Moodie book

The Moodie Book. j
castle of the same name, the latter, or rather a modern mansion on the same site,
now the seat of Mr Carnegie. This grant was for Gilbert Mudie and his two
legal heirs only, that is to say, the lands were to revert to the Church after the
expiry of the third generation ; and it is this limitation, when considered in the
light of a nearly contemporary acquisition of lands in Orkney, that explains the
ultimate migration of the family to the latter county. On its original terms
the grant was confirmed by King James III. in 1478. 1
" There is strong reason to believe that Gilbert Mudie took up his residence
in the castle of Scrabster, and certain Mudie tombs said to exist in the Sinclair
vault at Thurso, in close vicinity, are no doubt those of his l'elations and some
of his descendants. He would also appear to have married in his new home,
as I am informed on excellent authority that Agnes Crownar must have been
a Gunn — a clan whose ' country' was situated on the borders of Caithness and
Sutherland. Gilbert thus appears to have initiated a — dare I say — weakness ?
for tartan-clad femininity which was shared by many later Moodies, and which,
if the romantic family tradition is reliable, was to lure one of them to an
untimely end in the waters of the Pentland Firth. Growing interests in the
North may have induced Gilbert, or one of his successors, to sever the no doubt
incompatible Ayrshire connection. At all events I have found no later record
of any Mudie of Caldwell. Two other Mudies of this period may be mentioned,
although I am unable to elucidate their connection with the Bishop and his
brother. These were Robert Mudie, who, it appears from the Scottish Exchequer
Rolls, acted as procurator for the Bishop and Dean and Chapter of Caithness in
various years from 1458 to 1471, and William Mudie, who acted in the same
capacity in 1459 and 1460.
" The family acquired other lands in Caithness, though not, so far as I have
been able to discover, to any large extent, and it was only in 1593 that William
Mudie of Breckness and Melsetter parted with what appears to have been the
last item of Mudie property in Caithness, by the excambion of his lands of
Dounreay there with Patrick Stewart, Earl of Orkney, in exchange for some of
that nobleman's lands in Orkney. Isaac-like, however, the Mudies of Breckness
and Melsetter still turned to that land of their fathers when in search of wives, a
tendency which we find exemplified by the two latest of the race. 2
" Situated on the edge of that Pentland Firth which has with less civility
than injustice been styled ' the dirtiest piece of water in Christendom,' Scrabster
was, with the exception of the 20 Shillinglands in Stroma, the most northerly of
Gilbert Mudie's lands. And as a glance at the map will show that Hoy was the
1 Reg. Mag. Sig. ; lib. viii. , No. 123.
2 The Moodies were sufficiently under Highland influence to maintain an hereditary piper at
Melsetter. The " piper's park," an enclosure to the westward of the house, was probably perquisite
cow's grass.