Historical Objects: The Canonbie Rosary Beads
These jet beads were found in a field near Canonbie, in Dumfriesshire, and probably date from the late 1200s or early 1300s AD. Thought to be one of the oldest surviving examples of paternoster beads in Britain, they are now on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
Paternoster beads were used by many Christians in the Middle Ages to count prayers, and their name comes from a particularly popular prayer, the Pater Noster (i.e. the āOur Fatherā or the Lordās Prayer). In the Later Middle Ages, the use of such prayer beads would eventually develop into what we now know as the Rosary. Items for helping people count their prayers have existed since the earliest days of Christianity, and prayer beads can also be found in other religions. However the western rosary as we know it today is believed to have developed in the twelfth century, when the practise of praying 150 Hail Marys, split into groups of ten, became common. Guilds of beadmakers were also established by the thirteenth century, although a Catholic tradition dating back to the fifteenth century states conversely that the first appearance of the Rosary occurred c.1214, when St Dominic was given one in a vision by the Virgin Mary.
Over time a structured framework evolved for praying the rosary, but in the High Middle Ages prayer beads could also be used more generally to keep count of the main prayers such as the Pater Noster and Ave Maria. Rosaries could also be quite valuable items, worn as status symbols as well as devotional aids. Many written references to expensive rosaries owned by the wealthy elites of Late Mediaeval Scotland have survived, such as the āgrete bedis of gold contenand sex score twa bedis and a knopā discovered in one of the treasure chests of the late King James III in 1488, or the gold beads and cross which were given as a New Yearās gift to Elizabeth Barlow, a lady-in-waiting to Margaret Tudor, in 1507 and which were worth over Ā£62*. But whether they were fashioned from simple wood or the most precious metals and jewels, rosaries never lost their spiritual importance and they remain an important devotional aid for many Catholics today.
These particular beads are made of jet and were discovered in 1863, as part of a hoard turned up by the plough on the farm of Woodhead near Canonbie, a few miles from the Anglo-Scottish border. During the initial examination of the trove, it was suggested that the beads might have formed part of a necklace. However the shape of the beads makes it more likely that they were used for counting prayers: 13 oval beads survive along with two larger faceted beads, which might have been used to mark the completion of each ādecadeā (set of ten prayers).Ā
Although these beads are not quite so showy as some of the gold examples mentioned above, jet was still a costly material in the Middle Ages. Certainly the owner of these beads thought they were precious enough to hide with the rest of their valuable goods. The hoard also included 76 silver coins (from Scotland and England), several gold rings, and silver brooches, some of which can be seen elsewhere in the National Museum of Scotland. The coins might provide a clue as to when the hoard was buried. Most of them date from the reigns of Kings Alexander III (reigned 1249 to 1286) and John (r. 1292-1296) of Scotland, and King Edward I of England (r.1272-1307). This suggests that the hoard, including these jet beads, was buried at the very end of the thirteenth century or in the first years of the fourteenth.
The border between Scotland and England had long been an area of cultural exchange and in the thirteenth century it included some of the best farmland in the kingdom, as well as some of Scotlandās richest towns. In the 1290s, however, war broke out between the two countries and this conflict would last for several decades, forever altering the relationship between the two neighbouring kingdoms and the character of the counties along the Anglo-Scottish border, Dumfriesshire included. These were dangerous and uncertain times, and whoever buried the Canonbie hoard may have squirrelled away their valuables to protect them from marauders or as an emergency source of wealth to be used in a crisis.Ā
Whatever the context, the original owner never returned to recover much of this hoard, and so their jet prayer beads remained hidden underground for centuries. But their treasure trove at least benefited future generations as we can use their long-forgotten possessions to gain an insight into cultural and social conditions in the south of Scotland during the High Middle Ages. There is an added bonus- if the beads do predate the year 1300, they may be one of the oldest surviving examples of prayer beads in Britain. The Canonbie rosary beads thus serve as an important reminder of thirteenth century Scotlandās full participation in the wider trends of mediaeval Christendom, and might provide a glimpse into the cultural world inhabited by an anonymous Borderer on the eve of the Wars of Independence.
Notes and Sources can be found below the āRead Moreā cut.
