THE ancient name of the lands on which this spacious mansion is situated was "The Inch," or "King's Inch." Anciently they belonged to the Barons Ross of Hawkhead, and there was an old edifice called "The Inch Castle," which stood a few yards from what is now Elderslie House, and formed one of the seats of the Ross family. It was taken down about 1777, and a small clump of trees planted to indicate the site.
Elderslie House is on the left bank of the Clyde, and is a conspicuous object in sailing down the river near Renfrew. It was erected by Alexander Speirs, merchant in Glasgow, and about five years were spent in its construction. The house was finished in 1782, and Mr. Speirs named it "Elderslie House." But although so named, its site forms no part of the ancient estate of Elderslie. Mr. Speirs invested part of his great fortune, acquired as a Glasgow merchant, in the purchase of a number of estates in Renfrewshire adjoining each other. This he did from time to time, between 1760 and 1782. Among these were the estates of "The Inch," and of "Elderslie," which last, from immemorial time, had been the property of the ancient family of Wallace, from which the great Scottish patriot sprung. Mr. Speirs purchased the Inch in 1760, Elderslie in 1769. The seller of the latter was Helen Wallace, heiress thereof, and wife of Mr. Archibald Campbell of Succoth, parents of Sir Hay Campbell, Bart., Lord President of the Court of Session, all ancestors of the present Baronet of Garscube. After Mr. Speirs had completed his numerous purchases in Renfrewshire, he took out a Crown Charter, in which these were combined, under the general title of "The Barony of Elderslie;" and when he built the splendid mansion on what had been originally the Inch estate, he named the edifice "Elderslie House," besides taking "Elderslie" as his ordinary landed title.
The town residence of Mr. Speirs was "the Virginia Mansion," which stood at the head of, and looked down, Virginia Street - one of the most splendid houses then in Glasgow. It was built by George Buchanan of Mount Vernon, one of the Virginia Dons, and was purchased from his representatives by Mr. Speirs in 1770.
Mr. Speirs, who thus acquired these and other extensive possessions, was the son of John Speirs, merchant in Edinburgh. His mother was Isobel, only daughter of John Tweedie, Provost of Peebles. Alexander Speirs was born 14th September 1714. He became one of the principal merchants in Glasgow, and was one of four young men who laid the foundation of its commercial greatness. He was also a leading partner of Speirs, Murdoch & Co., bankers in Glasgow, better known as "The Glasgow Arms Bank," which commenced in the Bridgegate in 1750, thereafter removed to the east side of King Street, and lastly to Miller Street, near the bottom, east side, till lately a banking site. Mr. Speirs married Mary, daughter of Archibald Buchanan of Silverbanks and Auchentorlie, Dumbartonshire, one of the Virginia merchants, and of an old Glasgow family. Portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Speirs are in the Directors' Room of the Merchants' House, to the funds of which both were liberal contributors. Mr. Speirs died 10th December, 1782, aged sixty-eight.
He was succeeded by his eldest son Archibald Speirs, who married Margaret, eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Dundas (first Lord Dundas of Ashe, and father of the first Earl of Zetland), and died in 1832, having had by her five sons and nine daughters. The second son is Thomas Dundas Speirs. The eldest son was Alexander Speirs, third of Elderslie, Lord-Lieutenant of the county and M.P. for Richmond. He married in 1836 Eliza Stewart (daughter of Thomas C. Hagart of Bantaskine and his wife, a famous Glasgow beauty of her day, Miss Stewart "of the Field"), and died in 1844, leaving one daughter, married to Colonel Alexander of Ballochmyle, M.P. for Ayrshire, and one son, the late Archibald Alexander Speirs, fourth of Elderslie, who was suddenly cut off in 1873, soon after his election as member for the county. A few months before he had married Lady Anne Bouverie, a daughter of Lord Radnor, and a few months after his young widow gave birth to a son : this little boy, who is called after his father, is the present proprietor of Elderslie, which, by a second long minority and by the great rise in land near Glasgow, bids fair to be one of the most considerable fortunes in the country.
The widow of Alexander Speirs, third of Elderslie, is now the second wife of Edward Ellice, who has for over forty years sat for the St. Andrews burghs.
The Speirs of Culcreugh in Stirlingshire spring from a younger son of the first Alexander Speirs.
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