Series 5 > Calendar of Fearn

ADDITIONS
85
1372
25 Obitus domini Vilhelmi comitis Rossie qui fabricauit et reparauit
ecclesiam Noue Ferine qui obiit apud Delny ix die mensis Februarii
anno Domini M° ccc° Ixxi.
Fifth earl of Ross. Cronicle, 9. See SP, vii, 237-9; CP, xi, 145-6 (quoting
Cronicle [G], 321). No entry survives for William’s father Hugh, fourth
earl, who was alive on 10 May 1333, when he granted a charter of
Rarechies to his son Hugh (GD297/161; also in 181, a transumpt of
1450); he is said to have died at Halidon Hill, 20 July 1333. William,
returning from exile in Norway, was made earl on Friday before
Whitsunday (17 May) 1336 (Cronicle, 6). Abbot Mark Ross began
rebuilding the abbey church in the second year after William’s
succession, ‘that is ane thousand three hundreth threttie aucht’ (ibid.,
9). The Cronicle's dating is not entirely trustworthy for this period (see
26).
1373
26 Obitus Donaldi abbatis Noue Ferine xxv mensis Julii anno Domini
M° ccc° Ixxiij.
Donald, known as Donald Pupill, succeeded Abbot Mark Ross (d.
1355) after controversy with the prior and convent of Whithorn, who
claimed rights of presentation (Cronicle, 6-9). He received a confirm¬
ation of liberties from Earl William V, 5 March 1356 (GD297/196), and
a precept from Alexander bishop of Ross, confirming the earl’s gift of
the patronage of the church of Tarradale, 5 November 1362
(GD297/216). He was related to Earl William, nepos noster (Munro Writs,
no. 8, 4 February 1371), and witnessed numerous charters by him and
members of his family (APS, xii, pt. i, 17-18 [see Aberdeen-Banff
Illustrations, ii, 384]; RH6/140; GD297/162 [not Abbot Adam, as in
SRO inventory], 163, 170-75, 181 [a transumpt of 1450, copying five
fourteenth-century documents, including one not found elsewhere in
GD297], 190, 194, 196, 216 [a transumpt of 1438]; Munro Writs, nos. 4,
5, 6, 8, 10; GD159/32; Fraser, Cromartie, ii, no. 523; Fraser, Grant, iii,
no. 14; AJ. Warden, Angus or Forfarshire [Dundee, 1879-84], iv, 69).
The datable writs fall between 6 January 1345 and 3 March 1371, with
seven coming before 1355, which casts doubt on the Cronicle's date of
Abbot Mark’s death.