Judices - Family History

Long held family tradition has it that the earliest known ancestor of the Dempsters was Alan, a close relative of King Malcolm III Canmore, who was granted lordship of all the lands between the two Esks and the "Sword of Justice" after supporting that king during "the rebellion of the Thane of Loguhabriae".¹

The unfortunate thing about this wonderful ancestry is the difficulty in finding a close relative of Malcolm Canmore called Alan or a thanage of Loguhabriae. A possible interpretation of the reference would be to Northumbria (England was classically Loegria) but this cannot be proved for certain.

The earliest reports of the family suggest that one part of the story of Alan may be true, as the family first appears in Angus, and they may have been Thanes of Menmuir, a thanage which consisted roughly of the lands between the rivers North Esk and South Esk. Certainly part of the old thanage was held by a member of the family in the thirteenth century² and that may well have been because an ancestor was a supporter of the Canmore dynasty. The foundation of thanages is not clearly understood but it does appear that they came about sometime in the eleventh century, and were given to supporters of the crown in order to keep an eye on rebellious Celtic magnates.

The other part of the story - that the family were close relatives of Malcolm III Canmore may also be true. The relationship is not clearly stated, and the latin in which it is stated can have several meanings depending on the context. The likelihood is that Alan was either an illegitimate brother, an illegitimate son or a foster brother of King Malcolm III. Currently I favour the latter theory. Whatever the nature of the exact relationship, the heraldic evidence puts the Dempster in the position of being a very senior branch of Clan Duff, of which the Scottish royal house was a junior branch.

The surname Dempster comes from grant of the "Sword of Justice" which in fact was the position of Deemster, or Dempster. At the time, this was of considerable importance, but the modernising influence of Malcolm III's second wife St Margaret were to speed up the process by which its importance faded over time to become a minor and basically ceremonial court official.

The Dempster was a lingering remnant of the ancient Celtic legal system, being the anglicization of the Brehon. The brehon was a hereditary judge who "held the laws in his breast", that is, he memorised the laws and customs of his area. This was a hereditary position and one of great importance in what was a non-literate society. The position's title was later latinised as "Judex" and remained one of considerable influence until the eleventh and twelfth centuries when the Normanising influence of the Margaretson Dynasty led to the start of a fall in prestige and authority.

The duties of the Judex in criminal, and much of civil law passed to the Justiciars and Sheriffs but the post carried more weight in terms of land law, since boundaries are much more easily memorised than committed to paper. For much of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Judices walked the marches in order to settle boundary disputes. Eventually even this function died out, probably hastened by the Wars of Independence when much change in the ownership of land took place.

By the fourteenth century, the job of the Judex had fallen to that of mouthpiece of the courts, a ceremonial position which was often combined with that of executioner. Every court, from Baronial level upwards, had one.

It is worth quoting Professor Geoffrey Barrow on them
"It has long been recognised that the judex represented a survival from pre-twelfth century Scotland, that he formed a part of the older, Celtic order of society. It has also long been known that gradually the judex, under his more familiar title of 'dempster', sank from a prominent to a subordinate, eventually to an insignificant, position.... the judex was not merely a survival, but a somewhat remarkable survival, from Celtic Scotland... evidence suggests nothing less than the tenacious survival of an ancient judicial caste.... the role of the judex seems to come very close to that of the toschederach, and it is worth noting that the geographical distribution of these officials seems to have coincided almost exactly." ³

The descendants of "Alan", were the Judices of Angus and the Mearns, as well as being King's Judices, and were later to become Heritable Dempsters of the Parliament of Scotland.

The family history, thus can be said to start in the mid eleventh century, with the period of strife relating to the conflict for the throne between the lines of King Duncan and King Macbeth.

Malcolm III Canmore was born in 1031, son of Duncan I, King of Scots by his wife, a relative of Siward of Northumbria. He was aged 8 or 9 in 1040 when his father was killed in battle at Pitgaveny in Moray by Macbeth, the representative of the other line of Scots monarchs. Malcolm was brought up by his Northumbrian relatives and made several attempts on the throne before finally succeeding in 1058 by defeating and killing Macbeth (in 1057) and Macbeth's stepson Lulach in battle.

Alan was claimed as the founding father of the family by Thomas Dempster, the seventeenth century historian. The first thing that is interesting about him is his name, which suggests a possible non-Scottish origin for his mother as Alan is more French than Northumbrian or Scots. If Thomas Dempster's account is read as him being a foster brother of Malcolm III then he may well have been born about 1030. If the idea that he was an illegitimate son of Malcolm is correct then he was probably born about 1061 and may have lived long enough to see the reign of his youngest half-brother King David I who reigned from 1124-1153.

A lot depends on whether the action against the Thane of Loguhabriae was Malcolm III's invasion of Northumbria in 1061. If it was, it tends to make it easier for him to have been a foster brother or illegitimate brother of Malcolm III rather than being an illegitimate son of the King. However, it does not rule out the latter possibility. If it is assumed he would have been at least 14 in order for him to have taken part in a campaign, he would have to have been born in 1047 or earlier, which means that he would have to have been conceived when Malcolm was 15 or younger. This is possible but less likely.

I have found no mention of Alan, let alone of him being accorded the position of Judex. The earliest reference to that position is of Brocchin the Judex who starts appearing in documents in 1150 (though at that point he is not described as a Judex)⁴. This suggests that he was born some time before 1136 and given the long period in which he was appearing, he may even be a father and son of the same name. A Judex who started out in 1150 could have been born as late as 1136, but even then we are dealing with a man who was in his sixties when he witnessed his final charter, which must have been signed between 1189 and 1198. However, that last charter was a large and very important document relating to the Angus area which was witnessed by great magnates and clergy and by no fewer than three judices, Brocchin, Bozli and Brice.

Of these other two Judices, Brice of Kerdan appears as the King's Judex in records from 1189 to 1221 and was probably dead by 1232.⁵ He first appears in the very important charter in 1189. This means that his date of birth was probably no later than 1175 and probably before 1170. He was most active in Angus and is known to have held the lands of Kerdan and Breckyn. Kerdan is now Cardean and Breckyn, which was possibly named after Brocchin is now called Braikie, both are in Angus.

Brice had at least one daughter, a woman named Forveleth who was married to Gillandres MacLeod. This branch of the MacLeods were Celtic Hereditary Lay Abbots of Arbroath and in 1232 Gillandres was granted the lands of Kerdan & Breckyn by Alexander II to be held by the heirs of his marriage to Forveleth. The lands of Kerdan, Breckyn, Neuethbarr, Tulachmaccarbaloch, Balehergrossyne, Kateche, and Kennebred were worth one knight's service.⁶

The third Judex of the 1189 charter, Bozli, is one of the big problems. Medieval charter writers were great ones for abbreviations, and Bozli/Boli is one. It is an understandable contraction as the z should be pronounced as if a y. The pronounciation of Bozli was probably something like Bow-li. A similar thing occurs in Menzies, which should be pronounced Ming-es rather than Men-zees.

No matter how it was pronounced, he turns up in the 1189 charter as Bozli, and may well be the Boli MacGillerachcah in a letter by Brice written in 1221. MacGillerachcah is probably a corruption of Mac Gille Fhearchair meaning (MAC-Son of) (GILLE-the servant of) (Saint) Ferchar. Saint Ferchar is otherwise unknown but he may have been a holy man in the Mearns after whom the place Glenfarquhar is named.⁷ It is interesting to note that Fern is next to Careston

After Brice and Bozli the next Judices who appear are a mixed bunch who include a father and two sons, Malcolm, Adam and Kerald. Malcolm is mentioned only once as a Judex, as one of three judices (the others being Farquhar and Thomas) who were witness to a charter issued by Andrew, Bishop of Moray at Forfar in August 1202.⁸

Malcolm and appears more regularly as the father of two sons, both of whom were Judex of Angus and King's Judex in their time.The first, Kerald, appears as "keraldum fratrem Ade Judicis" (Kerald, brother of Adam the Judex) in a perambulation of the marches of the lands of the Abbey of Arbroath in September 1219. He is Judex of Angus by January 1227/8 when he carries out a similar perambulation with Adam, The King's Judex, and his (future?) brother in law Gillandres Macleod⁹ and he was King's Judex by 1251¹⁰.

It is probably after this Kerald that the estate which was to remain in possession of the chiefs of the family was named. This estate is Careston (originally Caraldstone - Kerald's Town) in Angus.

Following on from Kerald and Adam was Duncan of Petmulin who was a Judex between 1248 and 1289, King's Judex from at least 1279¹¹.The exact identity of Duncan is not known, but he was obviously a close relative of Adam and Kerald, for as well as owning the estate of Petmulin (now Pitmuies) he gained land from Christian, daughter of Kerald the Judex. Duncan is followed by Christian, a judex in 1299 ¹²Andrew, and by a second Kerald.

Andrew is never actually called a judex, the documents he appears in are in Latin but he is Andrew le Jugeor or Andrew le Jugger and - for the first time Andrew le Demsterre¹³. With him the vague line of Judices end and the slightly easier family of Dempster starts. Little is known of the second Kerald except that he had a son, Duncan Dempster of Alrethis (now Allardyce).

Footnotes:

1 Dempster, T: Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum, 235

2 Webster, B (ed): Regesta Regum Scottorum VI - David II 1329-1371, 43

3 Barrow G.W.S.: The Kingdom of Scots, 69-74

4 Barrow G.W.S.: The Kingdom of Scots, 75

5 Barrow G.W.S.: The Kingdom of Scots, 76

6 Registrum Episcopatus Brechinensis, 3

7 Barrow G.W.S.: The Kingdom of Scots, 82n

8 Liber S. Thome de Aberbrothoc, Registrum Vetus 1178-1329, 162

9 Liber S. Thome de Aberbrothoc, Registrum Vetus 1178-1329, 162-163

10 Liber S. Thome de Aberbrothoc, Registrum Vetus 1178-1329, 334-335

11 Liber S. Thome de Aberbrothoc, Registrum Vetus 1178-1329, 332

12 Liber S. Thome de Aberbrothoc, Registrum Vetus 1178-1329, 164

13 Barrow G.W.S.: The Kingdom of Scots, 77

© James Dempster 1997