The Paisleys are a family of considerable antiquity, having been associated with Lochwinnoch and Paisley (parts of what later became Renfrewshire), with Cunningham and Kyle (North Ayrshire), Innerwick (East Lothian) and Roxburghshire, since the time of William I King of Scots 1165 - 1214.
William I Paisley (died ante 28 September 1171) and William II Paisley (killed in battle ante 1218) were prominent in the following of the first three hereditary stewards of Scotland, while William II Paisley is also noticed attending the itinerant court of the King of Scots during 1179 - 95.
Separate and quite distinct branches of the family had already developed at Lochwinnoch and Paisley and in the Roxburgshire barony of Hawick before the end of King David Bruce's reign in 1371 and the beginnings of others are found in records for Edinburgh and the three Lothians from 1389 onwards and at Dunrod near Borgue (Kirkcudbrightshire) in still Gaelic speaking Galloway from 1585.