Alexander Knox, Brewer of Crawfurdsdyke

These stones once marked the burying place of the family of Alexander Knox of Crawfurdsdyke.  Alexander Knox was a brewer and owned the large brewery in Crawfurdsdyke or Cartsdyke, which he took over in the early 1760s.  He was born in Glasgow in 1722, the son of Alexander Knox and Ann Duncanson.  In 1762 he married Mary Allason, the sister of tobacco trader William Allason of Virginia and half sister of Robert Allason of Port Glasgow.  He corresponded regularly with William Allason, keeping him up to date about family members here in Scotland.  Alexander Knox died in February 1774.

Alexander's wife Mary managed to keep the business going with the help of advice from her brother in law, James Knox, bookseller in Glasgow, until her son Alexander (1763-1789) was of an age to take over.  Alexander unfortunately died young, and his brother James (1771- c1800) then took over the running the brewery.  Mary died in 1790.  James Knox sent books and periodicals out to William Allason in Virginia.

The brewery was a very successful enterprise.  James Knox was a respected merchant in Crawfurdsdyke, which at that time was separate from Greenock.  He was one of the first members when a corps of local volunteers was instituted in 1794 and was appointed as a lieutenant.  He also kept up a correspondence with his uncle William Allason in Virginia.  (Read more about the Allason family here.)

In his book Old Greenock, George Williamson states that the inscription on the stone "is the only Latin inscription in the churchyard".  It reads -

1769

Hoc

Est solum sepulchrale

Alexandri Knox

Cer(e)visiarii in Vico

Crawfurdsdyke

Patet

In longitudinem Octo

In latitudinem totidem

Hoc est

Sexaginta quatuor

Quadratos pedes

Williamson translates this as " The burial-place of Alexander Knox, Maltman (or Brewer) in the village of Carwfurdsdyke … it is 8 feet in length, the same in breadth, or 64 square feet".  

Old West Kirk - illustration from Old Greenock by George Williamson

They can now be found on the south wall of the Old West Kirk, Esplanade, Greenock.  The church and burial ground once stood at the north end of Nicolson Street, Greenock.  

When that land was needed for an extension to the Harland & Wolff shipyard, the building was taken down and rebuilt on its present site in the 1920s.

The Crawfurdsdyke Brewery was once situated across from the old quay at Cartsdyke.  After James Knox's death it was taken over by James Watt (no relation to the famous engineer).  This James Watt was Provost of Greenock 1834-1837.