Part 1

Transcriber’s Notes:

Italic text is marked _thus_.

The original accentuation, and spelling has been retained. Hyphenation has been made consistent as far as possible.

The index to volumes I. and II. has been copied from volume II. and reproduced at the end of volume I.

DOMESTIC ANNALS OF SCOTLAND.

DOMESTIC ANNALS OF SCOTLAND From the Reformation to the Revolution.

BY ROBERT CHAMBERS, F.R.S.E., F.S.A.Sc., &c.

SECOND EDITION.

VOLUME I.

[Illustration: Bannatyne House, Strathmore.]

W. & R. CHAMBERS, EDINBURGH AND LONDON.

MDCCCLIX.

Edinburgh: Printed by W. and R. Chambers.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

It has occurred to me that a chronicle of domestic matters in Scotland from the Reformation downwards--the period during which we see a progress towards the present state of things in our country--would be an interesting and instructive book. History has in a great measure confined itself to political transactions and personages, and usually says little of the people, their daily concerns, and the external accidents which immediately affect their comfort. This I have always thought was much to be regretted, and a general tendency to the same view has been manifested of late years. I have therefore resolved to make an effort, in regard to my own country, to detail her DOMESTIC ANNALS--the series of occurrences beneath the region of history, the effects of passion, superstition, and ignorance in the people, the extraordinary natural events which disturbed their tranquillity, the calamities which affected their wellbeing, the traits of false political economy by which that wellbeing was checked, and generally those things which enable us to see how our forefathers thought, felt, and suffered, and how, on the whole, ordinary life looked in their days.

Nor are these details, broken up and disjointed as they often are, without a useful bearing on certain generalisations of importance, or devoid of instruction for our own comparatively enlightened age. A good end is obviously served by enumerating, for example, all the famines and all the pestilences that have beset the country; for when this is done, it becomes evident that famine and pestilence have been connected in the way of cause and effect. For the astronomer, the meteorologist, and the naturalist, many of the accounts of comets, meteors, and extraordinary natural productions here given, must have some value.[1] To the political economist, it may be of service to see the accounts here drawn from contemporary records of the productiveness and failure of many seasons, and of the varying proportions of bad seasons to good throughout considerable spaces of time. As for the numberless narratives and anecdotes illustrative of the mistaken zeal, the irregular passions, the deplorable superstitions, and erroneous ideas and ways in general, of our ancestors, they furnish beyond doubt a rich pabulum for the student of human nature; nor may they be without some practical utility amongst us, since many of the same errors continue in a reduced style to exist, and it may help to extinguish them all the sooner, that we are enabled here to look upon them in their most exaggerated and startling form, and as essentially the products and accompaniments of ignorance and barbarism.

It will probably be matter of regret that this work consists of a series of articles generally brief and but little connected with each other, producing on the whole a desultory effect. Might not the materials have been fused into one continuous narration? I am very sensible how desirable this was for literary effect; but I am at the same time assured that, in such a mode of presenting the series of occurrences, there would have been a constant temptation to generalise on narrow and insufficient grounds--to make singular and exceptional incidents pass as characteristic beyond the just degree in which they really are so--namely, as matters just possible in the course of the national life of the period to which they refer. It seemed to me the most honest plan, to present them detachedly under their respective dates, thus allowing each to tell its own story, and have its own proper weight with the reader, and no more, in completing the general picture.

As one means of conveying ‘the body of each age, its form and pressure,’ the language of the original contemporary narrators is given, wherever it was sufficiently intelligible and concise. Thus each age in a manner tells its own story. It has not been deemed necessary, however, to retain antiquated modes of orthography, beyond what is required to indicate the old pronunciation, nor have I scrupled occasionally to omit useless clauses of sentences, when that seemed conducive to making the narration more readable. This procedure will not be quite approved of by the rigid antiquary; but it will be for the benefit of the bulk of ordinary readers.

In general, the events of political history are presented here in only a brief narrative, such as seemed necessary for connection. But I have introduced a few notices of these events where there was a contemporary narration either characteristic in its style, or involving particulars which might be deemed illustrative of the general feeling of the time.

EDINBURGH, _January 25, 1858_.

CONTENTS OF VOL I.

PAGE

INTRODUCTORY, 1

REIGN OF MARY: 1561-5, 7

REIGN OF MARY: 1565-7, 35

REGENCY OF MORAY: 1567-70, 43

REGENCIES OF LENNOX AND MAR: 1570-2, 61

REGENCY OF MORTON: 1572-8, 82

REIGN OF JAMES VI.: 1578-85, 126

REIGN OF JAMES VI.: 1585-90, 160

REIGN OF JAMES VI.: 1591-1603, 219

REIGN OF JAMES VI.: 1603-25, 379

GENERAL INDEX.

Illustrations.

VOL. I.

_Frontispiece Vignette._--BANNATYNE HOUSE, NEWTYLE--WHERE GEORGE BANNATYNE IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE WRITTEN HIS MANUSCRIPT.

PAGE

EDINBURGH CASTLE, _RESTORED_ AS IN 1573, XII

AN EDINBURGH HAMMERMAN, 1555, 10

QUEEN MARY’S HARP, 31

THE BRANKS, AN INSTRUMENT OF PUNISHMENT, 47

GEORGE BANNATYNE’S ARMS AND INITIALS, 58

THE MAIDEN, 144

THE DEVIL PREACHING TO THE WITCHES, 215

BAILIE MACMORAN’S HOUSE, 263

WITCH SEATED ON THE MOON, 378

SILVER HEART IN CULROSS ABBEY, 450

HOUSE OF ROBERT GOURLAY, A RICH EDINBURGH CITIZEN OF 1574, 554

INDEX

TO SUCH

BOOKS AND AUTHORITIES AS, FROM THEIR MORE FREQUENT OCCURRENCE, ARE QUOTED IN AN ABRIDGED FORM.

_D. O._--Diurnal of Remarkable Occurrents in Scotland, 1513-1575. (Maitland Club.) 4to. 1833

_Cal._--History of the Kirk of Scotland. By Mr David Calderwood. (Wodrow Society.) 8 vols. 1842

_Pit._--Criminal Trials in Scotland, from 1488 to 1624, with Historical Notes and Illustrations. By Robert Pitcairn, Esq. 3 vols. 4to. Edin. 1833

_Knox._--History of the Reformation in Scotland. By John Knox. From MS. Edited by David Laing. 2 vols. (Wodrow Society.) Edin. 1846

_C. F._--Chronicle of Fortingall [a composition of the sixteenth century, preserved in the charter-chest of the Marquis of Breadalbane, and printed in the same volume with the Black Book of Taymouth, Edinburgh, 4to. 1855]

_P. C. R._--Privy Council Record, MS. in General Register House, Edinburgh.

_Mar._--Annales of Scotland from the year 1513 to the year 1591. By George Marioreybanks, burges of Edinburghe. From MS. 8vo. 1814

_Bir._--Diary of Robert Birrel, burges of Edinburghe, from 1532 to 1605. Dalyell’s Fragments of Scottish History. From MS. 4to. Edin. 1798

_E. C. R._--Edinburgh Council Record, MS. in Council Chamber, Edinburgh.

_H. K. J._--Historie of King James the Sext. 4to. Edin. 1825

_C. C. R._--Canongate Council Record [extracts printed in Maitland Club Miscellany, vol. ii.]

_Ban._--Journal of the Transactions in Scotland, 1570, 1571, 1572, 1573. By Richard Bannatyne, Secretary to John Knox. From MS. 8vo. Edin. 1806

_Ken._--Historical Account of the Name of Kennedy. From MS. With Notes by Robert Pitcairn. 4to. 1830

_Ja. Mel._--Autobiography and Diary of Mr James Melville, 1556-1610. From MS. Edited by Robert Pitcairn. (Wodrow Society.) 8vo. 1842

_Bal._--Annales of Scotland, 1057-1603. By Sir James Balfour. From MS. 4 vols. 8vo. Edin. 1824

_Spot._--History of the Church of Scotland. By the Right Rev. John Spottiswoode, Archbishop of St Andrews. 3 vols. 8vo. 1847

_Howes._--Chronicle of England. By Edmond Howes. Fol. 1615

_H. of G._--History of the House of Douglas. By Mr David Hume of Godscroft. 2 vols. 1748

_Jo. R. B. Hist._--Historia Rerum Britannicarum, &c. Auctore Roberto Johnstono. Fol. Amstel. 1655

_R. G. K. E._--Register of the General Kirk of Edinburgh, 1574-1575. Maitland Club Miscellany, vol. i.

_B. U. K._--Booke of the Universall Kirk of Scotland. (Bannatyne Club.) 3 vols. 4to. Edin. 1839-40

_Chr. Aber._--Chronicle of Aberdeen, 1491-1595. (Spalding Club Miscellany.)

_Hist. Acc. Fam. Innes._--Historical Account of the Origine and Succession of the Family of Innes, &c. From orig. MS. Edin. 1820

_M. of S.--Mem. Som._--The Memorie of the Somervilles, &c. 2 vols. 8vo. 1815

_Moy._--Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland, 1577-1603. By David Moysie. From MS. (Maitland Club.) 4to. 1830

_Moy. R._--Idem, Ruddiman’s edition. 12mo. 1755

_Ab. C. R._--Extracts from the Council Register of the Burgh of Aberdeen, 1570-1625. (Spalding Club.) 1848

_Row._--Row’s History of the Kirk of Scotland. (Wodrow Society.) 1842

_Pa. And._--History of Scotland. By Patrick Anderson. MS. Advocates’ Library.

_M. of G._--Memorabilia of the City of Glasgow, selected from the Minute-books of the Burgh. Glasgow, printed for private circulation. 1835

_C. K. Sc._--Chronicle of the Kings of Scotland. From MS. (Maitland Club.) 1830

_Jo. Hist._--Johnston’s History of Scotland. MS. Advocates’ Library.

_Chron. Perth._--The Chronicle of Perth, &c., from 1210 to 1668. (Maitland Club.) 4to. Edin. 1831

_G. H. S._--Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland. By Sir Robert Gordon, Bart. Fol. Edin. 1813

_Stag. State._--The Staggering State of Scots Statesmen from 1550 to 1650. By Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet. From MS. 12mo. Edin. 1754

_S. A._--Acts of Parliament made by King James I., and his Royal Successors. 3 vols. 1682

Acts of the Parliament of Scotland. 11 vols. fol.

_P. K. S. R._--Perth Kirk-Session Records. Spottiswoode Club Miscellany.

_A. K. S. R._--Aberdeen Kirk-Session Records. (Spalding Club.) Aber. 1846

_A. P. R._--Aberdeen Presbytery Records. (Spalding Club.) Aber. 1846

_M. S. P._--State Papers, &c., of Thomas Earl of Melrose. (Abbotsford Club.) 2 vols. 4to. Edin. 1837

_An. Scot._--Analecta Scotica: Collections illustrative of the Civil, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of Scotland. Edited by James Maidment. 2 vols. Edin. 1834-38

_R. P. L._--Selections from the Registers of the Presbytery of Lanark, 1623-1709. 4to. Edin. 1839

_Foun. Hist. Ob._--Historical Observes, &c. By Sir John Lauder of Fountainhall. 4to. Edin. 1840

_Foun. Dec._--Fountainhall’s Decisions of the Court of Session. 2 vols. fol. Edin. 1759

_Fount._--Historical Notices of Scottish Affairs, from the MSS. of Sir John Lauder of Fountainhall. 2 vols. 4to. Edin. 1848

_W. A._--Analecta, or Materials for a History of Remarkable Providences, &c. By the Rev. Robert Wodrow. 4 vols. (Maitland Club.) Edin. 1842

_Stev. Hist. C. of Scot._--History of the Church of Scotland. By Andrew Stevenson, writer in Edinburgh. 2d ed. Edin. 1844

_B. A._--Book of Adjournal. MS. Advocates’ Library.

_Gillies._--Historical Collections relating to Remarkable Periods of the Success of the Gospel, &c. By John Gillies. 2 vols. Glas. 1754

_Spal._--Memorials of the Troubles in Scotland and England, A.D. 1624-A.D. 1645. By John Spalding. 2 vols. 4to. (Spalding Club.) Aber. 1850

_Ab. Re._--A Little yet True Rehearsal of Several Passages of Affairs that did occur from the year 1633 till this present year 1655. Collected by a friend of Dr Alexander’s at Aberdeen. Sir Lewis Stewart’s Collections. MS. Advocates’ Library.

_Pa. Gordon._--A Short Abridgment of Britanes Distemper, from the year of God 1639 to 1649. By Patrick Gordon of Ruthven. (Spalding Club.) 1844

_Carlyle._--Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches, with Elucidations by Thomas Carlyle. 2 vols. 1845

_Lam._--Diary of Mr John Lamont of Newton, 1649-1671. Edin. 1830

_C. P. H._--Collections by a Private Hand at Edinburgh, 1650-1661. Stevenson, Edin. 1832

_Nic._--Diary of Public Transactions and other Occurrences, chiefly in Scotland. By John Nicoll. 4to. Edin. 1836

_R. C. E._--Register of the Committee of Estates. MS. General Register House, Edinburgh.

_Spreull._--Some Remarkable Passages of the Lord’s Providence towards Mr John Spreull, Town-clerk of Glasgow, 1635-1664. Stevenson, Edin. 1832

_Law._--Memorials; or Memorable Things, &c., from 1638 to 1684. By the Rev. Robert Law. From MS. Edin. 1818

_Bail._--Letters and Journals of Robert Baillie, A.M., Principal of the University of Glasgow. From MS. 3 vols. Edin. 1841

_Kir._--Secret and True History of the Church of Scotland, from the Restoration to the year 1678. By the Rev. James Kirkton. 4to. Edin. 1817

_Pat. Walker._--Biographia Presbyteriana. [Lives of Alexander Peden, &c., by Patrick Walker.] 2 vols. Edin. 1827

[Illustration: Edinburgh Castle, _restored_ as in 1573.]

DOMESTIC ANNALS OF SCOTLAND.

INTRODUCTORY.

Our attention lights, a few years after the middle of the sixteenth century, on a little independent kingdom in the northern part of the British island--a tract of country now thought romantic and beautiful, then hard-favoured and sterile, chiefly mountainous, penetrated by deep inlets of the sea, and suffering under a climate not so objectionable on account of cold as humidity. It contains a scattered population of probably seven hundred thousand:--the Scots--thought to be a very ancient nation, descended from a daughter of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and living under a monarchy believed to have originated about the time that Alexander conquered India. A very poor, rude country it is, as it well might be in that age, and seeing that it lay so far to the north and so much out of the highway of civilisation. No well-formed roads in it--no posts for letters or for travelling. A printing-press in the head town, Edinburgh, but not another anywhere. A regular localised court of law had not yet existed in it thirty years. No stated means of education, excepting a few grammar-schools in the principal towns, and three small universities. Society consisted mainly of a large agricultural class, half enslaved to the lords of the soil: above all, obliged to follow them in war. Other industrial pursuits to be found only in the burghs, the chief of which were Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, Perth, Dundee, and Aberdeen.

In reality, though it was not known then, the bulk of the people of Scotland were a branch of the great Teutonic race which possesses Germany and some other countries in the north-west of Europe. Precisely the same people they were with the bulk of the English, and speaking essentially the same language, though for ages they had been almost incessantly at war with that richer and more advanced community. As England, however, was neighboured by Wales, with a Celtic people, so did Scotland contain in its northern and more mountainous districts a Celtic people also, rude, poor, proud, and of fiery temper, but brave and possessed of virtues of their own, somewhat like the Circassians of our own day. These Highland clansmen--whom the English of that time contemptuously called _Redshanks_, with reference to their naked hirsute limbs--were the relics of a greater nation, who once occupied all Scotland, and of whose blood some portion was mingled with that of the Scots of the Lowlands, producing a certain fervour of character--‘_perfervidum ingenium Scotorum_’--which is not found in purely Teutonic natures. The monarchy had originated with them early in the sixth century of the Christian era, and had gradually absorbed the rest of Scotland, even while its original subjects were hemmed more and more within the hilly north. But, by the marriages of female heirs, this thorn-encircled crown had come, in the fourteenth century, into a family of Norman-English extraction, bearing the name of Stuart.

The present monarch was ‘our Sovereign Lady Mary,’ a young and beautiful woman, married to Francis II. of France. She had been carried thither in a troublous time during her childhood, and in her absence, a regent’s sceptre was swayed by her mother, a princess of the House of Guise. Up to that time, Scotland, like most of the rest of Europe, was observant of the Catholic religion, and under vows of obedience to the pope of Rome. But the reforming ideas of Luther and Melancthon, of Zuinglius and Calvin, at length came to it, and surprising were the effects thereof. As by some magical evolution, the great mass of the people instantaneously threw off all regard to the authority of the pope, with all their old habits of worship, professing instead a reverence for the simple letter of Scripture, as interpreted to them by the reforming preachers. Indignant at having been so long blinded by the Catholic priesthood--whose sloth and luxury likewise disgusted them--they attacked the churches and monasteries, destroyed the altars and images--did not altogether spare even the buildings, alleging that rooks were best banished by pulling down their nests: in short, made a very complete practical reformation through all the more important provinces. This was done by the populace, with the countenance and help of a party of the nobility and gentry; and the regent, Mary de Guise, who was firm in the old faith, in vain strove to stem the torrent. Obtaining troops from France, she did indeed maintain for a time a resistance to the reforming lords and their adherents. But they, again, were supported by some troops from Elizabeth of England, whose interest it was to protestantise Scotland; and so the Reformation got the ascendency. Mary the Regent sunk into the grave, just about the time that her faith came to its final and decisive ruin within her daughter’s dominions.

This change may be considered as having been completed in August 1560, when an irregular parliament, or assembly of the Estates of the kingdom, abolished the jurisdiction of the pope, proscribed the mass under the severest penalties, and approved of a Confession of Faith resembling the articles which had been established in England by Edward VI. The chief feature of the new system was, that each parish should have its own pastor, elected by the people, or at least a reader to read the Scriptures and common prayers. While thus essentially presbyterian, there was a trace of episcopal arrangements in the appointment of ten _superintendents_ (one of whom, however, was a layman), whose duty it should be to go about and see that the ordinary clergy did their duty. The great bulk of the possessions and revenues of the old church fell into the hands of the nobles, or remained with nominal bishops, abbots, and other dignitaries, who continued formally to occupy their ancient places in parliament, while the presbyterian clergy were insufficient in number, and in general very poorly supported.

‘Lo here,’ then, ‘a nation born in one day; yea, moulded into one congregation, and sealed as a fountain with a solemn oath and covenant!’ So exclaims a clerical writer a hundred years later; and we, who live two hundred years still further onward, may well echo the words. But a little while ago, there were priests, with vestments of ancient and gorgeous form, saying mass in churches, which were the only elegant structures in the country. The name of the pope was a word to bow at. Confession was one of the duties of life. Barefooted friars wandered about in the enjoyment of universal reverence. Any gentleman going out with his sovereign on a military expedition, would have been thought liable to every evil under the sun, and altogether a scandalous person, if he did not beforehand obtain pardon for his sins from the Grayfriars, and leave in their hands his most valuable possessions, including the very titles of his estate, which he might hope to get back if he survived; but otherwise, he well knew all would go to the enriching of these same friars, who were under vows to live in perpetual poverty.[2] The king himself sought for his highest religious comfort in pilgrimising to St Duthac’s shrine in Ross-shire, or to the chapel of our Lady of Loretto, at Musselburgh. The bishop of Aberdeen felt a solacement in the hour of death, in the trust that his bowels would be buried, as he requested, in the Blackfriars Monastery in Edinburgh.[3] So lately as 1547, the Scotch, fighting with the English at Pinkie, called out reproachful names to them, on the score of their having deserted the ancient faith. But here is now Scotland also converted, and that as it were in a day, from all those old reverences and observances, and taken possession of by a totally new set of ideas. _The Bible in the vulgar tongue has been suddenly laid open to them._ Their minds, earnest and reflecting, though unenlightened, have been impressed beyond description by the tale of miraculous history which it unfolds, and the deeply touching scheme for effecting the salvation of man which the theologian constructs from it. They feel as if they had got hold of something of priceless value, and in comparison with which all the forms and rites of medieval Christianity are as dust and rubbish. The _Evangel_, the _True Religion_, as they earnestly called it, is henceforth all in all with this poor and homely, but resolute people. Nothing inconsistent therewith can be listened to for a moment. Scarcely can a dissentient be permitted to live in the country. The state, too, must maintain this system, and this system alone, or it is no state for them. Above all, the errors of Popery must be unsparingly put down. The mass is idolatry: God, in his Book, says that idolatry is a sin to be visited with the severest judgments; therefore, if you wish to avoid judgments, you must extinguish the mass. Even modified forms and rituals which have been preserved by English Protestantism, as calculated to raise or favour a spirit of devotion, and maintain a decency in worship, are here regarded as but the rags of Rome, and spurned with nearly the same vehemence as the mass itself. Scotland will have nothing but a preacher to expound, and say a prayer. That, with the Bible in the hands of the people, is enough for her. No hierarchy does she require to maintain order in the church. Let the ministers meet in local courts and in General Assembly, and settle everything by equal votes. Bishops and archbishops are a popish breed, who must, if possible, be kept at a distance.

Even one who may now take more charitable and lenient views can scarcely fail to sympathise with, yea, admire, this little out-of-the-way nation, in seeing it dictate and do thus against the might of an ancient institution of such imposing dimensions as the Romish Church. And to do it, too, in the teeth of their own ruling power, such as it was. And all so effectually, that from that hour to this, Rome, in all her back-surgings upon the ground she lost in the sixteenth century, was never able to put Scottish Protestantism once in the slightest danger. Undoubtedly, if there be merit in a faithful contending for what is felt to be all-important truth, it was a worthy thing, and one that shewed there was some good metal in the constitution of the Scottish mind. It could not surprise one that a people who acted thus, should also prove to be a valiant and constant people under physical difficulties; that they should make wonderful results out of a poor soil and climate; that they should do some considerable things in the science of thinking and in letters; and, above all, stand well to their own opinions and ways, and to the maintenance of their political liberties and national independence, frown, threaten, and drive at them who might.