New Spalding Club > Records of Aboyne, MCCXXX - MDCLXXXI [1230-1681]

their Aberdeenshire grants, and the estates have since continued
in their undisturbed possession.
The Thanage of Aboyne was granted to Reginald More
and Isobel his spouse, who is said to have been heir of Thomas
Baliol — probably a mistake for Byset. In 1337 Aboyne was in
the hands of Sir Alexander Fraser, and from entries in the
Excheqiier Rolls it seems that the Scots Queen possessed the
lands ten years later — possibly owing to the minority of Margaret
Fraser, the grand-daughter and heiress of Sir Alexander. This
Margaret married Sir William Keith, the Marshal of Scotland
before 135 1, and brought him, as a dower, the extensive estates
of Cowie and Durris, with the baronies of Strachan, Culperso,
Aboyne, Cluny, Glentanner, Tullich, and Glenmuick. She and
her spouse held the Aboyne estates until 1407, when they granted
a charter of these lands to their grandson, John, Earl of Buchan,
son of the Regent Albany, by their elder daughter, Muriella
Keith. Buchan, who used the titles of " Earl of Ross and Lord
of Aboyne," seems to have held the estates until his death, when
they reverted to Elizabeth Keith (younger daughter of Margaret
Fraser), the widow of Sir Adam Gordon of that Ilk. Elizabeth
Keith, who after Gordon's death had married Sir Nicolas
Erskine and Thomas Somerville, possessed the lands until
about 1437, when they descended to her daughter, Elizabeth
Gordon, whose husband, Sir Alexander de Seton, uplifted the
rents in July 1437. From that time the Aboyne estates have
been possessed by her descendants — the Earls and Marquises
of Huntly and Earls of Aboyne.
The Records.
The notes which form an introduction to each charter,
throwing light upon the history of the lands, and the persons
connected therewith, render it superfluous to enter into details