Morham

Morham, East Lothian, sometimes spelt Moram, Morum, Morhame, etc., in old records, is the smallest (agricultural) parish in Scotland, sandwiched between five other parishes: Haddington, Garvald, Yester, Whittingehame, and Prestonkirk, in the undulating lower reaches of the Lammermuir Hills.

For centuries a small castle or Tower house stood opposite the church but there are scant remains of it today. The village, once a few hundred yards south of the church, has vanished. The first notice of the church is as a prebend in 1481, although a charter of Bara in 1340 is witnessed by a "'Lord' William, Rector of the parish of Morham". In April 1532 Mr. Robert Hoppringill was parson of Moreham (NAS - GD150/710). The present building of 1724 replaced a church of 1685 and stands in a secluded hollow in a very neat walled burial ground. The Dalrymple loft and mausoleum of circa 1730 are an imposing feature on its north side. A walled garden separates the church from the 1827 manse. The Statistical Account of Haddingtonshire (Edinburgh 1841) states that the earliest date in the Parochial Records is 22 February 1712. However, there is also a gap in the Morham Old Parish registers from late in 1714 until 1720. There was at Morham a parochial school very early on, and a James Hogg was schoolmaster there until 1742, when he took up a new appointment at Whittingehame.

The feudal superiors of Morham changed over the centuries. Most of the parish had been possessed by the Hepburn family: the Earls of Bothwell, and the Hepburns of Bearford. The two largest farms were Northrig and Mainshill, and William Sinclare de Northrig appears as the first witness to a charter signed at Samuelstown, Haddingtonshire, on 29 October 1497. Patrick Hepburn, 3rd Earl of Bothwell, married, in 1533 or 1534, an Agnes Sinclair. He divorced her within a decade and as part of his settlement he gave her a charter of the lands of Morham. She was styled Lady Morham and lived in the tower house at Morham for the rest of her life. She died in 1572 and her testament is headed "Dame Agnes Sinclair, Countess of Bothwell and Lady Morehame".

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