Transactions. 55 



father's estates. Devorgilla herself married John Baliol, 

 who is by some described as Lord and by others as Sir. He 

 is best known as having been the founder of Baliol College, 

 in the University of Oxford, a work in which he was aided 

 by his spouse, who moreover carried out his beneficent de- 

 sires after his death. John Baliol died in 1269. 



The Lady Devorgilla had previously borne her husband 

 four sons and a daughter, but only the fourth son and a 

 daughter survived her. She resided chiefly at Fotheringay,. 

 a seat of her grandfather the Earl of Huntingdon, in JNorthr 

 amptonshire, whence she was usually called the Lady of 

 Fotheringay, but she retained a warm side, as the Scottish 

 saying is, for this part of the country^ She founded the 

 Franciscan Monastery of Dumfries, Sweetheart Abbey in 

 the Stewartry, and she built the bridge at Dumfries, a por- 

 tion of which still spans the Nith. She also founded a 

 Convent in Dundee. 



Alan, Lord of Galloway, was buried in the Abbey Church 

 of Dundrennan, but the Lady Devorgilla formed a burying- 

 place for her own family at Sweetheart Abbey. She seems 

 to have erected a new Church and Monastery on the site or 

 in the vicinity of a former building, whence the name of 

 Nevvabbey. Her husband Baliol was buried there in 1269, 

 but she caused his heart to be embalmed and placed in an 

 ivory box bound with enamelled silver, and this box she 

 solemnly closed in the walls of the church near the high 

 altar, whence Avas derived the name of Sweetheart Abbey. 



The Lady Devorgilla died at Bernard Castle, a seat of 

 her husband, in 1289, at the age of 76, and her remains were 

 brought to Sweetheart Abbey, and interred in the same tomb 

 that contained the ashes of her husband. The noble ruins 

 of Sweetheart Abbey still remain, to charm the visitor and, 

 to attest the architectural skill of what are called the dark 

 ages, but there is no trace, so far as I know, of the tomb of 

 the lady to whose munificence we owe these stately walls. 

 The ruins were partially repaired recently, and the ground 

 floor levelled down to the base of the pillars, but no carved 



