Series 3 > Wigtownshire Charters

XXXI
WIGTOWNSHIRE CHARTERS
reconquered Galloway. His murdered father had married
Gunnild, daughter of Waldeve or Waltheof, lord of Allerdale
in Westmorland, who was second son of Gospatrick, earl
of Northumberland.1 By this marriage Uchtred had
acquired a large estate in Allerdale. Indeed Mr. Ragg 2
boldly calls it the Galloway Lordship of North Westmor¬
land. Its full extent is yet unknown, but it certainly in¬
cluded Newbigging 3 and Torpenhow, the church of which
was granted by Uchtred and his wife to Holyrood.4 It is
probable that on Uchtred’s death Gunnild and her children
may have taken refuge in Allerdale and the youthful
Roland would have made friends with the younger scions of
Cumberland families and, when the moment of his return
to secure his inheritance came, he naturally enlisted many
of his supporters there.
Significant corroboration of this is derived from a com¬
parison of the witnesses of Uchtred’s charters with those of
Roland’s. In Uchtred’s charters the native Gaelic-Norse
names predominate, but in Roland’s native names are
almost absent. Feudalism was reimposed in all its rigour.
It is to this period that most of the Galloway motes may be
ascribed. Apart from one or two doubtful structures, such
as at Terally,5 the Historical Monuments Commission
records eleven motes in Wigtownshire and twenty-six in
the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright. The majority are situated
on the sea-coast or the navigational limits of rivers. The
obvious inference from these structures is that they were
erected by intruders who arrived by sea and who were at
first prepared to face the hostility of the local inhabitants
and to preserve a line of retreat in the event of a serious
rising. In the absence of documentary evidence it is not
possible to associate them with any particular family. Rut
they are clear evidence of a new order in the state, which was
1 Scots Peerage, iii, 245.
2 C. and W. Trans., N.S., xvii, 231. Elsewhere Ragg speaks of ‘ the
barons and magnets of the Galwegian part of Northern England ’ (C. and
W. Trans., N.S., ix, 239).
3 Ibid., p. 228, where Alan’s charter (1199-1225) is given in facsimile.
4 Holyrood Charters, p. 19.
5 D. and G. Trans., xxxiii, 64; and for Terally, xxxiv, 85.