Mellerstain and the Haitlies thereof. 135 



Greenlaw, Birgheame, and Cokburn, laid waste by the English, wars. 

 (Exchequer Rolls, Vol. vi., pp. 304, 310, 404.) Alexander Home, knight, 

 had, in 1461, an allowance for the dues from Loch Brigheame (now 

 Lochtoun) and Brigheamschelis for the burnings and destruction by the 

 English, after the siege of the Castle of Norham. In 1489 {Ibid., Vol. 

 VII., p. 495) the superiority of most of the lands mentioned had come 

 from the Dunbars to the branch of the family who had taken the name 

 of Home from their territory so called." ["The House of Cockburn 

 of that Ilk," by Mr Cockburn-Hood, p. xxvii.] Alexander Hume, 3rd 

 baron of Polwarth, got a charter under the G-reat Seal to Alexander 

 Hume de Polwarth and Margaret Crichton, his wife, of the lands of 

 Brighamsheills, etc., dated 26th July 1511.— Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, 

 p. 445, 1st edition. These lands extended to 30 merklands, and can 

 be traced in the Eetours to 25th October 1599, when they were still 

 in the same family. 



3. — Broomhill and Blassenbbed 

 (with various spellings) lay in the vicinity of Greenlaw, and were 

 pendicles of the barony of Greenlaw-Reidpeth, thus indicated from 

 the Bedpaths, to whom the Home or Hume family succeeded. The 

 Redpaths obtained a confirmation of their barony in 1508-9. In 1596 

 William Redpath resigned his barony into the hands of the king, in 

 favour of Sir George Home of Spott, in 1605, Earl of Dunbar, who 

 died in 1610, and was subsequently purchased by the Humes of 

 Polwarth, the predecessors of the first Earl of Marchmont, who adopted 

 Blassenberrie, a form of Blassenbred as his second title. Viscount 

 Blazonberrie. (Miss Warrender's " Marchmont and the Humes of 

 Polwarth," pp. 46, 47, etc.) 



The possession of Blassenbred (with its aliases) by the Haitlies is 

 further complicated by a grant of it to the Whitelaws, who also had 

 claims on Mellerstain temporarily, as noticed by Dr Lithgow. There 

 is a short account of the Whitelaws in Mr Cockburn-Hood's work on 

 the "Gockburns," pp. 221, etc., which refers to this occupation. "The 

 Qnhytelaws estates (Whitelaw is in East Lothian) were extensive in 

 different counties. In 1492 James de Quhytelaw de Melloustanis, co. 

 Berwick, had confirmation under the Great Seal of the charter of 

 'quondam Johannis de Halyburton Domini de Dirletoun,' dated at 

 Dirletoun, 31st October 1452, of the lands of Balmablare, Rogopeno, 

 and Monyvy, in the barony of Strathurde, co. Perth (I^egister Great 

 Seal, Vol. II., No. 962.) Tliis James had, in the following year, charter 

 of the lands of Blasonbrade, on the Blackadder, co. Berwick, from 

 John Heryng, dominus de Edmersdene, in the same county (Ibid., No_ 

 497.) Edmersdene, usually known as Edmonsdean or Edmestoun, is in 

 the parish of Cockburnspath." There is more about the history of 

 the Heryng family in Mr Cockburn-Hood's "The House of Cockburn 

 of that Ilk," ubi supra. See also a deed concerning Mary Heryng's great 

 flock of sheep on Edmersdene in 1389— Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vi., p. 287. 



