Note 47 — Chapter III · BIRTH, PARENTAGE, AND EARLY YEARS OF WALLACE.

This Gilbert de Umfraville, according to Dugdale, was descended from Robert de Umfraville, Knight of Tours, otherwise called Robert with the Beard, who was a kinsman of William the Conqueror. Having obtained a grant of the Scottish as well as the English inheritance of Ingram de Baliol, Umfraville became Earl of Angus, and was constituted governor of the castles of Dundee and Forfar. Justly considering that he held these fortresses in charge from the Scottish Regency, he could not surrender them to England, unless Edward and the Scottish Regency joined in an obligation to indemnify him. His demand was complied with; on which Lord Hailes remarks, that “he was the only Scotsman who acted with integrity and spirit on this trial of national integrity and spirit.” But, unfortunately for even this solitary instance of integrity, Gilbert de Umfraville was an Englishman, and, as his conduct showed, a prudent, cautious, circumspect man of the world, who wished to preserve his possessions in both countries, by standing fair with both governments. His request could not be objected to by either of the parties. The expenses he laid out in maintaining the castle were afterwards allowed him, in consequence of a precept sent by Edward to the Bishops of St Andrews and Glasgow, and the other guardians of the kingdom. In 22 Edward I. (according to Dugdale) he was summoned to Portsmouth, with horse and arms, to attend Edward on his expedition to France; and in 23 Edward I. he was summoned to Parliament, but not by the title of Earl of Angus, till 25 Edward I., at which time, says the above authority, “our lawyers of England were somewhat startled, and refused, in their briefs and instruments, to acknowledge him Earl, by reason that Angus was not within the kingdom of England, until he had openly produced the King’s warrant.”