Spott

The following lengthy quotation about the parish of Spott comes from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland, edited by Francis Groome, published in London, 1903.

Spott, a village and a parish of E Haddingtonshire. The village lies towards the N of the parish, near the left bank of Spott Burn, and 3 miles S by W of the post-town, Dunbar.
The parish is bounded NW and N by Dunbar, E by Dunbar and Innerwick, SW and W by Stenton. Long and narrow, it has an utmost length from N to S of 8 7/8 miles, a varying width of 2¼ furlongs and 3 7/8 miles, and an area of 7833 acres. A part of Spott parish that intervened between the parish of Stenton and its larger detached part, and which comprised 90 acres and formed part of Dunbar Common, was transferred b the Boundary Commissioners in 1891 to the parish of Stenton; but, in return, the smaller or Friarsdyke detached portion of Stenton, comprising 340 acres, was added to Spott parish. Spott or Brox Burn and Woodhall or DRY BURN drain the northern portion of the parish north-eastward direct to the German Ocean; whilst BOTHWELL Water flows south-south-eastward along the Innerwick boundary of the southern portion until it falls into the Whitadder at the southern extremity of the parish. Sinking to 85 feet above sea-level in the extreme N, and to 690 feet in the extreme S, the surface is an alternation of hill and dale, part of the LAMMMERMUIR range; and chief elevations, from N to S, are DOON Hill (582 feet), Spott Dod (608), Black Law (800), Lothian Edge (1157) and Bothwell Hill (1250), the first culminating on the eastern, the last on the south-western boundary. The predominant rocks are Devonian; and the soil is clayey in some parts, but light and sandy in most. Between 2000 and 3000 acres are in tillage; about 100 are under wood; and most of the remainder is hill pasture. On the top of Doon Hill lay David Leslie's Scotch army two days before the battle of DUNBAR (1650); and Cromwell is said to have spent the night after the battle in Spott House. Elsewhere, in three or four localities, are remains or the sites of ancient hill-forts and cairns. A strange fatality appears to have waited on the incumbents of Spott in the 16th century. One, Robert Galbraith, was assassinated by John Carketle, a burgess of Edinburgh, in 1544; the next, John Hamilton, a natural son of the first Earl of Arran, became Archbishop of St Andrews, and, captured by Craufurd at DUMBARTON Castle, was hanged at Stirling in 1570; and in the same year a third, John Kello, was executed at Edinburgh for the murder of his wife. He had hanged her in the manse, and then gone and preached 'a more than usually eloquent sermon.' In the annals of witchcraft this parish is famous as almost the last place in Scotland where reputed witches were burnt, for so late as October 1705, the kirk-session records contain this entry: 'Many witches burnt on the top of Spott loan.' Spott House, a little way E by S of the village, is delightfully situated at the SW base of Doon Hill, and commands a beautiful view, away to the Bass Rock and the Isle of May. Partly a building of high antiquity, it was greatly improved soon after its acquisition, about the middle of the first half of the 19th century, by the late proprietor, James Sprot, Esq. (1804-82). Elias de Spot swore fealty to Edward I. in 1296; and later the estate was held by the Humes, Douglases, Murrays, and Hays. It is now the property of Miss Watt of Speke Hall, Liverpool (J. Smalls Castles and Mansions of the Lothians,' Edinb. 1888). Another mansion, noticed separately, is BOWER HOUSE. Spott is in the presbytery of Dunbar and the synod of Lothian and Tweedale; the living is worth £283. The church, surrounded by fine old trees, is a building of high antiquity, and as restored in 1848 presents a picturesque appearance. The public school, with accommodation for 120 children, has an average attendance of about 75, and a grant of nearly £75. Valuation (1885) £6641, 13s. (1893) £6002, 14s. 8d. Pop. (1801) 502, (1831) 612, (1861) 555, (1871) 560, (1881) 579, (1891) 475, of whom 253 were females.