Lesmahagow Priory

Lesmahagow Priory was a medieval Tironensian monastic community located in modern South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It was founded after John, Bishop of Glasgow and King David I of Scotland granted lands at Lesmahagow to Kelso Abbey with which to establish a new priory. It remained a dependency of Kelso Abbey. Control of the abbey was gradually secularized in the 16th century. Along with Kelso Abbey, it was turned into a secular lordship in 1607 for Robert Ker of Cesford, later earl of Roxburghe. Lesmahagow however passed into the hand of James Hamilton, 2nd Marquess of Hamilton in 1623.

The Abbeygreen Church of the Church of Scotland lies opposite the Glebe Park in Lesmahagow and was opened in 1844. Lesmahagow Old Parish Church lies on the site of the priory church and was built in its present form in 1803.

Bibliography

• 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), p. 69
• 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), pp. 134–6

See also

• Prior of Lesmahagow, for a list of priors and commendators