Malcolm Wallas hir gat in mariage,
That Elrislé than had in heretage,
Auchinbothé, and other syndry place.—Book I. ver. 27.
It appears that the metre, corresponding with the modern pronunciation, requires that this word should have been accented as above.
Ellerslie, also written Elderslee, is about three miles to the south-west of Paisley, Renfrewshire. The old house, called by Crawfurd, “the castle,” is still habitable. Near it is a tree, which, according to the account I received on the spot, was planted by Wallace himself: but this, like most other traditions, assumes a very different aspect, according to Semple’s narration. “The large oak-tree,” he says, “called Wallace’s Tree, is still growing, standing alone in a little enclosure, a few yards south from the great road between Paisley and Kilbarchan, being on the east side of Elderslee rivulet, the manour of Elderslee being a few yards distant from the rivulet. They say that Sir William Wallace and 300 of his men hid themselves upon that tree among the branches (the tree being then in full blossom) from the English. The tree, indeed, is very large, and well spread in the branches, the trunk being about twelve feet in circumference.” Crawfurd’s Renfrewshire, p. 260.
About the year 1769, Ellerslie was sold to Alexander Speirs, Esq., who took his designation from it, by Archibald Campbell, Esq., W.S., who had married Helen Wallace, a lady lineally descended from a collateral branch of the family of Wallace.
Auchinbothé is in some old writings called Auchinbothie-Wallace, as distinguished from the lands of Auchinbothie-Blair. Thus, in an old Valuation Book, made A. 1654, in the time of Cromwell, we have the following account:—“The 5 mark (land) of Auchinbothie-Wallace subdivydit as sd is, Mastar [the proprietor]
| 33 lib. 6sh. 8d. Feuars 366 lib. 13sh. 4d. | 400 | 0 | 0 |
| The 5 mk land of Auchinbothie-Blair | 383 | 6 | 8” |
It is supposed that Auchinbothie-Blair belonged to Blair, the companion of Wallace, who was of the Blairs of that ilk in Renfrewshire. The lands of Thornley, in the same county, are said to be designed, in some old writs, the lands of Thornley-Blair, alias Thornley-Wallace; and it has been also supposed that these lands had been given by Wallace to his companion of this name. But the latter is undoubtedly a mistake; for in our records Thornylé or Thornley, as it is also written, appears as the property of the Wallaces till the time of Robert III., when it was given, by John Wallace of Craigie, to the Abbey of Paisley. Ind. Chart. 142, 80. V. also 97, 324.—131, 25.
The Valuation Book above quoted also mentions Wallace of Neilstonside, Wallace of Dungraine, Wallace of Bardraine, &c. I am informed that there is now no proprietor of this name in the county of Renfrew, excepting Wallace of Kelly, in the parish of Innerkip, whose ancestors resided in that of Neilston.