Chapter XIV: Abbots Henry Crichton and George Schaw, 1459—1498
The monks of Paisley were denied their old right of election as well as their brethren of Dunfermline, and, instead of one of their own brethren, they had placed over them by the King a parish priest, George Shaw, Rector of the Church of Mynto, in Roxburgh. He, indeed, did honour to his nomination, for he was a man of learning and good sense, and he set himself heartily to discharge the duties of his new position as an abbot of the Order of Clugny. Had all those elected under the new system been as worthy of their elevation as the parson of Mynto no great harm would have been done.
George Shaw owed his promotion to Paisley to his family connections. He was a son of the Laird of Sauchie, in Stirlingshire, and his family were hereditary keepers of Stirling Castle, and prominent among the aristocracy of the time. Like his predecessor, he was in favour at Court, for King James III. entrusted him with the education and upbringing of his second son, the Duke of Ross, wishing to place him in the quiet Convent of Paisley beyond the reach of those turbulent nobles who made his reign one of terror and strife. [15] He devoted himself with great assiduity to this duty, and it is not improbable that the familiarity of the Prince with the ecclesiastics of Paisley led him afterwards to choose the Church as his profession, in which he rose to the high dignity of Archbishop of St. Andrews. [16] Abbot Shaw was present in the Parliament of 11th January, 1487, which precipitated the collision between the King and a great body of his subjects, and led to the unnatural rebellion of his son. In this rebellion the Abbot's brother, James Shaw of Sauchie, [17] took a leading part. He was Governor of Stirling, and guardian of the Prince, and held the Castle in his name. [18] The result is well known. The battle of Sauchieburn was fought on the lands belonging to the family of Abbot Shaw, and, by the base assassination of the King while fleeing from the field, the rebellious Prince succeeded to the throne, to the great advantage of those who had sympathised with him and his faction, and, in particular, to the advantage of the family of Shaw.
Very soon after his accession, the new King began to shew an interest in the Abbey over which his friend and the tutor of his brother presided. In the first year of his reign he confirmed to the Abbot all the privileges which the Stewarts and Kings of Scotland had bestowed on Paisley, alleging as his reason the great favour and love which he bears to Abbot George Shaw, “our chief counsellor,” [19] for the faithful service which he had rendered to them in byegone years, especially in the education of his brother, the Duke of Ross, in his tender age. He also erected the town of Paisley into a burgh, a royal concession of which we shall take notice more fully in another chapter. The Regality of James IV. is the fullest of all those granted to the Abbey. It gave the Abbot full power of trying his tenants for all offences, and “repledging” them from the royal courts for this purpose. The four points of the Crown, “rapine, rape, murder, and fire-raising,” are specially granted to his jurisdiction, and there is power given, not only for the trial of stealers of green wood, but also of those who catch or kill salmon, called “reidfisch,” which shews that even at that early date poaching was not unknown in the neighbourhood of Paisley. The Abbot had thus full despotic power within his bounds—he could imprison or execute offenders. In the immediate neighbourhood of Paisley, there is still a mound bearing the ominous name of Gallowhill, and in the charters there is mention of the “Blackhoil,” [20] or Blackhole, probably the prison of the Monastery. According to the Clunaic statutes, the prison was “a place accessible only by a ladder, without window or door;” [21] the prison of the Abbey was thus a dismal enough place of confinement, and well deserving the name it commonly received.
[15] Abbot Shaw was regular in his Parliamentary duties—
1476, 10th July, he was chosen, among others, to negotiate as to the royal marriage.
1478, 6th April, he was in Parliament.
1482, 2nd Dec. he was in Parliament.
1478-9, lst March, do., 1484, 17th May, do.,
1479, 4th Oct., do., 1484-5, 21st March, do.,
1481, 11th April, do., 1487, 11th Jan., do.,
1481-2, 18th March, do., 1487, 6th Oct., do.,
[16] The Duke of Ross was appointed Archbishop of St. Andrews in 1497, and died in Jan., 1504, aged 28.
[17] He visited his brother in 1485, on 28th August, for a charter of that date is witnessed—“Jacobo Schaw de Sawquhy.”
[18] Burton's Hist., Vol. III., p. 33.
[19] The date of this charter is 19th August, 1488, at Stirling.—Reg. de Pas., p. 84.
[20] Saint Mirin, by Semple, pp. 69, 70, 72.
[21] Fosbrook's Brit. Mon., p. 355.