May
Lord Home came to Lauder, [and] asked for William Lauder [bailie of that
burgh, commonly called William at the West Port], being the man who hurt
John Cranston (nicknamed John with the gilt sword). [William] fled to the
tolbooth, as being the strongest and surest house, for his relief. But the
Lord Home caused put fire to the house, and burnt it all. The gentleman
remained therein till the roof-tree fell. In end he came desperately out
amongst them, and hazard [ed] a shot of a pistol at John Cranston, and
hurt him. But [it] being impossible to escape with life, they most cruelly
without mercy hacked him with swords and whingers all in pieces.’—Pa.
And.
Lady Marischal, sister of Lord Home,
‘hearing the certainty of the cruel murder of William Lauder, did mightily
rejoice thereat, and writ it for good news to sundry of her friends in the
country. But within less than twenty-four hours after, the lady took a
swelling in her throat, both without and within, after a great laughter,
and could not he cured till death seized upon her with great repentance.’—Pa.
And.
A remission for this barbarous
slaughter was granted by the king, in 1606, to the Earl of Home, Hume of
Hutton Hall, Thomas Tyrie, tutor of Drumkilbo, John Hume in Kells, and
other persons.
It does not appear that any
effectual order was taken with the Laird of Johnston for his resistance to
the royal authority at Dryfe’s Sands and the slaughter of Lord Maxwell
(December 6, 1593). His turbulent proceedings at length caused him to be
denounced as a rebel. A few days before this event, his portrait was hung,
head downwards, on the gibbet at the Cross of Edinburgh, and he declared
‘a mansworn man.’—Bir.
He was restored to his honours in 1600.
June 22
The king gave a letter of patent to Archibald Napier, apparent of
Merchiston, for an invention of his, a ‘new order of gooding and manuring
of field-land with common salt, whereby the same may bring forth in more
abundance, both of grass and corn of all sorts, and far cheaper than by
the common way of dunging used heretofore in Scotland.’ That nothing came
of this plan need not be told.
The Merchiston Napiers must have
been a theme of some curiosity and no little remark at this time, seeing
that three generations were now living, all of them busy-brained,
ingenious, and original-minded persons. First was the laird himself,
master-general of the cunyie-house, still in the vigour of life, being not
more than sixty-five years of age. Second was John Napier, the fiar or
heir, only sixteen years the junior of his father, constantly engaged in
puzzling out profound problems in mathematics and prophecies in the
Apocalypse. Finally, this grandson of the laird, a youth of
four-and-twenty, and already, as we see, exhibiting the active intellect
of the family. Archibald
became a favourite courtier of James VI. and Charles I., by the latter of
whom he was raised to the peerage. He joined the anti-covenanting party,
and endured some adversity in his latter days.
The carboniferous formation, as is
well known, does not extend in Scotland beyond the Ochils; but in the
remote county of Sutherland, on the coast at Brora, there is a patch of
colite, in the lower section of which is a workable bed of coal, between
three and four feet thick. John, tenth Earl of Sutherland, had discovered
this valuable deposit, but being cut off by poison (anno 1567), he had no
opportunity of trying to turn it to advantage. The Sutherland estates were
now under the management of a woman of some force of character, and who
has by accident a place in our national history—Lady Jean Gordon. Being
divorced by Bothwell, in order to admit of his marriage to Queen Mary, she
had subsequently married one Earl of Sutherland, and become the mother of
another, for whom she was now acting. By this clever countess the coal of
Brora was for the first time worked, not merely for its use in domestic
purposes, but as a means of establishing a salt-work. Some pans being
erected by her ‘a little by-west the entry of the river,’ there was good
salt made there, ‘which served not only Sutherland and the neighbouring
provinces, but also was transported into England and elsewhere.’ This was
a good effort, but, like all similar enterprises in that rude age, it met
with interruptions. One vigorous renewed effort was made by the countess’s
son, Earl John, in 1614. It was not, however, till our own time, when the
first Duke of Sutherland spent £16,000 on the coal-works, and £2,387 on
the salt-works, that the original designs of Countess Jean could be said
to be fully realised. The works are stated to have given forth twenty
thousand tons of coal between the years 1814 and 1826.
July 10
‘ . . . . ane man, some callit
him a juggler, playit sic supple tricks upon ane tow, whilk was fastenit
betwixt the top of St Giles’s Kirk steeple and ane stair beneath the
Cross, callit Josia’s Close head, the like was never seen in this country,
as he rade down the tow and playit sae mony pavies on it.’—Bir.
Practitioners of such dangerous arts
were not uncommon in those days. The death, in Edinburgh, of one Kirkaldy,
‘who had before danced at the cock of the steeple [St Giles’s],’ is noted
in the history of the civil broils of 1571.
Mr James Melville reports in 1600:
‘Being in Falkland, I saw a funambulus, a Frenchman, play strange and
incredible proticks upon stented tackle in the palace close before the
king, queen, and haill court.’ He adds the vulgar surmise of the day:
‘This was politickly done, to mitigate the queen and people for Gowrie’s
slaughter’
It appears that these diverting
vagabonds were well rewarded. The juggler of 1598, called an ‘English
sporter,’ had twenty pounds from the king for the steeple-trick. Two
months after, six pounds thirteen shillings and fourpence was ordered to
‘David Weir, sporter,’ supposed to be the same person. To Peter Bramhill,
the French pavier—that is, player of pavies—there is a precept from his
majesty, ordering him no less a sum than £333, 6s. 8d. - but of course
Scottish money.
‘This year the wheat was blasted.’—Chron.
Perth. ‘The ait meal sold for 6s. the peck.’—Bir.
There was, consequently, towards the
end of the year, ‘ane extraordinar dearth of all kinds of pultrie and
other vivres,’ throughout the realm, but particularly did this kind of
scarcity prevail in Edinburgh, ‘where his hieness, his nobility and
council, in sundry seasons of the year, make their chief residence.’ The
king issued a proclamation, fixing a minimum of prices for the said
articles, not to be exceeded under certain penalties. This, however, was
now found ‘likely to become altogether ineffectual, partly through the
avaritious greediness of some persons wha forestalls and buys the pultrie
in grit, and keeps the same in secret houses, and there sells the same far
above the prices exprest in the proclamation,’ and partly by the
negligence of magistrates, who take no care to punish ‘the authors of this
disorder.’ For these reasons, a more rigorous and menacing proclamation
was now made.
A fortnight after, followed an edict
of Council against twenty-four poultrymen of Edinburgh (surprising there
should have then been so many in the business), who, it was said, had
contravened the late proclamation by forestalling and secretly selling
their poultry at high prices, representing the fowls as ‘his majesty’s awn
kain fowls, or that they are bocht by them for his majesty’s awn month . .
slanderand his majesty hereby, as if his majesty were the chief cause of
the break of the said proclamation.’
It is amusing to observe the
apparent astonishment of the king and his councillors on finding how
little respect was paid to edicts of this kind, as if it were a most
unrighteous and undutiful thing of the people to try to get prices for
articles proportionate to the small quantity there was to sell. We must
not, however, be too ready to indulge in a smile at the false political
economy of the Scottish monarch of 1598, when we remember that a law-made
scarcity of vivres was kept up in Great Britain till 1846, and
observe that at the present day the sovereign of France still dictates the
prices at which beef and mutton are to be sold in Paris. At the very time
when this notice is penned (September 1856), the newspapers describe the
conduct of butchers in Paris as precisely that of the twenty-four
poultrymen of Edinburgh in 1599; that is to say, they sell their meat in
secret to persons who will give suitable prices.
Considering the scarcity which
marked the close of 1598, it is not surprising to find the Chronicle of
Perth adverting next year to ‘ane great deid among the people.’
The Privy Council Record at this
date gives an anecdote which reads like a tale of patriarchal times—the
time when Jacob told his sons to go down into Egypt and buy corn, ‘that we
may live and not die.’
Dec
On some recent occasion of pestilence, Dumfries, being specially and
severely afflicted, was, as usual, sequestered from all intercourse and
traffic—its markets became altogether decayed, and the inhabitants, in
addition to all their other distresses, found themselves ‘evil handlit for
want of necessar sustentation.’ In these circumstances, it seemed good to
them to send two of their number, unsuspected of infection, to the country
about the Water of Cree in Galloway, to purchase cattle. The two men,
James Sharpe and John Mertine, set forth on this quest, and, coming to the
burgh of Wigtown, were there well received by the magistrates, who seemed
willing to give them Christian help and countenance for their object, on
the condition that the cattle were paid for and the burgh of Wigtown
satisfied in their customs. Thus sanctioned, the Durnfries emissaries went
into the country and bought thirty-eight nolt, which they began to drive
towards Dumfries, looking for no interruption or impediment. At Monygaff
on the Water of Cree, they were met by a large armed party under the
command of Patrick Ahannay, provost of Wigtown, and John Edgar and
Archibald Tailfer, bailies, who laid violent hands upon them, and carried
them and their cattle to Wigtown. We do not learn what was the motive of
this conduct, but may reasonably surmise it was some claim in the way of
custom which the Dumfriessians had failed to satisfy. At Wigtown the
cattle were detained eight days, getting gradually leaner for want of
food, till at last they were ‘extreme lean;’ and it was not till their
owners had paid a hundred merks, that they were allowed to proceed with
the beeves to the starving burgh of Dumfries.
This pitiable affair, which reads so
strangely of Dumfries, now the scene of magnificent markets for the
transfer of cattle, came under the notice of the Privy Council, and was
remitted to the ordinary judges to be settled by them as they might think
best.—P.C.R.
1598-9, Jan 19
Thomas Lorn, residing at Overton of Dyce, was brought before the provost
of Aberdeen, accused of ‘hearing of spreits, and wavering ofttimes frae
his wife, bairns, and family, by the space of seven weeks,’ they not
knowing ‘where he has been during the said space.’ He agreed that, if he
should ever be found absenting himself in that manner, without giving
warning, he should suffer death ‘as ane guilty person, dealer with spreits.’—Ab.
C. R
1598, July 26
Andrew Melville, of whose courage and zeal for pure presbytery Scottish
history is at this time full, presided at a disputation in the theological
hall of St Mary’s College, St Andrew; where the question was, ‘Whether by
divining or diabolical force of witches and hags, bodies may be
transported or transformed, or souls released for a time from bodies, and
whether this transportation or transformation of bodies, or resemblance of
a projected corpse, without sense and motion, as if the soul were
banished, be a simple lethargy, or a certain evidence of execrable
demonomania?’
If the reader be at a loss to
conceive how any body of learned men could gravely treat such a question,
he may have the fact verified to his mind by looking into King James’s
book on Demonologie, where the same matter is fully debated between
Philomathes and Epistemon, the two interlocutors in the dialogue of which
that treatise consists. In answer to the question of Philomathes, by what
means may it be possible for witches to come to those conventions where
they worship the devil and receive his orders, Epistemon coolly says: ‘One
way, is natural, which is natural riding, going, or sailing: this
may be easily believed. Another way is somewhat more strange . . . . being
carried by the force of the spirit which is their conductor, either above
the earth or above the sea swiftly, to the place where they meet; which I
am persuaded to be likewise possible, in respect that as Habakkuk was
carried by the angel in that form to the den where Daniel lay, so think I,
the devil will be ready to imitate God as well in that as in other things.
. . . The third way is that wherein I think them deluded: for some of them
say that, being transported in the likeness of a little beast or fowl,
they will come and pierce through whatsoever house or church, though all
passages be closed, by whatsoever open the air may enter in at: and some
say, that their bodies lying still, as in an ecstasy, their spirits will
be ravished out of their bodies and carried to such places; and, for
verifying thereof, will give evident tokens, as well by witnesses that
have seen their body lying senseless in, the meantime, as by naming
persons whom-with they met, and giving token what purpose was amongst
them, whom otherwise they could not have known; for this form of
journeying they affirm to use most, when they arc transported from one
country to another.’
Oct
The reformed clergy did not at first take a decidedly hostile view of
theatricals, and we have seen that even the Regent Moray allowed a play to
be represented before him. In March 1574, the General Assembly forbade the
playing of ‘clerk plays,’ and ‘comedies and tragedies made of the
canonical scriptures’ both on Sabbath and work-days; but as to ‘comedies,
tragedies, and other profane plays not made upon authentic parts of
scripture,’ they were willing that such might be considered before they be
proposed publicly, provided they were to be set forth on work-days only.—B.
U. K.
Accordingly, it is not surprising
that, when a company of comedians came to Perth in June 1589, and applied
to the kirk-session for a licence to represent a play, of which they
produced a copy, that reverend court expressed itself as follows:
‘Perth, June
3, 1589.—The minister and elders give
licence to play the play, with conditions that no swearing, banning, nor
nae scurrility shall be spoken, whilk would be a scandal to our religion,
and for an evil example to others. Also, that nothing shall be added to
what is in the register of the play itself. If any one who plays shall do
in the contrary, he shall be wardit, and make his public repentance.’—P.
K. S. R.
These are among the proofs to the
general conclusion, that the puritanic strictness for which Scotland has
been noted, did not reach its acme during the first age succeeding the
Reformation.
Ten years had since elapsed, during
which the English drama had passed through a vigorous adolescence, drawing
the highest wits of the land into its service. No regular theatre had been
set up in Scotland, nor was the time come when one could be supported; but
some inclination was manifested by the London acting companies to pay
occasional visits to the north, where the mirth-loving king and his court
were ready to patronise them. The clergy were by this time disposed to
look more sourly on the children of Thespis. An English company did come
to Edinburgh about October 1599—possibly the Blackfriars company, to which
Shakspeare belonged; but on this point, and as to the question whether
Shakspeare was of the party, we have no information. It received a licence
from the king to perform.
Roused by ‘certain malicious and
restless bodies, wha upon every little occasion misconstrue his majesty’s
haill doings,’ the general kirk-session of the city passed an act in
direct opposition to the purport of the royal licence, threatening with
censure all who should support the comedy; and this they ordered to be
read in all pulpits, where, at the same time, the ‘unruly and immodest
behaviour of the stage-players’ became the theme of abundant declamation.
The king chose to take up this act as a discharge of his licence, and
called the sessions before him, when, after a conference, they professed
to be convinced that ‘his hieness had not commandit nor allowit ony thing
carrying with it ony offence or slander;’ and they readily agreed to annul
their former act. This was accordingly done next day, ‘sae that now not
only may the comedians freely enjoy the benefit of his majesty’s liberty
and warrant grantit to them, but all his majesty’s subjects, inhabitants
within the said burgh, and others whatsomever, may freely at their awn
pleasure repair to the said comedies and plays, without ony pain,
reproach, censure, or slander to be incnrrit by them.’ -
P. C. R. We learn,
however, from Spottiswoode, that this was ‘to the great offence of the
ministers.’
Oct
The Western Isles being a scene of almost incessant private war and
strife, and the crown-rents remaining unpaid, the king became desirous to
reduce that part of his dominions to obedience and the arts of peace. It
was thought that a plantation of industrious Lowlanders might prove an
effectual means of civilising the district. As a preliminary step, an act
of parliament was passed (June 1598) for depriving of their lands all who
should not shew their titles by a particular day—a most arbitrary measure,
which to some extent the turbulent chieftains were justified in resisting.
In this manner the islands of Lewis and Harris, the lands of Dunvegan in
Skye, and of Gleneig on the mainland, were declared to be at the disposal
of the government. It was resolved to proceed, in the first place, with
the planting of the Lewis, where there were only two illegitimate sons of
the late proprietor to give any opposition.
Accordingly, a set of gentlemen,
chiefly belonging to Fife, associated themselves together as adventurers;
namely, the Duke of Lennox; Patrick, Commendator of Lindores; William,
Cornmendator of Pittenweem; Sir James Anstruther, younger of that Ilk; Sir
James Sandilands of Slamanno; James Learmont of Balcomie; James Spens of
Wormiston; John Forret of Fingask; David Home, younger of Wedderburn; and
Captain William Murray. By the terms of a contract between these
individuals and the government, they were, in consideration of the great
expenses to be incurred by them, and the improvements which they were
expected to make, freed from any payment of rent for the lands which they
were to occupy, for seven years. At the end of that time, an annual
grain-rent of one hundred and forty chalders of beir was to commence.
In October 1599, ‘tbe adventurers
met altogether in Fife, where they assembled a company of soldiers,
and artificers of all sorts, with everything which they thought requisite
for a plantation. So, transporting themselves into the Lewis, they began
apace to build and erect houses in a proper and convenient place fit for
the purpose. In the end, they made up a pretty town, where they encamped.
Niel Macleod and Murdo Macleod—now only left in that island of all Rorie
Macleod his children—withstood the undertakers. Murdo Macleod invaded the
Laird of Balcomie, whom he apprehended with his ship [near the Orkneys],
and killed all his men: so, having detained him six months in captivity
within the Lewis, he released him, upon promise of a ransom. But Balcomie
died in his return homeward to Fife,’ after his releasement, whereby Murdo
Macleod was disappointed of his ransom.’—G.
H. S. [This James Learmont of Balcomie had, nearly twenty years
before, fixed on the college-gate at St Andrews a placard offensive to
Andrew Melville, who consequently broke out upon him as he sat in church,
to this effect: 'Thou Frenchiest, Italianest jolly gentleman, wha has
defiled the bed of sae many married [men], and now boasts with thy
bastinadoes to defile this kirk and put bands on His servants, thou saIl
never enjoy the fruits of marriage, by having lawful succession of thy
body; and God shall baston thee in His righteous Judgments!’ ‘This,’ says
James Melville, ‘was remembered when the said James lived many years in
marriage without child, and taken by the highlandmen coming out of Lewis,
was siccarly bastoned, and sae hardly used, that soon thereafter he died
in Orkney.’]
The two brothers soon after
quarrelled, and Niel took Murdo prisoner. The enterprisers entered into an
agreement with him for the delivery of Murdo to themselves, promising him,
in requital, a portion of their lands. Niel consequently obtained a pardon
at Edinburgh, while Murdo was hanged at St Andrews, confessing that the
Lord of Kintail, the ambitious chief of the Mackenzies, had been the
instigator of his brother and himself in their opposition to the
plantation, the fact being, that Kintail desired to obtain the Lewis
himself.
The truth of this appeared when the
Lord of Kintail soon after set at liberty Tormod Macleod, legitimate son
of the late proprietor, who immediately proceeded to raise a new war
against the undertakers. Niel joining him, they attacked the settlement,
which they destroyed, killed most of the people, and took the commanders
prisoners. These gentlemen were only released eight months after, on a
promise that they should abandon the island, and never return; besides
which, they undertook to procure a pardon from the king for their
conquerors.
Thus ended, for a time, the attempt
to plant the Lewis.
Till this time, the new year legally
held in Scotland was that originally pitched upon by Exiguus when he
introduced the Christian era—namely, the 25th of March, or day of the
Annunciation. King James, probably looking upon the approaching year 1600
as the beginning of a new century, thought it would be a good occasion for
bringing Scotland into a conformity with other countries in respect of
New-year’s Day. There was therefore passed this day at Holyrood an act of
Privy Council, in which it is set forth that ‘in all other weel-governit
commonwealths and countries, the year begins yearly upon the first of
January, commonly called New-year’s Day, and that this realm only is
different frae all others in the count and reckoning of the years;’ for
which reason they ordained that, in all time coming, Scotland shall
conform to this usage, and that the next first of January shall be the
first day of the year of God 1600.
Dec 27
A singular combat being intended betwixt Alexander Livingstone of
Pantaskin and John Kennedy, appeirand of Baltersand, without any warrant
from his majesty, the Privy Council denounced and prohibited the encounter
as contrary to law, and ‘not likely to settle the trouble whereupon the
challenge proceeded and procure peace to baith parties.’—P.
C. R.
On the 1st of April 1600, there was
a strong edict for the execution of the laws against single combats, which
were said, through slackness of the law, to have become frequent.
During this year ‘there were divers
incursions in the Highlands and Borders, and sundry slaughters committed
in divers parts of the country. Five sundry men were slain in one week
within two miles of Edinburgh.’—Cal.
Circa 1599
M’Alexander of Drumachryne in Ayrshire had a lease of the teinds of his
estate from the Laird of Girvanmains, who in his turn was head-tenant of
these teinds from the Earl of Cassius. ‘But this Drumachryne, being ane
proud man, wald now be tenant to my lord himself, and his man. [That is,
he preferred being man or vassal to the earl.] The Laird of
Girvanmains came to my lord, and said his lordship "had [done him wrang]
in setting of his teinds to his awn man ower his head; and for ony gains
he sall reap by that deed, the same sall be but small." My lord answerit
and said: "Ye dar not find fault with him; for, an ye do, we knaw whare ye
dwell." The other said: "An he bide by that deed, he should repent the
same, do for him wha likit!" My lord said: "Ye dar not steir him for your
craig [neck]!" and bade him gang to his yett [gate]. The Laird of
Girvanmains rides his ways, and thinking that the Laird of Drumachryne
wald come after him, he stayit, and his twa servants with him, on a muir
called Craigdow, behind ane knowe [knoll], while that he saw him coming.
His brother, the Laird of Corseclays, being with him, and Oliver Kennedy
of . . . .; but they strake never ane strake in his defence. Girvanmains
pursues him, and his twa men with him, callit Gilbert M’Fiddes and William
M’Fiddes, ane boy, wha was the spy. They come to them on horseback, and
strake him on the head with swords, and slew him. My lord was very far
offendit at this deed, and avowit to have ane mends thereof, and causit
denounce Girvanmains to the horn; and did all he could to have his life,
and wrack him in his geir.’—Hist. Ken.
A less tragical, but equally
characteristic affair occurred in the same district about the same period.
Let it first be understood that Kennedy of Bargeny and the Earl of Cassius
had long been on hostile terms.
‘My lord, having ane decreet against
ane servant, of the Laird of Bargeny’s, callit John M’Alexander, of the
lands of Dangart.... wald put the same in execution, and intromit with the
haill corns that was upon the grund; and send his household servants, and
gait [caused] intromit with some of the corns, and shore ane part thereof.
This coming to the Laird of Bargeny’s ears, he loups on in Ardstinchar,
and rides to the land, and with horse and carts brought the corns that
they had shorn with him to Ardstinchar; for, he said: "My lord had nae
richt to the corns, albeit he had obteenit deereet against the land." This
being on the Saturday, my lord provides with all his force he can, against
Monday, to shear the rest of the corns. And the Laird of Bargeny, in the
same manner, provides for the same effect. The Laird of Bargeny, [being]
the nearest hand, comes first to the grund, and to the number of six
hundred men on horse, with twa hundred hagbutters. And my Lord of
Ochiltree came also, with the number of ane hunder horse; so that, in all,
he was, or [ere] twelve hours, the number of nine hunder men, on foot and
horse. My Lord of Cassillis come also, with his haill force that he might
mak, to the like number or few mae [more]. But the Laird, being in the
house and yards, and he having many basses and hagbuts of found with him,
the same was onpossible for my lord to mend himself. But my Lord of
Cathcart, being ane nobleman wha had married to his wife ane near
kinswoman of my Lord Cassillis, and his son having married the Laird of
Bargeny’s sister, travelled amang them, and took up the matter in this
sort, that the laird should have the haill corns that was on the grund to
his servant, and should find caution for the duty of the land, whilk was
my lord’s; and that my lord should come to the grund of the lands, and,
according to his deereet, tak possession of the same, but not to steir the
corns; and the Laird of Carleton and the Gudeman of Ardmillan to be
cautioners for the foresaid duty, and my lord fand caution not to trouble
the corns, nor the man in the shearing of them. And [according] to this
agreeance, the laird rade his way to Ardstinchar; and my lord came to the
land and took possession; and John M’Alexander shore his corns in peace.’
—.Hist. Ken.
1600, Jan
There was a feid of old standing between the Lindsays of Forfarshire and
the Lords Glammis; but for some years the parties were put under the
restraint of letters of assurance. On a particular Sunday, during
this month, Sir John Lindsay of Woodhead was passing along the High Street
of Edinburgh, ‘gangand to the kirk,’ when he met Lord Glammis. The noble
and gentle, ‘for the reverence they bure to his majesty and for observance
of the assurance standing betwix them, past by other without provocation
of offence or displeasure in word or countenance offerit by ony of them.’
As in the case of Montague and Capulet, however, the servants were not
always to be restrained by the same feelings as the masters. After they
were past, Patrick Johnston, a servant or tenant of Glammis, ‘drew his
sword, invadit and pursewit the complenar [Lindsay] of his life, and strak
and cuttit through the shoulder of his cloak, coat, and doublet, without
the allowance of Lord Glammis, and thereby did what in him lay to have
begun ane new feid and quarrel betwixt them, whilk wald not have fallit to
have fallen out were not Lord Glammis himself and the complenar stayit
it.’
Jan 13
Two days after, Lord Glammis appeared personally before the Privy Council,
and ‘renouncit Patrick to be his man, tenant, or servant, sae that he sall
not be repute, halden, nor esteemit to be his man, tenant, or servant
hereafter;’ further avouching that ‘he sall quarrel nor beir grudge to
nane that sall invade or pursue the said Patrick’ The Council at the same
time charged Patrick to compeir and answer for ‘his late violent and
unhonest pursuit and invasion of Sir John Lindsay, without the consent,
knowledge, or allowance of Patrick Lord Glammis, in whais company he
was for the time, doing thereby what in him lay to have brocht on and
protinued furder trouble and inconvenients betwixt the said Lord Glammis
and the friends of the house of Crawford, to the break of his majesty’s
peace and disquieting of the country.’—P.
C. B.
An order to denounce Patrick as
rebel for not appearing, was given on the 6th of March.
We receive in this notice a rich
illustration of the relation of superior and ‘man’ in Scotland at the
close of the sixteenth century. Johnston’s crime of assault is here
touched upon lightly; what is pressed, is his committing this assault
without the consent of his lord, and endangering a further quarrel between
that lord and the assaulted, man.
The affair appears to have had a
sequel not less remarkable than itself. On Sunday the 6th of August 1601,
as Patrick Johnston, designated as tenant of the Halltown of Belhelvies,
was leaving the kirk of that parish, in time of the ministration of the
sacrament of baptism, accompanied by his wife and two of his children, he
was set upon, within two paces of the door, by Lord Glammis and a party of
his lordship’s relatives and servants, and mercilessly slain with pistols
and swords. We can scarcely doubt that this was the same Patrick who had
incurred his superior’s anger by attacking Sir John Lindsay. A complaint
against Lord Glammis and his ‘complices’ for the act was made before the
presbytery of Aberdeen, by ‘the wife and aucht fatherless bairns’ of the
slain man, and by that reverend court an effort was made, but in vain, to
bring the matter to an arrangement in their favour. The guilty parties
were cited for their crime before the Court of Justiciary in March 1602;
but no punishment appears to have followed. Lord Glammis obtained a
remission for his concern in Johnston’s slaughter, under the great seal.
The ancient feudal ideas of Scotland were still too strong to allow of
such a case being deemed one of common murder.’ The fact did not prevent
Lord Glammis from receiving advancement in court-favour and elevation in
rank. He was made Earl of Kinghorn in 1606. It is also somewhat curious to
reflect that to his taste and munificence we owe much of what is grand in
the architecture of Glammis Castle.
Feb
At this time arrived in Edinburgh the young Earl of Gowrie, and his
brother, Alexander Ruthven, from Padua, where they had been studying for
some years. To all appearance, they were disposed to be peaceable subjects
of the king, notwithstanding the hard measure which had been dealt out to
their father sixteen years before. When, some months afterwards, they came
to so tragical an end, a circumstance, which occurred not long after their
arrival in Edinburgh, was remembered, as betraying a state of mind
different from what appeared on the surface of their general behaviour.
A certain Colonel Stuart of Houston,
who, as commander of the royal, guard, had been employed in seizing the
late unfortunate Earl of Gowrie, was still employed at court. One day in
June, as the young earl, accompanied with seven or eight of his servants,
was passing along the long gallery of the palace, on his way to the king’s
chamber, he observed Colonel Stuart come forth from an interview with his
royal master. To avoid a too close meeting with one so painfully
associated with his family history, he stepped aside a little, in order to
let Stuart pass by. ‘The same being espied by ane of the said earl’s
servants, going in the rank before him, callit Mr Thomas Kinrosser, [he]
said ardently till him: "What, my lord, are you going back for ony man
here? Come forward, my lord, bauldlyl" Whilk going aside and then coming
forward again, being seen by Colonel Stuart, he went in again to the king.
"Sir, it will please your majesty
hear ane strange matter, that, for guid service done to your grace, I
sould be so evil rewardit as I am. Here comes in the Earl of Gowrie, and I
see he minds to begin first at me; but beware next of the best of you
all."
Herewith the said earl enterit in
his majesty’s chalmer, and the colonel went out thereof; but there was
nothing of that purpose spoken betwixt his majesty and the earl at that
time. But, the colonel’s words to the king being reported to the earl, he
answered:
"Aquila non captat muscas." ‘—Jo.
Hist.
Mar 14
The king, returning from a General Assembly in Edinburgh to his palace of
Falkland, crossed the Firth of Forth by the ferry between Leith and
Kirkcaldy. The weather was fair at starting, but became foul on the
passage, and the mariners were obliged to run their boat upon the sands at
Kirkcaldy, where the king was taken out on horseback. ‘He exclaimed with
execration, that he was ever in danger of his life in going to those
assemblies.’—Cal.
Apr 2
'....being the Sabbath-day, Robert Auchmuty, barber, slew James Wauchope
at the combat in St Leonard’s Hill, and upon the 23d, the said Robert
[was] put in ward in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh. In the meantime of his
being in ward, he hang ane cloak without the window of the iron house, and
another within the window there, and, saying that he was sick, and might
not see the light, he had aquafortis continually seething at the iron
window, while [till] at the last the iron window was eaten through. Sae,
upon a morning, he causit his prentice-boy attend when the town-guard
should have dissolvit, at whilk time the boy waited on, and gave his
master ane token that the said guard were gone, by the show or wave of his
handcurch. The said Robert hung out ane tow whereon he thought to have
come down. The said guard spied the wave of the handcurch, and sae the
said Robert was disappointit of his intention and device; and sae, on the
10 day, he was beheadit at the Cross, upon ane scaffold.’—Bir.
May
We possess the rental-sheet of the Marquis of Huntly for this date, and
obtain from it a striking idea of the worldly means resting with that
noble and potent lord. In the first place, the document extends over
fifty-nine pages of print in small quarto, detailing the particulars of
money and produce due from each farm on his lordship’s various estates—in
the lordship of Huntly, the lordship of the Enzie, the lordship of
Badenoch, the barony of Fochabers, the lands of Man, the Cabrach, and
Lochaber. The sum of ‘silver mail’ or money-rent is £3819, besides £636 of
teind silver. The ‘ferm victual’ payable to his lordship was 3816 bolls,
besides which there were 55 boils of custom meal, 436 of multure heir, 108
of custom oats, 83 of custom victual, 167 marts (cattle for slaughter),
483 sheep, 316 lambs, 167 grice (young pigs), 14 swine, 1389 capons, 272
geese, 3231 poultry, 700 chickens, 5284 eggs, 4 stones of candle, 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. The large proportion of payment in kind
speaks of a country in which there was little industry or commerce beyond
what was connected with husbandry and store-farming; but it is easy to see
what an amount of power the noble marquis would derive from possessing the
means of feeding so many retainers.
In old times, so wealthy a lord was
a kind of kinglet, owning, indeed, the superiority of a sovereign, but at
the same time enjoying among minor lords and gentlemen a sway which barely
owned a restraint in the royal authority. Men approaching him in influence
were glad to form alliances with him, either through the ties of marriage,
or by direct bonds of manred, in which they mutually agreed to
support each other in all causes, against all living or dead, excepting
only the king’s grace. Of such bonds, the Gordon charter-chest exhibits a
grand series, extending from 1444, when James of Forbes ‘becomes man till
ane honourable and mighty lord, Alexander of Seton of Gordon. . . . again
all deadly,’ down to 1670, when Alexander Rose of Tillisnaucht, gave
George, Marquis of Huutly, an engagement to live peaceably under his
protection; being a hundred and seven in all. Even within the last
seventeen years, during which the now existing marquis had been conducting
his own affairs, the house had been receiving bonds of manred from a
remarkable number of important men in the Highlands. The Earl of Argyle,
in 1583, promised to concur and take aefald, true, and plain part’ with
the Gordon, ‘in all his honest and guid causes against whatsomever that
live or die may, our sovereign lord and his authority alone excepted.’ Two
years later, Macleod of Lewis receives promise of maintenance on the
condition of obedience. At the same time, the chief of the Clan Kenzie,
Colin of Kintail, enters into a bond of faithful service, ‘contrair all
persons.’ His lordship received the like engagements from Monro of Foulis,
the chieftain Glengarry, Macgregor of Glenstrae, and Drummond of Blair. In
1586, Kenneth Mackenzie of Kintail, Donald Robertson, the heir of Strowan,
Donald Gorm of Sleat (progenitor of the present Lord Macdonald), John
Grant of Freuchie, and the Lady Menzies of Weem, entered into similar
undertakings. In 1587, Rattray of Craighall binds himself, with his
dependents, ‘to serve the said earl in all his actions and adoes, against
all persons, the king’s majesty only excepted, and sall neither hear nor
see his skaith, but sall make him foreseen therewith, and sall resist the
same sae far as in me lies, and that in respect the said earl has given me
his band of maintenance.’ The remaining bonds before 1593 are from the
Earl of Orkney, Menzies of Pitfoddles, Lord Lovat, Menzies of that Ilk,
Scott of Abbotshall, the Laird of Melgund, Mackintosh of Dunnachtan, Innes
of Innermarky, Lord Spynie, Cameron of Locheil, the Clan Macpherson,
sundry barons of Moray, and the Laird of Luss. We may thus see what a
formidable person this Earl of Huntly was to the Protestant interest in
the year last named, and what a problem it must have been to the pacific
King James to give him effectual opposition, however well he had been so
inclined.
The Marquis of Huntly chiefly dwelt
in an ancient seat called Strathbogie Castle, situated where the rivulet
Bogie joins the Doveran, near the village of Huntly, in Banffshire. He had
another seat, called the Castle of the Bog or of Bogangicht, on the
extensive plain at the embouchure of the Spey, in the same county. The
migrations of the family between the two places, and between them and a
town-mansion in Aberdeen, are frequently alluded to by the annalist
Spalding. In 1602, the marquis rebuilt Strathbogie Castle in a handsome
style; and the remains of the house yet attest a grandness of living
suitable to the wealth and political importance of the family. ‘A spacious
turnpike-stair leads to what has been a very grand hall, and still bears
the marks of splendour and magnificence. Its length is about forty-three
feet, its breadth twenty-nine, and its height sixteen. There is another
grand apartment over this, thirty-seven feet in length, and twenty-nine in
breadth. The chimneys of both are highly ornamented with curious sculpture
of various figures Most of the apartments are still in tolerable
preservation, particularly the ceilings, which are ornamented with a great
variety of paintings in small divisions, containing many emblematical
figure; with verses expressive of some moral sentiment in doggerel rhyme.’
July 2
John Kincaid of Warriston, near Edinburgh, was married to a handsome young
woman, named Jean Livingstone, daughter to a man of fortune and influence,
the Laird of Dunipace. Owing to alleged maltreatment, the young wife
conceived a deadly hatred of her husband. A base-minded nurse was near, to
whisper means and ways of revenge, and the lady was induced to tamper with
a young man named Robert Weir, a servant of her father, to become the
instrument. At an early hour in the morning marginally noted, Weir came to
Warriston, and, being admitted by the lady into the gentleman’s chamber,
there fell upon him with his fists, and soon accomplished his death. While
Weir fled, the lady remained at home, along with the nurse. Both were
immediately seized, subjected to a summary kind of trial before the
magistrate; and condemned to death.
In the brief interval between the
sentence and execution, this unfortunate young creature—she was only
twenty-one - was brought, by the discourse of an amiable clergyman, from a
state of callous indifference to one of lively sensibility and religious
resignation. Her case was reported in a small pamphlet of the day. She
stated that, on Weir assaulting her husband, she went to the hall, and
waited till the deed was done. She thought she still heard the pitiful
cries uttered by her husband while ‘struggling with his murderer.
Afterwards, by way of dissembling, she tried to weep; but not a tear could
she shed. She could only regard her approaching death as a just expiation
of her offence. Her relations, feeling shamed by her guilt and its
consequence; made interest to obtain that her execution should be as
little public as possible, and it was accordingly arranged that, while the
nurse was being burnt on the Castle Hill at four in the morning, and thus
attracting the attention of any who might be out of their beds, the lady
should be conducted to the Girth Cross, at the opposite extremity of the
city, and there despatched by the Maiden.
According to the contemporary
pamphlet: ‘The whole way, as she went to the place of execution, she
behaved herself so cheerfully, as if she had been going to her wedding,
and not to her death. When she came to the scaffold, and was carried up
upon it, she looked up to the Maiden with two longsome looks, for she had
never seen it before. This I may say of her, to which all that saw her
will bear record, that her only countenance moved [her countenance alone
would have excited emotion], although she had not spoken a word. For there
appeared such majesty in her countenance and visage, and such a heavenly
courage in her gesture, that many said: "That woman is ravished with a
higher spirit than man or woman’s!" After reading a short address to the
multitude at the four corners of the scaffold, she calmly resigned herself
to her fate, uttering expressions of devotion till the descent of the axe
cut short her speech.
Weir, being taken four years after,
was broken on the wheel (June 26, 1604), a severe death, scarcely ever
before inflicted in Scotland.—Pit. Bir.
July 21
In Edinburgh, this day, ‘at nine hours at even, a combat or tulyie
[was fought] between twa brether of the Dempsters, and ane of them slain
by John Wilson. [He], being tane with het bluid, was execute at the
flesh-stocks, where he had slain the man the night before.’—Bir.
Quick as legal vengeance was in this
instance, we have proof of its being of little avail for prevention of
like outrages. Alexander Stewart, son of James Stewart of Allanton, had
applied for admission to the king at Holyroodhouse, at a time ‘when his
majesty desirit to be quiet,’ and Alexander Lockhart, one of the ushers of
the chamber, had accordingly denied him admittance. The young man,
conceiving deadly hatred at Lockhart for this, trained him out of his
house unarmed, and there set upon him with sword and bended pistol to take
his life. For a wonder, Lockhart escaped with only two wounds in the head.
The guilty youth was denounced rebel for not answering for his offence.—
P.C.R
July
The calamities of dearth, want, and a high mortality continued this year
to press upon the people, in almost all parts of the country. ‘A sheaf of
oat-straw was sold for forty shillings in Edinburgh. There was also a
great death of little children; six or seven buried [in Edinburgh] in a
day.’—Cal.
In October, the pest was in the town
of Findhorn, in consequence of which there was an edict of the Privy
Council, charging all the people there and thereabouts to keep at home,
lest they should spread the infection.—P. C. B. We find the
magistrates of Aberdeen in December ordaining a fast ‘in respect of the
fearful infection of the plague spread abroad in divers parts of Moray.’—
Ab. C. R
‘The year of God 1600, fourteen
whales, of huge bigness, were casten in by the sea, upon the sands under
the town of Dornoch in Sutherland. They came in alive, and were slain
immediately by the inhabitants, who reaped some commodity thereby. Some of
these fishes were ninety feet in length.’—G.
H S.
Aug 5
In the midst of a time unmarked by great events, great excitement was
caused by the attempt of the Earl of Gowrie and his brother upon the
king’s liberty or life, at Perth. James Melville notes that ‘a little
before or hard about the day of this accident, the sea at an instant,
about low-water, debordit and ran up aboon the sea-mark, higher nor at any
stream-tide, athort all the coast-side of Fife, and at an instant reteired
again to almaist low-water, to the great admiration of all, and skaith
done to some.’
Aug 6
While Robert Bruce and some others of the clergy professed to regard the
conspiracy with incredulity, the great bulk of the people, going with
their loyalty, as often happens, far beyond the merit of its object,
manifested all tokens of extreme satisfaction at the king’s escape. On the
arrival of the news, ‘there was sic joy, that the cannons shot, the bells
rang, the trumpets sounded, the drums strake. The town rase in arms, with
shooting of muskets, casting of fire-works, and banefires set forth; the
like was never seen in Scotland, there was sic merriness and dancing all
the nicht.’—Bjr.
The same day, the state-officers,
with some other nobles, went to the Cross, ‘and there heard Mr David
Lindsay make ane orison, and the haill people sat down on their knees,
giving thanks to God for the king’s deliverance out of sic ane great
danger.’—Bir. |