Publications of the Clan Lindsay Society - Electric Scotland

236 THE I.AIUDS 01- D(nvilll.l..
barony."* The charter, its woidiiifr being Homewliat
ambiguous, makes it appear as it Cramby were in the
barony of Cleiach ; and
since it was a phice where
courts were held one would naturally conclude that it
was the principal messuage oi" t.liat i)arony. It was
not so, however. 'J^he piincipal messuage of Cleisch
lay elsewhere, and was in other ownership ; for in
1505 Archibald Meldrum of Binns, whose predecessors
had possessed part of Cleisch for at least a century
before, sold to Robert Colville of Hiltoun "the tower
and mansionhouse called in the vulgar speech the
Chemys of Clesh, and the land called the Chemysland
adjacent thereto, with the houses and park."t
Chemys is a corruption of the Old French chef mez,
the chief mansion of an estate ; and
it was the place
called the Chemys, therefore, that was the principal
messuage of Cleish.
William de Winton, then, owning part of Cleish,
but not the principal messuage, owned also lands
which certainly belonged to Crambeth. lie held his
baronial courts at "Cramby" ;
and he would the more
surely do so if this were an old established seat of
local administration.
Another of the Winton family had a charter of
lands which, in an old index of charters, are specified
as "Cramby et Auchindald"; while in another index
the same charter is summarised as relating to " Crombie
and Auchindald in the barony of Cromby."J
* iUg. Mag. Sig., VII. 82 (Vol. I., No. 1040).
t Ibid., XIV. 318 (Vol. I., No. 2896).
X Reg. Mag.
1918.
Sig. (1306-1424), App. II., Indexes A. and B., No.