Jocelin of Glasgow - Legacy and Death

Legacy and Death

His years at Glasgow left a mark on history that can be compared favourably with any previous or future bishop. Jocelin commissioned his namesake Jocelin of Furness, the same man who had written the Life of St. Waltheof, to write a Life of St. Kentigern, a task all the more necessary because, after 1159, the Papacy claimed the right to canonise saints. Kentigern, or Mungo as he is popularly known, was the saint traditionally associated with the see of Glasgow, and his status therefore reflected on Glasgow as a church and cult-centre. There had already been a cathedral at Glasgow before Jocelin's episcopate. The idea that the ecclesiastical establishment before Jocelin was simply a small church with a larger Gaelic or British monastic establishment has been discredited by scholars. Jocelin did, though, expand the cathedral significantly. As the Chronicle of Melrose reports for 1181, Jocelin "gloriously enlarged the church of St Kentigern". However, more work was created for the builders when, sometime between the years 1189 and 1195, there was a fire at the cathedral. Jocelin thus had to commission another rebuilding effort. The new cathedral was dedicated, according to the Chronicle of Melrose, on 6 July 1197. It was built in the Romanesque manner, and although little survives of it today, it is thought to have been influenced by the cathedral of Lund, the archbishop of which had consecrated Jocelin as bishop.

However, he left a still greater legacy to the city of Glasgow. At some point between the years 1175 and 1178, Jocelin obtained from King William a grant of burghal status for the settlement of Glasgow, with a market every Thursday. The grant of a market was the first ever official grant of a weekly market to a burgh. Moreover, between 1189 and 1195, King William granted the burgh an annual fair, a fair still in existence today, increasing Glasgow's status as an important settlement. As well as new revenues for the bishop, the rights entailed by Glasgow's new burghal status and market privileges brought new people to the settlement, one of the first of whom was one Ranulf de Haddington, a former burghess of Haddington. The new settlement was laid out (probably under the influence of the burgh of Haddington) around Glasgow Cross, down the hill from the cathedral and old fort of Glasgow, but above the flood level of the River Clyde.

When Jocelin died, he was back at Melrose Abbey, where his career had begun. He may have retired to Melrose knowing his death was near. Jocelin certainly did die at Melrose, passing away on St Patrick's Day (17 March) 1199. He was buried in the monks' choir of Melrose Abbey Church. Hugh de Roxburgh, Chancellor of Scotland, was elected as Jocelin's replacement. The Chronicle of Melrose has only a short obituary.