Genealogical account of the family of Edmonstone of Duntreath

THE FAMIL Y OF EDMONSTONE. 63
with his help and my own means I peopled it, and have built a church in honour of St.
Cuthbert, and this church, with a ploughgate of land, I have given to God and St.
Cuthbert and his Monks, to be possessed by them for evermore. This gift I have made
for the soul of my Lord the King Aedgar, and for the souls of his father and mother, and
for the weal of his brothers and sisters, and for the redemption of my dearest brother
Lefwin, and for the weal of myself, both my body and my soul ; And if any one by force
or fraud presume to away take this my gift from the Saint aforesaid, and the Monks his
servants, may God Almighty away take from him the life of the Heavenly Kingdom, and
may he suffer everlasting pains with the Devil and his angels, Amen." This awful denun-
ciation did not secure to St. Cuthbert the spiritual monopoly, at least of the parish, for
there were grants given to the monks of Coldingham and Kelso, besides the hospital
dedicated to St. Lawrence or St. Leonard, as stated above.' '
Robert the Second, when High Steward, had granted the lands of Edenham to Sir
Robert Erskine, but Sir Robert subsequently resigned them in exchange for a grant in
Aberdeen.
Edenham became early the mother church to the two neighbouring chapels of New-
ton (Don) and Nenthorn. There is a presentation to the chaplaincy of Edenham by
John Edmonstoun, as tutor or guardian to James, son and heir of David Edmonstoun,
which is confirmed by James 1. — 1426.
Note 5, Page 4.
To Mr. Elliot, the agent of the Ednam property in 1827, I am indebted for the intel-
ligence that in 1643 the valuation of the parish of Ednam was ,£7880 Scots, of which
Andrew Edmonstoune possessed ,£7520. This was subsequently reduced to about half.
At the time of Lord Dudley's purchase, the rental was estimated at .£3000, and the estate
was the same size as when sold by Mr. Edmonstoune.
Note 6, Page 5.
One of these sisters married that singular character Theodore Baron Newhoff, who
was elected King of Corsica* when that island revolted against the Genoese in 1736.
His reign did not extend above eight months, and on his eventually coming to London
he there met the lady. He was subsequently imprisoned for debt, and died just after his
release in 1756. Mr. Aytoun, Professor of Rhetoric in Edinburgh (1849), the lineal
descendant of the family of Ednam, informs me that his father attended ' the Queen's '
funeral as chief-mourner. There are, I believe, no traces of the family now in Ednam,
unless it be the burial-vault.
Note 7, Page 5.
The charter is Domino Alexandro Settoni militi terrarum de Culloden in Moravia
—witnesses, Dominus Anghus de Moravia — Alexander de Mowbray, Randulphus de
1 Chalmers' Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 190. s Boswell's Corsica, p. 101, etc.