Two important points urged in Mr Neilson's paper are the feudal and legal connection of these motes. He has given a list of mottes which are known to have been the site of the "chief messuages" of baronies in the 13th and 14th centuries, and has collected the names of a great number which were seats of justice, or places where "saisine" of a barony was taken, not because they were moot-hills, but because the administration of justice remained fixed in the ancient site of the baron's castle. "The doctrine of the chief messuage, which became of large importance in peerage law, made it at times of moment to have on distinct record the nomination of what the chief messuage was, often for the imperative function of taking _sasine_. In many instances the _caput baroniæ_, or the court or place for the ceremonial entry to possession, is the 'moit,' the 'mothill,' the 'auld castell,' the 'auld wark,' the 'castellsteid,' the 'auld castellsteid,' the 'courthill,' or in Latin _mons placiti_, _mons viridis_, or _mons castri_."[1012] In certain places where two mottes are to be found, he was able to prove that two baronies had once had their seats. Another point which Mr Neilson worked out is the relation of bordlands to mottes. Bordland or borland, though an English word, is not pre-Conquest; it refers to "that species of demesne which the lord reserves for the supply of his own table." It is constantly found in the near proximity of mottes.[1013] The following is a list of thirty-eight Anglo-Norman or Normanised adventurers settled in Scotland, on whose lands mottes are to be found. The list must be regarded as a tentative one, for had all the names given by Chalmers been included, it would have been more than doubled. But the difficulties of obtaining topographical information were so great that it has been judged expedient to give only the names of those families who are known to have held lands, and in most cases to have had their principal residences, in places where mottes are or formerly were existing.[1014] ANSTRUTHER.--William de Candela obtained the lands of Anstruther, in Fife, from David I. His descendants took the surname of Anstruther. The "Mothlaw" of Anstruther is mentioned in 1590.[1015] "At the W. end of the town there is a large mound, called the Chester Hill, in the middle of which is a fine well." (N. S. A., 1845.) The well is an absolute proof that this was the site of a castle. AVENEL.--Walter de Avenel held Abercorn Castle and estate, in Linlithgow, in the middle of the 12th century. The castle stood on a green mound (N. S. A.) which is clearly marked in the O.M.