Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 3

HADDINGTON
Richard Maitland and of James VI. 's chancellor, Secre-
tary Lethington, and for a long period it was the chief
seat, of the Lauderdale family. The first park wall, 12
feet high, enclosing an area of more than 1 square
mile, is said to have been raised in six weeks by the
Duke of Lauderdale, in order to save his country from
the reproach of the Duke of York, that there was not a
single deer park in it. The other chief seats, all noticed
separately, are Amisfibld, Stevenson House, Monk-
bigg, CoALSTOUN, Clbrkington, Letham, Alderston,
and Huntington. Nine proprietors hold each an an-
nual value of £500 and upwards, 18 of between £100
and £500, 44 of from £50 to £100, and 91 of
from £20 to £50. The North British railway traverses
one of the projections of the parish, and there is a branch
of that railway to the burgh within the parish. Six
miles of the great road from Edinburgh to the E of
England lie within its limits, besides a section of a road
to North Berwick, and numerous subordinate roads.
Haddington parish is in the presbytery of Haddington
and the synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. The churches
have already been noticed above. The origin of the
parish is difficult to trace. At the accession of David I.
in 1123 it was a clearly defined district, though both
then and afterwards of a larger extent than now. Till
1674 it comprehended a considerable part of Athelstane-
ford, and till 1692 of Gladsmuir also. The ancient
church, dedicated to the Virgin, was granted about 1134
by David I. to the priory of St Andrews, wliich held it
with all its endowments, including the lands of Clerk-
ington on both sides of the Tyne, till the Reformation.
Six chapels also were situated in the parish — those of St
Lawrence, which has given its name to a hamlet, St
Martin, St Catherine, St Kentigern, and St John, and
one in the barony of Penston, which, previous to the
erection of Gladsmuir parish, lay within the limits of
Haddington. At the Reformation the property of all
these chapels, with that of the church to which they
were attached, belonged as part of the immense posses-
sions of the priory of St Andrews, to James Stewart, the
notorious Earl of Moray, the bastard brother and the
minister of Mary of Scotland. The possessions were
soon after usurped by the Earl of Morton, dming the
period of his regency ; and when he was put to death
for his participation in the murder of Darnley, they
were forfeited to the Crown. Esme, Duke of Lennox,
the cousin and favourite of James VI. , next obtained
them, as a temporal lordship, from the king. Later,
Thomas, the first Earl of Haddington, purchased the
Haddington portion of the lordship — consisting of the
patronage and property and emoluments of the church
and its chapels — from Ludovic the son of Esme ; and,
in 1620, obtained from the king a confirmation of his
purchase. In the 18th century the patronage and pro-
perty were transferred, by another purchase, to Charles,
the first Earl of Hopetoun ; and they have since con-
tinued in the possession of his descendants. From the
Reformation tiU 1602 the churches of Haddington and
Athelstaneford and the chapel of St Martin were all
served by one minister ; and not long afterwards St
Martin's was abandoned. In 1C33 Haddington church
was appointed one of the twelve prebends of the chapter
of Edinburgh ; and in 1635 a second minister was ap-
pointed. From the 12th or 13th century to the Re-
iormation, Haddington gave its name to a deanery.
The parish also contained a Franciscan monastery, dat-
ing probably from the 12th century. Edward I. is said
to have destroyed it, and there are now no vestiges of
it extant, unless the present church may be held as
having formed part of it. At the village of Abbey
there stood a convent of Cistercian nuns, founded in
1178 by Ada, Countess of Northiunberland and mother
of Malcolm IV. and AVilliam the Lyon. It was dedicated
by her to the Virgin, and it was endowed with extensive
and valuable possessions, of which the lands of Nunside
or Nunlands, now Huntington, and the church of
Athelstaneford with its teinds were only a part. In
1296, Eva, the prioress, made submission to Edward I.,
and obtained the restoration of her rights. James II.
234
HADDINGTONSHIRE
granted a charter to the priory in 1458, confirming one
previously obtained from the bishop of St Andrews in
1349. In 1471 the lairds of Yester and Makerston
forcibly seized part of the Abbey lands, and the nuns
had to seek the aid of parliament against them. In
1548 the estates held a parliament in the convent, at
which it was resolved to send the infant Queen Mary to
France. At the Reformation the number of nuns in
the convent was 18 ; and its revenues amounted to
£308, 17s. 6d., besides various contributions paid in
kind. The lands were conferred by Mary on her
secretary, William Maitland of Lethington ; and after-
wards they were converted into a temporal lordship in
favour of John, Master of Lauderdale. A public school,
with accommodation for 282 children, had (1881) an
average attendance of 278, and a grant of £228, 15s. 8d.
Valuation, excluding burgh, (1872) £28,061, 4s., (1879)
£25,950, 10s., (1883) £22,888, 6s. Pop. of entire
parish (1801) 4049, (1831) 5883, (1841) 5452, (1871)
5735, (1881) 5860.— Ord. Sur., sh. 33, 1863.
The Established presbytery of Haddington comprises
the parishes of Aherlady, Athelstaneford, Bolton, Dir-
leton, Garvald, Gladsmuir, Haddington, Humbie,
Morham, North Berwick, Ipencaitland, Prestonpans,
Salton, Tranent, and Yester, with the chapeMes of St
John's (Haddington) and Cockenzie. Pop. (1871)
25,545, (1881) 25,742, of whom 5718 were communi-
cants of the Church of Scotland in 1878. — The Free
Church has also a presbytery of Haddington and Dun-
bar, with churches at Cockburnspath, Dirleton, Dunbar,
Garvald, Haddington, Humbie, Innerwick, North Ber-
wick, Pencaitland, Prestonkirk, Salton 'Tranent, and
Yester, which 14 together had 2449 members in 1882.
See Dr Barclay's 'Account of the Parish of Had-
dington' in Tram. Sloe. Ants. Scott. (1792); James
Miller's Lamp of Lothian, or the History of Haddington
(Had. 1844) ; an article on p. 926 of the Builder (1878) ;
the two works cited under Ckaigenputtooh ; James
Purves's ' Tyningtown ' in Fraser's Magazine (March
1881); and the chapter on 'A Typical Scotch Town'
by Francis Watt, in Picturesque Scotland (Loud. 1SS2).
Haddingtonshire or East Lothian, a maritime county
in the south-east of Scotland, is situated between 55°
46' 10" and 56° 4' N lat., and between 2° 8' and 2°
49' W long. , and is bounded on the NAV and N by the
Firth of Forth, on the NE and E by the German Ocean,
on the SW and S by Berwickshire, and on the W by
Edinburghshire. With the exception of four small
streamlets which divide it towards the SW, NE, and
SE angles from Berwickshire and Edinburghshire, and
the summit line of the Lammermuirs, which forms
about one-half of the march with Berwickshire, the
county has, along its SE, S, and W frontiers, no natural
or geographical features to mark its boundary. It has
a total coast-line of Slf miles, of which 15J lie along
the Firth of Forth to the AV of North Berwick, and
present a flat and generally sandy beach ; while the 16J
miles that extend along the German Ocean rise in
irregular and bold cliff's. There are harbours at Pres-
tonpans, Cockenzie, Port Seton, North Berwick, and
Dunbar. The only bays of any size are Aberlady Bay,
a wide sandy flat at low water, and Tyninghame Bay,
at the mouth of the Tyne. Its land boundaries on the
S and W extend respectively for 16 and 13 miles. The
greatest length of Haddingtonshire, from E to W, is
26 1 miles ; its greatest breadth, from N by W to S by
E, is 19 miles ; and its circumference is roughly about
SO miles. Its total area is 280 square miles, or 179,142
acres, of which 173,298 are land, 5505 foreshore, and
1894 water. A small part of Humbie parish is quite de-
tached from the body of the county, which includes also
the Bass Rock.
Haddingtonshire has on the whole a northern ex-
posure, stretching from its highest point in the S, where
the Lammermuir Hills rise, in a gradual though not
unbroken slope to the seaboard on the N. The land in
the higher region is almost entirely pasturage, of the
Lowland Scotch hill character, though the skirts of the
hills are, to a considerable extent, brought under cultiva-