SIR DUNCAN GRANT, KNIGHT, FIRST CALLED OF FREUCHIE. MURIEL MACKINTOSH (of MACKINTOSH), HIS WIFE 1434 - 1485
[62] In the previous memoir the authoritative
evidence which, apart from tradition, can be adduced as to the alliance of
the family of Grant with the ancient possessors of Glencarnie, was fully stated,
while the subject was divested of much that is purely legendary. There was
also indicated the probable correctness of that tradition which assigns John
Grant Roy as father to Sir Duncan Grant of Freuchie. Upon the history of this
Grant knight no uncertainty rests, and from this point of the pedigree down
to the present day all is clear, each link in the long chain of ancestors
being attested by authentic evidence.
As already shown, Duncan Grant was in 1434 retoured heir to his mother, Matilda
of Glencarnie, in the lands possessed by that lady which were situated in
the neighbourhood of Rothes arid Elgin. The date of this retour fixes the
date of his birth in or before the year 1413. As "Duncan the Graunt"
he witnesses a contract between Robert, Lord of Keith, and Sir Alexander Seton,
Lord of Gordon, in which the latter renounces to the former various lands
in Fifeshire, which contract is dated at Cluny on 1st August 1442, and confirmed
at Stirling 30th October 1444. Registrum Magni Sigilli, vol.
ii. No. 278. This document has been repeatedly quoted as a proof that Duncan
le Grant was designed "dominus de eodem et de Freuchie, in a charter
under the Great Seal in 1442," but his designation is simply that given
in the text Nothing further is known of Duncan Grant's history at
this period. This may be because for some time after the death of King James
the First, in 1437, and as the result of his determined policy of suppression,
the highlands were more tranquil than usual, notwithstanding the violent proceedings
against the Clan Cameron by the Earl of Ross, who, about 1438, was Justiciar
of Scotland north of the Forth. The Familie of Innes, p. 73.
It is not improbable that then, as later, the Grants took theside of the [63]
Government, and so secured the safety of their possessions, or added to their
number. There is some evidence to this effect in the case of Duncan le Grant.
The Earl of Ross, in 1445, joined with the Earl of Douglas and the "Tiger"
Earl of Crawford in a league against the king. The death of the Earl of Ross
in 1449 frustrated his treasonable designs, but his son broke out into rebellion,
probably at the instigation of Douglas. The commotions in Scotland thus begun,
ended in the assassination, by King James the Second, of the seventh Earl
of Douglas, while he was the guest of the king in Stirling Castle, and the
open rebellion of his relations, which was temporarily settled by a bond granted
in 1452 to King James the Second, by the eighth Earl of Douglas and his brothers,
Archibald, Earl of Moray, and Hugh, Earl of Ormond, upon which their estates,
which had been forfeited, were restored. During this turmoil, which by the
forfeiture of the Earl of Moray had come near to his own doors, Duncan le
Grant seems to have remained quietly within his own bounds, if he did not
contrive to enlarge their borders. On 31st August 1453, he received a precept
addressed to him as "Duncan le Graunte of Fruychy," in which Archibald,
Earl of Moray and Master of Douglas, directed him to infeft John le Hay of
Mayne in a half of Inverariane or Inverallan, a half of the town of Glenbeg,
and a half of the town of Dreggie, in the earldom of Moray.
Vol. iii. of this work, p. 22
These lands, though formerly the property of the Grants, had passed for a
time altogether out of their hands, and came again into their possession only
by purchase, in the year 1587, after a series of disputes, the history of
which has already been given in the Introduction while treating of Inverallan.
The chief point of interest in the document of 1453 lies in the fact that
in it Duncan Grant is for the first time designed of Freuchie. Among the lands
inherited by him in 1434 from his mother, Matilda of Glencarnie, there is
no mention of Freuchie. The lands in question were a fifth part of Rothes
Wiseman, the two Fochabers, and other lands which lie further down the Spey.
Ibid. p. 18
There is no information as to how Freuchie came into the possession of Duncan
Grant. It may have been acquired by purchase, though no [64]
evidence remains of the fact, or he may have originally obtained the lands
in lease from the Crown. The latter conjecture is not unwarranted, as there
is proof that, perhaps at this time, and certainly a few years later, he held
in lease other crown lands which his family did not acquire as property until
after his death. In 1473 a portion of Freuchie belonged to Marjory Lude, who
designs herself "Lady of half the barony of Freuchie,"
Vol. iii. of this work, p. 30. but with regard to her relationship to
Duncan Grant, or the nature of her tenure, thereis absolutely no information.
It may therefore have been only the half of the barony of Freuchie which Duncan
Grant held; but, at any rate, it was between 1434 and 1453 that he first received
the designation of "Freuchie," which gave title to his descendants
for many generations afterwards.
In 1457, William, Thane of Cawdor, and Thomas of Carmichael, a Canon of Moray,
as Chamberlains north of the Spey, rendered to Exchequer their account of
intromissions with the Crown rents for the previous year. The accounters were
allowed reimbursement of certain sums stated in their account, but not realised
by them, among others "the rents (firmis) of the lands of Ballyndalach,
which are one davoch, and are situated in Strathown, and belong to the property
of Moray, which (lands) Duncan Grant holds, he being hindered in the enjoyment
of the same by Sir Walter Stewart." The Thanes of Cawdor,
p. 31. This was the reason why the rents, amounting for the halfyearly
term to £3, 6s. 8d. Scots, were left unpaid. Sir Walter Stewart of Strathown
or Strathavun was a son or descendant of Sir Andrew Stewart of Sandhalch,
a natural son of the "Wolf of Badenoch," and seems to have inherited
the annexation policy of his ancestors. The principal castle of the lordship
of Strathavon was Drummin, a stronghold which, at a later period, the Laird
of Freuchie held for the Crown. Vol iii. of this work, p. 127.
Between 1457 and 1464 Duncan Grant received the rank of knighthood. This appears from a retour dated 25th February 1464 (1465), in which, as Duncan Grant, knight, he is declared to be heir of his grandfather, Gilbert of Glencarnie, in the lands of Cunygais or Congash. No sasine was given upon this retour, because no answer had been given to the inquiry from what date and for what time the lands had been in the hands [65] of the Crown. Vol iii of this work, p 26. A second inquest was therefore made on 7th February 1468 (l469), when it was found that Gilbert of Glencarnie, Sir Duncan Grant's grandfather, had died about thirty years before; and in the precept of sasine which followed upon the retour, the Sheriffs of Inverness were directed to take security for £60 of rents due to the Crown, which had remained unpaid for that period, the rental of the lands being 40s. annually. Ibid. pp. 28, 29
This authoritative statement that Gilbert of Glencarnie died about thirty years before 1468, or in 1438, proves the inaccuracy of the traditional assertion that Gilbert of Glencarnie, or Gibbon Mor, as he is called, was alive in 1464, and in that year "ceded his lordship of Glenchernich, not to his son-in-law, Sir John Grant, but to his grandson, Sir Duncan Grant of Fruchy."Statistical Account of Scotland, vol xiii. Elginshire, p. 129 It has already been shown that Gilbert of Glencarnie had exchanged his property in that lordship, that the lands inherited by Sir Duncan Grant from his mother were hers in her own right, and now it is proved that Gilbert of Glencarnie was dead thirty years before his alleged cession to his grandson.
There is, however, some probability that Sir Duncan Grant really had a modified possession of Glencarnie about this time, though not from the source assigned by tradition. There is evidence that he held it in 1478, at least twenty years before his family received a charter of the lands from the Crown. It is stated on the authority of the Exchequer Rolls, that in 1478 the lands of Glencarnie, which were then in the king's hands, were set in lease by the Crown to Duncan Grant, knight. Shaw's Moray, p. 475, note. But though in that year Sir Duncan Grant first became a tacksman of the Crown in these lands, he may have previously rented them from the Earl of Moray, and thus afforded some basis for the tradition that he was earlier in possession of Glencarnie.
In 1473 a royal messenger was sent north with letters to "Schire Duncan the Grant in Murray." Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, vol. i. p. 46 There is no clue to the subject of the royal epistle, but it may have had reference to the general council of the Estates of Parliament, which was called to deliberate on the proceedings [66] of Patrick Graham, who claimed the archbishopric of St. Andrews, the result of which was Graham's suspension from office.
In 1495 Sir Duncan Grant, with consent of John Grant, his son and apparent heir, executed a charter of his fifth part of the half land of Surastoun (Sheriffston) in the shire of Elgin, in favour of James Douglas of Pittendreich, for his lifetime. A recent writer claims for the family of Douglas of Pittendreich that they settled in the north while Brice Douglas was Bishop of Moray, from 1203 to 1222 The Parish of Spynie, by Robert Young, 1871, p. 298. The same writer gives in full the earliest charter from the Crown to James Douglas of Pittendreich of part of the lands of Duffus, dated at Edinburgh 14th August 1472. James Douglas of Pittendreich is also said to have possessed part of Sheriffmill, near Elgin, and "an extensive property in the parish of St. Andrews," part of which he held of Sir Duncan Grant, as appears from the document above referred to. It may be noted that in the next century Margaret Douglas, the heiress of Pittendreich, by her marriage with Sir George Douglasbrother of the sixth Earl of Angus, became the ancestress of the later Earls of Angus, the Duke of Douglas, and the Earl of Home, the present possessor of the estates of Douglas.
The charter of Sheriffston to James Douglas is not in the Grant charter-chest,
but the original precept for his infeftment is preserved there. It was signed
at Elgin, whither apparently Sir Duncan Grant had gone. A sentence in the
document implies that he had neglected to take his seal of arms with him.
He desires his bailies, in token of the delivery of sasine, to append their
seals to the precept, after the seal of John Falconer of Murrestoun, "
procured by me with due urgency, in default of my own seal (sigilli proprii)
not had."
In 1479, Sir Duncan Grant, no doubt on account of his connection with the
family of Mackintosh, figures in an important transaction in which the chiefs
of that clan took part. The subject is interesting, riot only as affecting
lands which at a later period came into possession of the Grants, but also
as illustrating an occurrence not very common among Highland chiefs of that
period - a settlement of' their difference by arbitration, instead of
by litigation or the sword.
[67] The subject for arbitration arose out of a dispute between the Chief of Mackintosh and Hugh Rose of Kilravock in regard to the duchus of Urquhart and Glenmoriston, on the northern shore of Loch Ness. The transaction and its sequel are narrated in a notary's instrument, drawn up in presence of George, second Earl of Huntly, whose family had lately become Lords of Badenoch, in which territory the lands in dispute were accounted to lie. The Earl held his court within the walls of the Castle of Inverness, and there heard the decreet-arbitral pronounced by Alexander Gordon of Megmar, Sir Duncan Grant of Freuchie, Sir James Ogilvie of Deskford, knights, John Grant, son and heir-apparent of Sir Duncan Grant, Alexander Mackintosh of Rothiemurchus, and David Ogilvie of Thomade, judges-arbiters, chosen by Duncan Mackintosh, captain of the Clan Chattan, Allan and Lachlan, his brothers-german, and Hugh Rose of Kilravock, upon many and divers quarrels, debates, and controversies betwixt the parties. Of this decree, one article was that Hugh Rose of Kilravock should not intromit with the setting or letting of the lands of Urquhart and Glenmoriston, because of certain unkindnesses done by him to Duncan Mackintosh, without the consent and goodwill of Duncan and his brothers, regard being bad to former agreements betwixt them. This article being read and discussed and understood by the Earl, the arbiters and the parties, Duncan Mackintosh and his brothers submitted themselves to the will of the Earl in regard to the subject of the article, for letting the lands in dispute to Hugh Rose, and for appointing at his pleasure that the deliverance of the arbiters should not prejudice the said Hugh in the lease of the lands. Whereupon the Earl of Huntly, by the advice of the arbiters, and with consent of Duncan Mackintosh and his two brothers, let the lands of Urquhart and Glenmoriston to Hugh Rose of Kilravock, and desired he would intromit with them as formerly. Rose of Kilravock, p139 The date of this transaction was 26th March 1479.
Some breach of the above compact seems to have taken place two years later, as on 25th July 1481, at Perth, Duncan Mackintosh bound himself to underlie the judgment of his superior, the Earl of Huntly, if any breach of contract had been made, and to amend the same if such were proved. [68] To that end he appointed Sir Alexander Dunbar on his behalf in the room of Sir Duncan Grant, who was not present on this occasion.
Sir Duncan Grant died in the year 1485. One account of the family of Grant implies that Sir Duncan was with a body of his clan, on their march to join King James the Third during the conflict between the king and his son, the prince, in 1488. This statement, however, is erroneous as regards Sir Duncan Grant, for a nearly contemporary chronicle records that he lived three years after his eldest son, John Grant, who died in 1482. Short Latin Chronicle relating to the Highlands, by James M'Gregor, Dean of Lismore, who died in 1542 The grandson of Sir Duncan, John Grant, who succeeded to him in Freuchie, three years before the battle of Sauchieburn, may have been the laird who marched to meet King James the Third.
Sir Duncan Grant is said to have married Muriel Mackintosh, daughter of Malcolm, tenth chief of the Mackintoshes; but as she is also said to have married John Mor Grant of Freuchie, whose existence cannot be traced, no definite statement can be made on this point. That a daughter of Malcolm or "Gyllichallum" Mackintosh did marry a Laird of Grant, is asserted by a document, dated 20th February 1568, and signed by Lachlan, the then chief of the Mackintoshes; but no name is given either to the Laird or the lady. The same document, however, corroborates the evidence of other authorities as to the marriage of Sir Duncan Grant's daughter, Catherine. Original Paper at Castle Grant
Sir Duncan Grant had one son, John Grant, younger of Freuchie, who predeceased him.
Sir Duncan had also two daughters: 1. Catherine, who became the third wife
of Lachian Mackintosh, called "Badenoch," and was the ancestress
of the chiefs of Mackintosh. She is also said to have married Alexander Baillie
of Dunain and Sheuglie. Invernessiana, p. 128 2. Muriel,
who married Patrick Leslie of Balquhain, Antiquities of Aberdeenshire,
vol. i. p. 530 and had issue.
 |
 |
Volume 1 Chapter 6 |
 |
 |
 |