Chapter XII: Royal Patronage,
1373-1405
The records of the Abbey give abundant proof of the difficulty which they had in maintaining their privileges and possessions. They seem to have been constantly involved in litigation and strife. Sometimes they appeal to the secular arm for protection, and sometimes from the secular court to the court ecclesiastical, and at times we find them transferring the case from the court ecclesiastical to the Pope himself. At one time they are at war with the Bishop, at another with some powerful chieftain, like the Earl of Lennox, or lawless aggressor like Sir Reginald of Abercorne. In 1385 they punish severely John of Auchinlek, in Ayrshire, who had attacked and brutally injured one of their monks. [18] What provocation the Ayrshire laird received we know not, nor to what court, secular or sacred, the Abbot appealed ; but the offender had to pay [19] heavily for his transgression. He was fined in twenty shillings sterling, an annual rent, payable half-yearly at Whitsunday and Martinmas. The deed drawn up for the purpose of making the payment binding is of the strictest character, and the son of the culprit, on entering into possession of his estate, is taken bound to pay the fine for his father's transgression. [20] In 1390, Abbot Lithgow lost his good friend and patron, King Robert. Like his ancestors, he did many a kind act to his friends at Paisley. He was always ready to defend them from their enemies, and one of the last acts of his life was to procure for them from the Pope a continuance of the liberty to use the revenues of the Church of Largs [21] to help them in rebuilding their house. It is expressly mentioned that the Pope grants the permission in “consideration of his most dear son in Christ, Robert, the illustrious King of Scotland, whose predecessors had founded the Monastery.” The King was a kind benefactor to the monks, who must have offered many prayers for the repose of his soul. He died at his Castle of Dundonald, in Ayrshire. For some reason he was not buried among his ancestors, but at Scone. [22] If this be true, he was the first of the Stewarts who were laid elsewhere than in the precincts of the Abbey, and the circumstance is all the more strange because Elizabeth More, the much-loved wife of his youth, and Euphan Ross, his Queen, are buried there.
John, Earl of Carick, whose name has appeared more than once in the pages of this history, the eldest son of Robert II., succeeded his father as King of Scotland by the title of Robert III., the association of the name of John with the ill-fated Baliol being regarded with aversion by the nation. Very soon after his accession to the throne we find him manifesting his interest in the Abbey. For the safety of his soul and that of his ancestors, “Kings and Stewarts of Scotland,” he erected all the lands of the Abbey in Ayrshire, Peebles, [23] and Roxburgh, [24] into a free barony of regality, asking nothing in return but their prayers. [25] He took all their lands, men, and possessions, and all their goods, movable and immovable, ecclesiastical and secular, under his special protection. He granted them exemption from capture for debt, [26] and he confirmed all their endowments, ancient [27] and modern—the latter were of no great importance—liberty to draw water to their Mill of Monkton [28] by an ancient lead through the land of Adamton, and forty silver pennies granted for the safety of his soul by a certain Adam Fullerton, Knight, Lord of Crosseby. [29] Any gift, however small, seems to have been thankfully received, and for half a stone of wax paid at the Feast of St. Mirin by Hugh Boyl, [30] Lord of Rysholm, and John Kelsow, Lord of Kelsowland, [31] respectively, the monks consented to receive them and their wives into perpetual participation of the brotherhood and prayers of the whole Order of Clugny. This was a wonderful falling off from the time when this privilege was obtained by large gifts of land and other valuable donations.
[18] Reg. de Pas., p. 359.
[19] “Pro contemptu et violatione eis factis, occasione injurie cuidam monacho ipsius monasterii, vasa sua seminaria amputando, per me et complices meos.”
[20] It continued to be paid till the Reformation.
[21] Reg. de Pas., p. 242. In 1389, the year before his death, by order of the King £30 were paid from the Exchequer for glass for the Abbey of Paisley. Exchequer Rolls, No. 102.
[22] Fordun by Goodall, Vol. II, p. 418.
[23] Their lands of Orde.
[24] Five marks of their lands from their lands of Mona and Huntlaw, in their land of Hastenden.
[25] Reg. de Pas., p. 91.
[26] Ibid, p. 96.
[27] Ibid, p. 97.
[28] Ibid, p. 363.
[29] Ibid, p. 364.
[30] Ibid, p. 368.
[31] Ibid. Kelso gives his donation for the soul of Christiana Lewinston, his wife.