Old Kilpatrick Parish Church: effigy of a knight

Image: © Lairich Rig Taken: 26 May 2012

The effigy is affixed to the western wall of Image The figure is rather worn, but has a sword hanging from its belt on the (viewer's) right. It was easier to make out the sword in the late nineteenth century. Note that all of the statements given below regarding the possible identity of the knight are very speculative, and I am not endorsing any of them; they are repeated here only for interest, and for what they reveal about the effigy's previous locations. The New Statistical Account (1845) observes, presumably with reference to this figure, that "in the church-yard, there is a monumental stone, to which tradition has affixed the name of Saint Patrick. It is, however, the sculptured effigy of an armed knight, and, from the style of execution, of the fourteenth century. It has no inscription, but it may be very plausibly assigned to some one of the knightly race of Colquhoun" (on the Colquhoun family, see Image, and the books by William Fraser that are referred to at the end of that item). The stone must previously have been located in the south-eastern corner of the kirkyard (where the Image is located); Donald MacLeod writes in 1886 (see the first link in this item for references) that "regarding the effigy of a knight in armour lying in Stirling of Law's burying-place, which popular tradition variously connects with St Patrick, a Colquhoun, and a Stirling, we are inclined to doubt all these conjectures. The effigy is said to have been taken out of the church, and our belief is that it was placed there in memory of James Stewart, a noble knight who was foully murdered at Kilpatrick by Alexander Lisle and Robert Boyd about the year 1444. Antiquarians tell us that the style of the armour depicted on the statue is that of the fifteenth century, which further corroborates this opinion". John Bruce (again, see the link at the top of this item for the reference), writing in 1893, notes that it is impossible to determine whose effigy this is, but says that "possibly it may have been that of a predecessor of the Earl of Lennox, who granted the lands and church of Kilpatrick to Paisley Abbey, and at the same time stipulated a place of interment therein; or perchance that of Somerled, or his son, who were both slain in Renfrew in 1164; or may be one of his chieftains".

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