ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 13 



the manors referred to were situated, does that Priory 

 appear to have exercised any right of ecclesiastical 

 supervision or patronage. Until some evidence to the 

 contrary, therefore, is forthcoming, we must regard these 

 churches as having been outside the sphere of direct 

 monastic influence or control, and as having been served 

 by a secular clergy presented to the livings by the 

 proprietors of the adjoining manors. When, at a later 

 period, the collegiate churches of Dunbar and Dunglass 

 came to be established, the former had attached to it 

 as prebends the parish churches of Duns and Chirnside, 

 and the latter the chapel and hospital of Strafontane,* 

 and the parish church and hospital of Button. 



Bunkle and Preston occupied a unique position. Origin- 

 ally manorial, they became at an early date, certainly 

 before the close of the 13th century, mensal churches 

 of the bishops of Dunkeld, who appointed vicars to 

 serve them. They are not mentioned in the earliest 

 valuations of Church livings in Scotland, nor in the 

 Papal Taxation Roll ; but they appear, under the bishop- 

 ric of Dunkeld, in Bayamund's Roll, in 1275. 



The whole of this elaborate and complicated arrange- 

 ment of Monasteries, Hospitals, Parish Churches and 

 Chapels, was under the episcopal supervision of the 

 bishops of St. Andrews, within whose diocese the county 

 was situated. And it is clear from ancient tax lists 

 that the Deanery of the Merse extended considerably 

 beyond the modern county boundaries ; for we find 

 embraced in it the churches of Wedale (Stow), Smail- 

 holm, Stichill, Ednam, and Makerston, as well as those 

 within the town and liberties of Berwick-on-Tweed. 

 The local monastic chartularies contain numerous con- 

 firmations by the bishops of St. Andrews of the gifts 

 of laymen affecting the churches of the district, and 



* The vicarage of Edrom was also nnibed to the Collegiate Church 

 of Dunglass by a Bull of Pope Pius II., dated 12th Nov. 1459. 

 Theiner, pp. 422, 423; Hist. Man. Com. 12th Report, Appendix 

 VIIL, pp. 127, 185. 



