The Industrial Age
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The Lowland Clearances

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ments

The Millwrights
The Engineers of the Industrial Revolution
1790-1850

A good number of Cumnock McCowans eagerly embraced the new industrial economy. For about two decades, Cumnock folk had been losing their connection with the land. Beginning about 1780 we see "that yearly a number of my [Lord Dumfries'] farmers sons go to Glasgow, Paisley & c to acquire trades". Accelerating industrial activity in Neilston Parish, Renfrewshire, in particular, attracted several skilled McCowan millwrights. They adapted well to the enormous socio-economic changes that we now call the Lowland Clearances.

This raw data is useful input information for the Essay Contest -- "Your Community in a World History Context". Be sure to refer also to "To Sustene The Personis: The Agricultural Revolution" for some details of the period 1600 to 1800 and the dramatic changes that affected the McCowans and many of their neighbours.

Where Did They Go -- What Did They Do?
And Much More is in
The McCowans of Cumnock, Lesmahagow and Scarborough

McCowan Marriages
In the Mill Towns of
Renfrewshire, Ayrshire and Lanarkshire
Neilston Parish (Ne), Eaglesham (Ea)
Sorn (So), Kilmarnock (Ki), Stewarton (Ste)
East Kilbride (EK)

McCowan Births
In the Mill Towns of
Renfrewshire, Ayrshire and Lanarkshire
Neilston Parish (Ne), Eaglesham (Ea)
Sorn (So), Kilmarnock (Ki)
East Kilbride (EK)

The great bulk of the above marriage and baptism information was obtained via microfilms borrowed at the Church of Latter Day Saints in the 1980s. A few of the  items were obtained on the internet from various persons.

The Scarboro Heights Record   V12 #1
The McCowans' Who's Who  Vol. 13

See also:

• The Farmers and Weavers in Ayrshire -- Origins in Cumnock and impact of the Lowland Clearances
• The Coalminers of Lanarkshire
• The Capitalists, Entrepreneurs and Professionals
• Back to the Land -- Farmers in Canada

Where Did They Go, What Did They Do?
And Much More is in
The McCowans of Cumnock, Lesmahagow and Scarborough

Archibald Bryce McCowan_1846_4_16:
Shipwright, married Elizabeth Giffen in 1870. He died in Glasgow Dec. 8 1901.

James Pinkerton McCowan_1835_1_29:
Married Agnes Cameron in 1876 in Manhattan, New York

Jean Bryce McCowan_1844_420:
Married James Dunsmore in Paisley Dec. 31 1867 where they had three children by 1871. James Dunsmore may have later joined John McCowans textile printing company in the US as superintendent.  (Hudson County Today: Its History, People, Trades..., Union, New Jersey)

John_McCowan_1836_37:
Lived in New Brighton, USA, died June 24 1911. Founder, in 1871, of American Novelty Printing and Embossing Works in Hoboken, USA. His apprenticeship in Barrhead, Neilston, Scotland, as a textile block printer had been good training. He left Scotland for the US in 1868. After his death, the business was continued by his son, John F. McCowan. (Hudson County Today)

Robert McCowan_1826_10_9:
May have been in Nottingham Park in 1851. His older brother, Archibald, born April 22 1812 in New Kilpatrick, married Bethea Cochran in Neilston in 1836.

Robert McCowan_1832_9_10:
Engineer in Greenock. Died 3/30/1906 in Paisley. Married Sarah Brown in West Greenock, 1/2/1860. Children included Robert (b 1859 appr.), Agnes (b 1860 appr.), Elizabeth (b 1862), Margaret (b 1863), Sarah (b 1866), James (b 1868), Jane (b 1870), Margaret (b 1872), William (b 1878), Robina and John (b 1883).

William_McCowan_1838_518:
Military career. Settled in British Guiana where he and Jane Corner raised 12 children -- James Corner, Ann Jane Pinkerton, William, Nell, Hugh Edward, Janet, John Haynes Smith, Maggie, Agnes, Hugh Wallace. William died at 50 in 1888. He was grandfather of the Late Sir Anthony McCowan.

William_McCowan_1829_8_29:
Stone mason in Cambusnethan. Died 7/27/1902. Married Marion Nelson in Shotts, 6/25/56. Children included James (b 1857), Marion (b 1859), Elizabeth Anderson (b 1861), Janet (b 1863).

Boyle Family:
Some of the Boyle family lived in Whitehill, Cumnock, at one time occupied by McCowans. David Boyle (1842-1911), a grandson of David and Jean Boyle, edited the History of Scarboro in 1896. It is very likely that he heard the story of the smugglers in Gates Gully from the McCowans who lived directly above the mouth of the gully.

McCowans From Argyll:
There was a family of McCowans from Argyll in Neilston at this time. Otherwise, the McCowans of Neilston all appear to have originated in Cumnock, Ayrshire.