History and traditions of the land of the Lindsays in Angus and Mearns

21 LAND OF THE LINDSAYS.
Arbroath Monastery ; and a Maurice Abbe, who lived in the
time of Gilchrist, the great Earl of Angus, is designed " de
Abereloth," or Arbirlot.*
There is also good ground for believing that the ancient lords
of Brechin had an interest in Glenesk, since, on the execution
and forfeiture of David de Brechin for his connection with the
conspiracy of Lord Soulis against the life of The Bruce, the
lands of " Knocqy " were amongst those of Brechin's estates,f
which were given by the king to his trusty friend, Sir David
Barclay, the future lord of Brechin, and brother-in-law of the
forfeited noble.J Knocqy lies in the immediate vicinity of
Edzell castle, and is now known as Knocknoy, and represented,
as said in the previous Section, by the large hillock beside the
farm-yard of the Mains, and had, in all probability, been
the moot hill of old, or the site of the baron's court. Within
these twenty years, a large rude stone lay at the foot of it, which
was said to have tumbled from the top, and had, doubtless, been
the " Stannin' Stane " which was ever an important adjunct to
the site of justice in the early ages.
But although the names of the lords of Brechin live in the
imperishable page of the historian, those of the Adzells and
Abbes are now, at least to the general reader, as if they had
never been known. Even the credulous tongue of tradition
is mute concerning them ; and, if their deeds had ever been
worthy of being preserved in the measured language of the rude
minstrel, or their names associated with the hills and dales of the
land of their adoption — sources not to be despised in the solution
of historical and genealogical difficulties — they have all been
faithless to their charge ; and, but for the slender records of the
grateful monks, the connection of the Abbes with the parish, and
even their name, would have been lost for ever.
The most ancient proprietors hitherto spoken of in connection
with Glenesk, were the family of Stirling ; || and, although Nisbet
* Reg. de Aberbrothoe, p. 29, &c.
t In contrast to Drwnmore, or the "great ridge," west of the castle, this height on the
east, is called Knocqy, or the " little hill."
J Robertson's Index of Missing Charters, 1"09 — 1413, Edin. 1798.
II A family of the name of Stirling were proprietors of Laurieston in the Mearns, in 12-43,
and of that date Alexander de Strivelin gave the prior and canons of St. Andrews, the Chapel of
Laurenston, which was a dependency on the church of Ecclcsgreig, and also bound himself and
heirs to pay yearly a pound of wax, according to the market price of Montrose.— Beg, rrioratus
S, Andrce— Bann, Club, p. 280.