Olifard

Hugo and William Olifard occur in Hampshire and Northamptonshire in 1130 (Rotul. Pip.) and 1165 (Liber Niger). William Olifard, of Huntingdonshire, in the time of Edward I. (Rot. Hundredorum.) No other mention of the name has come under my notice in England; but it was very early transplanted beyond the Tweed, and still flourishes in Perthshire under its Scottish pseudonym of Oliphant. The first of this family on record, David Olifard, "served in the army of King Stephen against the Empress Maud in 1141. A conspiracy was formed against her; she escaped from Winchester, attended by King David I. Surrounded by the enemy, David was rescued by Olifard, although in the adverse party, on account of the King having been his godfather. Olifard concealed him so dexterously as to elude a strict search, and conveyed him in safety to Scotland. David gave to the companion of his journey the lands of Crailing and Smallham in Roxburghshire; and he had the honour of being the first Justiciary of Scotland of whom any record appears. In this important character he acted during the year 1165, and continued to act for several years under William III."—Douglas' Peerage of Scotland. The first three, generations of his descendants succeeded him as Justiciaries of Lothian, and one of them, a Sir Walter Olifard who lies buried in the choir of Melrose Abbey, was among the guarantors of the treaty concluded in 1237 between Alexander II. and Henry III. His grandson Sir William was first called Olifant, and was in charge of the last Scottish castle that opened its gates to Edward I. The Constable of Stirling, Sir John de Soulis, then absent in France, had committed it to his keeping as a gallant and experienced soldier. But he had only a feeble garrison; and when he found himself beset by the great English host, he sent a message to the King, telling him that he could not surrender the fortress without forfeiting his honour as a knight, pledged by oath to Sir John de Soulis; but that, if a truce was accorded him, he would go over to France, obtain the required permission from his master, and return to deliver it up. This was in true accordance with the laws of chivalry; and Edward, at any other time, might have entertained the proposal; but now, exasperated and "full grim" at the obstinate resistance he had encountered, he would not listen to it for a moment. "Let him surrender the castle," he replied, "or hold it at his peril." Olifant could hope neither for support or relief; the only man in Scotland who had refused to acknowledge Edward's sovereignty—William Wallace—being a hunted outcast that

"In mores and mareis with robberie him fedis;"

and he stood single-handed against desperate odds. Yet he never hesitated or faltered in his duty. He strengthened his walls as best he might, brought to bear his engines of defence, and prepared to hold out to the last extremity. Edward battered the fortress with thirteen "great engynes of all the reame the best," and stripped the refectory of St. Andrews of its leaden roof to make his missiles. But for some time the lofty walls bore the brunt unscathed; the gallant little garrison sallied forth to fire the faggots heaped up to choke the castle fosse, and hurled stones and javelins from the ramparts with deadly effect upon the besiegers. The old King, riding round the lines, was struck with a javelin which lodged in the plates of his armour; and plucking it out with his own hand, shook it defiantly in the air, crying aloud that "he would hang the villain that had hit him." No youthful soldier exposed himself with greater "fire and temerity;" and once again he narrowly escaped with his life, when his horse, scared at the fall of a large stone, reared and fell back with him. Week after week, however, the siege went on with little or no result, till Edward, determined to bring it to a close, called together his best men, and wrote to desire the sheriffs of York, Lincoln, and London to furnish him with as many balistae, quarrells and bows and arrows as they could hastily collect; further ordering the Constable of the Tower to give up those he had in keeping. He had two monster machines, the "Ram" and the "Wolf," constructed to overtop the battlements and discharge vast stones and balls of lead upon the inner works; he cut off all communication from without, and set the roofs alight by flights of arrows tipped with Greek fire. At last, after three months, the work was accomplished; a yawning breach had opened in the crumbling walls; the outer ditch was filled up with stones and faggots, and the scaling ladders placed for a general assault. The heroic garrison could offer no further resistance. All that was left of it consisted of a few score of famine-stricken men, mounting guard over heaps of ruin and rubbish, and reduced to the direst depths of distress. They offered to capitulate, and asked for terms; but Edward would accept nothing short of an unconditional surrender. Nor did he spare the men who had fought so well a single humiliation in the painful pageant of feudal submission that was to follow. Sir William Olifant, with twenty-five knights and gentlemen that had been his companions-at-arms, appeared before the King, as he sat in state surrounded by his nobles, in the piteous guise of penitents, bare-headed, bare-footed, stripped to their shirts, with halters round their necks, and falling on their knees at his foot-stool, with clasped hands implored his clemency. Then, and then only, did Edward vouchsafe to pronounce them exempted from further ignominy, and give out the order, "Let them not be chained." But Olifant, as the leader, was sent to the Tower, and retained in captivity for four years.

This brave man's son married a daughter of Robert Bruce—Elizabeth, the youngest of them; and her brother David II., in 1364, erected the lands of Gask—to this day the property of the Oliphants—into a free barony. A few more descents brings us to Sir Laurence, of Aberdalgy, the first Lord Oliphant, created probably by James II. in 1458, but certainly prior to 1467, when he sat as a peer in the Scottish parliament. There were in all eleven barons of the name, though the direct line closed with the fifth Lord, who dissipated the greatest part of his patrimony, early in the 17th century. He had an only daughter, Anne, to whom he conceived the peerage must descend; but, wishing it to be held by the heir-male, Patrick Oliphant, he resigned his honours and estates in favour of the latter. This settlement was not, however, ratified by the Crown, and Anne Oliphant asserted her claim before the Court of Session. Charles I. was present in court when the cause was decided in 1633, and it was ruled that Lord Oliphant's deed barred his daughter's succession, but could not dispose of the peerage, to which, again, Anne Oliphant had no right. "Both the heir-male and heir-female were excluded by this decision; and the dignity declared to be at the King's disposal, who determined that the heir-male should have the title of Lord Oliphant, and that Sir James Douglas, husband of Anne Oliphant, should be called Lord Mordingtoun, with the precedency of Lord Oliphant."—Ibid. The title thus conferred on Patrick continued to be borne by his descendants till 1751, when William, eleventh Lord, died s. p., acknowledging as his heir Laurence Oliphant of Gask. But he, having been engaged in the Jacobite rising of 1745, was attainted, and did not assume the title. "No person has voted as Lord Oliphant at elections of representative peers since 1750. John Oliphant of Bachilton was styled Lord Oliphant: he died in 1781, leaving a posthumous daughter."—Ibid. Two Perthshire families, the Oliphants of Gask and Oliphants of Condie, still carry on the ancient name.

-- Cleveland