142 Pre-Reformation Ministers of Sanquhar. 



the ordinances of religion. This theory also receives some 

 support from the fact that in the " Visitato Capituli Glasguensis " 

 for 1501 Sanquhar is marked " non facit Residentiam." Lokky 

 was succeeded by Cuthbert Baillie, who is the first who is 

 described as Rector of Sanquhar. His name first appears in a 

 deed regarding the affairs of Patrick Hume of Polworth, whose 

 mother was a Crichton of Sanquhar. His name appears in 

 various forms, Bailye, Balye, Baize. 



Whether Baillie was much in Sanquhar is doubtful. I am 

 afraid that he must also be written down as an absentee parson. 

 He was, however, a great man in the affairs of Scotland, and for 

 some time acted as Treasurer for the Kingdom. 



In 1511 we find his name the only example of a common 

 cleric appearing in the list of auditors of exchequer. The list 

 contains such names as these : — Archbishop of St. Andrews, 

 Chancellor of the Kingdom ; Archbishop of Glasgow ; Bishops of 

 Aberdeen, Moray, Whithorn, Caithness; Abbots of Holyrood and 

 Jedburgh, Prior and Archdeacon of St. Andrews, Dean of 

 Glasgow, Earl of Argyle, Earl of Lennox, Lord Darnley. 



In 1512 we find him again in similar company, but now he 

 has risen a little in ecclesiastical station. He is " Cuthbertus 

 Bailye Rector de Sanquhar, Canon Glasguensis." He has now 

 become a member of the Chapter of Glasgow Cathedral. In 

 1515 he receives the money as " thesaurius " in absence of 

 the comptroller, who was at that time in Northumberland on 

 business for the King. He also rented some lands in Galloway 

 from his royal master, the lands of Stewindale, Dalmark, 

 Edarwanchlyn, at a rental of £20 for five years. How long he 

 held those lands it is impossible to tell. They had passed into 

 other hands before 1521 j whether he died before then we cannot 

 say. In the list of auditors of the Exchequer for 1526 his name 

 is omitted. He ceased to be Rector of Sanquhar, however, by 

 1515 at the latest, for in that year William Crichton, Rector 

 of Sanquhar, appears as a witness to a charter. This clergy- 

 man was in all probability a member of one of the Crichton 

 families of the neighbourhood. One of this name is still com- 

 memorated by a stone tablet at Blackaddie, which was formerly 

 the manse of Sanquhar. The stone was fonnerly in the kitchen 

 there, but was removed to one of the farm ofifices about fortv 



