case with Fergus's contemporary Freskin, a significant settler in Moray, who was styled de Moravia. One source that may possibly cast light on Fergus's familial origins is Roman de Fergus, a mediaeval Arthurian romance, mainly set in southern Scotland, which tells the tale of a knight who may represent Fergus himself. The name of the knight's father in this source is a form of the name borne by Fergus's neighbouring contemporary Somairle mac Gilla Brigte, Lord of Argyll, and could be evidence that Fergus's father bore the same name. On the other hand, instead of being evidence of any historical relationship, the names could have been employed by the romance merely because they were regarded as stereotypically Gallovidian. In any case, there is reason to suspect that the romance is a literary pastiche or parody of the compositions of Chrétien de Troyes; and besides the coincidence of names, the tale has little to commend it as an authoritative source for the historical Fergus. Despite the uncertainty surrounding his origins, it is possible that Fergus was of Norse-Gaelic and native Gallovidian ancestry. Traditionally, the Gallovidians appear to have looked towards the Isles instead of Scotland, and the core of his family's lands seems to have centred in valley of the river Dee and the coastal area around Whithorn, regions of substantial Scandinavian settlement. In any case, the fact that Fergus died as an old man in 1161 suggests that he was born before 1100. Early career Fergus first appears on record in about 1136×1141, when he and his son, Uhtred, witnessed the grant of the lands of Partick to the church of St Kentigern at Glasgow. The exact extent of the twelfth-century Lordship of Galloway is unclear. Surviving acta of Fergus and Uhtred reveal a concentration of endowments in central Galloway, between the rivers Urr and Fleet. Subsequent grants of lands by later descendants of Fergus in the Dee valley could represent the expansion of territory from this original core. There is evidence indicating that Fergus's domain extended into western Galloway as well. His descendants were certainly associated with the castle of Cruggleton and dealt with lands in the vicinity. In 1140, during the return journey of Máel Máedoc Ua Morgair, Archbishop of Armagh from Clairvaux to Ulster, the latter made landfall at Cruggleton, as evidenced by Vita Sancti Malachiae, composed by Bernard of Clairvaux. Although this source associates the castle