Transactions. 45 



the chairs and stools in the body of the kirk be removed, and 

 their room filled up with convenient seats (but movable), which 

 are to be built by the Session and farmed out as they see conveni- 

 ent." This, however, was not the first time the church had been 

 fitted with seats. The committee appointed on this occasion 

 required parties to jiroduce their titles to such seats as they might 

 lay claim to ; and many of them claimed possession from much 

 earlier dates. Two claims were founded on titles reaching back to 

 1624, several referred to the year 1636, a few to 1661, and a 

 large number founded on an allocation made in the year 1682. 

 The Session claimed to have regulated the seats in the church 

 " from the time of the first Reformation." 



Such fixed seats as existed prior to the year 1637 appear to 

 have been built by the occupiers, the Session giving consent, in 

 consideration of payments to them for behoof of the poor. On 5th 

 July of that year the Session instructed the partial seating of the 

 church, as their minute bears : " It is enacted by the Session yc 

 betwext ye two pillars over against the minister's pulpit " (the 

 body of the kirk) "Desks be erected, one chicfiy for ye use of John 

 George Homes, and likewise for the honest men and best burden 

 bearers." The seating seems to have undergone from time to time 

 many changes, and the church was never more than partially occu- 

 pied with pews. 



The pulpit, which had a sounding board, stood at the east end 

 of the body of the church, and near it were the Reader's desk, the 

 Elders' pew, and the Baptism pew. In the year 1695 the arrange- 

 ment of the pews was in five columns, and they were numbered 1 

 to 79 ; but of their form- there is no special mention. 



In addition to the ordinary seats there stood round the walls 

 others, the family pews of the larger Heritors, each built by its 

 owner, and displaying a variety of design more or less quaint and 

 ornate. Some were of considerable size, sufficient for 12 or 16 

 persons. They were raised somewhat above the level of the 

 church floor, enclosed with railings, and roofed with canoines. 

 Hoddam had permission to " adorn " his pew and heighten the 

 cover of it ; and mention is made of a pew bearing the initials of 

 the owner's name and the date of its erection. 



The minutes of 1695 relating to the regulation of the seats 

 bear also on the history of the galleries. The Magistrates' Loft 

 and the Merchant's occupied the front part of the West Gallery, 

 and behind these, separated from them by a railing, was the 



