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Source Information: Hanna, Charles A. The Scotch-Irish: The Scot in North Britain, North Ireland, and North America Vol.1 New York, NY: G. P. Putnam, 1902.
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mention of Ayrshire :- [Ayrshire]
AYR
SCOTLAND OF TO-DAY
- IT has been said of the modern Scottish race by some of its enthusiastic sons
that, in proportion to its numbers, that race has produced more men who have
taken a prominent part in the affairs of the English speaking world than has any
other. Whether this be true or not, there are two facts bearing upon that phase
of Scottish race-history to which attention may properly be called. The first
and most important fact is, that nearly all the men of Scottish birth or descent
who are renowned in history trace their family origin back to the western
Lowlands of Scotland. That is to say, the district comprising the counties of
Lanark, Renfrew, Ayr, Dumfries, Wigtown, Kirk-cudbright,
and Dumbarton--in area about the same as Connecticut, and the most of which
was formerly included in the Celto-British kingdom of Strathclyde,--has produced
a very large proportion of the men and families who have made the name of
Scotland famous in the world's history.
- British of Strathclyde, and English of Bernica--the two latter realms extended
far south beyond the line of modern Scotland. This fact had remarkable
consequences in Scottish history. Otherwise the existence of these four kingdoms
mainly interests us as showing the nature of the races--Pictish, British, Irish,
and English--who were, then, the inhabitants of various parts of Scotland,
leaving, doubfiess, their strain of blood in the population. A Dumfries, Ayr,
Renfrew, Lanark, or Peebles man, as a dweller in Strathclyde, has some chance of
remote British (Brython) ancestors in his pedigree; a Selkirk, Roxburgh,
Berwick-shire, or Lothian man is probably for the most part of English blood; an
Argyleshire man is or may be descended from an Irish Scot or Dalriad; the
northern shires are partly Pictish, as also is Galloway, always allowing for the
perpetual mixture of races in really historical and in prehistoric times--Andrew
Lang, History of Scotland, vol. i., p. 31.
THE CALEDONIANS, OR PICTS
- on the island for both races; and many bodies of the aborigines no doubt
remained unmolested long after the extinction of their race had been in part
accomplished.5 As fresh waves of invasion swept over the eastern shores, the
Celts first coming would be apt to be driven farther and farther inland from the
coast, and would in turn displace the natives--who, to escape death or slavery,
would be obliged to push farther westward and northward. Some of these
(supposed) aborigines, however, seem to have made a successful stand against the
encroachments of the newcomers, and among them we find two tribes who were
identified with portions of Scotland down to a date long after the beginning of
the historic era. These were the Novantae and Selgovae mentioned by Ptolemy,
whose territory in his time (the early part of the second century) embraced the
country west of the river Nith and south of the Ayr
-- Kirkcudbrightshire and Galloway -- and possibly, also, the peninsula of
Kintyre, in Argyle. Toward the end of the Roman occupation they seem to have
coalesced, and became known as the Attecotti, a "fierce and warlike
tribe," who gave the Romans a great deal of trouble. They afterwards appear
in history as the Galloway Picts, and seem to have remained a distinct people
under that name down to a comparatively recent date.
- A description of the several peoples inhabiting Britain at this time, or shortly
after, is found in Ptolemy's Geography, written about A.D. 121. According to
Professor Rhys's interpretation of Ptolemy, most of the country between the
Humber and Mersey and the Caledonian Forest belonged to a tribe or confederation
known as the Brigantes. The Novantae and Selgovae, occupying the district on the
Solway west of the Nith, appear, however, to have been independent of them; as
were also the Parisi, between the Humber and the Tees. The Otadini (occupying a
portion of Lothian and the coast down to the southern Wall) and the northern
Damnonii (inhabiting the district north of the Novantae, the Selgovae, and the
Otadini, and to a considerable distance beyond the Forth and Clyde--the present
counties of Ayr, Renfrew, Lanark, Dumbarton,
Stirling, and the western half of Fife) were either distinct peoples subject to
the Brigantes, or included in the tribes that went under that named
THE SCOTS AND PICTS
- When Kenneth mac Alpin became king of the Picts in 844, his
territories embraced that part of Scotland now included in the counties of
Perth, Fife, Stirling, Dumbarton, and Argyle. North and west of this district
the country continued in a state of practical independence for a long time
afterward, being in part occupied by the Northern Picts, and in part by the
Norsemen. South of Kenneth's territories the Northumbrian Angles occupied the
province of Bernicia, which included most of the present counties of Scotland
south of the Forth and east of the Avon and Esk. They also maintained lordship
over part of the district now known as Galloway and Ayr.
The Cymric Britons of Strathclyde lived and ruled where are now the counties of
Renfrew, Lanark, Dumfries, Peebles (Clydesdale, Nithsdale, and Annandale); the
adjacent portions of Ayr and Galloway and also
for a considerable distance to the south of Solway Firth.
- "Finally, on the north shore of the Solway Firth, and separated from the
Britons by the lower part of the river Nith, and by the mountain range which
separates the counties of Kirkcudbright and Wigton from those of Dumfries and Ayr,
were a body of Picts, termed by Bede Niduari; and this district, consisting of
the two former counties, was known to the Welsh as Galwydel, and to the Irish as
Gallgaidel, from which was formed the name Gall-weithia, now
Galloway."--Celtic Scotland, vol. i., pp. 237-239.
THE BRITONS
- but the precise locality is not now known. Dumbarton rock was the main place of
strength, and the seat of the reguli. The history of the Alcluyd kingdom
presents a series of wars domestic and foreign, throughout the greater portion
of its existence--sometimes with the Picts, sometimes with the Scots, oftener
with the Saxons, and not less frequently one clan against another. Though
repeatedly defeated and overrun, they continued to defend themselves with great
spirit; and more than once their restless enemies felt the weight of their
sword.--Paterson, History of the County of Ayr,
vol. i., p. 13.
- Cornwall was subsequently occupied by the [Saxon] strangers, and the place of
the Britons to the south of present Scotland became limited to what was
afterwards known as the principality of Wales. The narrow part of North England,
Lancashire and Yorkshire, being occupied by the Saxons there was thus a gap
between the Southern Britons and those of Scotland. These latter became a little
independent state, known as Strathclyde, endowed with a sort of capital
and national fortress at Dumbarton. This country is now known as the shires of Ayr,
Renfrew, Lanark, Stirling, and Dumbarton. It had its own small portion in the
events of the time through which it existed in independence, and became at last,
as we shall see, absorbed in the aggregation that made the kingdom of Scotland.
Such was one of the early elements of this aggregation.--Burton, History of
Scotland, vol. i., p. 82.
- The same natural boundary which separated the eastern from the western tribes
afterwards divided the kingdom of the Strathclyde Britons from that of
the Angles; at a subsequent period, the province of Galweia from that of
Lodoneia in their most extended sense; and now separates the counties of Lanark,
Ayr, and Dumfries from the Lothians and the
- Again, in 875, the same restless enemy, sallying
forth from Northumberiand, laid waste Galloway, and a great part of Strathcluyd.
Thus harassed by the insatiable Northmen, many of the inhabitants of Alclyd
resolved upon emigrating to Wales. Under Constantin, their chief, they
accordingly took their departure; but were encountered by the Saxons at Loch-maben,
where Constantin was slain. They, however, repulsed their assailants, and forced
their way to Wales, where Anarawa, the king, being at the time hard
pressed by the Saxons, assigned them a district which they were to acquire and
maintain by the sword. In the fulfilment of this condition, they aided the Welsh
in the battle of Cymrid, where the Saxons were defeated and driven from
the district. The descendants of these Strathcluyd Britons are said to be
distinguished from the other inhabitants of Wales at the present day. The
Strathcluyd kingdom was, of course, greatly weakened by the departure of so many
of the best warriors; and it continued to be oppressed both by the Scots and
Anglo-Saxon princes. The judicious selection of a branch of the Scottish line as
their sovereign had the effect of securing peace between the two nations for
some time. Hostilities, however, at length broke out with great fury, in
consequence of Culen--who ascended the Scottish throne in 965
--having dishonored his own relative, a granddaughter of the late King of
Strathcluyd. Incensed at the insult, the inhabitants flew to arms, under King
Ardach, and marching into Lothian, there encountered the Scots. The battle
was a fierce one, and victory declared for the Alcluyden-sians. Both Culen
and his brother Eocha were slain. This occurred in 971. The
Scottish throne was ascended by Kenneth III. [II.]; and the war
between the Scots and Cumbrians continuing, the latter, under Dunwallin--the
successor of Ardach--were at length overpowered on the bloody field of Vacornar;
where, the Welsh Chronicle states, the victors lost many a warrior. Dunwallin
retired to Rome in 975. The Strathcluyd kingdom, now fairly broken up,
was annexed to the Scottish crown, and the inhabitants became mixed with the
Scots and Picts. This was a successful era for the Scots. Though the country had
been overrun by AEthelstan, the Saxons gained no permanent advantage. On
the contrary, Eadmund, in 945, ceded Cumberland, in England, to
Malcolm I., on condition of unity and aid. Lothian, which had previously
been held by England, was also delivered up to Malcolm III., in 1018,
after the battle of Carham with Uchtred of
Northumberland.--Paterson, History of the County of Ayr,
p. 15.
THE NORSE AND GALLOWAY
- The part of Scotland now known by the name of Galloway embraces the counties of
Kirkcudbright and Wigton, which lie west of the lower Nith valley, and south of
the range of high hills or mountains that form the southern boundary of Ayr
and Dumfries. In earlier times, after its separation from Strathclyde, Galloway
probably included Annandale (in Dumfries), the two southern districts of Ayr
(Kyle and Carrick), and perhaps also a great part of the northern
district of Ayr (Cuninghame) in addition.
It thus embraced within its bounds nearly the whole of the southern and western
coast of Scotland from the mouth of the Nith to the Clyde.
- The only authorities referred to by Chalmers consist of an entire
misap-plication of two passages from the Ulster Annals. He says: "In 682
A.D., Cathasao, the son of Maoledun, the Mormaor of the
Ulster Cruithne, sailed with his followers from Ireland, and landing on the
Firth of Clyde, among the Britons, he was encountered and slain by them near Mauchlin,
in Ayr, at a place to which the Irish gave the
name of Rathmore, or great fort. In this stronghold Cathasao and
his Cruithne had probably attacked the Britons, who certainly repulsed
them with decisive success."--Ulster An., sub. an. 682. "In 702
the Ulster Cruithne made another attempt to obtain settlement
among the Britons on the Firth of Clyde, but they were again repulsed in the
battle of Culin."--Ib., sub. an. 702. The original texts of these
passages is as follows: "682. Beltum Rathamoire Maigiline contra Britones
ubi ceciderunt Catusach mac Maelduin Ri Cruithne et Ultan filius Dicolla. 702.
Bellum Campi Cullinn in Airdo nepotum Necdaig inter Ultu et Britones ubi filius
Radgaind cecidit. Ecclesiarum Dei Utait victores erant." Now, both of these
battles were fought in Ulster. Rathmore, or great fort of Maigiline, which
Chalmers supposed to be Mauchlin, in Ayr, was the
chief seat of the Cruithne in Dalaraidhe, or Dalaradia, and is now called
Moylinny. See Reeves's Antiquities of Down and Connor, p 70. Airdo nepotum
Necdaig, or Arduibh Eachach, was the Barony of Iveagh, also in Dalaradia, in
Ulster (Ib., p. 348); and these events were attacks by the Britons upon the
Cruith-nigh of Ulster, where the battles were fought, and not attacks by the
latter upon the British inhabitants of Ayrshire
- Mr. Mac Kerlie, in Paterson's History of the County of Ayr
(pp. 14, 16), explains the reasons for the similarity between the Gaelic tongue
of Galloway and that of Ulster, in this wise:
- In 740, however, the Alcluydensians of Kyle were invaded by Alpin,
king of the Scots, who landed at Ayr with a
large body of followers. He is said to have wasted the country between the Ayr
and the Doon as far inland as the vicinity of Dalmellington, about
sixteen miles from the sea. There he was met by an armed force under the chiefs
of the district, and a battle having ensued, Alpin was slain, and his army
totally routed. The spot where the king was buried is called at this day Laicht-Alpin,
or the Grave of Alpin. Chalmers observes that this fact is important, as showing
that the Gaelic language was then the prevailing tongue in Ayrshire. No
doubt it is: but it is one of the strongest arguments that could be urged
against his theory that the Gaelic was superinduced upon the British, which he
holds was the language of the Caledonian Picts, as well as the Romanised tribes.
If the Damnonii of Ayrshire spoke Gaelic in 836, they must have done so long
before; because at that period, as we have seen, the Scots of Argyle had made no
settlement in Ayrshire.
- The evidences of a considerable Gaelic admixture in the blood of the early
southwestern Scotchmen are also shown in their place-names and surnames. This is
particularly the case in Ayrshire, which was the native county of the
first emigrants to Antrim and Down in the seventeenth century. To again quote
the author of the History of the County of Ayr
(vol. i., pp. 9, 16, 17):
- The main topographical argument of Chalmers in favor of the Scoto-Irish theory,
is the circumstance of Inver, in two instances, having been substituted for Aber.
Now, as formerly shown, there are only two solitary instances of Inver in the
whole topography of Ireland, and not one throughout the range of Galloway. The
word, therefore, seems to have been peculiar to the Scottish Gael. In Kyle, on
the contrary, we have several samples of it in old charters. Ayr
itself is called Inver-ar in some instances, while we have Inverpolcurtecan
and Inverdon. Another distinction between the Gaelic, Welsh, and Irish,
worthy of being taken notice of, is the patronymic mark. In the Scots it is Mac;
in Welsh, Ap; and in Irish, O'. Now, if the Scots had been thoroughly Irish in
their descent, as Chalmers affirms they were in their manners, laws, and
customs, it is difficult to understand why they should have differed so widely
upon so common a point; and it is equally strange that, in the oldest charters,
where the Walenses, the remains of the Alcluyd Britons, are
distinctly mentioned, there should not occur a single Welsh patronymic mark, if
the language of the North Britons and the Welsh were so congenerous as he
supposed. If we take, according to Chalmers, the British words in the topography
of Scotland as a proof that the inhabitants spoke Welsh, the same rule would
apply equally to Ireland, where the same British words are prevalent.
- As the death of Alpin occurred in 741, near Dalmellington, on the north
banks of the Doon, it may be inferred that Ayrshire was then an integral part of
Galloway. Yet, though this was the case, it is well known that there were no
sheriffs under the purely Celtic rule of the country, which prevailed until the
eleventh century; and from charters of David I. it is evident that in his
reign, if not previously, the boundaries of Galloway had been greatly
limited.--Paterson, History of the County of Ayr,
p. 1.
- He crossed from Kintyre to Ayr, and then moved
southwards. A great deal of misconception has accompanied his movements. Wyntoun
has been implicitly believed, who wrote his Chronicle about 700 years after the
event, and has not been considered altogether trustworthy in regard to other
matters. And he has rendered it--
- Kyle, according to Buchanan, was so designated from Coilus, King of
the Britons, who was slain and interred in the district. The learned
historian informs us that a civil war having ensued between the Britons who
occupied the south and west of Scotland, and the Scots and the Picts, who were
settled in the north and north-west, the opposing armies met near the banks of
the Doon; and that, by a stratagem, Coilus, who had dispatched a portion
of his forces northward, was encompassed between the Scots and Picts, and
completely routed. He was pursued, overtaken, and slain in a field or moor, in
the parish of Tarbolton, which still retains the name of Coilsfield,
or Coilus's field. Modern inquirers have regarded this as one of the
fables of our early history. Tradition corroborates the fact of some such battle
having been fought.--Paterson, History of the County of Ayr,
vol. i., p. 2.
- but the first would seem to be the proper one. It is the one
most general, and as old as the days of Bellenden.--Paterson, History of the
County of Ayr, vol. i., p. 4.
THE ANGLES
The Scots of Dalriada and a part of the British nation, we are told,
recovered their freedom, the Angles still maintaining the rule over the
rest of the Britons. The portion of their kingdom which became independent
consisted of those districts extending from the Firth of Clyde to the Solway,
embracing the counties of Dumbarton, Renfrew, Lanark, Ayr,
and Dumfries--with the stronghold of Alclyde for its capital; but the
Angles still retained possession of the district of Galloway with its Pictish
population, and Whithorn as their principal seat, as well as that part of
the territory of the Britons which lay between the Solway Firth, and the river
Derwent, having as its principal seat the town of Carlisle, which Ecgfrid
had, in the same year in which he assailed the Picts, given to Saint Cuthbert,
who had been made bishop of Lindisfarne in the previous year, that is in 684.
FROM MALCOLM CANMORE TO KING DAVID
- "Of the collections of the laws of Scotland, the oldest is one which has
been lately restored to this country, from the public library at Berne. It is a
fine and careful MS., written about 1270; and, what adds greatly to its
interest, containing an English law treatise and English styles, as well as some
of the most ancient laws of Scotland, particularly David I.'s venerable
code of Burgh laws; and last of all, the ancient laws of the Marches,
concerted by a grand assize of the borderers of the two kingdoms in 1249.
This singular mixture of the laws of two countries (which might have served as
materials for the mysterious fabrication of a so-called Scotch code) excites our
curiosity as to the owner of the book; but the only clue we find to guide us is
a memorandum scribbled on the last leaf, of an account of sheep taken from John,
the shepherd of Malkariston, on Sunday next before the feast of St. Andrew,
in the year 1306, when the flock is counted in ewes, dynmouts, and hogs.
Next in interest to the Berne MS. is a book of Scotch laws, chiefly Burghal,
which was picked up in a book-stall in Ayr in
1824, and its previous history cannot be traced. It is a fine MS., of the age of
Robert I., or at least of the early half of the fourteenth century. After
that period there is no want of MS. collections of our laws, but all of the
character of private and unauthentic compilations.
- A considerable influx of Normans took place during the time of David,
numbers of them following him out of England when he succeeded to the throne,
and many more entering Scotland afterwards at the invitation of this hospitable
monarch. Their settlement in the West is thus outlined by the author of the
History of the County of Ayr (pp. 18, 19)
although it is likely that more than half of those whose names are mentioned
were of native Celtic families:
- The Saxon language, which, as we have seen, was previously spoken in the east of
Scotland, and partially in the south, was first introduced at the court, in
compliment to the queen, in the region of Malcolm Canmore. Under Edgar,
the Saxon mania made still greater strides. Large bodies of emigrants were
settled throughout the kingdom, both north and south of the Forth.--Paterson,
History of the County of Ayr, vol. i., p. 18.
- Besides the Saxons, many of the Norman nobility, who were dissatisfied
with the rule of the Conqueror, retired to Scotland, where they were encouraged
by every mark of distinction which could be heaped upon them. It seemed to be
the policy of the Scottish kings to encourage the settlement of foreigners, with
a view to consolidate the authority of the crown, and enable them to overcome
the dangerous power of the native clans whose genius and habits were by no means
favourable to concentrated government or the cultivation of commerce.
--Paterson, History of the County af Ayr, vol. i.,
p. I8.
- Normans, Angles, and Scots, and gives the monks the lands of Selkirk and other
lands in Teviotdale, a ploughgate in Berwick, and a croft in the burgh of
Rexburgh, the tenth of his 'can' or dues from Galweia or Galloway, and in
addition some lands in his English lordship of Northampton; and he shows his
independent position by adding that this grant was made while Henry was
reigning in England and Alexander in Scotia, or Scotland proper. Not long
after he refounded the bishopric of Glasgow, to which he appointed John as first
bishop, who had been his tutor. The instrument which records the restoration of
the diocese, and an investigation ordered by Earl David into the
possessions of the see, is still preserved, and may probably be dated some time
between the years 1116 and 1120. In this document it was stated
that 'in the time of Henry, king of England, while Alexander, king
of Scots, was reigning in Scotia, God had sent them David, brother-german
of the king of Scotia, to be their prince and leader;' and, 'David, prince of
the Cumbrian region, causes inquisition to be made into the possessions of the
church of Glasgow in all the provinces of Cumbria which were under his
dominion and power, for he did not rule over the whole of the Cure-brian
region.' The kingdom of Cumbria originally extended from the Firth of Clyde
to the river Derwent, including what was afterwards the dioceses of Glasgow,
Galloway, and Carlisle. That portion, however, which extended from the Solway
Firth to the river Derwent, and afterwards formed the diocese of Carlisle was
wrested from the Scots by William Rufus in 1092, and was bestowed
by Henry the First upon the Ranulf de Meschines. David's possessions in
Cumbria consisted, therefore, of the counties of Lanark, Ayr,
Renfrew, Dumfries, and Peebles, and the inquisition contains lands in these
counties. He was, as we have seen, overlord of Galloway, and his rule extended
also over Lothian and Teviotdale, in the counties of Berwick, Roxburgh, and
Selkirk; for, in a charter by Earl David to the monks of Durham of the
lands of Swinton in Berwickshire, he addresses it to Biship John of Glasgow,
to Gos-patric, Colban and Robert his brothers, and to his thanes and drengs of
Lothian and Teviot-dale; and, in another, Thor of Ednam in Berwickshire calls
him his overlord, or the superior of his lands.
- "We can trace the settlement of these industrious citizens, during the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, in almost every part of Scotland, in Berwick,
in St. Andrews, Perth, Dumbarton, Ayr, Peebles,
Lanark, Edinburgh, and in the districts of Renfrewshire, Clydesdale, and
Annandale, in Fife, in Angus, in Aberdeenshire, and as far north as Inverness
and Urquhart."--Tytler, History of Scotland, vol. ii., chap. iii., § 4.
WILLIAM THE LION
In 1196 William De Moreville, constable of Scotland, having died,
Roland, lord of Galloway, who had married De Moreville's sister, succeeded
him. The same year a revolt occurred in Caithness, some of the Norse inhabitants
having arisen under the lead of Harald, Earl of Orkney and Caithness.
William suppressed the rebellion by marching an army into that district; but the
attempt was repeated the following year, when the rebels appeared in arms under
the command of Torfin, son of Harald. William again marched to the North,
and having seized Harald held him until his son Torfin surrendered himself as a
hostage. The same year (1197) William built the castle of Ayr,
as a menace to the turbulent Galwegians.
THE SECOND AND THIRD ALEXANDERS TO JOHN BALIOL
- towers that hamlets and towns sprung up; and in less than two centuries a vast
change was produced. Ayrshire, notwithstanding the attachment of the inhabitants
to their Celtic habits, seems to have made considerable progress in the new
order of things, though most of the towns and principal villages are of Celtic
origin: for example, Ayr, Irvine, Kilmarnock,
Kil-maurs, Mauchline, Ochiltree, Auchinleck, Cumnock, Ballantrae, Girvan,
Maybole, &c., no doubt took their rise prior to the Saxon era of our
history. Those of more recent times are easily known by the Teutonic affix
tun or ton. They are ten in number: Coylton, Dalmel-lington, Galston,
Monkton, Richarton, Stevenston, Stewarton, Straiton, Symington, and Tarbolton;
and even these are not all wholly Saxon. .
- "Though it is thus apparent that the majority of the
towns and villages of the county took their rise in Celtic times, and while the
Gaelic continued to be the prevailing language, there can be little doubt that
the introduction of foreigners, especially the mercantile Flemings, whom
the mistaken policy of the English monarchs drove from the south, tended greatly
to promote that mercantile prosperity for which the country was distinguished in
the reign of Alexander. In ship-building, in fishing, in agriculture, and
commerce, Scotland was considerably in advance of England in the twelfth
century. The Saxons, Flemings, and other foreigners, are known to have been
settled chiefly in the towns; yet, in Ayrshire at least, they seem to have
constituted but a small body in comparison with the other inhabitants. The
names, so far as they have been preserved in the municipal records of Ayr,
for instance, show that Celtic patronymics were by far the most
numerous."--Paterson, History of tie County of Ayr,
pp., 22, 23.
WALLACE AND BRUCE
- During the progress of these operations Edward had been absent in
Flanders. Upon his return in the early part of the year 1298, having
first vainly summoned the Scottish barons to meet him in a Parliament at York,
he assembled an army and marched toward the Border. At this time, as we have
seen, Wallace had the active support of but a few of the Scottish
noblemen, the great majority being deterred from taking up arms through fear of
Edward or by reason of their jealousy of Wallace. Among his followers, however,
were John Comyn of Badenoch, Sir John Stewart of Bon-kill, brother
to the Steward, Sir John Graham of Abercorn, Macduff, the
granduncle of the Earl of Fife, and young Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick.
The leader last named guarded the castle of Ayr.
- Edward now marched into the West, stopping first to repair Stirling
Castle which had been burned by the Scots, and then proceeding into Annan-dale.
At his approach, it is said, Bruce burned the castle of Ayr
and retired. Edward thereupon seized Bruce's castle of Lochmaben in
Dumfries, wherein were confined the hostages given in 1297 as pledges for
the loyalty of Galloway.
- The story, however, is not inconsistent with probability. I cannot say so much
for the famous story of the barns of Ayr. It is
asserted that Wallace, accompanied by Sir John Graham, Sir John
Mentieth, and Alexander Scrymgeour, Constable of Dundee, went
into the west of Scotland to chastise the men of Galloway, who had espoused the
party of the Comyns and the English; that, on the 28th August, 1298,
they set fire to some granaries in the neighhour-hood of Ayr,
and burnt the English cantoned in them (A. Blair, p. 5; J. Major, fol. 70). This
relation is liable to much suspicion. 1. Sir John Graham could have no
share in the enterprise, for he was killed at Falkirk 22d July, I298. 2. Comyn
the younger, of Badenoch, was the only man of the name of Comyn who had any
interest in Galloway, and he was at that time of Wallace's party. 3. It is not
probable that Wallace would have undertaken such an enterprise immediately after
the discomfiture at Folkirk. I believe that this story took its rise from the
pillaging of the English quarters about the time of the treaty of Irvine in
1297, which, as being an incident of little consequence, I omitted in the
course of this history. (See W. Hemingford, t. i., p. 123.)--Hailes, Annals of
Scotland, vol. i., p. 280.
- For some time after that the Earl of Carrick acted a very dubious part.
Heming-burgh says that "when he heard of the king's coming [westward, after
Falkirk], he fled from his face and burnt the castle of Ayr
which he held." But the testimony of both English and Scottish chroniclers
is of little value, for it was the object of both, with different motives, to
make it appear that Bruce attached himself early to the national cause.
There is extant a letter written by Bruce from Turnberry Castle on July
3d, apparently in this year, to Sir John de Langton, Chancellor of
England, begging a renewal of the protection to three knights who were with him
on the king's service in Galloway. Again, in another document, undated, but
apparently written in the late autumn of 1298, Bruce is commanded by King
Edward to bring 1000 picked men of Galloway and Carrick to join an expedition
about to be made into Scotland. However, as there is some doubt about the date
of these papers, Bruce's attitude during 1298 must be held to be uncertain. It
is to be noted, however, that when Edward, on returning to England after his
victory at Falkirk, made grants of land in Scotland to his followers, Annandale
and Carrick, held by the elder and younger Bruce, were not among the lands so
disposed of. Nevertheless, the Bruces do not seem to have been in possession of
Annandale at this time, for in 1299 Sir Alan FitzWarin defended
Loch-maben Castle against the Earl of Carrick from 1st to 25th
August. This was the immediate outcome of a notable arrangement come to during
that summer, whereby the Earl of Carrick (whom, to avoid confusion, I may
hereafter designate by his modern title of Bruce), William de Lamberton,
Bishop of St. Andrews, and John Comyn of Badenoch (the "Red
Comyn") constituted themselves guardians of Scotland in the name of King
John (de Balliol). Bruce, as the principal guardian, was to have custody of the
castles, but he appears to have been still wavering, for we hear nothing
definite of his movements till after the year 1300.
SCOTLAND UNDER CHARLES I.
- At a meeting of the Glasgow Synod, John Lindsay preached, after being
warned by some of the women in the congregation that "if he should touch
the service book in his sermon, he should be sent out of his pulpit."
William Annan, minister of Ayr, in a
sermon preached before the same Synod, defended the liturgy. Afterwards, on
leaving the church, he was assailed with cries and reproaches; which were
repeated whenever he appeared on the streets. Returning one night from the
bishop's residence, he was surrounded by some hundreds of persons, most of whom
were women, and assailed with neaves, staves, and peats. "They beat him
sore," says the old chronicle, "his cloak, ruff, and hat were torn.
However, on his cries, and lights set out from many windows he escaped all
bloody wounds." At Brechin, the bishop of that district armed himself with
pistols, and entering the church with his family and servants, bolted and barred
the doors, and read the service to his followers. On coming out, he was set upon
by the people, nearly killed by their treatment, and obliged to leave the place
and give up his bishopric.
- parishes and also from a number of the principal burghs, with large numbers of
the gentry and commoners from the counties of Fife, Stirling, Lothian, Ayr,
and Lanark, arrived in Edinburgh, all resolved to defend the purity and freedom
of their national religion. This multitude crowded the streets; when lodging
failed they camped at the gates and beneath the walls of the city. They came to
petition the king, through his Council, against the service-book and the change
in public worship. Their petitions were received, and a promise was given that
they should have his Majesty's answer on October 17th.
THE SCOTTISH PLANTATION OF DOWN AND ANTRIM
Hamilton founded the towns of Bangor and Killyleagh, in county Down,
and there is no doubt that he did "plant" the land which he had
acquired with Scottish tenants, the most of them evidently from the same
counties in Scotland -- Ayr, Renfrew, Wigtown,
Dumfries, and Kirkcudbright--as the men who followed Montgomery. The names of
some of those who held farms from the Hamilton estates in 1681 and 1688
appear on rent-rolls of those years as follows (Hamilton Manuscripts, pp.
108-111, 125-131), the majority of these residing in and near the towns of
Bangor and Killyleagh:
STEWART'S AND BRERETON'S ACCOUNTS OF THE PLANTATION OF ULSTER
Mr. George Dunbar, who had been once minister in Ayr
in Scotland, but being ousted by the bishop came to Ireland, and laboured with
great effect. After he was put from Ayr, he was
for a time prisoner at Blackness, and in Ireland first preached at Carrickfergus,
but having no entertainment there, stayed a while at Ballymena, then came
to Larne, or Inver, by whose means all that country heard the Word, and were
first gathered unto the Lord.
CHURCH RULE IN IRELAND AND ITS RESULTS
- At that time, many of the rectors in the Episcopal Church were laymen. One of
these was Lord Claneboy, who was rector of a number of parishes. Being a
Presbyterian himself, he made Presbyterians his vicars. To them he gave
one-third of the Church revenues of the parishes in which they officiated. This
secured to each of them about twenty pounds per annum, which, it is probable,
was supplemented by a few pounds yearly from the people. Blair was ordained in
the Presbyterian form, Bishop Echlin consenting to officiate as a presbyter. In 1626
Josias Welsh, son of John Welsh, of Ayr,
and grandson of John Knox, likewise resigned his professorship at
Glasgow, and settled at Templepatrick in Antrim, being ordained by his
kinsman Knox, who had succeeded Montgomery as bishop of Raphoe. In 1630
he was followed by John Livingston, minister at Torpichen, who had been
"silenced" in 1627 by Archbishop Spottiswoode. Like Blair, he was
ordained by a bishop (Knox) who became a "presbyter" for the time
being.
- had been raised for the war in Ireland was seized to carry
on war against Charles. The Scottish regiments, therefore, fared very
badly, and at times seem to have been driven to live on the country in which
they were settled. The campaign of 1643 was not a brilliant one, although
ground was recovered. The winter found the troops very discontented; they had
received almost no pay since they landed, and when news came of the proposed
expedition into England in support of the Parliament, three of the regiments
were no longer to be held back, but returned to Scotland against orders. The
Ulster settlers were greatly alarmed at the prospect of being left unprotected
should the rest of the Scottish troops also go; but fortunately a supply of
money and of provisions arrived at Carrickfergus in April, 1644--a
portion of the food being a free gift of three thousand bolls of meal from the
shire of Ayr. About the same time, too, the Dutch
showed their sympathy with the cause of Protestantism in Ireland by making a
collection in all the churches of Holland by order of the States-General; they
transmitted to Ulster four shiploads of provisions and clothing, which were
distributed among both people and soldiery.
- The following were the first Calvinistic ministers established in Ulster: Edward
Brice, (from Stirlingshire), Broadisland, Antrim, 1613: Robert Cunningham,
Holywood, Down, 1615; John Ridge (from England), Antrim, Antrim, 1619; --Hubbard
(from England),Carrickfergus, Antrim, 1621; Robert Blair (from Glasgow), Bangor,
Down, 1623; James Hamilton (from Ayr),
Ballywalter, Down, 1625; Josias Welsh (from Ayr),
Templepatrick, Antrim, 1626; Andrew Stewart, Donegore. Antrim, 1627; George
Dunbar (from Ayr), Larne, Down, 1628; Henry
Colwort (from England), Oldstone, Down, 1629; John Livingston (from Torpichen),
Killinchy, Down, 1630; John McClelland, Newton-Ards, Down, 1630; John Semple,
Enniskillen in Magheriboy and. Tyrkennedy.
AYRSHIRE
WHO ARE THE SCOTCH-IRISH?
Smith, Moore, Boyd, Johnson, M'Millan, Brown, Bell,
Campbell, M'Neill, Crawford, M'Alister, Hunter, Macaulay, Robinson, Wallace,
Millar, Kennedy, and Hill. The list has a very Scottish flavor altogether,
although it may be noted that the names that are highest on the list are those
which are common to both England and Scotland: for it may be taken for granted
that the English "Thompson" has swallowed up the Scottish
"Thomson," that "Moore" includes the Ayrshire
"Muir," and that the Annandale "Johnstones" have been merged
by the writer in the English "Johnsons." One other point is very
striking--that the great Ulster name of O'Neill is wanting, and also the Antrim
"Macdonnel." . . . Another strong proof of the Scottish blood of the
Ulstermen may be found by taking the annual reports presented to the General
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland, held in June, 1887. Here are the
names of the men, lay and clerical, who sign these reports, the names being
taken as they occur: J. W. Whigham, Jackson Smith, Hamilton Magee, Thomas
Armstrong, William Park, J. M. Rodgers, David Wilson, George Macfarland, Thomas
Lyle, W. Rogers, J. B. Wylie, W. Young, E. F. Simpson, Alexander Turnbull, John
Malcolm, John H. Orr. Probably the reports of our three Scottish churches taken
together could not produce so large an average of Scottish surnames.-- The Scot
in Ulster, Edinburgh, 1888, pp. 103-105.
SCOTLAND OF TO-DAY
In this district are to be found the
chief evidences in Scotland of the birth or residence of King Arthur and his
Knights of the Round Table. Dumbartonshire is the reputed birthplace of St.
Patrick, Ireland's teacher and patron saint. Elderslie, in
Renfrewshire, is said to have been the birthplace of Scotland's national hero, William
Wallace. Robert Bruce also, son of Marjorie, Countess of Carrick
and daughter of Nigel or Niall (who was himself the Celtic Earl of Carrick and
grandson of Gilbert, son of Fergus, Lord of Galloway), was, according to popular
belief, born at his mother's castle of Turnberry, in Ayrshire.
The seat of the High Stewards of Scotland, ancestors of the royal family of the Stuarts,
was in Renfrewshire. The paternal grandfather of William Ewart Gladstone
was born in Lanarkshire. John Knox's father is said to have belonged
to the Knox family of Renfrew-shire. Robert Burns was born in Ayrshire.
The sect called the "Lollards," who were the earliest
Protestant reformers in Scotland, appear first in Scottish history as coming
from Kyle in Ayrshire, the same district which afterwards furnished a large part
of the leaders and armies of the Reformation. The Covenanters and
their armies of the seventeenth century were mainly from the same part of the
kingdom. Glasgow, the greatest manufacturing city of Europe, is situated in the
heart of this district.
THE SCOTS AND PICTS
- In 733, Eochaidh, King of Dalriada, having died, Selbhac's
son, Dungal, regained the throne of that kingdom. During the next year,
Dungal having aroused the anger of Angus by an attack upon the latter's
son, Brude, the Pictish king invaded Dalriada, and put its ruler to
flight. Two years later (in 736), Angus destroyed the Scots' city of
Creic, and taking possession of Donad, the capital, he laid waste all
Dalriada, put in chains the two sons of Selbhac, and appears to have driven out
the fighting men of the two leading clans. One of these, the Cinel Loarn,
was then under the chiefship of Muredach, and the other, the Cinel
Gabhran, was ruled by that Alpin mac Eachaidh who had been
driven from the Pictish throne by Nechtan in 728. Both of these
chieftains attempted to free their country from the grasp of the invader by
carrying the war into Pictland. Muredach fought the Picts on the banks of
the Avon (at Carriber), where he was opposed by Talorgan, brother
to Angus, and was completely defeated and routed by that lieutenant. Alpin
himself, about 740, likewise invaded Ayrshire,
the country of the Galloway Picts, and though he succeeded in "laying waste
the lands of the Galwegians," he met his death the following year while in
their territories. In the same year in which Alpin was killed (741),
Angus is said to have completed the conquest of Dalriada. Its subjection to the
Picts must have continued at least during the period of his life.
- Simeon of Durham tells us that a battle was fought in 744
between the Picts and the Britons, and in 750, the Picts, under the
leadership of Telor-gan, the brother of Angus, met the Britons in a great
battle at Magedauc (in Dumbartonshire), in which Telorgan was
slain. Eadberht, Anglic king of Northumbria, in 750, added to his
Galloway possessions the plain of Kyle (in Ayrshire)
and "adjacent regions." He formed an alliance with Angus
- Clyde, and comprised all modern Wales, Cheshire, Lancashire, part of
Westmoreland, Cumberland, Dumfriesshire, Ayrshire,
Lanarkshire, and Renfrewshire, Novantia, however, remained Pictish--i. e.,
Goidelic--in speech and race. Thus, whatever had been the affinity in earlier
centuries between the Selgovae of Dumfriesshire and the Novantae,
or Attecotts, of Galloway, it had been replaced in the sixth century by
hereditary racial enmity. Galloway was peopled by Attecott Picts;
Annandale, Nithsdale, and Strathclyde by Britons, Cymri, or Welshmen
.... In the sixth century, then, there were four races contending for what was
formerly the Roman province of Valencia--(I) the Britons, Cymri, or
Welsh, ancient subjects of Rome, who may be regarded as the legitimate
inhabitants; (2) the Northern and .....
THE BRITONS
- On their departure from Britain in 407 the Roman Government
probably calculated on re-establishing their authority at no distant day, and
left certain officials of native birth to administer the government, which for a
time they had been forced to relinquish. For some time previous to this Britain
had been divided into five provinces, of which Valentia, the
northernmost, so named by Theodosius in honour of the Emperor
Valentinian, was left under the rule of Cunedda or Kenneth,
the son of Edarn or Aeternus. Tradition says that his mother was a
daughter of Coel Hen, British King of Strathclyde, whose name is
preserved in that of the district of Kyle in Ayrshire,
and in our nursery rhyme of "Old King Cole." (Coel Hen
signifies Old Cole.) Cunedda's official title as ruler of Valentia was Dux
Britan-niarum, or Duke of the Britons. He left eight sons, some of whom
became, like their father, very powerful and distinguished. From one of these, Melreon,
the county of Merioneth is named; from another, Keredig, the
county of Cardigan.--Maxwell, History of Dumfries and Galloway, pp. 31,
32.
- The five Romanized tribes of North Britain continued to occupy
their respective districts, and were known in history as the Cumbrians,
or Walenses. They remained divided, as formerly, in clanshlps, each
independent of the other, and an almost constant civil war was the consequence.
They were exposed to repeated inroads from the Scots and Picts;
and to the invasion of a still more dangerous enemy--the Saxons--who, in
the fifth century, extended. their conquests along the east coast of North
Britain, from the Tweed to the Forth; the defeated Otadini and Gadeni
falling back among their countrymen, the Damnonii, and other tribes who
occupied the Lothians. Seeing the peril by which they were surrounded--he Picts
and Scots on the north, and the Saxons on the south--the inhabitants of Ayrshire,
Renfrew-shire, Lanarkshire, Dumfriesshire, Liddesdale, Teviotdale, Galloway, and
the greater part of Dumbartonshire and Stirlingshire, formed themselves into a
distinct kingdom called Alcluyd. The metropolis of the kingdom--Alcluyd--was,
no doubt, situated on the banks of the Clyde,
THE NORSE AND GALLOWAY
- In 740, Alpin (son of Eachaidh by a Pictish
mother), who had been successively king of the Northern Picts (726) and king of
the Scots (729) and who later was driven out of those kingdoms by Angus,
entered Galloway (Ayrshire) with an army and laid
its territory waste. In 741 he was defeated by Innrechtach near
the Dee, and obliged to retreat to Loch Ryan, where he was
assassinated
- regions to his Galloway domain. These "other regions" are
generally supposed to have been portions of the adjacent districts of Cuninghame
and Carrick in Ayrshire. They were
retained as dependencies until the close of the same century, when by reason of
civil feuds at home, and the increasing invasions of the Norsemen from without,
the Angles were compelled to withdraw from Galloway and their suzerainty was
given up.
- The only authorities referred to by Chalmers consist of an entire
misap-plication of two passages from the Ulster Annals. He says: "In 682
A.D., Cathasao, the son of Maoledun, the Mormaor of the
Ulster Cruithne, sailed with his followers from Ireland, and landing on
the Firth of Clyde, among the Britons, he was encountered and slain by them near
Mauchlin, in Ayr, at a place to which the Irish gave the name of Rathmore,
or great fort. In this stronghold Cathasao and his Cruithne had probably
attacked the Britons, who certainly repulsed them with decisive
success."--Ulster An., sub. an. 682. "In 702 the Ulster Cruithne made
another attempt to obtain settlement among the Britons on the Firth of Clyde,
but they were again repulsed in the battle of Culin."--Ib., sub. an. 702.
The original texts of these passages is as follows: "682. Beltum Rathamoire
Maigiline contra Britones ubi ceciderunt Catusach mac Maelduin Ri Cruithne et
Ultan filius Dicolla. 702. Bellum Campi Cullinn in Airdo nepotum Necdaig inter
Ultu et Britones ubi filius Radgaind cecidit. Ecclesiarum Dei Utait victores
erant." Now, both of these battles were fought in Ulster. Rathmore, or
great fort of Maigiline, which Chalmers supposed to be Mauchlin, in Ayr, was the
chief seat of the Cruithne in Dalaraidhe, or Dalaradia, and is now called
Moylinny. See Reeves's Antiquities of Down and Connor, p 70. Airdo nepotum
Necdaig, or Arduibh Eachach, was the Barony of Iveagh, also in Dalaradia, in
Ulster (Ib., p. 348); and these events were attacks by the Britons upon the
Cruith-nigh of Ulster, where the battles were fought, and not attacks by the
latter upon the British inhabitants of Ayrshire
- In 740, however, the Alcluydensians of Kyle were
invaded by Alpin, king of the Scots, who landed at Ayr with a large body of
followers. He is said to have wasted the country between the Ayr and the Doon as
far inland as the vicinity of Dalmellington, about sixteen miles from the sea.
There he was met by an armed force under the chiefs of the district, and a
battle having ensued, Alpin was slain, and his army totally routed. The spot
where the king was buried is called at this day Laicht-Alpin, or the Grave of
Alpin. Chalmers observes that this fact is important, as showing that the Gaelic
language was then the prevailing tongue in Ayrshire.
No doubt it is: but it is one of the strongest arguments that could be urged
against his theory that the Gaelic was superinduced upon the British, which he
holds was the language of the Caledonian Picts, as well as the Romanised tribes.
If the Damnonii of Ayrshire spoke Gaelic in 836,
they must have done so long before; because at that period, as we have seen, the
Scots of Argyle had made no settlement in Ayrshire.
- The evidences of a considerable Gaelic admixture in the blood of the
early southwestern Scotchmen are also shown in their place-names and surnames.
This is particularly the case in Ayrshire, which
was the native county of the first emigrants to Antrim and Down in the
seventeenth century. To again quote the author of the History of the County of
Ayr (vol. i., pp. 9, 16, 17):
- In so far as Ayrshire is concerned, there
can be no doubt that the early inhabitants were purely Celtic; whether called
Britons, Belgae, Scots, Picts, or Cruithne, they must all have been of Gallic
extraction. This is apparent in the topography of the country, the hill-forts,
stone-monuments, and Druidi-cal and other remains which have everywhere been
found. Even yet, notwithstanding the frequent accessions, in later times, of
Saxons, Normans, and Flemings, the bulk of the population retains much of its
original features. This appears in the prevailing patronymics, many of which
preserve their Celtic prefixes, such as. M'Culloch, M'Creath, M'Crindle, M'Adam,
M'Phad-tic, or M'Phedries; or have dropped them like the Alexanders, Andrewses,
Kennedies, and Bones, within these few centuries. Campbell is a numerous
surname. The Celtic lineaments are perhaps not so strong in Cuninghame, at least
in the middle portion of it, as in the other districts; but this is easily
accounted for by the early settlements of the De Morville, and other great
families from England, in the richest parts of it. In Pont's maps, drawn up at
the commencement of the seventeenth century, the Celtic names are more numerous
both in Kyle and Cuninghame than in the maps of the present day. The Gaelic
language is said [by Buchanan] to have been spoken in some quarters of Ayrshire
so late as the sixteenth century.
- We thus have Galloway and Ayrshire
transformed into an Anglo-Saxon province, as having been fully in their
possession. The meanings given of all three are entirely erroneous. Boreland, as
Bordland, is to be found as "lands kept by owners in Saxon times for the
supply of their own board or table, but it referred specially to the Norsemen,
from the Orkneys to Galloway, as lands exempt from skatt, the land-tax, for the
upholding of Government. Ingleston has been corrupted by some writers to
Englishtoun, the abode of the English, whereas it is also from the Norse and
refers to land of a certain character or quality. Under our reference to the
Norse occupation of Galloway, we will enter into more particulars in regard to
the names Boreland and Engleston. Lastly, Carleton, being from ceorles, is very
far-fetched. If it had been from a Saxon source as indicated, the class from
whom it is said to have been derived must have been very few (three or four) in
number .... Other lands in Wigtonshire, and Borgue parish, Kirkcudbrightshire,
got the same designation from descendants who removed there.
- Under the alleged Saxon occupation, which is erroneous, we have referred
to Boreland, Ingleston, and Carleton, at pp. 87, 88. The first two are from the
Norse, and the last from an Irish personal name. The Lothians were for a time in
the possession of the Anglo-Saxons (so-called), and yet, after careful
investigation, the first is not to be found there, and the second, only once, in
West Lothian. We find a Boreland in Peeblesshire, a property so called in
Cumnock parish, and Boarland in Dunlop parish, Ayrshire.
There are also lands so called in Dumfriesshire, near the mouth of the Nith,
which Timothy Pont gives in his survey as North, Mid, and South Bordland. The
Borelands in Galloway are so numerous that we must deal with them as one, for
there are fourteen farms with the name in the Stewartry, and three in
Wigtonshire.
- Ayrshire is divided by the rivers Doon
and Irvine into three districts-- Carrick, Kyle, and Cunninghame. At what period
these three were erected into a sheriffdom is not precisely known. Wyntoun, the
venerable aud generally accurate chronicler of Scotland, speaking of the wars of
Alpin with the Picts, says:
- As the death of Alpin occurred in 741, near Dalmellington, on the north
banks of the Doon, it may be inferred that Ayrshire
was then an integral part of Galloway. Yet, though this was the case, it is well
known that there were no sheriffs under the purely Celtic rule of the country,
which prevailed until the eleventh century; and from charters of David I. it is
evident that in his reign, if not previously, the boundaries of Galloway had
been greatly limited.--Paterson, History of the County of Ayr, p. 1.
- "Galloway anciently comprehended not only the country now known by
that name, and the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, but also the greatest part, if
not the whole, of Ayrshire. It had its own
princes and its own laws. It acknowledged, however, a feudatory dependence on
Scotland. This dependence served only to supply the sovereign with rude
undisciplined soldiers, who added rather to the terror than to the strength of
his armies.
- The story of the devastation of the district rests on these lines. There
is no doubt that he never overran Wigtonshire, nor was even in it. He was only
on the borders of present Galloway, and there was slain, not in battle, as is
generally supposed, but by an assassin who lay in wait for him at the place,
near Loch Ryan, where the small burn separates Ayrshire
from Wigtonshire. An upright pillar stone marks the spot, and was called Laicht
Alpln, which in the Scoto-Irish means the stone or grave of Alpin.--Galloway,
Ancient and Modern, p. 65. 23. Bede, continuation of Chronicle, Anno
750.
- These nations had now resumed their normal relation to each other-- east
against west --the Picts and Angles again in alliance, and opposed to them the
Britons and the Scots. Simeon of Durham tells us that in 744 a battle was fought
between the Picts and the Britons, but by the Picts, Simeon usually understands
the Picts of Galloway, and this battle seems to have followed the attack upon
them by Alpin and his Scots. It was followed by a combined attack upon the
Britons of Alclyde by Eadberct of Northumbria, and Angus, king of the Picts. The
chronicle annexed to Bede tells us that in 750 Eadberct added the plain of Cyil
with other regions to his kingdom. This is evidently Kyle in Ayrshire,
and the other regions were probably Carrick and Cuninghame, so that the king of
Northumbria added to his possessions of Galloway on the north side of the Solway
the whole of Ayrshire.--Celtic Scotland, vol. i.,
pp. 294-5.
- "Under Eadberht the Northumbrian supremacy had reached as far as the
district of Kyle in Ayrshire; and the capture
of Alclwyd by his allies, the Picts, in 756, seemed to leave the
rest of Strathclyde at his mercy. But from that moment the tide had turned; a
great defeat shattered Eadberht's hopes; and in the anarchy which
followed his reign district after district must have been torn from the weakened
grasp of Northumbria, till the cessation of the line of her bishops at Whithern
(Badulf, the last bishop of Whithern of the Anglo-Saxon succession
whose name is preserved, was consecrated in 791. Sim. Durh. ad. ann.) tells that
her frontier had been pushed back almost to Carlisle. But even after the land
that remained to her had been in English possession for nearly a century and a
half it was still no English land. Its great land-owners were of English blood,
and as the Church of Lindisfarne was richly endowed here, its
priesthood was probably English too. But the conquered Cumbrians had been left
by Ecgfrith on the soil, and in its local names we find few traces of any
migration over moors from the east ....
FROM MALCOLM CANMORE TO KING DAVID
- Adjoining the Cymric Celts on the west and south were the Attecott
Picts of Galloway (probably the descendants of the Stone-Age, non-Celtic
aborigines), together with the Gaelic inhabitants of the districts of Cunningham
and Kyle, then also in Galloway, but now in Ayrshire.
Both of these races were more or less mixed with the Norse; and the Norse
likewise occupied the greater part of Caithness and Sutherland, with portions of
the western coast, Ross, and Moray. They also doubtless formed a considerable
part of the population all along the eastern shore as far south as the
Forth--and in the southern districts they may have been largely mixed with the
Anglic population from Bernicia.
- When David I., who married an English countess who had numerous
vassals, ascended the throne in 1124, he is said to have been followed at
successive periods, by no fewer than a thousand Anglo-Normans. During the reign
of this monarch, Hugh de Morville, amongst others, came to Scotland, and,
besides being appointed High Constable, was endowed with vast grants of land. He
possessed the greater part of Cuninghame, and, under his auspices, a
number of families, who afterwards rose to high feudal distinction, were settled
in that district. The Loudoun family, who assumed the name of the lands
as their patronymic, were Anglo-Normans. So were the progenitors of the
Cuninghames. The Rosses were also vassals of Hugh de Morville. Godfrey
de Ros acquired the lands of Stewarton from Richard de Morville.
Stephen, the son of Richard, obtained lands in Cuninghame, which
he called Stephen's-tun (Stephenston of
the present day). The Lock-harts of Lanarkshire and Ayrshire
are of Anglo-Norman descent. Simond, the son of Malcolm, who
settled in Lanarkshire, held lands under the Stewart family in Kyle,
which he called Syming-tun, now Symington. The Colvilles,
who possessed Ochiltree for some time, were from England. The Mont-gomeries
of Eaglesham, and subsequently of Eglintoun, were Norman, and vassals
of Walter the High Steward, who obtained the greater part of Ren-frewshire. A
brother of Walter is conjectured, upon good grounds, to have been the ancestor
of the Boyds. The Stewarts were themselves Anglo-Nor-mans, as were
also the Bruces of Annandale and Carrick. The Wallaces of Kyle
are supposed to have been of Norman descent [very improbable], from one
Eimerus Galleius, whose name appears as a witness to the charter of the
Abbey of Kelso, founded by David I. That the progenitors of the Hero of Scotland
came from England is further held to be countenanced by the fact that there
existed in London, in the thirteenth century, certain persons of the name of Waleis;
but none of our historians or genealogists have been able to trace the slightest
family connection between them; neither is it known at what period, if Norman or
English, they settled in Scotland. The first of the name on record is Richard
Walense, who witnesses a charter to the monks of Paisley, by Walter the High
Steward, before the year 1174. The name came to be afterwards softened to
Waleys or Wallace. In the absence of direct proof to the contrary, it is not
unreasonable to conjecture that the Wallaces were native Scots. Some consider
them to have been Welsh, apparently without reference to the fact that the Alcluydensians
are often confounded in history by the terms British and
Welsh.
- There were also the Boyles, Blairs, Dunlops, Fullartons, Hunters,
Fair-lies, Linns, Eglintouns, Fergushills, Muirs, Monfoids, Auchinlecks,
etc., who rose out of Ayrshire; and the Stewarts,
Sempills, Caldwells, Ralstouns, Walkinshaws, Brisbanes, Dennistouns,
Porterfields, Lyles, Houstouns, Cath-carts, Pollocks, Whytefuirds, Knoxes,
Cochranes, etc., out of Renfrewshire --all of whom were of considerable
status.
- There was one Alan le Fenwick, connected, no doubt, with the
parish in this county. of that name, who swore fealty to Edward I. It is
rather surprising that neither the Kennedies, a very extensive and old
Celtic clan in Carrick, nor the Boyds, are mentioned amongst the
foregoing. Whether Vestiarium Scoticum be a forgery or not, the families
enumerated are well known to have flourished in the Lowlands; and, indeed, most
of them are in existence at this moment. It is obvious, therefore, that the
Celtic population, at least the chiefs, had been superseded to a great extent.
In Ayrshire, as already stated, the mass of the
inhabitants, were purely Celtic; but, as in other districts, the bulk of the
property passed into the hands of Norman and Saxon emigrants, with whose
followers the towns and villages were crowded. This infusion of foreign blood
was not effected without some difficulty. The Celtic population were greatly
opposed to the new system, and they broke out into frequent insurrections. When William
was made prisoner at Alnwick in 1174, a general rising took place
against the strangers, who were compelled to take shelter in the king's castles.
During the reigns of Edgar, Alexander 1., David I., and Malcolm
IV., various disturbances occurred in consequence of the prejudices
entertained by the old against the new race. The repeated irruptions of the
Galwegians, whose territory included not only Carrick but Kyle and
Cuninghame, at the commencement of the reign of David I., must of
course have involved what now constitutes Ayrshire
in the struggle. On the captivity of William, Galloway rose in revolt,
slew the English and Normans, expelled the king's officers, and destroyed his
castles.
WILLIAM THE LION
"The extent to which the feudal and Norman element had already been
introduced into the south of Scotland, while under the rule of earls, by David,
will be apparent when we examine the relation between the Norman barons
who witness his charters and the land under his sway. The most prominent of
those who witness the foundation charter of Selkirk are four Norman barons, who
possessed extensive lordships in the north of England. The first was Hugo de
Moreville, and we find him in possession of extensive lands in Lauderdale,
Lothian, and Cuningham in Ayrshire. The
second was Paganus de Braosa. The third Robertus de Brus, who
acquired the extensive district of Annandale in Dumfriesshire; and the fourth Robertus
de Umfraville, received grants of Kinnaird and Dunipace in Stirlingshire. Of
the other Norman Knights who witness this charter, and also the inquisition, Gavinus
Ridel, Berengarius Engaine, Robertus Corbet, and Alanus de Perci
possess manors in Teviotdale. Walterus de Lindesaya has extensive possessions in
Upper Clydesdale, Mid and East Lothian and in the latter districts Robertus
de Burneville is also settled. In Scotland proper the character in which
David ruled will be best seen by contrasting his charters with those of his
predecessors. Eadgar, who possessed the whole kingdom north of the Tweed
and the Solway, addresses his charters to all his faithful men in his kingdom,
Scots and Angles. Alexander, who possessed the kingdom north of the
Firths of Forth and Clyde alone, to the bishops and earls, and all his faithful
men of the kingdom of Scotia. A charter granted by David, in the third year of
his accession to the throne, to the monks of Durham, of lands in Lothian, is
addressed to all dwelling throughout his kingdom in Scotland and Lothian, Scots
and Angles; but when we enter Scotland proper, and compare his foundation
charter of Dun-fermline with that of Scone by his predecessor Alexander I.,
there is a marked contrast between them. Alexander grants his charter to Scone,
with the formal assent and concurrence of the seven earls of Scotland; and it is
confirmed by the two bishops of the only dioceses which then existed in Scotland
proper, with exception of St. Andrews, which was vacant, and the witnesses are
the few Saxons who formed his personal attendants, Edward the constable, Alfric
the pincerna, and others. King David's charter to Dunfermline, a foundation also
within Scotland proper, is granted 'by his royal authority and power, with the
assent of his son Henry, and with the formal confirmation of his queen Matilda,
and the bishops, earls, and barons of his kingdom, the clergy and people
acquiescing.' Here we see the feudal baronage of the kingdom occupying the place
of the old constitutional body of the seven earls, while the latter appear only
as individually witnessing the charter. David's subsequent charters to
Dunfermline show this still more clearly, for they are addressed to the
'bishops, abbots, earls, sheriffs, barons, governors, and officers, and all the
good men of the whole land, Norman, English, and Scotch'; in short, the feudal
community or 'communitas regni,' consisting of those holding lands of the crown,
while the old traditionary earls of the Celtic kingdom appear among the
witnessess only."-- Celtic Scotland, vol. i., 458-459.
THE SECOND AND THIRD ALEXANDERS TO JOHN BALIOL
- In 1263, the Norwegian king, Haco, built and manned
a large fleet at Bergen. Sailing westward to the Orkneys, he levied additional
forces there and from his vassals in the Western Isles. Thence sailing south
along the western coast of Scotland he entered the Firth of Clyde, and
approached the coast of Ayrshire, having with him
about 160 vessels. The Norwegians prepared to disembark at Largs in Cuningham,
with the intention of invading Scotland. Here, a tempest having arisen and raged
for some days, many of the ships were disabled or lost, and the army became
disheartened; so that when they were attacked by the Scots of the surrounding
country, their resistance was not sufficient to withstand the first onset. They
were scattered and fled; such as could make good their retreat returned with
Haco to the Orkneys, where that defeated and disappointed sea-king immediately
afterwards sickened and died.
- towers that hamlets and towns sprung up; and in less than two centuries
a vast change was produced. Ayrshire,
notwithstanding the attachment of the inhabitants to their Celtic habits, seems
to have made considerable progress in the new order of things, though most of
the towns and principal villages are of Celtic origin: for example, Ayr, Irvine,
Kilmarnock, Kil-maurs, Mauchline, Ochiltree, Auchinleck, Cumnock, Ballantrae,
Girvan, Maybole, &c., no doubt took their rise prior to the Saxon era of our
history. Those of more recent times are easily known by the Teutonic affix tun
or ton. They are ten in number: Coylton, Dalmel-lington, Galston, Monkton,
Richarton, Stevenston, Stewarton, Straiton, Symington, and Tarbolton; and even
these are not all wholly Saxon. .
WALLACE AND BRUCE
joined the standard of revolt, among them being Robert Wisheart, Bishop of
Glasgow; Alexander de Lindesay, the Steward of Scotland and
his brother, Sir Richard Lundin, and Robert de Brus (Bruce). The
patriots soon had a considerable army gathered, which was posted in the vicinity
of Irvine in Ayrshire. Here, Henry de
Percy, having marched to the scene of the uprising with a considerable
force, found them.
FROM BRUCE TO FLODDEN
Another view of the character of James IV. is to be
found in the first book of John Knox's History of the Reformation in
Scotland. This account is doubly interesting from the light it throws on the
religious condition of Scotland at that period. From Knox's history, it will be
seen that Protestantism in Scotland originated in
Ayrshire and the other counties of the west
--ever the most enlightened and progressive part of the kingdom. Knox's account
is as follows (the italics are his):
THE BEGINNING OF THE REFORMATION
- Toward the end of the summer of 1550, Adam Wallace, a man
of humble rank from Ayrshire, was accused of
heresy, condemned, and burned at Edinburgh. In England the period of persecution
under Mary Tudor and Philip of Spain caused many Scotsmen who had formerly fled
across the Border to return home. Knox also came back from Geneva in
September,
- of Ayrshire, John Douglas, Paul
Methven, and others. In December, 1557, a number of the nobles came
out on the side of the Reformation movement, and joined in a bond, known as the
First Covenant, by which they agreed to assist each other in advancing the
reformation of religion, in "maintaining God's true congregation, and
renouncing the congregation of Satan." Among those who subscribed this
document were Archibald Campbell, Earl of Argyle, and his son Archibald
(Lord Lorne), Alexander Cunningham, Earl of Glencairn, James Douglas,
Earl of Morton, and John Erskine of Dun. The leaders of this movement
came to be known as "the Lords of the Congregation."
- As a result of the preaching of William Harlaw and others in
Edinburgh, some of the young men of that city took the image of St. Giles and
threw it into the North Loch. It was afterwards drawn out and burned. This
affair made a great sensation. Through the influence of the bishops with the
queen regent, four of the chief preachers were cited to appear before the
justiciary court at Stirling, on May 10, 1559. The preachers resolved to
answer the summons, but first appeared in Edinburgh. With them came their
Protestant friends from the West, composed largely of the followers of the Campbells
from Argyle and the Cunninghams and Douglases from Ayrshire,
Dumfries, and Galloway. At the instigation of a shrewd counsellor in the
bishops' party, proclamation was made by the regent that all who had come to
town without requisition by the authorities should proceed to the Borders, and
there remain fifteen days, to take their tours of frontier duty. The Protestants
felt that such a thing was not to be considered, as it would leave their
preachers at the mercy of the bishops. Accordingly, some of the leaders made
their way into the chamber where the queen regent was sitting in council with
her bishops. James Chalmers of Gadgirth, one of the Western barons, a
bold and zealous man, stood forth and spoke. "Madam," he said,
"we know that this is the malice of the bishops.
- When the queen regent learned of the riot at Perth, she threatened to
destroy the town, "man, woman, and child, to burn it with fire, and salt it
in sign of perpetual desolation." The Reformers who were assembled
in the town accordingly called upon their friends for assistance. Letters were
written to their western brethren in Cuningham and Kyle. These
are the two districts of Ayrshire which afterwards furnished so much of the
Scottish population of Ulster. The people of Kyle met at the
kirk of Craigie, to hear the letters read. Some were faint-hearted, and
hesitated. Alexander Cunningham, Earl of Glencairn, standing before the
congregation, said, "Let every man serve his conscience. I will, by God's
grace, see my brethren in St. Johnstown [Perth]; yea, although never man should
accompany me,
SCOTLAND UNDER CHARLES II. AND THE BISHOPS
- In October, 1666, the Council issued a fresh proclamation, which,
under severe penalties, required masters to oblige their servants, landlords
their tenants, and magistrates the inhabitants of their boroughs to attend
regularly the Episcopal churches. Many were thus driven from their homes,
their families dispersed, and their estates ruined. In the following November, Mr.
Allan of Barscobe, and three other fugitives, who had been forced to seek a
hiding-place in the hills of Galloway, ventured from their retreat and came to the
Clachan of Dalry to procure some provisions. Here they encountered
some soldiers who were about to roast alive an old man whom they had seized
because he was unable to pay his church fines. Aided by some of their friends
from the village, the Covenanters overpowered the soldiers, and rescued
their victim. In the melee one of the soldiers was killed, and another wounded.
The Covenanters, realizing that their lives were forfeited in any event,
determined to remain in arms, and being joined by MacLellan, Laird of
Barscobe, and some other gentlemen of the neighborhood, they soon mustered
about fifty horsemen. Proceeding to Dumfries, they surprised and captured Sir
James Turner himself. Others of the oppressed people joining them, they
marched into Ayrshire. The greater part of the
Covenanters, however, were poorly armed. Their most common weapon was a scythe
set straight on a stave. With Colonel Wallace at their head the
insurgents marched against Edinburgh, nine hundred strong. General Dalziel...........
- The Rev. James Renwick, a young man of five-and-twenty, minister
of the persecuted Cameronian societies, had preached with great power
against those who took advantage of the Indulgence. But his career was short;
for, on the 17th of February, 1688, having been apprehended, he suffered
the penalty of death. Renwick was the last of the Scottish martyrs. David
Houston came very near to obtaining that honor. Arrested in Ireland, he was
brought to Scotland to be tried. On the 18th of June, near Cumnock,
in Ayrshire, his military escort was attacked and
defeated by a body of Covenanters. Mr. Houston was released, and evaded
recapture until King James was driven from his throne.
THE SCOTTISH PLANTATION OF DOWN AND ANTRIM
- In this extremity, Con's wife communicated with a friend in
Scotland, one Hugh Montgomery, who was the Laird of Braidstone, in
Ayrshire. He had been looking for an eligible
"settlement" in the north of Ireland, and kept himself posted as to
what went on there through relatives who traded to Ireland from the port of
Irvine. In consideration of the cession to himself of one-half of Con's
lands in county Down, he now agreed with the latter's wife to assist the
prisoner to escape, and entrusted the carrying out of the enterprise to his
relative, Thomas Montgomery, who was the owner of a sloop which sometimes
traded with Carrickfergus. The latter accordingly.......
- Both Hamilton and Montgomery, as soon as their patents
were passed by the Irish Council, crossed into Scotland to call upon their whole
kith and kin to aid them in the plantation of their vast estates. Both were Ayrshire men, from the northern division of the county. Hamilton was
of the family of Hamilton of Dunlop, while Montgomery
was of the great Ayrshire family of that name,
sprung from a collateral branch of the noble house of Eglinton,
and sixth Laird of Braidstone, near Beith. The king had
granted Con's land to Hamilton on the express condition that he
should "plant" it with Scottish and English colonists. Hamilton seems
to have received the hearty support of his own family, for four of his five
brothers aided his enterprise and shared his prosperity. From them are descended
numerous families in Ulster, and at least two Irish noble families.
- In the Montgomery Manuscripts is preserved a careful account of how Hugh
Montgomery "planted" his estate, the country around Newtown and
Donaghadee, known as the "Great Ards." Montgomery belonged to a family
having numerous connections throughout North Ayrshire
and Ren-frewshire, and to them he turned for assistance. His principal
supporters were his kinsman, Thomas Montgomery, who had done the successful
wooing at Carrickfergus; his brother-in-law, John Shaw, younger son of the Laird
of Wester Greenock; and Colonel David Boyd, of the noble house of Kilmar-nock.
With their help, Montgomery seems to have persuaded many others of high and low
degree to try their fortunes with him in Ireland.
THE GREAT PLANTATION OF ULSTER
- James seems to have seen that the parts of Scotland
nearest Ireland, and which had most intercourse with it, were most likely to
yield proper colonists. He resolved, therefore, to enlist the assistance of the
great families of the southwest, trusting that their feudal power would enable
them to bring with them bodies of colonists. Thus grants were made to the duke
of Lennox, who bad great power in Dumbartonshire; to the earl of Abercorn and
his brothers, who represented the power of the Hamiltons in Renfrewshire. North
Ayrshire had been already largely drawn on by
Hamilton and Montgomery, but one of the sons of Lord Kilmarnock,
Sir Thomas Boyd, received a grant; while from South Ayrshire
came the Cunninghams and Crawfords, and Lord Ochiltree and
his son; the latter were known in Galloway as well as in the county from which
their title was derived. But it was on Galloway men that the greatest grants
were bestowed. Almost all the great houses of the times are represented,--Sir
Robert Maclellan, Laird Bomby as he is called, who afterwards became
Lord Kirkcudbright, and whose great castle stands to this day; John Murray of
Broughton, one of the secretaries of state; Vans of Barnbarroch; Sir Patrick
MeKie of Laerg; Dunbar of Mochrum; one of the Stewarts of Garlies, from
whom Newtown-Stewart in Tyrone takes its name. Some of these failed to implement
their bargains, but the best of the undertakers proved to be men like the earl
of Abercorn and his brothers, and the Stewarts of Ochiltree and Garlies;
for while their straitened means led them to seek fortune in Ireland, their
social position enabled them without difficulty to draw good colonists from
their own districts, and so fulfil the terms of the "plantation"
contract, which bound them to "plant" their holdings with tenants.
With the recipient of two thousand acres, tbe agreement was that he was to bring
"forty-eight able men of the age of eighteen or upwards, being born in
England or the inward parts of Scotland." He was further bound to grant
farms to his tenants, the sizes of these being specified, and it being
particularly required that these should be "feus" or on lease for
twenty-one years or for life. A stock of muskets and hand weapons to arm himself
and his tenants was to be provided. The term used, "the inward parts of
Scotland," refers to the old invasions of Ulster by the men of the Western
Islands. No more of these Celts were wanted; there were plenty of that race
already in North Antrim; it was the Lowland Scots, who were peace-loving and
Protestants, whom the Government desired. The phrase, "the inward parts of
Scotland," occurs again and again.
- The north of Ireland is now very much what the first half of the
seventeenth century made it. North Down and Antrim, with the great town of
Belfast, are English and Scottish now as they then became, and desire to remain
united with the countries from which their people sprang. South Down, on the
other hand, was not "planted," and it is Roman Catholic and
Nationalist. Londonderry county too is Loyalist, for emigrants poured into it
through Colernine and Londonderry city. Northern Armagh was peopled with English
and Scottish emigrants, who crowded into it from Antrim and Down, and it desires
union with the other island. Tyrone county is all strongly Unionist, but it is
the country around Strabane, which the Hamiltons of Abercorn and the Stewarts of
Garlies so thoroughly colonized, and the eastern portion, on the borders of
Lough Neagh, around the colonies founded by Lord Ochiltree, that give to the
Unionists a majority; while in eastern Donegal, which the Cunninghams and the
Stewarts "settled" from Ayrshire and
Galloway, and in Fermanagh, where dwell the descendants of the Englishmen who
fought so nobly in 1689, there is a great minority which struggles against
separation from England. Over the rest, even of Ulster, the desire for a
separate kingdom of Ireland is the dream of the people still, as it was three
centuries ago. In many parts of Ireland which were at one time and another
colonized with English,
THE ULSTER PLANTATION FROM 1610 TO 1630
- COUNTY OF TYRONE: PRECINCT OF MOUNTJOY--95OO ACRES1.3000 acres to Andrew
Stewart, Lord Ochiltree, Galloway.2.1000 acres to Robert Stewart, gent.,of
Hilton, Edinburgh. Transferredto Andrew Stewart, Jr., before 1620.3.1500 acres
to Sir Robert Hepburne, Knt., of Alderston, Haddington-shire.4.1000 acres to George
Crayford [or Crawford], Laird of Lochnories, Ayrshire.
Transferred to Alexander Sanderson before 1620.
- 1000 acres to Robert Stewart of Robertown, Ayrshire.
Transferred toAndrew Stewart, Jr.
- l000 acres to Sir Walter Stewart, Knt., Laird of Minto,
Roxburghshire. Transferred before 1620 to Sir John Colquhoun,
Laird of Luss, Dumbartonshire. 3. 1000 acres to Alexander McAula of
Durlin, gent., Dumbartonshire. 4. 1000 acres to John Cuningham of Crafield
[or Crawfield], Ayrshire. 5. 1000 acres to
William Stewart, Laird of Dunduff, Maybole, Ayrshire.
6. 2000 acres to James Cuningham, Laird of Glangarnocke, Ayrshire.
- 1000 acres to Cuthbert Cuningham of Glangarnocke, Ayrshire.
- 1000 acres to James Cuningham, Esq., of Glangarnocke, Ayrshire.
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