Makerstoun House, Graveyard

A burial enclosure of the Makdougall family and a number of gravestones can be identified on a low knoll which lies north-west of Makerstoun House.

The walled enclosure appears to incorporate the remains of an earlier rectangular building which measures around 15m by 7m in extent. The surviving gravestones range in date between the early seventeenth and the early nineteenth centuries, with the majority being of mid-eighteenth century date.

These remains may be of Makerstoun Old Parish Church, which was first recorded in the twelfth century and which was replaced in 1808 by a new church building on a different site.

Text prepared by RCAHMS as part of the Accessing Scotland's Past project

NT63SE 9 67131 31683

(NT 6711 3168) Chapel (NR) (Site of)

OS 6"map, Roxburghshire, (1924).

NMRS REFERENCE

The graveyard immediately NW of Makerstoun House, in which a chapel once stood, contains a number of tombstones, but the only one that falls to be recorded is a small block inscribed on the upper surface 'Heir Lys / TW ANO/DAM 1666'. 'Dam' is evidently a mistake for 'Dom'.

This chapel is presumably the one which the canons granted the Corbets, then the proprietors, leave to have on their manor (of Makerstoun) some time in the thirteenth century.

RCAHMS 1956.

EXTERNAL REFERENCE:

ORDNANCE SURVEY

Generally as described above. The gravestones some erect, others fallen, are in relatively good condition, the majority date from the mid eighteenth century. No evidence of a chapel remains; the modern burial place at NT 6713 3168, is that of the McDougall family.

Visited by OS(WDJ) 18 September 1962.

EXTERNAL REFERENCE:

SCOTTISH RECORD OFFICE

Extracts from the records of the Presbytery of Kelso as to the state of Makerstoun Church.

1645, August 19. Complaint that there is no school, no kirk bell and no glass windows in the building.

1649. 'The Kirst stands in the midst of the town which is the greatest part of the parish.'

The Church was 36' x 19'9. Aisle 17'10 x 14'10.

Breadth of the Arch 3'1 and its span 10'6.

GD 402/33/1

Extract from Kirk Session Minutes at Mackarstoun ancient repair of Church and Manse.

GD402/259 3 August 1686

1720. Thomas McDougall of Stodrig and Walter Pearson of Charterhouse claim as Heritors their proper proportion of room in the Church. The Presbytery found that there was no entry to the aisle but by the Church by any rail or seat in the North of the aisle till about 5 years ago and then Stodrig for his own convenience made a door in the gavel of the aisle and built a seat in the arch of the aisle. Stodrig protested that the aisle was no part of the Church but his own property. Everything remeasured.

1727. A new manse ordered.

1807. Church and manse removed to a more central site.

GD 402/33/11

Thatching of Makerstoun Kirk.

Payment of £7 16s. 0d. to John Kyle.

Fitted Account: Mrs Barbara MacDougall and her Curators and Mrs Ann MacDougall her Factrix.

1723 GD 402/58/1

Thatching the Kirk at Makerstoun.

Receipt for 13s. sterling due to John Kylle in Newtoun in part payment for the work.

1723 GD 402/33/6