Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/320

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NOTES AND QUERIES. no s. vm. OCT. 5, 1907.

seen but by halfs and quarters, whereof wee could make nothing."

This is all that Mr. Montgomery has written concerning this remarkable sword, except when referring again to Capt. Hugh he observes that

"his wife and children are all comely and well favoured, and live in a good plentifull condition : and so I wish they may continue without occasion to use y e royall blade, unless the Queen or Lord Lieu' please to kn' him w th it."

With this charming and courtly expression the visitor from Rosemount takes leave of Bruce's sword at the mansion of Derry- gonelly. It does not seem to have occurred to him to cherchez la femme, to seek through the " beutifull granddaughter and heiress " of Sir John Dunbar for a solution of the " rarity."

The Duribars in Ulster. The above Sir John, as John Dunbar, Esquire, got an estate of some 1,300 acres in the county Fermanagh. The premises were created the manor of Dunbar with 300 acres in demesne, and a court baron, to be held for ever as of the Castle of Dublin, in common socage, 10 Jan., 1615. This John was grandson of Sir John Dunbar of Mochrum. in Wigtonshire. He seems to have been heir to the latter, although at the time of Sir John's death there was little of the family estates left to inherit. Of the residue, however, there was the superiority of the two-merk land of Egerness and Kerguill, and also of the five-pound land of Pankhill, now Bonkill, in the parish of Sorbie, Wigtonshire. Even these fragments soon passed from the name of Dunbar, and now form part of the estates of the Earl of Galloway, lying on the northern and eastern shores of Garlieston Bay. John Dunbar did not go to Ulster with the undertakers from Wigtonshire, being de- tained, no doubt, in gleaning up the slender remains of his property. He went, however, in 1615, and his settlement in Fermanagh appears to have been prosperous. In consideration of the once distinguished position of his family, he was soon knighted. He also held the office of High Sheriff of Fermanagh. In his survey in 1618 Pynnar says on Dunbar's property there are a " bawne " of lime and stone (80 ft. long, 45 ft. broad, and 14 ft. high) and two water mills, himself with his wife and family remaining on the land.

" I find planted upon this land of Brittish birth 2 freeholders and 7 lessees. The 9 families have divers under tenants ; but all these 9, save 1, are estated by Promise, and are able to make 60 men,

with arms. Here I saw ploughs going. I saw not one Irish family on this land."

Considering the lineage of Sir John Dunbar, there can be no doubt that it was he who took Bruce's sword with him to Ireland curious evidence in itself of his seniority in the family.

Descent from Bruce's Nephew. King Robert's sister, the Lady Isabel Bruce, married Thomas Randolph, a magnate of the kingdom of Scotland. To their son the King granted the Earldom of Moray, and Lady Agnes Randolph, the heroic daughter of the noble Regent, espoused Patrick (Dunbar), ninth Earl of Dunbar and March. On the death of her brother in 1347 she assumed the title of Countess of Moray, and her husband, in her right, that of Earl, and entered into possession of the extensive property of the family the Earldom of Moray, the Isle of Man, the Lordship of Annandale, the Barony of Mochrum, and many others. Her second son, John, mar- ried his (third) cousin, the Lady Marjory Stewart, daughter of King Robert II., who gave him a charter of the earldom of Moray, one which became lost to his descendants ; but Mochrum continued in the male line, the apparent representative of which, as above stated, crossed over to Ireland, taking with him the sword of Bruce, the " rarity " seen, examined, and described in. 1696, when in the house of Derrygonelly, a Dunbar residence, and then the property of the heiress of line of this historic family (Dunbar, Earl of Moray, afterwards Dunbar of Mochrum).

There is, therefore, a clear line of evidence to account for a relic of Robert Bruce coming into the possession of the family of the John Dunbar who settled in Ireland. The well- substantiated relic was there at the end of the seventeenth century, and may be there- still. Perchance it has made a longer sea- voyage and is now in America or some one- of the colonies. Only wide publicity con- cerning the rarity can afford a likelihood of its recovery, if it does happen to be in exist- ence. W. M. GRAHAM-EASTON.

THE WARDLAW FAMILY.

IN spite of the care and attention on the part of their editors, evidenced by the recent editions of the various annual Peerages,, certain pedigrees still sadly need revision! One of these is that of the family of Wardlaw^ baronets, of Nova Scotia, scarcely a single- statement in which will stand investigation.