THE PARISH OF RAFFORD.

Rafford parish lieth south-east from Forres. The church standeth near the centre, two miles south-east of Forres, and five miles north-east of Edinkillie. In the north-east end is the Barony of Burgie, and the seat of Joseph Dunbar of Grange, a branch of the Dunbars of Mochrum. Mr Alexander Dunbar, Dean of Moray, (and very probably son of Mochrum) was one of the Lords of Session, anno 1567, (And. Col.) He married Catharine Reid, daughter of Thomas, and niece of Robert Reid, Abbot of Kinloss, and Bishop of Orkney, and with her got a part of the Abbey-lands, such as Burgie, Grange, &c. His son, Thomas Dunbar, was father of Robert of Grange, by a first marriage, and of Robert of Burgie, by a second: About 1680, (Burgie having run deep in debt to his cousin) Grange got possession of Burgie by adjudication, and made it his seat. Below Burgie lieth Tarras, which, with Clunie in the upper end of the parish, pertaineth to the Earl of Moray. West from Burgie is the Barony of Blairvie, a part of the church or Bishop's lands. It was long the heritage of the family of Dunbars. In the beginning of the eighteenth century it was purchased by Alexander Macintosh, son of John Macintosh, Bailie of Inverness; and from him it was purchased by William, late Earl of Fife, and is now the property of his son, Captain Lewis Duff. South from the church, a mile and a-half, stands the house of Altyre, the seat of Cummine of Altyre, reputed Chief of that name. And this leads me to speak of

CUMMING GORDON OF ALTYRE AND GORDONSTOWN.

The earliest authenticated ancestor of this family, to whose antiquity and illustrious lineage innumerable writers bear testimony,

was

Robert, Comes de Comyn,* a nobleman of the first rank in Scotland, in the reign of King Malcolm Canmore, who had also a considerable estate in the county of Northumberland. His attachment to his sovereign ceased only with his life, at the battle of Alnwick, in 1093, wherein he fell, at the same time, with Malcolm, leaving issue two sons (who were too young either to lament or to avenge his fall;) viz. John de Comyn, of whom presently; and William, who was appointed Chancellor to King David I. in 1133, and continued in that office until 1142, when he was nominated Bishop of Durham.

John de Comyn succeeded his father, but we never find him designed Comes, although he made a considerable figure in the reign of King Alexander I. He left issue two sons,—viz. Richard; and Sir William, who, actively, engaged in his uncle's contest for the see of Durham, and died in 1144.

Richard Comyn, the elder son, obtained from Earl Henry, son of

• It has been observed, by several antiquarians, that the Comyn family is of Norman extraction, and descended from the Comyns of France, through Robert, Comes or Count de Comine,† who accompanied William the Conqueror, in 1066, and became progenitor of all the Comyns in this country. But it appears, from good authority, that they were settled in Britain before the conquest; for Robert Cuminc, Earl of Northumberland, a powerful Baron in the North of England, was employed by the successful Duke against the insurgents of Durham, in 1068, whose immediate descendants were expelled from England, by William Ruffus, in 1095. Others are of opinion, that they are of the ancient inhabitants of Scotland, and to corroborate this, they adduce Cummine as second Abbot of Icolmkill, who succeeded Columba, in 597; and Comineas Albus, the sixth Abbot of the same monastery, who was living in 657. Be this, however, as it may, when sirnames began to be hereditary in this country, there was no name either so great or so extensively diffused, as that of Comyn; but what is more, the individuals who bore it, had larger possessions in lands, and far greater power than any clan in Scotland, from the reign of Malcolm Canmore, to that of King Robert Bruce. In 1255, there were no fewer than thirty-two knights of the name of Comyn in Scotland; and the Comyns, lords of Badenoch, undoubtedly, held the chiefship of the whole clan; from whom descended the Earls of Buchan. Monteith, Angus, &c. &c.

+ In Duboison's "Armorial des principales maisons et familles du royaume" of France, published in 1757, the arms of de Comminges, seigneur de Vervius de Giutant are thus mentioned,---" De guerules, a quatre stelles adosses et poses en sautoir."

King David I. the manor of Linton Roderick, in the shire of Roxburgh, and gave the church of that manor, with half a curate of land, to the Monks of Kelso, for the health of his own soul and that of his lord. He gave also a carucate and a half of land in Staincroft, to the Monks of Reival, which grant Hexilda, the Countess of Etheheteta, his relict, confirmed. The abilities and consequence of this Richard, procured for him the post of principal minister to King William the Lion, and he was taken prisoner with his master, at Alnwick, in 1174. In the subsequent year he was one of the great men who became securities that William would fulfil the terms of his liberation. In consequence of his inheriting the ancestorial estates, in Northumberland, he was bound to attend the judges iti nerant there, and to perform other services; but, in 1179, having neglected to attend those judges, he was fined an hundred pounds, Some apology, however, may be pleaded for his neglect in this particular, he acting himself as justiciary of Scotland from 1178 to 1189. After an active and important life, he died about 1189, in possession of considerable estates, and leaving issue, by the Countess Hexilda, (before alluded to) grand-daughter of King Donald Bane,

a son,

William Comyn, who was born in 1163, and inherited, from his father, all his estates, both in Scotland and in Tindale, within Northumberland. His name occurs as a witness to almost all the charters of King William the Lion, during the last twenty-five years of that monarch's reign. But he first came into honourable notice at the age of 37, in 1200, as one of the envoys whom King William the Lion deputed to King John, to congratulate him on his ascension to the English throne,* the throne of the gallant Richard. He

• Not long afterwards (about 1210) he became Earl of Buchan, in right of his second Lady, the Countess and heiress of Buchan; and, under that title, made a grant to the church of Glasgow, of a stone of wax, yearly; his charter being witnessed by Richard Comyn, the eldest son of a former marriage;