140 



Pre-Reformation Ministers of Sanquhar. 



receiving any intelligence of Wallace and his forces, who, how- 

 ever, had carried off the cattle and provisions from that part of 

 the country through which the English were proceeding. Though 

 he had the management of a large army to keep him employed, 

 Edward seems to have had time to attend to minor matters, and 

 as we see at Brade he appointed Robert de Cotingham to the 

 parish of Sanquhar. 



Who this priest was it is impossible to say. The form of 

 his name suggests a Norman origin, and it is possible that he 

 may have been a scion of some noble house. Many of the 

 priests of those days were drawn from the upper classes, and it 

 is probable that the minister of Sanquhar was one of such. It 

 seems possible that Cotingham is a corruption of Coldingham, 

 a mistake which might easily be made, for in those days correct 

 spelling was not a strong point with the scribes. If this is 

 correct, then Robert would be an alumnus of the great priory of 

 Coldingham. In 1298 this priory was under the jurisdiction of 

 the Bishop of Durham, who appears to have been with King 

 Edward on that expedition, which the King was making, and it 

 is quite a likely conjecture that the Bishop would be wanting to 

 secure a benefice for one of his own priests. It would be 

 interesting to know how Sanquhar Church had become vacant 

 just at this particular time. Two years before a clergyman resi- 

 dent in Sanquhar (though not the parish minister), Bartholomew 

 de Eglishame, the chaplain and superintendent of the Hospital 

 of Sanquhar, had sworn allegiance to King Edward at Berwick. 

 At the same time the minister of the neighbouring parish of 

 Kirkbride, Walter de Lilliscliff, did the same. Was the mini- 

 ster of Sanquhar a patriot who refused to bend the knee to the 

 usurper? I think so. And when two years later Edward's 

 power was supreme in Scotland we can well believe that the 

 patriot priest would find it convenient to depart, if, indeed, he 

 was not forced to do so. How long Robertus de Cotingham held 

 the benefice we cannot tell. For almost two hundred years the 

 history of the Church of Sanquhar is a blank. 



In 1494 we find Ninian Crichton, a layman, described as 

 "Parsone of Sanquhar." The patronage of the parish had by 

 this time passed from the hands of the King into those of the j 

 Crichtons, who had established themselves in Upper Nithsdale. 



