An Account of Simprin, Berwickshire, by Jas. Hardy. 297 



in marshalling the king's levies from that shire preparing for the 

 Scottish war ; and has the command of the foot soldiers remain- 

 ing at York, and commission to maintain strict discipline among 

 them. (pp. 187, 188). John de Weston, the chamberlain, died 

 before March, 1333. By Inquis. port Mortem, 9 Edw. Ill 

 (1334-5) he deceased, seized of a number of tenements in 

 Berwick-upon-Tweed, in Scotia ;* but the king had already 

 by the rescript of March 4th, 1333, empowered the Sheriff 

 of Berwick to look after the interests of Thomas, son of 

 John de Weston, — a priest's son, be it observed — and endeavour 

 if he could accomplish it readily, to restore to him the third 

 part of the three Border vills aforesaid, f We learn from 

 Nisbet that in the borough rolls of Exchequer, Thomas 

 Weston got £66 Os 8d from Sir Alexander Seaton, governor and 

 steward at Berwick, as by his accounts given in the 2 1st Jan., 

 1327. j On the 3rd April, 1335, Thomas de Weston had restored 

 to him the two tenements at Eavensden, in Berwick, from which 

 his father had been evicted by Eobert de Bruys, they having 

 come into the possession of Edward III., by the forfeiture of 

 Alexander Eidell. (Eot. Scot. 1., p. 335. His father first and he 

 afterwards forfeited their Scottish rights, for being Englishmen. 

 In the 16th of Eobert I. (1321), William Maceoun acquired 10 

 librates of the land of Mertoun, which belonged to Ingeram Cnount 

 and John de Westoun ; John de Westoun and Ede Grurlay at the 

 same period, forfeited the lands of Eutherford and Maxton.§ In 

 the reign of David II., Jeffray Touris obtained the "forfaultrie 

 of Thomas Westoun, in the shire of Berwick, in general. "|| This 

 Jeffray Tours may have been a relative of the next owner of 

 Simprin, who held it from the English crown, as appears by the 

 Inquis. port Mortem, 43, Edw. III. (1369;; John de Toures 

 having possessed, two carrucates of land as of the honour of 

 Dovorr', co. Lincoln, and Sempring barony in the shire of Ber- 

 wick.^ For two centuries thereafter the history of the lay -pro- 

 prietorship is a blank. 



In July, 1482, the English army under the Duke of Gloucester 

 burnt among other places : — Eclrington, Paxton, Eishwick, 



* Cal. Inq. p. Mort. ii., p. 70. t Rot. Scot, i., pp. 269, 270. 



X Nisbet's Heraldry, i,, p. 106. 



§ Robertson's Index, p. 5, Nos. 15, 16, Regist. Mag. Sigill. p. 5, Nos. 15, 16. 



|| Robertson, p. 39, No. 9. IT Cal. Inq. p. Mort. ii., p. 299, No. 30. 



