In 1797 Sir John Stuart of the Castlemilk family who had married his cousin Lady Anne Stuart, died without issue. Thus the baronetcy ended. Only as the result of his youngest sister Jane or Jean Stuart’s marriage in 1781 to her great-uncle William Stirling of Keir did the family survive. Their son William Stirling, born at Keir in 1789, married twice. By the first marriage a son William, born in 1819, succeeded through his grandmother Jane to the title of Crawfurd of Milton (from an earlier Castlemilk Stuart marriage). By the second marriage a son James was born in 1825. James not only succeeded to his half-brother’s title but through his grandmother Jane Stuart he became heir to the Estates of Castlemilk.
James’s son the Laird of Castlemilk, Mr. William Crawfurd Stirling Stuart, born in 1854, a man for much publicity of himself in his position in society, was quite a character among his people. Wearing a bowler hat and loud-checked tweed jacket with a brilliant red silk handkerchief hanging loosely from his breast-pocket, he was a familiar figure in Carmunnock and word would spread fast that he was in the vicinity.
Everyone knew him and he them. He made a point of talking and sharing a joke, particularly with those he liked. Sometimes it was a chance for folk to ask - if they had the courage - that the maister give the word for a house to have a bath put in or perhaps have electricity installed.
During his social visits to the village, stopping to talk to this or that person along the way, the local boys hung around: “Give the lads a sweetie, Mrs McNiven,” he would call in to Nell’s and later Rita’s little shop on Kirk Road. And Old Billy (as his Estate workers cheekily called him) frequently bought sweets for himself to chew.
But Laird William, unlike his father James whom people had regarded as a real gentleman, was far from popular with many of his tenants, including his farmers. They say he was mean and rude, and they were annoyed by his continual sweet-chewing while they talked. He sometimes made wild impractical suggestions as to how things should be done. He could not be relied upon to keep arrangements already agreed on or pay for what he had ordered and he would change his mind and leave folk at a disadvantage.
Others were more loyal. They didn’t like criticism of him, and they would remind you that in the end he would usually pay - even if in small matters it was only in kind, like handing in a brace or two of pigeons or a fine rabbit for stew next time he or his man was up in the village.
There were the days in the 1920s and 1930s when on many long walks over the Braes from Castlemilk House with his dogs, often accompanied by his daughter Mrs Helen Stuart Stevenson, he regularly called on his farmer tenants. Old Mrs Lawson of Parklea Farm, till lately with her daughter Jean at Parklea Drive, remembered these visits well.
He had amazing ideas, some say - not too happily recalling the awkward times - impractical ideas about giving the cows complete freedom to wander from pasture to pasture across the farm’s land on any day at all times of the year. Suggesting that the cattle should graze here and then there, he would wave his arm indiscriminately across the landscape. Castlemilk seemed to have all the time in the world to chat, trying to make jokes, laughing his loud laugh as he left to go on his way. His manner annoyed many people; but they reluctantly added that the maister, Castlemilk, was only being sociable and probably trying to show genuine interest in his farms and their tenants.
Early in the 20th century, the Estate Manager (or Agent or Factor) was a Mr. Craig, right-hand man to the maister, in charge of the gamekeepers and all to do with the land belonging to the Stuarts of Castlemilk. Permission must first be obtained from Mr. Craig if you had to walk through the Castle grounds to reach your work at Rutherglen. But - and you were firmly reminded - you must always be sure to touch your cap politely if you met Mr. Stuart himself. Those were the days when respect and good manners towards people in higher society or authority were still demanded.