| David Olifard, godson and namesake of King David I, was serving in King Stephens army at the disasterous defeat of Matilda before Winchester, and thus was able to save his godfather from being taken prisoner. 'Shortly afterwards he appears at the Court of King David in Scotland'; he witnesses the royal grant of Lesmahago to the monks of Kelso in 1144. Later he is a frequen witness to royal and other Scottish charters, including at least twenty-five charters of Malcolm IV., and fort-three of William the Lion, in twelve of which he is styled Justiciarius; an important office of state of which he is the earliest known holder. He possessed the lands of Crailing and Smailholm in Roxburghshire, from each plough of which he granted a threave of wheat yearly to the house of the Holy Trinity of Soltre. To the Abbey of Dryburgh he gave first two oxgates in Smailholm, as appears from a Papal confirmation dated 24 November 1162. Afterwords this was augmented to a ploughgate with pasture for three hundred sheep; his charter to this effect is preserved, and was confirmed by the Pope 29 July 1164. He also gave to Jedburgh Abbey a tenth of the mill of Crailing, which gift was confirmed by William the Lion before 1170. He held lands in East Lothian, as in proved by his having quitclaimed Hertesheved and Spot to Melrose Abbey. He continues to appear in record until 1170; after that year he is not again mentioned, so is presumed to have then died. It is believed that David had 5 sons, David, William, Walter, Phillip and Fulco. A David Olifard is a witness to the grant by Malise, son of Earl Ferteth of Strathearn, to Lindores Abbey, of the lands of Rathengothen; which was confirmed by Earl Gilbert after 1210, and by Pope Innocent III. in 1215; it is thus chronologically possible that the witness may be David, son of Walter, son of David. Philip, who witnessed two charters of Malcolm IV., both granted late in his reign, may not imporbably have been David's eldest son, and predeceased his father. Fulco, a witness to two charters in the Register of Paisley, appears to have been an ecclesiastic; possibly the same person as Fulco the chaplain, who is named in a Coldingham charter in such a way as to suggest that he held the church of Smailholm. |
