Saturday 28 July 2018

Lost Treasures of Angus - Patrick Paniter's Panels from Montrose

Patrick Paniter was a man of parts, professional cleric and collector of beneficies, courtier and political adviser to King James IV.  After service abroad, Paniter became rector of Fetteresso in the Mearns and Vicar of Kilmany in Fife.  He became Secretary to the king (James IV) and gained further, more important religious posts associated with Dunkeld and then Moray.  His first benefice in Angus came was the rectorship of Tannadice.  Patrick's family came from Newmanswells, near present Borrowfield, north of Montrose.  This local connection explains why the well connected cleric cared so much about this specific foundation in the burgh. There is a theory that the panels actually come from the local kirk, after it was demolished in the last years of the 18th century.  The first of the family recorded locally was one William Paneter, mentioned around 1350, while Andrew Panter was a burgess of Montrose.

   This close connection with Montrose explains why he ordered the restoration of the derelict Hospital of St Mary in the burgh.  A royal charter dated 18 August 1512 tells us that Patrick Paniter rescued the hospital from the hands of powerful laymen, recovered its alienated lands, and also rebuilt the foundations its hall, chapel and other buildings.  According to R. L. Mackie, 'For this reason he was granted, as Preceptor of the Hospital, the power to recast its constitution, and the sole right of electing poor bedesmen, scholars, and chaplains.' Paniter arranged the rebuilding of the hospital from his own pocket and by obtaining indulgences from other who contributed from Pope Julius II.  As the Dominican friary in the burgh was also in similar decline, Paniter revived it by annexing the hospital to it, a move which meant Montrose would be serviced with preachers and the old friary could be ased as an asset.  The vicar of the hospital was tasked with praying for Paniter's uncle and brother. 

   The family who gained the property before Paniter were the powerful Erskines of Dun, who were destined to be major players in the Reformation and afterwards as staunch Protestant Reformers as well as significant players both locally and nationally.  John Erskine of Dun had resigned the lands of Spittal Fields to Patrick on 19 October 1509, though agents acting on behalf of Dun's grandson challenged this nine years later. 


Early 20th century view of the coast at Montrose


   Nothing now remains in Montrose of the ancient hospital buildings, but, remarkably, there are 18 panels - possibly from the dias of the hall of the hospital - which have survived are are now in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.  They were integrated in an old property in Montrose and were saved when it was demolished around the year 1878.   The panels are mostly carved with floral patterns, but some carving intriguingly portray monks satirically shaped like foxes and pigs.  Some experts believe the work as a native Scot perhaps influenced by Flemish woodwork.  Along with a door the panels were discovered in the 19th century and are linked to Patrick by including his family's coat of arms. 

   Patrick himself, who was born around 1470, luckily survived the mass cull of Scots at the Battle of Flodden.  He was certainly present on the field that day, since in May 1514 Pope Leo X granted him absolution and license to retain his holy orders and the Abbey of Cambuskenneth, despite him having 'manipulated engines of war' on the battlefield, where he was present as King James IV's secretary. The final petition from the Governor of Scotland, the Duke of Albany, went to the Pope in 1517, aformally asking the hospital to be dissolved and annexed to the friary. Patrick himself died peacefully in 1519 in Paris.







Some Works Consulted


R. L. Mackie (ed.), The Letters of James the Fourth 1505-1513 (Edinburgh, 1953).

James S. Richardson, 'Oak Panels Presented to the Museum by the National Art Collections Fund,' Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 71 (1938-9), pp. 324-5.

John Warrack, Domestic Life in Scotland, 1488-1688 (London, 1920).





Previous Posts on the Lost Treasures of Angus




Saturday 14 July 2018

The King's Cadger Road - A Fishy Tale

Forfar as a set of the peripatetic Scottish court in the Middle Ages has definitely been under investigated.  Malcolm Canmore and Queen Margaret have a lingering remembrance in the area, in folklore, history and place-names, but otherwise there is relatively little known about royal associations here, and certainly their origins, partly because the castle (or castles, as there may have been two of them) was erased during the Wars of Independence.  One surprising survival about the logistics of the king's presence here is the memory - if not the actual physical survival - of the King's Cadger Road.  This route was recognised as the official pathway between the fishing village of Usan (Haven), south of Montrose and the king's residence at Forfar.


The approximate line of the Cadger's Path between Usan and the royal burgh of Forfar

   Quite when the King's Cadger Road was developed is unknown.  The author of the Old Roads of Scotland website points out that the Fyschergate mentioned in a charter of Arbroath Abbey is almost certainly identical to the King's Cadger Road.  The road stretched apparently from the market cross of Forfar to the coast.  The royal cadger would bring fish to the court each day it was in attendance and it was 'in breadth the width of a mill wand'.  This measure has been explained by the laborious process by which these round mil stones were transported before the advent of properly surfaced roads.  A  long piece of wood - the mill-wand - was put through the centre of the stone and used to roll it from the quarry to the actual mill.

   The route passed through Montreathmont Moor and was marked by various subsiduary wayside names:  Cadger Slack, Cadger Burn, among them.  When the moor was divvied up between the adjacent estates in 1780 the laird of Usan asserted his right to the Cadger Road across the moorland, and received as his share an allocation of land in it equal to the superficial extent of the ancient road. According to David Adams:

Ainslie's map of Angus in 1794...may preserve the eastern part of the King's Cadger Road.  The most likely route seems to be from Usan in a straight line south of Dunninald as far as the A92 and then zig-zagging north of Upper Dysart, passing Gightyburn and Rossie Farm School to meet the track from craig and Ferryden tto Kinnell and then crossing Wuddy Law to pass north of Bolshan.  West of that the route is not traceable with any certainty...

   The residence of the cadger himself was called Strook Hill and stood just to the south-west of Usan.  The lands of the cadger were in the form of a strip, comprising 30 acres, reaching from the shore at Usan to the kirkyard of St Skeoch.

Reid summarises a legend which says that one of the king's cadgers was waylaid by the laird of Rossie, so he and his accomplice son were executed on the top of Kinnoull Hill:

It would appear they exhibited a natural reluctance to mouth the scaffold under the fatal tree.  The King himself attended the execution, and seeing their dilatoriness he called out to them 'Mount, boys!' to which circumstance is ascribed the derivation of the name of the farm of Mountboy, which lies on the south side of the Hill of Kinnoul, though Mon-bois (wooded moss) is the origin.
   There are various confusing named in the locality 'King's Seat' or 'Ginshot Hill' are applied to the artificial eminence locally said to be the place of the execution.  One source says that the 'crown of the hill' (possible meaning the artificial mound) was called Kinshie Hill.

   The family who supplied the sea fish to the king were named Tulloch and they held the lands of Bonnington or Bonnyton, through which the Cadger Road passes, under the tenure of supplying fish to the royal table. In 1399 the office of the keeper of the Moor of Monrommon was in the possession of this family.   The Tullochs' lands passed to the Wood family many centuries ago.  One of their number, John Wood, was created a baronet in 1666. There was a Castle of Bonnyton, though this has long since vanished also.



   There is an old Scots saying which is probably not local to Angus (though it would be nice to think it was):

the king's errand may come in the cadger's gate (or the king will come in the cadger's road).

   The meaning is that even great events may come by unsuspected routes, or that great men may also have to walk humble paths at times. There is another rhyme, recited to bairns when jogged on the knee, called The Cadger's Ride.  Again, it is not uniquely from Angus but, who can tell, may well have originated here:


This is the way the ladies ride,
Trit, trot, trit, trot, trit, trot,
This is the way the gentlemen ride,
Trit, trot, trit, trot, trit, trot,
This is the way the Cadgers ride,
Creels an a', creels an' a'.


Usan



Some Works Consulted


Adams, David G., Usan, or Fishtown of Ullishaven (Brechin, 1989).
Carrie, John, Ancient Things in Angus (Arbroath, 1881).
Edwards, D. H., Around the Ancient City (Brechin, 1904).
Jervise, Andrew, Epitaphs and Inscriptions of the North-East of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1875).
Reid, Alan, The Royal Burgh of Forfar (Forfar, 1902).
Rxton Fraser, Rev. William, St Mary's of Old Montrose, or Parish or Maryton (Edinburgh, 1896).