Red and white book of Menzies

a.d. 1449.] SAINT DAVID MENZIES. 115
off the main road at Saint David's auld kirk, by a climb up a steep but safe path.
It is recorded that when the well was cleaned out some half-century ago, coins of
various value were found in it, which had escaped the ecclesiastics when they
searched for the oblations of the devotees. The priests took good care to instruct,
as to the healing virtues likely to be effected, according to the value of the
sacred donations dropped into the well. Tradition says that Sir David, our saint,
had a chapel on a shelf of the Rock of Weem which is still called Cratg-an-f
sliapail, or the Chapel Rock, where, it is said, this building stood. There are also
traces of Saint David on the opposite side of the river Tay, on what was then his
own lands, on which was held Fell Daidh, or Saint David's fair, before it was
transferred to Kenmore. There was also a burying-place, which bore his name
in Gaelic, Cill Daidh, or " Kildavid," the burial-place of David. The Rock of
Weem and hill rises about 1700 feet above sea-level, and about 1300 feet above
the " Vale of Menzies," or Strathtay.
Sir David the Menzies, at the time of his death in 1449, must have been
about 72 years of age, as he is thought to have been born about 1 377. He had
two sons and one daughter, He left, by his first wife — Lady Marjory Sinclair,
sister of Henry, Earl of Orkney — a son.
1st. JOHN THE Menzies, who succeeded him as chief and inherited his
possessions. Sir David married secondly a lady whose name was Helen, as is
to be seen from his donation to the monastery of Dunfermline. Sir David
left another son, " Cudbert," but of which of the marriages is uncertain.
2nd. Cudbert Menzies got a feu-grant of part of the barony of Enach
from John, his brother ; and it is reckoned that from him the clan branch of
the Menzies' of Enach and others in Dumfriesshire were descended. In 1472
Cudbert Menzies granted a reversion of the lands of Auchintinsel and Drumcrule
in the barony of Enach to Sir John the " Megnes," his brother-german.
3rd. Catherine Menzies, who married Alano of Erskyne, and had a grant
of the lands of Vogry, of which marriage there seems to have been no issue,
as these lands returned to Sir David, and were given to the queen of James I.
as part of her dowry.
CONTEMPORARY MENZIES'.
Chieftain Gilbert Menzies, who held the loch and island of " Kandars,"
lying at " Colblain," ancestor of the Menzies' of Pitfodels. He fought at the battle
of Harlaw, and was afterwards made Lord Provost of Aberdeen, which the records
show he held from 1425 to 1439. He also sat in the Scottish Parliaments held
by James II. at Edinburgh, 24th January 1449, and also at Stirling on the
4th April 1449 ; in both he represented the city of Aberdeen.
David Menzies, also a leading man of Aberdeen : he sat in the Parliament of
James I., held at Perth on the nth March 1425, as the representative of Aberdeen.
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