LAND OF THE LINDSAYS by ANDREW JERVISE F.S.A.

PAGES 114-115

SECTION II

"In truth they were as bold a race, As ever mounted steed."

It has been shewn in a previous Chapter, that the property, or parish of Lethnot, came to the Lindsay family at the same time, and in the same manner, as their great Glenesk estate, namely, through the marriage of Sir Alexander with the co-heiress of Sir John Stirling; but the district of Navar, from earliest record, has been conjoined with the Lordship of Brechin. In addition to other payments made from Navar to the church, Walter Stuart, Earl of Athole, who married the only child and heiress of Barclay, Lord of Brechin, gave an annual of forty pounds to that cathedral from his lands of Cortachy, "and failing thereof, through war, poverty, or other cause, "the sum was to be paid from the lands of the Lordship of Brechin, of which Navar formed a part.

Before entering upon a notice of the various persons who have borne the ancient title of Lord of Brechin and Navar, it may be observed, that subsequent to the time of the Reformation, Nathrow (which has long formed a part of the estate of Careston), and the neighbouring lands of Tilliquhillie were held by a family of the name of Douglas (cadets of the ancient house of Tillwhilly in Kincardineshire), while at a subsequent period Nathrow belonged to the second Earl of Panmure, and afterwards to a Charles Robertson, who was sometime tenant in Trusto. Easter and Wester Tillyarblet, which were possessed by descendants of Erskine of Dun, also belong to Careston, as does the grazing farm of Tillybirnie, which was described by Ochterlony as being "well accommodate in grass parks and meadows ;" but, with these exceptions, the whole district of Navar has been owned by the family of Panmure since the year 1634.

As regards the ancient Lords of Brechin and Navar, the first was David, Earl of Huntingdon and the Garioch, founder of the church of' the Virgin Mary at Dundee, and brother to William the Lion. Earl David had a natural son, Henry, to whom he gave this Lordship, and from the district of Brechin he assumed
his surname. Sir William de Brechin, the son of this Henry, founded the Domus Dei or Maison Dieu of that city in 1264, and was one of the most illustrious barons in the time of Alexander III, having been one of the of the guardians of Scotland in the English interest during the minority of that king. His only child, David, married to a sister of the Bruce, swore fealty to Edward in 1296, and supported the English with great ardour until 1308, when the Scots gained the battle of Inverury. On this he fled to his castle at Brechin, but being besieged by the Earl of Athole, he joined Bruce's standard, and ever after espoused his cause. His son was the fourth and last of the male line of the ancient family of de Brechin, and one of the great barons who signed the celebrated letter to the Pope at Arbroath, in 1320, asserting the Independence of Scotland; but being privy to the conspiracy of Lord Soulis, he and some of the other traitors were executed.

Sir David Barclay, who, throughout the whole war of the . .