Continued entries/extra info

St. Luke's Church
(Remains of)

Continued

the larger and smaller aisles were
used respectively by the families of
Mauldslie and Milton Lockhart
as places of sepulchre. It may not
be uninteresting to extract the following from
the Stat: Acct: "By the following tradition the
name of the P[aris]h is derived from a different source.
The Church was formerly situated in the forest
of Mauldslie, hence it was sometimes called the
Forest Kirk: Close to the banks of the Clyde. This
situation being at the extremity of the Parish, was
found inconvenient, and it was therefore proposed that
the Church should be removed to a more centrical spot.
This proposal met with strong opposition from a
part of the population, who clung to the holy ground,
and after much difficulty could only be brought to agree
that the new site should be the Law of Mauldslie, a situation
not far from the old one. this however not meeting the views
of the opposite party, it was at length determined that the
dispute should be submitted to the arbitration of Providence.
with this view a pow (skull) was taken from the ancient
burial ground & together with a burning peat was laid on
the proposed sit at the Law. If the pow and peat remained
that was to be the spot; but if they should be removed by a
"Guiding hand" the Church ws to be erected wherever they
might be found. They were removed and the whole Parish
was raised to seek for the pow and peat. after much search
they were at last to the joy of the people discovered by Symeon
Haddow of Easterseat on the spot where the C[hurc]h was eventually
erected, about two miles nearer Symeon's house than the
Law. The truth was that the Guiding hand was none
other than that of Symeon himself a secret which
was carefully kept within his family for many generations.
Hence the name Kirk-look, the looking for the
Kirk. The derivation is of course absurd: but there
can be little doubt as to the reference to
Providence and its result."