The historic county additionally included territory on the south-western edge of Glasgow which was gradually transferred to the administrative area of the city as it grew.

Renfrewshire can trace its origin to the feudal lands at Strathgryfe granted to Walter FitzAlan, the first High Steward of Scotland.

The goods produced were chiefly cottons, calicos and silks building on the county's long weaving heritage.

Renfrewshire was abolished for local government purposes in 1975, being replaced by the Strathclyde region and three lower-tier district councils.

When the Romans advanced in the year 80 from the Solway Firth, the territory that would later become Renfrewshire was occupied by the Damnonii, a British tribe.

Following the end of Roman rule in Britain in 410, the Cumbrian Britons, with their capital at Dumbarton, retained a hold on all the territory west of the Lothian — the Kingdom of Strathclyde.

In the 12th century, during the reign of David I of Scotland, the Anglo-Norman nobleman Walter FitzAlan fled the English county of Shropshire on account of the conflict between the Empress Matilda and Stephen.

[9] In 1163 Walter founded, first at Renfrew but shortly afterwards at Paisley, a house of monks of the Cluniac order drawn from the priory of Much Wenlock, in his native county of Shropshire.

It is traditionally believed that Sir William Wallace, a knight and military leader during the period surrounding the Wars of Scottish Independence, was born in 1272 at Elderslie in the county.

From this point onwards, the county has been closely tied to the monarchy and the heir apparent to the British monarch holds the title of Baron of Renfrew as well as High Steward of Scotland.

On 10 May 1941, Rudolf Hess, a leading official in the government of Nazi Germany, parachuted into a field near Eaglesham on a secret mission to meet Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton for peace negotiations, and was instead arrested by a farmhand with a pitchfork and imprisoned.

[13] It is believed Hess was privately distressed by the war with the United Kingdom as he had hoped that Britain would accept Germany as an ally.

Hess may have hoped to score a diplomatic victory by sealing a peace between the German Reich and British Empire.

Elected county councils were established in 1890 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, taking most of the functions of the commissioners (which were eventually abolished in 1930).

The three Renfrewshire burghs of Greenock, Paisley, and Port Glasgow were deemed large enough to manage their own affairs and so were excluded from the administrative area of the county council.

The final Convener of the county to have chaired the Commissioners of Supply was West Renfrewshire's Member of Parliament Archibald Campbell MP.

Between the 1880s and the early 20th century, it is recorded that the county is divided between an 'Upper Ward' consisting of the eastern two-thirds of the county centred on Paisley, and a 'Lower Ward' approximating the boundaries of the modern Inverclyde council area and consisting of the parishes of Inverkip, Greenock, Port Glasgow and Kilmacolm, with Greenock as district centre.

When the county was abolished for local government purposes in 1975 the lieutenancy area was redefined to correspond to the new districts of Eastwood, Inverclyde, and Renfrew.

Renfrewshire is retained as a Joint Valuation Board area, which values properties for the purposes of council tax and non-domestic rates, and is also used for electoral registration.

Following the Act of Union 1707, which created Great Britain as a sovereign state, Renfrewshire was a county constituency for elections to the House of Commons in Parliament.

From 1832, Port Glasgow and Renfrew had been part of the Kilmarnock Burghs constituency and remained as such, only being absorbed into West and East Renfrewshire respectively in 1918 with the passage of the Representation of the People Act 1918.

With counties abolished for local government purposes, more wholesale reform of the constituency system in Scotland occurred in the 1980s, following the Third Periodic Review carried out by the Boundary Commission for Scotland, and a number of alterations were made before settling on the present system for the 2005 General Election laid out in the Fifth Periodic Review.

Francis Hindes Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer for Scotland observes that the geography of the county can be seen as "falling into three divisions - hilly, gently rising, and flat".

[23] Many of the county's traditional industries were driven by export strength, with examples such as sugar refining, foundry-work, rope-making, machine-making, mineral work and the manufacture of chemicals are all noted as significant to the economy of Renfrewshire in the 1880s Gazetteer for Scotland entry, with the central areas for commerce noted as being Greenock and Port Glasgow.

In modern times, many of the settlements in the centre and east of Renfrewshire serve as commuter towns within the Greater Glasgow area.

The lymphad or galley is taken from the arms of the county town, Renfrew, which once served as an important port on the River Clyde.

[37][38] Another symbol associated with the county is the Prince of Wales's feathers badge, demonstrating the heir to the throne's connections as Baron Renfrew.

In 2002, the charity Plantlife organised a UK-wide competition to categorise county flowers, of which Renfrewshire's is unofficially the Bogbean.

Glasgow Airport is situated in the county just to the north of Paisley, providing flights to a number of national and international destinations.

Many of these settlements continue to be represented by community councils, sponsored by the local authority, albeit without any distinct powers.