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Tarbolton
TARBOLTON, a parish in Kyle, Ayrshire;
bounded on the
north by Craigie; on the east by Mauchline; on the
south by Stair and Coylton; on the south-west by St.
Quivox; and on the west by Monkton and Symington. Its
length is between 7 and 8 miles, and its breadth about
6. It lies about 5 miles from the sea-coast, and has an
aggregate elevation above sea-level higher than the
medium height of the county. Its ancient condition was
rude and wild, bare, heathy, and blotched with marshes.
But though naturally churlish, and abounding in
inequalities, it has long since received, through the
medium of industrious and skilful cultivation, robings
of verdure and mellowing grain, and thriving wood,
which render it not only pleasant but ornate. The prime
department of industry has long been the management of
cattle for the uses of the dairy. The river Ayr,
trotting along between picturesque and romantic banks,
traces the southern boundary. The rivulet Faile flows
through the interior to the Ayr, driving mills, and
beautifying the landscape. The chief mansions are
Coilsfield, Smithstone, Afton-lodge, Drumley,
Carngillan, Enterkin, and Privick. Within the
beautifully ornamented grounds of Coils-field are a
traditional battle-scene, and a rude stone held in
veneration as the monument of the seemingly fabulous
personage, "Auld King Coyle." In the vicinity of the
village is a mount called Hood's-hill, which seems to
have been a Danish encampment and fortification. The
parish is traversed eastward by the road from Ayr to
Edinburgh, and southward by that from Glasgow to
Kirkcudbright by way of Dalmellington and the Glenkens.
Population, in 1801, 1,766; in 1831, 2,274. Houses 367.
Assessed property, in 1815, £12,890. —Tarbolton is in
the presbytery of Ayr, and synod of Glasgow and Ayr.
Patron, the Earl of Eglinton. Stipend £244 7s. 9d. ;
glebe £4 10s. Unappropriated teinds £753 10s. 7d. The
church, and also a United Secession meeting-house, are
situated in the village of Tarbolton. In 1834, the
parish school was attended by 40 scholars; and three
private schools by 163. Parish schoolmaster's salary
£29 18s. 10½d., with about £16 fees. —Though the
ancient church was twice granted to the monks of Faile,
it did not remain with them, but continued to be a free
rectory; and, in 1429, it was erected into a prebend or
canonry of the cathedral of Glasgow. The present parish
comprehends the larger part of the ancient parish of
Barnwell, and the whole of the ancient parish of
Tarbolton. Barnwell was a vicarage under the monks of
Faile; and, lying between Tarbolton and Craigie, was,
in 1653, annexed, in separate portions, to these
parishes. The church stood a little north of the old
castle of Barnwell, and, after the suppression of the
parish, was allowed to go to ruin; but it is still
commemorated in the names of a mansion and one or two
farms. At Faile or Feil, in the Tarbolton section of
Barnwell, and on the rivulet of the same name, a
convent of Red or Trinity Friars, who pretended to be
canons-regular, was founded in 1252. A ford across the
rivulet at the place was called Faileford, —a name now
given to a locality near the rivulet's embouchure; and
a lake in the vicinity was called Lochfaile.
Spottiswoode, misled by this clustering of cognate
names round one locality, exhibits in his catalogue of
religious houses, three several establishments, under
the designations respectively of Faile, Faileford, and
Lochfaile, the first of which he makes a cell of
Cluniac monks belonging to the abbey of Paisley, and
the second and the third convents of Red Friars. The
three supposed establishments, however, were, in
reality, only one. The chief of this convent bore the
designation of "minister;" and he was provincial or
head of the Trinity order in Scotland, and, in that
capacity, had a seat in parliament. The convent
possessed 5 parish-churches, Barnwell, Galston, and
Symington in Kyle, Torthorwald in Annandale, and
Inverchaolain in Cowal. In 1562, Robert Cunningham, the
minister, gave up as the rental £174 6s. 8d. in money,
15 chalders of meal, 3 chalders of bear, 30 stones of
cheese, 10 young sheep, 3 bullocks, and 24 salmon.
William Wallace, who was minister during the reign of
James VI., died in 1017; and his son William seems to
have considered the monastery, and what remained of its
property, as his inheritance. In October, 1690,
William, Earl of Dundonald, was served heir of his
father in the benefice of Faile or Faileford
temporaliter et spiritualiter. The ruins of the convent
still exist l¼ mile north-north-west of the village of
Tarbolton. An old satirical poem says of the friars of
Faile, that they "ne'er wanted ale as lang as their
neebors' lasted." —On the 15th August, 1581, when Esme
Lord D'Aubigny was created Duke of Lennox, one of the
titles given him was Lord Tarbolton.
TARBOLTON, a considerable village and a
burgh-of-barony, stands near the centre of the
cognominal parish, on the right bank of the rivulet
Faile, at the intersection of the Ayr and Mauchline,
and the Kilmarnock and Dalmellington roads; 4 miles
west of Mauchline, 7 north-east of Ayr, 8 south of
Kilmarnock, and 12 south-east of Irvine. It extends
over a considerable area, and contains a number of neat
houses. The parish-church, with an elegant spire and
neat in its own structure, is not a little ornamental.
Weaving, in various departments of cotton, woollen, and
silk, is carried on to such extent as to have employed,
in 1828, 122 looms, —a number which continued in 1838,
and which were all plain. The village has a
subscription library, two mason lodges, several benefit
societies, a horse-race in August, and annual fairs in
June and October. In 1671, by a charter of Charles II.,
it was erected into a free burgh-of-barony, with the
privilege of holding a weekly market. Population, in
1811, about 750; in 1821, 1,350. Tarbolton, and its
immediate vicinity, abound with reminiscences of the
poet Burns. On the farm of Lochlea, in the
neighbourhood, he resided from his 17th to his 24th
year as an inmate of his father's family. In 1780, the
village became the scene of a club which he organized.
"The Tarbolton-lodge of Free-masons," to which he
addressed a well-known "Farewell," inserted among his
works, still exists, and derives from his notice of
them a notoriety which men of different views will
regard as highly flattering, or as deeply the reverse.
His extraordinary piece entitled 'Death and Doctor
Hornbook,' is said to have been written after attending
a meeting of this lodge, and with the view of
hurlesqueing a person of the name of Wilson, who united
the vocations of parish schoolmaster and a vender of
medicines. Coilsfield-house, ¾ of a mile south-east of
the village, is the "Montgomery-castle" of Burns, the
waters around which he pathetically desiderated might
"ne'er be drumlie," and it was at the time when the
bard wrote, the residence of Colonel Hugh Montgomery,
who, in 1797, became l2th Earl of Eglinton; and Mary
Campbell, the dairy-maid or "byres-woman" at
Coilsfield, was the personage whom, primely with the
aid of one of the most thrilling of the rich melodies
of Caledonia, and one borrowed from uses of a previous
damsel of the name of Catherine Ogie, he sang into
notice under the well-known name of "Highland Mary."
—The small village of Faileford stands l¾ mile
east-south-east of Tarbolton, at the confluence of the
Faile and the Ayr; and, commanding an ample supply of
the famous Water-of-Ayr stone, is the seat of a
considerable manufactory of razor hones and strops.
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