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

246 LAND OF THE LINDSAYS.
Though not so extensive as in old times, this village is still the
site of the wright, blacksmith, shoemaker, and grocer ; and is
remarkable in history as the spot on which the Earl of Crawford
and his merciless followers rested, when wreaking their ven-
geance over the lands of Collace of Balnamoon, through whose
treachery Crawford lost the battle of Brechin ; and, from the
fact that the Earl bore the singular sobriquet of the " Tiger," the
name of Tigertown was conferred upon this particular place.
SECTION II.
*' Of the antient lordis and laydies gaye,
Quha livit in thir landis full manie a daye,
Thoch I doe wryte, little guid I can say."
Old Poem.
Down to about the middle of the fourteenth century, the lands
of Menmuir were in possession of the Crown, under the super-
intendence of thanes, and the rents drawn by the sheriffs ;
during which period the poverty of the inhabitants and the value
of the rents are well authenticated. David de Betun, sheriff of
Forfar in 1290, claims deduction in his accounts for that year for
lxvi lb xiijs. iiijd., rent of the land of Menmoryth, which could in
no way be recovered on account of the poverty of the husbandmen
of the said land, as the chamberlain and whole country witnesseth,
and which rent was increased by fifty marks yearly, to the op-
pression of the said husbandmen, by Sir Hugh de Abirnethy,
knight,* who had perhaps been thane or chamberlain of Men-
muir. In 1359, the rents of assise of this parish are charged in
the sheriff's account at 13s. 4d. for three years, or one-third of a
mark yearly ; and, in 1390, they had increased to half-a-mark.
Though no ruins have been found here in the memory of
the oldest inhabitant, a Royal Residence once ornamented the
now comparatively bleak landscape, and is supposed to have
stood on the rising ground, a little south-west of the kirk. It
was in full pomp during the time of Alexander III., for, in the
Chamberlain Rolls of that period, Eda Montealto, sheriff of the
county, takes credit for the payment of one mark, or thirteen
* Chamberlain Rolls, vol. i. p. 79.