Bairds of Gartsherrie:   page 3.

The £300 stipulated to be paid for the unexpired period of the lease was, after the death of John Baird, paid by Alexander to John's daughter Elizabeth, and her husband, James Mochrie, by two payments- £200 on 16th May, 1801, and the remaining £100 on 4th June thereafter- this second payment being acknowledged as paid before it was due, "for our accommodation."
John Baird died in September, 1798, and in November of that year his nephew, Alexander Baird, removed to Kirkwood, where he resided till Whitsunday, 1808, and where his children Alexander, James, Jean, Robert, and Douglas were born.

A view of the farm house of Kirkwood, as it was in the time of Mr. Baird's occupation, is given in the accompanying plate. This was a comparatively new steading. The old one which it superseded was similar to that of Woodhead. It remains still in the same state, with the exception that the barn, shown in the sketch to the left, has been pulled down. In the early part of the century fences on such farms were almost unknown, and at this time there were no fences either on Kirkwood or Woodhead.

In 1800, Alexander Baird became tenant of a portion of the lands of Souterhouse by tack from Captain George Lawson of Cuparhead, dated 26th July in that year. Captain Lawson had recently before acquired these lands from Mr. Andrew Stifling of Drumpellier. The rent was £5 for the first two years, £40 for the next eight years, and £50 for the remaining nine years of the lease. By a separate letter, of the same date as the lease, Captain Lawson consented to Mr. Baird subletting this land to his brother John, in consequence of which the latter, as already mentioned, became his sub-tenant in Souterhouse.

In 1804, the lease of High Cross being about to expire, Alexander Baird, on the 4th of August in that year, entered into an agreement with Miss Douglas for a nineteen years' tack of the lands of "Heigh Cross," at the rent of £45 sterling. A formal lease was executed on 6th july, 1807. This lease was superseded by another, executed by Miss Douglas, on 27th April, 1811, of the same lands of High Cross, for nineteen years from the term of Martinmas, 1808, at the increased rent of £51 which is as high as the farm is rented for at present.

On 15th August 1808, Alexander Baird entered into an agreement with Mr. Robert M'Nair of Belvidere, for the lease of "a farm in the Kirkwood, from 70 to 80 acres" -the lease to be for nineteen years from Martinmas, 1808, at the rent of £2, 5s. per Scots acre, and the tenant to be allowed £100 sterling "for the purpose of repairing the houses at Woodhead." Alexander Baird and his family left Kirkwood and removed to High Cross at Whitsunday, 1808, and there the remaining children, George and David Buchanan, were born. Douglas Baird was named after the family who are proprietors of the lands of High Cross, part of the Rosehall estate, which, since it was acquired by the Douglas family, is designated Douglas Support. George was named after Captain Lawson, of Souter House; and David Buchanan was named after the then laird of Drumpellier- Mr. Baird holding lands from each of these proprietors.

In 1830, the lease of High Cross was renewed for another period of nineteen years from the date of the expiry of the former lease, and John being then associated with his father in farming, the renewed lease was granted in favour of "Alexander Baird, tenant in High Cross, and John Baird, his "second son." The rent, as before, was £51. John lived at High Cross; and after his father's death he continued to possess the lands embraced in this lease till 1847. After this he sublet the land, and resided at Lochwood till the death of his brother Alexander, in 1862, when he removed to Urie.

The lease of Kirkwood was renewed in 1811, by a tack for nineteen years, by Mr. David Buchanan, of Drumpellier, in favour of Alexander Baird, which is dated 11th February in that year. The lands are described as extending to 71 1/4 acres, and the rent stipulated was £160, being at the rate of £2, 5s. per acre. By a lease executed at High Cross, on 4th February, 1813, Mr Buchanan let to Alexander Baird a part of the lands of Kirkwood, described as lately in the proprietor's own occupation, consisting of 48 acres, for the term of: fifteen years, from Martinmas, 1812, at the rent of £108 sterling, being at the rate of £2, 5s. per acre. The lands embraced in both these leases were, again let to Alexander Baird and his son John, for a period of nineteen years from Martinmas, 1827, by a lease granted by Mr. Robert Carrick Buchanan, at the rent of £240.
By another tack, executed on 4th February, 1813, Mr. Buchanan let to Alexander Baird the Mill of Langloan, with machinery and also the mill-lands or mill-mailing, "consisting of 12 or 14 acres, less or more," for the space of nineteen years, from Whitsunday, 1809, at the rent of £80 for the first three years, and £100 for the remainder of the lease. For some years Mr. Baird carried on there a large business as a miller-buying oats in Glasgow, besides grinding his own crops and those of neighbours who employed him to do so.

By an agreement, dated 14th August, 1813, Alexander Baird sublet to James Cleland, merchant in Airdrie, the Mill of Langloan, Kiln, and dwelling-house, for four years and nine months, from 15th August, 1813, at the yearly rent of £50. Whether Mr. Baird resumed possession of the Mill does not appear; but in an account with his bankers-Carrick, Brown, & Company-dated 7th May, 1817, he is designed as "Mr. Alexander Baird, Langloan Mill." Mr. Baird had become by this time a man of considerable influence. He appears to have acted as a confidential adviser of General Baillie of Carnbroe, and of Mr. Buchanan of Drumpellier. In a letter by the former, on 21st February, 1812, General Baillie writes to Mr. Baird on confidential matters of business; he inquires at the same time whether Mr. Baird is willing to go with him into a speculation in oats. And, in 1817 and 1820, Mr. Buchanan writes to him confidentially as to certain leases and other matters, in regard to which be speaks of Mr. Baird as having full power to act for him. His accounts with Carrick, Brown, & Co., in 1814, and subsequently, show that his cash transactions were considerable.

Although Mr. Baird would never, without the talent and industry which characterized him, have attained the position which be achieved, much of his success must be ascribed to the admirable manner in which he was seconded by his wife, Jean Moffat. By her sagacity and indomitable energy, she contributed largely to her husband's prosperity, and to form in her children those habits of diligence and integrity by which they have been distinguished.

Jean Moffat wife of Alexander Baird

The prefixed portrait of Mrs. Baird is from a picture at Cambusdoon, painted by Mr. Graham Gilbert about the year 1844. The following interesting and graphic account of his mother, and of the habits of the family, is from the pen of Mr. James Baird:- "She was a woman of extraordinary energy , with the will and ability to apply it; and few had more need for the exercise of these qualities. She was married in comparative poverty while Mr. Baird was sub-tenant of the small and not very productive farm of Woodhead. The only produce was that of the dairy, and they had only seven small cows.
Mrs. Baird did the work of the dairy with her own hands taking the sole management of it as well as of the disposal of the produce. This she continued to do, assisted by her daughter Janet, as the latter grew up. Owing to the want of proper roads at that time, butter had to be carried, from Monkland to Glasgow for sale, on women's backs; and many a time did Mrs. Baird herself perform this duty, carrying the butter to Glasgow, and disposing of it in the market there, and walking home, a distance of not less than seven miles each way. This system continued not only while the family was at Woodhead, but after they had removed to Kirkwood, and also after they had left the latter place for High Cross. By this time roads had been made, and butter and other produce were then sent to market in carts. Before 1817, ten children had been born and nursed, while Mrs. Baird was doing an amount of work that would have appalled any two dairy women of the present day.

She was a person of a joyous temperament, with a keen sense of humor, and she had many amusing stories to tell what took place around her. She had also a great memory, and could tell the connections of almost all the upper families in Lanarkshire, and of many families not of that county. When the children were old enough go to school, she always found time among her many and onerous duties to assist them in learning their lessons. These consisted of portions of the Shorter Catechism, and elementary books, and they had to repeat a Psalm every Monday morning. She was also careful to explain to them the meaning of the answers in the Catechism, and she never forgot to imbue them with the principles of the Protestant religion and the tenets of the church. In all this she was well supported by her husband. Every Sunday evening the whole household was assembled, and the Shorter Catechism gone through- each answering a question in turn. In this way every member of the family was made familiar with that most useful compendium of the religion of the Bible.

Mrs. Baird was a kind mother, but a strict disciplinarian. With her, it was a word and a blow- the blow usually coming first; The children were all early instructed in the labors of the farm, and all of them as they grew up had a task assigned to them commensurate with their strength, but always apart from school hours.

Thus was the whole family imbued with the best principles, and trained to the practice of industry and economy; and the lessons then acquired they never forgot. The following axiom was penned by a modern philosopher:- "Indigence and obscurity are the parents of industry and economy;" these of riches and honour; these of pride and luxury; these of sensuality and idleness; these of indigence and obscurity. Such are the revolutions of life." The children of Alexander Baird were certainly born in "indigence and obscurity;" and never did a family thanks to their parents practice with more earnestness and energy the virtues of "industry and economy." The reward of these virtues namely, "riches and honor" has seldom, perhaps, been more bountifully vouchsafed by a kind Providence than in their case. None of them condescended to the vices of "pride and luxury." Whether future generations of the family will complete the round of the philosopher's axiom remains to be seen; but that some of them may do so is far from improbable.

"Mrs. Baird lived nearly eighteen years after her husband's death, and died at Coats House on the 8th of July, 1851, at the advanced age of eighty-three, having been most sedulously attended by her daughters in her last illness. She was buried in the Churchyard of Old Monkland beside her husband, and within two hundred yards of the farm house of Woodhead, where she and her husband began their married life. The farm house of Kirkwood, their next residence, was within half a mile, and High Cross, where they resided till 1820, was within a quarter of a mile, of Woodhead. Many changes in the rise and fall of families did this old lady see in the course of her long life, but none more striking than in the rise of her own. At her marriage, the event was probably not known beyond the limits of the poor clachan at Old Monkland Kirk. At her death, the church seats of her family in four parish churches, situated in as many counties, as well as several of the pulpits, were draped in black. To the last she was simple and true. Pride was unknown to her; and she never was heard to allude to the riches or prosperity of her family."

Referring to the drawing of which the accompanying plate is a copy, Mr. Baird writes,- "It represents Old Monkland Kirk, with the school house and Kirk-style, very much as they were in the beginning of the present century. The building in front of the church is what was the school house and teacher's house. At this school almost all the Baird family received a part of their education. The two story house on the right is the Kirk-style then a sort of rustic inn, which was an appendage of every country church, and which was frequently the only inn in the parish.

Mrs. Baird, before her marriage, was living in this house with her relative, William Colquhoun, who at that time occupied the Kirk-style, and from this she was married. The small thatched house beyond is the barn. A considerable farm was generally attached to the Kirk-style, and this was the barn where the crop was thrashed out. It also at that time served the purpose of a dancing school for the district near it, and a good many of the Bairds attended this school. An old man, of the name of Howatt, an itinerant dancing master, was the teacher. He was succeeded by William Shearer, whose residence was Hamilton, and who also taught at different places. He would come from Hamilton to Old Monkland and Langloan in the afternoon, and teach dancing till nearly ten o'clock at night, and then return to Hamilton, a distance of seven miles; and this he did both in summer and winter. Shearer was succeeded by his son.

On the opposite side of the road from the Kirk-style stood the "loupin-on-stane" a necessary institution at a kirk-style. It was a simple stone erection of three steps. Many of the farmers from a distance rode to church in those days, and their wives, and sometimes young lasses, rode behind them called riding double and the females mounted and dismounted at this stone.

When a farmer, too, or a small laird was married, the wedding party were all mounted many of the horses carrying double-and the party all dismounted at the "loupin-on-stane" and went into the manse where the ceremony was performed. I have seen as many as fifty horses at one of these weddings; and there was always a broose afterwards. After the marriage was over, the best horses started on a race to the bridegroom's house the first that arrived there being the winner of the broose. He obtained a bottle of whisky, and met the rest of the wedding party who were following- the bride always getting the first glass from the bottle. The winner had also other privileges, such as dancing the first reel with the bride. The stone was a land-mark. If a person was asked if they saw such a one at the Kirk-style, the reply would be, "Yes, I saw him at the loupin-on-stane," and old Mr. Bower, the minister, would be found there several times every day."