east-lothian-1924/05-028

Transcription

INVENTORY OF MONUMENTS IN EAST LOTHIAN.

of Innerweike " was taken prisoner " one the King's syde " at the battle of
Langside, 13 May, 1568. ¹
Apparently as long placed in East Lothian was the family of Hamilton
of Preston. The title-deeds of the family were destroyed in the burning of
the tower in 1650 (cf. No. 156) but Sir John Hamilton of Fingalton
(Renfrewshire) and Ross-Aven (Lanarkshire) appears to have married the
daughter and heiress of Sir James Lyddell of Preston towards the close of
the fourteenth century. ² The last direct male of the line was Sir Robert
Hamilton the Covenanter general, who died unmarried in 1701. The property
thereafter passed to the related family of the Hamiltons of Airdrie. In
contrast with the Preston house of this name the Hamiltons of Biel were
royalist, and Sir John Hamilton of Biel was created Lord Belhaven in 1647.
Title and lands fell to the husband of his grand-daughter, who was John
Hamilton, eldest son of Robert Hamilton of Barncluith afterwards Lord
Presmannan (now Presmennan) as a lord of session taking his title from his
East Lothian estate ; a supporter of the revolution of 1688 and a conspicuous
opponent of the Union of 1707. Lord Presmennan's second son, James, had a
charter of the lands and barony of Pencaitland in 1696 and was raised to
the bench in 1712 as Lord Pencaitland. (cf. No. 138).
Yester belonged to the family of Gifford probably from the last quarter
of the twelfth century. William " Giffard " is a witness to charters by David I.,
and Hugh Gifford was among the hostages for William the Lion in 1174.
Hugh Gifford of Yester, holder of the original castle, died in 1267 (cf. No. 251).
In 1322 Robert I. confirmed a charter to Thomas de Morham of the lands
of Morham and Duncanlaw, with the provision that, on the death of Thomas,
they should pass to John Gifford and his wife Eufamia, daughter and appar-
ently heiress of Thomas Morham. The lands of Barra also pertained to the
Morhams. ³ But Hugh Gifford, grandson of John, left only four heiresses.
Joanna, eldest of these, married Sir Thomas Hay of Locherworth, who, in his
fourth share of the property - Yester, Duncanlaw, Morham - acquired Yester
castle. His grandson, as " Thomas of Hay of Yester," had a safe-conduct
on December 13, 1423 to meet the returning James I. at Durham and as
Thomas Hay of Yester was among those arrested by the same king in 1425,
but was afterwards liberated. Sir David Hay acquired, by exchange in 1452,
another fourth share of Yester, Duncanlaw and Morham from Robert Boyd of
Kilmarnock, a descendant of the second of the Gifford heiresses. In 1463
William Maxwell, descendant of another sister (cf. 251), transferred his share
of the same estates to ' Dungall Macdowel,' grandson of the remaining heiress, in
exchange for an estate elsewhere. Dougall in 1477 granted for life what now
amounted to half of the lands of the baronies to Eufamia daughter of Patrick
Hepburn of Hailes and wife of his son Andrew and their heirs, and, on Andrew
Macdouall's resignation of these lands, the king in 1491 granted them to Patrick Hep-
burn of Hailes, Earl of Bothwell, segregating them as the barony of Morham.
Adam Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, in 1512 exchanged this half of Yester
and lands of Duncanlaw with John Hay of Yester for Hay's half of

1 Birrel's Diary.
2 Anderson's House of Hamilton p. 344.
3 Liber. S. Crucis No. 97.

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CorrieBuidhe- Moderator, Douglas Montgomery

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