Greyfriars' Convent of Dumfries. 317 



Maxwell purchased the yard and kirkstead and Amer Fergus- 

 son the cloisters, with whose representatives this property 

 remains to this date.^^ A controversy between the adjacent 

 proprietors took place for the possession of the passage which 

 ran from the Friars' Vennel to the door of the Quier.36 Owing 

 to a hiatus in the records, we do not know to whom this piece 

 of ground associated with the crisis of Brace's career was 

 finally disposed. 



So much for the Friary. What of the Friars? In 1560 

 the Chapter consisted of five persons, the \\'arden. Home, and 

 the Friars Herbert Stewart, a former Warden ; George Law, 

 Christopher Walker, and Richard Harlaw, also formerly a 

 Warden. These last two apparently did not accept the new 

 regime instituted on the 24th of August, 1560, for we hear 

 no more of them. The history of the others can best be told 

 in recounting what we know of the Warden. Friar Charles 

 Home was, says Mr Bryce, " the last survivor of the Francis- 

 cans in Scotland of whom any record sur\i\es," and the few 

 details of his career are interesting, not only on the foregoing 

 account, but for the sidelight they throw upon the Reforma- 

 tion. While that purification of religion meant to some 

 " praising God in the Grassmarket," to others it meant richer 

 purses and broader acres. The fervid enthusiasm mingled 

 with worldly wisdom which mark the period are peculiarly 

 Scottish. 



Home is known to us first in 1551 as Warden of the 

 Dumfries Convent, his predecessor, Richard Harlaw, having 

 become a simple friar. The Warden next appears in connec- 

 tion with the payment of an annuity of 20 merks out of the 

 Castlewards of Roxburgh. This had been granted by the 

 remorseful Bruce to the Friars of Dumfries, and had, in more 

 recent times, been but ill paid. Sir James Douglas of Cavers, 

 the Sheriff of Roxburgh, had offended in this respect as often 

 as he could, and in 1554 had not paid anything for twelve 

 years. Home that year " for certaine gud caussis moving the 

 saidis Freris " agreed to accept half of the sum due on con- 

 dition that payments were made in a definite series of instal- 

 ments — literally half a loaf was better than no bread. ^^ 



It was during Home's Wardenship, as we have seen, that 



