A Corpus of Scottish Medieval
Parish Churches

Historical outline

Dedication: unknown

The earliest reference to a church serving at least part of the parish of Meathie-Lour is a charter of Roger de Beaumont, bishop of St Andrews, dated to 1200-1202, whereby he gave the church of Lure to William son of Adam ‘de Neuihn’.(1) The next surviving reference to the church - as Meathie - is the note of its dedication by David de Bernham, bishop of St Andrews, on 3 September 1243.(2)  It has been suggested that the reference to a vicarage of Mathing in the accounts of the papal tax-collector in Scotland in 1275 concerns Meathie(3) but there is no evidence to support the idea that its parsonage had been appropriated by that date.  Late in the reign of King Alexander III (1249-86) the advowson of the church was granted by Sir Hugh Abernethy to the monks of Coupar Angus, royal confirmation being received from the king.(4)  The grant of the patronage of the church of Mathylur was confirmed to the abbey by King Robert I in 1308 as being the gift of Hugh Abernethy’s son, Alexander.(5)

It was the patronage only of Meathie that the abbey continued to possess into the 1320s but shortly before 1326 it seems to have been annexed to the abbey by Bishop William Lamberton, but with payment of procurations reserved to him and future bishops of St Andrews.  This grant survives only in notification of a reduction in the amount paid from three merks to two merks made in 1326 on the instruction of Bishop William Lamberton,(6) and in the 1328 confirmation by the prior of St Andrews of Bishop Lamberton’s annexation of the church to the abbey in proprios usus, with the requirement for the monks to serve it thereafter with a suitable perpetual chaplain.(7)  From that point both parsonage and vicarage revenues were appropriated to the abbey and the cure was served by a vicar pensioner.  The sequence is confirmed in a papal confirmation of 22 May 1419 secured by the monks arising from a supplication which rehearsed how Hugh de Abernethy had granted them the advowson of the parish church of ‘Macilner’ and two acres of land, and secured confirmation of his gift from Alexander III.   William, bishop of St Andrews, subsequently granted the church and its lands and other rights and pertinents in perpetuity to the abbot and convent of Coupar Angus for their sustenance and the augmentation of hospitality, but reserving to himself and his successors an annual procuration of 2 merks, and the other episcopal burdens.  The annexation carried the obligation that the church should be served in future by a fit perpetual chaplain to be presented by the bishops of St Andrews.  This chaplain would have the cure of souls and a stipend of 100s annually for his maintenance.(8)

Named vicars pensioner are encountered in the early sixteenth century.  In 1 Sept 1508 William, abbot of Coupar Angus, petitioned James, bishop-elect of Galloway, and commendator of Dunfermline, requesting his confirmation of the presentation of Mr Walter Frostar, to the vicarage pensionary of 12 merks of ‘Mathilowr’.  The church was noted to be vacant by the demission of the late sir Simon Jameson, last vicar-pensionary thereof.(9)

By the middle of the fifteenth century the monks were leasing their interest in the church for annual cash payments, leaving it to the lessee to collect the teinds.  In 1466 there was a five-year set of Meathie kirk to the local laird John of Lour of that Ilk, for annual payment of 68 merks, giving them over 50 merks clear profit on the teinds alone after deduction of the vicar’s pension and before the addition of the various other altarage payments and oblations.  All burdens and church repairs were deducted, except that when repair work was undertaken on the church the abbot was to send his masons, carpenters and slaters, who were to receive no payment for their work except their daily food.  For those repairs, too, the tenants of the monks’ grange at Meathie were to help with the carriage of lime, stone, and sand.  Two merks were to be deducted from the 68 merks for the first year for future church repair during the term of the lease.(10)

The annexation to the abbey remained effective at the Reformation.  At that time it was recorded that the parsonage and vicarage lay with the monks, valued together at 100 merks annually.(11)

Notes

1. NRS RH1/2/27.

2. A O Anderson (ed), Early Sources of Scottish History, ii (Edinburgh, 1922), 524 [Pontifical Offices of St Andrews].

3. A I Dunlop (ed), ‘Bagimond’s Roll: Statement of the Tenths of the Kingdom of Scotland’, Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, vi (1939), 39 note 2.

4. Regesta Regum Scottorum, iv, pt. i, The Acts of Alexander III, eds C Neville and G G Simpson (Edinburgh, 2012), no.327.

5. Regesta Regum Scottorum, v, The Acts of Robert I, ed A A M Duncan (Edinburgh, 1988), no.3.

6. Charters of the Abbey of Coupar Angus, ed D E Easson (Scottish History Society, 1947), no.CIX [hereafter Coupar Angus Charters].

7. Coupar Angus Charters, no.CXII.

8. Calendar of Scottish Supplications to Rome, i, 1418-22, eds E R Lindsay and A I Cameron (Scottish History Society, 1934), 49-50.

9. Rental Book of the Cistercian Abbey of Cupar Angus, ed C Rogers, i (Grampian Club, 1879), 273-4 [hereafter Cupar Rental].

10. Cupar Rental, i, 160.

11. J Kirk (ed), The Books of Assumption of the Thirds of Benefices (Oxford, 1995), 369-370.

Summary of relevant documentation

Medieval

Synopsis of Cowan’s Parishes: The church was granted to Coupar Angus by Hugh de Abernethy c.1285x86. The patronage alone pertained to the abbey until 1328 when both the parsonage and the vicarage were appropriated. The cure was served by a vicar pensioner.(1)

1418 ratification of grant by Hugh de Abernethy of the advowson of the church of Macilner/Machyland/ Meiklor (Cowan suggests that this is Meathie). Church to be served by a fit perpetual chaplain provided by the abbey, 100 shillings a year for his pension out of overall value 24 marks a year.(2)

Post-medieval

Books of assumption of thirds of benefices and Accounts of the collectors of thirds of benefices: The Parish church parsonage and vicarage with Coupar Angus, value 100 marks.(3)

[United to parish of Inverarity after the Reformation, there is no record in the statistical account of that parish for church buildings associated with Meathie]

Notes

1. Cowan, The parishes of medieval Scotland, 145.

2. CSSR, i, 49.

3. Kirk, The books of assumption of the thirds of benefices, 369-70.

Bibliography

Calendar of Scottish Supplications to Rome 1418-22, 1934, ed. E.R. Lindsay and A.I. Cameron, (Scottish History Society) Edinburgh.

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

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

Architectural description

In about 1285-6 the church was granted to the Cistercian abbey of Coupar Angus by Sir Hugh de Abernethy. Both the parsonage and vicarage were appropriated to the uses of the abbey by Bishop William de Lamberton in 1328, following which the cure was a vicarage pensionary.(1) Bishop David de Bernham carried out a dedication on 3 September 1243.(2)

The parish was suppressed in the seventeenth century, perhaps in 1667.(3) The church subsequently fell into decay, part of it remaining in use as the burial place of the Bower of Kingoldrum family according to an inscription set up in a reconstructed section of the north wall.

That inscription also records that the church was excavated in 1926, when it was found to have dimensions of 21 by 7 metres.(4) A Sacrament House, was also discovered at that time, and has been built into the wall adjacent to the inscription. The ogee-arched aumbry is flanked by pinnacle buttresses, and a vine trail runs down the buttresses and below the aumbry. Above the arch of the aumbry are three leaf shapes which serve as a finial and a pair of crockets,

There is also the lower part of a medieval cross-incised grave slab, of which only the shaft and stepped base of the cross survive.

Notes

1. Ian B. Cowan, The Parishes of Medieval Scotland (Scottish Record Society), 1967, pp. 143-44.

2. Alan Orr Anderson, Early Sources of Scottish History, Edinburgh, 1922, vol. 2, p. 524.

3. A.J. Warden, Angus or Forfarshire, Dundee, 1880-85, vol. 3, pp. 400-1.

4. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Canmore online resource.