Lesmahagow

COREHOUSE

COREHOUSE
The residence of Miss Edmonstoun Cranstoun - (Click to see larger image)

The original name of Corehouse was Corroc, which is believed to be an early British word, signifying rough, swampy ground, and to be similar to the Irish Curragh. The first notice of it which appears in the Liber de Kelso, is in a charter already quoted, by Abbot John, A.D. 1160-1180 (81, 111), granted to Waldeve, son of Bodin "an abbey man" (homini nostro), and his heirs, of the eighth part of Corroc, and the pendicle of Cultirsegill. It was granted with land, water, and mill, and in feu and heritage. The grantee was to have the right to wood, was to give two shillings as a heriot, but to e exempt from any payment as casualty on the marriage of his daughters. Herit, or herezeld, a term now rarely met with, meant a tribute due to the overload or landlord on the death of the occupier; and where not expressly stipulated to be compounded for in money, it meant the best horse, ox, or cow in his possession. Waldeve and his descendants would be entitled, after this grant, to take the position of yeomen or "bonnet lairds", which was intermediate between the husbandi or tenants, and the great church vassals; the lowest of all being the serfs, who laboured for the monks upon their grange or home-farm, and who were ascripti glebi; i.e. if they attempted to escape might be caught and brought back.

Abbot Osbert, 1180-1203, granted a charter to David, son of Peter, Dean of Stobhou (Stobbo), recognising him as his father's heir, and confirming him in certain lands which, in the indorsationi, are called Currokis in the body of the deed, Corroc.

David I. Acting under the influence of the Romish priesthood, amongst other so-called reforms, established the celibacy of the clergy, and we do not find, here or elsewhere, in the Kelso Chartulary, an acknowledged marriage of a priest. When the Abbot read the words, receiving David, the Dean's son, as his father's heir, we have an indication that the son took the style an drank from his father, although the father had not been married. There are numerous instances of a similar kind in the Chatulary, which exhibits not only a laxity of morals among the inferior clergy, but proves that such was tolerated by their superiors. The grant included a mill, a court of bloodwit and burdinseck, also, the marriage casualties of his sub-vassals. The grantee and his sub-vassals were to be entitled to take as much wood as they pleased for fuel or building, but were not allowed to sell or give any away. (Lib. De Cal., 82, 112.) After the lapse of six and a half centuries, the boundaries can be traced with tolerable accuracy, although Crawford on Douglas water has been lost sight of. They included Harperfield, viz, "as the road goes from Crawford to the burn, which is called Kirkburn, and by that burn into Clyde, and on the other side as the Douglas descends from Crawford into Clyde". These lands probably included the copsewood, part of which still exists under the name of Monkswood, near Corehouse, where the proprietor was prohibited by the charter from ploughing, it being reserved for firewood and building purposes. This same David and his heirs, however, subsequently received liberty from Abbot Richard, A.D.1206-8, to plough when and where it was convenient. He was to have charge of the copse-wood on the lands, with wood for his own use; but any part which he could not use he was forbidden to give to any of his neighbours, unless with the consent of the Abbot of Kelso and Prior of Lesmahagow. (Ibid., 83, 113.)

In 1259, an inquest was held at Dumbarton, consisting of Robert of Kelso, and other honest men of Levenax, from the baronies of Lesmahagow, Roberton, and others in the Upper Ward, regarding some family arrangements between Patrick, the father of Robert of Corrok; Elene, spouse of the said Robert; Richard, clerk of Kelmenros; and Sibilla, the mother of Robert, with reference to a ploughgate of land called Polnegulan. (Act Parl., after Preface.) Although it is believed to be now impossible to determine, with accuracy, where the land referred to lay, the ploughgate, or carracate of land itself demands a brief explanation. The husband-land which the husbandmen held of the Abbey, was an extent of land which varied according to locality. In the east of Scotland it was twenty-six acres, "where scyth and plough may gang." Each tenant of a husbandland there kept two oxen, but is believed that in other parts of Scotland horses were kept instead. Six husbandmen united their men and horses to work the common plough. The scotch plough of the thirteenth century, says Cosmo Innes in his preface to the Liber de Kelso, and for three centuries afterwards, was a ponderous machine, drawn, when the team was complete, by twelve oxen, either all used at once, or by two relays. A ploughgate, according to Balfour;s Practices, should contain eight oxengang, an oxengang twelve acres; but this rule is difficult to apply, and the term may generally be said to express an much land as one plough can overtake and labour within year and day. Carrucate is of French derivation (charrue, a plough), and is synonymous with "a hide of land", and old English land measure, extending from one hundred to one hundred and twenty acres.

The Abbot of Kelso, in the end of the thirteenth, or beginning of the fourteenth century, granted the lands of Lesser Kype, by excambion, to Reginald of Corrokys. He was to pay one pound of the medicine called cumin, at Lesmahagow, on the 15th November, the day of St. Machutus, and to receive during life four chalders of oatmeal annually, from the Priory of Lesmahagow, and sufficient support for himself and a lad, either there or at the monastery of Kelso. The delivery of meal was to cease on the death of Reginald, but the monastery was to continue to pay twenty shillings a-year to his heirs for ever. (L. de Cal.,164, 197.) In 1370, William Abbot of Kelso, in consequence of Andrew, son of Reginald "of Lesmahagow", having resigned to him the whole tenement of Little Kype, grants to the said Andrew and his heirs-male an annual pension of four silver merks out of the revenues of the Priory of Lesmahagow. If the pension fell into arrears of twenty days, it was to be doubled, and the Abbey property, moveable and immoveable, might be sold to recover the amount. (Ibid., 406, 513.) From the designation "of Lesmahagow," it is probable that the son of Reginald had lost Corehouse, and become a pensioner of the monks.

In 1400, Abbot Patrick directed a brief to Rothald Weir, as Bailie of Lesmahagow, enjoining him to summon an inquest, and inquire if John de Benatyne, Lord of Corroks, grandfather of William de Benatyne, died vested in the lands of Corrocks, and if the said William is his heir. (Ibid., 413, 523.) Richard Bannachtyne of "the Corhous" was one of a jury who were found to have given a wrong verdict by the Lord Auditors in 1476. (Act Dom. Aud., 44.) In 1527, John Bannatyne of Corehouse and sixty-three others were accused of the mutilation of Walter Weir, committed upon "sudantie," and respited. ("Pitcairn," i. 241*.) In 1536, he, with his brother Thomas, and nineteen others, found security to appear at Lanark for the slaughter of John Grahame of Westhall and others. (Ibid., i. 1798) Being an adherent of Queen Mary, he was included among those who, in July 1572, were accused of complicity in the murder of Darnley and the two Regents. As many of the gentlemen of Lesmahagow were in the same predicament, we extract the list from "Pitcairn's Criminal Trials" (vol. I., p 35):-

Wm. Weir of Auchtyefardell - his security, Corhouse, in    .     .    .    £1000
John Bannatyne of Corhous - security, Laird of Lamingtoune, in    .     .    3000
James McQuharye of Auchtule - security, Corhouse, in    .     .    .    500
Robert Allane of Corsfurd - security, Corhouse, in    .    .     .    .    500
Robt. Tueddel of Bankhead - security, Corhouse,in    .    .     .    .    500
Alexr. Dalzell of Kype - security, Sir Jas. Hamilton, in    .     .    .    500 merks.
James Weir of Blakwod - security,        do., in     .    .    .    5000 do.