Stephen of Melginch, in his great need, has sold to Scone Abbey for the works on their church, the house which Gilchrist held with a full toft and with two acres in the villa of ‘Balursin’ (PER), that is, one acre which Gilchrist held and another adjacent to it on the west, for two marks that he has received from them, holding in perpetuity, rendering annually for all service and burden, one pound of cumin on the feast of St John the Baptist. The canons will also have free entry and exit and common pasture in the same villa.
Firm date
circa 1224 X circa 1245
Probable date
prob. × 1237
Dating Notes
Despite its placement in the ‘Reg. Alex. III’ section of the _Scone Liber_, this charter almost certainly dates from the reign of Alexander II. Stephen of Megginch’s only other appearance on record is as a witness to a charter of Earl Malcolm I of Fife (_Laing Chrs._, no. 6), which dates to 1224 × 25 May 1229. John ‘de Aya’, who witnesses _Scone Liber_, no. 116, is almost certainly the John de la Haye who was sheriff of Perth in the mid-1220s and sheriff of Fife in the late 1220s and early 1230s. John de la Haye appears in charters as late as 1245 (_Lind. Cart._, no. 55; _Camb. Reg._, no. 171). Probably before the following charter, of Duncan of Melginch