Birkmyre is an uncommon surname. There is in Dumfriesshire a small estate with the name of Birkmyre, but this may be a purely descriptive appellation, since 'birk' is good Scots for the common birch and 'myre' could be a bog or moss. Patiently traced, and usually spelt 'Birkmyr', the name turns up in some odd connections- a Michael Birkmyr, who was a presbyter of the Diocese of Glasgow in 1432; an Alexander Birkmyr, who witnessed a legal document in Glasgow in 1485; and Andrew Birkmyr, who was Decanus of Angus in 1517; and then a George Birkmyre, in the modern spelling, who appeared in the course of a legal process at 'the Kirk of Inchynnane' in 1588.
This last reference is specially interesting because there has passed down the line of the Port Glasgow family of Birkmyres a legend to the effect that the founder of their line was a Huguenot, Johannes Berkemeyer, who came to Inchinnan in Renfrewshire in the company of a Scottish soldier of fortune called Rab Tamson, later marrying the latter's sister, Maggie, and eventually settling down as a weaver in Kilbarchan, only a few miles distant from Inchinnan. The grain of probability in this story is supplied by the appearance of a George Birkmyre at the Kirk of Inchynnane in 1588-that is, after the arrival of the Huguenot refugees in this country. But if we accept that reading of history, we have to admit that the Birkmyrs of the earlier Scottish records were certainly not Huguenots, even if an incoming Berkemeyer could conveniently change his surname to the native Birkmyre.
At the same time, the research branch of the Huguenot Society of London declares that Berkemeyer was almost certainly a Huguenot name, though not a common one and, as is apt to happen in ancient records, spelt in various forms. There is also the difficulty that Scotland, unlike England, did not require the Huguenot refugees to register as 'stranger'. Finally, the imperfect state of the Scottish parochial registers would make it well nigh impossible to trace the family tree of a foreigner arriving at Inchinnan in 1560 or thereabouts to the simple weaver who went from the Kilbarchan district to Port Glasgow in 1792.
It is a fascinating puzzle, and the tradition of the family's Huguenot origin cannot be ruled out. It is simple historical fact
that the Protestant refugees were welcomed to Scotland for their traditional skill in weaving. It is also relevant that Henry Birkmyre went to Port Glasgow as a weaver, to assist in the production of sailcloth, and not as a ropespinner. Weaving was a staple village industry over wide areas of West Scotland before the processes of centralisation and mechanisation got to work. To this day one may come across in quite remote parts the shards of derelict small mills and rows of what were once workers' cottages. The trade was followed in the three large Renfrewshire villages of Inchinnan, Kilbarchan and Lochwinnoch as well as in the county town of Paisley and spilled over into Ayrshire. What can now be traced with certainty is a high incidence of Birkmyres in Kilbarchan in particular, that picturesque townlet still wrapped in charm and tradition despite the modernistic pressures about it.
The parish records witness to the marriages of three Birkmyres during the sixth decade of the 18th century.A Henry, a John and another John, the last specifically described as 'Weaver in Kilbarchan'. All married girls with good local names-Janet Craig, Agnes Carruth and Marion Hare. Of such folk was born the first Henry Birkmyre of The Gourock Ropework Company. He was born to Henry Birkmyre and his wife, Jane Craig, on January 12th, 1762. Only nine months previously Marion Hare, the wife of John Birkmyre, had given birth to a daughter christened Agnes. Young Henry and Agnes - full cousins and the bride older than her groom-were married in 1785. The first Family Bible states that young Henry was born in Lochwinnoch, and this may well have been so. Lochwinnoch and Kilbarchan are only five miles apart, and an honest weaver took employment where he could find it. It is still beyond a doubt that the young people who migrated to Port Glasgow in 1792 came thence from Kilbarchan and regarded it as their native place.
A portrait of the old gentleman-reproduced at the beginning of this chapter-has survived and hangs in the Board Room at Port Glasgow. It is not a major work of art, and his younger descendants are apt to be irreverent in their interpretations of the subject's aspect. The picture is nevertheless a fair enough likeness of a man with a candid, bland expression-the fact of a simple, honest sort of man. The hair over the forehead straggles in a curiously unkempt fashion, but underneath those untidy locks there gleams a shrewd pair of eyes, of such a colour and setting as detached observers see persisting in his descendants to this day.
Birkmyre Family History
Some of these details were taken from "The Gourock" by George Blake. Written in the 60's I have no reason to think that this part of the text is inaccurate although other parts of the book I have found to be "slightly off the mark."
The family bible that is mentioned was not an unusual thing for a family to have (I own one myself) and it is has been mentioned to me that the Birkmyres was left in Broadstone. When it was discovered it was then handed to the parish priest of the Holy Family which is close by. At this time I have no evidence to support this information. It would seem strange when there is a Birkmyre still living in the area that no attempt was made to return it to a member of the family.
Henry Birkmyre 1st
of Kilbarchan
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