[A composite volume : containing The ballads and songs of Ayrshire ...

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PRESTWICK DKUM.
liam I., the church and burgh of Prestwick are frequently to be
met with in authentic record. The two churches of Prestwick (afterwards
Monkton) and Prestwick-burgh, the first dedicated to St Cuthbert,
the latter to St Nicholas, were annexed to the monastery of
Paisley by Walter, the founder, on the erection of that institution
and both remained dependencies thereto down to the termination of
the hierarchy, in the year 1560. Some time subsequent to this event,
Monkton and Prestwick, together with the small parish of Crosbie,
were united into one charge, and the minister enjoined to pi'each alternately
two Sundays at Monkton and the third at Prestwick
church."* A new church has recently been built, equi-distant from
both communities, which aifords ample accommodation to the whole.
The old churches of Prestwick and Monkton have been unroofed, and
are now crumbling into ruins.
" Prestwick is governed by a chancellor or provost, two bailies,
treasurer, clerk, and other inferior officers, who are all elected annually
except the chancellor, whose appointment is for two or more
years. Their power extends to civil matters for a limited amount,
and to the police of the burgh. "t Prestwick is a mere village. The
population is not above 1200. In remote times, the territory of the
burgh may have been much more extensive : the adjoining paiish of
Monkton appears to have been anciently of the same denomination,
and no doubt formed a portion of it. They are now again united as
one parish "
; but the authority of the burgh is limited to its own \
proper lands, which extend in all to about 700 acres. Of this pro- \
perty, about 150 acres have been feued out, in other words, alienated
and the remaining 550, of which 150 are arable, the rest only fit for \
|
j
i
pasture, belong heritably, vinder peculiar restrictions and regulations,
\
to thirty-six freemen, the number to which, by the constitution of the
burgh, they are restricted. Each share or freedom consists of from >
14 to 16 acres ; seven acres of each being arable—the rest pasture,
\
being what was formerly called common, and consisting of whins and
heath and sandy bent hills, interspersed with patches of green hollows,
principally adapted to the grazing of young cattle. "{
The burgh
i
* Introduction to tLe " Records of the Burgh of Prestwick," printed in 1834,
and presented by John Smith of Swindrigemuir to the Maitland Club,
t Prestwick Records.
J Ibid.
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