Field Visit
Date 29 September 2001
Event ID 613898
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/613898
Scrolled pediment broken by a framed armorial panel, surmounted by a later (1649) smaller pediment topped by a perforated ball. On the central panel is a scrolled shield with the impaled arms of Michael MacQueen (three savages' heads) and Janet Rynd (a shield divided into four quarters, the first, third and fourth decorated with ermine, the second with two stars. Over the centre of the four quarters is a cross on which is a cross crosslet fitchee). Dividing these coats of arms is the crowned hammer of the Guild of Hammermen. The couple's initials appear either side of the shield, with thistles and the date 1553 either side of the crown. Originally, two small figures stood on square pedestals at the sides of the pediment: a bearded bedesman (or mason) in profile on the left, with a staff (or an instrument for measuring angles) in his right hand; and a hammerman in late Elizabethan or quite early Jacobean costume, a curved hammer in his right hand, his knees bent and his body turned to the front.
The Magdalen Chapel was founded by Michael MacQueen (died 1537) and his wife Janet Rynd (died 1553). The carved stone was originally placed on a monumental gateway to the chapel close. John Sawer painter was paid ten shillings and a pint of wine 'for drawing of ye croun upone ye stane to be set above ye foir yet heid'. Alexander Wat was paid for mason work on the chapel, but the heraldic stone was more probably carved by unnamed masons who received three pounds for 'hewand ye heid stane to be set upon ye foir yet heid'. (Quoted in 'The Magdalen Chapel', pp.30-31). The stone was moved to its present position in 1649 when the pediment was added.
Thomas Ross and G. Baldwin Brown describe the figure on the left as a mason 'dressed in a coarse gabardine and [holding] in his hands a hinged instrument for taking angles.' Gifford et al describe the figure as a bedesman.
Inscriptions : In pediment: 1649
Either side of crown (raised Gothic numbers): 15 53
Either side of middle of shield (raised letters): M M [Michael MacQueen]
In bottom corners (raised letters): I R [Janet Rynd]
On stone below pediment moulding (incised letters with serifs): HE THAT HATH PITIE VPON THE POORE LENDETH UNTO / THE LORD AND THE LORD WILL RECOMPENCE HIM THAT / WHICH HE HETH GIUEN PRO: XIX. VERS XVII.
Signatures : None Visible
Design period : 1615
Year of unveiling : 1649
Information from Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (PMSA Work Ref : EDIN1476)
