Cartside Mill In 1825 there were about 13 mills in the Johnstone area. One of the earliest was the Cartside Mill, built in 1794 under the direction of the successful cotton spinner Robert Burns, whose partners in the venture, Bro. William Macdowall of Garthland and Bro. George Houstoun of Johnstone, had earlier been responsible for a cotton mill at Lochwinnoch in 1788. A large, 6-story building, Cartside Mill was considered one of Scotland’s finest, early water-powered cotton mills. The original Cartside House, a compact 8-room structure with servants’ quarters, standing a short distance east of the mill on high ground on the south bank of the Black Cart, was built about this time for the mill manager.
before moving to Cartside House shortly after his marriage in 1845. His elder son George Ludovic Houstoun see, who was to succeed his uncle as laird of Johnstone in 1862, was born at Cartside in 1846, Houston extended the mill, making an addition in 1825 which nearly doubled its size. In addition to being a successful cotton-master, Houstoun is credited with transforming canal travel in the 1830s. previously unacquainted with boats and untutored in boatbuilding, he designed swift, iron boats which were introduced as passenger vessels on the Glasgow, Paisley and Ardrossan Canal, which had opened in 1809. Pulled along at twelve miles an hour by a single horse, the enabled the canal company in 1839, when there were 13 boats sailing daily between Glasgow and Paisley, to carry over 400,000 passengers, twice as many as were transported on the Forth and
It appears to have become a temporary home for the Napiers of Milliken after 1801, when the old house of Milliken was destroyed by fire. Colonel Robert Milliken Napier (1765-1808) made Cartside his home in 1802 on Clyde Canal. his retiral from the army. The business flourished only for a very brief periHe had entered the British Army in 1779 and over od, however, declining rapidly after a faster and the following twenty-two years saw active service more convenient mode of travel arrived with the in Holland, Ireland, the West Indies and India, opening of the Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway where he commanded the siege of Mangalore. in 1840. After Houston and his family moved to Obliged to retire from military service due to the Johnstone Castle in 1862, Carside House, with severity of wounds received in battle, he died at about 8 acres of polices, was regularly leased out. Cartside House in February, 1808. From 1862 it was occupied by the Glasgow East India merchant Archibald Glen. The original mill partnership, Houstoun, Burns and Company, was dissolved with the death of Following losses in his business with Singapore, Bro. George Houstoun in 1815, and the mill, house Malaya and the Philippines, Glen went bankrupt and 19 acres of Cartside became the responsibil- in 1874 with liabilities of £150,000, and died at ity of his second son William, who operated the Cartside House in December, 1875. Around 1877 business as George Houston and Company. the paper manufacturer Peter McLaurin moved into the house with his family. McLaurin in 1849 Bro. William Houstoun (1781-1856 & first master had founded the Glasgow firm Smith and McLauof 242) lived in Johnstone Castle with his elder rin, which pioneered the manufacture of gummed brother Ludovic, who had become laird in 1815, paper.
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