The Dame Margaret Cunningham here mentioned was Sir John's first wife, a daughter of the Laird of Caprington, and mother of one daughter, Agnes, who married John Boyle, of Kelburne, ancestor of the Earls of Glasgow, and one son, Sir John of Pollok, at whose death, in 1647, without male issue, the estate, heritable and moveable, went to his cousin George of Auldhouse, although not without several attempts on the part of the Calderwood branch to disturb the succession. The Springkell Maxwells, who acquired the barony of Kirkconnel and Springkell, Annandale, 1609, and were created Baronets of Nova Scotia, 1683, claim to represent the male line of the Pollok family through an earlier George of Auldhouse. The second wife of Sir John, founder of Haggs Castle, so long a jointure-house in the family, was Marjory, daughter of Sir William Edmonstone of Duntreath, descended from Robert III. through the Princess Mary. This Royal connection was again renewed in the family by the above George of Auldhouse marrying (1646) Annabella, daughter of Sir Archibald Stewart of Blackhall and Ardgowan.

The name of Sir George Maxwell is associated with a case famous in the superstitious annals of Renfrewshire in connection with the reputed crime of witchcraft. Nearly twenty years before the local Presbytery had its attention directed with such fatal results to the deplorable case of Christian Shaw, of Bargarran. Sir George was taken suddenly ill while in Glasgow on the night of October 14, 1677, and afterwards confined to his mansion at Pollok, suffering severe bodily pain. A vagrant girl named Janet Douglas, who pretended to be dumb, was considered a clever witch-finder, and owing some of his tenants a grudge, accused several of them of bewitching Sir George. To confirm her assertions, she contrived, in one or two instances, to secrete small wax figures of the suffering knight, stuck with pins, in the dwellings of the accused persons. A special commission was issued for the trial of the case on the spot, and after a long investigation, at which were present, besides some of the Lords of Justiciary, most of the leading men of Renfrewshire, the following unfortunate creatures, namely, Janet Mathie, widow of John Stewart, under miller in Shaw Mill; John

Stewart, her son; and three old women, the parties accused, were condemned to be strangled and burned; and Annabil Stewart, a girl fourteen years old, the daughter of Mathie, ordered to be imprisoned. A local ballad on the tragedy makes mention of the story as

"Told by legends old,

And by withered dame and sire,

When they sit secure from the winter's cold,

All around the evening fire.

"How the faggots blazed on the Gallow-green,
Where they hung the witches high,

And their mouldering forms were grimly seen,
Till darkened the lowering sky.”

Besides three daughters who married into the families of Dreghorn, Upper Pollok, and Calderwood, Sir George left at his death in 1677 one son, Sir John Maxwell of Pollok, created a Baronet of Nova Scotia by Charles II., April 12, 1682, with extension of the title, in virtue of another patent, March 27, 1707, to his heirs-male whatsoever. In July, 1683, Sir John Maxwell was imprisoned for refusing to take the test, and December 2, 1684, he was fined £8000 by the Privy Council for allowing recusants to live on his lands, and refusing the Bond and Test. The Council, however, declared that if paid before the end of the month the fine would be reduced to £2000. In 1689 Sir John was sworn a Privy Councillor to King William. The same year he represented the county of Renfrew in the Convention of Estates. He was afterwards Commissioner for the same county in the Scots Parliament. In 1696 he was appointed one of the Lords of the Treasury and Exchequer. On the 6th February, 1699, he was admitted an Ordinary Lord of Session, and on the 14th of the same month nominated Lord Justice-Clerk. In the latter office he was superseded in 1702. He died July 4, 1732, in his ninetieth year, without issue.

His cousin, Sir John Maxwell, previously styled of Blawerthill, succeeded as second Baronet of Pollok. He was the son of Zecharias Maxwell of Blawerthill, younger brother of Sir George Maxwell of Auldhouse and Pollok. He married, first, Lady Ann Carmichael, daughter of John, Earl of Hyndford, and had a son, John, and two daughters; secondly, Barbara, daughter of Walter Stewart of Blairhall; issue, three sons (1) George, of Blawerthill, who died unmarried; (2) Walter; (3) James; and two daughters; thirdly, Margaret, of the family of Caldwell of Caldwell, without issue. He died in 1753.

His eldest son, Sir John Maxwell, became third Baronet. On his death, his half brother, Sir Walter, succeeded as fourth Baronet, and died in 1761.

Sir Walter's only son, Sir John, became fifth Baronet, but died nine weeks after his father.

The title and estates reverted to his father's youngest brother, Sir James, sixth Baronet. This gentleman married Frances, second daughter of Robert Colquhoun of St. Christopher's, of the family of Kenmure; issue, two sons— (1) John, his successor; (2) Robert, a Captain in the army, died without issue; and two daughters (1) Frances, wife of John Cunningham of Craigends; (2) Barbara, married Rev. Greville Ewing. Sir James died in 1785.

Sir John, seventh Baronet, was the first M.P. for Paisley under the Reform Act of 1832, as many as 777 votes being tendered for him in opposition to 180 given in favour of Mr. M'Kerrell of Hillhouse. He held the seat, however, for only two years, when he accepted the Chiltern Hundreds, and was succeeded by Professor Sir D. K. Sandford, after a contest with John Crawford, another Liberal, and Lieutenant J. E. Gordon, Conservative. He married (1788) Hannah-Anne, daughter of Mr. Richard Gardiner of Aldborough, Suffolk, by whom (who died 21st July, 1841) he had issue-John, eighth Baronet; Harriet-Anne, died unmarried 1841; Elizabeth, marrried 1st June, 1815, Mr. Archibald Stirling of Keir, and died 5th September, 1822, leaving (with two daughters, who both died unmarried) a son, Mr. William Stirling of Keir, M.P., the late Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, ninth Baronet of Pollok.

Sir John died 30th July, 1844, and was succeeded by his only son, Sir John, who was born on the 12th May, 1791, and married 14th October, 1839, Lady Matilda-Harriet Bruce, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, which lady died 31st August, 1857. Sir John sat in Parliament successively for the counties of Lanark and Renfrew. He died without issue, 6th June, 1865, when the Baronetcy devolved, in pursuance of the limitation of the patent of 1707, upon his nephew, Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, K.T., who assumed the surname of Maxwell, after his patronymic, Stirling.

William Stirling, only son of Archibald of Keir, was born at Kenmure, near Glasgow, 1818, educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his degree in 1839. Succeeding to the estate of Keir and Cadder on the death of his father, 1847, he took an early opportunity of disentailing these properties, and, besides greatly enlarging Keir House, built the beautiful memorial church of Lecropt, near his family inheritance. Stirling Maxwell married at Paris, 26th April, 1865, Anne-Maria, third daughter of David, eighth Earl of Leven, and by her (who died 8th December, 1874) had issue-(1) John Maxwell, present Baronet; (2) Archibald, born 1867. He married secondly, 1st March, 1877, the Hon. Caroline Norton, daughter of the late Thomas Sheridan, and widow of Hon. George Chapple Norton, brother of Fletcher, third Lord Grantley. She died 15th June. following. Sir William was highly esteemed as one of the most accomplished scholars of his day, especially in the department of Spanish art and literature. With strong natural artistic tastes, refined by study and travel, Sir William made many important contributions to critical and historical literature, and published also a volume of "Songs of the Holy Land," 1846. Among his best known. works are:-"Annals of the Artists of Spain," 1848; "Cloister Life of Emperor Charles V.," 1852; "Velazquez and his Works," 1855; two sumptuous privately printed books, relating to the victories and processions of Charles V.; "Don John of Austria;" "Essays concerning Proverbs, &c., and the Arts of Design." It was remarked concerning Sir William's "Processions" of Charles V. that, while the greatest and most illustrious historians had vied with each other in preserving the

likeness of the Emperor's person, another in preserving the record of his famous achievements, it was no small addition to even his fame that in this our age, the taste, the learning, and the munificence of a Scottish gentleman, aided by the arts of the nineteenth century, should have raised such a literary monument to his greatness. Sir William was a trustee of the British Museum, 1872, and of the National Portrait Gallery; Lord Rector of Edinburgh University, 1871; Chancellor of Glasgow University, 1875; a Member of the Scottish Education Board; a D.C.L. and LL.D. As a Commoner, he also received the exceptional honour of being created a Knight of the Thistle. He sat in the House of Commons as a Conservative for Perthshire (1852-68), and from 1874 till his lamented death, which took place somewhat suddenly at Venice, 16th January, 1878, when the succession to Pollok opened up to his eldest son, Sir John Maxwell Stirling-Maxwell, the tenth and present Baronet, born 6th June, 1866.

The house of Nether Pollok-a large and handsome structure of four storeys-is situated on the right bank of the White Cart amidst highly-embellished pleasure grounds and beautiful plantations. The building was completed in 1753 by the then Sir John Maxwell, second Baronet, a few weeks before his death. The castle which had been previously occupied by the family was demolished about the same time. It stood on the site of the offices attached to

the present mansion. Upon an eminence about 300 yards to the eastward of the house there stood a still older castle, the remains of the drawbridge and fosse belonging to which were in existence in Crawfurd's time.

In the Parliamentary Return of Owners and Heritages (Scotland, 1874), Pollok estate is entered as consisting of 4,773 acres, with a rental of £13,012, exclusive of £458 for quarries, and £700 for minerals. Sir William's other properties were entered-Stirlingshire (Keir), 1,487 acres ; rental, £2,370. Lanarkshire (Cadder, &c.), 5,691 acres; rental, £8,741; minerals, £3,231. Perthshire, 8,863 acres; rental, £5,731.