A Corpus of Scottish Medieval
Parish Churches

Historical outline

Dedication: St Kentigern

Granted to Scone Abbey by King David I along with certain lands attached to the church of St Kentigern, Borthwick was confirmed to the canons by his grandson, Malcolm IV in 1162/3.(1) Scone continued to receive confirmations of the grant down to 1283,(2) but it is possible that the canons possessed only the rights of patronage and were never able to convert that into a grant in proprios usus.  Nevertheless, in Bagimond’s Roll, drawn up in the mid-1270s, ‘Loghorvert’ is recorded simply as a vicarage with a taxation value of 20s, which suggests that there had been a successful appropriation of the parsonage to Scone.(3) 

The position is complicated by a grant of the church to the bishop of Glasgow c.1150, possibly a reflection of the dedication of the church to St Kentigern, and there were subsequent papal confirmations which linked Borthwick to the episcopal mensa of Glasgow down to 1181.(4)  Ian Cowan suggested that the grant to Glasgow may have pre-dated the gift to Scone and have been unsuccessful, but was included thereafter as ‘common form’ in the confirmations secured from the pope by the bishops.(5) 

After the last confirmation to Scone in 1283, the church at some date regained fully independent status as a parish church.  Both rectors and vicars of Borthwick occur through the fourteenth and earlier fifteenth centuries.(6)  The church evidently remained independent until 1449, when on the erection of the collegiate church of Crichton by William, lord Crichton, Borthwick’s parsonage and most of its vicarage teinds were annexed for the uses of the new establishment, a position confirmed by King James II and made with the express consent of the parson, Peter Crichton.(7)  The remainder of the vicarage revenues, together with a manse, garden and glebe, from which the costs of maintaining the church and meeting all ecclesiastical burdens had to be met, was assigned for a vicar pensioner.

Despite the annexation to Crichton, litigation continued over the parsonage of Borthwick, with a series of supplications and counter-appeals to Rome.  In June 1449, Alan Clapham, a relative of the incumbent rector Richard Clapham, had supplicated for provision to the church (valued at £26) on the promotion of Richard to the precentoryship of Moray.(8)  In January 1450, however, a second supplication claimed that provision had been given at the king’s nomination to Peter Crichton, described as kinsman of Lord Crichton, on the death of the rector, George Borthwick, but that Richard Clapham, canon of Glasgow, had raised litigation over a rival provision.(9) 

Crichton appears to have been successful, but following his provision to the church of Kinnoull a new dispute arose in 1457 between one James Borthwick, who had gained possession, and the chapter of the collegiate church.(10)  The chapter sought and obtained papal ratification of the union of the parish church to the collegiate church, giving the fruits of the church as £20 and the collegiate church as £40.(11) 

The parsonage and annexed vicarage revenues were used towards the sustaining of initially three and subsequently four prebends at Crichton.(12)  The arrangement was explained in a 1627 report into the ecclesiastical provision within the parish of Borthwick or Locharquhart: ‘Off auld it wes a personage and the titular wes callit Rectour of Lochquharret and the Archbischope of Sanct Androis wes patrone.  Bot anno 1450 the kirkis of Lochquharret and Creichtoun with mutuall consent [of] the twa patrones of the said kirkis, they wer united and erected in ane Colledge kirk with reservatioun of the patronage and right of presentatioun to the benifices founded upon the teynd of ilk ane of the two paroche kirkis to the severall patrones of the saidis kirkis united as said is Thair was founded in that erectioun thrie prebendaries and a vicarage which had curam animarum upone the teynd great and small belonging to the kirk of Lochquharret viz. the prebendaries of Arnestoun, the prebendaries of Middiltoun and prebendaries of Vogorie.  The wiccarage wes callit the wiccarage of Lochquharret and these foure prebendaries and viccar foirsaid had the teyndis of the kirk of Lochquharret devydit thame for thair sustentatioun, and the wiccar had the rectouris manse and the kirk land of Lochquharret quhilk is now callit Torcraik allotted to him and wes bund to uphold the fabrick of the queir Efterward anno 1596 It was dissolved from the said kirk be oure lait king James the sext of happie memorie with consent of his aucht counsellouris and erected in ane rectorie and personage and the thrie prebendaries and viccarage foirsaid incorporate thairin with thair rentis landis and houssis…’.(13) 

At the Reformation the parsonage and main part of the vicarage were recorded as annexed to the collegiate church, while the vicarage portionary, held by Nicholas Hay, was valued at £20 annually.(14)

While the high altar of the church was dedicated to St Kentigern, there was a second altar within the church, mentioned in 1452.  Dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, it may have been located in the south aisle.  There is reference to the allocation of rents from lands at Middleton in the parish, yielding 4 merks annually to sustain it, but the bulk of the teinds and rents of Middleton went to the support of the prebends known as First and Second Middleton.(15)

Notes

1. Charters of David I, ed G W S Barrow (Woodbridge, 1999), Lost Acts, nos 225(6), 232; Regesta Regum Scottorum, i, The Acts of Malcolm IV, ed G W S Barrow (Edinburgh, 1960), no.243.

2. Liber Ecclesie de Scon (Bannatyne and Maitland Clubs, 1843), no.117.

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), 34.

4. Registrum Episcopatus Glasguensis (Bannatyne and Maitland Clubs, 1843), nos 11, 32, 51, 57.

5. I B Cowan, The Parishes of Medieval Scotland (Scottish Record Society, 1967), 20.

6. Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters, ii, 1305-1342, ed W H Bliss (London, 1895), 385; Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Petitions, ed W H Bliss (London, 1896), 618; Calendar of Papal Letters to Scotland of Pope Benedict XIII of Avignon 1394-1419, ed F McGurk (Scottish History Society, 1976), 95; Calendar of Scottish Supplications to Rome, I, 1418-1422, eds R R Lindsay and A I Cameron (Scottish History Society, 1934), 37, 141, 160-161, 224; Calendar of Scottish Supplications to Rome, v, 1447-1471, eds J Kirk, R J Tanner and A I Dunlop (Glasgow, 1997), nos 280, 298.

7. Charters of the Hospital of Soltre, of Trinity College, Edinburgh, and other Collegiate Churches in Midlothian (Bannatye Club, 1861), 304-312 [hereafter Midlothian Charters].

8. Calendar of Scottish Supplications to Rome, v, 1447-1471, eds J Kirk, R J Tanner and A I Dunlop (Glasgow, 1997), no.280 [hereafter CSSR, v].

9.CSSR, v, no.298.

10.CSSR, v, no.650.

11.CSSR, v, no.651.

12. Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters, xi, 1455-1464, ed J A Twemlow (London, 1921), 92-93; Registrum Magni Sigilli Regum Scotorum, vi, 1593-1608, ed J M Thomson (Edinburgh, 1890), no.425, no.425.

13. Reports on the State of Certain Parishes in Scotland, 1627 (Maitland Club, 1835), 33-34.

14. J Kirk (ed), The Books of Assumption of the Thirds of Benefices (Oxford, 1995), 111, 176, 450.

15. Calendar of Writs Preserved at Yester House 1166-1503, ed C C H Harvey and J Macleod (Scottish Record Society, 1930), nos 106, 107.

Summary of relevant documentation

Medieval

Synopsis of Cowan’s Parishes: Granted to Scone by David I, confirmed by Malcolm IV and again as late as 1283. Independent in 1449 when annexed to the collegiate church of Crichton by William Crichton; used to pay for 3-4 prebends. The cure was served by a vicar portionary (see Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, vi, no. 425; The acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, iv, 320; Midlothian charters).(1)

Mackinlay notes that the church was dedicated to St Kentigern.(2)

1332 Thomas de Haddington, former vicar of Markinch, collated to church, value £10.(3)

1402 Dispensation for John de Culmany (son of a priest), who has recently obtained the vicarage.(4)

1419 Rectory held by Columba de Dunbar who obtained it by an exchange with Walter de Wardlaw. On Columba’s promotion to archdeaconry of Lothian in 1420 he was succeeded by George de Borthwick (counsellor of Archibald, 4th earl of Douglas).(5)

1449 On the death of George, litigation takes place between Richard de Clapham and Peter Crichton (counsellor of James II and relative of chancellor). Peter wins and the church is annexed to the college of Cricton in 1450. Peter resigns from the church on his move to Kinnoul in 1456; he is replaced by James Borthwick who complains that the church is unlawfully detained by a John Lawson.(6)

1449 Church is confirmed to the newly founded college by James II with the express consent of Peter Crichton, rector and possessor of Borthwick. All lands and rents are annexed; a pensionary vicar is to be paid and to have the glebe manse and small garden and certain teinds; he is to be responsible for the upkeep and ornaments of the church.(7)

1457 Borthwick in suit against the Crichtons regarding the annexation of the church to his college, but the grant is confirmed.(8)

1479 Thomas Edwin resigns, Matthew Pringle is collated; confirmation is required as he was excommunicated at time of collated.(9)

Altars and chaplaincies

Blessed Virgin Mary

1452 Reference to lands of Middleton, paying yearly 4 marks to the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the church.(10)

Post-medieval

Books of assumption of thirds of benefices and Accounts of the collectors of thirds of benefices: The Parish church annexed to Crichton college. Vicar portionary of Borthwick, held by Nicholas Hay, £20.(11)

Account of Collectors of Thirds of Benefices (G. Donaldson): Third of vicarage £6 13s 4d.(12)

1591 (25 Nov) Visitation of the church by the Presbytery of Dalkeith reports that the parishioners do not hear the doctrine due to the patronage of Lord Borthwick; presbytery enquires into the building of a new kirk.(13) [slightly odd entry, suggests that the church is uninhabitable].

#1606 Kirk session complain to Presbytery of Dalkeith that the church is in ruinous condition; the choir and vestry in particularly poor condition. Agree deal with James Dundas of Arniston, he pays 250 marks for the vestry to use as a family burial aisle. He was buried there in 7 Oct 1628.(14) It was noted in the Presbytery of Dalkeith survey of its parishes that the church was erected in 1606.(15)

1619 (15 July) Visitation of the church by the Presbytery of Dalkeith orders a stent to be gathered for building of the kirk yard dykes, the west part to be done straight way and the rest to be done in the following March.(16)

1627 (Jan) Report on the parish by the minister notes that since 1596, the minister has the land of Torcraik in return for which he is bound to uphold the east end of the church, the patronage remaining with the archbishop of St Andrews.(17)

1644 (15 Aug) Visitation of the church by the Presbytery of Dalkeith approves a stent for repairing of the church (the minister to report back).(18)

1647 (21 Oct) Visitation of the church notes that an application has been made to build a new church in the parish at Cassiltone for the inhabitants of the parish (200 in number) who live far from the church. It also notes that the church is ruinous and that an agreement has been made with the heritors for repairing the church.(19)

1647 (3 Nov) Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale appoints several men to meet with the presbytery of Dalkeith and the parishioners of Borthwick to ensure that the questions between them are settled peaceably. 4 Nov, meeting in St Giles, Edinburgh. Dispute is between Lord Scottstarvit, and Lord Arniston on one side and the remaining heritors of Borthwick and the minister James Porteous on the other regarding the employment of a helper for the minister and the reduction of his stipend from 760 marks taken from the tacks of the parish teinds. Agreement made that James will get 800 marks and the helper to have the surplus from the parish teinds.(20)

1655 (21 June) Visitation of the church by the Presbytery of Dalkeith for better organisation of seats. Lord Borthwick is to have the whole south aisle, the door in that aisle to be kept clear for parishioners to enter the church. The laird of Borthwick’s burial place shall be in the east part of the east aisle or choir, the bit that is now railed and shall be separated from the rest of the church by building a stone wall between the burial place and the west of the east aisle. The entrance is to be from the outside. John Scott of Scottstarvit is to have his seat/loft built in the north aisle, commonly called ‘the bell aisle’ of Borthwick. Scott is to choice either the east or north side of that loft for his burial place.(21)

#1775-1778 Gaps in the kirk session records after 1775 [perhaps as result of fire?]. No references in subsequent session or Presbytery records to the fire or the new church.

Statistical Account of Scotland (Rev John Clunie, 1791): ‘about 40 yards from the site of the old one...stands the present church… finished in 1778.

[Footnote to above] ‘The old church, a popish building in the form of a cross, was in May 1775 burnt to the ground’.(22) [fire in church left untended]

New Statistical Account of Scotland (NSA, Rev Thomas Wright): [Nothing to add to above]

Notes

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

2. Mackinlay, Non-Scriptural Dedications, p.180.

3. CPL, ii, 385.

4. CPP, 618, CPL, Ben, 95.

5. CSSR, i, 37, 141, 160-61 & 224.

6. CSSR, v, nos. 280, 298, 581, CPL, x, 64, CPL, xi, 289-90.

7. Midlothian Charters, p. 304-12.

8. CSSR, v, nos. 650 & 651.

9. CPL, xiii, 657.

10. Yester Writs, nos. 106 & 107

11. Kirk, The books of assumption of the thirds of benefices, 111, 176 & 450.

12. Donaldson, Accounts of the collectors of thirds of benefices, 27.

13. NRS Presbytery of Dalkeith, Minutes, 1582-1630, CH2/424/1, fol. 260.

14. Spicer, ‘’Defyle not Christ’s kirk with your carrion”, 161.

15. NRS Presbytery of Dalkeith, Minutes, 1639-1652, CH2/424/3, fol. 261.

16. NRS Presbytery of Dalkeith, Minutes, 1582-1630, CH2/424/1, fol. 465.

17. Reports on the State of Certain Parishes in Scotland, pp. 37-38.

18. NRS Presbytery of Dalkeith, Minutes, 1639-1652, CH2/424/3, fol. 123.

19. NRS Presbytery of Dalkeith, Minutes, 1639-1652, CH2/424/3, fols. 205-207.

20. Synod Records of Lothian and Tweeddale, pp. 224 & 226.

21. NRS Presbytery of Dalkeith, Minutes, 1652-1662, CH2/424/4, fols. 190-192.

22. Statistical Account of Scotland, (1791), xiii, 627.

Bibliography

National Records of Scotland, Presbytery of Dalkeith, Minutes, 1582-1630, CH2/424/1.

National Records of Scotland, Presbytery of Dalkeith, Minutes, 1639-1652, CH2/424/3.

National Records of Scotland, Presbytery of Dalkeith, Minutes, 1652-1662, CH2/424/4.

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 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 1447-71, 1997, ed. J. Kirk, R.J. Tanner and A.I. Dunlop, Edinburgh.

Calendar of writs preserved at Yester House, 1166-1625, 1930, eds. C. Harvey and J. McLeod (Scottish Record Society), Edinburgh.

Charters of the Hospital of Soltre, of Trinity College, Edinburgh, and other collegiate churches in Mid-Lothian, 1861, ed. D. Laing (Bannatyne Club), 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.

Mackinlay, J.M, 1914, Ancient Church Dedications in Scotland. Non-Scriptural Dedications, Edinburgh.

Reports on the State of Certain Parishes in Scotland, Made to his Majesty’s Commissioners for Plantation of Kirks, 1835, ed. A. MacGrigor (Maitland Club), Edinburgh.

Spicer A., 2000, ‘’Defyle not Christ’s kirk with your carrion”: burial and the development of burial aisles in post-Reformation Scotland’, in B. Gordon and P. Marshall The Place of the Dead and Remembrance in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Cambridge, 149-69.

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

Synod Records of Lothian and Tweeddale, 1589-1596, 1640-1649, 1977, ed. J. Kirk (Stair Society), Edinburgh.

Architectural description

Evidence of an extended history of Christian worship in this area is provided by the finding of a number of fragments of early cross shafts, one of which is now in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.(1) The church at Borthwick, which was earlier known as Lochorworth or Locharquhart, was granted to the abbey of Scone by David I, a grant that was confirmed by Malcolm IV in 1163 or 1164; however, this grant, which was disputed by Glasgow Cathedral, may have involved no more than the patronage. In 1449 the parsonage and some of the vicarage teinds were appropriated to the newly founded college at Crichton.(2)

Of the church that is likely to have existed in the 1160s, the semi-circular apse survives in a much restored state. At some stage a sacristy was added on the north side that overlapped the apse and chancel.

The last known medieval addition to the church was a rectangular family chapel for the Borthwick family, on the south side of the nave. Sir William Borthwick had received confirmation of the lands of Borthwick in 1410,(3) and in 1430 license was granted a to build a castle,(4) the result of which was one of the most complex and impressive tower houses ever raised in Scotland.(5) The head of the family was called as a parliamentary lord in 1452. It is likely that it was around these decades in the first half of the fifteenth century that the family’s new burial place was built, as one aspect of the expression of the family’s territorial and dynastic hold on their estates.

After the Reformation, in 1606 the Kirk Session complained that the church was ruinous, and it was agreed that funds should be raised by selling the right of burial in the sacristy to James Dundas of Arniston.(6) Later that century, in 1655, it was agreed that the south aisle belonged to Lord Borthwick, but that his burial place was the east part of the choir, the apse, which was to be walled off for that purpose.(7)

The church suffered a disastrous fire in 1775, and it was decided to build a replacement ‘about 40 yards from the site of the old one’, which was completed in 1778.(8) Views of the abandoned shell of the old church show the south aisle and the sacristy still roofed, and a high gabled wall that closed off the apse from the chancel; a plan appears to show responds of arches at the entrance to the chancel and the apse.(9) The new church was a rectangular structure, with a small tower porch on its north side that was square at the lower level, octagonal above, and capped by a cupola of ogee profile.(10)

The eighteenth-century church was not to the taste of the following century, and in 1862-4 a new church was built on the site of the medieval building, incorporating the surviving fragments in varyingly restored states.(11) That new church, which was designed by Thomas Brown of Brown and Wardrop, is a complex structure that is very much larger towards the north than its predecessor had been. Opposite the Borthwick Aisle is a deep transeptal projection that is itself flanked on each side by aisles, and there is a handsome tower-porch capped by a splay-foot spire at the north-west angle. Like that firm’s churches at Ayton and Stow, the design is an interesting attempt to reconcile Oxford-movement-inspired ecclesiology with Presbyterian principles.

The apse of the medieval building was re-opened towards the new church, and an arch with Romanesque detailing inserted. A large late medieval monument against the north side was eventually relocated to the Borthwick Aisle; it may have been placed there around the time that it was agreed that the apse was the burial place of Lord Borthwick’s family in 1655. Externally, much of the lower masonry of the apse above a chamfered base course was retained, though extensive areas of upper walling were renewed, and round-headed windows with roll-moulded surrounds were provided towards the east and south.

The shell of the Borthwick Aisle on the south side of the nave had survived better than much of the rest of the church because of its covering by a pointed barrel vault with stone flags on the extrados, and much of the masonry shell could be retained. There is a chamfered base course around all three exposed sides; countering the thrusts of the vault, there are pairs of buttresses to east and west, which have an intermediate offset below the top weathering. A door in the west face has been renewed, but is likely to reflect an original feature, since there is a stoup to one side of it internally.

There is a two-light window to the west face and a three-light window rising up into the gable of the south wall. In neither case is the tracery to be trusted; that in the south face is copied from windows in the choir of Lincluden Collegiate Church and the nave of Dunkeld Cathedral. Below the south window is a slight projection to accommodate an internal tomb recess. The cavetto-moulded wall-head cornice is decorated with a range of grotesque heads and foliage. Above the apex of the south window is a shield with three cinquefoils for Borthwick. A sundial dated 1705 has been inserted at the south-west angle.

Internally the aisle has retained a number of features. To the south of the west door is a damaged stoup that appears to have had an ogee-arched head, and towards the south end of that wall is a rectangular aumbry that is rebated for a door frame. Below the south window is an arched tomb recess that has lost much of its detailing, and to its east is a damaged piscina recess for use at the altar that would have been set against the blank east wall.

The most puzzling feature in the aisle is the elaborate canopied tomb recess against the east wall, which has been relocated here from the apse; however, it is not known when this was done, because the architect’s drawings of the 1860s show it as still being in the apse. Although the tomb’s masonry is clearly almost entirely modern, it closely follows the forms of the tomb as they are known to have been when in the apse. The segmental arch of the canopy has foliage trails within the moulding, and an ogee hood moulding with a crocketed extrados rises up to a cornice decorated with square flower. Flanking the tomb are pinnacled buttresses.

This tomb cannot have been intended for the position it now occupies, since this was certainly the location of the altar. It may be wondered if, before being moved to the apse, it had been against the south wall of the chancel, one of the most favoured locations for high status entombment. Before they were moved into the body of the church to protect them from water penetration, the reconstituted tomb had contained two unusually finely detailed effigies, which have retained some traces of colouring, and which perhaps represent the first Lord Borthwick and his wife.

Notes

1. J. Romilly Allen and Joseph Anderson, The Early Christian Monuments of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1903, pt. 3, pp. 421-3.

2. Ian B. Cowan, The Parishes of Medieval Scotland (Scottish Record Society), 1967, pp. 20-21.

3. Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, ed. J. Thomson et al., Edinburgh, 1882-1914, vol. 1, no 929.

4. Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, vol. 2, no 157.

5. National Art Survey, Examples of Architecture from the Twelfth to the Seventeenth Centuries, Edinburgh, vol. 2, 1923.

6. George W.T. Omand, The Arniston Memoirs, Edinburgh, 1887, pp. 6-7.  

7. National Records of Scotland, Presbytery of Dalkeith, Minutes, 1652-62, CH2/424/4, fols 190-92.

8. Statistical Account of Scotland, 1791-99, vol. 13, p. 627.

9. Reproduced in Omand, 1887, plan on p. 6; and re-drawn in David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross, The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Scotland, Edinburgh, vol. 3, 1892, pp. 215.

10. Elevations are reproduced in Borthwick Parish Church, (church booklet) Borthwick, 2001, p. 5

11. Accounts of the church include: MacGibbon and Ross, vol. 3, 1892, pp. 214–18; Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Inventory of Midlothian and West Lothian, Edinburgh, 1929, p. 1; Christopher Wilson in Colin McWilliam, The Buildings of Scotland, Lothian, Harmondsworth, 1978, pp. 117-18.