jordanhill (father of this Mary Crawford) married Bethia Hamilton of Woodhall, and Mrs. Crawford's sister Christian married Edward Robertson, a cadet of Stuan from whom are descended by intermarriage Maxwells, Brysons, Dreghorns, Hamiltons, and Hendersons, and amongst others Jean Robertson, wife of Thomas Grahame, father of Robert Grahame of Whitehill (see Whitehill) and Elizabeth Robertson, wife of James Hill of Cathcart, grandfather of the present Thomas Hill, and great-great-grandfather of the present Laurence Hill.
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