In the year 1242 we find the House of May appealing to the Court of the
Archdeaconry of Lothian against the encroachment of an ecclesiastic. The
case for the monks was that Adam Black, of Dunbar, had bequeathed to
them a house and croft, together with two "perticates" of arable land,
but that, at his death, the property in question had been occupied and
unjustly detained by Patrick, Chaplain of Dunbar. When the matter came
before the authorities, Patrick could not deny the justice of the claim
put forward. That he himself was not without some justification for the
course he had taken is suggested by the decision of the Court. It was
that he should remain in possession of the house and grounds, but should
make to the Priory a payment of three shillings a year for them. This
settlement was made by William Mortimer as representing the Bishop of
St. Andrews, and by Baldred, Dean of Lothian, within the parish church
of Haddington, in presence of the incumbent and of the vicar of North
Berwick.[215]
When David I conveyed the Priory of May to the Monks of Reading, he also
granted them the lands of Rindalgros, in Perthshire, where another cell
for monks was erected, subject to the House of May. Here, too, questions
of property and privilege brought the monks into conflict with their
neighbours. Thus, between them and Duncan of Inchesiryth a dispute arose
with regard to their respective fishing rights. The matter was so
adjusted that both parties should be entitled to cast their nets in the
contested waters, as it might suit them, and with no further restriction
than the common use of the country.[216]
The records of the Priory also furnish details of disputes that arose
between the Monks of May and other religious houses. Thus, in 1231, a
case in which they were the pursuers came before a commission appointed
by the Pope, and consisting of the Prior and of the Archdeacon of St.
Andrews, together with the Dean of Fife. They complained that, although
the church of Rind, with the teinds of the whole parish, belonged in
property to them, the Brethren of Scone detained from them the tithes of
four fishings--namely, of Sleples, Elpenslau, Chingil, and
Inchesiryth--all situated within the bounds of the parish. After hearing
the pleadings, allegations, and exceptions of both parties, the judges
and their legal assessors decided that, for the sake of peace, the Monks
of Scone should pay two merks of silver yearly to the House of May, and
should, in return, be held free from all claims for the tithes.[217]
A few years before this, in 1225, the Prior and Brethren of the May
were themselves the defendants in an action raised by the House of
Dryburgh. From the official statement of the case it appears that the
Parish Church of Anstruther belonged to the former and that of Kilrenny
to the latter, and that the two parishes were separated from each other
by a stream. In view of the fact that the boats which fished in this
stream were moored on the Kilrenny side and that their anchors were
fixed within the bounds of the parish, where they remained for the
night, the Canons of Dryburgh maintained that they were entitled to
one-half of the tithes arising from such boats, whilst the Monks of May
levied the whole. The Abbot and the Prior of Melrose and the Dean of
Teviotdale, acting as Papal Commissioners, decided that, "for the sake
of peace, the Monks of May should pay yearly one merk of silver within
the Parish Church of Kilrenny to the Canons of Dryburgh, for which
payment the monks were to be free of all claim on the part of the
canons, providing the latter should receive full tithes from their
proper parishioners--that is, from the parishioners receiving spiritual
benefits in the church of Kilrenny and using the said part of the shore;
and that the monks should receive full tithes from all coming from other
quarters, and using the said part of the shore".[218]
Amongst the documents relating to the May there is one which records an
agreement arrived at between the Prior and Convent on the one hand and
Malcolm, the King's Cupbearer, on the other, with regard to the Chapel
of Ricardestone. The monks authorized the celebration of mass in the
chapel by a chaplain from the House of Rindalgros, or some other in his
stead, on every Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday, as well as on the
principal feast days, such being Christmas and the three days after it,
the Purification, Easter, the Ascension, Pentecost, the Assumption, the
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, and All Saints. They also permitted that
the holy bread--that is to say, the loaf offered by the people, blessed
by the priest before the beginning of the mass, and distributed amongst
the congregation--should be given there, but only by the men of the
vill. There, too, the women of the vill--but they alone--might be
churched, and also be heard in confession; but they were to pay the
offering for wax to the Mother Church of Rindalgros, and there, too,
were to receive communion at Easter. The Cupbearer himself and all his
successors were to be at liberty to communicate either in the chapel or
in the Mother Church. Malcolm might also have a priest attached to his
chapel, provided such priest acknowledged submission to the Church of
Rindalgros. In return for these concessions and privileges, the
Cupbearer not only confirmed the gifts of land made by his father to the
chapel, but also added a grant of other four acres in pure and perpetual
alms.[219]
Apart from such incidents as the Records of the Priory of May indicate,
there seems to have been only one event of importance in connection with
it for more than a century from the time when King David conveyed it to
the Monks of Reading, on condition that they should maintain in it nine
priests of their brethren, to offer up the Mass for the benefit of his
soul and of the souls of his predecessors and successors, Kings of
Scotland. It is briefly referred to by the chronicler Torfæus in his
account of one of Swein Asleif's expeditions. Steering southwards, he
says, Swein and his followers arrived at the Isle of May. In that island
there was a monastery, the abbot of which was named Baldwin. Being
detained there for seven days, they professed to be ambassadors from
Earl Ronald to the King of Scotland. The monks, suspecting them to be
robbers, sent to the mainland for help. On this, Swein plundered the
monastery, and took much booty. As a strangely inconsistent sequel to
this story, Torfæus adds that Swein then sailed up the Firth of Forth,
and found King David in Edinburgh; that the King received Swein with
much honour, and entreated him to remain; and that Swein told David all
that had occurred between him and Earl Ronald, and how he had plundered
the Isle of May. The same historian also states that on another occasion
Swein anchored at the Isle of May, from which he dispatched messengers
to the King at Edinburgh.[220]
Spottswood states, in his _List of Religious Houses in Scotland_, that
the Priory of the May, originally put under the patronage of All Saints,
was subsequently consecrated to the memory of St. Adrian. He does not,
however, mention on what occasion. He adds that William Lamberton,
Bishop of St. Andrews, purchased it from the Abbot of Reading, and
notwithstanding the complaints made thereupon by Edward Longshanks, King
of England, bestowed it upon the canons regular of his cathedral. Fordun
and Prynne both give details of the transaction; but from documents
discovered at a later date and published in the _Records of the Priory
of the Isle of May_,[221] it appears that neither of them states the
case quite fully nor quite correctly. It is to be gathered from the
proceedings relative to the claim of the Abbot and Convent of Reading on
the Priory, that it was Robert de Burghgate, Abbot of Reading, who sold
the Scottish "cell" to William, Bishop of St. Andrews, and that he
received from him 1100 merks on account of the price. It would seem,
however, that he effected this transaction contrary to the wish of the
majority of his monks; and, on this ground, his successor, Abbot
William, attempted to overturn it. In the Parliament of John Baliol,
held at Scone on the 10th of February, 1292, John Sutton and Hugh
Stanford, appearing as his representatives, demanded either possession
of the Priory of May or payment of the balance of the price agreed to be
paid for it, together with the fruits and rents accruing from it during
the preceding four years. Failing recognition of their claims, they were
empowered to appeal to the judgment of the King of England--a
significant instruction which shows that Edward intended to turn the
dispute to account in the prosecution of his designs against the
independence of Scotland.
When the English representatives presented their abbot's petition they
were asked whether he was prepared to repay to the Bishop of St. Andrews
the 1100 merks already received on account. They cautiously replied that
they had not been sent to make any payment, and could not undertake to
do so; and they requested that the case, which had been brought to a
deadlock by reason of the Scottish counterclaim, might be adjourned to
the next, or to some subsequent Parliament, so that they might have time
to consult both the Abbot of Reading and the English King. To escape
from the necessity of either recognizing or challenging the sovereign
authority which Edward claimed, and by virtue of which it was intended
to get the dispute settled in favour of the Monks of Reading, the Bishop
of St. Andrews, on his side, appealed to the Roman See. The case being
thus removed from the Scottish Court, Baliol had a plausible reason for
refusing to proceed further in the matter. The English abbot's attorneys
were not, however, satisfied with this move on the part of their
opponents. Alleging a denial of justice in the Scottish Court, they
appealed to King Edward as Lord Superior of the Kingdom of Scotland. He
consequently issued a writ, dated at Dunton on the 2nd of September,
1293, by which he cited John Baliol to appear before him within a
fortnight of the feast of St. Martin. Baliol disregarded not only this
first summons, but also two others, which respectively called upon him
to appear within the octave of the feast of the Holy Trinity, and within
a month after Easter. A fourth writ was then forwarded to the Sheriff of
Northumberland. It was to be served by him in person on the Scottish
King, whom it commanded to appear before his suzerain within a month
after Michaelmas, and to bring with him the record of the proceedings in
the Scottish Court prior to the appeal to the Holy See. In the absence
of further documents bearing on the case, it may be assumed that "the
final overthrow of the paramount claims of England, which was one of the
happy results of Bannockburn, of course precluded any further English
interference with the agreement which had rescued the Priory of May from
an alien mother".[222]
The first extant document subsequent to the severance of the connection
between the Scottish cell and the English monastery is dated the 1st of
July, 1318, and is a deed of gift by which William, Bishop of St.
Andrews, makes over to the Canons of the Monastery of St. Andrews an
annual pension of sixteen merks formerly due by the Priory of May to the
Monastery of Reading.[223] In 1415 there is an obligation by Henry,
Bishop of St. Andrews, for payment to the same canons of twenty pounds
Scots out of the sequestrated revenues of the Priory of May. About the
middle of the century the "Priory of Pittenweem or May" was annexed by
Pope Paul II to the See of St. Andrews, as a mensal possession of the
bishop's, during his lifetime. In 1472 this annexation was made
perpetual by Pope Sixtus IV.[224]
In this deed of annexation, and in others anterior to it, from 1318
onwards, the alternative appellation "May or Pittenweem" occurs.
According to the editor of the _Records_, the explanation seems to be
"that the Monks of May had, from the first, erected an establishment of
some sort on their manor of Pittenweem, on the mainland of Fife, which,
after the priory was dissevered from the House of Reading and annexed to
that of St. Andrews, became their chief seat, and that thereafter the
monastery on the island was deserted in favour of Pittenweem, which was
less exposed to the incursions of the English, nearer to the superior
house at St. Andrews, and could be reached without the necessity of a
precarious passage by sea".[225]
By a charter bearing the date of the 30th of January, 1549, John Roull,
Prior of Pittenweem, feued the Isle of May to Patrick Learmonth of
Dairsy, Provost of St. Andrews. The deed of conveyance describes the
island as waste and spoiled by rabbits, which had once been an important
source of revenue, but of which the warrens were now completely
destroyed. As reasons justifying the alienation of the May, Roull
referred to its remoteness and to the consequent difficulty of access to
it, to its unprofitableness, and to its liability to invasion by those
ancient enemies, the English, who on the outbreak of hostilities were
wont to take possession of it, thus rendering it a useless adjunct to
his monastery. Amongst the rights ceded to Learmonth was that of
patronage of the church, which was to be maintained, and to which he was
to appoint a chaplain, for the purpose of continuing divine service
therein, out of reverence for the relics and sepulchres of the saints
interred in the island, and for the reception of pilgrims and their
offerings, according to the custom of old times, and even within memory
of man.[226]
Numerous records testify to the reverence in which the island shrine of
St. Adrian was held during the fifteenth and the sixteenth century.
Thus, it is stated that when Mary of Gueldres was on her way to Scotland
in June, 1449, to become the wife of James II, she anchored near the
May, and performed her devotions in the chapel before proceeding on her
voyage to Leith.[227] It may be seen from entries in the Accounts of the
Lord High Treasurer for Scotland that King James IV was a very assiduous
pilgrim to the island, and a liberal patron of the hermit who had
established his cell there. They record a visit which he paid in 1503.
It was not his first, as there is a brief notice of his having landed
in 1490; but it is the earliest of which any details are supplied. He
sailed from Leith, accompanied by a considerable retinue, amongst whom
were the clerks of the Chapel Royal, who sang mass in the chapel on the
island. After the celebration the Royal party took boat again, and,
safely piloted in "the litill bark callit the _Columb_" by Robert
Barton's mariners, who got fourteen shillings for their trouble, landed
at Anstruther. On that occasion the hermit of May received nine
shillings by the King's command. In the beginning of July, 1505, John
Merchamestoun was commissioned to pass to Kinghorn, Dysart, and
Kirkcaldy to seek mariners against the King's passing to May. Previous
to the voyage, the King himself drew a hundred French crowns for his own
purse. The men that rowed him to the ship received six shillings, and
next day, those "that rowit the King fra his schippes to Maij, and to
the schippes agane", got seven. Nine shillings were paid "to the botemen
that brocht the Kingis stuf, and the maister cuke with the Kingis souper
fra the schip to Maij, and fra Maij to the schip agane". The donation to
the hermit amounted to five shillings and fourpence. Similar entries
occur in 1506 and 1507; but those of the former of these years show
additional sums for offerings of candles and of bread, and for a
donation on behalf of the Queen. They also show that the royal ship was
provided with nine cross-bows. In 1508 there is evidence of a shooting
party on the May. On the last day of June in that year sixteen pence
were paid "to ane row bote that hed the King about the Isle of Maij to
schut at fowlis with the culveryn". There were other three boats "that
hed in the Kingis folkis and chanounis, with pairt of lardis of the
contree". It was in the _Lion_ that James came over from the mainland;
and amongst the provisions with which she was supplied for the voyage
mention is made of one puncheon of wine, three barrels of ale, and one
hundred and four score "breid of wheat". It is not unworthy of notice
that a charter, dated only a few days before the death of James IV at
Flodden, makes special mention of the May.[228] It erects certain lands
into a free barony in favour of Sir Andrew Wood of Largo on condition
that he or his heirs should accompany the King and his Consort, or their
successors, on their pilgrimages to the island.