peeblesshire-1967-vol-1/03_043

Transcription

INTRODUCTION: GENERAL

pilgrims. In view of the later history of the house it may be assumed that the friars were mem-
bers of the Order of Trinitarians, although they are not so described until the middle of the
15th century. ¹ At first a yearly payment appears to have been made to the keeper of the Holy
Cross from Crown revenues, ² but in the middle of the 15th century, when more information
becomes available, payments were being made by the bailies and community of Peebles, who
evidently controlled the benefice at this period. ³ Considerable light is thrown upon the adminis-
tration of the Cross Kirk by a petition presented to the Pope by the bailies and inhabitants of
Peebles in 1463. The petition related that "at a time beyond the memory of man a certain piece
of the true Cross of our Lord was miraculously translated from beyond the seas to the chapel of
the Holy Cross near the said town of Pebelys, and that thenceforward the said bailies and
inhabitants caused the said relic to be honourably preserved with the greatest devotion, some-
times by a secular priest, sometimes by a Trinitarian friar, removable at their pleasure, who had
the custody of the said relic and the necklaces, jewels and treasures kept in the said chapel;
that for the last fifteen years some of the friars of the said order have, by leave of the said
bailies and inhabitants, governed the chapel, but that lately the bailies and inhabitants (per-
ceiving that, as was manifest, on account of the neglect of the said friars, the said relic, neck-
laces and jewels were often diminished, and that a certain part of the relic had been cut off, and
that it was feared that it might be stolen by the said friars and carried away to other parts)
expelled the said friars". ⁴ The Pope confirmed this action of the burgh and ordered that the
chapel should be erected into a perpetual benefice for a secular priest or clerk; the bailies and
inhabitants of Peebles were to have the rights of patronage and presentation.
Shortly afterwards, however, further and more drastic changes were made in the constitu-
tion of the house, which in 1474 was erected into a conventual monastery of the Trinitarian
Order by James III, the Trinitarian house of Berwick being annexed to it for this purpose. ⁵
Previously the church seems to have been sparsely endowed, but after it was raised to conven-
tual status it began to receive further grants of land and revenues, including property in the
burgh and parish of Peebles, while two more Trinitarian houses, Dunbar and Houston, with
their East Lothian estates, were annexed to it before the middle of the 16th century. ⁶ The
community was dispersed in about 1561 and the church taken over for parochial use; the lands
formerly belonging to the monastery passed to the Hays of Yester in 1624. ⁷
The only other religious house in the county was St. Leonard's Hospital (No. 482), situated
at Eshiels, about two miles east of Peebles. This was a small and relatively unimportant
foundation possessing a little property at Eshiels, together with a few houses within the burgh. ⁸
These properties seem to have passed to the Hays of Smithfield even before the hospital was
secularised at about the end of the 16th century, and they formed part of the Smithfield estate
until 1729.
In addition to the lands held by the two religious houses founded within the county, the
Church also possessed extensive territorial rights in Peeblesshire as a result of grants made to

1 Renwick, R., Aisle and Monastery: St. Mary of Geddes Aisle
in the Parish Church of Peebles; and the Church and Monastery
of the Holy Cross of Peebles, 28, quoting Nat. Lib. of Scot. MS.
29.4.2. (Hutton Collection), vol. iii, pt. 2.
2 Exch. Rolls, i (1264-1359), 71, 353, 517.
3 Peebles Chrs., 115 f., 148.
4 C.P.L., xii (1458-71), 168 ff.
5 Renwick, op. cit., 71 ff., quoting Nat. Lib. of Scot. MS. 29.4.2.
(Hutton Collection), vol. iii, pt. 2; cf. also C.P.L., xiii (1471-84),
pt. 2, 491.
6 Renwick, op. cit., 32 ff.; Easson, Religious Houses, 91 f.
7 R.M.S., viii (1620-33), No. 570.
8 Renwick, R., Peebles: Burgh and Parish in Early History, 100.

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