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Wallacetown
WALLACETOWN, a modern but populous
suburb of Ayr, situated on the east side of Newton-
upon-Ayr, forming with it one compact town, and
separated from the royal burgh only by Ayr river.
About the year 1760, when there were only eight or
ten straggling houses on the site of the suburb, Sir
Thomas Wallace of Craigie began to feu at the end
of the old bridge. The incipient town took its name
from him, and speedily acquired considerable bulk
and population. Its increase, owing to the vicinity
of coal-works, the general growth of manufactures,
the demand for day-labourers, and, especially, the
facility afforded for the cheap lodging of Irish
immigrants, has been progressive, and still continues.
Its
inhabitants, in consequence, are almost all of the
poorer classes, and consist of colliers, artisans,
weavers for the Glasgow and Paisley manufacturers,
carters, publicans, small shopkeepers, and a large
proportion of Irish employed as labourers, and in a
hundred methods of earning a precarious subsistence.
Yet, though the town has so medley and poor a
population, though it abounds as much in pauperism as
probably any place which could be named in Scotland ;
and though it wants the appliances of burghal
government which are possessed by both Ayr and
Newton, it does not appear to a stranger to differ
very materially in character from its immediate
neighbours, but seems to wear an aspect quite in
keeping
with that of the adjacent parts, both of the
burgh-of-barony and the royal burgh. In common with
Newton, it is included within the parliamentary
boundaries of Ayr. In ecclesiastical quoad civilia
position
it belongs to the parish of St. Quivox; but, in 1836,
it was erected by the authority of the presbytery of
Ayr into a separate parish quoad sacra. The church
was opened in March, 1836, and cost £1,550. Sittings
865. Stipend £150. —An United Secession
place of worship was built in 1799, and cost £1,010.
Sittings 610. Stipend £120, with £6 for sacramental
expenses. -An Original Seceder meeting-house
was built in 1799, and cost £740. Sittings 605. Stipend
£130, with £8 for sacramental expenses,
and an allowance of £16 16s. for a house-rent. A
Roman Catholic chapel, belonging to a congregation
established upwards of thirty-five years ago, was built
in 1836, at the cost of £1,900. Sittings 800. The
minister has under his care all the Roman Catholics of
Ayrshire, south and east of Ardrossan, and officiates
in five or six different towns. Emoluments
from £100 to £200. -A Reformed Presbyterian
meeting-house was built in 1832, and cost about £500.
Sittings 480. Stipend £80. —An Independent-place of
worship was built in 1805, and cost, up to 1836, about
£1,000. Sittings 550. Stipend £65. —An Episcopalian
place of worship, used by a congregation which was
established in 1832, is the upper floor of a house
originally intended for a granary, and rented at £10
a-year. Sittings 182. Stipend about £100. —The
population, according to a census taken, in 1836, by a
committee of the inhabitants, consisted then of 2,229
churchmen, 1,922 disenters, and 48 nondescripts, —in
all 4,199 persons. The school-statistics are given in
the article on St. Quivox; and the social and
miscellaneous institutions belong properly either to
Ayr or to Newton.
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