67
It is now proper to recur to the great border district of Annandale, which
merged in the crown with the accession of Bruce. This munificent prince
conferred that ancient property of his respectable family on his nephew,
Randolph, Earl of Murray, who had merited any favour by his services. On
that occasion, perhaps, Annandale became a stewartry, if it did not exist
before under such a regimen (d); and Annandale continued a stewartry,
from those early times till the final abolition of such jurisdictions by parlia-
mentary power. When Edward III., by his artifice as well as by his arms,
obtained possession of this district, he appointed a steward for the country,
and a constable for the castle of Lochmaben (e). When John, Earl of
Murray, fell in 1346, the lordship of Annandale passed to his sister, Black
Agnes, the celebrated daughter of the first earl, the wife of Patrick, Earl
of March. Their son, Earl George, by his impolicy and rebellion, in 1400,
lost this noble inheritance, when it passed, as a penalty for both, to his
rival, Archibald, Earl of Douglas. This potent lord of Annandale, in 1409,
conferred the office of steward on Sir Herbert, the eldest son of Sir Robert
Maxwell of Caerlaverock. This grant was confirmed, in the same year by
Robert the Regent, Duke of Albany (f); and thenceforth the stewartship
tions £1621 8s. 5d. ; a sum which, evinces that the Court of Session deemed his local jurisdic-
tions more vexatious to the people than profitable to the proprietor. In former times, there
appears to have been attached to the sheriff's court of Dumfries an officer, who was called
Demster or Domster, whose duty it was to proclaim the sheriffs' judgments in court. Acta
Parl., ii. 94. Demster-toun, in Dunscore parish, may have derived its name from the residence
of such an officer. The highest as well as the lowest courts in Scotland had their Demsters. Acta
Parl.
(d)  Robertson's Index,  9 :—Adam de Corrie,  " tunc Senescallus Vallis Annandię," witnessed a
charter of Thomas Randolph, the Earl of Murray, and Lord of Annandale and of Man, to his nephew,
William  de  Murray,   of   the  lands  of   Cumlongan   and   Rywell,  [Ruthwell].     Charter,   in   my
library.
(e)  Rot. Scotię, i. 263-4.    In addition, he appointed a chancellor for Lochmaben and Annandale.
Ib.    In Nicholson's Border Laws, may be seen " The order to be observed in the Stewart Court of
Annandale," which sat every Saturday in the Tolbooth of Lochmaben.    The stewart, who had a
chancellary, held pleas of the crown as well as pleas real and personal.
(f) Douglas's Peerage, 517. Sir Herbert's grandson, of the same favourite name, obtained
from James II. a confirmation of the stewartship of Annandale. His accounts, as stewart of
Annandale, still remain in the Exchequer. Cannichael's Tracts, 23. In 1508, John Lord Maxwell,
the heritable stewart of Annandale, was in arrear to the King no less than £3745 1s. 1d. upon
his account, and being unable to pay that sum, he obtained from the King, on 15th July 1508, a
remission of the whole, on engaging to pay a composition of £1000. Privy Seal Regr., iv. 21.
He paid this composition to the King's treasurer on the 7th of March 1508-9. Treasurer's
Accounts.