82 Tue CASTLE OF DUMFRIES. 
Mathew de Redeman, being sheriff, and in the following year a 
warrant issued required that certain castles, including that of 
Dumfries, be provisioned, and their houses and walls repaired. 
Kine Epwarp’s Wars. 
The truce of 1302 being ended, Edward prepared to renew 
the war. An army of 20,000 men, mostly cavalry, under Sir John 
de Segrave, advanced towards Edinburgh. The force suffered 
disastrous defeat at the hands of the Scots, led by Comyn, on 
24th February, 1303; but in the following year another great 
army, led by the King in person, overran the country without 
opposition, when the Scots, exhausted, made submission ; Wallace 
alone stood out. 
About the middle of September, 1305, the King, believing 
that resistance was at an end, proceeded to the settlement of a 
plan of government for the conquered country. He appointed 
sheriffs to the several counties, and Sir Richard Siward, who was 
well acquainted with the district, again became Sheriff of Dum- 
fries and Constable of the Castle. 
CAPTURE OF THE CASTLE BY BRUCE. 
All this time from the year 1298 the Castle continued to be 
held by the English, but a change was impending. The patriot 
Wallace was ruthlessly put to death on 23rd August, 1305; but 
within a few months thereafter Scotland was again in arms. On 
February 10th, 1306, Bruce killed Comyn in the church of the 
Friars Minors of Dumfries, and seizing, according to Heming- 
burgh, his (Comyn’s) fine horse, he mounted, and his men 
mounted, and they rode to the castle and took it. 
Tue MINORITE FRIARY. 
The Minorite Friary, which stood at the corner of Friars’ 
Vennel and Castle Street, is said to have been founded by 
Devorgilla, King John’s mother. Mention of the Friars Minors 
is made in the Exchequer accounts of the year 1265, and the 
monastery may have been built a little earlier or later. 
Not many years ago a massive gable wall, containing a great 
fireplace, believed to belong to the kitchen, remained standing 
within a house on the north side of the Vennel at a point about 
25 yards westwards of the Castle Street end, and behind 
