The Abbot of Fearn was the head of the

Premonstratensian The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular of the Catholic Church ...

monastic community of

Fearn Abbey Fearn Abbey – known as "The Lamp of the North" – has its origins in one of Scotland's oldest pre-Reformation church buildings. Part of the Church of Scotland and located to the southeast of Tain, Ross-shire, it continues as an acti ...

Easter Ross Easter Ross ( gd, Ros an Ear) is a loosely defined area in the east of Ross, Highland, Scotland. The name is used in the constituency name Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, which is the name of both a British House of Commons constituenc ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. The Abbey was founded by canons from

Whithorn Priory Whithorn Priory was a medieval Scottish monastery that also served as a cathedral, located at 6 Bruce Street in Whithorn, Wigtownshire, Dumfries and Galloway (54.7357N, 4.415954W; OS grid reference NX445405). History The priory was founded ab ...

Galloway Galloway ( ; sco, Gallowa; la, Gallovidia) is a region in southwestern Scotland comprising the historic counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire. It is administered as part of the council area of Dumfries and Galloway. A native or i ...

, with the patronage of Fearchar mac an t-Sagairt,

mormaer In early Middle Ages, medieval Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, a mormaer was the Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic name for a regional or provincial ruler, theoretically second only to the Kings of Scots, King of Scots, and the senior of a ''Toísech'' (chi ...

earl of Ross The Earl or Mormaer of Ross was the ruler of the province of Ross in northern Scotland. Origins and transfers In the early Middle Ages, Ross was part of the vast earldom of Moray. It seems to have been made a separate earldom in the mid 12th ...

. The foundation took place in the 1220s, according to the two distinct foundation dates given in the sources, either in 1221 or in 1227. Until about 1238, the Abbey was located at Fearn ("next to Kincaard in Stracharrin"), near

Edderton Edderton ( gd, Eadardan) is a village near Tain, lying on the shores of the Dornoch Firth, Easter Ross and is in the Highland council area of Scotland. It has approximately 388 inhabitants. It is the location of the Balblair Distillery, and of t ...

, but it was moved to the

Tarbat Tarbat (Gaelic , meaning 'a crossing or isthmus'Place-names of Ross and Cromarty, by W J Watson, publ. The Northern Counties Printing and Publishing Co. Ltd., Inverness 1904; p.45) is a civil parish in Highland, Scotland, in the north-east corner ...

parish in that year and known thereafter as "nova Furnia". Despite the fact that the head of

was a

prior Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...

and Fearn an abbot, Fearn seems to have remained subordinate to Whithorn until at least the end of the 14th century, and even in 1440 Abbot Fionnlagh II was confirmed by the

prior of Whithorn The Prior of Whithorn was the head of the monastic community at Whithorn Priory, attached to the bishopric of Galloway at Whithorn. It was originally an Augustinian establishment, but became Premonstratensian by the time of the second or third kno ...

.The reason for this is that Whithorn was a cathedral priory; the nominal head of its community was the bishop, but its actual head was the prior, as was the common use in England at places like

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county *Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in No ...

and

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...

, but this was not usual in Scotland. In these circumstances the cathedral prior had the same rights as an ordinary abbot. Little is known about the history of the abbots, and not all seem to be known by name. Fearn served for several centuries as a small but productive abbey, and served as the burial site for the

Earls of Ross The Earl or Mormaer of Ross was the ruler of the province of Ross in northern Scotland. Origins and transfers In the early Middle Ages, Ross was part of the vast earldom of Moray. It seems to have been made a separate earldom in the mid 12th ...

. Monastic life began to decline after the

Bishop of Caithness The Bishop of Caithness was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Caithness, one of Scotland's 13 medieval bishoprics. The first referenced bishop of Caithness was Aindréas, a Gael who appears in sources between 1146 and 1151 as bishop. Ai ...

, a Church official named John Sinclair, put Fearn

in Commendam In canon law, commendam (or ''in commendam'') was a form of transferring an ecclesiastical benefice ''in trust'' to the ''custody'' of a patron. The phrase ''in commendam'' was originally applied to the provisional occupation of an ecclesiastical ...

by use of a falsified ecclesiastical document in 1490 and removed Fearn's abbot, Thomas MacCulloch, O. Praem. Several commendatory (and non-ecclesiastical) abbots ruled Fearn for several decades, but only for its financial benefits. Ross-shire went officially Presbyterian in 1560, and monastic life vanished completely. The Abbey property was taken over by the bishopric of Ross in 1609. The following is a list of abbots and commendators:

List of abbots

* Maol Choluim (I) of Whithorn, 1220s or 1230s * Maol Choluim (II) of Nigg, x 1251 * Macbeathad ("Machabeus") "Makhersin", 1251 x 1274 * Colin, 1255 x 1271 * Martein (Martin), 1299x1311 * John, 1299x1321 * Mark Ross, 1321 -1338 * Domhnall ("Donaldus") Pupill, 1345x1371 -1373 * Adam Monilaw, 1380 -1407 * Thomas Kiethirnathie, 1407x * Fionnlagh (I) (or Finlay), 1436 * Fionnlagh (II) (Finlay McFaed), 1439-1483 x 1486 * Thomas

MacCulloch The origins of Clan MacCulloch are unknown, but there is a consensus that the family was one of the most ancient families of Galloway, Scotland, and a leading medieval family in that region. Despite the obscurity of the early history of the c ...

, 1486-1490 * Nicholas Slugy, fl. 1491

List of commendators

* Andrew Stewart, 1508-1517 * Patrick Hamilton, 1517-1526 * Donald Denoon, 1525-1541 * Robert Cairncross, 1541-1545Took the commend as bishop of Ross (1538/9-1545). *

David Paniter David Panter lso written Painter, or Paniter(died 1 October 1558), Scottish diplomat, clerk and bishop of Ross, was the illegitimate son of Patrick Paniter, secretary to James IV; his mother was Margaret Crichton, illegitimate daughter of ...

, 1545 * James Cairncross, 1545-1550 * Nicholas Ross, 1550-1569 * Thomas Ross, 1566-1596 * Walter Ross of Morangie, 15 84 * Patrick Gordon of Letterfourie, 1591 * Patrick Murray of Geanies, 1598

Notes

Bibliography

* ''History of Fearn Abbey'', published by Church of Scotland Fearn Abbey (available in church) * Cowan, Ian B. & Easson, David E., ''Medieval Religious Houses: Scotland With an Appendix on the Houses in the Isle of Man'', Second Edition, (London, 1976), pp. 101–02 * Watt, D. E. R. & Shead, N. F. (eds.), ''The Heads of Religious Houses in Scotland from the 12th to the 16th Centuries'', The Scottish Records Society, New Series, Volume 24, (Edinburgh, 2001), p. 80-3

List of abbots

List of commendators

Notes

Bibliography

See also