Extract From ertgtnc!l �arocbtalr!l �cotiac THE ANTIQUITIES ECCLESIASTICAL AND TERRITORIAL OF THE PARISHES OF SCOTLAND. VOLUME FIRST. W. H. LIZARS, ST. JAilfES' SQUARE. EDINBURGH: GL\SGUW: J. s:mTH & SON, ST. VINCENT STREET. LONDON: s. HIGIILEY, FLEET STREET, AND ALL BOOKSELLERS. )!DCCCLI. .Adi,·.dJ,1/, * * * * ETTRicK.] PAROCHIALES. 259 oldest is said to row ; and Dodhead near Singlee.^ Of these the be Blackhouse tower, and the wild tract in which it lies is represented by Godscroft as a possession of the Douglases in the reign of Mal- colm Canmore.2 Seven large stones on the neighbouring heights are said to mark the scene of the well-known ' Douglas Tragedie,' and Douglas burn is pointed out as the water of which the lovers drank.3 The ballad itself evidently places the tragical event in this vicinity, as is testified by the names ' St. Slarie's Kirk,' and ' St. Marie's Loch ;' and it may be observed that, however unauthoritative our ancient lyrics may be in point of narrative, they are in general remarkably correct in point of locality. West of Yarrow Kirk, says the N. Stat. Ace, is a piece of ground on which were formerly about twenty large cairns, and on which are still two unhewn massive stones, about 100 yards from each other, evidently the scene of a conflict, and supposed to be ' The Dowie Dens of Yarrow.' This will perhaps scarcely correspond with the 'ten slain men' and the 'Tinnes bank' of ancient ballad. Deuchar Swire, in the north of the parish, was the scene of a duel between Scott of Tushielaw and Scott of Thirlstane, which was fatal to the latter.'' Dryhope Haugh and the neighbourhood of Altrive Lake are localities in which cairns and tumuli were anciently raised. On the former stood a large cairn, known by the name of Herton's Hill.5 ETTRICK. Ethric, Ethryc, Hettrich, Etryk^—Etrike^—EthrikS—Atrik"—New Kirk of Ettrickio—Nook of Ettrick." Deanery of Peebles. (Map, No. go.) Tnis pari.sh comprehends the ancient parish of Rankilburn, which previously to the Reforma- tion was an independent Rectory .'^ In the Register of Ministers, 15G7-1573, the name of either does not appear. In 1574 they were both, at least ecclesiastically, united with the parishes of Ashkirk, Selkirk, and St. Mary Kirk of the Lowes, under one minister, with a reader at Ashkirk, and another at Selkirk.'^ From 1576 to 1570 they were joined with St. Mary's, the three being served by one minister, and, according to an entry in the record, the ' New Kirk of Ettrick and Rankilburn,' needing ' na reidars.'^* In the roll of Presbyteries presented to the General Assembly 1586, Ettrick and Rankilburn are given as separate parishes in the Presbytery of Had- ' N. Stat. Acc.and Maps. Notes to' Border Minstrehy.' ^ A. D. 1539 and 1577. Lib. de Melros, p. 627. Book ^ Godscroft, vol. i., pp. *20, 21. of Assumptions. '^ N. Stat. Ace. Common-Place Book of Ballad, pub- '"A. D. 1561. Book of Assumptions. A. D. 1574, 1576, lished in 1824. 1.578,1579. Books of Assignations. A. D. 1606. Lib. • New Stat. Ace. de Melros, pp. 658, 660. ^ New Stat. Ace. > A. D. 1586. Booke of the Universall Kirk. « Circa A. D. 1235. Lib. de Melros, pp. 234, 235, '= Lib. de Melros, pp. 547, 548. 666, 667. '^ Books of Assignations. '* ' A. D. 1415. Lib. de Melros, p. 548. Books of Assignations. 8 A. D. 1436 and 1446. Lib. de Melros, pp. 493, 494, &c. 260 ORIGINES [ettrick. dingtou.i In 1606, Ettrick is mentioned as 'the paroche kirk, called the Xew Kirk of Ettrik,' and it would appear that before that date it had not as a Protestant church become a parish quoad civilia? Before 1(550 the old parish of Rankilburn had been united to that of Yarrow, but in that year it was both ecclesiastically and civilly disjoined from Yarrow and united to Ettriek.s The surface of the parish of Ettrick is wholly mountainous, consisting of smooth, green, rounded hills, of which Ettrick Pen in the south-west rises to the height of 2200 feet above the level of the sea. Among the group of which it forms the most conspicuous are the sources of the river Ettrick, which, flowing thence in a north-east direction, and fed in its course by innumerable rivulets, nearly divides the parish iijto two equal parts. The most considerable of its tributaries are the Tiraa and the Rankilburn, both rising on the borders of Eskdale, and entering the Ettrick on the right. In the north-west of the parish rises the river Yarrow, the principal feeder of the Loch of Lowes (Blaeu's locus occidentalis Lobiorum or West-Mary Loh of the Lowes), whose northern margin forms part of the boundary between this parish and Yarrow. We have no early notice of Ettrick as a parish. Although its original boundary was distinctly defined in the reign of Alexander II., its name docs not appear in Baiamund's Roll, the Libellus Taxationum, or the Taxatio Eccl. Scot, sec. xvi. If not included among the ' Kirks of the Blessed Virgin,' that is, St. Mary's of the Lowes and other churches in Ettrick Forest, of which the advowson was given by David II. to the monks of Dryburgh,"* it probably continued a de- pendency of the Abbey of Slelros from its first foundation till it became a Protestant church. Previously to 1 235 there seems to have been no church within the territory known as Ettrick, which at that time is described as a waste. In that or the following year Alexander II. granted — to the monks of Melros his charter of Ettrick, the bounds of which are thus described ' our whole waste from the river of Ethryc ascending by the rivulet of Tynieye, as far as the bounds of Nigell de Heryz— thence ascending by the watershed between Ethric and Glenkery to the borders of Esckedal, and thence ascending westward by the watershed between Esckedal and Ethric as far as the mountain called Vnhende, and thence eastward along the watershed between Annandale and The Forest to the head of Rodanoch, and thence eastward by the watershed between The Forest and the land of Thomas de Hay, to the head of Copthra-werisclouch, and thence descending to the greater lake (doubtless St. Mary's Loch), and thence ascending by the lake to its head, and thence ascending southward to the rivulet of Wythhop, and thence ascending as far as Thyrlstangate, and along the same road to the head of Wulfliop, and thence descending by a sike to the rivulet of meikle Thyrlestan, and by the same rivulet descending to the river of Ethric, and by that river ascending as far as Tymeymuth.'^ For the territory thus bestowed the monks were to render to the King or his heirs for ever nothing but their prayers (praeter solas orationes.)^ And by a sub- sequent charter the King erected the lands of Ettrick into 'a free forest,' prohibiting all others with- out license from the monks to cut wood or to hunt within them, on pain of his full forfeiture of .£10.'' ' Booke of the Universall Kirk. * Robertson's Index, p. 59, no. 3. - Lib. tie Melros, pp. 658, 660. * Lib. de Melros, pp. 234, 235, and 666, 667. ^ New Stat. Ace. '' Lib. de Melros. ' Lib. de Melros, p. 235. ETTRicK.] PAROCHIALES. 261 No addition appears to have been made to the monks' lands of Ettrick till 1415, almost two hundred years after, although before that time they had acquired the lands of BellenJen, sepa- rated from Ettrick by the parish of Rankilburn. In 1415 Robert Scott, laird of Rankilburn and Murdieston, ancestor of the Scotts of Buccleuch, with consent and assent of his son and heir Walter Scott, granted to the monks of Jlelros ' all his lands of Wynzehope west of the water of Temay that were called Glenkery, lying within the sheriffdom of Selkirk, between the monks' lands of Mighope at one part, and the lands of Etrike at another, and the lands of Dallies on the west—descending a certain rivulet to the said water of Temay, and beyond it ascendin" the boundary between Wynzehope and the said lands of Dalgles, east of the foresaid water of Temay, as far as a certain ditch surrounding twelve acres of meadow (which also he bestowed on the said monks) northwards—and again descending westwards to the said water of Temay, and thence — descending the same to the bounds of the lands of Mighope abovementioned' ' reserving only to himself and heirs the liberty of fishing and hunting within the said lands of Glenkery'— in exchange— for ' the lands of Bellinden, lying within the said sheriffdom of Selkirk, with perti- nents' ' reserving for ever to the same monks the liberty of fishing and hunting in the said lands of Bellinden.'' At the same time, and by virtue of the same charter, the tithes of both lands were exchanged, those of Glenkery to be appropriated to the monks, and those of Bellenden to the church of Rankilburn. The transaction was completed in the same year by a charter of Peter de Kokburne, laird of Henryland, of whom the lands of Glenkery were held, approving and con- firming the excambion for himself and heirs.^ In 143G James I., out of regard to John de Fogo, his confessor, and Abbot of Melros, con- firmed to him and to the monks the lands of Ethrik and Rodono, along with those of Carrik, and erected the whole into a free regality.^ In 1442 the same grant and privileges were confirmed by James II.,'* and although the exemption from the jurisdiction of the Forest courts thus secured to the dependents of the Abbey was for some time disputed by the Douglases, while lords of The Forest, it was at length in 1446 fully admitted by William earl of Douglas in a charter in which the men, servants, servitors, and indwellers of the monks, were finally and for ever declared freed from that jurisdiction.'' Thus was constituted what was thenceforth the part of the ' regality,' and also subsequently to the Reformation of the 'lordship' of Melros, in the county of Selkirk,^ with which the ancient parish appears to have been identical.