Dumfries : Irs Burghal Origin. 171 



of Canterbury, killed in 1170, whose most famous memorial 

 in Scotland was Arbroath Abbey, founded by William in 

 1178. There was soon another chapel, if it was not already 

 existing in 1186. It was in the castle, ^^ as we learn from a 

 litigation dating about the year 1200. Most likely it was 

 that chapel dedicated to St. Mary, and commonly called the 

 " Castledikis," of which we still hear in the sixteenth 

 century. 1'^ 



On all sides are indications of rapid movement between 

 1173 and 1200. A new castle, a new church, a new chapel 

 to St. Mary, a new chapel to St. Thomas, a new burgh, 

 first heard of in 1186, simultaneously with the new castle. 

 The latter must have been a peculiarly necessary institution 

 for the military organisation of the Dumfriesshire knights' 

 fees, which by turns furnished its garrison. On the wild 

 Galloway frontier Dumfries Castle had been built, and 

 Dumfries burgh had been instituted by King William to 

 help in keeping down and stopping the periodic outbreaks 

 of the marauding Celt, whose predatory renown was 

 unhappily a commonplace with the townsmen. So to check 

 and keep properly subject the ever- rebellious Moray, the 

 " wild, wicked Highlandmen," W^illiam founded Inverness 

 and Nairn. So to tighten his hold on Kyle and Carrick, 

 the northern part of Galloway, he founded Ayr. Burgh 

 and castle went together; a single policy cherished both. 



The considerations, which in the burghal rise of 

 Dumfries make so powerfully for the support of the thesis 

 that the prime object was military, lose nothing in weight 

 when the early organisation of the county in respect of its 

 land tenures is put alongside the history of the town. If 

 the castle was so probably the occasion of the burgh it was 

 still more certainly the military and administrative centre 

 of the rural shire. The castle of Dumfries had dependent 

 upon it, just as Lanark had, a number of baronies liable 

 for castle-ward. It was not enough to provide the fortress ; 

 the machinery for garrisoning it was equally a necessity. 



16 Liber de Kelso, 260-1. 



17 Reg. Mag. Sig., iii., 2083. 



