Scotland’s Cluniac Heritage: The abbeys of Paisley and Crossraguel Saturday 15th May 2010, Paisley Town Hall The first hundred years of Paisley Abbey s patrons: the Stewart family and their tenants to 1241 BY MATTHEW HAMMOND As anyone to visit Paisley Abbey should be able to tell you, the monastery was founded in 1163 by Walter the steward of the king of Scotland. The abbey was the largest and wealthiest Scottish representative of the Order of Cluny, a reformed Benedictine order already 250 years old at that time. The Cluniac order was eclipsed in importance in the Scottish kingdom by the newer Cistercian and Tironensian orders of monks, who were especially favoured by twelfth-century Scottish kings such as David I (1124-53). The establishment of the Cluniac order in Scotland, by contrast, was thanks almost entirely to the patronage and benefaction of a noble family of Anglo-Breton origin, the FitzAlans, who became the hereditary stewards of the king s household in Scotland, ultimately taking a new surname from this office, the Stewarts. The Stewarts were staunch supporters of the Bruce cause in the so-called Scottish Wars of Independence, and on the death of David II in 1371, they ascended to the throne of Scotland, drawing their own estates into the royal demesne, and their patronage of Paisley Abbey into the remit of the crown as well. In this paper today, however, I want to explore the foundation of the then priory of Paisley in the 1160s and the its development up to the death of Alexander Stewart in 1282. THE ANCESTRY OF THE STEWARTS AND FITZALANS Believe it or not, it was once generally held that the Stewart family were descendants of Banquo, thane of Lochaber, of Macbeth fame. This argument was thoroughly demolished by John (orace Round in a article entitled The Origins of the Stewarts . Much of what follows comes from this article as well as 1 addition research conducted by Prof Geoffrey Barrow in his excellent 1980 work, The Anglo-Norman Era in Scottish History. It is now very well known that the Stewarts were of Breton origin. Can we see anything of them at work in their native Brittany? The answer is yes. Walter the steward and founder of Paisley s grandfather, Flaald son of Alan, was the younger brother of one Alan son of Alan, hereditary steward of the lords of Dol in Brittany. Today, Dol-de-Bretagne is in the départment of Ille-et-Vilaine, in eastern Brittany near the border with the Norman department of Manche. This family of stewards were not among the families who streamed into England in the wake of William the Conqueror; rather they came to this island as part of a contingent of West Norman and East Breton knightly families (also including the d Avranches and d Aubigny families supporting (enry ) Beauclerk against his elder brother, Robert Curthose, duke of Normandy, after the premature death of William II Rufus while hunting in the New Forest in 1100.1 But the naming patterns of the family suggest ties with the Breton political establishment as well. Alan, a Breton name still used in Scotland thanks to this family, was a recurring name in the dynasty of the counts and dukes of Brittany, and it is likely that the Alan at the top of this tree was named after the longserving Alan, duke of Brittany from 1008 to 1040. Rhiwallon, the steward of Dol s brother, was named after Rhiwallon, lord of Dol, the family s Breton masters. We know about this family because of their patronage of monasteries, but we look in vain for any relationship with Cluniac houses at this point. The principle focus for Alan the steward of Dol s ecclesiastical devotion in the late th century was the Benedictine establishment of St Florent de Saumur, near the Loire (see map . Rhiwallon, lord of Dol s son, William, entered that house and became its abbot in 1170. A daughter-house was established near Dol by 1080, and Alan the steward was present at the foundation. Alan s brother Flaald, ancestor of the Stewarts, first appears consenting to one of Alan s donations to the cell, called Mezuoit. This generation of the family neatly illustrates the 11th-century 1 Judith Green, The Aristocracy of Norman England (Cambridge, 1997), 280 2 problem of primogeniture and non-partible inheritance. The eldest son, Alan, inherited the position as steward and the lands in Dol. A younger son, Rhiwallon, enetered the monastery at Mezuoit. Another younger son, perhaps the youngest, Flaald, had to go off and seek his fortune elsewhere. Alan went off on the First Crusade in 1097 and most likely did not return to Brittany. His brother, Flaald, was in Britain shortly thereafter, at the dedication of the new church of Monmouth Priory in 1101, another daughter-house of St Florent de Saumur, suggesting that Henry I may have deliberately placed Breton knights like Flaald in the Welsh March, perhaps hoping the linguistic and cultural affinities with the Welsh might help secure the western border. Flaald s son, Alan, became firmly established in England with a marriage to Avelina, daughter of a major Domesday tenant Arnulf from Hesdin in Picardy. Much of this land was in Norfolk, where Alan fitz Flaald founded another daughter of Saumur, Sporle Priory. The following generation was the crucial one. Alan fitz Flaald s eldest son, Jordan, inherited the office of steward of Dol, with the second son, William fitz Alan, keeping the majority of the English estates. This line ended in two heiresses, Olive and Alice, in the early 13th century. The third son, Walter, again would have to seek his fortune in the Kingdom of the Scots. Before we turn our gaze to Renfrewshire, however, it may be useful to seek out the beginnings of the family s association with the Cluniac order. William fitz Alan was a supporter of Henry Plantagenet in the so-called Anarchy of Stephen s reign, and was lord of the baronies of Oswestry and Clun in Shropshire, filling the position of sheriff of that county from 1155 to 1160. He nurtured associations with a variety of religious houses, and established himself as chief patron of Haughmond Abbey, an Augustinian priory dedicated to St John the Evangelist. This monastery would come to fill the role for the FitzAlans of Shropshire that Paisley would occupy for their Stewart cousins north of the border. Despite the preeminent position of Haughmond, William fitz Alan also developed relations with other houses, including the Augustinian foundation at Lilleshall (of the Arrouaisian 3 persuasion), Buildwas Abbey, of the Savigniac filiation and the Cluniac priory of Much Wenlock, all of which were in Shropshire. William fitz Alan s second marriage was to )sabella de Say, lady of Clun, and their son William inherited the Shropshire lands. Whereas his father had used the name fitz Alan as a Norman French patronymic descriptor, William the younger adopted it as a proper surname. His descendant, John (II) FitzAlan, inherited the earldom of Arundel in 1244. THE PRIORY OF MUCH WENLOCK Before we arrive in Renfrewshire, we have one remaining task. What was the nature of Paisley s mother house, Wenlock Priory? A double monastery for men and women had been founded at Much Wenlock around 670 by Merewald a lesser member of the royal house of Mercia. His daughter, Milburga, the first abbess, was later culted as a saint in the region. By the 11th century, the church was staffed by a group of secular male canons only. Between 1079 and 1082, Roger de Montgomery, earl of Shrewsbury, he refounded the minster as a Cluniac priory. There was something of a trend in the founding of Cluniac houses in England in the 1070s and 1080s, following on the establishment of Lewes Priory, a daughter of Cluny itself, by William de Warenne, first earl of Surrey and one of King William ) s top lieutenants. Earl Roger was a kinsman and close friend of Warenne, a fact which probably explains Roger s choice of the Cluniac order. Earl Roger was a benefactor of Cluny, but it was from Cluny s daughter, La Charitésur-Loire, that the small initial settlement came. The monks there actively promoted the cult of St Milburga, commissioning Goscelin of St Bertin to write a new Life of the saint, and launching a successful rediscovery of Milburga s remains. The new Cluniac house founded by Walter fitz Alan, the king of Scotland s steward, around 1163, was dedicated in part to St Milburga, a fact which may help explain Walter s decision-making process. It is noteworthy that Walter chose Wenlock rather than Haughmond. It is somewhat remarkable that Walter and his descendants did not maintain any kind of link with the FitzAlan s 4 favoured house. Whether Walter preferred Cluniac monks to Augustinian canons for religious reasons, or rather sought to distance himself from his older brother William is uncertain. It may have been that Wenlock was available and willing at that point in time to lay the seeds of expansion. Devotion to St Milburga s cult, however, was likely to have played some significant part in the decision. WALTER FITZ ALAN IN SCOTLAND Walter fitz Alan, or Walter son of Alan, as he is generally known in Scotland, was not one of the early knightly retainers of King David I. Among the men who joined David s company as earl of (untingdon were Robert de Brus, Hugh de Morville and Ranulf de Soules. These men were rewarded with lands near the English border, at Annandale, Lauderdale and Liddesdale respectively, with de Morville and de Soules nabbing new hereditary household offices of constable and butler. King David may have been in the market for new young knights after the death of Henry I in 1135, and shortly thereafter Walter son of Alan was infeft in the kingdom of the Scots. As Professor Barrow explains in The Charters of David I that Walter joined David s household around , but was absent in the mid 1140s, then returning to Scotland around 1150. Barrow suggests Walter may have been involved in the 1147 crusade to Lisbon and that a pilgrimage to Compostella may explain the dedication to St James at Paisley. In any event, it is likely that Walter was given the hereditary position of Steward upon his return. Perhaps we should pause a moment to consider just what a steward did. There were a number of officers with responsibilities in the royal household late in David s reign. The chamberlain, an appointed officer mainly concerned with the king s treasure, seems to have had control over the king s sleeping apartments, while the steward s remit concerned the king s hall. As Barrow suggests, the role of steward probably was intended to replace that of the rannaire, or food- divider , the last of whom was Alfwin mac Archill. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Walter fitz Alan, whose brother Jordan was still steward of Dol, may have possessed some experience of what was involved in the job. 5 Direct evidence for the stewardship does not come until the reign of David s grandson, Malcolm IV (1153-65). A surviving single-sheet parchment charter, now held at Durham Cathedral, records Malcolm s gift to Walter son of Alan, my senescallus of Birkenside and Legerwood in Berwickshire, as fully and wholly as King David my grandfather held the aforesaid lands in demesne . (e also gave in feu and heritage the lands of Mow in Roxburghshire. All this was in return for the service of a single knight.2 An antiquarian copy of another charter by Malcolm IV, made by Sir John Skene, Lord Clerk Register from 1594 to 1604, records a much more substantial gift to Walter. Malcolm grants to Walter son of Alan, my dapifer , in feu and heritage, the donation which his grandfather gave to him, namely, Renfrew, Paisley, Pollok, Talahret , Cathcart, Dripps, Mearns, Eaglesham, Lochwinnoch and )nnerwick. (e also gave my stewardship (senescalciam meam) in feu and heritage, as well and as fully as King David gave him his stewardship . The next section of the charter relates to new gifts given by Malcolm himself: as much of Partick as King David formerly held, Inchinnan, Stenton, Hassendean, Legerwood and Birkenside, and a full toft with 20 acres in each of his burghs. All of this is to be held for the service of five knights.3 Both charter texts are dated at Roxburgh, the second and longer of the pair on 24 June. The longer charter lists 29 witnesses; the first 11, all of whom appear among the other charter s . The group includes the bishops of St Andrews and Glasgow, abbots of Kelso, Melrose and Newbattle, and a number of earls, major barons and knights. This suggests that both charters were drawn up at a large royal court at Roxburgh, as Barrow suggests, probably on 29 June 1161. Still, this pair of charters begs a number of questions: Why the need for two charters, especially when Legerwood and Birkenside appear in both documents? And if much of the longer charter is concerned with confirming, or more properly renewing, donations initially made by King David, was there at one time a lost charter of King David granting the stewardship to Walter fitz Alan? The answer to the second question is very likely to be no. Royal gifts to laymen during the reign of King David were probably not routinely written down on 2 3 Durham Cathedral Muniments, Misc. Ch., no. 7162. RRS, i, no. 183. (1/5/59) RRS, i, no. 184. Paisley Reg., App. no. 1 (1/5/60) 6 parchment in charter form. Rather, the development of such royal charters as a matter of course seems to lie in the generation of the 1160s and 1170s. Indeed, charters renewing privileges made by predecessors almost always make explicit mention of an existing charter. This antiquarian text almost certainly represents the earliest written expression of Walter s extensive patrimony. So why two charters? The first charter must be the earlier of the two: Walter had acquired Mow in Roxburghshire by marriage to Eschina of London, the local heiress. It must have been this land that returned the service of one knight, and it is due to these extenuating circumstances that it was excluded from the second charter. As the longer charter makes clear, Birkenside and Legerwood were new gifts made by King Malcolm. That these two were joined by four more new estates in the west of Scotland suggests that Walter may have exacted a higher price on the 20-year old king in return for his service and loyalty during the time between when the two charters were written. So the purpose of the first charter seems clear enough – to record the new donations of Legerwood and Birkenside and to establish ownership of Mow hereditarily in his own right. But what was the purpose of a second charter, particularly if it was largely concerned with renewing gifts made by King David? As Prof Archie Duncan has highlighted, King Malcolm suffered from extremely poor health, dying before his 25th birthday. Moreover, with the powerful Somerled, king of Argyll and the Isles, waiting in the wings in support of Malcolm s dynastic opponents, the stability of the kingdom was far from assured. It is likely that Walter sought our written confirmation of his position as steward and an expanded patrimony in the west of Scotland as an insurance policy in the event of a catastrophe. THE FOUNDATION OF THE PRIORY OF PAISLEY The Cluniac priory at Paisley was part of the first wave of aristocratic monastic foundations of the mid- th century, as the wealthiest tier of the kingdom s nobles sought to emulate the religious munificence of King David in their own lordships. Among other new establishments were the earls of Dunbar and Fife s houses of nuns at Coldstream and North Berwick, respectively, and two monasteries founded by the de Moreville family, the hereditary constables, with 7 Premonstratensian canons at Dryburgh and Tironensian monks at Kilwinning. As Walter fitz Alan s neighbours in the east, at Lauderdale, and more significantly in the west, where they held Cunninghame in North Ayrshire, these de Moreville foundations are probably the most similar to Paisley, and a full comparison of the houses possessions and liberties would surely make a worthwhile research project. Sadly, Kilwinning Abbey s cartulary survived the Reformation and Covenanting period only to be lost around the year 1800, and as a result we know very little about Paisley s closest neighbour to the south. )ndeed, we would be in a similar position were it not for the survival of a single book, Paisley s 16th-century cartulary, which was held by the Cochrane earls of Dundonald before being acquired by the Advocates Library in Edinburgh. The only original surviving medieval charters from Paisley are a small collection of papal bulls now held in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. Almost everything we know about Paisley is thanks to the late medieval cartulary, but there are still big gaps in our knowledge. Unlike Melrose Abbey, there was apparently no chronicle kept at Paisley, and because it was a member of an order with very few sister houses in Northern Britain, very little was written down about who the abbots were and where they came from, in contrast to Scotland s Cistercian houses. Notwithstanding this, the cartulary, which was edited in 1832 by Cosmo Innes for the Maitland Club and is desperately in need of a new edition, can provide us with an outline sketch of the priory s foundation and growth. With the time ) have left today, I would like to attempt what can only be a thumbnail sketch on this occasion. A number of documents relating to the foundation of Paisley were copied into the cartulary. One of these is a charter by Walter, dated at Fotheringay in Northamptonshire and witnessed by )ngram, the king s chancellor and future bishop of Glasgow, and Ailred, abbot of Rievaulx, among others. The charter can be dated to or , and it emplys the future tense in laying out Walter s plans to establish a new religious house on my land at Paisley, according to the order of the brothers of Wenlock, that is, according to the order of the monks of Cluny, with the common consent and assent of the Prior and convent of Wenlock. In The Monastic Order in England, DomDavid Knowles refers to a 8 general movement among the founders and priors of Cluniac houses to limit the rights of the founding house , particularly when it came to the election and deposition of priors.4 This is the chief concern of Walter s charter, which directs that a full convent of 13 monks was to be provided by Wenlock. The charter makes clear that Walter was to have full rights of election and deposition of the prior, although he had to choose them out of the existing convent, or, if no-one suitable was found, he could pick one of the monks of Wenlock itself. Unfortunately, we don t know enough about the earliest priors to see how this worked in practice. It is also clear that a written agreement was composed between Walter and Humbald, the prior of Wenlock, presumably around the same time. The text of this does not survive, but the agreement was ratified in a charter of Prior (umbald which notified that Walter had founded past tense now a religious house at Paisley staffed with brothers of Wenlock . He also writes that they have exchanged at Manhood (Sussex) the donation which Walter made to the house of Wenlock at Renfrew. The cartulary also duly includes confirmations of the agreement by Savaric, prior of La Charite, Wenlock s mother-house, and Stephen, prior of Cluny, the head of the order. These refer to the new house at a place called Paisley , and this is the last we hear of the French superiors. The likelihood that the house was originally settled at Renfrew, a new burgh founded by King David but handed over to Walter the steward late in his reign, is confirmed by a charter of King Malcolm dating to between 1163 and 1165. This royal confirmation makes clear that already by this date, Walter had given to the new house the churches of Paisley and Innerwick, three ploughgates of land, and an annual rent of five marks. Crucially, the new house is called the church of St Mary and St James of the island beside Renfrew Castle from St Milburga s of Wenlock . This sounds like a fairly meagre initial endowment and it may be that it quickly became clear that a better location was needed. What we might think of as Walter s proper foundation charter, which dates to between 4 , describes the house as the church of St James and St Mirin and St and Dom David Knowles, The Monastic Order in England, 156 9 Milburga of Paisley and makes clear that the monks had moved away from the lands which the monks first inhabited . This seems to have happened by 1169, when the Chronicle of Melrose notes that (umbald prior of Wenlock brought a convent of monks at Paisley which is next to Renfrew under that year. It may be that it simply took a few years for Walter to make all the arrangements necessary to set up the new house in proper style, and this later charter describes a much more extensive endowment for the new priory. Also, in the move to Paisley, the abbey adopted a new saint, Mirin, who had probably been associated with the place for some time, and perhaps in a kind of counterpoint, continued Wenlock s association with St Milburga. WALTER S ENDOWMENT Walter s endowment to the monks outlined the kind of monastery he expected it to be – in comparison to royal foundations like Melrose and Kelso, this house was to be wealthy in churches, not in land. Walter added to the parish churches of Paisley and )nnerwick the churches of Legerwood, Cathcart, and all the churches of Strathgryfe, except the church of )nchinnan , which King David had already given to the Knights Templar. What were these churches of Strathgryfe ? Later episcopal confirmations make clear they included the churches of Kilbarchan, Houston, Killellan, Kilmacolm and Inverkip. He also gave the churches of Prestwick burgh and Prestwick Monkton in the first mention of Walter s lordship over Kyle Stewart between Ayr and the de Moreville lordship of Cunninghame. The landed gifts to the abbey, by contrast, feel haphazard and pieced together: they included that ploughgate which Grimketel held , Dripps which William held, two ploughgates around the Water of Cart next to the church, land beyond the Cart on the side of the wood which he and Alan perambulated, a portion of land below the monks dormitory, all the land that Serlo held, that measure over the river where his hall is founded, the island next to Renfrew Castle with a fishery between island and Partick and one full toft in Renfrew. To top this off, the monks were given a variety of rights and privileges, milling without multure payment, the mills of Innerwick and Renfrew, 10 teinds (tithes) of his hunt, his wasteland and forests, a saltpans in the Carse of Stirling, various fishing rights, 4s to light the church. Many of these donations were listed in a separate charter from around the same time, which also gave a tenth of all his money rents except in the lordship of Kyle, suggesting some teething problems in terms of financial provision. Indeed, they may have sought to get a foot in the door of the borders wool trade early, and a donation by Walter s wife Eschina, lady of Mow, gave a ploughgate with pasture for sheep in Mow. The haphazard nature of the landed endowments was likely due to the men listed as witnesses to the big endowment charter, and it is clear that Walter had already subinfeudated most of Renfrewshire, or Strathgryfe as it was then called, to a large handful of retainers and their families that he had brought north from Shropshire and Norfolk. Geoffrey Barrow has drawn attention to this phenomenon, with men like Robert de Montgomery, Richard Wallace and Roger of Ness and probably several members of the de Costentin family coming from Shropshire, with Robert Croc and Robert son of Fulbert most likely accompanying them. Walter clearly encouraged his retainers to support the new foundation, although under his watchful eye. Walter s only other surviving charter in the cartulary permits Henry de St Martin to give the priory two ploughgates of land in Fulton, Renfrewshire, which (enry s charter duly records. Still, this house was above all a family establishment and served as a mausoleum for the Stewarts. Eschina s charter relates that their daughter Margaret was buried in the chapterhouse at Paisley. This is an important detail, as the foundation of Earl Gilbert of Strathearn and Countess Matilda d Aubigny of Inchaffray Priory in Perthshire was linked to the death of their son. In any event, despite its somewhat rocky start, Paisley Priory had a well-formed foundation by the time of Walter s death in 1177. THE TIME OF ALAN THE STEWARD, 1177 - 1204 Walter s son, Alan, was steward of the king of Scots from then until his death in 1204. Alan was content to confirm or renew the gifts of his father and to make a 11 few small additions where he was able. These suggest the house s desire to acquire more landed wealth and means of collecting silver coin. This included Moniabrock in Strathgryfe, half a fishing at Lochwinnoch, and, towards the end of his life, 5 marks of silver from Mauchline (in Kyle), and the mill of Paisley with a house in perpetual feuferme, for a nominal payment to Alan in oatmeal and barley. But the real action in Alan s day was among the families of his tenants living in Renfrewshire. The Croc or Crook family, who gave their name to Crookston, and the family of Ness, were especially devout, founding hospitals and chapels under the authority of Paisley at this time. The estates held by these tenants were often generally coterminous with parishes, and these families started to add to the priory s collection of parish churches. Peter son of Fulbert, who would soon take the surname Pollok, gave the church of Pollok, while his brother Elias the clerk, gave the church of Mearns. Similarly, Henry son of Anselm, probable second husband of Eschina of Mow, whose descendants would take the surname Carmunnock, gave that church to Paisley. Meanwhile, the priory expanded its foothold in the Stewart lordship of Kyle, as Walter Hosé, another exile of Salop, gave the church of Craigie, and the Costentin family added to landed interests in the East Lothian estate of Innerwick. Alan also infeft new tenants in his Ayrshire lordship of Kyle, most notably giving Tarbolton to Adam son of Gilbert son of Richer of Levington in Cumberland, ancestor of the de Boiville or Boyles of Kelburn, future earls of Glasgow. )t was probably toward the end of Alan the steward s time that the abbey began to make westward moves towards their eventual role as a major player in the region of Argyll and the Isles. This was largely due to the Stewarts own moves in that direction, taking control of Bute by 1200. Conseuqently, Alan the steward gave Paisley, the church of Kingarth on the island of Bute, with all the chapels and the whole parish of that island, with all the land that is called St Blane s . Unfortunately, we are ignorant of who Alan married, but she may have been a member of a native west coast kindred. Their daughter Avelina, at any rate, married Donnchad or Duncan, grandson of Fergus of Galloway and first earl of 12 Carrick, a major player in the Irish Sea zone. Also, the circumstances by which the kings or lords of the Isles came to support Paisley Abbey. Rognvald, otherwise known as Reginald or Ranald, son of Somerled, lord of Innse Gall, and his wife Fonia, became brother and sister in the chapter house of Paisley , attaining the special status of confraternity, in recognition of which he granted them oxen and d. from every house from which smoke is expelled . This may seem odd as Somerled had chosen Renfrew as his invasion spot in 1164 with a large army, surely an attack on Walter the steward s new lordship in the west of Scotland, and had died there in the same place where the monks were at the time residing (another motivator for their move to Paisley perhaps?). Might Alan have made a marriage connection with this powerful family, in order to forge a peace? Ranald s charter grants his firm peace and protection, wherever they or their men may come, on land or on sea, beseeching his friends and instructing all his men that anywhere they may find his brothers the monks or their men, they should support them, and in their affairs assist them, knowing for certain that by St Columba if any of his heirs do wrong to them, they will have his malediction. Might this suggest a commercial trade in Argyll and the Isles, similar to that which Furness Abbey had in the Isle of Man? In any event, it must have been a mutually beneficial situation, as Ranald s son and grandson renewed the protection and their fraternity with Paisley. THE TIME OF WALTER SON OF ALAN With Walter son of Alan )) , who was a minor at the time of Alan s death in , we witness a rise in the power and prestige of the Stewart family. Walter adopted the term seneschal of the king of Scots rather than the less impressive dapifer , and rose to fill the powerful role of justiciar of Scotia from his death in until . )n his sons generation, which we will not have time enough to cover today, they changed their title to the more prestigious still seneschal of Scotland , and adopted Steward as a surname proper, whereby members other than the steward himself used the name. When still a minor, perhaps as a teenager, Walter (II) issued a charter to Paisley Priory renewing the gifts made 13 by his father and grandfather and adding a grab-bag of other new goodies, perhaps a list of things the monastery wanted to acquire, including lands near Lochwinnoch, forest rights in Kyle, and burgage plots in Renfrew. But Walter s time would mark a period of advancement and challenge for Paisley. This was also a period of major change for the monastery. She began to turn away from her association with St Milburga, the patron of her mother-house. Charters of Walter I, Eschina and Alan had included the Mercian princess alongside St James and St Mirin in the house s dedication, but her name disappears by around 1200. More significantly and quite remarkably for a Cluniac house, Paisley attained papal permission to become an abbey in 1219. The Stewarts had always argued for a good deal more independence for Paisley than the average Cluniac priory possessed, and doubtless her distance from France helped encourage this. This can only have come on the heels of a campaign by Paisley in the papal curia, and Pope Honorius III nominated the bishop of Glasgow and the abbot of Kelso as judges-delegate, who summoned the prior of Wenlock to meet them at Jedburgh. Wenlock was a no-show, and the judges conferred abbatial status on Paisley. Around the same time, Walter son of Alan )) , calling himself seneschal for the first time, granted free and canonical elections, whether of an abbot or a prior . But there are signs that Walter was not completely satisfied with the piety and prestige of the family monastery, and in one of the more unusual episodes in the annals of monastic history, Walter became enamored of the Gilbertine order. Founded by Gilbert of Sempringham in Lincolnshire in 1131, the Gilbertines were the only purely English religious order. Gilbert s unique model involved double-houses with nuns following the Cistercian observances of the Benedictine Rule, alongside canons following the Augustinian Rule. Moreover, they also had both lay-brothers and lay-sisters following Cistercian observances. At some point after 1219, Walter wrote to the master of Sempringham, proposing a new Gilbertine house on his lands in Scotland. A charter soon followed, making clear that this house was to be based at Dalmilling, just to the east of Ayr. The new priory was to get a number of fisheries, the mill of Prestwick, land in the new 14 burgh of Ayr, the churches of Dundonald and St Quivox, and lands around Lochwinnoch. The prior and two canons of Sixhills Priory in Lincolnshire visited the site, but the scheme fell through and the house was never established. Walter assigned an annual payment of three marks to Sixhills for their troubles, and eventually, in 1238, Richard, master of Sempringham resigned the lands and rights that had only every existed on parchment. Richard s loss was Paisley s gain, and in a charter of probably 1230, Walter gave to Paisley everything he had assigned for the new house, thus in one feel swoop greatly expanding the abbey s presence in Ayrshire. In a separate charter, Walter added the church of Auchinleck. In a sense, Paisley s southward expansion did not stop there. If you will remember, Walter s sister Avelina had married Duncan, earl of Carrick. )n King Alexander )) confirmed Earl Duncan s donation to Paisley Abbey of the , churches of Turnberry (Kirkoswald), Straiton and Dailly, as well as five pennylands in Crossraguel and Blanefield. Almost immediately, an argument broke out between Duncan and Paisley. )t seems that Duncan s understanding of the arrangement was that a new monastery would be founded on the lands, while Paisley preferred a small oratory under their complete control. The dispute was settled in 1244 by the bishop of Glasgow, and the abbot of Paisley agreed to let the new convent elect their own abbot, on the condition that they should conform to the order observed by the house of Paisley and shall provide visitation to the abbot of Paisley. Crossraguel Abbey was to pay an annual tribute to Paisley of ten marks, but there are signs that payment may have been stopped within a generation. I will leave this esteemed audience of Cluniophiles with the shocking revelation that Paisley almost switched allegiance to the Cistercian order! In a short article published in The Innes Review, John Durkan characterised Walter (II) the Steward as the main mover in the scheme . )n the documents of Cluny survives a letter written by William, the first abbot of Paisley, in which he admitted to promising King Alexander II, a devotee of the Cistercian order, that he would advocate for a switch for Paisley. The letter suggests that various Cistercian 15 abbots in Scotland had the ear of Walter the steward, and it is true that he made donations to Cistercian monasteries, including Melrose, Coupar Angus and Balmerino. Walter even brought one of these abbots to Paisley and coaxed the convent into agreeing to the deal. Still, in the end, Walter was not able to get an agreement from all parties involved, and the deal fell through. All of this happened at a time when Cluny was incensed at Paisley having attained abbatial status and relations were rocky between the abbeys for 20 years thereafter. Perhaps a fitting moment to end the paper, then, in a conference on Paisley and Cluny, was with the reconciliation that occurred in 1240 or 41. The deal was brokered by William Bondington, bishop of Glasgow, whereby Cluny agreed to the abbatial status in return for obedience and a visit to Cluny every seven years. And it was thus that Paisley Abbey came back into the Cluniac fold. 16