The Bannatyne Club and the Publication of Scottish Ecclesiastical Cartularies

Abstract

1During the course of the nineteenth century the Abbotsford, Bannatyne, Grampian, Maitland, and Spalding Clubs, together with a number of individuals, were responsible for publishing the majority of the documents that related to the Scottish medieval church. 2Although they all devoted a great deal of time and effort in making the papers more accessible in printed form to the general public, the Bannatyne Club undoubtedly made the greatest contribution. Two points differentiate it from its contemporaries and successors. First, the sheer scale of its publishing operation over a relatively short period of time. Second, the importance to successive generations of historians of Scotland of the records of the individual religious houses that it published. These consisted of a series of texts now commonly regarded, and used, as the cartularies of some of the major Scottish religious houses, including Arbroath, Brechin, Dunfermline, Kelso, Melrose, Moray, and Scone.

The Medieval Kirk, Cemetery and Hospice at Kirk Ness, North Berwick

“…The major problem in relation to this lack of detail is the simple fact that the formal cartulary that once must have been kept by the Cistercian nuns of North Berwick in accordance with 13th century papal de cree has been either destroyed or lost. The socalled cartulary compiled, arranged, and edited by Cosmo Innes and published by the Bannatyne Club in 1847 is an entirely false creation compiled from stray documents extracted from different collections, which perhaps helps to explain the chronological gap within it relating to the nunnery between 1293 and 1373 (Ross 2006).…”

“…The Kirk Sessions Records within which this information was originally found during the 19th century were thought to have since been either destroyed or lost; Ferrier, for example, was unable to trace them for his 1980 publication. This means that the original readings of these books in the 19th century have been greatly relied upon in the various subsequent accounts, but confidence in them may not be entirely justified (Ross 2006). However, a number of the early church re cords were identified in the National Archives of Scotland (CH2/285/1/2), including manuscript entries copied from early minutes, now lost.…”