Archaeology Notes

Event ID 701319

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/701319

NS46SE 9 4829 6402.

(NS 4829 6402) Eleven months after the charter of James IV erecting the town of Paisley into a burgh of barony (1488-9) Abbot George Shaw presented the new burgh with "our House, commonly called the Heyt House, with vaults, booths and other its pertinents, as well under as above", to be henceforth" a common Tolbooth". The building was of two storeys and stood at the southwest corner of Moss Street where the Commercial Bank now stands. Subsequently a common hall and a steeple containing a clock and bell were added to it, the latter are first mentioned in 1603. In 1609, the whole structure was said to be ruinous, funds were raised the following year for its repair. A new tolbooth and steeple were built in 1757, the tolbooth was demolished in 1821 and the steeple was removed in 1870.

W M Metcalfe 1909