Old Cumnock, Ayrshire, Scotland Genealogy

Old Cumnock, Ayr, Scotland (#610)

History

This account was written in

1837.

The name Cumnock seems to be compounded of the Gaelic words com, a bosom,and conoc'', a hill; thus signifying the bosom of the hill.

Cumnock is the nearest town.

About the year 1600 two traveling merchants, each with a pack of cloth upon a horse, were dismissed from Ayr and gone Cumnock, and there sold their goods. There followed upon this such a plague in the town that the living were hardly able to bury the dead. The major land owners were: The Marquis of Bute; James Allason, Esq. of Gasnock W. A. Cunnnghame, Esq. of Logan; and Mrs. Boswell of Garallan. The land was primarily used for, cheese, rye-grass, meadow hay, oats, wheat, barley, bear, potatoes, pea, beans, and turnips The population in 1792 was 1632. The population in 1831 was 2763.

The registers begin in 1704. There are blanks in it from 1706 to 1724, from 1739 to 1740, from 1746 to 1751, and from1752 to 1753.

Nearly two-thirds of the population of the parish belong to the Established Church, and rather more than one-third are Dissenters. source: New Statistical Account of Scotland (FHL book 941 B4sa, series 2 vol. 5)