Polmont Old Parish Churchyard
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Polmont Old Parish Churchyard POLMONT OLD PARISH CHURCHYARD G B Bailey Illus 1: The main entrance to Polmont Church and Churchyard c1795. Contents: Introduction The Resurrectionists Churchyard Extensions Burials The Stones Ministers of Polmont Parish Church Kirk Session Records Plan of Polmont Churchyard Inventory of Gravestones Index of Personal Names Bibliography Falkirk Local History Society Page 1 Polmont Old Parish Churchyard Introduction The medieval parish of Falkirk was huge and that created difficulties for those attempting to get to the church in the winter months. Over the centuries new parishes were carved out of the territory and in 1649 proposals were made to establish a church in the eastern part of the parish of Falkirk in the vicinity of Polmont. It was only in 1731 however that construction began on a new church on a greenfield site just south of Cadger’s Brae (the main road from Falkirk to Bo’ness). This meant the creation of a new cross road connecting the Cadger’s Brae to a relatively recent turnpike road to the south (see Roy’s Great Map) – now appropriately known as Kirk Entry. Land was bought for the church, manse, glebe and a churchyard. The position of the stone church within its early enclosure clearly shows that from the beginning there was an intention to have a burial ground associated with it. Liberty to bury in the churchyard was granted by the presbytery on 22 October 1735, though the first burial appears to have taken place in January the previous year when I. Shaw died at the age of 77 years. The stone depicts a leather worker’s half-moon knife under a crown indicating that he was an artisan of an incorporated trade (No. 17). The churchyard was surrounded by a tall boundary wall with entrances to the east and west. That on the east opened onto the new road and was the main one. Both entrances had internally curving wing walls terminating in substantial gate posts surmounted by ball finials as shown in the illustration above. The eastern forecourt thus created provided a turning circle for carriages. From its gate a raised drive led to the wooden porch at the centre of the east gable of the church and a path led around the north side to steps leading up to the lofts. Trees were planted along the west, north and south sides of the graveyard, but by 1786 they were an inconvenience. They were also large enough by then to provide a commercial return and were put up for sale by roup. Part of the money from this had to go to repair the boundary walls. Account of the mensuration and value of the trees in Polmont Churchyard sold to James Walker Imprimis six ash trees 41.3.3 at 1sh & 3d per foot £2.11.7 Item eleven elm trees 70.9.9 at 1s & 4d per foot £4.14.5 Item two oak trees 7.10.4 at 1s & 6d per foot £-.11.9 ½ £7.17.9 ½ Muiravonside School 22nd March 1786 Attested by Thos Greenhill. James Walker, wright in Newhouse, offered the upset price for the timber. Falkirk Local History Society Page 2 Polmont Old Parish Churchyard Illus 2: Plan showing the setting of the churchyard in 1785 (after RHP 7026). South of the main gate, with their backs to the boundary wall, a series of walled tombs was erected for the landed families of the parish. These included the Livingstones of Westquarter. A similar series came to be placed against the west boundary wall, and the north wall was studded with the occasional enclosure, including that of Patrick Bennet, the first minister of Polmont, who died in 1783. Polmont was a sizeable parish and so to aid with the conveyance of the dead to the churchyard in was decided to invest in a hearse. In February 1772 “articles concerning a carriage for the dead in the Parish of Polmont” were drawn up. They were as follows: It is proposed that as a Hearse is bought at the rate of thirty pound Sterling for transporting the dead, the following articles are offered to the consideration of the subscribers & kirk-session: 1. It is proposed that the value of the Hearse is to be payed by the subscribers & kirk-session and a house built for holding the same equally betwixt them. 2. The subscribers is to pay half when they use the Hearse of what a stranger is to pay which is ten shillings Ster: & the subscribers five shillings. 3. The poor of the Parish are to have the whole benefit of the Hearse they upholding the same & the house that contains it. 4. If a subscriber employ the hearse out of the Parish they shall pay one shilling per mile & a stranger two shillings. Falkirk Local History Society Page 3 Polmont Old Parish Churchyard 5. If the kirk-session is not concerned with the hearse the subscribers to use it within the Parish gratis. Jo. Mitchell for himself & Commissioner Laurie & William Livingston of Parkhall Robt Walker Step John Watt Oldwalls Ditto for James Deans Patrick Hodge Oldwalls John Gib Grainge Ditto for William Russel Geo Scrimsore Thornhill Alexander Watt Candie Alexander Johnston The hearse house stood in the north-east corner of the graveyard with vehicular access to the road. It was eventually demolished in 1865 and the boundary wall straightened. By this time it had been replaced by a building in the Back Row of the village. At the same time the old churchyard entrance was rebuilt, removing the forecourt, and the pillars were set flush with the boundary wall with a new iron gate. Illus 3: The realigned entrance gate onto Kirk Entry. In 1844 land was acquired to the south of the churchyard upon which to erect a larger church building. The south wall of the churchyard was demolished and a new one constructed further south in 1845 at a cost of £57.18s. A new gateway and railings to the east of the new church, from James McLaren of Grangemouth, cost £2.9.2. Twenty five carts of small gravel were brought in from a pit at Laurieston for the paths. Falkirk Local History Society Page 4 Polmont Old Parish Churchyard Illus 4: 1st edition Ordnance Survey map of the 1860s. The Resurrectionists In the first decades of the nineteenth century newly buried bodies from the churchyards across central Scotland were illicitly dug up for sale to the medical professionals at Edinburgh for dissection. To counter such activities many churches established mutual aid groups of volunteers who would keep a watch over the graveyard for a short period after an interment had taken place. Some of these groups also acquired mortsafes – iron coffins into which the wooden one was inserted. These were lowered into the ground with a block and tackle and after several weeks, when the body was no longer of use to the surgeons, the iron outer shell would be retrieved. James Love mentions the discovery of one of these mortsafes at Polmont: "...and in the churchyard of Polmont, in March, 1904, while a grave was being opened, there was discovered, when six feet down, the frame of a coffin measuring six feet six inches by two feet, made of malleable iron bars bolted together. The coffin itself had evidently been secured inside, as small pieces of wood were still adhering to some of the bolts.” Love also relates a famous case of bodysnatching which occurred in 1823: “About five o’clock on the afternoon of Wednesday, the 19th March, 1823, a servant of Mr Scott, farmer at Gilston, near Polmont was returning home, when he saw two men taking something from a dunghill which lay in a park belonging to his master’s farm, near the side of the Edinburgh Falkirk Local History Society Page 5 Polmont Old Parish Churchyard Road, which he at first thought might be smuggled whisky. His curiosity being excited, he watched their movements attentively, and soon observed them drag something like a dead body over the dyke to a gig that stood nearby, and this he thought he saw them repeat a second and third time. He immediately hastened to the farm and informed his master what he had seen. Mr Scott, who had for some time previous been suspicious that bodies had been disinterred from the churchyard of Polmont, immediately mounted a horse and went instantly in pursuit. Having ascertained that they had taken the high road towards Edinburgh, he galloped after them as fast as he could, and came in sight of the gig a little to the west end of Linlithgow. Here he saw one of the men come down from the gig and walk along that road. Mr Scott continued on closely, and meeting some of his acquaintances at Linlithgow, he desired them to follow him; this having been done, the party came up with the gig in the middle of the town. Mr Scott then rode in front of the gig, and, turning smartly round, placed himself before it, demanding the driver to stop and deliver up what unaccustomed goods he suspected he had in his possession. This the man refused to do till a warrant was produced. Mr Scott consequently ordered some of the bystanders to detain the gig and driver while he went in quest of a warrant. The other person who had descended from the gig at the entrance to the town, having become alarmed, escaped to the high ground, and was not seen again- An immense crowd of people had now collected from all quarters of Linlithgow, and without waiting Mr Scott’s return with the warrant demanded, immediately began, without ceremony, to satisfy their curiosity and search the gig, when, to their horror, no fewer than three dead bodies were found in it - that of a man, a woman, and a female child.