New Spalding Club > Thanage of Fermartyn including the district commonly called Formartine

Tlie Tlianage of Feniiartyu.
There is a missing charter by David II. to Ranald More, Chamberlain, of the lands of
Fermartyn, Akintor, and Obeyne.' Other portions of the Thanage of Fermartyn were
disponed in Robert II. 's time ; thus there is a charter Alexandri Coci of the two
Culmalows in the Thanage of Fermartyn. = A charter to Philip de Meldrum of the
lands of Crichnalade, and Creichen Walter in " Thanagio de Fermartyn ; " also a
charter to Marie Gumming, spouse of Edmund Gumming of Gilltrachis and Sauchope in
the Thanage of Fermartyn. ^
After the Chamberlainship of Ranald More, two of the sisters of King David had
the Thanage of Fermartyn.
King Robert the Bruce, by his second marriage, had, besides David II. his successor,
two daughters, Matilda and Margaret. Both these daughters were older than David,
though neither of them could have been born before 1316. Matilda "nupsit cuidam
armigero Thomae Isaac ; " in fact, she made a mesalliance.*
In the Chamberlain's rolls of accounts for 1342, a payment of ;^6 12s. 6d. occurs to
Thomas, son of Isaac, until otherwise provided for.^ Mauld or Matilda Bruce, the
spouse of Thomas Isaac, had a charter from her brother David of half of the Thanage
of Fermartyn ; and in the accounts of the Sheriff of Aberdeen rendered March 1358-9,
after the Lady Matilda's death, half of the Thanage of Fermartyn and Kintore is said to
be in the hands of the Earl of Sutherland, husband of her sister Margaret Bruce ; and
the other half in the hands of Thomas Ysak, " e gratia regis super quo," add the
auditors, " rex consulatur " — the king to be consulted.*"
In 1347, the revenue of the Crown lands in one of the parts of Scotland that suffered
the least from the wars is given (the only account of the period extant), and it is noted
that there is nothing from the Thanages of Kintore and Fermartyn, because in the
hands of the Crown and the King's sisters.'
Margaret Bruce, the youngest daughter of King Robert the Bruce's second marriage,
married WiUiam, Earl of Sutherland, and David II. granted a charter, November 10,
134s, to her and to her husband and the heirs to be procreated between them, of the
Earldom of Sutherland erected into a regality ; also he grants the Earl in 1365, " Totam
medietatem " of the Thanage of Fermartyn, which he now possesses, and which we have
granted to the same for his life-time. '*
In 1370-80, five years after the date of the above-named grant, we find that
Fermartyn was again in possession of the Crown, and conferred by Robert II. on his
eldest son, the Steward of Scotland, who soon resigned it to his cousin,' Sir James
Lindsay who was the ninth in descent of the family of Crawford, and is designed,
" Dominus de Crawford and Buchan." He was present at the coronation of his uncle
at Scone in 1371, and was Commissioner to treat with the English in 1374.'°
1 Rob. Index to Charters, p. 17. 6 Exchequer Rolls, I. p. 127.
2 Id,, pp. 2, 16, 17. 7 Id., I. p. 511.
3 Ant. Pi., and B. I. p. 498. 8 Ant. A. and E. I. p. 498.
4 Burnett's Exchequer Rolls, Vol. I. pref. Fordun's 9 Fyvie Papers Hist. Com. Rept. Vol. V. p. 644.
Annals, Vol. i. p. 78. 10 Lives of the Lindsaj-s, I. p. 96.
5 Exchequer Rolls, I. p 510.