Notes on the surnames of Francus, Franceis, French, etc. in Scotland

io NOTES ON THE SURNAMES.
least a very early benefactor of Dryburgh Abbey, if
not the original founder.
The system of early colonization in Scotland is
well illustrated by " the charter of Thor-longus, who
settled there in the time of Kinof Edsrar. He had
a grant of Ednaham, which was then a waste, and
which he improved by his own money and people."
Chalmer, referring to the system of English coloniza-
tion in Scotland, "states that a baron obtained from
the king a grant of lands which he settled with his
followers, built a castle, a church, a mill, and a brew-
house, and thereby formed a hamlet, which in the
practice of the age was called the Ton of the Baron."
This, we judge, was not only the method of the
English, but about the same system pursued by the
Anglo-Norman colonists in the time of King David I.
We will now proceed to take up more specially the
records in connection with Scotland and Normandy ;
and as a preliminary, owing to the feudality existing
at a later period with the Bruces of Annandale, the
record in connection with Robert de Brus of York-
shire has more than usual significance. Reference
is here made to a charter of Alanus de Percy, the
son of Willielmus de Percy, which the Rev. J. C.
Atkinson states was certainly executed between the
years 1097 and 1101. In this document, as found
in the manuscript of the Cartularum Abbathiae de
Whiteby at the British Museum, it will be observed
that among the witnesses were " Robertus de Bruse