Antiquarian notices of leprosy and leper hospitals in Scotland and England / by James Y. Simpson.

  • Simpson, James Young, 1811-1870.
Date:
[1841?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Antiquarian notices of leprosy and leper hospitals in Scotland and England / by James Y. Simpson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    tribiis ibidem residentibus,) a carnicate and a-half of land in tlic village of Auldnestun ; another carnicate and a-half, which Dame Emma of Ednahim held, (tenuit per suas rectas divisas,) with the common pasturage and easement (asiamento) of the forests of Birkcnside and Ligarrdewude, (Lcgerwood), and aright to grind at his mill without paying multure.* Kingcase, Ayrshire.—At Kilcais or Kingcase, on a bleak luuir in the parish of Prestwick, and about two miles from the town of Ayr, stood, for several centuries, an hospital for Lepers. The general tradition of the surrounding country avers that this hospital was founded by King Robert the Bruce. In the article on Ayr, recently published by the Rev. Dr Auld and Mr Cuthill, in the New Statistical Account of Scotland,-f- the foundation char- ter of Robert Bruce is said to have been purchased by the Magis- trates of that town in 1786. I am obligingly assured, however, by Mr Murdoch of Ayr, that no such document is known to ex- ist among the archives of that town. It is probable that the hos- pital existed before the time of Bruce. In a charter to the mo- nastery of Dalmulin, contained in the cartulary of Paisley Abbey,.| and of the date of the reign of William I. of Scotland, among other lands and localities in Kyle and the immediate neighbour- hood of Kingcase, the term Spetel-Crag occurs. Now the term Spetel was a prefix applied, both in Scotland and England, to all hospital lands and possessions, and to these alone ; and history re- cords no other hospital whatever in Kyle, from which this appel- lation of Spetel Craigs could be derived. But whether Bruce was the original founder, or, what is more probable, a liberal endower of the hospital, we know this at least of the history of the King- case Leper Hospital, that it possessed at one time pretty exten- sive lands and property in the parish of Dundonald, and in Kyle Stewart.§ These, like many other hospital grants, came after a time to be perverted from their original objects of charity, and applied to the aggrandizement of particular individuals. Thus the family of Wallace of Newton obtained from James II., a feu-charter of the Kingcase estate of Spittalshiels, for the annual payment of eight merks Scots, and sixteen thrave of straw. In reference to this the land of Spittalshiels has yet (observes Sir Walter Scott in a note to his Lord of the Isles, || ) to give if required, a quan- j ' Liber de Sanctoc Manse de Melros. Presented by the Duke of Bucclcuch to the Bannatyne Club, Edinb. 1839, Tom. i. p. 70—Sec also Morton's Monastic Annals of Tevioidale, 18;{a, p. 265. t Stat. Ac. (.f Scotland, No. xvi. p. To. t Registrum Monasterii dc Passelct, Wlj'A-VrV.). Presented by the Eiirl of Glas- Row to the Maiiland Club, Tom. i. p. 21 — I nni indebted to Mr E. Thomson of *'Uinburgh, and formerly of Ayr, for pointing out to me the fact and inference in inc text. § See Chalmers's Caledonia, Vol. iii. p. 490, and flecords of the Burgh of Prest- wick, from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, (ilnsgow, 10.34, p. 12?. fl The Lord of the Isles, Canto v. Note vii.