Metcalfe's History of the County of Renfrew, published seventy-seven years after the last edition of Crawfurd's History, re-visits the earlier times from a new viewpoint, and brings the county's story through the Nineteenth Century. While acknowledging his debt to the previous works, Metcalfe introduces new sources, and gives full coverage to the Reformation, the Presbytery, and the Civil Wars, as well as a review of Industries, and the detailed reports on individual Burghs and Parishes.