A Highland family kept St Fillan's crozier for 500 years, took it to Canada, and sold it back to Scotland for $500

The Quigrich is the silver-gilt shrine of the crozier of St Fillan, an early Scottish saint. The Dewar family of Glendochart were its hereditary keepers. A keeper, Finlay Jore, is recorded in 1428. A royal letter of James III in 1487 says the crozier had been with the Dewars "since the time of King Robert the Bruce." The family believed their ancestor received it at Bannockburn^†. Keepers had duties to pursue stolen cattle, and the relic was used as a charm for curing illness in people and cattle. A priest told the antiquary Daniel Wilson that the family once sold it to the Macdonells of Glengarry and bought it back when their fortunes failed. The Dewars said it had only been pledged for a loan. After 1815 cattle prices collapsed. In 1818 the family emigrated to Canada and took the relic. In 1858 Alexander Dewar asked £500 Halifax currency, about £400 sterling, having refused £300 from Lord Elgin. Wilson kept trying. On 30 December 1876 Dewar, a farmer at Plympton, Ontario, signed it over for $700: $500 paid and $200 counted as his donation. The deed required the Society of Antiquaries to keep it in the national museum "for the use, benefit, and enjoyment of the Scottish nation." It is in the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.