'Antiquities of Scotland' Index
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St. John's Baptist Church, Ayr
FOR the following account of this building I am indebted to a reverend
gentleman whose name I am not authorised to mention. The ruins of the
church of St. John the Baptist, stands between the town and the sea,
within the fort, built by Oliver Cromwell: it s said to have been
entire about sixty years ago; at present the tower only remains: its
foundation may still be traced, from which it appears to have been in
the form of a cross. Among the archives of this town, is a charter
from Robert II, surnamed the Blear-eyed, A. D. 1378, respecting the
preserving this church from being destroyed by the blowing of sand;*
but the church has, it is said, been since quite demolished through
want of taste, and the guilt of avarice; though there is evidence of
its having been the seat of a parliament, held in the time of Bruce
and Baliol, and where a number of the nobility and gentry determined
upon noble and free motives, for the former: a copy of their names and
signatures is still extant, many of them could not write. Tradition
savs, that Cromwell having taken in this church in order to erect a
fort, gave the town a thousand English marks to build another. This
seems probable from the minutes of the town council at a community
meeting, the 3d of July, 1652. "Anent the situation of building of the
kirk all condescend tall possible meanes be used for building the
same, either upon Sewalton's ground, or the Grey Friars; and that the
same be bought; and that the town be stented for als much as to utfit
the same, what is deficient of the money to be had frae the English."
The new kirk appears to have been built 1654.
IN 1789, when this view was drawn, the tower of the church was very
entire; several modern tomb-stones were standing about it, from whence
it should seem as if it were still used as a place of burial.
THE fort above-mentioned, built by Oliver Cromwell, is a
parallelogram, the greatest length from North to South defended by six
bastions ; there are also two or three magazines, seemingly meant for
bomb proof, one of them serves for a gate, which is here shewn in the
drawing. It was by King Charles II. granted to Lord Eglington; the
property is now in his lady, who mortgaged it to the Lord Cassilis for
1000 1 {1000 scots pounds}. Several persons now living remember most
of the walls standing.
* Coppie of King Robert his charter to the burgh of Air, allowing a
gratification to those who should preserve the burgh and church from
being destroyed with sand:
Robertus, Dei gratia Rex Scotorum omnibus probes hominibus totius
terræ, seu Clericis, vel Laicis salutem, Dum Burgus noster de Air, per
motionem & agitationem arenæ agitationem arense sit quasi totaliter
annihilatus & de-rtructus, et similiter per brevis processum temporis
ad finalem destructionem redegi videbitur, nisi citius per discretorum
virorum solertia et diligentia remedium apponitur; nos igitur
desiderantes de Aliquo….competente in hae parte futuro providere, et
precipae causa ecclesæ Johannes Baptisti quam in honore, reverential
et devotione semper intendebam et intendam mantinere, protegere et
fovere, cujus cæmeterium per violtiam motionis arenæ ut predicitur
fere usq. Ad fundamentum ipsius ecclesiæ adeo est denudata et
destructa quod multorum ossa defunctorum ibidem humata, videntur per
ventorum de terra evulsa penitus et circa. Concessimus de gratia
nostra speciali illis quicunque fuerint, qui in hac parte defeusionem
apposuerunt, et ipsam villam, ecclesiam ei cæmeterium a destructione
dicta arenæ liberaverint, omnes pacatas vastus infra dictum burgam
quos meditantibus illorum laboribus et impensis a destructione præfata
arenosa liberaverint, et fuerint habitabiles, tenendas et habendas
eisdem dicturam pacatarum prænominatis.
There is another paragraph of Latin which I
will I add when I can get my brain around it!
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