Infermedi'ik Lrchires. 99 



Al)Out two centuries ago Cliai-Ies II. gi-anted the keepership to 

 Johnstone, Earl of Annandale, with all its rights and privileges. 

 That was by charter after the death of Murra}', Earl of Annan- 

 dale. Prior to that jMmes VI. (15th January, 1610) granted a 

 feu charter to the Earl of Dunbar of the whole of the four mains. 

 The Earl was by the same charter constituted steward of Annan- 

 dale and hereditary keeper of the Castle of Lochmaben, with 

 parts and pertinents pertaining to the guardianship. By the 

 same deed the foresaid lands and subjects were for the first time 

 erected to the barony of Lochmaben. The feu duty was then 

 declared for the lands ; but a red rose, to be presented on mid- 

 summer day at Lochmaben Castle, was the price the keeper had to 

 pay to the Crown ; so that if Queen Victoria visited ths Castle, 

 Captain Hope-Johnstone would acknowledge her sovereignty in 

 the Castle, within the gates thereof, by presenting Her Majesty 

 with a red rose. The Earl of Dunbar, immediately before his 

 death, sold the whole (stewai-dship and office of keeper) to John 

 Murray, afterwards Earl of Annandale, in whose favour James 

 VI. (1st July, 1612, two years after the Earl of Dunbar's charter) 

 granted a new charter, whereby His Majesty disponed to the Earl 

 of Annandale (Murray) "The Castle, Castellany, and Castle lands 

 of Lochmaben, and assessed £40 13s 4d Scots and a number of 

 oxen 'as fee and duty' for repairing the said Castle of Loch- 

 maben " — the lands being anew erected into the barony of 

 Lochmaben. Those charters were ratified in 1612, and again in 

 1621. By both of thfse Acts the lands and barony were again 

 dissolved and disunited from the Crown. Another charter of a 

 subsequent date in favour of David (Lord Stewart), who married 

 the widow of the second Earl of Annandale of that period, was 

 also ratified in 1669. Thus the right to the lands of the barony 

 was finally separated from the Crown, and was vested in Lord 

 Mansfield, a vassal of the Crown, and of the hereditary keeper's 

 lepresentatives of the Earl of Annandale, a modern proof of 

 which separation from the Crown was that since 1839 the king's 

 kindly tenants p;iy stipend to the minister of Lochmaben parish. 

 But the Castle within the gates thereof still exists for behoof of the 

 Queen and her royal successors, paying neither stipend nor taxes, 

 all Crown lands being exempt from the same. In 1647 the second 

 Earl of Annandale granted a |)erpetual lease of the mains of the 

 Castle to Bailie John Henderson, Lochmaben, but reserving from 



