A Corpus of Scottish Medieval
Parish Churches

Historical outline

Dedication: unknown

Subdivision of the lands of Keith that occurred in the twelfth century has rendered the early history of the parishes into which the lordship was divided almost impenetrably obscure.  A general charter of confirmation issued to the monks of Dunfermline by King David I lists the lands of Keith amongst properties granted to the abbey by his elder brother King Alexander I (1107-24).(1)  Between 1150 and 1153 Bishop Robert of St Andrews confirmed the monks in possession of teinds from Keith but not actual possession of the church, this arrangement being confirmed by his successors bishops Arnold and Richard.(2)  Instead, before 1159 Simon Fraser, lord of that part of Keith that became known as Keith-Simon or Keith-Hundeby, granted the church of his land to the monks of Kelso, along with certain other landed properties.(3)  Kelso received a confirmation of its possession of the church from King Malcolm IV before 1159, for Bishop Robert had confirmed the king’s gift of the church before his own death in that year.(4)  The monks received a subsequent confirmation of the gift from Hugh Lorens and Ada his wife, daughter of Simon Fraser and from Bishop Arnold.(5)

At some point probably in the late 1170s, controversy arose over the relationship of the chapel serving the other parts of the lands of Keith, with Kelso reaching an agreement with Hervey the Marshal, lord of what ultimately became known as Keith-Marischal, over this question.(6)  Confirmation of that settlement was ratified by Bishop Hugh in a charter of 1178x1188 which granted Kelso various of the churches in its possession in proprios usus but which simply confirmed possession of the church of Keith and an annual payment of 20s from the chapel of Keith-Hervey that was due following the composition arbirtrated by Bishop Jocelin of Glasgow, and Osbert prior of Paisley, between the monks and Hervey.(7)  Between 1198 and 1202 Bishop Roger de Beaumont of St Andrews extended the appropriations granted by Bishop Hugh to include Keith but, confusingly, the chapel from which the annual payment of 20s was due was named as Keith-Hundeby.(8)

There is no record of a formal vicarage settlement but it becomes evident that the parsonage only was annexed to Kelso and the cure became a vicarage perpetual.  It is as a vicarage that the church was recorded in 1275 in the rolls of the papal tax-collector in Scotland, assessed at one merk and with a penalty of a further half merk added in the first year.(9)  Named vicars are known from 1378 onwards, when John of Falkland was recorded as vicar perpetual in a papal letter.(10)  The union continued at the Reformation, when John Greenlaw was recorded as incumbent of the vicarage, the fruits of which were valued at £20.(11)

Notes

1. Registrum de Dunfermelyn (Bannatyne Club, 1842), no.2 [hereafter Dunfermline Registrum].

2. Dunfermline Registrum, nos 92-94.

3. Liber S Marie de Calchou (Bannatyne Club, 1846), no.98 [hereafter Kelso Liber].

4. Regesta Regum Scotorum, i, The Acts of Malcolm IV, ed G W S Barrow (Edinburgh, 1960), no.186; Kelso Liber, no.94.

5. Kelso Liber, nos 86, 439.

6. Kelso Liber, no.95.

7. Kelso Liber, no.84.

8. Kelso Liber, no.83.

9. A I Dunlop (ed), ‘Bagimond’s Roll: Statement of the Tenths of the Kingdom of Scotland’, Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, vi (1939), 35, 36.

10. Calendar of Papal Letters to Scotland of Clement VII of Avignon, 1378-1394, ed C Burns (Scottish History Society, 1976), 8.

11. J Kirk (ed), The Books of Assumption of the Thirds of Benefices (Oxford, 1995), 161.

Summary of relevant documentation

Medieval

Synopsis of Cowan’s Parishes: The church was granted to Kelso by Simon Fraser c.1160. The parsonage with the abbey, though the revenues appear to have been used for their cell of Lesmahagow.(1)

1378 William de Falkland/Salthound (MA) holds the vicarage.(2)

1435 Hugh de Landallis described as perpetual vicar, which he holds along with the hospital of St Lawrence [no location specified].(3)

#1455 Alexander de Casilcaris rector of the church (see Lib de Melrose).

1469 Pension paid to Richard Robson, monk and former abbot of Kelso, of £20 from all and sundry teinds of Nenthorn and Keith Hundeby.(4)

1553 (20 Apr) John Greenlaw, vicar of Keith Humbie witnesses an unrelated document.(5)

1556 (27 Jan) John Greenlaw, vicar of Keith Huneby, designates procurators for his lands in Haddington.(6)

Post-medieval

Books of assumption of thirds of benefices and Accounts of the collectors of thirds of benefices: The Parish church vicarage held by John Greenlaw, £20.(7)

Account of Collectors of Thirds of Benefices (G. Donaldson): Third of vicarage £6 13s 4d.(8)

[The parishes of Keith Symmons and Keith Hunerby were united at the Reformation]

1602 (8 Apr) Visitation of the church by the Presbytery of Haddington finds the lord of Ormiston to be the main heritor; he has given half of the gleib and half of the land to build the manse along with 100 marks for the vicarage (Patrick Carkettill is the minister).(9)

1627 (24 Apr) Report on the parish by the minister (John Cockburn) describes the churches of Keith and Humbie as being united in 1618, with Keith under the patronage of the earl marischal, and Humbie formally held by Kelso.(10)

1631 (17 Aug) Visitation of the church finds the whole church and choir to be ruinous both in the roof and side walls. The minister is ordered to contact the heritors for repairing the choir and the parishioners for repairing the rest of the church, craftsmen to be engaged.(11)

1643 (23 Apr) That day the session ordained to meet at Humbie that payment may be made to the mason for repairing the kirk.(12) [related to 1631 visitation?]

1643 (14 May) The session ordained the floor of the church to be laid with diligence (the same day the heritors are to pay for a window in the church).(13)

1674 (18 Jan) John Kemp pad £4 7s for the iron and workmanship for the bell stock.(14)

1675 (27 Aug) James Waucht, glasier paid £3 4s 8d for mending the glass windows of the church.(15)

1676 (Mar) Noted that £34 had been paid for mending the kirk yard dykes the previous March.(16)

1678 (6 July) Visitation of the church by the Presbytery of Haddington finds that the church and manse only need pointing and that lord Keith is prepared to point his part of the church.(17)

Statistical Account of Scotland (Rev Henry Sangster): [No reference to church buildings or ruins]

New Statistical Account of Scotland (Rev James Macfarlane, 1835): ‘The church….was built in 1800’.(18) [no reference to earlier buildings at either site]

Notes

1. Cowan, The parishes of medieval Scotland, 92.

2. CPL, Clem, 8 & 17.

3. CSSR, iv, no. 215.

4. CSSR, v, no 1335.

5. NRS Prot Bk of James Harlaw, 1547-8, NP1/12, fol. 46r.

6. NRS Haddington Burgh: Court Books, 1555-60, B30/10/1, fol. 78r.

7. Kirk, The books of assumption of the thirds of benefices, 161.

8. Donaldson, Accounts of the collectors of thirds of benefices, 28.

9. NRS Presbytery of Haddington, Minutes, 1596-1608, CH2/185/2, fol. 171.

10. Reports on the State of Certain Parishes in Scotland, pp. 121-122.

11. NRS Presbytery of Haddington, Minutes, 1627-1639, CH2/185/4, fol. 52.

12. NRS Humbie Kirk Session, 1643-1677, CH2/389/1, fol. 10.

13. NRS Humbie Kirk Session, 1643-1677, CH2/389/1, fol. 11.

14. NRS Humbie Kirk Session, 1643-1677, CH2/389/1, fol. 320.

15. NRS Humbie Kirk Session, 1643-1677, CH2/389/1, fol. 341.

16. NRS Humbie Kirk Session, 1643-1677, CH2/389/1, fol. 344.

17. NRS Presbytery of Haddington, Minutes, 1662-1686, CH2/185/7, fol. 257.

18. New Statistical Account of Scotland, (1835), ii, 104. 

Bibliography

NRS Haddington Burgh: Court Books, 1555-60, B30/10/1.

NRS Humbie Kirk Session, 1643-1677, CH2/389/1, fol.

NRS Presbytery of Haddington, Minutes, 1596-1608, CH2/185/2.

NRS Presbytery of Haddington, Minutes, 1627-1639, CH2/185/4.

NRS Presbytery of Haddington, Minutes, 1662-1686, CH2/185/7.

NRS Prot Bk of James Harlaw, 1547-8, NP1/12.

Calendar of Papal letters to Scotland of Clement VII of Avignon, 1976, ed. C. Burns, (Scottish History Society) Edinburgh.

Calendar of Scottish Supplications to Rome 1433-47, 1983, ed. A.I. Dunlop and D MacLauchlan, Glasgow.

Calendar of Scottish Supplications to Rome 1447-71, 1997, ed. J. Kirk, R.J. Tanner and A.I. Dunlop, Edinburgh.

Cowan, I.B., 1967, The parishes of medieval Scotland, (Scottish Record Society), Edinburgh.

Donaldson, G., 1949, Accounts of the collectors of thirds of benefices, (Scottish History Society), Edinburgh.

Kirk, J., 1995, The books of assumption of the thirds of benefices, (British Academy) Oxford.

New Statistical Account of Scotland, 1834-45, Edinburgh and London.

Architectural description

There is considerable uncertainty over the earlier history of the parish of Humbie, but it appears that during the reign of David I (1124-53) the lands of Keith were subdivided, with the part belonging to Simon Fraser coming to be known as Keith-Symon and later as Keith-Hundeby. In about 1160 Fraser granted the church to the Tironensian abbey of Kelso, though the revenues were apparently devoted to its cell at Lesmahaghow.(1)

After the Reformation, it was recorded on 24 April 1627 that the churches of Keith (that is what had become Keith Marischal) and Humbie had been united in 1618.(2) The state of the church at Humbie was evidently a matter of concern by 17 August 1631, when it was said to be ‘ruinous both in the roof and side walls’.(3)

The church, which is near the edge of a steep drop to a burn on its south side, appears likely to be on its medieval site. It was largely rebuilt to a T-plan in 1800,(4) and that date is inscribed above the door on the west side of the north aisle.

It was subsequently remodelled and mildly Gothicised by David Bryce in 1866,(5) and that date is inscribed on the lintel of the west porch which  was added at that time. As a prelude to that operation, in 1864 the Broun of Johnstounburn family agreed to remove their burial place from the church ‘in deference to the feelings of the parishioners’, according to an inscription on the mausoleum that was built for them at the northern edge of the churchyard. A chancel was added at the east end of the church in 1930, with the date inscribed on the sill of the east window.

The church is built of buff coloured rubble with ashlar dressings. The south face, which is rather difficult to see because of its proximity to the slope down to the burn, is braced by a triplet of buttresses, between which there are paired lights. There are also paired lights to the west front above the porch and at two levels on the north face of the aisle. The chancel has a three-light east window. A bellcote rises above the west gable.

There appears to be no identifiable medieval fabric in the church as it now stands. However, a short distance to its east is a length of low wall that has been retained in order to preserve three monuments that have been built into it. It may be speculated that wall had been the lower part of the east wall of the chancel of the medieval church, and that it had been adapted for burials after its abandonment. A similar process of retention of parts of an earlier wall because of a wish to preserve monuments may be suspected in an alignment of three substantial monuments to the north east of the church, where the retained sections of wall appear to have been parts of an earlier churchyard boundary wall.

Notes

1. Ian B. Cowan, The Parishes of Medieval Scotland (Scottish Record Society), 1967, p. 92.

2. Reports on the State of Certain parishes in Scotland, ed., Alexander Macdonald (Maitland Club), 1835, pp. 121-22.

3. National Records of Scotland, Presbytery of Haddington, Minutes, 1627-39, CH2/185/4, fol. 52.

4. New Statistical Account of Scotland, 1834-45, vol. 2, p. 104.

5. Colin McWilliam, The Buildings of Scotland, Lothian, Harmondsworth, 1978, pp. 258-59.