IS The Greyfriars' Convent of Dumfries. 



4t7i NovemheVf 1910. 



Chairman — Rev. H. A. Whitelaw. 



The Greyfriars' Convent of Dumfries and its Environs. 

 By Mr James Barbour, F. S.A.Scot. 



The follower.s of St. Francis, formally constituted a Religious 

 Order in the year 1209, appointed missions to all parts of Europe, 

 and observing their rules of preaching, professing povertv, and 

 exercising special sympathy for the poor, virtues which had 

 become in a measure submerged by formalism in the Church, 

 approbation was generally accorded them, and not by the poor 

 only, but princes and nobles evinced esteem for the self-denying 

 order. Convents were built for their residence, and for their 

 sustenance slender endowments were generally added. At Dum- 

 fries such provision for the Grey Friars was made by the bountiful 

 lady of Galloway, the founder of Sweetheart Abbey and of the 

 Bridge of Dumfries, as well as of the Priory of the Black Friars at 

 Wigtown. 



The settlement here was installed about the year 1262, a little 

 earlier than the foundation of the Abbey of Sweetheart, and the 

 functions of the Friars were carried on for a space of about three 

 hundred years, with beneficial results to the community. The 

 brethren were distinguished for learning, and trusted as competent 

 and honest business men. 



It is not my purpose to detail a history of the Conventuals of 

 Dumfries, but it may be useful to note some of the more outstand- 

 ing incidents as.sociated with the Friary. Edward I. of England, 

 in 1300, several times boarded in their house, and worshipped 

 and gave offerings in their church; and a few years later, in 1306, 

 the Friary Church was the scene of an event — the slaughter of the 

 Red Comyn — which proved a turning point in Scotland's history. 



A storv has obtained wide circulation to the effect that : — 

 " The church thus defiled was pulled down, and another built in 

 a different place, and dedicated to St. Michael, the titular saint of 

 the town " (Pennant). This is an evident error, as St. Michael's 

 was the Parish Church, and was a much earlier foundation. The 

 Friars continued in the occupation of the Friary notwithstanding 

 the slaughter committed within their church, and Scotland's new 

 found King, penitent, generously increased the revenues. 



