Lauder - Medieval History

Medieval History

Although Lauder sits in the valley of Leader Water, Watson notes that the names Lauder and Leader appear to be unconnected. In the earliest sources Lauder appears as Lauuedder and Louueder.

Below Lauder are the lands of Kedslie which were bounded on the west by a road called "Malcolm's rode," and it is thought this formed part of the Roman road known as Dere Street, which passed through Lauder. Hardie suggests that it had been reconditioned by Malcolm III for use in his almost constant warfare against England. It is the only old road in Scotland that is associated with the name of an individual person.

The ancient settlement was further up the hills on the edge of the Moor. Its name is unknown, but it was tiny. The New Statistical Account of Scotland (vol.II) says that the present town of Lauder existed as a kirk-town in the time of David I (1124–53), and Sir J.D.Marwick says, in his preface to the Records of Convention, that the present town of Lauder existed in the latter half of the twelfth century. The town was once surrounded by walls with gates commonly referred to as 'ports'. Two major mills, which dated from the 12th century, also served the town.

With the introduction of the feudal system to Scotland by David I, a provincial Lordship of Regality of Lauderdale, had been created for the King's favourite, Hugh de Morville (who founded Dryburgh Abbey), which covered an extensive amount of territory, although Thomson states that the family of de Lawedre were "there in the previous century." About 1170 Richard de Morville, Constable of Scotland, made a donation to the Brethren of the Hospital at Lauder, in 1245 a chapter of the clergy of East Lothian met at Lauder, and between 1248-52 Emericus is recorded as Rector of Lauder.

Joseph Bain states that the de Morville's held one-third of half Lauder and Lauderdale for one knight's service. It would appear that de Morville's superiority did not extend over the entire valley of Lauderdale which, by his own demarcation recorded in the Chronicle of Melrose, stopped at the Lauder burn south of the town. This appears to be confirmed by the fact that a charter mentions Hugo de Morville possessing half of the mill of Lauder being the mill lands and rights south of the Lauder Burn, the other half being in the possession of the Lauder family. De Morville's inheritance passed to Alan of Galloway and later, to his daughter Ellen who had married Roger de Quincy, 2nd Earl of Winchester. Their daughter Margaret (d.1280) married William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby and in 1290 their son "the late Sir William de Ferrers, Knt.," (d.1287) was on record as holding them.

An early member of the Lauder family, Sir Robert de Lawedre of The Bass (c1275 - September 1337) was Justiciar of Lothian as early as 1316. He received a charter dated 4 March 1316, from John Graham of Abercorn, of his lands of Dalcoif, parish of Merton, Berwickshire. The superiority of this property remained in that family for centuries. In 1683 Christina Home, the granddaughter of the last Robert Lauder of that Ilk (d. before July 1655) was retoured heir to it.

The same Robert de Lawedre, knt., was one of the witnesses to two charters of confirmation to Jedburgh Abbey on the 20th December 1316, signed at Berwick-upon-Tweed. James Young quotes a document written in French, and dated 4 September 1319, entitled: "Lettre d'attorne pur doner seysine," and is granted to "Robert de Lawedir Justice de Lounes, ....Donez a la langley en la terre de Meuros le quartior de Septembre en lan de grace MCCC et disneifme."

Above the burgh of Lauder, abutting Lauder Moor and the boundaries of Wedale and the lands of Ladypart, were the lands of Alanshaws, granted to the monks of Melrose by Alan of Galloway, the Constable of Scotland although by 1500 these too were already in the hands of the Lauders of that Ilk, probably by feu. The superiority of Ladypart remained in the hands of the Lauder of Bass family until the 17th century. The Exchequer Rolls record a reconfirmation of them to Robert Lauder of The Bass who died in 1576.

This family erected a Scottish tower house, "the beginning of authentic history as far as the town is concerned," around which the present town grew, and "Alan Lawedir of the Tower of Lawedir" is mentioned in 1445. The Registers of the Privy Council of Scotland refer to an inter-family litigation over the tower in 1598.

Lauder Tower stood in what in 1903 was known as Tower Yard, a garden area then bounded by the Free Kirk Manse and the County Police Station, close by the Easter Port. The road west from the town crossed the Midrow and passed Tower Yard, then passed by Lauder Mill. A continuation of the road went onwards to Chester Hill. It was not taken down until 1700. Interestingly, in Lauder & Lauderdale it is stated that in 1837 "the new United Presbyterian manse was built on a site which was purchased, for £115, from Baillie Lauder."

Notable buildings in the town today include the Tolbooth or Town Hall, which predates 1598 when records show it being burnt by a party of Homes and Cranstouns led by Lord Home, in a feud between them and the Lauder family who were at the time sitting on the bench as hereditary baillies.

The last of the ancient proprietors, Robert Lauder of that Ilk (d.c1655), bequeathed the tower house and other lands to his daughter Isobel, who had married Alexander Home of St.Leonards, in Lauderdale, both dead by November 1683, the major part of the inheritance sold. The old family is today represented by Sir Piers Dick-Lauder, 13th Baronet.