Series 4 > Knights of St John of Jerusalem in Scotland

INTRODUCTION
XXXV
Erskine was a relative of the earl of Mar; David de Mar was among
the witnesses to a grant of lands in Garioch by Thomas, earl of Mar
to Sir Robert de Erskine in c. 1358.1 Erskine may have acquired his
position at Torphichen through a relationship with William More;
More and Erskine entered into an indenture of mutual support
against certain powerful lords in 1363.2 It is possible that after
Lindsay’s tenure Erskine and Mar divided the properties between
them, with Mar controlling Maryculter and Erskine administering
lands and properties south of the Mounth. At the time of his death,
before 15 April 1386, Mar seems to have held the vicarages of
Maryculter and Aboyne and the house of Maryculter.3 Certainly
the master of Rhodes was having difficulty in extracting revenue
from Scotland, for in 1363 the pope wrote to David 11 asking for
his help in compelling the disobedient to make annual payments to
the Hospital,4 and in 1367 the bishop of St Andrews was mandated
to compel unlawful detainers to restore Hospitaller property, at the
request of Raymond Berenger, master of Rhodes.5 Mar and
Erskine seem to have combined against Robert Mercer, Lord of
Innerpeffray and a member of the king’s household, to whom
Berenger leased some Hospitaller property in Scotland, ‘ accustomed,
as the pope has learned, to be held by laymen,’ in March 1374;6 in
January 1375 Berenger’s successor, Robert de Juilly, granted to
Robert Mercer all the Hospital’s property in Scotland for a pension
of 400 florins annually, payable in Paris on Ascension Day.7
Probably the Master felt that this was the easiest way out of his
problem, to use a local strong man to counteract the influence of
Mar and Erskine, who could not be relied on as the political
situation in Scotland deteriorated during the reign of Robert 11.
During the 1380s the Erskines were paying sums directly into the
common treasury.8 The introduction of Mercer aroused the an¬
tipathy of Robert de Hales, prior of England, who complained
1 sro, GD 124/1/uo 2 sro, GD 124/1/516
3 Malta Cod., 323 ff. 1381:, 1391-. The vicarages were granted by the grand master to
sir Richard de Cornell
4 CPL, iv, 3
6 Ibid., 65
6 Ibid, 135
7 Ibid., 205
8 Malta Cod., 322, ff. 52r-j3r; Cod., 48, f. 146V, Cod., 55, f. 3r