The book Arran; - Cook Clan

CHURCHES BEFORE THE REFORMATION 81
of his own soul and the soul of his late spouse Katherine,
and the salvation of the souls of his ancestors and successors,
granted to God, the blessed Virgin, the blessed saint Winnin
and the monastery of Kilwinning in Cunningham, the abbot
and monks serving there now and for ever, the right of provi-
sion and appointment of the churches of St. Mary and St.
Brigid of the island of Arran, with their chapels and all other
goods and lands pertaining to the said churches with their
chapels, or in any way likely to pertain in time to come, to
be held by the said monastery and monks as a clear and perpetual
almsgiving—that is, free of ordinary burdens. ^ To this
charter, confirmed by David i. in the same year, and again
as late as the reign of Robert iii., Sir Bean, rector of St.
Mary's, or Kilmorie, is one witness, and William de Foulartoun
another.^ How long the abbey retained these rights,
or why they lost them, we do not know, but, in the grant
of 1503 to Lord Hamilton, with the lands of Arran is included
the advowson of the churches and chapels of the
island, henceforward then again a lay property, and so till
the Reformation. But for more than a century at least the
monks had the ecclesiastical interests of the island under
their charge, and some of their impress can still perhaps be
traced in the names of Kelso and Kerr (Carr), even Mark Kerrs,
Mark being a favourite Christian name of that Border family,
that one deciphers upon the tombstones that crowd the slope
of Kilbride kirkyard or the beautiful site at Loch Ranza.
These names must originally have been sown by Border
wayfarers along the line of communication from the parent
house at Kelso on the Tweed, through Kilwinning to its
dependents in Arran : ^ stray leaves of names on the obscure
flow of history.
There is more material and variety in some scrappy
records of Kilmorie, which are, moreover, typical of much
• Registrum Magni Sigilli, a.d., No. 86. ^ Robertson's Index, p. 145.
^ Both names are known also in Bute of old.
VOL. II.
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