The daughters of the Houston knights and barons almost universally married into noble families, many of them within Renfrewshire. Thus neighboring families were tied together through marriage, providing a helpful influence for peace where I here were so many sources of contention and bitter strife.

Writing in 1710, the historian Crawfurd reported that the people of Renfrewshire "live in good friendship, being all of them related to one another through frequent intermarriage." This was a far cry from the feuding days of Patrick Houstoun III, in the 16th century.

The Scottish women of the time of Helen Schaw, wife of Sir Peter Houstoun, and Marion Houstoun Fleming, Lady of Barochan, are interestingly described by a Spanish visitor around the year 1490. This Spaniard, Pedro de Ayala, was sent out by Ferdinand and isabella around the time Queen isabella backed Christopher Columbus on his first voyage to America in 1492.

Ayala was generous in his praise, avowing that the Scottish women were polite, graceful and handsome, and dressed better than the English women. He was much impressed by their head-dress, which he thought the most beautiful in the world. On top of the head were two horns, over which a veil was hung.