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The great historic families of Scotland

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THE GREAT HISTORIC FAMILIES
OF SCOTLAND.

VOL. II.

THE GREAT

HISTORIC FAMILIES

OF

SCOTLAND

BY

JAMES TAYLOR, M.A., D.D., F.S.A.

" Fortes creantur fortibus, et bonis.
Doclrina sed vim promovit insitam,
Rectique cultus pectora roborant ;
Utcunque defecere mores,
Indecorant bene nata culpae."

— Hor. B. iv. Ode 4.
" 'Tis of the brave and good alone

That good and brave men are the seed ;
Yet training quickens power unborn,

And culture nerves the soul for fame ;
But he must live a life of scorn

Who bears a noble name,
Yet blurs it with the soil of infamy and shame."

— Sir Theodore Martin.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.

LONDON
J. S. VIRTUE & CO., Limited, 26, IVY LANE

PATERNOSTER ROW
1887

OOKU'I- I I,
UNIVl U!.;l'l Y
I l,M(AUY-

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

PAGE
I

THE MAXWELLS

THE JOHNSTONES OF ANNANDALE 54

THE STEWARTS OF TRAQUAIR 65

THE DRUMMONDS 86

THE STRATHALLAN DRUMMONDS 99

THE ERSKINES

THE ERSKINES OF BUCHAN AND CARDROSS

THE ERSKINES OF KELLIE

THE GRAHAMS

THOMAS GRAHAM, LORD LYNEDOCH

THE GRAHAMS OF ESK, NETHERBY, AND NORTON-CONYERS

THE SCOTTS OF BUCCLEUCH

THE SCOTTS OF HARDEN

THE HEPBURNS

THE ERASERS OF LOVAT 269

THE ERASERS OF PHILORTH AND SALTOUN 289

THE GORDONS 2^2

105
118

139
141
169
182
188

233

247

IV Contents.

PAGE

THE GORDONS OF METHLIC AND HADDO 346

THE GORDONS OF KENMURE 363

THE GORDONS OF EARLSTON, GIGHT, Etc 366

THE HAYS OF ERROL 370

THE HAYS OF TWEEDDALE 379

THE HAYS OF KINNOUL 405

THE MACLELLANS OF KIRKCUDBRIGHT 409

THE GREAT
HISTORIC FAMILIES OF SCOTLAND.

THE MAXWELLS.

|HE founder of the Maxwell family is said to have been a
certain Maccus, the son of Undwin, a Saxon noble, who
at the Norman Conquest took refuge in Scotland. He
was a distinguished person in the reigns of Alexander L
and David L, and received from the latter a grant of fertile lands on
the banks of the Tweed, near Kelso, which from him received the
appellation of Maccuswell, and, abbreviated into Maxwell, became
the designation of his descendants. He witnessed an inquest which
David ordered to be made about the year 1116. A Herbert de
Maccuswel, who died in 1143, made a grant of the Church of
Maccuswel to the monastery of Kelso. A Sir John de Maccuswel
was Sheriff of Roxburgh and Teviotdale in 1207, and held the
office of Great Chamberlain from 1231 to 1233. His son, Aymer
de Maxwell, was Sheriff of Dumfriesshire and Chamberlain of
Scotland. He obtained also the office of Justiciary of Galloway.
By his marriage with the daughter and heiress of Roland de
Mearns, he obtained the land and baronies of Mearns and Nether-
Pollok in Renfrewshire, and Dryps and Calderwood in Lanarkshire.
His second son, John, was the founder of the Nether - Pollok
branch of the family, on whom a baronetcy was conferred m
1682. Throughout the perilous and trying times of the War of
Independence, the Maxwells, like many other Scottish nobles of
the Saxon and Anglo-Norman race, repeatedly changed sides Tn

VOL. II. ^

In

2 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

the year 1300, Sir Herbert Maxwell, grandson of Sir John, held
the strong castle of Carlaverock for the patriotic cause, and was
besieged by a powerful English army under Edward I., accompanied
by his son, afterwards Edward 11. , then a youth of seventeen years.
Eighty-seven of the most illustrious barons of England were in this
host, including knights of Bretagne and Lorraine. ' Carlaverock was
so strong a castle,' says a contemporary chronicler, ' that it did not
fear a siege ; therefore the King came himself because it would not
consent to surrender. But it was always furnished for its defence
whenever it was required with men, engines, and provisions. Its shape
was like that of a shield, for it had only three sides all round, with a
tower in each angle, but one of them was a double one, so high, so
long, and so large, that under it was the gate, with a drawbridge,
well-made and strong, and a sufficiency of other defences. It had
good walls, and good ditches filled to the edge with water ; and I
believe there never was seen a castle so beautifully situated, for at
once could be seen the Irish Sea towards the west, and to the north
a fine country, surrounded by an arm of the sea, so that no creature
born could approach it on two sides without putting himself in
danger of the sea. Towards the south it was not easy, because there
were numerous dangerous defiles of wood and marshes, and ditches
where the sea is on each side of it, and where the river reaches it ;
and therefore it was necessary for the host to approach towards the
east, where the hill slopes.'

The Maxwells, under their gallant chief, made a vigorous defence,
showering upon their assailants such ' huge stones, quarrels, and
arrows, and with wounds and bruises they were so hurt and
exhausted that it was with very great difficulty they were able to
retire.' But though the operations of the siege proceeded slowly,
the besieged were at length compelled to surrender, when it was
found that the garrison which had thus defied the whole English army
amounted to only sixty men, ' who were beheld,' says the chronicler,
' with much astonishment.' Possession of the castle was subsequently
restored to Sir Eustace Maxwell, Sir Herbert's son, who at first
embraced the cause of John Baliol, and in 13 12 received from
Edward II. an allowance of twenty pounds for the more secure
keeping of the fortress. He afterwards, however, gave in his adhe-
rence to Robert Bruce, and his castle in consequence underwent
a second siege by the English, in which they were unsuccess-
ful. But fearing that this important stronghold might ultimately

MAXWELLS OF NITHSDALE.

The Maxwells. 3

fall into the hands of the enemy, and enable them to make good
their hold on the district, Sir Eustace dismantled the fortress — a
service and sacrifice for which he was liberally rewarded by Robert
Bruce.

Though the chiefs of the Maxwells were by no means consistent
in their course, or steady in their allegiance during the reign of
David IL, they contrived in the end to be on the winning side, and
honours, offices, and estates continued to accumulate in the family.
They were Wardens of the West Marches, Stewards of Kirkcud-
bright, Stewards of Annandale, ambassadors to England, and
Provosts of Edinburgh. They were created Lords of Parliament,
with the titles of Baron Maxwell, Baron Herries, Baron Eskdale,
and Baron Carlyle, Earl of Morton, and Earl of Nithsdale. They
intermarried with the Stewarts, Douglases, Setons, Crichtons, Hamil-
tons, Herrieses, and other powerful families, and spread out their
branches on all sides. If the Maxwells had succeeded, like the
heads of the great houses of Hamilton, Douglas, and Scott, in
retaining possession of the estates which belonged to them in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, they would have been among
the three or four most extensive landowners in Scotland at the
present time. Sir Herbert Maxwell, of Carlaverock, was
knighted at the coronation of James I., March i6th, 1441, and
some years afterwards he was created a Lord of Parliament, on the
forfeiture of the Douglases in 1455. Robert, the second Lord
Maxwell, obtained a grant of Eskdale, which remained for nearly
two centuries in the possession of the family, but is now the
property of the Duke of Buccleuch. John, fourth Lord Maxwell,
fell at Flodden, along with three of his brothers. Robert, his
eldest son and successor, was one of the most powerful nobles in
the kingdom, and took a prominent part in public affairs during the
reign of James V. and the Regency of Arran. He was appointed
Warden of the Western Marches, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and
a member of the Secret Council, when King James was declared of
age to assume the government of the realm. He accompanied
that monarch in his celebrated raid to the Borders which proved
fatal to Johnnie Armstrong and a number of other Border reivers.
According to the tradition of the district, this catastrophe was mainly
due to the treachery of Lord Maxwell, who seized the Armstrongs
on their journey from Eskdale to pay their homage to the King,
and pretended to James that these stalwart freebooters had no inten-

4 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

tion of coming voluntarily into his presence, but had been forcibly
brought to him for the purpose of receiving the punishment which
they deserved for their offences. This allegation receives some
corroboration from the fact that Maxwell obtained from the King
a gift of the forfeited lands of the Armstrongs, which are declared
in the charter to have been bestowed upon him for his services
in bringing John Armstrong to justice. If so, the curse which
accompanies ill-gotten gear seems to have rested on the gift.

Lord Maxwell appears to have stood high in the esteem and con-
fidence of King James. On his Majesty's escape, in 1528, from the
thraldom in which he was held by the Douglases, Maxwell was
immediately summoned to his Council, and received a grant of
the lordships of Crawford-Douglas, and Drumsiar, a portion of the
forfeited estates of the Earl of Angus. In 1532 he was created
an Extraordinary Lord of Session; in 1536 he was appointed one of
the members of the Council of Regency, during the absence of the
King in France; and in the following year he was one of the
ambassadors sent to the French Court to negotiate the marriage
of James to Mary of Guise, whom he espoused as proxy for the
King.

Lord Maxwell was taken prisoner at the disgraceful rout of Solway
Moss, in 1542. He was on foot, endeavouring to restore some degree
of order in the confused and panic-stricken ranks of the Scottish forces,
and was urged to mount his horse and fly. He replied, ' Nay, I will
rather abide here the chance that it shall please God to send me, than
go home and be hanged.' He received his liberty in 1543, along
with the other nobles, on subscribing a bond to acknowledge Henry
as lord superior of the kingdom of Scotland, to do their utmost to put
the government of the country and its fortresses into the hands of
the English King, and to have the infant princess delivered to him
and brought up in England, with the intention of ultimately marry-
ing her to his son Prince Edward. They were also pledged to return
to their captivity in England if they failed to carry this project into
effect. Lord Maxwell was the only one of the whole number who
was faithful to his pledge, and was sent to the Tower by King
Henry in return for his honourable conduct. The Master of Max-
well, the Earl's eldest son, also fell into the hands of the English in
1545, and every effort was made to induce them to agree to give
up all their strongholds to the English King. Maxwell's offer to
prove himself a true Englishman by serving under Hertford against

The Maxwells. 5

Scotland was not satisfactory to Henry, and he at last succeeded
in extorting from the Baron the strong castle of Carlaverock as
the price of his liberty, ' quhilk was a great discomfort to the
countrie.' The Regent Arran, however, succeeded in recovering
this important fortress, and in capturing the other two castles,
Lochmaben and Thrieve, belonging to Maxwell, whom he put in
prison at Dumfries. After the murder of Cardinal Beaton, Maxwell
was set at liberty, and having made a public and solemn protestation
that it was from ' fear and danger ' of his life that he had given up
Carlaverock to the English, his castle of Lochmaben was restored
to him, and he was appointed Warden of the West Marches.

It appears that during his captivity in England, Lord Maxwell
had become favourable to the doctrines of the Reformed Church,
though there is no evidence that he had joined its communion. It
was he who introduced into the first Parliament of Queen Mary —
1542-43 — a Bill to secure the people liberty to possess and to read
the sacred Scriptures in the vernacular tongue, but under the
restriction that ' na man despute or hold opinions under the pains
contenit in the Acts of Parliament.' The measure was approved
by the Regent Arran, and passed into a law. ' So,' says John
Knox, ' by Act of Parliament it was maid free to all men and
women to raid the Scriptures in their awen toung, or in the English
toung : and so was all actes maid on the contrair abolished. . . Then
mycht have been seen the Byble lying almaist upoun evrie gentle-
manis table. The New Testament was borne about in many manis
handes. We grant that some (alace !) prophaned that blessed wourd;
for some that, perchance, had never it maist common in thare hand ;
thei would chope thare familiares on the cheak with it, and say,
" This has lyne hyd under my bed-feitt theise ten years." Others
wold glorie, " O ! how oft have I bein in danger for this booke :
how secreatlie have I stoUen fra my wyff at mydnicht to reid
upoun it." '

Lord Maxwell, besides the offices of Master of the Royal House-
hold, and Chief Carver to the King, obtained large grants of land
in the counties of Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, Roxburgh, Perth, and
Lanark. The extent of his influence is made evident by the fact
that he received bonds of man-rent from such powerful barons as
Murray of Cockpool, ancestor of the Earls of Mansfield ; Douglas
of Drumlanrig, ancestor of the Dukes and Marquises of Queens-
berry ; Stewart of Garlies, ancestor of the Earls of Galloway ; John-

6 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

stone of Johnstone, ancestor of the Marquises of Annandale; Gordon
of Lochinvar, ancestor of the Viscounts Kenmure ; and from other
influential Nithsdale and Galloway families.

Robert, fifth Lord Maxwell, died in 1546. His younger son, Sir
John Maxwell of Terregles, married Agnes, the daughter of the
third Lord Herries, and succeeded to that title as the first Lord
Herries of the house of Maxwell, The elder son —

Robert, sixth Lord Maxwell, * appears to have been a man of a
courageous, impetuous, and energetic character, but his early death
prevented his attaining the conspicuous and influential position which
his father held.' His wife. Lady Beatrix Douglas, was a grand-
daughter of James, the third, and daughter of James, the fourth
Earl of Morton, and co-heiress of the earldom. Her younger sister
married James Douglas, nephew of Archibald, Earl of Angus, who
through her obtained the title, and became the celebrated Regent
Morton. As we have seen. Earl Robert, in his father's lifetime,
was imprisoned in England, and was permitted to return to his
native country only on condition that he would promote the sinister
designs of the English King on the independence of Scotland. In
return for some pecuniary assistance which Maxwell asked, the emis-
saries of Henry strove hard to induce him to give up the castle of
Lochmaben ; but this, it appears, he was unable or unwilling to do.
The bloody feud which raged so long between the Maxwells and the
Johnstones seems to have originated at this time, in consequence of
the Laird of Johnstone having violated the obligations of man-rent,
by which he bound, himself to assist Lord Maxwell in all his just
and honest actions. Wharton, the English Warden, informed the
Earl of Shrewsbury that he had used means to create discord
between the Johnstones and the Maxwells. He had offered the
Laird of Johnstone 300 crowns, his brother, the Abbot of Soulseat,
100, and his followers 100, on condition that he would put the
Master of Maxwell into his power. Johnstone, he said, had entered
into the plot, but he and his friends ' were all so false that he knew
not what to say.' He placed very little confidence in them. But
he would be 'glad to annoy and entrap the Master of Maxwell or
the Laird of Johnscone, to the King's Majestie's honour, and his
own poor honesty.'*

• The Book of Carlaverock, i. p. 213. By William Frazer, LL.D.

The Maxwells. 7

There was so much double-dealing and treachery on both sides,
that it was impossible to put much confidence in any of the lead.ers.
The Master of Maxwell, in order to obtain his father's liberation
from the Tower, promised to the English ambassador that he would
do his utmost to promote the English interests, but he did ' his
Majesty no manner of service.' On the other hand, the Governor
and the Lords of the Scottish Council compelled him to give
security that he would loyally keep the houses of Carlaverock, Loch-
maben, and the Thrieve, for the Queen, from ' their enemies of
England.' Douglas of Drumlanrig, Gordon of Lochinvar, Stewart
of Garlies, and other influential barons, were his pledges for the
fulfilment of his bond. The Master was, however, shortly after, in
1545, taken prisoner in an unsuccessful expedition, and carried to
London, where his father had for some time been in captivity. He
remained in England until the year 1549, when he was exchanged
for Sir Thomas Palmer.

Lord Maxwell died in 1552, having been only six years in the
position of chief of the family. He had two sons, Robert, who suc-
ceeded his father as seventh Lord, but who died when only four years
of age, and John, a posthumous child, who became eighth Lord
Maxwell, and was afterwards created Earl of Morton. In the critical
state of the country at that time, a long minority might have been
highly prejudicial to the interests of the family, but fortunately
the infant noble had for his guardian his uncle. Sir John Maxwell of
Terregles, under whose judicious and careful management the pos-
sessions and influence of the house were fully maintained. Lord
Maxwell at an early age enrolled himself among the supporters of
Queen Mary, and suffered severely for his adherence to her cause.
His estates were laid waste, and his castles of Dumfries and Carla-
verock were thrown down in 1570 by a powerful English army under
the Earl of Sussex. Lord Maxwell and his uncle attended the Par-
liament held in the name of the Queen at Edinburgh, June 12, 157 1,
in opposition to the meeting convened by the Earl of Lennox, the
Regent, a few weeks earlier, at the head of the Canongate. The
young noble, to the great satisfaction of his retainers and the
numerous branches of his house, soon made it evident that he pos-
sessed the courage and intrepidity which had distinguished his grand-
father ; and his marriage, in the twentieth year of his age, to the
youngest daughter of the seventh Earl of Angus, brought him into
close alliance with the great houses of Douglas and Hamilton, the

VOL. II. c

8 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

Scotts of Buccleuch, and the Earl of Bothwell. Not long after his
marriage he submitted to the Government carried on in the name
of James VI., and obtained from the Regent Morton the office of
Warden of the West Marches. The harmony between him and that
imperious and grasping noble was not of long continuance. The
claim which Lord Maxwell preferred to the earldom and title of
Morton roused the jealousy of the Regent, and ultimately led to a
violent quarrel.

The third Earl of Morton left three daughters, but no son. The
eldest became the wife of the Earl of Arran, Duke of Chatel-
herault ; the second married Robert, sixth Lord Maxwell ; and
the third became the wife of James Douglas the Regent, brother of
the Earl of Angus. The Earl of Morton settled his earldom and
estates upon Elizabeth, his youngest daughter, and her husband and
male issue, and the settlement was confirmed by the Crown in the
year 1543. Lord Maxwell, however, refused to acquiesce in this
settlement, which he considered unjust, and asserted his right to the
earldom on the ground that as heir to his mother he was entitled to
one-third of the earldom, that he had a right to another third by the
demission which he alleged had been executed in his favour by his
aunt, the Duchess of Chatelherault, with the consent of her husband
and son ; and that he was heir-apparent of Lady Elizabeth, the
Regent's wife, who had no issue. The Regent ' pressed by all means
that Lord Morton should renounce his title thereto, of whilk he
refusing, he commanded him to prison in the castle of Edinburgh,
where lykwayes refusing to renounce, he was sent to Blackness, and
from thence to St. Andrews, where he and Lord Ogilvie abode
till the March thereafter.' Morton deprived Lord Maxwell of the
Wardenship of the Western Marches, and conferred it on the Laird
of Johnstone, the hereditary enemy of his house. He obtained his
release, however, and was restored to this office after the downfall
of Morton in 1577, and took a prominent part in the factious con-
tendings of that day, which at one time threatened to lead to a civil
war. Shortly after his reinstatement in the Wardenship, a case
occurred which throws great light on the arbitrary and barbarous
manner in which the jurisdiction entrusted to the nobles in those
days was exercised. A summons was raised by John Bek, taskar,
against Lord Maxwell for personal maltreatment. It was affirmed
that Lord Maxwell had put the complainer in prison in the place of
Carlaverock, in which he was detained for ten days, and at last taken

The Maxwells. g

out and conveyed to a woodside adjoining, where he was bound hand
and foot to a tree, and then a small cord being tied about his head,
was twisted round with a pin until his ' ene [eyes] lapened upon his
cheikes.' And all this barbarous treatment he asserted was inflicted
on him because he would not bear false testimony against John
Schortrig, of Marcholme, as to alleged wrongs done by him to Lord
Maxwell in reference to certain corns. After being thus cruelly
tortured, Bek was again committed to prison. The case came before
the Privy Council at Stirling, but Lord Maxwell did not appear to
answer to the charge, and was ordered to set poor Bek at liberty
within three days under pain of rebellion.*

Lord Maxwell became closely associated with the royal favourites,
Esme Stewart, Lord d'Aubigny, and the profligate and unprincipled
Captain James Stewart, afterwards Earl of Arran, the bitter enemies
of Regent Morton, by whom he was brought to the block. After
Morton's forfeiture and execution Maxwell obtained from King
James, no doubt through their influence, a grant both of the title and
of the lands of the earldom of Morton. The success of the conspiracy
known as the ' Raid of Ruthven,' however, expelled from the Court
the worthless favourites of the young King, and placed Maxwell in
opposition to the dominant party. Complaints, no doubt well founded,
were made regarding the disturbed state of the Borders under his
Wardenship, and it appeared that his ' household men, servants, or
tenants, dwelling upon his lands, or within the jurisdiction of his
Wardenry, many of them being of the name of Armstrong, accom-
panied by some of the Grahams, Englishmen, and others, their
accomplices, common thieves, to the number of nine score persons,
went, on 30th October, 1582, under silence, to the lands of Easter
Montberengier, and carried off eighteen score of sheep, with plenish-
ing estimated at the value of 290 merks. Immediately thereafter,
or on the same night, they proceeded to the lands of Dewchar, from
which they stole twenty-two score of sheep, twenty-four kye and
,oxen, and plenishing worth 100 merks; and the lands of Whitehope
they despoiled of two hundred sheep and oxen, and three horses,
with plenishing worth 100 merks.' To crown all, they seized upon
Thomas Dalgleish and Adam Scott, two of the persons whom they
had ruthlessly plundered, and * forcibly carried them into Annan-
dale, in which, and sometimes in England and in other parts, they
kept them in strait prison in irons, and shamefully bound the said
* £oo& of Carlaverock, i. p. 236.

lo The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

Thomas to a tree with fetters, intending to compel them to pay an
exorbitant ransom.' The same course is followed at the present
day by the banditti in Greece and in some parts of Italy.

Such deeds as these were not likely to pass unnoticed and
unpunished at a time when Lord Maxwell's friends were out of
favour at Court, and he was summoned by the sufferers to appear
before the Privy Council, and to present the persons who had com-
mitted the said crimes. As might have been expected, he failed to
appear and answer the charges against him. He had been ordered
by the Council to present before the King and Lords of the Council
certain persons, Armstrongs and Beatties, under a heavy penalty, to
answer for ' all the crimes that could be laid to their charge.' The
Council, therefore, ordered him to be denounced as a rebel, and he
was deprived of the office of Warden of the West Marches, which
was conferred upon the rival of the Maxwells, the Laird of Johnstone.

The escape of the King from the Ruthven lords, and the conse-
quent return of Arran to power, produced an immediate change in
Morton's relations to the Court. The nobles who had taken part in
the Raid mustered their forces and took possession of Stirling Castle.
On the other hand James, with the assistance of Morton, assembled
an army of twelve thousand men to vindicate his authority, and on
his approach to Stirling the insurgents disbanded their forces and
fled into England. But the friendly feeling between the royal
favourite and the Earl of Morton was not of long continuance.
Arran had obtained a grant of the barony of Kinneil through the
forfeiture of the Hamiltons, and he endeavoured to prevail upon
Morton to accept this estate in exchange for his barony of M earns
and the lands of Maxwellheugh. Morton naturally refused to barter
the ancient inheritance of his family for lands which a revolution at
Court would almost certainly restore to their rightful owners. The
worthless favourite was greatly incensed at this refusal, and speedily
made Morton feel the weight of his resentment. He set himself to
revive the old feud between the Maxwells and the Johnstones. The
Earl was denounced as a rebel by the Council, on the plea that he
had failed to present before their lordships two persons of the name
of Armstrong, whom it was alleged he had protected in their depre-
dations. He was ordered to enter his person within six days in
ward in the castle of Blackness, and to deliver up the castles of
Carlaverock and Thrieve, and his other strongholds within twenty:
four hours, under the penalty of treason. It was also ordered that

The Maxwells. ii

the Earl's friends on the West Borders should appear personally
before the Laird of Johnstone, who was now again Warden of the
West Marches, upon a certain day, to give security for their due
obedience to the King, under the pain of rebellion. To crown all, a
commission was given to the Warden to pursue and seize Morton ;
and two companies of hired soldiers were dispatched by Arran to
assist Johnstone in executing these decrees.

Morton, thus forced to the wall, adopted prompt and vigorous
measures for his defence. The defeat of the mercenaries on Craw-
ford Moor by Robert Maxwell — a natural brother of the Earl — the
destruction of the house of Lochwood, and the capture of Johnstone
himself, when he was lying in ambush to attack Robert Maxwell,
speedily followed. On the other hand, the King, with advice of his
Council, revoked and annulled the grant which he had made to Lord
Maxwell of the lands and earldom of Morton. So formidable did
the Earl appear to the Government, that ;^ 20,000 was granted by the
Convention of the Estates to levy soldiers for the suppression of his
rebellion, and all the men on the south of the Forth capable of
bearing arms were commanded to be in readiness to attend the King
in an expedition against the powerful and refractory baron, of whom
it was justly said that ' few noblemen in Scotland could surpass him
in military power and experience.' But the projected raid into
Dumfries-shire was deferred for some months, and ultimately aban-
doned. Even Arran himself was so much impressed by the indomit-
able energy and power of resistance which Morton had displayed,
that he made an unsuccessful attempt to be reconciled to him. The
downfall of the profligate and unprincipled favourite was, however,
at hand. The banished lords entered Scotland in October, 1585,
at the head of a small body of troops, and were joined by Bothwell,
Home, Yester, Cessford, Drumlanrig, and other powerful barons.
Maxwell brought to their aid 1,300 foot and 700 horse, while the
forces of all the other lords scarcely equalled that number. The
insurgents marched to Stirling, where the King and his worthless
favourite lay, and without difficulty obtained possession both of the
town and the castle. Hume of Godscroft mentions, with great
indignation, the conduct of the Annandale Borderers under Maxwell.
True to their predatory character, they carried off the gentlemen's
horses, which had been committed to the care of their valets,
respecting neither friend nor foe ; and what was worse, they robbed
the sick in the pest-lodges that were in the fields about Stirling, and

1 2 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

carried away the clothes of the infected. Arran fled for his life,
accompanied only by a single attendant ; the banished lords, along
with Morton, were pardoned and received into favour, their estates
were restored, and an indemnity was shortly after granted to them
by Parliament for all their unlawful doings within the kingdom.

Emboldened by his victory over Arran, Morton, who was a zealous
Roman Catholic, assembled a number of his retainers and supporters
of the old Church at Dumfries, and marched in procession at their
head to the Collegiate Church of Lincluden, in which he caused mass
to be openly celebrated. As stringent laws had been enacted by the
Estates against the celebration of mass, this conduct excited general
indignation. Morton was summoned to appear before the Privy
Council, and was imprisoned by order of the King in the castle of
Edinburgh. Shortly after, the forfeiture of Regent Morton was
rescinded, and it was declared that Archibald, Earl of Angus, as
his nearest heir of line, should succeed to the lands and dignities of
the earldom. Lord Maxwell, however, was not deprived of the title
of Earl of Morton, which was subsequently given to him in royal
charters and commissions, and which he continued to use till his
death.

Maxwell's imprisonment was first of all relaxed on his giving
security that he would not go beyond the city of Edinburgh and a
certain prescribed limit in its vicinity, and he was set at liberty in
the summer of 1586. In common with the other Popish lords,
he made no secret of his sympathy with the projected invasion
of England by Philip II. of Spain. In* April, 1587, he received
licence from the King to visit the Continent, on his giving a bond
with cautioners that ' whilst he remained in foreign parts he should
neither privately, directly nor indirectly, practise anything prejudi-
cial to the true religion presently professed within this realm,' and
that he should not return to Scotland without his Majesty's special
licence.' It is scarcely necessary to say that the Earl deliberately
violated his pledge, and during his residence in Spain he was in
active communication with the Spanish Court, and not only
witnessed the preparations that were making for the invasion of
England, but promised his assistance in the enterprise. Contrary to
the assurance which he had given, he returned to Scotland without
the King's permission, and landed at Kirkcudbright, in April, 1588.
A proclamation was therefore issued forbidding all his Majesty's
subjects to hold intercourse with him. It soon appeared that this

The Maxwells. 13

step was fully warranted by Morton's treasonable intentions and
intrigues. He and the other Popish lords had earnestly recom-
mended the Spanish king- to invade England through Scotland, and
that, for this purpose, a Spanish army should be landed on the west
coast, promising that as soon as this was done they would join the
invaders with a numerous body of their retainers. Morton at once
set about organising an armed force in Dumfries, there to be in readi-
ness for this expected result. Lord Herries, who had been appointed
Warden in the room of his relative, finding himself unable to sup-
press this rising, which was every day gathering fresh strength,
warned the King of the danger which threatened the peace and
security of the country, and Morton was immediately summoned to
appear before the Council. He not only disregarded the summons,
but, in defiance of the royal authority, set about fortifying the
Border fortresses of which he held possession. James, indignant at
this contumacy, and now fully alive to the danger which threatened
the kingdom, promptly collected a body of troops and marched
to Dumfries, where Morton, unprepared for this sudden move-
ment, narrowly escaped being made prisoner. He rode with the
utmost expedition to Kirkcudbright, and there procured a ship, in
which he put to sea.

Next day the King summoned the castles of Lochmaben, Lang-
holm, Thrieve, and Carlaverock, to surrender. They all obeyed
except Lochmaben, which was commanded by David Maxwell,
brother to the Laird of Cowhill, who imagined that he would be
able to hold the castle against the royal forces in consequence of
their want of artillery. The King himself accompanied his troops
to Lochmaben, and having ' borrowed a sieging train from the
English Warden at Carlisle,' battered the fortress so effectually that
the garrison were constrained to capitulate. They surrendered to
Sir William Stewart, brother of Arran, on the written assurance that
their lives should be spared. This pledge, however, was shamefully
violated by the King, who, ordered the captain and four of the chief
men of the garrison to be hanged before the castle gate, on the
ground that they had refused to surrender when first summoned.

It was of great importance that the person of the leader of the
rebellion should be secured, and Sir William Stewart was promptly
despatched in pursuit of Morton. Finding himself closely followed,
the Earl quitted his ship, and taking to the boat, made for land.
Stewart having discovered, on seizing the ship, that Maxwell had

14 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

left it, followed him to land, and succeeded in apprehending him.
He was at first conveyed to Dumfries, but was afterwards removed
to the castle of Edinburgh. He contrived, even when in confine-
ment, to take part in a new intrigue for a renewed attempt at inva-
sion after the destruction of the Armada, and along with the Earl of
Huntly and Lord Claude Hamilton he signed a letter to Philip, King
of Spain, giving him counsel as to the mode in which another effort
might be successfully made.

Maxwell was released from prison, along with the other Popish
nobles, on the 12th of September, 1589, to attend James's queen on
her arrival from Denmark. On his liberation he became bound
under a penalty of a hundred thousand pounds Scots to conduct
himself as a loyal subject, and neither directly nor indirectly to do
anything tending to the ' trouble and alteration of the state of reli-
gion presently professed, and by law established within the realm.'
It appears that Lord Maxwell, about the beginning of the year 1592,
had professed to have become a convert to the Protestant religion,
and on January 26th he subscribed the Confession of Faith before
the Presbytery of Edinburgh. The sincerity of this profession
may be doubted, and it soon became evident that it had exercised
no improvement in his turbulent character, for, on the 2nd of
February following, he had a violent struggle for precedency in
the Kirk of Edinburgh with Archibald, Earl of Angus, the new
Earl of Morton. They were separated by the Provost before they
had time to draw their swords, and were conveyed under a guard
to their lodgings.

Repeated efforts had been made to heal the long-continued and
deadly feud between the Maxwells and the Johnstones, and early in
the year 1592 it seemed as if a permanent reconciliation had been at
length effected. On the ist of April of that year the rival chiefs
entered into a full and minute agreement by which they ' freely re-
mitted and forgave all rancour of mind, grudge, malice, and feuds
that had passed, or fallen forth, betwixt them or any of their forbears
in any time bygone,' and became bound that ' they themselves, their
kin, friends, &c., should in all time coming live together in sure
peace and amity.' Any controversy or questions that might here-
after arise between them were to be referred to eight arbitrators, four
chosen by each party, with the King as oversman or umpire. But in
the following year the two families came again into collision, and
the feud was revived more fiercely than ever.

The Maxwells. 15

William Johnstone, of Wamphray, called the Galliard,* a noted
freebooter, made a foray on the lands of the Crichtons of Sanquhar,
the Douglases of Drumlanrig and some other Nithsdale barons.
The Galliard was taken prisoner in the fray and hanged by the
Crichtons. The Johnstones, under the leadership of the Galliard' s
nephew, and in greater force, made a second inroad into Nithsdale,
killing a good many of the tenantry, and carrying off a great number
of their cattle. The freebooters were pursued by the Crichtons, who
overtook them at a pass called Well Path Head, by which they were
retreating to their fastnesses in Annandale. The Johnstones stood
at bay and fought with such desperate courage that their pursuers
were defeated and most of them killed.f The Biddesburn, where
the encounter took place, is said to have run three days with blood.

A remarkable scene which followed this sangtiinary fray is thus
described by a contemporary writer. ' There came certain poor
women out of the south country, with fifteen bloody shirts, to com-
pleane to the King that their husbands, sons, and servants were
cruelly murdered by the Laird of Johnstone, themselves spoiled, and
nothing left them. The poor women, seeing they could get no
satisfaction, caused the bloody shirts to be carried by pioneers
through the town of Edinburgh, upon Monday, the 23rd of July. The
people were much moved, and cried out for vengeance upon the
King and Council. The King was nothing moved, but against the
town of Edinburgh and the ministers.' The Court alleged they had
procured that spectacle in contempt of the King. The feeling thus
excited, however, was so strong that the Government was in the
end constrained to take proceedings against the depredators. The
injured and despoiled Nithsdale barons complained of this san-
guinary foray of the Johnstones to Lord Maxwell, who had been
reinstated in his office of Warden of the Western Marches. But his
recent pacification and alliance with Sir James Johnstone, of
Dunskellie, the chief of the clan, made him unwilling to move in the
affair. The King, however, issued orders to the Warden to appre-
hend Johnstone and to execute justice on the ' lads of Wamphray'
for the depredations and slaughters which they had committed. At
the same time Douglas of Drumlanrig and Kirkpatrick of Closeburn
entered into a bond, in conjunction with the Warden's brother,

* The name seems to have been derived from a dance called the galliard. The
word is still employed in Scotland for an active, gay, dissipated character.

\ This skirmish forms the subject of the old Border ballad, entitled llie Lads d
Wamphray.

VOL. II. D

1 6 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

binding themselves to stand firmly by Lord Maxwell in executing
the royal commands, and to defend each other, and to support him
in his quarrels with his hereditary foes.

This secret alliance was speedily made known to the chief of the
Johnstones, and he immediately applied for help in this hour of need
to the friends on whom he could rely. The Scotts of Buccleuch,
though their chief, a near relation of Johnstone, was then on the
Continent, mustered five hundred strong, * the most renowned free-
booters,' says an old historian, ' and the bravest warriors among the
Border tribes.' With them . came the Elliots, Armstrongs, and
Grahams, valiant and hardy, actuated both by love of plunder, and
by hostility to the Maxwells. On the other hand the Warden, armed
with the royal authority, assembled his new allies, the barons of
Nithsdale, and displaying his banner as the King's lieutenant,
invaded Annandale at the head of fifteen hundred men, with the
purpose of crushing the ancient rival and enemy of his house. It is
said that some days previously, Maxwell caused it to be proclaimed
among his followers that he would give ' a ten- pound land' — that is,
land rated in the cess-books at that yearly amount — to any man
who would bring him the head or hand of the Laird of Johnstone.
When this was repeated to Johnstone, he said he had no ten-pound
lands to offer, but he would bestow 'a five-merk land' upon the
man who should bring him the head or the hand of Lord Maxwell.

On the 6th of December, 1593, the Warden crossed the river
Annan and advanced to attack the Johnstones, who had skilfully
taken up their position on an elevated piece of ground at the Dryfe
Sands, near Lockerbie, where Lord Maxwell could not bring his
whole force into action against them at the same time. A detach-
ment sent out by the Warden was suddenly surrounded by a stronger
body of the enemy and driven back on the main force, which it
threw into confusion. A desperate conflict then ensued, in which the
Johnstones and their allies, though inferior in numbers, gained
a complete victory. The Maxwells suffered considerable loss in the
battle and the retreat, and many of them were slashed in the face by
the pursuers in the streets of Lockerbie — a kindof blow which to this
day is called in the district • A Lockerbie lick.' Lord Maxwell him-
self, who, says Spottiswood, was ' a tall man and heavy in armour,
was in the chase overtaken and stricken from his horse,' and slain
under two large thorn-trees which were long called ' Maxwell's
Thorns,' but were swept away about fifty years ago by an inundatioh

The Maxwells. 17

of the Dryfe. According to tradition, it was William Johnstone of
the Kirkhill, the nephew of the Galliard, who overtook Lord Max-
well in his flight, and obtained the reward offered by Sir James
Johnstone, by striking down the chief of the Maxwells and cutting
off his right hand. The lairds of Drumlanrig, Closeburn, and Lag
escaped by the fleetness of their horses. ' Never ane of his awn
folks,' says an ancient chronicler, ' remained with him [Maxwell] (only
twenty of his awn household), but all fled through the water ; five of
the said lord's company slain ; and his head and right hand were ta'en
with them to the Lochwood and affixed on the wall thereof. The
bruit ran that the said Lord Maxwell was treacherously deserted by
his awn company.' *

The flight of the Nithsdale barons is thus noticed in the beautiful
ballad of ' Lord Maxwell's Good-Night.'

' Adieu ! Drumlanrig, false wert aye,

And Closeburn in a band,
The Laird of Lag, frae my father that fled

When the Johnstones struck aff his hand,
They were three brethren in a band ;

Joy may they never see !
Their treacherous art and cowardly heart,

Has twined my love and me.'

John, ninth Lord Maxwell, the eldest son of the nobleman who
fell at Dryfe Sands, was only eight years of age at the time of his
accession to his father's title and estates, in the year 1593. He, un-
fortunately, was heir not only to his paternal property and honours,
but also to the long-breathed feud between the Maxwells and the
Johnstones.

King James expressed great indignation at the defeat and death
of his Lieutenant of the Western Marches, and Sir James Johnstone
and his accomplices were immediately put to the horn, and declared
to be rebels. This act was followed up by a commission appointed
by the King, 22nd December, 1593, for establishing good order
upon the Western Marches. Johnstone and his accomplices are
charged with ' murdering the trew men indwellars in the Sanquhar,

* Johnstone's Histories, p. 182. Sir Walter Scott mentions a tradition of the
district, that the wife of the Laird of Lockerbie salHed out from her tower, which she
carefully locked, to see how the battle had gone, and saw Lord Maxwell lying beneath
a thorn-tree, bareheaded and bleeding to death from the loss of his right hand, and
that she dashed out his brains with the ponderous key which she carried. But the
story is in itself exceedingly improbable, and is at variance with the contemporary
histories.

1 8 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

in the defens and saulftle of their awne guidis ; ' burning the parish
kirk of Lochmaben, and the slaughter of some of his Majesty's
subjects sent thither by John, Lord Maxwell, the King's Warden
and Justice ; for having appeared in arms against the Warden, * um-
besett, invadit, persewit, and maist cruellie and outrageouslie slew
him and sundrie gentilmen of his name, and others his Majestie's
obedient subjects ; drownit, hurte, lamyt, dememberit, and tuke a
grit nowmer of prisonaris ; reft and spuilzeit thair horses, armour,
pursis, money, and uther guidis.' * The King's anger, however, was
not of long duration, for in the course of a few weeks a warrant was
obtained, by Sir James Johnstone under the King's sign manual
ordaining a respite to be made under the Privy Seal in favour of Sir
James, 'for the treasonable slauchter of Lord Maxwell.' The
respite, which passed the Privy Seal 24th December, 1594, men-
tioned no fewer than a hundred and sixty of the Johnstones, and in-
cluded not only the slaughter of the Warden and of those who fell
with him, but also the raising and burning of the kirk of Lochmaben,
and the slaughter of Captain Oliphant and others, which took
place before the battle of Dryfe Sands. f

The Laird of Johnstone does not appear to have .been grateful for
the respite thus granted him. He lost no opportunity of annoying
and spoiling his hereditary foes, attacking them whenever it was in
his power to do so with effect. Retaliating forays on each side were
of frequent occurrence, and the attempts of the Government to allay
these feuds, so destructive of the peace of the kingdom, were entirely
without effect. The appointment of Sir James Johnstone in April,
1596, to the office of Warden of the Western Marches in the room
of Lord Herries, served, as might have been expected, to increase
the disturbances in the district ; and it speedily became necessary to
replace the chief of the Johnstone clan by Lord Stewart of Ochiltree.
So great was the annoyance which Johnstone's outrageous and
illegal conduct caused to the Government that on the 27th of May,
1598, he was declared rebel, and his portrait hung at the Cross
of Edinburgh with his head downwards.J He was in consequence
intercommuned and committed to prison in July, 1599, where he
seems to have been kept for a year. But his imprisonment does not
appear to have taught him either prudence or forbearance.

The young Lord Maxwell, on his part, was neither wiser nor more

* Book of Carlaverock, i. pp. 293-4 t Ibid., pp. 295-6.

J Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, iii. p. 29.

The Maxwells. 19

forbearing than his rival. Like his father, he was a steadfast adherent
of the Roman Catholic religion, and was declared rebel and put
to the horn, in consequence of his presence at the mass celebrated at
Dumfries by seminary priests. He was imprisoned in the castle of
Edinburgh, in March, 1601, for 'favouring Popery,' but made his
escape in January, 1602, and was proclaimed a traitor. His enmity
to the Johnstones was irremovable, and in February of that year he
made a sanguinary attack on his hereditary foes, two of whom were
put to death by his vassals with great cruelty. In 1605, a professed
reconciliation took place between these two potent rivals, but it was
not of long continuance.

Lord Maxwell, with the combative disposition of his family, was now
involved in a dispute with William Douglas of Lochleven, who, on the
death of the Earl of Angus, was reinstated in the earldom and title of
Morton. He challenged Douglas to single combat, and was in con-
sequence of this, and numerous other turbulent acts, imprisoned in
the castle of Edinburgh, nth August, 1607. After eight weeks' con-
finement, he made his escape in a manner which strikingly displayed
both his daring and his energy. He had for his fellow-prisoner a
great chieftain of the Isles, Sir James M'Connell, or Macdonald.
' Seeing not how he was to be relieved, he devises with Sir James
M'Connell and Robert Maxwell of Dinwoodie, what way he and
they might escape. Sir James, hesitating, urged the need of deli-
beration. "Tush, man!" replied Maxwell, "sic enterpryses are
nocht effectuate with deliberations and advisments, but with suddane
resolutionis." ' He then called in two soldiers who had charge of
the prisoners, and giving them a liberal supply of wine, ' drinks
them fou.' Suddenly turning upon the soldiers. Maxwell compelled
them to give up their swords, and giving one to Sir James M'Connell,
another to Robert Maxwell, and keeping a third for himself, he
called out, ' All gude fellows that luiffes me, follow me, for I sail
either be furth of the Castle this nycht, or elles I sail loose my lyiff.'
He then passed out of the room with his companions, locking the
door behind him. One of the soldiers gave the alarm by crying
out at the south window, towards the West Port, ' Treason !
treason ! ' The three passed to the inner gate, where the master
porter, an old man, tried to make resistance. ' False knave,'
exclaimed Lord Maxwell, 'open the gate, or I shall hew thee in
blads ' [pieces]. He did strike the man on the arm with his sword,
but the keys were then given up, and the gate was opened. They

20 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

had next an encounter at the second gate with the under porter.
Lord Maxwell and Sir James M'Connell wounded him and forced
their way through, but Robert Maxwell was kept back by the porter,
He, however, made his escape by leaping over ' the west castle
wall, that goes to the West Port.' Lord Maxwell and Sir James passed
to the same wall, and climbing over it leaped down and disappeared
amongst the suburbs. Lord Maxwell made his escape upon a horse
which had been kept in readiness for him ; but Sir James M'Connell,
who had irons upon him, twisted his ankle in leaping. He was dis-
covered lying upon a dunghill to which he had crept and was brought
back to the Castle. ' The King was very far offended and made
proclamation that nane should visit him under the pain of death.'*
He issued orders also that special search should be made for the
fugitive, and to omit nothing that ' might hasten the infliction of
exemplary punishment upon him.' His Majesty complained in a
letter to the Privy Council that Maxwell openly travelled through
the country accompanied by not fewer than twenty horse in open
defiance of the royal authority, and renewed his injunctions that
diligent search should be made for him in order that he might
either be apprehended, or put out of the bounds. The Privy Council
in reply stated that they had used all diligence in searching for
Lord Maxwell and punishing his resetters ; and informed the King
that one of his hiding-places was a certain cave in Clawbelly Hill, in
the parish of Kirkgunzeon, which still bears the name of ' Lord
Maxwell's Cave.'

Lord Maxwell evidently felt that the life which he was leading
was dangerous as well as uncomfortable, and with a view to gain the
favour of the King, he seems to have been really desirous at this
juncture to become reconciled to the Laird of Johnstone, who on
his part had expressed a similar wish to Sir Robert Maxwell of
Orchardtoun, Lord Maxwell's cousin, and his own brother-in-law.
Sir Robert undertook the office of mediator between the two chiefs
with some reluctance, for, as he remarked, ' it was dangerous to
meddle with such a man.' On paying a visit to Lord Maxwell at his
request in March, 1608, he found that his lordship was not unwilling
to be reconciled to his hereditary enemy. ' Cosine,' he said to Sir
Robert, ' it was for this caus I send for zou. Ye see my estait and
dangour I stand in; and I wald crave zour Counsell and avise as
ane man that tenders my weill.' Sir Robert judiciously recom-
* Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, iii. p. 47. Calderwood's History, vi. p. 686.

The Maxwells. 21

mended the turbulent noble to keep himself quiet, and to avoid
giving any additional offence to the King. He also expressed his
willingness to mediate between him and Johnstone, if he was willing
that their differences should be amicably settled. Lord Maxwell
declared that he was willing to overlook the past, should Johnstone
show any corresponding inclination, and would be ready to meet
him with a view to their reconciliation.

A meeting was accordingly arranged, Sir Robert having pre-
viously exacted from Lord Maxwell a promise and solemn oath, that
neither he nor the person who should accompany him would use
any violence, whether they came to an accommodation or not. A
similar obligation was given by Sir James Johnstone. They met on
the 6th of April, 1608. Lord Maxwell was accompanied by Charles
Maxwell, brother of William Maxwell of Kirkhouse, who seems to
have borne the reputation of a passionate and quarrelsome person.
Sir James Johnstone brought with him William Johnstone of
Lockerbie. Sir Robert Maxwell was also present as mediator, and
seems to have had his misgivings as to the result of the meeting,
when he saw that Charles Maxwell was Lord Maxwell's attendant,
for he required that his Lordship should renew his oath and promise
of strict fidelity for himself and his man, which was readily done,
and a similar pledge was exacted from Johnstone. The rival chiefs
met on horseback, and after mutual salutations, they rode on to confer
together. Sir Robert being between them. While they were thus
engaged, Charles Maxwell quitted the place where he had been
ordered to remain, and going towards Johnstone's attendant, com-
menced an altercation with him. The other attempted to soothe
him with calm and peaceful words, but without effect, and after some
bitter and angry expressions, Maxwell fired a pistol at William
Johnstone, which, however, only pierced his cloak. Johnstone
attempted to retaliate, but his pistol missed fire, and he cried out,
' Treason ! ' Sir James, on hearing this noise, turned away from
Lord Maxwell and Sir Robert, and rode towards the attendants.
Sir Robert caught hold of his lordship's cloak and exclaimed, ' Fy !
my lord : make not yourself a traitor and me baith.' But Maxwell,
bursting from his grasp, fired a pistol at the Laird of Johnstone, and
mortally wounded him in the back. Johnstone's palfrey becoming
restive, the girths broke and the laird fell to the ground. While
his attendant was standing beside him, Charles Maxwell again fired
at them. Looking up to heaven Sir James exclaimed, ' Lord, have

22 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

mercy on me ! Christ, have mercy on me ! I am deceived,' and
soon after expired. The murderer and his attendant then coolly
rode away.* That foul deed was ' detested by all men,' says Spottis-
wood, 'and the gentleman's misfortune sincerely lamented ; for he
was a man full of wisdom and courage, and every way well inclined.'
Proclamation was made by sound of trumpet at the Cross of Edin-
burgh, that none, unless under pain of death, should transport or
carry away the Lord Maxwell out of the country, in ship or craer,
seeing the King and Council were to take order with him for the
traitorous murdering of the Laird of Johnstone and his other
offences. 't He was tried in absence before the Estates on the 24th
of June, 1609, for treason, and was found guilty. He was con-
demned to suffer the pains of law for his crime, and his estates were
forfeited and bestowed upon Sir Gideon Murray, Lord Cranstoun, and
other favourites of the Court.

Lord Maxwell succeeded in eluding his pursuers and made his
escape to France, where he remained for several years. His flight, after
his perpetration of the murder of Sir James Johnstone, is commemo-
rated in the pathetic ballad entitled 'Lord Maxwell's Good Night,'
in which he is represented as bidding farewell to his mother, sisters,
and wife, and to his hereditary fortresses and estates. The unknown
author is, however, mistaken in supposing that the fugitive lord felt
regret at parting from his wife, against whom, it is not clear on what
grounds, he had raised a process of divorce, during the dependence
of which she died. This lady was the only sister of James, second
Marquis of Hamilton, who was deeply offended at his brother-in-law's
procedure, and became in consequence his bitter enemy.

The ballad must have been written before Lord Maxwell's execu-
tion in 161 3, as it makes no mention of that event. It was first
published in Sir Walter Scott's ' Border Minstrelsy,' from a copy
in Glenriddel's MSS. Lord Byron refers to this ballad as having
suggested the ' Good Night ' in the first canto of ' Childe Harold.'
It is as follows : —

' Adieu ! madame, my mother dear,

But and my sisters three ;
Adieu ! fair Robert of Orchardstone,

My heart is wae for thee.
Adieu ! the lilye and the rose,

The primrose fair to see ;
Adieu ! my ladye, and only joy.

For I may not stay with thee.

* Book of Carlaverock, i. pp. 310-13. \. Calderwood's History, vi. p. 704.

The Maxwells. zi

' Though I hae slain Lord Johnstone,

What care I for their feid ?
My noble mind their wrath disdains,

He was my father's deid.
Both night and day I labour'd oft

Of him avenged to be ;
But now I've got what lang I sought,

And I may not stay with thee.

Uli :}: 4: :^

'Adieu ! Dumfries, my proper place,

But and Carlaverock fair ;
Adieu ! my castle of the Thrieve,

Wi' a' my buildings there ;
Adieu ! Lochmaben's gates sae fair,

The Langholm-holm where birks there be ;
Adieu ! my ladye, and only joy,

For, trust me, I must not stay wi' thee.

' Adieu ! fair Eskdale up and down,

Where my puir friends do dwell ;
The bangisters will ding them down,

And will them sair compell.
But I'll avenge their feid mysel'.

When I come o'er the sea ;
Adieu ! my ladye, and only joy,

For I may not stay wi' thee.'

* Lord of the land,' that lady said,

' O wad ye go wi' me
Unto my brother's stately tower,

Where safest ye may be ?
There Hamiltons and Douglas baith

Shall rise to succour thee.'

* Thanks for thy kindness, fair my dame,

But I may not stay wi' thee.'

Then he took afF a gay gold ring.
Thereat hang signets three :

* Hae, tak' thee that, mine ain dear thing.

And still hae mind o' me ;
But, if thou take another lord.

Ere I come ower the sea, —
His life is but a three days' lease,

Tho' I may not stay wi' thee.'

The wind was fair, the ship was clear,

That good lord went away ;
And most part of his friends were there

To give him a fair convey.
They drank the wine, they didna spar't,

Even in that gude lord's sight.
Sae now he's o'er the floods sae gray,

And Lord Maxwell has ta'en his Good night.

Lord Maxwell, weary of exile, and probably hoping that the lapse

VOL. II. E

24 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

of time had mollified the resentment of the Johnstones, ventured to
return to Scotland in 1612 ; but he soon discovered that his enemies
were as eager as ever for vengeance, and made such keen pursuit
after him on the Borders, that he resolved to take refuge in Sweden,
His relative, George Sinclair, fifth Earl of Caithness, however, per-
suaded him to delay taking this step, and offered to give him, in
the meantime, shelter on his estates in the north. Maxwell accepted
this offer, and proceeded to Caithness, in reliance on his kinsman's
promise and honour; but the Earl, in order to obtain the favour
of the Government, basely betrayed him, and caused him to be
arrested and carried a prisoner to Castle Sinclair. He was brought
to Edinburgh 19th September, 1612, by orders of the Privy Council,
and warded in the Tolbooth there.

Sir James Johnstone, the son of the murdered chief, and his
mother, and even his grandmother, who was labouring under some
sickness, lost no time in petitioning the King that justice should be
executed on Lord Maxwell, and travelled to Edinburgh for the
express purpose of pressing their demand. An earnest effort was
made by Maxwell's friends to effect a reconciliation between him
and the relatives of the deceased Laird of Johnstone. He first of
all humbly confessed and craved mercy for his offence against God,
the King, and the surviving relatives of Sir James Johnstone ; and
testified, by his solemn oath, that the unhappy slaughter was not
committed by him upon forethought, or set purpose, but upon mere
accident. Secondly, he was willing, not only for himself, but for
his whole kin and friends, to forgive the slaughter of his father by
the Laird of Johnstone and his accomplices. Thirdly, in order to
establish friendship between the houses of Maxwell and Johnstone,
he was willing to marry the daughter of the deceased Sir James
without any tocher. Fourthly, he proposed that the young Laird of
Johnstone should marry his sister's daughter, and offered to give
with her a dowry of 20,000 merks Scots, and whatever additional
sum should be thought expedient by the advice of friends. Lastly,
he was content to be banished the kingdom for seven years, or
longer, at the wish and pleasure of the Laird of Johnstone. These
offers were to be augmented at the discretion of common friends to
be chosen for that purpose.*

It is not known whether these proposals were submitted by the
Privy Council to the relations of the deceased Laird of Johnstone ;
* Book of Carlaverock, i. pp. 321-2.

The MaxTJoells. 25

the Government, however, were determined — no doubt with the
full approval of the King — to carry into effect the sentence which
had been pronounced upon Lord Maxwell in his absence. But, as
Sir Walter Scott remarks, ' in the best actions of that monarch, there
seems to have been an unfortunate tincture of that meanness so
visible on the present occasion. Lord Maxwell was indicted for the
murder of Johnstone ; but this was combined with a charge of ^re-
rahing, which, according to the ancient Scottish law, if perpetrated
by a landed man, constituted a species of treason, and inferred
forfeiture. Thus the noble purpose of public justice was sullied by
being united with that of enriching some needy favourite.'

Lord Maxwell was beheaded at the Cross of Edinburgh on the
21st of May, 1613. 'He refused to receive any religious instruc-
tion, or consolation from the ministers, declaring that he was a
Catholic man, and not of their religion.' He acknowledged, on the
scaffold, the justice of his sentence, asking mercy from God and
forgiveness from the son, widow, mother, and friends of the deceased
Laird of Johnstone.

' The execution of Lord Maxwell,' says Sir Walter Scott, ' put a
final end to the foul debate between the Maxwells and the John-
stones, in the course of which each family lost two chieftains ; one
dying of a broken heart, one in the field of battle, one by assassina-
tion, and one by the sword of the executioner.'

On the death of John, ninth Lord Maxwell, on the scaffold, the
representation of the house of Maxwell devolved on his younger
brother Robert ; but the titles and extensive estates of the family
were forfeited to the Crown in i6og, and considerable portions of
the land had been granted to influential persons, who were not
willing to give them up. A number of years, therefore, elapsed
before Robert, tenth Lord Maxwell, was fully reinstated in the
possession of the lands and dignities of his ancestors. King James,
commiserating his pecuniary difficulties, ordered _;^ 2,000 sterling to
be given him out of the Royal Exchequer of Scotland in October,

16 16, and he obtained large loans from Sir William Graham of
Braco and other friends, to assist him in his efforts to recover the
Maxwell estates, which an Act of Parliament passed 28th June,

1617, declared him capable of possessing. In December of that
year. Lord Cranstoun resigned to him the barony of Cranstoun ; and
finally, the King, by three letters patent, dated 5th October, 161 8,
13th March, 1619, and 29th August, 1620, restored to him 'the

26 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

lands, rents, living, teinds, offices, and dignities ' that belonged to
his predecessors. This last- mentioned patent set forth that, 'calling
to remembrance the constant hatred between the families of Morton
and Maxwell, and also its being unusual for two earls to wear the
same title, his Majesty, by his sole authority, changed the title of
Earl of Morton, which he had conferred on the deceased Lord
Maxwell, into that of Earl of Nithsdale, which he now conferred
on Lord Maxwell, his son, whose designation would be Lord
Maxwell, Lord Eskdale, and Earl of Nithsdale.' But it was ex-
pressly declared that this change was without prejudice to the
antiquity of the former titles.

The title of Nithsdale, as Mr. Eraser remarks, was more appro-
priate as a family title of honour than that of Morton, for which it
was exchanged. Morton had not been previously in the family as a
territorial possession, and they acquired only a quasi right through
the marriage of a co-heiress. On the other hand, the rich and
beautiful vale of the Nith, in Dumfriesshire, through which the river
Nith flows, was historically associated with the Maxwells. From a
very early period they owned the castle of Carlaverock, which was
the key to the whole of that district. The family also, through its
heads and branches, had long possessed large territories on both
banks of the Nith, from its mouth where it falls into the Solway
Firth, to nearly the source of that river in the parish of Dalmel-
lington, in Ayrshire.*

Unlike his brother and his predecessors, the Earl of Nithsdale was
a man of peace, and he strove to staunch the feuds which had so
long existed between the Maxwells and the Murrays of Cockpool, and
the Johnstones. On the 17th of June, 1623, the Earl and James
Johnstone of Westraw appeared before the Privy Council, and in
testimony of their reconciliation ' choppit hands.' In his pecuniary
difficulties, as well as in his disputes with the other nobles respecting
precedence and privileges, the Earl of Nithsdale was powerfully
aided by the Lord Chancellor, the celebrated ' Tarn o' the Cowgate,'
who held him in personal esteem, and with his characteristic shrewd-
ness had an eye to the favour of the powerful Duke of Buckingham,
whose niece Lord Nithsdale had married. As both the Earl and his
cautioners were hard pressed by his creditors, the King was induced
to interfere for his protection, and to arrest the proceedings against
him ; an act of gracious interference which had to be repeated more
* Book of Carlaverock, i. pp. 329-30.

The Maxwells. 27

than once. As might have been expected, Lord Nithsdale was a
strenuous supporter of Charles I. in his arbitrary policy, and in
1625 he was sent down as Royal Commissioner to hold a convention
of the Estates, for the purpose of obtaining the surrender of all the
tithes and other ecclesiastical property which had been forfeited to
the Crown at the time of the Reformation, and had been granted by
James to the nobility and royal favourites. But this demand the
nobles, most of whom had shared in the plunder of the Church, were
determined to resist to the last extremity. Bishop Burnet states
that a number of them conspired, and resolved that if the Com-
missioner persisted in requiring an unconditional surrender of the
teinds, ' they would fall upon him and all his party in the old
Scottish manner, and knock him on the head.' Lord Belhaven, one
of the conspirators, though old and blind, resolved to make sure of at
least one victim, and being seated beside the Earl of Dumfries, seized
upon the Earl of Nithsdale with one hand, and was prepared, should
any disturbance arise, to plunge a dagger into his heart. Perceiving
this determined opposition, Nithsdale disguised his instructions,
and returned to London without accomplishing the object of his
mission.*

The encouragement and support which the Earl afforded to the
Roman Catholics in Dumfries and its vicinity gave great offence to
the Presbyterians, and the ministers of that town complained to the
Privy Council in strong terms of ' the insolent behaviour of the
Papists ' in those parts, imputing the blame to the Earl of Nithsdale
and Lord Herries. ' It is a pity,' wrote Archbishop Spottiswood
to the Earl, that * your Lordship will not be movit to leave that
unhappie course which shall undoe your Lordship, and make us all
sorry that love you ; and how much prejudice the meanwhile this
will bring to his Majestie's service, I cannot express.' The Arch-
bishop exhorts him as he loves his Majesty, the standing of his
house, ay, and the safety of his soul, to take another course, and
resolve at least to be a hearer of the Word, ' for your Lordship not
resorting to the Church, when you were last at Edinburgh, hath given
your adversaries greater advantage than anything else.'

When the Civil War broke out between Charles L and the

Scots, the Earl of Nithsdale zealously supported the royal cause,

and he garrisoned his castles of Carlaverock and Thrieve, furnishing

them with a large quantity of arms, ammunition, and provisions,

* Burnet's History of his own Times, i. p. 24.

28 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

in order that they might sustain a protracted siege. Carlaverock,
which had been greatly injured by the English invaders in 1570, was
restored by him to more than its original strength. The Estates
hearing of his preparations, sent a strong body of troops under
Colonel Home to besiege that stronghold. It held out for thirteen
weeks, though powerful batteries were brought to bear upon it;
but as no relief could be sent, the Earl, with the approval of the
King, surrendered on very favourable terms. The inventory of the
household furniture of the castle, preserved at Terregles, gives an
interesting account of the splendour and elegance of the establish-
ment, and throws much light on the domestic condition of the great
baronial families of Scotland at that period.* Carlaverock was
shortly after dismantled by order of the Committee of Estates, as
was the castle of Thrieve, which was also surrendered to the
Covenanters. The Earl complained bitterly that faith had not been
kept with him in this matter, and that the losses which he had
suffered in violation of the terms of the capitulation amounted to
not less than/ 1 5,000 sterling.

The ill-fated nobleman was sequestrated in the year 1643, and his
whole rents, amounting to ;^3,ooo sterling, were seized by the
dominant party. In the following year he was not only forfeited by
the Estates, but also excommunicated by the Church. With the
exception of two brief intervals, the Earl remained in exile from the
year 1639 till the time of his death. He died and was buried in the
Isle of Man in 1646. His wife survived him a quarter of a centur}^

Robert, second Earl of Nithsdale, the only son of the first Earl,
was, like his father, a steadfast supporter of the royal cause during
the Great Civil War, He was taken prisoner on the 1 2th of October,

1644, when the town of Newcastle was stormed by General Leslie,
and was imprisoned in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh till after the
defeat of the Covenanters at Kilsyth by Montrose, on 15th August,

1645. ^'^ -^ct of Parliament was passed in 1647, restoring him
against his father's forfeiture, but the estates of the family were so
heavily burdened in consequence of the losses sustained during the
Civil War, that he was compelled to sell the barony of Mearns to Sir
George Maxwell of Pollok, and Langholm to the curators for the
Duke of Buccleuch and Monmouth. On the restoration of Charles II.
the Earl was persuaded by the urgent advice of his friends to go up

* Book of Carlaverock, i. p. 358.

The Maxwells. 29

to London, and submit to the King a statement of the injuries which
had been inflicted on him and his father in consequence of their
exertions in the royal cause, and to press on his Majesty his claims
for compensation. The amount spent on maintaining the castle of
Carlaverock, the destruction of the ' haill moveables and plenishing'
of that stronghold, the College of Lincluden, and the castles of
Dumfries and Thrieve, together with the rents uplifted during the
disturbances, amounted, he alleged, to more than ,^40,000 sterling.
But with the characteristic ingratitude of the Stewarts, the claims of
the Earl were neglected, and no compensation appears ever to have
been made to him. Earl Robert was commonly designated * The
Philosopher.' Among other pursuits he was said to have been
addicted to the study of astrology. He died in the Isle of Car-
laverock, unmarried, 5th October, 1667, and was succeeded by his
kinsman, John Maxwell, seventh Lord Herries, the eldest of eight
sons of the sixth Lord Herries by his wife, a daughter of John,
seventh Lord Maxwell and Earl of Morton.

John, third Earl of Nithsdale, like his predecessors, suffered heavy
losses for his adherence to the royal cause during the Great Civil
War. Detachments of the Parliamentary troops were quartered no
less than seven times on him and his tenants, and destroyed and plun-
dered his effects. Large fines also were imposed upon him, and con-
siderable sums were exacted from him to maintain the forces raised
by the Committee of Estates. His life and estates were forfeited by
the Parliament, and he was excommunicated by the Church for sup-
porting the King. After the Restoration he presented a petition to
the Parliament in 1661, ' humbly praying that they would appoint
some of their number to cognosce upon his sufferings for his loyalty
and obedience to the King, in his person, means, and estate.' The
committee nominated for this purpose reported that the Earl's losses
were estimated to amount to the sum of ^77,322 12s. Scots,
' besides the insupportable burden of cess and quarterings to which
he was liable, with the rest of the kingdom, during the late unhappy
troubles.' But it does not appear that he obtained any compen-
sation for his sufferings and losses in the royal cause. The Earl,
however, continued through life a steady supporter of the Govern-
ment, and was repeatedly required by the Privy Council to take
an active part in the suppression of conventicles, and the appre-
hension and punishment of the Covenanting ministers and their

20 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

adherents. He died in 1677, having enjoyed the title and estates
of Hemes for thirty-five years, and afterwards the earldom of Niths-
dale and the Maxwell estates for eleven years. He had by his wife,
a daughter of Sir Robert Gordon of Lochinvar, three sons, the eldest
of whom —

Robert Maxwell, became fourth Earl of Nithsdale. Like his
father, he was a staunch supporter of the arbitrary and oppressive
Government of Charles II. and his brother James, and a persecutor
of the Covenanters. He received repeated commissions from the
Privy Council to apprehend outed ministers, or preachers who kept
conventicles, or substantial persons who had been present at them,
and various communications passed between him and the notorious
persecutor, John Graham of Claverhouse, regarding the measures
which they adopted in carrying out the instructions of the Government.
Lord Nithsdale was rewarded for his services with a grant from King
Charles of ;^ 200 a year, which was subsequently exchanged for a
grant of as much land out of the forfeited estates of the Covenanters,
within the county of Wigton and the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, as
would yield a free yearly rent of 4,000 merks Scots (^228 14s.
sterling) besides the payment of such a portion of his annual rent as
was then in arrears. The forfeited estates of Alexander Hunter of
Colquhasben, in the parish of Old Luce, was given to the Countess
of Nithsdale, and not less than seventeen other forfeited estates of
Covenanting lairds were gifted to the sons of Lord Nithsdale, and
retained by them until the Revolution of 1688. The Earl died in
1683. It appears that notwithstanding the royal pension and the
gifts of the lands of the Presbyterians, he was through life in embar-
rassed circumstances. When called on to visit Edinburgh to settle
his accounts, as Steward of Kirkcudbright, with the Exchequer, he
had to obtain protection from his creditors, who had taken out
captions against him. After Earl Robert's death his widow, a
daughter of the Marquis of Douglas, obtained a pension of ;^ 200
a year, on the ground of ' the low condition of the family of Nithsdale
and the great burdens that lay on the estate.' ' She skilfully
managed not only the household affairs at Terregles, but other
pecuniary and property transactions, doing all in her power to
retrieve the fortunes of the family, and to liquidate the debts and
incumbrances with which the estate was burdened.' The Earl was
succeeded by his eldest son —

The Maxwells. 31

William Maxwell, fifth and last Earl of Nithsdale. His sister
Mary became the wife of Charles, fourth Earl of Traquair, and
proved a most generous and forbearing friend to her brother, who
was only seven years of age at the time of his father's death. His
mother and other curators, evidently fearing that a change of Govern-
ment might deprive them of the forfeited lands of the Covenanters,
of which the late Earl and his son had received a gift from the
Crown, made repeated efforts to obtain authority to dispose of them ;
but the Lords of Council and Session refused their consent, and
these lands were ultimately restored to their rightful owners. On
attaining his majority, the Earl repaired to St. Germains and did
homage to the exiled Prince, whom he continued to regard as his
lawful sovereign. He there fell in love with Lady Winnifred Herbert,
fifth and youngest daughter of the Marquis of Powis, whom he married
in the spring of 1699, and brought to his house at Terregles. Earl
William, like his predecessors, was a member of the Church of Rome,
and like other Roman Catholics at that time, seems to have suffered
a good deal of annoyance from the over-zealous and intolerant Pres-
byterians of the district. Upon the 34th of December, 1703, a
fanatical mob of upwards of a hundred persons, headed or instigated
by the ministers of Irongray, Torthorwald, Kirkmahoe, and Tinwald,
attacked the house of Terregles, under cloud of night, armed with
guns, and swords, and other weapons, and under pretence of searching
for priests and Jesuits, broke open the gates, violently entered the
house, and searched all the rooms. All this was done while the Earl
was absent, and the Countess indisposed and confined to her bed-
chamber. Criminal letters were raised by the Earl against the ring-
leaders in these outrageous and disgraceful proceedings, and they
were summoned to appear before the Court of Justiciary to answer
for their conduct. On the other hand, the minister of Irongray and
his accomplices raised criminal letters against the Earl of Nithsdale
and Maxwell of Kirkconnell, whom they accused of hearing mass in
secret, and harbouring 'Jesuits, priests, and trafficking Papists.' In
the end the case was compromised, and both actions were withdrawn.

It is well known that even before the death of Queen Anne the
leading Jacobites in Scotland had .resolved to take up arms for the
restoration of the exiled Stewarts to the British throne, and some of
them had adopted measures to secure their estates, in case the enter-
prise should fail. The Earl- of Nithsdale was one of this class, and
on the 28th of November, 17 12, he executed a disposition of his

VOL. II. F

32 The Great Historic Fa7nilies of Scotland.

estates to his only son, reserving, however, his own life rent and that
of his wife, with power to make some provision for their younger
children. This prudent precaution saved the family estates from
forfeiture, when the Earl was tried and condemned for his share in
the rebellion of 17 15, though it did not prevent him from contracting
heavy debts, which rendered it necessary that his affairs should be
placed in the hands of trustees.

In the year 17 15, when Mar raised the standard of rebellion in
the Highlands, and the Northumbrian Jacobites took up arms under
Mr. Forster and the Earl of Derwentwater, the adherents of the
Stewart cause in Dumfriesshire and Galloway joined them on the
Borders. As the Earl of Nithsdale was a Roman Catholic, it was
deemed inexpedient to place him, as would otherwise have been
done, at their head, and the chief command was given to Viscount
Kenmure, the representative of the Galloway Gordons, who was a
Protestant. The remembrance of the cruel persecutions of the Cove-
nanters was too strong in the district to permit the great body of the
people to show any zeal on behalf of the son of James VII. Even the
tenants of the Jacobite leaders took up arms in support of the Govern-
ment, and the Earl of Nithsdale, as he himself stated, was attended
by only four of his own domestics when he joined the insurgents.
The insurrection was so wretchedly mismanaged that it never had
the slightest chance of success. The combined force advanced as
far as to Preston, and was there surrounded by the royal troops, and
compelled to surrender at discretion. The noblemen and principal
officers were conveyed to London, and committed to prison. The
Earl of Nithsdale and the other lords were sent to the Tower, and
were brought to trial on January 19th, 17 16, before the House of
Lords, on a charge of treason. They pleaded guilty, no doubt with
the hope that a confession of guilt might possibly incline the King to
grant them a pardon. Sentence of death was pronounced upon them
by the Lord Chancellor Cowper, who acted as High Steward at the
trial, and their execution was appointed to take place on the 24th of
February.

The Countess of Nithsdale remained at Terregles while the insur-
rection lasted ; but on hearing of the surrender and imprisonment of
the Earl in London, she resolved at once to join him, though it was
the depth of winter, and a season of unusual rigour. Leaving her
infant daughter in the charge of her sister-in-law. Lady Traquair,
and burying the family papers in the garden, she set out, attended

The Maxwells. 33

only by her maid, Cecilia Evans by name, A heavy snowstorm had
stopped the coaches, but she made her way on horseback across the
Border, and then from Newcastle to York. There she found a place
on the coach for herself alone, and was obliged to hire a horse for
her maid. She wrote from Stamford, on Christmas Day, to Lady
Traquair, mentioning the troubles she had experienced in her journey.
' The ill weather,' she says, ' ways, and other accidents, has made
the coach not get further than Grentun (Grantham), and the snow is
so deep it is impossible it should stir without some change of weather ;
upon which I have again hired horses, and shall go the rest of the
journey on horseback to London, though the snow is so deep that
our horses yesterday were in several places almost buried in it.
To-morrow I shall set forward again. I must confess such a journey
I believe was scarce ever made, considering the weather, by a woman.
But an earnest desire compasses a great deal with God's help. If I
meet my dear lord well, and am so happy as to be able to serve him,
I shall think all my trouble well repaid.'

Lady Nithsdale reached London in safety, but on her arrival she
was thrown, by her great anxiety and the hardships she had under-
gone on her journey, into * a violent sickness,' which confined her
for some days to her bed. With considerable difficulty, and under
some restrictions, she obtained admission to her husband in the
Tower. 'Now and then, by favour,' she wrote, 'I get a sight of
him.'

The Countess had no hopes that the King would relent, but to
satisfy her husband, who did not despair of pardon, she consented to
make an effort to present a petition to his Majesty, who she knew
had taken precautions to prevent any one from obtaining access to
him, on behalf of the condemned lords. Knowing that he must
pass through a public room between the royal apartment and the
drawing-room, she waited for him there. As he passed she knelt
down and presented the petition, telling him in French that she was
the unhappy Countess of Nithsdale. King George, who was a coarse
and brutal man, passed on, taking no notice of her. She laid hold
of the skirt of his coat, pathetically appealing to his mercy, and was
dragged by him, upon her knees, from the middle of the public apart-
ment to the door of the drawing-room. One of the royal bodyguard
put his arms round her waist and pulled her back, while another of
them disengaged the skirt of the King's coat from her hand. The
poor lady was left, almost fainting, on the floor. The petition which

34 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

she tried to put into the King's pocket was picked up by a bystander
and given to the Earl of Dorset, who was the Lord of the Bedchamber
then in waiting. He contrived to get the petition read more than
once to the King, and to make his Majesty aware that the King of
England never used to refuse a petition from the hands of the poorest
woman, and that it was a gratuitous and unheard-of brutality to treat
as he did a person of Lady Nithsdale's quality. As might have been
expected from his character and habits, the ex-Hanoverian Elector,
so far from feeling sorry for his behaviour, was only embittered
against the Countess by the manner in which his treatment of her
was condemned. So far did he carry his resentment, that when the
ladies whose husbands had been concerned in the insurrection put in
claims for their jointures, he declared that Lady Nithsdale did not
deserve, and should not obtain hers, and to this determination he
obstinately adhered.

The noble-minded lady, however, still persevered in her efforts, to
save the life of her husband. On the 2 1 st of February, the Rev. J. Scott
wrote to Lady Traquair, * I must needs doe my Lady the justice of
assuring your ladyship that she has left no stone unturned, that she
has omitted nothing that could be expected from the most loving
wife on earth.' He adds that she presented her petition to the
King in such a manner that ' the whole Court was moved to a tender
compassion. The whole town applauds her and extoUes her to the
skyes for it, and many who thirst after the blood of the others, wish
my Lord Nithisdaill may be spared to his Lady.'

A petition craving the intercession of the House of Lords was
presented by the wives of the condemned noblemen, and an address
to the King, praying that he would reprieve such of them as should
deserve his mercy, was carried, on the 22nd of February, by a
majority of five. The Ministers, at a meeting of Council held the
same evening, resolved to comply with the feeling of the House, so
far as to respite the Earls of Carnwath and Nithsdale, and Lords
Widdrington and Nairne; but to prevent any further interference,
the Earl of Derwentwater and Viscount Kenmure were ordered for
execution next morning. The Countess of Nithsdale had, however,
given up all hope of a reprieve, for she was aware that the proviso
attached to the address to the King meant that those only should be
recommended for pardon who would give information respecting
their friends that had taken part, though less openly, in the insur-
rection. But she well knew, as she says, that her lord would never

The Maxwells. 35

purchase life on such terms. ' Nor,' adds the high-minded woman,
' would I have desired it.'

As the execution of the condemned lords was appointed for the
24th, there was no time to lose in carrying out the project she had
secretly formed of effecting the Earl's escape in woman's clothes.
To further her design, she says in the account which she gave of
the enterprise, after the Lords had agreed to petition the King, she
hastened to the Tower, and putting on a joyous air she went up to
the guards at each station, and told them that she brought good
news. There was now, she said, no fear of the prisoners, as the
motion that the Lords should intercede with the King had passed.
She rightly judged that the sentries, believing that the prisoners were
on the eve of being pardoned, would become, of course, less vigilant.
At each station she gave the guards some money, bidding them
drink the health of the King and the Peers. But she was careful, as
she says, not to be profuse in her gifts, in case they should suspect
that she had some design 5n foot in which she wished to obtain their
connivance.

Lord Nithsdale was confined in the house of Colonel D'Oyly,
Lieutenant-Deputy of the Tower, in a small room which looked out
on Water Lane, the ramparts, and the wharf, and was sixty feet
from the ground. The way from the room was through the Council
Chambers. The door of his room was guarded by one sentinel,
that floor by two, the passages and stairs by several, and the outer
gate by two. Escape under such circumstances seemed to be
impossible, and Lady Nithsdale mentions that ' her chief difficulty
lay in persuading the Earl to take advantage of the means she had
planned for his escape. It would have seemed to him a more likely
means of escape to force his way, sword in hand, through the guard.'
Lord Nithsdale was still ignorant, on the 22nd, of his lady's design
for his deliverance ; and on that day he wrote a farewell letter to his
brother-in-law, the Earl of Traquair, and the Countess, his own
sister. He also prepared a dying speech, which he intended to read
on the scaffold, stating the reasons why he had taken part in the
rebellion, and expressing his regret that he had pleaded guilty
at his trial.

The morning of the 23rd, the last before the intended execution,
was spent by Lady Nithsdale in making preparations for her attempt,
especially in securing the assistance of a Mrs. Morgan, a friend of
her maid, Mrs. Evans. When she was ready to go, she sent for

36 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

Mrs. Mills, at whose house she was lodging, and said : ' Finding
now there is no farther room for hope of my lord's pardon, nor
longer time than this night, I am resolved to endeavour his escape.
I have provided all that is requisite for it, and I hope you will not
refuse to come along with me, to the end that he may pass for you.
Nay, more, I must beg you will come immediately, because we are
full late.' Lady Nithsdale had very judiciously delayed this request
till the last possible minute, so that Mrs. Mills might decide on the
impulse of the moment, out of sympathy for the condemned noble-
man, and she at once gave her consent. Lady Nithsdale then
desired Mrs. Morgan, who was tall and slender — her height not un-
like Lord Nithsdale' 5 — to put under her own riding-hood another
which the Countess had provided to put on Mrs. Mills, who was to
give her own to the Earl. All three then stepped into the coach
which was waiting for them, and ' not to give them leisure to think
of the consequences,' as they drove to the Tower ' her ladyship con-
tinued without ceasing to talk with them.'

On arriving at their destination, Lady Nithsdale took in Mrs.
Morgan, as she was allowed to take in only one person at a time.
Within the Earl's chamber Mrs. Morgan took out and left the riding-
hood which she had brought beneath her clothes, and then Lady
Nithsdale conducted her out again, going with her partly down-stairs,
saying to her at parting, ' Pray do me the kindness to send my maid
to me, that I may be dressed, else I shall be too late with my petition.'
Having thus sent away Mrs. Morgan, the Countess took Mrs. Mills
into the room, who came in holding her handkerchief to her face, as
though in tears, intending that the Earl should go out in the same
manner, in order to conceal his face from the guards. The two ladies
when alone with the Earl set about disguising him. His eyebrows
were black and thick, while those of Mrs. Mills were somewhat yellow,
but some yellow paint on his eyebrows, and ringlets of the same
coloured hair, which the Countess had brought, put this to rights.
He had a long beard, which there was not time to shave, but the
Cpuntess covered it with some white paint, and put a little red upon
his cheeks. Mrs. Mills next took off the riding-hood in which she
came, and put on instead that which Mrs. Morgan had brought.
They then equipped the Earl in the riding-hood which the guards
had seen on Mrs. Mills as she came in, and completed his disguise
by the aid of some of Lady Nithsdale' s petticoats.

These arrangements having been made, Lady Nithsdale opened

The Maxwells. 37

the door and led out Mrs. Mills, saying aloud, in a tone of great
concern, ' Dear Mrs. Catherine, I must beg you to go in all haste
and look for my woman, for she certainly does not know what o'clock
it is, and has forgot the petition I am to give, which should I miss is
irreparable, having but this one night. Let her make all the haste
she can possible, for I shall be upon thorns till she comes.' There
were nine persons, the sons and daughters of the guards, in the
anteroom through which she passed with Mrs. Mills while uttering
these words, who all seemed to feel for the Countess, and readily
made way for her companion. The sentinels at the outer door opened
it immediately and let Mrs. Mills out, who did not go out as she
had come in, with a handkerchief at her eyes, as if weeping. Lady
Nithsdale then returning to the Earl, ' and having got him quite
ready, now she thought was the time for action,' It was growing
very dark, and afraid lest the keepers should bring in the candles,
which would have defeated her pains, she without longer delay came
out of the room, leading by the hand the Earl, who was clothed in the
attire of Mrs. Mills, and held a handkerchief about his eyes, as if in
tears, which served to conceal his face. To prevent suspicion slie
spoke to him, apparently in great grief, loudly lamenting that her
maid, Evans, had been so neglectful, and had ruined her by her long
delay. * So, dear Mrs. Betty,' she added, ' run and bring her with
you, for God's sake ! You know my lodgings, and if ever you made
haste in your life do it now, for I am almost distracted with this dis-
appointment.' The guards believing that a reprieve was at hand,
had not taken much heed of the ladies coming and going, nor had
exactly reckoned their number. They quickly opened the door, with-
out the least suspicion, to Lady Nithsdale and her disguised lord,*
and both accordingly went down-stairs, she still conjuring him, as
' dear Mrs. Betty,' to make haste. As soon as they had passed the
door. Lady Nithsdale stepped behind the Earl, lest the sentinels
might have noticed that his gait was far different from a lady's. At
the foot of the stairs she found Mrs. Evans, to whom she committed
her companion, and having then seen him safe out of the Tower, she
returned to his room.

It had been arranged that the husband of Mrs. Mills was to wait
for them in the open space before the Tower. He had come accord-

* ' From the woman's cloak and hood,' says Allan Cunningham, 'in which the
Earl was disguised, the Jacobites of the north formed a new token of cognizance : all
the ladies who favoured the Stewarts wore " Nithsdales," till fashion got the better of
political love.' — Songs of Scotland, iii. p. 188.

38 The Great Historic Fatnilies of Scotland.

ingly, but on seeing Mrs. Evans and the disguised nobleman he
completely lost his head, and, instead of assisting them, ran home.
Mrs. Evans, however, retained her presence of mind, and conducted
Lord Nithsdale to a house near Drury Lane belonging to a friend of
her own, in whom she could confide. Thence proceeding to Mrs.
Mills's house, she learnt from her where the place of concealment
was which she had provided. It was a house just before the Court
of Guards, belonging to a poor woman who had but one little room
up a small pair of stairs, and containing one little bed.

Meanwhile, Lady Nithsdale was engaged, in the chamber lately
occupied by the Earl, in keeping up appearances to make the guards
believe that he was still there, ' She affected to speak to him and
to answer as if he had spoken to her. Imitated his voice, and walked
up and down the room as If they had been walking and talking
together, till she thought he had time enough to be out of reach.'
' I then began to think,' she adds, ' it was fit for me to get out of It
also.' Then opening the door to depart she went half out, and
holding it In her hand, so that those without might hear, she took
what professed to be an affectionate and solemn leave - of her lord
for that night, saying that something more than usual must have
caused the delay of Mrs. Evans in coming to her, and adding that
she must go herself In search of her. She promised that If the
Tower were still open after she had done she would see him again
that night, but that otherwise she would see him In the morning,
and hoped to bring him good news. Before shutting the door she
drew to the Inside a little string that lifted up a wooden latch, so that
it could only be opened by those within, and she then shut the door
with a flap, so that It might be securely closed. As she was passing
out she told the Earl's valet de chambre, who knew nothing of the
plan of escape, that his lordship was at prayers, and did not wish the
candles brought till he called for them.

On leaving the Tower Lady Nithsdale took one of the hackney
coaches waiting In the open space, and drove first to her own lodg-
ings. There she dismissed the coach for fear of being traced, and
went In a sedan-chair to the. house of Anne, Duchess of Buccleuch,
who, as the widow of the unfortunate Monmouth, could sympathise
with Lady Nithsdale in her anxieties. The Duchess had promised to
accompany her when she went to present her petition. She did not
go up to the Duchess, as she had company, but left a message at her
door, with her ' most humble service,' to say that her Grace need not

The Maxwells. 39

give herself any further trouble, as it was now thought fit to present
a general petition in the name of all the condemned lords. Again
changing her conveyance and calling another sedan-chair, Lady
Nithsdale went to the house of the Duke of Montrose. His Grace was
a supporter of the Government, but the Duchess, a daughter of the
Earl of Northesk, was her personal friend. Lady Nithsdale being
shown into a room up-stairs, the Duchess quickly joined her. 'There,'
as she wrote, ' as my heart was very light, I smiled when she came
into the chamber, and ran to her in great joy. She really started
when she saw me, and since owned that she thought my head was
turned with trouble till I told her my good fortune.'

The Duchess recommended her to go to a place of safety, as the
King was greatly incensed against her on account of the petition
which she had presented to him, and declared that she would go to
the Court, and see how the news of the Earl's escape was received.
She went accordingly and found that ' the Elector,' as she termed
him, 'had stormed terribly,' and said ' he was betrayed, for such an
event could not have happened without connivance ;' and he imme-
diately despatched two of his suite to the Tower to see that the other
prisoners were well guarded. At a later time, when his anger had
subsided, he is said to have remarked that ' for a man in my Lord's
situation it was the very best thing he could have done.'

On leaving the Duchess of Montrose, Lady Nithsdale went to
a house which Mrs. Evans had previously found for her, and was in-
formed by that clever and trusty domestic of the Earl's hiding-place,
to which she immediately repaired. Referring to the ' poor little bed,'
in the room, she says : ' Into this bed we were forced to go immedi-
ately, for feare they should heare more walking than usual. She
[Mrs. Evans] left us a bottle of wine and some bread, and Mrs. Mills
brought us some more the next day in her pocket ; but other things
we gott nott, from Thursday evening to Saturday evening, that Mrs.
Mills came when it was dark, and cary'd my Lord to the Venetian
Ambassador's. She did not communicate the affair to his Excellency,
but one of his servants concealed him in his own room till Wednes-
day.' On that day a servant of the ambassador, Mitchell by name,
was ordered to go down to Dover with a coach and six horses to
bring the ambassador's brother to London. The Earl put on a livery
coat and travelled as one of the train to Dover, where, hiring a
small vessel, he crossed without suspicion, and, accompanied by
Mitchell, landed safe at Calais. The passage across was made

VOL. II. G

40 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

so quickly that the master of the vessel remarked that the wind could
not have served better if his passengers had been fleeing for their
lives — little thinking that this was really the case.

The, escape of Lord Nithsdale delighted not only the Jacobite
friends of the family, but even many of the supporters of the Hano-
verian dynasty. Lady Cowper, the wife of the Lord Chancellor, thus
notes the event in her Diary :— * It is confirmed that Lord Nithes-
dale is escaped. I hope he'll get clear off. I never was better
pleased at anything in my life, and I believe everybody is the same.'*
The ' cummer,' in the homely contemporary song entitled ' What
news to me, cummer ? ' declares that she had brought ' the best news
that God can gie,' that ' our gude Lord of Nithesdale has won frae
'mang them a' ; ' but —

' Alake the day ! ' quo' the cummer,

' Alake the day,' quo' she,
' He's fled awa' to bonnie France,

Wi' nought but ae pennie ! '
' We'll sell a' our corn, cummer,
W^'ll sell a' our bear,
And we'll send to our ain lord
A' our sett gear.'

It soon appeared that though the Nithsdale tenantry had sent their
lord ' a' their gear,' he would have spent it all on his own selfish
indulgences.

The Countess remained for some time concealed in London, having
learned that so long as she kept out of sight she would not be
molested, but that if she appeared in public, either in England or
Scotland, she would be apprehended. Her presence, however, was
urgently required in Scotland. The Earl had sent for her to come
up to town in such haste that she had no time to settle his affairs,
and she had been obliged to conceal the family papers, as they would
otherwise have fallen into the hands of the enemy, who, she was sure,

* There is a close resemblance between the manner in which Lord Nithsdale
escaped from the Tower and the escape of Count Lavalette from the Conciergerie prison
at Paris, in 1815. The likeness, however, was from mere coincidence, and not at all
from imitation. But though the treatment which the Countess of Nithsdale received
from King George and his Ministers was mean and ungenerous, it contrasts favourably
with the cruel and, indeed, brutal treatment by the Bourbon Government of Madame
Lavalette, a niece of the Empress Josephine. She had been in childbed only a few
weeks before her husband's escape, and her strength was not returned. She had to
remain behind in the prison chamber occupied by the Count, and was kept there for
six weeks, all access of friends or domestics, or even of her daughter, denied her. Her
reason gave way, and after she was released from the prison she had to be placed in
an asylum. Her mental malady hung upon her for twelve years, and she continued
subject to a settled melancholy until her death in 1855.

The Maxwells. 41

would search the house, as they did, after her departure. ' In short,'
she says, ' as I had once exposed my Hfe for the safety of the father,
I could do no less than hazard it once more for the fortune of the son.'
The Countess accordingly went to Scotland, saved the family papers,
lived there for some weeks without molestation, and then returned to
London. ' On my arrival,' she says, ' the report was still fresh of my
journey into Scotland, in defiance of their prohibition. A lady in-
formed me that the King was extremely incensed at the news, that
he had issued orders to have me arrested ; adding that I did whatever
I pleased in spite of all his designs, and that I had given him more
anxiety and trouble than any woman in all Europe ; ' and he gave
orders that she should be searched for. She was advised by her
friends that in these circumstances she would do wisely to leave
England.

Lady Nithsdale embarked accordingly, in July, with the intention
of proceeding to France, but in consequence of a violent attack of
sea-sickness, she was obliged to land on the coast of Flanders, where
she was detained some time by a miscarriage, and a dangerous ill-
ness. She joined her husband in October at Lille, but that re-union
did not bring her all the happiness which she had fondly hoped.
Writing to her sister, Lady Traquair, from Paris, February 29, 17 17,
she gives an affecting account of her troubles and privations. After
in vain attempting to get her husband into the service of the
Chevalier, she says, ' My next business was to see what I could get
to live on, that we might take our resolutions where to go accord-
ingly. But all I could get was one hundred livres a month, to main-
tain me in everything — meat, drink, fire, candles, washing, clothes,
lodging, servants' wages — in fine, all manner of necessaries. My
husband has two hundred livres a month, but considering his way of
managing, it was impossible to live upon it. . . . For let me do
what I will, he cannot be brought to submit to live according to what
he has ; and when I endeavoured to persuade him to keep in com-
pass, he attributed my advice to my grudging him everything, which
stopped my mouth, since I am very sure I would not [grudge] my
heart's blood if it could do him any service. ... It was neither
in gaming, company, nor much drinking that it was spent, but in
having the nicest of meat and wine, and all the service I could do
was to see he was not cheated in the buying of it. I had a little,
after our meeting at Lille, endeavoured to persuade him to go back
to his master, upon the notice that he received that fifty livres a

42 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

month was taken off his pension ; but that I did not dare persist in,
for he seemed to imagine that I had a mind to be rid of him, which
no one would have thought would scarce come into his mind.' After
mentioning that some of her husband's friends had persuaded him
to follow his master to Rome, she adds, ' I, having no hope of getting
anything out of England, am forced to go to the place where my son
is, to endeavour to live, the child and me, upon what I told you. All
my satisfaction is, that at least my husband has twice as much to
maintain himself and man as I have ; so I hope that when he sees
there is no resource — as indeed now there is not, having sold all, even
to the necessary little plate I took so much pains to bring over — he
will live accordingly, which will be some comfort to me, though I
have the mortification to be from him, which, after we met again, I
hoped never to have separated ; but God's will be done, and I submit
to this cross, as well as many others I have had in the world, though
I must confess living from a husband I love so well is a very great
one.'

When Lord Nithsdale made his escape to France, he went straight
to Paris, and there, in the course of the spring, he received a pressing
invitation from the Chevalier to go to him. ' As long as I have a
crust of bread in the world,' he said, ' assure yourself you shall
always have a share of it.' When the Earl ultimately joined his
master at Urbino, he did not receive the cordial welcome to which,
with good reason, he deemed himself entitled. He was exposed to
various mortifications at the court of the exiled Prince, and the
nearer view which he obtained of the government of the Pontiff,
either in sacred or civil affairs, does not appear to have given him
much satisfaction. ' Be assured,' he wrote to Lady Nithsdale, • there
is nothing in this damnable country that can tend to the good either
of one's soul or body.' He was bent on leaving the mimic court of
the Chevalier, where he was so much neglected, and was with great
difficulty induced by the strong representations of his wife and his
brother-in-law to remain. The Chevalier himself ' was pleased to
tell him that he had so few about him he would not part with him.'

The Earl, in the hope that his Countess would obtain a situation in
the household of the Chevalier on his marriage, which was now
settled, requested her to join him in Italy as soon as possible, since
In these matters It Is ' first come first served.' He could, however,
send her no funds for the journey, but bade her apply to Lord and
Lady Traquair, to whom she was already under many obligations.

The Maxwells. 43

By their aid, and a small sum paid to her by order of the Chevalier,
the Countess was enabled to join her husband at Urbino, and after
a brief interval to proceed with him in the Chevalier's train to Rome.
But the Earl's self-indulgent habits were unchanged. ' I found him,'
she wrote to his sister, ' still the same man as to spending, not being
able to conform himself to. what he has, which really troubles me.
And to the end that he might not be able to make me the pretence
which he wished, I do not touch a penny of what he has, but leave
it to him to maintain him and his man, which is all he has, and live
upon what is allowed me.'

The Chevalier, like his forefathers, was addicted to favouritism, and
was then under the dominion of two unworthy creatures of the para-
site class — Colonel the Hon. John Hay, a son of Lord Kinnoull, and
his wife Marjory, a daughter of Lord Stormont. They kept at a dis-
tance Lady Nithsdale and all other persons who would not promote
their influence and ends. ' But,' wrote the Countess, ' that and
many other things must be looked over ; at least we shall have bread
by being near him, and I have the happiness over again to be with
my dear husband that I love above my life.'

Year after year did this noble-minded lady continue to maintain a
courageous spirit under that ' hope deferred which makes the heart
sick.' Her sorest trial was the want of forethought and considera-
tion on the part of her husband in borrowing and spending. ' All
my comfort is,' she writes Lady Traquair, ' that I have- no share in
this misfortune, for he has never been the man that has offered me
one farthing of all the money he has taken up, and as yet all is spent,
but how is a riddle to me, for what he spends at home is but thirty
pence a day in his eating. . . . For my part, I continue in mourning
as yet for want of wherewithal to buy clothes, and I brought my
mourning with me that has served ever since I came, and was neither
with my master's or husband's money bought.' The Earl was evi-
dently a poor creature, selfish and self-indulgent, utterly unworthy of
his generous, devoted wife. He threw the blame of his borrowing and
misspending on the Countess and his daughter, who never received
from him a single penny ; and he had even the baseness to say to the
Chevalier that some property belonging of right to himself was un-
fairly detained by his brother-in-law, the Earl of Traquair, on whom
he had time after time drawn bills, trusting to his generosity for their
acceptance. Not doubting the truth of the statement, the Chevalier
wrote to one of his agents that he would take it kindly if Traquair

44 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

would settle those affairs with his kinsman to his satisfaction. • I
must say,' wrote Lady Traquair to her brother (January, 1724) in
justifiable resentment, ' it is very unkind, and a sad return for all
the favours my husband has done you before, and since you went
abroad, for he, having no effects of yours save a little household
furniture of no use to us, and what I could not get disposed of, has
honoured your bills, supplied your wants without a scrape of a pen
from you ; besides the considerable sum you owed him formerly, he
even, under God, has preserved your family, which without his
money, credit, and his son's assiduous attendance and application
must humanly speaking have sunk. He might reasonably have
expected other returns from you than complaints to one' we value so
infinitely as we do Sir John [the Chevalier], as if my husband had
wronged you and detained your own, when your sufferings justly call
for the greatest consideration.'

Although Lady Nithsdale continued to suffer from her great
troubles and illnesses, and not least from the improvident and selfish
conduct of her husband, several events occurred to cheer her. After
long litigation in the Court of Session and the House of Lords, the
entail which Lord Nithsdale had executed in 17 12 was sustained,
and Lord Maxwell, his sole surviving son, would succeed to the
family estates at the Earl's death. Practically, he came into posses-
sion of them even before that event, since the life interest of his
father was purchased from the Government for his benefit. Lady
Anne Maxwell, the only daughter of Lord and Lady Nithsdale, was
married to Lord Bellew, an Irish nobleman, at Lucca, in 1731, Lord
Maxwell, who was now resident in Scotland, had become attached
to his cousin. Lady Catherine Stewart, daughter of Lord and Lady
Traquair, and made her an offer of marriage. The old connection
between the two families, their constant friendship, and their agree-
ment both in religion and politics, rendered the proposed alliance
every way suitable, and it appears to have received the cordial appro-
bation of Lady Nithsdale and Lord and Lady Traquair. But for
some unmentioned reason — no doubt a selfish one — Lord Nithsdale
for a considerable time withheld his consent. The marriage at
length took place, however, in the course of . the year 173 1, and
appears to have been as happy as Lady Nithsdale anticipated. As
no sons were born from it, the male line of this ancient family
terminated at Lord Maxwell's death.

Lord Nithsdale continued to live at Rome in debt and difficulties,

The Maxwells. 45

still hoping that the exiled Stewart family might be restored to
the throne of their ancestors; but he did not live to witness the
last enterprise on their behalf. He died at Rome in March, 1744.
After his decease his widow was induced, though not without
difficulty, to accept an annuity of ;^200 a year from her son, who
then came into full possession of the family estates. Of this annuity
she resolved to apply one-half to the payment of her husband's debts,
which would by this means be extinguished at the end of three
years. When this desirable consummation was attained, in beautiful
harmony with her unselfish arid generous character, she caused
intimation to be made by her agent to Lord Maxwell that ' as his
father's debts are now quite extinguish' d, his lady mother will have no
occasion for more than one hundred, pounds sterling per annum from
him henceforth. She is now quite easy, and happy that she is free of
what was a great and heavy burthen upon her.' Nothing further is
known of Lady Nithsdale's declining years, but she appears to have
grown very infirm. She survived her husband five years, and died in
the spring of 1749 at Rome, where in all probability both she and
Lord Nithsdale were buried, but no trace can be found of their last
resting-place. She worthily sustained the spirit of that ancient and
illustrious family from which she was descended, and on her may be
justly bestowed the well-known eulogy contained in the inscription
on the monument of her ancestress, Mary Sydney, third Countess of
Pembroke, in Salisbury Cathedral : —

' Underneath this marble hearse
Lies the subject of all verse,
Sydney's sister, Pembroke's mother ;
Death, ere thou hast slain another
Wise, and fair, and good as she,
Time shall throw a dart at thee.'

Lady Nithsdale's name, Mr. Fraser says, is never mentioned by
her descendants 'but with the utmost honour, gratitude, and affec-
tion.' She deserves to be had ' in everlasting remembrance.'

William, Lord Maxwell, her son, succeeded to the family estates
the year before the last great insurrection in behalf of the Stewarts.
His sympathies were no doubt in favour of that ill-fated race, but his
good sense, fortunately, kept him from taking any part in that des-
perate enterprise. He seems to have led a quiet, retired, and some-
what indolent life. Lady Catherine Stewart, his wife, died at Paris
in 1765. Lord Maxwell survived her eleven years. His death took

46 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

place at London in August, 1776. He had no male issue, and of
his two daughters the elder, Mary, died in her fifteenth year; the
younger, Winnifred, succeeded to the Nithsdale estates. ' Lady
Winnifred,' as she was usually termed, in her twenty -third year
married William Haggerston Constable of Everingham, in the county
of York, second son of Sir Carnaby Haggerston, and heir of his
maternal grand-uncle, Sir Marmaduke Constable, Bart., whose name
he assumed. The mother of the young lady was delighted with the
match. She described this ' fine English squire,' in a letter to the
Countess of Traquair, as ' a very sensible, well-bred, pretty gentle-
man, and a good Roman Catholic' She goes on to say that ' Winny
was much startled at first at his prodigious size ; but now, I think,
she seems to have got over that fault, which, indeed, is the only one
can be found to his appearance ; but that's certain he's among the
tallest men I ever saw, so your ladyship may judge what sort of a
figure they will make together ; ' but, as she sensibly adds, * that is
not an essential matter as to happiness.' Lady Winnifred bore to
her husband (who on his marriage assumed the name of Maxwell
before that of Constable) three sons and four daughters. She became
a correspondent of Burns, who wrote to her in high Jacobite terms ;
and when the present mansion-house was to be built for the perma-
nent residence of Lady Winnifred and her husband, the poet indited
a song, entitled 'Nithsdale's Welcome Hame,' which, however, dis-
plays more cordial feeling than poetical genius. Mr. Maxwell Con-
stable died in June, 1787, but his wife survived till July, 1801.
' During the time that Lady Winnifred possessed the Nithsdale and
Herries estates, which was about a quarter of a century, she resided
chiefly at Terregles, where she dispensed a very generous and almost
unbounded hospitality. She seldom sat down to dinner without a
company of between twenty and thirty friends and neighbours.
Terregles in her day was a kind of open house, where friends and
neighbours frequently came, and stayed without any formal previous
arrangement. Such hospitality became costly, and Lady Winnifred
found it necessary to sell the barony of Duncow, the lands of New-
lands, Craigley, Deanstown, and other portions of the estates.'*

Lady Winnifred was succeeded in the Nithsdale and Herries estates,
including the baronies of Carlaverock and Terregles, by her eldest
son, Mr. Marmaduke Constable Maxwell, who possessed them about
eighteen years. He died suddenly at Abbeville, in France, on the

* Book of Carlaverock, i. p. 493.

The Maxwells. 47

way to Paris, in June, 1819. In 1814 he executed a most judicious
deed of entail for the settlement of his property, under which the
Everingham and Nithsdale estates were to descend to his eldest son,
now Lord Herries. But as he considered his lands in Scotland
and England to be fully adequate to the maintenance in a suitable
manner of two separate families, he disposed the lands and baronies
of Terregles and Kirkgunzeon, and others, to Marmaduke Constable
Maxwell, his second son, and to his heirs male, whom failing, to his
other sons successively, and. their heirs male. According to the
Doomsday Book, the Everingham estate contains 6,858 acres, with a
rental of 2'8, 205 ; the lands in Dumfriesshire and the Stewartry of
Kirkcudbright, belonging to Lord Herries, comprise 9,237 acres,
yielding ;^7, 1 43 a year; while the Terregles estate, now possessed
by Alfred Peter Constable Maxwell, Esq., extends to 15,803 acres,
with a rental of^i2,i09 12s. — amply sufficient to maintain two fami-
lies in a ' suitable manner.'

In the year 1848 an Act of Parliament was passed in favour of
William Constable Maxwell, Esq., and all the other descendants of
William, fifth Earl of Nithsdale, reversing the forfeiture of that noble-
man ; and in virtue of this Act, Mr. Constable Maxwell claimed the
dignity of Lord Herries, as having been originally conferred on heirs
general.

The Committee for Privileges of the House of Lords reported on
2nd June, 1858, that Mr. Constable Maxwell had made out his claim,
and in virtue of that decision he became tenth Lord Herries of
Terregles. He died in 1876, leaving a family of seven sons and
nine daughters. The family title and estates are now possessed by
his eldest son, Marmaduke Constable Maxwell, eleventh Baron
Herries. His third son, the Hon. Joseph Maxwell, married in 1874
Mary Monica, daughter and heiress of the late James Robert Hope
Scott, Esq., of Abbotsford, and great-granddaughter and only sur-
viving descendant of Sir Walter Scott.

There are no fewer than five baronetcies held by members of
the house of Maxwell ; namely, those of Pollok, Calderwood, Car-
doness, Monreith, and Springkell. There are also numerous and
influential junior members of the family, most of them settled in
the southern counties of Scotland, such as the Maxwells of
Munches, Broomholm, Kirkconnell, Brediland, Parkhill, Dargavel,
Breoch, &c.

The most powerful and celebrated of all the branches of the main

VOL. II. H

48 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

stock were the Maxwells of Herries, who, as we have seen,
became ultimately the representatives of the house.

The original family of Herries was of Norman origin, and settled
in Nottinghamshire. One of them migrated into Scotland during
the reign of David I. (1124 — 1153)', and like other Anglo-Norman
barons, obtained grants of land from that monarch and his succes-
sors. Sir Herbert Herries, of Terregles, was created a lord in
1489. His eldest son, Andrew, the second Lord Herries, and four of
his brothers, fell at Flodden. William, the third Lord Herries, died
in 1543, leaving three daughters, co-heiresses. The eldest, Agnes,
married in 1547 Sir John Maxwell, second son of Robert, fifth Lord
Maxwell ; Katherine, the second, became the wife of Sir Alexander
Stewart of Garlics, ancestor of the Earls of Galloway ; Janet, the
third, married Sir James Cockburn of Stirling.

Sir John Maxwell, fourth Lord Herries of Terregles, was one
of the most prominent and active politicians during the troublous
times of Queen Mary and James VL He was born about the year
15 1 2. As he was for a time heir-presumptive to his brother, and
then to two of his nephews, who were minors, he was frequently
designated Master of Maxwell. His position as tutor to his nephews,
and possessor of a great part of the Herries estates, made him one of
the most powerful barons in the south of Scotland and gave him
great influence at Court. He subsequently acquired from the sisters
of his wife their shares of their father's property, and thus the whole
of the extensive Herries estates were vested in him. The Regent,
Arran, had intended to marry Agnes, Lady Herries, to whom he
was tutor, to his own son, John Hamilton, but he resigned the lady
to John Maxwell, in order to detach him from the Earl of Lennox
and the English faction. The ostensible reasons for this step were
the good service which Sir John had rendered in drawing a great
part of the inhabitants of the West Borders from the assurance of the
English to the obedience of ' our sovereign lady ' and the Regent,
his rescuing from the ' auld enemies' of Scotland the houses of
Torthorwald and Cockpule and divers other strengths, and his expel-
ling the English from those parts of the kingdom. But in addition
mention is made of a much more cogent reason — the payment of
' divers great sums of money ' to Arran ' and profits for his
advantage.'

After the death of his brother, Robert, sixth Lord Maxwell, in

The Max-wells. 49

September, 1562, the Master of Maxwell was appointed Warden of the
West Marches, but he resigned it in the following year, on the ground
that he was at deadly feud with most of the clans of that district,
and the office was temporarily conferred upon his uncle, Sir James
Douglas of Drumlanrig. Maxwell exerted himself with character-
istic energy to restore and maintain peace on the Borders, but he
encountered many difficulties, especially from the remissness both of
the great proprietors and of the yeomen, in accompanying him on
days of truce, and also from the reluctance of Lord Dacre, the English
Warden, to redress the Border grievances of which he complained.
When dissensions arose between Queen Mary and many of her nobles
on account of her marriage with Darnley, Sir John Maxwell laboured
to obtain redress for the Protestant lords, and entertained them most
honourably at Dumfries. He, in consequence, incurred the dis-
pleasure of the Queen, which was not, however, followed by any
injurious consequences. When Mary and Darnley came to Dumfries
with all their forces, in pursuit of the Earl of Moray and the other
nobles engaged in the 'Roundabout Raid,' they sent Sir John Max-
well to intercede for them with the Queen, as he had taken no action
against her, though he professed to belong to the confederate lords.
His intercession, if it was really made, was of no avail. But he
made his own peace with Mary, and returning to Dumfries told the
lords that he could not help them, and advised them to flee into
England. All his past offences were forgiven him by the Queen and
her husband, and on January 1st, 1565-6, they declared that after
an investigation by the Lords of the Secret Council, they believed
all the charges against him * to be perfectly untrue and founded
upon particular malice ; ' and as to some of the charges, ' they
understood right perfectly the plain contrary. He has been and is our
true servant and our good justiciar, and in execution of our service
has taken great travails and pains, bearing a weighty charge in the
common service of this our realm many years by-past, and executed
the laws upon the many and notable offenders, defending our good
subjects from such enormities and oppressions as is laid to his charge ;
nor has received no augmentation or any reversion, as is unjustly
alleged, nor no gold from England ; neither has nor will discover our
secrets to them nor others, to the hurt of us his sovereign, this our
realm, nor subjects.' Her majesty also faithfully promised that if
Sir John, who, in the execution of justice on malefactors, had fallen
under the deadly feud of the principal clans and broken men of the

50 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

West Marches, should be slain or die during the time of his exercise
of the office of Warden, his wife and eldest son should have the ward
of all his lands and heritable possessions which by his decease should
fall into the hands of the Crown, with the marriage of his son and heir
for the time. A short time afterwards his holding of his lands and
baronies was changed from ward and relief to free blench in con-
sideration of his * good, faithful, and gratuitous services in the exer-
cise of the offices of warden and justiciar for the space of twenty-
two years or thereby past; by whom, with vast solicitude and
sustained effort, and by the execution of justice upon a great number
of perverse men, chief factions, and malefactors, dwelling in
the said West Marches, who formerly could be restrained by no
means from theft, slaughter, and depredation, the country was
reduced to due and lawful obedience ; for which service rendered and
justice administered the said John remained under the mortal hatred
of a great number of factions and perverse men within the said
bounds, and in that service he had spent a great part of his life and
had incurred great expense.'*

Sir John Maxwell became Lord Herries In the end of the year
1566, and was thenceforth known by that designation throughout the
momentous affairs in which he took a prominent part. When Both-
well was brought to trial for the murder of Darnley, Lord Herries
was one of the assize who acquitted him, on the ground of an error,
which was no doubt designed, respecting the day on which the crime
was committed ; but Sir James Melville asserts that when a rumour
went abroad that Mary was about to marry the murderer of her hus-
band. Lord Herries came expressly to Edinburgh to entreat her, on his
knees, not to take that fatal step, and that the Queen recommended
him to leave the city at once, in order to avoid Bothwell's resent-
ment. It has been argued that this statement is scarcely recon-
cilable with the fact that Lord Herries sat on Bothwell's assize; that
he signed the bond recommending Bothwell as a suitable husband
to the Queen (the most disgraceful and cowardly of all the base
transactions of the Scottish nobility of that age), and that he was one
of the witnesses to the marriage contract subscribed by them on the
14th of May, 1567, the day before the marriage took place. But
these proceedings are quite in keeping with the portrait drawn of him
at this juncture by Throckmorton, the English ambassador, in a letter
to Sir William Cecil.

* Book of Carlaverock, i. pp. 513-14.

The Maxwells. 51

' The Lord Herryes,' he writes, ' ys the connynge horse leache,
and the wysest of the wholle faction ; but as the Quene of Scotland
sayethe of hym, there ys no bodye can be sure of hym ; he takethe
pleasure to beare all the worlde in hande ; we have good occasyon to
be well ware of hym. Sir, you remember how he handled us when
he delyvered Dumfryse, Carlaverocke, and the Hermytage into our
handes. He made us beleave all should be ours to the Fyrthe ; and
when wee trusted hym, but how he helped to chase us awaye, I am
sure you have not forgotten. Heere amongst hys owne countrymen
he ys noted to be the most cautelous man of hys natyon. It may
lyke you to remember he suffered hys owne hostages, the hostages
of the Lord of Loughanon and Garles, hys nexte neigh bouris and
frendis, to be hanged for promesse broken by hym. Thys muche I
speeke of hym because he ys the lykelyest and most dangerous man
to enchaunte you.' *

Lord Herries was one of the nobles who subscribed at Dumbarton,
in July, 1567, a bond for supporting Queen Mary against the con-
federate lords; but on the 14th of October he came to Edinburgh
and acknowledged the coronation of the infant King and the authority
of the Regent Moray. ' He was minded,' as James Melville said,
'to the present weal and quietness of the State.' He attended the
meeting of Parliament in December, 1567, which ratified Mary's
resignation of the Crown, confirmed the coronation of the King and
the regency of the Earl of Moray, and pronounced the imprisonment
of the Queen lawful. The Regent, on the other hand, declared that
he forgave Lord Herries and the other nobles who had formed the
Queen's party all that they had done on her behalf. All the Acts
passed by the Estates in 1561 in favour of the Protestant religion
were ratified by this Parliament.

At this meeting of the Estates Lord Herries delivered ' a plausible

* The event referred to occurred in 1547. Maxwell had promised to support the
Earl of Lennox in an attempt to recover by force his estates in Scotland, on condition
that he would abandon the English interest, and had arranged to meet with a strong
body of horse, at Dumfries, the Earl of Lennox, and Lord Wharton, the English Warden.
He delivered to Lord Wharton certain gentlemen as pledges for the performance of
his promise. The Regent Arran, however, induced Maxwell to break his word ; and
when Lennox came to Dumfries he found no troops there for his assistance. A
detachment of horse, which he sent out to reconnoitre the district, encountered and
defeated a body of the Borderers commanded by the Laird of Drumlanrig. The
Master of Maxwell, who was present, narrowly escaped with his life. Lord Wharton
retreated into England, and by the orders of the English Council he hanged at Car-
lisle Maxwell's pledges, one of whom was the Warden of the Greyfriars in Dumfries,
and another the Vicar of Carlaverock.

5 2 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

oration,' ' eulogizing the nobles who from the beginning had adopted
measures for the punishment of the Earl of Both well, and defended
them in imprisoning in Loch Leven the Queen, whose inordinate
affection to that wicked man was such that she could not be persuaded
to leave him.' He declared that he and those in whose names he
spoke would hazard their lives and lands for maintaining the cause in
which these nobles had embarked, and that if the Queen herself were
in Scotland with twenty thousand men, this would not alter their
purpose.* And yet, before the close of the month. Lord Herries
and his associates, who had thus publicly declared their adherence to
the King's Government, entered into a bond pledging themselves to
do their utmost to effect the liberation of the Queen from her prison
in Loch Leven. On Mary's escape, 20th May, 1568, Lord Herries
and others, who at the last Parliament had solemnly pledged them-
selves to support the throne of the infant King, entered into a bond
for the defence of the person and authority of the Queen. The
Scottish nobles of that day seem to have been utterly lost to all
sense of truth or honour.

At the battle of Langside Lord Herries commanded Mary's horse,
who were almost all dependents and tenants of Lord Maxwell, his
nephew. On the defeat of the Queen's army he accompanied her in
her flight, and conducted her to his own house at Terregles, where
she rested some days. Thence she went to Dundrennan Abbey ;
and when, in spite of his earnest entreaties, she persisted in throwing
herself on the protection of Elizabeth, he accompanied her to Car-
lisle. By her orders he posted to London, carrying letters to the
English Queen, expressing her strong desire for a personal inter-
view, which was declined. He acted as one of her commissioners
at York and Westminster, and took an active part in the negotia-
tions and intrigues for her restoration to liberty. With the view of
accommodating matters between the two parties, a meeting took
place between the leaders on each side, at which an agreement was
made that the Duke of Chatelherault would acknowledge the
authority of the infant King, and the Regent became bound to get
the sentence of forfeiture pronounced on Queen Mary's friends
rescinded, and their estates restored. But at the convention which
followed the Duke showed a disposition to recede from his promise,
and pleaded for delay in taking the oath of allegiance to the King.
Upon this the Regent imprisoned him in the castle of Edinburgh,
* Robertson's History of Scotland, Appendix, xxiv.

The Maxwells. 53

and along with him Lord Hemes, on whom he laid the whole blame
of the Duke's vacillating conduct, but they recovered their liberty
shortly after the assassination of the Regent.

Lord Herries ultimately submitted to the King' s Government on
the conclusion of the treaty of peace at Perth, 23rd February, 1572-3,
between the Regent Morton, and Chatelherault and Huntly repre-
senting the Queen's party; but he took part with other nobles in the
plot to deprive Morton of the office of Regent, and was appointed
one of the council of twelve who were to assist the young King when
he assumed the government. He attached himself to the party of
Esme Stewart, Lord d'Aubigny, the royal favourite, who was created
Earl and Duke of Lennox, and made various unsuccessful efforts to
effect a reconciliation between him and his enemies, before the Duke
was sent out of the kingdom.

Lord Herries died suddenly, on Sunday, 20th January, 1582, when
going to an upper chamber in William Fowkes's lodging, in the time
of sermon, ' to see the boys bicker.' He said before dinner that he
durst not trust himself to go to the afternoon's preaching, because he
found himself weak. Leaning to a wall, he fell down by little and
little, saying to a woman who followed, ' Hold me, for I am not
weale.'* His wife survived him ten years. They had issue four
sons and seven daughters. William Maxwell, the eldest son,
succeeded his father as fifth Lord Herries ; and John Maxwell,
the eldest of his eight sons, became sixth Lord Herries in 1603, but
nothing worthy of special notice occurred in their history. John
Maxwell, the seventh Lord Herries, as we have seen, succeeded as
third Earl of Nithsdale, on the death of his kinsman Robert, second
Earl, without issue, in 1667.

* Calderwood's History, viii. p. 232.

THE JOHNSTONES DF ANNANDALE.

HE Johnstones were at one time among the most powerful,
as they are one of the most ancient, of the Border septs.
The ' rough-footed clan,' as they were termed, with the
winged spur as their appropriate emblem, and the words
' Aye ready ' for their motto, were originally settled in East Lothian,
but for at least four hundred years they have held extensive posses-
sions on the Western Marches, where they kept vigilant watch
and ward against the English freebooters, carrying on at the
same time sanguinary feuds with their powerful neighbours and
rivals, the Crichtons of Sanquhar and the Maxwells of Nithsdale.
Their designation is territorial, and was derived from the barony and
lands of Johnstone in Annandale, which have been in their possession
from a very remote period. The first of the family on record was
Sir John de Johnstone, one of the Scottish barons who swore fidelity
to Edward I. of England, in 1296. His great-grandson, also a Sir
John de Johnstone, was conspicuous for his valour in the defence of
his country in the reigns of David II. and Robert II. In 1370 he
defeated an English invading army, and two years later was ap-
pointed one of the guardians of the Western Marches. -His son, who
bore the same name, got 300 of the 40,000 francs sent by the
King of France, in 1385, to be divided among the Scottish nobles to
induce them to carry on hostilities against their common enemies,
the English. His son. Sir Adam Johnstone, was one of the com-
manders of the Scottish army at the battle of Sark, in 1448, in which
they gained a signal victory over the English Invaders — an exploit
commemorated in glowing terms by Wyntoun In his 'Chronicle.'
Sir Adam also took a prominent part on the royal side in the desperate
struggle between James II. and the Douglases, and was very instru-
mental in the suppression of the rebellion of that great house against

The Johnsiones of Annandale. 55

the Crown. He was rewarded by the King with a grant of the lands
of Pettinane, in Lanarkshire, and the Johnstones have ever since
borne along with their ancestral arms the heart and crown of
Douglas, as a memorial of the important service rendered to the
royal cause by their ancestor at that critical period. Sir Adam's
eldest son was the progenitor of the Annandale or main branch of
the family, while Matthew, his second son, who married a daughter
of the Earl of Angus, chief of the ' Red Douglases,' was the ancestor
of the Westerhall branch.

The chief seat of the Johnstones in those days of ' rugging and
riving ' was Lochwood, in the parish of Johnstone, the position of
which, in the midst of bogs and morasses, made it a fortalice of great
strength, and led to the remark of James VI., in allusion to the
purpose which it served as a stronghold of freebooters, that ' the man
who built it must have been a thief at heart.' Lochwood, however,
was not the only fastness in which the Johnstones stored their booty.
A few miles from Moffat there is a remarkable hollow, surrounded
by hills on every side except at one narrow point, where a small
stream issues from it. ' It looks,' says Pate in Peril, in ' Redgaunt-
let,' ' as if four hills were laying their heads together to shut out any
daylight from the dark hollow space between them. A deep, black,
blackguard-looking abyss of a hole it is, and goes straight down
from the roadside as perpendicular as it can do to be a heathery
brae. At the bottom there is a small bit of a brook that you would
think could hardly find its way out from the hills that are so closely
jammed round it.' This inaccessible hollow bore the name of the
' Marquis's Beef-stand,' or ' Beef-tub,' because ' the Annandale
loons used to put their stolen cattle in there.' *

* The Beef-stand was the scene of a remarkable adventure to a Jacobite gentleman
while on the road to Carlisle to stand his trial for his share in the rebellion of 1745.
He made his escape from his guards at this spot in the manner which Sir Walter Scott
makes Maxwell of Summertrees, who bore the sobriquet of ' Pate in Peril,' describe
in graphic terms as an adventure of his own : —

' I found myself on foot,' he said, ' on a misty morning with my hand, just for fear
of going astray, linked into a handcuff, as they call it, with poor Harry Redgauntlet's
fastened into the other; and there we were trudging along with about a score more that
had thrust their horns ower deep in the bog, just like ourselves, and a sergeant's guard
of redcoats, with two file of dragoons, to keep all quiet and give us heart to the road. . . .
Just when we came on the edge of this Beef-stand of the Johnstones, I slipped out my
hand from the handcuff, cried to Harry, " Follow me," whisked under the belly of
the dragoon horse, flung my plaid round me with the speed of lightning, threw myself
on my side, for there was no keeping my feet, and down the brae hurled I, over heather,
and fern, and blackberries, like a barrel down Chalmers' Close in Auld Reekie. I never
could help laughing when I think how the scoundrel redcoats must have been bum-

VOL. II. I

^6 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

The Johnstones, unlike the Armstrongs, Elliots, and Grahams,
' sought the beeves that made their broth ' only in Cumberland and
Northumberland, though they would probably have had no scruples
in making a prey of any outlying cattle belonging to the Maxwells,
with whom they had a hereditary feud. Lord Maxwell, the head of
this great family, was in the sixteenth century the most powerful man
in the south-west of Scotland. But the Johnstones, though inferior in
numbers and power, were able, through their valour, and the strong
position which they held in the mountainous district of Annandale, to
maintain their ground against their formidable rivals. In 1585 Lord
Maxwell opposed the profligate government of the worthless royal
favourite, James Stewart, Earl of Arran, and was in consequence
declared a rebel. According to the common, but most objectionable
practice of that period, the Court gave a commission to Johnstone, his
enemy, to proceed against him with fire and sword, and to apprehend
him ; and two bands of hired soldiers, commanded by Captains Cran-
stoun and Lammie, were despatched to Johnstone's assistance. They
were intercepted, however, on Crawford Moor, by Robert Maxwell,
of Castlemilk, and after a sharp conflict the mercenary forces were
defeated. Lammie and most of his company were killed, and
Cranstoun was taken prisoner.* Maxwell followed up his success by

bazed ; for the mist being, as I said, thick, they had little notion, I take it, that they
were on the verge of such a dilemma. I was half-way down — for rowling is faster wark
than rinning — ere they could get at their arms; and then it was flash, flash, flash,
rap, rap, rap, from the edge of the road ; but my head was too jumbled to think any-
thing either of that or of the hard knocks I got among the stones. I kept my senses
together, whilk has been thought wonderful by all that ever saw the place ; and I
helped myself with my hands as gallantly as I could, and to the bottom I came. There
I lay for half a moment; but the thought of a gallows is worth alj the salts and scent-
bottles in the world for bringing a man to himself. Up I sprung like a four-year-old colt.
All the hills were spinning round me like so many great big humming-tops. But there
was no time to think of that neither, more especially as the mist had risen a little with
the firing. I could see the villains like sae many craws on the edge of the brae ; and I
reckon that they saw me, for some of the loons were beginning to crawl down the hill,
but liker auld wives in their red cloaks, coming frae a field-preaching, than such a
souple lad as I. Accordingly they soon began to stop and load their pieces. " Good-
e'en to you, gentlemen," thought I, " if that is to be the gate of it. If you have any
farther word with me you maun come as far as Carriefraw-gauns." And so off I set, and
never buck went faster ower the braes than I did ; and I never stopped till I had put
three waters, reasonably deep, as the season was rainy, half-a-dozen mountains, and a
few thousand acres of the warst moss and ling in Scotland betwixt me and my friends
the redcoats.'

Sir Walter Scott says he saw in his youth the gentleman to whom the adventure
actually happened.

* In relating this incident Sir Walter Scott says, 'It is devoutly to be wished that this
Lammie may have been the miscreant who, in the day of Queen Mary's distress, when
she surrendered to the nobles at Carberry Hill, " his ensign being of white taffety, had

JOHNSTONES OF ANNANDALE.

The Johnstones of Annandale. 57

setting fire to Johnstone's castle of Lochwood, remarking with savage
glee that he would give Lady Johnstone light enough by which ' to
set her hood.' Unfortunately, besides the ' haill house, bedding, and
plenisching,' Johnstone's charter-chest, containing the whole muni-
ments of the family, and many other valuable papers, perished in the
flames.

In a subsequent conflict between the two hostile clans, Johnstone
himself was defeated and taken prisoner. He was a person of a very
proud spirit, and took his defeat so much to heart that after his
liberation he is said to have died of grief, in the beginning of the
year 1586.

The feud between the Johnstones and the Maxwells became more
and more deadly, and led to the battle of Dryfe Sands, the murder
of the chief of the Johnstones, and the death on the scaffold of John,
ninth Lord Maxwell. \_See The Maxwells.]

James Johnstone, the chief of the Johnstone clan, was created
by Charles L, Lord Johnstone of Lochwood, in 1633. Ten years
later he was made Earl of Hartfell. He was a staunch Royalist,
joined Montrose after the battle of Kilsyth, August, 1645, was taken
prisoner at the battle of Philiphaugh, and was tried at St. Andrews
and condemned to death ; but his life was spared through the inter-
cession of the Marquis of Argyll. The only son of Lord Hartfell
obtained the Earldom of Annandale in addition to his hereditary
dignities.

The lordship of Annandale was one of the oldest and most
honourable titles in the south of Scotland. It was bestowed by
David I. on Robert de Brus, ancestor of the illustrious restorer of
Scottish independence, who was himself the seventh Lord of Annan-
dale. After the battle of Bannockburn, the lordship of Annandale
was conferred by King Robert on his nephew, the valiant Ran-
dolph, Earl of Moray. It formed part of the dowry of his daughter,

painted on it the cruel murder of King Henry, and laid down before her Majesty at
what time she presented herself as prisoner to the Lords." It was very probably so, as
he was then, and continued to be till his death, a hired soldier of the Government.
Nine months after the incident in question, the following entry appears in the Lord
Treasurer's books, under March i8, 1567-8: "To Captain Andro Lambie, for his
expenses passand of Glasgow to Edinburgh to uplift certain men of weir, and to make
ane Handsenyie of white taffety, jQii," [Scots]. He was then acting for the Regent
Moray. It seems probable that, having spoiled his ensign by the picture of the
king's murder, he was now gratified with a new one at the expense of his employer.' —
See Domestic Annals of Scotland, i. p. 156, note, and Border Minstrelsy, ii. p. 134, note.

58 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

the famous ' Black Agnes ' of Scottish history, and was carried by
her to the Dunbars, Earls of March. On the attainder and banish-
ment of these fickle and versatile barons, their Annandale dignities
and estates were bestowed, in 1409, on the Earl of Douglas. After
remaining for about fifty years In the possession of the Douglases,
Annandale was forfeited, along with their other estates, on the
attainder of James, ninth and last Earl of the 'original branch of
that doughty house. The title of Earl of Annandale, after lying
dormant for a hundred and sixty-nine years, was revived In 1624, In
favour of Sir James Murray, Viscount of Annand and Lord Murray of
Lochmaben, a descendant of Sir William Murray of Cockpool and
Isabel, sister of Earl Randolph. The title, however, became extinct
on the death of the second Earl in 1658. Three years later It was
once more revived by Charles II., who created the Earl of Hartfell,
the chief of the Johnstones, Earl of Annandale, Viscount Annand,
and Lord Johnstone of Lochwood, Lochmaben, Moffatdale, and
Evandale. He died In 1672, and was succeeded by his only son —

William, second Earl of Annandale and third Earl of Hartfell.
He held successively the offices of an Extraordinary Lord of Session,
one of the Lords of the Treasury, President of the Scottish Parlia-
ment, Keeper of the Privy Seal, and was three times Lord High
Commissioner to the General Assembly. He was created Marquis of
Annandale in 1701, and was appointed, in 1705, one of the principal
Secretaries of State, but was dismissed from that office in the follow-
ing year in consequence of his opposition to the Union. The Earl
had three sons by his first wife and two by his second, who all died
unmarried. His eldest daughter, Lady Henrietta, married, in 1699,
Charles Hope, created Earl of Hopetoun in 1703.

James, second Marquis of Annandale, died at Naples in 1730,
having enjoyed the family dignities and estates only nine years. His
half brother George, third and last Marquis, was a man nervously
timid and reserved, distrustful of himself and of his ability to transact
business with other people, but not quite incapable at first of managing
his affairs, though excitable and liable to be drawn into fits of passion
by causes not susceptible of being anticipated. In 1745 he was
placed under the charge of the celebrated philosopher and historian,
David Hume, but after a twelvemonth's trial he was constrained to
abandon the Irksome and uncongenial task. An inquest held under

The Johnsiones of Annandale. 59

the authority of the Court of Chancery, 5th March, 1748, found that
the Marquis had been a lunatic since 1 2th December, 1 744. On his
death, in 1792, the family titles became dormant, and the estates
devolved upon his grandnephew James, third Earl of Hopetoun.
The accumulated rents of his estates, amounting at his death to
;^4i5,ooo, were the subject of long litigation both in England and
Scotland. The ' Annandale cases ' contributed greatly to settle in
Britain the important principle that the movable or personal estate
of a deceased person must be distributed according to the law of the
country where he had his domicile at the time of his death. The
Earl of Hopetoun had no male issue, and his eldest daughter Anne
married Admiral Sir William Hope Johnstone, whose eldest son,
John James Hope Johnstone, inherited the Annandale estates, and
claimed the titles of his maternal ancestor.

Mr. Hope Johnstone was one of the most respected and influential
country gentlemen of his day, and there was a strong desire among
all classes and parties that he should be successful in his suit. When
the case was first considered, in the year 1834, Lord Brougham, who
was then Lord Chancellor, was very favourable to the claim, and
delivered an elaborate opinion in its support. An opposition, how-
ever, was started, which was countenanced by Lord Campbell, and
the claim lay over for ten years. In 1 844 an adverse decision was
given by Lord Lyndhurst. The question turned upon the construc-
tion of the words, ' heirs male ' in the patent of the Earldom of
Annandale in 1661, which are capable of being construed to
mean heirs male general, or heirs male of the body, according to
circumstances. Upwards of thirty years afterwards, it was dis-
covered that, unknown to their lordships, or the law officers of the
Crown, or to Mr. Hope Johnstone, a transaction had taken place
nearly two hundred years before, which made an important
change in the destination of the peerage. It is a recognised prin-
ciple in the law of Scotland that a Scottish peer, previous to the Act
of Union, provided he obtained the sanction of the Crown, might
alter the limitation of his honours, in precisely the same manner as he
might alter the destination of his estates. He resigned his honours
just as he resigned his land for a re-grant from the Crown, and if the
re-grant were made in favour of a different series of heirs from those
who would have been entitled to succeed under the original grant,
the dignities passed with the old precedence into the new line of suc-
cession. The resignation bars the previous heirs, and the re-grant

6o The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

which follows upon it vests the old peerage in the new series of heirs.
Now a resignation of this kind of his titles and estates was made
by the second Earl of Hartfell, on the loth of June, 1657, and was
followed by a re-grant bearing date 13th February, 1661. But the
bond of resignation was not known to be in existence, and was not
discovered until 1876. It was brought to light by Mr. William
Fraser, of the Register House, the eminent authority on peerage law,
in a manner which reads like an incident in a romance. About the
middle of the last century Mr. Ronald Crawfurd and his successor in
business, Mr. John Tait, grandfather of the late Archbishop of
Canterbury, were the law agents in Edinburgh of the third Marquis
of Annandale, and of his tutor in law and heir of his estates, the Earl
of Hopetoun. The Annandale muniments were of course deposited
with Messrs. Crawfurd and Tait ; and though these gentlemen ceased
to be the Annandale agents on the succession of Lady Anne John-
stone Hope in 1816, it appears that a considerable number of
important documents belonging to the family remained in the posses-
sion of the firm, and of their present representatives, Messrs. Tait and
Crichton. This fact was unknown to them, as well as to the posses-
sors of the Annandale estates and their present law agents. Mr.
Fraser, however, became aware from investigations made by him on
other questions, that Messrs. Tait and Crichton were in possession of
a large collection of ancient documents of various kinds, and as their
firm had at one time been agents for the Annandale estates, it seemed
highly probable that among these documents there would be some
papers which might throw light on the Annandale peerage case. Mr.
Fraser readily received permission from these gentlemen to make an
examination of their old papers.

He found that these were contained in thirty-four leather bags, and
large canvas sacks, which had lain for many years in the chambers
of the present firm and their predecessors. In one of these leather
bags Mr. Fraser discovered a document entitled ' Bond of Talzie
and Resignation, by James, second Earl of Hartfell and Lord
Johnstone, of his honours, titles, and dignities of Earl of Hartfeli, and
Lord Johnstone of Lochwood, Mofifatdale, and Evandale ; and also
of his whole lands. Baronies, and Lordships, Regalities, Offices,
and Patronages, &c.,' which on examination proved to be of vital im-
portance in determining the destination of the honours and heritages.
It appears that in 1657, when the resignation was made, the Earl
had been twelve years married, and had four daughters but no son.

The Johnstones of Annandale. 6i

He had no brothers, or uncles, or near male kmsmen, but he had two
sisters. Lady Janet, wife of Sir William Murray of Stanhope, and
Lady Mary, wife of Sir George Graham of Netherby, ancestor of the
late distinguished statesman. Sir James Graham. As his peerages
were at this time limited to heirs male general, they must at his death
have passed to very remote collateral heirs. His object, therefore,
was to make new arrangements for the descent of his titles and
estates, in order to bring in his daughters and sisters and their
descendants. For this purpose he executed the deed of resigna-
tion, in 1657, during the time of the Commonwealth. In the
ordinary course a re-grant of the titles and estates would have
followed immediately, but, probably owing to the peculiar position of
public affairs when ' there was no king in Israel,' nothing further
was done to carry the Earl's desire into effect until after the Restora-
tion. As Lord Hartfell and his father had suffered fines and imprison-
ment in the royal cause, and the former had even been condemned to
death, and narrowly escaped execution, for his devoted loyalty,
Charles II. very readily granted the boon solicited by his devoted
follower, and a re-grant was made to him of his titles and estates on
the 13th February, 1661.

Meanwhile, however, the earldom of Annandale, which had been
held by the Murrays of Annandale, had become extinct by the
death of the last Earl of that family ; and the King being earnestly
desirous, as the patent says, of conferring some mark of his
favour upon the Earl of Hartfell, and of his accumulating honours
upon honours, ' as a reward for his faith, love, services, and
losses, and that his heirs may be encouraged to follow in his steps,'
granted to him and his heirs the titles, honours, and dignity of
Earl of Annandale, in addition to that of Earl of Hartfell and Lord
Johnstone. After this incident four sons were born to the Earl, the
eldest survivor of whom inherited these renewed titles, and was in
addition created Marquis of Annandale. That dignity, along with
the other family honours, fell into abeyance, on the death of his
fourth son, George, third Marquis of Annandale, 1792. The altera-
tion made by the re-grant in regard to the titles and estates of the
family was to the effect that, instead of being limited to heirs male in
general, they were to descend to the heirs male of the second Earl of
Hartfell, whom failing, to his two sisters and their heirs, male and
female. Armed with this important document, Mr. J. Hope John-
stone, the heir male of a female heir, and possessor of the estates,

VOL. II. K

62 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

presented a petition to the House of Lords requesting their lord-
ships to reconsider his claim to the family honours, and to reverse
their decision on the case in the year 1 844 ; and pleading- that accord-
ing to the principles of the law and practice of the courts of Scot-
land, this course is quite competent when a new document is pro-
duced which is material to the issue, the existence of which was
previously unknown to the petitioner, owing to no neglect or want
of diligence on his part.

Mr. Hope Johnstone died in 1877 at a good old age, but the suit
was continued by his grandson, who succeeded him in the family
estates. His claim appeared quite good as far as the double earl-
dom and the viscounty and barony are concerned, but it was more
doubtful as regards the marquisate, which was created in 1701 in
favour of William, second Earl of Annandale and third Earl of
Hartfell. The limitation is to that Earl and ' his heirs male whomso-
ever,' and if these words had stood alone, the claimant, as repre-
senting a female heir, would not have been entitled to succeed to this
dignity ; but they are qualified by the addition of the words ' suc-
ceeding him in his lands and estates in all time coming.' It would
appear, therefore, that the marquisate is limited to those heirs who
' in all time coming ' shall succeed to the family estates, and Mr.
Hope Johnstone contends that in accordance with the mode in which
the succession to the peerages of Dupplin, Seafield, Rosebery,
Lothian, and Rothes has been regulated, he, as a male heir in
possession of the Annandale estates, is entitled also to the dignity
and titles which, as the patent shows, were intended to be united to
the estates in all time coming.

An objection however was taken to the deed of resignation, that
it was made when Oliver Cromwell governed the kingdom as Pro-
tector, and this plea was sustained by the law lords. Lord Blackburn
said, ' I doubt whether the Government of Cromwell and his Court
would have taken any more notice of a Scottish peerage than one of
our courts of law would take of such a title as that of the " Knight
of Kerry " — an honourable title, but one which has no legal validity.'

Lord Gordon concurred with Lord Blackburn, but said, ' At the
same time I should perhaps express more difficulty than he has done
in reference to the effect of the resignation.'

The result was that the House of Lords decided that they saw no
reason for departing from the judgment which they had pronounced
in 1844.

The Johnsiones of Annandale. 63

It seems very strange that the Lords should have decided that
the resignation had no legal validity, when Charles II. treated
it as valid by making a re-grant of the titles and estates in the
year 166 1. Thomas Carlyle expressed himself emphatically in
favour of the validity of the document, and his opinion has been
endorsed by the general verdict of the public.

The Annandale titles are claimed also by Sir Frederick John-
stone, of Westerhall, the representative of a junior branch of the
family, descended from Matthew Johnstone, younger son of Sir
Adam Johnstone. James Johnstone, knight, the seventh in descent
from him — an apostate Presbyterian — has obtained an unenviable
notoriety as the cruel and brutal persecutor of the Covenanters. One
of that body who was dying was sheltered by a pious widow of the
name of Hislop, who lived near Westerhall, and died under her roof.
This fact came to Johnstone's knowledge, and he immediately pulled
down the widow's house, carried off her property, and dragged her
eldest son, Andrew, who was a mere stripling, before Graham of
Claverhouse in order that he might be condemned to death. For
once that cruel persecutor was in a clement mood, the prayers of
John Brown, whom he had recently put to death, having, it is
reported, left a strong impression on his obdurate heart. He seems
to have felt pity for the poor lad, and recommended that his case
should be delayed. Johnstone, however, insisted that the sentence
of death should be executed at once, and Claverhouse at last yielded,
saying to Westerhall, ' This man's blood shall be on you ; I am free
of it.' He then ordered the captain of a company of Highlanders
who were with his troop to shoot the prisoner, but he peremptorily
refused, declaring that he ' would fight Claverhouse and all his
dragoons first.' Graham then commanded three of his own dragoons
to execute the sentence. When they were ready to fire they desired
Hislop to draw his bonnet over his eyes. ' No,' replied the youth ;
' I can look my death -bringers in the face without fear. I have done
nothing of which I need be ashamed.' Then, holding up his Bible,
he charged them to answer for what they were about to do at the
Great Day, when they should be judged by that book. As he
uttered these words the dragoons fired and shot him dead, and he
was buried where he fell. The Covenanting chronicler who has
recorded this incident adds, with evident satisfaction, that ' Wester-
hall died about the Revolution (1699) in great torture of body and
horror and anguish of conscience, insomuch that his cries were

64 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

heard at a great distance from the house, as a warning to all such
apostates.'

When the cause of James VII., under whose reign and special
directions the Covenanters were so cruelly tortured and put to death,
became hopeless, Westerhall, as might have been expected, lost no
time in abandoning the fallen monarch, and joined the party of the
Prince of Orange. Probably as a reward for his timely defection from
the cause of the exiled monarch, John Johnstone, the eldest son
of the trimming persecutor, was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, in
1700. His nephew married the Dowager Marchioness of Annandale,
daughter and heiress of John Vanden-Bempde, of Harkness Hall,
Yorkshire, and is the ancestor of Sir Harcourt Vanden-Bempde
Johnstone, Lord Derwent. The Johnstones of Alva are descended
from John Johnstone, a younger son of the third baronet, a distin-
guished officer who commanded the artillery at the battle of Plassey,
and made himself conspicuous by the strong interest which he took
in the affairs of the East India Company.

Sir William Johnstone, the fifth baronet, inherited an estate
yielding only a small rental, though of large extent, but he became
one of the richest commoners in Great Britain. He acquired an
immense fortune in America, purchased the burgh of Weymouth,
which at that time returned four members to the House of Commons,
and sat in seven successive Parliaments. He married the niece and
heiress of General Pulteney, and of the Earl of Bath, the celebrated
leader of the Opposition against Sir Robert Walpole. His only child,
who married Sir James Murray in 1794, inherited the Pulteney estates
and was created Countess of Bath. Sir William Johnstone survived
till 1805. His baronetcy, the Westerhall estate, the borough of
Weymouth (in these days a source both of wealth and of political
influence), and the extensive territory which he had acquired in
America, were all inherited by his nephew. Sir John Lowther
Johnstone, grandfather of the eighth and present baronet. Sir
Brederick John William Johnstone. He and his twin brother
were born after the death of their father, who was killed by the
fall of his horse in the hunting-field, 7th May, 1841.

STEWARTS OF TRAQUAIR.

THE STEWARTS OF TRAQUAIR.

MONG the many beautiful districts on the Scottish Borders,

there is not one more lovely in its scenery, or more

interesting in its associations — legendary, historical, and

poetical — than the vale of the Tweed from Peebles to

Selkirk. The ancient, sleepy borough itself— the scene of the

curious old poem of * Peblis to the Play,' and which, according to

Lord Cockburn, is more quiet than the grave — the ruins of Neid-

path Castle, with its reminiscences of the Erasers, the Hays, and the

Douglases ; and of Haystone, Horsburgh, Cardrona, and Elibank,

and the rest of that chain of fortalices which, in the ' riding times,'

kept watch and ward on the Borders against the inroads of the

English invaders ; the picturesque village of Innerleithen, the

prototype of ' St. Ronan's Well,' and the fine river, clear, broad,

and deep, rolling cheerily along its pebbly bed— form a picture

which no Scotsman can look upon without emotion. In the midst

of this beautiful and interesting scene, at the opening of the vale of

the Quair, and nearly opposite the spot where the Leithen Water

falls into the Tweed, stands the ancient House of Traquair, the seat

of the Earls of that title, ' a grey forlorn-looking mansion, stricken all

over with eld.' The gateway, which opens upon the grassy and

untrod avenue, is ornamented with a huge ' Bradwardine stone bear '

on each side, the cognisance of the family— most grotesque supporters,

with a superfluity of ferocity and canine teeth. The wrought-iron

gate, in the time of the late proprietors, was embedded in a foot deep

or more of soil, never having been opened since the '45. In the

immediate vicinity is the remnant of the ' Bush aboon Traquair ' —

'Birks three or four,
Wi' grey moss bearded owre,
The last that are left o' the birken shaw,'

rendered classic by the well-known song of Crawford.

In later times the Quair, on whose bank the far-famed group of

66 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

birches stood, has been noticed in a song written by the late Rev.
James Nicol, minister of the parish, beginning 'Where Quair
runs sweet amang the flowers ; ' and by James Hogg, the Ettrick
Shepherd, in his well-known song, ' O'er the hills to Traquair.'

To the east of Traquair lies Minchmoor, over which Montrose made
his escape from Philiphaugh — lofty, yet round and flat, fragrant with
recollections of Sir Walter Scott and Mungo Park, the African
traveller ; and to the south-west and south are the green pastoral
hills of Ettrick and Yarrow, * round-backed, kindly, and solemn,'
with 'lone St. Mary's Lake' in their bosom; and Dryhope Tower,
the residence of the ' Flower of Yarrow ; ' and Blackhouse Tower, the
scene of the Douglas tragedy ; and the ' Dowie Dens of Yarrow,'
immortalized in Scottish song, and which have been the subject of
more and better poetry than even the celebrated Vale of Tempe.

The house of Traquair consists of a tower of remote antiquity, to
which considerable additions were made in the reign of Charles I.
by the powerful Earl who held the office of High Treasurer of Scot-
land under that monarch. Its walls are of great thickness; its
accommodation is for the most part that of a long-bygone age,
and it has an antique, deserted-looking aspect.

' A merry place it was in days of yore,
But something ails it now — the place is curst.*

* The whole place,' said Dr. John Brown, ' like the family whose it
has been, seems dying out — everything subdued to settled desola-
tion. The old race, the old religion, the gaunt old house, with the
small deep comfortless windows, the decaying trees, the stillness
about the doors, the grass overrunning everything — nature reas-
serting herself in her quiet way — all this makes the place look as
strange and pitiful among its fellows in the vale as would the Earl
who built it three hundred years ago, if we met him tottering along
our way in the faded dress of his youth; but it looks the Earl's house
still, and has a dignity of its own.'

The estate of Traquair was originally a royal domain, and was
conferred by Robert Bruce on his warm friend and devoted adherent,
Lord James Douglas. After passing through various hands, it came
into possession of an ancestor of the Murrays of Elibank, and was
forfeited by William Murray in 1464. It was given to William
Douglas of Cluny, but was almost immediately thereafter assigned to
the Boyds. On the forfeiture of Robert, Lord Boyd, the head of this
powerful family, in 1469, the estate was resumed by the Crown, but

The Stewarts of Traquatr. 67

was shortly after conferred upon Dr. William Rogers, an eminent
musician, and one of the favourites of the ill-starred James III.
After holding the lands for upwards of nine years, Dr. Rogers sold
them for an insignificant sum, in 1478, to James Stewart, Earl of
Buchan, the second son of Sir James Stewart, called the Black
Knight of Lorn, by Lady Jane Beaufort, widow of James L The
Earl conferred Traquair, in 149 1, on his natural son, James Stewart,
the founder of the Traquair family. He obtained letters of legiti-
mation, and married the heiress of the Rutherfords, with whom he
received the estates of Rutherford and Wells in Roxburghshire.
Like the great body of the chivalry of Tweeddale, and the
' Flowers of the Forest,' he fell along with his sovereign on the
fatal field of Flodden in 15 13. Four of the sons of this stalwart
Borderer possessed the Traquair estates in succession, one of whom
was knighted by Queen Mary when she created Darnley Duke of
Albany, and was appointed captain of her guard, and, no doubt in
that capacity, is said to have accompanied the Queen and her husband
in their flight to Dunbar after the murder of Rizzio. He continued a
steady friend of the ill-fated princess, and was one of the barons who
entered into a bond of association to support her cause after her escape
from Loch Leven in 1568. •

A second son of Sir James was one of the Gentlemen of the
Bedchamber to James VL, and governor of Dumbarton Castle in
1582. James, the youngest son, alone had issue, and his grandson,
John, who succeeded to the family estates in 1606, became the
first Earl of Traquair. This nobleman, who at a critical period of
our history was one of the most powerful men in the kingdom, was
educated by Thomas Sydserf, Bishop of Galloway, and, in order to
complete his education according to the fashion of his day, he
travelled for some time on the Continent. On his return home, he
was elected Commissioner for Tweeddale in the Scottish Parliament,
v/as knighted by King James, and was a member of the Privy
Council. On the accession of Charles L, with whom he became a
great favourite, he was raised to the peerage by the title of Lord Stuart
of Traquair, and was appointed Treasurer- Depute, and an Extra-
ordinary Lord of Session. During the visit of Charles to Scotland in
1633 he elevated Lord Stuart to the dignity of Earl of Traquair,
with the subordinate titles of Lord Linton and Caberston. On the
resignation of the Earl of Morton, Traquair was appointed Lord
High Treasurer of Scotland, the highest office in the Government ;

VOL. II. L

68 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

and during the succeeding twenty-five years he took a prominent part
in public affairs. Clarendon says, ' This Earl was, without doubt,
not inferior to any in the Scottish nation in wisdom and dexterity.'
Charles evidently regarded him as a person on whom he could
thoroughly rely in carrying out his arbitrary schemes. The resump-
tion of the grants of Church lands had excited great discontent
among the fierce and turbulent nobility of Scotland, and a proposal
to vest in the King authority to regulate the ecclesiastical dress of
the clergy had met with considerable opposition, Charles, acting
by the advice of Laud, resolved to strike a blow which would
frighten the malcontents into silence, if not into acquiescence with
his measures, and Lord Balmerino was brought to trial on a charge of
leasing-making, or uttering a document tending to sow dissension
between the King and his subjects. The only ground for this charge
was that a humble and most respectful supplication to His Majesty
against the proposed changes, which had not been presented, was
in his Lordship's possession, and had been revised and corrected by
him. On the advice of Archbishop Spottiswood, Lord Balmerino
was arrested and tried. Every effort was made by the Court to
secure the condemnation of the ill-used nobleman ; and the Earl of
Traquair, on whose powers of persuasion great dependence was
placed, was appointed chancellor or foreman of the jury. Although
the list of jurors was mainly prepared by the Earl himself, it was
only by his casting vote that a verdict of guilty was obtained.
Sentence of death was pronounced upon Lord Balmerino ; but, the
public indignation at this outrageous proceeding blazed out so
fiercely, that the Government were afraid to carry the sentence into
execution. Bishop Burnet says, that when the trial terminated,
' many meetings were held, and it was resolved either to force the
prison to set Balmerino at liberty, or, if that failed, to avenge his
death both on the Court, and on the eight jurors. When the Earl
of Traquair understood this, he went to Court and told the King
that Lord Balmerino' s life was in his hands, but the execution was
in no ways advisable; so he procured his pardon.'

The person who could act this part in such a trial was evidently a
man after the King's own heart. Crafty, unscrupulous, and resolute,
he was not likely to shrink from carrying through any scheme that
the Court would devise. A number of holograph letters from
Charles in the charter-chest of Traquair house, show the unbounded
confidence which the King reposed in the Earl. On the 20th of

The Stewarts of Traquair. 69

November, 1637, he wrote from Whitehall, ' I have commended Rox-
borough, not only to show you -the manie secrets of my thoughts,
but, to have your judgment as well as your Industrie concur in my
service.' In 1641, when compelled by the Parliament to exclude
Traquair from his service, Charles wrote to him, ' Since by your
owen desyre and my permission ye are retired from my court to
satisfie the needlesse suspitions of your countrimen, I have thought
fitt by these lynes to assure you that, I am so far from having
chased you away as a delinquent, I esteem you to be as faith full a
servant as anie I have, beliuing that the greatest cause of malice
that ye are now vext with is for hauing served me as ye ought ;
therefore I desyre you to be confident that I shall bothe fynde a fiitt
tyme for you to wype away all thease slanders that are now against
you ; and lykewais to recompence your by-past sufferings for my ser-
vice.' Again, on 26th September, 1642, the King wrote, ' Traquair,
the former experience I have of your zeal to my seruice and your
dexteritie in it makes me address this bearer particularly to you, that
though his business may seem equally addressed to many, yet you
are he whom I cheefly (and indeed only) trust for the right managing
of it. Your most assured constant friend, Charles R.'

Traquair had gained the confidence of the King's chief ecclesias-
tical adviser, as well as of Charles himself. Laud informed the
Archbishop of St. Andrews that the Earl of Traquair ' hath assured
the King in my presence that he will readily do all good offices for
the Church that come within his power, according to all such com-
mands as he shall receive either immediately from the King, or other-
wise by direction of his Majesty from myself This ' mutual relation '
between the earl and the archbishop was to be ' kept very secret, and
made known to no other person, either clergy or laity.' The Scottish
Privy Council, consisting of eight prelates and about twenty noble-
men, along with the legal officials, formed the acting ministry for
the government of the country from 1634 to 1638, The Earl of
Traquair was virtually the leading resident minister, and after his
promotion to the office of Chief Treasurer in 1635, he 'guided our
Scots affairs,' says Baillie, ' with the most absolute sovereignty that
any subject among us this forty years did kythe.' His overbearing
manner seems to have intimidated some, at least, of the other
members of the Council. ' He carries all down that is in his way,'
observed Baillie, * with such a violent spate [flood], oft in needless
passion.' He disliked the bishops, however, and notwithstanding his

70 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

zeal for the King's service, both in ecclesiastical and civil affairs, he
was personally opposed to the introduction of the new Service Book.
He declared to the Earl of Rothes that he ' would rather lay down
his white staff than practise It, and would write his mind freely to his
Majesty.' He was, indeed, hostile not only to Laud's Liturgy, but
to the entire scheme of governing Scotland by the policy of Lambeth.
He agreed with Lord Napier In the opinion ' that Churchmen have
a competency is agreeable to the law of God, and man, but to invest
them Into great estates, and principal offices of State is neither con-
venient for the Church, for the King, nor for the State.' But, when
Charles, with his characteristic obstinacy, insisted on the adoption
of the new Service Book by the Scottish clergy, the timeserving
Lord High Treasurer took a prominent part in carrying out the
royal commands. Jenny Geddes' stool hurled at the head of the
Dean of Edinburgh, when he was ' saying mass at her lugg' (ear),
produced at once an explosion of the long pent-up wrath that had
been accumulating throughout the country. Traquair was one of
the principal objects of popular indignation, and one of the first to
suffer from its outburst. He was mobbed by the rabble of Edin-
burgh, and his official wand broken. He was himself hustled and
thrown down, and having been with difficulty raised by those about
him, ' without hat or cloak like a malefactor,' says a contemporary
chronicler, ' he was carried by the crowd to the door of the Council
House, where he found an asylum.' On receiving the tidings respect-
ing this riot the King wrote to the Treasurer, ' We have seen a
relation of that barbarous insurrection at Edinburgh, which you sent
vnto our Secretarie, and doe give you hartle thanks for the paines
you tooke to pacifie the same, and are highly offended that such an
indlgnitle as you wreate of should have been offered to such an
chelf officer of ours, and others of our Councell, and we do not
doubt but you have taken notice of them that were authours or
accessory therevnto, that vpon due tryall wee may take such
order therewith,, as the nature of such an exorbitant cryme doth
require.'* At the King's own request the Earl was sent by the
Privy Council to London, to Inform his Majesty of the state of
affairs and to advise with him as to the policy which should be
adopted. He earnestly recommended that the new liturgy should
be withdrawn, but that, to save the royal authority and dignity,
a form of submission should be required from the Presbyterians.
* Ninth Report of the Royal Commission on Historical MSS.

The Stewarts of Traquair. 71

The king was, however, profoundly ignorant of the real state of
affairs, and of the precipice on which he stood. He was persuaded
that to give up the Service Book and the Court of High Commission
would degrade his royal authority. The Archbishop of St. Andrews
wrote him that if he firmly condemned the present proceedings of
the supplicants, and forbade them, under pain of treason, to follow
the same course for the future, ' their combinations would melt like
frost-work in the sun, or be driven like mist before the wind.' Similar
advice was given by Laud and Strafford, and about the beginning of
February, 1688, Traquair returned to Scotland with instructions to
carry out this policy.

The Scottish capital was still in disgrace on account of the late
disturbances, and the Council and Sessions were held at Stirling.
After remaining a short time in the metropolis, where he declined to
give any information respecting the intentions of the King, or the
instructions which he had received, the High Treasurer set out for
the North. The object of his journey, however, and the nature of the
King's answer, had by some means transpired, and, within an hour
after the Earl had left Edinburgh, Lords Lindsay and Home set out
for Stirling as fast as their horses could carry them. They reached
the town before him, and were in readiness to counteract his pro-
ceedings on the spot. At ten o'clock on the 20th of February, the
heralds, accompanied by the Lord Treasurer and the Privy Seal,
appeared at the market cross and read the royal proclamation. It
expressed his Majesty's extreme displeasure with the conduct of
those who had taken part in recent ' meetings and convocations,'
declared them to be liable to high censure, prohibiting ' all such
convocations and meetings in time coming, under pain of treason,'
and commanding ' all noblemen, barons, ministers, and burghers,
not actually indwellers in the burgh of Stirling,' to depart thence
within six hours, and not return again, either to that town or to any
other place where the Council may meet. No sooner was the
proclamation made, with the usual formalities, than Lords Home and
Lindsay stepped forward and caused the protest which they had pre-
pared to be read at the same spot with all legal forms, and, leaving a
copy of this document affixed by the side of the proclamation to the
market cross of Stirling, they hastened back to Edinburgh. A repeti-
tion of the same scene took place at Linlithgow, Edinburgh, and all
the other towns where the proclamation was made. It was under-
stood that the policy of Traquair was to break up as much as pos-

72 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

sible the Presbyterian combination, embracing all classes of society,
and to induce the different orders of ' supplicants ' to renew their
petitions separately. To counteract this device, it was resolved to
renew the National Covenant, solemnly pledging the subscribers
' constantly to adhere unto and defend the true religion, and forbear-
ing the practice of all novations already introduced on the matter of
the worship, of God.'

When ' the ten years' conflict ' between the King and the Cove-
nanters began, in the memorable General Assembly which met
at Glasgow in November, 1638, the Earl of Traquair was one of
the assessors to the Royal Commissioner, the Marquis of Hamilton.
After the Covenanters had, by an appeal to arms, compelled the
King to yield to their demands in the Pacification of Berwick,
Traquair was appointed Lord High Commissioner to the General
Assembly which met at Edinburgh, 12th August, 1639. He had
a very difficult, and, indeed, dangerous task to perform. While
apparently willing to yield to the popular current, the King was
obstinately bent on carrying out his own schemes. His representa-
tive was therefore instructed to appear to grant everything which
the people desired, but with such artful qualifications and reserva-
tions, as in reality to concede nothing. He was ' to give way for the
present to that which will be prejudicial to the Church, and to the
Government, but to do so in such a way as would reserve a plea for
withdrawing these concessions when the proper time should come.'
A hint was also given to the clergy that they should deliver secretly
to the Commissioner a ' protestation and remonstrance against this
Assembly and Parliament,' which might afterwards serve as a pre-
text for cancelling their proceedings. Traquair seems to have
played his difficult part with great dexterity. On the one hand he
gave assent in his Majesty's name to the Acts of the Glasgow
Assembly, the abolition of Episcopacy, the rescinding of the five
Articles of Perth, and the ratification of the Covenant, to which he
appended his signature, both as Commissioner and as an individual.
On the other hand he made at the outset a most plausible pretext,
reserving his Majesty's right for redress of anything that might be
done prejudicial to his service.

The day after the rising of the Assembly, the Commissioner
opened ParUament in great state, the ' riding ' of the members— a
procession on horseback from Holyrood to the Parliament Close —
and all the other forms and honours due to royalty, being observed with

The Stewarts of Traquair. 73

more than customary splendour. The Estates, which had hitherto
met in the dingy recesses of the Tolbooth, now for the first time
assembled in the great new hall of the Parliament House, with its
fine roof made of oaken beams, which has ever since been one of
the most interesting structures in the metropolis. The meeting,
however, was short and stormy, and as Traquair, with all his
dexterity and eloquence, was unable to control their proceedings,
he prorogued the Parliament in order that he might receive fresh
instructions from the King, and did not again appear in person at
their meetings. The Covenanters, though unable to penetrate the
thick veil of duplicity and deceit in which the King and his Com-
missioner had enveloped their policy, were quite aware of the
insincerity and hostility both of Charles and his most-trusted
Councillor. Traquair was regarded as by no means the worst of the
' Malignants,' but his energy and ability rendered him especially
formidable. Hence, when their day of triumph arrived in 1641,
they compelled the King to give his assent to the exclusion of the
Earl from the benefit of the ' Act of Oblivion,' as an incendiary
betwixt England and Scotland, and betwixt the King and his
subjects. In the previous session of Parliament, an Act had been
passed * anent leising- makers of quhatsomever qualitie, office,
place, or dignity,' which declares that ' all bad counsillars quha,
instead of giving his Majestic trew and effauld counsaill, has given
or will give informatone and counsaill to the evident prejudice and
ruine of the liberties of this kirk and kingdom, suld be exemplarlie
judged and censured.' Sir James Balfour asserts this Act 'was
purposelie made to catche Traquair.' He was accordingly impeached
in Parliament as an incendiary, and found guilty. Charles interfered
to save him from capital punishment, but he was deprived of his
office as Treasurer, and obliged to find caution to conduct himself
in such a manner as would best conduce to the peace of the country,
under penalty of the forfeiture of the pardon he had received from
his Majesty. The dominant party in Parliament were not inclined
to use their power with moderation or mercy, and they compelled
the King to promise that he would not employ Traquair or any of
the other • incendiaries ' in any public office, without consent of the
Estates, or even allow them access to his person, lest they should
give him evil counsel.

The Earl of Traquair was one of the Scottish nobles who in
1643 subscribed a remonstrance expressing strong disapproval of

74 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

the combination of the Scottish Estates and the English Parliament
against the King, and was in consequence, on the ground that
he had violated the conditions on which he had been set at liberty,
declared an enemy to religion, and to the peace of the kingdom.
His movable goods were confiscated and his estates sequestrated.
He averted the entire forfeiture of his property, and obtained a
pardon, by the payment of 40,000 marks, along with the conditions
that he should subscribe the Covenant, and confine himself within
the counties of Roxburgh, Selkirk, and Peebles, and promise that
he would not repair to the King's presence. He is alleged to have
sent his son. Lord Linton, with a troop of horse, to join Montrose
the day before the battle of Philiphaugh (September 13th, 1645),
but to have withdrawn them during the night. It is also reported
that when the great Marquis, in his flight from the battle-field,
accompanied by a few followers, reached Traquair House, the Earl
and his son refused to receive them — an incident which, if true, tends
to confirm the opinion generally entertained of this shifty noble, that
he was an unprincipled trimmer on whom neither party could rely.

In 1647, when Charles had taken refuge in the Scottish camp,
Traquair was restored, and appointed a member of the Committee
of Estates, probably in consequence of a letter which the King
wrote in his behalf to the Earl of Lanark, the Scottish Secretary
of State. ' I must not be negligent,' he said, ' on Traquair' s behalf
as not to name his business to you for admitting him to his place
in Parliament, of which I will say no more ; but you know his suffer-
ings for me, and this is particularly recommended to you by your
most assured real constant friend, Charles R.' In 1648, Traquair
raised a troop of horse for the ' Engagement ' to attempt the
rescue of the King from the victorious Parliament, and with his son,
Lord Linton, was taken prisoner at the battle of Preston. He was
confined for four years in Warwick Castle, and his estates were a
second time sequestrated. He was ultimately set at liberty by
Cromwell, and returned to Scotland, where he spent the remainder
of his days in great poverty and obscurity. His son. Lord Linton,
though he had taken part in his father's efforts on behalf of King
Charles, had by some means — probably by joining the extreme
Presbyterian party— succeeded in rescuing a portion of the family
property, and was able to reside at Traquair; but much to his discredit,
he refused to give assistance to his aged and impoverished father!
During the last two years of his life, the old Earl was reduced to such

The Stewarts of Traquair. yc

straits as to be dependent on charity for the necessaries of life. It
is stated by the author of ' A Journey through Scotland, in Familiar
Letters,' that this once great noble and state officer ' would take an
alms though not publicly ask for it. There are some, still alive at
Peebles that have seen him dine on a salt herring and an onion.'

In the curious account of the Frasers, by James Fraser of Kirkhill,
recently brought to light, there is the following passage respecting
the first Earl. ' He was a true emblem of the vanity of the world —
a very meteor. I saw him begging in the streets of Edinburgh.
He was in an antique garb, and a broad old hat, short cloak, and
pannier breeches ; and I contributed in my quarters in the Canon-
gate towards his relief. We gave him a noble, he standing with
his hat off. The Master of Lovat, Culbockie, Glenmorrison, and
myself were there, and he received the piece of money from my
hand as humbly and thankfully as the poorest supplicant. It is said
that at a time he had not to pay for cobbling his boots, and died in
a poor cobbler's house.'* He died in 1659, 'sitting in his chair
at his own house,' says Nicol, ' without any preceding sickness,'
and ' but little lamented.' His death, it is said, was hastened, if
not caused, by the want of the necessaries of life. This melancholy
example of the mutability of fortune, was repeatedly employed
by the Treasurer's contemporaries to ' point a moral and adorn a
tale.' The annotator on Scott of Scotstarvit's ' Staggering State
of Scots Statesmen,' says that at his burial this unfortunate noble-
man ' had no mortcloth [pall] but a black apron, nor towels, but
leashes belonging to some gentlemen that were present ; and the
grave being two feet shorter than his body, the assistants behoved
to stay till the same was enlarged and he buried.'

If we may believe a story handed down by tradition, related by Sir
Walter Scott, and embodied in a ballad published in his ' Border
Minstrelsy,' the Earl of Traquair must have been as unscrupulous in
the means he employed to promote his own private interests, as in
the steps which he took to carry out the policy of the Court. When
he was at the height of his power, he had a lawsuit of great import-
ance, which was to be decided in the Court of Session, and there was

* The Earl of Traquair was not the only ' emblem of the vanity of the world ' to be
seen during the Great Civil War. The head of the ancient family of the Mowbrays of
Barnbougle was reduced to a similar state of destitution. In the sessions record of a
parish in Strathmore, under the date of February 17, 1650, there is the following
entry, ' Gave this day to Sir Robert Moubray, sometime laird of Barnbougle, now
become through indigence ana poor supplicant, twenty-four shillings ' [Scots].

VOL. II. M

76 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

every reason to believe that the judgment would turn upon the
casting-vote of the President, Sir Alexander Gibson, titular Lord
Durie, whose opinion was understood to be adverse to Traquair's
interest. Durie was not only an able lawyer but an upright judge
— a character not very common in Scotland in those days, when
the maxim, 'Show me the man and I'll show you the law' was
of very general application. As the President was proof both
against bribes and intimidation, it was necessary for the success of
the Lord Treasurer in his lawsuit that he should, in one way or
other, be disposed of. There was a stalwart Borderer, named William
Armstrong, called, for the sake of distinction, ' Christie's Will,' a
lineal descendant of the famous Johnnie Armstrong of Gilnockie,
who, for some marauding exploits, had been imprisoned in the Tol-
booth of Jedburgh, and was indebted to Traquair for his liberty, if
not for his life. To this daring moss-trooper the Earl applied for
help in this extremity, and he, without hesitation, undertook to kid-
nap the President, and keep him out of the way till the cause should
be decided. On coming to Edinburgh, he discovered that the judge
was in the habit of taking the air on horseback on Leith sands
without an attendant. Watching his opportunity one day, when
the judge was taking his usual airing, Armstrong accosted him,
and contrived, by his amusing conversation, to decoy the President
to an unfrequented and furzy common, called the Figgit Whins,
where he suddenly pulled him from his horse, blindfolded him,
and muffled him in a large cloak. In this condition the luckless
judge was trussed arp behind Christie's Will, and carried across the
country by unfrequented by-paths, and deposited in an old castle in
Annandale, not far from Moffat, called the Tower of Graham. Mean-
while, his horse having been found wandering on the sands, it was
concluded that its rider had been thrown into the sea and drowned.
His friends went into mourning, and a successor was appointed to
his office by the Lord Treasurer. The President spent three dreary
months in the dungeon of the Border fortalice, receiving his food
through an aperture in the wall, seeing no one, and never hearing the
sound of a human voice, save when a shepherd called upon his dog
Bawty, or a female inmate of the tower on her cat Madge, In the
words of the ballad —

' For nineteen days and nineteen nights
Of sun, or moon, or midnight stars,
Auld Durie never saw a blink,

The lodging was sae dark and dour.

The Stewarts of Traquair. 77

He thought the warlocks o' the rosy cross

Had fang'd him in their nets sae fast,
Or that the gipsies' glamoured gang

Had lair'd his learning at the last.

" Hey ! Bawty lad ! far yond ! far yond ! " *
These were the morning sounds heard he ;

And een "alack !" Auld Durie cried,

" The Deil is hounding his tykes on me ! "

And whiles a voice on Baudrons cried,
With sound uncouth, and sharp, and hie ;

" I have tar-barrell'd mony a witch.

And now I think they'll clear scores wi' me ! " '

At length tlie lawsuit was decided in favour of Lord Traquair,
and Will was directed to set the President at liberty. In the words
of the ballad —

' Traquair has written a privie letter.

And he has sealed it wi' his seal —
"Ye may let the auld brockt out of the poke,

My land's ray ain, and a's gane weel." '

Accordingly Will entered the vault at dead of night, muffled the
President once more in his cloak, without speaking a single word,
placed him on horseback as before, and, conveying him to Leith
sands, set down the astonished judge on the very spot where he
had taken him up. He, of course, claimed and obtained his office
and honours, probably not much to the satisfaction of his successor.
The common belief at the time, in which the President shared, was
that he had been spirited away by witchcraft ; and it was not until
after the lapse of a good many years that the truth was brought to
light. X

It appears from Pitcairn' s Criminal Trials that George Meldrum,
the younger, of Dumbreck, with the assistance of three Border

* The signal made by a shepherd to his dog when he is to drive away some sheep at
a distance.

f Badger.

\ The truth of this strange incident does not rest wholly on tradition, for Forbes, in
\\15 Journal of the Session, published in 1714, says : ' 'Tis commonly reported that some
party in a considerable action before the session finding that Lord Ducie could not be
persuaded to think 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 men to
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 Ducie was carried back by
incognitos, and dropt in the same place where he had been taken up.' — Minstrelsy of the
Scottish Border, iv. pp. 94, 95.

7 8 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

thieves, kidnapped Gibson of Durie, and kept him prisoner for some
time in a Border tower. But this may have been done at the
instigation of Traquair, or the President may have been carried off
a second time. It is not probable that the tradition long current on
the Borders should have been wholly groundless.

This was not the only occasion on which the Lord Treasurer was
indebted to Armstrong for important assistance. During the Great
Civil War, it was of vital consequence to the royal service that a
certain packet of papers should be transmitted to the King from his
friends in Scotland. But the task was both difficult and dangerous,
for the Parliamentary leaders kept strict watch on the Borders, to
prevent any communication between Charles and the Scottish Royal-
ists. In this strait, Traquair had once more recourse to 'Christie's
Will,' who readily undertook the commission, and succeeded in con-
veying the packet safely to the King. On his return, however, with
his Majesty's answer, he was waylaid at Carlisle, where, unconscious
of danger, he halted for some time to refresh his horse. On resum-
ing his journey, as soon as he began to pass the long and narrow
bridge which crossed the Eden at that place, both ends of the pass
were immediately occupied by a detachment of Parliamentary sol-
diers, who were lying in wait for him. The daring Borderer, how-
ever, without a moment's hesitation, spurred his horse over the
parapet, and plunged into the river, which was in high flood. After
a desperate struggle, he effected a landing at a steep bank called
the Stanners, and set off at full speed towards the Scottish Borders,
pursued by the troopers, who had for a time, stood motionless in
astonishment at his temerity. He was well mounted, however, and
having got the start, he kept ahead of his pursuers, menacing with
his pistols any of them who seemed likely to gain on him. They
followed him as far as the river Esk, that divides the two king-
doms, which he swam without hesitation, though it flowed ' from
bank to brae.' On reaching Scottish ground, the dauntless moss-
trooper turned on the northern bank, and, in the true spirit of a
Border raider, invited his pursuers to cross the river, and drink with
him. After this taunt he proceeded on his journey to the Scottish
capital, and faithfully placed the royal letters in the hands of
Traquair.

The Earl was succeeded in his titles, and the remnant of his
estates, by his only son Lord Linton, of whose * unnatural conduct to
his parents ' loud complaints have been made. Though an elder in the

The Stewarts of Traquair. 79

kirk, he was accused of drinking and swearing ; and while professing
to be an adherent of the extreme Presbyterian party, he married in
succession two ladies who were Roman Catholics. The records of
the Kirk Session of Inverleithen mention, in 1647, that ' for the more
speedy carrying out of their acts, the Session resolve to elect Lord
Linton an elder, which was accordingly done, his lordship promising
before the whole congregation to be faithful in the function.' In
April, 1648, he was appointed to attend the ensuing Synod, as ruling
elder from the session. Lord Linton's conduct, however, speedily
subjected him both to civil and ecclesiastical penalties. In 1649 he
married Lady Henrietta Gordon, a daughter of George, second
Marquis of Huntly, the leader of the Roman Catholic party in Scot-
land, who had shortly before been beheaded at the cross of Edinburgh.
Lady Henrietta was the widow of George, Lord Seton, eldest son of
the second Earl of Winton, also a leader among the Royalists. The
marriage of an elder of the Presbyterian Church to an excommuni-
cated Papist must have excited the strongest feelings of disapproval
throughout the whole body, and was regarded as a heinous offence.
The marriage ceremony was performed, contrary to law, privately
and without the proclamation of banns, by the minister of Dawick,
who was deposed and excommunicated for this violation of the law
both of Church and State. Lord Linton himself was fined ^5,000
Scots, and was also excommunicated and imprisoned. These severe
penalties, however, did not deter him from repeating the offence.
His wife lived only a year after her marriage, and in 1654 Lord
Linton took for his second wife Lady Anne Seton, half-sister of
the brother of Lady Henrietta — a union forbidden by the canon
law which regulates the marriages of the members of the Roman
Catholic Church, to which Lady Anne belonged. Lord Linton still
kept up his connection with the Presbyterian Church, but his irregular
conduct subjected him to the censures of the Presbytery of Peebles,
which at that time had no respect of persons. In its records, under
the date of August 9, 1657, there is the following entry, ' The Lord
Lyntoun (after many citations) called, compeared, and being charged
by the Moderator with these several miscarriages, viz., absenting
himself from the church, drinking, swearing, &c., he took with them
[admitted them], craved God's mercie and prayed for grace to eschew
them in time coming. Whereupon, his lordship being removed, the
Presbytery resolved that the Moderator should give him a grave
rebuke, and exhort him to seek God, and to forbear those evills in
time coming, which was accordingly done.'

8o The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

An entry in the Justice of Peace Records of the county affords
another glimpse of the position of this inconsistent and not over
reputable noble. Under the date of January 30th, 1658, it is said,
' This day the commander of the troops lying in the shires of Peebles
and Selkirk, desired informationfrom the justices of all Papists living
within the shire of Peebles, that he might prescribe ane order for
their personal deportment. The bench declared they knew of no
Papists in the shire except those who lived in Lord Linton's family.
Lord Linton himself declared that his lady and three women were
the only Papists in his house.'

The second Earl of Traquair died in April, 1666, in his forty- fourth
year, having had issue only by his second wife, four sons and three
daughters. The Privy Council, apprehensive that the Dowager
Lady Traquair would bring up her elder surviving son, William, in
the Roman Catholic faith, enjoined her, in 1672, when the youthful
Earl had reached his fifteenth year, to attend at Holyrood House,
and bring her son with her. She thought fit to disobey this sum-
mons, and a warrant was immediately issued to messengers-at-arms
to bring the Countess, along with her son, before the Council. Both
were produced within a week. In the Privy Council Records, under
date February 8, the disposal of the case is thus narrated, ' Com-
peared the Countess of Traquair, with her son the Earl, who is
ordered to be consigned to the care of the Professor of Divinity in
the University of Glasgow, to be educated in the Reformed religion,
at sight of the Archbishop of Glasgow. No Popish servants to be
allowed to attend him.' The order was, however, by some means
evaded, and was repeated nearly two years later, December, 1673.
Once more ' at Holyrood House, the Countess of Traquair com-
peared to exhibit her son the Earl, in order to be educated in the
Reformed religion. The Council resolve he shall be sent to a good
school, with a pedagogue and servants, as the Archbishop of Glasgow
should name, the Earl of Galloway to defray charges. A letter to
be sent to the Archbishop, and that the lady in the meantime keep
the Earl, her son, for ten or twelve days.'

It does not appear whether these measures were effectual in
retaining the young Earl in the Presbyterian fold, or whether his
mother succeeded in enticing him to enter the Romish Church. He
died unmarried, and was succeeded by Charles, the third son of the
second Earl — the second son, George, having died unmarried. The
new Earl had yielded to his mother's influence, and had openly

The Stewarts of Traquair. 8i

embraced the Roman Catholic faith. He suffered considerable
annoyance on account of his religious opinions at the time of the
Revolution, as appears from a statement of the celebrated Peter
Walker, the Packman, in his 'Vindication of Mr. Richard Cameron,'
published in the ' Biographia Presbyteriana.' ' In the end of the year
1688, at the happy Revolution, when the Duke of York [James VII. J
fled, and the crown w^as vacant, in which time \ye had no king, nor
judicatories in the kingdom, the United Societies, in their general
correspondence, considering the surprising, unexpected, merciful step
of the Lord's dispensation, thought it someway belonged to us in the
interregnum to go to all Popish houses, and destroy their monuments
of idolatry, with their priests' robes, and to apprehend and put to
prison themselves : which was done at the cross of Dumfries, and
Peebles, and other places. That honourable and worthy gentleman,
Donald Ker of Kersland,* having a considerable number of us with
him, went to the house of Traquair, in frost and snow, and found a
great deal of Romish wares there, but wanted the cradle, Mary and
the Babe, and the priest. He sent James Arcknyes and some with him
to the house of Mr. Thomas Lewis, who had the name of a Presbyterian
minister. Kersland ordered them to search his house narrowly and
behave themselves discreetly, which they did. Mr. Lewis and his wife
mocked them, without offering them either meat or drink, though they
had much need of it. At last they found two trunks locked, which they
desired to have opened. Mr. Lewis then left them. They broke up the
coffers, wherein they found a golden cradle with Mary and the Babe
in her bosom; in the other trunk the priest's robes (the Earl and the
priest were fled), which they brought all to the cross of Peebles, with
a great deal of Popish books, and many other things of great value,
all Romish wares, and burnt them there. At the same time we
concluded to go to all the prelatical and intruding curates, and to give
them warning to remove, with all that belonged to them.'

It is evident that Peter Walker and his associates had not been
taught toleration by their own sufferings.

Their adoption of the Roman Catholic faith excluded the Traquair
family both from Parliament, and from public office. Thus shut
out from intimate association with the great body of the Scottish
nobles and gentry, the successive Earls, remarkable for nothing
but their longevity, spent their lives in obscurity on the remnant

* Ker, though possessing the confidence of the Covenanters, was in reahty
employed by the Government as a spy and informer.

82 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

of their ancestral estate, which now yields a rental of only ^4,846
a year.

Charles, seventh Earl of Traquair, made application in 1779 for
a concession of the exclusive working of certain mines in Spain, in
which he believed there were vast deposits of coal. The Earl seems
also to have entertained the wish that a grandeeship and a suitable
establishment in Spain should be conferred upon him, because a
cadet of his family had formerly gone to that country, and allied
himself to one of the noble houses. He applied to Henry Stewart,
Cardinal York, the last of the royal Stewarts, for his influence in
the matter, who replied to his letter in kind and courteous terms.
' You may be assured,' he said, ' I have full cognizance of the
merits and prerogatives of your family, but I cannot but remark
that it is the first time in all my lifetime I have ever seen your
signature, or that of anyone belonging to you. That, however, has
not hindered me from writing a very strong letter to the Duque of
Alcudia in your favour, and I have also taken other means for to
facilitate the good success of your petition. I heartily wish my
endeavours may have their effect in reguard of you and your son,
and the meanwhile be assured of my sincere esteem and kind friend-
ship.' It appears that the application was not successful, for a
second equally kind letter from the Cardinal, in 1795, expresses his
hope that the affair will have a successful termination. The con-
cession, however, was not granted.*

On the death of the eighth Earl in 1 861, in his eighty-first year, the
titles of the family became extinct. His sister, Lady Louisa Stuart,
however, continued to possess the family estates, and to reside in the
antique, deserted-looking mansion of her fathers, probably the oldest
inhabited house in Scotland, until December, 1875, when she passed
away, in the hundredth year of her age. It does not appear, however,
that the venerable lady was depressed, or saddened either by the
decayed fortunes of her family, or by the reflection that she was the
last of her race. She continued to the end cheerful and active, kind
and charitable, fond of dress and of news, interested in all the events
passing around her, and, in spite of her great age, was a frequent
traveller. Her stately manners well became her position and descent,
and, though she went to the grave like a shock of corn fully ripe, her

* Ninth Report of Historical MSS. Commission, part ii. p. 243.

The Stewarts of Traquair. 83

death caused sadness and regret throughout Tweeddale and the
Forest, At her death the Traquair mansion and estates passed to
the Hon. William Constable Maxwell, a younger son of Lord Herries,
whose ancestor, the sixth Earl of Nithsdale, married his cousin, the
fourth daughter of the fourth Earl of Traquair.

The world on which Lady Louisa looked, not only in youth and
middle age, but even in her advanced years, differed so widely from
that on which she closed her eyes, that it might almost seem as if
several centuries had intervened between the beginning and the end
of her career. When she was born the Bourbons ruled, apparently
with a firm hand, in France, Spain, and Naples ; the Hapsburgs were
Emperors of Germany; Italy was a congeries of petty, powerless
principalities ; Turkey was a formidable power ; Poland was still a
kingdom, and Russia a barbarous and almost unknown region.
America was then only a dependency of Great Britain, though the
conflict had begun which was to terminate, before Lady Louisa left
the nursery, in the total separation of the American colonies from the
mother country. The East India Company was then little more than
an association of traders, and our Indian Empire was merely in its
infancy. She was ten years of age when the famous trial of Warren
Hastings, before the House of Lords, commenced. She was a young
lady of seventeen when the first French Revolution broke out, and
the whole civilised world stood aghast at the frightful massacres
which ensued, at the execution of Louis XVI. and his queen, and
the cruelties inflicted on the Royalists, with whom both the political
and religious principles of the Traquair family must have made them
deeply sympathise. She witnessed the astonishing results of the
French revolutionary wars, the overthrow of ancient dynasties, and
the adjustment and re-adjustment over and over again of the map
of Europe; the Continent prostrate at the feet of Bonaparte; and
the succession of brilliant naval victories of Rodney, Howe, Jervis,
and Nelson, from Cape St. Vincent to Trafalgar, which made Britain
the undisputed mistress of the seas. She had reached middle life
when Napoleon invaded Russia and lost both his splendid army and
his throne amid its snows, and when Wellington, having baffled the
best French generals, drove their armies in confusion out of the
Peninsula, and planted the British standard on the soil of France.
She was about forty years of age when the crowning victory of
Waterloo restored peace to Europe and consigned the common,
enemy to his life-long prison on St. Helena. It is striking that one

VOL. II. N

84 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

who witnessed in mature years the rise, progress, and overthrow, of
the first French Empire, should have lived to see, half a century-
later, the establishment and destruction of the Second Empire,
and ' haughty Gaul,' which had so often invaded, plundered, and
oppressed other nations, compelled to drain to the dregs the cup of
humiliation and retribution.

The changes which Lady Louisa witnessed in her own country —
the result of advancing intelligence and scientific discoveries — are
no less remarkable and much more satisfactory. The destruction
of the old close system of parliamentary representation, and the
substitution in its room of a system at once popular, equitable, and
efficient ; the abolition of the Corn Laws, and of the restrictions on
trade and commerce, once regarded as the palladium of Britain's
prosperity, took place, while gas, steamships, railroads, telegraphs,
and the penny post were all invented, or brought into general use
after she was far advanced in life. Nowhere had more extensive
and gratifying changes taken place during Lady Louisa's lifetime
than in her own beautiful and beloved Tweedslde. The green pas-
toral hills and ' Tweed's fair river, broad and deep,' remained as they
were, but all else was altered. Not only at the time of her birth, but
after the first decade of the present century had closed, agriculture in
Tweeddale, and indeed throughout Scotland, was at a very low ebb.
In 1763 there were no enclosures, and almost no trees. The arable,
lands were cut up Into small holdings, and the fields divided into
patches by numerous ditches and swamps. Draining had never
been tried ; artificial manures had never been thought of ; green
crops and stall-feeding were unknown. Corn was raised only on the
drier spots, and ploughing was effected by means of a huge, cum-
brous machine, drawn by teams of from four to six horses, or twice
as many oxen, driven by four or five men. The harness consisted
mainly of plaited straw and ropes. Men frequently dragged the
wooden harrows by means of ropes thrown over their shoulders. The
crops were always scanty, and it was no uncommon occurrence for
the grain to be cut down, and gathered In^ amid frost and snow.
Thrashing-mills were unknown at that time in Tweedslde. There
were no wheeled carts or carriages, or public conveyances of any
kind, and, indeed, no proper roads. When Lady Louisa travelled
In those days, It must have been always on horseback, and along
rough bridle-paths.

The condition of the people was on a par with the state of

The Steivarts of Traquair. 85

their lands. Farmhouses and cottages alike were mere hovels ;
the latter built of turf, low in the roof, dirty, damp, and unhealthy.
The people were sober, industrious, and thrifty, but very poor ;
they seldom tasted butcher's meat, but lived mostly on meal, milk,
and vegetables. The rents were very low, and only a small portion
was paid in money. In the whole county of Peebles there was, at
the close of the last century, only eight proprietors whose rentals
exceeded ;^ 1,000 a year, ;^4,ooo being the maximum. There are
now twenty-six. The contrast between the condition of the country
and its inhabitants in Lady Louisa's youthful days, and the scene of
beauty and fertility which Tweedside now presents, — its rich arable
fields and green pastures, the stately mansions of the gentry em-
bosomed in fine woods, and the comfortable farmhouses and cottages,
— may serve to show what agricultural skill and enterprise have done,
in one lifetime, to transform a wilderness into a garden of Eden.
Other changes have no doubt taken place during her career which
must have been less pleasing to the far-descended, aristocratic old
lady. At the close of last century there was no fewer than six great
nobles who had estates in Tweeddale, only one of whom now remains,
the proprietor of an estate of ^2, 000 a year.

THE DRUMMONDS.

HE founder of the Drummond family was long believed to
have been 'a Hungarian gentleman,' named Maurice, who
was said by Lord Strathallan, in his history of the family,
to have piloted the vessel in which Edgar Atheling and
his two sisters embarked for Hungary in 1066. They were driven,
however, by a storm to land upon the north side of the Firth of
Forth, near Queensferry, and took refuge at the Court of Malcolm
Canmore, which was then held at Dunfermline. After the marriage
of the Scottish king to the Princess Margaret, the Hungarian, as a
reward for his skilful management of the vessel in the dangerous
sea voyage, was rewarded by Malcolm with lands, offices, and a
coat-of-arms, and called Drummond ; ' and so it seems,' says Lord
Strathallan, ' this Hungarian gentleman got his name, either from
the office as being captaine, director, or admiral to Prince Edgar
and his company— for Dromont or Dromend in divers nations was
the name of a ship of a swift course, and the captaine thereof was
called Droment or Dromerer— or otherwise the occasion of the
name was from the tempest they endured at sea ; ' for Drummond,
his lordship thinks, might be made up of the Greek word for water!
and meant a hill, ' signifying high hills of waters ; or Drummond,'
from drum, which in our ancient language is a height.' The myth
was enlarged with additional and minute particulars by succeeding
historians of the family. Mr. Malcolm exalts the Hungarian
gentleman to the position of a royal prince of Hungaiy, and affirms
that he was the son of George, a younger son of Andrew, King of
Hungary. The late Mr. Henry Drummond, the banker, and M.P.
for West Surrey, in his splendid work, entitled, ' Noble British
PamiJies,' adopts and improves upon the statements of the previous
writers, and gives the Hungarian prince a roval pedigree in Hun-

DRUMMONDS OF PERTH.

The Dyummonds. 87

gary for many generations anterior to his coming to Scotland in
1066. All three agree in stating that the first lands given to that
Hungarian by Malcolm Canmore lay in Dumbartonshire, and
included the parish of Drummond in Lennox.

Mr. Fraser, in his elaborate and most interesting work, entitled,
' The Red Book of Menteith,' has proved, by conclusive evidence,
that these statements respecting the origin of the Drummond family
are purely apocryphal. The word Drummond, Drymen, or Drum-
min, is used as a local name in several counties of Scotland, and is
derived from the Celtic word druim, a ridge or knoll. The first
person who can be proved to have borne the name was one Malcolm
of Drummond, who, along with his brother, named Gilbert, wit-
nessed the charters of Maldouen, third Earl of Lennox, from 1225
to 1270. But this Malcolm was simply a chamberlain to the Earl.
Mr. Drummond states that he was made hereditary thane or
seneschal of Lennox, which is quite unsupported by evidence ; and
he asserts that Malcolm's estates reached from the shores of the
Gareloch, in Argyllshire, across the counties of Dumbarton and
Stirling into Perthshire, which Mr. Fraser has shown to be an
entire mistake. Instead of the Barony of Drymen, or Drummond,
having been granted to a Prince Maurice by Malcolm Canmore in
1070, the lands belonged to the Crown previous to the year 1489,
when for the first time they were let on lease to John, first Lord
Drummond, and afterwards granted to him as feu-farm. The
earliest charter to the family of any lands having a similar name was
granted in 1362, by Robert Stewart of Scotland, Earl of Strathern,
to Maurice of Drummond, of the dominical lands, or mains of
Drommand and Tulychravin, in the earldom of Strathern. It is
doubtful if he ever entered into possession of these lands ; but it is
clear that, whether he did so or not, they did not belong to the
Drummond family previous to the grant of 1362, but were part of
the estates of the Earl of Strathern, and that they are wholly distinct
from the lands and lordship of Drummond afterwards acquired by
John Drummond, who sat in Parliament 6th May, 1471, under
the designation of Dominus de Stobhall, and, sixteen years later,
was created a peer of Parliament by James III.

James IV., after his accession to the throne, granted a lease for
five years, on 6th June, 1489, in favour of John, Lord Drummond, of
the Crown lands of Drummond, in the shire of Stirling. On the
expiry of the lease, the King made a perpetual grant of the lands

88 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

to him by a charter under the Great Seal, dated 31st January, 1495,
bearing that the grant was made for the good and faithful services
rendered by Lord Drummond, and for the love and favour which
the King had for him. After the death of James IV., Lord Drum-
mond exerted all his influence to promote the marriage between his
grandson, the Earl of Angus, and the widowed Queen Margaret.
' This marriage begot such jealousy,' says Lord Strathallan, ' in the
rulers of the State, that the Earl of Angus was cited to appear
before the Council, and Sir William Cummin of Inneralochy,
Knight, Lyon King-at-Armes, appeared to deliver the charge ; in
doing whereof he seemed to the Lord Drummond to have ap-
proached the Earl with more boldness than discretion, for which he
gave the Lyon a box on the ear ; whereof he complained to John,
Duke of Albany, then newly made Governor to King James V. ; and
the Governor, to give ane example of his justice at his first entry to
his new office, caused imprison the Lord Drummond's person in the
Castle of Blackness, and forfault his estate to the Crown for his
rashness. Bot the Duke, considering, after information, what a
fyne man the lord was, and how strongly allyed with most of the
great families of the nation, was well pleased that the Queen-
mother and Three Estates of Parliament should interceed for him,
as he was soone restored to his llbertle and fortune.' It would
have been well for Lord Drummond if he had remembered, on this
occasion, the motto of his family,' Gang warily,' and his own maxim,
in his paper of ' Constituted Advice,' ' In all our doings discretion is
to be observed, otherwise nothing can be done aright.'

On the 5th of January, 1535, King James V. entered into an
obligation to infeft David, second Lord Drummond, in all the lands
which had belonged to his great-grandfather, John, the first lord,
and which were in the King's hands by reason of escheat and
forfeiture, through the accusation brought against John, Lord
Drummond, for the treasonable and violent putting of hands on the
King's officer then called Lyon King-of-Arms. Certain specified
lands, however, were excepted — viz., Innerpeffrey, Folrdow, Aucter-
arder, Dalquhenzle and Glencoyth, with the patronage of the pro-
vostry and chaplaincy of Innerpeffrey, which were to be given by the
King to John Drummond of Innerpeffrey, and to the King's sister,
Margaret, Lady Gordon, his spouse. It was stipulated in the
obligation that David, Lord Drummond, was to marry Margaret
Stewart, daughter of Margaret, Lady Gordon. The instrument of

The Drummonds. 89

infeftment, dated ist and 2nd November, 1542, affords the most
positive proof of the distinction between the old and new possessions
of Drummond in Stirlingshire and Drommane in Strathern, and the
two were for the first time, by a charter dated 25th October, 1542,
' united, erected, and incorporated into a free barony, to be called in
alltymes to cum the Barony of Drummen.' It is evident, then, that
' whatever lands in the Lennox the earlier members of the house of
Drummond might have held, such certainly did not comprehend the
lands bearing their own name.' The lands of Drummond were sold
by the Earl of Perth, in 1631, to. William, Earl of Strathern and
Menteith. The eighth and last Earl entailed them upon James,
Marquis of Montrose, and they have ever since formed part of the
Montrose estates.

The lands of Roseneath, in Dumbartonshire, were also said by
Mr. Henry Drummond to have been granted by Malcolm Canmore
to the alleged Hungarian prince, but these lands were in reality
acquired by the Drummonds in 1372, by a grant from Mary,
Countess of Menteith, and were soon restored. The bars wavy, the
armorial bearings of the Drummonds, were alleged to have been
taken from the tempestuous waves of the sea, when Maurice the
Hungarian piloted the vessel which carried Edgar Atheling and his
sisters. The late Mr. John Riddell affirms that this supposed origin of
the Drummond arms is too absurd and fabulous to claim a moment's
attention. Mr. Eraser has shown that the bars wavy were the proper
arms of the Menteith earldom, and that the Drummonds, as feudal
vassals of the Earls of Menteith, according to a very common prac-
tice in other earldoms, adopted similar arms.

It thus appears that the founder of the Drummond family was not
a Hungarian prince, or even gentleman, but Malcolm Beg, chamber-
lain to the Earl of Lennox. When the War of Independence broke out
the Drummonds embraced the patriotic side. John of Drummond
was taken prisoner at the battle of Dunbar, and was imprisoned in
the castle of Wisbeach ; but he was set at liberty in August, 1 297, on
Sir Edmund Hastings, proprietor of part of Menteith in right of his
wife, Lady Isabella Comyn, offering himself as security, and on the
condition that he would accompany King Edward to France. His
eldest son, Sir Malcolm Drummond, was a zealous supporter of
the claims of Robert Bruce to the Scottish throne, and like his father
fell into the hands of the English, having been taken prisoner by Sir
John Segrave. On hearing this ' good news,' King Edward, on the

VOL. II. o

go The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

20th of August, 1 30 1, offered oblations at the shrine of St. Mungo,
in the cathedral of Glasgow. After the independence of the country-
was secured by the crowning victory of Bannockburn, Malcolm was
rewarded for his services by King Robert Bruce with lands in Perth-
shire. Sir Robert Douglas, the eminent genealogist, conjectures
that the caltrops, or four-spiked pieces of iron, with the motto
' Gang warily,' in the armorial bearings of the Drummonds, were
bestowed as an acknowledgment of Sir Malcolm's active efforts in
the use of these formidable weapons at the battle of Bannockburn.
His grandson, John Drummond, married the eldest daughter and
co-heiress of Sir John Montefex,* the first of the numerous fortunate
marriages made by the Drummonds. Maurice, another grandson,
married the heiress of Concraig and of the Stewardship of Strathearn.
A second son. Sir Malcolm, whom Wyntoun terms ' a manfuU
knycht, baith wise and wary,' fought at the battle of Otterburn in
1388, in which his brother-in-law, James, second Earl of Douglas and
Mar, was killed, and succeeded him in the latter earldom, in right of
his wife, Lady Isabel Douglas, only daughter of William, first Earl
of Douglas. He seems to have had some share in the capture at
that battle of Ralph Percy, brother of the famous Hotspur, as he
received from Robert III. a pension of ;^20, in satisfaction of the
third part of Percy's ransom, which exceeded ^600. He died of his
' hard captivity' which he endured at the hands of a band of ruffians
by whom he was seized and imprisoned. His widow, the heiress of
the ancient family of Mar, was forcibly married by Alexander Stewart,
a natural son of ' theWolf of Badenoch.' \See Earldom of Mar.]
Sir Walter Drummond, who was knighted by James II., was the
ancestor of the Drummonds of Blair Drummond, Gairdrum, Newton,
and other branches of the main stock. Sir John Drummotstd, the
head of the family in the reign of James IV., held the great office of
Justiciar of Scotland, was Constable of the castle of Stirling, took a
prominent part in pubHc affairs, and was created a peer 29th January,
1487-8, by the title of Lord Drummond. Although this honour, as
we have seen, was conferred upon him by James III., Lord Drum-
mond joined the party of the disaffected nobles, who took up arms
against their sovereign, with the Prince at their head, and was
rewarded for his services after the death of the King at Sauchieburn

* It has hitherto been supposed that the estates of Stobhall and Cargill, on the
Tay, which still belong to the family, came into the possession of the Drummonds by
marriage with this heiress, but they were in reality bestowed by David II. on Queen
Margaret, and were given by her to Malcolm of Drummond, her nephew.

The Drummonds. 91

by a lease, subsequently converted into a grant, of the Crown lands
of Drummond in the county of Stirling.

The Drummonds were not only a brave and energetic race, but they
were conspicuous for their handsome persons and gallant bearing.
Good looks ran in their blood, and the ladies of the family were famous
for their personal beauty, which no doubt led to the great marriages
made by them, generation after generation, with the Douglases, Gor-
dons, Grahams, Crawfords, Kers, and other powerful families, which
greatly increased the influence and possessions of their house. Mar-
garet, daughter of Malcolm, Lord Drummond, and widow of Sir John
Logie, became the second wife of David II., who seems to have been
familiar with her during her husband's lifetime. The Drummonds
gave a second queen to Scotland in the person of Annabella, the
saintly wife of Robert III., and mother of the unfortunate David,
Duke of Rothesay, and of James I., whose ' depth of sagacity and firm-
ness of mind ' contributed not a little to the good government of the
kingdom. They had nearly given another royal consort to share
the throne of James IV., who was devotedly attached to Margaret,
eldest daughter of the first Lord Drummond, a lady of great beauty.*
But that king's purpose to marry her was frustrated by her death,
in consequence of poison administered by some of the nobles, who
were envious of the honour which was a third time about to be con-
ferred on her family. Her two younger sisters, who accidentally
partook of the poisoned dish, shared her fate. The historian of the
Drummonds states that James was 'affianced to Lady Margaret, and
meant to make her his queen without consulting his council. He
was opposed by those nobles who wished him to wed Margaret
Tudor. His clergy likewise protested against his marriage as within
the prohibited degrees. Before the King could receive the dispensa-
tion, his wife (the Lady Margaret) was poisoned at breakfast at
Drummond Castle, with her two sisters. Suspicion fell on the Ken-
nedys — a rival house, a member of which. Lady Janet Kennedy,
daughter of John, Lord Kennedy, had borne a son to the King.' A
slightly different account is given in 'Morreri's Dictionary,' on the
authority of a manuscript history of the family of Drummond, com-

* The entries in the Lord High Treasurer's accounts respecting the frequent rich
presents lavished on a certain Lady Margaret, which have been adduced as proofs of
the relatiorr in which Lady Margaret Drummond stood to James, have been proved to
refer to Lady Margaret Stewart, the King's aunt. James, indeed, was a mere boy
when those sums were paid ; his connection with Margaret Drummond did not
commence until the summer of 1496.

92 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

posed in 1689. It is there stated that Lady Margaret, daughter of
the first Lord Drummond, ' was so much beloved by James IV. that
he wished to marry her, but as they were connected by blood, and a
dispensation from the Pope was required, the impatient monarch
concluded a private marriage, from which clandestine union sprang
a daughter, who became the wife of the Ea^l of Huntly. The dis-
pensation having arrived, the King determined to celebrate his
nuptials publicly ; but the jealousy of some of the nobles against the
house of Drummond suggested to them the cruel project of taking
off Margaret by poison, in order that her family might not enjoy the
glory of giving two queens to Scotland.' The three young ladies
thus ' foully done to death ' were buried in a vault, covered with three
blue marble stones, in the choir of the cathedral of Dunblane.

John, first Lord Drummond, died in 15 19, upwards of eighty years
of age. His eldest son predeceased him, and William, Master of Drum-
mond, his second son, was unfortunately implicated in a tragic affair
which brought him to the scaffold. There was a feud of long standing
between the Drummonds and the Murrays, and in 1490 the Master
of Drummond, having learned that a party of Murrays were levying
teinds on his father's estates for George Murray, Abbot of Inchafifray,
hastened to oppose them at the head of a large body of followers,
accompanied by Campbell of Dunstafifnage. The Murrays took
refuge in the church of Monievaird, and the Master and his party
were retiring, when a shot from the church killed one of the Dun-
stafifnage men. The Highlanders, in revenge for this murder, set
fire to the church, and nineteen of the Murrays v/ere burnt to death,
James determined to punish the ringleaders in this shocking outrage
with death, and the Master of Drummond was apprehended, tried,
convicted, and executed, in spite of the earnest entreaties of his
mother and sister in his behalf.

He left a son, who predeceased his grandfather, and in conse-
quence the first Lord Drummond was succeeded by his great-grand-
son David, who became second Lord Drummond. He was a zealous
adherent of Queen Mary. His second son, James, Lord Maderty,
was ancestor of the Viscounts Strathallan. He married Margaret,
daughter of Alexander, Duke of Albany, and grand - daughter of
James II. His elder son, Patrick, third Lord Drummond, embraced
the Protestant religion. The great beauty, ability, and virtues of
his daughter, the Countess of Roxburgh, were celebrated in' glowing
strains by the poet Daniel, and she was held in such high estimation

The Drummonds. 93

by James VI. that he made choice of her to be the governess of his
daughters. The Drummonds were a courtly family, and throughout
their whole career were conspicuous for their attachment to the
throne. They fought gallantly on the royal side, under Montrose,
in the Great Civil War, and suffered severely for their loyalty. More
fortunate, however, than most of the Royalist nobles, they were
liberally rewarded at the Restoration for their fidelity to the Crown.

James, fourth Lord Drummond, was created Earl of Perth in
1605. His brother, the second Earl, was a staunch Royalist, and
was fined ^5,000 by Cromwell for his adherence to the cause of
Charles I. His grandson James, fourth Earl, after holding the
offices of Lord Justice- General and of an Extraordinary Lord of
Session, was in 1684 appointed Lord Chancellor of Scotland. He
was a special favourite of James VII., whose good will he and his
younger brother had gained by renouncing the Protestant religion,
and embracing the tenets of Romanism. ' With a certain audacious
baseness,' says Lord Macaulay, 'which characterised Scottish public
men in that bad age, the brothers declared that the papers found in
the strong box of Charles II. had converted them both to the true
faith,- and they began to confess and to hear mass. How little con-
science had to do with Perth's change of religion he amply proved
by taking to wife a few weeks later, in direct defiance of the laws of
the Church which he had just joined, a lady who was his cousin-
german, without waiting for a dispensation. When the good Pope
learned this he said, with scorn and indignation which well became
him, that this was a strange sort of conversion.'

Apostasy from the Episcopal Church to Romanism, and especially
apostasy such as this, was a sure passport to the confidence and
liberality of James, and Perth speedily became the chief Scottish
favourite of that weak and tyrannical monarch. He obtained a gift
of the forfeited estates of Lord Melville, and was entrusted with the
whole management of affairs in Scotland. He readily lent himself to
carry out the arbitrary and unconstitutional schemes of his master,
and took a prominent part in the cruel persecution of the Cove-
nanters. Burnet ascribes to him the invention of a little steel thumb-
screw, which inflicted such intolerable pain that it wrung confessions
out of men on whom his Majesty's favourite boot had been tried in
vain. Perth's younger brother was created Earl of Melfort in
1686, received a grant of a portion of the forfeited estates of the
Earl of Argyll, and was appointed Secretary of State for Scotland.

94 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

The unprincipled conduct of these two chief ministers of affairs
rendered them very obnoxious to the people, and especially to the
citizens of Edinburgh. A cargo of images, beads, crosses, and
censers was sent from the Continent to Lord Perth, in direct
violation of the law which forbade the importation of such articles.
A Roman Catholic chapel was fitted up in the Chancellor's
house, in which mass was regularly performed. A riot in conse-
quence took place. The iron bars which protected the windows
were wrenched off and the inmates were pelted with mud. The
troops were called out to quell the disturbance, the mob assailed
them with stones ; in return, the troops were ordered to fire, and
several citizens were killed. Two or three of the ringleaders of the
riot were hanged, amid expressions of strong sympathy for the
sufferers, and of abhorrence of the Chancellor, on whom the whole
blame was laid.

Perth and his brother were poor creatures both, and seem to have
been destitute even of the physical courage of their house. When
the Revolution took place and his royal master fled to France, the
Chancellor, whose ' nerves were weak and his spirit abject,' took
refuge at Castle Drummond, his country seat, near Crieff, under the
escort of a strong guard, and there experienced ' an agony as bitter
as that into which the merciless tyrant had often thrown better men.'
He confessed that ' the strong terrors of death were upon him,' and
vainly 'tried to find consolation in the rites of his new Church.'
Believing that he was not safe even among his own domestics and
tenantry, he quitted Drummond Castle in disguise, and, crossing by
unfrequented paths the Ochil Hills, then deep in snow, he succeeded
in getting on board a collier vessel which lay off Kirkcaldy. But his
flight was discovered. It was rumoured that he had carried off with
him a large amount of gold, and a skiff, commanded by an old
buccaneer, pursued and overtook the flying vessel near the Bass, at
the mouth of the Firth. The Chancellor was dragged from the hold
where he had concealed himself disguised in woman's clothes, was
hurried on shore begging for life with unmanly cries, like his brother
chancellor, Jeffries, and was consigned to the common jail of Kirk-
caldy. He was afterwards transferred, amidst'the execrations and
screams of hatred of a crowd of spectators, to the castle of Stirling,
where he was kept a close prisoner for four years. On regaining his
liberty, in 1693, the ex-Chancellor went to Rome, where he resided
for two years. King James then sent for him to St. Germains,

The Drummonds, 95

appointed him First Lord of the Bedchamber, Chamberlain to the
Queen, and governor to their son, the titular Prince of Wales, who,
on his father's death, raised the Earl to the rank of Duke— a title
which was, of course, not recognised by the British Government. He
was deeply engaged in all the intrigues and plots of the mimic court
of the exiled monarch until his death in 17 16.

His eldest son, James, Lord Drummond, accompanied King James
in his expedition to Ireland, took a prominent part in the rebellion of
17 15, and was, in consequence, attainted by the British Parliament.
But two years before this unsuccessful attempt to restore the Stewart
family to the throne, he executed a disposition of his estates in
favour of his son, which was sustained by the Court of Session, and
affirmed by the House of Lords. Destiny, however, had set her
hand on the ill-fated house, and its doom was only postponed, not
averted. The heir of the family, James, third titular Duke of
Perth, true to the principles of his family, joined Prince Charles
Stewart in the rebellion of 1745, at the head of his tenantry, and
shared in all the perils and privations of that unfortunate adventurer.
He was a young man of an amiable disposition and dauntless
courage, but his abilities were very moderate, his constitution was
weak, and he was quite inexperienced both in politics and in war.
' In spite of a very delicate constitution,' says Douglas, • he under-
went the greatest fatigues, and was the first on every occasion of
duty where his head or his hands could be of use.' He commanded
the right wing of the Highlanders at the battle of Prestonpans,
directed the siege of Carlisle, and of the castle of Stirling, and was
at the head of the left wing at the final conflict of Culloderi. After
that disastrous battle, though tracked and pursued by the English
troops, he made his escape to Moidart, and embarked in a French
vessel lying off that coast. But his constitution was quite worn out
by the privations he had undergone, and he died on his passage to
France, nth May, 1746, at the age of thirty-three. His brother and
heir, Lord John Drummond, a colonel in the French service, com-
manded the left wing of the Highlanders at the battle of Falkirk.
On the suppression of the rebellion, he made his escape to France,
served with distinction in Flanders under Marshal Saxe, and
attained the rank of major-general shortly before his death, in
1747. Previous to his death, the Duke of Perth had been attainted
by the British Parliament, and his estates were forfeited to the Crown.
His two uncles successively assumed the title of Duke of Perth, and

g6 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

on the death of Lord Edward Drummond, the younger of the two,
at Paris, in 1760, the main line of the family became extinct.

The succession fell to the descendants of the Earl of Melfort,
younger brother of the Chancellor, and Secretary of State for
Scotland under James VII. He too, as we have seen, became a
pervert to the Romish Church, and in his zeal for his new faith
obtained from the King the exclusion of his family by his first wife
from the right to inherit his estates and titles, because their mother's
relations had frustrated his attempts to convert them to Romanism.
At the Revolution he fled to France, and was attainted by Act of
Parliament in 1695. H!e was created Duke de Melfort in 1701, and
for a number of years had the chief administration of the affairs of
the exiled monarch. He died in 17 14. His second wife, daughter
of Sir Thomas Wallace of Craigie, lived to be above ninety years of
age, and in her latter years supported herself by keeping a faro-table.
His descendants remained in their adopted country, and identified
themselves with its faith, its interests, and its manners. Most of
them embraced the military profession and attained high rank in the
French, German, and Polish services. Some of them entered the
Church, and one was elevated to the rank of cardinal. George,
Sixth Duke of Melfort, renounced the Romish faith, conformed to
the Protestant Church, entered the British army, and became a
captain in the 98th Highlanders. Having petitioned the Queen for
the restoration of the Scpttish attainted honours, he proved his
descent, in 1848, before the Committee for Privileges of the House
of Lords, was restored in blood by an Act of Parliament in 1853,
and was reinstated in the earldom of Perth and the other Scottish
honours of his illustrious house.

Meanwhile, the Drummond estates, which had been forfeited to
the Crown in 1 746, remained for nearly forty years under the charge
of Commissioners. In 1784, however, they were conferred by
George III., under the authority of an Act of Parliament, on a
Captain James Drummond, who claimed to be heir male of Lord
John Drummond, brother of the duke who fought at CuUoden.
The fortunate recipient of these fine estates was, in addition, created
a British peer by the title of Baron Perth. At his death, in the year
1800, his landed property descended to his daughter, Clementina
Drummond, who married the twelfth Lord Willoughby de Eresby.
At her death the Drummond estates devolved upon her eldest
daughter, Lady Aviland.

The Drummonds. 97

Repeated but unsuccessful efforts have been made by the Earl of
Perth to obtain the restitution of the hereditary possessions of the
family. He pleaded that he is now the nearest lawful heir male of
James, third Duke of Perth, and that he is the first of his house who
could sue for the family inheritance, as his predecessors were all
French subjects and Papists, and incapable of taking up any heritable
estate in Scotland. He also alleged that when the forfeited posses-
sions of the Drummond family were restored, they ought legally to
have been conferred on the nearest heir in the direct line of the
entail of 17 13. An adverse decision, however, was given both by the
Court of Session and the House of Lords, mainly on the ground that
the attainder vested the estates absolutely in the Crown, that they
might, therefore, be conferred at will by the sovereign or Parlia-
ment, and that their gift to Captain Drummond cannot be reduced.

The interests at stake in this suit were very valuable. Though
Drymen, the original seat of the Drummond family, and their other
Dumbartonshire property, passed into the hands of the Grahams cen-
turies ago, and the whole of their Stirlingshire estates, along with
Auchterarder and other ancient possessions of the family in Perth-
shire, have also passed away from them, there yet remain the antique
castle of Drummond with its quaint and beautiful gardens, Stobhall
and Cargill, which four hundred years ago were bestowed upon
Malcolm Drummond by Queen Margaret, his aunt, and the
Trossachs, Loch Katrine, and Glenartney, immortalised by Sir Walter
Scott, yielding in all nearly ;^3 0,000 a year.

There can be no doubt that both on political and social grounds,
it would have been better that these fine estates should have devolved
on a resident proprietor, the representative of their ancient owners,
than that they should be held by a non-resident family already
possessed of vast estates in another part of the island, strangers to
the country and to the tenantry, and who never see or are seen by
them, except during a few weeks in autumn.

As showing the grandeur of the Drummond family, Mr. Henry
Drummond says that they have furnished Dukes of Roxburgh,
Perth, and Melfort ; a Marquis of Forth ; Earls of Mar, Perth, and
Ker ; Viscounts Strathallan ; Barons Drummond, Inch affray,
Madderty, Cromlix, and Stobhall ; Knights of the Garter, St. Louis,
Golden Fleece, and Thistle; Ambassadors, Queens of Scotland,
Duchesses of Albany and Athole ; Countesses of Monteith, Mont-
rose, Eglinton, Mar, Rothes, Tullibardine, Dunfermline, Rox-

VOL. II. P

98 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

burgh, Winton, Sutherland, Balcarres, Crawford, Arran, Errol,
Marischal, Kinnoul, Hyndford, Effingham; Macquary in France,
and Castle Blanche in Spain; Baronesses Fleming, Elphinstone,
Livingstone, Willoughby, Hervey, Oliphant, RoUo, and Kinclaven.

' To this long list of distinguished names,' says Mr. Eraser, ' the
author might have added Margaret Drummond, sometime Logic, the
second queen of King David Bruce.'

Mr. Henry Drummond might also have mentioned the various
minor branches of the family, such as the Drummonds of Carnock ;
of Hawthornden, to whom William Drummond, the celebrated poet,
belonged ; of Logie Almond, who produced the distinguished scholar
and antiquary, Sir William Drummond ; the Drummonds of Blair-
Drummond, whose heiress married Henry Home, the celebrated
Lord Karnes, lawyer, judge, and philosopher ; and others.

The present Earl of Perth, who was born in 1807, had an only
son, Malcolm, Viscount Forth, who died in 1861, in very melancholy
circumstances. He left a son, George Essex Montifex, born in 1856.
It is stated in D.ebrett'' s Peerage that in 1874 the young lord married
a daughter of the late Mr. Harrison, lead merchant, of London.
According to the Quebec Mercury the youth, who was only eighteen
years of age, immediately after his marriage, which displeased his
family, emigrated with his wife to the United States. He landed at
New York without means, and engaged himself as a shipping clerk
to a firm in that town. He somehow lost his situation, however, and
left New York and settled at Brookhaven, a fishing village on the
south shore of Long Island. He lived there for several years in a
picturesque old farmhouse, supporting himself and his wife very
comfortably by fishing and shooting. In appearance, dress, man-
ners, and language, he differed little from the fishermen of the
village, who knew him only as George. Last year he quitted Brook-
haven, and bringing his wife and one child — a son — to New York,
he became a porter to a dry goods firm. When he was a shipping
clerk he was visited by Lord Walter Campbell, who unsuccessfully
tried to persuade the runaway to return home. He has now, how-
ever, gone back to his native country, and it is understood that a
reconciliation has been effected between him and the old Earl, his
grandfather.

DRUMMONDS OF STRATHALLAN.

THE STRATHALLAN DRUMMONDS.

[HE Drummonds of Strathallan are descended from James
Drummond, second son of David, second Lord Drum-
mond. He was educated along with James VI., with
whom he seems to have been a favourite through life, and
was appointed one of the Gentlemen of the Royal Bedchamber in
1585. He was present with James at Perth, 5th August, 1600, when
the Earl of Gowrie and his brother lost their lives in their attempt to
obtain possession of the King's person. He obtained the office of
commendator of the Abbey of Inchaffray, which was founded a.d. i 200
by Gilbert, Earl of Strathern, and his Countess, Matilda. Maurice,
abbot of this religious house, was present at the battle of Bannock-
burn, and, before the conflict commenced, he passed bareheaded, and
barefooted, through the ranks of the Scottish army, and, holding
aloft a crucifix, in a few forcible words exhorted them to fight
bravely for their rights and liberties. The Abbey shared the fate of
the other monastic establishments of Scotland, and its lands were
formed into a temporal barony in favour of James Drummond, who
was raised to the peerage 31st January, 1609, by the title of Lord
Madderty, the name of the parish in which Inchaffray is situated.
He obtained the lands of Inverpeffray also, by his marriage with
the heiress — a daughter of Sir James Chisholme of Cromlix — which
descended to her through her mother from Sir James Drummond.
The elder of his two sons —

John Drummond, became second Lord Madderty. Though, like
all his family, a Royalist, he did not take up arms in behalf of
Charles L until after the battle of Kilsyth in 1645, which had com-
pletely prostrated the cause of the Parliament in Scotland. He then
repaired to the standard of Montrose at Bothwell, along with the

I oo The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

Marquis of Douglas, the Earls of Linlithgow, Annandale, Hartfell,
and other 'waiters on Providence,' who had held back until they saw
which side was likely to prove the strongest. He does not appear
to have accompanied Montrose to the Border, but he was afterwards
imprisoned for the adherence which he had professed to the royal
cause, and in 1649 he bound himself, under a heavy penalty, not to
oppose the Parliament. He was succeeded by his eldest son, David ;
his fifth son, William, became the first Viscount Strathallan.

David Drummond, third Lord Madderty, suffered imprisonment
in 1644, along with other Royalists, by order of the Committee of
Estates. His two sons by his second wife, Beatrice, sister of the
great Marquis of Montrose, died young, and he was succeeded by
his youngest brother —

William Drummond. He took an active part on the royal side
in the Great Civil War, was an officer in the army of the ' Engage-
ment ' raised for the rescue of Charles L in 1648, and had the
command of a regiment at the battle of Worcester in 1 65 1 , where
he was taken prisoner, but made his escape. He succeeded in
making his way to the Highlands, and joined there the force which
had been collected under the Earl of Glencairn, but when they were
surprised and defeated by General Morgan at Lochgarry in 1654,
Lord Madderty fled to the Continent. He subsequently entered the
Muscovite service, in which he attained the rank of lieutenant-
general. As he himself said, he ' served long in the wars, at home
and abroad, against the Polonians and Tartars.' After the Restora-
tion he was recalled to his own country by Charles IL, who appointed
him in 1666 Major-General of the Forces in Scotland. He was
sent in the following year, along with General Tom Dalzell, another
Muscovite officer, to scour the shires of Ayr, Dumfries, and Galloway,
and to complete the ruin of the Presbyterian party. But in 1675,
on the suspicion that he had corresponded with some of the exiled
Covenanters in Holland, he was imprisoned for a whole year in
Dumbarton Castle. On his release he was restored to his command,
and, in 1684, was appointed General of the Ordnance. On the acces-
sion of James VIL in the following year. General Drummond was
nominated Commander of the Forces in Scotland, and appointed a
Lord of the Treasury, ' He was a loose and profane man,' says
Lord Macaulay, ' but a sense of honour, which his own kinsmen

The Strathallan Drummonds. loi

wanted, restrained him from a public apostasy. He lived and died,
in the significant phrase of one of his countrymen, " a bad Christian
but a good Protestant." ' In 1686, along with the Duke of Hamilton
and Sir George Lockhart, he strenuously opposed the attempt of
King James to grant an indulgence to the Roman Catholics which he
refused to the Scottish Covenanters. He succeeded his brother as
Lord Madderty in 1684, and was created Viscount of Strathallan and
Lord Drummond of Cromlixin 1686. He was the Lord Strathallan
who wrote, in 1 681 , a history of the Drummond family, to which refer-
ence has already been made. The work remained in manuscript till
the year 1831, when one hundred copies were printed for private
circulation. In the preface to the volume the editor states that ' the
author enjoyed the best advantages in the prosecution of his labours,
not only in obtaining the use of the several accounts drawn up by
previous writers, but in having free access to original papers, and to
every other source of information regarding the collateral branches
of a family to which he himself was nearly related, and of which he
became so distinguished an ornament.' His lordship had, however,
adopted without inquiry the traditional account of the origin of the
Drummond family, and does not appear to have scrutinised the
charters in their possession.

Lord Strathallan died in January, 1688, and was, therefore, spared
the sight of the expulsion of the Stewart family from the throne.
Principal Munro, who preached his funeral sermon, said of him,
' Now we have this generous soul in Muscovia, a stranger, and you
may be sure the cavalier's coffers were not then of great weight ;
but he carried with him that which never forsook him till his last
breath — resolution above the disasters of fortune, composure of spirit
in the midst of adversity, and accomplishments, proper for any station
in court or camp, that became a gentleman.' The Covenanters in
Galloway who were 'harried' by General Drummond would have
probably added some qualities to this panegyric which the courtly
Principal has omitted.

Lord Strathallan left by his wife, a daughter of the celebrated
leader of the Covenanters, Johnstone of Warriston, one daughter,
who became Countess of Kinnoul, and a son —

William, second Viscount of Strathallan, of whom nothing
worthy of note is recorded. He died in 1702. On the death of his
only son —

102 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

William, third Viscount, in his sixtieth year (26th May, 171 1),
the family estates passed to the Earl of Kinnoul as heir of line, while
the titles reverted to the heir male, William Drummond, descended
from Sir James Drummond of Machany, second son of the first Lord
Machany, a Royalist, like all his family. He was colonel of the
Perthshire Foot in the army of the ' Engagement,' and died before
the Restoration. His eldest son, also named Sir James, the only
one of eight who had issue, was fined ^500 by Cromwell, and died
in 1675. The three eldest of his six sons predeceased him, and the
fourth son —

William Drummond, succeeded his cousin as fourth Viscount of
Strathallan, Along with his youngest brother Thomas, he repaired
at once to the standard of the Earl of Mar in 17 15; indeed the
whole Drummond clan were most zealous in the cause of the exiled
family. The Viscount was taken prisoner at the battle of Sheriff-
muir, but, for some unexplained reason, he escaped both personal
punishment and the forfeiture of his estate. The lenity shown him
by the Government, however, produced no change in his attachment
to the Stewarts, for in 1745, within a fortnight after the standard of
Prince Charles had been raised in Glenfinnan, he was joined by Lord
Strathallan at the head of his retainers. When the Jacobite army,
after their victory at Preston, marched into England, his lordship
was left in command of the forces stationed In Scotland. At the
battle of Culloden he was stationed on the right wing, and, when It
gave way, he was cut down by the English dragoons and killed on
the spot. His wife, a daughter of the Baroness Nalrne, who bore
him seven sons and six daughters, for her devotion to the Jacobite
cause was imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh from the begin-
ning of February to the end of November, 1746.

James Drummond, eldest son of Viscount Strathallan, took part
along with his father in this ill-starred attempt to restore the Stewarts
to the throne, but he succeeded in making his escape to the Conti-
nent after the ruin of the cause. He was Included In the Act of
Attainder passed against his father, but though he was at that time
dejure In possession of the titles and estates of the family, he was
designated James, eldest son of the Viscount of Strathallan. The
Act of Attainder was not passed until the 4th of June, 1746, nearly
seven weeks after his father's death at Culloden. It was strenuously

The Strathallan Drummonds. 103

contended before the House of Lords that the attainder was vitiated
by this erroneous description, but it was held by an absurd fiction of
English law that all the Acts passed in any one Parliament must be
regarded as passed on one day, and that day the first on which the
Parliament assembled. The language of the attainder was therefore
held to be sufficiently correct — a decision repugnant at once to
justice and common sense. The decision in the Strathallan case,
however, attracted so much notice, and was so universally con-
demned, that the practice was immediately thereafter altered, and
every act has since been dated from the day on which it passed.

James Drummond died at Sens, in Champagne, in 1 765. He left
two sons, both of whom died unmarried. The younger, Andrew
John Drummond, was an ofificer in the British army, and served with
distinction in America under Sir William Howe in 1776 and 1777,
and on the Continent in the campaigns of 1793 and 1794. He
was appointed Governor of Dumbarton Castle, and attained the rank
of General in 18 12. The family estates had been repurchased in
1775, and on the death of General Drummond in 1817 they devolved
on James Andrew John Laurence Charles Drummond, second son of
William Drummond, third son of the fourth Viscount of Strathallan.
He held for a good many years the position of chief of the British
settlement at Canton. On his return to Scotland he was elected
member for Perthshire, by a small majority, in March, 181 2, and a
second time a few months later, after a spirited contest with Mr.
Graham of Balgowan (afterwards Lord Lynedoch). He was subse-
quently returned without opposition in July, 1818, and in March,
1820, and continued to represent the county until the year 1824,
when he was restored by Act of Parliament to the forfeited titles of
his family, of Viscount Strathallan, Lord Madderty, and Drummond
of Cromlix. He was soon after elected one of the sixteen represen-
tative peers of Scotland, and continued to hold that position till his
death in 1851. He left by his wife, a daughter of the Duke of
Athole, five sons and two daughters. His eldest son, William
Henry Drummond, sixth Viscount, born in 18 10, is a representative
peer, and has been on two occasions a Lord-in-Waiting to the
Queen.

The famous banking-house of the Drummonds, in London, was
founded by a cadet of the Strathallan family — Andrew, the fifth son
of the third Viscount. His connection with the Jacobites obtained
for him the support of the great nobles and influential landed pro-

VOL. n. Q

I04 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

prietors in England belonging to that party, and raised his house to
a foremost position among the banking establishments of the metro-
polis. Several members of the Strathallan family have been partners
in the bank, the most noted of whom was Henry Drummond of
Albury Park, member of Parliament for West Surrey, a remark-
ably shrewd and sagacious man of business, and the head of the
' Catholic Apostolic ' Church — a believer in the gift of tongues, and
a patron of Edward Irving, and at the same time the founder of the
Professorship of Political Economy at Oxford. Edward, second son
of Charles Drummond, of Cadlands, another of the partners in the
bank, was private secretary to Sir Robert Peel, and was assassinated
in the street, near Charing Cross, while in company with Sir Robert,
by a lunatic named M'Naghton, who intended to shoot that eminent
statesman.

ERSKINES OF MAR.

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THE ERSKINES.

[HE Erskine family, which has produced a remarkable num-
ber of eminent men in every department of public life,
derived their designation from the barony of Erskine in
Renfrewshire, situated on the south bank of the Clyde.
A Henry de Erskine, from whom the family trace their descent, was
proprietor of this barony so early as the reign of Alexander II.
A daughter of his great-grandson, Sir John de Erskine, was married
to Sir Thomas Bruce, a brother of King Robert, who was taken
prisoner and put to death by the English ; another became the wife
of Walter, High Steward of Scotland. The brother of these ladies
was a faithful adherent of Robert Bruce, and as a reward for his
patriotism and valour, was knighted under the royal banner on the
field. He died in 1329. His son, Sir Robert de Erskine, held the
great offices of Lord High Chamberlain, Justiciary north of the
Forth, and Constable of the Castles of Edinburgh, Stirling, and
Dumbarton. He was six times ambassador to England, was also
sent on an embassy to France, was Warden of the Marches, and
heritable Sheriff of Stirlingshire. He took an active part in secur-
ing the succession of the House of Stewart to the throne, on the
death of David Bruce. In return for this important service he
received from Robert II. a grant of the estate of Alloa, which still
remains in the possession of the family, in exchange for the hunting-
ground of Strathgartney. Sir Thomas, the son of this powerful
noble by his marriage to Janet Keith, great grand-daughter of
Gratney, Earl of Mar, laid the foundation of the claim which the
Erskines preferred to that dignity, and the vast estates which were
originally included in the earldom. Though their claim was
rejected by James I., the family continued to prosper; new honours
and possessions were liberally conferred upon them by successive

io5 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

sovereigns, and they were elevated to the peerage in 1467. The
second Lord Erskine fought on the side of King James III. against
the rebel lords at Sauchieburn. Robert, third Lord Erskine, fell at
the battle of Flodden with four other gentlemen, his kinsmen. The
grandson of that lord, the Master of Erskine, was killed at Pinkie.
For several generations the Erskines were entrusted with the
honourable and responsible duty of keeping the heirs to the Crown
duringtheir minority. James IV., James V., Queen Mary, James VI.,
and his eldest son. Prince Henry, were in turn committed to the
charge of the head of the Erskine family, who discharged this
important trust with great fidelity. John, the fourth Lord Erskine,
who had the keeping of James V. during his minority, was employed
by him in after life in important public affairs, was present at the
melancholy death of that monarch at Falkland, and after that event
afforded for some time a refuge to his infant daughter, the unfortunate
Mary, in Stirling Castle, of which he was hereditary governor. On
the invasion of Scotland by the English, he removed her for greater
security to the Priory of Inchmahome, an island in the Lake of
Menteith, which was his own property. His eldest son, who fell at
the battle of Pinkie during his father's lifetime, was the ancestor, by
an illegitimate son, of the Erskines of Shieldfield, near Dryburgh,
from whom sprang the celebrated brothers Ebenezer and Ralph
Erskine, the founders of the Secession Church.

John, fifth Lord Erskine, though a Protestant, was held in such
esteem by Queen Mary that she bestowed on him the long-coveted
title of Earl of Mar, which had been withheld from his ancestor a
hundred and thirty years earlier. He maintained a neutral position
during the protracted struggle between the Lords of the Congre-
gation and the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise ; but when she was
reduced to great straits, he gave her an asylum in the castle of Edin-
burgh, where she died in 1560. The young Queen Mary put herself
under his protection when about to be delivered of her son, afterwards
James VI. The infant prince was immediately committed to the
care of the Earl, who conveyed him to the castle of Stirling, and in
the following year he baffled all the attempts of Bothwell to obtain
possession of the heir to the throne. When James was subsequently
crowned, though only thirteen months old, the Parliament imposed
upon the Earl of Mar the onerous and responsible duty of keeping and
educating the infant sovereign, which he discharged with exemplary

The Erskines. 107

fidelity. James seems to have spent his youthful years very happily
as well as securely in the household of the Earl, pursuing his studies,
and enjoying his sports in the company of Mar's eldest son. Mar's
sister was the mother, by James V,, of Regent Moray,* and the Earl
was himself chosen Regent of Scotland in 157 1, on the death of the
Earl of Lennox ; but he sank beneath the burden of anxiety and
grief occasioned by the distracted state of the kingdom, and died
in the following year. The family attained its highest lustre under
the Regent's son, John, second Earl of Mar of the name of Erskine,
the famous 'Jock o' the Sclaits ' (slates), f a name given him by
James VI., his playfellow and a pupil along with him and his
cousins, sons of Erskine of Gogar, of the learned and severe
pedagogue, George Buchanan, under the superintendence of the
Countess of Mar. He was one of the nobles who took part in the
Raid of Ruthven in 1582, and was, in consequence, deprived of his
office of Governor of Stirling Castle — which was conferred on the
royal favourite Arran — and was obliged to take refuge in Ireland.
An unsuccessful attempt to regain his position in 1584 made it
necessary for the Earl to retire into England ; but in November of
the following year, he and the other banished lords re-entered
Scotland, and, at the head of eight thousand men, took possession
of Stirling Castle and the person of the King, and expelled Arran
from the Court.

From this time forward the Earl of Mar was one of the King's
most trusty counsellors and intimate friends, down to the end of his
career. In July, 1595, he was formally entrusted by James with the
custody and education of Prince Henry, by a warrant under the
King's own hand, being the fifth of the heirs to the throne who had
been committed to the charge of an Erskine. He was sent ambas-
sador to England in 1601, and by his dexterous management
contributed not a little to facilitate the peaceable accession of James
to the English throne. A quarrel took place between the Earl and
Queen Anne respecting the custody of Prince Henry, but James
firmly maintained the claim of his friend in opposition to the angry

* She afterwards married Sir William Douglas of Loch Leven. In Sir Walter
Scott's Abbot, Lady Douglas is represented as a harsh custodian of Queen Mary. She
was in reality very friendly to that illustrious Princess, and was not resident in Loch
Leven Castle when Mary was imprisoned there.

+ It is supposed that this sobriquet was given by James to his class-fellow from his
having been intrusted by George Buchanan with a slate, whereon to record the misdeeds
of the' royal pupil during the pedagogue's absence.

io8 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

demand of his wife, who never forgave the Earl for resisting her
wishes. Mar, in return, steadily supported the policy of the King
in his quarrels with the Scottish clergy, and voted for the • Five
Articles of Perth,' though he was well aware how obnoxious they
were to the people of Scotland. In 1616 the Earl was appointed
to the office of Lord High Treasurer, which he held till 1620, and
became the most powerful man in the kingdom.

After the death of his first wife, Anne, daughter of David, Lord
Drummond, the Earl fell ardently in love with Lady Mary Stewart,
the daughter of the Duke of Lennox, the ill-fated royal favourite,
and cousin of the King. As he was older than this French beauty,
and had already a son and heir, she at first positively refused to
marry him, remarking that ' Anne Drummond's bairn would be Earl
of Mar, but that hers would be just Maister Erskine.' ' Being of a
hawtie spirit,' says Lord Somerville, ' she disdained that the children
begotten upon her should be any ways inferior, either as to honour
or estate, to the children of the first marriage. She leaves nae
means unessayed to advance their fortunes.'*

The Earl took her rejection of his suit so much to heart as to
become seriously ill ; but the King strove to comfort him, and, in
his homely style of speech said, ' By my saul, Jock, ye sanna dee for
ony lass in a' the land.' He was aware that the main cause of the
lady's refusal to marry his friend was her knowledge of the fact that
the Earl's son by his first wife would inherit his titles as well as
his estates, and he informed her that if she married Mar, and bore
him a son, he should also be made a peer. The inducement thus
held out by his Majesty removed Lady Mary's scruples, and James
was as good as his word. He created the Earl Lord Cardross,
bestowing upon him at the same time the barony of that name, with
the unusual privilege of authority to assign both the barony and the
title to any of his sons whom he might choose. The Earl was
the father of three peers, and the father-in-law of four powerful
earls. Lady Mary Stewart bore him five sons and four daughters.
The eldest of these. Sir James Erskine, married Mary Douglas,
Countess of Buchan in her own right, and was created Earl of
Buchan. The second son, Henry, received from his father the title
and the barony of Cardross. The third son. Colonel Sir Alexander
Erskine, lost his life, along with his brother-in-law, the Earl of

* Memoirs of the Somervilles. Lord Somerville is mistaken in representing Lord
Mar as an old man at this time. He was little more than thirty years of age.

The Erskines. 109

Haddington and other Covenanting leaders, when Dunglass Castle
was blown up in 1640 by the explosion of the powder-magazine.
He was a handsome and gallant soldier, originally in the French
service, and is noted as the lover whose faithlessness is bewailed in
the beautiful and pathetic song entitled, ' Lady Anne Bothwell's
Lament.' Sir Charles Erskine, the fourth son, was ancestor of the
Erskines of Alva, now represented by the Earl of Rosslyn. William
Erskine, the youngest son, was cup-bearer to Charles IL, and
Master of the Charterhouse, London. The Earl of Mar's youngest
daughter married the eldest son of the Lord Chancellor, Thomas
Hamilton, first Earl of Haddington — ' Tam o' the Cowgate.' When
King James heard of the intended marriage, knowing well the
great ability, and the ' pawkiness ' of the two noblemen who were
thus to be brought into close alliance, he exclaimed in unfeigned,
and not altogether groundless, alarm, ' Lord, haud a grupp o' me.
If Tam o' the Cowgate' s son marry Jock o' the Sclaits' daughter,
what will become o' me ! '

It is a curious confirmation of his Majesty's apprehensions that, in
1624, the other nobles complained that the Earls of Mar and
Melrose (the Lord-Chancellor's first title), wielded all but absolute
power in the State. The former, it was said, disposed of the King's
revenue, and the other ruled in the Council, and Court of Session,
each according to his pleasure.

The Earl died at Stirling Castle, 14th December, 1634, at the age
of seventy-seven, and was interred at Alloa. Scott of Scotstarvit
says of his death, * His chief delight was in hunting ; and he pro-
cured by Act of Parliament that none should hunt within divers
miles of the King's house. Yet often that which is most pleasant
to a man is his overthrow ; for, walking in his own hall, a dog
cast him off his feet and lamed his leg, of which he died : and, at
his burial, a hare having run through the company, his special
chamberlain, Alexander Stirling, fell off his horse and broke his
neck.'

It is said that there are some of the descendants of the Lord
Treasurer who, on account of this casualty, are to this day chary of
meeting an accidental hare.

From this period the decay of the family began, and steadily
proceeded in its downward course till it reached its lowest position in
1 7 15, when they were subjected, in consequence of the part which
they took in the Great Civil War, to sequestrations and heavy fines.

VOL. II. R

1 1 o The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

John, the eighth Earl of Mar of the name of Erskine, however,
entered on life with every prospect of a prosperous career. He was
invested with the Order of the Bath in 1610, was nominated one of
the Extraordinary Lords of Session, sworn a privy councillor in
1 6 15, and was, at the same time, appointed Governor of Stirling
Castle. But, in 1638, he was deprived of the command of the
castle, which Charles I. conferred on General Ruthven, afterwards
Earl of Forth, whom he had recalled from the Swedish service at
the time when he was resolved to suppress the Covenant by force.
The same year the Earl was made to sell to the King the sheriff-
ship of Stirling, and the bailiery of the Forth, for the sum of/8,000
sterling. He obtained a bond for the money in 1641, but it is
doubtful whether any part of it was ever paid. Mar at first supported
the Covenanters, but when their policy became apparent, he signed
the Cumbernauld Bond, along with the Earl of Montrose and other
nobles, to support the King. His property was, in consequence,
sequestered by the Estates. In 1638 he sold the barony of Erskine,
the most ancient possession of the family, to Sir John Hamilton of
Orbiston, in order to clear off the heavy incumbrances on his other
estates ; and he is said to have lost in the Irish rebellion some
lands which he had purchased in Ireland. He died in 1654. His
eldest son —

John, the ninth Earl, before he succeeded to the family titles
and estates, commanded the Stirlingshire regiment in the army of
the Covenanters, raised in 1644, for the purpose of resisting the
threatened invasion of Scotland by Charles I. But in the following
year, along with his father, he joined the Cumbernauld association,
for the defence of the royal cause. This step, while it deeply
offended the Covenanters, did not secure him protection from the
Royalist forces; for, in 1645, the Irish kernes in the army of Mont-
rose plundered the town of Alloa, and the estates of the Earl of
Mar in the vicinity of that town. Notwithstanding this outrage,
the Earl and his son gave a handsome entertainment to Montrose
and his officers, and, by this exercise of hospitality, so highly
incensed the Earl of Argyll, the leader of the Covenanters, that he
threatened to burn the castle of Alloa. After the battle of Kilsyth
(15th August, 1645) Lord Erskine joined the victorious Royalist
army, and was present at their ruinous defeat at Philiphaugh on
the 13th September following, but escaped from the battlefield, and

The Erskines. 1 1 1

was sent by Montrose on the forlorn attempt to raise recruits in
Braemar. The Estates, in consequence, fined him 24,000 marks, and
caused his houses of Erskine and Mar to be plundered. On suc-
ceeding his father, in 1654, the Earl's whole estates were sequestrated
by the orders of Cromwell, and he was so completely ruined that he
lived till the Restoration in a small cottage, at the gate of what had
been his own mansion, Alloa House. To add to his misfortunes
and sufferings, he lost his eyesight. His estates were restored to
him by Charles II. in 1660; but the family never recovered from
the heavy losses to which they had been subjected during the Civil
War. The unfortunate nobleman died in September, 1688, just in
time to escape witnessing the ruin of that royal house for which he
had suffered so much. His Countess, Lady Mary Maule, eldest
daughter of the second Earl of Panmure, bore him eight sons and
one daughter. Five of his sons died young. The second son was
James Erskine of Grange, Lord Justice Clerk. The third was
Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Erskine, who was killed at the battle of
Almanza in 1707. The eldest —

John, eleventh Earl of the Erskine family, was the well-known
leader of the Jacobite rebellion in 1715. He found the family estates
much involved, and joined the Whig party then in power under the
Duke of Queensberry, merely because it was his interest to do so.
He received from them the command of a regiment of foot, and was
invested with the Order of the Thistle. In 1704, when the Whigs
went out of office. Mar paid court to the Tory party, their successors,
and contrived to impress them with the belief that he was a trust-
worthy friend of the exiled family. When the Whigs came once
more into power he gave them his support, and assisted in pro-
moting the Union between England and Scotland. As a reward for
his services he was appointed Secretary of State for Scotland, and
was chosen one of the sixteen representative peers. But finding
that he had lost the good opinion of his countrymen by supporting
the Union, which was very unpopular in Scotland, he endeavoured
to regain their favour by voting for the motion in the House of Lords
for the dissolution of the Union, which was very nearly carried. On
the dismissal of the Whig ministry in 17 13, Mar, without scruple or
shame, went over to their opponents, and was again appointed
Secretary of State, and manager for Scotland. These repeated
tergiversations rendered him notorious even among the loose-prin-

1 1 2 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

cipled politicians of his own day, and gained him in his native
country the nickname of ' Bobbing John.'

On the death of Queen Anne, the Earl of Mar, as Secretary of
State, signed the proclamation of George I., and in a letter to the
new sovereign made earnest protestations of ardent loyalty and
deep attachment, accompanied by a reference to his services to the
country. He also procured a letter to be addressed to himself by
the chiefs of the Jacobite clans, declaring that they had always been
ready to follow his directions in serving the late queen, and that they
were equally ready to concur with him in serving the new sovereign.
George, however, was quite well aware of the double part which the
Earl had acted, and on presenting himself to the King on his
arrival at Greenwich he was left unnoticed, and eight days after
he was dismissed frbm office.

Deeply mortified at this treatment, Mar' resolved upon revenge,
and entered into correspondence with the disaffected party in Scot-
land, with the view of exciting an insurrection against the reigning
family. He attended a court levee on the ist of August, 1715, and
next morning he set out for Scotland to raise the standard of rebel-
lion against the King to whom he just paid homage. Accompanied
by Major-General Hamilton and Colonel Hay, the Earl, disguised
as an artisan, sailed in a coal-barge from London to Newcastle. He
hired a vessel there which conveyed him and his companions to the
coast of Fife, and landed them at the small port of Elie. He spent
a few days in that district among the Jacobite gentry, with whom he
made arrangements to join him in the North. On the 17th of
August he left Fife, and with forty horse proceeded to his estates
in Aberdeenshire, sending out by the way invitations to a great
hunting match in the forest of Braemar, on the 25th of that month.
On the day appointed the leading Jacobite noblemen and chiefs
assembled, attended by a few hundreds of their vassals, and after a
glowing address from Mar, denouncing the usurping intruder who
occupied the throne, and holding out large promises of assistance
from France in both troops and money, they resolved to take up
arms on behalf of the exiled Stewart family. Accordingly, on the
6th of September, the Jacobite standard was unfurled at Castletown,
in Braemar.

The fiery cross was sent through the Highlands, summoning every
man capable of bearing arms to repair with all speed to the camp of
the Jacobite leader. Mar's own tenants and vassals showed great

The Erskines. 113

reluctance to take part In the enterprise. There is a very instructive
letter sent by him to the bailie of his lordship of Kildrummie, in
which he complains bitterly that so few of his retainers had volun-
tarily repaired to his standard. 'It is a pretty thing,' he said,
' when all the Highlands of Scotland are now rising upon their King
and country's account, that my men should be only refractory,' and
he threatened that should they continue obstinate, their property
should be pillaged and burned, and they themselves treated as
enemies. The clansmen of the Highland chiefs, however, repaired with
more alacrity to the ' standard on the braes of Mar ; ' the Earl was
soon at the head of an army of twelve thousand men, and almost the
whole country to the north of the Tay was In the hands of the Insur-
gents. Mar, however, was totally unfit to head such an enterprise.
Though possessed of great activity and a plausible address, he
was fickle, vacillating, infirm of purpose, ' crooked in mind and
body,' and entirely Ignorant of the art of war. He wasted much
precious time lingering in the Highlands, and when at length he
made up his mind to descend into the Lowlands, he found that
the Duke of Argyll had taken up a position at Stirling which
blocked his march. The two armies encountered at Sheriffmulr,
near Dunblane, on the 13th of November, 17 15, and though the
result was a drawn battle, the advantages of the contest remained
with the Duke. The march of the insurgents into the low
country was permanently arrested. Mar retreated to Perth ; his
army rapidly dwindled away ; and though joined by the Chevalier
in person, who created him a duke, he was at last fain to retreat
to the North, after laying waste, in the most ruthless manner, the
country through which the royal troops must march In pursuit of the
retreating army. The unfortunate Prince, his incompetent general,
and several others of the leaders embarked at Montrose (February 4,
1 746) in a French ship, and sailed for the Continent, leaving their
deluded and indignant followers to shift for themselves. The Earl
of Mar and the Chevalier, with his attendants, landed at Waldam,
near Gravelines, February nth.

The Earl accompanied the Prince to Rome, and for some years
continued to manage his affairs, ' the mock minister of a mock
cabinet,' In the French capital, and possessed James's unlimited con-
fidence. He entered, however, Into some negotiations with the Earl
of Stair, ambassador at the French Court, through whom he
obtained a pension of ^2,000 from the British Government, and

114 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

;^ 1,500 a year was allowed to his wife and daughter, out of his for-
feited estate. Mar, while revealing the secrets of James to the
British Government, still professed to be a staunch adherent of
the exiled family. But he was accused both of embezzling the
money the Jacobites had raised for the promotion of their cause, and
of betraying his master, and in the end James withdrew his confi-
dence from him, and dismissed him from his service ; indeed, he had
by his double-dealing forfeited the esteem and confidence of both
parties. He died at Aix-la-Chapelle in May, 1732, regretted by
no one.

The Hon. James Erskine of Grange, younger brother of the
Earl of Mar, was a very remarkable character. His memory has been
preserved mainly in consequence of his extraordinary abduction of his
wife. He was admitted to the Bar in July, 1705, was appointed to a
seat on the Bench in October, 1 706 — no doubt through the influence
of his brother the Earl, who was at that time Secretary of State for
Scotland. In 1707 he was made a Lord of Justiciary, and in 17 10
was appointed Lord Justice-Clerk. He had contracted a violent dis-
like to Sir Robert Walpole, and for the purpose of assisting the
enemies of that minister in hunting him down, he offered himself a
candidate for the Stirling Burghs. In order to exclude his vindictive
enemy from the House of Commons, Walpole got an Act passed dis-
qualifying judges of the Court of Session from holding a seat in
Parliament. Grange was determined, however, not to be balked in
his design, and he resigned his office, and was elected member for
the Stirling district of burghs. Great expectations were entertained
of the influence which he would exercise in the House. ' But his
first appearance,' says Dr. Carlyle, ' undeceived his sanguine
friends, and silenced him for ever. He chose to make his maiden
speech on the Witches' Bill, as it was called ; and being learned in
daemonologia, with books on which subject his library was filled, he
made a long canting speech that set the House in a titter of
laughter, and convinced Sir Robert that he had no need of any
extraordinary armour against this champion of the house of Mar.'

Carlyle speaks contemptuously of Erskine' s learning and ability,
and says he had been raised on the shoulders of his brother, the
Earl of Mar, but had never distinguished himself. The minister of
Inveresk, however, was too young to know him intimately, and he
makes several erroneous statements respecting Grange's career.

The Erskines. 115

He was usually a member of the General Assembly, and voted with
what Carlyle calls ' the High-flying party.' * He had my father
very frequently with him in the evenings,' Carlyle continues, ' and
kept him to very late hours. They were understood to pass much of
their time in prayer, and in settling the high points of Calvinism,
for their creed was that of Geneva. Lord Grange was not unenter-
taining in conversation, for he had a great many anecdotes, which
he related agreeably, and was fair-complexioned, good-looking, and
insinuating. After these meetings for private prayer, however, in
which they passed several hours before supper, praying alternately,
they did not part without wine, for my mother used to complain of
their late hours, and suspected that the claret had flowed liberally.
Notwithstanding this intimacy, there were periods of half a year at a
time when there was no intercourse between them at all. My father's
conjecture was that at those times he was engaged in a course of
debauchery at Edinburgh, and interrupted his religious exercises.
For in those intervals he not only neglected my father's company,
but absented himself from church, and did not attend the Sacrament,
which at other times he would not have neglected for the world.'

Mr. Erskine's wife. Lady Grange as she was called, was Rachel
Chiesley, the daughter of Chiesley of Dairy, who shot President Lock-
hart, 31st March, 1689, i" the Old Bank Close, Lawnmarket, Edin-
burgh, in consequence of a decision given by him in an arbitration, that
Chiesley was bound to make his wife and family an allowance. There
can be no doubt that there was madness in her family, and the lady
was a confirmed drunkard. She had been very beautiful, but had a
most violent temper, and, becoming jealous of her husband, she em-
ployed spies to watch him when he visited London, and is said to
have often boasted of the family to which she belonged, hinting
that she might one day follow her father's example. Her husband
declared that his life was hourly in danger from her outrageous
conduct, and that she slept with deadly weapons under her pillow.
According to Wodrow, ' she intercepted her husband's letters in the
post-office, and would have palmed treason upon them, and took
them to the Justice Clerk, as is said, and alleged that some phrases
in some of her lord's letters to Lord Dun, related to the Pretender,
without the least shadow for the inference.' Carlyle says her hus-
band ' had taken every method to soothe her. As she loved
command, he had made her factor upon his estate, and given her
the whole management of his affairs. When absent he wrote her

ii6 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

the most flattering letters, and did what was still more flattering : he
was said, when present, to have imparted secrets to her which, if
disclosed, might have reached his life. Still she was unquiet, and
led him a miserable life.' Though she had agreed, in 1730, to accept
a separate maintenance, with which she would be satisfied, she still
continued to persecute and annoy her husband in the most violent
manner.

The outrageous conduct and alarming threats of this wretched
woman at length caused Grange to take measures for her con-
finement in a remote and solitary spot in the Highlands. On the
evening of 22nd January, 1732, Lady Grange, who was living
in lodgings next door to her husband's house, was seized and
gagged by a number of Highlandmen who had been secretly
admitted into her residence. She was carried off" by night journeys
to Loch Hourn, on the west coast Highlands, and was thence
transported to the small and lonely island of Hesker, where she
remained five years. She was then conveyed to St. Kilda, where
she was detained for seven years more, and ultimately to Harris,
where she died in 1745. It was not till 1740 that some rumours
got abroad respecting her abduction, and the wretched condition
in which she was kept, but no effective measures were taken for
her release. She affirmed that the men who carried her off" wore
Lovat' s livery — probably meaning his tartan — and that Lovat himself
had an interview at Stirling wi=th the person in charge of her captors
to make arrangements for her journey. Though that consum-
mate villain denied the charge in the most vehement terms,
there can be little or no doubt that it was true. ' As to that story
about Lord Grange,' he said, ' it is a much less surprise to me,
because they said ten times worse of me when that damned woman
went from Edinburgh than they say now; for they said it was all
my contrivance, and that it was my servants that took her away ;
but I defied them then, as I do now, and do declare to you upon
honour that I do not know what has become of that woman, where
she is, or who takes care of her ; but if I had contrived, and assisted,
and saved my Lord Grange from that devil who threatened every
day to murder him and his children, I would not think shame of it
before God or man.'

The Laird of M'Leod, to whom the island of St. Kilda belonged,
wai believed to have been Lovat' s accomplice in this lawless deed.
' What was most extraordinary,' says Carlyle, ' was that, except in

The Erskines. 1 1 7

conversation for a few weeks only, this enormous act, committed in
the midst of the metropolis of Scotland, by a person who had been
Lord Justice-Clerk, was not taken the least notice of by any of her
own family, or by the King's Advocate, or Solicitor, or any of the
guardians of the laws. Two of her sons were grown up to manhood ;
her eldest daughter was the wife of the Earl of Kintore; they ac-
quiesced, in what they considered as a necessary act of justice, for the
preservation of their father's life. Nay, the second son was sup-
posed to be one of the persons who came masked to the house, and
carried her off in a chair to the place where she was set on horse-
back.'

A curious paper, written partly by Lady Grange, partly by the
minister of St. Kilda, found its way to Edinburgh, and fell into the
hands of Mr. William Blackwood, the well-known publisher. It was
purchased by John Francis, Earl of Mar, and, along with some
letters from that lady, was presented to the Marquis of Bute. This
interesting document, which is dated January 21st, 1746, gives a
long and minute account of Lady Grange's abduction, and of the
treatment which she received from her captors and successive
custodians, which bears the stamp of truth. It was published in the
Scots Magazine for November, 1817, by a gentleman who had
obtained a copy of the paper.

Grange left a diary, a portion of which was printed in 1834, under
the title, ' Extracts from the Diary of a Member of the College of
yustice.^

The forfeited estates of the Jacobite Earl of Mar were purchased
from the Government by Erskine of Grange. His two eldest sons
died young. James, the third son, an Advocate, was appointed
Knight-Marischal of Scotland in 1758. He married his cousin,
Lady Frances Erskine, only daughter of the Jacobite Earl of Mar,
and died in 1785, leaving two sons. The Mar titles were restored
by Act of Parliament to the elder son, John Francis Erskine, in
1824. They are now possessed, along with the estates, by a
descendant of his younger son, Walter Henry Erskine, Earl
of Mar and Kellie. {See Ancient Earldom of Mar. j

VOL. II.

THE ERSKINES OF BUCHAN AND CARDROSS.

jHE Earldom of Buchan is one of the most ancient dignities
in Scotland. It was held in the time of William the Lion
by a chief named Fergus, of whom nothing is known
except that he made a grant of a mark of silver annually
to the abbey of Aberbrothwick, which was founded by King William.
His only daughter, Marjory, Countess of Buchan in her own right,
married, a.d. 1210, William Comyn, Sheriff of Forfar, and Justiciary
of Scotland, who became Earl of Buchan in right of his wife. Their
son, Alexander Comyn, who inherited their title and estates, took
a prominent part in public affairs during the reigns of Alexander II,
and Alexander III. The Comyns were at this time among the most
powerful. families in the kingdom, and were the leaders of the national
party, in opposition to the English faction, who, even at that early
period, sought to make the welfare of Scotland subservient to the
interests of England. Earl Alexander was one of the guardians of
Scotland after the death of Alexander III., and, like his father, held
the office of Great Justiciary. He died in 1289, and was succeeded
by his son, John Comyn, who was Chief Constable of the kingdom.
When the War of Independence broke out, the Earl of Buchan joined
the English party. He seems to have cherished an intense hatred
of Robert Bruce, on personal as well as family grounds, and received
from King Edward a grant of Bruce's lordship of Annandale. In
1308 he collected a large army for the purpose of resisting Bruce's in-
vasion of Buchan, where the Comyns ruled with almost regal authority;
but he was defeated with great slaughter at Old Meldrum, and his
estates were laid waste with fire and sword. The power of the great
house of Comyn was completely broken down by this overthrow, and
the ' harrying ' of Buchan which followed : their estates were confis-

ERSKINES OF BUCHAN.

The Erskines of Buchan and Cardross. 119

cated, and their very name almost disappeared from the roll of the
Scottish nobility. The wife of Earl John, a daughter of the Earl of
Fife, was the high-spirited lady who placed the crown on the head of
Robert Bruce, in virtue of a privilege which, since the time of Mal-
colm Canmore, had belonged to her family.

In 137 1 a grant of the dormant earldom of Buchan was made by
Robert III. to Sir Alexander Stewart, his fourth son by his first
wife, Elizabeth Mure, who, on account of his savage character and
conduct, was designated ' the Wolf of Badenoch,' the district of which
he was lord. He also obtained the earldom of Ross for life, in right
of his wife. In the year 1390 he invaded the district of Moray, in
revenge of a quarrel with the bishop of that see, and besides ravaging
the country, he plundered and profaned the cathedral of Elgin, which
he afterwards set on fire, reducing that noble edifice, with the
adjoining religious houses, and the town itself, to a mass of blackened
ruins. He was subsequently obliged to do public penance for this
crime in the Blackfriars church of Perth, and to make full satisfac-
tion to the bishop.

At the death of this savage noble, in 1394, the earldom devolved
upon his brother, Robert, Duke of Albany ; but in 1408, as Regent,
he conferred the title upon Sir John Stewart, his second son. In
14 1 9, with consent of the Estates, the Earl was sent with an army
of seven thousand men to the assistance of the French king in his
contest with England for his crown. These auxiliaries won great
renown under the leadership of Buchan, and rendered important
services to the French in their struggle for independence. Ojj the
22nd of March, 142 1, they defeated, at Beauge, a large English
force, under the Duke of Clarence, brother of Henry V. Fourteen
hundred men, along with the Earl of Kent and Lords Gray and
Ross, fell in this encounter. Clarence himself was unhorsed and
wounded by Sir William Swinton, and, as he strove to regain his steed,
he was felled to the earth and killed by the mace of the Earl of
Buchan. As a reward for this signal victory the Dauphin conferred
upon Buchan the high office of Constable of France. Three years
later, however, the Scottish auxiliaries were almost annihilated at
the fatal battle of Verneuil, and their commander, the Earl of
Buchan, was among the slain. He married Lady Elizabeth Douglas,
daughter of Archibald, fourth Earl of Douglas and Duke of Tou-
raine, by whom he had an only daughter, who became the wife of
George, second Lord Seton. The earldom of Buchan devolved upon

120 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

his brother, Murdoch, Duke of Albany, at whose execution, in 1425,
it was forfeited to the Crown.

The title remained dormant for forty-one years, but in 1466 it
was bestowed on James Stewart, surnamed ' Hearty James,' the
second son of Sir James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn, by Lady
Jane Beaufort, widow of James L The new Earl was consequently
uterine brother to James II. He was appointed High Chamberlain
of Scotland in 147 1, and two years later he was sent on an embassy
to France. His son and grandson were successively Earls of Buchan.
John, Master of Buchan, eldest son of the latter, fell at the battle of
Pinkie, in 1547, leaving an only child. Christian, who became Countess
of Buchan in her own right. She married Robert Douglas, second
son of Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven, uterine brother of the
Regent- Moray. He obtained the title of Earl of Buchan in right of
his wife. Their only son, James, became fifth Earl of Buchan of this
family, and died in 1601, at the early age of twenty-one. He left an
only child, Mary Douglas, who succeeded to the title and estates ;
and by her marriage with James Erskine, son of John, seventh Earl of
Mar, carried the earldom into the Erskine family. Her household
book, which contains numerous items, such as ' to a poor minister
who bemoanet his poverty to my lady,' shows that she was extremely
generous to the poor. Not even ' ane masterfull beggar, who did
knock at the gate, my lady being at table,' nor ' ane drunken beggar,
who fainit he was madd,' was sent empty away.

There is nothing worthy of special notice in the life of James
Erskine, sixth Earl, or of his son and grandson, the seventh and
eighth Earls. The latter, who at the Revolution adhered to the
cause of King James, was committed a prisoner to the castle of
Stirling, where he died unmarried in 1695.

The death of Earl William opened the succession to the title and
estates of Buchan to David, fourth Lord Cardross, a descendant
of the third son of the Lord Treasurer, Earl of Mar.

We have seen how the barony of Cardross was bestowed upon the
Earl by James VI., in fulfilment of a promise made by him to Lady
Mary Stewart, the Earl's second wife. It was formed out of the
abbacies of Dryburgh and Cambuskenneth, and the priory of Inch-
mahome, which, as the charter sets forth, • have bene in all tyme
heretofore commounlie disponit be his ma'*'° predecessors to sum
that were cum of the hous of Erskeyne.' The allusion is to Adam
Erskine, Commendator of Cambuskenneth, natural son of Thomas,

The Erskines of Buchan and Cardross. 1 2 1

Master of Erskine, and to David, first Abbot, and afterwards Com-
mendator of Dryburgh, natural son of Robert, Master of Erskine,
killed at Pinkie (elder brother of Thomas). Lord Erskine' s third
son John was ' Commendator of Inschemachame.'*

The charter enumerates in detail the services of the Earl of Mar,
and the fidelity ' quhairof he, and his umquhile father, gaif evident
and manifest pruif and experience in their worthie, memorable, and
acceptable panes and travelles tana be them in the educatoun of his
majestie's most royal persone fra his birth to his pfyte Age ; and in
the lyk notable service done be ye said Erie himself, in the educatoun
of his ma**'^ darest sone ye Prince.' The charter also invests the
Earl with the unique right of conferring the title on any of his male
descendants he might think fit. His eldest son was of course heir to
the earldom of Mar, and the second, by his marriage, had already
become Earl of Buchan. The Lord Treasurer therefore bestowed
this dignity in his lifetime on his third son, Henry.

David, second Lord Cardross, his son, was one of the Scottish
peers who protested against the delivering up of Charles L to the
English army at Newcastle in 1646. His younger son, the Hon.
Colonel John Erskine of Cardross, was father of John Erskine, the
author of the well-known ' Institutes of the Law of Scotland,' and his
grandson was the celebrated Dr. John Erskine, Minister of Grey-
friars Church, Edinburgh, of whom Sir Walter Scott has given a
graphic portrait in ' Guy Mannering.' Henry, third Lord Car-
dross, his eldest son by his first wife, Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas
Hope, King's Advocate, was an eminent patriot, and one of the most
prominent opponents of the Duke of Lauderdale's arbitrary and
oppressive administration. He succeeded to the family title and
estates in 1671, and married Katherine, second daughter and ulti-
mately heiress of Sir James Stewart of Strathbrock (or Uphall) and
Kirkhill, in Linlithgowshire. In consequence of his support of the
cause of civil and religious liberty, his lordship underwent long and
severe persecution. In the statement laid before the King of the
sufferings he endured it is mentioned that in August, 1675, he was
fined by the Scottish Privy Council the sum of ;^ 1,000, for the
offence of his lady's having divine worship performed in his own
house, by his own chaplain, when Lord Cardross was not present. He
was further fined by the Council in ^^i 12 .los, for his tenants having
* Henry Erskine, his Kinsfolk and Times. By Lieut.-Col. Ferguson.

122 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

attended two conventicles. He was imprisoned in the castle of Edin-
burgh for four years, and while a prisoner there was fined, in August,
1677, in the sum of ^^3,000, the half of his valued rent, for his lady
having, without his knowledge, had a child baptised by a Noncon-
forming minister. A garrison was fixed in his house in 1675 '> s^^d
in June, 1679, the royal forces, on their march to the west, went two
miles out of their road, in order that they might be quartered on Lord
Cardross's estates of Kirkhill and Uphall.

In July of that year his lordship was released from prison on
giving a bond for the amount of his fine, and early in 1680 he went
up to London to lay his case before the King. He pleaded the hard-
ships he had endured, the loyalty of his family, the protest of his
father against the surrender of King Charles ; the assistance which
he gave in promoting the 'Engagement,' in 1648, for the relief of
that monarch ; the consequent infliction upon him of a fine of
^1,000 by Cromwell, and of a fine of a similar amount imposed on
the family represented by his wife, and the injury done to his houses
and estates. But he obtained no redress, and feeling that it was
hopeless to expect justice from the King and his worthless councillors,
he resolved to leave the country, and accordingly proceeded to North
America, where he founded a plantation at Charleston Neck, South
Carolina. In a few years, however, he and the other colonists were
driven from the settlement by the Spaniards, many of them being
killed, and their property destroyed.

On his return to Europe, Lord Cardross took up his residence at
the Hague, where Lords Stair and Melville, Sir Patrick Hume of
Polwarth, Sir James Stewart of Coltness, Fletcher of Saltoun, and
other Scottish exiles, were at that time settled, anxiously waiting for
better times. He accompanied William of Orange to England in
1688, and in the following year raised a regiment of dragoons for
the support of his cause. An Act was passed by the Scottish Parlia-
ment restoring Lord Cardross to his estates. He was also sworn a
Privy Councillor, and was appointed Governor of the Mint. He died
at Edinburgh in May, 1693, in the forty-fourth year of his age.

David Erskine, his eldest son, fourth Lord Cardross, succeeded
to the title of Earl of Buchan on the death, in 1695, of William
Erskine, the eighth Earl. There appears to have been some question
respecting the succession, but ultimately, in 1698, an Act was passed
by the Estates allowing him to be called in Parliament, with the title

The Erskines of Buchan and Cardross. 123

of Earl of Buchan. He married Frances Fairfax, daug-hter and
heiress of Henry Fairfax of Hurst, Berkshire, and grand-daughter of
Lord Fairfax. She was also grand-daughter of the celebrated Sir
Thomas Brown, author of the ' Religio Medici,' her mother, Anne
Brown, being his eldest daughter.* Lady Frances Erskine, their
second daughter, married the celebrated Colonel Gardiner, ' a
gallant soldier and high-minded Christian gentleman.' Of his
wife the Colonel said ' that the greatest imperfection he knew in
her character was that she valued and loved him much more than he
deserved.' She was the friend of her neighbour, the Rev. Robert
Blair, minister of Athelstaneford, and author of the well-known
poem entitled ' The Grave.'

Henry David, tenth Earl of Buchan, married Agnes Stewart,
daughter of Sir James Stewart of Coltness, Solicitor-General for
Scotland, and of his wife, the witty and beautiful Anne Dalrymple,
daughter of Sir Hew Dalrymple, of North Berwick, President of the
Court of Session. Lady Buchan was the grand -daughter of Sir James
Stewart of Goodtrees, Lord Advocate to King William, and Queen
Anne, popularly designated " Jamie Wylie," on account of his crafty
character and shifty conduct. The Earl and his wife were strict
Presbyterians. His grandson describes him as ' a zealously religious
man, strong in his anti-Roman convictions, though he inclined in
a great way towards the Stewarts.' He was a man of great good-
nature and polite manners, but of moderate abilities. His wife,
however, was a woman of great intellect, which she had diligently
cultivated. She had studied mathematics under the famous Colin
Maclaurin, the friend of Sir Isaac Newton — a rare accomplishment
at that time. She also possessed an elegant taste with a brilliant
imagination, and, above all, an eminent and earnest piety. Her lady-
ship had also the reputation of being a notable manager — an acquire-
ment greatly needed in the narrow circumstances of the family. The
ample patrimony which at one time belonged to the heads of the
house of Erskine had been greatly diminished, partly by mismanage-
ment, and neglect of economy, partly through the losses sustained

* In a supplementary chapter to Sir Thomas Brown's biography there is this
singular statement : ' It is very remarkable that although Sir Thomas Brown had forty
children and grandchildren, yet in the second generation, within thirty years of his
decease, the male line became extinct ; in the third generation none survived their
infancy, excepting in the family of the eldest daughter, Anne, of whose eight children
none left any descendants but the third daughter, Frances Fairfax, married to the Earl
of Buchan.'

VOL. II. T

124 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

by Lord Cardross during the time of the 'Persecution.' About the
year 1745 Lord Buchan had been obliged to sell the estate of Car-
dross to his cousin of Carnock, so that the Linlithgowshire estates
alone remained in his possession. But though his income was small
for a person of his rank and position, it was sufficient, ' with the
careful economy practised by Lady Buchan, for comfort, in accord-
ance with the primitive notions of those days.' The Earl had quitted
his seat in the country, and had taken up his residence in a flat at
the head of Gray's Close, in the High Street of Edinburgh. His
house, however, was frequented not only by the most eminent divines
of the city, but by judges and leading advocates, and by members
of other noble though not wealthy families, who came to partake
of ' a cosy dish of tea,' which was at that time the usual form of
social entertainment.*

In the beginning of the year 1762, Lord Buchan and his family
removed to St. Andrews, where house-rent was lower, living cheaper,
and education no way inferior to that of Edinburgh. They did
not remain long, however, in this quiet retreat, for towards the end
of 1763 the family took up their residence at Bath, where they
became intimate with the Countess of Huntingdon, Whitfield, and
other distinguished members of the Methodist connexion. The Earl
died there in 1768, and was succeeded by his eldest son —

David Stewart Erskine, eleventh Earl of Buchan, born in
1742, He was educated at the University of Glasgow, was for a
short time in the army, next tried the diplomatic profession, under
the great Lord Chatham (then Mr. Pitt), and in 1766 was appointed
Secretary to the British Embassy in Spain. He did not, however,
proceed to Madrid, and it was reported at the time that he declined
to do so because the ambassador, Sir James Gray, was a person of
inferior social rank. According to Horace Walpole, the father of
Sir James was first a box-keeper, and then a footman to James VIL
Boswell mentions that in discussing the merits of this question with
Sir Alexander Macdonald, Dr. Johnson observed that, perhaps, in
point of interest the young lord did wrong, but in point of dignity
he did well. Sir Alexander held that Lord Cardross was altogether
wrong, and contended that Mr. Pitt meant it as an advantageous
thing to him. ' Why, sir,' said Johnson, ' Mr. Pitt might think it an

* Colonel Ferguson has shown that Lord Campbell, in hisZz/* of Lord Erskine, has
greatly exaggerated the poverty of the Earl of Buchan at this time.

The Erskines of Buchan and Cardross. 125

advantageous thing for him to make him a vintner, and get him all
the Portugal trade ; but he would have demeaned himself strangely
had he accepted of such a situation. Sir, had he gone as secretary
while his inferior was ambassador, he would have been a traitor to
his rank and his family.' * Mr. Croker has justly remarked upon
this discussion, ' If this principle were to be admitted, the young
nobility would be excluded from all professions, for the superiors in
the professions would frequently be their inferiors in personal rank.
Would Johnson have dissuaded Lord Cardross from entering on
the military profession, because at his outset he must have been
commanded by a person inferior in personal rank ? ' Professor
Rouet, however, wrote to his cousin, Baron Mure, ' Cardross does
not go to Spain because of the bad state of his father's health.'
But it must be admitted that the other reason alleged for declining
the office was quite in keeping with the character of the young
patrician.

Lord Cardross was present at his father's death, and figured
prominently at his obsequies, which were performed with great
solemnity, and elaborate ceremony. Lady Huntingdon's party took
a great interest in the well-being of the young Earl, and Fletcher,
Henry Venn, and the eccentric Berrldge were at once appointed his
chaplains. The name of John Wesley was subsequently added to the
list, much to his own satisfaction. In 1 7 7 1 , Lord Buchan took up his
residence on his Linlithgowshire estate, and set himself to effect, by
precept and example, much-needed improvements in husbandry. He
also made vigorous efforts to induce his brother nobles to act an
independent part in the election of their sixteen representatives in
Parliament, and to discontinue the degrading practice of voting for
the list sent down by the Government of the day, and he succeeded
ultimately, almost single-handed, in putting it down. He was the
founder of the Society of Antiquaries in Edinburgh, in 1780, and
contributed a number of papers to the first volume of their Transac-
tions. He was able, in 1786, to buy back the small estate of Dry-
burgh, which had of old belonged to his ancestors, with the ruined
abbey and mansion-house, where he took up his residence for half a
century, and performed many curious and eccentric feats. He had a
restless propensity for getting up public fetes, one of which was an
annual festival in commemoration of Thomson, the author of ' The
Seasons,' at Ednam, the poet's native place. He erected, in his
* Boswell's Life of Johnson, iii. p. 1 1 1 .

126 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

grounds at Dryburgh, an Ionic temple, with a statue of Apollo in
the interior, and a bust of the bard surmounting the dome. Burns
wrote a poetical address for its inauguration. He also raised a
colossal statue of Sir William Wallace, on the summit of a steep and
thickly planted bank above the river Tweed. It was installed with
great ceremony. A huge curtain was drawn before the statue,
which dropped at the discharge of a cannon, and then the Knight of
Ellerslie was discovered with a large German tobacco-pipe in his
mouth, which some wicked wag had placed there — to the unspeakable
consternation of the peer, and amusement of the company. Sir
Walter Scott used to say that when a revolution should take place,
his first act would be to procure a cannon, and batter down this
monstrosity.

It has been often said that Lord Buchan took credit to himself for
having completed, at much personal expense, the education of his
brothers. This, however, is an entire mistake, which probably
originated in the peculiar way in which the Earl took credit to him-
self for the education and brilliant success of his two famous kins-
men. He said to an English nobleman who visited him at Dry-
burgh, ' My brothers Henry and Tom are certainly extraordinary
men, but they owe everything to me.' This observation occasioning
an involuntary look of surprise in his guest, he continued, ' Yes, it is
true ; they owe everything to me. On my father's death they pressed
me for a small annual allowance. I knew that this would have
been their ruin, by relaxing their industry. So, making a sacrifice
of my inclinations to gratify them, I refused to give them a farthing ;
and they have both thriven ever since — owing everything to jue.^

Lord Buchan had unbounded confidence in the influence of his own
opinion when expressed in favour of an individual or object, even
where no reasons were assigned. He frequently gave recommenda-
tions like the following : ' Lord Buchan begs to recommend
Mr. Henning to the attention of his friends ; ' and he has been
known to congratulate a youthful artist, after one or two turns with
him in Princes Street, with assurance of success that had no firmer
foundation than the fact that he had been seen in public with the
modern Maecenas leaning on his arm. *

Lord Buchan was fond of acting the part of a Mscenas,
and, not unfrequently attempted to patronise literary men in a
way that drew down upon him public ridicule. The story is well
* Archibald Constable, and his Literary Correspondents, i. p. 519.

The Er shines of Buchan and Cardross. ii"]

known of his calling at Sir Walter Scott's house, in Edinburgh,
when he was lying dangerously ill, and having been forcibly
prevented from intruding into Scott's chamber, for the purpose of
informing him that he had made all necessary arrangements for the
funeral of the great novelist at Dryburgh. ' I wished,' he said to
James Ballantyne, ' to embrace Walter Scott before he died, and to
inform him that I had long considered it as a satisfactory circum-
stance that he and I were destined to rest together in the same place
of sepulture. The principal thing, however, was to relieve his mind
as to the arrangements of his funeral — to show him a plan which I
prepared for the procession, and, in a word, to assure him that I
took upon myself the whole conduct of the ceremonial at Dryburgh.'
He then exhibited to Ballantyne a formal programme, in which, as
may be supposed, the predominant figure was not Walter Scott,
but David, Earl of Buchan. It had been settled, inter alia, that the
said Earl was to pronounce an eulogium over the grave, after the
fashion of the French Academicians in the Pere la Chaise.

Sir Walter Scott, who was thirty years younger than the Earl,
outlived him, and formed one of the company at his lordship's
funeral ten years after the incident mentioned by Lockhart. Under
date April 20th, 1829, he mentions in his diary,' Lord Buchan is dead,
a person whose immense vanity, bordering on insanity, obscured,
or rather eclipsed, very considerable talents. His imagination was
so fertile that he seemed really to believe in the extraordinary
fictions which he delighted in telling. His economy — most laudable
in the early part of his life — when it enabled him from a small
income to pay his father's debts — became a miserable habit, and led
him to do mean things. He had a desire to be a great man, and a
Maecenas — a bon marchS. The two celebrated lawyers, his brothers,
were not more gifted by nature than I think he was ; but the
restraints of a profession kept the eccentricity of the family in order.
Both Henry and Thomas were saving men, yet both died very poor.
The latter at one time possessed _;^ 200,000 ; the other had a con-
siderable fortune. The Earl alone has died wealthy. It is saving,
not getting, that is the mother of riches. They all had wit. The
Earl's was crack-brained and sometimes caustic; Henry's was of
the very kindest, best-humoured, and gayest sort that ever cheered
society ; that of Lord Erskine was moody and muddish : but I never
saw him in his best days.' *

* Life of Sir Walter Scott, iv. p. 276, vii. p. 189.

128 The Great Hhtofic Families of Scotland.

Many amusing instances have been given both of Lord Buchan's
vanity and parsimony. He was boasting one day to the Duchess of
Gordon of the extraordinary talents of his family, when her unscru-
pulous Grace asked him very coolly whether the wit had not come by
the mother, and been all settled on the younger branches. Lord
Buchan held liberal views on political affairs ; but, in common with
the general public, he took great offence at a famous article which
appeared in the Edinburgh Review of October, 1808, criticising an
account given by Don Pedro Cevellos of the French usurpations in
Spain, and expressing the opinion that no hope could be enter-
tained of the regeneration of that country. The Earl directed his
servant to throw open the door of his house in George Street,
and to lay down the number of the Review containing the offensive
article on the innermost part of the floor of the lobby ; and then,
after all this preparation, his lordship personally kicked the book
out of his house to the centre of the street, where he left it to be
trodden into the mud. He had no doubt that this open proof of
his disapprobation would be a death-blow to the Review.

It was one of the Earl's conceits to style anybody who was named
' David ' his son — that is, if they were likely to be creditable to him.
On one occasion, mentioning an able paper on optics, that had just
been written by one of his ' sons,' a certain David Brewster, and was
making a stir, the Earl added with impressive solemnity, 'You see I
revised it.' *

Lord Buchan was evidently impressed with the notion that his
opinion upon public affairs would be prized even by the King him-
self, so that he had no hesitation in tendering his advice to his
Majesty as to what he should do at certain junctures in state affairs,
or in expressing his approval of the dutiful conduct of the daughters
of George IIL, grounding his right to do so, as was his wont, on his
consanguinity to the royal family. In April, 1807, when the Ministry
of ' All the Talents ' was dismissed from office by the King, the Earl
wrote to his Majesty requesting him ' not to accept the Great Seal
from his brother Thomas, but to impose his command upon him to
retain it for the service of his Majesty's subjects.' t ' This is my
humble suit and opinion,' he adds, ' and I am sure, considering my
consanguinity to your Majesty, and my being an ancient peer of your
Majesty's realm, you will see it in the light my duty and fidelity to you
inclines me to expect.' It is a curious fact that the King and Queen.

* Life of Henry Erskine, p. 485. f Ibid. p. 493.

The Erskines of Buchan and Car dross. 129

and the Princesses always courteously and kindly acknowledged
the letters of this eccentric old nobleman ; and the Duke of Kent,
as his correspondence shows, cherished sincere friendship for him.
Though the Earl was noted for his intense vanity, he was by no
means fond of gross flattery. His natural shrewdness enabled him
readily to notice when the proper limit of praise was overstepped.
There is a well-known letter addressed to him by Robert Burns,
dated 3rd February, 1787, which contains the following compli-
mentary couplet : —

' Praise from thy lips 'tis mine with joy to boast :
They best can give it who deserve it most.'

The Earl evidently thought this commendation too strong, for he
has endorsed the letter with these words, ' Swift says, " Praise is like
ambergris ; a little is odorous, much stinks.^''''

Lord Buchan was the author of numerous papers on historical,
literary, and antiquarian subjects, a portion of which he collected
and published in 18 12, under the title of ' The Anonymous and
Fugitive Essays of the Earl of Buchan.' He died in 1829, at the
age of eighty-seven, and was succeeded by his nephew, the son of
Henry Erskine.

Henry Erskine was the second son of Henry David, tenth Earl
of Buchan, and brother of the eleventh Earl. jHe was born in 1746,
and received his education at three of the Scottish universities —
namely, St. Andrews, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, and was called to
the Bar in 1768. He speedily attracted attention by his legal know-
ledge, the variety and extent of his accomplishments, his eloquence,
his wit, and his animated and graceful manner. Like his brothers
David and Thomas, Henry Erskine early embraced Liberal prin-
ciples, and steadfastly adhered to them through ' good report and
bad report' He was appointed Lord Advocate under the Coalition
Ministry of Mr. Fox and Lord North, and it is gratifying to state
that Henry Dundas, who had previously held that office, wrote him
to say that though he could not approve of the change, he wished
him all health and happiness to enjoy the office, and- offered him all
the assistance in his power in Ihe performance of his duties. On the
morning of the appointment Erskine met Dundas in the Outer
House, who, observing that the latter had already resumed the
ordinary stuff gown usually worn by advocates, he said gaily that he
must leave off talking to go and order his silk gown, the official

130 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

robe of the Lord Advocate. ' It is hardly worth while,' said Dundas
drily, 'for the time you will want it; you had better borrow mine.'
' From your readiness in making the offer,' replied Erskine, ' I have
no doubt that the gown is a gown made to fit any party ; but
however short my time in office may be, it shall never be said of
Henry Erskine that he put on Xho. abandoned habits of his predecessor.'
He did not, however, long enjoy his new silk gown. When the
short-lived Coalition Ministry came to an end, Mr. Erskine was
succeeded by Mr. Hay Campbell, who became afterwards Lord
President of the Court of Session. On resigning his gown, Erskine
said to his successor, whose stature was not equal to his, ' My Lord,
you must take nothing off it, for I'll soon need it again.' Mr.
Campbell replied, ' It will be long enough, Harry, before you get it
again.' He did get it again, but not till after twenty years had
passed.

Henry Erskine strenuously advocated reform both in the burghs
and in the election of members of Parliament. In consequence the
greater part of his life was spent in ' the cold shade of opposition,'
and there can be no doubt that his professional prospects were
seriously injured by his steady adherence to the Whig party. As he
was undoubtedly the foremost man of his profession in Scotland,
he was, for eight years successively, chosen by the advocates for their
Dean or official head; but, in 1796, he was deprived of this office
by a majority of a hundred and twenty-three against thirty-eight, in
consequence of having presided at a public meeting in Edinburgh,
to petition against the continuance of the war with France. ' This
dismissal,' says Lord Cockburn, ' was perfectly natural at ,a time
when all intemperance was natural. But it was the Faculty of
Advocates alone that suffered. Erskine had long honoured his
brethren by his character and reputation, and certainly he lost
nothing by being removed from the official chair. It is to the
honour of the society, however, that out of a hundred and sixty-one
who voted, there were thirty-eight who stood true to justice even in
the midst of such a scene. In happier days it was regarded as
a great honour to have belonged to that 'virtuous number of thirty-
eight, the small but manly band of true patriots within the bosom of
the Faculty of Advocates, who stood firm in the support of the
Honourable Henry Erskine, when he had opposed the unconsti-
tutional and oppressive measures of the Minister of the day.' The
affront offered to Mr. Erskine excited a bitter feeling of resentment

The Erskines of Buchan and Cardross. 1 3 1

among the Liberal party throughout the country, and was made the
subject of a sarcastic poem by Burns, in which he contrasted the
qualifications of Erskine with those of his successful rival, Robert
Dundas of Arniston, the Lord Advocate.

' Squire Hal besides had in this case

Pretensions rather brassy ;
For talents to deserve a place

Are qualifications saucy ;
So their worships of the Faculty,

Quite sick of merit's rudeness,
Chose one who should owe it all, d'ye see.

To their gratis grace, and goodness.'

In 1806 Henry Erskine was a second time appointed Lord
Advocate, under the short-lived Ministry of ' All the Talents,' and
was elected member of Parliament for the Haddington district of
Burghs, but held office only for one year. A striking indication of
the feelings with which he was regarded, even by those most opposed
to his political views, occurred in 1803, when the office of Lord
Justice-Clerk became vacant by the death of the eccentric and
ridiculous Lord Eskgrove. It was offered to Charles Hope, who had
succeeded Dundas as Lord Advocate, and was ultimately Lord
President. He was one of those who had been specially put forward
to move Henry Erskine' s dismissal from the Deanship, but 'the
motion never cooled Erskine' s affection for Hope, and neither did it
Hope's for Erskine,' as was shown by his generous conduct on this
occasion. He waited upon Erskine, and informed him that if he
would only signify his willingness to accept the office it would
immediately be given him. But to the great regret of Erskine' s
friends, and, indeed, of the public, he declined this handsome pro-
posal, from an apprehension that by accepting it he might appear to
separate himself from the political party with which he had so long
acted.*

It was admitted on all hands that Henry Erskine was the very
foremost in his profession, and as a pleader he has never been
excelled, probably not equalled, by any member of the Scottish bar.
Blair, afterwards the head of the Court, surpassed him in deep and
exact legal knowledge, but Erskine excelled all his rivals in the
variety and extent of his accomplishments and of his general
practice. * Others,' says Lord Cockburn, 'were skilled in one depart-
ment, or in one court, but wherever there was a litigant, civil, criminal,

* Cockburn's Memorials of his Time, pp. 185-6.
VOL. II. u

132 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

fiscal, or ecclesiastic, there was a desire for Harry Ersklne — despair
if he was lost, confidence if he was secured.' His sagacity, intuitive
quickness of perception, and great argumentative powers, were
recommended by the playfulness of his fancy, the copiousness and
impressiveness of his language, and by the charms of his tall, elegant
figure, his handsome intellectual countenance, his clear, sweet voice,
and his polished and graceful manners. Add to all this his genial
wit, delightful temper, and benevolent disposition, his private worth,
and his unsullied public honour, and it need be no matter of surprise
that this eminent advocate and highly gifted man was universally
beloved and esteemed. ' Nothing was so sour,' says Lord Cockburn,
' as not to be sweetened by the glance, the voice, the gaiety, the
beauty of Henry Erskine.' His friend, Lord Jeffrey, re-echoed the
sentiment, and remarked that, ' He "was so utterly incapable of
rancour, that even the rancorous felt that he ought not to be made
its victim.'

Henry Erskine was pre-eminently the advocate of the common
people, and his name was a terror to the oppressor, and a tower of
strength to the oppressed, throughout the whole of Scotland. The
feeling with which he was regarded by this class was well expressed
by a poor man in a remote district of the country, who, on being
threatened by his landlord with a ruinous lawsuit, for the purpose of
compelling him to submit to some unjust demand, instantly replied,
with flashing eyes, 'Ye dinna ken what ye' re saying, maister. There's
no a puir man in a' Scotland need to want a friend, or fear an enemy,
as long as Harry Erskine is to the fore ' (survives). Many of Mr.
Erskine's bon-mots (' seria commixta jocis') have been preserved, and
show that his wit was. as kindly as it was pointed. ' Harry Erskine
was the best-natured man I ever knew,' says Sir Walter Scott,
' thoroughly a gentleman, and with but one fault — he could not say
No. His wit was of the very kindest, best-humoured, and gayest
sort that ever cheered society.'

Mr. Erskine died 8th of October, 1817, in his seventy-first year.
His eldest son succeeded, in 1829, to the earldom of Buchan.

Thomas, Lord Erskine, Lord High Chancellor of England, the
youngest son of Henry David, the tenth Earl of Buchan, was born
at Edinburgh, loth of January, o.s. 1749, in a house which is still
standing, at the head of Gray's Close. It has been stated by Lord
Campbell and others that for some years he attended the High

The Erskines of Buchan and Car dross. 133

School of his native city ; but this is a mistake. Colonel Ferguson
has shown that Thomas Erskine, along with his brothers, received
his early education under a private tutor at Uphall, and completed it
at St. Andrews, to which Lord Buchan removed about the year 1760.*
He early showed a strong predilection for some learned profession,
but his father's resources were exhausted by the expense incurred in
educating his elder brothers, and Thomas had to enter the navy as a
midshipman, in 1764 — an effort to procure him a commission in the
army, which he greatly preferred, having been unsuccessful. His
dissatisfaction with the sea-service was strengthened by experience,
and in September, 1768, when he had reached his eighteenth year,
he obtained a commission in the Royals, or First Regiment of Foot.
In 1770 he married Frances, the daughter of Daniel Moore, M.P. for
Marlow. ' However inauspiciously this marriage may be thought to
have begun,' says Colonel Ferguson, * it is certain that a better
choice of a wife could hardly have been made. While they were in
poverty, Mrs. Erskine bore it well and uncomplainingly ; and when
her husband rose to opulence she was perfectly fit to take her share
of the honour.' Erskine spent two years with his regiment in the
island of Minorca, where he acquired a thorough knowledge of
English literature, especially of Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, and
Pope, The chaplain of the regiment was at home on furlough, and
Erskine acted as his substitute. At first he contented himself with
reading the service from the Liturgy, but finding that this was by
no means relished by the men, who were chiefly Presbyterians, he
favoured them with an extempore prayer, and composed sermons,
which he delivered to them with great solemnity and unction from
the drumhead. He used always to talk of this incident in his life
with peculiar satisfaction, and to boast that he had been a sailor and
a soldier, a parson and a lawyer.

In August, 1774, Thomas Erskine formed the resolution to study
for the Bar. He was admitted a student of Lincoln's Inn in April,
1775. During his probationary period he was frequently reduced to
great pecuniary straits ; but he bore his privations contentedly and
cheerfully, and laboured with extraordinary industry and perseverance
to qualify himself for his new profession. He was called to the Bar
on the 3rd of July, 1778, and on 24th of November he made a display
of his great legal abilities, eloquence, and courage, which placed
him at a bound in the front rank of his profession. His first brief

* Life of Henry Erskine, p. 60.

134 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

was owing to an accidental meeting at dinner with Captain BailHe,
Lieutenant-Governor of Greenwich Hospital, who, in consequence of
his attempts to remedy some gross abuses in that establishment, was
suspended from his office, and then prosecuted for libel, at the instiga-
tion of the notorious Lord Sandwich, the First Lord of the Admiralty.
Erskine was the junior of five counsel retained by Captain Baillie. A
rule to show cause why a criminal information should not be filed
against him had been obtained, and it was for his counsel to get that
rule discharged. Erskine' s seniors were, of course, first heard. It
was almost dark before their speeches were concluded, and, fortu-
nately for the young barrister, the case was adjourned until the next
morning. He had thus, as he said, the whole night to arrange what
he had to say next morning, and took the Court with their faculties
awake and freshened. The Solicitor- General, who was retained for
the prosecution, supposing that all the defendant's counsel had been
heard, was about to reply, in the full expectation of success, when a
young gentleman, whose name, as well as his face, was unknown to
almost all present, rose from the back row and modestly claimed
his right to be heard. In a strain of matchless eloquence he
denounced the prosecution as a disgrace to its authors, poured out
the most cutting invectives on Lord Sandwich and the men whom he
had employed as tools in this affair, lauded the conduct of Captain
Baillie, who, he contended, had only discharged an important public
duty at the risk of his office, ' from which the effrontery of power had
already suspended him.' The interference of Lord Mansfield, who
said Lord Sandwich was not before the Court, only served to
increase the fierceness of Erskine' s indignation against that profligate
peer, and the vigour with which he denounced the prosecution and
its abettors. His appeal was irresistible and his success complete.
'I must own,' wrote Lord Campbell, 'that, all the circumstances
considered, it is the most wonderful forensic effort of which we have
any account in our annals. It was the debut o{ a. barrister just called,
and wholly unpractised in public speaking, before a court crowded
with the men of the greatest distinction, belonging to all parties in
the State. He came after four eminent counsel, who might be
supposed to have exhausted the subject. He was called to order by
a venerable judge, whose word had been law in that hall above
a quarter of a century. His exclamation, " I will bring him before
the Court," and the crushing denunciation of Lord Sandwich, in
which he was enabled to persevere from the sympathy of the by-

The Erskines of Buchan and Cardross. 135

standers, and even of the judges, who, in strictness, ought again to
have checked his irregularity, are as soul-stirring as anything in
this species of eloquence presented to us either by ancient or modern
times.' *

Being asked how he had the courage to stand up so boldly against
Lord Mansfield, he answered that he thought his little children were
plucking his robe, and that he heard them saying, ' Now, father, is
the time to get us bread.'

This first forensic effort raised Erskine at one bound from penury
to prosperity, thirty retainers having been put into his hands before
he left the Court.

In the beginning of the following year, Erskine was engaged as
counsel in the court-martial held on Admiral Keppel, to try the
charges brought against him by Sir Hugh Palliser, of incapacity and
misconduct, in the battle off Ushant with a French fleet. For his
most triumphant acquittal, after a trial which lasted thirteen days,
Keppel was greatly indebted to his advocate, who managed the
case with consummate skill. The grateful Admiral sent him the
munificent present of a thousand pounds. Mr. Erskine' s famous
defence of Lord George Gordon, in 1781, when that weak and
enthusiastic, but well-meaning young nobleman, was tried for high
treason in the Court of King's Bench, placed him, as regards elo-
quence, high above all the men at the Bar. His speech not only
secured the acquittal of his client, but rendered an important service
to the country by completely overthrowing the doctrine of construc-
tive treason.

After practising only five years at the Bar, Mr. Erskine obtained,
in 1 783, a patent of precedence, on the suggestion of Lord Mansfield,
was appointed Attorney- General to the Prince of Wales, and was
returned to Parliament for Portsmouth in the interest of Mr. Fox.
He was not, however, so successful in the House of Commons as at
the Bar. His reputation, as a painstaking, skilful, and eloquent
advocate, continued to increase. His firm and courageous conduct
in the trial of the Dean of St. Asaph for a seditious libel, in
publishing a tract by the learned Sir William Jones, entitled him
to the unceasing gratitude of his professional brethren, for his noble
vindication of the independence of the Bar. Justice Buller, who
presided at the trial, informed the jury that they had no right to
decide whether the tract was a libel or not, and that the only ques-
* Lives of the Chancellors, vi. p. 396.

136 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

tion submitted to them was whether the Dean caused it to be
published. The jury returned a verdict of ' Guilty of publishing
only.' Buller strove to induce them to omit the word ' only,' which
they repeatedly refused to do, and Ersklne Insisted that the verdict
should be recorded as It had been given. The judge sought to
Intimidate the young barrister In the discharge of his office. ' Sit
down, sir,' he exclaimed. 'Remember your duty, or I shall be
obliged to proceed in another manner.' This threat extorted the
memorable and effective reply, ' Your lordship may proceed In what
manner you may think fit : I know my duty as well as your lordship
knows yours. I shall not alter my conduct.' The judges, much to
their discredit, attempted to uphold the doctrine that the jury are
judges only of the fact of publication, but not of the question of
libel. But the public mind was so alarmed by the consequences
of this decision that Parliament, without hesitation, passed, as a
declaratory Act, the Libel Bill, introduced in 1791 by Mr. Fox,
which established the rights of jurors in cases of libel.

In 1789 Ersklne delivered a speech on behalf of Stockdale, the
publisher, who was tried in the Court of King's Bench, on an infor-
mation filed by the Attorney-General, for publishing a pamphlet
written by John Logan, the poet, animadverting on the managers of
the impeachment against Warren Hastings. Lord Campbell says
Ersklne' s speech in this case is the finest speech ever delivered at
the English Bar, and he won a verdict which for ever established the
freedom of the press in England. But, perhaps, the most Important
service which Mr. Ersklne rendered to the cause of constitutional
liberty was his successful defence, in conjunction with Mr. (after-
wards Sir Vicary) Gibbs, of Hardy, Home Tooke, and Thelwall, for
high treason, in 1794. The Government attempted, by their pro-
ceedings in these cases, to revive the doctrine of constructive
treason, against twelve persons who had belonged to various societies
having for their professed object the reform of the House of
Commons. Declining to be tried jointly, the Attorney-General,
Sir John Scott, afterwards Lord Eldon, selected Thomas Hardy, a
shoemaker, as the one against whom he could make the strongest
case. He spoke nine hours in opening the case for the prosecution,
but his efforts to procure a conviction were signally defeated, to his
grievous mortification, by Ersklne, who proved that the object of
these societies had been advocated by the Earl of Chatham, Mr.
Burke, Mr. Pitt himself, and the Duke of Richmond, at that time a

The Erskines of Buchan and Cardross. 137

member of the Government. The speech which he delivered in
defence of Hardy was a masterpiece, and well merited the eulogium
which Home Tooke wrote at the end of it, in a copy of Hardy's
trial, 'This speech will live for ever.' The Ministry, instead of
abandoning the prosecution of the others, against whom an indict-
ment had been brought, were so infatuated as to bring John Home
Tooke, the celebrated philologist, and John Thelwall, successively to
trial, but met with a still more signal defeat ; and all the other
pi-isoners were acquitted without any evidence being offered against
them.

On the conclusion of these memorable trials, the public gratitude
for the services which Erskine had rendered to the country was
manifested in a very striking manner. ' On the last night of the
trials,' says Lord Campbell, ' his horses were taken from his chariot,
amidst bonfires and blazing flambeaux, he was drawn home by the
huzzaing populace to his house in Serjeant's Inn ; and they obeyed
his injunctions when, addressing them from a window, with Gibbs
by his side, he said, " Injured innocence still obtains protection from
a British jury ; and I am sure, in the honest effusions of your hearts,
you will retire in peace, and bless God." The freedom of many
corporations was voted to him, and his portraits and busts were sold
in thousands all over Great Britain. What was more gratifying, his
speeches for the prisoners were read, and applauded, by all men of
taste. He now occupied a position as an advocate which no man
before had reached, and which no man hereafter is ever likely to
reach at the English Bar.'

On the formation of the Grenville Ministry, in 1 806, Erskine was
appointed Lord High Chancellor, and was raised to the peerage, with
the title of Baron Erskine of Restormel Castle, in Cornwall. On
the dissolution of the Ministry, in 1807, he retired in a great degree
from public life. He took a lead, however, in opposing the ' Orders
in Council ' respecting neutral navigation, which he truly foretold
would lead to a war with America. He delivered a speech, remark-
able both for argument and eloquence, against the Bill for prohibiting
the exportation of Jesuit's bark to the Continent of Europe. He
introduced into the House of Lords a Bill for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals, which was thrown out by the Commons, but
was resumed and carried by other persons in the following year. In
the memorable proceedings against the Queen, in 1820, he took a
prominent part against the Bill of Pains and Penalties, and was

138 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

largely instrumental in causing it to be abandoned by the Govern-
ment.

In the latter years of his life, owing to an unfortunate purchase of
land, and some other ill-advised speculations, Lord Erskine suffered
considerable pecuniary embarrassment. His wife died in 1805,
leaving four sons and four daughters ; and, an ill-assorted second
marriage added considerably to the troubles of his old age. He died
at Almondell, in Midlothian, the seat of his nephew, 17th November,
1823, in the seventy-second year of his age, and was interred in the
family burying-place at Uphall.

Lord Erskine was conspicuous for his kindness of heart, urbanity,
and entire freedom from envy, or jealousy of others. His vanity and
egotism, of which many amusing stories are told, were, no doubt,
excessive ; but they were accompanied with much bonhomie, and were
entirely devoid of arrogance or presumption. Posterity has ratified
the verdict of one of his biographers, ' As an advocate in the
forum, I consider him to be without an equal in ancient, or in modern
times.'

Lord Erskine was succeeded by his eldest son, David Montague,
who served his country as Minister to the United States, and at the
Court of Wirtemberg. Thomas, his third son, ' one of the most
amiable and upright of men,' was a judge of the Court of Common
Pleas. Esme Stewart, the youngest, a lieutenant- colonel, was
Deputy Adjutant-General at the battle of Waterloo, and died from
the consequences of a severe wound, which he received from a
cannon-shot near the end of the day, by the side of the Duke of
Wellington.

THE ERSKINES OF KELLIE

|HE Erskines of Kellie trace their descent from Sir Alexander
Erskine of Gogar, a younger son of the fourth Lord
Erskine, and brother of the Regent Mar. The title of
Earl of Kellie was conferred by James VI., in 1619, on
Sir Thomas Erskine, the eldest surviving son of Sir Alexander, who
had been the King's schoolfellow, and was through life regarded
by him with great favour. He' assisted in rescuing James from the
Ruthvens at Gowrie House, in the year 1600, and was rewarded with
the grant of a portion of the fine estate of Dirleton, which had
belonged to the Earl of Gowrie. Erskine accompanied James to
England, and in 1606 was created Viscount Fenton. He received
from the King at various times liberal grants of lands, including
the barony of Kellie, in Fifeshire, from which his title was taken
when he was advanced to the dignity of Earl. He died in 1639,
and was succeeded by his grandson, Thomas, who died unmarried
in 1643. His brother, Alexander, became third Earl. He was
a zealous supporter of King Charles during the Great Civil War,
was inconsequence imprisoned in the Tower of London, was excepted
from Cromwell's Act of Grace and Pardon, and deprived of neariy
the whole of his extensive estates. He was allowed, however, to
retire to the Continent, but returned to Scotland after the Restoration,
and died in May, 1677. His son, Alexander, fifth Earl, took part
in the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, and was imprisoned in the castle
of Edinburgh for upwards of three years. He was a person of weak
intellect, and, in all probability for that reason, was set at liberty
without being brought to trial. He brought new talent into the
family, however, by marrying a daughter of Dr. Pitcairne, the
celebrated Jacobite physician, and poet. The eldest son of this
marriage was —
VOL. n. X

140 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

Thomas Alexander, sixth Earl, the well-known musical com-
poser, who succeeded his father in 1756. He was a remarkably-
amiable person, and possessed a considerable share of the wit and
humour for which both his maternal grandfather and the Erskines
were noted ; but he is now chiefly remembered for his extraordinary
proficiency in musical science. His convivial habits, however, which
widely prevailed at that time, weakened his constitution, and impaired
his property. He was obliged to dispose of the Kellie estate, retaining
only the old castle and a few fields surrounding it. He died unmarried
in 1 7 8 1 . A younger brother of this Earl was the Honourable Andrew
Erskine, whose vers de societe and witty conversation are still tradi-
tionally remembered in Scotland.

The ' Musical Earl ' of Kellie was succeeded by his brother Archi-
bald, who was an officer in the army. He was for a number of years
one of the Scottish representative peers, and it was chiefly owing to
his exertions that the legal restraints imposed upon the Scottish
Episcopalians were removed. Like his brothers, he was unmarried,
and at his death the title devolved on Sir Charles Erskine of
Cambo. He, too, was unmarried, and his two uncles, who held the
earldom in succession, died without issue. The title was claimed, in
1829, by the fifteenth Earl of Mar, as heir-male general. His right
was allowed by the House of Lords, and the earldom is now conjoined
with that of Mar.

ERSKINES OF KELLIE.

THE GRAHAMS.

I HE monkish writers allege that the Grahams can trace their
descent from a fabulous personage called Graeme, who is
said to have commanded the army of Fergus II. in 404,
to have been governor of the kingdom in the monarchy of
Eugene, and in 420 to have made a breach in the wall erected
by the Emperor Severus between the Firth of Forth and the Clyde,
and which was supposed to have derived from the Scottish warrior
the name of Graeme's Dyke. The ' gallant Grahams,' as they are
termed in Scottish ballad and song, do not require the aid of fable
to increase their fame, for few of our great old houses have such an
illustrious history.

Like most of the ancient Scottish families, the Grahams are
of Anglo-Norman origin, and they settled in Scotland during
the twelfth century. The first of the race whose name occurs
in the records of Scotland was a Sir William de Graeme, who
received from David I. the lands of Abercorn and Dalkeith, which
descended to Peter, the elder of his two sons. Peter's grandson,
Henry, by his marriage to the heiress of the family of Avenel,
acquired their extensive estates in Eskdale. He was one of the
magnates Scoim who, in the Parliament of 5th February, 1283-4,
bound themselves by their oaths and seals to acknowledge as their
sovereign the Princess Margaret of Norway, the grand -daughter of
Alexander III., in the event of that monarch's death without male
issue. His son. Sir Nicholas, was one of the nominees of Robert
Bruce when, in 1292, he became a competitor for the crown. His
grandson. Sir John de Graham of Dalkeith, who died without issue,
was the last of the original stock of the family. His estates were
divided between his two sisters : the elder, who married William
More, inherited the lands of Abercorn ; the younger became

142 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

the wife of -William Douglas of Lugton, ancestor of the Earls of
Morton, and conveyed to him Dalkeith, and the estates of the Avenels
in Eskdale.

The male line of the family was carried on by John, the younger
son of Sir William de Graham. Among the muniments in the pos-
session of the Duke of Montrose there is a charter by William the
Lion, probably of the date of 1175, granting to David de Graham,
second son of John, the lands of Kynnabre, Charlton, and Barrow-
field, in the county of Forfar, and of the fishing of the Water of
Northesk.

A few years later the same monarch bestowed upon Radulph
of Graham the lands of Cousland, Pentland, and Gogger, in Mid-
lothian. Alexander II. in 1227 confirmed a grant made by Patrick,
Earl of Dunbar, to David de Graham (who must have been
the son of the first- mentioned David), of the whole waste lands of
Dundaff and Strathcarron, which was the King's forest, in exchange
for the lands of Gretquerquer, in Galloway.

Other extensive grants of estates were made from time to time
to the Grahams by Alexander III., and by several great nobles
their feudal superiors. The most noteworthy of these gifts was
a grant by Robert Bruce, in 1325, of the lands of Old Munros, in
the shire of Forfar, to David Graham, elder, and an exchange
with that monarch, in 1326 or 1327, of the lands of Old Montrose
for the lands of Cardross, in the county of Dumbarton, where the
restorer of Scottish independence spent the last years of his life.*

The second Sir David de Graham, who held the office of sheriff
of the county of Berwick, was one of the national, or Comyn,
party during the minority of Alexander II., and resolutely opposed
the intrigues of the English faction. He obtained from Malise,
the powerful Earl of Strathern, the lands of Kincardine, in
Perthshire, where the chief residence of the family was henceforth
fixed. His second son, the patriotic Sir John de Graham of Dun-
daff, may be regarded as the first eminent member of the family.
He is still fondly remembered as the bosom friend of the illustrious
Scottish patriot Wallace. He was killed at the battle of Falkirk,
July 22, 1298, fighting gallantly against the English invaders
under Edward I., and was buried in the churchyard of that
town. His tombstone, which has been thrice renewed, bears in the
centre his coat-of-arms ; at the upper part, round an architectural
* Reportby William Eraser: Second Report of Commission o?i Historical MS S. pp. 1 66-7.

GRAHAMS OF MONTROSE.

The Grahams. 143

device, is the motto, * Vivit post funere virtus,' and at the lower part
the following inscription : —

' Mente manuque potens, et Valise fidus Achates;
Conditus hie Gramus, bello interfectus ab Anglis.

22nd July, 1298.

Her lys
Sir John the Gr^rae, baith wight and wise,
Ane of the chiefs reskewit Scotland thrise ;
Ane better knight not to the world was lent,
Nor was gude Graeme, of truth and hardiment.'

Dundaff Castle, now in ruins, stands on high ground a few miles
from the battlefield, and commands four passes leading down in as
many directions to the low country. It belongs to the Duke of
Montrose, the chief of the Grahams, in whose possession there is an
antique sword, a short, broad weapon, on which the following lines
are inscribed : —

' Sir John ye Graeme verry wicht and wyse,
Ane o' ye chiefes relievet Scotland thryse.
Fought with ys sword, and ner thout schame
Commandit nane to beir it bot his name.'

Sir Patrick and Sir David, the elder and the younger brothers of
this celebrated patriot, embraced the cause of Baliol in the contest
for the crown, and swore fidelity to Edward I. in 1292. It is pro-
bable, however, that this act of homage was rendered under com-
pulsion, and was disavowed on the first opportunity, for in 1296
Sir David and his nephew were taken prisoners by the English
monarch. They were released in the following year, on condition of
serving under the English banner in the French wars. Sir Patrick
fell at the mismanaged and disastrous battle of Dunbar, in 1296.
Hemingford, the English chronicler, says he was ' a stout knight,
wisest among the wise in council, and among the noblest the most
noble.'

From this time downwards the Grahams have taken a prominent
part in public, and especially in warlike, affairs. The son of Sir
David, who bore his name, which seems to have been a favourite
one among the early Grahams, was a zealous adherent of Robert
Bruce, and defended the independence of his native country so
stoutly, that he was excepted from the pacification which King
Edward made with the Scots in 1303-4. Along with two of his
kinsmen, he signed the famous letter to the Pope vindicating in noble
terms the independence of Scotland. He died in 1327. It was he

VOL. II. V

144 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

who exchanged with King- Robert Bruce the estate of Cardross for
Old Montrose. His son, also named Sir David, was taken prisoner
with his sovereign, David II., at the battle of Durham. Sir David's
son. Sir Patrick of Graham, was the ancestor both of the Montrose
and Menteith Grahams. His son and successor, by his first wife,
Sir William, carried on the main line of the family. His eldest son,
Patrick, by his second wife, Egidia, niece of Robert II., married —
probably about the year 1406 — Eufemea Stewart, Countess Palatine
of Strathern, and either through courtesy of his wife, or by creation,
became Earl Palatine of Strathern. (See Earls of Menteith.)

The elder son of Sir William Graham by his first wife predeceased
him, leaving two sons. By his second wife, the Princess Mary
Stewart, daughter of Robert II., Sir William had fivd sons, from the
eldest of whom descended the Grahams of Fintry, of Claverhouse,
and of Duntrune, and the third was the ancestor of the gallant Sir
Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch. Patrick Graham, Sir William's
second son, by the Princess Mary, was consecrated Bishop of
Brechin in 1463, and was translated to St. Andrews in 1466. He
was a learned and virtuous prelate, worthy to succeed the illustrious
Bishop Kennedy, his near relative — a model bishop. Anxious
to vindicate the independence of the Scottish Church, over which the
Archbishop of York claimed jurisdiction, he visited Rome, and pro-
cured from the Pope a bull erecting his see into an archbishopric,
and appointing him metropolitan, papal nuncio, and legate a latere,
in Scotland for three years. On his return home the Archbishop
was assailed with vindictive malignity by his ecclesiastical rivals.
The inferior clergy rejoiced in his advancement ; but the dignitaries
of the Church, through envy and dread of the reforms which he was
prepared to inaugurate, became his inveterate enemies. By bribing
the King, James III., they succeeded in obtaining the degradation
and imprisonment of the unfortunate prelate, on the plea that he had
infringed the royal prerogative by applying to the papal court with-
out the King's license. It is alleged, in a report recently found in the
Roman archives, that Graham had proclaimed himself divinely ap-
pointed to reform ecclesiastical abuses, and had revoked indulgences
granted at Rome, appointed legates, and had committed other similar
illegal acts. There is reason to believe that the persecution which
the Archbishop underwent had affected his mind. Schevez, an able,
but unprincipled and profligate ecclesiastic, who succeeded Graham
in the primacy, and was the leader of the hostile party, had him

The Grahams. 145

declared insane, and procured the custody of his person. He was
confined first in Inchcolm, and afterwards in the castle of Loch Leven,
where he died in 1478.

Sir William Graham was succeeded by his grandson, Patrick
Graham of Kincardine, who was made a peer of Parliament in 145 1,
under the title of Lord Graham. His grandson, William, third
Lord Graham, was created Earl of Montrose by James IV.,
3rd March, 1504-5. His title, however, was not taken from the
town of Montrose, but from his hereditary estate of ' Auld Montrose,'
which was then erected into a free barony and earldom. He fell at
the battle of Flodden, gth September, 15 13, where he and the Earl
of Crawford commanded one of the divisions of the Scottish van-
guard. One of the younger sons of the Earl by his third wife was
the ancestor of the Graemes of Inchbrakie.

William, second Earl of Montrose, held several offices of trust in
connection with the person of the young king, James V., and his
daughter, Queen Mary. John, third Earl, was one of the most
powerful noblemen in Scotland in his own day, and was deeply
involved in the plots and intrigues of the early part of the reign of
James VL He assisted the profligate Earl of Arran in bringing the
Regent Morton to the block, which led to a feud between him and
the Douglases. He twice held the office of High Treasurer of
Scotland, and was appointed Lord Chancellor in 1599. After the
accession of James to the throne of England, the Earl was nominated
Lord High Commissioner to the Parliament which met at Edinburgh,
loth April, 1604. On resigning the office of Chancellor, a patent
was granted to him by the King, in December of that year, appoint-
ing him Viceroy of Scotland for life, with a pension of _;^ 2,000 Scots.
He presided at the meeting of the Estates at Perth, gth July, 1606,
which passed the ecclesiastical enactments termed the Five Articles
of Perth, so obnoxious to the Presbyterian party. At his death in
1608, the King thought fit to order that the Earl, in consequence of
his high position, should be buried with peculiar pomp and splen-
dour, and promised to give forty thousand merks to cover the
expense. But the promises of James in regard to pecuniary matters
were not often performed. The money was never paid, and the
costly funereal ceremonial imposed a heavy burden on the Earl's
son.

146 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

John Graham, fourth Earl of Montrose, showed, by an incident
mentioned in Birrel's Diary, that in his youth the hot blood of the
Grahams ran in his veins, though in his mature years he was quiet,
peaceful, and prudent in his conduct. ' 1595, the igth January, the
young Earle of Montroes [at this time he was only Lord Graham]
fought ane combate with Sir James Sandilands at the Salt Trone of
Edinburgh, thinking to have revengit the slauchter of his cousine,
Mr. Johne Graham.' This Earl lived the retired life of a country
gentleman, and seems to have been very domestic in all his habits.
It appears from the family accounts that he amused himself with
archery and golfing, and indulged a good deal in the use of tobacco.
He was appointed President of the Council in July, 1626, and died
14th November of the same year, in the prime of life. But his burial
was not ' accompleissit ' until the 3rd of January, ' and the haill friends
remainet in Kincardin thereafter, sateling, his Lordship's affairs,
till Soinday, the 7th of January.' An account-book which has been
preserved shows the enormous expense that was incurred in ' ac-
compleissing' the burial, and in entertaining for eight weeks the
array of kinsmen who had congregated in the family mansion to do
honour to the obsequies of the deceased nobleman. They feasted
upon • Venison, Beif, Muttoune, Lamb, Veill, Geis, Caponis,' and
other poultry ; and of game and wildfowl ' Capercailzies, Black
Cokis, and Ethe henis, Termaganis, Muir fouUs, Wodcoks, Peitrecks
[partridges], Plewvers, and Birsall foulls,' in great abundance. Of
liquors there were consumed one puncheon of ' claret wyn ' and one
puncheon of ' quhyt wyn,' besides nine gallons of " Ester aill.' * This
protracted hospitality and costly mode of performing funerals may
account for the sumptuary laws frequently enacted by the Scottish
Estates, for the purpose of limiting the ruinous expenses incurred on
such occasions. No less than three years' rental of the estate of the
deceased has sometimes been spent in ' accompleissing ' his burial.

The glory of the house of Graham is James, the fifth Earl and
first Marquis of Montrose. His mother was Lady Margaret
Ruthven, eldest daughter of William, first Earl of Gowrie. The
Ruthvens were noted for their fondness for magical pursuits, and the
mother of the great marquis seems to have partaken of the family
superstition. Scot of Scotstarvit asserts that she ' consulted with
witches at his birth.' She predeceased the Earl, leaving an only

* Memorials of Montrose, i. p. 151.

The Grahams. I47

son and five daughters. Her husband bears affectionate testimony
to her worth and beauty, and says of her she was 'a woman religi-
ous, chaste, and beautifull, and my chiefe joy in this world.'

The young Earl was only fourteen years of age at the time of his
father's death, in 1626. Two years previously he had been placed
under a private tutor in Glasgow, obviously with the view of pre-
paring him to enter a university; and in January, 1627, he was en-
rolled as an alumnus in the University of St. Andrews. The accounts
of his tutor show that, during the residence of the youthful nobleman
at that celebrated seat of learning, his recreations were riding, hunt-
ing, hawking, archery, and golf He showed a fondness also for
poetry and chess, and for heroic and romantic histories. The frequent
entries in his accounts of donations to the poor — to a ' rymer,' a
dumb woman, a dwarf, ' poor Irishe women,' — show that his purse
was always open to the needy. He was no less liberal to minstrels,
morrice-dancers, jugglers, town officers and drummers, and to the
servants — coachmen, footmen, and nurses — in the country houses
which he visited. He seems, even at this early period, to have
attracted public attention and expectations, for in a poem by William
Lithgow, entitled ' Scotland' s Welcome to her Native Son, and Sove-
raigne Lord, King Charles,' the Genius of Scotland, addressing the
King, thus refers to the youthful head of the Grahams : —

' As for that hopefull youth, the young Lord Grahame,
James Earl of Montrose, whose warlyke name
Sprung from redoubted worth, made manhood try
Their matchless deeds in unmatched chivalry —
I do bequeath him to thy gracious love,
Whose noble stocke did ever faithful prove
To their old aged auncestors; and my Bounds
Were often freed from thraldome by their wounds ;
Leaving their roote, the stamp of fidele truth,
To be inherent in this noble youth :

Whose Hearts, whose Hands, whose Swords, whose Deeds, whose Fame
Made Mars, for valour, canonize The Grahame.'

On quitting the university, Montrose, in his seventeenth year,
married Lady Magdalene Carnegie, sixth daughter of the first Earl of
Southesk. It was probably owing to the tender age of the young
couple that the father of the bride binds himself in the marriage
contract, dated loth November, 1629, * to entertain, and sustain, in
house with himself honourably the saids noble Earl and Mistress
Magdalene Carnegie, his promised spouse, during the space of three
years next after the said marriage.' The young Earl continued to

148 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

prosecute his studies after his marriage, under private tutors ; and,
in 1633, leaving his wife and young children at Kinnaird with his
father-in-law, he visited the Continent, and spent three years in
France and Italy. He returned home in 1636, being then in his
twenty-fourth year. On his appearance at court, he was un-
graciously received by the King, whose frigid manners were fitted
to repel, rather than to attract, an ardent and high-spirited youth. It
has been alleged by various writers that the indignation of Mont-
rose at the coldness with which he was treated by Charles made him
throw himself into the hands of the Covenanters ; but there is no
evidence to warrant this assertion. Scotland was at this time in a
state of great excitement, in consequence of the attempt of Charles
and Laud to introduce the English Liturgy into the Scottish Church ;
and Montrose has emphatically declared in several documents that
he had arrived at the deliberate conviction that 'Churchmen's great-
ness,' and Episcopal civil government, had grown to be equally
destructive of liberty and prerogative. He therefore at once joined
the Covenanting party, and became one of their most active leaders.
In 1639 he was sent to chastise the prelatic town of Aberdeen, and
to compel the inhabitants, who were principally Episcopalians, to
take the Covenant. The temperate manner in which he performed
this task did not meet with the full approbation of his party. ' The
discretion of that generous and noble youth,' says Baillle, ' was but
too great. All was forgiven to that unnatural city.'

After Montrose left Aberdeen, Lord Aboyne, at the head of a
strong body of Highlanders, obtained possession of the town,
evidently with the consent of the citizens, and the Covenanting
general was a second time dispatched to this stronghold of the
Episcopalians and Royalists, which the Highlanders evacuated on
his approach. He treated the inhabitants with most unjustifiable
severity, levied on them a contribution of ten thousand merks,
pillaged their houses, carried off or destroyed their corn, and
plundered both the fishermen of the town, and the farmers and
peasantry of the adjacent country. Montrose then marched west-
ward to attack the strongholds of the Gordons, but retraced his steps
on learning that Aboyne had arrived with reinforcements, and had
again taken possession of Aberdeen. The Highlanders, however, fled
at the first discharge of the artillery of the Covenanting forces, and
the unfortunate city once more fell Into the hands of Montrose, who
imposed a fine of sixty thousand merks sterling upon the citizens.

The Grahams. 149

When the Covenanters at length took up arms in defence of their
liberties, and entered England in 1640, Montrose was the first man
who forded the Tweed, at the head of his own battalion ; and, a few
days after, he routed the vanguard of the English cavalry at New-
burn, on the Tyne. Like Falkland, Hyde, and other moderate
Reformers in the English Parliament, Montrose now became dis-
satisfied with the proceedings of the more extreme members of his
party, and was apprehensive that the ultimate views of the Coven-
anters were inconsistent with the rights and just authority of the
Sovereign. It has been alleged that he resented the preference
given by the other leaders to the chief of the Campbells, the hered-
itary rival of his family. • Montrose,' says Clarendon, ' had always
a great emulation, or rather great contempt, of the Marquis of Argyll,
as he was too apt to contemn those he did not love. The people
looked upon them both as young men of unlimited ambition, and
used to say that they were like Caesar and Pompey : the one would
endure no superior, and the other would have no equal.'

No decided step, however, was taken by Montrose in opposi-
tion to Argyll until July, 1640, when the Covenanting army was
encamped on Dunse Law. At that period a bond was privately
offered for his signature, proposing that some person should be
appointed captain-general of the country north of the Forth, and
implying that this person should be the Earl of Argyll. Montrose
indignantly refused to subscribe this bond, and, in conjunction with
the Earls of Marischal, Home, Athole, Mar, and other influential
noblemen, including Lord Almond, the second in command of
General Leslie's army, he entered into what was called the Cumber-
nauld Bond, from the place where it was prepared, for their mutual
aid and defence in case of need. This bond was speedily discovered
by Argyll and his friends, and the subscribers were called to account
for their procedure by the Committee at Edinburgh ; but their formal
renunciation of the bond was accepted as a satisfactory settlement
of the affair. Tie confidence of the party, however, in Montrose
was shaken, and, in June, 1641, he was accused of carrying on a
secret correspondence with the King, and, along with three of his
friends, was confined in the castle of Edinburgh. He remained a
close prisoner there until the beginning of 1642, when he was set at
liberty, on the intercession of King Charles himself.

After the breaking out of the Civil War, Montrose, who greatly
disliked the timorous and trimming policy of the Marquis of Hamil-

150 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

ton, the King's minister for Scotland, urged that an army of
RoyaHsts should be raised at once, to prevent the Covenanters from
making common cause with the English Parliament. ' Resist,' he
said, ' resist force with force. The King has loyal subjects in Scot-
land ; they have wealth, and influence, and hearts stout and true ;
they want but the King's countenance and commission. The only
danger is delay. If the army of the Covenant be allowed to make
head, loyalty will be overwhelmed. The rebellious cockatrice must
be bruised in the &gg. Physic is too late when the disease has
overrun the body.' There can be little doubt that if Montrose had
been permitted at this juncture to raise an army in behalf of the
royal cause, the Covenanting forces could not have ventured to
quit Scotland. But his advice, which was as sagacious as it was
bold, was disregarded, and the result was that a powerful army,
under General Leslie, was sent to the assistance of the Parliament,
and turned the scale in their favour.

On the ruinous failure of Hamilton's policy, and his consequent
disgrace and imprisonment in the beginning of 1644, Montrose was
appointed by the King Lieutenant-Gen eral in Scotland, and shortly
after was advanced to the dignity of marquis. He made a daring
attempt to cut his way into Scotland at the head of a small body of
cavalry, with the view of raising the Scottish royalists on the side of
the King, but was encountered on the Borders by a greatly superior
force, and compelled to fall back on Carlisle. After the fatal battle
of Marston Moor, however, he set out in August, 1644, i^^ the dis-
guise of a groom in attendance on two of his friends, Sir William
Pollock and Colonel Sibbald, and succeeded, in reaching the High-
lands without detection. He found at Blair Athole two hundred
Highlanders and about twelve hundred Irish auxiliaries, indifferently
armed and disciplined, who had shortly before landed in the West
Highlands under Alaster Macdonald, better known as Colkitto,* to
aid the royal cause. Montrose immediately displayed his commis-
sion from the King, and raised the royal standard. The High-
landers flocked to it in considerable numbers, and the Marquis,
finding himself at the head of a powerful force, lost no time in
directing his march to the low country. At Tippermuir, three miles
from Perth, he encountered (ist September) an army of six thousand
Covenanters, under Lord Elcho, whom he defeated, with the loss of

* He was the son of Coll Keitache MacGillespic Macdonald of Colonsay. Keitache
means left-handed.

The Grahams. 151

three hundred men, and of all his artillery, arms, and baggage. Perth
immediately surrendered, and the victors obtained from the terror-
stricken citizens a seasonable supply of clothing and arms. The
approach of Argyll at the head of a superior force compelled
Montrose to leave Perth. The Highlanders in his army, according
to their immemorial custom, quitted his standard and returned home
to secure their spoil. The murder of Lord Kilpont \_see The Earls
OF Menteith] still further diminished his army, as the followers of
that nobleman left the standard, to convey the body of their chief to
the sepulchre of his ancestors. With a force reduced to less than
two thousand men, Montrose proceeded northward to Aberdeenshire.
Here, at the Bridge of Dee, he encountered and defeated another
army of the Covenanters, under Lord Burleigh and Lord Lewis
Gordon, one of the sons of Huntly, and pursued the fugitives into
the town of Aberdeen. That ill-fated town was given up to pillage,
and suffered cruelly from the excesses of Montrose's Irish troops,
who put to death without mercy all whom they found in the streets.
In some instances they even compelled their victims to strip before
they killed them, lest their clothes should be soiled by their blood.
' The women durst not lament their husbands, or their fathers
slaughtered in their presence, nor inter their dead, who remained
unburied in the streets until the Irish departed.' * It has been
justly said that the people of Aberdeen had a right to expect
very different treatment from an army fighting under the royal
banner, for they had always been favourable to the cause of the
King ; and Montrose himself, when in the service of the Coven-
anters, had been the agent in oppressing, for its devotion to the
royal cause, the very city which his troops so cruelly plundered, on
account of its enforced adherence to the Parliament.

On the approach of Argyll at the head of a superior force,
Montrose proceeded up the Spey ; then doubling back, he plunged
into the wilds of Badenoch, and thence into Athole, always pursued,
but never overtaken by the enemy. • That strange coursing,' as
Baillie terms the series of marches and countermarches, * thrice
round about from Spey to Athole, wherein Argyll and Lothian's
soldiers were tired out, and the country harassed by both, and no
less by friends than foes, did nothing for their own defence.' Com-
pletely tired out by these rapid and harassing marches, Argyll
returned to Edinburgh, and resigned his commission as general,
* Spalding's Troubles in Scotland, ii., pp. 234-37.
VOL. II. Z

1 5 2 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

declaring that he had not been adequately supported. It was sup-
posed that Montrose would remain until the spring In the district of
Athole, but having obtained a strong reinforcement of Macdonalds,
Stewarts of Appin, and other Jacobite clans, he resolved to attack
Argyll in his native fastnesses. Guided by a clansman of Glencoe, who
declared that there was not a farm, or half a farm, under Maccallum
More but he knew every foot of It, Montrose made his way Into
Argyllshire, through paths hitherto deemed Inaccessible, and
plundered and laid waste the whole country with merciless severity.
Dividing his forces Into three bodies, in order to make the work of
devastation more complete, he traversed the whole of the devoted
district for the space of a month, killing the able-bodied men, driving
off the flocks and herds, and laying the houses In ashes. As Spalding
says, ' He left no house or hold, except impregnable strengths,
unburnt ; their corn, goods, and gear ; and left not a four-footed
beast In Argyll's halll lands ; and such as would not drive they
houghed and slew.'* The thirst of feudal vengeance, it has
been justly said, may explain, but can In no degree excuse, these
severities.

On leaving Argyllshire, Montrose withdrew towards Lochaber, for
the purpose of organising a general rising of the clans. He was
followed by a strong body of the Campbells, under their chief; while
General BalUie, at the head of a considerable army, was advancing
from the east, and Lord Seaforth, with another force, was stationed
at Inverness. Their object was, by a combined movement from
different points, to surround and overpower their active enemy.
Montrose, however, resolved to forestall their operations, and to fall
upon the Campbells before they could be joined by Seaforth and
Baillle. He accordingly retraced his steps over a succession of
mountains covered with snow, and through passes ' so strait,' as he
said, ' that three men could not march abreast,' and on the evening
of the ist of February, came In sight of the Campbells at Inverlochy,
near Fort William. The privations borne by his forces during this
march must have been very great. ' That day they fought,' says
Patrick Gordon of Cluny, ' the General himself and the Earl of Alrlle
had no more to break their fast upon before they went to battle but
a little meal mixed with cold- water, which out of a hollow dish
they did pick up with their knives. One may judge what wants the
rest of the army must suffer. The most part of them had not tasted
* Troubles in Scotland, ii., p. 296.

The Grahams, i53

bread for two days, marching over high mountains in knee-deep
snow, and wading brooks and rivers up to their girdles.'

At sunrise next day the battle took place. The Campbells, under
the command of Sir Duncan Campbell of Auchinbreck, commenced
the attack, and, as Montrose says, ' fought for some time with great
bravery; ' but in the end they were completely defeated, with the loss
of their general, along with many of his principal officers, and fifteen
hundred men, who were killed in the conflict or the pursuit, which
lasted for nine miles.

After his victory at Inverlochy, Montrose marched to the north-
east, laying waste the country as he proceeded. At Elgin he was
at length joined by a detachment of the Gordons, who had hitherto
held aloof from him ; and Seaforth also soon after repaired to his
standard. He now issued orders for all who were capable of bearing
arms, between the ages of sixteen and sixty, to join his banner, under
pain of military execution, and those who did not immediately obey
his summons he treated as rebels, ' plundering, burning, and spoiling
the houses, biggins, and cornyards of the haill lands of the gentry ;
carrying off the horses, nolt, sheep, and plenishing [furniture] from
others; laying the villages in ashes, and destroying the fishermen's
boats and nets.' The Lowlands of Aberdeenshire and Moray were
laid waste with fire and sword by the savage hordes of Irishmen
and Highlanders. Elgin and Banff were given up to be pillaged
by them ' pitifully ; no merchants' goods nor gear left ; they saw no
man in the street but was stripped naked to the skin.' Brechin,
Stonehaven, and Cowie, with the shipping, and the buildings on the
estate of Dunnotar, were in succession consigned to the flames,
amidst the tears and lamentations of the defenceless and wretched
inhabitants. These ruthless barbarities were all the more inex-
cusable that they were inflicted on the tenantry and retainers of
Montrose's old friend and fellow-soldier, Earl Marischal, avowedly,
because he refused to abandon the Covenant for which they had
formerly fought side by side. \See The Keiths, Earls Maris-
chal.]

About this time Montrose lost his eldest son, John, a youth of great
promise, in his fifteenth year, who died of sickness brought on by
the fatigues of their rapid marches. His second son, James, ' a young
bairn about fourteen years,' says Spalding, ' learning at the schools
in Montrose,' was seized by Sir John Urrey, and carried off to Edin-
burgh. The Covenanting forces under Baillie were reinforced at

154 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

this juncture by a considerable levy of cavalry under Urrey ; and
Lord Lewis Gordon, who had twice already changed sides in the con-
test, withdrew from the royal forces with a large part of the Gordons.
Montrose was in consequence compelled to abandon the open country,
and once more to retire northwards. Before carrying this movement
into effect he attacked and stormed the town of Dundee, 4th April.
But while his troops were dispersed in quest of liquor and plunder,
he received intelligence that Baillie and Urrey, with four thousand
men, were within a mile of the town. He instantly called off his
soldiers from the spoil, and by a series of masterly movements kept
the enemy at bay ; and after a retreat of three days and two nights,
harassed at every step by his pursuers, he at last effected his escape
to the mountains. ' I have often,' says his biographer, Dr. Wishart,
* heard those who were esteemed the most experienced officers, not
in Britain only, but in France and Germany, prefer this march to his
most celebrated victories.'

The Covenanting generals unwisely divided their forces. Urrey
marched northwards to Inverness, where he was joined by the
Frasers and other friendly clans, and turned, with an overwhelming
force, against Lord Gordon, who was stationed at Auchindoun.
Montrose, who was in Menteith,in Stirlingshire, hearing of this move-
ment, with his characteristic promptitude and rapidity hastened along
the Braes of Balquhidder, thence down the side of Loch Tay, and
through Athole and Angus ; he then traversed the Grampian moun-
tains, and effected a junction with Lord Gordon on the Dee. Urrey's
forces were still superior in numbers to the royal army, and without
waiting for Baillie's co-operation, he attacked Montrose at the village
of Auldearn, near Nairn (May 4, 1645). The battle was stoutly
contested, but the Covenanters were in the end defeated, mainly
through the tfeachery of Colonel Drummond, one of Urrey's officers,
who was afterwards tried by a court-martial and shot. Nearly two
thousand men, including a considerable number of officers and
several men of rank, were slain, and their whole baggage, ammuni-
tion, and money, along with sixteen colours, fell into the hands of
the victors.

After this signal victory, Montrose marched to Elgin, laying waste
the country as usual with fire and sword. Nairn and Elgin were
plundered, and the principal buildings set on fire. CuUen was
reduced to ashes, and ' sic lands as were left unburnt up before were
now burnt up.' Meanwhile, learning that Baillie was ravaging the

The Grahams. 155

estates of Huntly, he marched northward, and brought him to action
at the village of Alford, on the Don (July 2nd). The issue was for
some time doubtful, but partly by the skilful manoeuvring of their
general, the Royalists were successful, though their victory was em-
bittered by the death of Lord Gordon in the heat of the conflict.

The fame of Montrose's victories having attracted considerable
numbers, both of Lowlanders and Highlanders, to his standard, he
descended from the mountains and marched southwards at the head
of nearly six thousand men. He approached Perth, where the Par-
liament was then assembled. As a numerous army, however, had
taken up a strong position in the neighbourhood, he did not venture
to attack it, but directed his march toward Stirling, as usual laying
waste the country, burning the cottages, and killing the defenceless
inhabitants. Castle Campbell, a noble antique edifice, was left in
ruins by the same unsparing spirit of vengeance. Even the town
and lordship of Alloa, belonging to the Earl of Mar, did not escape
the ravages of the Irish kernes, though the Earl, who was favourably
inclined to the royal cause, had hospitably entertained Montrose and
his officers. Passing by Stirling, which was strongly garrisoned and
defied their attack, the Royalists continued their march to the south-
west, and encamped near the village of Kilsyth.

The army of the Covenanters was meanwhile following the foot-
steps of Montrose, and was now close at hand. Baillie, who was
well aware that his raw and undisciplined levies were utterly unfit
to cope with Montrose's veterans, wished to avoid a battle, but he
was overruled by the Committee of Estates, who forced him to quit
the strong position he had taken up, and to commence the attack.
After a brief struggle Baillie' s forces were totally defeated with the
loss of upwards of four thousand men.

This crowning victory made Montrose for the time master of Scot-
land. The leaders of the Covenanting party fled for refuge to
Berwick, and numbers of the Lowland nobility, who had hitherto
stood aloof, now declared in favour of the royal cause. Montrose
proceeded to Glasgow, which he laid under a heavy contribution,
and put to death some of the principal citizens as incendiaries. The
city of Edinburgh sent commissioners to entreat his clemency. A
special commission was sent by the King, appointing Montrose
Lieutenant-Governor and Captain-General of Scotland, and he issued
a proclamation for a new Parliament to meet at Glasgow in October.

From the outset of his career the object which Montrose had in

156 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

view was to clear Scotland of the Covenanting forces, and then to
lead his victorious army into England, to the assistance of the King.
In accordance with this plan he now directed his march towards the
Borders, where he expected to be joined by a body of fifteen hundred
horse, under Lord Digby. But the Highlanders, according to their
usual custom, now quitted the army, and returned home for the
purpose of depositing their plunder in a place of security. The
Gordons, with their leader. Lord Aboyne, soon after followed their
example, so that, when Montrose began his march towards the Tweed,
his force had dwindled down to a body scarcely more numerous
than when he was wandering through Athole and Badenoch.

Meanwhile General David Leslie had been despatched from the
Covenanting army in England to the assistance of the Estates.
Montrose had heard of his approach, but as Leslie directed his march
along the eastern coast, he supposed that it was his intention to cut
off his retreat to the mountains, which seems to have been the case.
But when Leslie reached Tranent he learned that Montrose was en-
camped in fancied security in Ettrick Forest. He therefore altered
his course and marched with all speed down the vale of the Gala, to
.Melrose, which he reached on the evening of September 12th.
The royal army was only five or six miles distant from that place.
The infantry were posted on a level plain called Philiphaugh, on the
northern side of the Ettrick, while Montrose had taken up his
quarters with the cavalry in the town of Selkirk, on the opposite bank
of the river. Favoured by a thick mist, Leslie, early next morning,
forded the Ettrick and came close upon the encampment of the
Royalists without being discovered by a single scout. The surprise
was complete. The noise of the conflict conveyed to Montrose the
first intimation of the approach of the enemy. Hastily collecting
his cavalry, he galloped across the river to the scene of action,
where he found matters in a state of hopeless confusion. After
repeated and desperate attempts to retrieve the fortunes of the day,
he was at length compelled to make his escape from the field, and
cutting his way through the midst of his enemies, followed by the
Marquis of Douglas, Lord Napier, and about thirty horsemen, he
fled up the Vale of Yarrow, and over Minchmoor to Peebles. Next
day he was joined by the Earls of Crawford and Airlie, accompanied
by about two hundred of the fugitive cavalry, and with these scanty
remains of his army he succeeded in regaining his Highland
fastnesses. The fruits of his six splendid victories were thus swept

The Grahams. 157

away at one blow, and all hope of his retrieving the royal fortunes
was extinguished.

For some little time after his overthrow at Philiphaugh, Montrose
maintained a guerilla warfare in Athole. But after Charles had
taken refuge with the Scottish army in England, he issued orders to
Montrose to disband his followers, and to withdraw from the king-
dom. Reluctantly obeying this command, the Marquis laid down
his arms, and, having arranged the terms with General Middleton
(July 22nd, 1646), he embarked, 3rd September, in the disguise of a
servant, in a small Norwegian vessel, along with a few friends, and
sailed for Norway. He afterwards proceeded to Paris, where he
resided for some time. He was offered, by Cardinal Mazarin, in
March, 1648, the rank of General of the Scots in France, and
of a Lieutenant-General in the French army, with most liberal pay ;
but he was dissatisfied with the conditions offered him. As he told
his nephew, the second Lord Napier, with a touch of his old haughti-
ness, he thought ' that any imployment below ane Marischall of
France was inferiour to him ; besides the Frenches had become
enymies to our king, and did laboure still to foment the differences
betwixt him and his subjects.' He therefore declined the Cardinal's
offer, and proceeded through Geneva to Germany, where he had
been informed he would be welcome. At Prague, he was graciously
received by the Emperor Ferdinand, who bestowed upon him the
baton of a Field-Marshal, and gave him the command of the levies to
be raised on the borders of the Spanish Netherlands. In order to
avoid hostile armies, he returned to Flanders by Vienna, Presburg,
Dantzic, and Copenhagen, where he met with a cordial reception,
and thence to Brussels. While residing at this place he heard of the
execution of King Charles, which deeply affected him, and he wrote
some well-known verses to his memory, expressing the highest
veneration for that ill-fated sovereign.

Montrose was still constantly meditating a descent upon Scotland
in favour of the royal cause, and was at the Hague while Prince
Charles was in treaty with the leaders of the Covenanting party for
a restoration to the Scottish throne, on the principles embodied in
the National Covenant. The Marquis earnestly recommended him
not to accept the Crown on the stringent terms proposed by them,
and offered to replace him by force of arms on the throne of his
ancestors. Charles, with characteristic baseness and duplicity, con-
tinued to negotiate a treaty with the Commissioners deputed by the

158 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

Scottish Estates, while at the same time he encouraged Montrose
to persevere in his enterprise, and sent him the George and Garter.*
The Marquis, having obtained a small supply of money and arms
from the Queen of Sweden, and the King of Denmark, embarked at
Hamburg, in the spring of 1650, with six hundred German mer-
cenaries, and landed on one of the Orkney islands. Two of his
vessels, laden with arms and ammunition, and about a third of his
forces, were lost on the voyage. He constrained a few hundreds of
the unwarlike fishermen to join him, and early in April he crossed to
Caithness, with the design of penetrating into the Highlands. But
just as he approached the borders of Ross-shire, at a place called
Drumcarbisdale, on the river Kyle (27th April), he fell into an
ambuscade laid for him by Colonel Strachan, who had been
despatched in all haste with a body of horse to obstruct his pro-
gress. The Orkney men threw down their arms at once, and called
for quarter. The German mercenaries retreated to a wood, and
there, after a short defence, surrendered themselves prisoners.
Montrose's few Scottish followers made a desperate resistance, but
were most of them cut to pieces. As Sir Walter Scott remarks, ' the
ardent and impetuous character of this great warrior, corresponding
with that of the troops which he commanded, was better calculated
for attack than defence — for surprising others rather than for pro-
viding against surprise himself. His final defeat at Dunbeith so
nearly resembles in its circumstances the surprise at Philiphaugh, as
to throw some shade on his military talents.' Montrose, who was
wounded and had his horse killed under him, seeing the day irre-
trievably lost, fled from the field. Along with the Earl of Kinnoul
and other two or three friends, they made their way into the desolate
and mountainous region which separates Assynt from the Kyle
of Sutherland, with the view of passing into the friendly country of
Lord Reay. The Earl of Kinnoul sunk under the effect of hunger,
cold, and fatigue, and Montrose himself fell into the hands of Mac-
leod of Assynt, a mean and sordid chief, who delivered him up to
the Covenanting general. He was conveyed to Edinburgh in the
peasant's habit in which he had disguised himself ' He sat,' says an
eye-witness, ' upon a little shelty horse without a saddle, but a quilt
of rags and straw, and pieces of rope for stirrups, his feet fastened
under the horse's belly with a tether, and a bit halter for a bridle ; a
ragged old dark-reddish plaid, and a Montrer cap upon his head, a

* Letters of Charles II., Montrose and his Times, ii. 353.

The Grahams. 159

musketeer on each side, and his fellow-prisoners on foot after him.'
At the house of the Laird of Grange, where he spent one night, he
nearly effected his escape by a stratagem of the lady, who ' plied the
guards with intoxicating drink until they were all fast asleep, and
then she dressed the Marquis in her own clothes. In this disguise
he passed all the sentinels, and was on the point of escaping,
when a soldier, just sober enough to mark what was passing, gave
the alarm, and he was again secured.'*

When he reached Dundee the citizens, greatly to their honour,
although they had suffered severely from his arms, expressed sympathy
for their fallen foe, and supplied him with clothes and other necessaries
suitable to his rank. ' The Marquis himself,' says Sir Walter Scott,
• must have felt this as a severe rebuke for the wasteful mode in which
he had carried on his warfare; and it was a still more piercing reproach
to the unworthy victors who now triumphed over an heroic enemy,
in the same manner as they would have done over a detected felon.'

Montrose reached Edinburgh on Saturday the i8th of May, and it
was resolved by his ungenerous enemies to bring him into the capital
with a kind of mock procession. At the foot of the Canongate, near
Holyrood, he was received by the executioners, with the magistrates
and the town-guard. His officers walked on foot bound with cords ;
then followed the Marquis himself, placed on a high chair in a cart,
bareheaded, and bound to the seat with cords ; the hangman, wearing
his bonnet, rode on the foremost of the four horses that drew the
cart. ' In all the way,' says a contemporary chronicler, ' there
appeared in him such majesty, courage, modesty — and even some-
what more than natural — that those common women who had lost
their husbands and children in his wars, and who were hired to stone
him, were upon the sight of him so astonished, and moved, that their
intended curses turned into tears and prayers.' As the procession
moved slowly up the Canongate, it stopped opposite Moray House,
where the Marquis of Argyll, his son Lord Lome, and his newly-
married wife — a daughter of the Earl of Moray — with the Chancellor
Lord Loudon, and Warriston, appeared at a balcony for the purpose
of gratifying their resentment by gazing on their dreaded enemy.
But on Montrose ' turning his face towards them, they presently
crept in at the windows, which being perceived by an Englishman,
he cried up it was no wonder they started aside at his look, for they
durst not look him in the face these seven years before.'

* Life and Times, 471.

VOL. II. A A

i6o The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

Deputations both from the Parliament and the General Assembly
waited upon the redoubted Cavalier in prison, and strove hard to
induce him to make some acknowledgment of his alleged ofrences.
He firmly vindicated, however, the course which he had taken in the
royal service. Referring to his most vulnerable procedure, the
ravages committed by his soldiers in plundering the country, he
pleaded that ' soldiers who wanted pay could not be restrained from
spoilzie, nor kept under such strict discipline as other regular forces.
But he declared that he did all that lay in his power to keep them
back from it; and as for bloodshed, if it could have been thereby
prevented, he would rather it had all come out of his own veins.'
The main point which they pressed against him was his breach of
the Covenant. He declared that he still adhered to the Covenant
which he took. ' Bishops,' he added, ' I care not for them ; I never
intended to advance their interest. But when the King had granted
you all your desires, and you were every one sitting under his vine
and fig tree, that then you should have taken a party in England by
the hand, and entered into a league and covenant with them against
the King, was the thing I judged my duty to oppose to the utmost.'
Mr. James Guthrie, one of the deputation from the General Assembly,
expressed their great grief that, in consequence of the impenitence of
the Marquis, they could not release him from the sentence of excom-
munication. ' I am very sorry,' was his dignified rejoinder, ' that
any actions of mine have been offensive to the Church of Scotland,
and I would with all my heart be reconciled to the same. But since
I cannot attain it on any other terms unless I call that my sin which
I account to have been my duty, I cannot for all the reason and
conscience in the world.'

Before Montrose reached Edinburgh, the Parliament had resolved
to dispense with the form of a trial, and to proceed against him upon,
an act of attainder passed in the winter of 1644, while he was
ravaging the territory of Argyll. The barbarity of his sentence was
studiously aggravated by the most disgraceful insults. He was
condemned to be hanged upon a gibbet thirty feet high, on which he
was to be suspended for three hours ; his head was to be affixed to
an iron spike on the Tolbooth of Edinburgh ; his limbs were to be
placed on the gates of the four principal towns in Scotland, and his
body (unless he should be released from the excommunication of the
Kirk) was to be interred in the Boroughmuir, under the gallows
Montrose was summoned before the Parliament to hear this brutal

The Grahams. i6i

and cruel sentence read. The Chancellor, the Earl of Loudon, a cadet

of the Campbell family, loaded him with coarse and virulent abuse.

The Marquis defended himself with great courage, temper, and

dignity. ' He behaved himself all this time in the house,' says Sir

James Balfour, a hostile witness, ' with a great deal of courage and

modesty, unmoved and undaunted as appeared, only he sighed two

several times, and rolled his eyes alongst all the corners of the house;

and at the reading of the sentence he lifted up his face, without any

word speaking.'* He was then conveyed back to prison, where

another deputation of ministers, with mistaken, though no doubt

honest zeal, waited upon him and endeavoured to draw from him

some expressions of penitence for taking up arms in behalf of the

King. He at last put a stop to their exhortations with the words,

' I pray you, gentlemen, let me die in peace.'

That evening when left alone, he wrote with the point of a

diamond on his prison window the following lines : —

' Let them bestow on every airth a limb,
Then open all my veins, that I may swim
To Thee, my Maker, in that crimson lake ;
Then place my parboiled head upon a stake;
Scatter my ashes, strew them in the air ;
Lord ! since thou knowest where all these atoms are,
I'm hopeful thou'lt recover once my dust,
And confident thou'lt raise me with the just.'

The next day. May 21st, was fixed for his execution, and Wishart

mentions that Johnston of Warriston, the Clerk- Register, entered the

Marquis's cell while he was combing the long curled hair which he

wore, according to the fashion of the Cavaliers, and asked him what

he was about, in a tone which implied that he regarded this as but

an idle employment at so solemn a time. ' While my head is my

own,' replied Montrose with a smile, ' I will dress and adorn it ; but

when it becomes yours, you may treat it as j'ou please.' He walked

on foot from the Tolbooth to the scaffold, which had been erected in

the middle of the market-place between the Cross and the Tron.

' He was clad in rich attire,' says a contemporary, ' more becoming

a bridegroom than a criminal going to the gallows. None of his

friends or kinsmen were allowed to accompany him, neither was he

permitted to address the people from the scaffold ; but the calm and

dignified speech which he delivered to those around him was taken

down, and circulated at the time.- Dr. Wishart' s narrative of his

exploits and his own manifesto were hung around his neck. He

* Sir James Balfour's Notes of the Parliament.

1 62 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

himself assisted to fasten them, merely saying with a smile at this
new display of the malice of his enemies, ' I did not feel more
honoured when his Majesty sent me the Garter.' ' Then,' says an
eye-witness, ' with the most undaunted courage, he went up to the
top of that prodigious gibbet, where, having freely pardoned the
executioner, he gave him three or four pieces of gold, and inquired
of him how long he should hang there, who said three hours ; then
commanding him, at the uplifting of his hands, to tumble him over,
he was accordingly thrust off by the weeping executioner. The
whole people gave a general groan, and it was very observable that
even those who at first appearance had bitterly inveighed against
him, could not now abstain from tears. 'Tis said that Argyll's
expressions had something of grief in them, and that he did likewise
weep at the rehearsal of his death, for he was not present at the
execution.'

The sentence pronounced upon Montrose was carried out in all its
brutal and shocking details. At the Restoration, in 1660, his head
was taken down from the Tolbooth in the presence of Lord Napier
and a number of the leading barons of the house of Graham, and the
scattered limbs were collected and interred, with great pomp and
ceremony, in the tomb of his grandfather, the Viceroy of Scotland,
in the church of St. Giles.

Montrose, who was thus cut off at the age of thirty-seven, was one
of the most distinguished Scotsmen whom the seventeenth century,
fertile in great men, produced. His talents for irregular warfare
were of the highest order. He was a poet * and a scholar as well as
a soldier, and wrote and spoke clearly and eloquently. His genius
was of the heroic cast, and in the opinion of the celebrated Cardinal
de Retz— no mean judge of character — closely resembled that of
the ancient heroes of Greece and Rome. ' Montrose,' says Lord
Clarendon, * was in his nature fearless of danger, and never declined
any enterprise for the difficulty of going through with it, but
exceedingly affected those which seemed desperate to other men ;
and did believe somewhat to be in himself above other men, which
made him lean more easily towards those who were, or were willing
to be, inferior to him (towards whom he exercised wonderful civility
and generosity) than with his superiors or equals. ... He was not
without vanity, but his virtues were much superior, and he well

, *^i-^,'^TMf' and best-known, poem is entitled, ' An Excellent New Ballad to the
tune of " 1 11 never love thee more." '

The Grahams. 163

deserved to have his memory preserved and celebrated among the
most illustrious persons of the age in which he lived.' * Montrose
was no doubt ambitious and fond of applause ; as he himself frankly
acknowledged, ' he was one of those that loved to have praise for
virtuous actions.' But Clarendon admits that he was a man of ' a
clear spirit,' 'a man of the clearest honour, courage, and affection
to the King's service.' 'A person of as great honour, and as
exemplary integrity and loyalty, as ever that nation (the Scottish)
bred.' It is impossible, however, to deny that Montrose waged war
in a sanguinary spirit, and that he permitted, if he did not authorise,
his troops to lay waste the country in a cruel and vindictive manner.
His own defence against this charge has already been quoted, and
it has been pleaded in extenuation that this was ' the fault of his
country and his age, and that his enemies showed as little of mercy
and forbearance.'

In his personal deportment, Montrose was dignified yet graceful.
His features, though not handsome, were singularly expressive.
' His hair was of a dark brown colour, and a high nose, a full, decided,
well-opened, quick, grey eye, and a sanguine complexion, made
amends for some coarseness and irregularity in the subordinate parts
of the face. His stature was very little above the middle size ; but
in person he was uncommonly well built, and capable both of exert-
ing great force, and enduring much fatigue. He was a man of a
very princely carriage, and excellent address, which made him
treated by all princes for the most part with the greatest familiarity.
He was a complete horseman, and had a singular grace in riding.'
' As he was strong of body and limb, so he was most agile, which
made him excel most others in those exercises where these two
are required. His bodily endowments were equally fitting the
court as the camp.'

Two days after his execution, the heart of Montrose was taken out
of his body, which, in accordance with his sentence, was buried at
the foot of the gallows on the Boroughmuir. This feat was accom-
plished by ' conveyance of some adventurous spirits appointed by
that noble and honourable lady, the Lady Napier, taken out and
embalmed in the most costly manner by that skilful chirurgeon and
apothecary, Mr. James Callander, and then put in a rich case of
gold.' "f This interesting relic was in the possession, last century,

* Clarendon's History, vii. 284.

+ Relation of the True Funeral of the Great Lord Marquis of Montrose in the year 1661.

1 64 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

of Francis, fifth Lord Napier, great-grandson of the lady who had it
embalmed. Its subsequent extraordinary fortunes are narrated in a
letter from Sir Alexander Johnstone, formerly Chief Justice of
Ceylon, which is printed in the Appendix to Mr. Napier's ' Life of
Montrose.' According to Sir Alexander, the gold filigree box
containing the heart of Montrose was given by Lord Napier, on his
deathbed, to his eldest and favourite daughter, who afterwards
became Mrs. Johnstone and Sir Alexander's mother. She accom-
panied her husband to India, and during the voyage the gold box
was struck by a splinter, in action with a French frigate. ' When in
India,' continues Sir Alexander,-' my mother's anxiety about it gave
rise to a report amongst the natives of the country that it was a
talisman, and that whoever possessed it would never be wounded in
battle or taken prisoner. Owing to this report it was stolen from her,
and for some time it was not known what had become of it. At last
she heard that it had been offered for sale to a powerful chief, who
had purchased it for a large sum of money.' Sir Alexander hap-
pened to pay a visit to this chief, and induced him to restore the
stolen property. It was again lost by Mr. and Mrs. Johnstone, from
its being secreted, along with some other plate, in a well at Boulogne
during the French Revolution, and was never recovered by them. ' We
can scarcely conceive a stranger turn of fate,' says Earl Stanhope,
' than that the same nerves and sinews which had throbbed to the eager
pulse of a Scottish hero in the Highlands, should, a century afterwards,
come to be worshipped as a talisman on an Indian idol shrine.'

The ' Great Marquis of Montrose,' as he is usually termed, was
succeeded by his eldest surviving son, James, who was born about
the year 1 63 1 . He was restored to the family dignities and estates,
and had a new patent of marquis granted to him after the Restora-
tion, 1 2th October, 1660. With great good feeling, he refused to
vote on the trial of the Marquis of Argyll, the noted enemy of his
father. He received, on the 21st of August, 1661, a charter of the
Lordship of Cowal, forfeited by the chief of the Campbells, and was
appointed one of the extraordinary Lords of Session, June 25th,
1 668. But he had a strong aversion to the intrigues and factions of a
public career during that stormy period, and preferred the peace and
repose of private life. The ' Good Marquis,' as he was designated,
was peculiarly amiable in his disposition. He died in 1669, and was
succeeded by his son —

The Grahams. 165

James, third Marquis, who was appointed by Charles II. Captain
of the Guard, and afterwards President of the Council. Unmindful
of the example set him by his father, he acted as chancellor of the
jury who brought in a verdict of guilty against the Earl of Argyll,
his cousin-german, 12th December, 1681, one of the most iniquitous
acts of that shameful period. The Marquis died prematurely in
1684, leaving an only son, James, fourth Marquis and first Duke of
Montrose. He was a mere child at the time of his father's death,
and was left to the guardianship of his mother, along with the Earls
of Haddington and Perth, Hay of Drummelzier, and Sir William
Bruce of Kinross. On the ist of February, 1688, however, the
Marchioness was deprived of this office, on pretence of her marriage
with Sir John Bruce, younger, of Kinross, but in reality it was believed
because King James wished to have the young nobleman brought
up as a Roman Catholic. Fortunately the expulsion of the arbitrary
and unconstitutional sovereign from the throne frustrated his design ;
but his feeling on the subject was made evident by his removal from
their seats on the bench of Lords Harcarse and Edmonstone, the
judges who had voted in favour of the tutors selected by the father.
The young Marquis spent Some time travelling on the Continent.
He grew up singularly handsome and engaging in his manners, and
joined the Whig party, by whom he was highly esteemed and
honoured. He was appointed High Admiral of Scotland in Feb-
ruary, 1705, President of the Council, February 28th, 1706, was a
steady supporter of the Union between Scotland and England, and
was created Duke of Montrose on the 24th of April, 1707. He was
five times chosen one of the representative peers of Scotland, and
held that position from 1707 to 1727. He was also appointed
Keeper of the Privy Seal, February 23rd, 1709, but was removed
from that office in 17 13 by the Tory Ministry. On hearing that
Queen Anne was dying, the Duke, along with other Whig peers,
hastened to Edinburgh, and, on the announcement of her death, they
proclaimed George I., who had appointed the Duke one of the Lords
of Regency. He then hastened to London to receive the new King,
and six days after George had landed, he appointed Montrose Secre-
tary of State for Scotland in room of the Earl of Mar, and he was
sworn a Privy Councillor October 4, 17 17. He was appointed
Keeper of the Great" Seal in Scotland; but, in consequence of his
opposition to Walpole, he was dismissed from that office in April,
1733-

1 66 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

The Duke made a great addition to his hereditary estates by
purchasing the property of the Duke of Lennox in Dumbartonshire,
along with the hereditary sheriffdom of that county, the custodian-
ship of Dumbarton Castle, and the regality of Lennox. His Grace
was for many years involved in a kind of private, or local, war with
the celebrated freebooter, Rob Roy Macgregor. They had some
transactions in common in cattle dealing, the Duke having lent
Rob considerable sums of money to enable him to carry on his
speculations in the cattle trade. Unfortunately a sudden depression
of markets, and the dishonesty of a partner named Macdonald,
rendered Rob totally insolvent. The Duke, who conceived himself
deceived and cheated by Macgregor' s conduct, employed legal
means to recover the money lent to him. Rob's landed property of
Craigroyston was attached by the regular form of legal procedure,
and his stock and furniture was seized and sold. Considering himself
harshly and oppressively treated by the Duke, Macgregor carried on
a predatory war against his Grace for thirty years, drove away his
cattle, on one occasion robbed his factor of ^300 which he had just
received as rent, and repeatedly carried off quantities of corn from
the granaries on the estate. The Duke made vigorous, but fruitless,
efforts to destroy his troublesome adversary. On one occasion he
actually surprised Macgregor and made him prisoner ; but he suc-
ceeded in making his escape, in the manner described in Sir Walter
Scott's novel of ' Rob Roy.' *

The Duke, who was Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, died
7th January, 1742. The eldest of his four sons died in infancy.
The second was created a peer of Great Britain by the title of Earl
and Baron Graham of Belford, 23rd May, 1732, with remainder to
his brother. He died unmarried in 174 1. The third son —

William, second Duke of Montrose, along with his younger
brother, George, was placed under the tuition of David Mallet, or
rather Malloch, from whom they were not likely to have learned
much that was good, and along with him made the tour of Europe.
The Duke was noted for his great personal courage. Boswell men-
tions that when riding one night near Farnham, on his way to
London, Montrose (then Lord Graham) was attacked by two high-
waymen on horseback ; he instantly shot one of them, upon which
the other galloped off. His servant, who was very well mounted, pro-

* See Introduction to Rob Roy.

The Graha77is. 167

posed to pursue and take the robber ; but his Grace said, ' No, we
have had blood enough; I hope the man may live to repent.' Under
the Jurisdiction Act of 1747, the Duke recovered for the sheriffship
of Dumbartonshire _;^3,ooo; for the regality of Montrose, ^1,000;
of Menteith, ^200; of Lennox, ^578 i8s. 4d. ; and of Darnley,
^300; in all;^5,o78 i8s 4d., instead of _^i5,ooo, which he claimed.
The Duke became an adherent of William Pitt, and the family have
ever since been attached to the Tory party. He died September
23rd, 1790, and was succeeded by his only surviving son —

James, third Duke of Montrose. He represented in the House of
Commons, first the borough of Richmond, in Yorkshire, at the
general election of 1780, and subsequently Great Bedwin in 1784.
He was appointed one of the Lords of the Treasury on the formation
of the Ministry of Mr. Pitt in 1783, became Paymaster of the Forces
in 1789, and one of the Commissioners of the Indian Board. He
was appointed Master of the Horse in 1790 — an office which he
resigned for that of Lord Justice-General of Scotland in 1795. He
was also President of the Board of Trade, June 10, 1804, and Joint
Postmaster-General, July 13 in the same year. He was removed
by the Ministry of ' All the Talents ' in 1806, but on the return of the
Tories to power in the following year, he was again made Master of
the Horse, an office which he held until 1821, when he succeeded the
Marquis of Hertford as Lord Chamberlain. Like his father, he was
Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, and was also Lord-Lieu-
tenant of the counties of Stirling and Dumbarton, in which, before
the Reform Bill, his influence was predominant. He died Decem-
ber 30th, 1836.

Sir Nathaniel Wraxall, in the ' Memoirs of his own Times,' says
of this Duke : ' Few individuals, however distinguished by birth,
talents, parliamentary interest, or public services, have attained to
more splendid employments, or have arrived at greater honours, than
Lord Graham under the reign of George IIL Besides enjoying the
lucrative sinecure of Justice-General of Scotland for life, we have
seen him occupy a place in the Cabinet while he was Postmaster-
General, during Pitt's second ill-fated administration. If he pos-
sessed no distinguished talent, he displayed various qualities calcu-
lated to compensate for the want of great ability, particularly the
prudence, sagacity, and attention to his own interests so character-
istic of the Caledonian people. Nor did he want great energy as

VOL. II. B B

i68 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

well as activity of mind and body. During the progress of the
French Revolution, when the fabric of our constitution was threat-
ened by internal and external attacks, Lord Graham, then become
Duke of Montrose, enrolled himself as a private soldier in the City
Light Horse. During several successive years he did duty in that
capacity night and day, sacrificing to it his ease and his time, thus
holding out an example worthy of imitation to the British nobility.'

The Duke was succeeded by his son James, fourth Duke, who was
Lord-Lieutenant of Stirlingshire, and commander of the Royal
Archers of Scotland. He was esteemed and liked as a nobleman of
an amiable disposition, but he took no prominent part in public
affairs. He died in 1874, and was succeeded by his third and only
surviving son —

Douglas Beresford Malise Ronald Graham, the fifth and
present Duke, born in 1852. Lady Beatrice Violet, the. second
daughter of the late Duke, wife of the Hon. Algernon W. Fulke-
Greville, is the authoress of several clever and popular works.
Lady Alma, the youngest daughter, is the present Marchioness of
Breadalbane.

GRAHAM, LORD LYNEDOCH.

THOMAS GRAHAM, LORD LYNEDOCH.

HIS gallant soldier and skilful general was the greatest
man produced by the family of Graham since the illus-
trious Marquis of Montrose. He was descended in the
direct line from Sir William Graham of Kincardine, and
Mary Stewart, a daughter of Robert III. Sir William was the
ancestor of the Dukes of Montrose, the Earls of Strathern and
Menteith, and all the other branches of the ' gallant Grahams.'
Thomas Graham was the third and only surviving son of Thomas
Graham (or Graeme, as he spelled his name) of Balgowan, in Perth-
shire, by his wife, Lady Christian Hope, a daughter of the first Earl
of Hopetoun. He was born in 1748, and received his early education
at home, under the tuition first of the Rev. Mr. Eraser, minister of
Monedie, and afterwards of the celebrated James Macpherson, the
collector and translator of Ossian's poems. Young Graham was
sent to Christchurch, Oxford, in 1766, and in the following year the
death of his father put him in possession of a handsome and unen-
cumbered estate. On leaving college, he spent several years on the
Continent, where he acquired a thorough knowledge of the French
and German languages. On his return to Scotland he devoted him-
self to the management and improvement of his estate. He enclosed
his lands, erected comfortable farmhouses and offices, granted leases
to his tenants, encouraged them to provide improved implements of
husbandry, and to cultivate on a large scale potatoes and turnips,
which had hitherto been regarded as mere garden plants. He also
set himself with great care to cultivate improved breeds of horses,
cattle, and sheep. He purchased, in 1785, the estate of Lynedoch
or Lednoch, situated in a picturesque part of the valley of the
Almond, and took great delight in planting trees and oak coppices,
and in beautifying the sloping banks which border the course of

170 The Great Historic Families of Scotiaiid,

that stream. From his boyhood upwards, he was fond of horses
and dogs, and was distinguished for his skill in all country sports, for
which his stalwart and athletic frame eminently fitted him. He rode
with the foxhounds, and accompanied the Duke of Athole, who sub-
sequently became his brother-in-law, in grouse-shooting and deer-
stalking on the Athole moors. He used to say, in after years, that he
owed much of that education of the eye with reference to ground and
distances, so useful to a military man, to his deer-hunting at this
period of his life in the Forest of Athole.

At the age of twenty-four, Mr. Graham offered himself as a candi-
date, in the Whig interest, for the representation of the county of
Perth, in opposition to the brother of the Duke of Athole, but was
defeated by a majority of only six votes. Two years later (1774) he
married Mary, second daughter of the ninth Earl Cathcart, a lady of
remarkable beauty and accomplishments. Her elder sister, on the
same day, became Duchess of Athole. 'Jane,' wrote Lord Cathcart,
' has married, to please herself, John, Duke of Athole, a peer of the
realm ; Mary has married Thomas Graham of Balgowan, the man of
her heart, and a peer among princes.' The laird of Balgowan was
distinguished for his accomplishments as a scholar as well as for his
skill in the cultivation of his estate, and with his books, the improve-
ment of his property, his field-sports, and, above all, the society of
his lovely and amiable wife, he spent eighteen years in the tranquil
and happy condition of a country gentleman, beloved by his
neighbours and tenantry, distinguished only as a daring rider and
sportsman, and a good classical scholar.

Mr. and Mrs. Graham lived mostly at home, but they occasionally
spent a few weeks in Edinburgh and London, and in connection with
these visits several interesting anecdotes are told of Mr, Graham's
devotion to his wife and of the manner in which he showed his
anxiety to promote her welfare. On one occasion, when the affec-
tionate pair went to Edinburgh to attend a ball, Mrs. Graham dis-
covered, on the morning of the day on which it was to take place,
that she had left her jewel-box at Balgowan. Her husband cheered
her in these annoying circumstances by reminding her that ' beauty,
when unadorned, is adorned the most,' and said that she need not
expect him to dinner, but that he would return in time for the ball.
Without any hint as to his intention, he left the house, threw him-
self on horseback, and rode back to Balgowan — a distance of forty-
five miles, including a ferry. Relays of horses by the way enabled

Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch. 171

him to reach Edinburgh, bringing Mrs. Graham's jewel-box, in time
for the ball.

An incident which befell Mr. Graham in London gives a strange
idea of the state of the metropolis at that time. He was one day-
driving, with the Duchess of Athole and his wife, from Pall Mall
to Grpsvenor Square, to attend a party. The carriage was stopped
in Park Lane — opposite the Marquis of Hertford's house — by a
highwayman, who, pistol in hand, demanded their money, jewels,
and watches, while other two men seized the horses' heads. Park
Lane was then unlighted, and the police were not only ineffi-
cient, but not unfrequently in collusion with thieves and house-
breakers. Mr. Graham, who was at the opposite side of the carriage,
sprang across the ladies to the carriage-door, and collaring the
assailant, threw him to the ground. Then, drawing his sword, which
at that period formed part of a dress suit, he threatened to run the
man through, if his associates holding the horses' heads attempted
to come to his assistance. They immediately fled, and the prostrate
highwayman was given into custody.

In the autumn of 1787, Mrs. Graham happened to be on a visit at
Blair, to the Duchess of Athole, along with their youngest sister.
Miss Cathcart, then in her seventeenth year, when Robert Burns, at
that time on a tour in the Highlands, came with a letter of introduc-
tion to the Duke. His Grace was from home, but the visitor was
cordially welcomed by the Duchess, and the Duke returned before
he left Blair. The poet afterwards declared that the two days (Sep-
tember I St and 2nd) which he spent there, were among the happiest
days of his life. In a letter which he wrote from Inverness, on
September 5th, to Mr. Walker, afterwards Professor of Humanity,
of Glasgow, who was then residing at Blair Athole, enclosing his
well-known ' Humble Petition of Bruar Water,' the poet says, ' The
" little-angel band " — I declare I prayed for them very sincerely to-
day at the Fall of Fyers. I shall never forget the fine family-piece I
saw at Blair : the amiable, the truly noble Duchess, with her smiling
little seraph in her lap, at the head of the table ; the lovely " olive-
plants," as the Hebrew bard finely says, round the happy mother;
the beautiful Mrs. Graham ; the lovely sweet Miss Cathcart, &c. I
wish I had the power of Guido to do them justice.' *

* Sad to tell, these three lovely sisters all passed away in the flower of their youth.
The Duchess survived Burns's visit only three years, and Mrs. Graham five. Miss
Cathcart, who was singularly amiable as well as beautiful, was cut off at twenty-four.
And yet other three members of the Cathcart family lived to a great age.

172 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

In order to induce Burns to visit her and her husband at Lyne-
doch, Mrs. Graham offered to conduct him to a spot hallowed in
Scottish song — the graves of Bessie Bell and Mary Gray, which
lie in the bosom of that romantic estate.* He promised to do so, and
there is every probability that he performed his promise when he
visited Mr. Ramsay of Auchtertyre in the following October. It is
not unworthy of mention that Lord Lynedoch had a handsome iron
railing placed round these celebrated graves, and caused them to be
neatly trimmed, and covered with wild flowers.

No happiness on earth, however, is permanent. Mrs. Graham's
health began to decline, and on the recommendation of her medical
adviser she went, in the spring of 1792, to the south of France,
along with her husband and sister. But the expedient proved un-
availing, and she died on board ship, off the coast near Hyeres, on
the 26th of June. Her sorrowing husband returned home, and
deposited her remains in a mausoleum which he built in the church-
yard of Methven, where, after the lapse of upwards of half a century,
he was himself laid in the same tomb.

The loss of his wife preyed deeply upon Mr. Graham's mind, and
having in vain sought, by a twelvemonth's foreign travel, to alleviate
his great sorrow, though now in the forty-third year of his age, he
tried to drown the thought of his irreparable loss amid the toils and
dangers of a military life.

Sir Walter Scott, in his ' Vision of Don Roderick,' thus touchingly
refers to the motive which led the sorrowing husband of Mrs.
Graham to devote himself to a military career : —

' Nor be his praise o'erpast who strove to hide

Beneath the warrior's vest affection's wound ;
Whose wish Heaven for his country's weal denied ;
Danger and fate he sought, but glory found.
From clime to clime, where'er war's trumpets sound

* Bessie Bell was the daughter of the Laird of Kinnaird, and Mary Gray of the
I.aird of Lynedoch. An intimate friendship existed between them, and when the
plague of 1666 broke out, the two young ladies built themselves a house in a retired
and romantic spot, called the Burnbraes, about three-quarters of a mile westward from
Lynedoch House, where they resided for some time, and were supplied with food by a
young gentleman of Perth, who, it is said, was in love with them both. The disease
was unfortunately communicated to them by their lover, and proved fatal. ' The pest
came frae the burrows-toun, and slew them baith thegither.' They were buried in a
sequestered spot called the Dronach Haugh, at the foot of a brae of the same name,
upon the banks of the river Almond. The beauty and the fate of these ' twa bonnie
lasses ' are commemorated in an old ballad bearing their name.

Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch. 1 73

The wanderer went ; yet Caledonia ! still

Thine was his thought in march and tented ground :
He dreamed 'mid Alpine cliffs of Athole's hill,
And heard in Ebro's roar his Lynedoch's lovely rill." *

Mr. Graham joined, as a volunteer, the British troops sent to
assist in the defence of Toulon, one of the few places which held out
against the French Revolutionary Government. Napoleon Bonaparte,
then a lieutenant of artillery, took part in the siege. Graham distin-
guished himself so greatly by his courage and energy, that Lord
Mulgrave (to whom he acted as aide-de-camp), in a general order
referring to the repulse of an attack by the French on an important
fort, expressed ' his grateful sense of the friendly and important
assistance which he had received in many difficult moments from
Mr. Graham, and to add his tribute of praise to the general voice of
the British and Piedmontese officers of his column, who saw with so
much pleasure and applause the gallant example which Mr. Graham
set to the whole column, in the foremost point of every attack.' On
one occasion, when a private soldier was killed, Graham snatched up
his musket and took his place at the head of the attacking column.
It is worthy of notice that it was at Toulon he first became
acquainted with his life-long friend, Rowland Hill, then a captain,
who ultimately became Viscount Hill, and commander-in chief of the
British army.

On his return to Scotland, Mr. Graham .raised, in Perthshire, the
first battalion of the 90th regiment (Balgowan's ' Grey Breeks,' as
they were called), of which he was appointed lieutenant-colonel in
1794, and nominated Rowland Hill major. Shortly after he was
unanimously chosen to represent the county of Perth in Parliament.
In 1795 he was stationed with his regiment at Gibraltar ; but, soon
becoming wearied of the listlessness of garrison duty, he obtained
permission to join the Austrian army on the Rhine as British Com-
missioner. In this capacity he shared in the disastrous campaign of
1796, and afterward assisted Wiirmser in the defence of Mantua,
when it was invested by the French under General Bonaparte. The

* A beautiful whole-length portrait of Mrs. Graham, which was painted by Gains-
borough, is regarded as a masterpiece of pictorial art. At her death it was inclosed in
a case, and deposited in the back room of a picture-frame maker in London, where it
remained unopened during Lord Lynedoch's lifetime. He was never again able to
look upon the 'counterfeit presentment' of the face and form so dear to him. This
exquisite work of art was presented by his cousin and heir, Robert Graham, Esq., of
Redgorton, to the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh.

VOL. II. c C

174 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

garrison was reduced to the greatest extremities from want of provi-
sions, and Colonel Graham undertook the perilous duty of conveying
intelligence to the Imperialist General Alvinzi, at Bassano, fifty,
miles distant, of their desperate situation. Quitting the fortress,
wearing a cloak of the country over his uniform, on the 24th of
December, amid rain and sleet, he crossed the Mincio, in a boat
which was repeatedly stranded in consequence of the darkness. He
pursued his way on foot during the night, wading through deep
swamps, and crossing numerous watercourses and the river Po, in
constant danger of losing his way, or of being shot by the French
pickets, and at daybreak he concealed himself till the return of night,
when he resumed his journey. After surmounting numerous hard-
ships and perils, he at length reached in safety, on the 4th of
January, the headquarters of the Austrian general. But on the
14th the Austrians were defeated, and Mantua, soon after, was forced
to surrender.

Colonel Graham now returned to Scotland, but in the autumn of
1797 he rejoined his regiment at Gibraltar. In the following year
he took part, under Sir Charles Stuart, in the reduction of Minorca,
where he greatly distinguished himself. He then repaired to Sicily,
and obtained the warmest acknowledgments of the King and Queen
of Naples for his effective exertions on their behalf. In 1798 he
was entrusted with the charge of the operations against the important
island of Malta, which was at that time in the possession of the
French. With the local rank of brigadier-general, he had under his
comnfiand the 30th and 89th regiments, and some corps embodied
under his immediate direction. Owing to the great strength of the
place, he was obliged to resort to a blockade, and after being invested
for nearly two years, the garrison were compelled by famine to
surrender in September, 1800, and the island has ever since re-
mained a portion of the British Empire. Colonel Graham's services
were very shabbily acknowledged by the Government of that day,
who reserved their patronage and honours for the officers belonging
to their own political party. In the summer of 1801 he proceeded
to Egypt, where his regiment (the 90th) had greatly distinguished
itself under Sir Ralph Abercromby, but he did not arrive until the
campaign had terminated by the capitulation of the French army.
He availed himself of the opportunity, however, to make a tour in
that country and in Turkey, He spent some time in Constantinople,
whence he travelled on horseback to Vienna — a journey which in later

Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch. I75

years he used to mention as one of the most agreeable rides he had
ever enjoyed.

After spendingsome time in the discharge of his parliamentary duties,
and in attending to the improvement of his estates, Colonel Graham
was stationed with his regiment in Ireland, and was then sent to the
West Indies, where he remained for three years. When the Ministry
of 'AH the Talents' was dismissed in 1807, on account of the favour
they had shown for the Roman Catholic claims to equal privileges,
Colonel Graham supported their policy, and denounced as hypocrisy
the cry of ' No Popery ' raised by Mr. Perceval. But his approval
of the proceedings of the Whig Ministry, and of Roman Catholic
emancipation did not find favour with the Perthshire electors — a
small body in those days — and on the dissolution of Parliament in
May, 1807, Colonel Graham declined to seek re-election, and Lord
James Murray was returned without opposition in his stead.

In 1808 Colonel Graham accompanied Sir John Moore as his
aide-de-camp to Sweden, and then to Spain. He served with
that distinguished officer throughout the whole of his campaign,
terminating in the arduous and trying retreat to Corunna, in which
Graham's services were especially valuable to the harassed troops.
As Sheridan said in the House of Commons, ' In the hour of peril
Graham was their best adviser ; in the hour of disaster Graham
was their surest consolation.' When Sir John Moore received his
death-wound at the battle of Corunna, Colonel Graham was at his
right hand, and had his left hand on the mane of Sir John's horse.
He at once rode away for medical assistance. Before he returned
his dying general missed him, and anxiously asked, ' Are Colonel
Graham and my aides-de-camp safe ? ' — one of his last inquiries.
The remains of the gallant and noble-minded general were carried
first to Colonel Graham's quarters, and he was one of the select
company who witnessed the memorable scene of Moore's burial on
the rampart of the citadel of Corunna.

After his return to England, Colonel Graham was promoted to
the rank of major-general, and was appointed, in the summer of
1809, to command a division under the incompetent and indolent
Lord Chatham, in the fatal Walcheren expedition. An attack of
malaria fever, however, compelled him to return home. On his
recovery he was raised to the rank of lieutenant-general, and was
sent to Spain, to take command of the British and Portuguese
troops in Cadiz, which was at that time closely invested by the

176 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

French. The British Government attached great importance to the
possession of Cadiz, as it was the last stronghold of the patriotic
cause in the Peninsula. But, as Sir William Napier remarked, while
' money, troops, and a fleet — in fine, all things necessary to render
Cadiz formidable — were collected, yet to little purpose, because
procrastinating jealousy, ostentation, and a thousand absurdities,
were the invariable attendants of Spanish armies and government.'
General Graham resolved to make a resolute effort to raise the
siege by attacking the rear of the besieging army, and in February,
181 1, he sailed from Cadiz with a force of upwards of 4,000 men,
accompanied by 7,000 Spanish troops, under General La Pena, to
whom, for the sake of unanimity, the chief command was unfor-
tunately conceded. The allied troops assembled at Tarifa, in the
Straits of Gibraltar, and, moving northward, they arrived, on the
morning of the 5th of March, at the heights of Barossa, which were
on the south of Cadiz and of the lines of the besieging army. The
cowardice and stupidity of the Spanish general placed the force in
imminent peril. By his instructions. General Graham moved down
from the position of Barossa to that of the Torre de Bermeja, about
half-way to the Santi Petri river, in order to secure the communi-
cation across that river. While marching through the wood towards
the Barmeja, Graham received notice that the enemy was advancing
in force towards the height of Barossa. As that position was the
key of that of Santi Petri, Graham immediately countermarched, in
order to support the troops left for its defence ; but before the British
force could get themselves quite disengaged from the wood, he saw
to his astonishment the Spanish troops under La Pena abandoning
the Barossa hill, which the French left wing was rapidly ascending.
At the same time their right wing stood in the plain on the edge
of the wood, within cannon-shot. ' A retreat,' as he says, ' in the
face of such an enemy, already within reach of the easy communi-
cation by the sea-beach, must have involved the whole allied army in
all the danger of being attacked during the unavoidable confusion
of the different corps arriving on the narrow ridge of the Barmeja at
the same time. Trusting,' as he says, ' to the known heroism of
British troops, regardless of the numbers and position of the enemy,'
General Graham determined on an immediate attack. In the centre
a powerful battery of ten guns, under Major Duncan, opened a
most destructive fire upon General Laval's division, which, how-
ever, continued to advance in very imposing masses, but was com-

Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch. 177

pletely defeated by a determined charge of the British left wing ;
and the eagle of the 8th regiment of light infantry, and a howitzer,
were captured. A reserve formed beyond the narrow valley, across
which the enemy was closely pursued, next shared the same fate.
Meanwhile the right wing was not less successful. General Rufifin's
division, confident of success, met it on the ascent of the hill, and,
after a sanguinary conflict, was driven from the heights in confusion,
leaving two pieces of cannon in the hands of the victors.

'No expressions of mine,' said General Graham, in his despatch
to the Earl of Liverpool, ' could do justice to the conduct of the
troops throughout. Nothing less than the almost unparalleled
exertions of every officer, the invincible bravery of every soldier,
and the most determined devotion to the honour of his Majesty's
arms in all, could have achieved this brilliant success against such a
formidable enemy so posted.'

' The contemptible feebleness of La Pena,' says Sir William
Napier, ' furnished a surprising contrast to the heroic vigour of
Graham, whose attack was an inspiration rather than a resolution —
so sure, so sudden was the decision, so swift, so conclusive was the
execution.' *

The French lost about three thousand men in this brilliant action,
and six pieces of cannon and an eagle were captured, along with
nearly five hundred prisoners, among whom were Generals Ruffin
and Rosseau. The loss on the side of the victors was two hundred
killed, and upwards of nine hundred were wounded. Had it not
been for the imbecility and obstinacy of the Spanish general, the
victory might have had the effect of raising the blockade of Cadiz.
'Had thewholebody of the Spanish cavalry,' wrote Graham, 'with the
horse artillery, been rapidly sent by the sea-beach to form on the
plain, and to envelop the enemy's left ; had the greatest part of the
infantry been marched through the pine wood to the rear of the British
force, to turn his right, he must either have retired instantly, or he
would have exposed himself to absolute destruction ; his cavalry
greatly encumbered, his artillery lost, his columns mixed and in
confusion ; and a general dispersion would have been the inevitable
consequence of a close pursuit. But the movement was lost.'

Lord Wellington, in a despatch to General Graham, says : —

' I beg to congratulate you and the brave troops under your com-
mand on the signal victory which you gained on the 5th instant. I
* Napier's History of the Peninsular War, iii. Appendix.

1 78 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

have no doubt whatever that their success would have had the effect of
raising the siege of Cadiz, if the Spanish troops had made any effort
to assist them; and I am equally certain, from your account of the
ground, that if you had not decided with the utmost promptitude to
attack the enemy, and if your attack had not been a most vigorous
onC: the whole allied army would have been lost.' *

The Spanish general, in order to screen himself from merited
obloquy, circulated false and calumnious accounts of the battle,
which General Graham exposed by publishing in Spanish, as well as
in English, his dispatch to Lord Liverpool, along with a letter to the
British envoy, in vindication of his conduct. Lord Wellington men-
tions that La Pena was to be brought to a court-martial, but nothing
is known of the result. The Cortez voted to General Graham the
title of grandee of the first class ; he, however, declined the honour.
For his brilliant victory at Barossa he received the thanks of Parlia-
ment, in his place as a member of the House of Commons.

Graham shortly after joined the army under Wellington, and was
appointed second in command. In January, 1812, he took part in
the siege and capture of Ciudad Rodrigo, and Wellington declared
that he was much indebted to him for the success of the enterprise.
Three months later he and his friend General Hill received the Order
of the Bath. A complaint in his eyes, from which he had been suf-
fering for some time, made it necessary for Graham to return home
at this juncture. ' I cannot avoid feeling the utmost concern,' wrote
Wellington to him, ' that this necessity should have become urgent
at this moment, and that I should now be deprived of your valuable
assistance.' At the general election in October, 181 2, Sir Thomas
Graham contested the county of Perth with Mr. Drummond (after-
wards Lord Strathallan), but though he was supported by a number
of influential Tories, he lost the election by a majority of seven votes.

His visit to Scotland had the effect of restoring his eyesight, and
in May, 1813, he rejoined the army at Frinada, on the frontiers
of Portugal, bringing with him the insignia of the Order of the
Garter to Lord Wellington. On the 22nd of May the British force
quitted Portugal and moved upon Vittoria in three divisions. The
left wing, which was commanded by Sir Thomas Graham, had to
cross three large rivers — the Douro, the Esla, and the Ebro — and
had to force positions of great strength among the passes of the
mountains, continually pressing round the right wing of the retiring
*■ The Duke of Wellington's Despatches, vii. 382.

Thomas Graham, Lord Lymdoch. I79

French army. General Graham took a prominent part in the battle
of Vittoria (21st June), when the French were beaten 'before the
town, in the town, about the town, and out of the town;' and, by
carrying the villages of Gamarra and Abecherco at the point of the
bayonet, he intercepted the retreat of the enemy by the high road to
Bayonne, and compelled them to turn to that leading to Pampeluna.
He was shortly after directed to conduct the siege of the strong
fortress of St. Sebastian, which was defended with great gallantry
and skill by General Rey. The first assault, which took place on the
25th of July, was repulsed with heavy loss, and the siege had in con-
sequence to be raised for a time.. It was renewed, however, after
the defeat of Soult in the battles of the Pyrenees, and a second
attempt to carry the fortress by storm was made on the 31st of
August. The breach was found to present almost insuperable
obstacles, and the storming party strove in vain to effect a lodge-
ment. In this almost desperate state of the attack. General Graham
ordered a heavy fire of artillery to be directed against the curtain,
passing only a few feet over the heads of our troops in the breach.
This novel expedient was completely successful. Taking advantage
of an explosion on the rampart caused by the fire of the guns, which
created confusion among the enemy, the assailants gained a footing
on the wall, and after a sanguinary struggle, which lasted two hours,
forced their way into the town. On the gth of September the brave
Governor Rey surrendered the citadel, and the garrison, reduced to
one-third of their number, marched out with the honours of war.
The reduction of this important place cost the allies three thousand
eight hundred men in killed and wounded.

At the passage of the Bidassoa, which separates France and Spain,
General Graham commanded the left wing of the British army, and,
after an obstinate conflict, succeeded in establishing his victorious
troops on the French territory. But the return of the complaint in
his eyes, and the general state of his health, obliged him to resign his
comrnand and return home. In return for his eminent services, he
now received a third time the thanks of Parliament, and the freedom
of the cities of London and Edinburgh was conferred upon him. His
health was so far recovered that early in 18 14 he was able to take the
command of the British forces in Holland, and directed the unsuc-
cessful attempt, March 8th, to carry the strong fortress of Bergen-
op-Zoom by a night attack. On the 3rd of May, 18 14, he was
raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Lynedoch of Balgowan ;

i8o The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

but, in keeping with his disinterested and high-minded character,
he declined the grant of ;^ 2,000 a year, to himself and to his heirs,
which was voted as usual to accompany the title. Other honours,
both British and foreign, were heaped upon him. He was made a
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, of
the Spanish Order of St. Ferdinand, and of the Portuguese Order
of the Tower and Sword. He was raised to the full rank of general
in 1821, was nominated colonel of the 14th Foot in 1826, which in
1834 he exchanged for that of the Royals. He was elected Rector
of the University of Glasgow, and in 1829 was appointed Governor
of Dumbarton Castle, a post of more honour than profit, as the salary
was only _^ 1 70 a year.

The old age of the gallant veteran was spent among a wide
circle of friends, by whom he was held in the highest esteem and
honour, and his exploits were celebrated, even during his lifetime,
both by the poetic and the historic muse. He took a warm interest
in public events, and gave a steady support to the Whig Ministry
under Earl Grey, and Lord Melbourne. He travelled frequently
on the Continent, and visited not only Italy, Germany, and France,
but Denmark, Sweden, and Russia. In the end of the autumn of
1 84 1, only two years before his death, he travelled through France
to Genoa and Rome. His riding-horses were sent on to Rome,
and he rode frequently in the Campagna. Lord Cockburn gives
an interesting sketch in his Journal of the appearance of the
gallant veteran, under the date of October 24th, 1837. '^ dined
at Craigcrook,' he wrote, 'on the 21st, and at the New Club
yesterday, for the first time since he was couched for cataract,
with one of the finest specimens of an old gentleman — Lord Lyne-
doch. He is better even than the Chief Commissioner, in so far
as he is a year or two older. At the age of about eighty-eight,
his mind and body are both perfectly entire. He is still a great
horseman, drives to London night and day in an open carriage, eats
and drinks like an ordinary person, hears as well as others ; sees
well enough, after being operated upon, for all practical purposes,
reading included; has the gallantry and politeness of an old soldier;
enjoys and enlivens every company, especially where there are
ladies, by a plain, manly, sensible, well-bred manner, and a conver-
sation rich in his strong judgment, and with a memory full of the
most interesting scenes and people of the last seventy years. Large
in bone and feature, his head is finer than Jupiter's. It is like a

Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch. i8i

grey, solid, war-worn castle. Nor has it only been in the affairs of
war that his manly, chivalrous spirit has made him admired and
loved. He has always taken a decided part in politics, on the
popular side, and is one of the old Whigs, who find nothing good
prevailing now but what he fought for and anticipated long ago.
He is one of the men who make old age lovely.' *

Lord Lynedoch continued to the last his early rising, his active
habits, and temperate mode of living, his interest in rural affairs,
and in the management and adornment of his estate. Only four
weeks before his death he sent down from London to his gardener a
number of trees and shrubs, with minute directions where they were
to be planted. His hand is still to be traced in every corner of the
Lynedoch estate. He died in London on the i8th of December,
1843, in the ninety-sixth year of his age, after a very short illness:
indeed, he rose and dressed himself on the day of his death.

In his person Lord Lynedoch was tall, square-shouldered, and
erect, his limbs sinewy and remarkably strong. His complexion
was dark, with full eyebrows, firm-set lips, and an open, benevolent
air. His manners and address were frank, simple, and polished.
He was greatly beloved by his friends, and esteemed and trusted by
his tenantry and neighbours. He has left a name, as Mr. Abbot, the
Speaker of the House of Commons, said, ' never to be mentioned in
our military annals without the strongest expression of respect and
admiration.'

* Journal 0/ Henry Cockbum, i. 149.

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THE GRAHAMS OF ESK, NETHERBY, AND NORTON-

CONYERS.

|HE Grahams of Esk, Netherby, and Norton-Conyers,
the most important of the minor branches of the family
of Graham, are descended from Sir John Graham of
Kilbride, near Dunblane, second son of Malise, first
Earl of Strathern. On account of his distinguished courage and
daring exploits, he was commonly surnamed ' John with the Bright
Sword.' Having fallen into disfavour at Court, probably on account
of some of the sanguinary feuds of his day, Sir John retired,
with a considerable number of his kinsmen and clan, to the Borders,
in the reign of Henry IV., and settled in ' the Debateable Land' — a
strip of territory on the banks of the river Esk, near the Solway
Firth — so called because it was claimed both by Scotland and
England. • They were all stark moss-troopers,' says Mr. Sandford,
' and arrant thieves ; both to England and Scotland outlawed ; yet
sometimes connived at, because they gave intelligence forth of Scot-
land, and would raise four hundred horse at any time upon a raid of
the English into Scotland.' A saying is recorded of a mother to
her son (which is now become proverbial), ^ Ride, Rowley, hough! s
t' the pot; ' that is, the last piece of beef was in the pot, and there-
fore it was high time for him to go and fetch more.* Sir Walter
Scott says that this fierce and hardy race —

' Whoever lost, were sure to win ;
They sought the beeves that made their broth,
In Scotland and in England both.' f

They plundered both countries with impunity, for as the wardens of
both accounted them the proper subjects of their own sovereign,
neither would demand redress of their ravages from the officer of the

* Introduction to the History of Cumberland.
+ Lay of the Last Minstrel, canto vi.

The Grahams of Esk, Netherby, and Norton- Cony ers. 183

other kingdom, which would have been an acknowledgment of his
jurisdiction over them, and they could not agree to unite in punish-
ing their outrages.

On the transference of the Court to London, at the union of the
Crowns, the freebooters renewed their plundering raids more exten-
sively than ever, and King James was constrained to issue a Com-
mission for the settlement of the Borders. One of the first steps
taken by the Commissioners was to deal with the unruly and irre-
claimable Grahams. Finding themselves at last in the grasp of the
law, they sent a petition to the King, setting forth ' that they, and
others inhabiting within the bounds of Eske and Leven, being the
borders of the realme of England against Scotland, are men brought
up in ignorance, and not having had meanes to learne their due
obedience to God, and your most excellent Majestie, of late, and
immediately after the death of the Queen's most excellent Majestie,
your Majestie' s late dear sister, did disorderly and tumultuously
assemble ourselves with all the warlike force and power that they
could make, and being so disorderlie assembled, did invade the
inlande part of the easte parte of the county of Cumberland, and
spoiled many of your subjects of England with fire, sword, robbery,
and reaving of their goods, and murthering and taking prisoners
the persons of the same, which are misdemeanour ; albeit we cannot
excuse our ignorance, for that by the lawes of God we do knowe that
all rebelling, reaving, and murthers are altogether forbidden, yet so
it is, that some among us of evil and corrupt judgment did persuade
us, that untill your Majestie was a crowned kinge within the realme
of Englande, that the lawe of the same kingdome did cease and was
of no force, and that all actes and offences whatsoever done and
committed in the meane tyme, were not by the common justice of
this realme punishable by force, of the which malitious error put
into our heads, as deceived men, and believing over reddy that grosse
untruth, we did most injudiciously run upon your Majestie's inland
subjectis, and did them many wronges, both by fyer, sword, and
taking there goodes, in such sort as before we have acknowledged.'

The admission that they imagined that during the interval between
the death of Elizabeth and the coronation of James the country was
in a lawless state, and every man was entitled to do ' what was right
in his own eyes,' is exceedingly naive and significant.

After professing their sorrow for their misdeeds, they beseech his
Majesty that he will be pleased ' now at our humble suit to grant

184 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

unto us the saving of our lives, which now is in your highnesse by
the justice of your lawes, to take from us at your highnesse good
pleasure, and that your Majestie will be pleased to relegate and
banish us (as a tumultuous collony) into some other parte of your
kingdome, there to spend the residue of our miserable and sorrowful
dayes in lamenting and sorrowing for our offences.'

The Commissioners evidently felt that it was hopeless to attempt
the reformation of these hereditary reivers so long as they continued
in their native haunts. They therefore resolved to try the effect of
sending a large detachment of them out of the country and exposing
them to new and more healthy influences and motives abroad.

On the 17th of May, 1605, the Privy Council wrote 'that his
Majesty having spared their lives, which otherwise were forfeited
through their crimes, his clemency further appeared in that he is
pleased to dispose of them as may be greatly for their good, and in
such sorte as they shall be in no worse condition than his Majesty's
good subjects that were no offenders, being as they are appointed
to be sent to serve in the garrisons and cautionary towns of
Flushing and Brill, places where many honest men desire to be
maintained in service.'

A copy is given of ' the names of Gramas which are to be sent
away.' Some of the names are accompanied by the sobriquets by
which they were familiarly known, such as ' Richard Grame,' alias
' Jocks Ritchie ; ' ' John Grame,' alias ' All our Kaines ; ' * Richard
Grame,' alias ' Lang Ritchie ; ' ' Andrew Grame of Sark^yde,' alias
' Little Andrew ; ' 'Richard Grame,' alias 'Richie of Galloway.'
The custom of using by-names was, indeed, universal among the
Border freebooters at this period, and most of them were better
known by their sobriquets than by their own proper names.

The list included the name of Richard Graham, son of Walter
Grame, of Netherby ; and it would appear that the Scottish Com-
missioners had proposed its omission at their first meeting ; for, on
17th April, 1605, the English Commissioners wrote to them from
Carlisle stating that the omission of the name ' Richard Grayme, is
so ill taken that we shall be taxed of partiallyty ; ' and asking the
consent of their Scottish brethren that ' his name may be added to
the rest as before yt was.' The Scottish Commissioners next day
expressed their concurrence in this step ; but a subsequent effort on
behalf of Richard was made by the Earl of Montrose, who wrote
from Holyrood House on the 25th of June, 1605, entreating the

The Grahams of Esk, Netherby, and Norton- Cony ers. 185

Commissioners to permit young Graham to remain with him, and
offering to be ' answerable for him, both to his Majestie, unto the
Councell, and to your worships.' It is evident that Richard Graham
must have been notorious for his turbulence and reiving habits, for,
notwithstanding his position in society, and the powerful influence
exerted on his behalf, the Commissioners adhered to their decision
that he must accompany the other Grahams to Flushing on the
6th of July. But they complied with his request to give him a letter
of commendation to the governor of that place, setting forth that the
bearer was son to Walter of Netherby, the chief of all the Graemes
dwelling betwixt Leven and Sark, and that he, ' mynding to show his
forwardness in his Majestie' s service, hath desyred us to give testi-
mony of his birth and place, and that upon his due desert he may
receive such favour as to his dimerrit shall appertyne, which we
thinkeing reasonable have thereunto condescended, as also that for
his better encouragement to go forward to do his highnesse service,
we have entreated the conductor of the rest to place him as auncient
of that company.'

The Commissioners appear to have had some difficulty in making
up the required number of compulsory emigrants, but it was at last
completed. The first batch, of fifty, was sent to Brill, and the second,
of seventy-two, to Flushing.

Before three weeks had elapsed, however, several of the expatriated
Grahams began to appear in their former haunts on the Border, to
the great disgust of the Commissioners. Some of them had pro-
cured licenses from their ofiicers to come home for two months;
others had returned without any license at all, among whom was
Richard of Netherby. On the 23 rd of October, 1605, Sir Wilfrid
Lawson wrote to the Earl of Cumberland, informing him that, in
addition to the Grahams already reported to him as having returned
' with license or without,' ' there are still mo coming daily, which is
greatly to the dislyke of the better and truer sorte of his Majestie' s
subjects heare ; and it is lyke, unless there be some order schortly
taken as well to stay those not yet come, as to send away, or other-
wise to take some severe course, with those already come without
lycence, that they will all be schortly at home again.'

The Privy Council, in the meantime, had informed the Commis-
sioners, on the 19th of October, that they 'have taken order with
the Viscount Lisle, Gouvernour of Flushing, that none, from hence-
forth, shall have any passes, nor be allowed to come over without

1 86 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

speciall lycense from his Majestie, or of us of his Privy Counsell.'
As for those who had already come over without license, it was his
Majesty's pleasure that they were presently to be proceeded with
according to justice, and be kept safe in prison, until his Majesty be
made further acquainted with the matter. These restrictions, how-
ever, failed to compel the Grahams to remain in Flushing, They,
no doubt, preferred roaming at will over the moors and among the
glens and- mountains of their native land, to being cooped up in a
Dutch garrison town. The Privy Council were made aware, by the
14th of November, 1605, that of the seventy- two Grahams sent to
Flushing, only fourteen remained there, the rest having returned
home.* It had therefore become necessary to adopt some more
stringent measures to root them out of their hereditary haunts, and
accordingly a large number of the clan, along with a body of
Armstrongs and Elliots, were transported to the north of Ireland, and
their return prohibited under pain of death. By dint of energy and
perseverance, these stalwart freebooters prospered greatly in that
country, and their descendants at the present day form the backbone
of the industry of Ulster.

While the clan were thus disposed of, their chiefs prospered as
regards both rank and possessions. Richard Graham, who purchased
the estate of Netherby and the barony of Liddell from the Earl of
Cumberland, was created a baronet, in 1629, by the style of Sir
Richard Graham of Esk. He fought under the royal banner at
the battle of Edgehill, and was so severely wounded that he was left
all night among the slain. He was succeeded by his elder son,
George. His younger son, Richard, was created a baronet in 1662,
and was the ancestor of the Grahams of Norton-Conyers. Sir
Richard's grandson, the third baronet, was elevated, in 1680, to the
peerage of Scotland, by the title of Viscount Preston. He was for
a good many years ambassador to the Court of France, and subse-
quently Secretary of State to James VII. After the Revolution he
engaged in a treasonable plot against King William, and on
December 31st, 1690, along with two of his associates, Ashton and
Elliot, he was captured on his way to France, with compromising
letters in his possession. Ashton and the Viscount were brought
to trial at the Old Bailey, on a charge of treason, and were found
guilty. Ashton was executed, but Preston saved his life and was
pardoned on revealing the names of his accomplices. His attainder
* Second Report of the Historical MSS. Commission, 181, i8z.

The Grahams of Esk, Netherby, and Norton- Cony ers. 187

did not affect the Scottish peerage, but on the death of his grandson,
the third Viscount, the title became extinct. His extensive estates
passed to his surviving aunt, the Hon. Catherine Graham, wife of
Lord Widdringtop. She died in 1757 without issue, and bequeathed
the property to her cousin, the Rev. Robert Graham, D.D., grand-
son of Sir George Graham, second baronet of Esk. James Graham
of Netherby, his son, was created a baronet in 1782, and was the
father of the late eminent statesman, Sir James Graham, who filled
a succession of important offices in the administrations of Earl
Grey, Sir Robert Peel, and the Earl of Aberdeen.

Sir John Graham of Kilbride was the ancestor also of the
Grahams of Gartmore.

THE SCOTTS OF BUCCLEUCII.

|COTT of Satchells, who published, in 1688, ' A True His-
tory of the Right Honourable name of Scott,' gives the
following romantic account of the origin of that name.
Two brothers, natives of Galloway, having been banished
from that country, for a riot or insurrection, came to Rankleburn, in
Ettrick Forest, where the keeper, whose name was Br}.'done, received
them joyfully on account of their skill in winding the horn, and in the
other mysteries of the chase, Kenneth MacAlpin, then King of
Scotland, came soon after to hunt in the royal forest, and pursued a
buck from Ettrickheugh to the glen now called Buccleuch, about
two miles above the junction of Rankleburn with the river Ettrick.
Here the stag stood at bay ; and the King and his attendants, who
followed on horseback, were thrown out by the steepness of the hill,
and the morass. John, one of the brothers from Galloway, had
followed the chase on foot, and now coming in, seized the buck by
the horns, and, being a man of great strength and activity, threw
him on his back, and ran with his burden about a mile up a steep
hill to a place called Cracra Cross, where Kenneth had halted, and
laid the buck at the sovereign's feet.

' The deer being curee'd in that place,

At his Majesty's command,
Then John of Galloway ran apace,

And fetched water to his hand.
The King did wash into a dish,

And Galloway John he wot ;
He said, " Thy name, now, after this.

Shall ever be called John Scott.

' " The forest, and the deer therein,
We commit to thy hand :
For thou shalt sure the ranger be,
If thou obey command ;

The Scoits of Buccleuch. 189

And for the buck thou stoutly brought

To us up that steep heuch,
Thy designation ever shall

Be John Scott, in Buckscleuch."

' In Scotland no Buckcleuch was then
Before the buck in the cleuch was slain ;
Night's men at first they did appear,
Because moon and stars to their arms they bear ;
Their crest, supporters, and hunting-horn,
Show their beginning from hunting came ;
Their names and style, the book doth say
John gained them both into one day.'

This account of the origin of the Scotts of Buccleuch, however it
may have originated, though widely believed, is purely fabulous.
The lands of Buccleuch did not become the property of the family of
Scott until at least two centuries subsequent to the time of Ken-
neth III. ; and it was not until the fifteenth century that the desig-
nation of Scott of Buccleuch began to be used by the head of the
famity.

The cradle of the Scotts was not in Ettrick Forest, but at Scots-
town and Kirkurd, in the county of Peebles, which still belong to the
Duke of Buccleuch. Several persons of the name of Scott appear
as witnesses to charters during the twelfth century, but the first,
regarding whom there is certain evidence that he was an ancestor of
the Scotts of Buccleuch, is Richard Scott of Rankleburn and Mur-
thockstone. His ancestors resided at Scotstown, and, according to
Satchells, the Cross Kirk of Peebles had been the burial-place of the
family for several generations. Richard Scott acquired the lands of
Murthockstone (aftenvards Murdieston) in Lanarkshire by his marriage
to the heiress of that estate. Satchell says —

' Scott's Hall he left standing alone,
And went to Hve at Mordestoun ;
And there a brave house he did rear,
Which to this time it doth appear.'

Like many other Scottish nobles, both of native and foreign extrac-
tion, Richard Scott took the oath of fealty to Edward L of England
in 129b, and, like his brother nobles, broke his oath on the first
convenient opportunity. On his doing homage to the English
monarch, the Sheriff of Selkirk was ordered to restore to him his
lands and rights, which were then in the hands of King Edward.
He must, therefore, have been at that time in possession of Rankle-

VOL. 'II. li j7

I go The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

burn and Buccleuch, which were situated in the county of Selkirk.
Richard Scott died about the year 1320, and was succeeded by his
son, Sir Michael, who must have taken an active part in the war
with England during the reign of David II., as he obtained the
honour of knighthood. He fought at the disastrous battle of
Halidon Hill, 19th July, 1333 ; and was killed, thirteen years after,
at the battle of Durham, where the King was taken prisoner, along
with many of his barons and knights. In the genealogical table
drawn up by Sir Walter Scott, it is stated that Sir Michael left two
sons, ' the eldest of whom (Robert) carried on the family, the second
(John) was the ancestor of the Scotts of Harden.' Nothing worthy
of mention is known of Robert Scott, or of his son. Sir Walter,
who is said to have been killed at the battle of Homildon, 14th Sep-
tember, 1402. But Sir Walter's son, Robert, exchanged the lands
of Glenkery, which were a portion of the lands of Rankleburn, for the
lands of Bellenden, which then belonged to the monastery of Melrose.
Bellenden, which was a convenient spot for the gathering of the clan
from Ettrick, Kirkurd, and Murthockstone, became henceforth the
place of rendezvous of the Scotts of Buccleuch when they were
mustered for a Border raid. Robert Scott also acquired half of the
lands of Branxholm from John Inglis, the laird of Menar, by a
charter dated 31st January, 1420, and other lands in the barony ot
Hawick.

Robert Scott was succeeded, in 1426, by his eldest son, Sir
Walter Scott, Knight, who was the first of the family styled ' Lord
of Buccleuch.' He possessed the family estates during the long
period of forty-three years, and added greatly to their extent. His
first acquisition was the lands of Lempitlaw, near Kelso, from Archi-
bald, Earl of Douglas, on the resignation of Robert Scott, his father,
in 1426. He next obtained, in 1437, the barony of Eckford, also in
Roxburghshire, from James II., as a reward for his capture of Gilbert
Rutherford, a notorious freebooter; and in 1446 he exchanged the
estate of Murthockstone, or Murdiestone, for the other half of Branx-
holm, of which Sir Thomas Inglis of Manor was proprietor. Ac-
cording to tradition, the exchange took place in consequence of a
conversation between Scott and Inglis, in which the latter complained
of the injuries that he suffered from the depredations of the Eng-
lish Borderers, who frequently plundered his lands of Branxholm.
Sir Walter Scott, who already possessed the other half of the barony.

SCOTTS OF BUCCLEUCH.

The Scotts of Bnccleiich. 191

offered him the estate of Murdiestone, in exchange for the lands
which were exposed to these inroads. The offer was at once accepted.
When the bargain was completed, Scott made the significant and
characteristic remark that ' the cattle in Cumberland were as good as
those of Teviotdale.' He availed himself of the first opportunity to
commence a system of reprisals for the English raids, which was
regularly pursued by his successors. An amusing reference to the
well-known habits of the Scotts is made in the ballad of the ' Outlaw
Murray,' where Buccleuch is represented as trying to Inflame the
displeasure of the King against the outlaw, and urging the infliction
of condign punishment upon him for his offences : —

' Then spak the kene Laird of Buckscleuch,
A stalworthe man and sterna was he —
" For a King to gang an Outlaw till,
Is beneath his state and dignitie.

" The man that wons yon Foreste intil,
He lives by reif and felonie !
Wherefore brayd on, my sovereign liege,

Wi' fire and sword we'll follow thee ;
Or, gif your courtlie lords fa' back.
Our Borderers sail the onset gie."

' Then out and spak the nobil King,
And round him cast a wylie ee —
" Now haud thy tongue, Sir Walter Scott,
Nor speak of reif nor felonie :
For had every honest man his awin kye,
A right puir clan thy name wad be ! " '

Sir Walter Scott was cousin to Sir William Crichton, the powerful
and unscrupulous Chancellor of James II., and it was, in all proba-
bility, through this connection that the Scotts took part with the
King in his desperate contest with the house of Douglas. In 1455
the three brothers of the exiled Earl— the Earls of Moray and
Ormond, and Lord Balveny— invaded the Scottish borders at the
head of a powerful force, but were encountered (ist May) at Arkin-
holm, near Langholm, by the Scotts and other Border clans, under
the Earl of Angus, and were totally routed. Balveny escaped into
England, but Moray was killed, and Ormond was wounded, taken
prisoner, and executed. Sir Walter Scott was liberally rewarded for
his services in this conflict. He obtained a grant of Quhychester
and Crawford-John— part of the forfeited estates of the Douglases
—expressly for his meritorious deeds at Arklnholm, and a remission
of certain sums of money due to the Crown. For the same reason

192 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

the lands of Branxholm were erected into a free barony, in favour of
David Scott, Sir Walter's son, to be held in blench for the annual
rendering- of a red rose. In various other ways Sir Walter added
largely to the estates of the family, and greatly increased their influ-
ence. He was appointed no less than seven times one of the con-
servators of successive truces with England, along with a number
of the most powerful barons in the kingdom. He died before
gth February, 1469, leaving by his wife, Margaret Cockburn of Hen-
derland,* three sons, and was succeeded by the eldest —

Sir David Scott, who was the first of the family that bore the
designation of Buccleuch. The marriage of his son, David Scott
the younger, to Lady Jane Douglas, daughter of the fourth Earl
of Angus, and sister of the famous Archibald ' Bell-the-Cat,' the fifth
Earl, brought him the governorship of the strong castle of Hermitage,
in Liddesdale, and must have strengthened not a little the position
of the family. The friendship which subsisted between the Scotts
and the ' Red Douglases,' whom they assisted to put down their
' Black ' kinsmen, was evidently of a very close kind, for provision
was made in the marriage contract that, ' if David should die, his
next younger brother was to marry Lady Jane Douglas, and so on
in regular succession of the brothers ; and that if Lady Jane should
die, David was to obtain in marriage the next daughter of the Earl
of Angus, till a marriage was completed 't — an arrangement which
showed the influential position of the Scotts at that period. Not-
withstanding this connection, however, they took opposite sides in
the contests between James IIL and the discontented nobles ; and
the services which David Scott the younger, and his son Robert,
rendered to that unfortunate sovereign, were acknowledged and
rewarded by him with extensive grants of land and other favours.

Sir David, who died in March, 149 1-2, had four sons. Walter,
the eldest, died young and unmarried. David, the second son, also
predeceased his father, leaving an only child, who succeeded to the
family estates. The Scotts of Scotstown claim to be descended from
Robert, the third son. William, the fourth son, died before his
father without leaving issue.

* Cockburn of Henderland, probably Lady Scott's grand-nephew, fell a victim to
the raid which James V. made, in 1529, into the Border districts. The pathetic ballad
of the Lament of the Border Widow, is said to have been written on his execution.

1 The Scotts of Buccleuch. By William Fraser, i. 47.

The Scoits of Buccleuch. 193

Sir Walter Scott of Branxholm succeeded his grandfather, 1492.
He held the family estates for a very short period, and was succeeded
by his son of the same name, who represented the house for no less
than forty-eight years, and by his combined energy and prudence
became one of the most powerful barons on the Borders. His
retainers fought under the banner of their sovereign at the battle of
Flodden, and though very young at that time, it is not improbable
that he was present as their leader. The list of the slain included
not a few of the clan, among whom was the kinsmas of their chief,
Sir Alexander Scott of Hassenden, from whom the Scotts of Woll,
Deloraine, and Haining are descended. In return for the services
which Sir Walter Scott rendered to the monks of Melrose, he was
appointed bailie of the abbey lands, an office which became hereditary
in the Buccleuch family. Notwithstanding his long-continued alliance
with the Douglases, Sir Walter Scott was a supporter of the Duke
of Albany, and the French faction, against Queen Margaret and her
second husband, the Earl of Angus. She alleged that Buccleuch
had retained part of her dower, arising from lands in Ettrick Forest,
to the amount of 4,000 merks a year, and she committed Sir Walter
and Ker of Cessford prisoners to Edinburgh Castle, giving as her
reason that from the feud which existed between these two powerful
Border barons, the district was kept in a state of disorder and dis-
organisation. She asserted that Buccleuch was especially to blame,
and that he was notorious for the encouragement that he gave to the
Border freebooters, who made frequent inroads into Northumberland
and Cumberland. ' Wherefore,' she says, ' I thought best to put
them both in the castle of Edinburgh, until they find a way how the
Borders may be well ruled, since it is in their hands to do an they
will, and not to let them break the Borders, for their evil will among
themselves.' At this time the chronic disorders in these districts
were greatly aggravated by the policy of Henry VIII. in encouraging
the English Borderers to make inroads into Scotland. Norfolk pro-
mised the King that he would ' lett slippe recently them of Tindail
and Riddesdail for the annoyance of Scotlande.' He piously adds,
' God sende them all goode spede.' In the two inroads which
followed 'much insight gear, catall, horse, and prisoners' were
carried off. It need excite no surprise that Buccleuch countenanced
the Armstrongs and Elliots, in their retaliatory raids into England.

In the shifting of parties which was continually going on at this
time, we find Buccleuch in alliance with the Earl of Angus in 1524,

194 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

and two years later in arms against the Douglas faction, who had
the custody of the young king's person, and ruled the country in the
most arbitrary manner. James himself was impatient of the restraint
under which he was placed by Angus, and eagerly sought an oppor-
tunity to free himself from it. In the summer of 1526 the Earl made
a progress into Teviotdale, taking the King with him. James
secretly sent a request to Sir Walter Scott that he would rescue him
out of the hands of the Douglases. Buccleuch eagerly complied
with the royal injunction, and immediately levied his retainers and
friends, comprehending the Elliots, Armstrongs, and other Border
clans, to the number of six hundred. Angus had passed the night
of July 24th at Melrose, on his way back from Jedburgh to Edin-
burgh, and Lord Home and the chiefs of the Kers, who had accom-
panied him in his expedition, had taken their leave of the King, when,
in the grey of the morning, Buccleuch and his followers suddenly
appeared on the northern slope of Halidon Hill, and descending
into the plain, interposed between Angus and the bridge over the
Tweed. The Earl immediately sent a messenger to Buccleuch to
inquire the reason of his appearance at the head of such a force. He
replied that he came to show his clan to the King, according to the
custom of the Border chiefs, when their territories were honoured by
the royal presence. He was then commanded in the King's name
to dismiss his followers, but he bluntly refused, alleging that he knew
the King's mind better than Angus. On receiving this haughty
answer, which was intended and regarded as a defiance, the Earl
said to the King, ' Sir, yonder is Buccleuch, and the thieves of
Annandale with him, to interrupt your passage. I vow to God they
shall either fight or flee ; and ye shall tarry here on this knowe
[knoll], and my brother George with you, with any other company
you please, and I shall pass and put yon thieves off the ground, and
rid the gate unto your Grace, or else die for it.' Angus then alighted,
and commanding his followers also to dismount, hastened to encounter
the Scotts, who received them with levelled spears. The battle,
though fiercely contested, was short, as the Borderers were unequally
matched against the armed knights in the forces of the Douglases ;
and the Homes and the Kers returned on hearing the noise of the
conflict, and, attacking the left wing and rear of Buccleuch's little
army, put them to flight. About eighty of the Scotts were slain in
this engagement and the pursuit. The only person of importance
who fell on the side of the Douglases was Sir Andrew Kerof Cess-

The S'cotts of Buccleuch. I95

ford, who was killed by one of the Elliots, a retainer of Buccleuch,
while eagerly pressing on the retreating enemy.* He was lamented
by both parties, and his unhappy slaughter on this occasion caused a
deadly feud between the Kers and Scotts, which raged during the
greater part of a century, and led to the murder of Buccleuch in
Edinburgh by the Kers, in the year 1552.

Buccleuch was obliged to retire to France, in order to escape the
vengeance of Angus for this attempt to emancipate his sovereign
from the yoke of the Douglases. But before leaving the kingdom
he was required to give security, under a penalty of ^10,000 Scots,
that he would not return to Scotland without the King's permission.
He at length received a pardon on the loth of February, 1528,
mainly through the exertions of James himself, and he, at the same
time, obtained permission to return from France. On the 28th of
May following, the King succeeded, by his own ingenuity, in freeing
himself from the power of the Douglases ; and on July 6th he made
a declaration that Buccleuch, in appearing at the head of his followers
at Melrose, had only followed his instructions. Sir Walter became
one of his Majesty's chief advisers in the measures which he adopted
against the Douglases, and, in consequence, he was denounced by
the envoys of King Henry as one of ' the chief maintainers of all
misguided men on the borders of Scotland.' When the forfeited
estates of Angus were divided among the royal favourites. Sir Walter
Scott obtained as his share the lands in the lordship of Jedburgh
Forest, ' for his good, true, and thankful services done to his
sovereign.'

The favour which the King cherished towards Buccleuch did not,
however, prevent him from imprisoning that chief, along with the
Earl of Bothwell, Lord Home, Kerr of Ferniehirst,t and other
powerful protectors of the freebooters and 'broken men,' before
undertaking his memorable expedition to the Borders, in which

* An exact parallel to this incident is furnished by the battle between the partisans
of King David and the adherents of Ishbosheth, followed by the slaughter of Asahel.
See 2 Samuel \\. 18 — 23,

The spot where the battle was fought is between Melrose and the adjoining village
of Darnick, and is called the ' Skirmish Field.' The place where Buccleuch drew up
his men for the onset is termed ' Charge-Law,' and the spot where Elliot turned and
slew Cessford with his spear is known as ' Turn-again,' and is marked by a stone seat
which commands a splendid view, and was a favourite resting-place of Sir Walter Scott.
The battle has been celebrated in Latin verse by a contemporary writer, Mr. John
Johnson, Professor in the University of St. Andrews.

t This is the manner in which the Ferniehirst family spell their name, which differs
slightly from the spelling of the Cessford Kers.

VOL. II, F F

196 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

Johnnie Armstrong and other leaders of the marauders were exe-
cuted. In the course of a few months, however, with the exception
of Bothwell, they were liberated on giving pledges for their allegi-
ance and peaceable demeanour.

Strenuous efforts were made by influential friends to heal the
deadly feud between the Scotts and Kers, and with this view Sir
Walter Scott, who was now a widower, married, in January, 1530, a
daughter of Andrew Kerr of Ferniehirst, the head of one of the
branches of this clan. A bond was also entered into between the
heads of the chief branches of the two clans that, on the one hand,
* Sir Walter Scott of Branxholm shall gang, or cause gang, at the
will of the party, to the four head pilgrimages of Scotland [Scone,
Dundee, Paisley, and Melrose], and shall say a mass for the souls of
umquhile Andrew Ker of Cessford and them that were slain in his
company, in the field of Melrose ; and upon his expense shall cause a
chaplain saye a mass daily, when he is disposed, in what place the
said Walter Ker and his former friends pleases, for the weil of the said
souls, for the space of five years next to come.' The chiefs of the Kers
came under a corresponding obligation to make pilgrimages, and to
say masses, for the souls of the Scotts who fell in the battle of
Melrose. Walter Scott also bound himself to marry his son and heir
to one of the sisters of Walter Ker of Cessford.

But, as the Minstrel of the clan wrote with reference to this long-
breathed feud —

' Can piety the discord heal

Or stanch the death-feud's enmity ?
Can Christian love, can patriot zeal,

Can love of blessed charity ?
No ! vainly to each holy shrine,

In mutual pilgrimage they drew ;
Implored, in vain, the grace divine

For chiefs their own red falchions slew ;
While Cessford owns the rule of Carr,

While Ettrick boasts the line of Scott,
The slaughter'd chiefs, the mortal jar,
The havoc of the feudal war,

Shall never, never be forgot.' *

So, no doubt, felt the members of both clans at this time, and the
feud was ultimately quenched in blood.

The Border raids between the two countries continued as usual
throughout the winter of 1532. Certain satirical expressions said to
have been uttered by Buccleuch against Henry VIII. gave offence to

* Lay of the Last Minstrel, c. i. stanza viii.

The Scotts of Buccleuch. 197

the English, and the Earl of Northumberland, with fifteen hundred
men, ravaged and plundered his lands, and burnt Branxholm Castle.
Their principal object was to kill or capture Buccleuch himself, but
in this they were not successful. It would appear that at this time
the Scotts and Kers had been so far reconciled as to make common
cause against their ' auld enemies.' In retaliation for Northum-
berland's inroad, ' the Laird of Cessford, the Laird of Buccleuch,
and the Laird of Ferniehirst,' at the head of a strong body of their
clansmen and other Borderers, estimated at five thousand, made a
destructive incursion into England, laid waste a large portion of
Northumberland, and returned home laden with spoil.*

In 1535 a strange, and, indeed, inexplicable accusation was
brought against Sir Walter Scott, that he had given assistance to
Lord Dacre and other Englishmen at the time of the burning of
Cavers and Denholm. This assistance, it has been conjectured,
may have been given in carrying out the feud with the Kers ; it
could scarcely have originated in sympathy with the English.
Buccleuch was summoned before the Justiciary Court to answer for
this charge, and was put in ward for a certain time at his Majesty's
pleasure. He was imprisoned a second time, in 1540, for causing
disturbances on the Borders, but was speedily set at liberty, and
restored to ' all his lands, offices, heritages, honours, and dignities.'
In return he pledged himself to make Teviotdale, as far as it be-
longed to him, in time coming to be as peaceable and obedient to
the King and his laws as any part of Lothian ; and some of his
friends became surety for him, in the sum of 10,000 merks, that he
would fulfil his engagement.

The French faction, headed by Cardinal Beaton, the Queen-
Dowager, and the Earl of Arran, had now gained the ascendancy,
and repudiated the treaty with Henry VIII. for the marriage of the
youthful queen to his son. To punish the Scots for their refusal to
fulfil their engagement, a most destructive inroad was made upon
the. Border districts, and the estates of Buccleuch in particular were
laid waste with fire and sword. The ' barmkeyne ' at Branxholm
Castle was burned, and a very large number of oxen, cows, sheep,
and horses were carried away, along with thirty prisoners. Eight of
the Scotts were killed. Wharton, the English Warden, shortly after
arranged a meeting with Buccleuch, with threescore horse on either
side, and strove hard to induce him to embrace the English alliance.
* State Papers. Henry VIII., iv. 625, 626.

igS The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

Being asked to state what he wis'hed with them, Buccleuch, with a
merry countenance, answered that he would buy horse of them and
renew old acquaintance. They said they had no horses to sell to
any Scottish men, and for old acquaintance they thought he had some
other matter, and advised him to show the same, who answered, ' I
ask what ails you, thus to run upon us ? ' After farther conversation,
he ' earnestly therewith said that if my Lord Prince did marry their
Queen, he would as truly and dutifully serve the King's Highness
and my Lord Prince as any Scottish man did any King of Scotland,
and that he would be glad to have the favour of England with his
honour ; but that he would not be constrained thereto if all Tividale
were burnt to the bottom of hell.' He proposed that they should
give him protection from inroads for * one month or twenty days, in
which time he would know all his friends' minds.' This appears
to have been the main object he had in view in acceding to this
interview with Wharton and his associates. ' They answered that
they had no commission to grant him any assurance one hour longer
than that assurance granted for their meeting, nor to grant any of
his demands, whatsoever the same were, but to hear what he had to
say.'

Lord Wharton soon discovered that there was no hope that
Buccleuch would consent to be numbered with the ' assured Scots,'
who indeed had no intention of keeping their engagements with him.
The victory at Ancrum Moor which followed this conference was
largely due to the valour and skill of Buccleuch, and avenged, by
the total destruction of the English forces under Sir Ralph Evers
and Sir Brian Latoun, their barbarous and ruthless ravages of the
Border district. The devastation of the Buccleuch estates was
repeatedly carried out by these marauders with merciless severity.
It is a significant fact that the Kers took part in this destructive
raid, although immediately after the battle of Pinkie, at which Sir
Walter Scott fought at the head of a numerous body of his retainers,
he and Sir Walter Ker, as representing their respective clans, entered
into a bond for the maintenance of the royal authority and the
defence of the country. But the Kers, instead of keeping their
engagement, joined Lord Grey, the English commander on the
Borders, and assisted him in devastating the country. Buccleuch
himself was shortly after under the necessity of offering to submit to
the English monarch, who was now Edward VL, in order to save
his tenants and estates from total ruin. It is a curious example of

The Scotts of Buccleuch. 199

the utter untrustworthiness of the Scottish magnates of that period
that this step was taken with the concurrence and permission of the
Earl of Arran, the Governor of Scotland. A letter, dated 26th
September, 1547, and subscribed by Arran under the signet of Queen
Mary, empowers Buccleuch to * intercommune with the Protector and
Council of England, and sic utheris Inglismen as he pleesses for
saiftie of him, his kin, friendis, and servandis for heirschip and
distruction of the Inglismen in tyme coming, and for the commoun
well of our realme, als aft as he sail think expedient.' But the
Governor makes provision for Buccleuch' s renunciation of his
engagement with the English as soon as it had served its purpose.
The letter ordains that ' quhenevir he beis requirit be us or oure said
Governour, he sail incontinent thaireftir renunce and ourgif all bandis,
contractis, and wytingis made be hihi to the Inglismen.' *

As might have been expected, Buccleuch did not keep his engage-
ment with the English, and Lord Grey immediately proved himself
a vigilant and cruel enemy, as he had threatened. Accompanied by
the Kers, on the 3rd of October, 1550, he ravaged and plundered
in the most savage manner the lands of the Scotts in Teviotdale.
On the 8th he ' burnt, haryet, and destroyed ' the town of Hawick,
and all the towns, manses, and steadings upon the waters of Teviot,
Borthwick, and Slitrig pertaining to Sir Walter Scott. On the 19th
he pillaged, and devastated, in the same manner, the houses and lands
in Ettrick and Yarrow, destroyed the town of Selkirk, of which Sir
Walter was Provost, and burnt his castles of Newark and Catslack.
At Newark four of the servants and a woman were put to death, and
the aged mother of the chief perished in the flames of Catslack.

In the spring of the following year Sir Walter Scott was appointed
Governor-General and Justiciar within Liddesdale and part of Teviot-
dale, and in June he was made Warden and Justiciar in the Middle
Marches of Scotland, with the most ample powers, which we may be
sure were not left unused, to cause the inhabitants to ' convene, ride,
and advance against " our auld enemies of England," and in the
pursuit, capture, and punishment of thieves, rebels, and evildoers to
make statutes, acts, and ordinances thereupon to punish trans-
gressors, thieves, and other delinquents within these bounds, accord-
ing to the laws,' &c.t

But the active and turbulent career of Sir Walter Scott was now
near a close. The slaughter of Ker of Cessford was still unavenged,
* Scotts of Buccleuch, i. iii ; ii. 185. + Ibid. ii. 204.

200 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

and though it took place in open fight, and upwards of a quarter of
a century had elapsed since that unfortunate event occurred, the
thirst for vengeance among the Kers was not quenched. On the
night of the 4th October, 1552, Sir Walter was attacked and mur-
dered in the High Street of Edinburgh, by a party of the Kers and
their friends. The death stroke was given by John Hume, of Cow-
denknowes, the head of a branch of the Home family ; but the chief
of the Kers must have been present, for the murderer called out to
Cessford, ' Strike traitour ane straik, for thy faderis sake.'

' Bards long shall tell
How Lord Walter fell !
When startled burghers fled afar,
The furies of the Border war ;
When the streets of high Dunedin
Saw lances gleam, and falchions redden.
And heard the slogan's deadly yell —
Then the chief of Branksome fell.' *

For this foul deed the Kers were declared rebels, and appear to have
suffered severely both from the vengeance of the Scotts, and the
efforts of the Government officers to inflict the penalties of rebellion.
Their chiefs of Cessford, Ferniehirst, and Hirsell presented a piteous
petition to the Governor, setting forth that ' his servants had seized
upon their houses, possessions, and goods, so that they had nothing,
unless they stole and plundered, to sustain themselves, their wives
and children ; and being at the horn, they dared not resort to their
friends, but lay in the woods and fells. Their enemies had slain
divers of their friends not guilty of any crime committed by them,
and daily sought and pursued them and all their friends, kinsmen,
and servants for their slaughter, so that none of them dared, from
fear of their lives, to come to kirk, market, nor to the Governor to
ask a remedy from him.' f Through the influence of their allies, the
Homes, the Governor was induced to allow the Kers who were
implicated in the murder of Sir Walter Scott to go into banishment
in France, with their retainers, to the number of four hundred, as
part of an auxiliary force which the Scottish Council were about to
despatch to the assistance of the French king.

Sir Walter Scott was married three times. His first wife was
Elizabeth Carmichael, of the family of Carmichael of that ilk, after-
wards Earls of Hyndford. She died before the year 1530, leaving

* Lay of the Last Minstrel, canto i. stanza vii.

+ Sir Walter Scott's Border Antiquities, ii. Appendix No. II.

The Scotts of Buccleuch. 201

two sons, both of whom predeceased their father. He married,
secondly, Janet Kerr, daughter of Sir Andrew Kerr of Ferniehirst,
and widow of George TurnbuU of Bedrule. Sir Walter's third wife
was Janet Beaton, ' of Bethune's high line of Picardy,' a relative of
Cardinal Beaton, whom she seems to have a good deal resembled in
her character. Like Sir Walter, she had been twice previously mar-
ried, and was divorced from her second husband, Simon Preston of
Craigmillar. She was the daughter of Sir John Beaton of Creich, in
Fife, and was first married to Sir James Crichton of Cranston Riddell.
Having been left a widow, in 1539, she soon afterwards married
Simon Preston, the Laird of Craigmillar. In 1543 she instituted a
suit of divorce against him, and set forth as the ground of her suit
that before her marriage to her present husband she had had illicit
intercourse with Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch, and that he and
Preston were within the prohibited degrees, as the one was the
great-grandson and the other the great-great-gra-ndson of a common
ancestor. On that plea the marriage was declared null and void ;
and the motive of the suit immediately became manifest, for on the
2nd of December, 1544, she was married to Sir Walter Scott.

Sir Walter Scott had by Janet Beaton two sons and three daugh-
ters. She survived her husband nearly sixteen years. After the
murder of Sir Walter, she rode at the head of two hundred of her
clan, in full armour, to the kirk of St. Mary of the Lowes, in Yarrow,
and broke open its doors in order to seize the Laird of Cranstoun, an
ally of Cessford. At a later period she was implicated in the intrigues
of Queen Mary and Bothwell, and was popularly accused of having
employed witchcraft, and the administration of magic philtres, to
promote their attachment and marriage. One of the placards issued
at the time of Darnley's murder accuses of the crime ' the Erie of
Bothwell, Mr. James Balfoure, the parsoune of Fliske, Mr. David
Chalmers, black Mr. John Spens, who was principal deviser of the
murder; and the Queue assenting thairto, threw the persuasion of
the Erie of Bothwell, and the witchcraft of Lady Buckleuch.' Sir
Walter Scott, in his ' Lay of the Last Minstrel,' in accordance with
this superstitious notion, represents Lady Buccleuch as endowed with
supernatural powers. But the charms which she employed to pro-
mote the schemes of her paramour, Bothwell, were altogether of a
mundane and immoral character. It was at one time proposed that
Lady Jane Gordon, Bothwell' s wife, should sue for a divorce on the
ground of his notorious infidelities ; and ' that no feature might be

202 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

wanting,' says Froude, ' to complete the foulness of the picture, Lady
Buccleuch was said to be ready, if required, to come forward with
the necessary evidence.'

David, Sir Walter's eldest son, died before 1544, unmarried. His
second son, Sir William of Kirkurd, also died about four months
before him, leaving a son Walter, only three years old, who suc-
ceeded to the Buccleuch estates on the death of his grandfather.
According to Sir James Melville, he ' was a man of rare qualities,
wise, true, stout, and modest.' But as he was only three years of
age when his grandfather's death opened the succession to him, and
he died at the age of twenty-four, the encomium of the historian must
be taken a good deal on trust. Strenuous efforts were made to heal the
deadly feud between the Scotts and Kers, and with this view a series
of marriages were formally arranged between members of the prin-
cipal families on both sides, under heavy penalties on the defaulters
if these proposals were not carried into effect. But from some
unknown reason these marriages did not take place. Liddesdale
and the adjoining districts continued to be wasted and plundered by
quarrels between the Scotts and Elliots, which were studiously
fomented by the English wardens. Referring to these disorders.
Sir John Foster wrote to the Privy Council, 22nd June, 1565, 'the
longer that such conditions continue amongst themselves, in better
quiet shall we be.'* At length the excesses of these freebooters
compelled the Regent Moray to undertake his memorable expedition
to the Borders in 1567, in which he burned and destroyed the whole
district of Liddesdale, not leaving a single house standing, and
hanged or drowned great numbers of the depredators. The barons
and chief men of the Border district, including the provosts and
bailies of the burghs, followed up this severe action of the Regent by
' boycotting,' in 1569, the rebellious people in Liddesdale, Ewes-
dale, Eskdale, and Annandale. ' They undertook that they would
not intercommune with any of them, nor suffer any meat, drink, or
victuals to be bought or carried to them, nor suffer them to resort to
markets or trysts, within their bounds, nor permit them to pasture
their flocks, or abide upon any land outwith Liddesdale,' unless within
eight days they should find sufficient and respectable sureties ; ' and
all others not finding sureties within the said space we shall pursue
to the death with fire and sword, and all other kinds of hostility.'!
* Calendar of State Papers, "^o. \-i.2i^. \ YvtcaXxtHs Criminal 7 rials.

The Scotts of Buccleuch. 203

These stringent measures produced comparative peace and security,
for a brief space, throughout the Border districts, but on the assas-
sination of the Regent they relapsed into their former condition.

Sir Walter Scott was a zealous partisan of Queen Mary, and sup-
ported her cause with the utmost enthusiasm, but as unscrupulously as
the other barons who were enlisted on her side. He was undoubtedly
cognisant of the plot for the murder of the Regent Moray (25th
January, 1569-70). On the morning after that event he and Kerr
of Ferniehirst made a marauding incursion into England at the
head of a powerful force, and when threatened with the vengeance of
the Regent for this outrage, Buccleuch made the well-known remark,
' Tush ! the Regent is as cold as my bridle-bit.' In retaliation for
this unprovoked raid, an English army, under the Earl of Sussex and
Sir John Foster, crossed the Border and burnt the whole of Teviot-
dale, destroying, according to their own account, about fifty strong-
holds and three hundred villages or hamlets. They blew up with
gunpowder the walls of Branxholm Castle, the principal seat of
Buccleuch, which was described as ' a very strong house and well
set, and very pleasant gardens and orchards about it.'

Sir Walter Scott was a principal actor in the execution of the plot
devised by Kirkaldy of Grange, to surprise the Parliament which
met at Stirling in September, 157 1. The enterprise, which at first
was crowned with complete success, was ultimately rendered abortive
by the want of discipline on the part of the Borderers, who dispersed
to plunder the merchant booths, leaving their prisoners unguarded.
They all, in consequence, made their escape, except the Regent
Lennox, who was killed, and the assailants were unexpectedly
attacked by the Earl of Mar, who sallied out of the castle with forty
men, assisted by the townsmen, and put the assailants to flight,
carrying off, however, the horses which they had stolen. Buccleuch,
to whom the Earl of Morton had surrendered, was in his turn obliged
to surrender to that Earl, along with several of his associates in the
raid, but he was speedily set at liberty.

Sir Walter commenced the rebuilding of Branxholm Castle ; but
the work, though it had been carried on for three years, was not
completed at the time of his death, April 17th, 1574 ; it was finished
by his widow. Lady Margaret Douglas, whom he married when he .
was only sixteen years of age. He had by her a son, Walter, and
two daughters. She took for her second husband Francis Stewart,
the factious and intriguing Earl of Bothwell, to whom she bore three

vol.. II. G G

204 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

sons and three daughters. She survived her first husband for the
long period of sixty-six years, and died in the year 1640.

Sir Walter Scott, the first of the family who was elevated to the
peerage, was only in the ninth year of his age when his father died.
He was a man of strife from his youth upwards, having been born
and bred among Border feuds. In 1557, when he was only in his
twelfth year, the old quarrel between the Scotts and Kers broke
out afresh, but was finally set at rest in 1558. Then followed a
serious and protracted feud with the Elliots and Armstrongs, in
which they were the aggressors, and inflicted great damage on the
estates both of Buccleuch and of his mother. The young chief took
part in the expedition to Stirling in the year 1585, under the Earl of
Angus, in order to expel the worthless favourite, Arran, from the
councils of the King, when the notorious Kinmont and the Arm-
strongs in Buccleuch' s army not only made prey of horses and cattle,
but even carried off the very gratings of the windows.* Sir Walter's
raids into England were punished with a short imprisonment in
Edinburgh Castle; but his complicity in the lawless proceedings
of his stepfather, the turbulent Earl of Bothwell, was a more
serious offence, and was visited, in September, 1591, with banish-
ment to France for three years, but he obtained permission to return
to Scotland in November, 1592. When the patience of King James
with Bothwell' s repeated acts of treason and rebellion was at length
exhausted, and the honours and estates of the Earl were forfeited to
the Crown, his castles and baronies were bestowed upon the royal
favourite, the Duke of Lennox. After holding them for three years,
the Duke resigned them into the hands of the King, who immediately
conferred the Bothwell estates, extending over eight counties, on Sir
Walter Scott (ist October, 1594) as a reward for his eminent services
' in pacifying the Borders and middle regions of the Marches, and
putting down the insolence and disobedience of our subjects dwelling
there, as in sundry other weighty affairs committed to his trust.' It
was afterwards arranged by Charles I. that a great portion of the
Bothwell estates should be restored to the family of Earl Francis.
Liddesdale and Hermitage Castle, however, remained with the
Buccleuch family.

Buccleuch was on the Continent when his clan fought on the side
of the Johnstones at the sanguinary battle of Dryfe Sands ; and at
* yohnstoni Historia ; Border Minstrelsy, ii. 43.

The Scotts of Biiccleuch. 205

the raid of the Reidswire — an unfortunate and accidental collision
between the English and the Scotts — they were under the command
of Walter Scott of Goldielands, who led the clan during the minority
of the chief —

' The Laird's Wat, that worthie man,
Brought in that sirname weil beseen.' *

Buccleuch was, of course, engaged in many a Border raid, and was
the leader of not a few destructive inroads into England. The
spirited ballad of ' Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead ' shows that
though he held the office of the Keeper of Liddesdale, he was quite
ready to take the law into his own hands when any of his retainers
had been wronged by the English freebooters. His most celebrated
exploit of this kind is commemorated in the ballad of ' Kinmont
Willie,' which narrates his rescue of a noted Borderer, one of the
Armstrong clan, who had been illegally captured by some English-
men on a day of truce, when he was returning from a warden court
held on the borders of the two countries. Armstrong was a notorious
depredator, but he was on Scottish ground and protected by the
truce when a body of two hundred English horsemen crossed the
Liddel, chased him for three or four miles, captured and carried him
to Carlisle Castle, where he was heavily ironed and imprisoned.
Buccleuch, with whom Kinmont Willie was a special favourite,
instantly complained of this outrage in violation of Border law, and
demanded the release of his retainer. But Lord Scrope, the Warden,
refused, or at least evaded the demand, and so did Sir Robert Bowes,
the English ambassador. The ballad describes no doubt pretty
correctly what the ' bauld Keeper ' felt and said when thus outraged
and bearded. After striking the table with his hand and ' garing
the red wine spring on hie,' he exclaimed —

' O is my basnet [hehnet] a widow's curch [coif],
Or my lance a wand of the willow-tree ?
Or my aim a ladye's lilye hand,

That an English lord should lightly me ?

'And have they ta'en him, Kinmont Willie,

Against the truce of Border tide ?
And forgotten that the bauld Buccleuch
Is Keeper here on the Scottish side ?

' And have they e'en ta'en him, Kinmont Willie,
Withouten either dread or fear.
And forgotten that the bauld Buccleuch
Can back a steed or shake a spear ? '

* Well-appointed. Ballad of the Raid of the Reidswire. See Border Minstrelsy, ii. 15.

2o6 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

He swore that he would bring Kinmont Willie out of Carlisle Castle
alive or dead, and collecting a select band of his own clan, and of
the Armstrongs, and taking advantage of a dark and tempestuous
night, they crossed the Esk and the Eden, though swollen by heavy
rains, and reached the castle unperceived. The scaling-ladders
which they brought with them proved too short, but they undermined
a part of the wall near the postern gate, and soon made a breach
sufficient to admit a number of the daring assailants one by one.
They disarmed and bound the watch, wrenched open the postern,
and admitted their companions. Buccleuch meanwhile kept watch
between the postern of the castle and the nearest gate of the town.
The tumultuous noise which the assailants made, and the sound of
their trumpets, so terrified the garrison that they retreated into the
inner stronghold.

' Now, sound out, trumpets ! ' quo' Buccleuch
' Let's waken Lord Scroope right merilie ! ' —
Then loud the Warden's trumpet blew —
O who dare meddle wi me? '^

Meanwhile one of the assailants hastened to the cell of the prisoner,
broke open its door, and carried him off in his arms. The ballad
describes with a good deal of rough humour the manner in which the
moss-trooper made his exit from the prison : —

'Then Red Rowan has hente him up,
The starkest man in Tiviotdale —
" Abide, abide now, Red Rowan,

Till of my Lord Scroope I take farewell.

" Farewell, farewell, my gude Lord Scroope !

My gude Lord Scroope, farewell,' he cried —
" I'll pay you for my lodging maill [rent],

When first we meet on the Border side."

' Then shoulder-high, with shout and cry,

We bore him down the ladder lang ;
At every stride Red Rowan made,

I wot the Kinmont's aim's played clang !

Meanwhile the alarm-bell of the castle rang, and was answered by
those of the cathedral and the Moat-hall, drums beat to arms, and
the beacon blazed upon the top of the great tower. But as the real
strength of the Scots was unknown, all was terror and confusion
both in the castle and town. Buccleuch having accomplished his
purpose, rode off unmolested with his men, who had strictly obeyed
* The name of a celebrated Border tune.

The Scotts of Buccleuch. 207

his orders, not to Injure the garrison or take any booty. They swam
the flooded Eden —

' Even where it flowed frae bank to brim,'

and carrying off their rescued prisoner in triumph, they regained the
Scottish border about two hours after sunrise. ' There never had
been a more gallant deed of vassalage done in Scotland,' says an
old chronicler, ' no, not In Wallace's days.'*

When Queen Elizabeth heard of this daring exploit she broke out
into a furious passion, and demanded, with the most violent menaces,
that Buccleuch should be delivered up to her to atone for this Insult
to her Government. A diplomatic correspondence ensued, which
lasted for eighteen months. Buccleuch pleaded that ' the first
wrong was done by the officer of England, to him as known officer of
Scotland, by the breaking of the assurance of the day of truce, and
the taking of a prisoner In warlike manner within Scotland, to the
dishonour of the King and of the realm.' And King James pro-
tested ' that he might with great reason crave the delivery of Lord
Scrope for the Injury committed by his deputy, it being less favour-
able to take a prisoner than relieve him that Is unlawfully taken.'
The English Queen, however, was deaf to argument, and, with violent
threats, repeated her demand for the deliverance of Buccleuch. It
was firmly resisted by the whote body of the Scottish people, nobles,
burghers, and clergy, and even by the King himself, though Eliza-
beth threatened to stop the payment of the annuity due to him.
While this affair was still unsettled, a band of the English Borderers
invaded Liddesdale and plundered the country. Buccleuch and
Cessford immediately retaliated by a raid Into England, in which they
not only brought off much spoil, but apprehended thirty-six of the
Tynedale thieves, all of whom he put to death. Elizabeth's anger
blazed forth with ungovernable fury at this fresh outrage, and she
wrote to Bowes, her ambassador In Scotland, ' I wonder how base-
minded that king thinks me that with patience I can digest this

dishonourable Let him know, therefore, that I will have

satisfaction, or else . . . .' These broken words of wrath are Inserted
betwixt the subscription and the address of the letter, f

For this new offence Buccleuch and Cessford were tried by the
Commissioners and found guilty. As the peaceful relations between
the two kingdoms were now serlou-sly endangered, Buccleuch con-

* Iiymer,xy\. 318 ; Border Minstrelsy, ii. 47. t JBirrel's Diary, April 6th, 1596.

2o8 Tlie Great Historic Families of Scotland.

sented to enter into parole in England, and surrendered himself to
Sir William Selby, Rlaster of the Ordnance of Berwick; and Sir
Robert Ker chose for his guardian Sir Robert Carey, Warden-
depute of the East Marches. They were both treated with generous
hospitality and great honour. According to an old tradition, Buc-
cleuch was presented to Queen Elizabeth herself, who demanded
of him how he dared to storm her castle. ' What is it,' replied the
' bauld Buccleuch,' ' that a man dare not do ? ' Elizabeth, who, with
all her faults, recognised a true man when she met one, turned to a
lord-in-waiting, and said, 'With ten thousand such men our brother
of Scotland might shake the firmest throne in Europe.'

During the remainder of Elizabeth's reign the Borders continued
to be the scene of constant raids and feuds ; and though Buccleuch,
as Keeper of Liddesdale, exerted himself vigorously to repress the
destructive incursions of the moss-troopers in the Middle Marches, it
was not until the union of the Crowns took place that his efforts
were successful. He received the thanks of the King and Council
for his important services, and, in 1606, was created a Lord of Par-
liament by the title of Lord Scott of Buccleuch. After the Union, in
1604, he formed a band of these marauders, two hundred in number,
into a company, and Ifed them to the Low Countries, where they
fought with conspicuous valour against Spain, under the banner of
Prince Maurice of Nassau. In all probability few of them survived
to reach their own country again. Buccleuch returned to Scotland
in 1609 on the conclusion of a twelve years' truce between Spain and
the United Provinces. He died in 161 1, leaving by his wife, a
daughter of Sir William Ker of Cessford, the hereditary enemy of
his house, a son, who succeeded him, and three daughters.

Walter, second Lord Scott of Buccleuch, ' was the first who for
the long period of one hundred and forty years had inherited the
Buccleuch estates being of full age ; since the time of David Scott,
in 1470, the Lords of Buccleuch had all been minors at the time of
succession.'* Lord Scott was created Earl of Buccleuch in 16 19.
Like his father, he was fond of a military career, and entered the
service of the States-General, as he did, at the head of a. detachment
of Scotsmen, though, strange to say, only half-a-dozen of them
belonged to his own clan and bore his name. He was present at
the sieges of Bergen-op-Zoom and Maestricht. As Sir Walter Scott

* Scotts of Buccleuch, i. 242.

The Scotts of Buccleuch. 209

says of him, ' A braver ne'er to battle rode.' He was recalled from
the Netherlands, in 1631, by Charles I., who desired his presence in
London, as his Majesty had occasion for his services, but he subse-
quently returned to his command in the Netherlands, and was in
active service there six weeks before his death.

The Earl was noted for his generous hospitality. Satchells, in his
doggrel verse, enumerates with great satisfaction the retainers who
were maintained "at Branxholm — four-and-twenty gentlemen of his
name and kin, each of whom had two servants to wait on him ; and
four-and-twenty pensioners, all of the name Scott, ' for service done
and to be done,' had each a room, and held lands of the estimated
value of from twelve to fourteen thousand merks a year. Sir Walter
Scott, who evidently took the hint from Satchells, gives a picturesque
description of the splendour and hospitality of Branxholm in the
olden times, as well as of the watch and ward which it was necessary
to keep for the protection of the Borders.

' Nine-and-twenty knights of fame,

Hung their shields in Branksome Hall ;
Nine-and-twenty squires of name,

Brought them their steeds to bower from stall ;
Nine-and-twenty yeomen tall
Waited, duteous, on them all :
They were all knights of metal true,
Kinsmen to the bold Buccleuch.

* Ten of them were sheathed in steel,
With hiked sword, and spur on heel :
They quitted not their harness bright,
Neither by day, nor yet by night :

They lay down to rest

With corslet laced,
Pillow'd on buckler cold and hard ;

They carved at the meal

With gloves of steel,
And they drank the red wine through the helmet barr'd.

' Ten squires, ten yeomen, mail-clad men.
Waited the beck of the warders ten ;
Thirty steeds, both fleet and wight.
Stood saddled in stable day and night.
Barbed with frontlet of steel, I trow,
And with Jedwood-axe at saddlebow ;
A hundred more fed free in stall : —
Such was the custom of Branksome Hall.'

The profuse hospitality of the Earl, and the cost of maintaining so
many retainers, together with his large purchases of land, led to the
temporary embarrassment of his pecuniary affairs ; but, through the

2IO The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

able and careful management of Walter Scott of Harden, the Buc-
cleuch estates were ultimately freed from all encumbrances and
greatly enlarged.

Earl Walter died in London on the 20th November, 1633. His
body was embalmed, and brought to Scotland by sea in a vessel
belonging to Kirkaldy, which, after a perilous voyage of fifteen
weeks, arrived safely at Leith. After remaining for twenty days in
the church of that town, the corpse was conveyed to Branxholm with
great pomp, alms being distributed in all the villages and towns
through which the cortege passed. The interment, however, did
not take place till the nth June, 1634, seven months after the Earl's
death. The funeral procession from Branxholm to St. Mary's
Church, Hawick, where the remains of the deceased nobleman were
interred among his ancestors, was of extraordinary magnificence.*

Earl Walter had by his wife. Lady Mary Hay, a daughter of
Francis, Earl of Errol, a family of three sons and three daughters.
Walter, the eldest son, died in childhood, and the Earl was succeeded
by his second son, Francis. Mr. Eraser mentions that while Earl
Walter provided liberally for all his lawful children, he was not un-
mindful of his natural children, of whom there were three sons and
two daughters. The former received donations of lands ; the latter
were provided with a liberal tocher at their marriage.

Francis, second Earl of Buccleuch, succeeded to the family
honours and estates when he was only about seven years of age. He
and his brother were educated at St. Leonard's College, St. Andrews,
of which he always cherished a kind remembrance, and greatly aug-
mented its library by his gifts. The young Earl was equally distin-
guished for his bravery and his piety. * From his very youth,'
wrote the Earl of Lothian, ' he gave testimony of his love to religion,'
and he was one of the leaders in the army of the Covenanters when
they took up arms to resist the ecclesiastical innovations of Charles L
and Laud. He was present with his regiment when Newcastle was
stormed, and taken, by the Scottish army under General Leslie.f

* See Balfour's Ancient and Heraldic Tracts, p. io6. The Scotts of Buccleuch, i.
264-66.

+ Mr. Fraser thinks it probable that the Bellenden banner, emblazoned with armo-
rial bearings, now preserved in the family, is that which was made for the regiment
of Earl Francis, previous to his march into England, in the beginning of 1644. This
curious and venerable relic of the olden times was displayed at the celebrated football
match, which was played 4th December, 1815, on Carterhaugh, near the junction of the
Ettrick and Yarrow, between the men of the parish of Selkirk, and those of the Dale of

The Scotts of Buccleuch. 211

Earl Francis took part, with the more resolute section of the Cove-
nanters, under the Marquis of Argyll, in opposing the ' Engagement '
which led to the abortive expedition into England for the rescue of
the King, and he brought his clan to the assistance of the levies
raised by General Leslie to resist the Engagers. After the execu-
tion of King Charles, Earl Francis was one of the last to submit to
the authority of the English Commonwealth, and a fine of ^15,000
was imposed by Cromwell on his daughter and successor, the
Countess Mary — ■_;^5,ooo more than the sum levied on any other of the
party ; but, through the Intercession of powerful friends, the amount
was ultimately reduced to _^6,ooo. After the defeat of the Scottish
army at Dunbar, in September, 1650, Cromwell took possession of
the Earl's castles of Newark and Dalkeith ; but the muniments,
plate, and other valuables had been removed to the fortress on the
Bass Rock, where they remained in safety until the year 1652.

During the disorders which resulted from the great Civil War,
the moss-troopers, who, after the union of the Crowns, had become
somewhat orderly and peaceful, once more resumed their marauding
habits. The tenants on the Buccleuch estates were the principal
sufferers from their depredations, and the cattle even of the Earl
himself were sometimes carried off in considerable numbers. He
was appointed, in 1643, justiciar over an extensive district on the
Borders, and made vigorous efforts, which were only partially suc-
cessful, to restrain and control the Armstrongs, the Elliots, and other
Border thieves. The indictments and informations presented at the
Justiciary Courts, in the years 1645 ^'^^ 1646, show the nature and
extent of the depredations of the Liddesdale men in England. A
stalwart Armstrong, called Symon of Whitlisyde, and other four of
that clan, ' did steal out of Swinburne Park, in Northumberland,
fifty kye and oxen. The same Symon Armstrong, and his partners,
did steal out of the Rukin in Ridsdale, fourscore of sheep.' Having

Yarrow, in the presence of Charles, Duke of Buccleuch, the Earl and Countess of
Home, and a great array of the gentry of the Forest. The Earl of Home, the Duke's
brother-in-law, appointed James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, his lieutenant over the
Yarrow Band, while the Sheriff of the county (Sir Walter Scott) had under his special
cognisance the ' Sutors of Selkirk.' The banner bearing the word ' Bellindaine,' the
ancient war-cry of the clan Scott, was carried by Sir Walter Scott's eldest son, and was
displayed to the sound of war-pipes, as on former occasions when the chief took the
field in person, whether for the purpose of war or of sport. This gathering of the men
of Ettrick and Yarrow was commemorated by Sir Walter Scott in a poem entitled
* The Lifting of the Banner,' and by the Ettrick Shepherd in his beautiful verses,
entitled ' The Ettrick Garland to the Ancient Banner of the House of Buccleuch.'

VOL. II. H H

2 1 2 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

brought their spoil across the Borders, as far as Kershopehead, the
moss-troopers left the sheep, and went in search of food ; but the
owners had closely followed them, and on the return of the marauders
the sheep were gone. A body of the Armstrongs, in open day, car-
ried off three score of oxen out of the lands of Emblehope. The
same party shortly afterwards took four-and-twenty horses belonging
to the same proprietor, and also ten horses and a mare, and a
stallion valued at _;^20 sterling. They also drove away openly in
the daytime ' twelve or thretteen score of nolt, with a great number
of horses and meares,' belonging to the Charltons of Tynedale. It
is no wonder that old Satchells describes these men as ' very ill to
tame.' They were not, however, without a sense of humour, as the
following incident, recorded in these judicial papers, shows : —
' Lancie Armstrong, called of Catheugh, Geordie Rackesse of the
Hillhouse, and several others, had made a successful foray across
the English Border, and were driving homeward, on a Sunday
forenoon, about eighty oxen which they had seized. At Chiffon-
berrie Craig a poor English curate, who had some beasts in that
drift taken from him, following them, desired them earnestlie to let
him have his twae or thrie beasts again, because he was a Kirk-
man. Geordie Rackessee, laughing verie merrilie, wist he had all
the ministers of England and Scotland as far at his command as he
had him ; and withal bade him make them a little preaching, and
he coulde have his beastes again. " Oh ! " says the curate,
" good youths, this is a very unfit place for preaching; if you and I
were together in church I would do my best to give you content."
" Then," said Geordie, " if you will not preach to us, yet you will
give us a prayer, and we will learn you to be a moss-trooper." This
the curate still refused. " If you will neither preach nor pray to us,"
said Geordie, " yet you will take some tobacco or sneisin [snuff]
with us." The curate was content of that, provyding they wald give
him his beastes againe, which they did accordinglie, and so that
conference brake.'

Earl Francis died in the year 1651, in the twenty-fifth year of his
age, deeply lamented. His excellent character and amiable disposi-
tion earned for him the designation of the ' Good Earl Francis.'

It was in his time that the barony of Dalkeith was purchased from
the Earl of Morton. The old castle and estate were for many years a
possession of the Douglas family, and here Froissart, the famous
French chronicler, was entertained by them during his visit to Scot-

The Scotts of Buccleuch. 213

land. It was the principal residence of Regent Morton, the head of
a junior branch of the Douglases.

Earl Francis married, in 1646, when he was in the twentieth year
of his age. Lady Margaret Leslie, daughter of the sixth Earl of
Rothes, and widow of Lord Balgonie, eldest son of the first Earl of
Leven. She is said to have been an active and witty woman.
Satchells says, ' She must always have her intents.' Her conduct
shows her to have been selfish, greedy, intriguing, and unscrupulous.
In 1 650 the Earl made a new settlement of his estates, entailing them
on his heirs male, whom failing, on the eldest heir female of his body,
whom failing, on Lady Jean Scott, afterwards Countess of Tweeddale,
his sister, and her heirs. As the only son of the ' Good Earl Francis '
unfortunately died in infancy (whose death he ' took very grieffously '),
he was succeeded by his eldest daughter. Lady Mary Scott, a child
only four years of age. About fourteen months after the Earl's death,
the Countess-Dowager married the second Earl of Wemyss, who,
like herself, had also been twice previously married, and had buried
his second wife only two months before he vi/'as engaged to his third
spouse.

The tutors of the young heiress of the Buccleuch estates did not
co-operate cordially in promoting her interests. Sir Gideon Scott of
Highchester, one of them, was jealous of the Earl of Tweeddale, who
had married her aunt, and expressed his belief that the Earl enter-
tained sinister designs, which made him bent on wresting the infant
Countess and her sister from the guardianship of their mother. In
conjunction with that lady, he presented a petition to the Protector,
entreating that the children should remain in the custody of the
Countess of Wemyss until they had attained the age of eleven
or twelve years. Cromwell returned a favourable answer to this
request, and the tutors decided unanimously that the children should
remain with their mother until they were ten years of age, which was
afterwards extended to twelve. The story of the scandalous intrigues
of which the Countess was the object, as narrated at length in the
' Scotts of Buccleuch,' is a very melancholy one.' There seems to
have been no end to the selfish schemes for her disposal in marriage.
Attempts were made to obtain her hand for her cousin, a son of the
Earl of Tweeddale, and for a son of the Earl of Lothian. High-
chester alleged that Scott of Scotstarvit, one of hier tutors, had a
design to marry her to his son, or one of his grandchildren ; and
when this scheme failed he professed to have the complete disposal of

214 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

the heiress, and offered her to the son of Mr. Scott of Scottshall, in
Kent. John Scott, of Gorrinberrie, a natural son of Earl Walter,
and one of the tutors of the Countess, made overtures to her mother to
promote her marriage to his son. It appears from a letter of Robert
Baillie that there was at one time an expectation that the son and
heir of the Earl of Eglinton would carry off the prize ; but ' he runns
away without any advyce, and marries a daughter of my Lord
Dumfries, who is a broken man, when he was sure of my Lady
Balclough's marriage — the greatest match in Brittain. This unex-
pected prank is worse to all his kinn than his death would have
been.'* Even Mr. Desborough, one of the English Commissioners
of the Commonwealth, is said to have attempted to gain the hand
of the Countess for his own son.

All these projects, however, were frustrated by the mother of the
heiress, her uncle the Duke of Rothes, the notorious persecutor of
the Covenanters, and Sir Gideon Scott of Highchester, who entered
into a scandalous intrigue to marry the Countess in her eleventh year
to a son of Sir Gideon, a boy only fourteen years of age. In order
to secure secrecy, the preparations for the marriage were carried out
in a most clandestine manner. The Presbytery of Kirkaldy were
induced to dispense, illegally, with the proclamation of banns, and to
order Mr. Wilkie, the minister of Wemyss, the parish in which the
Countess resided, to perform the marriage ceremony, which was
accordingly carried into effect on the gth of February, 1659. Care
was taken, in the marriage contract, to secure to the boy husband the
life rent of the honours and estates of the earldom, and a most liberal
recompense — which they contrived greatly to exceed — to the mother
and stepfather of the Countess, with whom she was to reside until
she reached the age of eighteen years.

Several of the tutors had been gained over to assist in promoting
this nefarious scheme, but the others, among whom were Scots-
tarvit and Gorrinberrie, along with the overseers appointed by Earl
Francis, immediately raised an action for the dissolution of the
marriage, in which they were successful. The children so illegally
and shamefully united were separated by a decree of the Commis-
sary, Sir John Nisbet of Dirleton, the celebrated lawyer, and the
Countess was placed in the custody of General Monck, who then
resided at Dalkeith Castle. The poor girl had inherited the amiable
and affectionate disposition of her father, and her letters to her

* Baillie's Letters, iii. 366.

The Scotts of Buccleuch. 215

husband, of which a great number have been preserved, show that
she cherished a very warm attachment to him. *

When the Countess attained the 'legal age' of twelve (31st
August, 1659), measures were at once taken by her unscrupulous
relations to obtain the ratification of her marriage, and a declaration
of their adherence to it was signed by her and her husband on the
2nd September, at Leith, in the presence of General Monck. The
poor child was at that time suffering from the ' King's Evil,' as
scrofula was then called, for which she was touched by Charles II.,
in 1660, of course without effect, f She died at Wester Werayss,
on the nth of March, 1661, in her fourteenth year. The only
advantage which her husband derived from his short-lived union
was the barren title for life of Earl of Tarras, her unscrupulous
mother, in conjunction with the Earl of Rothes, having completely
deceived and outwitted him in regard to the last will of his wife,
which appointed Rothes and Wemyss sole executors, and universal
legatees. They ultimately divided between them the sum of
^96,104.

On the death of the Countess Mary, the Buccleuch titles and
estates devolved upon her only sister. Lady Anne Scott. Rothes
lost no time in obtaining from the King a gift of the ward and
marriage of his niece, for which the selfish, grasping knave contrived
to obtain the sum of ^12,000. The Countess of Wemyss, who was
evidently a worthy associate of her unscrupulous brother, only two
months after the death of Countess Mary, wrote to Charles II.,
proposing the marriage of her daughter Anne, then in her eleventh
year, to his son James, Duke of Monmouth. As the Countess was
the greatest heiress of her day, .the offer was readily accepted by
the King, and the Countess, who was ' a proper, handsome, and a
lively, tall, young lady of her age,' was taken up to London by her
mother, in June, 1662, and appears to have made a favourable
impression upon his Majesty. The'marriage was celebrated on the
20th April, 1663, ' in -the Earl of Wemys' house, being there for the
tyme, where his Majesty and the Queen were present with divers
of the Cowrt.' Charles conferred upon his son, on the day of his
marriage, the titles of Duke of Buccleuch, Earl of Dalkeith, and
Lord Scott of Whitchester and Eskdail, in addition to the Dukedom
of Monmouth. The King also became bound to provide ^40,000
sterling to be invested in the purchase of land in Scotland in favour
* See Scotts of Buccleuch, i. 365-69. t See Lamonf s Diary .

2 1 6 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

of the Duke of Monmouth and his heirs. In 1666, the titles of the
Duke and those of the house of Buccleuch were resigned into the
hands of the King, along with the family estates, and were re-
granted by charter under the Great Seal, and were to be held by the
Duke and Duchess conjointly and severally, and independently of
each other. In this way the right of the Duchess to the ducal
honours, which she had previously held from mere courtesy as the
wife of the Duke, were vested in her own person by express grant
and creation.

In compliance with a royal injunction, the Duke and Duchess of
Monmouth remained at Court. But, though she took a prominent
place in that gay circle, her Grace conducted herself with such
prudence and propriety, that not the slightest imputation was ever
made against her character or conduct. Count Grammont says
that ' her mind possessed all those perfections in which the hand-
some Monmouth was so deficient.' And Bishop Burnet mentions
that the Duke of York ' commended the Duchess of Monmouth so
highly as to say to me, that the hopes of a crown could not work on
her to do an unjust thing.' She bore to Monmouth four sons and
two daughters, and though the Duke was not a faithful husband,
the Duchess was to him a most dutiful and affectionate wife, and
habitually used her influence to counteract the violent counsels of
his associates, and to prevent him from engaging in their desperate
schemes. As long as he remained in England she kept him from
being implicated in their treasonable plots ; but, after he retired to
Holland, beyond the reach of her prudent advice, he yielded to the
solicitations of the men who led him on to his ruin.

Soon after Monmouth had been captured and lodged in the
Tower, the Duchess was, by royal command, sent to see him,
accompanied by the Earl of Clarendon, keeper of the Privy Seal.
' He saluted her, and told her he was very glad to see her,' but he
directed the greater part of his discourse to the Earl of Clarendon,
whose interest he earnestly implored. In answer, however, to a
touching appeal from the Duchess, he said, ' she had always shown
herself a very kind, loving, and dutiful wife toward him, and he had
nothing imaginable to charge her with, either against her virtue and
duty to him, her steady loyalty and affection towards the late King,
or kindness and affection towards his children.' A few hours before
his execution he took farewell of his wife and children. ' He spoke
to her kindly,' says Macaulay, ' but without emotion. Though she

The Scotts of Buccleuck. 217

was a woman of great strength of mind, and had little cause to love
him, her misery was such that none of the bystanders could refrain
from weeping.'*

After the death of the Duke of Monmouth, his English peerages
were forfeited, and a sentence of forfeiture against him and his
descendants was likewise pronounced by the Court of Justiciary in
Scotland which forfeited the Scottish titles held by Monmouth, and
might have affected also the rights of his children, though not ot
the Duchess. To prevent this she resigned her honours and
estates to the Crown, i6th 'April, 1687, and obtained a new
grant to herself and her heirs. This re-grant was ratified by the
Parliament, 15th June, 1693. In July, 1690, the sentence of for-
feiture against the Duke of Monmouth was revoked. But the duke-
dom of Buccleuch is not inherited, as Sir Walter Scott supposed,
under that Recissory Act, but under the re-grant of 1687.

Three years after the death of Monmouth, the Duchess, then in
her thirty-eighth year, took for her second husband, Charles, third
Lord Cornwallis, with whom she seems to have lived very happily.
She had issue to him one son and two daughters. Her education
had been greatly neglected, as her letters show; but she could
express her opinions and wishes in a clear, terse, and forcible
manner. She was a strong-minded, high-spirited woman. Evelyn
said of her, ' She is one of the wisest and craftiest of her sex, and
has much wit.' According to Dr. Johnson, she was * inflexible in
her demand to be treated as a princess.' In some of her charters
she even adopted the style of ' Mighty Princess.' At dinner she
was attended by pages, and served on the knee, while her guests
stood during the repast. She had a great deal of prudence and
good sense, so that though she persisted in retaining in her own
hands during her life all her rights, possessions, and authority, she
managed her affairs with great discretion, and by her purchases
largely extended the family estates.f She had been recommended
to transfer to her eldest son, in fee, her estates, reserving to herself
only a life rent interest, like the Duchess of Hamilton. But this
she steadily declined to do. ' Till I change my mind,' she said, ' I
will keep all the rights I enjoy from God, and my forefathers. I did
not com to my estate befor my time. I was my sister's aire ; and I

* Contemporary Manuscripts, Scotts of Buccleuch, i. 447-50.

t It is interesting to know that when the Duchess bought the lands of Smeaton
from Sir James Richardson, five colliers and twelve bearers to work the Smeaton coal
were disposed of as serfs along with the estate.

2 1 8 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

bliss God I have children which I trust in His mercy will be mine
when I am dead. The Duchess of Hamilton is but a woman, and
we are not such wis creatures as men, so I will folow no exampuU
of that sort, till I see all the nobellmen in Scotland resin to ther
sons, then I will consider of the busines.' In another letter she
says, 'I love my child as well as anie body living ever lov'd ther own
flesh and bloud, but will never be so blinded whilst I keepe my
reason, as to lessen myself in my own famelly, hut will keepe my
outhority and be the head of it whilst it pleases God to give me life.
I am a man in my own famelly.'

The Duchess accordingly kept a sharp eye even on the minute
details of her affairs, and took an interest not only in the appoint-
ment of the ministers on her estates, and their assistants, but of
the schoolmasters also. On the occasion of a vacancy in the church
at Dalkeith, she says, ' If I may not absolutely choose, I would,
however, have the best of the gaung.' When a minister was about
to be appointed to the church of Hawick, ' Of all the canditats for
Hawick,' she said, ' I am for the modrat man.' On making
arrangements for the appointment of an assistant to the minister
at Dalkeith, her Grace wrote, 'I have fixed a sume for the
minister's helper at Dakith, as you proposed; so the Kirk will love
uss both, but I fear will not reckon uss of the number of the godly.'
When asking Lord Royston to undertake ' a troublesome business,
that of placing a schoolmaster at Dalkeith,' she says, ' Choos one
qualified for the place as a scholar, and one who is not high flown
upon any account.' Her long residence in England gave rise to
an impression that she had ceased to take much interest in her
native country, and in the tenantry on her Scottish estates. Against
this notion she protested most vigorously. ' The Scott's hart,' she
says, ' is the same I brought to England, and will never chang, as
I find by long experience.' Her extensive purchases of land were
all made in Scotland. On receiving the arrears of her jointure she
remarked, ' I own I should be glad to buy Scotts land with English
money.' And she declared that she would never part with one inch
of ground that ever did belong to her family inheritance.*

With all her firmness and strong will, the Duchess had a kind
heart. She gave a point-blank refusal to a proposal that she should
increase her income by adopting a system of letting her estates
which she thought would be injurious to her tenants. ' You know,'

* Scotts pf Bucdeuch, i. 475-77.

The Scotts of, Buccleuch. 2 1 9

she wrote to Lord Melville, ' I think it would rewin the tenants, or else,
I am sure, opress them, which I will never do, and I am resolved
nobody ever shall do,it whilst I live.' She exerted herself successfully,
in 1 69 1, to save the life of a poor man who, when intoxicated, was
induced by an innkeeper to drink a treasonable toast. Writing in
his behalf, from Dalkeith, to the Earl of Leven, she said, ' Your
Lordship will think me soliciter for all mankind, but whair ther is
no murdar I would have nobody dey befor ther time . . . Now I know
not which way to endever the presarvation of this poor man, but if
it can be don, if you would give derection or helpe in this, do not
laugh at me. I am no soldeur, but a poor merciful woman.' *

This was not the only instance in which the Duchess interfered to
save the life of a Jacobite. Sir Walter Scott relates in his Auto-
biography that his great-grandfather, ' Beardie,' who fought for the
Stewarts under Dundee and the Earl of Mar, ran ' a narrow risk of
being hanged, had it not been for the interference of Anne, Duchess
of Buccleuch and Monmouth.'

Her Grace died on 6th February, 1732, at the good old age of
nearly eighty-one years. She was the last of the race who exhibited
the characteristic traits of the 'Bauld Buccleuch.' Her descendants
were of a different and milder type —

' In them the savage virtues of the race,
Revenge and all ferocious thoughts, were dead,'

and they have for successive generations been distinguished for
their amiable disposition, their kindness to their tenantry and re-
tainers, their strong common sense, their patriotism, and their
generosity in promoting the social welfare of the community, rather
than for any ambition to manage the affairs of the state.

James, Earl of Dalkeith, the second and eldest surviving son
of the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch and Monmouth, predeceased
his mother in 1705, in the thirty-first year of his age, greatly
lamented on account of his many amiable qualities, and Duchess
Anne was succeeded by her grandson —

Francis, second Duke of Buccleuch, who married Lady Jane
Douglas, eldest daughter of the second Duke of Queensberry, whose
titles and estates were inherited by their grandson, the third Duke of
Buccleuch. It is somewhat singular that a marriage was at one

* Scotts of Buccleuch, i. 466.

VOL. II. -11

2 20 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

time proposed between Duke Francis, when Earl of Dalkeith, and
another Lady Jane Douglas, the only sister of the Duke of Douglas,
whose marriage to Sir John Stewart led to the famous ' Douglas
Case.' {See The Angus Douglases, i. 91.) If this proposal had
been carried into effect, it would, in all probability have united the
dukedom of Buccleuch with that of Douglas, instead of Queensberry.
It is not improbable that the duel which took place between the
Earl of Dalkeith and his intended brother-in-law may have had
something to do with this affair. Duchess Anne, who was dis-
pleased at the breaking off of the match, imputed the blame to the
Duchess of Queensberry, of whom she pungently remarked, ' She
has the same fait which some others has in this worald, more power
than they deserve.' Strange to say, however, the extensive estates,
though not the titles of the Douglas family, were inherited by the
great-granddaughter of Duke Francis. {See The Homes, i. 386.)

The forfeited English titles of the Duke of Monmouth were
restored to his grandson, Duke Francis, by Act of Parliament, in
1743, and from that time the Dukes of Buccleuch sit in the House
of Lords as Earls of Doncaster. His Grace died in 175 1. He had
two sons and three daughters by Lady Jane Douglas, who died in
1729. ' She was as good a young woman as ever I knew in all my
life,' wrote Duchess Anne of her, at the time of her lamented decease.
' I never saw any one thing in her that I could wish wer otherways.'

Their eldest son, Francis, Earl of Dalkeith, born in 1721, married
in 1742 Lady Caroline Campbell, eldest daughter and co-heiress of
John, Duke of Argyll and Greenwich, the celebrated statesman and
general. The Earl died of smallpox in 1750, in the thirtieth year of
his age. His widow married in 1755 the well-known statesman,
Charles Townshend, and was created Baroness Greenwich, in her own
right, in 1767. She inherited a portion of the unentailed property
of her father, and through her Granton and other estates were added
to the possessions of the Buccleuch family. By his Countess the
Earl of Dalkeith had four sons and two daughters. As he pre-
deceased his father, the Earl's eldest surviving son —

Henry, became third Duke of Buccleuch in 1751, and in 18 10 he
succeeded to the titles and large estates of the Queensberry family.
He was educated at Eton, and in 1764 his Grace and his brother,
Campbell Scott, set out on their travels, accompanied by the cele-
brated Adam Smith, author of the ' Wealth of Nations,' who received

The Scotts of Buccleuch. 221

an annuity of ;^300 in compensation for the salary of his chair of
Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow, which he ^had of
course to resign when he undertook the charge of the young Duke.
Their tour, which lasted nearly three years, afforded an opportunity
to the philosopher and his pupils to become acquainted with Quesnay,
Turgot, D'Alembert, Necker, Marmontel, and others who had
attained the highest eminence in literature and science. The Duke's
brother, the Hon. Campbell Scott, was assassinated in the streets of
Paris on the i8th of October, 1766, and immediately after this sad
event his Grace returned to London. For Adam Smith, who had
nursed him during an illness at Compiegne with remarkable tender-
ness and assiduous attention, the Duke cherished the greatest affec-
tion and esteem. ' We continued to live in friendship,' he said,
' till the hour of his death ; and I shall always remain with the impres-
sion of having lost a friend, whom I loved and respected not only
for his great talents, but for every private virtue.' It was through
the Duke's influence that Smith was appointed, in 1778, one of the
Commissioners of Customs in Scotland.

On the commencement of the war with France in 1778, his Grace
raised a regiment of ' Fencibles,' which was called out to suppress
the anti-Catholic riots in Edinburgh. Throughout his whole life
the Duke showed a marked predilection for the society of literary
men, and he was the first President of the Royal Society of Edin-
burgh. Dr. Carlyle of Inveresk, who passed several glowing
eulogiums on Duke Henry, both in prose and verse, says, at the time
when he was about to visit his estates on coming of age, ' The
family had been kind to their tenants, and the hopes of the country
were high that this new possessor of so large a property might
inherit the good temper and benevolence of his progenitors. I may
anticipate what at first was only guessed, but came soon to be
known, that he surpassed them all, as much in justice and humanity

as he did in superiority of understanding and good sense

In this Duke was revived the character which Sir James Melville
gave his renowned predecessor in Queen Mary's reign, ' Sure and
true, stout and modest.' *

Numerous anecdotes are told illustrative of the simplicity, geniality,

and generosity of the Duke's character, some of which have been

embodied in verse. He is said to have sometimes paid visits in

disguise to the tenants and peasants on his estate. The Border

* Autobiography of Dr. Alexander Carlyle, 489-90.

222 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

poet, Henry Riddell, puts an allusion to this habit into the mouth
of an old man in Glendale, in whose hut the Duke was said on one
occasion to have passed a night : —

' And yet they say he's curious ways,

And slyly comes among them.
Like old King James ; and they say more.
He's o'er indulgent to the poor —

Ye'd think that needna wrang them.'

It was mainly to the Duke of Buccleuch's influence that Sir Walter
Scott was indebted for his appointment to the office of sheriff-depute
of Selkirkshire in 1799, and in 1806 to that of one of the principal
clerks of the Court of Session.

The Duke died at Dalkeith House on nth January, 1812, in the
sixty-sixth year of his age. The news of his death caused deep
sorrow among all classes, and there was scarce a dry eye among the
attendants at his funeral. ' There never lived a man in a situation
of distinction,' said Sir Walter at the time of the Duke's death, ' so
generally beloved, so universally praised, so little detracted from or
censured. . . . The Duke's mind was moulded upon the kindliest
and most single-hearted model, and arrested the affections of all
who had any connection with him. He is truly a great loss to
Scotland, and will be long missed and lamented.' *

The Duke married, 2nd May, 1767, Lady Elizabeth Montagu,
only daughter of the last Duke of Montagu, who survived till 1827.
Their eldest son, George, died in infancy. Henry James Montagu,
the third son, inherited, in 1790, the estates of his maternal grand-
father, and became Lord Montagu. The second son —

Charles William Henry, became fourth Duke of Buccleuch
and sixth Duke of Queensberry. He was a nobleman of singular
amiability and generosity, but unfortunately possessed the family
honours and estates only seven years, and was cut off in the forty-
seventh year of his age. The Queensberry estates had, under the
last Duke (Old Q) been neglected and devastated, the fine old
trees cut down, and the mansion house allowed to fall into decay.
The new comer set himself energetically to rescue it from dilapida-
tion, and it cost him ;^ 60,000 to make it wind and water-tight. He
planted an immense number of trees to replace those cut down by
the ' degenerate Douglas,' and rebuilt all the cottages, in which, as

* Life of Sir Walter Scott, ii. 392.

The Scotts of Buccleuch. 223

Scott said, ' an aged race of pensioners of Duke Charles and his
wife, " Kitty, blooming, young, and gay," had, during the last reign,
been pining into rheumatisms and agues, in neglected poverty.' It
has been calculated that he spent on the Queensberry estates eight
times the income he actually derived from them during his brief
tenure.*

Sir Walter Scott, in his obituary notice of the Duke, mentions a
striking example of the disinterested manner in which his Grace
administered his estates, and of his generous sympathy with his
retainers : —

'In the year 181 7, when the poor stood so much in need of
employment, a friend asked the Duke why his Grace did not propose
to go to London in the spring. By way of answer the Duke showed
him a list of day-labourers then employed in improvements on his
different estates, the number of whom, exclusive of his regular
establishment, amounted to nine hundred and forty-seven persons.
If we allow to each labourer two persons whose support depended on
his wages, the Duke was, in a manner, foregoing, during this
severe year, the privilege of his rank, in order to provide with more
convenience for a little army of nearly three thousand persons,
many of whom must otherwise have found it difficult to obtain
subsistence.' t

The Duke was a warm friend of Sir Walter Scott, and took a
deep interest in his welfare. The letters which passed between
them show their strong mutual attachment ; and when the Duchess
passed away ' in beauty's bloom,' it was to the ' Minstrel of the
Clan ' that the Duke at once turned for sympathy and consolation.
Sir Walter cherished an unbounded admiration of this lady. On
receiving the unexpected intimation of her death (Aug. 24th, 18 14),
he thus expressed his opinion of her in his Diary : * She was indeed
a rare example of the soundest good sense, and the most exquisite
purity of moral feeling, united with the utmost grace and elegance
of personal beauty, and with manners becoming the most dignified
rank in British society. There was a feminine softness in all her
deportment which won universal love, as her firmness of mind and
correctness of principle commanded veneration. To her family her
loss is inexpressibly great.' %

* Scotts of Buccleuch, i. 503. f Scott's Miscellaneous Works.

X Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter Scott, iii. 268.

2 24 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

The ' Lay of the Last Minstrel,' which was dedicated to the Duke,
was written in compliance with the wish of the Duchess, who was at
that time Countess of Dalkeith. In his preface to the edition of
1813, the author says, 'The lovely young Countess of Dalkeith,
afterwards Harriet, Duchess of Buccleuch, had come to the land of
her husband with the desire of making herself acquainted with its
traditions and customs, as well as its manners and history. All who
remember this lady will agree that the intellectual character of her
extreme beauty, the amenity and courtesy of her manners, the
soundness of her understanding, and her unbounded benevolence,
gave more the idea of an angelic visitant than of a being belonging
to this nether world ; and such a thought was but too consistent
with the short space she was permitted to tarry among us.' Scott
proceeds to mention that an aged gentleman near Langholm com-
municated to her ladyship the story of Gilpin Horner, in which he,
like many more of the district, was a firm believer. The Countess
was so delighted with the legend, and the gravity and full confi-
dence with which it was told, that she enjoined on Scott, as a task,
to compose a ballad on the subject. * Of course,' he adds, ' to hear
was to obey,' and the result was the composition of the immortal
' Lay.'

The poet has also commemorated the virtues and graces of the
Duchess, and especially her kindness to the poor, in the following
beautiful passage in the introduction to the second canto of
' Marmlon,' which was written while her ladyship was absent from
the district, but must have been felt more keenly after her death : —

' And she is gone, whose lovely face
Is but her least and lowest grace ;
Though if to Sylphid Queen 'twere given
To show on earth the charms of heaven,
She could not glide along the air.
With form more light, or face more fair.
No more the widow's deafen'd ear
Grows quick that lady's step to hear :
At noontide she expects her not.
Nor busies her to trim the cot ;
Pensive she turns her humming wheel.
Or pensive cooks her orphans' meal ;
Yet blesses, ere she deals their bread,
The gentle hand by which they're fed.'

The Duchess took a warm interest in the Ettrick Shepherd, who
often received from her tokens of her generous sympathy, and after
her death obtained from the Duke for life the little farm of Altrive

The Scoits of Buccleuch. 225

Lake. He considered the poet, he said, as ' her legacy.' Her early-
death was a blow from which the Duke, who was in a delicate state
of health, never recovered.

Sir Walter Scott, who observed in 18 18, with great apprehension,
that the malady under which the Duke laboured was making serious
progress, earnestly recommended that he should try a change of
climate, for the recovery of his health. In order to cheer his Grace's
drooping spirits, he sent him regularly an * Edinburgh Gazette
Extraordinary,' containing the amusing gossip of the day. The
Duke sailed for Lisbon in the spring of 18 19. Previous to his
departure he wrote to Sir Walter, reminding him of his promise
to sit to Raeburn for a portrait, which was to be placed in the
library at Bowhill. ' A space for one picture is reserved over the
fireplace, and in this warm situation I intend to place the Guardian
of Literature. I should be happy to have my friend , Maida appear.
It is now almost proverbial, " Walter Scott and his dog." Raeburn
should be warned that I am as well acquainted with my friend's
hands and arms as with his nose ; and Vandyke was of my opinion,
many of R.'s works are shamefully finished — the face studied, but
everything else neglected. This is a fair opportunity of producing
something really worthy of his skill.'

The portrait, however, was never executed, in consequence of the
death of the Duke, which took place on the 20th of April, 18 19. It
was lamented by Scott as an irreparable loss. ' Such a fund of excel-
lent sense,' he said, ' high principle, and perfect honour, have been
rarely combined in the same individual.' He paid a graceful
tribute to the Duke's memory, which was published at first in the
' Weekly Journal, and later in his ' Miscellaneous Works.' It
concludes with this high and well merited eulogium : —

' It was the unceasing labour of his life to improve to the utmost
the large opportunities of benefiting mankind with which his situa-
tion invested him. Others of his rank might be more missed in the
resorts of splendour, and gaiety, frequented by persons of distinction.
But the peasant, while he leans on his spade ; age, sinking to the
grave in hopeless indigence ; and youth struggling for the means
of existence, will long miss the generous and powerful patron,
whose aid was never asked in vain, when the merit of the petitioner
was unquestioned.'

Duke Charles had by his Duchess — a daughter of Viscount

226 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

Sydney — three sons and six daughters. The eldest son, George
Henry, died in his tenth year, and the second, Walter Francis, suc-
ceeded to the family titles and estates.

Walter Francis Montagu -Douglas-Scott, fifth Duke of
Buccleuch and seventh Duke of Queensberry, was born in 1806,
and was left an orphan at the early age of thirteen. His uncle. Lord
Montagu, however, watched over him with all a father's care, and,
guided by the advice of Sir Walter Scott, as shrewd as it was affec-
tionate, his lordship made most judicious arrangements for the
education and training of his nephew for the responsible position
which he was one day to occupy. It appears that the young Duke
had naturally some turn for history and historical anecdote, and
Sir Walter earnestly recommended that he should be induced to
read extensively in that most useful branch of knowledge, and to
make himself intimately acquainted with the history and institutions
of his country, and her relative position with regard to other
countries. ' It is, in fact,' he wrote, ' the accomplishment which of
all others comes most home to the business and heart of a public
man, and the Duke of Buccleuch can never be regarded as a pri-
vate one. Besides, it has in a singular degree the tendency to ripen
men's judgment upon the wild political speculations now current.'*

The youthful nobleman was sent, in due course, to Eton ; but his
health unfortunately became delicate in 1821, and it was found
necessary for him to take ' a temporary recess ' from that seminary.
It has frequently happened, however, as in the case of the Duke of
Wellington, that the strongest and best confirmed health has suc-
ceeded in after life to a delicate childhood or youth ; and the Duke
of Buccleuch enjoyed throughout his whole career, from manhood
to old age, uninterrupted good health, to which his temperate habits
no doubt largely contributed. He had the good fortune to obtain
for his tutor Mr. Blakeney — grandson of General Blakeney, who was
governor of Stirling Castle in 1745 — an accomplished gentleman,
and an old friend and fellow-student at Cambridge of Lord Montagu.
The Duke had just completed his curriculum at Eton, when he was
called upon, at the age of sixteen, to receive King George IV., on the
occasion of that sovereign's visit to Scotland in 1822. His Majesty
was royally entertained at Dalkeith House, and seems in return to
have treated his young host with kind and paternal attention. It was

* Life of Scott, V. 71-2, 272-3.

The Scoits of Buccleuch. 227

probably by Mr. Blakeney's advice that the Duke, on leaving Eton,
instead of being- sent to Christchurch, Oxford— the favourite college
of the great Tory families — was entered at St. John's College, Cam-
bridge, where he took the degree of Master of Arts in 1827.

In the autumn of 1826, the year before the Duke came of age.
Sir Walter Scott paid a visit to him at Drumlanrig, and entered in
his journal the following opinion respecting his young chief. ' He
has grown up into a graceful and apparently strong young man, and
received us most kindly. I think he will be well qualified to sustain
his difficult and important task. The heart is excellent, so are the
talents. Good sense and knowledge of the world, picked up at one
of the great English schools (and it is one of their most important
results) will prevent him from being deceived ; and with perfect
good-nature he has a natural sense of his own situation which will
keep him from associating with unworthy companions. God bless
him ! His father and I loved each other well, and his beautiful
mother had as much of the angel as is permitted to walk this
earth. ... I trust this young nobleman will be —

" A hedge about his friends,
A hackle to his foes."

I would not have him quite so soft-natured as his grandfather,
whose kindness sometimes mastered his excellent understanding.
His father had a temper which better jumped with my humour.
Enough of ill-nature to keep your good-nature from being abused,
is no bad ingredient in their disposition who have favours to bestow.'*
The young Duke grew up to be in this respect what his father's
friend desired, and whatever fallings he may have had, he had
certainly no lack of firmness in adhering to his opinions and
purposes.

Although the death of his grandmother, the Dowager Duchess
Elizabeth, cast a shadow over the proceedings, the Duke's coming
of age was celebrated in Dumfriesshire with great enthusiasm.

When the Duke of Buccleuch attained his majority, he entered
into possession of dignities and estates, in number and extent
equalled only by a very few of the old historical families. He
inherited the ancient titles both of the. Buccleuch Scotts and the
Queensberry Douglases, along with the restored titles of his
paternal ancestor, the Duke of Monmouth, in all comprising two

* Life of Scott, vi. 338-9.

VOL. II. K K

2 28 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

dukedoms, a marquisate, four earldoms, three viscountys, and five

baronies. He inherited the vast estates of the houses of Buccleuch

and Queensberry. At a later period the Montagu estates also came

mto his possession, amounting altogether to 459,260 acres, with a

rent-roll of nearly a quarter of a million.

He found, however, the Queensberry estates still in a dilapidated
condition. ' The outraged castle,' says Sir Walter Scott, «in 1810
stood in the midst of waste and desolation, except a few scattered old
stumps not judged worth the cutting.' The Duke carried out on an
extensive scale the improvements which his father had commenced on
the demesne. ' The whole has been completely replanted,' said Sir
Walter, ' and the scattered seniors look as graceful as fathers sur-
rounded by their children. The face of this immense estate has
been scarcely less wonderfully changed. The scrambling tenants
who held a precarious tenure of lease under " Old Q." at the risk (as
actually took place) of losing their possession at his death, have
given room to skilful men working their farms regularly, and enjoy-
ing comfortable houses, at a rent which is enough to forbid idleness,
but not to impair industry.

In the spring of 1828, his Grace was appointed Lord-Lieutenant
of IMidlothian, and shortly after made a short tour on the Continent.
On his return he took his seat in the House of Lords as Earl of Don-
caster. A few months later he received a sumptuous entertainment
at Dumfries from the gentlemen of the district, at which Sir Walter
Scott, who was present, predicted for his young chieftain a noble
career worthy of his ancestors and his position. Ten years after,
the extent to which this anticipation had been realised was shown
by the gathering at Branxholm of a thousand of the tenants and
representatives from every part of his Grace's extensive estates, who
bore grateful testimony to his unceasing kindness and liberality.
In his dignified reply to the commendations bestowed upon him as
an enlightened and generous landlord, the Duke spoke feelingly
of the responsibilities attached to his position. What had been
entrusted to him, he said, had not been given to him that it might
be wasted in idle or frivolous amusements, nor would he be justified
in wasting- the hard earnings of the tillers of the soil, by carrying
them away, and spending- them in foreign countries. It was his wish
to see them employed as the means of producing good to them, and
to the country at large. ' You will find me ready/ he added, ' to
promote every scheme that is for the benefit of the countiy. Should

The Scotts of Buccleuch. 229

I err, do not impute it to any intentional omission ; it may be an
error of the judgment, it will not be an error of intention.'

It was predicted by Sir Walter Scott, at the Dumfries banquet,
that the Duke would be found foremost to support every benevolent
measure, and this prediction was most amply fulfilled. In this, as in
other respects, his Grace showed that he had inherited the virtues of
his immediate progenitors. His father and grandfather were model
landlords, and displayed much greater anxiety to discharge faithfully
the duties of their high position, than to exact rigorously their
rights and rents. They might indeed have sat for the portrait of
the generous public benefactor portrayed in the Book of Job. Of
them it might have been said, as it was of him, that ' When the ear
heard them it blessed them, and when the eye saw them it gave
witness to them ; because they delivered the poor that cried, and
the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of
him that was ready to perish came upon them, and they caused the
widow's heart to sing for joy.' Their descendant made it his study
to walk closely in their footsteps, befriending the poor, supporting
liberally benevolent institutions of every kind, encouraging edu-
cation, promoting industry and agricultural improvements, and
taking a warm interest in everything relating to the comfort and
prosperity of the large population settled on his estates.

From his majority to the close of his career, the Duke took a
deep interest in all that pertains to practical agriculture. The farm
buildings and cottages on his own estates are models of neatness and
comfort ; the farms are in a high state of cultivation, and the tenants
have received every encouragement to carry on improvements.
Shortly after coming of age he became a member of the Highland
Society; in 1830 he was elected a vice-president, and a year later
was appointed president of the society, an office which he held until
1835. An exceptional honour was conferred upon the Duke in
1866, when he was for the second time elected president of the
society, and continued to fill the chair until 1869. The Thornhill
Agricultural Society has been from its birth under his Grace's
fostering care, and he was also the originator, and chief supporter,
of the Union Agricultural Society of Dumfries and Galloway. He
was very successful at both local and national shows as a breeder
and exhibiter of stock, and contributed not a little by his example to
stim.ulate tenant-farmers in the improvement of their cattle and sheep.

The Duke's shrewdness, energy, and business habits were dis-

230 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

played not only in the discharge of his duties as a landlord, and
an enterprising agriculturalist, but also in the management of
county affairs, in which his influence was predominant. To him
the country is indebted for the gigantic and costly works within
two miles of Edinburgh, on the shore of the Firth of Forth, which
were commenced in the year 1835, ^•s Mr. Adam Black said, at
a public dinner, ' with no view to private advantage, but solely on
the solicitation of others, for the sake of the community.' They
have made Granton one of the most commodious of modern har-
bours, which, besides being a ferryboat port for the North British
Railway, has a regular steam communication with London, and with
Sweden and Norway. His Grace has also taken a leading part,
along with the Duke of Devonshire, in the erection of docks at
Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, which have transformed a fishing-
village into a populous and prosperous commercial town.

The political principles adopted by the Duke may be said to have
been hereditary in his family, and his shrewdness and sound judg-
ment, as well as his high rank and vast possessions, naturally led to
his becoming the leader of the Scottish Conservative party. This
position was rather thrust upon him than sought by him, and he
exercised great influence in a quiet, undemonstrative manner. He
waSj indeed, virtually Minister for Scotland whenever the Conserva-
tives were in office. He seems to have had not much taste or inclina-
tion for political office, and the management of his estates and his
attention to public social affairs left him little time to devote to
parliamentary discussions ; but he consented to hold the office of
Privy Seal from February, 1842, to January, 1846, in the Ministry
of Sir Robert Peel. When Lord Stanley seceded from the Govern-
ment, and other great landed proprietors offered a violent opposition
to the repeal of the Corn Laws, the Duke of Buccleuch wrote to his
political chief, ' I feel it to be my imperative duty to my sovereign
and my country to make every personal sacrifice. I am ready, there-
fore, at the risk of any imputation that may be cast upon me, to
give my decided support, not only to your administration generally,
but to the passing through Parliament of a measure for the final settle-
ment of the Corn Laws.' In order publicly to manifest his resolution
to give the policy of Sir Robert Peel his cordial support, he accepted
the office of President of the Council, which had become vacant by
the death of Lord Wharncliffe. His Grace, of course, retired on
the defeat of the Ministry in 1846, and never again returned to office.

The Scotts of Buccleuch. 231

As the Duke advanced in years, tokens of the universal respect in
which he was held were multiplied. While still a youth, the Duke
of Wellington created him a Knight of the Thistle — a distinction
which he resigned when he received the Order of the Garter from
Sir Robert Peel in 1834. In London he was made High Steward of
Westminster, and a Governor of the Charterhouse. In 1841 he was
appointed to the Lord-Lieutenancy of Roxburghshire, in addition to
that of Midlothian. In the following year he had the honour of
entertaining the Queen on the occasion of her first visit to Scotland.
As Captain-General of the Royal Company of Archers, it was his
duty to receive, and to be in close attendance, on her Majesty when
she landed at Granton. In recognition of his sympathy with scien-
tific pursuits and aims, he was elected President of the British Asso-
ciation, which met at Dundee in September, 1867. He contributed
the handsome sum of ;^ 4,000 to the fund for extending the buildings
of the Edinburgh University, for which the senatus expressed their
gratitude, along with their recognition of the Duke's eminent position,
and general public services, by conferring on him, in 1874, the
honorary degree of LL.D. His Grace had previously received the
same distinction from his Alma Mater, while Oxford had bestowed
upon him its corresponding degree of D.C.L. He was President of
the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland ; and to crown the honours
which he received of this class, on the lamented death of Sir William
Stirling Maxwell, his Grace, with the cordial approval of all parties,
political and ecclesiastical, was chosen Chancellor of the University
of Glasgow.

While the old age of the Duke was thus accompanied by ' honour,
love, obedience, troops of friends,' one of the most gratifying tokens
of the esteem in which he was held was afforded by the celebration
of his jubilee as a landlord in the Music Hall of Edinburgh, on the
7th of May, 1878. At the banquet, which was attended by between
four and five hundred gentlemen of all political parties, and from all
parts of the country, his Grace was presented with an illuminated
address from seven hundred of his tenants in Scotland, expressing
their appreciation of his intimate and personal knowledge of what
constitutes good husbandry, and his constant encouragement of
every appliance that tends to the agricultural improvement of his
estates, always thinking and acting for others, rather than for himself.
Referring to the management of his estates, which he had carried
out for fifty years, the Duke, in his reply, said he had found it no

232 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

easy task. Although a labour of love, it had been one of great
exertion, and had it not been for the kindly feeling which had always
subsisted between his tenantry and himself, he could not have ful-
filled the duties and obligations laid upon him. ' I do not pi-etend to
say,' he added, ' that I have done my duty without any omission, but
only that I have endeavoured to do it. I cannot but look back upon
many opportunities that have been lost, and many occasions of
doing good that I have missed, upon things said by me, and done by
me which I now bitterly regret. But I have always acted in an open
and straightforward manner, without any compromise or subterfuge of
any kind. I have acted with political friends, and political opponents,
and during the long period of my life I am not aware that I have in
any instance lost a friend, or made an enemy.' His Grace was well
entitled to make this statement, which will be cordially re-echoed by
all who have ever had the pleasure of co-operating with him, in any
public or benevolent undertaking. His manly and touching expres-
sion of deep regret for some things he had said and done was well
fitted to produce a favourable impression on his political opponents,
and especially on that ecclesiastical body with which his Grace had
unfortunately come into collision thirty -five years before. The
honours which were regarded as merited by the Duke were, how-
ever, not yet exhausted. In the course of 1883 a project was set on
foot for a national memorial, as a tribute to his Grace's public and
private character, and the manner in which he had discharged the
duties of his high position throughout his long and distinguished
career. The proposal met with a prompt and cordial response. The
sum of ^10,000 was subscribed by persons of all political parties,
and nearly all classes of the community. It has been resolved that
the money should be expended in the erection of a statue of the
Duke in Edinburgh, for which an appropriate site has been most
readily granted by the Town Council.

The Duke died, after a short illness, on the i6th of March, 1884,
in the seventy-eighth year of his age.

His Grace was married in 1829 to Lady Charlotte Anne Thynne,
youngest daughter of the second Marquis of Bath, by whom he has
had a family of five sons and three daughters. His eldest son,
William Henry Walter, has succeeded to the family titles and
estates in Scotland. Henry John Montagu-Douglas-Scott, his second
son, has inherited the estates in England, and has been created Baron
Montagu, the title held by his grand-uncle.

^

SCOTTS OF HARDEN.

THE SCOTTS OF HARDEN.

!HE Scotts of Harden are descended from Walter Scott
of Sinton, who traced his pedigree to John, second son
of Sir Michael Scott of Murthockstone. According to
Satchells, ' he was so lame he could neither run nor ride.'
Robert Scott of Strickshaws, second son of Walter, seventh laird of
Sinton, flourished in the reign of James V., and distinguished him-
self at the battle of Melrose. He had three sons, the eldest of whom,
Walter, called ' Watty Fire-the-Braes,' succeeded his uncle in the
estate of Sinton. The second son, William Scott, was the first
laird of Harden, having acquired the estate from Lord Home in 1501.
Almost all that is known of this branch of the Scott clan is derived
from the researches of Sir Walter Scott, with whom it was a labour
of love to draw up the pedigree of the different branches of the family,
and to record their exploits. William Scott was called ' Willy with
the Boltfoot,' from a lameness caused by a wound which he received
in battle. Of this redoubted Borderer, Satchells says: —

'The Laird and Lady of Harden,
Betwixt them procreat was a son
Called William Boltfoot of Harden ;
He did survive to be a MAN.'

' The emphasis,' says Lockhart, ' with which this last line was
quoted by Sir Walter Scott I can never forget. Boltfoot was, in fact,
one of the ' prowest knights of the whole genealogy — a fearless
horseman and expert spearman, renowned and dreaded; and I sup-
pose I have heard Sir Walter repeat a dozen times, as he was dash-
ing into the Tweed and Ettrick, " rolling red from brae to brae," a
stanza from what he called an old ballad, though it was most likely
one of his own early imitations : —

VOL. II. L L

234 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

" To tak' the foord he aye was first,
Unless the English loons were near ;
Plunge vassal then, plunge horse and man,
Auld Boltfoot rides into the rear." '

Boltfoot's son was the renowned Walter Scott of Harden, com-
monly called 'Auld Wat,' whose marauding exploits have been
commemorated in many a Border tradition and ballad. The old
castle of Harden, the stronghold of this renowned freebooter, which
is still in good preservation, stands on the very brink of a dark and
precipitous dell, through which a scanty rivulet steals to meet the
Borthwick, a tributary of the Teviot. Leyden, in his ' Scenes of
Infancy,' has given a description, as accurate as it is spirited, of the
appearance of the mansion, and its surrounding scenery : —

' Where Bortha hoarse, that loads the meads with sand.
Rolls her red tide to Teviot's western strand.
Through slaty hills, whose sides are shagg'd with thorn.
Where springs in scattered tufts the dark green corn.
Towers wood-girt Harden, far above the vale,
And clouds of ravens o'er the turrets sail ;
A hardy race, who never shrunk from war,
The Scoii, to rival realms a mighty bar.
Here fixed his mountain home — a wide domain.
And rich the soil, had purple heath been grain.'

In the recess of the glen on the edge of which the mansion stands,
Wat of Harden kept his spoil, which served for the maintenance of
his retainers. When the supply was exhausted the production of a
pair of clean spurs in a covered dish, was a significant hint to the
hungry band that they must seek a supply of beeves from the
Northumbrian pastures to replenish the larder.

' And loud and loud, in Harden tower

The quaigh gaed round wi' mickle glee ;
For the English beef was brought in bower,
And the English ale flowed merrilie.

They ate, they laughed, they sang and quaffed,

Till nought on board was seen.
When knight and squire were boune to dine,

But a spur of silver sheen.' *

Sir Walter Scott, in connection with this custom, relates one of
the many anecdotes which tradition has preserved respecting this
redoubtable chief. ' Upon one occasion when the village herd was

* Tke Reiver's Wedding, Lockhart's Life of Scott, i. 354. The identical spurs are
now in the possession of Lord Polwarth. See the Scotts of Buccleuck, where an
engraving is given of these notable relics.

The Scotts of Harden. 235

driving out the cattle to pasture, the old laird heard him call out
loudly to drive out Harden' s cow. " Harden' s cow!" echoed the
affronted chief. "Is it come to that pass? By my faith, they shall
soon say Harden's kye" (cows). Accordingly, he sounded his bugle,
set out with his followers, and next day returned with a bow of kye
and a bassened (brindled) bull.'

On his return with his gallant prey, he passed a very large hay-
stack. It occurred to the provident laird that this would be extremely
convenient to fodder his new stock of cattle, but as no means of
transporting it were obvious, he was fain to take leave of it, with the
apostrophe, now become proverbial, ' By my saul, had ye but four
feet ye should not stand long there.' In short, as Froissart says of a
similar class of feudal robbers, nothing came amiss to them that
was not too heavy or too hot.

Auld Wat's bugle-horn is often referred to. An engraving of it
is given in the ' Scotts of Buccleuch,' and shows its surface com-
pletely covered with initials, cut or burned into the horn. Sir Walter,
who must have often seen this interesting relic, thus describes it in
the ' Reiver's Wedding' : —

' He took a bugle frae his side,

With names carv'd o'er and o'er,
Full many a chief of meikle pride
That Border bugle bore.

He blew a note baith sharp and hie.

Till rock and water rang around ;
Three score of moss-troopers and tliree

Have mounted at that bugle sound.'

In the spirit-stirring ballad of 'Jamie Telfer' there is a most
picturesque description of old Harden weeping for very rage when
his kinsman, Willie Scott of Gorrinberry, was killed in the fray.

' But he's taen aff his gude steel cap,
And thrice he's waved it in the air;
The Dinlay snaw was ne'er mair white,
Nor the lyart locks of Harden's hair.

" Revenge ! revenge ! " Auld Watt 'gan cry ;

" Fye, lads, lay on them cruellie !
We'll ne'er see Teviotside again,

Or WiUie's death revenged sail be." '

Sir Walter evidently had this striking picture in his eye when he
wrote the famous description of Harden's appearance at Branksome,
in the ' Lay of the Last Minstrel ' : —

236 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

' An aged knight, to danger steel'd,

With many a moss-trooper came on ;
And azure in a golden field,
The stars and crescent graced his shield,

Without the bend of Murdieston.
Wide lay his lands round Oakwood tower,
And wide round haunted Castle-Ower;
High over Borthwick's mountain flood,
His wood-embosom'd mansion stood ;
In the dark glen, so deep below,
The herds of plundered England low ;
His bold retainers' daily food,
And bought with danger, blows, and blood.
Marauding chief ! his sole delight
The moonlight raid, the morning fight ;
Not even the Flower of Yarrow's charms
In youth, might, tame his rage for arms.
And still, in age, he spurn'd at rest,
And still his brows the helmet press'd,
Albeit the blanched locks below
Were white as Dinlay's spotless snow.

Five stately warriors drew the sword
Before their father's band ;

A braver knight than Harden's lord,
Ne'er belted on a brand.'*

Sir Walter mentions, in a note to the ballad of ' Jamie Telfer,'
that Walter Scott of Harden was married to Mary Scott, celebrated
in song by the title of the ' Flower of Yarrow.' By their marriage
contract the father of that lady was to find Harden horse meat and
man's meat, at his tower of Dryhope, for a year and a day ; but five
barons pledged themselves that at the expiry of that period the son-
in-law should remove without attempting to continue in possession
by force — a condition which was referred to as a curious illustration
of the unsettled character of the age. According to another tra-
ditionary account, Harden, on his part, agreed to give Dryhope
the profits of the first Michaelmas moon. The original. Sir Walter
adds, is in the charter-chest of the present Mr. Scott of Harden.
A notary-public signed for all the parties to the deed, none of whom
could write their names.

It is evident that Sir Walter had never examined the document
in question, but had described it from common report. Mr. Fraser,
who takes nothing for granted, was induced, by the peculiarit}'-
of these ante-nuptial conditions, to examine the original contract
for the marriage, which bears date at Selkirk, 21st March, 1576,
and the parties to it are Walter Scott of Harden, and John Scott

* Lay of the Last Minstrel, canto iv, stanza ix,

The Scotts of Harden. 237

of Dryhope, for his daughter, Marion Scott. Walter and Marion
became bound to celebrate their marriage before Lammas then
next ; and Walter obliges himself to infeft Marion in life-rent in
the lands of Mabynlaw, as a part of Harden. The father of Marion
Scott becomes bound to pay to Harden four hundred merks Scots,
at the times specified, the balance being to be paid * at the said
Walter and Marion's passing to their awin hous.' For observ-
ing the contract faithfully, the parties to the contract obliged
them, by the faith and truth of their bodies, and by the ' ostentioun '
of their right hands.* The contract, however, contains nothing
about providing meat for man and horse, or the five guaranteeing
barons, and the profits of the Michaelmas moon.

By the ' Flower of Yarrow ' the laird of Harden had six sons, five
of whom survived him, and his extensive estates were divided
among them. The sixth son was slain, at a fray in a hunting match,
by the Scotts of Gilmanscleugh. His brothers flew to arms, but the
old laird secured them in the dungeon of his tower, hurried to Edin-
burgh, stated the crime, and obtained a gift of the lands of the
offenders from the Crown. He returned to Harden with equal
speed, relieved his sons, and showed them the charter. ' To horse,
lads,' cried the savage warrior, ' and let us take possession. The
lands of Gilmanscleugh are well worth a dead son.' The property
thus obtained continued in the family till the beginning of last cen-
tury, when it was sold by John Scott of Harden to Anne, Duchess
of Buccleuch.f

An interesting story has been preserved by tradition respecting
one of the forays which Harden's retainers made across the Border
into Cumberland. On their return laden with spoil, which lay
scattered in heaps around the hall, the lady of the mansion heard a
wailing sound from one of the bundles, and on unloosing it found
an infant wrapped in it, who flung his arms around her neck, and
clung to her breast. She took charge of the little captive, and
brought him up as her foster-child. He spent his life at Harden,
but had no taste for the wild and adventurous enterprises of its
marauding inmates, and passed his days in the quiet scenes of pastoral
pursuits. He is said to have been the author of some of the most
beautiful songs and ballads whose scenes are laid on the Borders.
Leyden, in his ' Scenes of Infancy,' has embodied this touching
story in the following beautiful lines : —

* Scotts of Buccleuch, i. xx. f Border Minstrelsy, ii. 11.

238 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

' The waning harvest-moon shone cold and bright,
The warder's horn was heard at dead of night ;
And as the massy portals wide were flung,
With stamping hoofs the rocky pavement rung.
What fair, half-veiled, leans from her lattice hall,
Where red the wavering gleams of torchlight fall ?
'Tis Yarrow's fairest flower, who through the gloom
Looks wistful for her lover's dancing plume.
Amid the piles of spoil that strew'd the ground,
Her ear, all anxious, caught a wailing sound ;
With trembling haste the youthful matron flew.
And from the hurried heaps an infant drew.

Scared at the light his little hands he flung
Around her neck, and to her bosom clung ;
While beauteous Mary soothed, in accents mild,
His fluttering soul, and clasped her foster-child.
Of milder mood the gentle captive grew,
Nor loved the scenes that scared his infant view ;
In vales remote, from camps and castles far,
He shunned the fearful shuddering joy of war ;
Content the loves of simple swains to sing.
Or wake to fame the harp's heroic string.

His are the strains, whose wandering echoes thrill
The shepherd, lingering on the twilight hill.
When evening brings the merry folding hours,
And sun-eyed daisies close their winking flowers.
He lived o'er Yarrow's Flower to shed the tear,
To strew the holly leaves o'er Harden's bier ;
But none was found above the minstrel's tomb,
Emblem of peace, to bid the daisy bloom ;
He, nameless as the race from which he sprung,
Saved other names, and left his own unsung.'

Auld Wat of Harden died about 1629, at a great age. His eldest
son, Sir William, succeeded him as Baron of Harden ; his second
son, Walter, was killed by the Scotts of Gilmanscleugh. Hugh, the
third, was the progenitor of the Scotts of Gala. The ancient family
estate of Sinton was conveyed by Auld Wat to his fifth son, Francis,
who is the ancestor of the modern family of Sinton. Wat's six
daughters, who probably inherited their mother's beauty, were all
married to Border lairds. Margaret, the eldest, became the wife of
Gilbert Elliot of Stobs, who for some unknown reason was called
' Gibby with the Gowden [golden] Garters.' The fourth daughter was
married to the famous freebooter, Scott of Tushielaw, who was desig-
nated ' King of the Border.'

Sir William Scott was a favourite of James VI., by whom he
was knighted in the lifetime of his father. He obtained also

The Scotts of Harden. 239

cTiarters of various lands in the Border counties. He embraced the
cause of Charles I. during the Great Civil War, and was in conse-
quence fined _;^3, 000 by Cromwell in 1654. He was a man of good
abilities, and held various offices of trust, including the sheriffship of
Selkirk ; but his memory has been preserved mainly by the romantic
story connected with his marriage. It has been often told, but the
fullest and best account of the incident is given by Sir Walter Scott,
who was a firm believer in the accuracy of the narrative, and com-
menced, but did not complete, a ballad upon it, called ' The Reiver's
Wedding.' The following account of the affair is given by Sir
Walter in his ' Border Antiquities.' He tells it also in a letter to
Miss Seward, June 29, 1802.*

' The Scotts and Murrays were ancient enemies ; and as the pos-
sessions of the former adjoined to those of the latter, or lay
contiguous to them on many points, they were at no loss for
opportunities of exercising their enmity " according to the custom of
the Marches." In the seventeenth century the greater part of the
property lying upon the river Ettrick belonged to Scott of Harden,
who made his principal residence at Oakwood Tower, a Border
house of strength still remaining upon that river. William Scott
(afterwards Sir William), son of the head of this family, undertook
an expedition against the Murrays of Elibank, whose property lay at
a few miles distant. He found his enemy upon their guard, was
defeated, and made prisoner in the act of driving off the cattle he
had collected for that purpose. Sir Gideon Murray conducted his
prisoner to the castle, where his lady received him with congratula-
tions upon his victory, and inquiries concerning the fate to which
he destined his prisoner. •' The gallows," answered Sir Gideon — for
he is said already to have acquired the honour of knighthood — " to
the gallows with the marauder." " Hout, na, Sir Gideon," answered
the considerate matron, in her vernacular idiom ; " would you hang
the winsome young laird of Harden when you have three ill-
favoured daughters to marry?" " Right," answered the baron, who
catched at the idea, " he shall marry our daughter, Muckle-mouthed
Meg, or strap for it.' ' Upon this alternative being proposed to the
prisoner, he upon the first view of the case stoutly preferred the
gibbet to " Muckle-mouthed Meg," for such was the nickname of the
young lady, whose real name was Agnes. But at length, when he
was literally led forth to execution, and saw no other chance of

* See Life of Scoit, i. 345-50.

240 The Great Historic Families of Scotland. •

escape, he retracted his ungallant resolution, and preferred the typical
noose of matrimony to the literal cord of hemp. Such is the tradition
established in both families, and often jocularly referred to upon the
Borders. It may be necessary to add that Muckle-mouthed Meg and
her husband were a happy and loving pair, and had a large family.'
The common belief in the district was that all Meg's descend-
ants have inherited something of her characteristic feature. Sir
Walter Scott, who was one of them, certainly was no exception to
the rule. Lockhart states that the contract of marriage, executed
instantly on the parchment of a drum, is still in the charter-chest
of Sir Walter Scott's representative. Mr. Fraser, who carefully
examined the document, declares that * the marriage of young
Harden and Agnes Murray, instead of being a hurried business,
was arranged very leisurely, and with great care, calmness, and
deliberation by all the parties interested, including the two princi-
pals, the bridegroom and bride, and the parents on either side.
Instead of one contract, as is usual in such cases, there were two
separate and successive contracts, made at an interval of several
months, before the marriage was finally arranged.' The first
contract bears date at Edinburgh, i8th February, 161 1. In it
young Harden and Agnes Murray agree to solemnise their marriage
in the face of Christ's Kirk, within two months and a half
after the date of the contract. Stipulations are made in the docu-
ment for the infeftment, by Walter Scott, of his son and his
promised spouse, and their heirs male, in the lands of Harden and
other lands belonging to Walter and William Scott ; and Sir Gideon
Murray on his part becomes bound to pay to William Scott the sum
of seven thousand merks as tocher with his daughter. The contract
is subscribed by Sir Gideon Murray, William Scott, and ' Agnes
Murray,' all good signatures. But as Auld Wat of Harden could
not write, his subscription is thus given : ' Walter Scott of Harden,
with my hand at the pen, led be the notaries vnderwritten at my
command, becus I can not wryt.' The marriage however did not
take place at the time specified in the contract, a failure which is
not accounted for, and a second contract was made at the Provost's
Place of Creichtoun, on the 14th of July, 161 1, in terms similar to
those of the original contract. Taking all these circumstances into
account, Mr. Fraser considers himself entitled to regard the story of
' Muckle-mouthed Meg' as a myth.*

* Scotts of Bucckuch, i. Ixx.

The Scotts of Harden. 241

The existence and the terms of these two contracts no doubt show
that the marriage of young Harden and Agnes Murray was not a
hastily-settled affair, regulated by a contract ' executed instantly on
the parchment of a drum ; ' but it is difficult to believe that a story so
minute and circumstantial in its details could have been entirely
fictitious. Myths are of slow growth, and have always some fact as
a foundation. Sir William Scott died in 1655. The eldest son of
'Little Sir William ' survived till 1707, and his second son lived
three years longer. Sir Walter Scott was born in 1771, and the story
must have been in circulation and universally credited long before his
day. Is it not possible and probable that Sir William vScott was
' handfasted ' to Agnes Murray in some such circumstances as are
narrated by his descendant, the poet ? And may not the delay in
solemnizing the marriage, necessitating the formation of a second
contract, have been caused by the reluctance of ' the handsomest
man of his time ' to marry an ill-favoured bride ?

Sir William Scott had by Agnes Murray five sons and three
daughters. The eldest "son, called 'Little Sir William,' was
knighted by Charles IL immediately after the Restoration. The
second was Sir Gideon of Highchester, whose posterity carried on
the line of the family. Walter, the third son, called ' Watty Wud-
spurs' (or Mad-spurs), figures characteristically in the ballad of
' Jamie Telfer.' He was the ancestor of the Scotts of Raeburn.
The fourth son was James of Thirlestaine ; and from John of Woll,
the fifth son, the family of Woll are descended.

Sir William Scott, fifth Baron of Harden, the son of ' Little Sir
William,' was implicated in the rebellion of the Earl of Argyll, but
he obtained a remission 12th December, 1685. He died without
issue in 1707, and was succeeded by his only brother, Robert,
styled of Iliston. He also had no issue, and was succeeded in 17 10
by his cousin, Walter, son of Sir Gideon Scolt of Highchester, who
was so deeply implicated in the intrigue for the marriage of his son
to the Countess of Buccleuch (seep. 214). As we have seen, he
was created by Charles II. Earl of Tarras and Lord Almoor and
Campcastill, * for the days of his natural life,' and this barren honour
was all that he gained by his marriage. He and his crafty, intriguing
father continued to press upon the King his claims for the sum of
;^ 1 20,000 Scots, which, under the marriage contract, was to be

VOL. II. M M

242 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

paid to him in the event of the Countess predeceasing- him within
a year and a day of the date of the contract. All his efforts,
however, were fruitless ; the marriage contract was reduced. An
agreement with the Earl and Countess of Wemyss, that 20,000
merks per annum should be secured to him by a decree of the
Court, came to nothing, as ' my Lady Wemyss, notwithstanding all
her promises and engagements, was not the least industrious in the
matter.' Both Monmouth and his Duchess, however, spoke to the
King for him, but he says, ' Truly the King, she found, was very
little inclined to favour me, for he said, " Is it not enough that I have
made him an Earle, though I doe no more?" and that the Duke
answered that I was the worse of that, since I had not whereupon to
maintain the post of an Earle, and that whate I pretended to was by
vertue of my contract of marriage, for it was a shame I should have
nothing upon that account. The King seemed not to notice much
that which the Duke spoke anent my contract of marriage ; but said
over again he had made me an Earle.' Under the influence of that
' hope deferred which maketh the heart sick ' the Earl determined to
leave the Court, and in September, 1 671, he wrote' to his father, 'In
a few days I am to parte homewarde, since I find my longer stay
hier will be in vain.' The unlucky husband of the Countess Mary
was certainly treated shabbily and unjustly, but at the same time
it is impossible to feel much sympathy for his disappointment.

The Earl of Tarras was connected with the plot for the exclusion
of the Duke of York from the Crown, and on its discovery he was
apprehended and tried for treason. He threw himself upon the
King's mercy, and confessed all that he knew of the plot, ' either of
himself or any other.' His evidence was made use of to procure the
condemnation of the eminent patriot, Robert Baillie of Jerviswood.
But his confession saved his own life, for, though he was brought to
trial 5th January, 1685, found guilty, and condemned to be executed,
the sentence was merely formal ; a remission was granted to him,
and he was set at liberty under a bond of;^3,ooo for his appearance
when called before the Privy Council.

The Earl of Tarras married as his second wife, 31st December,
1677, Helen, daughter of Thomas Hepburn of Humbie, and had
issue by her five sons and five daughters. Through that marriage
the estate of Humbie, in East Lothian, now belongs to Lord Pol-
warth, the head of the Harden family.

Lord Tarras was one of the first to take part in the Revolution of

The Scotts of Harden. 243

1688. He died in April, 1693, in the forty-ninth year of his age.
His life dignities of course became extinct. His estates were
inherited by his eldest son, Gideon Scott of Highchester, whose
two sons possessed in turn the family estates, and both died without
issue. Harden then devolved on their uncle, the second son of the
Earl of Tarras, who was four times married, and left two sons, the
elder of whom, Walter Scott, his heir, represented Roxburghshire in
Pariiament from 1747 to 1763, when he was appointed Receiver-
General of the Customs, or Cashier of the Excise, in Scotland. He
married Lady Diana Hume Campbell, youngest daughter of the
third Earl of Marchmont, the only one of the three that had issue.
He died in 1793. Lady Diana survived her husband the long
period of thirty-four years, and died in 1827, in the ninety-fourth year
of her age. * She had conversed in her early days,' says Lockhart,
• with the brightest ornaments of the cycle of Queen Anne, and pre-
served rich stores of anecdote, well calculated to gratify the
curiosity and excite the ambition of a young enthusiast in literature.
Lady Diana soon appreciated the minstrel of the clan, and sur-
viving to a remarkable age, she had the satisfaction of seeing
him at the height of his eminence — the solitary person who could
give the author of "Marmion" personal reminiscences of Pope.'
When this venerable lady died. Sir Walter Scott entered in his diary,
on the 22nd of July, ' Lady Diana Scott was the last person whom I
recollect so much older than myself, that she always kept at the
same distance, in point of age, so that she scarce seemed older to
me, relatively, two years ago, when in her ninety-second year, than
fifty years before. She was the daughter (alone remaining) of
Pope's Earl of Marchmont, and, like her father, had an acute mind
and an eager temper. She was always kind to me, remarkably so
indeed when I was a boy.'*

Hugh Scott, the son of- Mr. Walter Scott and Lady Diana,
eleventh Baron of Harden, was born in 1758. He was elected
member of Parliament for Berwickshire in 1780 — an honour which
lost him a fine estate. {See vol. i. 404.) He married, in 1795,
Harriet, daughter of Hans Maurice, Count de Bruhl, Saxon ambas-
sador at the British Court. Sir Walter Scott, then a young man,
was introduced to this lady shortly after marriage, and she gave him
great assistance in his translations from the German. He used to
* ScotCs Life, vii. 48. Ibid, i. 248.

244 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

say that ' she was the first woman of real fashion that took him up ; that
she used the privilege of her sex and station in the truest spirit of
kindness, set him right as to a thousand little trifles which no one
else could have ventured to notice, and, in short, did for him what
no one but an elegant woman can do for a young man whose early ■
days have been spent in narrow and provincial circles.' She con-
tinued through life his attached friend, and the letters which he
wrote to her (the last of them from Naples, 6th March, 1 83 2) show
how cordially he reciprocated her esteem and regard. Of Harden
himself, Sir Walter wrote to the Duke of Buccleuch, in 18 17, 'I have
known Harden long, and most intimately — a more respectable man,
either for feeling, or talent, or knowledge of human life, is rarely to
be met with.'

Mr. Scott succeeded in recovering, in 1835, t^^ Barony of Polwarth,
which had been conferred on his maternal ancestor, Sir Patrick Hume,
in 1690. Seven years later. Sir Patrick was created Earl of March-
mont and Viscount Blasonberry, and also, for the second time, Baron
Polwarth. These honours were restricted to his heirs male, and their
heirs male, and the heirs male of the family, but the first Barony of
Polwarth was to descend to the heirs male of the first peer, and to
their heirs. This destination of the peerage was long overlooked,
and while various efforts were made, without success, to recover the
earldom of Marchmont, it was not until many years after the death
of the third Earl that attention was directed to the difference in dis-
tinction between the first and the second Barony of Polwarth. Mr.
Scott presented a petition to the House of Lords, claiming the first
barony as grandson and nearest heir-of-line to the last Earl of March-
mont, and had his claim allowed in 1835. Lord Polwarth died 28 th
December, 1841, and was succeeded by his eldest son —

Henry Francis Hepburn Scott, fifth Baron Polwarth, who was
born on ist January, 1800. He assumed the name of Hepburn, on
inheriting the estates of the Hepburns of Humbie, which descended
to him through Helen Hepburn, the second wife of the Earl of
Tarras. Lord Polwarth married, in 1835, Georgina Baillie, daughter
of George Baillie of Jerviswood, a descendant of the illustrious
patriot and Covenanter, who suffered the loss of life and estate
for ' the Good Old Cause ' in the time of ' the Persecution.' Lord
Polwarth held the office of Lord-Lieutenant and Sheriff-Prin-
cipal of Selkirkshire, and was for many years one of the sixteen

The Scotts of Harden. 245

representative peers of Scotland. He was universally esteemed
and respected throughout the Border counties, and his death,
in 1867, caused wide and deep regret. The testimony, which
the Duke of Buccleuch gave at the annual meeting of the Com-
missioners of Supply for the county of Roxburgh, to the personal
worth of Lord Polwarth, was cordially concurred in by all parties
and all classes. ' For upwards of forty years,' said the Duke, ' he was
one of the most indefatigable, most useful, and most attentive mem-
bers of the various bodies connected with the county, and spared
neither time nor trouble in the discharge of his manifold duties. His
fine character as a gentleman stood as high as it was possible for
any man's character to stand. For my own part, I feel that I have
lost in Lord Polwarth one of my oldest and most steadfast friends,
for whom I have always entertained the most affectionate regard.'

Lord Polwarth was succeeded by his eldest son, Walter Hugh
Hepburn Scott, sixth Baron Polwarth, who was born in 1838.
His lordship holds the office, formerly held by his father, of Lord-
Lieutenant and Sheriff-Principal of Selkirkshire.

The Scotts of Raeburn are descended from Walter, third son
of Sir William Scott, grandson of ' Auld Wat ' of Harden. Their
chief claim to be kept in remembrance is based on the fact that Sir
Walter Scott, the illustrious poet and novelist, belonged to the
Raeburn family. Lockhart says ' Christie Steele's brief character
of Croftangry's ancestry appears to suit well all that we have on
record concerning Scott's immediate progenitors of the stubborn
race of Raeburn : " They werena ill to the poor folk, and that is aye
something; they were just decent, bein bodies. Any poor creature
that had face to beg got an awmous, and welcome ; they that were
shamefaced gaed by, and twice as welcome. But they keepit an
honest walk before God and man, and as I said before, if they did
little good, they did little ill. They lifted their rents and spent
them, called in their kain and eat them ; gaed to the kirk of a
Sunday ; bowed civilly if folk tuk aff their bonnets as they gaed by,
and lookit as black as sin at them that keepit them on." ' *

At the Restoration, the first laird of Raeburn and his wife, a
daughter of William MacDougal of Makerston, became Quakers,
and were in consequence subjected to severe persecution by the
tyrannical and oppressive Government of that day. Raeburn was

* Life of Scott, vii. 87.

246 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

first Imprisoned in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, and was afterwards
conveyed to the jail of Jedburgh, where his wife was incarcerated.
No one was allowed to have access to them, except such persons as
might be likely to convert them from their Quaker principles.
Their children were taken from them by an edict of the Privy
Council, in order that they might not be infected with the heresy of
their parents, and the laird was ordered to pay ^2,000 Scots for
their maintenance. ' It appears,' says Sir Walter Scott, ' that the
laird of Makerston, his brother-in-law, joined with Raeburn's own
brother Harden in this singular persecution. It was observed
by the people that the male line of the second Sir William of Har-
den, became extinct in 17 10, and that the representation of Maker-
ston soon passed into the female line. They assigned, as a cause,
that when the wife of Raeburn found herself deprived of her
husband, and refused permission even to see her children, she
pronounced a malediction on her husband's brother and her own, and
prayed that a male of their body might not inherit their property.'

Raeburn's eldest son, William, at the age of twenty-four, fell in
a duel with Pringle of Crichton, which was fought with swords, near
Selkirk, in 1707. The second son, Walter, received a good
education at the University of Glasgow. He was a zealous Jacobite,
and was called ' Beardie,' from a vow which he had made never to
shave his beard till the exiled royal family were restored. Sir
Walter Scott says of him ' that it would have been well if his zeal for
the banished dynasty of Stewart had stopped with his letting his
beard grow. But he took arms, and intrigued in their cause, until
he lost all he had in the world, and, as I have heard, ran a narrow
risk of being hanged, had it not been for the interference of Anne,
Duchess of Buccleuch and Monmouth.'

In the introduction to the sixth canto of ' Marmion,' Sir Walter

describes his ' great-grandsire ' —

' With amber beard, and flaxen hair,
And reverend apostolic air,'

as having been loyal, to his cost : —

' The banished race of Kings revived.
And lost his land — but kept his beard.'

Robert Scott, Beardie' s second son, was Sir Walter Scott's grand-
father.

The ScoTTs OF Thirlstane are represented in the male line by
Lord Napier of Ettrick.

HEPBURNS OF BOTHWELL.

THE HEPBURNS.

BEPBURN is the name of an old and powerful family located
on the Eastern Marches, and noted throughout the whole
history of Scotland for their turbulence, and, not un-
frequently, for their disloyalty. Their designation is said
to have been derived from a place called Hepborne, or Hayborn, in
Northumberland, from which Adam Hepburn, the founder of the
family, came, in the reign of David II. He is said to have received
grants of various lands in East Lothian from the Earl of March, the
descendant of the Northumbrian Prince Cospatrick, and the head
of the great family of Dunbar. The lands of North Hailes and
Traprane were conferred upon him by Robert Bruce, which shows
that he must have fought on the patriotic side in the War of Inde-
pendence. His eldest son, Sir Patrick Hepburn of Hailes,
distinguished himself by his bravery at the battle of Otterburn
(1388), in which his son Patrick, styled by Fordun, • Miles magnani-
mus, et athleta bellicosus,' also took part. In 1402, in the lifetime
of his father, the younger Hepburn commanded a body of Borderers
who made a hostile incursion into England, but were intercepted on
their return by the Earl of Northumberland and the Earl of March,
who had turned traitor to his king and country, and, after a stub-
born conflict, the Scots were defeated, and Hepburn and other East
Lothian barons were among the slain. His eldest son. Sir Adam
Hepburn, took a prominent part in public affairs, and when the
estates of the Dunbar and March family were forfeited, in 1435, he
was made constable of the important fortress of Dunbar. In the
following year he was present at the battle of Piperden, in which the
Earl of Angus defeated the Earl of Northumberland, and took Sir
Robert Ogle prisoner, with most of his followers. Sir Adam's eldest
son. Sir Patrick Hepburn, was created a peer of Parliament in

VOL. II. N n

248 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

1456, by the title of Lord Hales. His son Adam, the second Lord,
who married the eldest daughter of the first Lord Home, was by no
means a pattern of loyalty and obedience to the law ; and, in alliance
with his kinsmen, the Homes, took his share in the broils and
feuds which disturbed the peace of the country in the unfortunate
reign of James III. The minor branches of the Hepburn family had
by this time spread themselves through East Lothian and Berwick-
shire, and some of them, such as the Hepburns of Waughton * and
Whitsome, had become powerful. George, the third son of the
second Lord Hales, was Provost of Bothwell and Lincluden, Abbot
of Aberbrothock, High Treasurer of Scotland in 1509, and, in the
following year, Commendator both of Aberbrothock and Icolmkill.
He fell, along with the Archbishop of St. Andrews, and several other
ecclesiastical dignitaries, at the battle of Flodden, in 15 13. John,
the fourth son of Lord Hales, was Prior of St. Andrews, and the
founder, in 1512, of St. Leonard's College in that ancient city. The
fifth son, James, was first rector of Dairy and Parton ; then, in 15 15,
he was elected Abbot of Dunfermline. In the same year he was
appointed Lord High Treasurer, and, in 15 16, he was elected Bishop
of Moray. The fact that so many important offices were conferred
upon his younger sons is conclusive evidence of the great influence
to which the head of the Hepburn family had now attained.

Patrick Hepburn, third Lord Hales and first Earl of Bothwell,
raised the family to a position in the foremost rank of the great
barons of Scotland. He had the command of the castle of Berwick
in 1482, and, after the town had surrendered, he held out the fortress
with great bravery against a powerful English army, commanded
by the Duke of Gloucester (afterwards Richard III.), and the Duke
of Albany, King James's brother. Lord Hales was one of the leaders
in the rebellion against that unfortunate monarch, which was caused
to some extent by his annexation, to the chapel royal of Stirling, of
the rich temporalities of the priory of Coldingham, which the Homes
had come to regard as virtually belonging to their family. The
selfish and unpatriotic disaffected nobles entered into negotiations
with Henry VII. of England to betray their country in order to

* Sir John Hepburn, the famous soldier, belonged to the Hepburns of Athelstane-
ford, a branch of the Waughton family. He fought with great distinction under
Gustavus Adolphus, and afterwards entered the French service, in which he attained
the rank of field-marshal. He was killed at the siege of Saverne, 21st June, 1636.

The Hepburns. 2li^<^

promote their own interests, and obtained for that purpose a safe-
conduct to England; but the dissensions between them and the
King- came so rapidly to a crisis that no use was made of it.

Lord Hales commanded the vanguard of the rebel forces at the
battle of Sauchieburn (June 1 1, 1488), in which King James lost his
life. On the surrender of the castle of Edinburgh a few days after
this conflict, the custody of that important fortress was committed to
Lord Hales, with three hundred merks of the customs of that city.
As the government of the country was entirely in the hands of the
victorious party, honours, offices, and estates were showered upon
the person who had contributed so largely to their success. He
was appointed Sheriff- Principal of the county of Edinburgh, Master
of the Household, and High Admiral of Scotland for life. He
obtained a charter of the lands of Crichton Castle and other estates
in the counties of Edinburgh and Dumfries, along with the lordship
of Bothwell, in Lanarkshire, of which Sir John Ramsay, a favourite
of the late King, had been deprived. He was also created (17th
October, 1488) Earl of Bothwell, a title which had been borne by
Ramsay. Shortly after he obtained a grant of the office of Steward
of Kirkcudbright, and of the custody of Thrieve Castle, the strong-
hold of the Black Douglases, with its feus. On the 29th of May
of the following year, his covetousness being still unsatiated, the
Earl and his uncle, John Hepburn, Prior of St. Andrews, received a
lease of the lordship of Orkney and Shetland, and were made
custodians of the castle of Stirling. A few weeks later he was
appointed Warden of the West and Middle Marches. On the
slaughter of Spens of Kilspindie, by Archibald Bell-the-Cat, Earl of
Angus, the King compelled Angus, before he would pardon him for
this crime, to exchange the lordship of Liddesdale and the castle of
Hermitage for the barony and castle of Bothwell, which was a
considerable diminution to the greatness and power of the Doug-
lases, and added not a little to the influence and importance of the
Hepburn family.

Lord Hales was repeatedly appointed ambassador to the courts of
France, Spain, and England in connection with the negotiations for
the marriage of the young King ; and when all arrangements were at
length concluded, and the Princess Margaret, eldest daughter of
Henry VIL, was married by proxy to James IV., at Richmond (January
27th, 1503), the Earl of Bothwell officiated as the representative of
the King. He was honoured also to bear the sword of state before

250 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

his Majesty when he received his young queen, and escorted her into
the capital. The Earl died about 1507. Of his three sons by Lady
Janet Douglas, only daughter of the first Earl of Morton, he was
succeeded by Adam, the eldest. John, the second, became Bishop
of Brechin in 1517 ; and Patrick, the third, succeeded his uncle as
Prior of St. Andrews. He held for three years (1524 — 27) the office
of Secretary of State, and, in 1535, was consecrated Bishop of
Moray, and was allowed to hold in fcommendam the abbacy of Scone.
He was one of those prelates whose licentious conduct brought
great discredit on their sacred office, and contributed largely to the
downfall of the Romish system in Scotland. He had no fewer than
nine natural children — seven sons and two daughters — who were
legitimatised under the Great Seal in 1533, 1545, and 1550. When
he saw the Reformation at hand, he made liberal provision for
them by feuing out all the lands belonging to the see.

Adam Hepburn, second Earl of Bothwell, succeeded his father in
his office of High Admiral, as well as in his titles and extensive
estates, but did not long enjoy them. He commanded the reserve,
consisting of the men of Lothian, at the fatal battle of Flodden,
where he fell along with many of his kinsmen, and the chivalry of the
Borders. When the result of the fight was still in doubt, the Earl
advanced to the support of his sovereign, and attacked the enemy
with such vigour as to put the standard of the Earl of Surrey in
imminent danger. An ancient English poet describes Bothwell as
having distinguished, himself by his furious attempt to re£rieve the
fortunes of the day.

' Then on the Scottish part, right proud

The Earl of Bothwell then outbrast,
And, stepping forth with stomach good,

Into the enemies' throng he thrast ;
And Bothwell 1 Bothwell I cried bold.

To cause his soldiers to ensue ;
But there he caught a welcome cold,

The Englishmen straight down him threw.
Thus Haburn through his hardy heart

His fatal force in conflict found.'

Earl Adam left one son, by a natural daughter of the Earl of Buchan,
brother-uterine of James II.

Patrick, third Earl of Bothwell, was an infant only a few months
old at the time of his father's death. Brought up among a turbu-

The Hepburns. 251

lent nobility, during the unsettled state of the country in the
minority of James V., it need excite no surprise that at an early age
he was involved in the feuds that prevailed in the Marches. In 1528,
when he was in the sixteenth year of his age, a remission was granted
to him and a number of his kinsmen by the Duke of Albany, the
Regent, for treasonably assisting Lord Home, Home of Wedderburn,
and their retainers, who were at that time proclaimed rebel's to the
sovereign. A few months later he was committed to prison by the
King for protecting the Border freebooters. After six months' con-
finement, he was released, on security being given by his friends to
the amount of twenty tliousand pounds. We next find him, in
December, 1531, paying a secret visit to England, and holding
a treasonable conference with the Earl of Northumberland, who wrote
of him to King Henry in high terms, describing him as ' of person-
age, wit, learning, and manners, of his years as toward and as goodly
a gentleman as I ever saw in my life, and to my simple understanding
he is very meet to serve your Highness in any thing that shall be
your most gracious pleasure to command him withal.' His intrigues,
however, were discovered, and on his return to Scotland he was
apprehended by the orders of the King and confined in the castle of
Edinburgh, where he seems to have remained for a considerable
time. Liddesdale, where a large portion of Bothwell's estates lay, had
long been the headquarters of the Border freebooters, who were
harboured and protected by the nobles to serve their own purposes.
King James saw clearly that it would be impossible to maintain peace
in that lawless district until it was placed under royal authority. He
therefore, in September, 1538, compelled the Earl of Bothwell to
resign his lordship to the Crown. It would appear that the Earl was
at the same time banished the kingdom, and he is said to have taken
up his residence at Venice. In 1542 he was in England, and, like
not a few of his unprincipled and unpatriotic class at that time, he
engaged in treasonable negotiations with Henry VIII., and it was no
doubt owing to the discovery of his treason that the barony of Both-
well and his other estates were annexed to the Crown.

The Earl returned to Scotland after the death of King James (13th
December, 1542), and immediately became one of the prominent
supporters of Cardinal Beaton and the Roman Catholic party in the
kingdom. He, and the other Popish nobles, demanded that the
Cardinal should be set at liberty by the Governor, Arran, and that the
ordinance allowing the New Testament to be read in the vulgar tongue

252 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

by the people should be rescinded. These demands were refused,
and the faction having been charged on pain of treason to return to
their allegiance, durst not disobey, but gave in their adherence to the
Governor. Bothwell, at the meeting of the Estates in 1543, issued a
summons of reduction of the deed of resignation of the lordship of
Liddesdale and castle of Hermitage, and succeeded in obtaining the
restitution of his estates. Sir Ralph Sadler, who found the Earl in
possession of Liddesdale when he visited Scotland in 1 543 , to negotiate
a marriage between the infant Queen Mary and Prince Edward of
England, says, ' As to the Earl of Bothwell, who hath the rule of
Liddesdale, I think him the most vain and insolent man in the world,
full of pride and folly, and here nothing at all esteemed.' Bothwell
was prominent and active in all the intrigues and movements of the
Roman Catholic party at this juncture, for the purpose of prevent-
ing the alliance with England, and in supporting the claims of the
Queen-mother, Mary of Guise, to the regency, in the room of Arran.
He was the rival of the Earl of Lennox in a suit for her hand, and
competed with him in his efforts to gain her favour by the magnifi-
cence of his apparel and his skill in the exercises of chivalry. He is
described by Pittscottie as at this time ' fair and whitely, something
hanging shouldered, and went something forward, with gentle and
humane countenance.'

Bothwell allowed himself to be made the tool of Cardinal Beaton
in delivering into his hands George Wishart, the martyr, in January,
1546. The Cardinal's influence had now become paramount in the
country, and Wishart, knowing well the inveteracy of the Romish
priests against him, was aware that he was in imminent danger. At
Haddington he could not obtain an audience even of a hundred, for
' the Earl of Bothwell, who had great credit and obedience, by pro-
curement of Cardinal Beaton, had given inhibition to both town and
country that they should in no wise give an ear to the heretical doc-
trine, under the pain of his displeasure.' On leaving Haddington,
Wishart refused to allow John Knox to accompany him, bidding him
return to his pupils, for one was enough at this time for a sacrifice.
He was spending the night at Ormiston, the seat of Cockburn, a
zealous member of the Reforming party. At midnight the house
was surrounded by a body of armed men, under the Earl of Bothwell,
who summoned the inmates to deliver up Wishart, pledging his
honour at the same time for the safety of his person, and confirming
this assurance by an oath. Resistance was hopeless, and Wishart at

The Hepburns. 253

once exclaimed, * Open the gates ; the blessed will of my Lord be
done.' He was immediately seized, mounted on horseback, and con-
veyed to Elphinstone Tower, only a mile distant, where Cardinal
Beaton was then residing, Bothwell all the time assuring him that his
life and person would be perfectly safe, and that he would either pro-
cure him a fair trial, or set him at liberty. From Elphinstone Tower
Wishart was conveyed to Edinburgh, and thence to Bothwell' s house
at Hailes. It is alleged that Bothwell wished to protect his prisoner
from injury, but that the Cardinal and the Queen-Dowager induced
him to violate his pledge, and to deliver Wishart up to Beaton, who
transferred him to St. Andrews, and speedily brought him to the
stake. There is no reason to believe that Bothwell ever repented of
his breach of faith, and complicity in this foul deed, but it was pleaded
for him that he only yielded to the authority of the Governor and
Council, before whom he was brought on the 19th of January, 1546,
and commanded, under the highest penalties, to deliver up his
prisoner. There is no reason to doubt that this order was issued
merely for the purpose of affording Bothwell an excuse for his viola-
tion of his solemn promise.

Notwithstanding his ready compliance with the wishes of the
Cardinal, Bothwell was soon after again committed to prison, in all
probability in consequence of his intrigues with England, and did
not obtain his release until after the battle of Pinkie, i oth September,
1547. He immediately waited upon the Duke of Somerset, the
commander of the invading army, and there can be little doubt that
he then gave in his adherence to the English cause. He is described
as ' a gentleman of a right comely porte and stature, and heretofore
of right honourable and just meaning and dealing towards the King's
Majesty (Henry VIII.), whom therefore, my Lord's Grace did accord-
ing to his degree and merits very friendly welcome and maintain.'
There was good reason why the Earl received a cordial welcome
from the ruthless English invaders, for it has been ascertained that
he had gone over wholly to their side. An instrument, dated at
Westminster, 3rd September, 1549, sets forth that King Edward had
taken the Earl of Bothwell under his protection and favour, granting
him a yearly rent of three thousand crowns, and the wages of a hundred
horsemen for the defence of his person, and the annoyance of the
enemy ; and, if he should lose his lands in Scotland in the English
King's service for the space of three years, promising to give him
lands of equal value in England. There are good grounds for believing

2 54 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

that the traitorous noble spent the remainder of his life in exile, and
that he died in 1556. He left a son, who succeeded him in the family
title and estates, and a daughter. The latter became the wife of
John Stewart, Prior of Coldingham, a natural son of James V.,
to whom she bore Francis Stewart, the turbulent Earl of Bothwell
who so often disturbed the peace of the country during the reign of
James VI.

James Hepburn, fourth Earl of Bothwell, whose foul crimes
have stamped his memory with infamy, was born about the year
1536. His early years were spent in the castle of Spynie, near Elgin,
with his granduncle, Patrick Hepburn, Bishop of Moray, a prelate
who was conspicuous, even at that immoral period, for the neglect of
the duties of his office, and his gross licentiousness. James Hep-
burn was only in his nineteenth or twentieth year when his father
died, and he succeeded him not only in the family titles and estates,
including the strong fortresses of Bothwell, Crichton and Hailes, but
also in his hereditary offices of Lord High Admiral of Scotland,
Sheriff of the counties of Berwick, Haddington, and Midlothian, and
Bailiff of Lauderdale. He was thus the most powerful nobleman in
the south of Scotland. This 'glorious, rash, and hazardous young
man,' as he is styled by Walsingham, was, from his youth upwards,
the cause of strife and discord in the country, and of trouble to the
public authorities. Though he professed to be a Protestant, he
espoused the cause of the Queen Regent against the Lords of the
Congregation, and showed himself utterly unscrupulous in the means
he adopted to promote her interests. In 1558, though little more
than of age, he was appointed by her Lieutenant-General of the
Middle Marches, and keeper of Hermitage Castle, which added
largely to his already overgrown power. In October, 1559, having
learned that Cockburn of Ormiston had received four thousand
crowns from Sir Ralph Sadler, for the use of the Protestant party,
Bothwell waylaid and wounded him, and robbed him of the money.
On receiving intelligence of this gross outrage, the Earl of Arran,
the Governor, and Lord James Stewart (afterwards Regent Moray)
immediately went to Bothwell' s house in Haddington, with a body
of soldiers, to apprehend the depredator; but, a few minutes before
they reached the place, he received intelligence of their approach and
fled down the bed of the river Tyne, which is closely adjoining, and
took refuge in the house of Cockburn of Sandybed. Entering by

The Hepburns. 255

the back door, which opened to the river, he changed clothes with
the turnspit and performed the duties of that menial. In return for
the protection afforded him in this extremity, Bothwell gave to
Cockburn and his heirs a perpetual ground annual of four bolls of
wheat, four bolls of barley, and four bolls of oats, to be paid yearly
out of the lands of Mainshill, near Haddington. These quantities of
grain continued to be paid to Cockburn's heirs till the year 1760,
when his estate was sold by his descendant to Mr. Buchan of Lethem ;
and he shortly after disposed of the ground annual to the Earl of
Wemyss, who was then proprietor of Mainshill.

Bothwell was one of the nobles who waited upon Queen Mary in
France, in the year 1561, and must, even at that time, have been a
person of some political importance, for, on his departure from France,
Throckmorton wrote to Queen Elizabeth : ' The said Earl is departed
suddenly from this realm to return to Scotland by Flanders, and hath
made boast that he will do great things, and live in Scotland in
despite of all men. He is glorious, boastful, rash, and hazardous,
and therefore it were meet that his adversaries should both give an
eye to him, and keep him short.' Darker traits speedily showed
themselves in Bothwell's character. He became restless and turbu-
lent, and made violent attacks on other barons, hatched conspiracies
against the Government, and was at length imprisoned, and then
banished the kingdom, for a conspiracy against the Earl of Moray.
He was allowed to return home in 1565 ; but, on May 2nd of that
year, he was proclaimed a rebel and put to the horn for not appear-
ing to answer for an accusation of high treason, in conspiring to
seize the person of the young Queen. He was charged with having
proposed to the Earl of Arran to carry her off to the castle of
Dumbarton, ' and thair keep her surelie, or otherwyse demayne hir
person at your plesour, quhill sche aggre to quhatsumevir thing yo
shall desyre.' It thus appears that Bothwell's abduction of the
Queen at Cramond Bridge, in 1567, was no new project.

The private life of the young noble was as profligate as his public
conduct was treasonable and violent. The Earl of Bedford wrote of
him to Cecil, * I assure you Bothwell is as naughty a man as liveth,'
and accused him of crimes of which 'it is a shame even to speak.'
There were scandalous reports widely spread respecting his con-
nection with a certain Lady Reres, and her sister Janet Beaton, both
disreputably associated at a later period with Queen Mary arfd him.

It has quite recently been discovered by Professor Schiern of

VOL. II. o o

256 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

Copenhagen,* that during Bothwell's exile on the Continent he had
formed a connection with Anna, a daughter of Christopher Thron-
desson, a Norwegian nobleman, and one of the admirals of
Christian III. This lady complained that Bothwell ' had taken her
from her father's land and paternal home, and led her into a foreign
country away from her parents, and would not hold her as his lawful
wife, which he with hand, and mouth, and letters, had promised both
them and her to do.' It appears that the young lady accompanied
Bothwell from Denmark to the Netherlands, but was there aban-
doned by her villainous betrayer, and reduced to such straits that she
was obliged to dispose of her jewels. She seems afterwards to have
made her way to Scotland, where she resided for some time, and to
have finally returned in the year 1563 to her own country, where the
Earl, in after years, and in very strange circumstances, once more
encountered his deserted wife.

When Queen Mary and her brother, the Earl of Moray, quarrelled
in consequence of her marriage with Darnley, and Moray was
driven out of the kingdom and compelled to take refuge in England,
Bothwell, ' the enemy of all honest men,' as he was justly termed,
was recalled from his exile, and received into favour. He was
shortly after appointed Warden of the Three Marches, an office
never before held by one person, was restored to his office of High
Admiral, and received grants of the abbeys of Haddington and
Melrose, and of extensive Crown lands. His influence at Court
speedily became paramount, and all favours and preferments passed
through his hands. In the autumn of 1566 he was commissioned
to suppress some disturbances which had arisen among the free-
booters in Liddesdale, and was severely wounded (7th October) in
an encounter with one of them named Elliot of Park. The Queen,
who was then holding a justice court at Jedburgh, on hearing of
Bothwell's wound, rode to Hermitage Castle, where he lay — a
distance of twenty miles, through an almost impassable district — and
returned on the same day. Her rapid journey, fatigue, and anxiety
threw her into a fever, which nearly cost her her life.

It is not possible to point out the precise period at which Bothwell's
plot for the murder of Mary's husband had its origin ; but, in all
probability, it must have been shortly after the Queen left Jedburgh
(7th November) for Coldingham, Dunbar, and Tantallan, accom-

* Life_ of James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell. By Frederick Schiern, Professor of
History in the University of Copenhagen.

The Hepburns. 257

panied by the Earl. It is certain that the ' band ' for the murder of
Darnley was signed by Bothwell and his associates in the month of
December following. This flagitious plot was carried into effect on
the gth of February, 1567. The whole circumstances connected
with the deed were, of course, not known at the moment ; but no
doubt was entertained that Bothwell was the murderer of the ill-
fated prince. He was denounced by name in public placards, and
vengeance was loudly demanded on him and his accomplices; but,
notwithstanding, he continued as much as ever in favour with the
Queen, and was for some time the only one of her nobles who had
access to her presence. On the 21st of February he accompanied
her to Seton Castle, where they remained until the loth of March,
when they returned to Holyrood. On the 19th of March, Mary
conferred upon Bothwell the command of Edinburgh Castle, along
with other marks of her favour. On the 24th of the same month he
again accompanied the Queen to Seton, and stayed with her till the
loth of April. His mock trial for the murder of Darnley, and
acquittal, his obtaining from the leading nobility a bond recom-
mending him as a suitable husband for the Queen, his divorce from
his Countess, Lady Jean Gordon ;* his elevation to the rank of
Duke of Orkney and Shetland ; his collusive seizure of the person
of the Queen ; his marriage to Mary amid mingled horror and indig-
nation on the part of the people, followed by his coarse and brutal
treatment of the ill-fated princess; the confederacy of the nobles for
the protection of her infant son against the machinations of this bold,
bad man ; his flight along with Mary to Dunbar ; his march to
Carberry Hill to meet the confederate barons, and his final separa-

* The marriage between Bothwell and Lady Jean Gordon was dissolved by the
Consistorial Court of St. Andrews, presided over by Hamilton, the Primate of the
Roman Catholic Church, on the plea that they were related within the prohibited
degrees, and that they had married without a papal dispensation. But a dispensation
had in reality been obtained, as was confidently asserted at the time. That document
was issued on the t7th of February, 1566, only fifteen months before the marriage of
Mary and Bothwell, by the prelate who declared the prior marriage null and void, with
the authority of Legate a latere. It is undeniable, therefore, that according to the law
of the Romish church, Mary was never really married to Bothwell. When it is taken
into account that the Queen was the most intimate friend of Lady Jean Gordon, that
she took a special and personal superintendence of the arrangements for her marriage,
that hers is the first signature to the marriage contract, that she made a gift to the
bride of her marriage dress, and that she and Darnley were at the expense of the first
day's feast on the occasion of the wedding, it is difficult to believe that Mary was
ignorant of the fact that a dispensation had been granted. The advocates of the
Queen have always denied that this could have been the case, but the document was
recently found by Dr. Stuart in the charter-chest at Dunrobin.

258 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

tion there from the Queen, succeeded each other with startling
rapidity. Bothwell's subsequent career has hitherto been but
imperfectly known, and various conflicting but erroneous accounts
have been given of the closing years of his flagitious and miserable
life. The laborious researches of Professor Schiern have at length
brought the whole circumstances to light.

It appears that on leaving Dunbar, to which he fled from Carberry
Hill, Bothwell had only two small vessels with him, but on reaching
Shetland he persuaded two Bremen merchants, who happened to be
there at that time, to give him the command of two of their ships, along
with the crews, on condition that he was to pay them a certain sum
as long as he retained their ships in his service, and compensation if
they were lost or not returned. His four vessels were lying at anchor
in Bressay Sound, and part of their crews, along with Bothwell him-
self, had gone on shore, when four Scottish ships, commanded by
Kirkcaldy of Grange and Murray of Tullibardine, who had been sent
in pursuit of the murderer of Darnley, hove in sight. Bothwell's
men, on the approach of their enemies, cut their cables and took to
flight. It has hitherto been supposed that Bothwell was on board
one of these vessels, and that he escaped capture only by the accident
that the Unicorn, Kirkcaldy's ship, struck upon a rock, and went
down, just as it was on the point of overtaking his vessel. Professor
Schiern has, however, shown that Bothwell made his escape unob-
served across Yell Sound and the island of Yell, and was taken on
board one of his ships at Unst. Shortly after, his pursuers came up
with him, and a battle ensued which lasted for several hours. One of
the Earl's ships had its mainmast carried away by a cannon-shot, and
Bothwell owed his escape to an opportune gale, which separated the
combatants, and drove the ship which carried him, and one of its
comrades, far out on the North Sea. He succeeded, however, in
reaching the south-west coast of Norway, but he had scarcely cast
anchor in the Sound of Kharm, when the Danish warship, Bj'ornen,
appeared, the captain of which, Christian Aalborg, demanded to see
the ship's papers ; but none could be produced, Bothwell alleging
that ' he whose duty it was to issue such papers in Scotland was now
in close confinement.' Captain Aalborg, finding, as he said, these
two ' Scottish Pinker, without any passport, safe-conduct, orcommis-
sions, which honest seafaring people commonly use, and are in duty
bound to have,' determined to carry them to Bergen. By a dexterous
stratagem he contrived to get a portion of Bothwell's men on board

The Hepburns, 259

his own ship, and another portion on shore, and thus rendered resis-
tance hopeless. Bothwell on this made himself known to the Danish
Admiral, who had some difficulty in believing that the man whom he
saw, ' attired in old torn coarse boatswain's clothes, was the highest
of the rulers in all Scotland.'

In spite of his remonstrances, the Earl was conveyed to Bergen
Castle, where he was hospitably entertained by the commandant,
but, to his surprise and dismay, had a prosecution immediately
raised against him by Anna Throndesson, the lady whom he had
so basely deserted in the Netherlands, but who was now resident
in the neighbourhood of Bergen. On hearing of Bothwell's arrival,
she at once seized the opportunity of seeking redress for her
wrongs. She summoned the Earl before the Court, and read in
his presence the letters in which he had promised to marry her,
' Lady Anna being of opinion that this promise had been of no
weight in his eyes, since he had three wives alive — first, herself;
another in Scotland, from whom he had procured his freedom ; and
the last. Queen Mary.' Bothwell, in the end, succeeded in getting
this prosecution quashed by promising the injured lady an annuity to
be sent from Scodand, and handing over to her the smallest of his two
ships. He was peremptorily refused permission, however, to leave
the country ; and the discovery of a letter-case with papers, which he
had concealed in the ballast of his ship — among which was the patent
creating him Duke of Orkney, a letter from Queen Mary, ' in which
she bewailed herself and all her friends,' and ' divers letters both in
print and writing,' in which the Scottish Council accused him of the
murder of the King, and offered a reward for his apprehension —
made it clear that ' he had for no good reason withdrawn from his
native country.' The cautious governor, with the advice of certain
freemen and councillors, on this discovery resolved to send Bothwell,
along with these compromising documents, to Copenhagen. He
reached the Danish capital about the close of the autumn of 1567.
The King of Denmark, Frederick II., was absent in North Jutland at
the time of Bothwell's arrival, and he delayed coming to any decision
regarding his disposal till he himself, at the end of the year, returned
to Zealand. The Earl was speedily recognised by some Scottish
merchants at Copenhagen, and intelligence conveyed to the Govern-
ment respecting his place of refuge.

On the 15th December, Sir William Stewart, the Scottish herald,
appeared at the Danish Court, and delivered to Frederick a formal

26o The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

demand from the Regent Moray for the surrender of Darnley's
murderer. In this emergency the Earl proved himself, as Peter Oxe,
the High Steward, and John FriJs, one of the Danish councillors,
described him, in a document which still exists, ' very cunning and
inventive.' He affirmed that he had come to Denmark to ' declare
the cause of the Queen of Scotland, his royal Majesty's kinswoman,
and to desire his Majesty's good counsel and assistance for her
deliverance, as from the lord and prince on whom, both on account
of kinship and descent, as also on account of the ancient alliance
which has been between both kingdoms from time immemorial, she
altogether relies.' He pleaded that 'he had already in Scotland
been legally acquitted of this charge, that he was himself the real
regent of Scotland, that the Queen was his consort, and that his
opponents were, only rebels.' He addressed letters to Charles IX. of
France, declaring that he had left Scotland ' to lay before the Danish
king the wrongs to which his near relative, the Queen of Scotland,
had become a victim,' and entreated the French king * favourably to
take into account the goodwill with which through his whole life he
had striven, and would further strive, to be of service to him.' He
also solicited, and, it would appear succeeded, in securing the inter-
position in his behalf of Charles Dancay, the French ambassador
at the Court of Denmark. In the end, Frederick declined to
surrender Bothwell, but offered permission to the Scottish envoy
himself to prosecute the Earl in Denmark, for the crimes laid to his
charge — a course, however, which Sir William Stewart did not think
it expedient at that time to adopt. Meanwhile, orders were given
by the King that Bothwell should be removed from Copenhagen to
the castle of Malmoe, where he was confined in a large oblong
vaulted hall, strongly secured with iron-barred windows, which still
exist. During his residence in the castle of Copenhagen Bothwell
composed a detailed memoir of the transactions in Scotland that had
led to the dethronement of the Queen and his own banishment, which
is throughout a tissue of the most extraordinary falsehoods, denying
all participation on his own part in the murder of Darnley, and
ascribing that deed to Moray and the other Protestant lords.

The seizure of the Queen at Almond Bridge, and her abduction
to Dunbar, along with other important incidents, are passed over
unnoticed in this narrative, the object of which was to convince the
King and Council that the Regent Moray and his associates were
alone the special instruments and sources of the disturbances that

The Hepburns. 261

had taken place in Scotland from the year 1559 down to that time,
and to induce them to give help by land and sea for the deliverance
of the Scottish Queen. A few days after his transference to the castle
of Malmoe, Bothwell drew up another paper, in which he not only
entreated assistance, but with his characteristic ' cunning and inven-
tiveness,' declared that he was empowered to offer to make over to
the King, in return for his help, the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and,
■' if the King and Council would themselves state how they wished
bonds to be drawn up with respect to the surrender of these islands,
the Earl became surety that they would be so drawn and sealed by
the Queen, by himself, and by the Scottish Privy Council,' in accord-
ance with 'their intention and final will.' This was a very dexterous
proposal, for Frederick, like his father, Christian III., had striven in
vain to recover these islands from the Scottish Government, and
Christian had even threatened to enforce his claims upon them by a
great naval armament. There is every reason to believe that this
most welcome offer contributed not a little to the lenity with which
Bothwell was for a good many years treated by the Danish Govern-
ment. In vain did Moray renew his demand for the Earl's extradi-
tion ; equally in vain did Elizabeth, as the relative of Darnley,
support the Regent's demand, and plead that it was a matter which
concerned every monarch, ' whose majesty ought always to be sacred,
and never violated without punishment.' Supported by the French
king and his ambassador, Frederick obstinately refused to surrender
the Scottish refugee.

The Regent, however, was not to be turned from his purpose,
and he employed a Captain John Clark, an officer in the service of
the King of Denmark, and in high favour with Frederick, to
support his request for Bothwell' s extradition. Clark had been
employed to enlist mercenary troops in Scotland for the Danish
king, and had been present with his men at Carberry Hill on
the side of the Lords. It was he who captured Captain Blacater,
one of Bothwell' s accomplices, the first of them that was executed
for the murder of Darnley. Clark set himself with, great zeal to
support the request of the Scottish Government that the Earl should
be given up to be tried in Scotland, or that he should be executed in
Denmark ; but his efforts were all in vain. He obtained, however,
the surrender of two of Bothwell' s accomplices in the murder : Wil-
liam Murray, and Nicolas Hubert the Frenchman, usually called
Paris, whose confessions proved highly injurious to the Scottish

262 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

Queen, though their genuineness and veracity have been impeached
by her defenders. A document brought to light by Professor Schiern,
dated October 30th, 1568, has settled the disputed point of time
when Paris was surrendered to Captain Clark; but the problem is
still unsolved what was done with him during the long period which
elapsed before his landing at Leith, in the middle of June in the fol-
lowing year. There is a curious episode introduced by the Professor
respecting Captain Clark himself, who shortly after fell under the
displeasure of Frederick. Both well and his associates seem to have
furnished evidence respecting certain charges brought against the
unfortunate soldier, one of which was that he had employed the
mercenaries whom he had enlisted for the service of the Danish King,
against the Queen of Scotland. He was tried by a court-martial
and found guilty, and ended his days in the prison in which Bothwell
himself was ultimately confined.

After the assassination of Regent Moray, Lennox, his successor,
the father of Darnley, made another and still more urgent demand
for the surrender of the murderer of his son, and despatched Thomas
Buchanan, a relative of the celebrated George Buchanan, as his
ambassador to press his request that the Earl should be either given
up to the Scottish Government, or punished in Denmark. But
though the arguments which Buchanan employed were both inge-
nious and forcible, he, too, failed of success. He discovered, how-
ever, that Bothwell, when in Malmoe, had received letters from
Mary, and that through some channel or other he still kept up a
correspondence with her, though she was now a prisoner in England.
Up to this time the Earl had been subjected to what is known as
' an honourable imprisonment,' and the King had given orders to his
High Steward to procure velvet and silk stuff for his apparel. But
after the accession of Morton to the Regency, and the complete
overthrow of Mary's party in Scotland, Bothwell received very
different treatment. ' The King of Denmark,' wrote the French
ambassador to his master (28th June, 1573), 'has hitherto treated
the Earl of Bothwell very well, but a few days ago he put him in a
worse and closer prison.' The prison, it appears, was in the old
castle of Dragsholm, in Zealand, where the Earl spent the closing
years of his wretched existence. Professor Schiern says that tradi-
tion still points out, in the part of the prison called Bothwell' s cell,
two iron bars in the wall to which the Earl's fetters are said to have
been so fastened that he could move round with them. It is stated

The Hepburns. 263

in the memoirs of Lord Herries, that 'none had access unto him,
but onlie those who carried him such scurvie meat and drink as was
allowed, which was given in at a little window.' In this ' loathsome
prison ' Bothwell dragged out a miserable existence for five years.
According to unvarying tradition, he became insane before his death,
which took place in 1578. The adjoining church of Faareville,
which stands in ' a lonely and quiet spot on the west bay of Fsefjord,
the haunt of gulls and seafowl,' is said to be ' the last resting-place
of him who once was the husband of Scotland's Queen.'

Professor Schiern has devoted a considerable space to a discussion
of the authenticity of Bothwell' s ' Testament,' in which he is said
shortly before his death to have declared that the Queen of Scots was
innocent of all complicity in the murder of her husband, and confessed
that he was the originator and perpetrator of that crime, with the
approval of Moray, Morton, and the other Protestant lords ; at the
same time accusing himself of other gross crimes of which the people
of Scotland could never have heard. The author has shown that if
any such declaration was ever made it must have been emitted a
number of years before Bothwell' s death, and that the published
extracts alleged to have been made from the document were in
all probability forgeries. He lays great stress on the fact that
James VI., who, while yet a child, had been greatly moved when the
abstract of Bothwell' s alleged 'Testament' came under his notice,
passed a whole winter in Zealand when he went to obtain the hand
of his bride, and was noted there for his curiosity respecting every-
thing important or interesting in Denmark, met with the sons of the
men who were said to have been present when Bothwell made his
dying declaration, was within sight of Malmoe Castle, where the
murderer of his father was so long injprisoned, and was only a few
miles distant from the spot where he was buried, yet apparently
made no inquiry respecting this document, and certainly made no
reference to it. That in these circumstances, says the ' Professor,
James * never then nor afterwards sought to bring to light any such
attestation of his mother's innocence as that alleged, and never
caused it to be communicated to any of the historians whose works
he followed with such interest, is the strongest proof against its
authenticity.' Bothwell fortunately left no issue.

The title of Earl of Bothwell was conferred by James VI., 29th
July, 1576, on Francis Stewart, eldest son of John Stewart, Prior

VOL. II. P P

264 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

of Coldingham, natural son of James V. by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir
John Carmichael. The Prior obtained legitimation under the Great
Seal, 7th February, 1551, and married, in 1562, Lady Jane Hepburn,
daughter of Patrick, third Earl of Bothwell, and sister of the murderer
of Darnley. It was no doubt owing to his near relationship to the
Hepburns through his mother, that their forfeited titles were conferred
upon him, along with a considerable portion of their estates. He
was also appointed Lord High Admiral of Scotland, Sheriff- Principal
of the county of Edinburgh, and within the constabulary of Hadding-
ton, and Sheriff of the county of Berwick, and Bailiary of Lauderdale.
From his early years Francis Stewart was noted for his restless
and turbulent disposition. He took part against the Earl of Arran,
the royal favourite, and quarrelled with Sir William Stewart, Arran' s
brother, whom he killed in a fray which took place in Black-
friars Wynd, in Edinburgh, on the 30th July, 1588. In that same
year he assisted the Popish Earls of Huntly, Errol, and Angus,
in their rebellion, and was imprisoned in Tantallon Castle; but
after a few months' confinement he was released on payment of a
fine to the Crown. In 1589, when James went to Denmark in
quest of his betrothed bride, he appointed Bothwell one of the
administrators of the kingdom during his absence, in the hope of
conciliating him by this mark of distinction. But on the return of
the King the Earl returned to his former practices. In January,
1 59 1, a number of wretched creatures were brought to trial and
burned on a charge of witchcraft, and two of them declared that
Bothwell had consulted them in order to know the time of the King's
death, and that at his instigation they had raised the storm which
had endangered the lives of James and his queen, on their voyage
homeward from Denmark. The Earl surrendered himself a prisoner
in the castle of Edinburgh, to meet these charges, insisting that
* the devil, wha was a Iyer from the beginning, nor yet his sworn
witches, ought not to be credited.' But after remaining three weeks
in prison he became impatient of restraint, and on the 22nd of June,
1 59 1, he effected his escape from the castle, and fled to the Borders.
The King on this proclaimed him a traitor, and forbade, under the
penalties of treason, any one to ' reset, supply, show favour, inter-
commune, or have intelligence with him.' Bothwell, no way intimi-
dated by this procedure, returned secretly to Edinburgh with a body
of his retainers, and on the evening of December 27th, furtively
obtained admission to the inner court of Holyrood. An alarm was

The Hephirns. 265

given, and the King, who was then at supper, rushed down a back-
stair leading to one of the turrets, in which he took refuge.* The
attendants barred and barricaded the door of the Queen's apart-
ment, which Bothwell attempted to force open. Meanwhile notice
of this attack was sent to the Provost of the city, who hastily col-
lected a band of armed citizens, with whom he entered the palace by
a private door leading to the royal chapel, and compelled Bothwell
and his followers to take to flight. Nine of them were captured,
and without a trial were hanged next morning, on a new gallows
erected opposite the palace gate for the purpose.

Sir James Melville, who was present, gives a lively picture of the
scene of disorder, brilliantly illuminated by the glare of passing
torches ; while the report of firearms, the clatter of armour, the din
of hammers thundering on the gates, mingled wildly with the war-
cry of the Borderers, who shouted incessantly, ' Justice ! justice !
A Bothwell ! a Bothwell ! ' f

The ' Abbey Raid,' as it was called, was so nearly successful that
Bothwell was encouraged to make another attempt to seize the
royal person. Having collected a body of his retainers on the
Borders, he made a rapid march, during the night, to Falkland,
where the King was then residing in peaceful seclusion, and had
very nearly fallen into the hands of his turbulent subject. A
messenger, sent by Sir James Melville to warn the King of his
danger, reached the palace only a few moments before the Earl and
his followers. After a fruitless effort to force an entrance, he with-
drew to the Borders, and shortly after took refuge in England, where
he seems to have been welcomed by Queen Elizabeth. James was
so indignant at this renewed act of treason, that he vented his anger

* Spottiswood lauds the firm deportment of the King when Bothwell was thunder-
ing at the door of the Queen's apartment. But Birrel describes the King's majesty as
' flying down the backstairs with his breeches in his hand ' (Birrel, p. 30). ' Such is
the difference,' says Sir Walter Scott, ' betwixt the narrative of the courtly archbishop
' and that of the Presbyterian burgess of Edinburgh.' This scene seems to have been
regarded by Sir Walter with great amusement. In the ' Fortunes of Nigel ' he repre-
sents Richie Moniplies as describing the array of King James when his majesty was
about to go out to hunt, or hawk, on Blackheath. ' A bonny grey horse, the saddle, and
the stirrups, and the curb, and the bit o' gowd, or silver gilded at least ; the King, with
all his nobles, dressed out in his hunting-suit of green, doubly laced and laid down
with gowd. My certy, lad, thought I,' adds Richie, ' times are changed since ye came
fleeing down the backstairs of auld Holyrood House in grit fear, having your breeks
in your hand, without time to put them on, and Frank Stewart, the wild Earl of Both-
well, hard at your haunches.'

t Melville's Memoirs, 356.

266 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

upon Bothwell's countess, a daughter of the seventh Earl of Angus,
and widow of Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch, and issued a procla-
mation ordering that no one should ' reset her, give her entertain-
ment, or have any commerce of society with her in any case.'^

The Earl, however, had warm friends at Court, particularly
Lennox, Athole, and Ochiltree— nobles of the Stewart family ; and
encouraged by their support, he returned to Scotland in 1593, a,nd
on the 23rd of July was brought secretly to Edinburgh, accompanied
by John Colville, brother of the Lord of Castle Wemyss, and was
lodged for the night in a house adjoining the palace, belonging to
the Countess of Gowrie, Athole's mother-in-law. Early next morn-
ing the Countess of Athole, taking Bothwell and Colville along with
her, entered the palace by a private passage which communicated
with Lady Cowrie's house, and conducting them into an anteroom
opening into the King's bedchamber, hid them behind the arras.
She then stealthily displaced the arms of the guard, and, having
locked the door of the Queen's bedchamber, to prevent the escape
of the King, retired with her attendants. In a short time Both-
well, emerging from his hiding-place, knocked loudly at the King's
chamber door, which was immediately opened by the Earl of Athole.
James, who happened to be at the instant in a closet opening into the
apartment, hearing a noise, rushed out in a state of dishabille, and
seeing Bothwell and Colville standing with drawn swords, attempted
to escape by the Queen's bedchamber, but finding the door locked
he called out, ' Treason ! treason ! ' At that moment the Duke of
Lennox, Athole, Ochiltree, and others of Bothwell's friends, entered
the room, and James, finding that he was completely in their power,
threw himself into a chair, and with unwonted courage faced the
danger which he could not avoid. Bothwell and Colville threw
themselves on their knees before him, but James called out, ' Come
on, Francis ! You seek my life, and I know I am wholly in your
power. Strike, and end thy work ! ' But Bothwell, with unexpected
moderation, only stipulated for the remission of his forfeiture. He
declared his willingness to submit to trial on the charges of witch-
craft, and of seeking the King's life directly or indirectly, and
offered that, after he had been tried and acquitted, he would leave
the country, if it should be his Majesty's pleasure, and go to any
place he should be pleased to appoint. James yielded to Bothwell's
entreaties, and subscribed a document, promising him, on condition
of his peaceable behaviour, a fair trial, and in the event of his

The Hepburns. 267

acquittal, restoration to his rank and estates. It was further stipu-
lated that he should in the meantime retire from the Court ; and
Bothwell having readily acquiesced, his peace was next day pro-
claimed by the heralds at the Cross of Edinburgh.

The trial accordingly took place on the loth of August, and lasted
for nine hours. It ended in Bothwell' s complete acquittal, and was
immediately followed by full remission of all his ' by-gone offences
done to his Majesty and his authority, preceding this day, never to
be quarrelled hereafter.' A proclamation was also issued by the
King, charging the lieges that none of them ' tak upon hand to
slander, murmur, reproach, or backbite the said Earl and his
friends.' James, however, had no intention of keeping the agree-
ment which he had made with his factious subject, and Bothwell was
informed that if he would renounce the conditions extorted by force
from the King, being a breach of the royal prerogative, a remission
would be granted for his past offences, but that he must forthwith
retire out of the kingdom, and ' remain forth of the same,' during
his Majesty's pleasure. Lord Home and Bothwell's other enemies
were at the same time permitted to return to Court, from which his
friends were expelled. He was served with a summons to appear
before the King and Council on the 25th October, 1593, to answer
sundry charges of high treason, and, having failed to appear, he
was denounced a rebel, and put to the horn. Incensed at these
proceedings, Bothwell levied a body of five hundred moss-troopers,
and marched to the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. James went out
to meet him at the head of a numerous but undisciplined body of
the citizens, and drew them up on the Boroughmuir. He had
previously despatched Lord Home with a body of cavalry to attack
Bothwell, but they were no match for the warlike Borderers, and
were quickly put to the rout. As soon as the King saw the fugitives
approaching, he fled upon the gallop back to the city. Bothwell.
however, in his eager pursuit of the defeated troops, was thrown
from his horse, and so severely injured that he retired to Dalkeith,
where he passed the night. Next morning he dismissed his fol-
lowers, and once more sought security on the English side of the
Border. Elizabeth, however, had by this time discovered that he
could no longer be of service to her, and expelled him from the
country. Sentence of excommunication was pronounced against
him by the Church, which rendered him liable to the highest
civil penalties. He was driven from all his castles and places of

268 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

shelter, and was chased from one quarter of the country to another.
At length, after being keenly pursued through the county of Caith-
ness, where he made several hairbreadth escapes, he found means
of retiring to France. He then wandered into Spain, and afterwards
passed into Italy, where he renounced the Protestant faith. He
there led a life of obscurity and indigence, earning a wretched sub-
sistence by the exhibition of feats of arms, fortune-telling, and
necromancy. He died at Naples in 1612, in great misery. The
forfeited estates of Bothwell were divided among Sir Walter Scott
of Buccleuch, his stepson, Ker of Cessford, and Lord Home. The
forfeited titles of the Earl were never recovered, but the greater part of
his extensive estates were restored by Charles I. to Francis Stewart,
his eldest son, who married Lady Isabella Seton, only daughter of
Robert, first Earl of Winton, and ultimately sold his paternal
estates to the Winton family. He left a son and a daughter. In
Creichton's ' Memoirs ' it is stated that Francis Stewart, the grand-
son of the Earl of Bothwell, though so nearly related to the royal
family, was a private in the Scottish Horse Guards, in the reign of
Charles II. This circumstance appears to have suggested to Sir
Walter Scott the character of Sergeant Bothwell in ' Old Mortality.'
John Stewart, the second son of the Earl, was the last Commen-
dator of Coldingham, and he got the lands which belonged to that
priory formed into a barony in 162 1.

^-■* > " " -.3

ERASERS OF LOVAT,

THE FRASERS OF LOVAT.

jHE Erasers, like most of the other great Scottish houses,
were of Norman descent. Their original designation was
Frissell, which occurs in the roll of Battle Abbey, and is
still given to them in various parts of the country. As is
the case with most of the old Scottish families, a fabulous origin is
ascribed to the Erasers, whose ancestor, it is pretended, came to
Scotland in the reign of Charlemagne, along with the French
ambassadors whom that great monarch is said to have sent to form
a league with King Achaius. In reality the first of the name settled
in Scotland in the reign of Malcolm Canmore, and appears to have
obtained from that monarch a grant of lands in East Lothian. In
the reign of David I., Malcolm's youngest son. Sir Simon Eraser,
possessed half of the lands of Keith, in East Lothian, called from
him Keith Simon. Hervey, the ancestor of the Keiths, Earls Maris-
chal, who married Simon's grand-daughter, was proprietor of the
other half, named from him Keith Hervie. Another member of the
Eraser family, a Sir Gilbert, obtained the lands of North Hailes,
and also a large estate in Tweeddale. Oliver Castle, a celebrated
stronghold of the Erasers, of which a few fragments still remain, was
built by Oliver Eraser, eldest son of Sir Gilbert. But the most
illustrious of the heads of this famous house was Sir Simon Eraser,
the renowned warrior and patriot, and the bosom friend of Sir William
Wallace. His father, who bore the same name, held the office of
High Sheriff of Tweeddale, and was one of the Scottish magnates
who took part in the discussions respecting the pretensions of the
various claimants to the Scottish crown, and supported the rights of
Baliol. He died in 1291. The great Sir Simon, like his father,
adhered faithfully to the cause of Baliol till that weak and wavering

VOL. II. Q Q

270 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

personage betrayed his own cause, and surrendered the crown to
Edward I.

Sir Simon had evidently been regarded by the English monarch
as unfriendly to his claims, for when he invaded Scotland, in 1296, he
carried the chief of the Erasers with him to England, and kept him
there a close prisoner for eight months. In June, 1297, Sir Simon
and his cousin, Sir Richard Eraser, received permission to pay a
visit to Scotland, on giving their pledge to return, and accompany
Edward, on his projected expedition to France. The Erasers, how-
ever, like most of the nobles of that day, and even the clergy of the
highest rank, seem to have regarded promises extorted by force or
threats as not binding ; and when Sir William Wallace, after the
battle of Falkirk, resigned his double office as Guardian of the
Kingdom, and General of the Army, Sir Simon was chosen to succeed
him as commander of the Scottish forces, while Sir John Comyn of
Badenoch was appointed Guardian. In 1303, an English army of
thirty thousand men, in violation, it was alleged, of a truce which
had been agreed upon between- the Scots and English, invaded Scot-
land, and advanced to Roslin, a few miles from Edinburgh. They
were divided into three bodies, encamped at a considerable distance
from each other. The Scottish leaders. Sir Simon Eraser and
Sir John Comyn, hearing of these hostile movements, made a rapid
night march from Biggar at the head of ten thousand men, and next
day (February 25th) attacked and defeated these three divisions in
succession in one day.

Incensed at this defeat. King Edward invaded Scotland at the
head of a powerful army, with which the Scots were quite unable to
cope in the open field. Comyn and most of the great nobles made
submission to the invader, but Sir Simon Fraser firmly refused to
lay down his arms, and was, in consequence, expressly excepted
from the conditions of the capitulation made at Strathorde, on the
9th of February, 1303-4. The indomitable chief remained in con-
cealment in the north till 1306, when he joined Robert Bruce, who,
in that year, was crowned at Scone. He was present at the battle
of Methven, where he performed prodigies of valour, and is said to
have rescued and remounted the King when his horse was killed
under him. According to one account, Sir Simon made his escape
from the field along with Bruce, and was treacherously seized at
Restalrig, near Edinburgh, in 1307, by the retainers of one of the
Comyns. But a different account of his apprehension is given in a

The Erasers of Lovat. 271

manuscript chronicle in the British Museum, quoted by Ritson. After
noticing the defeat of the Scots, the chronicler thus proceeds : —

' When Robert the Bruce saw this mischief, and gan to flee and
hov'd him, that men might not him find ; but S. Simond Frisell
pursued was so sore, so that he turned again and abode bataille, for
he was a worthy knight, and a bolde of bodye, and the English
pursued him sore on every side, and quelde the steed that Sir Simon
Frisell rode upon, and then toke him and led him to the host. And
S. Symond began for to flatter and speke fair, and saide, " Lordys, I
shall give you four thousand markes of silver, and mine horse and
harness, and all my armour and income." Tho' answered Thobaude
of Pevenes, that was the King's archer, " Now God me so helpe, it is
for nought that thou speakest ; for all the gold of England I would
not let thee go without commandment of King Edward." And tho'
he was led to the King, and the King would not see him, but com-
manded to lead him away to his doom in London, on Our Lady's
own nativity. And he was hung and drawn, and his head smitten
off and hanged again with chains of iron upon the gallows, and his
head was set at London Bridge upon a spear, and against Christ-
mas the body was burnt for en'cheson {reason) that the men that
keeped the body saw many devils ramping with iron crooks running
upon the gallows, and horribly tormenting the body. And many
that them saw, anon thereafter died for dread, or waxen mad, or sore
sickness they had.'

A ballad which appears to have been written at the time gives
an account of the cruel and barbarous treatment which the English
king disgraced himself by giving to a knight conspicuous among
his contemporaries for his high deeds of chivalry, as well as personal
gallantry. After mentioning how Sir Simon was brought into
London, with a garland of green leaves on his head, to show that he
was a traitor, the writer goes on to say —

' Y-fettered were his legs under his horse's wombe,
Both with iron and with steel manacled were his hond,
A garland of pervynk* set upon his heved ; +
Much was the power that him was bereved
In land,
So God me amend,
Little he ween'd

So to be brought in hand.

* Periwinkle. \ Head.

272 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

' With fetters and with gives y-hot he was to draw *
From the Tower of London, that many men might know,
In a kirtle of burel, a selcouth wise,
And a garland on his head of the new guise.
Through Cheape
Many men of England
For to see Symond

Thitherward can leap.

' Though he cam to the gallows first he was on hung,
All quick beheaded that him thought long ;
Then he was y-opened, his bowels y-brend, t
The heved to London-bridge was send
To shende.
So evermore mote I the.
Some while weened he
Thus httle to stand. }

*****

' Now standeth the heved above the tu-brigge
Fast by Wallace sooth for to segge ;
After succour of Scotland long may he pry,
And after help of France what halt it to lie.
I ween,
Better him were in Scotland
With his axe in his hand

To play on the green,' &c.

One of the uncles of this illustrious patriot was the celebrated
Bishop Fraser of St. Andrews, Chancellor of Scotland, the coun-
sellor of Sir William Wallace, and one of the earliest defenders of
the rights and liberties of the kingdom. He was one of the Lords of
the Regency chosen by the States during the minority of the infant
Queen Margaret, the ' Maiden of Norway.' After her death he was
appointed by King Edward one of the guardians of Scotland, and
rendered an enforced homage to that monarch. He took a pro-
minent part in asserting the independence of Scotland against the
violation of its rights and liberties by the English king, and was
one of the commissioners who concluded a treaty, offensive and
defensive, with Philip, King of France.

Sir Simon left no male issue, and with him expired the direct male

line of the Lowland Erasers, who had for upwards of two hundred

years been the most powerful family in Tweeddale. His two

daughters inherited his extensive estates. The elder married Sir

Gilbert Hay, the ancestor of the Marquis of Tweeddale. The

younger became the wife of Sir Patrick Fleming, from whom the

Earls of Wigtoun are descended.

* He was condemned to be drawn. t Burned.

I Meaning, at one time he little thought to stand thus.

The Erasers of Lovat. 273

Sir Andrew Fraser, second son of Sir Gilbert and uncle of
Sir Simon, became, on the death of the patriot, the male repre-
sentative of the Fraser family. He possessed the lands of Touch, in
Stirlingshire, and of Struthers, in Fife, afterwards the property of
the Lindsays, Earls of Crawford. ' He was,' says Anderson, the
historian of the family, ' the first of the name of Fraser who estab-
lished an interest for himself and his descendants in the northern
parts of Scotland, and more especially in Inverness-shire, where they
have ever since figured with such renown and distinction.' The
mother of Sir Simon the patriot was one of the Bissets of Lovat, a
great family long ago extinct, and probably this fact had some
influence in obtaining from James I. for Hugh Fraser, the first of
the Frasers of Lovat, the gift of the extensive estates of the Bissets,
on the Beauly Firth, which still remain in the possession of the head
of the clan. Here, at Castle Downie, or Beaufort, as it is now called,
they established their chief seat and became the heads of a powerful
clan, who, after the manner of the Celtic race, assumed the name of
MacShimie, or sons of Simon, the favourite name of the Frasers
down to the present day. Hugh Fraser obtained a large estate in
the north through his marriage with Margaret, one of the co-
heiresses of the Earl of Caithness. He fell at the battle of Halidon
Hill (19th July, 1333). His eldest son died unmarried. His second
son, Hugh, was created a Lord of Parliament under the title of Lord
Fraser of Lovat. Thomas, the third lord, grandson of Hugh, held the
office of Justiciary of the North, and fell at Flodden.

While thus laying down their lives in their country's cause, the
Frasers also took their full share of clan feuds and battles, in their own
district. In the sanguinary contest of Blar-na-parc with the Mac-
donalds of Clanranald, fought in July, 1 544, owing to the heat of the
weather, the combatants threw off their coats and fought in their
shirts, whence the field received the designation of ' Blair-lan-luni,'
the Field of Shirts. The whole of the Frasers engaged in the fight,
four hundred in number, including Hugh, fourth Lord Lovat, the
Royal Justiciary, and his eldest son (with the exception of one of
the dunniewassals, Fraser of Foyers, and four of the clan), were
killed, while of the Macdonalds only eight survived.

The style of life kept up by the chiefs of the Fraser clan, and their
liberal hospitality, may be understood from the abundance shown in
the household expenditure of the sixth Lord Lovat. The weekly con-
sumption included seven bolls of malt, seven bolls of meal, and one

274 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

of floiir. Each year seventy beeves were consumed, besides venison,
fish, poultry, lamb, veal, and all sorts of feathered game in profusion.
His lordship imported wines, sugars, and spices from France in
return for the salmon produced by his rivers. When he died, in
163 1, his funeral was attended by four thousand armed clansmen,
for all of whom entertainment would be provided.

The heads of the clan continued in uninterrupted succession to
enjoy the state and authority of great Highland chieftains, resisting
their adversaries, and protecting their vassals and friends, without
incurring the disapprobation of the sovereign, down to the time of
the notorious Simon Fraser, twelfth Lord Lovat, who expiated his
numerous crimes, of which treason was by no means the worst, on the
scaffold. The memoirs and letters of his day abound with anecdotes
respecting Lovat' s villanies, his hardihood, and his wit, which did not
forsake him even on the scaffold. The incidents of his life would be
thought highly coloured if they had been narrated in a romance.
He alternated between the lowest depths of poverty and misery, and
the summit of high rank and immense power. He had been by
turns an outlaw from his own country, a proscribed traitor, a prisoner
for years in the Bastille, in France, a Roman Catholic priest, a peer,
and the chief of one of the most powerful clans in the Highlands.

Simon Fraser was the son of Thomas Fraser, of Beaufort, next
male heir to the house of Lovat and to the chieftainship of the
Frasers, after the death of Hugh, Lord Lovat, without male issue.
He was born in 1667, and was educated at King's College, Old
Aberdeen. In 1694, before he had completed his studies, he obtained
a commission in the regiment of Lord Murray, afterwards Earl of
Tullibardine, son of the Marquis of Athole, to whom he made himself
specially obnoxious by his quarrelsome behaviour. On the death ot
the tenth Lord Lovat, in i6g6, Simon Fraser assumed the designa-
tion of Master of Lovat, and his father laid claim to the title and
estates. The late lord, however, had left a daughter only eleven
years of age, and Simon concocted a scheme, which had nearly proved
successful, to strengthen his claim by marrying the young girl. As
his character was notoriously bad, her mother and friends were
strongly opposed to the match, and Tullibardine was alleged to desire
that she should marry one of his own sons. As they were mere boys,
however, this scheme, if it was ever really entertained, could not be
carried out, and Lord Saltoun, the head of another branch of the
Frasers, was proposed as a more suitable husband for the young

The Erasers of Lovat. 275

heiress. Meanwhile, Simon had tried to get her into his power by
the assistance of one of his associates, Fraser of Tenechiel ; but after
conducting her out of the house one winter night in such haste that
she is said to have gone barefooted, Tenechiel, either through fear
or a fit of repentance, restored her to her mother's keeping. Being
thus made aware of the danger to which the girl was exposed, Lord
Saltoun and Lord Mungo Murray, the dowager Lady Lovat' s
brother, hurried northward in order to arrange for conveying the
heiress to a place of security. But Simon was on the alert, and
having collected a body of his clansmen for the purpose, he seized
the intended bridegroom and his friend at the wood of Bunchrew,
and carried them prisoners to the house of Fanellan. A gallows
was erected before the windows of the apartment in which they were
confined, in order to intimidate them into submission to Simon's
demands, and a summons was issued to the clan to come to the
assistance of their chief About five hundred men assembled in the
course of a week, and Simon, putting himself at their head, with
flags flying and bagpipes screaming, marched to Castle Downie,
taking his prisoners with him. The heiress, however, had by this time
been transferred to a secure place of refuge in her uncle's country of
Athole, where she was afterwards married to Mr. Mackenzie of
Prestonhall, who assumed the designation of Fraser of Fraserdale.

Simon, though baffled in his attempt to obtain possession of the
young lady, found her mother, the dowager Lady Lovat, in the
family mansion, and at once resolved to marry her, in order to secure
through her jointure some interest in the estate. He first set at
liberty his two prisoners, in order that they might not witness his
proceedings, but he made Saltoun bind himself, under a forfeiture of
eight thousand pounds, not to ' interfere ' again in his affairs. The
three female attendants of Lady Lovat were then forcibly removed.
One of them, on being brought back to take off her ladyship's
clothes, found her sitting in a fainting state on the floor, while some
of Simon's men were endeavouring to divest her of her raiment. A
marriage ceremony was hastily performed between her and Simon by
Robert Mure, the minister of Abertarf. The dress of the outraged
lady was cut from her person by a dirk, and she was subjected to the
last extremity of brutal violence, while the bagpipes played in the
apartment adjacent to her bedroom to drown her screams. Her
attendant found her, next morning, speechless and apparently out
of her senses.

276 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

When the news of this shocking outrage reached Lady Lovat's
relations, her brother, Lord TuUibardine, obtained letters of fire and
sword against the Master of Lovat and his accomplices, and marched
with a body of troops to Inverness-shire, for the purpose of rescuing
his sister out of the hands of the ruffians by whom she was kept a
close prisoner. On the approach of the troops, Simon conveyed
the lady to the isle of Aigas, a fastness in the midst of the Beauly
river where he was safe from pursuit. On quitting this place of refuge
he seems to have shifted from plgice to place throughout the Fraser
territory, dragging about with him the poor lady whom he had so
shamefully outraged, and occasionally coming into collision with the
troops sent to apprehend him. At length, in September, 1698, he
and nineteen of his chief accomplices were tried in absence before
the High Court of Justiciary, for rape and other atrocious crimes,
which were held as treasonable — a decision the legality of which
was denied at the time. They were found guilty and condemned to
capital punishment, and their lands were confiscated. Simon made
his escape, however, and according to one account he fled to the
Continent, where he obtained access to King William, who was then
at Loo. It is doubtful, however, whether he went farther than
London. This much is certain, that through the influence of the
Duke of Argyll, who was probably induced to move in the matter
from hostility to the Marquis of Athole, the King was persuaded to
pardon Simon's other offences, but he declined to remit his outrage
against Lady Lovat. On his return to Scotland he was summoned
to answer for this crime at the bar of the Justiciary Court, on the
17th of February, 1701. It is asserted that he fully intended to
stand his trial, protected by a strong body of his clansmen, in the
hope that he would thus overawe the Court. But on the morning of
the day appointed for his trial, having learned that the judges were
hostile to him, he fled at once to England, and was in consequence
outlawed.

Simon appears, however, to have speedily returned to his own
district, for in February, 1702, he is represented as living openly in
the country, 'to the contempt of all authority, and justice.' 'He
keeps,' it was said, ' in a manner his open residence within the
lordship of Lovat, where, and especially in Stratherrick, he further
presumes to keep men in arms attending and guarding his person,'
and levying contributions from Lady Lovat's tenants, who were in
consequence unable to pay her any rents. For this offence letters

The Erasers of Lovat. 277

of intercommuning were issued against him on her ladyship's peti-
tion. In these circumstances Lord Lovat, as he now called himself,
his father being dead, deemed it expedient to take refuge in France.
He took with him a general commission, which he declared he had
received from a number of Highland chiefs and leading Jacobites in
the Lowlands, authorising him to engage that they would take up
arms in the cause of the exiled family. Armed with this authority
he proceeded to St. Germains, and submitted to the exiled court a
project for raising an insurrection against the reigning sovereign of
Great Britain, by means of the Highland clans. The Chevalier de
St. George and the French ministers were aware of the infamy of
Fraser's character, and distrusted his schemes, but Mary of Este
was disposed to put confidence in him, and he was sent back to
Scotland with a colonel's commission in the Jacobite service. He
is said to have had interviews on the subject of his mission with
Cameron of Lochiel, Stuart of Appin, and other Highland chiefs.
If so, his object must have been to entrap them into some treason-
able action, for he immediately disclosed the whole proceeding to
the Duke of Queensberry, who was then at the head of affairs in
Scotland. The Duke of Hamilton and some other influential noble-
men who were included in Fraser's accusation, affirmed that his
statements were utterly devoid of truth, and even went so far as to
assert that the plot was a mere pretext devised by the Duke of
Queensberry himself Fraser was sent back to France in order to
obtain additional information for the Government respecting the
conspiracies of the Jacobites, but his double treachery had by this
time become known, and as soon as he appeared in Paris he was
arrested and sent to the Bastille. He is said to have passed ten
years in prison, partly in the castle of Angouleme, partly in Saumur,
where he is alleged to have taken priest's orders. All his efforts to
induce the French Government to set him at liberty were unsuc-
cessful, but he at length succeeded in making his escape, with the
assistance of his kinsman. Major Fraser, who had been sent to the
Continent by the clan to discover where he was. He reached Eng-
land, after a dangerous passage across the Channel, in November,
17 14, but he was still under the sentence of outlawry, and in the
following June he was arrested in London, at the instigation of the
Marquis of Athole. He was set at liberty, however, on the Earl of
Sutherland, John Forbes of CuUoden, and some other gentlemen,
becoming bail for him.

VOL. II. R R

278 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

When the Jacobite insurrection of 17 15 broke out, Simon set out
for Scotland, no doubt with the intention of joining the party that
should appear most likely to promote his own interests. He alleges
that he was arrested at Newcastle, Longtown, near Carlisle, Dum-
fries, and Lanark, which would seem to show that his character was
generally known, and that his intentions were as generally distrusted.
He was allowed, however, in the end to prosecute his journey. On
reaching Edinburgh he was instantly apprehended by order of the
Lord Justice-Clerk, and was about to be imprisoned in the castle,
when he was set at liberty through the interposition of the Lord
Provost of the city. He made his way by sea from Leith to Inver-
ness-shire, and found that Mackenzie of Fraserdale had led a body of
five hundred men of the Fraser clan to the standard of the Earl of
Mar. Three hundred of them, however, had disobeyed his orders
and had remained at home, and putting himself at their head, Lovat
concerted a plan, with Duncan Forbes of Culloden, for the recovery
of Inverness, the capital of the Highlands, which had been garri-
soned by Sir John Mackenzie of Coul, with four hundred of his clan.
He also sent a message to his clansmen who had joined the rebels,
ordering them immediately to quit Lord Mar's camp. Though there
is every reason to believe that their own predilections were in favour
of the exiled Stewart dynasty, and they were under the command of
the husband of the heiress of their late chief, they at once aban-
doned the Jacobite cause, and set out on their march to place them-
selves under the command of Simon Fraser, whom they recognised
as their rightful chief. Strengthened by this important accession to
the force under his command, and by a body of auxiliaries furnished
by the Munros, Grants, and Rosses, who had always adhered to the
Whig side, Lovat proceeded to carry into effect the plan which
Duncan Forbes and he had devised for obtaining possession of
Inverness. ^ On their approach the garrison abandoned the town,
and dropping down the river in boats, during the night of November
13th, they made their escape to the northern coast of the Morav
Firth. ^

Such important services rendered at this critical period were not
likely to remain without a liberal recompense. Simon received first
of all a royal pardon for his crimes. Mackenzie of Fraserdale was
obliged to leave the country on the suppression of the rebellion, a
sentence of attainder and outlawry was passed against him, and his
forfeited life-rent of the estate of Lovat was bestowed by a grant

The Erasers of Lovat. 279

from the Crown (23rd August, 1716)011 Lord Lovat. The Court
of Session, in July, 1730, pronounced in favour of his claim to the
title. But the judgment was regarded as given by an incompetent
tribunal, and to prevent an appeal to the House of Lords a compro-
mise was made with Hugh Mackenzie, son of the baroness, who had
assumed the title. On payment of a considerable sum of money he
consented to cede to Simon Fraser his claim to the family honours,
and his right to the estate, after the death of his father. Having
thus obtained the family titles, property, and chieftainship, Lovat
had full scope to indulge his evil passions, and to pursue his own
selfish ends. * He was indeed,' says Sir Walter Scott, ' a most
singular person, such as could only have arisen in a time and situa-
tion where there was a mixture of savage and civilized life. The
wild and desperate passions of his youth were now matured into a
character at once bold, cautious, and crafty ; loving command, yet
full of flattery and dissimulation, and accomplished in all points of
policy excepting that which is proverbially considered the best, he
'was at all times profuse of oaths and protestations, but chiefly, as
was observed of Charles IX. of France, when he had determined in
his own mind to infringe them. Like many cunning people, he
seems often to have overshot his mark ; while the indulgence of a
temper so fierce and capricious as to infer some slight irregularity
of intellect frequently occasioned the shipwreck of his fairest schemes
of self-interest. To maintain and extend his authority over a High-
land clan, he showed in miniature alternately the arts of a Machiavelli
and the tyranny of a Caesar Borgia. His hospitality was exuberant,
yet was regulated by means which savoured much of a paltry
economy. His table was filled with Frasers, all of whom he called
his cousins, but took care that the fare with which they were regaled
was adapted not to the supposed equality, but to the actual import-
ance of the guests. Thus the claret did not pass below a particular
mark on the table ; those who sat beneath that limit had some
cheaper liquor, which had also its bounds of circulation ; and the
clansmen at the extremity of the board were served with single ale.
Still it was drunk at the table of their chief, and that made amends
for all. Lovat had a Lowland estate, where he fleeced his tenants
without mercy, for the sake of maintaining his Highland military
retainers. He was a master of the Highland character, and knew
how to avail himself of its peculiarities. He knew every one whom
it was convenient for him to caress : had been acquainted with his

28o The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

father, remembered the feats of his ancestors, and was profuse in
his complimentary expressions of praise and fondness. If a man of
substance offended Lovat, or, which was the same thing, if he pos-
sessed a troublesome claim against him, and was determined to
enforce it, one would have thought that all the plagues of Egypt
had been denounced against the obnoxious individual. His house
was burnt, his flocks driven off, his cattle houghed ; and if the per-
petrators of such outrages were secured, the gaol of Inverness was
never strong enough to detain them till punishment. They always
broke prison. With persons of low rank less ceremony was used,
and it was not uncommon for witnesses to appear against them for
some imaginary crime, for which Lord Lovat' s victims suffered the
punishment of transportation.'

Lovat was twice married after his return to Scotland in 17 15,
first to Margaret, fourth daughter of Ludovic Grant of Grant, by
whom he had two sons and two daughters. After her death, he
married, in 1733, Primrose, fifth daughter of John Campbell of
Mamore, brother to the Duke of Argyll, who bore him one son.
He is said to have overcome her reluctance to take him for a
husband, by a most disgraceful trick, very worthy of the man. There
is good reason to believe that he sought to make this lady his wife
with the hope that he would thereby secure the friendship and
support of the powerful family of Argyll. ' Finding himself dis-
appointed in this expectation, he vented his resentment on the poor
lady, whom he shut up in a turret of his castle, neither affording her
food, clothes, or other necessaries in a manner suitable to her
education, nor permitting her to go abroad or to receive any friends
within doors.' Rumours as to the treatment she was receiving from
her brutal husband got abroad, and a lady who was deeply interested
in her welfare made a sudden visit to Castle Downie for the purpose
of ascertaining Lady Lovat' s real situation. Lovat compelled his
wife to dress herself in proper apparel, which he brought her, and to
receive her visitor with all the appearance of a contented and
respected mistress of the mansion, watching her so closely all the
while that she could not obtain an opportunity of exchanging words
with her apart. But the visitor was satisfied from her silence and
constraint that all was not well, and took active, and in the end
successful, measures to obtain a separation from her savage husband,
whom she long survived.

Lovat, notwithstanding all his professions of loyalty, was at heart

The Frasers of Lovat. 281

a Jacobite, and never relinquished the hope of the restoration of the
Stewarts. He obtained from the Government the command of one
of the independent companies, termed the Black Watch, organised at
this time to put down robbery and theft, which afforded him the
means, without suspicion, of training his whole clan by turn to
military discipline, and the use of arms. Some purchases of arms
and ammunition, however, which he made from abroad alarmed the
Government respecting his intentions, and his commission was
withdrawn in 1737. His indignation at this treatment no doubt
contributed to strengthen his alienation from the Hanoverian
dynasty. He was the first of the seven influential Jacobite leaders
who subscribed the invitation to the Chevalier in 1 740 ; but when
Prince Charles arrived, in 1745, without the troops, money, and
arms which they had stipulated as the condition of their taking the
field in his behalf, the wily old chief showed great hesitation in
repairing to his standard. He had been promised a dukedom and
the lord-lieutenancy of Inverness- shire, and while the Prince lay at
Invergarry, Fraser of Gortuleg, Lovat' s confidant, waited upon him
and solicited the patents which he had been led to expect, expressing
at the same time his great interest in the enterprise, though his age
and infirmities prevented him from immediately assembling his
clan in its support. The Prince and his advisers were very desirous
that Lovat should declare himself in favour of the attempt to replace
the Stewart family on the throne, as, besides his own numerous and
warlike clan, he had great influence with the M'Phersons, whose
chief was his son-in-law, the M'Intoshes, Farquharsons, and other
septs in Inverness-shire, who were likely to follow the cause which
he should adopt. It appears that the original patents subscribed by
the Prince's father had been left behind with the heavy baggage,
but new deeds were written out and sent by Gortuleg to the selfish
and cunning old chief.

Lovat still hesitated, however, to repair to the Jacobite standard,
and with his usual double-dealing, he continued to profess to
President Forbes his determination to support the reigning dynasty.
On the 23rd of August he wrote, ' Your lordship judges right when
you believe that no hardship, or ill-usage that I meet with, can alter
or diminish my zeal and attachment for his Majesty's person and
Government. I am as ready this day (as far as I am able) to serve
the King and Government as I was in the year 17 15, when I had
the good fortune to serve the King in suppressing that great

282 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

Rebellion, more than any one of my rank in the island of Britain.
But my clan and I have been so negkcted these many years past,
that I have not twelve stand of arms "in my country, though I thank
God I could bring twelve hundred good men to the field for the
King's service, if I had arms and other accoutrements for them.
Therefore, my good lord, I earnestly entreat that, as you wish that I
would do good service to the Government on this critical occasion,
you may order immediately a thousand stand of arms to be delivered
to me and my clan at Inverness.' On the following day he wrote,
' I hear that mad and unaccountable gentleman [Prince Charles]
has set up a standard at a place called Glenfinnan, Monday last.'

It is amusing and instructive to contrast these letters to President
Forbes with a communication addressed in September to the chief
of the Camerons : —

' Dear Lochiel, —

' I fear you have been ower rash in going out ere affairs were
ripe. You are in a dangerous state. The Elector's General, Cope, is
in your rear, hanging at your tail with three thousand men, such as
have not been seen heir since Dundee's affair, and we have no force
to meet him. If the Macphersons would take the field, I would bring
out my lads and help the work; and, 'twixt the twa, we might
cause Cope to keep his Xmas heir ; bot only Cluny is earnest in the
cause, and my Lord Advocate (Duncan Forbes) plays at cat and
mouse with me. But times may change, and I may bring him to
the Saint Johnstoun's tippet [the gallows rope]. Meantime look to
yourselves, for we may expect many a sour face, and sharp weapon
in the south. I'll aid you what I can, but my prayers are all I can
give at present. My service to the Prince ; but I wish he had not
come here so empty-handed : siller will go far in the Highlands. I
send this by Ewan Fraser, whom I have charged to give it to your-
self, for were Duncan to find it, it would be my head to an onion.

' Farewell,

' Your faithful friend,

' LOVAT.'

The crafty old chief continued his underhand intrigues, pre-
tending great zeal in promoting the plans of President Forbes,
while he was in reality doing all in his power to counteract them.
His object was to unite his own clan with the M'Phersons, the

The Frasers of Lovat. 283

M'Intoshes, Farquharsons, and the Macdonalds and Macleods from
the Island of Skye, and thus to form an army in the north which he
could afterwards employ in support of the strongest side for his own
advantage. But his selfish design was seen through by the chiefs
of the Skye men, and they were induced by President Forbes first to
remain neutral in the contest, and afterwards to take up arms in
support of the Government. There can be little doubt that if Lovat
had declared at the first in favour of the Jacobite cause, the
Macleods and Macdonalds would have done so too, and their united
forces would have added greatly to the Prince's chance of success.
But he hesitated so long as to the course which he should adopt,
that when he did ultimately take up arms in behalf of the Stewarts,
his adhesion did no good to them, and brought ruin upon himself.
He carried out to the last his dissimulation and selfish cunning.
When the news of the victory at Prestonpans reached him, a
Jacobite emissary who was with him at the time urged him to ' throw
off the mask.' He then, in the presence of a number of his vassals,
flung down his hat and drank success to the Prince and confusion to
the White Horse (the Hanoverian badge) and all his adherents.
He still, however, resolved that his own personal share in the
insurrection should, as far as possible, be kept secret. He, there-
fore, sent his clan to join the insurgent army, under his eldest son, a
youth of nineteen, whom he recalled for the purpose from the
University of St. Andrews, whilst he himself remained at home. It
was clearly proved on Lovat' s trial that the youth was strongly
averse to the step, which he was compelled to take by his father's
threats and argurnents, and that he was still more disgusted by the
duplicity which the arrangement displayed.

Lovat pretended that his clan had joined the rebels against his
positive orders, at the instance of his ' unnatural and disobedient son.'
On the 6th of November, 1745, he wrote to the Lord President: —
' Foyers and Kilbokie, whose familys always used to be the leading
familys of the clan on both sides, were the maddest and the keenest
to go off; and when they saw that I absolutely forbid them to move or
go out of the country, they drew up with my son, and they easily got
him to condescend to go at their head. Though I had ten thousand
lives to save, I could do no more in this affair to save myself than I
have done ; and if the Government would punish me for the insolent
behaviour of my son to myself, and his mad behaviour towards the
Government, it would be a greater severity than ever was used to

284 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

any subject/ The Lord President, however, was not deceived by
these transparently false representations, and told the crafty old
dissembler, in courteous but explicit terms, when the affection of
his clan and their attachment to him in the year 17 15 and down-
ward were remembered, it would not be easily believed that his
authority is less with them nov/ than it was at that time. ' It will not
be credited,' he added, ' that their engagements or inclinations were
stronger against the Government when the present commotions
began than they were thirty years ago, when the clan was at Perth.'

The movement of the Erasers was so long delayed, that the
march of the Prince into England had taken place before the
Master of Lovat commenced his journey southward. He, in con-
sequence, halted at Perth, where a body of the Jacobite troops had
been stationed under Lord Strathallan. The Erasers afterwards
joined the main body at Stirling on their return from England.
They fought at Culloden with their hereditary valour, and when the
Highlanders were defeated, they marched off the field with their
banner flying and their bagpipes playing in the face of the enemy.

In his flight from Culloden, Prince Charles, attended by a small
body of his officers, proceeded to Gortuleg, where Lord Lovat was
then residing, and where they met for the first and last time, in
mutual anxiety and alarm. Sir Walter Scott mentions that a lady,
who was then a girl, residing in Lord Lovat' s family, described
to him the unexpected appearance of Prince Charles and his flying
attendants at Gortuleg, near the Eall of Eoyers [not Castle Downie,
as Sir Walter erroneously supposed]. The wild and desolate vale
on which she was gazing with indolent composure, was at once so
suddenly filled with horsemen riding furiously towards the castle,
that, impressed with the belief that they were fairies, who, according
to Highland tradition, are visible only from one twinkle of the
eyelid to another, she strove to refrain from the vibration which she
believed would occasion the strange and magnificent apparition to
become invisible. To Lord Lovat it brought a certainty more
dreadful than the presence of fairies, or even demons. Yet he lost
neither heart nor judgment. He recommended that a body of
three thousand men should be collected to defend the Highlands
until the Government should be induced to grant them reasonable
terms. Mr. Grant of Laggan says that Lovat reproached the
Prince with great asperity for declaring his intention to abandon
the enterprise. ' Remember,' he said, ' your great ancestor, Robert

The Fr users of Lovat. 285

Bruce, who lost eleven battles and won Scotland by the twelfth.'
But this judicious advice was unheeded.

The fugitive Prince and his attendants went on to Invergarry, and
Lovat, finding that his vassal's house at Gortuleg was no safe place
of refuge, fled to the mountains, though he was so infirm that he had
to be carried by his attendants. Not finding himself safe there, he
escaped in a boat to an island in Loch Morar. He was discovered
by a detachment from the garrison of Fort William, engaged in
making descents upon the coasts of Knoidart and Arisaig. In one
of these descents they got intelligence respecting the aged chief,
and, after three days' search, they found him concealed in a hollow
tree with his legs swathed in flannel. He was sent up to London
and imprisoned in the Tower. His trial did not take place
until the 9th of March, 1747, to afford time to collect evidence
sufficient to insure his conviction. No one doubted his complicity
in the rebellion. Indeed, on one occasion he said of himself that he
had been engaged in every plot for the restoration of the Stewart
family since he was fifteen years of age ; but as he had cunningly
kept in the background, and had abstained from any overt act of
treason, he would probably have escaped the punishment which he
justly merited had not John Murray of Broughton, secretary to the
Prince, purchased his own safety by becoming king's evidence, and
producing letters from Lovat to Charles which fully established his
guilt. The trial lasted seven days, and though he defended himself
with great dexterity, he was found guilty and condemned to be
beheaded. When sentence was pronounced upon him he said,
' Farewell, my lords, we shall not all meet again in the same place.
I am sure of that.' During the interval between his conviction and
his execution he displayed the utmost insensibility to his position,
and made his approaching death the subject of frequent jests. He
was, notwithstanding, anxious to escape his doom, and wrote a letter
to the Duke of Cumberland, pleading the favour in which he had been
held by George I., and how he had carried the Duke about when a
child in the parks of Kensington and Hampton Court ; but, finding
that all his applications for life were vain, he resolved, as Sir Walter
Scott says, to' imitate in his death the animal he most resembled in
his life, and die like the fox, without indulging his enemies by the
utterance of a sigh or a groan. Though in the eightieth year of his
age, and so infirm that he had to obtain the assistance of two warders
in mounting the scaffold, his spirits never flagged. Looking round

VOL. II. s s

286 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

upon the multitude assembled on Tower Hill to witness his exe-
cution, he said with a sneer, ' God save us ! Why should there be
such a bustle about taking off an old grey head from a man who
cannot get up three steps without two assistants ? ' At this moment,
a scaffold crowded with spectators gave way, and Lovat was
informed that a number of them had been seriously injured, if not
killed. In curious keeping with his character, he remarked in the
words of an old Scottish adage, ' The more mischief the better
sport.' He professed to die in the Roman Catholic religion, and,
after spending a short time in devotion, he repeated the well-known
line of Horace, singularly inappropriate to his character and fate: —

' Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori,'

and laying his head upon the block, he received the fatal blow with
unabated courage. Of all the victims of the Jacobite rebellion, no
one either deserved or received so little compassion as Lovat ; but
his execution, when on the very verge of the grave, conferred little
credit on the Government.

Lovat' s titles and estates were of course forfeited, but the latter
were restored, in 1774, to Simon Fraser, the eldest son of the rebel
lord, who entered the royal army in 1756, and ultimately attained
the rank of lieutenant-general. At a time when he did not possess an
acre of the Fraser estates, he raised among the clan a regiment of four-
teen hundred men, called the 78th or Fraser Highlanders, and served
at their head with great distinction in America, and especially under
General Wolfe, at the memorable battle on the heights of Abraham,
where he commanded the left wing of the British army. With all
his bravery and military skill. General Fraser does not appear to have
commanded much affection or esteem. An old Highlander in Glas-
gow, to whom he had failed to keep his promise, is reported to have
said to him, ' As long as you live, Simon of Lovat will never die.'
And Mrs. Grant of Laggan declared that in him 'a pleasing exte-
rior covered a large share of his father's character, and that no
heart was ever harder, no hands more rapacious, than his.'

General Fraser died without issue in 1782, and was succeeded by his
half-brother, Colonel Archibald Campbell Fraser, who, like him,
was long member of Parliament for Inverness-shire. 1 le had the
misfortune to outlive his five sons, and on his death, in 1815, the male
line of the eldest branch of the Fraser family became extinct, and the
estates devolved upon Thomas Alexander Fraser of Strichen,

The Erasers of Lovat. 2 87

who was descended from the second son of the sixth Lord Lovat.
He was the twenty-first chief in succession from the great Sir Simon
Fraser, the friend of Robert Bruce, and the rights, both of the
Lovat and the Strichen branches, centred in his person, two hundred
and twenty-seven years from the time when his ancestors acquired
the estate of Strichen. He was elevated to the House of Lords in
1837, by the title of Baron Lovat of Lovat. In 1854 the attainder
of the forfeited Scottish peerage was removed, and the ancient title
of his family was restored to him by the House of Lords in 1857.

At the time of Lord Lovat' s succession to the patrimonial estates
of his family they were heavily burdened, and large portions of them
had been provisionally alienated by what is termed ' wadsets,' which
differ from mortgages in this respect, that they can be redeemed at
any time on payment of the sum originally lent upon their security ;
but the new peer was a man of great ability and activity, as well as
of economical habits, and he set himself with praiseworthy energy
and zeal to relieve the inheritance of his ancestors from its encum-
brances. For this purpose he disposed of his paternal estate of
Strichen, and laid out the sum for which it was sold in redeeming
the ' wadsets' and in improving the Lovat territory, 162,000 acres
in extent, to which the entailed estate of Abertarf, belonging to
one of the minor branches of the family, has recently been added,
yielding altogether, including the deer forest, a rental of upwards
of ;^35>ooo a year. Lord Lovat died in 1876, and was succeeded
by his eldest son —

Simon Fraser, the fifteenth Lord Lovat, and the twenty-second
chief of the Fraser clan. He is regarded as the head of the Roman
Catholic body in the north. When the Benedictines were expelled
from France, in 1876, he presented them with the buildings at Fort
Augustus, which he had shortly before purchased from the Govern-
ment, and gave them also a liberal endowment to assist in support-
ing the establishment.

A suit was instituted before the House of Lords in 1885, by a
person of the name of John Fraser, who contended that his great-
grandfather, Alexander Fraser, a miner, who died in Anglesea in
1776, was identical with Alexander Fraser of Beaufort, son of
Thomas of Beaufort, twelfth Lord Lovat, whose descendants were
the nearest heirs to the Lovat estates in the event of the extinction
of the main line of the family. This Alexander Fraser was said to

2 88 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

have fled from Scotland' into Wales in 1689, in consequence of
having killed a fiddler, and having taken part in the rising of the
Highlanders under Dundee in that year. Their lordships, however,
were of opinion that there was no evidence adduced to prove that
Alexander Fraser of Beaufort left Scotland in 1689, or that he was
identical with Alexander Fraser, the miner, who died in Wales in
1776. The Committee for Privileges therefore decided that, in their
opinion, ' John Fraser has no right to the titles, dignity, and
honours claimed in his petition.'

The badge of the clan Fraser is the yew, and their war-cry was
' Castle Downie,' the residence of their chief, which is now termed
Beaufort Castle.

The family of Fraser of Castle Fraser, in Aberdeenshire, is de-
scended in the female line from the Hon. Sir Simon Fraser of
Inverallochy, second son of Simon, eighth Lord Lovat, and in the
male line from Colin Mackenzie of Kilcoy, who married Sir Simon's
great-granddaughter, the heiress of the estate. Andrew Macken-
zie, the second son of that lady, on succeeding his mother in the
estate of Inverallochy, and her youngest sister in that of Castle
Fraser, assumed the additional name of Fraser by royal license.

The Frasers of Leadclune are descended from Alexander Fraser,
second son of Hugh, second Lord Lovat. A baronetcy was con-
ferred on William Fraser, the head of this family, in 1806.

FRASERS OF SALTOUN.

THE ERASERS OF PHILORTH AND SALTOUN.

F the junior branches of the Erasers, the most distinguished
are the ancient family of Philorth, who trace their descent
from William Eraser, whose father, Alexander, flour-
ished during the early part of the fourteenth century,
but it has not been ascertained whether he had any connection with
the Erasers of Tweeddale, though it is highly probable that he
belonged to that family. William Eraser inherited from his father
the fine estates of Cowie and Durris, in Kincardineshire, which, how-
ever, long ago passed away from the family. He was killed at the
battle of Durham, in 1346. His descendants were distinguished
throughout for their patriotism and their bravery. One of them,
who was Abbot of CompiSgne, in France, was elected in 1596 Rector
of the University of Paris, was the author of several treatises in
philosophy, and two theological works. Sir Alexander Eraser of
Philorth, his nephew, laid the foundations of the castle of Fraser-
burgh, which became the chief residence of the family. In 16 13 he
succeeded in getting the town erected into a borough of regality,
and the parish, which was originally called Philorth, was changed to
Fraserburgh, in honour of the benefits which he conferred upon it.
The cross, the gaol, and the court-house were erected by Sir Alex-
ander. In 1592 he obtained a charter from the Crown, empowering
him to erect and endow a college and university at Fraserburgh,
but no steps appear to have been taken to carry this proposal into
execution. His eldest son, also Sir Alexander, married a daughter
of the seventh Lord Abernethy of Saltoun, and their son succeeded
to that peerage as heir of line on the death, in 1669, of his cousin,
Alexander, ninth Lord Abernethy of Saltoun ; but the estate had
been sold, in 1043, to Sir Andrew Fletcher, to whose descendants it
still belongs.

ago The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

The Saltoun Frasers worthily upheld the reputation of the
patriotic family whom they had succeeded. The sixteenth Lord
Saltoun in particular was a distinguished military ofificer, and was
described by the Duke of Wellington as * a pattern to the army,
both as a man and a soldier.' He entered the service in 1802, when
he was seventeen years of age, as ensign in the 42nd Regiment — the
famous Black Watch — and, two years after, he obtained a captain's
commission in the ist Foot Guards. He served under Sir John
Moore In his celebrated Spanish campaign, and fought at Corunna,
1 6th January, 1809. He accompanied the grossly mismanaged and
disastrous Walcheren expedition in that year. He was with the
Duke of Wellington throughout the Peninsular campaign, and took
an active part in its most perilous and sanguinary encounters. He
gained special distinction in the final struggle with Napoleon at
Quatre Bras and at Waterloo. He was appointed to defend the
important post of Hougoumont, which the Duke deemed it necessary
to maintain at any cost, as it was essential to the success of his
operations. Lord Saltoun was directed to hold the orchard and the
wood with the light troops of the ist Regiment, while the Coldstreams
and the 3rd Guards, under Colonel Macdonnell, were stationed in
the buildings and the garden. The battle raged round Hougoumont
all day with the greatest fury, but Lord Saltoun kept the enemy at
bay, though with dreadful carnage. At two o'clock, when, in con-
sequence of the severe loss of his troops, he returned to his own
regiment, the ist Guards, he brought back only one-third of the
men whom he had led into action. He took a prominent part in the
last famous charge of the Guards which closed the battle.

Lord Saltoun' s distinguished services were deservedly rewarded
with professional honours and promotion. He was made a Com-
panion of the Bath in 1815, and K.C.B. in 1818, and ultimately
attained the rank of lieutenant-general. He also became Colonel
of the 2nd Foot in 1846. During the opium war with China,
Lord Saltoun commanded a brigade at the attack and capture of
Chin-Kiang-Fou, and received the thanks of both Houses of Parlia-
ment for ' the energy, ability, and gallantry ' which he had displayed
in that campaign.

His lordship was noted for his musical skill and taste, and was
President of the Madrigal Society, and of the Musical Union.
Besides his military distinctions, and the Order of the Thistle, with
which he was invested by his own sovereign. Lord Saltoun was a

The Erasers of Philorth and Saltoun. 291

Knight of the Austrian order of Maria Theresa, and of the Russian
Order of St. George. He died in 1853, without issue, and was
succeeded by his nephew, Alexander, seventeenth Lord Saltoun,
a representative peer, on whose death, in February, 1886, the family
titles and estates passed to his eldest son, Alexander William
Frederick, Lieutenant-Colonel in the Grenadier Guards, eighteenth
Lord Saltoun.

The title of Baron Fraser (now dormant), in the peerage of
Scotland, was conferred in 1633 on Andrew Fraser of Muchells,
in Aberdeenshire, who was descended from a branch of the house of
Philorth. He died in 1636. His son, also named Andrew, the
second Lord Fraser, joined the Covenanting party, and fought
under the banner of Montrose against the northern Royalists. His
grandson, Charles, fourth Lord Fraser, was a Jacobite, and in
1693 was tried before the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh,
for proclaiming King James at Fraserburgh, for drinking his health
and that of his son, and cursing King William and his adherents.
He was found guilty only of drinking the healths of the expelled
monarch and his son, and was fined two hundred pounds for the
offence. Lord Fraser took the oaths and his seat in Parliament
2nd July, 1695J and in the Parliament of 1706 he supported the
union with England. But his Jacobite principles were only latent,
not extinguished, and he took part in the rebellion of 17 15. After
its suppression he contrived to escape arrest by remaining in hiding.
He lost his life in 1720 by a fall from a precipice near Banff. He
left no issue, and his title has not been claimed. He bequeathed his
estate of Castle Fraser to the children of his wife, daughter of the
seventh Earl of Buchan, by her first husband, Sir Simon Fraser of
Inverallochy.

VOL. II, T T

THE GORDONS.

HE Gordons are one of the oldest and most illustrious of
the historical families of Scotland, and from the twelfth
century down to the present day have taken a very
prominent part in public affairs. They have shed their
blood like water for their sovereign and country, at home and
abroad,^ on the scaffold and the battlefield. They have earned
distinction both as statesmen and warriors, and have filled the
highest ofifices in the Church and the State. Their exploits have
been commemorated in song, and ballad, and tradition, as well
as in the historic records of the country ; and several members
of the family have acquired an honourable position among Scottish
authors. 'O send Lewie Gordon hame,' 'Kenmure's on and
awa,' ' Cauld Kail in Aberdeen,' and ' Tullochgorum,' represent
different phases of the character of the 'gay Gordons,'* gallant as
gay. They claim a share in the poetry of Byron, whose mother
was a Gordon ; and the ' Genealogical History of the Family of
Sutherland,' • The History of the Ancient, Noble, and Illustrious
Family of Gordon,' and the ' Itinerarium Septentrionale ' of ' Sandy
T.rnK,w^''f designation seems to have been given to the Gordons at an early period,
fo thSnTi!?K ,? r^T ^""^ ;P"ghtliness of their manners. It is often ascribed

TnhnTf r ; • " ''"^ °L^^^ ^^'■''°"' °f '^^ ^^^^^^ "f Otterburn, in which Sir

John of Gordon was slam, it is said that Douglas—

' Has chosen the Lindsays light,
With them the Gordons gay.'

hi" l^ ^f^A^ °^ ^^'^^?&i'^ yhere Lady Jean asks the name of the young noble who
had attracted her attention, she is told— j-^u^g uuuic wno

' He is of the gay Gordons; his name it is John;'
and it is added, that when informed of the lady's preference for him—

' He turned about lightly, as the Gordons does a'.'
theleck.'""^''' °^ '^' ^"'^"^ family have long been noted for the elegant shape of

GORDONS OF GORDON.

The Gordons. 293

Gordon,' besides numerous treatises, historical, classical, and theo-
logical, attest the learning and are the fruits of the grave studies
of the Gordons. The ' Gordon Highlanders,' raised among the
clan and led by their chief, have carried the British standard to
victory on many a well-fought field, in Holland and Egypt, in Spain
and Belgium, at Corunna, Quatre Bras, and Waterloo; and the
chiefs of the various branches of the house have been among the
bravest and most skilful officers in the British army.

There are few of the ancient families of Scotland respecting whose
origin so many absurd and fabulous stories have been told as of the
Gordons. According to one account, they came from Greece into
Gaul, and thence into Scotland, at least a thousand years ago.
Another fabulist traces their origin to Spain, and a third to
Flanders. Some writers affirm that the Gordons are descended from
Bertrand de Gourdon, who, in 1 199, wounded mortally with an arrow
Richard Coeur de Lion, while he was besieging the castle of Chalons
in the Limoges. But there can be no doubt that the Gordons were
originally from Normandy, and that the founder of the Scottish
branch of the family came into Scotland in the reign of David L
(11 24 — 53), from whom he received a grant of the lands of
Gordon. There is a tradition that the first of the name came from
England in the days of Malcolm Canmore, and that, as a reward for
his services in killing a wild boar which infested the Borders, he
received from that monarch a grant of land in the Merse of Berwick-
shire, which he called Gordon after his own name, and settling there,
he assumed a boar's head for his armorial bearings in commem-
oration of his exploit. In all probability the story was invented
to account for the arms of the family, and its founder was much
more likely to have styled himself ' de Gordon ' after his lands, than
to have given his name to the place where he settled.

The ancestor of the Gordons had two sons, Richard and Adam.
Richard, the elder, who died in the year 1200, appears to have
been a liberal benefactor to the monastery of Kelso. His son
confirmed by charter his grants of land, and his grandson increased
them, and gave lands also to the monks of Coldstream. He died in
1285 without male issue, and his only daughter, Alice, married her
cousin, Adam de Gordon, the son of Adam the younger brother of
Richard, and thus united the two branches of the family. This
Adam is said to have accompanied Louis of France in his crusade
for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre, in 1270, and to have died

2gA The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

during the expedition. His son, who was also named Adam, was a
supporter of Baliol in his contest with Bruce for the crown, but he
died before the commencement of the War of Independence.

His son, Sir Adam de Gordon, was one of the most powerful
nobles of his time, and took a prominent part in the struggle for
national freedom. He was at the outset an adherent of John
Baliol, but after the death of that unfortunate monarch, Sir
Adam gave in his adhesion to Robert Bruce. He was sent as
ambassador to the papal court to submit to the Pope the spirited
memorial prepared by the Parliament in 1320, in vindication of the
freedom and independence of their country, and succeeded in
persuading the Roman Pontiff to suspend the publication of his
sentence of excommunication and interdict, and to address an
epistle to the English king recommending him to conclude a peace
with Scotland. As a reward for his important services, Sir Adam
received from Robert Bruce a grant of the forfeited estate of David
de Strathbogie, Earl of Athole ; but that nobleman, having returned
to his allegiance, was allowed to retain possession of his lands.

Sir Adam was killed at the battle of Halidon Hill, in 1333. He
was succeeded by Alexander, the eldest of his four sons, who
fought with great gallantry by his father's side, and was one of the
few nobles who escaped from that fatal field. He is said to have
fallen at the battle of Durham, October 17th, 1346, but his name
does not appear in the list of the slain given by Lord Hailes. His
son. Sir John, was present at that engagement, and was taken
prisoner, along with King David. He was detained in captivity in
England until 1357.

The Earl of Athole, who was noted for his rapacity and cruelty,
once more joined the English invaders, in 1335, but was defeated by
Sir Andrew Moray, the Regent, at Kilblane, near Braemar, and was
killed in the battle. His estates were then finally forfeited, and in
1 376 Sir John de Gordon, the son of the Sir John who was captured
at Durham, obtained from Robert II. a new charter of the lands of
Strathbogie. The Gordon clan were thus transferred from the
Borders to the Highlands, though they continued to possess their
original estates in Berwickshire till the beginning of the fifteenth
century. Their northern domain and lordship received the name of
Huntly from a small village near Gordon, and their title was taken
from it when the family was raised to the peerage. Sir John de

The Gordons.

295

Gordon was a redoubted warrior, and many of his exploits are
narrated in the Border annals and traditions of his age.

In 137 1 -2 the English Borderers invaded and plundered the
lands of Gordon. Sir John retaliated as usual by an incursion into
Northumberland, where he laid waste and plundered the country.
But as he returned with his booty, he was attacked unawares by Sir
John Lilburn, a Northumbrian baron, who, with a greatly superior
force, lay in ambush near Carham to intercept him. Gordon
harangued and cheered his followers, charged the English gallantly,
and, after having himself been five times in great peril, gained a
complete victory, taking the English commander and his brother
captive. According to Wyntoun, Sir John was desperately wounded,

but —

'The're rayse a welle grete renowne,
And gretly prysyd wes gude Gordown.'

Shortly after this exploit Sir John of Gordon encountered and
defeated Sir Thomas Musgrave, a renowned English knight, whom
he made prisoner. Wyntoun says of Sir John and the Laird of
Johnston, another celebrated Borderer —

• He and the Lord of Gordown
Had a soverane gude renown
Of ony that war of thare degrd,
For full that war of grete bount^.'

Sir John and his clan fought at the battle of Otterburn in 1587,
under the banner of the Earl of Douglas, and, along with his
renowned leader, he lost his life in that fiercely-contested conflict.*

Lord John left three sons, the two younger of whom were known
in tradition by the familiar names of Jock ^x\di Tarn. The former
was the ancestor of the Gordons of Pitlurg ; the latter of those of
Lesmoir and of Craig-Gordon.

His eldest son, Sir Adam de Gordon, a young noble con-
spicuous for his gallantry, fell at the battle of Homildon Hill.
When the English archers were pouring their volleys with deadly
effect on the closely wedged ranks of the Scottish spearmen, who
were falling by hundreds, Sir John Swinton, a brave Border knight
of gigantic stature, well advanced in years, exclaimed, ' Why stand
we here to be shot like deer and marked down by the enemy?
Where is our wonted courage ? Are we to be still and have our
* Ridpath's Border History. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.

296 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

hands nailed to our lances ? Follow me, and let us at least sell our
lives as dearly as we can.' This gallant proposal won the admi-
ration of Adam de Gordon, whose family were at deadly feud with
that of Swinton, and throwing himself from his horse and kneeling
down before him, he said, ' I have not been knighted, and never can
I take the honour from the hand of a truer, more loyal, more valiant
leader. Grant me the boon I ask, and I unite my forces to yours,
that we may live and die together.' Swinton cordially complied with
Gordon's request, and after having hastily performed the ceremony,
he tenderly embraced his late foe. The two knights then mounted
their horses, and, at the head of a hundred horsemen, charged
fiercely on the English host ; but, unsupported by their countrymen,
the little band, with its gallant leaders, were overpowered and slain.

Sir Adam was succeeded in his estates by his only child, Eliza-
beth Gordon, who became the wife of Alexander de Seton,
second son of Sir William de Seton of Seton. He assumed the
name of Gordon, was styled Lord Gordon and Huntly, and carried
on the line of the family. He had two sons by the heiress of the
Gordons. Alexander, the eldest, was created Earl of Huntly
in 1449. He was a good deal employed in embassies and nego-
tiations at the English court. During the rebellion of the Douglases
Huntly was appointed by James II. (who placed great confidence in
his integrity and judgment) lieutenant-general of the kingdom,
and was intrusted with the difficult task of suppressing the rebellion
of the Earls of Crawford and Ross, who had entered into a treason-
able association with the Earl of Douglas. Marching northward
with a powerful army under the royal standard, he encountered
Crawford, at the head of his retainers and vassals, on a moor about
two miles north-east of Brechin. The battle was fiercely contested,
and for a considerable time the issue was very doubtful ; but
it was decided against the Tiger Earl, as Crawford was called, by
the desertion in the heat of the fight of one of his most trusted
vassals, Collace of Balnamoon, at the head of three hundred men.
Huntly lost two of his brothers, and Gordon of Methlic, ancestor
of the Earl of Aberdeen, in this sanguinary conflict. A brother of
Crawford, and sixty other lords and gentlemen who fought on his
side, were among the slain. The Earl and his discomfited followers
fled to Fmhaven Castle. On alighting from his horse, the savage
Earl called for a cup of wine, and declared with an oath that ' he

The Gordons. 2^1

wad be content to hang seven years in hell by the breers o' the
e'en [eyelashes] to gain such a victory as had that day fallen to
Huntly.' *

The Earl of Moray, one of the brothers of the Earl of Douglas,
in revenge for Crawford's defeat, burned Huntly' s castle of Strath-
bogie and ravaged his estates, and he shortly after surprised and
defeated a body of the Gordons in a morass called Dunkinty. This
repulse is commemorated in a jeering song which runs thus : —

' Where did you leave your men,
Thou Gordon so gay ?
In the bog of Dunkinty,
Mowing the hay.'

Lord Huntly died 15th July, 1470, and was buried at Elgin. He
was three times married. His first wife, daughter of Robert de
Keith, grandson of the Great Marischal of Scotland, brought him a
fine estate but no children. His second wife, who was daughter and
heiress of Sir John Hay of Tullibody, bore to him a son. Sir Alex-
ander Seton, who inherited his mother's estate, and was ancestor of
the Setons of Touch. The Earl's third wife, a daughter of Lord
Crichton, High Chancellor of Scotland, bore to him three sons and
three daughters. The title and estates were settled by charter on
the issue of this third marriage, and the eldest son succeeded his
father in 1470.

George, second Earl of Huntly, was appointed, with the Earl
of Crawford, joint justiciary of the country beyond the Forth. He
was a member of the Privy Council of James HL Though he
was an accomplice of Bell-the-Cat and the other disaffected barons
in the murder of the royal favourites at Lauder, in the final
struggle between them and James, Huntly supported the cause of
that unfortunate sovereign, and, along with the Earl of Athole, com-
manded the vanguard of the royal army in the battle of Sauchie-
burn, where the King lost his life. James IV., however, seems to
have entertained no hostile feelings towards the Earl, for in 1491 he
nominated him his lieutenant in the northern parts of Scotland
beyond the North Esk river ; and, in 1498, he appointed Huntly High
Chancellor of Scotland. He resigned this office in 1502, and died
soon after. The Earl was twice married. His first wife, Annabella,
daughter of James L, bore to him six daughters and five sons. His

* Lives of the Lindsays, i. 137.
VOL. II. U U

298 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

eldest son became third Earl. His second son, Adam, married
Elizabeth, Countess of Sutherland, and became Earl of Sutherland
in her right. William, third son, was the ancestor of the Gordons
of Gight, from whom Lord Byron was descended. James Gordon of
Letter fourie, the fourth, was admiral of the fleet in 15 13. Lady-
Catherine, the eldest daughter of Lord Huntly, who was regarded as
the most beautiful and accomplished woman in Scotland, was given
in marriage by the King to Perkin Warbeck, whose claims to the
English throne he warmly supported. She accompanied that adven-
turer to England; after his execution King Henry granted her
a pension, and assigned her a post of honour at the English Court,
where she was known by the name of the White Rose of Scotland.
Lady Catherine afterwards married Sir Matthew Cradock, an
ancestor of the Pembroke family. The Earl had no issue by his
second wife, a daughter of the first Earl of Errol.

Alexander, third Earl of Huntly, according to Holinshed, was
held in the highest reputation of all the Scottish nobility for his
valour, joined with wisdom and policy. He contributed greatly
to the suppression of a rebellion in the Isles in 1505, and in the fol-
lowing year he stormed the castle of Stornoway, in Lewis, the strong-
hold of Torquil Macleod, the leader of the insurgents. The Earl,
along with Lord Home, commanded the left wing of the Scottish
army at the battle of Flodden, 9th September, 15 13, and overpowered
and threw into disorder the division commanded by Sir Edward
Howard. The Earl and his brother, the Earl of Sutherland, were
among the few Scottish nobles who returned in safety from that fatal
field, but Sir William Gordon of Gight was among the slain, as
was also Alexander Gordon, heir-apparent of Lochinvar. When the
Queen-Dowager was appointed Regent of the kingdom, the Parlia-
ment resolved that she should be guided by the counsels of Huntly,
along with Angus and the Archbishop of Glasgow. During the
minority of James V. Huntly's authority was predominant in the north.
When the Duke of Albany left the country in 15 17, the Earl was
nominated one of the Council of Regency, and, in the following year,
he was appointed the royal lieutenant over all Scotland, except the
West Highlands. He died at Paris, i6th January, 1524. By his
first wife, a daughter of John, Earl of Athole, uterine brother of
James IV., the Earl had four sons and two daughters. By his second
wife, a daughter of Lord Gray, he had no issue. His eldest son,

The Gordons. 299

George, died young. John, his second son, also predeceased him,
leaving two sons by his wife Margaret, an illegitimate daughter of
James IV. Alexander, his third son, was ancestor of the Gordons
of Cluny ; and the fourth, William, was Bishop of Aberdeen from
1547 to his death in 1577.

Bishop Gordon has obtained an unenviable notoriety for his im-
moral life and his alienation of the revenues of his diocese. Spot-
tiswood says : — ' This man, brought up in letters at Aberdeen,
followed his studies a long time in Paris, and returning thence was
first, parson of Clat, and afterwards promoted to the See. Some
hopes he gave at first of a virtuous man, but afterwards turned a
very epicure, spending all his time in drinking and whoring. He
dilapidated the whole rents by feuing the land, and converting the
victual-duties in money, a great part whereof he wasted upon his base
children and their mothers.' The registers of the diocese fully bear
out these severe statements respecting the conduct of this unworthy
prelate. Mention is made in them of no fewer than forty-nine
' charters of assedation ' of various portions of the land belonging to
the bishopric granted by him during the course of a single year —
1549. The Dean and Chapter of Aberdeen, in a memorial of advice
presented to Bishop Gordon in January, 1558, ' humbly and heartily
pray and exhort my lord, their ordinary, for the honour of God, relief
of his own conscience, and well of his diocese, and the eviting of great
scandal, that his lordship will be so good as to show edicative
example ; in special in removing and discharging himself of the
company of the gentlewoman by whom he is greatly slandered ; with-
out the which be done, divers that are partners say they cannot
accept counsel and correction of him who will not correct himself.'*
This really affecting appeal, however, had no effect on the bishop.
On the 20th October, 1565, he granted a charter of the lands of
North Spittal to Janet Knowles (probably ' the gentlewoman by
whom he was greatly slandered ') in life-rents, and to his children,
George, John, and William, Elizabeth, Margaret, and Martha Gor-
don, in feu.f

George, fourth Earl of Huntly, eldest son of Lord John Gordon,
succeeded his grandfather in 1524, when only ten years of age. He
was educated along with James V., his, maternal uncle, and was care-
fully instructed by the best masters. His frequent intercourse with
* Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis, i. ; preface, Ivii. + Ibid. Ixv.

300 The Great Historic Families of Scotland,

the Court of France not only polished his manners, but gave him an
insight into the inner machinery of public government. At an early
age he filled several important offices, and in 1537 he was appointed
Lieutenant-general of the country beyond the Forth. The Earl was
possessed of almost regal influence in the north, which he frequently
exercised in an arbitrary and tyrannical manner. He took a very
prominent part in public affairs during the reign of James V. and
his unfortunate daughter Mary. In July, 1542, he defeated, at
Haddon Rig, near Kelso, Sir Robert Bowes, Warden of the East
Marches, who was ravaging Teviotdale at the head of three thousand
men, and took six hundred prisoners, including Bowes himself, with
his brother and several other persons of note. This defeat so enraged
King Henry that he sent an expedition consisting of thirty thou-
sand men into Scotland, under the Duke of Norfolk, with orders
to lay waste the country ; but they were kept in check by Huntly
with a force only a third of that number, and were ultimately com-
pelled to retreat to Berwick.

After the death of King James, Huntly was constituted Lieu-
tenant-general of all the Highlands, and of Orkney and Shetland.
In May, 1544, he marched with a numerous army, reinforced by
Lord Lovat and the Erasers, against the clan Cameron and the
Macdonalds of Clanranald, who were plundering Glenmoriston,
Strathglass, and the whole adjoining district. At his approach
they retired to their own territories. But as soon as Huntly had
separated from the Erasers to return home, they were attacked
by the Macdonalds at Loch Lochy, and so fierce was the conflict, that
only two combatants on the one side and four on the other survived.
Huntly lost no time in retracing his steps, and after laying waste
the district, he apprehended and put to death a number of the
leading men of the rebellious tribes.

The Earl was appointed High Chancellor of Scotland in 1546.
He commanded the vanguard at the battle of Pinkie, loth Sep-
tember, 1547, and was taken prisoner by the English. He was first
sent to London, but was subsequently removed to Morpeth Castle.
He promised that, if allowed to return home, he would join the
English party and forward the project of marriage between the
young Scottish queen and King Edward. He did not mislike the
match so much, he said, as the manner of wooing. His offer does
not appear to have been accepted; probably its sincerity was
doubted. Among the papers, however, in Gordon Castle, there are

The Gordons. 301

covenants between Huntly and the Protector Somerset which show
that the Earl had agreed to promote the project of an English
marriage and alliance, while he was at the same time regarded as
the main support of the Roman Catholic party, who were bent on
an alliance and marriage with France, He succeeded in making
his escape from his prison, in 1548, by the assistance of George
Car, a well-known Borderer. * George Car,' says the family historian,
' came at the appointed time with two horses, the best the Borderers
could afford for the purpose, the one being for the Earl and the
other for his servant. The appointed night he prepares a good
supper for his keepers, and invites them solemnly to it, and to
play at cards, to put off the tediousness of the night. At length,
as if he had been weary of playing, he left off, entreating them to
continue ; and, going to the window, he did by a secret sign
observe that all things were ready for his escape, tho' the night was
extremely dark. He began then to be doubtful, sometimes in hope,
and other times in fear. At last, without thinking, he burst out into
this speech, A dark night, a wearied knight; God be the Guide. The
keepers, hearing him speaking to himself, asked what he meant
by that? He answered that these words were used as a proverb
among the Scots, and had their beginning from the old Earl of
Morton uttering the same in the middle of the night, when he lay
a-dying. Whereupon, that his keepers might have no suspicion of
his designed escape, he sitteth down again to cards, after which he
suddenly rose from them on the plea of necessity, and went suddenly
out with his servant, found the horses furnished by George Car
ready, which he and his servant immediately mounted, and on them,
with all possible speed, fled to the Scot's Borders.' *

Huntly was now the recognised head of the Roman Catholic
party in Scotland, and when the marriage of Queen Mary to the
Dauphin of France was proposed, he received the order of St.
Michael from the French King, and, in 1549, he obtained a grant
of the earldom of Moray.

The severity of Huntly' s proceedings against the Highland
clans had excited a strong feeling of revenge, and a plot was
formed for his assassination. Mackintosh, the chief Of the clan
Chattan, who had been liberally educated by the Earl of Moray,
Huntly' s enemy, was at the head of this conspiracy. The plot

* The History of the Ancient, Noble, and Illustrious Family of Gordon. By Mr. Wil-
liam Gordon of Old Aberdeen, i. 171, 172.

302 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

being discovered, Huntly caused Mackintosh to be apprehended
and beheaded at Strathbogie.

In 1554 a violent outbreak took place on the part of the chief
of Clanranald, accompanied as usual with rapine and bloodshed,
and Huntly was entrusted by the Queen- Regent with full powers to
bring the offenders to justice. The expedition, however, was unsuc-
cessful, mainly in consequence of dissensions among the Earl's
followers, and its failure was attributed to his own mismanagement.
He was, in consequence, apprehended and committed to prison, was
deprived of all his offices, and was sentenced to be banished to
France for five years. He was at the same time compelled to
renounce the earldom of Moray, and the lordship of Abernethy, with
his leases and possessions in Orkney and Shetland. The sentence
of banishment, however, was recalled by the Queen-Regent and
commuted for a heavy fine, and he was restored to his office of
Chancellor, of which he had been deprived.

During the fierce contentions between Mary of Guise and the
Lords of the Congregation, Huntly repeatedly interposed, in order
to prevent hostilities. On her behalf he signed the agreement with
them which led to their evacuation of Edinburgh, but, shortly after,
he entered into a bond with the Duke of Chatelherault, and the
other Lords of the Congregation, for the support of the Reformation
and the expulsion of the French troops from the kingdom. It need
excite no surprise that in these circumstances the Queen-Regent,
in her last interview with the lords, warned them against the crafty
and interested advice of the Earl of Huntly.

The power of the Gordon family had now reached its greatest
height. They had succeeded to the vast influence of the old Earls
of Ross ; and the * Cock of the North,' as the head of the house was
termed, exercised almost supreme authority over the vast territory
to the north and west of Aberdeen, extending from the Dee as far
as the chain of lakes which now form the Caledonian Canal. They
possessed also large estates on the fertile east coast of Scotland,
which were cultivated by an industrious Lowland tenantry, furnishing
them with the means of living in princely state at their castle of
Strathbogie, and of maintaining a numerous body of armed retainers.
The Earls of Huntly were not only the chiefs of a clan, but the heads
of a party almost strong enough to cope with royalty, and the great
offices of Lieutenant-General of all the Highlands, King's Lieutenant
over all Scotland, and Lord High Chancellor, which were held by

The Gordons. 303

several of them in succession, added largely to their already overgrown
power. They possessed a vast number of bonds of man-rent, friend-
ship, and alliance, given to them not only by the minor houses of
their own kindred, but by most of the leading families in the north of
Scotland, dating from 1444 to 1670, which testify, in a very unmis-
takable way, the enormous following which could be relied on by
the chiefs of the Gordons in all emergencies.

The earliest of these bonds — a hundred and seven in all — was given
in 1444 by James of Forbes, who ' becomes man till ane honourable
and mighty Lord, Alexander of Seton of Gordon.' Among the im-
portant and influential persons who, in subsequent times, gave similar
bonds to Huntly, was the Earl of Argyll, who, in 1583, promised to
' concur and take aefeld, true, and plain part ' with the chief of the
Gordons, ' in all his honest and guid causes, against whatsomever that
live or die may, our sovereign lord and his authority alone excepted.'
In 1587, Rattray of Craighall binds himself and his dependents
' to serve the said Earl in all his actions and adoes, against all
persons, the King's Majesty only excepted, and sail neither hear nor
see his skaith, but sail make him foreseen therewith, and sail resist
the same sae far as in me lies, and that in respect the same Earl has
given me his bond of maintenance.' Similar engagements were
entered into by Macleod of Lewis, Colin of Kintail, chief of the
clan Mackenzie ; Munro of Foulis, Glengarry, Macgregor of Glen-
strae, Drummond of Blair, Donald Gorm of Sleat, progenitor of
the present Lord Macdonald ; Grant of Freuchie, Lady Menzies of
Weem, the Earl of Orkney, Lord Lovat, Lord Spynie, Cameron of
Lochiel, Menzies of that ilk, Menzies of Pitfodels, the Laird of Luss,
Mackintosh of Dunnachtan, Innes of Innermarky, the Laird of Mel-
gund, the clan Macpherson, and numerous other powerful chiefs
and lairds.*

The rental of the widespread lands of the chief of the Gordons was,
of course, correspondingly large, though a great portion of it was
paid in kind, as was shown by an incident which occurred in 1556. In
that year the Queen -Dowager, on a progress to the northern part of
the country, was sumptuously entertained by Huntly in his castle of
Strathbogie, which he had recently enlarged and adorned at a great
expense. After a stay of some days, the Queen, apprehensive that
her prolonged visit, with her large retinue, might put her host to
inconvenience, proposed to take her departure. Huntly, however,
* Gordon Papers, Spalding Club Misc., iv. 123—319.

304 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

entreated her to remain, which she agreed to do. On expressing a
wish to inspect the cellars and storehouses which furnished the
bounteous cheer provided for her, she was shown, among other
stores of food of every sort, an enormous quantity of wildfowl and
venison. The Frenchmen in the Queen's retinue asked how and
whence a supply so vast and yet so fresh was procured, and were
informed by the Earl that he had relays of hunters and fowlers
dispersed in the mountains, woods, and remote places of his
domains, who daily forwarded to his castle the game which they
caught, however distant their quarters might be. D'Oisel, on
hearing this reply, remarked to the Queen that such a man was not
to be tolerated in so small and poor a kingdom as Scotland, and
that his wings ought to be clipped before he became too arrogant. *
In the contest between the Reformers and the Romish Church,
the fourth Earl, unfortunately for himself and his family, resolved
to stand forth as the leader of the Popish party. During the
commotions under the regency of the Queen-mother, as we have
seen, he had acted a temporising part. He at one time assisted
the Regent in her efforts to carry out the Popish policy dictated
by her brothers, the Guises. At another he professed to have
joined the Lords of the Congregation, though he took care to
give no material aid to the Protestant cause, and was present
at the famous Parliament of 1560, in which the Romish Church
was overthrown. He was courted and feared by each of the
contending parties, as Robertson remarks, and in consequence,
both connived at his encroachments in the north, and he was thus
enabled, by a combination of artifice and force, to add every day to
his already exorbitant power and wealth. But there can be no
doubt that he had, long before this time, determined to become the
leader of the Scottish Roman Catholics, in their life and death
struggle with the Protestants. After the death of the French king,
Mary's husband, Huntly, in conjunction with some other Romish
nobles, sent an envoy to the young Queen, to invite her, on her
return to her own country, to land at Aberdeen, where they were
prepared to welcome her as the champion of the old faith, with an
army of twenty thousand men. But Mary was aware that the
acceptance of this offer would incur the risk of a desperate civil
war, and that whether it terminated in victory or defeat, it would be
ruinous to her hopes of gaining the English crown. She therefore
* First Report of Commission on Historical Manuscripts, 114.

The Gordons 305

contented herself with enjoining- the envoy to assure the lords and
prelates who had sent him of her favour towards them, and her
intention to reside in her kingdom.

In carrying out the policy which she adopted at this stage, Mary
chose as her chief counsellor her half-brother, Lord James Stewart,
the leader of the Protestant lords, and it transpired that she
intended to create him Earl of Moray. Huntly was deeply offended
at the favour thus shown to his rival, and especially at the prospect
of being deprived of the extensive domains attached to the earldom
of Moray, which had for some years been in his possession. His
disaffection to the Government was not concealed, and there was
reason to believe that he was organising his retainers and allies with
a view to take up arms in support of the ancient faith, as soon as
a favourable opportunity should present itself.

In these circumstances the Queen resolved to make a journey to
the north, no doubt by Moray's advice, though Randolph says it
was ' rather devised by herself than approved by her council.' In
the course of this royal progress, which was to terminate at Inver-
ness, Mary was to visit Huntly at his splendid castle of Strath-
bogie, by way of doing honour to the northern potentate. It is
doubtful, however, whether the Earl regarded the proposal quite in
this light, and it could not suit his purposes that his keen-eyed rival
should have an opportunity of inspecting closely the state of affairs
at the headquarters of the Popish party.

At this time an incident occurred which had an important in-
fluence on the relations between the Queen and her potent subject.
In a conflict which took place in the streets of Edinburgh, between
Sir John Gordon, one of Huntly's younger sons, and Lord Ogilvy,
that nobleman was severely wounded, and Gordon was immediately
arrested and committed to prison. He made his escape, however,
from the Tolbooth, and took refuge on his estate in the north. His
mother persuaded him to submit himself to the pleasure of the
Queen, who ordered him to be conveyed to the castle of Stirling.
On his way thither he repented of his submission, escaped from his
guards, and gathering a strong body of horsemen, bade defiance to
the royal authority.

The Queen set out from Edinburgh on her royal progress
(nth August, 1562), accompanied by Randolph, the English ambas-
sador, her brother. Lord James, at that time Earl of Mar, Secretary
Lethington, and a large body of the nobility. She arrived at Old

VOL. II. X X

3o6 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

Aberdeen on the 27th of August. Huntly was evidently afraid to
trust himself within her power without knowing whether she came
for a peaceful or a hostile purpose, and he sent his wife to wait on
her Majesty, and to invite her to his castle of Strathbogie. The
Queen declined to accept the invitation, on the ground that she
would not visit the Earl so long as his son was a fugitive from
justice. Randolph, however, who was the Earl's guest for two
nights, in a letter to Cecil, says, ' his house is fair, and best furnished
of any house that I have seen in this country. His cheer is mar-
vellous great.' There can be no doubt that both the Queen and
her chief counsellor ran considerable risk in venturing into the
Gordon territory, and it transpired that while spending a night in
the Castle of Balquhain, a stronghold of the Leslies, they both
narrowly escaped seizure. At Darnaway Castle, the chief mansion
of the earldom of Moray, a meeting of the Privy Council was held,
at which the Lord James produced his patent of the earldom of
Moray, which he exchanged for that of Mar, ' both more honour-
able,' says Randolph, ' and greater in profit than the other.' The
conferring this honour upon his rival seems to have driven Huntly
to despair. He immediately assembled his vassals, and advanced
with rapid marches towards Aberdeen, with the hope of seizing the
Queen's person. A party of the royal soldiers were attacked near
Findlater, one of the Earl's castles, by his son. Sir John Gordon.
Their leader was captured, a number of them killed, and the rest
disarmed. ' This fact,' says Knox, ' so inflamed the Queen that all
hope of reconciliation was past ; and so the said Earl of Huntly
was charged, under pain of putting him to the home, to present him-
self and the said Sir John before the Queen and Council within six
days, which charge he disobeyed, and so was pronounced a rebel.' *
A considerable force had at first assembled round the Gordon
standard, but the Mackintoshes, whose chief he had beheaded some
years before, and several other clans that had hitherto submitted to
the iron rule of Huntly, now availed themselves of the opportunity
to free themselves from his yoke, under the plea of loyalty. His
troops thus gradually melted away until they had dwindled down to
between seven and eight hundred men. On the other hand, the royal
forces, swelled by the deserters from Huntly' s standard, numbered
about^ two thousand. The Earl, however, with the courage of
despair, assumed the offensive. A conflict took place on the declivity

* Knox's Works, ii. 354.

The Gordons. 307

of a hill called Corrichie, about fifteen or eighteen miles west of
Aberdeen. On the first attack, the clans that had passed from
Huntly to the Queen took to flight ; but Moray restored the battle,
which terminated in the complete defeat of the insurgents. The
Earl himself was found dead on the field — smothered, it was said, in
his armour, owing to his corpulence, and the pressure of the crowd
of fugitives and pursuers.* Two of his sons, Sir John and Adam
Gordon, were taken prisoners. The latter, who was only eighteen
years of age, was pardoned on account of his youth ; but, three
days after the battle, Sir John, who was regarded as the chief cause
of the rebellion, was beheaded at Aberdeen. Buchanan says, ' he
was generally pitied and lamented, for he was a noble youth,
very beautiful, and entering on the prime of his age.' He was
said to have aspired to the hand of the Queen, and it is alleged
that on this account, at the instance of Moray, she witnessed his
execution.

There can be no doubt that Huntly had meditated the most violent
measures against his sovereign. Randolph states in a letter to
Cecil that ' Sir John Gordon confessed his treasonable designs, but
laid the burden of them on his father ; that two confidential servants
of that nobleman, Thomas Ker and his brother, acknowledged that
their master, on three several occasions, had plotted to cut off Moray
and Lethington ; and that the Queen herself, in a conversation with
Randolph, thanked God for having delivered her enemy into her
hand. She declared,' he says, ' many a shameful and detestable
part that he thought to have used against her, as to have married
her where he would, to have slain her brother, and whom other he
liked ; the places, the times, where it should have been done ; and
how easy matter it was, if God had not preserved her.'

Lord George Gordon, Huntly' s eldest surviving son, was shortly
after apprehended in the Lowlands, and having been brought to
trial for treason, was found guilty and condemned to death, but was
respited, and committed a prisoner to the castle of Dunbar.

The movables in Huntly' s splendid mansion of Strathbogie were

* One of the numerous misstatements, to use the mildest term, of Bishop Leslie, is
to the effect that Huntly was taken prisoner and put to death by Moray's order. In
accordance with the barbarous law and practice of the time, Huntly's dead body was
embowelled and roughly embalmed, in order that it might be brought to Edinburgh, to
the meeting of Parliament, where sentence of forfeiture was pronounced upon him.
Leslie, who must have known better, says this was done because Moray's hatred of all
good men prompted him to insult even their remains.

3o8 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

divided between the Queen and the Earl of Moray. The inventory
of the Queen's share has been preserved, and, as Dr. Stuart
remarks, it enables us to realise the grandeur of Huntly's style of
living, as well as his taste and refinement. The beds carried from
Strathbogie to Holyrood were of rich velvets, with ornaments and
fringes of gold and silver work ; many pieces of tapestry, vessels of
gilded or coloured glass, figures of animals, and images of a monk
and nun, the marble bust of a man, and a wooden carving of the
Samaritan woman at the well, were items in the list.

It is startling to learn that several of the most costly articles of
which Queen Mary had thus despoiled her unfortunate subject were
employed to deck the apartments in the Kirk of Field which were
hastily fitted up for Darnley when he was brought from Glasgow to
the place selected for his murder. The hall was hung with five pieces
of tapestry, part of the plunder of Strathbogie. The walls of the
king's chamber on the upper floor were hung with six pieces of
tapestry, which, like the hangings of the wall, had been spoiled
from the Gordons after Corrichie. There were two or three cushions
of red velvet, a high chair covered with purple velvet, and a little
table with a broad cloth, or cover of green velvet, also brought from
Strathbogie.

At the first meeting of Parliament, Huntly's vast estates were con-
fiscated to the Crown, and the potent house of Gordon was reduced
at once to insignificance and penury. Such a signal overthrow of
one of the greatest territorial magnates in the kingdom was regarded
by the Protestants as a signal judgment upon him for his hos-
tility to the good cause. John Knox, in pointing the moral of
Huntly's downfall, for the benefit of the courtiers, said, referring to
the Earl's public deportment, ' Have ye not seen ane greater than
any of ye, sit picking his nails and pull down his bonnet over his
eyes when idolatry, witchcraft, murder, oppression, and such vices
were rebuked ? Was not his common talk, •' When the knaves have
railed their fill they will hold their peace " ? Have you not heard
it affirmed in his own face that God should revenge that his blas-
phemy, even in the eyes of such as were witness to his iniquity ?
Then was the Earl of Huntly accused by you as the maintainer of
idolatry and only hinderer of all good order. Him has God punished
even according to His threatenings, that his and your ears heard,
and by your hands hath God executed his judgments.' *

* Knox's Works, ii. 362.

The Gordons. 309

In no long time, however, the house of Gordon rose again from
its ruins with undiminished splendour and power.

By his countess, a granddaughter of the third Earl Marischal,
Lord Huntly had nine sons and three daughters. Alexander, the
eldest, who married a daughter of the Duke of Chatelherault, died
without issue in 1553. George, the second son, became fifth Earl.
Of the other sons, one was a Jesuit and died at Paris, in 1626. Sir
Adam of Auchindoun, the sixth son, whom Queen Mary pardoned,
was long a staunch and powerful supporter of her cause in the
north. On the gth of October, 1571, he defeated the Forbeses, the
hereditary enemies of the Gordons, and the opponents of the Queen's
party, with the loss of a hundred and twenty men. Two hundred
hagbuteers were despatched by the Regent to the assistance of the
Forbeses, but, in a second encounter, at the ' Craibstane,' near
Aberdeen, they were again defeated by Gordon : three hundred of
them were killed, and two hundred, along with the Master of Forbes,
were taken prisoners. ' But,' says a contemporary chronicler, ' what
glory and renown he (Auchindoun) obtained by these two victories,
was all casten down by the infamy of his next attempt ; for, imme-
diately after his last conflict, he directed his soldiers to the castle of
Towie, desiring the house to be rendered to him in the Queen's
name, whilk was obstinately refused by the lady, and she burst out
with certain injurious words. And the soldiers, being impatient, by
command of their leader. Captain Ker, fire was put to the house,
whence she and the number of twenty-seven persons were cruelly
burnt to the death.'

This atrocious deed has been commemorated in the beautiful and
touching ballad entitled ' Edom o' Gordon.'* The Laird of Towie

* The description, by the unknown poet, of the scene in which the mother and her
children appear, as they see the flames climbing up the battlements and the smoke
closing around them, as Mr. Murray remarks, is perhaps unsurpassed in popular poetry ;
while the picture of the beautiful dead face, smiting even the ruffian soldier with a
feeling which he cannot bear, is sketched as if by the hand of Nature herself :—

' O then bespake her youngest son.

Sat on the nurse's knee ;
" O mother dear, gie ower your house,

For the reek it smothers me."

" I wad gie a' my gowd, my bairn,
Sae wad I gie my fee.
For ae blast o' the westlan' wind
To blaw the reek frae thee."

3IO The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

Castle, one of the chiefs of the Forbes family, was from home when
his mansion and family were thus ruthlessly destroyed. The ballad
represents him as pursuing the murderers, and states that only five
of them escaped his vengeance. There is, unfortunately, no reason
to believe that they met with the condign punishment which their
shocking crime deserved. As Sir Adam Gordon retained Ker in his
service after this inhuman deed, he was regarded by the public as
equally guilty.*

Sir Patrick, the seventh son of the Earl of Huntly, was killed at
the battle of Glenlivet, in 1594.

The Earl's second daughter. Lady Jean, had a memorable career.
She married, on 22nd February, 1566, the notorious Earl of Both-

O then bespake her dochter dear —
She was baith jimp and sma' —
" O row me in a pair o' sheets,
And tow me ower the wa'."

They rowed her in a pair o' sheets,

And towed her ower the wa',
But on the point of Edom's spear

She got a deadly fa'.

bonny, bonny was her mouth,
And cherry were her cheeks,

And clear, clear was her yellow hair.
Whereon the red bluid dreeps.

Then wi' his spear he turned her ower ;

gin her face was wan !

He said, " Ye are the first that e'er

1 wished aUve again."

He turned her ower and ower again,
O gin her skin was white !
" I might hae spared that bonny face
To been some man's delight.

" Brisk and boun my merry men all,
For ill dooms I do guess :

1 canna look in that bonnie face.
As it lies on the grass." '

Tlie Ballads and Songs of Scotland. By J. Clark Murray, LL.D.

* Among the papers in the charter-chest of Lord Forbes at Castle Forbes, there is
a pungent Latin epigram, written by James Forbes of Corsinday, in 1621, which
shows the bitter feeling that the Forbeses cherished towards the Gordons. Referring to
the armorial bearings of the Gordon family, it represents the Gordons as boasting that
they had performed an exploit which equalled one of Hercules. True, they had both
killed a boar, but the one was a fierce wild beast, the other was a domestic pig. The
one was a devourer of men, the other fed only on refuse. There was as great a difference
between the exploit of the Gordons and that of Hercules, as there was between these
two animals. — Second Report of the Historical MSS. Commission, 194.

The Gordons. 3 1 1

well; but, in 1567, her marriage was annulled, in order to allow
him to become the third husband of Queen Mary. This was done
on the plea that he was related to Lady Jean within the prohibited
degrees of consanguinity, and that no dispensation had been
obtained from the Pope sanctioning their union. It was suspected
at the time that a dispensation had been given by the Papal legate,
the Archbishop of St. Andrews, the same prelate that declared the
marriage null and void from the beginning, and indeed it was
asserted by the commissioners at Westminster, that the sentence of
nullity ' for consanguenitie standing betwixt Bothwell and his wifif
precedit oralie becaus the dispensation was abstracted.' This has
fiow^been proved to be the case, by the discovery of this important
document at Dunrobin. It must, therefore, have all along been in
the possession of Lady Jean Gordon, who must, of course, have
withheld it by collusion. The motives which led to the suppression
of the dispensation by her and her family are very obvious. Her
brother, the Earl of Huntly, was closely connected with the Queen
at this juncture, and his family estates, which had been forfeited by
his father in 1562, were formally restored and his forfeiture rescinded
on the 19th of April, the very day on which he and other nobles
signed the bond in Ainslie's tavern, recommending Bothwell, his
sister's husband, as a fit person to marry the Queen. His motive,
therefore, for promoting the dissolution of the marriage is quite
apparent. After Bothwell' s downfall and flight, Throckmorton, in a
letter to Queen Elizabeth, says, ' Now I hear sayde earle of Huntley
can be contented that Bodwell shuld myscarye, to ryd the queue
and hys sister of so wicked a husbande.' The allusion in this letter
to Huntly' s sister evidently implies that it was still possible that she
might be held to be legally Bothwell's wife ; and this is confirmed
by the statement that ' she hath protested to the Lady Moray that
she will never live with the Earl of Bothwell nor take him for her
husband.' Unless she had been aware that the divorce had been
collusive and fraudulent, she could not have regarded it as a
possible occurrence that she might be called upon to live again with
Bothwell as his wife.

With regard to Lady Jean's own reasons for agreeing so readily
to separate from her husband, apart from the question whether
this step was taken with the knowledge of the Queen's affection,
real or supposed, for Bothwell, and with a view to the restoration
of the fortunes of her house, as was positively asserted by the

3 T 2 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

Earl of Moray, it is doubtful whether she did really sacrifice her
feelings by consenting to the divorce. Bothwell, according to
all accounts, was a person of violent temper and gross habits,
as well as of notorious profligacy, and short as had been the
time of their union, it was long enough to disgust a lady whom her
son, the Earl of Sutherland, describes as ' virtuous, religious, and
wyse, even beyond her sex,' and to make her willing, if not anxious,
that her connection with her worthless husband should be brought
to a termination. It must also be kept in mind that, contrary to
custom in such cases, special arrangements were made for the
preservation of her legal rights as Bothwell's wife, and that, though
her marriage was annulled, and his estates were twice forfeited
before her death, she continued to draw her jointure from them
to the end of her long life, and this notwithstanding her own
marriage to two husbands in succession, after her separation from
Bothwell in 1566. In 1573 Lady Jean married Alexander, twelfth
Earl of Sutherland, to whom she bore two daughters and four sons,
the youngest of whom. Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun, was the
historian of the family of Sutherland. After the death of the Earl,
the Countess married Alexander Ogilvie of Boyne, whom she also
outlived. She died, May 14th, 1629, having survived, in peace and
honour, her divorce from Bothwell the long period of sixty-two
years. Her son. Sir Robert Gordon, eulogises in glowing terms
her excellent memory, sound judgment, and great understanding,
the prudence and foresight with which she managed her affairs
' amidst all the troublesome times, and variable courses of fortune '
which she experienced. * By reason of her husband. Earl Alexander,
his sickly disposition, together with her son's minority at the time of
his father's death, she was in a manner forced to take upon her the
managing of all the affairs of that house a good while, which she did
perform with great care, to her own credit and the weal of that family.'

George, fifth Earl of Huntly, as we have seen, was tried and
condemned for treason after the battle of Corrichie. A story has
been told, on the authority of Gordon of Straloch, respecting an
alleged attempt on the part of the Earl of Moray to procure the
execution of Lord George Gordon during his imprisonment in Dun-
bar Castle, without the Queen's knowledge, though professedly by
her authority. But it rests on no trustworthy authority, and carries
falsehood on its face. The death of Lord George, who was a con-

TIu Gordons. 313

demned traitor, could have been of no service to Moray while other
six of Huntly' s sons were alive and at liberty. After Queen Mary had
resolved to marry Darnley in spite of the opposition of Moray and the
other Protestant lords, she released Gordon from prison, and restored
to him his titles and estates. The Earl of Huntly was in Holyrood
at the time of Rizzio's murder, and was supping along with Both-
well and Athole in another part of the palace. Having reason to
believe that they were obnoxious to the perpetrators of that dastardly
crime, they made their escape through a window of their apartment
towards the garden on the north side. When the Queen took refuge
in Dunbar, Huntly hastened to the royal standard with his retainers,
and was rewarded for his loyalty with the office of Chancellor, of
which the Eart of Morton was deprived for his complicity in the
murder of Rizzio. He is said to have been present at the memor-
able conference with the Queen respecting the proposal that she
should obtain a divorce from her worthless husband ; and there is
every reason to believe that he was one of those who subscribed the
bond for Darnley' s murder. After that foul deed was executed he
accompanied Mary to Seton, about twelve miles from Edinburgh,
along with Bothwell, Argyll, and others implicated in the crime.
There, according to an entry in a contemporary, ' Diary of Occur-
rences,' ' they passed their time meryly.' Huntly and Seton, it was
said, played a match against the Queen and Bothwell in shooting at
the butts, and the former, who were the losers, entertained the winners
to dinner in the adjoining village of Tranent. Huntly was present at
the notorious supper of the most influential peers, and members of
the Estates, which was held on the 19th of April, in Ainslie's tavern,
and signed the document recommending Bothwell as a suitable
husband to the Queen, and promising to promote their marriage, —
probably the most shameful deed of that disgraceful period. Huntly's
titles and estates were restored on that same day, no doubt with the
distinct understanding that he would further Bothwell's divorce from
his sister.

After the insurrection of the Confederate lords had compelled the
Queen to separate from her husband, Bothwell took refuge with
Huntly at Strathbogie, and it was not until the attempt of the two
earls to raise a fresh force for the Queen's cause had failed that
Bothwell resolved to flee the country. It need excite no surprise
that Huntly, whose whole conduct showed that he was as selfish as
he was unprincipled, was then * contented that Bothwell should

VOL. II. Y Y

314 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

myscarye,' and that in a short space of time he was acting with the
nobles who were denouncing the Queen's marriage, and loudly
execrating Both well's conduct. He signed the bond to support the
authority of the infant king, and carried the sceptre at the first Par-
liament of the Regent Moray, 3rd December, 1567. After Mary's
escape from Lochleven Castle the Earl once more changed sides,
and joined the association which was formed at Hamilton in support
of the Queen. Huntly had gone to the north, in order to raise
forces in her behalf, and was on his march with a considerable army
to her aid, when the battle of Langside rendered her cause hopeless.
He was deprived of his office of Chancellor — a step which no doubt
strengthened his hostility to the Regent ; but, after uniting with the
Hamiltons in an attempt to let loose the Borderers upon England,
in order to bring about a war between the two countries, and writing
to the Duke of Alva soliciting his assistance, Huntly made his peace
with Moray iii May, 1569.

After the murder of the Regent, in 1570, the Earl accepted
from Mary the office of Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, and
collected a strong force at Aberdeen. But he and the other leaders
of the party were proclaimed traitors by the new Regent, Lennox,
who attacked him on his march southward, and defeated him
at Brechin. At a Parliament held at Stirling in 157 1, an Act of
forfeiture was passed against Huntly and his brother. Sir Adam
Gordon, along with other adherents of the Queen. The Earl was
one of the leaders of the force despatched by Kirkaldy of Grange
against the Regent at Stirling, which had nearly succeeded in taking
prisoners the most influential members of the King's party. Lennox
lost his life on that occasion, and Captain Calder, who shot him,
declared previous to his execution, that Huntly and Lord Claud
Hamilton gave him orders to shoot both the Regent and the Earl of
Morton. A treaty of peace was at length concluded, 23rd February,
i573> between the Duke of Chatelherault and Huntly on the one
side, and the new Regent, Morton, on the other, by which the former
became bound to acknowledge the King's authority, and the Regent
pledged himself to get the Act of attainder against them repealed
and their estates restored. The Parliament confirmed these condi-
tions, and Huntly laid down his arms and retired to his northern
domains. He died at Strathbogie in 1576. The startling sudden-
ness of his death was regarded by his contemporaries as a divine
judgment upon him for his crimes, and especially for his partici-

GORDONS OF HUNTLY.

The Gordons. 315

pation in the murder of Darnley, and of Regent Lennox; and
marvellous stories were- told of the mysterious noises that were
heard in the room in which his body was laid, and how several indi-
viduals, on opening the door of the room and attempting to enter it,
fell down instantly as if dead, and were with difificulty recovered.
He was certainly one of the worst of the unprincipled Scottish nobles
of that period, blackened with crimes of the most atrocious nature.

George, sixth Earl and first Marquis of Huntly, succeeded his
father when he was a minor. Like him, he was the leader of the
Roman Catholic party in the north, and united with the Earls of
Crawford and Errol in intriguing with the King of Spain and the
Pope, for the overthrow of the Protestant Church and the restoration
of Romish supremacy in Scotland. In 1588, however, he professed
to give in his adherence to the Reformed faith, and subscribed the
Confession, but in his intercepted letters to the Spanish King, he
says, 'the whole had been extorted from him against his conscience.'
In the following year he and his associates took up arms against the
Government, but were speedily overthrown, almost without a struggle.
He was brought to trial and found guilty of repeated acts of treason,
but the King, with whom the Earl was a favourite, and whose policy
was to conciliate the English Roman Catholics, would not allow
sentence to be pronounced against him. At the time of his marriage
and the public rejoicings with which it was accompanied, James set
at liberty this potent nobleman, who, however, refused to remain at
Court, and retired to his estates in Aberdeenshire, where he appears
to have exerted himself to suppress the feuds which at that time
raged in the north. His efforts do not appear to have been
attended with much success, and he became involved himself in
bitter feuds with the Grants, and the clan Chattan, which were not
unattended with bloodshed.

A deadly quarrel took place at this time between Huntly and the
Earl of Moray, son-in-law of the * Good Regent,' a young nobleman
of great promise and of remarkably handsome appearance, who had
befriended the clans at feud with the Gordons. A rumour was cir-
culated, which was utterly untrue, that Moray had abetted Bothwell
in his attempt to seize the King's person in 1591. Huntly commu-
nicated this fabulous story to James, and importuned him to take
proceedings against the traitor. Though the King well knew that
Huntly was the mortal enemy of Moray, he granted him a com-

3t6 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

mission to apprehend that nobleman and bring- him to trial. Armed
with this authority, Huntly, at the head of a body of horsemen,
hastened to Dunnibrissle, a mansion on the northern shore of the
Firth of Forth, where Moray was then residing. He arrived about
midnight, and surrounding the house, summoned the Earl to sur-
render. Unwilling to put himself in the power of his deadly foe,
Moray refused to comply, and with the few retainers whom he had
with him, maintained a stout defence against his assailants. Unable
to force an entrance, Huntly set fire to the house, and the inmates
were compelled to come out, in order to escape being suffocated or
burnt to death. Sheriff Dunbar, who was the first to rush out, was
mistaken for the Earl, and was at once put to death ; but Moray
succeeded in forcing his way through the assailants and escaped to
the sea-shore. His pursuers, however, followed him down amongst
the cliffs, where he was endeavouring to conceal himself, and put
him to death with savage cruelty. Gordon of Buckie, who took a
prominent part in this foul deed, insisted on Huntly becoming
' art and part ' in the murder by stabbing the dead body of the
Earl.*

When the tidings of this atrocity reached the capital next morning,
the whole city was immediately in commotion. Loud lamentations
were heard on every side for the death of Moray, who was a great
favourite with the people, and especially with the Presbyterian party,
and the King himself was violently denounced as a participant in
the murder. There were various suspicious circumstances which
strengthened the general conviction that James was not free from
guilt in the matter, notwithstanding his public and solemn protesta-
tion of his own innocence. The public indignation grew so strong
and threatening that he withdrew in great alarm to Glasgow ; but
he persisted notwithstanding in his determination to screen Huntly.
In a letter which James wrote to him at this crisis, he says, ' Since
your passing herefra, I have been in such danger and perill of my
life, as since I was borne I was never in the like, partlie by the
grudging and tumults of the people, and partlie by the exclamation
of the ministrie, whereby I was moved to dissemble. Alwise I sail
remain constant. When you come heree, come not by the ferries,
and if ye doe, accompanie yourself as yee respect your own preser-
vation.'

* This tragic incident is commemorated in the well-known ballad of The Bonnie
Earl of Moray.

The Gordons. 317

With the hope of putting a stop to the loud clamours for justice,
James at length made a show of proceeding against Huntly. The
Earl was accordingly summoned to surrender and stand his trial ;
and having received from the King a secret assurance of safety, he
at once obeyed, and on the loth of March, 1592, he entered himself
in ward in the castle of Blackness. But as soon as the popular
feeling against him was somewhat allayed, he was set at liberty, on
finding security to re-enter and stand his trial, when he should be
required. No trial, however, was intended, and none ever took
place, and this mockery of justice was terminated by Huntly
obtaining the royal pardon and being permitted to return to Court.

The murder of the Earl of Moray was not the only savage deed
in which Huntly was implicated. The chief of the clan Macintosh,
in conjunction with the Laird of Grant and the Earls of Argyll and
Athole, ravaged Huntly's lands, in revenge for the slaughter of
Moray, and Mackintosh burned the castle of Auchindoun, which
belonged to the Gordons. Huntly, in revenge for this outrage, not
only assailed the hostile sept with his own followers, but let loose
upon them all the neighbouring clans who were under his influence,
and ' would do anything,' as the old phrase was, ' for his love or for
his fear.' In order to save his clan from extermination. Mackintosh
resolved to surrender himself to Huntly, to atone for the offence
he had committed. He accordingly proceeded to the castle of the
Bog of Gight for this purpose. The Earl was from home, but the
chief presented himself to the Countess, a stern and haughty
woman, and, after expressing his penitence for the burning of
Auchindoun, entreated that his clan should be spared. The lady
informed him that her husband was so deeply offended by his
conduct, that he had sworn that he would never pardon the outrage
till he had brought the offender's neck to the block. Mackintosh
expressed his willingness to submit even to that humiliation, and to
put himself at her mercy, and, kneeling down, he laid his head on
the block on which the slain bullocks and sheep were broken up, no
doubt expecting that the Countess would be satisfied with this token
of unreserved submission. But, with a vindictiveness which proved
her to be a worthy helpmate to her husband, she made a sign to the
cook, who stepped forward with his hatchet, and severed the unfor-
tunate chief's head from his body.

Another story is told of Huntly which not only exhibits his
personal character, but throws light on the manners of the times.

3 1 8 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

The Farquharsons of Deeside had killed Gordon of Brackley, the
head of a minor branch of the family. The Earl resolved to inflict
condign punishment for this slaughter not only on the actual homi-
cides, but also on the whole sept. He summoned to his assistance
his ally, the Laird of Grant, and arranged that he should commence
operations on the upper end of the Vale of Dee, while the
Gordons should ascend the river from beneath, and thus place the
devoted clan between two fires. The Farquharsons, thus enclosed
as in a net, and taken unawares, were almost entirely destroyed,
both men and women, and about two hundred orphan children were
nearly the only survivors. Huntly carried the poor orphans to his
castle, and fed them like pigs. About a year after this destructive
foray, the Laird of Grant paid a visit to the Bog of Gight, and, after
dinner, Huntly said he would show him rare sport. Conducting
his guest to a balcony which overlooked the kitchen, he showed
him a large trough, into which all the broken victuals left from the
dinner of the whole household had been thrown, and on a signal
given by the cook, a hatch was raised and there rushed into the
kitchen a mob of children, half naked, and as uncivilised as a pack of
hounds, who clamoured and struggled each to obtain a share of the
food. Grant, who, unlike his host, was a humane man, was greatly
shocked at this degrading scene, and inquired who these miserable
children were that were thus fed like so many pigs. He was
informed that they were the children of those Farquharsons whom
the Gordons and the Grants slew on Deeside. Grant must have
felt deeply the consequences thus presented to him of the sanguinary
raid in which he had taken part, and he put in his claim to be
allowed to maintain these wretched orphans as long as they had
been kept by Huntly. The Earl, who was probably tired of the
joke of the pig-trough, readily consented to get the rabble of children
taken off his hands, and gave himself no further trouble about them.
The Laird of Grant was allowed to carry them to his castle, and
ultimately to disperse them among his clan. They of course bore
the laird's own name of Grant ; but it is said that for several gener-
ations their descendants continued to bear the designation of the
Race of the Trough, to mark their origin.

Huntly had now returned to his own country, but he was very
soon involved in fresh troubles and conflicts. In conjunction with
the Earls of Angus and Errol, he entered into a treasonable con-
spiracy to overturn the Protestant religion in Scotland. He was,

The Gordons.

319

in consequence, summoned with great reluctance by the King, to
answer to the charge brought against him of conspiring, along with
other discontented Popish nobles, against the sovereign. Instead,
however, of surrendering to stand his trial, Huntly and his asso-
ciates took refuge in their northern fastnesses. James, indignant
at this disregard of his authority, marched against them (17th
February, 1593) at the head of a strong body of troops. But on
hearing of his arrival at Aberdeen, Huntly and his fellow-conspirators
quitted their strongholds, and fled to the mountains, leaving their
wives to present the keys of their castles in token of surrender.
James placed garrisons in these strongholds, and followed up these
steps by the forfeiture of the Popish lords and the seizure of their
land ; but this was done in such a way as to justify the remark of
Lord Burleigh, that the King only ' dissembled a confiscation.' In
the course of a few months he invited the Countess of Huntly to
Court, and, it was believed, even consented to hold a secret meeting
at Falkland with Huntly himself The Protestant party vehemently
remonstrated against the lenity which James was showing to the
men who were conspirators against his throne, as well as against the
Protestant faith ; but he would proceed no farther against them than
to offer that their offences should be ' abolished, delete, and extinct,
and remain in oblivion for ever,' provided that they would renounce
Popery and embrace the Presbyterian religion. If they refused this
offer they were to go into exile. Huntly and the other two Earls
declined to avail themselves of these proferred terms, and they entered
into a new conspiracy with Francis Stewart, Earl of Both well, for the
seizure of the King's person. They were in consequence declared
guilty of high treason, their estates and honours were forfeited, and
a commission was given to the Earl of Argyll to lay waste their
territory, and to pursue them with fire and sword. The Earl
accordingly marched to the north at the head of a strong body
of men, and encountered Huntly at a place called Glenlivet. After
a fierce contest Argyll was defeated with considerable loss. \_See
Campbells of ARGfYLL.J

The King, who had reached Dundee on his way northwards,
though he seems to have regarded with great complacency the
misfortune that had befallen Argyll,* was so enraged at the insult

* On seeing the Earl return attended only by a small body of his own retainers,
James is said to have remarked, ' Fair fa' ye, Geordie Gordon, for sending him back
sae like a subject.'

VOL. II. Z Z

320 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

to his own authority, that he hastened to the north with his whole
army, reinforced by the clans at feud with the Gordons, and reached
Aberdeen on the 15th of October, 1594. He thence marched to
Strathbogie— the castle of Huntly, who had fled into Caithness —
which he caused to be blown up with gunpowder and levelled with
the ground. The Earl, finding himself reduced to extremity by the
desertion of his followers and by the rigour of the northern winter,
which had just set in, implored and obtained the King's permission
to depart out of Scotland, on the condition that he would not
return without his Majesty's consent, or during his exile engage in
any new attempt against the Protestant religion or the peace and
liberties of his native country.

Huntly did, notwithstanding, return secretly to Scotland in Decem-
ber, 1597, with the connivance of the King. Great offers were made
in his behalf by his Countess, and liberal promises were given to
the judicatories of the Kirk, that, if allowed to remain, he would
abstain from any attempt to overthrow or injure the Protestant
Church, would banish from his company all Jesuits and seminary
priests, and would even confer with any of the ministers of the Kirk
on the subject of religion, and, if convinced by their arguments, would
embrace the Protestant faith. On these conditions, which were never
meant to be kept, Huntly was again reconciled to the Kirk with
much public solemnity, and was suffered to remain in the country,
and to retain possession of his castles and estates. As a mark of
the royal favour he obtained a grant of the dissolved abbey of Dun-
fermline, was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of the North, and on the
15th of April, 1599, was created Marquis of Huntly. James had
always cherished a great liking for the chief of the Gordons ; and
Calderwood, under the date of a.d. 1600, says that he and the King
' passed over the time with drinking and waughting ' (quaffing in
large draughts).

Through the interposition of the King, Huntly was reconciled, in
1603, to the Earl of Moray, the son of the ' Bonnie Earl ' whom he
had murdered, and in token of their amity he gave the young noble-
man his eldest daughter in marriage.

He was again, however, in trouble with the Protestant clergy, and
Mr. George Gladstanes, mmister of St. Andrews, was appointed by
the General Assembly to remain with the Marquis ' for ane quarter,
or ane half year, to the effect by his travels and labours the said
noble lord and his family might be informit in the word of truth.'

The Gordons. 321

The ' travels and labours ' of this worthy minister, however, failed to
induce his lordship to ' resort to the preaching at the ordinar times
in the parish kirk,' or to cease his efforts to promote the Roman
Catholic religion in Scotland, and to shelter and encourage the
Jesuits and priests. He was in consequence excommunicated by
the General Assembly in 1608, and in the following year was com-
mitted to Stirling Castle. He regained his liberty in December,
1 6 10, on his engaging to subscribe the Confession of Faith, and to
make satisfaction to the Kirk — a stipulation as discreditable to the
clerical leaders as it was to the Popish Earl. He of course speedily
relapsed into his old habits, and directed his officers to prohibit his
tenants from attending the Protestant Church. For this conduct he
was summoned, in 161 6, to appear before the Court of High Com-
mission, and on his refusal to subscribe the Confession of Faith he
was committed prisoner to the castle of Edinburgh. He was
speedily set at liberty by the Lord Chancellor, and proceeded to
London, where he was absolved from the sentence of excommunica-
tion by the Archbishop of Canterbury, a proceeding which gave
great offence to the Scottish prelates, who regarded it as a
revival of the old claim of supremacy over the Church of Scotland.
The Archbishop of St. Andrews noticed it in a sermon which he
preached in St. Giles's Church, Edinburgh, and stated that the King
had promised that ' the like should not fall out hereafter.' This
admission, however, was not regarded as satisfactory, and the Mar-
quis was obliged to appear before the General Assembly in August,
1 61 6, and there to acknowledge his offence, and to promise that he
would educate his children in the faith of the Reformed Church, and
continue therein himself. On the faith of this confession and
promise, he was absolved by the Archbishop of St. Andrews. He
then made oath that he would truly conform to the Established
Church, and subscribed the Confession of Faith. It is not easy to
decide whether the conduct of the Marquis or of the Assembly in
this dishonest proceeding, deserves the more severe condemnation.
Though he professed to have been converted four or five times over
by the Protestant ministers, there can be no doubt that he was during
his whole life a warm adherent of the Romish Church.

Huntly does not appear to have been such a favourite with
Charles L as he was with James, for he compelled the too powerful
nobleman to resign the sheriffships of Aberdeen and Inverness for
the sum of ;^5,ooo; which, however, was never paid. The Marquis

322 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

became involved in the feud with the Crichtons of Frendraught, and
his vassals, uniting with the Gordons of Rothiemay, ravaged the
lands of Frendraught, hanged one of his tenants, and carried off a
large booty, which they disposed of by public sale. {See The
Crichtons of Frendraught.J Frendraught hastened to Edin-
burgh, and complained of these outrages to the Privy Council, who
issued an order, in the beginning of 1635, foJ" Huntly to appear
before them. He attempted ta excuse himself on the plea of old age
and infirmity, but the Council were inexorable. He was outlawed
for contumacy ; and some of his friends were apprehended, and two
of them v^ere executed. Having, however, afterwards appeared in
Edinburgh, his sentence was reversed, and he was about to be set at
liberty, on giving his bond that he and his allies and retainers should
keep the peace, when he was accused by Captain Adam Gordon of
Park, one of the ringleaders in the attacks upon Frendraught, of
being the resetter of the ' broken-men ' in the north, and the prime
•mover in the depredations against the Crichtons, and in all the
disorders by which the peace of the northern districts had been
disturbed. The aged noble was summoned by the Council to
appear before them in Edinburgh to answer this charge, and though
it was now ' the dead of the year, cold, tempestuous, and stormy,' he
was compelled to obey. Though he is said to have ' cleared himself
with great dexteritie, beyond admiration,' he was imprisoned in the
castle of Edinburgh, in a room where he had no light, and was
denied the company of his lady, who had accompanied him, except on
a visit at Christmas. He afterwards obtained permission to live in
' his own lodging, near to his Majesty's palace of Holyrood House,
with liberty to walk within ane of the gardens or walks within the
precincts of the said palace, and no farther.' His health had now
broken down, and finding himself growing weaker and weaker, he
expressed a strong desire to return to Strathbogie. He accordingly
set out in June, 1636, on his journey northward 'in a wand-bed within
his chariot, his lady still with him.' He got no farther than Dundee,
where he died in an inn, June 13th, and his body was carried on a
horse-litter to Strathbogie for burial. He was in the seventy- fourth
year of his age, and had possessed the family estates and honours
for sixty years.

The Marquis was interred at Elgin, with great magnificence,
according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church. ' He had
torch-lights,' says Spalding, ' carried in great numbers by friends

The Gordons. 323

and gentlemen.' His son and other three nobles bore the cofifin.
' He was carried to the east style of the College Kirk, in at the south
door, and buried in his own aile, with much mourning and lamenta-
tion ; the like form of burial with torch-light was seldom seen before.'

If we may rely on the testimony of the clerk of the Consistorial
Court of the diocese of Aberdeen, the Marquis of Huntly, notwith-
standing the sanguinary feuds, and treasonable intrigues in which he
was often engaged, seems to have been highly respected in the north.
' He was of a great spirit,' says Spalding, ' for in time of trouble he
was of an invincible courage and boldly bare down all his enemies.
He was never inclined to war himself, but by the pride and influence
of his kin was diverse times drawn into troubles, whilk he did bear
through valiantly. He loved not to be in the law contending against
any man, but loved rest and quietness with all his heart, and in time
of peace he lived moderately and temperately in his diet, and fully
set to building all curious devices. A good neighbour in his
marches, disposed rather to give than to take a foot wrongously. He
was heard to say he never drew a sword in his own quarrel. In his
youth a prodigal spender, in his old age more wise and worldly,
yet never counted for cost in matters of credit and honour. A great
householder ; a terror to his enemies, whom he ever, with his prideful
kin, held under subjection and obedience. Just in all his bargains,
and was never heard of for his true debt.'

The rent-roll of the Marquis, which has fortunately been pre-
served, gives a striking idea of the means and influence of this great
nobleman. It states in detail the sums of money, and the produce
due from each farm on his vast estates. A large proportion of the
rent was paid in kind. ' The silver mail,' or money rent, amounted
to j^3,8i9, besides £(iZ^ of teind silver. The ' ferme victual'
payable to the Marquis was 3,816 bolls, besides which there
were 55 bolls of custom meal, 436 of multure beir, 108 of custom
oats, 83 of custom victual, 167 marts (cattle to be slaughtered
at Martinmas), 483 sheep, 316 lambs, 167 grice (young pigs),
14 swine, 1,389 capons, 272 geese, 3,231 poultry, 700 chickens,
5,284 eggs, 5 stones of candles, 46 stones of brew tallow, 34 leats
of peats, 990 ells of custom linen, 94 stones of custom butter, 40
barrels of salmon, 8 bolls of teind victual, 2 stones of cheese, and
30 kids.* This vast amount of grain and live stock was, of course,
devoted to the maintenance of the large body of retainers who were

* Gordon Papers, Spalding Club MSS. iv.

3^4 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

at his command, and ready to support his cause, even against the
sovereign himself.

In his latter years, the Marquis occupied himself much in building
and planting. In 1602, he rebuilt with great splendour the ancient
castle of Strathbogie, now known as Huntly Castle, which, though
in a ruinous state, attests the magnificent style in which the chief
of the great family of the Gordons lived. ' He built a house at
Kinkai], on the Dee,' says Sir Robert Gordon, ' called the New
House, which standeth amidst three hunting forests of his own. He
built the house of Ruthven, in Badenoch, twice, it being burnt down
by aventure, or negligence of his servants, after he had once finished
the same. He built a new house in Aboyne ; he repaired his house
in Elgin ; he hath built a house in the Plewlands, in Moray ; he hath
enlarged and decoreat the house of Bog-Gicht, which he hath
parked about ; he repaired his house in the old town of Aberdeen.'*

The feeling against Roman Catholics ran so high at this time that
the Marchioness, a daughter of Esme, Duke of Lennox, the favourite
of King James, was compelled to return to France, where she had
been born and educated, in order to escape excommunication, which
at that time would have incurred forfeiture of her whole property.
' Thus resolutely,' says Spalding, ' she settles her estates, rents, and
living, and leaves with sore heart her stately building of the Bog,
beautified with many yards, parks, and pleasures — closes up the
yetts, and takes journey with about sixteen horse. ... A strange
thing to see a worthy lady, near seventy years of age, put to such
trouble and travail, being a widow, her eldest son, the Lord Marquis,
being out of the kingdom, her bairns and oyes [grandchildren] dis-
persed and spread ; and albeit nobly born, yet left helpless and com-
fortless, and so put at by the Kirk, that she behoved to go, or else to bide
excommunication, and thereby lose her estate and living, ... It is
said she had about three hundred thousand merks in gold and jewels
with her, by and attain the gold and silver plate of both houses of
Bog and Strathbogie.' On her journey southward the Marchioness
remained about three months in Edinburgh ; but though Charles I.
was in the Scottish capital at this time, he was powerless to protect
her. She died in France in the ensuing year.

The Marquis of Huntly left by this lady four sons and five
daughters. His second son, John, who was created Viscount Melgum

* Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland.

The Gordons. 325

and Lord Aboyne by Charles I. in 1627, perished in the burning ot
Frendraught Castle.* His eldest son, George, was second Marquis
of Huntly. During the lifetime of his father he spent some time at
the Court in London, and great pains were taken by the King to
educate him in the Protestant religion. On his return to his own
country, the Earl of Enzie, as he was termed, became involved, in
1618, in a quarrel with Sir Lauchlan Mackintosh — chief of the clan
Chattan, his hereditary enemies — which greatly disturbed the peace of
the country. In the end the Earl, who possessed superior influence
at Court, induced King James to commit Mackintosh to the castle of
Edinburgh, until he should give satisfaction to the heir of the Gor-
dons. In 1623, accompanied by a band of ' gallant young gentlemen
and well appointed,' he went over to France, and was made Captain
of the Scots Bodyguard to the French king, an office of great
honour and influence, which had long been held by the Stewarts of
D'Aubigny, Earls and Dukes of Lennox. Louis XIII. was at that
time assisting the German princes against the House of Austria, and
Lord Enzie was sent into Lorraine, and served with great distinc-
tion there, and afterwards in Alsace. Louis, on reviving the corps,
intended to confer the command on Frederick, Duke of Richmond
and Lennox, but on the sudden death of that nobleman in 1624, the
honour was transferred to his nephew. Lord Gordon, under the Mar-
shal de la Force. The French king cordially acknowledged the
signal services rendered to him by the Scottish company in this
campaign. The Earl was recalled from Germany by his father, as
his assistance was urgently required in suppressing the disorders in
the Highlands and in Aberdeenshire. He was created Viscount
Aboyne in 1632, with remainder to his sect/nd son, James, and his
heirs male. He succeeded to the hereditary honours and estates of
his family on the death of his father in 1636, and when the ill-advised
proceedings of Charles I., in attempting to force an English liturgy
on the people of Scotland, had caused them to take up arms in vindi-
cation of their rights and liberties, the Marquis of Huntly received a
commission from the King as his Lieutenant in the North, and raised
the royal standard there.

* Viscount Melgum was married to Lady Sophia Hay, fifth daughter of the Earl of
Errol. This lady was a Roman Catholic, and was ministered to by Gilbert Blackhal,
a priest of the Scots' mission in France, in the Low Countries, and in Scotland, who,
in a work which has been published by the Spalding Club, entitled, ' A brieff narration
of the services done to three noble Ladyes,' has recorded ' How I came to be engaged
in the service of my Ladye of Aboyne,' and ' of the services that I rendered to my
Lady of Aboyne, in the capacities of priest, chamberlain, and captain of her castle.'

326 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

The Covenanters, who were well aware of Huntly's great influence
in the north, made an earnest effort to induce him to join their party.
Colonel Robert Munro, an officer who had served in the German wars,
was sent as their envoy to Strathbogie. ' The sum of his commission
to Huntly was, that the noblemen Covenanters were desirous that he
should join with them in the common cause ; that if he would do so,
and take the Covenant, they would give him the first place and make
him leader of their forces ; and further, they would make his state
and his fortunes greater than ever they were; and, moreover, they
should pay off and discharge all his debts, which they knew to be
about ane hundred thousand pounds sterling ; that their forces and
associates were a hundred to one with the King ; and therefore it was
to no purpose to him to take up arms against them, for if he refused
this offer, and declared against them, they should find means to dis-
able him for to help the King ; and, moreover, they knew how to
undo him, and bade him expect that they would ruinate his family
and estates,'

The offer was tempting to an ambitious man, but Huntly's loyalty
was proof against the temptation. ' To this proposition,' says the
contemporary writer, ' Huntly gave a sharp and absolute repartee,
that his family had risen and stood by the kings of Scotland ; and
for his part, if the event proved the ruin of the King, he was resolved
to lay his life, honours, and estate under the rubbish of the King his
ruins. But, withal, thanked the gentleman who had brought the
commission, and had advised him thereto, as proceeding from one
whom he took for a friend and good-wilier, and urged out of a good
intention to him.'*

Huntly's first step was to seize and fortify the city of Aberdeen.
Having learned that a meeting of Covenanters was to be held at
Turriff on February 14, he resolved to disperse them, and marched
thither at the head of two thousand men. But Montrose having
received intimation of Huntly's purpose, anticipated this movement,
and by a rapid march across a range of hills called the Grangebean,
reached Turriff before his arrival. The Marquis, finding that he had
been forestalled, retreated to Aberdeen without venturing on an
attack, alleging that he had authority to act only on the defensive.
On the approach of Montrose, however, to Aberdeen, Huntly pre-
cipitately retreated northward, and the inhabitants surrendered with-
out resistance to the Covenanting general. It was on this occasion

* Gordon's Scots' Affairs, i. 49-50.

The Gordons. 327

that distinctive colours were for the first time adopted by the Royalist
and the Presbyterian parties. Spalding says, ' Here it is to be noted,
that few or none of the haill army wanted ane blew ribbin hung about
his craig [neck], down under his left arme, which they called the
" Covenanters' Ribbon." But the Lord Gordon, and some other of
the Marquess's bairnes and familie, had ane ribbin when he was
dwelling in the toun of ane reid flesh cullor, which they wore in their
hatts, and called it the " Royall Ribbin," as a sign of their love and
loyaltie to the King. In despyte and derision thereof, this blew ribbin
was worne, and called the " Covenanters' Ribbon " be [by] the haill
souldiers of the army, and would not hear of the " Royall Ribbin,"
such was their pryde and malice.' *

After demolishing the fortifications which Huntly had erected,
and compelling the citizens to subscribe the Covenant, Montrose
proceeded northwards to Inverury in search of the chief of the
Gordons. An interview was arranged between them in the presence
of twelve friends on each side, which terminated in Huntly' s acconi-
panying Montrose to the camp at Inverury. The historian of the
family of Gordon states that the conference there terminated in an
agreement that Huntly ' should subscribe a paper by which he
obliged himself to maintain the King's authority, together with the
liberties and religion of the kingdom,' and that his friends and fol-
lowers should be at liberty to sign the Covenant or not, as they
inclined. It was also agreed that Montrose should withdraw his
army from the north, and that Huntly should immediately disband
that remainder of his army he had as yet kept together, and should
not trouble or molest any of the Covenanters within the bounds of
his lieutenancy. With respect to those of Huntly' s followers who
were Roman Catholics, and could not subscribe the Covenant, it
was agreed that they should sign a declaration of their willingness
to concur with the Covenanters in maintaining the laws and liberties
of the kingdom. I

Shortly after, a conference was held at Aberdeen of leading Coven-
anters, and Huntly was invited to attend for the purpose of giving
his advice respecting the best method of restoring order, and a
regard to law, in the northern district of the country. He accepted
the invitation, and, contrary to the advice of his friends, he took
with him his two eldest sons. He was first of all advised by Mont-
rose to resign his commission of lieutenancy, to which he agreed.

* Spalding, i. 94. + History of the Illustrious Family of Gordon, ii. 265 6.

VOL. II. 3 A

328 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

He was then required to give a contribution towards liquidating the
debt which had been contracted in raising and paying their forces.
He declined to comply with this demand, on the ground that the
money was borrowed without his advice or consent. Montrose next
requested him to take steps to apprehend some loose and broken
men in the north, but he pleaded that, having resigned his commis-
sion, he had no longer any authority to act in such a matter. He
was, finally, required to reconcile himself to the Crichtons of Fren-
draught, which he positively refused to do. He was then informed
that he and his sons must accompany the Covenanting forces to
Edinburgh, and that it was in his choice to do so either as a prisoner,
with a guard, or with Montrose himself, at large. He pleaded that
he had come to Inverury by invitation of Montrose, on an assur-
ance of safe conduct, with permission to come and go at his own
pleasure, and it was not honourable to tell him that he must now go
to Edinburgh whether he would or would not. However, since he
was left to make his choice, he would rather go to the south as a
volunteer than as a prisoner.* Viscount Aboyne, his second son,
was allowed to return to Strathbogie in order to provide money for
his father, but the Marquis himself, and his eldest son, were con-
veyed to Edinburgh, where they were imprisoned in the castle. They
were, however, soon after set at liberty, in accordance with the stipu-
lation in the treaty between King Charles and the Covenanting
forces, 20th June, 1639.

It is difficult to say how far Montrose was responsible for this
breach of good faith and of a safe conduct. His defenders allege that
he was overborne by the clamorous demands of the personal enemies
of Huntly. It is certain, however, that the Gordons laid the blame
of this dishonourable deed at the door of Montrose himself. A con-
temporary chronicler says, ' For Montrose going along with that
action it is most certain, to the best of my knowledge — for I write
this knowingly— that it bred such a distaste in Huntly against
Montrose, that afterwards, when Montrose fell off to the King, and
forsook the Covenanters, and was glad to get the assistance of
Huntly and his followers, the Marquis of Huntly could never be
gained to join cordially with him, nor to swallow that indignity.
This bred jars betwixt them in the carrying on of the war, and that
which was pleasing to the one was seldom pleasing to the other.
Whence it came to pass, that such as were equally enemies to both

* Spalding's Memorials, i. 170.

The Gordons. 329

(who knew it well enough) were secured, and, in the end, prevailed
so far as to ruinate and destroy both of them, and the King- by a
consequent.' * This state of feeling towards Montrose sufficiently
accounts for the vacillating conduct of the Gordons throughout the
contest between the Royalists and the Covenanters in the north.

While the Marquis was in durance, his second son. Lord Aboyne,
at the head of a party of the Gordons, who were dissatisfied with this
treatment of their chief, and of a considerable body of Highlanders,
took possession of the city of Aberdeen. Montrose lost no time in
marching to the north to suppress this rising. On his approach,
Aboyne disbanded his forces and made his escape, while Montrose,
after firing and plundering that stronghold of the Royalists, marched
from Aberdeen to attack the castles of the Gordons in Strathbogie.
Meanwhile, Aboyne, having received a commission of lieutenancy
from the King, returned at the head of an army of three thousand
foot and five hundred horse, and prepared to act on the offensive.
But the Highlanders, unaccustomed to artillery, fled at the first dis-
charge from the cannon.

In April, 1644, Huntly received a new commission from King
Charles to act as his Majesty's Lieutenant- General in the north. But
though he collected a large force he did nothing for the royal cause,
and in a short time disbanded his army and retreated into Strath-
naver, in Sutherlandshire. While the Marquis remained inactive in
this remote district, Montrose had been appointed Lieutenant-
General of the kingdom, and on raising the royal standard in Athole
had been immediately joined by three hundred Gordons from Bad-
enoch. But their chief could not be induced to co-operate cordially
with the royal general, and the great body of the clan held aloof.
They remembered with strong resentment the treatment they had
received from Montrose during his former campaign against them
in the service of the Covenanters, and the recent defeat which he had
inflicted, at the Bridge of Dee, on Lord Lewis Gordon, the third son
of Huntly, who, along with Lord Burleigh, was fighting on the side of
the Parliament. In consequence, all the efforts of Montrose to attract
the Gordons to the royal standard completely failed. A small body
of them, indeed, joined him, but suddenly deserted his standard at a
most critical moment, in spite of the exertions of their commander.
Lord Gordon, eldest son of their chief. They, however, afterwards
returned, and fought with great gallantry at the battle of Alford,
* Gordon's Scots' Affairs, ii. 238.

330 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

where their victory was embittered by the death of Lord Gordon. At
a later period, Lord Aboyne rejoined the Royalist army at the
head of a considerable body of horse, and fought at the battle of
Kilsyth. But when Montrose began his march to the Borders,
Aboyne ' took a caprice,' says Sir Robert Spottiswood, ' and had
away with him the greatest strength he had of horse.'

After the ruin of the royal cause in the south, Huntly, who was now
the only formidable opponent of the successful party, still continued in
arms, and fortified the town of Banff. A portion of the Covenanting
army stationed in Aberdeenshire made an unsuccessful attempt to
dislodge him, and were obliged to retire with loss, and the Marquis
proceeded to garrison his castles of Strathbogie, Bog of Gight, and
Auchindoun. He was excepted from pardon in 1647, ^nd a reward
of one thousand pounds was offered for his apprehension. Middleton
was sent against him, but failed to reduce him to submission, though
reinforced by three regiments from the south. David Leslie was then
despatched to Aberdeenshire with a strong body of horse and foot,
and Huntly, finding himself unable to resist the combined force of
the two armies, took refuge in his Highland fastnesses. The
Covenanting generals reduced all the strongholds of the Gordons in
Aberdeenshire, hanging or shooting on the spot the Irishmen in
their garrisons, and carrying away prisoners the commanders, of
whom the most important were put to death in Edinburgh. The
Marquis was hunted from place to place by Middleton, through
Glenmoriston, Badenoch, and other remote districts. At length, in
the month of December, 1647, he was captured at midnight by
Lieutenant-Colonel Menzies, at Dalnabo, in Strathdon. His atten-
dants, ten in number, made a brave resistance, but were all either
killed or mortally wounded. His captor, apprehensive of a rescue,
carried the Marquis to the castle of Blairfindie, in Glenlivet, about
four miles from Dalnabo. The Gordons resident in the neigh-
bourhood flew to arms to rescue their chief But the Marquis sent
them a message dissuading them from the attempt. He was now,
he said, almost worn out with grief and fatigue ; he could no longer
live in hills and dens, and hoped that his enemies would not drive
things to the worst. But if such was the will of Heaven, he could not
outlive the sad fate he foresaw his royal master was likely to undergo ;
and be the event what it would, he doubted not but the just providence
of God would restore the royal family, and his own along with it.*

* History of the Family of Gordon, ii. 546.

The Gordons. 331

The Marquis was carried under a strong guard to Edinburgh and
imprisoned in the Tolbooth of that city. King Charles, who was at
that time confined in Carisbrook Castle, wrote to the Earl of Lanark,
who was then in London, entreating him to intercede on behalf of
his old and faithful servant ; but if any such intercession was made it
was without effect. Huntly was kept in prison for sixteen months.
After the execution of King Charles and the Duke of Hamilton in
England, the Scottish Committee of Estates brought the Marquis to
trial on the i6th of March, 1649, O" the charge of treason. He was
of course found guilty, and condemned to be beheaded at the Market
Cross of Edinburgh, on the 22nd of that month. The men who
brought this consistent Royalist to the block denounced the execution
of King Charles as a great crime, but they had nevertheless no hesi-
tation in sacrificing his most devoted follower, solely on the ground of
his steadfast adherence to the royal cause.

On the scaffold the Marquis displayed great calmness and
courage. One of the Presbyterian ministers asked him if he
desired to be absolved from the sentence of excommunication pro-
nounced against him. He replied that as he was not accustomed
to give ear to false prophets, he did not wish to be troubled by him.
He addressed the crowd of spectators, declaring that he was about
to die for having employed some years of his life in the service of
the King, and that he had charity to forgive those who had voted
for his death, although they could not convince him that he had done
anything contrary to the laws.* It must be admitted that both in his
public career and in his death, the chief of the Gordons adhered
strictly to the principles which he had professed to Sir George Munro
at the commencement of the Civil War.

' The Marquis,' says Wishart in his ' Life of Montrose,' ' besides
his noble birth, in which he was inferior to no subject, was one of
that power in the north that he was feared by all his neighbours. He
had a great estate, many friends, vassals, and followers ; was of a
comely personage, and bright spirit, and had stuck close to the
King's interest from the beginning of the troubles. On this account,
and on this only, he was so hated by the fanaticks that they resolved
to make him a sacrifice.'

Lord Huntly had by his wife, Lady Anne Campbell, daughter of
the seventh Earl of Argyll, a family of five sons and three daughters.
His eldest son, Lord Gordon, a youth of ' singular worth and
History of the Gordon Family, ii. 576.

332 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

accomplishments,' served for some time in France, under the
Marquis de la Force. When the Civil War broke out, he joined the
Covenanters, it was supposed through the influence of his uncle, the
Earl of Argyll; but in 1645 he abandoned their cause, and repaired
to the standard of Montrose. He had the command of the horse at
the battle of Auldearn, in May of that year. He was killed at the
battle of Alford, 2nd July. The historian of the family says Lord
Gordon was 'a very hopeful young gentleman, able of mind and
body, about the age of twenty- eight years.' Wishart dwells at length
on the general lamentation of the soldiers for the loss of Lord Gordon,
' whose death seemed to eclipse all the glory of the victory,' and
Montrose himself mourned bitterly that ' one who was the honour of
his nation, the ornament of the Scots nobility, and the boldest
assertor of the royal authority in the north, had fallen in the flower
of his youth.'

James, Viscount Aboyne, the Marquis's second son, also fought
under the banner of Montrose at Auldearn, Alford, and Kilsyth. He
was excepted from pardon by the Estates, and took refuge in France,
where he died in 1648.

Lord Lewis Gordon, the third son, succeeded his father as third
Marquis of Huntly. Lord Charles, the fourth son, was a staunch
Royalist, and after the Restoration was created by Charles II. Earl of
Aboyne, and Lord Gordon of Strathavon and Glenlivet. Lord
Henry Gordon, the fifth son of the second Marquis, served for
several years in Poland, but returned home and died at Strathbogie.

Lewis, third Marquis of Huntly, repeatedly changed sides during
the Civil War, and seems to have shared the feelings of dislike and
jealousy which most of the Gordon family cherished towards Mon-
trose. He was restored to his honours and estates by the Parliament
held at Perth, 5th March, 1 651, at which Charles II. was present.
He died in 1653, leaving by his wife, a daughter of Sir James Grant
of Grant, three daughters and one son —

George, fourth Marquis of Huntly and first Duke of Gordon. He
was only three years old at the time of his accession to the family
honours and estates, and when he reached his sixteenth year the
Privy Council, in obedience to a letter from the King, decreed that,
' in order to the conversion of the Marquis of Huntly and the better
ordering of his affairs, his mother should be removed from him and

The Gordons. 333

retire with her family to some of his lordship's houses in the north,
before the ist of August.' ' It may be remarked as a curious com-
bination of circumstances,' says Mr. Chambers, ' that Charles II.,
in whose name ran the letter expressing such anxiety for the
Protestant upbringing of the young Gordon, was in his private senti-
ments a Catholic, while Lauderdale, by whom the letter was officially
signed, was indifferent to all religion.' The effort now made for his
conversion was not successful. The young nobleman continued a
firm Papist to the day of his death.

The Marquis spent a good deal of his early life on the Continent
and served in the French army at Oudenarde, in 1671, and at the
siege of Maestricht. He fought under the French standard in 1674,
in the conquest of Burgundy, and afterwards under Marshal Turenne
before the battle of Strasburg. In the following year he served a
campaign under the Prince of Orange in Flanders. In 1684 he was
created Duke of Gordon by Charles II., in testimony of his appre-
ciation of the steadfast loyalty of his family, the sacrifices they
had undergone, and the eminent services which they had rendered
to the Crown. He was appointed by James VII. Lieutenant of the
North, a member of the Privy Council, one of the Lords of the
Treasury, and Governor of Edinburgh Castle. But though a
Roman Catholic, the Duke disapproved of the measures adopted
by James for the re-establishment of his religion in Scotland, and was
in consequence treated with marked coldness by the King and Court.

At the Revolution, however, his Grace remained faithful to the
infatuated monarch. When he was about to surrender the Castle of
Edinburgh, and was in the act of removing his furniture, he was pre-
vailed upon by Dundee and Balcarres to hold it for James. The
Convention required him to evacuate the fortress within twenty-four
hours. He returned an evasive answer, and made various excuses
for declining to comply with this demand. He entertained great
respect, he said, for the Convention, and meditated no harm either
to its members, or to the city of Edinburgh. He offered to give
security for his peaceable behaviour to the amount of twenty
thousand pounds sterling, but he could not give up the castle until
he received despatches, which he was hourly expecting, from the
Government now established in England. His answer was deemed
unsatisfactory. He was proclaimed a traitor to the Estates, and
guards were posted to intercept all communication betwixt the garri-
son and the city.

334 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

It was well known that the Duke was by no means resolute in
setting at defiance the authority of the Convention, and Dundee, on
leaving Edinburgh in trepidation and haste, clambered up the
western face of the rock on which the castle stands, held a con-
ference at a postern with his Grace, and urged him to hold out till
he should be relieved. The Duke positively refused, however, to fire
on the city, as the Jacobites entreated him to do. He sent notice
to the magistrates that he was about to fire a salute, but they need
not be alarmed, for his guns would not be loaded with ball. The
intercourse between the garrison and the citizens seems to have
been of the most free and easy kind. Letters and fresh provisions
were conveyed to the garrison, and on one occasion a white flag was
hung out and a conference was held to state that all the cards in the
castle were worn out, and the favour of a fresh supply was requested.
But at length the provisions were exhausted, and no relief being
practicable, the Duke surrendered the fortress on honourable
terms.

After proceeding to London, and making his submission to King
William, the Duke of Gordon passed over to Flanders, and, in i6gi,
paid a visit to the Court of the exiled monarch. He was very un-
graciously received, however, and speedily quitted St. Germain's for
Switzerland, where he was arrested and sent to England. But,
though regarded with suspicion by the Government, not altogether
without reason, and frequently imprisoned, he does not appear to
have taken any part in the intrigues and plots for the restoration of
the Stewarts. The conduct of his Duchess, a daughter of Henry
Howard, Duke of Norfolk and Earl of Norwich, no doubt contributed
to rouse the jealousy of the Government. In 17 ii she presented to
the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh a silver medal, having on
one side the effigy of James, and on the reverse a miniature map
of the British Isles, with the inscription Reddite (restore). The
cordiality with which her Grace's gift was received by the members
of the Scottish Bar, and the language employed in their reply of
thanks, showed the prevalence of Jacobite opinions and feelings
among them, and naturally excited the anger of the Government
both against the lawyers and the Duchess. On the accession of
George I., in 17 14, the Duke was regarded as disaffected to the
Hanoverian dynasty, and was ordered to be confined to the city of
Edinburgh on his parole. He died at Leith, 7th December, 17 16,
in the sixty-seventh year of his age. His son —

The Gordons. 335

Alexander, second Duke of Gordon, inherited the Jacobite prin-
ciples, along with the title and estates, of his house. During the
lifetime of his father, the Marquis of Huntly attended the gathering
of the Highland chiefs and other Jacobite leaders at Braemar, in
1715, and the smaller but more important meeting at Aboyne
Castle. He proclaimed the Chevalier at Castle Gordon, and, accom-
panied by a large body of horse and foot, he joined the rebel force
at Perth on the 6th of October. He fought at the battle of Sheriff-
muir, but shortly after returned home, and capitulated to the Earl of
Sutherland. In the following April he was brought to Edinburgh,
and confined for a short time in the castle. The Duke seems to
have been regarded with sympathy by the Government, and no
further proceedings were instituted against him. He died in
1728, and his widow, a daughter of the famous Earl of Peter-
borough, who survived her husband upwards of thirty years, fortu-
nately for her family and the country, educated their four sons
and seven daughters in the Protestant faith. For this service the
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church sent her Grace
a cordial letter of thanks, and the Government, in 1735, settled
upon her a pension of ;^ 1000 a year.* But she was deprived ot
her pension for a single act of hospitality shown to the Young
Chevalier, in 1745, by laying out a breakfast for him on the road-
side, at her park-gate of Preston Hall, as he marched past on his
way to England.

The Duchess was noted for her intellectual vigour, intelligence,
and activity. In 1706 she brought down from England, to the
estates of her father-in-law, the Duke of Gordon, some English
ploughs, and men to work them who were acquainted With. /allowing
— a mode of husbandry heretofore unknown in Scotland. Her
advice also induced two of the landed proprietors of the Gordon
clan — Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun and Sir William Gordon of
Invergordon — to set about the draining and planting of their estates,

* According to a report common at the time, the efforts of the Duchess to convert
her eldest son to the Protestant religion were aided by a casual conversation between
him and one of the tenants on his estate, who had received some ill-treatment from his
Grace's factor. He at last made personal application to the Duke, from whom he at
once obtained redress. Catching a glimpse of the images within the family chapel,
the farmer asked what they were. The Duke answered that they were the representa-
tions of certain holy men, to whom good Catholics were accustomed to apply to inter-
cede for them with the Almighty. ' Such nonsense ! ' rejoined the rustic. ' Would it not
be far better to do as I have been doing — speak to the Laird himsel'?' This chance
remark is said to have made a considerable impression on the Duke's mind.

VOL. II. ' "? B

336 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

and the introduction of improved modes of culture, including the
sowing of French grasses.

Lord Lewis, the third son of the first Duke — the ' Lewie Gordon '
of a well-known and spirited Jacobite song — took part in the rebellion
of 1745. He escaped to the Continent after the battle of CuUoden,
and died in France in 1754, but all the rest remained faithful to the
reigning dynasty. Lord Adam, the youngest son, was a General in the
British army, and served with great activity and zeal both in America
and on the Continent. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief of
the Forces in Scotland in 1782, and in 1796 he was nominated
Governor of Edinburgh Castle. He married the widow of the Duke
of Athole, the heroine of the song, 'For lack of gold she's left me,'
—a daughter of Drummond of Megginch. He died without issue
in 1801.

Cosmo George,* third Duke, succeeded to the family honours
and estates in 1728, when he was only eight years of age. He
supported the Government during the rebellion of 1745, and was
rewarded for his loyalty by receiving, in 1747, the Order of the
Thistle. He was elected one of the sixteen representative peers to
the tenth Parliament of Great Britain, but he died in 1752, in the
thirty-second year of his age, leaving by his wife, a daughter of the
Earl of Aberdeen, three sons and four daughters.

Lord George Gordon, his youngest son, obtained an undesirable
notoriety in connection with the destructive riots in London which
took place in 1780. Lord George was President of a so-called
Protestant Association, which busied itself in getting up petitions
for the repeal of an Act, passed in 1778, for the removal of some of
the disabilities imposed upon the English Roman Catholics. His
inflammatory speeches roused the London populace to a state of
frenzied violence. A monster petition, praying for the repeal of the
Act in question, was carried in procession through the principal
streets of the city, to be presented to ParHament. Scenes of violence
occurred, even in the lobbies of the House of Commons, and the
safety of the members was for some time in peril. The Roman
Catholic chapels, and the houses of several eminent men who were
favourable to the unpopular Act, including that of Lord Mansfield,
were sacked and burned by the mob without hindrance, owing to the

* The name Cosmo was given to the Duke in compliment to Cosmo de Medici III.,
Grand Duke of Tuscany, with whom his father was on terms of close friendship.

The Gordons, 337

cowardice and supineness of the public authorities. The riot was
in the end suppressed by the intervention of the military, but not
without considerable loss of life. Lord George was imprisoned in
the Tower, and brought to trial on a charge of high treason. He
was defended by Thomas Erskine, in one of his finest speeches, and
was acquitted by the jury. It was generally admitted that he was
insane — an opinion which was confirmed some years later by his
abandoning the Christian religion and embracing Judaism. It is
certainly remarkable that a member of the Gordon family, who had
suffered so much for their adherence to the Roman Catholic faith,
should have been the leader of an association, formed to prevent the
adherents of that religion obtaining equal rights and privileges with
their fellow-countrymen. Believers in the transmission of charac-
teristic peculiarities from generation to generation, will not fail to
notice the significant fact that Lord George Gordon was the great-
grandson of the half-mad Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough.
The chiefs of the Gordon clan, now restored to their hereditary
position in Parliament and in the country, became celebrated for
their patriotism, their princely hospitality, and their kindness to their
tenantry and their dependents.

Duke Alexander, the fourth possessor of the ducal title, retained
it for the long period of seventy-six years. In 1761 he was elected
one of the sixteen representative peers of Scotland, and in 1775
was created a Knight of the Order of the Thistle. A regiment had
been raised on the Gordon estates in 1759, which became the 89th
Highlanders, and his Grace was appointed one of its captains. In
1778, during the American war, he raised the Gordon Fencibles,
of which he became colonel; and in 1793 he raised another regi-
ment of fencibles, called the Gordon Highlanders, which was dis-
banded with the other fencible corps, in 1799. As his Grace was
the great-grandson of Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Earl
of Norwich, that extinct title was revived in his favour in 1784,
and he was at the same time created Lord Gordon of Huntly. He
was also appointed Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland. The
Duke was the author of the excellent humorous song entitled ' Cauld
kail in Aberdeen,' but he was best known, and best remembered, as
the husband of the celebrated Duchess Jane, one of the leaders of
fashionable society in London for nearly half a century, and regarded
as one of the cleverest women of her day. Her Grace was the second

338 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

daughter of Sir William Maxwell of Monreith. Her early years were
spent in Hyndford's Close, off the High Street of Edinburgh, where
she seems to have conducted herself with a freedom of manners
which would seem almost incredible in the present day. An old
gentleman, who was a relative of the Maxwell family, stated that on
the occasion when he first made the acquaintance of Jane Maxwell
and her sisters, they had been despatched by their mother. Lady
Maxwell, to the ' Fountain Well,' in front of John Knox's house, to
fetch ' a kettle ' of water, and Miss Jane was seen mounted on the
back of a sow, of which she had made capture, while her sister, Miss
Betty, afterwards Lady Wallace, lustily thumped it with a stick.
' The two romps used to watch the animals as they were let loose
from the yard of Peter Ramsay, the stabler, in St. Mary's Wynd, and
get on their backs the moment they issued from the Close.' *

In 1767, Jane Maxwell was married to Alexander, fourth Duke of
Gordon, then in his twenty-fourth year, whom Lord Kames, his tutor,
considered 'the greatest subject in Britain, not from the extent of
his rent-roll, but from a much more valuable property, the number
of people whom Providence had put under his government and pro-
tection.' t Her beauty, elegance, sprightliness, and extraordinary
tact, combined with wit, made her at once a general favourite in the
highest circles, and for many years she had an undisputed reign as
the queen of society in London and in Edinburgh. She was a zealous
supporter of Mr. Pitt, and her mansion in London was long the
chief resort of the leaders of the Tory party. Her Grace, amid
all the distractions of fashionable and political life, found time to
perform many kind and benevolent acts. ' It was affirmed by those
who knew her, that whether it was a young damsel who had to be
brought out at an assembly, or a friend to be helped out of a
difficulty, or a regiment to be raised, the Duchess of Gordon was
ever ready to use her best exertions, and to employ in the cause the
wonderful powers of fascination which she exercised over all who
came in contact with' her.' %

Lord Kames addressed a letter to the Duchess, on her marriage,
impressing upon her the great responsibility of her position, and he
lived to see the day when he could thank God that ' his best hopes
had been realised ' in regard to the manner in which his ' dear
pupil ' had given effect to his views, ' training the young creatures

* Chambers's Traditions of Edinburgh, i. 239.

t The Hon. Henry Erskinc, by Lieutenant-Colonel Ferguson, p. 288. \ Ibid.

The Gordons. 339

about her to habits of industry, the knitting of stockings among the
young folk of both sexes, and other useful occupations.' In a letter
which her Grace wrote at a late period of her career to her old and
attached friend, Henry Erskine, she says, ' For years I have given
premiums for all kinds of domestic industry — spinning, dyeing, &c.
— and last year had some hundreds of specimens of beautiful colours
from the herbs of the fields, and different woollen productions. But
there is an evil I cannot remedy without a sum of money. The
children are neglected in body and mind : cold, hunger, and dirt,
carries off hundreds. The cow-pox would save many ; no doctors
for thirty miles makes many orphan families. ... I wish to add to
the comforts of the aged, and take the children — teach them to think
right, raise food for themselves, and prepare them to succeed to their
fathers* farms with knowledge of all the branches of farming. . . .
A healthy, well-regulated people must be the proud riches of this
country: by them we can alone be deffended.'

Robert Burns in the course of his northern tour came to Fochabers,
and presuming on his acquaintance with the Duchess of Gordon in
Edinburgh, to whom he had been introduced in the course of the
preceding winter, he proceeded to Gordon Castle, leaving at the inn
his travelling companion, William Nichol, one of the masters of the
Edinburgh High School — a jealous, rude, and brutal pedagogue.
The poet was received with the utmost hospitality and kindness, and
the following entry in his diary showed how highly he appreciated
his reception. ' The Duke made me happier than ever great man
did — noble, princely, yet mildly condescending and affable, gay and
kind. The Duchess witty and sensible. God bless them ! ' His
stay was unfortunately cut short by Nichol, whose pride was inflamed
into a high degree of passion by the fancied neglect which he had
suffered by being left at the inn, and who insisted on proceeding
immediately on his journey. Burns, sensible of the kindness which
had been shown him by the Duke and Duchess, made the best return
in his power by sending them a poem, entitled 'Castle Gordon,'
which is not one of his happiest efforts. The Duchess had planned a
visit of Mr. Addington, afterwards Lord Sidmouth, to Castle Gordon,
when Burns should meet him, knowing that the English statesman
was a warm admirer of the poetry of the Scottish bard. But the
future Premier was unable to accept the invitation, and contented
himself with writing and forwarding some verses expressing a warm
admiration of the genius of the poet — which, however, had no

340 The Great Historic Families of Scotland,

practical result — and recommending- him to be resigned to the want
of worldly gear and ' grateful for the wealth of his exhaustless
mind.'

The Duchess of Gordon was noted for her freedom of speech, and
not less for her freedom of action. She was a g-reat admirer of Mr.
Pitt and a steady adherent of George III. and Queen Charlotte. She
had, consequently, no high opinion of the Prince of Wales and the
dissolute society which he chose to frequent. Lord Harcourt men-
tions in his diary that on one occasion 'Jack Payne,' the Prince's
secretary, uttered some ribaldry about the Queen in the presence of
the Duchess of Gordon. 'You little, insignificant, g^ood-for-nothing,
upstart, pert, chattering puppy ! ' said her Grace, ' how dare you
name your royal master's royal mother in that style ! '

In her early days members of the upper classes, both male and
female, would sometimes in a frolic make up a party to spend an
evening in one of the underground apartments or cellars in the old
town of Edinburgh, where they partook of oysters and porter, set
out in flagons on a table, in a dingy wainscoted room, lighted by
tallow candles. Brandy or rum punch was then served to the com-
pany, and dancing followed. When the ladies had taken their
departure in their sedan-chairs or carriages, the gentlemen proceeded
to crown the evening by a deep debauch. On one occasion, about
the close of last century, after the Duchess was a matron in the full
height of her popularity as a leader of fashion, she paid a visit to
Auld Reekie, and in company with Henry Dundas, the Scottish
Viceroy, and other persons of the highest position, made up an
oyster-cellar party, and devoted a winter evening to the amusement
which they had enjoyed in the days of their youth.

The Duchess had the reputation of being a dexterous match-
maker, which was probably owing to the fact that no fewer than
three dukes (Richmond, Manchester, and Bedford) and a marquis
(Cornwallis) became her sons-in-law. After her daughters were thus
settled to her satisfaction, her Grace said she would now make love
to her old husband, but she had unfortunately been anticipated in this
praiseworthy resolution. The Duke, whom she had probably a good
deal neglected, absorbed as she must have been in fashionable and
political engagements, had meanwhile formed an illicit connection
with a young woman of the name of Christie, of humble birth, who
resided at Fochabers, in the vicinity of Gordon Castle ; and, as might
have been expected, this liaison alienated his affections from his. wife.

The Gordons. 341

and must have hardened his heart ; for, as the national poet of Scot-
land justly remarks, the ' illicit love '

' hardens a' within,
And petrifies the feeling.'

The letters which the Duke wrote to Henry Erskine in 1806, show
that he had not escaped the demoralising influence of his sinful and
degrading connection. He compelled his wife to separate from him,
and from her complaints respecting her circumstances, ' taxes,' and
* double. prices of everything,' the poor lady does not appear to have
had a very liberal allowance for her support. ' For all the llght-
heartedness,' says Colonel Ferguson, ' which was her chief charac-
teristic for so many years, her latter end was very sad. She who
had shown so much kindness to others came to be in grievous need
of some measure of it for herself. Robbed of her political power,
estranged from most of her family, not even on speaking terms with
her husband, and leading a wandering, almost a homeless life, her
case presents a marked instance of the ephemeral character of all
human hopes.'*

The Duchess died on the 14th of April, 1812. One who knew
her well has written of her thus, ' So the great leader of fashion is
gone at last — the Duchess of Gordon. Her last party, poor woman,
came to the Pultney Hotel to see her coffin. She lay in state three
days, in crimson and velvet, and she died more satisfactorily than
one could have expected. She had an old Scottish Presbyterian
clergyman to attend her, who spoke very freely to her, I heard, and
she took it well.' t

In 1820 the Duke married his mistress, by whom he had no
legitimate issue. He died in 1827, in the eighty-second year of
his age.

George, the only surviving son of Duke Alexander and his
Duchess, became the fifth and last Duke of Gordon of the male line.
In his twentieth year he entered the army as an ensign in the 35th
Regiment, and in the following year (1791) he exchanged into the
42nd Regiment, in which he served two years. He then obtained a
commission in the 3rd Foot Guards, and took part in the Duke of
York's first expedition to Flanders. In 1794 he raised among his
father's retainers the famous regiment of Gordon Highlanders (the

* Henry Erskine, p. 411. t Ibid. 415.

342 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

9 and), of which he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel. His father
and mother personally assisted the Marquis in procuring suitable
recruits for this gallant body of men, and the Duchess is said to
have induced them to join the regiment by placing the enlistment
shilling between her lips. The Marquis went out with his regiment
to Gibraltar, and on his homeward voyage from Corunna to England,
the packet in which he sailed was captured by a French privateer,
and though he was robbed of all his effects, he was fortunately
allowed to go on board a Swedish vessel, which landed him at
Falmouth. The Marquis of Huntly subsequently served for up-
wards of a year in Corsica, and in Ireland during the rebellion in 1798,
when the good conduct and discipline of his regiment were gratefully
acknowledged by the people. In the grievously mismanaged and
abortive expedition to Holland, in 1799, under the Duke of York, the
Marquis was severely wounded at the head of his regiment at the
battle of Bergen, October 2nd. The 92nd formed part of the
brigade commanded by Sir John Moore, who was so gratified by
their gallant conduct that when he obtained a grant of supporters for
his armorial bearings as a Knight of the Bath, he chose a soldier of
the Gordon Highlanders in full uniform as one of his supporters.

In 1809 the Marquis commanded a brigade in the unfortunate
Walcheren expedition, under the incompetent Earl of Chatham. In
1 8 19 he attained the rank of General, and in the following year was
appointed Colonel of the ist Foot Guards, which he afterwards
exchanged for the Colonelcy of the 3rd Guards, and received the
Grand Cross of the Bath. On the death of his father, in 1827, the
Marquis of Huntly succeeded to the dukedom of Gordon, and was
appointed Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland. Shortly after he
became Governor of Edinburgh Castle, From this time forward his
Grace resided chiefly at Gordon Castle, where he dispensed hospi-
tality on a magnificent scale. He died 28th May, 1836, at the age
of sixty-six. He was survived by his Duchess, a daughter of
Mr. Brodie of Arnhall, who was noted for her piety and benevolence,
and the deep interest which she took in the cause of education, and
the welfare of the agricultural labourers on the Gordon estates.

As the Duke died without issue, the dukedom, along with the
English peerages of Norwich and Gordon, became extinct, the
baronies, (by writ) of Mordaunt and Beauchamp fell into abeyance,
and the marquisate and earldom of Huntly and the earldom of
Enzie devolved upon his kinsman, George, fifth Earl of Aboyne.

The Gordons. 343

The extensive estates of the family fell to the fifth Duke of Richmond
and Lennox, a son of the eldest daughter of Duke Alexander, who
succeeded to them under the entail executed by that nobleman, pre-
ferring his daughters and their children to his male kinsmen of the
Aboyne branch of the family.

A portion of these estates lying in Lochaber were sold after the
death of the last Duke of Gordon, to the great regret of the tenantry.
But the Gordon estates in the counties of Banff, Elgin, Aberdeen,
and Inverness, still, according to the Doomsday Book, comprise
269,290 acres, yielding an annual rental of;^69,388.

The present Duke of Richmond (the sixth), who already enjoyed
an English, a Scottish, and a French dukedom, was created Duke of
Gordon of Gordon Castle, and Earl of Kinrara, in 1876.

George, fifth Earl of Aboyne, who, on the death of the fifth
Duke of Gordon, became ninth Marquis of Huntly, was descended
from Lord Charles Gordon, fourth son of the second Marquis, who
was created Earl of Aboyne by Charles IL in 1660. The title had
previously been conferred by Charles L, in 1627, along with that of
Viscount Melgum, on the second son of the Marquis of Huntly, who
was burned to death in the tower of Crichton of Frendraught.
George, the eldest son of the Marquis, was created Viscount Aboyne
in 1632, and on his succession to the Marquisate, in 1636, the title
of Aboyne devolved on his second son, James, who died without issue
in 1649. Earl George was the author of some poems, which have
been preserved in local manuscript collections, but have escaped
the notice of the historians of Scottish poetry.* There is nothing
worthy of special notice in the lives of his son and grandson, the
second and third Earls, but Charles, fourth Earl of Aboyne, was a
noted agricultural improver, and set a most praiseworthy example
of industry and economy. He succeeded his father in 1732. On
coming of age, as his estate was small and burdened with debt, he
thought it insufficient to enable him to live in Scotland, in a manner
suitable to his rank. He therefore resolved to take up his residence
in France, and had sent his luggage to Paris, when he fortunately
changed his mind. Setting himself to improve his estate by the
introduction of improved modes of agriculture, enclosing and sub-
dividing the fields by the erection of stone fences, and forming plan-
tations, he increased the value of his property to such a large extent
that in no long time it was freed from debt, and yielded a greatly
* Second Report of the Historical MSS. Commission,-^. 180.

VOL. II. J C

344 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

increased rental. He died 28th December, 1794, in the sixty-eighth
year of his age. By his first wife, a daughter of the Earl of Galloway,
he had a son, who succeeded him, and two daughters, one of whom
became the wife of William Beckford of Fonthill, the author of
' Vathek' — 'England's wealthiest son,' as Lord Byron termed him.
The Earl's son, George Douglas Gordon, by his second wife, daughter
of the Earl of Morton, inherited through his mother the fine estate
of Hallyburton, in Forfarshire, and assumed the name and arms of
Hallyburton.

George, ninth Marquis of Huntly and fifth Earl of Aboyne, was
born in 1761. He entered the army before he had completed his
seventeenth year, and attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel of the
Coldstream Guards. He visited France in 1783, and his handsome
person, gallant bearing, and sprightly manners, characteristic of the
' gay Gordons,' combined with his remarkable skill in dancing, made
Lord Strathaven, as he was then called, a great favourite at the Court
of Louis XIV. Marie Antoinette seems to have taken special pleasure
in his society — a preference which attracted the attention of the
scandal-mongers at the Court. Mirabeau, in one of his letters to the
Count de la Marck, mentions that ' the Polignacs spoke maliciously
of the Queen's delight in dancing ecossaises with young Lord Strath-
aven, at the little balls which were given at Madame d'Ossun's.' His
lordship quitted the army in 1792, shortly after his marriage to the
second daughter of Sir Charles Cope, with whom he got the estate
of Orton Longueville, in Huntingdonshire.

On the death of his father, in 1794, Lord Strathaven succeeded to
the titles of Earl of Aboyne and Lord Gordon of Strathaven and
Glenlivet. In 1796 he was chosen one of the representative peers of
Scotland, and retained that position in successive Parliaments until
1 8 15, when he was created a peer of the United Kingdom, by the
title of Lord Meldrum of Morven.

In 1836, Lord Aboyne, on the death of the fifth Duke of Gordon,
laid claim to the marquisate of Huntly, as the direct heir male of the
first Marquis, and had his claim sustained by the House of Lords.
He thus became premier Marquis of Scotland, and head of the ancient
house of Gordon. But his accession to higher honours brought him
no addition to his estates or income, and he fell into embarrassed
circumstances, mainly in consequence of his purchases of the old
Gordon territory in Inverness-shire, and other extensive estates,

The Gordons. 345

which if he had been able to hold for a few years would have brought
a largely increased price, but in the meantime yielded only a small
return. His difficulties were aggravated by the dishonesty of his
confidential agent, an Edinburgh lawyer, who embezzled upwards
of ^80,000, and then absconded. The liabilities of the Marquis
amounted to ;^ 5 17, 500, but by the judicious management of his
trustees, and his own prolonged life, his creditors ultimately received
seventeen shillings in the pound. He died 17th June, 1853, within a
fortnight of his ninety-third year, leaving a family of six sons and
two daughters.

His eldest son, Charles, became tenth Marquis of Huntly, repre-
sented East Grinstead in Parliament during twelve years, and was
member for Huntingdonshire in 1830. He was for some time a
Lord-in-Waiting to the Queen. He died in 1863, leaving six sons
and seven daughters, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Charles,
eleventh Marquis of Huntly, who was born in 1847, and married, in
1869, Amy, eldest daughter of Sir William Cunliffe Brooks, Bart.

THE GORDONS OF METHLIC AND HADDO.

I HE Gordons of Methltc and Haddo, now ennobled
under the title of Earl of Aberdeen, trace their pedigree to
Sir William Gordon of Coldingknows, in Berwickshire,
younger son of Sir Thomas de Gordon, grandson of the
founder of the family in Scotland. The Gordons of Huntly, as
we have seen, represent the house through an heir female, Elizabeth
Gordon, who, in 1449, married Alexander de Seton, while the
Aberdeen branch have preserved an unbroken male descent.
Owing, however, to the loss of many of the family papers when
Kelly, their residence, was taken and plundered by the Marquis of
Argyll, in 1644, and at a later period, when the house in which the
Earl lived in Aberdeen was burned, their descent from Sir William
Gordon cannot be traced with certainty. Sir William's son is said
to have accompanied his cousin. Sir Adam Gordon, to the north, in
the time of King Robert Bruce, and to have married the heiress
of Methlic. His descendant, Patrick Gordon of Methlic, was
killed at the battle of Brechin (May i8th, 1452), in which the Tiger
Earl of Crawford was defeated by the Earl of Huntly. James
Gordon, Sir Patrick's son, received from the King a gift of the
barony of Kelly, a part of Crawford's forfeited estate. His great-
grandson, George Gordon, though he signed, in 1567, the bond
of association for the defence of the infant sovereign, James VI.,
became a staunch supporter of the cause of Queen Mary, under the
banner of the Earl of Huntly, her lieutenant in the north. The head
of the family during the Great Civil War was George Gordon's
great-grandson. Sir John Gordon of Haddo, who succeeded to the
family estates in 1624. When the Covenanters took up arms
against their sovereign. King Charles appointed Sir John Gordon
second in command to the Marquis of Huntly, his lieutenant in the

GORDONS OF ABERDEEN.

The Gordons of Methlic and Haddo. 347

north. He took part in the skirmish called ' The Trot of Turriff,'
14th May, 1639, when blood was first shed in that lamentable
contest. In 1642 he was created a baronet by the King, but the
honour thus conferred upon him no doubt helped to make him
obnoxious to the Covenanting Convention, who issued letters of
intercommuning against him, and granted a warrant for his appre-
hension. When the Marquis of Huntly took up arms on behalf of
the King, in 1644, he was joined by Sir John Gordon, and a sentence
of excommunication was pronounced against them both, by order of
the General Assembly. When Huntly disbanded his forces and
retreated into Strathnairn, in Sutherlandshire, Sir John attempted
to defend his castle of Kelly against the Marquis of Argyll, who had
been despatched to the north at the head of a strong force to quell
the insurrection. Earl Marischal, Sir John's cousin, who was in
Argyll's army, earnestly recommended him to surrender, assuring
him that he would obtain safe and honourable terms. He accord-
ingly capitulated, on the 8th of May. The greater part of the
garrison was dismissed, but Sir John, Captain Logie, and four or
five others, were detained as prisoners. The author of the history
of the Gordon family asserts that Argyll ' destroyed and plundered
everything that was in the house, carried away out of the garners
180 chalders victual, killed and drove away all the horse, nolt,
and sheep that belonged to Sir John and his tenants round about,'
and that this ' barbarous usage touched Marischal in the most
sensible part; he took it as an open affront to himself,' being a
violation of the terms of surrender.*

Sir John was conveyed to Edinburgh, and was imprisoned in
the western division of St. Giles's Church, which in consequence
acquired, and long retained, the name of Haddo' s Hole. He was
brought to trial before the Estates on a charge of high treason, on
the ground that he had taken up arms against the Convention, and
had taken part in the battle at Turriff. He pleaded that all these
alleged offences had been indemnified by the ' Act of Pacification,'
and produced the royal commission under which he had acted. He
was also indicted for garrisoning his house against the Estates — a
charge on which it appears they mainly relied for obtaining a con-
viction. He urged in his defence that ' there were many Acts of
Parliament making these things treason when done against the
King, but none yet extant making them treason when done against
* The History of the Illustrious Family of Gordon, ii. 407.

348 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

the Estates.' He was of course found guilty, and along with
Captain Logie, was beheaded at the Cross of Edinburgh, on the loth
of July, 1644. On the scaffold he said in an audible voice to the
crowd of spectators, in reply to one of the ministers who desired him to
make a full confession of his sins, ' I confess myself to be a great
sinner before God, but never transgressed against the country, or any
in it but such as were in open rebellion against the King ; and what
I did in that case I thought it good service, and bound to it as my
duty by the laws of God and the land.' William Gordon says that
' Sir John had got a very liberal education, and was a gentleman of
excellent parts, both natural and acquired, but above all was eminent
for his courage and valour.' *

At the Restoration, the forfeited estates of the family were restored
to Sir John's eldest son, who died without male issue in 1665, and
was succeeded by his brother —

Sir George Gordon, third Baronet and first Earl of Aberdeen,
who was born in 1637. He was educated at Marischal College,
Aberdeen, and for some time held the office of Professor in that
institution. On resigning his chair he went to the Continent to study
civil law, and was residing there when the death of his brother put
him in possession of the family estates. On his return to Scotland
he was admitted to the Bar, in the beginning of 1668, and speedily
obtained a high reputation for his ability and legal knowledge.
Crawford, in his ' History of the Officers of State,' mentions that
during all the time he was at the Bar he never took fees as an
advocate, though he had abundance of clients, and many of them
persons of the first rank. He represented the county of Aberdeen ,
in the Parliaments of 1670 and 1673, was made a member of the
Privy Council in 1678, was appointed one of the Senators of the Col-
lege of Justice in 1680, and was nominated President of the Court of
Session in 1681. In the following year he was elevated to the office
of Lord Chancellor of Scotland. He was in London at the time this
promotion was conferred upon him, and a few days after he embarked
for Scotland, along with the Duke of York, in the Gloucester frigate,
which on the 5th of May struck on the sandbank called the Lemon
and Ore, near Yarmouth. With the exception of the Duke, Sir
George Gordon, whom he insisted on taking with him, the Earl of
Wintoun, and two gentlemen of the Duke's bedchamber, all on board

* The History of the Illustrious Family of Gordon, ii. 409-13.

The Gordons of Methlic and Haddo. 349

perished. It had hitherto been the custom to appoint none but peers
to the Chancellorship, and as the nomination of a Commoner gave
great offence to many of the nobility, Sir George Gordon was created,
November 30th, 1682, Earl of Aberdeen, Viscount Formartine,
Lord Haddo, Methlic, Tarves, and Kellie. In the preamble of the
patent conferring that honour upon him, mention is made in detail of
the loyalty and important services of his ancestors, especially of the
memorable fidelity and integrity of his father, and of his strenuous
efforts during the Great Civil War to uphold the royal cause, for
which he sacrificed his life and fortune.

Lord Aberdeen held the office of Chancellor for two years, and
resigned it for a reason highly honourable to him — his opposition to
the proposal of the Duke of Queensberry, that husbands should be
fined for the non-attendance of their wives at church. King James
decided in favour of Queensberry, and Lord Aberdeen immediately
resigned his office of Chancellor, which was conferred upon the
Romish pervert, the Earl of Perth.

The accounts of the Earl, which are still preserved among the
manuscripts in Haddo House, throw interesting light both on the
Chancellor's personal habits and on the manners of the times. His
lordship had evidently been fond of such sports as hunting, hawk-
ing, and horse-racing. There are frequent entries of payments made
to the men who brought hawks, for hoods and bells, and for a hawk
glove, and hawks' meat. A certain Patrick Logan receives £^^2
(Scots) for ' goeing north with hauks;' on one occasion, 'my Lord
goeing to the hauking,' receives_;^5 i6s, ; on another, _^i2 14s. At
that time there were horse-races at Leith, which continued to be kept
up till a comparatively recent period. They had evidently been
patronised by the Chancellor, for in his accounts there appear such
items as these — ' To my Lord goeing to Leith to his race, ^8 8s. ; '
' for weighing the men att Leith that rade,^i 8s. ; ' ' to the man that
ran the night before the race, i8s. ; ' 'item, to the two grooms, drink
money att winning the race at Leith, £% 8s. ; ' ' item, to the Edin-
burgh officers with the cup, £1^;' 'item, to the Smith boy plaitt
the running horse feet, 14s.'

It would appear that numerous presents were sent to the Lord
Chancellor by his friends — no doubt with a view to conciliate the
good-will of the powerful minister and judge. The most frequent
present seems to have been deer. Lords Doune, Huntly, Menteith,
and Sir Patrick Hume send deer; Lord Kinnaird, a goose; Lord

VOL. II. 3 D

350 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

Crawford, ' sparrow grasse ; ' the Marquis of Douglas, a Solan goose,
doubtless from the Bass, which was in vicinity of his lordship's castle
of Tantallon ; Lord Strathmore, English hounds ; Lord Oxford, a
dog ; the minister of Currie also sends an English hound ; Gordon
of Glenbucket, dogs ; the Captain of Clan Ranald and Macleod of
Macleod, a hawk; Lord Errol, ' a torsel off falcon ; ' Lord Lithgow.,
eels, peaches, and partridges ; Lord Wintoun and Lady Errol, pears ;
Lord Dunfermline, fruit. Douceurs are given to each of the servants
bringing these presents, varying from ys. to ^2 i8s. (Scots).

Payments for books show that the Lord Chancellor was not
neglecting his legal studies. ' To Sir Jo. Dalrymple's man with
Stair's Decisions^ £2 i8s. was paid; ' Sir James Turner's man with
a book, ;^ I gs. ; ' ' to my Lord Glendoyick's man, for Acts 0/ Parlia-
ment, £1 9s. ; ' ' for Grotius, De Jure Belli et Pads, £2 i8s.'

The entries relating to the Lord Chancellor's dress are not the
least curious and interesting part of the accounts. ' Gloves to my
Lord ' cost £2 i8s. ; 'a pock to my Lord's hatt,' ys; lod. A cobbler
received 14s. for 'dressing my Lord's boots.' His lordship's expenses
in London were on a much larger scale. ' Two fyne shirts and a
poynt gravat' were charged £16 15s. sterling (Scots money was
unknown in the Great Metropolis) ; ' a castor hatt to my Lord ' cost
£i ; 'a fyne pirie wig, ^5 5s.' Five shillings was paid to ' Dun-
fermling's man to trim my Lord.' ' Takeing a coatch over water to
Windsor ' was charged is. ; 'a hackney chair to my Lord, five days,
17s. 6d. ; ' and the same sum was paid ' for my Lord's lodgeing five
nights att Windsor.' The Chancellor's travelling expenses ' comeing
up to London ' amounted to ^^lo. The footmen of the King, Queen,
and Duke of York received from him in gratuities the sum of
£^ 4s. 6d. The total expenses incurred in his journey to London
and back, and remaining a fortnight in the metropolis, amounted to
^150 17s. 4d.

The Earl's travelling expenses even at home were by no means
light, as appears from such entries as — ' To my Lord himself goeing
to Cranstoun, ^17 8s. ; ' ' to my Lord goeing to Lauderdale's funeral,
£g i6s. ;' for 'drink and accommodation in Mrs. Bennett's' — doubt-
less an inn— /35 gs. 8d. was paid, and the same sum, bating the
shillings and pence, for ' five horses post from Buintisland to Aber-
deen,' and ' for our lawing [reckoning] in Aberdeen at night,
£67 IS.;' for 'lime and sack there in the morning, £5.' Falstafif's
complaint that lime had been put in his sack, shows the common

The Gordons of Methlic and Haddo. 351

usage at that time. But the travelUng expenses appear to have been
greatly exceeded by the gratuities which the Lord Chancellor had
to give to footmen, trumpeters, ' musitioners,' fiddlers, pipers,
drummers, porters, and retainers of every sort. The heaviest item
of all was for ' drink money.' On one occasion £\t, (Scots) was
paid for drink money at Abbotshall; on another, ^11 12s. for drink
money at Cupar. On a journey to Gordon Castle there was paid for
' drink money at Craig of Boyne, £^ 14s. ; ' 'for drink money at the
Booge, £\'] 8s.;' and 'to the two footmen to drink by the way,
7s.' On a journey from Kellie to Edinburgh, ^^8 14s. was paid for
drink money to the drummers of Aberdeen ; £2 i8s. for drink
money to ' Widow Burnet, tapster ; ' and £ i 9s. for drink money to
fiddlers.

The Earl was evidently open-handed, and wherever he went gave
liberally, not only to servants but to the poor and needy. A * poor
body at Athroes ' got gs. ; a poor scholar, 14s.; ' one Johnston, a
poet,' £^ i6s. ; a poor seaman, ^i gs. ; ' ane distracted wyfe, called
Johnston,' i4-s. ; 'a poor gentlewoman,' £v gs. ; 'to the poor at
Dundee,' los. ; *to the poor at Glammis,' 12s.; 'to the poor at
CuUen of Boyne,' 7s. When his lordship attended church he did
not neglect 'the collection,' as is shown by the entry, ' To my Lord
goeing to church,' ^i gs. The church officers were not forgotten.
'The beddels that keips my Lady's seatt' received a gratuity of
£2 i8s. ; 'the beddels of the Abay church' got ^i gs. Another
entry — ' Item, to the clerk and beddels quhen Katherin was baptised'
— shows that at that early period the custom existed, which has come
down to our own day, of giving a gratuity to the beadle in attendance
at baptisms. Finally, ' My Lady's receipts for house furnishing
from the 15th of January to the 4th of June, 1683,' amounted to
/i,g46 17s. 4d.*

After his resignation of his ofifice. Lord Aberdeen devoted his
attention to the management and improvement of his estates. At
the Revolution he remained in the country for some time, in order
to avoid giving his adherence to the new sovereigns, and he was
repeatedly fined for his absence from Parliament. On the accession
of Queen Anne, however, he took the oath of allegiance, and attended
one or two sessions of her Parliament. He died at Kelly, on the
20th of April, 1720, in the eighty-third year of his age. By his wife,
daughter and heiress of George Lockhart of Torbrecks, the Earl

* Fifth Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, pp. 609-611.

352 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

had, with four daughters, two sons ; George, Lord Haddo, who pre-
deceased him, and —

William, second Earl, who was chosen one of the representative
peers of Scotland. He died in 1 746, in his seventieth year. He was
three times married. Alexander Gordon, his third son by his third
wife, a daughter of the second Duke of Gordon, was appointed one
of the Senators of the Court of Session, with the title of Lord
Rockville.

George, third Earl, eldest son of the second Earl, like his father,
was one of the sixteen representative peers. He died in 1801. He
had four daughters and two sons, the elder of whom, George, Lord
Haddo, predeceased him, having died in 1 791, in consequence of
injuries received by a fall from his horse. He left six sons and one
daughter. His second and sixth sons entered the navy, and each at-
tained the rank of vice-admiral. Sir Alexander Gordon, his third son,
was a lieutenant-colonel in the army, and aide-de-camp, first to his
uncle. Sir David Baird, and afterwards to the Duke of Wellington.
He was mortally wounded at the battle of Waterloo, and died on the
following day. The Duke, in a letter communicating the sad intelli-
gence to the Earl of Aberdeen, Sir Alexander's brother, says, ' He
had served me most zealously and usefully for many years, and on
many trying occasions ; but he had never rendered himself more
useful and had never distinguished himself more than in our late
actions. He received the wound which occasioned his death when
rallying one of the Brunswick battalions which was shaking a little ;
and he lived long enough to be informed by myself of the glorious
result of our actions, to which he had so much contributed by his
active and zealous assistance.'

Sir Robert Gordon, G.C.B., fifth son of Lord Haddo, attained
high rank and distinction in the diplomatic service of the country.
The eldest son —

George Hamilton Gordon, born in 1784, became fou.rth Earl of
Aberdeen on the death of his grandfather in 180 1. He was educated
at Harrow, and at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he took the
degree of M.A. in 1804. After completing his studies, he travelled
for some time in Italy and Greece, and, on his return, was one of the
founders of the Athenian Society, whose members are restricted to

The Gordons of Methlic and Haddo. 353

persons who have visited Athens. Hence the Earl was termed by
Lord Byron, in his ' English Bards and Scotch Reviewers ' —

' The travell'd thane, Athenian Aberdeen.'

Lord Aberdeen entered Parliament in 1806 as one of the Scottish
representative peers, was chosen a second time in 1807, and in
181 3, when barely twenty-nine years of age, he was sent on a special
mission to Vienna for the purpose of inducing the Emperor of
Austria to join the alliance against his son-in-law, the Emperor
Napoleon, He performed this delicate and difficult task with great
success, and signed at Toplitz the preliminary treaty in which Austria
united with Great Britain and Russia against France. The Earl was
present at Lutzen and Bautzen, and other great battles in the cam-
paigns of 1813-14, and rode over the field of Leipsic, in company
with Humboldt, after the three days' sanguinary conflict. It was he
who persuaded Murat, King of Naples, to abandon the cause of his
imperial brother-in-law, and he subsequently took part in the nego-
tiations rendered necessary by the return of Napoleon from Elba.
In 1 8 14, he was created Viscount Gordon of Aberdeen, in the peer-
age of the United Kingdom. He was a steady supporter of Lord
Liverpool's Government, and the Tory party; in January, 1828,
he became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and shortly
after, on the resignation of the Canningites, he was appointed
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the administration of the
Duke of Wellington — a position which he held for nearly three
years. On the overthrow of the Duke's Ministry, the Earl of course
retired from office, and with the exception of a few months in 1 834-
1835, when he filled the post of Colonial Secretary in the short-lived
administration of Sir Robert Peel, he remained in Opposition until
1 84 1, when Peel became once more Prime Minister, and Lord
Aberdeen was reinstalled in the Foreign Office. He loyally sup-
ported his chief against the fierce attacks of the Protectionists on the
abolition of the Corn Laws, and in all his Free Trade policy. His
own administration of foreign affairs was cautious and pacific, yet
firm and dignified ; and in the dispute with the Government of the
United States on the Oregon question he steadily upheld the
honour and interests of the country, while he contrived to avert
the evils of war, which at one time seemed imminent.

When the controversy arose in the Established Church of Scot-
land, respecting the Veto Law, and the right of the people to reject

354 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

an unacceptable presentee, Lord Aberdeen, who took a warm interest
in the affairs of the Church in whicli he was an office-bearer, under-
took to prepare a Bill which he expected would have the effect of
healing those dissensions that were threatening to rend the Church
in pieces. His lordship had publicly expressed his conviction that
' the will of the people had always formed an essential ingredient in
the election to the pastoral office,' and the professed object of the
measure which he prepared, was to prevent the intrusion of a presen-
tee on a congregation who refused to receive him as their minister.
But when the Bill was introduced into the House of Lords, it was
found to be essentially at variance with the principles of the Non-
Intrusion party. They insisted that the Church courts should have
power to reject a presentee simply on the ground that he was unac-
ceptable to the people. But Lord Aberdeen proposed to give effect
to the objections of the parishioners to the presentee only when these
were sufficient, in the judgment of the Presbytery, to warrant his
. rejection. On this and some other similar grounds, Lord Aberdeen's
Bill was condemned by the General Assembly of May, 1 841, by a
great majority, and was abandoned at the time by its author. A
painful controversy in consequence ensued between Lord Aberdeen
and Dr. Chalmers. There seem to have been misunderstandings
on both sides respecting the precise nature and extent of the
powers which the Earl intended to confer upon the Church courts ;
but there can be little doubt that he had been induced to quit the
ground which he originally took up, by the urgent representations
of some of the leaders of the Moderate party, and especially of
Mr. John Hope, the Dean of Faculty, who, more than any other
person, was instrumental in bringing about the disruption of the
Scottish Church.

After the catastrophe had taken place, Lord Aberdeen's despised
and rejected Bill was passed into a law. It had no effect in repairing
the breach that had been made in the Church, and the results, as
Lord Cockburn remarked, were ' great discontent among the people,
great caprice and tyranny in the Church courts, great grumbling
among patrons, yet no regular or effective check on the exercise of
patronage.' It had ultimately to be repealed, having been produc-
tive of nothing but mischief and universal dissatisfaction. Lord
Aberdeen was surprised and deeply grieved at the disruption of the
Established Church, having been made to believe that only a small
number of ministers and people would secede, and he repeatedly

The Gordons of Methlic and Haddo. 355

expressed his great regret that he had unwittingly contributed to
bring about this catastrophe.

Lord Aberdeen retired from office in 1846, when the Protectionists,
in revenge, broke up Sir Robert Peel's Government. On the death
of that distinguished statesman, his lordship became the virtual
head of his party, and during the ministerial crisis of 1 85 1 he was
requested by the Queen to form a Ministry, in conjunction with Sir
James Graham, but was obliged to decline the responsible and diffi-
cult task. When the short-lived administration of Lord Derby was
overthrown in the following year, a coalition was formed between the
Whigs and the Peelites, and Lord Aberdeen was placed at the head
of the Government, which combined almost all the men of talent and
experience in the House of Commons. They carried out a number
of important reforms in home affairs, especially in financial arrange-
ments. The nation seemed to be entering on a period of great
prosperity and progress when this fair prospect was suddenly over-
cast by the war between Russia and Turkey, in which Great Britain
and France were reluctantly involved. Lord Aberdeen had long
before penetrated the designs of Russia upon Turkey, and had in
his despatches denounced in decided terms the ambition and faith-
lessness of the Czar Nicholas. He felt strongly, he said, the dis-
honourable unfairness of the Russians. They presumed on his being
Premier, and thought he would not go to war. Lord Aberdeen had,
indeed, an undisguised horror of war, which he justly regarded as
one of the greatest evils, and strove to maintain peace after the voice
of the nation had unequivocally declared for an armed resistance to the
unprincipled designs of Russia. The country thus ' drifted into war,'
for which no adequate preparation had been made. When the Cri-
mean disasters took place. Lord John Russell, who had long been
impatient under the Premiership of Lord Aberdeen, whom he expected
to have made way for his own elevation to the chief place in the
Cabinet, suddenly resigned his office, and the administration was in
consequence broken up, but not until it had carried several important
measures for the reform of the law, the government of India, the
opening of the University of Oxford, the improvement of the con-
dition of the people, and the extension of the principles of free
trade.

On the retirement of Lord Aberdeen from the office of First Lord
of the Treasury, he was made a Knight of the Garter, and the Queen,
as a rare and signal token of royal favour, commanded him to retain

356 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

also the Order of the Thistle, of which his lordship was the senior
knight, having received the green ribbon as far back as the year
1808. From that period onward Lord Aberdeen did not take any-
prominent part in public affairs, though his administrative ability
and high character gave him great weight in the legislature.

Lord Aberdeen belonged to the solid, not to the showy, class of
statesmen. He had a clear head, a sound judgment, a liberal disposi-
tion, vast experience, and unblemished integrity. Notwithstanding
his long connection with the Tory party, he was thoroughly Liberal
in his policy, both foreign and domestic. He was of a somewhat
reserved temperament and studious habits, and was distinguished
for his refined taste in all matters connected with the fine arts. He
was the author of an ' Introduction ' to ' Wilklns' Translation of
Vitruvius' Civil Architecture,' which he published in an extended
form as a distinct work in 1822, under the title of * An Inquiry into
the Principles of Beauty in Grecian Architecture.'

There are a number of interesting references to the Earl scattered
through the diary and the letters of Bishop Wilberforce. Sir James
Graham told him that, when Lord Melbourne went out of office, he
said to the Queen, * Madam, you will not like Peel, but you will like
Aberdeen. He is a gentleman.' Sir James added, ' He has a great
tenderness for the sex ; a most entirely good man, very affectionate
and true.' The Bishop, writing from Buchanness, October 15th, 1856,
says : ' It is delightful to walk and converse with the good old Earl.
He is full of history, manners, and men. All his judgments are fair,
and candid, and true, in the highest possible degree, but at the same
time there is a slight tinge of humour in his judgment of men, and a
clear discernment of character, which is delightful.' In his diary,
under the date of February 7th, 1855, the Bishop says : ' Lord Aber-
deen, natural, simple, good, and honest as ever.' The Earl must
have had a very conciliatory and persuasive manner. George IV.
was always partial to him, and when the Earl was sent by his col-
leagues to that Sybarite he used to say to him, 'What thing

have I got to yield to now, that they have sent you to break it
to me ? '

Lord Aberdeen was a skilful and enterprising agricultural improver.
When he came into possession of his estate at Haddo, there were
only the limes and a few Scottish firs on it. He planted about four-
teen millions of trees, and lived to see whole forests which he had
planted rise into maturity and beauty.

The Gordons of Methlic and Haddo. 357

The Earl was Chancellor of King's College and University, Aber-
deen, President of the British Institution, a Governor of Harrow and
of the Charterhouse, and Lord -Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire. He
died at Stanmore, on December 14th, i860, in the seventy-seventh
year of his age. Bishop Wilberforce, who officiated, says, ' Lord
Aberdeen's funeral was most striking. The vault was in an old ivy-
grown corner of the old church, now demolished, just under the old
tower. The heavy tread of the bearers crushed the snow, the great
flakes falling heavily through the whole service ; the form, in par-
ticular, amongst the pall-bearers, of Sir James Graham, with his
massive figure and large bald head, bare, with the snow falling
on it; Arthur Gordon's sorrow; Gladstone with his face speaking;
Newcastle ; the light/rom within the vault : a most impressive sight,
engraven on my memory for ever.' *

George John James, Lord Haddo, succeeded his father as fifth
Earl of Aberdeen. He was born in 1816, and died in 1864, leaving
by his wife, a daughter of Mr. Baillie of Jerviswood, and sister of the
tenth Earl of Haddington, three sons and three daughters.

George Hamilton, sixth Earl, his eldest son, born in 1841, from
his earliest years displayed a strong liking for a seafaring life. When
a mere child he used to go out with the herring boats at Boddom,
and remain with the fishermen all night. Shortly after his accession
to the earldom he resolved to gratify this passion for a sailor's life,
and in January, 1866, he sailed from Liverpool in a large sailing
vessel, called the Pomona, bound to St. John's, New Brunswick.
After a protracted voyage the vessel reached its destination, and the
Earl spent the month of April with his uncle, Sir Arthur Gordon,
who was at that time Governor of New Brunswick. He then pro-
ceeded to Boston, where he stayed some weeks in a hotel, and
dropping his title, assumed the name of ' George H. Osborne.'
Under that designation he embarked, in the month of June, in a
vessel bound for Palmas, in the Canaries. One of the sailors, with
whom he appears to have become somewhat intimate, says, ' He was
not dressed as a sailor, and I was surprised to find he had shipped as
one. His hands were tender, and they soon got blistered ; mine were
then in a similar state, and we joked about it. But he was always
active, willing, and energetic, and took a fair share of all the work.
* Life of Bishop Wilberforce, ii. 465.

VOL. II. 3 E

358 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

He made himself most popular with officers and crew. ... He told
me Osborne was an assumed nanie, and that his real name was
Gordon ; but, he said, I must not mention it on board ship.'

In July, 1866, the Earl was at Palmas, on the coast of Africa,
whence he wrote an interesting letter to his mother. He was dis-
covered to have served, in 1867, on board the schooner Arthur
Burton, bound for Vera Cruz, with a cargo of corn. At that time the
Mexican War was going on, and Vera Cruz was being bombarded,
and a cannon-ball struck a house close to which he was standing.
He immediately placed his head in the hole the ball had made, and
remained in that position till the cannonading ceased. ' I thought it
unlikely,' he said in a letter to his mother, ' that another shot would
come just to that same spot; but while I was there seven people
were killed in the same square.'

In February, 1867, he resided for some time in Boston, assiduously
studying navigation at the Nautical College there, and obtained from
the college authorities a certificate of his possessing the requisite
skill and judgment for the first officer of any ship in the merchant
service. Early in that year he sailed from New York to Galveston,
Texas, with * a good Boston captain,' named John Wilson, who was
a Baptist and a teetotaller. On the 1 2th of August he wrote from
New York to his mother, mentioning that he had just arrived from
Mexico, and giving a vivid description of the imminent danger to
which his vessel had been exposed, ' a whole night and part of a day
bumping on a sandbank, in a sea full of sharks, on an inhospitable
and dangerous coast, where sand-flies, horse-flies, and mosquitos
abound, and where at night can be heard the savage roar of the
tigers and wild animals which inhabit the impervious tropical jungle
which lines the coast and comes right down to the beach.' He made
another narrow escape in the Gulf Stream on New Year's Eve,
described in a letter to his mother dated loth February, 1868.
Another letter to Lady Aberdeen, dated ist December, 1868, gives
an account of his deliverance from a still more imminent danger.

' Not many weeks ago,' he says, ' I thought my last hour was
come. I was in a small vessel, deep loaded, and very leaky. A
furious gale came on right on shore. The water gained on us — we
could not keep her free. As morning dawned the gale increased, if
possible, in violence. To windward there was nothing but rain and
wind, and the ever-rising white-capped billows. To leeward was the
low quicksand, with roaring billows, on to which we were slowly but

The Gordons of Methlic and Haddo. 359

surely drifting. We carried an awful press of sail, but the poor
water-logged steamer lay over on her beam-ends, and made two miles
to leeward for every one ahead. We were toiling at the pumps and
throwing overboard our deck load ; but already there was five foot of
water in the hold, and nothing could have saved us but a miracle, or
a change of wind. At 10 a.m. God in his mercy sent a sudden
change of wind all in a moment, right off the shore, with perfect
floods of rain, which beat down the sea, and in half an hour the wind
moderated. After toiling seventeen hours we got a suck on the
pumps, and took heart of grace, and eat a little food. Next day we
made the harbour of New York, where I now am. To-morrow we
start for a coast famed for its tales of piracy, wrecking, and murder
— the coast of Florida. But those times are past, and now it is only
dangerous on account of its numerous shoals and sunken rocks.
Give my love to all dear ones, and believe in the never-dying love of
your affectionate son, George.'

There is abundant evidence that Lord Aberdeen, while keeping up
the accomplishments which he had cultivated at home, had acquired a
thorough knowledge of the profession which for a time he had chosen
to follow. ' He was a first-rate navigator,' said one who knew him
only as a sailor, 'and no calculation ever puzzled him.' An Ame-
rican carpenter, named Green, with whom he seems to have been on
intimate terms, says, ' He drew beautifully. He was an excellent
seaman and navigator. He was very fond of reading and music. He
used to play very often on a piano in my house. He was very good
to children. My wife had a little sister who was often in the house,
and George used to take a great deal of notice of her, and often buy
her little presents : she was four or five years old. I remember
George had a revolver on board the Walton, and I have often seen
him at sea throw a corked bottle overboard and break it with a shot
from his revolver. He was a first-rate shot both with pistol and
rifle. I have seen him snuff a candle with a pistol-bullet at five or
six yards.'

All who came into familiar intercourse with George Osborne bear
testimony to his sincere but unostentatious piety, as might have been
expected from his training by pious parents. His daily perusal of
the Holy Scriptures is frequently mentioned by his companions, and
his regular attendance at church while on shore. The testimony
is not less strong to his strict moral conduct, and his earnest efforts
to promote the spiritual interests of the sailors with whom he came

360 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

in contact. He lived on his wages as a seaman, and even saved a
little money from them. He was of a most obliging disposition, and
always ready to lend a helping hand to relieve distress. In his boy-
hood he showed a taste for mechanics, frequently working with the
carpenter on his father's estate ; and his handiness, along with his
energy and activity, made him of great use on board ship. His
affection for his family, and especially for his mother, was remark-
ably strong and tender. In a letter to her, dated New York, 12th
August, 1867, he says : —

' My dearest Mamma, — I hope you are keeping well. I am now
with a very good man. It is good for me to be here; he is the same
I went to Galveston with, but I must leave him to-day. I hope
you will get this letter, and that it will cheer your heart ; it tells you
of my undiminished love, though I have not heard of or from you
for more than a year.'

On the ist of December, 1868, he wrote to Lady Aberdeen : —

'I must come and see you soon, though it is so long since I have
heard, that a sort of vague dread fills my mind, and I seem to feel
rather to go on in doubt than to learn what would kill me, or drive me
to worse — I mean were I to return and not find you. How many
times has this thought come to me in the dark and cheerless night
watches ; but I have to drive it from me as too dreadful to think of
I wonder where you are now, and what you are doing. I know you
are doing something good, and a blessing to all around you.'

On the 15th of March, 1867, the Earl wrote from Honiton, Texas,
in a similar strain to his younger brother, James Gordon : —

' I have never seen an approach to a double of you or of mamma.
I know there cannot be her double in the world. She has not an
equal. ... My best love to dear mamma; I think of her only; she
is always in my thoughts.'

One of the incidents which helped to prove the identity of the Earl
with George Osborne was the fondness of the latter for a song which
used to be sung by Lady Aberdeen, and which he stated had been
a favourite song of his mother.

Although Lord Aberdeen frequently expressed a great liking for
America and the Americans, he had no intention of remaining per-
manently absent from Scotland. In several of his letters he inti-

The Gordons of Methlic and Haddo. 361

mated that he meant to return home, but he was induced to prolong
his seafaring life from finding that the change of climate had im-
proved his health, which had been delicate in his own country.
Several months passed in 1869 without any letter from him, and the
anxiety of the family respecting him became so intense and painful
that the Rev. William Alexander, a Presbyterian clergyman, who
had been his lordship's tutor, volunteered to go in search of him, in
November, 1870. The difficulties he had to encounter in this enter-
prise were very great, as even the name which the Earl had assumed
was not known. After long and laborious inquiries, Mr. Alexander
at length succeeded in finding the ' good Boston captain,' the Baptist
and teetotaller, with whom the Earl had sailed from New York to
Galveston, Texas, in 1867, and he, on being shown the photograph
of Lord Aberdeen, declared it to be the likeness of a young man
named George Osborne, who had been in his ship on the voyage
mentioned. Furnished with this clue, and assisted by the agent of
the present Earl, Mr. Alexander succeeded in tracing the career of
Osborne to its sad close. He had engaged himself as mate on board
a small vessel called the Hera, which sailed from Boston to Mel-
bourne on the 2 1 St of January, 1870, with a crew of only eight persons
besides the captain, and on the night of the 27th he was washed over-
board in a state of the weather which rendered it hopeless to rescue
him. The identity of George Osborne with Lord Aberdeen was
clearly established by photographs, by handwriting, and by a com-
parison of the various occurrences of Osborne's career during the
years 1866 — 1870 with those which Lord Aberdeen's letters recorded
as having happened to himself.* There could therefore be no doubt
of the fate of this excellent young nobleman, whose untimely death,
in the flower of his youth, caused great sorrow among his relations
and the tenantry on his estates.

His brother James, second son of the fifth Earl, predeceased him
in 1868, and he was succeeded by his youngest brother, John Camp-
bell Hamilton Gordon, born in 1847. The Earl is Lord-Lieutenant
of Aberdeenshire, was for several years Lord High Commissioner to
the General Assembly of the Established Church of Scotland, and in
1886 was appointed Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland. According to the
' Doomsday Book,' the family estates comprehend 63,422 acres, with
a rental of2'40,765.

* The Rise of Great Families, by Sir Bernard Burke, pp. 1 55-80.

THE GORDONS OF KENMURE.

I HE Gordons of Kenmure are descended from William de
Gordon, second son of Sir Adam de Gordon, the founder
of the main branch of the family. He received from his
father the barony of Stichell, in the vicinity of Gordon,
and also the lands of Glenkens, in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright,
comprising Kenmure, Lochinvar, and the other estates of the Gor-
dons in that district, which had previously belonged to the Douglases
and the Maxwells. His grandson, who bore his name, was the first
of the family who settled in Galloway, and his descendants, rising
on the ruins of the Black Douglases, and sending out numerous
branches, gradually increased their possessions in that district, until
they were by far the largest landowners in the stewartry of Kirkcud-
bright. Sir Alexander Gordon, the seventh Laird of Lochinvar,
fell at the battle of Flodden, and was succeeded by his brother, Sir
Robert, whose claims, after a long contention before the Lords of
Council, were preferred to those of Sir Alexander's daughter. Sir
James Gordon, Sir Robert's eldest son, held the office of Royal Cham-
berlain to the Lordship of Galloway, and was also appointed Governor
of the town and castle of Dumbarton. He was killed at the battle of
Pinkie, loth September, 1547. His eldest son. Sir John, was, in 1555,
appointed Justiciary of the Lordship of Galloway. He was for some
time an adherent of Queen Mary, but in 1567 joined the associated
barons in support of the infant King. Sir Robert, his eldest son,
was noted for his physical strength, activity, and prowess, and not
less for his exploits against the English Borderers and the free-
booters of Annandale, who frequently carried their plundering excur-
sions into Galloway.

Sir John Gordon of Lochinvar, the elder son of this gallant

GORDONS OF KENMURE.

The Gordons of Kenmure. 363

Gordon, by his wife, a daughter of the first Earl of Ruthven, was
elevated to the peerage, by the title of Viscount Kenmure and Lord
Lochinvar, by Charles I. when he visited Scotland, in 1633, for the
purpose of his coronation. Sir John had previously,, in 1629, ob-
tained from that monarch the charter of the royal burgh of New
Galloway, which was at that time created on the Kenmure estate.
Lord Kenmure was distinguished for his personal piety as well as for
his attachment to Presbyterian principles, and was the intimate friend
of the famous John Welch, son-in-law of John Knox, with whom he
resided some time in France, and also of Gillespie and Samuel
Rutherford. It was through his influence that Rutherford was
appointed minister of Anwoth in 1627, and that famous divine dedi-
cated to the Viscount his first work, entitled, ' Exercitationes Apolo-
geticse pro Divina Gratia,' &c. The Viscount sold the ancient family
estate of Stichell, in order, it was said, to obtain the forfeited earl-
dom of Gowrie, to which he laid claim through his mother. It was
reported that the money was paid to the Duke of Buckingham, who
had undertaken to support the claim, but in consequence of the
assassination of the Duke the very next day, the Viscount both lost
his money and failed in his object. The report, however, does not
rest on any satisfactory evidence. Lord Kenmure died in 1634,
in the thirty-fifth year of his age. Rutherford, who attended him
on his deathbed, wrote a tract, entitled, ' The last and heavenly
Speeches and glorious Departure of John, Viscount Kenmure.' Lady
Kenmure, the Viscount's widow, who lived to a great age, took for
her second husband, in 1640, the Hon. Sir Harry Montgomery of
Giffin, and was a constant correspondent of Rutherford.

John Gordon, the only son of the first Viscount, died unmarried
in 1639, and the title passed to his cousin, John Gordon, grandson
of Sir John Gordon of Lochinvar. He also died unmarried, in 1643,
and was succeeded by his brother Robert, fourth Viscount, who
suffered severely for his attachment to the royal cause in the Great
Civil War, and was excepted from Cromwell's Act of Grace and
Pardon in 1654. The family never recovered from the blow which
they then received. Their power and prestige were gone, their
extensive estates dwindled away, and the heads of this once great
house, frowned on by the Court and the Government, and ungrate-
fully treated even by the exiled monarch in whose cause they had
lost and suffered so much, spent their days in obscurity and neglect,

VOL. II. 3 F

364 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

on the remnant of their patrimonial inheritance. On the death of
Lord Robert without issue, in 1663, the title devolved on Alexander
Gordon of Pennygame, who, like the third Viscount, was a descendant
of Sir John Gordon of Lochinvar. He died in 1698.

His only son, William, sixth Viscount, unfortunately for himself
and his family, quitted his retirement and took an active part in the
rebellion of 17 15. At the head of a body of a hundred and fifty
horse, including the Earl of Nithsdale and a number of the Roman
Catholic gentry of the western frontier, Lord Ken mure proclaimed
the Chevalier St. George as James VIIL at Moffat, Lochmaben,
Hawick, and other Border towns. He then joined the Northum-
brian insurgents, commanded by the presumptuous and incompetent
Forster, and marched with them into England. Though in the well-
known Jacobite ballad, 'Kenmure's on and awa',' he is designated
' the bravest lord that ever Galloway saw,' the Viscount, from his
mild and modest disposition, and his want of military experience, was
altogether unfit to be a leader in such an expedition. Indeed, there
is reason to believe that, like his ill-starred coadjutor, the Earl of
Derwentwater, he would never have engaged in such a foolish enter-
prise had it not been for the urgent importunity of his wife, the only
sister of the sixth Earl of Carnwath, who also forfeited his titles and
estates in the cause of the Stewarts. Lord Kenmure fought with the
hereditary courage of his race at the barricades of Preston, where he
was taken prisoner and conveyed to London, pinioned with cords
and exposed to the insults of the populace. He was tried on a
charge of treason, found guilty, and condemned to be executed. He
suffered the penalty of the law (24th February, 17 16) with great
firmness, expressing his regret that he had pleaded guilty at his
trial to the charge of treason, and prayed for ' King James.'

The widowed Viscountess of Kenmure, a woman of great energy
and courage, hastened down to Scotland by herself, after the execu-
tion of her husband, and secured his letters and other important
papers. When his estates were exposed for sale, with the assistance
of some friends, she was enabled to purchase them, and through her
excellent management, when her eldest son, Robert, came of age,
she handed the patrimonial property over to him entirely unencum-
bered, reserving only a small annuity for herself. She died at
Terregles in 1776, having survived her husband the long period of
sixty years.

The eldest son of the Viscount who laid down his life for the

The Gordons 0/ Kenmure. 365

cause of the exiled family, died in 1741 ; and John Gordon, the
second son, was, by courtesy, eighth Viscount. He was an officer in
the royal army, and by his wife, a daughter of the Earl of Seaforth,
he had a family of five sons and one daughter. But four of his sons,
who, like their uncles, were in the military service of the Crown,
died unmarried. John Gordon, the eldest surviving son of the
titular eighth Viscount, born in 1750, was a captain in the 17th
Regiment of foot, and in 1784 was elected member for the Stewartry
of Kirkcudbright. He was restored by Parliament, in 1788, to the
forfeited honours of his family, but died without issue, in 1840, in
the ninety-first year of his age. He was succeeded by his nephew —

Adam Gordon, a distinguished naval officer, who shared in the
glories of Trafalgar, and other British victories. He was the
eleventh Viscount jn succession, but, owing to the attainder of 17 16,
only the eighth in the enjoyment of the peerage. At his death, in
1847, the family titles became dormant, perhaps extinct; but his
estates were inherited by his sister, the Hon. Mrs. Louise Bellamy
Gordon.

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THE GORDONS OF EARLSTON, GIGHT, Etc.

|HE cadets of the Gordon family are numerous and influ-
ential, especially in the north of Scotland, and not a few
of .them have acquired great distinction in the service
of their country.

The Gordons of Earlston, in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, are
descended from Alexander Gordon, second son of the sixth Lord of
Lochinvar. He embraced the doctrines of Wicliffe, and used to read
the New Testament in English to some of his followers at their meet-
ings in the woods of Aird. Alexander, the head of that family in the
time of Charles I., strenuously opposed the attempt of that monarch
to establish Episcopacy in Scotland. His son, William Gordon,
suffered severe persecution for his adherence to the cause of the
Covenanters, and was killed by some English dragoons when on his
way to join the insurgents at Bothwell Bridge. His eldest son,
Alexander, was sentenced to death in his absence in i68o. He was
afterwards captured on board ship in 1683, but his life was spared
by the intercession of the Duke of Gordon. He was detained a
prisoner successively in the castle of Edinburgh, on the Bass Rock,
and in Blackness Castle, till the Revolution, when he obtained his
liberty and the restoration of his estates.

The Gordons of Pitlurg, in Aberdeenshire, are descended from
John de Gordon, who, in 1376, received a grant of Strabolgie from
Robert II. In the same county are the Gordons of Abergeldie, Ward-
house, and Fyvie, the Gordons of Gordonstoun and Letterfourie, in
Banffshire, the Gordons of Embo in Sutherlandshire, &c. &c. The
Gordons of Gight, now extinct, sprang from the second son of the
second Earl of Huntly, and the Princess Jane, daughter of James I.
They seem to have been men of a fierce disposition and passionate

The Gordons of Earhton, Gight, etc. 367

temper, and were repeatedly guilty of outrages of the most violent
nature. On one occasion, in September, 1601, a messenger was
sent to deliver letters to the Laird of Gight, summoning him to
answer for his conduct in not only destroying the crops of certain
persons against whom he had ' conceived mortal wrath,' but wound-
- ing them to the imminent peril of their lives. The messenger, after
delivering the letter, was returning quietly from the house, ' lippening
for nae harm or pursuit,' when he was seized by a number of armed
servants of Gight, and dragged before the laird, who would have
shot him but for the interposition of ' some one, who put aside the
weapon. He then harlit him within his hall, took the copy of the
said letters, whilk he supposed to have been the principal letters,
and cast them in a dish of broe [broth], and forcit the officer to sup
and swallow them,' holding a dagger at his breast all the time.
Afterwards the laird, being informed that the principal letters were
yet extant, ' came to the officer in a new rage and fury, rave [tore]
the principal letters out of his sleeve, rave them in pieces, and cast
them on the fire.' For this scandalous outrage the Laird of Gight
was put to the horn. A much more serious crime was committed
by the laird in 161 5. His brother, Adam Gordon, was killed in a
single combat by Francis Hay, cousin-german to the Earl of Errol.
Gordon, resolved to revenge this deed, seized Hay, without any
warrant, and brought him to Aberdeen, where, at an irregular, and,
indeed, illegal trial, presided over by the sheriff-substitute, who was
also a Gordon, he was condemned to death. Next morning he was
led out to a solitary place, and there butchered by the Gordons. No
punishment seems to have been inflicted on the perpetrators of this
bloody deed, which caused a fierce quarrel between the Earl of
Errol, the chief of the Hays, and the Marquis of Huntly.

It is instructive to learn that the men who were guilty of these
shocking crimes all the while firmly adhered to the religion of their
fathers. In 1661, George Gordon, the young Laird of Gight, who
had hitherto evaded all the demands of the Church Courts that he
should abandon his Popish errors, was threatened with immediate
excommunication, unless he should without further delay subscribe
the Covenant. He pleaded sickness, and inability to leave the
country; offered to confine himself within a mile of his own house,
' and receipt nane wha is excommunicat (my bedfellow excepted) ; or
he would go into confinement anywhere else, and confer with Protest-
ant clergymen as soon as his sickness would permit.' He says in

368 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

conclusion, ' If it shall please his Majesty, and your wisdoms of the
Kirk of Scotland sae to take my blude for my profession, whilk is
Roman Catholic, I will maist willingly offer it ; and gif sae be, God
grant me constancy to abide the same.' Gordon's offer, however,
was not deemed satisfactory, and he was informed by the Presbytery
of Aberdeen that unless he should within eight days give sufficient
surety for either subscribing, or leaving the kingdom, he would be
excommunicated.* The laird would have been entitled to great
sympathy under this odious persecution, if his religious principles
had kept him from robbery and murder. In 1641 the Laird of Gight
retaliated upon his tormentors. He and the Lairds of Newton and
Ardlogie, with a party of forty horse and musketeers, ' made a raid
upon the town of Banff, and plundered it of buff coats, pikes, swords,
carbines, pistols, yea, and money also,' and compelled the bailies to
subscribe a renunciation of the Covenant.

Towards the close of last century the family ended in an heiress,
Catherine Gordon, who seems to have inherited the fierce and unruly
passions of her family. She married, in 1785, Captain John Byron,
a worthless and dissolute spendthrift,, by whom she became the
mother of the famous poet, Lord Byron. As she espoused Captain
Byron without any ' settlement,' her estate was seized by his
creditors, and sold to Lord Aberdeen for ^^ 18,500, while she and her
son were left in penury.

The castle of Gight is now a complete ruin, with the exception of
two modern rooms, which are preserved for the accommodation of
parties visiting the glen. There is a prophecy regarding it and the
family, as usual ascribed to Thomas the Rhymer, which says —

' When the heron leaves the tree,
The Laird o' Gight shall landless be.'

It is said that when the Honourable John Byron married the
heiress of Gight, the denizens of a heronry which, for ages, had fixed
their airy abode among the branches of a magnificent tree in
the immediate vicinity of the house, at once left their ancient
habitation, and migrated in a troop to Kelly, where it is certain a
family of herons is now domiciled. ' The riggs soon followed ' is a
familiar saying, which aptly enough fills up the tradition, for the
estate of Gight is now in the hands of the Earls of Aberdeen.

* Selections from the Ecclesiastical Records of Aberdeen, xxxvii., xc.

The Gordons of Earlston, Gighi, etc. 369

Another prophecy is even more remarkable, since its complete
verification has been accomplished within a very recent period : —

' At Gight three men by sudden death shall dee,
■ And after that the land shall lie in lea.'

'In 1791 Lord Haddo met a violent death on the Green of Gight
by the fall of his horse ; some years after this a servant on the estate
met a similar death on the Mains, or home farm. But two deaths
were not sufficient to verify the seer's words. A few years ago the
house, preparatory to the farm being turned into lea, was being-
pulled down, when one of the men employed in the work casually
remarked on the failure of the Rhymer's prediction. But, as if to
vindicate the veracity of the prophet's words, in less than an hour
the speaker himself supplied the fated number, lying crushed to
death beneath the crumbling ruins of a fallen wall ! We need
scarcely add that the local fame of the Rhymer is now more than ever
in the ascendant.'

Pratt adds : ' We cannot take leave of the grey romantic towers
of Gight in language more appropriate than that of the noble bard
whose maternal ancestors occupied them for nearly four hundred
years : —

' And there they stand, as stands a lofty mind —

Worn, but unstooping to the baser crowd.

All tenantless, save to the crannying wind,

Or holding dark communion with the cloud,

Banners on high, and battles passed below;

And they who fought are in a bloody shroud,
, And those v/ho waved are shredless dust ere now,

And the bleak battlements shall bear no future blow.' *

* Pratt's Buchan. Twelve Sketches of Scenery and Antiquities, etc., by William
Ferguson of Kinmundy, pp. 51-2.

THE HAYS OF ERROL.

HE Hays are among-st the oldest and most illustrious of the
historic families of Scotland, but their real origin has been
obscured by a fabulous traditionary story which would still
appear to be held for gospel truth in the northern district
of Aberdeenshire, as various allusions were made to it on the banners
and triumphal arches displayed when the eldest son of the present
Earl came of age, as well as in the speeches delivered on that occa-
sion. It Is said that in the reign of Kenneth III., the Danes Invaded
Scotland, and encountered a Scottish army commanded by their
king at Luncarty, near Perth. The battle was long and fiercely
contested, but at length the two wings of the Scottish forces were
compelled to give way. As they were flying from the field, pursued
by the victorious Danes, a husbandman named Hay, who happened,
along with his two sons, to be at work in a neighbouring field, armed
only with the yokes of their ploughs, stationed themselves in a narrow
pass through which the fugitives were hurrying, compelled them to
halt in their flight, restored the battle, and gained a complete
victory. ' Sone after,' says Hector Boece, ' ane counsal was sat at
Scone in the quhilk Hay and his sons were maid nobll and doted
for their singular virtew provin In this field, with sundray lands to
sustane thair estalt. It Is said that he askit fra the King certane
lands Hand betwixt Tay and Arole, and gat als mekll thairof, as ane
falcon flew of ane man's hand or scho llchtit. The falcon flew to ane
tower, four miles fra Dunde, called Rosse, and lichtit on ane stane
quhilk Is yet callit the Falcon Stane, and sa he gat all the lands be-
twixt Tay and Arole, six mills of lenth and four of breld, quhilk
lands are yet Inhabit by his posteritie.' In proof of the truth of this
story an appeal is made to the arms of the Hays— three escutcheons
supported by two peasants, each carrying an ox-yoke on his shoulder.

The Hays of Errol. 3 7 i

with a falcon for the crest. In all probability, however, this story,
which is entirely fabulous, was invented to explain the arms, for
armorial bearings were unknown at the date of the battle of Lun-
carty.

A very ingenious attempt has been made by Mr. Hay Allan,
a gentleman who claims affinity with the Hays, to vindicate the truth
of the story told by Boece, on the alleged authority of a manuscript
history of the family, which, however, does not appear to have been
seen by anyone but himself.

' Mac Garadh,' he says, ' is the ancient name of the Hays. It is
of genuine Gaelic origin, and was given first to the family in allusion
to the celebrated action by which he [the peasant] raised himself
from obscurity. It is very expressive of the circumstances. Its
literal signification is a dike, or barrier, and was given to the ances-
tor of the Hays for his conduct at the battle of Luncarty, where he
stood between the flying Scots and the victorious Danes, like a
wall or barrier of defence. . . . Surnames did not com&into use in
England before the time of the Conqueror, and their introduction
into Scotland was at a date a little subsequent. The name of
Garadh was given to the ancestors of the Hays about one hundred
and fifty-six years before, and had not, therefore, been subsequently
retained by his descendants as an individual designation, but was only
used generally as the name of the whole race, as Clann na Garadh,
and particularly as the patronymic of the chief, who was designated
Mac Mhic Garadh Mor, and Sgithan Deang, the son of the son of
Garadh of the red shields.

* At the time, therefore, of the adoption of surnames, the appella-
tion of Garadh had grown into antiquity, and there were also other
reasons which still more forcibly actuated its neglect. In the reign
of Mac Beath there were two brothers of the direct descendants of
Garadh, and during the troubles of that tyrant's usurpation the
younger, " being right bauld and stalwart of heart," went into Nor-
mandy, where he married the daughter and heiress of one of the
barons of the dukedom.

' Surnames had by this time become partially in use on the
Continent, and on his domiciliation in Normandy the descendant of
Garadh was desirous of adopting a name which should conform to
the language and usage of the country, and at the same time perpet-
uate the memory of his origin. For this purpose he assumed the
name of De la Haye, which is a sufficiently literal translation of

VOL. II. 3 G

372 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

Garadh, the first signifying a hedge or fence, the latter a dike or
barrier.

' In the reign of Malcolm Bean Mor, the son of the first De la
Haye was one of the warriors who accompanied William of Normandy
into England. Some time after the Conquest he made a journey
into Scotland, to visit his uncle, the chief of the Clan na Garadh,
then grown to a very advanced age and without children. During
his visit the old chief died, and there being no other heir, De la Haye
was declared his successor. From this time he abandoned the service
of William, residing wholly in Scotland. The name became heredi-
tary to the descendants of Garadh, and the old appellation dropped
into oblivion.'

Mr. Hay Allan has also given a war-song of the family, which he
says he copied from an old leaf that he found pasted into that history.
Some stanzas, he asserts, are very ancient, and others, he admits, are
quite modern. He has heard scraps of it sung by old people in
Perthshire: And he states that the old war-cry of the Hays was,
' Halen Mac Garadh.'

The song begins in the following manner : —

' Mac Garadh ! Mac Garadh ! red race of the Tay,
Ho ! gather, ho ! gather like hawks to the prey ;
Mac Garadh, Mac Garadh, Mac Garadh, come fast,
The flame 's on the beacon, the horn 's on the blast ;
The standard of Errol unfolds its white breast,
And the falcon of Loncartie stirs in her nest :
Come away^come away — come to the tryste —
Come in, Mac Garadh, from east and from west.'

Then follows the picture of the charge : —

' Mac Garadh is coming ! like stream from the hill,
Mac Garadh is coming, lance, claymore, and bill ;

Like thunder's wild irattle

Is mingled the battle
With cry of the falling and shout of the charge :

The lances are flashing,

The claymores are clashing,
And ringing the arrows on buckler and targe.' *

All this is, no doubt, very interesting, but until this MS. history
of the Hays is produced, and the circumstances in which it was
found are made known, the alleged Celtic origin of the family must
be regarded as a romance, and we must continue to believe that the
Hays are in reality a branch of the Norman family of de Haya.
* See Bridal of Coalchuirn, by James Hay Allan, Esq.

HAYS OF ERROL.

The Hays of Errol. 373

They derive their designation from an estate in Normandy, and their
armorial bearings are the same as those borne by families of the
name in Italy, France, and England. A Sieur de la Haya ac-
companied William the Conqueror to England in 1066. A William
de la Haya, who married a daughter of Ranulph de Soulis, Lord of
Liddesdale, was principal butler to Malcolm IV., about the middle
of the twelfth century, and to his brother, William the Lion, who
bestowed on him the lands of Errol. Sir Gilbert de la Haya
and his brother Hugh, descendants in the fifth generation from this
royal butler, were amongst the first of the Scottish barons to repair
to the standard of Robert Bruce, and were present at his coronation.
Hugh was taken prisoner at the battle of Tippermuir, but Gilbert
made his escape, with Bruce and a small body of his followers, into
the wilds of Athole, and shared in all his subsequent perils and pri-
vations. Hugh must in some way have regained his liberty, for he
fought, along with his brother, at Bannockburn. Sir Gilbert was
created, by King Robert Bruce, High Constable of Scotland —
an office which was made hereditary in his family, and received from
his grateful sovereign a grant of the lands of Slains, in Aberdeen-
shire, which is still the seat of his descendants.

About the middle of the fourteenth century, William de la Haya,
the representative of the house, a zealous supporter of James II.
in his struggle with the Douglases, as a reward for his services
was raised to the peerage by the title of the Earl of Errol, and
received various grants of land In 1446 and 1450. During the
rebellion of that powerful house, which placed the throne of James II.
in imminent peril, the Earl of Errol, in order to conciliate the
people, and to induce them to rally round their sovereign, resigned
his constable fees, which were levied on everything brought to
market while the Estates were sitting, and were the source of large
emoluments to the High Constable. An indemnification was
promised him for this great sacrifice, but was never given.

The successors of Earl William continued for two centuries to
take a prominent part in the wars, and treaties, and other public
affairs connected with the history of the country. William Hay,
fourth Earl, fell at Flodden, fighting by the side of his sovereign.
His son, William, the fifth Earl, was, according to Calderwood, a
man * well learned, both in humanitie and divinitie, and speciallie
Weill versed in the New Testament. He would rehearse word by
word the choicest sentences, speciallie such as served to establish

374 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

solid comfort in the soule by faith in Christ. Much he suffered for
the cause of Christ.' On his death, about 1535, without male issue,
his title, office, and estates devolved upon George Hay, son of the
Hon. Thomas Hay, of Logie Almond, who married Margaret Logie,
heiress of that property. His eldest son, Andrew Hay, who
became seventh Earl, married Lady Jane, only daughter and heiress
of the fifth Earl, and thus united the collateral heir male and the heir
female of line of this ancient family. Like his father. Earl Andrew
was a steady supporter of Queen Mary. His son, Francis, eighth
Earl, was one of the leaders of the Popish faction during the early
years of James VL, and along with the Earls of Huntly, Crawford,
Angus, and Bothwell, took up arms against his sovereign for the
purpose of promoting the interests of the Romish party in Scotland.
[See Douglases, and Campbells of Argyll.] Errol and his fellow-
conspirators repeatedly entered into a treasonable correspondence
with Philip of Spain and the Duke of Parma, with a view to the in-
vasion of the country, and they even levied a powerful force, with
which they defeated, at Glenlivet, 15th October, 1594, the royal
army, commanded by the Earl of Argyll. Errol fled to the Con-
tinent, and was forfeited by the Parliament and excommunicated
by the Church. He was ultimately allowed to return home, was
relieved from his civil and political disabilities, reconciled to the
Court, and received into favour by James VL He seems to have
been always liked by the King, and he was one of the commissioners
nominated by the Parliament, in 1604, to treat of a union between
Scotland and England. ' He was,' says Sir Robert Douglas, ' a truly
noble man, of a great and courageous spirit, who had great troubles
in his time, which he stoutly and honourably carried ; and now in
favour, died in peace with God and man, and a loyal subject to the
King, to the great grief of his friends.' The Earl died at his ances-
tral castle of Slains, i6th July, 1631, and on his deathbed gave direc-
tions that, instead of the costly funeral usual at that day in the case
of great nobles, he should be buried privately in the church of that
place, and that the calculated expense of a showy ' earthing up '
be distributed among the poor on his estate, which was accordingly
done. The Earl was three times married, but left issue only by his
third wife, a daughter of the Earl of Morton, who bore to him three
sons and eight daughters.

His eldest son, William, the ninth Earl, was brought up at Court,

The Hays of Errol. 375

and was educated in the Protestant religion. He was held in special
favour by Charles I., and officiated as Lord High Constable at the
coronation of that sovereign in the abbey of Holyrood in 1633. He
unfortunately lived in such a splendid and extravagant style that he
was obliged to sell his paternal estate of Errol, one of the largest
and finest in the kingdom, which had been in the possession of the
family for four centuries and a half. It is painful to notice the deca-
dence of a family so renowned in the history of our country, brought
about by the spendthrift habits of one of its members. But as Sir
Walter Scott remarked when looking at a farm on the Errol estate,
at one time rented at ;^50o a year, but which had been completely
covered and ruined by a thick coating of sand blown upon it in a
storm, * Misfortune and imprudence more fatal than the sands of
Belhelvie,' have swallowed up the greater part of the once-magni-
ficent estates of the Errol family, of which the poet has said —

'A thousand years have seen it there.'

Gilbert, the tenth Earl, was a staunch Royalist during the
troublous times of the Great Civil War, and raised a regiment at his
own expense for the service of Charles II. ' We do promise,' wrote
that monarch, ' that as soon as it shall please Almighty God to put
an end to the present troubles, the claims of our said cousin, the said
Earl of Errol, shall be favourably considered and justice done, so
that he may see how highly we esteem that ancient family, and the
value we set upon his present services.' But, as usual, the promise
was not kept by * the laughter-loving king, whose word no man
relied on.' On the death of Earl Gilbert without issue, his titles and
estates devolved upon Sir John Hay of Killour, grandson of Sir
George Hay, the younger son of the seventh Earl. His son
Charles, the twelfth Earl, died unmarried in 17 17, and the title, with
its privileges, and honours, and the remnant of the once-extensive
possessions of the family, passed to his elder sister, Lady Mary,
the wife of Alexander Falconer, son of Sir David Falconer, Lord
President of the Court of Session. At the death of the Countess
without issue it was inherited by Lord Boyd, the grandson of his
sister, who married James, fifth Earl of Linlithgow and fourth Earl
of Callandar, to whom she bore an only child, Lady Anne Living-
ston, the wife of the Earl of Kilmarnock. Lord Boyd would have
united in his own person the earldoms of Errol, Kilmarnock, Lin-
lithgow, and Callandar had the three last not been attainted at the

376 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

close of the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. His father, the amiable but
unfortunate Earl of Kilmarnock, when In his twelfth year, had fought
for the Hanoverian dynasty in 1 7 15, but changed sides and joined the
banner of Prince Charles Stewart in 1745. He had been soured by
the illtreatment he had received from the Government in withhold-
ing his pension, and was so miserably poor that he was frequently
obliged to depend upon the hospitality of his friends for a dinner.
His wife, the Countess of Linlithgow and Callandar in her own right,
was a lady of great spirit and wit, and she contributed not a little to
the success of the Highland army at the battle of Falkirk, by detain-
ing General Hawley at Callandar House until the insurgents had
taken up a commanding position on the moor, which enabled them to
engage the royal troops at a great advantage.

The Earl of Kilmarnock was taken prisoner at the battle of Cul-
loden. His second son, the Hon. Charles Boyd, also espoused the
Jacobite cause, but his eldest son fought on the Hanoverian side,*
and the third son was an officer in the Royal Navy. The Earl was
brought to trial, along with the Earl of Cromartie and Lord Bal-
merino, before the House of Lords in Westminster Hall, on the
28th of July, 1746. He pleaded guilty, and when brought before
the court, on the 30th, to receive sentence of death, he urged, as
reasons why clemency should be shown to him, that his family had
constantly supported the Revolution of 1688, and the interests of the
House of Hanover; that his father had shown great zeal and activity
in the cause of the reigning family during the rebellion of 17 15;
and that he himself, though very young, had at that time appeared
in arms on the same side ; and that his eldest son, whom he had
trained in loyal principles, had fought at Culloden in behalf of King
George. No regard, however, was paid to these pleas by the
sovereign or his advisers, and Lord Kilmarnock was beheaded on
Tower Hill, on the i8th of August, 1746. His behaviour on the
scaffold was dignified, firm, and composed. He acknowledged the
justice of his sentence, prayed for the reigning King and his family ;
and when the Deputy-Lieutenant of the Tower, according to an
ancient custom, said, ' God save King George ! ' the Earl answered,
' Amen ! ' knelt calmly on the block, and submitted to the fatal blow.
' His whole behaviour,' says the Rev. Mr. Forster, who attended the

* As the Earl was led along before the royal troops bareheaded, his hat having
fallen off and not been replaced by the soldiers to whom he had surrendered, Lord
Boyd, his son, started from the ranks and placed his own hat on his father's head.
This act of filial affection and reverence produced a deep impression even on the
soldiers who witnessed it, though certainly 'not given to the melting mood.'

The Hays of Errol. 377

Earl on the scaffold, ' was so humble and resigned, that not only his
friends, but every spectator, was deeply moved ; and even the execu-
tioner was deeply moved.'

Lord Kilmarnock was tall and graceful in person, and was pos-
sessed of fine accomplishments ; but in his early days he was careless
and extravagant in his expenditure, ' by which,' as he confessed to
Mr. Forster, ' he had reduced himself to great and pei-plexing diffi-
culties. He was tempted to join the rebellion in the hope that, by
its success, he might retrieve his embarrassed circumstances.'

Lord Kilmarnock's own titles, and the patrimonial estates and titles
of his Countess, were forfeited ; but the remnant of the Errol property,
with the dignities and high privileges of the Hays, descended to
James Hay, the son of this ill-fated pair, who became thirteenth
Earl of Errol. He officiated as High Constable of Scotland at the
coronation of George III. in 1761. Sir Walter Scott represents
' Redgauntlet ' as exclaiming in a burst of indignation at the spec-
tacle, ' Shame of shames ! Yonder the gigantic form of Errol bows
his head before the grandson of his father's murderer.' It is said
that Lord Errol, having accidentally omitted to pull off his cap when
the King entered, made a respectful apology for the omission, but
his Majesty entreated him to be covered, for he looked upon his
presence at the ceremony as a very particular honour. Dr. Samuel
Johnson, on his tour to the Hebrides, visited this nobleman at Slains
Castle, in Aberdeenshire, and Boswell has given a very graphic and
interesting description of the personal appearance, and captivating
manners of the Earl. ' His dignified person and agreeable counte-
nance, with the most unaffected affability,' he says, ' gave me high
satisfaction.' Dr. Beattie, in a letter to Mr. Montagu, says of Lord
Errol, ' His stature was six feet four inches, and his countenance and
deportment exhibited such a mixture of the sublime and the peaceful
as I have never seen united in any other man. He often put me in
mind of an ancient hero, and I remember Dr. Johnson was positive
that he resembled Homer's character of Sarpedon.' Sir William
Forbes adds his testimony to the same effect : ' Were I desired,' he
says, • to specify the man of the most graceful form, the most elegant,
polished, and popular manners which I have ever known in my long
intercourse with society, I should not hesitate to name James, Earl of
Errol. . . . He was a most affectionate and attentive parent, hus-
band, and brother, elegant in his economy, somewhat expensive,
yet exact and methodical. He exerted his influence, as a man of

rank, and a magistrate, in doing good to all in his neighbourhood.
VOL. ir. 3 H

378 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

In a word, he was adored by his servants, a blessing- to his tenants,
and the darling of the whole country.' His death, which took place
in 1778, in the fifty-third year of his age, is spoken of as 'a great loss
to his country, and a matter of unspeakable regret to his friends.'

When Dr. Johnson and Boswell visited Slains Castle, in 1773,
they found living there the Hon. Charles Boyd, the. Earl's brother.
After the ruin of the Jacobite cause at Culloden he fled to the island
of Arran, the ancient possession of the Boyds, where he lay concealed
for a year among its glens and hills. During his residence in Arran
he fortunately found a chest of medical books, left by a surgeon
there, and he occupied himself in his solitude so diligently in study-
ing them as to acquire considerable knowledge of medicine. He
escaped to France, and practised there as a physician for twenty
years. He then returned to Scotland, and lived for some time in
Slains Castle, where he was often consulted by the poor in the
neighbourhood. He died at Edinburgh in 1785.

There is nothing deserving of special notice in the character or
conduct of his successors, two of whom, the fourteenth and fifteenth
earls, were sons of Earl James. They have all been highly respect-
able men, and have discharged in a creditable manner the duties
connected with their position in society. The fourteenth Earl was
an officer in the army. His brother William, the fifteenth Earl,
who assumed the additional surname and arms of Carr, from his
maternal grandfather, Sir William Carr of Etal, Northumberland,
was for several years Lord High Commissioner to the Church of
Scotland. His eldest son, James, Lord Hay, was killed at Waterloo.
William George, sixteenth Earl, married Elizabeth Fitzclarence,
the third of the natural daughters of King William IV., and, probably
in consequence of that connection, was appointed Lord Steward of
the Household, and afterwards Master of the Buckhounds, under the
Whig Ministry of 1830. He was created, in 183 1, a Peer of the
United Kingdom by the title of Baron Kilmarnock, and in the
following year he was constituted Knight-Marischal of Scotland, and
was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire. His son Wil-
liam Henry, present Earl, is the seventeenth who has borne the title,
and the twenty-second Lord High Constable of Scotland. He was
formerly an officer in the army, and was wounded at the battle of the
Alma. In virtue of his office as Lord High Constable, the Earl of
Errol is the first subject in Scotland after the blood royal, and takes
precedence of every other peer.

HAYS OF TWEEDDALE.

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THE HAYS OF TWEEDDALE.

jHE Hays of Tweeddale have attained higher rank and have
figured more ^conspicuously in the history of Scotland
than any other branch of this ancient family. They are
descended from Robert, second son of William de Haya,
who held the office of royal butler to Malcolm IV. and William the
Lion. Sir John de Haya, the grandson of Robert, acquired the
lands of Locherworth (now Borthwick) in Midlothian by marriage
with the heiress of that estate. His son, Sir William de Haya, in
the contest for the Scottish Crown in 1292, was one of the nominees
of Robert Bruce. But like the other Scottish magnates of English
descent, he swore fealty to Edward I. in July of that year, and gave
in his submission to him in 1297, as his son, Sir Gilbert Hay, had
done in the previous year. Sir Gilbert made one of those fortu-
nate marriages for which the Hays were so noted. His wife was
one of the daughters and co-heiresses of Sir Simon Eraser, the
gallant patriot, and the friend and companion of Wallace, who was
executed at London by Edward L, with circumstances of shocking
barbarity. By this marriage the Hays obtained the valuable barony
of Neidpath, and other lands on Tweedside, which remained in their
possession until the year 1686. Sir William de Haya, Sir Gilbert's
grandson, fought under the banner of David IL at the battle of
Durham (17th September, 1346), where he was taken prisoner along
with that monarch. Sir Thomas, his son, was one of the hostages
for King David's liberation, 3rd October, 1357, and seems to have
been detained a good many years in England. In 1385 he received
four hundred of the forty thousand francs which were sent by the
French king with John de Vienne, to be distributed among the most
influential Scottish barons.

380 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

Sir William Hay, son of Sir Thomas, was Sheriff of Peebles-
shire. He married Jean or Joanna, eldest daughter of Sir Hugh
Gifford of Yester, the head of an old famity which settled in Scotland
in the reign of David I., and obtained from that monarch lands in
East Lothian. William the Lion conferred upon him the barony of
Yester. In the course of time the parish which bore that name came
to be popularly called Gifford. His grandson, Hugh Gifford, was one
of the guardians of Alexander III. and his queen. He was regarded
as a skilful magician, and several anecdotes are told of his magical
art, and his control over demons and the powers of nature.
Fordun mentions that in Gifford' s castle there was a capacious
cavern, said to have been formed by magical art, and called in the
country, * Bo- Hall,' that is, Hobgoblin Hall. Sir David Dalrymple,
in his ' Annals,' says, ' A stair of twenty-four steps led down to this
apartment, which is a large and spacious hall, with an arched roof ;
and though it has stood for so many centuries, and been exposed to
the external air for a period of fifty or sixty years, it is still as firm
and entire as if it had only stood a few years. From the floor of
this hall another stair of thirty-six steps leads down to a pit, which
hath a communication with Hope's Water.' This ancient and strong
castle, which stands on an elevated peninsula, near the junction
of two streams, has long been in ruins, though the Goblin Hall was
tenanted by the Marquis of Tweeddale's falconer so late as 1737.
Sir Hugh's appearance and dress are vividly described by Sir
Walter Scott in the third canto of ' Marmion ; ' and of the hall he
says —

' Of lofty roof and ample size,
Beneatfi the castle deep it lies ;
To hew the living rock profound,
The floor to pave, the arch to round,
There never toiled a mortal arm :
It all w^as wrought by word and charm.'

Sir Hugh Gifford' s heiress brought the barony of Yester into the
Tweeddale family, and they quartered the arms of Gifford with their
own.

The church of Yester, of which Sir William obtained the patronage
along with the estate, was originally called St. Bathan's. It was
converted by him into a collegiate establishment for a provost, six
prebendaries, and two choristers ; and in this state it continued
until the Reformation.

Though the Hays were henceforth designated as of Yester, they

The Hays of Tweeddale. 381

still continued to reside at Neidpath Castle, on the banks of the
Tweed, near Peebles. In all probability the newer part of that castle
was built by Sir William in the early part of the fifteenth century.
For the sake of security the walls of the new structure were made
enormously thick and strong ; but a serious mistake was committed
in a military point of view, in allowing the old castle to remain,
for its walls were greatly inferior in strength and thickness to
those of the new part of the fortress, and the old part consequently
formed its vulnerable part as soOn as artillery came into use.*

Sir William took for his second wife, Alice, daughter of Sir
Thomas Hay, of Errol, and had issue by both wives. The first
bore to him three sons and three daughters, the second a son and a
daughter. The eldest son, William, predeceased him ; the second
son, Thomas, was one of the hostages for James I. in 1423, when
his income was estimated at six hundred marks yearly. He sur-
vived his father only four years, and died unmarried in 1432. He
was succeeded by his brother, David, who married the sister of the
first Earl of Angus, and relict of the first Lord Forbes. He obtained
with her the lands of Gliswell and Torbirus.

Father Hay states that there was a double marriage, on the
authority of a document at Hermiston, dated 4th December, 1409, and
of a bond, dated 12th December, 1410, given by the Countess of
Mar for one hundred pounds Scots to Sir William Hay of Loch-
arward, ' because William, Earle of Angus, her sone, married
Margaret Hay, his daughter.' It thus appears that the sister of the
first Earl of Angus married Sir William Hay's son, and the daughter
of Sir William married the Earl of Angus, f

Sir David Hay had by his wife two sons and a daughter. John,
the eldest son, was created a peer by solemn investiture in Parlia-
ment, by the title of Lord Hay of Yester, 29th January, 1487-8.
He married, first, a daughter of Lord Lindsay of the Byres, by
whom he had an only son, John, his successor. He took for his
second wife the daughter and heiress of Sir William Cunningham
of Belton, who bore him two sons and two daughters..

John, second Lord Yester, fell at Flodden in 15 13. His eldest
son, the third Lord, who also was named John, was twice married.

* History of Peeblesshire, by William Chambers, pp. 163, 319.

+ This document, in which the first Earl of Angus is acknowledged by the Countess
of Mar as her son, sets at rest the long-disputed question respecting the origin of the
Angus family. — See The Angus Douglases, i. 71.

382 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

His first wife was Elizabeth Douglas, daughter of the Master of
Angus, and sister of Archibald, sixth Earl of Angus. He took for
his second wife the daughter of John Dickson of Smithfield, with
whom he received that estate. It was inherited by William Hay, the
elder of the two sons whom this lady bore to Lord Yester. He was
the ancestor of the present family of Smithfield and Hairtoune, who
were advanced to the dignity of Baronets of Nova Scotia by
James VI., in 1624.

Jean Hay, the daughter of Lord Yester by the heiress of Smith-
field, married George Broun of Coalstoun, and received as her
dowry the famous enchanted pear, which is still preserved in the
family. {See The Ramsays, i. 314.)

John, fourth Lord Yester, was taken prisoner at the battle of
Pinkie, loth September, 1547, was carried to the Tower of London,
and was not restored to liberty until peace was concluded in the
year 1550. He died in 1557.

John, fifth Lord Yester, was deprived by James V. of his sheriff-
ship in consequence of his brother. Hay of Smithfield, having allowed
a Border freebooter to escape out of prison ; but he appealed to the
Council against this arbitrary act of the King, and was restored in
his office. Though Lord Yester had supported the Reformation,
and was one of the nobles who subscribed the ' Book of Discipline,'
27th January, 1561, he espoused the cause of Queen Mary, was
present with her forces at Carberry Hill in 1567, and fought on her
side at the battle of Langside in 1568. He was one of the noble-
men who, in 1570, signed a letter to the English queen, Elizabeth,
in behalf of Queen Mary, whom Elizabeth had held for three years
in captivity. He died in 1576, leaving two sons and four daughters
by his wife, a daughter of Sir John Kerr of Ferniehirst. The Kers
of Ferniehirst were noted even among the Border clans for their
fierce and sanguinary spirit. Sir John was ' art and part ' in the
murder of Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch, in the High Street of
Edinburgh. The account which De Beaugue gives in his ' Memoirs '
of the cruel treatment of the English garrison, when Sir John, with
the assistance of the French troops under D'Esse, retook his castle
of Ferniehirst in 1549, is shocking in the extreme. Lord Yester's
eldest son and successor —

William, sixth Lord Yester, seems to have inherited the fierce and

The Hays of Tweeddale. 383

turbulent spirit of his maternal ancestors, for he was noted even in
those troublous times for his turbulence and violence. On the 30th
of April, 1585, a complaint was made against him, before the Privy-
Council, by John Livingstone of Belstane, in the parish of Carluke,
on the ground of a violent attack made upon him by Lord Yester,
which put him in peril of his life. One morning, he alleges, he left
his home before sunrise, meaning no harm to anyone, and expecting
none to himself. He was walking out, ' under God's peace and the
King's,' when suddenly he was beset by about forty people, who
had him at feud, 'all bodin in feir of weir; ' namely, armed with
jacks, steel bonnets, spears, lances, staffs, bows, hagbuts, pistolets,
and other invasive weapons forbidden by the laws. At the head of
them was William, Master of Yester (a denounced rebel on account
of his slaughter of the Laird of Yesterhall's servant), Alexander
Jardine, younger, of Applegarth, and a number of other individuals,
all mentioned by name, all of them persons of good position and
influence. Having come for the purpose of attacking Livingstone,
they no sooner saw him than they set upon him with discharge of
their firearms, to deprive him of his life. He narrowly escaped, and
ran back to his house, which they immediately environed in the most
furious manner, firing in at the windows, and through every
aperture, for a space of three hours. A ' bullon ' pierced his hat.
As they departed they met his wife and daughter, whom they
abused shamefully. The perpetrators of these barbarities and violent
deeds were all denounced as rebels by the Privy Council, a sentence
which they seem to have regarded very lightly.

In the following year (October 8th) the Master of Yester is once
more brought before the Council, on a complaint made by Sir John
Stewart of Traquair, and his brother, James Stewart of ShilHnglaw,
lieutenant of his Majesty's guard. They set forth, in the first place,
how it is well known of Sir John Stewart that, ' having his dwelling-
place on the south side of Tweed, in a room [place] subject to the
invasions of the thieves and broken men of the Borders, and lying
betwixt them and sundry his Majesty's true liges, whom commonly
they harry and oppress, have at all times himself, his brother, his
friends and neighbours assisting him, dwelling betwixt the burgh of
Peebles and Gaithopeburn, resistit the stouthreif and oppressions of
the said thieves and broken men^ to the comfort and relief of many
true men, in whilk course they intend, God willing, to continue to
their lives' end.' Of late, however, they declare ' they have been and

VOL. II. 3 I

384 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

is gretumly hindered therein, by reason that William, Master of
Yester, by the causing, direction, at least owersight and tolerance,
of William Lord Hay of Yester, his father, sheriff of Peebles and
provost of the burgh of Peebles (wha by the laws of this realme
aucht to mak his said son answerable,' but had ' placit him in the
principal house and strength of Neidpath,' though he had been
denounced rebel for nearly the space of a year * for his inobedience
to underlie the laws ' till within the last few days that he obtained
relaxation) . . . had in the meantime ' not only usurpit, and taken on
him the charge of the sheriffship of Peebles, and provostry of the
burgh thereof, but ane absolute command to proclaim and hold
wappinshawings* at times na wise appointit by his hieness' direction,
to banish and give up kindness to all persons, in burgh or land, where
he pleases, to tak up men's gear under pretence of unlaws fra wap-
pinshawings or other unnecessar causings, never being' lawfully
callit nor convenit ; . . . and forder it is well knawn to sundry of
the lords of Secret Council that the said Master sought the life of
the said James Stewart, and daily shores and boasts [threatens and
vaunts] to slay him and all others of his kin, friends, allies,
assisters, and partakers.' On the petition of the complainers, the
Council heard parties, the peccant Master appearing for himself
and in excuse for his father, who was sick and unable to travel. The
case was remitted to the judgment of the Court of Session, to be
decided by them as they might think proper. Meanwhile the Master
was enjoined to desist from molesting the Stewarts and their friends
and dependents between this and the 8th of January next.

On the 20th April, 1587, it is stated that the King had dealt with
these hostile parties, and had arranged letters of affirmance between
them, in order to secure peace for the future ; but the Master of
Yester had refused to subscribe. For his refractory behaviour he
was threatened with being denounced a rebel. On the 12th of May
the King ordered him to enter in ward north of the Tay, and there
remain till liberated ; and a few weeks later, on this order not being
complied with, the Master was denounced rebel, and all persons were
forbidden to assist or receive him.

It was shortly after this fruitless effort to heal the feud between
the Hays and Stewarts that King James made his memorable attempt
to induce the whole nobility, convened for the purpose at Edinburgh,

* Meetings of the male inhabitants for the exhibition of their weapons, which they
were required by statute to provide.

The Hays of Tweeddale. 385

to bury in oblivion their mutual animosities, and to promise that
they would henceforth live tog-ether in amity. After a banquet at
Holyrood, they were made to march in procession hand-in-hand to
the Cross of Edinburgh, and there, in the presence of the King and
a great concourse of the citizens, to drink to each other, and to
pledge their faith that they would be friends. The Master of Yester
alone declined to comply with the King's earnest request, and refused
to be reconciled to Stewart of Traquair. He was committed to the
castle for his contumacy, and after a few months' imprisonment he
at last yielded. The whole circumstances connected with this affair
throw great light both on the character of the Scottish nobility of
that day, and on the lawless state of the country, when the son of a
peer of the realm, and the sheriff of the county, robbed the people of
their goods under the pretext that they had refused to attend meet-
ings illegally convened by his own authority.

It is a curious and instructive fact that Father Hay, in his ' Gene-
alogie of the Hays of Tweeddale,' written a century later, precisely
reverses the character and objects of this quarrel. The Master of
Yester, whose nickname it seems was Wood-sword, is described by
him as a vigorous supporter of the laws, and a scourge of the thieves
and broken men who infested the Borders ; while the Stewarts of
Traquair were their friends and protectors. The Master, he affirms,
captured and hanged a great number of them, and in pursuing them
received a wound in the face. Father Hay admits that the Master
was at feud with the house of Traquair, but asserts that it was because
they 'seconded' the moss-troopers. 'King James VI.,' he con-
tinues, ' being desirous to have this feud taken away, as all others of
the country, and he refusing was committed to the castle of Edin-
burgh, out of which he made his escape, and immediately made some
new inroad against the thieves, of whom he killed a great many, in
a place called from thence the Bloody Haugh, near Riskinhope, in
Rodonna ; whereupon King James was pleased to make a hunting
journey, and came to the house of Neidpath, whither the King called
Traquair, with his two sons, who made to Lord Yester acknowledg-
ment for the wrong they had done him, and thus peace was made by
the King. This was witnessed by one William Geddes, who was
my lord's butler, and lived till the year 1632.'*

This account of the cause of the feud between these two powerful
Border families is no doubt in accordance with the version of it which
* Geneaiogie of the Hays of Tweeddale, p. 25.

386 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

was traditionary among the Hays, but it is unfortunately at variance
with the judicial records of the country. It is not improbable, how-
ever, that the reconciliation, which was undoubtedl)'' effected by the
King, took place at Neidpath.

Lord Yester was one of the nobles engaged in the Raid of Ruthven
in 1582, and was in consequence obliged to take refuge in the Low
Countries. He returned in 1585, and died in 1591, leaving six
daughters, but no son, by his wife, a daughter of Lord Herries. He
was succeeded by his brother —

James, seventh Lord Yester, who obtained from James VL a char-
ter to him and to his heirs male of the lordship and barony of Yester,
containing a new creation. The charter is dated 1591, but it had
not passed the seals when his brother died, and Father Hay asserts
the Chancellor Maitland extorted from Lord Yester the superiority
of Lethington, and the lands of Haystoun, near Haddington, before
he would pass it.* Lord Yester resided at Neidpath Castle like his
predecessors. At this time his wife — Lady Margaret Kerr, a
daughter of the Earl of Lothian — had brought him no family, and
his presumptive heir was his second cousin. Hay of Smithfield. In
connection with this state of matters, a singular incident occurred —
a public judicial combat on Edston-haugh, on the north bank of the
Tweed, near Neidpath — the last of the kind in Scotland.

Lord Yester had for his page one George Hepburn, brother of
the parson of Oldhamstocks, in East Lothian. His master of the
horse was John Brown of Hartree. One day Brown, in conversation
with Hepburn, remarked, 'Your father had good knowledge of
physic ; I think you should have some also.' ' What mean ye by
that ? ' said Hepburn. ' You might have great advantage of some-
thing,' answered Brown. On being further questioned, the latter
stated that, seeing Lord Yester had no children, and Hay of Smith-
field came next in the entail, it was only necessary to give the
former a suitable dose to make the latter Lord Yester. ' If you,'
continued Brown, ' could give him some poison, you should be
nobly rewarded, you and yours.' ' Methinks that were no good
physic,' quoth Hepburn, drily, and soon after revealed the pro-
ject to his lord. Brown, on being taxed with it, stood stoutly on
his denial. Hepburn strongly insisted that the proposal had been
made to him. In these circumstances it was resolved that a pas-

* Genealogie of the Hays of Tweeddale, p. 26.

The Hays of Tweeddale. 387

sage of arms should be held between the two, in order to determine
the dispute.

' The two combatants were to fight in their doublets, mounted,
with spears and swords. Some of the greatest men in the country
took part in the affair, and honoured it with their presence. The
Laird of Buccleuch appeared as judge for Brown ; Hepburn had on
his part the Laird of Cessford. The Lords Yester and Newbottle
were amongst those officiating. When all was ready, the two com-
batants rode full tilt against each other with their spears, when Brown
missed Hepburn, and was thrown from his horse, with his adversary's
weapon through his body. Having grazed his thigh in the charge,
Hepburn did not immediately follow up his advantage, but suffered
Brown to lie unharmed on the ground. ' Fy ! ' cried one of the
judges ; ' alight, and take amends of thy enemy ! ' He then
advanced on foot, with his sword in his hand, to Brown, and com-
manded him to confess the truth. ' Stay,' cried Brown, ' till I draw
the broken spear out of my body.' This being done, Brown
suddenly drew his sword and struck at Hepburn, who for some time
was content to ward off his blows, but at last dealt him a backward
wipe across the face, when the wretched man, blinded with blood,
fell to the ground. The judges then interposed to prevent him being
further punished by Hepburn, but he resolutely refused to make
any confession.*

Lord Yester, after this incident, had by Lady Margaret, ' who was
ane active woman, and did mutch for the standing of the familie,'
three sons and a daughter — John, his successor ; William, who was
the ancestor of the Hays of Linplum ; and Robert, who died young.
It was this Lady Yester who in her widowhood erected the church in
Edinburgh which bears and perpetuates her name.

John, eighth Lord Yester, and first Earl of Tweeddale, was noted for
his sagacity and active business habits. He took a prominent part
in resisting the attempts of James VL and Charles I. to alter and
injure the constitution of the Presbyterian Church. He opposed the
Five Articles of Perth, which were most obnoxious to the people of
Scotland, and voted against them in the Parliament of 152 1. He
was equally hostile to the Act passed in 1633, for regulating the
apparel of ecclesiastics, which he saw was intended to prepare the way
for further and more offensive innovations — a step which made the
* Domestic Annals of Scotland, i. 264-5. Genealogie of the Hays of Tweeddale, p. 26.

388 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

King withhold from him at that time the dignity of an earl. He took
part, also, in the resistance which was made in 1637 to the introduc-
tion of the new liturgy framed by Charles. When the Covenanters
took up arms in 1639, in defence of their rights and liberties, Lord
Yester was appointed to the command of one of the regiments in the
Scottish army. On the breaking out of the second war, Lord Yester
accompanied the forces under General Leslie in their march into
England, and was present at the siege of Newcastle, but refused to
accept of any command. Lord Yester was raised to the rank of Earl
of Tweeddale by King Charles when he sought refuge in the' Scottish
camp in 1646. The pecuniary embarrassments which proved so
troublesome to his son and successor, and so injurious to the family
estates, were caused by the improvidence of this Earl, and the obliga-
tions which he undertook for his nephew, the Earl of Dunfermline,
'a young man,' says Father Hay, 'much inclined to all sorts of gaming,
and careless of his business.' Lord Yester' s mother had contracted a
second marriage with the Master of Jedburgh, ' with whom her sone
was necessitated to enter into a treatie and composition for payment
of fortie thousand merks in money, and ane annuity of eight
thousand merks by year, which, with the burthens of the family,
which were not small, and debts contracted by himself in his travels
abroad, and courtship at home, he was necessitat to sell the barony
of Swed in the sheriffdome of Dumfreese, which came in by the
Cunninghams ; with Beltoun, and the barony of Arthearmoor,
reserving only the superiority.' He purchased the barony of
Drumelzier, an ancient possession of the Tweedies, on which he
had heavy mortgages, and assigned it to his second son, Lord
William Hay. From him it passed by inheritance to the Hays of
Dunse Castle, with whom it remained till disposed of in 1 83 1 .

In the latter years of Lord Tweeddale, when enfeebled by illness,
the honour of the family was sustained by his eldest son. Lord
Yester, who fortified his castle of Neidpath against the forces of the
Commonwealth, when Cromwell invaded Scotland. A detachment
of troops, probably commanded by Major-General Lambert,
besieged Neidpath, and by battering down the old peel, which was
attached to the fortress, and was its weakest part, compelled the
garrison to surrender.

The Earl was twice married, first to Lady Jane Seton, daughter
of the first Earl of Dunfermline, his brother-in-law, by whom he
had one son, John ; and secondly, to Lady Margaret Montgomery,

The Hays of Tweeddale. 389

eldest daughter of the sixth Earl of Eglintoun, who bore to him four
sons and three daughters, but they all died in childhood, except
one son, William. The Earl was present at the coronation of
Charles II. in 1650, and survived till 1654.

John, second Earl of Tweeddale, was born in 1626. He spent
his early years in London, with his relatives, the Earls of Rothes
and Dunfermline, and when only sixteen years of age he repaired
to the standard of Charles I., raised at Nottingham, at the com-
mencement of the Great Civil War. His father, however, at this
juncture carried him to Scotland, and in the following year he
was appointed to the command of a regiment in the army levied
by the Covenanters for the assistance of the Parliament in the
contest with the King. He took part in the battle of Marston
Moor, which was so fatal to the royal cause. But after the designs
of the Republicans became apparent, Lord Tweeddale withdrew
from their party, and waited on the King when he took refuge
in the Scottish camp at Newcastle. He joined the army of the
' Engagement' raised for his rescue, and fought at Preston in 1648
at the head of the East Lothian Regiment, twelve hundred strong.
More fortunate than most of the other leaders in that ill-devised and
badly managed enterprise, he made his escape when the troops in
the town were compelled to surrender, and returned in safety to
Scotland. He attended Charles II. when he came from the Conti-
nent for the purpose of vindicating his claim to the throne of his
ancestors, and was present at his coronation in 1657. The Earl does
not appear, however, to have been appointed to any command in the
forces under General Leslie, and did not accompany them in their
march into England, which terminated so disastrously at Worcester.
When all opposition to the sway of Cromwell had ceased, 'the
usurpers,' as Father Hay says, 'being absolut masters of the
countrey, he was necessitat to live under their protection, having a
numerous family of childring, as all others at that time did who were
not prisoners.' His lordship, however, yielded something more than
mere passive obedience to the Commonwealth, for he consented,
in 1655, to represent the county of East Lothian in Cromwell's
Parliament.

The relations in which Lord Tweeddale stood to the Protector are
made apparent by the following letter which appeared in No. 2 of
the Public Intelligencer, a newspaper published at the time in London.

3 go The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

It was, according ro the heading, written ' by the Lord Tweeddale,
a Scottish Lord, to his Highness, upoii occasion of a pamphlet that
was published a while since, wherein the said Tweeddale' s name was
mentioned, which pamphlet was entituled, " A Short Discovery of his
Highness the Lord Protector's intentions touching the Anabaptists
in the Army," upon which there are thirty-five queries propounded
for his Highness to answer : ' —

' May it please your Highness,
' Amongst the bad accidents of my life (as who will excuse him-
self) I count it not a small one, that my name is used to a Forgery,
wherein many bitter expressions is cast upon your Highness, and
the present Government ; and though God has raised your thoughts
above the consideratione of such, that possibly it neither has nor
should come to your knowledge, bot for my boldness in the way I
take to vindicate myself, and bear testimony against such an untruth
as is contained in a printed paper relating to a discourse of your
Highness to me, the falsehood of the thing being sufficiently known
to your Highness. All I say for myself is, that if I had been a
persone to whom your Highness had communicat any purpose of
importance in reference to the Government, I wold not have been so
unworthy of your favour as to have divulged it without your High-
ness' order of licens, much less to the prejudice of the peace and
quiet of the people, or fomenting the jealousies of any. I beseech
your Highness to give this charity to my discretione ; a good con-
sciens I desire to keep towards all men, and likewise excuse the
presumption of

' Your Highness' most dutiful and humble servant,

' Tweeddale.'

Lord Tweeddale had succeeded his father in the previous year.
He had been reduced to great straits in consequence of his having
become security for the debts of his uncle, the Earl of Dunfermline.
' He was forced sometimes to flee his house, and for the most part
necessitat to stay att Edinburgh to keep his credit, most of the
estate being wadsett [mortgaged] and comprisd ; and he, haveing
only his relief out of Dunfermlyn's, was forced to have led compris-
ings, and used all other diligence against it, which occasioned the
Earle of Kalendar to enter into a treatie with him for dividing the
debt, and the relief, which continued till 1654, that his father died.' *

* Genealogie of the Hays of Tweeddale, pp. 30-1.

The Hays of Tweeddale. 391

At a later period these responsibilities brought upon the Earl no
little trouble and pecuniary loss.

At the Restoration, Lord Tweeddale, who was at that time in
London, waited upon Charles II. as soon as he arrived in England,
and was cordially received by him. The King ' was pleased,' says
Father Hay, ' as a mark of his favour to change the holding of the
greatest part of his estate from ward to blench, and to name him one
of his Privy Council.'

But Lord Tweeddale's loyalty was entirely free from that mingled
fawning upon the King and violence against the Covenanters, which
was exhibited by the courtiers of that day ; and in the Parliament of
1 66 1 he stood alone in opposing the passing the sentence of death
upon the Rev. James Guthrie of Stirling, for having declined the
authority of the King in ecclesiastical affairs. It is alleged that some
remarks which he made were misrepresented to the King by Middle-
ton, and he was in consequence (September 14th) committed a
prisoner, by royal warrant, to the castle of Edinburgh. He was
liberated, however, on the 4th of October, on giving security to the
amount of ^10,000 Scots that he would appear when called upon ;
but was required to confine himself for six months to his own house.
In some unknown way, probably through his insinuating address,
when the Earl repaired to Court, he was again received into royal
favour, and in 1666 was appointed one of the Extraordinary Lords of
Session. In the following year he was nominated one of the
Commissioners of the Treasury, and in i658 became a member of
the English Privy Council. He was a strenuous advocate of milder
measures with the Covenanters, and employed his influence with the
King in favour of the Indulgence which was issued in 1669, granting
permission, under certain conditions, to the ejected Presbyterian
ministers to exercise the functions of their office. He held interviews
with some of these ministers, in order to ascertain whether some
terms of accommodation could not be framed which they could
accept. With the assistance of Sir Robert Murray, the Earl suc-
ceeded in putting the public finances on a satisfactory footing, and
in paying off the old debts which the King had contracted in Scot-
land. It was through Tweeddale's influence also that, after the sup-
pression of the Pentland rising, the standing army was reduced to a
small reserve force, greatly to the dissatisfaction of the prelates, as
well as of the military officers.

The success of these measures and the popularity which they gained

VOL. ir. 3 k:

392 The Great Historic Families 0/ Scotland.

■ for the Earl roused the jealousy of Lauderdale, who was President
of the Council and First Commissioner of the Treasury, and his alien-
ation was manifested by his underhand efforts to defeat the project
which Tweeddalehad formed to bring about a union of the two king-
doms. He also changed the destination of his estates, which had
been settled upon his only child, who had married the Earl of
Tweeddale's son, and were to descend to the second son of that
marriage. At this time Lauderdale's wife died, and six weeks after
her death he married the notorious Countess of Dysart, who, to
serve her own purposes, induced him to quarrel with his best friends.
Among others. Lord Tweeddale was dismissed from all his ofifices,
and was even deprived of his seat in the Privy Council. Lauder-
dale's enmity induced him to stir up the Duke and Duchess of Buc-
cleuch and Monmouth to commence a suit for a reduction of the
settlement made with them by the Earl, with consent of their curators,
and ratified by a decreet of the Lords, in connection with the Buc-
cleuch estates, which were entailed upon Lady Tweeddale, a sister
of Earl Francis, failing heirs of the Earl's own body. The King had
bound himself as administrator for his son, the Duke of Monmouth,
for the fulfilment of this contract. Notwithstanding, Lauderdale in-
duced the Court to set aside this deed, and thus deprived his former
friend of ^4,000 sterling.

This injustice, Father Hay says, with the expense of three or four
journeys to Court, and of two lawsuits, inflicted great loss on the
Earl, ' so that the Duke of Lauderdale may be justly said to have
robbed the family of any benefit it had by his daughter's tocher.'
He contrived also to deprive Tweeddale of the teinds of Pinkie, and
to compel the Earl to repay him ;^ 1,000 sterling for the sums
which he had received from them.

On the downfall of Lauderdale, in 1680, the Earl was restored to
his office of Commissioner of the Treasury, and was readmitted a
member of the Privy Council. He was continued in these offices by
James VIL, though he was well known to be averse to all measures
of persecution. He was still harassed by the debts which he had
incurred on account of his cautionary obligations for the Earl of
Dunfermline, who seems to have been completely bankrupt. There
is a curious printed document in the possession of the Marquis of
Tweeddale, giving a full account of ' the particular debts wherein
the deceased Earl of Tweeddale was engaged for Charles Earl of
Dunfermline, and which John, now Earl of Tweeddale, present Lord

The Hays of Ttveeddale. 393

Chancellor, was obliged and necessitat to pay for preventing the
ruine of his own family and fortune : With a distinct account what
whereof was payed by intermission with the rents of Dunfermline's
estate, or by the sale of lands or other wayes ; and how much bal-
lance is yet resting to the Earl of Tweeddale of these debts.' It
appears from this detailed and minute account that the original
amount due by the Earl of Dunfermline in 1 650, for which the Earl
of Tweeddale was responsible, was ^76,808 3^. <^d. Scots, to which
had to be added ^10,865 ^s. 8d. for interest and sheriffs' fees. The
sale of lands belonging to Lord Dunfermline, and the purchase from
him of the estate of Pinkie, at one time considerably reduced the
amount of the debt, but it mounted up again until, at Whitsunday,
1 69 1, there was due of principal and interest the sum of about
;^ 24, 2 20 sterling, exclusive of the sheriffs' fees, which amounted to
;^i22 55. sterling. It was further alleged that ' albeit the Earl of
Tweeddale paid to the Earl of Dunfermline a very great and exor-
bitant price for the lands of Pinkie and the teinds thereof,' the Duke
of Lauderdale succeeded in obtaining a decreet of eviction of these
teinds before the Court of Session, and repayment of the sums which
Lord Tweeddale had received from them, and that amount, together
with the rent of the teinds for four years, during which they were
possessed by Lauderdale, making in all upwards of ;^i, 513 lost to
Tweeddale, besides the loss entailed upon him by the failure of
tenants and ' the bad payment of teinds and feu duties,' estimated at
;^ 166. It was stated in conclusion that ' the yearly rent of the estate
which belonged to Dunfermline, and is now possessed by the Earl of
Tweeddale, does not come near the interest of the ballance which is
due. . . . And upon the whole matter it is clearly evident how
great a loser the Earl of Tweeddale hath been, and is like still to be,
of these debts which he is necessitat to pay for the Earl of Dunferm-
line, and whereof he can expect no adequate relief.'

Reference is made in this document to the sale of the Earl of
Tweeddale's 'whole interest in the shire of Tweeddale,' for the
purpose of paying the Earl of Dunfermline's debts. It is mentioned
that the Tweeddale estate at that time yielded upwards of ^1,300
sterling of yearly rent, and that it was sold at twenty years' purchase.
It appears, however, that the obligations under which the Earl had
come for his kinsman were not the only cause of his embarrassments,
for we learn on the same authority that he had an unfortunate taste
for buying land beyond his means of payment. ' The Earle of Tweed-

394 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

dale, haveing purchased the baronies of Linton and Newland, and
contracting considerable debts for them, neare ^10,000 sterling,
which, with the old debts of the familie, and cautionrie for the Earle
of Dunfermlyne, brought his debts to so immense a soume as att
Whitsundey, 1686, he was necessitat to sell his whole estate and
interest in Tweeddale to the Duke of Queensberry for about ^280,000
pounds' [Scots], a sum equal to ^23,333 6^. ^d. sterling. The sale
of this fine estate, which is now worth ;^ 14,3 15 a year, brought to a
close the connection of the Tweeddale family with Peeblesshire, which
had lasted for nearly four hundred years.

The Earl of Tweeddale cordially concurred in the resolution adopted
by the Convocation at the Revolution of 1 688, that King James had
forfeited the Crown, and that it ought to be offered to William and
Mary. He was sworn a Privy Councillor 18th May, 1689. On the
7th of December following he was nominated one of the Lords of
the Treasury, and on 5th January, 1692, he was appointed High
Chancellor of Scotland. On 17th December, 1694, he was created
Marquis of Tweeddale, Earl of Giffbrd, Viscount Walden, and Lord
Hay of Yester. In a very critical state of public affairs, when
inquiry had to be made into the massacre of Glencoe, the Marquis
of Tweeddale was selected for the office of Lord High Commissioner
to the Parliament which met at Edinburgh in 1695. In connection
with that appointment of the Chancellor ' to sit on the throne and
hold the sceptre,' Lord Macaulay says ' he was a man grown old in
business, well informed, prudent, humane, blameless in private life,
and on the whole as respectable as any Scottish lord who had been
long and deeply concerned in the politics of those troubled times.' *
He discharged the delicate and difficult duties of his office with
great prudence and impartiality. He was a member of the Com-
mission appointed by King William to examine fully the whole cir-
cumstances of the massacre, and the report — in all probability his
production — which they prepared and laid before Parliament, has
been justly pronounced highly creditable to those who framed it :
an excellent digest of evidence, clear, passionless, and austerely
just.f

But Lord Tweeddale was too patriotic to retain long the favour of

a sovereign who knew little of Scotland, and regarded its welfare as a

matter of secondary importance. When William Paterson projected

a Scottish company for trading to Africa and the Indies, the High

* History, iv. 571. f Ibid, iv. 574.

The Hays of Tweeddale. 395

Commissioner gave the royal sanction to the Act by which it was
established (26th June, 1695), in accordance with the unanimous
wish of the legislature, which it was impossible forhim to resist ; and
it was admitted even by Lord Macaulay, who strongly condemns the
scheme, that the policy of the ' shrewd, cautious old politician,' was
for the moment eminently successful, and soothed into good humour
the Parliament which met burning with indignation. But when the
English East India Company and Parliament were thrown into a
frenzy of alarm by the Darien project, and both Houses addressed
the Crown, complaining of the injury which would be inflicted on
English commerce by this new Scottish corporation, William is
reported to have said ' that he had been ill served in Scotland ; but
he hoped that some remedies might be found to prevent the incon-
veniences that might arise from this Act.' His Majesty showed
his displeasure by immediately dismissing the Chancellor and the
two secretaries from office.

Lord Tweeddale spent large sums of money in improving his
estates, and he greatly enlarged and embellished the castle of
Neidpath, the ancient residence of his family. He died in 1697, in
the seventy-first year of his age, having had by his wife, daughter of
the first Earl of Buccleuch, seven sons and two daughters. One of
the latter became Countess of Roxburgh, the other wasthe Countess
of March. Of his sons, two — the second and fourth — died young.
David, the third, was the ancestor of the Hays of Belton ; Alex-
ander, the fifth, of the Hays of Spot. The eldest son —

John, who was born in 1645, became second Marquis of Tweed-
dale. Father Hay gives a very naive account of the manner in
which he became the son-in-law of the potent minister of Charles II.
' Whilst Lord Yester,' he says, ' was going to France, he was
engaged by the Earle of Lauderdale, and the means of Sir Robert
Murray, to stop his journey, the plague being then in London, and
to stay till he should be out of danger of abideing in France in
quarantine ; and in the meantime he was advised to writt to his
father for his allowance to become a suitter to my Lord Lauder-
dale's daughter, upon whom his whole estate was entailed. The
Duke of Lauderdale, being the sole Secretarie and Gentleman of the
Bedchamber to the King, and in greatest favour at Court, and
showing to the youth his esteem and so great a passion and affection
that he could deny him nothing, and underhand employing Yester' s

396 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

friends and acquaintances, to compass a conclusion, the Lord
Yester complied easily, and first allowed Sir Robert Murray to writt,
and then writt himself, so that his father and mother were at length
persuaded to condescend to the stop of his journey, and follow the
youth's inclination in that particular, every one representing- that it
was the greatest opportunity a man could wish of making a fortune,
Lauderdale being a courteour, and Yester, by that means, in a way
to share and become a partner of all his places and employments.
Those weighty thoughts of makeing an assured fortune engadged
Yester to press his father to come to London, and treat of the con-
ditions. They were concluded with great advantage, if they had
been kept by Lauderdale, and if he had not wronged the fortune and
familie, and diffrauded his daughter and their childring of their
right by the contract of marriage, some part whereof is yet sub
judice. Lauderdale did then often profess that he was so well
satisfied to have my Lord Yester for his goode sone, that he did
absolutely forget that ever he had a sone to succeed him, and
that the loss of his son was abundantly made up by this alliance.*
So the marriage was made publick, and the King delivered the
bride.'

Lauderdale continued on the most friendly terms with his son-in-
law and daughter until Lady Dysart obtained a complete ascen-
dancy over him, and set herself, only too successfully, to alienate the
savage old persecutor from his own family. It was no doubt at
her instigation that, when his first wife was on her death-bed in
France, he obtained a warrant from the French king to seize her
jewels and plate. ' Not satisfied therewith, he was no sooner arrived
in Scotland than he sent his daughter and Yester a summons to
hear and see it found by the Lords of Session that all my Lady
Lauderdale's plate and Jewells, which he had seased by warrand,
were exhausted by debts. This summons occasioned so much grief
and trouble to his daughter, that she contracted thereby a
melancholy, whereof she never recovered.' So bitter was the enmity
of this rapacious Duchess to her husband's son-in-law, that, no doubt
through her means, he dismissed him from the Council, and deprived
him of the command of the East Lothian militia regiment. Dis-
heartened by this unworthy and unnatural treatment. Lord Yester
travelled in France and Italy for two years, but on his return ' he

* It is evident from this statement that the Duke of Lauderdale must have had a
son, who died in infancy, but no mention is made of this child by peerage writers.

The Hays of Tweeddale. 397

found Lauderdale as badly disposed against him as before, and so
continued till the day of his death, which happened anno 1681.' *

After the sinister influence of Lauderdale was at an end, Lord
Yester was restored, in 1683, to his seat in the Council, and in
the descent upon Scotland by the Earl of Argyll in 1685, he was
appointed to the command of the regiment raised in East Lothian to
assist in the suppression of the rebellion. Like his father, he cor-
dially concurred in the Revolution of 1688. He was sworn a privy
councillor of the new sovereigns, and appointed Sheriff of East
Lothian. In the Parliament of 1695, of which his father was Lord
High Commissioner, Lord Yester sat and voted as High Treasurer
of Scotland. He succeeded to the family titles and estates in 1697,
and was continued a member of the Privy Council by Queen Anne
in 1702. Prior to the opening of the parliamentary session of 1703,
the Marquis of Tweeddale and the Duke of Hamilton, accompanied
by the Earls of Marischal and Rothes, made a personal application
to her Majesty for the dissolution of the Parliament, which was vir-
tually the Convention of Estates that had framed the Revolution
settlement. They contended that by the fundamental laws and con-
stitution of the kingdom ' all parliaments do dissolve by the death
of the king or queen.' Anne, however, issued a proclamation for
the assembling of Parliament in the usual manner. When it met,
Hamilton and Tweeddale protested against anything that might be
done by it, and left the meeting, followed by about eighty of their
adherents. The Court, though very angry at this step, felt it neces-
sary to give way, as the country party not only disputed the authority
of the ' Rump,' as the remnant were termed, but began to refuse
payment of the taxes which they imposed. A new Parliament was
accordingly summoned, in v\ hich a strong party, led by the Marquis
of Tweeddale, who were hostile to the proposed union of the two
kingdoms, insisted on indemnification for the losses sustained by the
Darien expedition, and on the punishment of the authors and agents
in the massacre of Glencoe. The Marquis was appointed Lord High
Commissioner to the Parliament, which, 5th August, 1704, passed
the famous ' Act for the Security of the Kingdom.' On the 17th of
October, the same year, he was appointed to the office held by his
father, that of High Chancellor of Scotland, in the room of the Earl
of Seafield, but on a change of Ministry he was displaced, on the 9th
of March, 1705, and Seafield was reinstated in his office. In the
* Genealogie of the Hays of Tweeddale, p. 38.

398 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

Parliament which passed the Treaty of Union the Marquis of Tweed-
dale was the head of a party who held a middle position between
the supporters of the Government and the Jacobites. Occupying an
independent position, they did not adhere steadily to either party,
but shifted from side to side according to circumstances. Hence
they were termed by the Jacobites the ' Squadrone Volante,' or
flying squadron. The intrigues that were carried on at this time in
the Scottish Parliament, at the last stage of its existence, were end-
less, and by no means creditable either to the integrity, or the
patriotism of the great body of the members. The leader of the
' Squadrone Volante,' however, was too sagacious to accede to the
proposal of the Jacobites that he should unite with them against
the Court. He declared that the object for which his followers had
been formed — to mediate between the contending parties in Par-
liament, and to support only those measures which were likely to
be most beneficial to the country — made it impossible for him to
co-operate with the enemies of the Revolution settlement. The
Marquis and his 'squadron,' therefore, supported the Union, which
without their aid could not have been carried. He was one of the
sixteen Scottish peers chosen to represent the nobility in the British
Parliament in 1707. He died at Yester, 20th April, 1713, in the
sixty-first year of his age.

Mackay, in his curious contemporary work entitled ' Memoirs,'
describes Lord Tweeddale as ' a great encourager and promoter of
trade and the welfare of his country.' ' He hath good sense,' he
adds, ' is very modest, much a man of honour, and hot when
piqued ; is highly esteemed in his country, and may make a con-
siderable figure in it now. He is a short, brown man towards
sixty years old.' Scott of Satchells, in his dedication to the
Marquis of his ' History of the House of Scott,' compliments him
on his poetical abilities. He is the author of the original song
entitled ' Tweedside,' which must have been written at Neidpath
before 1697.

Notwithstanding the dilapidation of the Duke of Lauderdale's
property by his rapacious duchess, and the jeremiad of Father Hay
over the manner in which the Duke ' robbed the family of any benefit
of his daughter's tocher,' it appears that her husband inherited of
the Lauderdale estates the barony of Steads, comprising the farms
of Snowdon, Carfrae, and Danskine, which still belong to the
family, though this was a small portion compared with the pro-

The Hays of Tweeddale. 399

perty which might have been expected with the lady who, at the
time of her marriage, was reputed the greatest heiress of her day
in Scotland.

The Marquis had three sons by Lady Anne Maitland, and two
daughters. The eldest son, Charles, succeeded him. The second.
Lord John Hay, a distinguished military officer, was colonel of the
Royal Scots Greys, fought at the battle of Ramilies, and attained
the rank of brigadier-general. The grandson of Lord William, the
third son, became seventh Marquis of Tweeddale.

Charles, third Marquis, was appointed, in 17 14, President of the
Court of Police, and Lord-Lieutenant of Haddingtonshire. He was
chosen one of the sixteen representative peers, 3rd March, 17 15, and
died on the 17th of December following. He married Lady Susan
Hamilton, second daughter of the Duke of Hamilton, and by her
had four sons and four daughters. The third son, Lord Charles
Hay, entered the army, served at the siege of Gibraltar, and fought
at Fontenoy, where he was wounded. He was appointed aide-de-
camp to the King in March, 1749, and major-general in February,
1757- Three months after receiving this promotion he was sent out
to America as second in command under General Hopson. The
Earl of Loudon, commander-in-chief there, was a weak and irresolute
man. He had eleven thousand soldiers under him, supported by
thirty-three ships of war and ten thousand two hundred seamen, with
whom he was to undertake an expedition against Louisberg. But
on receiving some exaggerated reports of the French force, he lost
heart and gave orders to retreat. ' He is like St. George upon the
sign-posts,' said a Philadelphian to Dr. Franklin, ' always on horse-
back but never advances.' When Lord Charles Hay arrived at
Halifax, he found the incapable commander idly amusing himself by
employing the powerful force entrusted to him in a series of sham
fights, instead of active operations against the enemy. The indig-
nation of Lord Charles was so roused at such misconduct, that he
could not refrain from expressing his dissatisfaction with the want of
spirit displayed by his superior officer. He was in consequence put
under arrest, and sent home to England. Although the incompetent
Earl of Loudon was recalled in 1758, Lord Charles was tried by a
court-martial in February, 1 760 ; the case was submitted to the King,
but no decision was given regarding it, and Lord Charles died at
London two months afterwards.
VOL. .11. 3 L

400 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

John, fourth Marquis of Tweeddale, was an able and accomplished
statesman, and possessed considerable knowledge of law. He was
appointed one of the Extraordinary Lords of Session in 1721 — the
last who held that office ; was chosen one of the Scottish representa-
tive peers in 1722, and was afterwards several times re-elected. On the
downfall of Walpole, in February, 1742, Pulteney, to whom had been
entrusted the arrangement of places in the new Government, insisted
that the office of Scottish Minister, which had been in abeyance since
1 739, should be revived, and the Marquis of Tweeddale was appointed
Secretary of State for Scotland, and Principal Keeper of the Signet.
Erskine of Tinwald, who at this juncture resigned the office of Lord
Advocate, wrote to a brother lawyer — Craigie of Glendoick — 2nd
March, 1742, ' You have been mentioned to the King by the Marquis
of Tweeddale as my successor. You are happy in having to do with
a patron who is a man of truth and honour.' The period of four
years during which his lordship held the office of Scottish Minister,
was a time of great trouble and anxiety. The English members of
the Government were not only grossly ignorant, as usual, of the
state of feeling in Scotland, but they were by no means willing to
receive accurate information on the subject. They rejected as utterly
incredible the idea that a Jacobite insurrection was at hand, and
thought it quite unnecessary to make any preparations to resist and
suppress it. Lord Tweeddale, who was in London at that time,
shared to some extent in their feeling of incredulity, and even after
he was aware that the Highlanders had left Perth in their march to
the south, he wrote to the Lord Advocate, ' I flatter myself they have
been able to make no great progress.' On the very day on which this
letter was written. Prince Charles entered the Palace of Holyrood.

In February, 1746, when the rebellion was still raging, a minis-
terial crisis took place. On the refusal of the King to admit Pitt
to the Government, Mr. Pelham, the Prime Minister, along with
those members of the administration, who supported him, resigned
office. Earls Granville and Tweeddale attempted, unsuccessfully, to
form a Ministry. On their failure Pelham resumed office ; Gran-
ville and Tweeddale were left out of the reconstructed Government,
and the office of Secretary of State for Scotland was a second time
abolished. Lord Tweeddale resigned at this time his office of
Keeper of the Signet. In 1761 he was appointed Justice-General of
Scotland, and was also sworn a member of the Privy Council. He
died at London in 1762.

The Hays of Tweeddale. 401

The Marquis married Lady Frances Carteret, daughter of the
Earl of Granville, and had by her four daughters and two sons.
The eldest son died in infancy ; the younger, George, became fifth
Marquis, and died in 1770, in the thirteenth year of his age. The
title then devolved on his uncle —

George, sixth Marquis of Tweeddale. He was noted for his strict
economy, and accumulated a large fortune, which he bequeathed to
trustees to be laid out in the purchase of lands, to be entailed on the
Tweeddale title. He died without issue in 1787, and was succeeded
by his cousin, George Hay, grandson of Lord William Hay, of
Newhall.

George, seventh Marquis of Tweeddale, married a daughter of
the seventh Earl of Lauderdale. He was appointed Lord-Lieutenant
of Haddingtonshire, and was chosen one of the Scottish representa-
tive peers. On account of his delicate health, the Marquis and
Marchioness went to the Continent in 1802, and were among the
British subjects who were detained in France by the discreditable act
of Napoleon Bonaparte, when war with Great Britain was renewed in
1803. The Marchioness died at Verdun on the 8th of May, and the
Marquis on August gth, 1804. They left twelve orphan children to
lament their loss.

The eldest son, George, succeeded to the family titles and estates.
The second and fifth sons entered the army, in which they attained
high rank. Lord John Hay, the third son, joined the royal navy,
and, after many distinguished services, rose to the rank of rear-
admiral. In 1846 he was appointed one of the Lords of the
Admiralty, and in the following year was elected Member of Parlia-
ment for Windsor.

George, eighth Marquis of Tweeddale, was born in 1787. He
received his early education at the parochial school of Gififord, where
he distinguished himself more by his physical strength and prowess
than by his intellectual attainments. He entered the army in 1804, the
year in which he succeeded to the family titles and estates, when he
was only seventeen years of age. He had the good fortune to receive
his first training as a soldier under the gallant Sir John Moore, at
Shorncliffe Two years later he went out to Sicily as aide-de-camp
to the general commanding the English army in that island. There,

402 The Great Historic Families of Scotland,

having got his company, he exchanged into the Grenadier Guards,
only, however, to re-exchange into a regiment on active service.
He served through the Peninsular war as aide-de-camp to the Duke
ofWellington, was honourably mentioned in the Duke's despatches
for his personal bravery, was wounded at Busaco, and a second time
at Vittoria, where he acted as quartermaster-general, and received a
medal for his services in that decisive engagement. He was the
third man in the army to cross the Douro, and attack the French
forces under Soult at Oporto — one of the most famous exploits of
the Great Duke. Shortly after being gazetted as a major, when he
was in his twenty-seventh year, the Marquis was invalided, and
returned home. But impatient of enforced inactivity, before his
health was completely restored he rejoined his regiment, which was
at that time stationed in Canada. On reaching it, at the Falls of
Niagara he found the drums beating, calling the men to go into
action, and though he was labouring under a fit of ague he joined
the regiment in the encounter, but was once more, almost at the
outset, severely wounded. In two months, however, he was again
on foot, and obtained the command of a brigade, which he retained
till the close of the war, in 1814. Lord Tweeddale's distinguished
services were rewarded by steady and well-merited promotion. He
attained the rank of general in 1854, was nominated colonel of the
2nd Life Guards in 1863, and ten years after was created a field
marshal. On the termination of the war with France the Marquis
took up his residence on his paternal estate, married in 18 16 Lady
Susan Montagu, third daughter of the fifth Duke of Manchester, was
appointed Lord Lieutenant of Haddingtonshire in 1824, and set
himself with characteristic energy and zeal to discharge the duties of
that office, and to improve his estates. In 1842 he was appointed
Governor of Madras and Commander-in-Chief of the Forces — a union
of offices unprecedented at that period, but carried out by the Duke
of Wellington from a conviction that Lord Tweeddale possessed
special qualifications for restoring the discipline of the army, which
had been allowed to fall into a somewhat relaxed state. He did
much to improve the condition not only of the soldiers, but of the
people also, and to draw out the resources of the country.

On his return home, in 1848, the Marquis resumed the operations
which he had previously commenced for the improvement of his
estates. He led the way in tile-draining, in deep ploughing, and in
other agricultural experiments, which he conducted at a consider-

The Hays of Tweeddale. 403

able expense. He was also the inventor of several eminently useful
agricultural implements now in general operation. His tile-making
machine and celebrated Tweeddale plough have conferred an im-
portant boon on the farmers of Scotland, and will long make his
name a household word amongst them. His lordship took a great
interest in meteorology, and was a proficient in mechanics. The
eminent services which he had rendered to the agricultural interest
were acknowledged by his election to the office of President of the
Agricultural and Highland Society.

Lord Tweeddale was conspicuous for his stature and strength ;
and numerous anecdotes have been told of his gallantry in the field,
and of the terrible effect with which he wielded a sabre longer by a
good many inches than the regulation weapon. He was a famous
boxer — one of the very best — and when provoked gave practical proof
of his prowess. He was an excellent horseman, was long known
as ' the Prince of the Heavy Bays,' was a most skilful whip, and once
drove the mail-coach from London to Haddington at a sitting.

The extraordinary strength of Lord Tweeddale's constitution,
invigorated as it was by athletic exercises, in which he was a great
adept, bade fair, notwithstanding his great age, to prolong his life a
good many years beyond the period at which it was unexpectedly
brought to a close through the effects of an unfortunate accident.
After having been undressed by his valet, he was left alone in his
room, and, rising from his chair to ring his bell, he fell between the
fender and the fire, and was severely burned on the back. For a
time he seemed likely to recover from the effects of this accident,
but the shock had been too great for his enfeebled vitality, and his
strength gradually sank till he quietly passed away, loth October,
1876, in the ninetieth year of his age.

The Marquis was the father of six sons and seven daughters, six
of whom were married. The eldest daughter was the Marchioness
of Dalhousie ; the fifth is the Dowager-Duchess of Wellington, and
was a great favourite of her illustrious father-in-law; the youngest
is the wife of the present Sir Robert Peel. George, Earl Gifford,
the eldest son of the Marquis, was a man of great ability. He
was for some time Member of Parliament for Totness, but his invin-
cible shyness prevented him from taking a prominent part in the
debates of the House. The illness of which he died, in 1863, was
caused by his exertions to save the life of a workman who was in
imminent danger of being crushed by a tree which he was cutting

404 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

down in the vicinity of the ruins of the old castle. Shortly before
his death, Lord Gifford married the Dowager-Baroness DufFerin, one
of the beautiful Sheridans.

Lord Tweeddale's second son, Arthur, Viscount Walden, suc-
ceeded him as ninth Marquis. He died, 29th December, 1878,
leaving no issue.

William Montague Hay, third son, the present Marquis, was
created a British peer in 1881 by the title of Baron Tweeddale of
Yester. His immediate younger brother, Lord John Hay, a gallant
naval officer, for several years held the command of the Mediter-
ranean fleet. He was recently raised to the rank of admiral, and is
at present the first naval officer of the Admiralty.

According to the Doomsday Book, the Tweeddale estates in the
counties of Haddington, Berwick, and Roxburgh, comprise 43,027
acres, with a rental of ,^^23, 83 2 6s.

' It is to be observed,' said Father Hay, ' that the whole fortune of
this familie came by marriages, and whatever hath been purchased
was by the selling of lands that had come that way ; in consideration
whereof Charles Hay, present Lord Yester [third Marquis of Tweed-
dale], made the following verses* —

' Aulam alii jactent, felix domus Yestria, nube,
Nam quae sors aliis, dat Venus alma tibi.' f

The ' handsome Hays,' as they have long been termed, obtained
by fortunate marriages the estates of the Frasers in Peeblesshire,
Locherworth in Midlothian, Yester and Belton in East Lothian,
Swed in Dumfriesshire, and Snowdoun, Carfrae, and Danskine in
Berwickshire.

* Lord Yester's verses are an adaptation of the well-known epigram on the Haps-
burgs of Austria, ascribed to Matthias Corvinus, in the fifteenth century : —

' Bella gerant alii ; tu felix Austria, nube ;
Nam quse Mars aliis, dat tibi regna Venus.'

t ' Let others boast of the Court, thou happy house of Yester, marry ; for the things
which Fortune bestows on others, benign Venus gives to thee.'

THE HAYS OF KINNOUL.

jHE Hays of Kinnoul are descended from a common
ancestor with the Earls of Errol. The titles of Earl of
Kinnoul, Viscount of Dupplin, and Baron Hay of Kin-
fauns, were conferred, in 1633, upon Sir Georg-e Hay,
second son of Peter Hay of Megginch. He was born in 1572, and
studied for six years in the Scots College at Douay, under his uncle,
the well-known Father Hay, who was Professor of Civil and Canon
Law in that seminary. He returned to Scotland about 1596, and
obtained the office of a gentleman of the bedchamber to King
James, who bestowed upon him the commendam of the Charter-
house of Perth, and the church lands of Errol. He was present with
James at Gowrie House, Perth, when the Earl of Gowrie and his
brother were killed, and obtained the lands of Nethercliff out of that
nobleman's forfeited estates. In the year 16 16 he was nominated
Clerk Registrar, and was made a Lord of Session ; and in 1622 he was
raised to the office of Lord High Chancellor of Scotland. He was
elevated to the peerage in 1627, by the titles of Viscount of Dupplin
and Lord Hay of Kinfauns, and on the 25th May, 1633, he was raised
by Charles L to the rank of Earl of Kinnoul, immediately before the
coronation of the King. This mark of royal favour did not, how-
ever, render him unduly compliant to his Majesty's wishes. One
of the objects which Charles had in view at his coronation was to
increase the power and prominence of the hierarchy, and with this
view he sent Sir James Balfour, Lyon King-at-Arms, to the Chan-
cellor, to inform him that it was his Majesty's pleasure that he should
give precedence for that day to the Archbishop of St. Andrews. Lord
Kinnoul, however, replied to this order, with proper spirit and firm-
ness, that ' since his Majesty had been pleased to continue him in
that office, which by his means his worthy father, of happy memory.

4o6 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

had conferred on him, he was ready, in all humility, to lay it at his
Majesty's feet. But, since it was his royal will he should enjoy it
with the various privileges pertaining to the office, never a stoled
priest in Scotland should set a foot before him while his blood was
hot.' When this courageous reply of the old Chancellor was reported
to the King, he said, 'Well, Lyon, I will meddle no further with that
old cankered, goutish man, at whose hands there is nothing to be
gained but soure words.'

Lord Kinnoul died at London, i6th December, 1634, and was
interred in the parish church of Kinnoul, where a marble monument,
with his statue, was erected to his memory.

Peter, the elder of the Earl's two sons, predeceased him, and
George, the younger, became second Earl of Kinnoul. He was
nominated a Privy Councillor to Charles L, and was Captain of the
Guard to that sovereign from 1632 to 1635. At the breaking out of
the Great Civil War he embraced the royal cause, but died soon
after, in 1644. His only son, William, the third Earl, was a staunch
Royalist, and joined Montrose in his ill-fated expedition to Scotland
in 1650. After his total defeat at Drumcarbisdale, the Earl accom-
panied his leader and Major Sinclair in their flight from the field
into the wild mountain district of Assynt. The privations endured
by them from fatigue and the want of food became insupportable.
On the morning of the third day Lord Kinnoul grew so faint, and his
strength was so exhausted by hunger and cold, that he could proceed
no farther. He was, therefore, necessarily left by his distracted and
enfeebled companions without shelter or protection of any kind on
the exposed heath. Major Sinclair volunteered to go in search of
assistance to the Earl, while Montrose went off alone towards the
Reay country. They both fell into the hands of their enemies, but
as they could give no accurate directions as to the spot where Lord
Kinnoul had been left, that nobleman, whose body was never found,
must have perished in some recess among the mountains.

George and William, the sons of this ill-fated Earl, held in suc-
cession the family titles and estates, and both died without issue.
Earl William, however, obtained a new patent in favour of his kins-
man, Thomas Hay, Viscount of Dupplin, a descendant of Peter Hay,
brother of the first Earl, who became sixth Earl of Kinnoul. He
represented Perthshire in the Scottish Parliament of 1693, and was
created Viscount of Dupplin by William III. in 1697. He was one

The Hays of Kinnoul. 407

of the Commissioners for the Union, and gave that measure his
steady support ; but as he was the brother-in-law of the Earl of Mar,
and was visited by him at Dupplin, on his way to the north to raise
the standard of rebellion. Lord Kinnoul was regarded as a suspected
person, and was committed prisoner to the castle of Edinburgh till
after the suppression of the rebellion. He died in 17 17. Colonel
John Hay, the youngest of his three sons, accompanied the leader of
the insurrection from London to Braemar, and proclaimed the Che-
valier at Perth. After the collapse of the rebellion, Colonel Hay
repaired to the Court of the exiled family, in which he held a post,
and was created by the Chevalier titular Earl of Inverness. The
intrigues and jealousies of Hay and his wife, a daughter of the fifth
Viscount Stormont, led to endless disagreements and quarrels in the
household of the Chevalier, and caused the Princess Sobieski, his
wife, to retire for a time into a convent. In the end, the Chevalier
was constrained, by the representations of some influential Jacobites,
to dismiss Hay from his service.

George, the eldest son of Earl Thomas, became seventh Earl of
Kinnoul. He was a supporter of Harley, afterwards Earl of Oxford,
whose daughter he married, and was one of the twelve British peers
created by that intriguing politician to secure a majority in the
House of Lords for his administration. His Jacobite inclinations
were so well known, that on the breaking out of the rebellion of
17 1 5, he was taken into custody, and was kept in confinement from
2 1 St September till the 24th of the following June. He was after-
wards reconciled to the Court, and, in 1729, was appointed ambas-
sador to Constantinople, where he remained till 1737. He died in
1758, leaving by his wife. Lady Abigail Harley, four sons and six
daughters. Robert Hay, his second son, assumed the name of
Drummond as the heir of entail of his great-grandfather, the first
Viscount of Strathallan, who settled the estates of Cromlex and
Innerpeffrey on the second son of the Earl of Kinnoul. Robert
Hay Drummond entered into holy orders, and became in succession
rector of Bothal in Northumberland, a Prebendary of Westminster,
Bishop of St, Asaph, Bishop of Salisbury, and, finally. Archbishop
of York.

Thomas, eldest son of the seventh Earl, born in 17 10, succeeded
his father in the family honours and estates. When a commoner he

VOL. II. 3 M

4o8 The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

was member for Cambridge, and held in succession the offices of a
Lord of the Treasury, Joint Paymaster of the Forces, and Chancellor
of the Duchy of Lancaster. In 1759 he was sent as Ambassador-
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Lisbon,
But in 1762 he resigned all his public offices and retired to his
estate in Scotland. In 1765 he was elected Chancellor of the Uni-
versity of St. Andrews, and, in 1768, was chosen President of the
Scottish Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. He
died at Dupplin in 1787, in the seventy- eighth year of his age.

His only son having died in infancy, he was succeeded by his
nephew, Robert Hay Drummond, eldest son of the Archbishop of
York, of whom there is nothing special to record. He was Lord
Lyon King-at-Arms, and, like his uncle, was President of the
Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge. He died in 1804.
His eldest son —

Thomas Drummond Hay, born in 1785, became tenth Earl, was
appointed Lord Lyon King-at-Arms in 1804, and Lord-Lieutenant
of Perthshire in 1830. The only memorable act in his long career
was his lending his name as patron to the suit in the celebrated
Auchterarder case, which led to the disruption of the Established
Church of Scotland. He died in 1866, aged eighty-one.

The present Earl, who was born in 1827, married, in 1848, a
daughter of the Duke of Beaufort, and has a numerous family.

The Kinnoul estates, which lie in Perthshire, extend to 12,577
acres, with a rental of /" 14,8 14.

MACLELLANS OF KIRKCUDBRIGHT.

THE MACLELLANS OF KIRKCUDBRIGHT.

I HE Maclellans are supposed to have come from Ireland at
a very early period. They certainly possessed lands in
Galloway in the reign of Alexander II., 12 17, and were
hereditary sheriffs of that province. Maclellan of Bom-
bie, an ancestor of Lord Kirkcudbright, accompanied the Scottish
patriot, Wallace, when, after his defeat at Falkirk, in 1298, he sailed
from Kirkcudbright for France, in order to entreat the help of Philip,
the French king, in his struggle against Edward I., their common
enemy. The Maclellans became so numerous and prosperous about
the beginning of the fifteenth century, that there were no fewer than
fourteen knights of the name at that period living in Galloway.
About the middle of the century they unfortunately, through no
fault of theirs, came into collision with the formidable house of
Douglas. Sir Patrick Maclellan of Bombie, head of the
family and Sheriff of Galloway, refused to join the confederacy of
the eighth Earl of Douglas with the Earls of Ross and Crawford,
against the King. The imperious Earl, enraged at this opposition
to his will, besieged and captured Sir Patrick in his stronghold of
Raeberry Castle, and carried him a prisoner to his fortress of Thrieve.
Sir Patrick Gray, Maclellan' s uncle, who held a high office at Court,
obtained a letter from the King (James II.) entreating, rather than
ordering, Douglas to set his prisoner at liberty, which Gray carried
himself. The Earl professed to receive him with all courtesy, but
requested that he should partake of some refreshment before enter-
ing upon the business which had brought him so long a journey.
' It's ill talking,' he said, ' between a fou man and a fasting.' In the
meantime, however, having a shrewd guess as to Gray's errand, he
ordered Maclellan to be immediately put to death. When Sir
Patrick had finished his repast he presented the royal letter to the

4IO The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

Earl, who, after perusing it, expressed his deep regret that it was
not in his power to comply fully with his Majesty's request, and,
conducting Gray to the courtyard where Maclellan's body lay, he
jeeringly said, ' Yonder, Sir Patrick, lies your sister's son. Unfor-
tunately he wants the head, but you are welcome to do with the body
what you please.' ' My lord,' said Gray, suppressing his indig-
nation, ' since you have taken his head, you may dispose of his body
as you will.' He then instantly called for his horse. But, after
crossing the drawbridge, his indignation could no longer be re-
strained, and, turning round, he exclaimed to the Earl, who was
standing at the gate, ' If I live, you shall bitterly pay for this day's
work,' and immediately galloped off. ' To horse ! to horse !' ex-
claimed Douglas, * and chase him.' Gray was closely pursued till
near Edinburgh, and if he had not been well mounted, would,
without doubt, have shared the fate of his nephew. [See Douglases,
vol. i. 63, 64.]

The Maclellans were from the earliest times staunch Royalists, and
zealously supported the successive kings of Scotland in their con-
tests with their turbulent and too powerful nobles. Sir Robert
Maclellan, a direct descendant of the Laird of Bombie whom the
Earl of Douglas murdered, was one of the Gentlemen of the Bed-
chamber, and was raised to the peerage by Charles I., in 1633, by
the title of Lord Kirkcudbright. The newly created peer fought
gallantly on the royal side in the Great Civil War. John, the third
lord, was very eccentric and hotheaded, and in his impetuous zeal on
behalf of the royal cause, he compelled his vassals in a body to take
up arms in behalf of the King,and incurred such enormous expense in
raising and arming them as completely ruined his estates, which were
seized and sold by his creditors. As nothing was left to support the
dignity, the title was not claimed for nearly sixty years after the
death of this luckless Royalist, and even then it was assumed only
for the purpose of voting in a keen contest, for the position of repre-
sentative peer, between the Earls of Eglintoun and Aberdeen.

The sixth Baron Kirkcudbright, de jure, was so reduced in his
circumstances that he was obliged to support himself and his family
by keeping a glover's shop in Edinburgh. Once a year, however, on
the night of the Peers' Ball, he took his place in full dress, with his
sword by his side, among his brother nobles, and by this act asserted,
his equality of rank with those who on other occasions were his
customers. It was to this peer that Goldsmith alluded somewhat

The Maclellans of Kirkcudbright. 411

flippantly in one of his letters written while studying medicine at the
Edinburgh University, in 1753. ' Some days ago I walked into my
Lord Kilcowbry's ; don't be surprised, his lordship is but a glover.'
There can be little doubt that Sir Walter Scott had this worthy and
noble tradesman in his eye when he put into the mouth of King
James VI., in the ' Fortunes of Nigel,' his memorable description of
the course adopted by poor Scottish peers. * Ye see that a man of
right gentle blood may for a season lay by his gentry and yet ken
where to find it when he has occasion for It. It would be as un-
seemly for a packman or pedlar, as ye call a travelling merchant,
whilk is a trade to which our native subjects of Scotland are specially
addicted, to be blazing his genealogy in the faces of those to whom
he sells a bawbee's worth of ribbon, as it would be for him to have a
beaver on his head and a rapier by his side when the pack was on
his shouthers. Na, na ; he hings his sword on the cleek, lays his
beaver on the shelf, puts his pedigree into his pocket, and gangs as
doucely and cannily about his peddling craft as if his blood was nae
better than ditch-water. But let our pedlar be transformed, as I have
ken'd it happen mair than ance, into a fair thriving merchant, then
ye shall have a transformation, my lords. Out he pulls his pedigree,
on he buckles his sword, gives his beaver a brush, and cocks it in
the face of all creation.'

The custom which the British Solomon describes in such graphic
terms doubtless originated, like many other Scottish customs, in the
intercourse with France. Down to the time of the first French
Revolution, there existed in Brittany a law of great antiquity, which
authorised a nobleman whose income was insufficient for the main-
tenance of his dignity, to descend for a season to the condition of a
commoner. In token that he had temporarily laid aside his rank
and its accompanying privileges, he deposited his sword in the
archives of the Duchy, where it remained until he was in circum-
stances to redeem it, and to resume his original position. A very
striking and affecting description is given by Sterne of a scene which
he witnessed at Rennes, when a marquis, the representative of an
ancient and illustrious family, accompanied by his wife and daughter
and two sons, claimed from the Court the formal restoration of the
sword which, twenty years before, he had deposited with the state
authorities when about to embark for Martinico, to engage in com-
mercial pursuits, with the view of repairing the dilapidated fortunes
of his house.

/

412

The Great Historic Families of Scotland.

The Edinburgh citizen who inherited, but did not assume, the titles
of his family, had three sons. The eldest predeceased him ; the
third entered the Royal Navy, and was killed in 1782, in an engage-
ment with the French, while in command of the Superb, the flagship
of Sir Edward Hughes, and was highly commended in the Admiral's
despatches, ' as an excellent officer in every department of the
service.' The second son, John, seventh Lord Kirkcudbright, on
petition to the King, had his claim to the title allowed by the
House of Lords in 1773. He entered the army and attained the
rank of lieutenant-colonel, He died in 1801, leaving two sons. The
elder, Sholto Henry, became eighth Lord Kirkcudbright, and died
without issue. The younger, Camden Grey, ninth lord, had an
only child — a daughter — and on his death, in 1832, the title became
dormant or extinct.

INDEX.

VOL. II.

' Abbey Raid,* The, 265.

Aberdeen, Earls of. [See The Gordons of Methuc

AND HaDDO.]

Aberdeen, the town of, pillaged by Montrose's troops,

151-
Aboyne, Viscounts, Earls, and Lords of. [See The

Gordons.]
Annandale Peerage Cases, 59.
Armstrong, William, carries off Lord Durie, 76.

B.
Bell, Bessie, her death and grave, 172.
Bo-hall, or Hobgoblin Hall, description of, 380.
Boswell's description of thirteenth Earl of Errol, 377.
Bothwell, Earls of. [See The Hepburns.]
Branxiiolm Castle, blown up by English army, 203.
Brown, John, of Hartree, his combat with Lord Yester,
386.

C.

Carlaverock Castle, description of, 2; besieged by

Edward I., ib.
Carlyle, Dr., his eulogium on the character of the third

Duke of Buccleuch, 222.
Charles, Prince, his fiight from CuUoden to Gortuleg,

300.

Dalkeith Castle, taken possession of by Cromwell, 211.

Darnley, Lord, the murder of, 256.

Drummonds, The. The wrongly supposed founder of the
family, 86. Malcolm of Drummond, 87. Maurice of
Drummond, ib. John Drummond, ib ; created a peer,
ib ; uses his influence in promoting marriage between
Earl of Angus and Queen Mamaret, 88. David, second
Lord Drummond, ib ; King James V. enters into an
obligation to invest him in the Bands forfeited to first
Lord Drummond, ib. Malcolm, Beg, founder of family
89. John of Drummond taken prisoner at battle of
Dunbar, ib ; set at liberty, ib. Sir Malcolm Drummond
supports claims of Robert Bruce, ib ; taken prisoner,
ib ; rewarded for his services to King Robert, go. John
Drummond and Maurice Drummond make fortunate
marriages, ib. Sir Malcolm Drummond, ib ; fights at
battle of Otterburn, ib ; succeeds to earldom of Mar,
ib ; his death, ib. Sir "Walter Drummond, ib. Sir John
Drummond, ib ; his offices, ib ; created Lord Drum-
mond, ib ; joins disaffected nobles again sfT sovereign, ib.
The character ot the Drummonds, ib. Great marriages
made by the ladies of the family, ib. Lady Margaret
Drummond poisoned, ib. Death of first Lord Drum-
mond, 92. William, Master of Drummond executed,
ib. David, second Lord Drummond, ib; supports
the cause of Queen Mary, ib. James, Lord Madderty,
ib ; his marriage, ib. Patrick, third Lord Drummond,
ib ; his daughter, Countess of Roxburgh, becomes
governess to James VI.'s daughters, 93. The Drum-

monds rewarded for their fidelity to the crown, ib.
James, fourth Lord Drummond, ib ; created Earl of
Perth, ib. James, fourth Earl of Perth, ib ; his oflBceS
and appointments, ib ; embraces Romanism and
gains goodwill of James VII., ib ; Lord Macaulay
on his conduct, ib ; becomes favourite of the king,
ib ; persecutes the Covenanters, ib ; his younger
brother created Earl of Melfort, ib ; Earl Melfort
made Secretary of State for Scotland, ib. Conduct
of Earls Perth and Melfort becomes obnoxious to the
people, 94, Earl Perth takes refuge in Castle Drum-
mond, ib ; imprisoned, ib; retires to Rome, ib ; re-
pairs to King James at St. Germains, ib ; made a
duke, 95. James, Lord Drummond, ib ; attainted by
British Parliament, ib. James, third titular Duke of
Perth, ib ; joins Prince Charles Stewart, ib ; his charac-
ter, ib ; dies while escaping to France, ib. Lord John
Drummond, ib ; commands at battle of Falkirk, ib ; his
distinguished military service in Flanders, ib. Main
line of family becomes extinct, 96. Earl of Melfort
escapes to France, ib ; attainted, ib ; made Duke de
Melfort, ib ; his death, ib. George, , sixth Duke of
Melfort, ib ; renounces Romish faith, ib ; reinstated
in earldom of Perth and other Scottish honours, ib.
Drummond estates conferred on Captain James Drum-
mond, ib. Captain Drummond made Baron Perth, ib.
Clementina Drummond inherits landed projierty, ib.
Lady Aviland inherits the Drummond estates, ib. Earl
of Perth endeavours to obtain hereditary possessions of
the family, 97. The grandeur of the Drummonds, ib.
Present Earl of Perth, ib ; his son, Viscount Forth, ib,
George Essex Montifex, ib.
Strathallan Drummonds, The. James' Drummond,
99 ; his offices and appointments, ib ; becomes Lord
Madderty, ib. John Drummond, second Lord Mad-
derty, ib ; takes up arms in behalf of Charles I., ib ; im-
prisoned, 100; binds himself not to oin}ose Parliament,
ib. David Drummond, third Lord Madderty, ib ; im-
prisoned, ib. William Drummond, ib ; becomes an ac-
tive royalist, ib ; his appointments, ib ; taken prisoner,
ib ; escapes to the continent, ib ; enters Muscovite ser-
vice, ib ; recalled by Charles II., and receives an ap-
pointment, ib ; employed to effect suppression of tne
Covenanters, ib ; imprisoned, ib ; later appointments, ib ;
Lord Macaulay on his character, ib; opposes attempt of
King James to grant indulgence to Roman Catholics,
101 ; succeeds as Lord Madderty, ib ; created Viscount
ot Strathallan and Lord Drummond of Cromlix, ib ;
writes history of Drummond family, ib ; his death, ib ;
Principal Munro's remarks on his life, ib, William,
second Viscount of Strathallan, ib. William, third
Viscount, 102. Family estates pass to Earl of Kin-
noul, ib ; titles revert to William Drummond, ib. Sir
James Drummond, ib. William Drummond, fourth
Viscount of Strathallan, ib ; taken prisoner at battle of
Sheriffmuir, ib ; killed at battle ot CuUoden, ib ; his
wife imprisoned in castle of Edinburgh, ib. James
Drummond, ib; escapes to continent, ib ; attainted, ib ;
his death, ib. Andrew John Drummond, ib ; his mili-
tary distinctions and appointments, 103. James Andrew
John Laurence Charles Drummond inherits the family

VOL. II.

3 N

414

Index.

estates, ib ; elected member for Perthshire, ib ; restored
to forfeited titles of family, ib ; elected a representative
peer, ib. William Henry Drummond, sixth Viscount
Strathallan, ib. Henry Drummond of Albury Park;
104. Assassination of Henry Drummond, ib.
Dundee, the storming of, 152.

E.

Erskives, The. Origin of their designation, 105.
Henry de Erskine, ib. Sir John de Erskine, ib ; dis-
tinguished marriages of his daughters, ib ; his son's ser-
vices to Robert Bruce, ib. Sir Robert de Erskine, ib ;
bis offices, ib ; takes active part in securing succession
of the house of Stewart to the throne, ib ; receives a
grant of the estates of Alloa, ib. Sir Thomas Erskine
marries Janet Keith, ib. Second Lord Erskine fights
against rebel lords at Sauchieburn, 106. Robert, third
Lord Erskine, ib. Master of Erskine killed at battle of
Pinkie, ib. John, fourth Lord Erskine, ib. John, fifth
Lord Erskine, ib ; title of Earl of Mar bestowed on him,
ib; gives Mary of Guise an asylum, ib ; Queen Mary
puts herself under his protection, ib ; baffles Bothwell's
attempts to obtain possession of the heir to the throne,
ib ; chosen Regent of Scotland, ib ; his death, 107 John,
second Earl of Mar, ib ; takes part in raid of Ruthven,
ib ; deprived of office, ib ; seeks refuge in Ireland, ib ; j
retires to England, ib ; takes possession of Stirling
Castle, ib ; expels Arran from court, ib ; becomes an
intimate friend of the king, ib ; appointed ambassa-
dor to England, ib ; quarrel between him and Queen
Anne, ib ; votes for * Five Articles of Perth,' 108 ; ap-
pointed Lord High Treasurer, ib; marries Lady Mary
Stewart, ib ; his children by her, ib ; his death, 109.
Scott of Scotstarvit's remarks on hi'* death, ib. John,
eighth Earl of Mar, no ; offices and appointments, ib ;
his property sequestrated, ib ; his death, ib. John, ninth
earl, ib; commands regiment in armj' of Covenanters, ib;
joins Cumbernauld association for defence of royal
cause, ib ; fights at Philiphaugh, ib ; fined by the
Estates, in; his estates sequestrated, ib ; his affliction,
ib ; his death, ib. John, eleventh earl, ib ; joins Whig
party, ib ; receives command of regiment, ib ; invested

missed from office, ib ; resolves on exciting insurrection
against r'iigning family, ib ; his character, 113 ; retreats
to Perth, ib ; repairs to the continent, ib ; loses the confi-
dence of Prince James, 114. Hon. James Erskine of
Grange, ib ; his offices and appointments, ib ; cherishes
dislike to Sir Robert Walpole, ib ; elected member for
the Stirling districts of burghs, ib ; his character and
abilities, 115. The character of Lady Erskine, ib ;
abduction ofLady Erskine, 116. Erskine of Grange, 117.

Purchases the forfeited estates of Earl of Mar, ib ;
ames, his son, marries Lady Frances Erskine, ib ; Mar
titles restored to John Francis Erskine, ib; the titles and
estates inherited by Walter Henry Erskine, ib.
Erskines op Buchan and Cardross, The. Antiquity
of the earldom, 118. Fergus, ib. Marjory, Countess of
Buchan marries William Comyn, ib. Alexander
Comyn inherits title and estates, ib. The power of the
Comyns and their opposition to the English, ib. John
Comyn succeeds to title and estates, ib ; joins the Eng-
lish party, ib ; his dislike to Robert Bruce, ib ; defeat^,
and his estates laid bare, ib ; his estates confiscated, ib.
The earldom of Buchan granted to Sir Alexander
Stewart, 119; his character, ib; obtains earldom of
Ross, ib ; invades district of Moray, ib. Robert, Duke
of Albany inherits the earldom, ib; confers the title
upon his son Sir John Stewart, ib ; sends an army to
the assistance of the French king in his contest with
England, ib. The English force defeated by the Scot-
tish auxiliaries at Beauge, ib. The office of Con-
stable of France conferred upon the Earl of Buchan,
ib ; is killed at battle of Verneuil, ib. Murdoch, Duke
of Albany inherits the earldom of Buchan, 120. Ihe
earldom forfeited to the crown, ib ; bestowed on James
Stewart, ib ; his appointments, ib. John, Master of
Buchan killed at battle of Pinkie, ib. Christian,
Countess of Buchan, ib ; marries Robert Douglas, ib.
James, fifth Earl of Buchan, ib. Mary Douglas suc-
ceeds to title and estates, ib ; marries James Erskine,
ib ; his character, ib. James Erskine, sixth earl, ib.
The eighth Earl of Buchan imprisonedin Stirling Castle,
ib. David, fourth Lord Cardross succeeds to title and
estates of Buchan, ib. Tbe barony o'^ Cardross, ib.
- David, second Lord Cardross, 121. Henry, third Lord

Cardross, ib; his marriage, ib ; suffers persecution in
cause of civil and religious liberty, ib ; imprisoned in
Edinburgh Castle, 122 ; petitions king for redress of^
hardships suifered in the royal cause, ib ; takes up his
residence at the Hague, ib ; accompanies William of
Orange to England, ib ; raises regiment of Dragoons,
ib ; restored to his estates, ib ; sworn a Privy Council-
lor, ib; his death, ib. David Erskine, fourth Lord
Cardross, ib ; his marriage, 12^. Henry David, tenth
Earl of Buchan, ib ; his marriage, ib ; his character,
ib. Lady Buchan's character, ib. The earl sells estate
of Cardross, 124 ; his death, ib. David Stewart Erskine,
eleventh Earl of Buchan, ib ; appointed Secretary to
British Embassy in Spain, ib ; declines to proceed to
Madrid, ib ; makes efforts to promote independence in
the election of representative peers, ib ; founds Society
of Antiquaries, 12^ ; buys back estate of Dryburgh, ib ;
his character, ib ; instances of his vanity and parsimony,
126; his death, 129. Henry Erskine, ib ; his abilities
and character, ib ; appointed Lord Advocate, ib ; ad-
vocates reform in the burghs and in the election of
members of Parliament, 130 ; deprived of the office of
Lord Advocate, ib ; re-appointed Lord Advocate, 131 ;
elected a member of Parliament, ib ; his accomplish-
ments at the bar, ib ; his character, 132. Thomas, Lord
Erskine, ib ; his early education, 133 ; obtains commis-
sion in the army, ib ; his marriage, ib ; studies English
classics, ib ; performs duties of chaplain in thearmy, ib ;
studies for the bar, ib ; his pecuniary straits, ib ; called
to the bar, ib ; displays great forensic ability at his
debut, 134 ; rapidly rises in legal profession, 135 ; ap-
pointed Attorney-General to Prince of Wales, ib ;
elected member of Parliament, ib ; later forensic
triumphs, 136; the country's gratitude for his public
services, 137 ; appointed Lord High Chancellor, ib ;.
made Baron Erskine, ib ; some events of his political
life, ib ; troubles of his old age, 138 ; his character, ib.
David Montague Erskine, second baron, ib. Thomas
Erskine, ib. Esme Stewart Erskine, ib,

Erskines of Kellie, The. Sir Alexander Erskine of
Gogar, 139. Sir Thomas Erskine, ib ; assists in rescuing
James from the Ruthvens at Gowrie House, ib ; created
viscount Fenton, ib ; receives from tbe king grants of
land, ib ; advanced to the earldom of Kellie, ib,
Thomas, second earl, ib. Alexander, third earl, ib ;
supports King Charles during civil war, ib ; im-
prisoned in Tower, ib ; deprived of his estates, ib ; re-
tires to the continent, ib ; his return to Scotland, ib ;
his death, ib. Alexander, fifth earl, ib ; his marriage,
ib. Thomas Alexander, sixth earl, 140 ; his character
and abilities, ib ; his convivial habits, ib ; disposes of
the Kellie estate, ib. Archibald, seventh earl, ib ; en-
deavours to remove legal restraints imposed upon Epis-
copalians, ib. Sir Charles Erskine succeeds to the
earldom, ib. The earldom conjoined with an earldom
of Mar, ib.

Evelyn, his remarks on the character of the Duchess of
Monmouth, 217.

F.

Farquharsons, The, Earl of Huntly's slaughter of them,
and his inhumane treatment of their orphans, 318.

Erasers of Castle Fraser, 288.

Erasers of Leadclune, 288.

Frasers of Lovat, The. Their descent and original
designation, 269. Sir Simon Fraser, ib. Sir Gilbert
Fraser, ib. Oliver Fraser, ib. Oliver Castle, ib. Sir
Simon Fraser, ib ; his father, ib ; supports the cause of
Baliol, ib ; made prisoner by Edward L, 270 ; permitted
to visit Scotland, ib ; chosen to succeed Sir William
Wallace, ib ; defeats the English at Roslin, ib ; refuses
to submit to King Edward, ib ; joins Robert Brucp, ib ;
his valour at battle of Methven, ib ; is captured and
executed, ib ; a ballad on the cruel treatment he
receives, ib ; his uncle, Bishop Fraser, 272. Extinction
of the male line of family, ib. Sir Simon's daughters in-
herit the estates, ib. Sir Andrew Fraser, 273 ; his
mother, ib. Hugh Eraser, ib ; bis marriage, ib ; killed
at battle of Halidon Hill, ib ; his son Hugh created
Lord Fraser of Lovat, ib. Thomas, third Lord Lovat
killed at Flodden, ib. Clan feuds and battles of the
Frasers, ib. Hugh, fourth Lord Lovat, ib, Tbe hospi-
tality of the Frasers, ib. Simon Fraser, twelfth Ijord
Lovat, 274 ; his character, ib ; his education, ib ; ob-
tains a commission in the army, ib ; concocts scheme
for marrying daughter of tenth Lord Lovat, ib ; foiled
in his attempt to capture her, ib ; resolves to marry
dowager Lady Lovat, ib ; commits outrage on the dowa-
ger, 276 ; conveys her to isle of Aigas, ib ; brought to
trial and condemned to capital punishment, ib ; escapes

Lidex.

415

to the continent, ib ; is outlawed, ib ; returns to Scot-
land, ib ; letters of intercommuning issued against him,
277 ; takes refuge in France, ib ; proceeds to St. Ger-
mains and submits to the exiled court a project for
raising an insurrection against reigning sovereign, ib ;
returns to Scotland with colonel's commission, ib ; re-
turns to France, ib ; is seized and sent to the Bastile,
ib ; makes his escape, ib ; arrested in London, ib ; set at
liberty, ib ; apprehended at Edinburgh, 278 ; concocts
plan for the recovery of Inverness, ib ; receives royal
pardon for his crimes, ib. Mackenzie of Fraserdale, ib ;
sentence of attainder and outlawry passed against
bim, ib ; Hugh Mackenzie consents to cede to him his
claim to the family honours, ib. Sir Walter Scott on
his life and character, ib ; his marriages, 279 ; his cruel
treatment of his second wife, ib ; obtains command of the
Black Watch, 281 ; his commission withdrawn, ib ;
subscribes the invitation to Prince Charles, ib ; his in-
trigues and duplicity, ib ; his letter to the chief of the
Camerons, 282 ; sends his clan, under his son, to join
the insurgent army of Jacobites, 283 ; his dishonest ex-
planation of the event to the Lord President, ib ; visited
by Prince Charles in his flight from Culloden, 284 ; his
recommendation to the Prince, ib ; imprisoned in the
Tower, 285 ; brought to trial and condemned to be be-
headed, ib ; his execution, 286. Simon Fraser, ib ; the
forfeited estates of his father restored him, ib ; enters
the royal array, ib ; raises the Fraser Highlanders, ib ;
serves under General Wolfe, ib ; his character, ib.
Estates devolve upon Colonel Archibald Campbell
Fraser, ib. Male line of eldest branch of Fraser family
becomes extinct, ib. Thomas Alexander Fraser of
Strichen inherits the estates, ib ; elevated to House of
Lords by title of Baron Lovat of Lovat, 287 ; ancient
titles of family restored him, ib ; relieves the inheritance
of his ancestors from its encumbrances, ib ; his death,
ib. Simon Fraser, fifteenth Lord Lovat, ib ; protects
and endows the Koman Catholics, ib. The suit
brought before the House of Lords by John Fraser, ib.
The badge and war-cry of the Frasers, 288. The
Frasers of Castle Fraser, ib. The Frasers of Lead-
clune, ib.

Erasers of Philorth and Saltoun, The. Descent of
the Philorth family, 289. William Fraser, ib ; inherits
the estates of Cowie and Durris, ib ; killed at battle of
Durham, ib; cbaracterof his descendants, ib. Sir Alex-
ander Eraser lays foundations of Fraserburgjh Castle,
ib ; Philorth parish designated Fraserburgh in honour
of the benefits conferred by him upon it, ib. Second
Sir Alexander succeeds Lord Abernetby of Saltoun, ib.
Sixteenth Lord Saltoun, 290; his character, ib ; serves
under Sir John Moore at Corunna, ib ; serves under
Wellington, ib ; appointed to command at Hougou-
mont, ib ; his honours and promotions, ib ; commands
brigade at capture of Chin-Kiang-Fou, ib ; his musical
accomplishments, ib. Alexander, seventeenth Lord
Saltoun, 2QI. Alexander William Frederick, ib. Title
of Baron 5'raser conferred on Andrew Eraser of Mu-
chells, ib. Andrew, second Lord Fraser, ib ; fights
under Montrose against royalists, ib. Charles, fourth
Lord Fraser, ib ; brought to trial forproclaiming King
J_ames at Fraserburgh, ib ; loses his life, ib. Castle
Fraser bequeathed to his step-children, ib.

Fraserburgh Castle, 289.

GiGHT Castle, description of, 368.

Gordon Riots, the, 336.

Gordons, The. The antiquity of the family, 292. The
prominent part taken by them in public affairs, ib ;
their position among authors, ib. Designation of the
'Gay Gordons,' ib. Fabulous account of their origin,
293. Richard and Adam, sons of the ancestor of the
family, .ib. Richard Gordon's daughter Alice marries
her cousin, Adam de Gordon, ib. Sir Adam de Gor-
don, 294 ; supports Robert Bruce, ib ; sent ambassador
to Papal court, ib ; receives a grant of forfeited estates
of Earl of A thole, ib ; killed at battle of Halidon Hill,
ib. Sir Alexander Gordon, ib. Sir John Gordon, ib ;
taken prisoner at battle of Durham, ib. Sir John de
Gordon, ib. The Gordon clan transferred to the
Highlands, ib ; their lands invaded by English Border-
ers, 29<; ; attacked by Sir John Lilburn, ib ; wins victory
over the English, ib ; encounters and defeats Sir Thomas
Musgrave, ib ; fights under Douglas at battle of Otter-
burn, ib ; loses bis life, ib. Sir Adam de Gordon
unites his lorce with that of Swinton and gallantly
charges the English at Homildon Hill, 296, Elizabeth
Gordon succeeds to the estates, ib ; marries Alexander

de Seton, ib ; Alexander Seton created Earl of Huntly,
ib ; appointed Lieutenant-General of Kingdom, ib;
undertakes suppression of rebellion, ib ; encounters
Earl of Crawford, ib ; escapes to Finhaven Castle, ib ;
Castle of Strathbogie burnt, and the estates ravaged by
Earl ot Moray, 297 ; Huntly's death, ib ; his wives, ib.
George, second Earl of Huntly, ib ; his appointments,
ib ; commands in the royal interest at battle of Sauchie-
burn, ib ; his son Adam becomes Earl of Sutherland,
2g8 ; his sons William and James Gordon, ib ; his
daughter Lady Catherine Gordon, ib. Alexander,
third Earl of Huntly, ib ; aids in suppression of a rebel-
lion in the Isles, ib ; storms Stornaway Castle, ib ; com-
mands at battle of Flodden, ib ; nominated to the Coun-
cil of Regency, ib ; his death, ib. Bishop Gordon, 299 ;
Spottiswood's remarks on his life and character, ib.
George, fourth Earl of Huntly, ib ; his education, ib;
appointed a lieutenant-general, 300 ; defeats Sir Robert
Bowes at Haddon Rig, ib ; appointed Lieutenant-
General of all the Highlands, ib; marches against the
Camerons and the Macdonalds of Clanranald, ib ; ap-
pointed High Chancellor, ib ; taken prisoner at battle
of Pinkie, ib ; escapes from prison, 301 ; recognised
as head of Roman Catholic party, ib ; receives order
of St. Michael from French king, ib ; obtains grant of
earldom of Moray, ib ; plot formed for his assassina-
tion, ib ; committed to prison, 302 ; deprived of his
offices and sentenced to banishment, ib ; restored to the
Chancellorship, ib ; his craft and self-interest, ib. The
power of the Gordons, ib ; their bonds of man-ient,
friendship, and alliance, 303 ; entertains the queen-
dowager, ib ; becomes leader of Romish party, 304 ; in
conjunction with other popish nobles, sends an envoy
to Queen Mary, ib ; offended at the favour shown
Lord James Stewart by Mary, 305. Sir John Gordon
committed to prison for wounding Lord Ogilvy, ib ; the
earl's distrust of Queen Mary, 306 ; Queen Mary de-
clines an invitation through his countess, ib ; his morti-
fication at Lord James StewartbecomingEarl of Moray,
ib ; disobeys charge to present himself before queen
and council, ib ; pronounced a rebel, ib ; killed in
an encounter with the royal forces at Corrichie, 307;
Sir John and Adam Gordon taken prisoners, ib. Sir
John beheaded at Aberdeen, ib. Lord George Gordon
Drought to trial for treason, ib ; respited and made
prisoner in Dunbar Castle, ib. The movables of Earl
Huntly's mansion divided between Queen Mary and
Earl of Moray, 308 ; his estates confiscated to the crown,
ib ; John Knox's remarks on his deportment, ib ; his
sons and daughters, 309. Sir Adam of Auchindoun
defeats the Forbeses, ib ; his soldiers burn Towie
Castle, ib ; a ballad on the burning of the castle, ib.
Sir Patrick Gordon killed at battle of Glenlivet, 310.
Lady Jean Gordon, ib ; her marriage with Bothwell
annulled, 311 ; marries Alexander, twelfth Earl of
.Sutherland, 312 ; marries Alexander Ogilvie of Boyne,
ib ; her son Sir Robert Gordon's eulogium on her
character, ib. George, fifth Earl of Hunlly, ib ; story of
an alleged attempt by the Earl of Moray to procure exe-
cution of Lord George Gordon, ib; Huntly supports
Queen Mary at Dunbar, 313 ; rewarded with Chancel-
lorship, ib ; signs document recommending Bothwell as
suitable husband to the queen, ib ; his titles and estates
restored, ib ; instances of his selfish and unprincipled
character, ib ; makes his peace with Moray, 314 ; ac-
cepts office of Lieutenant- General of Kingdom, ib ; de-
feated by Lennox at Brechin, ib : act of forfeiture passed
against him and his brother Sir Adam Gordon, ib ;
treaty of peace concluded between him and the Regent
Morton, ib ; his death, ib. George, sixth Earl and first
Marquis of Huntly, 315 ; unites with Earls Crawford
and Krrol in an intrigue for the restoration of Romish
supremacy in Scotland, ib ; takes up arms against
government, ib ; found guilty of treason, ib ; the king
disallows sentence to be passed against bim, ib ; re-
ceives his liberty, ib ; retires to his estates, ib ; becomes
involved in feuds with neighbouring clans, ib ; quarrels
with Karl of Moray, ib ; the king grants him commis-
sion to apprehend Moray, 316; murder of that noble-
man, ib ; the commotion created by his death, ib ;
H untly receives letter from King James having refer-
ence to the death of Moray, ib ; the king makes show
of proceeding against him, 317 ; confined in Blackness
Cattle, ib ; set at liberty, ib ; obtains royal pardon and
returns to court, ib ; his lands ravaged and the castle
of Auchindoun burnt in revenge for the slaughter of
Moray, ib ; an instance of the Countess of Huntly's
vindictiveness, 317 ; the earl slaughters the Farquhar-
sons, 318; his inhumane treatment of their orphans,
ib ; enters into conspiracy for overthrow of Protestant

4i6

Index,

religion, ib ; summoned to answer charge of conspiring
against the king, 319 ; takes refuge in bis northern fast-
nesses, ib; James marches against him, ib ; the king
invites the Countess of Huntly to court, ib ; the
Protestant party remonstrates with king for bis
leniency to Huntly, ib ; Huntly joins conspiracy for
seizure of king's person, ib ; his estates and honours for-
feited, ib ; encountered at Glenlivet by Earl of Argyll,
ib ; the king causes Strathbogie Castle to be blown up,
320 ; the earl obtains permission to leave Scotland, ib ;
secretly returns, ib ; suffered to retain possession of his
castles and estates, ib ; appointed Lord-Lieutenant of
the North, ib ; created Marguis of Huntly, ib ; recon-
ciled to Earl of Moray, ib ; m trouble with the Protes-
tant party, 321 ; excommunicated by General Assembly,
ib ; confined in Stirling C istle, ib ; receives his liberty,
ib ; summoned before Court of High Commission, ib ;
imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle, ib ; absolved from
sentence of excommunication, ib ; obliged to appear
before General Assembly, ib ; becomes involved in
feud with Cricbtons of Frendraught, 322 ; ordered to
appear before Privy Council, ib ; is outlawed, ib ; the
sentence reversed, ib; again summoned to appear be-
fore Privy Council, ib ; confined in Edinburgh Castle,
ib ; his health declines, ib ; his death and inter-
ment, ib ; Spalding's remarks on his life and charac-
ter, 323; his rent-roll, ib ; his building and planting
operations, 324. Marchioness of Huntly compelled to
return to France, ib ; Spalding's remarks on the event
of her departure, ib ; her death, ib, John Huntly
created Viscount Melgura and Lord Aboyne, 325 ; his
death at theburning of Frendraught Castle, ib, George,
second Marquis of Huntly, ib ; involved in a quarrel
with Sir Lauchlan Mackintosh, ib ; his distinguished
services on the continent, ib ; created Viscount Aboyne,
ib ; commissioned Lieutenant of the North, ib ; Coven-
anters endeavour to induce him to join their party,
326 ; Colonel Munro's commission to him, ib ; the
marquis's reply to it, ib ; seizes and fortifies the city of
Aberdeen, ib ; retreats at the approach of Montrose, ib ;
pursued by Montrose, 327 ; holds an interview with him,
ib ; makes an agreement with him, ib ; accepts invitation
to attend a conference held by the Covenanters, ib ;
his differences with Montrose, 328 ; conveyed with his
son to Edinburgh, ib ; receives his liberty, ib ; his son,
Lord Aboyne takes possession of Aberdeen, 329 ; the
marquis receives new commi^^sion from king, ib ; dis-
bands his army, ib ; Lord Gordon killed at battle of
Alford, 330 ; Lord Aboyne fights at battle of Kilsyth,
ib ; Huntly fortifies the town of Banff, ib ; Middleton
and Leslie march against him, ib ; the marquis takes
refuge in his Highland fastnesses, ib ; the strongholds
of the Gordons reduced, ib ; Huntly captured, ib ; dis-
suades attempt to rescue him, ib ; imprisoned, ib;
King Charles unsuccessfully intercedes in his behalf,
531 ; the marquis brought to trial on charge of treason,
lb ; condemned to be beheaded, ib ; his courage on the
scaffold, ib ; Wishart's remarks on his life and charac-
ter, ib. Lord Gordon, 332 ; his service in France, ib ;
abandons cause of the Covenanters, ib ; commands at
battle of Auldearn, ib \ Wishart's remarks on his death,
ib. James, Viscount Aboyne fights under Montrose,
ib ; seeks refuge in France, lb. Lord Charles Gordon
created Earl of Aboyne, ib. Lord Henry Gordon
serves in Poland, ib. Lewis, third Marquis of Huntly,
ib ; his dislike of Montrose, ib ; restored to his honours
and estates, ib ; his death, ib. George, fourth Marquis
of Huntly and first Duke of Gordon, ib ; the Privy
Council decrees his separation from his mother, ib ; his
distinguished services on the continent, 333 ; his ap-
pointments, ib ; holds Edinburgh Castle, ib ; pro-
claimed a traitor, ib ; surrenders Edinburgh Castle,
334 ; ungraciously received by the Court at St. Ger- -
mains, ib. The Duchess of Huntly presents medal to
Faculty of Advocates, ib. The dune's disaffection for
the Hanoverian dynasty, ib ; confined to city of Edin-
burgh, ib ; his death, ib. Alexander, second Duke of
Gordon, 335 ; proclaims the Chevalier, ib ; fights at
battle of SnerifFmuir, ib ; surrenders to the Earl of
Sutherland, ib ; his death, ib. The Duchess of Huntly
pensioned by the Government, ib ; her character, ib ;
the reported efforts made by her to convert her eldest
son to Protestantism, ib. Lord Lewis Gordon takes

gart in battle of Culloden, 336; his appointments, ib ;
is death, ib. Cosmo George, third Duke of Gordon,
ib ; supports the Government, ib ; receives order of the
Thistle, ib ; his death, ib. Lord George Gordon, ib ;
his part in the London riots, ib; brought to trial on
charge of high treason, ib. Alexander, fourth Duke of
Gordon, 337 ; elected a representative Deer, ib ; created

knight of Order of Thistle, ib; his military appoint-
ments, ib ; raises the Gordon Fencibles, ib ; title of earl-
dom of Norwich revived in his favour, ib ; created Lord
Gordon of Huntly, ib. Jane, Duchess of Gordon, ib ; her
early years, 338 ; her freedom of manners, ib ; her per-
son and character, ib ; her influence in society, ib ; her
efforts in training the young, jb. Hums" visit to Gordon
Castle, 339 ; Duchess of Gordon's freedom of speech,
340 ; makes up an oyster-cellar party, ib ; her reputa-
tion as a matchmaker, ib. The duke's liaison, 341;
compels his duchess to separate from him, ib ; the
death of the duchess, ib. The duke marries his mistress,
ib. George, fifth Duke of Gordon, ib ; enters the army,
ib ; obtains a commission, ib ; accompanies Duke of
York to Flanders, ib; raises 92ndGordon Highlanders,
ib ; his military zeal, appointments, and engagements,
342; severely wounded at battle of Bergen, ib ; his
death, ib. Duchess of Gordon, ib ; her character, ib.
The dukedom becomes extinct, ib ; marquisate and
earldom of Huntly inherited by George, fifth Earl of
Aboyne, ib. The family estates fall to fifth Duke of
Richmond and 'Lennox, 343 ; the rental and acreage of
estates, ib. The sixth Duke of Richmond created
Duke of Gordon of Gordon Castle, ib. Charles, fourth
Earl of Aboyne, ib ; his character, ib ; improves his
estates, ib ; his death, ib. George, ninth Marquis of
Huntly and fifth Earl of Aboyne, 344 ; his military ap-
pointments, ib; his person and deportment, ib ; guits
the army, ili ; his marriage, ib ; lays claim to marquisate
of Huntly, ib ; becomes embarrassed in circumstances,
ib ; his death, 345. Charles, tenth Marquis of Huntly,
ib. Charles, eleventh marquis, ib; his marriage, ib.
Gordons of Earlston, Gight, &c., The. Origin of
the Gordons of Earlston, 366. Alexander Gordon, ib ;
embraces doctrines of Wicliffe, ib ; opposes attempt of
Charles I. to establish Episcopacy in Scotland, ib ; his
son William's sufferings in the cause of the Covenan-
ters, ib ; killed at Bothwell Bridge, ib. Alexander
Gordon made a prisoner, ib. The Gordons of Pitlurg,
ib. John de Gordon, ib. Origin of the Gordons of
Gight, ib ; their character, ib ; their outrage on a mes-
senger sent to deliver a summons to the Laird of Gight,

367. The Laird of Gight put to the horn, ib ; Francis
Hay seized and murdered by the Gordons of Gight, ib.
George Gordon, Laird of Gight threatened with excom-
munication, ib; makes a raid upon the town of Banff,

368. Catherine Gordon, ib ; marries Captain John
Byron, ib ; her estate seized by her husband's creditors,
ib. The castle of Gight, ib; prophecies respecting it
and the family, ib.

G 'RDONS OF Kenmuke, The. Origin of the family, 362.
William de Gordon, ib ; his grandson, William de
Gordon settles in Galloway, ib. Sir Alexander Gor-
don, seventh Laird of Lochinvar, ib ; killed at battle of
Flodden, ib. Sir Robert Gordon, eighth laird, ib. Sir
James Gordon, ib ; his o£&ces and appointments, ib ;
killed at battle of Pinkie, ib. Sir John Gordon, ib ;
appointed justiciary of the lordship of Galloway, ' ib ;
supports the cause of Queen Mary, ib ; joins associated
barons in support of infant king,ib. Sir Robert Gordon,
ib ; his character, ib. Sir John Gordon of Lochinvar,
ib ; elevated to peerage by the title of Viscount Ken-
mure, &c., 363 ; his piety, ib ; sells the family estate of
Stichell, ib ; his death, ib. Lady Kenmure's second mar-
riage, ib. John Gordon succeeds to the viscounty,
ib ; title passes to his cousin John Gordon, ib. Robert,
fourth Viscount Kenmure, ib ; suffers severely in royal
cause, ib ; the decadence of family, ib. The viscounty
devolves on Alexander Gordon of Pennygame, 364 ; his
death, ib. William, sixth Viscount Kenmure, ib ; pro-
claims the Chevalier St. George, ib ; joins Northum-
brian insurgents under Forster, ib ; taken prisoner, ib ;
found guilty of treason, ib ; his execution, ib. Vis-
countess Kenmure secures his letters and papers, ib ;
purchases his estates, ib ; hands over the patrimonial
property to her son Robert, ib ; her death, ib. John
Gordon, eighth titular viscount, 365 ; his son John
Gordon restored to the forfeited honours of family, ib ;
succeeded by his nephew, Adam Gordon, ib ; Kimily
titles become dormant, ib ; family estates inherited by
Hon. Mrs. Louise Bellamy Gordon, ib.

Gordons of MbXHLic and Haddo, The. Sir William Gor-
don of Coldingknows, 346. Patrick Gordon of Methlic,
ib ; killed at battle of Brechin, ib. James Gordon re-
ceives gift of barony of Kelly, ib. George Gordon, ib ;
supports Queen Mary, ib. Sir John Gordon of Haddo
succeeds to family estates, ib ; appointed to command
under Huntly, ib ; made a baronet, 347; excommuni-
cated by General Assembly, ib ; capitulates to Argyll,
ib; imprisoned in St. Giles Church, Edinburgh, ib;

Index.

417

tried on a charge of high treason, ib ; beheaded, 348 ;
his address on the scaifold, ib ; the forfeited estates
restored to John Gordon, ib. Sir George Gordon,
third baronet, ib ; admitted to the bar, ib ; obtains
preat reputation as an advocate, ib ; his appointments,
lb ; elevated to the Chancellorship, ib ; created Earl of
Aberdeen, &c., 349 ; his accounts as showing his
personal habits and the manners of his time, ib ; im-
proves his estates, 351 ; takes oath of allegiance to
Queen Anne, ib ; his death, ib. William, second Earl
of Aberdeen, 352 ; his son Alexander appointed sena-
tor of Court of Session, ib. George, third earl, ib ;'his
son Sir Alexander mortally wounded at battle of
Waterloo, ib ; his son Sir Robert obtains diplomatic
distinction, ib. George Hamilton Gordon, fourth Earl
of Aberdeen, ib; his education, ib ; enters Parliament
as a representative peer, 353 ; sent on mission to
Vienna to induce the Emperor of Austria to join alli-
ance against Napoleon, ib ; created Viscount Gordon
of Aberdeen in peerage of United Kingdom, ib ; sup-
ports Lord Liverpool's Government, ib ; his political
appointments and actions, ib ; prepares a bill tor heal-
ing: the dissensions of the Church, 354 ; nature of the
bill, ib; excites hostility of Dr. Chalmers, ib; the bill
becomes law, ib ; results of the bill, ib ; the bill re-
pealed, ib ; Lord Aberdeen retires from office, 355 ;
placed at head of the Government, Ib ; his opinion
of Russia's conduct during his premiership, ib ; the
breaking-up of his administration, ib ; made a Knight
of the Garter, ib ; his character as a statesman, 356 ;
references to the earl in Bishop Wilberforce's diary, ib ;
his character as an agricultural improver, ib ; some ap-
pointments held by him, ib; his death, 357. Bishop
Wilberforce's remarks on the funeral of the earl, ib.
George John James, fifth Earl of Aberdeen, ib. George
Hamilton, sixth Earl of Aberdeen, ib ; his predilection
for sea-faring life, ib ; his nautical adventures and ex-
periences, ib; has a narrow escape in the Gulf Stream,
ib ; his accomplishments, 359; his piety, ib ; his aifec-
tion for his mother and his letters to her, 360 ; Rev.
William Alexander goes in search of him, 361 ; the
story of his death, ib. John Campbell Hamilton Gor-
don, sixth Earl of Aberdeen, ib ; his appointments, ib.
Acreage and rental of family estates, ib.

Gordons of Pitlurg. \See The Gordons of Earlston,
&c.]

Grahams, The. Origin of the family, 141. Sir William
de Grseme, ib. Peter deGrseme, ib. Henry de Grsrae,
ib; binds himself to acknowledge Princess Margaret of
Norway as sovereign, ib. Sir Nicholas de Graeme, ib.
Sir John de Graham of Dalkeith, ib ; his estates divided,
ib. John de Graham, 142. David de Graham, ib ;
Radulph of Graham, ib. David Graham, ib; Second
Sir David de Graham, ib ; opposes intrigues of English
faction, ib. Sir John de Graham of Dundaff, ib ; killed
at battle of Falkirk, ib. Dundaff Castle, 143. Sir
Patrick de Graham, ib ; killed at battle of Dunbar, ib ;
his character, ib ; Sir David de Graham, ib; taken
prisoner, ib. Sir David de Graham, his son, signs letters
to the Pope vindicating independence of Scotland, ib.
Sir David de Graham, 144 ; taken prisoner at battle of
Durham, ib. Sir Patrick of Graham, ib. Sir William
of Graham, ib. Patrick of Graham, ib ; his marriage,
ib ; becomes Earl Palatine of Strathern* ib. Patrick
Graham consecrated a bishop, ib ; his character, ib ;
procures appointments from the Pope, ib ; degraded and
imprisoned, ib ; declared insane, 115. Sir Patrick
Graham of Kincardine, ib ; made Lord Graham, ib.
William, third Lord Graham, ib. Earl of Montrose, ib.
killed at battle of Flodden, ib. William, second Earl
Montrose, ib. John, third earl, ib ; involved in an in-
trigue, ib ; his offices and appointments, ib ; presides
at meeting of the Estates of Perth, ib ; the splendour of
his burial, ib, John Graham, foiirth Earl of Montrose,
146; his character, ib; his recreations, ib ; his burial,
' ib. James, fifth Earl and first Marquis of Montrose, ib ;
the character of his mother, ib ; nis education, 1^7 ;
his recreations, ib ; his generosit}', ib ; his marriage, ib ;
visits the continent, 148 ; ungraciously received at
court, ib ; joins the Covenanters, ih ; his severe treat-
ment of the inhabitants of Aberdeen, ib ; becomes dis-
satisfied with members of Covenanting party, 149 ; Cla-
rendon's remarks on his character, ib ; refuses to sign
bond appointing Earl of Argyll captain -general, ib ; en-
ters into the Cumbernauld bond, ib ; accused of secretly
corresponding with the king, ib ; confined in Edinburgh
Castle, ib ; set at liberty, ib ; appointed Lieutenant-
General of Scotland, 150 ; defeats the Covenanters at
Tippermuir and the Bridge of Dee, 151 ; the excesses of
his troops, ib ; devastates Argyllshire, 152 ; organises

general rising of the clans, ib; the privations of his
forces, ib ; his victory at Inverlochy, 153 ; his sons, ib ;
storms Dundee, ib ; bis triumph at Auldearn, 154 ;
defeats Baillie*s forces at Kilsyth, 155 ; appointed Lieu-
tenant-Governor and Captain-General of Scotland, ib;
surprised and defeated by General David Leslie at
Philiphaugh, 157 ; retires to Norway, ib ; removes to
Paris, ib ; refuses appointment from Cardinal Mazarin,
ib ; proceeds to Germany, ib ; made a field-marshal by
Ferdinand, ib ; returns to Flanders, ib ; his recommen-
dations to Prince Charles, ib ; makes an unsuccessful
descent upon Scotland, 158 ; Sir Walter Scott's remarks
on his character, ib ; falls into the hands of the Coven-
anters, ib ; endeavours to escape, 159. Sir Walter
Scott's remarks on his humiliation, ib ; a contemporary
chronicler on the character of his reception at Edin-
burgh, ib ; vindicates his acts in the royal cause,
160; condemned to be hanged, ib; lines written by
him on the prison window, 161 ; his execution, ib ;
his character and abilities, 162 ; his person and de-
portment, 163 ; his heart embalmed, ib ; its extra-
ordinary fortunes, i6<j. James, second marquis, ib ;
restored to family dignities and estates, ib ; refuses
to vote on trial of Marquis of Argyll, ib ; receives
charter of lordship of Cowal, ib ; appointed Extra-
ordinary Lord of Session, ib ; his death, ib. James,
third marquis, 165 ; his appointments, ib ; his death, ib.
James, fourth marquis, ib ; his mother deprived of
office of guardian to him, ib ; travels on the continent,
ib ; his person and appointments, ib ; joins the Whig
party, ib ; created a duke, ib ; repairs to London to
receive George I., ib ; makes addition to his hereditary
estates, 166; involved in war with Rob Roy Macgregor,
166; surprises Macgregor and makes him prisoner, z6b.
William, second Duke of Montrose, ib ; his tuition,
ib ; his personal courage, ib ; his compensation under the
Jurisdiction Act, 167 ; becomes adherent of William
Pitt, ib. James, third Duke of Montrose, ib ; represents
borough of Richmond and Great Bedwin in House of
Commons, ib ; his appointments, ib ; Sir Nathaniel
Wraxall's remarks on tne duke's character and life, ib.
James, fourth Duke of Montrose, i68. Douglas Beres-
ford Malise Ronald Graham, fifth Duke of Montrose,
ib ; his sister, Lady Beatrice Violet, ib.

Graham, Thomas, Lord Lynedoch. His descent, 169;
his education, ib ; studies languages on the continent,
ib ; devotes himself to management and improvement of
his estates, ib ; contests representation of county of
Perth, 170; his marriage, ib ; his accomplishments, ih ;
his devotion to his wife, ib ; encounters highwaymen in
London, 171 ; Robert Burns introduced to him, ib ;
the death of his wife, 172; Sir Walter Scott's remarks
on his military career, ib ; joins the British troops, 173 ;
distinguishes himself, ib ; becomes acquainted with
Rowland Hill, ib ; raises the * Grey Breeks,* ib ;
chosen to represent county of Perth, ib ; joins the
Austrian army, ib ; assists in defence of Mantua, ib ;
assists in the reduction of Minorca, 174; takes charge
of operations against island of Malta, ib ; makes a tour
in Egypt and Turkey, ib ; sent to the West Indies, ib ;
supports policy of ministry of * All the Talents,' ib; ac-
companies Sir John Moore to Sweden and Spain, 175;
appointed to command in theWalcheren expedition, ib ;
takes command of troops in Cadiz, ib ; his victory at
Barossa, 177 ; receives congratulation from Lord Wel-
lington, ib ; appointed to command under Wellington,
178 ; honoured with the Order of the Bath, ib ; returns
home, ib ; contests county of Perth, ib ; rejoins the array,
ib ; present at battle of Vittoria, 179; conducts siege
of St. Sebastian, ib ; failure of his eyesight, ib ;
honours conferred on him, ib ; takes command in Hol-
land, ib ; attempts to carry fortress of Bergen-op-Zoom,
ib ; made Baron Lynedoch of Balgowan, 179 ; further
honours conferred on him, i8a ; his old age, ib. Lord
Cockbum's sketch of his appearance in later life, ib ;
his death, 181 ; a description of bis person, ib.

Grahams of Esk, Netherby, and Norton -Con vers.
The. Origin of the family, 182 ; their settlement on
the hanks of the Esk, ib ; their free-booting notoriety,
ib ; their petition to the king on the appointment of
Commissioners for restoring order on the Borders, 183 ;
sobriquets of some of the Graemes, 184 ; the Commis-
sioners send detachments of them out of the country, ib.
Richard Graham of Netherby, ib. Some of "the expa-
triated Grahams return to their former home, 185.
Some of the clan transported to Ireland, 186. Richard
Graham, ib ; created a baronet, ib ; wounded at battle
of Edgehill, ib. George Graham succeeds to the
baronetcy, ib ; his son Richard created a baronet, ib ;
Richard Graham's grandson made Viscount Preston, ib ;

4i8

Index.

his appointments, ib; is engaged in treasonable plot
against King William, ib ; brought to trial and found
guilty of treason, ib ; pardoned, ib. Title becomes ex-
tinct, ib. Hon. Catherine Graham inherits the estates,
187. The property bequeathed to Rev. Robert Graham,
ib ; his son, James Graham of Netherby created a
baronet, ib.

Gray, AIary, her death and grave, 172,

' Grey Breeks,' the raising of, 173.

H.

Harden Castle, description of, 234.

Harden, Wat of, an anecdote told by Sir Walter Scott
concerning him, 234.

Hay, Francis, his seizure and murder by the Gordons of
Gight, 367.

Hays of Errol, The. Fabulous story of their origin,
370. Hector Boece's and Mr. Hay Allan*s remarks on
their origin, ib. War-song of the family as given by
Mr. Hay Allan, 372. Derivation of family name, 373.
William de la Haya, ib. Sir Gilbert and Hugh de la
Haya repair to standard of Robert Bruce, ib ; Hughde
la Haya taken prisoner at Tippermuir, ib. Sir Gilbert
and Hugh fight at battle of Bannockburn, ib. Sir Gil-
bert created High Constable of Scotland, ib ; receives
grant of the lands of Slains, ib. William de la Haya
raised to the peerage by title of Earl of Errol, ib ; re-
signs his constable fees, ib. William Hay, fourth earl,
killed at Flodden, ib. William, fifth Earl of Errol, ib ;
his learning, ib. George Hay inherits title, ofiice, and
estates, 374. Andrew Hay, seventh Earl of Errol, ib;
marries Lady Jane Hay, ib ; supports the cause of
Queen Mary, ib. Francis Hay, eighth earl, ib ; takes
up arms in the interest of the Romish party, ib ; his
treasonable correspondence, ib ; defeats the royal army,
ib ; escapes to the continent, ib ; forfeited and excom-
municated, ib ; returns home and is relieved from civil
and political disabilities, ib ; received into favour by
James VI., ib ; nominated commissioner to treat of the
Union, ib. Sir Robert Douglas's remarks on his
character, ib ; his death, ib ; his directions respecting
his burial, ib. William, ninth Earl of Errol, ib ; edu-
cated in Protestant religion, 375 ; favoured by Charles I. ,
ib ; his extravagant style of living, ib ; sells paternal
estate of Errol, ib. Gilbert, tenth earl^ ib ; raises a
regiment for service of Charles II., ib ; Charles's
promise to him, ib. Sir John Hay of Killour inherits
titles and estates, ib. Charles, tvpelfth Earl of Errol,
ib ; the title and remnant of family possessions pass to
his sister. Lady Mary Falconer, ib ; inherited by Lord
Boyd, ib. Lord Boyd's father, Earl of Kilmarnock
reduced to straits, 376. Character of Lord Boyd's
mother, ib. Earl of Kilmarnock taken prisoner at
battle of Culloden, ib ; brought to trial and condemned
to death, ib ; his behaviour on the scaffold, 377 ; his
person and accomplishments, ib ; his extravagant
habits, ib. Lord Kilmarnock's own titlesand the patri-
monial estates and titles of his countess forfeited, ib.
James Hay becomes thirteenth Earl of Errol, ib ;
visited by Dr. Johnson, ib^ Boswell's description of his
personal appearance and manners, ib. Dr. Beattie's and
Sir William Forbes' description of him, ib ; his death,
378. The earl's brother, Hon. Charles Boyd escapes
to the island of Arran, ib ; acquires knowledge of medi-
cine, ib ; practises as physician in France, ib ; his
death, ib. William, fifteenth Earl of Errol, ib ; his son
Lord Hay killed at Waterloo, ib. William George,
sixteenth earl, ib ; his marriage, ib ; his appointments,
ib ; created peer of United Kingdom by title of Baron
Kilmarnock, ib. William Henry, seventh Earl of
Errol, ib ; wounded at battle of the Alma, ib ; his
precedence in the peerage of Scotland, ib.

Hays of Kinkoul, The. Their origin, 405. The titles of
Earl of Kinnoul, Viscount of Dupplin, &c., conferred
upon Sir George Hay, ib ; studies at Douay, ib ; returns
to Scotland, ib ; appointed gentleman of bedchamber
to king, ib ; James bestows upon him Commendam of
Charterhouse of Perth, ib; obtains portion of Earl of
Gowrie's forfeited estates, ib ; nominated Clerk Regis-
trar and made Lord of Session, ib ; appointed Lord
High Chancellor, ib ; elevated to peerage by titles of
Viscount of Dupplin. 8cc., ib ; raised by Charles I. to
rank of Earl ot Kinnoul, ib ; his death, 406 ; his son
Peter, ib. George, second Earl of Kinnoul, ib ; nomi-
nated Privy Councillor, ib. William, third earl, ib ;
joins Montrose in his expedition to Scotland, ib j escapes
with him to Assynt ; their privations, ib ; the earl's
death, ib. George, fpurth Earl of Kinnoul, ib. William,
fifth earl, ib ; obtains new patent in favour of Thomas

Hay, Viscount of Dupplin, ib. Thomas Hay becomes
sixth Earl of Kinnoul, ib; supports the Union, 407 ; im-
prisoned in Edinburgh Castle, ib ; his djath, ib ; Colonel
John Hay, his son, proclaims Chevalier at Perth, ib ; re-

? airs to court of exiled family, ib ; created titular Earl of
nverness, ib ; the intrigues and jealousies of himself
and wife at court, ib. George, seventh Earl of Kinnoul,
ib ; supports Harley, Earl ofOxford, ib; kept in con-
finement, ib ; reconciled to the court, ib ; appointed
ambassador to Constantinople, ib ; his death, ib ; his
son Robert assumes name of Drummond, ib ; Robert
enters holy orders, ib. Thomas, eighth Earl of Kinnoul,
ib ; his political career and offices as a commoner, 408 ;
resigns his public offices and retires to his estates, ib;
further honours, ib ; bis death, ib. Robert Hay Drum-
mond, ninth Earl of Kinnoul, ib ; his death, ib. Thomas
Drummond, tenth Earl of Kinnoul, ib ; his appoint-
ments, ib ; his death, ib. Eleventh Earl of Kinnoul, ib ;
his marriage, io. Acreage and rental of Kinnoul
estates, ib.
Hays of Tweeddale, The. The origin of the family,
37g. Robert de Haya, ib. Sir John de Haya, ib ; ac-
quires the lands or Locherworth, ib. Sir William de
Haya, ib ; Swears fealty to Edward I., ib. Sir Gilbert
Hay, ib ; makes a fortunate marriage, ib ; obtains
barony of Neidpath, ib. Sir William de Haya, ib ;
fights under banner of David IX. at Durham, ib ; taken
prisoner, ib. Sir Thomas de Haya becomes hostage
for the king's liberation, ib. Sir William Hay, 380 ;
marries Jean Giff'ord of Yester, ib. Giff'ord's Castle, ib.
* Bo-halt,' ib ; Sir David Dalrymple's description of
it, ib. Sir William obtains patronage of Yester Church,
ib. Neidpath Castle, 381. Sir William's second mar-
riage, ib ; his issue by his wives, ib. Sir Thomas Hay,
ib. Sir David Hay, ib. John Hay created a peer by
the title of Lord Hay of Yester, ib ; his marriages, ib.
John, second Lord Yester, ib. John, third lord, ib ; his
marriages, 382, Jean Hay marries George Broun of
Coalstoun, ib. John, fourth Lord Yester, ib; taken
prisoner at battle of Pinkie, ib ; restored to liberty, ib.
John, fifth Lord Yester, ib ; deprived of sheriff^dom, ib ;
restored in the office, ib ; espouses cause of Queen Mary,
ib ; signs a letter to Elizabeth in behalf of Mary, ib ;
his death, ib. William, sixth Lord Yester, ib ; his tur-
bulence and violence, ib; complaint made against him.
before the Privy Council by John Livingstone of Bel-
stane, 383 ; again brought before the Council on com-
plaint made by Sir John Stewart of Traquair, ib ; re-
fuses to subscribe letters of affirmance, 384 ; denounced
a rebel, ib ; ordered to enter in ward, ib. Master of
Yester refuses to be reconciled to the Stewarts of Tra-
quair, 385 ; imprisoned for contumacy, ib. Father Hay's
manner of viewing the quarrel with the Stewarts, ib.
Lord Yester engaged in the raid of Ruthven, 386 ; takes
refuge in the Low Countries, ib ; his death, ib. James,
seventh Lord Yester, obtains charter of lordship and
barony of Yester, ib ; combat between him and John
Brown of Hartree, ib. Lady Yester, 387. John, eighth
Lord Yester, ib ; resists attempts of James VI. and
Charles I. to alter constitution ot Presbyterian Church,
ib ; opposes Five Articles of Perth, ib ; his hostility to
the Act for regulating the apparel of ecclesiastics, ib;
resists introduction of Charles* new liturgy, ib ; ap-
pointed to command regiment of Covenanters, 388 ;
accompanies forces under General Leslie, ib ; becomes
Earl of Tweeddale, ib ; his improvidenre, ib ; his mother
contracts marriage with Master of Jedburgh, ib ; pur-
chases barony of Drumelzien ib ; his eldest son Lord
Yester fortifies Neidpath Castle against the Com-
monwealth, ib. Lord Yester's marriage, ib. John,
second Earl of Tweeddale, 389 ; his early years, ib ;
repairs to the standard of Charles I., ib; his appoint-
ments and engagements, ib ; makes his escape from
Preston, ib ; attends Charles II. on his return from
continent, ib ; becomes a member in Cromwell's Par-
liament, ib. Lord Tweeddale's letter in the Public In-
telligencer addressed to the Lord Protector, 390 ; re-
duced to great straits in consequence ofbeingsecurity for
his uncle. Earl of Dunfermline's debts, ib; waits upon
Charles II. on his arrival in England, 391 ; opposes the
passing of sentence of death on Rev. James Guthrie, ib ;
his appointments, ib ; advocates milder measures to-
wards Covenanters, ib; puts public finance on satisfac-
tory footing, ib ; his popularity excites the jealousy of
Lauderdale, 392. Lord Tweeddale dismissed from his
offices, ib ; restored to office of Commissioner of Treas-
ury, ib ; readmitted to the Privy Council, ib ; an
account of his cautionary obligations for Earl of Dun-
fermline, ib ; purchases lands beyond his means, 393 ;
concurs in the resolution by Convocation that the crown

Index.

419

ought to be offered to "William and Mary 394 ; sworn
a Privy Councillor, ib ; appointed High Chancellor,
ib ; created Mar(^uis of Iweeddale, ib ; selected for
office of Lord High Commissioner, ib ; Lord Macau-
lay's remarks on his life and character, ib; appointed
member of Commission for inquiring into the Glencoe
massacre, ib ; gives royal sanction to the act for estab-
lishing a Scottish trading company, ib ; dismissed the
chancellorship, 395 ; improves his estates and enlarges
Neidpath Castle, ib. John, second Marquis of Tweed-
dale, ib. Father Hay*s account of how he became son-
in-law to Lauderdale, ib ; Lady Dysart alienates Lau-
derdale from his own family, 396. Lord Yester restored
to his seat in the council, 397 ; assists Argyll in sup-
pression of rebellion, ib; his appointments, ib ; with
the Earls Marischal and Rothes, makes personal appli-
cation to Queen Anne for dissolution of Parliament,
ib ; becomes leader of new Parliament, ib ; hostile to
the Union, ib ; insists on indemnification for losses in
Darien expedition, and the punishment of agents in the
Glencoe massacre, ib; appointed Lord High Com-
missioner to Parliament, ib ; his party gets title of the
* Squadrone Volante,' ib ; his party supports Union,
ib ; his death, 398 ; Macka^s description of him, ib ;
his son, Lord John Hay, 399. Charles, third Marquis
of Tweeddale, ib ; his appointments, ib ; chosen repre-
sentative peer, ib ; his marriage, ib; his son. Lord
Charles Hay, ib ; sent to America in command under
Hopson, ib ; John, fourth Marguis of Tweeddale, 400;
his abilities and knowledge, ib ; his offices and ap-
pointments, ib ; Erskine of Tinwald's testimony to his
character, ib ; attempts formation of a ministry on
resignation of Mr. Pelham, ib ; resigns office of Keeper
of the Signet, ib ; his death, ib ; his issue by his wife,
401. George, sixth Marquis of Tweeddale, ib ; accu-
mulates a fortune, ib ; his death, ib. George, seventh
Marquis of Tweeddale, ib ; his marriage, ib ; appointed
a lord-lieutenant, ib ; chosen a representative peer, ib ;
retires to the continent, ib ; his death, ib ; his son.
Lord John Hay appointed Lord of Admiralty, ib.
George, eighth Marquis of Tweeddale, ib ; his early
education, ib ; enters the army, ib ; trained under Sir
John Moore, ib ; goes to Sicily as aide-de-camp to Sir
John Moore, ib ; his military services, engagements,
and promotions, 402 ; his marriage, ib ; appointed a
lord-lieutenant, ib; improves his estates, ib ; made
Governor of Madras and Commander-in-Chief of the
Forces, ib ; his inventive genius and accomplishments,
403 ; elected president of Agricultural and Highland So-
ciety, ib ; his physique and prowess, ib ; his death, ib ; his
issue by his wife, ib, Arthur, ninth Marquis of Tweed-
dale, 404. William Montague Hay, tenth marquis, ib ;
createdBritishpeer by title of Baron Tweeddale, ib ; his
brother, Lord John Hay, lb. Acreage and rental of
estates, ib.

Hepburns, The. Derivation of family name, 247. Adam
Hepburn, ib. Sir Patrick Hepburn of Hailes, ib. Sir
Adam Hepburn, ib. Sir Patrick Hepburn, ib ; created
a peer by title of Lord Hailes, ib. Adam, second Lord
Hailes, 248. George Hepburn, ib ; his appointments, ib.
John Hepburn, ib. James Hepburn, ib; his appoint-
ments, ib. Patri ck Hepburn, third Lord Hailes, ib; holds
castle of Berwick against powerful English army, ib ;
commands at battle of Sauchiebum, ib ; the custody of
Edinburgh Castle entrusted to him, ib ; his honours,
appointments, and estates, 249 ; created Earl of Both-
well, ib ; his death, ib. Patrick H^bum consecrated a
bishop, 250; his character, ib. Adam, second Earl of
Bothwell, ib ; killed at battle of Flodden, ib. Patrick,
third Earl of Bothwell, ib ; remission granted him for
assisting Lord Home, 251 ; imprisoned, ib ; holds treason-
able conference with the Earl of Northumberland, ib ;
confined in Edinburgh Castle, ib; compelled to resign
his lordship to the crown, ib ; banished the kingdom,
ib ; negotiates with Henry VIII., ib _; returns to Scot-
land, ib; supports Cardinal Beaton, ib ; obtains resti-
tution of his estates, 252 ; Sir Ralph Sadler's opinion of
him, ib ; made the instrument of Cardinal Beaton in
the seizure of George Wishart, ib ; committed to prison,
253 ; waits upon Duke of Somerset, ib ; receives
King Edward's protection, ib ; his exile and death,
2^4. James Hepburn, fourth JEarl of Bothwell, ib ;
his early years, ib ; espouses cause of Queen Re-
gent against Lords of Congregation, ib ; appointed
Lieutenant- General of Middle Marches, ib ; wayla3's
and robs Cockburn of Ormiston, ib; Throckmorton's
letter to Queen Elizabeth respecting him, 255 ; im-
prisoned and banished the kingdom, ip ; returns home,
ib ; proclaimed a rebel, ib ; his character, ib ; his con-

- nectiou with Anna ThrondessSn, ib ; recalled from

exile, 256 ; appointments and honours, ib ; his influence
at Court, ib ; wounded in an encounter with Elliot of
Park, ib ; his plot for murder of Damley, ib ; Queen
Mary's attachment to him, 257 ; accompanies Queen to
Holyrood, ib ; Mary confers on him command of Edin-
burgh Castle, ib ; divorced from his countess, ib ; his
marriage with Mary, ib ; his flight, 258 ; pursued by
Kirkcaldy and Murray, ib ; casts anchor on coast of
Norway, ib; conveyed to Bergen Castle, ib ; prosecu-
tion raised against him by Anna Throndesson, 259 ;
escapes the prosecution by a compromise, ib. Both-
well sent to Copenhagen, ib ; the Regent Moray de-
mands of King Frederick the surrender of Bothwell, ib ;
Bothwell's strategy, 260 ; Frederick declines to surren-
der him, ib; Bothwell confined in Malmoe Castle, ib ;
the Regent Moray again attempts to get him sur-
rendered, 261. Regent Lennox renews the effort, 262 ;
King Frederick changes his treatment of Bothwell, ib ;
Bothwell's miserable end, 263 ; his 'testament* as to the
innocency of Mary in the matter of her husband's
murder, ib. Title of Earl of Bothwell conferred on
Francis Stewart, ib ; marries Lady Jane Hepburn, 264 ;
his appointments, ib ; his character, ib ; imprisonment,
ib ; appointed an administrator of kingdom during the
king's absence, ib ; surrenders himself a prisoner to
meet charges of witchcraft, ib ; escapes from Edinburgh
Castle, ib ; proclaimed a traitor, ib ; returns to Edin-
burgh, ib. The ' Abbey raid,' 265. The earl takes refuge
in England, ib; the king's anger vents itself on the Coun-
tess of Bothwell, 266 ; the earl returns tu Scotland, ib ;
enters the palace and forces himself into the presence
of the king, ib ; stipulates for the remission of his for-
feiture, ib ; James yields to Bothwell's entreaties, ib ;
Bothwell's trial and acquittal, ib ; fails to answer sum-
mons to appear before the king and council on a charge
of high treason, ib ; denounced a rebel, ib ; seeks refuge
in England, 267 ; expelled the country, ib ; excommuni-
cated, ib ; retires to the continent, ib ; his death, ib ; his
forfeited estates divided, ib ; forfeited titles of Bothwell
lost, ib. The estates restored to Francis Stewart, 268.
Herries, Lords of. \See The Maxwells.]*
HuNTLv, Earls and Marquises of. \See The Gor-
dons.]

J-

James VI., his efforts to promote amicable relations
between members of the nobility, 384.

Jock o' the Sclaits, 107.

Johnson, Dr., his visit to Earl of Errol, 377 ; his remarks
on the character of the Duchess of Monmouth, 217,

JOHNSTONES OF Annandale, The. Their original settle-
ment in East Lothian, 54. Sir John de Johnstone, ib ;
his great-grandson. Sir John's valour in defence of his
country, lb ; defeats English army, ib ; appointed
guardian of Western Marches, ib. Sir Adam John-
stone commands at battle of Sark, ib ; instrumental in
suppressing rebellion of the Douglases against crown,
ib. The seat of the Johnstones, 55. The 'Marquis's
Beef-stand,' ib ; an adventure which occurred at the
Beef-stand, ib. Johnstone receives commission from
the court to proceed against Lord Maxwell, 56 ; de-
feated by Robert Maxwell, ib. Maxwell sets "fire to
Lochwood Castle, 57. Johnstone defeated and taken
prisoner, ib. James Johnstone created Lord Johnstone
of Lochwood, ib ; made Earl of Hartfell, ib ; joins
Montrose, ib ; taken prisoner at Philiphaugh, ib ; con-
demned to death, ib ; his life spared, ib ; his son obtains
earldom of Annandale, ib ; successive owners of the
lordship of Annandale, ib. Earl of Hartfell's death, 58.
William, second Earl of Annandale, ib ; his offices and
appointments, ib ; created Marquis of Annandale, ib ;
his daughter marries Earl of Hopetoun, ib. James,
second Marquis of Annandale, ib. George, third mar-
quis, ib ; his character, ib ; placed under charge of
David Hume, ib ; family titles become dormant, 59 ;
estates inherited by James, third Earl of Hopetoun, ib.
John James Hope Johnstone inherits Annandale
estates and makes claim to titles of maternal ancestor,
ib. The Annandale peerage cases, ib. Death of Mr.
Hope Johnstone, 62. Sir Frederick Johnstone of
"Westerball claims Annandale titles, 63. Matthew
Johnstone, ib. James Johnstone, ib ; persecutes the
Covenanters, ib. Westerball abandons James VII.
and joins party of Prince of Orange, 6^. John John-
stone created baronet of Nova Scotia, ib. l"he John-
stones of Alva, ib. Sir William Johnstone, fifth
baronet, ib ; acquires great fortune, ib ; his baronetcy,
estates, &c., inherited by Sir John Lowther Johnstone,
ib. Sir Frederick John William Johnstone, eighth
baronet, ib.

420

Index.

K.

Kers, The, their feuds with the Scotts. \See The Scotts

OF BL'CCLKUCH.]

Kilmarnock, Earls of. \See The Hays of Errol.]

L.

Lauderdale, Earl of. Lady Dysart alienates him from

his family, 395,
Lennox, Regent, his efforts to get King Frederick to

deliver up Bothwell, 2bi.
Leyden, quotation from his 'Scenes of Infancy,* 237.

M.

Maclellans of Kirkcudbright, The. Their origin,
409. Maclellan of Bombie, ib ; accompanies Wallace
to France to entreat help of Philip against England, ib.
The Maclellans come into collision with the house of
Douglas^ ib. Sir Patrick Maclellan of Bombie, ib ; re-
fuses to join Earls Douglas, &c., in confederacy against
king, ib ; captured by Douglas and confined in Thrieve
Castle, ib ; Sir Patrick Gray obtains letter from

iames II. entreating Douglas to set him free, ib ;
louglas orders him to be put to death, ib. Sir Robert
Maclellan, 410 ; raised to peerage by title of Lord
Kirkcudbright, ib ; fights in the royal interest, ib. John,
third lord, ib ; his character, ib ; incurs great expense
in raising an armed body in support of king, ib ; his
estates sold by creditors, ib ; title becomes dormant, ib.
Sixth Lord Kirkcudbright, ib ; his reduced circum-
stances, ib ; Goldsmith's reference to him, ib ; quota-
tion from Sir "Walter Scott*s * Fortunes of Nigel * anent
his poverty, 411 ; one of his son's killed in naval service
during engagement with the French, 412. John,
seventh Lord Kirkcudbright, ib; his claim to title
allowed by House of Lords, ib ; his promotion in the
army, ib ; his death, ib. Sholto Henry, eighth Lord
Kirkcudbright, ib. Camden Grey, ninth lord, ib ; his
death, ib. Title becomes dormant, ib.
Madderty, Lords of. \See The Strathallan Drum-

MONDS.]

Mary, Queen, her marriage and flight with Bothwell,
258 ; Bothwell's * testament ' as to her innocency in the
matter of her husband's murder, 263,

' Maxwell's Good Night,' ballad of, 22.

Maxwells, The. Maccus, supposed founder of family, i.
Herbert de Maccuswel, ib. Sir John de Maccuswel,
ib. Aymer de Maxwell, ib ; obtains baronies of Mearns,
Nether- Poll ok, Dryps, and Calderwood, ib. John de
Maxwell, ib. Sir Herbert Maxwell, ib ; holds castle
of Carlaverock against Edward I., 2. Sir Eustace
Maxwell, ib ; embraces cause of John Baliol, ib ; sup-
ports Robert Bruce, ib ; dismantles his castle, 3.
Honours, offices, and estates of the Maxwells, ib. Sir
Herbert Maxwell, of Carlaverock, ib ; created Lord of
Parliament, ib. Robert, second Lord Maxwell, ib.
John, fourth lord, ib. Robert, fifth lord, ib ; his ap-
pointments, ib ; accompanies King James in his raid
on the Borders, ib ; tradition respecting his treachery,
ib; wins the esteem and confidence of the king, 4 ; his
honours and appointments, ib ; taken prisoner at rout
of Solway Moss, ib ; is liberated, ib ; conditions of his
liberty, ib ; imprisoned, 5 ; becomes favourable to doc-
trines of Reformed Church, ib ; obtains large grants of
lands, ib. Robert, fifth Lord Maxwell, 6 ; his cha-
racter, ib ; Lady Beatrix, his wife, ib ; origination of
f(-ud between Maxwells and Johnstones, ib ; Lord
Maxwell taken prisoner, 7 ; his death, ib. Robert,
seventh Lord Maxwell, ib. John, eighth lord, ib ; suf-
fers for his adherence to Queen llary's cause, ib; ob-
tains wardenship of West Marches, 8 ; quarrels with Re-
gent Morton, ib ; summons issued against him for mal-
treatment of John Bek, ib ; becomes associated with
royal favourites, 9 ; obtains earldom of Morton, ib ;
denounced as a rebel, 10 ; deprived of the wardenship of
West Marches, ib ; rupture of his friendship with Earl
of Arran, ib ; Arran revives feud between Maxwells
and Johnstones, ib; Morton's victory over Arran, n ;
imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle, 12 ; liberated, ib ;
receives licence to visit the continent, ib ; violates his
pledge, ib ; his treasonable intentions and intrigues, 13;
organises armed force in Dumfries, ib ; disregards
summons to appear before the council, ib ; leaves
Scotland, ib ; the king orders the surrender of his
castles, ib. David Maxwell holds Lochmaben, ib ; the
king besieges it, ib ; Earl of Morton pursued by Sir
W'ljiam Stewart, ib ; is apprehended and imprisoned
in Edinburgh Castle t^ ; released, ib ; professes con-

version to Protestant religion, ib ; struggles with new
Earl of Morton for precedency in the kirk of Edin-
burgh, ib. Feud between Maxwells and Johnstones, ib.
William Johnstone the Galliard makes foray on lands
of Nithsdale barons, 15. Johnstones pursued by the
Crichtons, ib : a desperate struggle between them, ib;
description of a remarkable scene following the foray,
ib. Johnstones win victory over the Maxwells, 16.
Lord Maxwell slain, ib. John, ninth Lord Maxwell, 17 ;
supports the Roman Catholic religion, 19 \ declared a
rebel, ib ; imprisoned, ib ; proclaimed a traitor, ib ; in-
volved in dispute with William Douglas of Lochleven,
ib ; imprisoned for turbulent acts, ib ; makes a daring
escape, ib ; desires to effect reconciliation with Laird
of Johnstone, 20 ; the murder of Johnstone, 21. Lord
Maxwell found guilty of treason, 22 ; escapes to
France, ib ; Lord Maxwell returns to Scotland, 24 ;
made prisoner in Castle Sinclair, ib. The Johnstones

Setition the king for justice to be executed on him, ib.
[axwelFs friends endeavour to reconcile the Johnstones,
ib ; Maxwell indicted for murder of Sir James John-
stone, 26 ; beheaded, ib. Robert, tenth Lord Maxwell,
ib ; becomes Earl of Nithsdale, 26 ; appropriateness of
title, ib; endeavours to establish amicable relations
with the Murrays of Cockpool and the Johnstones, ib ;
the king gives him protection from his creditors, ib;
supports Charles I., 27 ; appointed one of the Com-
missioners to obtain surrender of tithes and ecclesias-
tical property forfeited to crown at the Reformation,
ib ; failure of his mission, ib ; his support of the Roman
Catholics becomes offensive to Presbyterians, ib ; letter
sent him by Archbishop Spottiswood, ib ; supports royal
cause during Civil War, ib ; garrisons castles of Car-
laverock and Thrieve, ib ; surrenders his stronghold,
28 ; sequestrated, lb ; excommunicated by the church,
ib. Robert, second Earl of Nithsdale, ib ; supports
royal party, ib ; taken prisoner at storming of New-
castle, ib ; Act of Parliament passed restoring him
against his father's forfeiture, ib ; sells barony of
Mearns, ib ; submits to the king statement of injuries
received in royal cause, and claims compensation, 29.
John, third Earl of Nithsdale, ib ; sides with royal party,
lb ; heavy fines imposed on him, ib ; his life and estates
forfeited, and excommunicated by the Church, ib; peti-
tions Parliament for compensation for sufferings and
losses incurred in the royal cause, ib. Robert Max-
well, fourth Earl of Nithsdale, 30 ; supports govern-
ment of Charles II., ib ; rewarded for his services, ib ;
obtains protection from his creditors, ib. William Max-
well, fifth Earl of Nithsdale, 31; repairs to St. Ger-
mains, ib ; marries Lady Winnifred Herbert, ib ; bis
house at Terregles attacked by a fanatical mob, ib ;
joins the rebellion, 32 ; sent to the Tower, ib ; sentence
of death passed upon him, ib ; the Countess of .Niths-
dale joins him, ib ; fails to procure his pardon, 33 ;
her success in effecting his escape &om prison,
35 ; the countess conceals herself in London, 40 ;
saves the family papers, 41 ; leaves England, ib ; life of
Earl and Countess Nithsdale on the continent, 42. The
Earl of Nithsdale's character, 43 ; his daughter Lady
Anne marries Lord Bellew, 44. Lord Maxwell
marries Lady Catherine Stewart, ib. Death of Earl of
Nithsdale, 45. William, Lord Maxwell succeeds to
family estates, ib ; his daug-hter Winnifred inherits
Nithsdale estates, 46 ; Lady Winnifred's marriage, ib ;
becomes correspondent of Burns, ib. Death of Mr.
Maxwell Constable, ib ; Lady Maxwell's hospitality,
ib, Marmaduke Constable Maxwell inherits Nithsdale
and Herries estates, ib; his death, ib ; his judicious
settlement of his property, 47. Acreage and rental of
the estates, ib. The forfeiture of William, fifth Earl of
Nithsdale reversed, ib. Mr. Constable Maxwell be-
comes tenth Lord Herries of Terregles, ib ; Marmaduke
Constable Maxwell, eleventh Lord Herries, ib ; his son
Joseph marries Mary Monica Scott of Abbotsford, ib.
Origin of the Maxwells of Herries, 48, Sir Herbert
Herries, ib; created a lord, ib. Andrew, second Lord
Herries, ib. William, third Lord Herries, ib. Agnes
Herries marries Sir John Maxwell, ib. Katherine
Herries becomes wife of Sir Alexander Stewart of
Garlics, ib ; Janet Herries marries Sir James Cock-
burn of Stirling, ib. Sir John Maxwell, fourth Lord
Herries of Terregles, ib ; his political life, ib ; his
influence in south of Scotland and at court, ib ; ap-
pointed warden of West Marches, 49 ; endeavours to
maintain peace on the Borders, ib ; incurs displeasure
of Queen Mary, ib ; becomes reconciled to the queen,
ib ; sits on Bothwell's assize, ib ; subscribes bond sup-
porting Queen Mary against the confederate lords, 51 ;
his address before the Estates, ib ; pledges himself to

Index.

421

aid in the liberation of the queen itava. Lochleven, 52 ;
commands at battle of Langside, ib: accompanies the
queen when seeking the protection of Queen Elizabeth,
ib ; Lord Herries submits to the king's government, 53 ;
his death, ib. William Maxwell, fifth Lord Henries,
ib. John, sixth Lord Herries, ib. John, seventh Lord
Hemes, ib ; becomes third Earl of Nithsdale, ib.
Melfort, Dukes of. \See The Drummonds.]
Monmouth, Duke of. \See The Scotts of Buccleuch.]
Montrose, Earls of. \See The Grahams.]
Moray, Earl of, his apprehension by Huntly, and death,

316.
Moray, Regent, his efforts to get King Frederick to

deliver up Bothwell, 261.
Morton, Earls of. \See The Maxwells.]
Munro, Colonel, his commission from the Covenanters
to Viscount Abojrne, 326.

N.
Nbidpath Castle, 381.

Newark Castle, taken possession of by Cromwell, 211.
Nithsdale, Earls of. \See The Maxwells.]

O.

Oliver Castle, description of, 269.

R.
Raeburn, Lairds of, \See The Scotts of Harden.]

S.

Scott, Sir "Walter, his letter to Miss Seward concern-
ing- a romantic story connected with Sir William Scott
of Harden*s wedding, 239.

Scotts of Bucclbuch, The. Fabulous account of the
origin of family name, 188. Richard Scott, 189 ;
takes oath of fealty to Edward I., ib ; his death,
ib. Sir Michael Scott, 190; killed at battle of Hali-
don Hill, ib ; Robert Scott, ib ; John Scott, ib ; Sir
Walter Scott, ib ; his son Robert exchanges lands
of Glenkery for lands of Bellenden, ib. Sir Walter
Scott, ib ; adds to family estates, ib. Ballad having
reference to habits of the Scotts, igi ; the Scotts
espouse the cause of James IL, ib. Sir Walter
rewarded for services to royal cause, ib ; his death,
ib ; Sir David Scott, 192 ; his son marries Lady
Tane Douglas, ib. Friendship between Scotts and * Red
Douglases,* ib. Sir David rewarded with grants of
lands for services rendered James III., ib ; his death,
ib. Sir Walter Scott of Branxholm succeeds to family
estates, 193 ; Sir Walter Scott, his son, inherits estates,
ib ; fights under banner of sovereign at Flodden, ib ;
supports Duke of Albany and French faction against
Queen Margaret, ib ; imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle,
ib ; forms alliance with Earl of Angus, ib ; takes up
arms against Douglas faction, 194 ; attempts to rescue
James from the Douglases, ib ; encounters Angus at
Halidon Hill, ib ; obliged to retire to France, 195 ; par-
doned, ib ; obtains permission to return home, ib ; be-
comes a chief adviser to king, ib ; obtains share of the
Angus estates, ib ; imprisoned by the king, ib. Efforts
made to establish amity between the Scotts and the Kers,
196. Sir Walter's lauds plundered and his castle burnt
by the English, 197 ; accused of giving assistance to
the English, ib ; his estates again laid waste, ib ; holds
meeting with English Warden, ib ; skill of Buccleuch
contributes to victory at Ancrum Moor, 198 ; enters into
bond with Sir Walter Ker for maintenance of royal
authority, ib ; empowered to intercommune with Pro-
tector and Council, 199 ; breaks his engagement with
the English, ib. The lands of Scotts of Teviotdale rav-
aged and plundered by Lord Grey, ib. Buccleucb's ap-
pointments, ib ; attacked and murdered by the Kers,
200. The Kers declared rebels, ib ; allowed to go into
banishment, ib. Buccleuch's marriages, ib. Lady Buc-
cleuch implicated in intrigue of Queen Mary and
Bothwell, 201. Walter Scott succeeds to estates, 202.
Efforts made to heal feud of the Scotts and the Kers, ib.
Sir Walter supports cause of Mary, 203. Branxholm
Castle blown up by English army, ib ; Sir Walter an ac-
tor in plot to surprise Parliament at Stirling, ib ; re-
•.builds Branxholm Castle, ib ; his marriage, ib ; his
death, 204. Sir Walter Scott, ib ; his character, ib ; his
estates damaged in feuds with Elliots and Armstrongs,
ib ; imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle, ib ; banished to
France, ib ; obtains pennission to return, ib ; Botfawell's

estates conferred upon him, ib ; his exploit in the rescue
of Kinmont Willie, 205 ; ballad on the event, ib.
Queen Elizabeth demands Buccleuch to be delivered up
to her, 207. Buccleuch and Cessford make raid into
England in retaliation for English invasion, ib. Buc-
cleuch tried by commission and found guilty, ib ; con-
sents to enter England, 208 ; receives thanks from king
and council for his services^ ib : created Lord Scott of
Buccleuch, ib ; his service in the Low Countries, ib ;
his death, ib. Walter, second Lord Scott, ib ; created
Earl of Buccleuch, ib ; his military service in the
Netherlands, ib ; returns home, 209 ; his §;enerous hos-
pitality, ib ; Sir Walter Scott's description of the
splendour of Branxholm, ib ; his death, 210 ; his funeral,
210 ; his issue by his wife, ib. Francis, second Earl of
Buccleuch, ib ; his education and character, ib ; his
service in cause of Covenanters, ib ; Cromwell fines his
successor, 211; Cromwell takes possession of Newark
and Dalkeith Castles, ib ; the tenants on Buccleuch's
estates suffer from marauding habits of the moss-
troopers, ib ; as justiciary, makes efforts io restrain the
Border thieves, ib. Instances of indictments before
the courts, ib. The earl's death, 212 ; his countess's
character, ib ; makes new settlement of his estates, ib ;
succeeded by his daughter, Lady Mary Scott, 213 ; her
tutors, ib ; intrigues tor her disposal in marriage, ib ;
her marriage, 214 ; an action successfully raised for the
dissolution of her marriage, ib ; her death, 215. Lady
Anne Scott inherits the Buccleuch titles and estates, ib;
her marriage to Duke of Monmouth, ib; King Charles
confers on the duke title of Duke of Buccleuch, &c., ib.
Titles of the duke and the house of Buccleuch resigned,
and regranted to duke and duchess conjointly, 216.
Duke and Duchess of Monmouth remain at court, ib ;
character of the duchess, ib ; her visit to the duke at the
Tower, ib. The English and Scotch titles of the duke for-
feited, 217. The duchess resigns her honours and estates
to Crown and receives a new grant to herself and heirs,
ib. Sentence offorfeiture against Monmouth revoked, ib.
the duchess's second marnage, ib ; Evelyn and John-
son's remarks on her character, ib ; her keen interest in,
and management of her estates, 218; interferes to save
life of a Jacobite, 2rq ; her death, ib. James, Earl of
Dalkeith, ib. Francis, second Duke of"^Buccleuch, ib ;
his marriage, ib ; the forfeited English titles of Duke of
Monmouth restored him, 220 ; his death, ib ; character
of his duchess, ib. Marriage of Francis, Earl of Dal-
keith, ib ; his death, ib. Henry, third Duke of Buc-
cleuch, ib ; succeeds to titles and estates of Queens-
berry family, ib ; travels with Adam Smith, ib ; his
brother, Campbell Scott assassinated, 221 ; raises re-
giment of Feucibles, ib ; Dr. Carlyle's eulogium on
his character, ib ; his death, 222 ; his marriage, ib.
Charles William Hcniy, fourth Duke of Buccleuch
and sixth Duke of Queensberry, ib ; improves the
Queensberry estates, ib ; Sir Walter Scott's notice of
his manner of managing his estates, ib ; the duke's
friendship to Sir Wtilter Scott, 223. The death
of the Duchess of Buccleuch, ib ; Sir Walter Scott's
eulogium on her, ib. The duke visits Lisbon in pur-
suit of health, 225; his death, ib ; Sir Walter Scott's
tribute to his memoir, ib. Walter Francis Montagu
Douglas-Scott, fifth Duke of Buccleuch, 226 ; his edu-
cation, and training, ib ; Sir Walter Scott's visit to him,
227 ; his opinion of the Duke's character, ib ; appointed
Lord- Lieutenant of Midlothian, 228 ; takes his seat in
House of Lords, ib ; receives splendid entertainment
at Dumfries, ib; Sir Walter Scott's impressions and
predictions concerning him, ib ; his deep interest in all
matters pertaining to his estates and agriculture, 229 ;
made president of Highland Agricultural Society, ib ;
his political principles, 230 ; his honours and appoint-
ments, 231 ; celebration of his jubilee, ib ; his death,
232 ; his marriag-e, ib; succeeded by his son, William
Henry Walter, ib.
Scotts of Harden, The. Their descent, 233. Robeit
Scott of Strickshaws, ib. William Scott, first laird ot
Harden, ib ; bis character, ib. Description of Harden
Castle, 234. An anecdote told by Sir Walter Scott
concerning Wat of Harden, ib. Sir Walter Scott's de-
scription of Wat's bugle-horn, 235. A description of
Harden weeping for Willie Scott of Gorrinberry, ib ;
Harden's appearance described by Sir Walter Scott, ib.
Walter Scott of Harden's marriage to Mary Scott, 236.
Their marriage contract, ib j Harden's sons, 237 ; one
of them killed by Scotts of Gilmanscleugh, ib ; tradi-
tionary story of his retainers' foray into Cumberland,
ib ; the story as told by Leyden in * Scenes of In-
fancy,' 238; Harden's death, ib. Sir William Scott, ib;
fined by Cromwell, 239 j Sir Walter Scott's description

VOL. II.

3 o

422

Index.

of a romantic story connected with his marriage, ib ;
his death, 241 ; his issue by Agnes Murray, ib. Little
Sir "William,* ib ; Sir William Scott, fifth Baron ol
Harden, ib ; succeeded by his brother, Robert of Ilis-
ton, ib ; Walter Scott of Highchester inherits estates,
ib ; created Earl of Tarras, &c., ib ; implicated in plot
for excluding Duke of York from Crown, 242 ; saves his
life by confessing his knowledge of the plot, ib ; his
second wife, ib ; his issue by her, ib ; his death, 243 ;
his eldest son, Gideon Scott of Highchester inherits
estates, ib. The estates devolve on second son of Earl of
Tarras, ib. Walter Scott, tenth Baron of Harden, ib ; his
marriage, ib. Lockhart's remarks on the life of Lady
Diana Scott^ ib ; Hugh Scott, eleventh Baron of Harden,
ib ; his marriage, ib ; recovers barony of Polwartb, 244 ;
his death, ib. Henry Francis Hepburn Scott, fifth Baron
Polwarth, ib; inherits estates of Hepbnms of Humbie,
ib ; his marriage, ib ; his offices, ib ; Duke of Buccleuch's
testimony to his personal worth, 245. Walter Hugh
Hepburn Scott, sixth Baron Polwarth, 245. TheScotts
of Raeburn, ib ; first laird subjected to severe persecu-
tion by the Government, 247 ; his son William killed in
a duel, ib. Sir Walter Scott's remarks respecting
Walter Scott, son of first laird of Raeburn, ib. Robert
Scott, ib. Sir Walter Scott's reference to him, ib. The
Scotts of Thirlestane, ib.
Spalding, bis remarks on thelife and character of Marquis

of Huntly, 323. ^

• Squadrone Volante,' The, 397.

Stewarts of Traquair, The. Description and locality
of the House of Traquair, 65. Successive owners or the
estate of Traquair, 66 ; estate conferred on James
Stewart, 67 ; James Stewart killed at battle of Flodden,
ib ; his son supports cause of Queen Mary, ib. John
Stewart inherits the family estates, ib ; his education,
ib ; his offices and appointments, ib ; raised to peerage
by title of Lord Stuart of Traquair, ib ; made Lord
High Treasurer of Scotland, ib ; his prominence in pub-
lic affairs, 68 ; Clarendon's remarks on his wisdom and
dexterity, ib ; King Charles compelled to dismiss him
from his service, 69 ; Charles' letters to him, ib ;
carries out the royal commands when king insists on
adoption of the new Service Book, 70 ; mobbed at Edin-
burgh, ib ; receives letter from the king on occasion of^
the riot, ib ; recommends withdrawal of new liturgy, ib ;
accompanies heralds to Edinburgh Cross on reading of
the royal proclamation, 71; appointed assessor to Royal
Commissioner Hamilton, 72 ; appointedLordHighCom-
missioner to General Assembly, ib ; his duplicity and

deceit in his dealings with Covenanters, ib ; impeached
by Parliament as an incendiary, 73 ; the king interferes
to save him from capital punishment, ib ; subscribes re-
monstrance expressing disapproval of combination of
Estates, ib ; declared an enemy to religion and peace of
the kingdom, 74 ; his goods confiscated and his estates
sequestrated, ib ; his payment for averting entire for-
feiture, ib ; appointed member of the Committee of
Estates, ib ; raises troop for the Engagement, ib ;
taken prisoner at battle of Preston, ib ; confined in
Warwick Castle, ib ; his estates again sequestrated, ib ;
receives his liberty, ib ; the poverty and obscurity of his
latter days, ib ; his son, Lord Linton refuses him assis-
tance, ib ; his death, 75 ; a traditionary story of his un-
scrupulousness, ib ; employs William Armstrong to
carry off Lord Durie, 76; employs Armstrong to con-
vey important letters to the king, 78. Lord Linton in-
herits titles and remnant of estates, ib ; elected elder
of the kirk, 79 ; his marriages, ib ; fined, excommuni-
cated, and imprisoned, ib ; censured by the Presbytery,
ib ; an entry in Justice of Peace Records respecting
him, 8cf; his death, ib. Lady Tiaquair disobeys sum-
mons to attend Holyrood House, ib ; warrant issued to
bring her and her son before the council, ib ; William,
third Earl of Traquair, ib. George, fourth earl, ib ;
embraces Romish faith, ib ; suffers annoyance for his
reli^ous opinions, 81. Charles, seventh Earl of Tra-
quair, 82 ; makes application for exclusive working of
mines in Spain, ib ; endeavours to obtain grandeesbip
and establishment in Spain, ib. Family titles become
extinct, ib. Lady Louisa Stuart inherits the family
estates, ib ; her life and character, ib ; political and
commercial changes on the continent ana in Scotland,
and the progress of agriculture and general intelligence
in Tweeddale during her lifetime, S3.
Strathbogie Castle, blown up, 320.

T.

Throndesson, Anna, her prosecution of Bothwell, 259.

WiSHART, George, his seizure by Bothwell, and martjr-
dom, 252.

Yester, Lords and Earls of. {See The Hays of
Tweeddale.]

ADDENDA.

THE ANGUS-DOUGLASES.

It is mentioned in the Douglas Book, which has been issued since these
volumes were in type, that James, second Marquis of Douglas, inherited
the family estates so heavily burdened, that it was computed he would
not havB;^ i,ooo a' year to maintain himself and his household. Under the
management of William Lawrie of Blackwood, his principal chamberlain,
matters went from bad to worse. He was evidently an unprincipled, un-
truthful, and dishonest person, but he continued to insinuate himself into
the favour of the Marquis, who placed unbounded confidence in him, and
entrusted him with the complete control of his affairs. No account
could be obtained from him of their condition, and it was not until nearly
the very close of the Marquis's life that, through the interference of Lord
Lothian, Blackwood very reluctantly allowed the relations of the Marquis
to make inquiry into the condition of that nobleman's affairs. They found
ever)rthing in a state of utter confusion. But it was with difficulty that
the Marquis was induced to grant a commission for the management of
his affairs to the Duke of Queensberry and a number of other noblemen
and gentlemen. They immediately discharged Blackwood and appointed
another chamberlain in his place. In the end the eyes of the Marquis were
opened to the real character of the man who had deceived and almost
ruined him. Before the commissioners were formally invested with
authority to act for the Marquis, they prevailed upon him to divest him-
self of his estate in favour of his only surviving son and successor. They
allowed the weak-minded nobleman a fixed sum of 12,000 marks yearly
for the support of himself and his household, and with the remnant of the
rental they had to extinguish debt amounting to upwards of ^240,000
Scots. They found the barony of Tantallon so heavily encumbered that it
VOL. 11. 3 p

424 Addenda.

was deemed advisable to sell it, and it was disposed of in 1699 to Sir
Hew Dalrymple, of North Berwick, President of the Court of Session.
Under the judicious management of the commissioners the Douglas
estates were eventually freed of their incumbrances.

Blackwood inflicted a much more serious injury on the Marquis than
the fraudulent mismanagement of his pecuniary affairs. There can be no
doubt that it was owing to his machinations that the Marquis was sepa-
rated from his wife, Lady Barbara Erskine, eldest daughter of the Earl of
Mar. According to tradition Blackwood had been an unsuccessful suitor
to this lady, and his position as the confidential chamberlain of Lord
Douglas gave him peculiar facilities for executing the atrdcious ven-
geance which he had projected against her for her rejection of his suit.
" By a train of proceedings," says Robert Chambers, " somewhat similar
to those of lago, and in particular by pretending to have discovered a
pair of men's shoes underneath the Marchioness's bed, he completely suc-
ceeded in breaking up the affection of the unfortunate couple. Lord
Douglas, who, though a man of profligate conduct, had hitherto treated
his wife with some degree of politeness, now rendered her life so miserable
that she was obliged to seek refuge with her father. The Earl came with
a large retinue to carry her off, when, according to the ballad as well
as the tradition of the country, a most affecting scene took place. The
Marquis himself was so much overcome by the parting of his wife and
child, that he expressed even in that last hour a desire of being recon-
ciled to her. But the traitorous Lawrie succeeded in preventing him from
so doing by a well- aimed sarcasm at his weakness."

The belief that Blackwood was the chief cause of this unhappy quarrel
between the Marquis and Marchioness was current at the time among the
Douglas tenantry, and is fully borne out by the family papers. The
Marquis consulted Blackwood and followed his advice at every step in
this affair, sending him copies of the letters he wrote to his wife, and sub-
scribing whatever documents Blackwood thought fit to prepare. Before
1677 the Marchioness was constrained to invoke the interposition of the
Privy Council to protect her against the ill-usage of the Marquis, and in
February of that year she renewed her complaint, and made application
for the judicial allocation of an aliment on which she might live apart
from her husband. Four years elapsed, however, before her petition was
carried into effect. In February, 1681, a formal contract of separation
was made between James, Marquis of Douglas, and Charles, Earl of Mar,
on behalf of his sister, whereby she was to receive an aliment of three
thousand marks yearly, and to live apart from her husband. As the deed

Addenda. 425

was a mutual document no recriminating charges were made on either
side, but it was merely stated that there are "great animosities, mis-
takes, and differences betwixt the Marquis and his lady, which have
arisen to a great height, so that neither of them are satisfied longer
to continue together." The Marchioness died about 1690 without being
reconciled to the Marquis. The ballad referred to by Chambers is styled
" Lord Jamie Douglas," sometimes the " Marchioness of Douglas." It
is very long, consisting of thirty-four verses, and is characterised by a
good deal of poetic licence, but some parts of it are very pathetic. It
distinctly imputes the blame of the misunderstanding and separation to
the machinations of the unprincipled chamberlain.

" Awa, awa, thou fause Blackwood,

Aye, and an ill death may thou dee ! [die]
Thou wert the first and occasion last,
Of parting my gay love and me.

" When I lay sick, and very sick,
Sick I was, and like to dee,
A gentleman, a friend of mine,

He came on purpose to visit me ;
But Blackwood whisper'd in my lord's ear,
He was ower lang in chamber with me."

The ballad was often sung by an elderly female, a retainer of the family,
to the Duke of Douglas, son of the unfortunate lady, who while listening

to it was in the habit of vituperating in no measured terms the

villain who had maligned and so deeply injured his mother.

THE FAMILY OF THE HAYS.
Vol. IL p. 379.

The Marquis of Tweeddale reminds me that I have omitted to mention
the well-known anecdote respecting the behaviour of Lord Charles Hay,
second son of the second Marquis of Tweeddale, at the Battle of Fontenoy.
It is thus related by Carlyle in his history of Frederick the Great of
Prussia.

" The head of the English column comes to sight on the rising ground
close by ; the officers doff their hats, politely saluting ours, who return
courtesy. Was ever such politeness seen before ? It is a fact among the

426 Addenda.

memorablest of this battle. Nay, a certain officer of rank, Lord Charles
Hay the name of him, valued surely in the annals of the Hay and Tweed-
dale house, steps forward from the ranks as if wishing something.
Toward whom (says the accurate Espagna) the Marquis d'Auteroche,
Grenadier Lieutenant, with a mien of polite interrogation, not knowing
what he meant, made a step or two. 'Monsieur,' said Lord Charles
Hay, ' bid your people fire.' ' Non, Monsieur, we never fire first/ Is not
this a bit of modern chivalry ? "

CORRIGENDA.

Vol. I., p. 96, line 31, for " seven " read " eight."

„ p. 120, „ 27, insert "not " after " experience has."
„ p- 17 1> footnote, for " Cardonnet " read " Cardonnel."
» P- 373j line 9, for "Woler" read "Wooler."
» P- 379> )> 32, for "Douglas " read "Dunglass."

THE END.

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