Note 407 — Chapter VIII · THE FINÉ OR CLAN IN SCOTLAND.

The line of these earls is very incorrectly given by the peerage-writers. They give the two sisters an elder anonymous sister, whom they marry to Alan Durward, who is mentioned in the Chartulary of Arbroath (p. 76) as earl of Atholl in 1235; but as Thomas of Galloway died in 1231, leaving Isabella a widow, and her son succeeded in 1242, it is obvious that Alan held the earldom either as husband of the widow or guardian of the son. Then by misdating a charter by which John de Strathbolgie, earl of Atholl, and Ada, countess of Atholl, confirm the donation of the lands of Invervach made to the monks of Cupar by David de Hastings, earl of Atholl, father of Ada, in 1283 in place of 1254, which is the date given by Sir James Balfour, by whom alone a note of this charter has been preserved, they confound David de Strathbolgie, earl of Atholl, who died in a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1269, with his grandfather, David de Hastings, earl of Atholl, and his son John, earl of Atholl, with his grandfather, John earl of Atholl, the husband of Ada.