Strathendrick, and its inhabitants from early times

THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF BALFRON 23
Regular, and was dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin and St. John the Evangelist.
It was founded before 1200 by one of the great Celtic Earls of Stratherne,
and was situated in the parish of Madderty, in Perthshire, on a small rising
ground, surrounded by the waters of the Pow. None of its abbots attained
to any eminence, with the exception of the Abbot Maurice, who immortalized
himself at the Battle of Bannockburn, for he attended the Scottish host there
with the Arm of St. Fillan — a sacred relic — and "said messe on ane hie mote
and ministerit the Eucharist to the king and his nobillis." 1
At the dawn of the Reformation the Abbacy was held in covimendani by
Alexander Gordon, Bishop of Galloway, who, in 1556, resigned it in favour of
James Drummond of Inverpeffray, second son of David Lord Drummond.
After the Reformation Inchaffray was erected into a temporal lordship in his
favour, and in 1609 he was created Lord Madertie. This noble family is now
represented by Lord Kinnoul, who, however, possesses but little more than
the ruins of the old abbey, though in virtue thereof he was patron of the
parishes which of old belonged to the abbey, Balfron being one of them. When
patronage was abolished in 1874 Balfron ceased to have even this slender con-
nection with Inchaffray and the House of Drummond. After the Reformation the
Church of Scotland was for long deprived of even a share of its endowments,
and in 1607 the teinds of Balfron were let by the young commendator of
Inchaffray to Sir James Cunningham of Glengarnock, as the following writ,
preserved in the register of Inchaffray, shows :
" Be It Kend till all men be thir present lettres, Me James, Commendatar
of Incheffray fforsamekill as S r ' James Cuninghame of Glengarnock knicht and
his predecessores Lairdis of Glengarnok, has bene kyndlie tenentis and takismen
in tyme bygane past memorie of man . . . of all . . . the personage
and vicarage teyndis of the Kirk of Balfrone, quhilk is ane of the proper Kirkis
of the said abbacie ... to haif sett . . . witht the aduyce and con-
sent of Dene Alexander Murray, ane of the conventis of the said abbacie now
onlie on lyfe to the said S r - James Cunynghame of Glengarnok,
knycht . . . the teind, scheavis, fructis, rentis, prouentis, emolimentis, baith
of the said personage and vicarage of the said Kirk of Balfrone ... for
tuenty ane yeiris . . . Payand thairfoir yeirlie . . . the sowme of fourtie
markis gude and usuall money of Northt Britane togidder witht fourtene stane
of cheis ... At Inuerpeffrie, 12 Januar a.d. 1607."
The two following entries from the Taxt Roll of the Lordschip of Inchaffray,
1630, complete the very meagre account we have been able to give of the
connection of the parish of Balfron with the Abbey of Inchaffray :
"58 Lennox of Blaorinschegall, for the taxt of his teyndis of
1 Boece's History of Scotland, translated by Bellenden, Vol. II., p. 391.