Notes on the Parish of Kirkgunzeon. 17T 



Notes on the Parish of Kirkgunzeon. By the Rev. J. E. 

 Gillespie, Minister of the Pari.sh. 



The earliest record that we have of Kirkgunzeon is in a 

 charter of Uchtred, son of Fergus, Lord of Galloway, who 

 granted to the Monks of Holm Cultram Abbey, in Cumberland, 

 the lands of " Kircwinnyn " for six pounds sterling. The witness 

 to this charter was Christian, Bishop of Galloway from 1154, who 

 died at Holm Cultram in 1186. In 1207 Pope Innocent con- 

 firmed to the same Monks the lands and chapel of " Kircwynnin," 

 which they had enjoyed peaceably for forty years in terms of the 

 original grant of Uchtred. 



The earliest example of the present spelling of the name is to 

 be found in the grant of King David II., in 1367, to Sir John 

 Herries of the lands of Kirkgunane, which had formerly belonged 

 to the Monks of Holm Cultram. One writer gives as the rea.son 

 for their deprivation that the Monks had taken the side of the 

 English in the wars between the two countries. A century later, 

 in a charter from King James III. to Sir Herbert Herries, it is 

 written Kirkgunzene. The old form is still found in " Winning's " 

 Well, near to Kirkgunzeon Mill. 



The Church was thus dedicated to the same Scoto-Irish saint 

 who gave his name to Kilwinning in Ayrshire ; that is, the Church 

 of Winning, in the Welsh dialect, and in Gaelic, Kilfinnan — the 

 Church of Finnan ; " f " in Gaelic becoming " w '' or " gu " in 

 Welsh. The change from the earlier to the later spelling is an 

 example of this modification. In the ancient Irish Church there 

 were two bishops named Finan — one Finan or Finian, bishop 

 about 575 ; the other Finian, Wynnin, or Frigidian, about 579. 

 Symson says in his history that the name is from " extrema 

 unctione " — " Kirkgunguent." This derivation is on a par to that 

 which the writer heard given by an Englishman when the train 

 stopped at Kirkgunzeon station. "The Kirk requires a gun to 

 send people to Zion !" 



The " Grange " of Kircwynnin, which was granted to the 

 Monks of Holm Cultram, seems to have been larger than the pre- 

 sent parish. In the "Book of Caerlaverock " there is given in 

 Latin a perambulation of the marches between the lands of Kir- 

 cwynnin and Culwen, made in 1289 by Sir Robert Abbot of Holm 

 and Sir Thomas of Culwen. Unfortunately, while some of the 



