peeblesshire-1967-vol-1/03_042

Transcription

INTRODUCTION: GENERAL

people living round Peebles about 1200 ¹ contains not only English but also a number of Gaelic
ones, such as Gille Mihhel, Patricius, Gille Crist, etc. Moreover, there are a few with the
element Cos- prefixed to those of saints, such as Cosmungho and Cospatricius. This is the
Cumbric word gwas "servant", used in exactly the same was as gille, but it is notable that
except for Mungo the saints are those of the Hiberno-Anglian church. It seems that the
Britons of Peeblesshire and their language were by now nothing but a memory.
The conclusion appears to be that the population of the county was predominantly British,
and Cumbric-speaking, without any considerable Anglian intermixture, until perhaps about
the late 10th century, though it had no doubt been under Northumbrian suzerainty since the
middle of the 7th; that from the later part of the 10th century it began to undergo and increas-
ing Gaelicisation; that this was countered by an ever-growing Anglicisation from the later 11th
and specially in the 12th century and thereafter; that Cumbric was very likely wholly obliter-
ated by the combination of these two influences in the 11th century; but that Gaelic may have
continued to be heard there even as late as the 13th century.

3. MEDIEVAL AND LATER LANDHOLDERS ²

(i) The Crown. In early medieval times the Scottish Crown possessed considerable interests in
Peeblesshire, principally in the eastern part of the county. Apart from the royal castle of Peebles
and the adjacent burgh, which are on record by the middle of the 12th century (cf. No. 523),
the county incorporated an extensive area of royal demesne, comprising the greater part of the
present parishes of Innerleithen and Traquair. Traquair itself, a royal manor, was an occasion-
al residence of Scottish kings during the 12th and 13th centuries and the seat of an early
sheriffdom. These lands were erected into a royal "forest" in the 12th century, becoming part
of the larger unit sometimes described as the Forest of Selkirk, Ettrick and Traquair; they were
thus brought under forest law and a forest administration designed to preserve them as
hunting-grounds for the King. The greater part of the parish of Innerleithen was granted to the
monastery of Newbattle by Alexander II in 1241, and Traquair appears to have been alienated
before the end of the 14th century, but the remaining area of royal demesne continued to form
part of the Forest of Ettrick until the 16th century when the introduction of feu-farm tenures
brought an end to royal control over the area as a Forest. A detailed account of the administra-
tive organisation of the Forest, together with a map showing the distribution of the various
forest-steads, will be found in the Commission's Inventory of Selkirkshire. ³
(ii) The Church. The only medieval monastic foundation in Peeblesshire was the Cross
Kirk, Peebles (No. 480), which was founded by Alexander III following the discovery of a
"magnificent and venerable" cross at Peebles in 1261. The church first appears on record in
1296, when Friar Thomas, master of the house of the Holy Rood of Peebles, swore fealty to
Edward I at Berwick. ⁴ At first the foundation seems to have been non-conventual, comprising
a chapel served either by a secular priest or, more usually, by a friar or friars. These chaplains
were responsible for the safe keeping of the cross, which soon began to draw large numbers of

1 Registrum Episcopatus Glasguensis (Bannatyne Club), i, 89.
2 Except where otherwise stated in the material in this section is
derived from J. W. Buchan's History of Peeblesshire.
3 Inventory of Selkirkshire, pp. 4 ff. and Fig. 3.
4 C.D.S., ii, No. 823, p. 212.

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