General Notes

In the 10th year of his reign, William the Conqueror granted the forest, valley, and lordship of Riddesdale, in Northumberland, to his kinsman, Sir Robert de Umfravill, Knt.,* otherwise Robert with the beard, Lord of Tours and Vian, to hold, by the service of defending that part of the country for ever from enemies and wolves with the sword which King William had by his side when he entered Northumberland. By the tenor of the grant he was invested with the power of holding, governing, exercising, hearing, and judging in all pleas of the crown as well as others occurring within the precincts of Riddesdale.

* This Robert de Umfravill had a grandson, Robert, father of Gilbert, which last two adhered to David I, King of Scotland, who gave [to] Gilbert Kinnaird and Dunipace, in Stirlingshire. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 544, Umfravill, Barons Umfravill, Earls of Angus]