From spinning a yarn to spinning an actual yarn
The fate of the alleged Paisley ‘witches’ has been welldocumented.
The six men and women found guilty of being devil’s disciples were strangled and burned at the stake at the town’s Gallow Green then buried at Maxwellton Cross on June 9, 1697.
They were blamed for cursing 11-year-old Christian Shaw, daughter of the Laird of Bargarran, in Erskine parish, and making her float through the air, disgorging fur, feathers, stones, shells and feathers in mid-flight.
Not so well known is what became of Christian Shaw after the trial and executions.
Most people are amazed to learn the alleged “victim” of the witches’ curse pioneered Paisley’s world-famous textile industry after teaching herself to spin yarn into thread suitable for the
Derek Parker knew many of Paisley’s secrets — the grimy and the good.
He wandered every corner in search of the clues that would unlock Renfrewshire’s rich history.
These tales were shared with readers in his hugely popular Parker’s Way column.
We’ve opened our vault to handpick our favourites for you.
needle.
Following the witchcraft trial, Christian married a minister named Miller, who held charges in Kilmaurs, Ayrshire, and Tranent, East Lothian.
By 1720, she was a widow and back with her mother at Bargarran.
The two women visited Holland and the Low Countries where they studied processes involved in the manufacture of linen thread.
They smuggled a hand-twisting mill and manufacturing plans back to Erskine and set up a business to market what became known as Bargarran Threed.
The venture was a huge success and the Widow Miller, as Christian Shaw was then known, moved to the Brig of Johnstone hamlet and traded from a manufacturing shop there.
With the help of her aunt, Lady Blantyre, whose family later lived at Erskine House, she shipped her textile product all over Scotland, England and Europe.
By 1735, the linen-spinning technique initiated by Christian
Shaw reached the neighbouring town of Paisley.
There, it developed into the cotton-spinning industry which made Paisley globally-famous and gave birth to great businesses like Coats and Clark mills.
Had it not been for Christian Shaw, the Bargarran witches would never have been so cruelly executed – and Paisley may never have enjoyed worldwide renown as a textile town.
After she died, Christian Shaw was buried at Erskine Parish Church – close to Bargarran House – where she claimed to have been bewitched and where she pioneered the Bargarran Threed.
She truly was a woman of destiny who shaped, for better and worse, our town’s history.
Mine of information