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Hugh of Dalnottar, son of Simon son of Bertolf
(c1193 - after 1274)
Basic information about this person: \click here\
Hugh, son of Simon Fleming and grandson of Bertolf, was granted an estate at Dalnottar on the River Clyde in Dumbartonshire. He lived long enough to defend his title to it before the king.
Son of Simon son of Bertolf
Hugh was born around 1193, a son of Simon Fleming of Kennethmont. Like his father, he was known in the records by more than one name. He appears as Hugone filio Simonis, “Hugh son of Simon”, as Hugone Flamang and Hugone Flandrensis, “Hugh the Fleming”, and once as “Hugh son of Simon son of Bertolf”, which confirms his descent.
Servant of the Stewarts and Lennox
Between 1208 and 1241 Hugh witnessed a charter of Walter fitz Alan, the Steward, granting rights on the River Ayr and in the Forest of Ayr to Melrose Abbey. He was also closely connected with Maldoven, Earl of Lennox. He witnessed the earl’s gift of Drumdinanis, Kilbowie and Reinfode to Paisley Abbey, witnessed a charter of Fergus mac Conaing to the earl in 1233 or 1234, and on 25 April 1235 he pledged a formal agreement between the earl and Gilbert, son of Samuel Blackhall.
Hugh’s connections reached beyond the west. In March 1234 he witnessed a charter of Alan Durward to the hospital of Kincardine O’Neil in Aberdeenshire, and between 1235 and 1240 a charter of Morgan Macnab in Brechin.
Dalnottar and Blairmore
Between 1225 and 1235 Malcolm, son of the Earl of Lennox, granted Hugh the lands of Dalnottar and Blairmore on the north bank of the Clyde, near modern Clydebank. King Alexander II confirmed the grant on 15 June 1235. This gave the family a secure footing in Lennox. See Estate: Dalnottar.
Knight and juror
By the 1240s Hugh was a knight. In 1244 he witnessed a charter of William de Mortimer, and in 1244 or 1245 he was listed as a knight and juror in the dispute between Patrick, Earl of Dunbar, and Walter Comyn, Earl of Menteith. In May 1271, now an old man, he sat as a juror at an inquest held by Walter Stewart, Earl of Menteith, as Sheriff of Dunbarton, to establish the heir of Dugall, brother of Earl Maldoven.
Defending his title
Around 1274 the archdeacon of Dunblane summoned Hugh to appear before the king at Dumbarton to prove his right to Dalnottar. He was then about eighty years old. He evidently succeeded, because the family kept Dalnottar for almost another century. He also owned land at Kynmunchayr. Hugh died some time after 1274, and Dalnottar passed to his heirs.
Legacy
Hugh’s son Patrick Fleming continued the line that led to the Flemings of Biggar. Over a long life Hugh had moved from his father’s world of household service to that of a landed knight, and he left his descendants with a respected name in Lennox and an estate of their own.