Sir William Wallace was descended from a respectable family in the west of Scotland. His father, who enjoyed the honour of knighthood, was Laird of Elderslie and Auchinbothie, and married the daughter of Sir Raynald, or, according to some, Sir Hugh Crawford, sheriff of Ayr. The exact period when the ancestors of Wallace first settled in this country, is a matter of uncertainty.[44] It is, however, very probable that they were originally from Normandy; and those who support this opinion, mention one Eimerus Galleius, as the immediate progenitor of the Scottish family of this name. This person appears as a witness to the charter of the Abbey of Kelso, founded by David I. about the year 1128, and is supposed to have been the father of Richard Wallace, one of the witnesses to the charter of the Abbey of Paisley, founded in 1160, by Walter, High Steward of Scotland. From the Steward he received a grant of a considerable portion of the district of Kyle, which he named Richardton or Ricardtown, after himself. This Ricard or Richard, who was the most powerful vassal of the Stewards in Kyle, granted to the monks of Melrose the lands of Barmon and Godeneth, with their pertinents; and this grant, as appears from the _Chart. of Melrose, No. 127., Caledonia, III. p. 488_, was confirmed by the second Walter the Steward. Richard was succeeded by his eldest son, also named Richard, who appears to have altered, or softened down the name into Walays. Respecting this last person, no particulars have been related, except that he was cotemporary with Alan the High Steward, who died about 1204. He was succeeded by his younger brother Henry Walays, who acquired some lands under the Steward in Renfrewshire, early in the 13th century; which lands descended by inheritance to Adam Walays, who is stated to have been living in the year 1259, and to have had two sons, Adam and Malcolm. Adam, being the eldest, succeeded to the family estate of Ricardtown. Malcolm, the father of our hero, received the lands of Elderslie, and married, as we have already stated, the daughter of the Sheriff of Ayr. Some writers assert this to have been his second marriage; and farther, that by his first he had two daughters, one of whom was married to Thomas Haliday or Halliday, who held lands under Bruce in Annandale; while others maintain that he had only two sons, Malcolm[45] and William, the former by the first marriage, and the latter by the daughter of Sir Hugh Crawford. It is, however, more than probable that these two sons were the issue of one marriage; as Wyntown, who mentions the circumstance of his having an elder brother, takes no notice of their being born of different mothers. His elder brother is, by some, supposed to have been killed along with his father, Sir Malcolm, in a skirmish with the English; but this statement seems at variance with Wyntown’s couplet-- “Hys eldare Brodyre the herytage Had, and joysyd in his dayis.” _Vol. ii. p. 91._