The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

204 THE HIGHLANDERS [part II
Wyth thare serwys and thare Homage,
Dat of hym wald hald thare Herytage,
But of the Ethchetys of the lave
To the Lordis of that land he gave."
By " the Lordis of that land," to whom the forfeited estates
were given, Winton means the foreign vassals placed there by
Alexander, for Fordun is quite distinct that those who had
offended the king too deeply to hope for pardon fled, and
their properties were bestowed upon those who had followed
the army into Argyll. The general effect of this conquest,
as it may well be called, was that the district of Argyll was
no longer under the rule of a single lord. Wherever those
who had previously held their possessions as vassals of Somerled
submitted to the king and were received into favour, they
became crown vassals, and held their lands in chief of the
crown, while the estates of those who were forfeited were
bestowed as rewards upon many of those who had joined
the expedition into Argyll ; and from the nature of the expe-
dition, and especially from its complete success, it is probable
that these were principally Highlanders. The forfeited estates
were farther brought under the direct jurisdiction of the
government by being, according to the invariable policy of
Alexander H., erected into a sheriffdom by the name of Argyll,
and the extent of this, the first sheriffdom bearing that name,
enables us to define with certainty the districts which were
forfeited by the native lords and bestowed upon strangers.
The sheriffdom of Argyll originally consisted of that part of
the country now known as the district of Argyll proper, con-
sisting of the districts of Glenorchy, Lochow, Lochfine, Glassrie,
and Ardskeodnish. These were bestowed upon the ancestors
of the M'Gregors and Macnauchtans, and of a family, probably
Lowland, termed De Glassrie, while the ancestor of the Campbells
was made hereditary sheriff of the new sheriffdom. Besides
this, the shire of Argyll included part of Lochaber, retained by
the north half of Kintyre, bestowed upon a certain
the crown ;
Dufgallus filius Syfin, and the upper half of Cowall given to
a Campbell. The whole of Ergadia Borealis or North Argyll
was granted to the Earl of Ross, who had rendered powerful
assistance to the king both upon this and a former occasion.