peeblesshire-1967-vol-1/03_046

Transcription

INTRODUCTION: GENERAL

Another important family were the Murrays of Blackbarony, who were descended from the
Murrays of Falahill, Selkirkshire. John Murray was in possession of lands in the parish of
Eddleston by 1506, and the estate was considerably enlarged by his two immediate successors
who, between them, held Blackbarony for more than a century; the fourth laird, Archibald
Murray, obtained a baronetcy of Nova Scotia in 1628. The family reached the height of its
power and influence during the time of Sir Alexander Murray, laird from 1700 to 1742, who
could reckon himself the proprietor of almost the entire parish of Eddleston; he it was who
remodelled the old tower-house of Darnhall, giving it more of the character of a quiet country-
seat (cf. No. 547). In 1771 the estate passed under entail to a cadet branch of the family, the
Murrays of Elibank, who held it until comparatively recent years. Among other but more
distantly related branches of the family that flourished in Peeblesshire mention may be made
of the Murrays of Romanno, of Halmyre and of Stanhope.
Another family having branches in different parts of the county were the Tweedies, who
were established at Drumelzier by the early years of the 14th century. They soon became
prominent throughout Upper Tweeddale, and during the 16th century the Tweedies of
Drumelzier and their kinsmen of Oliver, Fruid, Wrae and Dreva, were notorious both for
their mutual disputes and for their bitter and long-standing feuds with neighbouring families
such as the Flemings and the Veitches. The Drumelzier branch, the most troublesome of all,
did not long survive the pacification of the Borders during the reign of James VI and, falling
into debt, were compelled to part with their estates, most of which passed to the Hays of Yester
and Neidpath. The Tweedies of Fruid, Wrae and Dreva disappeared at about the same time,
only the Oliver branch of the family retaining its position up to the present century.
Brief accounts of other well-known Peeblesshire families such as the Burnets of Barns and
the Naesmyths of Posso, whose history cannot be mentioned in detail here, will be found in the
appropriate sections of the text. Special reference should, however, be made to the Pennecuicks
of Romanno, who, although established in Peeblesshire for barely more than a generation,
nevertheless furnished the county with its earliest published descriptive record in Dr. Alex-
ander Pennecuik's Geographical, Historical Description of the Shire of Tweeddale, which
appeared in 1715.

4. BURGHS

(i) Peebles. Peebles is known to have been a royal burgh in 1152-3, when David I assigned a
rent from the firma burgi to the chapel of the castle (cf. No. 523), but there is ample evidence to
indicate the existence of an organised settlement at Peebles before the 12th century. The
discovery in 1261 of an Early Christian monument on the site now occupied by the Cross
Kirk (cf. No. 480) is not without significance. Moreover, the medieval parish-church of St.
Andrew, like the Cross Kirk itself, lay not within the royal burgh, but on the north side of the
Eddleston Water, within the area that has been known as the "old town" since at least as early
as the end of the 15th century, when documentary evidence first becomes available. It is
uncertain when St. Andrew's Church was founded and it comes on record only in 1195 (cf. No.
481), but the location of the church indicates clearly enough that it antedates the royal burgh.
Indeed, the burgh, with its adjacent royal castle occupying a defensive position on high
ground at the confluence of the River Tweed and the Eddleston Water, bears all the marks of

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