J. W. Buchan and Rev. H. Paton. Published 1925-7.
The three parishes will be dealt with separately until their union in 1794. They were in the Presbytery of Peebles from the Reformation till 1644, and after that in the Presbytery of Biggar.
BROUGHTON CHURCH
The original church or chapel at Broughton was apparently founded by St. Lloan in the seventh century, and was later dedicated to St. Maurice, the patron saint of Savoy, a martyr in the persecution known as Diocletian's about the beginning of the second century. The reason for this dedication is not known, and it is the only dedication to St. Maurice of Scotland. The earliest reference to the chapel is the grant already referred to by Ralf le Neym, between 1175 and 1180, and at that time Broughton and also Glenholm were reckoned as part of the parish of Stobo, where the mother church was.
After the Reformation the minister of Drumelzier, James Stewart, had for a time Broughton and also Glenholm under his charge. In 1567 the name of Walter Tweedie appears as exhorter at Broughton. He was reader at Broughton and Glenholm in 1574, and later he had also Kilbucho. He was still in office in 1591. In 1594 Mr. John Makcullo, a graduate of Edinburgh, was the minister, but he left a year later as he could 'find na sufficient provision.' The parish was then without a minister till 1603, when Archibald Livingstone, A.M., was appointed, and ordained on 24th November. The following year there was a visitation of the Presbytery, and the 'gentlemen' reported they were well satisfied with their minister. But the kirk was found to be in a bad state and 'not only ruinous, but desolate without a roof.' The sum of £80 required to repair the kirk and also the manse was collected from the 'gentlemen'
[The names of the chief heritors are given: the laird of Haldane - probably George Haldane, who married Nicole Tweedie; the laird of Langlawhill - his name was Inglis; William Scott of Stirkfield, who would probably be a sub-vassal holding from the Naesmyths; William Weir of Burnetland; William Cockburn, John Paterson, James Brotherstanes, William Dickson, James Smyth, Adam Thomson, William Hamilton, John Tweedie, and Robert Williamson on behalf of John Tweedie. These last nine are not designed and may have been vassals of Mowat of Stonehouse, who is not named, but who was proprietor of one-half of the barony. About one of them, William Cockburn, the minister, complained to the Presbytery that he would neither accept the office of Eldership nor resort to the hearing of the Word.]
according to their holdings and occupation, whether of land or stone. In 1607 Mr. Archibald Livingstone was translated to Athelstaneford, and was succeeded in 1608 by John Bennet, A.M., son of John Bennet, minister of Heriot. He held office till 1616, when he was translated to Kirkurd, and was followed in Broughton by John Douglas, A.M., who had been minister of Kilbucho from 1614.
Mr. John Douglas died during his first year's service in Broughton, and in 1617 - Episcopacy having been established by King James VI. - the Bishop of Glasgow nominated Mr. James Dickson as minister of Broughton, and he held office apparently till 1644, although he was suspended in 1619 by the Presbytery for drinking and unruly conduct. William Weir of Burnetland was suspected in 1625 of having broken the pulpit of the church, but he denied the charge, which was not proved.
Mr. Robert Brown was in office from 1644 to 1659, when he was translated to Lyne and Megget. At a Presbyterial visitation on 14th January, 1646, James Paterson, a parishioner of Glenholm, charged the minister with being a follower of Montrose, and with having induced Sir David Murray of Stanhope to join his army. On being questioned, Paterson could only say that he had heard 'a clashe that Sir David would not have gone that gaitt were it not Mr. Robert.' The accusation was found to be groundless, and Paterson was denounced as a slanderer; his own minister, Mr. William Dickson, stating that the whole parish considered 'he was lowse in his tongue, and wavering in his reports and promises, and verie inconstant in his words.'
In 1661 Robert Eliot, A.M., son of Mr. Robert Eliot, minister of Linton, was presented to Broughton by the patron, John, Earl of Wigtown, but he did not hold the position long, for in that year covenanted Presbyterianism, which had succeeded the first Episcopacy in 1638, was in turn succeeded by the second Episcopacy and the 'killing time' of Charles II. and James VII., which lasted till 1689. The result was that Mr. Eliot was deprived of his office in 1662 by Act of Parliament (11th June) and of the Privy Council (1st October).
In 1668 the Earl of Wigtown presented George Seton to Broughton, and he remained till 1672, when he was translated to Fyvie. In his time the Archbishop ordered the manse to be valued, in order to ascertain how much it had 'worsted' since the previous valuation. A sum of 200 merks was required to put it in repair.
In 1673 Mr. James Simson was appointed minister, and was there till 1683, when he was transferred to Drumelzier. He was succeeded in 1684 by Alan Johnston, A.M., who had been assistant at Birsay, and who was translated the following year to Carstairs. In 1686 William Simson, A.M., had a nomination from the Archbishop, but he was deposed for 'charming,' although he was still in office in 1691.
From 1688 to 1692 the Presbyteries of Biggar and Peebles were united. In 1690, Episcopacy having been abolished, the Church of Scotland was established on a Presbyterian basis which remains to this day, and in April of that year Mr. Robert Eliot, who, as we have seen, was deposed in 1662, returned to Broughton in virtue of the Act of Parliament (28th April, 1690) restoring the Presbyterian ministers. He was translated to West Linton in 1691.
In March, 1691, Mr. William Simson was still at Broughton, and was quite willing to become a Presbyterian, but the parishioners disowned him. They objected to his doctrine, for he preached an ability in man to come to Christ of his own free will; they said he was negligent, that he swore 'by his conscience,' that he was seen overtaken with drink, that he seldom prayed with his family upon week days, and but sometimes on the Sabbath, that he declined to read the proclamation from King William and Queen Mary, but contumaciously threw it down at the kirk door; and they told him to his face before the Presbytery that he had not a Gospel walk and conversation becoming a minister. The Presbytery accordingly declared the church vacant, 'the said Mr. William . . . making a good deal of clamour and noisily protesting against them.' He appealed to the Synod, but the judgement was upheld.
The church and manse were reported on as ruinous in 1692, and it was ordered that £500 11s. Scots be spent on them. The expense came to more than that, viz. £693 6s. 4d. for the manse and £247 for the church, and in 1693 the heritors were ordained to pay these sums.
The next minister was appointed in 1697 - John Bell, A.M., son of a merchant in Glasgow. According to a minute of Kirk Session in 1699, the elders and deacons were ordained in rotation to go forth each Lord's day between the lecture and the sermon with John Taylor, the kirk officer, and search the 'toun' and Mains of Broughton for drunkards and 'vagors' in time of divine service, and delate them to the Session. In these days the Session held meetings of 'privy censure,' when the life and conversation of the elders and deacons were inquired into, and for that purpose they were removed from the meeting two at a time while the remainder 'discoursed on' them. If nothing censurable was found they were 'approven.' The church bell was used for burials, and in 1699 was in need of repair. To raise funds for this it was decreed that 6s. Scots be charged for its use, and in addition the bell-ringer was to get 2s. Scots for his pains.
In 1700 the Session took further steps against 'untimeous drinking,' and enacted that all persons, except travellers, found drinking or tippling in alehouses or anywhere in the parish after nine o'clock at night were to be censured as tipplers. The same year - the Session were evidently anxious to discharge their duties fully - the elders were authorised to 'interrupt' such as left the church before the service was at an end, except in cases of sickness; and in order that the Confession of Faith might be understood, it was agreed that members living near each other should read together a set number of chapters, mark their difficulties, and bring them to the Session from time to time.
In 1701 Lady Anne Bruce, wife of Sir David Murray of Stanhope, the principal heritor, presented a green pulpit cloth with a silk fringe and the Session were sensible of her Ladyship's kindness to them and respect to their minister.
Mr. John Bell was in office till 1701, when he was translated to Gladsmuir, and was succeeded in 1702 by Thomas Simson, who had been schoolmaster at Dolphinton and afterwards at Biggar. In his time the manse was repaired (1710) at a cost of £359 17s., and the Session in 1724 gave 'money out of the box' towards the building of two meeting-houses for worship, one at Carrickfergus in Ireland, and the other at Brampton in the north of England. They also contributed by order of the General Assembly the sum of £4 17s. Scots for the building of a church in New York.
Mr. Andrew Richardson, presented by the Earl of Wigtown, was minister from 1735 to 1751. He was transferred to Inverkeithing, and Mr. Andrew Plummer was then presented by the Earl of March, who had become the patron of the parish. In 1755 the Presbytery decided to rebuild the church and manse at a cost of £808 12s. and £136. In 1769 Mr. Thomas Gray became the minister on the presentation of the Earl of March, and he also became minister of Glenholm in 1802, which was then united to Broughton. He wrote the first Statistical Account of Broughton, and was succeeded in terms of the decree of annexation by the minister of Kilbucho, Mr. William Porteous.
GLENHOLM CHURCH
The church of Glenholm, like that of Drumelzier, was dedicated to the memory of St. Cuthbert, and may, indeed, have been founded by him. In 1272 John Fraser, clerk of the diocese of Glasgow, was the patron of the church, and, as appears from a Bull by Pope Gregory dated 5th August, he granted his right to the abbot and convent of the monastery of St. Michael of Scone, which was anciently a foundation of Culdees, but was reconstructed by King Alexander I. for canons regular of the order of St. Augustine. This transfer, however, does not appear to have been carried out, as there is no evidence that the patronage rights were ever exercised by the abbey of Scone. In any case, by the end of the fifteenth century the patronage of Glenholm was in the hands of the King.
'Maister Wylyan of Twede' was parson of the parish and dean of Peebles in 1480. On 21st October, 1493, there was a dispute before the Privy Council between two rival claimants, Master Thomas Lowis and Sir Alexander Simsone, and the latter, who had a presentation from the King, was successful. The rectory was rated in Baiamund's Roll at £40, and in the Libellus Taxationum Regni Scotia at £16 13s. 4d.: in the latter the vicarage is valued at £3 6s. 8d. At the Reformation the parsonage was reputed to be worth £73 6s. 8d. The benefice does not appear in the Taxatio Ecclesiae Scoticanae.
In the beginning of the sixteenth century, King James IV. transferred the revenues of seven parish churches of which he was patron, to the Chapel-Royal of Stirling, which in 1501 had been erected into a collegiate church with a dean, canon, chanters, chaplain and others. One of these churches was Glenholm, which from that time would be served by a vicar instead of an independent parson. After the Reformation the revenues of the Chapel Royal were at the disposal of the Crown, and were applied in a variety of ways, but provision for the parish ministers was a first charge. In a 'Report on church affairs between 1610 and 1625' it is stated with reference to the Chapel Royal that 'the person of Glenholm hes 50 mark, and hes sold it to my lord Wigton,' and there is added the word 'Vaikand.' The Wigtown family had become the patrons of the parish in 1595-6, and as a result further contributions from Glenholm to the Chapel Royal would cease.
The first minister after the Reformation of whom there is record is James Stewart, who was presented by King James VI. on 3rd August, 1571, and the reader at Broughton and Glenholm in 1574 was Walter Tweedie. In 1592 John Hepburn, A.M., one of the original students of Edinburgh University, was in office, and he was translated to Morton. The patronage then passed from the Crown to Lord Fleming, but he did not make a presentation till 1599, in which year Alexander Fleming, perhaps a kinsman of the patron, became the minister.
The presentation was dated at Boghall on 6th June, and he was ordained on 27th July. The parishioners being asked, said they were content to accept him, and in their presence Lord Fleming, in token of their consent, took the new minister by the hand.
Some particulars are given of the church in 1602, when it is stated to be a new patronage at the gift of Lord Fleming, the rental 'of old' being four score bolls victual, and yielding Lord Fleming 300 merks. There were 200 or thereby communicants. About the same time the minister had trouble with the Porteouses of Hawkshaw and Glenkirk in connection with the murder of George Hunter, brother of the Laird of Polmood.
There was a Presbyterial visitation in 1603, when the minister of Skirling, Mr. Robert Livingston, discoursed on Matthew x. 30. Nothing was found in the minister of Glenholm, either concerning his person, office or family, but that in the Lord is commendable. Everything was in good order except the kirkyard dyke; there was no bell for the kirk, but this was to be provided. In 1604 the minister of Glenholm, along with others, complained to the Presbytery that there was a falling off in church attendance by the people resorting 'to Drenchauch, Braidlye and other insolent places of auld' and by 'drinking and playing there wantonly.' The Presbytery ordained that 'every brother travel earnestly with their parish, that each person resorting thereto after that manner shall make their repentance . . . ere they get any benefit of the kirk.'
Alexander Fleming was continued in office in 1608, and was probably later translated to Dalgarno. He was succeeded in 1614 by John Young, A.M., of Edinburgh University, who was compelled to complain to the Presbytery about 1618 that his stipend was insufficient, as the tacks of the teinds were expiring. The Presbytery were sympathetic, and promised to speak to the Bishop of Glasgow about it. He also complained about his glebe, which apparently had been encroached upon, and the position of it was fixed or 'designated' of new on 2nd March, 1619. But that gave offence to William Tweedie of Wrae, who removed the march stones and sowed the ground, and was accordingly summoned before the Presbytery. The landowners in the parish were not remarkable for their docility, and they had little respect for church discipline. Geddes of Rachan, Tweedie of Wrae, Crichton of Quarter, and Porteous of Glenkirk - they all at one time or another were rebuked and censured for their actions, but they paid little heed. Many a visit to the Presbytery the minister had to take for powers to deal with his recalcitrant flock, and on one of these visits in 1624 he had the misfortune to fall and break both of his legs. In 1632 he gave £10 towards the building of the library in Glasgow University.
The next minister was Robert Johnston, A.M., of Glasgow University, who was appointed in 1636, in which year he also contributed £10 towards the library.
In 1640 the Presbytery of Peebles met at Glenholm for the purpose of trying four persons suspected of witchcraft - Gilbert Robison, Isobel Cuthbertson, Lilias Bertram and Malie Macwatt. One of the charges was that they had advised parents to take their children when they were ill to a south-running stream, and among other questions put they were asked if they had any acquaintance with one Graham, a warlock, who had been burned at Peebles. The result is not recorded, but the first named Gilbert Robison was generally looked on as a noted warlock, and he was in prison the following year.
Robert Johnston was followed by William Dickson in 1644, who had a long ministry. In 1650 the church was ordered to be repaired with 'comely' slates, a bell was provided and the manse repaired, all at a cost of 1000 merks. Andrew Hay of Craignethan, a staunch Covenanter, lived about this time at Stane, a small property in Coulter belonging to the Dicksons of Hartree. He was an elder of Biggar, and was frequently a member of the visitation committees. In his diary, 1659-60, there are references to his visits to Glenholm, and also to Kilbucho and Broughton. On 2nd June, 1659, he was at Glenholm, and records -
'I found them by their professions to be sancts almost all, for each one gave uthers a good testimony, which made me suspect them the more. Thereafter we appointed the heritors to meet and stent themselves for a bell, for grasse to the minister, and reparation of the manse, and to give us their determinat ansr. this day month. I dyned with the minister with the rest, and we sat afternoons till neer 7 at nyt.'
William Dickson conformed to Episcopacy at the Restoration. There was a visitation of the Presbytery in 1668, when he was 'exhorted to continue paynful, faithfull and exemplarie, as the elders hes testified of him.' The church was in bad repair at that time, there was no settled maintenance for a schoolmaster, and William Porteous of Glenkirk refused to pay over a sum of 300 merks which his father had mortified for the use of the poor. Legal proceedings had to be resorted to against Porteous, and the heritors were applied to for the repairs needed to the church and for the schoolmaster's salary. In 1673 the minister, now an old man, applied to the Presbytery for an assistant, and suggested Mr. Joseph Vallance, but the following year the Presbytery intimated to the people of the parish that they must take measures themselves.
William Selkrigg, A.M., was appointed in 1679, and the same year the manse was valued as it stood at 550 merks. In 1680 an order from the Archbishop was received that four soums of grass were to be provided for the minister, and the Presbytery appointed the treasurer of Peebles, the kirk officer and three burgesses, who perambulated the ground nearest the glebe and marked out with a spade the part they considered suitable.
In June, 1681, a great conventicle was held on the common at the head of Glenholm - no place could be more beautiful or more appropriate - and it was addressed by the famous Donald Cargill, who lectured on the sixth chapter of Isaiah, and preached from Romans xi. 20, 'Be not high minded, but fear.' That was only six weeks before his death in the Grassmarket of Edinburgh.
In 1684 complaint was made to the Presbytery that James Brown, who taught the Laird of Cardon's children, had not taken the test, and the minister was ordained, in the event of Brown refusing, to report to the Sheriff. In 1688 - the close of the second Episcopacy - from a statement submitted by the minister, it appears that his salary was 700 merks, that the glebe extended to four acres, and that in addition pasturage was provided for a horse and two cows. Twenty merks was allowed for Communion elements. The schoolmaster's fee was 100 merks, but was not paid, and there was a mortification of 300 merks for the poor. In the same year, and although Mr. Selkrigg was still in office, the parishioners petitioned the Presbytery for a minister, and two were appointed temporarily, Mr James Brown, probationer, and Mr. James Thomson. To what extent Mr. Selkrigg continued to discharge his duties is not known, but on the restoration of Presbyterianism he was quite willing to conform, for he never approved of the 'killing times,' and in fact he read the proclamation of the Estates and prayed for their Majesties, William and Mary. However, a noisy section of his congregation refused to allow him to continue; he was threatened by some, and others put a lock on the church door to keep him out. The result was that he resigned his charge by a letter dated 7th October, 1690'
'I, Mr. William Selkrigg, minister of the Gospel, for as much as since this Revolution I am sensible that I cannot continue in my Ministry at the kirk of Glenwholme with the desired success, therefore for the good of that people, to whom I wish all the blessings of the Gospel of peace, I do hereby pass from and demit any pastoral relation I had to the people and Congregation there . . . '
This resignation was subject to the Presbytery giving him a certificate that he had obeyed the proclamation of the Estates of 13th April, 1689, and that the action was voluntary on his part. On 29th January, 1692, he was received into communion by the General Assembly, and it is recorded of him that he had never been 'an enemy or persecutor of any, but ready to do them favours, which caused his being ill-looked upon by the Episcopal party and complained upon because he went not to that excess of severity which at that time was run into.' He was afterwards settled at Falkirk.
After Mr. Selkrigg's departure, an attempt was made to call Mr. James Brown, the minister of Kilbucho, but the proprietors of 'Whytsyd' (probably intended for Whitslade) and Glenkirk did not or would not sign. Two of the Presbytery on 5th August, 1691, were appointed to speak to these proprietors, but the result is not disclosed, and five years elapsed before the next minister was appointed, Robert Horsburgh, A.M. of Edinburgh University.
At his settlement the manse was visited, and the heritors had to spend £598 Scots in putting it into proper repair. He was in office till 1702, when he was translated to Prestonpans. He died in 1724 at the age of 54, 'a man of solid judgement and able disputant of speech.'
From 1703 to 1748 Mr. Simon Kellie, translated from Walston, was the minister. On his way to Glenholm on 31st March, 1703, he was violently detained by several women of his former parish, for what reason does not appear, and he did not take up his duties till 22nd April. In 1707 an expenditure of £138 1s. 6d. was authorised on the church and manse. The following year the patron, the Earl of Wigtown, was requested to use the vacant stipend for the building of bridges over Holms Water, this being deemed a pious use, as the parishioners through the want of bridges were frequently hindered from coming to church. The same request was made for the parish of Broughton. In 1733 the church was again repaired at a cost of £75 6s. Mr. Simon Kellie died at Glenholm on 27th December, 1748, and his memorial tablet on the gable of the old church is still in existence.
The last minister of Glenholm was Bernard Haldan, A.M. of Edinburgh University. He was presented in 1743 by William, Earl of March and Ruglen, who had acquired the patronage from the Wigtown family. During his time the church was rebuilt or repaired. One of his sermons was published in 1756, 'The Foundations of Religion and Morality'. He also wrote in 1793 the first Statistical Account of the parish. He demitted office in 1802, 'after discharging the duties of his ministry with zeal and fidelity,' and died in 1805. It is rather remarkable that the last two ministers of Glenholm covered between them one hundred years of service.
Mr. Haldan was succeeded by Mr. Thomas Gray, the minister of Broughton, and that parish and Glenholm constituted a joint charge till his death in 1810, when Mr. William Porteous, minister of Kilbucho, became the first minister of the three parishes.
KILBUCHO CHURCH
It is said that the ancient church of Kilbucho was dedicated to St. Bega, a holy virgin, who is reputed to have lived in the seventh century, and to have been the founder of the nunnery in Cumberland which bears her name, now transformed into St. Bees. There is still a St. Bees' Well near the ruins of the last church of Kilbucho, which was situated on the Mitchellhill burn. Another theory, and a more likely one, is that the church was founded by St. Be-oc, one of the associates of St. Llolan, who founded the church at Broughton.
Cospatrick, hermit of Kilbucho, and Gilbert, parson of Kilbucho, are both mentioned as witnesses to the perambulation of the marches of Stobo in 1200. This Gilbert and another parson, Gameline, are referred to in an endowment between 1233 and 1249 by Christiana, a daughter of Adam fitz Gilbert, and his wife Idonea, sister of William Comyn, Earl of Buchan. The church remained in the gift of the Lords of the Manor, who have already been referred to, and its revenues in 1477 were bestowed by James, first Earl of Morton, upon the collegiate church of St. Nicholas at Dalkeith, under reservation of a suitable provision for a vicar at Kilbucho, who would have the cure of the souls of the parishioners there; and the Earl had the right of presenting the vicar and also the canon of the collegiate church, to which church the tithes of the parish were in consequence of that bequest appropriated till the Reformation. In 1493 Mr. William Lauder was in charge of Kilbucho, the parsonage and vicarage of which are valued together in Baiamund's Roll at £80. The parsonage alone is rated at £53 in the Taxatio Ecclesiae Scoticanae, and in the Libellus Taxationum Regni Scotie both together are taxed at £20. Both were let at the Reformation for £80, and in 1561 the vicar pensioner reported his share of the fruits to be worth £12.
In 1550 Sir William Porteous was the vicar, and he was installed in office by entering the church and touching the font, and receiving the book, chalice and vestments of the great altar. Among those present at this ceremony were William Porteous of Glenkirk, who was no doubt a near relative, and Walter Tweedie of 'Mote' or 'Moitt,' which seems to be the old name for the property how known as Kilbucho Mains. This vicar survived the Reformation, and adopted the new tenets. His name appears as 'reader' at Kilbucho in 1567 with a stipend of £13 6s. 8d. and £4 as his share of the vicarage pension.
The parish did not have a separate minister for some years, as there was a scarcity of suitable men after the Reformation, and it became the custom to unite several parishes under one minister with readers or exhorters under him. In 1574 Ninian Hall was appointed minister of Biggar, Lamington, Hartside, Coulter, Kilbucho and Symington, with a salary of £114 13s. 4d., the reader at Kilbucho being Andrew Jardine. Walter Tweedie was reader at Kilbucho in 1591, and for some years prior to that. In 1595 Robert Livingston became minister of Drumelzier and other parishes, including Kilbucho. The following year, however, steps were taken by the Presbytery to have a separate minister for Kilbucho, with the result that on the presentation of the patron, the Earl of Morton, Mr. John Weems, who was translated from Flisk, was appointed, and admitted on 10th July, 1597. The parishioners declared they were content to receive him as their minister, and in sign and token of their contentment Alexander Tweedie of Moitt took him by the hand.
As appears from the records, Mr. John Weems had many difficulties to contend with during his ministry. To begin with, he had long and troublesome cases of discipline (apparently for adultery, but practically no particulars are given) against John Brown of Goseland and George Brown in the Cleuch, who were relatives of the Browns of Hartree, and who were both excommunicated, although the sentences were relaxed later, at least in the case of George Brown. Then he himself came under rebuke from the Presbytery because of his absence from the parish, but he had an excellent reason for that, as he had no manse. In 1601 there was a visitation of the parish, when nothing was found - reprehensible in the conduct of the minister except his non residence and this was the fault of the parishioners,
'that hold back from him both Living, Glebe and Manse, and cannot accord to let him have the same peaceably where through sundry disorders fall out in their parish.'
The church and manse were desolate and ruinous, services were conducted in a barn; the churchyard was profaned by the next two 'touns' (probably the farms of Mitchellhill and Blendewing), who cast down the dykes and allowed their cattle to graze there; and there was no visitation of the sick and discipline was not administered, because the Session seldom met, and the poor were neglected and defrauded of their alms. That was a serious state of affairs, and at the instigation of the Presbytery arrangements were made with the heritors and the parishioners for the rebuilding of the church and manse, and weekly meetings of elders and deacons were ordained to remedy the other abuses. The minister's stipend was 83 bolls meal and 15 merks silver, and the Presbytery thought that sufficient, and accordingly ordained him to reside in his parish, which he agreed to do provided the parishioners did their duty to him. Unfortunately the parishioners failed to carry out their part of the bargain, and further visitations were necessary. In 1602 the church was reported on, and there were about 200 communicants, but nothing had been done towards building the church and manse. In May, 1603, the minister complained of the negligence of his elders and that his parishioners were profaners of the Sabbath and despisers of the word and 'a great slackness in them all to further the repair of their parish Kirk.' The Kirk Session was reconstituted, and the Presbytery appointed the following heritors to guarantee payment of the amount required for rebuilding of the kirk, viz.: - The Laird of Hartree or Smithfield for his £25 lands, the goodman of Moitt for his £10 land, John Porteous for Blendewing, William Mertoun (probably a mistake for Newtoun), and John Thriepland for Mitchellhill, Thomas Tweedie of the Moitt for Kilbucho, and Andrew Brown for the Cleuch. But a month later the minister had again to complain that the church was not being built, that the Sabbath was still being profaned, and that his Session were negligent in matters of discipline. To this, 'indifferent' answers were given in promising 'amendment and assistance for the remedy of the said enormities.' The week following there was another visitation, which this time appears to have been effective. A definite undertaking to build the church was entered into under a penalty of 100 merks for each £10 land. Mr. John Weems was still minister in 1608, but owing to a blank in the records of the Presbytery of Peebles from 1605 to 1616 there is no further information available as to his relations with his backsliding flock.
In 1614 John Douglas, A. M. of Edinburgh University, was appointed minister, and held office till 1616, when he was translated to Broughton, where he died the same year. Five years elapse before there is any record of his successor, and during that time the parish was probably without a minister. From 1621 to 1647 Robert Eliot, A.M. of Edinburgh University, was in office. He was not admitted to the charge till September, 1622. The manse was still in need of repair, and there was a visitation of the Presbytery in 1623, when the cost of building was estimated at 400 merks.
There was also a dispute with Margaret Douglas, the widow of the previous minister, as to her rights. It would seem that she was actually residing in the manse, and claimed her annat. Her brother was the Sheriff of Teviotdale, and he was her adviser. There was a good deal of trouble over this matter. At a further visitation in 1624, along with the Lairds in the parish, including the Laird of Hartree, John Thriepland and William Newtoun, portioners of Mitchellhill, Malcolm Brown of Howslack, James Tweedie of Kilbucho, and John Brown of Cleuch, the manse - stated to be a house of six couples in length, of birk and alder - was examined, and it was estimated that the original cost of building would not exceed 300 merks, and that it was now ruinous, without doors and lintels, with the west gable fallen to the ground, also half of the roof. On 23rd December, 1624, the questionable controversy was settled by Mr. Eliot paying Margaret Douglas, 'in full contentment' for the manse 'in the very ruinous estate it now is,' the sum of 200 merks. This arrangement was noted in the Presbytery records, and also the expenses to be incurred by Mr. Eliot in making the manse habitable.
There is another gap in the Presbytery records between 1626 and 1649. In September, 1628, at a visitation of the church, the minister complained of John Thriepland (of Mitchellhill) muttering and whispering to the congregation during the sermon, also that he had followed him (the minister) the same afternoon to Hartree armed with sword and whinger, with intent to fight. This complaint was found justified.
Mr. Eliot contributed £10 in 1632 towards the library of Glasgow University, and was a member of Commission of Assembly in 1645-6. In the beginning of 1647 he was translated to West Linton, where, although refusing to conform to Episcopacy at the Restoration, he was allowed to remain, and died in 1682 in the 61st year of his ministry.
Alexander Bertram, A.M., Edinburgh University, succeeded Mr. Eliot in Kilbucho on 12th July, 1647. He was the second son of William Bertram of Nisbet, who was an unflinching Covenanter, and the son was of the like mind, and suffered in consequence great hardships after the restoration of Episcopacy in 1661, when he was expelled from his charge. Having refused to accept the Indulgence of 1672, he was summoned before the Privy Council, and not appearing, was denounced as a rebel. Later in the same year he was complained against in the Synod of Glasgow for keeping conventicles, and after the battle of Bothwell Bridge (1679) made his escape to Holland, where he probably died.
After the suspension of Mr. Bertram from Kilbucho, William Allison, A.M., was admitted in his place by the Archbishop of Glasgow. He had previously been minister of Kirknewton. In 1667 there was a visitation of the manse to ascertain what the present minister had expended upon it and what was still necessary to make it 'complete as a dwelling-house.' It was found that the minister had expended £43, and that to make a loft over the hall of the manse would require 60 deals, 150 flooring nails, and 30 loads of lime for pointing and casting the walls within and without. In 1668, at the usual Presbyterial visitation, the elders stated that the minister had not given the Sacrament since his appointment. To that the minister replied that he could not get the elders to serve at the Lord's table and he had no Session to inform him of the scandalous that he might debar them. In 1680 there was a William Tweedie in Kilbucho, a Covenanter who had fought at Bothwell Bridge, and desired to be married. Mr. Allison craved the Presbytery for their advice, and they ordained that Tweedie should acknowledge and repent of his crime, which he did. According to a statement given in at the close of the second Episcopacy, the stipend at Kilbucho was 500 merks, 2 chalders of meal and 6 of bear. The glebe extended to four acres, with four soums of grass. No fee was allowed the schoolmaster, and nothing for Communion elements; and there was a mortification for the poor of 300 merks from Lord Hartree which then amounted to 800 merks, showing that there was practically no poverty in the parish.
In 1689 James Brown, A.M., Edinburgh University, having passed his trials as a probationer, was desired by Kilbucho, but Mr. Allison was still in office, and apparently quite willing to conform to the Revolution Settlement. The Presbytery on 29th August, 1689, recommended the parish 'to take a legal course' for removing Mr. Allison. Accordingly, the following month complaint was made against him that he had prayed for King James, but not for King William and Queen Mary. Mr. Allison, who was old and deaf by this time, denied the charge, saying that he had prayed only for the reformation of King James, and was acquitted by the Privy Council on 17th September. In spite of that, the parish and Presbytery went on with their arrangements for the calling of Mr. James Brown. He passed all the trials satisfactorily, and was ordained and admitted as minister on 5th June, 1690. But Mr. Allison must be got rid of, and to that end a threefold charge was brought against him: - (1) That he had intruded himself on the parish when Mr. Alexander Bertram, the lawful minister, was alive; (2) that he had passed by persons guilty of public and notorious scandals without censure; and (3) that he had deserted the parish and had failed to reside there since 13th June, 1689.
This charge was tried on 25th September, 1690. His desertion of the congregation was found proved, also his negligence in calling scandalous persons to account, and this old and infirm minister was deposed, and Mr. Brown reigned in his stead.
Less than a year afterwards Mr. Brown received a call from Glenholm, and apparently he was not finding Kilbucho a congenial place, as, according to a minute of the Presbytery of 5th August, 1691, he had no legal maintenance and wrestled under many difficulties. This call, however, was not accepted, as it was not fully signed, but in September, 1691, there was another call, from Walston, and he was removed to that parish, where he remained till September, 1695, when he was recalled and readmitted to Kilbucho. In 1697 he was translated to Aberdour in Buchan, and Kilbucho was without a minister for three years.
In 1700 Mr. John Tait was ordained as minister, and there is nothing, to record of him except that he had a long ministry of fifty years. In 1707, £1000 Scots was allotted by the heritors out of the vacant stipend or free teind as a fund from which to pay a salary to a schoolmaster. Mr. Tait was succeeded by his son William, who was presented by William Dickson of Kilbucho.
Mr. William Tait's ministry extended till 1784, and he was succeeded the following year by Mr. William Porteous, who was presented by Captain William Dickson of Kilbucho. A son of Mr. John Porteous, schoolmaster, Biggar, he was born in 1745, licensed by the Presbytery of Biggar in 1775, and acted for some time as tutor to the family of Loch of Rachan and also as schoolmaster at West Linton. He was the last minister of Kilbucho as a separate charge, to which he was ordained on 31st August, 1785. On the death of Mr. Thomas Gray of Broughton in 1810 he succeeded to the united parish of Broughton, Glenholm and Kilbucho, in terms of the decree of annexation of 1794.
William Porteous was a man of eccentric ways, but known as an able scholar and theologian, and was regarded by Professor Lawson of Selkirk as one of the greatest men of his time in the Church of Scotland. His stipend at Kilbucho was small - £43 7s. 4d., with 48 bolls of victual and a glebe of a few acres - but he left a considerable sum to his relatives, and £100 to the united parish for charitable purposes. He died on 31st May, 1813.
THE UNITED PARISH
THE PARISH CHURCH
The first minister as we have seen, was Mr. William Porteous, from 1810 to 1813. A new church - on the site of the present one - had already been built at Calzeat in the spring of 1803 to seat 400. The site was a suitable one, in the centre of the combined parishes, and on the west side of the highroad.
The Rev. Hamilton Paul, who succeeded Mr. Porteous, was well known in his day. He was born in Dailly, Ayrshire, in 1773, educated in the parish school there, passed through Glasgow University (where he became a close friend of Thomas Campbell, the poet, afterwards Lord Rector of the University), and was licensed by the Presbytery of Ayr in 1800. He was presented to Broughton by Richard Alexander Oswald of Auchincruive, and ordained on 30th December, 1813. Two years later the present manse was built on a site below the church, adjoining Biggar Water. Here he was visited by his friends Campbell and Lord Cockburn. Burns he knew and admired, and published an edition of his poems in 1819. Hamilton Paul's other publications were: - Epistle to the Female Students of Natural Philosophy in Andersonian Institution, Glasgow (1800); Friendship Exemplified, a sermon (1803); Vaccination, or Beauty Preserved, (1805); A Foretaste of Pleasant Things (1819); besides poems, songs, and magazine articles. He also wrote the second Statistical Account of the parish in 1834. His sermons, according to the Fasti Ecclesiae, exhibited extensive learning and singular originality of thought.
'In private society he was universally beloved. As a companion he was most engaging, and the best story-teller of his day. His power of humour was unbounded. His anecdotes are familiar over a wide district, and many of his sayings have become proverbial. Hospitable, kind and charitable to a fault, he was a friend alike to the rich and poor, while the case of his manner, the variety and extent of his information, the readiness and point of his wit, attracted men of taste and learning from different quarters.'
He died unmarried in 1854, aged 81.
The Rev Alexander Thomas Cosens, minister of Fossoway, was the third minister of the united parish, and remained there until his retirement in 1891. He died in 1907, a man deeply respected. In 1886 the church was practically rebuilt.
The Rev. Andrew Baird, B.D., who is still in office, became colleague and successor to Mr. Cosens in 1892. He was then assistant of Shotts Parish Church. In 1902-3 he acted as chaplain to the South African Field Force, and in 1922 was one of the delegates from Glasgow University to the septcentenary celebrations of Padua University. He published in 1924 a descriptive account of the district under the title The Annals of a Tweeddale Parish, and in the preparation of this chapter the editors are indebted to him for valuable assistance.
THE UNITED FREE CHURCH
At the Disruption of the Church of Scotland in May, 1843, the Rev. Hamilton Paul was not of those who 'came out,' but there was a considerable number who were strongly in favour of the new Free Church, and for them the barn at Rachan was fitted up as a temporary place of worship. Arrangements at once made for the building of a church, and ground for the purpose was feued. The site was on the high road at Calzeat about a hundred yards south of the Parish Church. The foundation-stone was laid on 19th July 1843 by Robert Welsh of Mossfennan 'in presence of a great assemblage of people,' and the Church was opened the same year on 15th October by Dr. Thomas Chalmers. The church was in the form of a headless cross. It was remodelled in 1892, and is beautifully situated amid trees.
The day after the church was opened Mr. William Welsh - afterwards Dr. Welsh, as he received the degree of D.D. from Edinburgh University - was ordained as the first minister of Broughton Free church. He had been called to that position on 24th September. Dr. Welsh was born at Cardon in 1820, and was a nephew of the Laird of Mossfennan, on whose death in 1855 he succeeded to that estate. He was a kinsman of the Rev. Professor David Welsh, D.D., who was the retiring Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland at the time of the Disruption, and who, along with Dr Chalmers and Dr. Macfarlane, led the revolt. Dr. Welsh's call was signed by 132 members, and in 1846 there were 246 names on the communicants' roll, of which 162 lived in the united parish and the remainder in Tweedsmuir, Drumelzier, Dawyck, Stobo and elsewhere. A school and teacher's house was built in 1845, and in 1849 the present manse, which stands immediately opposite to the church.
Dr. Welsh's memory still lingers, for he was a man beloved and highly respected. He had a long and successful ministry, and died in 1892.
Dr. Welsh was succeeded by the Rev. Alexander Gray, a native of Aberdeenshire. He was ordained as minister of Peterhead Congregational Church in 1882, admitted to the Free Church in 1884, and inducted as colleague and successor to Dr. Welsh in 1885. In 1900 the Free and United Presbyterian Churches in Scotland were united. Mr. Gray died in 1911.
The next minister was the Rev. Alexander Scott Berrie, from Earlston. He was ordained minister of Firth United Presbyterian church in Orkney in 1893, inducted at Arthur's Hill Presbyterian Church, Newcastle, in 1897, at Keiss, Caithness-shire, in 1907, and at Broughton in 1919. He resigned his charge to become minister of the parish church of Abbey St. Bathans in 1918, and was succeeded by the Rev. Alexander Campsie, M.A., M.C.
Mr. Campsie served in the Great War as a combatant, and was awarded the Military Cross. He was ordained on 4th February, 1919, and resigned in September, 1920, on being appointed Presbyterian chaplain to the navy at Malta.
The present Minister, Rev. David Marshall Forrester, B.D. is a native of Keith. He was ordained to Logiealmond United Presbyterian Church in 1886, inducted at 1896, and at Wellfield Church, Springburn, Glasgow, in 1896 and at Broughton in January, 1921. To him the editors are indebted for assistance.
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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