Volume 5

73
There were other considerable families who enjoyed lands in Nithsdale in
ancient times. Sir John Cumin possessed the manors of Dalswinton and
Duncol [Duncow;] and in 1250, this knight gave the monks of Melrose a
free passage through his lands to their estate in Nithsdale. The progenitors
of Lord Maxwell possessed Caerlaverock, in those boisterous ages, after sus-
taining many a siege.
On the accession of Bruce, new proprietors were given to Nithsdale. The
forfeited lands of Cumin were given to different persons. Dalswinton was
granted to Walter Steuart, the third son of Sir John Steuart of Jedworth;
and Duncow was given to Robert Boyd. Under Robert II., Nithsdale
obtained new superiors. William Douglas, the natural son of Archibald
Douglas, lord of Galloway, marrying Giles, the daughter of that king, re-
ceived with her a grant of Nithsdale. Of this marriage there was only one
daughter, Giles, who was known in that simple age by the name of the fair
maid of Nithsdale; and she married Sir Henry Sinclair, the son and suc-
cessor of Henry, the Earl of Orkney. She married for her second husband,
in 1418, Alexander Steuart, the son of James, who was the brother of
Robert II.; and had obtained from Robert Bruce the lands of Durrisdeer.
She married her second husband in order to connect the two families, which
had been dissevered by disputes (a).
Meantime the middle district of Dumfries-shire, from the lands of Dunegal
in Stranith, to the territories of Meschines in Cumberland, was eagerly granted
by David to Robert de Brus, to be held by him under the same tenure as
Meschines enjoyed his estate under the English king (6).
At the epoch of Domesday Book, 1086, Robert de Brus was an opulent
(a) Craw. Hist, of the Steuarts, 18. The dispensation for Giles Douglas's second marriage is
printed in A. Steuart's Geneal. Hist. of the Stewarts, 449. William, Earl of Orkney, the son and heir
of her first marrriage, resigned to James II., in 1455, his right to the lordship of Nithsdale. Hay's
Vindic., 23 ; Lord Hailes's Sutherland Case, 45.
(b) It has been doubted, by antiquarians and geologists, whether Robert de Brus acquired
Annandale by marriage or by grant; and even Sir James Dalrymple questions if there ever
was such a grant. Yet here it is, from the original in the British Museum : " C. Davidis regis
Scoti� Roberto de Brus Estrahanet [Straannan] totam terram a divisa Dunegal de Stranit usq ad
divisam Band. Meschina & ut illam teneat cum omnibus consuetudinibus quas Rand. Meschin unquam
habuit in Cardivil & in terra sua de Cumberland illo die in quo unquam melioros & liberiores
habuit. Teste Eustathis fil. Johannis, Hugo de Morvill, & Alan de Perci & Will, de Somerville, &
Berengero de Engamo, Rand. de Scales, Willo de Morvill, Herui fil Warin, Edmund de Camer,
apud Sconam."
This charter was confirmed by William the Lion. The King now reserved the pleas of the
Crown.
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