History of the Carlile family

INTRODUCTION. 3
Marjorie, or Martha, Countess of Carrick, and of her second husband,
Robert Bruce, styled Earl of Carrick in right of his wife. An account
of the lineage of Lady Margaret Carlyle, whose eldest brother was
King Robert I of Scotland (shewing also her descent from the
Capetian King Henry I of France) will be found in Note A at the
end of this Introduction [post p. 8). Lady Margaret Carlyle's
nephew, King David II of Scotland, aged four, married Joan,
daughter of Edward II of England, aged six.
In some histories Gilbert de Carlyle is mentioned as being the
father of Lady Margaret's husband, but there is no evidence to shew
that Gilbert was connected with the main stem. 1
Sir William Carlyle (d. about 1326) and Lady Margaret had two
sons, William and Thomas.
The elder son, Sir William, called Laird of Luce (near Hoddam),
is supposed to have been killed at the Battle of Lochmaben in 1333.
He left a son, John, who is said to have been killed at the Battle of
Halidon Hill later in the same year 1333. Thomas, younger son of
Sir William and Lady Margaret Carlyle, was killed at the Battle of
Neville's Cross, near Durham, in 1346, while gallantly defending the
person of his sovereign, King David II.
William, son of John (cl. 1333) succeeded to his father's estates,
and seems to have been succeeded by his son, another Sir John.
The latter was one of the arbitrators who, on 2 June, 1428,
decided a dispute between Sir Herbert Maxwell and John Sinclair.
Sir John Carlyle probably died in 1436, and was succeeded by his
son, William Carlyle, of Torthorwald, near Dumfries. Torthorwalcl
Castle consisted solely of a tower, 51ft. by 28 ft., the walls being
of enormous thickness. This William Carlyle was one of the suite
of Princess Margaret of Scotland when she went to France in
1436 to be married to the Dauphin, afterwards Louis XI of France.
William gave a bell to the town of Dumfries, bearing an inscription
(in Latin): "William Carlyle, Laird of Torthorwald, caused me to
be made in honour of St. Michael, in the year of our Lord, 1443."
1 See The Scots Peerage, 1905, vol. ii, p. 378.