512 



Greyfriars' Convent of Dumfries. 



number of gratefully pious persons. This impression is 

 deepened when it is seen that in addition to these lands in 

 Troqueer the Friars held the annual rents of at least six tene- 

 ments in the Burgh. 27 References to these tenements are 

 made between 1521 and 1536. Of what became of them we 

 have no trace. They also had been given the lease of three 

 roods of Burgh Common at the Dowcat Closs (which may 

 have been the Pumpfield Lane), and which they had disposed 

 at some date prior to 1526.^8 



One of the interesting things with which Mr Bryce credits 

 the Friars at Dumfries is their initiation of the custom gener- 

 ally followed by all the Scottish Conventuals of feuing out 

 their lands prior to the Reformation. Power to thus realise 

 their properties had been granted by the Bulls of Leo X. in 

 1515 and of Clement VII. in 1526. The Friars either accepted 

 a payment on entrance and a yearly feu-duty or they secured 

 an increased sum in feu-duty instead of rent. Mr Bryce 

 credits the Friars of Dumfries with leading the way in this 

 matter on the sale of a portion of their yards to Lord Maxwell 

 in 1 55 1. But there exists an instrument of sasine which shews 

 that the Friars of Dumfries had adopted this method as early 

 as 1536. On July 6th of that year Robert Litill, the Wardan, 

 with the consent of certain of the Chapter, conveyed a tene- 

 ment or waste land to Thomas Heris, a physician. John Perro 

 and John M'Cur, friars, were present, and the notary was 

 Thomas Connelsonne.^ The process thus early begun was 

 pursued until almost all the properties were disposed of, as 

 the following list shows : — 



Subject. Feu Duty. 



1536 Tenement at" Townhead (Note 29) Scots £0 5 



1551 Half acre and half rood of the yards (Bryce II., 104) 2 13 4 

 1555 Three roods and moorland on Corberryhill (App. 15) 2 8 



1555 Nine roods called Newzards (Bryce II., 104; App. 16) 2 



1556 Two acres on Corberryhill (App, 5, 24) ... ... 1 4 



1556 Part of Andro Lawson's tenement (App. 3)... ... 3 6 



1557 Little Stone house (App. 6) 3 4 



1557 Half of Bridge Custom (Bryce II., 106) 6 16 8 



1557 Tenement in Newton (App. 10) 3 



1558 Acre in Frierhauch (App. 23) 17 



1558 Fishings (Bryce II., 107; App. 1) 6 



1558 Acre in Croft at Brigend (App. 14, 19) 17 



