The Church of Hume. By the Rev, George Gunn, 

 M.A., Stichill and Hume. 



In view of the ohjects of our Club, the higher forms and 

 spiritual aspects of church-life are excluded from the scope of 

 this paper. Facts of local history and exemplifications of 

 bygone ecclesiastical customs in this Border parish of Hume, have 

 been given special prominence. The references may appear 

 minute and the historical associations be somewhat parochial, but 

 such details must be recorded, and given their true perspective 

 as part of the history of our country. History is not all poetry, 

 romance, and chronicles of blood. The results of antiquarian 

 research demand their place, for they enable the student of the 

 present day to see former scenes in their true colouring, and 

 without the glamour cast by a facile and oft-times ill-informed 

 imagination. 



The ecclesiastical history of Hume is older, if less conspicuous 

 than the more stirring annals of the castle. The r61e of its 

 priests, who were the centres of light and learning of a very wide 

 district, is subordinate to that of the noble Homes, who ruled 

 the Merse, befriended kings and queens, and aided in guiding 

 the destinies of the nation for generations. The castle becomes 

 of historic importance in the 15 th and 16th centuries, by which 

 time the church had already witnessed four or five hundred 

 years. The first reference to the castle that I have found, 

 dates from 1335, when payment of the Castle wards or dues 

 of 12/11 was made to the royal Treasurer. But mention of 

 the Church is made as far back as the year 1127, which marks 

 an authentic date, as shall appear hereafter. 



The Hume estate formed part of the possessions of the 

 powerful Earls of Dunbar, who gifted the church to the wealthy 

 Abbey of Kelso. After the Reformation of 1560, when 

 shorn of much of its size, the parish was united ecclesiastically 



