The Laigh Kirk Graveyard, Paisley

This volume is devoted to the Paisley Laigh Kirk Graveyard, which was established in 1738 in conjunction with the construction of Laigh Kirk itself. The burial ground is of considerable historical interest, containing monuments to prominent figures of Paisley's commercial and civic life during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including at least two Provosts of the burgh. Among the most notable memorials are those commemorating the Carlile family, Francis Buner, Silk Merchant, and John Neilson and Elisabeth Sclater, parents of John Neilson, who on his death in 1839 bequeathed funds for the foundation of the John Neilson Institution. The transcriptions presented here have been prepared from my own photographic record of the extant stones. To supplement this, reference has been made to the work of Mary Ann Semple (MAS), who in the 1850s compiled a detailed transcription of all inscriptions then visible in the graveyard. A facsimile of her work is reproduced within this volume.