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ARBROATH ABBEY CHURCH FROM THE NORTH-WEST.

ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY

THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE TOWN AND ABBEY

ABERBROTHOCK

INCLUDING

NOTICES OF ECCLESIASTICAL AND OTHER ANTIQUITIES

IN THE SURROUNDING DISTRICT

DAVID MILLER

EDINBURGH

THOMAS G. STEVENSON, 22 FREDERICK STREET

LONDON : HAMILTON, ADAMS & Co

GLASGOW : MURRAY & SON

MDCOCLX

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'^ ABBROATH : KKKNKDY AND BUNCLE. PKINTEBS.

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PREFACE.

The following pages have been published chiefly for those who take an interest in the locality of the ancient and now flourishing town of Arbroath, and also with the view of removing the obscurity which has hitherto involved the history of its once magnificent monasteiy. Among other sources of information the Chartulary of the Abbey is entitled to stand first in rank. The most interesting portions of these monastic writings have been digested and arranged in this volume. An endeavour has thus been made to bring out the points in which they, along with other authentic documents, tend to illustrate the history of the district.

In alluding to the history of past times, our ancestors have been allowed as far as possible to appear in their own dress, and speak in their own words. This will account for the number of quotations in the antique style, which may probably render the perusal of some portions of the book a little difficult to readers otherwise well educated. But if months or years are spent in the endeavour to acquire a knowledge of dead languages two or three thousand years old, some trouble ought to be taken with the view of being able to read with facility our own living mother tongue, in the garb which it wore two or three centuries ago, so that it may not be unintel- ligible unless expressed according to our present conven-

531739

UBRMtT

IV PREFACE.

tional orthography. Many details, which to general readers not acquainted with the locality may appear sufficiently minute, are inserted in the text, instead of being placed in foot-notes, as it was considered desirable to avoid that distraction of attention which numerous notes invariably occasion. For the same reason refer- ences to the pages of the Arbroath Chartulary have not been made, as these, if introduced, would have become innumerable and cumbersome. They would, at the same time, have been of no use to those who do not possess that collection of writings ; and those, on the other hand, who may wish to verify any statement founded on it, will be at once able to do so, by the names and dates referred to, with the help of the tables of contents and indices of the publislied Chartulary.

It was omitted to be stated in the tenth chapter that the lands of Aldbar have been ranked among the possessions of the Abbey on the authority of an entry in the " Charge of the Temporalitie," 1592, which is not altogether conclusive in the absence of coiTobOrative evidence ; and that although Cotside and others near Barry have been generally ranked among the Abbey lands, the authority for placing these lands in the cata- logue is not very satisfactory, as they do not appear in the proper monastic writings under their modern names.

While these sheets were in course of preparation the Author made every effort to procure definite information on the subject of the alleged pillage and conflagration of the Abbey Church about the time of the Reformation. He has not, however, succeeded in being able to fix the exact manner in which that building was unroofed and laid desolate. But a careful study of every con-

PREFACE. V

temporary record within his reach has tended to confirm him as to the coiTectness of the statements made in the text, that whatever might have been tlireatened or attempted, no general pillage or burning of this majestic edifice had taken place at the period in question ; and that its state of ruin can be easily accounted for on other grounds, by a simple reference to the churches of the Abbeys of St Andrews, Lindores, Coupar-Angus, and others, where the demolition is much more com- plete than at the Church of Arbroath, and where the agency of fire has never been stated to have been applied.

It need scarcely be explained that the notices of the town of Arbroath have been in general limited to the period when the monastic establishment existed in its neighbourhood. The history of Arbroath during the last hundred and fifty years, including the extension of its population, buildings, manufactures, and commerce, within that period, could not have been added without swelling the volume far beyond the limits originally contemplated ; and is a subject which, along with the traditionary history of the burgh and its vicinity, yet remains to be taken up by one who can devote to it the necessary amount of time and research.

The Author does not fiatter himself that what is now given to the public can escape what every book of the kind is peculiarly liable to, namely, the detection of errors and omissions. He has endeavoured, however, to make no definite statement, unless upon good authority : without being deterred from oflfering this contribution to the history of the district by that over-scrupulous dread of mistake whicli has prevented many persons well read in the aflfairs of Scotland from giving to the

VI PREFACE.

world the benefit of their researches. There could not be found a more striking instance of this than in the case of the late Reverend Principal Lee, who has allowed much of his vast stores of information to die with him ; and who, under the influence of this sensitiveness, most kindly dissuaded the author several yeara ago from engaging in an undertaking of a nature somewhat anti- quarian, by referring to another friend who had devoted much time and labour to the early history of a northern county, which, when published, " after aU contained some mistakes, and there were several things omitted."

In the preface of a book devoted to the detail of facts regarding Arbroath, an allusion to a work of fiction supposed to bear reference to the same place may be allowed. Axi attentive reader of Scott's inimitable novel, " The Antiquary," acquainted with the vicinity of Arbroath, will have little doubt that it contains the scenery of that story. The allusions to the battery, the conmion, the Grecian porch of the new Council- house, the great interest taken in merchandise and linen manufactures, and the doings of the postmistress, are, among other marks, quite sufficient to identify the town of Arbroath forty or fifty years ago with the Fairport of the novel. Auchmithie and Ethie-haven are described with Scott's usual power in his pictures of the fishing hamlets, and contain fisherwomen who might sit any day as the originals of Maggie Mucklebackit. Ethie House is the only mansion in the neighbourhood that suits the description of Knockwinnock. But the claims of identity with Monkbams are divided betwixt Seaton and Anniston, while the description does not exactly suit either. The high rocky coast between Arbroath

PREFACE. vii

Ness and Redhead will supply Halketheads and Bally- burgh Ness Points in abundance. A poet's license is taken in placing "the root o' an aik tree" among the cliffs, and in making the sun set over the waves of the German Ocean during the storm ; and also in removing the ruins of St Ruth (described as Arbroath and Melrose Abbeys intermixed) from the bustling vicinity of a large town into one of the dells of the district, such as the den of Arbirlot. These liberties were obviously used for greater effect, and probably to involve the narrative in some degree of disguise. The veil becomes, however, very transparent when the writer makes Edie Ochiltree meditate on his appearance in the eyes of the villagers while he was " coming down the edge of Kin- blythemont" — a phrase which will suggest to every inhabitant of the neighbourhood the bluegown's return toward Arbroath, along the old Brechin road leading by Chapelton and the policies of Kinblethmont,

The Author takes this opportunity of returning his thanks to those gentlemen whose subscriptions have led to the present publication ; and also to those who have facilitated his researches by affording information or access to original documents.

Tlie frontispiece, engraved by Mr J. Adam, Edinburgh, a native of Arbroath, is from a drawing which the author made in order to shew the front of the Abbey Church as it now exists, and would appear to passengers were the view not obstructed by modem buildings which have been erected within a yard or two of its walls. Arbroath, IH November 1859.

CONTENTS.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

Page.

The Monastic Writings of Arbroath : Historical subjects on which they supply information : Introduction of surnames : Topo- graphical names, and variations, changes and translations of same : Anglo-Norman and other settlers in Angus : Royal resi- dences from 1178 to 1249 : Introduction of Shires and Sheriflfs : Formation of Parishes : Adoption of Tutelar Saints : Nature of Abthaneries : The Culdees and their Abbes : Culdees of Abernethy and Brechin : Causes of the fall of their order : Indications of Culdees at Monifieth and Arbirlot. 1-38

CHAPTER I.

The Town of Arbroath and its Dependencies.— 1. Origin and Condition till the foundation of the Abbey. 2. The Harbour. 3. Formation of Older portion of the Burgh, 4. Formation of Newer portion of the Burgh in the Almory. 5. Local Terms in the Town and neighbourhood. 39-66

CHAPTER II.

CONSTITOTION AND RANK OF THE BuRGH. — Arbroath at first a Burgh of Barony and Regality : Made a Free Burgh by special grants : Temporarily represented in Parliament A.D. 1579 : Made a proper Royal Burgh in 1599. 67-72

CHAPTER III.

Social State op Angus m the Twelfth Century. — Condition of Rural and Urban Population at the time of the foundation of Arbroath Abbey : Slavery of the Rural Population : Power of the BaroEs : Burghs as Fountains of Liberty and Progress : Emblems of Burghal Freedom in Arbroath and other Burghs : Early state of Urban Inhabitants. 73-34

CHAPTER IV.

Arbroath from 1440 to 1640.— Depression of Scotland in the Fifteenth Century : Civil broils : Chamberlain Aires : Subjects of Investigation : Condition of Craftsmen : Arbroath at the Reformation, and after its Erection into a Royal Burgh. 85-95

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

Page.

Erection and Style of the Abbey Buildinos.— Date of com- mencement : Mixture of Norman and Early English Architecture : Stages in the progress of building : Succeeding styles of Architecture shewn in the buildings. 96-101

CHAPTER VL

History of the Abbey Buildings.— Accidents to Great Church during the Romish Period : Contract for roofing the Choir : Damage done at the Reformation : Greater destruction since that Period : Other Conventual Buildings, Ecclesiastical, and Civil : Precinct walls and towers : Ruin of the Buildings. 102-116

CHAPTER VII,

Subsidiary Altars in Abbey Church.— 1. Altar of St Catherine. 2. Altar of St Peter. 3. Altar of St Lawrence. 4. Altar of St Nicholas. 5. Altar of St Mary the Virgin. 6. Altar of St James. Appearance of Church on Festivals. 117-121

CHAPTER Vni.

District Chapels in Arbroath and Neighbourhood.— 1. Chapel of St Vigian at Conon. 2. Chapel of St John Baptist at Hospitalfield. 3. Chapel of St Michael in the Almory. 4, Chapel of St Ninian at Seaton Den. 5. Lady Chapel of Arbroath, with the Altars of St Nicholas and St Dupthacus.

6. Chapel of St Lawrence at Kinblethmont. 7. Chapel at "Whitefield of Boysack. 8. Chapel at Boath, Panbride Parish.

9. Chapel at Panmure Castle. 10. Chapel at Kelly Castle. 11. Chapel of St Lawrence at Backboath. 12. Chapel of St

Mary at Carmylie. 122-143

CHAPTER IX.

Church of St. Vigeans.— 1. Fabric of Church and Old Monuments.

2. Altars of St Vigian and St Sebastian. 3. Priests and Ministers

of St Vigeans since a.d. 1200. 144-155

CHAPTER X.

Possessions op the Abbey.— 1. Lands, Baronies, Villages, &c.— In Angus, Meams, Perthshire, Fifeshire, Lanarkshire, Aberdeen- shire, Banfehire, Inverness-shire. 2. Tenements in Burghs.

3. Fishings. 4. Ferryboats. 5. Woods and Forests. 6. Saltworks.

7. Churches, Tithes, &c. 8. Original Annual Rents. 9. Burghs.

10. Rents at Dissolution of the Abbey. 156-170

CONTENTS. XI

CHAPTER XI.

Page.

Subordinate Officers of the Abbey.— 1. Sub-Prior. 2. Steward. 3. Chamberlain. 4. Terrarius or Land-Steward. 5. Sacristan. 6. Granitor. 7. Cellarer. 8. Master of Works. 9. Judge or Deemster. 10. Justiciar or Bailie. 11. Mair and Coroner. 171-181

CHAPTER XII.

The Abbots of Arbboath. — 1. Influence and incidental Advantages of Monasteries in early times. 2. Scottish Ecclesiastics at and previous to the foundation of the Abbey. 3. Biographical Sketch of the Abbots of Arbroath, from 1178 to 1606. 4. Causes of the Dissolution of the Abbey. 182-234

CHAPTER XIII.

Description of the Conventual Buildings. — Form of the Church, Towers, Divisions, Columns, Roofs, Doors, Windows : Dimensions of Buildings : External and Internal Appearance of Church : Remaining Statues : Conventual Seals : Bell Rock. 235-244

APPENDIX.

No. I. — Note on the Decay of Feudal Power and Emancipation of

the Rural Inhabitants of Scotland. 245-252

No. II.— Sketch of the Life and Times of James Melville, Minister St Vigeans, during the period from 1560 to 1600, being a supplement to the Sketch of the Abbots of Arbroath. 253-273

No. III. — Selections from the Records of the Magistrates and Council of Arbroath, illustrative of the Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants about the time of the Reformation. 274-294

ERRA.TA.

Page 15, lines 12 13, after Invercoyth delete " (?)," and insert (Inverquiech Ca^le, in parish of Alt/thJ. 27, line 11, for Abbaciae read Abbacie. 58, ,, dO, ioT position read portion. „ 121, ,, 5, for Frances read Francis. „ 266, „ 15, for St Andreio read St Andrews. ,,269, „ S, f 01 article le&d paragraph.

ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

The Monastic "Whitings of Abbboath : Histobical Subjects on which they supply information : introduction of surn.vmes : topo- GRAPHICAL Names, and Variations, Changes and Translations of SAME : Anglo-Norman and other Settlers in Angus : Royal Resi- dences FROM 1178 to 1249 : Intboduction of Shiees and Sheriffs : Foemation of Pabishes : Adoption of Tutelab Saints : Nature of Abthaneries : The Culdees and their Abbes : Culdees of Aber- hethy and Brechin : Causes op the Fall of theib Obdeb : Indica- tions of Culdees at Monifieth and Abbiblot.

There are perhaps few towns in Scotland, in regard to the formation and early history of which more informa- tion may now be gleaned than in the case of Arbroath. This is owing to the fortunate preservation of the Char- tulary, or collection of monastic writings framed at its Abbey, in all their integrity and fulness. The publica- tion of these writings for the Bannatyne club, commenced under the joint editorship of two learned and indefatigable antiquaries, Mr P. Chalmers of Aldbar, and Mr Cosmo Innes, Advocate, and since Mr Chalmers' lamented death, recently completed by Mr Innes, with the interesting prefaces written by them, and the full and correct indices prepared under their superintendence, have greatly en- hanced the value of the monastic writings of Arbroath, and have not only shed a flood of light on the Abbey, town, and neighbourhood, but entitle the collection to take its place among those authentic and valuable, although (perhaps to popular taste) di'y documents by which our true national history in early times can be fixed and illustrated ; and in which " there is to be

B

2 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

found, although in a shape very barbarous and repulsive to the general reader, the most fresh and living pictures of the manners of the times." (Tytler's Hist, ii., 357.)

The Chartulary of Aberbrothock is perhaps tlie com- pletest specimen of records of one of the most complete monastic establishments in the kingdom. It exhibits, during a period of three centuries and a half, a full register of charters from kings and nobles, down to private bui'gesses, papal bulls, grants and concessions of every description in favour of the convent ; with feuing chartei*8, and charters by progress, dispositions and infeft- ments, leases of teinds, lands, fishings, and houses, pre- sentations to churches and chapels, records of perambula- tions of marches, decrees and settlements of disputes of all sorts, appointments to offices, and other wi'its, granted by tha convent solely, or in conjunction with others, with deeds of mortification of houses, gardens, and annual rents, to altarages for the benefit of the relations of the founders ; and various writs of other kinds too numerous to be here specified, generally in Latin, but sometimes in quaint old doric Scotch ; and all more or less interesting, not only to those who are styled antiquaries, but to every one who wishes to obtain an accurate and intimate knowledge of the history of his country in foimer times, including its monastic and parochial economy, its agri- culture, its currency, its system of education, juris- prudence, and internal government.

The writings in favour of the Abbey alone include and describe pieces of land ranging from a small garden to baronies and parishes (formerly styled shires), muirs, woods and fishings, saltworks, ferry boats, hostelries or lodges in various towns ; the custody of ancient banners, parish churches and district chapels, with the lands and teinds attached to them ; rights to levy large and small customs, privileges of barony and regality, with power to erect burghs in Angus and Mearns ; power to wear mitre and pontifical robes, and confer minor church ordei"s.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 3

Tlie chartulaiy forms an excellent subject for the student of philology. It commences at a period when few or no super or surnames existed in the district. It shews the introduction of surnames first among the foreign settlers in the coast towns, with their gradual progress among the more rural population ; and it exhibits the process of their adoption, such as from paternity (MacormsbC, Anderson, Duncanson), from blood (Scot or English, Inglis), from a superior (Gilchrist, Gilcom — servant of Christ, servant of the Earl), from complexion (Black, Brown, White), from professional employment (Baxter, Barber, Smith, Wright, &c.), from office (Dempster, Dor- ward, Mair, &c.), from lands and possessions (Guthrie, Carnegie, Kilgour), while other surnames appear to defy all attempts to ascertain their true origin.

The first volume contains few or no surnames in the simple form in which they are now used by us, and scarcely any such surnames as those with which we are familiar. The additions of the names of lands, residences, or parents, in the manner used for distinction in those early times, can scarcely be called surnames. It is not till about the end of the fourteenth century, when Arbroath harbour was built, that surnames began to be commonly used without the intervening de (of) or films (son of) ; but the habit rapidly prevailed after that date, so that by the end of the following century, the practice seems to have been as universal as it is now, to use at least two words as Christian name and surname, without any preposition. The following appear to have been the most common surnames occurring in the Abbey writs during the last hundred and fifty years in which they have been published, and it will easily be seen that, \vith some exceptions, they are surnames veiy prevalent about Arbroath and its vicinity at the present time — viz., Andei-son, Bois, Bridie, Brown, Douglas, Doi-ward, Gray, Graham, Guthrie, Hay, Jameson, Keith, Lamb, Leighton, Lyall, Lyndsay, Lyw, Lyon, Meldrum, Mill, Oehterlony,

4 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

Ogilvy, Ramsay, Reid, Rany (Rennie), Scot, Scrymgeour, Stewart, Seton, Simson, Sinclair, Smart, Smith, Sturrock, Sti-achan, Thomson, Thornton, Tyrie, Watson, Wishart, Wood, Young. It will be observed that then, as now, the initial letter S takes the firet rank among surnames in this district. The name Brown seems to have been as common about Arbroath four hundred years ago as it is still. The name of Ogilvie occurs more frequently than any other in the latter portion of the chartulary, not because of its prevalence in this part of the county, whatever may have been the case in the district about Kingoldrum, but in consequence of the many grants and leases made to persons of that name througli the influ- ence of the Airlie family, who for a long period held the important ofiice of the Bailiery.

The writings in question are also interesting, as shewing how little material changes in pronunciation the names of towns, farms, streams, muii-s, &;c., have in general undergone during the last seven centuries. Such trans- formations or changes when they do occur, are not less curious. Thus, soon after the foundation of the Abbey, two places at several miles distance from one another are mentioned under the name of " Gutherjme." One of these names, by losing the central letter "e" and the last con- sonant, has in coui-se of time become Giithry or Guthrie. The other name, by a very different process, lost its middle syllable, and had its last consonant hardened by the letter " d," and appears in the following consecu- tive forms — Gutheryne, Gvihyn, Guyn, Gund, Guynd. Ballysak (Town of Isaac) is afterwards Bysak, and now Boysack. Ballindoch is corrupted into Bawndowff, and now called Pandoeh. Vuirinchoke is also shortened to Incliok.

The names of places exhibit many curious ortho- graphical variations, even while it is probable that little change took place as to their pronunciation.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 5

Thus the name of the stream Vinny is written by the Monks in such forms as Ouany, Ovyngny, Ovynnie, Ovynny, Ovyny, Owyny, Owynyn, Vuaney, Vuany, Vueny. From want of local knowledge the learned Editor of the second volume is evidently puzzled by the name of the farm of Windyedge, which he prints in italics, according to the Monkish spelling of le vynde age and h vynde eigge. Aberbrothock being a long word, and recurring more frequently than any other name, afford;^ an almost endless variety in spelling. It appears as Aberbrud, Aberbruthoc, Abbirbroht, Abbirbroth, Abberbrothoc, Abbyrbrothoc, Abberbroth, Abbirbroith, Abbirbrothoc, Abbirbrothoch, Abirbroth, Abirbrothoc, Abirbrothok, Abyrbroth, Abjrrbrothoc, Abyrbrothok, Aberbrothoc, Abirbrethot, Abirbrothak, Aberbrothot, Aberbrotoht, Abirbroyth, Abirbrutoh, Abbyrbrothoch, Abyrbroyth, Arbroith, Arbroth, Arbrothe, Arbroytli, Ardbroith. The name of a neighbouring parish appears in such forms as Abereloth, Abireloth, Aberheloth, Aber- helot, Abrellot, AbereUot, Abberellot, Abbirlot, Abbirel- lot, Abirloth, Arbirloth, Abyrelloth, Arbirlot. Another neighbouring parish possesses an equal diversity in its names. Thus, Inverkeleder, Inverkelethir, Inuerkeleder, Inverkeler, Innerkelar, Innerkeldour, Innerkelor, Enner- kelor, Innerkelour. Ethie appears as Hathin, Athin, Athyn, Athe, Atliy. The names of the two places Braco and Brax being somewhat similar, have been gathered under one head in the index, but ought to have been separated into two clusters thus — (1) Brekko, Brekky, Breco, Brakie ; (2) Brakkys, Brekkis, Brex, Brax, the most ancient form being Brakhous.

Instances of the change or translation of the names of places from an early to a later language are sometimes given, and are not without interest. Thus, in a wi-it of the date of 1256, a place in the parish of Kingoldrum bearing the Gaelic name of Hachcthunethouer, is said to be called in English Midefeld ; and a certain marsh in

6 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEV.

referred to as called according to the Scotch ("Scotice"), Moynehiche. At an earlier period, King William, in his great charter, says that the Church Lands of Old Mon- trose were called in Scotch Ahthen. Although this word may not be in itself a very old Gaelic term, these indica- tions afford further proofs of the fact that the Gaelic was formerly called the Scotch language,' to distinguish it from the Saxon or English language ; and that it was afterwards called the Old Scotch as contradistinguished from the modern or Lowland Scotch* In a description of the marches of Kingoldrum in 1458, the Gaelic name of Midfield disappears, but a considerable number of other Gaelic names are translated into English by Abbot Malcolm Brydy, in these terms : — " Myllaschangly, that is to say Scottismyll — the bum of Athyiici^oith, that is to say the Gallow Burne — Tyhyriwquhyg, that is to say the Blyndwell — Carnofoiyr, that is to say the Pwndiris Carne — ClaischTiamoyll, that is to say the Mekylhyll — the pwll of Monhoy [Moynehuche], that is to say the Yallow Pwll — the Claische, that is to say the E-eyske — the burne of Haldyrisckanna, that is to say the Gled Burne."

The number of old Gaelic names in the vicinity of Arbroath given in the Chartulary, and not still in use, are very few. They consist of Athenglas, Hathuerhelath, SythneJcerdun, and perhaps Glauflat, all in the neighbour- hood of Kinblethmont. Indeed the whole number of British or Gaelic topographical terms in the tract of ground round Arbroath, between the waters of Elliot and Lunan, is small, when compared with those which can be more or less traced to the Gothic or Saxon lan- guages. This fact, coupled with the state of the district

* The dialect of the lowlands seems to have obtained its now common name of Scotch (" Scottis") when Douglas translated Virgil in 1513; and there is no rca,son to believe that the Statute of 1542 allowing the Bible to be read " in the vulgar toung, in Inglis or Scottis, of ane gude and trew transla- " tioun," had any reference to the Gaelic, notwitlistanding Pinkerton's opinion to the contrary.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 7

within the recollection of its older inhabitants, shews that its Celtic population must have been very limited before the introduction of the Gothic races. And if it could be definitely proved that such a name as Pitmnies or Petmuis had its origin from the grave of Muis, and that he was interred there so lately as at the defeat of Camus, it would tend to establish the view of Chalmers and othei-s, that the use of the Gaelic tongue was re- tained in this part of Scotland till the eleventh centmy, namely, the century preceding that in which the Abbey was founded * The oldest names in the district referred to are those of the streams, and the hamlets situated near their mouths, such as Aber-Elliot, Aber-Brothock, Inver-Keillor, and Inver-Lunan. The other principal seais of the Celtic people, the names of which have no apparent affinity to the Saxon tongue, — were obviously Auchmithie, Ethie, Inchok, Kinnaldy, Rhind, Gilchorn, Balmullie, Boysack, Kinblethmont, Conon, Peebles, Le- tham, Crudie, Cuthlie, and one or two besides ; and it may be observed that these names denote places favour- ably situated, and such as would naturally be early selected for cultivation and residence among the muirs and marshes with which the country formerly abounded. There is little information as to the introduction of Saxon topographical terms ; but we may notice that in 1219 the marches of Kinblethmont are given entirely in Gaelic, as are likewise those of Tarves, Aberdeenshire, in 1251 (although this will not prove that the Saxon tongue was not by that time introduced) ; while the familiar Saxon terms of FishergcUe and Greystone appear among the marches of Dunnichen at the probable date of 1300 ; and these names of later origin continue to increase rapidly during the subsequent records. On this point it may be also stated, as an indication of previous Saxon

* Tlie namo BaJtdgar, given to the royal castle wliicli King Edgar liad begun to build 1101-7, would lead to the belief that the Gaelic had remained in the district of Cowrie till that time. (Hollinshed's Chronicle.)

8 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

colonisation that the first appearance in the Chartulaiy^ about 1200, of the name of St Bridestown is almost in its present form of Panbride, it having thus early degene- rated from Ballinbride to Banbride and Panbryd, or Pannebryd ; and that the Saxon name of Muirhouse, then appears under the already corrupted form of Muraus.

Like the records of the other great Scottish monas- teries those of Arbroath suggest, but do not afford an answer to the enquiry, how the Scottish kings, from Malcolm III, to Alexander II., came to be possessed of, and to confer on them, and on niunerous foreign immi- grants, so many large tracts of valuable land, without any other reference to the occupiers than the indications given in the earlier grants that they were given along with the lands. The subject is involved in considerable obscurity ; but there is reason to believe that these Scot- tish kings of Anglo-Norman tastes and feelings had at this period copied the example set by the Norman kings of England, so far as different circumstances would allow, and held themselves to be the absolute proprietors of the whole lands within the kingdom, except those in the hands of the more powerful chiefs, with libei-ty to dis- pose of the same at their pleasure, without respect to the ancient rights of the actual occupants^ who do not appear at that time to have possessed any written titles. The lands were probably in many instances resumed as fallen to the king when the possessors died without leaving full-grown male heirs. We suspect that the pious David I., instead of being, as one of his successors styled him, " a sair sanct to the crown," was in reality only a sair sanct to his poor Celtic subjects in the lowlands. The practical effect of this Norman system seems to have been the reduction of these occupants to the condition of serfs or slaves to their n^w landlords (as will be after- wards more fully alluded to), or at best to the position

GENEKAL INTRODUCTION. 9

of tenants-at-will, liable to be ejected at the fiat of their Anglo-Norman lords, like the cottars and small farmei-s of the highlands at the present time. The unceremonious manner of treating the poorer occupants of land in the twelfth century may be inferred from the laws which it was found necessary to pass for their protection in the fifteenth century, until which time they continued liable to be summarily removed by the new proprietor at any period of the year without respect to the leases which might have been gi-anted to them.

Next to the kings themselves the new Saxon or Nor- man settlers, to whom they gave lands, were the most munificent donors of the monasteries of royal foundation like Arbroath, as if it had been expected that they must give back to the king's favourite religious house a part of those possessions which they had received from his hands. On this account the records of Arbroath Abbey are pecu- liarly full of the names of proprietors of French, Flemish, Saxon, and Norman extraction, especially of those who settled in Angus and Mearns about the time of King William and those of his predecessors, David I. and Mal- colm IV. Of these we may name the families of Arbuth- nott or de Blundo, Baliol, Berkeley or Barclay, Bosvill or Boswell, Cheen or Cheyne, Cumin, Durward, Fitz- Bernard, Fitz-Tliancard, Frivill, Hay, Hastings, Leslie, Lindsay, Lundyn or Lundie, Malherbe, Malvill or Mel- ville, Meldrum, Moncur, Montalto, Montfort, Mohaut or Mowat, Moray, Morham, Mortuomari or Mortimer, Mu- bray or Mowbray, Ramsay, Rewell, Ross}^! or Rossie, St Michael, Sibbald, Strachan, Valoins, Vaus or Vallibus, Wischard or Wishart. Many of these will again appear in the list of the Abbey lands and possessions as donors ; and the names of othere often occur as officers of State and landed proprietors, attesting deeds, in conjunction with the older and uncouth names of those barons of Celtic lineage who had still retained their possessions.

10 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

The Angus and Mearns families of Baldowy, Boyce, Burnet, Carnegie, Dempster, Douglas, Gardyne, Guthrie, Irvine, Ochterlony, Ogilvie, Scrimgeour and others appear largely among the Abbey writs at a later period.

Leaving the history of these numerous families to the " Peerages" and other genealogical works, we can only here refer to three or four of the Anglo-Norman settlers who erected towers or fortalices in the immediate neigh- bourhood of our Abbey.

Walter de Berkeley was Chamberlain of Scotland, and proprietor of the estate of Inverkeillor, when he granted the Church of that parish to the Abbey, soon after its foundation. He was succeeded by Ingelram de Baliol, who married his daughter or heiress during the reign of King William. This Ingelram is termed in the Chartulaiy the lord of Redcastle, and was the builder of that forta- lice, if it was not erected by his predecessor, as Chalmers asserts. (Caledonia i. 529.)

During King William's reign Richard de MaUevill obtained the lands of Kinblethmont, and granted the chapel of Kinblethmont to the Abbey. He was one of the magnates of the district, and was a witness to the Charter of John Abbot of Kelso, at the dedication of the Abbey in 1178. Twelve years afterwards, his name is found associated with those of the bishop of St Andrews and others in a letter of safe conduct granted by King John of England. Before the year 1227 the lands of Kinblethmont seem to have come into the hands of one named Gwarynus de Cupa ; and in 1283 Welandus de Seynclau was lord of " Kynblatmund."

Philip de Mubray, one of the settlers of that name, obtained from King William certain lands in Fife, and gave to the monks of Arbroath a toft in the burgh of Inverkei thing. He witnessed many of the king's charters, and was often employed in State affaii-s. It is probable that he was the first builder of a tower or castle on the south bank of the Elliot water ; as in 1 208 the Abbot and

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 11

Convent of Arbroath granted to Philip de Mubray liberty to have an Oratory or Chapel for his private family within the court of his house of " Kellyn," without prejudice to the rights of the Parish Church which belonged to them. This house could have been no other than a castle at Kelly, of which the large existing building may be a successor. It must, however, be stated that for a con- siderable time, both previoiis and subsequent to that date, the lands of Balcathie, in the immediate vicinity of Kelly, seem to have been in the possession of one " Roger de Balkathin," who appears as a witness to many of the Abbey writs. The antiquary. Commissary Maule, states that the Mubrays possessed the estate of Kelly till the Black Parliament in the reign of Robert I. (MS. account of the family of Panmure, in Panmure House) ; after which it seems to have come into possession of the Ochterlonys.

Philip de Valoins obtained from King William the lands of Panmure and Benvie, and held the office of Chamberlain. He was succeeded in his lands and office by his son William, who died about 1219, and left an only daughter, named Christian. She became the wife of Lord Petrus de Maule, of the family of Malville or Mel- ville in Lothian, and who was afterwards styled pro- prietor or lord of Panmure, the name of which was by that time corrupted from Ballinmuir to Pannemor. From that union the family of Maule and Panmure has de- scended, and the erection or enlargement of the castle of Panmure may be ascribed to one of these barons during the reigns of William or Alexander II. : although Com- missary Maule thinks that it had previously been one of the king's castles, like Glammiss, occupied by a thane or bailiff, who dispensed justice and drew the king's rents in the district : and he supposes that a knoll on the lands of Scryne got its name of Lawhothen from it being the place where justice was administered by the thane. (Ibid.) He derives Panmure from Pan, a chief; and

12 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

M<yre, a lord ; " as who would say the overlord or chief lord."

The Morharas possessed the lands of Panbride in the reign of King William ; and after his death John de Morham, who had been his clerk or chaplain, confinned the royal grant of the church of Panbride to the Abbey ; and Adam, the brother and successor of John, confirmed the same grant. This family does not again appear. But a castle or fortalice stood at Panbride which is tradition- ally stated to have been seized by the English when they took the castle of Panmure during the wars of the four- teenth century. In the next century the family to whom Hector Boyce the historian belonged, appears in the Char- tulary as proprietors of Panbride under the name of Boys ; and William Ramsay of Panbride was one of a jury which met at Forfar on 3rd October 1495 for determining the marches of Balnamoon Mire.

But a building much older than any of these castles had stood within the parish of St Vigeans, on the hill called Cairnconon. The traditions of the district bear that it was called Castle Gory or Gregory ; and that Gregory, one of its proprietors, was slain in battle in the parish of Monifieth, where his grave is still pointed out at a cairn called Cairn-Greg, near Linlathen, To pass from tradition to written documents, we learn from the Chartulary that at or previous to the foundation of Arbroath Abbey the estate of Conon, consisting of this hill and its declivities, belonged to a chief bearing the Gaelic name of Dufsyth. His son Matthew was witness to Ingelram de Baliol's confirmation of the church of Inverkeillor in 1180; and " Matthew, son of Matthew the son of Dufsyth of Conon," was one of the perambu- lators of the marches of Kinblethmont on 23rd September 1219. The lands of Conon at this time did not belong to the Abbey, but were most probably held as fallen into the king's hands. They were granted four years after- wards, on 6th December 1223, to the Convent, by King

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. IS

Alexander II., along with the lands of Dumbarrow, in forestry. The residence of these Celtic barons of Conon is traditionally indicated as having been situated a little southwards from the top of the hill, near the northern boundary of the lands now forming the farm of West Grange. At this spot a primitive stone vault has recently been discovered by accident. It is nearly in the shape of a common beehive, with the stones overlapping each other, so as to form a rude conical roof It seems to have been constructed in a hollow or excavation of the ground, which is principally formed of freestone rock ; and was entered by a passage which has not yet been explored. It is difficult to assign a reason for the constiniction of such a singular vault, except that it was intended as a place of concealment on occasion of sudden assaults from warlike Scottish barons, or still more merciless invadera from Denmark and Norway, to whom the east of Angus was then much exposed. After the lands of Conon were acquired by the Convent, they regularly held regality courts at Cairnconon, to which they took their vassals bound to appear three times every year. This was done in the Abbot's charters so late as 1580. As some of these courts were held at the cold season, it is evident that a building had existed at Cairnconon for the accommoda- tion of the Abbot's officials and retainers. But it is impossible to ascertain whether this was identical Avith, or the successor of, the residence of Dufsyth. It is believed in the district, that the last remains of this castle of Conon were removed by the feuars of Colliston after its alienation from the Abbey by Cardinal Beaton, and the materials employed in the construction of the present mansion house of ColUston.

The places of residence of William I. and Alexander II. who reigned over Scotland during the brightest and live- liest period of its early history, may be a point of interest

14 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

to some ; and the numerous grants by tliem to the Abbey supply considerable information on this point, as the place of granting is invariably stated in the royal charters of that period ; although not in charters granted by sub- jects, so that these records give no hint of the usual resi- dence of the great earls of Angus in former times. King William's charters sometimes contain a notice of the day and month, but no notice of the year of grant. Many of them bear to be granted at the places where his pre- decessors David I. and Malcolm IV. usually lived, except that by his time their seat of Scone was granted to a religious house, and their seat of Kinross was granted to a settler named Henry of Kinross. Of sixty-one charters by this monarch, recorded in the Chartulary, nineteen were granted at Forfar, several of them apparently on the same day. The original royal seat at Forfar was situated on the knoll to the east of Castle Street. King William seems to have left this old tower for a newer and more commodious residence on the west side of the street ; for he bestowed the " place of the old castle of For- far" on Robert de Quincy, who feued the same to Sir Roger de Argenten for a pound of pepper payable yearly at Pasch. (Reg. St Andrews, p. 354.) Hector Boyce says that Forfar was once " strengthened with two royal castles, as the ruins do yet declare." Notwithstanding this grant it is quite possible that the English had afterwards gar- risoned the older fortalice, being the strongest in situa- tion, until it was surprised and taken by the Forester of Platen in the war of independence. Five of King William's charters were granted at Perth, nine at Mon- trose, five at Alyth, four at Stirling, two at Selkirk, two at Kinghorn, two at Aberdeen, two at Elgin, and one at each of the following places, namely, Roxburgh, Had- dington, Traquair, Linlithgow, Lanark, Clackmannan, Dunfermline, Arbroath, Kincardine, Kintore, and Klonin (Clony). He sometimes resided aLso at Crail and Jed-

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 15

burgh, and granted chartei*s at these places. At the most of these towns the kings at that time possessed castles or occasional lodgings.

King Alexander's charters at first bear no date, but afterwards they contain the day and month and year of reign, and in one instance the year of the Christian era. He granted twenty-seven charters to the Abbey, seven of which bear to be executed at Forfar, four at Perth, two at Edinburgh, two at Coupar- Angus Abbey, two at Kin tore, one at Lifton, one at Haddington, one at New- bottle, one at St Andrews, one at Kincardine, one at Fyvie (on 22nd February 1221), and one at Invercoyth (?). He had resided at Barry during the spring of 1229, as he there granted two charters on 4th March and 24th April of that year ; and he granted a charter at Ai-broath on 7th March 1244-5. This monarch's gifts to the Abbey, his father's favourite religious house, were very liberal ; but his son Alexander III. had probably thought it was sufficiently endowed, as he does not appear to have made a single grant in its favour.

The Abbey records contribute information regarding the introduction into this part of Scotland of our modem divisions of shires and parishes. They also afford traces of the existence of more early divisions which have now fallen entirely into disuse. The records of St Andrews allude to the Tlianes of Falkland and Dairsie with strange Gaelic names. In the writings of Arbroath reference is made to the Thanes of Inverkeillor, Monros (Mon- trose), and Edwy (Id vies). Their possessions seem to have borne the title of Thancdoms. The thaneries or thanedoms of Aberluthnot (Marykirk), Glammiss, Tan- nadice, Fettercairn, Boyne, Aberdeen, Aberkerdor, and others, are mentioned in the titles of these lands, and else- where. Some of these districts were at a later period called lordships or " territories," which among the once Celtic population of Fife and Angus may have been

IG ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

similar to the divisions still called " countries" by the present Celtic population of our highlands. Among others the teirt'itories of Abernethy, Lindores, Glammiss, Inver- keillor, and Kirriemuir are referred to in the Abbey writs ; and these districts were probably larger than the modem parishes now bearing their names.

It is believed by several writers of research that shu-es or sheriffdoms were gradually introduced as the Scoto- Saxon people gained on the Celtic or Keltic inhabitants, and were part of the innovations made on their older institutions. (Chalmers' Caledonia i, p. 715.) But it is probably more correct to say that the titles of CoTnes (or ancient earl) and Thaitie were the Anglo-Saxon designa- tions of the nobility and their law officers or bailiffs during the intermediate period betwixt the disuse of the earlier Gaelic titles of Maormor, Toscheoderach, and Derach, and the introduction of the later Anglo-Norman titles of baron and sheriff. Arbroath Abbey was founded at the close of this intermediate period, and the only trace of the old Gaelic titles found in its writs is in the name of Derethy given to the officership of the barony of Tarves, Aberdeenshire, in 1463. The chartularies of the religious houses shew that shires were introduced into a large part of the lowlands during the twelfth century, from the reign of Alexander I. to William the Lion. The first sheriff on record is mentioned in Earl David's charter to the Abbey of Selkirk in 1 1 20. Several grants by David I. to the Priory of St Andrews mention the shire of Haddington in the period from 1124 to 1153. In the foundation charter of the Priory of St Andrews, dated in 1144, and in the writs of that house for some years afterwards, there is no allusion to the title of shire as applied to districts lying to the north of Forth, even in reference to districts which came to be termed shires or " schyres" immediately afterwards, in the days of Bishop Richard from 1163 to 1173; and in whose writings the names of parishes as well as shires fii"st

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 17

appear in the eastern district of Fifeshire. In a charter to the same Priory by Malcolm IV., who reigned from 1153 to 11 05, Gillemore is named as sheriff of Clack- mannan. And in Bishop Arnold's time, about 11 GO, Hiweno was sheriff of Scone ; and at the same period Macungal and Malcolm were Judges of Fife. In Bishop Richard's grants the district round St Andrews came to be called Kilrimund-schjre ; part of Forgan parish is called Forgrund-schyre, and the lands about Blebo in Kemback parish were called Blathbolg-schyre ; while the first parish named in the Priory writings is that of the Holy Trinity of Kilrimund, now St Andrews. After this, the peninsular tract between Forth and Tay, for- merly known as Fife and Fothriffe, contained a great number of these small schyres. Besides those already named the ecclesiastics of St Andrews possessed lands known as Bischop-schjo-e (Portmoak Parish),* and Muck- hart-schyre (Muckart Parish). The Abbey of Dunferm- line possessed large tracts of land in Dunfermelin-schyre and Kinghorn-schjrre. It also possessed the whole of Gaitmilk-schyre or Kinglassin-schyre (Kinglassie Parish), Dolor-schyre (Dollar Parish), and Nethbren-schyre (New- burn Parish). Besides these church lands- tlic same dis- trict contained the schyres of Karel (Crail), Rires (in Kilconquhar Parish), Kennochyn (in Kennoway Parish), Weymiss (Wemyss Parish), Kyngorn (Kinghorn and Burntisland Parishes), Loquhor (Auchterderran and Ballingry Parishes), and Kynros (Kinross and Orwell Parishes) ; all of which remained solely or principally in the hands of the king or great barons ; and contained old castles such as those of Crail, Rires, Wemyss, King- hora, Lochore, and Lochleven ; to which the shires or estates were attached. The whole of these shires, except the last, have become extinct ; and the shire of Kinross would have shared the same fate before this time, had it

• This parish was till very recently, if it be not still, familiarly styled Bishopshire by the peo]>le of the district.

C

18 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

not been for the annexation to it by Act of Parliament in 1685 of three neighbouring parishes and some other lands ; notwithstanding which it is still the smallest county in Scotland.

Tracing the formation of shires from north to south we find a district on the Tay, called the shire of Dxmde (Dundee), in a Papal Bull in favor of the Priory of St Andrews, dated about 1183; and about the same time King William granted various tracts of land in Forfar- shire, which were then his property, to the Abbey of Arbroath, under the names of the schyres of Aberbrothoc, Athyn, Dunnechtyn, and Kyngoldrum, although the smallest of these tracts (Ethie) is not so often dignified by that title as the others. We have not observed in the writings of Arbroath, Brechin, or elsewhere, any other allusions to small schyres in Angus, nor indeed in any part lying to the north of Lunan Water. The great districts of Anegus and Moemes (Angus and Meams) are mentioned together as well known divisions in a writing about the year 1210, but are not formally styled shires.

Makbeth, Sheriff of Scone, the Thane of Stratheam ; Constantine, Judge of Stratheam ; and Bricius, Judge (or " Judex"), are among the witnesses to Laurence of Abemethy's grant of that church about 1190 — and after- wards, during the reigns of William and Alexander II., this Bricius is often witness to charters granted at Forfar and elsewhere under the title of the King's Judge ; although during the same period King WUliam alludes to " WUliam Cumjm, my Sheriff of Forfar," as a donor of land to Arbroath Abbey. The shire of Forfar was pro- bably at that time only the king's estate of Forfar. John Wischard was Sheriff of Meams about 1210, and Galfiidus was Sheriff of Fife in 1212. John de Moray was Sheriff' of Perth in 1214f ; and in 1219 Hugo de Cambrun was Sheriff of Forfar, and Adam was Judge of the Court of the Earls of Angus, and afterwards (probably on the death of Bricius) he became Judge of the King's

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 19

Court, and his brother Kerald succeeded to his office in the Earls' Court. In the recognition of the perambulation of the marches of Kinblethmont, held in the King's Court at Forfar, on 27th January 1227-8, the judicial powera of the Court seem to have been exercised by John de Hay, Sheriff of Perth, Thomas Malherbe, Sheriff of Forfar, and others ; while Kerald, Judge of Angus, and Adam, Judge of the King, are ranked among the inferior functionaries as jurymen. Soon after this period (viz., about 1229) William de Blundo is styled Sheriff of Perth and Scone. In 1248 Thomas Wyseman was Sheriff of Elgin ; and a writ dated in 1299 refers to Lord J. Earl of Athol, then Sheriff of Aberdeen. There were no Sherifis beyond Inverness tiU the reign of James IV., about 1 503. In further illustration of the introduction of sherifiships at this time, it may be here remarked that King William's earliest grants to the Abbey are addressed simply to aU good men, clerks and laics ; but afterwards they are addiessed to Bishops, Abbots, Earls, Barons, Justiciars, Sheriffs, and aU good men, clerks and laics.

From the above it may be fairly concluded that in the twelfth and thii-teenth centuries the new territorial divisions termed shires were introduced into the whole lowlands of Scotland ; that the kings of the family of Malcolm Canmore, among their other importations from England, applied the new name to various tracts of their own lands, and styled their judicial officers Sheriffs ; and that it accordingly became fashionable for the great lords and barons, and even some of the Abbots to follow their example, and apply the term to their estates. It is to be presumed that in many instances, especially in the larger shires, the Sheriff exercised the functions which had been previously exercised by the old Judges or their deputes, and that the office of Judge became a sinecure like the more modern judicial office of High Sheriff. It appeai-s that in the legal as well as the ecclesiastical department the old Gaelic and Saxon titles and offices may have

20 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

remained for some time after the introduction of the newer functionaries. In various districts the Judge and the Sheriff, as we have seen, are both mentioned at the same time ; but it may be observed from the names already specified that the Judges' names were usually Gaelic, while the names of the Sheriffs, especially toward the east coast, were in English. There is little reason to doubt that along with the change in the title of the administrator, there was also at that period a considerable change in the mode of administering the law, if not in the law itself; and that the old Celtic system of com- muting every crime by a fixed money payment was then abolished. The Norman Judges seem to have gone to the opposite extreme of punishing minor crimes, such as theft, with death ; an abuse which lasted till the present century was commenced. Some of our historians have been unable to discover any presiding Judge enjoying the title of Sheriff over these minute divisions called shires. It was not to be expected that Sheriffe would be continued in the schyres which were entirely given to Arbroath and other Abbeys, after the date of the gift — their officers were termed Stewarts and Baillies. But two of the largest " schyres" in Fife undoubtedly pos- sessed Sherifls ; as " Gillebride, Sheriff of Dunfermelin," is a witness to King William's general Confirmation to the Priory of St Andrews ; and William and Galfrid, both termed Sheriflfe of Crail (Karel), are successively witnesses to other grants about the same period to that religious house. For some time also the great barons seemed to have styled their judicial officers Sheriffs before they were styled Bailies. With the exception, however, of the shires which have been retained till the present time, the most of these small shires were lost to public notice, or were merged into the newer divisions of Constabularies, Regalities, Stewartries or Baronies, by the time of King Robert Bruce. Where the royal castles existed at Kinghorn, Crail, and Dundee, these shires

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 21

came to be termed Constabularies. But in many instances the names of the small schyres were retained in the feudal fiescriptions of lands, till the last remains of them were included in the sweep of the Act 1748 abolishing the heritable jurisdictions.

The introduction of parishes into this part of Scotland, and more particularly the causes of the particular boun- daries and formations of parishes, are subjects on which considerable light is thrown by the Abbey records. No reference to parishes in Scotland has been found earlier than A.D. 843. They are, however, mentioned in the grants of Alexander I. and David I. to the monasteries of Dunfermline and Scone, and, as has been already noticed, the parish of Kilrimund is mentioned about the year 1170. Monikie (Muniekkin) is the first parish alluded to under that title in the Chart ulary of Arbroath, toward the latter end of the reign of King William ; and about the same time the parish of Ecclesgreig in Kin- cardineshire is mentioned in the register of St Andrews. But from the death of Malcolm Canmore till a consider- able time after the foundation of Arbroath Abbey, the districts now termed parishes were, as already mentioned, generally termed schyres; as in King William's great charter he grants not four parishes but four schyres, with their churches and pertinents. After King William's death the references to parishes become more numerous, but are far from being frequently mentioned in descrip- tions of lands during several succeeding centuries. The situation of lands was for a long period much more com- monly indicated by the name of the secular division of " schyre," regality, barony or lordship in which they lay, at least in writings executed for secular purposes. Indeed the modern and less systematic custom of describing lands by reference to the ecclesiastical divisions of parishes and the secular divisions of counties is of a late origin, and

22 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

only came into general use after the date of the Act of 1748, already referred to.

It is very apparent that at the formation of a great number of the parishes in Scotland they were simply estates, or tracts of land, the proprietors of which built the church and provided for its endowment by tithes payable from their own surrounding grounds. As already stated, these districts were at an early period termed shires, territories, and lordships in the writings of the religious houses ; and were afterwards formed into ba- ronies and portions of regalities. Thus the four parishes in Forfarshire given to the Abbey were termed shires in King William's days, — were afterwards incorporated into the regality, — and are spoken of in the reign of King James VI, (1592) as baronies. With the exception of a few small parishes, the changes of property during several centuries have led to the division of most parishes among several proprietors ; but it will still be generally found that the boundary line of two parishes is at the same time the boundary line of two estates, or at least of lands acquired by one family at different periods.

It is, however, to be kept in view, that several of the older parishes of great extent are found to have been in the hands of various proprietors at a very early date, so as to lead to the conclusion that the proprietors had either from their own motive, or by the authority of some civil or ecclesiastical ruler, acted together in the erection and support of one church, which became the Parish Church of their several lands.

The strange shapes of parishes, and the origin of their detached portions, are subjects that are capable of expla- nations by an attentive perusal of these old monastic records. There is no evidence that the detached barony of Inverpeffer and the detached estate of Dumbarrow formed parts of the shires (parishes) of Aberbrothock and Dunnichen when these were gi-anted in property by

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 23

King William at the foundation of the Abbey ; but the Chartulary bears that the same king afterwards granted the lands of Inverpeffer in property not to the Abbey but to Walkelinus, one of his officers, to be held of the Monks of Arbroath as superiors ; and the lands of Dum- barrow were not granted to the Abbey till the reign of Alexander II., and could not have previously formed part of the shire or parish of Dunnichen, which his father be- stowed more than thirty years previously. The conclusion then is evident, that after the Monks acquired these tracts of land they disjoined them from the parishes to which they had originally and naturally belonged (viz., Inver- peffer from Arbirlot, and Dumbarrow from Id vies or Kirkden) and annexed them to the nearest of the other parishes, which consisted of Abbey lands in their own possession.

The annexation of the lands of Kirkbuddo to the parish of Guthrie, from which it is several miles distant, took place at a period comparatively recent, namely, after the Reformation. Previous to that era the pro- prietor of Guthrie had become patron of the parsonage of Kirkbuddo, with right to the glebe or church lands and pasturage for six cows ; and after being supplied with a reader for some years the church of this small parish was suppressed, and its tithes given as an addition to the income of the also small parish of Guthrie.

There is no indication that at the time of the founda- tion of Arbroath Abbey any of the churches bestowed on it had been distinguished by the names of Patron Saints. This is shown by the confirmatory bull of Pope Lucius, granted on 6th April 1182 ; and although in King William's general charter, dated between 1211 and 1214, no less than twenty-five churches are included — the church of Old Montrose (Maryton) is the only one men- tioned in connection with the name of a Saint, who in that instance was St Mary the Virgin. This seems to

24! ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

have been the first church thus dedicated by the Monks ; and they very soon affixed the names of various Saints to other churches obtained by them, and got the titles recognised in confirmatory grants. Thus Roger, Bishop of St Andrews between 1188 and 1202, confirmed the grant of Aberbrothock church under the name of the church of " Saint Vigian of Aberbrothoc ;" and in the title of the document given in the Chartulary the Monks have styled him St Vigian the Confessor, — that is, one who has suffered for the truth, but not to death. The name of St Murdochus or Murdacus is not found men- tioned in connection with the church of Ethie till between 1219 and 1226, when Henry, Prior of St Andrews, con- firmed it to the Abbey under that title. Walter de Berkeley granted simply the " church of Inverkeillor" to he Abbey, and King William confirmed the grant with- out reference to a Patron Saint. But in grants soon tfterwards made by the same persons relative to hunting and pasturage in the territory of Inverkeillor, the title given to the church is that of " Saint Macconoc of Inuiv- keleder," a Saint not mentioned in the Scottish calendar under that name, but who, it has been suggested to the Editors of the Chartulary, may probably have been St Canech or Kenny, the contemporary of St Columba, who visited him at Hy or lona, and who gives name to Kilkenny. Among others, the church of Banchory was afterwards dedicated by the Monks to St Ternan, and the church of Aberchirdir to St Marnan or Mamoch. Other monasteries adopted the same practice ; as, for example, the Monks of Restennet consecrated their church of Dunninald to the memory of St Skaoch or St Skay, the church of Craig was dedicated to St Braoch, and the Monks of St Andrews dedicated the church of Ecclesgreig to St Cyrus ; so that during succeeding centuries every church belonging to a religious house, if not every lay parsonage, was consecrated to one Saint at least, and sometimes to two or more ; while the more eminent

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 25

Saints, such as St Mary, St Andrew, St Ninian, St Nicholas and othiers, had churches, chapels, and altars bearing their names in various parts of the country.

It may be remarked that, as one effect of the preva- lence of Saint Worship during this period, it became fashionable to distinguish places solely by the names of these tutelar demigods rather than by the more ancient terms. Thus Kilrymont was superseded by St Andrews, Inveerie by St Monance, Aberluthnot by (St) Marykirk, .and Conveth by (St) Laurencekirk. In other cases such as Perth, the ancient term (a contraction of Aberthay) has been fully recovered, while the Papal name of St Johns- town has again become obsolete. This reverse process was taking effect in the case of St Vigeans, when it was arrested by the erection of the new church in the town of Arbroath, which, for distinction's sake, led in course of time, to a restriction of the ancient British term Aber- brothock to the modern church, and of the newer tutelar title St Vigeans to the ancient church. But on this account, during more than half a century after the Reformation, it is sometimes difficult to discover to which of these churches the title of " Minister at Aberbrothock" is to be applied.

The obscure subject of Abthanes and Abthaneries is one on which a remark or two may be made in connec- tion with the Abbey records. Some have held the Abthane to be a superior or Archthane ; while others, such as Chalmers, consider it clear that the term Ah- thane denoted the Abbot's thane in contradistinction to the king's thane ; and that he was an ecclesiastical bailiff or steward. But if the term ever denoted an office it was at a period earlier than the date of any existinor records, and must, we think, have had references to Abbes or Abbots of the Culdees, or other ecclesiastics, before the introduction of Papal Abbeys into Scotland ; for wherever we have found the word in the original

2C ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

charters granted to Papal monasteries and otherwise, it has been applied as descriptive of land and not of office ; and the relative term Abbe fell into disuse on the sup- pression of the Culdees. Thus King William granted to his Chancellor the lands of the " Abbacie of Munros" (Montrose) to be held of the Monks of Arbroath ; and as the Editors of the Chartulary state, this "Abbacie" cannot be identified with any possession except the land of the church of " St Mary of Old Munros," which in Scotch is called " Abthen," as explained in King William's great charter, where the grant of these church lands is con- firmed to the Monks. Between 1201 and 1204 Gilchrist, Earl of Angus, granted the church of Monifod (Monifieth) with its chapels, lands, teinds, and pasture to the Monks of Arbroath, who held the same for centuries. But seventeen years afterwards (about 1220), Malcolm, Earl of Angus, granted the whole lands of the Abthein of Monifod, with mills, waters, fields, pastures, muirs, marshes, fishings, &c. to Nicholas, son of Bricius, priest of KiiTiemuir (one of the old married clergy) ; and the grant was confirmed by his daughter Maud or Matilda, Countess of Angus, about 1 242 ; one of whose chartere granted to the Abbey about this time was witnessed by the same Bricius, styled parson of Kirriemuir ; as also by Nicholas, Abbs of Monifod (apparently he who obtained the Abthein) ; and by one bearing the newer name and title of William, vicar of Monifod, the acting priest under the Monks. In the succeeding charter of the Countess Maud she granted to the Monks of Arbroath " the whole lands to the south of the church of Monifod, which the Keledei held in the lifetime of my father, with the toft and croft on the east side of that church ;" and seventy years afterwards (in 1310) Michael of Moni- fieth, the " proprietor of the Abbathanie thereof," bound himself to pay to the Convent of Arbroath six shillings and eight pence of sterlings, with half a boll of mustard seed, for the toft and croft which he held of them in

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 27

the territory of the Abbathanie. Now although we can scarcely agree in the opinion of the Editors of the Char- tulary that " this toft was without doubt" the land to the south of Monifieth church which the Culdees had held — (it may have been the toft and croft to the east of that church), — yet these notices serve to show that in this case lands called Abthein, and the name or title of Abbe were used in connection with a church where the Culdees had lived, or at least had held lands, for about thirty years after the foundation of Arbroath Abbey.

The Monkish term Abbaciae and the Scotch terms Ab- tliane, Abthein, Abthen or Abden were names given to lands in the neighbourhood of various ancient churches situated in favoured or striking localities, where the earlier Christians or Culdees may be supposed to have settled. Thus King William gave the lands of the " Ab- haciejdi Eglisgreig" (St Cyrus) according to its ancient boundaries, with the church of the parish and the chapel of St Regulus to the Priory of St Andrews. The same Priory also obtained the church of Dull in Perthshire from Hugh, Bishop of Dunkeld, including among its pertinents the " Abthanie of Dull." The ecclesiastics of St Andrews also acquired the Abden of Kinghom, lying contiguous to the church. There were also lands called Abden beside the churches of Ratlio, Kettins, and Blair- gowrie, and probably at the old church of Lindores, now called Abdie, situated on the banks of its picturesque lake. But we are unable to state the history or circum- stances connected with the last-mentioned cases. From what is here given (and the sources of information are very limited), it may, however, we think, be safely con- cluded, in the words of the preface to Arbroath Char- tulary that the Abthein "was land, the property of or connected with an Abbot or Abbacy — perhaps of a Columbite or Culdee house ;" and that it also very probably formed the church lands of a Culdee establish- ment under the possession and management of its A1)be

28 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

or Superior (as Ab in Gaelic is said to mean Abbot), for behoof of himself and the other incumbents.

The ancient order of churchmen called Culdees is a subject which has long engaged the attention and interest of historians and antiquaries ; and it is gratifying to find such an amount of authentic information on this favourite topic of enquiry as is given by the early monastic writings of Arbroath. The histories of the Abbey of Scone and of the two great monasteries in Fifeshire take up the subject at an earlier date. Alex- ander I. displaced the Culdees of Scone for Augustinian Monks about 1115. The Dunfermline Chartulary shows that in the reign of David I. the Culdees of that place were superseded by English Monks, who soon got posses- sion of Kirkaldy, which is generally believed to have been another Culdee seat ; and about the same time that they and the Monks of St Andrews contended for and were allowed to divide betwixt them the lands of Bal- christie (Town of the Christians) in Newbum parish, a Culdee establishment of ancient date. The register of St Andrews very clearly exhibits the suppression of the Culdees or Hermits of Lochleven, who had received the patronage of King Makbeth, his Queen, Lady Makbeth, (whose true Gaelic name was Grwoch), Malcolm III., and other Scottish monarchs. It contains King David's grant of the Island of Lochleven to the Canons of St Andrews that they might there set up canonical order, with the declaration that if the Culdees found on the island would live regularly (that is, according to the new Canons) with the Monks they might remain, but that if they resisted they should be " ejected from the island." That they were soon ejected there can be no doubt, for the king's favourite Bishop Robert of St Andrews, about the same time, granted to the Canons of St Andrews the Abbey of Lochleven with all its lands, churches, and rents, even " the church vestments which the Chelede

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. £9

had," and the books of their library, of which a catalogue is given, concluding with what was evidently a Guides controversial book of the time, titled " Exceptions or Objections to Ecclesiastical Rules," or the Regulations of the new Canons or Monks. A small Culdee house at Portmoak, in the same parish, also came into possession of the Monks of St Andrews, who afterwards maintained for some time an hospital of St Thomas for the sustenta- tion of the poor at or near that spot. It is also well known that in King David's reign the Culdees were dis- placed at St Andrews itself, to make room for Augustine Monks ; and that the Culdees of Monymusk were placed under the power of the Bishop of St Andrews, who, in the face of solemn engagements, afterwards suppressed their order at that place in favour of regular Canons.

Half a century subsequent to King David's reforma- tion of the more southern Culdees, the Chartulary of Arbroath introduces us to further acquaintance with the two great Culdee colleges of Strathearn and Angus, Aber- nethy and Brechin, where they have left memorials of their peculiar architecture in the round towers, of which the square towers of St Andrews, Dunblane, and others, are the successors. Soon after the foundation of Arbroath Abbey, Lawrence, son of Orm of Abernethy, granted to it all his claims to the patronage of the church of Abernethy, with its chapels of Dron, Dunbog, and Errol, the lands of Belach and Petinlouer (Pitlour), one-half of the tithes of the property of himself and his heirs (the other half of which he stated belonged to the " Keledei of Abimythy"), and the whole tithes of the territory of Abernethy, except those of the churches of Flisk and Cultrum (perhaps Coultray, in or near Balmerino parish), and excepting the tithes of his lordship of Abernethy, which the CuldeeB have always possessed, namely, those of Mugdrum, Carpow, and others. This encroachment on the Culdees of Abernethy was confirmed by King William on the same day, in a Charter wherein he speaks of himself as

30 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

the donor of the church of Abernethy, with its chapels. As was to be expected under such a grant, the Culdees of Abernethy and the Monks of Arbroath were soon engaged in disputes as to their respective rights, and in which both parties vigorously contested for a long period, as fully detailed by Keith, Jamieson, and others, but in which, as in all other similar cases, the poor and now antiquated Culdees were ultimately vanquished. The sentence of the Bishop of Dunblane pronounced in 1214 agtiinst the claims of the " Prior and Kelledei of Abirnethy" in the course of this litigation is recorded among the Abbey writs, which give no further notices of this ancient reli- gious house.

The Monks of Arbroath did not obtain any of the endowments which were in the actual possession of the Culdees of Brechin in the time of King William ; although it is very probable that the lands and other privileges granted to them by the Abbes or Abbots of Brechin had formerly belonged to the Culdees. This may also have been the case with some of the churches and other gifts bestowed by the bishops of Brechin ; as that see was founded by David I., and he always dealt very uncere- moniously with the Keledei who came in his way. The Culdees of Brechin, who were established by King Kenneth III. about 994<, however, survived the fall of many Culdee houses, and continued (in a manner, per- haps, modernised) to form entirely or chiefly the bishop's chapter during nearly a century after their suppression at St Andrews. By an early charter of King William he confirmed King David's grant of a market in favour of the " Bishop and Keldeis of the church of Brechine." (Brechin Chartulary, No. 1.) Their first appearance in the Arbroath Chartulary is as witnesses to Bishop Turpin's grant of a toft and croft at Stricathro before 1198. Their Gaelic names are " Bricius, Prior of Brechin ; Gillefali, Kelde; Bricius, chaplain: Mathalan, Kelde ; Makbeth, Maywen." Gillefali and Mathalan were probably simple

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. SI

Culdees. The bishops of Brechin afterwards speak of them familiarly as " our Keledei." Their Priors, named Bricius and Malbryde, are successively witnesses to many of the grants by which the bishops of Brechin granted to the Abbey of Arbroath their churches of Old Montrose, Dunnichen, Kingoldrum, Panbride, Monikie, Guthrie, Katterine, with teind-fish on the Northesk, and others. A Dean of Brechin, as well as the Prior of the Culdees, appears before 1198 ; and about the end of the reign of King William the chapter of Brechin is found to be com- posed of " Malbryde the Prior, the Keledei, and other clerks;" and in 1248, shortly before the death of King Alexander II., the Culdees disappear from the Bishops' chapter altogether, at least under that name ; as it is said to consist simply of " William, Dean, and Chapter of Brechin ;" so that by the middle of the thirteenth century we may conclude that the Culdees of Brechin, perhaps the last survivors of their order, had fallen before their more powerful rivals ; although some writers have be- lieved that a few remnants may have survived during the next fifty years.

The Editors of the Chartularies of Arbroath and Brechin have noticed the existence of a singular class of secular Culdee Abbots about the time of the commence- ment of these records. Lawrence, son of Orm of Aber- nethy, who, as has been already stated, speaks of the lands and property of himself and his heirs, is, at the same time, styled by King William the " Abbot of Aber- nethy ;" and, without doubt, lived as a baron at Carpow (Kerpul), the old mansion or castle of the lords of Aber- nethy, while the real functions of the Abbot were practi- cally performed by one of the Culdees who bore the title of Prior. So, in like mamier, as early as about the time of the foundation of the see of Brechin by David I., the nominal head of the Culdee college of that place, the Abbot of Brechin had become a secular baron, styled

32 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

sometimes Leod of Brechin and at other times Leod the Abbot, ranked among lay, but not clerical, dignitaries, and possessing, without doubt, the castle of Brechin and the most of the lands which had originally been given to the Culdee community. It also appears that the Abbots of Brechin were married, and transmitted their Culdee estates and their title of Abbot to their families. Donald, who styles himself Abbe or Abbot of Brechin, and who was grandson of Leod, granted certain lands to the Monks of Arbroath for the safety of the souls of his father Samson, and of himself and his heirs after him ; and the Prior of the Culdees is among the witnesses. V-^hile in other charters of this period the Prior, as a clerk, takes precedence of this Donald as a laic among the witnesses. In 1219 John Abbe, the son of Malise, made a grant to Arbroath of firewood from his woods of Edzell, for the salvation of himself, his ancestors, and heirs ; which is witnessed by Morgrund and John his sons, and Malcolm his brother. " John Abb de Brechin and Morgrund his son" were present at the perambula- tion of the marches of Kinblethmont on 23rd September 1219; and about the same time, or shortly afterwards, this Morgrund confirmed his father's grant, by a Deed which is witnessed by John Abbe and others. There were thus, from the time of David I. to William I., five persons successively bearing this title, which ultimately became the surname of the family, namely, Leod, Sam- son, Donald, John son of Malise, and Morgrund, with whom the race and family of the Abbes of Brechin disappear. Henry de Brechin, son of David Eail of Huntingdon, is the next person on record who soon afterwards takes his style from Brechin ; and his descendants held it till the reign of Robert Bruce, along with the lordship or estate of Brechin, which may be supposed to be identical with the Abbacy or lands originally granted for the support of the Culdees.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 33

Besides these lay Abbes of Abernethy and Brechin, there existed, as already noticed, an Abbe of Monificth, and there was an Abbe of Arbirlot. The wiits of Col- din<rham and other church registers afford similar instances of persons bearing this name or title at or subsequent to the fall of the Culdees.

From these and other notices, we learn that where large landed grants had been made to the Culdees, as at Dunkeld, Abernethy, and Brechin, the Abbot was allowed, as later Abbots and Bishops have since been usually allowed, to appropriate to himself the greater part (the lion's share) of their possessions, and to perfoim his church functions by deputy, while he gave his personal attention to the more stirring matters of state and mili- tary exercise. But the peculiarity in the case of Culdee Abbots was their marriage, and the transmission of their official lands along with the name of their office to their heirs ; who having neither the desire nor ability to per- form the religious duties in consideration of which the endowments had been made, were no more servants of the Church than were the lay commendators who ob- tained possession of church lands and tithes at the Re- formation, four hundred years afterwards ; and thus the gifts of the founders became alienated from their original pious puq)Oses, and served only to enrich and maintain private families. There is no reason to doubt that the evil example thus proved to have been shewn by the heads of the Culdee houses was followed to a greater or less extent by their inferiors ; and that in the latter years of their history there was too much ground for the charge made against them by their successors, the Papal Monks, that, " after the death of the Culdees their wives or cliildren, or relations appropriated their estates, and even the offerings made at those alters whose service Jthey neglected ; a sacrilege which we should have been ashamed to mention, had not they not been ashamed to do it." The more nariowly the circumstances attending

8i ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

the extinction of the Culdees are examined, there ai)pears the greater reason to form a very low estimate of their purity and efficiency for some time previously, and to suspect that it is distance which lends enchantment to the view which some writers have formed of them, as at that time self-denied confessors struggling for Christian truth amidst overwhelming foes. Although there is little doubt that piety and sincerity existed among the poorer members of the order (just as at a later period sincerity was found lingering among the poorer Papal Monks), the secularisation, both of the heads of the Culdee houses and of the inferior members of the order, help to explain the little sympathy which they received from King Alex- ander I. and his successors, who, we believe, were sin- cerely desirous to reform their National Church by the introduction of ecclesiastics then bearing in Scotland a character much superior in activity, zeal, learning, and perhaps even in purity of manners ; although they after- wards simk far below the Culdees in extortion, pride, sccularity, error, idolatry, and profligacy. The monastic writings clearly shew, for example, that the idolatrous deification of saints and angels did not exist among the Culdees. Their condition at this time also explains the helplessness of the acting Culdees when their possessions were attacked, and the want of assistance received from other parties throughout the kingdom in their struggles for retention of their ancient rights. It is also to be recollected that the custom, which appears so strange to us, of the children of the Culdees succeeding to their sacred offices and benefices by heirship, was part of an ancient system in Scotland, by which all offices, civil as well as sacred, became hereditary, and consequently sine- cures, the incompetent heir sticking fast to the possession of the lands or benefice, but leaving the duties of the office to a stipendiary deputj^ or oftener to a new official appointed and paid by the State. The last remains of this system in the civil department is scarcely yet

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 35

abolished. The evils of such a system were seen in the state of the Culdees ; but the idea of hereditary succession to office seems to have been then so strong, that the only effectual remedy for it was believed to be the application of a rule equally strange, namely, that the clergy should live and die bachelors, so that they could have no legal heirs to claim their benefices and official titles. The celi- bacy of the clergy had, as is well known, other plausible recommendations at that time ; but a consideration of the coiTuption which had flowed from the hereditary succession of the early married clergy is necessary to explain how a law so unnatural and fraught with so many evils, as enforced celibacy, came to be submitted to and established over the whole of Christendom during several succeeding ages, until the wiser plan was devised of conferring office and benefice, not by heritage, but according to personal qualification.

These remarks on the Culdees may be fitly concluded, in a work on Arbroath Abbey, by an endeavour to give some answer to the question whether there were to any extent Culdee establishments at the neighbouring churches of Monifieth and Arbirlot.

With regard to the first of these churches it has been shewn, in the notice of the Abthaneries, that there existed at Monifieth a tract of land called Ahthein, and also a person holding the title of Abbe for some considerable time after that church was bestowed on the Monks of Arbroath ; and further, that the Culdees held land near the church in the time of Earl Malcolm, about 1220. These Culdees are styled by the Countess Maud simply as " the Keledei," without any indication that they belonged to another establishment ; and it may on this account be naturally supposed that they lived and ministered at Monifieth church, which would in that ctise be, on a small scale, the church of a college like the early churches of Abernethy and Brechin. That Monifieth was a scat of the Culdees

86 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

is the opinion of the writer of tlie Statistical Account in 1842, who adds that " when the old church was pulled down in 1812, and the foundations of the present house excavated, some remains of the Culdee edifice were discovered." This ancient coUegiate establishment at Monifieth was very probably the origin and occasion of the choir which stood at the east end of the old church before its demolition, as mentioned in the Sttitistical Account of 1794 ; such a choir being a necessary and characteristic portion of a collegiate church. From these concurrent circumstances we are inclined to conclude, although not very confidently, that Monifieth is entitled to be ranked among the Culdee houses of Scotland.

The question as regards Arbirlot is ijivolved in still greater obscurity. The church of that parish was from an early period ranked as within the diocese of St Andrews ; and the bishops of that see claimed right to its revenues, or, at least, to its patronage. It was also situated within lands belonging to them, as the bishops possessed the lands of the parish which lay to the east of the Elliot water (on which the church stands) at an early period. Roger, who was bishop from 1188 to 1202, granted Arbirlot church along with others to the Abbey of Ai-broath, but reserved to himself and his successors as bishops, " the lands of the church of Aberheloth." His successor, William Malvoisine, made a fresh grant of tlie church with its chapels, teinds, and oblations under a like reservation to him and his successors of the lands. The Arbroath Monks retained the patronage of the church till the Reformation ; and the bishops of St Andrews continued to retain the lands in question during at least two hundred and fifty years after the foundation of the Abbey, as in the time of Abbot Panter they are styled *' the bischoppis land of Sanctandros." They were part of the gi'eat regality of St Andrews ; and after their subinfeudation weic termed the barony of Arbirlot or of Cuthlie. But it appcai-s from the Abbey records that,

GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 37

similar to Monifietli and Brechin, Arbirlot possessed its " Abbe" for several years after the church. came into the liands of the Monks of Arbroath, Between the years 1201 and 1207 " Mauricius, Abbe of Abereloth," was a witness to four charters of Gilchrist Earl of Angus, by which he granted to the Abbey the churches of Monifietli, Murroes, Strathdichty, and Kiriiemuir, and to a fifth charter in which he included the whole. Four of these deeds are at the same time witnessed by another Mau- ricius, who is styled " Chaplain of Abereloth," and who takes immediate precedence of the " Abbe ;" their position being below the other clerical witnesses, and above the names of Adam Albo and Hugo de Benne, the two remaining lay witnesses. There is no further appearance of the Abbe of Arbirlot, unless he be the " Mauricius Abba," who is named among the lay witnesses to John de Montfort's grant of Katerlyn about 1212. The last " chaplain of Abereloth" on record is one " Galfridus," who is so designed, and is ranked under Nicholas of Inverpeffer, Roger of Balcathie, and other neighbouring landed proprietors, as a witness to Adam de Morham's grant of the church of Panbride in 1214.

Alongside of these obscure indications we may allude to the tradition that a religious house once existed at an old hamlet still known by the peculiar name of " the .College" on the top of the north bank of the Rottenrow Burn, about a mile to the north-west of the present church of Arbirlot. The late Rev. Richard Watson, Minister of Arbirlot, alluded to this tradition in his Statistical Account of 1792, in the folloAving terms : — "A few years ago the remains of a religious house in the parish, whose laiins had been revered for ages, were removed. And although we cannot say at what time, or by what person it was built, yet from the accounts given of it we have reason to believe that it had been a Druidical temple." From the confusion in the minds of the illiterate as to Druids and Culdoes, it is not

88 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

surprising, although in tliis instance, the one should he thought and spoken of in place of the other, by those from whom the minister may have derived his informa- tion. It is much more probable, however, that the reli- gious house alluded to had belonged to the Culdees rather than the earlier Druids. The question, as already stated, is very obscure. But when the old Culdee title of " Abbe of Arbirlot" is -taken in connection with the tradition and the name of the hamlet, all these circumstances con- cur to make it a point worth the further investigation of some antiquary as to whether it can be yet definitely proved that one of the many colleges of the Culdees formerly existed in this retired and secluded spot, or in the more immediate neighbourhood of the Kiiktown of Arbirlot.

THE TOWN AND DEPENDENCIES. 39

CHAPTER I

Thk Town of Arbroath and its Dependencies.— 1. Origin and Condition TILT, THE Foundation of the Abbey. 2. The Harbour. 3. Formation OF Older portion of the Burgh. 4. Formation of Newer portion of the Burgh in the Almory. 5. Local Terms in the Town and Neighbourhood.

I. — ORIGIN AND CONDITION TILL THE FOUNDATION OF THE ABBEY.

Previous to the erection of its Abbey, the history of Arbroath, if not fabulous, must be, to a great extent, matter of inference. We have seen no reference to its existence as a town or village earlier than the reign of King William the Lion, although its church (St Vigeans) is mentioned as existing nearly two centuries prior to the foundation of the Abbey. The higli antiquity of Arbroath as a village or small seat of population, is proved by the form of its proper name " Aberbrothoc," which is said to be derived from " Aber," a very old British (but not modern Gaelic) word, signifying mouth or ope7iing, coupled with the name of the small sti'eam wliich here enters the sea. The word Brothock (formerly Brothac) has been stated to signify a red muddy stream. It has been written by Spottiswood, in his list of Reli- gious Houses, and by others, in the form of Brothe ; and it may be a point of inquiry for philologists whether our culinary word broth is not derived from the same original term. The word " Abriuca," given as one of the names

40 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

of Aberbrotliock iu several Latin and English versions of Buchanan's description of Scotland, is obviously a misprint for its modern shortened form, Arbroath, as " Abrinca" was never known to have been used else- where as a genuine name. In certain old writings two singular terms have been applied to Arbroath Abbey, namely, Monasterlum Bajocense, and Aberbredock-kuiclel. These names seem to stand in need of explanation.

Coupled with its name, the natural situation of Arbroath indicates its existence as a settlement at a period long anterior, probably, to the introduction of Christianity into this part of the island. The natural fertility of the neighbouring fields, the salubrity of its air, the shelter afforded by its smaU creek on an other- wise iron-bound and exposed coast, and its convenience for fishing, would determine the selection of this r?pot as a residence for the settlement of some of the earliest inliabitants of Angus. But at this period, and for ages afterwards, it could only have been a collection of scat- tered huts or cabins, formed of wood or turf, set down without the slightest respect to order or arrangement ; and possessing nothing approaching to the regularity of design which now characterises some parts of the neigh- bouring fishing villages. The inspection of any genuine highland villages at the present day shows that the idea of forming streets or continuous I'ows of houses did not enter into the architectural plans of our Celtic ancestors ; and it has been truthfully remarked that although the names of numerous old towns and villages are derived from the Celtic languages, there is scarcely a street in one of them the name of which is not derived from the Gothic or Saxon tongues ; thus showing that streets owed their origin to these later settlers on the east coast of Britain, who gi-adually pushed back the Celtic race, or at least the Celtic tongue, within the mountains in the northern and western parts of the island.

THE TOWN AND DEPENDENCIES. 41

Like the neighbouring ancient churches of Inver- keillor, Arbirlot, and Panbridc, the church of Arbroath was, long prior to the construction of the Abbey, erected about a mile distant from the shore, most probably for protection from enemies by sea and land through the privacy of its position. There is no reason to doubt that, previous to the time of the Keledei (the Culdees), a parish chui'di stood where its modern representative stands, on a curious knoll, in the centre of a romantic and beautiful concavity, intersected by the Brothock and its two tributaiy streams, which meet at this point.

As was the case with almost all our more ancient churches, the fii'st church of Aberbrothock (for the name of the Confessor Vigianus was not connected with it till after its patronage was acquired by the Abbey), would undoubtedly be constructed of wood, covered with heath or thatch. This structure would in process of time be replaced by one with stone walls and a straw-thatched roof — a long barn-like edifice, similar to the generality of our churches down till the end of the last century. During the existence of this fabric it is probable that St Vigianus, the hermit of Grange of Conon, was interred in the cemetery, at the beginning of the eleventh century ; and that the monument mentioned by some of our an- nalists was erected to his memory. The carved figures found in the walls of the present church also obviously belong to this period. As for the original portions of the existing church, namely, a nave and side aisles with clere- storey or windows above the aisles, and short square tower — so rarely seen among Scottish parish churches — they have evidently been erected about two centuries subsequently to the foundation of the Abbey, and after the church had risen in importance from its contiguity to the great and opulent monastery in its vicinity.

The most important event in the early history of Arbroath is certainly its choice by King William as the site of the magnificent monasteiy which he determined

42 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

to erect, nominally in honour of Thomas the murdered Archbishop of Canterbury, but in reality, in accordance with the spirit and fashion of his day, as a monument of his own beneficence to the great Papal Church of Europe, which by that time had almost absorbed the small and ancient Scottish Culdee Church, after a long struggle to maintain its independence. This institution was evidently begun and carried on by him as the great work of his reign, and as that which chiefly was to hand down his memory to succeeding ages. The selection of the site and commencement of the work, as will be afterwards explained, must have occurred a year or two previous to 1178. It is impossible to contemplate the natural situ- ation of the monastery of Arbroath as it once stood, guarded with embattled walls, in all its grandeur — not dismantled, and surrounded, as now, with rival buildings — without admiring the wisdom and taste which directed the choice of such a site for this kingly establishment. It was planted on a dry and level plot of rich ground, having a never-failing stream of fine water running across it, within full view of the ever-varying ocean, and within a short walk of its shores, yet protected from the fierce eastern marine blasts by a range of gentle eminences, and enjoying a prospect which for extent and beauty could not be surpassed on the east coast of Britain — extending from the Grampians in the north, round by Craig Oul among the Sidlaws, Norman's Law among the Ochils, the Lomonds in Fife and Kinross-shires, the Lam- mermuirs in East Lothian and Berwickshire, to Holy Island on the coast of England. In the year 1742, when the gi'ound within the precinct or sacred enclosure retained more of its original appearance, and was not covered with buildings as it now is, the Town Clerk of Arbroath thus refers to it : " There are many fine springs of water on the east side of the Inclosure, one of which was brought in lead pipes (part of them have been lately discovered on digging), for the service of the Hoase ; and the rest

THE TOWN AND DEPENDENCIES. 43

formed a canal which ran tlirough the garden or close, as the whole does now. The soil is a brown clay of great depth, covered in most places with a black mixed earth, which drys immediately after rains, so that it affords pleasant walking in almost all seasons."

In tracing the progress of the town of Arbroath it is only necessary at this stage to state that at or previous to 1178, King William bestowed on the monastery, as the beginning of its large endowments, the village of " Aberbrothock, with all the shire thereof, and the church of the village, viz., Aberbrothock with its teinds and pertinents." The Shire of Aberbrothock seems to have been conterminous with the modern parishes of Arbroath and St Vigeans, not including the barony of Inverpeffer, nor perhaps the high land betwixt Parkhill and Kinnaldy, apparently afterwards bestowed by the name of Athen- glass, and more recently termed the great muir of Aber- brothock. The King also conferred on the Convent tie liberty to form a burgh on these lands, with a port, and a weekly market each Saturday ; and provided that the burgesses of such burgh should enjoy all liberties and privileges of merchandise and otherwise equal to those possessed by other biirgesses in the kingdom.

The Convent without delay proceeded to the erection of a Bui-gh of Barony under the Abbot, as its overlord or feudal superior. About 1180, or two years after the establishment of the monastery, Everard and Martin de Lundin, burgesses of Artn^oaih, are introduced as witnesses of grants to the Abbey. Toward the end of King Wil- liam's reign, about 1214, two witnesses of a grant are described as Roger of Balcathie, and Nicholas of Wartria, Provosts of Arbroath. This term appears to have been applied at that early period to such magistrates as are now ordinarily termed bailies, without necessarily de- noting chief magistrates. No " Provost" of Arbroath is again alluded to from 1214 down at least to 1646, although the two bailies of the burgh, with a large number of its

44) ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

burgesses, are from time to time named in the pages of the Chartulary. In the year 1394-, when tlie harbour was beginning to be formed, tlie burgli possessed a com- mon seal separate from the convent seal ; and the names of its bailies were William Scott and Robert Eme, the latter of whom may probably have given a name to the piece of ground called Emeslaw. During the fifteenth century the burgh possessed two officials termed Sergeants, who are frequently introduced as witnesses to writings. These were probably the executore or officers of the law within the burgh, and servants of the magistrates.

After its formation into a burgh, Arbroath would to a limited extent follow the example set by other places in more southern counties, which had been formed into streets and regular towns by the settlement of enter- prising and trading immigrants from England and the Continent. Thus the town of St Andrews shows that the plans of its streets were laid out with reference to the monastery, — towards which the three principal streets converge. And in a charter granted by King William's immediate predecessor, Malcolm IV,, relating to the Trinity Church of Kilrimund, now the town church of St Andrews, he describes the inhabitants of that town as the Scotch, French, Flemings, and English, within the burgh. In further illustration of the mixed population of the low- lands of Scotland at that time, it may be added that the king addresses the same charter to all his lieges, whether French, English, Scotch, or Galwegians, in the country ; that is, to the Normans, Saxons, Celts, and inhabitants of Galloway.

It is still a debatable point whether in the districts north of Tay the Gaelic or old Scotch was supplanted by the new or lowland Scottish dialect, previous to or about the Christian era, or not till so lately as the reign of Malcolm Canmore. There is reason to believe that low- land Scotch was the usual speech in the southern part of Angus, at least for some time prior to the foundation of

THE TOWN AND DEPENDENCIES. 45

Arbroath Abbey. But it is apparent that during the reigns of David I., Malcokn IV., William, and Alexander II., from 11 24 to 1250, many of the lands of Fife, Angus, and Meams, still remained in the possession of barons, whose names indicate that they were of pure Celtic blood. Thus we have Angus MacDuncan, Malbryd Mallod, Duffscollock of Fetheressau (Fetteresso), Malmur MacGillemicliael, Gilchrist MacFadwerth, Donald Abbe of Brechin, Gilbryd of Angus, Gilpatrick MacEwen, Dunachy, son of Gilpatrick, Gilys Thane of Edevy (Idvies), Malcolm, his brother, Dufsyth of Conon, Gilander Maclcod, Gilescop Maccamby, Mauricius Macgeil, Phenich McPhenich, Donald son of Makbeth MacYwar, Duncan of Fernevel (Farnell), Madechin-MacMatliusalem, Gille- colmi-Mach-imbethi-hywano, and Macmallothem Thane of Deruesin (Dairsie, near Cupar). It would not be safe, however, to conclude from this circumstance that these remaining lowland Gaels conversed in the Gaelic tongue ; just as we know that the indisputable Gaelic names of many descendants of highland Gaels living among us are no evidence that the Gaelic is their vernacular language. The strange and uncouth names of our Celtic ancestors, as given above, form a singular contrast to the names of the contemporaneous burgesses of Dundee, St Andrews, Aberdeen, and other burghs often found in the same documents ; shewing clearly that the latter were not of Celtic, but of Gothic blood, and of Saxon and Norman extraction. After the application of Gaelic names had been abandoned by the royal descendants of Malcolm Canmore and Queen Margaret, they seem to have rapidly fallen into disuse among the barons of the lowlands. Other causes also tended to facilitate their extinction. Any one who observes how, even at this time, the landed estates throughout Scotland are purchased up by the successful and wealthy citizens of our large commercial towns, as these estates successively come into the market, wiU not have much difficulty in undei-stjinding how a

46 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

great part of the lowlands came at an earlier period, as many of the estates are coming at the present day, into the hands of the latter class, to the exclusion of the former proprietors.

No direct evidence is obtainable from the Chartulary as to the foundation or existence of any particular part of the town earlier than the year 1 303, a little before the accession of King Robert Bruce. Although it is probable that for a long period previous to that date the lower part of the present High Street existed under the name of the " Cowgate." And as the precinct walls could not have been finished till a considerable time after the erec- tion of the Abbey Church, there are indications, arising from the line of the south-western part of these walls and otherwise, which lead to the conclusion that before their completion houses had stretched upwards along both sides of the High Street, perhaps as far as the head of Applegate.

But before noticing further the progi^ess of the town as appearing in the monastic writings, it will be proper, in the first portion of the next section, to allude to and dispose of an interesting point, namely, the origin and formation of the Harbour.

II. — THE HARBOUR.

Considering the early erection of the village of Aber- brothock into a burgh of barony or regality, and the wealth and energy of the convent, it is surprising that no means were taken towards the formation of a harbour till the elapse of two centuries after the establishment of the Abbey, although King John of England, as is well known, had, so far back as 1204, gi-anted to the Abbots, monks, and citizens of Arbroath, the privilege of trading to all the ports of his kingdom, except London, free of custom. Even in the time of the able and patriotic Abbot Bernard, in the beginning of the fourteenth

THE TOWN AND DEPENDENCIES. 47

century, Arbroath seems to have been almost without any trade. It is not till about the end of tliat century, when Scotland was slowly and feebly recovering from the disasters of the wars with England, that the interest- ing contract betwixt Abbot John Gedy and the burgesses, for the building of a harbour, appears on the pages of the Chart ulary.

This document is titled a " Convention between the Monastery and the Burgh of Aberbrothoc of the making of a port," and bears the date of 2nd April 1394. Accord- ing to Mr Innes' summary of its contents, it sets forth the innumerable losses and vexations, long and still suffered, for want of a port where traders, with their ships and merchandise, might land. On the one part it is agreed that the Abbot and Convent shall, wdth all possible haste, at their expense, make and maintain, in the best situation, according to the judgment of men of skill, a safe harbour fportum salutarem) for the burgh, to which, and in which ships may come and lie, and have quiet and safe mooring, notwithstanding the ebb and flow of tides. The burgesses, on the other hand, are to clear the space fixed on fiom sand and stones, and all other impediments, to fill with stones, and place the coffers required for the harbour, under the direction of the masters of the work ; to find certain tools necessary for that purpose, namely, spades, iron pinches, and iribulos (perhaps hammers) at their own expense ; the other instruments to be found by the Abbey. And because in the foundation of the harbour much labour and expense are required, more than the burgesses could bear, the burgesses shall pay to the Abbot yearly, three pen- nies of sterlings from each rood of land within the burgh, in addition to the thi'ee pennies now paid, — the additonal rent beginning the first year that one ship can safely take the harbour, and there have safe berth, notwitli- standing the ebb and flow of the sea. And if it should happen, as God forbid, that the harbour in process of time

48 ARBROATH AND ITS ABLEY.

fail, by negligence of the Abbot and Convent, or any accident, the payment of the three pennies shall cease till the harbour be repaired.

Like other contracts of that period, it is stated that this important writing was cut into two parts by a waved or indented Une (which practice gave rise to the tenn iiideuture), and that the common seal of the burgh was appended to the portion retained by the Abbot and Con- vent, while the common seal of the Convent was appended to the portion retained by the burgh. The witnesses to the execution of the deed were — Lord David de Lindesay Lord of Glenesk, John de Lindesay Lord of Wauchope, knights ; Master John Gray, Rector of the Church of Fearn ; Sir or Dominie William de Conan, Perpetual Vicar of the Church of Aberbrothock (St Vigeans) ; Dominie John de Infimiaiy, Perpetual Vicar of the Church of Inverkeillor ; Alexander Scrymgeour, Justiciar of the Regality of Aberbrothock ; Phillip de Lindesay, John de Conan Lord of Cononsyth, Andrew de Melville, John de Setoun, Esquires ; William Scot, and Robert Eme, Bailies of the Burgh ; " and many others."

It is well known that the harbour formed by Abbot John Gedy lay to the eastward of the present harbour, and in front of the Old Shorehead, while the pier extended in a south-west direction from the foot of the High Street at Danger Point. It is understood to have been a wooden pier fixed in an embankment of large boulders, many of which remained in the line of the old ])ier till the forma- tion of the new harbour in 1 8-iO. And it is probable that it was partly protected by the rocks to the eastward before the sea wore them down to their present level.

This harbour is again very specially alluded to in a charter granted by King James V., on 10th January 1 529-30, renewing in favour of the Abbey the ancient grants of koket and customs made by his royal prede- cessors. From this writing it appears that the customs of Arbroath harbour had been collected )iy the Crown

THE TOWN AND DEPENDENCIES. 4D

officers, in order to form part of the redemption money agreed to be paid for the deliverance of King David II. from his captivity in England about the year 1357, and that this alienation of the customs had been continued until the harbour, from want of repair, was in danger of destiniction, to the impoverishment of the burgh.

About the year 1609 the community began to make extensive repairs on this old harbour, and which seem to have been carried on during the four following years. The town was divided into quarters, and supplied labourers by turns. The stones were conveyed in sledges, wheeled carts not being as yet used. The accounts of the Arbroath Treasm-er, prefixed to a Court book of the burgh in Panmm-e House, contain a minute account of every item of expense connected with these repairs, including all the allowances for drink and music to encourage the workmen. Among many others the follow- ing entries have been selected : — " To the warkmen for drink at the setting up the first pannell xviij sh. (1610), Item, for tua gret yards to be ane slaid, and for carieng of stanes doun to the schoir, xx sh vjd ; Item, for making of ane slaid, and fitting up three slaids, xij sh ; Item, for garan naills to three slaids feet, v sh ; Item to the wrychtis that day that the pannell was sett, for thair denner, and the pypar and fidler for thair playing, at the baillies command, xiij sh iiij d ; Item, at the onputting of the barkettis on the morne, vj sh viij d. (1611) Item, for the warkmenis denner, menstrelleris, and officiaris, at the upsetting of the first pannell, xx sh ; At the upsetting of the secund, for drink to the thrid pairt of the toune, xxij sh ; Item, at that same pannell, for the warkmen, menstrelleris, and officiaris denneris, xx sh. ; It-em, to the thrid pannel for drink to the quarter of the toune, XX sh ; and for the menstrelleris, warkmen, and officiaris denneris, xxx sh ; Item, for naills, schethis, ane deall, and warkmanship to sex barrowLs, xiiij sh ; Item, the agrieance with the warkmen to work the cors pannell ix sh ; Item,

50 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

for drink to the warkmen the first day they began to work the pannell, vi sh ; Item, at the lintling of every cupill of the said pannell, ane quart of aill, xxxii sh. * * * Item, to the menstrelleris for their wages, viij lib ; Item, for foure gallonis aiU to the haill toun, xxxij sh ; Item, ten faldoum towis to the skaffoldis, xx sh ; Item for mending of the sand-glass, ii sh ; to the menstreUeris for St Thomas day and fyft day of August, xiij sh iiij d ; for ane Lettre to the Conventioun of the burrowis, vi sh viij d ; to ane stranger that convoyit the drume at St Thomas day, vi sh ; To ane man that cam from the checker, vi sh viij d ; For the timber hous, xl sh ; For sugar quhen my Lord of Montros was maid burges, xvj sh ; To Andro Chrystie for timber to ane new slaid, vii sh ; For tua biustis of comfettis to Alexander Peter that nycht the Ladie Marshall was in David Ouchterlonies, xx^g sh viij d." In this manner the entries for barrows, nails, and sledges, appear during several years, mixed up with disbursements for candles to the kirk, repairs on the kirk, the North Port, the tolbooth, a wooden bridge at Horner's Wynd, and other incidental outlays as they occurred.

It is very probable that, as was the case at St Andrews, the trade of Arbroath had diminished about the time of the Reformation, in consequence of the desolation of the Convent, and that its subsequent revival was very slow. This is shown by the length of time and effort made in repairing the rude pier sixty years after that event, and by the circumstance that, while the Town Treasurer records his payments for the repair of the harbour, he does not enter the receipt of any harbour dues, although, he records at this period a source of revenue which does not now exist, namely, the " tak of the salmond fische at the watter mouth, xxiiij sh." About 1621 and down- wards the " anchorage" was let, along with the town's customs, for a rent of <£^80 Scots, or thereby. The fii-st " Schokmaister" (Alexander Spink, elder) was appointed

THE TOWN AND DEPENDENCIES. 51

at Micliaebnas 1 624. Mr David Mudie, the Town-Clerk, states, in his account of Arbroath (written in 1742), that " this town had very little foreign trade till the year 1725, when they began to build a new harbour to the westward of the old, in which there was no safety for any vessels in winter storms. This work had been caiTying on ever since at a vast charge for so small a town ; and although it is not accessible for large ships, yet there are now belonging to the town about a dozen [vessels] of from 120 to 50 tons burden employed in trading to- the northern colonies in America, to the Baltic, France, Holland, and Norway, besides smaller vessels employed in the coal trade and coasting." He adds, that in his time " the slate quarries, which ly within four miles of the town, afford outward cargoes to the coal barques, who find greater consumpt for coals (as they are free of duty), than they are able to answer, so that a great part of that commodity is brought here by strangers." This harbour — begun to be formed in 1725 — was dug out of the dry land beside the ground which had been occupied by the Lady Chapel and its cemetery.

The history of the extension of harbour accommodation at Arbroath, and of its gi-adual increase of trade during the last and present centuries, does not lie within our immediate province.

III. — FORMATION OF OLDER PORTION OF THE BURGH.

As already stated, the fii'st notice of any of the streets of Arbroath is in 1303, when Abbot John granted to Galfrid (Geoffry) Rimeuld, son of Robert Runeuld, burgess of Aberbrothoc, a parcel of land which belonged to the " office of our community, by the gift of the late Adam the Chancellor," lying in the street of Govgate (Cowgate) between the sun-dial which was made by Adam, the son of Martin, on the one part, and the lands

52 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

of Lawrence Cryn on the other, for the yearly payment of twelve pennies, at Whitsiinday and Martinmas, by equal portions. From the solemn specification here made of this solarium or sun-dial, it is likely that in these simple times it had served the burgesses as a public clock or time-keeper.

The next building charter recorded in the Cliartulary refers to the same street ; and by which Abbot Bernard, in 1318, granted a parcel of land in Cobgat to Galfrid Clulbydheued, burgess of Aberbrothoc, for twelve pennies of sterlings, as before. The name Cowgate, as applied to this street, has been lost for ages in common discourse, but its representative is still retained in the writings of the proprietors on the lower part of the High Street, under the altered form of Copegate. The Chartulary shows how the old name Cougate, (our fathers wrote their single u as we now write v, Covgate), successively appears as Cobgate, Copgait, and Copegate. Abbot Bernard inserted a clause in his charter, which is signifi- cant of his active character. He bound the feuar to build a house upon the land granted to him, with a front according to the usage of the burgh, within the first three years.

These writs seem to indicate a considerable degree of progi'ess made by the small town at this period, both in regard to size and prasperity ; it being kept in view that the largest Scottish towns in those days did not exceed in population what is now contained in an ordinary village. Several circumstances combined to give importance to Arbroath in the days of Bruce. From its northerly situation, its distance from the English border, and the intervention of the Firths of Forth and Tay, which would protect it from inflictions to which the more southern districts were exposed, it enjoyed comparative peace during the war of independence, although occasionally annoyed by the shipping of the enemy. A century had elapsed since the foundation of the Abbey, and all its

THE TOWN AND DEPENDENCIES. 53

principal and subsidiary buildings would by this time be erected. The monastic establishment would at that time be in the full vigour of manhood, in possession of all its great endowments, before they began to be alienated, and before the decrepitude of old age and misgovernment had overtaken it. But more than all, the Abbey of Arbroath was the stated residence of the patriot statesman, Abbot Bernard de Linton, who for a period of fully twenty years held the office of Lord Chancellor, under Scotland's greatest monarch, Bruce ; and he, on that account favoured Arbroath with frequent visits, and conferred on it many gifts. From writings still extant it is evident that Bruce was residing at the Abbey in February 1318, May 1319, March 1323, November 1325, and September 1328. There is no doubt that on these occasions he resided in what was then styled the Abbot's Hall, now known as the Abbey House ; and that there, in those trying and arduous times, he and his faithful and large-hearted Chancellor held many an earnest and anxious consultation regarding the means of securing Scotland's kingly independence in defiance of all her foes, whether English, Papal, or Scottish.

For the same reason we believe that the Abbey was chosen as the place of meeting of the great Scottish Council or Parliament in April 1320, which passed the famed declaration of national independence, fi-amed most probably by the Abbot, and addressed to the Pope, and in which they stated their resolution to maintain Scotland free from foreign domination so long as a hundred of their number should remain aJive, let his Holiness, or Edward of England, or even their King, Bruce himself, say or do what they might. Few, if any such documents have ever proceeded from the National Council of this or any other countiy, and the recollection of it ought to hallow the name of Arbroath Abbey and its noble Chancellor Abbot in the breast of every true Scotsman.

64 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

Immediately after the death of Bruce, in 1331, we find the Abbot and Convent granting fens of land in the street called Marketgate, which from the description given of it as running north and south, is the street now known by that name. It was still in process of feuing for a century afterwards, down at least till 1438, an appears from the descriptions in feuing charters of that date. But in the fifteenth century the records of the Abbey refer to a street running east and west, under the name of Aldmercatgate (Old Marketgate). This is not the street previously mentioned, which in reference to it seems to have afterwards acquired its formal waitten name of New Marketgate, still retained as its proper title in feudal writings. In the year 1483, a piece of land is described as lying on the soutli side of the Old Marketgate, which precludes the idea of its having been the Old Shore Head. A few years earlier, in 1474, a charter was granted by the Abbot and Convent to Nicholas Hornar, burgess of Aber- brothock, for his services, of five parcels of land in Aldmercatgate (Antiquum Fori). This Nicholas Hornar was a man of consequence in those days, as we find him a Bailie of Aberbrothock, presiding at a Brieve of Inquest, on 20th October 1483. He would, without doubt, erect houses on the land conveyed to him in the Auldmarketgate. And as the title of Marketgate had already been bestowed on the newer and more spacious street, which still bears that name, we may venture to assume that, from the inconvenience of applying nearly similar names to different streets, the older street or lane came to be ultimately spoken of as Hornar's Wynd, in commemoration of Bailie Hornar, tho builder of part of its houses. Arbroath aflfords several more modern instances of this mode of applying names to streets.

In the fifteenth century the following old streets — including those ah-eady mentioned — are often referred

THE TOWN AND DEPENDENCIES. 55

to by the Chartulary, as in existence, and bounded partly by tenements or houses, and partly by Lands or gardens, viz., Neugate or Newgate ; Seagate, called Segate, Seygat, or Vicus Maris ; Cowgate, called Covgat, Cobgait, or Copgate ; Auldmarketgate, — New Market- gate, or Novus Vicus Fori ; Ratounraw or Rattonraw ; Apilgate or Apylgate ; Lorbui-n, Lordburn, or Lort- burngate ; Millgate, Mylgate, or Myllgayt, with the lands of " Grymsby." All these streets are described as being within the burgh at that time. The ground on the south side of Lordburn, on which the great tan work now stands, was a garden, known by the name of the Greenyard. It was granted on 4th November 1505 as an endowment to the altar of St Nicholas in the Lady Chapel at the west bridge. A rent roll of the year 1455, to be afterwards alluded to, shews that before that time the Abbots had granted the feu-duties of many of the properties in these streets as an endowment to the Lady Chapel.

The milldam still known by the name of the " Mawkin Pool" is mentioned in 1457 as the " Water of Brothac, vulgarly called Malkynnis Pvil," a mode of expression which leads to the belief that the name is derived from the person who first formed the dam or pool for the service of the Burgh Mill. This may have been the father or other relative of Walter Makvnis or or Makwnys, a notary public who acted as clerk to the Abbey Chapter in the years 1494 and 1495. A John Makwnis is also named as a witness to an Abbey Charter on 25th September 1497.

The ground which lay on the south or east side of Malkin's Pool was called, four centuries ago, Cobbscroft, and was bounded on the south by the lands of Patrick Hagus, a person who also possessed houses and gardens in that upper part of the High Street, which was formerly styled the Almory ; some parts of which properties may have descended to him from William Haggus, a proprietor

56 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

in that quarter about 1427, or thirty years earlier. Tliese names seem to be the origin of the term " Haughhows- sched" or " Haghousched," applied in the Abbey writs to a rood of land near the Brothock, about the years 1521, 1530, and 1534 ; and which term has descended to our own times in the shape of Haggis-yard, denoting a spot of ground at the point where the stream of Lordburn falls into the Brothock.

The point where Ladyloan and MUlgate-loan meet at Gayfield was known in 1519, as it is still known, by the names of Touties Neuk, from its being the station where the keeper of the town cows blew on a horn, or touted, in order to bring them home from the Common, By a mis- print in the initial letter, this locality appears in the published Chartulary as " Fowteys Nwyk." About the same period (1513) the Ladyloan is refeiTed to under the name of " Our Lade Lyon" and " Our Ladylone," in rela- tion to the chapel of the Virgin Mary, commonly called Our Lady. At this time a portion of ground on the noi-th side of the Ladyloan belonged to the Priory of the Island of May in the Firth of Forth.

In the same year, 1513, " Brydokys Wynd" was the name of " the common gftyi" which led westward fi*om the Copegate. This wynd is not now known. Newgate had tenements on the west side, one of which, or a part of the road or grounds where it stood, then bore the name of " Bawtak." And at an earlier period the high bank called Boulzie Hill bore its present name, although slightly disguised under the forms of " Bowchishil" or " Bowlishil." There is, perhaps, some connection (which might be explained by those versant in the ancient game of football) between the terms Boulzie Hill and Baw-tak, the latter term denoting a point near the foot of the bank where one would be well placed for taking the ball.

All these localities noticed above appear to have formed part of the burgh at an early period ; and to have been, with a few exceptions, feued fi'om the Abbot and Con-

THE TOWN AND DEPENDENCIES. 57

vent before the death of King Robert Bruce. Very few original charters of building stances below Lordburn appear in the Chartulary after that date ; and when once feued, the writs transferring the properties from father to son, or from seller to purchaser, do not generally appear in the Abbey records, and were probably entered in the burgh records under the charge of the burgh magistrates. In the century preceding the Reformation the principal information regarding tenements and streets in the burgh is to be obtained from those curious documents which detail the grants of tenements, or of annual rents from them, for the support of chapels or altars, such as the altars of St Nicholas and St Dupthacus in the Lady Chapel, and the altar of St Sebastian in St Vigeans* Church, of wliich notices will afterwards be given.

IV. — FORMATION OF NEWER PORTION OF BURGH IN THE ALMORY.

There is a considerable portion of ground, now ranked as within the royalty of Arbroath, which is nowhere described in the Chartulary as forming part of the burgh, down till 1 536, or within twenty-four years of the Refor- mation. This is the eastern portion of the ground which had formed the Old Eleemosynaiy or Almory of the Abbey. The Almory grounds had originally extended alongside of the western part of the proper burgh and the Abbey pre- cinct, reaching from the neighbourhood of the Mawkin Pool, along the ground now occupied by Panmure Street, the back of Lordburn, and up the west side of the High Street, or Almory Street, which it crossed north of Hamilton Green, by Hopemount, till it terminated at the boundaiy of the lands of Smithy-Croft (then called the Croft of the Master Smith or Master of Works), near the North Port. This establishment was in some respects separate from the Abbey, although dependent upon it, as many feu-duties were taken payable expressly for the

58 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

Almory and its Monks. It was situated beyond or out- side the precinct of the Abbey ; and it contained a chapel, which was sometimes styled the Chapel of the Almory, and sometimes the Chapel of St Michael the Archangel. This chapel appears to have been situated near James Street, and not far from the Almory Hall or Great House of the Almory ; and it was reached by a lane or entry leading from the High Street, which at this part was called the Street of the Almory. On the 29th March 1467, Malcolm, Abbot of Aberbrothock, granted to John Chepman, Burgess of Aberbrothock, a charter of a piece of land lying in the Almory of Aberbrothock, betwixt the lands of Jacob Wyot on the south, and the house of the Almory on the north, and the gable of [the Chapel of] St Michael of the Almory on the west, to be held in perpetual feu, for six shillings, "to be given to us, or our Monks of the Almory, at two terms in the year : saving always our right of regality."

This is a specimen of those numerous writs recorded in the Chartulary, from which we see the progress of feuing that part of the Almory ground which is now incorporated within the burgh. This process of feuing appears to have commenced about 1423 with the ground on the High Street, immediately north of Lordburn, till it reached the house and enclosed garden of the Almory, where Mr Suttie's shop, house, and garden are now situated, and which remained unfeued till about the Reformation. The Almory House had a court or close, in which the alms were given to the poor : so that the Almory-close became the best known position of the establishment ; and the neighbouring fields acquired from it the title of the lands of Almerieclose, which they still bear. There are instances of the Almoner's premises bearing this identical name of Almerieclose at Winchester and elsewhere. The feuing out of the Almorj^ grounds was resumed on the north side of the Almory House ; and about 1500 and after- wards, it embraced the grounds about Hopemount, lying

THE TOWN AND DEPENDENCIES. 59

to the north of the Homlow Green, now Hamilton Green. It is probable that the feuing was continued previous to the downfall of the monastic establishment in the year T560. This may account for the circumstance that one part of the Almory grounds (the feued building stances), is now included within the burgh ; while the remaining part of these grounds, viz., the stance of the Almory house and close, the Almory garden, and Almory crofts, not feued at that time, are ranked as extra burghal. It wiU also help to explain the indented and zigzag nature of the burgh boundary between the foot of Lordburn and the North Port, arising from tlie feuing of stances near the street under the demand for houses, while the grounds behind were reserved for the Almory gardens. We have had no means of ascertaining the time when, or the manner in which these grounds were annexed to the burgh, further than that the annexation must have taken place sometime previous to 1564, as in that year the bailies of Arbroath are found deciding as to marches at Almeriecloss. (Old Bui'gh Court Book.)

Whether the term Homlogrene or Homlowgreyn be derived from the hemlocks (vulgarly pronounced hum- locks or humlos), which may have grown on it, or from the process of humbling barley, it is, perhaps, impossible to determine. But the locality in question bore this title at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and about forty years before the gi'eat family of Hamilton had any connection with the Abbey. The name Homlowgreen, still recollected by some of the older inhabitants as in use, is the only term recognised in the Chartulary, and had evidently suggested the corrupted term of Hamilton Green, by which it is now more generally known.

Tlie Chartulary gives no indication that gates were then erected across the streets at Guthrie Port and North Port. The street now called Guthrie Port is simply described as the way leading to the water of Brothock. In the beginning of the sixteenth century persons of the

60 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

name of Guthrie acquired the lands afterwards called Guthrie's Hill and other grounds in this quarter, from which circimistance it is probable that the port and street derived its modem name. Not far from Guthrie Port lay a piece of land known under the names of Guys-dub or Guys-Puyll (goose-dub or goose-pool), apparently near the present boundary of the burgh. The street leading by the North Port, towards Smithy Croft and Barngreen (which were then unfeued), is described in the year 1523 as " the common way leading to the great cemetery," showing that the present burying-ground, to the north of the great church, had been used for purposes of interment previous to that date. The original entrance to it appears to have been from the west — ^probably at the north-west corner, where some remains of an entrance are said to have been recollected by persons of advanced age. It is certain that before the demolition of the church and north precinct wall, there could have been no access to the burying-ground by either of the present modes of entrance. The lesser and more ancient cemetery — the special bury- ing-place of the Monks — appears to have been at the south-east side of the great church, in the northern end of the green, still called on that account the Convent Churchyard.

This subject leads to the observation that, althougli the sites of the Town and Abbey of Arbroath formed part of the old parish of Aberbrothock (St Vigeans) long previous to the foundation of the Abbey, still there is no reason to believe that after that event the Abbey precinct, namely, the sacred plot of ground enclosed within the high walls, properly formed a part either of the parish of St Vigeans or the more modern parish of Arbroath. Like the precincts of other large monastic establishments, the precinct of this Abbey was held as exti-a-parochial, and free from tithes or other parochial burdens — in other words, this piece of ground formed a small parish by itself, of which the great fabric erected on its northern

THE TOWN AND DEPENDENCIES. 61

boundary was the Parish Church, There appears to be no other reason than the contiguity of this ground, and the grounds of Bamgreen, for their being held as parts of the parish of Arbroath since the Reformation.

We have thus traced the process of formation of the streets of Arbroath from 1303 till 1536, when the pub- lished Chartulary terminates. Like many other old Scot- tish towns, Arbroath seems to have increased very little during the two succeeding centuries. With the exception of a few houses at Hamilton Green and Townhead, and some houses erected on the recently-formed streets in the Abbey precinct, the description given of Arbroath, as existing in the year 1742, by the Town Clerk, might almost suit its condition as to size in the days of Cardinal Betoun. He states that the town consisted of two parallel streets (High Street and Marketgate), with three or four bye-lanes or wynds, and a small street on the west side of the water (Millgate). " On the water there are two bridges of stone, one near the north end, another near the sea. The town doth contain about 250 houses, and 2500 inhabitants."

V. — LOCAL TEEMS IN THE TOWN AND NEIGHBOURHOOD.

A few farther remarks on the titles of places in Arbroath and its neighbourhood may here be added.

It is very doubtful whether the now obsolete name of the lower part of the High Street, Covgate or Cowgate, has any relation to the name of cow. There is much more probability that it is derived from an ancient word Ghov, from which have flowed our terms Cove, Covey, Cover, Covert, Covin, Couch, and also our verbs to Cow and to Cower, with the word Coward, and the old Scotch epithets Cowclink and Cowhubie, — all these terms being descriptive of something hollow, hidden, low, or depressed. This is suitable enough to the character of the Cowgate of Arbroath, and also to

62 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

the Cowgates of Forfar, Dundee, and Edinburgh, each of these Streets being in a hollow or low situation^ under the shelter of neighbouring heights.

" That part of the High Street called the Roitenraw," is a phrase descriptive of the properties on the west side of the High Street from the Kirk Wynd to Lordbui-n. It was literally a row of houses facing the high wall of the Abbey which lined the street on the east, as may be seen in an old engraved view of the Town ; and it first appears in the Chartulary in the year 1496 under the name of " the Eattounraw." The term Rotten is evidently a corruption of some older word. There are numerous instances of the same name, Rottenrow, in old towns and villages both in Scotland and England. The term has also been applied to farm tofts or hamlets, such as those of that name in the Parishes of Panbride and Arbirlot, and it is the name of a favourite drive at Hyde Park, London, Various solutions of the term have been given, but none of them are altogether satisfactory. It was suggested to Dr Jamieson that it might come from the German Rot, from which is derived their Rotmaster or master of processions, and might be equivalent to Routine, or Retinue Row, from the street being traversed by religious processions. But the name is found in situations where there was little chance of monkish processions being ever seen. A learned friend has stated to us that a similar term is derived from the Hebrew Roshen, which in Chaldee becomes Roten, and signifies " chief or principal ;" and also that the Hebrew has Rotzen or Rotzeen, which appears in Chaldee as Roten or Rotun, and signifies " pleasure or delight ;" and that he thinks it probable that the first derivation may be the real one, and that the second in course of time may have been combined with it, as has very often happened in the history of words. Without expressing a decided opinion, we would remark that this old word Rotten is only found

THE TOWN AND DEPENDENCIES. 63

in conjunction with Row, and never, to our knowledge, with gate, vennel, road, street, or wynd; and that the houses in Arbroath bearing that combined title seem to have been erected more continuously, and in a more regular manner, than those above and beneath them. Continuous rows of houses, as already remarked, were rarely found in ancient Scotland ; and it is possible that the term Kottenrow takes its origin from some old word, whence have also flowed the German Rot (retinue or procession), and our words Rote and Rotation ; and that Rottenrow signifies a row of houses or trees (as in an avenue) following one another, by rotation or in regular succession.

Lordhurn is very probably a contracted form of My Lord Abbot's Burn, having reference to the stream which traverses it after passing near the residence of the Lord Abbot. It was formerly called Lordburn-gate, or the street along which my Lord's burn flowed.

The name of the neighbouring small street, although of a much more modern date, the Abbey Path, is to be accounted for by the steepness of its ascent. The road leading up the bank from Millgate Loan to the Common was also styled " The Peth" in the Town records. The term path was applied originally to a road leading up a steep bank or hill, only fit to be used by foot travellers, and came to be applied generally to steep and hilly roads, such as Cockburn's Path, Path-Condie, Path of Struie, Path of Kirkaldy ; the latter having as in other instances given the popular name to the village of Pathhead. The translators of the Bible have employed the term as descriptive of ways which, in a religious sense, lead both upward and downward.

The thrashing barns of the Abbey had stood on the high and once exposed piece of land on the north of the burial ground, which bears the name of Baimgreen ; although the teind barns and granaries would, as at other monasteries, be situated within the precinct. But this

64 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

enclosed spot would be unfitted for the winnowing pro- cess required at the thrashing barns. The Fisher Acre is believed to have obtained its title on account of its having been possessed by the person whose duty it was to supply the Convent with fresh fish, of which, in Lent especially, considerable quantities were used. The level and swampy grounds to the east of the precinct, were termed the Hay Meadows, from their crops of meadow hay ; hence their popular name of The Hays. The land behind Springfield evidently at one time belonged to the Abbey Punder, the officer who had the charge of their woods and forests, and who derived his cormnon title from the exercise of one of his functions in poinding or impounding cattle found straying on his grounds. This elevated piece of land is styled in the Chartulary Pwndir- law or Punderlawfeild. The Convent seems to have had a separate Punder in charge of their woods at Kingoldrum, as the Punder' s Cairn is mentioned as situated on the Abbey Lands in that district. About the year 1563 the Town Council of Arbroath committed the charge of their grounds to two officers, under the same name of Punders. The Cellarer's croft and Graniter's croft will Ije afterwards alluded to.

The neighbouring lands of Tarry are invariably written Terre or Terry in the old monastic records. The houses which had been erected on the site now occupied by the farm-steading of Warddykes, evidently derived their name from their situation near the fences of those grounds, which were termed by the Abbots with emphasis as " Our Ward." In 1526 the Convent leased for nineteen yeai-s " that piece of land of Varddykyshyll (Ward- dykes-hill) between the Abbot's Vard to the west, and the king's way which leads to Northterre ;" and in 1 531 the lands of Damsdale are described as bounded by the " Abbot's lands, commonly called the Vard, and the king's way, on the east." The Ward may have derived its title from its being kept or reserved in the Abbot's hands as a

THE TOWN AND DEPENDENCIES. 65

home farm, or as pasture fields for the horses of the Con- vent ; as it does not appear to have been let to tenants like the neighbouring lands. The little valley betwixt the Dale School and the remains of the Wardmill-hill, is very accurately described in 1531 under the Saxon name of Damysdayll, that is, Damsdale, from the dams or pools which it contained. It seems to have afterwards received the name of Dammindale or Demmindale, that is, the valley of the little dam ; and now often appears under the semi-satanic title of Demondale. The Cunnyngayr or Gunynghill lay to the west of Damindale, and now receives the name of Wardmill-hill. The original name is to be derived from its vicinity to the Abbey kennel or doghouse. The Abbot was one of the great barons of the county, and as such was bound to keep dogs, so that at certain seasons of the year he might join the other barons under the direction of the Sheriff' " to chase and seek the quhelpes of the woolfes and gar slaie them." This law seems to have given origin to our county kennels or packs of dogs. Cairnie was the common name of a fortalice or castle, according to the Gaelic speech ; of which there" are innumerable instances, either in its simple form, as in this instance, signifying " the Castle," or combined with other terms in the forms of GairUy Cam, Car, Cars, Kar, Kern, Ker. The fort which stood at Cairnie is to be ascribed to a period anterior to the settlement of the Gothic races in the district of Arbroath. An Abbey writ dated 20th October 1483, refers to a cross at Arbroath, commonly called Maldgraym, which afterwards gave its name to a piece of grass land, termed in the Burgh Court Book Madie Gramis Groce. The grass of this plot was let for many years about 1620-30, along with the grass of BoulziehUl, Seagate, and Newgate. It is probable that the cross had stood upon or near Hill Place, but we have not learned its origin. Besides the above and other terms which are alluded to in these pages, the writings of the Abbey contain the names of

66 ABBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

many other places in its vicinity, which are not known to or not used by the present inhabitants. Some of them are as follows : — The Cowchour Bank, apparently on the east side of Copegate ; the Sandypots and Madyr Croft, near Hill Terrace ; the Tansy Bank, and the Constables' Croft, belonging to the Constable of Dundee, near the Old Market Gate ; the Dunnekvn Garden, near the Abbey ; the Durward's Yard, which had belonged to the door- keeper or warder of the Abbey Gate ; the Giiest Croft or Oiiest Meadow, where the horses of strangers were sent to pasture ; and the Goose Croft, where the Abbey geese were allowed to feed in the vicinity of the Guysdub or Guyspuylh

CONSTITUTION. OF BURGH. G7

CHAPTER II.

Constitution and Rank of the Burgh.— Arbroath at First a Burgu of Barony and Regality ; Made a Free Burgh by Special Grants : Temporarily Represented in f abliausnt a.d. 1579 : Made a Proper R0Y.VL Burgh in 1599.

The period when Arbroath was first constituted a Royal Burgh has been considered a question of some uncertainty. A minute examination of the Abbey writings is fitted to lead to the conclusion that, although from the time of King David II., in 1351 — at least Arbroath enjoyed several immunities similar to those of Royal Burghs — it did not hold the proper rank of a Royal Burgh, with right of representation in Parliament, till after the Refor- mation. The position of Arbroath in this respect was somewhat anomalous ; and may be compared to that of its Abbots, who, although not Bishops, were still entitled to use the style and insignia of Bishops.

By two charters of David II. the regality of Arbroath and its burgh were declared toll free, or protected against such local impositions as were formerly levied on all merchandise ; and also custom fee, and entitled to pass their exports of wool, hides, taUow, salmon, &c., by virtue of its own koket, as fully as was the case with the king's burghs. There are not many instances, after the dates of these charters, of the use of the phrase " our Burgh," by the Abbot and Convent ; the usual phrase being rather " the Burgli." The older expression was still, however, occasionally used, and occurred so late as 1534 — within thirty years of the dissolution of the Abbey. Another

68 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

fact which militates against the idea of Arbroath being then a royal burgh is that, down at least till the begin- ning of the sixteenth century, the Chartulary occasionally contains both original feuing charters, and chai-ters of confirmation of tenements in Copegate, Rottenrow and other parts of the original Burgh, to be held burgage for feu-duties to be paid to the Monks of the Abbey. A list of these duties was recorded in the Town's books so late as 1605. Tlie Monks have very carefully preserved and recorded King David's grants as to the great customs and right of koket. They have also recorded the charter of King James I. in 1436, confirming their privileges of regality ; with the charter of King James V., in 1529, confirming their rights of koket and custom ; and even the charter of King James IV., in 1495, by which he erected their village of Torry, near Aberdeen, into a burgh of barony, under the Abbot and Convent. But none of these writs afford any indication that Arbroath was removed from under the Abbot, as its overlord of regality, to the immediate superiority of the king, so as to raise it to the rank of a proper royal burgh. And we cannot conceive that a change of so much importance to the Abbey could have taken place without its being recorded in the Abbey archives, and without the effects of the change being indicated more or less distinctly in such subsequent writs as related to the Burgh in its con- nection with the lord Abbot and Convent. The burghs of Arbroath and Brechin do not appear among the twenty-two royal burghs mentioned in the Chamber- lain's accounts for 1330, although Forfar, Dundee, Mon- trose, and even Fyvie in Aberdeenshire, there appear as King's Burghs.

It has been already stated that the registering of writs in the Arbroath Chartulary, so far as yet found, terminates in ] 536. Lord John Hamilton, Commendator of Arbroath at the Reformation, and for many years afterwards, was next heir to the throne after Queen Mary and her young

CONSTITUTION OF BURQH. 69

son James IV., and his possessions were the greatest and richest in Scotland. It is not till the sudden downfall of the powerful family of the Hamiltons, in 1579, that we liave any evidence of the Burgh of Arbroath being repre- sented in Parliament ; while the neighbouring Burghs of Montrose and Forfar appear to have been represented, at least for several years previous to that time, as shown by the records of such Parliaments as contain lists of mem- bers. Upon Lord John's outlawry, in May 1579, the Abbacy and Lordship of Arbroath was held as vacant, and fallen into the hands of the king, who thus became the immediate superior of the burgh and other dependen- cies of the regality. And the formal forfeiture of Lord John, his brother, and many more of the same name, was determined on and carried into effect in the Parliament which met on the 20th October of that year. The Commissioner of Arbroath for the first time appears in Parliament on that day, when it is recorded that " David Person" compeared by his attorney ; and the " Commis- sioner" for Aberbrothock is again mentioned in the session or sederunt of 11th November following. This repre- sentative is " David Peirsone, burges of Aberbrothock," who after the Reformation obtained the lands called Barngreen, for a feu-duty of eight shillings Scots. No representative of Arbroath as a burgh is recorded as appearing in Parliament again for a long period after this year. It seems to have been practically unrepre- sented even subsequent to the date of the Royal Town Charter, till the Parliaments of Charles I. in 1643 and 164-4, when John Ochterlony acted as Commissioner. It is likely that, according to the feudal principles which regulated the constitution of Scottish parliaments, David Peirson's short-lived appearance for Arbroath in the year 1 579, arose from the Burgh being dependent at that time on the king directly, as its feudal superior, or lord of regality ; and as the parliaments were in one sense equivalent to the king's regality courts, and as Arbroath

70 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

could not then be represented, as foraierly, by Lord John Hamilton, the former subject superior, it became both the privilege and the duty of the Burgh to appear by its representative in the Great Court or Parliament of its immediate overlord the king.

But this state of matters did not continue long. Within a few years afterwards the Hamiltons were restored ; and King James having, in 1599, granted a formal charter to Arbroath, as to many other burghs, regularly constituting it into a corporation, holding of himself as its immediate superior, he the following year granted a charter of the Abbacy, with certain exceptions, to James Hamilton (afterwards second Marquis of Hamilton), in whose favour it was, by Act of Parliament, in 1606, erected into a temporal lordship. In the preface to this erection the Abbacy is described as " being in his Majesty's hands, be resignation made thereof by the Abbot and Convent of the same ;" although many years previously such per- sonages had existed only in name, if not perhaps rather in imagination.

This view of the former burghal rank of Arbroath agrees in general with that expressed by the Town Clerk in 1742, with the exception that we have not seen that the king's charter expressly refers to any " old evidences of royalty." His words are — " It was certainly the Abbot's burgh before the E^formation, although the charter of erection from King James the Sixth, in 1599, bears a novodamus [i.e., a renewal of a former grant], and assigns a reason that these old evidences of royalty [?] had been abstracted by the Bishop of Murray. Yet even before the Reformation the burgesses had considerable privileges, being under the immediate jurisdiction of two bailies, whereof one was chosen by themselves and the other named by the Abbot."

.The Town Charter of Arbroath is commonly termed a Charter of Novodamus, although it contains something morethan a mere renewal of former grants. This pecu-

CONSTITUTION OF BURGH. 71

liarity is confirmatory of the views already expressed. The charter narrates very fully that " the village of Aberbrothock, lying within the regality of Aberbrothock, with the houses, buildings, lands, &;c., of old, was erected, confirmed, and endued with all liberties pertaining to a free burgh, by our most noble progenitors." But it does not indicate that it had before that date held the rank of a royal burgh. After narrating the robbery of its ancient evidences from the Abbey, " where the said infeftments, ancient erection, and confirmations of the said burgh for the time were set in order," the king proceeded to " con- fu'm the ancient erection of the said burgh into one free Burgh, with all privileges, &c., of which the burgesses and inhabitants, at whatsoever times bypast, were in posses- sion." Tliis part of the chai-ter is thus only a confit^ia- tion of the old privileges of a free burgh of regality, with freedom of customs, &c., as formerly enjoyed. It is by the succeeding portion of the king's charter that Arbroath is made a royal burgh. In that part he says — " We OF NEW constitute, create, erect, and incorporate, all and haiU, the village and burgh of Aberbrothock, with all and sundrie buildings, lands, &c., in one free Burgh and Burgh-Royal of Aberbrothock, in all time coming." The fiamers of this Act had been well acquainted with the previous position of Arbroath, namely, that it had not been a royal burgh but a regality burgh, with free privileges of custom and other immunities.

The conclusions to which the various documents bear- ing on the point are fitted to lead is, that Arbroath, like several other Scotch towns, rose step by step from the lowest to the highest rank of burghs ; in other words, that it was first a burgh of barony, then a burgh of regality, and latterly a royal or parliamentary burgh. This is illustrated by the manner in which the town is described, many years after it was known to have been a royal burgh, in the title-deeds of the families of Harail-

72 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

ton and Panmure. In some of these writings Arbroath is occasionally styled a burgh of barony, and at other times a burgh of barony and regality, the bailies of which the Earls of Panmure are stated to have the privilege of appointing. In illustration of the municipal position of Arbroath, it may be remarked that the neighbouring town of Brechin, although dignified with the title of city, in reference to its bishop and cathedral church, was not properly a royal burgh till so late a period as 1695, or nearly a century after Arbroath received its royal corpo- ration charter. Before this time it appears to have been merely a burgh of regality, holding of the bishop as its overlord or superior, notwithstanding a charter of erection granted by Charles I. in 1641. While existing as a burgh of regality it had privileges of trade like Arbroath and other burghs which held of great church lords, and had the burden of sending a commissioner to Parliament. Its erec- tion into a free royal burgh was under a reservation some- what similar to the case of Arbroath, namely, a privilege to the Earls of Panmure of choosing one of the bailies of the burgh, who shall be " constable and justiciar therein." The power of nominating one of the bailies of Arbroath was held by the Abbots till the Reformation. For some time after that event the Councillors of Arbroath elected annually a bailie for the Town and another bailie for the Place (the Abbey.) From 1617 to 1636 this bailie was nominated by a Commissioner of the Marquis of Hamil- ton ; and he was, during several years thereafter, elected by the Councillors, till the power was resumed by the Earls of Panmure, as proprietors of the Abbacy. They retained this privilege till about the middle of last century, when it is said to have been renounced. The Act of Parliament abolishing the Scottish heritable jurisdictions in 174)8 would be a sufficient cause for the renunciation of such a power, as that Act limited the functions of magis- trates thus appointed to a fraction so small as to render the retention of such a prerogative almost worthless.

ANGUS IN TWELFTH CENTURY. 73

CHAPTER III

Social State op Angcs in the Twelfth Cextort. — Condition op Rural and Urban Population at the Time op the Founda- tion OF Arbroath Abbey : Slavery op the Rural Population : Power op the Barons : Burghs as Fountains op Liberty and Progress : Emblems of Burghal Freedom in Arbroath and other Burghs : Early State of Urban Inhabitants.

We, in this nineteenth centurj'-, can form but a very faint idea of the important privileges which the inhabi- tants of Arbroath five or six centuries ago would derive from the place having been created a free burgh of regality, nearly equal to the rank of a royal burgh. With this view, it is worth while to take a cursory view of the state of the population of Scotland before the erection of burghs, and of those who for sometime afterwards con- tinued to live beyond the reach of bui-ghal privileges. And, in connection with this subject, it may be allowable to allude to a few of the many bygone marks which served to denote the wide distinction which formerly existed betwixt the rural and urban populations. The following description applies chiefly to the eastern counties betwixt Forth and Spey, which formed the ancient king- dom of Scotland, and the centre of which was occupied by the district of Angus, rather than to the Saxon people of ancient Lothian, or to the then pure Celtic inhabitants of the Highlands, Galloway, and Nithsdale.

With the exception of the barons and the clergy, the extra-burghal inhabitants, about the time of the founda-

74s ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

tion of Arbroath Abbey, were, in every sense of the word, slaves. They bore the distinctive name of "thralls," or bondmen, in public documents. They were bom slaves, and as such they lived and died. They were unable to hold any property in land ; but they could be, and often were, conveyed along with the lands as part of the purchase. Several of the older grants to the religious houses con- veyed lands, with all the men upon them, just as a conveyance or sale of land at the present time includes (if it does not express) all the hares, partridges, and grouse that may be found on it. They were also some- times bestowed on religious houses separate from lands, and distinguished by their names, as slaves are stUl trans- ferred in America. Cristine, daughter of Walter Corbet, gave to the Canons of St Andrews, to be held on their lands of the village of Maurice, Martin, son of Vnieti, with his sons and daughters (nativi of the late Walter Corbet), and that in perpetual servitude, with all genera- tions of their posterity. (Reg. St Andrews, p. 262.)

The goods, liberties, and even the lives of these bond- men were as completely at the disposal of the barons or landholders as those of Russian serfs are at the disposal of the Czar's nobility at the present day. Their condi- tion was even worse, for the kings of Scotland never possessed that power of controlling or meliorating baronial oppression which the Czar is now exercising. These barons often held the lives of tlieir bondmen at little value ; and they were enjoined by the old laws to have always in readiness pit and gallows, or gibbet and draw- well, for the more convenient hanging of men and drown- ing of women.

The powers of life and death over their vassals were retained and exercised by the great Scottish barons until a comparatively recent period, in their characters of judges and feudal superiors, long after they lost the proper powers of slaveholders over the persons of their dependents. Many memorials of the stern enforcement

ANGUS IN TWELFTH CENTURY. 75

of this judicial power still remain in the names of the

Gallow-towns, Gallow-dens, Gallows-knowes, Gallow-hills, and Widdie-hills, which are to be found near the seats of the old barons. The executioner was accordingly in those days an indispensable officer in every baron's court ; and the piece of ground which formed his proper patrimony still bears in some places the name of the Hangman's Acre, or the Hangman's Croft. Although Scotland now possesses a population probably six times more numerous than in some of the periods to which we have referred, it is at the present time totally destitute of such an official. Hence the complaint which has been ironically put into the mouth of the Society for the Protection of Scottish Eights that, among other wants, Scotland does not possess so much as one hangman, and could not put a capital sentence into execution without borrowing such a func- tionary from England.

The state of bondage in which a large proportion of the inliabitants of Scotland were formerly held was more complete, and can be much better established than is generally believed. As in the Southern States of the American Union at the present day, laws were enacted containing punishments on all who connived at or abetted the attempts of the unfortunate " thralls" to escape from their bondage. Thus, one of the laws of King William, the same monarch who founded Arbroath Abbey, was passed for restoring back to their slave masters born serfs or thralls who had fled from their bondage. It provides that, " if any man holds a bondman who is kind-born (i.e., born a slave) to another, after he be asked of liLs true lord, he sail yield the bondman with all his goods and cattle, and sail give to the lord of the bondman double of all his scaiths by him sustained, and be in the king's mercy for his wrangous withholding." Even King David, the great patron and protector of the burghs, had no idea of giving liberty from bondage to his poorer subjects, unless within the ports of his royal burghs. One of the

76 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

laws of this King, who was, in many respects, in advance of his age, reminds us of some of the American Negro laws. It provides that, " Gif ony man be fundin in the king's land that has nae proper lord, after that the king's writ be read within the king's mutes (i.e., the king's courts), he sail have the space of fyfteen days to get him a lord. And gif that he, within the said term, finds nae lord, the king's justice sail tak of him to the king's use aught kye (eight cows), and kepe his body to the king's behoof till he get him a lord." Thus it appears the bondman was held bound to provide a slave master for himself. Not only was the poor thrall doomed to slavery all his lifetime, but his children were born slaves, and transmitted their thraldom through unlimited generations. The last remains of this state of things were found among the colliers and salters on the shores of the Firth of Forth, who remained in slavery till they were emancipated by Acts of Parliament not more than a hundred years ago. The following singular statement of a case, and the solution given to it, found among our oldest laws, exhibits a resolution to perpetuate the stigma and mis- fortune attendant on slavery to the slave's wife and children, even where the mother of his children did not belong to the doomed class of thralls. It bears the title of " A gude were of law," and proceeds in these set terms — " Twa sisters (freewomen) has an heritage as richteous heirs, — the tane taks a thrall (i.e., marries a bondman) ; the tother taks a freeman : She that taks the freeman has all the heritage (i.e., she shall possess the whole heri- tage) ; for this, that ane thrallman may have nane : Tlie thrallman begets a bairn with his wife : The bondman dees : The bondman's wife, her husband (being) dead, gaes till her heritage, and enjoys it for her lifetime : The wife dees : (The question then arises,) May the son recover the heritage ? (The answer is,) Na, he shall nocht, for this (cause), that he was begotten with that thraU's body that is dead."

ANGUS IN TWELFTH CENTURY. 77

At the period of which we are speaking, the class of our population known by the name of farmers had no exis- tence. For centuries afterwards, agiicultural tacksmen were only known as " the puir people that labour the ground." They were almost all tenants at will ; and such leases as they could obtain were looked upon as mere private arrangements, to be set at nought on any change in the proprietor's position, or any transference of the property. Their goods were liable to be seized for the proprietor's debt, because they were situated on his lands, and were also liable to. be carried off, for the same reason, by escheat or forfeiture if he was convicted of rebellion or other crimes. Even in the case of a private sale of the estate, the purchaser had power to disregard the leases of the tenants, and turn them off as soon as he entered on possession. This continued to be the case down till the reign of King James II., in 1449, when the Parliament " ordained, for the safety and favour of the puir people that labours the ground, that they and all others that has taken, or sail tak, lands in time to come frae lords, and has terms and years thereof, that, suppose the said lords sell or annalie that land, the takers sail remain with their tacks unto the issue of their terms, whas hands soever these lands cum to, for sicklike mail as they took them for." A short view of the principal steps by which the emancipation of the Scottish peasantry from their original state of feudal thraldom was effected, will be given in a note appended to this volume. (See Appendix No. I.)

Barbour, the old Scottish poet, understood something of the condition of Scottish serfs, whom he terms " thryUs," as appears from the following lines : —

" And thryldom ia weill wer than deid,* For quhill a thryll his lyff may leid, It meryst him, body and banys. And dede anoyis him bot anys : Schortly to say, is nane can tell The haille conditioun of a thryll.":}:

* Well worse than dcatli. + Mars or ruins. + Barbour's Bruce, Book I.

78 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY. ^

Such was the state of the rural population of the Low- lands of Scotland about the time that Arbroath came into historical notice by the planting of King William's princely Abbey in its vicinity. But it is well known that the barons and great landlords of Scotland often made their powers to be formidably felt by the monarch on the throne, their professed superior, as well as by the poor vassals, who were both really and professedly their slaves. To obtain a counter-balance to these powers, and having witnessed the wealth and enterprise which the free towns of the Continent had introduced into the states where their liberties were protected. King David made it his object to establish as many such corporations as possible in his kingdom. He erected many of his towns and villages into free burghs, holding of himself, and hence styled burghs royal. From the influence of his example, the Abbots and other great lords of regality formed their villages into burghs, holding of them, and styled burghs of regality ; while the barons erected the hamlets near their castles into burghs of barony, with privileges more or less extensive.

The nature of the inducements held out by King David for men to settle in his burghs, as well as the contrast between the freedom of a burgess, and the bondage of what was then styled an upland man or thrall, will be best understood from the following two specimens of his enactments. The first provides that, " Gif ony man's thrall, baron's or knycht's, comes to burgh, and buys a bon'owage, and dwells in his borrowage a twelvemonth and a day withoutyn challenge of his lord or of his bailie, he sail be ever mare free as a burgess within that king's burgh, and enjoy the freedom of that burgh.' Another is in these terms : King David statutes that all burgesses " suld be free through all his kinrik, as weil be water as be land, to buy and to sell, and their profit for to do, withoutyn ony disturbance, under full forfeiture : the which are under his firm protection."

ANGUS IN TWELFTH CENTURY. 79

From these, and many other illustrations which might be given, we may come to understand something of the force and point of such expressions as " the freedom of the burgh," and " the liberties of the burgh," which occur so frequently in the documents connected with every muni- cipal corporation in Scotland. At the time when these phrases were adopted, they truly described the existing state of burghs as distinguished from the extra-burghal territory. Within the bounds of the burgh was the domain of liberty and freedom ; beyond these boundaries lay the domains of thraldom and servitude. The bur- gesses were both proud and jealous of their liberties ; and to mark these the more distinctly, they built ports or arched gateways over the public thoroughfares at the points where they crossed the burgh boimdaries. Of such gateways the inhabitants of Arbroath are still reminded by the names of the North Port, Guthrie Port, and West Port, erected apparently some time after the Reformation ; and such ports remained in many burghs till within the last century. The town treasurer's accounts for 1608 contain various charges for the repairs of the North Port during a pestilence which was then prevailing. The ports were not intended to serve as defences against assaults from without, so much as to be visible badges of the political and social distinction between those who lived on either side of the structures, for very few of our Scottish towns appear to have been surrounded with walls or fortifications fitted to withstand a siege.

These ports were frequently associated with spectacles of a nature so loathsome and melancholy that the recol- lection of them makes us less to regret the demolition of our town-gates. These were, first, the lepers (" the lipper folk"), who were not " tholed to thig" within the burghs, but were allowed on certain days of the week to sit at the ports and receive alms from the passers-by. This continued to be the case till the reigns of the Jameses. They were also the places where the heads and limbs of

80 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

malefactors, offenders against the State, were exposed to rot and blacken in the sun. This barbarous practice con- tinued till the Revolution of 1688. The heads and hands of the Covenanters, smeared with tar, were the last of these dismal relics which were publicly exhibited at our burgh ports ; but this was done in the southern and western districts of Scotland rather than in Forfarshire.

Another distinctive badge of the burgh was its market- cross, or according to the ancient orthography, its rmrcat eroce. Wliile only a portion of our Scottish burghs pos- sessed ports, every burgh, even the smallest burgh of barony with its seven or eight score inhabitants, had a cross. And the cross, like the freedom of the burgh, was in those days not a name but a reality. It was not a mere circle of stones in the pavement, but a pillar with its upper part formed like a Latin cross, and often having for its basement a series of three or four stone-steps, either round or polygonal, and arranged in a pyramidical form. The most primitive market-cross now existing is perhaps that of the village of Dull, in Perthshire. In the more important burghs the steps supported a building of con- siderable size, generally octagonal in form, and containing a staircase leading to a platform, surrounded by a parapet or railing. These buildings sometimes exhibited consider- able taste, as in that of Aberdeen still existing, and in that at Edinburgh foolishly demolished. The proper cross or pillar in such cases was erected in the centre of the platform ; and the platform was a convenient position for heralds, officers, and public speakers. When crosses feU into disrepute, at the Reformation, the arms of the cross were cut off, and the stone generally now appears (where market-crosses yet remain) in the simple form of a round pillar surmounted by a unicorn. The mutilated stone unicorn which is said to have surmounted the cross of Arbroath was very lately, if it is not still, to be seen in the garden of Mr Andson of Friockheim. We have not been able to learn the precise construction of the

ANGUS IN TWELFTH CENTURY. 81

Cross of Arbroath, which stood, not at that part of the High Street where three successive town-houses have been built, but almost at the foot of that street, not far from the Old Shore Head. When printing was unknown, or but sparingly used, town crosses were objects of importance. They were the points from which all edicts and proclamations were published. The acts of the Scottish Parliament had to be read and proclaimed at the crosses of at least all the King's burghs, until which time they were not held to be in force ; and (which appears strange to us) they were not even then considered to have full legal effect if the proclamation was met at that moment by a counter protest, at the instance of any party who considered his rights to be compromised by the law so proclaimed. Our history affords several instances of stealing marches in order to get an obnoxious law proclaimed before its opponents could be ready with their protest.

In the vicinity of the market cross were the merchants' shops, then termed booths, with their fronts open to the street. The goods were withdrawn into the inner part of the building at night, and reexposed in the morning. Arbroath does not now seem to possess any houses built on this plan, although numerous instances may be found in some other towns. One of these booths was always used as the place for collecting the tolls or customs of the burgh, from which use the name of Tolbooth is derived. The magnates of the burgh natui-ally assem- bled at the Tolbooth for public business ; and the place of confinement for delinquents, as a matter of convenience, was constructed there. Hence the original term, first formed to denote an open shed or booth for the receipt of custom, came afterwai'ds to be the name of a town-house, and is now known as the old-fashioned and somewhat obsolete title of a Scotch jail.

To us who have seen the peculiar privileges of burgesses accounted of so little value as to have been

S2 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

abolished by Parliament without a solitary voice raised m favour of their retention, it is interesting to look backwards through a period of seven hundred years to the time when these privileges were first obtained, cherished, watched over, and guarded with such jealous care. The apathy with which we have witnessed their abolition might have been caused by a knowledge of evils arising out of the abuse of such privileges, greater than the advantage derivable from them, or from indifference to the cause of liberty and freedom itself. A better reason can however be assigned for the modern depreciated estimate of burghal privileges. In early times the burghs, hke wells and reservoirs in a dry and thii-sty land, were highly prized and carefully protected, as the only fountains of freedom in the midst of an enslaved and depressed population. But when the wilderness becomes a pool of water, and the diy land is turned into water springs (to bon-ow a metaphor from the Sacred Scriptures), when water can be readily obtained anjrwhere and every- where, then particular fountains will necessarily lose their comparative high value, and cease to be objects of anxiety. So, in like manner when, in consequence of the merciful spirit of Christianity, and the diffusion of wise and liberal political principles, the inhabitant of every village and hamlet now enjoys as much personal and political liberty as could be secured to an ancient burgess, these corporation privileges, however valuable in themselves, and venerable as the first fruits of freedom, have lost their comparative impor- tance, and have ceased to stand in need of statutory protection, — not because the burgess has in any respect sunk down from his proud position to the lower level of the upland man or thrall, but because every upland man throughout the kingdom has risen to the level of the once envied platform of the burgess or king's free- xQian.

ANGUS IN TWELFTH CENTURY. 83

If the condition of the Scottish peasantry generally about the time of the formation of burghs was, as we have seen, very melancholy, the state of the inhabitants of these burghs themselves was not by any means to be envied by us who live in times of greater freedom and higher civilisation. The glimpses we obtain of their manners exhibit that jealous care of small possessions, and vindictive punishment of the least aggressions upon these, which is characteristic of a poor people, together with the comparatively little value put upon human life which characterises a bar- barous people.

The following excerpts from the burgh laws will help to illustrate the first part of this remark. By one of these it is provided that — " Gif a burgess or ony other halds swine or other beasts through the whilk the neigh- bours taks skaith, the swine fundin in the skaith with- outen ony keeper following them, may well be slain, and made escheat, and eaten after the law of the burgh." Another provides that — " Gif ony finds gait or geese in his scaith (i.e., doing mischief to his property), he sail tak the heads off the geese, and fasten the nebs in the yird, and the bodies he sail eat, — the gaits, forsooth, he shall slay and hald the bodies for escheat." The " statute of theft" is an illustration of the low value of human life in former times. It exhibits an extraordinary gradation both in the crime and the corresponding punishment, in the following terras — " Gif ony be tane with the laff of a halfpenny in burgh, he aught to be dung through the toune ; and frae a halfpenny worth to four pennies, he aught to be mair sairly dung ; and for a pair of schone of four pennies, he ought to be put on the cukstool, and after that, led to the head of the toune, and there he sail forswear the toune (i.e., he shall swear to leave the town for ever) ; and frae four pennies till aught pennies and a farthing, he sail be put upon the cukstool, and after that, led to the head of the toune, and there he that took him

84 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

aught to cut his ear off ; and frae aught pennies and a farthing to saxteen pennies and a halfpenny he sail be set upon the cukstool, and after that led to the head of the toune, and there he that took him aught to cut his other ear off; and after that, gif he be tane with aught pennies and a farthing, he that taks him sail hang him. Item, for threttie-twa pennies one halfpenny, he thai taks a man may hang him."

Til ere are documents found among our old laws show- ing similar gradations as to crimes against the person. By one of these the life of a man may be compounded for by " nine score kye ; and another contains the following item in a valuation put upon all sorts of Eissaults — " For a man's life, twelve mark." There is more agreement between these two apparently contradictory modes of valuing human life than is seen at the first view. By the first, the life of a poor thief is forfeited through his stealing thirty-two pence halfpenny. By the second, the rich criminal is allowed to redeem his own life when forfeited for murder, by one hundred and eighty cattle. Two shillings and eightpence halfpenny were accounted of more value than the life of the thief who was unable to redeem himself; and one hundred and eighty cows were accounted fully equivalent to the life of the victim if his murderer was wealthy enough to be able to give them.

ARBROATH FROM 1440 TO 1640. 85

CHAPTER IV.

Arbroath from 1440 to 1640.— Depression of Scotland in the Fifteenth Century : Civil Broils : Ch^vmberlain Aires : Subjects of Investi- gation : Condition of Craftsmen : Arbroath at the Reformation, and after its erection into a Rotal Burgh.

We have to regret the scanty notices afforded for the history of Arbroath during the dominion of the Romish Church, when the little burgh was overlooked in conse- quence of the contiguity of its gorgeous neighbour the monastery. Boyce, the historian, who was born in Dundee about 1465, does not even so much as name Arbroath in his general description of Scotland.

The period which intervened from the reign of Robert Bruce till the Reformation may be fitly termed the dai-k ages of Scottish history, when, instead of the surplus wealth with which the country abounded before the death of Alexander III. (as shewn by the sumptuous abbeys and cathedrals erected previous to that melancholy event), the demon of war ravaged the land, followed by its never-failing attendants, famine and pestilence. During these unhappy times, the population decreased, trade became almost unknown, lands formerly cultivated were allowed to run waste, all improvement was arrested, and the central government became weak and contemptible through the poverty of the royal estate, and the short reigns and comparatively long minorities of the kings of the Stuart line. And, as the royal power was dimi- nished, the irregular and usurped powers of the great barons increased ; and they, being generally wholly

86 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

illiterate, unable to fill up their spare time by reading or other polite studies, and despising, through fashion, every peaceable occupation, were never pleased except when engaged in the prosecution of some feud or broil.

One of our historians, Lindsay of Pitscottie, in describ- ing the state of matters about 14.39, during the minority of James II., — a melancholy period, — says, " Albeit thir three plagues and scourges reigned amongst us [dearth, pestilence, and war], yet nevertheless some men made them never to mend their lives, but rather daily became worse ; diverse others that complained upon the enormi- ties that they sustained got little or no redress ; wherefore the people began to weary and curse that ever it chanced them to live in such wicked and dangerous times." That Arbroath did not want its full share of these calamities may be fairly concluded from the occurrence of the fierce and bloody skirmish which took place, on a Sabbath day in January l^-io-G, at its gates, between the partisans of the Lindsays and Ogilvies, when contending for the Bailiery of the Abbey, of which an account, often quoted, is given by the same historian. It was occasioned by the Convent having removed Alexander Lindsay, eldest son of the Earl of Crawford, afterwards known as the " Tiger Earl," or " Earl Beardy," from the office of Bailiery, on account of his expensive habits, and the substitution of Alexander Ogilvy of Inverquharity in his room. Besides that given by Lindsay, there are several other original accounts of this barbarous specimen of Scottish party warfare. But perhaps none of these are more quaint or graphic than the following, which Mr Innes has transcribed from the Doric vernacular of the Auchinleck chronicle : — " The yer of God MCCCCXLV., the xxill. day of Januar, the Erll of Huntlie and the Ogilbeis with him on the ta part, and the ErU of Craufurd on the tother part, met at the yettis of Arbroth on ane Sonday laite, and faucht. And the Erll of Huntlie and Wat Ogilbie fled. And thar was slane on thair party, Schir Jhon Oliphant, laird of

ARBROATH FROM 1440 TO 1640. 87

Aberdalghy, Schir William Forbes, Schir Alexander Bar- clay, Alexander Ogilby, David of Aberkerdach, with uther syndry. And on the tother part, the Erll of Craufurd himself was hurt in the field, and deit within viij. day is. Bot he and his son wan the feild and held it ; and efter that, a gi'et tyme, held the Ogilbys at great subjeccioun, and tuke thair gudis, and destroyit thair placis." It has been said by some writei-s that upwards of five hundred men fell in this encounter. Sir James Balfour (Annals A.D. 1445) gives the number of soldiers slain as two hundred on Ogilvie's side, and one hundred on Lindsay's side. Their graves have been, from time to time, found below the surface of the ground on both sides of the Brothock. The skulls and other bones which were recently disinterred in the course of excavations made at Orchard Street, were probably the mutilated remains of some of these combatants.

The following account of the Battle of Arbroath, extracted from a MS. account of the family of Hamilton, in Panmure House, contains some particulars not given elsewhere : — " About this tyme that great difference fell out between the Earle of Crawfoord and the Ogilbies : for the Earle his eldest son, Alexander Lyndsay, pur- chased from the Abbott and Convent of Abberbrothock ane right to the Bailliary of that Abbacy, but was keept out of the possessione thereof by Alexander Ogilbie, whose tytle theirto was said to be equall if not better than his. This enmity kendled to such a flame, that upon aither side they assembled their friends in armes. The Ogilbies calleth the Lord Huntley to their assis- tance and the Lyndsays called the Hamiltons to theirs. Frequent meetings having been made to calm and recon- cile maters betwixt them, and nothing being aggreid upon, it was resolved at last to decyde the cause by ther swords. The Earle of Crawfoord, being then at Dundee, posted in all haste to Aberbrothock, and came there just as both parties are ready to begine the fight ; and he,

88 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

designing by calmness to take up the quarrell, went too forwardly to demand a parlie with Alexander Ogilbie for his sone. But before he could either be known or heard, he was encountered by a commone soulder, who thrust him in the mouth with a spier, which laid him dead upon the ground. This sudden accident did excite both parties, the one for victory and the other for revenge, which occasioned a most cruel and bloody fight. The victorie fell to the Lindsayes. Alexander Ogilbie, being sore wounded, was taken and brought to the Castle of Fenheaven, where he dyed. The lord Huntley escaped by the swiftness of his horse. Ther wer slaine on the Ogilbies syde John Forbes of Pitsligoe, Alex. Barclay of Gartlay, Robert Maxwell of Tilling, William Gordoune of Borrowfield, and Sir John Oliphant of Aberdagie, of the better sort. Ther wer few of quahtie lost on the other syde, besyde the Earle himselfe, whose loss wes extreemly regreatted."

Referring to the same period, Lindsay adds : — " After this there followed nothing but slaughter in this realm, every party ilk one lying in wait for another, as they had been setting tinchills for the slaughter of wild beasts." A later historian (Tytler) justly asks, " What must have been the state of the government, and how miserable the consequences of those feudal manners and customs which have been admired by superficial enquirei-s, when the pacific attempt of a few Monks to exercise their undoubted privilege in choosing their own protector, could involve a whole province in bloodshed, and kindle the flames of civil war in the heart of the country ?"

In such a period it were vain to expect much prosperity in a place like Arbroath, which at that time did not exceed the size of one of our ordinary villages, although enjoying the rank of a burgh of regality, with com- mercial privileges equal to those of royal burghs. From its singular position in these respects, it is not easy to ascertain whether or not it was placed under the juris-

ARBROATH FROM 1440 TO 1640. 89

diction of the Chamberlain of Scotland, and was subject to his periodical visitations, like the proper royal burghs. As these burghs were considered in a special manner under the king's superintendence, the actual exercise of that superintendence was committed by him to his chamberlain, one of the great officers of State, whose office has been long since abolished. He had power to investigate into and redress all known grievances and corruptions within the royal burghs. For this purpose ►he made regular circuits or journeys, which were termed the Chamberlain Aires, most probably from the corruption of the Latin word iter, signifying a joiu-ney.

In those times, previous to the invention of printing, there was no publication of blue-books — these ponderous, voluminous, and expensive reports, in which are detailed at great length the results of Parliamentary Committees and Royal Commissioners on almost every department of enquiry in our own days. But we have fortunately a singular document still preserved ; believed to have been compiled about the end of the thirteenth century, detail- ing the manner in which the Chamberlain was to conduct his investigations ; with an account of the points to which his attention was to be directed, and the faults and delin- quencies of all classes (from the bailies down to the beadles) which he was to enquire into. The records of the Chamberlain Aire are valuable, chiefly on account of the views they afford to us of the manners and customs of our fathers. It has been said that the Chamberlain Aire was not well liked by the burghs, and we are not surprised at their dislike.

We cannot resist the temptation of giving a few notices of the points into which the Chamberlain enquired, leaving it to modern burgesses to decide for themselves how they could stand the ordeal of a Chamberlain Aire at the present time. Although some of the following excerpts have been printed in a popular form, they are in genei-al unknown except to antiquarian lawyers ; and it is hoped

90 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

that those to whom they are familiar, will excuse their repetition for the sake of the many to whom they are new. Thus — " Of the manner to challenge the bailies" — the Chamberlain was to examine whether they stood chargeable with such delinquencies as — " That they do nocht richt evenly to puir and rich : That they let them to do richt (they prevent themselves from doing justice), through favour, hatrent, or love of persons : That they tak gifts for the richt and law to be done, 'or left undone : That they seek (search) nocht the burgh lauchfully for lipper folk to be furth put : That they gar nocht walk the burgh on the nicht be sufficient walkers : That they gar puir folk walk and nocht rich." The two last points refer to the old " watch and ward," the tenure or service which burgesses were bound to render for their posses- sions ; and which are highly indicative of the insecurity of life and property during the early history of our burghs. In explanation of this waking or watching, one of the old burgh laws provides, " that of ilk house within the burgh, in the which there wons ony that in the time of waking aught be reason to come furth, there sail ane wachman be halden to come furth, when that the wakstaff gais frae door to door, wha saU be of eild (of age), and sail gang till his wach with two wappons, at the ringing of the curfew ; and sae sail wach wisely and busily till the dawning of the day. And gif ony hereof failzie, he sail pay four pennies — out-tane widows ;" meaning that widows shall be exempted from this duty.

There were no excise laws in Scotland for a long time after this period. But as the brewing of ale was largely carried on, a set of officers named " aiU tasters" were appointed to taste the ale of every brewing ; and thus, having put it to assize or trial, were to pronounce whether or not it was fit to be sold at the standard price. The Chamberlain was to enquire into their conduct on the following points : — " That they are nocht ready at the forthputting of the token for to taste aill ; That they

ARBROATH FROM 1440 TO 1640. 91

are nocht ready to taste as oft as the brewster tuns : That they fars (fill) their wames in drinking within the house, whereas they should stand in the middle of the street, before the door, and send ane of their fallows in with the beddel, that sail choose of what pot he will taste, the which he sail present till his fallows, and they sail discern thereupon after the assize put to them : That they mak nocht the assize of aill, but say, simply, it is gude or it is evil," These officers were also called "gusters," from the old word gust, signifying taste. It was likewise a fault attributed to them, " That, whereas they suld but ance taste the aill, they drink our meikle, through the whilk they tine their gust and are drunken." Then follow some of the faults of brewsters. " They gar nocht the aill be tasted or it be sauld : They put nocht furth their aill wand to certify the tunners of the aill as they sauld : That after the aill be tasted by the tunners they tun new again : That the pots that they have con- tains not sae meikle clear aill withoutyn berme."

The gentle craft of shoemaking was also to be en- quired into. But it is necessary to bear in mind that in these primitive times the shoemaker purchased his hides in a raw state, and tanned and curried them for himself. The points of enquiry regarding " soutai-s" were : — " That they buy bark and make schone other- ways than the law has ordained, that is to say, that the horn and the ear should be like lang : lliat they mak schone, boots, and other graith of the lether or it be barked (i.e., before it be tanned) : That they sew with false and rotten thread, through the whilk the schone are tint before they be half worn : Whereas they should give their lether guid oil and taulch, they give it but water and salt : They work it or it be curryed in greit hindering and skaith of the king's lieges."

If the sutar was addicted to the above five faults it appears that the tailor stood chargeable with the follow- ing seven sins : — " That they mak our meikle refuse and

92 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

shreds of mens claiths, sometimes for haste and some- times for ignorance : That they tak pieces and shreds to sieves or other small things : That they mak men's garments otherways than men bids them : That they sew with false graith : They brek men their days, or (as it is sometimes written). They keep nocht their day to ilk man : They mak them maisters before they ken the craft in great skaithing of the king and the people : They work* on haly days, against the law of God."

Of the challenge of wobsters (weavers), it is found : — " That they mak our lang thrums : Whereas they tak in with weights, when they give it out they mak it donk and weet with water, casting things thereon to gar it weigh, and there-through halding out of it to themselves a grit quantity : That they tak ae man's yarn and puts in another man's web for haste." In some old burghs almost every third or fourth tenement is described as having been at one time a malt work. Malt was made to a very large extent, both for home-brewing and for exportation. The malt-makers were to be challenged among other points, that " they steep nocht their bear enough for grit haste in the makin of it : That they reik it on the kill." Saddlery was an important branch of business in former times, when there existed no mode of travelling except on foot or on horseback. The Cham- berlain was to enquire as to saddlers as follows : — " That they mak saddles of green timmer, whereas they aught to be made of withered and dry : That they fasten them nocht fast, nor binds them with leather and glue, as they aught to be : That they knit to their saddles evil har- nessing, false bridle-bits and stirrups, through the whilk mony men are hurt or slain : That they hald nocht their days that they mak to men."

There is reason to believe that at this period the little town of Arbroath was honoured with the presence of much more aristocratical society than it now possesses in these days of its bustling commercial activity and

ARBROATH FROM 1440 TO 1C40. 93

increasing population and wealth. The high rank of its abbots, and the constant visits which it received from kings, ecclesiastical dignitaries, and nobles made it a fashionable winter residence for many of the more opulent neighbouring landed proprietors, whose " lodgings" are often incidentally referred to in the Abbey records, and may be yet identified on consulting the titles of proper- ties situated near the middle of the town. Some of these mansions were enlarged or reconstructed subsequently to the fall of the Abbey, which was largely used in the furnishing of materials.

About the time of the Reformation the municipal affairs of Arbroath were managed by two Bailies and a Common Council, which varied from nine to fifteen members, elected every year at Michaelmas. At the same time various other sets of officers were elected or appointed, and filled by members of the Council and other burgesses. These were called Lyners, Dykprisers, Flesh -prisers, Tunners of Ale, Punders, Depositors or Treasui-ers, and " Kepars of the kees of the comon kest." The Burgh Court of Arbroath was at that time regularly held every fortnight, and in which a great amount of business was transacted. In these courts the Magis- trates, sometimes by themselves, at other times with concurrence of the Council, and on important occasions with advice of the " haill neighbours," enacted laws and regulations regarding the burgh lands and grass, the state of the streets, the prices of provisions, measures to prevent pestilence, and other matters concerning the welfare of the burgesses. They tried offences against these laws, matters of debt, and disputes of all kinds, for which they impanneled juries consisting of nine, eleven, thirteen, or fifteen members ; and visited offenders by injunctions to ask forgiveness of the injured party at the market cross, and sometimes by fines, banishment from the town, or loss of bm-ghal freedom and share of the common laiwjs. These ypro-

94 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

ceedings are very distinctly detailed in a Court Register Book, extending from 1563 to 1576, which affords an interesting picture of the state of the burgesses at that time. This record gives a favourable view of the moral condition of the inhabitants of Arbroath at the period in question. The criminal charges tried before the Magis- trates consist chiefly of calling names and menacing one another, or disturbing the town or the neighbours, with numerous instances of that old-fashioned specimen of ill nature, lawburrovjs, and a few instances where the quarrel had come to blows. About forty years after- wards, however, a considerable number of fines (unlaws) were exacted from persons convicted of drawing swords or dirks in their quarrels, and sometimes for shedding blood. But we have found no instance of an offender being tried for theft or drunkenness, or any of the more serious crimes.

After Arbroath was made a royal burgh it was during many years governed by two Bailies and other twelve Councillors, assisted by Lyners, Dykprisers, Flesh and Skinprisers, Overseers of the flesh and meal markets, Shoremasters, Constables, and Officers, while the lord of Arbroath was represented by his resident chamberlain. These burgh officials were elected annually at Michael- mas, when the bailies had " laid down the wand of justice and removed themselves furth of judgment." The Burgh Court became a court of record for the registering of deeds, but ceased to contain entries of those petty trials of offences which render the earlier records interesting. The Convention of Royal Burghs met at Arbroath in the year 1611 ; and, besides other expenses, cost the town £Q Scots for wine, ,^4f Scots for ale, fourteen shillings Scots for a peck of flour baken into bread, and five shillings Scots " for ane pund of butter to the bread." The clock (knok) and bell seem to have been placed in the church steeple about the same period. When the town was visited by noblemen, ladies of rank, or provosts of other

ARBROATH FROM 14-tO TO 1640. 95

burglis, they were treated with wine and boxes of confec- tions ; and the burgesses were entertained by minstrels on St Thomas' Day and other festivals, at the public expense. The Town Records at this time are chiefly filled with entries of the admission of burgesses. These entries shew that all the neighbouring landed proprietors, as well as many in Fifeshire and Kincardineshire, with the ministers in the vicinity, and numerous freemen of Edin- burgh, Cupar, Dundee, Forfar, Montrose, and Aberdeen, became burgesses of Arbroath during the period after it attained the rank of a royal burgh till about 1639, when the civil commotions commenced. After 1647 a long blank of nearly seventy years ensues, during which the Town Records seem to have been lost. The existing Council Minutes are believed not to extend continuously farther back than the early part of last centuiy.

PARISH CHURCH— OLD TOWER AND SPIRE.

96 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

CHAPTER V.

Erection and Style of the Abbey Buildings.— Date of Commence- ment : Mixture of Norman and Early English Architecture : Stages in the Progress of Building : Succeeding Styles of Architecture shewn in the Buildings.

It has been generally supposed that the erection of the buildings of the Abbey of Arbroath was only commenced in the year 1178, but it is probable that the commence- ment was one or two years earlier. King William, the founder, returned from his eighteen months' cap- tivity in England on 8th December 1174. Thomas ^ Becket, an early friend of William's, was killed on 29th December 1170, and was canonized in 1173 ; and we find that by 1178 a church was built at Aberbrothock, which, in that year, was dedicated to his memory ; and a com- pany of Tyronensian Monks of the rule of St Benedict, with an Abbot, were brought from Kelso, and solemnly installed in the Abbey, in presence of the King, the Bishop of Aberdeen (the bishopric of St Andrews being vacant), with the Archdeacon of St Andrews, — " to bless the Abbey" — the Bishop elect of Brechin, the Prior of Bestennet, and many other grandees. All this could not have taken place in the year 1178, as is stated in the Abbey writs, unless the eastern part of the great church, and certain houses for the dwellings of the Abbot and Monks, had been previously erected. Wynton, the Prior of Lochleven, in his " Cronykil," says that the Abbey was founded by King William, on the 9th day of August,

ERECTION OF ABBEY BUILDINGS. 97

althougli he is otherwise mistaken by phicing the event nineteen years too late. His words are : —

Of August that yhere the nynde day, Of Abbyrhrothoke the Abbay, The Kyng Willame, in Angus, Fowndyt to be relygy ws. In the honoure of Saynt Thomas, That Abbay that tyme fowndyt was, And dowyt alsua rychely, Thare Monkis to be perpetually.

By this time the King had conferred on this Abbey of his favourite Saint (whose aid he was in the habit of invoking in the time of his captivity) the vUlage of Arbroatli, with the lands now forming the parishes of Arbroath and St Vigeans and the Parish Church. It is probable also that the church and parish of Ethie (Athyn) were granted about the same period. The best idea of the progressive gifts to the Abbey is to be obtained from the papal bulls granted in 1182, 1200, and subsequent years. (Chartulary, vol. I. pp. 151-160.) We also learn from Hollinshed and others that the greatest nobleman of the district — Gilchrist, Earl of Angus — having, imder the influence of jealousy, strangled his wife, who was the sister of King William, was proclaimed traitor by the King, and deprived of his great possessions, a consider- able part of which was soon afterwards conferred on the Abbey. These gifts probably consisted more or less of the territory of Athenglas (near Kinblethmont), and the estates or shires (now the parishes) of Dunnichen and Kingoldrum, and which, with the parishes of Aberbrothock and Ethie, continued to form the principal part of the Abbey possessions during all its history ; for the numer- ous grants of lands, churches, teinds, fishings, saltworks, tenements in burghs, &;c., subsequently made by King William and his nobles, and by kings and subjects in the three succeeding reigns, although very valuable, were not equal to these tracts of fertile lands given by him at the time of tlie foundation,

a

9(J ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

These large grants of land had enabled the erec- tion of the Church and other Abbey buildings to be completed in a comparatively short space of time. King William in a journey from the north, "came by the Abbey of Aberbrothoke to view the work of that house, how it went forward ; commanding them that were overseers and mastera of the works to spare no costs, but to bring it up to perfection, and that with magnificence ;" and afterwards he " was earnestly occupied in the advancing forward of the building of Aberbrothoke." (Hollinshed.) The consequence was, that the Ghurch begun previously to 1178 was suffi- ciently advanced in 1214 to be the burial place of the royal founder, who died on 4tli December of that year, and was interred in the choii* before the high altar ; and the erection of the south transept was completed in time to admit of the interment, in that part (before the altar of St Catherine), of Gilchrist Earl of Angus, who was advanced in years at the date of the foundation.

It was the general custom in buildings of tliis kind to begin with the east end, and finish the choir with as little delay as possible, for the performance of worship. The central tower and transepts, or cross arms, were then added ; and a temporary wall being built toward the west, between the tower and nave, the extension of the church was often arrested at this point, for a time, or (as in the case of the late Trinity College Church in Edinburgh), for ever. The architects then added the greater part of the nave or western portion of the Church, and commonly made another pause before completing it, by the erection of the west front with its towers. The point where such a pause occurred in the construction of Arbroath Abbey, may be yet easily discerned on the south wall of the nave^ at the west end of the cloisters.

The Abbey Church was probably finished in 1233, or about fifty-five years after its commencement ; in which

ERECTION OF ABBEY BUILDINGS. 9§

year, during the reign of Alexander II., it was again dedicated. It may be remarked that the neighbouring cathedral of St Andrews was in course of construction during no less than one hundred and sixty years, having been begun about the year 1158, and not finished till the year 1318. A comparison of the remains of the Cathedral with the great Church of Arbroath affords a curious con- firmation of these dates, and would almost by itself demonstrate, to one versant in Gothic architecture, that the church of St Andrews was commenced at least twenty years previous to the church of Arbroath, and continued a considerable way according to the earlier style, and that its western part was constructed long after the magnificent western front of Arbroath church had been finished. The substitution of what is termed early English for Norman architecture, including as a principal feature the substitution of tall lancet-headed windows (without stone mullions) for round-headed windows, took place during the last quarter of the twelfth centuiy ; and these twenty-five years are accordingly termed in England the transition period. This period witnessed the erection of very many splendid ecclesiastical fabrics, and a great improvement in the style of masonry. Thus the eastern part of St Andrews Cathedral, being planned and commenced before this period, had only round-headed windows (nine of which were in the east gable), according to its obvious original construction, while Arbroath Abbey, not being commenced till the change began, has narrow lancet -headed windows without mullions, intermixed occasionally with the older round-headed arch, firom the east gable even to the great west door ; shewing that the transition period of intermixture of the two styles had been continued in Scotland later than in England, and during the early part of the thirteenth century. The cathedral of St Andrews exhibits three separate styles in succession — first, the latest Noiinan,

100 ARBROATH AND ITS ABBEY.

then the early English, and lastly what is termed the decorated style. The style of the Abbey Church of Arbroath, on the other hand, is wholly of the " transition period" betwixt the first two styles here mentioned, and consists of the remains of the Norman style, with the early English prevailing. The church also exhibits a marked improvement in the quality of the masonry during the fifty-five years which elapsed between the erection of the chancel and the western towers, as may be observed on examination of the beautiful masonry of the great buttresses in the court behind the Abbot's house.

At the time of the erection of Arbroath Abbey, Gothic architecture was in the full vigour of its early manhood. The early English style is specially marked by grandeur, dignity, and simplicity in its general design. Its decoi'a- tions were limited in nimiber, and severe and chaste in character ; and it was not hurt by an overload of mere- tricious and useless ornaments which have often marred the beauty of expensive Gothic churches constructed in later periods. The Abbey Church of Arbroath possessed most of the grand features which may yet be seen in many of the Abbey and Cathedral churches in England, of which a noble specimen ls exhibited