The Sterling genealogy

90 THE STERLING GENEALOGY
of William the Lion to Arbroath Abbey, of a salt pit in the Kars
to which he is a witness ; (2) a charter by the same king to the
Abbey of Dunfermline, to which he is a witness, granted at Stir-
ling; and (3) a charter granted by himself, as "William, son of
Thorald, Sheriff of Stirling," of the church of Kirkintilloch, to
Cambuskenneth Abbey, witnessed by Alan, his son, among others.
These are all without date but are prior to 1214, when Wil-
liam the Lion died. Other documents, cited by Riddell in his com-
ments on the pretensions of the house of Keir to the representation
of the sheriffs of Stirling, show that William had at least three
sons:
III 1 Alexander de Strivelyn, his heir.
2 Alan de Strivelyn, and
IV 3 John de Strivelyn, who succeeded his brother.
III "ALEXANDER DE STRIVELYN (1222-1244), son
of William, son of Thorald," or simply " Sheriff of Stirling " and
Justiciary of Lothian, was the first proprietor on record of Ochil-
tree and Cadder.
The charters and other documents cited by Riddell from the
Chartularies of Dunfermline of the priory of St. Andrew of New-
bottle and other sources fully prove his existence and style, and
that he had a brother
IV JOHN DE STRIVELYN, afterwards Sir John de Strive
lyn, " Dominus de Ochiltree," and also sheriff of Stirling.
He is called the son of Alexander (No. Ill) by the editor of the
Stirlings of Keir; but from the evidence adduced by Riddell he
was more probably his younger brother and appears to have flour-
ished about the middle of the thirteenth century.
In the next generation, three knights appear on record, who
ander Vicecomes of Strivelyn and Justiciary of Lothian also Sheriff of Stirling and
proprietor of Ochiltree and Cadder the original patrimonies of the fabulati Strivelienses
down to 1541.
The Vicecomites of Stirling had not yet in the time of Alexander adopted the surname
of Strivelyn, which they came afterwards to take, from the high office which they
uniformly held. In this way the original ancestry and descent of the fibulati Strive-
lienses have been aeduced, through their re, resentatives, the Vicecomites of Strivelyn
(then as much the capital of Scotland as Edinburgh), which high office was in a
manner hereditary in the family and from which they derived their surname ; with
it they conjoined their noted patrimonies of Ochiltree and Cadder besides other valuable
domains and fiefs.