TttE B'RANCISOAK IHlURY OF JEDBURGS 85 



was paid "to the grayfreris of Jedburgh to the repara- 

 tioun and biggin of their place." ^ Perhaps this indicates that 

 tlie convent had suffer-ed during Surrey's attack on Jedburgh 

 in September, 1523, when the town was "soo surely brent 

 that no garnysons ner none other' shal be lodged thei'e, unto 

 the time it bee newe buylded."* On 26th May, 1541, also, 

 tlie sum of <£20 was paid from the public treasury "to the 

 gray fi-eris in Jedburght to the help of the reparatioun of 

 thair place."* The extract is also given by Pitcairn, who 

 incorrectly identifies the edifice witli " the monastery of 

 Jedburgh." * 



Under the leadership of Lord Evers and his son Sir Ralph 

 the English attacked Jedburgh in June, 1544, and captured 

 it in spite of detei'mined resistance on the part of the 

 inhabitants. The victors then committed the town to the 

 ilames, "and left not past two howses unbrent in the same. 



The abbey likewise they burned, asmoche as they 



might for stone work."'' It would have been strange indeed 

 liad the Franciscan Friary escaped so wholesale a devastation ; 

 and that it did not is evident from another contemporary 

 account, which states that, "the people thus lied, and the 

 towne geuen to the Englysh men by the chaunce of warre, 

 ye gunners burned ye Abbey, the Greye Freres, tt dyvers 

 bastell et fortified houses, wherof were many in that town."^ 



The Obsei'vantine convent was again reduced on the occasion 

 of Hertfoi'd's devastating invasion of the Borders in Septembei-, 

 1545, when, in addition to many other places, he destroyed 

 "the Abbey of Jedworthe, the Freers there, the towne of 

 Jedworthe," etc.^ Referring to Hertford's inroad, the Rev. 

 James Morton states that "the town, abbey, and friaries of 

 Jedburgh are in the list of places destroyed at this time, 

 which must be incorrect, as they were burned the year befoi'e, 



^ Aces, of Lord High Treas., v., p. 30G. 



* Scott's Border Minstrelsy, Introd., App. I. 

 ' Aces, of Lord High Treas., vii., p. 450. 



" Criminal Trials, i., p. *310. 

 '' Hamilton Papers, ii., p. 405. 



* The Late Expedition in Scotland, apud Dalyell's Fragments, p. 14. 

 ' Hayne's State Papers, p. 53. 



