SCHAW of SAUCHIE and GREENOCK – A review of their origins.
James Schaw, 1st of Greenock and Sauchie, is the first for whom there is evidence and was within the social orbit of the royal household by 1406 when as one of the customars of Inverkeithing, he submitted accounts for the year March 1405 – March 1406.[1] He had the first of a number of payments from the fermes of Inverkeithing in that same year, for his good service to the crown,[2] and on 10 March 1407-08, he witnessed a charter by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany.[3]
Of his parentage, little of any certainty can be said. That is also true of the circumstances surrounding his acquisition of his two extensive estates, Greenock and Sauchie. The former, the antiquarian, Mr. George Crawford, writing in 1710, asserts he acquired “by marriage to one of the coheirs of Galbraith of Greenock, in the reign of king Robert III”[4] and the respected antiquarian and heraldic expert, Alexander Nisbet, adds that “the lands of Greenock belonged to Sauchie, which one of his progenitors purchased, by marrying one of the co-heirs of Galbraith of Greenock, in the reign of Robert III.”[5] That relationship to Galbraith of Greenock is proved in a charter of excambion between Malcolm de Galbraith of Greenock and the monks of the abbey of Melrose dated 1 February 1408-09, in which Galbraith styles James de la Schaw his “consanguineo meo”[6] but although the existence of a relationship between he and Schaw is acknowledged, the terminology also proves they were not related in a near degree. Consequently, any inheritance via an heiress can only have been by reason of Schaw’s descent in the female line from Galbraith’s grandfather or some other more remote common ancestor.
His acquisition of the half-part of Sauchie had occurred by 1421 when, under that designation, he was named as one of the auditors of Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany.[7] Those rights he is said to have acquired upon his marriage, in 1431, to Mary, daughter of Elias and granddaughter and co-heiress of Sir David de Annand of Sauchie,[8] but whatever evidence such a claim may have been founded upon had ceased to exist by the time of Crawford and Nisbet in the first years of the 18th century. Crawford especially, having been granted access to the family papers, was only able to cite from the earliest of them then extant which commenced in the mid-15th century, long after any such marriage had taken place.
Although the traditional versions relating to each of those acquisitions have been generally accepted and widely promulgated as fact, they are nonetheless questionable. Heraldic evidence, having hitherto been overlooked, is a source which bears good testimony. To Malcolm de Galbraith’s charter of 1408-09, James Schaw’s seal was appended and displayed arms: three cups, a crescent in fess point. That those arms remained undifferenced from a time before the Schaws possession of Sauchie and Greenock and then throughout their long term of ownership raises an important point as in the event that two extensive estates were acquired by right of female inheritance, normal practice was for a person’s arms to reflect that by quartering with those of the heiress. That this was not the undertaken in at least one of those two instances constitutes good evidence to assert that acquisition was instead by means other than heritage and was either by purchase or some form of arrangement with the crown. Such alternatives need not cast doubt on the veracity of Crawford and Nisbet’s statements of relationship on the basis that James Schaw, his fortunes significantly improving by close association with the royal court, would be well-placed to buy out a relation who had fallen on hard times and was the last of their line. Royal favour would also open up opportunities for the purchase of lands which had fallen to the crown on account of recognition or forfeiture. They may also have been acquired by simple gift from the king in reward for services rendered or in lieu of overdue payments. Ultimately, the above considered, all that can now be said with any degree of confidence is that the two separate estates of Sauchie and Greenock both came into the possession of James Schaw after February 1408-09 and before the middle of the second decade of the 15th century. From that point onwards he appears under both designations. He was present at an agreement between the Priory of Inchcolm and Sir William de Airth of that Ilk dated 15 November 1428[9] and Sauchie tower dating from about 1430, he must have commenced its construction upon acquiring those lands, likely as a convenient base near to the royal castle of Stirling. He also added to his growing estate by the acquisition of various other lands including those of Gartinker by charter from the Abbot of Dunfermline on 9 June 1439.[10] He died in 1450-51[11] and had issue.
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[1] Ex. Rolls. Vol. 4, p. 5.
[2] Ex. Rolls. Vo. 4, p. 27.
[3] RMS 1, no. 896.
[4] George Crawford (1710), then William Semple (Paisley, 1782), History of the Shire of Renfrew, pp.86-87.
[5] Sir Alexander Nisbet, (Edinburgh 1722) A System of Heraldry, Vol. 1, p. 422.
[6] Reg. Melrose, pp. 534-535.
[7] Ex. Rolls. Vol. 4, p. 337.
[8] See inter alia, The Scottish Antiquary or Northern Notes and Queries, 1894, vol. 10, p. 55. That date of marriage is not correct and instead, evidence proves James Schaw to have been in possession of Sauchie at least a decade earlier in 1421.
[9] Inchcolm charters, no. 158.
[10] Reg. Dunfermline.
[11] Ex. Rolls. Vol. 9, p. 661.