ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 11 



by, or to commemorate, missionaries from Lindisfarne. 



Of conventual establishments for nuns, Berwickshire 

 possessed at least three — leaving out of view the nun- 

 nery in Berwick-on-Tweed founded by David I. They 

 were all of the Cistercian order. We may, indeed, add 

 a fourth, that of Strafontane, or Trefontanis, near Abbey 

 St. Bathans, which, according to Spottiswoode, was a 

 cell of Berwick, and, like the parent monastery, founded 

 by David. It is mentioned in the Papal Taxation Roll,* 

 but was evidently an establishment of little importance, 

 and seems after a brief existence as a nunner}^ to have 

 been converted into a hospital. The lands of Trefontanis 

 were given to the Collegiate Church of Dunglass in 

 1451, and the hospital, with its chapel, attached to it as 

 a prebend.f The opulent Priories of Coldstream and 

 Eccles were founded about 1155 by the last Cospatrick, 

 Earl of Dunbar, and Derder his countess.j The former 

 held lands at Lennel, the Hirsel, Birgham, Scaythmuir, 

 Little Swinton, Whitchester in Lammermuir, and Bas- 

 sendean, with pasturages at Gordon and Thornydykes, 

 and the churches of Lennel and the Hirsel, and probably 

 that of Bassendean,§ although the last is not mentioned 

 in the list of the convent's possessions in the Papal 

 Taxation Roll {temp. Edward I.) Eccles had endowments 

 of land comprising the greater part of the parish, the 

 parish church, and the chapels of Birgham, Leitholm, 

 and Mersington.ll The Priory of St. Bathans, reared 

 on the banks of the Whitadder, near the northern base 

 of Cockburn Law, before the year 1200, by Ada, 

 illegitimate daughter of William the Lion, who became 

 the wife of the first Patrick, Earl of Dunbar, was en- 



* Coldingham Correspondence, &c ; Sartees Society, p. cxiv. 

 t Registrnm Magni Sigilli 1424-1513, No. 520; Retours, Berwick- 

 shire, No. 16; Chalmers' Caledonia; New Statistical Account. 

 X Chartulary of Coldstream, No. 8 ; Chalmers' Caledonia. 

 § Ibid. 



II Historical Manuscripts Commission, 12th Report, Appendix VIII., 

 pp. 131, 132. 



