Ayrshire > Volume 2

4 HISTORY OF AYRSHIRE
with circumstances of savage brutality. By means of
a money payment, which was in many instances
abundant compensation for life taken in Scotland for
hundreds of years after the twelfth century, Gilbert
succeeded in restoring himself to favour with the
Sovereign ; but he does not seem to have ever been a
very loyal or a tractable subject, for in 1184 he was,
under the protection of England, making devastating
raids upon Scotland, rejecting terms of accommodation
offered to him. When he died in 1185 he was succeeded
by Duncan, his son, afterwards Sir Duncan de Carrick,
and later still the first Earl of Carrick, an honour into
which he entered on condition of resigning his claim to
the lordship of Galloway. After the manner of the
times, Duncan fought furiously ; and, also after the
custom of the period, he condoned for his sins by being
good to the Church. It was he who granted the lands
of Little Maybole to the monks of Melrose, and who
founded. and richly endowed the Abbey of Crossraguel.
After him in the Earldom came Neil, who also was a
great benefactor to the Church, and who was one of the
Regents of Scotland and Guardians of Alexander III.
and his Queen. By his wife, who is believed to have
been a daughter of Walter, the High Steward of Scotland,
he left four daughters, the oldest of whom, Marjorie, or
Margaret, is the only one known to history. Marjorie
first wedded Adam de Kilconcath, who in her right was
third Earl of Carrick. In 1269 he went to the Holy
Land to fight in the Crusade under the banners of
Louis IX. of France, and the following year he died at
Acre, in Palestine. The year afterwards the widowed
Countess happened to encounter Robert Bruce, son of
Robert Bruce, Lord of Annandale and Cleveland,
hunting in her domains, conveyed him with some violence
to her home at Turnberry, and wedded him. The King,
Alexander III., was angry, for she was a ward of the
Crown, but a substantial money payment was sufficient
to assuage the royal wrath, and the. Earldom of Carrick
passed away from the original family.