Renfrew

"RENFREW, town and parish in upper part of Renfrewshire. ..... The parish contains also part of Paisley town and Yoker village, measures 6¼ miles by 2½, and comprises 4311 acres. ..... Pop. of the whole, quoad civilia, 7439; quoad sacra, 7267. The surface is cut into nearly three equal sections the the Clyde and the White Cart; and excepting the isolated eminence of Knock in the south, and some low undulating outskirts of the Lennox Hills on the north, is all low and level. The soil almost everywhere is deep and fertile, and the general landscape is much embellished. Excellent coal is worked in the north. Chief seats are Blythswood, Elderslie, Scotstown, Jordanhill, and Walkingshaw; and chief antiquities are the site of the ancient residence of the royal stewarts, the lands of Knock, which gave name to the distinguished family of Knox, and a fragmentary rock on the spot where the Earl of Argyle was wounded and taken prisoner in 1685. Five schools for 621 scholars are in the parish, and 2 of them for 240 are new."

[From The Gazetteer of Scotland, by Rev. John Wilson, 1882.]