History
The town was founded in the mid 17th Century by William Stewart, fourth and youngest son of the 2nd Earl of Galloway. The "New Town of Stewart" was granted Burgh status by charter from King Charles II allowing a weekly market and two annual fairs to be held.
It was on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Ninian at Whithorn in 1329 that Robert the Bruce forded the river where the present bridge stands.
Designed by John Rennie the Elder and built in 1813 the present bridge replaced the old bridge of 1745 which was destroyed by floods in 1806.
The industrialist, Sir William Douglas (died 1809), best known for founding the planned town of Castle Douglas, also established cotton mills in Newton Stewart, which was temporarily renamed "Newton Douglas" in his honour.
The nearby village of Blackcraig was once a major lead-mining centre. Granite from the area was used in the construction of most major dock-sides in Britain.
Read more about this topic: Newton Stewart
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“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
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“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)