| Place-name: | Mansfield |
| Suggested Meaning: | Personal Name: Mansfield ( Alison Mansfield) |
| Place-name: | Mansfield House |
| Place-Name: Mansfield + SSE house ‘house, mansion’ | |
| Place-name: | Mansfield Mains |
| Place-Name: Mansfield + Scots mains ‘ lands adjacent to the Mansion-house’ | |
| Place-name: | Mansfield Hall |
| Place-Name: Mansfield + Scots hall ‘ main dwellling of a farm’ | |
| Place-name: | Mansfield Cottages |
| Place-Name: Mansfield + Scots cottages ‘cottages’ | |
| Place-name: | Mansfield Village |
| Place-Name: Mansfield + SSE village ‘village’ | |
| Place-name: | Mansfield Colliery |
| Place-Name: Mansfield + SSE colliery ‘colliery’ | |
| Place-name: | Mansfield Burn |
| Place-Name: Mansfield + Scots burn ‘stream’ | |
| Place-name: | Mansfield Linn |
| Place-Name: Mansfield + Scots linn ‘waterfall’ | |
| Blaeu Coila (1654): | Nether Gariff (Mansfield Mains), Over Garif (Hall of Mansfield), Garif Burn (Mansfield Burn) |
| OS Name Books (1855-57): | Mansfield House, Mansfield Mains, Mansfield Hall, Mansfield Cottages, Mansfield Village, Mansfield Colliery, Mansfield Linn |
| Location: | Ordnance Survey (1892-1960) |
Sir James Stirling, 1st Baronet of Mansfield
In January 1788 the Caledonian Mercury announced that the ‘Lands and Estate of Garrieve in the parish of New Cumnock’ were up for sale. The article went on to promote the estate’s ‘inexhaustible fund of lime‘ and the ‘exceeding good coal shows seam of 10 to 11 feet‘ while upon the farms of Garclaugh and Easter Garrieve there is ‘a great deal of large grown timber‘ [1]
Going further back in time to Blaeu’s Coila Provincia (1654) reveals the extent of Garrive and Garclaugh lands at that time, namely – O.(ver) Garif, N.(ether) Gariff and Garrif b.(urn) along wth N. Garueclach, O. Garueclach and Garueclach b.(urn).
Several other notifications of the ‘Sale of the Lands and Estate of Garrive’ appeared in the Caledonian Mercury over the next two years before they were acquired at some time between 1790 and 1792 by James Stirling, Lord Provost of Edinburgh.
Sir James Stirling was one of a number of Edinburgh worthies included in a collection of portaits etched by John Kay, miniature painter, supported with biographical sketches of the time. Of particular interest are Kay’s remarks on Stirling’s early adult life up until his marriage to Miss Mansfield [2]
In early life he went to the West Indies, as clerk to an extensive and opulent planter, Mr. Stirling of Keir*, where he conducted himself with such propriety, that, in a short time, through the influence of his employer, he was appointed Secretary to the Governor of the Island of Jamaica, Sir Charles Dalling**. Having in this situation accumulated a considerable sum of money, he at length returned to Edinburgh, and was assumed a partner in the banking concern of “Mansfield, Ramsay, & Co.” (lately Ramsay, Bonar, & Co.), whose place of business was then in Cantore’s Close, Luckenbooths. In this copartnery he was very prosperous; and his good fortune was increased by obtaining the hand of Miss Mansfield, the daughter of the principal partner***.
Kay Originals, Vol I (1877)
N.B. James Stirling’s family is said to descend from that the Stirlings of Keirs and perhaps it is that connection that earned him the postion of clerk in their extensive sugar plantations in Jamaica. **It was John and not Charles Dalling that served as Governor of Jamaica, although his first spell began in 1772 by which time Stirling was a married man and back home in Edinburgh. *** Daughter of the deceased principal (founding?) partner.
James Stirling and Alison Mansfield were married on 16th August 1733, in Edinburgh, the parish record entry reading –
“James Stirling merchant in newkirk parish and Miss Allison Mansfield, daughter to the deceased James Mansfield merchant in Edinburgh also in the newkirk parish”
In 1790, James Stirling began his first of three terms of Lord Provost of Edinburgh [2] and it was around that time his interest in the Lands and Estate of Garrieve, particularly the deposits of “exceeding good coal” took root. John Muir, resident in New Cumnock, penned the following entry in his diary, on17th April 1792 –
‘Coal found at Grievehill by Mr Robertson’s (coal agent) men sent by Lord James Stirling, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, who bought the land from Captain Maxwell. Have got 9ft. seam and expect to get 12ft. seam‘.
John Muir Diary [4]
N.B. The first element of Grievehill is a corruption of Garrieve and its earlier variants of Gariff, Garif.
Three months later James Stirling was created baronet on 19th July 1792 “as a mark of his Majesty’s most gracious approbation of his conduct during the riots that year” [5].
He took the title of the 1st Baronet of Mansfield .
He purchased the estate of Garrieve or Gartlochs (pronounced Garclaugh), in the parish of New Cumnock, Ayrshire, and changed the name to Mansfield.
The Stirlings of Keir [5]
At some point before 1801 he sold the lands of his Mansfield estate.
Sir James Stirling died on 17th February 1805, aged 65 years and his widow Alison Mansfield passed away on 20th July 1823 , her name living on until to this day in the parish of New Cumnock. Their eldest son Gilbert succeeded as 2nd Baronet of Mansfield, he never married, and following his death in 1843 the baronetcy of Mansfield became extinct. Together they all lie together in the impressive family lair in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh.
John Buchan Esquire
It is not clear when John Buchan, Esquire and Writer to the Signet acquired lands in the parish of New Cumnock but in 1801 he was placing “The Lands of Garrive and Mains of New Cumnock, or Castlemains” up for sale [1].
Two years later Buchan still possessed these lands which are recorded as follows in the 1803 Land Tax Rolls of Ayrshire [Scotland’s Places] –
- Garrieve
- Garrieve Crawford
- Meikle Mains, Middle Park, Little Park and Nether Dalhanna
Garrieve Crawford was an alternative name for Nether Garrieve which at one time was owned by the Rev. Hew Craufurd, the first minister of the parish of New Cumnock (1653-1698). Both the Garrieve properties were part of the Mansfield estate while the parcel of properties Meikle Mains, Middle Park, Little Park and Nether Dalhanna made up the Castlemains estate.
In 1804 Buchan put the properties up for sale again under the following four lots [1] –
- Lands of Castlemains
- HIgh and Laigh Polquheys, Rottenyeards and Muirfoot
- The farms of Gatehead and Clayslaps
- Farms of Garrive, Meikle and Little Garclaugh
John Buchan Esq., Writer to the Signet, later held the post of His Majesty’s Solicitor to the Exchequer. He passed away in 1822 at his home in James Court, Edinburgh.
Andrew Thomson Esq. of Mansfield and Castlemains
The lands of Mansfield and Castlemains were acquired by Andrew Thomson. He appears to have been the first proprietor to live on the estate having been responsible for the building of a small mansion. However he died soon after in 1806 at Mansfied House.
Catherine Thomson of Mansfield and Castlemains
Through time the lands passed from the late Andrew Thomson to his niece Catherine Thomson, daughter of his brother Robert Thomson.
In 1815 Catherine Thomson married William Honyman of Smyllum, Lanarkshire who added the name Thomson to his own. Together the couple had two children Mary McQueen Thomson Honyman born in 1817 at Edinburgh and William Andrew Thomson Honyman born in 1819 at Mansfield, presumably in the mansion [Scotland’s People].
It was during the tenure of Catherine Thomson that the farm names of Garrieve were re-named. In the Old Parish records of New Cumnock baptisms of children born at ‘Greenhead of Garieve’ (1811) and Garieve (1812) are listed, however in following years the names of children born at the Hall of Mansfield (1813) and Mansfield Mains (1819) are recorded; farm names that survive to this day.
Nevertheless, the name Garrieve continued to be used to define a portion of the lands that made up the Mansfield estate. Throughout the period 1821-1824 the Thomson’s looked to sell their estates of Mansfield and Castlemains under the following three lots [1].
- The lands of Garrieve and Garclaugh (Eastmost Part of the Estate of Mansfield)
- The 40 shilling land of Polquheys and 2 merkland of Rottenyard (Westmost part of the Estate of Mansfield)
- The lands of Meikle Mains, Middle Park, Little Park and Nether Dalhanna (Estate of Castlemains)
-“on the The first lot there is a small Mansion House“
The Thomson Honyman proprietors had a change of heart and in 1825 only the lands of Garrive and Garclaugh, on the eastern part of the estate Mansfield, were put up for sale.
On 25th August 1828 William Thomson Honyman died at Naples and four years later on 15th June 1832 his widow Catherine Thomson Honyman passed away. In her “Inventory; Disposition of Settlement; Codicils” she was fashioned ‘of Mansfield‘ and the rentals recorded therein applied only to lots 2. and 3. above; i.e. Polquheys & Rottenyard (Westmost part of Mansfield) and Castlemains [Scotland’s People].
The Thomson Honyman family lair can be found in St. Cuthbert’s Kirkyard, Edinburgh at the west corner of Princes Street Gardens. Although the inscription is now badly worn, it has been recorded an identifies William Thomson Honyman Esquire ‘of Mansfield‘.
Sir Charles G. Stuart Menteath, 1st Baronet of Closeburn & Mansfield
In 1827 (or the latter part of the previous year) Sir Charles Granville Stuart Menteath Esq. of Closeburn acquired the lands of Garrieve and Garclaugh on the estate of Mansfield including the mansion house.
In an excerpt of the Cess Roll of the County of Ayr (Scotland’s Places Land Tax Rolls) C. G. S. Monteath Esqr. is identified as the proprietor of the lands of ‘Garclough, Garrieve and Garrieve Crawford’. (N.B. the document is not dated but it must be from the period 1836-1838.)
Sir Charles Granville Stuart Menteth passed away in 1847 and was laid to rest in the family lair in Dalgarno Kirkyard, Dumfriesshire. His son Sir James Stuart-Menteth succeeded him as 2nd Baronet of Closeburn. The Valuation Rolls of 1855 (and beyond) no longer group the properties of the Mansfield estate under the ‘lands of Garclough, Garrieve and Garrieve Crawford’ but instead record the individual farms which were – Mansfield Mains, Hall of Mansfield, Clayslaps, Roughside, Gatehead, Meikle Garclaugh, Little Garclaugh, Glen.
John Wallace, Esq., Mansfield (1837)
John Wallace, Esq., Mansfield is listed in Pigot’s Directory of Ayrshire in 1837 along with William Hylsop of Blackcraig & Bank, and Andrew Miller, Laight and yet in the same directory, Granville Stuart-Menteath is also mentioned – Various mines of coal are worked in this neighbourhood, the property of the Marques of Bute, G.S. Monteath, Esq and Miss Stewart [8]. Perhaps he was a factor of the Stuart Menteath family for a short while.
Mansfield Place-Names
A host of place-names carry the maiden name of Alison Mansfield, the wife of Sir James Stirling, Lord Provost of Edinburgh and later 1st Baronet of Mansfield.
Mansfield House
Place-Name: Mansfield + Standard Scottish English house ‘house, mansion’
The Ordnance Survey Name Books (1855-57) entry for Mansfield House reads –
The residence of Sir James Menteith.
Thus far there is no evidence to support that either Sir James Stirling, 1st Baronet of Mansfield or the following proprietor John Buchan erected a mansion house on the Mansfield Estate or lived on the estate. It appears that Andrew Thomson had the house built in the early 19th century
The Thomson’s Mansfield House of early 19th century later evolved into an elegant Victorian mansion under the Stuart-Menteth family. It was during the occupancy of Sir William Frederick Stuart-Menteth 5th Baronet that Mansfield House became affectionately known as ‘Sir Billy’s Mansion’. Sadly in 1957, some five years afer his death, Mansfield House was demolished. The shell survived for many years and ‘Sir Billy’s Mansion’ became a favourite haunt of later generations. Today only rubble can be seen.
A modern bungalow sits close to the site of the original lodge house. On Mansfield Bridge is a metal stud marked with “OSBM” – no, it does not stand for ‘Old Sir Billy’s Mansion’ but rather it is an Ordnance Survey Bench Mark. Mansfield Barn, famous for being haunted; the basement of which was once a Wool Carding Mill while an Adventure School was housed upstairs, is now a private residence.
Mansfield Mains, Hall of Mansfield & Mansfield Cottages
Mansfield Mains
Place-Name: Mansfield + Scots main ‘lands adjacent to the Mansion-house’
The Ordnance Survey Name Books (1855-57) entry for Mansfield Mains reads –
An excellent house and steading occupied by John Picken, the property of Sir J.S. Menteath
Mansfield House was built some time before 1806 by then owner Andrew Thomson Esquire of Mansfleld and Castlemains. It was erected close by the farm of Nether Garrive which was later renamed Mansfield Mains, the earliest reference to which is found an 1819 baptism record.
The Dictionaries of the Scots Language entry for Mains, along with a relevant example of its use use reads [9] –
MAINS, n.pl. Also maines, maynes; double pl. mainses.
1. The home farm of an estate, cultivated for the proprietor, still surviving throughout Scotland as a farm name in the form Mains of — in n.Sc. and as — Mains in the rest of Scot. (see Scottish Studies III. i. 98), although the farm may no longer be attached to a mansion house.
An exampleMaynes, . . . the Lands adjacent to the Mansion-house, which were ordinarly laboured by the Proprietor’s Servants, for the Use and Maintenance of the Family, in our Charters called, terrae dominicales. [Sc. 1734, J. Spottiswood Hope’s Practicks 124:.]
Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Mansfield Hall (now Hall of Mansfield)
Place-Name: Mansfield + Scots hall ‘main dwelling of a farm’
The Ordnance Survey Name Books (1855-57) entry for Mansfield Hall reads –
A farm house occupied by James Tennant the property of Sir J Menteath Bart. [Baronet]
Various modes of spelling : Hall of Mansfield, Hall.
Previously known as Over Garrieve, or some variant, it was renamed as Hall of Mansfield, the earliest reference to which appears in an 1813 baptism record. It is shown as Hall of Mansfield in Johnston’s Map of Ayrshire (1822) and as Mansfield Haw in the Reverend Matthew Kirkland’s, New Statistical Account of the parish of New Cumnock (1845) [10]. Mansfield Hall was the preferred choice in Ordnance Survey Name Books (1855-57) and thereby Ordnance Survey Maps that followed until the 1960’s, when it was recorded as Hall of Mansfield.
Some 3.5 miles to the west once stood the farm known as Hall of Auchincross (now lost to opencast) which took its name from an ‘Old Hall’ that once stood nearby, the residence of the Laird of Auchincross. Perhaps a similar ‘hall’ existed on the former lands of Garrive? However there are nor records of the tem hall being applied to the major properties of Nether Garrive and Over Garrive. It is more likely the place-name Hall, Haw or Hall of- was introduced during the “Mansfield years” and is probably Scots ha ‘farm-house’
The Dictionaries of the Scots Language entry for Ha reads [11] –
HA, n. Also haa, haw, † hau. Sc. forms and usages of Eng. hall. See P.L.D. § 78.1. [h:, hɑ:]
†1. A farm-house, the main dwelling of a farm, a house, esp. on a farm, occupied by the farmer himself as opposed to the cottar houses, less commonly with Eng. sense of a manor-house (Sc. 1825 Jam.; Sh., Cai., Ags., Rxb. 1956); hence, more gen., a house, home, dwelling (Mry.1 1925)
Dictionaries of the Scots Language
The Hall Burn and Hall Quarry takes their names from Mansfield Hall / Hall of Mansfield.
Mansfield Cottages
Place-Name: Mansfield + Standard Scottish English cottages ‘cottages’
The Ordnance Survey Name Books (1855-57) entry for Mansfield Cottages reads –
A row of small cottages on the roadside, 22 chains E [East] of Mansfield House
Over time the cottages were home to those families that worked on the Mansfield estate on the land, at the various limekilns and at the coal mines and those attending to the needs of Mansfield House such as butlers, coachmen and gardeners.
Mansfield Burn
Place-Name: Mansfield + Scots burn ‘stream’
The Ordnance Survey Name Books (1855-57) entry for Mansfield Burn reads –
A burn (rising on the Hills of Mansfield), and flowing S. W. [South West] and S.E. [South East] into Linn Burn
The comment for the Mansfield Burn “rising in the Hills of Mansfield” has been deleted, then re-instated by the note “stet” above, initialled
The upper stretch of Garrif Burn (See Map 1) from its source in Grievehill to its meeting place with Hall Burn was renamed Mansfield Burn, where Scots burn ‘stream’ [12].
Mansfield Linn
Place-Name: Mansfield + Scots linn ‘waterfall’
The Ordnance Survey Name Books (1855-57) entry for Mansfield Burn reads –
A waterfall about 40 feet high. 9 chains S. W. [South West] of Upper Linn, and 19 chains N. [North] of Nether Linn
On the Mansfield Burn is a small waterfall called Mansfield Linn, from Scots linn ‘ waterfall, cataract, cascade of water’ [13]. It gives its name to the farms of Upper Linn, Nether Linn and Linn Burn [14].
Mansfield Village
The Ordnance Survey Name Books (1855-57) entry for Mansfield Village reads –
One of the five villages of New Cumnock
The other four villages were Pathhead, Castle, Bridgend, and Couplagate.
The double storey building in the foreground was the Mansfield Woollen mill on the east bank of Muirfoot Burn (formerly Polquheys Burn) with Corsencon hill in the distance at the far end of Mansfield Road.
Today the mill building is gone and and many new houses have been built on the the south side of the Mansfield Road. The walk along the Mansfield Road (formerly known as Corsencon road) continues to be among the many favourites in the parish.
Mansfield Colliery
The Ordnance Survey Name Books (1855-57) entry for Mansfield Colliery reads –
A Small Colliery occupied by Mr Robert Kerr the property of Sir J Menteith, Mansfield House
The Mansfield Colliery worked the coal on Grievehill that had caught the attention of Sir James Strirling when considering the purchase of the Lands of Garrive and Garclaugh. In the 1841 Census the address of the single row of miners’ houses was Greave Hill and was home to some 82 adults and children. By 1851 the addresses on the hill was Mansfield Colliery and Mansfield Hill. In 1862 Robert Kerr, died at Mansfield Colliery.
In more recent times the name Grievehill was revived through the establishment of the Grievehill Opencast Site or Grievehill Surface Mine to work the coal. The operations are now completed and the restoration of the site is on-going.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
| References |
| [1] Caledonian Mercury | Various Lands for Sale articles |
| [2] Edinburgh Bookshelf “Kay’s Original’s Vol. I” (1877) p. 373-376| Sir James Stirling |
| [3] Edinburgh Bookshelf “Kay’s Original’s Vol. I” Image of Sir James Stirling | Sir James Stirling The scans of Edinburgh Bookshelf are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License. |
| [4] John Muir Diary, personal copy |
| [5] William Fraser “The Stirling of Keirs and their Family Papers” (1858) |
| [6] Historical Portaits, Sir Henry Raeburn | Sir James Stirling |
| [7] J. L. Carvel “The New Cumnock Coalfield” | Portrait of Sir Charles Granville Stuart-Menteth, |
| [8] Scottish Post Office Directories, 1837 – Pigot and Co.’s national commercial directory for the whole of Scotland and of the Isle of Man | New Cumnock Used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence |
| [9] Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd.| mains |
| [10] New Statistical Account of New Cumnock (1845) | Mansfield Haw, p. 512 |
| [11] Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. |ha |
| [12] Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. |burn |
| [13] Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. | linn |
| [14] New Cumnock Place-Names | Linn (Upper Linn, Nether Linn, Linn Burn) |
| Maps |
| Reproduced with the Permission of the National Library of Scotland |
| https://maps.nls.uk/ |
| Map 1: Joan Blaeu, Coila Provincia, [or], The province of Kyle (1654)| Garrive and Garclaugh |
| Map 2: Andrew Armstrong, A New map of Ayrshire (1775) | Mansfield Estate |
| Map 3: William Johnston, Northern (Southern) part of Ayrshire (1822)|Mansfield Estate |
| Map 4 : Great Britain, Ordnance Survey (1:1 million-1:10,560), 1900s | Mansfield locations |
| Map 5: Ordnance Survey Maps – 25 inch 1st edition, Scotland, 1855-1882 (1857)| Mansfield House |
| Map 6: Ordnance Survey Maps – Six-inch 1st edition, Scotland, 1843-1882 (1857) |Mansfield Mains, Mansfield Hall and Mansfield Cottages |
| Map 7: Ordnance Survey Maps – Six-inch 2nd and later editions, Scotland, 1892-1960 (1894) | Mansfield Burn |
| Map 8: Ordnance Survey Maps – 25 inch 2nd and later editions, Scotland, 1892-1949 (1895) |Mansfield Village |
| Map 9: Ordnance Survey Maps – Six-inch 1st edition, Scotland, 1843-1882 (1857) | Mansfield Colliery |
| Ordnance Survey Name Books & Land Tax Rolls |
| By Permission of Scotland’s Places |
| scotlandsplaces.gov.uk |
| Ayrshire OS Name Books (1855-57) Vol. 49|Mansfield Mains |
| Ayrshire OS Name Books (1855-57) Vol. 49|Mansfield Hall |
| Ayrshire OS Name Books (1855-57) Vol. 49|Mansfield |
| Ayrshire OS Name Books (1855-57) Vol. 49|Mansfield Cottages |
| Ayrshire OS Name Books (1855-57) Vol. 49|Mansfield House |
| Ayrshire OS Name Books (1855-57) Vol. 49| Mansfield Burn |
| Ayrshire OS Name Books (1855-57) Vol. 49|Mansfield Linn |
| Ayrshire OS Name Books (1855-57) Vol. 49|Mansfield Colliery |
| Land Tax Rolls Ayrshire 1803 |
| Scotland’s People |
| https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk |
| Old Parish Records, Births, Marriages, Deaths, Census Records, Valuations Rolls, Wills & Testaments |
NEW CUMNOCK HISTORY 