east-lothian-1924/05-240

Transcription

YESTER.] -- INVENTORY OF MONUMENTS IN EAST LOTHIAN. -- [YESTER.

persisted for the church, though it is merely
a late formation by analogy with Abbey St.
Bathan's, Berwickshire. But the dedication of
the collegiate church and therefore also of the
parish church, from which it was developed,
was to St. Cuthbert : in 1447 we have " St.
Cuthbert of the College Kirk of Bothans " and
in 1540 " the Collegiate Church of St. Cuthbert
of Bothanis," etc.6
The placing of the parish church upon a
collegiate basis was due to Sir William Hay,
Thomas Boyd, Eustace Maxwell and Dougall
Macdowall, who on 1 Aug., 1420 addressed
a joint petition to Henry, bishop of St. Andrews
asking for the erection of the church into a
college for a provost and four prebendaries,
and the bishop's charter of erection is dated
22 April 1421. The four names in the petition
are those of the husbands of the four heiresses
of the Gifford lands (cf. Introd. p. xxiii) : they
describe themselves as co-lords ( codominorum) of
the lordship of Yester and patrons in turn of
the parish kirk of Bothans. These joint
patrons and their successors were to have the
right of presentation to the provostship and
chaplainries.7 When, again, in 1452 Robert
Boyd of Kilmarnock surrendered his fourth
share for other lands to Sir David Hay, he
retained his share of the patronage of the
collegiate church of Bothans.7 Apparently
this was confiscated with the rest of the
Boyd possessions in the reign of James III,
and in 1511 the provostship was confirmed
by James IV. to Adam Hepburn, Earl of Both-
well.8 By the exchange of the following year
with Hay of Yester (cf. Int. u. s.) the collegiate
church passed under the patronage of the Hays
of Yester. Keith's Catalogue gives the staff
as a provost with seven prebendaries and two
singing boys ; the usual statement is six
prebendaries. The Tweeddale papers mention
under 1447 the alter of B.V. Mary, referred to
above, also an alter of St. Edmund, king and
martyr, in the south transept or St. Edmund's
aisle, a chaplain of the Holy Cross and the
Rood alter ; there was also an alter to St.
Ninian.9
After the Reformation the patronage of the
collegiate church and its prebends continued
with the Hays,10 but in 1708, following on the
change made in the parish of Yester by the
union of the parishes of Bara and Garvald, the

145

Marquis of Tweeddale had a new church with
manse and glebe provided in the town of
Gifford, itself a recent foundation, and the
last parish service was held in the church at
Bothans on Sep. 17 1710,11 which thereafter
was retained as a family burying-place.

1 Theiner cclxiv. ; 2 R.M.S. s.a. 1449, No.
322 ; 3 R.M.S. s.a. ; 4 A Rentale of Hadd-
ington, Scot. Hist. Rev. x., p. 377 ff. ; 5 Inquis.
Spec. Haddington, No. 202 ; 6 Yester Writs,
Nos. 85, 86, 569 ; 7 Ibid. Nos. 53, 55 ; 8 Reg.
Mag. Sig. s.a. No. 521 ; 9 Yester Writs Nos.
152, 153 ; 10 Reg. Mag. Sig. s.a. No. 3635 ;
10 Inquis. Spec. Haddington, pass. ; 11 Session
Records.

xv. N.E. 30 May 1913.

CASTELLATED AND DOMESTIC STRUCTURES.

251. Yester Castle.-Yester Castle (fig. 183)
is built on a promontory formed by the con-
fluence of the Hopes

[illustration inserted]
FIG. 183.-Yester Castle
(No. 251).

Water with a tribu-
tary running north-
wards from Castle-
mains farm about 2
miles south-east of
Gifford.
The peninsula lies
[marginal note]
? a mount and
bailey
north and south and
is slightly crescentic
in shape, with pre-
cipitous sides bounded
by the waters 50 to
70 feet below. At the
southern end a ditch,
measuring 100 feet
wide from crest to
crest and 20 feet deep,
has been excavated,
isolating the site from
the mainland. The
site is level with the
landward for a length
of 200 feet, beyond
which it falls rapidly on the north to the water
level ; in this direction a second ditch, 30 feet
wide and 15 feet deep, is cut across the head of
the peninsula 230 feet north of the first and at a
considerably lower level. The geological forma-
tion of the site is readily seen in the banks of
the water courses, where it is found to be

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