A Corpus of Scottish Medieval
Parish Churches

Historical outline

Dedication: St John

The chief house or preceptoryof the Knights of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, better-known as the Hospitallers, was founded at Torphichen by King David I towards the end of his reign.(1)  At the time of its foundation it was non-parochial but in 1173 x 1178 Bishop Richard of St Andrews and his archdeacon, Master Walter, made a settlement between the church of Linlithgow, in whose parish the precptory lay, and the chapel of Torphichen.(2)  By that settlement it was agreed that the chapel could have a cemetery where the brethren of Torphichen could be buried and that the teinds of all of the men of Torphichen would be paid to the chapel, free from any claim by Linlithgow, except that on the vigil of Easter one merk of silver would be paid to the church from the chapel.  While this arrangement may have started Torphichen down the route to at least quasi-parochial status, it appears in no form as a parish church in the accounts of the papal tax-collector in Scotland in either the 1270s or 1290s.

The church had acquired parochial status by the 1440s, presumably based on an altar in the nave of the preceptory church as this remained in use as the parish church after the Reformation.  It seems that the parsonage teinds were, from the outset, annexed to the preceptor, while the cure was a vicarage perpetual.  The earliest reference to parish status having been secured dates from 1445 when Alexander Crawford supplicated for the perpetual vicarage, but was clearly already held before that date as he claimed that thechurch was vacant through the resignation of the previous incumbent, Michael Binning.(3)

It was claimed in 1471 that Torphichen was visited by large numbers of pilgrims from the surrounding region on the feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist, its patron.  For that reason, the Hospitallers secured a plenary remission for all the faithful who visited the church, to aid with its rebuilding, its structures being described as of great age and partly threatened with ruin.(4)  It was possibly as a result of this privilege that some of the rebuilding work evident in the upper stages of the crossing and crossing-tower was undertaken.  Further work was being carried out on the church shortly before 1547, but the majority of this appears to have been on the monastic choir rather than the parochial nave.  A memorandum noted that ‘a squair is [    ] ther of mason wark of slater wark Item the qweir of tor[phich]in is of thekit wark sax ruyd and n[yn] ellis for the quhilk I gaif xls for ilk ruyd I findand all thing by the warkmanschip richt and nocht findand meit bot at my pleso[ur].’(5)

Two additional altars are recorded at Torphichen but although in 1576 they were described as ‘formerly situated in the parish church’ this does not necessarily mean that they were located in the nave rather than elsewhere in the Hospitallers’ church.(6)  The first recorded was the altar of St Ninian, which occurs 1551-1558 when it was notd as being served by John Polwart, chaplain, who also held the chaplaincy of St Eloi in the parish church of St Michael in Linlithgow.(7)  In 1559 Polwart was also recorded as chaplain of the altar of Our Lady in Torphichen.(8) 

At the Reformation the parsonage continued to be annexed to the preceptory of Torphichen although the office of preceptor and the institution over which he presided appears to have been long secularised.(9)  The cure continued to be a vicarage perpetual, which was recorded as pertaining to sir Thomas Dickson and valued at £26 13s 4d.(10)

Notes

1. I B Cowan and D E Easson, Medieval Religious Houses: Scotland, 2nd edition (London, 1976), 161.

2. Liber Cartarum Prioratus Sancti Andree in Scotia (Bannatyne Club, 1841), 319.

3. Calendar of Scottish Supplications to Rome, iv, 1433-1447, eds A I Dunlop and D MacLauchlan (Glasgow, 1983), no.1202.

4. Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland, xiii, 1471-1484, ed J A Twemlow (London, 1955), 212-213.

5. Knights of St John, 39.

6. NRS Henderson Collection, GD76/320.

7. Protocol Book of James Foulis, 1546-1555 and Nicol Thounis, 1559-1564, eds J Beveridge and J Russell (Scottish Record Society, 1927), vol 1, nos 100, 101; Protocol Book of Dominus Thomas Johnsoun, 1528-1578,  eds J Beveridge and J Russell (Scottish Record Society, 1920), nos 237, 813.

8. Protocol Books of James Foulis, 1546-1555 and Nicol Thounis, 1559-1564, vol 2, no.192.

9. Cowan and Easson, Medieval Religious Houses: Scotland, 161.

10. J Kirk (ed), The Books of Assumption of the Thirds of Benefices (Oxford, 1995), 152.

Summary of relevant documentation

Medieval

Synopsis of Cowan’s Parishes: Originally the only Hospitaller house in Scotland, the church had become parochial by 1448, the parsonage teinds remaining with the knights, while the cure was a perpetual vicarage.(1)

1173 x 1178 Richard, bishop of St Andrews, oversaw a settlement anent the chapel of Torphichen held by the Knights Hospitallers within the parish of Linlithgow. It was to be subordinate to the church of Linlithgow, but given the freedom of a cemetery for the brothers of the house and also holding the rights to the tithes of the men of Torphichen for which they were obliged to pay one mark annually to the mother church.(2)

1445 Alexander Crawford supplicates for perpetual vicarage, vacant on resignation of Michael Byning. Accuses Andrew Meldrum, preceptor of the house of intruding William Gudwyn, by simple letters and without collation, so that he might detain the fruits for his own uses.(3)

References to liturgical provision/architecture/building, indulgences etc

1471 Plenary remission for those visiting the church on the feast of the nativity of St John the Baptist. ‘Church is held in great reverence in these parts, to which the faithful resort  on account of ancient indulgences and the building of which are by reason of age partly fallen and partly threatened with ruin’.(4)

Altars and chaplaincies

Our Lady

1559 John Polwart (same as below) is chaplain of the altar of Our Lady in Torphichen.(5)

St Ninian

1551-1568 John Polwart, chaplain of the altar of St Ninian in the church (also chaplain of St Eloi in Linlithgow).(6)

1576 (29 Mar) Instrument narrating institution of Mr Andrew Polwarth, brother of James Polwarth of Coustoun, in altarages of Blessed Mary and Ninian, formerly situated in parish church of Torphichen, in virtue of charter by James Sandelands of Caldour, kt, and Mr. James Makgill of Rankillour Nether, Clerk Register, commissioners for James, Lord of Torphichen, patron of said altarages, who was then absent from the kingdom.(7)

Post-medieval

Books of assumption of thirds of benefices and Accounts of the collectors of thirds of benefices: The Parish church vicarage held by Thomas Dickson, value £26 13s 4d.(8)

G. Donaldson, Account of Collectors of Thirds of Benefices: Third of vicarage £8 17s 9 1/3d.(9)

1560 (20 Dec) John Brown, Thomas Boyd and James Polwart [see below chaplain] represented the church at the first meeting of the General Assembly in Edinburgh.(10)

1624 (23 June) Visitation of Torphichen by the Presbytery of Linlithgow reports on the costs incurred by the minister in building his manse.(11)

1630 (12 Aug) A visitation of the church by the Presbytery of Linlithgow finds that the fabric of the church has been repaired, except that the pend of the church is ruinous; the repair is referred to the patron (the Laird of Torphichen).(12)

1668 (26 Aug) Visitation of the church by the Presbytery of Linlithgow notes that the heritors are required to ‘repair the top of the church’.(13)

1673 (31 July) Visitation of the church finds that the roof still requires repair; the heritors ordered to sort it out.(14)

1756 (27 Oct) First note in the presbytery of a ‘consultation’ regarding the church of Torphichen to make an estimate of building the church. Meeting takes place on 14 Nov. The commissioners report that the meeting unanimously agreed to build a new church, where the old one now stands, according to a plan. They estimate the cost as £220.(15)

Statistical Account of Scotland (Rev Rev James Paton): [No reference to church fabric]

New Statistical Account of Scotland (Rev William Hetherington,1836):‘Parish church built in 1756’.(16) [no reference to earlier buildings apart from the house of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem]

Architecture of Scottish Post-Reformation Churches (George Hay): 1756, incorporating earlier fragments; pulpit and folding communion pews c.1805, 1700 Meikle bell; detached session house. Appears to date from c.1756, is a decent church of Binny ashlar with round headed windows. It is sited on the nave of foundations of preceptory of the Knights of St John, (‘T’ plan church).(17)

Notes

1. Cowan, The parishes of medieval Scotland, 189.

2. Liber Cartarum Prioratus Sancti Andree, p.319.

3. CSSR, iv, no. 1202.

4. CPL, xiii, 212-13.

5. Prot Bk James Foulis, 1546-1555 and Nicol Thounis, 1559-1564, ii, no. 192.

6. Prot Bk James Foulis, 1546-1555 and Nicol Thounis, 1559-1564, i,  nos. 100 & 101, Prot Bk of Thomas Johnsoun, 1528-1578,  nos. 257 & 813.

7. NRS Henderson Collection, GD76/320.

8. Kirk, The books of assumption of the thirds of benefices, 152.

9. Donaldson, Accounts of the collectors of thirds of benefices, 26.

10. Acts and Proceedings of the General Assemblies of the Kirk of Scotland, i, p.4

11. NRS Presbytery of Linlithgow, Minutes, 1618-1632, CH2/242/2, fol. 109.

12. NRS Presbytery of Linlithgow, Minutes, 1618-1632, CH2/242/2, fols. 294-296.

13. NRS Presbytery of Linlithgow, Minutes, 1653-1676, CH2/242/5, fols. 394-395.

14. NRS Presbytery of Linlithgow, Minutes, 1653-1676, CH2/242/5, fols. 486-488.

15. NRS Presbytery of Linlithgow, Minutes, 1742-1773, CH2/242/14, fols. 367 & 369-70.

16. New Statistical Account of Scotland, (1836), ii, 52.

17. Hay, The Architecture of Scottish Post-Reformation Churches, 91, 168, 183, 187, 190, 233 & 277.

Bibliography

NRS Henderson Collection, GD76/320.

NRS Presbytery of Linlithgow, Minutes, 1618-1632, CH2/242/2.

NRS Presbytery of Linlithgow, Minutes, 1742-1773, CH2/242/14.

Acts and Proceedings of the General Assemblies of the Kirk of Scotland, 1839-45, ed. T. Thomson (Bannatyne Club), Edinburgh.

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

Calendar of Scottish Supplications to Rome 1433-47, 1983, ed. A.I. Dunlop and D MacLauchlan, Glasgow.

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.

Liber Cartarum Prioratus Sancti Andree in Scotia, 1841, ed. T. Thomson (Bannatyne Club), Edinburgh.

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

Protocol Book of Dominus Thomas Johnsoun, 1528-1578,  1920, eds. J. Beveridge & J. Russell (Scottish Record Society) Edinburgh.

Protocol Book of James Foulis, 1546-1555 and Nicol Thounis, 1559-1564, 1927, eds. J. Beveridge & J. Russell (Scottish Record Society), Edinburgh.

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

Architectural description

The parish of Torphichen was accommodated within the nave of the preceptory church of the Knights Hospitallers at Torphichen, a house that was founded by David I at a date likely to have been between about 1144 and his death in 1153.(1) It is unclear when parochial use of the nave began, but a document thought to date from around 1168 states that the church was to be deemed to rank as a parish church, albeit subordinate to Linlithgow.(2) It appears to have achieved full parochial status by no later than 1448.(3)

Some works on the church were evidently in progress in 1471, when a plenary indulgence was granted to those who visited on the feast of St John the Baptist.(4) It was said that, as a consequence of its age, parts of the building had fallen and other parts were threatening ruin.

Following the Reformation, the lands and baronies of the Hospitaller foundation were in 1563-4 granted to the last preceptor, James Sandilands, Lord St John;(5) he had a residence that adjoined the west end of the church and that may have extended northwards along the west side of the cloister. Although that residence appears to have been largely abandoned by the mid-eighteenth century, a law suit following the demolition of the nave and house in advance of building the present church provides some information about the form of the medieval nave that will be touched upon below.(6)

Repairs were said to have been carried out on the church in 1630, though work on the ‘pend’ remained to be done;(7) But works on the upper parts were said to be required in 1668,(8) while in 1673 it was said that repairs to the roof were outstanding.(9)

Serious concern about the state of the parish church in the medieval nave was expressed in 1745, and one of the heritors, John Gillon of Wallhouse, pressed for complete rebuilding. This was eventually agreed upon and the work was completed in 1756, it is said to the designs of one John Dowie of Edinburgh.(10) The new building was raised on the footings of the medieval nave, with a centrally positioned laterally projecting south aisle occupying part of the site of the medieval south nave aisle.(11) Galleries with raised-and-fielded panelling to their fronts were provided within the three arms for the principal families, though the seating now seen throughout is of 1867.

A substantial vestry was built at the west end of the church in 1875. The transepts and tower which had been repaired and re-roofed by Lord Torphichen in the early years of the nineteenth century,(12) were taken into state care a century later, in 1927.

The evidence for the form of the medieval church will be described from east to west.(13) The choir is completely lost. However, a plan likely to be of 1828 by the Rev’d John Sime shows the outline of a long rectangular structure that terminates at the east end in a burial enclosure that is still in place,(14) and it is at least a possibility that enclosure does indeed mark the east end of the choir.

The truncated stumps of the south and north walls of the choir are clearly in evidence on each side of the external face of the blocked arch from the crossing, and these show that the choir was the same width as the nave. A corbel on the outer face of each wall stump at its junction with the transept is presumably a relic of the wall-head corbel tables.

The choir roof crease is well preserved, surviving as both a drip moulding and timber chase on the north side, and as just a chase on the south side. This shows that the choir wall head must have been rather lower than that of the transepts as they were rebuilt in the fifteenth century, while the way that the roof embraces the arch from the crossing indicates that the choir was covered either by an open-timber roof or a barrel ceiling. 

The only structurally completely parts of the medieval church are the transepts and crossing, and the architectural evidence points to several phases of building and remodelling of the parts. The earliest feature is an arch on the west side of the crossing, where the wall appears to have served essentially as a screen dividing the nave from the parts to the east.

On the more important side that looked towards the nave, and which thus acted as a proscenium to the more sacred parts to the east, three orders of this arch are visible; there may, however, have been at least one more order concealed within the blocking that now cuts off the crossing from the parish church. The shaft on the north-south axis is engaged and of keeled profile, while the other orders are carried on en délit shafts; the capitals are of waterleaf form beneath deep abaci, and the arches are carved with groupings of rolls. These details suggest a date of shortly before 1200 for the arch.

The transepts appear to have been first built in the early thirteenth century, and on the basis of evidence to be seen in the south transept, it is a possibility that they were initially of relatively slight projection. The main reason for suspecting this is to be seen on the east side of the transept. There, a string course extends along no more than the northern end of the wall, and the way that a small lancet window that rests upon it, which is flanked by blind quatrefoils, is centrally located in relation to that string course, suggests that part was complete in itself. It may be added that a similar string course on the west side of the transept also runs for only a short length.

Taking account of this, it may be that in their first form, the transepts were essentially transeptal chapels flanking the west end of the choir. Nevertheless, there must have been a crossing of some form to support the squat central tower, which is evidently also of the early thirteenth century on the evidence of the two-light plate-traceried windows through its east and west faces.

The transepts were extensively remodelled in the fifteenth century, in the process of which it is possible that they were at least doubled in length; at the same time, a polygonal stair turret was either added or remodelled to give access to the upper floors of the tower, with a possible door to a rood loft on the way up. One of the motives for this remodelling was evidently to provide additional space for burials and for altars at which soul masses could be offered for those buried: the south transept has an ogee-headed tomb recess below its window, while a piscina recess to its east indicates the location of an altar.

It may be noted that the south transept, which was not restricted by the location of contiguous conventual buildings, was given a slightly more extended plan than its northern counterpart. In this there are some parallels with what was done at the Augustinian abbey of Jedburgh, where the north transept was asymmetrically extended, probably in the time of Bishop William Turnbull of Glasgow (1447-54) on heraldic evidence.

The two transepts, together with the remodelled crossing area below the retained tower, were given particular architectural emphasis by the way that they were covered by stone vaulting, which was not provided elsewhere in the church. Indeed, they must have created a strikingly forceful cross-axis within the church, which must have rather overshadowed both the choir and nave. The vaults are of heavily ribbed quadripartite form with ridge ribs, and with a bell hole below the tower, and the three compartments are firmly defined by heavily moulded arches carried on responds composed of filleted half- and quarter-shafts.

This phase of work can be approximately dated on the basis of an inscription on the ribs of the north transept vault that refers to Andrew Meldrum, who is known to have been preceptor of the house in the 1430s, since he was granted safe conducts for journeys to Rhodes, Flanders and England in 1432 and 1439.(15) A date so relatively early in the fifteenth century gives the work a particular interest, since the architecture has a number of features that were to become more common later in the century, but of which there are few firmly dated earlier examples. These include the diagonally continuous base and capital mouldings to the responds, which were to become more common later in the century.

Also of interest in this respect is the doorway that opened from the cloister into the north transept, which has a polygonal head like examples at St Salvator’s College Chapel at St Andrews, where they are of a date some twenty years later. The example at Torphichen is presumably roughly contemporary with some in a secular context at Borthwick Castle in Midlothian, where license to crenellate was granted in 1430.(16)

A notable feature of the Torphichen transepts is a pair of large windows: one of four lights through the south wall of the south transept, and one of three lights through the east wall of the north transept. On first sight, if assessed within a Scottish context, these windows might be assumed to be of around the 1270s, the north transept window having two encircled quatrefoils, and the south transept having three. It is only details such as the rounded light heads and the axial cusping of the latter window that makes it clear they are not so early.

The revived use of geometric tracery of this kind was to be another element in the repertory of forms that was given fresh life in the later middle ages, and those at Torphichen are amongst the earliest approximately datable examples. It may be wondered if in this case their use could have been prompted by the existence of thirteenth-century geometric-traceried windows in the adjacent parts of either the choir or nave.

At a number of points within the transepts and crossing there are traces of schemes of decorative painting. On the east side of the south transept there is a diaper pattern, in which the lozenges formed by the diagonally intersecting lines are cusped. On the wall above the doorway on the west side of the crossing the plaster has been painted with red masonry lining, with what appears to have been a band of foliage at the height of the doorway arch head.

A feature of particular interest on the west wall of the south transept is what appears to be a group of mason’s working drawings incised in the plaster. These include what may be the plan of a shaft base, and the radiating lines of the voussoirs of an arch. This is a rare survival, one of the few Scottish parallels for which is the drawings on the walls of the lower chamber at Roslin Collegiate Church.The remodelled transept roofs must have risen rather higher than those of the choir and nave, but at an unknown date even greater external prominence was given to the transepts by the addition of upper chambers over them. This was something that was clearly not anticipated when the transepts had been first remodelled, since the diagonal buttresses at the outer angles of the south transept rise no higher than the main space of the transept. The provision of fireplaces and window seats within these chambers makes clear that they were intended for domestic occupation of a comfortable kind, and access is also provided to the top floor of the tower by a cantilevered stair.

Moving on to the nave, the lower two courses along the north side, which are constructed of cubical masonry and rest on a narrow chamfered base course, are clearly medieval. Projecting from a little to the east of the mid-point of this wall are the lower courses of what must have been a handsome door of two orders set within a slight salient. The inner order, which was presumably continuously moulded, has a sunk keeled angle roll; all that remains of the outer order is a water-holding base on each side, which must have supported en délit nook shafts. The form of these details points to a date in the years around 1200, and thus of around the same date as the arch on the west side of the crossing.

The roof mouldings and creases on the west side of the crossing provide evidence for the nave having had roofs at two slightly different levels. The upper line, which is marked by a drip moulding and timber chase, is probably for the original roof, and indicates that it rose to the same height as that over the choir, and was therefore somewhat lower than that of the transepts in their fifteenth-century state.

On the south side, the upper wall of the parish church of 1756 slopes slightly inwards, leaving the tusks of the medieval south wall in evidence. Towards the top of that tusking is a moulded corbel, which presumable formed part of a corbel table at the wall-head of the south side of the nave, while on the adjacent part of the transept west wall is what appears to be a head corbel. The survival of part of such a corbel table suggests that the nave originally had no aisles.

The addition of a single aisle on the side of the nave from the cloister, where it resulted in no interference to the conventual buildings, was a relatively common method of augmenting the nave of monastic churches in Scotland. It was the course followed at the Cistercian abbey of Balmerino and the Augustinian abbey of Cambuskenneth, for example, and also appears to have happened at the Tironensian abbey of Lindores and the Cistercian abbey of Deer.  

The lower nave roof crease appears to date from the time that a south aisle was added to the nave, since the crease continues down from the south pitch of the roof into the aisle roof without a break. In doing so it demonstrates that there was no clearstorey. From the legal proceedings instituted by Lord Torphichen following the construction of the church of 1756, we know that the nave opened into the aisle through an arcade of four arches carried on octagonal piers.(17) A later roof crease, which cuts through the string course on the west side of the south transept, suggests there was a lean-to structure of some kind in this area after the removal of the south nave aisle.

The architectural evidence suggests there was no more than a low opening between the south transept and the south nave aisle; that opening was set beneath the early thirteenth-century string course referred to above. This cannot have allowed anyone to pass between the two parts, both because its segmental-arched head is too low and because it seems not to have extended down to ground level. It appears to have functioned as no more than an access hatch of some kind, and as such may predate the addition of the aisle.

Notes

1. Ian B. Cowan and David E. Easson, Medieval Religious Houses, Scotland, London, 2nd ed., 1976, p. 161.

2. Liber Cartarum Prioratus Sancti Andree in Scotia, ed. Thomas Thomson (Bannatyne Club), 1840, p. 319.

3. Ian B. Cowan, The Parishes of Medieval Scotland (Scottish Record Society), 1967, p. 168.

4. Calendar of Entries in the Papal registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland, Papal Letters, ed. W.H. Bliss et al., London, 1893-, vol. 8, pp. 212-13.

5. Cowan and Easson 1976, p. 161.

6. P.H. R. MacKay, ‘Torphichen Preceptory: a Footnote to the Published Descriptions, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. 99, 1966–7, pp. 167-72.

7. National Archives of Scotland, Presbtyery of Linlithgow, Minutes, 1618-32, CH2/242/2, fols 294-96.

8. National Archives of Scotland, Presbtyery of Linlithgow, Minutes, 1653-76, CH2/242/5, fols 394-95.

9. National Archives of Scotland, Presbtyery of Linlithgow, Minutes, 1653-76, CH2/242/5, fols 486-88.

10. Jack Smith, Torphichen Church, (Church guide), 2006, pp. 12-13.

11. A plan of 1813 showing this is amongst the papers of General George Henry Hutton, National Library of Scotland Adv. MS 30.5.23 70a.

12. New Statistical Account of Scotland, 1834.45, vol. 2, p. 49

13. Accounts of the building include: David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross, The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1896–7, vol. 3, pp. 139–45; George Thomas Beatson, The Knights Hospitallers in Scotland and their Priory at Torphichen, Glasgow, 1903; National Art Survey, Examples of Architecture from the Twelfth to the Seventeenth Centuries , Edinburgh, vol. 1, 1921; Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Inventory of Midlothian and West Lothian, Edinburgh 1929, pp. 234–37; Christopher Wilson in Colin McWilliam, The Buildings of Scotland, Lothian, Harmondsworth, 1978, pp. 447–50.

14. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, DP 028191.

15. Calendar of documents relating to Scotland, ed. J. Bain, Edinburgh, 1881-8, vol. 4, no 1058.

16. Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, ed. J.M. Thomson at el., Edinburgh, 1814-, vol. 2, no 157.

17. Mackay, 1966-7, p. 167-68.