A Corpus of Scottish Medieval
Parish Churches

Historical outline

Dedication: unknown

The nature of Smailholm’s twelve-century relationship with the church of Earlston is unclear and, if there was an early connection with the priory at Durham through its possession of Earlston (qv), it appears quickly to have attained independent parochial status.(1)  The lands of Smailholm were in the hands of the Olifard family by the middle of the twelfth century,(2) and the Olifards appear to have retained possession of the patronage of the church.  It may have been as resolution of any lingering claims over Smailholm that Walter Olifard (d.1242) granted a pension from the fruits of the church to the monks of Durham.(3) 

Through the thirteenth century the church appears as a free parsonage.  It was dedicated on 29 April 1243 by Bishop David de Bernham, but the identity of the patron saint is not recorded.(4)  Smailholm was a valuable and attractive benefice and it is unsurprising that as such it was secured in the later 1240s by Master Abel of Gullane, the future but short-lived bishop of St Andrews, who in 1248 had papal confirmation of his presentation by the lay patron.(5)  In the accounts of the papal tax-collector in Scotland for 1274-5, the rector of Smailholm was recorded as having paid 4 merks in taxation and in the later taxation of the 1290s the church was recorded with a verus valor of £26 13s 4d and a taxation of 53s 4d.(6)

Between the 1274-5 taxation and that in the mid-1290s, there had been an attempt to grant the church to the chapter of Glasgow.  In either 1278 or 1288, depending on whether the confirmation was granted by Pope Nicholas III (1277-1280) or Nicholas IV (1288-1292), the chapter of Glasgow received papal ratification of the grant to it of the right of patronage of Smailholm, which had been made by David Olifard.(7)  His successor, William Murray of Bothwell, was unhappy with this alienation of one of his rights of lordship and entered into a complex dispute with the chapter over the patronage of Smailholm.  In February 1293 a deal was brokered between Murray and the canons which saw the former grant the latter the rights of patronage which he had in the church of Walston in Glasgow diocese, while the canons some two months later surrendered their rights in Smailholm to Murray.(8)

Following the extinction of the male line of the Murrays of Bothwell, in 1362 King David II engineered the marriage of his supporter, Archibald Douglas, to Murray’s widow, Joanna, and made over the whole of the lordship of Bothwell to him.  With that arrangement, the patronage of the church of Smailholm passed into the hands of the Black Douglases.  In 1381 a dispute between Archibald and the incumbent rector, one Robert, who was said to have treated Archibald with great offence, injury and ingratitude, was referred to mandatories, but no outcome of their investigation is recorded.(9)  Archibald, however, was clearly enforcing his status as patron.

The original charter in favour of the canons of Dryburgh has been lost in the destruction of the post-fourteenth-century folios of the monastic cartulary, but papal confirmation survives from 1420 of the grant of the church of Smailholm to the canons by Archibald 4th earl of Douglas.  The church was valued at 24 merks.  A vicarage settlement stipulated that a suitable portion should be assigned to a perpetual vicar, who could be presented from amongst the canons.  Under the terms of Archibald’s grant, as ratified by Bishop Henry Wardlaw of St Andrews, these arrangements were to come into force when the incumbent rector either died or demitted office; the 1420 papal confirmation followed John de Lunan, the current rector’s resignation.(10)  In December 1429 a petition from Archibald 5th Earl of Douglas and King James I requested a papal re-grant and confirmation of the church to Dryburgh.(11)  Contrary to the statement by Ian Cowan that the parsonage was annexed to Dryburgh and the cure became a vicarage perpetual, these grants and re-grants seem to have resulted in the annexation of both the parsonage and the vicarage, with the cure at best being a vicarage portionary, but the records of parish revenues at the time of the Reformation make the exact situation unclear.

Smailholm appears to have suffered in the general devastation of this region of the Merse by English armies in the 1540s, perhaps being burned during the raid which saw the destruction of Dryburgh.  In 1555-6 it was one of twenty-two churches named in a report from the Dean of Christiantity of the Merse to Archbishop John Hamilton of St Andrews, which narrated the poor condition of the buildings and their lack of proper furnishings and equipment through the neglect of appropriators, patrons and parishioners.  Hamilton ordered the dean to inspect the teind arrangements at the churches and to take appropriate measures to ensure that resources were allocated for their repair.(12)  It is unlikely that any programme of repairs had proceeded far before the Reformation.

At the Reformation it was noted that the parsonage and vicarage both lay in the hands of Dryburgh Abbey and were set for payment in victuals.(13)  In the accounts of the collectors of the thirds of benefices, however, there is a separate cash entry for the vicarage of Smailholm, assessed at £5 11s 5⅓d.(14)  This figure is rather high for a mere portionary vicarage and may point to the cure being a vicarage perpetual.

Notes

1. I B Cowan, The Parishes of Medieval Scotland (Scottish Record Society, 1967), 184.

2. Regesta Regum Scottorum, i, The Acts of Malcolm IV, ed G W S Barrow (Edinburgh, 1960), no.110.

3. J Raine (ed), History and Antiquities of North Durham (London, 1852), appendix, nos clvii, dxxiv.

4. A O Anderson (ed), Early Sources of Scottish History, ii (Edinburgh, 1922), 523 [Pontifical Offices of St Andrews].

5. Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland, i, 1198-1304, ed W H Bliss (London, 1893), 243.

6. A I Dunlop (ed), ‘Bagimond’s Roll: Statement of the Tenths of the Kingdom of Scotland’, Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, vi (1939), 34; The Correspondence, Inventories, Account Rolls and Law Proceedings of the Priory of Coldingham, ed J Raine (Surtees Society, 1841), cx.

7. Registrum Episcopatus Glasguensis (Bannatyne Club, 1843), no.231 [hereafter Glasgow Registrum].

8. Glasgow Registrum, nos 238, 239, 243.

9. Calendar of Papal Letters to Scotland of Clement VII of Avignon 1378-1394, ed C Burns (Scottish History Society, 1976), 69.

10. Calendar of Scottish Supplications to Rome, i, 1418-1422, eds E R Lindsay and A I Cameron (Scottish History Society, 1934), 197.

11. Calendar of Scottish Supplications to Rome, iii, 1428-1432, A I Dunlop and I B Cowan (Scottish History Society, 1970), 67-8.

12. NRS Miscellaneous Ecclesiastical Records, CH8/16.

13. J Kirk (ed), The Books of the Assumption of the Thirds of Benefices (Oxford, 1995), 189, 197.

14. G Donaldson, Accounts of the collectors of thirds of benefices, (Scottish History Society, 1949), 24.

Summary of relevant documentation

Medieval

Synopsis of Cowan’s Parishes: Originally dependant on Earlston (and therefore Durham), the church quickly gained parochial status and remained in lay patronage successively with the Ollifards, Morays and Douglases. It was granted to Dryburgh by the 4th earl of Douglas in 1400x1420. The parsonage revenues thereafter continued with the abbey and the cure was served by a perpetual vicar.(1)

1248 Indult for Master Abel to hold another benefice alongside Smailholm.(2)

1387 Dispute between Archibald Douglas, lord of Galloway who claims to be the patron, and the present rector Robert, who has treated Sir Archibald with great offence , injury and ingratitude. (3) [no outcome mentioned]

1420 Confirmation of grant by Archibald 4th earl of Douglas of the church of Smailholm to the mastery of Dryburgh (considering the many and diverse inconveniences which have befallen them) given with all rights, pertinents and ecclesiastical lands (value 24 marks), perpetual vicar provided for, presented from amongst the canons, John de Lunan the current rector having resigned.(4)

1429 Petition for re-grant of the church to Dryburgh at request of the earl of Douglas and James I.(5)

1549 Thomas Dewar holds the vicarage.(6)

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.(7)

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 Dryburgh, set for victuals.(8)

Account of Collectors of Thirds of Benefices (G. Donaldson): Third of vicarage £5 11s 5 1/3d.(9)

#1632 [no surviving kirk session records and no reference to the new church in the Presbytery records]

Statistical Account of Scotland (Rev Alexander Duncan): [No reference to church buildings]

New Statistical Account of Scotland (Rev Thomas Cleghorn, 1834): ‘The parish church, appears [from an inscription] to have been built in 1632’.(10) [no reference to any buildings prior to 1632]

Notes

1. Cowan, The parishes of medieval Scotland, p. 184.

2. CPL, i, 243.

3. CPL, Clem, 69.

4. CSSR, i,197.

5. CSSR, iii, 67-68.

6. Prot Bk of William Corbet, no. 39.

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

8. Kirk, The books of assumption of the thirds of benefices, 189 & 197.

9. Donaldson, Accounts of the collectors of thirds of benefices, 24.

10. New Statistical Account of Scotland, (1834), iii, 143.

Bibliography

NRS Miscellaneous Ecclesiastical Records, CH8/16.

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

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

Calendar of Scottish Supplications to Rome 1428-32, 1970, ed. A.I. Dunlop; and I.B. Cowan, (Scottish History Society) 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.

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.

Protocol Book of Sir William Corbet, 1529-1555, 1911, eds. J. Anderson & W. Angus (Scottish Record Society), Edinburgh.

Architectural description

The church was dependent on Earlston in the earlier 1170s, but soon afterwards it achieved parochial status. David Olifard granted it to the chapter of Glasgow Cathedral, and papal confirmation of this was given in 1288. However, after they succeeded to the patronage the Moray lords of Bothwell objected to this, and their own successors, the earls of Douglas, granted it to Dryburgh Abbey at a date between 1400 and 1420.(1) Bishop de Bernham carried out one of his many dedications here on 29 April 1243.(2)

For most of its history the church retained its original form of an oriented two-cell structure, with a chancel of 7.15 by 5.95 metres, and a nave of 16.1 by 8.15 metres.(3) Its wall are of buff rubble, and the twelfth-century fabric is seen most clearly in the chancel and the east end of the nave, where there are narrow chamfered base courses and extensive areas of cubical masonry. The only potentially original openings are blocked narrow round-headed windows in the east and north walls of the chancel, though their authenticity is not beyond doubt.

There may have been some work on the church in the thirteenth century on the evidence of a moulded thirteenth-century fragment with bands of dogtooth decoration that was found in the manse garden, that that is now located within the vestry. But there is no evidence of work of that date in the building itself. Smailholm was one of twenty-two churches in the Merse that were reported to the archbishop of St Andrews in 1556 as being in bad condition,(4) presumably because of the disturbances to which the Borders had been subject for many decades.

There were evidently significant structural works in the early seventeenth century. A sundial at the south-west corner is dated 1622, and there used to be a pediment dated 1622 above a door,(5) while the bell was cast by Michael Burgerhuys in 1647. These early seventeenth-century changes are likely to have included the cutting of new windows and doors in the south wall of both nave and chancel, and the provision of a small porch at the west end of the north wall. That porch gives access to the forestair of the loft of the Baillie of Mellerstain family that was inserted at the west end of the nave.

The west gable, with its birdcage bellcote, is also likely to have been part of this phase, as are pediments shown on early views as rising in front of the roof over the two easternmost of the windows of the south face; there was a swept roof over a small window that lit the west loft. Internally, by this stage the principal focus of worship had almost certainly become a pulpit against the south wall, presumably located between the two pedimented windows, and it was probably at this stage that the chancel arch was removed in order to create a less divided internal space.

The church was ‘improved’ and re-seated in 1820-21,(6) by Elliot of Kelso, in the course of which some of the windows along the south flank were probably enlarged. An apsidal north aisle looking towards the pulpit on the south is also likely to be largely of this date.

In a restoration of 1895 Hardy and Wight attempted to reinstate something of a medieval appearance to the church. The pulpit was removed from the centre of the south wall to its east end, and the chancel was furnished as a sanctuary, entered through a new chancel arch carried on foliate corbels. The timber intersecting tracery of the east window was replaced by geometric tracery of two lights and a circlet. The plaster ceilings were replaced throughout by boarded and ribbed pointed barrel ceilings, and a vestry was created within the apse of the north aisle.

Nevertheless, although the south windows were lowered and the pediments above them removed, elements of the Georgian character created in the 1820s was retained. This is seen particularly in the round arches of the south windows and the complex intersecting glazing bars of the west window.

Notes

1. Ian B. Cowan, The Parishes of Medieval Scotland (Scottish Record Society), 1967, p. 184.

2. Alan Orr Anderson, Early Sources of Scottish History, Edinburgh, 1922, vol. 3, p. 523.

3. Accounts of the church include: David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross, The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Scotland, Edinburgh, vol.1, 1896, pp. 378-79; Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Inventory of Roxburghshire, Edinburgh, 1956, vol. 2, pp. 415-16; G.A.C. Binnie, Churches and Churchyards of Roxburghshire, Ladykirk, 2001, pp. 324-29. The present account takes as its starting point Kitty Cruft, John Dunbar and Richard Fawcett, The Buildings of Scotland, Borders, New Haven and London, 2006, p. 688.

4. National Records of Scotland, Miscellaneous Ecclesiastical records, CH8/16.

5. New Statistical Account of Scotland, 1834-45, vol. 3, p. 143.

6. New Statistical Account, vol. 3, p. 143.