A recent post to the Scotch-Irish list forwarded for general interest: In my relentless, unyielding and bull-dogged approach to collar the Cowans of Ulster and chain them to the Cowanes of Stirling, I would like to submit the following 1st person account horror story from Dave Stirling in response to my post on the Stirlingshire list. The stark lesson is that we need to get as many of these unfilmed documents microfilmed before more are wontenly destroyed and that the time to do your research is yesterday, not when (you hope) they will appear on the internet in a few years. jcmaclay There WERE many early documents and references which D.B. Morris would have access to. The earliest archives of the Stirling Town Council, in the early 1950's, were stored (badly and covered with sooty deposits) in the attic of the old Town House in Broad Street. The vandals, who were known then as Stirling Council, sent these to paper salvage (Thames Board Mills) in the 1950's (I worked in the Sanitary Inspector's Office at the time). I examined them at this time, but, of course, was unable to prevent their destruction. One thing Morris missed was some personal data that was there on John Cowane's family. It was also destroyed with other 16th century documents. That is why John Cowane's birth date and baptismal date is "unknown" to most people (Morris does not give it) and why his mother's name is often given wrongly. Even the plaque to him does not have the details, nor an exact death date. His grandmother was a usurer, and John also carried out money lending. Much of his assets were squandered by their recipient, Short. I have read an interesting Bond with information on the activities. The bequest to the town was actually made by his brother (John was dead when it was made) following John's dying wishes. John Cowane's house was a Carpet factory for some time in the 18th century. It was allowed to deteriorate into little more than a ruin by the Town Council he had benefitted. Dave Stirling > from: [email protected] > date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 02:38:04 > to: [email protected] > subject: Re: [SCT-STIRLINGSHIRE] Looking for Leases > > John Cowane's biographer David B. Morris was Town Clerk of Stirling in the > opening decade of the 20th century. > > Morris would have had access to and knowledge of many early 16th century > Stirling documents. > > He writes in his LIFE OF JOHN COWANE that Cowane "probably belonged to a > family of Cowanes who were tenants on long leases of Touchbrayes, Touchgorm > and other lands to the south-west of Stirling." > > Any suggestions as to where one might find these leases of the 1520s and > 1530s. Where these lands of Touch possibly owned by Camstradden Colquhouns? > > Are there somnolent researches in the cradles of the list? > > jcmaclay >