PART 1 - CHAPTER IV - ANCIENT ESTATE, CHAPEL

AND CASTLE OF NAUGHTON

"Blest is this Isle - our native Land:

Where battlement and moated gate
Are objects only for the hand
Of hoary Time to decorate"
WORDSWORTH

About the beginning of the twelfth century the history of Scotland emerges from the obscurity of
the preceding ages, and that of this Parish and district soon thereafter shares in the illumination.
There are various facts which show that about the period referred to a new era has commenced.
Besides the arrival of a foreign race (which has, not inappropriately, been called the Saxon
Conquest, though it was achieved by peaceful means), writing is now becoming common
(though still practised only by Churchmen), and land is held by written tenures. The people are
all professedly Christian, and the now effete Culdee establishments are everywhere giving place
to the Romish system. From this period the Records of the various monasteries and bishoprics
furnish many interesting materials for parochial history, which have not yet been turned to
sufficient account by our local historians. From the Register of the Priory of St. Andrews and the
Chartulary of Balmerino Abbey we obtain authentic notices of this Parish, by means of which we
are able to understand the more general features of its civil and ecclesiastical state, and to make
out a tolerably complete list of its landholders. These notices commence about the middle of the
twelfth century.

In relating the facts we have gleaned we begin with those relating to NAUGHTON, which is
earliest mentioned. And here the subject of Parishes first presents itself.

It is somewhat uncertain at what period Parishes began to be formed in Scotland, but there is not
doubt that they were generally known in the twelfth century. Till that time the ecclesiastical
system of Scotland was monastic, not parochial; and the Culdee clergy lived together in humble
colleges scattered over the country. The origin of parishes, tithes, and patronages was generally
this – a landlord built a church for the people living on his estrate (its site being often, as at
Creich, close to his residence), endowed it with the tithes of his land, and nominated a priest to
be its pastor, under that sanction of the bishop of the diocese. He and his successors thus became
patrons of the church and his lands constituted the Parish. This accounts for the irregular shape
and fragmentary character of many parishes at the present day. The Norman and Saxon settlers
from the south were the great promoters of church building and endowment.
The estate of Naughton, as appears from the St. Andrews Priory Register, was anciently very
extensive, and constituted a “parish” of the same name, whose church was however called,
perhaps from its situation, that of Forgrund, now Forgan. Even down to the sixteenth century the
barony of Naughton comprehended the superiority of a great part of the parish of Forgan, in
which it was still included. In the twelfth century it was in the possession of a family, apparently
Norman, of the name of De Lascels, several members of which were benefactors of the Priory of
St. Andrews. Alan, son of Walter de Lascels, grants to the Priory “two acres of his arable land in
the parish of Naughton, viz., those two which are near to the “vill” of Culbakin [Cowbakie]
extending northwards from the road which leads from Alan’s own vill to Culbakin; with one acre
of meadow land measured westward from Culbakin, between the said two acres and the land of
Malcrether belonging to the Canons of the said Priory.”

The church of Forgan with its revenues (according to the system then practised of increasing the
revenues of bishoprics and monasteries by granting to them the tithes of parochial churches) was
first conferred on St. Andrews Priory by King David I. (1124-1153) no doubt on the usual
condition that the Priory should supply it with a vicar. The gift was confirmed by Malcolm IV.
(1153-1165), who also bestowed on the Priory a carucate (104 acres) of land in Naughton estate,
called Melchrethre, mentioned above. This latter grant was confirmed by William the Lion and
Alexander II., and by bishops Richard, Hugo, and Roger of St. Andrews between 1163 and 1202.

Both of these grants were also said in the same Register to have been made by Alan de Lascels,
son of Alan already mentioned. Thus between 1188 and 1202, Alan, son of Alan de Lascels and
of his wife Juliana de Summerville, with consent of his own wife Amabilla, gives and confirms
to the Priory “the mother church of his estate of Naughton, viz., the church of Forgrund, with the
chapel of Naughton adjacent to the said church. Bishop Malvoisine of St. Andrews (1202-1238)
grants and confirms to the Priory “the mother church of Naughton, with all its just pertinents,
which Alan de Lascels granted to it, as his charter shows.” There is further recorded in the Priory
Register the testimony of Laurence, Archdeacon of St. Andrews, that he had heard from
trustworthy men that the church of Naughton had been formerly conferred on the Priory by a
noble man, Alan de Lascels, its true patron, and that he knows that this gift was confirmed by
Bishop Malvoisine. In charters of Peter Hay and others (to be afterwards noticed) it is repeatedly
stated that the carucate of land, which had belonged to Forgan church was conferred on the
Priory by Alan, son of Alan de Lascels. It is not easy to reconcile those statements with the
original grants by David I. And Malcolm IV. The explanation probably is, that the estate of
Naughton belonged, in the former monarch’s reign, to the crown (whether by forfeiture or other
cause); and that subsequently the King (Perhaps William the Lion) gave a grant of the estate to a
family of Norman settlers (the Lascels), who then confirmed, or repeated, the former gifts to the
Priory of church, tithes and land

We have a notice of two of the incumbents of the church about the same time. Bishop
Malvoisine admits, on a presentation to the Prior and canons, Richard Thouni to the parsonage of
the church of Forgrund, who shall hold it, with the chapel of Naughton, its lands, tithes, &c.;
reserving the life-interest of Gervasius de Nealfa, the vicar, who shall receive from Richard
twenty silver merks annually in name of pension.

When or by whom this chapel of Naughton was built, we know not. In the Taxatio Antiqua, or
Old Valuation of the church livings of the diocese of St. Andrews, inserted in the Priory Register
and others, and believed to respesent a period as remove as the reign of King William, Naughton
chapel is not mentioned, though Forgan church is. If Sibbald is correct in fixing 1176 as the year
to which the Valuation refers, we might conclude that the chapel was built between 1176 and
1202, at which latter date it certainly was in existence. We are equally ignorant of the site of this
chapel. The expression “adjacent to (adjacentem) the church of Forgan” might suggest the
inference that it was in the immediate vicinity of that church, if not part of the same building;
and from the boundaries of Alan de Lascels’ grant of two acres, it might almost appear that his
own “vill” and manor house were near Cowbakie, and not where Naughton House now stands.
But the language used is by no means decisive of either of these conjectures. There was anciently
a chapel, called St Thomas's of Seamylnes, at Newport, but there is nothing to identify it with the
“chapel of Naughton,” though it would appear to have been within the barony of that name. It is
more natural to suppose that Naughton chapel was near the western extremity of the estate, and
intended for the use of the people residing in that remote part of Forgan parish; and that
Naughton, though scarcely to be recognised in some of the forms in which it was then written,
denoted the place still called by that name.

The “Grange of Naughton” is also mentioned as belonging to the Priory of St. Andrews, and is
specified in Bulls of confirmation of the Priory lands by no fewer than five Popes between the
year 1187 and 1254. Perhaps is comprehended the lands of Peasehills, Byrehills, and Cathills,
which according to Martine, anciently belonged to the Priory, though there is no mention of them
by these names in the existing Register. This “Grange” must not be confounded with the present
Grange, or New Grange, which belonged to Balmerino Abbey.

According to Sibbald, Robertus de Lundon built a tower on Naughton rock, which, from the
difficulty of access to it on all sides, was admirably adapted for a stronghold in those turbulent
times. When or how he got possession of the place does not appear: perhaps it was given by
King William, when the estate of Naughton was conferred in the De Lascels. He was a natural
son of that monarch, and marrying the heiress of Lundin, near largo, assumed that name, and
carried on the line of the family of Lundin or Lundie, which is now represented by Lord
Willoughby de Eresby, through his late motherm, Lady Clementina Sarah Drummond. (For
continuation of the history of Naughton see Part IV, Chapter I.)