Bannatyne Club > Registrum Episcopatus Moraviensis, e pluribus codicibus consarcinatum approximately A.D. MCCCC [i.e. 1400]

THL LINE OF
SUTHERLAND.
leaving three sons, Hugo, William, and Andrew. Andrew was a witness to a
eharter of Hugo to Gilbert the Archdeacon, between 1203 and 1214, and nothing
more is known of him. Hugo was the founder of the House of Sutherland ;
William was ancestor of the families of De Moravia of Duffus and Petty.
Hugo Freskyn 1 appears as witness to a charter of King William between 1194
and 1199 to the Abbey of Kinloss, m and again between 1203 and 1211." It
is quite uncertain whether he acquired from the Crown, or inherited, the territory
of Sutherland. Lord Hailes, whose conjectures in regard to this family carry more
than their usual weight, suggests that the family of Freskinus may have received a
grant of South Caithness or Sutherland on the forfeiture of Harald Earl of Caith-
ness in the reign of William ; and that from the power of the old family, and the
distance and the disturbed state of the territory, the gift may have remained for some
iact of his having considerable southern pro-
perty as early at least, if not before his nor-
thera possessions, throws doubt upon this
theory ; whieh becomes higlily improbable,
when we consider that the immediate descend-
ants of Freskinus, possessing great power and
i territory in the district of Moray, and versant
in writing and charler transactions, never, either
for 'prorit or honour, asserted such a descent,
nor pushed their patronymic pedigree higher
tlian this marked ancestor. Chalmers, on the
other hand, buildiiig, it would seem, on no
other foundation than the peculiarity of the
name, which he perhaps interpreted to mean a
native of Fiisia, has claimed the ancestor of De
Moravia as one of his favourite band of Flemish
colonists. It might certaiuly be stated, in sup-
port of this theory, \st, That Berowaldus, a
Fleming, settled in the immediate neighbour-
hood of Freskinus iu Moray about the time
assigned for his settlement ; and the earliest
notice of the family preserved, is the appear-
ance of his son as a witness to that Berowald-
us's charter ; 2d, That the family of Douglas,
with whom we find the early De Moravias
most intimately connected, owed its rise, al-
though in another part of Scotland, to a Fle-
mish settler, about the same period. Many a
point of pedigree, especially in Scotland, has
been rested on worse foundations.
1 It seems to be presumed by Lord Hailes,
and it has been asserted by Chalmers and
others, that this personage was not the son of
Freskiuus, but his grandson, and the same per-
son with Hugh Lord of Duffus who was saint-
ed. — Hai/es Ann. 1222. It is confessed that this
is more consistent with chronology and more
easily reconcilable with some of the occurrences
of other members of the family ; and if the per-
sonage occurred with an ambiguous style only,
as WiUchnus Jilius Freshyn, Hugo filius suus, or
Hugo Freshyn, it might be difhcult to resist that
consideration. But when we tind the two
brothers clearly designated " Wil/elmus filius
" Freshyn, Hugo filius Freshyn" in a charter,
certainly between 1194 and 1199 — (S/iaw, Ap-
pendix, p. 406) — it requires greater impedi-
ments than we here meet with, or more infor-
mation than we yet possess, to overcome such
a direct testimony. Whichever way the ques-
tion be decided, the pedigree of Hugh Freskyn
downwards is not affected. But it must be no-
tieed that he earries with him two brothers,
WiLliam and Andrew, who are known by that
designatiou.
nl Shaw's Moray, p. 406.
■> No. 19.