The grave slab ([Fig. 439]) has lately been fixed into the south wall. Some time ago it was lying on the floor. It measures 6 feet 2 inches long by 2 feet 3 inches wide, and bears a beautifully lettered inscription to the memory of Andreas Crichton. In the centre of the slab there is a cross, with the Calvary steps, and beneath the cross limb a shield with the Crichton arms (a lion rampant), and on the dexter side a long sword.
In the Exchequer Rolls for the year 1497, Andrew Crichton of Drumcorse (the name of the estate adjoining the church on the north) first comes into view. On the 1st May 1502, Crichton entered office as the Chamberlain of the Lordship of Linlithgowshire. He presents his accounts yearly, his last being rendered from July 1513 to July 1514, when he presumably died. His monumental slab was, doubtless, carved shortly after that date.
There is a very beautiful recumbent statue ([Fig. 440]) lying in the church. It appears to be an early work, but no record exists to tell whose memory it commemorates.
Fig. 439.—Bathgate Church. Slab in Church to Andreas Crichton.
Malcolm IV. (1153 to 1165) granted the church of “Bathket,” with certain lands, to Holyrood.[200] Robert, Bishop of St. Andrews, who died about 1159, confirmed those grants. There was, further, a Papal confirmation in 1164. In 1251, by a taxation of churches in the diocese of St. Andrews, the vicar of the Church of Bathgate was to receive 12 merks of the altar dues, to be assigned him at the sight of William, Archdeacon of Lothian, and Master Alexander, of Edinburgh. This was confirmed by Bishop Gamelin.
