The rich history of Burntshields.
Burntshields (also variously written as Bruntscheils, Bruntschels, Brouneschelis, Bryntschele, Brenchal, Brunsheil, Burndshield - meaning “Burned Shelter”) has its origins sometime before the 1500’s, being part of the Auchinames estates which had been gifted to the Crawfords of Auchinames by Robert the Bruce for service at the battle of Bannockburn (1314).
Burntshields House, early 1900’s
The first documented episode of note was towards the end of a long period of vicious family vendettas conducted by the Semples and mediated by the Scottish Kings - of murder in 1533 of Cunningham of Craigends - forwhich John Bruntsheils (an occupant of Burntshields) was found guilty and executed in November of that year.
Thereafter, in 1547, another John Buruntschels - probably the father of the executed man, as he was then without successor - passed the lands of Burntshields to cadet branch of the Semple family.
Pont 33 map, 1590
In 1590, Burntshields is shown as Brunsheil on the “Pont 33” map, compiled by Scotland’s first cartographer: Timothy Pont.
Documentation of Burntshields from the 1500’s until the late 1700’s is very sparse. It is shown on a 1753 British Library map of Renfrewshire, identified as Burndshield. Noting that this was a particularly turbulent period of Scottish history, this is not really that surprising that information is hard to find.
The lands of Burntshields were assumed into the Earl of Dundonald's estates on the "failure" of the Semples of Burntshields sometime after 1669 ( when Cochranes assumed the earldom). In the 1695 poll tax records Burntshields was shown as tenanted by the Speir family until in 1770, the property was sold to James Couper of Formakin who in 1795 sold to James Graham, a surgeon in Paisley, in whose family it remained until 1855 when it was bought by the Crawford family who were horse dealers.
In 1745 a large secessionist church known as the Burgher Church was built by a congregation in the field immediately to the west of Burntshields and occupied until 1826. All that remains today is part of the west wall incorporated into the field boundary. The associated Vicar's Manse stood until at least 1910 and the church schoolhouse is presently a barn attached to the Meikle Burntshields farmhouse. it is unclear whether the marble font in the garden at Burntshields was from that church. Sometime around 1820 the house was built, possibly using the stone from the Burgher Church. Substantial modifications and additions where to follow.
The Ordnance Survey map of 1860 gives us the first documented plan layout of Burntshields at the time of the Crawfords. It was a traditional U-shaped holding including the hallway and tower of the present house and the enclosed backyard. There was a straight front driveway direct to the road just to the east of the current paddock fence following the line of the older beech trees.
The Crawfords sold Burntshields in 1896 to a wealthy Glasgow manufacturer from Caldergrove, Lanarkshire - Robert Cowan Marshall in whose family it remained for some 75 years. It seems Robert Cowan Marshall had inherited the family tube manufacturing business from his father but sold his interest and retired around the time he bought Burntshields.
