82 Arms of the Royal Burgh of Sanquhar. 



Robert III. and James I. every freeholder was obliged to 

 have a seal of arms. So that I do not think we will be in 

 error if we take it that from 1484, if not from the reign of 

 King Robert I., Sanquhar had her own seal with her own 

 arms thereon. 



It is quite probable, too, that the common seal would be 

 the only form in which the arms would appear, for while the 

 burghers in many parts marched to battle under their own 

 flag, e.g., those of Selkirk, Edinburgh, etc., Sanquharians 

 would probably march under the Ross Bouggets, or the 

 Crichton Lion. The device on Sanquhar Burgh Arms has 

 been described by the late Marquis of Bute, who was also 

 14th Lord Crichton of Sanquhar, as " a castle upon a rock," 

 and he further adds : — " There can be no doubt that the 

 castle is intended to represent Crichton Peel at Sanquhar, 

 the residence first of the Rosses of Sanquhar and then of the 

 Lords Crichton of Sanquhar, although it in no way resembles 

 that building." That the arms represent the old castle or its 

 gateway is the general belief among those Sanquharians who 

 take any interest in such matters. Brown (History of the 

 Sanquhar Curling Soeiety) says that the arms as shown on 

 the back of the curlers' medal represent " the gateway of 

 the old castle as it was in its pride and glory," while James 

 Kennedy, a former schoolmaster in Sanquhar, in a volume 

 of poems which he published in 1823, calls the arms " the 

 castle of Sanquhar." Dr. Simpson in his History of 

 Sanquhar, on the other hand, says of its old castle : — " The 

 form of this old ruin, even in its best days, had no connection 

 at all with those engravings on seals and otherwise which 

 have been thought to be a representation of its primitive 

 form." The Doctor does not, unfortunately, say what seals 

 and engravings he refers to, but there is little doubt but that 

 the seals he meant were those belonging to the burgh. The 

 oldest engraving showing the castle that I know of is one in 

 the possession of J. I. M'Connel, Esq. of Eliock. It is 

 shown in Mr Wilson's Memorials of Sanquhar Kirkyard 

 (page 69). It shows Eliock house with the castle and church 

 of Sanquhar in the distance. The castle is shown as having 

 four towers. The engraving is believed to date from about 



