Transactions. 49 



By the erection of the bridge the town or village on the 

 west became the Brig-end of Dumfries. This was the usual 

 name for houses so situated, but the village was of old 

 standing, and is now the populous burgh of Maxwelltown. 



While all was yet quiet in the monastery and prosperous, 

 John Duns Scotus, the subtle doctor, was here clothed with 

 the habit of the order. So says Spottiswood in his " Religi- 

 ous Houses."* But others say it was at Newcastle, or by 

 the friars of Newcastle. K Dumfries was like Berwick and 

 Roxburgh in the wardenship of Newcastle, the discrepancy 

 may be reconciled. 



But events were now at hand, big with the fortunes of 

 both the monastery and the kingdom. 



In the summer of 1300 the ambitious Edward of Eng- 

 land came to Dumfries, and lodged with the Friars Minors 

 in the monastery. And in the course of the same year he 

 received the papal bull which claimed Scotland for the Holy 

 See. This complicated matters not a little. 



The situation of Scotland was now most critical. It had 

 almost ceased to be a separate and independent kingdom. 

 Baliol's short reign was over, and having presumed to affect 

 independence, he was after a humble submission to Edward 

 and a humiliating feudal penance sent a prisoner to the 

 Tower. The Scottish regalia and the ancient regal stone of 

 Scone were lodged at "Westminster. The brave Sir WilHam 

 Wallace was tried in mock state, executed, and dismember- 

 ed as a traitor to England, which Tjrtler says was not true 

 " as he never had sworn fealty to Edward."*!' The fortresses 

 of the kingdom were in the hands of English govemorPt 

 And Justiciars, in the nature of the English Justices of 

 Assize, were appointed over Scotland, two of them sitting 

 as it seems at this very moment in the castle of Dumfries, 

 when an event occurred in the monastery the consequences 

 of which subsist to this day in the position and character of 

 Scotland. This was the death of the Red Comyn in the 



* Spottiawood Relig. Houses, chap. 16, sec. 1. 

 t Tytler'a Scotland, chap. 2. 



