Ayrshire > Volume 2

THE EARLDOM OF GLENCAIRN 291
Aberbrothock. His son Robert confirmed the grant to
Kelso Abbey ; and his son Robert, according to one
account, Richard according to another, granted a
donation to the Abbey of Paisley about the year 1240.
The next in descent, Henry or Hervey, fought gallantly
under Alexander III. in the battle of Largs. By his wife,
the heiress of Glengarnock, he had two sons. When he
died, prior to 1268, he was succeeded by his son, Sir
William Cuninghame.
Thus far the records are somewhat misty. The
period was lacking in authentic chroniclers, and succes-
sions have had to be determined not by authentic family
trees, but largely by the names of witnesses to charters
and other deeds and by the gifts recorded in the literature
of the monasteries. From the incoming of Sir William,
however, the story is clear and unbroken. Wedded to
Eleanor Bruce, he enjoyed, by right of his wife, the title
of Earl of Carrick ; for which Earldom he had a charter
from David II. There is no mention in the charter,
however, of the honour descending to his heirs and
successors, the intention apparently having been that, on
his death, the Carrick Earldom should return to the
family of Bruce, to whom it rightfully belonged. Sir
William was twice married. His first wife, Eleanor
Bruce, by whom he had a family, was alive in 1366, but
she cannot have long survived, for the second marriage
had taken place within two years of that period. Robert,
his eldest son, who was one of the hostages for David II.
in 1359, predeceased his father. Thomas, the third son,
was ancestor of the Cuninghames of Caprington, Enter-
kine, and the first Cuninghames of Bedland. Following
the first came a second Sir William Cuninghame of
Kilmaurs, who founded the collegiate church of Kilmaurs,
March, 1403. His marriage with Margaret, eldest
daughter of Sir Robert de Danyelston, brought him,
among other lands, Glencairn in Dumfriesshire, from
which his descendants had their title. He died 1413,
leaving three sons, the eldest of whom, Sir Robert,
married, 1425, Anne, the only daughter of Sir John de