[1][2] Whether or not the endowment was made for this purpose, Holyrood Abbey established a daughter house there which is on record by the time of a grant by Lochlann, Lord of Galloway sometime between 1189 and 1193.
In order to help maintain the canons and prior of the monastery, in 1323 King Robert I of Scotland granted to Holyrood Abbey a tithe of the revenues from royal pleas taken from the area between the rivers Nith and Cree.
in money, "in meale, oats, bear - 90, 80 and 77 bushels respectively, and that the kirks thereof were Kirkmadyne with St. Mary's Isle called Galtway.
"[3] The succession of Lidderdale of St. Mary's Isle, as given, is from a genealogical deduction made by James Lorrimer, Lyon Clerk, on 30 January 1851, as corrected.
In 1786 he transferred management of his estates to his then eldest son, Basil William, The Lord Daer, who conducted his affairs with great success.
This against the financial indifference of his deceased father, John Lidderdale (1713-1777), he having been a wealthy man by reason of the £50,000 amassed trading in slaves and tobacco, had not sought to redeem the wadset, and so recover the Estate.
[14] The peninsula of St Mary's Isle on which the Priory stood lies in the estuary of the River Dee South of Kirkcudbright.
The site and buildings on St Mary's Isle form a delightful combination in a very beautiful setting; now occupied as the park, it being about three quarters of a mile from Kirkcudbright, and approached by an avenue possessed of no special attraction.
Retiring early from the Navy, having been Captain of The FLY 4, he succeeded his mother (Lady Isabella) in the large properties she had earlier inherited from her brother, DUNBAR JAMES DOUGLAS The 6th Earl of Selkirk in 1885.
[16] St Mary's Isle is noted in 'local histories' for the short visits of John Paul Jones and poet Robert Burns to the then Selkirk mansion house.
Robert Burns is said to have spoken the "Selkirk Grace" whilst visiting Lord Daer at St Mary's Isle.
[17] On 22 April 1778, John Paul Jones made a descent on St Mary's Isle, with the view of seizing The 4th Earl of Selkirk as a hostage during the war with America.