Cavers, Scottish Borders

Cavers is a parish in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland, in the former South Roxburghshire, south-west of Hawick

The name means "enclosure".

Robert The Bruce rewarded ‘The Good’ Sir James Douglas with lands spread across Scotland. These included Cavers, granted in 1320.[1] Sir James had been Bruce’s trusted lieutenant at Bannockburn in 1314, and was key to his power base in southern Scotland.

The lands passed to James, 2nd Earl of Douglas, who, like so many other Douglases, was not to die in his bed, but on the field of battle, at Otterburn in 1388. James's sons and (a) daughter(s) were all illegitimate. To ensure their succession, he granted the lands of Drumlanrig (see Marquess of Queensberry) to his bastard son William and Cavers to Archibald.

Cavers remained in Douglas hands until 1975 when James Palmer-Douglas moved away from Cavers and the remaining lands of the once vast estates in Roxburghshire were put on the market.[2]

Currently, the Church of Scotland Parish comprises Cavers and Kirkton linked with Hawick.

Cavers House was built between 1750 and 1884, with its "Warden's tower", and it belonged to the Baliol and Douglas families. It was demolished in 1953.

Denholm was the only village in the civil parish of Cavers and is situated in the north-east corner of the parish.[3]

History of the parish

The parish of Cavers corresponded exactly or closely to the barony of the same name. A barony in later medieval Scotland was a common franchise, increasingly defined as an estate to which specific ‘baronial’ powers attached. In general the barons had essentially the same criminal and civil jurisdiction within their barony as the sheriffs had within the sheriffdom.[4] This Barony together with the lands of Cavers, and also the hereditary sheriffship of Roxburghshire, were possessed by the family of Douglas until the abolition of heritable jurisdictions in the 18th century.[5] In 1325 Robert I bestowed on the Sir James Douglas many lands, including the barony of Cavers, and erected the whole into a regality. The charter, by which the king made the grant is called the " Emerald Charter." [6]

Parishes of Cavers and Kirkton, 1895 (parish boundary shown in blue)

Originally the parish of Cavers was very irregular in shape, being almost cut in two by the parish of Kirkton[7]

The parish of Kirkton was bounded by the parishes of Hawick and Teviothead in the west and by Cavers on all the other sides. It had a length of 8½ miles, from north-east to south-west, and its width (east-west) varied from half a mile to almost two miles. The Kirk of Kirkton was in the north–east and Stobs station (Waverley line) was in the south–west of the parish. Area 6,222 acres.[8]

The two parts of the parish of Cavers were joined by a narrow strip east of Kirkton and south-west of Rubers Law. In the northern division was the village of Denholm, 5 miles north-east of Hawick, while in the southern division was Shankend station (on the Waverly Route) 7 miles south of Hawick. The parish was 13 miles long with a width varying from 4 miles to 70 yards. Area 18,352 acres[7]

From the 19th century there was a single school board covering both parishes, which ran three schools.[7]

In December 1894 an inquiry was held in Hawick regarding representations made by the Parochial Board of Cavers that an Order be issued under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 amalgamating the Parishes of Cavers and Kirkton. Following the inquiry, the parishes were amalgamated on 15 May 1895 and a new parish council was established covering both areas.[9]

At that time (1891 census) Kirkton had a population of 320, while Cavers had 1,211 of which 475 were in Denholm.

Civil parishes in Scotland, as units of local government, were abolished in 1929 [10] but have been used later for census and other purposes.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Great Britain. Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Reports Part 2, page 726, published in 1879,
  2. ↑ "Black Douglas clan leader joins battle to preserve ancient church". The Scotsman. 25 February 2003. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
  3. ↑ New Statistical Account of Scotland, Vol III Roxburgh, Peebles, Selkirk, publ.William Blackwood, 1845 pp. 425-439
  4. ↑ Liberties and Identities in the Medieval British Isles, ed. M. Prestwich, Boydell Press, 2008. Chapter 9 Franchises North of the Border: Baronies and Regalities of Medieval Scotland, by Alexander Grant, p 155 et seq
  5. ↑ New Statistical Account of Scotland, Vol III Roxburgh, Peebles, Selkirk, publ.William Blackwood, 1845, p.430
  6. ↑ The History and Antiquities of Roxburghshire and Adjacent Districts , by Alexander Jeffrey,publ. Edinburgh, 1864, Vol 4, p. 327
  7. 1 2 3 Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, by, Francis Groome, publ. 1882-4. Article on Cavers
  8. ↑ Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, by, Francis Groome, publ. 1882-4. Article on Kirkton
  9. ↑ Edinburgh Gazette (official journal of the government), 5/3/1895 p. 295; and 18/12/1894 pp. 1449-1450
  10. ↑ Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929

External links

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