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The
minister at the time was James Craigie who had been
ordained
in
1701.
The four heritors were the Marquis of Tweeddale (Valued Rent
£1815),
Sir Richard Newton of Newton Hall (V.R. £1441), the owner of
New Hall (V.R. £468) and the owner of Skedsbush (V.R.
£111).
They,
as
the chief landowners of the parish, were responsible in proportion
to
their valued rents for the stipends of the minister
and schoolmaster and
the
costs of all building and repairs in connection with the church and
the parish schools.
In consequence, the Marquis contributed slightly over
half, Newton slightly under a third, leaving a small share to the
other
two.
The influence of each heritor was related to the size of his
contribution.
The Marquis, however, was not only the principal heritor but
also the patron, which gave him the sole right to
appoint the minister
and
added considerably to his general influence.
Furthermore, in proposing
a
new church, manse and glebe he was making available about 15 acres
of his own land, though admittedly he was reclaiming
the former glebe-lands.
Work started almost immediately. The date 1708 is scored into the
stone surround of the tower door of the church;
the manse was
completed in 1709.
It stood across the road from the church where now
can
be seen the plaque commemorating one of its occupants, John
Witherspoon.
The garden stretched behind along the Haddington Road, but
there was no adjacent land available for the glebe,
since the fields
immediately to the north and west were already owned by the
inhabitants
of
Main Street
and the land across the road to the east had already
been designated Common.
So the nearest suitable land was chosen — 13
acres beside Gifford Water.
The
building of the church has sometimes been attributed to
James
Smith, the architect at that time engaged in the building of
Yester House,
but there is no
evidence to connect him with it.
No plans have
survived
and
among the building accounts there is
no bill for his services.
The
principal mason was John McCall of Haddington who had
been
responsible for the building of the Town House and Schoolmaster's
House
(now known as Greenfoot Cottage) in 1706.
I think he was also
responsible for their design as well, and if so,
why not for the design
of
the church and manse?
There is evidence that the manse was similar
to
the schoolmaster's house, both having nine windows in the front.
(The
front wall of Greenfoot Cottage was pulled down in 1814 and rebuilt
with its present
five windows).
The plain lines of the church and the
almost total lack of carving or ornamentation lend further support
to the
view
that it was conceived
by a John McCall rather than a James Smith.
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