Freskin
would not have been asked to sign a document of such international
importance unless, like another of its signatories, Sir Reginald Chen
I (whose son of the same name, Reginald Chen II, married Freskin's
daughter, Mary of Duffus, later on) he had been one of the leading men
of his time in Scotland. We also find that his rights were saved in a
charter of 11th April 1260 and that on 13th October 1260 he was one of
the three vice-gerents of Alexander Comyn, Earl of Buchan, Justiciar
of Scotland, present in Court at Perth on that date.[26]
On the 16th March 1262-3 from a grant of two chaplains[27] for the
weal of the soul of the deceased Freskin of Moray, Lord of Duffus, we
know that he had died before that date, that is, probably before his
fortieth year. Freskin, then, died after 13th October 1260 and before
16th March 1262-3, and was buried in the chapel of St. Lawrence in the
Church of Duffus, which he had founded and endowed with lands at
Dawey in Strath Spey, and Duffus. His wife Johanna ("quondam sponsa"
"quondam Friskyni de Moravia") was certainly dead in May 1269 (Reg.
Morav., ch. 126, p. 139).
They left no male heir, but they left two daughters, Mary and
Christian, both minors at their father's death and probably too young
to have been married in August 1263, when, as we shall find, their
lands and their half share of the Caithness earldom sadly needed
defenders from Norse invaders.
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