IS situated in the parish of Govan, and county of Lanark.
In the year 1590, James VI. granted a charter of confirmation of their lands to certain heritors in the parish of Govan, who had previously held them as rentallers of the Archbishopric of Glasgow, in order "that the tenants being thereby become heritable possessors of their several possessions might be incouradged by vertue and politie to improve that country."
In the list of persons so confirmed in their lands we find the following:-
"Thomas Hill, son of Laures Hill there, of the 25s. lands of Ybrocks."
This family of Hills kept the lands of Ibrox till the middle of the last century, (1) when John Hill disposed of the larger part of his property to John Picken, maltman in the Gorbals; the other part, after belonging to a family of the name of Graham, came into the hands of John Trotter, merchant in Glasgow, who resided in a house built at a little distance from the present one, and called Myrtlemount.
Alexander Trotter, H.E.I.C.S., succeeded his father, and sold in 1801 his portion of the lands of Ibrox to John Bennet, writer in Glasgow, who immediately began to build a new house, upon a site different from the old one. This forms a great part of the present mansion. Mr. Bennet reverted to the old name, and called his estate Ibrox.
The next proprietor was George M'Nish, merchant in Glasgow, in whose hands the estate remained for only a few years.
In 1816 John M'Call, merchant in Glasgow, of the firm of John M'Call & Co., (2) and twin brother of James M'Call of Daldowie, bought Ibrox, and to distinguish it from the other portions of the lands called it Ibroxhill. He died in 1833, having had no family, and Ibroxhill now belongs to his nephews, the M'Calls of Daldowie. His widow, Isabella Smith, only daughter of Archibald Smith of Jordanhill and Isobel Euing, his wife, resided here till her death, in February 1871. No one was more widely known and universally respected in Glasgow and the neighbourhood than this venerable lady, and her beautiful private life and character are still fresh in the memory of her many friends. Her house was the scene of the kindest and most constant hospitality, and to the poor, and those who required it, her aid was unceasing and ungrudging. She died in her eighty-seventh year.
The house at Ibroxhill is an excellent one, having been very judiciously added to some years after its purchase by John M'Call, from designs supplied by his brother-in-law, James Smith of Jordanhill. It is no longer inhabited by any of the family, and the combined march of villas and coal-pits will probably ere long sweep this "Old Country House" from the face of the earth.
(1) See Barlanark.
(2) See Belvidere.
Back to Contents