Dalrymple Fountain, Industry Street, Kirkintilloch

The Burgh of Barony. Kirkintilloch became a Burgh of Barony in AD1211, effectively owned by the Comyn family who were then the feudal superiors, later superseded by the Flemings. By the sixteenth century power was in the hands of the twenty-two proprietors of local ‘Newland Mailings’ (landward parts of the burgh). The Newland Mailing proprietors elected two magistrates and later a Town Council from among their number for the administration of law and order. The Burgh of Barony, with its undemocratic Town Council, continued to exist right down to the year 1908, by which time most of its functions had been taken over by the nineteenth century Police Burgh, which for many years existed in parallel with the Burgh of Barony.

The Dalrymples. Most significant of the Newland Mailing proprietors were members of the Dalrymple family of Woodhead, whose lands included the present Woodhead Park but extended much further south, to what is now Middlemuir Road; also embracing some fields on the west side of Lenzie Road in the Whitegates vicinity. The family was notable for its extensive service as magistrates (bailies) of the burgh. Over two and a half centuries at least six Dalrymples served terms of office and there may well have been others.

The Fountain. The Dalrymple Fountain in Industry Street was set up in 1905 in memory of James Dalrymple, who served as a bailie for the remarkably long period of fifty-seven years (1844-1901). It also commemorates other members of the family who served in the same capacity. Erected only three years before the demise of the Burgh of Barony, it can also be seen as a memorial to the latter, and as such can have few parallels elsewhere in Scotland.

Further Reading
T.Johnston, Old Kirkintilloch (1937).
I.M.M.MacPhail, A Short History of Dumbartonshire (1962).
G,S.Pryde, ed. The Court Book of the Burgh of Kirkintilloch 1658-1694 (1963).

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