701
With some little variation in the spelling of the name, it might be derived from
the Gaelic both-aill, or the British both-hyl, both which signify the habitation on
the steep bank of the river. This is perfectly descriptive of the site of Bothwell
castle, and it also applies to Bothall castle in Northumberland. Yet is it pos-
sible that the name may have been formed by adding to the Celtic both the old
term vill, which, whether derived from the Latin villa or the Anglo-Norman
ville, signified a habitation or village, with a certain district or territory he-
longing to it. The patronage of the parish church of Bothwell belonged in
early times to the lordship of Bothwell, and continued its connexion with that
lordship down to recent times (e). This great lordship was in early ages the
most powerful baronial territory in Clydesdale. It comprehended not only the
very extensive old parish of Bothwell, but also the parishes of Dolphinton,
Walston, and Cambuslang. During the reign of Alexander II. the lordship
of Bothwell belonged to Walter Olifard, the justiciary of Lothian, who died in
1242, and it afterwards passed, perhaps by marriage, to Walter de Moray, the
progenitor of the Morays of Bothwell, who distinguished themselves by their
strenuous efforts to maintain the independence of Scotland during the suc-
cession war. Johanna, the only child and heiress of Sir Thomas Moray of
Bothwell, who died in 1366, carried this lordship by marriage, as we have
seen, to Archibald Douglas, the Lord of Galloway, in 1370 ; and the lord-
ship of Bothwell continued in the family of Douglas till the forfeiture of
James, Earl Douglas, in 1455, when it fell to the crown. Archibald Douglas,
who thus acquired the lordship with the heiress thereof, converted the
parish church of Bothwell into a collegiate establishment for a provost and
eight prebendaries, and the patronage of the whole continued with the
lordship of Bothwell. The provost enjoyed the revenues, the glebe lands,
and manse of this parish, whereof he was ex officio rector, and he paid a
curate or vicar pensioner for serving the cure. At the period of the
Reformation, the lairds of Carphin and Clelandtoun held a lease from the
provost of Bothwell of the tithes of the parish for the yearly payment of
£200 Scots (f). In this parish, large as it was, there were several subor-
dinate chapels to the church in the period preceding the Reformation (g)
At Osbernistonn, which is now called Orbistoun, in the south-west district of
this parish, there was a chapel which was dedicated to Saint Catherine, the
Virgin. During the reign of Alexander II., Walter Olifard granted to this
chapel and to its chaplains a perpetual annual rent of ten pounds from the
(e) In 1296 David de Moray, the parson of the church of Bothwell, swore fealty to Edward I.
[Prynne. iii. 662]. Mr. John Fleming was rector of the church of Bothwell between the years 1319
and 1326. Chart. Glasg., 353.                               (f) MS. Rental Book, 13.
(g) In addition to all those chapels, there   was a private chapel within the castle of Bothwell.
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