and Grentemesnil that he was, March 13, 1307, created Earl of Winchester. He was one of the barons who took a prominent part in the revolt from King John, and was succeeded by Roger, who had an elder brother Robert, and a younger brother also Robert. The elder Robert died v.p., having married the heiress of Lincoln, which earldom descended to his female issue. The younger Robert married Helena, daughter of Llewellyn, Prince of North Wales, and widow of John le Scot, Earl of Chester and Huntingdon. Roger, who was not styled earl till after his mother's death in January 1235-6, married for his first wife Helen, eldest daughter of Alan de Galloway, half-sister of Devorgilla de Baliol; and he was recognised as Constable of Scotland. Their youngest daughter, Isabel, married Alexander Comyn, Earl of Buchan, who was also Constable. Their daughter married Malise I., Earl of Strathern. Earl Roger died without male issue, and the earldom of Winchester, which was probably limited to male heirs, lapsed to the Crown. The sudden appearance of this family of de Quincy, and the great status it obtained by marriages both in Scotland and England, and its equally sudden disappearance, is very remarkable, and of great historical importance in relation to the position of subsequent claimants to the Crown of Scotland and adherents to Baliol, Some observations on the pedigree were published by Mr. Bain in the Genealogist, vol. vii. p. 17. Orable, mother of Saher de Quincy, is proved by the Chartulary of the Priory of St. Andrews, pp. 254-5, to have been daughter and heir of Nes, son of William, Lord of Leuchars in Fife (Sheriff of Perth), witness to charters of Malcolm iv. and King William before 1170. Whether 'heir means sole legal representative is doubtful, for Nes had certainly two sons, Constantine and Patrick, probably by another wife. Roger de Wendover, 1215. The fief of Gask evidently descended to Saher, Earl of Winchester, for he granted the church to the Hospital of Brackley, in Northamptonshire, for the souls of his father, mother, and eldest son, Robert. The Charters IV., IV.A, IV.B in the Appendix to this volume deal with that transaction. There are chronological discrepancies in the printed accounts. respecting Orable and her son. Earl Saher is stated to have married about 1170, and to have been a knight in 1172.1 If so, he must have been about sixty-five when he joined the Crusade, and his mother must have been married not later than 1155. On the other hand, the charter of the church of Leuchars to St. Andrews by Nes and Orable conveys the impression that Orable was then a child, and it is clear that it was this charter, and not that on p. 287 of the Chartulary, which Orable attested as Countess of Mar, though the compiler of the Chartulary evidently thought otherwise. Her style as Countess of Mar is not explained by any known marriage; but, in the opinion of the present writer, Robert de Quincy, having gone to the Holy Land in 1191, never returned, and his widow married Gilchrist, Earl of Mar, whom we take to be G. Com de Mar, who witnessed Lady Orable's charters of the davoch Fethar hathyn to St. Andrews. This suggestion implies that Saher de Quincy confirmed his mother's grant in the lifetime of both his parents. Another suggestion which the present writer desires if possible to reject is that the marriage of Roger de Quincy and Orable was annulled. If this suggestion be correct, some relationship existed of which we have no explanation, and no document exists which accounts for Saher remaining her heir. It is evident that Complete Peerage, by G. E. C. Bain, i. 218. 4 It must, however, be admitted that debts owing by Robert de Ruenci are carried forward in the Pipe Rolls till 1207-8, when Saher, his son, becomes the debtor.—Bain, i. 425. Nes, son of William, was a magnate, for the charters mention his Pincerna, Seneschal, and Chamberlain. Most of the Royal charters he witnessed were dated in Fife or Perth, and the charter of King Malcolm1 indicates that he was an official in Fife c. 1160, but the Royal charters witnessed elsewhere are sufficient to show that he occasionally accompanied the king.. MISCELLANEOUS. Gilbert Socius Comitis (Nos. XI. and XII.). It will be observed that this person witnesses after the steward and before the judge or dempster. He is probably identical with Gilbert miles in Charters IV. and XIV., and we surmise that he served Earl Gilbert as an esquire and received knighthood from the earl. If this surmise be correct, we may further suspect that he received a knight's fee from the earl, which means about six hundred acres. The interesting charter (No. XXXVII.) granting a serf, Gilmory Makgillendes, to the abbey, is witnessed by Lorin Mac Gil, serf (son of the servant of St. Serf). This person reappears in Charter xcv. as Lorne Mack Gilherve-the h being substituted for s. He was apparently a personal attendant on the earl, and Gilmory probably a relation who became a lay brother in the abbey. William, son of Hawok of Perth, sold to the Abbey of Inchaffray land which he previously held in feu-farm of Richard de Laycester, late burgess of Perth, and afterwards of the canons. We conclude that the abbey first bought in 1240 the superiority (No. LXIX.) and now the property of this land (No. LXX.) The abbey next bought land in the North Street of Perth, which the same William held of the abbot and convent of Scone (No. LXXI.), and the sale was confirmed 1 Ch. of Dunfermline, p. 25. by Scone stating the then rent to be five shillings annually (No. LXXII.). We learn from charter LIX., erroneously headed Charter of William de Laycestria, that the former land came to Richard de Laycester from John, son of David, and that the rent was sixteen shillings. Not improbably both these sales were originally wadsets, but no letters of reversion appear. Unfortunately no mention of the second transaction appears in the Chartulary of Scone. Robert de Laycester was a canon of Dunkeld, and no doubt the originator of these purchases. GORDON AND DRUMMOND. The principal actor in the ruin of Inchaffray was Alexander Gordon, second son of John Lord Gordon by Margaret, natural daughter of King James Iv., and brother of George, fourth Earl of Huntly, the greatest champion of the Catholic cause in Scotland. Alexander entered holy orders, and was from 1544 to 1548 bishop designate of Caithness, to which see the queen asked Pope Paul 1. to promote him.1 Gordon accepted a pension of forty marks, and renounced all claim to the see, August 6, 1548. He was provided to the archiepiscopal see of Glasgow March 5, 1550, and granted the pall March 10; but his election being disputed, 1551, he resigned the see to the Pope. He was created titular Archbishop of Athens, September 4, 1551, and appointed to the Isles 1553, of which he was postulate till 1562, but was in the meantime elect of Galloway, of which he had rule of the temporality March 10, 1558-9. He became Bishop of Galloway, but joined the party of John Knox. He succeeded John Hamilton as commendator of Inchaffray in the year 1551.5 1 Episc. Reg. Soc., ii. 222-3. 3 Reg. Epise. Glas., 513-15. Brady. Brady. + Exch. Rolls, xix. 451. The conduct of this Prelate, whose career is regarded with contempt by both Catholics and Protestants, is more fully explained by the documents at Dupplin Castle than elsewhere. He had a concubine called Barbara Logie, daughter of David Logie of King's Cramond, by whom he had five children; and the great object of his life was to provide for these children, and, if possible, get his lady recognised as a wife. Their issue were:— 1. John, educated at St. Andrews, Paris, and Orleans. 2. George, died s.p., had Royal gift of the bishopric 3. Mr. Lawrence Gordon, who sold to Lady Drummond, in May 1577, two pensions from Inchaffray granted to him and his brother. The bishop contrived to get the temporalities of the see of Galloway granted to his son Lawrence, who was also made Commendator of Glenluce, erected into a lordship. His brother the dean succeeded to Glenluce, and sold it to Robert Gordon, who resold it in 1639 to the Marquess of Huntly. Mr. Lawrence was dead August 2, 1610, the date of his brother's retour. 1 Scott's Fasti. |