74 ARCH^OLOGICAL DISCOVERY AT OLD JEDWARD 



Old Jed ward is a place of great antiquity. In a foot note 

 in the new edition of Chalmers' Caledonia, Vol. i., p. 426, 

 we have this valuable information, which he gives us as a 

 quotation: — "Smith's Bede, I., iv., cap. xxvi., app. No. ii.; 

 Simeon of Durham, col. 69-139. Eegred, the Bishop of 

 Lindisfarne, who died in a.d. 845, built the two villages of 

 Geddewarde and Geinforde, in Eoxburghshire, with the churches 

 thereof, which he gave to the bishopric, with other towns. 

 Anglia Sacra, vol. i., p. 698." This place is thus referred 

 to in Morton's "Monastic Annals of Teviotdale," p. 2: — 

 "History of the Abbey of Jedburgh. — At the most ancient 

 period to which the history of this place extends, we find 

 that there were two Jedworths. The other was situated about 

 four miles and a half further up the valley, where a small 

 hamlet still retains the name of Old Jedburgh, and where 

 there was formerly a church or chapel, the cemetery of which 

 is still used as a place of interment. Both were built by 

 Ezred, or Eegred, a man of noble birth and ample possessions, 

 who was Bishop of Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, from the 

 year 830 till his death in 845. In the history of that See, by 

 Simeon of Durham, it is recorded that Bishop Eegred, among 

 other liberal gifts with which he endowed the monastery at 

 Lindisfarne, gave it the two villages, with whatever belonged 

 to them, both called Jedworth, which he built himself in 

 the district south of the Tweed." We have the place also 

 mentioned in the "New Statistical Account of Scotland," p. 

 8: — "Antiquities. — At old Jedworth, about four miles above 

 the present town, are the ruins of a chapel which was 

 founded by Egred, Bishop of Lindisfarne, who died a.d. 845. 

 It is situate amidst a clump of trees in a level field at the 

 side of the river. Its walls have crumbled into mounds, 

 and the tombstones in its churchyard are scarcelj' visible 

 above the grass." 



Interesting as is this sacred spot, it has attracted little 

 attention in comparison with the more prominent and magni- 

 ficent remains of the Abbey of Jedburgh. In Jeffrej^'s 

 " History and Antiquities of Eoxburghshire," Vol. ii., p. 293, 

 he gives the following interesting account : — " Old Jedworth. — 

 The place which bears this name is situated on the left bank 

 (jf the vivfciv Jed, about four miles from Jedburgh. It ig 



