Sir David Oliphant in Roxburghshire and East Lothian, Justiciar of Lothian ¹

  General Notes:

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Sir David Olifard (c.1113/1117 \endash c. 1170) was the first recorded Justiciar (of the Lothians),[1][2] governing the southern half of Scotland south of the rivers Forth and Clyde (excluding Galloway).[3] Olifard was godson to King David I of Scotland,[2][4][5] whose life he saved at the Rout of Winchester in 1141.[6] Olifard is the first known chief of Clan Oliphant today.[5]


The Justiciar of Lothian (in Norman-Latin, Justiciarus Laudonie) was an important legal office in the High Medieval Kingdom of Scotland.

The Justiciars of Lothian were responsible for the administration of royal justice in the province of Lothian, a much larger area than the modern Lothian, covering Scotland south of the Forth and Clyde, outwith Galloway, which had its own Justiciar of Galloway and the lands north of the River Forth and River Clyde by the Justiciar of Scotia. The institution may date to the reign of King David I (died 1153), whose godson David Olifard was the first attested Justiciar. The Justiciars of Lothian, although not magnates of the stature of the typical Justiciar of Scotia, were significant landowners and not creatures of the kings.

Personal life
The Olifards held their lands in England from the Earls of Northampton and Huntingdon. In 1113, King David I of Scotland married Maud, Countess of Huntingdon, widow of Simon de St. Liz. Thus King David held the earldoms during the lifetime of his wife.[7] David Olifard was godson of his namesake, the current earl, King David I of Scotland. Olifard must therefore have been born after 1113 (and before 1117 \endash see below).

Olifard's wife is unknown but there is a clue: Olifard granted to the monks of Jedburgh the "tenths" of the mill of Crailing and Berengerias de Engein granted the same monks a mark of silver from the mill of Crailing. Both these grants were confirmed by David I.[8] Whether Berengerius was a father-in-law or brother-in-law to Olifard, we do not know. To have an interest in the mill of Crailing, which Olifard owned, coupled with the fact that Berengerius also made his donation to the same monks to whom Olifard made his donation, suggests that the two men were related. Members of the de Engain family held estates in Huntingdonshire and Northamptonshire.[9][10]

Olifard had four sons: Sir Walter Olifard, who became Justiciar of the Lothians; William, who was ancestor of the Oliphants in Perthshire; Philip and Fulco.