A Corpus of Scottish Medieval
Parish Churches

Historical outline

Dedication: unknown

It is likely that the church of Newtyle was in the gift of the crown when it was granted by King William in 1178 to Arbroath Abbey as part of its founding endowment.(1)  The church and all its teinds and other possesions were confirmed to the abbey by Bishop Hugh of St Andrews (1178-88).(2)  Possession was confirmed again by Bishop Roger de Beaumon (1198-1202) and on two occasions specifically in proprios usus by Bishop William Malveisin (1202-38).(3)  Later in his episcopate, Bishop William confirmed the grant again, stipulating that the church was to be served by a perpetual vicar.(4)  A formal vicarage settlement was instituted in 1249 by Bishop David de Bernham, who confirmed the annexation of the parsonage to the uses of the abbey and the establishment of a vicarage perpetual to serve the cure.(5)  It was David de Bernham who also formally dedicated the church on 29 August 1242.(6)

It is as a vicarage that Newtyle was recorded in 1276 in the accounts of the papal tax-collector in Scotland, noted as having paid 10s 8d in the first year of the taxation.(7)  This level of taxation compares very favourably with other vicarages within the district and in the diocese of St Andrews more generally, yet in 1352 the vicar of Newtyle was one of nine vicars who complained to Bishop William Landallis over the inadequacy of their portions.(8)  Some indication of the relative wealth of this parish is provided by the 200 merk per annum value placed on the kirklands and garbal teinds in a 1458 property transaction and in 1526 the teinds alone were set to James Ogilvy, lord of Airlie, for 80 merks annually.(9)  The union of the parsonage to Arbroath remained in place at the Reformation, at which time the church was valued at £80 annually while the vicarage, held by Alexander Lindsay, was valued at £30.(10)

Notes

1. Regesta Regum Scottorum, ii, The Acts of William I, ed G W S Barrow (Edinburgh, 1971), nos 197, 231; Liber S Thome de Aberbethoc, i (Bannatyne Club, 1848), no.18 [hereafter Arbroath Liber, i].

2. Arbroath Liber, i, no.145.

3. Arbroath Liber, i, nos 147, 158, 165.

4. Arbroath Liber, i, no.167.

5. Arbroath Liber, i, no.236.

6. A O Anderson (ed), Early Sources of Scottish History, ii (Edinburgh, 1922), 522 [Pontifical Offices of St Andrews].

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

8. Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Petitions to the Pope, ed W H Bliss (London, 1896), 235.

9. Liber S Thome de Aberbrothoc, ii (Bannatyne Club, 1856), nos 118, 628.

10. J Kirk (ed), The Books of Assumption of the Thirds of Benefices (Oxford, 1995), 359, 396.

Summary of relevant documentation

Medieval

Synopsis of Cowan’s Parishes: The church was granted to Arbroath by William I in 1178. A vicarage settlement took place in 1249, with a perpetual vicar and the parsonage thereafter remaining with the abbey.(1)

1178 Church included in the foundation charter of Arbroath as a gift by William. 1178x87 specific charter by William granting the church to the abbey with all chapels, land etc. 1213 church in included in confirmation by William I of the possessions of Arbroath.(2)

1178-88 Church included in confirmation of by Hugh, bishop of St Andrews of the churches held by Arbroath in the diocese of St Andrews.(3)

1182 Church included in papal bull by Lucius III confirming possessions of Arbroath.(4)

1198 Church included in a confirmation by Roger, bishop of St Andrews of the churches held by Arbroath in the diocese of St Andrews.(5)

1200 Church included in papal bull by Innocent III confirming possessions of Arbroath.(6)

1202x04 Possession of church by Arbroath confirmed  by William, bishop of St Andrews, in two charters, the first specifically related to the church, the second including all the churches held by Arbroath in the diocese of St Andrews.(7)

1204x11 Church included in confirmation by Henry, prior of St Andrews, of all the churches held by Arbroath in the diocese of St Andrews.(8)

1213 Church in included in confirmation by William I of the possessions of Arbroath, with chapels, lands, teinds, oblations, common pasture and all other rights and pertinent.(9)

1214x18 Church included in confirmation by Alexander II of all the lands and churches belonging to Arbroath.(10)

c.1233 Church included in a confirmation by David de Bernham, bishop of St Andrews, of all the churches held by Arbroath in the diocese of St Andrews.

1249 Vicarage settlement by the bishop, parsonage with abbey, perpetual vicarage set up.(11)

1352 Suit brought before the bishop of St Andrews between abbey of Arbroath and the vicars of Inverlunan, St Vigean, Barry, Arbirlot, Monifieth, Muirhouse, Newtyle, Glamis and Kirriemuir. ‘The vicars asserted that they had insufficient portions, whereupon the bishop made an ordinance, which the Pope is asked to confirm’.(12)

1378 and 1379 William Gerland (MA and scholar of canon law at University of Paris, canon of Caithness) holds vicarage of Newtyle.(13)

1391 John Oliverii (illegitimate son of a priest) collated to vicarage.(14) John exchanges Newtyle for Glamis in 1405, new vicar John Wylde.(15)

1458 William de Strachach, burgess of Dundee, resigns his lands of Lathame to the abbey in return for the lands and the garbal teinds of the church of Newtyle, worth 200 marks pa.(16)

1463 David Dishington resigns vicarage …Haldane [no first name in record] provided (value £9).(17)

1483 Action between John Barry and Robert Foularton, who holds the vicarage of Newtyle over the church.(18)

1485 James Anderson provided to church.(19)

1490 John Lychtoun presented to vicarage on the death of Robert Foularton.(20)

1496 John Androson presented to the vicarage on the death of Andrew Howsone.(21)

1519 Andrew Dure presented to the vicarage on death of William Lyndesay. 1520 Andrew resigns , James Scrymgeor presented by the archbishop of Glasgow.(22)

1526 Garbal teinds of church set for 19 years to James Ogilvy, Lord of Erly for 80 marks pa.(23)

Post-medieval

Books of assumption of thirds of benefices and Accounts of the collectors of thirds of benefices: The Parish church parsonage with Arbroath, value £80. Vicarage held by Alexander Lindsay, value £30.(24)

Account of Collectors of Thirds of Benefices (G. Donaldson): Third of vicarage £10.(25)

1610 (20 Sept) A visitation of the church finds it to be in good estate except the pulpit which they have promised with diligence to amend by building a new one; the kirk dykes are to be built according to the Act of Parliament.(26)

1648 (27 Nov) 13s 4d taken from the book to pay a slater for mending a hole in the church.(27)

1650 (27 Jan) 13s 4d expended on the mending of the bell.(28)

1662 (1 April) Church along with rector and vicar teinds recorded as in the control of Patrick, earl of Panmure, inherited from his father, George (d.1661).(29)

1685 (3 Nov) That day the session convened and the minister complained that he had frequently talked to the heritors in the parish anent the repairing of the fabric of the kirk but to no purpose. Repair is necessary for helping the roof that the people might not be molested with wind and rain. (36s expended by the kirk session).(30)

1688 (6 Feb) £40 14s spent on mending a loft in the church.(31)

1767 (Apr) Petition for a visitation of the church on behalf of James Stewart, lord privy seal, who has been informed that the church is such ruinous and dangerous condition that it must be rebuilt. A visitation was held on 20 April at which Mr Patrick Alison of Newhall presented a plan for the new church which will cost £1767.(32)

Statistical Account of Scotland (Rev Alexander Small, 1792): ‘The manse was built in 1771, and the church in 1767’.(33)

New Statistical Account of Scotland (Rev John Moon, 1842): ‘The church was built in 1767 and is in good condition’.(34)

[No reference in either to older church remains]

Notes

1. Cowan, The parishes of medieval Scotland, 157.

2. RRS, ii, nos. 197, 231 & 513, Liber Aberbrothoc, i, nos. 1 & 18.

3. Liber Aberbrothoc, i, no. 145.

4. Liber Aberbrothoc, i, no. 220.

5. Liber Aberbrothoc, i, no.147.

6. Liber Aberbrothoc, i, no. 221.

7. Liber Aberbrothoc, i, nos. 158 & 165.

8. Liber Aberbrothoc, i, no. 166

9. RRS, ii, no. 513, Liber Aberbrothoc, i,  no.1

10. Liber Aberbrothoc, i, no. 100.

11. Liber Aberbrothoc, i, nos  172 & 236.

12. CPP, 235.

13. CPL, iv, 237-38. CPP, 545, CPL, Clem, 9-10 & 16.

14. CPL, Clem, 165.

15. CPL, Ben, 129, CPP, 575.

16. Liber Aberbrothoc, ii, no. 118.

17. CSSR, v, no.939.

18. Abstract of the Prot Bk of Stirling, 1469-84, 59.

19. CSSR, v, no.1000.

20. Liber Aberbrothoc, ii, no. 329.

21. Liber Aberbrothoc, ii, no. 372.

22. Liber Aberbrothoc, ii, nos. 551 & 556.

23. Liber Aberbrothoc, ii, no. 628.

24. Kirk, The books of assumption of the thirds of benefices, 359 & 396.

25. Donaldson, Accounts of the collectors of thirds of benefices, 10.

26. NRS Records of the Synod of Fife, 1610-1636, CH2/154/1, fols. 12-13.

27. NRS Newtyle Kirk Session, 1648-1711, CH2/284/1, fol. 13.

28. NRS Newtyle Kirk Session, 1648-1711, CH2/284/1, fol. 34.

29. Registrum de Panmure, p. 337.

30. NRS Newtyle Kirk Session, 1648-1711, CH2/284/1, fol. 192.

31. NRS Newtyle Kirk Session, 1648-1711, CH2/284/1, fol. 201.

32. NRS Presbytery of Meigle, Minutes, 1749-1768, CH2/263/11, fols. 400-401.

33. Statistical Account of Scotland, (1792), iii, 402.

34. New Statistical Account of Scotland, (1842), xi, 566.

Bibliography

NRS Newtyle Kirk Session, 1648-1711, CH2/284/1.

NRS Presbytery of Meigle, Minutes, 1749-1768, CH2/263/11.

NRS Records of the Synod of Fife, 1610-1636, CH2/154/1.

Abstract of the Protocol Book of the Burgh of Stirling, 1469-84, 1896, Edinburgh.

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.

Calendar of Papal letters to Scotland of Benedict XIII of Avignon, 1976, ed. F. McGurk, (Scottish History Society) Edinburgh.

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 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.

Liber S Thome de Aberbrothoc, 1848-56, ed. C. Innes and P. Chalmers, (Bannatyne Club) Edinburgh, i.

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

Registrum de Panmure, 1874, ed. J. Stuart, Edinburgh.

Regesta Regum Scottorum, Acts of William I (1165-1214), 1971, Edinburgh.

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

Architectural description

The church at Newtyle was granted to the Tironensian abbey of Arbroath by King William the Lion at the time of its foundation, in 1178. It was confirmed to the uses of the abbey at a date between 1202 and 1204 by Bishop William, who subsequently required the cure to be served by a perpetual vicar, and there was a vicarage settlement in 1249.(1) Before that date, on 29 August 1242, Bishop David de Bernham had carried out one of his dedications.(2)

By the later seventeenth century the condition of the church fabric was a matter of concern, and on 3 November 1685 the minister said that repairs to the roof were necessary to protect the parishioners from the wind and rain.(3) The situation had deteriorated so far by April 1767 that it was said that it had to be rebuilt, and Mr Patrick Alison of Newhall submitted a plan for a new church which was to cost £1,767.(4) In 1792 it was recorded that the church had indeed been built in 1767.(5) It was enlarged in 1824 and 1835,(6) though what form those enlargement took is unknown.

That church was itself replaced by a new building erected to the designs of the younger Andrew Heiton in 1870-72, which remains in use for worship.(7) The spread of memorials within the churchyard suggests that the nineteenth-century church could be on or near the site of its eighteenth-century predecessor,(8) though there is nothing to suggest that any of the earlier fabric has survived.

The present church is an imposing building of pink rock-faced masonry with polished buff dressings in what is probably intended to be understood as an early thirteenth century style. A tower with gables topping its four faces rises at the south-east angle, on the face towards the street.

Notes

1. Ian B. Cowan, The Parishes of Medieval Scotland (Scottish Record Society), 1967, p. 157.

2. Alan Orr Anderson, Early Sources of Scottish History, Edinburgh, 1922, vol. 2, p. 522.

3. National Records of Scotland, Newtyle Kirk Session, 1648-1711, CH2/284/1, fol. 192.

4. National Records of Scotland, Presbytery of Meigle, Minutes,1749-1768, CH2/263/11, fols 400-401.

5. Statistical Account of Scotland, 1791-99, vol. 3, p. 402.

6. John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland, London and Edinburgh, vol. 2, p. 512

7. John Gifford, The Buildings of Scotland, Dundee and Angus, New Haven and London, 2012, 649-50.

8. Francis H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, Edinburgh, vol. 5, 1884, states that it is ‘on the site of its predecessor’.