Errol (Carse of Gowrie), which, from the following inscription, probably represents the eighth Earl referred to in the above "tabill"—"Item penultimo die mensis Ianuarij, Anno Domini M.D.LX(X)III. obijt bone memorie Georgius comes De Errol. apud Pertham et sepultus est Errolie."
There are few notices of the buildings of the abbey. A plan of it was made about 1820 by William Mitchell, a mason, who corresponded with
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Fig. 1452.—Coupar Abbey.
Royal Arms.
General Hutton regarding it; but they evidently could not come to terms, and it is not in his collection in the Advocates' Library. Mitchell calls it "a true and just plan of the outlines of that pile of building."
Dr. Marshall, in his Historic Scenes in Forfarshire, p. 144, had this plan before him when he wrote, and he characterises it as being unreliable. After a good deal of correspondence we obtained a sight of it, and have no hesitation in saying that it is a pure work of imagination, and is not a plan of the abbey at all; and, judging from the correspondence with General Hutton, we suspect the author intended to play a hoax on him, and yet was afraid to go the full length, and this is probably the reason why the General never got the plan.
In 1492 and following years there are references to Thomas Mowtray, mason. He was sworn to be "leyl and trew," during the term of his life, to the abbot and chapter, and he is obliged to "wyrk leilly and profitably the masonwerk of our forsaid abbay, and to be the master of the werk, in al thingis that langis hys craft of masonry in our abbay or in our qwarellis
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Fig. 1453.—Coupar Abbey. Recumbent Figure.
as it nedis." He was to have 6 "markis" yearly with his meat and drink, a house with 2-1/2 acres of land; further, the Lord Abbot "promised to give him yearly one of his old albs reaching to the ankles." He was to instruct the "prentys" in all "craft of masonry,"[1]
In 1485 John, the mason, and his son are continued in the service of the abbey. In 1468 Thomas Bel was hired "for the constant carpentry" of the abbey; he had workmen under him and apprentices. There are also agreements with smiths, as John Lutare, smith, who
- ↑ Rental Book of Coupar, Vol. I. pp. 304, 309.
