MEMORIALS OF ANGUS AND THE MEARNS by ANDREW JERVISE F.S.A.PAGES 111 - 113THE NAPIERS AND THE AGHLEKS OF AGHLEK.The Napiers and the Afflecks of Affleck - Affleck Castle.The Napiers make their first appearance in Scottish records in the year 1296, when John le Napier, of the county of Dumbarton, and another person of the name, from Peebles, together with ‘MATHEU le NAPIER de AGHELEK’, who is designed of the shire of Forfar, took the oaths of allegiance to King Edward I, while he sojourned at Berwick-upon-Tweed. It is from John of Dumbarton that the noble family of the name and title of Napier of Merchiston claims descent, but, beyond the facts above stated, nothing is known regarding the Forfarshire baron or his family.Aghelek, Affleck, or Auchenleck, as the name is variously written, is a property in the parish of Monikie, and soon after the appearance of this Matheu le Napier de Aghelek, a family assumed the surname; for, on 15th March 1306 ‘JOHN de AGHELEK’ did homage to King Edward for lands in the county of Forfar. Except for the occasional appearance of the Afflecks as witnesses to local charters, there is little trace of them, although it is said that they held the property until about the middle of the seventeenth century, and were vassals and hereditary armour-bearers to the Earls of Crawford. Several of the name were respectable burgesses in Dundee, and some of the old tombstones in the (Dundee) Howff bear their armorial bearings with quaint mottoes. Of these inscriptions, the following, from the tomb of Archibald Auchinleck and his wife, dated 1647, may be quoted -"Heir lyis entomb'd, who sprung of worthie race,
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