32 “THE CLOCHMABON.”’ 
In Asloan’s Manuscripts (1448) we read that the battle of 
Sark was called by contemporaries the battell of Lochmaben 
Stane. In Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials (vol. 1, part 1, p. 398), 
it is told how on 11th May, 1557, Roger Kirkpatrick of Close- 
burn, William Kirkpatrick of Kirkmichael, and Thomas Kirk- 
patrick of Friars’ Carse, got remission from the Queen for 
abiding from the army ordered to assemble at Lochmabenstane 
on Feb. 6, “ to meet the warden before sunrise, to pass fordwart 
with him to the day of Trew, for meiting of the wardane of Ing- 
land.”’ 
On the 11th June, 1464, in the reign of James Third, com- 
missioners met here to adjust the terms and conditions of a 
truce ; as they did also on 6 Noy., 1398 (Foedera of that date, 
Bain’s Caledonia IV., p. 512), at Clockmaban Stane to carry out 
the agreement which had been made between the Duke of 
Rothesay and Lancaster as to the exchange of prisoners. 
Dr George Neilson, in his “ Annals of the Solway ’’ (p. 15), 
shows that in the documents of an earlier period it is the ford 
“apud Sulewath’’ which is mentioned. From him I quote, 
reversing his arrangement of dates: “A petition was presented 
to Edward II. by a person desirous to farm the toll between 
Soulwad and Arthuret (Bain’s Cal., III., 51).’’ In accounts. 
of the campaign of Edward I. in the 1300 it is mentioned as the 
ford at Sulwath, “transitus apud Sulwath ’’ (Liber Quotidianus 
Garderobac, 129). The March Laws (Acta Parl. Scot. I., 416) 
refer to the driving of cattle across the Esk as an incident of the 
trial in certain cases of disputed ownership. In legal proceed- 
ings of date 1292 there is descriptive mention as the peculiar 
West March place of justice “of a certain place called Sulwat 
at the Marches of the realms.’’ 
The Statute of Marches (Acta Parl. Scot. I., 414, Sulwat) in 
A.D. 1249 enacts that the proper tribunal for the trial of offences: 
against the Border Laws was “at Sulwath.’? And Reginald, 
King of the Isles, was to be met at Sulewad in a.p. 1218 (Bain’s: 
Cal, Ls, 696). 
All the documents quoted are those of an English-speaking 
race, but prior to A.D. 1218 we have no references, the reason being 
that it was a period of great unrest, when the national headship 
was utterly unsettled. | From pre-Roman times till about A.D. 
870-890 the population belonged to the Brythonic race of Celts, 
