"The Chiefs of Grant" (1883) by Sir William Fraser
Volume I, Introduction (iv)

THE BARONY OF FREUCHIE.

[xxxv] The name of this barony of Freuchie, variously spelled Frewehe, Fruychue, Freuchequhy, etc., from the Gaelic, Fraochach, heathy or heathery, may be derived from the heathery hill situated about a quarter a mile to the south-east of Castle Grant.

This barony first appears on record as a possession of the family of Grant in the time of Sir Duncan Grant. In 1453, previous to his being knighted, he is designed in a precept of sasine by Archibald Douglas, Earl of Moray, for infefting John le Hay of Mayne in the lands of Glenbeg and others, as "our beloved cousin, Duncan le Graunte of Fruychy," and from that time until the close of the seventeenth century, Freuchie. was the designation of the chiefs of the Grants.

Sir Duncan Grant appears to have possessed only the half of the barony of Freuchie, the other half being the property of Marjory Lude. She, on 28th July 1473, granted a charter to her son, Patrick Grant, in which she styles herself Lady of half the barony of Freuchie. By that charter, Marjory Lude, in her widowhood and urgent need, for the sustentation of her life, pledged or wadset to her son, Patrick Grant, in return for a payment made by him to her of six hundred merks, her lands of Auchnarrows, Downan, Port, and Dalfour, in the barony of Freuchie and shire of Inverness. Who Marjory Lude was, and how she obtained possession of the half lands of Freuchie, has not been ascertained. The portion of Freuchie held by Sir Duncan Grant in 1453 may have come to him through the marriage of his father with Matilda of Glencarnie, to whose father, Gilbert of Glencarnie, part of the lands of Freuchie appear to have pertained. Mention is made of a prominent part of the later barony of Freuchie, the lands of the two Congashes, as the property of Gilbert of Glencarnie at the close of the thirteenth century. About that time he granted to Duncan de Feryndrawcht, on the marriage of the latter to his daughter Marjory, the eastern davoch of the land of Congash, in the holding of Abernethy, with the homage and service of the tenant [xxxvi] of his davoch land of Wester Congash. Vol. iii. of this work, p. 7. The lands continued the property of the Glencarnies until the death, about the year 1438, of that Gilbert of Glencarnie whose daughter Matilda was the mother of Sir Duncan Grant. The lands then fell to the Crown by reason of non-entry, until, in 1464, Sir Duncan obtained himself served heir to his grandfather Gilbert in the lands of Congash. Ibid. p. 26. Owing to an informality in this retour, by omitting to state the time when the lands fell to the Crown, and how long they had remained in the king's hands, it was rendered inoperative, and another service supplying the required information had to be expede. This second service, expede on 7th February 1468, was follewed by a precept from Chancery authorising the infeftment of Sir Duncan Grant in the lands of Congash, and in it the lands are valued at forty shillings yearly, but in time of peace at ten merks. They are said to have been in the hands of the Crown since the death of Gilbert of Glencarnie, his maternal grandfather, thirty years previously, owing to the heir failing to prosecute his claim. Ibid. pp. 28, 29.

Sir Duncan Grant of Freuchie died in 1485, and having been predeceased by his eldest son, John Grant, younger of Freuchie, he was succeeded in the lands by his grandson, also John Grant. On a precept from Chancery, John Grant of Freuchie was, on 17th June 1489, infeft in the half of the lands of Freuchie, the two Culfoichs, the two Congashes and Glenlochy, in the shire of Inverness, the Sheriff proceeding first to the lands of Freuchie and then to the lands of Congash, and giving sasine upon the ground and at the messuages thereof. Ibid. p. 37.

Four years later, on 4th January 1493, John Grant of Freuchie obtained from King James the Fourth a charter erecting his lands into a barony, to be called the BARONY OF FREUCHIE. In this charter the King grants and confirms to John Grant of Freuchie the lands of Freuchie and mill thereof, the two Culfoichs, Dalfour, Auchingall, the two Congashes and mill thereof, and Glenlochy, all in the shire of Inverness, also the fifth part of the lands of Linkwood, with the fifth part of the mill thereof, the fifth part of the lands of Barmuckity, the fifth part of the htnds of Garbity, half of the lands of Inchbery, half of the lands of [xxxvii] Ordiquish, half of the lands of Mulben, and six shillings and eightpence (or half) of the lands of Sheriffston, all in the shire of Elgin. These lands, the charter proceeds to narrate, belonged heritably to John Grant of Freuchie, and were by him resigned into the King's hands at Edinburgh, Original Instrument of Resignation at Castle Grant whereupon His Majesty, for the, singular favour he bore to John Grant, and on account of his faithful services in many ways, erected the lands into a free barony, to be called in all time coming the Barony of Freuchie. Vol. iii. of this work, p. 41 On a precept from Chancery in favour of John Grant of Freuchie, sasine of the barony was given to him on the ground of the same on 5th February 1493. Original Instrument of Sasine at Castle Grant.

This new erection of the barony of Freuchie differed from the former barony in this respect, that some of the lands of the old barony were not in possession of the Grants of Freuchie, and, consequently, were not included in the new erection of 1493. By this time, however, they had added part, at least, of the half of the old barony, possessed by Marjory Lude, to their own .portion of it. The lands of Dalfour were among those disponed by Maijory Lude to her son, Patrick Grant, but previous to this new erection they had been acquired by the Grants of Freuchie, who included them in the new erection of the barony in 1493. The lands of Auchnarrows, Downan, and Port, which, as already stated, formed part of the half of the old barony of Freuchie possessed by Marjory Lude, formed no part of the later barony of Freuchie. They were purchased by the Grants of Freuchie from James Grant of Auchernach in 1586, and shortly after their acquisition, as will afterwards be shown, were incorporated into a new erection of the Barony of Cromdale.

The remaining lands, or parts of lands, lying in the county of Elgin, added by the charter to the barony of Freuchie, appear to have been detached lands possessed by the Grants, and to have been included in the new barony for the sake of giving greater unity to the estate. None of them are known to have formed part of the old barony. Sheriffston and Barmuckity were part of the lands held by Gilbert of Glencarnie from the Earl of Moray, and were inherited by Sir Duncan Grant in 1434, when [xxxviii] King James the First granted to him, as heir of his mother, Matilda of Glencarnie, a precept of sasine in the lands of the fifth part of the barony of Rothes Wiseman, Barmuckity, the two Fochabers, and the half of Sheriffston. Vol. iii. of this work, pp. 13-15, 18. But of these lands lying in the county of Elgin, thus include4 by the charter of 1493 in the barony of Freuchie, it is to be remarked, that they never afterwards appear in connection with the barony in any document. It would seem that all these lands, at least Ordiquish, Garbity, and Sheriffston, were exchanged by John Grant, second Laird of Freuchie, when his daughter Margaret married Thomas Cumming, younger of Erneside, for the half of the lands of Mulben and Mekill Balnabrochs, in the shire of Elgin.

In 1536, when James Grant "the Bold" was retoured heir to his father, John Grant of Freuchie, the barony of Freuchie comprised only such lands as were situated in the county of Inverness, and mention is for the first time made of the Castle and fortalice of Freuchie Ibid. p. 81. Before 1553, an addition appears to have been made to the barony in the lands of Auld charn, which, after this date, are always enumerated among the lands of the barony. On the other hand, a slight diminution in the real extent of the barony took place in 1564 by the disposition to the Cummings of Erneside, of the south half of Dalfour, with a sixteenth part of the north half, leaving so much of Dalfour in the barony as to preserve a nominal completeness. This disposition was in fulfilment of a contract dated in 1508, but which had not been implemented.

The barony of Freuchie, as titus composed of the lands of Freuchie, with castle and fortalice thereof, mills, etc., viz., the Castietown of Freuchie, Dalfour, Auchingall, the two Culfoichs; the two Congashes, Auldcharn, and Glenlochy, was held of the Crown on the usual terms, and is stated in 1553 and 1589 to be worth forty merks annually, and in time of peace thirty-three merks. This was the valuation of the Crown. An old rental of 1611 shows the value of these lands to the family of Grant in the time of King James the Sixth, with the burdens upon each davoch, and the various payments in kind made by the tenants to the Laird. Vide excerpt in vol. iii. of this work, pp. 300-313. The davochs were rented according to the nature of their soil, relative fertility, [xxxix] etc. some paying as much as £80 Scots annually, and others less than £10, of land maill, with corresponding sums in teind mail! and vicarage, and a grassurn generally every five years. The payments in kind were composed of a certain number of boils of multure bear, also wedders, lambs, kids, salmon, poultry, geese, and capons, in quantities proportioned to the respective rents. The total amounts of rental and other money payments in 1611 were: Grassum, £223 6s. 4d.; land maill, £494, 13s. 4d.; teind maill, £9, 6s. 8d. ; vicarage, £15, 4s. 4d. The rents paid in kind were seventeen boils of multure bear, nineteen and a half wedders, one lamb, twenty-four kids, thirty pounds of salmon, one hundred and seventy-nine poultry, twenty-four geese, and twelve capons.

This barony of Fretichie did not form a compact estate. It was divided into two portions by intervening lands. One of these portions embraced the lands of Fret uchie, Auchingall, the two Culfoichs, and Dalfour, all of which were contiguous to the castle of Freuchie. The other portion was situated on the east side of the Spey, higher up the river, and in the parish of Abernethy. It comprised the lands of the two Congashes, Auld charn an(l Glenlochy, and these stretching from the Spey to Strathavon, formed a complete section across the parish of Abernethy. The lands which intersected the barony were those of Auchnarrows, Downan, and Port, pertaining to Patrick Grant of Auchnarrows, the son of Marjory Lude, but they were ultimately acquired by the Lairds of Grant.

As thus constituted, however, Freuchie continued to form a distinct barony and the principal possession of the Grant family until 1694, when Ludovick Grant obtained the Crown charter erecting all his lands into the RE;AL1TY OF GRANT, and the barony of Freuchie was absorbed in it.

Although the castle or fortalice of Freuchie is not mentioned before the year 1536 in any of the charters which have been preserved, there can he little doubt that in the time of Sir Duncan Grant, the first of Freuchie, and also at an earlier period, the lands possessed a mansion-house. In the year 1489 Freuchie is described as the messuage. Vol. iii. of this work. p. 38. It is possible that in the older barony some other place was the principal messuage, and that after the consolidation of his estates in 1493, John Grant of Freuchie chose, [xl] as the site of a residence, the lands from which the new barony was named. It is more probable, however, that the lands of Freuchie were always the principal part of the barony of Freuchie; but as the castle and fortalice of Freuchie are first mentioned in the retour of James Grant of Freuchie, his son, on 3d October 1536, it may be presumed that John Grant either rebuilt his residence, or extended the edifice which then existed.

The castle of Freuchie was frequently designated Ballachastell, which, literally rendered, is the town of the castle. It is also sometimes spelt Balloch Castle, that is, the castle in the pass. In like manner the dominical lands or mains of Freuchie were frequently called the lands or mains of Ballachastell. The names were often used interchangeably. Thus James Grant of Freuchie made his testament on 1st June 1553 at his place of Ballachastell, and a few weeks later, on the 22d of August, it is described as his castle of Freuchie. His son and successor, John Grant of Freuchie, who was in possession of the barony for about thirty years, dated his feudal documents sometimes from Freuchie, but more frequently from Ballachastell, and the latter appears to have been the designation preferred by succeeding Lairds until the erection of the Regality of Grant. Then it took its present designation from the name of its proprietors, and to this day remains CASTLE GRANT.

As the principal residence of the family of Grant, Castle Grant has been cherished and venerated not only by the members of the family, but by all the name of Grant, as the home of their chief. The castle itself is an imposing pile, reared on one of the most commanding positions in Strath spey. Its outlook is at once varied, extensive, and magnificent, over a country which, for many miles around, owns its baronial sway. A writer of the eighteenth century, describing the view, says:

"The house commands a pretty extensive and pleasing landscape Southward, the deep forest of Abernethy, its broad dark green plain encroaching on the dusky side of the lofty Cairngorm, the pale rolling cloud seizing at times its summit, equalling its peerless elevation with the humbler hills, and the mountain anon discharging the hovering vapour in lingering detachments, resumes its proud pre-eminence, and looks down upon its neighbours. Spread eastward lies the wide-bending cultivated [xli] plain of Cromdale, its green level border illuminated, by the blue rolling river. On the north and west an irregularly curved range of hill displays upon its side the verdant mantle of flourishing plantation. The park itself is of great extent, diversified with the agreeable variety of thicket, grove and forest, cornfield and meadow; a double line of tall trees extend a cool shade over a long lane, by the lofty canopy of their intermingled foliage, impervious to the summer sun and the slighter shower; the trim garden, the ornamented shrubbery, and several pleasant ridings, may suggest a general idea of the environs of this. respectable mansion, the extent of which may be conceived by the compass occupied by the wood, nearly four thousand acres." Survey of the Province of Moray, 1798, pp. 271, 272.

The fabric of the castle is of various dates, one portion, called Babie's Tower, being considerably the most ancient. Formerly, the castle was built to face the south, and the workmanship on that side is traceable to the fifteenth century, but at a later period, in the time of Sir Ludovick G rant, the principal face was made to front the north, and wings were then built out to the south. Among the internal features of the castle may be mentioned tie magnificent dining-hall, forty-seven feet in length, twenty-seven in breadth, and of a proportional height, its walls adorned with numerous and rare works of art, among which are many ancestral portraits. Drawing-rooms, staircases, and several of the numerous bed rooms are similarly ornamented. A list of these portraits and paintings is given at the end of this volume.

The armoury, too, is extensive, and contains an excellent collection of warlike panoply, armour defensive and weapons offensive, of modern and remoter times. A list, dated in 1720, of the guns and other weapons in the castle contains among others the following

Baillie Clerk's long gun.	The gilt gun of the famelie.
Colonel Grant's long gun.	The double barrell'd gun.
Glenmorison's long gun.	Mr. Alexr Ogilvie's gun.
Belindalloch's eight squair gun.	Pitchases eight squair gun, marked J. G.
Peter Haberon's gun.	The short waipon gun.
Belindalloch's carved gun.	My Lady Doun's long fusie..
Litcheston's whippe.	The Dutch fusie with the brass lock.
[xlii] Two round barrelled fusies made by Smairt The Glainar.
The club marked number twelve.	Tannachie's rifle
The cartrage rifle.	Three larg brass blunderbushes.
Delvey's rifle.	Two small brass blunderbushes.
Cuthbert's rifle	.Three iron blunderbushes.
The Huzar, number nineteen.	.A short carraben with a Highland lock.
Carron's rifle .	Kinmillies long gun.
A rifle by Barber.	A Highland gun.
Hyland Guns.	Twentie-four muskets in the gun case in the hail.
Jean Cumming.	A case of pistoles, with silver mounting
Seaforth's gilt gun.	The two-handed sword.
The gilt rifle.	The sword of the famely.
Sir John Grant's litle gun.	Seven brod swords
Alister More's gun.	A syd pistoll with Grant of that Ilk on the barrell
The steel gun

The longest gun has engraved on the barrel, "Clerk to the Laird of Grant ;" and on one of the largest brass blunderbusses is inscribed, "Grant's pocket pistol."

An interesting inventory of the plenishing of Castle Grant, taken about the year 1711, and estimated upon oath before two justices of Moray, gives details of the rooms in the Castle and their furnishings. In the "roome caled young Grantes room" there was a "bed of dark coullered strip-stuff, lyned with red satin ;" and he had also a drawingroom. The "gilded roome" contained "one red silk damask bed, lyned with whyt cessnot; . . . the gray damask roome, one gray damask silk bed, lyned with blew satine; . . . the wester gallarie, one dark coulored cloth bed, lyned with red cessnot; . . . the easter gallarie, one grein stuff bed;
the roome above the dressing-roome, one 1 dew starnpt worsted stuff bed; . . . the roorne above young Grantes roome, one strip bed of hemp and worste(i stuff; . . . Gellowaye's roome, an old dark coulered cloth bed," and corresponding rurniture in each of these rooms. There are also mentioned the drawing-room, the dining-room, the school chamber, the "nursarie," Rorie's chamber, and Dugall's chamber, two rooms "in the new wark," and the "women house." Other pfrtions of the inventory deal with general furniture, wardrobes, bedding, napery, kitchen and pewter vessels, and among the silver plate are mentioned, "ane large cup with ane cover, gifted he the Laird of Grant to his sone George," a gilded bason, a gilded layer, two
[xliii] posset cups, a gilded cup with a cover, "ane old-ffashioned cup and cover," a porringer, "ane litle brandie cup," with knives, forks, candlesticks, etc. Original Inventory at Castle Grant.

"There is a pleasant summer parlour," wrote Mrs. Grant of Laggan, after a visit to the Castle in 1785, to a friend, "opening \vit1l a glass door to the garden, the walls of which are entirely covered with the portraits of those lesser gentry around, who were attached, many of them, by the double tie of kindred and feudal subjection. This last was rather patriarchal sway, as they managed it. Never, surely, was power so gently used, or protection so gratefully acknowledged. Those endearing, though invisible and undefinable ties, that have for generations held these people so strongly to each other and to their chief, produce united effects, which afford one of the most pleasing views of human 'nature that can be met with." Referring to the portraits, she says, "The castle is a spacious, convenient, and elegant mansion, where many heroes of the family 'on animated canvas seem to frown.' Some of these are very characteristic of the amiable pro pensity of this family, to cherish the inferior gentry and their humble relations who 'dwelt under their shadow.' . . . Everything evinces an abode where baronial pomp and hospitality still continue to linger, softened by the milder graces of modern elegance." Letters from the Mountains, voL ii. pp. 100, 101.

And so another writer. "Everything within and without denotes the habitation of a chieftain, and brings to remembrance those days in which the head of every tribe was surrounded by his own clan. His castle was their fortress; his approbation was their pride; his protection was both their duty and their interest, for in his safety their own fate was involved. In his hall stood the board to which they were always welcome; there he sat with all the feelings of a father in the midst of hi! children; he acted as their general in the day of battle; their judge in the time of peace; and was at all times their friend." Robertson's Agricultural 'View of Inverness-shire.

To the hospitable board of the castle not only the members of the clan but travellers were made welcome. In the time of John Grant, who was Laird from 1585 till 1622, the "penniless pilgrim" was entertained at the castle (luring his travels in Scotland in the year 1618. The pilgrim [xliv] was John Taylor, the "Water Poet," who, as explained by the editor of his works, undertook the journey from London without any money. After giving an account of his hunting in Braemar and Badenoch, he tells of his arrival and entertainment at Castle Grant.

"From thence we went to a place called Balloch Castle (Ballacastle), now Castle Grant, a fair and stately house, a worthy gentleman being the owner of it, called the Laird of Grant; his wife being a gentlewoman honourably descended, being sister to the Right Honourable Earl of Athole, and to Sir Patrick Murray, Knight; she being, both inwardly and out wardly, plentifully adorned with the gifts of grace and nature; so that our cheer was more than sufficient, and yet much less than they could afford us. There stayed there four days four earls, one lord, divers knights and gentlemen and their servants, 1 footmen, and horses; in every meal four long tables furnished with all varieties; our first and second course being threescore dishes at one board, and after that always a banquet; and there, if I had not forsworn wine till I came to Edinburgh, I think I had there drunk my last." Works of John Taylor, the Water Poet, edited by Charles Hindley, 1872, p. 55.

During a tour in the north of Scotland in 1787, Robert Burns also paid a short visit to the castle.

During the rebellion of 1745-46, and shortly before the battle of Culloden, Castle Grant had the misfortune to fall into the hands of the rebels, who occupied it for some days. Happily, however, no injury was done beyond the consumption of its stores.

A remarkable relic is preserved in Castle Grant known as "Comyn's skull." It is a human skull, cut in two halves, with hinges added to make the two halves open and shut like a box. The skull, according to tradition, is that of the last Comyn of Freuchie, preserved as a relic of the traditional feuds between the Grants and the Comyns, and the final triumph of the former.

Volume I Introduction (iv)