348 Theory as to the Origin of the Crosses 



earl of Chester, in Cumberland, and embraced the largest part of the 

 county of Dumfries. Like David, a benefactor of the church. . . . 

 His second son, Robert de Bruce III, saved the Scotch fief of Annan- 

 dale either by joining David I, if a tradition that he was taken prisoner 

 by his father at the battle of the Standard can be relied on, or by ob- 

 taining its subsequent restoration from David or Malcolm IV. . . . 

 He held the Annandale fief, with Lochmaben as its chief messuage, 

 for the service of a hundred knights during the jeigns of David I, 

 Malcolm IV, and William the Lion, who confirmed it by a charter in 

 1166.1 



Their services were rewarded by forty-three manors in the East 

 and West, and fifty-one in the North Riding of Yorkshire— upwards 

 of 40,000 acres of land, which fell to the lot of Robert de Bruce I, the 

 head of the family.^ 



The chief possessions of the Bruces were, as we have seen, in York- 

 shire, which remained the home of Robert de Bruce II. There, in 1129, 

 he founded the monastery of Guisburn, Guisborough, or Gisburgh, 

 with the concurrence of Archbishop Thurstan, Henry I, and Pope 

 CaHxtus 11.^ To this monastery Bruce granted the patronage of 

 all the churches in Annandale,* or at least the greater part.^ The 

 rights of ordination and collation to these churches were acquired 

 by the Bishop of Glasgow in 1223.^ 



The Bruces must have parted with lands in Annandale to various 

 adherents in the 12th and 13th centuries. Between 1170 and 1180 

 William de Bruce granted lands to Adam Carlyle, a native of the 

 soil, who held property in Cumberland.' Similarly, Ruthwell must 

 at some time have passed into the hands of Thomas de Duncurry, 

 and afterward into those of Thomas Randolph, Earl of Murray, 

 who deeded it to his nephew, William Murray, before 1332. 



1 Did. Nat. Biog. 7. 114. 



2 Ibid. 



^ Bromton, Chron. (Twysden, col. 1018) ; Diet. Nat. Biog. 7. 114. 



1 Chalmers, Caledonia 5. 189 ; Johnstone, Historical Families of Dum- 

 friesshire, 2d ed., Dumfries, [1889,] p. 2 ; cf. p. 103, above. 



^ This fact suggests the close ecclesiastical connections between York- 

 shire and Annandale, and makes it easy to see the possibihty of a connection 

 between Rievaulx in Yorkshire and Ruthwell in Annandale. 



« Chalmers 5. 148. 



^ Johnstone, p. 26. There were Carlyles from Cockpool, according to 

 an ancient ballad. The Bedesman of Nithsdale, who followed Richard I to 

 the Crusades (Johnstone, p. 3) ; but Cockpool is later associated with 

 Ruthwell. 



(136) 



