I am descended from James and Katherine Lowndes of (Nether) Arthurlie.
They once lived in Nether Arthurlie House, which is now the former St Mary’s Convent.
This is my family history.

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Jay & Trish Lowndes: tlowndes@verizon.net

1. Background

I am descended from James and Katherine Lowndes of (Nether) Arthurlie.
They once lived in Nether Arthurlie House, which is now the former St Mary’s Convent.
Here is a view of the location from space looking at Google Earth Maps :

Here is the location on a street map

:

Margaret Ferguson (Barrhead & Neilston Historical Association) put me on notice that the property associated with Lowndes is not the Arthurlie House associated with Henry Dunlop (for more info on Arthurlie House, see Barrhead Heritage Trail) . However, after some investigative research, I found out that a local historian, the late Peter Johnstone wrote a superb article titled 'Local Mansions in and around Barrhead'. Here is an extract on the 2 buildings in question:

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Nether Arthurlie House
was built for the Lowndes family who were silk manufacturers. Later owners were Henry Dunlop, Lord Provost of Glasgow, then it was owned by George Heys, of South Arthurlie Printworks and son of Zechariah. The next owner was Andrew F. Shanks of the sanitaryware company. The house is presently ‘St Mary’s Convent’.

Arthurlie House
Prior to the industrial revolution, there were few mansions. In the 17th century there was possibly only the one, Arthurlie House, in Springhill, owned by the Polloks of Arthurlie. After several generations and the lack of a male heir, the lands of Arthurlie came into the possession of Gavin Ralston of that ilk, through marriage. Later the lands were obtained by Henry Dunlop in 1808. Ten years later he demolished the old house and built a new mansion. Two generations later, through lack of an heir, the whole estate was put up for sale, the ground became council houses, and the mansion was converted to the current community centre.
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As you can see, Henry Dunlop was associated with BOTH properties!

Here is another piece of information. Its taken from the book 'The Castles of Glasgow and the Clyde' by Gordon W Mason (Goblinshead, 2000, ISBN 1899874186)':

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Arthurlie House
Renfrewshire
Private OS 64 NS504588
Arthurlie Street, off A736, Barrhead

The 19th century mansion was successor to a series of earlier structures. In 1372 Robert II granted the estate to a son of Pollok of that Ilk. He lost the estate, and in 1439 the lands were divided into West Arthurlie and Arthurlie. They were given to Ross of Hawkhead and Stewart of Castlemilk respectively. The Stewarts retained their lands until the 18th century. There may also have been a castle in West Arthurlie.
Other references: Nether Arthurlie, East Arturlie.

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Although Mason refers to this building as 'Arthurlie House', the NS Grid reference point to Nether Arthurlie House. It appears the current building stands on ground that was once occupied by other (possibly) fortified structures.