Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland .. - National Library of Scotland

IatI£20,000,population had risen to 900. About 1778 Sir WilliamDouglas, the founder of Castle-Douglas, purchased theestate of Castle -Stewart, and, changing the name of thevillage to Newton-Douglas, obtained for it under thisname a second charter, erecting it into a burgh ofbarony, and commenced vigorous efforts to make it aseat of important manufacture. A company, with himits head, erected, at an expense of upwards ofa large factory for spinning cotton, and con-it with the introduction and support of cottonweaving.A Mr Tannahill, under Sir William Douglas'spatronage, commenced a small manufacture of coarsecarpets ; and a tannery of long standing received nowstimulating encouragement, and was managed withjudgment and success. These and other circumstancesconcurred to promise that the village would, under itsnew lord, rapidly rise to be a place of no small consequence; but they promised incomparably more thanthey performed. The new name of Newton-Douglas soonfell into disuse, and gave place to the former name ofNewton-Stewart. The carpet factory proved an utterfailure. The cotton-factory worked well for a few years,declined, was abandoned, stood for years unoccupied,and, in 1826, was purchased by Lord Garlies for atwentieth part of the original cost, and converted intoa quarry for the building of cottages and farmhouses.Even the weaving of cotton for the manufacturers ofGlasgow, though it had formed a ready resource for thetown's weavers, went rapidly into decline, insomuchthat the number of hand-looms, during the ten yearsfollowing 1828, decreased from 311 to 100. Of formerindustries, tanning and currying alone continues toprosper ; and the purchase of wool for the Lancashiremarkets, partly on commission and partly on personalrisk, is at present the staple trade; whOst Erskine's patentcartridge-loaders have more than a local repute. Somecommerce is carried on through the small harbour ofCarty (a creek of Wigtown), a little below the town,principallj' in the exportation of rural produce, and inthe importation of lime, sandstone, coals, and generalmerchandise. A weekly market is held on Friday, acattle market on the second Friday of every mouth,and a lamb fair on the Wednesday in August beforeMoniaive.Newton-Stewart, unlike most other modern towns,was not founded on any regular plan ; and, in consequence,long bore the appearance of a stragglingvillage—builders raising their houses high or low, smallor great, on a line \vith others or in recesses or projections,as caprice, accident, or convenience suggested.Irregularity has been so far corrected that the place nowconsists chiefly of a long principal street, with the townhousein the centre. At the close of last century all thehouses were thatched, and most of them had only onestory ; but now more than half of them are slated andtwo-storied. Of late years, too, a number of fine villashave been built above the town, many respectablefamilies having been attracted to the place by its excellentschools. The general building material is trapthroughout the body of the walls, and either graniteor sandstone in the lintels and other conspicuous parts.The town-hall is a plain oblong building, with a cupolaroofedclock-tower. Penninghame parish church, ahandsome Gothic edifice of 1840, with a graceful spire,was built from designs by William Burn at a cost of£5000, and contains 1200 sittings ; in 1881 a missionhall was added behind it at a cost of £500. PrincesStreet Free church till 1876 was Reformed Presbyterianthat of Creebridge dates from Disruption times. In 1878was built a fine new U. P. church, in 1876 the new RomanCatholic church of Our Lady and St Ninian ; and atChalloch, 2 miles NW of the town, is All Saints' Episcopalchurch (1872), a beautiful specimen of Early English,with organ, stained glass, three bells, etc. The EwartInstitute, erected in 1864 at a cost of £5000 from fundsbequeathed by James and John Ewart, merchants, is ahandsome edifice, with a schoolroom at either end, andthe principal's house and boarding-school in the middle.Containing five class-rooms, with accommodation forjnected;NEWTON-STEWARTNEWTON-UPON-AYK310 scholars, and rooms and dormitories for 20 boardersit is divided into a middle-class or high school, con'ducted by a principal, two masters, a lady superinten"dent, and assistants ; and a free school, conducted by"a master and a mistress. With a recent bequest of£10,000, a new town-hall was commenced in 1884. Itis to be called the M'Millan Hall, after the testator,and will, when completed, prove a great convenienceand ornament to Newton - Stewart. Other institutionsare the Douglas Academy, the Galloway Girls'Industrial Home, a mechanics' institute, etc. In1875 a monument, 57 feet high, was erected at acost of £1000 to Randolph, ninth Earl of Galloway(1800-73).Newton-Stewart has a post office, with money order,savings' bank, insurance, and telegraph departments,branches of the British Linen, Clydesdale, and NationalBanks, offices or agencies of 15 insurance companies,4 hotels, waterworks (1882), 2 gas companies, a handsomepolice station (1870), and a Saturday Conservative newspaper,the Gallotcay Gazette (1870). The town is governedby a senior and 2 junior magistrates, a treasurer, and 6councillors, who also serve as police commissionersunder the General Police and Improvement (Scotland)Act of 1862. The municipal voters within the policeburgh, which excludes the Creebridge suburb, numbered462 in 1884, when the annual value of real propertyamounted to £7932, whilst the revenue, including assessments,was £506. Pop. (1841) 2432, (1851) 2599,(1861) 2535, (1871) 2873, (1881) 3070, of whom 1708were females, and 425 were in Creebridge. Houses(1881) 608 inhabited, 17 vacant, 2 building. —Orti. Siir.,sh. 4, 1857.Newton-upon-Ayr, a suburban town and a smallparish on the coast of Kyle, Ayrshire. The town, lyingon the right bank of the river Ayr, is separated only bythat river from Ayr royal burgh, and forms part of Ayrparliamentary burgh. On its W side is the Firth ofClyde, on its E the suburb of Wallacetown, within StQuivox parish, and so closely contiguous is it to Wallacetown,that a stranger would fail to discover the line ofdemarcation. It seems to have sprung from a hamletin or about the time of Robert Bruce ; and, constituted aburgh of barony somewhere between 1208 and 1446, itgot new charters, confirming all previous privileges,from James VI. in 1595 and 1600—charters whichassume it to have been a burgh beyond the memory ofman. Newton Castle, here, long the seat of theWallaces of Craigie, was a strong baronial fortalice,situated among gardens and groves, and demolished in1701 ; for fifty years after which date the place almostwholly consisted of thatched, one-story houses. Then,but especially towards the commencement of the presentcentury, it began to undergo much improvement andextension, and now comprises three or four dingy oldsmall streets, a main street 2100 feet long and 80 wide,and three or four modern and regular streets betweenthe main one and the firth. For sixty years priorto 1832 it mainly depended on the working of coalseams which underlay all the parish ; but, these becomingexhausted, it now shares in the commerce and industriesof Ayr, under which also are noticed its schools,station, and general features. The parish church, builtin 1777 and enlarged in 1832, contains 830 sittings.There are also Free and U. P. churches ; and a newEstablished church, of North parish, was erected in 1884at a cost of £3200. The town council consists of 2bailies, a treasurer, and 6 councillors. Pop. (1831)3768, (1861) 4807, (1871) 4686, (1881) 6174, of whom3114 were females. Houses (1881) 1279 inhabited, 82vacant, 12 building.The parish, disjoined in 1779 from that of Monktonand Prestwick, is bounded N by Monkton and Prestwick,E by St Quivox, S by the last f mile of the riverAyr, which separates it from Ayr, and W by theFirth of Clyde. Its utmost length, from N by Eto S by W, is If mile ; its utmost breadth is 7| furlongs; and its area is 696 acres, of which 99^ are foreshoreand 12 water. The coast includes a small rocky113