"New Church Yard" in Paisley

[Moxiekins]

My ancestors, JOHN HART and his wife JANET MAXWELL, lived in Paisley in the 1700s. Their eldest son ROBERT HART (b. 1739) emigrated to the American colonies around 1760/62. His brother MALCOLM HART (b. 1752) followed in about 1775 (and he later named his property "Renfrew" in honor of his birthplace). Malcolm brought with him his father's Bible, which records the births and deaths of all their children.

The Bible entries refer to "our Lair in the New Church Yard" with burials of 6 babies from 1744 to 1757.

What is a "Lair"? Is it an enclosed area (maybe with a fence) purchased by the family for burials?

What is the "New Church Yard"? Is this the Paisley Abbey Churchyard?

Can anyone suggest the best place to look for death records of John Hart and Janet (Maxwell) Hart? One would assume that they, too, are buried in the same place as their children.

Many thanks!

[RJ_Paton]

A Lair is the Scots term for a burial plot .. it can be quite simple or elaborate.

The "New Churchyard" may refer to the High Church in Paisley.

You could try Scotland's People ( a pay per view site) for Scottish records but our ancestors were notoriously poor at recording details of deaths or even at preserving those records that were kept.

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/   Scotlands People
or try the local Family History Group
http://renfrewshirefhs.co.uk/

[Moxiekins]

Many thanks for the response. It looks like the possibilities are fairly limited for records in the mid-1700s and earlier. I appreciate the pointers.

[RJ_Paton]

The records pre Civil Registration were a pretty mixed bag.
In theory several laws were passed which required the local Church of Scotland ministers keep records of all Births Deaths and Marriages in their area.

 Some kept excellent records others failed miserably. Add to this the various breakups of the Church , the sometimes poor storage methods and it is a wonder that we have any records to look at.

One source of information sometimes overlooked for this period are the Mortcloth Records maintained by the Church (a mortcloth was a covering placed over the coffin). The Church often rented these out and kept better records of these than they did of burials

[RJ_Paton]

I have just checked the Parish records Index for the area and it looks as if you may be out of luck as far as Burial Records go as only the Abbey appears to have maintained any records (and even those are sparse)