Vol 5 - Dumfriesshire & Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian ...

22 Traitsactions.Scotland, as in this rare and valuable work fully set forth.Incidentally treating of the great power and authority of thefamily of Douglas, Dr Fraser says :— " Thus by rapid strides thefamily of Douglas rose within one generation from the good SirJames to be owners and rulers of the greater part of the South ofScotland, as well as of considerable estates in the North. Theybore undisputed sway over a large portion of the shires of Lanark,Peebles, Selkirk, Roxburgh, parts of Berwickshire, and Dumfriesshire,with the whole of Galloway. To this territory was addedfor a time the earldom of Mar and lordship of Garioch. Whenit is further considered that either nominally on behalf of theKing or in their own right the lords of Douglas possessed orgarrisoned the strong castles of Kildrummy in Mar, Jedburgh inTeviotdale, the Hermitage in Liddesdale, the Thrieve in Galloway,Tantallon in East Lothian, Lochmaben in Annandale, aswell as their native fortress of Douglasdale, it will be more easilyunderstood how the members of this one family were able tomaintain a more than royal state, and their power became dangerousto the throne itself. Of ancient Galloway under the Lordsand Earls of the Douglas family there are many details of muchlocal interest. Notable among such is the chartered history ofthe Douglas possession of the barony of the Balliols of old time,the barony of Botle, which also appears to have been the firstlanded possession of the Douglases in Galloway. In the year1325 it appears King Robert the Bruce granted a charter of thelands of Botle, totam terrain nostrum de Botle, in Gcdwidia, cumsuis 2)erti)ienciis, &c., to the good Sir James. In the year 1342Hugh Douglas, the brother of Sir James Douglas, resigned thesame lands. Further, in or about the year 1348 a.d. William,Lord of Douglas (afterwards the lirst Earl), granted to his godfather,William Douglas, the Knight of Liddesdale, the lands ofKnokys, Sevenkii-ks, Kenmore, Logan, and Colennauch, in thebarony of Botle in Galloway." — (Reg. Hon. de Morton, ii., 10.)During nearly the whole of the 1 6th century the records give butfew details touching the Bridge.However, you incidentally learnthe existence of a fund, then known familiarly as " TJie BrigWerk," to which all freemen and burgesses had from use and wontbeen accustomed to subscribe as one of the known penalties oftheir elevation and future existence as duly constituted freemen.From the great diametrical change which has since that timetaken place in the purchasing power of money, to even form an