424 Notes on Branxholme. By W. Eliott Lockhart. 



received a large portion of the forfeited lands of the Douglases, 

 including most of Ettrick forest. 



In December 1463, at Edinburgh Castle, Sir Walter Scott and 

 his son David, resigned into the hands of King James III. their 

 lands in the barony of Hawick. Upon these resignations, the 

 king erected their lands into a Free Barony of Branxholme, and 

 granted a Crown Charter to David Scott and his heirs of the said 

 lands, on condition of rendering annually to the Crown, for the 

 lands of Branxelm, one red rose as blench farm at the feast of 

 St John the Baptist, and performing, in respect of the other 

 lands, the services due and wont. The life rents were reserved 

 to Sir Walter Scott for his life, and a third part thereof to 

 Margaret his spouse. 1 



The designations of Kirkurd, Branxholme, and Buccleuch, were 

 for long used indifferently as territorial designations — Kirkurd 

 gradually giving place to Branxholme, which in turn was finally 

 superseded by that of Buccleuch. 2 



On the suppression of the Douglas rebellion, the lands and 

 lordship of Douglas were granted to the Earl of Angus, the next 

 heir-male ; and in consequence of the marriage of David Scott, 

 younger of Buccleuch, with Lady J'ane Douglas, daughter of the 

 Earl of Angus, he and his father David Scott were, in April 1472, 

 appointed to the governorship of Hermitage Castle for seventeen 

 3 r ears ; also to the regalities of Liddesdale, and the office of 

 Bailiary of the lordships of Liddesdale, Eusdale, and Eskdale — 

 an office of great importance, from the necessity of endeavouring 

 to preserve order on the Borders, as well as to repel incursions/' 

 As governor of Hermitage Castle, David Scott was directed to 

 repair and put it in a state of defence ; and he also strengthened 

 and enlarged Branxholme, which, from this time, as one of the 

 principal seats of the important and powerful family of Scotts of 

 Buccleuch, became the centre of many of the exploits which 

 agitated the Borders during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, 

 as well as a place of historical interest — an interest rendered 

 classical, as the scene of the " Lay of the Last Minstrel." 



To us now, towards the close of the nineteenth century, with 



1 Scotts of Buccleuch, vol. [., pp. 39, 40; vol. n., p. (JO. The references 

 now given to the charters in vol. n of Buccleuch Book, shew that the 

 account given by Sir Walter Scott in the note to Canto I. of the Lay of f/ie 

 Last Minstrel, as to the acquisition of Branxholme and the grant from the 

 king, was imperfect. 



- Scotts of Buccleuch, vol. [., p. 40. 3 [bid. I., p. 47-8 ; u., p. 72-3. 



