100 Transactions. 



great abbey which kept for its own use a large part of them, and 

 gave the rest to a deputy or vicar, as he was called, a priest 

 ■whom it appointed to take charge of the parish in its name. In 

 England at the present day we have a reminder of this practice 

 in the names vicar and rector, which are applied to clergymen of 

 the Established Church. A vicar is the clergyman of a parish 

 whose endowments before the Reformation were in the hands of 

 a religious house ; a rector is the clergyman of a parish whose 

 endowments have never been thus interfered with. Consequently, 

 other things being equal, the income of a rector is greater than 

 that of a vicar. In accordance with this practice the Church of 

 Dumfries was, up till the Reformation, in the hands of the Abbey 

 of Kelso, by which a vicar was appointed who attended to the 

 spiritual wants of the parish. It would appear that — whatever 

 may have been the practice in earlier times — this parish was 

 latterly, so to speak, farmed by its priest. In a rental of Kelso 

 Abbey, bearing date 1567, there is a list of " Kirkis and Teindis 

 set for Syluer," and amongst these I find those of Dumfries, which 

 brought in an annual rent of £60. Amongst the Kelso charters 

 is the original deed of gift of the Church of St. Michael, Dumfries, 

 to the Abbey by King William the Lion, and I think that this 

 may lay claim to be the oldest existing document relating to our 

 town. The grant of the Church of Dumfries, however, does not 

 fill the whole of the charter. It occurs in the middle of a deed 

 in which King William confirms to the Abbey all the privileges 

 which his brother, King Malcolm the Maiden, had conferred upon 

 it. After this confirmation, he proceeds to say that he 



" adds the Church of Dumfries with the Chapel of St. Thomas in the 

 said burgh with all that belongs to them within the burgh and without." * 



In a late I' charter the King is more explicit. After stating 



that he ha^ made this grant for the soul of his grandfather, King 



David, and of his father, Earl Henry, and for the weal of his own 



soul, and of the souls of all his ancestors and successors, he goes 



on to say — 



" I have given and conceded to the aforesaid monks for the use and occu- 

 pation of the Church of Kelso, the Church of Dumfries with lands, teinds, 

 and all kinds of offerings, and with the Chapel of St. Thomas iu the said 

 burgli, and with the toft pertaining to that Chapel, and with five acres of 

 land which I have bestowed as a free gift on the said Church and Chapel, 

 and have caised to be delivered by Philip de Valon, and with all other 



* Rec;. Cart, de Kelso, 4. 



