Some account of the ancient Earldom of Carric

10 SOME ACCOUNT OF THE
Hepburn of Hailes.* There is nothing impossible in
an old woman of above sixty taking a fifth husband,
but it is not very probable, indeed the presumption
is, that Eleanor " de Bruys 11 was the daughter in-
stead of the mother ; and the settlement in the Wal-
lace charter of 1373, does not militate against this
inference. Duncan Stewart, as before noticed, posi-
tively asserts the marriage of the second Eleanor to
Sir Duncan Wallace — and his opinion is entitled to
more credit than that of more modern and less learned
genealogists. Indeed, the nomination of " James de
Sandilands 11 as a substitute after the heirs of the
body of Sir Duncan Wallace, may be taken as evi-
dence in favour of the supposition, that the daughter,
and not the mother, was the wife of Sir Duncan, for
otherwise, he would have been described as her be-
loved son — whereas, in a grant by the sistev-iiterine,
there was no occasion for doing more than calling
him by name to the succession.
From the Botuli ScoTLE-f- we learn, that in De-
cember 1373, Alianora de Bruys, Comitissa de
Carrie, had a safe conduct from Edward III., to en-
dure for one year, to visit the shrine of St Thomas
a Becket at Canterbury. In April 1374, the Coun-
tess of Carrie, therein styled " Elene," has a license
to carry to Scotland by herself, servants or attornies,
" Quadraginta quarteria frumenti, quadraginta quar-
* Vide Appendix, No. II.
t Tom. i. p. 0(10. lb. p .003.