A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

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OF THE SUB-ORDINARIES.
became a surname to his posterity : He and his sons being nobilitate, the king
gave him the foresaid arms, to intimate that the father and the two sons had been
luckily the three shields of Scotland ; and gave them as much land in the Carse
of Gowry as a falcon did fly over without lighting, which having flown a great way,
she lighted on a stone, there called the falcomstone to this day : The circumstances
of which story is not only perpetuate by the three escutcheons, but by the
exterior ornaments of the achievement of the family of Errol ; having, for crest,
on a wreath a falcon, proper ; for supporters, two men in country habits, holding the
oxen yokes of a plough over their shoulders, (sometimes they are represented as sa-
vages wreathed about the head and middle with laurel, holding yokes of a plough in
their hands) ; and for motto, Serva jugu'm. As for the antiquity of the name, it
is as early to be found in our records as any other. There are severals of that
name mentioned in the charters of King Malcolm IV. to the abbacies of Scoon
and Cupar, amongst whom is Willielmus de Haia de Errol, who was succeeded by
his son David de Haia, father of another William de Haia, 1305. Gilbertus de
Haia Dominus de Errol (Dalrymple's Collections, page 75.) was, for his good ser-
vices to King Robert the Bruce, made Lord High Constable of Scotland, and his
heirs for ever ; as by that charter i2th November 1315. And, in a charter of
confirmation of that king's (Haddington's Collections, page 66.) of the charter of
Eva Kelor to Robert Harkars Miles, of the date the 1 8th year of King Robert's
reign, among the witnesses, .is Gilbertus de Haia, Constabularies Scotite, of whom
was descended William de Haia Lord Errol, Constable of Scotland, who was, by
King James II. created Earl of Errol, the iyth of March 1452, and from him
Charles the late Earl of Errol, High Constable. For a more full genealogical account
of this noble family, see Mr Crawfurd's Peerage of Scotland.
The next eminent family of the name was HAY of Locharret, after designed
of Tester, now of Tweeddale, who carries the same arms as Errol, marshalled with
others.
The first of this family was John Hay, son of William Hay, and brother of
William Hay of Errol, in the reign of King William the Lion ; which Mr Crawfurd
vouches in his Peerage. It seems he came from the north to the Lothians,
and married the daughter and heir of Robert de Lyn, and got with her the barony
of Locharret. Their son and successor was William Hay of Locharret ; for, in the
Register of Newbattle, is to be found a charter to that abbacy by
Willielmus de
Haya,JUius Joannis de Haya, miles & dominus de Locbus-werivord, giving the liberty
of a moss called Uulnestrocher, to the monks of that abbacy, which Robert de Lyn,
the son of David, quondam domini de Locerworna, & ipsius Pater, illi dedit. See
Sir James Dalrymple's Collections, Preface, p. 76. William was succeeded by his
son Sir William Hay of Locharret, father of Hugh Hay of Locharret, who married
a sister of King Robert the Bruce, and widow of Laurence Lord Abernethy, and
with her had a son, Gilbert, as by the genealogical account of the family.
Sir GILBERT HAY of Locharret married Mary, one of the daughters and co-
heiress of Sir Simon Fraser Lord of Oliver-Castle, with whom he got a good estate
in Tweeddale ; upon which account the family has been in use to marshal with
their own the arms of Fraser of Oliver-Castle, of old; being azure, five cinquefoils
argent, two, one and two, though now there are but three used, two and one. Their
son, Sir Thomas, father of Sir William Hay of Locharret,
the battle of Durham.
was taken prisoner at
Another Sir WILLIAM HAY of Locharret was employed in divers embassies, in the
reign of Robert III. And, during the regency of the Duke of Albany, (Rymer r s
Fadera Angl'id) he married Jean, the eldest of the four daughters and coheiress of
John Gifford Lord Yester, and got with her the lands of Yester, upon which ac-
count the family has also been in use to marshal the arms of Gifford ; with her he
had four sons, Sir William, Thomas, David, and Edmund, the first laird of Lin-
of whom were descended the Hays of Bara in the North.
plum and Morham ;
Sir William died without issue, and was succeeded by his brother Thomas, who
was one of the hostages for the ransom of I. King James and was designed Dominus de
Tester, (Rymer's Fadera Angli&ad annum 1423,) who died also without issue, and.
was succeeded by