Burghs ok Annanuale. 69 



the niuusura (perhaps meaning- here the arable allotment) 

 and land thereto belonghig.^^ I'hat grant is the first specific 

 entrance of the town upon authentic record ; but there is no 

 appearance yet of town life or of municipal rights possessed 

 by the townsmen. \'ain is the search after any trace of 

 guild or other corporate institution. A charter of William 

 de Brus between 1194 and 1214 incidentally proves the 

 existence of a market at Lochmaben.'^ The castle no doubt 

 it was which, rather from its position than from any inherent 

 power as a building, gave the little hamlet some consequence 

 before the end of the thirteenth century. Not, however, 

 until 1296 occurs any ascription to it of the burghal dignity. 

 In spring of the year before, " in his land of Annandale at 

 Loghmaban," Robert de Brus, the unsuccessful competitor 

 for the Scottish throne, had died.'^ So there were domestic 

 differences over the succession, and in 1296 Lochmaben is 

 bracketed with Annan as a burgh in a legal document 

 adjusting matters in litigation between members of the Brus 

 family regarding the rents of " the burghs of Annan and 

 Lochmaben. "2^ Frequent as is the mention of the castle 

 during the reign of Edward I., the allusions to the town are 

 few and far between. 



Traditional Source of Burghal Rank. 



" The Towne off Louchmabane, " as Barbour in his poem 

 of The Bruce^'^ designates it — what was its rank in the hier- 

 archy of cities, burghs, vills, and hamlets, when Robert the 

 Bruce, by his dagger-stab at the heart of John Comyn, 

 endangered so terribly the continuance of the Brus lordship 

 of Annandale and earldom of Carrick, and made the first 

 effective step towards ascending the Scottish throne? 

 Under the line of Brus, Lochmaben had not been a royal 

 burgh — so much seems all but certain. Being the possession 



53 Bain's Cnl., ii., 1606-9. 



34 Biicchuch MSS., Hist. MSS.. Com. 39. 



35 Hemingburgh, ii., 69. 



36 Bain'.s Col., ii., 826. 



37 Book i., line 777. 



