Scottish Notes and Queries Volume 12 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 Excerpt: ...to his son John, who was in 1419 killed in the Chapel of Tain. The Mowats, according to tradition, came from Monte Alto (hence their name) in Italy. They seem to have come to Scotland at a very early period, for the original Italian and the Scots branch interchanged courtesies in the way of intermarriage so far back as (according to tradition) 750 A.D., while the original stock were noted by Charlemagne in 804. One branch of the family settled in Wales, and were in possession of Hawarden Castle and estate in 1260. According to Dr. Temple of Forgue, Patrick de Monte Alto was made Forester of Kilanel and Fermartyne, in the reign of Robert the Hruce. The importance of the family may be gauged from the fact that they had estates in Caithness as well as in Aberdeenshire, and that they also had lands in Shetland. Indeed, any inquiry into their history is complicated by the fact that they had two estates of Balquholly--one in Aberdeenshire and one in Caithness, near Freswick, where they were settled as early as 1406, and it is not clear whether the same laird held both at the same time, or whether the estates were held by different branches of the family. Under their respective dates, I give such references to the Mowats in working for other material: --1401. John Mowat, son and heir of William Mowat, sometime Dominus de Fowlis Mowat, granted a tack of all his lands of Fowlis Mowat in the Earldom of Mar to George Leslie, 1st of Rothes. (Colonel Leslie's History of the Leslies, 1869.) 1429. Janet Mowat, daughter of the "Baron of Balquholly, married Alexander Leslie, 1st laird of Leslie, and had a son, William Leslie (born 1430), and also George Leslie, 2nd laird of Leslie (born 1432), who succeeded his father in 1470, and died before 1513 (Ibid). Let me now ind...