A Corpus of Scottish Medieval
Parish Churches

Historical outline

Dedication: unknown

The church of Simprin or Simprisk with all its appurtenances was granted to the monks of Kelso Abbey by Hye de Simprisk and his son Peter c.1153 x 1159.(1)  The gift was confirmed soon after 1165 by King William as part of his general confirmation of the abbey’s lands and rights.(2)  It was confirmed in proprios usus to the monks by Bishop Roger de Beaumont (1198-1202) along with the other churches held by Kelso at that time.(3)

Bishop David de Bernham is recorded as having dedicated the church on 25 June 1247.(4)  Four years later, on 8 September 1251, Bishop David confirmed the grant of Simprin in proprios usus and annexed all of the fruits of the parish church to Kelso, granting the monks the right to in future serve the cure by a chaplain.(5)  This was the course that the abbey chose to pursue and as a consequence it does not appear in any recognisable form in the accounts of the papal tax-collector in Scotland in the 1270s.  In the tax-roll of the 1290s, however, the church of ‘Sempringe’ is listed under possessions of Kelso Abbey, valued at £12 annually.(6)

As a fully appropriated possession of the abbey, Simprin receives no significant notices throughout the remainder of the Middle Ages.  It was listed in 1556 in a report to Archbishop John Hamilton as one of twenty-two churches within the Deanery of Merse that was in a poor state of repair.(7)  It was noted that the disrepair of these buildings was a consequence of the neglect of both appropriators and parishioners.  Hamilton instructed the dean to initiate steps to remedy the situation, but it is unknown how far he had progressed before the Reformation intervened.  At the Reformation it was recorded that both parsonage and vicarage were united with Kelso, the teinds being set for payment in victual and the cure being served by a curate.  It seems to have been in some way treated as a joint benefice with neighbouring Langton parish, also annexed to Kelso, but was served by a different curate.(8)

Notes

1. Liber S Marie de Calchou (Bannatyne Club, 1846), no.273 [hereafter Kelso Liber].

2. Kelso Liber, no.12.

3. Kelso Liber, no.83.

4. A O Anderson (ed), Early Sources of Scottish History, ii (Edinburgh, 1922), 526 [Pontifical Offices of St Andrews].

5. Kelso Liber, no.271.

6. The Correspondence, Inventories, Account Rolls and Law Proceedings of the Priory of Coldingham, ed J Raine (Surtees Society, 1841), cxv.

7. NRS Miscellaneous Ecclesiastical Records, CH8/16.

8. J Kirk (ed), The Books of Assumption of the Thirds of Benefices (Oxford, 1995), 226, 232-4, 238, 241.

Summary of relevant documentation

Medieval

Synopsis of Cowan’s Parishes: The church was granted to Kelso by Hye de Simprin and his son Peter 1153x59. In 1251 the abbey was given the right to serve the cure with a chaplain. The parsonage and vicarage remained with the abbey, while a curate served the church.(1)

1556 (9 April) Parish church is one of 22 from the Merse specifically mentioned in two letters [the 1555 letter does not have a specific date; McRoberts suggests August] from John Hamilton, archbishop of St Andrews (1547-1571) to the Dean of Christianity of the Merse. Hamilton states that ‘a great many of the parish churches are - their choirs as well as naves - wholly thrown down and as it were levelled to the ground; others were partly ruinous or threatening collapse in respect of their walls and roofs; they were without glazed windows and without a baptismal font and had no vestments for the high altars and no missals or manuals…. The fault and shortcomings belong to the parishioners as well as to the parsons’. The dean was instructed to investigate the fruits, garbal teinds and other rights of the said churches.(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 Kelso, set for victual and served by a curate. Appears to be united in some manner to Langton (although served by different curates).(3)

[The parishes of Swinton and Simprin were united in 1761, with the parish church of Swinton serving the new parish.]

1700 (2 Apr) Visitation of the church and manse by the Presbytery of Chirnside at the request of the minister Thomas Boston. Robert Bruce and John Clinksal, masons and Samuel Hone and Patrick Currie, wrights, that repairs to the church, including a new pulpit, thatching for the roof and glass for the windows will cost £358. The works were approved by the session.(4)

[No reference in either the Statistical Account or New Statistical Account of Scotland to the remains of the church of Simprim following the uniting of the parish to Swinton.]

Notes

1. Cowan, The parishes of medieval Scotland, 182.

2. NRS Miscellaneous Ecclesiastical Records, CH8/16. Noted in Donaldson, Scottish Reformation, p. 23 and McRoberts, ‘Material destruction caused by the Scottish Reformation’, 427.

3. Kirk, The books of assumption of the thirds of benefices, 226, 232-4, 238 &  241.

Bibliography

NRS Miscellaneous Ecclesiastical Records, CH8/16.

NRS Presbytery of Chirnside, Minutes, 1690-1702, CH2/516/1.

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

Donaldson, G., 1960, The Scottish Reformation, Cambridge.

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.

McRoberts, D., 1962., ‘Material destruction caused by the Scottish Reformation’, in D. McRoberts, Essays on the Scottish Reformation, 1513-1625, Glasgow.

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

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

Architectural description

A church at Simprim, which was also known as Simprisk, was granted to the Tironensian abbey of Kelso by Hye de Simprisk and his son Peter, at a date between 1153 and 1159. Both the parsonage and vicarage were appropriated and the cure was eventually served by a curate.(1) There was a dedication by Bishop David de Bernham on 15 June 1247.(2) In a letter of 9 April 1556 from Archbishop John Hamilton, it was said that Simprim was one of 22 churches in the Merse that were in a bad structural state, possible as a result of the wars with England.(3)

There are records of a range of repairs in the post-Reformation period. On 2 April 1700, for example the masons Robert Bruce and John Clinksal, together with the wrights Samuel Hone and Patrick Currie costed repairs at £358,(4) while in 1756 a new bell turret was provided.(5)

However, on 24 September 1761 the parish was united with that of Swinton,(6) and the church abandoned. It is now a ruin in an increasingly parlous condition. It was a tiny two-cell structure built of pink rubble, the walls incorporating a large number of squared stones that point to a twelfth or thirteenth-century origin for much of the structure. The nave appears to have been about 8.4 by 6.1 metres, and the chancel 6.75 by 5.3 metres. Disturbance in the masonry on the north side of the church at the junction of the nave and chancel suggests that a chancel arch may have been removed, pointing to a major post-Reformation remodelling at some date in order to create a more unified space.

The only part to stand to near full height is the east gable, which has a round-headed window that is blocked internally by a memorial; it appears likely to be of later rather than earlier medieval date, as is the coping of the gable itself. The north wall of the chancel survives to nearly 2 metres in height in places, and there appear to be traces of a window rear arch towards the west end of its internal wall. Elsewhere the walls survive to no more than a few decaying courses.

Notes

1. Ian B. Cowan, The Parishes of medieval Scotland (Scottish Record Society), 1967, p. 182.

2. Alan Orr Anderson, Early Sources of Scottish History, Edinburgh, 1922, vol. 2, p. 526.

3. National Records of Scotland, Miscellaneous Ecclesiastical Records, CH8/16.

4. National Records of Scotland, Presbytery of Chirnside, Minutes, 1690-1702, fols 199-200.

5. G.A.C. Binnie, the Churches and Churchyards of Berwickshire, Ladykirk, p. 408.

6. Statistical Account of Scotland, 1791-99, vol. 6, p. 322.