A Corpus of Scottish Medieval
Parish Churches

Historical outline

Dedication: St Muiredach

Almost no medieval record of this church has survived.  Dedicated to St Muiredach,(1) it appears first in a surviving source in 1275 when it was recorded in the accounts of the papal tax-collector in Scotland as an independent parsonage paying two merks of taxation.(2)  When the next certain reference to the church occurs in 1483 it was noted as a perpetual vicarage, but there is no record surviving of the appropriation of the parsonage.(3)  It is only at the Reformation that the appropriator is identified as the Cistercian abbey of Balmerino.  In the abbey rental it was noted that £100 annually was assigned for the minister at Balmerino and Logie.  The vicarage, pertaining to Mr Thomas Forret, was valued at 24 merks.(4)

Notes

1. S Taylor and G Markus, The Place-Names of Fife, iv, North Fife between Eden and Tay (Donington, 2010), 554.

2. A I Dunlop (ed), ‘Bagimond’s Roll: Statement of the Tenths of the Kingdom of Scotland’, Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, vi (1939), 38.

3. Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters, xiii, 1471-1484, ed J A Twemlow (London, 1955), 823.

4. J Kirk (ed), The Books of Assumption of the Thirds of Benefices (Oxford, 1995), 58-9, 79.

Summary of relevant documentation

Medieval

Synopsis of Cowan’s Parishes: Vicarage and parsonage annexed to Balmerino at the Reformation, cure served by a vicar pensioner. Church appears as a free parsonage in 1275, vicarage in existence by at least 1483.(1)

Place Names of Fife (iv):  the early name Logie-Murdoch of the parish and the lands indicate an early dedication to St Muireadhach (Murdoch). A saint of that name was the dedicatee of the parish church of Ethie.(2)

1380 Church of Logy? (possibly Logie-Murdoch), supplication for by William de Lichton, as David de Fleming had failed to get ordained.(3)

1483 Collated of Alexander Doby to perpetual vicarage of LogyMortho, (value £8), void by resignation of Thomas Holynyg.(4)

1511 (26 July) Instrument of Possession in favour of Sir William Rae Chaplain of the Altar of St. Fillan within the Parish Church of Perth of a tenement in the West side of the Watergate - on the resignation of Sir Patrick Rae Vicar of Logymurtho founder of the said Chaplainry.(5)

Post-medieval

Books of assumption of thirds of benefices and Accounts of the collectors of thirds of benefices: The Parish church vicarage (£16) and parsonage (in produce, no cash value) with Balmerino.(6)

Account of Collectors of Thirds of Benefices (G Donaldson): Third of vicarage £5 6s 8d.(7)

1574 certain teind scheves lying within the parish set for 19 years to David Carnegie.(8)

1610 (11 Sept) Visitation of the church finds the minister (Thomas Montgomery) to be competent, the fabric of the church to be in good estate and the kirk dykes requiring to be built according to the Act of Parliament.(9)

1617 Teinds of Logy valued at £20.(10)

1699 (6 Jun) Visitation of Logie to consider building of manse and office houses and repair of the church and church yard dykes. The total cost is 931 18s 8d [only a small proportion of this went on the church].(11)

Statistical Account of Scotland (Rev Robert Bogie, 1792): ‘The manse was built in 1736’.(12) [no reference to earlier buildings]

New Statistical Account of Scotland (Rev Andrew Melville, 1837): ‘No building, ancient or modern [in the parish], is of any significance’.(13) ‘The parish church was built in 1826’.(14)

The Architecture of Scottish Post-Reformation Churches (George Hay): 1826; recast 1882 and 1902.(15)

Bibliography

National Records of Scotland, Presbytery of Cupar, Minutes, 1693-1702, CH2/82/2

National Records of Scotland, Records of King James VI Hospital, Perth, Altarages, GD79/4/35

National Records of Scotland, Records of the Synod of Fife, 1610-1636, CH2/154/1

Calendar of entries in the Papal registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland; Papal letters, 1893-, ed. W.H. Bliss, London

Calendar of entries in the Papal registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland; Papal Petitions, 1893-, ed. W.H. Bliss, London

Chartularies of Balmerino and Lindores, 1841, ed. W. Turnbull (Abbotsford Club), 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

Hay, G., 1957, The Architecture of Scottish Post-Reformation Churches, 1560-1843, Oxford

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

Statistical Account of Scotland, 1791-9, ed. J. Sinclair, Edinburgh

Taylor, S and  Markus G., 2010, The Place-Names of Fife. Volume Four. North Fife between Eden and Tay, Donington

Notes

1. Cowan, The parishes of medieval Scotland, 138.

2. Taylor and Markus, The Place-Names of Fife, Volume Four, p. 554.

3. Calendar of entries in the Papal registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland; Papal Petitions, 555.

4. Calendar of entries in the Papal registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland; Papal letters, xiii, 823.

5. National Records of Scotland, Records of King James VI Hospital, Perth, Altarages, GD79/4/35.

6. Kirk, The books of assumption of the thirds of benefices, 56 and 83.

7. Donaldson, Accounts of the collectors of thirds of benefices, 13.

8. Chartularies of Balmerino, no. 77.

9. National Records of Scotland, Records of the Synod of Fife, 1610-1636, CH2/154/1, fol. 3v.

10. Chartularies of Balmerino, no. 80.

11. NRS Presbytery of Cupar, Minutes, 1693-1702, CH2/82/2, fols. 354-355.

12. Statistical Account of Scotland, (1792), viii, 472.

13. New Statistical Account of Scotland, (1837), ix, 428.

14. New Statistical Account of Scotland, (1837), ix, 432.

15. Hay, The Architecture of Scottish Post-Reformation Churches, p. 258.

Architectural description

Logie, which was also known as Logie-Murdoch or Logie-Murtho, was annexed to the Cistercian abbey of Balmerino by the time of the Reformation. The cure was a vicarage a pensionary.(1)

The church was rebuilt in 1826,(2) with modifications in 1893, and a vestry added on the north side in 1902.(3) It is a simple rectangular building of three by two bays, and with a square bellcote at the apex of the entrance front, which faces south-west.

Although it is thought likely that it is on or near the site of its medieval predecessor, no identifiable medieval work has been located. The building is no longer in use for worship, now serving as the Elizabeth Sharp Memorial Hall.

Notes

1. Ian B.Cowan, The Parishes of Medieval Scotland (Scottish Record Society), 1967, p. 138.

2. New Statistical Account of Scotland, 1834-45, vol. 9.

3. John Gifford, The Buildings of Scotland, Fife, London, 1988, p. 315.