421 



Historical Notes relating to Branxholmc. By William 

 Eliott Lockiiakt, of Borthwickbrae. With Map, and 

 Plates IV., IV*., IV**. 



Branxholme originally formed part of the barony of Hawick ; 

 and Baliol, Lovel, and Oomyn appear to be the names of tho 

 cai-liest families known in connection with it. In Bain's Calendar 

 of Documents relating to Scotland, there is the following 

 entry : — 



"1163. No. 93. Northamptonshire.^ Hugh Gobium renders his 

 account. * * * He accounts for 2 marks from Walter de Baliol, and for 

 5 marks fr Halingewurda, in pardon to the King of Scotland 5 marks. He 

 accounts for 5 marks from Fodringria, in pardon to King of Scotland 5 

 marks. He accounts for \ a mark from Richard and Walter de Hluwic 2 

 in pardon to said king i mark." 



In a foot-note regarding the family of Lovel, Bain states : — 



" This singularly short-lived family, no fewer than ten of whom occur 

 between 1155 and 1291 as Barons of Castle Cary, Somerset, and of Hawick 

 and Branxholmc, who were among the magnates of Scotland from the 

 time of William the Lion, if not earlier, till the wars of the succession, 

 and whose genealogy ' The History of the House of Yvery,' is one of the 

 rarest and most curious of family histories, has absolutely been forgotten 

 in Scotland. 



" Their historian, and even Dugdale, were unaware of their large 

 Scottish possessions, and the Editor believes he is the first to shew the 

 identity of Lovel of Branxholme with Lovel of Castle Cary — a discovery 

 to which he was led by a notice in Agarde's invaluable ' Placitorum 

 Abbreviation " ;i 



" 1166. Henry Lovel (of Hawyc) was witness to a charter under the 

 Great Seal of Scotland by King William the Lion at Lochmabcn, con- 

 lirming to Robert de Brus II., his possessions in the vale of Annand. 4 



Henry Lovel was a consenting party to a grant of land made 

 to the monks of Jedburgh by Margaret his mother, and con- 

 firmed by King William the Lion in 116.5. About the end of 

 this century Henry Lovel bestowed on the monks of St Andrews 

 2 oxgangs of land in Branxholme with common pasture.' 



In 1306, King Kobert the Bruce conferred the lands of 

 Branxholme, formerly held by Richard Lovel, on Henry de 



1 Vol. i (1108-1272) p. 12. ., Hawick ? : > Vol. i., Introd. p. xiv. 



4 Ibid. vol. i., p. 13. No. 105. 



s Jeffrey's Hist, and Antiquities of Roxburgh, vol. i\\, p, 265-6. 



