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Sir Houstoun-Stewart left issue by his wife Martha, daughter of Sir William Miller, Lord Glenlee, among other sons and daughters, the present Sir William HoustounStewart, K.C.B. Entering the navy, like his father, when about fourteen years of age, he served with distinction in operations on the north coast of Spain, 1836-37; in Syrian war, and bombardment of St. Jean d'Acre, 1840; at bombardment of Sebastopol, 1854, and operations in the Baltic, and bombardment of Sweaborg, 1855; was successively Superintendent of Chatham, Devonport, and Portsmouth dockyards, and Comptroller of the Navy. Admiral Stewart was among the few permitted to accompany the Czar's yacht "Lividia" on her first cruise from the Clyde to the Black Sea. Admiral William Houstoun Stewart has been twice married, with issue, besides other sons and daughters, Lieutenant Houstoun, R.N., born 1854.

The fifth son of Sir Michael Shaw-Stewart, fifth baronet, Patrick Maxwell, born 1795, sat as M.P. for Lancaster from 1831 till 1837, and for the county of Renfrew from 1841, when he carried the election against Colonel William Mure by a narrow majority, till his decease in October, 1846, when Colonel Mure was elected without opposition.

Sir Michael, sixth baronet of Greenock and Blackhall, eldest son of Sir Michael, fifth Baronet, succeeded Lord Archibald Hamilton in the representation of Lanarkshire, 1827, and held the seat for three years, when he was elected for his native county of Renfrew, in succession to Sir John Maxwell, younger of Pollok. In the first Reformed Parliament, Sir Michael, who had been a consistent supporter of "the Bill," was re-elected for Renfrewshire by 700 votes against 412 tendered in favour of R. C. Bontine of Ardoch, and held the seat till his decease in 1836, when it fell to George Houstoun (Conservative), who held it over a second contest till 1841, when Patrick Maxwell Stewart, mentioned above (described as a Liberal) was returned by 959 votes against 945 recorded in favour of Colonel William Mure, Liberal-Conservative. Sir Michael, sixth Baronet, married, 1819, Elizabeth Mary, only child of Robert Farquhar of Newark, and had issue, with other sons and daughters, Robert, the present

Sir Michael Shaw-Stewart, born 1826, and, rare in the history of Scottish families, the seventeenth in direct male descent from the John Stewart first mentioned as son of Robert III., whose reign extended over 1390-1406.

Presently Lord-Lieutenant of Renfrewshire, Sir Michael succeeded to the representation of the county in Parliament, 1855, when Colonel William Mure accepted the Chiltern Hundreds, and held the seat as a Liberal-Conservative without a contest till 1865, when it was won by Mr. A. A. Spiers of Elderslie (Liberal), with 938 votes against 836 tendered in favour of Sir Michael. Born in 1826, the present Baronet married in December, 1852, Lady Octavia Grosvenor, sixth daughter of Richard, second Marquis of Westminister, K.G., and has had issue five sons and four daughters, the eldest and heir-apparent being Michael Hugh Stewart-Nicolson of Carnock, born 11th July, 1854, a Captain in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, married, 14th November, 1883, Lady Alice Thynne, daughter of John Alexander, fourth Marquis of Bath.

Among the more recent additions to the Ardgowan property there falls to be mentioned Finnock, Leven, Duchal, Flattertoun, and Dunrod, the latter famous in Renfrewshire history as a resort of witches who kept company with that “auld Dunrod" who sold the barony in 1619 to Archibald Stewart of Blackhall. Making up, as it does, over two-thirds of the parish of Inverkip, Sir Michael's Renfrewshire property is entered in the Parliamentary Return of Owners and Heritages (1874), as consisting of 4,773 acres, with a rental of £13,012, exclusive of £458 for quarries and £700 for minerals.

NOTE. It cannot, in the nature of things, happen frequently for the local or family annalist to record events of permanent historic interest as mere news. Yet it would be ungracious, less far than dutiful, not to make special mention of the fact that young Lieutenant Houstoun-Stewart, R.N. (born 1854), mentioned above as son of Admiral Sir William, K.C.B., cousin of the present Sir Michael of Ardgowan, fell in the Soudan so recently as the forenoon of Thursday

(March 13, 1884), while commanding the guns of the Naval Brigade, opened with such stern purpose against the desert troops of Osman Digma, fighting in name of the Mahdi, otherwise known as the False Prophet. Houstoun-Stewart was senior lieutenant at the time of H.M.S. "Dryad." Son of Sir William, presently Commander-in-Chief at Devonport, Houstoun-Stewart, who has fallen so nobly, entered the Navy as cadet 1866, became midshipman two years afterwards, and Lieutenant in September, 1876.

POLLOK AND THE MAXWELLS.

Of the five baronetcies held by families named Maxwell-Pollok, Calderwood, Cardoness, Monreith, and Springkell-the first named has been long esteemed the most ancient, starting as it does with that Aymer de Maxwell (son of Sir John, Sheriff of Teviotdale), who in the reign of Alexander II. appears as witness to a charter proceeding from Walter the Great Stewart, gifting the churches of Dundonald and Sanquhar to the Monks of Paisley Abbey. Aymer, Chamberlain of Scotland (or his son John, for genealogians are not agreed on the point), would appear from such slender evidence as exists to have married Mary, the heiress of Roland of Mearns, and thereby brought into the family that portion of the Renfrewshire property, as well as Nether Pollok, or Polloc, which now makes up a large portion of the parish of Eastwood. Herbert, the eldest son of Aymer, is claimed as ancestor of the Maxwells of Caerlaverock, afterwards Lords Maxwell and Earls of Nithsdale, now represented in pursuance of a decision in the House of Lords (1858) by Marmaduke Constable-Maxwell, baron Herries of Terregles. From John, second son of Aymer, the family of Nether Pollok would appear to be more immediately descended. His name appears as witness to two donations of land in the Mearns which Herbert gave to the monks of Paisley in the end of the thirteenth century. In one deed the Abbey Cartulary makes mention of

him as "Johannes de Maxwell, dominus de Polloc inferiori," while in the other John Maxwell is simply described as the brother of Herbert. (Cart., pp. 104-380.) The name has generally been accepted as coming from that Macus who, about the year 1116, witnessed the inquisition made by David, Prince of Cumberland, afterwards King David I., into the possessions of the Church of Glasgow. Thus there would be first "Macus" only; then "Macus' vil," or town of Macus; until mere superfluity appears in the now familiar "Maxwelltown" of the Herries barony. Other derivations, however, have not been wanting, and are yet maintained by scholars of high reputation, as the Gaelic "Pollag," a little pool, and "weil," or circling eddy in a stream, as also "well" itself. In any case, such names as Undwyn, father of Macus, and of Liolf, his son, may be accepted as indicating a Saxon origin for the family.

Pollok proper, or Upper Pollok, as it was frequently called, was held possession of by a family of that name for over six hundred years, or from 1163 till 1794, when, on the death of Sir Hew Crawford of Jordanhill, the baronetcy was taken up by his eldest son, Robert, in whose person the families of Pollok, Kilbirnie, and Jordanhill became united. Dying without issue in August, 1845, Sir Robert was succeeded by his nephew, Hew, in the properties of Pollok and Kilbirnie, and also in the baronetcy of Kilbirnie, which last dates from 1638. By his wife, Elizabeth Oswald, daughter of Matthew Dunlop, Sir Hew Crawford had, besides one daughter, Jane, a son, Hew Crawford-Pollok, born 1843, the fifth and present baronet of Kilbirnie, who succeeded to the family honours on the death of his father, 5th March, 1867. Tracing a common ancestor in the very earliest of the Maxwells of Nether Pollok, the house of Calderwood springs more immediately from Sir John Maxwell, who, under a deed, dated at Dumbarton, 18th December, 1400, settled the family lands on his eldest son John, by Isobel, daughter of Sir James Lindsay, and the barony of Calderwood, with other lands, on his younger son Robert, who in 1402 married Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of Sir Robert Dennistoun of Dennistoun, by whom he had two sons-one, John, his heir; and George, ancestor of the Maxwells of Newark. The present Sir

William Maxwell of Calderwood, born 11th August, 1828, is the tenth in descent of the Nova Scotia baronets, an honour first conferred on Sir James of Calderwood, March, 1627-Sir James being at the time heir presumptive of Sir John of Pollok, but afterwards passed over in favour of George Maxwell of Auldhouse. The present Sir William of Calderwood succeeded on the death of his father, Sir Hugh Bates, ninth baronet, February, 1870.

Third in descent from that Aymer de Maxwell of Caerlaverock, mentioned above, was Sir John, son of Sir Robert of Pollok, who, by his marriage with Isobel Lindsay of Crawford, daughter of Walter the High Steward, had, with other sons and daughters (1) John, his successor, who greatly distinguished himself at Otterburn (1388) by capturing Sir Ralph Percy, brother of the noted Hotspur; and (2) Robert, ancestor of the Maxwells of Calderwood. Another John Maxwell is found afterwards succeeding to Pollok, and leaving by his wife, Elizabeth, a daughter of Sir Patrick Houstoun of Houstoun, an only child, Elizabeth, sole heiress of Pollok, who brought the estate to her husband, Sir John, son of George Maxwell of Cowglen. This Sir John was knighted by Queen Mary, summoned to repair in her support to the muster-ground at Hamilton after the escape from Lochleven, with all his servants "bodin in feir of war," and fought in her army at Langside, on the borders of his own estate, May, 1568.

The Sir John Maxwell, last mentioned, fell at Dryfe Sands while aiding his chief, Lord Nithsdale, Warden of the West Marches, in an attack on the Johnstons, Scotts, Elliots, and other Border clans, 7th December, 1593. Sir John had some eight years previously finished building the now ruined castle of Haggs, as appears from an inscription all but illegible on a triangular stone over the main doorway :

"1535, NI DOMIN,

ÆDES STRVXE,

RIT FRVSTRA STRVIS,

SIR JOHN MAXWELL OF POLLOK, Knight,
AND D. MARGARET CONYNGHAM,

HIS WIFE, BIGGIT THIS HOUSE.”

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