Parochial Economy
Parish Church
We have hitherto referred to the parish church as existing previous to the religious establishments founded by the family of Forrester. At first it belonged to the Abbey of Holyroodhouse, and was connected with the church of St. Cuthberts. It was afterwards attached to the collegiate church of Corstorphine, while that establishment remained in efficiency, but was separated from it at the start of the Reformation.
The first Protestant teacher in Corstorphine was Walter Cowper, reader, whose name is mentioned in the Register of ministers, exhorters, and readers, after the Reformation, as having died in November 1570.
From 1570 down to 1587, there was no Protestant clergymen in Corstorphine, but on 7th March 1587, Sir James Forrester of Corstorphine and the remanent parishioners of that parish, applied to the Presbytery of Edinburgh to recognize the church of Corstorphine as a proper parish church, praying that they should not be "compellit to hant (frequent) any other paroch kirk nor their awin, qlk had been fundit of auld to yt effect." On receiving this application, the Presbytery ordained "the Abbot of Halierudhouse, the ministers and elders of St. Cuthberts, and all others having interest, to compear before them the following day, and declare whether they had anything to object to this supplication, but none having compeared, the Presbyterie directed Sir James Forrester to lay before them all the auld fundations, rights, and papers, instructing that the church of Corstorphine was formerly a parish church."
Sir James Forrester accordingly produced the papal bulls and other rights in his possession, at a meeting of Presbytery held on 19th March 1587, when they were " examined and advycit upon by the brethren of the Presbytery, who found that the kirk of Corstorphine was of auld a paroch kirk, interponed their authority to, and authorized the same accordingly, and they farther ordained a supplication to be made to the Lord's modifiers of ministers' stipends, to assign a stipend out of the thirds of Halierudhouse to the said kirk. The first stipend must have been very small, for its inadequacy was for many years afterwards a subject of frequent complaint, and neither manse nor glebe were then designed to the minister; who lived in a house in the village belonging to Sir James Forrester."(i)
It is probable that, within two or three years after this decision of the Presbytery, a clergyman was appointed to Corstorphine, but as there is a blank in register of the Presbytery from 1589 to 1591, the exact period of this settlement cannot be ascertained. In February 1589, the Laird of Corstorphine was a commissioner of Assembly, which makes it probable that the church then had a minister.
On 6th June 1591, there was a visitation of Corstorphine and Gogar by certain members of the Presbytery, who reported that "in the minister of Corstorphine they fand natbidg sclanderous, and all things in the kirk they fand in a good state." And as concerning the kirk of Gogar, " they thought good, it being so small a congregation, and syk near to Corstorphine, that it should be joinit thereto, in which opinion the brethren of the Presbytery acquiesced."
Notwithstanding the favourable opidion of the Presbytery, the union of the parishes of Gogar and Corstorphine was not carried into effect for several years after this period.
In August 1598, the Presbytery appointed visitations of both churches, with the special object of bringing about this union. On this occasion the Laird of Corstorphine, in the name of the parishioners, in addition to Gogar, craved the Presbytery to unite to Corstorphine the estates of Saughton, Saughtonhall, and Brumhouses. From the reports of these visitations, it appears that the church of Corstorphine had then a minister, elders, and deacons, while the church of Gogar had merely a reader, who resided in Edinburgh. After these preliminary examinations, the presbytry, on 9th January 1599, proposed a temporary union of the parishes, and having obtained the concurrence of the three leading heritors of Gogar, they next proceeded to carry their proposal into effect, by transferring the reader from Gogar to Corstorphine and directing the minister to preach alternately at Gogar and Corstorphine per vices. This arrangement was not satisfactory to either parish, but it was enforced by the authority of the Presbytery, and every remonstrance against it was met by a promise to sanction separate charges, whenever ample provisions should be made for the maintenance of separate clergymen.
In the beginning of 1600, the Presbytery appointed two of their number Commissioners to enquire at the Abbot of Holyroodhouse, what provision he was willing to make for the "kirk of Corstorphine, as ane of the kirks of his abbacy". The only result of this enquiry was an explanation that the "teinds of the kirk had been set in 1597, for twenty-two years for the tack duty of L. 40 per annum, and under the burden of sustaining and upholding the queir, and reserving the manse and gleib to the minister".
In April 1602, the parishioners of Corstorphine agreed to contribute a sum of L. 30 additional yearly, to the stipend of their clergyman, on condition of his confining his ministrations to Corstorphine church, and this agreement was acceded to by the parishioners of Gogar, and enforced by the Presbytery, on the understanding that the parishioners were to have the benefit of the kirk of Corstorphine until they should be in a situation to provide a minister for themselves (ii). This time, however, never arrived, and the arrangement then made has never since been disturbed. On the establishment of the Bishoprick of Edinburgh in September 1633, St. Cuthbert's and Corstorphine churches were united to it, but this connexion was annulled in 1638, and after being restored in 1662, was finally dissolved on the re-establishment of Presbytery in 1689.
i. Parish Register, Vol. i.
ii. Parish Register, Vol. iii
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