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history |
The Church of Kinneil, which was the former name of Bo'ness Kirk Session, was built in the middle of the 12th century and was granted to Holyrood Abbey. Kinneil church was in use as the parish church until 1669 when it became the Hamilton Family church and it remained so until 1745 when it was destroyed by fire. In 1643 a church was erected within the parish of Kinneil at Bo'ness, in which the minister of Kinneil conducted worship. On the 6th March 1649 however, Parliament passed an act dissolving Bo'ness church from Kinneil and erecting it into a separate parish. A petition was later passed to parliament in 1669 stating that Kinneil, only having 300 communicants and experiencing a decline in trade, was struggling to pay the annual stipend for Kinneil, and claiming that the erection of the church of Bo'ness as a separate parish should be annulled and that the church of Bo'ness, being in a more convenient location, should be declared the only parish church. It followed then that, on the 23rd December 1669, a further Act of Parliament was passed reuniting the parishes of Kinneil and Bo'ness and declaring the Church of Bo'ness as the parish church. The parish also took on the name of Bo'ness from this point forwards. Bo'ness church was later repaired in 1672 and the present church was opened for public worship in 1888. In 1929 the United Free Church united with the Established Church, and at this time the church at Bo'ness changed its name to Bo'ness Old Parish Church to differentiate it from the former United Free charge, which took the name Bo'ness St Andrew's Church of Scotland. The kirk session sat within the Presbytery of Linlithgow, later of Linlithgow and Falkirk and, following the restructuring of the Presbyteries in 1976, it became part of the Presbytery of Falkirk.
This collection also contains records of the Representatives of the Burgh of Bo'ness who were established as a result of the erection of Bo'ness Parish by Act of Parliament in 1649. The Representatives were required to raise a stent (or tax) of 800 merks annually to make up the stipend of the minister of Bo'ness Parish Church. (See T J Salmon "Borrowstounness and District" pp 275-304 for further details).
The old parish church in Corbiehall was erected in 1636-38 and alterations made in 1672, 1776 and 1820. The present church building on Panbrae Rd was built in 1885. |