Sir William Fraser[16] in a note to the Sutherland Book—­a mere obiter dictum, however—­doubts Skene’s suggestions “that Johanna, Lady of Strathnaver, who married Freskin de Moravia, Lord of Duffus, about 1240, was the daughter of John Haraldson,” that is Earl John, and that “Magnus of Angus was the son of a sister of a former Earl of Caithness,” and states that “Skene’s arguments are plausible, but there is no very good evidence in support of them.”  Skene’s argument rests mainly on the names “Johanna” and “Magnus,” by itself an insecure foundation, and one which it is hoped to explain or remove, adopting the argument from “Magnus,” a name which constantly recurs, and rejecting the argument from “Johanna,” a name which never again appears, in this family.

A century or more after the death in 1231 of Earl John, we find Reginald Chen III, known as Morar na Shein or “Lord” Schen, in possession of a moiety of the Caithness earldom, without the title, and living in Latheron and Halkirk parishes, while the other moiety was held by the Caithness Earls of the line of Angus, and in 1340 we find Reginald More, Chamberlain of Scotland, ancestor of the Crichton or Sinclair Earls of Caithness, acquiring from Malise II, one of the Stratherne Earls of Caithness and a descendant of the line of Paul and also of the line of Erlend, part of south Caithness (including Berridale), which therefore Reginald Chen III did not then own or acquire, though he owned half Caithness.  But Reginald Chen III did acquire Berridale and other lands later in David II’s reign according to Origines Parochiales, II, p. 764.

Now it is known from other sources that Reginald Chen III was a grandson of Johanna of Strathnaver, the mysterious lady of unrecorded parentage already referred to, who owned land in “Strathnauir,” and who was dead in 1269, and who had married, at a date which we hope to fix, Freskin de Moravia, Lord of Duffus, then also dead, and had had by him two daughters, Mary and Christian, who were married respectively to Reginald Chen II and William de Federeth I (whose sons respectively were Reginald Chen III and William de Federeth II) and these ladies succeeded each to one fourth of Caithness; and a grant,[17] which was made in David II’s time by William de Federeth II in favour of Reginald Chen III, placed him in possession of William de Federeth II’s quarter of Caithness.  Reginald Chen III thus had all the half share of Caithness which was held by his grandmother, Johanna of Strathnaver.  We also know that by another grant in 1286[18] William de Federeth I had already conveyed to Reginald Chen II four davachs of land in Strathnaver and all his other lands there; and, besides these grants, we have authentic record in May 1269, which recites that Lady Johanna had before that date granted a considerable part of her lands in Strathnaver to the Bishop of Moray for the maintenance of two chaplains to minister in the Cathedral of Elgin.