Volume 5

342
This commissariat was abolished with other hereditary jurisdictions in 1747,
and this parish is now comprehended in the commissariat of Dumfries. [The
Parish Church has 128 communicants : stipend �l86.]
The two parishes of COLVEND and SOUTHWICK which have long been united
derived their names from various sources. Colven and Colvend are corrup-
tions of Culven, which is the uniform orthography of the name in the charters
of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. The word is obviously
the Irish Cul-bhen which is pronounced Culven, and signifies the back of the
hill; a description this, that is very applicable to the site of the old church
and village of Culven (r). At the end of the thirteenth century the lands
of Culven belonged to John Cumin, the Earl of Buchan, John Baliol, William
de Ferrers, and Alan la Zouche, who inherited them from the daughters of
Alan, the lord of Galloway who died in 1234. During the succession war
the lands of Colvend became forfeited when they were granted by Robert I.
to his sister Isabel, and Alexander Bruce her son (s). The church of Colvend
belonged of old to the Benedictine nunnery of Lincluden, from which it
was transferred to the collegiate church, established here in place of the
nunnery, in the end of the fourteenth century. Those establishments en-
joyed successively the rectorial revenues of the church of Colvend, and the
cure was served by a vicar. In Bagimont's Roll, during the reign of
James Y. the vicarage of Colvend was taxed �2 13s. 4d. (t). This church
continued to belong to Lincluden college till the Reformation (u); and the
patronage of it was afterwards granted to Douglas of Drumlanrig, the prede-
cessor of the Duke of Queensberry (v). At Fairgarth, in the east end of
parish formerly belonged to the monks of Holm Cultram, it formed an exempt jurisdiction under
a grant from Joceline, the bishop of Glasgow. MS. Account of Galloway. The patronage of the
church still belongs to the Nithsdale family, and the right is exercised by Maxwell of Terregles.
The ancient church remained, though in a very ruinous state in 1793. The roof of it, which was
of a very peculiar construction, is supposed to have been formed at Holm Cultram and brought to
Kirkgunzeon.
(r) Culmennan in Wigtonshire, derived from a similar situation its descriptive name, which is the
diminutive of Culven.
(s) Robertson's Index, p. 13. The same lands were afterwards granted by David II. to John Mac
Dougal, and subsequently by the same king to Andrew Buttergask. Ib., 36, 55.
(t) There belonged to the vicarage of Colvend a twenty shilling land of old extent, which passed
into lay hands at the Reformation. Inquisit. Speciales, 155, 199.
(u) At the epoch of the Reformation, the provost of Lincluden received from the parsonage tithes
of the church of Colvend 38 bolls of meal yearly, which he let for 20 shillings the boll. MS. Rental
Book, fo. 91.
(v) Symson's MS. Account of Galloway ; Inquisit. Speciales, Dumfries-shire, 344. On the death
of "William Duke of Queensberry in 1810, the patronage of Colvend passed to the Duke of
Buccleuch.