The name of Gordon is the same as that of Bertrand de Jourdain, the French archer who shot Richard I. at Chalons in 1199. It is found in Scotland about that period, and Sir Adam Gordon, in 1297, [Represented by David Gordon, Esq. of Culvennan, Kirkcudbright-shire, born 1828, and by Sir William Gordon of Earlston, born 1830.] was a faithful adherent to Sir William Wallace. His descendants married with the Crichtons and Murrays, and owned lands in Dumfriesshire, where they became renowned as the Lords of Lochinvar. The title of Viscount Kenmure was conferred on Sir John Gordon by Charles I. in 1633. His last direct descendant, the Hon. Louisa Bellamy Gordon, sister and heiress of Adam, 11th Viscount Kenmure, and widow of Charles Bellamy, died May 31, 1886.

The Jardines of Applegirth are descendants of Jardin or Gardin, who came over with the Conqueror, and their signatures are attached to charters a century after this date. They inter-married with the first families in Dumfriesshire, and appear as Knights in the 14th century, when Spedlings Castle in Lochmaben was their possession. Their baronetcy dates from 1672. The late Sir William Jardine of Applegirth was much distinguished for his scientific attainments.

The Kirkpatricks are a Celtic family found very early in Scottish history, and like the Jardines have required no higher title than "chevalier" to give lustre to an ancient name. Closeburn [The Castle contained an oubliette or secret dungeon. It passed from the Kirkpatricks more than a 100 years ago.] was granted to Ivon Kirkpatrick in 1232, by Alexander II. of Scotland, and the great-grandson of this Ivon was the Knight who stabbed the dying Cumyn at the back of the High Altar in the Grey Friars Church in Dumfries in 1305. Cumyn and Robert Bruce had a dispute, and Bruce leaving the church in some agitation met Kirkpatrick, who asked him what had happened. "I doubt," said Bruce, "I have slain the Cumyn." "You doubt," cried Kirkpatrick, "I’se mak sicker" (I will make sure), an expression which his family afterwards adopted as their motto, and rushing in with Sir James Lindsay they despatched first Cumyn, and then his uncle, Sir Robert Cumyn, who was hurrying into the church. Duncan Kirkpatrick, the father of this assassin, had in 1280 married the daughter of Sir David Carlile of Torthorwald, who owned estates about Annan and Kirkpatrick-Fleming. He is mentioned in the following lines by Blind Harry, the minstrel:—

The family of Cumyn are now represented by Sir William Gordon Cumming, fourth baronet, born in 1848. A Comin appears on the Roll of Battle Abbey, but Holinshed refers their origin to 1124. "In the days of this King Alexander, the kindred of the Cummings had their beginning by one John Cumming, a man of great prowess and valiancy, obtaining of the King in respect thereof certain small portions of land in Scotland."

One branch of the Kirkpatricks died out in Thomas Kirkpatrick of Auldgirth, about 1665, and his sister Janet married John Johnstone of Galabank in 1670. The present representative is Sir James Kirkpatrick, whose baronetcy dates from 1685. A scion of the family settled at Malaga early in the present century as agent to a Scottish wine merchant, and was very useful to the commissariat department of the British army in the Peninsular War. He had three daughters, whose brilliant complexion and fair hair, as well as handsome fortunes, were the admiration of the Spanish dons, and among frequent visitors at his house was the Count de Teba, an impoverished nobleman of ancient lineage, who had served under the French and been frightfully injured by an explosion, which, it is said, had deprived him of a leg and an arm. Yet, in course of time, the second of the Miss Kirkpatricks became first the Countess de Teba, and a little later, on her husband succeeding to a distant relative’s title and estate, Countess de Montijo, better known as the mother of the ex-Empress of the French. Some difficulty was raised by the Spanish Court, on the ground that it was a mésalliance; but her father, who died insolvent, applied to the well known antiquary, Mr Kirkpatrick Sharpe, for the Kirkpatrick pedigree, and when it was handed over to the authorities who had a right to veto the marriage of a grandee it was considered sufficient proof of the lady’s noble blood. Another sister married a wine grower in Andalusia, and the third, an official employed in the Commissariat of the British army. The Count de Teba and Montijo died in 1823, after being separated from his wife, as is shown by a lawsuit, a few years later.

The Flemings, supposed to descend from a native of Flanders, were in ancient times barons in the parish of St. Patrick, part of which preserves their name in its modern style, Kirkpatrick-Fleming. A branch of the family were created Earls of Wigton, but the title became extinct in 1747. It was assumed at that time by Charles Ross Fleming, M.D., of Dublin, eldest son of the Rev. James Fleming of Kilkenny, and he voted without challenge at Holyrood in several elections of Scottish representative Peers. In 1761 he was ordered to appear before the House of Lords and show by what authority he took that title, whereupon he presented a petition in the usual form, praying their Lordships to allow him to take up the honours, dignities, &c.; but it was decided that he had not proved his claim. He died October 18, 1769, and seven years later his son, Hamilton Fleming, presented a petition to the House of Lords to the same effect, but was also unable to prove his descent to the satisfaction of the House. His only child, Harriet, married William Gyll, Esq. of Wyradisbury House, Bucks.

The Carruthers family appear to have been in Dumfriesshire as far back as the Kirkpatricks, and are first found on the lands of Carruthers in the modern parish of Middlebie. Thomas, son of Robert Carruthers, received a grant of Mouswald from Robert Bruce. Their estate stretched northward into the district of Wamphray, which they shared with the Laird of Johnstone, and they were made Barons of Mouswald in the 15th century. Simon Carruthers and his wife, Catherine Carlile, had a charter of lands in Cummertrees in 1516, and their son Simon married Agnes, a daughter of Murray of Cockpool. Their grandson, Simon, married Marion Johnstone, and left two daughters, Janet and Marion. The elder married Rorison of Barndennoch, and a curious bond relating to the younger daughter is dated Edinburgh, September 13, 1563—"The which day Thomas Borthick of Pryneade and Michael Borthick of Glengall became pledges and securities for Marion Carruthers, one of the two heiresses of Mouswald, that she shall not marry any chief traitor nor broken man (i. e., outlaw and adventurer not belonging to a clan) of the country, nor join herself with any such person under the pain of one thousand pounds."

In 1426 Roger Carruthers, a son of the Laird of Mouswald, had a charter from Douglas, Lord of Galloway and Annandale, of Holmains, with Dalton and other lands; and his descendants branched off into the families of Holmains, [John Carruthers of Holmains, married to Charlotte, daughter of Sir Robert Laurie of Maxwelton, was obliged to sell his family property in the last century in consequence of the series of calamities to which Dumfriesshire had been subjected, culminating in bank failures, spreading general ruin. His descendants died out in the male line, but the family is represented in the female by his great grandson, the Rev. William Mitchell Carruthers, eldest son of the late General St. Leger Mitchell, born 1853, incumbent of Brunswick Chapel, Mayfair; married, and has issue. In 1788, when the franchise was very limited, John Carruthers is described as having no longer a vote, and it is remarkable that all who were then stated in a secret memoir to have any fortune or sufficient estate to qualify them were in a profession or business, or had acquired wealth elsewhere than in Dumfriesshire. There were 52 voters, and persons were incapacitated who in the year preceding an election had been twice present at divine service where the officiating minister had not taken the oath to King George, nor prayed for the Royal family. Sir James Kirkpatrick was a lawyer; also Charles Share of Hoddom, who was keeper of the harriers to the Prince of Wales. Patrick Miller of Dalswinton had made his fortune as a banker at Glasgow, and Sir Robert Herries was a banker in London; Alexander Fergusson of Craigdarroch was an advocate; Dr James Hunter and his two brothers, one a minister and the other a Writer to the Signet; Sir William Pulteney, a barrister, and his young cousin, Richard Berup de Johnstone (ancestor to Lord Derwent), whose fortune was derived from his grandfather, a Dutch merchant; Maxwell of Barncleugh; the Baronet of Westerhall, described as a very independent honest man, his brothers; John Johnstone of Donovan, described as immensely rich; Hugh Corrie and Thomas Goldie, both writers; David Armstrong and William Copeland, advocates; William Elliot of Arkletoun; Sir Wm. Maxwell of Springkell; George Milligan Johnstone of Corhead and George Johnston of Cowhill, both merchants and new proprietors; Sir R. Grierson’s brother was a merchant; Mackie of Palgowan, in the English Civil Service; Sir William Maxwell Springkell, Bart.; William Jardine: and Robert Wightman Henderson, conclude the list.] Wormanbie, [This branch became extinct in the male line with the late D.A. Carruthers, Esq., whose grandson, Louis Carruthers Salkeld, now owns the estate.] and Dormont. They owned estates bordering on Lockerbie, Lochmaben, Annan, and Kirkpatrick-Fleming; and when the town of Annan received a charter in 1538, they prevented the boundary of the burgh being defined where it joined their property, so that at some future time they might quietly annex it. The Laird of Holmains, with 162 followers, was compelled to surrender to the English after the battle of Pinkie, in 1547, and was among those chiefs who were declared traitors by the Parliament of Scotland in 1548. This Laird John Carruthers was married to Blanche Murray of Cockpool, and one of their daughters married Gilbert Johnstone of Wamphray. Another (Marion) married John Johnstone of Newbie A son of Carruthers was parson of Wamphray, which at that period was by no means the same as having taken holy orders; for one of the crimes against which John Knox preached most loudly was the alienation of the Church lands and tithes to secular purposes—a practice carried to an extreme in Scotland before the Reformation. Even the Abbots were sometimes seculars. [Some of the irregularities in Church matters were probably due to a foreign ecclesiastical government being established in the country. In the reign of Henry III. the Pope placed 400 Italians in English benefices and many foreign priests received preferment in Scotland before the Reformation. The services and religious books were in Latin, and although the Church lands were spared in the rules of ordinary warfare, this custom was not regarded in the English and Scottish wars. In many cases the vicars and monks were aliens, and looked upon by both armies with national dislike.] There is an agreement, dated January, 1561, between Robert Johnstone, himself a lay parson of Lochmaben, and Margaret M’Clellan, the widow of his uncle, James Johnstone of Wamphray, to the effect that, "Forasmuch as the said Robert having obtained a lease of Sir James Carruthers, parson of Wamphray, of the whole parsonage and vicarage, tithes, fruits, and endowments pertaining to the said parsonage and vicarage, for the space of his life-time, and the said Margaret having had the parsonage, vicarage, and endowments thereof from the said Sir James for his lifetime before the lease since made to the said Robert, which was wrongly and evil given against all law and good conscience, and in hurt and prejudice of the said Margaret’s lease before expressed; therefore the said Robert gives up the letters of lease to the said Margaret to be used by her from, henceforth." Signed by James Rigg, Mungo Carmichael, and the master of Maxwell. Margaret being unable to write her hand was guided by the notary.

Throughout the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries the Carlyles appear in public transactions connected with the county of Dumfries. In 1435 Sir William Carlyle accompanied a body of 6000 archers to France, when the daughter of James I. was married to the Dauphin, afterwards Louis XI. in 1435. This knight was infefted in Brydekirk among other estates, before 1466. He gave a bell to the town of Dumfries, bearing the inscription in old Latin:—"William de Carliel, Lord of Torthorwald, caused me to be made in honour of St. Michael, in the year of our Lord, 1443." His son Sir John was created Lord Carlyle of Torthorwald in 1471; and the second peer entered into a bond in 1496, that he and his spouse "should be harmless of William Carlile, his grandson and heir, who had married a daughter of Lord Maxwell, and that the said William should be harmless of Lord Carlile." John Johnstone of that Ilk (a brother or uncle to the laird, whose name was Adam) was the security. A similar bond was signed a month before by the same John Johnstone and his spouse, and Lord Carlyle, viz., that they should keep the peace. In 1573, Michael, Lord Carlyle, having survived his eldest son, who left only a daughter, executed a deed bequeathing his title and estates to his second son. It is witnessed by Adam Carlyle of Brydekirk, his near relation, and by Alexander, son and heir of this Adam Carlyle; also, by John Carlyle of Brakenthwaite, Peter Carlyle, son of Lord Carlyle, and others. But after his death the inheritance was long disputed between his granddaughter Elizabeth and her uncle Michael, and eventually decided in favour of the lady, who married Sir James Douglas of Parkhead. After both had been almost ruined by the contest, the eldest son of Elizabeth and Sir James Douglas was recreated Lord Carlyle in 1609. The male descent of Michael, fourth Lord Carlyle, still claimed the ancient barony in 1764. Alexander Carlyle, Laird of Brydekirk, and his son Adam, the young laird, are mentioned by Sir Thomas Carleton, the English Warden of the Borders in 1547, as the only gentry in Annandale, Liddesdale, and Nithsdale who had never submitted to the English, except Douglas of Drumlanrig. His family branched off into several representatives. One of these, Adam Carlyle, was a merchant and bailie of Annan. He married Janet Muirhead, and left two children—James, whose descendants migrated to Paisley, and now live in England, and Isobel, married to Edward Johnstone of the family of Newbie and Galabank. He died in 1686, and lies buried under a legible inscription in the old churchyard in Annan, close to the grave of his daughter and her husband.

The Murrays of Cockpool descend from a knight who married the sister of Thomas Randolph, the first Earl of Murray, in the reign of Alexander III, and were established at Comlongon and Ryvel, or Ruthwell, in 1331. John Murray was returned heir to his father Cuthbert in the lands of Cockpool, Ryvel, and Redkirk, July 17, 1494. At the union of the two crowns a commission sat for twenty years to inquire into the titles of the landowners on the Borders, and to ensure their pacification; and as during the wars of which that district had constantly been the centre many title-deeds were destroyed in burnt houses and towns, it was a splendid opportunity for those in favour at Court to recover what they could prove had belonged to their families centuries before, if not to increase their possessions where they really had no claim. James Murray of Cockpool, a Royal favourite, and a gentleman of the Bedchamber, increased his property much during that twenty years, and his descendant in the female line, the present Earl of Mansfield, now owns Gretna, which Murray bought back from the Johnstones in 1618. His brother John received the titles of Viscount Annand and Earl of Annandale, which became extinct in 1658. James Murray, only son of this John, retired into England, and lived there privately during the Civil War. His widow married his distant relative, David Murray, lord of Scone, and Viscount Stormont, whose eldest son married Marjory, daughter of David Scot of Scotstarvit, and grand-daughter through female descents of James Murray of Cockpool. This marriage united the Murray’s property in Dumfriesshire to the Perthshire estates of the Murrays of Scone and Stormont.

The Murrays of Scone had already produced one eminent Scottish lawyer, but the most celebrated of the family was the fourth son of David, sixth Viscount Stormont, and of Marjory Scot—William, created Earl of Mansfield, who was born at Comlongon Castle in 1742. He is immortalised by a statue in Westminster Abbey, and by the talents which raised him from an almost penniless younger son to be Solicitor-General, Attorney-General, Lord Chief Justice, and a member of the Cabinet. He married a daughter of the Earl of Winchelsea, and owing to the extinction of the lineage of his three elder brothers his descendant inherits the family title of Stormont as well as that of Mansfield.

The ford across the mouth of the Esk where it flows in the Solway was the favourite passage by which the English entered Scotland, and the Scots marched through it to assault Carlisle; so that the post of guard was conferred by the English King on a notably worthy warrior. The tract between the Esk and Sark, when Edward III was driven from Dumfriesshire, fell into the hands of mosstroopers and brigands, chiefly connected with the Liddesdale families of Scot, Elliot, Little, Trumble, and Armstrong. The thieves of Liddesdale and the outlaws of Leven they are generally termed in the Scottish annals, and their affiance was courted by the chiefs of Annandale in numerous civil feuds. This ground being claimed alternately by England and Scotland, became known as the Debateable Land; but, by a treaty in 1552, it was divided between the two kingdoms, and stone pillars set along the frontier to mark the boundary. The Irvings of Robgill and Bonshaw at this time occupied the Scottish territory nearest to the mouth of the Esk. William Johnstone of Gretna and Newbie mortgaged Sarkbrig and Conheath to Richard Irving, and leased Stapleton to Christopher Irving of Bonshaw, whose son married Margaret, daughter of Johnstone of that Ilk. There were one or two more marriages between the Irvings and Johnstones of Newbie and of Johnstone, so that the Irvings acquired a "kyndlie"—i.e., a kinsman’s right to live in the barony of Newbie without title-deeds. Their name early appears among the followers of Robert Bruce; and Dick Irving, a notorious freebooter, was captured by the English in 1527. His relations retaliated by seizing Geoffrey Middleton, a connection of Lord Dacre, the English Warden, on his return from a pilgrimage to St. Ninian’s in Galloway; and in spite of the object of his journey, which by the rules of regular warfare ought to have protected him, they kept him in prison till Lord Dacre should ransom him by releasing Dick Irving. Christie Irving of Bonshaw, Cuthbert Irving of Robgill, the Irvings of Pennersach, Wat Irving, and Jeffrey Irving surrendered to the English in 1547 with 290 retainers. They have direct male descendants.

Charteris of Amisfield is an ancient family, of which the head—the Earl of Wemyss and March—has now passed out of Dumfriesshire. The first of the name came to England with the Conqueror, and, like the Riddels, entered Scotland with David I. Robert de Charteris acquired the lands of Amisfield prior to 1175, and his grandson Thomas made over the patronage of two churches in Dumfriesshire to the Monastery of Kelso. In 1517 John Charteris of Amisfield was "caution for Ninian Crichton in his tutory to Margaret Crichton." Another Laird of Amisfield (or Hempisfield) acted with Sir Alexander Stewart of Garlies as prolocutor for Sir William Maxwell of Gribton, Barbara Johnstone, his wife, and Elizabeth Stewart, Barbara’s mother, the widow of the deceased Laird of Newbie, when they were tried in 1605 for violently seizing Newbie Castle from Robert Johnstone; and in 1637 John Johnstone, called of Mylnefield (Robert’s nephew), twice acted as sole witness to a sasine for Sir John Charteris. The Lairds of Amisfield are mentioned in most public transactions in Dumfriesshire in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The family of Fitz-Alleyne owned lands in Nithsdale long before any of them ascended the Scottish throne; but when the son of Walter, High Steward of Scotland, afterwards Robert II., took the surname of Stuart, they followed his example. [The English Stewards claim descent from Sir John Stewart of Bonkill.] The Stewarts of Garlies and the Stuarts of Castlemilk are of this race. Sir Walter Stewart of Dalswinton acquired Garlies, in Kirkcudbright, about the time of Robert Bruce, and his direct descendant, Sir Alexander Stewart, was created Earl of Galloway in 1623.

The Fergussons of Craigdarroch are also an ancient family. The first charter in existence of their estate is dated early in the 14th century, and they are supposed to have possessed it for many years previously. Burns refers to them in these words—

The poet’s great friend to whom this was addressed was Robert Fergusson, also a poet, who died in his 24th year, in 1751. Burns wrote the inscription on his monument in the Canongate Churchyard, in Edinburgh—

Comparatively few of the Dumfriesshire landed gentry descend in the male line from the ancestors who owned their property in the 15th and 16th centuries, but among them appear to be the Hunters of Lagan, who received the estate from Robert Bruce. They are now represented by Mr Hunter-Arundell of Barjarg Tower, near Dumfries. The Hope-Johnstones of Annandale descend through two females from the first Marquis. The Charterises are now Charteris Douglas, while other families which have died out in the male branch have still retained the ancient name with the female descent.

The Griersons of Lag have continued in the male line from Gilbert, second son of Malcolm Dominus de MacGregor, who died in 1374. They were created baronets in the 17th century, and intermarried with the Maxwells, Charterises, Kirkpatricks, Fergussons, and Queensberry family. Lag Castle stands about seven miles from Dumfries, and, like Lochwood, was built in the midst of morasses and thick woods. Sir Alexander Grierson of Lag, born 1858, is the head of this ancient family.

The Norman family of Heris, descended from the Count de Vendôme, came to England with the Conqueror, and followed David I. to Scotland, where Robert de Heris is called Dominus de Nithsdale in a charter of 1323. As Herries of Terregles they played a prominent part in Scottish history, and finally merged into the Maxwells. The title of Herries was created in 1489; and the family of Constable Maxwell, Everingham Park, Co. York, established their claim to it through female descent in 1858. The present Lord Herries, born 1837, has two daughters.

The Herries family owned Hoddom Castle, where they are said to have imprisoned kidnapped Englishmen in the 15th century, but in 1607 it belonged to Samuel Kirkpatrick, married to the widow of Johnstone of Newbie. It was bought about 1630 by the Sharps, and remained with their descendants till the present day. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, the celebrated antiquarian, whom Sir Walter Scott called the Scottish Horace Walpole, and the author of several poems in the Border Minstrelsy, was born there in 1781, and died in Edinburgh in 1851.

The Maitlands of Eccles are an old Scottish house, descending from Eklis or Elsie, a knight who followed the fortunes of Hugh de Morville into Dumfriesshire in the reign of David I. The office and estates of the Morvilles descended to the M’Dowalls.

The Boswells of Auchinleck are described as minor barons in 1549, and have produced eminent advocates and a judge. Perhaps the best known of the family is James Boswell, the friend and biographer of Dr Samuel Johnson, whose life he published in 1791.