nsent on condition that Robert Shaw should take the monastic habit
within six months, and decreed that the old abbot should enjoy as his
pension a third part of the fruits of the monastery, and might return to
his former position when he thought proper. Robert Shaw took office in
1498, and his uncle lived for some years after, "the pensioner of the
abbey" as he is called in charters. George Shaw died probably in 1505,
and Dr. Lees says of him:--

"He filled his place well, and the visitor to Paisley who sees his
shield of three covered cups with the pastoral crook behind them
upon the wall of one of the outhouses, which has been ruthlessly
transformed by modern iconoclasts, or reads the defaced inscription
which tells of the 'nobil fundacioun' he reared, will do well to
remember that they are the memorials of a good man, one of the best
of his time, to whose wisdom and benevolence the town of Paisley
owes its existence."[380]

This refers to the creation of Paisley as a burgh by Abbot Shaw, who
obtained in 1488 a charter creating the village of Paisley into a free
burgh of barony, and thereby raising the status of the people both
socially and politically. The burgher was no longer in the condition of
a serf or slave, who could be transferred from one master to another,
and he escaped from all the severities and exactions of the feudal
system. The burghs had power of self-government, and were able to
develop commercial and industrial operations. The burgh of Paisley was
endowed with the usual privileges, and a right to hold a market every
Monday, and two yearly fairs--one on the day of St. Mirren, and the
other on the day of St. Marnock. In 1490 the abbot and chapter granted
to the magistrates of the burgh in feu-farm the ground on which the old
town stands and certain other privileges.

After an examination of the Rental Book, Dr. Lees regards it as
"corroborating all that historians tell us regarding the lands of those
ecclesiastics being the best cultivated and the best managed in
Scotland.... The neighbourhood of a convent was always recognisable by
the well-cultivated land and the happy tenantry which surrounded it, and
those of the Abbey of Paisley were no exception to the general rule
prevailing throughout the rest of Scotland.[381]

"The monks were kind masters. No cases of eviction or deprivation
are recorded. The same lands descended without rise of rent from
fath