CLAN CARRUTHERS INT SOCIETY CCIS PROMPTUS ET FIDELIS
THE TEMPLARS IN ANNANDALE SCOTLAND – CARRUTHERSLAND
There is no question that the Knights Templar’s were in Annandale and it is evidenced that Carruthers owned lands on which they lived.
According to the UK Genealogical Archives states “APPLEGARTH and SIBBALDBIE, a united parish, in the district of ANNANDALE, county of DUMFRIES, 2 miles (N. W. by N.) from Lockerbie; containing, with the chapelry of Dinwoodie, 857 inhabitants. The term Applegarth is compounded of the words Apple and Garth; the latter signifies in the Celtic language an “inclosure”, and both conjoined are invariably taken for an “apple inclosure” or “orchard”. Bie, or bye, which terminates the name Sibbaldbie, signifies in the Saxon a “dwelling-place”, and the entire name is thought to have been applied to the district from its having been the residence of Sibbald.
The annexation of Sibbaldbie took place in 1609; and the chapelry of Dinwoodie, which some suppose to have been a distinct parish, was also attached to Applegarth: it is said to have belonged to the Knights Templars, who had large possessions in Annandale. Chalmers, on the authority of the Royal Wardrobe accounts, states that on the 7th July, 1300, Edward I., who was then at Applegarth, on his way to the siege of Caerlaverock, made an oblation of seven shillings at St. Nicholas’ altar, in the parish church here, and another oblation of a like sum at the altar of St. Thomas à Becket. A large chest was found some years ago not very far from the manse, which is conjectured to have been part of the baggage belonging to Edward, who remained for several days at Applegarth, waiting for his equipage. An ancient thorn called the “Albie Thorn”, still standing in a field, within 500 yards of the church, is said to have been planted on the spot where Bell of Albie fell, while in pursuit of the Maxwells, after the battle of Dryfe-sands, in the year 1593.
There is a fascinating piece from electricscotland.com that covers the Templar activity in Dumfriesshire;
“In addition to the monastic brotherhoods already noticed, two orders of religious knights acquired a settlement in Dumfriesshire – the Templars or Red Friars, and the Knights of St. John. (Interestingly, it wasn’t until second crusade that the Templars, through permission from the Pope at the time, were allowed to wear the recognisable blood Red Cross, signifying the blood of the saviour on the Cross at Calvary.Ed) The former (The Knights Templar’s, Ed), instituted by Baldwin II., King of Jerusalem, took their name from a residence he gave to them near the Temple of that city; the founders of the latter were certain devout Neapolitan merchants, who, trading to the Holy Land, obtained leave to build a church and monastery in Jerusalem, for the reception of pilgrims, to which buildings were added, in 1104, a larger church, with an hospital for the sick, dedicated to St. John: hence the name of the order, and the designation of Knights Hospitallers, by which they are also well known. [When the Templars were formed into an order, the Abbé de Verlot, in his History of the Knights of St. John, states that “St. Bernard ordered them, instead of prayers and offices, to say, every day, a certain number of paternosters, which would make one imagine that those warriors, at that time, knew not how to read.” One of the statutes required that the knights should not eat flesh above three times a week. The holy abbot, with regard to their military service, declared that each Templar might have an esquire, or serving brother-at-arms, and three saddle horses; but he forbade all gilding and superfluous ornaments of their equipage. He ordered that their habits should be white; and, as a mark of their profession, Pope Eugene III. added afterwards a red cross placed over the heart.” (Vol. i., pp. 56-7.)
De Verlot records that the idea of making the monastic inmates of St. John’s Hospital into a military order, was first mooted by Raimond Dupuy, and characterizes it as “the most noble, and withal extraordinary design, that ever entered into the mind of a monk, tied down by his profession to the service of the poor and sick,” They were divided into three classes – 1. Gentlemen used to arms. 2. Priests and chaplains. 3. Men neither of noble families, nor ecclesiastics, who were termed frères servans (“serving brethren.”). The habit consisted of a black robe, with a pointed mantale of the same colour (called a manteau à bec), upon which was sewn a pointed cowl, and the left side of which displayed an eight-pointed cross of white linen. (Vol. i., pp. 43-4-5.)]
Portions of the property that belonged to the Templars in the County bore their name long after they fell into other hands at or before the date of Reformation. Thus we read in old records of the temple-lands of Ingleston in Glencairn; the temple-land in Durisdeer; the five-pound temple-land of Carnsalloch; the temple-land lying beside the Glen of Lag; the temple-lands of Dalgarno; the temple-lands, two in number, near Lochmaben; the temple-lands, also two, beside Lincluden College; the temple-land of Torthorwald; the temple-land of Carruthers, in the old parish so named; the temple-land of Muirfad, near Moffat; and there is a village, in the vicinity of Lochmaben, called Templand, built on ground that was once owned by this opulent fraternity. In the particular register of sasines kept at Dumfries, sasine was registered on the 16th of April, 1636, in favour of Adam Johnstone, brother of Archibald Johnstone of Elshieshields, in the temple-land of Reidhall; and the forty-shilling land called Templands, both in the stewartry of Annandale. The same register contains an entry of sasine, dated 21st May, 1636, in favour of John Johnstone of Vicarland, and Adam, his son, of the temple-land termed the Chapel of Kirkbride, in Kirkpatrick; and an instrument is recorded whereby the five-pound Carnsalloch temple-land, already mentioned, which belonged to William Maxwell of Carnsalloch, was conveyed to Adam Shortrig, eldest son of John Shortrig, the precept being dated at “The End of the Bridge,” [Or Bridge-end, the name borne by Maxwellton before it was erected into a burgh of barony.] 21st of December, 1619. At Becktoun, Dryfesdale, may still be seen the vestiges of a small religious house that belonged to the order, together with the Chapel-lands, by which it was endowed. [Inquisit Speciales, p. 291.]
The Hospitallers had not so much landed property in the Shire as their fellow knights, but they seem to have possessed a large number of foundations. One of their principal houses was a preceptory, at Kirkstyle, about ten miles from Dumfries, in the parish of Ruthwell, the ancient burial-ground of which exhibited, up till a recent period, several memorials of their presence, in the shape of sculptured stones, each containing an ornamented cross, having a sword on the right, a figure resembling the coulter and sock of a plough on the left; but no names of the knights “long gone to dust, and whose swords are rust,” over whom the stones were originally laid. [“These memorials of the dead,” says Dr. Henry Duncan, in his Account of the Parish of Ruthwell, written in 1834, “were found by the present incumbent [himself] lying in the parish burying-ground, whence he removed them; and they now form part of the wall of a summer house attached to the front wall which separates the garden from the churchyard.” In the same garden is placed the celebrated Runie Cross, for the preservation of which memorable monument of Anglo-Saxon times we are also indebted to Dr. Duncan.] One of their establishments stood rather more than a mile southeast of Dumfries, on an estate which bore, in consequence, the name of Spitalfield, till it was bought by the late Mr. John Brown, merchant, Liverpool, who called it Brownhill. On the opposite side of the Kelton Road lies Ladyfield, with its ancient orchard and well, which may have been a pendicle of the Hospital; and we are inclined to think that “Our Lady’s Chapel,” at which King James IV. paid his devotions when visiting Dumfries, was situated on Ladyfield. Above the town of Annan, on the west bank of the river, there was another hospital belonging to the knights of St. John; from which two adjacent hamlets, Howspital and Spitalridding, acquired their designation; and they had a second one in Annandale, at Trailtrow, the cure of which was granted by James IV. to Edward Maxwell, with the land revenues of the same, vacant by the decease of Sir Robert M’Gilhance, the last master of the Hospital. [Privy Seal Register, vol. iv., p. 211.] Their largest hospital in the County, however, grew up under the shadow of Sanquhar Castle, on the northern bank of the Nith. Many ages after all traces of it disappeared, the plough turned up numerous relics of its inmates, the mouldering memorials of a brotherhood who were men of note in their day, though they are now all but forgotten throughout the district – a fate which they share in common with their more distinguished fraters, the military monks of the Temple. [The masters of both orders in Dumfriesshire having submitted to Edward I. in 1296, were confirmed in their possessions by precepts addressed to the Sheriff by the King. – RYMER, pp. 724 – 5.]
Both orders fell into decay long before the Papal establishment, of which they formed a singular feature, ceased to flourish; and when abolished at the Reformation, they remaining property was secularized: Ross of Rosile obtaining a considerable share of it; Murray of Cockpool getting what belonged to the Hospitallers in the parish of Ruthwell; Lord Herries their house and lands at Trailtrow [Inquisit, Speciales, p. 291; and Caledonia, vol. iii., p. 154.]; while, as already mentioned, the Spitalfield of Dumfries was acquired before 1666 by the M’Brairs of Almagill”.
Summary
There is also the argument that historically, at least from 1672 and probably before, our family crest has always been an angelic figure of the higher orders of angels, suggesting or offering a religeous link. We do know that King David gave the Carruthers the seraphim as so many Carruthers came back from the Crusades.
However, our ancient arms did not have fleur d-lys on the shield but only black engrailed chevrons on a gold background, in one case blue. They were changed as the could so easily have been confused with the McLellans in battle. The McClellens had two black chevrons on a gold shield.
It isn’t until the 1500’s and Sir Simon Carrutheres of Mouswald, that the fleur d-lys appeared on our chief’s shield, at which point the engrailed chevrons were replaced with a single chevron. Again this mirrored another local family, that of the Brouns, who had three gold fleur de lis with a single chevron on a red shield.
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