So far as we have been able to discover, no complete history of this church has ever been written, and the circumstances connected with its original erection and subsequent reconstruction do not appear to have been definitely ascertained and described. It is certain that a church existed here in the twelfth century, and it is obvious, from an inspection of the structure, that not a single stone of that early building remains to enable its size and appearance to be determined. All knowledge in regard to the existing fabric must, therefore, be derived from the internal evidence of the building itself, with such slight aid as can be got from written records. The following are some scattered notices of St. John’s Church gathered from various sources. The earliest mention of the church occurs in the _Registrum de Dunfermelyn_[56] under the years 1124-1127, when it was granted by David I., with its property and tithes, to the Abbey of Dunfermline. Between the years 1189 and 1199 William the Lion granted a charter to Henry Bald of “that land which is in the front of the street, which leads from the Church of St. John Baptist to the Castle of Perth, on the east side opposite to the house of Andrew, the son of Simon.” The same Henry Bald granted, about the year 1225, to the Abbey of Scone “these two booths which are in the front of the street which leads from the Church of St. John Baptist towards the Castle of Perth, on the east side opposite to the house of Andrew, the son of Simon; those two booths, to wit, which are towards the north.”[57] The Church of St. John the Baptist was consecrated by David de Bernham, Bishop of St. Andrews, in 1242.[58] In Hay’s _Sacra Scotia_ (p. 323) it is stated that the heart of Alexander III. was buried in the Church of St. John. In course of time the abbots of Dunfermline allowed the building to become ruinous, and endeavoured to lay on the citizens of Perth the burden of upholding the fabric. It is probable that early in the thirteenth century the Dominican Monastery was built in Perth, and about the middle of the century the Carmelite or Whitefriars’ Monastery was erected, and the interests of the citizens may thereby have been diverted somewhat from the parish church. It was perhaps in connection with the repairs required at the time that Robert the Bruce, in 1328, granted that stones might be taken from the quarries of Kyncarachi and Balcormac, belonging to the Abbey of Scone, “for the edification of the Church of Perth.”[59] In 1335 King Edward III. was in Perth and slew his brother, John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall, before the high altar of the Church of St. John, for his excesses and ravages in the western districts of Scotland. In 1379 the tomb of Robert II. was brought from Leith to Perth, and temporarily deposited in St. John’s Church before being taken to the Abbey of Scone and set up in it.[60]