Lainshaw's link to Slavery, the Free Kirk and the War

Lainshaw House

I grew up in the Lainshaw part of Stewarton, as a child I played in the Lainshaw Woods and then worked at Lainshaw Farm and Lainshaw Farm Eggs. I once sang for a local church choir to the elderly residents of Lainshaw House, I enjoyed much of my time in Lainshaw but I was unaware of much of the estate's history and its link to slavery and religion.

The Lainshaw estate can be traced back to the 15^th century and the lands were owned by the Eglinton family until 1778, when the 10^th Laird of Lainshaw, Sir Walter Montgomerie-Cunninghame was forced to sell up, after losing a fortune as a result of the American War of Independence.

Kilmarnock born, William Cunninghame, had fared somewhat better than Sir Walter, the merchant who grew wealthy importing, processing and selling tobacco and sugar produced by enslaved Africans, had a record of exploiting market conditions to his own benefit.

Initially he had taken advantage of distressed tobacco growers, buying their crop as much as 10% below the market value. He was quick to realise the possibility of increasing his fortune, even more, during the civil war. When his business partners were concerned about the impact of war, Cunninghame stepped in, buying their entire tobacco stock for sixpence a pound and when the war disrupted supplies, he sold at three shillings and sixpence a pound! Making a huge fortune.

He was to use £26,200 of this money, an immense sum as the time, to purchase the sequestrated estate of Lainshaw and significantly developed Lainshaw House into his country retreat.  He also bought land in the Cow Loan, Glasgow, which he renamed Queen Street, after the wife of George the Third, and in 1780 built a large mansion there in the neo-clasical style at a cost of £10,000, now the home of the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA).

Two years later (1780) Cunninghame retired as a merchant. He married three times and had a total of fourteen children. He disinherited his eldest sons, Thomas and Alexander and his third son, William Cunninghame, inherited Lainshaw when William senior died in 1804.

William junior, who had been influenced by William Carey, the Baptist Missionary, during his time working in India, was to become one of a group of British biblical interpreters of the period, who included millennislism with a more traditional historistic reading of prophecy. He served as minister in the Stewarton congregational church, from 1827 until 1839, when he began the “Stewarton case” which directly led to the Disruption of 1843 when after a bitter conflict, 450 ministers broke away over the Church's relationship with the State to form the Free Church of Scotland.  

Whilst most of the principles on which the protesters went out were conceded by Parliament by 1929, clearing the way for the re-union of that year, the national Church of Scotland never fully regained its position after the "Stewarton case".

The Stewarton Case

The eccentric, William junior never married and on his death in 1849 Lainshaw passed to his half brother, John Cuninghame of Duchrae. Whilst Lainshaw was to remain with the family until 1947, it had been used as an army camp from 1941 to '45.  A number of regments were stationed in Lainshaw, including the Lancers, the Royal Engineers, the Rifle Brigade and the Lothian and Border Horse.  Concrete roads were laid to cater for the Crusader tanks

Whilst Howie of Dunlop took over the farm and some of the land, the Local Authority took over the House and the rest of the land, using it for the post war expansion in council housing.  Some streets, such as Lothian Road and Crusader Cresecent take their names from the time when the area was an army camp.  Whilst Morton Road, Sim Street and Thomson Terrace were named after sets of local brothers who had died during the war.

Lainshaw House became a care home for the elderly, and then a ruin, before being restored and converted into a number of apartments.  I wonder how many of the residents know about the house's past and its links to the slave trade, religion and the war.

Crusader tanks were once common in Stewarton