stirling-1963-vol-1/05_044

Transcription

INTRODUCTION : GENERAL
which belonged to the Dominicans and the Observant Franciscans respectively. ¹ There were
also at least two hospitals within the burgh of Stirling, ² as well as another at Strathblane of
which little is known. ³
Of the religious houses which, although lying outside the county, yet possessed property
within it, the most important was Holyrood Abbey. From the time of its foundation in the
reign of David I, Holyrood began to acquire property and rights within Stirlingshire, and was
soon in possession of very considerable grants of land in the eastern part of the county,
especially in the parishes of Grangemouth, Airth, Larbert and Falkirk. It also possessed the
churches of Airth and Falkirk. ⁴ The Cistercian house of Newbattle also held lands in the
carse of Falkirk together with a number of salt-pans; these possessions were not, however, as
extensive as those of Holyrood, and by an agreement of 1237 all the Newbattle properties
"In Carso de Kalentyr" (Callendar) were let in feu-ferme to the canons of Holyrood. ⁵ Newbattle
also held lands at Kinnaird and Stenhouse. ⁶ The Benedictine house of Dunfermline also had
interests within the county, among them grants of land at Cambusbarron and St. Ninians and
the possession of the Church of the Holy Rude, Stirling. ⁷ Finally, it may be noted that a
number of religious houses had tenements in the burgh of Stirling, while some possessed
salt-pans in the Forth estuary.
The greatest of the secular lordships, at least in early mediaeval times, was the earldom of
Lennox, ⁸ which embraced, besides most of Dunbartonshire, the Stirlingshire parishes of
Baldernock, Balfron, Buchanan, Campsie, Drymen, Fintry, Killearn, Kilsyth and Strathblane.
The chief stronghold of the earldom was the Royal Castle of Dumbarton, which the Earls of
Lennox held as Keepers for the Crown, while in Stirlingshire the earldom included the castles
of Mugdock and Ballagan (cf. Nos. 207 and 219); Mugdock, however, soon passed into the
hands of the Grahams. The fortunes of the house suffered a sharp reverse with the execution
of Duncan, 8th Earl of Lennox, by James I in 1425; Isabella, daughter of the 8th Earl and
Duchess of Albany by marriage, was allowed to retain possession of the Lennox estates, but
her death without heirs in 1458 led eventually to the partition of the earldom. One of the
co-heirs, Elizabeth Menteith, a great-granddaughter of the 8th Earl, brought considerable
estates in the parishes of Balfron and Drymen ⁹ into the possession of the Napier family by
her marriage to John Napier of Merchiston. Most of the remaining Stirlingshire property,
together with the title, fell to John Stewart of Darnley, another descendant of Duncan,
8th Earl of Lennox. Matthew Stewart, 4th (Stewart) Earl of Lennox, was assassinated in 1571,
and the earldom was later granted by James VI to his cousin Esmé Stewart, a grandson of
John, 3rd Earl of Lennox. This line became extinct in 1672 and the estates reverted to
Charles II, by whom they were granted to his illegitimate son, Charles, the ancestor of the
present Dukes of Richmond and Gordon. The Lennox estates, however, were sold in 1703
to James Graham, 4th Marquess of Montrose, the representative of a family which had been
increasing its influence in western Stirlingshire since the 13th century. Another branch of
the Lennox family, that of Balcorrach and Woodhead, is mentioned under No. 205.

1Easson, Religious Houses, 102 and 113.
2 Ibid., 157.
3 Ibid., 158.
4 Holyrood, passim, and especially Appendix II, No. 37.
5 Newbattle, No. 160.
6 Ibid., Nos. 211 to 219.
7 Dunfermline, passim.
8 On which see Fraser, The Lennox, passim.
9 Cf. also Lennox, xiv.

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