443
KIrKCOLM parish obtained its name from the church, which was dedicated to
St. Columba, and hence called Kirk-colm. This parish appears to have been a
free parsonage at the end of the 13th century. In 1296, Alexander de Pun-
tunby, the parson of the church of Kirkcolm in the Rhinns, swore fealty to
Edward I., and obtained a writ to the sheriff of Wigton for delivering his
property (t). The parish church of Kirkcolm afterwards belonged to the abbot
and monks of Sweetheart, or New Abbey, who enjoyed the revenues, while the
cure was served by a vicar pensioner. At the Reformation, the tithes of the
church of Kirkcolm, with the kirklands (u), were held by Campbell of Corswell
on a nineteen years' lease from the abbot and monks of New Abbey, for the
yearly payment of 100 marks, or £66 13s. 4d. (v). The church of Kirkcolm
was vested in the king by the act of 1587. It was granted by king James, in
1623, to Alexander, the Earl of Galloway, and ratified in parliament in 1633 (w).
The Earl of Galloway is now patron of Kirkcolm and titular of the tithes. In
the middle of the 17th century, the lands of Galdenoch, and of Achneil, or
Barjarg, were detached from the parish of Kirkcolm and annexed to the parish
of Leswalt. In the south-east corner of Kirkcolm parish, about two miles south
of the present church, on the side of Loch Ryan, there was formerly a chapel
dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and named, in the Scoto-Irish, Kil-morie, signi-
fying the chapel of Mary. This chapel was altogether ruinous when Symson
wrote his account in 1684, but the Virgin Mary's well at the chapel still
retained its celebrity for miraculous properties. The country people resorted
to it for water to cure sick persons; and it was reported and believed
that if the disease of the sick person was deadly, the well would be found so
dry that it would be difficult to obtain water, but if the disease were curable,
then there would be found water enough for all comers (x). The Reformation
gradually put an end to all such credulity and such folly. [The present Parish
Church (1824) has 350 communicants : stipend £344. A Free Church has 144
members.]
Add to all those facts and intimations, with regard to the several parishes in
this shire, the subjoined Tabular Statement.
(t) Rot. Scot., i. 24.
(u) The kirklands, which belonged to this church, extended to three marklands of old extent.   They
were granted in fee-firm, soon after the Reformation.    Inquisit. Speciales, 134.
(v) MS. Rental Book, 89, 99.                   (w) Acta Parl., v. 68.                  (x) MS. Account, 69, 70.