Series 3 > Charters of the Abbey of Inchcolm

xl CHARTERS OF THE ABBEY OF INCHCOLM
anempst you we referre the helpe of them agayn to your
discrecion. . .
The same letter raises the question ‘ if the fortificacion
appointed uppon the westerly hill had been made ’—it
evidently was not.1 By 6th March 1548, the English had
departed, for, on that date, Luttrell reports to Somerset
that he has ‘ ruinated ’ the fortifications of the island and
arrived in the Tay ; 2 and St. Colm’s Inch is mentioned,
on 16th August 1548, as ‘ kept by Frenshe men.’ 3 The
final demolition of the fort was ordered by the Privy
Council, on 22nd April 1550, ‘ becaus tha serve of na thing
in tyme of pece.’4 The Abbey, perhaps because of its
inaccessible situation, suffered no harm at the hands of
the Reformers. Although the ‘ convent ’ maintained a
lingering existence till at least 1578, until, indeed, the
canons died out, the island seems to have been deserted
in 1564 when, on 23rd September, ‘ Danskin waires ’ were
to be disinfected on it.5 Its plight in 1581—in which year
the Town Council of Edinburgh bought the ashlar and
* thack stanes ’ of the Abbey for rebuilding the Tolbooth 6
—may be judged from the terms of the Act of Parliament
of that year whereby the infeftment of the Earl of Moray
by Sir James Stewart of Doune, the Commendator, in the
1 Scottish Corresp. of Mary of Lorraine, pp. 215-216.
2 Cal. of State Papers, i., p. 82. Dalrymple’s translation of Lesley’s
History thus explains the vacating of Inchcolm by the English : ‘ The
monaster in the He of S. Colme, tane, is delyiuered in keiping to Lutheroll
an Inglis man with an armie. Bot schortlie eftir oures dingis him out’
(ii., p. 302). Lesley's own version is : ‘ (In September 1547) thair flotte
on the sey brint the toun of Kincorin and sum utheris of the sey coist and
tuik the Abbay of Sanct Colmis Inche and fortifyit the same, leaving Sir
Johne Lutterell knight with a garesone of men thairin, quha bruikit not
that hold long, bot was compelled not long eftir to depairt thairfra ’
(Historic of Scotland, p. 201).
3 Scottish Correspondence of Mary of Lorraine, p. 265. A French fleet,
in September 1548, lost one of its largest ships ofl Inchcolm (Teulet,
Relations politiques, i., p. 225).
4 PCR., i., p. 90. 8 Ibid., p. 280.
6 Edin. Burgh Rees., 1573-89, pp. 204, 210.