Abthane

But now a-days the English Speech getting the better of our Country Language, the Thanes of Counties are in many Places called Stewards ; and he which was antiently called Abthane, is now the Lord High Steward of Scotland ; though in some few Places the Name of Thane doth yet remain.

Crinan was the last Abthane of Scotland; for his son, Duncan the First, appointed Bancho thane of Lochaber, as his dapifer or senescallus.

A legendary tale resting solely on oral tradition, states, that a raven flew from the North, and, perching on the turrets of a tower seated on the Wear, received the embraces of a Saxon lady, whom her father, a powerful abthane, had there confined to protect her from the approaches of a Danish nobleman, by which may possibly be adumbrated the origin of the family springing from a mixture of Danish and Saxon blood.

Herchaughtrie was yn esteem amongste them take yee these Saxon Acheumentes. Heofmas un oecced-fet was ybore of Leof, an abthane of Somertonne.

Previous to the reign of Malcolm Canmore, in the eleventh century, the chief titles of distinction under the King in this country were those of Abthane and Thane. The Abthane of Scotland was invested with a jurisdiction over the whole kingdom; and the Thane possessed a similar power over a district.

He had, however, two daughters ; one named Beatrix, whom he gave in marriage to Crinus, a nobleman, thane of the western isles, and chief of the thanes, who was in that age called the abthane; the other, named Doaca, he married to the thane of Angus, whence was born Macbeth, or Macbed, of whom I shall speak afterwards.

Other early possessions probably included Ellom, Nigg, the kirkson of Arbuthnott, Inchbraoch and the Abthane of Kinghorn.

Robert’s heir, Sir Alexander Menzies, was granted the lands of Aberfeldy and Weem with patronage of the Church of Weem in c. 1266 and in 1312-14, the family’s loyalty to Robert Bruce against Edward I of England, was rewarded by grants of lands in the Highlands, Glendochart, Finlarig and Glenorchy and further lands in the Abthane of Dull, and, in the Lowlands Durisdeer in Nithsdale.