176 Topography of Dumfries. 



forts, and that the Mote of Troqueer, at the other side of a 

 ford of the river, was the first little strength of the series by 

 which the Norman grip of the province was sought to be 

 maintained." No less might be said for the Motes at Town- 

 head and Lincluden ; they would, whether merely private 

 manors or crown property, enormously increase the effective- 

 ness of the garrison town. 



Rapid Growth: The Castle. 



William the Lion continued the policy of his brother. 

 *' From 1174 until 11 85 the ferocious Gilbert, Lord of Gallo- 

 way, gave William little peace. History tells specificially of 

 William's offensive proceedings : it leaves to inference the 

 defensive measures adopted by him along what may be called 

 the Celtic line, the borderland of Galloway." A new castle, 

 near the site of the old one, appears between the years 

 1 1 80 and 1 189, and near it was founded a Chapel to St. Mary 

 the Virgin. Between 11 83 and 11 88 William confirmed to 

 the Abbey of Kelso the Church of Dumfries, with lands, 

 tithes, and all oblations, and the Chapel of St. Thomas of 

 Canterbury, also within the burgh. " They were," says Dr 

 Neilson, " obviously the King's to give," and he points out 

 the strong presumption that William was " the founder and 

 builder, or re-builder," of the Church. To the year 1186 

 Dr Neilson assigns the earliest attribution to Dumfries of 

 the character of a burgh, and adds : " On all sides are 

 indications of rapid movement between the years 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 1 1 86 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 instituted by King William 

 to help in keeping down and stopping the periodic outbreaks 

 of the marauding Celt, whose predatory renown was un- 

 happily a commonplace with the townsmen." " The burgh 

 town," he concludes, " was a natural sequence as likely to be 

 royally encouraged from military considerations as from the 



