Houser oF THE MAXWELLS oF NITHSDALE. 187 
independence, and which Bruce captured after the death of 
Comyn. 
The castle or house of the Maxwells of Nithsdale, with which 
this paper is concerned, being a family manor place, does not 
figure prominently in history, but enough connected with later 
public events and an atmosphere of tragic incidents reveal them- 
selves as to call for brief notice by way of preserving what is 
interesting relating to the town of Dumfries. 
“Near the site of the Old Friary,’’ says Dr Burnside, “ stood 
afterwards a castle belonging to the Maxwells of Caerlaverock 
and Nithsdale, which in some old charters and seisins belonging 
to the Duke of Buccleuch is styled a ‘Magnum Palatum,’ ’’ and, 
proceeding, he states that so far back as the year 1299 the Crown 
made a grant of the mote and mote lands to the family. These 
are the lands on which their castle afterwards stood, but at what 
time it was first erected does not appear. Later we have more 
certain information. Robert, fifth Lord Maxwell, 1513-1546, a 
man of great wealth and high consequence, had the misfortune to 
fall into the hands of the English at the battle of Solway Moss, 
25th November, 1542, when he and other Scots were imprisoned 
in the Tower of London, and compelled, in order to recover their 
liberty, to acknowledge Henry VIII. as lord superior of the realm 
of Scotland; and Maxwell, after protracted resistance, also 
yielded the castles held by him to the English. These conces- 
sions brought Lord Maxwell into collision with the Scottish 
Government, which he had now to conciliate. For this purpose 
he made a solemn protestation in his new house of Dumfries for 
his exculpation, dated 28th November, 1545, representing that he 
had been induced to give over the castles to the English from fear 
and danger of his life. We here learn definitely that the Max- 
wells’ house of Dumfries was new in 1545, and doubtless it was 
built by Robert, fifth Lord Maxwell, remembered as the promoter 
of the bill for the translation of the Scriptures. In this house of 
Dumfries Lord Maxwell made his protestation of innocence, and 
declared himself a loyal subject of Queen Mary. The protesta- 
tion was accepted, and Lord Maxwell was again received into 
royal favour, and had his honours and dignities restored to him. 
But he did not long enjoy the royal favour. Worn out by the 
troubles through which he had to pass, he died the following year, 
9th July, 1546. 
