Lochmaben

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Lochmaben, a town and parish of Annandale, Dumfriesshire. A royal, parliamentary, and police burgh, the town stands 183 feet above sea-level, amid a perfect cordon of lakes, and within 9 furlongs of the right bank of the Annan. Its station, on a branch line of the Caledonian, is 10¼s NE of Dumfries, 41/8W of Lockerbie, 52 SSE of Carstairs, 79½ S by W of Edinburgh, and 83¼of Glasgow; whilst by road it is 15 S of Moffat, 65 S by W of Edinburgh, 8 NE of Dumfries, and 13 NNW of Annan. `Lochmaben,' says Mr Graham, `is situated in the beautiful vale of the Annan, and, though an inland town, has much more of the aquatic than many seaports. There are no less than seven lochs around it, and the rivers Annan, Kinnel, and Ae are in the immediate vicinity. Viewed from the Pinnacle Hill or some other neighbouring height, it seems, like the city of Venice, to rise from the water. Nor are the beauties of hill and valley wanting. Northward the view is only stopped by the Moffat and Queensberry Hills; the Beacon and Pinnacle Hills bound the western side of the valley, and Brunswark the eastern; whilst to the S lies Annandale stretched to view, the eye at last resting on Skiddaw and Scafell. The town itself is regularly built. Its High Street, ¼ mile long, is wide and spacious. At the S end stands the parish church, at the N end are the town-hall and market-place. Until within the last few years most of the houses were thatched with straw, but now there is only one that has not been roofed with more stable materials. There are no buildings of much pretension, but two or three deserve a passing notice.'

The new town-hall, successor to one of 1723, is a handsome edifice in the Scottish Baronial style, erected in 1878 from designs by the late David Bryce, R. S. A., at a cost of over £2000. Since 1879 six of its windows have been filled with stained glass. In front, on the site of the ancient market-cross, is a freestone statue, 8 feet high, of Robert Bruce, by Mr John Hutchison, R.S.A., unveiled on 13 Sept. 1879, and surmounting a pedestal of Dalbeattie granite, 10 feet high. The parish church, built in 1818-20 at a cost of £3000, is a Gothic structure, with 1400 sittings, a bold square tower, and two good bells, one of which is said to have been the gift of the Pope to Robert Bruce. Its predecessor, at the W side of the town, on the shore of the Kirk Loch, was a Gothic edifice, with a large choir, dedicated to St Mary Magdalene. The Maxwells, after their defeat by the Johnstones in the battle of Dryfe Sands (Dec. 1593), having taken refuge in this church, the Johnstones fired it, and forced them to surrender. Near the site of it is St Magdalene's Well, enclosed with a stone and lime wall, and roofed with freestone. The Free church, built in 1v844 at a cost of £800, and greatly improved in 1v867, contains 700 sittings; and a U.P. church, on a rising-ground in the northern division of the town known as Barras, was built in 1818, and contains 800 sittings. Lochmaben has a post office, with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments, a branch of the National Bank, a local savings' bank, 5 insurance agencies, 3 hotels, a gas company, a masonic lodge, 2 curling clubs, a reading and recreation room, and a boating club. Monday is marketday; fairs for the sale of pork are held on the first and third Mondays of Jan., Feb., and March, the fourth Monday of Nov., and the second and fourth Mondays of Dec.; and one for pork and seeds is held on the fourth Monday of March. A considerable manufacture of coarse linen cloth, for sale unbleached in the English market, was at one time carried on, but has many years been extinct; and the weaving of stockings and shirts is now the only industry. To-day the town, in many respects, is nothing better than many a village, but it looms large and important when seen through the haze of antiquity. Under the fosterage of the Bruces it must have sprung into vigour before the close of the 12th century, and probably soon acquired more consequence than any other town in the SW of Scotland. Like other Border towns, it suffered severely and lost its records from the incursions of the English; but it is traditionally asserted to have been erected into a royal burgh soon after Bruce's accession to the throne. Its latest charter, granted in 1612 by James VI., confirms all the earlier charters. In 1463 the town was burned by the English, under the Earl of Warwick; and in 1484 the recreant Earl of Douglas and the treacherous Duke of Albany attempted to plunder it on St Magdalene's fair day, but were repelled by the inhabitants. The corporation consists of a provost, a bailie, a dean of guild, a treasurer, and five councillors. They once possessed considerable property, but so squandered and alienated it as to become bankrupt; and the corporation revenue now is only from £l0 to £45. Lochmaben unites with Dumfries, Annan, Sanquhar, and Kirkcudbright in returning a member to parliament. The municipal and the parliamentary constituency numbered 210 and 166 in 1884, when the annual value of real property amounted to £2794 (£2257 in 1873). Pop. of royal burgh (1861) 1544, (1871) 1627, (1881) 1539; of parliamentary and police burgh (184l) 1328, (1851) 1092, (1871) 1244, (1881) l216, of whom 634 were females. Houses in parliamentary burgh (188l) 299 inhabited, l3 vacant, 4 building.

Lochmaben Castle, the ancestral residence of the Bruce, stands 1 mile SSE of the burgh, on the extreme point of a heart-shaped peninsula which juts a considerable way into the S side of the Castle Loch. Across the isthmus at the entrance of the peninsula are vestiges of a deep fosse, which admitted at both ends the waters of the lake, and converted the site of the castle into an island, and over which a wellguarded drawbridge gave or refused ingress to the interior. Within this outer fosse, at brief intervals, are a second, a third, and a fourth, of similar character. The last, stretching from side to side of the peninsula immediately at the entrance of the castle, was protected in front by a strong arched wall or ledge, behind which a besieged force could shield themselves while they galled, at a distance, an approaching foe, and midway was spanned by a drawbridge which led into the interior building, and was probably the last post an enemy required to force in order to master the fortress. Two archways at the north-eastern and south-western angles of the building, through which the water of the fosse was received or emptied, remain entire. But no idea can now be formed of the original beauty or polish either of this outwork or of the magnificent pile which it helped to defend. Vandal hands began generations ago to treat the castle of the Bruce as a convenient quarry; and, for the sake of the stones, they have peeled away every foot of the ashlar work which lined the exterior and the interior of its walls. So far has barbarian rapacity been carried, that now only the heart or packing of some of the walls is left, exhibiting giant masses of small stones and lime, irregularly huddled together, and nodding to their fall. Many portions of the pile have tumbled from aloft, and lie strewed in heaps upon the ground, the stone and the lime so firmly cemented that scarcely any effort of human power can disunite them. The castle, with its outworks, covered about 16 acres, and was the strongest fortress of the Border country, all but impregnable till the invention of gunpowder. But what remains can hardly suggest, even to fancy itself, the greatness of what that which Vandalism has stolen. Only one or two small apartments can be traced, and they stand in the remoter part of the castle, and excite but little interest. The enclosed space around is naturally barren, fitted only for the raising of wood; and its present growth of trees harmonises well with the ruin. The view of the loch and of the circumjacent scenery, from all points in the vicinity, is calmly beautiful. The date of the castle is uncertain, - but probably was the latter part of the 13th century-the period of the competition for the Crown.

Tradition, though unsupported by documentary evidence, asserts this castle to have been not the original Lochmaben residence of the Bruces, but only a successor of enlarged dimensions and augmented strength. A little way S of the town, on the NW side of the loch, is a large rising-ground called Castle Hill, which is pointed out as the site of the original castle, and even as the alleged birthplace of the first royal Bruce. That a building of some description anciently crowned the eminence, is evident from the remains of an old wall an inch or two beneath the surface of the summit, and from the vestiges of a strong and deep intrenchment carried completely round the base. Tradition says that the stones of this edifice were transferred from the Castle Hill across the intervening part of the lake, to the point of the heart-shaped peninsula on the southern shore, as materials for the more recent erection; and it adds, that a causeway was constructed, and still exists, across the bed of the lake, to facilitate their conveyance. But here monuments, documents, and physical probabilities, concur in refusing corroborative evidence. The Castle Hill commands a fine view of the burgh, of the adjacent lakes, and of a considerable expanse of the Howe of Annandale. Near it is a lower hill or mount, the Gallows Hill, on which in ancient times stood a formidable gallows, seldom seen during the Border wars without the dangling appendage of one or two reivers. The baronial courts of Lochmaben, and even occasional warden courts, were probably held on the summit of the Castle Hill, whence the judges beheld their sentences promptly carried into execution.

Robert the Brus of Cleveland, a grandson of that noble knight of Normandy who came into England with William the Conqueror, and first possessed the manor of Skelton, was a comrade in arms of our David I. while prince, and received from him, when he came to the throne in 1124, the lordship of Annandale, with a right to enjoy his castle there, and all the customs appertaining to it. A charter, granted by William the Lyon to Robert, third Lord of Annandale, confirming to him the property held by his father in that district, is dated at Lochmaben. This is supposed to have been granted between 1165 and 1174. Robert, fourth Lord of Annandale, wedded Isobel, second daughter of David, Earl of Huntingdon, the younger brother of William the Lyon, thus laying the foundation of the royal house of Bruce. Their son, Robert, the competitor for the throne, and the grandfather of Robert I., died at his castle of Lochmaben in 1295. In the year preceding his death he granted a charter, dated thence, confirming a convention between the monks of Melrose and those of Holmcultram. ` The old castle of Lochmaben, says Chalmers in his Caledonia, ` continued the chief residence of this family during the 12th and 13th centuries. Robert de Bruce, the first Earl of Carrick, of this dynasty, probably repaired the castle at Annan.' As a stone from the ruins of Annan Castle bears his name, with the date 1300, the conjecture seems to be formed with great probability that the family had continued previously to reside at Lochmaben.

In July 1298 Edward took possession of Lochmaben Castle; and in 1300 he strengthened it and the castle of Dumfries, placing adequate garrisons in them, with ample supplies, and appointing a governor for each. Hither fled Bruce in 1304, on his way from London, before erecting his royal standard. Having met, near the west marches, a traveller on foot, whose appearance aroused suspicion, he found, on examination, that he was the bearer of letters from Comyn to the English king, urging the death or immediate imprisonment of Bruce. He beheaded the messenger, and pressed forward to his castle of Lochmaben, where he arrived on the seventh day after his departure from London. Hence he proceeded to Dumfries, where the fatal interview between him and Comyn took place.

At the accession of the Bruce to the Scottish throne, he conferred his paternal inheritance, with its chief seat, the castle of Lochmaben, on Randolph, Earl of Moray. When Edward III. obtained from Edward Baliol the county of Dumfries as part of the price for helping him to a dependent throne, he appointed a variety of officers over Lochmaben Castle, and garrisoned the fortress in defence of the cause of England. In 1342 the Scots made a strenuous attempt to capture the castle, but were repulsed; and next year the forces of David II., whom he was leading into England, were stoutly resisted and harassed by its garrison. David, exasperated by the repeated disasters inflicted on him, in 1346 vigorously assaulted the fortress, took it, and executed Selby its governor. But after the battle of Durham, which speedily followed, the castle changed both its proprietor and its tenants. John, Earl of Moray, falling in that battle, the castle passed by inheritance to his sister, Agnes, the Countess of March, and from her was transmitted, through the reigns of Robert II. and Robert III., to her son, Earl George; whilst David II. becoming the English king's prisoner, the castle once more opened its gates to an English garrison. Even after David II.'s restoration, Edward III. retained the district of Annandale, and kept the fortress well garrisoned to defend it; but though connived at by the pusillanimity of the Scottish king, his dominion was pent up by the bravery of the people within the narrow limits of the castle. Sallies of the garrison provoked frequent retaliations, occasioned incursions into England, and led, in particular, to a hostile foray (1380) into Westmoreland, and the carrying away of great booty from the fair of Penrith. ln 1384 the Earl of Douglas and Archibald Douglas, Lord of Galloway, whose territories had been infested by the garrison, marched in strong force against the castle, besieged and captured it, and, by effecting its reduction, expelled the English from Annandale. In 1409 the castle was resigned by the Earl of March to the Regent Albany, and conferred, along with the lordship of Annandale, on the Earl of Douglas. In 1450, when the Earl of Orkney was sent to quell some outrages of the dependants of a Douglas, and, though acting by the king's authority, was opposed and defied, James II. marched an army into Annandale, and took and garrisoned Lochmaben Castle. In 1455, in common with the lordships of Annandale and Eskdale, the castle became the property of the Crown by the attainder of the Earl of Douglas. Till the union of the Crowns it was preserved as a Border strength, and belonged either to the kings personally or to their sons; and it was maintained and managed by a special governor.

From 1503 to 1506, James IV. made great repairs and improvements on the castle, and built within it a large hall. In 1504, during a public progress through the southern parts of his kingdom, he paid it a personal visit. In 1511 he committed the keeping of it for seven years, with many perquisites, to Robert Lauder of the Bass. During the minority of James V., Robert, Lord Maxwell, being a favoured counsellor of the queenmother, was by her intrusted with the keeping of the castles of Lochmaben and Threave for nineteen years, with the usual privileges. In 1565, when Queen Mary chased into Dumfriesshire those who had broken into rebellion on account of her marriage with Darnley, she, accompanied by him, visited Lochmaben Castle, which was then in the keeping of Sir John Maxwell. In 1588, when James VI., in the prosecution of his quarrel with Lord Maxwell, summoned his various castles to surrender, Lochmaben Castle offered some resistance, but, after two days' siege, was given up. In 1612 the governorship of the castle, together with the barony of Lochmaben, was granted to John Murray, `grome of his Maiesties bedchalmer,' who was created Viscount of Annan and Lord Murray of Lochmaben, and afterwards Earl of Annandale. From him descended the noble family of Stormont, now merged in that of Mansfield. The title of constable and hereditary keeper of the palace of Lochmaben is borne by Mr Hope Johnstone of Annandale, as representative of the Annandale marquisate. The governor of the castle had a salary of £300 Scots, and the fishing of the lochs. He had also, for the maintenance of the garrison, from every parish of Annandale, what was called laird a mairt, or a lairdner mart cow, which, it was required, should be one of the fattest that could be produced, besides thirty-nine meadow geese and ` Fasten's e'en' hens. So late as the first half of last century this tax was exacted. Although the right of fishing in all the lochs was granted, by a charter of James VI., to the burgh of Lochmaben, yet the proprietors of the castle enjoyed the exclusive privilege of fishing in the Castle and Mill Lochs with boats, nets, etc. -a privilege, however, disputed by the townsfolk, who now exercise the right of fishing in all the lochs. About the year 1730 the inhabitants of Annandale, galled by the exactions of the Marquis of Annandale, the governor, resisted payment of his wonted claims, stoutly litigated his rights, and obtained from the Court of Session a decree forbidding the future levying of his usual receipts. At the abolition of hereditary jurisdictions in 1747, the Marquis claimed £1000 as compensation for his governorship; but was not allowed a farthing.

The dilapidation of the castle was probably commenced not long after the place was abandoned as useless; but it must have been mainly incited by the triumph of the people over pretensions based on the sinecure office of its noble governor. Our good old Bellenden, in his translation of Boece (1536), has given a very curious picture of the character of the ancient inhabitants of this district, and of the original reason of the erection of the castle. ` In Annandail is ane loch namit Lochmaben, fyue mylis of lenth, and foure of breid, full of uncouth fische. Besyde this loch is ane castell, uder the same name, maid to dant the incursion of theuis. For nocht allanerlie in Annandail, bot in all the dalis afore rehersit, ar mony strang and wekit theuis, inuading the cuntré with perpetuall thift, reif, & slauchter, quhen thay sé ony trublus tyme. Thir theuis (becaus thay haue Inglismen thair perpetuall ennymes lyand dry marche upon thair nixt bordour) inuadis Ingland with continewal weris, or ellis with quiet thift; and leiffis ay ane pure and miserabill lyfe. In the tyme of peace, thay are so accustomit with thift, that thay can nocht desist, bot inuadis the cuntré-with ithand heirschippis. This vail of Annand wes sum tyme namit Ordouitia, and the pepill namit Ordouices, quhais cruelteis wes sa gret, that thay abhorrit nocht to eit the flesche of yolding prisoneris. The wyuis vsit to slay thair husbandis, quhen thay wer found cowartis, or discomfist be thair ennymes, to give occasioun to otheris to be more bald & hardy quhen danger occurrit.' Whatever might be their character in that early period, they have in later ages showed, at least, a good deal of humour in their depredations. Of this we have an amusing proof in the ballad of the Lochmaben Harper, who, having been seized with a strong attachment to the Lord Warden's `Wanton Brown,' made his way to Carlisle Castle, blind though he was, and so enchanted the whole company, and even the minions, by the charms of his music, that he found means, not only to send off the warden's charger, but to persuade him, that while he was exerting himself to the utmost to gratify the company, some one had stolen his `gude gray mare,' and thus to secure far more than the value of all his pretended loss.

' "Allace! allace! " quo the cunning auld harper,
"and ever allace that I cam here!
In Scotland I lost a braw cowt foal;
In England they've stown my gude gray mare! "
`Then aye he harped, and aye he carped;
Sae sweet were the harpings he let them hear:
He was paid for the foal he had never lost,
and three times ower for his " gude gray mare "'

The parish of Lochmaben, containing also the villages of Templand, Hightae, Greenhill, Heck, and Smallholm, is bounded N by Johnstone, E by Applegarth and Dryfesdale, S by Dalton and Mouswald, W by Torthorwald and Tinwald, and NW by Kirkmichael. Its utmost length, from N by W to S by E, is 9 miles; its breadth varies between 1¾ furlong and 4 miles; and its area is 11, 367¾ acres, of which 555 are water. The Annan, in mazy folds, flows 10¾ miles south-by-eastward along or close to all the eastern border; kinnel Water winds 43/8 miles south-south-eastward through the northern interior, till it falls into the Annan at a point 1 mile NE of the town; and the Kinnel itself is joined by the Water of AE, flowing 1½ mile north-eastward along the Kirkmichael boundary and through the north-western interior. Six lakes, with their utmost length and breadth in furlongs, are Castle Loch (6 x 5¼) and Hightae Loch (2¾ x 1¼), to the S of the town; Kirk Loch (3¼ x 11/6), to the SW; Mill Loch (3 x 1¼) and Upper Loch (l¾ x 1), to the NW; and Halleath or Broomhill Loch (4 x 2¼), to the E. Under Castle Loch we have noticed the vendace, which is also taken in Mill Loch. Over most of the area the surface sinks little below 140, and little exceeds 230, feet above sea-level; but in the SW it rises to 788 feet at Carthat Hill, 816 at the Mouswald boundary. and 803 at the Torthorwald boundary. Permian red sandstone, suitable both for masonry and for roofing, has been largely quarried at Corncockle Moor, and there presents fossil reptilian footprints. The soil towards the W is light and gravelly, but elsewhere is uncommonly rich, consisting over a large area of the finest alluvial loam, occasionally 9 feet deep, and everywhere growing capital crops. The land is too valuable to admit more than some 90 acres of plantation; but it is finely enclosed, and sheltered by rows of trees. Excepting three small mosses, which are of value for fuel, the whole parish is capable of cultivation, though a largish proportion is disposed in meadow-land and pasture. Overlooking the Mill Loch, ½ mile NW of the town, is a rising-ground called Woody or Dinwoody Castle. The summit shows no vestiges of building, but is surrounded with a very distinct trench. In a field SW of the town is the circular trace of a tower, which is called Cockie,s Field, from one John Cock, or O'Cock, who resided in it, and was one of the most renowned freebooters of Annandale. An old ballad, still extant, details his feats of arms, dilates on his personal strength, and narrates the manner of his death. A party of the king's foresters, to whom he had been an intolerable pest, and whom he had relieved of many a fat deer, chancing one day to find him asleep in the forest, cautiously beset him, and were bent on his destruction. John suddenly awaking, and perceiving at once the snare into which he had fallen, and the hopelessness of escape, resolved to sell his life dearly, and ere they could overpower him, laid seven of their number dead at his feet. In the SW corner of the parish is a large and artificial mound of earth, perfectly circular, quite entire, and terminating in a sharp tower. It is called both Rockhall Moat and the Beacon Hill, and possibly served both as a moat or seat of feudal justice, and as a beacon-post for descrying the movements of Border marauders, and giving the alarm. Its position is on the summit of a low but conspicuous ridge which divides Nithsdale, or rather the district of Lochar Moss, from Annandale, and commands a map-like and very brilliant view of a large part of the champaign country of Dumfriesshire, a portion of Galloway, and all the Solway Firth. The parish has remains of several Roman encampments; and must have been traversed by Agricola, along a route easily traced, on his march from Brunswark Hill to Glota and Bodotria. On the lands of Rokele, or Rockhall, there anciently stood an endowed chapel, the pertinents of which, though seized by lay hands at the Reformation, now yield some proceeds to the parish minister. Some other pre-Reformation chapels existed in the parish, but cannot now be very distinctly traced. Spedlins Tower has been noticed under Jardine Hall.

The four villages of Heck, Greenhill, Hightae, and Smallholm, with the lands around them, form the barony of Lochmaben, or the Fourtowns. The lands are a large and remarkably fertile tract of holm, extending along the W side of the Annan, from the vicinity of Lochmaben Castle to the southern extremity of the parish. The inhabitants of the villages are proprietors of the lands, and hold them by a species of tenure, nowhere else known in Scotland except in the Orkney Islands. From time immemorial they have been called `the King's kindly tenants,' and occasionally the `rentallers' of the Crown. The lands originally belonged to the kings of Scotland, or formed part of their proper patrimony, and were granted, as is generally believed, by Bruce, the Lord of Annandale, on his inheriting the throne, to his domestic servants or to the garrison of the castle. The rentallers were bound to provision the royal fortress, and probably to carry arms in its defence. They have no charter or seisin, but hold their title by mere possession, yet can alienate their property by a deed of conveyance, and by procuring for the purchaser enrolment in the rental-book of the Earl of Mansfield. The new possessor pays a small fee, takes up his succession without service, and in his turn is proprietor simply by actual possession. The tenants were, in former times, so annoyed by the constables of the castle that they twice made appeals to the Crown, and on both occasions-in the reigns respectively of James VI. and Charles II.-they obtained orders, under the royal sign-manual, to be allowed undisturbed and full possession of their singular rights. In more recent times, at three several dates, these rights were formally recognised by the Scottish Court of Session and the British House of Peers. A chief part of the lands existed till the latter half of last century in the form of a commonty, but it was then, by mutual agreement, divided; and being provided, in its several parcels, with neat substantial farm-houses, and brought fully into cultivation, it soon became more valuable than the original allotments immediately adjacent to the villages. -More than a moiety of the lands, however, has been purchased piecemeal by the proprietor of Rammerscales, whose mansion-house is in the vicinity, within the limits of Dalton parish. But such portions as remain unalienated exhibit, in the persons of their owners, a specimen of rustic and Lilliputian aristocracy unparalleled in the kingdom. If the possession of landed property in a regular line of ancestry for several generations is what confers the dignity of gentleman, that title may be justly claimed by a community whose fathers have owned and occupied their ridges and acres from the 13th century. Their names run so in clusters that soubriquets are very generally in use. Richardson is commonest, then Rae, Kennedy, Nicholson, and Wright. These names were borne by companions of Wallace and Bruce in their struggles against the usurping Edward.

Mansions, noticed separately, are Elshieshields Tower and Halleath; and 8 proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 11 of between £100 and £500, 14 of from £50 to £100, and 49 of from £20 to £50. Lochmaben is the seat of a presbytery in the synod of Dumfries; the living is worth £384. A Free church at Hightae, built for a Relief congregation in 1796, and afterwards Reformed Presbyterian, was restored in 1883. Three public schools-Hightae, Lochmaben, and Templand-with respective accommodation for 152, 425, and 94 children, had (1882) an average attendance of 72, 283, and 75, and grants of £51, 15s., £247, 12s., and £63, 3s. Valuation (1860) £10, 502, (1884) £13,997, 6s. 4d. Pop. (1801) 2053, (1831) 2795, (1861) 3087, (1871) 3085, (1881) 2816.—Ord. Sur., sh. 10, 1864.

The presbytery of Lochmaben comprises the parishes of Applegarth, Dalton, Dryfesdale, Hutton, Johnstone, Kirkmichael, Kirkpatrick-Juxta, Lochmaben, Moffat, Mouswald, St Mungo, Tundergarth, and Wamphray. Pop. (1871) 16,177, (1881) 16, 126, of whom 3876 were communicants of the Church of Scotland in 1878. The Free Church presbytery, comprising the parishes around Lochmaben, takes designation from Lockerbie. See William Graham, Lochmaben Five Hundred Years Ago (Edinb. 1865); and M. E. Cumming Bruce, Family Records of the Bruces and the Cumyns (Edinb. 1870).

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer

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