874
epoch Bunkle has remained with the Douglases. It was forfeited, indeed, by
Archibald Earl of Angus, who was convicted of treason in 1528 ; but his
forfeiture was reversed on the 15th of March 1542-3 (m). We have now seen
the barony of Bunkle pass, by Margaret, a female heir, to Sir John Stewart,
whose son enjoyed it, and whose grandson was created Earl of Angus and Lord
of Bonkill; and Margaret, the granddaughter of the first Earl, by marrying
William Earl Douglas, carried Bonkill from the race of the Stewarts to the
family of Douglas (n). The conjoined parish of Preston, like other places in
North and South Britain, derived its name from the Saxon Prest-tun, the town
of the priest. The Kirktown of Preston stands on the northern side of the
Whitadder, nearly two miles south-westward of Bonkill. The two manors of
Preston and Bunkle, as the property of the same family, were virtually united (0).
The church of Preston, any more than the church of Bunkle, does not appear
in the ancient Taxatio; neither do these two parishes seem to have ever be-
longed to any religious house. The church of Preston has been completely
ruined by time and chance; the church of Bunkle continues to serve all the
spiritual purposes of the united parish. The Reformation, no doubt, introduced
here, as in every other district, a very different regimen (p). [The parish church
was rebuilt in 1820 on the site of a very ancient edifice ; communicants, 171 ;
stipend, £390.]
The ABBEY OF ST. BATHAN'S parish is situated among the hills of Lammermuir,
on the Whitadder riveret. This name is a modern corruption of St. Bothan's,
as we may learn from the Aberdeen Breviary (q). Under William the Lion,
his daughter Ada, the Countess of March, founded on the same sequestered
(m) Parl. Rec., 580-650. The titles were afterward confirmed by Queen Mary, and ratified in Par-
liament. Parl. Rec., 765 ; and thus, under all those rights and authorities, the present Lord Douglas
enjoys Bunkle and Preston, with their pertinents, as representative of the Douglases, Earls of Angus,
the posterity of the Lady Mary, and George Douglas.
(n) Thus failed the Steuarts of Bonkill. The race of the Steuarts who descended from Sir John
Steuart and Margaret de Bonkill, who left seven sons and one daughter, will be resumed in the account
of Renfrewshire.
(0) The last Thomas Steuart, Earl of Angus, who died in 1377, granted to Thomas Reidpath
15 husband lands and 7 cottage crofts, "in villa de Prestoun et baronia de Bonkill." This grant
was confirmed by Robert II. in 1379. Roberts. Index, 123 : and on this point see the Parl.
Rec., 766.
(p) For other notices, the more curious reader may see the Stat. Acco., iii., 153, and the Tabular
State annexed.
(q) "In Lamermur, Bothani episcopi et coenobie sancti monialium ei consecratio." Aberd. Breviary.
Dempster's Menologia records the 18th of January as the day of Bishop Bothan. The parish church
of Yester, in East Lothian, was also dedicated to St. Bothan. The name of Abbey of St. Bothan still
remained unchanged when Pont surveyed Berwickshire. Blaeu's Atlas, No. 8. The parish has only
been misnamed Abbey of St. Bathan's since the epoch of the Reformation.