Volume 3

380
The name of the parish of CHANNELKIRK is obscure. In the charters of the
12th and 13th centuries, the word is written Chyldinchirche and Childincirch ;
which evince that Channelkirk is a mere modern corruption (u). The affix to
the original term is obviously the Saxon circ, cyrc, cyric. the old English kirk,
the Anglo-Norman church. It is more than probable that the original name
of the place, which is significantly marked by the site of the Roman camp,
was childin, which may have been left here by the Romanized Ottadini, with
other names that still remain, as we have seen, in their British forms ; and of
course, the Cambro-British word is plainly cil-din, signifying the retreat, or
chapel, or church, at the fort. Now the fact is that the church and hamlet
actually stand within the area of a Roman camp (x). A church probably existed
on this singular site even before the epoch of record. By the grant of David I.,
Hugh Morville became proprietor of this mountain district and the advowson
of the ancient church. Hugh Morville, in gratitude to his benefactor, perhaps
as much as from motives of piety, soon after gave to the canons of Dryburgh,
which had been founded by David, the church of Childinkirc ; and this
donation of Hugh Morville was confirmed by his son Richard Morville, after
the death of Hugh in 1162, and was approved by Malcolm IV. (y). The
canons of Dryburgh retained this church till the Reformation introduced a very
different management. The abbot of Dryburgh entered into an agreement with
the master of the hospital of Soltre, which Malcolm IV. had founded, with
respect to the tithes and other dues that the hospital ought to pay yearly to the
abbot, in right of the mother church of Childinkirk, out of the lands of Sulerichnes
near Wedaleford, as well from the grain raised by the proper cultivation of the
master of the hospital, as from his other moveables in the same lands ; and those
dues were agreed to be paid by the master of Soltre annually, to the abbot of
Dryburgh, with a pound of pepper and another of cumin, in recognition of
the mother church of Childin-kirk (z). Though this parish lies in the billy
district of Upper Lauderdale, the church seems to have been early of some
value. It was valued in the ancient Taxatio at forty marks. There were of
Unprinted Act of that date. About one half of the parishioners reside in the burgh of Lauder, and
the seceders in this parish, though few in number, support a minister for themselves, who thus enjoy
their own peculiarities, principles, and practices. For more particulars, the inquisitive reader muy see
the Stat. Acco., i., 72, and the Tabular Slate annexed.
(u) On Pont's Map of Lauderdale, in Blaeu's Atlas Scotice, the name is Chinailkirk ; and in the
parish records, which are preserved as far back as 1650, the name is Chingel-kirk.?
(x) Roy's Milit. Antiq., pl. vi.                                      (y) Chart. Dryb., 1 -2.
(z) A copy of that agreement is recorded in Chart. Soltre, 48, and in Chart. Dryb., 48.