DRYBURGH ABBEY

'Dryburgh Abbey', on the banks of the River Tweed, Scotland, was nominally founded on 10 November (Martinmas) 1150 in an agreement between Hugh de Morville, Lord of Lauderdale and Constable of Scotland, and the Premonstratensian canons regular from Alnwick Abbey in Northumberland.^[1] The arrival of the canons along with their first abbot, Roger, took place on 13 December 1152.^[2]
It was burned by English troops in 1322, after which it was restored and patronised by Robert I of Scotland. It was again burned in 1385, but it flourished in the fifteenth century. It was finally destroyed in 1544, briefly to survive until the Scottish Reformation, when it was given to the Earl of Mar by James VI of Scotland.
The 12th Earl of Buchan bought the land in 1786. Sir Walter Scott and Douglas Haig are buried in its grounds.

Contents

The Premonstratensian order

Abbey endowments

Daughter houses

Notes

Bibliography

See also

External links

The Premonstratensian order

The Premonstratensian order was founded by St Norbert of Xanten who was firstly a canon at Xanten Cathedral. Unhappy with the way of life of his fellow canons, he left the Rhine lands for the diocese of Laon, in the north of France where the reforming Bishop Bartholomew was transforming his see into a more apostolic lifestyle.^[3] Bartholomew persuaded Norbert to form a canonical order at Prémontré, in Aisne in 1120; the order was Augustinian in form but the canons regular wore the white habit and not the black.^[4]They followed an austere monastic life, but had a duty to preach and teach to those on the outside of the monastery walls.^[4] The order spread rapidly across Europe with the Abbot of Prémontré becoming Abbot General for the all of the daughter-houses.^[4] Before the first Abbot General Hugh of Fosse died, a hundred and twenty abbots attended the annual general chapter.^[7] The Premonstratensians took on many of the methods of the Cistercians including land management and the use of lay-brothers to undertake the labour intensive work of the communes. ^[8]

Abbey endowments

Unlike the situation at nearby Melrose Abbey with its royal patronage, Hugh de Morville did not have the wealth with which to lavishly set up the new Dryburgh Abbey.^[9] However, it seems that King David I of Scotland was not unsympathetic to the monastery; it is recorded in a charter that as well as confirming various donations from de Morville's wife, Beatrice de Beauchamp, the king allowed the abbey to take freely, timber form his forests for the building work.^[10] Hugh gave the lands of Dryburgh containing the woods, grasslands and accompanying waters; the fishings from Berwick; the churches at Mertoun and Channelkirk in his Lordship of Lauderdale ; from his lands in Westmoreland, the church of Asby; and the earnings from the mills of Lauder and Saltoun.^[11] Beatrice gave the income from the church at Bozeat, Northamptonshire to the abbey ^[12] as well as lands at Roxburgh that she bought solely for this purpose.^[13]
Hugh, in around 1162, like some other magnates of the period, turned his back on worldly affairs and entered the church, adopting the habit of the canons.^[14] He gave his elder son, Richard, his large Scottish estates while his younger son, Hugh, received those in England.^[15] Hugh, the senior, died at Dryburgh Abbey that same year. ^[16]
Following Hugh's death, his son Richard carried on as patron to the abbey. However, in c. 1170 he founded the hospital of St Leonard near his castle at Lauder^{[17] [18]} and then sometime between 1169 and 1187, the abbey of Kilwinning in the lordship of Cunningham.^[19] Although Kilwinning Abbey was built on a grand scale, it was inadquately provided for ^[20] and so Richard ensured that some of the expense of its construction and upkeep was met from his holdings in Lauderdale; indeed a long running argument broke out between Kilwinning and Dryburgh over the former's share of the tiends from the church of Lauder.^[21] Richard de Morville's establishment of this second monastery ensured that both establishments would remain in a state of relative poverty.^[22]

Daughter houses

Dryburgh Abbey, despite this underfunding, managed to attract a continuous flow of novices to bolster the numbers of canons, so much so that by closing years of the 12th century the abbey was overcrowded necessitating the establishment of colonies.^[23] John de Courcy, the earl of Ulster installed a colony at Carrickfergus and a second at Drumcross^[24] but neither flourished in the longer term and this is put down more to the constant political convulsions throughout 13th century Ulster rather than any problems at the mother house.^[25]

Notes

1. Chron. Melrose, s.a. 1150
2. Chron. Melrose, s.a. 1152
3. Dryburgh Abbey, p. 9
4. Dryburgh Abbey, p. 10
5. Dryburgh Abbey, p. 10
6. Dryburgh Abbey, p. 10
7. Premonstratensian Canons, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XII, 1911, New York
8. Dryburgh Abbey, p. 11
9. Dryburgh Abbey, p. 13
10. Dryburgh Liber, no. 147
11. Dryburgh Liber, nos. 239, 240, 241, 249 and RRS, i, no. 172 and RRS, ii, no.165
12. Stringer, 'Early Lords', p. 45
13. Dryburgh Liber, no. 143 - 145, 147
14. Dryburgh Liber, no. 8
15. Dryburgh Abbey, p. 14
16. Chron. Melrose, s.a. 1162; RRS, i, 34-5
17. Easson, Religious Houses, p. 149
18. Dryburgh Liber, app. no. 1
19. Watt & Shead, Heads of Religious Houses, p. 127
20. Cowan, Crossraguel and Kilwinning, 268 - 270
21. Dryburgh Liber, nos. 94 - 87
22. Dryburgh Abbey, pp. 14 - 15
23. Dryburgh Abbey, p. 15
24. Macneil, Anglo-Norman Ulster, p. 14
25. Dryburgh Abbey, p. 15

Bibliography

★ A.O. Anderson et al., ed. ''Chronicle of Melrose'', London, 1936 [Chron. Melrose]

★ Fawcett, Richard & Oram, Richard, ''Dryburgh Abbey'', Stroud, Gloustershire, 2005. ISBN 0-7524-3469-X [Dryburgh Abbey]

★ ''Liber Sancte Marie de Dryburgh'', Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh, 1847 [Dryburgh Liber]

★ Barrow, G.W.S., ed.''Regesta Regum Scotorum'' ed. Edinburgh, 1971. ISBN 0852241429 [RRS]

★ Cowan, I.B., ''Ayrshire Abbeys: Crossraguel and Kilwinning, Ayrshire Archaelogical and Natural History Society, 1986 [Cowan, Crossraguel and Kilwinning]

★ Stringer, K.J., ed. 'The Early Lords of Lauderdale, Dryburgh Abbey and St Andrews Priory at Northhampton' in '' Essays on the Nobility of Medieval Scotland", Edinburgh, 1985. [Stringer, Early Lords]

★ Watt, D.E.R and Shead, N.F., ''The Heads of Religious Houses in Scotland from Twelfth to Sixteenth Centuries, Scottish Record Society, 2001. [Watt & Shead, Heads of Religious Houses]

See also

★ Abbot of Dryburgh, for a list of abbots and commendators

External links

★

★ A dozen images of Dryburgh Abbey