Domestic Annals of Scotland | Project Gutenberg

The state of the Leg-of-Mutton-School of verse ^[242] in Scotland at the end of the seventeenth century, may be pretty fairly inferred from this specimen.]

1. A very animated review of these affairs will be found in Mr Burton’s excellent History.

2. Collection of Papers, &c. London, Richard Janeway, 1689.

3. Account of the Pope’s Procession at Aberdene, &c., reprinted in Laing’s Fugitive Poetry of the Seventeenth Century.

4. Biographia. Presbyteriana, i. 221.

5. Under this title, a pamphlet, detailing the outing and rabbling of the clergy, was published in London in 1690.

6. Stewart’s Sketches of the Highlanders, i. p. 99, note.

7. Wodrow’s Analecta, i. 338.

8. Life and Diary of Lieutenant-colonel Blackader of the Cameronian Regiment. By Andrew Crichton. Edin. 1824.

9. Privy Council Record, MS., Gen. Register House, Edinburgh.

10. Home of Crossrig’s Diary. Stevenson, Edinburgh, 1843.

11. Domestic Annals of Scotland, ii. 408, 432.

12. Acts of Scottish Parliament, ix. 12.

13. On the 12th February 1690, the Privy Council had under their notice the case of a man named Samuel Smith, who had been imprisoned in the Edinburgh Tolbooth for three years on a charge of theft, without trial, and ordained him to be set at large, there being ‘no probation’ against him.

14. Privy Council Record.

15. Privy Council Record, under February 22, 1698.

16. Memoirs of Sir Ewen Cameron of Locheil [by Drummond of Balhadics], p. 243.

17. Memoirs of Sir Ewen Cameron of Locheil, p. 254.

18. C. K. Sharpe in note to Law’s Memorials.

19. Privy Council Record.

20. Justiciary Record.

21. Mrs Gibb seems to have been the person who managed the transmission or carrying between Edinburgh and Haddington.

22. Privy Council Record.

23. Privy Council Record.

24. Privy Council Record.

25. Privy Council Record.

26. Privy Council Record.

27. Privy Council Record.

28. Scots Acts, iii. 310.

29. Privy Council Record.

30. Contemporary broadsides.

31. Domestic Annals, ii. 384.

32. Privy Council Record.

33. Privy Council Record.

34. A picturesque glimpse of the Highland marauding of this period was obtained some years ago at second-hand from the memory of William Bane Macpherson, who died in 1777 at the age of a hundred. ‘He was wont to relate that, when a boy of twelve years of age, being engaged as buachaille [herd-boy] at the summering [i. e., summer grazing] of Biallid, near Dalwhinnie, he had an opportunity of being an eye-witness to a creagh and pursuit on a very large scale, which passed through Badenoch. At noon on a fine autumnal day in 1689, his attention was drawn to a herd of black-cattle, amounting to about six score, driven along by a dozen of wild Lochaber men, by the banks of Loch Erroch, in the direction of Dalunchart in the forest of Alder, now Ardverikie. Upon inquiry, he ascertained that these had been “lifted” in Aberdeenshire, distant more than a hundred miles, and that the reivers had proceeded thus far with their booty free from molestation and pursuit. Thus they held on their way among the wild hills of this mountainous district, far from the haunts of the semi-civilised inhabitants, and within a day’s journey of their home. Only a few hours had elapsed after the departure of these marauders, when a body of nearly fifty horsemen appeared, toiling amidst the rocks and marshes of this barbarous region, where not even a footpath helped to mark the intercourse of society, and following on the trail of the men and cattle which had preceded them. The troop was well mounted and armed, and led by a person of gentlemanlike appearance and courteous manners; while, attached to the party, was a number of horses carrying bags of meal and other provisions, intended not solely for their own support, but, as would seem from the sequel, as a ransom for the creagh. Signalling William Bane to approach, the leader minutely questioned him about the movements of the Lochaber men, their number, equipments, and the line of their route. Along the precipitous banks of Loch Erroch this large body of horsemen wended their way, accompanied by William Bane, who was anxious to see the result of the meeting. It bespoke spirit and resolution in those strangers to seek an encounter with the robbers in their native wilds, and on the borders of that country, where a signal of alarm would have raised a numerous body of hardy Lochaber men, ready to defend the creagh, and punish the pursuers. Towards nightfall, they drew near the encampment of the thieves at Dalunchart, and observed them busily engaged in roasting, before a large fire, one of the beeves, newly slaughtered.

‘A council of war was immediately held, and, on the suggestion of the leader, a flag of truce was forwarded to the Lochaber men, with an offer to each of a bag of meal and a pair of shoes, in ransom for the herd of cattle. This offer, being viewed as a proof of cowardice and fear, was contemptuously rejected, and a reply sent, to the effect that the cattle, driven so far and with so much trouble, would not be surrendered. Having gathered in the herd, both parties prepared for action. The overwhelming number of the pursuers soon mastered their opponents. Successive discharges of firearms brought the greater number of the Lochaber men to the ground, and in a brief period only three remained unhurt, and escaped to tell the sad tale to their countrymen.’—Inverness Courier, August 17, 1847.

35. This post-boy appears to have been forty-four years old.

36. Lord Viscount Kingston was a cadet of the Winton family, and had delivered a Latin oration to Charles I., at his father’s house of Seton, in 1633.

37. In the parliament which sat down in September, robbing the post-packet was declared to be ‘robbery,’ to be punished with death and confiscation of movables.—Scots Acts.

38. Privy Council Record.

39. Privy Council Record.

40. Privy Council Record. The privileges of Mr Hamilton were confirmed by the Estates in June 1693.

41. Privy Council Record.

42. Privy Council Record.

43. A portrait of the house, and some particulars of the family, are to be found in Robert Stuart’s Views and Notices of Glasgow in Former Times, 4to, 1847.

44. This must have been Lady Raeburn (Anne Scott of Ancrum).

45. Probably his sister Isobel’s husband, described in Burke as Captain Anderson.

46. Acts of General Assembly, 1690, p. 18.

48. Melville Correspondence, p. 150. The parliament, on the 18th July 1690, gave a warrant for subjecting one Muir or Ker to the torture, in order to expiscate the truth regarding the murder of an infant, of which he was vehemently suspected.

49. Mr Burton, in his History of Scotland from 1689 to 1748, gives the following account of this nobleman: ‘The Earl of Crawford, made chairman of the Estates and a privy councillor, was the only statesman of the day who adopted the peculiar demeanour and scriptural language of the Covenanters. It is to him that Burnet and others attribute the severities against the Episcopal clergymen, and the guidance of the force brought to bear in the parliament and Privy Council in favour of a Presbyterian establishment.’

50. Melville Correspondence. Privy Council Record.

51. Privy Council Record.

52. Privy Council Record.

53. Privy Council Record.

54. Privy Council Record.

55. Burt’s Letters, i. 128.

56. A phrase of the time, found in the Privy Council Record.

57. John Callander, master-smith, petitioned the Privy Council in June 1689, regarding smith-work which he had executed for Edinburgh and Stirling Castles, to the amount of eleven hundred pounds sterling, whereof, though long due, he had ‘never yet received payment of a sixpence.’ On his earnest entreaty, three hundred pounds were ordered to be paid to account. On the ensuing 23d of August, he was ordained to be paid £6567, 17s. 2d., after a rigid taxing of his accounts, Scots money being of course meant. Connected with this little matter is an anecdote which has been told in various forms, regarding the estate of Craigforth, near Stirling. It is alleged that the master-smith, failing to obtain a solution of the debt from the Scottish Exchequer, applied to the English treasury, and was there so fortunate as to get payment of the apparent sum in English money. Having out of this unexpected wealth made a wadset on the estate of Craigforth, he ultimately fell into the possession of that property, which he handed down to his descendants.^[58] John Callander was grandfather of a gentleman of the same name, who cultivated literature with assiduity, and was the editor of two ancient Scottish poems—The Guberlunzie Man, and Christ’s Kirk on the Green. This gentleman, again, was grandfather to Mrs Thomas Sheridan and Lady Graham of Netherby.

58. Sir James Campbell’s Memoirs. A Week at the Bridge of Allan, by Charles Rogers, 1853, p. 334.

59. Justiciary Records.

60. Privy Council Record.

61. Privy Council Record.

62. Record of Convention of Burghs, MS. in Council Chamber, Edinburgh.

63. Anderson’s Prize Essay on the State of the Highlands in 1745, p. 95.

64. New Stat. Acc. of Scotland: Ross, p. 220.

65. Privy Council Record.

66. Dr John Brown: Locke and Sydenham, &c., 1858, p. 457.

67. The second edition of Tippermalloch was published in 1716, containing Dr Pitcairn’s method of curing the small-pox. It professes to be superior to the first edition, being ‘taken from an original copy which the author himself delivered to the truly noble and excellent lady, the late Marchioness of Athole, and which her Grace the present duchess, a lady no less eminent for her singular goodness and virtue than her high quality, was pleased to communicate to us and the public.’

68. Analecta Scotica, ii. 176.

69. Privy Council Record.

70. Crossrig’s Diary.

71. Kilravock Papers, Spald. Club, p. 388.

72. Privy Council Record.

73. Privy Council Record.

74. Life of Peden, Biogr. Presbyteriana, i. 112.

75. Privy Council Record.

76. Domestic Annals of Scotland, ii. 29.

77. Criminal Proceedings, a Collection of Justiciary Papers in Library of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

78. Macdonald of Glencoe bore the subordinate surname of M‘Ian, as descended from a noted person named Ian or John.

79. Addressed to Sir Thomas Livingstone, commander-in-chief of the forces in Scotland.

80. See Papers Illustrative of the Political Condition of the Highlands from 1689 to 1696. Maitland Club. 1845.

81. Privy Council Record.

82. Privy Council Record.

83. This was the father of Mr Andrew Drummond, the founder of the celebrated banking-house in the Strand.

84. Privy Council Record.

85. From papers in possession of John Hall Maxwell, of Dargavel, Esq.

86. Privy Council Record. (See onward, under December 31, 1692, and July 13, 1697.)

87. Privy Council Record.

88. Fountainhall’s Decisions, i. 693.

89. Privy Council Record.

90. Fountainhall’s Decisions, i. 693.

91. Domestic Annals of Scotland, ii. 326.

92. Mem. of John Earl of Stair by an Impartial Hand, p. 7.

93. Murray’s Literary Hist. of Galloway, p. 155.

94. Privy Council Record.

95. Minutes of Merchant Company, MS. in possession of the Company.

96. Fountainhall’s Decisions, i. 518, 564.

97. Ibid., i. 525.

99. Privy Council Record.

100. Privy Council Record.

101. Privy Council Record.

102. Privy Council Record.

103. Privy Council Record.

104. Privy Council Record.

105. In July 1695, there was a further act ‘anent burying in Scots linen,’ ordaining that none should be used for sepulchral purposes above twenty shillings Scots per ell, and also commanding that the nearest elder or deacon of the parish, with one or two neighbours, should be called by the friends of deceased persons to see that the shroud was in all respects conform to the acts thereanent.

106. Wodrow Pamphlets, Adv. Lib., vol. 115.

107. Privy Council Record.

108. Acts of Scottish Parliament, ix. 429.

109. Privy Council Record.

110. Acts of Scottish Parliament, ix. 420.

111. See Domestic Annals of Scotland, ii. 398.

112. Privy Council Record.

113. Letter from a Gentleman in the Country to his Friend at Edinburgh, &c. Edin. 1696.

114. Privy Council Record.

115. Fountainhall’s Decisions, i. 590.

116. Privy Council Record.

117. Privy Council Record.

118. Privy Council Record.

119. Scottish Journal, ii. 200.

120. The troubles from the meeting-houses at Coldingham and two neighbouring parishes, led to their being entirely suppressed by the arm of the government in March 1700 [q. v.]

121. The above, and some other curious extracts from the parish register of Coldingham, are given in an interesting volume, entitled History of the Priory of Coldingham. By William King Hunter. Edinburgh, 1858.

122. Analecta, ii. 250. Wodrow tells us that Lady Dundee had been very violent against the Presbyterians, and ‘used to say she wished that, that day she heard a Presbyterian minister, the house might fall down and smother her, which it did.’

123. Analecta Scotica, i. 187. Wodrow’s Analecta, ii. 250.

124. William Livingstone survived his wife nearly forty years. In the Caledonian Mercury for February 6, 1733, is this paragraph: ‘We are assured private letters are in town, giving account, that on the 12th of last month, the Right Hon. the late Viscount Kilsyth died at Rome, in an advanced age, in perfect judgment, and a Christian and exemplary resignation.’

125. Privy Council Record.

126. A Summer’s Divertisement of Mathematical and Mechanical Curiosities, being an Account of the Things seen at the House of Curiosities, near Grange Park. Edinburgh: James Watson. 1695.

127. Nicolas’s spelling is here given literatim.

128. Privy Council Record.

129. From ‘a double of the oath’ in the Kilravock Papers, Spald. Club publication, p. 387.

130. Fountainhall’s Decisions, i. 629.

131. Privy Council Record.

132. ‘James Peedie of Roughill and John Anderson of Dowhill were the first merchants who brought a loading of cherry-sack into this city.’—M‘Ure’s Hist. Glasg., p. 250.

133. Arnot’s Criminal Trials, p. 163.

134. Chalmers’s Life of Ruddiman, p. 30. Bower’s Hist. Univ. of Edinburgh, ii. 153.

135. Privy Council Record.

136. Privy Council Record.

137. These legends appear to have been intended to read as follows: ‘Three years thou shalt have to repent, and note it well. Wo be to thee, Scotland! Repent and take warning, for the doors of heaven are already barred against thee. I am sent for a warning to thee, to flee to God. Yet troubled shall this man be for twenty days and three. Repent, repent, Scotland, or else thou shalt’——.

138. On the 7th of January 1696, the Privy Council gave licence to George Mossman, stationer in Edinburgh, to ‘print and sell a book entitled A True Relation of an Apparition, Expressions, and Actings of a Spirit which infested the House of Andrew Mackie, in Ring-croft of Stocking, in the Parish of Rerrick, &c.,’ with exclusive right of doing so for a year.

139. Privy Council Record.

140. Caledonian Mercury, Nov. 20, 1732.

141. Privy Council Record.

142. From Information for his Majesty’s Advocate, &c., against James Edmonstoun of Newton.

143. Maclaurin’s Criminal Cases, p. 10.

144. Introductions, &c., to Waverley Novels, i. 255.

145. Acts of Scot. Par., ix. 452.

146. Hugh Miller’s Sketch-book of Popular Geology, pp. 13, 14.

147. Privy Council Record.

148. A few of the subscriptions are here subjoined: For £1000 each, the Faculty of Advocates, John Anderson of Dowhill, Provost of Glasgow, the Earl of Annandale; Alexander Brand, merchant in Edinburgh; James Balfour, merchant in Edinburgh; George Clerk, merchant in Edinburgh; Daniel Campbell, merchant in Glasgow; Sir Robert Dickson of Sorn-beg, Andrew Fletcher of Salton, the town of Glasgow, John Graham younger of Dougalston, the Earl of Haddington, Lord Yester, Sir David Home of Crossrig, Sir John Home of Blackader, Sir Alexander Hope of Kerse, William Hay of Drumelzier, Sir James Hall of Dunglass, Lockhart of Carnwath, William Livingstone of Kilsyth; George Lockhart, merchant in Glasgow; the Merchant House of Glasgow, the Marquis of Montrose, Sir John Maxwell of Pollock, Sir Patrick Murray of Auchtertyre, Francis Montgomery of Giffen, William Morison of Prestongrange, William Nisbet of Dirleton, Sir James Primrose of Carrington, the Countess of Rothes, the Countess of Roxburgh, Lord Ross, Lord Ruthven, William Robertson of Gladney, the Earl of Sutherland, the Earl of Southesk, Viscount Strathallan, Viscount Stair, Sir John Swinton, Sir Francis Scott of Thirlstain, Sir John Shaw of Greenock; Thomas Spence, writer in Edinburgh; John Spreul, alias Bass John, merchant in Glasgow; the Marquis of Tweeddale, Viscount Tarbat; Robert Watson, merchant in Edinburgh; George Warrender, merchant there; and William Wardrop, merchant in Glasgow: for £1200, the Merchant Company of Edinburgh: for £1300, James Pringle of Torwoodlee: for £1500, the Earl of Argyle, William Lord Jedburgh, and Patrick Thomson, treasurer of Glasgow: for £2000, Mr Robert Blackwood, merchant in Edinburgh; Sir Robert Chiesley, Lord Provost of Edinburgh, John Lord Glenorchy, Lord Basil Hamilton, the Earl of Hopetoun, the Earl of Leven; William Menzies, merchant in Edinburgh; the town of Perth, Sir William Scott of Harden: for £3000, Lord Belhaven, the Good Town of Edinburgh, the Duchess of Hamilton, the Duke of Queensberry, the Easter Sugarie of Glasgow, and Sir John Stuart of Grandtully.