Drumsergard
Extracted from Caledonia - A historical and Topographical account
of North Britain, 1800
The parish of Cambuslang derived its singular name from the
Celtic Camuslang signifying the bending water-bank, or the bank on
the bend of the water. The church of Cambuslang stands on the steep
bank of a winding rivulet which runs through the parish and falls
into the Clyde, and the most remarkable bend in its whole course is
that immediately above and at the church. The Celtic name of
Cambuslang has obtained from the Saxon people the form of Cambuslang.
The patronage of the church of Cambuslang was connected with
the barony of Drumsergard, which appears to have comprehended the
whole, or nearly the whole of the parish. The territory of
Drumsergard, with the lordship of Bothwell, was held during the
reign of Alexander II by Walter Olifard, the justiciary of Lothian,
after whose death in 1242, they passed, probably by marriage, to
Walter de Moray, the progenitor of the Morays of BothwelL The
property of the territory of Drumsergard was conferred on a younger
son of that family, but the superiority and the patronage of the
church of Cambuslang remained with the chief of the family.
In 1370 the lordship of Bothwell, with the superiority of the barony
of Drumsergard, and the patronage of the church of Cambuslang,
passed, by marriage with Johanna, the only child and heiress of Sir
Thomas Moray of Bothwell, to
Archibald Douglas, Lord of Galloway, who became Earl of Douglas
in 1389. This property continued in the family of Douglas till the
forfeiture of James, Earl of
Douglas, in 1455, when James, Lord Hamilton, having previously
acquired the property of the barony of Drumsergard, now acquired the
superiority of the same barony by obtaining a charter from the king
as tenant in capite^ and this estate continued in the Hamilton
family. In 1296 Conewall, the parson of the church of Cambuslang,
swore fealty to Edward I., and obtained a writ to the sheriff of
Berwick [Lanark] for the delivery of his property.
William
de Monypenny was rector of the church of Cambuslang in the reign of
Robert 11. In 1379, William Monypenny, the rector
of Cambuslang, purchased from Sir William Dalyell an annual rent of
6 marks sterling from the lands of East Ferme of Rutherglen, and he
bestowed this as an endowment for a chapel to celebrate divine
service in the chapel of the Virgin Mary of Cambuslang, and this was
ratified by a charter of Robert 11 on the 8th of December 1379,
which settled the patronage of the chaplainry on Monypenny, his
heirs and assigns.
Mr. John de Merton was rector of the same church in 1394.
John Cameron, who became the bishop of Glasgow in 1426, was before
that time rector of the church of Cambuslang, to which rectory he
was presented by the second Archibald, Earl of Douglas, whose
secretary and confessor he was.
In 1429 the parish church of
Cambuslang, with its property and revenues, was constituted a
prebend of the cathedral church of Glasgow by Bishop Cameron, with
the consent of the patron, Archibald, Earl of Douglas, Lord of
Bothwell and Drumsergard, the patronage of the prebend to belong to
the earl and his heirs, while the church was to be served by a vicar
pensioner, to whom was assigned from its revenues a stipend of 20
marks yearly, with a manse and a certain part of the church lands.
The prebend of Cambuslang was taxed £3 yearly for the use and
ornament of the cathedral church. At the Reformation the vicar
pensioner of the parish church of Cambuslang had 22 marks yearly,
with a manse, ten acres of land, and a coal pit, all which was
estimated as worth about £40 a year. The prebend of Cambuslang
became the appropriate benefice of the sacrist of the cathedral of
Glasgow. In Bagimont's Roll the prebendal rectory of Cambuslang was
taxed £6 68. 8d., being a tenth of the estimated value of its
spiritual revenues. At the Reformation this prebendal parsonage was
held by Mr. William Haylton, who reported the income as being 187
bolls 2 firlots of meal, 19 bolls 2 firlots of bear, and £5 in
money, out of which he had to pay 22 marks yearly to the vicar
pensioner, who had moreover a manse, ten acres of land, and a coal
heugh. He had also to pay a pension of £26 13s. 4d. yearly to Sir
David Christison, and he had to pay a pension of a certain quantity
of victual yearly to the Duke of Chattelherault, the patron, after
payment of all which he says there remained very little for him to
live upon. The vicar's land, with his manse, garden, and coal-pit,
passed into lay hands after the Reformation. Haylton was succeeded
in the benefice of the parsonage and vicarage of Cambuslang by Lord
Claud Hamilton, the fourth son of the Duke of Chattelherault ; but
the oppression of the Hamilton family by the regents during the
minority of King James, obliged Lord Claud to seek safety in
England, and during his absence " the Kirk," that is the
Presbyterian faction who ruled the church, assumed the disposal of
the beneficej and planted Mr. John Howieson, a minister, in the
church of Cambuslang. At length, in 1587, an act of parliament was
passed annulling the presentation and appointment of Howieson by "
the kirk," and confirming the title of Lord Claud Hamilton to the
parsonage and vicarage of Cambuslang during his life.
Lord
Claud died in 1621. The barony of Drumsergard, with the patronage of
the church of Cambuslang, continued to belong to the Hamilton
family, and was confirmed to them by a charter of Charles II, to
William and Anne, the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton, in 1672, which
chabged the holding of this property from ward to free-blench. In
the 17th century, the name of the barony of Drumsergard was changed
to Cambuslang. This has given rise to a mistaken notion that the
name of the parish was changed from Drumsergard to Cambuslang. The
patronage of the church of Cambuslang now belongs to the Duke of
Hamilton, who is also titular of the tithes. The parish church of
Cambuslang was rebuilt in 1743 on the same site where the old church
had long stood. In the parish of Cambuslang, about a quarter of a
mile below the parish church, there was in former times a chapel
which was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, which was popularly called
the Lady Chapel of Kirkbum.
At the Reformation the chaplainry of the
Lady Chapel of Kirkbum was held by Sir John Miller, who reported its
value as seven marks yearly. In 1565 Sir John Miller, the chaplain
of the Virgin Mary's chapel of Kirkburn, granted in feu-firm to
Alexander Bogil, otherwise Aikenhead, and Janet MuiTay, his wife,
three and a half acres of the church lands, with the houses and
garden belonging to the said chapel in the barony and parish of
Cambuslang ; and this grant was ratified by a charter under the
great seal on the 1 2th of August 1565. The lands which were thus
granted still bear the name of Chapel.
See also: Drumsargard Castle
Errors and Omissions
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