Note 82 — IX. WILLIAM WALAYS, A.D. 1297, 1298.

That the name was, in his own day, William Walays, is a fact concerning which there is no room for doubt. The Scalachronica (recently printed by the Maitland Club of Glasgow), was written by one who personally knew the Insurgent leader, and he always writes the name Walays. Hemingford and Langtoft, two of the best English historians of that day, always write it Walays. In the “Wallace Documents,” printed by the Maitland Club, a Charter is given, granted by the Insurgent leader himself, and there the name stands Walays. A century later, Andrew Wyntoun, one of the earliest and best of the Scottish historians, writing about A.D. 1420, always speaks of Walays. Other writers, following the sound only, write of Walais, or Waleis. But when many other names suffered change—Botteville into Botfield, and De Moleyns into Mullins—Walays also was corrupted into “Wallace.” So entirely has this corruption rooted itself in our English literature, that we shall feel compelled to yield to it, and shall use, in the following pages, the customary name of “Wallace.”