RENWICK

I believe that the surname RENWICK is named after a small village in (old) Cumberland just south of the Scottish borders in north west England. The "W" is not pronounced and the name may appear as Rennick on occasions. My Renwick line goes back to Andrew Renwick bn about 1710 in Renfrewshire, a few generations lived in the (now) Borders county of Roxbrugh in villages Ancrum, Ashkirk and Smailholm.
My gt gt grandfather was Alexander Renwick who was born on the 6th July 1815 in Smailholm, he was the son of Andrew Renwick (bn 15 Jun 1773 Ashkirk) and Jean Hamilton, they married on the 22 Nov 1796 in Melrose and appear to have at least 11 children, one son James bn 1813 upped and left Scotland for Toowoomba, Queensland in the 1860s with his family and I have traced and met a number of his descendants in Australia. My Alexander (with less ambition) went to Sunderland in the early 1840s.
Few famous Renwicks, David wrote "One foot in the grave" and "Jonathan Creek", Jim played rugby for Scotland in the 1970s. A James Renwick was the last person to be publicly executed in Edinburgh for his religious beliefs. He was a covenanter and died on 17th February 1688. My Australian relations are sure that James is "our" line. Descendants of James (bn 1813) in Toowoomba became rugby coaches at the Toowomba Boys' school and pictures of them appeared in old school books. James became a builder/architect and his family firm made their own bricks and a number of buildings remain to this day in the town.
The 1881 census shows that the majority of Renwicks could be found in Durham, Galashiels and Dumfries. Only 77 Renwicks per million of the population (1881) decreasing to 72 by 1998.