The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

272 THE HIGHLANDERS [part ii
favour. After his death the next appearance of the earls is
contained in two charters : ist. A charter relating to the church
of Camps}', from ''Alj'ivfi comes de Levenax,filius ct heres Alwini
coinitis dc Levenax, Maldowcni filio et kcrede nostra conccdente.''
2d. A charter relating to the same subject by " Maldozoen, films
et heres co)nitis Ahvini junioris coniites de Levenax et heredes
'^ Alwini senioris comitis de Levenax'' And
these charters shew
that a certain Aluin had been created Earl of Lennox by
William the Lion. Who .^luin was it is almost impossible to
determine, and in the absence of all direct authority we are
driven to tradition, in this instance a surer guide, for the
tradition is supported b\- documentary evidence. An ancient
history of the Drummonds asserts, that the earls of Lennox
before they acquired that dignity, were hereditary seneschals
of Stratherne, and baillies of the Abthainrie of Dull in Atholl.
From the chartulary of Inchaffray. and others, we can trace the
hereditary seneschals of Stratherne subsequent
of Aluin as earl of Lennox, but not before ;
to the creation
it would appear
but
that the later seneschals were a branch of an older family, who
had possessed that office, and had been advanced to a higher
dignity, for these hereditary offices invariably went according to
the strict rules of feudal succession, and consequently remained
at all times in the head of the family, but if the possessor of
them was advanced to a higher dignity, incompatible with their
retention, and had possessed more than one such hereditary
office, they were in general separated, and given to different
branches of the family. Now we find, that of the later sene-
schals of Stratherne, one branch possessed the seneschalship,
and another branch the office of baillie of the Abthainrie of
Dull ; there m.ust therefore hav-e been an older family in possession
of both of these hereditar}' offices, who had been
advanced to a higher dignity ; and that that family was that
of the earls of Lennox appears from the fact, that the later
baillies of the Abthainrie of Dull possessed the lands of Pln-
larig, in the barony of Glendochart, and held them as vassals
of Malcolm de Glendochart, who was, as we have seen, a cadet
of the earls of Lennox. This connexion of the Lennox family
'
Napier's Partition of the Lenno.x.