22 Transactions. 
Scotland, as in this rare and valuable work fully set forth. 
Incidentally treating of the great power and authority of the 
family of Douglas, Dr Fraser says :—‘ Thus by rapid strides the 
family of Douglas rose within one generation from the good Sir 
James to be owners and rulers of the greater part of the South of 
Scotland, as well as of considerable estates in the North. They 
bore undisputed sway over a large portion of the shires of Lanark, 
Peebles, Selkirk, Roxburgh, parts of Berwickshire, and Dumfries- 
shire, with the whole of Galloway. To this territory was added 
for a time the earldom of Mar and lordship of Garioch. When 
it is further considered that either nominally on behalf of the 
King or in their own right the lords of Douglas possessed or 
garrisoned the strong castles of Kildrummy in Mar, Jedburgh in 
Teviotdale, the Hermitage in Liddesdale, the Thrieve in Gallo- 
way, Tantallon in East Lothian, Lochmaben in Annandale, as 
well as their native fortress of Douglasdale, it will be more easily 
understood how the members of this one family were able to 
maintain a more than royal state, and their power became dan- 
gerous to the throne itself. Of ancient Galloway under the Lords 
and Earls of the Douglas family there are many details of much 
local interest. Notable among such is the chartered history of 
the Douglas possession of the barony of the Balliols of old time, 
the barony of Botle, which also appears to have been the first 
landed possession of the Douglases in Galloway. In the year 
1325 it appears King Robert the Bruce granted a charter of the 
lands of Botle, totam terram nostram de Botle, in Galwidia, cwm 
suis pertinencis, &c., to the good Sir James. In the year 1342 
Hugh Douglas, the brother of Sir James Douglas, resigned the 
same lands. Further, in or about the year 1348 a.p. William, 
Lord of Douglas (afterwards the first Earl), granted to his god- 
father, William Douglas, the Knight of Liddesdale, the lands of 
Knokys, Sevenkirks, Kenmore, Logan, and Colennauch, in the 
barony of Botle in Galloway.”—(Reg. Hon. de Morton, ii., 10.) 
During nearly the whole of the 16th century the records give but 
few details touching the Bridge. However, you incidentally learn 
the existence of a fund, then known familiarly as “The Brig 
Werk,” to which all freemen and burgesses had from use and wont 
been accustomed to subscribe as one of the known penalties of 
their elevation and future existence as duly constituted freemen. 
From the great diametrical change which has since that time 
taken place in the purchasing power of money, to even form an 
