THE HISTORY OF DUNBAR. PART II. ECCLESIASTICAL. CHAPTER I. Monastic Antiquities.-The Collegiate Church. THE first notice we have of the church of Dunbar, is in the Taxatio of Lothian in 1176, where Ecclesia de Dunbar cum capella de Whytingeham, is assessed at 180 merks; and it was the highest in the deanery, Haddington being rated at only 120 merks. The following places, now in Dunbar presbytery, are thus rated in the same taxatio: According to the Chronicle of Melrose, Adam, the parson of Dunbar, died in 1179.† * According to Bede, there was a Saxon monastery at Tyningham so early as the sixth century. In 635, the bishoprick of Lindisfarn comprehended the whole of Lothian. On the 26th April, 1209, Randulph, sacerdos de Dunbar, accepted the cure of Eccles.-Chalmers' Cal. ii. At this period the deanery of Lothian belonged to the diocese of St Andrews, which comprehended the whole parishes of Haddingtonshire, and nearly half of the churches of Mid-Lothian. Before 1275, the deanery of Lothian had changed its name to the deanery of Haddington; but it still retained its ancient limits under the jurisdiction of the bishop of St Andrews till the era of the Reformation; and on the bishoprick of St Andrews being transferred to Edinburgh by Charles I., the ministers of Dunbar, Haddington, and Tranent, were constituted three of its nine prebendaries. MONASTERY OF RED FRIARS. In 1218, Patrick, sixth earl of Dunbar, founded a monastery of Red or Trinity friars in Dunbar. These friars were also called Matharines, from a house which they had in Paris, dedicated to St Matharine; also, "De redemptione captivorum," as their office was partly to redeem Christian slaves from Turkish bondage. They were first established by St John of Malta and Felix de Valois, the latter of whom was an anchorite at Cerfroid, about three miles from Grandalu. By a bull of Pope Innocent III. in 1209, it appears they had six monasteries in Scotland. Their houses were called hospitals or ministries; and a third of their substance or rents was appropriated for the redemption of slaves, as above mentioned. Their habit was white, with a red and blue cross upon their scapular or short cloak.* * Keith's Catalogue, 242. It appears from the researches of General Hutton, who has thrown much light on the monastic history of Scotland, that this house was suppressed previous to the Reformation. In the inventory of the late duke of Queensberry's papers, is the following extract: "Gift by K. James V., under the Great Seal, to the Holy Cross Church at Peebles, of a house in Dunbar, built by Christian Bruce, countess of Dunbar, and given by her to the brethren of the order of the Holy Trinity, formerly at Dunbar, then translated to Peebles, dated 5th July 1529."* The lands belonging to the Trinity friars were acquired by George Hume of Friarslands, ancestor to Hume of Furde.† This monastery is supposed to have stood in the field, called the Friar's Croft. Part of the belfry still remains, which is converted into a pigeon-house, and the ground where it stands has obtained the more rural, but less classical appellation of the Do'cot Park. It is mentioned in the town charter as being situated near the burgh. At the back of the new buildings of Delisle-street, fronting this park, was a pond, (drained within the memory of man,) called the Parson's Pool; and a little farther west, at the foot of the gentle eminence of Knocking-haer, is a stripe of ground, called the Priest-fauld Baulk. Letter from General Hutton, to W. H. Ritchie, Esq. Dunbar. Besides this letter, the author is indebted to the latter gentleman for many other valuable papers. + Keith's Cat. An A wynd or passage, leading to the friary, lay betwixt the site of the New Inn and the present manse. old house situated at the head of this wynd, fronted the high-street, and contained a niche in the wall, once the sentinel station of the blessed virgin. The marks of a gateway may also be distinguished at the foot of the minister's garden, on the left of which is the rémains of an alms-house, about the size of a watch-box. This was probably either the place, styled in ancient charters, "the Blessed Lady's Wynd," or led to it. Indeed, all the lands lying westward from the church, bounded by the Common, and extending as far as the West-port road, were holy ground, and are designated "the Blessed Virgin's land," "St John the Baptist's land," &c. MONASTERY OF CARMELITES. In 1263, Patrick, seventh earl of Dunbar, (the same year in which he was severely wounded, while leading on his division against the Danes and Norwegians at Largs,) founded a monastery for Carme lites, or White Friars, at Dunbar. These personages were the third order of begging friars; and derived their name from Mount Carmel in Syria. They came to Scotland during the reign of Alexander III., and had nine convents. They were called White Friars from the colour of their outer garments. No vestiges remain to mark where the Carmelites Friary stood. In 1766, when digging a found for the reservoir, some Roman medals were discovered, with |