east-lothian-1924/05-024

Transcription

HISTORICAL MONUMENTS (SCOTLAND) COMMISSION.

I. ¹ He was probably acting as constable in the English interest, the Bicker-
tons apparently being on the national side, since in 1335 we find the land of
Luffness in the hands of Edward III. by the forfeiture of John de 'Bikirtoun' ²
By David II. the lands of the late Walter Bickerton in the barony of
Luffness (' Luffenok ') were granted proportionately to his three daughters.
But in 1451 there was a Robert Bickerton in Luffness, who began the trans-
ference of the property to the Hepburns (see Art. No. 3).
Better known and of longer connection is the branch of the Lindsays
settled at Byres, who also had the barony of Drem. In 1358 David II.
confirmed a grant which the late Sir James de Lindsay had made of the
lands of " Byris " to Alexander de Lindsay, who was the son of Sir David
Lindsay of Crawford. Byres remained with Lindsays till the early seventeenth
century, when it was sold to Sir Thomas Hamilton, first Earl of Haddington.
For a short space there were Lindsays also in Ormiston, which gave its name to the
successors of the original Orm, who cannot be identified, and the widow of
" Aleyne de Ormestone " in the county of Edinburgh is on Ragman Roll in
1296. But by the fourteenth century Ormiston was in the possession of
Lindsays and Alexander de Lindsay, lord of Ormiston, conferred it with
" Templishall " (Cf. No. 137) and " Pastoun " and " Murhous " (No. 132)
upon his daughter " Johanetta " on her marriage with John Cockburn and so
established the Cockburns of Ormistoun. This grant was confirmed in 1369.
A feature of early mediæval landownership in East Lothian is the number
of state offices held by leading nobles there. Hugh de Moreville from North-
amptonshire was a close friend of David I. and a witness to a great number
[Marginal note] De Moreville
of his charters. In the reign of William the Lion we have Richard de More-
ville, Constable, and this office was hereditary in the family. Hugh de More-
ville held the manor of Salton, the lordship of Lauderdale and other estates. ³
Richard granted the lands of Herdmanston to Henry de St. Clair, ⁴ and after
the War of Independence, Herdmanston was held by the St. Clairs from the
Crown. John de St. Clair, lord of " Herdmanstone " was a witness to a
charter by Malcolm of Fawside confirmed in 1367. The male line of the
Lothian de Morevilles failed in the third generation, and the office and lands
passed by marriage to the Lords of Galloway, and thence again to a de
Quincey, which family also possessed estates in the western part of East Lothian.
Robert de Quincey, too, came from Northamptonshire, receiving the barony
of Tranent from William the Lion, and holding the office of Justiciary. ⁵
But when Roger died in 1264 he left only daughters, whose husbands shared the
de Quincey lands and lost them by supporting the English claims on Scotland.
They were supplanted in East Lothian by Setons. The first of this name on
record is an Alexander Seton, who witnessed a charter of King David I. about
1150. It was a later Alexander de Seton who got from Robert I., his uncle,
the part of the barony of Tranent which belonged to Alan la Zouch and in
1322 the part which had belonged to Sir William de Ferrers with Fawside,
these being two of the husbands of the de Quincey heiresses. The same Seton
also received Niddrie, which had pertained to Zouch, Elphinstone on its

1 Cal. Docts. ii. No. 857 and Nos. 1332, 1968.
2 Ibid. iii. No. 218 and p. 338.
3 Liber de Dryburgh, Nos. 6, 7, etc.
4 Dipl. Scot. No. 75.
5 Reg. de Passelet, p. 76.

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