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City Churches and Steeple |
St Mary’s Church and the Auld Steeple
Originally called the kirk in the fields" it as it was once outside the 12th Century town of Dundee. This rather adventurous man was a brother of King William the Lion, and about him Hector Boece (a Dundonian himself) has a tale to tell. Writing in 1526 (when the tower of the church was already half a century old) Boece paints a brave picture of Earl David bearing himself nobly with other knights of King Richard the Lion Heart during the Third Crusade in Palestine. On his return, the story continues, he was shipwrecked, and sold into slavery. He was then ransomed, and from Flanders he set sail for home. But again stormy seas and fog bewildered the mariners, and the ship was driven far out of its course. "In the midst of these perils," writes Boece, "he vowed that he would build a church to the Blessed Virgin if ever he got safe home again." Eventually he landed on Tayside shores, and started building this church in a field called Wheatfield. Romancer though he is, Boece's tale contains a nucleus of fact. William the Lion certainly granted the Royal Burgh of Dundee and land in Lindores to his brother, Earl David. Then, a statue of the Virgin and Child stood (and a modern replica still stands) high above the western door of the later mediaeval church. Notice, too, that the three silver lilies (symbol of the Annunciation) have been the one unvarying feature of the Burgh Coat of Arms. And because Mary was protectress of the Burgh the great annual Fair was called the Lady Mary Fair, and it began on the Feast of the Assumption. The charter granted to Earl David by the King was dated between 1178 and 1182. Then, by the so-called Foundation Charter of Lindores, dated between 1198 and 1199, Earl David conferred on Lindores "the church of Dundee, with all its just pert-inets, a toft (building site) in my Burgh of Dundee" and much other land. Earl David had a house in Dundee, and occasionally lived there. Presumably, his charter from the King gave him no authority to interfere with existing church matters, and if he wished to confer a church he would first have to found and endow it. A site could be found only outside the town, and that was why, as I havt said, it became known as "the kirk in the fields". St. Clement's, the older church which St. Mary's superseded, was of course inside the town. It stood approximately where the City Square now is. The story that Earl David founded St. Mary's in gratitude for his safe return from the Third Crusade can be proved false. For one thing, this crusade lasted from 1190 to 1194, and Lindores Abbey was probably in existence by 1191. The Abbey was founded (according to the Foundation Charter) for the peace of the souls of Earl David's ancestors, descendants and relations. No mention is made of a safe return from the Holy Wars, and Boece's story is not mentioned by the earlier historians Fordun and Bower. Nor do any of the historians of the crusades mention Earl David as taking part. In short, Earl David never went on the Third Crusade. St. Mary's, as first built, was not large. Still, it was large enough for the marriage of Earl David's daughter Margaret, to Allan, Earl of Galloway in 1206. A daughter by this marriage married John de Baliol, founded Baliol College in Oxford, and was the mother of John Baliol, appointed King by Edward JL of Eng-laad in 1292. FIRST BURNING BY THE ENGLISH Of Earl David's original church not a stick or stone is left today. In 1385 the English invaded Scotland. They burned Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee, and sparing neither monasteries or churches put all to fire and flame. St. Mary's was very severely damaged, and there was a long dispute between the Monastery of Lindores and the Town Council about its repair. Finally, in 1442, agreement was reached between the Abbot and the Council whereby the Council agreed to "undertake the sole burden of constructing, sustaining, supporting, reforming and repairing the choir, the said parish church in its walls, windows, pillars, window glass, woodwork and roof", and also "the vestments, books, chalices, palls and cloths of the great altar and other ornaments of the choir". In return for all this, the Abbot agreed to pay them five marks a year. The practice of selling lairs to those who wished to be buried in the church, and crediting the proceeds "for led til Thek the Queyr," seems to have been begun about 1461. The theking (or roofing) of the choir with lead seems to have been completed by 1490, as after that money obtained from the sale of lairs was credited to the "rufe of the new ile," probably the transept. SECOND BURNING BY THE ENGLISH New streets now thrust out into the common pasture-lands. New houses rose about the old Mercat Gait — handsome, substantial stone buildings with pillared arcades, crow-stepped gables and stone-flagged roofs. Dundee was growing in size and prosperity. By the 16th century Dundee had outstripped Aberdeen in the volume of its export trade, and stood second only to Edinburgh. But this trading with the Low Countries had unexpected results. Wool and hides went out, Lutheran books and new religious ideas came in. In August, 1543, there was "ane great herese," The martyrdom of Dundee followed close on the death of Wishart. First came the surrender of Broughty Castle to an English fleet. That was in the autumn of 1547, and a bombardment of Dundee from the river followed. Next, the English troops entered the town, sacking St. Mary's and doing other destruction. Then, faced by an army under Argyll, advancing from Perth, they fired the steeple, took their artillery on board ship arxd departed. They would have burned the town as well, had not Lord Gray assured them that "he should then have lost all his credit in the country". His dealings with the English were obviously not approved by many of his countrymen. The English were finally driven out of Broughty Castle in February, 1550, and probably little repair was done to St. Mary's till after that. The tower and the chancel were badly damaged, but they were not destroyed, whereas the nave and the transept were in ruins. Re-building was held up to some extent by a shortage of building material, especially slates. The Council "having taken consideration of the grete decay of the burgh and the destruction of the policie thereof be their auld enemies of England in the time of war bygane, and how that for the reparation and re-edifying of the town it was necessar that all manner of commodities that may be had be diligently tane regaird of and in special that the sclates quhilk are brocht to the burgh be applyit to the reparation of the policie thereof and not re-exported and thereby an exorbitant dearth raisit," decided that "na manner of person transport or carry away sclates furth of the burgh . . . under the pain of twa pennies for ilk hundred sclates that beis transported". The repairing and re-roofing of the steeple was finished by 1570, and after that Patrick Ramsay, smith, "made a weathercock and put it upon the pricket (iron spike) on the steeple head". For this deed, and for making the steeple head "mair substantious," the smith was (rather surprisingly perhaps) made a burgess. But wait, Patrick Ramsay was no ordinary smith! Later, in 1588, when there was a scare over the Spanish Armada, Ramsay was "nominated and appointed ... to have the order and charge of the ordnance being in the steeple . . . and to be gunner for all time coming" because of his "gude and thankful service . . . and his gude guidance on the steeple in time of troubles". With the steeple and weathercock seen to, the Council decided to start on the transept. Finance was the trouble. They petitioned the King, explaining at length how they and their predecessors had in defence of "the realm and burgh against foreign enemies" suffered "great wrack and herschip and their burgh, the kirk, toll-booth, steeple, almpus house and uther common houses thereof (had been) diverse times brint and cassin down be England". They had repaired all this themselves, but the church was "sa little and uneasie that they of necessity have begun to build ane new wark and kirk". And for this, they told the King, they didn't have the money. However, they got no money out of the King's Council, and had to be satisfied with a five-year reduction in taxation. A minister, James Robertson, was appointed to the new church in 1590, and that same year the Town Council decided that those who gave generously to the church should be allowed to erect monuments to themselves therein. The Steeple clock had apparently been neglected during the plague epidemic of 1606 to 1608, for in June, 1609, we hear of Patrick Ramsay reporting on its sad condition, and being asked to repair the damage. In 1645, when Montrose attacked and took Dundee, his men seized the churches, and the transept of St. Mary's, which was destroyed by fire in that year, may have been set alight by them. Montrose and his Highlanders soon swept out of the burgh again at the sound of the Covenanting drum, but by that time the damage had been done. TOWN SACKED BY MONK But an even blacker hour in Dundee's history was near. In 1650, Dundee opened its gates to Charles II. and raised troops and money on his behalf. At the end of July, Charles began that fatal march southwards which was destined to end at Worcester. Cromwell detached General Monk with a force of 4,000 men, horse and foot, to deal with Dundee, while he himself pursued the royal army. On the 1st of September the town was taken by storm. St. Mary's tower formed the last line of defence, and was bravely held by Robert Lumsden (military governor of the town) when he was driven off the streets. Artillery fire had little effect on the tower, but the garrison "were smothered out by the burning of wet straw". General Lumsden was treacherously shot, and with him died some 800 soldiers and burgesses, 200 women and children. The town was stripped of coin, plate and jewel. According to Dr. Small, Parish Minister of Dundee from 1761 to 1791, Lumsden's head was cut off and placed on a spike in one of the abutments at the south-west corner of the steeple, and remained there till a few years before Dr. Small wrote, in 1792. It took Dundee a long time to recover from Monk's attack, and restoration of the church and steeple was a slow business. Slezer's "View of Dundee," made in 1678, shows the steeple still roofless. The church in the southern part of the transept, (burnt in 1645), seems to have been repaired fairly soon, but the northern portion was not rebuilt as a church till 1759. It had been used as a stable by Monk's cavalry in 1651, and again by Prince Charlie's troopers in the Forty-five. Bonnie Prince Charlie did not himself visit Dundee, but some of his followers rang the great bell of the steeple so enthusiastically that they broke it! The burgesses were much less enthusiastic, and when the news of Culloden reached the burgh, the Council "did appoint publick rejoicing to be kept this day," and agreed to present the Duke of Cumberland with a burgess ticket in a gold box. At any rate, the repair work was finally completed in 1789, when the nave, joining the transept to the steeple, was rebuilt and became St. Clement's Church. But alas, another blow was to fall! The "drum and trumpet" chapter in the history of Dundee came to an end with the Forty-five Rebellion. Later, all its ancient gates and battlemented walls were demolished — except for the Wishart Arch. In 1841, however, fire broke out in the south church of St. Mary's, and the flames soon spread to the north transept and the east church. Finally, all that was left was the steeple and the nave church, built in 1789. Only a few articles, including the Presbytery records, were saved. The old library was destroyed, and so were the memorial tablets erected in the church to those buried in it. The east church was first rebuilt. The foundation stone was laid in 1842 and the church opened for service on 10th May, 1844. Building of the south church was completed in 1847. Mr William Burn, of Edinburgh, was architect of both churches. The steeple had fallen into almost complete disrepair, and was restored in 1870 at a cost of £8,000, the architect being Sir Gilbert Scott. A new peal of bells was installed in 1872.
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