422 Notes on Branxholme. By VV. Eliott Lockliart. 



Baliol, excepting the lauds given by the king to Walter Comyn. 1 

 These are stated to have been of the value of seven pounds and 

 six pennies. 2 



Sir Walter Scott alludes to the power and eminence of Saxon 

 families upon the Scottish borders, such as " Patrick, Earl of 

 March, and Lord Soulis, renowned in tradition ; and such were 

 also the powerful Comyns, who early acquired the principal sway 

 upon the Scottish Marches." :! 



On Baliol' s lands being forfeited, the whole barony of Hawick 

 was gi-anted by David II. to Murray of Strathern ; but on the 

 king's capture at the battle of Durham in 134G, these lands were 

 taken possession of by the English. 1 The Lovels petitioned the 

 English king to restore to them the lauds and barony of Hawick, 

 of which they had formerly been possessed ; and this was done 

 ])y grant at Bedying, 2(Jth July 1347, in favour of Bichard 

 Lovel. 5 



In the Begister of the Priory of St Andrews, p. 261, is a 

 charter granted by "Bichard Lupellus, Dominus de Hawic," 

 confirming to the Canons of St Andrews two bovates (oxgates ) 

 of land in Branxholme ( Brancuella) granted to them by Henry 

 his father." 



In the beginning of the fifteenth century we find the 

 barony of Hawick in possession of the Douglases. In 1407, 

 Archibald, Earl of Douglas, then a hostage in England, granted 

 a charter of the barony of Hawick to Sir William Douglas of 

 Drumlanrig ; 7 and this was confirmed by the Begent Duke of 

 Albany, 24th Oct. 1407/ 



In 1412, Sir William Douglas received from James, the young 

 King of Scots, then a prisoner in England, a charter written 

 with his own hand at Croydon, confirming all the grantee's 

 lands including Hawick." About the same time Branxholme 

 was possessed by John Inglis, Lord of Menar, who, by a charter 

 dated at the church of Menar on 3 1st Jan. 1420, granted to 

 Bobert Scott, Lord of Murthockston, the half of the lands of 



1 Jeffrey's Hist, and Antiquities of Roxburgh, vol. IV., 2G5-G ; also 

 Wilson's Annals of Hawick, p. 9. — from Keg. of Great Seal, p. G. 

 - Frazer, Scotts of Buccleuch, vol. i., lntrod. p. lv. 

 3 Border Minstrelsy, lntrod. p. vii. * Jeffrey, vol. IV,, p. 2G7. 

 5 Wilson, p. 10— from' Eotuli Scotice, vol. I., p. 090. (1 Wilson, p. 10. 

 7 Frazer, Douglas Book i., p. 375. s Frazer, Scotts of Buccleuch, u., p. 20-1. 

 9 Frazer, Douglas Book r. — Inti'od. xxxii., with facsimile of Charter. 



