The community of the realm in Scotland, 1249–1424
History, law and charters in a recreated kingdom

The sociogram above illustrates the land resigned to the king during the reign of Robert I; most date to the 1320s. The table below lists all of the lands individually with the person resigning the lands (grantor) and the beneficiary of the resigned lands. The lands are indicated in abbreviated form in the graph above in green. The grantors and beneficiaries of the lands are linked to the lands. Adam of Hoddam is linked to land in Kirkborthwick with a blue line, indicating his resignation, while the same land is linked to William, barber (SLK) with a yellow line, indicating he was the beneficiary of that land. The table below lays out the transactions in detail. It should be noted that resignations fell into various categories. Sometimes, as in the case of the marischal Robert Keith's lands, which appear in two 1324 documents, the landholder resigned the lands to the king in order for them to be regranted on different terms, in this case in male entail. Other times, lands were resigned to the king in order to be re-granted to a family member. This was the case with Christina MacRuari's lands, which she be resigned in order for them to be granted to her presumably illegitimate brother Ruari in male entail for ship service. In another case, Duncan Campbell resigned land in Argyll to his own son, Donald. In the cases where lands were resigned to be given again by the king to completely unrelated individuals, the exact circumstances are often unknown. In one of these cases, land which had once belonged to the Comyns (Auchtertyre in Angus) and which somehow fell to Niall of Carrick was resigned do that it could be re-gifted to one of the king's loyal knights, William Oliphant. It is possible that some of these individuals were deemed insufficiently loyal to King Robert, but were allowed to alienate their lands in a more honourable means than forfeiture. Resignation, it should be noted, happened in a formal ceremony in front of assembled magnates and/or prelates involving the handing over of a ceremonial rod and staff.

View the interactive sociogram on the People of Medieval Scotland database.