The 14th century Mures of Caldwell, an estate about 10-15 miles SW of Glasgow within the Levern Valley along the road to Ayr, are descended from Sir Reginald More, appointed Lord High Chamberlain of Scotland. in 1329, the year that King Robert I died, and first year of the reign of his successor, Scotland’s King David II. (W. M. (William Musham) Metcalfe. A History of the County of Renfrew from the Earliest Times, 1905, p. 105 [Go to Google Search Advanced Book Search].)

Sir Reginald More had one daughter, Alicia, and three sons. The eldest William, died without male issue. His estate at Cowdam [virtually abutting the Caldwell estate] passed to his nephew, Godfrey, son of Gilchrist Mure, second son of Sir Reginald More. (Metcalfe, ibid.)

In 1333 Gilchrist Mure had married an heiress of a Caldwell Estate and thereby assumed the title of Lord Caldwell. (George Craufurd (1710) and William Semple (1785), A History of Renfrewshire [Go to Google Search Advanced Book Search].) The very fact that this marriage occurred implies that the Caldwell heiress was a person of a prominent family. Craufurd adds to this impression by identifying the Caldwell heiress as “of that ilk,” a phrase which refers to landed gentry.

Gilchrist’s son, Godfrey Muir, is the first Mure who is designated “of Caldwell,” i.e., born at Caldwell. (Metcalfe, ibid.)

Alicia’s second marriage was to Sir John Stewart of Ralston, son of Walter, Steward of Scotland, and half brother to King Robert II. (Metcalfe, ibid.)

As to the first of the Stewart dynasty, Robert II was of no woman born, his bloody delivery by emergency Caesarean as the mother lie dying, having fallen from a horse, her neck broken. Legend has it that Robert II’s delivery was foretold by witches. His eyes had a scarred veil over them now attributed to the crudeness with which the Cesarean delivery was done.

Some historians dispute these as stories popularized by individuals desiring to discredit the Stewart dynasty and claim that Robert II was delivered not in the field by a soldier’s sword, but by a midwife in the presence of a nun or monk who blessed the birth and baptised the infant.

The sons of Alicia and Stewart included the yongest son, John, who entered the Church and became vicar of Kincardine.

This background may have had something to do with the rise of William Caldwell to become a secular prebendary for the Glasgow Diocese and Lord High Chancellor of Scotland in 1349, seeking financial aid from barons to free the imprisoned Robert II, then held for ransom by his English captors. Advised by his own spiritual adviser that no English King could be defeated by a Scottish King born of a woman, the English King released Robert II upon partial payment of a ransom, discovering too late that Robert II had been delivered by Cesarean. Shakespeare immortalized this irony in his play, Macbeth, which greatly pleased King James VI, a lineal descendant of Robert II.

The Mures were among the earliest Scots to dig deep coal mines in Scotland, their coal mines dating back to the 12th century, with pockets of productive mines in and about Paisley, Neilston, Cowdams, and, during the 14th century, Caldwell. (W. M. Metcalfe, A History of Paisley (1909).) The Estates at Cowdams and at Caldwell had extensive limestone quarries. The limestone initially was used to alkalize excessively acidic soil to enhance crop yields. During the industrial revolution, the coal was used to calcine lime to aid in bleaching of wool. These mines boosted the income of the Mures such that they became one of the wealthiest families in Scotland, despite not owning as extensive lands as did the more prominent landed gentry. (Metcalfe, A History of Paisley (1909).)

The deep mines were far more hazardous to the workers health than the open air river bank scrapings preceding them. Nonetheless unemployed laborers had litttle choice but to do this work because of lack of sufficient alternative employment.

The industrial revolution fueled such an intense demand for coal that the argicultural sefdom that had ended in the 14th century was reimposed on miners in the 19th century. However, making it illegal for miners to switch employers without the consent of the employer met its greatest defiance in Ayrshire and Renfrewshire. Many of the Caldwell miners of 19th century Ayrshire and Renfrewshire removed themselves and their families to North America and Australia.

The farms of Ayrshire and Renfrewshire between the 14th and 19th century tended to be more pastoral than agricultural, smaller than larger, and with a greater tendency to employ laborers only during the peak harvest season, or for a half year, compared to those of Eastern Scotland. Transient farm workers predominated in the western farms of lowland Scotland. There were exceptions, of course. Some farm workers worked their whole lives at a single farm and resided in well-built comfortable cottages, especially at the Estates at Lochwinnoch and Caldwell, where leases were 19 years, reflecting its agricultural rather than pastoral character. Caldwells even occupied Caldwell Hall at the Mures’ esate as tenants. The insecurity of migrant workers fostered minimal investment by farm workers in their own housing. Travelers from England were shocked by the stone hovels in which so many Scottish farm workers inhabitated, giving rise to mischaracterization of the Ayrshire and Renfrewshire farm workers as slothful and uninterested in improving themselves. The eighteenth and nineteenth century English caricature of the rural Scots is best seen in the writings of Sir Thomas Babington Macauley, Sir Walter Scott, and Samuel Johnson. The success of so many emigrants from Ayrshire and Renfrewshire overseas helped dispel this demeaning caricature.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, there was little difference in the standards of living between small farm owners and their farm workers in Ayrshire and Renfrewshire. Almost every body was relatively poor and rarely ate meat. Oatmeal porridge was a mainstay. Unknown to the Scots, this combination of aerobic work and a diet high in oatmeal and low in fat virtually eliminated the risk of adult onset diabetes and greatly reduced the risk of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. The oatmeal has an affinity for cholesterol removal from the blood stream.

During much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the vast majority of small farm owners employed only women servants within the house. The hours were most often 6 am to 6 pm, with an hour break for lunch, and sometimes, 3 or 4 am, to milk the cows-- not any different in hours at work from my typical day.

Wives and children were viewed by male farm workers as an asset, partly because they were hired out at an early age. Large families of 8-12 children were common, even when the father lacked any housing other than a single room. The majority of eldest children was born out of wedlock, providing assurance that the woman could bear children. Unlike England, Scotland allowed children born out of wedlock to be legitimatized, and this is what occurred among most families. Perhaps this practice explains to a large extent the scarcity of marriage and birth records.

Do you miss the old days?
Aye, I dae.
Was it hard work?
Aye especially with 10 children.

Overworked farm laborers and mine workers romanticized the work of the shepherds, who they perceived as having time to read books and take naps. In contrast, the isolated shepherds idealized the village folk, whom they envied for their opportunity to soclalize.

If the farm worker did not aspire to be a shepherd, he may have aspired to be first ploughman, a position which typically paid the most among farm workers.

The determination of the disgruntled miners and agricultural workers to assemble, discuss their grievances in their Kirks, and choose clergy of their preference, free of any influence of the landed gentry, may have contributed to Scottish enlightenment ideas linking property rights to liberty of expression and assembly, right to vote, just compensation for the taking of property, and right to privacy from warrantless searches. This was the creed of Rev. John Witherspoon (1723-1794), who emigrated from Beith, Ayrshire, and became President of the College of New Jersey and a signator to the Declaration of Independence. He has been described by historians as "the man who shaped the men who shaped America."

"I beseech you to make wise improvement of the present threatening aspect of public affairs, and to remember that you duty to God, to your country, and to your families, and to yourselves, is the same." Rev. John Witherspoon, D.D. Sermon at Princeton, New Jersey. May 17, 1776.

“From among Rev. Witherspoon’s students emerged 37 judges, three of whom were appointed to the Supreme Court, 56 state legislators, 49 United States congressmen, 28 United States senators, one Vice-President, and one President. Witherspoon mentored James Madison, whom Americans revere as the father of the Constitution. Of Witherspoon's personal influence on his students a contemporary observed, ‘ "...no man can have it more in his Power to advance the Cause of Christian Liberty by forming the Minds of Youth to proper Sentiments on this most interesting Subject." ‘ “

http://www.witherspoonfellowship.org/index.cfm?get=internship&get2=john&b=1