l70 Dumfries : Its Surghal Origin. 



that if Roland did not keep his word they would " confound 

 the said Roland until he did satisfaction to the lord King of 

 England." Besides, Jocelyn, Bishop of Glasgow, promised 

 on the Word of Truth, and on the relics of the saints, that if 

 Roland broke faith he would launch against him the thunders 

 of excommunication. 



If the list of distinguished persons occurring in this 

 narrative from the chronicles (covering the time from the 

 end of May, 1186, till the beginning of August in the same 

 year) be now compared with the names in the three Dum- 

 fries charters, not only do we find the King, Bishop 

 Jocelyn, Roland, Earl David, and Abbot Ernald present as 

 witnesses, but in the Gretna charter Roland appears 

 actually in the train of William at Gretna, where there was 

 the famous ford of Sulwath, or Sol way, the direct road to 

 and from Carlisle. Hence it seems exceedingly probable 

 that these charters may with confidence be referred to July 

 or August, 1186.^5 And thus to 1186 will be assigned the 

 earliest attribution to it of the character of a burgh. It is 

 called a burgh in one of the three charters ; another of them 

 by its allusion to the old castlestead implies the recent 

 erection of a new castle ; besides the church of St. Michael, 

 most likely a recent erection, there is a chapel to Thomas 



15 This was the period, it must be remembered, of the long 

 quarrel over the bishopric of St. Andrews between Hugh, King 

 William's chaplain, who was the royal nominee, and John, sur- 

 named the Scot, nominee of the chapter of St. Andrews, the 

 latter being supported by the Pope. A sort of reconciliation was 

 effected in 1183 by which Hugh got the St. Andrews see and 

 John that of Dunkeld. The controversy, however, was not finally 

 settled by this compromise. In July, 1186, both prelates were in 

 Scotland (Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, ii., 262-5), although 

 summons was being issued for their appearance immediately at 

 the Roman court. Later in the year Hugh was suspended and 

 excommunicated {ibid., 265) by the very bishop of Glasgow who 

 heads the list of witnesses to the foregoing charter, No. 4, to 

 which the rival bishops are also both attestants. Hugh went to 

 Rome and never returned, dying in 1188. Thus 1183 is the 

 earliest possible, 1186 the latest possible date. The persuasions 

 for preferably connecting the deed with the episodes of 1186 are 

 therefore in full harmony with chronological conditions. 



