Minstrelsy of the Scottish border - National Library of Scotland

THE SCOTTISH BORDER. 253
Maxtoun, the barony of Cavertouii, in vicecom. de
Roxburgh, quas Soullis forisfecit.
Charter to James Lord Douglas, of the barony of Westerker,
quam Willielmus de Soullis forisfecit.
To William Lord Douglas, of the lands of Lyddal,
whilkis William Soullis forisfecit, a Davide secundo.
The hero of tradition seems to be William, Lord Soul-
lis, whose name occurs so frequently in the foregoing
list of forfeitures ; by which he appears to have possess-
ed the whole district of Liddesdale, Avith Westerkirk and
Kirkandrews, in Dumfries-shire, the lands of Gilmer-
toun, near Edinburgh, and the rich baronies of Nis-
bet, Longnewton, Caverton, Maxtoun, and Mertoun, in
Roxburghshire. He was of royal descent, being the
grandson of Nicholas de Soulis, who claimed the crown
of Scotland, in right of his grandmother, daughter to
Alexander II. ; and who, could her legitimacy have been
ascertained, must have excluded the other competitors.
The elder brother of William, was John de Soulis, a gal-
lant warrior, warmly attached to the interests of his
country, who, with fifty Borderers, defeated and made
prisoner Sir Andrew Harclay, at the head of three hun-
dred Englishmen, and was himself slain fighting in the
cause of Edward the Bruce, at the battle of Dundalk,
jn Ireland, 131S. He had been joint-warden of the
kingdom with John Cummin, after the abdication of the
immortal Wallace, in 1 300 ; in which character he was