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Relatives: Wife of John Hamilton Stone Condition: Sound Material: Sandstone Height: 1.82 Breadth: 1 Depth: 0.27 Inscription Condition: Clear but worn Inscription Technique: Incised Mason: W. Waggett, Glasgow Pre 1855 no. 83 ( What's this? )

Monument Inscription

IN MEMORY OF
JOHN HAMILTON ESQR,
OF GREENBANK,
WHO DIED 28TH MAY 1849,
AGED 81 YEARS.
AND OF
SUSAN DUNLOP, HIS WIFE
WHO DIED 18TH NOVR 1856,
AGED 76 YEARS.
AND OF
THEIR ELDEST SON
JOHN HAMILTON ESQR,
OF GREENBANK,
WHO DIED 27TH FEB 1877,
AGED 70 YEARS.
ALSO
JAMES DUNLOP HAMILTON ESQR,
OF GREENBANK,
WHO DIED 31ST MAY 1886,
AGED 73 YEARS.

Family History

Greenbank House was built for Robert Allason, a Glasgow merchant, about 1763. It had no fewer than five owners between 1763 and 1796 when it was purchased by John Hamilton of Rogerton, East Kilbride from Maitland Hutchison, whose father Alexander, a successful West Indies merchant, had purchased nearby Southfield Estate in 1771.

John Hamilton (1768-1849), the son of John Hamilton and Elizabeth White of Rogerton, East Kilbride, his wife Susan Dunlop (1780-1856) whom he married in 1803 and two of their sons are commemorated on this monument. They were to have ten children, three sons and seven daughters. cf. Monument A06.

Their first son, John Hamilton (1806-1877), farmed part of the estate and had interests in the legal profession.

A second son, James Dunlop Hamilton (1812-1886), inherited the estate on the death of his brother John. He was a lawyer and took an active part in local affairs, becoming Chairman of the newly formed Mearns Parish School Board following the Education Act (Scotland) of 1872. This Act provided for the compulsory education of children aged five to thirteen years. Mr Hamilton purchased the land required to build the new school on Kilmarnock Road (now Ayr Road), and also financed the construction of the school and the teacher’s house. The school, known as Mearns Public School, opened its doors to the first pupils in September 1876. It replaced the Parish School at Mearns Kirk which stood on the site of the present Mearns Kirk manse.

A plaque commemorating Mr Hamilton’s beneficence was unveiled at the formal opening of the school on 11th October, 1878 and was relocated in the new Mearns Primary School, Hunter Drive, in 2005.

James Dunlop Hamilton also donated the land on which Greenbank Church was built between1882-1884 in Clarkston.

Greenbank was to remain in the ownership of the Hamilton family until 1961 when it was purchased by Mr William Blyth who donated it in 1976 to the National Trust for Scotland in whose care it remains.