Alex Maxwell Findlater

In preparation for the last crusade, the Pope ordered that all church-men should pay a tithe towards its cost. This tithe was to be calculated, not on the ancient valuation of their holdings, but on their current value. In about 1275 Master Baiamundus de

A general account of the de Hoddom family from the 12th to the 16th centuries - detailing estate holdings.

The relationship of the Balliols and Umfravilles of Redcastle and Urr has caused historians problems, even to the extent of the suggestion that there might have been two of the name Enguerrand (Ingelram) de Umfraville. The most recent book3 shows Enguerrand in an altogether different position in the pedigree, without annotation, but obviously as an attempt to make sense of the evidence. I shall show that Sir Enguerrand de Umfraville enjoyed an exceptionally long life, being born about 1245 and dying after 1321, that he was the first cousin and co-heir of Sir Enguerrand de Balliol II (d 1298) son of Sir Eustace (d 1270/76), and that his mother was indeed Eustace’s sister Eva, daughter of Sir Enguerrand de Balliol I (d ca 1244) of Urr and Redcastle. Furthermore I reposition Sir Henry de Balliol of Cavers as the son, not the brother, of Sir Enguerrand de Balliol I, both on chronological grounds, and on the evidence that Sir Enguerrand had a son Henry who also had a son Henry, as did Sir Henry de Balliol of Cavers have a son Henry, so giving two matching pairs of Henrys.

The family of Hairstanes rose to prominence as burgesses of Dumfries in the later 1500s, only to die out in the male line in the mid-1700s when four sisters inherited. In 1739 they sold the family properties, Over and Nether Kelwood and Bourlands. The family took their designation from the lands of Over Kelwood, but used the name ‘of Craigs’, that being the house on the property. In Edgar’s History of Dumfries (1915) which R C Reid edited, there is a long note, no 30, on Kelwood and its owners and at the end of the volume a pedigree of Hairstanes is included. Unfortunately, the descent as deduced by Reid is not correct in some details, although one must pay tribute to his scholarship. Only two of the four sisters, Isabella and Elizabeth, appear to have had issue. Elizabeth married William Maxwell of Preston and was the mother of two daughters; Mary, wife of William Gordon, 17th Earl of Sutherland; and Willielma wife of John Campbell, Lord Glenorchy. Lady Glenorchy died without issue, so it is probable that the surviving genes of the family rest with the Sutherlands.