The Bairds of Old Monkland
with thanks to bairdnet.com
The area around the Old Monkland Church, and stretching back to the Luggie Burn, had, in the 1700/1800s, few if any houses, only the Farms of Kirkwood, Kirkshaws and Bankhead, and the smaller Farms of Highcross, Woodhead and Kirkstyle.
The farms in the area were owned either by the Buchanans of Drumpellier - (who owned the land on west side of Woodside Street) or by the Hamiltons of Rosehall Estate (now named Douglas support) (who owned the land on the east side of Woodside Street). The Baird family never owned the farms but were tenant farmers.
Woodhead Farm was a very small farm and was situated on Woodside Street, between what is now Viewfield Road to near the corner of what is now Manse Avenue.
The vacant space on the corner was what was known as the REC or recreation area in the early part of the 20th century. This was leased from the Drumpellier estate for a peppercorn rent. Here the local children played at maypoles, swing boats, swings, and sand pits. The older men of the area had a large hut where they played dominoes and card games. Apparently there was a dance in the hut every Friday night.
High Cross Farm was situated on the east of the parish road, leading from Langloan to Old Monkland Church. The Bairds moved to here in 1808. The track to High Cross Farm is now the road named Highcross Avenue.
High Cross farm
Kirkwood Farm, was not far off on the other side of the road. It was accessed via a track which became what is now known as Dunbar Avenue. It certainly took its name from its vicinity to the kirk, and from a large wood, which is known to have existed on the lands. It was situated near where St Monica's hall is today. At this time there were no fences either on Kirkwood or Woodhead.
Kirkwood Farm
How long the ancestors of the Baird family were in Kirkwood and High Cross does not appear, but it must have been for a very long period.
In a renewal of the lease granted by Sir James Hamilton of Rosehall on the 20th of July, 1745, Alexander Baird is then occupying "High Corsse"; and there is let to him, for another period of nineteen years the lands of High Cross, Millhouse, Woodhead, and Kirkwood, all in the Parish of Old Monkland.
First
generation
The
first
member
of
the
Old
Monkland
family,
of
whom
there
is
any
account,
was
Alexander
Baird,
born
1659
(approx) who
was
tenant
in
Kirkwood
and
High
Cross.
He
was
a
very
powerful
man,
and,
in
consequence
of
the
enormous
weight
which
he
was
able
to
carry,
got
the
name
of
"Double-ribbed
Sandy."
Second
generation
His
son
was
also
named Alexander
Baird,
the
great-grandfather
of
the
Old
Monkland
brothers.
The
exact
date
of
his
birth
is
not
known,
but
is
estimated
1689
-1766.
On 1st April, 1764, Alexander Baird obtained a renewal of his lease from Archibald Hamilton of Rosehall. The lease was for the further term of nineteen years. It embraces the same lands, with the addition of what is described as "Luggie Bridgend or Waukmill house."
This time the rent was increased to 516 pounds 18 shillings Scots, with 7 bolls oatmeal, 8 bolls and 3 firlots "barley bear," 35 hens, and 12 capons. From a receipt among the papers by Mr. Hamilton to John Baird in 1767 (the year after his father's death), it appears that the Kaim fowl, stipulated as part of the rent, were paid for in money, at the rate of 8d. for each hen, and 12d. for each capon. From the terms of the receipt this must have been sterling money; and if so, it was a high price for fowls at that period.
3rd
Generation
John
Baird
-Two
years
after
the
date
of
this
lease
namely,
in
1766
Alexander
Baird
died
at
High
Cross,
and
was
succeeded
in
his
farms
by
his
eldest
son,
John
Baird.
At
the
time
of
his
father's
death,
John
Baird
was
in
the
occupation,
under
his
father,
of
the
lands
of
Kirkwood,
and
had
been
so
for
some
years
previously;
and
he
continued
in
the
same
possession
till
the
time
of
his
own
death
in
1798.
After
the
death
of
Alexander
Baird,
John
appears
to
have
held,
under
his
father's
lease,
all
the
lands
which
had
been
held
by
the
latter,
his
brother
Robert
possessing
High
Cross,
and
William
possessing
Woodhead,
as
his
sub-tenants.
This
continued
till
1786.
On
the
4th
of
February
in
that
year,
John
Baird
obtained
from
the
then
proprietor,
Colonel
John
Hamilton
of
Rosehall,
afterwards
of
Orbiston,
a
renewal
of
the
lease
for
a
further
period
of
nineteen
years.
The
lands
are
described
as
"Kirkwood,
High
Cross,
Woodhead,
Waukmill,
and
Luggie
Bridge,
as
the
same
were
then
possessed
by
him
and
his
sub-tenants."
This
tack
does
not
include
the
lands
of
Millhouse.
In
this
and
subsequent
deeds
John
Baird
continues
to
be
designated
as
"farmer
in
Kirkwood."
Note:
Wauknmill
-
was
a mill
producing woollen
cloth.
William Baird 3rd Generation (C 1721-1780?) The second son of Alexander Baird was William Baird, the grandfather of the Old Monkland brothers. In 1772 he was tenant in Woodhead. This farm he must have possessed as sub-tenant of his brother John, as Robert in the same way occupied High Cross. He married Jean Baillie, by whom he had four children, Alexander, Helen, John, and William.
| Alexander Baird - 4th Generation - father of the Old Monkland Bairds who started Gartsherrie | |
|
|
Farmer and entrepreneur. Alexander Baird (1765 - 1833) was born at the farm of Woodhead. He became tenant of the nearby farms of High Cross and Kirkwood, which had been the home of the family for centuries. He was a tenant on both Drumpeller and Rosehall estates of the farms of Kirkwood, Newmains, and High Cross. He married Jean Moffat and had eight sons and two daughters. The three eldest were born at Woodhead, the next five at Kirkwood, and the two youngest at High Cross. |
He was an energetic and skilful farmer and improver. But farming in those bygone days is not what it is now. The plough and the harrow, and even some of the tines of the latter, were made of wood, and so simple was their construction that a wright in Old Monkland was able to make a plough in one day. There were no threshing-machines, and everything was done by hand. Yet Mr. Baird was paying forty-five shillings an acre for his land.
JEAN MOFFAT
Mrs. Baird (nee Jean Moffat) did the work of the dairy with her own hands taking the sole management of it as well as of the disposal of the produce. This she continued to do, assisted by her daughter Janet, as the latter grew up. Owing to the want of proper roads at that time, butter had to be carried, from Monkland to Glasgow for sale, on women's backs; and many a time did Mrs. Baird herself perform this duty, carrying the butter to Glasgow, and disposing of it in the market there, and walking home, a distance of not less than seven miles each way.
This system continued not only while the family was at Woodhead, but after they had removed to Kirkwood, and also after they had left the latter place for High Cross. By this time roads had been made, and butter and other produce were then sent to market in carts. Before 1817, ten children had been born and nursed, while Mrs. Baird was doing an amount of work that would have appalled any two dairy women of the present day.
James Baird used to say that the success which Jean Moffat's sons achieved was in a great measure, owing to her precepts and good example.
He thus wrote of her in 1874:- "She was married in comparative poverty while her husband was sub-tenant of the small, and not very productive, farm of Woodhead. By her sagacity and indomitable energy she contributed largely to her husband's prosperity, and to form in her children those habits of diligence and integrity by which they became distinguished". In the early years of the young Bairds they had hard work at the farm of High Cross and Kirkwood. Their house accommodation was very inferior, but the habits of hardiness there acquired were never lost.
Mrs. Baird lived nearly eighteen years after her husband's death, and died at Coats House on the 8th of July, 1851, at the advanced age of eighty-three, having been most sedulously attended by her daughters in her last illness. She was buried in the Churchyard of Old Monkland beside her husband, and within two hundred yards of the farm house of Woodhead, where she and her husband began their married life. The farm house of Kirkwood, their next residence, was within half a mile, and High Cross, where they resided till 1820, was within a quarter of a mile, of Woodhead. Many changes in the rise and fall of families did this old lady see in the course of her long life, but none more striking than in the rise of her own.
Fifth Generation
WILLIAM and JAMES BAIRD were perhaps the most remarkable members of a remarkable family - who became known as the Bairds of Gartsherrie. They were not proprietors of the estate of that name, which belonged to Mr. Hamilton Colt. All the property which they possessed there is the ground on which their great ironworks are erected.
While John, the second son, continued to farm, William (1796 - 1864) and James (1802-1876), made their fortune through smelting iron and several of the others were involved in this company.
Woodhead Farm
|
Alexander Baird engaged in small-scale coal-mining, but in 1816, took the lease on a coal-field at Rochsolloch (south of Airdrie). The running of Riochsolloch fell to Baird's eldest son William (1796
- 1864). William was then living with his father at High Cross, and he went every day to the coal-work, with the exception of Wednesdays, on which days he went to Glasgow to look after the sale of the coal, his brother Alexander (the third son) having been, soon after the opening of the colliery , installed there as salesman. John, the second son, continued his occupation as a farmer. William
was
able
to
make
his
fortune
by
greatly
expanding
his
father's
coal-mining
operations
and
building
an
ironworks
at Gartsherrie
(1828). |
|
Foundryman and industrialist. With his elder
brother, William,
he founded William
Baird & Co which
went on to become
the largest
producers of iron in
Britain. He made use
of the blast furnace
developed by James
Beaumont Neilson
(1792 - 1865) and by
his death the
company ran more
than thirty of these
furnaces.
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