This illustrious person died towards the conclusion of the eleventh century; and was buried in the church of Norham, which his posterity were bound to seHe had three sons, Dolfyn, Cospatrick, and

.cure.

Waldeve.

Cospatrick, second son to the foregoing, succeeded his father in his Scottish property, while his brothers were provided for in Cumberland; and is only noted as enjoying the favour of the court. He witnessed the foundation charter of Scone by Alexander I. in 1115; and, in 1116, the inquisition made by David, prince of Cumberland, into the possessions of the church of Glasgow, had among other witnesses, Cospatricius, frater Dolphini, and Waldef, frater suus. He also witnessed the foundation charter of Holyroodhouse .by David I. in 1128. His rank of earl is now ascertained; for in 1130, in a donation granted to the prior and convent of Durham, and to the monks of Coldingham, of the church and town of Edrehame and town of Nisbet, he is designed, Cospatricius Comes, frater Dilfun. The donation to Coldingham was confirmed by David on the 16th August 1139, on which day Earl Cospatrick died.*

Cospatrick, second earl of Dunbar, on succeeding his father, confirmed his liberalities; but having negJected to endow the monks of Melrose, they withheld that immortality which the notice of their chronicle was supposed to confer.

See Chalmer's Cal. ii, 499, and Wood's Doug. Peer, ii. 167.

Under the designation of Cospatricius Comes, filius Cospatricii, this earl witnessed a charter of David I. to the monastery of Newbottle, in 1140. To the monastery of Kelso he gave the patronage of the churches of Home, Lambden, and Greenlaw; and to the church of St. Nicholas of Home, he gave the donation of a carucate of land. He died in 1147, leaving four sons; viz. Cospatrick, Edward, Edgar; and Uchtred, the supposed ancestor of the family of Dundas.

Cospatrick, third earl of Dunbar, was still more munificent to the church than his father. He founded two Cistertian nunneries; first, the nunnery of Coldstream, to which he gave half of the church of Layvel, and some lands in Layvel and Birghame; and, secondly, a nunnery at Eccles, which he largely endowed. Besides these he confirmed to the nunnery of Coldstream, the church of Hirsel, with a carucate of land, that had been given to it by Derder his countess. He had two sons: Waldeve, his suc cessor, and Patrick, who inherited the manor of Greenlaw, and was ancestor of the earls of Home.

Waldeve, fourth earl of Dunbar, succeeded his father in 1166, when he confirmed the donations of the churches of Layvel and Whitechester to the nuns; and on the Scottish nobility and clergy, with a loyalty unbecoming their dignity, agreeing to purchase the king's liberation at the expense of the in-. dependency of the nation, he was engaged with other Scottish nobles as a hostage. He died in 1182, leaving by Alina, his countess, Patrick and Constantine;

the latter of whom is mentioned with his brother in

a donation to the monastery of Coldingham.

To him succeeded Patrick, fifth earl of Dunbar, on whom William I., in 1184, perhaps in gratitude for the services of his father, bestowed Ada, one of his natural daughters, in marriage. About the end of the twelfth century, he held the offices of justiciary of Lothian and keeper of Berwick; and, in 1200, he attended William the Lion to Lincoln, when he did homage to John for his lands in England; but, in 1214, the castle of Dunbar with the rest of the kingdom incurred the vengeance of the English prince. To retaliate the inroads made by Alexander into England, Henry III. invaded Scotland with a powerful army, and took the town and castle of Berwick. His next attempt was on the fortress of Dunbar; but finding it impregnable, he laid waste the country to the walls of Haddington, and returned homewards.

In 1218, Earl Patrick founded a monastery of Red Friars in Dunbar, which is more particularly noticed in our ecclesiastical department; while Ada, bis countess, founded a Cistertian nunnery at St Bothans. He also granted to the monks of Kelso the chapel of Halyburton, and a carucate of land in Bothkilsbeales,

* Chal. Cal. ii. 240. In 1199, when the bridge of Berwick was carried away by a flood, King William directed a precept to the earl of Dunbar, his custos of Berwick, to rebuild it.

The right of homage, by the feudal custom, was, that the vassal should throw himself on his knees; should put his joined hands between those of his superior; and, in that posture, swear fealty to him.-Hume's Eng. i.

1

with common pasturage between that place and the Scalingas (mountain pasture) of his men of Pinkerton-to the monks of Melrose, he gave all the arable land of Sorrowlesfield on the Leader; and to the canons of Dryburgh the lands of Elvinsley, and two bovates of land in Ersildun.†

When the papal legate had settled the controversies subsisting between Alexander and Henry, the former received in marriage Joan, sister to the latter, on which occasion Patrick accompanied the king to York as a witness to the matrimonial contract. This took place in 1221. And, in 1231, when this munificent nobleman was stricken in years, with a view to part with the world in good fellowship, he invited his children, relations, and neighbours, to spend the festivities of Christmas at the castle of Dunbar. On the expiry of four days, he sent for his relation the Abbot of Melrose; and, having bade his guests and the world a last adieu, received extreme unction agreeably to the forms of the Romish church, after which he assumed the monastic habit.

This venerable person enjoyed the earldom fifty years, and died in 1232; when he was buried among the nuns in the convent church of Eeeles, which his grandfather had founded. ‡ By his countess, Ada, who died in 1200, he had two sons and a daughter;

*"The monks of Melrose loved gude kail

On Fridays, when they fasted;

Nor wanted they gude beef and ale

As lang as their neighbours lasted."-Old Ballad.

+ Chal. Cal. ii. 240.

Ibid, 241.

viz. Patrick, who succeeded him, and William,* designed filius Comitis Patricii, in a donation to the monastery of Kelso, in 1241, who died in 1253; and Ada, who got from her father the lands of Home, and was married, first, to a gentleman of the name of Courtenay, by whom she had no issue; and, secondly, to her cousin, William, son of Patrick, before mentioned, who, assuming the name of Home from his wife's estate, laid, the foundation of that border clan.t

: Patrick, sixth earl of Dunbar, succeeded his father in 1231, at the age of forty-six. Like his predecessors he courted the favour of the church, and granted a messuage in the burgh of Dunbar to the monks of Dryburgh; and to the canons of the same place, an annuity of a mark of silver in support of their church, on condition that they offered prayers for the safety of the souls of King William, of his own father and mother, and of his wife; while to the monks of Melrose, he renounced his claim to some disputed marches in lower Lauderdale.‡

In 1235, Patrick took the field in an expedition

*In 1240, the bones of the abbots of Melrose, that lay in the entrance of the chapter-house, were taken up and more decently buried in the eastern part of the chapter house; all, excepting the bones of St Walter, whose sepulchre was opened, and his body found crumbled to dust. Those who were present carried off some of the small bones. One of the company was William, son to the earl of Dunbar, and nephew to the king, a knight of great fame. He begged and obtained one of the saint's teeth, by which he is said to have wrought many cures !-Grose's Scots Ant. i. 122. + Wood's Doug. Peer. ii. 168.

An extensive forest anciently occupied the whole country lying