Bannatyne Club > Origines parochiales Scotiae > Volume 1

MOREBATTLE.] PAROCHIALES. 405
TeviotJalo, ami against the said church of Mcrbotill, namely, with the reservation for ever of half
a mark of silver of the usual money of Scotland, to be annually paid in lieu of the whole tithe
of the said towns or places of Gatschawe and Clyftounecotis by the said monks of Melros to the
said archdeacon of Teviotdale and his successors for the time being ; imposing perpetual silence
on the said archdeacon of Teviotdale and his successors for the time being in the case of the above
mentioned tithes of all the foresaid places or towns of Gatschawe and Cliftounecotis, with the sole
exception of the foresaid pension of half a mark.' ^
The present church, built in 1757, occupies the site of a former building on the left bank of the
Kale in the north western extremity of the parish.^ A spring below the churchyard still bears
the name of 'Laurie's AVell.'^ There were at one period chapels at Clifton and at Whitton,
which in 1186 were along with the church of Merbotle confirmed to bishop Joceline by Pope
Urban III.*
In Baiamund's Roll the rectory of Merbottil is rated at £10, 1.3s. 8d.-^ — in the Taxatio sec. xvi.
at £9, Os. 9d.^ — and in the Libellus Taxationum at =£106, 1.3s. 4d. When the prebends were
taxed for the ornaments and service of the Cathedral church in 1401 by bishop Matthew, and
again about the year 1432 by bishop John, Merbotil was rated at £5 J In 1575 the stipend of
the minister who served the cures of Mow, Yettame, Lintoun, Morbottle, and Hownum was ' the
haill archideanrye of Teviotdaill, quhilk is the personage and vicarage of Morbottill, extending to
£221, 6s. 8d.,' of which he had to pay to the reader at Lyntoun and Morbottle the sum of
£26, 13s. 4d.8
Clifton in this parish appears in record at an early period. Before the year 670 Oswy, King
of Northumberland, granted to Saint Cuthbert ' all that land which lay on the river Bolbend,'
including Cliftun and other ' towns.' ^ In the twelfth century a part of the land belonged to the
monks of Melros. Between the years 1179 and 1189 Walter of AVildleshoures granted to them
that portion of land which they held in the territory of Clifton according to these bounds, namely,
' From the two stones projecting from the rock above the small rush-bed on the east side of
Crukehou, close by where the land of Prenwensete and the land of Grubbeheued meet together,
along that rush-bed and the stone lying below it, along a certain ridge, according to the marches
and bounds which he and Ernald abbot of Melros and Symon the archdeacon perambulated and
made, as far as the Bireburn — and thence across the Bireburn in a southern direction towards
Molle as far as the rock next the road eastwards above the Cukoueburn — and thence as the
Cukoueburn descends as far as the same great road, namely, that which leads from Rochesburc
to Molle — and thence along that road as far as the Mereburn which separates the land of Clifton
from the land of Molle — and thence along the Mereburn as far as the boundaries of Hunum — and
thence as the boundaries run between the land of Hunum and the land of Cliftun as far as the
boundaries of Grubbeheued — and thence along the marches and boundaries which he perambulated
' Lib. de Melros, pp. 583-587. ^ Regist. Glasg., p. l.\xu.
' New Stat. Aec. and Maps. ' Regist. Glasg., pp. 299, 344.
^ New Stat. Ace. ' Books of Assignations.
* Regist. Glasg., p. 55. » Sim. Dun. Hist, de S. Cuthberto.
* Regist. Glasg., p. Ixiii.