1837 'New Statistical Account' | Holywood, Scotland

From The Statistical Account of Dumfriesshire, 1841, pp. 553-566

PARISH OF HOLYWOOD.

PRESBYTERY OF DUMFRIES, SYNOD OF DUMFRIES.

THE REV. ROBERT KIRKWOOD, A. M. MINISTER.

I.-TOPOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY.

Name.-- The lower part of this parish was, unquestionably, at an early period, a Quercetum, or oak forest, extending most probably to Snaid, in the parish of Glencairn, a distance of eight miles. In the eastern part of the parish, a quarter of a mile south-west from the parish church, there are Druidical remains. Now the Druids, it is known, held special assemblies once a year, and their assemblies convened in a consecrated place.* The grove or forest of this parish being designed or esteemed by them sacred, might transmit that character to the Culdees, their successors; and when a Catholic settlement was formed here, in the beginning of the twelfth century, it might be found advantageous to its object, still to continue its sacred character. That it was so designed by them is most evident. The charter seal of the Abbot, dated 1264, is in my possession.+ It bears the following inscription : Sg. Abbat. Sacri Nemoris - the seal of the Abbot of the Sacred Grove. Besides, there is a bull of Pope Innocent III., addressed, Abbate de sacro nemore, to the Abbot of the Sacred Grove, in the diocese of Glasgow, ++ that is Holywood, originally written Halywood and Haliewood.

* "Considunt in loco consecrato," Clesar de Bello Gallico, Lib. vii. cap. xiii.

+ Kindly furnished by Alexander M. Donald, Esq. of the Register Office, Edinburgh.

++ See Connell on Teinds, Vol iii, p. 10.

Extent and Boundaries.-- This parish is situated in the most beautiful portion of the vale of Nithsdale. It is bounded on the east by the parish of Dumfries ; on the south, by Terregles, Irongray, and Kirkpatrick-Durham; on the we8t and north, by Glencairn and Dunscore ; and on the north-east, by Kirkmahoe. It extends about 10 miles in length, and is about 14 mile in breadth. [t lies in the middle of an extensive valley, and the land is nearly without elevation There is but one range of hills of short extent, and neither abrupt nor of great height. The parish contains 14 square miles.

Hydrography.-- The river Nith glides along the eastern boundary, of the parish, which it intersects at two places; and the intersections are obviously occasioned by a change in the line of the river during high floods, which happen frequently every season. To guard against the effect of these, several proprietors have secured their lands by embankments. The Nith, during summer, is fordable at three places.

The Cluden, a very considerable stream, runs along the south side of the parish for more than eight miles. It intersects it at three places; and in one of these, the lands of Speddoch and Milliganton, 1200 acres, are separated from the continuity of the parish. There is a ford., often impassable during winter. There is now in building, two miles lower, a wooden bridge for carriages. The expense, L. 120, has been raised by subscription; a matter creditable to those who have taken an interest in it, and of certain public utility,

Fishing.-- The Cluden is an excellent trouting stream, superior in this respect to the Nith. Salmon, sea-trout, herlings, and occasionally pike are found in it. It is much poached. The best fishing range, both for numbers and size of trout, is near and beyond the upper extremity of this parish, In the former account of the parish, it is stated, "that though the two rivers, the Nith and the Cluden, unite at the south-east corner of the parish, each has its own distinct species of salmon. The Cluden salmon are considerably thicker and shorter in the "body, and greatly shorter in the head than those of the Nith." These peculiarities still exist, and if the fish has been more than two days run, its colour is much darker in the shade than one similarly situated in the Nith. This colour is obviously occasioned by some peculiarity in the water of the Cluden; and very probably this, that it contains a greater proportion of moss in solution. The number of salmon taken in the Cluden is not great. From a verdict by jury lately obtained, stake-nets will be removed from the boundaries of the Nith upon the Solway, and therefore it is anticipated that more salmon will find their way to our linn and pools. It is, besides, the opinion of the most experienced fishermen, that the fishing season closes too early; and that, too, at the time, when the best fish are advancing, few of which, how ever, though not permitted to be legally taken, escape the torch and the spear of those who respect neither the law nor the right applicable to this species of property. The close season, instead of commencing on the 25th of September, should extend to the 5th of October.

The lands of Cowhill and Portract have a right to fishings in the Nith, and Fourmerkland in the Cluden.

The salmon caught are nearly all sold in Dumfries, at from 2s. to 6d. per pound, according to the time of the season. Springs are abundant, and the water is of the purest quality.

Meteorology.--The climate is dry, and eminently healthy. The correct habits of the people, and the fact, that they are all almost employed in agriculture or rural pursuits, may be assigned as the causes of the general good health which prevails. During the last fifteen years, there have been only four cases of typhous fever; and in this period, thirty-six persons have died of pulmonary consumption. This season, when scarlet fever has been peculiarly fatal in parishes around, out of sixty cases, in this parish, there were only three deaths.

Geology.-- The upper part of the parish, in the hill-portion of it, contains greywacke. Near the centre, at Rue and Newhouse, of Baltersan, there is hard red freestone, and also limestone. The dip is to the south. These are not worked. On the lands here mentioned, within twenty-five years, portions of lead ore have been turned up by the plough in considerable pieces; and, within twenty years, on the west boundary of Cowhill estate, a fragment was dug up, which weighed three pounds. At Cluden Bank, there is red free-stone, but so coarse and soft as to be unfit for building.

Boulders are numerous in some parts of the parish. They consist chiefly of different varieties of large and small-grained greywacke, conglomerate and trap, -- together with several varieties of granite and sienite, which, in general, are different from those of Criffel. They are found from a stone weight to three tons.

The soil of this parish is varied. The lands along the Nith, and also for a considerable tract on the Cluden, are of a deep alluvial soil, and entirely free of stones. Advancing beyond these tracts, the soil becomes lighter. It is dry, and lies, for the most part on coarse sand, though, in some places, the sand is so fine as to be used for the purposes of building. There is another portion receding from the former, which consists of a deep strong loam with small stones; yet in suitable seasons, it yields excellent crops. In the higher parts, the soil is of the same character, though less deep. This part has never been ploughed; nor probably would it pay, if it were. The grass, though not fine, is suitable for young cattle.

Botany.--This parish being almost entirely agricultural, the range of its botanical products is neither extensive nor interesting. The following is a selection of its most common plants :--

Artemia vulgaris, Cochlearia officinalis, Polypodium vulgare

Achillaea millefolium, Geum urbanum, Oxalis acetosella

Agiimonia eupatoria, -- rivale, -- corniculata

Betoniea officinallis, Holosteum umbellata Plantago major,

Carum carui, Mentha pulegium, Sambucus ebulus,

Convallaria majalis, Orchis mascula, Marrabium vulgare.

There are no extensive woods in the parish. The trees are those common in the surrounding district, namely, oak, plane, ash, beech, birch, horse-chestnut, and larch, with an intermixture or spruce and Scotch fir in belts of planting.

Zoology.-- The mole and the weasel are numerous. There is also a sufficient stock of polecats. Foxes frequent the hilly district, but they are not abundant. At times, they visit the lower district, at a distance from the scene of their fixed resort, and kill the barn fowl. Complaints, however, are not frequent against them; and this may be held as good evidence that they do not too severely annoy the farmers' wives, by depriving them of their feathered stock. The otter is to be found on the banks of the Nith. The severe amusement of otter-hunting has or late been revived. Hares and partridges are not so numerous as report affirms them to have been, when servants made it a stipulation not to have hare soup and salmon to dinner, in the respective seasons, more than three days in the week! The blackbird, the thrush, the bullfinch, and the linnet are abundant. The swallow and all the birds or the district are to be found over the parish. The owl has a domicile in the church steeple; and generally finds a home near every gentleman's mansion. Flocks of sea gulls, before a storm, advance from the Solway, a distance of eleven miles, and visit the lower and middle parts of the parish. They are never seen here, but before a storm. On one occasion, last year, they came in such numbers as to cover more than an acre of the Glebe lands. They remained for some time, and before night a severe storn1 was experienced.

II.-CIVIL HISTORY.

Land-owners.-- The principal land proprietors are, S. Denholm Young, Esq. of Guilyhill; Captain Charles James Johnston, R. N. of Cowhill ; Francis Maxwell, Esq. of Gribton; Miss Gilchrist of Newtonairds; the heirs of the late Dr John Gilchrist of Speddoch; Thomas Corrie, Esq. of Stielston; and Alexander Harley Maxwell, Esq. of Portrack.

The number of proprietors of land having L. 50 and upwards of yearly rent, resident and non-resident, is 23. In a1l, there are 37 heritors, 17 of whom are non-resident,-a circumstance decidedly disadvantageous to land improvement, and to the interests of the parochial poor.

Parochial Registers.-- The earliest register of baptisms, marriages, co1lections, and disbursements, is of date 30th December 1687. The register appears entire till 8th May 1697. It commences again 9th February 1725, and continues, except few years after 1806, entire to the present time. It is evident, from the register of 1688, when many of the principal parishioner, made confession, and were publicly rebuked fur their sin of having taken the test,* -- that the people of this parish were decidedly attached to the church, as their posterity have continued to this day; and therefore there has existed no feeling hostile to the registration of baptisms and marriages.

* That is, the Sacrament, in the Episcopal form, as a token or test of submission to the then tyrannical powers. Such state tricks are revolting to the spiritual genius of Christianity.

Patronage.-- The Earls of Nithsdale held the right of patronage of Irongray, Terregles, Kirkgunzeon, Holywood, and Ruthwell. Wi1liam, Earl of Nithsdale, sold the patronage of Holywood to Alexander Ferguson of Isle in Kirkmahoe, advocate, in 1714. Robert, his son, was served and retoured heir to his father, and was the next patron. It was sold by him to Robert Fergusson of Fourmerkland in this parish. In 1724, Mrs Beveridge, spouse of the Rev. Andrew Beveridge, minister of Caerlaverock, was patroness in 1771. Her son, Robert, succeeded. His sister married the Rev. James M'Millan, minister of Torthorwald, and proprietor of the foresaid lands of Fourmerkland ; and their daughter, Ann, relict of Dr James Crichton, minister of Holywood, succeeded to the patronage,-- by whom the present incumbent was presented. John Crichton, Esq. of Skeoch, purchased it in 1823, for L.750, and his relict is now patroness.

Eminent Men.-- Joannes de Sacro Bosco, it has often been supposed, was a native of Holywood. This, however, is not the fact.

He may, for a time, have been a monk of the abbey; but he was a native of Halifax, in Yorkshire. He was educated at Oxford, and taught philosophy and mathematics at Paris. The Amalgest of Ptolemy and the Commentaries of the Arab, were abridged by him. His work was long famous as an elementary book, under the title of De Sphaera Mundi.* He died at Paris, 1235.+ The only person eminent in learning or science, a native of this Parish, was Mr Charles Irvine, surgeon, mentioned in the former Account, by Dr Johnston. He was son of the late William Irvine, Esq. of Gribton, and the person who, some year, before 1790, discovered the method of rendering salt water fresh, for which he was rewarded by Government with a grant of L. 5000.

Antiquities. -- The Abbey.-- There are now no remains of the Abbey of Holywood. It stood in the south-east corner of the present burying-ground. It was founded by Dervorgilla, or Donagilla, daughter of Alan Lord of Galloway. She was the wife of John Baliol, Lord of Castle Bernard, and mother of John Baliol, declared King of the Scot, by the decision of Edward I. 17th Nov. 1292. Spotiswood slate, that Son Is Seat, near Stranraer, founded by Fergus Lord of Galloway, early in the twelfth century, was the mother of Holywood and Whitehorn.

The abbey belonged to the order of the Premonstratenses, founded by Norbert, archbishop of Magdebourg, in 1121. This order was instituted in the diocese of Laon, in France; and the monk, pretend that the place was called Praemonstratum, because it was divinely pointed out, divina revelatione premonstratum. Six monasteries in Scotland belonged to the monk, of this order, viz. Soul Seat, near Stranraer, Holywood, Whitehorn, Dryburgh, Kingland in Galloway, and Ferne in Ross.++ An inspection of the chartulary of the Bishoprick of Glasgow, which extend, from the year 1115 to the Reformation, and which is preserved in the University library, would, it is probable, afford much information regarding the chartulary of Holywood.

* A copy of this very scarce work is in the library of the present incumbent.

+ Adam's Geography, Introduction, page 24.

++ Spotiswood?s Apendix to Hope?s Minor Practicks, p. 431. Edinburgh, 1734.

The abbey, which had across the middle of the building a fine Gothic arch, by which the oak roof was supported, and whose entrance was through a handsome semicircular arch, was taken down in 1778, and the material, used for building the present parish church. The two bells which belonged to the abbey are still the parish bells. They are of excellent tone, and one of them, by the inscription it bears, was consecrated by John Wrich, probably the abbot, in the year 1154.

Tower.-- There is at Fourmerkland a tower of small extent. It was built by R. Maxwell, in the year 1590, and is still in part inhabited.

Druidical Temple.-- Not more than a quarter of a mile south-west of the church, eleven large stones are placed in an oval form. There were twelve originally; but one, many years since, was removed. Their origin has always been traced to the times of the Druids. They are situated near the lower termination of the sacred Grove, to which reference has been made. And there are lands about half a mile to the east, which of old extent are designed Woodneuk, so named because they were situated at one of the corners of the grove.

Six of these stones are small-grained greywacke; two, coarse- grained greywacke; and other two are greywacke, but the colour is of a green tint; and the last is a small-grained granite rock.

The greywacke seems to be of the same general description as the varieties of this rock which occur in Dumfries-shire. The original locality of the granite rock is more doubtful, as it differs from that of Criffel.

It is not easy to conceive how these masses could have been transferred to their present locality. The difficulty may be conceived, when it is stated, that the largest stone, by cubic measurement, weighs nearly twelve tons; and the second largest, nine tons.

On the lands of Holm, within a mile due east of these stones, there was, within the last fifty years, another Druidical temple. It consisted of nine large stones, and was situated on a small eminence within 200 yards of the Nith. Unfortunately, and without the knowledge of the proprietor, Peter Johnston, Esq. of Carnsalloch, they were broken and applied to the purposes of building.

Cup.-- Among the res sacrae of the parish, there is a communion cup, made of silver. It is saucer-formed, and contains three gills and a half imperial, and weighs nine ounces. There is around it, an inscription in rudely formed capital letter- FOR THE PARISH OF HALIEWOOD, 1619; The initials of the stamp, C.R. F. E.

Hospital.-- In the list of religious houses, Spotiswood states, that Robert II. confirmed the foundation of an hospital made within the monastery of Holywood, by Archibald the Grim, Earl of Douglas.

Modern Buildings.-- Broomrig House, on the banks of the Nith, the residence of S. Denholm Young, Esq. Two miles farther up the Nith is Cowhill House, the residence of Captain Charles James Johnston, R. N. It commands a most interesting view of the Vale of Nith, from Friars Carse, in Dunscore to Dumfries. One mile still higher, is Portract House, the property of Alexander Harley Maxwell, Esq. Gribton House is situated on the Cluden, and is the residence of Francis Maxwell, Esq. It is built in the baronial style. Newton Airds, the property of Miss Gilchrist, a delightful residence, is also on the Cluden.

III.-POPULATION.

In 1750 the population, according to the return to Dr Webster, was 612

1790, 736

1821, 1003

1831, 1066

Number of families in the parish, 207

chiefly employed in agriculture, 85

in trade, manufactures, or handicraft, 43

males, 502

females, 564

unmarried men, bachelors, and widowers upwards of 50 years of age, 16

women, including widows upwards of 45, 36

The average number of births yearly for the last 7 years, 26-5/7.

deaths, 15-2/7

marriages, 11-1/7

persons in the parish upwards of 70, .41

Two persons died this summer aged above 80. and a female a few years ago aged 96.

Mills.-- At Cluden, there are flour, corn, and barley mills, distant from Dumfries three miles. The proprietor is James Gillespie Gordon, Esq. Lon10n. The mills are let on a lease to the Company of Bakers Dumfries, at L. 200 per annum. Six persons are employed at from L.20 to L.36 yearly. The quantity of grain ground is, of wheat 4000 imperial bushels every three months ; of oats 3000 do. do. ; of barley shelled, 250 do. do. ; of barley into flour, 107 do. do.

A quarter of a mile higher up the Cluden, there is a mill, in which barley is ground, flax is prepared, and wool carded. The water power here is equal to from 400 to 500 horses power, and it remains unaffected by the changes of the season. Wool is also spun by machinery on a small scale at Speddoch.

Character of the People.-- In their habits they are very cleanly and steady, and in general irreproachable. They are affable and benevolent, and, with very few exceptions, they are punctual in their attendance on divine ordinances. In matters of religion, they have no feeling in common with those that are given to change. They are sound and firm Presbyterians and, therefore, from well-defined principle, they are steadily attached to the institutions of our country.

There is not an individual belonging to the parish who is either insane, or fatuous, or blind, deaf, or a cripple.

In the course of the last three years there were 6 illegitimate births in the parish.

IV.-INDUSTRY.

The number of acres imperial measure in this parish may be stated at 8960

Of which there are in wood, 540

meadow, 120

moss, ~60

roads, 120

hill, 300

The remainder is all arable.

Rent of Land.-- The best land is let at from L. 2 to L. 2, 6s. per acre, and the average rent is about L. I, 5s. per acre. Grazing for a milk cow is L. 4. The leases of the principal farms are from fifteen to nineteen years. The real rental of the parish, as nearly as can be ascertained, is L.7436. The rental in 1790, as stated in the former Account, was L. 3000.

Produce.-- The produce of the parish has been doubled within the last thirty years. It is extremely difficult to obtain the exact produce; but, instead of this, there are presented the ascertained returns of the land per acre. At one period, the best wheat lands yielded from 50 to 60 bushels per acre. The average at present may be stated at from 25 to 30 do. There were individuals who persisted, till lately, to sow wheat, until the return was under 15 bushels per acre. The deficiency in this species of crop has been occasioned by improper management; and there can be little doubt, that if the wheat lands were put under summer fallow, and repeatedly ploughed, especially in the heaviest soils, during the season, and well cleaned, and then fully manured, there would, as formerly, be available returns of crop.

The average of oats per acre is from 46 to 55 bushels imperial. There are lands that produce from 60 to 65 bushels; and one portion of late, newly broken up and improved, produced above 100 bushels per acre.

Barley yields an average of from So to 40 bushels per acre ; best lands 55 to 60 do.

Ten tons may be given as the average per acre, of the potato crop; best lands; 15 tons, worth, on an average of seven years, L. I, 2s. per ton. The ton at present sells at L. 2, 88. 4d. This price is occasioned by the failure of the potato crop in this district, a failure in the seed, soon after planting, which has occurred every season for these four years past, and for the prevention of which no remedy has yet been discovered. The potato raised from the plum has shared the same fate. On the glebe this, year, not one cut in forty of potatoes in the fourth year from seed, vegetated. A simple process might be tried; and will, in this parish, be adopted next season. Let the dungsteads be turned over, at least twice in the season; and, if the weather permit, let the potatoes be planted not later than the first week in April.

Turnip.-- This species of crop is in extensive operation. Bone manure is used at from 20 to 25 imperial bushels to the acre. The turnips are eat off by sheep, and pay at from L.3 to L.3, 10s. per acre.

The parish is all subdivided, and now nearly all drained. The farm-houses are good, and, for the most part, all slated. The rotation of cropping is what is termed a fifth shift, though there are not wanting instances of a fourth shift, a system of rotation that is ill adapted to the capabilities of the soil and, on a fifteen years' lease, unprofitable to the tenant. If farmers only knew, and were willing to follow, Lord Bacon's remark, " That nature is not conquered but by obeying," it will essentially advance their interests and those of the landlords.

Improvements.-- In 1827, Francis Maxwell, Esq. purchased the estate of Gribton, containing 550 Scotch acres. On surveying the lands, he found that in many fields it was difficult for the plough to enter sufficiently deep into the soil, because obstructed by stones imbedded, especially on the top of the subsoil. To devise means effectually to remove this obstruction, he devoted his energetic attention. Nor did he long deliberate.

In 1828, he commenced operations. The plan adopted was to draw a fur by the plough, on each side of the ridges. From the bottom of the fur so drawn, a man with a crow-bar raised the stones. He was followed by another, who removed them, even to 2lbs. laying them on the unploughed part of the ridge. By so laying them, they were more easily carted off than they would have been, from the. part which had been ploughed. The opened up furs thus cleared of stones, the plough took its course with another set of furs; and thus, in succession, proceeded till the furs met at the crown of the ridges. By this process, all stones, from a pound weight to three tons have been removed. The soil, now free, is in depth from twelve to fifteen inches. At present, 235 Scotch acres are thus improved; and there are yet 143 acres, which Mr Maxwell, with his wonted determination, intends to complete. From 8000 to 10,000 roods of drains have been cut, from three to nine feet deep, according to the levels; in width, at the top, three feet; and at the bottom, two feet; all of which have been built and penned. The subsoil is clay till, which, where the drains have been formed, has been removed by barrows, and then spread over the land at from two to six inches deep.

On an average, forty men, mostly from the Emerald Isle, have been employed, with little interruption, during eight years past. Some hundred thousand carts of stones have been cleared off, besides those used for filling up drains.

The average expense of trenching, clearing off stones, and draining, has been fully L.20 per acre; and the whole expense incur- red since 1828 amounts to nearly L. 5000.

The improved lands have been cropped thus: 1st, Two white crops, worth from L. 6 to L. 10 per acre. 2d. Turnips, bone manure, L. 4; eat off by sheep, from L.3 to L. 4. 3d, Oats and barley, and sown out, yield from L.8 to L. 10 per acre. 4th, Rye- grass, worth from L. 3 to L. 5 per acre:

These lands, previous to their present state of improvement, were not worth on an average in grass more than 16s. an acre. , Mr Maxwell has highly enriched the general aspect of his estate, by a style of improvement and expense of which the south of Scotland affords few examples. It is to be hoped that the advanced value of the property will reimburse him for his unequalled per- severance as a land improver.

Live-Stock.-- The Galloway and the Ayrshire breed of cattle are kept by the farmers in this parish. Few of the Galloway breed are fed off. They are all sold at one or two years old. The Ayr-shire are esteemed as preferable for the purposes of the dairy. There is neither a drover nor a cattle-jobber in the parish.

V.-PAROCHIAL ECONOMY.

Market-Town.-- There is no market-town in the parish. Dumfries is the chief market place, three miles distant from the lower, and ten miles from the highest, part of the parish. It is the post- town.

Villages.-- There are two small villages, viz. , Holywood and Cluden village. The former contains thirty-five families. There are two grocers in it, who are licensed to retail ale and spirits. These and the toll-house at Cluden Bridge, are the only licensed houses. It would be better if there were none, and there is no necessity for them. The practice, secured by the last turnpike act, of granting licenses to toll-home, indiscriminately, can neither be justified by any principle of utility, nor an enlightened regard to the economy and happiness of the people.

Means of Communication.-- These means, in this, parish, are of the first order. The roads, extending to nearly thirty miles to intersect the parish, as to render every part of it of easy access. They are kept in repair by the statute labour conversion money, and they are in the very best travelling condition. The assessment on the lands is L. 60 per annum.

The great trust road from Carlisle to Glasgow by Dumfries passes through the parish near the manse. A daily coach from Carlisle to Glasgow passes in the morning; and one from Glasgow to Carlisle in the afternoon. There is a coach from Dumfries, to Edinburgh, and another from Dumfries to Glasgow by Ayr, which passes three times a-week.

Ecclesiastical State.-- The church of Holywood was built in 1779. It is a most comfortable building for the purpose. It has a square tower, of simple architecture The situation of the church is incommodious, being not more than a mile from the lower part of the parish, and more than eight miles, from the remotest house at the upper part of it It is seated to contain, by legal measurement, 530 sitters, but 600 can be suitably accommodated. The number of communicants is 300.

The manse was built in 1773, and it and the church were completely repaired at an expense above L. 400, in 1821. The Glebe contains eight acres of good arable land The manse, offices, garden, &c. contain one acre of this quantity. The stipend was augmented in 1805, and is L. 174,64 pecks of hear, Nithsda1e measure, 66 1/4 imperial bushels and 2 bolls of oat-meal, Nithsdale measure. In these is included L.8, 6s. 8d. for communion elements. The net stipend is about L.181.

The following is the number of Dissenters in the parish :-- United Secession, 20; Reformed Presbytery, 4; Relief, 6; Episcopalian, 6; Catholics, not natives, 10; total, 46.

Ministers of Holywood.-- In the parish records the following list is presented of those who were ministers in this parish,

1. Mr Robert French was the first Presbyterian minister.

2. Mr Adam Rae, who preached two Sabbaths at Holywood, and once at Keir by turns.

3 In 1633, John Nimmo, who was also factor and chamberlain to the Earl of Nithsdale. He was suspended for some years, responed in 1647, and deposed in 1652.

4. Mr William Hay was settled in April 1653, was thrust out by act of the Scots privy-council at Glasgow in 1662, after Episcopacy had been established in Scotland.

5. M, Alexander Arbuthnot, first Episcopal minister after the Restoration, settled in 1633.

6. Mr John Molcom, turned out at the Revolution in 1688.

7. Mr William M?Millan, first, Presbyterian minister after the Revolution. He died 25th February 1697.

8. M, Robert Blair, ordained 27th September 1698, died 3d June 1724.

9. Mr John Scott, ordained 4th February 1725, translated to the new church Dumfries, 3Oth November 1732.

10. Mr Thomas Hamilton, ordained 21st February 1734, died at Glasgow 24th June, 1772.

11. Bryce Johnston, ordained 22d August 1771. He had the degree of D.D. conferred on him. He published an Exposition of the Book of Revelation, and an Essay on the way to Restore and Perpetuate Peace, Good Order, and Prosperity. A volume of sermons was published ofter his death. He died 27th April 1805, aged 58.

12. James, Crichton, D.D. was translated from Wamphrey; inducted here 10th October 1805; died 26th July 1820.

13. The present incumbent was ordained 1st May 1821.

Education.-- There are three parochial schools. The salaryof the first is L. 26, 0s. 1d. but the teaeher has neither dwelling-house nor garden. The school-house is capable of containing 100 children, and was built in 1823, at the expense of L.130. It is situated near the church, and the branches taught are, English, writing, arithmetic, practical mathematics, book-keeping, geography, Latin, Greek, and French. Bible history and the first principles of religion are also taught. The school is conducted on the intellectual system. The salary of the second schoolmaster is L. 15, 0s. 1d., and that of the third is L.10, 6s. 4d. The teachers of these two schools were not elected to teach Greek and French. The first master's whole income may be stated at L.60: that of the second and third, at from L. 25 to L.30 each.

The schools are examined once a year by a committee of presbytery. Ther is no person at fifteen years of age who cannot read; and parents very generally exhibit a becoming anxiety to have their children educated, and there is no family at such a distance from the schools as to preclude the children from attending.

There is a private school at Holywood village, in which English reading and sewing are taught. It is conducted by two females.

Poor .--In 1790, when the population was 736, the poor on the roll were 15. At this date, the population is 1066, and the poor are only 16. Six of this number are above eighty years of age, and three are above seventy. They are supported by the collections, and from a fund created at a former period by 'the surplus of the collections. This surplus fund is L. 270, but is oh the decrease. Two of the poor receive L. 4, 4s. per annum; one L. 4 ; and the rest from 8s. to 14s. a quarter, according to their circumstances. Except three, they are all able to aid in supporting themselves. In addition, each person on the roll living in the parish is allowed 12 cwt. of coals every winter; and a number of poor householders, but not on the roll, have the same allowance of coals. This plan has been pursued for the last fifteen years.

The nobility of Scottish independence exists strongly among the poor of this parish; but it never fails to wane, soon after a person is recognized among the class of parish paupers.

The collections amount to about L. 40 per annum. There is no person a beggar belonging to the parish, nor would any be allowed, while there are funds to relieve the poor.

Fuel.-- The fuel used is partly coal and partly peat. English coal is sold at Dumfries, from 14s. to 15s. per ton. Sanquhar coal, five miles distant, is sold at the same rate. Many of the farmers lead their coals from Sanquhar, a distance of twenty-three miles, sold at Qs. per ton.

Library.-- Forty years ago, a library was formed in this parish. It contains many standard works, chiefly in doctrinal and practical Christianity, the evidences of religion and church history. It is supported by subscription.

December 1837.