RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Robert de Brus and Eufemia his wife (mu/ier) 

 gave a fishery in TordurF to Everard and the 

 brothers of Holme which was afterwards con- 

 firmed by Robert their son. 1 Abbot Everard 

 perambulated the boundaries of his land of 

 Kirkwinny in company with Christian, Bishop 

 of Whithern, and Huctred son of Fergus, 2 

 and was present at Peebles when William ' 

 the Lion granted the great charter to the 

 abbey of Jedburgh. 3 The greatest function 

 in which he ever took part was the corona- 

 tion of King Richard, 4 which he attended on 

 3 September 1189. It was to Abbot Everard 

 in 1185 that Pope Lucius confirmed all the 

 possessions of the house. 5 Fordun has left us 

 a beautiful picture of his saintly life from 

 childhood to old age, 6 and tradition has sup- 

 plemented it by ascribing to him many 

 scholarly accomplishments. It is said that 

 he wrote the life of St. Adamnan, of St. 

 Cumen, and of St. Waltheve, the latter being 

 his old superior at Melrose, but the manu- 

 script of none of these biographies is known 

 to be extant. 7 In 1192 he entered into 

 rest in a good old age, full of days and vir- 

 tues. 8 



Adam de Kendal has been made famous in 

 a Scottish chronicle as the unfortunate abbot 

 of Holmcultram. The new abbot, who suc- 

 ceeded about 1215, seeing the Bishop of Car- 

 lisle crippled with age and infirmity and at the 

 gates of death, conceived the lofty ambition 

 of gaining the episcopate at an early period. 

 By secret intrigue and public bribery he 

 squandered the revenues of the monastery in 

 order to make friends of those who might be 



1 Reg. of Holmcultram, MS. ff. 66-7. 

 3 Harl. MS. 3891, f. 8;b. 



3 National MSS. of Scotland, I, 38; Monastic 

 Annals ofTcviotdale, 579. 



4 Bened. of Peterborough, Gesta Hen. II. et 

 Ric. I. (Rolls Ser.), ii. 80. 



8 Harl. MS. 3911, ff. I37b-i4ib; Dugdale, 

 Man. v. 598. 



8 Scotichronicon (ed. Goodall), i. 347. 



7 Descriptive Cat. of Materials (Rolls Ser.), ii. 

 2256. The editor of Camden had views of his 

 own (ed. Gibson, ii. 1059). John Denton, who 

 wrote about 1610, must have seen some manu- 

 script ascribed to Abbot Everard, for he said that 

 ' Everardus some time abbot of Holm Cultram, 

 who lived in the days of Henry II., hath registered 

 to posterity that the Danes had a house or temple 

 of sacrifice or a publick place at Thursby where 

 the pagans offered up the blood of captives to a 

 God whom in that sort they honoured ' (Hist, of 

 Cumb. 93). 



8 Cbron. of Melrose, in ann. 1192. On two 

 occasions we find him witnessing charters of Richard 

 de Morevill, constable of the King of Scotland 

 (Liber S. Marie de Melrose, i. 82, 98). 



able to influence the election. Intelligence 

 of his methods in due time reached the ears 

 of the superior-general of the Cistercian order, 

 who caused inquiries to be made which ended 

 in the deposition of the abbot. Throwing 

 himself on the mercy of the chapter, he was 

 permitted to take up his abode at Hildekirk 

 in the forest of Inglewood, a hermitage be- 

 longing to the abbey. When the Bishop of 

 Carlisle died and the day for the election of 

 his successor arrived, the deposed abbot sent 

 a secret messenger to learn the result. But 

 the name of Adam de Kendal was not men- 

 tioned. The disappointment so preyed on his 

 spirits that he became insane and died in great 

 misery at Holmcultram as a terrible warning 

 to the ambitious. 9 The Chronicle of Melrose 

 is silent on Adam's faults, mentioning only 

 his resignation (suo cessit officio) in 1223. 

 While he was abbot he made a grant of ten 

 measures of salt annually at Martinmas to 

 the priory of Lanercost. 10 



Another abbot of Holmcultram, deserving 

 a special notice, was Robert Chamber, who 

 flourished during the religious revival which 

 preceded the dissolution of the monasteries. 

 He was a local man of the family of Chamber 

 of Raby Cote in that lordship and is comme- 

 morated by many fragmentary memorials 

 scattered in various parts of that neighbour- 

 hood, either built into farm houses or still 

 existing about the abbey church. Over the 

 arch of the present porch of the church there 

 is inscribed ' Robertas Chamber fecit fieri 

 hoc opus A D nl M.D.VII.' Upon the 

 pedestal of a statue of the Virgin may be seen 

 the ' chained-bear,' the well-known rebus of 

 his name with the legend beneath, 'Lady 

 deyr save Robert Chamber.' The inscription 

 ' orate pro anima Roberti Chamber abbatis,' 

 which Bishop Nicolson observed in the church 

 at his visit in 1703, has disappeared. 11 In 

 almost every considerable house of the parish 

 some remnant of Abbot Chamber's work may 

 be seen, bearing his name, initials, or some 

 enigmatical conceit about him. In the bitter 

 disputes which followed the suppression of the 

 monastery, the great days of Abbot Chamber 

 were often referred to by witnesses and their 

 recollections recorded on the depositions. 

 But inferences about the dates of his tenure 

 of office are very conflicting, and no reliance 

 can be placed on such evidences. On 12 

 March 1512 he was joined in a commission 

 with the Bishop of Carlisle and William 

 Bewlay to inquire into the possessions of 



II 



8 Fordun, Scotichronicon (ed. Goodall), ii. 1 2-6. 

 Harl. MS. 3891, f. 33 b. 

 11 Miscellany Accounts, 245. 

 169 22 



