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

26 LAND OP THE LINDSAYS.
record, may be taken as indicative of the extinction of the
Abbes, and an alliance with the lords de Glenesk.
The surname of Stirling, or Striuelyn, as it is written in the
oldest deeds, had, in all probability, a territorial origin, and
been assumed from the old town of that name. The family are
ancient and famous, and the laird of Keir is reckoned the chief,
and supposed to have descent from Walter de Striuelyn, who is
a witness to Prince Henry's charter of the church of Sprowistoun
to the Abbey of Kelso. It is probable that the Stirlings of
Glenesk were of this stock, from the similarity of their armorial
bearings ; and, besides being lords of the well-known and ex-
tensive properties of Glenesk, they were also possessed of large
estates in Inverness and Moray, and occasionally designed " de
Moravia." They are so titled in Ragman Rolls, where several
of the name are recorded as having sworn fealty to Edward at
same time with " de Glennesk " — a circumstance which perhaps
had led Nisbet to commit the error referred to.
The period of the death of the last Stirling of Glenesk is un-
known ; but he left two daughters, who succeeded as co-heiresses.
One of them became the wife of Sir Alexander, third son of
Sir David Lindsay of Crawford, and the other married Robert
de Atholia, grandson of Angus, lord of the Isles. Lindsay suc-
ceeded to the Angus-shire portion of the Stirling estates, which
consisted of Edzell, Glenesk, and Lethnot ; and Atholia inherited
the Inverness and Moray portion, and was ancestor, by a second
marriage, of the ancient house of Struan-Robertson, which
flourished in considerable pomp until about a century ago.
This mode of Lindsay's succession to Glenesk, though borne
out by substantial evidence, is too much matter of fact, and par-
takes so little of the wonderful, that the insatiable craving for
romance which characterised the minds of our ancestors, is
exhibited in relation to it in some of its most striking features.
Co-heiresses are unknown to tradition ; and a son and only
daughter are the substitutes. They were left orphans, and the
former, small of stature and greatly deformed in body, was fa-
miliarly known by the diminutive cognomen of Jackie Stirliri .
Although physically defective, he enjoyed excellent health, and
was neither impervious to the softer feelings of humanity, nor
too unseemly for the kindly eyes of women, by one of whom,