century, of the proprietor of Noranside for a small money payment, if asked.1

After the barony of Fern fell to the Southesk family, various of the Deuchars migrated to the parishes of Farnell and Kinnell, where they held considerable farms, and where, it is believed, some of their descendants live at the present time. Deuchar, the first seal engraver of that name that was in Edinburgh, was of the Balishan or Bolshan branch, and born on that farm in 1743. His direct heir-male is Patrick Deuchar, merchant in Liverpool, who contests with the heirmale of the late John, brother of that George who sold the property, the title to represent the "Deuchar of that Ilk.”

"2

The estate of Deuchar consists of little more than two hundred acres arable land; but, according to tradition, the family had an interest in the lands of Windsor, which are the most easterly rising ground in the parish, and of these they are said to have had every fourth fur or ridge. We have seen no evidence for this; and perhaps the story of their being portioners of Windsor is confounded by tradition with the fact of their having once possessed the fourth part of Waterstone. Both these farms were under the superiority of Fern, and the seventh Earl of Crawford is specially mentioned as proprietor of Wyndesour; while, between the years 1165 and 1189, Walter de Windesour is witness to Walter de Berkeley's charter of the lands of Newton, near Inverkeillor.* Although there is no positive evidence of any family having assumed a surname from this Windsor, it is probable that Walter had done so, and been a vassal of the de Montealtos.

3

Waterstone, or Waterstown (a farm now divided between the parishes of Fern and Careston, but wholly a part of the former parish until the erection of the latter into a separate parochial district) was anciently an independent property, and

1 Deuchar Vouchers.

3 Inquis. Spec., Forfar. No. 11. 91.

* See Appendix No. X.
Reg. Vet. Aberbrothoc, p. 329.

Reg. Episc. Brech. ii. p. 312, giving its disjunction from Brechin, and annexation

to Fern.

FERN-WATERSTONE.

235

gave name to a family who designed themselves "of that Ilk," and who, in all probability, had also been vassals of the Lindsays and older lords of Fern. Alike with the name of Deuchar, records are wanting to show the time when that of Waterstone was assumed; but it is probable that the lands had been so called from Walter, the uncle and tutor of Dempster, one of the heirs-portioners of the lordship of Menmuir. The earliest known charter of Waterstone belongs to the regency of the Duke of Albany; but the family had enjoyed the estate from at least the year 1359, as at that date mention is made of a David de Walterystoun, who had eight marks out of the farms in the thanedom of Tannadice,1 a confirmation of which grant, and the half lands of Walterstoune to David, son and heir of John de Walterystoun, also constitutes the charter of the Duke of Albany. That charter was granted at Falkland in 1407; and in 1450, David Walterstoun of that Ilk was one of an assize chosen to perambulate the marches of Brechin and Balzeordie,2 and Hew of Walterstoun-perhaps a son of David —was one of the referees in the case of the Owres property already mentioned.

The last time we have met with the name is in 1535, when David, portioner of the lands of Waterstoun, with Dempster of Careston, Deuchar of that Ilk, Fenton of Ogil, and other adjoining proprietors, were charged by the Bishop and Chapter of Brechin with having "riwen out, telit, and sawyn ane part thereof, and biggit housis upon ane uther parte" of the commonty of that city, which had been used by them and the citizens as a common peat moss, "past memory of man." In this process the defenders were found in fault, and Lord Gray, then Sheriff of the county, declared "the whole muir to be a commonty to the said reverend father (the Bishop), Dean, Chapter, and citizens of Brechin."3 This commonty was of great extent, and well worth claiming, having extended over a large

1 Chamb. Rolls, i. p.

343.

2 Reg. Episc. Brech. i. p. 141, ii. p. 79.

3 Ibid. ii. pp. 186-9.

part of the parishes of Brechin, Menmuir, Careston, and Fern -its extreme boundary on the east being the Gallows Hill of Keithock, and that on the west the Gallows, or Law of Fern ---being an average length of not less than eight miles, and in breadth nearly one and a half. It is on this commonty that Little Brechin is situated, and the whole of it is held under the city of Brechin as superiors for payment of certain feu-duties.

But, of all the lands in Fern, or, indeed, in any other part of the district comprised in this volume, notices of those of Balmadity are the earliest found. In ancient times, this small property belonged to the great Macduffs of Fife, and so early as the reign of Malcolm IV., Duncan Earl of Fife excambed 'Balmadethy and Dunloppie," with Orem, the son of Hugh of Abernethy, for the lands of Balbernie in Fife.1 In 1362, it was granted by the heiress, Margaret Abernethy, Countess of Angus, to William de Fassingtoun and Margaret his spouse, but of him or his name, nothing is known beyond the fact that a William de Fasington, of the county of Edinburgh, swore fealty to Edward I. in 1296.2 Little is known of the subsequent history of this estate, but it has formed a portion of the barony of Fern for many centuries.

SECTION III.

The brave Carnegie, wha but he—
The Piper o' Dundee.

JACOBITE BALLAD.

Vayne-Fern divided-Noranside-Greenhills of Fern-Carnegies of BalinhardTheir pedigree and history-Of Kinnaird-Earls of Southesk-Their loyaltyKinnaird Castle-The present Earl.

As already shown, the family of Lindsay were designed "of Vayne" till near the middle of the seventeenth century, but were succeeded in the barony of Fern by Carnegie of 1 Douglas, Peerage, ii. p. 466. 2 Ragman Roll, p. 134.

Falling under the attainder of the forfeited estates of

Southesk between 1593 and 1595.1 of 1716, this property was part Southesk, which were repurchased by Sir James Carnegie of Southesk and Pittarrow, by whose trustees again, in 1766, the lands were sold to John Mill of Philpot Lane, London, for £11,340, 5s. Od. He was succeeded by his son, also John, who, after building the mansion-house of Noranside, and otherwise improving the property, alienated all but the Noranside part, which, however, was afterwards sold by a descendant of Mill to the trustees of the late Thomas Gardyne of Middleton; and, in virtue of Gardyne's testamentary deed, it was possessed by his nephew, the late James Carnegie of Finhaven. It now belongs to trustees for behoof of the widow and family of the late proprietor, Robert Thomas, Esq. of Noranside, Drummore, and Kincarrathie, who died on the 20th of February 1881.

The portion sold by John Mill during his lifetime passed into the possession of the Hon. William Maule, third son of Lord Panmure, to whom it came by marriage with the daughter of Thomas Binny of Maulesden, who purchased the barony in 1836 from the trustees of Alexander Greenhill, whose father had acquired the property from Mill in 1797.2 Fern was bought from the trustees of Mrs. Binny-Maule, and now belongs to James Fletcher, Esq. of Letham-Grange and Fern, who has also estates in Ross-shire.

Of the families of Mill and Greenhill little is known. Robert, the first of the former, was provost of Montrose, and, amassing a respectable fortune by trade, bought the lands of Balwyllo in the parish of Dun, sometime before the beginning of last century, and those of Balhall in Menmuir soon thereafter. He was father of the first Mill of Fern, who was also laird of Old Montrose. In 1786, while a mere youth, Mill of

4

1 Deuchar Vouchers, quoted ut sup. p. 232.

2 Inventory of the Title Deeds of Fern, kindly communicated by the late Hon. William Maule.

Douglas, Baronage, p. 34.

4 Title-Deeds of Balhall.

Noranside married an Irish lady of the name of Ivy, widow of the Hon. George Falconer, fifth son of David, Lord Halkerton. This turned out an unhappy union, and Mill dying without issue in 1822, the Noranside part of Fern devolved on Major James Mill, a hero of Waterloo, by whom it was sold as above.

He

Charles Greenhill, who bought the greater part of the barony of Fern from Mill, belonged to the neighbourhood of Glamis. He was of humble parentage, was bred to the law, and, besides being factor to the Southesk family for upwards of forty years, was much employed as trustee on bankrupt estates. married a sister of the late Thomas Gardyne of Middleton, by whom he had a family of sons and daughters, of the former of whom, David Greenhill of Craignathro, of the East India Company's Civil Service, became heir of entail to his cousin, James Carnegie, in the estates of Finhaven and Noranside. The genealogy of the ancient honourable proprietors of the barony of Fern has already been traced.' It now only remains to give a brief outline of the noble house of Southesk, whose family and fortunes were linked with these lands for upwards of a century and a half.

The Lindsays were succeeded in the barony of Fern by the Carnegies towards the close of the sixteenth century. The surname of this noble family was originally de Balinhard, a territorial designation assumed from a small property in the parish of Arbirlot, near Arbroath. Martin of Clermont says that the first of them was cupbearer to Malcolm Canmore, and a later was constable of the castle of Kincardine in William the Lion's time, and got the lands of Fesdow and Pitnemoone for his service,2 but there is no known evidence for these statements. About the year 1230, Gocelynus de Balindard, whose name suggests a Norman or otherwise foreign origin, witnesses several deeds betwixt the Abbeys of 1 Ut sup. p. 142, etc.

2 Transcript of Martin de Clermont's Ms., by Macfarlane, in Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, in which is contained this fabulous account of the origin of the family of Carnegie. The original мs. is in the Register House, Edinburgh.