Publications of the Clan Lindsay Society - Electric Scotland

THE HOUSK OF KAI»:(ilKTH. 87
inferred, had, like some otliern of the Duuirlas vassals,
taken steps to have their private riirhts recognised
when their ininiediate suj)eri(H-s were attainted. At
the time in question, Mr James Lindsay of Covingtiwi
was provost of the College Church oi' LinchuU-n, a
religious house in Galloway under the pationage of the
lords of the province. This Mr James had jneviuusly
heen secretary to the eighth Karl of iJuuglas, and had
heen much fiivoured hy him. lie was a person very
likely to receive from his patron a grant of land in
Galloway ;
and very naturally, if Fairgiith had been so
acquired by him, he would settle the succession on a
kinsman, a nephew pcrhaj)s, reserving iiis own lilerent
interest. The life-tenant and the liar might thtm each
indiflerently be referred to as the laird of FairgirtL.
This, we believe, was the origin of the Lindsay connection
with these lands, and the belief is in harmony
with the tradition of the Fairgirth family that they
were sprung from the Lindsays of Covington.
But it has been supposed that Fairgirth devolved
upon James Lindsay through his marriage with
Margaret Cairns.
Mr Alexander de Carnis or Cairns was Provost of
Lincluden at the beginning of the hfteenth century.
He was chancellor or secretary to Archibald, fourth
Earl of Douglas, and from him received a })rivate grant
of Gilkerscleuch, in the parish of Crawfordjohn,
Lanarkshire, and Carsluith, in the Stewartry of Kirk-
cudbright. These land,s he settled on his nephew,
John Cairns, and Elizabeth, his wife, reserving his
own liferent.* Margaret Cairns, who inherited Gilkers-
* Reg. Mag. Sig., III., 145 (Vol. I., No. 25o).