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Weavers' cottages, 50 Montgomery Street - inscribed lintel

A lintel at a former weavers cottage at 51 Montgomery Street Link is inscribed "James Kego & Jean Mitchell 1774". James Kego, a handloom weaver, was born in Eaglesham on 7th November 1731 to James Keagow and Margaret Borland and married Jean Mitchell from Carmunock on 14th June 1765. They had a son James who was born on 30th March 1766. Handloom weaving was the main industry until the establishment of a cotton spinning mill Link in the village in 1791. The New Statistical Account of Scotland notes that 'About 1790, there were 63 silk-looms at work in Eaglesham; in a few years after they sunk down to 33; and at present that branch of the trade is extinct and has been entirely replaced by the weaving of cotton goods, the materials for which are furnished by the Glasgow and Paisley manufacturers'.