Paisley, Renfrewshire : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

These other entries in our collection of descriptive gazetteers are also about Paisley. You may be able to find further references to Paisley in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place Type of entry Source
Paisley parliamentary and police burgh, parish, river port, and manufacturing town Bartholomew
Paisley a large parliamentary burgh Groome

Travel writing

This website includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Selecting one of the links below will take you to the first reference to Paisley within the selected text. This will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.

Traveller Section No. of Refs.
Feargus O'Connor O'Connor's tour of Scotland, January 1839 8
Daniel Defoe Letter 12, Part 1: South-Western Scotland 3
William Camden Scotland: South of the Antonine Wall 1
William Cobbett Sept. 29th to Oct. 2nd, 1826: Ryall to Burghclere 1
George Head Selby and Goole 1
George Head Carlisle and the Solway Firth 1
Thomas Pennant August 18-29: Sutherland and Caithness 1
Thomas Pennant September 5-17: Inveraray to Edinburgh 1

This website includes two large libraries, of historical travel writing and of entries from nineteenth century gazetteers describing places. We have text from these sources available for these places near your location:

Place Mentioned in Travel Writing Mentioned in Historical Gazetteer
Abbey 0 2
Elderslie 1 2
Inchinnan 0 2
Linwood 0 2
Renfrew 1 3
Hurlet 0 2
Househillmuir 0 2
Nitshill 0 2
Barrhead 0 2
Johnstone 0 2
Gateside 0 2
Yoker 0 2
Clydebank 0 2
Neilston 0 2
Darnley 0 2
Jordanhill 0 2
Govan 0 2
Bellahouston 0 2
Dalmuir 0 2
Crosslee 0 2

Names from historical writing

The following appear as names for Paisley. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name Author Source
PAISLEY John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
F.H. Groome Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (Edinburgh: T.C. Jack, 1882-4).
PAISLY George Head A Home Tour through the Manufacturing Districts of England in the Summer of 1835 (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1836).
Thomas Pennant A Tour in Scotland 1769 (London: Benjamin White, 1776).
PASELY Daniel Defoe A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
PASLAY William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

  • The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
  • Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
  • References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.