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The transition epoch—coming
of the new population—influence of queen Margaret—Malcolm Canmore's northern
expeditions —the Aberdeenshire mormaers become earls — renewed immigration
under David — rise of towns: Aberdeen, its founders and early
population—trading privileges and charters : the northern hanse—Aberdeen
mint and markets—restriction of taverns — Banff — Cullen, Inverurie, and
Kintore. — the ecclesiastical revolution: the church in aberdeenshire — the
see and its endowments — parishes — the new territorial aristocracy and
feudal barons — sheriffdoms — Flemish settlers—the earldom of Garioch—the
Leslies—the earldom of mar and the durwards — the bysets — advent of the
Cumyns: statesmen, castle-builders, pious founders — the abbey of deer —
Durward and Cumyn rivalry — the Le Neyms, Cheynes, etc.—the north-eastern
thanages—serfdom—fusion of races.
The reign of Malcolm Canmore
inaugurated for Aberdeenshire, as for Scotland, the great transition which
was to be completed in the two fruitful and prosperous centuries intervening
between his time and the struggle for national independence under Wallace
and Bruce. Hitherto the history has been, for the most part, obscure and
uncertain, but now begins the clear guidance of charters and other
authoritative records. Malcolm visited from time to time the province in
which he saw his power established by the overthrow and death of Macbeth. At
the beginning of his reign he passed through Aberdeenshire and Banffshire at
the head of a military expedition against the insubordinate population of
the north, punishing the Celts and confiscating their lands, especially in
the country that had been ruled by Thorfinn, and in which the Macbeth
connection principally lay. Nine years after his accession came the Norman
Conquest, an event fraught with mightier consequences for the north-east
than for the southern territories where the new Teutonic population was
already installed. The first effect of the Conquest is seen in the vast
influx of Anglo-Saxons driven from England by the sword or the laws of the
Conqueror. The new-comers would be welcomed by their kindred in Lothian,
formerly a Saxon kingdom; and numbers of them would gradually move northward
as far as Aberdeenshire. An immigration of new settlers from the Continent
also set in— of seafaring Scandinavians, industrial and trading Flemings,
and agricultural Saxons. The Court of Malcolm and Queen Margaret became a
centre from which Anglo-Saxon influence radiated through the country. The
old Gaelic language was superseded at the centre of affairs by the new
Teutonic speech, and through the Queen's Anglo-Saxon clergy the Church
itself became an agency in the transition. As might be expected, the dislike
of the Celtic population for the new order of things becomes at once
apparent. Rebellious attempts to expel the immigrants and recover lost
ground were followed by punitive expeditions, forfeitures, and fresh
plantations of new settlers. A second expedition to the north, in 1078, was
headed by Malcolm in person, and during its progress through Aberdeenshire
he granted to the Church of St Andrews his lands of Monymusk and Keig,
together, as is believed, with a decayed monastery. So arose the Priory of
Monymusk as a cell or dependency of the Priory of St Andrews,—a cell of
peculiar interest as the only Culdee establishment, so far as is known, that
ever existed between the Dee and the Spey. Having settled affairs beyond the
Spey, Malcolm returned by the old religious house at Mortlach, and from this
visit is supposed to date the recognition of its abbot as a bishop outside
his monastery, and the establishment of the bishopric, to be translated half
a century afterwards to Aberdeen. Tradition credits Malcolm with having had
a hunting-seat in the great forest of Mar; and the ancient Castle of
Kindrochit, the foundations of which are still to be seen on the bank of the
Clunie, in the village of Braemar, is associated with his name.
Alexander I., who succeeded
to the throne after an interval of struggle and the short reign of his
brother Eadgar,'had the principal scat of his kingdom at Scone, where he
founded his monastery, the charter of which throws an important side-light
on the progress of events in Aberdeenshire. The charter is signed by Rothri
or Ruadri, Earl of Mar, and Gartnach or Gartnait, Earl of Buchan, both of
them of the old Celtic stock, yet appearing at Alexander's Court under the
title not of mormaer but of comes or earl, and having a recognised place in
the constitutional body of seven earls which long played a prominent part in
Scottish affairs. Probably, indeed, the change of style implied as yet no
change in their relations to their provinces : they were earls at Court and
mormaers as of old among their own people. For in the second group of
entries in the 'Book of Deer' we find the same Ruadri, years after Alexander
had been succeeded by David, witnessing, as mormaer of Mar, a grant by the
same Gartnait as mormaer of Buchan. The Scone charter suggests, ndeed, that
it was Alexander's policy to draw the mormaers to Court, and convert them
Into councillors of State and oificers of the Crown; and this was the reign
in which were instituted the offices of chancellor, constable, and sheriff.
Alexander's policy in relation to the Church is seen in his filling the
Monastery of Scone with Augustinian canons-regular from Yorkshire, in his
establishing the new sees of Dunkeld and Moray, and in his appointments of
ecclesiastics from the south to these bishoprics and to St Andrews. The gift
of a bishop of non-Celtic race and southern tongue does not appear to have
evoked a spirit of gratitude among the Celts of Moray. With Angus, the son
of Lulach's daughter and successor of Maelsnechtan in the "kingship," at
their head, we find them in alliance with the turbulent men of the Mearns—Aberdeenshire
quiescent and the territories on both sides of it in eruption. Alexander's
narrow escape at Invergowrie was promptly followed by his raising a force in
Fife with which he pursued the insurgents across the Mounth.
Soon after the accession of
David he likewise had his expedition to the north, where the Gaelic chiefs
and people were more restive than ever under the pressure of the new feudal
barons. In 1130 a body of insurgents organised beyond the Spey by Malcolm,
an illegitimate son of the late King Alexander, and Earl Angus, now an old
man, passed through Banffshire and Mar, crossed the Cairn-a-Mounth, and were
encountered at Stracathro by Edward the High Constable, son of Siward, Earl
of Mercia, and cousin of King David. The undisciplined Celts were unable to
withstand the well-directed attack of the royal army, and a rout and
disorderly flight ensued, Earl Angus himself being among the slain. Edward
pursued the fugitives as far as the Spey, and, according to a chronicler of
the time, obtained possession of "the whole of that large territory." Celtic
risings under Highland chieftains continued intermittently to disturb the
country. The famous " plantation of Moray " under Malcolm IV., when a
wholesale removal of the Gaelic inhabitants took place and strangers from
the south were put in possession of the land, was followed by new
rebellions. Wyntoun records that Alexander II. suppressed one of these in
the west, and
"Owre the Mounth theyne passed
he sene,
And held his Yhule in Abbyrdene."
In the reign of Alexander I.
it is found that several towns have sprung into existence. By his charter to
the Scone monastery he granted to the monks a dwelling in each of his
"principal towns," and these were Edinburgh, Stirling, Inverkeithing, Perth,
and Aberdeen. This is the earliest mention of Aberdeen in the documents of
history. It was barely yet half a century since the Norman Conquest, but a
new and progressive population had established itself in Scotland, and,
apart from the wars of kings and chiefs, a silent revolution had set in
which was changing the whole drift and spirit of the national life. Bodies
of Teutonic settlers had built little towns by the sea or on the greater
rivers, and formed themselves into communities bound together by mutual
interests of trade and defence. Aberdeen has its place, it would seem, among
the earliest of these communities. It may probably, like Berwick, have been
a Viking station before the great immigration, but on this subject history
is silent. Aberdon was its original name—a name still preserved in the
adjective Aberdonian and the Latin Aberdonensis. Apardion is a form that
comes to us through the Norse sagas. Centuries had elapsed since St Machar
had planted his monastery on the high bank of the Don, and the Celtic name
Aberdon had doubtless been in use among the monks and the people among whom
they lived and laboured long before the new trading and maritime community
was formed. The old name had been adopted by the new settlers, and whatever
may have been the original vowel sound in the last syllable, it was with
them the ee so characteristic of the Aberdeenshire dialect, and so
indicative of affinity with the German tongue. In the vicinity of the city
grew up the hamlets of Gilcomston and Ruthrieston, the names of which
combine a Celtic personal name with the Saxon "town." Ruthrieston is
doubtless the town of the mormaer Rothri. How soon the immigration into the
north-east set in is unknown, but from the days of Malcolm Canmore an
intermittent stream of Flemings, Anglo-Saxons, and Scandinavians had been
coming to the Scottish seaports as peaceful settlers to establish trade and
pursue their handicrafts. The foundation of the Church of St Nicholas would
mark an epoch in the history of the city if its date could be ascertained.
Probably St Nicholas was not the earliest edifice consecrated to public
worship in the town, and Professor Cooper places the building of the church
towards the middle of the twelfth century, when, as he suggests, it may have
been erected on the ruins of a preceding church destroyed in the Norsemen's
raid. Two visits of Norsemen took place in the early days of Aberdeen. About
the middle of the twelfth century Swein Asleif's son spent a month at
Apardion, where he found Malcolm, King of Scots, and was well entertained;
and the Heimskringla tells of the buccaneering King Eystein bringing his
ships to Apardion, where he killed many people and wasted the city.
The oldest of the city
charters, granted by William the Lion about 1180, discloses the fact that in
the second quarter of the century the burgesses were already united together
and with their neighbours in other communities under a "free Hanse " or set
of trading privileges. By this charter William confirmed to his burgesses of
Aberdeen, to all burgesses of Moray, and to all his burgesses dwelling to
the north of the Mounth, " their free Hanse, to be held where they will and
when they will, as freely and peaceably, fully and honourably," as their
ancestors had enjoyed it in the days of King David his grandfather. By a
second charter of somewhat later date King William declared his burgesses of
Aberdeen free from the payment of toll on their own goods throughout his
whole kingdom. There were two federations of Scottish burghs in David's
time, if not before it. One was the Court of the Four Burghs—Berwick,
Roxburgh, Edinburgh, and Stirling— still represented in the Convention of
Royal Burghs; the second was this " Hanse" of Aberdeen and other
trans-Grampian communities, a prototype and precursor of the famous
Hanseatic League of the North Sea and Baltic cities. Merchant leagues and
guilds arose out of the conditions of the time. The result of David's grant
was to draw the merchants of Aberdeen, Banff, Elgin, and Inverness into a
union that would help them in defending their several and corporate rights.
They gave reciprocal privileges in their markets, and set apart districts
where particular towns were to have the right of exclusive trading.
William the Lion frequently
visited Aberdeen, where he established a mint and built a royal residence
between the Green and the Dee, which then flowed along the site of the
modern Guild Street. This residence he' gifted after a time to the Trinity
or Red Friars for a monastery, apparently the first establishment possessed
by that order in Scotland. King William also granted to the Trinity Friars
the lands of Banchory and Cowie, with other possessions, including salmon-fishings
and mills in different parts of the district. This example was followed by
his successor, Alexander II., who was a patron of the Dominican order, and
established the Black Friars in his residence and garden on Schoolhillr
where no doubt the Yule referred to by Wyntoun was spent. A charter of 1222
throws light on the conditions under which the burgesses carried on their
business. Their weekly market was held on Saturday, and to this market the
traders from other placcs might repair under the king's protection, provided
they bought or sold no merchandise elsewhere within the sheriffdom. The
cloth-market was reserved exclusively for the burgesses, except between
Ascension Day and the beginning of August, when outsiders might buy or sell
cloth and other merchandise along with them. The charter also established a
merchant guild, from which, being craftsmen and not merchants, the fullers
and weavers are expressly excluded ; and the guild merchants received a
monopoly of the cloth manufacture, " dyed or shorn," within the sheriffdom,
a monopoly which seems to have been in existence in David's time. Traffic in
hides and wool, the great staples of export, was also restricted to the
burgh mart. An incidental prohibition is laid in this charter on the
multiplication of taverns, but an exemption is made to the extent of one
house in each town " where a knight is lord of the town and dwells
therein.'r By two charters of Alexander III.—the one granted at Kin-tore in
1273 and the other at Kincardine in 1277—the burgesses of Aberdeen obtained
the right to hold a yearly fair of two weeks from the day of the Holy
Trinity, and were declared, along with their servants, to be free from
poinding of goods save for their own debts and obligations.
The origin of Banff as a
burgh is contemporary with that of Aberdeen. Cullen, Inverurie, and Ivintore
have their places likewise among the earliest of the royal burghs of
Scotland, as is shown by royal grants of "tofts" or building sites to the
Church; and numerous charters bear witness to the frequent presence of the
kings at their royal castle in the neighbourhood of Kintore.
The last document in the '
Book of Deer'—the Latin charter by David—is a practical intimation that a
new chapter of Aberdeenshire history had been opened. By this charter the
king declares the clerics to be free from all lay interference and undue
exaction, "as it is written in their book, and as they pleaded at Banff and
swore at Aberdeen." In other words, they were not to be prejudiced in the
enjoyment of their old rights and immunities. It was at Banff that David
gave his charter to the Priory of Urquhart, his northern cell of the
Monastery of Dunfermline; and as this charter with reference to Deer was
executed in Aberdeen, it is probable that the proceedings to which it refers
had in both instances taken place before him. Of these proceedings the
transference of authority from the northern rulers to the King of Scotland
is the obvious explanation. The charter may also have been intended as an
assurance that the interests of the monastery would not suffer by the change
in Church organisation.
Various of the possessions
conferred upon the monks of the Celtic monastery of Deer can still be
identified, as Aberdour, Aden, Altrie, Auchmachar, Biffie, Ellon, Elrick,
Pitfour, and Skillymarno. The old place-names are generally recognisable in
their modern forms, but the stone landmarks by which others of the lands are
defined have disappeared, and with them all means of identification. It may
be assumed, however, that the medieval possessions of the monastery are
included among those of the Cistercian abbey that took its place, of which
complete lists are extant. The gift by Gartnait and Ete has the peculiarity
that the lands which were its subject were free from all exactions, " with
the gift of them to Cormac, Bishop of Dunkeld." The explanation seems to be
that Nectan, who witnesses the deed as Bishop of "Abberdeon," was exercising
his functions as a suffragan or subordinate bishop. " Cormauch," indeed, is
one of the four traditionary bishops who presided over the Church in the
north-east before the see of Aberdeen was established. Besides Nectan the
document is witnessed by Leot, Abbot of Brec.hin ; Ruadri, mormaer of Mar;
Matadin, the brehon ; and Domongart, ferleighin of Turbruad or Turriff. In
another document Cormac, Abbot of Turriff, appears ; while a third, by which
Colban and Eva, with the chief of the Clan Morgan, mortmain all the
endowments, bears the character of a minute of public proceedings at Ellon,
of which the "goodmen" of the district were witnesses. Ellon was the
.administrative capital of Buchan, and the head-courts of the mormaers and
first earls were held on the Moothill, or Earl's hill, a slight elevation
near the bank of the Ythan. The ferleighin, of whom Domongart of Turriff is
the only example recorded in Aberdeenshire history, was originally the
scribe, but later his duty included that of teacher, and was associated,
occasionally at least, with the position of archdeacon.1 Another
ecclesiastical office, not mentioned in the ' Book of Deer,' but strongly in
evidence with regard to the holding of property at Ellon, was that of scoloc
or scholar. In some cases the scolocs seem to have been husbandmen holding
or cultivating lands under the clergy. In common with the old Columban
monastery on the Ugie, the Monastery of Turriff, which was dedicated to St
Congan, one of the Irish ollowers of St Columba, had passed into oblivion
until recalled by the discovery, in r86o, of the 'Book of Deer.'
The bishopric of Aberdeen
dates from about 1150, but the arrangement of temporalities was not
completed at the death of David in 1153, and it was not till 1157 that the
new see was confirmed by the bull of Pope Adrian IV. (Nicholas Brakespeare).
The revenues assigned to the bishop were on a magnificent scale, including
the church of Aberdeen, the church of St Machar, the whole town of Old
Aberdeen, the church of St Nicholas of Aberdeen, the tithe of the burgh mill
and of the can or customs of the port, important fishery rights on the Don
with the tithe of the Cruives and several other fishings, a net on the Dee
and tithes of the whole river and of the crops on its banks, the tithe of
the king's revenue of Aberdeen and the burghs between the Dee and Spey, the
tithe of Baldwyniston both of corn and fish, and the tithe of Badfothel (Pitfodels),
the town of Rayne, Clatt with its church, the town and monastery of Mortlach
with five churches and the dependent monastery of Cloveth (Cabrachj, the
churches of Rayne, Daviot, Auchterless, lnvercruden, Belhelvie, Birse,
Druinoak, and Banchory-Devenick, with their respective pertinents, the "land
of Ellon which Master Ph'lip held," the town and church of Fetternear, the
"town which belonged to Bastian the presbyter," and the "town which belonged
to Achelis, beside Aberdeen." To these endowments the barony of Murthill (Murtle)
was added by Malcolm IV., the lands of Birse by William the Lion, and the
free forests of Birse and Fetternear by Alexander II. By the middle of the
thirteenth century Aberdeen was the third in revenue of the Scottish sees,
and in virtue of his territorial possessions and power its bishop was one of
the magnates of the kingdom. Nectan seems to have died while the proceedings
connected with the erection of the bishopric were still uncompleted, and the
papal bull is addressed to Edward, Bishop of Aberdeen, who had been
Chancellor under David, and whose non - Celtic lineage may be inferred from
his name.
Several of the early bishops
were men of note, and some of them took a leading part in national affairs.
Bishop Gilbert de Stirling, according to Boece, recovered the forests of
Birse and Clova from the " wicked Highlanders " ; Bishop Ralph de Lambley,
who had been Abbot of Arbroath, is distinguished as a man of ascetic habits,
who made his visitations on foot; Bishop Peter de Ramsay was one of the
councillors of the realm during the youth of Alexander III.; and Bishop Hugh
de Bennam attended the Council of Lyons, and appears to have been murdered
at his residence at Loch Goul. Henry le Chen or Cheyne held the see through
the War of Independence and the reign of Robert Bruce.
The reorganisation of the
Church included also the division of the country into rural deaneries and
parishes. In Aberdeenshire and Banffshire there were the deaneries of Mar,
Buchan, and the Garioch. At a later date Buchan, which included Lower
Banffshire, was divided into two, a dean being given to Boyne. Aberdeen and
its vicinity were made a separate deanery, and Strathbogie was a deanery of
Moray. Territorially these rural deaneries corresponded generally with the
modern presbyteries.
The new settlers who were
obtaining grants of land all over the country were strangers to the monastic
system of the Celtic Church. Following the arrangements they were accustomed
to, they would build a church, provide for its maintenance and ministrations
by a moderate gift of land and by tithes of all produce, and appoint a
clergyman to attend to the spiritual wants of themselves and their
dependents. In this way the manor became the parish. The old monastic system
had decayed, and, though in Deer we have an exception, the possessions of
the chief monasteries were secularised and in the hands of laymen. Since
Malcolm Canmore and Queen Margaret set the example with their great
foundation at Dunferml'.ie a new order of abbeys and priories, distinguished
by splendid architecture and many of them richly endowed, had been springing
up. In Aberdeenshire there were the Abbey of Deer, which took the place of
the old monastery, and the small priories of Fyvie and Monymusk. In 1275 we
find the Aberdeenshire parishes marked off very much as they have come down
to us, with secular clergy provided for by teinds and stipends. But even at
this early date the parish clergy were heavily mulcted by their diocesan or
conventual supenors, and obliged to depend upon the piety and benevolence of
their people, whose assistance, voluntary at first, soon became recognised
dues rigorously exacted, leading ultimately to the alienation of the people
and the overthrow of the Church.
The change in the status of
the two mormaers seems to have rapidly followed on the change of title, for
in the time of William the Lion Aberdeen was a vicecomitatus or sheriffdom.
The jurisdiction of the sheriff absorbed the functions which the mormaers
had formerly exercised on behalf of the Crown, and he made periodical
justiciary circuits through the county. The new institutions and system of
government, however, are associated with the advent of a new ruling class,
and a member of the reigning house comes upon the scene as Earl of Garioch.
The first of the new settlers
in Aberdeenshire of whom we have distinct record is Bartolf, or Bartholomew,
the founder of' the great county family of Leslie. Bartolf is presented to
us as a Saxon notable who came over from Hungary in the suite of the family
of which Queen Margaret was a member, rose to high favour and position at
the Scottish Court, and received extensive grants of land in Fife, Angus,
the Mearns, and Aberdeenshire. The Aberdeenshire grants included Cushnie and
Lesselyn or Leslie, from which latter the family took its name. The oldest
charter of the Leslie family, which is also the oldest charter of any lands
in Aberdeenshire except Church lands, dates from the last quarter of the
twelfth century, and being a charter to Malcolm, son of Bartolf, is hardly
compatible with the idea of this Bartolf's having been in the retinue of the
Atheling family on its return from Hungary a hundred years before; but it
fixes the priority of the Leslies among the families that became permanently
established in Aberdeenshire. The charter is historically important for
another reason. It is addressed by David, Earl of Huntingdon and the Garioch,
to all his vassals, clergy and laity, Franks (or Normans) and English,
Flemings and Scots, and proves that in the latter part of the twelfth
century a colony of Flemings was settled in the centre of the county.1
Multitudes of Flemings who had settled in England, or been engaged as
mercenaries in Stephen's wars, came north in consequence of the edict of
banishment issued by Henry II. against foreigners soon after his accession
(1155). They formed little settlements in many parts of the country,
established trade and handicrafts, particularly weaving, and reclaimed waste
.land. One of these settlements was at Crutertston or Courtieston, in the
parish of Leslie, named probably after a Fleming settler; and Flinder, still
prominent among the place-names of the neighbourhood, is a further record of
this medieval colony.
How powerful the Fleming
interest was and how deep its roots were struck are shown by the fact that
two centuries after Earl David's time the privilege of "Fleming law" was
still recognised in the contemporary charters as appertaining to the
descendants of the old settlers at Courtieston,1 while similar communities,
with similar privilege of government by their own law, were established up
and down the country, and persons described by the name Fleming or
Flandrensis constantly appear in the charters. A few years before the date
of the charter by Earl David to Malcolm the son of Bartolf, King Malcolm IV.
bestowed the lands of Innes, just beyond the Spey, on Berowald, a Fleming
who had been assisting him in clearing away the old population of that
troublesome region. Another Fleming leader, named Freak1 n, obtained lands
in the north and south of Scotland, and his descendants, as Earls of
Sutherland, and in the person of Sir Andrew Moray, the associate of Wallace
and Bruce, were to play a prominent part in northern history, and to be
intermingled with the great Aberdeenshire families of Cumyn and Cheyne. The
Sutherland earldom was earned by William Freskin's services in suppressing
an insurrection in the far north in 1197, and under Alexander II. the like
services were rendered again and again. The hardy and resourceful Flemings
were among the first pioneers in the settlement of lands exposed to the full
force of Celtic resentment and attack. They were also the pioneers of
industry in northeastern Scotland. Wool was a staple export of Aberdeen, but
it was also spun and woven by the Flemish settlers in the rising city as
well as in the interior of the county. They were traders, artificers, and
fishers, and the planters of towns and of these little communities that
could live and thrive in the midst of a Celtic people, who saw with dismay
the ceaseless encroachments of the stranger. Such immigrants could not fail
to impress their character, customs, and language upon the land of their
adoption. To this period—namely, the earlier part of the reign of William
the Lion — may be assigned the beginning, as regards rural Aberdeenshire, of
the great transformation which"; within half a century was to' give it a new
population, speaking the Lowland Scotch tongue, and even that specially
Teutonic form of it, the "Broad Buchan," which has held its place as a
distinct dialect for more than six hundred years.
The creation of the earldom
of Garioch by Malcolm IV. or William the Lion, and its bestowal on their
brother David, who afterwards became English Earl of Huntingdon, must be
regarded as one of the great landmarks in this history. It was a political
event arising out of this transformation, accelerating its progress, and
contributing to its completeness. We may also see in it the beginning of
that rule by great families of non-Celtic origin which now becomes the most
assertive element in the history of these counties.
The administrative
headquarters of the earldom were at Inverurie, and for three generations the
heads of the Leslie family held the office of Constable of Inverurie and
keeper of the castle, their functions including command in war, the
administration of justice, and general supervision of the earldom in the
absence of its lord. Earl David was for the most part an absentee. The
best-known passage in his career is his participation in the Third Crusade
(1190-1192) by the side of the Lion-hearted Richard; and in this enterprise
he was accompanied by some Aberdeenshire men, including Malcolm the younger
brother of Norman Leslie the Constable, and one of the Durwards recently
come to Mar. Unlike so many of the crusaders, Earl David survived the
campaign against Saladin; but of its hardships and dangers he had his share,
including shipwreck and sale into slavery, from which he had the good
fortune to be bought back to freedom by some of his countrymen. The Abbey of
Lindores may have been founded before he went to the crusade, but its
charters are dated after his return, including the foundation-charter, which
recites that he had founded it for the welfare of his relatives, beginning
with Kjng David, and bestows upon it the churches of Fintray, Inverurie
(with the chapel of Monkeigie), Durno, Premnay, Rathmuriel, Insch,
Culsalmond, and Kennethniont, with all their endowments.
After the death of Ruadri two
claimants for the succession to the earldom of Mar appeared in the persons
of Morgund, or Morgrund, and Gilchrist. Morgund's legitimacy was disputed,
and apparently the issue turned on conflicting principles of feudal, canon,
and Celtic law. King William, who had just comc to the throne, decided at
first in favour of Gilchrist, who though of Celtic blood was connected
through his wife with influential Norman and Saxon houses. His daughter,
Orabilis, was the wife of Malcolm de Lundin, who had property in
Forfarshire, and their son was Thomas the Doorward, first of the
Aberdeenshire Durwards. After a few years the decision as to the earldom was
reversed, Morgund receiving the title and the upland territories of his
predecessors, while Gilchrist had the more fruitful country between the Dee
and Don, from Coull eastward to the neighbourhood of Aberdeen, including the
thanage of Onele. Gilchrist gave to the new Culdee Priory of Monymusk the
churches of St Andrew of Alford, St Marnan of Leochel, and St Wolok of
Ruthven and Invernochty, together with certain lands; but the confirmation
charter of these gifts by John, Bishop of Aberdeen, omits the Ruthven and
Invernochty churches, doubtless because, while Gilchrist claimed them, they
really belonged to Earl Morgund. Thomas Durward succeeded Gilchrist and
revived his claim to the earldom, but without success. Possessing these
extensive Aberdeenshire estates, along with others in Fife and Forfar,
Durward was a man of wealth, and his benefactions to the Church included
gifts of the forest of Trostach, between the Dee and the Cannie, with the
church of Kinnernie, to the Abbey of Arbroath, and the church of Echt to the
Abbey of Scone. Two strongholds of the Durwards, the Castle of Coull and the
Peel of Lumphanan, probably dated from the time of Thomas Durward, and he
erected at Kincardine O'Neil (Onele) a stone bridge across the Dee on the
main road between north and south by the Cairn-a-Mounth. The Dee was also
spanned at the same period, it is believed, by bridges at Durris and near
the mouth of the Muick, for it was an age of enterprise and progress far in
advance of the dark centuries that were to come.
By 1233 Thomas had been
succeeded both in the estates and in the office of Hostiary by his still
more celebrated son Alan Durward, who is called Earl of Athole in a charter
of this year confirming his father's gift of the wood of Trostach, as also
in a royal charter of 1234, but whose connection with the Athole earldom
must have been of short duration, and possibly arose from marriage with the
heiress, who had become a widow in 1232, or from guardianship of her son.
Justiciai for many years, married to an illegitimate daughter of Alexander
II., and himself an ambitious and self-assertive man, Alan Durward was head
of the opposition to the Cumyns. In Aberdeenshire he built and endowed a
hospital beside his father's bridge across the Dee; at Montrose he founded a
monastery of the new order of Dominican or Preaching Friars. He had a
charter from the abbot and convent of Arbroath of the lands of
Banchory-Devenick, which were converted into a free barony, subject to
certain services and rents; in Moray he also acquired lands, and he renewed
the claim to the earldom of Mar, but failed, as his father had done, to oust
the Celtic earl in possession.
The Scoto-Norman de Bysets or
Bissets appear about the same time as the Durwards, and as lords of Aboyne
were their immediate neighbours in Deeside. They had wide ramifications in
England, and were among the barons who early acquired possessions on the
Border. The first of them on record in Scotland is Henry, who witnessed a
charter of William the Lion before 1198, and within the next few years
several members of the family were settled in the north Walter was Lord of
Aboyne, and about the same date he founded the preceptory of the Knights
Templars at Culter, erected a chapel and other buildings, and gave to the
preceptory the church of Aboyne. The Bysets were connected by marriage with
several of the Scoto-Norman houses, and Walter's wife, a sister of Alan of
Galloway, the grandfather of John Baliol, the competitor and king, was
nearly related to Patrick, the young Earl of Athole, who had apparently been
under the tutelage of Alan Durward. The turning-point in the fortunes of the
Bysets, and one of the most striking incidents in the vicissitudes of
families, occurred at the famous tournament at Haddington of 1242, when
Athole entered the lists against the Lord of Aboyne, unhorsed him, and on
the following night was burnt to death in the house where he slept. The
Bysets were strongly suspected of being impb ;ated in the affair, and they
had many enemies among the jealous and turbulent adventurers who were so
keenly pushing their interests in Scotland. From the gathering storm John
Byset sought refuge in Ireland, while Walter tried to avert it by getting
his chaplains to excommunicate all who were concerned in the murder, and by
taking temporary shelter with the king; but ultimately he had to retire to
England, and yielding to pressure, the king decreed outlawry and forfeiture
against the leading members of the family. Walter took service under Henry
III. of England, who had on hand the war in France; and when Henry
afterwards sent an army to the north in menace of Scotland, so prominent a
knight could not in the circumstances escape the suspicion of being the
instigator of this movement, and the hostility towards him in Scotland
continued unabated till his death in Arran in 1251. The forfeiture was
ultimately removed in favour of Thomas Byset, the nephew and heir of Walter,
probably at the instance of Alan Durward, one of whose charters, in 1256,
when he had control of affairs, is witnessed by Thomas Byset; but the Bysets
did not recover their former importance, and most of their northern
possessions passed by the marriage of heiresses into other families. They
are represented to this day, however, by the Bissets of Lessendrum, who have
been in continuous possession since the thirteenth century and are one of
the oldest Scottish families.
There is no more striking and
memorable passage in the history of north-eastern Scotland than that which
concerns the sudden emergence, the brilliant reign for nearly a century, and
the sudden and tragical extinction of the Scoto-Norman family of Comyn or
Cumyn. Robert de Comines, its founder in Britain, came over with the
Conqueror, was sent by him to subdue the north, and perished at Durham, his
successor "being rewarded with extensive lands in Tynedale and elsewhere.
Another of his descendants, William Cumyn, came to Scotland and was
chancellor in David's reign, but afterwards returned to England, where he
became Bishop of Durham. Richard Cumyn, who inherited the family estates in
Northumberland, was principal minister of King William, and his son, William
Cumyn, who in 1189 succeeded to the estates in the south of Scotland as well
as those in Northumberland, acquired by royal gift the manor of Lenzie and
lands of Kirkintilloch, was Justiciar of Scotland in 1209 or earlier, and
for the next quarter of a century had a hand in all the great transactions
of State. The first event in his life that directly concerns this history is
his marriage with Marjory, daughter and heiress of Fergus, the last Celtic
Earl of Buchan. This event, fraught with important consequences for Buchan
and the north, appears to have taken place in 1210. Nearly a century had
elapsed since Gartnait appeared as a feudal earl at the first Alexander's
Court at Scone, and the countess, there can be no doubt, had been brought up
in the ways of Norman fashion. Cumyn was the first statesman of the age,
probably also the wealthiest nobleman, and through his vassals and
dependents he could bring into the field a considerable army. In 1222 he was
appointed guardian of the earldom of Moray, in which capacity he suppressed
a Gillespoc rebellion, capturing and beheading the insurgent chief and his
sons; and in 1228 he had the lordship of Badenoch and Lochaber conferred on
his son Walter, afterwards by marriage Earl of Menteith, and for a time the
head of the Cumyn interest. Walter was the second of William Cumyn's two
sons by a marriage prior to that with the heiress of Buchan ; and Richard,
the elder, had the succession to the hereditary Cumyn estates in the south
of Scotland. Matrimony, war, and statecraft were profitable to the Cumyns.
They had several residences in East Aberdeenshire, their chief seat being at
Kinedar (corrupted into " King Edward "), between Turriff and Banff, where a
castle was erected on a position of natural strength such as had been chosen
as sites for the older Celtic strongholds. The date of Kinedar Castle must
have been before 1272, when the second earl gave its tithes to his hospital
at Turriff. Another of their seats was at Kelly, near Haddo House, the
modern residence of the Earls of Aberdeen, where Alexander III. was a guest
in 1272. Others were at Slains, Rattray, and Dundarg. The earl's courts were
held at Ellon as in the former Celtic days, but each residence was a
fortress of defence, whenever defence became necessary, and a minor
administrative centre from which the district around it was supervised.
It is, however, as pious
founders that Earl William and Countess Marjory are most prominent in the
Aberdeenshire records. Before the death of William the Lion the countess had
granted to the monks of Arbroath the churches of Turriff, Inverugie,
Strichen, and Rathen; while the earl and countess together gave the same
monks the patronage of Bethelnie with all its pertinents, and a toft in the
village of Bethelnie with common pasture and other "easements." To the monks
of St Andrews the earl granted lands in Fyvie, and another of his
ecclesiastical benefactions was a gift of the rent of lands in Strichen to
the chapel of St Mary beside his castle in the town of Rattray—a hamlet
which was to become for a time a royal burgh and then to pass into decay,
and ultimately to disappear, through the closing of its harbour by sand. But
the great ecclesiastical work of Earl William was the erection of the Abbey
of St Mary of Deer. The old monastery now passes away, its possessions being
transferred to the abbey, which rose on a new site three-quarters of a mile
farther up the river and on its opposite bank, in a marshy and wooded hollow
between two eminences, also wooded, as is implied in their names of Sapling
Brae and Aikey Brae. Like the other churches of the period, that of the Deer
Abbey was in the First Pointed or Early English style, the arches
lancet-shaped, with double mouldings cut in red sandstone laboriously
transported from Byth some twelve miles away. One hundred and fifty feet
long, ninety feet wide across the transepts, and thirty-eight feet across
the nave and aisle, the erection of such a structure in central Buchan is
itself an evidence that a revolution had taken place in industry as well as
art. Its first occupants were a colony of Cistercians brought from King
David's Priory of Kinloss, whither their predecessors had been transplanted
from Melrose in 1150. His church was a work in which the great earl took
pride, and on which he expended liberally of his wealth ; and within its
precincts his remains and those of the countess were entombed.
On the death of Earl William
in 1233 his son Alexander succeeded to the earldom, and Walter, Lord of
Badenoch and Earl of Menteith, a man of more mature years and experience,
stepped into his father's place as first of the nobles in prestige and
influence. For a time P2arl Alexander makes no particular figure in history,
but later on he was appointed to his father's office of Justiciar in
succession to Alan Durward, and ultimately combined with it that of High
Constable, which came to him on the death of his father-in-law, Roger de
Quenci, Earl of Winchester, by whom it had been held. Through his wife, a
great-granddaughter of David, Earl of the Garioch,—she was a cousin of John
Bah'ol, the claimant and king,—he came into possession on Earl Roger's death
of estates in Galloway, Fife, and the Lothians, and took his place as
sheriff and chief territorial magnate of Wigtown.1 In Aberdeenshire he
endowed in 1261 the Holy Rood of Newburgh, a hospital or cell of the Abbey
of Deer, and in 1273a hospital at Turriff for a master, six chaplains, and
thirteen poor husbandmen of Buchan. One of the most salient incidents in the
career of Earl Alexander arose out of the ambition of Alan Durward. An open
conflict between the parties headed by these twro Aberdeenshire notables
began on the death of Alexander II. in 1249, when obstruction was raised by
the English party to the coronation of the young king Alexander III., on the
ground that he had not been knighted. Walter Cumyn carried the predominant
sense of the magnates with him in demanding that this formality should be
disregarded, and that the Bishop of St Andrews should proceed at once with
the coronation ceremony. After the coronation and the futile attempt of
Henry III. to get it annulled by the Pope, there arose a long and bitter
struggle over the questions of regency and tutelage. Durward was ousted from
the Justiciarship and the Abbot of Dunfermline from the office of
Chancellor, the Earl of Buchan taking the place of the former and Walter
Cumyn exercising a general control over the course of affairs. After the
child-marriage between the king and a daughter of Henry III. various
emissaries were sent north, among them Simon de Montfort, on ostensible
missions of public policy and secret missions of intrigue. The seizure of
Edinburgh Castle gave the Durward and English party control of the king and
queen, and a regency was formed in which Durward was associated with Peter
de Ramsay, Bishop of Aberdeen, Malcolm, Earl of Fife, and other prominent
members of the party. The Pope's intervention to the extent of
excommunicating Durward and the English party having been successfully
invoked • by the Bishop of St Andrews, the Cumyns in turn seized the king,
the. queen, and the great seal at Kinross in 1257, and reinstated themselves
in power. Durward fled to England. W ith statesmanlike moderation the Cumyn
party formed a new regency, in which, while retaining a majority, they made
room for him and some members of his party. Walter Cumyn shortly afterwards
died, and the Earl of Buchan became head of the Cumyn interest and leading
statesman for the next thirty years. Durward while in power revived his
claim to the earldom of Mar; but after the compromise he seems to have
worked amicably with both the Aberdeenshire earls, with whom, after the
battle of Largs, he took part in the expedition against the Hebridean
chiefs.
In the latter part of the
twelfth century Duncan, Earl of Fife, was feudal lord of Strathaven, or
Upper Banffshire, a peer of Celtic descent, whose ancestor, however, was
agent of Malcolm Canmore in the overthrow of Macbeth, and whose family had
all along been associated with the new order and the new people. There is on
record an agreement by whi the Bishop of Moray made over to Earl Duncan the
possessions of the old Columban cells scattered up and down the district, in
return for a fixed annual payment, and the earl's barony was erected into a
parish, and Andrew, a non-Celtic priest of Brechin, appointed its incumbent.
Duncan was succeeded in Strathaven by his son Malcolm, and >"n Strathbogie,
which he also possessed, by his second son David, called after it de
Strathbolgin, whose successors carried this surname to the house of Athole.
Through marriage with one of the three heiresses of Alan Durward, the Earls
of Fife succeeded to a large part of the Durward possessions in West
Aberdeenshire, and held them until the forfeiture, early in the fifteenth
century, of Robert, Duke of Albany, who had acquired the earldom in the same
way.
Among the other early
settlers were the Le Neyms, who had been established in Berwickshire and
Tweeddale, and came north in the days of William the Lion. By the middle of
the thirteenth century the Le Neyms had disappeared, and in their place at
St Fergus was the Norman family of Le Chen or Cheyne. Reginald le Chen,
though bis name does not appear in the Durward-Cumyn struggle of 1255-1257,
was one of the magnates who in 1258 entered into the treaty with the Welsh,
and in 1267 he was Chamberlain of Scotland. Besides his Buchan estate he
held lands in Ayrshire and elsewhere. In Aberdeen he founded and endowed the
house of Carmelite or White Friars beside King William's Maturine
establishment on the bank of the Dee. The Carmelites had
just come to Scotland, where
they established nine convents, another of which was at Banff; and they held
considerable property in the city and county of Aberdeen. One of Reginald's
sons, also known as Sir Reginald le Chen, lived through the wars, and by
marriage with Mary de Moravia, co-heiress of the Fleming house of Freskin,
added to his territorial possessions in Buchan the manor-place and Castle of
Duffus and other lands in Moray, as well as estates in Caithness and West
Lothian. A relative, probably cousin, of the younger Sir Reginald, and
grandson of Alexander, Earl of Buchan, was Henry le Chen, Bishop of
Aberdeen, who had his share in the troubles attending the struggle for the
throne. Contemporary with the Le Neyms, and also from the Border, were the
Corbets, who acquired possessions in Gamrie, and Peter de Pollock, who came
from Renfrewshire to Mulben, and had lands on both sides of the Spey; the
Lambertons were settled at Bourtie before or during the days of the first
Earl of the Garioch. Michael de Ferenderach, whose name is derived from
Frendraught, witnessed a charter of William the Lion about 1202, and his
descendants remained in possession until after the battle of Bannockburn,
when they incurred sentence of forfeiture. It is evident from the early
charters that even outside the Lowland earldoms the land to a large extent
had passed into new hands.
Side by side, however, with
the strangers by whom the county had been colonised were families of the old
Celtic stock having lands confirmed to them by charter; and among the
thanes, whom we now find exercising fixed authority over the lands not
assigned to feudal lords, a few appear to have been descendants of the old
toisechs. The Celtic land system was entirely broken up, and tribal-
ownership had disappeared. Great part of Aberdeenshire and Banffshire was
held of the Crown in feudal tenure by the Earls of Buchan, Ganoch, Mar, and
Fife, each of whom had his vassals. The tribal territories not placed under
these lords became thanages, and were regarded as royal demesnes, the thane
holding his land in feu-farm and paying an annual feu-duty, and the land
being either cultivated by bondmen " natives " or let to free farmers. An
early notice of thanage in Aberdeenshire is found in the charter of William
the Lion of 1170 to the Bishop of Aberdeen of seventeen townships of Brass
or Birse, together with the royal forest of Brass, and all the "1 natives "
of the said lands, but excluding the king's thanes. Two generations later,
in 1240, Alexander II. granted the whole lands of Birse to the bishop in
free forest without exception, the thanage being thus extinguished. Between
the Dee and Don in the time of Alexander III. there were the thanages of
Aberdeen, Kintore, Onele, and Aboyne. The Aberdeen thanage included the town
of Old Aberdeen, and no doubt the royal forest of Stocket, which was
afterwards granted to the burgh of Aberdeen by Robert Bruce. Aboj'ne was a
royal residence during the eclipse of the Bysets, and Alexander III.
frequently occupied it after their reinvestiture. Onele was the Dunvard
country, its status in the administrative system of this period being less
than that of an earldom, though its thanes were among the most powerful men
in the country. Kintore, with its lands of Thaneston and its royal keep of
Hallforest, is prominent in the charter history for centuries as a thanage,
and its territory ncluded not only Kintore and Kinkell, which was partly
north of the Don, but Kemnay, Kinnellar, Dyce, and Skene. This thanage was
transferred to the Earl of Moray in 1375, to be held as a barony, with the
bondmen, bond-service, "native men," and their issue, for military service.
North of the Don there was the great thanage of Fermartyn or Formartine,
occupying most of the territory between the Ythan and the Ury and lower Don,
with its principal seat at Fyvie, and having at its eastern extremity the
much smaller thanage of Belhelvie. West of the thanage of Fermartyn was that
of Conveth, represented by the modern parish of Inverkeithney, adjacent to
which were the thanages of Aberchirder and Nether-dale. There.were also the
great thanage of Boyne, with its forest, and the smaller ones of Glendowachy
or Doune, and Munbre or Mountblairy.
Thanages were much more
numerous in the north-east than elsewhere, and very few are met with south
of Forfarshire. They emerge at a comparatively late stage of the transition
epoch, after most of the country was in effective possession of the new
feudal lords. Few of the thanedoms survived the wars of independence and
succession : either the lands reverted to the Crown and were granted anew as
feudal baronies, or the thanes, where the name survived, were transformed
into hereditary landholders, paying to the Crown a fixed rent. Along with
the thanages there was another class of Crown lands called "shires," and we
find the shires of Clatt, Tullynessle, Rayne, and Daviot among the grants of
King David to the bishopric of Aberdeen.
A peculiar significance
attaches to the word nativi or " natives " in these early charters. The
Church itself at this period had its thralls: in the Aberdeenshire records
there is the case of Gillemor Scolgo, the " native liegeman " of the prior
and convent of St Andrews on their lands of Tarland, who in 1222 had their
licence to abide during their pleasure with Sir James, the son of Morgund,
sometime Earl of Mar, in consideration of the yearly payment of a pound of
wax, and on condition that whensoever they should be reclaimed both Gillemor
and his sons, with all their belongings, should return to the prior and
convent as their "native men" to dwell in such reasonable place as should be
allotted to them.
The "native" or "neyf" was a
serf, and the name suggests a bondage imposed upon a conquered population by
immigrants. Mr Cosmo Innes, the great authority on the medieval law and
history of Scotland, calls attention to the "great peaceful silent
revolution which has never found its way nto the pages of our historians,"
represented by the fact that the servile labour of the agricultural class,
which had prevailed all over Europe, died out first in Scotland.1 The last
claim of serfdom proved in a Scotch court was in the Sheriff Court of Banff
in 1364, when an assize found that three men were " the native and liege men
" of Alexander, Bishop of Moray; but in 1388 Adam, Bishop of Aberdeen,
granted a charter of the church lands of Murtle to Alderman William
Chalmers, with the bondmen, natives, and their issue, who, however, are
omitted in a subsequent charter of the same lands in 1402. In the early days
of the new Lowland population serfdom was an institution in general
practice, and the plea might be set up for it that it served the purpose of
keeping the old inhabitants usefully employed and out of mischief. They were
not chattels but serfs attached to the soil and transferable with it to new
lords. Residence of a bondman for a year and a day in a free burgh made him
a free man. The institution became attenuated and gradually died out. With
partial exceptions in the cases of colliers, salters, and fishermen, it
seems to have ceased in Scotland by about the end of the fourteenth century;
but, as we have just seen, it is traceable in these counties down to that
rime.
The castles of Aberdeen and
Banff were erected in the days of Alexander III. as defences against the
Scandinavians, who were again threatening the peace of the country and
meeting with their final discomfiture at the battle of Largs. The " snow
tower" of Kildrummy, a royal castle and long the headquarters of the earldom
of Mar, goes back to a much earlier period, and in the reign of Alexander
II. we find his northern treasurer, Gilbert, Bishop of Caithness, adding
seven towers to the original building and otherwise increasing its strength.
Among the royal castles of the twelfth century was that of Inverurie, which
with Dunnideer passed to the earldom of the Garioch. The Cumyns had their
several castles in Buchan ; the Cheynes were the builders of Ravens-craig on
the Ugie ; the Durwards had their strongholds at Coull and Lumphanan 3 the
Earls of Mar had a castle at Migvie in the same district, and the Bysets one
at Aboyne, of sufficient pretensions to be a royal residence. The ancient
defensive works gradually gave place to durable structures of
stone-and-lime, and as time advanced these new castles became numerous
throughout the province. In their vicinity the immigrant settlers built
"towns," over which the lord exercised his powers of regality, and his lands
were portioned out among his retainers, who repaid him in rents, dues, and
military service. It was the interest of the barons, at a time when their
power rested upon the number of followers they could call to arms, to induce
the former population to accept their rule, and doubtless many of the Celts
fell in with the new order of things and ranged themselves under the banners
of the southern lords.
Whatever means may have been
employed to facilitate the fusion, we see the Celtic and Teutonic races
rapidly coalescing when the Celtic dynasty of kings became extinct, towards
the close of the thirteenth century. A time of great national prosperity and
of rapid progress in wealth and civilisation had been experienced. A young
and energetic people had come in and possessed the lands, had built towns
and great churches, and had dotted baronial castles over the country. At the
end of this period of "luve and le" Aberdeen had its place as one of the
most prosperous of Scottish towns, with a body of sturdy citizens jealously
upholding their trading privileges and generally comporting themselves as a
vigorous self-governing community. The country round it was in the hands of
some of the most enlightened men of the age. Industrial communities had
taken root all over the district. The new population had supplanted or
absorbed the old Celtic inhabitants—entirely in the low country and to a
large extent everywhere, except in a few of the remoter glens; and the
counties of Aberdeen and Banff were occupied by a people which has not
received any important additions from without or undergone any considerable
ethnological change during the last six hundred years. |
