unfortunate that it should be so completely lost to sight. One of the panels contains a shield with a coat of arms, apparently that of Cunningham of Barns, with the initials A. C. and the date 1605. When the church was handed over to the town the rights of Cunningham of Barns were reserved. He had thus some interest in the church or lands. This carved work seems to have been the gift of Alexander Cunningham, who at the above date was Laird of Barns. The arms of his wife, Helen, daughter of Thomas Myrton of Cambo, are seen, with her initials, on the smaller panel to the right. Another shield bears the coat and initials of Katherine Lindsay, wife of Thomas Myrton of Cambo, with the date 1598. Other shields (not shown in the illustration) bear the arms of Learmonth of Balcomie (1594).
ST. MARY'S, WHITEKIRK, Haddingtonshire.
This charming old building is one of the few rural parish churches of
mediæval times still used for divine service. The church seems to have
had its origin in a neighbouring holy well. The following extract from
documents in the Vatican gives some account of its origin and history:—[1]
"The great number of miracles performed at this well were so numerous
that in 1309 John Abernethy, with the assistance of the monks of Melrose,
procured a shrine to be erected, and dedicated it to the Holy Mother. In 1413
there were no less than 15,653 pilgrims of all nations, and the offerings were
equal to 1422 merks. In 1430, James I., King of Scotland, being a good man
who loved the Church, built the Abbey of the Holy Cross at Edinburgh, and took
the Chapel of Fairknowe into his protection, added much to it by the building
of houses for the reception of pilgrims, called it Whitechapel, where he often
went and made it a dependant on his own abbey of the Holy Cross. In 1439,
Adam Hepburn of Hailes built a choir all arched with stone, agreeable to the
mode of Peter de Main, and so it continued in great prosperity as a place of
sanctity until the year 1540, that the cup of vengeance was full, and heresy
covered the North."
Whitekirk was a dependency of Holyrood, as mentioned in the above
extract. It was a great place of pilgrimage, and was visited, amongst
others, by Pope Pius II. (Æneas Sylvius), who came to render thanks to
the Virgin for his safe landing in Scotland.
In the seventeenth century the east end was used as a church and the west end as a school. In 1760 the Parish of Tynningham was added to Whitekirk, and some of the fittings of the former were brought to the latter. Thus the Haddington gallery in the north transept was adorned with the front of the gallery from Tynningham. During this century some attempts have been made to improve the structure. In
- ↑ From The Churches of St. Baldred, by C. L. Ritchie, p. 31.
