ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 5 



interest. It has been refened to on several occasions 

 in the Proceedings of the Club ; and it has occurred to 

 me that 1 might in this Address supplement what has 

 already been stated there, by giving a fuller and clearer 

 statement of the position of Lauder as a Eoyal Burgh, 

 and of the Rights and Privileges and Common Lands 

 which its Burgesses possess. 



It is universally admitted that Lauder was a town of 



considerable importance in the reign of 

 De David I. How it had grown up, and how 



Morville's it had attained the place of eminence which 

 Deed of Gift, it then occupied, are questions which cannot 



be now answered. It is proved by Chartu- 

 laries of Monasteries and title deeds of estates, that the 

 town and its lands on the Leader were granted by King 

 David to Hugh de Morville, Constable of Scotland, who 

 founded Dry burgh Abbey about 1150, and died in 11 02. 

 He was succeeded by his brother Richard, who gave a 

 grant of the lands of St. Leonard's, and certain pasturages, 

 to the Brethren of the Hospital of Lauder. This charter, 

 which was given about 1170, shows that Lauder was 

 then a kirk-town, and must have been a place of con- 

 siderable importance. It had then its church and its 

 bailies, its mills and its smithy, its lands and its pasturage. 

 By this charter De Morville gave to the Brethren of the 

 Hospital all ecclesiastical rites free, except the Sacrament 

 of Baptism, if there were any children to baptize, for 

 which they had to present to the church at Lauder 

 yearly one pound of incense unadulterated. He gave 

 them also the right to grind their corn at his mill at 

 Lauder, free of fee. His smith at Lauder was to mend 

 their carriages or waggons, and forge everything of iron 

 belonging to these ; and if he refused to do so, he was 

 to be dealt with by his bailies at Lauder. The existence 

 of these things at Lauder shows that Lauderdale at this 

 period had made some progress in agriculture, and that 

 the people were in an advanced state of civilization. 



