490 Maccwellheugh and Springwood Park, by James Tait. 



His grandson, John, Earl Morton, Lord Maxwell, protested 

 in the parliament of 1581, that he had right to hold "the 

 lands of Pendicle Hill, Wester Wooden, Saint Thomas's 

 Chapel, and half the Haugh, and the half mill of Maxwell, 

 within the barony and lordship of Maxwell, free of any 

 claims on the part of Sir Thomas Ker of Ferniehirst, and 

 others." It was admitted by the king and Parliament, that 

 this protest was well-founded. 



The barony of Maxwell continued to be the property of 

 the Lords Maxwell after their creation as Earls of Nithsdale, 

 but, after having been in the uninterrupted possession of 

 the descendants of Maccus for about five centuries, the 

 barony was acquired from Robert, first Earl of Nithsdale, 

 in 1631, partly by the Earl of Roxburghe, and partly by 

 Sir Andrew Ker of Greenhead, who changed the name of 

 Maxwell into Bridgend, from the situation of the house, 

 which was built in the haugh near an old ford in the Teviot. 

 The first break in the Maxwell connection was in 1608, 

 when, because of the unhappy slaughter of Sir James John- 

 stone, of Johnstone, John, eighth Lord Maxwell, was forfeit- 

 ed. Robert Maxwell, brother of John, was afterwards 

 restored to the family titles and estates, and appears to have 

 claimed the lands which belonged to Lord John, at the time 

 of his forfeiture. But the last connection of the Maxwells 

 with their ancient barony was broken in 1631, when the 

 " fourtie pund land of auld extent of the baronie of Max- 

 well," was apprised from Robert, Earl of Nithsdale, by 

 William Haig of Bemerside. Haig disponed the lands to 

 the Earl of Roxburghe, who on the 21st June, 1634, obtained 

 from the crown a charter of the lands of " Maxwellhewche, 

 the half of the land callit Maxwellhauch," and other subjects. 

 By this charter, the Earl of Roxburghe obtained the supe- 

 riority of the lands, which had been acquired by Sir Andrew 

 Ker of Greenhead. This led to a dispute in the middle of 

 the 18th century, when the Duke of Roxburghe, as superior, 

 claimed the right of jurisdiction, which Sir William Ker of 

 Greenhead, claimed as proprietor of the lands. The question 

 was submitted to the Solicitor-General, Erskine, who on the 

 6th Nov., 1785, gave his opinion, that the Duke, as baron 

 and superior, had a right of jurisdiction over the barony of 

 Maxwell by his charters, and that the foundation of this 

 right had been acknowledged and homologated by the family 



