38
THE ANCIENT NORTHMEN, RIDDELL ANCESTRY.
France ended in the male line and lost the name. Nearly all genealogical
writers have commenced the history of the Scottish branch of the Nor-
man family of Ridel with the early ancestors of the Roxburghshire Ri
dales, but cadets of the family held lands in Scotland at an earlier date,
as will be seen in the genealogical departments of this book. Cranstown,
subsequently known as "Cranstown-Riddell," was in the possession of the
Norman Riddells with little intermission for about two centuries, and was
probably granted about A. D. 1100. One authority says Oscital Ridel,
having finished his pilgrimage to Rome, returned to his native land by
consent of King Malcolm Canmore, and gave his lands of Cranstown,
Preston, and others, to his son Hugo, who in the year 1110 bestowed
the church of Cranstown and certain lands in the barony upon the mon-
astery of Selkirk, which was founded by King David.
Sir Walter Scott, in a very complimentary note in his poem on Dole-
raine, has made an attempt to prove that the Roxburgh Ridales were
established in Scotland at a period far more remote than those of Crans-
town, but his conjectures cannot be sustained by any good authority, and
are ignored by the best-informed of the family in Scotland. He mentions
two stone coffins found in an ancient vault of the old church in the parish
of Lilliesleaf, which contained the remains of men of gigantic size, and bear-
ing date as early as A. D. 727 and A. D. 936. Scott also mentions the
date 1110 as found in the aisle of the ancient church of the Ridales of
Roxburgh, but the late Walter Riddell-Carre says in a communication to
the author, "There are memorials cut in the south wall, but they are not
of a sufficiently antiquated character, to represent a period so far back,
though they may have been recut in modern times, a not unfrequent pro-
cess employed to preserve dates nearly defaced by time."
When David I, Prince of Cumberland, who was a great colonizer, went
into Scotland he was followed by several cadets of the family of England,
one of whom, Gervase, or Geoffery Ridale, was a great favorite of King
David, being the first High Sheriff of the county and a constant attend-
ant on royalty, as proven by many crown-charters to which he was a wit-
ness; one of the most ancient charters witnessed by this man was the
celebrated "Inquisito Principis Davidis," which was dated A. D. 1116.
Walter Ridale, a brother of the preceding, was also a witness to crown
and other charters; but that to himself granted by King David, eclipsed
them all, being the most ancient charter known from a king to a layman.
This document, dated A. D. 1125, granted an estate including lands called
Whittun, near the Cheviot Hills, to be held of the crown. These lands
were subsequently denominated the "Barony of Riddell and Whittun."
This charter styles Walter Ridale "sheriff" and confirms to him all the
lands of which his brother Gervase died possessed.
Besides the charter before mentioned, the early ancestors of the Rox-
burgh family had two bulls; one from Pope Adrian IV, dated A. D. 1155,
and another from Pope Alexander III, dated A. D. 1160, which Mr. Nis-
bit, the well-known Scottish herald and antiquary saw, confirming to the
Ridales the lands received by charter from King David I, and other estates
not mentioned in that document. It is somewhat remarkable that these
lands were held in unbroken succession by the family for nearly seven hun-
dred years without an entail; quite long enough to warrant Sir Walter
Scott in using the name of "ancient Riddell's fair domain." In a statement
from Walter Riddell-Carre, he says, "There are two things that present
themselves in a survey of the history of this family which seem remark-
