Another newspaper report re the ancestors, this time concerning a possibly pre-Reformation church arch unearthed near Melrose, suspected to be from either Melrose Abbey or Newstead.
Southern Reporter, 1864 February 4
MELROSE. A RELIC
On Monday afternoon, while Mr Alex. Dodds, Abbey Gate, was superintending the draining operations which are now going on upon the fair-ground at Bowden Moor, he discovered a piece of carved sandstone which had been thrown up by the workmen, and which he has now in his possession. It has evidently been the groin of an arch, with the carving in wonderful preservation, and probably belonged either to the Abbey of Melrose, or the one of Red Abbeystead at Newstead. From the situation in which it was found, it is supposed that it may have been embedded in the soil since the era of the Reformation, or even an earlier date.
Again this involved my great-great-great grandfather Alexander Dodds (1816-1877), church officer or beadle for Melrose, as well as burgh officer and baron officer.
Melrose One-Place Study 