Register of St Catherine
Register of St Catherine of Siena
This volume brings together the constitutions and surviving documentary material associated with the Dominican sisters of St Catherine of Siena at Sciennes, on Edinburgh’s Burgh Muir. Its records illuminate the foundation, property, administration and later history of one of Scotland’s last pre-Reformation nunneries.
About the Sciennes Records
The Convent of St Catherine of Siena was established on Edinburgh’s Burgh Muir in 1517 for Dominican sisters, also known as Sisters of the Preaching Friars. The convent took its familiar name, Sciennes, from Sienna or Siena.
The 1841 Abbotsford Club publication is not a single medieval register in the ordinary sense. Its principal text is the Constitutions of the Sisters of the Order of Preaching Friars, which the editor argued had belonged to the Scottish convent. These are accompanied by charters, property records, historical notices and an extensive appendix drawn from several manuscript collections.
Read the Published Volume Online
Liber Conventus S. Katherine Senensis Prope Edinburgum. Edinburgh: Abbotsford Club, 1841.
Guthrie Master Finding Aid
| Page | Date | Guthrie | Role / Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| xxvi | Historical note | Richard Guthrie Abbot of Arbroath • Editorial footnote | Identified as founder of the Hospital of St Laurence west of Haddington. The note explains the earlier institutional history of lands acquired by the Sciennes convent in 1532. This is an editorial historical reference rather than a Sciennes charter naming Richard directly. |
| lx | 1638 | Alexander Guthrie Town Clerk of Edinburgh • Editorial source note | The editor cites an inventory of Edinburgh city writs compiled in 1638 by Alexander Guthrie while serving as Town Clerk. Excerpts concern the altar of St Catherine within St Giles and the lands of Over Merchiston. |
| 65 | 28 Jan 1588 | Mr Alexander Guthrie Town Clerk of Edinburgh • Appendix | Recipient of a receipt from John, Lord Lindsay, concerning a tack granted by Dame Isabel Hepburn, Prioress of Haddington, with consent of her husband Andrew Schetholme. This is the volume’s only dated documentary Guthrie abstract. |
Richard Guthrie, Abbot of Arbroath — Hospital of St Laurence
Editorial Historical Note • Preface p. xxvi
Source Text & Research Notes
Published Note
The Hospital of Saint Laurence, “bewast” the town of Haddington, was founded by Richard Guthrie, Abbot of the Monastery of Saint Thomas the Martyr, of Arbroath, and endowed with various possessions and rents.
By the foundation charter, the Master of the Hospital was required yearly to provide the lepers within the Leper’s House at Haddington with one chalder of meal, bear, or wheat for their sustentation and support, payable in two portions at Whitsunday and Martinmas.
Modern Summary
In explaining the history of lands later connected with the Convent of Sciennes, the editor identifies Richard Guthrie, Abbot of Arbroath, as the founder of the Hospital of St Laurence near Haddington.
The hospital’s foundation carried a continuing charitable obligation: its master was to supply the lepers of Haddington each year with one chalder of grain, divided between the terms of Whitsunday and Martinmas.
The editor further notes that the Crown confirmed the grant, and that the obligation was later recognized in parliamentary legislation.
Evidence in Perspective
This is not an original Sciennes-period record naming Richard Guthrie. His appearance comes in the 1841 editor’s explanatory footnote, which supplies the earlier history of St Laurence House before its connection with the convent.
The note is nevertheless valuable because it links the Sciennes property story to a much earlier Guthrie ecclesiastical figure: Richard Guthrie, Abbot of Arbroath.
The same man belongs naturally within the evidence network of the Arbroath Abbey Registers. This St Catherine reference should therefore be treated as a cross-collection confirmation of his ecclesiastical and charitable activity rather than as a separate Sciennes family event.
The note also preserves an important institutional connection. The Hospital of St Laurence was not founded for the Sciennes nuns; rather, its lands later became part of the property history of their convent.
Terms & Context
- Bewast: West of; the hospital is described as lying west of Haddington.
- Chalder: A Scottish measure of dry capacity used for grain.
- Whitsunday and Martinmas: Two of the principal Scottish legal and rent-payment terms.
- Leper’s House: A charitable institution providing support for people suffering from leprosy.
Source: Liber Conventus S. Katherine Senensis Prope Edinburgum (Edinburgh: Abbotsford Club, 1841), Preface, p. xxvi, editorial footnote concerning the Hospital of St Laurence near Haddington.
1638 — Alexander Guthrie, Town Clerk of Edinburgh
Inventory of City Writs • Editorial Source Note • Preface p. lx
Source Text & Research Notes
Published Note
The editor states that the following excerpts relating to St Catherine’s altar were taken from:
“an ‘Inventar’ of the writs of the City of Edinburgh, made in the year 1638, by Alexander Guthrie, who held the office of town clerk” .
The first quoted inventory item describes a royal charter granting lands of Over Merchiston to a chaplain serving at St Catherine’s altar within the Kirk of Edinburgh, with the patronage ultimately belonging to the aldermen of the burgh.
A second item records a charter by the Town of Edinburgh, with consent of the chaplain serving at St Catherine’s altar, conveying the lands of Merchiston to Alexander Napier, dated 26 June 1456.
Modern Summary
In 1638, Alexander Guthrie, then serving as Town Clerk of Edinburgh, compiled an inventory of the city’s surviving writs.
The nineteenth-century editor of Liber Conventus S. Katherine Senensis Prope Edinburgum used that inventory as a source for the history of an altar dedicated to St Catherine within the Church of St Giles.
The inventory excerpts cited here concern the lands of Over Merchiston and the patronage of the chaplain serving at St Catherine’s altar.
Evidence in Perspective
Alexander Guthrie does not appear here as a party to one of the medieval charters. His role is instead that of the seventeenth-century municipal officer who compiled the inventory in which those older writs were recorded.
The distinction matters because the quoted documents themselves concern fifteenth-century property and patronage, while Alexander Guthrie’s documented activity belongs to 1638.
This reference therefore provides direct evidence for Alexander’s civic office and archival responsibilities: he was entrusted with organizing or recording the documentary holdings of the burgh while serving as Town Clerk of Edinburgh.
It also illustrates an important source distinction within this volume. The St Catherine altar in St Giles was associated with the older virgin and martyr traditionally known as St Catherine of Alexandria, whereas the convent at Sciennes was dedicated to St Catherine of Siena. The editor introduces the inventory while discussing that separate altarage.
Terms & Context
- Town Clerk: Senior burgh officer responsible for recording municipal proceedings and maintaining important civic documents and registers.
- Writs: Formal legal documents, including charters, conveyances and other instruments affecting rights or property.
- Inventory: A descriptive listing of documents held by the burgh.
- Altarage: An altar and its associated chaplainry, endowment, patronage and revenues within a church.
- Over Merchiston: Lands connected with the patronage and endowment of St Catherine’s altar in St Giles.
Source: Liber Conventus S. Katherine Senensis Prope Edinburgum (Edinburgh: Abbotsford Club, 1841), Preface, p. lx; editorial excerpts from an Inventar of the writs of the City of Edinburgh, made in 1638 by Alexander Guthrie, Town Clerk.
28 January 1588 — Mr Alexander Guthrie, Town Clerk of Edinburgh
Receipt Relating to a Tack • Appendix p.65 • Documentary Abstract
Source Text & Research Notes
Published Abstract
Receipt by John Lord Lyndsay to Mr Alexander Guthrie, Town Clerk of Edinburgh, for a tack granted by Dame Isabel Hepburn, Prioress of Haddington, with consent of Andrew Schetholme, her spouse, 28th January, 1588.
Modern Summary
On 28 January 1588, John, Lord Lindsay, issued a receipt to Mr Alexander Guthrie, identified explicitly as Town Clerk of Edinburgh.
The receipt concerned a tack previously granted by Dame Isabel Hepburn, Prioress of Haddington, with the consent of her husband, Andrew Schetholme.
The published Appendix gives only this abstract and does not reproduce the full terms of the receipt or tack.
Evidence in Perspective
Unlike the two Guthrie references in the Preface, this entry is based directly upon a dated historical document. It therefore provides firm evidence that Alexander Guthrie was serving as Town Clerk of Edinburgh by 28 January 1588.
The honorific “Mr” is also significant. In sixteenth-century Scottish records, this normally represents Master, a style commonly associated with a university graduate or professionally educated man.
The entry places Alexander within a network involving John, Lord Lindsay, the former Prioress of Haddington, and Andrew Schetholme. However, because the published volume supplies only an abstract, it does not tell us why Alexander received the document, what property or rights the tack concerned, or whether he acted in a private or official capacity.
Those questions require examination of the original receipt, tack, or the manuscript source from which General Hutton’s abstract was taken. They should not be inferred from this brief notice alone.
Relationship to the 1638 Alexander Guthrie Reference
The Preface later identifies an Alexander Guthrie, Town Clerk of Edinburgh, as compiler of an inventory of the city’s writs in 1638.
The matching name and office make the two references worth comparing, but the records are separated by fifty years. The St Catherine volume itself does not state that the Alexander Guthrie of 1588 and the Alexander Guthrie associated with the 1638 inventory were the same individual.
They should therefore remain separate documentary identities unless independent evidence establishes continuity of office or identity.
Terms & Context
- Tack: A Scottish lease or grant allowing another person to possess or exploit property, revenues, teinds or other rights for a stated period and under specified conditions.
- Receipt: Written acknowledgment that money, documents or another obligation had been received or satisfied. The published abstract does not specify what was acknowledged here.
- Town Clerk: Senior municipal officer responsible for the legal and documentary business of the burgh.
- Mr / Master: A formal style frequently used in Scottish records for men possessing a university degree or comparable learned status.
- Prioress of Haddington: Dame Isabel Hepburn is explicitly identified by that office in the abstract.
Source: Liber Conventus S. Katherine Senensis Prope Edinburgum (Edinburgh: Abbotsford Club, 1841), Appendix, p.65; abstract of receipt by John, Lord Lindsay, to Mr Alexander Guthrie, Town Clerk of Edinburgh, dated 28 January 1588.
Register of St Catherine of Siena — Collection Summary
The audited 1841 edition of Liber Conventus S. Katherine Senensis Prope Edinburgum contains only a small number of Guthrie references, but they connect this ecclesiastical collection with several other strands of Guthrie research: Arbroath Abbey, Haddington, Edinburgh civic administration and the documentary history of religious property before and after the Reformation.
The three references concern two identified men: Richard Guthrie, Abbot of Arbroath, and Alexander Guthrie, Town Clerk of Edinburgh.
Source basis: Liber Conventus S. Katherine Senensis Prope Edinburgum (Edinburgh: Abbotsford Club, 1841), including the Preface, Constitutions, documentary collection and Appendix.