David Olifard, in Roxburghshire and East Lothian

Date and place of birth have also been (erroneously?) reported to be:

• circa 1138 in Crailing, Roxburghshire (now Scottish Borders), Scotland
• circa 1162 at Smailholm Tower in Kelso, Roxburghshire, Scotland

The progenitor of the Olifard family was "David Holyfard", godson of King David I of Scotland and in 1141 his protector; who was also in possession of Lilleford in Northamptonshire, showing the Northamptonshire family connection to Scotland.

David was a son of William Olifard, mentioned in the pipe rolls of Cambridgeshire (1158), Northamptonshire (1163) and Huntingdonshire (1168 and 1169). He saved his godfather from capture during the Battle of Winchester in 1141. David held the lands of Crailing and Smailholm, both in Roxburghshire, and served as the Justiciar of Lothian. He is not mentioned in records after 1170 and is supposed to have died shortly thereafter.

In 1141 he saved his godfather, King David I of Scotland, from capture at Empress Matilda's defeat at siege of Winchester, and soon thereafter he and several generations of his descendants were Justiciars of the Lothians.

David Olifard's son Sir Walter Olifard, the second Justiciar, in 1173 married Christian, the daughter of Ferchar, Earl of Strathearn; her dowry was the lands of Strageath.

This David allegedly begat other male issue, among whom might be Walter, Philip and Fulco. There appears to be no record of this David having begotten any female issue.

Date of death also been erroneously reported to be:1170.

sources

1. J.H. Round, Feudal England (London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1895), p. 223
2. The Scots Peerage, Founded on Wood's Edition of Sir Robert Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, Vol. VI, Ed. James Balfour Paul (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1909), p. 524535

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Oliphant

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Olifard