Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland .. - National Library of Scotland

—;LINLITHGOWSHIRECanal enters the county on the W by a lofty aqueductover the Avon, IJ mile SW of Linlithgow Bridge,and, passing NW to near Linlithgow, follows the lineof the first-mentioned railway to Niddry, J mile SE ofWincliburgh, whence it winds first to the SW, and theneasterly, till it quits the county at the S of Clifton Hallgrounds (Edinburgh) by a lofty aqueduct over theAlmond, after a course of 13i miles.The royal burghs are Linlithgow and South Queensferry,while Armadale, Bathgate, and Borrowstounness(including Grangepans) are police burghs, and Broxburnand Fauldhouse (including Orofthead) are large enoughto be denominated towns. The villages are East Benhar,Blackburn, Kinneil, Kirkliston, part of LinlithgowBridge, which is shared with Stirlingshire ;Longridge,Newtown, Torphichen, Uphall (including Upper Uphall),and Whitburn. Smaller villages and hamlets areAbercorn, Blackness, Bridgeness, Craigie, Cuffabouts,Dalmeny, Drumcross, Durhamtown, Eeclesmachan, Gateside,Muirhouses, Riccarton, Philpstoun, and Winchburgh.According to Miscellaneous Statistics of theUnited Kingdom (1879) 75,785 acres, with a total grossestimated rental of £248,594, were divided among 1536landowners, one holding 11,870 acres (rental £26,618),one 56S0 (£11,319), six together 17,358 (£42,514), nine12,006 (£16,576), nineteen 13,012 (£41,095), fifty-seven12,583 (£53,283), etc. The principal seats, most of whichare separately noticed, are Almondell, Avontoun, BalbardieHouse, Ballencrietf House, Bangour, Belsyde,Binns, Blackburn House, Boghead House, BonhardHouse, Bonsyde, Bridge House, Bridgecastle, CarlowrieCastle, Carriden House, Champfleurie House, ClarendonHouse, Craigiehall, Craigton House, Dalmeny Park andBarubougle Castle, Dechmont House, Dundas Castle,Foxhall, Grange House, Hopetoun House, HoustonHouse, Kinneil House, Kirkhill House, Lochcote Castle,Newliston, Philpstoun House, Polkemmet, PrestonHouse, Torbanehill House, Wallhouse, and Westwood.The civil county consists of the 12 entire quoad eiviliaparishes of Abercorn, Bathgate, Borrowstounness, Carriden,Dalmeny, Eeclesmachan, Linlithgow, Livingston,Queensferry, Torphichen, Uphall, and Whitburn, andportions of Cramond and Kirkliston, both of which itshares with Edinburghshire. The quoad sacra parishof Fauldhouse is also included, and there is a missionstation at Armadale. These are all ecclesiastically inthe presbytery of Linlithgow and the synod of Lothianand Tweeddale. Besides the 15 churches in connectionwith the Established Church, there are 11 places of worshipconnected with the Free Church, 4 in connectionwith the United Presbyterian Church, 1 Congregationalchurch, 1 Evangelical Union church, 1 WesleyanMethodist church, 2 Episcopal churches and a missionstation, and 4 Roman Catholic churches. In the yearending Sept. 1882 there were 42 schools (33 public),which, with accommodation for 8347 children, had S375on the rolls, and an average attendance of 6375. Theirstaff consisted of 81 certificated, 11 assistant, and 50pupil teachers.Linlithgowshire, with a constituency of 1333 in 1882-83, returns one member to serve in Parliament, but Linlithgow,as one of the Falkirk burghs, has a share of asecond, and Queensferry, as one of the Stirling burghs,of a third. The county is governed by a lord-lieutenantand 16 deputy-lieutenants, besides justices of the peace.It is under the same sheriff-principal as Midlothian, buthas a resident sheriff-substitute. Ordinary courts are heldat Linlithgow every Tuesday and Friday during session,and sheriff small debt courts every Friday. There is asmall debt circuit court at Bathgate for the parishes ofBathgate, Livingston, Uphall, Torphichen, and Whitburnon the third Wednesday of January, April, July,and October. Quarter sessions are held on the firstTuesday of March, May, and August, and on the lastTuesday of October ;and justice of peace courts whenrequired. There is a police force of 35 men (one to each1234 of the population) imder a chief constable, with asalary of £125 a year. In 1881 the number of personstried at the instance of the police was 1017 ; convicted,71LINLITHGOWSHIRE917 ; committed for trial, 48 ; not dealt with, 394. Thenumber of registered poor during the twelvemonth1882-83 was 808, and of casual poor 1300 ; whilst theexpenditure for poor-law purposes amounted in thesame period to £9138. All the parishes are assessed,and Abercorn, Bathgate, Borrowstounness, Carriden,Kirkliston, Linlithgow, and Whitburn, with theparish of Muiravonside in Stirlingshire, form LinlithgowPoor-Law Combination, with a poorhouse atLinlithgow. The proportion of illegitimate birthsaverages about 8 per cent., and the average annualdeath-rate is 19 per thousand. Valuation (1647) £5073,(1815) £97,597, (1849) £122,242, (1866) £163,593, (1876)£186,531, (1884) £216,940, all exclusive of railways andcanals, which in the latter year were valued at £36,395.Population of registration county, which takes in partof Kirkliston from Edinburgh, and gives off part ofCramond to the same county (1831) 23,760, (1841)27,466, (1851) 30,590, (1861) 39,045, (1871) 41,379,(1881) 44.005; of civU county (1801) 17,844, (1811)19,451, (1821) 22,685, (1831) 23,291, (1841) 26,872,(1851) 30,135, (1861) 38,645, (1871) 40,965, (1881)43,510, of whom 22,746 were males, and 20,764 females.The occupations of these in the registration county areshown in the following table :Occupations. JIales. Females. Total.Professional,Domestic servants, . .Commercial,Agriculture and fishing, .Industrial,No stated occupation, .8352411,0111,71010,2638,9292531,183316391,18317,7271,0931.4291,0422,34911,43626,656Of the 1710 males and 639 females in the fourth class,1637 males and 637 females were connected with farming; of those engaged in industrial occupations, 4635men and 214 women were engaged in industries connectedwith mineral substances ; and in the last classthere were 8563 boj's and 8704 girls under fifteen yearsof age. It is a curious and very inexplicable circumstancethat Linlithgow is the only county in Scotlandwhere the males are in excess of the females, and thishas been the case at every census since 1841. In1881 the number of persons to each square mile was363, the county thus ranking fifth in the order ofdensity of population. In the same year the number offamilies was 8911, occupying 8532 houses with 22,293rooms.A monastery is said to have existed at Abercorn asearly as 675, but it was abandoned ten years after, andon the rise of the Roman Church the county became partof the diocese of Lindisfarne, and was subsequently comprehendedin that of St Andrews. The old archdeaconryhad probably the same limits as the modern presbytery,including not only the whole county itself, except a partof Cramond, but several parishes in Stirlingshire and inEdinburghshire. The Bishop of St Andrews had aregality jurisdiction over all the lands in the see lyingto the S of the Forth, and his court sat at Kirkliston.During the time of the short-lived Protestant bishopricof Edinburgh, Linlithgowshire lay within the limits ofthat see. Though the Knights of St John had their seatat Torphichen—which thus passed into the hands of thepresent proprietors, the first Lord Torphichen being thelast preceptor, and Lord St John of Jerusalem in Scotland—therewere anciently in the county but few religioushouses, two monasteries and a hospitium at Linlithgowand a Carmelite convent near Queensferry being the chief.The brass seal of the presbytery of Linlithgow dates from1583, and has the inscription Sigilluni presbyteriiLinlitheu round the edge, while on the face is VerbumDei nostri stabit in ceternum. At the dawn of thehistoric period we find the county within the limitsusually given to the Otaleni or Otadeni or Gadenibut when the district was, in A.D. 81, brought byAgi-icola within the limits of the Roman power, thetribe that inhabited it are called the Damnonii, and525