172 Dumfries : lis Burghal Origin. 



And in this connection there is a fact which is of great 

 direct moment as bearing on the date of Dumfries castle 

 and burgh. When David I., about or soon after 1124, 

 granted Annandale to Robert de Brus there was no stipu- 

 lation for castle-ward in the tenure. It is fair to argue 

 from the terms of the charter that the county of Dumfries 

 was as yet an institution of the future. David I. knew 

 Strath Annan and Strath Nith. The county of Dumfries he 

 could know as little as the castle and the burgh. All three 

 lay in the future, and all three probably took form and 

 name about the same time. In 1166, by the renewal 

 charter of Annandale granted by William the Lion to the 

 second Robert de Brus, it was declared that that wide 

 stretch of territory was held for the service of ten knights, 

 except the ward of the king's castles, whereof the king dis- 

 charged him. It was a most important exception. 



The feudal obligation — appurtenant to land tenure — 

 of keeping guard in a royal castle is an institution of a 

 very wide application, notwithstanding which considerable 

 obscurity still prevails on this function. It was in use on 

 the continent and all over England under the Norman 

 kings. How it was introduced is not so clear ; probably 

 it was not a perfected system until a half-century at least 

 after the Conquest. And by its very nature it tended to 

 re^^shape itself, to pass out of a duty of actual service, and 

 to become a payment instead. Indeed, legislation became 

 necessary as abuses arose, and Magna Charta provided a 

 remedy for the case where a feudal vassal, after doing his 

 turn of warding the castle, found himself distrained for 

 payment of a money tax for the same object. In Scotland 

 the record of the thing is fragmentary, yet the pieces fit 

 well into the known circumstances of the institution in 

 England. W"e can boast the possession of a charter of 

 date 1 160, which provides for the tenure of lands in Moray- 

 shire, granted by Malcolm IV., " for rendering to me the 

 service of one knight in my castle of Elgin. "^^ And we can 

 compare with it a charter relative to lands in Roxburghshire 



16 Familie of Innes, pp. 61-2. 



