De Soulis
This family originally came from France and came to Britain in 1066 with William of Normandy (William 1st of England). They were probably invited into Scotland, like many Norman families by David I. King David had been impressed by the Norman feudal system in England and offered estates to many Anglo-Normans in order to introduce this to Scotland. This became Scotland's first real form of Government.
There is no concrete evidence that this family held the Kilmarnock estate, but according to Timothy Pont the family owned the land after the Lockharts but before Balliol sometime in the 13th Century. They certainly owned huge swathes of land in the Borders and South of Scotland and had close family ties with some of the most powerful families in Scotland during the 13th and 14th centuries, namely the powerful Balliol and Comyn families.
Nicholas de Soules was probably responsible for the construction of Hermitage Castle in Liddesdale, sometime before 1240. William de Soules was made justiciar of Lothian c.1279-1292 while John de Soules was Sheriff of Berwick by 1289.
In May 1301, Sir John de Soules was the sole guardian of Scotland, having been nominated by the absent King, John Balliol. Balliol had been captured by the English during an uprising and was being held in Papal custody.
A new seal of Government was used during this time. On one side it had the name and arms of King John and on the other the name and arms of Sir John Soulis.
Soulis was a strong patriot and had the support of the powerful Comyn family. He was an active military leader against the English but showed the good sense to avoid major engagements with his enemy. He is mentioned as being leader along with John Comyn, Earl of Buchan of a large Scottish army lying at Loudoun around this time. It is also recorded that he sent envoys to the Pope with legal arguments against English claims to Scotland. In 1302 Soulis visited Paris as part of a strong Scottish delegation trying to stop the French making peace with England, this failed and the French settled their differences with Edward I, leaving Scotland isolated against the English threat.
In 1304 Edward I of England offered lenient terms to the Scottish Barons in order to quell the unrest in Scotland. Most of the Scottish nobles accepted these conditions in a wholesale submission led by John Comyn, but Sir John Soulis preferred to take permanent exile in France rather than submit to King Edward. When William Wallace was captured he is said to have had on his person, documents linking him in 'confederations' with unspecified Scottish nobles and this has been suggested as a possible reason for Soulis's reluctance to capitulate.
Sir John was a major figure in the Scottish Wars of Independence, disenchanted with the Scottish submission of 1304; he returned to Scotland and joined the new uprising in 1306 led by Robert the Bruce. He was present at the Battle of Bannockburn and along with his grandnephew William de Soules was one of the signatories on the Treaty of Arbroath.
However, four years after signing the treaty, William de Soules along with other four other Scottish nobles (Roger de Mowbray, David Brechin, Patrick Graham & Eustace Maxwell), was accused of treason. Known today as 'The Soulis Plot', it was alledged that these nobles had formed a conspiracy to kill Robert the Bruce and place William Soulis on the throne. Sir William was the son of Nicholas Soulis who had been one of the unsuccessful claimants to the Scottish throne (both William and John de Soules did eventually endorse the Bruce claim, unusual for staunch Balliol allies). His mother, Margaret Comyn, was the daughter of Alexander Comyn, one-time Earl of Buchan.
The conspirators (including Roger Mowbray who was dead on a stretcher) were brought before a full parliament at Scone. Soulis made a complete confession and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Historians are split over this, was this another attempt by the Balliol/Comyn faction to gain absolute power in Scotland or was it an attempt by Bruce to smash his old enemies. It certainly spelt the end for the Soulis family who were never to hold any sort of power in Scotland from then on.
Today there is a local legend that an English nobleman with the name of Lord Soulis was slain by one of the Boyd family in Kilmarnock in 1444. This episode cannot be found in any contemporary documents, and the story seems confused, Soulis was a Scottish family that largely died out in the 14th Century. The historian and mapmaker Timothy Pont mentions that the Soulis Cross marked the spot where Soulis was killed, but this must have happened 200 years before 1444. The family certainly gave their name to Soulis Street and the cross, which stood upon it. The cross (which stood eight or nine feet tall before 1825, when it was shortened and moved) is rudely finished and has no decoration, except a small iron cross fixed at the top. It now stands on display in the Dick Institute museum in the town.
