852
reign of Robert I (h). The patronage of the church of Mearns now belongs
to Sir Michael Shaw Stewart of Blackball. Thus much with regard to the
nineteen parishes of the presbytery of Paisley. The remaining two parishes in
this shire belong to the presbytery of Glasgow. [The parish church has 520
communicants; stipend, £415. A Mission church at Greenbank near Busby
has 342 communicants. A Free church at Busby has 249, and two U.P.
churches have 601 members. There is also a Roman Catholic church at Busby].*
16. The parish of EAGLESHAM acquired its name from the village where
the church stands, and the appellation of the village is derived from the
Celtic Eaglis, signifying a church, to which has been added the Saxon term
for a hamlet. Thus Eaglis-ham signifies the church hamlet. The territory
of Eaglesham was granted with other estates by David I. to Walter the son
of Alan the first Stewart. Robert de Montgomery, who accompanied Walter
to Scotland, obtained from him the manor of Eaglesham, which was the first
possession, and for two centuries the chief estate of the family of Montgomery,
who held it of the Stewarts till the accession of Robert the Stewart to the
throne in 1371, when the proprietor of Eaglesham became a tenant in capite.
This barony has ever since been held of the king by the family of Montgo-
mery, who obtained the peerage by the title of Lord Montgomery in the
reign of James II., and the higher dignity of Earl of Eglington in 1507 (i).
The patronage of the church of Eaglesham has always been connected with
the manor, and it has belonged to the same family from the middle of the
twelfth century to the present time (k). In 1429 the parish church of
Eaglesham was constituted a prebend of the cathedral church of Glasgow by
Bishop Cameron, with consent of the patron, Sir Alexander Mongomery of
Eaglesham, the patronage of the church and prebend continuing with him
and his heirs (l). In Bagimont's Roll, the rectory of Eaglesham, a prebend
of the chapter of Glasgow, was taxed £10. 13s. 4d., being a tenth of the
estimated value of its spiritual revenues. At the Reformation the parsonage
tithes of Eaglesham produced 14 chalders, 13 bolls, and a third of a boll of meal,
(h) In 1670 Sir Archibald Stewart of Blackhall obtained a charter of the barony of Mearns with
the castle, and the burgh of barony of Newton of Mearns, also of the church lands of Mearns and the
right of patronage of the parish church, with the parsonage and vicarage tithes. Acta Parl., viii. 148.
The village of Newton of Mearns stands about half a mile north-west from the church. As a burgh
of barony, it has the right of holding a weekly market and two annual fairs. It contained about 300
inhabitants in 1821.
(i) The barony of Eaglesham comprehended 100 marks land of the old extent, and the chief
messuage was the castle of Polnoon, vulgarly pronounced Pownoon, whith stood on the bank of a
rivulet of the same name, about three-quarters of a mile south-east from the church. It has long
been a complete ruin, and only a part of the walls remain standing.
(k) Thomas de Arthurlie was rector of the church of Eaglesham in 1388.    Chart. Lennox, ii. 196.
(l) Chart. Glasg., 323. The prebend of Eaglesham was taxed £3 yearly for the use of the cathe-
dral church. Ib., 492.                  [* See Ross's Busby and its Neighbourhood, 1883.]