74 Burghs of Annandale. 



became irrevocably Scottish again, sufficiently and sadly 

 explain the poverty of record touching the little town, while 

 chronicles and State papers teem with detail about the 

 unceasing attack and defence of the powerful fortress which 

 had arisen there. In English hands Lochmaben appears 

 •designated merely as a " vill."60 On the municipal question 

 there is very little light, until the year 1447 brings a decisive 

 revelation. 



Meanwhile, Annandale had descended from Thomas 

 Randolph, Earl of Moray, to Black Agnes of Dunbar, his 

 ■daughter, through whom it was transmitted to George, tenth 

 Earl of March, 61 who in 1409 resigned it in favour of Archi- 

 bald, Earl of Douglas, and his bodily heirs male, with 

 remainder to the earls of March. 62 William, the sixth Earl 

 of Douglas, and his brother David, who were both put to 

 •death in Edinburgh Castle in 1440, were the last bodily heirs 

 male of earl Archibald, and, as the Earl of March, the heir 

 in remainder, was attainted, Annandale was forfeited and 

 reverted to the Crown, which assumed the place of the 

 attainted Earl of March. ^3 



Status Definitely Established. 



Now in 1447 there is in the books of the Exchequer an 

 •entry of a very satisfactory and complete character. It is 

 as follows : " The burgh of Lochmaben chargit xl s. be yeir 

 ■of burrow maillis."^* This is absolute, proving that the 

 "burghal ferme had been in 1447 the determinate sum of 40s, 

 although it is tantalising to get no hint whether this was a 



60 Bain's Cal, iv., 47, 231. 



61 There was a grant made of the lands and lordship by David 

 II. to his stepson, John of Logie, in 1366 — induced, no doubt, by 

 the fondness of David II. for Margaret of Logie, who had become 

 his Queen — but it seems doubtful whether the gift, which was 

 illegal, was allowed to take permanent full effect (Exch. Bolls, ii., 

 pref . Iviii. ; Red Book of Grandtully, 132 ;* Riddell's Peerage Law, 

 982), although John of Logie received seisin (Bain's Cal., iv., 128). 



62 Beg. Mag. Sig., i., 241. 



63 'E'xch. Bolls, vi., pref. p. cvi.-cix. 



64 JExch. Bolls, ix., 660, entry from Books of Responde. 



