Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter vi. The Ministers of Cumnock from 1560. When your Scottish clergy give up their homely manner, religion will soon decay in that country.--Johnson to Botwdl. The Reformation was an accomplished fact in Cumnock, as in the rest of Scotland, by the year 1560. The Protestant Church at once took the place of the old Romish Church. The priest attached himself to the Reformed faith and became the first Protestant minister of the parish. His name was (1.) John Dunbar. In all probability he was a connection of those Dunbars who held the office of baron and acted as patrons of the church for more than three centuries. By a strange omission Scott, in his elaborate Fasti, makes no mention of him as our first Protestant pastor, but there can be little doubt from the existing evidence, that John Dunbar was the last incumbent of Cumnock before the Reformation, and that he adhered to the cause of Knox and the Protestant party. The facts on which this conclusion rests are quite convincing. "About the year 1562," we are told in a ms. Rental Book quoted by Chalmers in his Caledonia (Vol. iii., p. 522), "Mr. John Dunbar, parson of Cumnock, made a return to the reformed rulers, that the parsonage and vicarage of Cumnock, which was held by him, was by common estimation worth 500 marks yearly, but that the whole was let on lease by him to Patrick Dunbar, fiar of Cumnock, for the payment of i?40 yearly, which was less than an eighth part of the real value, and even of this small rent he could get no payment, for the two half-years past then remained unpaid. This official return he subscribed thus--Mr. John Dunbar, parson of Cumnock, with small profit." From this statement one thing is perfectly clear. John Dunbar had a year's rent due to him by the time...
