PHE KIRK-OF-FIELD. (Alto an Etching by /awes Skenc cf Rubirlaw).
OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH.
CHAPTER I.
THE KIRK OF ST. MARY-IN-THE-FIELDS.
Memorabilia of the Edifice-Its Age-Altars-hfade Collegiate-The Prebendal Buildings--Ruined-The House of the Kirk of-Field-The
hfurder of Darnley-Robert Balfour, the Last Provost.
WE now come to the scene of one of the most
astounding events in European history-the spot
where Henry, King of Scotland, was murdered in
the lonely house attached to the Kirk-of-Field, one of
the many fanes dedicated to St. Mary in Edinburgh,
where their number was great of old.
When, or by whom, the church of St. Mary-inthe-
Fields was founded is alike unknown. In the
taxation of the ecclesiastical benefices in the archdeaconry
of Lothian, found in the treasury of
Durham, and written in the time of Edward I. of
England, there appears among the churches belonging
to the abbey of Holyrood, EccZesia Sand&
Mariiz in Cam&
This was beyond doubt what was at a later
period the collegiate church of St. Mary-in-the-
Fields, and the few notices concerning which are
very meagre ; but thus it must have existed in the
thirteenth century, when all the district to the south
07
of it was covered with oaks to the base of the hills
of Braid and Blackford. It took its name from
being completely in the fields, beyond the wall of
1450. In the view of the city engraved in 1544, it is
shown to have been a large cruciform church, with
a tall tower in the centre ; and this representation
of it is to a great extent repeated in a view found in
the State Paper Office (drawn after the murder of
Darnley), of which a few copies have been circulated,
and which shows its pointed windows and
buttresses.
Among the property belonging to the foundation
was a tenement at the foot of the modem Blair
Street, on the west side, devoted to the altar of St.
Katharine in this now defunct church ; and in the
? Inventory of Pious Donations,? preserved in the
Advocates? Library (quoted by Wilson), there is a
? mortification I? by Janet Kennedy, Lady Bothwell,
to the chaplain of the Kirk-of-Field of ?her fore
2 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Kirk-of-Field.
land of umyle Hew Berrie?s tenement and chamber
adjacent yr to, lying in the Cowgaitt, on the south
side of the street, betwixt James Earl of Buchan?s
land on the east, and Thomas Tod?s on ye west.?
This lady was a daughter of John Lord Kennedy,
and was the widow of the aged Earl of Angus, who
died of a broken heart after the battle of Flodden.
In 1450-1 an obligation by the Corporation of
Skinners in favour of St. Christopher?s altar in St.
Giles?s was signed with much fornialityon the 12th
of January, infra ecdesiam Beate &Iarie He Canzpo,
in presence of Sir Alexander Hundby, John
Moffat, and John Hendirsone, chaplains thereof,
Thomas Brown, merchant, and other witnesses.
((? Burgh Rec.?)
James Laing, a burgess of Edinburgh, founded
an additional chaplaincy in this church during the
reign of James V., whose royal confirmation of it is
dated 19th June, 1530, and the grant is made ? to
a chaplain celebrating divine service at the high
altar within the collegiate church of Blessed
Marie-in-the-Fields.?
When made collegiate it was governed by a provost,
who with eight prebendaries and two choristers
composed the college ; but certain rights appear to
have been reserved then by the canons of Holyrood,
for in 1546 we find Robert, Commendator of
the abbey, presenting George Kerr to a. prebend
in it, ?according to the force and form of the
foundation.?
There is a charter by James V., arst May, 1531,
confirming a previous one of 16th May, I 53 I, by the
lady before mentioned, ?Janet Kennedy Domina
de Bothvill,? of tenements in Edinburgh, and an
annual rent of twenty shillings for a prebendary to
perform divine service ?in the college kirk of the
Blessed Virgin Mary-in-the-Fields, or without the
walls of Edinburgh, pro sat& #sius Domini Regis
(JamesV.), and for the souls OP his father (James
IV.), and the late Archibald, Earl of Angus?
Among the most distinguished provosts of the
Kirk-of-Field was its second one, Richard Bothwell,
rector of Ashkirk, who in A4ugust and
December, 1534, was a commissioner for opening
Parliament. He died in the provost?s house in
1547.
The prebendal buildings were of considerable
extent, exclusive of the provost?s house, or
lodging. David Vocat, one of the prebendaries,
and master of the Grammar School of Edinburgh,
clerk and orator of Holyrood,? was a liberal
? benefactor to the church ; but it and the buildings
attached to it seem to have suffered severely at the
hands of the English during the invasion of 1544
or 1547. In the ?? Inventory of the Townis purchase
from the Marquis of Hamilton in 1613,?? with
a view to the founding of a college, says Wilson,
we have found an abstract of ?a feu charter granted
by Mr. Alexander Forrest, provost of the collegiate
church of the Blessed Xlary-in-the-Fields, near
Edinr., and by the prebends of the said church,?
dated 1544, wherein it is stated:-?Considering that
ther houses, especially ther hospital annexed and
incorporated with ther college, were burnt down
and destroyed by their add enemies of EngZand, so
that nothing of their said hospital was left, but they
are altogether waste and entirely destroyed, wherethrough
the divine worship is not a little decreased
in the college, because they were unable to rebuild
the said hospital. . . , Therefore they gave and
granted, set in feu forme, and confirmed to a magnificent
and illustrious prince, James, Duke of
Chattelherault, Earl of Arran, Lord Hamilton, &c.,
all and hail their tenement or hospital, with the
yards and pertinints thereof, lying within the burgh
of Edinburgh, in the street or wynd called School
House Wynd, on the east part thereof.?
The duke appears, it is added, from frequent
allusions by contemporaries, to have built an abode
for his family on the site of this hospital, and that
edifice served in future years as the hall of the first
college of Edinburgh.
In 1556 we find Alexander Forrest, the provost
of the kirk, in the name of the Archbishop of St.
Andrews, presenting a protest, signed by Mary of
Guise, to the magistrates, praying them to suppress
?? certain odious ballettis and rymes baith sett
furth ? by certain evil-inclined persons, who had
also demolished certain images, but with what end
is unknown. (?Burgh Records.?)
But two years after Bishop Lesly records that
when the Earl of Argyle and his reformers entered
Edinburgh, after spoiling the Black and Grey
Friars, and having their ? haill growing treis
plucked up be the ruittis,? they destroyed and
burned all the images in the Kirk-of-Field.
In 1562 the magistrates made application to
Queen Mary, among other requests, for the Kirk-of-
Field and all its adjacent buildings and ground,
for the purpose of erecting a school thereon, and
for the revenues of the old foundation to endow the
same ; but they were not entirely made over to the
city for the purpose specified till 1566.
The quadrangle of the present university now
occupies the exact site of the church of St. Mary-inthe-
Fields, including that of the prebendal buildings,
and, says Wilson-who in this does not quite accord
with Bell-to a certain extent the house of the provost,
so fatally known in history; and the main access
and approach to the whole establishment was
