William, one of this family, was Chancellor to King David I., and in the year 1140, by the grant of the Empress Maud, was made Bishop of Durham. Crawfurd’s Officers, p. 7. So powerful did it become, that in the reign of Alexander III. there were three earls and one lord of this name, besides thirty knights of landed property. Nisbet, I. 367.
I need scarcely say that Comyn was competitor with the elder Bruce for the crown, as boasting the same blood. This ancient and honourable family is now represented by Sir William Cumyn Gordon, of Altyre and Gordonstown, Baronet.
_A cruell captane intill_ Erth _duelt thar_, _In Ingland born, and hecht Thomlyn off Wayr._--V. 1283.
It is _Erth_ also in Edit. 1594; _Airth_ in that of 1620, and those of a later age.
“The tower at Airth was built before Sir William Wallace’s time. This tower is in good repair; it makes part of the house of Airth, and bears the name of _Wallace’s Tower_.” Stat. Acc. III. 493, 494.
Alexander de Airth, or Erth, is one of those whose names are recorded in the Ragman Roll. V. Nisbet, Rem. p. 23.
“The Erths of that ilk were once a very considerable family in this shire, being proprietors of Airth, Elphingstone, Carnock, and Plean. We find Adam de Erth mentioned among the commissioners who were appointed, in 1248, to ratify an agreement with England, concerning the regulations called the _Border-laws_. Bernard de Erth, who was probably a son of this Adam, married before 1271, one of the three daughters and co-heiresses of Finlaus de Campsie, a cadet of the family of Lennox.” Nimmo’s Stirlingshire, p. 516, 517. In the reign of James I. the eldest daughter of William Airth married “a son of the ancient family of Clackmannan, who thereupon came into possession of the lands of Airth. The family of Erth, like others, took their sirname from their lands; but it is now quite extinct in this country.” Ibid.
_Than to_ Faslan _the worthy Scottis can pass,_ _Quhar erll Malcom was bidand at defence._--V. 1518.
In editions it is _Falkland_. But this being so distant from the earl’s district, and from Dunbarton, where Wallace was immediately before, it must be an error. Macpherson places Faslan near the head of the Gairloch, above Roseneath, Dunbartonshire. V. Hist. Map of Scotl. In the passage, ver. 1514, Wallace and his party are said indeed to take their course thither from _Roseneath_, now a well known seat of the noble family of Argyle.