Historical memoir of the family of Eglinton and Winton

8 THE FAMILY OF
glory, riches, or honour, that we fight, but for that
Liberty which no good man will consent to lose."
Barbour, the historian of the age, breathes the same
spirit in the following noble lines : —
" Fredome all solace to man giffis ;
He leveys at ess that frrely levys.
A nobil hart may haiff nane e'ss,
Na elys nocht that may him pless,
Gift freedome failyke — for sic linking
Is yarnit our all other thing."
This remarkable document was subscribed by eight
earls and thirty-one barons, including the great
officers of state ; and it is given forth in name of the
nobles, barons, freeholders, and whole community of
Scotland ; but it does not appear that any individual
of the clerical order acquiesced in it ; and the baron
of Ardrossan is the only individual from Ayrshire
who had the honour to be immediately participant
in this memorable proceeding.
11. Godfrey of Ardrossan, whom we may
presume succeeded Sir Fergus, witnessed a charter
granting the patronage of the kirk of Liberton to
the monastery of Kilwinning, in 1357; and in him
would appear to have ended the line of direct male
representatives of the race. For the barony seems
now to have passed, by an heir female, to the house
of Eglinton ; but whether by a daughter or sister of
Sir Godfrey, or through what other medium, has not
at all been ascertained. However it might be, a
subsequent heiress of Eglinton as before alluded to,
carried both inheritances to Montgomerie of Eagles-
ham ; but they err who suppose the heiress of