OS1/13/33/5

Continued entries/extra info

5 Parish of Balmerino.
[Quotation]
" The lands of Balmerino at the beginning of the 13th Century were in the possession of Henry de Ruel or Rewel whose nephew and heir Richard sold them in 1225 to Queen Emergarde the mother of Alexander II [2nd] for 1,000 merks. Emergarde founded and Abbey upon her newly acquired possession which she dedicated to the Virgin Mary and to St. Edward the Confessor and dying in 1233 was buried before the high altar. The last abbot of this well-endowed house was Sir John Hay. After the Reformation the lands belonging to it were erected into a temporal Lordship in favour of Sir James Elphinston in whose family they continued until the forfeiture of John 6th. Lord Balmerino in 1746 They were then purchased from the Crown by the York Buildings company who resold them to the Earl of Moray. The remains of the abbey are now of trifling extent. An arcade of pointed arches supported on short thick pillars ad two vaulted apartments still remain but the chapel has entirely disappeared. There are still some remains of the orchard and one or two venerable chestnut trees in the surrounding grounds." Fullartons Gazetteer of Scotland.
[Quotation]
" Here then Queen Emergarde founded the abbey in 1229 which she planted with the monks of the Cistercian order brought from the abbey of Melrose. The monastery was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St. Edward the Confessor. This lady died in 1233 and is said to have been buried in the church before the high altar. A statue appears also to have been erected to her memory which Sibbald says was in existence shortly before his time " etc. etc. Leighton's Hist. [History] of Fife vol. [Volume] 2 p 68.