|
BETHUNE,
or BEATON, a surname of
French origin, which belonged to an illustrious house in France, from which
sprung the duke of Sully, the celebrated minister of Henry IV. It was
derived from Bethune, a town in French Flanders. The Bethunes came into
England with William the Conqueror. One of them was the companion of Richard
Coeur de Lion, on his return from the Holy Land, and was made prisoner along
with him by the duke of Austria. Duchesne, in his ‘Histoire de la Maison de
Bethune,’ derives the Scottish branch from a certain Jacobin de Bethune,
who, he says, came to Scotland about 1448, but there are authentic documents
to prove that the family were settled in this country as early as 1165. In
the end of the reign of William the Lion, or beginning of that of his son,
Alexander the Second, Robert de Beton is witness to a charter by Rogerus de
Quincy, comes de Wincestre (incorrectly called Winton and sometimes Wigton,
in the current genealogies of ancient families), constabularius Scotie, to
Seyerus de Seton, of an annuity out of the miln and miln lands of Travernent
or Tranent. In a charter of mortification of lands “in territorio de
Kenmuir” (now Kirriemuir) in the county of Angus, to the monks of
Aberbrothwick, David de Beton and Joannes de Beton are witnesses. It was in
that county that the family of the Bethunes then had their principal
possessions. The chief of them was the laird of Westhall, of whom the rest
are descended. In the beginning of the reign of Alexander the Third, about
1250, Dominus David de Betun and Robertus de Betun are, with several others,
witnesses to a charter of Christiana de Valoines, Lady Panmure, to John
Lydell, of the lands of Balbanin and Panlathine. Among those who swore
fealty to Edward the First of England, and were present at the discussion of
the pleas for the crown of Scotland betwixt John Baliol and Robert Bruce was
Robert de Betune. [See Prynne’s History]; and amongst the seals, yet
preserved, that are appended to King Edward’s decision, 1292, is “sigillum
Roberti de Betune de Scotia, which is a fesse, and on a chief of file of
three pendants.” Several of this name are witnesses to charters by Duncal
earl of Fife.
David de Betun,
miles, and Alexander de Betun, were at the parliament held at Cambuskenneth,
6th November 1314; and to the act of forfeiture passed in that
parliament is appended one of their seals, which is the same coat of arms
that is on the forementioned seal of Robert de Betune. Alexander de Bethune
continued faithful to the family of Bruce, and was knighted for his valour.
He was slain in the battle of Dupplin 12th August, 1332.
As stated in the
article on the surname of Balfour [which see, ante], in the fifth
year of the reign of Robert the Second, Robert de Bethune, styled
“familiarius regis,” a younger son of the above-named Sir Alexander, married
the daughter and heiress of Sir John Balfour of that ilk, and his son
succeeding to the estate, the family was afterwards designed Bethune of
Balfour. Of that family several of the Fife heritors were descended, and
James Bethune, archbishop of St. Andrews and chancellor of Scotland; his
nephew Cardinal Bethune; and the cardinal’s nephew, James Bethune,
archbishop of Glasgow, were all sons of this house of Balfour. Notices of
these three remarkable personages follow this article in their order. In all
our histories the name is incorrectly spelled Beaton. The descendants of the
family prefer it in its original and more illustrious form of Bethune.
In the reign of
James the Fourth, the estate of Creich in the parish of that name in Fife
was acquired by Sir David Bethune, second son of Sir John Bethune of Balfour
and Marjory Boswell, daughter of the laird of Balmuto. Sir David was brought
up from his youth with James the Fourth, who held him in great favour. He
was first appointed comptroller of the exchequer, and subsequently lord high
treasurer of the kingdom, which office he retained till his death. [Crawford’s
Officers of State, p. 368.] He acquired the lands of Creich from the
Littles or Liddels, in 1502. He married a daughter of Duddingston of
Sandford in Fife. Janet, their elder daughter, from whom many of the chief
nobility and gentry in Scotland are descended, was married first to Sir
Thomas Livingston of Easter Wemyss, and after his death she became the third
wife of James, the first earl of Arran of the Hamiltons, and nephew of King
James the Third. Her eldest son by the latter marriage was James, second
earl of Arran and duke of Chatelherault, who became regent of the kingdom.
Mary, the younger daughter, married Lord Lyle. This Sir David Bethune was an
uncle of the cardinal, being a younger brother of his father, the laird of
Balfour.
His son and heir,
Sir John Bethune, the second proprietor of Creich of the name of Bethune,
married Janet Hay, daughter of John Hay, provost of Dundee, and niece of the
laird of Naughton in Fifeshire, by whom he had four sons and seven
daughters. Janet, their eldest daughter, married, first, the laird of
Cranston, secondly, the laird of Craigmillar, and thirdly, Sir Walter Scott
of Buccleuch, ancestor of the dukes of Buccleuch [see BUCCLEUCH, duke of].
To her last husband she bore four daughters. She appears to have been a
woman of a masculine spirit, as she rode at the head of the clan when called
out to avenge the death of Buccleuch. “She possessed also,” says Sir Walter
Scott, “the hereditary abilities of her family in such a degree that the
superstition of the vulgar imputed them to supernatural knowledge.” This
belief in her witchcraft and the spirit of faction led to the foul
accusation against her of having instigated Queen Mary to the murder of her
husband. This daughter of the house of Creich has become familiarly known
from the prominent place she occupies in Sir Walter Scott’s poem of the Lay
of the Last Minstrel. A copy of a letter of hers, to the queen-regent, Mary
of Guise, is published in the Maitland Club Miscellany. Sir John Bethune was
keeper of the palace of Falkland, as his father had been, and steward of
Fife, during part of the reign of James the Fifth.
He was succeeded
by his eldest son, David, who died, unmarried, in 1539, when the second son,
Robert Bethune, inherited the family estate. The latter was early attached
to the royal household, and attended the young queen, Mary, to France as a
page. On her return to Scotland in 1561, he was appointed master of the
household, heritable steward of Fife, and keeper of Falkland palace. He
married a French lady, Joanna Renwall or Gryssoner, a maid of honour to the
queen. By her he had two sons and eight daughters. His eldest daughter, Mary
Bethune, was one of the queen’s “four Maries,” whose extraordinary beauty
has been nearly as much celebrated as her own. An original portrait of Mary
Bethune, in full court dress, is still preserved at Balfour house in Fife,
as is also one of the Cardinal. She married, in 1566, Alexander Ogilvy of
Boyne, the representative of an old and respectable branch of the noble
family of Findlater. Both she and her husband were alive in 1606. The
marriage contract between these parties has been published by the Maitland
Club, in Part I. of their Miscellany. It is subscribed by the queen and
Henry Darnley, and by the earls of Huntly, Argyle, Bothwell, Murray, and
Athol, as cautioners for the bridegroom; by Ogilvy himself as Boyne and by
Mary Bethune. The signatures of the bride’s father and Michael Balfour of
Burleigh, his cautioner, are wanting. The beauty of Mary Bethune has been
celebrated by George Buchanan in his Valentiniana.
David Bethune, the
eldest son of Robert, succeeded him as fifth proprietor of Creich. He
married Euphan P.B. Leslie, daughter of the earl of Rothes, by whom he had
an only daughter, but being desirous that the estate of Creich should
continue to be possessed only by those of the name of Bethune, he disponed
it to his brother, James, parson of Roxburgh, who married, first, Helen
Leslie, heiress of Kinniard, and after her death, Margaret Wemyss, eldest
daughter of David Wemyss of that ilk, from whom it is said the earls of
Wemyss are descended. Their eldest son and grandson succeeded to the estate
as the seventh and eighth proprietors.
The latter, David
Bethune, married Lady Margaret Cunninghame, third daughter of the eighth
earl of Glencairn; but she having no family to him, and his brother William
having no male children, he sold the estate of Creich to James Bethune, then
friar of Balfour, reserving to himself the liferent of the most part, and to
his lady the liferent of thirty-two chalders of victual. Lamont, in his
Diary of Fife, mentions that this laird of Creich, soon after disponing his
property, died at his dwelling-house at Denbough, 4th March 1660.
The estate was afterwards united to that of Balfour.
During the period
in which the Bethunes of Creich flourished probably no family of their rank
in Scotland formed so great a number of matrimonial connexions with the
noble and more powerful families of the kingdom than did its members.
BETHUNE, BEATON, or
BETON, JAMES,
Archbishop of St.
Andrews in the reign of James V., was the sixth and youngest son of John
Bethune of Balfour, by Mary, daughter of Sir David Boswell of Balmuto. Being
a younger brother, he was early destined for the church; and, while yet
young, was by the earl of Angus appointed provost of the collegiate church
of Bothwell. He received his first benefice in 1503, and next year was
advanced to the rich preferment of abbot of Dunfermline, or Dumferling, as
it was then called. In 1505, upon the death of his brother, Sir David
Bethune, the king bestowed upon him the staff of the high treasurer, and he
was thereafter considered one of the principal ministers of state. In 1508
he was promoted to the bishopric of Galloway, and before he had held that
see a year, he was made archbishop of Glasgow, on which he resigned the
treasurer’s staff, that he might have more leisure to attend to his diocese.
It does not appear that he had any share in the counsels that drove King
James IV. into a war with England, which led to the fatal and disastrous
battle of Flodden Field, where that unfortunate monarch was slain. On the
king’s death, the regent duke of Albany appointed Archbishop Bethune to be
high chancellor; and gave him for the support of his dignity the two rich
abbeys of Kilwinning and Arbroath, which he held with his archbishopric
in commendam; and by this means drew him over from the faction of the
Douglas to his own party. In 1517, on the duke of Albany going to France,
the archbishop was appointed one of the governors of Scotland, but the
kingdom was in such confusion, that they were glad to devolve their whole
power upon the earl of Arran. A convention of estates being summoned to meet
at Edinburgh, April 29, 1520, the earl of Arran, with the chief of the
western nobility, assembled together in the archbishop’s house, at the
bottom of Blackfriars Wynd, where they resolved to apprehend the earl of
Angus, alleging that his power was so great, that so long as he was free,
they could not have a free parliament. Angus, informed of their design, sent
his uncle, Douglas, bishop of Dunkeld, to the archbishop, offering, if he
had failed in any point of his duty, to submit himself to the convention
then about to meet, and the bishop earnestly recommended a compromise to
prevent the effusion of blood. Bethune, who had put armour on under his
cassock, laid the blame wholly on the earl of Arran, but concluded with
saying, “There is no remedy! Upon my conscience, I cannot help it!” And
striking his breast with his hand, to give force to his asseveration, his
concealed coat of mail rattled so loud as to be heard by Bishop Douglas, who
exclaimed, “How now, my lord, methinks your conscience clatters; we are
priests; and to put on armour, or to bear arms, is not consistent with our
character,” and so left him. the two factions having come to an engagement
in the streets, Arran’s party were defeated, when the archbishop fled for
sanctuary to the church of the Blackfriars, and was taken out from behind
the altar, part of his dress being torn, and would certainly have been
slain, had not the bishop of Dunkeld interceded for him. In 1523 he was
appointed archbishop of St. Andrews by the duke of Albany, who had returned
from France two years before and resumed the regency. On the abrogation,
soon after, of the regent’s power by parliament, the earl of Angus having
placed himself at the head of the government, the archbishop was dismissed
the court, and obliged to resign the office of chancellor. When the
Douglases were driven from court, the archbishop came again into power, but
did not recover the office of chancellor. He now resided principally at the
palace of St. Andrews, where at the instigation of his nephew, the cardinal,
he proceeded violently to persecute the protestants, and caused Patrick
Hamilton, the protomartyr of Scotland, a young man of piety, talents, and
noble birth, to be burned to death. The sentence was subscribed by the two
archbishops, three bishops, six abbots and friars, and eight divines. It is
stated that the archbishop was himself averse to these severities, and the
following two stories are told to show that he was not naturally inclined to
such proceedings. It happened that, at one of the consultations of the
clergy, some vehemently pressed for the continuance of rigorous measures
against all who preached the reforming doctrines, when one Mr. John Lindsay,
a man in great credit with the archbishop, said, “If you burn any more of
them, take my advice, and burn them in cellars, for I dare assure you, that
the smoke of Mr. Patrick Hamilton has infected all that it blew upon.” The
other case was of a more serious nature. One Alexander Seton, a Black Friar,
preached openly in the church of St. Andrews, that, according to St. Paul’s
description of bishops, there were no bishops in Scotland; which being
reported to the primate, not in very precise terms, he sent for Seton, and
reproved him sharply for having said, according to his information, “That a
bishop who did not preach was but a dumb dog, who fed not the flock, but fed
his own belly.” Seton said that those who had reported this were liars, upon
which witnesses were produced, who testified very positively to the words
having been uttered. On which Seton, in reply, delivered himself thus: “My
lord, you have heard, and may consider, what ears these asses have, who
cannot discern between Paul, Isaiah, Zechariah, Malachi, and Friar Alexander
Seton. In truth, my lord, I did preach that Paul saith, it behoveth a bishop
to be a teacher. Isaiah saith, that they that feed not the flock are dumb
dogs; and the prophet Zechariah saith, that they are idle pastors. Of my own
head I affirmed nothing, but declared what the Spirit of God before
pronounced; at whom, my lord, if you be not offended, you cannot justly be
offended with me.” How much soever the bishop might be incenses, he
dismissed Friar Seton without punishment, who soon after fled out of the
kingdom. The archbishop in future, instead of acting himself, granted
commissions to those who were more inclined to proceed against such as
preached the doctrines of the Reformation, which seems to justify the remark
of Spottiswood: “Seventeen years,” says that writer, “he lived bishop of
this see, and was herein most unfortunate, that, under the shadow of his
authority, many good men were put to death for the cause of religion, though
he himself was neither violently set not much solicitous, as it was thought,
how matters went in the church.” He had, in fact, committed the charge of
all church matters to his nephew the cardinal. For the promotion of
learning, he founded the New College in the university of St. Andrews, which
he did not live to finish, and to which he left the best part of his estate,
but, after his death, it was misapplied, and did not come, as he intended,
to that foundation. One of the last acts of his life was the being present
at the baptism of the young prince, born at St. Andrews the very year in
which he died. The king retained to the last so great an affection for the
archbishop, that he allowed him to dispose of all his preferments as he
thought proper. He died in 1539, and was interred in the cathedral church of
St. Andrews, before the high altar, having held the primacy of Scotland
sixteen years. – Keith’s Scottish Bishops. – Pitscottie’s History.
BETHUNE, BEATON, or
BETON, DAVID,
CARDINAL, PRIMATE, AND
LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF Scotland, nephew of the preceding, was the third son
of John Bethune of Balfour, elder brother of the archbishop, by Isobel,
daughter of David Monypenny of Pitmilly. He was born at the mansionhouse of
Balfour in 1494, and in October 1511 became a student at the university of
St. Andrews. He was afterwards sent to Paris, where he studied theology and
the canon and civil laws for some years. In due time he entered into holy
orders, and was preferred by his uncle to the rectory of Campsie in
Stirlingshire, in the diocese of Glasgow. In 1519 the duke of Albany, regent
during the minority of James V., appointed him resident for Scotland at the
French court. In 1523 his uncle, being translated from Glasgow to St.
Andrews, and become primate of Scotland, resigned in his favour the abbey of
Aberbrothwick, or Arbroath, retaining for himself one half of the rents
thereof. On his return to Scotland in 1525, he took his place in parliament
as superior of the abbey of Arbroath, the yearly revenues of which exceeded
£10,000 sterling of our money. In October 1527, as we learn from Pitcairn’s
‘Criminal Trials,’ John Bethune of Balfour, and others, having been indicted
for an assault upon the sheriff of Fife, and bail found for their
appearance, the abbot of Arbroath became bound to relieve John Wardlaw of
Torry of the cautionary obligation. In 1528 he was appointed by the young
king, to whom he had recommended himself by his address and abilities, lord
privy seal, in the place of the bishop of Dunkeld. He is said to have been
the adviser of James in instituting the college of justice, or court of
session, in 1530, the idea of which was suggested by the constitution of the
parliament of Paris. In February 1533, Bethune, now prothonotary public, was
sent ambassador to France, with Sir Thomas Erskine, to obtain a renewal of
the ancient league between the two nations, and to negotiate a marriage
between James and the Princess Magdalene. His skillful penetration enabled
him to transmit to James much important intelligence respecting the plans of
his uncle Henry VIII., by which he avoided a serious quarrel with the
English monarch. He returned to Scotland with James V. and his young queen,
whom he had married in France, January 1, 1537. On Queen Magdalene’s death,
of consumption, on the 7th July following, he was again sent to
France to negotiate a second marriage of James with Mary, daughter of the
Duke of Guise, widow of the duke of Longueville. Returning with that
princess, he solemnized the marriage in the cathedral church of St. Andrews.
It is supposed that when he was in France on this occasion, he procured the
papal bull, dated February 12, 1537, for the erection of St. Mary’s college,
St. Andrews. In November of the same year, Francis I. conferred upon him all
the privileges of a native-born subject of France, and gave him the rich
bishopric of Mirepoix, in Languedoc, to which see he was consecrated in the
succeeding December. On his return home, he became coadjutor to his uncle,
now much advanced in years, in the see of St. Andrews. On the 28th
of December 1538, on the recommendation of the king of France, and in
consideration of his zeal, talents, and influence in his native country,
Pope Paul III. advanced him to the dignity of a cardinal, by the title of
Cardinal of St. Stephen in Monte Caelis; and June 20, 1539, the king
of France renewed his letters of naturalization, allowing his heirs, though
born in Scotland, to inherit his estate in that country.
In the autumn of
1539, on his uncle’s death, he succeeded him in the primacy, and soon after
his instalment he commenced a furious persecution of the Reformers, for the
total extirpation of the Protestant doctrines. In order to be invested with
supreme authority in all matters ecclesiastical, he obtained from the Pope
the appointment of legatus natus, and legate a latere, in
Scotland. In May 1540, accompanied by the leading nobility and clergy, he
made a public entrance into St. Andrews with great pomp and splendour, and
from his throne in the cathedral delivered a long address to those
assembled, declaring the dangers which threatened the Holy Catholic Church
from the proceedings of Henry Viii. in England, and the increase of heresy
in Scotland, which, he said, had invaded the precincts of the royal court.
Sir John Borthwick, provost or captain of Linlithgow, denounced for heresy,
whom he had caused to be cited to answer there before him, not appearing,
was condemned as a heretic and seditious incendiary, his goods confiscated,
and all intercourse prohibited with him on pain of excommunication.
Borthwick was accordingly burned in effigy, both at St. Andrews and
Edinburgh; but he himself had taken refuge in England, and so escaped the
fury of the cardinal. To remove the odium of the persecutions, on which he
had now entered, from the clergy, the cardinal had the address to induce the
king to appoint a Court of Inquisition to inquire after heretics in every
part of the kingdom, promising him a yearly sum of 30,000 crowns of gold
from the clergy, and persuading him that he could add to his revenues at
least 100,000 crowns per annum more, by annexing the estates of convicted
heretics to the crown. Of this court of inquisition, Sir James Hamilton,
natural brother of the earl of Arran, was appointed Judge; but he was the
same year executed for high treason. The cardinal had, it is said, prepared
a black list, which was presented to the king, of three hundred and sixty of
the chief nobility and gentry suspected of heresy, at the head of which was
the earl of Arran; but the disastrous overthrow of the Scots at Solway Moss
prevented the contemplated prosecutions and confiscations being carried into
execution. On the king’s death at Falkland soon after, December 14, 1542,
the cardinal, who, with some others, was with him at the time of his
decease, was accused of having forged his will, by which he and the earls of
Huntly, Argyle, and Murray, were appointed regents during the minority of
the infant Queen Mary. His scheme was, however, defeated. Within a week
after, the earl of Arran, being supported by most of the nobility, was
proclaimed regent and governor of the kingdom.
On January 20,
1542-3, the cardinal was arrested, and imprisoned in the castle of
Blackness, charged with writing to the duke of Guise to being a French army
into Scotland, drive Arran from the regency, and overthrow the negotiations
which were then forming between the English monarch and the ruling party in
Scotland, for a marriage between the young Prince of Wales, afterwards
Edward VI., and the infant Queen of Scots. For this charge Arran admitted to
Sir Ralph Sadler, the English ambassador, that there was no evidence; “but,”
he said, “we have other matters to charge him with, for he did forge the
late king’s testament; and when the king was even almost dead, he took his
hand in his, and caused it to subscribe a blank paper; and, besides that,
since he has been a prisoner, he has given special and secret command to his
men to keep his stronghold and castle of St. Andrews against us, which is
plain disobedience and rebellion.” The cardinal’s imprisonment created great
consternation among the clergy. “The public services of religion,” observes
Mr. Tytler in his History, “were instantly suspended, the priests refused to
administer the sacraments of baptism and burial, the churches were closed, a
universal gloom overspread the countenances of the people, and the country
presented the melancholy appearance of a land excommunicated for some awful
crime.” He was soon after liberated, and reconciled to his cousin the
regent, who was induced publicly, in the church of the Franciscans at
Stirling, to abjure the protestant faith, which he had for some time
professed. On the young queen’s coronation, the cardinal was again admitted
of the council, and the regent appointed him chancellor of the realm.
In January 1545-6,
the cardinal, accompanied by the regent and several of the nobility, made a
diocesan visitation of the counties under his jurisdiction, with the object
of punishing with the utmost severity all the protestants he could find. On
his arrival at Perth, a number of persons were accused of heresy by a friar
named Spence. Of these, four citizens and a woman were on the 25th
January, cruelly put to death; the men being hanged and the woman drowned.
The names of these martyrs were, William Anderson, Robert Lamb, James
Ronald, and James Finlayson, and Helen Stark, the wife of Finlayson. The
crime of three of the men consisted, according to Knox and others, in having
“eaten a goose on Good Friday.” The woman was accused of having refused to
invoke the Virgin during her labour, declaring that she would direct her
prayers to God alone in the name of Christ. The cardinal is said to have
witnessed the execution from a window in the Spy tower, a building in the
earl of Gowrie’s garden. Some of the citizens of Perth were banished from
the city. Lord Ruthven, the provost, was deposed from his office; and
Charteris of Kinfauns, a neighbouring proprietor, although by no means
friendly to the cardinal, or averse to the protestant doctrines, appointed
in his place. The citizens of Perth, however, would not acknowledge him as
provost, and, urged by the cardinal and regent to take possession of the
city by force, he was compelled to retire, after a fight where sixty of his
followers were slain. The cardinal and regent now proceeded towards Dundee,
where the New Testament in the original Greek had been some time taught; but
within a few miles of that town, they were stopped by the approach of the
earl of Rothes and Lord Gray, both noblemen favourable to the Reformation,
at the head of a large body of their armed retainers. In consequence, they
returned to Perth, where, by a manoeuvre of the cardinal, both Rothes and
Gray, who had followed them, were arrested and lodged in prison. Rothes soon
obtained his liberty, but Gray was not released for some time. At Arbroath,
whither the cardinal and his party next went, he succeeded in apprehending a
Black Friar named John Rogers, who had been going about preaching the
protestant doctrines, and whom he confined in the sea tower of the castle of
St. Andrews. A few mornings thereafter Rogers was found dead among the rocks
under the castle, as if he had fallen and broken his neck while attempting
to make his escape during the night. But there were not wanting those who
stated and believed that the cardinal had caused the friar to be privately
murdered, and thrown over the wall.
Shortly after
Bethune presided at a provincial council of the clergy held in the church of
the Black Friars, Edinburgh, when he enforced upon them the necessity of
proceeding vigorously against all those who either encouraged, or were
suspected of encouraging, the protestant doctrines, at the same time
recommending to them to reform their own lives, that no further complaints
might be heard against the church. In the midst of their deliberations, the
cardinal received intelligence that the celebrated George Wishart, the most
eminent protestant preacher of his time, was residing at the house of
Cockburn of Ormiston, in Haddingtonshire. A troop of horse was immediately
sent off to secure him, but Cockburn refusing to deliver him up, the
cardinal himself and the regent followed, blocking up every avenue to the
house, so as to render escape impossible. The earl of Bothwell being sent
for, pledged his faith to Cockburn, that he would stand by Wishart, and see
that his life and person would be safe, on which Wishart delivered himself
up; and Bothwell having basely surrendered him to the cardinal, he was
conveyed first to Edinburgh Castle, and afterwards to St. Andrews, where he
was committed to the castle prison. Being brought before the ecclesiastical
tribunal, he was condemned for heresy, and burnt with great cruelty. the
cardinal and other prelates witnessed the scene from a window in the castle,
and, according to Buchanan and others, the following prediction was uttered
by Wishart in the midst of the torturing flames: “He who now so proudly
looks down upon me from yonder lofty place, (pointing to the cardinal,)
shall in a few days be as ignominiously thrown down as now he proudly lolls
at his east.” This cruel execution was conducted in defiance of a letter
which the regent had written to him, to stay the proceedings until he should
come himself to St. Andrews, and threatening that, if he did not, the blood
of Wishart would be required at his hands. Wishart died with great firmness,
constancy, and Christian courage; and his death caused great excitement in
the kingdom, which, however, the cardinal, conceiving that he had done a
meritorious action, paid no attention to.
In April 1546,
shortly after the martyrdom of Wishart, the cardinal proceeded to the castle
of Finhaven, to the marriage of the eldest of his illegitimate daughters by
Mrs. Marion Ogilvy, of the house of Airly, with whom he had long lived in
scandalous concubinage, and there, with infamous effrontery, married her to
the eldest son of the earl of Crawford, giving with her 4,000 merks of
dowry. The marriage-contract, subscribed by him, in which he styles her “my
daughter,” is yet extant. In the midst of the marriage rejoicings,
intelligence was received that an English fleet had appeared off the coast,
and he immediately returned to St. Andrews, and began to fortify his castle,
but while thus engaged preparing against foreign enemies, he had no
suspicion of any at home. He had procured from Norman Leslie, eldest son of
the earl of Rothes, a bond of manrent or feudal service for the
estate of Easter Wemyss, which Leslie had resigned to the cardinal on a
promise of an advantageous equivalent. Demanding the fulfilment of the
bargain, the proud priest refused, on which, dreading the primate’s
vengeance, Norman concerted measures with his uncle, Mr. John Leslie, a
violent enemy of the cardinal, and some other persons, to cut him off. There
were very few concerned in this conspiracy, the principal persons being the
two Leslies, William Kirkaldy of Grange, Peter Carmichael of Fife, and James
Melville of Raith, most of whom had some private cause of wrong against the
cardinal. On the 28th of May 1546, Norman Leslie entered St.
Andrews with some followers, but not so many as to excite suspicion. The
others assembled in that city during the evening; Kirkaldy came there on the
previous day; John Leslie arrived late, lest his appearance should excite
alarm. Next morning they assembled early in the vicinity of the castle, and
on the porter lowering the drawbridge, to admit the workmen whom the
cardinal had been employing incessantly at the fortifications. Norman Leslie
entered with three men; and while speaking to the porter, as to the hour
when the cardinal would be stirring and could be seen, Kirkaldy of Grange
and his party also gained admission into the court-yard. John Leslie now
appeared with a few attendants, but when the porter saw him he suspected the
design, and attempted to lift the drawbridge. He was prevented by Leslie,
who sprang across the gap with his attendants, slew the porter, threw the
body into the foss, and seized the keys of the fortress. the workmen and
domestics, about one hundred and fifty individuals, were then ejected, and
being now in full possession of the fortress, before there was even an alarm
in the town, they dropped the portcullis, and closed the gates. The
cardinal, roused by the noise, arose from his couch. According to Knox,
Marion Ogilvy had been with him the preceding night, and she was “espy’d to
depart from him by the privy postern that morning.” Opening the casement, he
inquired the cause of the noise. A voice answered him that Norman Leslie had
taken the castle. He ran to the postern, but finding it locked, he returned
to his apartment, and seizing a sword, proceeded to barricade the door with
the heaviest furniture, assisted by the page or attendant who waited on him.
John Leslie now advanced to the prelate’s room, and demanded admittance.
“Who is there?” inquired the cardinal. “My name is Leslie,” replied the
assailant. “Which of the Leslies?” asked the cardinal; “are you Norman? – I
must have Norman, he is my friend” “Content yourself with those who are
here,” was the reply, “for you will get no other.” They then insisted that
the cardinal should open the door, which he had refused to do. While they
were attempting to force it, the prelate concealed a box of gold under some
coals in a corner of the room, and then sat down on a chair, exclaiming to
those outside, “ I am a priest; I am a priest.” Finding them resolute to
gain admittance, he at length asked them if they would save his life. “It
may be that we will,” replied John Leslie. “Nay,” said the cardinal, “swear
unto me by God’s wounds, and I will admit you.” The elder Leslie now called
out for fire, the door from its strength resisting all their
exertions. a quantity of burning coals was brought to burn the door, when
the cardinal, or his chamberlain, seeing farther resistance hopeless, opened
the door, on the strongest assurances of personal safety. On their entrance
he cried out, “I am a priest, I am a priest; you will not slay me!” They
rushed on the cardinal, and John Leslie, and another conspirator named
Carmichael, repeatedly struck him. But Melville of Raith, who had been
intimately acquainted with Wishart, perceiving them in a furious passion,
pushed them aside, saying, “This work and judgment of God, although it be
secret, ought to be done with greater gravity,” and presenting the point of
his sword, he thus addressed the wounded prelate: – “Repent thee of thy
former wicked life, but especially the shedding of the blood of that notable
instrument of God, Mr. George Wishart, who, although the flame of fire
consumed before men, yet cries for vengeance upon thee, and we from God are
sent to avenge it. Remember that neither the hatred of thy person, the love
of riches, nor the fear of thy power, moved or moveth me to strike thee, but
because thou hast been an obstinate enemy of Christ and the holy gospel.”
Melville then passed his sword through the cardinal’s body several times,
who sunk into his chair, and saying, “I am a priest, fie, fie, all is gone!”
Instantly expired. The alarm had by this time been given in the town; the
bells were rung, and the citizens, headed by the provost, surrounded the
entire wall of the castle. “What have you done with my lord cardinal?” they
clamorously demanded: “Have you slain my lord cardinal?” They were answered
by the conspirators from the battlements, that it would be as well to return
to their houses, for the man whom they called the cardinal had received his
reward, and would trouble them no more. This reply having only the more
enraged them, they were addressed by Norman Leslie as unreasonable fools,
who demanded an audience with a dead man. Dragging the bleeding body of the
murdered primate to the spot, they suspended it by a sheet over the wall, by
the same window from which he had but a short time before witnessed the
martyrdom of Mr. George Wishart, exclaiming, “There is your God; and now
that you are satisfied, get home to your houses,” – a command with which, in
horror and amazement, they eventually complied. The body of the cardinal was
salted, and after being treated with disgusting indignity, was thrown into
the ground-floor of the sea-tower. His death excited joy among the
Protestants, and consternation among the Catholics; the feelings of the more
moderate being well expressed in Sir David Lindsay of the Mount’s
oft-repeated verse:
“As for the cardinal, I grant
He was a man we well might want –
God will forgive it soon:
But of a truth, the sooth to say
Although the loon be well away,
The deed was foully done.”
David - Cardinal
Bethune
The
engraving given of Cardinal Bethune is from a rare portrait at St. Mary’s
College, Blairs, near Aberdeen. With him fell the last prop of the papal
church in Scotland. He understood well the policy of the courts of France
and Rome, and thought that the interests of Scotland could only be promoted
in accordance with it. In times of danger he evinced resolution of mind,
steadiness of purpose, and a firm and unswerving attachment to the
principles which he conceived to be the most fitted for the prosperity of
his native country. He was a man of commanding talents, and a politician of
the highest order – one thoroughly acquainted with the temper, influence,
and weight of the whole feudal nobility of Scotland; but, says Keith, (Hist.
p. 45.) “It were to be wished the same praise could be given him with
respect to his morals. Mrs. Marion Ogilvy, a daughter of the
predecessors of the earls of Airlie, bore him several children; some
of whose descendants, both of the male and female line, are known to be
persons of good note in our country at this day.” A contemporary writer,
Paulus Jovius, says of him: “His pride was so great, that he quarrelled with
the old archbishop of Glasgow (Dunbar) in his own city, and pushed this
quarrel so far that their men fought in the very church. His ambition was
boundless, for he took into his own hands the entire management of the
affairs of the kingdom.” He was haughty, cruel, licentious, and intolerant
in the extreme. Devoted to the Church of Rome, he upheld her doctrines by
the most sanguinary measures. He possessed little learning, and knew
scarcely anything of the controversial writings of the age. Dempster
mentions that he wrote ‘Memoirs of his own Embasseys;’ a ‘Treatise on St.
Peter’s Supremacy;’ and ‘Letters to several Persons,’ of which that author
observes there are several copies extant in the national libraries at Paris.
His great riches he bequeathed to his natural children, having three sons
and three daughters. One of his sons became a Protestant; his daughters were
married into families of distinction.
BETHUNE,
JAMES,
Archbishop
of Glasgow, a nephew of the cardinal, was educated chiefly at Paris. In 1552
he was raised to the archiepiscopal see of Glasgow; and, according to some
writers, was consecrated at Rome, whither it is conjectured he was sent to
give the Pope an account of the ecclesiastical affairs of Scotland after the
murder of his uncle the cardinal. In 1557 he was one of the commissioners
appointed to witness the marriage of the young Queen Mary to the Dauphin of
France, and was present at the ceremony in the cathedral church of Notre
Dame, April 24, 1558. On his return, he acted as a privy counsellor to
the queen-mother, Mary of Guise, appointed regent by her daughter on her
going to France. Owing to the disputes about religion which then agitated
the kingdom, and the proceedings of the Reformers, the archbishop retired to
France in July 1560, carrying with him the treasures and records of his
archiepiscopal see, and carefully deposited them in the Scots college at
Paris. On his departure the protestants in Scotland appointed a preacher in
Glasgow, and seized all the revenues of the archbishopric. As his capacity
and fidelity were well known to the queen his mistress, she resolved, after
the death of the king her consort and her return to Scotland, to leave her
affairs in France in his hands. Accordingly, in 1561, he was declared her
ambassador to France, and, in June 1564, his commission was renewed. He
resided in Paris as ambassador, first from Queen Mary, and afterwards from
King James, till his death in 1603, enjoying all that time the highest
confidence of his sovereign. Having carefully preserved Queen Mary’s
letters, and other papers communicated in him, these would have formed
valuable materials for history, had the greater part of them not been taken
away or destroyed. While in France, he received scarcely any money from
Scotland; but, when King James came of age, he restored him both to the
title and revenues of his archbishopric. Previous to this, he had obtained
several ecclesiastical preferments in France. He died April 24, 1603, aged
86. He is represented as a prelate of great prudence, moderation, loyalty,
and learning. He was succeeded in his see by the celebrated Spottiswood.
According to Dempster, he wrote ‘A Commentary on the Book of Kings;’ “A
Lamentation for the Kingdom of Scotland;’ ‘A Book of Controversies against
the Sectaries;’ ‘Observations upon Gratian’s Decretals;’ and ‘A Collection
of Scotch Proverbs,’ – none of which were ever printed. – Spottiswood’s
History.
BETHUNE,
ALEXANDER,
a literary
peasant, of unpretending worth and rare talent, was the son of an
agricultural labourer of the same name, and was born at Upper Rankeillor, in
the parish of Monimail, Fifeshire, about the end of July 1804. From the
extreme poverty of his parents, he received but a scanty education, having,
up to the age of twenty-two been only four or five months at school, while
his brother John, the subject of the following article, who was a few years
younger, was at school but one day. To their mother, whose maiden name was
Alison Christie, they were mainly indebted for the cultivation of those
talents which subsequently obtained for them a very respectable standing in
the literary world. At the age of fourteen Alexander was engaged in the
occupation of labourer. He describes himself as having been set to dig at
raw fourteen, and for more than a year afterwards, his joints, in first
attempting to move in the morning, creaked like machinery wanting oil.
Previous to this his parents had removed to the hamlet of Lochend, near the
loch of Lindores. At the age of twenty-one, he enrolled himself in the
evening classes taught by the Rev. John Adamson, afterwards of Dundee, who
about 1825 kept a school at Lochend. With the view of improving his
condition, he commenced learning the weaving business, under the instruction
of his brother, (see next article,) but after expending all their savings in
the purchase of the necessary apparatus, they were compelled, from the
general failures which took place in 1825 and following year, to seek
employment as outdoor labourers, at the rate of one shilling a-day. In 1829,
while employed in a quarry, Alexander was thrown into the air by a blast of
gunpowder, and so dreadfully mangled that those who came to his aid after
the accident, anticipated his speedy death. He, however, recovered, and in
four months after he was able to resume his labours. Three years thereafter
he met with an accident of a similar kind, by which he was again fearfully
disfigured, and from the effects of which he never altogether recovered. His
leisure hours were diligently devoted to literary pursuits, and besides
contributing several tales and other pieces to the periodicals of the day,
he completed a series of ‘Tales and Sketches of the Scottish Peasantry,’ a
work which, on its publication in 1838, was justly admired for its
truthfulness and vigorous delineation of rustic character, as well as for
the author’s general knowledge of human nature. the risk of the publication
was undertaken by Mr. Shortrede, then a printer in Edinburgh, who gave for
the copyright the price of the first fifty copies sold, an arrangement with
which the author was perfectly satisfied.
His
brother John having, in the meantime, obtained the situation of overseer on
the estate of Inchrye, he accompanied him as his assistant. Before the end
of a year, however, that estate passed into the hands of a new proprietor,
and their engagement came to an end. As they were obliged, at the same time,
to quit the house at Lochend, which formed part of the Inchrye property, the
brothers came to the resolution of feuing a piece of ground near Newburgh,
and immediately set about building a house for themselves. In concert with
his brother, he had prepared a series of ‘Lectures on Practical Economy,’
which were published in 1839, but did not meet with the success which had
been anticipated. After the death of his brother the same year he undertook
the revision of his poems, which he published in a volume, with a memoir,
and the first impression of seven hundred copies having been disposed of, a
second edition was soon called for. A copy of the work having fallen into
the hands of Mrs. Hill, the wife of Mr. Frederick Hill, inspector of
prisons, that lady wrote to Alexander Bethune, offering to use her influence
to procure him a situation as teacher or in some other way connected with
the prisons; but after a week’s probation as a turnkey at Glasgow in March
1841, he declined the proposal, and write that he did not wish an
application to be made for one who had no qualifications above the average
rate of a common labourer. In 1842 he visited Edinburgh, and entered into
arrangements with the Messrs. Black for the publication of ‘The Scottish
Peasant’s Fireside,’ which appeared early in the following year. Previous to
this he had been seized with fever, from which he never thoroughly
recovered, the disease merging into pulmonary consumption. during his
partial recovery, an offer was made to him to undertake the editorship of
the Dumfries Standard, a newspaper then about to be started; but after
conditionally accepting of the situation, should his health permit, he felt
himself compelled to abandon all hope of ever being able to enter on the
duties of editor. He died at Newburgh at midnight of the 13th
June 1843. Previous to his death he consigned his manuscripts to his friend
Mr. William M’Combie, a farmer in Aberdeenshire, and like himself a writer
on social economy, who in 1845 published at Aberdeen his Life, with
Selections from his Correspondence and Literary Remains. In as far as
regards character and conduct, Alexander Bethune and his brother were as
fine specimens of the Scottish peasantry as could anywhere be found. They
were, in fact, models of the class; humble, without meanness; frugal,
industrious, persevering, and unostentatiously religious, without bigotry or
intolerance. the productions of his intellect caused him to be courted and
esteemed by many in the upper ranks of society. This, however, did not make
him vain, or turn him from the even tenor of his way. He was, all his life,
a sturdy independent peasant, never ashamed in the least of his calling;
digging, quarrying, felling wood, breaking stones on the highway, or
building dry-stone walls, as long as he was able, by his own hands, to
minister to his own wants; and on wet days and intervals of leisure, turning
his attention to literary composition, as a relaxation from his ordinary
toil.
BETHUNE,
JOHN,
the author
of several poems and tales, younger brother of the preceding, was born in
1812, in the parish of Monimail, Fifeshire. At Martinmas 1813, his father
removed to a place called Lochend, near the loch of Lindores, where the
greater part of John Bethune’s short life was passed. He never was but one
day at school. He was taught to read by his mother, and received lessons in
writing and arithmetic from his brother, Alexander Bethune, who, soon after
his death, published a selection from his poems, with a sketch of his life.
When yet scarcely thirteen years of age, he and his brother earned their
subsistence by breaking stones on the road between Lindores and Newburgh.
Having been apprenticed to the weaving business in the village of Collessie,
he soon became to expert at the loom, that at Martinmas 1825 he commenced
business on his own account, in a house adjoining his father’s, with his
brother as his apprentice. But, not succeeding, he and his brother resumed
their former occupation of outdoor labourers. Most of his pieces were
written amidst great privations, and, as we are told by his brother, upon
such scraps of paper as he could pick up. Before the year 1831 he had
produced a large collection of pieces; he also wrote and planned a number of
tales, the greater part of which was left in manuscript. In October 1829 he
was engaged on the estate of Inchrye as a day-labourer; and afterwards in
1835, on the death of the overseer, he was appointed in his place, at a
salary of twenty-six pounds yearly, with fodder for a cow, when he engaged
his brother as his assistant. There he remained for one year. To his
brother’s ‘Tales and Sketches of the Scottish Peasantry,’ published in 1838,
he contributed five pieces. In the following year appeared ‘Lectures on
Practical Economy’ by both brothers, on the title-page of which he
designated himself a “Fifeshire Forester.” This work, though designed to
teach poor people habits of thrift and saving, and well spoken of by the
press, did not succeed with the public, as stated in the life of his
brother. As a “Fifeshire Forester” he contributed a number of poems to the
‘Scottish Christian Herald.’ He also wrote some pieces for the ‘Christian
Instructor.’ In 1838, having received some small remuneration for one or two
contributions to a periodical, and finding his health failing him, he
determined to give up manual labour, and trust to his pen for his future
support. He did not long fish in the uncertain waters of literature, as he
was cut off by consumption on the forenoon of Sunday the 1st of
September 1839. He died at the early age of 27. He was a man of considerable
powers of mind. His whole life seems to have been a scene of constant
disappointment and suffering, but he possessed a cheerful, contented
disposition, and a spirit of so much independence, that when an Edinburgh
friend offered to exert his influence to procure him a government situation,
he at once declined it, choosing rather to support himself by his own
unaided industry.
BETHUNE,
SIR HENRY LINDESAY,
of
Kilconquhar, baronet, a distinguished general in the Persian service, was
born 12th April 1787. He was descended from the ancient family of
the Lords Lindsay of the Byres, who afterwards became earls of Crawford and
Lindsay. The immediate ancestor of the branch of the noble and ancient house
to which he belonged was William Lindsay, second son of Patrick fourth Lord
Lindsay, who obtained a charter of the lands of Pyetston in Fifeshire, in
March, 1529. The direct line of Pyetston had failed towards the close of the
seventeenth century, but a younger branch survived in the Lindsays of
Wormestone, of which the subject of this notice was the representative. He
was the son of Major Martin Eccles Lindesay Bethune, by the daughter of
General Tovey. He entered the military service of the East India Company in
early life. and in it attained the rank of major. Being sent from Madras to
Persia for the purpose of instructing and assisting the celebrated Abbas
Mirza, crown prince of Persia, the eldest son of Futteh Ali Shah, in the
organization of his artillery, the talent, resolution and perseverance
exhibited by him, in the execution of this arduous duty, gained him the
entire respect and confidence of the prince, and his heroism and intrepidity
in the field established his fame throughout Persia. an instance of this is
recited during the hostilities with Russia which preceded the peace
negociated by Sir Gore Ouseley. Abbas Mirza had quitted his camp with his
staff and suite on a shooting excursion, taking with him the artillery
horses to beat for game. The Russians took advantage of his absence to
surprise the camp, and carry off Major Lindesay’s six brass guns. Lindesay,
on his return, seeing with a glass his cannon ranged in front of the enemy’s
lines, instantly harnessed his horses, and, galloping across the intervening
plain through the hostile advanced posts, cut down the guards, and brought
off the guns in the face of the whole Russian army. Repeated feats of this
daring character, his lofty and commanding stature, being six feet seven
inches in height, and his great personal strength, always highly admired by
Orientals, justified the epithet familiarly applied to him in the Persian
armies, of “Rustum” – the Hercules of ancient Persian story; while his
humanity and justice, and regular distribution of pay to the troops under
his command – too often withheld or delayed by native officers – secured
their personal attachment and esteem.
After a period of about sixteen years thus usefully spent in the service of
Persia, Major Lindesay returned to his native country, where he had
inherited the estate of Kilconquhar, in Fifeshire, having succeeded his
grandfather, who assumed the name of Bethune, by virtue of a deed of entail
made by David Bethune of Balfour in 1779. He married, in 1822, Coutts,
eldest daughter of the late John Trotter of Dyrham Park, county Herts, and
with her lived in domestic retirement till 1834, when the critical state of
affairs in Persia called him once more into active service.
On
the demise of Futteh Ali Shah, in that year, the throne devolved on
Mahomed-Mirza, his grandson, the son of the gallant Abbas Mirza, who had
died during his father’s lifetime. But Mahomed’s succession was opposed by
Zulli Sultan, the younger brother of Abbas and uncle of Mahomed; he raised
the standard of revolt, and Persia was involved in a civil war. Mahomed
appealed to England; and Sir Henry Bethune simultaneously repaired to
London, and offered his services to government. the foreign secretary, Lora
Palmerston, accepted them, conferred on him the local rank of colonel in
Asia, and despatched him as an accredited agent of the British government.
He was received with delight by the Shah, and his arrival was instantly
noised throughout Persia. The “magical influence” of the name of “Lindesay
Sahib,” still powerful after so many hears’ absence, spread confidence
throughout the royal army, and consternation through that of the rebel Zulli
Sultan, who set a price of four thousand tomauns on his head. Some
difficulties at first arose, in consequence of Sir Henry’s juniority in the
service to certain British officers already high in station; but they were
soon removed by his nobly consenting to take an inferior command, having
solely at heart the public interests, and placing himself under the orders
of the chief of those officers as a temporary arrangement.
An
expedition was sent against the rebel uncle, headed by Sir Henry Bethune,
who commanded the advanced guard of the Shah’s army, and, by a singularly
rapid march – or, as it is described in a letter in the St. Petersburg
Gazette, “dragging the army after him” – he surprised, attacked, and
defeated the rebel force, and took Sulli Sultan prisoner, enabling the Shah
to make his triumphal entry into Teheran in December, 1834. His services
were acknowledged by a firman from the Shah, investing “the high in degree
and rank, the wise and prudent, the zealous and brave, the sincere and
devoted, the great among Christians, Sir Henry Bethune, descended from the
Lindesays,” with the rank of general and Ameer-i-Toop Kama, or master
general of artillery; and requesting him to select the best Arab horse in
his stables; which being done, the Shah mounted the fiery animal, rode him
into Teheran, and then dismounted, and presented him to Sir Henry. The
ministers and courtiers, on hearing of this gift, petitioned the Shah not to
allow so famed a steed to leave the royal stud; but the Shah replied, that
he would rather lose fifty such horses, if such could be found, than
disappoint Sir Henry. the Shah further conferred upon him, by a distinct
firman, a “Medal of Fidelity,” with five others in pure gold, as rewards for
services rendered on particular occasions, declaring, at the same time, that
he had surpassed all others in his bravery in the field; and commanding that
this testimony to Sir Henry’s worth and good service should be inscribed in
the books of the records of the kings of Persia.
Nor
was the testimony of the British envoy, Sir John Campbell, less marked and
gratifying. In his despatch to Lord Ellenborough, dated 6th May,
1835, he refers to the “unbounded confidence reposed in Sir Henry Bethune by
the Persian government, and by the military of all classes,” to the “fame
which he had acquired during his former services in Persia,” to the “very
extraordinary influence of his name and reputation,” to “his knowledge of
the language and of the habits of the people,” and to “the successful
result, beyond what could possibly have been anticipated, of all his
operations, as fully justifying his (Sir John’s) accession to the wish of
the Shah and the court of Persia, “that the direction of all hostile
operations should be intrusted to him.” “His proceedings,” he states in
another letter of the 30th April 1835, “have been energetic as
well as conciliatory, and his efforts have been seconded by the British
officers attached to his force. Owing to the subordination preserved, little
or no injury has been done to the country. The ryots (or peasantry) have
appealed to him against the oppression of their own native authorities, and
have duly appreciated the contrast between the conduct of an army marching
under British, and one marching under native commanders; and numberless
letters and verses have been received by the Persian government in praise of
the English name.” We may add to this the following extract frm a private
letter from Persia, printed in the United Service Gazette: – “Great is the
name of Lindesay in this country, and great ought it to be, for certainly he
was just formed for service in Persia in troubled times like these. The
confidence the soldiers have in him is quite wonderful, and all classes talk
of him as if there never had appeared on earth before so irresistible
conqueror.”
Having thus seated the son of his early friend and le ader on the throne of
his grandfather, Sir Henry Bethune returned to his native country and his
family in September 1835. Soon after his arrival, he received a letter from
Lord Palmerston, then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, informing him
that his Majesty, the late King William the Fourth had conferred upon him
the honour of a baronetcy, (7th March 1836,) “as an
acknowledgment of the brilliant and important services” which he had
performed in Persia, and in accordance with a request of Mahomet Shah,
expressed in a letter to the king, that his Majesty would confer some rank
upon Sir Henry, “which, in the English State, may descend lineally to his
posterity, and always remain in his family.”
Sir
Henry Bethune remained in Scotland till the year 1850, employing himself in
adding to and decorating his venerable mansion of Kilconquhar – celebrated
in local story as the scene of the murder of Macduff’s wife and children –
and fulfilling in other respects the quiet and unostentatious duties of a
private country gentleman. During the last year of his life, his health
having been much shaken, and thinking that a change of air and a milder
climate might restore it, he went to Persia, to the land of his early
exploits and affections, there to spend the winter. He died at Tabreez on
the 19th of February, 1851, in his sixty-fourth year – surrounded
by friends, even in that distant clime. Nothing could exceed the marked
kindness of the Shah and the Ameer during his illness. The interest and
anxiety of the queen-mother were not less marked and considerate.
He
was interred in the churchyard of the Armenians, with the full service of
their church, and with every military honour which Persia could bestow. The
bazaars and the streets were thronged with spectators, and the whole
Christian population of Tabreez attended the ceremony. He left three sons
and five daughters, and was succeeded in his title and estate by his eldest
son, Sir John Trotter Bethune.
Memoirs
of Alexander Bethune
Embracing selections from his correspondence and literary remains compiled
and edited by William M'Combie (1845) (pdf)
Memoirs of
Mrs. Joanna Bethune.
By her son, the Rev. George W. Bethune, D.D., with an appendix containing
extracts from the writings of Mrs. Bethune (1863) (pdf)
An Historical and
Genealogical Account of the Bethunes of the Island of Sky
Published in 1893 (pdf)
A History
of the Bethune Family
Translated from the French of André du. Chesne, with Additions from Family
Records and other available sources together with a sketch of the Faneuil
family with whom the Bethunes have been connected in America by Mrs. John A.
Weisse (1884) (pdf) |
