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

EDZELL — FAMILIES OF ADZELL AND ABBE. 23
position of the two, is so seldom mentioned in comparison
with the latter.
It is not, however, to be inferred, that although the ancient
lords of Glenesk had their name from thence, that the family of
Adzell, who survived in the lowland district till past the middle
of the fifteenth century, were lords of the lands from which they
assumed their cognomen — it being not an infrequent custom for
the vassal to take his surname from the lands which he held
under some great lord, as in the case of Rossy, of which the Nor-
man family of Malherbe were lords and granted charters to
their vassal, Rossy of that ilk.* In like manner the Adzells
who lived at Edzell, were dependent on the lords of Glenesk
— at least, they were so in the time of the Lindsays, and we
have not found them mentioned as holding of the crown,
and, in the capacity alluded to, " Johannes Adzell de eodem "
is the last of several of the Crawford vassals of Angus-shire,
who witnesses the laird of Dun's confirmation of the third
part of the lands of Baluely, which he granted to Alexander,
the Earl's natural son.f The latest, and only other notice of
them with which we have met, is that of Richard in 1467, \
on whose resignation the Earl of Crawford granted Edzell to his
uncle, Sir Walter Lindsay of Beaufort, who, as will be more
fully shewn in a subsequent page, was progenitor of all the
Lindsays of Edzell, and of the noble house of Balcarres and
Crawford.
There was, however, another set of noted residenters, who
bore the odd name of Abbe, one of whom, John, the son of
Malise, with consent of his son, Morgound, granted to the Abbots
of Arbroath a right to cut and bum charcoal in their wood of
" Edale," so early as the year 1204.|| Little is known of the
Abbes, and some believe that they were merely hereditary lay
Abbots. Be this as it may, although the name was not pe-
culiar to this district, it seems to have been extremely
rare ; and whether assumed from their office, or otherwise, they
were of considerable importance in their time ; for, contempo-
raneous with those of Edzell, a Douenaldus Abbe de Brechin
also gifted the davoch of Balligilleground in Bolshan to the
* Reg. de Aberbrothoc, pp. 42, 1(J3, &c. 1 (a.d. H51J— Spalding Club Miscel., vol. iv. p. 5.
t Crawford Case, pp. J 40-50. II Reg. Aberbrothon, pp. 48, 40.