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Riccarton
RICCARTON, a parish near the middle of the
northern
verge of Kyle, Ayrshire. It is bounded on the north
by the river Irvine, which divides it from Kilmarnock
in Cunningham; on the east by Galston; on the south
by Craigie and Symington; and on the west by
Dundonald. Its length, from east to west, is 6 miles;
and its mean breadth is 2 miles. Excepting a moss of
about 230 acres, the lands are all arable and
well-enclosed; and, in general, are carpeted with a
deep clay soil. Limestone abounds; and coal is
extensively mined for exportation. Cesnock-water
drains the eastern district, partly along tbe
boundary and partly in the interior; and, as well as
the Irvine, affords good trouting. The only
antiquity is a moat, the seat of the judicial
executiv in feudal times, situated in the immediate
vicinity of the village. The principal landowner is
the Duke of Portland. The mansions are Caprington and
Skerrington on the Irvine, and Bellfield a little
east of the village. The parish is traversed by three
roads which diverge southward from Kilmarnock and
enjoys all the facilities of communication afforded
by its suburban relation to that town. The name of
the parish, in its original or uncorrupted state, was
Richardstown, or Ricardston, and seems to have been
derived from a Richard Wallace, whom tradition
declares to have been the uncle of the celebrated Sir
William, the patriot, but who probably lived too
early to claim the distinguished honour. In the 13th
and 14th centuries the lands of Ricardston belonged
to a family of the name ot Wallace, or, as the word
was anciently written, Waleys. During the reign of
Alexander II., and under the second Walter the
Steward, Richard Waleys held considerable estates in
other parts of Kyle-Stewart, and appears to have been
one of the most considerable of the Steward's
vassals; and he, very probably, was the ancestor of
the Ricardston Wallaces, the first of their property,
and the person from whom it derived its manorial and
parochial designation. Sir Ronald Crawford, the
maternal uncle of Sir William Wallace, had, in this
parish, a residence to which his illustrious nephew
often resorted, and whence he sallied to perform many
of the exploits which fame assigns him in the tales
of tradition. The residence is said to have been a
tower on the site of the farm-house of Yardsides,
immediately west of the village; but it has entirely
disappeared, and has left, even in its vicinity, very
doubtful memorials. A very ruinous and very humble
edifice at the west end of a little row of cottages
beside the farm-house is pointed out as the barn
which belonged to the tower; and, respectively in the
garden and at the entrance to the farm-yard are a
pear-tree which Wallace is said to have personally
planted, and a very old tree perforated with an iron
staple to which he fastened his horse when he visited
the tower. —The village of Riccarton is strictly a
suburb of Kilmarnock; and, though nominally a mile
from it, or really a mile from the centre of the
burgh, is almost uninterruptedly connected with it by
a long street, and is included within its
parliamentary boundaries: see KILMARNOCK. Its site is
a rising ground or swell immediately overlooking the
Irvine. It is a place of antiquated appearance ; and,
since the date of Kilmarnock becoming a seat of
manufacture, it has been inhabited chiefly by weavers
of woollen fabrics. Its history, as to employment and
prosperity, is very nearly a duplicate of that of
Kilmarnock, or rather is a subordinate and dependent
chapter of the same narrative. In 1638, the village
was made a burgh-of-barony. The church of Riccarton
crowns the moat at the end of the village; and as it
is a modern edifice, and has a fine spire, it
contributes a conspicuous and pleasing feature to an
extensive field of circumjacent landscape. Population
of the parish, in 1801, 1,364; in 1831, 2,499.
Houses 356. Assessed
property, in 1815, £10,178 Riccarton is in the
presbytery of Ayr, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr.
Patron, Cunninghame of Caprington. Stipend £241 3s.
9d.; glebe £30. Unappropriated teinds £857 15s. 3d.
In 1834, the parochial school was attended by 109
scholars; and two non-parochial schools by 165.
Parochial schoolmaster's salary £34 4s. 4d.,
with £50 fees Riccarton was anciently a chapelry,
subordinate to the parish-church of Dundonald; and it
followed the fortunes of that church in annexation,
from 1229 till 1238, to the short-lived convent ot
Dalmulin, and in subsequent annexation to the
monastery of Paisley. At some period of the Paisley
monks' possession, it was made a parish-church, and
treated by them as a vicarage. After the Reformation,
it was incorporated with Craigie; but, in 1648, it
was disunited from that parish, and honoured with
independence.
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