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Craighead

THE seat of George Alston, Esq., is situated in the parish of Blantyre and county of Lanark. The house is placed on the left bank of the river Clyde, and in a position commanding the most beautiful views of the surrounding scenery, that of the historic bridge of Bothwell being particularly fine. The lands in the parish of Blantyre formerly belonged to the Priory of Blantyre, and continued so till the Reformation.

The ruin of the Priory on the left bank of the Clyde, opposite Bothwell Castle, is still to be seen, and is one of the most beautiful objects in the neighbourhood.

At the Reformation the lands were in the hands of Walter Stewart, son of the laird of Minto, who was made Commendator of the Priory by King James VI., and it was erected into a temporal lordship in his favour.

The parish of Blantyre was afterwards divided into a number of small estates, few of them more than a plowgate of land. Craighead was among them, or was probably composed of two or three of them.

About the beginning of the present century, James Hill, writer in Glasgow, and afterwards of Gartloch, was the proprietor. He sold it early in the century to James Smith.

Craighead House on the outskirts of Blantyre, photographed in 1870 by Thomas Annan.

The house and estate were sold at the beginning of the 19th century to James Smith, son of a West Indies merchant in Glasgow, James Smith of Craigend (d 1786). After James Jnr's death c 1815, his nephew sold Craighead to another Glasgow merchant, Thomas McCall, who made considerable additions to the house. Yet another Glasgow merchant, George Alston of Muirburn, acquired the property in the 1860s.

In 2004 the mansion is the Craighead Retreat House.

Whilst transcribing the 1851 Census I found the following record for Craighead House:

Name	Relation	Status	Age	Occupation	Place of Birth
Mary Brown	Head	U	70	landed proprietor	Lesmahagow
Jessie Brown	Sister	U	59	landed proprietor	Lesmahagow
Charles Brotherton	Servant	U	43	Butler	Humbie
Janet Syme	Servant	U	33	Dairy Maid	Dalziel
Marion Watson	Servant	U	36	Cook	Kirkcaldy
Jessie Grewer	Servant	U	25	House Maid	Douglas
Marion Lindsay	Servant	U	28	Laundress	Cambusnethan
Margaret Anderson	Servant	U	25	Ladys Maid	Ireland
Craighead Gardiners House
James Dalgleish	Head	M	39	gardner master employing 1 man	Peebles
Janet Dalgleish	Wife	M	36		Peebles
James Dalgleish	Son		5		Glasgow
Jane Spears	Visitor	M	42		Lochwinnoch

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