ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 5 



proper history of the district begins. It is to the chronicles 

 written in the seclusion of their scriptoria, and to the 

 chartularies in which they engrossed their successive 

 donations and endowments, that we owe what knowledge 

 we possess of the men, localities and events of the dawn 

 of our provincial annals. 



First, in order of time as well as interest, comes 

 the Benedictine Priory of Coldingham. Founded in 

 the closing years of the eleventh century by Edgar, 

 eldest son of Malcolm Canmore and his Saxon Queen, 

 Margaret, in a region hallowed by associations with 

 St. Ebba, and her earlier conventual establishment, and 

 saturated with Christian traditions, he bestowed it 

 with suitable endowments of land upon the great mon- 

 astery of St. Cuthbert at Durham, in recognition of 

 the aid which he believed had been afforded him by 

 the saint in recovering his kingdom from the usurpation 

 of his uncle, Donald. On the day when the newly built 

 church was consecrated, he laid upon the altar a charter 

 of the lands of Swinton in the heart of the Merse.* 

 Other gifts speedily followed, until the greater part of 

 the coast district stretching from the borders of East 

 Lothian to the mouth of the Tweed became the property 

 of the monks of St. Cuthbert. 



As a dependency of Durham, the records of Coldingham 

 were preserved in the archives of the parent monastery, and 

 they thus escaped the destruction which would have pro- 

 bably overtaken them had they remained on Scottish soil. 

 They form the most extensive and important collection 

 of documents connected with the early history of the 

 south-east of Scotland in existence ; and we owe it to the 

 zeal and industry of an English antiquary, the late Rev. 

 James Raine, that they have been made accessible to the 

 historical student. By the courtesy of the present dis- 

 tinguished librarian to the Dean and Chapter of Durham, 



* Coldingham Charters, No. 4; Appendix to Eaine's North Durham, 

 p. 2. 



