Caaf Water - Lynn Glen

Lynn Glen

Lynn Glen lies in the old Barony of Lynn, which was created from lands granted about 1204 by Hugh de Morville. It was first held by Walter de Lynne, who signed the Ragman Roll as Wautier de Lynne on 28 November 1296. On the same day, Walter de Lyn sat on a jury before the sheriff of Ayr, holding inquisition as to Lady Elena la Zuche's interests in the Ayrshire town of Irvine. Walter and the other jurors, as well as the sheriff, are mentioned at the close of the resulting document as having appended their seals thereto. English law, which would have prevailed in legal proceedings when the Ragman Rolls were signed, provided that "jurors were generally drawn from the ranks of free men who held property". Walter's position in the community is confirmed by his having a seal, although the Calendar notes - to the lament of Lynns everywhere: "Seals lost".

All that being said, Walter's family bore the name Lynne long before coming to Ayrshire; and they held all or some portion of the Ayrshire property for nearly half a millennium, from about 1204 until the mid 17th century. In 1532, John Lynn "for a sum of money to him paid, sold" to Thomas Boyd "forty-shilling land of the old extent of Lyn"., nevertheless retaining the mains or manor place, called at various times Burnside and Lynn Knoll, Over Lynn, and High Lynn. Eventually, however, even this was forsaken; and the ruins of the old manorial place in the 19th century was nothing more than a mound with some old cottage ruins near it.

The last Lynn of that Ilk died in Irvine, Ayrshire in 1670, and the last remnants of the family simply vanished, some say to Sweden. It has been claimed, though not proven, that Jenny Lind the "Swedish Nightingale" is descended from that family. The family itself has been described as "a beloved aristocracy that came, lingered a while, and vanished." Their property was parcelled out into lots among a number of heritors which in 1820 amounted to 16. The lairds of Lyne (sic) had a townhouse in Irvine as did many of the other lairds in Cunninghame.

In 1632, Thomas Boyd of Pitcon was also styled of Lin, owing to his father having purchased part of the old barony from the Lynns. By 1874, however, Lynn belonged to John Crichton. Paterson records that the property amounted to 240 acres (0.97 km2) and the four merk Land of Lynn belonged to Lord Boyd in 1576, from whom the Pollocks acquired it in about 1770. In 1866 it had passed from them to the Crichtons as stated. The 19th century mansion of Linn no longer exists and all that remains are some woodland policies and an ornate gatepost.

The Dalry "witch", Bessie Dunlop, who was tragically burned at the stake in Edinburgh, was the spouse of one "Jack o’ Linn." As told in "Reports of Cases Decided in the Supreme Court of Scotland on Appeal from Scotland ...," Vol. XIII, by W. H. Dunbar, Esq., Advocate, Henry Beveridge, Esq., Advocate, and John Wadlaw, Esq., Advocate, Edinburgh (1841), the trial occurred in 1576, Jack's full name was Andrew Jack, and he and Bessie lived in Lynn. They were not members of the family of Lynn. By this time, in fact, the Lynn property was referred to as "the town and territory of Lyne in the bailliary of Cunningham and sheriffdom of Ayr," as found in a 1522 charter at the National Archives of Scotland and abstracted at the NAS website .

During the "persecution times" of Charles II when the Covenanters were being hounded throughout south-west Scotland for their refusal to accept Episcopacy in the Kirk, Alexander Peden preached to the people from the natural pulpit of Pinnoch Point, now more often referred to as Peden’s Point.