THE DRUMMONDS.
page 90

It thus appears that the founder of the Drummond family was not a Hungarian prince, or even gentleman,but Malcolm Beg, chamberlain to the Earl of Lennox. When the War of Independence broke out the Drummonds embraced the patriotic side. JOHN OF DRUMMOND was taken prisoner at the battle of Dunbar, and was imprisoned in the castle of Wisbeach; but he was set at liberty in August, 1297, on Sir Edmund Hastings, proprietor of part of Menteith in right of his wife, Lady Isabella Comyn, offering himself as security, and on the condition that he would accompany King Edward to France. His eldest son, SIR MALCOLM DRUMMOND, was a zealous supporter of the claims of Robert Bruce to the Scottish throne, and like his father fell into the hands of the English, having been taken prisoner by SirJohn Segrave. On hearing this 'good news,' King Edward, on the 20th of August, 1301, offered oblations at the shrine of St. Mungo, in the cathedral of Glasgow. After the independence of the country was secured by the crowning victory of Bannockburn, MALCOLMwas rewarded for his services by King Robert Bruce with lands in Perthshire. Sir Robert Douglas, the eminent genealogist, conjectures that the caltrops, or four-spiked pieces of iron, with the motto 'Gang warily,' in the armorial bearings of the Drummonds, were bestowed as an acknowledgment of Sir Malcolm's active efforts in the use of these formidable weapons at the battle of Bannockburn. Hisgrandson, JOHN DRUMMOND, married the eldest daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Montefex, It has hitherto been supposed that the estates of Stobhall and Cargill, on the Tay, which still belong to the family, came into the possession of the Drummonds by marriage with this heiress, but they were in reality bestowed by David II. on Queen Margaret, and were given by her to Malcolm ofDrummond, her nephew.* the first of the numerous fortunate marriages made by the Drummonds. Maurice, another grandson, married the heiress of Concraig and of the Stewardship of Strathearn. A second son, SIR MALCOLM, whom Wyntoun terms 'a manfull knycht, baith wise and wary,' fought at the battle of Otterburn in 1388, in which his brother-in-law, James, second Earl of Douglas and Mar, was killed, and succeeded him in the latter earldom, in right of his wife, Lady Isabel Douglas, only daughter of William, first Earl of Douglas. He seems to have had some share in the capture at that battle of Ralph Percy, brother of the famous Hotspur, as he received from Robert III. a pension of £20, in satisfaction of the third part of Percy's ransom, which exceeded £600. He died of his 'hard captivity' which he endured at the hands of a band of ruffians by whom he was seized and imprisoned. His widow, the heiress of the ancient family of Mar, was forcibly married by Alexander Stewart, a natural son of 'the Wolf of Badenoch.'  

THE DRUMMONDS.
page 92

The Drummonds were not only a brave and energetic race, but they were conspicuous for their handsome persons and gallant bearing. Good looks ran in their blood, and the ladies of the family were famous for their personal beauty, which no doubt led to the great marriages made by them, generation after generation, with the Douglases, Gordons, Grahams, Crawfords, Kers, and other powerful families,which greatly increased the influence and possessions of their house. Margaret, daughter of Malcolm, Lord Drummond, and widow of Sir John Logie, became the second wife of David II., who seems to have been familiar with her during her husband's lifetime. The Drummonds gave a second queen to Scotland in the person of Annabella, the saintly wife of Robert III., and mother of the unfortunate David, Duke of Rothesay, and of James I., whose 'depth of sagacity and firmness of mind' contributed not a little to the good government of the kingdom. They had nearly given another royal consort to share the throne of James IV., who was devotedly attached to Margaret, eldest daughter of the first Lord Drummond, a lady of great beauty. The entries in the Lord High Treasurer's accounts respecting the frequent rich presents lavishedon a certain Lady Margaret, which have been adduced as proofs of the relation in which Lady Margaret Drummond stood to James, have been proved to refer to Lady Margaret Stewart, the King's aunt. James, indeed, was a mere boy when those sums were paid; his connection with Margaret Drummond did not commence until the summer of 1496.* But that king's purpose to marry her was frustrated by her death, in consequence of poison administered by some of the nobles, who were envious of the honour which was a third time about to be conferred on her family. Her two younger sisters, who accidentally partook of the poisoned dish, shared her fate. The historian of the Drummonds states that James was 'affianced to Lady Margaret, and meant to make her his queen without consulting his council. He was opposed by those nobles who wished him to wed Margaret Tudor. His clergy likewise protested against his marriage as within the prohibited degrees. Before the King could receive the dispensation, his wife (the Lady Margaret) was poisoned at breakfast at Drummond Castle, with her two sisters. Suspicion fell on the Kennedys—a rival house, a member of which, Lady Janet Kennedy, daughter of John, Lord Kennedy, had borne a son to the King.' A slightly different account is given in 'Morreri's Dictionary,' on the authority of a manuscript history of the family of Drummond, composed in 1689. It is there stated that Lady Margaret, daughter of the first Lord Drummond, 'was so much beloved by James IV. that he wished to marry her, but as they were connected by blood, and a dispensation from the Pope was required, the impatient monarch concluded a private marriage, from which clandestine union sprang a daughter, who became the wife of the Earl of Huntly. The dispensation having arrived, the King determined to celebrate his nuptials publicly; but the jealousy of some of the nobles against the house of Drummond suggested to them the cruel project of taking off Margaret by poison, in order that her family might not enjoy the glory of giving two queens to Scotland.' The three young ladies thus 'foully done to death' were buried in a vault, covered with three blue marble stones, in the choir of the cathedral of Dunblane.
 
THE DRUMMONDS.
page 95

His eldest son, JAMES, Lord Drummond, accompanied King James in his expedition to Ireland, took aprominent part in the rebellion of 1715, and was, in consequence, attainted by the British Parliament. But two years before this unsuccessful attempt to restore the Stewart family to the throne, he executed a disposition of his estates in favour of his son, which was sustained by the Court of Session, and affirmed by the House of Lords. Destiny, however, had set her hand on the ill-fated house, and its doom was only postponed, not averted. The heir of the family, JAMES, third titular Duke of Perth, true to the principles of his family, joined Prince Charles Stewart in the rebellion of 1745, at the head of his tenantry, and shared in all the perils and privations of that unfortunate adventurer. He was a young man of an amiable disposition and dauntless courage, but his abilities were very moderate, his constitution was weak, and he was quite inexperienced both in politics and in war. 'In spite of a very delicate constitution,' says Douglas, 'he underwent the greatest fatigues, and was the first on every occasion of duty where his head or his hands could be of use.' He commanded the right wing of the Highlanders at the battle of Prestonpans, directed the siege of Carlisle, and of the castle of Stirling, and was at the head of the left wing at the final conflict of Culloden. After that disastrous battle, though tracked and pursued by the English troops, he made his escape to Moidart, and embarked in a French vessel lying off that coast. But his constitution was quite worn out by the privations he had undergone, and he died on his passage to France, 11th May, 1746, at the age of thirty-three. His brother and heir, Lord John Drummond, a colonel in the French service, commanded the left wing of the Highlanders at the battle of Falkirk. On the suppression of the rebellion, he made his escape to France, served with distinction in Flanders under Marshal Saxe, and attained the rank of major-general shortly before his death, in

THE ERSKINES.
page 106

THE Erskine family, which has produced a remarkable number of eminent men in every department of public life, derived their designation from the barony of Erskine in Renfrewshire, situated on the southbank of the Clyde. A Henry de Erskine, from whom the family trace their descent, was proprietor of this barony so early as the reign of Alexander II. A daughter of his great-grandson, Sir John de Erskine, was married to Sir Thomas Bruce, a brother of King Robert, who was taken prisoner and put to death by the English; another became the wife of Walter, High Steward of Scotland. The brother of these ladies was a faithful adherent of Robert Bruce, and as a reward for his patriotism and valour, was knighted under the royal banner on the field. He died in 1329. His son, Sir Robert de Erskine, held the great offices of Lord High Chamberlain, justiciary north of the Forth, and Constable of the Castles of Edinburgh, Stirling, and Dumbarton. He was six times ambassador to England, was also sent on an embassy to France, was Warden of the Marches, and heritable Sheriff of Stirlingshire. He took an active part in securing the succession of the House of Stewart to the throne, on the death of David Bruce. In return for this important service he received from Robert II. a grant of the estate of Alloa, which still remains in the possession of the family, in exchange for the hunting-ground of Strathgartney. Sir Thomas, the son of this powerful-noble by his marriage to Janet Keith, great grand daughter of Gratney, Earl of Mar, laid the foundation of the claim which the Erskines preferred to that dignity, and the vast estates which were originally included in the earldom. Though their claim was rejected by James I., the family continued to prosper; new honours and possessions were liberally conferred upon them by successive  sovereigns, and they were elevated to the peerage in 1467. The second Lord Erskine fought onthe side of King James III. against the rebel lords at Sauchieburn. Robert, third Lord Erskine, fell at the battle of Flodden with four other gentlemen, his kinsmen. The grandson of that lord, the Master of Erskine, was killed at Pinkie. For several generations the Erskines were entrusted with the honourable and responsible duty of keeping the heirs to the Crown during their minority. James IV., James V., Queen Mary, James VI., and his eldest son, Prince Henry, were in turn committed to the charge of the head of the Erskine family, who discharged this important trust with great fidelity. John, the fourth Lord Erskine, who had the keeping of James V. during his minority, was employed by him in after life in important public affairs, was present at the melancholy death of that monarch at Falkland, and after that event afforded for some time a refuge to his infant daughter, the unfortunate Mary, in Stirling Castle, of which he was hereditary governor. On the invasion of Scotland by the English, he removed her for greater security to the Priory of Inchmahome, an island in the Lake of Menteith, which was his own property. His eldest son, who fell at the battle of Pinkie during his father's lifetime, was the ancestor, by an illegitimate son, of the Erskines of Shieldfield, near Dryburgh, from whom sprang the celebrated brothers Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine, the founders of the Secession Church.
 
THE ERSKINES.
page 108 

After the death of his first wife, Anne, daughter of David, Lord Drummond, the Earl fell ardently in lovewith Lady Mary Stewart, the daughter of the Duke of Lennox, the ill-fated royal favourite, and cousin of the King. As he was older than this French beauty, and had already a son and heir, she at first positively refused to marry him, remarking that 'Anne Drummond's bairn would be Earl of Mar, but that hers would be just Maister Erskine.' 'Being of a hawtie spirit,' says Lord Somerville, 'she disdained that the children begotten upon her should be any ways inferior, either as to honour or estate, to the children of the first marriage. She leaves nae means unessayed to advance their fortunes.' Memoirs of the Somervilles. Lord Somerville is mistaken in representing Lord Mar as an oldman at this time. He was little more than thirty years of age.*
 
THE ERSKINES.
page 109

The Earl took her rejection of his suit so much to heart as to become seriously ill; but the King strove tocomfort him, and, in his homely style of speech said, 'By my saul, Jock, ye sanna dee for ony lass in a'the land.' He was aware that the main cause of the lady's refusal to marry his friend was her knowledge of the fact that the Earl's son by his first wife would inherit his titles as well as his estates, and he informed her that if she married Mar, and bore him a son, he should also be made a peer. The inducement thus held out by his Majesty removed Lady Mary's scruples, and James was as good as his word. He created the Earl Lord Cardross, bestowing upon him at the same time the barony of that name, with the unusual privilege of authority to assign both the barony and the title to any of his sons whom he might choose. The Earl was the father of three peers, and the father-in-law of four powerful earls. Lady Mary Stewart bore him five sons and four daughters. The eldest of these, Sir James Erskine, married Mary Douglas, Countess of Buchan in her own right, and was created Earl of Buchan. The second son, Henry, received from his father the title and the barony of Cardross. The third son, Colonel Sir Alexander Erskine, lost his life, along with his brother-in-law, the Earl of  Haddington and other Covenanting leaders, when Dunglass Castle was blown up in 1640 by theexplosion of the powder-magazine. He was a handsome and gallant soldier, originally in the Frenchservice, and is noted as the lover whose faithlessness is bewailed in the beautiful and pathetic songentitled, 'Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament.' Sir Charles Erskine, the fourth son, was ancestor of theErskines of Alva, now represented by the Earl of Rosslyn. William Erskine, the youngest son, was cup-bearer to Charles II., and Master of the Charterhouse, London. The Earl of Mar's youngest daughter married the eldest son of the Lord Chancellor, Thomas Hamilton, first Earl of Haddington—'Tam o' the Cowgate.' When King James heard of the intended marriage, knowing well the great ability, and the 'pawkiness' of the two noblemen who were thus to be brought into close alliance, he exclaimed inunfeigned, and not altogether groundless, alarm, 'Lord, haud a grupp o' me. If Tam o' the Cowgate's son marry Jock o' the Sclaits' daughter, what will become o' me'
 
THE ERSKINES.
page 112

Deeply mortified at this treatment, Mar resolved upon revenge, and entered into correspondence with the disaffected party in Scotland, with the view of exciting an insurrection against the reigning family. He attended a court levee on the 1st of August, 1715, and next morning he set out for Scotland to raise the standard of rebellion against the King to whom he just paid homage. Accompanied by Major-General Hamilton and Colonel Hay, the Earl, disguised as an artisan, sailed in a coal-barge from London to Newcastle. He hired a vessel there which conveyed him and his companions to the coast of Fife, and landed them at the small port of Elie. He spent a few days in that district among the Jacobite gentry, with whom he made arrangements to join him in the North. On the 17th of August he left Fife, and with forty horse proceeded to his estates in Aberdeenshire, sending out by the way invitations to a great hunting match in the forest of Braemar, on the 25th of that month. On the day appointed the leading Jacobite noblemen and chiefs assembled, attended by a few hundreds of their vassals, and after a glowing address from Mar, denouncing the usurping intruder who occupied the throne, and holding out large promises of assistance from France in both troops and money, they resolved to take up arms on behalf of the exiled Stewart family. Accordingly, on the 6th of September, the Jacobite standard was unfurled at Castletown, in Braemar.
 
THE ERSKINES OF BUCHAN AND CARDROSS.
page 119

In 1371 a grant of the dormant earldom of Buchan was made by Robert III. to SIR ALEXANDER STEWART, his fourth son by his first wife, Elizabeth Mure, who, on account of his savage character and conduct, was designated 'the Wolf of Badenoch,' the district of which he was lord. He also obtained the earldom of Ross for life, in right of his wife. In the year 1390 he invaded the district of Moray, in revenge of a quarrel with the bishop of that see, and besides ravaging the country, he plundered and profaned the cathedral of Elgin, which he afterwards set on fire, reducing that noble edifice, with the adjoining religious houses, and the town itself, to a mass of blackened ruins. He was subsequently obliged to do public penance for this crime in the Blackfriars church of Perth, and to make full satisfaction to the bishop.
 
THE ERSKINES OF BUCHAN AND CARDROSS.
page 120

At the death of this savage noble, in 1394, the earldom devolved upon his brother, ROBERT, Duke ofAlbany; but in 1408, as Regent, he conferred the title upon SIR JOHN STEWART, his second son. In 1419, with consent of the Estates, the Earl was sent with an army of seven thousand men to the assistance of the French king in his contest with England for his crown. These auxiliaries won great renown under the leadership of Buchan, and rendered important services to the French in their struggle for independence. On the 22nd of March, 1421, they defeated, at Beaugé, a large English force, under the Duke of Clarence, brother of Henry V. Fourteen hundred men, along with the Earl of Kent and Lords Gray and Ross, fell in this encounter. Clarence himself was unhorsed and wounded by Sir William Swinton, and, as he strove to regain his steed, he was felled to the earth and killed by the mace of the Earl of Buchan. As a reward for this signal victory the Dauphin conferred upon Buchan the high office of Constable of France. Three years later, however, the Scottish auxiliaries were almost annihilated at the fatal battle of Verneuil, and their commander, the Earl of Buchan, was among the slain. He married Lady Elizabeth Douglas, daughter of Archibald, fourth Earl of Douglas and Duke of Touraine, by whom he had an only daughter, who became the wife of George, second Lord Seton. The earldom of Buchan devolved upon [p.120] his brother, MURDOCH, Duke of Albany, at whose execution, in 1425, it was forfeited to the Crown.
 
THE ERSKINES OF BUCHAN AND CARDROSS.
page 120

The title remained dormant for forty-one years, but in 1466 it was bestowed on JAMES STEWART,surnamed 'Hearty James,' the second son of Sir James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn, by Lady Jane Beaufort, widow of James I. The new Earl was consequently uterine brother to James II. He was appointed High Chamberlain of Scotland in 1471, and two years later he was sent on an embassy to France. His son and grandson were successively Earls of Buchan. John, Master of Buchan, eldest son of the latter, fell at the battle of Pinkie, in 1547, leaving an only child, Christian, who became Countess ofBuchan in her own right. She married Robert Douglas, second son of Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven, uterine brother of the Regent Moray. He obtained the title of Earl of Buchan in right of his wife. Their only son, JAMES, became fifth Earl of Buchan of this family, and died in 1601, at the early age of twenty-one. He left an only child, MARY DOUGLAS, who succeeded to the title and estates; and by her marriage with James Erskine, son of John, seventh Earl of Mar, carried the earldom into the Erskine family. Her household book, which contains numerous items, such as 'to a poor minister who bemoanet his poverty to my lady,' shows that she was extremely generous to the poor. Not even 'ane masterfull beggar, who did knock at the gate, my lady being at table,' nor 'ane drunken beggar, who fainit he was madd,' was sent empty away.
 
THE ERSKINES OF BUCHAN AND CARDROSS.
page 121

We have seen how the barony of Cardross was bestowed upon the Earl by James VI., in fulfilment of apromise made by him to Lady Mary Stewart, the Earl's second wife. It was formed out of the abbacies of Dryburgh and Cambuskenneth, and the priory of Inchmahome, which, as the charter sets forth, 'havebene in all tyme heretofore commounlie disponit be his mateis predecessors to sum that were cum of the hous of Erskeyne.' The allusion is to Adam Erskine, Commendator of Cambuskenneth, natural son of Thomas,  Master of Erskine, and to David, first Abbot, and afterwards Commendator of Dryburgh,natural son of Robert, Master of Erskine, killed at Pinkie (elder brother of Thomas). Lord Erskine's third son John was 'Commendator of Inschemachame.' Henry Erskine, his Kinsfolk and Times. By Lieut.-Col. Ferguson.*
 
THE ERSKINES OF BUCHAN AND CARDROSS.
page 122

DAVID, second Lord Cardross, his son, was one of the Scottish peers who protested against the delivering up of Charles I. to the English army at Newcastle in 1646. His younger son, the Hon. Colonel John Erskine of Cardross, was father of John Erskine, the author of the well-known 'Institutes of the Law of Scotland,' and his grandson was the celebrated Dr. John Erskine, Minister of Greyfriars Church, Edinburgh, of whom Sir Walter Scott has given a graphic portrait in 'Guy Mannering.' HENRY, third Lord Cardross, his eldest son by his first wife, Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Hope, King's Advocate, was an eminent patriot, and one of the most prominent opponents of the Duke of Lauderdale's arbitrary and oppressive administration. He succeeded to the family title and estates in 1671, and married Katherine, second daughter and ultimately heiress of Sir James Stewart of Strathbrock (or Uphall) and Kirkhill, in Linlithgowshire. In consequence of his support of the cause of civil and religious liberty, his lordship underwent long and severe persecution. In the statement laid before the King of the sufferings he endured it is mentioned that in August, 1675, he was fined by the Scottish Privy Council the sum of£1,000, for the offence of his lady's having divine worship performed in his own house, by his ownchaplain, when Lord Cardross was not present. He was further fined by the Council in £112 10s. for his tenants having [p.122] attended two conventicles. He was imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh for four years, and while a prisoner there was fined, in August, 1677, in the sum of £3,000, the half of his valued rent, for his lady having, without his knowledge, had a child baptised by a Nonconforming minister. A garrison was fixed in his house in 1675; and in June, 1679, the royal forces, on their march to the west, went two miles out of their road, in order that they might be quartered on Lord Cardross's estates of Kirkhill and Uphall.
 
THE ERSKINES OF BUCHAN AND CARDROSS.
page 122

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

THE ERSKINES OF BUCHAN AND CARDROSS.
page 124

HENRY DAVID, tenth Earl of Buchan, married Agnes Stewart, daughter of Sir James Stewart of Coltness, Solicitor-General for Scotland, and of his wife, the witty and beautiful Anne Dalrymple, daughter of Sir Hew Dalrymple, of North Berwick, President of the Court of Session. Lady Buchan was the grand-daughter of Sir James Stewart of Goodtrees, Lord Advocate to King William, and Queen Anne, popularly designated "Jamie Wylie," on account of his crafty character and shifty conduct. The Earl and his wife were strict Presbyterians. His grandson describes him as 'a zealously religious man, strong in his anti-Roman convictions, though he inclined in a great way towards the Stewarts.' He was a man of great good-nature and polite manners, but of moderate abilities. His wife, however, was a woman of great intellect, which she had diligently cultivated. She had studied mathematics under the famous Colin Maclaurin, the friend of Sir Isaac Newton—a rare accomplishment at that time. She also possessed an elegant taste with a brilliant imagination, and, above all, an eminent and earnest piety. Her ladyship had also the reputation of being a notable manager—an acquirement greatly needed in the narrow circumstances of the family. The ample patrimony which at one time belonged to the heads of the house of Erskine had been greatly diminished, partly by mismanagement, and neglect of economy, partly through the losses sustained  by Lord Cardross during the time of the 'Persecution.' About the year 1745 Lord Buchan had been obliged to sell the estate of Cardross to his cousin of Carnock, so that the Linlithgowshire estates alone remained in his possession. But though his income was small for a person of his rank and position, it was sufficient, 'with the careful economy practised by Lady Buchan, for comfort, in accordance with the primitive notions of those days.' The Earl had quitted his seat in the country, and had taken up his residence in a flat at the head of Gray's Close, in the High Street of Edinburgh. His house, however, was frequented not only by the most eminent divines of the city, but by judges and leading advocates, and by members of other noble though not wealthy families, who came to partake of 'a cosy dish of tea,' which was at that time the usual form of social entertainment. Colonel Ferguson has shown that Lord Campbell, in his Life of Lord Erskine, has greatly exaggerated the poverty of the Earl of Buchan at this time.*
 
THE ERSKINES OF BUCHAN AND CARDROSS.
page 125

DAVID STEWART ERSKINE, eleventh Earl of Buchan, born in 1742. He was educated at the University of Glasgow, was for a short time in the army, next tried the diplomatic profession, under the great Lord Chatham (then Mr. Pitt), and in 1766 was appointed Secretary to the British Embassy in Spain. He did not, however, proceed to Madrid, and it was reported at the time that he declined to do so because the ambassador, Sir James Gray, was a person of inferior social rank. According to Horace Walpole, the father of Sir James was first a box-keeper, and then a footman to James VII. Boswell mentions that in discussing the merits of this question with Sir Alexander Macdonald, Dr. Johnson observed that, perhaps, in point of interest the young lord did wrong, but in point of dignity he did well. Sir Alexander held that Lord Cardross was altogether wrong, and contended that Mr. Pitt meant it as an advantageous thing to him. 'Why, sir,' said Johnson, 'Mr. Pitt might think it an  advantageous thing for him to make him a vintner, and get him all the Portugal trade; but he would have demeaned himself strangely had he accepted of such a situation. Sir, had he gone as secretary while his inferior was ambassador, he would have been a traitor to his rank and his family.' Boswell's Life of Johnson, iii. p. 111.* Mr. Croker has justly remarked upon this discussion, 'If this principle were to be admitted, the young nobility would be excluded from all professions, for the superiors in the professions would frequently be their inferiors in personal rank. Would Johnson have dissuaded Lord Cardross from entering on the military profession, because at his outset he must have been commanded by a person inferior in personal rank?' Professor Rouet, however, wrote to his cousin, Baron Mure, 'Cardross does not go to Spain because of the bad state of his father's health.' But it must be admitted that the other reason alleged for declining the office was quite in keeping with the character of the young patrician.
 
THE ERSKINES OF KELLIE
page 139

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

THE GRAHAMS.
page 144

From this time downwards the Grahams have taken a prominent part in public, and especially in warlike, affairs. The son of Sir David, who bore his name, which seems to have been a favourite one among the early Grahams, was a zealous adherent of Robert Bruce, and defended the independence of his native country so stoutly, that he was excepted from the pacification which King Edward made with the Scots in 1303-4. Along with two of his kinsmen, he signed the famous letter to the Pope vindicating in noble terms the independence of Scotland. He died in 1327. It was he who exchanged with King Robert Bruce the estate of Cardross for Old Montrose. His son, also named Sir David, was taken prisoner with his sovereign, David II., at the battle of Durham. Sir David's son, Sir Patrick of Graham, was the ancestor both of the Montrose and Menteith Grahams. His son and successor, by his first wife, Sir William, carried on the main line of the family. His eldest son, Patrick, by his second wife, Egidia, niece of Robert II., married— probably about the year 1406—Eufemea Stewart, Countess Palatine of Strathern, and either through courtesy of his wife, or by creation, became Earl Palatine of Strathern. (See EARLS OF MENTEITH.)
 
THE GRAHAMS.
page 145

The elder son of Sir William Graham by his first wife predeceased him, leaving two sons. By his second wife, the Princess Mary Stewart, daughter of Robert II., Sir William had five sons, from the eldest of whom descended the Grahams of Fintry, of Claverhouse, and of Duntrune, and the third was the ancestor of the gallant Sir Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch. Patrick Graham, Sir William's second son, by the Princess Mary, was consecrated Bishop of Brechin in 1463, and was translated to St. Andrews in 1466. He was a learned and virtuous prelate, worthy to succeed the illustrious Bishop Kennedy, his near relative—a model bishop. Anxious to vindicate the independence of the Scottish Church, over which the Archbishop of York claimed jurisdiction, he visited Rome, and procured from the Pope a bull erecting his see into an archbishopric, and appointing him metropolitan, papal nuncio, and legate a latere, in Scotland for three years. On his return home the Archbishop was assailed with vindictive malignity by his ecclesiastical rivals. The inferior clergy rejoiced in his advancement; but the dignitaries of the Church, through envy and dread of the reforms which he was prepared to inaugurate, became his inveterate enemies. By bribing the King, James III., they succeeded in obtaining the degradation and imprisonment of the unfortunate prelate, on the plea that he had infringed the royal prerogative by applying to the papal court without the King's license. It is alleged, in a report recently found in the Roman archives, that Graham had proclaimed himself divinely appointed to reform ecclesiastical abuses, and had revoked indulgences granted at Rome, appointed legates, and had committed other similar illegal acts. There is reason to believe that the persecution which the Archbishop underwent had affected his mind. Schevez, an able, but unprincipled and profligate ecclesiastic, who succeeded Graham in the primacy, and was the leader of the hostile party, had him declared insane, and procured the custody of his person. He was confined first in Inchcolm, and afterwards in the castle of Loch Leven, where he died in 1478.
 
THOMAS GRAHAM, LORD LYNEDOCH.
page 170

THIS gallant soldier and skilful general was the greatest man produced by the family of Graham since the illustrious Marquis of Montrose. He was descended in the direct line from Sir William Graham of Kincardine, and Mary Stewart, a daughter of Robert III. Sir William was the ancestor of the Dukes of Montrose, the Earls of Strathern and Menteith, and all the other branches of the 'gallant Grahams. 'Thomas Graham was the third and only surviving son of Thomas Graham (or Græme, as he spelled his name) of Balgowan, in Perthshire, by his wife, Lady Christian Hope, a daughter of the first Earl of Hopetoun. He was born in 1748, and received his early education at home, under the tuition first of the Rev. Mr. Fraser, minister of Monedie, and afterwards of the celebrated James Macpherson, the collector and translator of Ossian's poems. Young Graham was sent to Christchurch, Oxford, in 1766, and in the following year the death of his father put him in possession of a handsome and unen-cumbered estate. On leaving college, he spent several years on the Continent, where he acquired a thorough knowledge of the French and German languages. On his return to Scotland he devoted himself to the management and improvement of his estate. He enclosed his lands, erected comfortable farmhouses and offices, granted leases to his tenants, encouraged them to provide improved implements of husbandry, and to cultivate on a large scale potatoes and turnips, which had hitherto been regarded as mere garden plants. He also set himself with great care to cultivate improved breeds of horses, cattle, and sheep. He purchased, in 1785, the estate of Lynedoch or Lednoch, situated in a picturesque part of the valley of the Almond, and took great delight in planting trees and oak coppices, and in beautifying the sloping banks which border the course of  that stream. From his boyhood upwards, he was fond of horses and dogs, and was distinguished for his skill in all country sports, for which his stalwart and athletic frame eminently fitted him. He rode with the foxhounds, and accompanied the Duke of Athole, who subsequently became his brother-in-law, in grouse-shooting and deer-stalking on the Athole moors. He used to say, in after years, that he owed much of that education of the eye with reference to ground and distances, so useful to a military man, to his deer-hunting at this period of his life in the Forest of Athole.
 
THE SCOTTS OF BUCCLEUCH.
page 204

Sir Walter commenced the rebuilding of Branxholm Castle; but the work, though it had been carried on for three years, was not completed at the time of his death, April 17th, 1574; it was finished by his widow, Lady Margaret Douglas, whom he married when he was only sixteen years of age. He had by her a son, Walter, and two daughters. She took for her second husband Francis Stewart, the factious and intriguing Earl of Bothwell, to whom she bore three sons and three daughters. She survived her first husband for the long period of sixty-six years, and died in the year 1640.
 
THE SCOTTS OF BUCCLEUCH.
page 220

FRANCIS, second Duke of Buccleuch, who married Lady Jane Douglas, eldest daughter of the second Duke of Queensberry, whose titles and estates were inherited by their grandson, the third Duke of Buccleuch. It is somewhat singular that a marriage was at one time proposed between Duke Francis, when Earl of Dalkeith, and another Lady Jane Douglas,the only sister of the Duke of Douglas, whose marriage to Sir John Stewart led to the famous 'Douglas Case.' (See THE ANGUS DOUGLASES, i. 91.) If this proposal had been carried into effect, it would, in all probability have united the dukedom of Buccleuch with that of Douglas, instead of Queensberry. It is not improbable that the duel which took place between the Earl of Dalkeith and his intended brother-in-law may have had something to do with this affair. Duchess Anne, who was displeased at the breaking off of the match, imputed the blame to the Duchess of Queensberry, of whom she pungently remarked, 'She has the same fait which some others has in this worald, more power than they deserve.' Strange to say, however, the extensive estates, though not the titles of the Douglas family, were inherited by the great-granddaughter of Duke Francis. (See THE HOMES, i. 386.)
 
THE SCOTTS OF HARDEN.
page 246

Raeburn's eldest son, William, at the age of twenty-four, fell in a duel with Pringle of Crichton, which was fought with swords, near Selkirk, in 1707. The second son, Walter, received a good education at the University of Glasgow. He was a zealous Jacobite, and was called 'Beardie,' from a vow which he had made never to shave his beard till the exiled royal family were restored. Sir Walter Scott says of him 'that it would have been well if his zeal for the banished dynasty of Stewart had stopped with his letting his beard grow. But he took arms, and intrigued in their cause, until he lost all he had in the world, and, as I have heard, ran a narrow risk of being hanged, had it not been for the interference of Anne, Duchess of Buccleuch and Monmouth.'
 
THE HEPBURNS.
page 254

Notwithstanding his ready compliance with the wishes of the Cardinal, Bothwell was soon after again committed to prison, in all probability in consequence of his intrigues with England, and did not obtain his release until after the battle of Pinkie, 10th September, 1547. He immediately waited upon the Duke of Somerset, the commander of the invading army, and there can be little doubt that he then gave in his adherence to the English cause. He is described as 'a gentleman of a right comely porte and stature, and heretofore of right honourable and just meaning and dealing towards the King's Majesty (Henry VIII.), whom therefore, my Lord's Grace did according to his degree and merits very friendly welcome and maintain.' There was good reason why the Earl received a cordial welcome from the ruthless English invaders, for it has been ascertained that he had gone over wholly to their side. An instrument, dated at Westminster, 3rd September, 1549, sets forth that King Edward had taken the Earl of Bothwell under his protection and favour, granting him a yearly rent of three thousand crowns, and the wages of a hundred horsemen for the defence of his person, and the annoyance of the enemy; and, if he should lose his lands in Scotland in the English King's service for the space of three years, promising to give him lands of equal value in England. There are good grounds for believing that the traitorous noble spent the remainder of his life in exile, and that he died in 1556. He left a son, who succeeded him in the family title and estates, and a daughter. The latter became the wife of John Stewart, Prior of Coldingham, a natural son of James V., to whom she bore Francis Stewart, the turbulent Earl of Bothwell who so often disturbed the peace of the country during the reign of James VI.

THE HEPBURNS.
page 255

JAMES HEPBURN, fourth Earl of Bothwell, whose foul crimes have stamped his memory with infamy,was born about the year 1536. His early years were spent in the castle of Spynie, near Elgin, with his granduncle, Patrick Hepburn, Bishop of Moray, a prelate who was conspicuous, even at that immoral period, for the neglect of the duties of his office, and his gross licentiousness. James Hepburn was only in his nineteenth or twentieth year when his father died, and he succeeded him not only in the family titles and estates, including the strong fortresses of Bothwell, Crichton and Hailes, but also in his hereditary offices of Lord High Admiral of Scotland, Sheriff of the counties of Berwick, Haddington, and Midlothian, and Bailiff of Lauderdale. He was thus the most powerful nobleman in the south of Scotland. This 'glorious, rash, and hazardous young man,' as he is styled by Walsingham, was, from his youth upwards, the cause of strife and discord in the country, and of trouble to the public authorities. Though he professed to be a Protestant, he espoused the cause of the Queen Regent against the Lords of the Congregation, and showed himself utterly unscrupulous in the means he adopted to promote her interests. In 1558, though little more than of age, he was appointed by her Lieutenant-General of the Middle Marches, and keeper of Hermitage Castle, which added largely to his already overgrown power. In October, 1559, having learned that Cockburn of Ormiston had received four thousand crowns from Sir Ralph Sadler, for the use of the Protestant party, Bothwell waylaid and wounded him, and robbed him of the money. On receiving intelligence of this gross outrage, the Earl of Arran, the Governor, and Lord James Stewart (afterwards Regent Moray) immediately went to Bothwell's house in Haddington, with a body of soldiers, to apprehend the depredator; but, a few minutes before they reached the place, he received intelligence of their approach and fled down the bed of the river Tyne, which is closely adjoining, and took refuge in the house of Cockburn of Sandybed. Entering by [p.255] the back door, which opened to the river, he changed clothes with the turnspit and performed the duties of that menial. In return for the protection afforded him in this extremity, Bothwell gave toCockburn and his heirs a perpetual ground annual of four bolls of wheat, four bolls of barley, and fourbolls of oats, to be paid yearly out of the lands of Mainshill, near Haddington. These quantities of grain continued to be paid to Cockburn's heirs till the year 1760, when his estate was sold by his descendant to Mr. Buchan of Lethem; and he shortly after disposed of the ground annual to the Earl of Wemyss, who was then proprietor of Mainshill.
 
THE HEPBURNS.
page 260

On the 15th December, Sir William Stewart, the Scottish herald, appeared at the Danish Court, and delivered to Frederick a formal [p.260] demand from the Regent Moray for the surrender of Darnley's murderer. In this emergency the Earl proved himself, as Peter Oxe, the High Steward, and John Früs, one of the Danish councillors, described him, in a document which still exists, 'very cunning and inventive.' He affirmed that he had come to Denmark to 'declare the cause of the Queen of Scotland, his royal Majesty's kinswoman, and to desire his Majesty's good counsel and assistance for her deliverance, as from the lord and prince on whom, both on account of kinship and descent, as also on account of the ancient alliance which has been between both kingdoms from time immemorial, she altogether relies.' He pleaded that 'he had already in Scotland been legally acquitted of this charge, that he was himself the real regent of Scotland, that the Queen was his consort, and that his opponents were only rebels.' He addressed letters to Charles IX. of France, declaring that he had left Scotland 'to lay before the Danish king the wrongs to which his near relative, the Queen of Scotland, had become a victim,' and entreated the French king 'favourably to take into account the goodwill with which through his whole life he had striven, and would further strive, to be of service to him.' He also solicited, and, it would appear succeeded, in securing the interposition in his behalf of Charles Dancay, the French ambassador at the Court of Denmark. In the end, Frederick declined to surrender Bothwell, but offered permission to the Scottish envoy himself to prosecute the Earl in Denmark, for the crimes laid to his charge—a course, however, which Sir William Stewart did not think it expedient at that time to adopt. Meanwhile, orders were given by the King that Bothwell should be removed from Copenhagen to the castle of Malmoe, where he was confined in a large oblong vaulted hall, strongly secured with iron-barred windows, which still exist. During his residence in the castle of Copenhagen Bothwell composed a detailed memoir of the transactions in Scotland that had led to the dethronement of the Queen and his own banishment, which is throughout a tissue of the most extraordinary falsehoods, denying all participation on his own part in the murder of Darnley, and ascribing that deed to Moray and the other Protestant lords.
 
THE HEPBURNS.
page 264

The title of Earl of Bothwell was conferred by James VI., 29th July, 1576, on FRANCIS STEWART,eldest son of John Stewart, Prior [p.264] of Coldingham, natural son of James V. by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Carmichael. The Prior obtained legitimation under the Great Seal, 7th February, 1551, and married, in 1562, Lady Jane Hepburn, daughter of Patrick, third Earl of Bothwell, and sister of the murderer of Darnley. It was no doubt owing to his near relationship to the Hepburns through his mother, that their forfeited titles were conferred upon him, along with a considerable portion of their estates. He was also appointed Lord High Admiral of Scotland, Sheriff-Principal of the county of Edinburgh, and within the constabulary of Haddington, and Sheriff of the county of Berwick, and Bailiary of Lauderdale.
 
THE HEPBURNS.
page 265

From his early years Francis Stewart was noted for his restless and turbulent disposition. He took part against the Earl of Arran, the royal favourite, and quarrelled with Sir William Stewart, Arran's brother, whom he killed in a fray which took place in Blackfriars Wynd, in Edinburgh, on the 30th July, 1588. In that same year he assisted the Popish Earls of Huntly, Errol, and Angus, in their rebellion, and was imprisoned in Tantallon Castle; but after a few months' confinement he was released on payment of a fine to the Crown. In 1589, when James went to Denmark in quest of his betrothed bride, he appointed Bothwell one of the administrators of the kingdom during his absence, in the hope of conciliating him by this mark of distinction. But on the return of the King the Earl returned to his former practices. In January, 1591, a number of wretched creatures were brought to trial and burned on a charge of witchcraft, and twoof them declared that Bothwell had consulted them in order to know the time of the King's death, and that at his instigation they had raised the storm which had endangered the lives of James and his queen, on their voyage homeward from Denmark. The Earl surrendered himself a prisoner in the castle of Edinburgh, to meet these charges, insisting that 'the devil, wha was a lyer from the beginning, nor yet his sworn witches, ought not to be credited.' But after remaining three weeks in prison he became impatient of restraint, and on the 22nd of June, 1591, he effected his escape from the castle, and fled to the Borders. The King on this proclaimed him a traitor, and forbade, under the penalties of treason, any one to 'reset, supply, show favour, intercommune, or have intelligence with him.' Bothwell, no way intimidated by this procedure, returned secretly to Edinburgh with a body of his retainers, and on the evening of December 27th, furtively obtained admission to the inner court of Holyrood. An alarm was  given, and the King, who was then at supper, rushed down a back-stair leading to one of the turrets, in which he took refuge. Spottiswood lauds the firm deportment of the King when Bothwell was thundering at the door ofthe Queen's apartment. But Birrel describes the King's majesty as 'flying down the backstairs with his breeches in his hand' (Birrel, p. 30). 'Such is the difference,' says Sir Walter Scott, 'betwixt the narrative of the courtly archbishop and that of the Presbyterian burgess of Edinburgh.' This scene seems to have been regarded by Sir Walter with great amusement. In the 'Fortunes of Nigel' he represents Richie Moniplies as describing the array of King James when his majesty was about to go out to hunt, or hawk, on Blackheath. 'A bonny grey horse, the saddle, and the stirrups, and the curb, and the bit o' gowd, or silver gilded at least; the King, with all his nobles, dressed out in his hunting-suit of green, doubly laced and laid down with gowd. My certy, lad, thought I,' adds Richie, 'times are changed since ye came fleeing down the backstairs of auld Holyrood House in grit fear, having your breeks in your hand, without time to put them on, and Frank Stewart, the wild Earl of Bothwell, hard at your haunches.'* The attendants barred and barricaded the door of the Queen's apartment, which Bothwell attempted to force open. Meanwhile notice of this attack was sent to the Provost of the city, who hastily collected a band of armed citizens, with whom he entered the palace by a private door leading to the royal chapel, and compelled Bothwell and his followers to take to flight. Nine of them were captured, and without a trial were hanged next morning, on a new gallows erected opposite the palace gate for the purpose.
 
THE FRASERS OF LOVAT.
page 268

The trial accordingly took place on the 10th of August, and lasted for nine hours. It ended in Bothwell's complete acquittal, and was immediately followed by full remission of all his 'by-gone offences done to his Majesty and his authority, preceding this day, never to be quarrelled hereafter.' A proclamation was also issued by the King, charging the lieges that none of them 'tak upon hand to slander, murmur, reproach, or backbite the said Earl and his friends.' James, however, had no intention of keeping the agreement which he had made with his factious subject, and Bothwell was informed that if he would renounce the conditions extorted by force from the King, being a breach of the royal prerogative, a remission would be granted for his past offences, but that he must forthwith retire out of the kingdom, and 'remain forth of the same,' during his Majesty's pleasure. Lord Home and Bothwell's other enemies were at the same time permitted to return to Court, from which his friends were expelled. He was served with a summons to appear before the King and Council on the 25th October, 1593, to answer sundry charges of high treason, and, having failed to appear, he was denounced a rebel, and put to the horn. Incensed at these proceedings, Bothwell levied a body of five hundred moss-troopers, and marched to the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. James went out to meet him at the head of a numerous but undisciplined body of the citizens, and drew them up on the Boroughmuir. He had previously despatched Lord Home with a body of cavalry to attack Bothwell, but they were no match for the warlike Borderers, and were quickly put to the rout. As soon as the King saw the fugitives approaching, he fled upon the gallop back to the city. Bothwell however, in his eager pursuit of the defeated troops, was thrown from his horse, and so severely injured that he retired to Dalkeith, where he passed the night. Next morning he dismissed his followers, and once more sought security on the English side of the Border. Elizabeth, however, had by this time discovered that he could no longer be of service to her, and expelled him from the country. Sentence of excommunication was pronounced against him by the Church, which rendered him liable to the highest civil penalties. He was driven from all his castles and places of [p.268] shelter, and was chased from one quarter of the country to another. At length, after being keenlypursued through the county of Caithness, where he made several hairbreadth escapes, he found means of retiring to France. He then wandered into Spain, and afterwards passed into Italy, where he renounced the Protestant faith. He there led a life of obscurity and indigence, earning a wretched subsistence by the exhibition of feats of arms, fortune-telling, and necromancy. He died at Naples in 1612, in great misery. The forfeited estates of Bothwell were divided among Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch, his stepson, Ker of Cessford, and Lord Home. The forfeited titles of the Earl were never recovered, but the greater part of his extensive estates were restored by Charles I. to Francis Stewart, his eldest son, who married Lady Isabella Seton, only daughter of Robert, first Earl of Winton, and ultimately sold his paternal estates to the Winton family. He left a son and a daughter. In Creichton's 'Memoirs' it is stated that Francis Stewart, the grandson of the Earl of Bothwell, though so nearly related to the royal family, was a private in the Scottish Horse Guards, in the reign of Charles II. This circumstance appears to have suggested to Sir Walter Scott the character of Sergeant Bothwell in 'Old Mortality.' John Stewart, the second son of the Earl, was the last Commendator of Coldingham, and he got the lands which belonged to that priory formed into a barony in 1621.
 
THE FRASERS OF LOVAT.
page 278

When the Jacobite insurrection of 1715 broke out, Simon set out for Scotland, no doubt with the intention of joining the party that should appear most likely to promote his own interests. He alleges that he was arrested at Newcastle, Longtown, near Carlisle, Dumfries, and Lanark, which would seem to show that his character was generally known, and that his intentions were as generally distrusted. He was allowed, however, in the end to prosecute his journey. On reaching Edinburgh he was instantly apprehended by order of the Lord Justice Clerk, and was about to be imprisoned in the castle, when he was set at liberty through the interposition of the Lord Provost of the city. He made his way by sea from Leith to Inverness-shire, and found that Mackenzie of Fraserdale had led a body of five hundred men of the Fraser clan to the standard of the Earl of Mar. Three hundred of them, however, had disobeyed his orders and had remained at home, and putting himself at their head, Lovat concerted a plan, with Duncan Forbes of Culloden, for the recovery of Inverness, the capital of the Highlands, which had been garrisoned by Sir John Mackenzie of Coul, with four hundred of his clan. He also sent a message to his clansmen who had joined the rebels, ordering them immediately to quit Lord Mar's camp. Though there is every reason to believe that their own predilections were in favour of the exiled Stewart dynasty, and they were under the command of the husband of the heiress of their late chief, they at once abandoned the Jacobite cause, and set out on their march to place themselves under the command of Simon Fraser, whom they recognised as their rightful chief. Strengthened by this important accession to the force under his command, and by a body of auxiliaries furnished by the Munros, Grants, and Rosses, who had always adhered to the Whig side, Lovat proceeded to carry into effect the plan which Duncan Forbes and he had devised for obtaining possession of Inverness. On their approach the garrison abandoned the town, and dropping down the river in boats, during the night of November 13th, they made their escape to the northern coast of the Moray Firth.
 
THE FRASERS OF LOVAT.
page 281
Lovat, notwithstanding all his professions of loyalty, was at heart [p.281] a Jacobite, and never relinquished the hope of the restoration of the Stewarts. He obtained from the Government the command of one of the independent companies, termed the Black Watch, organised at this time to put down robbery and theft, which afforded him the means, without suspicion, of training his whole clan by turn to military discipline, and the use of arms. Some purchases of arms and ammunition, however, which he made from abroad alarmed the Government respecting his intentions, and his commission was withdrawn in 1737. His indignation at this treatment no doubt contributed to strengthen his alienation from the Hanoverian dynasty. He was the first of the seven influential Jacobite leaders who subscribed the invitation to the Chevalier in 1740; but when Prince Charles arrived, in 1745, without the troops, money, and arms which they had stipulated as the condition of their taking the field in his behalf, the wily old chief showed great hesitation in repairing to his standard. He had been promised a dukedom and the lord-lieutenancy of Inverness-shire, and while the Prince lay at Invergarry, Fraser of Gortuleg, Lovat's confidant, waited upon him and solicited the patents which he had been led to expect, expressing at the same time his great interest in the enterprise, though his age and infirmities prevented him from immediately assembling his clan in its support. The Prince and his advisers were very desirous that Lovat should declare himself in favour of the attempt to replace the Stewart family on the throne, as, besides his own numerous and warlike clan, he had great influence with the M'Phersons, whose chief was his son-in-law, the M'Intoshes, Farquharsons, and other septs in Invernessshire, who were likely to follow the cause which he should adopt. It appears that the original patents subscribed by the Prince's father had been left behind with the heavy baggage, but new deeds were written out and sent by Gortuleg to the selfish and cunning old chief.
 
THE FRASERS OF LOVAT.
page 286

The fugitive Prince and his attendants went on to Invergarry, and Lovat, finding that his vassal's house at Gortuleg was no safe place of refuge, fled to the mountains, though he was so infirm that he had to be carried by his attendants. Not finding himself safe there, he escaped in a boat to an island in Loch Morar. He was discovered by a detachment from the garrison of Fort William, engaged in making descents upon the coasts of Knoidart and Arisaig. In one of these descents they got intelligence respecting the aged chief, and, after three days' search, they found him concealed in a hollow tree with his legs swathed in flannel. He was sent up to London and imprisoned in the Tower. His trial did not take place until the 9th of March, 1747, to afford time to collect evidence sufficient to insure his conviction. No one doubted his complicity in the rebellion. Indeed, on one occasion he said of himself that he had been engaged in every plot for the restoration of the Stewart family since he was fifteen years of age; but as he had cunningly kept in the background, and had abstained from any overt act of treason, he would probably have escaped the punishment which he justly merited had not John Murray of Broughton, secretary to the Prince, purchased his own safety by becoming king's evidence, and producing letters from Lovat to Charles which fully established his guilt. The trial lasted seven days, and though he defended himself with great dexterity, he was found guilty and condemned to be beheaded. When sentence was pronounced upon him he said, 'Farewell, my lords, we shall not all meet again in the same place. I am sure of that.' During the interval between his conviction and his execution he displayed the utmost insensibility to his position, and made his approaching death the subject of frequent jests. He was, notwithstanding, anxious to escape his doom, and wrote a letter to the Duke of Cumberland, pleading the favour in which he had been held by George I., and how he had carried the Duke about when a child in the parks of Kensington and Hampton Court; but, finding that all his applications for life were vain, he resolved, as Sir Walter Scott says, to imitate in his death the animal he most resembled in his life, and die like the fox, without indulging his enemies by the utterance of a sigh or a groan. Though in the eightieth year of his age, and so infirm that he had to obtain the assistance of two warders in mounting the scaffold, his spirits never flagged. Looking round [p.286] upon the multitude assembled on Tower Hill to witness his execution, he said with a sneer, 'God save us Why should there be such a bustle about taking off an old grey head from a man who cannot getup three steps without two assistants?' At this moment, a scaffold crowded with spectators gave way, and Lovat was informed that a number of them had been seriously injured, if not killed. In curious keeping with his character, he remarked in the words of an old Scottish adage, 'The more mischief the better sport.' He professed to die in the Roman Catholic religion, and, after spending a short time in devotion, he repeated the well-known line of Horace, singularly inappropriate to his character and fate:—
 
THE GORDONS.
page 305

In carrying out the policy which she adopted at this stage, Mary chose as her chief counsellor her half-brother, Lord James Stewart, the leader of the Protestant lords, and it transpired that she intended to create him Earl of Moray. Huntly was deeply offended at the favour thus shown to his rival, and especially at the prospect of being deprived of the extensive domains attached to the earldom of Moray, which had for some years been in his possession. His disaffection to the Government was not concealed, and there was reason to believe that he was organising his retainers and allies with a view to take up arms in support of the ancient faith, as soon as a favourable opportunity should present itself.
 
THE GORDONS.
page 319

Huntly had now returned to his own country, but he was very soon involved in fresh troubles and conflicts. In conjunction with the Earls of Angus and Errol, he entered into a treasonable conspiracy to overturn the Protestant religion in Scotland. He was,  in consequence, summoned with great reluctance by the King, to answer to the charge brought against him of conspiring, along with other discontented Popish nobles, against the sovereign. Instead, however, of surrendering to stand his trial, Huntly and his associates took refuge in their northern fastnesses. James, indignant at this disregard of his authority, marched against them (17th February, 1593) at the head of a strong body of troops. But on hearing of his arrival at Aberdeen, Huntly and his fellow-conspirators quitted their strongholds, and fled to the mountains, leaving their wives to present the keys of their castles in token of surrender. James placed garrisons in these strongholds, and followed up these steps by the forfeiture of the Popish lords and the seizure of their land; but this was done in such a way as to justify the remark of Lord Burleigh, that the King only 'dissembled a confiscation.' In the course of a few months he invited the Countess of Huntly to Court, and, it was believed, even consented to hold a secret meeting at Falkland with Huntly himself. The Protestant party vehemently remonstrated against the lenity which James was showing to the men who were conspirators against his throne, as well as against the Protestant faith; but he would proceed no farther against them than to offer that their offences should be 'abolished, delete, and extinct, and remain in oblivion for ever,' provided that they would renounce Popery and embrace the Presbyterian religion. If they refused this offer they were to go into exile. Huntly and the other two Earls declined to avail themselves of these proferred terms, and they entered into a new conspiracy with Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, for the seizure of the King's person. They were in consequence declared guilty of high treason, their estates and honours were forfeited, and a commission was given to the Earl of Argyll to lay waste their territory, and to pursue them with fire and sword. The Earl accordingly marched to the north at the head of a strong body of men, and encountered Huntly at a place called Glenlivet. After a fierce contest Argyll was defeated with considerable loss.  

THE HAYS OF ERROL.
page 376

GILBERT, the tenth Earl, was a staunch Royalist during the troublous times of the Great Civil War, and raised a regiment at his own expense for the service of Charles II. 'We do promise,' wrote that monarch, 'that as soon as it shall please Almighty God to put an end to the present troubles, the claims of our said cousin, the said Earl of Errol, shall be favourably considered and justice done, so that he may see how highly we esteem that ancient family, and the value we set upon his present services.' But, as usual, the promise was not kept by 'the laughter-loving king, whose word no man relied on.' On the death of Earl Gilbert without issue, his titles and estates devolved upon SIR JOHN HAY of Killour, grandson of Sir George Hay, the younger son of the seventh Earl. His son CHARLES, the twelfth Earl, died unmarried in 1717, and the title, with its privileges, and honours, and the remnant of the once-extensive possessions of the family, passed to his elder sister, LADY MARY, the wife of Alexander Falconer, son of Sir David Falconer, Lord President of the Court of Session. At the death of the Countess without issue it was inherited by LORD BOYD, the grandson of his sister, who married James, fifth Earl of Linlithgow and fourth Earl of Callandar, to whom she bore an only child, Lady Anne Livingston, the wife of the Earl of Kilmarnock. Lord Boyd would have united in his own person the earldoms of Errol, Kilmarnock, Linlithgow, and Callandar had the three last not been attainted at the [p.376] close of the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. His father, the amiable but unfortunate Earl of Kilmarnock, when in his twelfth year, had fought for the Hanoverian dynasty in 1715, but changed sides and joined the banner of Prince Charles Stewart in 1745. He had been soured by the illtreatment he had received from the Government in withholding his pension, and was so miserably poor that he was frequently obliged to depend upon the hospitality of his friends for a dinner. His wife, the Countess of Linlithgow and Callandar in her own right, was a lady of great spirit and wit, and she contributed not a little to the success of the Highland army at the battle of Falkirk, by detaining General Hawley at Callandar House until the insurgents had taken up a commanding position on the moor, which enabled them to engage the royal troops at a great advantage.
 
THE HAYS OF TWEEDDALE.
page 384

In the following year (October 8th) the Master of Yester is once more brought before the Council, on acomplaint made by Sir John Stewart of Traquair, and his brother, James Stewart of Shillinglaw, lieutenant of his Majesty's guard. They set forth, in the first place, how it is well known of Sir John Stewart that, 'having his dwelling-place on the south side of Tweed, in a room [place] subject to the invasions of the thieves and broken men of the Borders, and lying betwixt them and sundry his Majesty's true liges, whom commonly they harry and oppress, have at all times himself, his brother, his friends and neighbours assisting him, dwelling betwixt the burgh of Peebles and Gaithopeburn, resistit the stouthreif and oppressions of the said thieves and broken men, to the comfort and relief of many true men, in whilkcourse they intend, God willing, to continue to their lives' end.' Of late, however, they declare 'they have been and is gretumly hindered therein, by reason that William, Master of Yester, by the causing, direction,at least owersight and tolerance, of William Lord Hay of Yester, his father, sheriff of Peebles and provost of the burgh of Peebles (wha by the laws of this realme aucht to mak his said son answerable,' but had 'placit him in the principal house and strength of Neidpath,' though he had been denounced rebel for nearly the space of a year 'for his inobedience to underlie the laws' till within the last few days that he obtained relaxation)…had in the meantime 'not only usurpit, and taken on him the charge of the sheriffship of Peebles, and provostry of the burgh thereof, but ane absolute command to proclaim and hold wappinshawings Meetings of the male inhabitants for the exhibition of their weapons, which they were required by statute to provide.* at times na wise appointit by his hieness' direction, to banish and give upkindness to all persons, in burgh or land, where he pleases, to tak up men's gear under pretence of unlaws fra wappinshawings or other unnecessar causings, never being lawfully callit nor convenit;…and forder it is well knawn to sundry of the lords of Secret Council that the said Master sought the life of the said James Stewart, and daily shores and boasts [threatens and vaunts] to slay him and all others of his kin, friends, allies, assisters, and partakers.' On the petition of the complainers, the Council heard parties, the peccant Master appearing for himself and in excuse for his father, who was sick and unable to travel. The case was remitted to the judgment of the Court of Session, to be decided by them as they might think proper. Meanwhile the Master was enjoined to desist from molesting the Stewarts and their friends and dependents between this and the 8th of January next.
 
THE HAYS OF TWEEDDALE.
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It was shortly after this fruitless effort to heal the feud between the Hays and Stewarts that King James made his memorable attempt to induce the whole nobility, convened for the purpose at Edinburgh, to bury in oblivion their mutual animosities, and to promise that they would henceforth live together in amity. After a banquet at Holyrood, they were made to march in procession hand-in-hand to the Cross of Edinburgh, and there, in the presence of the King and a great concourse of the citizens, to drink to each other, and to pledge their faith that they would be friends. The Master of Yester alone declined to comply with the King's earnest request, and refused to be reconciled to Stewart of Traquair. He was committed to the castle for his contumacy, and after a few months' imprisonment he at last yielded. The whole circumstances connected with this affair throw great light both on the character of the Scottish nobility of that day, and on the lawless state of the country, when the son of a peer of the realm, and the sheriff of the county, robbed the people of their goods under the pretext that they had refused to attend meetings illegally convened by his own authority.