Transactions. 49 



One pre-Reformation memento of the church remains, the bell 

 gifted by the Lord of Torthorwald, preserved in the Observatory 

 Museum. It is of elegant form and tasteful workmansliip. The 

 Latin inscription translated runs : " William de Carlell, Lord of 

 Torthorwald, caused me to be made in honour of St. IMichael, in 

 the year of our Lord 1443." 



At the time when the old foundations were uncovered five 

 tombstones were also exposed within the church at the south-east 

 corner, and the state of the soil under the floor showed that the 

 practice of burial within the walls prevailed extensively until a 

 comparatively recent period. The tombstones are imperfect, but 

 on two of them portions of border inscriptions remain. One reads : 

 "Heir • Lyis • James Couplan [d] . . . [Dumf]ries • 16G5 ; and 

 the other . . . . " J. S. Johnstoun • Sumtym Thesar" . . . 

 Documentary evidence of the custom referred to also exists. A 

 draft agreement between the town of Dumfries and the heritors of 

 the landward parish, drawn in the year 1709, states the object 

 aimed at to be : " To prevent mistakes and pleas betwixt the town 

 and the landward parish anent the division of the seats of the 

 church of Dumfries, and the burial places in the church and church- 

 yard." In the year 1744 the Session consulted Mr William Grant, 

 advocate, as to their position with those heritors to whom they 

 had sold seats in the church ; and Mr Grant gave it as his opinion 

 that any heritor of the parish who has acquired by this title of 

 grant from the Session of a heritable or perpetual right to a seat 

 or burial place in the church his title is good. On the 21st Jan., 

 1714, the treasurer received two guineas from Geo. Gordon of 

 Grange " for the liberty of his father's corps lying in the Session 

 [house] /' and in the year 1721, Mr Veitch was granted a burial 

 place within the church for himself and his wife. The two following 

 instances of this custom are of some interest. In the Memorials of 

 St. MichaePs Mr M'DoAvall remarks on the absence in the church- 

 yard of any monument in memory of the great family of M'Brair. 

 The explanation of the omission is to be found in the fact that the 

 family burial place was situated within the church. A minute of 

 Session, dated 8th Nov., 1705, after narrating that Eobert M'Brair 

 of Netherwood is allowed to erect a seat for twelve or sixteen per- 

 sons in the M'Brair Aisle, proceeds, "and finally the Session consents 

 to the preserving of his right of burial place in the said isle as has 

 been in use andAvont by his predecessors ;" and on 8th June, 1747, 

 after the present church was built, the Provost reported " that the 



