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Kilmaurs

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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a town in the Cunningham division of Ayrshire, Scotland, on the Carmel, 212 m. S. by W. of Glasgow by the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901), 1803. Once noted for its cutlery, the chief industries now are shoe and bonnet factories, and there are iron and coal mines in the neighbourhood. The parish church dates from 1170, and was dedicated either to the Virgin or to a Scottish saint of the 9th century called Maure. It was enlarged in 1 4 03 and in great part rebuilt in 1888. Adjoining it is the burial-place of the earls of Glencairn, the leading personages in the district during several centuries, some of whom bore the style of Lord Kilmaurs. Their family name was Cunningham, adopted probably from the manor which they acquired in the 12th century. The town was made a burgh of barony in 1527 by the earl of that date. Burns's patron, the thirteenth earl, on whose death the poet wrote his touching "Lament," sold the Kilmaurs estate in 1786 to the marchioness of Titchfield.