Estate: Olivercastle

Olivercastle, Peeblesshire
c1312 - c1645

The barony of Oliver, in the upper valley of the Tweed, came to the Flemings in about 1312 through the marriage of Patrick Fleming of Biggar to Joan Fraser, heiress of the Frasers of Oliver Castle. It was the family’s main estate in Peeblesshire for more than three hundred years.

Acquisition

Oliver Castle was a stronghold of the Fraser family, probably acquired by Gilbert Fraser around 1215 and held by Sir Simon Fraser, the patriot executed by Edward I in 1306. In about 1312 Patrick Fleming, 7th of Biggar, married Simon’s daughter Joan Fraser and received the barony of Oliver through her.

Estates within the barony

The barony included Olivercastle itself, with Over Kingledoors (Chapel Kingledoors), Overmenzean, Glenrusco, Glenquotho, and Quarter and Chapelgill.

Mortgages and forfeiture

Sir Malcolm Fleming mortgaged Oliver Castle to Robert Dickson for one hundred pounds around 1413. Robert, 1st Lord Fleming, had sasine of it in 1445, and in 1470 he granted Olivercastle and other Peeblesshire lands to the Hays of Yester in exchange for their share of Biggar. The family nevertheless continued to hold the barony: in 1482 Robert resigned the messuage of Olivercastle to his grandson David, and the Lords Fleming had sasine of it again in 1525, 1536 and 1580.

In February 1512 John, 2nd Lord Fleming, forfeited Oliver Castle and half of Glenrusco to the king for alienating the greater part of the lands without royal consent, but his son Malcolm had sasine of Olivercastle in 1525.

Disposal

The barony was broken up in the seventeenth century. Kingledoors and half of Over Kingledoors were resigned to Alexander Tweedie on 31 July 1636, and in 1645 a bond of ten thousand merks was to be used to apprise Glenquotho and Quarter Chapel, which the 2nd Earl of Wigtown and his son had disponed irredeemably to Sir David Murray of Stanhope. No sale of Olivercastle itself is recorded in the family papers.