54 Transactions. 



deeply interested tlierein, and was to it a great benefactress. 



This noble lady, whose descent from the great Norman 

 WiUiam the Conqueror can be easily traced, was the third 

 daughter by his second -wife of Alan, Lord of Galloway and 

 Constable of Scotland. Alan, who lived in the end of the 

 12th and the beginning of the 13th century, was a member 

 of that Norman aristocracy which over-ran England and the 

 richer portion of Scotland, and with their tyranny introduced 

 civilization. At this period, though England and Scotland 

 were separate kingdoms, the aristocracy appear to have been 

 common to both, and the two countries were more united than 

 they were again until the Union in the time of Queen Anne. 

 As an illustration of this it may be mentioned that Alan, Lord 

 of Galloway and Constable of Scotland, was one of the great 

 Barons of England to w-hom King John gave, or who ex- 

 tracted from him, the Magna Charta. In short, Alan in the 

 12th century occupied a similar position to that of the Duke 

 of Sutherland or Buccleuch at the present day. There is 

 gi-ound for believing that in the days of Alan this district of 

 Scotland was prosperous and advanced, but that it was throwTi 

 far back by the oppression of Edward the 1st, and the un- 

 fortunate wars arising from the disputed succession to the 

 Scottish Crown. 



Alan married for the second time in 1209 a daughter of 

 the Earl of Huntingdon, and this lady must have died before 

 1228 (there being no Divorce Court in these Catholic days), 

 when he was married for the third time. 



The Lady Devorgilla was the third child of the second 

 marriage, and w^as born in 1213. Her father died in 1234-, 

 leaving three surviving children, all daughters, one bom by 

 his first wife and two by his second. The wild men of Gallo- 

 way revolted at tlie idea of being ruled by females, and de- 

 sired to be governed by a natural son of Alan, but after a 

 long struggle the succession of the daughters was established. 

 Devorgilla's full sister, Christian, married a son of the Earl 

 of Albemarle, but as Christian died without issue, Devor- 

 gilla became her heir, and thus acquired two-thirds of her 



