Whitslaid Tower

[1] It is today a ruin high above the eastern bank of the Leader Water, 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the burgh of Lauder, in the Scottish Borders.

It stands on an abrupt eminence, shaded with old ash trees, and behind it is a flat open space sufficient for a garden and the offices attached to the residence of a landowner in the ancient warlike times with which it is associated.

[2] There are Letters of Bailiary by Robert, Steward of Scotland (later Robert II King of Scots), Earl of Stratherne and baron of Renfrewe, with consent of John Steward, Earl of Carrick, his eldest son, constituting Alan de Lawedre, Crown tenant of Whytslade, their bailie of the lands and tenancies of Byrkynsyde, Ligeardwod [Legerwood], Morystoun [Morristoun], Whytslade and Auldynstoun, within the sheriffdom of Berwick-upon-Tweed, with the power to hold courts at any place in the lordship he pleases, to punish excesses, repledge men dwelling on their lands to their liberties etc., and to do any other thing pertaining to the office of bailie, dated 16 October 1369.

One of the witnesses was Sir John de Lyle [or d'Lisle], whose family held Stoneypath Tower, near Garvald but in the parish of Whittingehame.

Robert Lauder of Whitslaid appears as a witness in a Notarial Instrument of Sir Alexander Home of that Ilk, signed at Dryburgh on 21 June 1468.

A muster was called, at Jedburgh, of 'fencible persons' in certain southern counties for defence and preservation of the burgh and a general band was subsequently subscribed to by numerous lairds and others amongst whom was Gilbert Lauder of Whitslaid.

[10] In a Deed dated 24 June 1662, a later Gilbert Lauder of Whitslaid agreed to settle a debt of 400 merks due to James Wright, writer (solicitor) in Edinburgh.