Part 62
[176] ‘Wha were lately pardonit by his majesty for slaughter of the Laird of Dawick’s son.’
[177] Mr C. Innes’s preface to _Black Book of Taymouth_, xxv.
[178] Anderson’s _Hist. of the Frasers_, p. 102.
[179] See onward, under May 1600.
[180] See onward, under August 1618.
[181] _Britain’s Distemper_, by Patrick Gordon, Spald. Club.
[182] Tytler’s _History_, quoting letters in the State-paper Office.
[183] This lady did not long enjoy the position of a duchess. She died on the 11th of May 1592, and was ‘buried in the Trinity College, in the east end thereof, very solemnly.’--_Jo. Hist._ When the Trinity College Church was taken down, that its site might form part of a railway station, the remains of a female, believed to be those of the royal foundress, Mary de Gueldres, were found in a side-aisle, and duly re-interred in the royal sepulchre at Holyrood. Afterwards, the remains of another female, who had apparently been buried under circumstances of distinction, were found in the east end of the church, and suspected by some to be the remains of the queen. The probability is, that these latter remains were those of the youthful Sophia Ruthven, Duchess of Lennox.
[184] May 19, 1591, the town-council of Aberdeen made arrangements for the support of one Robert Abell, who was ‘visited with leprosy, and thereby unable to win his living or frequent honest men’s society.’ He was placed in the house here described.--_Ab. C. R._ In 1612, the magistrates made the like provision for Agnes Jameson, spouse to Patrick Jack, ‘vexed and diseased with the sickness of leprosy,’ although she was not born and bred in the burgh.
[185] Edin. Council Record. See Professor Simpson’s curious Notices of Leprosy in Scotland, _Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal_, No. 149.
[186] Now La Mancha.
[187] It will be found that the body of the Bonny Earl remained above ground for six years, probably with a view to keeping up the popular indignation against his murderers. (See under February 16, 1597-8.)
[188] It is necessary to distinguish this from the murder of another Laird of Brackla in 1667, on which a ballad has been composed. See Jamieson’s _Northern Ballads_.
[189] In a memoir of the family of Grant, written by Mr James Chapman, minister of Cromdale, in 1729, and preserved in the Macfarlane Collections in the Advocates’ Library, there is a curious traditionary anecdote, which the writer connects with the murder of the Laird of Brackla, and yet dates in 1540. It is given in the following terms: ‘[James Laird of Grant, called _Shemus nan Creagh_, or James the Ravager] distinguished himself in assisting the Earl of Huntly, his cousin, against the insults of several enemies, and particularly in revenging the murder of Gordon Baron of Brackla, on Dee water-side, who was murdered by the countrymen there. The revenge went such a length, that above sixscore orphans were left in the desolate country on Deeside, nobody knowing who their parents were. These miserable orphans were, out of pity and commiseration, carried by the Earl of Huntly into his castle, where they were maintained and fed thus. A long trough of wood was made, wherein was put pottage or any other kind of food allowed them; and the young ones, sitting round about the trough, did eat their meat out of it as well as they could. The Laird of Grant visiting the earl, was, for diversion’s sake, brought to see the orphans slabbing at the trough; which comical sight so surprised him, that he proposed to carry one-half of them to Balcastle, alleging that, having a hand in destroying their parents, he was bound in justice to take a concern in their preservation and maintenance. Those of them that were brought to Castle-Grant are to this day called _Slioch Namor_--that is, the Posterity of the Trough.’ As _Shemus nan Creagh_ died in 1553, and the Grants were not engaged on the Earl of Huntly’s side on this occasion, but participated with their relatives and allies the Mackintoshes in suffering from his vengeance, it may be presumed that this barbarous tale refers to the date assigned for it by Chapman--namely, a period fully fifty years earlier than the murder of the Laird of Brackla. It has nevertheless been introduced by Sir Walter Scott in his _Tales of a Grandfather_, as applicable to the reign of James VI.; and the reader who turns it up there, may experience some amusement in contrasting its ample and picturesque details with the simple original anecdote as above narrated.
[190] The Earl of Angus in this anecdote was a Protestant, and succeeded by the earl noticed in the preceding article, who was of the ancient faith.
[191] Fairnyear, the last year: the phrase means, formerly a lord.
[192] Andrew Wauchope of Niddry, and John Hamilton, younger, of Samuelston.
[193] The king, probably from recollection of some incident of their early school-days, used to recognise the grave earl by the name of _Jock o’ Sklaitts_.
[194] The above anecdote was communicated to me by Sir Walter Scott in 1827, immediately after he had derived it from the Earl of Haddington (Earl Charles), to whom, I suppose, it had come through his predecessors, the descendants of Lord Mar’s brother-statesman, Thomas, first Earl of Haddington.
[195] _Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James VI._ Abbotsford Club Series. 1838. P. 16.
[196] Calderwood. _History of James VI._ Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_. Gregory’s _History of the Western Highlands and Isles_.
[197] This interlined in the manuscript in a different hand. Another report is, that Lord Maxwell was slain by Willie Johnston, nephew of the _Galliard_, mentioned under July 22, 1593.
[198] G. L. Meason’s preface to _Discoverie and Historie of the Gold Mynes of Scotland_. Bannatyne Club. 1825.
[199] _Archæologia Scotica_, iv. 404.
[200] Napier’s _Life of Napier of Merchiston_.
[201] Another writer represents the Master of Montrose as setting upon Sir James Sandilands.
[202] The writer of this curious story speaks of the form of the funeral as rare.
[203] Council Register in Maitland.
[204] Patrick Anderson’s History MS. He adds: ‘I was at the time by chance an eye-witness myself.’
[205] _Hist. K. Ja. 6._
[206] March 16, 1575-6, John Macmoran, messenger, reported to the Privy Council, that in January last, when using his office in execution of letters upon Patrick M‘Kie, burgess of Wigton, he had been set upon by Alexander M‘Kie of Myreton and his two brothers, who cruelly struck and chased him, giving him despiteful words, and threatening him with worse if he ever again came there in a professional capacity. The offenders, failing to appear on call to answer for this outrage, were put to the horn.--_P. C. R._
[207] See _ante_, p. 143.
[208] Lady Yester in her widowhood founded a church in Edinburgh, which has perpetuated her name. Her ladyship, after the above date, brought Lord Yester two sons, the elder of whom earned on the line of the family, and was the first Earl of Tweeddale.
[209] Patrick Anderson’s Hist. MS. Genealogy of the Hays of Tweeddale.
[210] Thrown down.
[211] For the ballad of _Kinmont Willie_, and many particulars of the affair, see _Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_.
[212] Napier’s _Life of Napier_, 4to, p. 247.
[213] Wood’s _Peerage_, quoting Urquhart.
[214] Cockalane--Fr. _coq-à-l’âne_, defined in the dictionary of the Academy, ‘Discours qui n’a point de suite, de liaison, de raison.’ Equivalent to the English phrase, a _cock-and-bull story_. The word occurs in at least one English author--Etheridge.
[215] Through his connection with the Lovat family, his wife being the mother of the present Lord Lovat, he was sheltered for some time in a small island in the lake of Bruiach, a few miles from Beaufort Castle.--_Anderson’s Hist. Acc. Fraser Family_, p. 90, note.
[216] _Spottiswoode_, iii. 40. Johnston’s Hist. Scot. MS. Scott’s _Staggering State of Scots Statesmen_.
[217] He was put to the horn, and an edict of Privy Council denounced those who should ‘reset’ him.
[218] Letter of Sir Thomas Hamilton, king’s advocate, Pitcairn, iii. 162.
[219] _History of the Kennedies_, 27.
[220] Letter above cited.
[221] The resemblance of this case to the phenomena of what is called electro-biology will be apparent.
[222] The original documents regarding these trials are given in full in the _Spalding Club Miscellany_, vol. i. Aberdeen. 1841.
[223] _William Shakspere, a Biography._ 1843.
[224] _Chronicle of the Cid_, translated by Robert Southey, pp. 75-83.
[225] Near Cramond Island.
[226] Fr. _Bon aller_, an entertainment at the commencement of a journey.
[227] _Genealogical Deduction of Kilravock Family_, written in 1683-4.
[228] Letter of Thomas Mallison, Aberdeen, June 28, 1597. _Spalding Club Misc._, ii. lx.
[229] _Mait. Club Misc._, i. 89.
[230] He held a privy-council on the 4th November, and occasionally during the month till the 29th, at Dumfries.
[231] Calderwood.
[232] ‘... that fearful eclipse of the sun which continued the space of two hours, so fearful that that Saturday is yet called by the people the BLACK SATURDAY; a prognostic, as the times give occasion to interpret, of that darkness which was to fall upon the kirk.’--_Scot’s Narration._
[233] The house of Bailie Macmoran, who was killed by a boy at the High School in 1595. This house still exists (see p. 263), and the room where the duke was banqueted is now used as the Mechanics’ Library.
[234] Fynes Moryson’s _Itinerary_, folio, 1617.
[235] For an anecdote of this lady, see under October 1590.
[236] Pitcairn’s _Crim. Trials_, iii. 116.
[237] Gordon’s _Hist. House of Sutherland_. Phillips’s _Geology_. _New Stat. Acc. Scot._ H. Miller’s _Testimony of the Rocks_, p. 496.
[238] _Calderwood_, iii. 76.
[239] Notes to James Melville’s _Diary_, Wodrow edition.
[240] See in _Deliciæ Literariæ_ (Edin. 1840), the title of the rare tract printed by Waldegrave in 1599, announcing this disputation.
[241] Gregory’s _History of the Western Highlands and Isles_.
[242] This James Learmont of Balcomie had, nearly twenty years before, fixed on the college-gate at St Andrews a placard offensive to Andrew Melville, who consequently broke out upon him as he sat in church, to this effect: ‘Thou Frenchiest, Italianest jolly gentleman, wha has defiled the bed of sae many married [men], and now boasts with thy bastinadoes to defile this kirk and put hands on His servants, thou sall never enjoy the fruits of marriage, by having lawful succession of thy body; and God shall baston thee in His righteous judgments!’ ‘This,’ says James Melville, ‘was remembered when the said James lived many years in marriage without child, and taken by the Highlandmen coming out of Lewis, was siccarly bastoned, and sae hardly used, that soon thereafter he died in Orkney.’
[243] _A. P. R._ Pit. Wood’s _Peerage_.
[244] _Gordon Papers_, _Spalding Club Misc._, iv. 123-319.
[245] _Stat. Acc. Scotland_, xi. 477.
[246] Published in the _Scots Magazine_, January 1807.
[247] Brazil fowls; that is, turkeys.
[248] Macfarlane’s _Genealogical Collections_, Adv. Lib.
[249] Butler’s _Lives of the Saints_.
[250] Extracts from Presbytery Book of Strathbogie (Spald. Club), xxiv.
[251] Father Blackhall’s _Narrative_.
[252] Shaw’s _History of the Province of Moray_, p. 326.
[253] Winzet, remarking how John Knox had put down festival-days as unsanctioned in Scripture, says: ‘I misknow not some of you to object the command, charging _sex days to labour, and the sevint to sanctify the Lord_; therefore I desire the doubtsome man to cause his doctor and prophet aforesaid [John Knox], with all the assistance of his best learned scholars, to answer in writ, what Scripture has he, or other authority, by [besides] the consent of the haly kirk universal, to sanctify the Sunday to be the sevint day. And gif he abolishes with us the Saturday, as ceremonial and not requirit in the law of the evangel, what has he by [besides] the consent of God’s kirk to sanctify ony day of the seven, and not to labour all the seven days.... Why abolishes he not the Sunday, as he does Yule, Pasch, and the rest, &c.?‘--_Tractates_, 1563, reprinted for Maitland Club, 1835.
[254] Privy Council Record.
[255] Extracts from Reg. Kirk-session of Rothiemay, Spal. Club.
[256] See extracts from their Register, Maitland Club Miscellany, i. 67.
[257] _Extracts from Register of General Kirk of Edinburgh_, same book, p. 111.
[258] Niel’s edition of Zachary Boyd’s poems (1855), p. xli.
[259] _Extracts from the Council Registers of Aberdeen_, p. 71.
[260] _Maitland Club Misc._, i. 135.
[261] _Ibid._ p. 431.
[262] ‘... in that church excommunication is so terrible, that few will have any manner of conversation with one excommunicated; and the generality of the people, when they see a man whom their ministers declare to be excluded from heaven, are easily induced to think him unworthy to live on earth.’--_Ed. Phillips’s Cont. of Baker’s Chronicle_, 1670, p. 617.
[263] Tubs.
[264] Boxes.
[265] Supposed to be a kind of sweetmeats.
[266] To hold stob and stake in a place, is an old periphrasis for making it one’s permanent residence.
[267] The flet was the inside of a house.
[268] A neighbouring hamlet.
[269] January 12, 1591-2, the king repossessed David Hamilton of Bothwell-haugh, Isobel Sinclair and Alison Sinclair, heretrices-portioners of the lands of Woodhouselee, of ‘their lands, houses, tacks, steadings, and possessions, wherefra they were dispossest upon occasion of the late troubles.’--_P. C. R._
[270] Miss Gordon having married Mr Byron without any ‘settlement,’ her property was seized by his creditors, and sold for £18,500, while she and her son, the future poet, were left to penury.
[271] The name has been changed to Formartin--a proceeding against which every person interested in the verity of history, not to speak of considerations of taste, must protest.
[272] Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, ii. 429. See also vol. iii. 409.
[273] See the ballad of Christie’s Will, with the notes, in the _Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_, iii. 151. This ballad was composed by the editor on the traditionary story, in which the Earl of Traquair is introduced as a litigant for whose benefit the capture of the judge was made, the object being to prevent an adverse judgment in the Court of Session.
[274] Alexander Gibson of Durie, commonly called Lord Durie, and author of a well-known work called _Durie’s Practicks_, died June 10, 1614. The story of his kidnapping was related a century after, as follows: ‘Some party in a considerable action before the Session, finding that the Lord Durie could not be persuaded to find his plea good, fell upon a stratagem to prevent the influence and weight which his lordship might have to his prejudice, by causing some strong masked men kidnap him, in the links of Leith, at his diversion on a Saturday afternoon, and transport him to some blind and obscure room in the country, where he was detained captive, without the benefit of daylight, a matter of three months (though otherwise civilly and well entertained); during which time his lady and children went in mourning for him as dead. But after the cause aforesaid was decided, the Lord Durie was carried back by incognitos, and dropt in the same place where he had been taken up.’--Forbes’s _Journal of the Session_, Edin. 1714.
[275] _Book of Bon Accord_ (Aberdeen, 1839), p. 246. Knight’s _William Shakspere, a Biography_, p. 443.
[276] John, fifth Earl of Cassillis, son of the lord who roasted Allan Stewart in Dunure Castle; see pp. 65-67.
[277] See under January 1, 1596-7.
[278] Such is the account of a partial contemporary. In the Privy Council Record, it is stated that the conflict was provoked by Bargeny, and that his party were fully armed for the purpose with muskets, hagbuts, and pistolets, while Cassillis’s attendants wore only their swords. Cassillis’s defence, on the ground of his having commissions giving him authority over his district, was sustained.
[279] Birrel, by an evident mistake, places this in 1601.
[280] The names of the party, as given in the Privy Council Record, are curious as a sample of Highland nomenclature of the day. These were Donald Glas M‘Rannald, and Ronald M’Rannald, brothers of the aforesaid Alexander; Allaster M‘Ean Vich Innes, John, Angus, Donald, and Ronald, his sons; Gorie M‘Allaster Vich Gorie, and Allaster his brother; John Dow M‘Connell Vich Rannald, Allan and Angus his brothers; Gillespich M‘Ean Vich Connell, William and Angus his brothers; William M‘Connell Vich Gorie, and Angus his brother; John M‘Ean Vich Finlay Roy, and Ewen M‘Finlay Roy his brother; John Dow Vich Connell Vich Finlay; John M‘Innes Vich Connachie, and Paul M‘Connachie Vich Innes his son; Farquhar Dow M‘Connell Vich Farquhar, Allaster Dow his brother; Gilliecallum M’Farquhar Vich Connell Vich Farquhar, son to the said Farquhar; Donald M‘Innes Vich Ean Dowie; Gillespich M‘Innes his brother, &c.
[281] Poniard swords.
[282] Nicolson and Burn’s _Hist. Westmoreland_, i. 595.
[283] See this singular document in Pitcairn’s _Crim. Trials_, iii. 622; also in _Maitland Club Misc._, i. p. 141, where a fac-simile of it is presented.
[284] Hist. Clan Mackenzie, MS. in possession of John W. Mackenzie, Esq.
[285] This Scottish _Philotus_ is to be distinguished from the _Philotas_ of Daniel, for which see Collier’s _Annals of the Stage_, iii. 350.
[286] _Riche his Farewell to Militaire Profession, &c._ Another of the tales in the same volume is dramatised by Shakspeare in _Twelfth Night_.
[287] See Mr J. W. Mackenzie’s edition of _Philotus_, presented to the Bannatyne Club in 1835.
[288] Calm, gratify.
[289] Apparel.
[290] Condition.
[291] Ere.
[292] Slippers.
[293] A quantity.
[294] Mouthfuls.
[295] Serve.
[296] Cauls.
[297] A warm at the fire.
[298] Custom.
[299] Jests.
[300] Mask.
[301] Above the rest.
[302] Necklace.
[303] Decorated with lace.
[304] Stockings.
[305] Throat.
[306] Heaps.
[307] _Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James VI._, p. 47.
[308] Spottiswoode.
[309] Grease.
[310] MS. Hist. of Scotland, quoted by Pitcairn.
[311] The tercel is the male hawk (_Falco peregrinus_), so called because one-third the size of the female.
[312] _Letters and Papers of the Reign of King James VI._, p. 76.
[313] Bankrupts.
[314] Maitland’s _History of Edinburgh_.
[315] _Acts of Sederunt_, p. 161.
[316] The Privy Council in the previous April had passed an act, ‘that the haill marquisses and earls of this kingdom sall leave off their former resolution anent the wearing of velvet robes in time of parliament,’ and ‘that they sall provide themselves with robes of red scarlet cloth again the next session, &c.’--_Maitland Club Misc._, i. 147.
[317] Letter of the three privy-councillors, in _Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James VI._, p. 84.
[318] Melville’s _Diary_, p. 648.
[319] These particulars are derived from a fragment of the deed entered into by the gentlemen for payment of the money.
[320] _Letters, &c., of the Reign of James VI._
[321] _Ibid._, p. 89.
[322] _Geneal. Deduction of Fam. of Rose of Kilravock_, Spald. Club, p. 249.
[323] Letter in James Melville’s _Diary_, Wodrow Club ed., p. 671.
[324] Melville’s _Diary_, p. 688.
[325] Pitcairn. _Lives of the Lyndsays._ _Lands of the Lyndsays._
[326] See depositions of witnesses, &c., in Pitcairn, iii. 47.
[327] 28th April 1608. ‘Forsameikle as the Lords of Secret Council are informit that there is ane horse-race appointit to be at Peblis the ... day of May nextocome, whereunto grit numbers of people of all qualities and ranks, intends to repair, betwixt whom there being quarrels, private grudges, and miscontentment, it is to be feirit that at their meeting upon fields, some troubles and inconvenients sall fall out amangs them, to the break of his Majesty’s peace and disquieting of the country without remeed be providit; Therefore the Lords of Secret Council has dischargit, and be the tenor hereof discharges, the said horse-race, and ordains that the same sall be nawise halden nor keepit this year; for whilk purpose ordains letters to be direct, to command, charge, and inhibit all and sundry his Majesty’s lieges and subjects by open proclamation at the mercat-cross of Peblis and other places needful, that nane of them presume nor tak upon them to convene and assemble themselves to the said race this present year, but to suffer that meeting and action to depart and cease, as they and ilk ane of them will answer upon the contrary at their heichest peril,’ &c.
[328] This was probably at the place called Silver Mills, on the Water of Leith; now involved in the suburbs of Edinburgh.
[329] Atkinson’s _Discoverie of Gold Mynes in Scotland_ (Bann. Club), 1825. _Chron. Kings of Scotland._
[330] Napier’s _Life of John Napier_.
[331] Literally, the separation; in larger sense, the restoration of order.
[332] The fishing of salmon in the river Dee on Sunday was a custom of some antiquity, as it had been expressly warranted by a bull of Pope Nicolas V. in 1451. The privilege was limited to the Sundays of those five months of the year in which salmon most abound; and the first salmon taken each Sunday was to belong to the parish church. The bull recites that both by the canon and the common law, the right of prosecuting the herring-fishing on Sunday was conceded to all the faithful.--_Reg. Epis. Aber._ (Spalding Club).
[333] _Earl of Haddington’s Notes, quoted by Pitcairn_, iii. 597. It may be worthy of remark, that no notice of such shocking transactions occurs in the Privy Council Record at this time.
[334] _Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James VI._
[335] _Letters and State Papers of the Reign of James VI._, p. 56.
[336] _Mait. Club Misc._, i. 158.
[337] See under June 1590.
[338] Osborne’s _Traditional Memoirs_--_Secret Hist. Court James I._ Vol. i., p. 219.
[339] Printed in full in Ritson’s _Country Chorister_.
[340] A large collection of documents illustrative of this case will be found in Pitcairn’s _Criminal Trials_, iii. 124-199. The story has been made the subject of a play, under the name of the _Ayrshire Tragedy_, by Sir Walter Scott.
[341] The superior men of a Highland clan were called the duniwassals.
[342] Hive.
[343] Notes to _Border Minstrelsy_, i. clxxvi.
[344] Melrose State Papers.
[345] _Spal. Club Misc._, ii. 396. For something more regarding Robin Abroch, see under October 26, 1624.
[346] Privy Council Record.
[347] Von Buch’s _Travels through Norway_.
[348] Denmylne MSS., apud Pitcairn, iii. 52.
[349] This narrative, as well as the letters of challenge, is printed entire in the _Guardian_, Nos. 129 and 133.
[350] In March 1615, James Stewart is once more, and very solemnly, condemned by the Privy Council to exile, in consequence of fresh offences of the same kind.
[351] From a paper in Balfour’s MSS., printed in _Bannatyne Miscellany_, vol. iii.
[352] Some Observations of Mr John Livingstone, MS. Adv. Lib. ‘It appears from the council registers of Aberdeen, that the corporation voluntarily gave a thousand merks for the support of M‘Birnie’s widow and children.’--_Notes to Coll. Hist. Aber. and Banff_, Spal. Club.
[353] _Sting_ is a Scotch word for a pole, and the phrase _sting and ling_ is believed to express simply the method of carrying practised by draymen.
[354] This unheard-of snow-fall was equally notable in the south. When the thaw came, it caused an unexampled flood in the Ouse of Yorkshire, which lasted ten days, carrying away a great number of bridges. ‘After this storm followed such fair and dry weather, that in April the ground was as dusty as in any time of summer. The drought continued till the 20th of August, and made such a scarcity of hay, beans, and barley, that the former was sold at York for 30s. and 40s. a wainload.’--_History of York_, 1785, i. 256.
[355] _Letters and Papers of the Reign of James VI._, pp. 243, 317. _Balfour’s Annals_, ii. 58.