134 Glenluce Abbey. 



Scraps of Abbey History. 



If records were kept, they have not been preserved, or have 

 not yet been found. Among the Ailsa Papers David Henry found 

 some scraps. The earliest is dated 1220. In that year Henry 

 III. issued an order to Jeoffrey, justicier of Ireland, for the supply 

 (by purchase) of corn, meal, and other necessaries to the abbot 

 and monks of Glenluce. And this order was renewed from time 

 to time during thirty years. 



These orders indicate that the Abbey had no agricultural 

 land. They also indicate that such food stuffs could not at that 

 time be purchased in Galloway. There is, however, abundant 

 documentary evidence to prove that long before, as well as at the 

 time of the Scottish Reformation, the Abbey owned tens of thou- 

 sands of acres of land. It is difficult to understand how, or 

 when, or by whom, these valuable and extensive lands could have 

 been alienated or transferred. As all church properties and 

 revenues came under the cognisance and jurisdiction of the 

 Scottish Parhament of 1559-60, no church property or revenue 

 could be alienated unless by the same authority. If the pro- 

 perties and revenues of this Abbey were restored to the Synod of 

 Galloway as ihe legal representatives of the Glenluce Abbey, the 

 Synod would have an additional revenue of twenty-five to thirty 

 thousand pounds sterling per annum. In 1329 King Robert 

 the Bruce visited this Abbey. The object of his visit does not 

 emerge. He may have hoped for medical aid or medicine for 

 the malady that was killing him. There is no evidence that 

 medicine or the preparation of herl^al medicine was one of the 

 arts at this Abbey. 



In 1507 King James IV. and his Queen made a visit. They 

 may have come to see the famous Abbey gardens. The Royal 

 record shows that a gratuity of four shillings was given to the 

 chief gardener. 



In 1560 Thomas Hay was appointed Abbot. -He came with 

 the Pope's authority; but the Gordons, who had a lease of some 

 of the Abbey lands, refused to admit him. Hay got possession 

 by authority of the Court of Session. The Gordons had been 

 pulHng the Abbey to pieces; and Hay accepted a loan of 2000 

 merks (about £1350) for its repair. 



In the same year (1560) Hay granted a lease of fifty-eight 

 farms to the Earl of Cassillis. The annual rental of these farms 

 at this date is, in round figures, £18,500. 



