Schir Ranald _fyrst, to mak fewté for his land,_ _The knycht, went in, and wald na langar stand._-- Schyr Bryss _the_ Blayr _next with his eyme in past;_ _On to the ded thai haistyt him full fast._--V. 205.
_Schir Ranald_ is Sir Reginald Craufurd of Loudoun, maternal uncle to Wallace. He was heritable sheriff of the county of Ayr. The granddaughter, the heiress of the property, was married to Sir Duncan Campbell, the son of Sir Donald of Redcastle, from whom the noble family of Loudoun is descended. Reginaldus de Craveford is one of the persons chosen on the part of Robert Bruce to judge between him and John Baliol, as to their respective claims, A. 1292. V. Fœdera, II. 555. But whether this was the _Ranald_ here mentioned, or his father, who was then alive, is doubtful; because our author gives the name of _Ranald_ to his father, while others call him _Hugh_. _John_ and _Hugh_ de Craufurd are mentioned in two rescripts of Edward I., as barons received under his protection, A. 1255. Ibid. I. 559. 567.
_Schyr Bryss the Blayr_ was the ancestor of the Blairs of that ilk in Ayrshire. There was a _Bryce_ Blair of Blair in the seventeenth century; whence it appears that this ancient christian name was retained in the family. V. Crawfurd’s Renfrew, p. 203. Nisbet, I. 211.
It deserves observation, that these are the two persons particularly named by Barbour, among those who suffered that cruel martyrdom for liberty which was inflicted by the English tyrant. _Syr Brice_ is the reading of Edit. 1594 and 1620: and I am now convinced that the name ought to have stood _Bryce_ in the Bruce, B. III. ver. 265; as it is corrected in the extract made in the preceding Note. But I was misled by the appearance of the letter _y_ in the MS., which differs so much from its usual form, as at first view to resemble _u_.
Sir D. Dalrymple remarks; “Barbour says that Sir Brice Blair was executed in company with Sir Reginald Crawfurd; but he erroneously supposes this to have happened in Scotland.” Ann. II. 19, N. Kerr follows him in this assertion. Hist. Bruce, I. 284.
But our worthy senator is so averse to give credit to anything that tends to confirm what he calls “the famous story of _the Barns of Air_,” that he prefers the single testimony of Matthew of Westminster to that of Barbour; not to mention the later but concurrent one of the Minstrel. The English historian says that Reginald de Crawfurd, with Thomas and Alexander _de Brus_, “brothers of the pseudo-king,” having been defeated and taken prisoners, were presented to Edward at Carlisle, “wounded and half-dead, and that he immediately ordered their execution;” and that “to this their heads bare witness, being placed on the castle and gates” of that city. Hist. p. 458.