Sir David Olifard (c.1113/1117 – c. 1170) was the first recorded Justiciar (of the Lothians),[1][2] governing the southern half of Scotland south of the rivers Forth and Clyde (excluding Galloway).
[3] Olifard was godson to King David I of Scotland,[2][4][5] whose life he saved at the Rout of Winchester in 1141.
In 1113, King David I of Scotland married Maud, Countess of Huntingdon, widow of Simon de St. Liz.
[2][20] In 1116, Hugh Olifard of Orton (David's father) witnessed a transaction in the Abbot's court at Peterborough.
Oakington was considered a dependency of Lilford and held by David Olifard's brothers and then latterly by his own heirs.
This resulted in King Stephen confiscating the earldom in 1138 from Henry of Scotland and giving it to one of his supporters, Simon de Senlis II.
On seeing that his godfather was in danger of being captured, Olifard abandoned Stephen's army and rescued King David I of Scotland.
The date of Henry of Scotland's forfeiture of the Earldom of Huntingdon[6] is helpful, since Olifard would most likely have been granted the fiefdom of Sawtry once he had reached his majority.
For the next 26 years he features regularly as a witness in Royal charters in King Malcolm IV's reign but does not appear to be of outstanding importance before 1165.
From that year until 1170 Olifard features at the most eminent level in the charters of the kings (Malcolm and William I).
[28] It should also be noted that at the time of Sir David Olifard, Northumbria and Cumbria were also part of Southern Scotland.
The name Soltre or Soutra is similar to the name of Olifard's old estate of Sawtry or Saltreia in Huntingdon, so much so that historians have confused the two.
[15] By 1271, a dispute had arisen between the monks at the Hospital and the inhabitants of Crailing (lands which had been owned by Olifard and his descendants).