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The following article is reproduced from The Andrean of August, 1998.

THE STOBCROSS ANDERSONS

The Anderson family from Stobcross were said to be a branch of the Andersons of Dowhill another family with early Glasgow roots.

The earliest records available to us to day trace the family from the middle of the sixteenth century. The lands originally belonged to the Archbishop of Glasgow and land was rented from him. In due course it is said that the Andersons were sufficiently prosperous to build a fine mansion house from which they could look down at their cattle and sheep grazing on the banks of the Clyde. Tradition has it that the farm took its name from a wooden cross or ‘stob’ which marked the spot where a branch road left the main Glasgow to Dumbarton highway.

The following chart outlines the descent of the Andersons of Stobcross. It will be noted that the earlier members of the family are described as being ‘in Stobcross’ and then from William ‘of Stobcross’ as this is likely to have been the time when the family moved from renting the property to owning it and building Stobcross House.

The last Anderson of Stobcross House was a James Anderson who sold the property to John Orr of Barrowfield. Before this happened James Anderson had started to ‘feu’ part of his land for a weavers village. It was left for John Orr to develop this plan which led to the development of Anderston as a thriving community which is so well described in both ‘The villages of Glasgow’ by Aileen Smart and ‘Anderston as it Was’ by David Glenday from which some of the information used here is obtained.

The Andersons of Stobcross received a grant of arms similar to the Dowhill Andersons. These arms are illustrated on page 26 of The Andrean for August 1995. Anderston based its arms on the Stobcross Anderson Arms. These arms are illustrated in The Anderson Association Newsletter Number 1 dated March 1994.

Aileen Smart records that Stobcross House existed until 1875 when it was demolished to make way for Queen’s Dock, which was itself filled in again in the 1980’s with debris from the St Enoch’s hotel in the city centre, to form a site for the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre.

 

 

 


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