Sutherland and Caithness in Saga-Time; or, The Jarls and The Freskyns. Gray James Martin

there, and he spent the summer of 1150, while he was superintending the building of the Cistercian abbey of Kinloss, in the neighbouring Castle of Duffus, whose ruins still stand, with Freskyn de Moravia, the first known ancestor of the Earls of Sutherland.²²

      Freskyn, probably about 1130²³ or earlier, had built this castle on the northern estate, comprising the parish of Spynie near Elgin and other extensive lands in Moray, which had been given to him in addition to his southern territories of Strabrock, now Uphall and Broxburn²⁴ in Linlithgowshire, which he already held from the Scottish king. Freskyn was thus no Fleming, but a lowland Pict or Scot, as the tradition of his house maintains,²⁵ and he was a common ancestor of the great Scottish families of Atholl, Bothwell, Sutherland, and probably Douglas. No member of the Freskyn family is ever styled "Flandrensis" in any writ.

      We find in the extreme north of Scotland, in the first half of the twelfth century, apart from the Mackays, three leading families with great followings, which were destined to play an important part in the future government of Sutherland and Caithness, and with which we shall have to deal in detail later on.

      

      First, there was the family of the so-called Norse jarls, descended in twin strains from Paul and Erlend, Thorfinn's sons, owing allegiance to the Norwegian crown in respect of Orkney and Shetland and also holding the earldom of Caithness in moieties or in entirety, nominally from the Scottish king. Secondly, we have the family of Moddan, Celtic earls or maormors, with extensive territories held under the kings of Alban and Scotland for many centuries before this time, but dispossessed in part by the Norse. Thirdly, we have the family of Freskyn de Moravia then established at Strabrock in Linlithgowshire, who about 1120 or 1130 received, for his loyalty and services, extensive lands at Duffus and elsewhere in Morayshire, and probably about 1196 the lands in south Caithness known as Sudrland or Sutherland, from the Scottish crown.

      Of this third line of De Moravias or Morays, two distinct branches settled north of the Oykel. First, we have Hugo Freskyn, son, it is said, but, as we shall see, really grandson, of the original Freskyn and son of Freskyn's elder or eldest son William.²⁶ This William no doubt fought for, and may, or may not, have held land in Sutherland, but his son Hugo certainly had all Sutherland properly so called, that is, Sudrland, or the Southland of Caithness comprising the parishes of Creich, Dornoch, Rogart, Kilmalie (afterwards Golspie), Clyne, Loth, and most of Lairg and Kildonan,²⁷ formally granted to him, and he held also the Duffus Estates in Moray, by sea only thirty miles south of Dunrobin.

      The second branch was that of the younger Freskin de Moravia, great-great-grandson of the original Freskyn,²⁸ and ancestor of the Lords of Duffus, who obtained lands, which were mainly in modern Caithness, and also in the upper portion of the valley of the Naver and the valley of Coire-na-fearn in Strathnavern, by marriage with the Lady Johanna of Strathnaver about 1250.²⁹ This latter portion was immediately north of the land granted to Hugo Freskyn; and the Caithness portion of Johanna's lands marched with Hugo's land on its eastern boundary. Nor must we forget that a large area of the modern county of Sutherland, consisting of part of the present parishes of Eddrachilles and Durness and some part of Tongue and Farr in Strathnavern, was constantly used as a refuge by Pictish refugees of the race of MacHeth or MacAoidh, displaced and frequently driven forth from Moray after the bloody defeat of Stracathro in 1130 and in later rebellions as part of the policy of the Scottish kings, and first known as the race of Morgan and then to us as the Clan Mackay.

      They chose, indeed, for their refuge and ultimately for their settlements a rugged and sterile land, to which their original title was no charter, but their swords. Difficulties, it is said, make character, and nowhere is this proverbial saying better illustrated and proved than in the Reay country by its men and women. They have given their own and other countries many fine regiments and distinguished generals and statesmen, and none more so than the late Lord Reay. Their history is to be found in the Book of Mackay, a piece of good pioneer work from original documents by the late Mr. Angus Mackay, and also in his unfortunately unfinished Province of Cat.

      Yet another family, of Norse and Viking lineage, which was settled in Orkney from the earliest Norse times and afterwards in Caithness and Sutherland, was that of the Gunns, who were descended in the male line from Sweyn Asleifarson the great Viking, and on the female side from the line of Paul, and later were by marriage connected with the Moddan clan and with the line of Erlend. They have for nine centuries lived and still live in Sutherland and Caithness, and have been noted alike for the beauty of their women, and for the high attainments and character and the distinction of their men, particularly in the art of war, both by land and sea.

      Their descent from Jarl Paul and Sweyn is clear in the Sagas as far as Snaekoll Gunnison and no further. It was as follows:—Paul Thorfinnson had four daughters, of whom the third was Herbjorg, who had a daughter Sigrid, who in turn had a daughter Herbjorg, who married Kolbein Hruga. One of their sons was Bishop Bjarni and their youngest child was a daughter Frida, who married Andres, Sweyn Asleifarson's son, and their son was Gunni, the father, by Ragnhild, Earl and Jarl Harald Ungi's sister, of Snaekoll Gunnison. We suggest later that Snaekoll Gunnison was the father, before his flight to Norway, of a daughter, Johanna of Strathnaver, who inherited the Moddan and Erlend estates, or that she was otherwise Ragnhild's heiress.

      The male line of the Gunns, according to a pedigree which the writer has seen, was continued after his flight by Snaekoll who, it is stated, had a son, Ottar, living in 1280. But after Snaekoll's flight his right to succeed to Ragnhild's estates was doubtless forfeited, and they were granted on his father's and mother's death to Johanna on her marriage with Freskin de Moravia of Duffus about 1245 or later, before Ottar's birth.

      With the descent of the Gunns in the male line downwards we are not here concerned. But Snaekoll's forfeiture probably cost their male line the Moddan and Erlend lands, which were granted to Johanna of Strathnaver in Snaekoll's absence abroad.