Beith is a small town situated in the Garnock Valley in North Ayrshire, Scotland approximately 20-miles south-west of Glasgow. The town is situated on the crest of a hill known originally as the “Hill o’ Beith” or hill of the Birches, and commands a fine and extensive view of the countryside around, including the Kilbirnie hills.

Beith’s name is thought to emanate from Ogham, which is sometimes referred to as the “Celtic Tree Alphabet”, ascribing names of trees to individual letters. Beithe in Old Irish means Birch-tree (cognate to Latin betula). There is reason to believe that the whole of the district was covered with woods.

Saint Inan

Beith was the occasional residence of Saint Inan, a confessor of some celebrity, whose principal place of abode was Irvine. He flourished about 839. Although he is said to have been a hermit, according to tradition Saint Inan often visited Beith, frequenting Cuff Hill with its Rocking Stone and various other prehistoric monuments. A cleft in the west-front of Lochlands Hill is still known as “St. Inan’s Chair” and said to have been used by the saint as a pulpit. An unsuccessful search for the saint’s writings which were said to be preserved in the library of Bonci, Archbishop of Pisa, was made by Colonel Mure of Caldwell in the 19th-century.

Saint Inan is said to have preached to the assembled people from the chair on the hill. There was not a great population in the area at that time and the people were located not in Beith, but up on the top of the Bigholm near to the old Beith water dams. The first settlements were in the heavily wooded areas around the dams where people were safe from attack and could get food from the land, and fish in the lochs. The Saints of old went where the people were, and they also tended to go where there had been worship of heathen Gods. It has been suggested that High Bogside Farm, which used to be called Bellsgrove, was really “Baalsgrove”, which fits in with the story of Saint Inan going to where the pagan gods were.

There is an annual civic fete held in the town bearing Saint Inan’s name.

Alexander Montgomerie

The sixteenth century poet Alexander Montgomerie was born in Hazelhead (now Hessilhead) Castle, which is on the outskirts of Beith, beyond Gateside. Montgomerie is regarded as one of the finest of Middle Scots poets, and perhaps the greatest Scottish exponent of the sonnet form.

Smugglers

Beith has a historical connection to smuggling and built a reputation during the 18th centrury as being a town which harboured those whose intentions were not always lawful. In 1733 forty or fifty Beith smugglers sacked the Irvine Customs House, escaping with a rich booty of confiscated contraband goods and by 1789 a company of 76 soldiers were quartered in the town dealing with the continuing illicit trade in tea, tobacco, and spirits. This caused great inconvenience to the law-abiding citizens on whom the soldiers were billeted. The town was policed in this fashion for some time thereafter. Hence, the Main Street’s popular public house is still called the Smugglers Tavern, recalling the days when Beith’s location between the coast and Paisley and Glasgow, made it a convenient stopping off point for those involved in nefarious activities.

A possible relic of the smuggling days of Beith is the ley tunnel that is said to run from the site of the Grace Church on Eglinton Street to Kilbirnie Loch.

Morrishill and James Montgomery

Now a small housing estate, the house and land of Morrishill stood a short distance south of Beith. It commanded an excellent view and was well sheltered with trees. Owned by Robert Shedden, who purchased the land in 1748, it is notoriously linked to the case of James Montgomery.

James Montgomery, an enslaved African, was brought from Virginia to Beith by Sheddan. He wanted Montgomery, then called “Shanker”, apprenticed to a joiner so that he would learn a skill and could then be sold for a large profit back in Virginia. When Shanker decided to be baptised in Beith Parish Church with the name James Montgomery in April 1756, Sheddan objected. Montgomery was dragged nearly 30-miles to Port Glasgow behind horses to be taken back to Virginia but escaped to Edinburgh before the ship sailed. Montgomery sought justice but before a decision could be made by judges he died in Tolbooth Gaol.

The practice of owning people did not become common in Britain and it was a result a number of contradictory legal decisions made, that raised the question of the rights of the enslaved, as well as the legal right to own people in Britain. The outcomes of these cases also influenced the abolition movement.

Rev. John Witherspoon

One of Beith’s various claims to fame is that a signatory of the American Declaration of Independence, the Rev. John Witherspoon, was a former minister of one its Church of Scotland parishes between 1745 – 1757. In 1745 he led the men of Beith to Glasgow to defend King George III against the Young Pretender in the ’45 rebellion. Despite receiving orders to return to Beith, Witherspoon carried on, was captured at the Battle of Falkirk and imprisoned for a time in Doune Castle. He later emigrated and became a member of the US congress and in July 1776 he voted for the Resolution for Independence. In answer to an objection that the country was not yet ready for independence, according to tradition, he replied that it “was not only ripe for the measure, but in danger of rotting for the want of it.” Witherspoon was also the sixth president of Princeton University and showed great commitment to liberal education and republican government. He died in 1794 on his farm “Tusculum,” just outside of Princeton, and is buried in the Princeton Cemetery. His direct descendants include actress Reese Witherspoon, and he is commemmorated by statues in Washington D.C., at the University of the West of Scotland in Paisley, and a plaque in Beith town centre.

Dr. Henry Faulds

Dr Henry Faulds, the originator of the concept of forensic use of fingerprinting, was born in Beith in 1843. A well-travelled man, he explained the suitability of fingerprinting for the identification of criminals and also wrote to Charles Darwin to forward his ideas. Unfortunately the letter was never published and he died in 1930, aged 86, bitter at the lack of recognition he had received for his work. His work in Japan is remembered by a memorial stone in Tokyo. In addition, a small stone memorial dedicated to his memory was unvieled in the centre of Beith in 1984 and, in 2007, a memorial was also placed in view in Woolstanton near to St Margaret’s churchyard, where he was laid to rest

Taken from wikipedia and credit to the original author whomever that might have been. Should you know who the original author is I would be happy to hear from you.

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