J. W. Buchan and Rev. H. Paton. Published 1925-7.
These were the churchlands of the parish, and carried with them the pasturage of thirty soums in the Common. After the Reformation they fell into the hands of the Crown, and on 12th November, 1602, King James VI. granted them in feu to William Tweedie of Wrae. It is stated in the charter that the lands belonged some time to the parson of the parish church, and had been possessed by William Tweedie and his predecessors as native tenants and feu-farmers beyond the memory of man. [William Tweedie in 1588 granted an annual rent from Kirkhall to William Penman]. The feu-duty was fixed by the charter at 46s. 8d. of old feu farm and 12d. of augmentation.
The lands remained with the Tweedies till about 1650, after which they passed to the Murrays of Cardon, and later to the Murrays of Stanhope. James Geddes of Rachan acquired them from Alexander Murray, younger of Stanhope, in 1722, along with the privilege which pertained to the property of as much limestone of the lands of Wrae as could be burned with forty ordinary loads of coal. Kirkhall has since remained part of the Rachan estate.
This information is reproduced from A History of Peeblesshire by J. W. Buchan and Rev. H. Paton, published in three volumes between 1925-7 by Jackson, Wylie and Co. of Glasgow. The original book includes many refences to the sources of the information, pedigrees and plates.
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