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Hitherto we have been dealing
chiefly with romance and conjecture, and little that we have said is
absolutely certain, except that Brechin was the seat of a bishop in the
reign of David I. previous to 1153. Perhaps the world might have moved on in
its usual course although this important fact had not been so distinctly
established as it certainly is. Connected thus early and thus closely with
the Church, Brechin seems to have derived its chief importance and support,
for long after, from the same source. We have made up a list of the bishops
of Brechin, and have collated the list with various histories and other
documents; but as it is a record chiefly of dates and names, we think it
better to throw it into a section by itself, than to interrupt the flow of
events by discussions here on the subject of the succession of these
dignitaries, and accordingly it will be found in our Appendix, No. II.
Amongst the earliest grants
to the Church of Brechin extant, is a charter, without date, but believed to
have been given about the year 1222, granted by Randolph “ de Strathphetham,”
supposed to be equivalent with Strachan, of the lands of Brectulach,
understood to be Brachtullo in the parish of Kirkden, “pro anima mea et
animabus omnium antecessorum meorum.” The chapel of “ Messyndew,” still so
pronounced, but now written Maisondieu, was founded by “ Willelmus de
Brechine, fllius Domini Henrici de Brechine fllij Comitis David,” that is,
by William of Brechin, the son of Lord Henry of Brechin, who was the son of
Earl David; hence the chapel was founded by Sir William of Brechin, grandson
of David Earl of Huntingdon and Garioch,
INTERIOR VIEW.
Lord of Brechin and
Inverbervie, and brother of King William the Lion. The charter, which is
witnessed by Albin, who was Bishop of Brechin from 1247 to 1269, is
understood to have been granted about 1256. By it William de Brechin gave
the mills of Brechin and other lands to God and the Chapel of the Virgin
Mary, by him founded, and to the master and chapter and poor of the same,
and that, as the charter bears, for prayers for the safety or good estate of
William and Alexander, kings of Scotland; “Dominis Johannis Comitis
Cestrie;” of Lord Henry his father, and Lady Juliana his mother; and of his
own soul; and of the souls of all his predecessors and successors and of all
the dead in the faith; a sufficiently long but not uncommon catalogue in
those days of parties to be remembered in prayer. In 1267, William again
gives a fight of a road to his favourite chapel, and the charter says the
grant is made to God and the blessed Virgin, “et Domui Dei de Brechine.” A
precept of sasine of Easter Dalgety in the charter-room of Kin-naird,
granted in 1549, is thus styled on the back,—“Factum per Dominum Wuillielmum
Carnegie de Messindew, Roberto de Kennaird,” while in the body of the deed
Mr Carnegy is styled “ Preceptor Domus Dei sive Hospitalis dive Virginis
Marie infra Civitatem Brechinensem; ” thus showing the identity of the
hospital o! the Virgin Maty and the preceptory of Maisondieu. William de
Brechin was one of the regency favourable to England appointed during the
minority of Alexander III., as mentioned in Rymer, Fcedera, i. 563. Robert L
seems to have been a great friend to the church of Brechin. In 1308 he
prohibits the people of Forfar from interfering with the bishop and canons
of Brechin; and two years .after, by a charter dated at Brechin 4th
December, in the fourth year of his reign, he relieves the church of Brechin
of all secular services. The same King Robert, by a charter dated at Scone,
10th July 1322, in the sixteenth year of his reign, gave to John, Bishop of
Brechin, and to the chaplain and canons of the cathedral church of the Holy
Trinity of Brechin, the privilege of haring a market within the city on
Sundays, the same as had been formerly conferred upon them by the former
kings of Scotland,.and as had been possessed by them in the time of
Alexander “ of good memory,” his predecessor; and to that effect Robert
commanded all justiciaries, sheriffs, provosts, and their bailies to defend
the bishop therein. This John was of the family of Kinnymond of Fife, and
appears to have been a decided friend of King Robert Bruce; for in 1309, he
is one of the bishops who solemnly under their seals recognise Robert's
title to the throne of Scotland. The revenues of the see at this time were
£416, equal to £2000 at least of the present day. Bishop William, who was in
the see previous to John, was a man of a different stamp, for he was one of
the few Scots clergy who, in 1290, addressed Edward I. of England,
entreating that monarch to marry his son to Margaret, “the Maiden of
Norway,” heiress of the crown of Scotland. It is comfortable to reflect,
however, that if at this period there was a servile bishop, William, of whom
little more is known than the circumstance just noted, there was also one
generous spirit connected with the burgh, the noble and independent Sir
Thomas Maule, governor of Brechin Castle, whose name is immortalised by the
check he gave to the troops of Edward, and by his gallant defence of the
castle for three weeks in 1303. Against this castle Edward brought a then
famous engine of attack called the War Wolf, which discharged stones of two
or three hundredweight. Sir Thomas Maule is reported to have stood on the
walls of Brechin Castle wiping away with his handkerchief, in derision of
the besiegers, the rubbish caused by the War Wolf, till the engine swept him
away. Tradition has it that Sir Thomas was slain on the bastion still
existing at the south-east comer of the castle wall, and that the stone
which killed him was thrown from the high ground to the east of the ravine
running between the castle and the town of Brechin. Some years ago, when the
earth was tirred from the garden on the top of the bank alluded to, a skull
was found buried, having a nail in it, supposed to have been one of Edward's
soldiers, killed by some instrument fired from Brechin Castle—for gunpowder
was partially in use by this time. Perhaps it is to Edward’s invasion of
Scotland that we are to attribute the want of documents connected with the
earlier history of Brechin, and the necessity for King Robert renewing the
right of market; for Buchanan tells us, so inveterate was Edwards hatred to
Scotland, that when he returned to England after this invasion, “histories,
foedera, monumentaque vetusta, sive a Romanis relicta, sive a Scotis erecta,
destruenda curavit; libros omnes, literarumque doctores, in Angliam
transtulit” Edward is said to have come to Brechin on the 6th, and to have
obtained from Baliol the surrender of the Scottish crown and kingdom at
Brechin on the 10th July 1296, in a very humiliating manner, in the castle
of Brechin, where the Great Seal of Scotland was broken to pieces. Sir David
de Brechin, nephew of King Robert the Bruce, an accomplished knight, and who
had signalised himself in the Holy War, suffered the punishment of treason
in 1320, in consequence of having joined William de Soulis and others in a
treasonable conspiracy against King Robert Sir David appears to have long
tampered with King Edward 1. of England, and to have been opposed through
life to Bruce's pretensions, although often receiving pardon and favour from
the king his uncle. Tet on 10th March 1354. King David, son of Robert Bruce,
grants to “Alexander de Berkeley et Catarine sorori mee spouse sue," the
lands of Wester Mathers, by a charter quoted in the Miscellany of the
Spalding Club, vol. v. p. 248; thus showing the reconciliation of the
families of Bruce and Berkeley.
The induction of Bishop Adam
into the see of Brechin in 1328 displays the grasping spirit of the Church
of Rome. There is a bull by Pope John, dated 31st Oct of that year, printed
by Mr Chalmers in his Register, vol. iL p. 389, apparently confirming Bishop
Adam in the see, but- ia reality claiming the right to nominate the bishop,
and the same Pope by subsequent documents claims the same right in regard to
the canons. Pope Clement VI., following up the tactics of Pope John, by a
bull dated 20th Feb. 1350, states that he had reserved for his own disposal
the provision to the church of Brechin on the decease of Bishop Adam, but
that in ignorance of this reservation the chapter had unanimously elected
Philip, dean of the church, to be bishop; and that Philip, in like
ignorance, had consented to the election, but on being informed of the
reservation had come to Rome and explained the matter, and therefore the
Pope had of new appointed him to the office. Previously, in 1320, Robert
Bruce, in a Parliament held at Arbroath, had asserted the freedom of
Scotland in opposition to the claims of Popedom. Theiner, in his “Vetera
Monumenta Hibernorum et Scotorum,” gives, p. 306, a bull by Pope Innocent
VI., in 1354, dispensing with the objection to the marriage of John
Mongombry and Elen More because they were cousins; and p. 312, another bull
by the same Pope dispensing with a similar objection to the marriage of
David de Berclay and Elizabeth Countess of Fife, both bulls being addressed
to the Bishop of Brechin.
The privilege of market
renewed by Robert L was confirmed by David II., who, on 26th October 1359,
was pleased to grant a charter stating that “for the fear and reverence of
God, by whom kings reign and princes govern,” and in respect of the troubles
and dissensions throughout the kingdom, by which the monuments of the church
had been lost, therefore he confirmed to the cathedral church of Brechin the
whole privileges formerly granted by his ancestors, and especially by his
father, to the cathedral church of the Holy Trinity of Brechin. The bishop
of this period was Patrick de Leuchars in Fife, a favourite at court, and
one of those who took an active part in the redemption of David from the
English. Still the right of market, thus guaranteed by repeated royal
grants, seems to have been disputed from some quarter or other—by Montrose,
we believe, for we find “Ane Inchibitioun for halding off mercats of
StapiUhand at Brechine and Fordoune ” to the prejudice of Montrose, issued
by King David II. in 1352. However, there is a “cognition” taken regarding
the Brechin market in 1364 by Walter de Biggar, chamberlain of Scotland,
John de Rossy, John Lamby, David de Foulertoun, John de Allardice, and other
gentlemen; and thereafter we find David, in 1369, giving a new charter to
Bishop Patrick, stating that the whole merchants inhabiting the city of
Brechin had free ingress and egress to the waters of Southesk and Tay for
carrying of their merchandise in boats and ships, upon paying duties
accustomed, and that notwithstanding of any grants to the burgesses of
Dundee and Montrose, who are strictly prohibited from troubling the
merchants of Brechin. This grant was confirmed by Robert II. in 1372; and
the same prince, in 1374, addressed a precept to his justiciaries, sheriffs,
and provosts, charging them to defend the Bishop of Brechin and the canons
of the cathedral church of Brechin in all their lands and privileges. James
II., by a charter dated in September 1451, again renews at great length the
rights of trade granted to Brechin; but Dundee, alarmed at the growing
importance of Brechin, enters a protest against this and the previous
charters, “purchased of false suggestion by information of partial persons/'
as a document quoted by Mr Chalmers proves.
The earls of Crawford were
great benefactors to the church of Brechin in the fifteenth century; and
some grants or charters are still preserved having the arms of that family
attached, impressed in a bold and handsome style. The members of the family
of Dun appear also to have been zealous supporters of the cathedral. The
church having acquired right to the lands of Eaglesjohn for payment of
certain quit rents to Sir John Erskine of Dun, that knight, in 1409,
mortified these rents to the bishop, from reverence to the Holy Trinity, and
from the more secular feeling of affection to Walter,, then bishop of
Brechin. The lands thus conveyed to the church in 1409 are at present called
Langleypark and Broomley, the latter now again belonging to the laird of
Dun. The Duke of Albany, while governor of Scotland inr 1410, granted a
precept to Alexander Ogilvy of Ouchterhouse, Sheriff of Forfar, for
examining into the marches of certain lands belonging to the bishop; and
thereupon the sheriff gives a decree in favour of the bishop addressed “tyll
all yat yir letters heirs and seis,” “gretyng in God aye lestand,” and
stating that “Walter, throu Goddis sufferance Bischope of Brechin, fand ane
borch in our hand as schref,” which the lairds of Kinnaird “ recontret.”
There is still extant amongst the papers of the burgh a curious precept by
James I., in 1427, by which, for the growth of grace, and various other
ostensible reasons, he grants different sums to the cathedral, payable out
of hi6 annual rents of the city of Brechin; and amongst the individuals from
whose lands these sums are payable, we find the names of William White,
Bichard Lindesay, possessor of the “Forkit Akir,” David Garden, John Durward,
LaurenceSmith, John Guthrie, proprietorof certain lands between the two
vennels; John Tindall, James Myres, James Potter, John Saddler, and John
Walker, names still common in Brechin. But the chief friend to the church of
Brechin at this early period, was Sir Walter Stewart, Knight, Palatine of
Strathearn, Earl of Athole and Caithness, and Lord of Brechin and Cortachy,
which latter title and property he assumed, together with the lands of
Brechin and Navar, &c., on marrying the heiress, Margaret, only child of
Barclay, Lord of Brechin. On 22d October 1429, by charter dated “ apud
Castrum nostrum de Brechynhe gifted £40 Scots, payable annually, to the
church from his lands of Cortachy, and failing thereof through war, poverty,
or other cause, from his lands and lordship of Brechin, for the maintenance
of two chaplains and six boys to perform divine service within the choir of
the church. He also in the same month bestowed the patronage of the church
of Cortachy on the cathedral; and, further, he gave a piece of land lying on
the west side of the city of Brechin, adjoining to the Vennel, for the
residence of the boys and chaplains. In these grants, and in a relative
obligation by the bishop, there are long directions about the clothing of
the boys, and in regard to their education and demeanour. In particular, the
lads are prohibited from going to the fields without one of the chaplains,
and they are ordered, on these occasions, to be clothed in open coats,
purple or white, and to have their hair neatly dressed. In regard to the
chaplains, again, it is provided that one of them shall be instructed in
music and the other in grammar, which branches of education they are to
study in the hours when they are free from spiritual duties. It is curious
to find the bishop, so early as 1435, backing out of his part of the
obligation, and upon various pretences reducing the two chaplains to one,
and of course reducing the duties to be performed; and the duties thus
reduced seem to have been but indifferently attended to, for, in 1524, there
is a decree of the bishop of that period deciding various differences which
had arisen between the chaplains and the chapter of the cathedral for
non-performance of duties. It is no less curious to remark, that Walter,
Earl of Athole, who made these liberal grants to the cathedral of Brechin,
was the son of Robert II. by Euphemia, daughter of Hugh, Earl of Ross, and
was suspected, from a desire to ascend the throne, of having been the means
of procuring the deaths of most of his own relations. Ultimately, he was
himself put to death by lingering tortures protracted for three days, in
consequence of being the . principal instigator of the murder of his nephew,
the courtly James I.
The bishop who was so
particular about the exterior and interior of the heads of the chaplains and
of the boyB, was a John Camoth, a gentleman and a courtier, for he was
selected to accompany Margaret, daughter of James I., to France, when she
was espoused to the Dauphin, afterwards Louis XI, In the chronicle of the
reign of James II. kept at Auchinleck, there is an entry bearing that John
Crenok, Bishop of Brechin, died there in August 1456, “that was callit a
gude, actif, and vertuis man, and all his tyme wele gouvemande.” Apparently
this bishop had gone 'more than once to France, for amongst the records of
Brechin there is an instrument bearing that Bishop John, in a synod held on
14th April 1434, narrated that in his last voyage from France, probably a
stormy one, he had vowed to give to the church of Brechin two silver
candlesticks, in acquittance of which vow he then delivered to John Liall
the treasurer of the church six silver cups, gilt on the edges, and also a
silver gilt cup with cover, the cover having the rays of the sun engraved
upon it, this last cup to be for the exclusive use of the dean and canons at
their common festivals. Judging from the documents left, we would say that
there was more business done during the reign of this bishop than during
that of any other bishop. He it was who, in July 1450, obtained an
inquisition by which it was ascertained that the inhabitants of Brechin had
a right of market on Sundays, and liberty of trading between the waters of
Southesk and Tay. Amongst a variety of other grants obtained by this bishop
to the church, we may notice that by Alexander Cramond, laird of South
Melgund and Aldbar, of an annual rent of £26, 8s. Scots, payable from a
tenement called Lammyslande; a similar grant by John Sievwright, citizen of
Brechin, and a conveyance to the cathedral by Robert Hill of a tenement
lying near to that of John Tod, and an acre of arable land in the Crofts
adjoining the land of Patrick Guthrie and John Masson. We may also refer to
a charter by Mr Thomas Bell, vicar of the parish church of Montrose, of some
property in Murray Street of Montrose, witnessed on 20th June 1431 by
Patrick Barclay, then provost of Montrose, and John Niddry, bailie, names
still to be found amongst the municipal rulers of that burgh.
Besides acquiring property
for the church, bishop Carnoth seems to have acquired property for himself.
Thus on 13th February 1444, David Conan conveys to the bishop the
Temple-hill of Keithock, to be held of the master of the hospital of St John
of Jerusalem, for payment of a yearly feu at two terms, Pentecost and St
John in summer; and this property is ratified to the bishop in 1450 by
brother Henry de Livingston, a knight of the order of St John of Jerusalem,
commendator of the preceptory of the same, and “Magister de Torfechyn.” If
we mistake not, these lands are now known as the Templehill of Bothers, and
form part of the estate of Caimbank.
A dispute appears to have
arisen during this bishop’s reign which may afford evidence for fixing the
period when either the steeple or the round tower of Brechin was erected. Mr
David Ogilvy, rector of the parish church of Lethnot, having failed to pay a
sum of 28 merks, said to have been due from the income of the church of
Lethnot to the bishop and chapter of Brechin, was repeatedly cited to appear
before the consistorial court He treated the summonses very lightly, and
neglected to appear; but a court was held by Robert Wyschart, rector of
Cuykstoun, in the diocese of St Andrews, as substitute of the bishop, at
Brechin, on the 9th of February 1435, when, after the examination of a
variety of witnesses named, it is recorded as having been proved that
Lethnot was liable in 28 merks annually to the church of Brechin; and that
in part payment of this debt, Henry de Lechton, vicar of Lethnot, had
delivered to Patrick, Bishop of Brechin, (1354-84,) a large white horse, and
had also given a cart to lead stones for the building of the belfry of the
church of Brechin in the time of Bishop Patrick, and which cart was made by
Elisha Wright, then residing at Finhaven. These are the words of the
decree:—“Quarto, Ponit et probare intendit quod quondam nobilis vir Henricus
de Lechton arrendator dicte ecclesie pater Johannis de Lychton soluit et cum
effectu realiter deliberauit renerendo patri domino Patricio episcopo
Brechinensi et capitnlo eiusdem unum magnum equum album in partem solutionis
dicte pensionis. Quinto, Quod idem Henricus de Lechton ad ducendum lapides
ad edificationem campanilis ecclesie Brechi-nensis tempore quondam domini
Patricii episcopi Brechinensis realiter et cum effectu dedit unum currum
quem fecit Elisius Wrycht tunc commorans apud Fynnewyn super le bank de
Lymyny in partem solutionis dicte pensionis.”—R. E. B., voL i. page 74.
During Bishop Caraoth’s
reign, and on 28th May 1445, King James II. gave to John Smyth, citizen of
Brechin, the hermitage of the Chapel of the Blessed Mary in the forest of
Kilgerre, lying in the barony of Menmure, with three acres of arable land
which had formerly belonged heritably to Hugh Cuminche. This hermitage is
understood to have been somewhere on the south face of the hill of Caterthun,
and the prayers which the hermit was bound to offer for the king and the
other duties of the office likely had not been severe.
Bishop Carnoth himself seems
to have been a builder, but to what extent we cannot say, only we find, in
1579, a grant by the then bishop of a piece of ground “ tending along by the
wall and street onward to the gate of the tower called Carnock's Tower,1'
being, as the document leads us to infer, the gate or entry now called the
Bishop’s Close, on the west side of the High Street.
The reign of this bishop,
good and worthy as he is reported, appears to have been rather stormy, for,
in 1439, we have an instrument bearing that Mr Thomas Lang, chaplain of the
choir, protested against the bishop’s bailie for having given possession to
William Foote of a tenement on the west side of the High Street, belonging
to the chaplains, and asked if, by securing the tenement and putting out the
fires thereof he could interrupt the possession ; and upon these threats he
takes instruments in presence of Alexander Fotheringham, John Forrest,
Walter de Craig, and a variety of others. Again, there is a protest in 1439
by the bishop against certain convocations alleged to have been improperly
held in his absence, in one of which it is said the chaplain had been
removed from the prebend’s stall in the church of Lethnot, and a boy put
into the chaplain’s place. There are also a variety of documents bearing
upon a claim which this bishop had, or pretended to have, upon the lands of
Marytown, occupied by William Fullarton. In this dispute, Janet Ogilvy,
widow of Fullarton, just does as the bishop bids her; but her son Patrick
takes a different course. While in August 1448 the bishop is engaged in a
dispute with his dean and archdeacon about taxes that ought to have been
recovered from the canons for repairs of the choir.
Besides being thus actively
engaged, Bishop Camoth procured transumpts or authentic copies of all the
royal grants in favour of the town and cathedral, and obtained ratifications
of them by James II., on 1st September 1451, a most important document for
the burgh. Indeed, the only thing this active man left doubtful is his own
surname, which is variously spelled Carnock, Crenok, Carnoth, Crennach,
Crannoch, and Crenuch, now commonly said to be equivalent with the surname
of Charteris. But the history of the incumbency of this bishop would be
incomplete did we not notice that, during his reign, the boundaries of the
muir of Brechin were first ascertained. By the bishop's influence, James II.
was induced to direct a precept to the sheriff of Forfarshire for the
purpose of ascertaining the marches between the lands of Menmuir, belonging
to John de Collace, and those belonging to the church. The sheriff
accordingly chose an assize, consisting of Sir John Scrymgeour, constable of
Dundee, Richard Lovell of Ballumby, William Lyell of Balna-gerro, Patrick
Rind and James Rind of Carse, Robert Fuler-toun, Henry Fethy of Balyesok,
John Carnegy of that Ilk, Walter Carnegy of Guthere, William Guthere of
Lownan, Walter Carnegy of Kynnarde, David Walterstoun of that Ilk, and
Thomas Lamby; and this inquest report, on 13th October 1450, that the town’s
property began at the east at Threip-haughford in Cruik, extended towards
the west, according to the ancient course of the water of Cruik, by the
lands of “ Bal-zordy,” and went as far west as the lands belonging to John
de Colless of Balnamoon went The inquest also state that they had caused
make a large ditch as a fence between the lands of Balyeordie and of the
burgh, and that right upon the water of Cruik they had placed a cross with a
large stone under it as a march. John Collace, however, does not seem to
have tamely submitted to this marching of the lands, for, in May 1451, we
have an instrument bearing that John, Bishop of Brechin, and Walter de
Ogilvy, Sheriff of Forfar, compeared upon the water of Cruock at the
Threiphaughford, and protested for remeid of law in consequence of the march
stones having been removed from the situations in which they were placed,
and thrown into the water. And in 1458 there is a precept by James II.
directed to the Sheriff of Forfar charging him to command Thome of Cullaiss
to abstain from annoying the community of Brechin in the possession of the
lands decreed to them by the perambulation. This document directs the
sheriff to “summonde and charge ye foresaid Thomas to compeir before ws and
our coun-saile at Dundee ye secund day of ye next justice aire of Anguss;”
so Dundee had been the site of a circuit court previous to the recent Act of
Parliament for the holding of courts there. Notwithstanding of all this,
however, the family of Collace and the inhabitants of Brechin, as the
records of justiciary prove, had battlings till the Collaces sold their
lands to Sir Alexander Carnegy, brother of the first earls of Southesk and
North-esk, in 1632. This Thomas Collace was a favourite at court, for on 23d
March 1499 he got a charter from James IV. confirming to him a right of vert
and venison in the forest of Kilgarry.
It was during the Episcopal
reign of Bishop Carnoth that the battle of Brechin, as it is called, was
fought at Huntlyhill, in the parish of Stracathro, about three miles
north-east of the city. The historical reader will recollect that the Earl
of Douglas was murdered by James II. in Stirling Castle, in February 1452,
because he refused to break a league which he had formed with the earls of
Crawford and Boss. In consequence these noblemen joined the Douglases in
open rebellion to the royal authority. Alexander Gordon, Earl of Huntly, was
advancing with a body of troops consisting of his own vassals, and of the
clans Forbes, Ogilvy, Leslie, Grant, and Irving, with the intention of
joining the royal standard, when he was encountered, on 18th May 1452, at
the Hair Cairn, near Caimbank, by the Earl of Crawford, surnamed “The
Tiger,” from his fierce temper, and “Earl Beardie,” from his immense hirsute
appendage. Crawford was in command of the “ bodies of Angus,” and of the
adherents of the rebels in the neighbouring counties, headed by foreign
officers. An engagement ensued, and. the centre of the royal army began to
give way, when John Coless or Collace of Balna-moon, who bearded the bishop
about the marches of the muir, and who hated Crawford in consequence of some
dispute regarding property, deserted to the royalists with the left wing,
which he commanded, and which was the best equipped part of the troops,
being armed with battle-axes, broadswords and spears. The royal army being
thus enforced, and the rebel party so weakened, Huntly, contrary to
expectations, gained the victory, and gave his name to the hill where the
battle was fought. The Earl of Crawford retired to his castle at Finhaven,
about six miles west of Brechin, and is reported to have declared, in the
frenzy of disgrace, that he would willingly pass seven years in hell to
obtain the glory which fell that day to his antagonist, or as tradition has
it, “that he wad be content to hang seven years in hell by the breers o' the
ee ”—the eyelashes. After his defeat Crawford turned his vengeance from the
royalists towards those who had deserted him, wasting their lands and
burning their castles, and he was left at liberty to do so, as Huntly was
obliged, immediately after the battle, to return home to protect his own
lands from the ravages of the Earl of Moray. In 1562, we notice that David
Fenton of Ogill sold to Robert Collace of Balnamoon, and Elizabeth Bruce his
spouse, the lands of Findoury, which lands they transferred in 1574 to
Robert Arbuthnott. Balnamoon and Findoury are once again united under one
worthy proprietor in the person of James Carnegy Arbuthnott, Esq. In March
1625, we find John Collace, fiar of Balnamoon, witnessing a charter by David
Ramsay, younger of Balmain, to John Moncur of Slains, of the lands of
Cossins and others in the barony of Mondynes and parish of Fordoun, while
between that date and the period of the battle of Brechin, the name of
Collace occurs frequently in connexion with properties in the town and
neighbourhood of Brechin, but of the traitor John Collace himself we have no
further notice. Of Crawford, again, we are told by Buchanan that soon after
the battle of Brechin he took the opportunity of the king passing through
Angus to submit himself to the royal authority, and to make his peace with
King James, to whom he remained firmly attached for the remainder of his
life, which was of but short duration, for he died in 1453. The succeeding
Lord, David Earl of Crawford, seems to have been a man anxious to be on good
terms with the church, for, in the year 1472, he burdened his lands of
Drumcairn, “lying in his lordship of Glenesk,” with £3 annually to the
cathedral of Brechin.
The stormy reign of James II.
did not prevent peculation in the church: at least a precept by James III.
in 1463, states plainly that through the profligacy of the bishops and
canons of Brechin, the revenues of the cathedral had been greatly reduced by
frequent alienations of its property, so that it was then suffering under
great deficiency of its resources, and therefore his Majesty exhorts the
bishop (then Patrick Graham, cousin of the king) to revoke the whole of such
alienations as were made without just cause, and his Majesty orders all
judges to assist the bishop in the recovery of the property, whether lands,
movable goods, or effects. This precept was not allowed to remain a dead
letter. In 1464 a decree of the Lords of Council and Session was issued,
decerning Walter Dempster of Ochter-less to reconvey to the church the lands
of Ardoch, Adicate, Bothers, and Nether Pitforthie, alleged to have been
surreptitiously obtained by him; and Dempster, in 1468, implements the
decree by resigning the lands to the bishop “ upon his bended knees, and
having his hatids closed and within those of the bishop/’ Other documents
import that Mr Dempster, being reconciled to mother church, got back his
lands for payment of an annual feu to the cathedral. The family to which
this gentleman belonged took their surname from the fact of having been
appointed by Robert II. to the office of heritable Dempsters to the
Parliaments, or readers of the doom or sentence pronounced against criminals
in the courts of the kingdom. Patrick Graham was afterwards translated from
Brechin to St Andrews, and died archbishop in 1479—a prisoner in the castle
of Loch-leven, broken-hearted by court intrigues, although a man of strict
morals and considerable learning. Previous to his removal from Brechin,
however, he had the influence to obtain from King James III. a charter,
dated at Linlithgow 29th June 1466, changing the weekly market day from
Sunday to Monday, and of new conferring upon the bailies and citizens of
Brechin all their former privileges. The same monarch, shortly before his
decease in 1488, granted a charter in favour of the bailies and community of
the city of Brechin, by which, in respect of the income of the city being
small, and of the faithful services of their predecessors rendered to the
king in times of trouble, he gives and confirms to them the right of levying
for every horse-load of goods brought to the town, “unum oblum,” or obolus,
which originally was a small Athenian coin of silver weighing about twelve
grains, worth three halfpence at the ordinary price of silver in the present
day, but in the fifteenth century of much more value, and the charter
authorises the magistrates to employ one or more officers to collect the
tax. This charter was produced by the town clerk as a witness before the
House of Peers in 1853 in the case regarding the original dukedom of
Montrose, and is, with the clerk’s evidence, printed in the folio volume
published by Lord Lindsay on that case, (page 404-6;) the charter is also
printed by Mr Chalmers in his “Registrum Episcopatus Brechinensis,” vol. ii.
page 122. We thus refer particularly to the charter as it is a most
important one for the burgh.
James Stewart, second son of
James III., was at his birth created Duke of Ross, Marquis of Ormond, Earl
of Edirdale, and provided with the lands and lordships of Brechin, Navar,
Ardmanach, and Nithsdale. In 1497 he was made archbishop of St Andrews. With
Brechin he appears to have had no connexion further than in drawing revenue
from it.
The register of the burgh of
Aberdeen gives the taxation laid on the burghs beyond the Forth by the
commissioners of the burghs in the Parliament held at Edinburgh in 1483,
when we find the Angus burghs rated thus:—“ Dundee, £26, 13s. 4d.; Forfar,
£1, 6s. 8d. ; Montrose, £5, 6s. 8d.; Arbroath, £2; Breching. £4.” Aberdeen
is then rated the same as Dundee.
The year 1481 was one of
those years of so frequent occurrence in the fifteenth century, when poverty
perished, and even riches scarce supported itself; it was a “dear year”—and
Brechin, like other burghs, suffered severely.
We cannot tell whether it was
the grant of right of custom given by James III., or what it was, that
involved our citizens of Brechin in a dispute with the burgesses of
Montrose, but we find, in 1508, that there was a contest between the two
towns regarding the market, and that the Bishop of Brechin, then William
Meldrum, granted authority for defending the interests of the city of
Brechin, and of the church of Brechin, in an action raised before the Lords
of Council and Session at the instance of the aldermen, bailies, and
burgesses of Montrose, against the citizens of Brechin, for vexations and
hindrances alleged to have been given to the community of Montrose in their
use of the market of Brechin. How this dispute terminated, or whether it is
still in court, we do not know.
In the charter chest of
Viscount Arbuthnot, there is a discharge by this Bishop Meldrum “of the
teind-penny for James Arbuthnott's waird and marriage,” dated the “penult
Maij 1511;” owning receipt of 35 merks, “gude and usual money of Scotland/'
of composition for what would now, at least, be thought a strange demand;
and amongst the documents belonging to the burgh of Brechin there is an
instrument dated in 1508, bearing that John Carnegy of Kinnaird had
delivered a horse, “grosij coloris,” as the Herzdd of the late John Carnegy
his father for the lands of Little Carcary, held of the Cathedral of
Brechin. “Herrezelda” (says Skene, in his “ De Verborum Significatione') “
is the best aucht ox, kow, or uther beast, quhilk ane husbandman possessor
of the aucht pairt of ane dauacb of land, (four oxen gang,) dwelland and
deceasand theirupon, hes in his possession the time of his decease, quhilk
oucht and suld be given to his landislord or maister of the said land.”
Probably this language of Sir John Skene of 1681, our readers may think
requires interpretation itself. The substance of all this however is, that
Bishop Meldrum looked carefully after all the property belonging to the see
of Brechin, and indeed added considerably to it.
Lord Gray preserves in his
charter-room a document, which is a curious specimen of the numerous
hereditary offices that existed in feudal times, being a retour of the
service of Alexander Lindsay, as heir of his father Richard Lindsay, in the
office of blacksmith of the lordship of Brechin; it is dated 29th April
1514, and is published in the Miscellany of the Spalding Club for 1853. By
it the inquest selected from the barons of the shire report on oath that the
late Richard and his forefathers were common smiths of the lordship of
Brechin, and received hereditarily nine firlots of good meal of every plough
and mill of the tenants of Balnabriech, Kintrocket, Pitpullocks,
Pittendreich, Hauch of Brechin, Burghill, Pettintoscall, Balbirnie, with the
mill of the same, Kincraig, and Leuchland; and one fleece of an old sheep
yearly of every one of the tenants of the said towns; and also common
pasturage in the Long Haugh of Brechin for two cows and a horse. No bad
berth this of the blacksmith of the barony of Brechin. We trace the office
further down. On 5th October 1605, in the Speciales Inquisitiones for
Forfarshire, published by order of Parliament, there is recorded the service
of David Lindsay, as heir of Robert Lindsay, in the office of common
blacksmith of the lordship of Brechin, and his right as such to two bolls
one firlot of meal, and pasturage, like his predecessor, with the fleece of
a sheep and a lamb, as his payment for making wool scissors, we suppose, or
“tonsules lame” as they are called here; while in the previous retour they
are termed “forcinij.” The Richard Lindsay first mentioned is, we presume,
the proprietor of the Forkit Akir of which we spoke under the date of 1427,
and which is understood to have been a part of the lands now known as the
Latch. The name of Lindsay, as a blacksmith, occurs for the last time in the
records of the hammermen trade of Brechin in the year 1616.
John Hepburn, who succeeded
to the see of Brechin about 1517, seems, in reference to the property of the
burgh, to have pursuedthe course of Bishop Carnoth. In 1524 he gives out a
long decree finding that the chaplains of the chaplaincy founded by the
Palatine of Strathearn were neglecting their duty, and ordaining them to
build and repair, and to provide proper vestments, and he gets this decree
confirmed by a charter granted by James V. in 1528. On 25th May 1535,
Hepburn procured a cognition by the sheriffs-depute of Forfarshire, James
Gray and David Anderson, regarding the common muir, so full and particular,
that we shall take leave to lay it before our readers. This cognition states
that “in the matter and cause pursued by a reverend Fader (father) in God,
John, Bishop of Brechin, the dean, chapter, and citizens of the same, by our
sovereign lord's letters direct to my lord sheriff of Forfar and his
deputes, purporting in effect that where they 'have the muir of Brechin with
the pertinents pertaining to them in oommonty and their predecessors, and
they have been in possession thereof as common past memory of man, whilk
now, lately, William Dempster of Careston, Janet Oehterlony, his mother,
George Falconer, her spouse, William Marshall, David Deuchar, David
Waterstone, portioner of the lands of Waterstone, Matthew Dempster, and
James Fenton of Ogil, has stopped the said reverend father, dean, chapter,
and citizens of Brechin in casting of peats, turfs, , and fuel upon the said
commonty, and to pull heather thereupon, and has riven out, tilled, and sawn
a part thereof, and built houses upon another part<of the same, tending to
appropriate the said common muir to them wrongously, and to call both the
said parties, and take cognition in the said matter upon the ground of the
said lands, as in our sovereign lord's letters, direct to my lord sheriff
and his deputes foresaid, at more length is contained. By virtue of the
which David Lokky, one of the Mairs general of the said sheriffdom, by the
sheriff principal's precept direct to him thereupon, charged and required
the said reverend father, dean, and chapter, and citizens of Brechin,
followers on the one part, and the said William Dempster, Janet Oehterlony,
George Falconer, William Marshall, David Deuchar, David Waterstone, Matthew
Dempster, and James Fenton of Ogil, -defenders, on the other part, to
compear before my lord sheriff foresaid or his deputes, one or more, to this
said court, day, time, and place in the hour of cause to hear and see a
cognition to be taken in the said matter, and justice equally ministered to
both the said parties, after the tenor of our sovereign lord's letters
foresaid. At the which day, and in the said court, the said sheriffs-deputes
caused call the saids parties, followers, and defenders, to compear before
them the said day and place, to hear and see a cognition taken in the said
matter, as they that were lawfully summoned thereto. Both the said parties
compearing personally, their rights, reasons, allegations being proponed and
shown, together with the depositions of diverse famous witnesses produced
and admitted, and sworn in presence of parties foresaid, and their
depositions, the said sheriffs-deputes being ripely advised therewith, finds
and declares, by cognition taken in the said cause, that the said reverend
father, dean, chapter, and citizens of Brechin, and their predecessors, has
been in peaceable possession of their muir of Brechin foresaid, with their
pertinents pertaining to them, in commonty in time bygone, past memory of
man, bounded on all the parts about as follows—1 st, Beginning at the
gallows of Keithock at the east; from that west to the Muirfauld dyke, and
from that Muirfauld dyke to the Bog dyke, and from the Bog dyke, extending
west to the Park dyke, at the south, extending west to the south side of
Montboy, the Myre of Montboy there along, and from thence extending west to
the gallows of Fearn; and from the gallows of Fearn, east at the north part
to the Qualochty, and from thence east to the gallows of Kethock foresaid;
and decemeth the bounds before expressed: The whole muir to be commonty to
the said reverend father, dean, chapter, and citizens of Brechin: And anent
certain lands and houses that are called Todd's houses, and lands lying
within the bounds betwixt the gallows of Fearn and the gallows of Keithock,
pertaining to James Fenton of Ogil, pertaining to the lands of Fearn, which
has been occupied these twenty years bygone, without impediment of Brechin,
but bruikit (enjoyed by) them peaceably, as it is clearly proved before the
said sheriffs-deputes; therefore the said sheriffs-deputes excepts that
lands and houses in this their process, nought (nothing) hurting the
property of the superior, nor yet the commonty of the same lands and
occupiers thereof, but Bn chin to have commonty over all the muir; and the
said reverend father, dean, chapter, and citizens of Brechin, shall be kept
and defended in such like possession of the said muir as said is, in time
coming, ay and while they be lawfully called and orderly put therefrom; and
also finds, because the said muir is found that it has been used and holden
as common in times bygone past memory of man, therefore the said sheriff
should cause it to be held common such like in time coming, according to
justice, after the tenor, form, and effect of our sovereign lord’s letters
foresaid, and doom given thereupon ; and precepts decerned hereupon,
according to justice.,, We have modernised the spelling and phraseology a
little. The cognition thus formally taken was ratified by the precept of
Lord Gray, sheriff of Forfar, in a court held by him at Forfar, within two
days after the perambulation of the muir by his deputes. On the back of the
original cognition, which is an excellent specimen of the writing of the
sixteenth century, we find this docquet engrossed, “ 23d January 1769,
registered by Mr David Rae, conform to the probative act, and presented by
Charles Guthrie, writer in Edinburgh, to whom the same is returned without
receipt, G. O.”
Hepburn, who took the trouble
of thus fixing the boundaries of the common muir, was descended of the
powerful family of Bothwell, and is reputed to have been a man of great
abilities. He died in August 1558, and Keith says that Listacus de rebus
gestis Scotorum gives the prelate a very large character. But if he was, as
we conceive he was, the John Hepburn who was abbot of St Andrews in 1513,
and who competed with Andrew Foreman for the Archbishopric of that see,
after the death of Alexander Stewart at the battle of Flodden, then he
scarce deserves the very large character here spoken of; for, if Buchanan is
to be believed, Hepburn was a factious plotter, a greedy, ambitious, and
intolerant priest, and the cause of much trouble during the regency of the
Duke of Albany. The documents still in existence in Brechin prove that he
was an active and an intelligent man. As to his moral character, these
documents afford no information. In 1543, during the minority of Queen Mary,
and in the first parliament held after her father’s death, an Act was passed
ordaining that “ it shall be lawful to all our sovereign lady’s lieges to
have the Holy Writ, viz., the New Testament and the Old, in the vulgar
tongue,”—an enactment that sounds strange in our ears, more especially when
it is added, “they shall incur no crime for the having and reading of the
same.” The Archbishop of St Andrews, Chancellor of the kingdom, entered a
protest against this enactment, “ for himself, and in name and behalf of all
the prelates of this realm present in Parliament,” including the then Bishop
of Brechia Hepburn is the last Roman Catholic bishop who has left any
documents connected with the town; for although after his death, and
previous to the Reformation, there was one, and some authorities will have
it two, bishops in the see of Brechin, namely, Donald Campbell and John
Sinclair, there are no writings in existence in Brechin connected with the
Episcopal reign of either of these gentlemen. It is curious enough to
observe that the last document by a bishop of the Church of Rome, remaining
amongst the records of Brechin, is a charter granted by Bishop Hepburn at
request of Sir John Erskine of Dun, the great reformer of the Church, then
the patron of the chaplaimy of the Virgin Mary, in the church of Brechin,
founded by his progenitor, Sir Robert Erskine of Dun, whereby the bishop, in
consequence of the incomes of the two chaplains being insufficient for their
support, unites the two chaplainries into one, and appropriates the income
for the support of one chaplain only. This charter, bearing date 18th and
27th June 1556, is signed by Erskine, in token of his consent to the
arrangement, and completed at Farnell, which then belonged to the bishops of
Brechin as a grange or country residence. The chaplainries being thus
united, “Joannes Dominus de Erskyn ” appoints Nicolas Thomson to the office
of chaplain.
Campbell and Sinclair just
alluded to, although they have left no traces of their reigns in the records
of Brechin, appear both' to have been men of considerable eminence.
Campbell, who was of the family of Argyle, but whose induction into the see
of Brechin is doubtful, died invested in the office of Lord Privy Seal to
Queen Mary in 1562. Sinclair was the fourth son of Sir Oliver Sinclair of
Roslin, and younger brother of Henry Sinclair, Bishop of Ross, and had the
honour, while dean of Restalrig, to join Queen Mary in matrimony to Lord
Darnley. Bishop Sinclair was first an Ordinary Lord of Session ; and
afterwards, on the death of his brother Henry, president of that court, he
was promoted to that important office. By the constitution of the Court of
Session at that period, seven of the members behoved to be laymen, and seven
clergymen, besides the Lord President, who was also required to be a
churchman. Sir Thomas Erskine, Lord Brechin, proprietor of the lordship of
Brechin and Navar, was one of the lords of Session in 1533. He was secretary
to James V., and was unde of, and tutor to, John Erskine of Dun the famous
reformer, mentioned above. In 1584, parochial clergymen were declared
incapable of exercising any office in the College of Justice, that their
minds might not be diverted from their proper functions; and Cromwell, with
that strong spirit of common sense which was exhibited in. most of his
measures, by act in 1650, debarred all clergymen, without distinction, from
sitting on the judicial bench of the Court of Session. After the Reformation
of 1560, several parsons and rectors were lords of Council and Session, but
John. Sinclair, Bishop of Brechin, was the last churchman who was president
of that court
The records of Brechin are
altogether sil&nt on the events which occurred in the burgh when Romanism
was abolished and Protestantism established, and ndther tradition nor
general his-toiy gives any information on the subject We therefore infer
that this change in the religion of the state had created little disturbance
in> the city of Brechin.
We have mentioned previously
that Brechin was regularly assessed along with the other royal burghs for
the maintenance of royalty, and in 1525 contributed £56, 5s. towards the
expenses of King James V. in France. In the division of the money granted
for the defence of the Borders about the same period, Brechin paid £45.
During Mary’s minority the Lord Governor, in 1550, desired a sum to purchase
peace with the emperor, and Brechin gave 40 crowns. In 1556, Mary got a
donation from the burghs, and Brechin contributed £11,5s.; and towards the
expenses of her marriage with the Dauphin of France in 1557, the burgh gave
£168, 15s.; while in 1563, this small city contributed £32, 13s. lid. in
part of the expense of an ambassador to Denmark. But it is perhaps more
worthy of remark, that of the extent of £4144 odds, levied from the burghs
in 1556 to. defray the expenses incurred by Gawin, com-mendator of
Kilwinning, and James Maxwell, “burgess of Rowane, for the down getting of
the xvj deniers of ilk frank wairing of giiids coft be Scotts merchants in
Rowane and Diep by the four deniers payd by them/’ Brechin is assessed in
£36, 11s. 3d. These extracts are taken from the records of the Town Council
of Edinburgh, preserved in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. The records of
Convention in March 1575, show Brechin to have been then assessed in £55
towards defraying the expense of sending men to Flanders “for tryell of
falis cunzie.” The records of the Town Council of Aberdeen in 1483, give the
tax-roll of the burghs north of the Forth, as modified by the Convention of
Burghs, in which Brechin is put down for £4, and Montrose for £5, 6s. 8d.,
so Brechin must have been a place of some trade long previous to the
accession of James VI.
But this chapter would be
incomplete, did we not mention that, iii 1503, the courtly James IV. appears
to have visited Brechin on some of his missions of peace amongst his
troublesome subjects. The books of the Lord High Treasurer, preserved in the
General Register House, bear that there were paid “ the xv day of October,
in Brechin, to the foure Italien men-strals, and the more tanbroner to thar
hors met, xlb. vs.” James seems to have been on his way north at this time,
for on the 11th October there is an entry of a payment of 14s. “to Mylson
Harper in Scone;99 and immediately after the Brechin entry there is this
entry, “ Item, that samyn nijcht in Dunnottar to the cheld playit on the
monocords be the king's command, xviij s.” The fondness of James for music
and mirth is matter still of popular tradition, as well as of authentic
history, and on this his journey north he seems to have gratified his taste
to the full. It will not be forgotten that it was in consequence of the
marriage of James with Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII., in the August
of this year, that the Stuarts came to the throne of England, and through
them the Guelphs, the pvesent reigning family. |
