Abbey or sometimes Abbey Paisley

Paisley

Paisley is the largest town in the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland and serves as the administrative centre for the Renfrewshire council area...

was a civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 in Renfrewshire

Renfrewshire

Renfrewshire is one of 32 council areas used for local government in Scotland. Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Renfrewshire, the others being Inverclyde to the west and East Renfrewshire to the east...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 traditionally centred on the towns of Paisley

Paisley

Paisley is the largest town in the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland and serves as the administrative centre for the Renfrewshire council area...

 and Johnstone

Johnstone

Johnstone is a town in the council area of Renfrewshire and larger historic county of the same name in the west central Lowlands of Scotland.The town lies three miles west of neighbouring Paisley and twelve miles west of the centre of the city of Glasgow...

 and including the smaller settlements of Elderslie

Elderslie

Elderslie is a village in the council area and historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The village is situated midway between the nearby towns of Paisley and Johnstone....

, Inkerman

Inkerman, Renfrewshire

Inkerman was a small hamlet set up in 1858 in the Abbey Parish of Paisley to house ironstone miners. Later employment came from ancillary operations, including shale coal and oilworks. There were seven pits in all in Inkerman. The hamlet was named after a recent British military victory, the...

, Hurlet

Hurlet

Hurlet is a small semi-rural district and former mining village, straddling the Renfrewshire-East Renfrewshire-Glasgow border near the town of Barrhead in the lowlands of Scotland...

, Nitshill

Nitshill

Nitshill is a district on the south side of Glasgow. It is north of South Nitshill, south of Crookston, and southwest of Silverburn and Pollok. Nitshill was originally a coal mining village...

, the Dovecothall area of Barrhead

Barrhead

Barrhead is a town in East Renfrewshire, Scotland, southwest of Glasgow on the edge of the Gleniffer Braes. As of the 2001 census its population was 19,813....

, and the hamlet

Hamlet

The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

s of Thorn and Quarrelton, now subsumed into Johnstone. The parish owes its name to Paisley Abbey

Paisley Abbey

Paisley Abbey is a former Cluniac monastery, and current Church of Scotland parish kirk, located on the east bank of the White Cart Water in the centre of the town of Paisley, Renfrewshire, in west central Scotland.-History:...

, the central religious site in the county and the parish church

Parish church

A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....

.

The town of Paisley fell entirely within the Abbey Parish until 1736, when three parishes were formed within the burgh

Burgh

A burgh was an autonomous corporate entity in Scotland and Northern England, usually a town. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Burgh status was broadly analogous to borough status, found in the rest of the United...

: High, Middle and Laigh (Low). A small portion of the Abbey Parish remained within the burgh after this time. For religious purposes, the towns of Johnstone and Elderslie formed their own quoad sacra parishes.

Present day

Following the decline in the importance of parishes in Scotland for local government

Local government

Local government refers collectively to administrative authorities over areas that are smaller than a state.The term is used to contrast with offices at nation-state level, which are referred to as the central government, national government, or federal government...

, the parochial institutions of Abbey Parish have been replaced with various separate community councils serving the towns and villages, with a number representing the various areas of Paisley.