peeblesshire-1967-vol-1/03_044

Transcription

INTRODUCTION: GENERAL

the Cistercian monastery of Newbattle and to the bishopric of Glasgow. As already noted,
Alexander II gave the valley of the Leithen Water to the monks of Newbattle in 1241, the
monastery retaining these lands until Reformation, when they passed to the Ker family.
Newbattle also received grants of land in the neighbourhood of Romanno during the 12th and
early 13th centuries, and at one time held nearly the whole of the northern portion of the
parish of Newlands. At the time of Earl David's inquisition of about 1120 the vill of Penteia-
cob, or Eddleston, was already included among the possessions of the see of Glasgow. This
property, which comprised a considerable area of land on the east side of the Eddleston
Water, was erected into the barony of White Barony, or Eddleston, before 1369, and was not
alienated until towards the end of the 16th century, after which it soon passed into the posses-
sion of the neighbouring proprietors, the Murrays of Blackbarony. The manor of Stobo, too,
was in the hands of the bishops of Glasgow by the beginning of the 12th century, and remained
in their keeping throughout the medieval period, passing in the 17th century to the Murrays of
Halmyre and Stanhope.
(iii) The Great Families. Although few Peeblesshire families of the early medieval period
have any recorded history, some mention should be made of the Frasers of Oliver, who were
established in Upper Tweeddale by about the beginning of the 13th century, when Oliver
Castle (No. 521) first comes on record. The family rapidly rose to prominence within the county
and were frequent, if not hereditary, holders of the sheriffdom, and proprietors of the greater
part of the present parish of Tweedsmuir, as well as of the lands of Jedderfield, later known as
Neidpath. The male line of the family terminated abruptly with the capture and execution of
Sir Simon Fraser, a supporter of Bruce, in 1307, and the marriage of Mary Fraser to Sir
Gilbert de Haya of Locherworth brought the Neidpath estates, and part of the lands of Oliver,
to a family who were already Peeblesshire landowners in a small way, and were to become
increasingly prominent within the county during the later Middle Ages.
The territorial designation of the Hayas, or Hays, derived from their Midlothian property
of Locherworth, later known as Borthwick, but with the marriage of Sir Thomas de Haya to
an heiress of the Giffords of Yester in the later 14th century the family acquired an estate in
East Lothian, and made this their principal residence, ultimately becoming known as the Hays
of Yester, In Peeblesshire, the Hays had already established themselves as hereditary sheriffs
by about the end of the 14th century, and had erected a suitably imposing tower-house (No.
519) on their Jedderfield estate, about a mile above Peebles. During the course of the next three
centuries the family steadily extended its rights and possessions within the county, particularly
in the parishes of Tweedsmuir and Peebles, and when John, 8th Lord Hay of Yester, received
an earldom in in 1646 he took as his designation the title of Earl of Tweeddale. The family
severed its connection with the county in 1686 when the 2nd Earl of Tweeddale, an important
figure in Restoration politics and the originator of a considerable scheme of improvements at
Neidpath Castle (cf. No. 519), was compelled by financial embarrassment to sell the whole of
his Peeblesshire estates. These properties were purchased by the 1st Duke of Queensberry, and
ultimately passed by descent to the Earls of Wemyss and March.
Among the cadet branches of the Hays of Yester the most notable Peeblesshire representa-
tives were the families of Smithfield and Haystoun. In 1502 John Hay, second son of John,
2nd Lord Yester, acquired part of the lands of Smithfield, now known as Venlaw, on the north

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