Barnweel

[trinni]

Has anyone ever heard of this place?
I have an ancestor who was called Mary Porter daughter of the Laird of Barnweel.

She married in Northern Ireland in guessing mid 1600's. Was the term Laird used in both Scotland and Ireland? Her husband was of Scottish descent.

 

[ptjw7]

Have you considered that Laird is also a surname.
The nearest I can come up with on the place is Barnwell, a village in Northamptonshire.

Peter

 

[trinni]

The information I have comes from a query in the Ulster journal of Archeology asking about the Knox family but stating what was known and just says he married Mary Porter daughter of the Laird of Barnweel, so I presumed that Porter was the Lairds surname.

I'm not too familiar with the title Laird as to what it pertains to. Would it usually just have been a large estate or might there be small towns or villages?
If it was just lands it might just have disappeared without trace.

 

[trinni]

Oooh just found a little snippett. In an online book A general Description of the Shire of Renfew which states Mr Robert Wallace Minister of Barnweel in the shire of Air was made Bishop of the Isles. Its hard to decipher the date but it seems to be 1662.
So there was a Barnweel in Scotland. And Ayr is very near Renfew where the Knoxes were from originally. I suppose I need to look at Porters in Ayr at that time.

 

[barbarajoh]

Genuki's Ayrshire pages has this

BARNWEILL, a suppressed parish, in the district of Kyle, Ayrshire, Scotland. Its territory was, in the 17th century, divided between Craigie and Tarbolton

Barbara

 

[barbarajoh]

And Kyle (again from genuki)

KYLE, a district in the county Ayr, Scotland. It contains the parishes of Ayr, Auchinleck, Coylton, Craigie, Dalmellington, Dalrymple, Dundonald, Galston, Mauchline, Monkton, Muirkirk, New Cumnock, Newton, Ochiltree, Old Cumnock, Riccarton, St. Quivox, Sorn, Stair, Symington and Tarbolton. The whole of the district is in the presbytery of Ayr

Hope that helps pin it down a bit.

Barbara

 

[trinni]

I also did a google search and found a directory of the town of Ayr in 1926 and came up with

Thos Reid engineer 11 Barns crescent, North Barnweel, Ayr


I checked google maps. Barns crescent is to the south of the town but still pretty near the city centre nowadays, but I presume Ayr would have been much smaller 350 years ago so Barnweel might well have been rural then.
I suppose looking at an early map might help.

 

[barbarajoh]

If you use the spelling Barnweil in google, Trinni, there are some interesting things coming up about a Wallace Tower or Barnweil monument.

Barbara

 

[trinni]

Gosh yes that looks right. I see from Wikipedia that there was a medievial parish church there - suppressed in the 17th century. Even pictures of the ruins. Also mentions that a village existed there. No mention of any Porters though sadly.