Hugh Gifford

- 1366

• Name	Hugh Gifford
  Birth	of Yester, East Lothian, Scotland   [1, 2]
  Gender	Male
  Death	Between 1356 and 1366  [1]
  Person ID	I25770	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others
  Last Modified	24 Jun 2020

  
  

  Children	1. Joanna Gifford   d. Aft 1399
  Family ID	F15437	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Mar 2020

  
  

• Notes

  Also called Hugo, Hew. From Wikipedia (accessed 24 Jun 2020): Sir Hugo de Giffard was known as the 'Wizard of Yester', and was considered to be a powerful warlock and necromancer. It is in the undercroft of [Yester] castle that he was thought to practise his sorcery. 15th century chronicler Walter Bower mentions the large cavern in Yester Castle, thought locally to have been formed by magical artifice: "Hugo Giffard dominus de Zester moritur, cujus castrum, vel saltem caveam et dongionem, arte demoniacula antiquae relationes fuerunt fabricatas. Nam ibidem habetur mirabilis specus subterraneus opere mirifico constructus, magno terrarum spacio protelatus, quie communiter 'Bohall' appellatus est". (Scotichronicon, Liber X, cap. 21). Legend supposed that Hugo was able, via a pact with the Devil, to raise a magical army to his aid, and use them to carry out his will. It is this army of hobgoblins that was considered the builders of Yester Castle.

  
  

• Sources

  [S128] The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant ed. Vicary Gibbs, H. A. Doubleday, Duncan Warrand, Howard de Walden, Geoffrey H. White and R. S. Lea. 2nd edition. 14 volumes (1-13, but volume 12 spanned two books), London, The St. Catherine Press, 1910-1959. Volume 14, "Addenda & Corrigenda," ed. Peter W. Hammond, Gloucestershire, Sutton Publishing, 1998. [S800] The Scots Peerage, Founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, Containing an Historical and Genealogical Account of the Nobility of That Kingdom. Ed. James Balfour Paul. Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1904-1914.