's
existence we have no definite record, and of him we know nothing more
than that he witnessed the document above referred to, and one other
about 1195, namely, a Charter of Strathyla, in which the words occur
"Willelmo filio Freskyn, Hugone filio Freskyn" quoted by Shaw, page
406, App. No. xxvii, in the edition of 1775. This Hugo thus seems to
have been uncle of, and not identical with Hugo de Moravia, grantee of
Sutherland, known as Hugo Freskyn.

William, son of Freskyn, held those lands in West Lothian and Moray
probably until near the end of the twelfth century; and this William,
son of Freskyn, had at least three sons,[9] (1) Hugo Freskyn, the
ancestor of the de Moravias, or Murrays, of Sutherland, (2) William of
Petty, and (3) Andrew, parson[10] of Duffus, who appears in a writ as
a son of Freskyn, and as a brother of Hugo Freskyn of Sutherland.[11]
Andrew was alive in 1190, and lived probably till 1221, and has been
taken to have been the same person as Andrew Bishop of Moray who built
Elgin Cathedral. More probably he was that Bishop's uncle, and refused
the bishopric of Ross. He witnessed the great Charter of Bishop
Bricius founding the Cathedral at Spynie between 1208 and 1215. (Reg.
Morav. c. 39).

William, son of Freskyn, probably had several other sons from one of
whom were descended the Earls of Atholl.[12]

William, son of William, and so grandson of Freskyn, with whom, as he
was not interested in Caithness or Sutherland, we have nothing to do,
frequently appears as witness to charters in and after 1195 along
with his elder brother Hugo, whom in one charter, William being the
younger, is reported to call "his lord and brother."[13] This William,
son of William son of Freskyn, was lord of Petty, near Fort George,
and of Bracholy, Boharm, and Artildol, and died before 1226, leaving
an eldest son Walter of Petty, a cousin of Sir Walter of Duffus, and
from Walter of Petty are descended the great family, notorious in
Orkney, of Bothwell, his great-great-grandson having been Sir Andrew
of Bothwell, Wardane of Scotland, who died in 1338. William of Petty,
to whom and whose descendants we now bid adieu, was probably sheriff
of Invernarrin or Invernairn in 1204,[14] and uncle of another William
who became first earl of Sutherland.

In Hugo, the elder son of William son of Freskyn, we are deeply
interested. For, if his father "William son of Freskyn" had no grant
of Sutherland, Hugo Freskyn certainly had not