22 Transactions. 



According- to the " Memorials of Dundrennan," King James 

 the Sixth, in 1621, annexed this Abbey to his chapel royal of 

 Stirling. His annexation was ratified by Parliament of that year, 

 and again in 1633, Symson, the author of "A Large Description 

 of Galloway, by the Parishes in it," writing in or about the year 

 1684, says : " The Bishop of Dumblane, as Dean of the Chapel 

 Koyal of Stirling, is patron of the parish of Rerrick, or Dun- 

 drennan, and hath a part of his revenues paid out of the lands of 

 that Abbey. He hath also a Bailery here heritably excercd by 

 the Earl of Nithsdale, whose jurisdiction reacheth over the whole 

 parish, except one Baronie called Kirk Castel, belonging to the 

 Laird of Broughton (Murray). Further, confirmatory of those 

 jurisdictive rights, as vested in the family of Murray, we find that 

 circa 1625 to 1635, John, Earl of Annandale, Viscount Annand, 

 Lord Murray of Lochmaben, granted a charter to John Murray, 

 eldest son of John Murray of Bruchtein, containing right in his 

 favour to all and whole the ten mark land of Kirkcassel, with the 

 pertinents also designed as Drumbellie and other lands. 



At Kirkcudbryt 14th December 16J4. — John Maxwell, of 

 Newlaw, as the hereditary proprietor of the lands, grants charter 

 and seisin to John Ewart, junior, merchant burgess of Kirkcud- 

 bryt, and to his spouse, Helene Ewart, in liferent, and to Andrew 

 Ewart, their son in fee, all and whole of his share and portion of 

 the lands of Newlaw, known as Brownhill, and also three crofts of 

 land which are commonly known as The " Foirsyde of the 

 BuUzean," being as well part of the said lands of Newlaw. He 

 also grants other similar crofts of land, all of which are also 

 situated in the parish of Dundrennan and the Stewartry of Kirk- 

 cudbright. — Notarial copy by Robert Glendonyng. 



Some two years subsequent to the unfortunate battle of 

 Solway Moss, and the birth of Mary Queen of Scots, and the 

 memorable deathbed adage of her father, King James the Fifth — 

 " It cam' wi' a lass and it will gang wi' a lass !" — in reference to 

 the Scottish Crown, the Abbot or Commendator of Dundrennan 

 was, it seems, a certain Lord Adam Blackader, of the old Berwick- 

 shire Border fighting- and Covenanting kindred, once familiar in 

 the war feats of the marchlands as a brotherhood called "The 

 Black Band of the Blackaders." The following refers to this 

 Commendator of Dundrennan, who, on the 25th of July, 1544, 



