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INVERURIE  AND  THE  EARLDOM  OF  THE  GARIOCH 


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vi  Preface. 

The  local  history  of  a  large  immediately  succeeding  period  the  author  had 
opportuninity,  from  his  position,  of  investigating  by  means  of  unpublished  docu- 
ments, ecclesiastical  and  municipal — the  Eecords  of  local  Church  Courts,  and  the 
Court  Books  and  Sasine  Eegisters  of  the  Burgh  of  Iuverurie. 

The  information  drawn  from  these  ecclesiastical  and  burgh  manuscripts,  has, 
as  new  material  of  history,  been  given  in  the  form  of  literal  extracts.  It  has  not 
been  thought  necessary  to  encumber  the  work  with  marginal  references  to  the 
very  great  mass  of  topographical  and  genealogical  particulars  obtained  from  the 
Spalding  Club  books,  and  put  into  connection  and  historical  position  in  this 
volume, — the  indices  to  these  books  affording  sufficient  means  of  verification. 

With  the  object  of  making  the  Index  of  greater  value  for  genealogical  refer- 
ence, dates  have  been  appended  to  individual  names;  and  by  the  same  means  a 
connected  view  is  given  of  the  proprietary  of  individual  estates,  which  the  chro- 
nological arrangement  of  the  work  did  not  make  otherwise  possible.  The  Index 
has  also  been  taken  advantage  of  to  supplement  in  some  particulars  the  details 
of  matters  treated  of  in  the  text.  The  diversity  in  the  spelling  of  proper  names 
that  appears  in  the  work  has  intentionally  been  allowed  to  remain,  as  itself  a 
historical  feature  of  the  periods  described. 

The  author  has  had  the  advantage  of  extensive  aid  in  the  topographical  and 
genealogical  portions  of  the  work  from  several  gentlemen,  able  from  private 
sources  to  enhance  the  value  of  the  publication  in  these  respects.  Messrs 
George  Burnett,  Lyon  King  of  Arms,  Alexander  Johnston,  and  Charles  Dalrymple, 
have  been  at  much  pains  in  giving  accuracy  and  interest  to  notices  of  family 
history.  The  illustration  at  page  73,  was  obligingly  furnished  by  Mr.  Alexander 
Walker,  Dean  of  Guild  of  the  City  of  Aberdeen,  from  his  "  Life  of  John 
Ramsay,"  and  the  Genealogical  Appendix  has  been  enriched  by  historical  par- 
ticulars taken  from  his  List  of  the  Deans  of  Guild  of  that  city. 

The  compilation  of  the  materials,  presented  in  historical  connection  in  this 
volume,  has  been  the  work  of  long  time,  and  the  inquiries  rendered  necessary 
brought  to  the  author's  notice  the  existence  of  a  great  mass  of  hitherto  un- 
pubbshed  and  interesting  matter.  The  records  of  the  several  Presbyteries  of 
Aberdeen   and  Banffshires,   and   of  some  of  the  parishes,  contain  much  that 


Preface.  vii 

illustrates  the  condition  of  society  in  Scotland  during  a  large  portion  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  Numerous  particulars  of  family  history  are  preserved  in 
local  Eegisters  of  Sassine  and  the  Protocol  Books  of  notaries  public  ;  and  there 
remain,  even  after  the  lahours  of  the  Spalding  Club,  charter  chests  that  would 
amply  repay  investigation.  Two  of  them  are  repeatedly  referred  to  in  this 
volume, — that  of  Balquhain,  much  of  which  was  printed  by  the  late  Colonel 
Leslie,  and  that  of  Bourtie, — portions  of  which  possessing  historical  interest  the 
author  has  given  in  the  following  pages. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Primitive  Inhabitation. — The  Bass  and  Stauners  of  Inverurie — 1.     Dunnideer — Ardtannies — 2. 

Remains  of  Stone  Period— Cists,  Urns,  Cairns,  and  Tumuli — 3.     Discovery  at  Broomend — 4. 
Ancient  Highways.— Fords  of  Don  to  Dunnideer— Tyrebagger  to    Inverurie — Stone  Circles  and 

Sculptured  Monoliths— 5.     Inverurie  to  Monymusk— 6.      Double   Road  from   Broomend  to 

Drimmies  and    the   Warders'   Castle— Branch   to  Caskieben— 7.      Leslie    to   Dunnideer— 8. 

Inverurie  to  Meldmm  and  Howford— The  Roman  Iter — 9. 

Chapter  I. 
EARLY  HISTORY  DOWN  TO  THE  BATTLE  OF  INVERURIE. 

NRURIN. — Vernacular  Names— 11.     Dunnideer— King  Arthur— 12. 

Celtic  Civilisation.— Iona— Pictish  Kingdoms— Mormaories  of  Mar  and  Buchan— The  Garioch  and 
Strathbogie  in  the  Crown — King  Aodh  buried  at  Nrurin — 13.  Gregory  the  Great — Culdees  at 
Monymusk— Chapel  of  Apollinaris— Ard  Tonies— Early  Lords  of  Ardtannies— 14.  Malcolm 
Canmore— Robert,  Prince  of  the  Catti— Traces  of  the  Danes— 15.  Bartolf,  ancestor  of  the 
Leslies— "Grip  Fast"— The  Leslies— 16.  Saxon  Civilisation— The  Romish  Church— Parishes 
and  Monasteries— Culdee  Stations— 17.     Priory  of  Monymusk— The  Durwards — 18. 

The  Earldom  of  the  Garioch— 18.  David  Earl  of  Huntingdon  and  the  Garioch— Earldom  Lands, 
original  and  alienated— Knockinglews— Earl  David's  Lands— 19.  Coroner's  Lands  of  Blakhall 
—Style  of  Earl  David— Ecclesiastical  Gifts  ante  1200—20.  Local  Priests— Tofts  in  Royal 
Burghs  given  to  Monasteries-Mixture  of  Population— Flemings— 21.  Food— The  Legate  Galo 
—Fortunes  of  Earl  David— 22.  His  Death  and  Descendants— John  the  Scot— Isobel,  wife  of 
Robert  Bruce— 23.     The  Four  Roberts— Close  of  the  Earldom— 24. 

The  Kirk  of  Rothael  and  Burgh  of  Inverthurin— 24.  Papal  Bulls  to  the  Abbey  of  Lindores— 
Earl  David's  Charter— Garioch  Vicarages— 25.  First  Churches  at  Inverurie— The  Abbey  Toft 
—26.  The  Vicar's  Glebe— Date  of  the  Burgh— 27.  Burgh  of  Kintore— Limits  of  Inverurie 
Royalty— 28.     The  Davo  of  Inverurie— 29.     Lands  of  the  Lord  Superior  of  Regality— 30. 

The  Constables  of  Enrourie— 30.  Wealth  of  Scotland  circa  1200— Norman  Immigrants— Malcolm, 
Constable— Crusade— Private  Estates— 31.  Earl  David's  Preparation  for  the  Crusade— Badi- 
furrow— Sir  Kenneth  of  Scotland— 32.  Prominent  Surnames— Norman,  Constable— Rothie- 
norman— Auchterless— Frendraught— Slavery— Spital  of  Old  Aberdeen— 33.  Caskieben— 
Norino,  Constable— Isobel  de  Bruce  and  her  Son— The  Leslies  of  Fifeshire— The  Bruces— 34. 

b 


Contents. 


Royal  Visits  to  Kintore— Thomas  the  Rhymer  and  the  Bass  of  Inverurie— Vicarage  Endowments 
Ratified — 35.  Functions  of  the  Abbeys — Fetternear — Birse — 36.  Garioch  Priests  and  others, 
1199-1262 — Richard,  Vicar  of  Inverurie— Bishop's  Court  at  Inverurie — Sir  Philip,  First  of  the 
Meldrums — Schools  of  Aberdeen — Episcopal  Estates — Glack  and  Fingask — Sir  Norman  de 
Leslie,  Adopter  of  the  Surname  —  37.     Leslie  in  Fife — 38. 

The  War  of  Independence. — Contest  for  the  Crown — Edward  I.  of  England— 38.  King  Edward's 
Claim  of  Overlordship — Selection  of  John  Baliol — The  Bruce — Bishop  Cheyne — Submissions  to 
Edward  I. — 39.  Edward  I.  in  Aberdeenshire — Chief  Northern  Highway — 40.  Wallace  at 
Fetternear — Tactics  of  Edward  I. — Bruce  and  Earl  of  Badenoch — Donald  and  Gartney,  Earls  of 
Mar — Marriages — 41.  Andrew  of  Moray — Kildrummie  Castle — Baliol  Faction — 42.  "  Mak 
Siccar" — Sir  Thomas  de  Longueville — Companions  of  Bruce — His  Coronation — 43.  Loss  of 
Battle  and  Destitution — Flight  by  Aberdeen  and  Deeside  to  the  West— 44.  Kildrummie  taken 
by  the  English— Captivity  and  Suffering  of  the  Royal  Household — Successes — 45. 

The  Battle  of  Inverurie. — John  Barbour — The  King's  Recovered  Fortunes— Sick  at  Inverurie— 
Carried  to  Strathbogie — 46.  Cumyn,  Earl  of  Buchan — Winter  Encampment  at  Ardtnnnies — Yule 
of  1308 — 47.  "  Brace's  Cave  " — "  Bruce's  Camp  " — "  Bruee's  Howe" — Companions  in  Camp 
— Thomas,  Vicar  of  Inverurie— Attack  on  Inverurie  by  Sir  David  t>f  Brechin — 48.  The  King 
Aroused — Pursuit  and  Onslaught  at  Barra— Subjugation  of  Buchan  and  the  North — 49.  Local 
Individuals  of  the  Period — 50.  Memorials  of  the  Battle  of  Inverurie— Cumyn's  Camp — 51. 
Old  Meldrum  in  1308—52. 

Chapter  II. 
FROM  THE  BATTLE  OF  INVERURIE  TO  THE  BATTLE  OF  HARLAW. 

The  Regality  of  the  Garioch — 53.  Its  Establishment,  Alienation,  and  Seizure — The  Lords  of  the 
Garioch — 54.  Ancient  Earls  of  Mar,  Domnhall  in  1014  to  Donald  in  1332 — 55.  Elyne  of 
Mar — Lords  of  the  Garioch,  Earls  of  Mar — Lines  of  Mar  and  of  Erskine — 56.  Christian,  first 
Lady  of  the  Garioch — Thomas,  Lord  of  the  Garioch — Margaret,  Lady  of  the  Garioch— 57. 
James,  Lord  of  the  Garioch — Isobel,  Lady  of  the  Garioch — Alexander  Stewart,  Earl  of  Mar  and 
of  the  Garioch — Bargain  with  the  Crown — 58.  Usurpation  by  the  Crown  against  Sir  Robert 
Erskine — William  St.  Clair,  Earl  of  Orkney,  Lord  of  the  Garioch — Lords  nominated  from 
the  Royal  Family — The  Erskines,  Heirs  of  the  Earldom  of  Mar  and  Lordship  of  the  Garioch — 
Right  of  Lord  Erskine  acknowledged  by  Queen  Mary — 59. 

Lands  and  Families  in  the  Garioch  before  the  Battle  of  Harlaw. — Leslie  Lands — Schyres  of 
Rayneand  Daviot— Ardlar — Lediugham  and  Mellinside — Caskieben— Norman,  Constable — Con- 
glass—  Balhaggardy — 60.  Rothmaise,  Lentush,  Mill  of  Rayne,  Crossflat,  Adam  of  Rayne  to 
Henry  St.  Michael — Newton — Threepland — Bonnytown — Tillymorgan — Williamston — Wrang- 
ham — Oyne,  Thomas  Menzies  to  Archibald  Weschell— Hays  of  Errol  —  Constable  of  Scotland — 
Castle  of  Slains — Cordyce,  Sir  James  Garioch — Drum,  William  Irvine — 61.  Hall-forest,  Sir 
Robert  Keith,  Marischal  of  Scotland — Family  of  Hill  of  Kintore — Thanage  of  Kintore — The  Earl 
of  Sutherland— John  Dunbar,  Earl  of  Moray — Thainston  and  Foullertoun — Glasgoforest,  Robert 
Glen — Balnacraig,  Randolf,  Earl  of  Murray  to  Robert  Chalmers  of  Kintore— 62.  Caskieben, 
Norman  to  Stephen  the  Clerk — Kinbroun  and  Badechash — Glack,  Pilmar  to  Glaster — Sir  Andrew 
Murray  of  Bothwell — Meikle  Wardes — Conglass,  Balhaggardy,  Boynds,  Inveramsay,  Drum- 
durnoch,  Pitskurry,  Pitbee,  Pittodrie,  Newlands,  Andrew  Buttergask  to  Sir  Robert  Erskine — 63. 
Bourtie,  Goblanch  the  Smith,  to  William  of  Meldrum — Charters — John  of  Abernethie 
to  Barclay  of  Kerkow— The  Barclays  of  Tolly  and  Gartly— 64.     Kemnay,  Sir  Norman  Leslie  to 


Contents.  xi 


Andrew  Melville — Pitfichie  and  Balnerosk,  Henry  of  Monymnsk  to  David  Chalmers.  The 
Abercronibys — Harthill,  Ardoyne,  Roger  Haye  to  Alexander  de  Abercromby — John  of  Ports- 
town — Aquhorties,  Auquhorsk,  and  Blairdaff,  Leslie  to  Abercromby — 65.  First  Leslie  of 
Balquhain,  Syde,  and  Braco  —  Leiths  of  Edingarroeh,  Bothney,  Harebogs  and  Blackbogs, 
Drumrossie,  "William  Leith — Kirklands  of  Little  Badechash—  Mill  of  Follethrule— Foleth- 
blackwater — Meiklefolla — Adam  Pyngle — Lethinty,  Robert  Bunrard  to  Forbes  of  Pitsligo — 
Meldrum,  Philip  de  Melgdrum  to  William  Seton — 66.  Fyvie,  Reginald  Le  Chene  to  Meldruin 
— Forbes  of  Tolquhon — Fyvie  Castle— Preston  and  Meldrum  Towers — Bisset  of  Lessendrum — 
Straehan  of  Gleukindy— 67. 

Historical  Events. — Leading  Individuals— 67.  King  Robert  I— Bishop  Cheyne — Sir  Robert  Keith 
— Sir  James  de  Garviaeh — Christian  Bruce — Sir  Andrew  Murray  of  Bothwell — 68.  Donald,  12th 
Earl  of  Mar — His  Fortunes — Invasion  by  Edward  Baliol — Battle  of  Duppliu— 69.  The  English 
Party — Siege  of  Kildrummie — Battle  of  Kilblene — 70.  Relief  of  Kildrummie— Siege  of  Dun- 
darg — Foundation  of  the  Chapel  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  of  the  Garioch — Famine  and  Pestilence — 
Local  Lairds  and  Priests — 71.  David  II. — Captivity  and  Hostages — Public  Men — Provost 
William  Leith — John  Leith— The  Bell  "  Lourie  " — 72.  Norman  de  Leslie — League  with 
France — Sir  Robert  Erskine,  Chamberlain  of  Scotland— 73.  "  Lang  Jonnie  More  "—Laurence 
Preston — William  Earl  of  Douglas— Thomas  Earl  of  Mar,  Lord  of  the  Garioch,  Chamberlain  of 
Scotland — His  Charters — Courtestoun,  and  Fleming  Law — His  English  connection — 74.  His 
Journeys — Cameron  of  Brux — Stephen  the  Clerk,  "  Secretar  to  the  Earl  of  Mar " — 75. 
Margaret,  Lady  of  the  Garioch,  and  William  Earl  of  Douglas — Troubles  of  King  David's  Reign 
— Sir  Robert  Erskine,  Arbiter  of  the  Throne— Sir  John  Swinton — 76.  James  of  Douglas — 
Battle  of  Ottej'burn — Priest  Lundy — Hotspur — Ransom  of  Ralph  Percy — Robert  de  Keith — 77. 
The  "  Fecht  at  Bourtie" — Sir  Henry  Preston  of  Fyvie — Isobel,  Lady  of  the  Garioch — Sir 
Malcolm  Drummond — Alexander  Stewart — 78. 

Ecclesiastical  Events.— Wild  Manners  of  the  Clergy — William  de  Deyn— 78.  Endowments  of  the 
Garioch  Churches  in  1366 — 79.  Endowment  of  the  Six  Chaplainries  of  the  Chapel  of  Garioch 
— 80.     Archdeacon  John  Barbour,  Parson  of  Rayne— 81. 

Chapter  III. 
THE  BATTLE  OF  HARLAW  AND  ITS  TIMES. 

State  or  Society. — Misrule  of  Regent  Albany— Social  Crimes — Marriages  of  Ladies  of  Rank — The 
Ladies  of  the  Garioch — 83.  Contracts  for  Mutual  Defence— Chivalry— Tournaments— Alexander 
Stewart,  Earl  of  Mar— 84,  Cateran  Violence— Burning  of  Elgin— Battle  of  Glasclune— Duel 
on  the  Inch  of  Perth— 85. 

The  Earl  of  Mar.— His  Popularity  in  Aberdeen— Robert  Davidson— William  Chalmers— 85.  Seizure 
of  Kildrummie  Castle  and  Marriage  of  Isabel  Countess  of  Mar— Sanctioned  under  Bargain  by 
the  Crown— Naval  Exploits— 86.  Expedition  to  France— Style  in  Paris— Siege  of  Liege- 
Creation  of  Knights— Sir  Alexander  Keith,  Sir.  John  Menzies,  Sir  Alexander  Irvine— Marriage 
with  the  Lady  of  Duffle  in  Brabant — Importation  of  Flemish  Horses— Christmas  1410  at  Kil- 
drummie— Bishop  Greenlaw— Henry  de  Lichton— 87. 

The  Battle  of  Harlaw. — Albany's  Wrong  to  Donald  Lord  of  the  Isles — Donald's  Appeal  to  Arms — 
His  Progress  towards  Aberdeen— The   Earl    of   Mar    sent  against   Him— 88.       The   Royal 

]Torces Aberdeen  Burgesses— Force  from  Angus  and  Mearns— Rendezvous  at  Inverurie — Royal 

Vassals— Earldom  Vassals—  89.  Church  Vassals— Inverurie  Burgesses— The  Marischal's  Re- 
tainers  Kemnay— 90.      Bisset   of    Lessendrum  —  Lord    Gordon —  Formartine    Vassals—  The 

Forbeses  of  Drumminnor,  Brux,  Pitsligo,  and  Tolquhon— Donald's  Officers— Maclean  of'Duart— 


Contents 


The  Chief  of  Mackintosh —Cameron  of  Lochiel — Scene  of  the  Battle — 91.  Mar's  Lines  of 
March  upon  Harlaw — 92.  The  Struggle— Losses— Following  up  the  Victory — The  Hebrides — 
Lowland  Supremacy  Secured — Tombstone  of  Gilbert  Greenlaw — 93.  Traditions  of  the  Battle — 
The  Drum  Stane — Rose  of  Kilravock — Provost  Robert  Davidson — Sir  Alexander  Keith — 94. 
William  Tullidaff  of  That  Ilk— The  Pleyfauld— The  BaUad— 95.  Sir  James  the  Kose  and  Sir 
John  the  Graeme— Northern  Ballads — 98. 


Chapter  IV. 
THE  GARIOCH  FROM  THE  BATTLE  OF  HARLAW  TO  THE  REFORMATION. 

Rise   of  New   Families. — Hereditary  Sheriff — 99.     Branches   of   Balquhain   Family — Kincraigie, 
Wardes,    New   Leslie,    Pitcaple — Progress   of  Estates — Johnston  of  That   Ilk  and  Caskieben 
— Glack,    Glaster  to   Elphinstone — 100.     Setons    of  Meldrum,    Blair,    Barra,    Bourtie,    and 
Pitmedden — Leith  of  Barnes — Forbeses    of  Pitsligo,  Kinaldy,  and  Lethinty — Reddendum  for 
Lethinty — Westhall — Melvil,   Ramsay,   Bishop  Ingeram — Auchleven,   Ogilvy  to   Leith — 101. 
Reddendum  for  Auchleven — Ardoyne — Harlaw — Sir  John  Wemys — Duncanston  and  Glander- 
ston— Lord  Elphinstone — Kemnay — Melville,  Auchinleck,  Douglas — Little  Warthill — Glaster, 
Gordon,   Cruickshank  of  Tillymorgan— Braeo — Drimmies,  Glascha,  Wood  of  Drumcoutane — ■ 
Patrick  Gordon  of  Methlic,  ancestor  of  the  Earls  of  Aberdeen — Blakhall  of  That  Ilk — Coroner 
and  Forester  of  the  Garioch — Barra — 102.      Blakhall  of  Barra — King  of  Barra   Genealogy — 
Thornton,    Strachan  of — 103.     Lindores  Estates — Badifurrow,  Balbithan,  Hedderwick,  Crag- 
forthie — Monymusk,    Forbes — Fetternear,    Earl  of  Huntly — Temple   Lands— Rothienorman — 
Cushnie — Pitblaine,  Thomson — Rothmaise  and  Lentush,    Tullidaff— Tuliidaff's   Cairn— Close 
of  the  Original  Family  of  Leslie — 104.  Beginning  of  Leslies  of  Leslie — Social  Position  of  Garioch 
Lairds — Fortified  Houses — The  Erskiue  Claims — Social  Condition — 105.     Comparative  Wealth 
of  Scottish  Nobles  circa  1400—106. 
State  of  Society. — Europe  Distracted — Albany's  Government — 106.      Scotland  and  France — Con- 
stable Buchan — The  Maid  of  Orleans — Rival  Popes — Morals  in  Scotland — Insecurity  of  Life  and 
Property — Bastardy — The  Wolf  of  Badenoch — Sir  Andrew  Leslie  of  Balquhain — Fortress  of 
Benachie — 107.     Close  of  the  Earl  of  Mar's  History — "Young  Waters" — 108.     King  James  at 
Christ's  Kirk— 109. 
Local  Government— 109.     New  Lords  of  the  Garioch— William  St.   Clair,  Chamberlain  of  Scot- 
land, ancestor  of  the  Lords  Sinclair  and  the  Earls  of  Caithness — The  Queen  of  James  II. — John, 
his  son — Kobert  Cochrane — Alexander  Duke  of  Albany,  Earl  of  Mar  and  the  Garioch — 110. 
John  Earl  of  Mar  and  the  Garioch,  son  of  James  III. — Alienation  of  Lands  of  Mar  and  Garioch 
— Lord  Elphinstone — Thanage  of  Kintore  and  Regality  Lands  conveyed  by  James  IV.  to  John 
Leslie  of  Wardes— 111.     Flodden  Victims— St.  Serve  of  Monkegy— 112. 
The  Seton  Gordon,  ancestor  of  the  Dukes  of  Gordon— Lord  Gordon— First  Earl  of  Huntly—"  Jock 
and  Tam  Gordons  "—  "  Bow  o'  Meal  "  Gordons— 112.     Family  Alliances— Erskine  and  Forbes — 
Origin  of  the  Opposing  Factions  of  the  Gordons  and  Forbeses — 113. 
The  Burgh  of  Inverurie.— Southern  and  Northern  Hanses— Laws  of  the  Four  Burghs— 113.     Con- 
dition of  Inverurie  circa  1400 — Neighbours — 114.      Appearance   of  the    Place— Residents — 
Occupations— 115.     Offences  and  Penalties— 116.      Merchants  contra  Tradesmen— 117.     Quali- 
fications of  a  Burgess — Provision  for  Children — Combinations  and  Strikes  —  Size    of  Burgh 
Properties— Walter  Ydill,  Vicar  of  Inverurie— 118.     Burgh  Properties,  1464-76-119.     Baillie, 
Town  and  Parish  Clerk,  and  Sergeant — 1466  and  1476 — 120.      Weddings  among  Neighbouring 
Lairds — Murdoch  Glaster,  and  Janet  Lichton — John  de  Johnston  of  Caskieben  and  Marjory 


Contents. 


Lichton,  Gilbert  de  Johnston,  and  Elene  Lichton — Bishop  Lichton — Johnston  of  Caskieben, 
1428-1547—121.  A  Tocher  in  1481— The  Blakhalls,  1398-1491— Burning  of  the  House  of 
Ardendraught — Rioters  in  1492 — Parishioners  of  Kinkell  in  1473 — Decreet  of  Stipend — William 
Auchinleck,  Parson — 122.  Magistrates  and  Burgh  Lairds  of  Kintore  in  1498 — Prices  in  1479 
—123. 

Sentiment — Violence  and  Pious  Services — 123.     Pilgrimages — 124. 

Local  Clekgy. — Vicars  of  Inverurie — Walter  Ydill,  William  Scrogy,  Robert  Howieson,  George 
Anderson,  Andrew  Bisset,  Gilbert  Cranstoun,  124.  Parsons  of  Kinkell — Henry  Lichton, 
William  Auchinleck,  Adam  of  Gordon,  James  Ogilvie,  Alexander  Galloway,  Henry  and  Thomas 
Lumsden.  Garioch  Vicars — Kinkell,  ecclcsia  plcbania,  and  its  Chaplainries  of  Kintore, 
Kemnay,  Skene,  Kinnellar,  Drumblade,  and  Dyce  —  Bishop  Lichton's  Buildings  in  the 
Cathedral — 125.  Parsons  of  Rayne,  Archdeacons — Vicars  of  Bethelnie,  Chancellors — Parsons  of 
Daviot,  Treasurers — Monymusk  Priory — Constitution,  Rental,  Priors,  and  Denes — 126.  Vicars 
of  Monymusk — 127.  Vicar  of  Kemnay — Kemnay  House — Douglas  of  Kemnay — Collihill 
Chaplainry  Glebe — 128.  Masses  in  the  Chapel  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  of  the  Garioch — Neigh- 
bouring Priests— Bishops  Tenants  at  Fetternear,  in  1511 — 129.     Tenant  Right— 130. 

Learning. — Foundation  of  the  Universities  of  St.  Andrews,  Glasgow,  and  Aberdeen — Bishop  Elpin- 
stone  and  his  College — 130.  Aberdeenshire  Families  circa  1512 — Defects  in  the  University — 131. 
Bridge  of  Dee — Bishop  Gavin  Dunbar — Alexander  Galloway,  Parson  of  Kinkell — 132.  Kirk  of 
Kinkell — 133.  Philosophy  and  Art,  circa  1500 — 134.  Voyage  to  the  Western  Isles  by  the 
Principal  of  King's  College  and  the  Parson  of  Kinkell — "  On  the  Hebrideau  Isles  and  the  Goose 
bearing  Trees  " — 135.  Works  executed  by  Alexander  Galloway — Cathedral  Chartulary — Robbery 
of  Cathedral  Jewels  by  Forbes  of  Corsindae — 136. 

Life  among  the  Barons. — Feudal  Power  in  Scotland — The  Court  of  Session — Raid  upon  Aberdeen — 
137.  State  of  the  Town — Castle  of  Balquhaiu  Burned  by  the  Forbeses — Difficult  Reconciliation 
— First  Leslies  of  Wardes—  Flodden  and  Pinkie — 138.  The  Douglases  of  Kemnay — Inter- 
marriages— Slaughter  of  Seton  of  Meldrum  by  the  Master  of  Forbes  and  his  Followers— 139. 
Estates  of  Lord  Forbes,  in  1552 — First  Laird  and  Lady  of  Warthill— 140.  Manslaughter  — Setons 
of  Mounie — Subdivision  of  farms  before  1552 — Rental  in  money  and  kind  with  Grassums — 141. 

Parochial  Matters  in  the  Garioch.— Bishops'  Court  at  Rayne — 141.  Quarrel  at  Insch — Election 
of  Parish  Clerk  of  Inverurie— Inverurie  Parishioners  in  1536 — 142.  James  Kyd,  Vicar  Pen- 
sioner— 143.     Election  of  Parish  Clerk  of  Daviot— Daviot  Parishioners  in  1550—144. 

Eve  of  the  Reformation. — Alienation  of  Church  Property  to  Powerful  Laymen — Commendators  of 
Deer  and  Lindores — 144.  Fetternear  Conveyed  to  William  Leslie  of  Balcmhain — State  of 
Preaching — Lives  of  the  Clergy — Attempted  Reformation — Rioters  from  the  South — 145.  Queen 
Mary  at  Balquhain  Castle — The  Earl  of  Huntly's  Designs — Battle  of  Corrichie — 146.  Last 
Days  of  the  Chapel  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  of  the  Garioch — The  Chaplainries  of  Warthill,  Pit- 
gaveny,  Collihill,  and  Kirkinglass  erected  into  an  Hospital  of  Balhaggardy — United  Parish  of 
Logiedurno  and  Fetternear — 147.  The  Last  of  the  Priests — Dr  John  Leslie,  Parson  of  Oyne, 
Bishop  of  Ross,  and  Mary  Queen  of  Scots— 148.      The  Black  Acts — 149. 

Chapter  V. 
THE  REFORMED  KIRK  AND  KING  JAMES'S  EPISCOPACY. 

Royal  Charter  of  Novodamus  to  Inverurie. — Burgh  Officials  and  Duties  in  1580—150.     Prices- 
Manners  among  the  Lairds— Feuds  and  Slaughter— 151.     Demoncraft— 152. 
The  Beginning  of  the  Reformed  Kirk.— Paucity  of  Ministers  in  1570—152.     Garioch  Parishes— 


Contents. 


Superintendents— Patronage — Presbyteries  of  Inverurie  and  Mar— 153.  Readers,  Exhorters,  and 
Ministers — 154.  Professor  Johnston — 155.  New  Parish  of  Chapel  of  Garioeh — Hospital  of 
Balhaggardy  —  Papists  —  Jesuit  Priests  in  15SS — Nominal  Bishops — Succession  of  Church 
Governments — 1 56. 

King  James's  Kirks. — Vicarages  of  Lindores  made  Rectories — Lordship  of  Lindores — 156.  The 
Abbey  Possessions  in  the  Garioeh — Stipends  secured  to  the  New  Rectories— 157.  History  of 
Stipends,  1560-1649 — Institution  at  Inverurie— at  Leslie — 159  ;  at  Premnay — at  Bourtie — Mr. 
James  Mill,  Rector  of  Inverurie — 160.  Neighbouring  Ministers — Shakespeare  at  Aberdeen — 
Bishop  Blackburn — Bishop  Alexander  Forbes — 162.  Bishop  Patrick  Forbes — Bishop  Adam 
Bellenden— 163. 

State  of  Education.— Marischal  College — The  Franciscan  Monastery,  Aberdeen — Lord  Altrie — 
George  Fifth  Earl  Marischal— State  of  Clerical  Education  in  1573—163.  The  Battle  of  Bel- 
rinnes— The  Popish  Lords — Catholic  and  Protestant  Factions — Dr.  Arthur  Johnston,  the  Latin 
Poet— 164.     "  Whar  Gadie  rins  "—167.     Portraits  of  Arthur  Johnston— 168. 

The  School  of  Invekukie  under  King  James's  Episcopacy. — Education  and  Schools  before  the 
Reformation — 169.  Want  of  Schools  in  1601 — Inability  to  Write — Latin  in  Kintore — Country 
Pupils  at  the  Aberdeen  Schools,  1612 — 170.  Grammar  School  for  Inverurie,  1606— First 
Masters — 171.  Emoluments  and  Duties — Mr.  Alexander  Mitchell,  Schoolmaster  —  172. 
Locality  of  Inverurie  School — Backwardness  of  Heritors — 173. 

Urbs  In  Rure. — Principal  Inhabitants  of  Inverurie — Norman  Leslie  — 173.  Johnston  Families — The 
Cross— The  Tolbooth— The  Manse— 174.     Midtown— The  Mill  Road— 175. 

Ardtannies— 175.     History— 176.     Lairds— The  Hall— 177. 

The  Mill  of  Inverurie. — Mills  in  Inverurie — Walter  Lines,  Miller,  and  sometime  Laird,  of  Ard- 
tannies—  "  Mary  Eerie  Orie  Elphinstone" — 178.  His  Family,  Will  and  Inventory—  179. 
Ardtannies  in  Early  Times — "The  Merchants'  Graves" — Ard  Tonies — 180.  Millers  of 
Ardtannies,  Knockinglews,  and  Aquhorties — 181.  Contract  of  Multures,  Inverurie,  1600 — 1S2. 

The  Twall-Pairt  Lands. — Cultivated  Common  Lands — 183.  Pasture  Common  Lands — Haughs, 
Folds,  and  Crofts— 184. 

The  Landward  Parish. — Families  in  Badifurrow,  Aquhorties,  Knockinglews,  Drimmies,  Conglass, 
and  Crol'thead,  1600-36— 1S6. 

Chapter  VI. 
LIFE  IN  INERURIE  IN  THE  TIME  OF  JAMES  VI. 

A  Rural  Scottish  Burgh  in  1600. — General  Appearance  of  Inverurie— Occupations — 187.  Regula- 
tions enforced  as  to  Agriculture,  Trade,  Building,  House-letting— Rude  Manners — 1-88. 
Exercise  of  Magisterial  Authority  and  Iniluence — 1S9. 

Burgh  Incidents. — Rights  of  Pasturage — 189.  Market  Customs — Criminals  Banished— Building 
Faulds— Restriction  of  Brewers — Watching — Protection  of  Crops  —  Election  of  Council — 190. 
Burgh  Officials — Quality  of  Buildings — Inspection  of  Abuses— Ewe  Buchts — Land  Tax- 
Taking  Order — Wapinschaw — Personal  Armour  —  191.  Idlers— Mill-service — The  Plague, 
1608— Trade  Protection— Head  Court'  respecting  Sunday — 192.  Official  Salary  paid  in 
Labour — The  Leslies— House-letting— Fee  of  Town  Herd — Arbitration  of  Blood— Pasturing 
Rules  and  Watching  of  Crop — 193.  Constitution  of  Town  Council— Marches  with  Crichie— 
Charters  of  the  Burgh — Grass  Season — King's  Dues — Mode  cf  Municipal  Resignation — 194. 
Mill  Assessment— Fold — Ale-Tasters — Drunkard  Restrained — Fee  of  Herd— Turfing — Offences 
and  Punishments— 195.     Malt  Mill  and  Number  of  Brewers— Measures  Testi'd— Unfreemen — 


Contents. 


Good  Hours— The  Sabbath — Church  and  State  Discipline — Idlers  Expelled — A  Troublesome 
Family — 196.  Thatching  the  Kirk — Interdicts — Last  Sasine  in  favour  of  the  Johnstons  of 
Caskieben — A  Burgh  Feud — 197.  An  Armed  Raid  upon  Crops — Mill-service — Use  and  Wont 
of  Common  Lands — 198.  Right  to  Fines — Violence  in  a  Tavern — Small  Debt — The  Sabbath, 
Head  Court— New  Weekly  Market— 199.  Herd's  House— His  Duties — Market  Laws — Con- 
tempt of  Magistrate— Quality  of  Houses — The  Peat  Road — The  Burgh  Feud— 200.  Armed 
Town  Clerk,  Maladministration — Rival  Councils — 201.  Building  the  Mill — Assaults — Officer 
Deforced — Kirk  Penalties — 203.  A  Baillie's  Troubles  and  Honours — Large  Council — Clerk 
Elected  Yearly — The  Mill  Lade — Moss  of  Kemnay — 201.  Dinging — Protection  of  Vintners — 
Quarrel  with  the  City  of  Aberdeen — Domestic  Strife — Temperance  and  Kirk-keeping— Redding 
of  Marches — 205.  Overbuilding — Right  to  Fines — The  Fend  Terminated.  Dean  of  Guild  — 
Thatching  the  Mill— 206.  Foreign  Claimant  of  Stonehouse,  1619 — Jury  Inquest— Desecration 
of  the  Lord's  Day — Marches  with  Blakhall — 207. 
Mr.  Mill's  Registers  of  Baptisms  and  Deaths. — The  Minister's  Collateral  Entries — 207.  Wills 
and  Inventories — John  Johnston  of  that  Ilk— 208.  William  Blakhall  of  that  Ilk— Prices— Pecu- 
liar Articles  Bequeathed — 209.  Deaths  of  Notable  Persons — Speedy  Burial — 210.  Criminal 
Jurisdiction — Remarkable  Deaths  and  Burials— 211.  Nicknames — Upper  Class  Christenings — 
212.  The  Minister's  Second  Wife  and  Christenings — 213.  Changes  circa  1640 — The 
Local  Aristocracy — 214.  John  Leslie,  Tenth  of  Balquhain — Raid  upon  Aberdeen — Conjugal 
Sentiment — 215.  The  First  Marquis  of  Huntly — Dunnibirsel — Banishment  and  Recall — John, 
Eleventh  of  Balquhain — Loss  of  Estates — Style  of  Landed  Proprietors  circa  1600 — 216.  The 
last  Leslie,  Dominus  Ejusdem,  Served  Heir  to  the  Second  Constable  of  Inverurie — Jame,i  Leslie 
of  Aquhorties — The  Frendraught  Quarrel— 217. 


Chapter  VII. 
LOCAL  CHANGES  BEFORE  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

New  Proprietors — Conditional  Stability  of  Landed  Property — 218.     Old  Ecclesiastical  Estates — 219. 

Badiefurrow. — "  Bonnie  Patrick  Leslie  "  of  Kincraigie  to  Mr.  James  Ferguson,  Advocate — 219. 

The  First  Baronet  of  Wardes. — Lost  Prestige  of  the  Barons— New  Dignity  of  Knight  Baronet  of 
Scotland  and  Nova  Scotia — Sir  John  Leslie — Wadset  of  the  Wardes  Lords — 220.  John  Leslie, 
second  of  Wardes — Leslies  of  Warthill — Alexander  Leslie,  third  of  Wardes — William  Leslie, 
fourth  of  Wardes,  called  "William  Cutt " — Wrongous  Molestation  of  John  of  Balhaggardy — 
George  Leslie  of  Crichie — John  Leslie,  fifth  of  Wardes — Sir  John  Leslie,  first  Baronet  of  Wardes 
— His  Character  and  Misfortunes — 221.  Sir  John  Leslie,  second  Baronet  of  Wardes — Sir 
William  Leslie,  third  Baronet  of  Wardes — Norman  Leslie — The  Castle  and  House  of  Wardes — 
222.     Office  of  Baillie  of  Regality— 2-23. 

Warthill. — Glaster  to  Leslie — Tillymorgan,  Crvickshank— 223. 

The  First  Baronet  of  Caskieben. — John  Johnston  of  that  Ilk  and  Caskieben — His  first  and  second 
Families— Katherine  Lundy — 223.  Lundy  of  that  Ilk — Desendants  of  Stephen  de  Johnston — 
The  Durwards — Christian  Forbes,  Lady  Caskieben — Impoverishment  of  the  Family — Sir  George 
Johnston  of  that  Ilk  and  Caskieben — 224.  Claims  of  Earldom — Roll  of  Caskieben  Properties 
wadset  to  Alexander  Jaffray  of  Kingswells,  1633 — Service  of  Alexander  Jaffray,  younger,  in 
1645 — Newplace  and  Synod  of  Aberdeen — 225.  Johnston  in  Leslie— John  Leith,  Fiar  of 
Montgarrie— 226. 


xvi  Contents. 


Provost  Alexander  Jeffrat,  Sen.— Lord  Crimond -The  Chamberley  Croft— Principal  Dun— 226. 
Provost  Alexander  Jaffray,  jun. — His  Early  Years— His  Two  Marriages —227. 

Crichie. — Leslie  of  Wardes  to  Lord  Elphinstone — 227. 

Blakhall  of  that  Ilk— 227.  Genealogy  of  Blakhall  of  that  Ilk,  Foresters  and  Coroners  of  the 
Garioeh— Blakhall  of  Little  Folia— of  Barra— 228. 

Bourtie.— Abernethie,  Barclay,  Seton— 229.  Collihill  Chaplains— 230.  Collihill— Gilbert  An- 
nand— 231 . 

Mounie.—  Seton,  Urquhart,  Farquhar,  Seton — 231. 

Aquhithie,  Ardmurdo,  Balbithan,  Thainston,  Lethinty,  Fingask:,  Mel-drum. — Barclay's 
Protocol — Templar  Croft  of  Aquithie — Forbes  and  Barclay  of  Ardmurdo — Dalgarno  of  that  Ilk 
— 231.  Chalmers  of  Balbithan,  1490-1696—  Fortieses  of  Tolquhon  and  Thainston — Urquhart 
of  Craigfintray,  Tutor  of  Cromarty,  and  the  Heiress  of  Meldrum — Lethinty — The  Fortieses  of 
Pitsligo — 232.  Fingask — Patrick  Urquhart  of  Lethinty,  Fingask,  and  Meldrum— Episcopal 
Chapter  in  1615 — Charter  of  Old  Meldrum — Church  and  Manse  of  Meldrum — 233. 

Kemnat. — Douglas  of  Glenbervie,  Sir  Thomas  Crombie,  Strachan  of  Glenkindie — 234. 

The  Leiths. — Harthill,  Edingarroch,  and  Licklyhead— 234. 

Abercrombt  of  Birkenbog. — Properties  in  the  Garioeh,  1345-1690—234. 

Newton. — Gordon,  Davidson— 235. 

Aquhorties. — Mortimers,  &c.,  to  Leslie  of  Balquhain — Barony  of  Craigievar  and  Fintray — 235. 

Forbes  of  Monymusk — 236.     Pitsligo  and  Fettercairn — 237. 

Forbes  of  Leslie— 237.     Leslie  Castle— Leith-hall— 238. 

Wadsetters  and  Reversers  in  the  Garioeh,  1633—238. 

Clerical  Changes  in  the  Garioch  since  1600— Monkegy  a  Separate  Parish — Kemnay,  do. — 239. 
Lunan  Pedigree — 240.  Captain  John  Logie — Character  of  the  Garioch  Clergy — Provident 
Marriages — 241 . 

The  Marquis  of  Huntly — Decline  of  Family  Influence — Charles  I.  jealous — Sir  George  Johnston 
made  Sheriff  of  Aberdeen  in  1630 — James  Crichton  of  Frendraught — 242.  Antagonism  to  the 
Gordons — Burning  of  Frendraught — Decay  of  the  Crichtons — Gift  of  Communion  Silver- 
Viscount  Crichton — Lady  Frendraught  —243.     Morison  of  Bognie — 244. 

Social  Features.— Drinking  Habits— The  Highland  Chiefs— 244.  Fairs  in  the  Garioch— Lawrence 
Fair— Barbour  and  Winton  — Exorbitant  Market  Customs  in  1606 — 245.  "Oh,  Minnie,  I'm 
gaen  to  Lowrin  Fair  " — Pushing  Fortunes  Abroad — Social  Condition  of  Inverurie  Burgesses — 
246.  Baillie  Alexander  Hervie — Appearance  of  the  Scottish  Parliament— Election  of  Members 
for  Aberdeenshire,  1616—248. 

Eve  of  the  Covenant. — Aberdeenshire  Recusant— Sensible  Bishops — 248.  The  Aberdeen  Doctors — 
Papist  Houses — Father  Blakhall— Prominent  Families  and  Individuuls  on  both  sides— Sir 
Thomas  Crombie— Gordon  of  Newton— 249.  Chalmers  of  Drimmies —Thomas  Erskine  of  Pit- 
todrie — Robert  Burnet  of  Crimond — 250.  Colonel  William  Johnston — Sir  Robert  Farquhar  of 
Mounie— 251.  John  Leith  of  Harthill— "The  Mids  o'  Mar"— The  Forbes  Families  all  Cove- 
nanters— The  Master  of  Forbes — 252.  The  Fintray  Family — Sir  William  Forbes,  first  Baronet — 
General  Urrie — Urrie  of  Pitfiehie  Genealogy — 253.  Chalmers  Genealogy — 254.  Apostles  of  the 
Covenant— Andrew  Cant — Field-Marshal  Leslie — 255.     General  King,  Lord  Ythan — 256. 

Burgh  Lairds  at  the  Time  of  the  Covenant. — Contract  of  Teinds — 256.  Owners  of  Eoods  and 
Common  Lands  in  1633 — 257.  Traces  of  Original  Division  of  Lands— 259.  First  Minister  of 
Monkegy— 260. 


Contents. 


CHArTER  VIII. 
THE  TROUBLES  IN  THE  GARIOCH. 

The  Solemn  League  and  Covenant. — Resentment  of  the  Titheholders  at  Charles  I. — 261.  Custom 
of  forming  Leagues — The  King's  Encroachments—  Dread  of  English  Episcopacy — Power  of  the 
Gordons  broken — 262.     The  Second  Marquis  of  Huntly  made  Lieutenant  of  the  North— 263. 

First  Appeal  to  Arms,  a.d.  1639. — The  Committee  of  Turriff— 263.  Hostile  Arrays — Aberdeen  For- 
tified— Earl  of  Montrose  and  Marshal  Leslie  sent  North— Fugitives  from  Aberdeen — Huntly's 
Forces  and  Arms— 264.  Royalist  Muster  at  Inverurie,  25th  March— Covenanting  Camp  at 
Kintore — 265 — Parley  at  Blakhall — Huntly  outwitted  5th  April — First  Pillage,  Kemnay  Girnal 
— New  Apostles — 266.  "  Deer  Sandys  " — Temporary  Submission  of  Catholic  Lairds — Huntly  a 
Prisoner — Lord  Aboyne  Intercepted  at  Parcock  and  forced  to  Head  the  Royalists — Vacillation 
of  Covenanting  Chiefs — 267.  Aboyne  Deserts — Covenanters  resolve  to  Meet  at  Turriff  on  20th 
May— Crowner  Johnston— 268.  The  "Trot  of  Turriff  "—The  Local  Chiefs  of  the  Two  Parties 
— Alarm  of  Aberdeen — Forbeses  go  there  to  Submit — 269.  Plundering — Royalists  Disband 
expecting  Peace,  and  being  attacked  Escape  to  the  King — Their  Return— 270. 

Lord  Aboyne  as  King's  Lieutenant. —Battle  of  the  Bridge  of  Dee— Death  of  John  Seton  of 
Bourtie,  and  of  Pittodrie's  Brother — Crowner  Gunu  Denounced  as  a  Traitor  by  Colonel  Johnston 
— Escape  of  Lord  Aboyne  and  Royalist  Leaders  to  the  King  at  Berwick — Pacification — Huntly 
and  his  Daughters— 271.  Preparations  for  Conflict,  a.d.  1640 — Covenanters  Tax  the  Country — 
Earl  Marshal  and  the  Forbeses  Quarrel  over  the  Division  of  the  Work — Kemnay  Girnal  Emptied 
— Attack  upon  Fetternear  House  Repulsed — 272.  Balbithan,  Hedderwick,  Lethinty,  and 
Newton  Plundered — Five  Garioch  Ministers  marched  to  Aberdeen  as  Prisoners — Gordon  of 
Haddo  Fined  by  Earl  Marischal — Minister  of  Rayne  Deposed — 273. 

The  Earl  of  Argyll  Head  of  the  Executive — Burns  the  House  of  Airly  and  Plunders  Athol  and 
Lochaber — 273.  Argyll's  Maxims — Portraits  in  Inverary  Castle— The  Dhu  Loch  Avenue — Rata 
of  Military  Assessment  in  1640 — Quarrels  over  the  Collection — Earl  Marischal  and  the  Master 
of  Forbes — Disbanding  of  the  Forbeses — League  of  Covenanting  Chiefs  against  Argyll— 274. 
Covenant  Supreme  in  the  Garioch  in  1641 — Lethinty  and  Haddo  Fined — The  Fraser  Regiment 
— Mr.  Robert  Farquhar — Leith  of  Hartill — Personal  Encounters — The  Craibstane — 275.  Aber- 
deen Crofts — Parliament,  1641 — Pacification,  Honors,  and  Grants — Andrew  Cant  brought  to 
Aberdeen — John  Row — Dr.  John  Forbes,  Professor  of  Divinity,  Deposed — 276.  Garioch  Can- 
didates for  the  Chair — Reredos  of  Cathedral  of  Aberdeen  cut  up  to  make  a  Gallery,  1641 — 
Schoolboys  Celebrating  Christmas,  1642,  in  Old  Aberdeen,  in  Defiance — John  Keith,  future 
Earl  of  Kintore — Andrew  Cant  Introduces  Presbyterian  Form  of  Communion  Service — 277. 
Covenanters  Disappointed  by  the  Parliament  of  England — Rise  of  Independents  to  Power  in  the 
English  Army— General  King  brings  Treasure  and  Officers  to  the  King  from  Denmark — Portents 
of  War— Defections — Huntly  at  Aberdeen  with  a  Declaration  by  the  King,  emitted  April,  1643 
— The  Laird  of  Braco's  Funeral — Lord  Gordon,  Earl  Marischal,  Lord  Forbes,  and  Viscount 
Crichton  at  Strife  over  the  Apportionment  of  Aberdeenshire — 278. 

The  Marquis  of  Huntly  in  Arms  at  Kintore,  26th  March,  1644— His  Supporters — Covenanting 
Lairds  Secret  their  Girnals  and  Property — Plundering,  286.  Exploits — Abduction  of  Aberdeen 
Magistrates — Muster  of  2500  Royalists  at  Inverurie,  11th  April — "  Umquhil  William  Fergus 
his  House" — Boastful  March  to  Aberdeen— 280.  Retreat — At  Inverurie  on  17th  April — Deser- 
tion and  Flight  Home  before  the  Approach  of  the  Covenanting  Army^Argyll  at  Inverurie  in 
Pursuit,  4th  May — Attacks  Kelly,  and  takes  Sir  John  Gordon  of  Haddo  and  Captain  John 
Logie  Prisoners— Proclamation  as  Commander-in-Chief  for  a  Muster  of  the  County  at  Turriff  on 

c 


xviii  Contents. 


17th  May — The  Moderators  of  Presbyteries  to  give  up  Lists  of  Heritors  and  Freeholders 
— 281.  Huntly  Escapes  with  his  Treasure  Chest  to  Caithness  — Argyll  and  Lord  Gordon  leave 
Inverurie  in  Pursuit,  4th  June — 282. 

The  Marquis  or  Montrose — For  the  King — Descent  from  Athol— Battle  of  Aberdeen,  13th  September, 
1644 — March  Ordered  to  the  Garioch,  14th  September— The  Irishes — Royalist  Camp  from 
Kintore  to  Licklyhead — Argyll  starts  from  Brechin  slowly  in  Pursuit — 282.  Montrose  leaves 
Inverurie  for  the  Spey  on  Monday,  18th  September — Encamps  in  the  Wood  of  Abernethy — 
Argyll  Deserted  at  Aberdeen  by  the  Covenanting  Lords — Montrose  makes  a  Rapid  Circuit 
through  Badenoch  to  Forfarshire  and  back  to  Aberdeen — Escapes  between  the  Forces  of  Argyll 
and  Marischal  to  cross  the  Dee  at  Crathes — Visits  the  Covenanting  Houses  of  Crathes,  Echt, 
Pittodrie,  and  Frendraught,  reaching  Strathbogie  in  October — Argyll's  Officers  Quarrel  about 
Commands — 283.  He  Crosses  the  Garioch  in  Pursuit — Skirmish  in  the  Woods  of  Fy  vie — Montrose 
Retires  in  Triumph — Flight  of  Argyll  at  Inverlochy,  Candlemas  Day,  1645 — Young  Harthill 
and  Craigievar's  Troopers  at  Inverurie,  23rd  February,  1645 — Craigievar's  Recompense -284. 
Montrose  comes  from  Elgin — Musters  the  Shire  at  Inverurie,  16th  March— Lodges  with  the 
Minister  of  Kintore — The  Covenanters  under  General  Urrie— The  Lady  of  Lethinty— Sir 
William  Forties's  Booty  at  Kemnay,  Newton,  and  Harthill — 285.  Accessions  to  the  King's 
Standard — Battles  of  Auldearn,  Alford,  and  Kilsyth — Philiphaugh,  September,  1645 — General 
David  Leslie — Montrose  Escapes  to  Norway — 286.  Marquis  of  Huntly  with  Lord  Gordon 
Rise  for  the  King,  January,  1646 — Muster  at  Inverurie  and  Kintore. — Seize  Aberdeen  —Ordered 
by  the  King,  now  a  Prisoner,  to  lay  down  his  Anns — Escapes  to  Strathnaven — Is  Sold  to  the 
Covenanters — Beheaded  in  March,  1649—287. 

Incidents  of  the  Troubles. — Abduction  of  Aberdeen  Magistrates — 287.  Alexander  Jaffray's  Diary 
— Jaffray  and  Cant  in  Pitcaple  Castle — 288.  Mr.  Samuel  Walcar— 289.  Capture  of  Wardes 
Castle — Mr.  Andrew  Cant  and  Provost  Robert  Farquhar— 290.     Cant  on  Portraits — 291. 

Inverurie  During  the  Troubles. — Principal  Residents  and  Neighbours — 291.  Lime's  Dragoons — 
Assessment— Burgh  Heritors— 292.  Mr.  William  Forbes,  Minister — 293.  Baillie  George 
Leslie— The  School  Decayed— 294.  The  Plague  in  1647— Watching  of  Town  and  Fords- 
King's  College  at  Fraserburgh — The  Engagement,  1658 — 295. 

Time  of  the  King's  Death — 295.  Silence  of  Local  Records — Residence  Enforced— Kemnay  Moss 
Tack— General  Disorder — 296.  Correspondence  with  Prince  Charles— Last  Attempt  of  the 
Marquis  of  Montrose — Betrayed  and  led  Prisoner  to  Edinburgh — Montrose  at  Pitcaple  Castle- 
Charles  II.  at  Pitcaple— 297.     Alexander  Jaffray— William  Earl  Marischal— 298. 

Chapter  IX. 
THE  RULE  OF  THE  KIRK. 

Mr.  Andrew  Cant.— Renewal  of  the  Covenant— 299. 

General  Government. — Malignancy — Excommunications— 301.  Controversial  Prints — Gordon  of 
Newton — Kirk  Repairs — The  Engagement — Kinkell  Dissolved— 302.  Inverurie  School  and 
Kirk — Lairds  of  Fetternear  and  Blair — Signing  of  the  Covenant — 303.  Presbyterial  Visitation 
of  Parishes — National  Fast — Lairds  Submitting— 304.  The  Catechism — Charming — Property 
of  Defuncts— Ministers  Deposed — Troublesome  Lairds — Mr.  John  Middleton  of  Rayne  — 305. 
Lairds  of  Caskieben  and  Balbithan — Case  of  Witchcraft — 306.  Lairds  Submitting — Extreme 
Crimes — 307.  Row's  History — Marischal  College  "  Economie  " — Clerical  Apparel — Communion 
Wine  "mixed" — No  Bible  at  Culsalmond— Troops  Raised  for  Charles  II.,  1650 — Intercourse 
with  Excommunicated  Persons— Army  Chaplains  Starving — 308.  Leslie  and  Premnay — 
Excommunicats — Annexation  to  Daviot — Synodical  Visitations— Pressure  of  Cromwell — Steel- 


Contents.  xix 


hand  and  Harthill— Mr.  Tailifer  of  Daviot— 309.  National  Sins— Influence  of  Cromwell's 
Successes — Rectification  of  Parish  Boundaries — Newton — Minister  of  Kemnay  Deserting  his 
Charge— 310.  Ruling  Elders  in  1653 — Fetternear — Visitation  of  Inverurie — Papists  in  the 
Garioch  in  1655 — Eights  of  Parishioners — 311.  Discipline  over  Ministers — 312.  Discipline  of 
Parishes— Platform — 313.  Provision  for  Paupers— Swearing  to  the  Covenant — Cases  for  Dis- 
cipline— Sacramental  Services  in  1650 — 315.  Sabbath-breaking — Dogs  in  Church — Knowledge 
Qualification — Alehouse  Laws — The  Church  Catalogue— The  Marquis  of  Montrose — Defaming  a 
Minister — Absence  from  Church— 316.  Breach  with  England — Third  Marquis  of  Huntly— 
Cromwell's  Independents — Elders  of  Inverurie— 317.  Qualification  of  Elders — Public  Causes 
of  Anxiety — Discipline  needed  in  Inverurie — 318.  Excommunication  of  the  Goodwife  of  Con- 
glass  for  Popery— Insubordination — 319.  Care  of  the  Poor — Miscellaneous  Objects  of  Church 
Collections — Avoidance  of  "  Public  Burdens  "  by  Heritors — 320.  State  of  Inverurie  Kirk  in 
1649—321.  Pews  Erected— 322. 
The  School  of  Inverurie  under  the  Covenant  and  Second  Episcopacy.— School  Ordered  to  be 
Planted,  1649— Salary  Subscribed— Schoolmaster  Elected  for  "one  Quarter" — 322.  Mr. 
Alexander  Mitchell — The  Electing  Body — "Honest  Men" — George  Robertson— Failure  of 
Salary— 323.  Mart'  Hay,  Schoolmistress— Mr.  Arthur  Forbes— Mr.  John  Walker— Mr. 
William  Chalmer — Security  of  Salary — 324.  Canonical  Obedience — Presbyterial  Supervision 
— Schoolmasters  Masters  of  Arts — 325.  Garioch  Schoolmasters  (1661-1668) — Quality  of 
Schoolhouses — 326. 

Chapter  X. 

RESTORATION  OF  THE  MONARCHY. 

Changes  in  Garioch  Families. — Alexander  Jaffray  at  Ardtannies— Third  Marquis  of  Huntly— 
327-  Caskieben  and  Moukegy  become  Keith-hall— Sir  Alexander  Forbes  of  Tolquhon— Aber- 
cromby  of  Blakhall— 328.  Transferences  of  Land  (1668-16S4)-329.  Alexander  Leslie  of  Tullos 
—  Balquhain — Elphinstone  of  Meikle  Warthill — 330. 

Religious  Reaction.— Extent  of  the  Reformation  in  Scotland — The  Thirty  Years'  War — The 
Scottish  Church  and  the  Stuart  Kings — Papacy  in  Concealment— 330.  New  Sects — Competing 
Tyrannies — Society  Demoralised— Sunday— 331. 

Charles  II.  's  Episcopacy. — Scotch  and  English  Episcopacies — Position  of  Bishop  in  the  Scottish 
Church — Form  of  Worship— Successive  Prayer  Books — 332.  Reason  of  Opposition  to  Laud's 
Service  Book — The  Readers — 333.  Episcopal  Synod  of  Aberdeen  in  1662 — Purging  the  Church 
— Political  Character  of  the  New  Episcopacy— 334.  Jacobitism — Changes  Attempted— The  Four 
Bishops  of  Aberdeen— Daily  Prayers— 335.     Proposed  Ritual — Dr.  Willox  of  Kemnay— 336. 

State  of  Society  after  1600. — Principal  Record— Harsh  Discipline — 336.  Licentiousness— Dis- 
regard of  Sabbath—  Lax  Ministers— Public  Works  and  Charities— 337. 

Parochial  Incidents.— Testimonials — St.  Bryde's  Kirk,  Kemnay— Sunday  Games— The  Jongs — 
Hours  of  Worship— Churchyard  Patrols— Taverns  Visited— Polonian  Students— Stipends  Taxed 
for  help  to  Universities— The  Plague  in  London,  1665— Minister  Assaulted  in  Church— Collec- 
tions for  Bridge  of  Dee — School  of  Banchory  and  Harbours  of  Inverkeithing  and  Kilburnie — 
338.  Bleaching  on  Sunday — Conventicles — Apostacies — Catechisings — Collections  for  Dundee 
Harbour,  Bridges  of  Don,  Ythan,  and  Gadie,  and  Fire  at  Kilmarnock — Registers  of  Deaths— Clip 
for  Dogs  at  Church— Holy  wells— Fall  of  the  Church  of  Oyne— Child  Offered  to  the  Grave— 339. 
Fairies — Visitation  by  Privy  Council  anent  Quakers,  &c. — Abuses  at  Public  Marriages— Papist 
Plot— "Lifted  to  be  Elders  "—Collections  for  Grecian  Priests,  Slaves  to  the  Turks,  Bridge  at 
Inverness,  and  Harbour  at  Portsoy — Bridge  over  Tone — Accidental  Breach  of  Sabbath — 340. 


Contents. 


Quakerism. — Garioch  Perverts — Alexander  Jaffray,  James  Urquhart,  Dr.  William  Johnston's  Widow 
— Quakers  Imprisoned  at  Inverurie — Monkegy — "  Insolence  of  Quakers" — 341.  Minister  of 
Inverurie's  Daughter — Bishop  Scougal — 342. 

Heritors  and  the  Church. — Origin  of  Public  Burdens — 342. 

The  Kirk  of  Inverurie  in  1660. — Sundial — 343.  The  Kirk  Thatched  and  Propped — Repaired  or 
Rebuilt,  1668 — 344.     Arrangement  of  Pews — Heritors  in  Inverurie  in  1669 — The  Manse— 346. 

Kemnay,  Oyne,  and  Monymusk. — Communion  Elements— Table  Cloths,  &c — Kirkbell — School 
built  in  a  day — Churchyard  Dykes — 347.     Kirk  of  Monymusk  Re-seated — Seats  Let— 348. 

The  Burgh  of  Inverurie  at  the  Restoration.— Thanksgiving  Interrupted  by  a  Spate  in  the  Don 
— New  Tolbooth — 349.  Inverurie  Enrolled  in  the  Convention  of  Burghs — Jurisdiction  Claimed 
— The  Regality  Courts — John  Earl  of  Mar — Transfer  of  Caskieben  Lands — 350.  Law  Borrows 
— Sir  John  Keith — 351.  Baillies  John  Johnston  and  William  Ferguson — Marches  of  Town's 
Lands  next  Sir  John  Keith's — Kemnay  Moss  Rented — Public  Taxes— Fishings  on  the  Don — 
Proposed  Purchase  of  the  Davo  Lands — 352. 

The  Fergusons  of  Inverurie. — A  Geneology  Vouched  by  the  Town  Council  of  Edinburgh — 353. 
"  Umquhill  William  Ferguson" — 354.  William  Ferguson  in  Crichie — His  Six  Sons— 355. 
Openings  for  Scottish  Youths — The  Mackies  of  Midtown — Later  Life  of  Alexander  Jaffray — 
357.  Mr.  William  Forbes  and  Mr.  William  Murray,  Ministers  of  Inverurie — 358.  Population 
of  Inverurie  and  Individual  Residents — 360.  Burgh  Incidents — Assaults — Ale-tasters — Com- 
pensation for  Manure — Deacon  of  the  Shoemakers — Members  of  Parliament  for  the  Burgh — 361. 
The  Market  Cross — Pay  and  Dress  of  Militiamen — 362.  Protection  of  Artizans — Municipal 
Franchise — Peat-stacks  and  Middens — Breach  of  Prison — Capital  Sentence — Town  Council  of 
1677 — 363.     Importance  of  Royal  Burghs — Honorary  Burgesses — Hotel  Charges  in  1680 — 364. 

The  Earldom  of  Kintore. — Connections  between  the  Families  of  Johnston  and  Keith — 365.  The 
Johnstons  of  Caskieben  in  the  end  of  the  17th  Century — Creation  of  the  Earldom — 386.  The 
Rescue  of  the  Regalia — Mrs.  Ogilvie  and  Mrs.  Grainger — Crown  Room  in  the  Manse  of  Kinneff 
—Sir  John  Keith— 367.  The  Ogilvies  of  Barras— House  of  Keith-hill— 368.  Gallowhill  of 
Caskieben— 369. 

Chapter  XI. 

THE  REVOLUTION  SETTLEMENT. 

Political  Discontent— 370.  Tests  Imposed— Executions— 371.  The  Monmouth  Rebellion—  Pro- 
clamatians— The  Earl  of  Argyll—  372.  Sir  John  Johnston  of  Caskieben— Ferguson  the  Plotter 
— 374.  Brigadier  General  Ferguson— 376.  Parliamentary  Election  in  Aberdeenshire,  1685 — 
Sir  George  Nicolson— His  Descendants— 377.  Religious  Customs— Seedtime  and  Harvest 
Festivals— Communion  Services  in  1686 — 378. 

Birth  of  the  Pretender.— Proclamation— 379.     "  The  Late  King  James  "—380. 

The  Temper  of  the  Times.— Insubordination  of  Kemnay  Parishioners— Neglect  of  Christmas— 380. 
Monymusk  Bells  and  Clock — 381. 

Social  Condition  of  the  Garioch— 381.  The  Poll  Lists— Gradation  of  Poll  Tax— Oldmeldrum  in 
1696— Artizans  and  Merchants— 382.  Meat  Trade  in  the  Garioch— Scarcity  in  1696— Insch  in 
1696— Artizans— Terms  of  Tavern  Leases— Uses  of  Peat— Inverurie  in  1696— Artizans  and 
Merchants— Servants'  Wages— 383.  Mr.  George  Scott,  Town  Clerk— Dr.  James  Milne, 
Physician— Baillie  John  Ferguson— Lairds  and  Tenents  in  Inverurie  Parish,  1696—384.  Esta- 
blishments of  the  Earl  of  Kintore  and  Lord  Inverurie— Garioch  Ministers  and  Schoolmasters- - 
The  Watson  Bursaries— 385.     The  Lunans— 386. 


Contents.  xxi 


Garioch  Families. — Changein  Social  Distinctions — The  Legal  Profession — 387.  New  Proprietors — 389. 

The  Burgh  Lairds  of  Inverurie. — Upper  Roods — 389.  Lower  Roods — 394.  The  Ballgreen  and 
School— 398. 

Fetternear. — Residence  of  the  Lairds  of  Balquhain — 398. 

Count  Leslie. — Count  Walter— Death  of  Wallenstein — 399.  Count  James — Siege  of  Vienna — 
Liberation  of  Hungary — 400. 

Leith-iiall — 400.     Formation  of  Estate — Family — 400. 

Freefield. — Formation  of  Estate — Family — 401. 

Keith-hall. — The  two  lines  of  Earls  of  Kintore — 402.  Silver  Plate  of  last  Earl  Marischal  at  Keith- 
hall— The  First  Countess  of  Kintore— 403.     The  Lady  of  Leslie— 404. 

Monymusk. — Sir  Archibald  Grant — Paradise — Pitfichie — "Gentle  Jean  o'  Keith-hall" — 404.  Sir 
William  Forbes,  last  of  Monymusk — Forbes  of  Pitsligo — 405. 

Badifurrow  and  Woodhill. — Fergusons — 405.  Forbes  of  Badifurrow — 406.  Incidents  of  the  '45 
in  Inverurie — 407.     Johnston  of  Badifurrow — Fraser  of  Woodhill — Gordon  of  Manar — 410. 

Warthill— 410.  William  Leslie,  Bishop  of  Layback— Little  Folia— 411.  Meikle  Warthill— 
Elphinstones — 412. 

Glack. — Elphinstone  of  Glack — 412. 

Logie-Elphinstone — 413.     Elphinstones  of  Logie-Elphinstone — 414. 

Westhall. — Abercromby — Gordon — Campbell — Horn — Elphinstone — Leith — 415. 

Castle  Fraser. — House — Lord  Fraser — Inverallochy — 416. 

Balbith  an.  — Chalmers — Forbes  —  Gordon — 41 6. 

Inveramsat. — Smith — Charles  Hacket — 417. 

Pitc  aple. — Leslie — Lumsden — 41 7. 

Newplace — Johnston — Burnet — Synod  of  Aberdeen — 417. 

Pittodrie — Erskines  of  Pittodrie — 418. 

Bourtie.  — Blair — Seton — Stewart — Leith — 418.  Auld  Bourtie — Seton — Reid — Anderson — Duguid— 
Barra — Seton — Reid — Kamsay — 419. 

Kemnay.— House— Burnett  of  Crathes — 420.  Thomas  Burnett,  2nd  of  Kemnay,  in  the  Bastile — 
Betty  Brickenden — Beau  Brickenden — George  Burnett,  Provost  of  Inverurie — 421.  Kemnay 
Avenue — Secretary  Burnett — Sir  Andrew  Mitchell  of  Thornton — 422. 

Religious  Disabilities.  —  Popery  taking  Courage  —  Bishop  Nicolson,  Vicar  Apostolic — 422. 
Number  of  Roman  Catholics  in  Scotland—  Tactics  of  the  Episcopalian  Incumbents— Trafficking 
Priests — Difficulties  as  to  Baptism  and  Marriage — Wedding  at  Barra,  1710—423.  School- 
masters and  the  Confession  of  Faith— School  Work  about  1700—424. 

Introduction  of  Presbyterian  Ministers.— Designs  of  the  Court— Mr.  William  Cairstairs— Indul- 
gence of  Episcopalian  Incumbents— 425.     Roll  of  the  Synod  of  Aberdeen  in  1697—426. 

The  Settlement  of  Kemnay— 426.     Leets— Delays— Mr.  William  Lesly  Inducted— 428. 

The  Settlement  of  Meldrum.—  Jus  Devolutum— Communing  with  the  Laird— Mr.  John  Mulligan 
Inducted — 428. 

The  Settlement  of  Lesly— Elders  Chosen— Call  under  threat  of  Jus  Devolutum— Mr.  William 
Forbes  Inducted — 429. 

The  Settlement  at  Insch.—  An  Intruder  in  Possession— 429.  Parishioners  Qualified  to  be  Elders- 
Heritors  and  Heads  of  Families  give  a  Call— Mr.  John  Maitland  Inducted— 430. 

The  Settlement  at  Rayne.— Lairds  Employ  a  Nonjuring  Episcopalian— 430.  Presbytery  Resisted 
—Officers  Deforced— Lord  Advocate  Interposes— 431.  Access  to  the  Kirk  by  Stratagem— Mr. 
Walter  Turing  Inducted— 432. 


GENEALOGICAL   APPENDIX— 435. 


Keith. — Marischals  of  Scotland,  435— Earls  Marischal,  437 — Earls  of  Kintore,  439. 

Leslie. — The  Original  Family,  440 — Leslie  of  that  Ilk — Leslie  of  Balquhain,  441 — Leslie  of  Wardes, 
444— Baronets  of  Wardes,  445— Leslie  of  Warthill,  446— Leslie  of  Little  Folia,  447. 

Johnston  of  that  Ilk  and  Caskieben. — De  Garviach — Johnston,  448 — Baronets  of  Caskieben,  450. 

Leith.— Leith  of  Leithhall,  458— Leith  of  Freefield,  460-Leith  of  Overhall,  460— Leith  of  Harthill, 
461— Leith  of  Treefield,  462— Leith  of  Bucharne,  462. 

Seton,  463. — Seton  of  Meldrum,  464 — Seton  of  Mounie,  First  Line,  465 — Second  Line,  465 — Seton 
of  Blair,  466 — Seton  of  Bourtie,  now  of  Pitraedden,  466. 

Urquhart  of  Meldrum,  468— Urquhart  of  Cromarty,  469. 

Elphinstone  of  Glaok,  470 — Elphinstone  of  Logie-Elphinstone,  Baronets,  First  Line,  471 — Second 
Line,  472. 

Erskine  of  Pittodrie,  473. 

Fergusons  of  Inverurie,  474 — Descendants  of  William  Ferguson  in  Crichie,  475 — I.  Robert  Fergu- 
son, the  Plotter,  475 — II.  William  Ferguson  of  Badifurrow, — Ferguson  of  Pitfour,  475 — 
James  Ferguson,  M.P.,  Election  Song,  1786,  476 — III.  James  Ferguson — Ferguson  of  Kin- 
mundy,  478 — IV.  George  Ferguson,  Chamberlain  to  Meldrum — Jopp  Family,  479— Beattie 
Family,  480 — V.  John  Ferguson  of  Stonehouse,  480 — VI.  Walter  Ferguson  of  Inverurie,  480 — 
Walter  Ferguson,  W.S.,  481— Lock  Family — Fergusou-Tepper  Family — Scott  Family,  483— 
VII.  Janet  Ferguson — Fergusons  of  Warsaw — Hutcheson  Family — Bruce  Family — Fergusons  of 
Edinburgh,  484. 

Burnett  of  Kemnay,  Burnett  of  Leys — Burnett  of  Craigmyle — Burnett  of  Kemnay,  485. 

Addendum  to  "  Drimmies." — Marches  of  Drimmies  and  Conglass  in  1569,  487. 

Note  to  "  Elphinstone  of  Logie-Elphinstone,"  488. 


ERE  AT  A. 


14, 

line  35,  for  occesus 

read 

oceisus. 

37, 

n 

34,  „ 

1272, 

ii 

1294. 

39, 

ii 

31,  dele,  nephew  of  Baliol. 

60, 

ii 

25,  for  Norino 

read  Norman. 

89, 

ii 

14,  „ 

Strachan 

ii 

Straiton. 

102, 

ii 

22,  „ 

Christian 

i , 

Janet. 

102, 

9J 

29,  „ 

1596 

) » 

1696. 

129, 

ii 

29,  dele  Sir. 

136, 

ii 

19,  for  Gordon 

read  Stewart. 

148, 

ii 

11,  dele  then  snbj 

irior 

of  Monymusk. 

184, 

ii 

31,  for  William 

read  John. 

216, 

ii 

27,  „ 

Margaret 

ii 

Elizabeth. 

237, 

„ 

30,  „ 

1643 

ii 

1743. 

240, 

ii 

2,  „ 

1625 

ii 

1628. 

254, 

ii 

14,  „ 

Margaret 

ii 

Marjory. 

307, 

ii 

52,  „ 

Balgownie 

,, 

Balgonen. 

319, 

it 

20,  „ 

1685 

ii 

1658. 

319, 

ii 

21,   „ 

1633 

ii 

1663. 

326, 

ii 

4,   ,, 

1644 

1 1 

1664. 

327, 

ii 

36,  ,, 

1549 

,, 

1649. 

329, 

ii 

2,  „ 

1679 

,, 

1669. 

352, 

ii 

20,  „ 

Freefield 

,, 

Treefield. 

355, 

ii 

27,  „ 

Ellbank 

j» 

Elibank. 

356, 

ii 

19,  „ 

daughter 

,, 

sister. 

356, 

ii 

30,   „ 

Jean 

i, 

Ann. 

371, 

ii 

40,  „ 

Queen 

,, 

wife. 

386, 

ii 

9,  ,, 

Irving 

,, 

Turing. 

388, 

ii 

36,   „ 

David 

,, 

John. 

418, 

ii 

22,  „ 

Thomas 

ii 

John. 

419, 

,, 

21,   „ 

1552 

„ 

1652. 

424, 

ii 

22,  „ 

Ferguson 

i» 

Farquhar. 

444, 

ii 

31,  „ 

120 

,, 

220. 

458, 

,, 

28,  „ 

1479 

ii 

1497. 

IITEODUCTIOK 


Primitive  Inhabitation. — The  Bass — The  Stanners — Dunnideer — Ardtannies — Remains  of  Stone 
period — Broomend — Cists,  urns,  cairns,  tumuli.  Ancient  Highways. — From  fords  of  Don  to 
Dunnideei — Stone  circles  and  Sculptured  monoliths — Double  road  from  Broomend  to  Drimmies ; 
by  Corseman  hill  and  Blackhall,  with  branch  ascending  the  Don — By  Stanners  and  Inverurie 
Roods,  Stoncfield  and  Kelpyfold,  with  branch  to  Caskiebm,  and  east  side  of  Ury — Garioch 
highways  farther  north — Powtate  and  roads  to  Old  Meldrum  and  Howford — The  Roman  Iter. 

PRIMITIVE  INHABITATION. 

T  a  point  about  six  miles  south-east  from  the  summit  of  Benachie,  one  of 
the  extremities  of  the  Grampians,  the  rivers  Don  and  Ury  descend,  through 
valleys  "which  meet  at  right  angles,  to  a  marshy  hollow  where  their  waters 
are  only  120  yards  apart,  when  they  are  again  deflected,  and  their  junction 
removed  a  good  way  southward,  by  an  abrupt  mound,  seemingly  composed 
of  shingle,  but  coated  with  vegetable  soil,  from  which  a  triangular  field,  of 
about  40  acres  in  area,  slopes  between  the  two  streams. 

The  mound  and  field  are  the  Bass  and  Stanners  of  Inverurie ;  and  these,  from 
their  position  and  apparent  structure,  may  be  a  memorial  of  the  glacial  period.  It  is 
evident  from  the  strive  found  upon  rock  surfaces,  that  the  course  of  the  ice-slip  was 
from  Benachie  to  the  North  Sea  at  Belhelvie.  The  local  meltings  of  the  glacier  left  a 
string  of  moraines  along  the  Don,  in  the  parish  of  Kemnay,  where  the  line  of  railway 
now  is — the  Kaims  of  Kemnay.  A  mound,  called  the  Cuninghill,  exactly  resembling 
these,  stands  southward  of  the  Manse  of  Inverurie,  at  the  edge  of  a  sandy  terrace, 
named  the  Kellands,  where  the  slope  of  the  alluvial  Eoods  begins.  The  glacial  mass, 
obstructed  a  little  below  that  point  by  the  narrow  hollow  in  which  Don  and  Ury  meet, 
would  deposit  most  of  its  sandy  burden  at  the  point  where  the  streams  would  together 
wash  its  edge.  That  point  is  where  the  Bass  now  stands ;  and  the  slow  liquidation 
might  naturally  deposit  the  more  diffused  haugh  stretching  onwards  from  the  Bass, 
which,  from  its  stony  character,  bears  the  name  of  the  Stanners. 

Among  the  oracular  rhymes  attributed  to  Thomas  of  Ercildoune,  one  foretells  that 

Dee  and  Don  shall  run  in  one, 

And  Tweed  shall  run  in  Tay, 
And  the  bonny  water  o'  Ury 

Shall  bear  the  Bass  away. 


Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 


The  lofty  flat-topped  cone  of  the  Bass,  flanked  on  the  east  side  by  a  lower  mound  of 
oblong  form,  rises  upon  the  broad  northern  extremity  of  the  river  peninsula  from  the 
very  water's  edge  of  the  Ury,  barely  admitting  of  foothold  between. 

The  starting  point  of  any  historical  description  of  Inverurie  must  be  here,  where 
both  the  earliest  annals  and  remains  of  a  pre-historic  period  place  the  associations  of 
primitive  inhabitation.  A  central  portion  of  the  Stanners  left  uncultivated  for  centuries 
of  Christian  times  under  the  name  of  the  Goodman's  Croft — a  sort  of  Devil's  Acre — 
forms  a  record  of  the  ancient  times  of  heathen  worship,  and  of  how  ineradicable  the 
customs  of  superstitious  observation  were  here  as  in  other  parts  of  the  Christianized 
world. 

The  highway  of  travel  must  at  all  times  have  passed  the  Don  and  the  TJry,  at  a 
point  where  the  Bass  commanded  the  passages.  There  the  Bomans  must  have  forded 
the  Don  on  their  northern  expedition,  as  the  contingent  of  the  poor  Chevalier's  army 
did  when  it  surprised  and  routed  the  Macleods. 

The  Bass  probably  was  the  fortress  of  Inverurie,  the  prison  and  death-chamber  of 
the  unfortunate  monarch  Eth,  when  Cyric,  or  Grig,  having  defeated  him  in  battle  at 
Strathallan,  in  Angus,  a.d.  878,  brought  him  to  the  fortress  of  Nrurin,  near  his  own 
castle  of  Dunnideer. 

Three  centuries  later,  before  1176,  the  Bass  contained  the  Castle  of  Inverurie,  the 
chief  seat  of  the  royal  earldom  of  the  Garioch.  Malcolm,  the  son  of  Bartolf,  held  it 
as  Constable  for  his  friend  David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon  and  the  Garioch,  from  whose 
daughter  the  royal  houses  of  Bruce  and  Stewart,  and  the  reigning  dynasty  of  Great 
Britain,  all  descend.  Erom  the  Castle  of  Inverurie,  Malcolm  may  have  sent  his  son 
and  namesake  in  David's  train  to  the  crusade  with  Eichard  Cceur  de  Lion,  from  which 
young  Malcolm  never  returned.  In  the  next  century,  Malcolm's  other  son,  Norman, 
the  Constable  of  Enrowrie,  may  have  issued  from  the  wide  castle  limits  of  the  Stanners 
in  all  the  pomp  of  the  then  novel  decorations  of  heraldry,  bearing  on  his  shield  the 
Leslie  griffin  and  buckles,  and  the  motto,  "  Grip  fast". 

From  the  time  now  mentioned,  the  Bass  does  not  appear  in  history,  but  it  is  found 
recorded  in  deeds  respecting  the  burgh  lands  of  Inverurie,  in  which  the  nomenclature 
of  lands  in  the  Stanners  is  of  antiquarian  interest,  as  containing  such  monuments  of 
the  social  condition  of  early  centuries  there,  as  the  names  of  the  Castle  Park,  the 
Castle  Croft,  the  Mill  Butts,  &c. 

It  was  at  Ardtannies  that  Alexander  Stewart,  the  grand,  though  in  no  sense 
legitimate,  Earl  of  Mar,  Lord  or  Earl  of  the  Garioch,  Lord  of  Duffle  in  Brabant,  High 
Admiral  of  Scotland,  and  the  hero  of  Harlaw,  held  his  head  courts — described  as  held 
at  his  Manor  of  Inverurie — but  in  all  likelihood  the  Bass  was,  along  with  the  Manor, 
the  rendezvous  of  his  army  before  Harlaw ;  and  there  his  local  following  may  have  been 
joined  by  Irvine  of  Drum,  and  Bobert  Davidson,  his  close  friend,  the  Provost  of  Aber- 
deen, with  his  bold  burghers,  on  the  celebrated  24th  July,  1411,  when  they  marched 


Introduction. 


to  check  the  advance  of  Donald  of  the  Isles  in  the  sanguinary  battle  in  which  the 
gallant  Balquhain,  himself  of  the  ancient  blood  of  the  Inverurie  Constables,  lost  six  sons. 

Lying  in  a  direct  line  between  the  Bass  and  Benachie,  the  whole  parish  is  one  pro- 
longed sharply  undulating  ascent,  rising  from  the  level  of  the  boundar}'  rivers,  Don  and 
TJry,  by  terraces,  from  which  ascend  rounded  hills,  to  its  highest  altitude  of  780  feet, 
the  summit  of  Knockinglews.  Looking  from  the  meeting  of  the  waters,  the  Davo  hill, 
523  feet  in  height,  and  Knockinglews,  seem  two  great  stepping  'stones  up  to  Benachie. 
Badifurrow  and  "Woodhill,  standing  west  of  the  Davo  and  60  feet  higher  than  it,  inter- 
vene between  the  Don  and  Knockinglews,  while  north  of  the  Davo  a  lower  hill,  the 
Dilly-hill  of  Conglass,  rises  from  the  Ury  towards  the  same  central  ridge. 

The  contemporaneous  fortresses  of  Nrurin  and  Dunnideer,  commanding  the  south 
and  north  entrances  to  the  inclosed  strath,  called  the  Garioch,  must  have  been  among 
its  earliest  habitations — strongholds  being  the  first  necessity  of  settled  life.  But  the 
secluded  river  hollow  of  Ardtannies  had  been  a  place  of  important  habitation  even  in 
the  unknown  times  now  spoken  of  as  the  Stone  Period. 

A  hundred  yards  or  little  more  west  of  the  spot  marked  on  the  ordnance  map 
as  the  site  of  the  Hall,  a  knoll  previously  uncultivated  was  turned  up  shortly  before 
1870,  and  appeared  to  have  been  the  site  of  a  manufactory  of  flint  arrow  heads.  A 
mass  of  chips  lay  about,  and  fire  had  evidently  been  used  in  the  process,  a  space  of 
twenty  feet,  or  thereby,  in  breadth  being  full  of  burnt  stones.  The  black  spot  remains 
apparent  whenever  the  ground  is  under  the  plough.  A  deep  draw-well  at  the  Hall, 
which  was  closed  during  the  same  improvements,  was  found  to  be  a  great  pit,  whose 
sides  presented  the  same  burnt  material.  On  the  bank  of  the  Don,  a  hundred  yards 
from  the  place  of  the  flints,  a  sharp  stone  axe  of  laminated  appearance  was  found  in 
January,  1874. 

About  a  thousand  feet  north  from  the  Hall,  upon  a  platform  of  the  hill-side  above 
the  flinty  spot,  there  were  cleared  out  three  circular  structures,  the  places  of  which  are 
marked  in  the  ordnance  map.  The  largest  had  a  width  of  60  feet  within  its  circum- 
ference, which  was  a  mound  of  stones,  about  three  feet  in  height.  A  fine  limestone 
axe  was  found  inside.  Across  the  interior,  a  little  from  the  centre,  was  a  straight 
trench,  about  18  inches  deep,  full  of  ashes.  A  circular  enclosure,  like  the  others  in 
appearance,  remains  in  the  wood  at  some  distance  eastward,  near  which  had  been 
another.     One  of  them  is  marked  in  the  ordnance  map. 

In  front  of  these  last-named  circles,  which  were  fourteen  yards  in  diameter,  was 
a  strong  rampart.  It  was  a  curve  of  120  yards  in  span,  having  ten  feet  of  base  and 
six  of  height,  commanding  the  face  of  the  Corseman  hill  down  to  the  Don.  Outside 
of  that  rampart  some  long  barrows,  on  being  dug  up,  were  found  full  of  fatty  mould, 
over  which  luxuriant  crops  afterwards  grew. 

Near  the  circle  first  mentioned  there  were  several  small  cairns  of  stones  never 
larger  than  six  inches,  which  covered  earth  of  the  same  fatty  character.    In  January,  1874, 


Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 


a  drain  having  to  be  dug  close  by  that  spot,  was  found  to  intersect  a  mass  of  dark 
matter  about  nine  feet  broad,  in  which  were  fragments  of  bone,  from  an  inch  to  two 
inches  long,  one  showing  the  edge  of  a  joint. 

Close  by  the  sixty  foot  circle  a  careful  artistic  structure  appeared  in  the  small  circle 
marked  eastward  of  it.  It  was  in  the  form  of  a  saucer,  nine  feet  wide  and  about  one 
in  depth,  the  circumference  being  of  triangular  stones  dovetailed  together  so  firmly, 
that  the  ordinary  tramp  pick  was  not  sufficient  to  unsettle  the  fixture.  They  were 
bedded  in  finely  wrought  tough  clay  ;  and  the  bottom  of  the  saucer  was  of  small 
pebbles  closely  packed  in  the  same  material,  making  a  water-tight  basin. 

Near  by  these  stood  upon  four  props  a  great  stone,  ten  feet  in  length  by  five  in 
breadth  and  four  deep,  shaped  like  a  fishing  cobble,  having  a  broad  end  and  a  narrower 
point.  The  pillars  kept  it  quite  clear  of  the  ground,  so  that  it  had  formed  a  good  hiding 
place  for  rabbits.  The  erection  stood  on  a  prepared  base — a  fiat  space  neatly  cause- 
wayed with  pebbles,  oval  in  form,  and  about  the  same  length  as  the  table,  but  wider. 

The  platform  on  the  shoulder  of  the  brae  above  Ardtannies,  on  which  these  artistic 
works  were  found,  is  at  a  level  considerably  lower  than  the  point  of  the  Corseman  hill, 
about  four  hundred  yards  eastward,  upon  which  the  curved  rampart  and  the  long 
barrows  were.  In  the  wood  behind  which  crowns  the  hill  there  are  numerous  round, 
or  long  mounds,  suggestive  of  a  sepulchral  character. 

Evidence  exists  of  the  district  of  the  Garioch  having  been  inhabited  very  early. 
The  remains  of  two  British  camps  occupy  sites  near  Inverurie  on  the  hills  of  Crichie  and 
Barra.  Both  stone  circles  and  sculptured  monoliths  are  frequent,  and  seem  to  have 
stood  upon  lines  of  primitive  highway.  At  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  about 
thirty  stone  circles  continued  traceable.  Six  were  to  be  seen  close  by  Dunnideer,  and 
four  more  in  the  same  parish,  some  of  which  were  from  fifty  to  sixty  feet  in  diameter, 
and  contained  stones  measuring  twelve  feet  in  height.  The  remains  of  a  double  circle 
are  in  the  woods  of  Mounie,  five  miles  from  Inverurie ;  and,  within  the  parish  of  In- 
verurie, a  circle  still  entire  looks  over  an  extensive  range  of  country  from  the  centre 
of  a  highway  on  the  heights  of  Achorthies.  Another  had  its  site  where,  at  the 
place  now  called  Stonefield,  the  oldest  known  highway  crossed  the  boundary  of  the 
burgh  near  Brandsbutt,  and  several  stood  along  the  same  road  as  it  led  southward 
through  the  parish  of  Kintore. 

The  mysterious  sculptured  stones  abound  in  the  district.  One  stood  at  the  point 
where  probably  the  Bomans  forded  the  Don  on  their  northward  expedition.  Others  had 
their  places  along  the  highway,  which  passed  from  that  point  to  the  famous  Maiden 
Stone  on  the  slope  of  Benachie.  The  Newton  Stone,  well  known  to  antiquaries,  is  in 
an  adjacent  parish. 

Another  evidence  of  very  early  habitation  was  obtained  in  1867  by  the  discovery 
at  Broomend — about  a  mile  and  a-half  south  from  Inverurie — of  a  number  of  stone 
coffins,  close  by  one  another.     The  edges  of  the  slabs  were  neatly  closed  with  fine  clay, 


Introduction. 


which  was  still  plastic  when  first  removed ;  but  the  cists  contained  no  ornaments  or 
fictile  productions,  except  urns  of  unbaked  clay  ornamented  in  simple  patterns.  One,  at 
the  opening  of  which  the  writer  was  present,  contained  indications  of  the  tenant  having 
been  a  person  of  importance.  A  well-formed  shell  lamp  of  leather  was  suspended  inside 
the  urn  by  a  broad  curved  shank.  The  body  had  also  been  wrapt  in  some  thick 
envelope,  which,  in  decay,  looked  like  felt.  Such  a  wrapping  is  believed  to  have 
been  all  but  unexampled. 

Eemains  of  the  same  kind  of  sepulture  have  been  dug  up  all  along  the  Don,  from 
Broomend  to  Badifurrow  above  Polnar  chapel.  On  the  Davo  a  cairn  covering  a  cist 
was,  until  late  years,  the  culminating  point  of  the  hill.  The  rising  grounds,  encircling 
Ardtannies,  have  yielded  numerous  urns  to  the  excavations  made  in  the  course  of 
agricultural  improvement.  Eight  were  dug  up  in  a  small  area  near  the  summit  of  the 
Davo;  others  near  where  the  priest  of  Polnar  dwelt,  and  at  Waterside  of  Manar,  on  the 
hill  of  Crichie,  and  at  several  places  on  the  road  from  Broomend  to  the  Greenley  ford  of 
the  Don.  Solitary  cairns  were  lately  frequent  in  the  district,  and  also  some  clusters,  or 
rather  fields,  of  such  memorial  structures  are  noticed  in  an  antiquarian  manuscript, 
written  about  1790. 


ANCIENT  HIGHWAYS. 

The  fortress  of  Inverurie  stood  on  the  spot  which  commanded  the  fordable  points 
of  the  rivers  Don  and  Urie,  where  the  Don  opened  a  way  through  a  long  hilly  region 
from  the  upper  districts,  and  where  also  any  southern  invaders  were  most  likely  to  seek  a 
road  into  the  Garioch.  In  historic  times,  the  castle  of  the  "  Warderys  "  remained  in  a 
ruinous  condition  on  the  north-western  entrance  to  the  Garioch,  immediately  beyond 
Dunnideer.  The  earliest  highway  through  the  Garioch,  it  is  therefore  probable,  passed 
near  these  strongholds.  But  in  any  district  the  fordable  passages  of  the  rivers  determine 
the  lines  of  road  first  in  use,  and  for  this  reason,  it  is  probable  that  the  earliest  highway 
known  to  modern  times  through  the  hollow  occupied  by  Inverurie,  was  also  the  primitive 
track  used  by  the  Picts,  and  by  their  predecessors — the  men  who  used  the  mode  of 
burial  so  curiously  exemplified  in  the  cist  dug  up  at  Broomend  in  1867,  and  who  left 
behind  them  the  debris  of  a  workshop  of  flint  arrowheads  at  Ardtannies. 

The  probability  that  the  earliest  known  road  from  the  south  to  Inverurie  was  that 
still  traceable  from  Tyrebagger  by  the  hill  of  Kintore,  Dalwearie,  Castlehill  of  Kintore, 
and  Broomend,  to  the  south  west  corner  of  the  Stanners  opposite  Port-Elphinstone,  is 
much  enhanced  by  the  fact  that  along  that  line  of  road  there  stood  a  close  succession  of 
stone  circles  and  monoliths,  including  some  sculptured  stones.  The  Standing  Stones  of 
Dyce,  several  circles  and  monoliths  between  Kintore  and  Inverurie,  sculptured  stones  at 
the  ford  of  the  Don,  and  at  Brandsbutt,  and  near  Drinimies,  and  the  famous  Maiden 


Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 


Stone  of  Benachie,  all  stood  upon  the  line  of  the  road  leading  directly  from  the  south  to 
Dunnideer. 

Half-a-rnile  south  of  the  Greenley  ford  to  the  Stanners  stand  the  remains  of  a  stone 
circle  upon  the  lands  of  Broomend,  around  which  the  road  from  the  south  forked,  one 
branch  taking  the  east  side  to  the  Greenley  ford,  the  other  passing  on  the  west,  and 
going  by  the  rising  ground  above  Port-Elphinstone,  past  Windyedge  to  the  Broadford 
at  Overboat.  Those  diverging  paths  traversed  the  length  of  the  Parish  of  Inverurie 
apart,  and  united  again  at  the  highest  point  of  the  lands  of  Drimmies. 

The  western  branch  ascended  the  Corseman  Hill  from  the  Broadford  in  a  straight 
line  till  near  the  summit  of  the  south  shoulder  of  the  Davo,  and  then  struck  north-west, 
attaining  its  greatest  elevation  at  the  site  of  the  present  farm-houses  of  Davo,  close  by 
which  the  "Merchants'  Graves"  mark  the  spot  where,  according  to  tradition,  two  pack- 
men, encountering  on  the  road,  fought  and  killed  one  another.  So  far  the  road  is  nearly 
all  still  in  use,  or  traceable.  On  the  height  it  passed  westward,  until  opposite  Blackball, 
where  it  descended  by  Gavin's  Croft  to  the  manor  place  of  Blackhall,  and  passing 
Dubston,  continued  by  the  route  presently  in  use  to  the  meeting-point  of  Conglass, 
Drimmies,  and  Netherton  of  Balquhain.  From  that  spot  it  now  forms  the  boundary 
between  Drimmies  and  jSTetherton,  to  the  point  where  it  was  joined  by  the  other  main 
road,  which  left  the  stone  circle  at  Broomend  for  the  lower  fords  at  the  Stanners. 

Between  Overboat  and  the  shoulder  of  the  Corseman  Hill,  the  road  now  described 
formed  part  of  what  may  have  been  the  oldest  line  of  road  within  the  parish  of  Inverurie, 
that  leading  between  the  Fortress,  or  Castle,  up  the  Don  to  the  territories  of  the  Mormaors 
of  Mar.  In  later  times,  it  would  be  the  eastern  highway  of  the  Ciddees  of  Monymusk  ;  at 
a  later  period  still,  the  approach  by  the  ancient  kirk  of  St.  Apollinaris  to  the  Episcopal 
palace  of  Fetternear ;  as  it  was,  even  for  some  part  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  kirk  road 
from  Achorthies,  Badifurrow,  and  the  hill  of  Balquhain,  and  had  been  to  nearly  the 
same  period  the  mill  road  from  Inverurie  to  the  Mdl  of  Davo,  viz.,  Ardtannies.  The 
present  Donside  road  does  not  represent  that  primitive  highway,  except  in  one  or  two 
fragments.  It  had  led  from  the  Bass  along  the  south  edge  of  the  Upper  Boods,  now 
turnpike,  keeping  the  present  line  from  the  Bridge  to  Upperboat,  where  it  entered  the 
great  highway  ascending  the  Corseman  Hill.  It  left  the  road  to  Blackhall,  at  the  level 
shoulder  of  the  hill,  and  turning  sharply  to  the  left,  made  for  the  summit,  whence  it 
descended  in  a  straight  line  past  the  Priest's  house,  now  Coldwells,  to  Polnar  Chapel, 
and  under  the  spot  occupied  by  Waterside  of  Mauar,  coming  into  the  line  of  the 
present  road  somewhat  east  of  Burnervie.  Upon  the  Corseman  Hill,  the  road,  at  its 
highest  point,  passed  behind  the  strong  stone  rampart,  which  commanded  the  valley 
south  of  the  road.     Tumuli  resembling  graves  lie  thickly  round  that  part  of  the  hill. 

No  lower  road  from  Overboat  to  Coldwells  broke  the  privacy  of  the  old  Hall  of 
Ardtannies,  or  afforded  easy  access  to  the  mill,  until  a  century  ago  or  less.  When  the 
elevated  highway  descended  the  steep  west  side  of  the  summit  of  Corseman  to  the  level 


Introduction. 


shoulder,  which  contained  the  sixty-foot  circle  and  others,  a  road,  still  partly  preserved 
in  the  edge  of  the  present  wood,  led  down  an  unbroken  green  sweep  to  the  platform 
on  which  the  old  manor  house  stood.  The  corns  sucken  to  the  mill  had  to  he  conveyed 
from  Inverurie  in  curracks  on  horseback,  by  paths  crossing  the  Kellands  for  the  height 
of  the  Corseman,  a  chief  one  leading  from  the  Sand  Hole  or  Gallow  Hill.  The  access 
from  the  Blackball  side  was  past  the  Merchants'  Graves  to  the  saddle  lying  between  the 
Corseman  summit  and  the  higher  Davo,  where  the  mill  road  would  be  entered  upon. 

The  eastern  branch  of  the  great  highroad  through  the  Garioch,  proceeding  from 
the  Broomend  stone  circle  to  the  Greenley  ford  of  the  Don,  divided  itself  there,  and 
crossed  at  two  fords,  to  meet  again  on  the  other  side ;  the  double  road  making  a  loop 
which  enclosed  the  east  branch  of  the  river  and  part  of  the  island  called  the  Broom 
Inch,  and  the  Ducat  Haugh.  The  two  tracks  became  a  single  line  again  where  the 
High  Street  of  Inverurie  is  now  entered  from  Keithhall  Road. 

One  line  of  the  double  track  kept  the  centre  of  the  Broom  Inch,  until  opposite 
the  spot  where  the  sewage  niter  bed  was  made  in  1872.  Crossing  there,  it  formed  the 
boundary  between  the  Ducat  Haugh — likely,  from  its  name,  to  have  been  part  of  the 
Castle  grounds — and  the  Streamhead,  a  part  of  the  common  lands  of  the  Burgh.  The 
other  line  crossing  to  the  Stanners  kept  the  water-side  and  the  Haugh  of  Old  Don,  now 
Keithhall  Road,  on  to  the  level  of  High  Street,  where  the  two  paths  came  together 
again  and  formed  the  north  road  through  the  burgh  of  Inverurie. 

The  eastmost  line  of  that  double  approach  to  the  town  of  Inverurie,  after  fording 
the  Don,  skirted  the  Stanners  until  it  reached  the  point  nearest  the  Ury.  By  that  water- 
side path  young  Malcolm  rode  south  to  join  the  second  Crusade ;  and,  a  hundred  years 
afterwards,  Norman,  the  son  of  the  last  of  the  Constables,  went  to  take  the  oath  of  fealty 
to  English  Edward,  at  Aberdeen.  A  green  loaning,  called  Killiewalker  in  recent  years, 
led  from  Don  to  Ury,  over  the  isthmus  of  the  Castle  peninsula,  and  was  the  highroad 
to  Caskieben,  by  which  the  Leslies,  Garviachs,  and  Johnstons,  lords  of  that  fine  domain 
for  four  centuries,  issued  forth  to  the  numerous  devoirs  which  feudal  barons  had  to  go 
through.  The  path  lay  between  the  kirkyard  and  the  Castle,  and  had  been  little  wider 
than  a  bridle  road.  It  connected  the  Garioch  highroad  with  the  other  great  north  road, 
by  which  Edward  I.  went  from  Aberdeen,  past  Ivinkell,  to  Fy  vie,  and  by  which  the  Duke 
of  Cumberland,  in  1746,  marched  from  Aberdeen,  by  Tyrebagger,  Bogheads,  Kintore, 
Balbithan,  and  Old  Meldrum,  on  his  way  to  Culloden.  The  stepping-stones  still 
remain  by  which  the  Ury  was  in  former  days  crossed  by  foot  passengers. 

On  attaining  the  level  of  the  modern  street,  the  highway  of  the  Garioch  went 
along  the  present  line  until  the  middle  of  the  west  side  of  Market  Place,  where  it 
skirted  the  northmost  Upper  Roods  from  between  Numbers  25  and  17  Market  Place, 
and  keeping  the  north  side  of  the  Gallow  Slack,  called  afterwards  Porthead,  entered 
the  present  line  of  "West  High  Street  at  Chelsea  Lane,  or  Gallowhill.  The  road  pro- 
ceeded from  that  point,  under  the  Broomfold,  as  West  High  Street  now  lies,  to  cross 


8  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

the  Overburn,  sometimes  difficult  of  passage,  and  ascended  the  Burgh  Muir.  The 
triangular  nook  called  the  Poet's  Corner,  and  the  houses  adjoining  it,  all  stand  upon 
the  primitive  line  which  led  along  the  side  of  the  Market  Green  to  Stonefield,  as  it 
till  continues  to  do.  At  Stonefield  the  road,  now  obliterated,  made  for  the  highest  level 
of  Brandsbutt,  and  then  kept  a  line  now  marked  by  a  continuous  stone  dyke  along  the 
upper  fields  of  Conglass.  It  crossed  the  march  of  Conglass  and  Drimmies,  below  an 
eerie  spot  named  the  Kelpy  Fold,  and,  ascending  to  the  highest  point  of  Drimmies,  it 
joined  the  road  which  came  thither  by  the  Davo  and  Blackball. 

From  the  point  of  re-union  the  highway  descended  to  the  Castle  of  Balquhain, 
crossing  the  Natrick,  and  from  the  Castle  gradually  rose  to  Craigsley,  from  which,  to 
the  Maiden  Stone,  it  is  still  open.  By  the  north  slope  of  Benachie  it  extended,  after 
passing  that  remarkable  monument,  to  a  spot  marked  by  a  line  of  old  beech-trees 
where  a  cart-track  now  leads  from  the  Oyne  railway  station  to  the  west  summit  of 
Benachie,  and,  crossing  the  hill  of  Ardoyne,  passed  the  Gadie  near  the  Kirk  of  Prem- 
nay,  where  General  Wade,  in  1746,  bridged  that  stream,  making  thence  for  the  hill  of 
Dunnideer  and  the  Castle  of  the  "Warders. 

Between  Dunnideer  and  the  first  home  of  the  Leslies,  a  road  still  open  passed  by 
the  site  of  the  ancient  kirk  of  Rathmuriel,  and  is  given  as  a  boundary,  in  a  title  deed 
of  date  1245.     There  King  James  the  First  witnessed  the  revels  of  Christ's  Kirk  fair. 

Besides  the  highway  traversing  the  western  heights  of  the  valley  of  the  Garioch, 
another  had,  in  very  early  times,  gone  along  the  opposite  side  of  the  river  Ury ;  pos- 
sibly starting  from  the  Earl's  castle,  but  certainly  passing  Balhaggardy,  Sillerstrind, 
and  the  Standing  Stones  of  Eayne,  where  the  King's  Justiciar  at  times  held  assize, 
and  proceeding  northwards  to  Culsalmond,  where  the  earliest  named  lands  in  the  Garioch 
Earldom  lay. 

At  the  time  when  the  highway  through  Inverurie  had  been  chosen,  by  ascending  the 
Gallowslack,  instead  of  taking  the  present  line  of  Market  Place  and  West  High  Street, 
the  site  of  Market  Place  had  been  covered  by  a  loch,  known  in  after  centuries,  when 
it  was  much  diminished,  as  Powtate.  Excavations  made  in  1872,  for  drainage  purposes, 
showed  the  blue  clay,  deposited  by  the  stagnant  pool  in  the  deep  gravel  bed  upon 
which  Inverurie  stands,  extending  from  nearly  the  south  end  of  Market  Place  to  a 
point  in  the  Crosslit  Croft  a  hundred  yards  north  of  West  High  Street.  The  l^orth  Burn 
found  its  ordinary  basin  in  that  sheet  of  water ;  and  the  usual  drainage  to  the  Ury 
through  the  narrow  passage  between  the  Town's  Eoods  and  the  Longland  Folds  must 
have  been  occasionally  supplemented  by  a  spill-water  discharge  down  the  low  level 
now  leading  to  the  Market  Place  Public  School.  As  the  loch  was  gradually  shut  up 
into  narrow  dimensions,  the  dried  north  bank  of  it  which  separated  it  from  the  burn 
formed  the  space  now  occupied  by  the  Town-Hall  and  the  open  area  before  it,  and 
became  the  Butts  and  Ball-green  of  the  inhabitants.  The  Powtate,  at  the  close  of  the 
last  century,  had  contracted  into  a  small  muddy  "  dewkdub,"  where  unwary,  or  incap- 


Introduction. 


able  pedestrians  occasionally  lost  a  shoe.  A  well  was  sunk  at  an  early  period  on  the 
edge  of  it.  The  burgh  or  parish  school,  from  the  first  record  we  have  of  its  situation, 
was  always  near  the  well,  and  the  juvenile  clients  never  permitted  its  waters  to  become 
stagnant. 

In  the  end  of  the  last  century,  roads  led  from  the  burgh  to  Souterford  and  How- 
ford,  but  the  Blackhall  Road  did  not  exist,  and  the  present  turnpike  had  no  more 
representing  it  in  the  parish  of  Inverurie  than  the  portion  between  Keithhall  Road  and 
the  beginning  of  North  Street.  The  road  to  Souterford,  by  which  it  is  likely  Bruce 
chased  back  the  enemy's  skirmishers  at  the  beginning  of  the  battle  of  Inverurie,  took 
the  east  side  of  Powtate.  Some  local  movement  in  1671  got  the  "mercat  cross" 
removed  to  the  "  pairting  of  the  gaits  be  south  of  the  draw-well ";  but  in  1678  a 
peremptory  order  was  passed  that  it  be  "  remuved  back  againe  from  "William  Downie's 
land  to  the  place  where  it  stode  auncientlie,"  which  was  opposite  the  present  Station 
Road. 

The  line  of  the  Boman  iter  from  the  camp  of  Baedykes  in  Petercidter,  to  that 
ad  Itunam  (on  the  Ythan)  at  Glenmailen  in  Borgue,  has  been  traced  confidently  by 
antiquaries,  between  Kintore  and  the  ford  of  Inverurie  from  the  rule  observed  by  the 
Romans  in  marching,  which  was  to  keep  along  the  strath  of  any  stream  that  lay  in 
their  designed  route,  untd  they  had  to  cross  it  at  a  bend  in  its  course.  Passing  the 
Don  at  the  Greenley  ford  and  then  keeping  the  strath  of  the  Ury,  they  would  find 
that  stream  lying  across  their  course  to  Glenmailen  at  Bitcaple.  The  immemorial  road 
from  the  lower  fords  of  the  Don  along  the  present  highway  of  Inverurie  by  the  Gal- 
lowslacks  and  Stonefield,  to  the  site  of  the  Castle  of  Balquhain,  exactly  suits  the  Boman 
rule  of  selection,  and  the  coincidence  of  stone  circles  with  the  road — which  is  so  marked 
between  Kintore  and  Inverurie — continues  at  Stonefield,  and  on  to  Bitcaple  ;  a  great 
circle  standing  on  the  farm  of  Mains  of  Balquhain,  beyond  the  Old  Castle.  At  the 
present  ford  of  Bitcaple,  indications  of  Boman  presence  are  said,  in  the  Statistical  Ac- 
count, to  have  been  discovered  in  a  fortified  work  north  of  Pitcaple  Castle  ;  the  foun- 
dations of  a  bridge  also  being  found  at  the  crossing  of  the  Ury,  and  a  bit  of  Roman 
road  farther  on  in  the  line  towards  Glenmailen,  at  Cairnhill  in  the  parish  of  Rayne. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  something  of  the  men  who,  in  primitive  times, 
passed  along  those  ancient  highways,  and  who  perhaps  could  read  with  understanding 
the  symbols  of  the  sculptured  monoliths ;  or  of  those  who  went  up  from  the  Stanners 
to  till  their  rigs  on  the  Upper  or  Lower  Roods  ;  or  of  those  who  were  the  first  dwellers 
upon  the  burgage  lands,  the  two  lines  of  Roods  which  stretch  like  the  filaments  of  a 
straight  feather  from  either  side  of  the  highway,  beginning  at  the  Ducat  Haugh  and 
Urybank,  and  extending  to  the  Gallowslack  on  the  west  side,  and  the  North  Burn  on  the 
east.  The  stone  circles  abounding  in  the  neighbourhood  have  not  been  examined,  at 
least  extensively.  The  one  which  stands  where  the  separation  of  the  south  road  into 
two   lines  of   approach  to  the  Don  took  place,  afforded  two  amateur  antiquarians  a 

2 


10  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

tantalising  "  find,"  the  story  of  which  would  have  delighted  the  author  of  the  "  Anti- 
quary ".  It  was  a  broad  concave  plate  of  iron,  straight  at  one  end,  but  worn  thin  and 
round  at  the  other,  yet  betraying  its  original  purpose  of  serving  as  the  front  part  of  a 
cuirass,  by  the  thick  central  ridge  which  ran  up  to  the  point  covering  the  gorge.  After 
a  night  spent  in  excited  contemplation  of  the  importance  of  such  a  discovery  for  fixing 
the  chronological  period  of  stone  circles,  it  was  distressing  that  a  more  cool  examination 
next  day  discovered  the  relic  to  be  part  of  a  spade. 


Chapter  I. 
EAELY  HISTOEY  DOWN"  TO  THE  BATTLE  OF  INVEETJELE. 

Nrurin. — Vernacular  name—  Dunnideer — King  Arth  ur.  Celtic  Civilization  from  Iona — Mormaors 
of  Mar  and  Buchan — Garioch  and  Strathbogy  in  (lie  Crown — King  Aodh  buried  at  Nrurin — 
Gregory  the  Great — Culdees  at  Mmiymusk — Chapel  of  Apollinaris —Ard  Tonics — Early  lords  of 
Ardtaunics — Malcolm  Canmore — Robert  Prince  of  the  Catti — Battle  with  Danes  at  Densyburn — 
Church  tower  of  Monymusk—Bartolf  the  Hungarian — Grip  fast — The  Leslies — Saxon  civilization 
—  The  Roman  Catholic  Church — Parishes  and  monasteries — The  Culdee  stations — Priory  of 
Monymusk — The  Durwards.  The  Earldom  of  the  Garioch — David  Earl  of  Huntingdon  and 
the  Garioch — Earldom,  lands  original  and  alienated — Leslie  lands  in  Inverurie — Earldom  lands — 
First  notice  of  parish  and  burgh  of  Inverurie — Style  of  Earl  David — Ecclesiastical  gifts  in  the 
twelfth  century — Tofts  in  royal  burghs  given  to  monasteries — Mixture  of  population — Flemings — 
Diet — Visit  of  Papal  Legate — Fortunes  of  Earl  David — His  death— John  the  Scot — Isabel  wife  of 
Robert  Bruce  —  The  four  Roberts — Lordship  of  the  Garioch.  Kirk  of  Rothael  and  Burgh  of 
Inverthurin— Papal  bulls  to  Abbey  of  Lindores — Earl  David's  charter.  The  Kirk— The  Abbey 
toft—  The  Vicar's  manse.  The  Burgh — Date  of  royalty — Fitties's  croft — Kintore.  Limits  of  the 
Kotaltt — Davo  of  Inverurie.  The  Constables  of  Enrowrie —  Wealth  of  Scotland — Norman 
immigrants — Malcolm  the  first  Constable — Earl  David's  preparations  for  the  Crusade — Badi- 
furrow— Sir  Kenneth  of  Scotland — Norman,  Second  Constable — Slavery— Caskieben — Norino  the 
last  Constable — Isabel  de  Bruce— Royal  visits  to  Kintore — Thomas  the  Rhymer  and  the  Bass — 
Papal  ratification  of  Vicarage  stipends  for  the  Abbeys — Value  of  the  Abbeys — Fetternear — 
Garioch  priests  and  others — Court  at  Inuerhury — Glack — Normand  de  Leslie  the  first  Leslie — 
Fifeshire  Leslies.  The  War  of  Independence—  Contest  for  the  crown— Edward  I. — The  Bruces 
— Bishop  Henry  Cheyn — Edward  I.  in  Aberdeenshire— Wallace  at  Fetternear — The  English 
King's  tactics — Bruce  and  Comyn  Earl  of  Badenoch — Mak  siccar — Thomas  de  Longueville — 
Coronation  of  Robert  Bruce — Loss  of  battle  and  flight — At  Aberdeen — Retreat  by  Deeside  to  head 
of  Tay — Kildrummie  taken  by  the  English — Captivity  of  the  Royal  household.  The  Battle  of 
Inverurie — King's  recovered  fortunes — Sick  at  Inverurie — Carried  for  a  time  to  Strathbogie — 
Winter  encampment  at  Ardtannies— Attack  by  Sir  David  of  Brechin — The  King  roused  to  take 
vengeance— Onslaught  at  Barra — Subjugation  of  Buchan  and  the  North — Individuals  of  the 
period — Memorials  of  the  battle  of  Inverurie. 

NRURIN. 

tHE  name  of  our  royal  burgh,  which  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  described  as  being,  in 
1558,  a  burgh  of  great  antiquity,  has  suffered  damage  from  the  improvements  at- 
tempted by  modern  taste  in  names.     As  pronounced  by  "  the  oldest  inhabitant," 
it  has  been  from  time  immemorial,  as  it  is  represented  in  the  legend  of  the  burgh  arms, 
Inrure,  or  more  accurately  NEUEI,  the  name  omitting  a  final  N,  which  is  given  to  it  in 
the  Pictish  Chronicle,  at  the  date  a.d.  878. 


12  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garloeh. 

The  name  Inverurie  alternating  with  Inverury,  according  to  the  taste  of  non-resi- 
dent town-clerks,  can  claim  the  pedantic  examples  of  Inverurin  and  Inverthurin,  used 
in  the  earliest  royal,  or  papal,  documents ;  but  the  first  local  spelling  known  was 
Enrowry.  Norman,  constable  of  Enrowry,  was  witness  to  a  charter  founding  St. 
Peter's  Hospital  in  the  Spital  of  Aberdeen,  granted  by  Matthew  Kinninmond,  Bishop, 
who  died  in  1199. 

The  origin  of  the  name  is  popularly  connected  with  the  meeting  of  the  Ury  and 
Don.  In  some  future  age  of  antiquarian  research  a  different  explanation  may  be  confi- 
dently adopted.  At  the  period  when  the  expected  traveller  from  the  antipodes  is  to 
stand  upon  a  broken  arch  of  London  Bridge  sketching  the  ruins  of  St.  Pauls,  if  the 
burgh  seal  of  our  town  shall  find  a  place  in  the  treasures  of  some  historical  institute  of 
his  country,  among  the  coins  and  seals  of  the  once  famous  island  of  Britain,  its  legend 
urbs  in  rure  may  lead  some  well-read  explorer  of  primitive  European  history  to  a  truly 
classical  theory  upon  this  point.  The  Roman  legionaries,  who,  far  from  home  in  their 
Caledonian  march,  beheld  the  Tiber  and  Campus  Martius  in  the  Tay  and  its  Inches, 
would  experience  a  like  pleasant  surprise  when,  after  a  dull  tramp  from  Norrnandykes, 
they  emerged  from  the  forest  of  Crichie.  They  would  suddenly  behold  close  at  hand, 
across  the  sparkling  current  of  the  Don,  a  hamlet  of  agricultural  fishermen  dotting  the 
Stanners  between  the  banks  of  the  two  rivers,  with  the  picturesque  Bass  presiding  over 
the  populous  little  peninsula,  and  in  the  background  the  green  or  wooded  heights  of  the 
Davo  and  Knockinglews  ascending,  shoulder  above  shoulder,  to  the  clear-cut  graceful 
outline  of  Benachie.  To  the  Roman  soldier,  whose  highest  ideal  of  home  comfort  was 
rus  in  urbe,  the  exclamation  urbs  in  rure  would  come  naturally  upon  the  sight,  and  not 
the  less  ready  to  be  spoken  out  because  of  its  punning  antithesis.  Many  a  preten- 
tious myth  has  in  truth  had  a  much  narrower  foundation  of  probability. 

"Whatever  degree  of  historic  light   belongs   to    the  legend   of   the   British   King 

Arthur,  embraces  in  its  dreamy  radiance  Dunnideer,  the  historic  capital  of  the  Northern 

Picts.      In  Jhon  Hardynge's  map  of  Scotland,  constructed  about  1465,  there  appear 

the  "  Castells  of  Strathbolgy,  of  Eothiemay,  of  Dony  Dowre";  and  he  says  of  King 

Arthur  : — 

He  held  his  household  and  the  rounde  table, 

Sometyme  at  Edinburgh,  sometyme  at  Striviline — 

Of  kynges  renowned  and  most  honourable  ; 

At  Carlysle  sumwhile,  at  Alcluid  his  citie  fine, 

Emong  all  his  knights  and  ladies  full  femenine  ; 

And  in  Scotlande  at  Perthe  and  Dunbrytain  ; 

In  Cornwaile  also,  Dover  and  C'airelogion, 

At  Dunbar,  Dunfrise,  and  St  John's  Towne — 

All  of  worthy  knights  moo  then  a  legion  ; 

At  Donydoure  also,  in  Muiith  region, 

And  in  many  other  places,  both  eitie  and  toune. 


Celtic  Civilization.  13 


CELTIC    CIVILIZATION. 

The  dawn  of  Christian  civilization  in  Britain,  which  is  the  real  subject  of  the 
legend  of  King  Arthur,  brings  the  Garioch  into  the  field  of  history  some  centuries  be- 
fore Aodh  was  buried  at  Nrurin.  The  parishes  arranged  by  the  Saxon  Kings  of 
Scotland,  superseded  in  the  Garioch  numerous  chapels,  some  of  which  perpetuated  the 
names  of  Culdee  founders,  or  patrons.  Daviot  was  dedicated  to  Columba  himself,  who, 
leaving  Ireland  in  the  sixth  century,  made  his  place  of  refuge  in  Iona  the-  source  of 
Christian  civilization  to  the  whole  of  Britain  north  of  the  Cairn. 

The  Book  of  Deer  tells  us  that  Bede  the  Pict,  Mormaor  of  Buchan,  when  Columba 
with  his  disciple,  Drostan,  came  from  Iona  in  the  sixth  century,  gave  to  the  two  apostles 
"  the  city  of  Aberdour  and  the  city  of  Deer".  The  Culdee  successors  of  these  two  early 
lights  of  Scotland  had  probably  civilized  the  region  of  the  Don,  and  planted  it  with  the 
beginning  of  its  many  chapels,  before  the  existence  of  Grig  and  Eth,  at  a  time  when  the 
Northmen,  the  ancestors  of  the  Normans  of  civilized  Britain,  were  desecrating  the 
churches  on  the  Loire  with  pagan  orgies.  The  Southern  Picts,  living  between  Forth 
and  the  Cairn  o'  Munth,  began  to  be  converted  to  Christianity  in  410-432,  by  St. 
Ninian,  who  travelled  for  that  work  from  his  home  at  Candida  Casa,  in  Galloway  (Grub's 
Ecclesiastical  History).  The  Northern  picts,  ruled  over  in  the  next  century  by  Brude, 
the  son  of  Malcolm,  inhabited  Scotland  from  the  Cairn  on  the  south  and  the  Grampians 
on  the  west,  to  the  extreme  north ;  even  Orkney,  it  would  seem,  acknowledging  the 
King.  His  residence  was  on  the  Ness.  All  the  kings  of  the  Picts  after  his  time  were 
Christian  ;  and  the  work  begun  by  Columba,  who  had  Brude  for  one  of  his  first  enter- 
tainers in  his  mission  to  Scotland,  spread  rapidly  thereafter  over  his  dominions.  One 
Christian  Pictish  sovereign  received  the  Greek  St.  Rule  at  Kindrochet  (Braemar),  where 
he  built  his  first  church. 

Two  great  maorics  almost  divided  what  is  now  called  Aberdeenshire  between  them, 
at  the  period  when  history  first  sheds  a  little  light  upon  the  north  of  Scotland.  The 
mountainous  region  occupying  the  south  and  west,  was  under  the  Mormaors  of  Mar ;  the 
great  seaward  plain,  between  the  level  portions  of  the  Don  and  Deveron  was  held  by 
the  Mormaors  of  Buchan.  The  latter  dignity  goes  back  to  about  a.d.  580.  Between 
those  lords  of  the  hills  and  lords  of  the  valleys,  were  interposed  the  districts  of  Garioch 
and  Strathbogie,  which  were  "  in  the  Crown,"  or  more  directly  subject  to  the  King. 

We  have  no  chronological  figures  to  appeal  to  before  the  ninth  century  bearing 
special  reference  to  the  Garioch  ;  but  when  Dunnideer  was  the  capital  of  the  Northern 
Picts,  as  Forteviot  was  of  the  Southern,  the  Bass  had  likely  been  a  stronghold,  such  as 
we  find  it  in  the  third  reign  of  the  united  Pictish  kingdom,  less  than  40  years  after  the 
union  of  the  Picts.  Robertson,  in  his  "  Early  Kings  of  Scotland,"  states  that  in  878, 
on  the  accession  of  Aodh  or  Hugh,  elsewhere  called  Eth  of  the  Swift  Foot,  who  was  the 
son  of  Kenneth  Macalpine,  the  first  king  of  both  Pictish  kingdoms,  his  authority  was 


14  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garloch. 

disputed  by  Cyric,  or  Grig,  who  seems  to  have  held  a  place  of  pre-eminence  among  the 
northern  magnates.  "  Grig  apparently  invaded  the  immediate  territories  of  Aodh,  for  in 
a  contest  in  Strathallan,  he  was  victorious,  and  Aodh,  wounded  and  a  prisoner,  was  con- 
veyed to  the  fortress  of  Nrurin,  where  he  died  after  a  few  weeks'  captivity."  Cyric,  or 
Grig,  himself  died  at  Dunnideer  in  806,  after  a  peaceable  reign  of  eighteen  years,  though 
nothing  on  r3Cord  warrants  the  title  of  Gregory  the  Great,  given  him  in  Monkish  annals. 
The  fortress  of  Inverurie  was  probably  on  the  Bass.  The  dining  Hill,  the  highest 
spot  in  the  fertile  Burgh  Boods  of  Inverurie,  is  said  to  have  received  the  remains  of 
King  Aodh.  The  Saxon  term  meaning  "  King's  Hill,"  may  date  from  the  later 
centuries,  when  the  southern  friends  of  Malcolm  Canmore  and  his  dynasty  were  exten- 
sively settled  in  the  Garioch.* 

Monymusk,  which  about  a.d.  1200  appears  as  a  Priory,  gradually  adopting  the 
forms  of  the  Saxon  and  Bomish  Church,  had,  in  preceding  centuries,  been  to  the  Garioch 
the  centre  of  the  Celtic  civilization  which  first  enlightened  Scotland.  From  its  missionary 
home,  preachers  had  travelled  far  and  wide  over  Mar,  and  their  stations  became  sacred 
places.  The  picturesque  knoll  in  Badifurrow,  afterwards  dedicated  to  St.  Apollinaris, 
doubtless  first  heard  Christian  words  from  the  lips  of  the  humble  Culdees  of  Mony- 
musk. 

Did  the  neighbouring  haugh  of  the  Don  get  its  remarkable  Celtic  name  of  Ard 
Tonies — the  promontory  of  the  little  devils — from  some  Culdee  monk  in  the  days  when 
fairies  were  1  The  deep  valley,  where  the  terraced  haugh  elbows  the  stream  into  a 
precipitous  recess  of  the  hill  of  Crichie,  would  afford  an  appropriate  haunt  for  the 
mischievous  revels  of  "  the  good  people,"  as  they  were  seen,  with  the  proper  degree  of 
indistinctness,  down  the  river  from  Polnar,  upon  misty  moonlight  nights. 

What  wearers  of  flesh  and  blood  dwelt  then  in  the  sheltered  dell  which  was 
afterwards  to  be  the  chief  Manor  of  the  royal  Earldom,  sending  forth  its  last  Earl, 
Scotland's  greatest  king,  to  the  beginning  of  his  patriotic  victories  ? 

The  local  importance  of  the  spot  must  have  a  higher  antiquity  assigned  to  it  than 

even  that  of  the  pristine  earldom  of  David.     Long  before  his  day,  stone  axes,  and  flint 

arrows  were  among  the  antiquities  of  war  ;  and  the  lord  of  "  the  deevilicks'  knowe,"  in 

primitive  times,  must  have  been  a  man  of  consequence.     No  flints  are  found  in  the 

granitic  formations  of  the  Don  braes,  nor  within  a  great  distance ;  but  remains  of   arrow 

manufacture  so  plentiful  as  to  furnish  a  barrowful  of  chips  in  a  breadth  of  twelve  yards 

*  The  original  authorities  for  the  story  of  King  Aodh  are  the  Pictish  Chronicle,  which  records  his 
death  in  the  town  of  Nrurin,  and  the  Ulster  Annals  which  say  that  he  was,  in  878,  occcsus  a  sociis  in 
civitalc  Nrurin.  The  other  particulars  of  the  tradition  were  added  by  later  writers.  Mr.  Skene  {Celtic 
Scotland)  holding  their  authority  as  of  no  value,  yet  seeks  to  transfer  the  scene  of  the  King's  death 
to  a  pass  in  Breadalbane,  where  there  is  a  place  called  Blairinroar,  simply  on  account  of  their  having 
made  Cyric  an  actor  in  the  event,  and  also  connected  him  with  Dunnideer  or  the  Garioch,  erroneously 
as  Ml'.  Skene  holds.  He  omits  to  note  the  important  fact  that  those  later  historians  must  have 
inherited  from  the  early  readers  of  the  Chronicle  and  Annals  their  belief  that  the  civitas  Nrurin  was 
Inverurie  in  the  Garioch.  By  that  current  belief,  for  which  they  were  not  responsible,  they  might  be 
led  to  locate  Cyric  and  Dunnideer  in  the  Garioch,  if  they  erred  in  so  doing. 


Celtic  Civilization.  15 


seem  to  indicate,  when  taken  along  with  the  existence  of  the  strong  pit  fortifications, 
the  residence  of  some  person  who  required  to  make  his  power  known.  The  spot  where 
the  chips  were  found,  and  which  was  never  tilled  until  the  present  century,  exhibits  un- 
mistakably what  a  mass  of  stones  must  have  been,  in  course  of  time,  calcined  in  the 
process,  whatever  it  was,  which  was  employed.  Did  the  builder  of  the  artistic  cylin- 
drical erections  rest  in  the  cairn  on  the  summit  of  Ardtannies,  where  he  had  kept  his 
rude  state  while  in  life  1  Or  who  was  that  personage  whose  skeleton  was  found  at 
Broomend,  orderly  laid  on  its  side,  with  gathered-up  knees,  a  carved  urn,  with  its  skil- 
fully moulded  leather  lamp  within,  by  his  side — all  reverently  covered  over  with  the 
ample  bull-hide,  in  his  carefully  luted  stone  sepulchre  1  "Was  he  lord  of  the  Garioch 
centuries  before  David — before  the  Culdee  missionaries  of  Christianity — before  King 
Eth  of  the  Swift  Foot  was  buried  in  the  Cuning  Hill — before  the  Kornan  march — in 
that  far  back  early  stone  period,  whose  inscriptions  and  unhewn  monuments  now  form 
the  puzzle  of  antiquaries  1 

The  civil  history  of  the  Garioch  begins  to  have  some  continuity  with  Malcolm  * 
Canmore  and  his  Queen,  whose  marriage  brought  the  first  of  the  great  Leslie  family,  and 
the  uplands  of  Inverurie,  on  the  stage  of  history.  It  is,  however,  very  interesting  to  find 
among  the  warlike  followers  of  Malcolm's  great-grandsire,  Malcolm  the  Second,  as  one  of 
the  antagonists  of  Canute,  the  ancestor  of  the  famous  Keiths,  Marischals  of  Scotland, 
whose  representative  is  now  the  head  of  the  chief  titled  family  in  the  Garioch.  In 
1010,  the  Scots  gained  a  complete  victory  over  the  Danes  at  Barry,  in  Angus.  Camus, 
the  Danish  general,  was  killed  by  a  young  nobleman,  afterwards  named  Keith,  and  the 
King  rewarded  him  with  several  lands,  especially  the  Barony  of  Keith  in  East  Lothian, 
and  appointed  him  Great  Marischal  of  Scotland.  According  to  some  accounts,  Robert, 
Prince  of  the  Catti,  the  hero  of  this  narrative,  was  ennobled  on  the  field  by  the  King, 
who,  dipping  his  fingers  in  the  blood  of  the  dying  Dane,  stroked  three  bars  on  the 
shoulder  of  the  victor,  pronouncing  the  words,  afterwards  the  motto  of  the  Marischal 
family — Veritas  vincit— with  reference  to  the  victory  God  had  given  him,  as  he  had 
tried  before  the  battle  to  assure  his  apprehensive  followers  would  be  their  fortune.  The 
Marischals'  dignity  is  historically  traced  in  the  Keith  family  from  Philip,  who  was 
Marischal  under  "William  the  Lion. 

It  was  in  connection  with  the  romantic  preserving  of  the  royal  insignia  of  Scotland, 
six  and  a-half  centuries  afterwards,  that  a  descendant  of  Eobert  the  first  Marischal, 
Sir  John  Keith  of  Keith-hall,  was,  in  1677,  created  Earl  of  Kintore.  His  mansion- 
house  of  Keithhall  stands  near  a  spot  associated,  like  his  family  name,  with  the 
Danish  times.  Tradition  makes  the  name  Densyburn,  in  Keith-hall,  commemorative 
of  a  great  defeat  inflicted  upon  the  Danes  (Danesburn)  at  Kinmuck,  where  a  large 
range  of  fields  bears  the  name  of  Blair  Hussey,  or  the  Field  of  Blood.—  Statistical 
Account. 

Less  than  two  hundred  years  after  the  period  assigned  to  the  contest  between  Aodh 


16  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

and  his  conqueror  Grig,  the  first  of  the  Saxon  magnates,  who  became  powerful  in  the 
Garioch,  came  to  Scotland  with  Margaret  Atheling,  when,  in  1068,  she  became  the 
queen  of  Malcolm  of  the  Great  Head— great  intellectually  as  well  as  physically. 

Malcolm  Canmore's  reign  contributes  two  events  to  the  history  of  the  Garioch. 

One  was  the  founding  of  the  tower  of  the  Church  of  Monymusk.  The  King's  spear, 
which  was  the  measuring  rod  used  in  marking  out  an  extension  vowed  to  the  Church  of 
Mortlach,  after  a  great  victory  over  the  Danes,  is  said  to  have  afforded  the  dimensions 
in  length  and  breadth  of  the  square  tower ;  and  His  Majesty  endowed  the  Priory  with 
extensive  lands  out  of  Royal  possessions,  which  he  ascertained,  on  the  occasion,  to  lie 
in  the  shire  of  Aberdeen. 

Later  than  the  founding  of  the  Monymusk  tower,  and  sometime  after  1067,  a  large 
portion  of  the  lands  of  Inverurie,  the  whole  of  which  seem  to  have  been  Crown 
property  at  the  time,  was  given  by  the  King  to  Bartolf,  a  Hungarian  nobleman,  the 
ancestor  of  the  great  family  of  Leslie.  That  surname  his  descendants,  in  the  fourth 
generation,  adopted  from  the  parish  of  Leslie ;  the  lands  of  which,  with  others  in  the 
Garioch  and  some  in  Fife,  formed  their  original  barony. 

The  first  seat  of  that  family,  and  the  last  property  held  in  the  Garioch,  by  the 
direct  line  of  the  house,  was  the  Castle  of  Lesly  in  the  parish  of  the  same  name  ; 
where  Lesly  of  that  Ilk  continued  down  to  the  seventeenth  century,  retaining  until 
that  period  the  superiority  of  the  Garioch  lands  included  in  the  barony  of  Lesly. 

Bartolf  had  been  in  the  suite  of  Margaret  Atheling,  when,  with  her  brother  Edward 
and  her  sister  Christian,  she  fled  from  the  ducal  court  of  Normandy,  to  avoid  the 
Conqueror's  taking  vengeance  upon  them  for  the  English  having  made  a  demonstration, 
during  his  absence  in  Normandy,  in  behalf  of  Edward  and  their  own  freedom.  The 
Royal  fugitives  were  wrecked  at  Margaret's  Hope,  near  Queensferry  ;  and  the  Scottish 
King,  who  chanced  to  be  there,  became  captive  to  the  beauty  of  the  Saxon  Princess. 
She  in  no  long  time  became  his  Queen,  and  proved  to  be  the  person  of  greatest  in- 
fluence for  the  welfare  of  Scotland  which  the  early  times  of  that  country  record. 

Bartolf,  the  first  great  laird  in  the  parish  of  Inverurie,  is  said  to  have  been  made 
Governor  of  Edinburgh  Castle,  and  to  have  married  the  King's  sister.  He  was 
Chamberlain  to  the  Queen,  and  in  that  capacity  had  the  honour  and  responsibility  of 
carrying  Her  Majesty  on  horseback  behind  him  when  she  travelled.  Once  in  crossing 
a  stream  she  was  in  danger,  or  fear,  of  falling  ;  and  Bartolf,  whose  belt  she  held  by, 
said  to  her  "  Grip  fast,"  to  which  the  Queen  replied,  "  Gin  the  buckle  bide  ".  Such,  at 
least,  is  the  origin  traditionally  given  to  the  family  motto  and  bearings  adopted  after- 
wards,— possibly  when  William  I.  introduced  armorial  bearings  into  Scotland,  choosing 
a  red  lion  for  his  own  device  ;  as  the  English  King  Richard  had  marked  his  shield  with 
three  lions  in  gold.  Bartolf  must  have  been  a  young  man  when  he  landed  with  the 
future  Queen  Margaret  at  Margaret's  Hope  ;  for  we  find  his  son  Constable  of  the  Castle 
of  Inverurie  sometime  after  a.d.  1171,  a  full  century  after  the  Queen's  marriage. 


Celtic  Civilization.  17 


Knockinglews,  the  portion  of  the  great  lordship  of  Leslie  which  lay  in  the  parish 
of  Inverurie,  continues — with  the  exception  of  Drimmies,  Braco,  and  Badifurrow,  its 
east,  west,  and  south  extremities — in  the  possession  of  descendants  of  Bartolf.  The 
lands  which  gave  the  name  of  Leslie  to  the  family  are  now  in  other  hands  ;  and  the 
existing  chief  line  of  the  family — that  of  the  Earls  of  Bothes — have  long  had  their 
residence  in  another  part  of  the  kingdom. 

The  ancestor  of  the  Leslies  was  only  one  of  a  large  number  of  new  lords  of  the 
soil,  whom  Malcolm  Canmore  and  his  immediate  successors  planted  amongst  their  Celtic 
subjects.  Those  sovereigns  sought  to  accelerate  and  secure  the  desired  Saxon  civilization 
by  leavening  the  community  with  a  sufficiency  of  new  families  "to  the  manner  born  "  ; 
but  their  summary  mode  of  proceeding  was  the  source  of  much  trouble  for  several 
reigns,  especially  in  the  burghs  which  the  Kings  had  begun  to  create. 

The  chief  policy,  however,  kept  in  view  by  the  descendants  of  Margaret  Atheling 
was  to  establish  and  strengthen,  throughout  Scotland,  the  cosmopolitan  power  of  the 
Boman  Catholic  Church.  The  parochial  distribution  of  the  country  seems  to  have  been 
no  sooner  accomplished  than  an  additional  ecclesiastical  influence  was  devised,  that  of 
central  strongholds,  in  the  form  of  monasteries  as  well  as  of  bishoprics.  Both  classes 
of  institutions  were  founded,  or  largely  endowed  with  royal  lands,  by  Malcolm's  son, 
David  I.,  "  the  sair  saunct  for  the  Croon "  ;  and  portions  of  the  revenues  of  many 
parishes  were  given  by  the  kings,  and  by  great  landholders  following  their  example,  to 
particular  abbeys,  or  bishoprics,  not  always  those  belonging  to  the  locality.  The 
tradition,  or  perhaps  still  remaining  sentiment  of  Culdee  Christianity,  made  this 
centralising  policy  easily  engrafted  on  the  parochial  system. 

The  ecclesiastical  system  which  was  superseded  by  the  Saxon  institution  of  parishes, 
left  traces  of  itself  in  the  names  of  numerous  sacred  places,  some  only  of  which  became 
the  sites  of  parish  churches.  Monymusk,  besides  the  Priory  and  an  oratory  at  Balvach, 
both  dedicated  to  the  Virgin,  had  St.  Finnan's  at  Abersnithic,  now  called  Braehead. 
The  parish  of  Kemnay  owed  fealty  to  St.  Anne,  the  mother  of  the  Virgin,  but  had 
also  a  church  of  St.  Bride,  where  the  minister  of  Kemnay  occasionally  preached  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  probably  situated  at  Craigearn.  Daviot  honoured  the  Irish  apostle, 
St.  Columba  of  Iona,  and  had  also  St.  James's  at  Fingask.  Oyne  had  St.  Ninian's 
Chapel  at  Pitmeddan.  Bayne  professed  St.  Andrew,  and  had  a  chapel  of  the  Virgin  at 
Kotmais.  Kinkell  was  hallowed  by  the  patronage  of  St.  Michael,  archangel.  In 
Bourtie  there  was  a  chapel  called  St.  John's  at  Barra.  St.  aSTachlan  was  tutelar  of 
Bethelney,  and  a  chapel  of  the  Virgin  stood  beneath  the  house  of  Meldrum,  where  the 
Ladywell  was  long  frequented,  in  the  month  of  May,  for  "  the  headache  ".  If  there  was 
no  dedicated  church  in  Culsalmond,  three  sacred  fountains — St.  Mary's,  St.  Michael's, 
and  another — represented  the  prevalent  sentiment  which  reverenced  spots  of  holy 
memory.  Premnay  honoured  St.  Cara,  and  had  at  Auchleven  a  chapel  dedicated  to  St. 
James.     Kintore  was  under  the  protection  of  the  Virgin,  and  Fetternear  claimed  that 

3 


18  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

of  St.  Mnian,  while  Insch  belonged  to  St.  Drostan.  The  names  of  several  of  those 
patron  saints  indicate  a  date  for  the  origin  of  the  chapels  anterior  to  the  parochial 
organisation  of  the  Latin  Church.  Columba,  Marnan,  Cara,  Wolock,  Ninian,  and 
Naclilan,  are  liker  Celtic  and  Culdee  than  Latin  and  Eomisk  names.  Many  of  the 
primitive  chapels,  though  they  never  became  parish  churches,  preserved  then-  sanctity 
in  popular  sentiment  to  comparatively  recent  times. 

The  labours  and  successes  of  the  Culdee  successors  of  St.  Columba,  in  Buchan  and 
Mar,  are  sufficiently  attested  by  history  to  wan-ant  us  to  affiliate  those  chapels  in  the 
Garioch  to  the  same  family,  probably  through  its  lenown  representative,  the  Priory  of 
Monymusk ;  which  had  not  become  wholly  assimilated  to  the  Latin  order  of  Church 
when  parishes  were  long  time  established  around. 

The  meeting  of  the  two  systems  appears  in  the  terms  of  a  gift,  made  about  a.d. 
1200,  by  Gilchrist,  Earl  of  Mar,  to  the  Priory  of  Monymusk,  of  the  Churches  of  St. 
Andrew  of  Alford,  St.  Marnan  of  Leochel,  and  St.  "Wolock  of  Euthven. 

Among  the  benefactors  of  the  Culdee  Priory,  two  other  individuals  appear  about 
that  period,  whose  names  are  of  interest  in  Aberdeenshire  genealogy.  In  the  first 
quarter  of  the  century — Thomas  Durward,  son  of  Malcolm  of  Lundy,  doorward  to  the 
king,  confirmed  a  grant,  made  long  before  by  his  grandfather  and  his  mother,  to  the 
Culdees  of  Monymusk,  consisting  of  ten  bolls  of  malt  and  ten  stones  of  cheese. 

Thomas,  in  right  of  his  mother,  claimed  the  Earldom  of  Mar  before  1228,  and  his 
son  Alan,  who  was  Justiciary  of  Scotland,  renewed  the  claim  in  1257.  The  contention 
as  to  the  title  failed;  but  Thomas  had  acquired,  under  the  settlement  made  of  the  dispute 
in  his  case,  vast  domains  in  Mar,  extending  from  Invercanny  on  the  Dee,  to  Alford  on 
the  Don,  and  from  Skene  on  the  east  to  Coull  on  the  west,  where  the  Durwards  reared 
a  castle,  some  long-buried  remains  of  which  were  uncovered  about  1790.  It  had  been 
a  square  building,  fifty  yards  in  length  of  side,  having  large  hexagonal  towers  at  the 
angles,  and  the  walls  fifteen  to  twenty  feet  in  thickness.  One  gate  remained  entire, 
finished  by  a  Gothic  arch  of  freestone ;  and  a  coin  was  found  bearing  the  legend — 
Alexander  Rex  Scotorum.  The  branch  of  the  Lundy  family,  thus  taking  the  surname 
of  Doorward,  or  Durward,  from  their  hereditary  dignity,  became  prominent  in  Forfar- 
shire, but  has  been  long  extinct. 

THE  EARLDOM  OF  THE  GARIOCH. 

In  historic  times,  the  Garioch  and  Strathbogie  appear  to  have  been  held  as  an 
appanage  of  the  Crown,  or  younger  son's  portion  ;  and  gave  to  one  of  the  heraldic 
officers  of  Scotland  the  title  of  Pursuivant  of  the  Garioch,  as  the  appanages  of  Eothesay 
and  Albany  had  heralds  named  after  them.. 

Prince  Henry,  the  only  son  of  David  I.  predeceased  him.  Prince  Henry's  children, 
by  his  wife,  Ada,  were  according  to  the  received  genealogy — Malcolm  III.,  born  anno 


The  Earldom  of  the  Garioch.  19 

1142 — William  I.,  1143 — and  David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon,  1144  :  Ada,  married  to 
Florence,  Count  of  Holland  ;  Margaret,  married  to  the  Duke  of  Brittany  ;  and  Matilda, 
who  died  unmarried.  Wynton  (Chronicle)  and  the  interpolator  of  Fordun,  both  say 
that  David  was  older  than  his  brother  William.  The  famous  David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon, 
was  the  first  historical  Earl  of  the  Garioch,  and,  as  was  the  manner  of  the  time,  held 
not  the  title  only,  but  the  Crown  lands,  so  far  as  they  had  not  been  alienated  before  the 
creation  of  the  Earldom.  Malcolm  III.,  generally  called  Malcolm  the  Maiden — bestowed 
the  Earldom  on  his  youngest  brother,  David,  the  most  important  in  a  genealogical  point 
of  view  of  the  three,  having  been  the  ancestor  of  the  subsequent  royal  house  of  Scot- 
land, and  afterwards  of  Great  Britain. 

The  territories  of  the  regality  of  the  Garioch  had  already  been  diminished  by  King 
Malcolm,  through  several  benefactions  made  to  the  Catholic  Church,  which  was  the 
chief  object  of  fostering  care  to  all  the  family  of  kings  immediately  descended  from 
Malcolm  Canmore  and  his  Saxon  Queen,  Margaret  Atheling.  The  boundaries  of  the 
Earldom — if  coincident  with  the  parishes  evidently  held  in  property  by  Earl  David 
and  those  gifted  by  his  brother — were  wider  than  the  subsequent  Deanery,  and  the 
modern  Presbytery  of  the  Garioch.  Clatt  and  Kennethmont  were  portions  of  the 
Garioch  of  David  of  Huntingdon.  The  portions  given  away  from  the  Crown,  before  his 
time,  were  the  "  schyres,"  or  entire  parishes,  of  Bayne  and  Daviot,  and  the  kirk  and 
kirklands  of  Ovyn  (Oyne),  gifts  of  which  to  the  bishopric  of  Aberdeen  were  ratified  by 
the  Pope  in  1157,  three  years  before  Malcolm  the  Maiden  is  said  to  have  made  his 
brother  David  Earl  of  the  Garioch.  Bethelney,  on  the  outskirts  of  the  Garioch,  be- 
longed to  the  Earls  of  Buchan  ;  and  Bourtie  had  been  the  property  of  an  influential 
family  named  Lamberton,  by  whom  it  was  bestowed  on  the  Abbey  of  Arbroath,  before 
the  end  of  the  century. 

The  mass  of  the  remaining  parish  churches,  Clatt,  Kennethmont,  Eathmuriel,  Insch, 
Culsalmond,  Premnay,  Logydurno,  Inverurie,  and  Monkegy,  were  made,  by  the  great 
Earl  of  the  Garioch,  one  large  ecclesiastical  appendage  to  the  Abbey  of  Lindores,  and 
accompanied  by  substantial  additions  of  lands  in  several  of  the  parishes. 

In  the  parish  of  Inverurie,  Earl  David  did  not  alienate  any  of  the  regality  lands 
which  became  his  with  the  Earldom.  The  lands  of  Knockinglews,  said  to  have  been 
bestowed  by  his  great-grandfather,  Malcolm  Canmore,  upon  Bartolf,  and  which  were 
confirmed  to  Bartolf  s  son  by  charters  executed  by  David  himself,  were  bounded  by  the 
two  burns  which  flow  out  from  the  swampy  hollow  of  Temping  Walls — one  eastward 
through  the  Kelpy  Fold  to  the  Ury  at  Conglass,  the  other  southward  to  where  the 
ancient  Kirk  of  Rothael — in  later  times  dedicated  to  St.  Apollinaris — looks  down  the 
Don  to  the  old  haunt  of  superstitious  belief,  Ardtannies,  the  knowe,  or  promontory,  of 
the  "  little  deevils  ". 

Earl  David's  own  Inverurie  lands  made  up  the  rest  of  the  entire  parish,  and  were 
encompassed  by  the  line  formed  by  those  two  burns,  and  the  confluent  rivers  Don  and 


20  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Ury.     With  the  exception  of  the  lands  of  Conglass,  and  those  of  Blackball,  they  became 
either  in  his  time,  or  before  it,  the  chief  part  of  the  royal  burgh  of  Inverurie. 

Blackhall  was  made  at  an  early,  but  unknown,  period,  the  seat  of  an  important  local 
officer  of  the  Earldom,  the  Coroner  and  Forester  of  the  Garioch — Blackhall  of  that  Hk, 
whose  arms  appropriately  included  the  device  of  a  hooded  falcon. 

It  is  in  the  time  of  the  Earldom  of  David,  and  in  intimate  connection  with  him- 
self, that  the  documentary  history  of  both  the  Parish  and  Burgh  of  Inverurie  begins 
with  a  Papal  Bull  of  date  1195. 

The  graphic  historian,  Tytler,  gives  us  a  portrait  of  David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon, 
in  his  knightly  armour,  as  he  may  sometimes  have  appeared  before  setting  forth  with  his 
little  band  of  knights  to  join  Cceur  de  Lion  for  the  disastrous  crusade,  which  caused 
them  both  to  taste  the  bitterness  of  captivity.  A  figure  of  him  appears  on  his  seal. 
His  armour,  called  trellissed  at  the  time,  was  not  of  mail,  but  formed  of  cloth  and 
leather.  The  cloth  coat,  or  vest,  reached  only  to  the  haunches,  and  had  sleeves  ex- 
tending to  the  wrists.  It  was  intersected  by  broad  stripes  of  leather,  laid  on  so  as  to 
cross  each  other,  leaving  intervening  squares  of  the  cloth,  in  the  middle  of  which  was 
a  round  knob,  or  stud,  of  steel.  The  hood,  called  the  chaperon,  was  of  quilted  cloth, 
and  the  under  tunic  of  linen  covered  the  knee,  and  hung  in  folds  over  the  saddle, 
which  was  highly  peaked  in  the  shape  of  a  swan's  neck.  His  shield  was  rounded  at 
the  top,  and  his  long  spear  was  surmounted  by  a  gonfalon,  or  war  flag,  on  which  a 
rose  was  embroidered.  His  helmet  was  conical,  plain,  and  worn  over  the  hood  ;  and 
the  horse  had  neither  armour  nor  trappings.  It  is  interesting  to  find  David  bearing 
as  his  device  the  rose,  which  was  the  cognisance  long  after  of  his  descendants,  the  later 
Stuarts. 

Instructive  glimpses  of  the  condition  of  the  country  at  the  time  are  obtained  from 
some  of  the  deeds  endowing  the  new  ecclesiastical  erections.  About  1137,  David  I. 
bestowed  upon  the  See  of  Aberdeen,  the  schyres  or  parishes  of  Clatt,  Tullynestle,  Eayne 
and  Daviot.  In  1157,  the  township  of  Fetternear,  with  the  Church  and  its  appurtenances 
already  belonged  to  the  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  who  was  confirmed  in  the  possession  by 
Pope  Adrian  IV.  Churches  in  Tarland  and  Migvie  had  before  been  given  by  the  Earls 
of  Mar  to  the  Canons  of  St.  Andrews.  The  teinds  of  extensive  Crown  lands  between  Don 
and  Spey,  and  all  the  lands  of  Birse,  had  been  given  by  David  I.  and  his  son,  Malcolm 
the  Maiden,  to  the  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  ;  and  the  Abbey  of  Melrose  held  some  land  in 
the  parish  of  "  Bane  ".  In  the  same  period,  Gilchrist,  Earl  of  Mar,  built  the  priory  of 
Monymusk,  and  endowed  it  with  the  revenues  of  the  churches  of  St.  Andrews  of 
Alford,  St.  Marnan  of  Leochel,  and  St.  Wolock  of  Euthven.  Before  1199,  probably, 
the  church  of  Kinkell  was  the  property  of  the  Knights  Templars,  with  its  subordinate 
;hurches  of  Kintore,  Kinnellar,  Kemnay,  Skene,  Drumblade,  and  Dyce,  and  many 
properties  besides,  among  others,  Aquhythie  in  Kemnay,  Christ's  kirk  in  Kennethmont, 
and  Warthill.     The  church  of  Bourtie  appears  in  a  rather  prominent  social  position. 


The  Earldom  of  the  Gar  loch.  21 

Before  1199,  William  de  Lamberton,  a  name  distinctive  of  social  rank,  conferred  upon 
the  priory  of  St.  Andrews  the  church  of  Bourdin,  with  its  tithes,  common  pasture,  and 
pertinents,  endowing  it  shortly  after  with  twelve  acres  of  land  on  the  west  side  of  the 
kirk,  to  which  Badulf,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  afterwards  added  "  two  ploughs  of  land, 
and  the  manse  and  its  curtilage,  in  which  Hugh  the  rector  used  to  live  ". 

The  names  of  some  of  the  parish  priests  of  the  time  have  come  down  to  us.  A 
portion  of  a  monumental  stone  was  discovered,  several  years  ago,  in  the  churchyard 
of  Insch,  bearing  the  name  of  Badulfi  sacrdotls,  in  letters  of  the  Irish  character, 
which  Mr.  Jervise  thinks  may  have  commemorated  a  chaplain  of  the  bishop  of  Aber- 
deen, so  named,  who  lived  1172-1199.  Adam  was  clericus  de  Helen  (Ellon)  at  the 
same  date.  The  Archdeacons  of  Aberdeen,  who  were  ex  officio  parsons  of  Bayne,  were 
— Simon  before  1188,  a  contemporary  of  the  first  two  Constables,  Malcolm  before  1199, 
Onier  before  1214,  and  Malcolm  before  1224.  A  neighbour  and  contemporary  of  the 
last  was  the  Treasurer,  William,  ex  officio  parson  of  Daviot.  John,  vicar  of  Fetter- 
near,  appears  in  1242  ;  Robert  de  la  Bunce,  vicar  of  Bourtie,  in  1240  ;  and  Thomas  de 
Ludan  in  1268;  Bicardus,  vicar  of  Dournoch,  in  1257;  and  Bicardus,  vicar  of  Inuir- 
nry  in  1262.  William  Lamberton  was  rector  of  Turriff,  and  Boger  Stainforth  vicar  of 
Banchory-Ternan  at  the  same  date. 

In  that  period  the  bishops  and  the  abbeys  managed  to  acquire  tofts,  or  sites  for 
houses,  in  most  of  the  towns  of  Scotland,  as  part  of  the  possessions  of  their  establish- 
ments. William  the  Lion  gave  to  Bichard,  Bishop  of  Murray,  a  toft  in  each  of  the 
towns  of  Banff,  Inverculen,  Elgin,  Foreys,  Eren  (Nairn),  and  Invernys.  The  Abbey  of 
Lindores  had  from  him  and  his  brother  David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon,  a  toft  in  each  of 
the  burghs  of  Inverurie,  Bervie,  Stilling,  Crail,  Perth,  Forfar,  Montrose,  Aberdeen,  and 
Inverkeithing.  In  the  beginning  of  the  next  century,  Alexander  II.,  his  son,  gave  to 
the  monks  of  Kinloss  similar  gifts  in  the  burghs  of  Nairn,  Aberdeen,  Banff,  Berwick, 
Stirling,  and  Perth,  "  that  men  of  theirs  might  remain  at  thir  tofts  without  service  "-. 

A  noteworthy  indication  of  the  success  of  the  Eoyal  policy,  which  had  sought 
to  leaven  the  Celtic  population  with  other  elements,  is  found  in  a  charter  by  David  of 
Huntingdon  to  Malcolm,  the  son  of  Bartolf,  of  the  lands  of  Leslie.  The  charter  is 
addressed  to  all  who  may  see  it,  "  clerics  and  laics,  French,  English,  Flemings,  and 
Scots  ".  The  Normans,  Saxons,  and  Scots  are  easily  accounted  for ;  the  Flemings,  we 
know,  had  before  then  colonised  the  west  of  England,  where  their  textile  skill  established 
an  enduring  fame  for  cloth  manufacture.  A  settlement  of  Flemings  had  evidently  also 
held  a  possession  in  the  Garioch,  in  Cruteryston  or  Courtestown,  in  Lesly  parish  ;  the 
lands  of  which,  two  centuries  later,  had  still  the  right  of  Fleming  Law  acknowledged 
in  their  charters.  The  place  chosen  by  the  peaceful  artisans,  and  where  tokens  of  them 
still  remain  in  the  name  Flindres,  belonging  to  one  or  two  farms,  was  on  some  rich 
land  near  the  watershed  of  the  Gadie  and  Bogie.  Their  national  acquaintance  with 
the  dangers  of  neighbourhood  to  the  Danish  pirates  would  make  the  Flemings  select  an 


22  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the   Garioch. 

inland  residence  instead  of  one  nearer  the  coast  of  Aberdeenshire,  which  was  no  quiet 
region  until  Malcolm  Camnore  finally  subdued  the  hardy  Norsemen.  Malcolm  himself 
erected  the  bishopric  which  he  endowed,  not  at  Aberdeen,  but  in  the  fastnesses  of 
Mortlach.  It  is  likely  that  the  population  was  then  most  dense  in  the  line  of  country, 
now  sparsely  inhabited,  which  leads  from  Perth  by  the  upper  straths  of  the  Dee  and 
Don  to  the  kingdom  of  Moray.  Evidence  of  that  region  having  been  extensively 
inhabited  in  pre-historic  times  is  afforded  by  the  numerous  "  Pict's  houses,"  once  to  be 
seen  on  the  moor  of  Kildrummy,  and  the  lake  dwellings  traced  in  Loch  Cannor. 

Indications  of  an  abundant  population  appear  in  several  districts,  and  the  land  was 
already  extensively  sub-divided.  The  present  names  of  a  number  of  places  in  Birse 
appear  in  a  charter  of  William  the  Lion  to  the  Bishop  of  Aberdeen.  The  country  was 
studded  thickly  with  mills,  and  multures  were  already  arranged.  Brew-houses  frequently 
conveyed  as  pendicles  of  estates  and  manses,  reveal  how  essential  an  element  in  common 
diet  beer,  the  characteristic  beverage  of  the  northern  nations,  had  become.  Malt,  as  well 
as  meal,  was  among  the  items  with  which  lands  were  burdened.  The  Prior  and  Twelve 
Culdees  of  Monymusk  had,  as  already  mentioned,  a  yearly  grant  of  ten  bolls  of  malt, 
and  ten  stones  of  cheese,  in  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  from  a  great  Deeside 
proprietor,  Lundin  the  Durward. 

It  is  amusing  to  learn  the  notion  formed  of  the  region,  prior  to  experience,  by  a 
polished  Italian  of  the  time,  the  Papal  Legate  to  England.  He  speaks,  as  his  country- 
man Caesar  might  have  done  1000  years  before,  of  travelling  to  the  depths  of  Scotland 
(in  profundum  Scotice).  His  errand  was  to  collect  fees  personally ;  and  he  seems  to 
have  been  pleased  with  his  harvest. 

The  story  of  Earl  David's  fortune  in  the  Crusade  is  very  illustrative  of  the 
times. 

Hollinshed,  in  his  chronicle,  says  that  he  was  the  taker  of  Acre  for  Cceur  de  Lion, 
and  the  manner  was  this  : — One  Oliver,  a  Scottish  baron,  was  within  the  town.  He 
was  in  banishment  from  Scotland  for  felony,  and  had  taken  service  with  the  Saracens, 
whose  language  he  had  so  well  acquired  as  not  to  be  recognisable  for  a  foreigner.  Oliver 
had  one  of  the  gates  in  keeping,  on  a  side  of  the  town  where  there  was  only  a  single 
wall,  without  trenches  or  other  fortifications.  Chancing  to  see  one  of  his  own  kinsmen 
among  the  besiegers  in  David's  retinue,  named  John  Durward  (probably  one  of  the  great 
Coull  family),  incontinently  he  called  to  him.  They  came  together,  and  Oliver,  after  some 
reproachful  remonstrance  by  Durward  for  being  in  such  a  position,  bargained  to  sur- 
render the  gate  to  the  Earl,  if  the  latter  would  get  him  restored  to  his  lands  at  home. 
David  accepting  the  condition,  was  afterwards  admitted,  and  overpowered  the  town. 

On  his  return  home  with  Eichard,  a  tempest  wrecked  David's  ship  on  the  Egyptian 
coast,  and  he  was  taken  and  sold  as  a  slave  to  Venetian  merchants,  who  carried  him  to 
their  city,  then  the  mart  of  the  world,  where  he  was  recognised  by  some  English  mer- 
chants, and  ransomed  by  them.     Before  reaching  home,  he  was  again  storm-tossed,  and 


TJie  Earldom  of  the  Garioch.  23 

running  into  the  Firth  of  Tay,  got  safely  to  land  at  a  place  whose  name,  in  token  of 
thankfulness  for  his  escape,  he  changed  into  Donum  Dei — now  Dundee. 

To  the  same  grateful  spirit  is  attributed  by  the  chronicler,  his  founding  of  the 
famous  Abbey  of  Lindores,  part  of  his  gift  to  which  was  the  Kirk  of  Inverurie  with  its 
tithes,  and  the  toft  in  the  burgh.  As  the  Crusade  was  in  1192,  dates  agree  well  enough 
with  the  supposition  that  the  last  and  perfecting  charter  was  given  several  years  after 
Earl  David's  return. 

On  the  escape  of  Eichard  Cceur  de  Lion  from  his  unknown  prison,  David  was  the 
first  to  rise  in  arms  in  favour  of  his  crusader  comrade  against  the  intrigues  of  Philip  of 
France  and  King  John,  Richard's  false  brother ;  and,  in  1191,  along  with  his  brother-in- 
law,  the  Earl  of  Chester,  he  laid  seige  to  the  strong  castle  of  Nottingham  in  behalf  of  the 
liberated  King.  Richard  returned  home  in  that  year,  and  the  King  of  Scotland  and  his 
brother  David,  went  to  welcome  him,  one  of  their  suite  being  Sir  William  Keith,  the 
Marischal,  whose  descendants,  the  Earls  of  Kintore,  were  five  hundred  years  later  to 
become  the  proprietors  of  Earl  David's  Inverurie  lands. 

The  first  Earl  of  the  Garioch  survived  his  brother,  the  King,  some  four  or  five  years, 
and  saw  the  early  part  of  the  reign  of  Alexander  II. — William's  only  legitimate  son — 
which  extended  from  1214  to  1249,  and  had  as  its  principal  work,  to  reduce  the  Celtic 
portion  of  the  population  into  habits  of  subordination.  In  the  case  of  the  Hebridean 
chiefs,  that  object  was  not  accomplished  entirely  until  two  centuries  later,  when  the  Lord 
of  the  Isles  was  able  to  meet  the  strength  of  the  kingdom  on  nearly  equal  terms  at  Har- 
law. 

David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon  and  the  Garioch,  at  one  time  also  Earl  of  Lennox  and 
Lord  of  Strathbogie,  died,  an  aged  man,  at  an  important  epoch  of  Scottish  history;  when 
the  strife  was  terminated  between  the  Royal  Houses  of  England  and  Scotland,  which 
had  lasted  from  the  time  of  Henry  II.,  whose  undutiful  son,  Richard,  had,  in  an  attempt 
upon  the  crown,  been  abetted  by  William  the  Lion  and  his  brother,  David.  By  his 
Countess,  the  sister  of  Randolph  Earl  of  Chester,  Earl  David  had  three  sons,  two  of 
whom,  David  and  Henry,  predeceased  him ;  and  the  third,  John,  "  the  Scot,"  was  left 
a  minor. 

John  does  not  at  first  appear  as  Earl  of  the  Garioch,  that  title  having  been  given 
by  the  King,  his  cousin,  Alexander  II.,  to  a  natural  son  of  the  late  King.  The  arrange- 
ment seems  to  have  been  in  accordance  with  Scottish  custom  at  that  period,  of  appoint- 
ing over  a  minor  in  the  nobility,  a  guardian  bearing  his  ward's  title  for  the  time. 
John  evidently  held  his  father's  Garioch  possessions,  as  he  granted  renewals  of  his 
father's  charters  upon  lands  in  that  district.  He  became,  on  his  mother's  death,  Earl  of 
Chester.  David  left  also  three  married  daughters,  Margaret,  Isabel,  and  Adama,  from 
whom  sprung  the  rival  claimants  for  the  Scottish  Crown,  Baliol,  Bruce,  and  Hastings, 
— whose  competition  led  to  the  disastrous  wars  with  Edward  I. 

Isabel,  who  married  Robert  Bruce,  Lord  of  Annandale,  and  was  great-grandmother 


24  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

of  the  illustrious  King  Robert,  was  her  brother's  successor  in  the  superiority  of  the 
Garioch,  as  appears  by  ihe  Kiug  Alexander  II.  granting,  in  1248,  a  charter  on  the 
lands  of  Leslie  to  Norino,  "  The  Constable,"  at  her  instance  and  that  of  her  son  Robert 
Bruce. 

Robert  was,  of  course,  her  successor,  though  he  does  not  appear  designated  in  any 
document  any  more  than  Earl  John,  or  Isabel  de  Bruce,  Earl  of  the  Garioch.  He 
married  Isabel  de  Clare,  daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Gloucester  ;  and  they  had  a  son  also 
named  Robert. 

The  third  Robert  Bruce  was  the  hero  of  the  romantic  incident  of  Turnberry  woods. 
Marjory,  Countess  of  Carrick  in  her  own  right,  lost  her  husband,  Sir  Adam  of  Kilcon- 
quhar,  by  his  death  in  Palestine  in  the  crusade  which  was  set  on  foot  by  Louis  IX.  of 
France  in  1268.  Prince  Edward  of  England,  afterwards  Edward  I.,  had  been  followed 
in  that  expedition  by  Robert  Bruce,  whose  domains  lay  near  Turnberry  Castle. 
After  his  return  home,  Bruce  was  riding  in  solitude  one  day  through  the  woods  of 
Turnberry,  and  encountered  the  palfreys  of  the  young  widow's  train,  when  she  was  out 
hawking.  He  turned  his  horse's  head  to  withdraw,  but  was  merrily  pursued,  and 
surrounded  by  the  Countess  and  her  sprightly  following.  Laying  her  hand  upon  his 
bridle,  she  reproached  him  for  ungallantly  fleeing  from  a  lady's  castle,  and  led  him 
captive  to  Turnberry  ;  where  he  shortly  acquired  courage  to  brave  the  royal  displeasure 
by  marrying  her,  without  the  licence  requisite  to  matrimonial  union  with  a  ward  of  the 
Crown.  The  son  of  that  romantic  union  was  Robert  Bruce,  Earl  of  Carrick  and  King 
of  Scotland ;  who  honoured  his  mother's  title  by  making  it  the  title  of  the  heir  to  the 
throne. 

In  the  succession  of  the  fourth  Robert  Bruce,  the  dignities  and  possessions  of  the 
Earldom  of  the  Garioch  reverted  to  their  original  source — the  Crown.  They  were 
issued  by  the  King  in  a  new  form — that  of  the  Lordship  of  the  Garioch,  occasionally 
called  the  Earldom  ;  and  the  new  erection  had  some  romantic  associations.  It  took 
place  when  the  King's  arduous  task  of  establishing  the  independence  of  Scotland  was 
accomplished,  and  it  was  a  marriage  portion  bestowed,  in  1326,  by  the  King  upon  his 
sister  Christian — who  had  shared  many  of  his  misfortunes — when,  after  a  long  widow- 
hood, and  having  a  son  brought  up  from  infancy  in  the  Court  of  England,  she  was  in 
middle  age  wedded  to  one  of  the  steadiest  supporters  of  the  national  cause — Sir  Andrew 
Moray,  Pantelar  of  Scotland ;  for  the  weal  of  whose  soul  she  founded  the  first  chap- 
lainry  in  the  Chapel  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  of  the  Garioch  (the  origin  of  the  Chapel  of 
Garioch)  sometime  before  1357.  Erom  Christian,  Lady  of  the  Garioch,  the  title  and 
lands  descended  to  the  Earls  of  Mar. 

THE  KIRK  OF  KOTHAEL  AND  THE  BURGH  OF  INVERTHURIN. 
When  we  find  papal  records  dealing  with  Inverurie  as  a  parish  and  a  burgh  in  a.d. 
1195,  it  is  evident  that  the  Garioch,  and  Inverurie,  its  seat  of  regality,  were  already 


The  Kirk  of  Rofhael  and  the  Burgh  of  Inverth/in'/i.  25 

advanced  a  great  way  from  what  may  readily  be  supposed  to  have  been  their  primitive 
condition. 

The  documentary  history  of  Inverurie  commences  with  a  period  when  a  composite 
ecclesiastical  establishment  and  a  burgh  were  both  in  existence,  and  already  in  a 
condition  to  admit  of  some  portion  of  the  property  belonging  to  them  being  alienated  by 
the  Boyal  Earl  of  the  Garioch  for  the  benefit  of  his  Abbey  of  Lindores.  Pope 
Celestine  III.,  by  a  Bull,  dated  at  the  Lateran,  eight  days  before  the  Ides  of  March,  in 
the  fourth  year  of  his  pontificate,  a.d.  1195,  confirms  to  the  Monastery  of  Londores  all 
its  possessions  and  privileges,  including  the  Town,  Mill,  Mill  Multures,  and  Church  of 
Londores,  the  Island  of  Eedinch,  a  fishing  near  it  on  the  Tay,  the  Church  of  Dunde,  a 
toft  in  the  burgh  of  Dunde,  and  beyond  the  Muneth  (Cairn  o'  Mount)  the  town  of 
Tintreth,  with  its  pertinents  and  its  church,  and  in  the  Garviach,  Lodhgavel,  and 
Malinch,  (Ledingham  and  Malinside  in  Culsalmond)  the  Church  of  Eothael  with  its 
chapels,  viz.  : — Inverurin  aud  Munkegin,  the  Church  of  Durnoch  (Logydurno),  the 
Church  of  Pranie  (Premnay),  the  Church  of  Eadmuriel  (Christ's  Kirk,  now  part  of 
Insch),  the  Church  of  Ingemabanin  (Insch),  the  Church  of  Culsalmeil  (Culsalmond), 
the  Church  of  Kelalemund  (Kinnethmont),  with  all  their  endowments,  a  toft  in  the 
burgh  of  Inverthurin,  and  the  tenth  of  all  Earl  David's  profits  and  pleas  which  he 
possessed  when  he  made  the  donation. 

Other  possessions  confirmed  by  the  Bull  had  been  added,  between  the  time  of 
David's  gift  and  a.d.  1195,  by  King  William  and  his  son  Eobert — a  natural  son  of  the 
King — called  Eobert  of  Lundie,  from  whom  the  now  existing  branches  of  the  John- 
stons of  Caskieben  derive  descent,  through  an  intermarriage  contracted  in  1597.  The 
Papal  deed  is  preserved  in  a  transumpt,  which  the  convent  had  thought  good  to  obtain 
from  Pope  Nicholas  IV.,  in  1291,  a  century  later. — Spald.  Club  Collec,  IV.,  501. 

In  three  years  after  the  Bull  of  Pope  Celestine,  the  Convent  had  sought  another 
"  Confirmation  of  Privileges  "  from  Pope  Innocent  III.  It  was  issued  thirteen  days 
before  the  Calends  of  April,  at  the  Lateran,  a.d.  1198,  in  the  second  year  of  his  ponti- 
ficate. A  few  additions  had  been  made  to  the  Abbey  possessions  ere  that  time,  and  the 
spelling  of  the  Garioch  names  is  altered  to  Lethgauel  and  Malind,  the  Churches  of 
Eitcheth,  Durnoh,  Eathmuriel,  Inchemabanin,  Munchegin,  Inverurin,  and  Culsamuel. 

The  only  extant  charter  of  Earl  David  himself,  upon  these  possessions,  is  assigned  to 
the  years  1202-1206  ;  and  had  been  for  some  reason  desiderated  after  the  two  confir- 
mations. It  omits  the  church  of  Eothael  or  Eitcheth,  and  includes  "  the  church  oi' 
Inverurin,  with  the  chapel  of  Munkegin,  and  all  their  pertinents".  The  charter  is 
confined  entirely  to  the  churches  and  church  lands  enumerated  in  the  gifts  by  David 
in  the  preceding  confirmation,  and  is  called  a  "  Charter  of  Foundation  of  the  Church 
aud  Monastery  of  Londores,  in  the  woods  of  Ironsyde,  within  the  county  of  Fyffe". 
It  bears  that  he  had  founded  the  Abbey  for  the  welfare  of  the  souls  of  King  David, 
his  grandfather ;  of  Earl  Henry,  his  father,  and  of  Countess  Ada,  his  mother ;  of  King 

4 


2G  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Malcolm,  his  brother,  of  King  William,  his  brother,  and  of  Queen  Armegard ;  and  of 
all  his  ancestors,  and  of  Countess  Matilda,  his  spouse;  of  David,  his  son,  and  of  all 
his  successors,  and  of  his  brothers  and  sisters.  Matthew  the  Falconer,  ancestor  of  the 
Lords  Falconer  of  Halkerton,  now  Earls  of  Kintore,  was  one  of  the  witnesses. 


THE  KIEK. 

A  church  having  two  dependent  chapels  must  have  been  an  institution  of  some 
standing  when  it  was  so  described  ;  and  the  Church  of  Eothael  may,  very  probably, 
have  been  an  early  outpost  of  the  Culdee  monastery,  which  is  believed  to  have  existed 
at  Monymusk,  eight  miles  distant,  centuries  before  there  were  parishes  in  Scotland. 
The  appellation  Church  of  Eothael  disappears  immediately  after  the  first  charter,  and 
Inverarin  takes  its  place,  with  Munkegin  as  a  subordinate  chapel.  The  following  sug- 
gestion is  offered  as  to  the  origin  of  the  primitive  name.  The  earliest  church,  or  the 
church  of  the  date  of  the  first  charter,  seems  evidently  to  have  stood  where  some 
remains  of  the  walls  of  a  later  edifice  now  enclose  the  tiny  burial-place  of  Polnar  Chapel 
— a  name  due  to  the  Church  of  Inverurie  having  been  in  later  times  dedicated  to  St. 
Apollinaris,  Bishop  of  Eavenna,  who  lived  a.d.  74-81.  Pohiar  Chapel  stands  on  a 
pretty  platform  overhanging  the  Don,  exactly  opposite  to  a  hill,  the  vernacular  name  of 
which  is  Eocharl.  Eothael  might,  with  the  utmost  ease,  have  been  mis-read  for  Eoc- 
hael  by  the  writer  of  the  Papal  Deed,  the  c  and  t  in  antique  manuscript  being 
frequently  undistinguishable.  The  resemblance  of  Eocharl  to  Eothael  would  be  quite 
as  close  as  occurs  in  many  corruptions  of  Garioch  proper  names  in  old  documents,  the 
true  reading  of  which  is  now  certainly  known. 

The  chapel  of  Inverurin,  which  was  an  appendage  of  the  church  of  Eothael,  may 
have  been  a  chapel  attached  to  the  Castle,  and  situated  in  the  present  churchyard, 
where  the  presence  of  the  place  of  worship  would  lead  to  the  gradual  formation  of  a 
burying  ground  around  it,  in  accordance  with  the  universal  sentiment  of  Christian 
countries.  The  little  mound,  now  forming  the  churchyard,  was  separated  from  the 
Castle  only  by  the  narrow  watercourse,  or  swampy  path,  of  Killiewalker;  which  extended 
from  the  Don  to  the  Ury,  and  when  under  water  converted  the  Stanners  into  an  island, 
and  formed  with  the  Don  and  the  Ury  a  fosse  around  the  Castle  and  its  dependent 
hamlet,  which  lay  spread  out  before  it  along  the  triangular  peninsula.  The  situation, 
on  that  site,  of  the  Chapel  of  Inverurin  seems  to  be  corroborated  by  the  fact  that  the 
toft,  or  piece  of  ground  sufficient  for  a  house  and  garden,  which  Earl  David  of  Hun- 
tingdon and  the  Garioch  bestowed  on  the  Abbey  of  Lindores,  along  with  the  Church  of 
Eothael  and  its  dependent  chapels,  and  the  tithes  of  his  lands  in  Inverurie,  was  a  spot 
immediately  adjoining  the  castle  and  churchyard. 

A  toft,  or  house  stance,  within  one  or  more  of  the  burghs  and  towns  of  the  time, 
was  a  common  possession  of  the  abbeys,  and  afforded  a  convenient  place  of  lodging, 


The  Burgh.  27 


to  the  brethren,  when  travelling  upon  the  business  of  the  monastery,  or  going  about 
on  preaching  tours.  The  residence  of  the  early  vicars  of  Inverurie  is,  by  local  tra- 
dition, placed  close  by  Polnar  Chapel,  on  the  lowest  slope  of  the  brae  of  Aikenhead, 
where  the  burn  of  Polnar  separates  it  from  the  lands  of  Badifurrow,  on  which  the 
church  stood.  The  priest's  glebe  is  pointed  out  a  little  in  front  of  the  houses  of  Cold- 
wells,  on  the  very  outside  of  the  royal  lands  called  the  Davo,  the  tithes  of  which 
Earl  David  gave  to  his  Abbey  of  Lindores. 

Half  a  century  elapses  before  we  have  any  further  mention  of  Inverurie  as  a  parish. 
It  occurs  when  some  general  order  had  been  agreed  upon  as  to  the  provision  to  be 
made,  by  the  great  abbeys,  for  the  vicars  of  the  parishes  attached  to  them.  The  parish 
church  may  have  continued  long  at  Polnar ;  as  the  estate  of  Badifurrow,  on  which  it 
stood,  became  the  property  of  the  Abbey  of  Lindores.  At  the  Reformation  the  Church 
was  in  the  present  churchyard,  a  heather-thatched  building  of  small  dimensions.  The 
present  parish  church  is  the  second  which  has  had  its  site  in  the  middle  of  the  burgh. 

THE  BUKGH. 

The  original  charter  constituting  Inverurie  a  royal  burgh  was  lost  long  before  the 
reign  of  Queen  Mary.  In  a  charter  of  Novodamus,  granted  in  1558,  it  is  stated  that 
Inverurie  had  been  a  royal  burgh  beyond  the  memory  of  man  ;  and  King  Robert  Bruce, 
in  a  charter  upon  his  lands  in  the  Garioch,  lying  as  well  within  as  without  his  burgh?, 
must  have  referred  to  Inverurie  in  his  expression,  burgos  nostros,  which  by  usage  was 
applied  only  to  royal  burghs. 

The  date  of  Inverurie  as  a  royal  burgh  is,  however,  evidently  higher,  for,  before 
1 1 95,  David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon,  bestowed,  along  with  the  tithes  of  his  lands  in 
Inverurie,  unum  toftum  in  burgo  de  Inverthurin.  In  the  charter  of  confirmation,  tofts  in 
other  towns  of  Scotland — Stirling,  Forfar,  and  Montrose,  &c. — undoubtedly  royal  burghs 
at  that  time — are  recorded  in  exactly  the  same  manner  ;  but  these,  being  all  gifts,  not 
of  David,  but  of  King  William,  his  brother,  the  burghs  are  called  burga  sua,  except 
Inverkeithing — in  which  the  toft  was  bestowed  by  "Robert  of  Lundores,"  the  king's  son; 
and  in  that  case  the  place,  though  a  burgh  of  David  I.,  is  called  simply  burgum  de 
Inverkeithin,  as  Inverurie  is  called  burgum  de  Inverthurin.  The  inference  seems 
unavoidable  that  Inverurie  had  been  then  a  burgh  of  the  same  rank  with  the  others. 

The  interesting  patch  of  land  which  gave  occasion  to  the  naming  of  Inverurie  by 
its  title  of  burgh,  we  can  pretty  confidently  identify.  The  toft  appears  again  in  1600, 
in  a  charter  by  James  VI.,  erecting  a  temporal  lordship  of  Lindores,  out  of  the  abbey 
possessions,  after  the  Reformation.  The  description  given  in  that  document  is  "  a  house 
with  a  small  garden,  and  a  fishing  boat  at  Futtey ".  This  description  of  the  plot  of 
ground  exactly  corresponds  to  a  small  patch,  of  half  an  acre,  forming  the  south  end  of 
Urybank,  and  bearing  the  name  of  Fittie's  Croft,  and  which  stretches  from  the  Ury  to 


28  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

the  "  banks  of  old  Don,"  along  which  the  road  to  Keithhall  now  passes,  but  where  the 
Don  once  flowed — converting  the  Ducat  Haugh  into  an  island.  The  fishing  boat  would 
be  a  natural  appendage  to  the  small  establishment  lying  thus  between  the  two  rivers. 
The  toft  was  upon  the  side  of  the  King's  highway,  entering  Inverurie  from  the  south  ; 
and  was  separated  from  the  castle  only  by  the  churchyard  and  the  green,  frequently  a 
■water-course,  called  KUliewalker. 

A  higher  antiquity  than  that  of  the  document  quoted,  is  traditionally  claimed  for  the 
neighbouring  burgh  of  Kintore.  A  toft  in  it  was  certainly  given  to  Richard,  Bishop  of 
Moray,  by  William  the  Lion  :  and  in  the  next  two  reigns,  royal  charters,  dated  at 
Kintore,  bear  evidence  of  the  frequent  presence  in  that  neighbourhood  of  the  Second 
and  Third  Alexanders — two  monarchs  under  whom  the  country,  for  a  long  period, 
enjoyed  much  prosperity. 

LIMITS  OF  THE  ROYALTY. 

The  Novodamus  of  Queen  Mary  does  not  define  the  limits  of  the  royalty.  Local 
tradition  makes  it  include  the  Davo  hill,  and  extend  to  the  burn  of  Polnar.  The 
fishings  on  the  Don,  from  that  point,  were  said  to  have  been  given  by  a  priest  resident 
at  the  manse  there,  to  the  inhabitants  of  Inverurie,  on  the  stipulation  that  a  fast^day 
should  be  observed  by  them  in  memory  of  him.  The  burgh  boundaries,  in  the  absence 
of  description  by  charter,  must  remain  matter  of  inference ;  yet  all  existing  document- 
ary evidence  on  the  point,  preserved  in  the  Spalding  Club  Collections  and  the  Burgh 
Records  of  Inverurie,  corroborates  the  accuracy  of  the  tradition. 

Ko  conclusion  can  be  come  to  as  to  what  lands  are  included  within  a  royal  burgh, 
from  the  nature  of  the  tenure  whereby  they  are  held.  The  royal  burgh  of  Kilrenny  in 
Fife  has  always  held  not  of  the  Crown,  but  of  a  subject,  as  superior — the  family  of  the 
famous  Cardinal  Beaton.  The  lands  within  the  royal  burghs  of  the  Garioch,  belonging 
to  the  Crown  in  the  reign  of  Robert  I.,  were  bestowed  by  him  on  his  sister  Christian 
and  her  husband  (Sir  Andrew  Murray  of  Bothwell),  in  the  same  way  as  others  outside 
the  burgh  were.  They  were  described  tanquam  infra  tanquam  extra  burgos  nostros," 
and  were  bestowed  "  as  well  in  lordship  as  in  demesne  " — the  burghs  therefore  holding 
neither  the  property  nor  the  superiority  of  these  lands. 

The  superior  of  the  Davo  lands  has  never  been  the  burgh,  but  the  successors  of  Sir 
Andrew  Murray's  wife — Christian  Bruce,  Lady  of  the  Garioch.  Yet  the  "  Kellands  " 
had  always  been  regarded  as  within  the  burgh ;  and  the  earliest  extant  map  of  the 
royalty  of  Inverurie,  of  date  1795,  exhibits  the  eastern  face  of  the  Davo,  at  that  time 
surrounded  by  a  dyke,  as  included  in  it.  King  Robert's  charter,  granted  to  his  sister, 
however,  seems  to  determine,  when  collated  with  other  documents,  what  was  the  extent 
of  the  royalty.  The  lands  conveyed  by  his  charter  were  ,:  those  which  were  held  of 
the  Kings  of  Scotland  by  David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon". 

What  were  Earl  David's  lands  in  Inverurie'!     David  II.,  in  a  missing  charter, 


Limits  of  the  Royalty.  29 


bestowed  the  lands  and  lordship  of  the  Garioch,  on  Thomas,  Earl  of  Mar— Christian 
Brace's  °randson— in  similar  terms.  The  Davo  of  Inverurie  was  for  centuries  after  the 
days  of  James  I.,  much  in  the  law  courts  of  the  country,  forming  a  part  of  the  Earldom 
of  Mar,  which  was  litigated  between  the  Crown  and  subject  claimants  from  the  time  of 
James  II.  to  that  of  Queen  Mary. 

James  TV.,  in  1510,  being  in  possession  of  the  lands  of  the  Earldom  of  Mar  and 
Garioch,  exchanged  with  John  Leslie  of  Wardens,  for  the  lands  of  Balcomy  in  Eife,  the 
King's  lands  in  the  Garioch,  including  Inverurie,  with  the  davach  and  mill  (Inverury 
cum  le  Dav  et  molendirw  ejusdem)  "  as  the  Earls  of  Mar,  possessors  of  the  said  lands  in 
remote  times,  possessed  them  freely  ".  What  the  Warderis  lands  in  Inverurie  were  is 
well  known. 

These  lands,  held  of  the  Crown  successively  by  David,  Earl  of  the  Garioch,  the 
Earls  of  Mar  and  Lords  of  the  Garioch,  and  Leslie  of  Warderis,  are  described  in  a 
contract  of  multures,  of  date  a.d.  1600,  "the  said  John  Leslie's  half  daache  lands  and 
lands  in  the  Stanners  pertaining  to  the  said  half  daache  lands,  as  also  the  said  John 
Leslie's  other  half  daache  lands  of  Inverury,  called  Ardtannies,  with  the  rnilne,  mill 
lands,  and  crofts  of  the  same".  The  crofts  are,  in  subsequent  titles,  called  Cold  wells 
and  Eashieley,  and  they  now  occupy  the  space  between  the  farm  of  Ardtannies  and  the 
burn  of  Polnar. 

Another  document  explains  what  David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon,  held  as  "  lands  of 
Inverurie,"  when,  before  1195,  he  bestowed  the  tithes  of  his  profits  upon  the  recently 
founded  Abbey  of  Lindores.  A  contract  of  teinds,  entered  into  between  the  Magis- 
trates of  Inverurie  and  Sir  Thomas  Crombie  of  Keninay,  possessor  of  a  tack  of  the 
teinds  of  Inverurie,  which  belonged  to  the  Abbey  of  Lindores,  and  were  leased  in  1593, 
by  Patrick,  Commendator  of  Lindores,  to  Alexander  Irvine  of  Drum,  enumerates  the 
teinds  conveyed.  They  were  those  of  "  the  town  of  Inverurie,  lands  thereof,  milne 
lands  and  davach  lands  of  the  same,  with  the  outsetts,  pairts,  and  pendicles  ".  The 
holder  of  the  lease,  Sir  Thomas  Crombie,  alienated  in  1633,  the  teinds  of  Ardtannies, 
as  having  formed  part  of  the  teinds  thus  described. 

It  is  hence  evident  that  the  lands  held  in  Inverurie  by  David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon, 
when  he  bestowed  a  toft  in  the  burgh  of  Inverthurin  upon  the  Abbey  of  Lindores, 
along  with  the  "  tenths  of  all  his  profits,"  were  the  same  as  Leslie  of  Wardes  possessed 
in  1600,  and  which  are  now  known  as  the  Davo,  Ardtannies,  Coldwells,  and  Eashieley, 
and  which  Robert  I.'s  charter  to  "Andrew  of  Moray"  included,  when  he  described  his 
gifts  as  lands  within,  as  well  as  lands  without,  the  royal  burghs. 

A  much  later  document  bearing  on  the  extent  of  the  Burgh  of  Inverurie,  is  the  Poll 
Book  of  Aberdeenshire,  a  record  of  the  taxable  persons  in  the  county,  made  up  by 
commissioners  appointed  in  every  parish,  and  revised  and  examined  by  a  quorum  of  the 
Commissioners  of  Supply,  and  attested  by  them,  1st  April,  1696.  The  list  of  persons 
in  Inverurie   was  taken  up  by  "John   Ferguson,   Bailzie  of  Inverurie,   and   George 


30  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Ferguson,  his  son,  clerk  and  collector  (of  the  tax  levied)  nominat  be  him  for  that 
effect".  The  localities  in  which  the  individuals  registered  had  their  property,  are 
given  in  succession.  Under  the  head  "  Burgh  of  Inverury,"  are  comprehended  "  The 
town  of  Inverury,  their  proportion  of  valued  rent  "  ;  "  Alexander  Mitchell,  at  the  Milne 
of  Artannies  ;  and  "  Andrew  Jaffray  of  Kingswalls,  his  valuation  in  the  Artannies  in 
Inverury  paroche". 

This  classifying  of  Ardtannies,  under  the  head  of  the  Burgh  of  Inverurie  by  a 
commissioner,  who  was  at  the  time  a  magistrate  of  Inverurie,  John  Ferguson  of  Stone- 
house,  and  whose  ancestors  had  lived  for  centuries  in  the  burgh,  seems  to  afford  conclu- 
sive evidence  of  the  opinion  held  at  that  time  concerning  the  boundary  of  the  royalty  ; 
and  it  has  to  be  noted  that  the  list  was  revised  and  examined  by  a  quorum  of  the 
Commissioners  of  Supply  of  Aberdeenshire. 

The  Davo  of  Inverurie  becomes  interesting  when  we  are  able  to  associate  it  as  part 
of  the  Begality  lands  of  the  Garioch,  with  a  number  of  individuals  and  families  pro- 
minent in  Scottish  history.  Besides  the  Kellands  and  the  Davo  hill,  extending  from 
the  west  boundary  of  the  Upper  Roods  to  the  Polnar  burn  and  the  Garioch  Coroner  and 
Forester's  lands  of  Blackball,  those  lands  included  patches  here  and  there  over  the 
Boods  and  Haughs  of  Inverurie,  They  are  discovered  in  boundary  descriptions  con- 
tained in  dispositions  of  Boods  and  Common  Lands,  and  are  called  the  lands  of  the 
Laird  of  Wardis  ;  and  at  an  earlier  date  in  the  15th  century,  when  the  Crown  retained 
hold  of  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch,  are  named  the  lands  of  the  Lord  Superior.  The 
south  part  of  the  present  glebe  formed  part  of  the  Earldom  lands,  and  the  three  Upper 
Boods,  which  have  the  Cuning  Hill  at  their  summit.  The  Cross  of  the  burgh  stood 
near  to  or  at  the  bottom  of  these  "three  Davo  Boods";  and  royal  proclamations  of 
importance  used  to  be  made,  with  considerable  fracture  at  times  of  drinking  glasses,  not 
only  at  the  Cross,  but  afterwards  at  the  Cuning  Hill.  The  remarkable  mound  may 
have  been  a  place  associated  with  acts  of  the  Superior  from  early  times ;  bearing 
perchance,  a  political  sacredness  from  the  tradition  of  the  unfortunate  monarch,  Eth, 
having  been  buried  within  it.     Among  the  burgh  accounts  for  1719  are  included — 

Expenses  at  the  King's  Coronation — 

3  Gallons  at  the  Cross       2  08  00 

11  Pints  at  the  Tollbuith 1  02  00 

4  Pints  at  the  Cuning  Hill           08  00 


THE  CONSTABLES  OF  ENROUPJE. 

At  the  time  when  we  may  picture  to  ourselves  the  legate  Galo  "  saining  "  himself 
with  the  De  profundis  exclamavi,  as  he  ventured  "  into  the  depths  of  Scotland,"  as  far 
as  Aberdeen,  in  quest  of  his  fees,  the  country  was  already  well  studded  with  burghs, 
each  dominated  by  its  castle,  according  to  the  manner  of  the  period.  The  legate  had 
other  depths  perhaps  to  fear  in  Scotland  than  those  of  its  natural  features.     He  had 


The  Constables  of  Enrourie.  31 


overridden  his  commission  in  the  way  of  cursing  the  Scots  for  ohstinacy  shown  to  his 
authority  in  some  particulars;  and  he  might  not  be  sure  how  much  rougher  the  northern 
barons  could  be  in  their  way  than  the  heavy-handed  Italian  Knights  of  his  native 
country,  or  the  stiff  barons  of  England,  who  had  lately  humbled  the  over-good  Christian 
King  John  at  Runnymede. 

His  alarmed  visit  was  made  in  the  middle  of  the  three  prosperous  reigns  of  "William 
I.,  and  his  son,  and  grandson,  the  two  last  Alexanders.  The  country  was  at  that  time 
more  wealthy  than  it  ever  was  afterwards  until  the  union  of  the  kingdoms;  prosperous 
enough  to  appreciate  the  secular  pains  and  penalties  of  a  papal  interdict.  When 
England  was  greatly  emptied  of  money,  and  Richard  had  to  turn  into  treasure  most  of 
the  gold  and  silver  vessels  to  be  found  in  the  country,  leaving  sacred  utensils  only  to 
eveTy  third  parish,  William  the  Lion  was  able  to  give  him  a  sum  equal  to  £100,000 
sterling  now;  and  later  was  ready  to  provide  £150,000  as  dowry  to  his  own  two 
daughters,  while  the  nobles  offered  to  add  £100,000,  and  the  burghs  £60,000. 

The  three  reigns  coincided  very  much  with  the  period  of  the  Constables  of  Enrourie, 
covering  about  a  century.  South  born  landholders  imparted  a  Norman  flavour  to  the 
society  of  the  time.  If,  as  the  best  historians  say,  a  castle  was  necessary  to  every 
burgh,  doubtless  a  faithful  and  potent  Constable  was  expedient  in  every  castle.  "We 
find  no  reference  to  the  Castle  of  Inverurie  after  the  reign  of  Alexander  the  Third. 
Its  constables  noticed  in  history  were  Malcolm,  the  son  of  Bartolf,  long  the  contem- 
porary of  William  the  Lion ;  Norman,  his  son,  who  was  Earl  David's  constable  under 
William  and  Earl  John's  under  Alexander  II.  ;  and  Norino,  who,  after  his  father's 
long  tenure  of  office,  was  Constable  under  Isabel  de  Bruce,  the  great-grandmother  of 
Eobert  the  king. 

We  can  fill  up  the  history  of  the  Garioch  under  Malcolm,  the  first  Constable,  only 
with  what  the  ecclesiastical  topography  of  the  period  leads  us  to  infer  as  to  civil  events; 
and  with  the  preparation  which  the  Earl  of  the  Garioch  was  making  for  the  crusade 
under  Richard  Cceur  de  Lion,  in  which  Malcolm's  second  son,  also  named  Malcolm, 
accompanied  David,  but  not  to  return,  as  the  Earl  himself  did,  although  through  sin- 
gular misfortunes.  Malcolm,  Constable,  appears  as  a  witness  to  charters  of  David  I, 
1165-1199. 

Some  lands  in  Rayne,  known  by  their  present  names,  had  already  passed  through 
two  or  three  different  hands.  Rothmaise  and  Lintush  (then  called  Leydintoschach)  were 
become  private  property  in  a  family  claiming  descent  from  an  ancestor  who  had  borne 
the  primitive  form  of  name,  Adam  of  Rane.  The  whole  parish  had  belonged  since 
Malcolm  IV. 's  time  to  the  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  who  had  disponed  part  of  it  to  the 
Abbey  of  Melrose.  Laurence  the  Abbot,  between  1175  and  1178,  disponed  a  half 
carucate,  between  the  church  of  St.  Andrew  of  Rane  and  Rothemas,  to  Robert,  the  son 
of  Hugh,  the  son  of  Spileman.  These  are  the  earliest  properties  recognisable  by  their 
present  names  in  the   Garioch,  along  with  Ledingham  and  Malinside  in  Culsalmond. 


32  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Others  come  into  notice  soon  after ;  one  of  the  earliest  being  the  Barony  of  Caskieben, 
the  eastward  neighbour  of  the  Burgh  of  Inverurie. 

Before  Earl  David  set  out  for  the  Holy  land,  he  made  preparations  for  endowing 
his  Abbey  of  Lindores,  buying  up  for  that  purpose  tithes  and  customs — a  convenient 
form  of  ecclesiastical  revenue.  He  purchased  from  Matthew,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  the 
tithes  of  Durnach,  Rothkes  (probably  another  reading  of  Rothael),  Munkegyn,  Fyntrach, 
and  Bourdyn.  The  price  was  two  carucates  of  land  in  Kelalemunde,  a  possession  which 
had  afterwards  an  interesting  history.  It  was,  under  the  name  of  Ardlar  in  Kenneth- 
mont,  mortified  by  the  famous  Gavin  Dunbar,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  in  1529,  to  the 
town  of  Aberdeen,  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Bridge  of  Dee,  which  the  Bishop  had 
built  under  the  architectural  gui&ance  of  an  accomplished  rector  of  Kinkell,  Alexander 
Galloway. 

"With  these  tithes  and  customs,  and  those  of  his  lands  in  the  Earldom  of  the 
Garioch,  as  well  as  with  large  revenues  from  the  counties  of  Fife,  Perth,  Stirling,  and 
Forfar,  David  founded  the  Abbey  of  Lindores  ;  the  earliest  extant  charters  of  which 
bring  first  into  historical  view  the  Kirk  of  Inverurie.  When  the  Abbey  was  abolished, 
Badifurrow,  in  Inverurie  parish,  was  among  its  possessions.  Malcolm  may  be  con- 
jectured to  have  joined  his  royal  master  in  contributing  to  the  establishment  of  the 
Abbey  that  pretty  braeside,  now  called  Manar,  out  of  his  lands  of  Knockinglews, 
especially  as  it  included  the  spot  on  which  the  Kirk  of  Rothael,  or  Inverurie  stood. 
Such  a  gift  would  be  a  likely  votive  offering  for  the  safety  of  his  son,  who  followed 
David  to  the  Holy  Land. 

The  King  of  Scotland  did  not  join  Richard  of  England  and  Philip  of  France  in 
their  crusade.  "William  had  paid  to  the  English  King,  eager  to  provide  funds  for  it, 
10,000  merks,  in  exchange  for  the  renunciation  of  the  allegiance  which  he  had  been 
compelled,  when  a  prisoner  in  England,  to  swear  to  Richard's  father,  Henry,  and  for 
the  castles  of  Roxburgh,  Berwick,  and  Edinburgh,  which  he  had  then  resigned  to  the 
English  King.  David,  it  is  said,  could  not  bear  that  Scotland  should  be  unrepre- 
sented in  the  holy  war  ;  and  he  joined  the  English  standard,  with  a  few  followers,  as  a 
volunteer.  He  did  his  admired  friend  Richard  substantial  service.  Every  one  knows 
the  romantic  story  of  which  he  is  made  the  hero  in  the  novel  of  the  Talisman.  Sir  - 
Kenneth  of  Scotland's  companion,  young  Malcolm,  does  not  appear  in  the  imaginary  tale 
there  told  of  the  treacherous  overthrow  of  the  standard  of  England,  or  we  might  have 
been  able  to  trace  to  the  hillsides  of  Knockinglews  the  sleuth-hound  which  the  Prince 
left  in  charge  of  Richard's  proud  ensign  when,  against  his  better  judgment  and  con- 
science, he  was  lured  away  to  the  tent  of  the  Royal  ladies  by  the  coquettish  reproach 
upon  his  gallantry  made  by  Edith ;  and  we  might  have  discovered  in  the  gallant  dog, 
and  his  vigorous  practice  upon  the  perfidious  Conrad  of  Montserrat,  the  origin  of  the 
"  grip  fast "  griffin,  afterwards  worn  in  coat  armour  by  the  brother  of  young  Malcolm,  oi 
his  near  descendants. 


The  Constables  of  Enrourie  33 


Who  were  the  burghers  of  Inverurie  at  that  period  when  Malcolm  had  to  preside 
over  the  dwellers  upon  its  lands  1  We  have  not  their  names,  but  they  doubtless  com- 
prehended a  proportion  of  the  southern  families  introduced  by  the  royal  reformers  of 
society,  who  so  displeased  the  native  race  that  David  had  to  return  in  haste  from  war- 
like engagements  in  England  on  behalf  of  King  Richard,  to  quell  disturbances  in  the 
burghs,  arising  from  the  mixture  of  population.  Inverurie  may  have  been  one  of  the 
internally  unquiet  burghs,  as  it  sometimes  was  afterwards.  The  names  of  Lamberton, 
Bisset,  Lindsay,  Fleming,  Ellis,  Wallace,  Boswell,  Bruce,  Andrews  and  Cumming, 
mostly  in  antique  spellings,  appear  in  the  charters  of  David  and  his  son,  and  Melvill, 
Pratt,  Mowat,  Cheyne,  Randolf,  Graham,  Cambrun,  and  St.  Clair,  appear  in  the  next 


remn. 


Malcolm,  the  Constable,  was  an  older  man  than  his  relation  David,  the  Earl  of 
the  Garioch,  and  may  well  have  been  his  tutor  in  knightly  accomplishments  ;  and 
when  David  took  up  the  cause  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  the  most  honourable  knightly 
enterprise  possible  according  to  the  sentiment  of  the  time,  Malcolm  the  second  son  of 
the  Constable,  doubtless  sought  to  follow  the  royal  Earl,  and  his  little  handful  of 
knights,  as  the  most  ambitious  desire  then  to  be  realised  by  knightly  youth. 

"Norman  the  son  of  Malcolm,"  the  second  known  Constable  of  Enroury,  had  a 
long  lease  of  office.  His  memory  seems  to  have  been  cherished  in  the  family,  as  his 
name  became  a  favourite  one  among  his  descendants,  several  of  whom  made  the  name 
of  Norman  Leslie  an  honourable  one.  The  estate  of  Eothie  Norman  may  well  enough 
date  from  his  time,  neighbouring  lands  being  already  known  by  their  present  names 
— e.g.,  Auchterless  and  Frendraucht.  The  important  holder  of  the  Earldom  castle  was 
a  man  of  no  small  responsibility,  and  not  free  from  anxious  duties  during  his  master's 
absence.  The  picture  we  have  of  David's  knightly  armour  may  help  us  to  imagine 
the  style  of  Norman,  the  Constable,  issuing  from  his  weU-moated  hold  on  some  mission 
of  taking  order.  The  gonfalon  of  the  Constables  would  show  the  griffin,  instead  of 
their  lord's  emblem  of  the  rose. 

A  document  dated  after  Earl  David's  return  from  the  Holy  Land,  exhibits  one 
of  the  phases  of  social  life  at  the  time,  which  David's  own  Venetian  experience  illus- 
trates. Serfdom  was  an  institution  of  Celtic  life  in  Scotland  then,  as  much  as  it  was  of 
Norman  and  Saxon  England,  where  the  Gurths  and  Wambas  of  opulent  households 
were  equally  an  appendage  of  the  soil  with  its  herds  of  deer.  About  1200,  "  David  the 
brother  of  the  King  of  Scotland,  made  over  to  G.  Earl  of  Mar,  Gillecriste,  the  son  of 
Gillekucongal,  and  the  two  GiUecristes,  and  Gillenema,  and  Gillemarte".  The  Constable 
Norman  is  a  witness  to  that  deed,  as  he  likewise  was  to  the  final  charter  by  which  David, 
two  or  three  years  afterwards,  endowed  the  Abbey  of  Lindores.  In  the  earlier  years  of 
his  office— before  20th  August,  1199— Norman  had  witnessed  a  charter  by  Matthew, 
Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  establishing  the  Hospital  of  St.  Peter  in  Old  Aberdeen,  which  is 
commemorated  in  the  local  name  of  the    Spital.     Among  the  witnesses  was  "  Gille- 

5 


34  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

christ,  Earl  of  Mar,"  probably  the  benefactor  of  Monymusk,  and  the  owner  of  the  serfs 
made  over  by  Earl  David;  and  also  Archdeacon  Simon,  who  officially  was  Parson  of 
Rayne.  The  second  Constable  of  Enrourie  had  to  wife  the  daughter  of  Stewart  of 
Lome. 

Norman  outlived  his  great  master,  and  was  Constable  under  David's  only  surviving 
son,  John,  Earl  of  Huntingdon;  who,  succeeding  his  father  before  1219,  lived  until 
1237.  Norman  received  from  Earl  John  a  charter  (without  date)  upon  the  Leslie 
lands  held  by  his  ancestors,  with  the  exception  of  the  Kirk  of  Leslie,  which  Norman, 
following  the  example  of  his  patron  and  of  his  own  family,  bestowed  upon  the  Abbey 
of  Lindores.  That  charter  is  specially  interesting  in  the  history  of  Inverurie,  in 
respect  of  another  particular.  It  conveyed  from  the  Earldom  to  Norman,  the  lands 
of  Caskieben,  which  then  appear  for  the  first  time  in  history.  They  were  in  the  next 
century  in  the  hands  of  Andrew  de  Garviach,  from  whom  they  descended  to  the  John- 
stons, for  centuries  the  chief  family  in  the  united  parishes  of  Inverurie  and  Monkegy — 
"  the  gentle  Johnstons "  who,  with  their  retainers,  followed  the  Stuart  Monarch  to 
Flodden,  where  and  also  at  the,  to  them,  not  less  disastrous  field  of  Pinkie  or  Mussel- 
burgh, in  1547,  they  suffered  the  loss  of  their  chief,  or  leader. 

The  third  Constable  of  Enrourie,  Norino,  the  son  of  Norman,  was  the  repre- 
sentive  of  Earl  John's  younger  sister,  who,  in  some  way,  was  Earl  David's  heir  to  the 
Garioch  lands  and  lordship — Isabel  de  Bruce,  whose  great-grandson,  the  famous  King 
of  Scotland,  laid  the  foundation  of  his  authority  and  of  the  national  independence 
by  the  battle  of  Inverurie.  She  was  the  wife  of  Eobert  Bruce,  Lord  of  Annandale,  and 
his  widow  apparently  before  1248  ;  as  in  that  year  the  King,  Alexander  II.,  "  at  the 
instance  of  Isabel  de  Bruiss  and  Eobert  de  Bruiss  her  son,  gave  to  Norino,  the  Con- 
stable, the  son  of  Norman,  the  lands  of  Leslie  in  free  forest ".  According  to  the  family 
history  of  the  Leslies,  Norino  was  a  principal  officer  in  the  Court  of  his  liege  lady.  By 
his  marriage  with  a  Fifeshire  heiress,  he  increased  the  connection  of  his  house  with  that 
county,  which  at  last  attracted  the  Leslies  to  Fife,  and  gave  their  name  to  a  parish, 
where  the  Earls  of  Rothes,  chiefs  of  the  name,  long  resided.  The  widowed  Lady  of 
the  Garioch  would,  doubtless,  have  much  dependence  upon  her  Constable.  Her  son  was 
a  large  holder  of  English  lands,  partly  from  David  of  Huntingdon,  his  grandfather. 
Like  inany  southern  barons  of  Scotland,  he  much  frequented  the  English  Court,  and 
had  married  into  the  family  of  the  Earls  of  Gloucester.  His  son,  the  third  Robert,  was 
a  friend  and  follower  of  Prince  Edward,  afterwards  the  unscrupulous  oppressor  of  him- 
self and  his  celebrated  son,  and  he  accompanied  the  English  prince  to  the  holy  wars 
under  Louis  IX.  of  France.  His  romantic  marriage  with  the  Countess  of  Carrick, 
after  his  return,  has  been  already  noticed.  There  was  perhaps  no  idea  when  the 
fourth  Robert,  their  son,  was  born,  that  he  could  become  a  competitor  for  the  Scottish 
crown.  The  two  kingdoms  had  been  intended  to  be  united  by  the  marriage  of  the 
daughter  of  Alexander  III.  to  Edward's  son  ;  and  it  was  by  the  disastrous  death,  first 


The  Cundablen  of  Enrourie.  35 


of  Alexander,  and  next  of  the  destined  bride  of  young  Edward,  that  the  family  of 
Bruce  was  brought  into  its  historic  prominence. 

Inverurie  had  occasionally  royal  neighbours  during  the  time  of  the  second  and 
third  Constables.  The  royal  forest  of  Kintore,  lying  west  of  the  burgh  in  the  hills  now 
traversed  by  the  Alford  Valley  Railway,  seems  to  have  been  a  favourite  hunting  ground. 
William  the  Lion,  and  his  two  immediate  successors  on  the  throne,  were,  with  a  courtly 
following  of  clergy  and  barons,  repeatedly  there;  and  all  three  executed  charters  at 
"  Kintoir".  Edward  I.  in  his  angry  raid  through  Aberdeenshire,  in  1296,  was  at  Kyn- 
torre  Manoir,  on  Friday,  20th  July  ;  and  Hall-forest  only  ceased,  and  that  not  entirely, 
to  be  a  royal  forest,  when  Eobert  I.  rewarded  with  a  gift  of  it  Sir  Eobert  Keith,  the 
Marischal,  for  his  faithful  support  of  him  and  of  his  country's  cause.  It  is  far  from 
unlikely  that  the  Constable  Norino  had,  at  some  time,  in  his  castle-dwelling  on  the  Bass, 
another  illustrious  man  as  his  guest.  Thomas  of  Erceldoune  was  a  great  traveller, 
and  intimate  in  courtly  circles ;  and  observation  is  much  more  likely  than  inspiration 
to  have  been  the  source  of  his  utterance  respecting  the  designs  of  the  bonny  water  of 
Ury  "  to  bear  the  Bass  away ; " — a  prophecy  which  Sir  James  Balfour,  in  his  Collec- 
tions, calls  a  "  foolysche  old  ryme  which  the  inhabitants  heir  have  alwayes  in  their 
mouthes  ". 

In  the  time  of  the  third  Constable,  the  new  constitution  of  parishes  in  the  Garioch 
was  arranged,  that  was  rendered  necessary  by  the  wide  erection  of  Abbeys,  such  as 
Lindores,  holding  most  of  the  ecclesiastical  revenues  of  the  churches.  The  national 
policy  of  the  time,  and  that  which  brought  the  third  Alexander,  while  yet  a  youth, 
into  severe  conflict  with  the  Roman  Pontiff,  was  to  secure,  or  defend,  the  liberties  and 
amenities  of  the  Church  ;  and  possibly  some  national  pressure  made  the  Abbeys  agree, 
in  1257,  to  an  adequate  provision  for  the  service  of  the  parishes,  whose  tithes  they 
had  absorbed.  In  that  year  Pope  Alexander  IV.  ratified  the  following  emoluments 
secured  to  the  vicars  in  the  Garioch  by  their  superior  Abbeys.  (The  merks  may  be 
rendered  into  ten  times  the  same  number  of  pounds  sterling) : — 

Dournoch  (Logydurno)  by  the  Abbey  of  Lindores,  21  merks,  the  whole  altarage 
(fees  for  particular  masses)  an  acre  of  land  for  a  manse  next  the  church,  three  acres  of 
land  belonging  to  the  Chapel  of  Eossochetis  (Rosthivet  1)  and  a  third  part  of  a  carucate 
of  land  then  held  by  Richard  the  vicar. 

Leslie,  by  the  Abbey  of  Lindores,  12  merks,  the  altarage,  manse  and  kirklands, 
with  half  the  teind  sheaves  of  the  town  of  Henry  Johnston  : 

Prameth  (Premnay),  by  the  Abbey  of  Lindores,  16  merks,  the  altarage,  an  acre  of 
land  for  a  manse  next  the  church,  with  the  teind  sheaves  of  the  land  then  cultivated  of 
the  town  of  Prameth,  lying  on  the  north  side  of  the  rivulet  called  the  Gaudy,  and  with 
the  brewhouse  of  Prameth  : 

Inchemabayn  (Insch),  by  the  Abbey  of  Lindores,  20  merks,  the  altarage,  an  acre 


36  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 


for  a  manse  next  the  church,  the  teind  sheaves  of  Drumrossie,  and  the  third  part  of 
the  teind  sheaves  of  the  town  of  Incheniabayn  : 

Culsamuel  (Culsalinond),  by  the  Abbey  of  Lindores,  20  merks,  the  altarage,  the 
manse  next  the  church,  the  kirkland  with  its  tithes,  the  tithe  of  the  mill,  the  brew- 
house  on  the  kirkland,  and  tbird  part  of  the  teind  of  Normanstown : 

Bethelny  (Meldrum),  by  the  Abbey  of  Arbroath,  15  merks,  the  altarage,  6  merks 
in  teind  sheaves  upon  the  land  in  the  parish  then  cultivated  : 

Kynnakemund-  (Kennethmont),  by  the  Abbey  of  Lindores,  15  merks,  an  acre  of 
land  beside  the  church  for  a  manse,  the  altarage,  reserving  thirty  lambs  (probably  the 
name  of  a  coin  like  the  French  money  then  called  moutons)  yearly  to  the  abbot  and 
convent : 

Eathmuryell  (part  of  Insch),  12  merks,  the  altarage,  a  manse  with  two  bovates  of 
land  and  the  great  tithes  of  the  then  cultivated  land  of  Eathmuryell : 

The  provision  for  Inveroury,  of  which  Munkegin  was  a  chapel,  both  belonging  to 
the  Abbey  of  Lindores,  was  33  merks,  the  altarage,  the  manse  belonging  to  the  church, 
and  the  tithes  of  the  cultivated  land  of  Cknockinglas  (Conglass). 

The  Abbeys  and  other  centralising  institutions  of  the  Church  were  three  hundred 
years  afterwards  condemned  for  their  abuses.  At  the  time  of  their  institution,  they  were 
doubtless  called  into  existence  by  the  necessities  of  the  time,  in  order  to  prevent  abuses 
and  as  being  the  most  promising  means  of  securing  desirable  advantages.  It  is  very 
probable  that,  in  exchange  for  a  considerable  share  of  the  tithes  of  the  parishes  be- 
stowed upon  them,  they  secured  the  maintenance  of  a  Christian  ministry  in  places 
where  powerful  landholders  would  not  have  been  either  regular,  or  exact,  in  paying 
their  allotted  proportions  of  what  was  necessary  for  that  object.  Places  of  concen- 
trated learning  and  combined  talent  and  united  social  influence,  they  came  to  discharge 
those  functions  in  the  commonwealth  which  were  fulfilled  by  the  great  colleges  and 
hospitals  of  later  periods ;  and  they  also  anticipated  the  guilds  of  after-times  in  forming 
a  counterpoise  to  the  influence  exercised  in  the  State  by  the  personal  ambition  of  the 
sovereign,  or  the  powerful  nobles;  while  they  also  afforded  a  refuge,  which  modern 
times  do  not  stand  in  need  of,  for  the  friendless,  when  the  courts  of  justice  were  not 
strong  enough  to  keep  the  powerful  and  unscrupulous  in  check. 

Fifteen  years  before  the  date  of  the  Papal  decree  referred  to  above,  Fetternear 
began  its  interesting  ecclesiastical  history.  The  town  and  church  had  belonged  to  the 
bishop  of  Aberdeen  in  1157.  Alexander  II,  in  1242,  erected  the  lands  of  Brass  and 
Fethyrner  into  a  free  forest  to  Bishop  Balph  and  his  successors.  Fetternear  after  that 
became  a  favourite  episcopal  residence;  and  it  passed  into  lay  hands  only  at  the 
Eeformation,  when  the  last  Eoman  Catholic  bishop,  the  accomplished  but  libertine 
George  Gordon,  brother  of  the  Earl  of  Huntly,  disponed  it  to  William.  Leslie  of 
Balquhain ;  who,  as  sub-sheriff  of  Aberdeen,  had,  with  the  aid  of  his  personal  retainers, 
preserved  the  cathedral  from  destruction  by  the  Angus  rioters,  who  came  to  reform 


The  Constables  of  Enrourie.  37 


Aberdeen  by  fire  and  sword.  William  was  parson  of  Fetternear  in  1236,  and  John 
his  vicar  then  and  in  1242,  when  the  king  gave  it  to  Bishop  Ralph.  They  are  the 
earliest  priests  of  the  Garioeh  whom  we  know,  except  Hugh,  who  was  the  rector  of 
Bourtie  before  1199. 

In  1262,  we  come  upon  the  first  recorded  vicar  of  Inverurie,  Dominus  Bicardus, 
who  appears  among  the  witnesses  to  a  deed  interesting  for  its  association  with  Inver- 
urie, and  with  early  Garioeh  families.  A  dispute  had  arisen  between  the  first  Meldrum 
of  Meldrum,  Sir  Bhilip  de  Melgdrum  (husband  of  Agnes  Cumyn,  the  Earl  of  Buchan's 
sister)  on  the  one  part,  and  the  Abbey  of  Aberbrothock  on  the  other,  respecting  the 
tithes  of  the  parish  of  Bethelny,  which  had  been  given  to  the  Abbey,  by  William 
Cumyn,  first  Earl  of  Buchan,  the  brother  or  uncle  of  Sir  Fhilip's  wife,  and  had  been 
confirmed  by  Alexander  II.,  22nd  February,  1221-2.  The  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  Bichard 
Fottock,  an  Englishman,  had  to  decide  the  case.  He  held  a  court  at  "  Inverhury," 
21st  January,  1262  ;  and  his  decreet  was  witnessed  by  Bichard,  the  vicar,  by  William 
Lamberton,  rector  of  Turriff,  Boger  Stainforth,  vicar  of  Banchory-terny,  Thomas  de 
Bennin,  rector  of  the  schools  of  Aberdeen,  and  Boger  Sharcheburg  official,  the  office 
held,  at  least  in  later  times,  by  the  parsons  of  Oyne. 

Where  did  the  bishop  hold  his  court  ?  Was  the  castle  still  standing,  or  did  he 
summon  the  disputants  to  the  kirk  of  Polnar,  or  to  the  Earldom  manor  of  Ardtannies  ? 
riding  down  the  water  side  from  his  palace  of  Fethyrner,  while  the  members  of  his 
chapter  who  attended,  and  the  litigants,  Sir  Philip  de  Melgdrum,  and  the  Procurator  of 
Arbroath,  rode  to  the  place  of  trial  up  the  Davo,  and  over  the  crown  of  the  Corseman 
Hill ;  where  many  a  man  rode  afterwards,  and  some  no  further,  as  appears  by  the 
numerous  tumuli  left  behind  them. 

The  schools  of  Aberdeen  were  evidently  institutions  of  importance  at  that  time 
The  period  was  one  of  the  most  prosperous,  socially,  of  Scottish  history ;  though  close 
at  hand  was  the  long  dark  period  of  the  struggle  for  national  independence.  It  was  in 
the  year  after  this  Inverurie  Court  was  held,  that  King  Alexander,  aided  by  a 
providental  storm,  finally  broke  the  power  of  the  Danish  invaders  of  Scotland  in  the 
Frith  of  Clyde,  and  inaugurated  the  subjugation  of  the  Hebrides  to  the  Scottish  crown. 

It  is  in  a  charter  of  the  same  bishop  that  the  lands  of  Glack  first  appear  by  name. 
The  Aberdeen  bishops  had  got  the  schyre  and  parish  of  Daviot  from  Malcolm  the 
Maiden ;  and  Glack,  Lethenty,  and  Fingask  all  are  held  by  episcopal  charters.  In 
1272,  the  bishop  gave  a  charter  of  Glack  to  Ade  (Andrew)  de  Pilmure.  His  son  Ade 
succeeded  him,  whose  daughter  Alice  married  Glaster  of  Eumgair.  Murdoch  Glaster, 
their  son,  was  the  first  of  the  Glasters  of  Glack. 

The  last  of  the  Constables,  Norino,  was  succeeded  in  his  family  estates  before 
1282,  by  Norman  de  Leslie,  the  first  who  adopted  the  name  of  Leslie,  one  of  the 
unfortunate  magnates  who  had  to  succumb  to  Edward's  pretensions  to  be  Overlord  of 
Scotland.      He  is  said  by  Sir  Robert  Douglas  to   have  married  Elizabeth  Leith  of 


38  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Edingerack,  the  first  name  that  appears  of  that  long-descended  Garioch  family.  In 
1282,  Alexander  III.  gave  Norman  de  Leslie  a  gift  of  the  lands  of  Fythkill,  now  called 
Leslie,  in  Fife.  It  was  the  year  in  which  Margaret  the  King's  daughter  was  married  to 
Eric,  King  of  Norway,  and  these  were  the  parents  of  the  Maiden  of  Norway,  through 
whose  death  the  succession  to  the  crown  of  Scotland  opened  up  the  long  period  of  the 
Edward  Wars,  by  which  Scotland  from  a  condition  of  great  prosperity  and  affluence 
was  plunged  into  penury. 


THE    WAR    OF    INDEPENDENCE. 

When  Alexander,  our  King,  was  dead, 
That  Scotland  led  in  love  and  le  (law) 
Away  was  sonse  of  ale  and  breid, 
And  wine  and  wax,  and  game  and  glee  ; 
Our  gold  was  changed  into  lead, 
Christ  born  into  virginitie — 
Oh  succour  Scotland  and  remede  ! 
That  sted  is  in  peqjlexitie. 

The  Garioch  did  not  suffer  in  the  more  early  disputes  about  the  Scottish  crown  so 
much  as  did  the  districts  further  south.  It  became  a  prey  to  hostile  armies  chiefly 
after  the  last  Eobert  Bruce  threw  himself  into  the  patriotic  struggle,  when  the  four- 
teenth century  had  opened,  and  the  contest  between  him  and  Cuniyn,  Earl  of  Buchan, 
followed  the  raids  and  taxations  of  Edward. 

Who  was  it  that  represented  the  Earl  of  Garioch  during  that  distressed  period  1 
The  title  does  not  appear  in  any  known  charters  after  Isabel,  the  second  daughter  of 
David  of  Huntingdon,  possessed  the  dignity  as  her  father's  heir,  on  the  death  of  her 
brother  John.  Wynton,  however,  mentions  it  in  her  line.  Her  son  had  a  higher  title 
open  to  his  claims.  The  right  of  succession  to  the  throne  of  Scotland — then  vacant — 
lay  among  the  representatives  of  the  three  daughters  of  David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon  and 
the  Garioch.  These  were  John  Baliol,  an  English  baron,  grandson  of  the  eldest ; — 
Eobert  Bruce,  Lord  of  Annandale,  son  of  the  second ;  and  Lord  Hastings,  also  an 
English  baron,  son  of  the  third  daughter. 

Hastings  proposed  a  division  of  the  kingdom  of  Scotland  among  the  three.  The 
Scottish  nobles  rejected  the  ignominious  suggestion,  and  resolved  to  submit  the  claims 
of  Baliol  and  Bruce  to  the  arbitration  of  Edward  I.  of  England ;  a  wise  and  powerful 
prince,  to  whose  son  the  Maiden  of  Norway,  Queen  of  Scotland,  was  to  have  been 
married. 

The  English  King,  however,  had  other  views  than  to  arbitrate.  Since  the  time 
William  the  Lion  had  sworn  allegiance  to  Henry,  when  deservedly  in  his  toils,  the 
English  monarchs  had  never  ceased  trying  to  recover  the  position  of  Overlords  of 
Scotland.  Alexander  III.  married  the  daughter  of  the  King  Henry  of  his  day  when  a 
boy ;  and  then  and  afterwards  had  to  withstand  renewed  attempts  to  entangle  him. 


The  War  of  Independence.  39 


Edward,  on  being  applied  to  by  the  Scottish  lords,  succeeded  in  frightening  them  into 
an  admission  of  his  claim  to  the  lordship  of  Scotland. 

He  asked  the  opinion  of  the  lawyers  of  the  University  of  Paris  upon  the  rule  of 
succession  in  the  case,  and  they  decided  in  favour  of  the  son  of  the  younger  daughter  in 
preference  to  the  grandson  of  the  elder.  Edward  told  his  English  Council  of  the  law 
thus  enunciated,  but  he  was  warned  against  risking  the  selection  of  Bruce,  and  in  the 
end  made  choice  of  John  Baliol,  his  English  vassal,  as  the  candidate  most  likely  to  be 
amenable  to  his  advice  or  control.  Bruce  quietly  accepted  this  decision ;  for  his  estates 
lay  close  to  the  English  border,  and  he  had  married  into  the  family  of  the  Earls  of 
Gloucester,  who  were  afterwards  to  display  faithful  friendship  to  his  grandson  the 
famous  Robert  de  Bruce,  King  of  Scotland. 

Neither  the  second  Robert  Bruce,  nor  his  son — the  Crusader  companion  of 
Edward,  and  the  second  husband  of  the  romantic  Countess  of  Carrick — took  much  of 
active  share  in  the  national  politics. 

The  latter  resigned  the  Earldom  of  Carrick,  held  in  right  of  his  wife,  to  their  son, 
the  fourth  and  greatest  Robert,  while  the  future  King  was  yet  a  minor,  and  retired  to 
England.  He  took  no  part  in  Baliol's  revolt  from  Edward  in  1297  ;  and  Baliol  seques- 
trated his  lordship  of  Ananderdale,  as  Wynton  names  it,  giving  it  to  John  Cumyn,  Earl 
of  Buchan,  afterwards  the  antagonist  of  King  Robert  at  the  battle  of  Inverurie.  On 
the  resignation  of  Baliol,  the  Bruce  ventured  to  remind  his  old  fellow-crusader  Edward, 
of  a  promise, he  believed  he  had  from  him  of  the  Crown,  but  was  met  with  the  answer, 
"  Have  we  nothing  to  do  but  to  win  kingdoms  for  you  1 "  Probably  well  acquainted  of 
old  with  Edward's  temper  and  strength  of  will,  he  withdrew  himself  into  a  position  of 
personal  safety ;  and  Sir  William  "Wallace,  of  Elderslie,  became  the  leader  of  the  patriots 
until  his  tragical  end,  in  1305. 

It  was  not  until  after  the  new  century  had  opened  that  Robert  Bruce,  the  fourth, 
— always,  it  is  said,  more  Scottish  than  his  father — stung  by  what  he  saw  and  felt 
in  England  and  at  the  same  time  in  jeopardy  by  a  traitorous  act  of  Cumyn,  Earl  of 
Badenoch,  resolved  to  throw  himself  into  the  cause  of  his  country's  independence.  That 
was  in  1306,  only  two  years  before  he  became  so  closely  associated  with  the  Garioch 
by  the  battle  of  Inverurie,  in  which  he  defeated  John  Cumyn,  nephew  of  Baliol. 

The  victory  at  Inverurie  was  the  first  event  that  imparted  courage  to  Aberdeen- 
shire in  the  national  cause.  Before  that  success  nothing  appears  but  humiliating, 
though  probably  defensible,  submission  to  Edward.  The  resident  at  Fetternear,  Henry 
Cheyne,  the  bishop  from  1282  to  1328,  and  Sir  Norman  Leslie,  the  head  of  the  Leslies, 
but  no  longer  the  representative  of  the  Earls  of  Garioch  in  Inverurie,  encountered  the 
hard  lot  of  having,  as  prominent  persons,  to  play  a  part  in  the  difficult  transactions 
with  the  English  King,  which  filled  up  some  years  at  the  meeting  of  the  centuries. 
They  had  to  do  what  most  of  the  Scottish  magnates  had  to  submit  to,  "  jouk  an'  lat 
the  jaw  gang  bye,"  but  nevertheless  seem  to  have  been  patriots  at  heart. 


40  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

The  bishop  was  the  third  son  of  Francis  Cheyne  of  Inverugie,  by  Isabel,  daughter  of 
John  Ciimyn,  Earl  of  Buchan.  He  removed  the  early  Cathedral  of  Aberdeen,  and  began 
the  present  edifice  when  he  was  interrupted  by  the  Edward  wars.  He  had  been  a 
Privy  Councillor  to  Alexander  III.,  and  in  1282,  was  one  of  the  magnates  who  address- 
ed Edward  I.  on  the  project  of  marrying  the  youthful  Queen  to  Prince  Edward, 
afterwards  the  fugitive  from  Bannockburn.  The  two  kingdoms  were,  at  that  time, 
socially  ripe  for  the  union  which  was  projected,  had  the  juvenile  Queen  Margaret,  the 
Maiden  of  Norway,  been  spared  to  become  Edward  II. 'a  queen,  and  mother  to  a  King 
of  all  Britain.  Upon  her  death,  and  the  arbitration  for  the  Crown  thence  arising, 
Bishop  Henry  Cheyne  was  appointed  by  John  Baliol  one  of  the  assessors  on  his  side, 
and  succumbed  to  the  overbearing  power,  the  vultus  instantis  tyranni,  of  Edward  I., 
who  demanded,  before  he  would  enter  on  the  business,  to  be  acknowledged  by  the 
Scottish  nobles  as  the  Superior  of  Scotland.  In  1296,  after  Baliol's  rebellion  against 
his  acknowledged  lord,  the  Bishop  joined  in  admitting  Edward's  more  insolent  claim  to 
be  Proprietor  of  Scotland.  At  Aberdeen,  he  swore  fealty  to  the  English  monarch,  along 
with  Sir  Norman  de  Lesselyn,  Sir  Alexander  Lamberton,  Sir  Gilbert  de  la  Haye,  Sir 
Hugh  de  la  Hay,  and  Sir  William  Innes ;  on  which  sad  occasion  Sir  Norman  appears 
jointly  with  other  magnates  agreeing  to  renounce  the  old  Scottish  league  with  France. 
The  Scottish  nobles  were,  as  VVynton  says  of  the  whole  country  at  the  time,  "  sted  in 
perplexitie".  Most  of  them  held  as  large  possessions  in  England  as  in  Scotland,  and 
the  claimants  of  the  crown  were  in  the  same  position. 

A  month  after  those  transactions  at  Aberdeen,  Edward  marched  across  the  Garioch, 
but  does  not  seem  to  have  been  at  Inverurie.  On  Friday,  20th  July,  he  proceeded 
from  Aberdeen  to  Kintore — a  Kyntorre  manoir — next  day  to  Lumphanan,  and  thence 
to  Fyvie.  On  Sunday,  22nd  July,  he  went  to  Banff — Baneff  Chastel — and  on  Monday 
to  Cullen — a  Inverculen  manoir — and  on  Tuesday  was  in  the  Enzie.  Another  ac- 
count makes  him  to  have  been  at  Kinkell  on  Friday,  July  20,  and  at  Fyvie  next  day. 
The  "  Kyntorre  manoir  "  must  have  been  Hall-forest,  which  stood  on  the  high  road 
from  Aberdeen  to  the  north,  as  Lumphanan  was  on  that  from  the  "  Munth".  The 
march  was  a  remarkable  one,  deflecting  from  Kintore  to  Lumphanan,  on  the  way  to 
Fyvie. 

Edward's  dotour  to  Lumphanan— which  may  have  been  occasioned  by  some  infor- 
mation received  from  the  west  of  Aberdeenshire — brings  to  mind  what  was  a  distinctive 
geographical  feature  of  the  north  of  Scotland  from  earliest  recorded  times  until  after 
the  English  wars.  The  country  was  always  regarded  as  divided  into  north  and  south  by 
"  the  Munth  "  ;  and  the  highway  still  in  use  over  the  Cairn  o'  Mount  formed  then  the 
principal  passage  into  the  northern  part  of  the  kingdom.  The  remains  of  lake  dwellings 
in  Loch  Cannor,  the  pond  barrows  and  erde  houses  in  Kildrummy  moor,  and  the  colony 
of  Flemings  settled  in  the  twelfth  century  at  the  springs  of  the  Gadie,  all  afford  evi- 
dence that  industrial  population  abounded  upon  that  line.      Mr.   Skene  has  recently 


The  War  of  Independence.  41 


added  farther  proof,  in  shewing  that  the  Devana  of  the  Romans  was  near  Ballater, 
where  Loch  Dawain  still  preserves  the  name  of  the  primitive  historical  town. 

Sir  "William  "Wallace,  Guardian  of  Scotland,  the  most  disinterested  of  the  Scottish 
patriots  of  the  time,  visited  Fetternear  the  year  after  Edward's  progress.  He  came 
north  in  the  course  of  a  series  of  rapid  conquests  during  which  he  nearly  expelled  the 
English  from  the  country,  after  the  treachery  practised  upon  him  during  truce  at  Ayr. 
He  found  Aberdeen  deserted  by  Edward's  forces.  The  name  Wallace  Tower,  which 
attached  to  a  portion  of  the  House  of  Fetternear  now  removed,  commemorates  his  short 
residence  there.  In  the  following  year  the  last  competition  for  the  Scottish  Crown, 
that  between  the  Red  Cumyn,  Earl  of  Badenoch,  nephew  of  Baliol,  and  Robert  Bruce, 
grandson  of  Sir  Robert  Bruce,  the  first  competitor,  was  begun  ;  and  the  Bishop  of 
Aberdeen,  who  was  Cumyn's  relative,  renounced  his  allegiance  to  Edward,  espousing 
the  cause  of  Bruce's  opponent.  On  the  success  of  Bruce,  the  Bishop  was  banished  for 
a  while  by  the  new  King ;  who,  however,  assigned  the  episcopal  revenues  in  the  mean- 
time to  the  rebuilding  of  the  Cathedral. 

Other  early  contemporaries  of  Bishop  Cheyne  were  soon  to  have  more  to  do  with 
Inverurie  and  its  neighbourhood  through  the  future  King.  One  of  Alexander  III.'s 
knights,  Donald,  Earl  of  Mar,  the  holder  of  wide  lands  in  Scotland,  and,  through  his 
wife,  of  some  in  England,  had  been,  along  with  the  Earl  of  Atholl,  the  most  powerful 
supporter  of  the  claim  of  Sir  Robert  Bruce,  Lord  of  Annandale,  to  the  crown,  while  the 
Cumyns,  a  very  powerful  family,  supported  Baliol.  Earl  Donald  was  one  of  Bruce's 
assessors,  and,  as  such,  submitted  along  with  the  assessors  on  both  sides  to  allow  the 
position  of  Overlord  to  Edward,  when,  at  Upsettlington  on  the  Tweed,  he  agreed  only 
on  that  condition  to  arbitrate.  Robert  Bruce,  Earl  of  Carrick,  the  future  King,  married 
Donald's  daughter,  Isabel,  in  1291  or  earlier;  a  political  step  probably,  as  he  could  have 
been  only  seventeen  years  of  age  at  the  time.  The  young  lady's  brother  also  became 
the  husband  of  Bruce's  sister,  and  ancestor  of  all  the  Lords  of  the  Garioch. 

In  the  year  1291,  in  the  interest  of  Sir  Robert  Bruce,  Lord  of  Annandale,  the 
Earl  of  Mar  appealed,  along  with  six  Earls  of  Scotland,  and  the  freemen  of  Moray,  to 
Edward  against  the  Wardens  of  Scotland — William  Bishop  of  St.  Andrews  and  Sir 
John  Cumyn — because  of  their  wasting  and  plundering  lands  and  towns,  and  killing 
men,  women,  and  boys.  Earl  Donald  was  summoned  to  London  in  1294,  to  serve  in 
the  English  war  in  Gascony,  but  in  April,  1296,  after  Baliol's  rebellion  against  Edward, 
he  was  in  arms  on  the  Scottish  side.  He  was  taken  prisoner  after  the  battle  of  Dunbar, 
and  never  left  England  free  again ;  and  the  English  king,  playing  the  hypocritical 
friend  of  Cumyn  and  Bruce  separately,  seems  to  have  set  himself  to  cultivate  the  Earl's 
son  Gartney,  the  husband  then,  or  afterwards,  of  Christian  Bruce. 

Edward  made  Gartney  and  Bishop  Henry  his  Sheriffs  in  Aberdeenshire,  and 
possibly  Gartney  may  have  continued  in  that  dignity  until  1305,  when  Sir  Norman 
Leslie  held  it.     In  1297,  Gartney  and  the   Bishop  received  a  letter  of  thanks  from 

6 


42  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the   Garioch. 

Edward,  for  "  suppression  of  the  enormities  perpetrated  by  malefactors  "  in  Aberdeen- 
shire, and  were  ordered  to  go  into  Moray  and  Inverness  to  the  same  work,  and  to 
succour  with  all  their  power  Fitz- Warren,  Constable  of  the  King's  Castle  of  Urquhart 
on  Loch  Ness.  The  chief  person  named  among  those  against  whom  Gartney  had  to 
succour  the  English  soldier,  was  Andrew  of  Moray,  whose  son  Sir  Andrew  Murray  of 
Bothwell,  thirty  years  after,  married  Gartney's  own  widow,  and  had  with  her  as  a 
bridal  dower  the  Earldom  lands  of  the  Garioch,  including  the  Davo  lands  (Ardtannies, 
&c.)  of  Inverurie,  and  the  estates  of  Conglass  and  Bourtie.  Andrew  of  Moray  was  a 
chief  ally  of  Sir  William  Wallace,  and  fell  in  the  battle  of  Stirling  in  1297.  His 
brother,  Will,  de  Mureff,  whom  he  succeeded,  was  one  of  those  who  had  sworn  fealty 
to  Edward  I. 

The  Castle  of  Kildrummy,  the  style  of  which,  exactly  resembling  the  castles  built 
by  Edward  I.  in  Wales,  assigns  it  to  the  same  period,  had  probably  been  built  by 
Donald,  or  Gartney,  on  Edward's  suggestion,  during  the  disturbed  years  which  succeeded 
the  death  of  the  Maiden  of  Norway.  It  was  evidently  through  connection  with  the 
Mar  family  that  it  came  into  the  Bruce's  power.  Donald,  Earl  of  Mar,  died  after  the 
midsummer  of  1297,  and  Gartney  his  son  apparently  did  not  live  beyond  1305.  In 
that  year  Robert  Bruce  was  summoned  by  Edward  to  surrender  the  castle  to  some  one 
who  should  be  answerable  to  the  English  King  for  the  same.  Bruce  had  been  holding 
it,  it  is  likely,  as  guardian  of  his  own  nephew,  Gartney's  son,  Donald. 

The  future  king  was  by  that  time  fairly  entered  upon  his  pursuit  of  the  war  of 
independence,  and  was  become  Edward's  chief  anxiety,  who  had  brought  him  upon  the 
field  of  competition  for  the  crown,  after  a  great  disappointment  in  his  design  upon 
Scotland  in  1 302.  King  Edward  seems  all  along  to  have  tried  to  sow  dissension  among 
the  Scots  as  a  means  to  securing  his  own  ends  ;  and  young  Bruce  was  to  be,  like  his 
grandfather,  played  off  against  both  Wallace  and  Cumyn. 

The  English  King  had  overdone  his  encroaching  policy  in  his  treatment  of  King 
John  Baliol;  and. when  Baliol  resigned  the  Scottish  crown,  Edward  found  that  he  had 
lost  the  faction  of  Baliol  in  addition  to  that  of  Bruce.  He  had  therefore  to  attempt 
fomenting  their  jealousy  of  each  other  so  as  to  regain  his  lost  ground.  In  the  patriotic 
plans  and  undertakings  of  Wallace,  which  filled  up  much  of  the  interregnum,  Baliol's 
nearest  relative,  Cumyn,  Earl  of  Badenoch,  and  Robert  Bruce,  had  both  taken  active 
interest.  Edward  first  endeavoured,  and  with  some  success,  to  induce  both  of  them  to 
suspect  the  Guardian  of  designs  upon  the  crown ;  and  after  he  was  disheartened  into  a 
temporary  resignation  of  his  position  at  the  head  of  the  Scottish  patriots,  King  Edward 
attempted  to  undermine  the  confidence  of  the  two  heirs  to  the  throne  in  each  other. 

In  1300,  Wallace  went  for  a  time  to  France,  at  the  invitation  of  the  French  King, 
in  order  to  train  an  army  for  that  monarch,  a  five  years'  peace  having  been  concluded 
between  Scotland  and  England ;  but  he  was  shortly  summoned  back,  to  deal  with  a 
new  state  of  affairs.     The  Earl  of  Carrick,  believing  himself  befriended  by  Edward,  was 


The  War  of  Independence.  43 


subduing  the  south-west  of  Scotland,  while  Edward  again  overran  the   rest   of   the 
country  ;  when  he  carried  off  the  national  archives  and  the  precious  coronation-stone. 

In  1305,  Wallace  was  betrayed  into  Edward's  power,  and  vindictively  executed  at 
London,  23rd  August  of  that  year.  Shortly  after,  Cumyn  and  Bruce,  discovering  in  an 
interview  that  they  were  being  made  use  of  for  the  King  of  England's  purposes,  entered 
into  a  secret  agreement  that  whichever  of  them  could  obtain  the  crown,  the  other  would 
be  content  with  being  secured  in  his  own  estates.  Cumyn  basely  revealed  the  paction  to 
Edward,  while  Bruce  was  at  the  English  Court ;  and  Edward  let  his  suspicions  of  the 
Earl  of  Carrick  so  far  escape  him,  that  an  English  nobleman  then  present,  Bruce's 
cousin,  the  Earl  of  Gloucester,  warned  the  young  man  of  his  danger  by  sending  him  a 
purse  and  a  pair  of  spurs.  Bruce  fled  for  refuge  to  his  own  domain  at  Lochmaben  ; 
and  probably  it  was  about  that  time  that  he  was  summoned  to  surrender  Kildrummy 
Castle.  On  the  discovery  of  further  treacherous  proposals  of  Cumyn,  Bobert  Bruce 
and  the  "male  siccar"  Kirkpatrick,  slaughtered  his  faithless  competitor  at  the  high 
altar  of  the  kirk  of  Dumfries. 

It  is  interesting  to  the  history  of  Inverurie  to  observe  that  one  of  the  great  an- 
cestors of  the  Keith  family,  Bobert  Keith,  was  among  the  allies  and  followers  of  the 
patriot  Wallace,  when  Guardian  of  Scotland,  and  afterwards  faithfully  supported  young 
Bobert  Bruce. 

Another  associate  of  the  Guardian  is  also  connected  by  tradition  with  the  Garioch. 
When  Wallace  was  on  his  voyage  to  France,  he  encountered  Thomas  de  Charteris, 
known  as  Sir  Thomas  de  Longueville,  who,  with  sixteen  ships,  was  scouring  the  North 
Sea  as  a  pirate.  Longueville  boarded  AVallace's  ship ;  but  was  overmastered  by  the 
latter.  He  became  an  attached  follower  of  his  conqueror.  It  was  LongueviEe  who 
brought  to  Bruce,  in  Galloway,  the  news  of  the  betrayal  and  death  of  Wallace  in  1305  ; 
and  he  thenceforth  attached  himself  to  the  interests  of  the  future  King.  Longueville's 
grave  is  traditionally  said  to  be  in  the  kirkyard  of  Bourtie  ;  and  he  chose  the  spot  him- 
self by  shooting  an  arrow  from  the  hill  of  Lawellside.  Tradition  also  connects  Longue- 
ville with  the  Castle  of  Midrnar,  where  Wallace  is  said  to  have  given  him  a  hunting 
seat. 

In  1306,  the  decided  step  of  the  King's  coronation  followed  a  few  early  successes 
obtained  in  Galloway;  some  robes  of  state  having  been  hastily  inprovised,  and  one  or 
two  representatives  of  the  families  hereditarily  officiating  in  that  office  in  Scotland 
having  been  quickly  assembled  together  at  Scone,  29th  March,  1306.  The  royal  rite 
only  began  a  long  period  of  almost  fugitive  life  to  the  young  monarch.  The  small 
party  of  nobles  at  the  King's  precipitate  coronation  included  his  brother  Edward  Bruce, 
the  king's  nephew  Bandolph,  the  Earls  of  Lennox  and  Atholl,  Hugh  de  la  Hay,  Sir 
David  de  Berclay,  and  Sir  Christopher  Seton,  who  was  then  married  to  Gartney,  Earl 
of  Mar's  widow,  the  King's  sister,  the  Lady  Christian,  and  soon  thereafter  left  her  a 
widow  for  a  second  time. 


44  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

"Wynton  describes  the  distemper  of  Edward  at  the  successes  of  the  Scots — 
He  was  kobbyd  in  his  crap  (waspish  of  stomach) 
As  he  had  eaten  an  ettercap. 

Enraged  at  Brace's  fortune,  he  sent  Aymer  de  Valence  into  Scotland ;  the  young  king 
imprudently  challenged  him  to  battle  at  Methven,  and  was  totally  routed. 

Bruce  had  then  to  take  to  the  fastnesses  of  the  neighbouring  Grampians;  whence, 
after  a  time,  he  and  his  followers  emerged  at  Aberdeen  in  ragged  condition,  walking  in 
shoes  of  raw  hide  which  they  had  made  for  themselves.  The  queen  and  others  of  their 
ladies  joined  them  there — a  great  solace,  but  a  great  addition  to  their  cares.  They  had 
hastily  to  escape  from  Aberdeen,  and  make  for  the  Western  Isles  and  Ireland,  taking 
their  course  by  the  Dee  to  the  head  of  the  Tay.  Provision  was  obtained  only  by  hunt- 
ing or  fishing,  in  which  pursuit  the  famous  Douglas,  Bruce's  life-long  friend,  was  the 
most  expert. 

Barbour  describes  with  feeling  the  state  of  the  king's  depressed  fortunes  during 

that  time — 

Thus  in  the  hillis  livit  he 

Till  the  maist  pairt  of  his  menyhe 

Was  riven  and  rent :  na  schone  they  had 

But  as  they  them  of  hidis  made  : 

Therfore  they  went  till  Aberdene, 

Where  Nele  the  Brus  came,  and  the  queen, 

And  other  ladies  far  and  faraud  (fair  and  comely) 

Ilk  ane  for  love  of  their  husband, 

That  for  leal  love  and  loyalty 

Wald  partners  of  their  panis  be. 

The  English  thought  to  surprise  Bruce  in  Aberdeen,  but  he  was  advised  of  their 

presence  and  the  extent  of  their  force. 

His  men  in  hy  (haste)  he  gert  be  dicht  (made  ready) 

And  buskit  of  the  toun  to  rid  : 

The  ladyis  rode  richt  by  his  sid, 

Than  to  the  hill  they  rode  their  way, 

Where  great  defalt  of  met  had  they. 

Bot  worthy  James  of  Douglass 

Ay  travaland  (labouring)  and  besy  was 

For  to  purchas  (procure)  the  ladyis  met, 

And  it  on  mony  wis  wald  get ; 

For  whiles  he  venesoun  them  brocht, 

And  with  his  handis  whiles  he  wrocht, 

Gynnis  to  tak  geddis  and  salmounis, 

Troutis,  elis,  and  als  (also)  menounis  : 

And  whiles  they  went  to  the  foray  ; 

And  so  their  purchasing  made  they. 

Ilk  man  travalit  for  to  get 

And  purchas  them  that  they  micht  et  : 

But  of  all  that  evir  they  were 

There  was  not  ane  emang  them  there 

That  to  the  ladyis  profit  was 

Mair  than  James  of  Douglas, 

And  the  king  oft  confort  wes 

Throw  his  wit  and  besyness. 

On  this  maner  tham  governit  they 

Till  they  come  to  the  head  of  Tay. 


The  War  of  Independence.  45 


The  fatigue  of  the  Deeside  journey  was  found  to  be  too  great  for  the  ladies  of  the 
party.  Before  he  descended  from  the  region  of  Braernar,  Bruce  sent  Queen  Isabel  and 
his  infant  daughter,  Marjory,  his  brother  Neil,  and  John,  Earl  of  Atholl,  to  Kildrummy 
Castle,  where  it  is  probable  his  sister  Christian,  Countess  of  Mar,  and  Donald,  her  in- 
fant son,  had  already  gone,  the  Countess's  then  husband,  Sir  Christopher  Seton,  having 
after  the  defeat  of  Methven,  betaken  himself  to  his  own  castle  of  Lochdoun  in  Ayrshire. 
Seton  was  soon  thereafter  taken  prisoner  and  executed.  The  King's  other  friends, 
mentioned  above  as  having  been  at  bis  coronation  at  Scone,  except  Sir  James  Douglas, 
were  taken  at  the  fatal  battle  of  Methven,  and  carried  prisoners  to  England. 

The  whole  western  coasts  of  Galloway  and  Lorn,  inhabited  by  the  adherents  of 
the  Cumyn,  were  in  arms  against  Bruce.  His  brother  Edward  escaped  to  Ireland, 
from  which  he  afterwards  brought  substantial  help  to  the  King ;  wbo  himself  had 
to  shift  his  quarters  frequently.  His  wanderings  on  the  shores  of  Carrick  and  the 
opposite  islands,  and  the  episode  of  the  Brooch  of  Lorn,  belong  to  that  period  of  the 
Bruce's  fortunes.  The  good  Sir  James  Douglas  was  his  close  attendant  all  through  his 
wanderings  ;  leaving  the  King  only  when  success  again  returned,  to  perform  the  famous 
exploit  of  recovering  his  own  "  Castle  Dangerous  "  from  De  Valence. 

The  King's  low  state  of  fortunes  was  in  expressive  contrast  to  the  plenty  that  still 
prevailed  in  the  land  since  the  wealthy  days  of  Alexander  III.  Wynton,  writing  a  cen- 
tury after  1306,  says  : — 

In  Scotland  that  time  men  micht  see 

Of  all  kin  vittal  great  plentie  ; 

The  gallon  of  wine  in  common  price 

Passed  not  that  time  four  pennies. 

For  a  pint  now  maun  we  pay 

As  mickle  near  ilka  day. 

The  Earls  of  Leicester  and  Hereford  were  sent  by  Edward  against  the  Castle  of 
Kildrummy.  It  fell  into  their  hands  not  by  assault,  but  because  one  of  the  garrison 
had  set  fire  to  the  magazine  of  provisions,  and  so  occasioned  the  surrender.  The  Queen 
with  her  infant  daughter,  mother  of  Robert  II.,  and  the  others  had  sought  safety  in 
flight.  They  went  to  Tain,  and  were  surrendered  there  to  the  English.  Young  Nigel 
Bruce  was  tried  and  executed  at  Berwick.  The  Earl  of  Atholl,  attempting  escape  by 
sea,  was  taken  and  carried  to  London,  where  he  also  suffered  death  as  a  traitor.  The 
Queen,  more  valuable  as  a  means  of  influencing  Bruce,  was  carried  to  England,  from 
whence  her  husband  recovered  her  only  after  Bannockburn.  The  Countess  of  Mar,  his 
sister,  the  future  Lady  of  the  Garioch,  is  said  to  bave  been  sent  to  a  convent.  Her  son 
Donald,  the  infant  Earl  of  Mar,  was  carried  to  Bristol  Castle.  He  was  afterwards  placed 
to  be  brought  up  along  with  Edward,  the  heir  to  the  throne,  and  he  grew  up,  Englisb 
in  his  associations,  and  very  much  so  in  his  feelings. 

Two  years  elapsed  before  fortune  again  began  to  show  favour  to  the  King  of  Scots. 
Edward,  the  great  English  King,  died  in  1307,  and  his  son,  the  second  Edward,  proved 
to  be  unfit  for  the  task  bequeathed  to  him.     In  his  patrimonial  district,  Bruce  began  to 


46  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

gain  advantages  so  unaccountably,   that  Aymer  de  Valence,  the  English  Warden  of 

Scotland,  became  disgusted,  and  resigned  his  command.     After  a  time  the  Earl  of  Eich- 

mond  was  sent  against  the  Scots,  and  Bruce  retired  into  the  north ;  where  he  met  with 

little  difficulty  in  subduing  the  country  to  himself.     He  besieged  and  demolished  the 

Castle  of  Inverness,  being  probably  unable  to  garrison  it ;  and  turning  southward, 

shortly  after  obtained  his  encouraging  success  in  the  battle  of  Inverurie. 

Edward  was  about  to  experience  the  quality  of  the  Bruces,  of  which  his  father 

had  been  warned,  when  in  the  competition  between  King  Eobert's  grandfather  and  John 

Baliol,  he  announced  to  his  Council  that  he  preferred  the  claim  of  Bruce.     Anthony  de 

Beck,  Bishop  of  Durham,  one  of  his  chief  ministers,  had  private  reasons  for  desiring 

Baliol's  success,  but  he  warned  his  master — 

Gif  the  Bruce  the  king  sulci  be 
Of  Scotland,  ware  your  royalty 
The  kyng  gyfe  he  bes  of  Scotland, 
Kepe  welle  your  marches  of  England. 

THE  B-ATTLE  OF  INVERURIE. 

We  are  indebted  for  what  we  know  of  King  Eobert's  proceedings  at  Inverurie  to 
Barbour,  the  celebrated  first  historical  poet  of  Scotland,  a  holder,  in  1373,  of  offices  of 
trust  in  the  royal  household  and  in  the  exchequer,  but  of  interest  in  the  history  of 
the  Garioch  from  his  having  been,  as  Archdeacon  of  Aberdeen,  the  parson  of  Eayne. 

After  fortune  began  to  favour  the  King  again,  a  successful  engagement  with  Sir 

Aymer  de  Valence,  at  Loudon  Hill,  put  him  in  a  position  to  assume  the  aggressive. 

Not  long  after  that  victory  he  "  crossed  the  Munth  to  Inverurie,"  in  better  plight  than 

when  the  ladies  joined  him  at  Aberdeen,  after  his  former  meeting  with  Sir  Aymer. 

The   romantic  story  of   his  change    of  fortunes  immediately   begins,   though  with  a 

sufficient  portion  of  troubles  to  bridge  the  transition.     At  Inverurie, 

There  him  took  sic  ane  sickness, 
That  put  him  to  full  hard  distress  ; 
He  forbore  baith  drink  and  met, 
His  men  ua  medicine  eoulth  get 
That  ever  micht  the  king  avail. 

His  brother,  Sir  Edward  Bruce,  was  with  him,  and,  deeming  the  plain  not  defensible 

with  their  meagre  following,  thought  it  expedient  to  remove  the  King  to  Slevach  (in 

Drumblade),  there  to  await  his  recovery.     He  was  carried  thither  on  a  litter,  but  did 

not  get  long  leave  to  rest.     Upon  learning  the  condition  he  was  in,  Cumyn,  Earl  of 

Buehan,  with  his  nephew,  Sir   David  of    Brechin,    and  Sir  John  the  Moubra,  made 

harassing  attacks  upon  the  King's  party,  which,  though  repulsed,  wearied  the  little 

band,  and  put  them  to  great  difficulties. 

They  hed  nothing  for  till  eat 

But  gif  they  travailit  (laboured)  it  to  get. 

This  was  efter  the  Martymes, 

When  snaw  had  helit  (covered)  all  the  land. 


The  Battle  of  Inverurie.  47 


Sir  Edward  resolved  to  shift  quarters  to  Strathbogy.     The  King  was  again  put  in 

a  litter,  and  in  the  face  of  the  enemy,  they  marched  out  with  him,  armed  and  serried 

about  him,  Comyn  not  venturing  to  attack  them. 

The  earl  and  they  that  with  him  were 
Saw  they  buskit  them  to  far  (travel), 
And  saw  how  with  so  little  affray  (fear) 
They  held  furth  with  the  King  their  way, 
Keady  to  ricbt  wha  wald  assail  ; 
Their  hartis  all  begouth  to  fail, 
And  in  peace  let  them  pass  their  way, 
And  till  their  housis  hame  went  they. 

The  royal  party  remained  at  Strathbogy  until 

The  King  begouth  to  couer  and  ga, 
And  syn  their  wais  talc  can  they, 
Till  Innerrowry  straucht  again, 
For  they  wald  ly  intill  the  plain 
The  winter  sesoun  ;  for  vittale 
Intill  the  plain  mioht  not  them  fail. 

Cumyn,  ignorant  of  th»  King's  whereabouts,  determined  to  harry  his  Earldom  of  the 
Garioch.  His  allies  and  their  followers,  including  an  English  party,  were  gathered  to 
him  at  Slains — 

And  were  ane  full  great  company 

Of  men  arrayit  jolely. 

Till  Aid  Meldrom  they  held  the  way, 

And  there  with  their  men  lodgit  they 

Before  Yhule  even  ane  nicht  but  mair  : 

Ane  thousand,  trow  I,  well  there  were. 

They  lodgit  them  all  there  that  nicht, 

And  on  the  morn,  when  day  was  licht, 

The  lord  of  Brechyn,  Schir  Davy, 

Is  went  toward  Innerrowry 

To  look  gif  he  on  ony  wis 

Micht  do  skaith  till  his  ennimyis. 

And  till  the  end  of  Innerrowry 

He  cam  ridand  so  suddenly, 

That  of  the  Kingis  men  he  slew 

Ane  part,  and  other  sum  them  withdrew, 

And  fled  their  way  toward  the  king, 

That  with  the  maist  of  his  gadring 

On  yhond  halch  (i.e.,  of  Ardtanuies)  down  was  then  lyand. 

The  circumstance  of  Bruce's  finding  a  safe  asylum  in  the  Garioch  and  Strathbogy, 
while  all  Buchan  was  in  the  hand  of  his  powerful  enemy,  is  a  picturesque  link  in  the 
chain  of  historical  associations,  which  mark  out  the  two  districts  as  immediate  posses- 
sions of  the  Crown  from  the  beginning  of  history. 

The  monarch's  resting  place  on  the  lands  of  Crichie  and  Ardtannies  was  his  own. 
The  dwellers  upon  it,  whose  ancestors  had  held  themselves  loyal  to  Earl  David  and  his 
son,  and  their  Constables,  and  had  been  the  true  liegemen  of  Isabel  de  Bruce  and  her 
son,  the  Lord  of  Annandale,  it  is  agreeable  to  think  of  as  keeping  devoted  feudal  truth 
to  the  fugitive  King,  till  he  could  come  to  his  own  again.  Their  obscurity  of  rank 
would,  perhaps,  shelter  them  from  the  notice  of  Edward,  when  the  Bishop  on  one  side 


Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the   Gar  loch. 


of  them,  and  Sir  Norman  Leslie  on  another,  and  the  Lamhertons,  Bissets,  and  other 
barons  of  Aberdeenshire  had  to  repair  to  Aberdeen,  in  1296,  to  bow  to  his  pretensions. 

The  Kiug,  in  1308,  evidently  knew  that  a  safe-resting  place  awaited  him  in  the 
indefensible  valley  ;  and  its  topography  still  preserves  a  record  of  his  tarrying  there. 
"  Bruce's  Camp  "  is  still  pointed  out  on  the  hill  of  Crichie, — one  of  the  estates  of  the 
Earldom  of  Garioch.  "  Bruce's  Cave,"  in  the  face  of  a  precipitous  bank,  across  the  Don 
from  Ardtannies,  where  the  river  makes  an  elbow  into  the  hill  of  Crichie  between  the 
Camp  and  "  yonder  haugh,"  would  give  him  at  any  time  a  place  of  quick  retreat,  impos- 
sible to  be  approached  by  an  enemy  unseen.  Near  the  road  from  Kintore  to  Inverurie, 
a  long  trench,  eight  feet  deep,  was  known,  about  1790,  as  "  Bruce's  Howe  ". 

Who  lay  around  the  sick  king  in  the  deep  secluded  dell  "  the  knowe  of  the  deevi- 
lick's  " — the  place  of  the  primitive  cylindrical  forts  and  of  the  arrow-head  armoury — the 
rendezvous  where  a  century  after  the  encamping  of  Bruce,  the  local  retainers  of  the  Earl 
of  Mar,  it  is  likely,  mustered  before  they  went  to  win  the  battle  of  Harlaw  1  The  good 
Douglas,  who  after  the  great  king's  death  assumed  as  the  remaining  task  of  his  life  the 
conveying  of  the  heart  of  Bruce  to  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  was  seldom  absent  from  his 
monarch  during  his  life.  Family  annals  say  that  Sir  Bobert  Keith,  the  hereditary 
Marischal  of  Scotland,  was  with  his  master  then,  as  well  as  throughout  the  whole  of  his 
previous  adverse  fortunes.  The  ancestor  of  the  lords  of  Caskieben,  Sir  James  de  Gar- 
viach,  who  shortly  after  received  from  Bruce  a  grant  of  some  lands  in  Dyce,  probably 
earned  the  gift  at  Inverurie.  Thomas  de  Longueville  had  before  then  transferred  to 
Bruce  the  fealty  and  patriotism  which  his  admired  captain,  Sir  William  Wallace,  was  no 
longer  alive  to  be  benefited  by.  Longueville's  grave,  as  has  been  mentioned,  is  in  the 
Kirkyard  of  Bourtie.  If  he  selected  his  last  resting-place  by  an  arrow  shot  from 
Lawellside,  he  may  have  been  sent  there  with  a  reserve  force — a  service  for  which  the 
place  and  the  man  were  both  exactly  suitable. 

The  priest  of  Polnar  Chapel,  who  had  looked  to  sing  the  Christmas  lauds  on  that 
Yule  day,  having  the  King  for  one  of  his  flock,  was  to  be  otherwise  employed  hearing 
short  shrift  from  some  of  them  on  the  braesides  of  Boynds  and  Collyhill.  In  1297, 
Dominus  Thomas  was  Vicar  of  Inverury,  and  may  still  have  been  living  in  1308. 
Bishop  Henry  Cheyne,  who  may  have  entertained  Sir  William  Wallace  at  Fetternear,  in 
1297,  was  doubtless  absent  from  his  palace  at  Christmas,  1308.  He  wTas  of  the  Cumyn 
family  and  faction,  and  the  King  had  disendowed  him  for  a  time,  assigning  his  revenues 
to  the  building  of  his  Cathedral  at  Old  Aberdeen. 

The  battle  of  Inverurie  was  to  come  before  Yule  day,  close  at  hand  though  it  was. 
The  insolent  attack  of  Sir  David  of  Brechin  fired  the  King's  temper,  and  restored  his 
circulation.  He  called  for  his  horse  :  those  about  him  represented  that  he  was  not 
"  cowerit  aneuch  "  yet  to  fight.     He  answered — 

This  their  boast  has  made  me  hale  and  fer  (strong)  ; 
and  hastily  marshalling  his  followers,  he  rode  after  his  rash  enemy,  and,  coming  up  with 


The  Battle  of  Inverurie  49 


the  body  of  Curayn's  "  thousand  men  "  at  Barra,  inflicted  a  punishment  upon  them  so 
signal  as,  with  the  rapid  following  up  of  it  over  Bucb.an,  the  Earldom  of  the  Cumyn, 
produced  the  submission  of  the  whole  of  the  north,  and  was  not  forgotten  for  fifty  years. 
The  parson  of  Bayne  goes  on  to  describe,  with  relish,  the  important  engagement, 
which  was  the  necessary  preparation  for  the  great  and  successful  effort  at  Bannockburn, 
fought  five  years  afterwards  by  an  undivided  nation  to  recover  its  freedom  : — 

The  noble  king  ami  his  menylic, 
That  micht  well  near  seven  hundreth  be, 
Toward  Aid  Meldrom  took  their  way, 
Where  the  earl  and  his  menyhe  lay. 
The  discurrouris  saw  them  cumand, 
With  their  banners  to  the  wind  wavand, 
And  gaed  to  their  lord  speedily. 
That  gart  arm  his  men  hastily, 
And  them  arrayit  for  battail  : 
Behind  them  set  they  their  power  all, 
And  made  good  semblance  for  to  tieht, 
And  they  aba  id  niakaud  great  fair  (show), 
Till  that  they  near  at  meeting  were  ; 
Bot  when  they  saw  the  nobill  king 
Cum  stoutly  on,  without  stinting 
A  little  on  bridle  they  them  withdrew  ; 
And  the  King,  that  them  well  knew 
That  they  were  all  discomfit  near, 
Pressit  on  them  with  his  banner, 
And  they  withdrew  mar  and  mar. 
And  when  the  small  folk  they  had  there 
Saw  their  lords  withdraw  them  so, 
They  turnit  their  backs  all  and  to  go, 
And  fled  all  scalit  here  and  there  ; 
The  lords  that  yhet  together  were, 
Saw  that  their  small  folk  were  fleeand 
And  saw  the  King  stoutly  cumand, 
They  wei-e  ilk  ane  abesit  so, 
That  they  the  back  gailf  and  to  go : 
Ane  litill  stound  sammyn  held  they, 
And  syn  ilk  man  has  tane  his  way. 

Fell  never  men  so  foull  mischance 
Efter  so  sturdy  countenance  ; 
For  when  the  kingis  company 
Saw  that  they  fled  foulely, 
They  chasit  them  with  all  their  main, 
And  some  they  took  and  some  was  slain  ; 
The  remanant  war  fleand  ay  ; 
Wha  had  good  horse  gat  best  away. 

The  King  pursued  the  fugitives  over  the  whole  of  Cumyn's  Earldom.  "  He  gart  brin 
(burn)  all  Buchane,"  and  that  wide  region  thereafter  contained  but  one  family  represen- 
tative of  the  race.  The  laird  of  Auchmaeoy,  of  that  day,  was  a  son  of  the  factious  Earl, 
but  was  loyal  to  the  King.  It  is  said  that  he,  in  consequence,  had  his  estate  secured  to 
him  ;  but  with  the  condition  that  he  should  relinquish  the  name  of  Cumyn.  He  adopted 
that  of  Buchan,  and  was  the  first  of  the  long  line  of  the  Buchans  of  Auchmaeoy. 

Local  tradition  has  it  that  in  the  battle  of  Inverurie  the  King  received  valuable 

7 


50  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

support  from  a  farmer,  named  Benzie,  and  his  eleven  sons  ;  and  that  he  rewarded  them 
by  dividing  the  Inverurie  lands  among  them.  The  story  bears  a  strong  family  likeness 
to  that  told  of  the  Hays  of  Luncarty  and  the  plough-yoke.  It  was  in  Brace's  timethat 
the  magistrates  of  burghs  began  to  be  induced,  by  the  Crown,  to  accept  the  lordshipof 
the  common  lands  of  the  burghs,  paying  a  modified  feu-duty  to  the  King,  instead  of 
having  as  formerly  the  King's  bailie  resident  among  them,  collecting  the  dues  from 
individual  holders.  Part  of  the  common  lands  of  Inverurie  are  called  Twelfth  Part 
Lands  ;  but  there  are  also  Sixteenths. 

The  surname  of  Benzie  or  Bainzie,  with  alterations  into  Badyno,  Badenocht,  &c, 
was  a  common  one  among  Inverurie  proprietors  in  the  next  and  succeeding  centuries. 
Was  farmer  Bainzie  the  King's  own  tenant  at  Ardtannies  1  It  would  be  interesting  to 
find  it  so.  A  curious  document,  which  will  be  noticaid  more  fully  afterwards,  presents 
us  with  another  tenant,  or  perhaps  feudal  vassal,  of  the  King's,  doing  him  important 
service  in  the  battle  of  Inverurie.  It  is  a  formal  declaration,  by  an  antiquarian  of 
credit,  that  he  had  perused  documentary  evidence  of  facts  connected  with  the  Fergusons 
of  Inverurie,  now  a  wide-spread  family.  One  writing  bore  that  "  Walter  Fergus  of 
Crichie  received  hospitably  in  his  own  house  the  great  avenger  of  his  country,  King 
Robert  Bruce  ;  and,  with  his  three  sons  and  dependents,  in  the  memorable  battle  of 
Inverurie,  in  the  year  1308,  afforded  ready  and  manly  aid,  on  account  of  which  distin- 
guished assistance  King  Robert  gave  him  ample  possessions  of  the  adjacent  lands  of 
Inverurie." 

It  is  about  the  middle  of  the  time  of  the  great  troubles  that  we  find  another  of 
the  few  Inverurie  individuals  representative  of  that  period.  In  1297,  at  Fetternear, 
Dominus  Thomas,  vicar  of  Inverowry,  witnessed  a  charter  of  Bishop  Henry  upon  lands 
in  Kinnethmont,  which  had  passed  through  the  hands  of  David  of  Huntingdon.  They 
came  into  the  family  of  Tatenal,  and  from  them  were  afterwards  acquired  by  Patrick 
of  Rothnek  (Rothnie  ?). 

Of  other  surnames,  with  which  we  can  people  the  neighbourhood  during  that 
generation,  the  following  are  some  of  the  class  selected  as  witnesses  of  important  deeds  : — 
About  1257,  Alexander  Durward,  William  Brechin,  William  Bysset,  John  Wallace, 
Gilbert  Stirling,  Thomas  Benin;  in  1259,  Walter  Balrodyn,  Roger  (vicar  of  Aberdeen), 
Alexander  Rewburgh,  Robert  Russel,  Alexander  Rose,  Eymer  Maxwell.  In  1273,  a 
charter  by  Alexander  Cumyn,  Earl  of  Buchan,  founding  an  almshouse  at  Turriff, 
gVanted  at  Kelly,  was  witnessed  by  Alan  Durward,  Reginald  Cheyne,  Andrew  de  Gar- 
viach,  Philip  de  Melgdrum,  Walter  (rector  of  Fovem),  Robert  de  Leslie  (rector  of  Slains). 
The  charter  of  Glack  of  the  preceding  year  was  witnessed  by  Walter  of  Blackwater, 
John  Spaldyn,  Robert  Gleslogy,  Farquhar  Belcombe,  Hugh  Rossnett,  William  Lessel, 
Alexander  Allardyce,  Malcolm  Balgowny,  r.nd  Duncan  Merser.  In  1297,  Dominus 
Roger  was  vicar  of  Rossochetes-^apparently  Rosehivet. 

The  Rahman  Rolls — lists  of  the  signatures  to  the  various  documents  belonging  to 


The  Battle  of  Inverurie.  51 


the  affairs  of  Edward  I.  in  Scotland — are  the  chief  vouchers  of  family  antiquity  and 
importance  for  the  end  of  that  century,  excepting  the  few  families  the  heads  of  which 
were  able  or  compelled  to  stand  apart  from  the  submitting  majority*.  The  Rolls  afford 
us  some  surnames  connected  with  the  Garioch  or  its  neighbourhood:  Hugo  de  Urre,  may 
may  have  been  ancestor  of  the  Urries  of  Pitfichie,  in  Monymusk  ;  Robert  le  Falconer 
was  an  early  chief  of  the  Halkerton  family,  now  Earls  of  Kintore  :  John  de  Elphing- 
ston's  descendants  possessed  Glack  two  hundred  years  afterwards ;  Patrick  Skene, 
doubtless  an  early  Skene  of  that  Ilk,  is  a  recorded  name  ;  and  Nicol  de  Preston  bore  a 
surname  well  known  in  Aberdeenshire  afterwards.  In  Rayne,  about  1300,  Henry  St. 
Michael  acquired  Lentush  from  the  heirs  of  Adam  of  Rane. 

Sir  David  of  Brechin  was  a  nephew  of  Cumyn's.  His  father  Henry,  Lord  of 
Brechin,  was  a  natural  son  of  David  of  Huntingdon.  Sir  David  submitted  to  the  King, 
who  made  him  Constable  in  the  room  of  his  uncle,  but  had  to  deprive  him  afterwards 
of  that  dignified  office.  The  victory  of  Inverurie  in  1308-9,  followed  by  the  taking  of 
the  Castle  of  Forfar  immediately  afterwards,  the  Town  of  Perth  in  1311,  Roxburgk 
Castle  in  March,  1312,  and  Edinburgh  Castle  some  days  later,  led  the  way  to  the 
crowning  victory  of  Bannockburn  in  June,  1314. 

The  battle  of  Inverurie  was  fought  near  the  present  Castle  of  Barra,  in  Bourtie 
parish,  at  the  foot  of  the  abrupt  hill  which  is  surmounted  by  the  "  Cumyn's  Camp".  A 
wood  covered  the  site  of  the  contest  for  long,  and  since  the  ground  has  been  under  the 
plough,  numerous  relics  of  the  battle  have  been  turned  up. 

A  memorial  of  the  great  national  event  exists  in  the  neighbourhood  in  the  name  of 
"  The  King's  Hill,"  with  "  the  King's  Burn,"  and  "  the  King's  Ford  "  at  the  base  of  it, 
which  attaches  to  the  long  ridge  upon  which  the  Kirktown  of  Daviot  stands.  The 
eminence,  which  beginning  about  a  mile  from  where  the  battle  had  been  fought,  stretches 
away  in  a  north-westerly  direction  for  a  mile  and  a  half,  is  a  locality  whereon  the 
King  may  well  have  made  his  small  following  take  up  an  advantageous  position,  when 
the  enemy's  superior  numbers  retired  before  his  impetuous  onset. 

The  fortification,  still  distinct  in  its  outlines,  which  has  long  been  known  as  the 
Cumyn's  Camp,  is  not  likely  to  have  been  occupied  by  him  on  the  occasion  of  the  battle 
of  Inverurie.  Cumyn's  was  the  attacking  force,  his  head-quarters  at  the  time  being  at 
Slains, — and  his  partizan,  Sir  David,  was  apparently  ignorant  of  the  King's  presence  at 
Inverurie,  when  he  made  the  raid  intended  seemingly  to  ravage  the  King's  Earldom  of 
the  Garioch.  Three  nearly  parallel  walls  surround  the  spot  except  where  a  perpendi- 
cular piece  of  rock  sufficiently  protects  it,  and  the  entrance  would  appear  to  have 
been  capable  of  strong  defence.  Steep  declivities  all  around  except  at  the  gateway, 
must  have  made  the  camp  difficult  of  assault,  and  it  enclosed  an  area  of  three  acres, 
sufficient  to  contain  a  considerable  force.  A  Pictish  fort  may  have  first  occupied  the 
hill-head,  but  the  remains  of  the  fortification  are  so  artistic  as  to  suggest  a  more  skilled 
origin. 


52 


Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 


The  Aid  Meldrom  of  Barbour's  poem  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  village  of 
Old  Meldrum,  which  dates  from  1640.  It  must  have  been  a  "  farm  town  "  like  Auld 
Bourtie,  which  is  on  record  at  the  date  1342.  The  name  is  an  early,  memorial  of  social 
progress  ;  being,  it  is  likely,  that  of  the  chief  place  of  the  estate  before  it  passed  out  of 
the  hands  of  the  Cumyns,  Earls  of  Buchan.  The  sons  of  Sir  Philip  de  Melgdrum, 
the  first  laird  bearing  that  surname,  had  abandoned  the  original  chief  messuage  for  a 
new  place  of  baronial  residence  more  befitting  the  advanced  tastes  of  their  time. 


Chapter  II. 

FROM  THE  BATTLE  OF  INVERURIE  TO  THE  BATTLE  OF  HARLAW  . 

The  Regality  of  the  Garioch. — Its  alienation  and  seizure.  The  Lords  of  the  Garioch. — Aneient 
Earls  of  Mar — Domlinall  in  1014,  to  Donald  in  1332 — Elyne  of  Mar— Christian,  Lady  of  the 
Garioch — Tliomas,  Lord  of  the  Garioch — Margaret,  Lady  of  the  Garioch— James,  Lord  of  the 
Garioch — Isabel,  Lady  of  the  Garioch — Alexander  Stewart,  Lord  of  the  Garioch — Usurpation  ay 
the  Croicn  against  Sir  Robert  Erskine —  William,  Earl  of  Orkney,  Lord  of  the  Garioch — Lords 
taken  from  the  Royal  Family — The  Erskine  Family — Sir  Robert  Erskine,  Great  Chamberlain — 
Abeyance  of  Erskine  claims  on  the  Regality.  Lands  and  Families  in  the  Garioch  before 
Harlaw. — Leslie — Raync  and  Daviot — Ardlar — Ledingham  and  Mellinside — Caskieben — Coyn- 
glass — Rothmaise — Lentush — Adam  ofRane — St.  Miclmel — Newton,  Threepland,  and  Bonnyton — 
Tillymorgan,  Williamston,  and  Wrangham — Oync — HaysofErroll — Sir  James  Garviach,  Cordyss 
— Irvine  of  Drum — Sir  Robert  Keith,  Forest  of  Kintore — Hills  of  Kintore—  Thanagc  of  Kintorc — 
Thaynston,  Foullcrtoum — Glasgo-fm-est — Chalmers  of  Balnacraig,  <Sx.  — Caskieben  lairds,  Norino 
to  Stephen  the  Clerk — Glack,  Adam  Pilmor  to  Murdoch  Glaster — Regality  gifts ;  Knockinglass, 
Mcikle-  Warders,  Inveramsay,  Balhaggardy,  Boynds,  Drumdornoch,  Petskurry,  Pctbey,  Pettodry, 
New-lands — Andrew  Bultergask  to  Sir  Thomas  Erskine — Bourlie — The  Goblaugh  and  William 
of  Melgdrum—  John  of  Abernethie — Barclay  of  Kercow — Kemnay — Norman  dc  Leslie  —  Melville 
of  Glcnbervie — Pitfithick  and  Balnerosk—The  Abcrcrombics — Harthill  and  Pitmeden — Agulwr- 
tides,  Aquhorsk,  and  Blairdaff — First  Baron  of  Balquhain — The  Leiths  of  Edingerrack—  Mill  of 
Folethrule  and  Badechash — Lethyndy — Mcldrum — Philip  dc  Melgdrum  to  William  Seton — Fyvie 
— Reginald  Le  Cheyne  to  Henry  Preston — Byseihe  of  Lessendrum — Slrachan  of  Glcnkindie.  His- 
torical Events. — King  Robert — Settlements — Fortunes  of  Christian  Bruce — Sir  Andrew  Murray 
— Donald,  Earl  of  Mar — Invasion  of  Edward  Baliol — Battle  of  Dupplin— Defence  of  Kildrummy 
Castle — Rescue  by  Sir  Andrew — Siege  of  Dundarg — Foundation  of  the  Chapel  of  the  Garioch — 
Sufferings  of  the  people — Local  lairds  and  priests — David  II.  's  hostages — Leading  public  men 
— Provost  William  Leith — The  Bell  "  Lowric  " — His  Sons,  John  and  Laurence — Sir  Norman  de 
Leslie — Sir  Robert  Erskine — "Lang  Jonnic  More  " — William  Douglas — Thomas  Earl  of  Mar — 
His  English  connection — Stephen  the  Clerk,  Secretary  to  the  Earl  of  Mar — Troubles  of  King 
David's  reign— Sir  Robert  Erskine,  arbiter  of  the  Throne — The  husbands  of  Margaret,  Lady  of 
(lie  Garioch — Her  Son,  James  of  Douglas — Otterburn — Douglas  and  Percy — Priest  Lundy — 
Rolf  Percy's  Ransom—  The  feeht  at  Bourty — Isabel  of  Douglas — Death  of  her  husband,  and 
seizure  of  her  castle — Marriage  to  Alexander  Stewart.  Ecclesiastical  Events.  —  Wild  manners 
— Endowments  of  elutplains  in  the  chapel  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  of  the  Garioch — Arclideacon 
Barbour. 

THE  REGALITY  OF  THE  GARIOCH. 

tHE  period  between  the  battles  of  Inverurie  and  Harlaw  comprehended  the  last 
twenty-one  years  of  the  reign  of    Robert  Bruce  ;   also  the  time  of  David  II. 
who  came  to  the  throne  a  child,  spent  most  of  his  life  a  captive   in  England, 
and  was  always  a  weak  monarch  ;    and  the  reigns  of  the  second  and  third  Roberts, 


•54  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 


during  each  of  which  last  there  was  practically  a  regency  under  the  Earl  of  Fife, 
afterwards  Duke  of  Albany,  the  son  of  Robert  II.  Eobert  II.  was  past  the  prime 
of  life  when  he  became  King,  and,  though  as  Steward  he  had  ruled  with  vigour,  he 
latterly  became  so  indolent  that  the  Estates  forced  him  to  delegate  the  royal  authority  to 
his  second  son.  The  Earl  was  an  unscrupulous  man,  and  when  his  elder  brother  John 
came  to  the  throne,  assuming  the  title  of  Eobert  III.,  had  little  difficulty  in  intriguing 
to  keep  the  reins  of  power  still  in  his  own  hand ;  and,  for  the  purpose  of  continuing  to 
retain  them,  was  even  suspected  of  having  compassed  the  murder  of  David,  Duke  of 
Rothesay,  the  eldest  son  of  Eobert  III.  Albany  continued  regent  after  the  death  of 
Eobert  III.  in  1406 — James,  the  heir  to  the  throne,  being  in  captivity  in  England.  His 
son,  Murdac,  succeeded  him  in  the  regency,  and  when  King  James  managed  to  regain 
his  authority,  suffered  death  as  a  traitor — doubtless  incurring  the  vengeance  entailed  by 
his  father's  conduct. 

In  the  local  history  the  period  comprised  in  those  reigns  nearly  coincided  with 
the  duration  of  the  original  Eegality  of  the  Garioch,  as  King  Robert  established  it  in 
place  of  the  ancient  Earldom,  which  had  reverted  to  the  crown  by  the  King  himself 
having  been  Earl.  The  Eegality  of  the  Garioch  was  afterwards  seized  by  the  Crown, 
along  with  the  Earldom  of  Mar,  in  consequence  of  a  compact  with  Alexander  Stewart, 
the  victor  of  Harlaw,  the  husband  of  Isabel  of  Douglas,  last  heir  of  her  line  as  Countess 
of  Mar,  and  Lady  of  the  Garioch. 

The  Erskines,  who  were  alleged  to  be  the  legitimate  heirs  to  the  honours  held  by  the 
wife  of  Alexander  Stewart,  claimed  the  same  unsuccessfully — until  the  occasion  of  the 
marriage  of  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  with  Henry  Lord  Darnley,  in  July,  1565.  It  was  in 
a.d.  1663,  that  the  Scottish  Earliament  reappointed  Inverurie  as  the  place  of  the  Courts 
of  Eegality  of  the  Garioch  held  by  the  Earl  of  Mar.  The  Earls  of  the  royal  family  of 
Stuart  had  held  their  Eegality  Courts  at  Dunnideer. 

THE  LORDS  OF  THE  GARIOCH, 

The  dignity  of  the  Earldom,  which  had  returned  to  the  Crown  by  inheritance, 
King  Eobert  bestowed  in  the  new  form  of  a  Lordship  of  Eegality,  as  a  mark  of  affec- 
tion and  reward,  in  1326,  upon  his  sister,  Christian,  widow  of  the  Earl  of  Mar,  then 
married  to  her  third  husband,  Sir  Andrew  of  Moray,  the  Fantelar,  or  Panetarius,  of 
Scotland,  possibly  the  steward  of  the  royal  household.  The  Earldom  lands,  including 
the  Davo  and  Ardtannies  of  Inverurie,  were  bestowed  at  the  same  time  upon  Christian 
and  her  husband.  There  can  have  been  no  surviving  issue  of  that  union,  as  her  descend- 
ants by  her  first  husband,  Gartney,  Earl  of  Mar,  became  the  Lords  of  the  Garioch  and 
superiors  of  the  Inverurie  and  other  lands  of  the  Earldom,  and  are  so  to  the  present  day. 

The  illustrious  succession  of  the  earldom  of  Mar,  before  its  junction  with  the  Eoyal 
Earldom  of  the  Garioch,  may  be  briefly  noted  here. 


The  Lords  of  the  Garioch.  .   55 


The  Irish  Annals  mention  as  having  fallen  at  the  battle  of  Clontarf,  in  1014, 
Domhnall,  son  of  Emkim,  son  of  Cainigh,  "  Mormaor  of  Mar  in  Albion ".  The  first 
Scottish  record  of  the  house  is  that  Eothrie,  Eotheri,  or  Euadri,  "  called  Earl  Eotheri," 
gave  consent  to  the  foundation  charter  of  Scone  by  Alexander  I.,  in  1120,  and  was,  in 
1124-27,  witness  to  a  charter  by  David  I.  As  "Euadri,  Mormaor  of  Mar,"  he  wit- 
nessed a  charter  by  Gartnait,  Earl  or  Mormaor  of  Buchan,  to  the  clerics  of  Deer  in  11.32. 

An  "  Earl  Morgund  "  appears  in  the  charters  of  David  I.  and  Malcolm  the  Maiden, 
between  1147  and  1154,  and  is  referred  to  in  1183  as  being  then  deceased.  Between 
1 1 65  and  1171,"  Morgund  Earl  of  Mar,"  gave  the  Church  of  St.  Mahuluoche  in  Tarland 
in  Cromar,  to  the  canons  of  St.  Andrews,  and  between  1153  and  1178  confirmed  to 
them  the  Church  of  Migvie,  previously  granted  to  them  by  the  Countess  Agnes,  his 
wife,  who  seems  to  have  been  countess  in  her  own  right. 

Gilchrist,  Earl  of  Mar,  appears  in  the  records  of  "William  the  Lion's  reign.  Between 
1199  and  1207  he  seems  to  have  built  the  Priory  of  Monymusk,  and  endowed  it  with 
the  Churches  of  St.  Andrew  of  Alford',  St.  Marnan  of  Leochel,  St.  Wolock  of  Euthven, 
and  Invernochty  in  Strathdon.  He  likewise  gave  the  lands  of  Dolbethok  and  Fornathy 
to  the  Culde.es  of  Monymusk  before  1211.  He  contested  the  patronage  of  the  Church 
of  St.  Marnan  of  Aberchirder  with  King  William  and  Brice  of  Douglas,  Bishop  of 
Murray,  and  conveyed  it  to  the  monks  at  Arbroath, 

Duncan,  son  of  Earl  Morgund  and  Countess  Agnes,  became  Earl  between  1222  and 
1228.  He  confirmed  several  of  the  gifts  of  his  parents  ;  but  gave  the  Church  of  Logie- 
Euthven,  which  his  predecessor,  Gilchrist,  had  bestowed  on  Monymusk,  to  the  canons 
of  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Mary  and  St.  Machar  of  Aberdeen,  and  he  left  his  body  to  be 
interred  among  his  venerable  fathers— the  bishops  buried  there.  He  also  gave  to  the 
canons  of  Monymusk  the  Church  of  St.  Andrew  of  Kindrocht  in  Braemar.  Duncan 
seems  to  have  had  several  brothers.  He  was  succeeded  in  the  Earldom  by  his  son 
William. 

Duncan's  title  to  the  earldom  was  contested  before  1228,  by  Thomas  DurwardT" 
claiming  from  his  mother,  of  whom  nothing  is  known,  beyond  the  fact  that  she  was 
wife  of  Malcolm  of  Lundin,  and  had  made  a  grant  to  the  Culdees  of  Monymusk  of  ten 
bolls  of  malt,  and  ten  stones  of  cheese  annually.  Thomas  Durward  alleged  the  illegiti- 
macy of  Morgund  and  Duncan,  but  says  nothing  about  Gilchrist.  The  dispute  was 
settled,  and  the  deeds  of  agreement  between  the  parties  were  among  the  national  records 
in  1291,  being  then  preserved  in  a  small  bag.  Under  the  compromise,  or  settlement, 
Durward  may  have  acquired  in  his  mother's  right  his  great  possessions  in  Mar,  extend- 
ing from  Invercanny  on  the  Dee  to  Alford  on  the  Don,  and  from  Coull  on  the  west  to 
Skene  on  the  east.  Thomas  was  Hostiarius  or  Doorward  to  the  King,  in  David  of 
Huntingdon's  time.  He  was  possibly  the  Durward  that  was  in  David's  following 
at  the  siege  of  Acre.  Before  1211,  he  gave  the  kirk  of  Kynernyn  to  the  Abbey  of 
Arbroath,  by  a  charter  witnessed  by  Earl  David's  son,  Henry. 


56  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 


Earl  Duncan's  son,  William,  succeeded  him  before  1234.  He  was  one  of  the  great 
barons  in  charge  of  Scotch  affairs  in  the  reign  of  Alexander  II.,  and  was,  at  the  instance 
of  Henry  III.  of  England,  removed  and  substituted  by  Alan  Durward,  the  son  of 
Thomas  Durward,  the  rival  of  Earl  Duncan,  but  was  restored  before  1258.  Alan,  like 
his  father,  unsuccessfully  claimed  the  Mar  title.  Earl  William  lived  beyond  March, 
1273,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Donald,  the  father-in-law  of  King  Eobert  I. 

Earl  Donald  had  an  eventful  life  to  lead.  He  was  knighted  by  Alexander  III. 
His  first  wife  was  Muriel,  daughter  of  Malise,  Earl  of  Strathearn,  and  of  Marjory 
Itluschamp,  daughter  of  the  Baron  of  Wooler.  After  her  death,  1291-92,  he  mar- 
ried Ellen,  daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Fife,  getting  a  payment  of  forty  shillings  from 
that  Earldom  as  part  of  her  dowry,  in  1293-5.  In  1291,  Donald  of  Mar,  one  of  the 
seven  Earls  of  Scotland,  appealed  to  the  King  of  England,  with  the  freemen  of  Moray, 
against  William,  bishop  of  St.  Andrews,  and  Sir  John  Cumyn,  Wardens  of  Scot- 
land, in  the  interest  of  Eobert  Bruce,  Lord  of  Annandale  ;  whose  grandson,  'Eobert 
Bruce,  Earl  of  Carrick,  afterwards  King,  married  the  Earl's  daughter  the  Lady  Isabel  Mar. 
In  the  same  year,  Earl  Donald  swore  fealty  to  Edward,  King  of  England,  as  Over- 
lord of  Scotland;  and  in  1294  went  on  summons  to  serve  in  Edward's  wars  in  Gas- 
cony.  In  1296  he,  with  his  son  Duncan,  and  others  of  the  name  of  Mar,  took  oath 
of  fealty  to  the  English  King.  The  extent  of  the  ancient  family  at  that  time  is  indicated 
by  the  fact  that  his  clan  thus  appearing  with  him  were  gathered  from  the  counties  of 
Aberdeen,  Perth,  Inverness,  Fife,  and  Linlithgow.  The  Earl  of  Mar  took  the  national 
side  in  Baliol's  rebellion,  and  was  captured  by  the  English  after  the  battle  of  Dunbar, 
in  1296.  He  seems  to  have  remained  in  England  as  a  subject  of  Edward,  for,  in  1297, 
he  had  leave  to  repair  to  Scotland  with  the  Earl  of  Warren,  to  equip  himself  for  Edward's 
wars  in  France.  His  engagement  binding  himself  to  serve  the  English  King  in  that  war 
as  his  liege  lord  is  extant  with  his  seal  in  the  Cuphic  character  appended.  In  the  same 
year,  the  Earl's  son  and  successor  Gartney,  served  King  Edward  in  Scotland. 

Gartney  was  Earl  of  Mar  for  a  very  brief  period,  during  which  little  is  known 
respecting  him.  He  was  the  first  husband  of  Christian  Bruce,  sister  of  King  Eobert  I. ; 
but  left  her  a  widow  before  a.d.  1306. 

The  Lords  of  the  Garioch,  Earls  of  Mar,  all  descend  from  Gartney,  Earl  of  Mar, 
and  his  wife  Christian  Bruce,  who  had  two  children,  Donald  and  Elyne,  the  progenitors 
of  two  several  lines  of  Earls  of  Mar. 

From  Donald  two  Earls  and  two  Countesses  of  Mar  inherited,  who  were  also  by 
inheritance  from  Earl  Donald's  mother,  Lady  Christian  Bruce,  Lords  and  Ladies  of  the 
Garioch,  bringing  the  line  down  to  Isabel  of  Douglas,  the  wife  of  Alexander  Stewart, 
who,  after  1404,  became  Earl  and  Lord  by  marriage  with  her. 

The  Lady  Elyne  of  Mar  was  ancestress  of  the  Erskine  line,  which  now  holds  the 
combined  dignities.  In  the  17th  century,  Sir  George  Johnston  of  that  Hk,  the  first 
Baronet  of  Caskieben,  as  the  heir  and  representative  of  the  ancient  Garviachs  of  Caskie- 


The  Lords  of  the  Gfari-och. 


ben,  threatened  to  contest  the  right  of  the  Erskines  to  the  Earldom  and  Lordship, 
alleging  that  the  Lady  Elyne  of  Mar  had  been  in  her  early  years  the  wife  of  his — Sir 
George  Johnston's — ancestor,  Sir  James  de  Garviach ;  and  had  been  the  grandmother  of 
Margaret  de  Garviach,  the  wife  of  Stephen  de  Johnston  "  the  Clerk  "  ;  Sir  George 
Johnston,  however,  subsequently  and  by  way  of  compromise  departed  from  his  conten- 
tion— no  distinct  evidence  of  the  marriage  of  Sir  James  de  Garviach  with  the  Lady 
Elyne  of  Mar  having  been  obtained.  In  reference  to  this  descent,  the  Johnstons  of  that 
Ilk  and  Caskieben  have  borne,  for  generations  bygone,  and  continue  to  the  present  day 
to  carry — on  the  2nd  and  3rd  quarters  of  their  shield, — the  arms  of  Mar,  Earl  of  Mar, 
and  of  Garviach  of  Caskieben,  composed  or  combined,  together  in  one  coat. 

The  Lady  Christian  Bruce  was  in  1326  created  Lady  of  the  Garioch;  and  the  lands 
of  the  King,  within  and  without  burghs  in  the  Garioch,  were  conferred  on  her  and  her 
husband,  Andrew  of  Moray,  Knight,  Pantelar  of  Scotland,  and  their  heirs,  as  freely  and 
fully  as  ever  they  were  held  of  the  Kings  of  Scotland  by  David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon. 
There  were  apparently  no  heirs  of  that  union.  The  memory  of  Sir  Andrew's  marriage 
was  to  be  perpetuated  by  the  erection  of  the  Chapel  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary  of 
the  Garioch,  by  his  widow.  The  chapel  was  endowed  and  augmented  by  votive  offer- 
ings, of  the  same  character,  in  succeeding  centuries  ;  and  sometime  before  the  Reforma- 
tion it  had  been  increased  to  six  chaplainries. 

The  first  Lady  of  the  Garioch  held  the  new  dignity  for  about  thirty  years.  She 
was  succeeded  therein  by  her  grandson,  Thomas,  Earl  of  Mar,  whose  father  Earl  Donald 
(the  Lady  Christian  Brace's  only  son),  was  slain  in  the  disaster  of  Dupplin,  in  August, 
1332,  leaving  besides  his  son,  the  said  Thomas  Mar,  Earl  of  Mar,  the  first  Lord  of  the 
Garioch,  a  daughter,  Lady  Margaret  Mar,  who  became  Lady  of  the  Garioch  upon  Earl 
Thomas  her  brother's  decease. 

Thomas,  who  succeeded  as  13th  Earl  of  Mar,  upon  the  death  of  his  father  in  1332, 
appears  in  charters  as  Lord  of  the  Garioch  in  1357.  He  died,  without  lawful  issue, 
in  or  before  1377,  and  was  the  last  in  the  direct  male  line  of  the  old  Earls  bearing  the 
Mar  surname. 

Lady  Margaret  Mar,  the  sister  of  Thomas,  Earl  of  Mar,  and  wife,  first  of  William, 
Earl  of  Douglas,  and  afterwards  of  Sir  John  of  Swinton,  next  held  the  Earldom  of 
Mar  and  Regality  of  the  Garioch.  Her  first  husband  enjoyed  both  her  titles.  Her 
second  spouse,  Sir  John  Swinton  (killed  at  Homildon  in  1402— by  whom  the  Coun- 
tess Margaret  had  no  issue,)  was  in  her  right  designed  "  Dvminus  de  Marr  "  in  the 
investitures  which,  as  Lady  of  the  Garioch,  she  had  to  grant.  The  Countess  Margaret 
bore  to  her  first  husband  a  son,  James,  Earl  of  Douglas,  the  renowned  antagonist  of 
Henry  Percy  (Hotspur)  and  a  daughter,  Isabel,  who  died  the  wife  of  Alexander  Stewart, 
the  victor  of  Harlaw.  Margaret,  Lady  of  the  Garioch,  survived  her  celebrated  son, 
Earl  Douglas,  until  after  5th  December,  1389,  at  which  date  she  with  her  then  husband, 
Sir  John  of  Swinton,  granted  a  bond  in  favour  of  William  Douglas,  illegitimate  son 

8 


58  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  nf  the  Garioch. 

of  her  son  James,  Earl  Douglas.     She  had  conveyed  her  honours  to  her  son  before 
1388. 

James  appears  on  27th  July,  1388,  designated  Earl  of  Douglas  and  Mar,  and  Lord 
of  Cavers  and  the  Garioch.  In  1385,  he  did  not  bear  any  titles  except  Douglas  and 
Cavers  and  Liddesdale,  which  his  father's  death  before  September,  1384,  had  made  his 
by  succession.  Within  a  few  weeks  of  the  date  above  alluded  to — 27th  July,  1388 — 
James,  Earl  of  Douglas  and  Mar,  fell  on  19th  August,  1388,  at  Otterburn,  leaving  no 
legitimate  heir  of  his  body. 

Lady  Isabel  Douglas,  the  only  sister  of  Earl  James,  became,  by  the  decease  of  her 
brother  and  mother,  Countess  of  Mar  and  Lady  of  the  Gavioch,  or,  as  she  was  described 
sometimes,  Countess  of  Mar  and  Garioch.  She  had  before  then  become  the  spouse  of 
Sir  Malcolm  Drummond,  designed  the  brother  of  Eobert  III.,  as  having  been  the  brother 
of  the  wife  of  that  Monarch — the  Queen  A nnabella  Drummond,  and  Sir  Malcolm  adopted 
his  wife's  titles  by  marital  right,  styling  himself  Lord  of  Mar  and  the  Garioch.  After 
Sir  Malcolm  Drummond  died,  in  1403,  the  Lady  Isabel  became  the  wife  of  Alexander 
Stewart,  a  natural  son  of  Alexander  Stewart,  Earl  of  Buchan,  the  fourth  son  of  King 
Eobert  II.  (but  better  known  by  the  descriptive  epithet,  the  Wolf  of  Badenoch).  By 
solemn  deed,  dated  in  August,  1404,  the  Countess  Isabel  invested  her  second  husband 
with  all  her  titles  and  lands,  and  he  continued  to  hold  them  after  her  death,  which 
event  took  place  before  10th  February,  1408. 

By  the  death  of  Countess  Isabel,  the  line  of  the  surname  of  Mar  holding  the  two 
honours  of  Mar  and  the  Garioch  came  to  an  end,  and  all  subsequent  claimants  have 
sought  to  prove  .themselves  heirs  to  her,  through  failure  of  heirs  of  her  two  marriages 
just  specified.  By  a  decision  in  the  case  of  the  Mar  Peerage,  pronounced  25th  Feb., 
1875,  by  the  House  of  Peers,  the  ancient  Earldom  or  Mormaorship  of  Mar  was  assumed 
by  the  Judges  to  have  terminated  on  the  decease  of  Thomas,  the  13th  Earl,  in  or  before 
1377. 

Alexander  Stewart  retaining  the  dignities  after  his  wife's  decease,  styled  himself 
sometimes  Earl  and  sometimes  Lord  of  the  Garioch.  For  some  reason  or  other  he 
appears  towards  the  end  of  his  extraordinary  career  to  have  entered  into  an  agreement 
for  the  future  disposal  of  the  honours  and  lands  with  the  King,  James  I.,  who  was 
then  about  to  bring  relentless  vengeance  on  the  family  of  Stewart's  uncle  Albany,  the 
principal  author  of  the  King's  previous  hardships.  James  confirmed  the  lands  and  titles 
of  Mar  and  Garioch  to  Alexander  Stewart  and  to  his  natural  son  Thomas,  upon  the  con- 
dition that  if  both  father  and  son  should  die  without  lawful  heirs,  the  whole  should 
revert  to  the  Crown.  Alexander  Stewart  died  without  leaving  issue,  in  August  1435. 
The  honours  were  claimed  by  Sir  Eobert  Erskine,  but  retained  by  the  Crown  in  terms 
of  the  agreement  with  Alexander  Stewart.     Thomas  Stewart  predeceased  his  father. 

The  first  plea  stated  in  bar  of  the  claim  of  Robert  Erskine,  whom  the  proper  court 
served  heir  of  Isabel  of  Mar,  was  that  all  rights  held  by  King  James  I.  must  be  pre- 


77/c  Lords  of  the  Garioch.  59 


served  for  his  son  until  the  latter  should  attain  majority.  The  Regality  was  apparently 
held  during  the  minority  of  James  II.,  by  William,  Earl  of  Orkney,  Lord  Sinclair, 
Great  Chamberlain  of  Scotland,  perhaps  the  most  powerful  nobleman  of  his  time.  In 
14-11,  he  as  Lord  of  the  Regality  of  the  Garioch,  confirmed  a  charter  of  Bourtie.  In 
1453,  the  Queen  of  James  II.  was  Lady  of  the  Garioch,  with  Sir  William  Leslie  of 
Balquhain  for  her  bailie.  In  1475,  John,  brother  of  James  III.,  was  Earl  of  Mar 
and  Garioch.  In  1482,  Alexander,  Duke  of  Albany,  another  brother,  got  a  charter 
of  the  same  lands  and  titles.  In  1486,  the  king's  third  son,  John  Stewart,  held  the 
same  in  feu  and  heritage,  his  father  acting  as  his  tutor. 

In  the  next  reign  the  Regality  lands  began  to  be  alienated  by  the  King.  In  1507, 
part  of  them  was  given  by  James  IV.  to  Alexander  Elphinstone,  son  of  Sir  John 
Elphinstone,  and  afterwards,  in  1509,  more  of  them,  including  Kildrummy.  The  Mar 
Aisle  in  the  kirkyard  of  Kildrummy  is  the  tomb  of  the  Lords  Elphinstone,  who 
bore,  as  a  second  title,  that  of  Lord  Kildrummy.  In  1510,  the  King  excambed  all  his 
lands  in  the  Garioch  with  John  Leslie  of  Wardes,  for  those  of  Balcomy,  in  Fife.  From 
the  hands  of  some  feeble  descendants  of  Wardes,  the  lands  slipped  bit  by  bit,  and  came 
at  last  to  be  held  in  superiority  by  the  Erskines,  the  heirs  of  the  original  lords. 

The  Erskiue  family,  with  whose  blood  was  mingled  that  of  the  Keiths,  Marischals 
of  Scotland,  at  the  time  when  they  became  one  of  the  representative  families  of  the 
Garioch  Earldom  and  that  of  Mar,  dated  from  the  reign  of  Alexander  II.  Sir  Robert 
Erskine,  the  sixth  of  the  line,  who  was  Great  Chamberlain  of  Scotland  in  1350,  died  in 
1385,  laird  of  Balhaggardy,  Conglas,  and  Inveramsay.  He  was  the  father  of  Sir 
Thomas  Erskine,  whose  second  wife,  Janet  Keith,  was  daughter  of  Sir  Edward  Keith, 
Marischal  of  Scotland,  and  grand-daughter  of  Elyne  of  Mar  by  her  husband,  Sir  John 
Menteith,  Lord  of  Arran.  On  failure  of  the  heirs  of  her  brother  Donald,  the  descend- 
ants of  the  Lady  Elyne  of  Mar  by  Sir  John  Menteith,  became,  as  was  maintained  by 
the  Erskines,  Earls  of  Mar  and  Lords  of  the  Garioch.  The  Erskines  had  made  pre- 
paration before  Alexander  Stewart's  death  to  vindicate  their  claim.  The  Great  Cham- 
berlain and  his  son  entered  into  a  compact,  characteristic  of  the  time,  with  the  chief 
vassal  of  Mar,  the  Knight  of  Forbes,  for  the  support  of  their  right.  The  Sir  Robert 
Erskine  who  claimed  upon  Stewart's  decease,  was  grandson  of  the  Chamberlain. 

Before  the  time  of  Queen  Mary  Stuart,  when  John,  Lord  Erskine,  fifth  in  descent 
from  Sir  Robert,  was  acknowledged  the  rightful  Earl  of  Mar  and  Lord  of  the  Garioch, 
the  feudal  chiefs  of  Scotland  had  passed  from  the  ancient  position  of  local  princes, 
wielding  power  only  slightly  limited  by  the  regal  authority,  and  were  more  like  great 
landholders  of  later  times.  The  Earl  of  Mar  was  able,  however,  when  James  VI.  was 
King  of  Scotland,  to  outvie  his  monarch  in  personal  splendour,  as  the  story  of  the 
borrowed  hose  with  the  gilt  clocks  would  indicate.  In  the  last  days  of  the  Stuarts, 
the  house  came  to  the  end  of  its  greatness.  The  Earl,  who  raised  the  "  standard  of 
King  James"  in  1715,  at  Braemar,  lowered  his  own  permanently.     Attainder  and  for- 


60  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

feiture  made  an  end  of  the  connection  of  the  family  with  their  wide  lands  between 
the  Dee  and  the  Don,  and  the  titles  merely  were  restored  in  the  reign  of  George  IV. 

LANDS  AND  FAMILIES  IN  THE  GARIOCH  BEFORE  THE  BATTLE  OF  HARLAW. 

The  numerous  charters  on  record  bearing  dates  between  the  battles  of  Inverurie  and 
Harlaw,  exhibit  with  some  fullness  the  vassalage  acknowledging  the  local  ride  of  the 
Lords  and  Ladies  of  the  Garioch;  and  furnish  a  sort  of  ground  plan  of  social  life,  in  the 
district,  within  that  century. 

The  oldest  estates  in  the  Garioch  recognisable  under  their  present  names  were  those 
alienated  by  the  earlier  members  of  the  dynasty  of  Malcolm  Canmore  ;  beginning  with 
the  lands  of  Leslie  bestowed  upon  Bartolf,  the  ancestor  of  the  Constables  of  Inverurie, 
and  the  great  house  descending  from  them,  which,  in  the  fourth  generation,  adopted 
Leslie  as  its  family  name.  These  lands  evidently  extended  from  the  Foudland  Hills  to 
the  Don,  and  were  held  in  David  of  Huntingdon's  time  under  his  superiority. 

Malcolm  the  Maiden,  the  great-grandson  of  Canmore,  a  generous  patron  of  the 
Church,  bestowed  on  the  See  of  Aberdeen  the  whole  schyres,  or  parishes,  of  Eayne  and 
Daviot,  portions  of  which  were,  from  time  to  time,  erected  by  Episcopal  charters  into 
separate  estates. 

The  Earldom  of  the  Garioch  was  instituted  by  Malcolm,  in  the  person  of  his  brother 
David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon ;  with,  it  is  likely,  the  whole  of  the  then  unalienated  royal 
possessions  in  the  Garioch. 

The  first  Earl,  by  his  gift  of  the  land,  afterwards  known  as  Ardlar  in  Kinneth- 
rnont,  to  the  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  and  of  Lodgavel  and  Malinch,  now  Ledingham  and 
Mellinside  in  Culsalmond,  to  the  Abbey  of  Lindores,  gave  origin  to  those  individual 
holdings. 

His  son  John,  the  Scot,  made  Caskieben  a  separate  estate,  the  property  of  Norino, 
the  last  Constable  of  Enrowrie. 

Knockinglass,  afterwards  Coynglass,  appears,  in  1257,  in  a  Papal  confirmation,  in 
consequence  of  the  tithes  of  its  cultivated  land  having  been  secured  as  stipend  to  the 
Vicar  of  Enrowrie.  Possibly  from  that  destination,  part  of  the  lands  came  to  be  named 
Balhaggardy,  which  means  the  town  of  the  priests.  A  part  of  Conglass  bears  the  name 
of  Priests'  Leys. 

After  the  rich  lands  on  Gadie,  Ury,  and  Don,  given  to  the  ancestor  of  the  Leslies, 
the  braes  of  Eothmaise  and  their  neighbourhood  seem  to  have  become  desirable  posses- 
sions. Ledingham  and  Mellinside,  part  of  Earl  David's  gift  to  Lindores,  lie  there  ; 
but  at  an  earlier  date  than  that  gift,  the  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  who  received  the  schyre  of 
Bane  from  Malcolm  the  Maiden,  had  given  a  half  carucate  of  land,  lying  between  the 
kirk  of  St.  Andrew  of  Bayne  and  Eothmaise,  to  the  Abbey  of  Melrose  ;  and  in  1175-8, 
Lawrence,  the  Abbot,  had  disponed  it  to  Bobert,  the  son  of  Hugh,  the  son  of  SpUeman. 


Lands  and  Families  in  the  Garioch  before  the  Battle  of  Harlow.  61 

In  1304,  Ledyntoscacii  (Lentush)  and  Eothmaise  were  in  their  third  descent,  at 
least,  when  Duncan,  the  son  of  Helen,  the  daughter  of  the  deceased  Adam  of  Eane,  sold 
them  to  Henry  St.  Michael.  It  was  found  by  a  court  of  inquest  sitting  in  1333 — which 
retoured  Eeginald,  a  brother  of  Helen's,  as  heir  of  Adam  his  father, — that  the  lands  had 
been  in  the  family  beyond  the  memory  of  man,  and  been  held  of  the  Bishop  of  Aber- 
deen ;  Ledyntoscach  for  homage  and  suit  of  court  by  one  suitor,  and  Eothmaise  for  a 
silver  merk  yearly,  besides  the  thirteenth  of  the  corns  grown  on  either  land,  payable  to 
the  Mill  of  Eane.  In  1335,  Eothmaise  and  Ledyntoscach,  with  the  Crosflat,  were 
sold  again  to  Henry  St.  Michael,  by  other  members  of  the  family. 

Newton,  in  Culsalmond,  and  Threepland  and  Bonnyton,  in  Eayne,  appear  in  the 
same  early  period.  In  1259,  Eichard,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  and  Thomas,  Abbot  of  Lin- 
dores,  fixed  the  bounds  of  a  land  called  Threepland  between  the  lands  of  Bondyngton, 
belonging  to  the  Bishop,  and  the  lands  of  Newton,  belonging  to  the  Abbot  and  convent. 
At  the  same  period,  Tillymorgan,  Williamston,  and  Wrangham  were  part  of  the 
Lindores  possessions ;  which  seem  to  have  comprised  most  of  Culsalmond,  as  the  Aber- 
deen Bishopric  did  Eayne  and  Daviot. 

With  the  above  exceptions,  the  Garioch  estates  first  appear  in  charters  after  the 
accession  of  Eobert  1.  Some  may  have  changed  their  lords  during  his  reign,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  necessities  of  the  owners  at  that  troubled  period  ;  or,  as  was  the  case  in 
Buchan,  through  Eoyal  Acts  rewarding  faithful  service,  or  punishing  what  would,  after 
Bannockburn,  be  held  to  have  been  rebellion. 

The  rolls  of  missing  charters  mention  a  charter  by  Eobert  I.  to  Thomas  Menzies, 
knight,  of  the  lands  of  Unyn  (Oyne)  in  the  Garioch,  and  one  by  David  II.  of  the  lands 
of  Ouyn  to  Archibald  Weschell  by  resignation  of  Menzies  of  Fothergill. 

Sometime  after  Bannockburn,  and  before  1318,  the  King  gave  to  his  faithful 
follower,  Gilbert  de  la  Haye,  the  office  of  Constable  of  Scotland ;  an  office  held  before 
by  Cumyn,  Earl  of  Buchan ;  and  after  his  defeat  and  flight,  by  his  nephew  David  of 
of  Strathbogie,  Earl  of  Atholl,  who  also  forfeited  it.  The  King  had,  before  that  time, 
given  to  Gilbert  de  la  Haye,  Cumyn's  Castle  of  Slains.  Haye's  descendants,  the  Earls 
of  Erroll,  have  held  the  office  ever  since. 

In  1316,  another  true  adherent,  Sir  James  Garviach — a  direct  ancestor  of  the 
Johnstons  of  Caskieben — received  from  the  King  the  lands  afterwards  held  for  several 
generations  by  the  Johnstons,  viz.,  the  Forest  of  Cordyce  (in  the  parish  of  Dyce),  under 
burden  of  the  fifth  part  of  a  knight's  service  in  the  King's  host,  and  the  Scotch  service, 
used  and  wont,  appertaining  thereto. 

It  was  some  years  later,  viz.,  in  1324,  that  the  King  erected  a  lairdship  for  his 
attached  armour-bearer,  William  de  Irwyn,  the  founder  of  the  family  of  Irvine  of  Drum. 
In  1306,  Eobert  Bruce,  on  leaving  Galloway,  to  assert  his  right  to  the  crown  by  public 
coronation,  had  taken  with  him  the  eldest  son  of  Irwyn  of  Bonshaw  as  his  personal 
attendant.     The  near  descendants  of  the  royal  armour-bearer  were  faithful  servants  of 


62  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

the  crown.  One  of  them  was  the  highly  esteemed  companion  of  the  celebrated  Earl  of 
Mar,  the  victor  at  Harlaw. 

In  the  same  year,  1324,  the  first  charter  was  issued  which  connected  the  Marischals 
of  Scotland,  the  Keith  family,  with  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Garioch.  Parliament 
had, -in  1320,  bestowed  upon  the  Marischal,  Sir  Robert  Keith,  a  large  portion  of  the 
estates  of  Cumyn,  Earl  of  Buchan.  In  the  latter  year,  the  King  gave  him  the  Forest 
of  Kintore,  exclusive  of  the  Park.  A  like  exception  was  made  in  the  charter  of  the 
Forest  of  Drum — the  King  being  evidently  fond  of  the  chase,  the  associations  of  which 
during  his  wanderings  in  the  Grampians  and  Lochaber  after  1306,  with  Douglas,  Keith, 
Hay,  Irvine,  and  other  close  attendants,  remained,  it  may  be  well  believed,  in  his  lasting 
recollection. 

At  an  earlier  period  than  the  gift  of  Hallforest,  and  it  is  likely  in  the  King's  neces- 
sitous days,  the  ancestor  of  the  family  of  Hill — who  are  still  living  in  Kintore — obtained 
a  charter  of  a  portion  of  land  in  that  Burgh.  The  King  had  received  from  him  needful 
or  convenient  hospitality,  it  is  said.  The  charter,  in  some  unknown  manner,  found  its 
way  into  the  vaults  of  the  Advocate's  Library,  in  Edinburgh.  Mr.  William  Donald 
Hill,  Provost  of  Kintore  in  1872,  is  the  lineal  descendant  of  the  original  holder,  and 
the  land  has  never  left  the  possession  of  the  family.  It  now  bears  the  name  of 
King's  Field. 

The  parish  of  Kintore  was  apparently  not  in  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch,  which 
probably  did  not  extend  beyond  the  Barony  of  Crichie  ir.  that  direction.  There  was  a 
Thanage,  afterwards  called  a  Barony,  of  Kintore,  which  included  Thainston  and  some 
duties  of  the  Kirks  of  Kinkell  and  Dyce,  and  also  the  lands  of  Glasgo-forest.  '  David 
II.  granted  the  Thanage  to  his  sister  Maude,  along  with  the  lands  of  Formartine.  Half 
of  both  he  afterwards  gave  to  the  Earl  of  Sutherland  and  his  wife.  The  Thanage  was, 
in  1375,  given  by  Robert  II.  to  John  Dunbar,  Earl  of  Moray,  and  his  wife  Marjory,  the 
King's  sister,  and,  in  1383,  by  another  charter  excepting  the  holding  (tenandia)  of 
Thaynston.  Thaynston  and  Foullertown,  with  the  duty  of  Kinkell  and  Dys,  were 
by  David  II.  bestowed  upon  William  Chalmers.  The  same  King  gave  a  charter  of 
Glasgo-le-forest,  in  the  Thanedom  of  Kintore,  to  Robert  Glen. 

The  possession  of  Kintore  by  the  family  of  Chalmers  was  of  older  date  than  the 
charter  of  David  II.  Balnacraig,  a  gift  of  Bruce's  nephew  Randolph,  Earl  of  Moray,  in 
1324-29  to  Sir  James  de  Garviach,  was  conveyed  by  his  son  Andrew  de  Garviach  of 
Caskieben,  in  1357,  to  Robert  Chalmers  of  Kintore,  and  Elene  de  Garviach  his 
wife,  Sir  James's  sister.  The  above  named  William  Chalmers,  the  son  of  Robert,  was 
provost  of  Aberdeen  in  1392,  and  for  seven  years  thereafter;  and  his  descendants 
continued  persons  of  influence  in  the  municipality,  and  also  appear  as  lairds  of  Murtle 
and  Cults  on  Deeside.  Chalmers  of  Balbithan,  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  cen- 
turies may  have  been  of  the  same  line. 

Caskieben,  which  was  bestowed  by  John,  Earl  of  Huntingdon,  before  1237,  upon 


Lauds  and  Families  in  the  Garioch  before  the  Battle  of  Harlaw.  63 

Norino  the  Constable,  re-appears  in  certified  documents  in  1357,  when  Andrew  de 
Garviach  possessed  it.  An  historical  annotator  of  the  Bagman  Roll  says  that  it  was 
possessed  by  a  branch  of  the  house  of  Mar,  descended  from  Duncan  fitz  le  Conte  de  Mar, 
a  younger  line  of  the  Earldom.  If  Elyne  of  Mar,  the  wife  of  Sir  James  de  Garviach, 
was  of  that  younger  line,  the  estate  may  have  been  resumed  by  Eobert  I.  in  conse- 
quence of  Sir  Norman  Leslie,  Norino's  son,  having  served  under  the  English  King,  and 
been  granted  anew  to  his  faithful  adherent  Sir  James,  whose  son  Andrew  de  Garviach 
possessed  it  in  1357.  Andrew  de  Garviach  had  an  only  daughter  and  heiress,  Mar- 
garet, from  whose  marriage  with  Stejjhen  de  Johnston,  called  the  Clerk,  sprung  the 
family  of  Johnston  of  Caskieben,  afterwards  and  still  designated  of  That  Ek. 

Kinbroun  and  Badechash,  in  the  parish  of  Fyvie,  and  Johnston  in  the  parish  of 
Leslie,  were  bestowed,  in  April,  1380,  by  Andrew  de  Garviach  upon  his  son-in-law  and 
daughter ;  and  they  inherited  Caskieben  after  his  decease. 

Glace:  was  held  by  the  father  of  Ade  of  Filmor  before  1294,  when  Henry,  Bishop 
of  Aberdeen,  confirmed  it  to  him.  In  1381,  Alice  of  Pilmor  was  proprietor;  and  in 
1418,  Murdoch  Glaster  was  served  heir  to  Alice  Pilmor,  his  mother,  in  that  estate. 
The  family  of  Glaster,  who  were  lairds  of  Dunnottar  in  the  Mearns,  held  Glack  until 
the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century ;  when  it  appears  in  the  hands  of  a  long  continuing 
Elphinstone  family. 

The  chief  alienation  of  Garioch  lands  to  a  subject,  in  the  period  between  the  battles 
of  Inverurie  and  Harlaw,  was  the  bestowing  by  King  Eobert  I.  of  the  lands  of  the 
Earldom  then  remaining  in  the  crown  upon  his  sister  Dame  Christian  Bruce,  and  her 
husband,  Sir  Andrew  Murray,  in  1326.  Several  Garioch  estates  appear  first  in  her 
charters,  and  others  come  into  view  in  those  issued  by  Thomas,  13th  Earl  of  Mar,  her 
grandson,  the  first  Lord  of  the  Garioch. 

Knockinglas  (Conglass)  first  named  in  a  Papal  bull  of  1257,  was  in  the  reign  of 
David  II.  bestowed  by  Christian  Bruce  along  with  Meikle-Warders  and  Inveralmassie 
(Inveramsay)  upon  Andrew  Buttergask,  who  in  the  same  reign  acquired  several  other 
lands  in  Aberdeenshire.  He,  or  his  father,  had  been  Clerk  of  the  Kitchen  to  Eobert  I.  ; 
and  John  Buttergask  was  Bailie  of  the  Eegality  in  1359,  when  these  lands  next 
appear,  as  possessed  by  the  ancestor  of  the  family  of  Erskine,  who  have  ever  since 
retained  part  of  the  lands  then  disponed  to  them.  Thomas,  Earl  of  Mar,  Lord  of  the 
Garioch,  by  an  undated  charter  which  was  confirmed  by  King  David  II.  in  1357, 
bestowed  upon  Sir  Eobert  Erskine  and  Dame  Christian  Kethe,  his  spouse,  the  lands  of 
Balehasirdy,  Bundys  (Boynds),  Inuiralmusy,  and  Mill  of  Inuiralmusy,  and  half  of 
Drumdornauche,  Petskurry,  Petbey,  Pettochry  (1  Pittodrie)  and  Newlandys.  Sir 
Thomas  Erskine,  son  of  Sir  Eobert,  was  laird  at  the  time  of  Harlaw. 

The  first  dated  charter  of  Garioch  lands,  by  Christian  Bruce,  was  upon  Bourtie. 
A  curious  document  of  1342  brings  up  the  name  of  Old  Bourty,  as  then  in  use  ;  as  Old- 
meldrum  was   when  the  battle  of    Inverurie  was  fought  in  1308.     In   1342,  on  St. 


64  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Philip  and  St.  James's  Day,  Friar  Robert,  master  and  warden  of  the  alms  of  the  House  of 
Torphichen,  in  Scotland,  confirmed  a  charter  by  Mathew,  called  Goblauch  the  Smith,  to 
William  of  Melgdrum,  the  son  of  the  deceased  John  of  Melgdrum,  lord  of  that  ilk,  of  a 
certain  amount  of  acres  in  the  town  which  is  called  Auld  Bouharty,  which  the  same 
Mathew,  very  much  impoverished  by  the  vicissitudes  of  wars,  had  sold  to  the  said 
William,  greatest  necessity  compelling  him  for  his  relief  and  the  support  of  his  life. 
The  two  Lords  of  Melgdrum  were  descendants  of  Sir  Philip,  the  brother-in-law  of 
Cumyn,  Earl  of  Buchan,  whose  plea  anent  the  tithes  of  Bethelny  was  decided  at 
Inverurie,  by  Bishop  Richard  Pottock  in  1262.  Sniiddy  Croft  may  be  the  place  of  the 
Goblauch's  ancient  holding.  A  place  called  Smiddystones  is  also  upon  Auld  Bourtie  ; 
and  a  well,  named  the  Hudd's  Well,  at  the  bottom  of  the  Hudd's  Field.  On  Thorn- 
ton, in  the  same  parish,  a  Temple  Croft  had  been  part  of  the  Torphichen  or  Knights- 
Templar  lands. 

On  26th  Aug.,  1346,  Christiana  de  Bruce,  lady  of  the  regality  of  the  Garioch,  gave 
a  charter  on  the^haill  lands  of  Bourtie  to  .  .  .  Abernethie.  (Minutes  of  Evidence 
in  Mar  Case,  1875.) 

On  20th  Aug.,  1387,  Johne  de  Swyntoun,  laird  of  that  like,  and  Dame  Margaret 
Mar,  his  spouse,  Countess  of  Douglas  and  Mar,  and  ladie  of  the  Garioche,  gave  a  char- 
ter to  Alex.  Barclay  &o.     (Do.,  do.) 

The  Precept  of  Sasine,  in  the  possession  of  the  Laird  of  Bourtie,  contains  a  full 
description.  It  is  issued  at  Kildrummy,  20th  Aug.,  1387,  by  John  of  Swinton,  Lord  of 
the  same,  and  Margaret  his  wife,  Countess  of  Douglas  and  Mar,  and  Lady  of  the 
Regality  of  the  Garioch,  to  ...  "  our  baillie,"  directing  him  to  infeft  Alexander 
Barclay,  son  of  William  Barclay  of  Kercow,  in  all  the  lands  of  Auld  Bourty,  and  a 
third  part  of  Petgovenie  ;  "  which  lands  of  Auld  Bourty  Margaret  of  Abernethy,  nan 
vi  out  metu  resigned  in  her  widowhood,  in  plena  curia  cqmd  Enverury  tenia,  and  by 
letters  of  resignation  in  our  presence  at  the  castle  of  Kindrony,  by  staff  and  baton." 
Alexander  Barclay  had  succeeded,  in  1384,  as  heir  to  his  brother  John  of  Abernethy. 
His  descendants  continued  to  hold  the  lands  of  Bourtie  until  1598  ;  when  they  came, 
by  purchase,  into  the  hands  of  the  family  of  Seton,  influential  in  the  Garioch  at  that 
period.  The  Barclays  date,  in  Scotland,  from  about  1110,  and  four  families  were  pro- 
minent in  the  time  of  William  the  Lion — two  of  the  surname  having  held  the  office 
of  Great  Chamberlain.  This  ancient  race  came  to  Aberdeenshire  in  the  same  Saxon 
emigration  which  brought  the  Leslies,  Gordons,  and  others,  in  the  time  of  Princess 
Margaret.  The  first  was  John  de  Berkely,  a  younger  son  of  Roger  de  Berkely,  lord  of 
Berkely  Castle,  in  the  time  of  the  Conqueror.  From  John,  the  barons  of  Gartley  or 
Garentully  in  the  parish  so  named  in  Strathbogy  (acquired  by  marriage),  and  the  Bar- 
clays de  Tolly  both  descended.  The  first  Castle  of  Tolly  had,  it  is  said,  the  inscription 
"Sir  Alexander  Barclay  of  Tolly,  fundator,  decessit,  a.d.  1136." 

The  Barclays  of  Bourtie  were  the  Barclays  of  Tolly.     King  Robert  gave  a  charter 


Lauds  and  Families  in  the  Garioch,  before  the  Battle  of  Harlow.  65 

upon  Towie  to  Alexander  Barclay  of  Kerco.  Kerco,  or  Kereow,  is  so  like  the  spelling 
of  Cracow,  which  might  have  been  made  at  that  time  in  Scotland,  as  to  tempt  the  infer- 
ence that  Alexander  Barclay  was  an  early  example  of  what  was  common  from  Aber- 
deenshire in  later  times — emigration  by  enterprising  young  men  to  "push  their  fortunes" 
in  Boland,  at  that  period  a  prominent  State  in  Europe.  The  Russian  Prince  Barclay  de 
Tolly,  of  1815,  was  descended  from  a  humble  family  in  Livonia,  whose  arms  were  those 
of  Barclay  of  Tolly  or  Towie.  William  Barclay  of  Tolly,  however,  in  1385,  signs  him- 
self lord  of  Kereow,  which  cannot  have  meant  the  Polish  capital. 

Kemnay  is  the  Garioch  estate  next  to  Bourtie  in  ascertained  chronological  order  of 
first  appearance.  From  the  Lord  Chamberlain's  accounts,  it  appears  that  the  ward  of  the 
barony  of  Kemnay  was,  in  1348,  bestowed  by  Robert,  the  Steward  of  Scotland,  acting 
for  the  King,  upon  Norman  de  Leslie.  At  a  later  date,  the  estate  belonged  to  the 
Melvilles  of  Glenbervie,  Sheriffs  of  Kincardineshire.  Andrew  Melvyll  of  Camnay 
served  as  a  Juryman  in  an  inquest  held  in  1397,  on  which  Andrew  Tourryn  of  Foveran 
also  served — an  ancient  Aberdeenshire  family,  now  represented  by  the  British  Consul 
at  the  Hague.  The  estates  of  Kemnay  and  Glenbervie  passed  together  from  the  Mel- 
villes to  the  Douglases  in  the  sixteenth  century. 

Pitfithick  and  Balnerosk,  in  the  barony  of  Monymusk,  in  the  time  of  Thomas, 
Earl  of  Mar,  were  given  by  charter  of  David  II.  to  David  Chalmers.  They  had  been 
forfeited  by  Henry  of  Monymusk,  one  of  a  family  which  about  1300  were  lords  of  the 
estate  of  Forglen,  which  passed  from  them  to  a  Fraser  and  afterwards  to  Irvine  of 
Drum. 

The  Abercrombys,  now  styled  of  Birkenbog  and  Forglen,  are  descended  from  a  race 
which  appeared  first  in  the  Garioch  in  the  period  now  reviewed.  Nisbet  holds  the 
Garioch  Abercrombys  to  have  acquired  their  surname  from  Abercromby  in  Fife,  and  to 
have  been  proprietors  of  Harthill  and  Ardune  as  early  as  1315,  in  virtue  of  a  charter 
of  Robert  I.  to  Humphredus  de  Abercromby,  probably  bestowed  as  a  reward  of  faithful 
allegiance.  The  charter  is  not  quoted  in  the  Spalding  Club  publications,  which  give  the 
following  particulars.  Between  1345  and  1360  Alexander  de  Abercromby  bought  from 
Patrick  Haye,  son  and  heir  of  Roger  Haye,  part  of  the  Halton  of  Ardhunyer  in  Oyne, 
with  the  mill  and  brewhouse ;  one  of  the  witnesses  to  the  charter  being  John  of  Por- 
teristown  (Portstown  in  Keith-hall,  long  a  separate  property).  A  century  later,  Hum- 
phrey Abercromby  (Umfredus  de  Abercromby),  had  a  royal  charter  on  Harthill,  Pit- 
medden,  Pitmachy,  with  part  of  Halton  of  Ardovyn.  The  family  continued  in  the  roll 
of  proprietors  on  Gadieside  for  two  centuries;  and  until  1690  were  lands  also  upon 
Donside. 

In  the  end  of  the  14th  century,  the  Inverurie  lands  of  Aqdhorthies,  with  the 
neighbouring  properties  of  Aquhorsk  and  Blairdaff,  first  appear  by  name.  They  were 
disponed,  in  1391,  by  Andrew  Leslie  of  Leslie,  with  consent  of  Sir  Norman  Leslie,  his 
son,  in  marriage  portion  to  David  de  Abercromby  and  Margaret  Leslie  his  wife,  sister  of 

9 


66  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Andrew.  David's  descendants  held  Aquhorthies  in  whole  or  in  part  until  1688;  when 
Francis  Abercromby  disponed  the  lands  to  Patrick,  Count  Leslie  of  Balquhain. 

The  Balquhain  family  itself  dates  from  the  14th  century.  Norman  de  Leslie's 
youngest  brother,  Sir  George  Leslie,  first  Baron  of  Balquhain,  got  a  grant  of  Balquhain 
from  his  father ;  and  King  David  II.  confirmed  it  by  charter  in  1 340,  for  his  services 
during  the  reigns  of  Robert  I.  and  David  II.  rendered  against  Edward  II.  and  Edward 
Baliol ;  the  grant  consisting  of  the  lands  of  Balquhain,  Syde,  and  Braco.  Descend- 
ants of  Norman  have  held  Balquhain  ever  since — subject  to  many  mutations  as  to 
extent  during  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries. 

The  family  of  Leith  have,  with  the  exception  of  the  Leslies,  been  the  longest 
represented  in  the  Garioch  (some  of  that  surname  being  still  extensive  proprietors)  from 
at  least  the  year  1359,  and  probably  from  a  considerably  earlier  period.  The  wife  of 
Sir  Norman  Leslie,  Edward  I.'s  Sheriff  of  Aberdeen,  is  said,  in  Douglas'  Peerage,  to  have 
been  Elizabeth  Leith  of  Edingerrack. 

In  1359,  Thomas,  Earl  of  Mar,  Lord  of  the  Garioch,  gave  a  charter  of  Rothen- 
etk,  Hareboggs,  and  Blackeboggs,  with  common  pasture  in  the  Earl's  forest  of  Bench- 
ye,  to  William  Leith,  burgess  of  Aberdeen,  for  a  silver  penny  of  duty,  to  be  paid  on  the 
feast  of  John  the  Baptist,  at  "  our  manor  of  Inuerowry,"  if  asked  for.  The  property 
of  Drumrossie,  in  the  parish  of  Insch,  was,  in  1369,  sold  to  the  same  "William  Leith,  by 
Andrew  Berkelay  of  Garnetuly — Earl  Thomas  confirming. 

Lands  adjoining  the  Johnston  lands  of  Kinbruyn  and  Badechash,  in  the  barony  of 
Rothienorman,  viz.,  the  Kirkland  of  Little  Badochayse,  in  the  "  schyre  "  of  Rane,  were, 
in  1376,  granted  to  Adam  Pyngle,  burgess  of  Aberdeen,  by  the  Dean  and  chapter  of 
Aberdeen  in  excambion,  for  the  Mill  of  Folethrule,  with  the  mill  land  and  services  due 
by  the  inhabitants  of  Badochayse  and  Folethblackwater  (now  Meikle  Folia),  where,  in 
the  same  year,  Pyngle  and  his  wife  Marjorie  Blackvatyr,  founded  the  Chapel  of  St. 
Rule. 

The  roll  of  Garioch  lands,  of  which  we  have  existing  records  at  dates  anterior  to 
the  battle  of  Harlaw,  terminates  with  a  charter  by  the  third  and  last  rightful  Lady  of 
the  Garioch.  In  1395,  the  land  of  Lethyndy  was  leased  by  Malcolme  of  Dromonde, 
Lord  of  Mar  and  the  Garioch  (the  brother  of  the  Queen,  and  the  unfortunate  first  hus- 
band of  Isabel  of  Douglas,  Countess  of  Mar  and  Lady  of  the  Garioch)  to  Robert 
Bnrnard  in  Malingall,  for  four  pounds  a  year,  as  long  as  the  land  should  be  in  his  hand 
by  recognition  from  Paule  Crab.  That  property  passed  afterwards  into  the  hands  of 
the  Forbeses  of  Pitsligo. 

The  estates  of  Meldrum  and  Fyvie  lying  immediately  adjacent  to  the  Garioch 
District,  but  within  the  boundary  of  Formartine,  are  of  interest  in  a  notice  of  the 
Garioch  from  their  frequent  and  close  connection  with  the  history  of  that  district. 

Philip  de  Melgdrum,  the  first  of  the  conjoined  name  and  estate  (who  held  it  by 
charter  from  his  brother-in-law,  William,  the  first  Cumyn  Earl  of  Buchan),  was  one  of 


Hisforicial  Events. 


the  Justiciars  of  Scotland  in  1252.  Alexander  de  Melgdram  is  recorded  in  1272. 
William  de  Melgdrum,  son  of  John,  both  concerned  in  the  purchase  of  the  Bourtie 
blacksmith's  small  holding,  was  in  the  same  embassy  to  England  with  Provost  William 
Leith  for  the  redemption  of  King  David  II.,  and  had  a  charter  of  Meldrum  from  that 
monarch,  10th  October,  1353.  The  estate  came,  in  the  reign  of  James  I.,  to  be  the 
property  of  an  heiress  who,  marrying  William  Seton,  brother  of  Alexander  Seton,  first 
Earl  of  Huntly,  gave  origin  to  a  long  continued  family  of  Setons  of  Meldrum. 

Fyvie,  the  principal  seat  of  the  Thanage  of  Formartine,  was  the  property  of  Eeginald 
Le  Chene  about  1250.  Edward  of  England,  to  whom  Le  Cheyne  vowed  allegiance, 
made  the  Castle  a  halting  place  in  his  hasty  ride  over  Aberdeenshire,  in  1296.  A  few 
years  later,  retribution  followed  by  the  Bruce  making  it  a  royal  residence  and  a  hunt- 
ing seat.  Robert  III.  gave  the  estate  to  Sir  James  Lindsay,  Dominus  de  Crawford  et 
Buchan ;  whose  daughter,  by  her  marriage,  made  Henry  Preston  its  lord.  He  was  one 
of  the  companions  of  James  of  Douglas  at  Otterburn,  where  the  two  Percies  were  taken; 
and  the  ransom  of  Ralph  Percy  was  a  Royal  Charter  of  the  lands  granted  to  Henry 
Preston,  Knight. 

The  Preston  tower  of  Fyvie  Castle  was  built  about  1400,  and  records  the  name 
which  there  was  no  son  to  perpetuate.  Upon  the  death  of  Sir  Henry  Preston,  his  two 
daughters  and  co-heiresses  divided  their  father's  lands.  One  of  them  marrying  a  Mel- 
drum, had  Fyvie  as  her  portion,  and  the  Meldrum  Tower  rose  to  commemorate  the 
change.     Her  sister  married  a  brother  of  Lord  Forbes,  and  founded  the  Tolquhon  family. 

Just  outside  the  boundary  of  the  Garioch,  a  family  name  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
still  attached  to  the  same  estate,  appears  among  the  witnesses  to  the  Balkaggardy  charter 
of  1357.  It  is  that  of  Walter  Bysethe  of  Lossyndrum  (Lessendrum,  in  the  Parish 
of  Drumblade). 

Another  witness  to  the  Garioch  charter  was  John  de  Strathachyn,  the  ancestor  of 
the  Strachans  of  Kemnay  and  Glenkindie  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Adam  Strachuen, 
probably  his  son,  got  Glenkenety  from  Thomas,  Earl  of  Mar,  in  1357 — Margaret,  Adams' 
wife,  being  the  Earl's  kinswoman,  as  is  specially  set  forth  in  the  charter. 

HISTORICAL  EVENTS. 

The  historical  matter  available  for  illustrating  the  state  of  society  during  the 
troubled  century  which  intervened  between  the  two  important  battles  which  were 
fought  in  the  Garioch  arranges  itself  chiefly  about  successive  individuals;  as  we  must 
expect  to  find  to  be  the  case  in  reviewing  a  time  in  which  public  interests  were  repre- 
sented by  individuals  rather  than  by  communities. 

The  great  King  occupied  the  throne  himself  for  twenty-one  years  of  the  period. 
The  acts  of  forfeiture  which  followed  his  bringing  the  War '  of  Independence  to  a 
triumphant  issue,  though  they  changed  the  face  of  the  District  of   Buchan,  through 


68  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

replacing  the  extruded  Cumyns  by  the  loyal  families  of  Hay  and  Keith,  did  not  so 
affect  the  Garioch,  or  the  adjacent  districts  of  Strathbogie  and  Fonnartine. 

The  bishop,  Henry  Cheyne,  a  nephew  of  Cumvn,  was  banished  and  in  England, 
but  the  king  assigned  his  forfeited  revenues  to  the  erection  of  the  Cathedral  of  Aberdeen 
which  the  bishop  had  begun.  Cheyne  was  no  inferior  patriot  to  the  secular  Lords,  and 
the  Hays,  Leslies,  and  others  along  with  whom  he  had  sworn  fealty  to  Edward  I. 
After  the  battle  of  Inverurie,  and  before  Bannockburn,  he  and  all  the  other  bishops  of 
Scotland  emitted  a  declaration  of  adherence  to  Eobert  I.,  and  renounced  all  other  oaths 
as  having  been  unjust  and  extorted,  and  we  find  him  restored  to  his  office  before  his 
death  which  event  took  place  in  1328. 

The  settlement  of  the  King's  faithful  companions  in  distress,  Sir  Eobert  Keith  the 
Marischal,  in  Hallforest,  and  Sir  James  de  Garviach,  in  Cordyce,  and  probably  also  in 
Caskieben,  were  local  events  of  his  reign.  Sir  James's  descendants,  the  Johnstons  of 
that  Ilk  and  Caskieben,  entertained  the  belief  that  the  Lady  Elyne  Mar,  the  niece  of  the 
King,  also  rewarded  Sir  James  with  her  hand,  and  that  she  only  married  Sir  John 
Menteith  after  the  death  of  Sir  James  de  Garviach — her  first  husband. 

The  last  years  of  Bruce's  reign  were  passed  by  him  in  the  south  part  of  Scotland, 
where  he  died  at  Cardross  in  the  neighbourhood  of  his  early  Earldom  of  Carrick, 
leaving  his  successor  a  minor,  and  his  kingdom  not  as  yet  trained  in  loyalty  suffi- 
ciently for  being  ruled  by  such  a  sovereign  as  David  in  his  manhood  proved  himself 
to  be. 

Christian  Bruce,  Lady  of  the  Garioch  had,  not  only  in  her  early  matronhood,  when 
her  brother's  fortunes  were  at  the  lowest,  but  also  during  much  of  her  later  years  when 
her  nephew  David  was  king,  led  a  life  marked  in  a  signal  degree  by  events  characteristic 
of  the  age  which  made  the  habits  of  a  lady  of  rank  resemble  more  those  of  a  soldier 
than  of  a  matron.  She  was  from  1306  to  1314  a  prisoner  in  England,  and  was  for  the 
second  time  a  widow.  Her  marriage,  twelve  years  afterwards,  with  Sir  Andrew  Murray — 
upon  which  occasion  she  was  created  by  her  brother,  Lady  of  the  Garioch,  and  endowed 
with  all  the  lands  he  then  possessed  within  that  ancient  appanage  of  the  Crown — took 
place  in  an  interval  of  what  we  may  conceive  to  have  been  domestic  comfort,  but  one 
which  came  to  an  end  shortly  after  the  King's  death  in  1329,  by  the  renewal  of  national 
troubles. 

Sir  Andrew  Murray  of  Bothwell,  the  third  husband  of  Christian  Bruce,  was  perhaps 
the  most  distinguished  Scotchman  in  a  period  of  great  men.  He  had  learned  the  art  of 
war,  and  the  virtues  of  patriotism,  as  the  follower  of  Sir  William  Wallace,  and,  after  the 
great  Protector  perished,  was  the  most  unsurmountable  obstacle  presented  in  Scotland  to 
"proud  Edward's  power".  Sir  Andrew  in  one  of  the  emergencies  of  national  danger 
which  occurred  in  the  minority  of  David  II.,  was  called  upon,  by  the  nobles,  to  take 
the  office  of  Warden  of  Scotland.  One  of  the  first  tasks  he  had  to  undertake  in  that 
capacity,  was  the  rescue  of  his  own  heroic  wife,  from  a  danger  indirectly  caused  by 


Hi  dor  Leal  Events.  __  69 


the  incompetence  of  her  own  son  for  the  discharge  of  a  great  duty  assigned  to  him  by 
the  nation. 

Of  that  son,  Donald,  twelth  Earl  of  Mar,  Christian  had  been  destined  to  see  little 
from  his  infancy.  His  fortunes  were  romantic.  In  1306,  he  was  with  his  mother 
among  the  fugitives  from  Kildrummy  to  Tain,  two  of  whom — his  uncle,  Nigel  Bruce, 
and  his  cousin,  the  Earl  of  Atholl — were  taken  and  executed.  The  Queen  and  her 
daughter,  and  Christian  Bruce,  Countess  of  Mar,  and  her  son  Donald,  then  called  an 
"  infant,  the  son  of  the  Earl  of  Mar  "  were  retained  as  prisoners.  He  was  committed  to 
the  charge  of  the  Bishop  of  Chester  to  be  detained  in  the  Castle  of  Bristol ;  but  was, 
the  same  year,  taken  to  be  with  the  King  in  his  own  household,  where  his  upbringing 
seems  to  have  attached  him  strongly  to  Edward  II. 

Earl  Donald  was  exchanged  in  1314,  after  the  battle  of  Bannockburn,  along  with 
the  Bishop  of  Glasgow  (who  had  crowned  Robert  I.)  and  with  the  Queen,  the  Princess 
Marjory,  and  his  mother,  for  Edward's  brother-in-law, — the  Earl  of  Hereford — and  tra- 
velled with  his  relations  as  far  as  Newcastle,  but  would  not  go  on  to  Scotland,  and 
returned  to  Edward.  He  was  Earl  of  Mar  himself  long  before  that  time.  He  visited 
Scotland  in  1319,  for  six  months  from  July  to  December. 

In  1322,  he  fought  against  his  own  countrymen,  under  Edward  II.,  at  Bilard.  In 
1326,  he  was  keeper  of  his  early  prison,  Bristol  Castle.  Next  year,  when  Edward  was 
deposed  by  the  intrigues  of  his  worthless  queen,  Earl  Donald  of  Mar  came  to  Scotland 
to  raise  help  to  restore  him  ;  and  he  led  one  of  the  three  Scottish  bands  which  invaded 
England  for  that  purpose. 

When  the  great  King  of  Scotland  died  in  1329,  leaving  (by  his  second  Queen, 
daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Ulster),  David  II.,  his  son,  a  child  of  four  years  old,  Donald 
must  at  that  time  have  again  been  a  Scotchman  ;  for  King  Robert  had  granted  him 
charters  of  two  properties  in  1328  and  1329. 

Randolph,  Earl  of  Moray,  who  was  Warden  of  Scotland  in  the  minority  of  David, 
having  died  in  1331,  the  Scottish  Parliament,  though  perhaps  not  quite  trusting  Earl 
Donald's  patriotism,  elected  him  Warden  in  1332.  His  first  and  last  task  in  that  ca- 
pacity was  to  meet  the  invasion  of  Edward  Baliol,  which  he  did  at  Dupplin ;  and  there 
he  lost  his  life,  with  a  great  part  of  the  Scottish  forces,  which  he  had  ignorantly 
posted  upon  confined  ground,  and  without  a  sufficient  watch. 

By  his  marriage  with  Isabel,  only  daughter  of  Sir  Alexander  Stewart  of  Bonkil, 
and  sister  of  the  Earl  of  Angus,  he  had  a  son  Thomas,  thirteenth  Earl  of  Mar,  and  a 
daughter  Margaret ;  who  were  respectively  in  their  time,  the  first  Lord  and  the  second 
Lady  of  the  Garioch.  His  widow  Isabel,  Countess  of  Mar,  seems,  like  the  ladies  of  that 
house,  to  have  had  large  experience  of  matrimony — having  married  twice  afterwards. 

By  the  surprise  at  Dupplin,  Edward  Baliol  got  for  a  short  while  possession  of  the 
Scottish  crown ;  and  in  1334,  lie  conferred  the  Earldom  of  Mar  and  the  Castle  of  Kil- 
drummy upon  Richard  Talbot,  who  was    the  great-grandfather   of  the   first   Earl  of 


70  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Shrewsbury,  famous  in  the  French  wars  of  Henry  VI.  of  England.  Talbot  soon  lost 
his  Earldom,  as  Edward  did  his  Kingdom.  He  was  conveyed,  in  1335,  as  a  Scottish 
captive  to  the  borders  of  England,  to  be  there  set  at  liberty. 

During  Edward  Baliol's  short  period  of  success,  after  the  death  of  her  son,  the  Lady 
of  the  Garioch,  a  dame  worthy  to  be  the  wife  of  Sir  Andrew  Murray,  had  to  play  the 
part  of  a  stout  soldier.  The  barons  who  had  been  disinherited  after  the  triumph  of 
King  Robert,  were  again  powerful.  Those  of  them  belonging  to  the  family  of  Cumyn, 
for  their  own  ends  strenuously  supported  Edward  Baliol  in  his  attempt  on  the  throne 
of  Scotland,  when  the  death  of  the  great  king  left  his  heir  an  infant.  Richard  Talbot 
was  son-in-law  of  Cumyn,  Earl  of  Badenoch,  whom  the  Bruce  slew  at  Dumfries.  Lord 
Henry  de  Beaumont  was  son-in-law  of  Alexander  Cumyn,  Earl  of  Buchan.  The  Earl 
of  Atholl  was  the  son  of  one  of  the  allies,  David  of  Strathbogy,  who  upon  Cumyn's 
forfeiture,  was  made  Constable  of  Scotland,  before  Gilbert  Haye,  but  rebelled  and  was 
attainted.  Many  others  were  banded  with  these.  Their  party,  known  as  the  English 
party,  possessed  every  stronghold  in  Scotland,  except  the  Castles  of  Dumbarton,  Loch 
Leven,  Kildrummy,  and  Urquhart,  and  the  Peel  of  Loch  Dune. 

The  Lady  Christian  Bruce  with  some  knights  and  squires,  was  bravely  holding  the 
castle  of  Kildrummy,  which  Baliol  had  conferred  upon  Richard  Talbot.  Her  husband 
had  been  a  prisoner  in  England,  and  obtained  his  release  only  in  1334,  on  payment  of  a 
heavy  ransom.  Some  new  heroes,  however,  were  appearing  on  the  national  side — 
William  Douglas,  afterwards  the  husband  of  the  next  Lady  of  the  Garioch,  Alexander 
Ramsay,  Laurence  Preston,  and  others.  The  office  of  Regent,  or  Warden,  had  become 
vacant  by  the  Earl  of  Moray  being  inveigled  into  England  and  made  prisoner.  Edward 
Baliol  made  Atholl  his  Governor  of  Scotland.  The  handful  of  partriots  forming  the 
Scottish  party,  elected  Sir  Andrew  Murray.  He  was  soon  to  be  called  into  the  work 
congenial  to  him,  that  of  clearing  the  country  of  the  Baliol  party,  and  his  first  task 
was  to  succour  his  own  wife. 

Edward  Baliol  and  the  Cumyn  faction  each  wished  to  use  the  other  for  their  own 
purposes,  and  soon  quarrelled.  Beaumont  betook  himself  to  Buchan,  and  there  on  a 
rocky  stronghold  in  Aberdour  "bigget  Dundarg  of  Lime  and  Stane,  and  held  all  Buchane 
subject,"  according  to  Winton.  Atholl,  who,  as  representative  of  the  last  Cumyn,  had 
views  towards  the  throne,  laid  seige  to  Kildrummy.  On  hearing  of  his  wife's  danger, 
Sir  Andrew  Murray  quickly  raised  a  force  in  Lothian,  and  with  Douglas,  Ramsay, 
Preston,  and  some  others,  hastened  north  at  the  head  of  about  800  men.  They  passed 
the  Cairn  o'  Mount  in  safety.  Atholl  hearing  of  their  approach  broke  up  the  seige  of 
Kildrummy  Castle,  and  held  "  straucht  to  Kylblene,"  below  Ballater.  Sir  Andrew  took 
up  his  quarters  at  the  Hall  of  Logie-Ruthven,  and  was  soon  joined  by  300  men  from 
Kildrummy.  The  battle  of  Kilblene  ensued,  fought  on  St  Andrew's  Day,  1335.  Atholl 
was  slain,  and  some  of  his  followers  sought  admission  to  the  Scottish  party.  One 
chief  took  refuge  in  the  Peel  in  the  middle  of  Loch  Cannor.      Atholl's  family  went  to 


Historical  Events.  71 


England,  where  his  son  became  a  follower  of  the  best  of  the  Edwards,  the  Black  Prince. 
Sir  Andrew  Murray  having  relieved  Kildrunimy  and  its  valorous  Castellan,  his  wife, 
hastened  to  Dundarg,  to  bring  De  Beaumont  to  terms.  He  had  to  attack  the  castle  by 
the  sort  of  cannonading  then  practised,  and  constructed  a  large  engine  for  throwing 
stones.  The  garrison  had  tried  a  sortie,  but  were  driven  in.  After  the  second  stone 
was  thrown,  De  Beaumont  capitulated,  and  was  allowed  to  retire  to  England. 

Sir  Andrew  Murray  died  in  1338;  and  thereafter  his  widow  perpetuated  his 
memory  by  the  erection  of  the  Chapel  of  our  Lady  of  the  Garioch — the  special  duty  of 
the  chaplain  being  to  sing  masses  for  the  souls  of  herself,  her  husband,  and  her  brother. 
Christian,  Lady  of  the  Garioch,  must  have  died  before  1357. 

The  history  of  the  Garioch  during  the  life  of  the  first  Lady  of  the  Regality  contains 
some  particulars  illustrative  of  the  condition  of  Scotland  at  that  time. 

The  sufferings  of  the  population  are  always  great  under  civil  war.  We  have  an 
indication  of  the  results  of  the  long-continued  struggle  in  the  case  of  one  of  the  vassals 
of  the  Lady  of  the  Garioch,  Matthew,  nicknamed  Goblauch,  the  smith,  in  the  town  of 
Auld  Bourty,  who,  in  1342,  had  to  sell  his  small  possession  in  order  to  get  the  neces- 
saries of  life,  being  reduced  to  destitution  by  the  chances  of  war. 

The  Goblauch's  fortune  was  a  light  one,  compared  to  that  of  whole  regions  in  the 
south  of  Scotland.  In  1339,  the  country  about  Perth  was  without  habitation  and 
almost  without  inhabitants, — the  deer  often  coming  up  to  the  low  walls  of  the  town. 
"  A  karle  Crystie  Cleek  "  was  accused  of  setting  snares  for  women  and  children,  that 
he  might  use  them  for  food.  In  1347,  a  pestilence  of  cocks  and  hens  occurred  in 
Scotland;  and  in  1349,  a  pestilence  of  men,  women,  and  children,  whereby  a  third 
of  the  population  was  destroyed.  The  Pest  had  never  visited  Scotland  before,  not 
even  in  the  seventh  century,  when  it  had  over-run  the  rest  of  Britain  and  all  Europe. 
Another  very  wide  pestilence  occurred  in  1401. 

About  the  time  of  Matthew  the  Goblauch's  extremity  of  poverty  (doubtless  no  un- 
common lot  per  discrirntna  guerrarurn  of  which  he  complains),  we  have  an  interesting 
record  of  proprietors  and  others  in  the  Garioch,  who  acted  as  jurors  on  an  inquest, 
respecting  Reginald  of  Rane,  in  1333.  They  were  Sir  John  Biune,  Knight,  Master 
Thomas  of  Salcop,  Sir  Mathew  of  Mar,  Henry  of  St.  Michael,  Euen  of  Rothenay, 
William  of  Meldrum,  John  of  Dunfermlyne,  clerk,  John  Barkar,  Gregory  Bowman, 
William  of  Pilmor,  John  of  Fyngask,  William,  the  clerk  of  Sckene,  Bartholf  of  Rane, 
Thomas  of  Graunt  and  Gillemuvquach.  Is  the  last  name  that  of  the  Laird  of  Grant  1 
Fyngask  and  Rothenay  are  Garioch  lands.  Pilmor  was  of  the  Glack  family,  holding, 
like  Fyngask,  of  the  Bishop  of  Aberdeen. 

David  II.  coming  to  the  throne  a  child  in  1329,  had  a  nominal  reign  of  forty-two 
years, — eleven  of  which  he  spent  a  prisoner  in  England,  the  result  of  his  own  rashness, 
which  cost  his  kingdom  much  dispeace  and  treasure.  During  his  occupancy  of  the 
throne,  and  that  of  his  two  immediate  successors,  ruin  must  have  overtaken  the  land  but 


72  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

for  the  rise,  here  and  there,  of  individuals  among  the  nobility,  who  were  worthy  of  the 
place  of  kings,  at  a  time  when  the  kings  did  not  exhibit  the  virtues  of  nobles. 

The  Steward  of  Scotland,  who  was  the  next  heir  to  the  throne,  had  to  govern  as 
Regent  during  David's  long  minority,  which  he  did  vigorously ;  though  when  in  ad- 
vanced life,  he  succeeded  him  as  king,  and  met  with  resistance  from  some  ambitious 
nobles,  he  proved  himself  so  unfit  to  rule  that  he  was  practically  deposed. 

Every  citizen  of  influence  and  ability  had  to  lend  himself  to  the  necessary  duties  of 
the  troubled  period  which  David's  reign  occupied.  The  Garioch  furnished  a  fair  pro- 
portion of  active  bearers  of  the  national  burdens ;  the  baron  of  Meldrum,  and  the  Pro- 
vost of  Aberdeen,  ancestor  of  the  present  Garioch  families  of  the  name  of  Leith,  were 
selected  as  ambassadors  to  England,  to  treat  for  the  king's  release.  Among  the  men 
of  national  value  who  had  to  take  a  leading  part  amidst  the  necessities  of  David's 
reign,  other  two  men  who  became  prominent  in  public  affairs  belonged  to  the  Regality ; 
viz.,  Norman  de  Leslie,  and  Sir  Robert  Erskine  of  Balhaggarty. 

Provost  William  Leith  went  to  England  with  the  hostages  for  King  David's 
ransom  in  1358;  an  errand  which  his  second  son  John  repeated,  in  1423,  for  the  release 
of  James  I.  from  his  long  capitity.  John  was  sent  ambassador  to  England  to  negotiate 
state  affairs  in  1412,  1413,  and  1416.  Laurence  Leith  of  Barns  had,  by  charter  dated 
1388,  his  right  as  heir  of  his  father,  "William  Leith,  in  the  lands  of  Caprington,  con- 
firmed. He  was  Provost  of  Aberdeen  from  1401  to  1403,  and  in  1411  for  the  last  time, 
evidently  in  succession  to  Provost  Robert  Davidson,  slain  at  Harlaw. 

Douglas  in  his  Baronage  says  that  Provost  William  Leith,  designed  of  Barns,  was 
said  to  be  the  male  representative  of  the  Leiths  of  Edingarioch,  and  was  married  to  a 
daughter  of  Donald,  1 2th  Earl  of  Mar,  in  consequence  of  which  marriage  he  had  the  cross 
crosslets  of  the  Mar  arms  added  to  his  own  bearings;  but  if  this  statement  be  correct,  the 
lady  must  either  have  been  illegitimate  or  have  died  childless,  otherwise  her  descendants 
would  have  been  nearer  heirs  to  the  Mar  Earldom  than  the  Erskines.  He  is  at  the  present 
day  represented  by  Leith  (Hay)  of  Leithhall  whose  arms,  registered  in  the  Lyon's  office, 
are  the  same  as  those  borne  by  Provost  William  Leith — as  displayed  in  the  Coat  of 
Arms  of  the  latter  on  his  monument  in  Drum's  Aisle,  Aberdeen.  William  Leith  and 
his  immediate  descendants  were  of  principal  municipal  rank  in  Aberdeen.  He  was 
Provost  from  1352  to  1355  and  again  in  1373 — as  mentioned  in  Kennedy's  Annals 
of  Aberdeen — and  having  had  the  misfortune  to  kill  one  of  the  bailies  named  Catten- 
ach,  at  Barkmill,  close  by  Aberdeen,  he,  after  the  manner  of  the  time,  compounded 
for  the  offence.  He  gifted  to  the  town  the  Justice  Mills.  Provost  William  Leith,  or 
according  to  Sir  Robert  Douglas  (Baronage  of  Scotland)  his  son  Provost  Laurence 
Leith,  bestowed  the  great  bells  Laurence  and  Maria,  upon  the  church  of  St.  Nicholas. 
"  Lowrie  "  was  the  pride  of  the  Aberdonians  for  several  centuries,  during  which  it 
daily  pealed  forth  its  note  of  time,  until  in  the  great  fire  which  destroyed  the  East 
Church  and  the  spire  on  the  night  of  9th  October  1874,  it  fell  crashing  on  the  floor 


Historical  Events 


73 


of  Drum's  Aisle,  near  the  spot  where  Provost  William  Leith  himself  was  interred,  and 
beside  the  wall  where  his  burial  tablet,  much  effaced  through  the  lapse  of  time,  is  still 
to  be  seen. 


Norman  de  Leslie  was  grandson  of  Sir  Norman  de  Leslie,  Edward  I.'s  Sheriff 
of  Aberdeenshire,  who  is  said  to  have  married  Elizabeth  Leith  of  Edingerraek, 
and  had  died  before  1320.  Norman,  the  second  son  of  Sir  Andrew  de  Leslie, 
dominus  ejusdem,  and  elder  brother  of  the  ancestor  of  the  Earls  of  Bothes  and  of 
the  first  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  was  largely  intrusted  with  State  business.  "With  Sir 
Robert  Erskine  he  was  sent  to  Eome,  in  1358,  to  solicit  a  contribution  towards  the 
ransom  of  David  II.  from  England  ;  and  was  a  commissioner  thereafter  to  treat  with  the 
English.  Next  year,  1359,  Norman  de  Leslie,  "the  King's  armour-bearer,"  was  com- 
missioned, along  with  Sir  Eobert  Erskine  and  Sir  John  Grant,  to  treat  as  plenipo- 
tentiaries with  the  Dauphin,  then  Regent  of  France,  for  the  restoration  of  the  old  league 
between  France  and  Scotland,  which  his  grandfather,  Sir  Norman,  had  been  a  party  to 
renouncing  at  the  dictation  of  Edward,  then  overlord  of  Scotland.  He  was  again  in 
England  in  1362  and  1363,  with  a  retinue  of  eight  squires,  upon  the  affairs  of  the 
king — then  a  second  time  in  captivity,  his  deliverance  from  which  cost  the  country  an 
hundred  thousand  merks.     Norman  held  the  ward  of  the  estate  of  Kemnay  in  1348. 

Sir  Eobert  Erskine,  the  colleague  of  Norman  de  Leslie  in  the  embassy  to  Eome  in 
1358,  had  a  higher  part  to  play  in  national  politics.  He  was  Chamberlain  of  Scotland 
at  the  time  of  the  King's  death  in  1370,  and  by  his  vigorous  action,  supported  by  two 
or  three  other  powerful  nobles,  was  actually  the  arbiter  of  the  throne,  securing  undis- 
puted succession  to  it  for  the  rightful  heir,  Eobert,  Steward  of  Scotland,  against  the 

10 


74  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

schemes  of  a  determined  and  vigorous  malcontent,  William  of  Douglas,  who  was 
shortly  to  become  a  prominent  personage  in  the  Eegality. 

The  Garioch  ballad,  "  Lang  Johnnie  More," — the  Titanic  personages  of  which, 
viz.,  Jock  o'  Noth  and  Johnnie  o'  Benachie,  reached  the  English  Court  in  two  days 
from  Benachie,  to  rescue  from  the  Monarch's  ire  their  fourteen  feet  tall  friend  Johnnie, 
whose  charms  had  fascinated  the  Princess  Boyal — includes,  among  the  Scottish  men 
of  might  who  were  to  be  appealed  to  against  the  English  King,  Sir  John  of  Erskine 
Park.  Sir  John,  who  appears  in  the  ballad  as  "  thirty  feet  and  three,"  was  the 
father  or  grandfather  of  the  great  Chamberlain,  and  may  have  preceded  him  in  the 
Garioch  lands.  The  mythical  picture  is  perhaps  a  quaint  but  appropriate  memorial 
of  the  exceptional  position,  for  a  subject,  which  the  first  proprietor  of  Conglass, 
Balhaggarty,  &c,  held  in  Scotland  ;  and  it  seems  designed  also  to  celebrate  the  import- 
ance of  the  houses  of  Balquhain  and  Forbes,  in  later  times  chronic  antagonists. 

Among  other  characters  of  the  time  who  played  less  prominent  parts,  were  the 
supporters  already  mentioned  of  Sir  Andrew  Murray,  when  he  cleared  the  country  of  the 
last  Baliol  faction ;  Laurence  Preston  may  have  been  father,  or  brother,  of  Henry 
Preston,  the  future  Lord  of  Formartine.  William  Douglas  was  a  nephew  of  the  "  good 
Sir  James,"  and  was  himself  both  talented  and  ambitious.  He  acquired  the  Earldom 
of  Douglas,  and  by  his  marriage  with  Margaret  of  Mar,  came  to  hold,  as  her  husband, 
the  honours  and  influence  of  Mar  and  Garioch.  Sir  Robert  Erskine,  as  Chamberlain  of 
Scotland  had,  as  before  mentioned,  on  the  death  of  King  David  II.,  to  take  sharp 
precautions  against  Douglas's  conduct  as  a  subject ;  and  the  Countess  of  Mar  and  lie 
were  separated  as  husband  and  wife  by  process  of  divorce. 

The  first  Lord  of  the  Garioch  was  Thomas,  the  Earl  of  Mar,  the  son  of  Donald. 
He  bore  the  title  of  Lord  of  Cavers — how  acquired  does  not  appear,  and  he  came 
into  possession  of  the  Regality  before  1357,  upon  the  death  of  his  grandmother,  the 
Lady  Christian  Bruce.  He  represented  the  combined  dignities  during  the  latter  half 
of  the  reign  of  David  II.,  and  twelve  years  of  that  of  the  rather  senile  Robert  II. 

In  1359,  as  Earl  of  Mar,  Lord  of  Cavers  and  the  Garioch,  &c,  Chamberlain  of  Scot- 
land,  Thomas  made  a  grant  of  lands  in  Strathdee.  He  had  in  the  preceding  year,  1358, 
got  from  David  II.  a  charter  of  the  lands  and  lordship  of  the  Garioch,  to  be  held  as 
freely  as  ever  David  of  Huntingdon  held  them.  Next  year  he  gave  a  charter  to  Sir 
John  of  Mar,  Canon  of  Aberdeen,  of  the  lands  of  Cruterystoun  in  the  Garioch  (Cour- 
testown  in  Leslie),  with  the  curious  privilege  of  Fleming  lauch,  a  record  which  associates 
the  lands  referred  to  with  the  early  period  of  the  Crusades,  when  Flemish  colonies  of 
cloth  makers  were  established  in  many  of  the  more  settled  parts  of  the  island. 

The  first  Lord  of  the  Garioch  was,  it  is  likely,  brought  up  in  England,  the  real 
country  of  his  father,  and  he  continued  in  close  friendship  with  Edward  III.  In  the 
year  1359,  he  entered  into  an  indenture  to  be  Edward's  liegeman  against  all  but  the 
King  of  Scotland,  Edward  stipulating  to  pay  him  600  merks  sterling  yearly,  until  he 


Historical  Ecenta.  75 


should  find  him  a  wife  to  his  content,  and  also  to  pay  him  £600  sterling  yearly  should 
he,  on  the  Monarch's  account,  lose  his  Scottish  estates — no  unlikely  event.  Two  years 
afterwards  David  II.  besieged  and  took  Earl  Thomas's  Castle  of  Kildrummy,  and  put 
it  in  charge  of  Sir  Walter  Moigne,  Knight,  and  his  Esquire,  Ingram  of  Winton.  The 
latter  was  a  relative  probably  of  Wynton,  the  Prior  of  St.  Serf's,  the  writer  of  the 
Chronicle,  and  the  minute  recorder  of  the  deeds  of  Alexander  Stewart,  the  famous 
Earl  of  Mar.  The  family  of  Winton  owned  the  lands  of  Andat  in  Buchan,  a  good 
while  before  Harlaw  ;  and  afterwards  held  some  property  near  the  glebes  of  the  chap- 
lains of  our  Lady  of  the  Garioch,  where  the  church  of  Chapel  of  Garioch  now  stands. 

Earl  Thomas  seems  to  have  returned  speedily  to  his  own  Sovereign's  favour  ;  who, 
within  the  next  few  years  confirmed  several  of  his  charters,  including  one  of  Balhaggarty, 
Boynds,  Conglass,  and  Inveramsay,  disponed  by  Earl  Thomas,  in  1355-57,  to  Sir 
Robert  Erskine. 

Thomas,  Lord  of  the  Garioch,  must  have  been  well  known  on  the  highroad  between 
England  and  Scotland,  which  he  frequently  travelled  with  trains  of  from  twelve  to  a 
hundred  horsemen.  His  passports  are  numerous  between  1357  and  1372,  on  religious 
pilgrimages,  on  matters  of  national  business,  and  on  foreign  travel.  In  1364,  two  of  his 
esquires  were  sent  by  him  from  Eugland  to  bring  100  oxen  from  Scotland  for  his  table. 
One  of  the  squires  was  John  Cameron.  The  Earl  made  him  laird  of  Brux,  the  fol- 
lowing year,  on  his  marrying  Ellen  Mowat,  the  Earl's  kinswoman.  Their  descendants 
possessed  Brux  until  the  reign  of  James  I.,  when  Sir  Hugh  Cameron's  daughter  married 
into  the  family  of  Lord  Forbes.  Earl  Thomas's  lands  in  the  south  of  Scotland  may 
have  come  by  his  mother,  who,  it  would  appear,  claimed  the  hereditary  office  of  Sheriff 
of  Roxburgh,  and  Warden  of  Selkirk  Forest.  He  seems  to  have  had  a  brother  named 
Thomas  Baliol — a  record  it  may  be  of  his  father's  English  proclivities  at  the  time  of 
the  child's  birth. 

The  great  Earl  employed  as  his  secretary  at  one  period  of  his  career,  the  first  of  the 
Aberdeenshire  race  of  Johnston,  viz.,  Stephen  de  Johnston,  denominated  "  the  Clerk," 
from  his  possessing  a  degree  of  culture  not  common  in  that  age.  It  has  been  before  noted 
that  Stephen  married  the  heiress  of  Caskieben,  Margaret  de  Garviach.  He  came  from 
the  South  of  Scotland,  and  was  said  to  have  been  brother  of  the  Laird  of  Johnston,  in 
Annandale,  which  was  the  native  region  of  the  royal  house  of  Bruce  ;  but  whether 
Stephen  came  north  in  the  Earl  of  Mar's  train,  or  first  became  known  to  Earl  Thomas 
in  the  house  of  the  Earl's  liegeman  and  relative,  Andrew  de  Garviach,  the  family 
history  does  not  specify.  From  the  occurrence  of  his  name,  as  Stephen  "  clericus,"  in 
a  charter  granted  by  Margaret,  the  next  Superior  of  the  Regality,  his  intimate  relations 
with  the  family  of  Mar,  seem  to  have  continued  after  the  death  of  Stephen's  patron — 
Earl  Thomas  of  Mar. 

Thomas,  the  first  Lord  of  the  Garioch,  died,  leaving  no  issue,  at  Kildrummy,  in  or 
before  1377  :  and  is  said  to  have  been  buried  under  the  east  wing  of  the  Castle  of  Kil- 


76  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

drummy.  He  had  been  twice,  if  not  three  times,  married.  In  1352,  he  had  a  Papal 
dispensation  to  enable  him  to  marry  Margaret,  widow  of  John  of  Moray  ;  and  in  1354, 
another  to  marry  Margaret,  daughter  of  the  deceased  John,  Earl  of  Meuteith.  From 
her  he  was  divorced ;  and  his  next  wife,  Margaret  Stewart,  sister  of  the  Earl  of  Angus, 
survived  Earl  Thomas  of  Mar. 

Margaret,  his  sister,  the  wife  of  "William,  Earl  of  Douglas,  succeeded  Thomas,  in 
the  Mar  and  Garioch  titles  and  possessions.  Her  husband,  a  successful  soldier  of 
fortune,  nephew  and  representative  of  Sir  James  of  Douglas,  adopted  by  marital  right 
her  titles,  in  addition  to  his  own,  and  appears  in  the  troubled  stage  of  public  life  in 
Scotland,  as  Earl  of  Douglas  and  Mar,  and  Lord  of  the  Garioch. 

The  useless  life  of  David  II.  had  permitted  the  great  barons  to  free  themselves 
from  the  habit  of  feudal  subordination,  and  allowed  individual  ambition  to  rise  to 
dangerous  influence ;  and  the  cost  of  ransoming  the  King  from  his  repeated  cap- 
tivities increased  the  poverty  and  discontent  of  the  various  orders  of  the  community. 
In  1363,  some  years  before  his  death,  David  added  to  the  national  annoyance  which 
his  reign  had  engendered,  by  proposing  to  make  one  of  Edward  III.'s  sons  his  successor. 
The  proposal  was  rejected  by  the  Parliament ;  but  the  succession  of  Robert  II.,  son  of 
Marjory  the  infant  Princess  who  was  carried  off  to  England  with  her  mother  in  1306, 
was  a  cause  of  jealousy  to  the  powerful  barons,  which  made  the  reigns  of  himself  and  of 
his  son,  Robert  III.,  a  period  of  tumidt  and  insecurity.  Both  kings,  and  the  second 
especially,  had  to  resort  repeatedly  to  bonds  of  alliance  with  now  one  now  another  of 
their  powerful  subjects,  to  aid  them  against  all  enemies  of  their  life  and  authority. 

"William  of  Douglas  was  one  of  those  barons  whose  pride  of  place  spoiled  them  as 
subjects.  As  a  successful  noble,  and  latterly  holding  the  dignities  of  both  Douglas  and 
Mar — the  last  of  which  must  have  placed  him  foremost  among  the  barons  of  the 
kingdom,  he  upon  the  death  of  David  II.,  in  1370,  could  but  ill  brook  the  raising  of 
Robert  the  Stewart  of  Scotland  to  the  rank  of  King.  Some  affront  probably  aggra- 
vated his  pride,  and  led  him  to  meditate  opposition.  Sir  Robert  Erskine,  however, 
had  command  of  the  three  great  fortresses  of  Edinburgh,  Stirling,  and  Dumbarton ;  and 
promptly  joining  his  forces  with  those  of  the  Earls  of  March  and  Moray,  he  made 
Douglas  think  more  wisely  and  remain  quiet — some  substantial  gifts  and  honours  being, 
at  the  same  time,  conferred  to  conciliate  him. 

"William,  Earl  of  Douglas,  was  separated  by  divorce  from  the  Countess  of  Mar,  and 
both  married  again.  He  must  have  died  before  the  feast  of  the  Assumption  in  1384;  at 
which  date  his  widow  completed  a  charter,  the  execution  of  which  had  been  interrupted 
by  his  death.  The  children  born  of  their  marriage  were  James,  the  hero  of  Otterburn, 
and  Isabel,  who  became  the  wife  of  Alexander  Stewart,  the  most  celebrated  of  the  Earls 
of  Mar. 

Margaret,  Lady  of  the  Garioch,  was  married  again  before  20th  August,  1 387  ;  when 
her  second  husband,  John  of  Swinton,  concurred  with  her  in  the  charter  of  Bourtie, 


Historical  Events.  77 


granted  to  Alexander  Barclay.  She  must  have,  as  Scottish  law  permitted,  decorated  her 
son  with  the  family  titles.  In  the  year  1385,  after  his  father's  death,  be  appears  using 
the  Douglas  titles  only;  but  in  a  charter  of  27th  July,  1388,  he  styles  himself  Earl  of 
Douglas  and  Mar,  while  his  mother  was  certainly  living —  as  is  proved  by  the  existence 
of  a  charter  granted  by  her,  with  the  full  titles,  in  1389. 

In  1388,  27th  July,  Earl  James  executed  a  charter  giving  the  patronage  of  Cavers 
to  the  Abbey  of  Melrose  ;  which  was  witnessed  by  his  sister's  husband,  Malcolm 
Drummond,  brother  of  the  queen,  Sir  John  Swinton  his  "  dear  father,"  Sir  John  of 
Tours,  and  Murdoch  Glaster  (of  Glack).  Nine  days  afterwards  he  was  buried  within 
that  Abbey. 

An  invasion  of  England  had  been  determined  on  in  Parliament.  It  was  conducted 
by  the  Earl  of  Fife  on  the  west  marches,  and  by  Douglas  on  the  east.  A  dashing 
exploit  of  the  Scottish  van,  daring  the  whole  chivalry  of  York  and  Northumber- 
land, under  the  walls  of  Newcastle,  and  carrying  off  the  pennon  of  Hotspur,  led  to  the 
battle  of  Otterburn,  which  cost  the  lives  of  both  Douglas  and  Sir  John  of  Tours. 
Henry  Preston  was  in  that  conflict ;  also  Sir  Thomas  Erskine  (of  Conglass,  &c),  the  son 
of  the  great  Chamberlain.  He  has  the  honour  of  a  place  in  Wynton's  poem, 
who  says  he  was  "  fellely  woundit  in  the  face".  Douglas,  having  challenged  Hotspur, 
to  recoyer  his  flag,  had  forced  his  way  into  the  thick  of  the  English  spears  by  the 
power  of  his  battle  axe,  but  was  pierced  and  trodden  down.  When  he  was  found, 
his  chaplain,  a  priest  of  the  name  of  Eundie,  was  bestriding  his  dying  master,  and 
wielding  his  battle-axe  to  defend  him  from  injury.  The  Scottish  host  bore  their  gallant 
leader's  body  to  Melrose,  in  face  of  the  great  English  force.  In  the  battle,  Hotspur,  or 
Henry  Percy,  and  his  brother  Ealph,  were  both  taken  prisoners : — Ealph  Percy  being 
the  captive  of  Robert  Keith,  who,  as  substitute  for  his  father  the  Marischal  of  Scot- 
land, assumed  the  command  after  Douglas  fell. 

It  has  been  noted  that  the  price  of  Ealph  Percy's  release,  in  1390,  was  a  Eoyal 
Charter  confirming  the  disposition  of  the  Castle  of  Fyvie,  made  by  its  then  lord,  Sir 
James  Lindsay,  Earl  of  Crawford  and  Buchan,  to  his  son-in-law,  Henry  Preston.  The 
peculiar  connection  of  events  may  he  explained  by  the  fact  that  Eobert  Keith,  Percy's 
captor,  was  nephew  to  the  wife  of  Sir  James  Lindsay, 

Robert  Keith  was  the  chief  actor  in  another  historical  event  characteristic  of  the 
time.  "Wynton  in  relating  it,  calls  him  "  Eobert  de  Keith,  a  mighty  man  be  lyneage, 
and  appearand  then  to  be  a  Lord  of  mycht  and  many  lands  of  rycht  richt".  He  quar- 
relled, for  some  cause,  with  his  aunt,  Lady  Crawford,  and  besieged  her  in  her  Castle  of 
Fyvie  while  the  Earl  was  at  Court.  He  removed  some  masons  who  were  building  about 
the  Castle,  and  stopped  those  coming  from  the  garden  to  the  burn  for  water.  Sir  James 
hearing  of  his  wife's  plight,  hastily  crossed  the  Munth  with  300  or  400  men  for  Fyvie. 
Eobert  of  Keith  came  south  at  once,  probably  making  for  shelter  within  his  father's 
house  at  Hallforest,  but  he  was  met  by  Lindsay  near  the  place  where  Bruce  overtook 


78  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Cumyn  at  the  battle  of  Inverurie.     "VVynton  heads  his  short  chapter,  on  the  event, 

thus — 

Of  a  fechtyn  that  while  was  in  Bourty, 
"When  there  was  slane  mair  than  fourty. 

He  says  Keith  lost  fifty  men  and  more  ; 

So  Robert  quyte 
"Was  in  that  bargain  diseomfyte. 

Henry  Preston  had  not  taken  possession  of  the  castle  then  (1395),  and  perhaps  not  till 
two  or  three  years  later.  His  father-in-law,  by  charter,  bearing  a  date  possibly  1397, 
gave  him  additional  lands  (Meikle  Gurdens  and  Parkhill).  This  charter  is  witnessed  by 
the  Marischal  and  Robert.  Another  witness  was  the  notorious  Sir  John  of  Eamorgeny, 
immortalised  in  "  The  Fair  Maid  of  Perth "  as  the  accomplice  of  the  Duke  of 
Albany  in  the  murder  of  the  young  Duke  of  Eothesay,  in  1402. 

Fyvie  passed  from  the  Preston  name,  as  it  had  come,  by  female  succession.  Henry 
Preston  left  two  daughters,  as  his  heirs.  One  of  them,  having  Fyvie  as  her  portion, 
married  into  the  family  of  Meldrum.  The  other  brought  Tolquhon,  with  part  of  the 
Thanage  of  Formartine,  into  one  of  the  branches  of  the  Forbes  family ;  which,  in 
that  generation,  founded  four  long  continuing  houses — Druminnor,  Brux,  Tolquhon, 
and  Pitsligo. 

By  the  death  of  the  Douglas,  his  sister  became  successor  to  her  mother  as  Countess 
of  Mar  and  Lady  of  the  Garioch.  Isabel  was  at  that  time  wife  of  Sir  Malcolm 
Drummond,  the  brother  of  Robert  Ill's  Queen.  Sir  Malcolm  took  the  marital  titles 
in  which  rank  he  appears,  at  the  date  7th  March,  1398. 

In  1402,  Sir  Malcolm  Drummond  was  surprised,  and  taken  prisoner,  in  some 
suspicious  circumstances  ;  and  died  in  hard  confinement.  His  widow  had  no  child  by 
him,  and  she  appeared  so  tempting  a  prize  to  a  needy  and  talented  nobleman  of  the 
period,  Alexander  Stewart — illegitimate  son  of  the  King's  brother,  Alexander  Stewart, 
Earl  of  Buchan,  commonly  known  as  the  Wolf  of  Badenoch — that,  as  before  indicated, 
he  managed  apparently  to  seize  her  castle  of  Kildrummy  and  compel  her  to  marry  him. 
He  was  not  unsuspected  of  having  even  provided  for  her  becoming  a  widow. 

Alexander  Stewart  was  so  much  a  man  representative  of  his  time,  that  a  sketch  of 
his  history  may  appropriately  be  given  later,  in  connection  with  the  battle  of  Harlaw, 
an  event  which  prominently  associated  him  with  the  history  of  the  Garioch. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  EVENTS. 

There  is  but  little  of  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  Garioch  on  record  during  the  14th 
century.  The  unsettled  times  were  unfavourable  for  religious,  as  well  as  social,  prosperity. 
One  of  the  chief  tasks  of  William  de  Deyn,  who  became  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  in  1341, 
was  "  to  reform  the  manners  of  his  clergymen — wild  through  the  long  civil  war  ".     The 


Ecclesiastical  Eoenis.  79 


wild  manners  of  the  clergy  were,  in  all  likelihood,  due  to  their  being,  like  James  of 
Douglas's  priest  Lundie,  somewhat  accustomed  to  "  boot  and  saddle  "  during  the  tumul- 
tuary conflicts  of  the  civil  war. 

We  have  not  the  names  of  any  of  the  vicars  of  Inverurie,  and  only  a  notice  of  the 
parish,  as  of  others,  recording  a  valuation  of  the  living  in  1366.  The  parishes  in 
Aberdeenshire  from  which  David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon  and  the  Garioch,  endowed  his 
Abbey  of  Lindores,  exhibited  considerable  diversity  of  ecclesiastical  provision  made  by 
the  Abbey  for  the  support  of  the  vicars.  The  Abbey  seems,  by  the  arrangement  holding 
at  that  time,  to  have  taken  to  itself  half  of  the  victual  payments  due  in  the  several 
parishes,  and  the  whole  of  the  rents  of  the  Church  lands  bestowed  upon  it ;  while  the 
vicars,  in  addition  to  the  other  half  of  the  victual  payments,  had  some  money  pay- 
ments belonging  to  the  several  parishes.  The  following  table  shows  the  various  pay- 
ments : — 

The  Vicar's  Money  and  Victual.  The  Abbey's  Victual. 

Fintray 10  m.,  with  20  chald.  1\  m.  20  chald.  2i  m. 

Kennethmont ..     6  m.  14    m.  14    m. 

Insch 6  m.  22    m.  11  sh.  22    m.  11  sh. 

Premnay 4  m.  16    m.  16    m. 

Eathmuriel 3  m.  9|  m.  9|  m. 

Culsalmond 6  m.  26-|  m.  26    m. 

Inverurie 17  m.  25  chald.     9    m.  10  sh.      25  chald.     9    m.  10  sh. 

Durnoch 20  m.  30  chald.  11     m.  30  chald.  11     m. 

The  Abbey  enjoyed,  in  addition,  the  Kirklands  of  Fintray,  Monkegy,  and  Durnoch, 
yielding  in  rent  62  merks,  4  merks,  and  7  merks  respectively;  and  the  lands  of  Newton, 

6  merks,  with  the  Mill,  100  sh.  ;  Culsalmond  and  Tullymorgan,  9  merks ;  Wrangham, 

7  merks;  Ledingham,  6  merks  10  sh.,  with  12  merks  for  the  Mill  and  10  sh.  for  the 
Brewhouse;  Eathmuriel,  58  sh.  and  4d.,  with  18  sh.  for  the  Brewhouse ;  and  Edelard, 
1  merk.  The  Abbey  divided  with  the  Vicarage  of  Insch  the  rent,  yielding  8  merles  to 
each,  of  a  piece  of  land,  described  as  portio  Domini  Jordani,  which  may  have  been 
bequeathed  by  Canon  Jordan,  who  appears  in  a  charter  of  1244. 

At  the  same  date,  1366,  Kinkell  and  its  Chapels  appears  with  a  revenue  of  only  80 
merks,  30  of  which  went  to  the  Brotherhood  of  Torphicon,  then  representing  the 
Knights  Templars.  Bourtie  possessed  30  merks,  and  4  merks  of  Kirkland  rents,  the 
vicar's  portion  of  the  whole  being  10  merks  10  sh.  Daviot  had  24  merks;  Oyne,  30 
merks  ;  Leslie,  3  merks,  with  15  merks  of  victual ;  Clatt,  16  merks  ;  Eayne,  33  merks 
from  Kirkland  rents  and  victual  stipend,  8  merks  of  altarage,  and  £  merk  for  the  Brew- 
house. The  living  of  Monymusk  Vicarage  was  30  merks,  and  that  of  Bethelny,  28 
merks  of  victual  and  5  merks  of  money. 

An  attempt  was  made,  some  time  after  1336,  to  reduce  the  livings  of  the  abbey 
vicars ;  but  with  the  aid  of  the  Bishop  it  was  prevented. 


80  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

One  event  of  ecclesiastical  history,  possessing  special  local  interest,  belongs  to  the 
century.  The  famous  Chapel  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary  of  the  Garioch  had  its  origin 
in  that  period.  It  was  founded  some  time  before  1357  by  Christian  Bruce,  Lady  of  the 
Garioch,  for  the  performance  of  religious  services  for  the  souls  of  the  founder  (herself), 
of  King  Robert,  her  brother,  and  of  her  deceased  husband,  Sir  Andrew  of  Moray — she 
bestowing  for  that  purpose  a  toft  in  Drumdurnoch  or  Edindurnoch,  and  a  hundred 
shillings  sterling  yearly  out  of  her  lands  of  Meikle  "VVarthill,  apparently  also  called 
Gilberthill,  in  her  lordship  of  the  Garioch. 

Some  thirty  years  afterwards,  in  1384,  her  granddaughter  Margaret,  Countess  of 
Douglas  and  Mar,  and  Lady  of  the  Garioch,  then  likwise  a  widow,  founded  an  additional 
chaplainry  for  the  weal  of  the  founder  (herself),  of  "William,  Earl  of  Douglas,  her 
deceased  husband,  of  the  deceased  Thomas,  Earl  of  Mar,  her  brother,  and  of  James, 
Earl  of  Douglas,  her  son. 

The  Countess  Margaret  conveyed  for  the  support  of  the  chaplain  a  ten  pound  rent, 
secured  upon  "  two  parts  of  the  town  of  Pitgaveny,  and  the  whole  town  of  Colliehill, 
excepting  the  Westfield,  lying  in  the  tenement  of  Bourtie,  and  the  regality  of  the 
Garioch".  She  had  received  that  value  for  the  relief  of  the  lordship  of  Bourtie  from 
Alexander  Berclay,  son  of  William  Berclay  of  Kercow,  and  heir  of  the  deceased  John 
of  Abernethie,  his  brother. 

After  Harlaw,  other  benefactions  were  added  to  the  Chapel  of  the  Blessed  Virgin 
of  the  Garioch  ;  and  it  became  so  fashionable  that  the  institution  of  new  chaplainries 
was  continued  by  local  magnates. 

Alexander  Stewart,  Earl  of  Mar,  is  said  to  have  founded  a  chaplainry  for  the  souls 
of  his  followers  who  fell  at  Harlaw. 

In  1420,  Isabel  Mortimer,  widow  of  Sir  Andrew  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  founded  a 
fourth  chaplainry  for  her  six  sons  slain  at  Harlaw,  and  for  her  husband  killed  in  rebellion 
at  Braco.  A  mortification  in  1425,  for  a  chaplain  performing  services  for  Sir  Andrew's 
soul,  was  executed  by  Patrick  Ogilvy,  who  had  been  the  instrument  of  his  defeat  ar  1 
death,  and  was  probably  an  augmentation  of  that  made  by  his  widow. 

In  1474,  a  fifth  chaplainry  was  endowed  by  Alexander  Leslie,  the  first  baron  of 
Wardes,  for  the  souls  of  himself  and  his  wife. 

A  sixth,  called  the  Pitcaple  Chaplainry,  existed  before  1511  ;  when  the  patronage 
was  confirmed  by  the  King  to  the  laird  of  Pitcaple. 

The  chaplainry  founded  by  Margaret  of  Douglas  was  called  the  Colliehill  Chap- 
lainry, and  had  two  acres  of  land,  apparently  part  of  the  present  glebe,  attached  to  it 
in  1500,  by  Alexander  Galloway,  then  chaplain,  afterwards  rector  of  Kinked,  and  the 
architect  of  the  Bridge  of  Dee.     The  Earl  of  Mar  was  patron. 

The  six  chaplains  served  in  turns,  by  pairs.  There  was  probably  a  full  service  of 
the  whole  collegiate  body  in  September,  1562,  when  Queen  Mary,  lodging  at  the  Castle 


Ecclesiastical  Events.  81 


of  Balquhain,  went  up  the  steep  brae  of  Craigsley  to  hear  mass  in  the  House  of  God 
which  her  ancestress  had  founded. 

In  a  short  time  the  ancient  foundation  remained  only  in  the  form  of  one  or,  it  may 
be,  more  chaplains  being  still  elected  to  the  emoluments.  In  1600,  David,  Bishop  of 
Aberdeen,  gave  collation  to  Mr.  George  Seton,  the  brother  of  the  then  laird  of  Bourtie, 
in  the  Chaplainry  of  Colliehill,  "  whereof  the  Earl  of  Mar  was  undoubted  patron";  and 
some  years  later,  we  find  Alexander  JafFray,  Provost  of  Aberdeen,  resigning  a  mortgage 
he  had  over  lands  belonging  to  the  Chaplainry  of  Conglass,  which  had  probably  been 
that  founded  by  Alexander  Stewart.  Under  the  Beformation,  the  Chapel  gave  place,  as 
the  scene  of  divine  worship,  to  the  Parish  Church  of  Chapel  of  Garioch,  serving  the 
combined  parishes  of  Logydurno  and  Fetternear. 

A  century  after  Queen  Mary's  visit,  the  sentiment  which  in  the  successive  founda- 
tions of  Chaplainries  of  the  Garioch  had  combined  religion  with  something  of  family 
importance,  was  manifesting  itself  there  in  an  altered  form.  An  hospital  at  Pittodrie 
entertained  four  poor  men  who  were  entitled  to  a  peck  of  meal,  and  half  a  peck  of 
malt,  each,  per  week  ;  and  who  had  to  wear  livery  gowns,  and  to  walk  to  church,  on 
Sundays,  before  the  family. 

One  ecclesiastic  of  note  renders  the  history  of  the  Garioch,  in  the  last  half  of  the 
disturbed  century  preceding  Harlaw,  illustrious  by  his  own  single  presence.  John 
Barbour,  the  author  of  the  first  known  Scottish  Poem,  "The  Bruce,"  written  in  the  cause 
of  national  liberty,  was  a  well-known  individual  at  that  period  in  the  Garioch.  We 
may  figure  him  to  ourselves,  the  esteemed  counsellor  of  Sir  Eobert  Erskine  and  Norman 
de  Leslie,  and  of  the  patriotic  Lords  and  Ladies  of  the  Garioch,  and  a  guest  well  able  to 
enliven  their  social  feasts  with  observation  on  foreign  lands  and  courts,  such  as  only  a 
traveller  accomplished  as  he  was  can  bring  home.  His  poem,  "  The  Bruce,"  presents  us 
with  the  style  of  language  then  reckoned  fit  for  courtly  ears  and  the  speech  of  an  accom- 
plished man.  Excepting  some  idioms  now  obsolete,  it  was  a  fairly  equal  mixture  of 
modern  English  and  the  present  Aberdeenshire  vernacular. 

The  year  1396  was  that  of  Archdeacon  John  Barbour's  death,  the  parson  of  Bayne, 
and  the  historian  of  the  War  of  Independence.  It  redeems  considerably  the  idea  one 
would  form  of  Scottish  life  in  the  fourteenth  century  from  the  prominent  occurrences  of 
history,  to  find  accounts  of  this  Aberdeenshire  priest,  a  man  of  no  rank  by  birth, 
acquiring  learning  enough  in  Aberdeen  to  qualify  him  for  high  commissions  in  the 
political  difficulties  of  the  time,  and  to  imbue  him  with  desire  of  further  study.  In 
1357,  Barbour  had  a  passport  from  Edward  III.  to  travel  with  three  scholars  to  Oxford 
to  study  there;  and  again,  in  1364,  for  himself  to  study  at  Oxford,  or  elsewhere;  and 
again,  in  1365,  with  six  horsemen,  and  in  1368,  with  two  servants  and  their  horses,  to 
travel  through  England  to  France,  for  the  purpose  of  study. 

If  there  were  fighting  priests  like  Lundie,  the  chaplain  of  James  of  Douglas,  and 
if  general  wildness  of  manners  characterised  the  clergy,  so  as  to  make  the  reclaiming  of 

11 


82    ■  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

his  clerical  subordinates  the  special  task  of  Bishop  William  de  Deyn,  the  Bayne  parson, 
humble  of  origin,  was  as  conspicuous  an  honour  to  his  country  as  after  times  have  pro- 
duced. Priest  Lundie  is  said  to  have  been  Archdeacon  of  Aberdeen,  and  if  such  was 
the  fact,  he  had  most  likely  been  the  immediate  successor  of  the  learned  minstrel  of  the 
Bruce's  wars — a  not  unfitting  contrast  for  the  period.  The  Lady  of  the  Garioch,  Earl 
James  of  Douglas's  only  sister,  may  have  procured  him  that  preferment. 


Chapter  III. 

THE  BATTLE  OF  HARLAW  AND  ITS  TIMES. 

State  of  Society. — Albany's  misrule — Marriage  of  ladies  of  rank — Contracts  for  mutual  defence  — 
Chivalry  —Cateran  violence — Duel  mi  the  Inch  of  Perth.  The  Earl  of  Mar.  —  Bis  popularity 
in  Aberdeen — Provost  Davidson — Alexander  Stewart's  marriage — His  naval  exploits — Tourna- 
ments—  Voyage  to  France — Siege  of  Liege — Second  marriage — Christmas  of  H10  at  Kildrummy. 
The  Battle  of  Harlaw.—  Wrony  done  to  the  Lord  of  the  Isles — His  appeal  to  arms — Mar 
appointed  to  oppose  him — Combatants — Aberdeen  burgesses — Southern  barons — Mar  and  Garioch 
vassals — Church  tenants — Inverurie  burgesses — Crown  vassals  of  Strathbogic — Formartine  and 
Buchan  vassals — The  Ballad. 

STATE    OF    SOCIETY. 

fHE  history  of  social  life  in  Scotland  during  the  greater  part  of  the  fourteenth 
century  was  such  as  found  an  appropriate  termination  in  the  terrible  battle  of 
Harlaw.  From  1389  until  after  1411  the  royal  power  was  held  by  a  brother  of 
Eobert  II.,  a  man  of  vigour,  but  utterly  unprincipled;  and  who,  in  the  end,  was  so 
strongly  suspected  of  the  murder  of  his  nephew,  David,  Duke  of  Rothsay,  the  oldest 
son  of  King  Eobert  III.,  in  1402,  that,  though  acquitted  upon  trial,  he  deemed  it 
advisable  subsequently  to  obtain  a  formal  pardon  from  his  helpless  brother  for  the 
alleged  crime.  Misrule  was  the  condition  of  the  time,  and  the  humbler  classes  of  the 
people  existed  in  a  position  of  oppression  by  the  unscrupulous  and  haughty  barons, 
which  had  no  limits. 

The  domestic  fortunes  of  the  three  ladies,  Christian  Bruce,  Margaret  of  Douglas, 
and  Isabel  of  Douglas,  who  during  that  period  were  all  Ladies  of  the  Garioch,  illustrate 
the  necessities  of  social  life  in  even  the  highest  rank.  No  female  who  possessed  wide 
lands  and  feudal  influence  was  safe  without  the  protection  of  a  husband  sufficiently 
powerful  to  defend  her  property.  Christian  Bruce,  the  widow  of  Gartney,  Earl  of  Mar, 
was  subsequently  twice  married.  She  was  in  her  second  widowhood  in  a.d.  1314,  when 
released  along  with  Robert  I.'s  queen  from  English  captivity.  The  Lady  Christian's 
granddaughter,  Margaret,  Lady  of  the  Garioch  after  the  death  of  her  brother  Thomas, 
seems  upon  being  divorced  from  William  of  Douglas,  to  have  very  speedily  espoused 
a  second  husband  able  to  protect  her — John  of  Swinton,  a  fellow-soldier  of  her  first 
husband  and  a  close  friend  of  her  knightly  son,  James  of  Douglas.  Sir  John  Swinton 
ruled  the  regality  of  the  Garioch  in  her  name,  while  her  son  by  Earl  Douglas 
took  up  the  position  of  his  father  as  the  leader  of  Scottish  chivalry  against  England. 
Before  the  death  of  Countess  Margaret,  her  daughter  Isabel,  who  was  to  succeed 
to  her  lands  and  authority,  was  wedded  to  a  husband  of  much  influence,  Sir  Malcolm 


84  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Drummond,  brother  of  Annabella,  the  Queen  of  Robert  III.,  and  Sir  Malcolm,  as 
William  of  Douglas  had  done  before  him,  assumed  the  titles  of  Earl  of  Mar  and  Lord 
of  the  Garioch.  The  position  of  husband  to  the  Countess  of  Mar  and  Garioch  was  one 
of  such  consequence  that  her  widowhood  was  apparently  planned  by  the  man  who  was 
himself  ambitious  of  obtaining  the  hand  of  the  bereaved  relict. 

These  marriages  were  in  reality  only  one  form  of  alliance  for  the  protection  of 
property,  position,  or  life,  which  had  become  as  necessary  to  great  barons  as  to  the 
sovereign  himself.  Whatever  claims  of  right  arose  disposable  by  law,  had  to  be 
supported  by  contracts  of  mutual  aid  against  all  opponents,  formed  between  the 
claimant  and  powerful  friends,  to  secure  or  enforce  righteous  decisions.  It  was  by  a 
prompt  treaty  entered  into  with  two  or  three  powerful  barons,  that  Sir  Robert  Erskine 
of  Conglass  was  able  to  keep  the  crown  for  its  rightful  heir.  His  son,  Sir  Thomas, 
had  to  petition  the  King  that  no  sanction  might  be  given  to  any  plan  proposed  by  the 
husband  of  Isabel,  Sir  Malcolm  Drummond,  for  diverting  any  part  of  the  Mar  property  to 
Sir  Malcolm's  own  heirs;  and  his  son  afterwards  entered  into  bonds  with  Lindsay, 
Earl  of  Buchan  and  Crawford,  then  Lord  of  Fyvie,  and  with  the  greatest  vassal  of  the 
Mar  family,  the  Lord  of  Forbes,  for  their  support  in  vindicating  his  rights  against  all 
opposition,  when  the  chief  opposition  was  expected  to  come  from  the  King.  In  1360, 
the  Forbeses  in  the  same  way  entered  into  a  bond  of  mutual  help  with  the  Chief  of 
Clanchattan  and  the  Roses  of  Kilravoek. 

These  alliances  of  barons,  generally  completed  by  what  were  termed  "  Bonds  of 
Manrent,"  had  been  rendered  needful  by  the  unequal  administration  of  the  law  at 
a  time  when  the  Governor  of  Scotland,  Albany,  along  with  his  immediate  faction,  had 
proved  themselves  to  be  the  greatest  law-breakers  in  the  country.  But  it  was  a  form  of 
self-defence  which  prevailed  thoughout  Europe  at  a  much  later  period  ;  and  which,  in 
Scotland,  exhibited  its  last  remarkable  development  in  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant 
of  the  seventeenth  century. 

Chivalry,  which,  in  its  extravagance,  degenerated  into  knight-errantry,  was  another 
fashion  adapted  to  the  times.  James  of  Douglas,  and  his  gallant  rival  in  knightly  fame, 
Henry  Percy,  called  Hotspur,  were  the  flower  of  chivalry  in  that  age  in  the  two  king- 
doms. Tournaments  and  challenges  to  single  combat  were  recognised  as  features  of 
high  life  essential  to  true  nobility,  and  the  records  of  the  time  abound  with  letters  of 
safe  conduct  granted  by  the  English  Kings  to  Scottish  knights,  with  certain  described 
followings,  to  pass  into  England,  or  to  France,  or  other  countries,  upon  errands  of 
chivalry.  One  of  the  most  renowned  jousters  of  his  time  was  Alexander  Stewart, 
Earl  James's  brother-in-law,  the  second  husband  of  his  sister  Isabel,  and  the  future 
hero  of  Harlaw. 

A  slight  foreshadowing  of  Harlaw  befell  in  1392  ;  the  leader  of  the  insurgent 
Highlanders  being  Duncan  Stewart,  a  brother  of  Alexander,  another  bastard  son  of  the 
Wolf  of  Badenoch,  who  had,  it  is  said,  quarrelled  with  Sir  David  Lindsay  of  Glenesk. 


The  Earl  of  Afar.  85 


Duncan  Stewart  descended  on  the  braes  of  Angus,  holding  his  way  from  Loch  an  Eilan 
by  the  drove  road  in  immemorial  use  between  Abernethy  and  Braemar,  and  so  over  the 
Glenmuick  pass  on  to  the  hills  of  Clova.  He  had  with  him  more  than  three  hundred 
caterans,  a  part  probably  of  the  wild  and  ruthless  host  of  retainers  by  whom  his  father, 
"  the  Wolf,"  on  the  feast  of  St.  Botolf,  1390,  had  sacked  and  burnt  the  town  of  Forres, 
and  Elgin  minster.  The  raid  of  Duncan  was  long  remembered  for  the  bereavement 
it  brought  to  the  principal  .Forfarshire  families.  The  Sheriff  of  Angus,  Sir  Walter 
Ogilvy,  Sir  Patrick  Gray,  Sir  David  Lindsay,  and  their  armed  followers  went  in 
insufficient  numbers  to  meet  the  horde.  A  fierce  battle  ensued  near  Glasclune,  west  of 
Blairgowrie,  in  which  Lindsay  was  slain.  He  had  impaled  a  Highlander  on  his  spear, 
and  the  wounded  man  twisted  himself  round  on  the  shaft  and  hewed  Lindsay  to  the 
ground. 

It  is  likely  that  the  occurrence  of  that  raid  suggested  the  crafty  counsel  of  Lindsay, 
Earl  of  Crawford,  which  four  years  later  brought  two  of  the  Highland  clans  to  teach 
themselves,  and  the  whole  Celtic  tribes,  a  lesson  of  peaceableness.  The  stories  of  the 
joustings  and  single  combats  of  the  lowland  knights  had  travelled  into  the  turbulent 
Highlands.  Two  clans,  Clan  Quhele,  to  which  the  Duffs  belong,  and  Clan  Kay, 
supposed  to  have  been  Dhai,  or  Davidson,  had  a  long-standing  feud.  They  agreed  to 
settle  it  by  a  combat,  of  equal  numbers,  to  be  fought,  like  the  great  tournaments,  in 
presence  of  the  Sovereign.  This  idea  was  encouraged ;  and  the  horrible  slaughter  at 
which  the  King  was  persuaded,  against  his  own  feelings,  to  preside,  took  place  on  the 
North  Inch  of  Perth  in  1396.  It  is  the  battle  described  by  Scott  in  the  "  Fair  Maid  of 
Perth  ".  The  Highlands  were  quiet  for  long  thereafter.  Wynton  says  in  his  account 
of  the  combat — "  On  the  same  hour  of  that  day,  a  great  battle  of  Saracens  and 
Christians  was  in  Hungary." 

THE    EARL    OF    MAE. 

In  1398,  two  years  after  the  death  of  John  Barbour,  we  have  the  first  notices  of 
Alexander  Stewart,  the  most  noted  of  the  Earls  of  Mar  and  Lords  of  the  Garioch.  He 
was  then  one  of  the  "  neighbours  "  of  the  burgh  of  Aberdeen ;  and  along  with  others 
was  entertained  by  the  magistrates  at  "  various  potations "  to  the  cost  of  xx3,  at  the 
wine  booth  of  Eobert  Davidson,  who  in  1411  was  Provost  of  Aberdeen,  and  who  fell 
at  Harlaw.  The  town  at  the  same  time  bought  back  for  xvid  the  bow  and  arrows  and 
sword  of  one  of  Stewart's  followers,  which  had  been  taken  in  some  fight,  besides  paying 
Vs  costs  for  some  others. 

Eobert  Davidson's  house  was  in  the  Shiprow,  and  he  was  one  of  the  four  baillies 
in  1398.  He  appears  to  have  carried  on  a  miscellaneous  business.  In  1395,  he  was 
Collector  of  the  Great,  or  King's,  Customs,  along  with  William  Chalmers,  a  name 
frequently  appearing  in  deeds  of    the  time, — probably  Provost  Chalmers  of  Murtle. 


86  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Robert  Davidson  acted  as  agent  for  various  pensioners  upon  those  Customs,  among 
others  Sir  Malcolm  Drummond  and  the  Duke  of  Eothesay.  Kennedy  states  in  his 
Annals  (Vol.  II.,  p.  231),  that  Robert  Davidson  was  Provost  of  Aberdeen  from  1405  to 
1409,  and  again  in  1410.  The  well-to-do  merchant  seems  to  have  continued  the  intimate 
friend  of  Alexander  Stewart,  through  all  the  greatness  that  awaited  that  celebrated 
man  ;  in  his  attachment  to  whom,  however,  he  was  but  like  the  whole  Burghal  com- 
munity of  Aberdeen. 

Sir  Malcolm  Drummond  died  in  1402;  and  two  years  after,  Stewart  appeared  before 
the  Castle  of  Kildrummy  with  an  army  of  caterans  and  stormed  it  in  the  face  of  every 
resistance.  "  Even  under  the  misgovernment  of  Albany,  this  outrageous  proceeding, 
joined  with  the  suspicion  that  the  same  hand  had  brought  about  the  murder  of  Drum- 
mond, roused  public  indignation.  Before,  however,  investigation  could  be  ordered,  a 
strange  scene  was  transacted  before  the  Castle.  Stewart  presented  himself  at  the  outer 
gate,  and  there,  in  the  presence  of  the  Bishop  of  Ross  and  the  assembled  tenantry  and 
vassals,  was  met  by  the  Countess  of  Mar,  upon  which,  with  much  feudal  pomp  and 
solemnity,  he  surrendered  the  keys  of  the  Castle  into  her  hands,  declaring  that  he  did  so 
freely  and  of  good  heart,  that  she  might  dispose  of  them  as  she  pleased.  The  lady, 
then,  holding  the  keys  in  her  hand,  declared  that  she  freely  chose  Stewart  for  her  lord 
and  husband,  and  that  she  gave  him  in  marriage  the  Earldom  of  Mar,  the  Castle  of 
Kildrummy,  and  all  the  other  lands  which  she  inherited.  The  whole  proceedings  were 
closed  with  solemn  instruments  being  taken  on  the  spot."  (Tytler.) 

King  Robert  III.,  who  was  powerless  in  Albany's  hands,  legalized  this  extraordinary 
proceeding,  allowing  Stewart  to  assume  the  titles  of  Earl  of  Mar  and  Lord  of  the 
Garioch.  A  further  paction  with  King  James  I.,  however,  was  added  afterwards,  that 
in  default  of  heirs  of  the  body  of  Alexander  Stewart  himself,  or  of  his  natural  son, 
Thomas  Stewart,  the  whole  dignities  and  lands  should  pass  to  the  Crown ;  which 
accordingly  they  did,  Alexander  having  survived  his  son — which  last  died  childless. 

Tytler  says  of  Alexander  Stewart  subsequent  to  his  becoming  Earl  of  Mar,  that 
"  after  amusing  his  taste  for  adventures  in  foreign  war,  leading  the  life  of  Knight 
errant,  and  dividing  his  time  between  actual  fighting  and  the  recreations  of  tilts  and 
tournaments,  he  became  latterly  a  pirate,  and,  with  a  small  squadron,  infested  the  coast 
between  Berwick  and  Newcastle,  destroying  or  making  jwizes  of  English  vessels  ".  The 
explanation  seems  to  be  that  this  naval  raid  was  in  retaliation  for  an  invasion  of  the 
Aberdeen  coast  by  English  ships  in  1404,  and  the  destructive  interruption  of  the 
fisheries,  which  were  very  valuable  at  the  time.  Stewart  was  Sheriff  of  Aberdeenshire 
in  1 405.  In  September  of  the  next  year  he  went,  under  a  safe  conduct,  to  England  to 
hold  a  passage  of  arms  with  Edward,  Earl  of  Kent,  in  the  King's  presence.  He  had 
seventy  persons  in  his  train  on  that  expedition.  In  the  same  month,  two  of  his 
chaplains,  John  Stele  and  William  Stewnyson,  had  a  safe  conduct  to  pass  through 
England  to  Bruges  on  their  master's  affairs. 


The  Earl  of  Mar.  87 


Countess  Isabel  died  before  10th  February,  1408,  when  a  new  chapter  of  the 
Earl's  life  began. 

Stewart's  great  admirer,  "Wynton,  who  probably,  by  family  ties,  was  a  vassal  of 
Kildrummy,  records  his  visiting  France  that  year.  "  The  Erie  of  Mare  past  into 
France  with  a  nobyl  cumpany,  well  arrayit  and  daintily,  knychts,  squires,  and  gentlemen 
full  sixty."  In  Paris  he  held  royal  state,  at  the  sign  of  the  Tynnyn  Plate.  For 
"  twelve  ouks  he  kept  open  house  and  table.  He  was  commendit  of  all  nations  for  wyt, 
wertue,  and  larges."  The  King  of  France  gave  him  a  post  of  honour  at  his  court,  to 
wait  upon  him  in  state  at  table.  The  Earl  remained  but  a  short  time  in  France,  and 
taking  leave  of  the  French  King,  the  Duke  of  Burgon  (Burgundy)  who  "  took  him  in 
special  acquaintance,"  and  the  French  lords,  he  set  out  on  his  return  home.  While,  be 
waited  at  Bruges  for  weather,  the  Scottish  Earl  was  suddenly  applied  to  by  the  Duke 
of  Holland  to  help  his  brother,  John  of  Bavaria,  the  secular  bishop-elect  of  Liege, 
whose  subjects  had  no  wish  for  his  rule,  and  had  themselves  chosen  another,  a  son  of 
Sir  Henry  Horn,  and  were  prepared  to  offer  a  stout  resistance.  He  undertook  the 
service  although  he  had  with  him  but  twenty-eight  spears  and  four  knights.  In  the 
siege  and  conflicts  that  ensued,  the  van  was  assigned  by  the  Dukes  of  Holland  and  Bur- 
gundy, to  the  Earl  of  Mar,  and  he  had  five  banners  besides  his  own.  He  made  several 
knights  on  the  eve  of  the  attack,  one  of  whom,  was  Alexander  Keith — probably  the 
third  son  of  the  Marischal,  said  to  have  been  with  the  Earl  of  Mar  at  Harlaw — and 
another  was  his  banneoure,  or  standard-bearer,  John  the  Menzies — probably  an  ancestor 
of  the  Aberdeen  family  of  that  surname — and  a  third  was  Alexander  Irvine  of  Drum. 
The  battle  was  a  most  bloody  one,  30,000  men  being  slain..  The  worthless  bishop  was 
put  in  possession  of  his  see;  which  he  held  until  deposed  by  the  Council  of  Constance. 

The  Earl  of  Mar  was  rewarded  with  lands  which  he  had  subsequently  much 
difficulty  in  getting  possession  of,  and  a  wife  little  less  difficult  to  retain,  who  had  been 
notorious  for  her  changes  of  husband.  One  account  calls  her  Isabel,  Countess  of 
Holland,  another,  Mary  de  Homes,  Lady  of  Duffle  in  Brabant,  and  narrates  that  Mar 
got  with  her  the  lordships  of  Brabant  and  Walheni.  He  returned  home  under  a  safe 
conduct  from  Henry  TV.  of  England,  dated  December  29,  1408.  In  deeds  subsequent 
to  1409,  he  appears  as  Earl  of  Mar,  Lord  of  the  Garioch,  Lord  of  Duffle  in  Brabant. 
This  personage  is  said  to  have  improved  the  breed  of  horses  in  Scotland  by  introducing 
from  his  Belgian  territory  Flemish  stallions  and  mares— an  advantage  of  a  species 
more  permanent  than  his  matrimonial  acquisition. 

In  December,  1410,  he  was  evidently  holding  high  state  at  Kildrummy,  and 
signing  charters  by  his  new  title,  his  short  second  marriage,  probably,  not  then  dissolved. 
At  that  time  he  gave  a  charter  with  consent  of  Sir  Thomas  Erskine,  of  lands  hi 
Auchendoir  to  his  faithful  knight,  the  laird  of  Drum,  who  never  left  him  until  Harlaw. 
The  witnesses  to  the  charter  were  the  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  Gilbert  Greenlaw,  Chancellor 
of  Scotland  ;  Henry  de  Lichton,  rector  of  Kinkell— who,  after  Greenlaw's  death  in  1422, 


88  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Gariotih. 

became  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  and  who  erected  Kinkell  and  its  six  chapels  into  a  pre- 
bend of  that  see  ;  James  Stewart,  the  Earl's  brother  ;  William  Chalmers,  father ;  and 
Eobert  Davidson. 

Seven  months  thereafter,  in  July,  1411,  Robert  Davidson  was  lying  a  bloody  corpse 
on  the  field  of  Harlaw.  The  same  carnage  included  the  Laird  of  Drum,  and  a  near 
relative  of  the  bishop,  whose  broken  tombstone  on  the  floor  of  the  ruins  of  the  kirk  of 
Kinkell,  still  exhibits  his  arms  and  part  of  his  name,  Gilbertus  de  Grie  .  .  .  the 
arms  displayed  being  those  of  the  Greenlaws  of  that  Ilk,  in  Berwickshire. 

THE   BATTLE   OF    HARLAW. 

The  origin  of  the  Battle  of  Harlaw  was  that  the  Duke  of  Albany,  regent  of  the 
kingdom,  had  secured  the  Earldom  of  Boss  by  Boyal  charter  to  his  own  son,  John 
Stewart,  Earl  of  Buchan,  upon  the  Earldom  being  resigned  in  his  favour  by  Euphemia, 
Countess  of  Boss,  when,  without  heirs  of  her  body,  she  retired  into  a  convent.  The 
wife  of  Donald,  Lord  of  the  Isles,  was  the  rightful  heiress  should  Euphemia  die  without 
issue.  That  great  chief  promptly  disputed  the  legality  of  the  action  of  the  crown ;  and, 
when  he  was  refused  redress,  took  up  arms. 

The  Lords  of  the  Isles  had  too  much  pride  of  place  to  brook  such  insults.  They 
had  frequently  affected  indej)eiidence  of  the  Scottish  Crown  and  made  treaties  with 
England ;  and  Bobert  II.,  in  order  to  strengthen  himself  on  the  throne,  had  given  to 
Donald's  father  large  additions  to  his  possessions,  and  thus  had  made  him  dangerously 
powerful.  Albany's  courage  was,  besides,  known  to  be  small,  and  rebellion  was  a, 
promising  enough  game  to  play,  as  well  as  one  suited  to  the  self-importance  of  the  Heb- 
ridean  chief. 

Donald,  assembling  his  vassals,  crossed  from  his  island  dominion,  by  Loch  Carron 
and  Strathpeffer,  into  Boss.  The  people  of  the  Earldom  submitted  to  him  at  once, 
being  from  of  old  less  accustomed  to  look  to  the  Scottish  Kings  as  their  lords  than  to 
the  Norwegian  vikings.  Donald  overpowered  some  forces  sent  against  him  at  Dingwall, 
and  soon  made  his  headquarters  at  Inverness.  Thence  he  issued  a  summons  that  all  the 
fighting  men  of  Enzie  and  the  Boyne  should  join  his  standard.  Sweeping  through 
Moray  and  Strathbogy  with  little  opposition,  the  Lord  of  the  Isles  made  for  Aberdeen, 
publishing  his  intention  of  giving  it  to  the  flames.  His  advance  was  checked  in  the 
Garioch.  Albany  had  an  excellent  Lieutenant  to  send  against  the  great  Lord  of  the 
Isles,  in  the  person  of  his  nephew,  Alexander  Stewart,  the  valorous  Earl  of  Mar,  the  hero 
of  Liege,  who  was  ambitious  and  brave  enough  to  undertake  any  possible  task.  The 
Earl  of  Mar  appeared  at  Aberdeen  at  the  head  of  the  bravest  knights  and  gentlemen  of 
Angus  and  the  Mearns,  and  from  thence  was  followed  north  to  his  own  feudal  lands  of 
Inverurie  by  Bobert  Davidson,  Provost  of  Aberdeen — a  force  of  the  undaunted  Aber- 
donian  burgesses  being  added  to  the  southern  troops. 

Some  of  the  Aberdeen  men,  Mr.  Norval  Clyne,  in  his  "  Ballads  "  from  Scottish 


The  Battle  of  Harlaw.  89 

history,  gives  with  much  ground  of  probability.  They  appear  in  the  Council  registers 
of  Aberdeen,  at  a  date  corresponding  to  "  Harlaw,"  as  selected  to  go  out  against  the 
"  Ketterines".  They  are—"  Simon  Lamb,  Duncan  Hervy,  Thomas  Henderson,  Thomas 
Trayle,  Guilfrid  Taillour,  W.  Jacson,  William  Johnson,  John  for  Ihomas  Moden, 
Walter  Bower,  John  Moden,  Henry  Leith,  Henry  Stephen,  Nicholas  Plummer,  Will 
Galbraith,  Thomas  Chekar,  John  Roule,  James  Leask,  Thomas  Boide,  W.  Tuiyn,  Gib. 
Menzies,  David  Galrygyn,  John  Tidach,  Duthac  Lowman,  John  Yule  (with  a  man), 
Andrew  Guthrie,  Finlay  Montague,  John  Pypar,  John  Aitkynson,  Alexander  Benyn 
(with  a  man),  Amyer  Benyn  (with  a  man)." 

'  Tytler  records  as  the  leaders  of  the  southern  force — Sir  Alexander  Ogilvy,  Sheriff 
of  Angus ;  Sir  James  Scrimgeour,  Constable  of  Dundee,  hereditary  Standard-Bearer  of 
Scotland  ;  Sir  Alexander  Irvine  of  Drum  ;  Sir  Bobert  Melville  ;  Sir  William  Abernethy, 
nephew  to  the  Governor,  Albany  ;  Sir  Bobert  Maule ;  Sir  Thomas  Moray  ;  Alexander 
Strachan  of  Laurieston  ;  James  Lovell  ;  and  Alexander  Stirling. 

The  Earl  of  Mar,  besides  these,  had  summoned  the  vassals  of  the  Earldom  from 
the  lands  between  Don  and  Dee,  and  those  of  the  Garioch.  Their  rendezvous  was,  as 
we  may  believe,  the  camping  ground  of  Bruce  before  the  battle  of  Inverurie — the  head- 
quarters of  the  Garioch  Earldom,  and,  as  it  happened,  the  best  muster  place  in  prepara- 
tion for  attacking  the  enemy  at  Harlaw.  There  he  would  be  joined  also  by  the  royal 
vassals  from  Formartine  and  Buchan.  Those  from  Strathbogy,  and  the  Church  vassals 
of  the  Upper  Garioch  must  already  have  unavoidably  retired  in  that  direction  before  the 
approach  of  the  Highland  host. 

We  know  sufficiently  well  the  names  of  those  who  held  feoff  lands  under  the  Lord 
of  the  Garioch  at  that  time  to  be  able  to  denote  the  chiefs  of  the  local  force. 

The  oldest  vassal,  David  de  Lesly,  who  had  gone  as  a  youth  to  the  Holy  Land,  was 
apparently  not  then  in  the  country.  His  retainers  were  probably  led  by  Sir  Andrew 
Leslie  of  Balquhain,  the  lawless  baron  of  the  stone  rampart  of  Benachie,  Master  of  the 
Horse  (it  is  said)  to  the  Earl  of  Mar.     Six  of  Leslie's  sons  died  in  the  fight. 

The  beautiful  moated  mound  of  Caskieben  was,  doubtless,  long  ere  then  occupied 
by  a  strong  fortalice,  held  by  the  clerkly  Stephen  de  Johnston,  the  former  "  Secretar  " 
of  Mar's  last  male  predecessor — the  Earl  Thomas.  Stephen's  son  and  heir — John  de 
Johnston — must  have  attained  manhood  before  the  fight  of  Harlaw,  on  24th  July,  1411. 
The  leal  Laird  of  Caskieben,  of  that  time,  would,  assuredly,  be  present  at  a  field  where 
both  patriotism  and  fealty  required  of  him  military  service ;  situated,  as  Harlaw  was, 
within  two  or  three  miles  of  the  northern  boundary  of  the  Baron  of  Caskieben's  own 
domain. 

Sir  Thomas  Erskine  of  Balhaggarty,  Conglass,  &c,  had  his  local  following  from  the 
very  skirts  of  the  battle-field.  Among  them  may  have  been  "  Thomas  Bisset  of  Balhag- 
garty, the  father  of  the  fair  maid  of  Kemnay,"  who  was,  in  that  generation,  the  subject 
of  rough  and  unwelcome  wooing  on  the  part  of  one  of  the  Leslies  of  Balquhain.     Family 

12 


90  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

tradition  has  it  that  an  ancestor  of  the  present  tenants  (Maitland)  of  Balhaggarty  was  a 
tenant  at  that  period. 

Near  at  hand,  also,  were  the  Abercrombys  of  Aquhorthies,  Aquhorsk,  and  Blair- 
daff,  with  their  relatives  of  Pitrneddeu,  Pitmachie,  and  Ardoyne,  Melvil  of  Westhall ; 
Laurence  Leith  of  Barns,  Provost  of  Aberdeen  afterwards,  and  his  brother  John,  who 
was  next  year  sent  to  England  to  negotiate  the  release  of  James  I.  ;  William  Tullidaff 
of  that  Ilk,  laird  then  of  the  third  part  of  Lentush  and  Rothmaise,  and  who  fell  in 
the  battle ;  Forbes  of  Lethinty  ;  and  Barclay  de  Tolly,  then  laird  of  Bourtie. 

Who  would  lead  the  numerous  vassals  of  the  church  in  Inverurie,  Monkegy,  Kin- 
kell,  Monymusk,  Bayne,  Daviot,  and  Culsalmond  ?  Glaster  of  Glack  was  among  these, 
along  with  the  holders  of  Badifurrow,  Balbithan,  Monymusk,  Wartle,  Newton,  and  all 
the  numerous  Templands.  Singularly  enough,  the  fighting  chaplain  of  Earl  James  of 
Douglas  at  Otterburn  was  Archdeacon  of  Aberdeen  about  the  time,  and,  of  course, 
parson  of  Bayne ;  and,  doubtless,  the  cry  of  boot  and  saddle  would  have  been  very 
tempting  to  parson  Lundie,  even  in  his  riper  years. 

The  burghers  of  Inverurie  at' the  time,  and  other  local  subjects  of  the  regality,  we 
can  name  to  some  extent.  William  de  Blakhall  was  in  the  Garioch  in  1398;  Robert  de 
Blakhall  in  1118  ;  in  1420  the  family  appears  in  fixed  locality  in  the  person  of  John 
Blakhall  of  that  Ilk  ;  and  held  the  office  of  Forester  and  Coroner  of  the  Garioch  about 
1500,  but  how  long  before  we  know  not.  The  Blakhalls,  whose  possessions  were  ex- 
tensive, including  Barra  in  Bourtie,  were  important  in  Inverurie.  The  Ferguses  are 
located,  by  tradition,  in  Crichie  and  Inverurie  at  a  date  a  century  before  Harlaw. 
Records  of  the  period  give  us  also  the  names  of  Bainzie,  Mearns,  Cantily,  Anderson, 
Currie,  Rae,  Howieson,  Brown,  Atkynson,  and  Andrew. 

Bainzies,  under  the  form  of  Badyno,  appear  a  generation  after  Harlaw,  residing 
where  the  Town  Hall  of  1660  stood,  on  two  roods  of  land  lying  between  lands  of  the 
Lord  Superior  of  the  Regality,  and  which  may  well  have  been  a  part  of  the  original 
regality  demesne,  and  a  gift  by  Bobert  Bruce  in  1308  to  the  "  Bainzie"  of  tradition  ;  to 
whom  and  his  eleven  sons,  the  King  is  said  to  have  given  all  the  lands  of  Inverurie,  for 
their  good  service  in  the  battle  of  Inverurie.  Badyno,  so  distinguished  in  the  position 
of  his  heritage,  one  would  willingly  imagine  bearing,  as  an  original  Bainzie,  the  standard 
of  the  Garioch  in  the  battle — the  three  open  crowns,  to  which  the  Earl  of  Mar,  of  our 
narrative,  himself  added  the  checkered  fesse. 

The  nearest  neighbours  of  Inverurie,  the  dwellers  on  the  disintegrated  Thanedom  of 
Kintore  held  under  the  Earl  of  Moray,  had  as  landlords  families  named  Chalmers  and 
Gothnyss.  Beyond  were  the  retainers  of  the  Marischal  from  Hallforest,  who  would 
mingle  with  the  force  from  Buchan  which  Sir  Alexander  Keith  brought  into  the  field — 
most  of  them  to  lie  there. 

The  tenants  of  Kemnay  would  attend  upon  their  lord,  Sir  Robert  Melville  of  Glen- 
bervie,  Sheriff  of  the  Mearns,  who  came  north  with  the  Earl.     The  subsequent  fate  of 


The  Buttle  of  Hurlaw.  91 


the  Sheriff  partook  of  the  worst  barbarity  of  that  wild  time.  His  conduct  in  office  had 
been  so  harsh,  and  so  often  complained  of  to  the  Eegent,  that  Albany,  who  detested 
trouble,  allowed  to  escape  from  his  lips  the  impatient  words — "  Sorra  gin  the  Shirra  was 
sodden  and  suppit  in  broo  ".  The  exclamation  was  by  the  Sheriff's  enemies  promptly 
interpreted  as  a  sentence  pronounced  against  the  object  of  popular  hatred,  and  was 
literally  carried  into  execution — the  murderers  giving  what  they  thought  legal  comple- 
tion to  the  transaction  by  each  of  them  actually  swallowing  some  spoonfuls  of  their  hor- 
rible pot. 

The  immediate  Crown  vassals  of  Strathbogy  are  said,  by  one  of  the  poetical  accounts 
of  the  battle,  to  have  followed  "  Bisset,"  the  son  or  grandson  of  Walter  of  Lessendrum, 
the  Sheriff  of  Banffshire  in  1364.  The  future  lord  of  Strathbogy,  Alexander  Seton, 
husband  of  the  heiress,  was  in  the  battle.  He  had  been  Lord  of  Gordon  from  before 
l!08. 

The  Formartine  vassals  and  tenants,  from  Turriff  to  Tolquhon,  would  doubtless 
muster  strongly  under  their  chief,  Sir  Henry  Preston  of  Fyvie,  whose  Preston  tower  of 
1400  still  associates  him  with  the  grand  old  castle.  Of  his  two  daughters,  one,  Marjorie 
already  married,  may  have  been  widowed  by  the  fight.  Those  two  ladies  were  after- 
wards to  divide  their  father's  lands  and  begin  new  families — Meldrum  of  Fyvie,  and 
Forbes  of  Tolquhon.  Young  Meldrum  should  have  been  in  Preston's  ^band  in  the 
tumultuary  battle  if  the  Laird  of  Fyvie  was  there  in  person. 

It  was  in  that  generation  that  the  now  wide-spread  family  of  Forbes  made  its 
quadruple  divergence  into  the  houses  of  Drumminnor,  Brux,  Pitsligo,  and  Tolquhon  ;— 
Alister  Cam  marrying  the  heiress  of  Sir  Hugh  Cameron  of  Brux,  the  descendant  of  Earl 
Thomas  of  Mar's  squire,  became  the  first  Forbes  of  Brux  ;  and  Sir  John,  his  brother, 
became  the  husband  of  Marjorie  Preston,  a  widow,  whose  representative,  and  that  of  the 
long  line  of  Tolquhon,  is  Mr.  Forbes  Leitli  of  Whitehaugh.  Marjorie  Preston  married 
Sir  John  Forbes,  in  her  widowhood,  in  1420. 

Of  the  Highland  army  we  know  only  that  Donald  of  the  Isles  had  as  his  second  in 
command  his  nephew,  Hector  Maclean  of  Duart,  who  was  married  to  a  daughter  of  the 
Earl  of  Douglas,  and  that  he  was  also  followed  by  the  Chief  of  Macintosh.  Maclean  fell 
on  the  field  of  Harlaw,  as  did  also,  his  personal  opponent  in  that  encounter — Sir  Alex- 
ander Irvine  of  Drum.  One  of  the  poetical  accounts  of  the  battle,  seemingly  correct  in 
many  respects,  adds  Cameron  of  Lochiel  to  the  followers  of  the  Lord  of  the  Isles,  and 
makes  him,  when  he  stood  on  the  field,  the  last  of  Donald's  strong  supporters,  yield 
himself  after  the  chief's  flight,  to  Black  Eobert  of  Brux,  Lochiel's  kinsman— a  Cameron. 
The  account  does  not,  however,  agree  with  either  name  or  date  in  the  Brux  family. 

The  configuration  of  the  district  which  was  the  scene  of  the  terrible  battle  enables 
us  with  confidence  to  imagine  the  disposition  of  the  contending  forces.  The  Islesmen 
and  their  forced  levies  from  Eoss  and  Moray,  probably  taking  the  least  defensible 
entrance  to  the  Garioch  across  the  Foudland  pass,  would  sweep  along  the  braes  of  Cul- 


92  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioeh. 

salrnond  and  the  tableland  of  Eayne  ;  the  population  of  all  the  Upper  Garioeh  escaping 
before  them  to  the  Don  to  the  protection  of  the  royal  forces.  Keeping  the  rising 
grounds,  they  would  cross  Sillerstrind,  and  immediately  find  themselves  in  the  advanta- 
geous position  which  they  took  up  on  the  Harelaw.  It  was  a  confined  one,  but  so  much 
the  more  adapted  to  the  crowded  wrestle  which  the  Highlanders  made  the  battle  become. 
No  cavalry  could  do  much  on  the  narrow  platform.  On  the  west  side  a  steep  declivity 
lay  between  it  and  the  soft  bed  of  the  Ury ;  eastward,  a  wide  morass  would  have  been 
fatal  to  the  movements  of  horse  or  heavy  armed  foot-soldiers  ;  on  the  north,  they  had 
merely  the  country  which  they  had  already  swept  clear  of  possible  enemies.  Then- 
position  was  only  approachable,  as  Mar  did  assail  it,  by  the  long  slopes  of  Balhaggarty, 
to  reach  which  the  Ury  or  the  Lochter  had  to  be  crossed. 

The  immediate  advance  of  the  Earl  of  Mar  upon  Donald's  position  was  from  Inver- 
urie, about  three  miles  south  of  Hurlaw.  He  came  from  Aberdeen  with  the  Angus  and 
Mearns  levies,  and  Drum  and  the  Deeside  barons,  from  Mowat  of  Abergeldy  downwards ; 
accompanied  also  by  Provost  Davidson,  who,  by  one  account,  had  Eose  of  Kilravock  as 
his  second  in  command.  At  Inverurie  they  would  find  the  muster  of  the  Garioeh 
vassals  and  not  a  few  companions,  met  there  for  safety ;  while  the  Donside  men  of  Mar, 
summoned  from  Corgarff  to  Craigievar,  and  the  Forbeses  from  within  their  boundaries, 
"  Assach  and  Massach  (Essat  and  Mossat),  Bogie  and  Don,"  would  hastily  arrive  by  the 
"  Lord's  Throat  "  and  the  pass  of  Corrennie.  The  readiest  and  most  secure  position 
available  to  the  royal  forces — only  one-tenth  of  the  insurgents  in  number — was  the 
Stanners,  a  field  of  30  acres,  encompassed  on  all  but  a  few  yards  of  its  circumference 
by  defensible  water ;  and,  in  connection  with  it,  the  traditional  camping  ground  of 
King  Eobert's  weak  force  before  the  battle  of  Inverurie ;  which  was  the  Hill  of  Crichie 
and  the  Haugh  of  Ardtannies,  and,  it  is  likely,  the  Corseman  Hill,  commanding  the 
Haugh. 

If  the  practised  leader  of  the  royalists  approached  the  position  of  his  enemy  in  the 
three  lines  in  which  he  is  described  as  offering  battle,  the  lie  of  the  country  gave  the 
greatest  facility  for  the  movement.  The  left  wing  of  his  force  would  proceed  by  the 
path  across  the  Corseman  Hill  of  the  Davo,  by  Blackball,  Tempin  Walls,  and  the  two 
lines  of  road  on  the  braes  of  Drimmies,  and  come  down  upon  the  Castle  of  Balquhain 
as  a  strong  position,  right  in  face  of  the  enemy  posted  on  Harlaw.  The  Leslies,  the 
lords  of  the  castle,  all  accounts  say,  were  stationed  in  the  left  wing  at  the  battle.  The 
right  wing,  crossing  the  Ury  to  Caskieben,  and  making  for  the  heights  of  Selby,  would 
have  a  line  of  road  on  to  Auld  Bourty,  where,  from  the  Goblauch's  old  possession,  they 
would  see  the  position  of  the  Highlanders  across  C'olliehill  and  the  Lochter.  The 
mounted  portion  of  the  Earl's  power,  which  included  the  mail-clad  knights,  whom,  along 
with  the  men  in  armour,  he  made  his  vanguard  in  the  battle,  would  have  a  convenient 
line  of  road  along  the  King's  Gait  of  Inverurie,  avoiding  the  Powtate  Loch  by  passing 
along  the  highest  egress  from  the  town,  over  the  site  of  the  present  West  High  Street 


The  Battle  of  Harlow.  93 


School,  and  would  cross  the  Ury  at  Howford.  The  three  lines  of  march  would  bring 
the  forces  upon  the  braes  of  Balhaggarty,  on  three  sides,  converging  towards  the  front 
of  the  Highland  army. 

The  rebels  numbered  10,000  ;  the  Eegent's  forces  only  about  a  tenth  of  that 
amount,  but  having  the  great  advantage  of  comprehending  a  compact  battalion  of  fully 
equipped  knights  and  men-at-arms.  These,  under  the  command  of  the  Constable  of 
Dundee,  Mar  put  in  the  front,  along  with  the  Sheriff  of  Angus  and  his  following,  and 
it  is  likely,  Provost  Davidson  and  the  burgesses  of  Aberdeen.  He  himself  led  the  main 
army  in  the  centre,  placing  Drum  and  the  Leiths,  Leslies,  and  Gordons  on  the  left, 
while  the  Keiths  and  the  Forbeses  were  together,  it  would  seem,  on  the  right.  The 
Maules,  Morays,  Straitons,  Stirlings,  and  Lovels,  headed  by  their  chiefs,  and  with  their 
banners  and  pennoncelles  waving  amid  their  clumps  of  spears,  swelled  the  force.  The 
battle  was  a  contest  of  arms  against  numbers,  where  equal  bravery  brought  up  both 
sides  to  exhausting  carnage.  The  mailed  Lowlanders  had  no  difficulty  in  piercing  the 
masses  of  the  Celts,  but  did  so  only  to  be  swallowed  up,  and  die  along  with  them,  or 
find  their  way  out  of  the  melee  by  the  naked  crowd  being  sufficiently  hewn  down.  The 
van  composed  of  the  steel  clad  knights  was  mostly  butchered  by  the  swarms  of  High, 
landers  who,  armed  only  with  sword  and  dirk,  fastened  upon  the  individual  horses  and 
their  riders.  The  Constable  of  Dundee,  the  Provost  of  Aberdeen,  and  the  mass  of  their 
followers  were  slain;  the  Sheriff  of  Angus  also,  Sir  Alexander  Irvine,  Sir  Eobert  Maule, 
Sir  Thomas  Moray,  William  Abernethy,  Alexander  Straiton,  James  Lovel,  Alexander 
Stirling,  Gilbert  de  Greenlaw,  and  about  500  men-at-arms,  including  the  principal 
gentry  of  Buchan.  Mar  himself  with  a  small  number  of  the  survivors  continued  the 
battle  until  nightfall.  When  the  fight  ceased  it  was  found  that  Donald  had  retreated 
by  Benachie  towards  the  West.  The  chiefs  of  Maclean  and  Macintosh  were  among  the 
fallen,  and  many  a  spot  around  continued  long  to  bear  the  name  of  some  of  those  who 
perished  in  the  fight.  The  conqueror'  was  unable  to  pursue  the  fugitives,  and  remained 
on  the  field  less  a  victor  than  deserted  by  his  opponents.  The  Duke  of  Albany  was 
spurred  by  the  tremendous  necessity  of  the  case  into  a  brave  action,  and  immediately 
after  raised  a  sufficient  force  to  pursue  Donald  to  his  island  fastnesses,  where,  in  the 
following  year,  he  reduced  him  to  temporary  subjection.  Yet  in  a  short  time  after, 
when  Mar  had  added  to  his  other  offices  that  of  Admiral  of  the  Kingdom,  the  Islesmen, 
again  in  insurrection  under  a  relative  of  Donald,  met  their  old  antagonist,  and  had  their 
turn  of  victory,  at  Inverlochy.  The  supremacy  of  lowland  authority  was,  however, 
permanently  secured  by  this  terrible  trial  of  strength  at  Harlaw. 

The  only  monumental  record  of  the  battle  is  the  upper  half  of  the  tombstone  of 
Gilbert  de  Greenlaw,  within  the  roofless  walls  of  the  once  richly-ornamented  Templar 
Church  of  Kinkell.  The  knightly  figure  chiselled  on  the  stone  is  clad  in  mail  of  chain 
or  net  work,  perhaps  an  evidence  of  that  style  of  armour  having  been  in  use  at  the  time. 
A  borrowed  kind  of  sepulchral  immortality  was,  two  centuries  after,  sought  by  means  of 


94  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

the  broken  stone  to  be  secured  on  behalf  of  John  Forbes,  laird  of  Ardinurdo,  who  died 
in  1592,  aged  66,  and  had  his  decease  recorded  on  the  reverse  side. 

The  battle  of  Harlaw  left  a  deep  impression  on  the  national  mind.  Two  musical 
airs,  both  very  ancient  now,  and  three  ballad  narratives  of  it  exist.  Aytoun's  Ballads 
include  two  of  these.  One,  a  long  and  largely  descriptive  ballad,  was  known  before 
1600.  The  other,  which  was  put  in  print  first  by  Aytoun,  as  it  was  lately  sung  in  the 
Garioch,  has  more  of  the  heroic  character.  The  third  poetical  account  is  contained  in  a 
poem  called  "  The  Don,"  originally  printed  in  1655.  The  three  give  the  same  general 
account  of  the  battle  ;  the  second  ballad  incorrectly  making  the  Lord  of  the  Isles  perish 
in  the  fight,  and  be  buried  in  Leggat's  Den,  "  a  lang  mile  frae  Harlaw".  "  The  Don  "■ 
makes  the  tenant  of  that  grave  Maclean,  the  second  in  command.  A  stone  in  a  place 
called  Leggat's  Den  close  by  used  to  be  spoken  of  as  marking  the  grave.  A  large  whin- 
stone  monolith,  about  200  yards  westward  of  the  farm-houses  of  Harlaw,  is  said  to 
mark  the  burial  place  of  the  females  who  had  followed  the  Highland  host  and  perished. 

One  tragical  incident  of  the  fight  given  in  "  The  Don," — that  Drum  and  Maclean 
sought  each  other  in  the  fight,  and  fell  by  each  other's  swords — is  in  agreement  with  the 
traditions  of  both  families.  Another  romantic  legend  relates  that  Sir  Alexander  Irvine 
on  his  way  to  the  Garioch  became  oppressed  by  a  presentiment  of  death  in  the  expected 
conflict,  and  sitting  down  with  his  brother  on  a  large  "  yird  stane  "  in  Skene,  thereafter 
called  Drum's  Stane,  made  his  "  tesment".  He  told  his  brother  that  he  had  been  mar- 
ried under  some  unwelcome  influence,  and  had  never  lived  with  his  lady  as  her  husband, 
which  gave  him  great  concern ;  and  he  wished  him,  should  he  come  safe  out  of  the 
battle,  but  brotherless,  to  marry  the  virgin  widow,  as  the  lands  would  be  his.  The  ap- 
pearance of  the  name  of  Sir  Alexander  Irvine  of  Drum  in  charters  later  than  the  date  of 
Harlaw  is  accounted  for  by  the  family  tradition  that  the  brother  of  the  slain  knight 
adopted  the  same  Christian  name,  and  that  there  was  also  a  son,  Alexander ;  whose 
legitimacy  would  of  course  invalidate  the  story  of  the  "  tesment". 

The  poem  of  "  The  Don "  places  Keith  and  Forbes  together  in  the  van  at  the 
head  of  clan  Forbes,  beginning  the  fight — Keith  and  Drum  leading  the  final  charge  to- 
gether which  overthrew  the  power  of  Maclean.  The  poem,  after  the  death  of  Maclean 
by  Drum's  onset,  makes  Donald  in  revenge,  rushing  in  person  on  the  victorious  foe,  kill 
Provost  Davidson  and  bear  back  Kilravock  and  the  Aberdeen  men,  before  he  sought 
safety  in  flight.  The  body  of  the  valiant  Provost  was  carried  to  Aberdeen,  where,  three 
centuries  after,  in  preparing  the  foundation  of  the  "West  Church  then  to  be  rebuilt,  his 
grave  was  discovered.  A  silk  skull  cap,  which  had  been  placed  on  his  head,  was  in  good 
preservation. 

The  Keith  believed  in  the  family  annals  to  have  been  at  Harlaw  was  Sir  Alexander 
Keith,  the  Knight  of  Grandholm,  third  son  of  the  aged  Marischal,  William  Lord  Keith. 
Sir  Alexander  was  a  younger  brother  of  the  Keith,  who,  second  in  command  in  his 
father's  stead  at  Otterburn,  took  prisoner  Ralph  Percy,  after  the  fall  of  Douglas.     He 


The  Battle  of  Harlaw.  95 


was  uncle  to  a  yet  more  celebrated  man,  the  Duke  of  Albany's  son,  John  Stewart,  Earl 
of  Buchan,  the  Constable  of  France,  and  Earl  of  Deveraux,  1421. 

The  only  Garioch  personage  whose  death  at  Harlaw  is  preserved  in  legal  record, 
is  William  Tullidaff  of  that  Ilk,  one  of  the  Church  vassals  in  Eayne,  whose  son  was 
served  heir  to  him  in  1413,  with  exemption  from  feudal  payment,  according  to  an  Act 
passed  by  the  Governor,  Albany,  in  favour  of  the  sons  of  those  who  fell  at  Harlaw,  as 
Bruce  had  provided  in  the  case  of  the  slain  at  the  battle  of  Inverurie. 

The  Pleyfauld  in  the  estate  of  Harlaw,  probably  marks  the  chief  scene  of  the  con- 
flict according  to  early  tradition. 

The  following  ballad,  exhibiting  the  exaggerated  study  of  effect  which  belongs  to 
heroic  poetry,  and  introducing  the  two  well-known  heroes  of  Aberdeenshire  ballads,  Sir 
James  the  Rose  and  Sir  John  the  Graeme,  continued  until  the  present  generation  to  be 
sung  in  the  Garioch.  It  first  got  into  print  in  Professor  Aytoun's  Ballad*  of  Scotland, 
communicated  to  him  by  Lady  Jane  Scott,  who,  probably,  got  it  from  a  member  of  the 
Elphinstone  family  in  the  Garioch.  A  copy  containing  three  more  verses  appeared  in 
"  Xotes  and  Queries,"  vol.  vii.,  May  20,  1865,  communicated  by  Mr.  A.  Ferguson  ; — 

As  I  came  in  by  Dunideer 

And  down  by  Netherha', 
There  were  fifty  thousand  Hielanmen, 
All  marching  to  Harlaw  ; 
(Chorus)  — Wi'  a  drie,  drie,  drie  de  dronlie  drie. 

As  I  came  on  and  farther  on 

And  down  and  by  JBalquhain, 
Oh,  there  I  met  Sir  James  the  Rose, 

Wi'  him  Sir  John  the  Graeme. 

"  Oh,  came  ye  frae  the  Hielans,  man  '! 
And  came  ye  a'  the  wye  ? 
Saw  ye  Macdonal  and  his  men 
Come  marching  frae  the  Skye  ?  " 

"  Yes,  she  came  frae  the  Hielans,  jnan,  » 

And  she  came  a'  the  wye, 
And  she  saw  Macdonal  and  his  men 
Come  marching  frae  the  Skye. " 

"  Oh,  were  ye  near  and  near  aneuch  ? 
Did  ye  their  numbers  see  ? 
Come,  tell  to  me,  John  Hielanman, 
What  might  their  numbers  be  1  " 

' '  Yes,  she  was  near  and  near  aneuch, 
And  she  their  numbers  saw  ; 
There  were  fifty  thousand  Hielanmen 
A'  marching  to  Harlaw." 

"  If  that  be  true,"  quo'  James  the  Rose, 
"We'll  no  come  meikle  speed  : 
We'll  cry  upon  our  merry  men, 
And  turn  our  horses'  heids." 

"  Oh  no,  oh  no,"  quo'  John  the  Graeme, 
"That  thing  maun  never  be  ; 
The  gallant  Graemes  were  never  beat  — 
We'lltry  what  we  cau  dee." 


96  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 


As  I  came  on,  and  farther  on, 
And  down  and  by  Harlaw  ; 

They  fell  full  close  on  ilka  side, 
Sic  fun  ye  never  saw. 

They  fell  full  close  on  ilka  side, 

Sic  fun  ye  never  saw  ; 
For  Hielau  swords  gaed  clash  for  clash 

At  the  battle  of  Harlaw. 

The  Hielanmen  with  their  lang  swords, 

They  laid  on  us  full  sair  ; 
And  they  drave  back  our  merry  men 

Three  acres'  breadlh  or  mair. 

Brave  Forbes  did  to  his  brother  say — 
"  Now,  brother,  dinna  ye  see, 
They  beat  us  back  on  ilka  side, 
And  we'll  be  forced  to  flee  !  " 

"  Oh  no,  oh  no,  my  blither  dear, 
That  thing  maun  never  be  ; 
Tak  ye  your  guid  sword  in  your  hand 
And  come  your  ways  with  me." 

' '  Oh  no,  oh  no,  rny  brither  dear, 
The  elans  they  are  ower  Strang  ; 
And  they  drive  back  our  merry  men, 
With  swords  baith  sharp  and  lang." 

Brave  Forbes  unto  his  men  did  say — 
"Now  take  your  rest  awhile, 
Until  I  send  to  Drumminnor, 
To  fetch  my  coat  of  mail." 

Brave  Fobes'  henchman  then  did  ride, 
And  his  horse  did  not  fail  ! 

For  in  twa  hours  and  a  quarter 
He  brought  the  coat  of  mail. 

Then  back  to  back  the  brithers  twa, 
Gaed  in  amang  the  thrang  ; 

And  they  swept  down  the  Hielanmen, 
With  swords  baith  sharp  and  lang. 

Macdonal  he  was  young  and  stout, 

Had  on  his  coat  of  mail, 
And  he  has  gane  out  thro'  them  all, 

To  try  his  hand  himsel'. 

The  first  ae  stroke  that  Forbes  struck, 
Made  the  great  Macdonal  reel, 

The  second  stroke  that  Forbes  struck, 
The  brave  Macdonal  fell. 

And  siccan  a  pilleurichie, 

The  like  ye  never  saw, 
As  was  amang  the  Hielanmen 

When  they  saw  Macdonal  fa'. 

And  when  they  saw  that  he  was  deid, 
They  turned  and  ran  awa '  ; 

And  they  buried  him  at  Leggat's  Den, 
A  lang  mile  frae  Harlaw. 


The  Battle  of  Harlaw.  97 

They  rode,  they  ran,  and  some  did  gang— 

They  were  of  small  record, 
For  Forbes  and  his  merry  men, 

Slew  maist  all  by  the  road. 

On  llunonday,  at  morning, 

The  battle  it  began; 
On  Saturday,  at  gloaming, 

Ye'd  scarce  tell  wha  had  wan. 

An  sick  a  weary  burying, 

The  like  ye  never  saw, 
As  there  was  the  Sunday  after  that, 

On  the  muirs  down  by  Harlaw. 

ADd  if  Hielah  lasses  speer  at  ye 

For  them  that  gaed  awa', 
Ye  may  tell  them  plain,  and  plain  enough, 

They're  sleeping  at  Harlaw. 

Another  version,  which  the  writer  has  seen,  of  the  ballad  taken  down  from  singing, 
makes  the  Graeme  propose,  and  Sir  James  the  Eose  reject,  the  counsel  of  prudence — 

Quo'  John  the  Graeme  to  James  the  Rose, 

We  will  sheath  our  swords  wi'  speed. 
We  will  call  to  us  our  merry  men, 

And  lightlie  mount  our  steed. 

For  no  !  for  no  !  0  John  the  Graeme, 

Sic  things  we  must  not  do, 
The  clan  of  Rose  was  never  cowards, 

We  will  try  their  valour  noo. 

The  same  version  also,  after  the  clansman's  great  feat  of  riding, — going  to  Druminnor 
from  Harlaw  for  a  coat  of  mail,  and  bringing  it  in  two  hours  and  a  quarter — has  the 
following  : — 

Lord  Forbes,  being  young  and  stout, 

Got  on  the  coat  of  mail, 
And  so  boldly  he  marched  up  the  ranks, 
To  fecht  wi'  him  himsel'. 

The  first  chap  that  Macdonal  gied, 

He  wounded  him  a  deal  ; 
The  first  chap  that  Brave  Forbes  gied, 

The  proud  Macdonal  fell. 

The  termination,  with  the  same  study  of  effect,  is  more  like  the  roughness  of  an  early 
ballad  than  in  the  printed  version  : 

Out  o'  ninety  thousan'  men, 

Gaed  hame  but  thirty-three  ; 
And  out  o'  sixty  thousan'  men, 

Gaed  hame  but  fifty-five. 

Gin  ony  body  spier  at  ye 

For  the  men  ye  took  awa', 
They're  sleepin'  souu',  and  in  their  sheen, 

I'  the  howe  aneath  Harlaw. 

The  intensity  of  the  impression  left  by  the  great  battle  upon  the  mind  of  the  nation 
is  well  seen  in  the  exaggerations  of  its  details,  which  became  the  popular  bebef,  through 

13 


98  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

this  ballad.  The  one  day's  conflict  represented  by  a  struggle  from  "  Munondie  at 
inornin'  "  to  "  Setterdie  at  gloamin'  "  ;  the  expansion  of  the  numbers  in  the  contending 
armies  from  ten  thousand  and  one  thousand  respectively,  to  ninety  thousand  on  one 
side,  and  sixty  thousand  on  the  other ;  and  the  extinction  of  the  great  hosts  till  there 
remained  only  thirty-three  of  the  larger,  and  but  fifty-five  of  the  victorious  army ;  and 
the  death  of  the  great  rebel,  all  present  an  appropriate  mythical  picture  of  the  import- 
ance of  the  battle. 

The  heroic  elements  of  the  ballad,  absolutely  simple  in  narrative  and  void  of  mag- 
nifying adjectives,  producing  its  effects  by  unstinted  use  of  large  exploits  and  physical 
grandeur  of  size  or  numbers,  refers  the  composition  to  a  very  early  date. 

It  bears,  to  a  smaller  extent,  the  same  character  that  distinguishes  the  Titanic  pic 
tures  in  "Lang  Johnnie  More,"  which  probably  celebrates  the  greatness  of  the  Forheses, 
and  of  the  Leslies,  represented  by  "  Jock  o'  Kbth  "  and  "  Jock  o'  Benachie,"  two  gig- 
antic personages  whose  size  and  swiftness  paralysed  the  English  King  and  his  Court 
with  fear. 

Both  ballads  were  familiar  in  farm  kitchens  in  the  present  generation  ;  and  also 
another,  celebrating  the  two  companion  knights  of  the  Harlaw  ballad,  Sir  James  the  Bose 
and  Sir  John  the  Graeme  (pronounced  in  singing,  Grime),  if  its  reference  be  not  to  de- 
scendants bearing  the  same  names,  since  the  ballad  incidentally  makes  them  to  have 
been  at  Floddsn.  In  the  "  Buchanshire  Tragedy,"  the  two  knights  are  mortal  foes, 
because  of  their  being  competitors  for  the  hand  of  the  Earl  of  Buchan's  fair  daughter ; 
and  they  slew  each  other  in  the  woods  of  Deer,  where  Graeme,  with  four  followers,  fell 
upon  his  rival.     Sir  James'  personal  appearance  is  grandly  described  in  the  ballad  : — 

His  height  was  like  the  tufted  fir, 

That  crowns  the  mountain's  brow  ; 
And,  waving  o'er  his  shoulders  broad, 
His  locks  of  yellow  flew. 


Chapter  IV. 
THE  GARIOCH  FKOM  THE  BATTLE  OF  HARLAW  TO  THE  REFORMATION. 

Rise  of  New  Families — Progress  of  Estates— Kincraigie,  Wardes,  Pitcaple,  Lofthillock,  Leslie, 
Meldrum,  Olack,  Lelhinty,  Westhall,  Auehlevcn,  Ardoyne,  Harlow,  Braco,  Drimmics,  Kemnay, 
Blackhall,  Rolhmaise,  Lentush,  Mounie,  Blair,  Barra,  Bourtie,  Thornton,  Badifurrow,  Redder- 
wick,  Cragforthic,  Rothynorman,  Pitblaine— Condition  of  Garioch  Lairds — Mouse  of  Leslie — 
Lord  Erskine.  State  of  Society.— Europe  distracted — Morals  in  Scotland — Sir  Andrew 
Leslie — Death  of  the  Earl  of  Mar — King  James  I.  at  Christ's  Kirk.  Local  Government. — 
Lords  of  the  Garioch — William  de  St.  Clair,  &e. — Alienation  of  Regality  Lands— Winton  of 
Drumdumoch—Kyng  of  Barra— Lord  Elphinstone — Leslie  of  Wardes — St.  Serve  of  Monkegy. 
The  Seton-Gordon — Jock  and  Tarn  Gordon— Bonds  of  Manrent — Gordon  and  Forbes  Factions. 
The  Burgh — Historical  appearance — Individuals — Burgh  Laws — Walter  Yidill,  Vicai — 
Burgh  Heritors — Officials— Neighbours  of  the  Burgh.  SENTIMENT. — Pious  Services  and  Violence 
—  Pilgrimages.  Local  Clergy. —  Vicars  of  Inverurie — Parsons  of  Kinkcll — Priory  of  Mony- 
musk — Kirk  of  Kemnay — Chapel  of  the  Garioch-  Fctterncar.  Learning.  — King's  College  — 
Bishop  Elphinstone—  Landed  Gentry — Studies  Pursued — Bishop  Dunbar — Building  of  Brig  o 
Dee — Alexander  Galloway — Science  about  1500 — The  Claik  Geis.  Life  among  the  Barons. — 
Court  of  Session — Raid  upon  Aberdeen — Faction  Warfare — Slaughters.  Parochial  Matters. — 
Discipline  -  Parochial  Elections.  Eve  of  the  REFORMATION. — Attempt  to  reform  the  Diocese — 
Queen  Mary  at  Bulquhain — The  Chapel  of  the  Garioch — The  last  of  the  Priests. 

RISE   OF   NEW    FAMILIES. 

'"il^HE  century  and  a  half  which  followed  the  epochal  event  of  Harlaw,  was  a  period 
in  the  history  of  the  Garioch  as  distinctly  marked  as  the  prehistoric  ages  of 
geology.  A  new  genealogical  formation  begins  in  it ;  which,  by  the  time  of  the 
Reformation,  had  developed  into  wide  spread  families,  while  some  of  the  more  early 
surnames  became  extinct.  The  original  house  of  Leslie,  the  children  of  Bartolf, 
appears  balanced  by  the  families  of  Abercromby,  Leith,  Forbes,  Johnston,  Blakhall, 
Seton,  and  Elphinstone. 

Along  with  the  settlement  of  those  names,  new  in  the  Garioch  at  the  period  now 
indicated,  social  order  also  assumed  a  different  phase.  The  subordination  to  law,  estab- 
lished by  the  last  of  Scotland's  powerful  kings,  which,  after  his  death,  came  to  depend 
upon  the  isolated,  or  combined,  action  of  patriotic  nobles,  and  in  the  Garioch  had  always 
the  advantage  of  being  upheld  by  a  strong  Lord  Superior  of  the  Regality,  was  provided 
for  in  that  district,  after  the  line  of  its  feudal  Lords  of  Regality  had  teiminated,  by  the 
appointment  of  a  king's  lieutenant,  or  hereditary  Sheriff ;  who  for  a  long  series  of  years, 
was  himself  the  head  of  the  locally  new  house  of  Seton-Gordon. 


100  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Gurioch. 

The  influence  of  that  representative  of  the  Sovereign  was  strengthened  by  means 
of  local  bonds  of  alliance  with  some  of  the  principal  families.  The  same  kind  of  arrange- 
ment was  speedily  resorted  to  by  the  Forbeses,  and  other  families  connected  with  that 
name  by  the  ties  of  blood  or  friendship,  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  the  exercise  of 
the  authority  delegated  to  the  head  of  the  Gordon,  or  Huntly  family,  within  legitimate, 
or  reasonable,  bounds. 

King  James  I.  laid  the  foundation  for  a  more  satisfactory  mode  of  administering 
the  law  than  had  prevailed  previous  to  his  reign  ;  but  it  was  not  until  the  time  of  King 
James  V.,  that  the  College  of  Justice,  or  Court  of  Session,  was  established ;  although  in 
a  considerably  different  basis  from  its  present  constitution. 

After  the  time  of  Harlaw,  the  still  predominating  race  of  the  Leslies  was  developing 
into  new  forms,  which  reduced  the  old  stock  into  the  position  of  being  little  more  than 
feudal  Superiors  of  their  ancient  possessions  situated  in  the  Garioch.  The  earliest  off- 
shoot of  that  great  house  was  about  to  blossom  into  an  Earldom — that  of  Eothes — and 
the  second  branch,  which  had  became  Barons  of  Balquhain  in  1 340,  was  in  the  succeed- 
ing century  progenitor,  by  Sir  William,  4th  Baron,  of  four  cadets — afterwards  con- 
spicuous in  the  Garioch — viz.,  Kincraigie,  Wardes,  New  Leslie,  and  Pitcaple.  The 
ancestors  of  these  new  houses  had  of  course  to  be  provided  for  by  portions  of  the  pater- 
nal barony.  William,  the  second  son  of  Sir  William,  by  Elizabeth  Fraser,  his  first  wife, 
daughter  of  Lord  Lovat,  bought  Kincraigie  in  1470  from  his  brother  Alexander,  the 
next  Baron.  Alexander  and  George  were  sons  by  Balquhain's  second  wife,  Agnes  Irvine 
of  Drum.  Alexander  got  Wardes,  Drimmies,  and  Middleton  from  his  father  about  1460. 
David  Leslie  got  Pitcaple,  in  1457,  off  the  Balquhain  lands.  He  was  Sir  William's  son 
by  his  third  wife,  Euphemia  Lindsay,  a  grand-daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Crawford. 

Before  those  estates  were  given  off  the  Balquhain  lands,  an  addition  was  made  to 
the  barony,  in  1433,  by  one  of  the  last  of  the  charters  issued  by  Alexander  Stewart,  Earl 
of  Mar,  conferring  upon  Sir  William  the  farms  of  Selby  and  Lofthillock  in  Monkegy. 

The  Abercrombys,  Garioch  lairds  before  1350,  continued  on  the  banks  of  the  Gadie 
and  of  the  Don  until  1690.  They  acquired  the  family  distinction  of  Birkenbog  in  the 
Boyne,  about  1500. 

The  Leiths  appear  about  the  same  period  of  rise  with  the  Abercrombys ;  and  in  the 
families  of  Leith  Hay  of  Leithhall  and  Leith  of  Freefield  they  continue  to  possess  landed 
estates  near  their  original  possessions. 

In  the  latter  half  of  the  fourteenth  century,  the  Johnstons,  now  of  that  Ilk, 
formerly  of  Caskieben,  first  appear  as  heritors  in  the  Garioch,  at  Caskieben ;  and  from 
1380  to  about  1633  fill  a  large  place  in  the  history  of  the  Garioch. 

The  Glasters  of  Lumgair,  in  the  Mearns,  by  a  marriage  with  Alice  Pilmor,  who  was 
heiress  of  Glack,  in  Daviot  parish,  in  1381,  came  into  possession  of  that  church  feoff  in 
1418,  upon  her  death,  and  continued  until  1492,  when  Andrew  Elphinstone  of  Selmys 
possessed  Glack,  except  a  tenement  sold  to  John  Gordon  of  Lumgair,  apparently  the 


Rise  of  New  Families.  101 


purchaser  of  most  of  the  Glaster  property.  Andrew  Elphinstone,  in  1499,  disponed  Glack 
to  his  younger  brother,  Nicholas,  whose  descendants  were  lairds  of  Glack  for  250  years. 
James,  the  elder  brother  of  Andrew,  was  the  grandfather  of  the  first  Lord  Elphinstone. 

William  Seton,  second  son  of  the  first  Seton  Gordon,  and  brother  of  the  first 
Earl  of  Huntly,  (and  who  was  killed,  in  1452,  in  the  battle  of  Brechin,  fought  by  the 
Earl  against  the  rebel  Earl  of  Crawford,)  was  the  first  of  the  Garioch  Setons.  He  was 
the  husband  of  the  heiress  of  Meldrum,  and  the  ancestor  of  the  Setons  of  Meldrum, 
Blair,  Barra,  Bourtie  and  Mounie. 

Alexander  Seton,  Chancellor  of  Aberdeen  and  Vicar  of  Bethelnie,  in  1566,  second 
son  of  the  fourth  Seton  of  Meldrum,  was  apparently  the  first  Seton  of  Mounie,  in 
Daviot  parish.  The  estate  has  continued  ever  since  in  the  same  name,  except  from 
1623  to  1714,  during  which  period  it  was  held  by  Sir  Robert  Farquhar  and  others. 
The  present  holders  are  of  the  Pitmedden  family,  descended  from  a  grand-nephew  of 
the  Chancellor.  Blair,  in  Bourtie  parish,  which  had  belonged  to  George  Leith  of  Barnes 
(ob.  1505),  came  to  the  Chancellor's  father,  Alexander  Seton  of  Meldrum,  by  a  second 
marriage  with  Janet  Leith,  daughter  of  George,  and  their  son,  John,  appears  in  1526 
heir  to  his  father  in  half  the  lands  of  Auchleven,  Drumrossy,  &c.  Blair  continued  in 
the  name  of  Seton  until  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  the  heiress 
married  a  gentleman  of  the  name  of  Stewart.  Barra  and  Bourtie,  in  the  same  parish, 
were  in  1598  in  the  hands  respectively  of  George  Seton,  Chancellor  of  Aberdeen,  and 
James,  his  brother,  ancestors  of  the  Setons  of  Pitmedden,  sons,  by  a  second  marriage, 
of  William  Seton  of  Meldrum,  the  eldest  brother  of  the  chancellor,  Alexander. 

The  chief  vassals  of  the  Earls  of  Mar — the  Forbeses  of  Puttachie — branching  into 
four  great  divisions  about  the  date  of  Harlaw,  sent  numerous  cadets  widely  over  the 
shire.  They  appear  in  the  Garioch  more  in  the  alliances  of  houses  for  mutual  defence, 
than  in  the  character  of  landed  proprietors,  until  the  era  of  the  Reformation.  The 
Pitsligo  Forbeses,  however,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  had  Kinaldie  and  other  properties, 
one  of  which,  Lethinty  in  Logiedurno  parish,  they  possessed  from  1455  until  the 
Civil  War. 

In  1455,  Alexander  Forbes  of  Kinaldie  held  Lethinty,  with  William  Grant  as 
tenant  of  the  town.  He  died  in  1477,  and  in  1485,  his  grandson,  Alexander  Forbes, 
was  served  heir  to  him,  as  Alexander  Forbes  of  Kinaldie  and  Pitsligo,  in  the  lands 
of  Lethinty,  held  of  the  King  as  Earl  of  the  Garioch,  for  a  pair  of  spurs  valued  at 
twenty  merits,  and  ten  pounds  in  times  of  peace. 

Westhall  belonged  to  John  Melvil  of  Harviston  from  some  date  anterior  to  1451, 
when  he  sold  it  to  Alexander  Bamsay,  from  whose  brother  Edward  Kamsay,  Ingeram, 
bishop  of  Aberdeen,  purchased  it  three  years  later,  and  mortified  it  for  the  support  of  a 
chaplainry  in  Aberdeen  for  the  spiritual  weal  of  the  founder,  of  King  James  II.  and 
of  his  queen,  and  of  David  Lindsay,  Earl  of  Crawford. 

Auchleven,  further  up  the  Gadie,  was  held  of  the  Earl  of  Mar  in  1453,  by  Walter 


-.L1URARY.J 


102  Inverurie  and  tlie  Earldom  of  tJie  Garioch. 

Ogilvy  of  Deskford,  an  ancestor  of  the  Earls  of  Findlater.  In  that  year  he  sold  from 
out  of  it  an  annual  rent  of  six  merks  to  Lawrence  Pyot,  Archdeacon  of  Aberdeen  ; 
who,  half  an  year  afterwards,  resold  it  to  Canon  John  Clatt,  famous  in  the  history  of 
the  Aberdeen  Guildry.  Canon  Clatt  employed  it  in  the  foundation  of  a  mass  for, 
amongst  some  others,  the  soul  of  that  favourite  of  the  Aberdonians,  Alexander  Stewart, 
Earl  of  Mar.  Walter  Ogilvy  of  Auchleven  appears  in  1487;  but  in  1488,  the  King, 
as  tutor  of  his  son,  John,  Earl  of  Mar,  confirmed  a  charter  of  Auchleven,  Ardoyne, 
and  Harlaw,  executed  by  Sir  John  Wemyss  of  that  Ilk,  in  favour  of  his  son,  David. 
Two  years  after,  David  Wemyss  sold  it  to  Henry  Leith  of  Barnes,  who  was  previously 
proprietor  of  that  estate.  The  reddendo,  to  the  Earl  of  Mar,  was  a  gilt  spur,  to  be  paid 
at  Auchleven  yearly. 

A  portion  of  the  Earldom  yet  further  west,  viz.,  Duncanston  and  Glanderston,  with 
the  mill,  Rochmuriel  and  Tullefoure,  was  sometime  later,  in  1507,  given  to  Lord  Elphin- 
stone,  one  of  the  man}''  locum  tenentes  of  the  extruded  Lords  of  the  Garioch. 

In  1468,  the  last  Melville  of  Kemnay — apparently  the  son  of  the  obnoxious  Sheriff 
— died,  and  his  daughter's  husband,  Sir  John  Auchinleck  of  that  Ilk,  became  proprietor 
of  both  Glenbervie  and  Kemnay.  Two  generations  later,  the  heiress  of  the  Auchinleck 
family  married  Sir  William  Douglas,  second  son  of  Archibald,  5th  Earl  of  Angus.  Five 
generations  of  Douglases  in  succession  owned  Kemnay  jointly  with  Glenbervie. 

About  1480,  Alexander  Glaster  of  Glack  sold  Little  Warthill  to  John  Gordon 
of  Auchleuehry.  Cruickshank  of  Tillymorgan  acquired  them  immediately  after, 
whose  daughter,  Christian,  married  the  first  of  the  long  line  of  the  Leslies  of  Warthill, 
who  still  hold  the  property  of  their  ancestress. 

The  family  of  Cruickshank  continued  to  possess  Tillymorgan  down  to  the  time  of 
the  Commonwealth. 

About  the  time  that  Glack  passed  to  the  Elphinstones,  the  second  laird  of  Bal- 
quhain  parted  with  the  north  end  of  the  parish  of  Inverurie  to  Patrick  Gordon  of  Methlic, 
ancestor  of  the  Earl  of  Aberdeen,  to  whom  Braco,  a  part  of  the  same  lands,  belonged 
in  1596.  The  deed  of  disposition  preserves  some  names  of  places  now  little  heard  of, 
along  with  others  still  in  use,  viz.,  Brawkawche,  Myddiltone,  Knock  of  Kynblewis, 
Drummies,  Glaschaw,  Mill  of  Glaschaw,  and  the  Wood  of  Drumcoutane. 

The  family  of  Blakhall  of  that  Ilk,  Coroners  and  Foresters  of  the  Garioch,  were 
conspicuous  in  the  district  for  two  centuries  from  1447;  when  the  name  and  designation 
of  that  Ilk  first  appear  in  conjunction.  We  may,  however,  fairly  assume  William 
de  Blakhall,  who  in  1398  served  on  a  jury  of  inquest  retouring  William  de  Tullidaff 
heir  in  a  third  part  of  Lentush  and  Rothmaise  to  his  father,  John  Tullidaff,  to  have 
been  of  the  same  family.  In  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  principal 
branch  of  the  family  owned,  besides  Blakhall,  the  lands  now  called  Little  Folia.  They 
possessed  Blakhall  until  1643. 

Barra  in  Bourtie,  appears  for  the  first  time  about  the  same  date,  partly  held  by  a 


Rise  of  New  Families.  103 


family  named  Kyng,  and  partly  by  a  branch  of  the  Blakhall  house,  proprietors  at  the 
same  time  of  Finnersie.  Both  had  been  possessed  by  John  Blakhall,  whose  widow, 
Margaret  Burnet,  was  found  entitled  to  her  terce  in  1505.  In  1517,  William  Blakhall 
was  infeft  in  half  of  all  the  lands  of  Baroeht,  Wester  Eowis,  Fallawe,  Essenheid, 
Furdalhous,  sixth  part  of  Petgovny,  half  of  the  Mill  of  Bourtie,  and  a  third  part  of 
Meikle  and  Little  Finnersie,  and  others.  William  Blakhall  paid  tax  for  his  part  of 
Barra  in  1548.  The  rest  of  Barra  belonged,  in  1493,  to  James  Kyng,  whose  wife  was 
Marjorie  Barclay,  probably  a  sister  of  the  neighbouring  laird  of  Bourtie. 

The  genealogy  of  King  of  Barra  may  be  conveniently  stated  here,  as  far  as 
ascertainable  from  the  Spalding  Club  publications  and  Douglas.  They  had  evidently 
been  part  proprietors  of  Barra  with  the  Blakhall  family,  and  of  Bourtie  with  the 
Barclays.  In  1493,  James  King  of  Bourtie  resigned  half  of  the  lands  of  Westerhouse 
(part  of  Barra),  in  the  hands  of  John,  Earl  of  Mar  and  Garioch,  for  new  infeftment  to 
himself  and  Marjorie  Barclay  his  spouse.  Walter  Barclay  of  Towie  took  instruments. 
He  still  appears  James  King  of  Bourtie  in  1505.  William  King  of  Bourtie  appears  in 
1506  ;  and  in  1548  was  taxed  for  his  part  of  Barra  and  of  Bourtie,  3  lbs.  William  King 
of  Barra  was  served  his  father's  heir  in  Westerhouse  in  April,  1547  (Douglas);  and  had 
given  to  his  son,  James  King,  in  1537,  a  charter  of  Fallawe  (a  part  of  Barra  which 
WUliam  Blakhall  possessed  in  1517),  to  himself  and  Isabella  Gray  his  wife,  and  hi  1548  a 
charter  of  Westerhouse,  and  of  half  the  lands  of  Barra  of  Bourtie.  In  1577,  William 
King  was  served  heir  to  his  father,  James,  in  half  of  the  lands  of  Barra,  reserving  life- 
rent to  his  mother,  Isabella  Gray.     A  sister,  Janet,  had  a  life-rent  charter  of  Wray  in 

1586.    A  much-defaced  tombstone,  in  Bourtie  churchyard,  records  the  death  of Hay, 

the  mother,  and  la.  King,  the  spouse  of  some  laird,  or  tenant,  of  Colliehill,  in  the  years 
1579  and  1581.  In  1595,  James  Cheyne  of  Straloch  and  William  King  of  Barra  were 
at  "  deadlie  feud,"  and  in  1596,  William  King  of  Barra  and  Ins  brother  David  and  their 
accomplices  killed  Alexander  Seton,  Youuger  of  Meldrum.  Douglas  states  that  James 
King  got  a  charter  of.  Barra,  Westtrhouse,  &c.,  between  1584  and  1587 ;  and 
had  a  son,  Sir  James  King,  a  soldier  under  Gustavus  Adolphus,  King  of  Sweden  ; 
who  had  a  command  in  the  army  of  King  Charles  I.,  and  was  ennobled,  by  the  latter, 
as  Lord  Eythin,  in  1642.  Col.  Boss  King  of  Tertowie  represents  a  brother  of  Lord 
Eythin,  and  possesses  a  full-length,  life-size  portrait  of  the  Peer. 

The  slaughter  referred  to  may  have  arisen  in  some  dispute  about  the  transfer  of  the 
lands.  In  1595,  William  Leslie,  an  important  burgess  of  Inverurie,  was  in  possession 
of  a  fourth  part  of  the  estate  of  Barra. 

Elizabeth  Seton,  only  child  and  heiress  of  the  murdered  heir-apparent  of  Meldrum, 
married  the  tutor  of  Cromarty  ;  and  originated  the  line  of  Urquharts  of  Meldrum,  still 
in  possession  of  that  estate. 

Thornton,  adjoining  the  Barra  lands,  belonged,  before  1445,  to  a  family  named 
Stradachane  or  Strachane ;  David   Stradachane  being  in  that  year  the  son  and  heir- 


lOt  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

apparent.  He  was  himself  laird  in  1507  and  1512.  The  famdy  afterwards,  before  1663, 
possessed  Monboddo  in  the  Mearns.  Alexander  Strachan  of  Thornton  was  grandfather 
of  Patrick  Forbes  of  Corse,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  in  1619,  and  of  his  brother,  the  first 
Forbes  of  Craigievar. 

It  was  in  the  end  of  the  period  now  treated  of  that  a  number  of  estates  held 
by  religious  houses  came  into  the  hands  of  private  individuals,  although  many  of  them 
were,  long  before,  held  on  lease.  Of  this  class  were  the  lands  of  Badifurrow  in 
Inverurie,  Balbithax,  Hedderwick,  and  Cragforthie  in  Monkegy,  and  the  kirklands 
of  that  parish.  These  belonged,  for  400  years,  to  the  Abbey  of  Lindores,  and  appear 
first  in  charters  only  after  a  temporal  lordship  of  Lindores  was  erected,  out  of  the  Abbey- 
lands,  by  James  VI.  in  1 600. 

Most  of  the  parish  of  Monytnusk  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Priory  until  Mr.  Duncan 
Forbes,  son  of  the  laird  of  Corsindae,  obtained,  in  1549,  a  charter  of  the  lands  from 
David  Farlie,  then  Prior. 

Fetternear  and  the  kirklands  of  Kinkell  both  became,  for  the  first  time,  the  subject 
of  charters,  when  the  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  conveyed  them,  in  1543,  to  George,  Earl  of 
Huntly,  in  acknowledgment  of  his  services  in  protecting  the  Cathedral. 

The  farms  in  all  parts  of  the  country  called  Templand,  formed  part  of  the 
property  of  the  Knight  Templars,  along  with  some  churches,  among  which  was  Kinkell, 
with  its  six  subordinate  chapels.     They  were  in  lay  possession  in  the  fifteenth  century. 

Just  outside  the  Garioch,  the  barony  of  Rothynorman  was  part  of  the  lands  entaded 
by  Norman  de  Leslie,  in  1390  ;  and  became,  along  with  the  lands  of  Cushnie,  the  pro- 
perty of  the  Rothes  house  ;  Cushnie  continuing  so  partly  until  1682. 

Among  the  names  disappearing  after  Harlaw  from  the  Garioch  are  De  Garviach, 
Pilmor,  and  Tullidaff.  Rothmaise  and  Lentush,  forming  the  estate  of  Adam  of 
Pane,  before  1304,  were,  sometime  before  Harlaw,  in  the  hands  of  John  of  Tullidaff, 
whose  son,  William,  fell  at  Harlaw.  Andrew  de  Tullidaff  was,  on  9th  May,  1413,  two 
years  afterwards,  retoured  heir  to  his  father,  William,  in  the  court  of  the  bishop,  Gilbert 
de  Greenlaw,  at  Pane.  Robert  de  Buthergask  and  John  Thomson  of  Pitblaine  were 
jurymen  on  the  inquest.  The  name  is  perpetuated  in  Tullidaff's  Cairn,  near  the  Kirk  of 
Rayne,  where  the  last  of  the  line  was  killed  in  revenge  of  the  supposed  slaughter  of  the 
first  Leslie  of  Warthill,  in  Lowrin  Fair. 

The  family  of  Leslie  closed  the  first  section  of  its  long  history  shortly  after  Harlaw. 
Norman  de  Leslie,  eldest  son  of  Sir  Andrew  de  Leslie,  eighth  Lord  of  Leslie,  was 
infeft  by  his  father,  before  1390,  in  most  of  his  estates.  Norman's  eldest  son,  David, 
was  at  the  holy  wars,  and  having  been  supposed  dead,  Norman  executed  a  deed  leaving 
most  of  his  property  to  Sir  George  Leslie  of  Rothes,  ancestor  of  the  Earls  of  Rothes. 
Norman  died  in  1391,  in  his  father's  lifetime  ;  and  Sir  George  Leslie  was  served  heir  of 
entail.  Sir  Andrew  died  in  1398  ;  and  two  or  three  years  afterwards,  his  grandson, 
David,  reappeared,  and  was  served  heir,  succeeding  as  ninth  Dominus  Ejusdem,  i.e.,  of 


Rise  of  New  Families.  105 


Leslie.     He  confirmed,   however,  his  father's  deed  of  entail.     He  and  the  son  of  Sir 
George  went  to  England  in  1423 — two  of  the  hostages  for  the  ransom  of  James  I.     H 
returned  in  1432  ;  his  place  being  taken  by  a  substitute,  Sir  "William  Baillie  of  Hopril 
David  de  Leslie  married  Margaret  Davidson,  daughter  of  Robert  Davidson,  Provost  o 
Aberdeen,  who  fell  at  Harlaw.     By  her  he  had  one  daughter,  after  whose  birth  he  agaii. 
confirmed  his  father's  deed  of  entail.     The  daughter  married  Alexander,  a  son  of  the 
Baron  of  Balquhain  ;  and,  in  her  right,  he  took  the  title  of  Leslie  of  that  Ilk.     The 
southern  estates  went  to  the  Rothes  branch  of  the  house ;  and  the  Lairds  of  Leslie, 
though  still  superiors  of   Balquhain,  occupied  a  humbler  place  than  the  former  denizens 
of  Leslie.     They  were  not  descendants  of  Margaret  Davidson,  but  of  a  second  wife, 
who,  the  family  history  says,  poisoned  Margaret's  only  son,  John.     His  sister  Johann 
Margaret's  daughter,  married  a  brother  of  Strachan  of  Thornton. 

The  lairds  that  then  dwelt  upon  these  lands  were  of  such  power  under  the  feuda. 
system  as  causes  their  condition  to  be  looked  back  upon  as  being  of  a  grandeur  unknown 
to  modern  society ;  at  the  same  time  they  were  not  exempt  from  troubles  unknown  to 
their  descendants.  Families  like  the  Leslies,  Meldrums,  and  Leiths,  as  well  as  those  of 
noble  rank,  were  esteemed  as  of  sufficient  importance  to  be  accepted  as  hostages  in  Eng- 
land for  persons  of  higher  station  held  in  captivity  there.  "William  Leith,  for  example, 
gave  himself  up  as  one  of  a  number  of  hostages  for  David  II.  in  1358.  David  de  Leslie, 
the  chief  of  his  house,  had  a  like  service  to  endure  for  James  I.  ;  and  he  remained 
nine  years  in  his  vicarious  captivity.  John  de  Leith  had,  after  Harlaw,  been  sent 
to  treat  for  the  release  of  Murdac  Stewart,  son  of  the  Regent  Albany,  who  had  been 
a  prisoner  in  England  since  the  Battle  of  Homildon,  and  for  whose  release  the  Regent  was 
more  desirous  than  for  that  of  the  King,  whom  he  wished  to  be  superseded  in  actual 
power  by  Murdac,  as  the  late  king  had  been  by  himself.  Murdac,  in  1420,  sent  him  with 
Alexander  Seton,  Lord  of  Gordon,  and  others,  to  negotiate  the  return  of  King  James 
whose  release  was  finally  arranged  in  1423,  at  Pontefract  or  York.  An  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment affecting  the  North  of  Scotland,  reveals  that  it  was  in  a  state  felt  to  be  unsafe 
in  case  of  insurrection,  or  invasion.  In  1426,  it  was  enacted  that  every  lord  who  had 
lands  beyond  the  Cairn  o'  Mount,  upon  which  in  auld  tymes  there  were  castles,  forta- 
lices,  or  manor  places,  should  repair,  or  rebuild,  them  ;  and  either  reside  there  himself, 
or  procure  another  to  take  his  place  as  occupant,  and  expend  the  rents  of  his  lands  in 
the  country  where  the  same  were  situated. 

Throughout  the  long  interval  treated  of,  biding  their  time,  and  exercising  such 
patience  as  they  perforce  had  at  command,  Sir  Robert  Erskine's  descendants  held,  in  the 
Garioch,  only  the  estates  conveyed  by  Thomas,  Earl  of  Mar;  while  they  claimed  the  wide 
possessions  they  alleged  to  have  been  theirs  as  the  rightful  heirs  of  Isabel  of  Mar,  the  last 
legitimate  Superior  of  the  Regality.  During  her  lifetime,  while  she  was  the  wife  of  Sir 
Malcolm  Drummond,  the  Erskines  had,  in  the  most  earnest  manner,  petitioned  the 
Crown  not  to  sanction  any  scheme  for  depriving  them  of  their  apparent  heritage,  and 

14 


106  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

had  formed  the  alliances  reckoned  constitutional  in  that  period  for  self-protection. 
On  the  death  of  Alexander  Stewart,  in  1435,  Sir  Robert  Erskine,  being  considered  as  heir 
by  legal  right,  assumed  the  title  of  Earl  of  Mar,  and,  under  that  designation,  was  made  a 
burgess  of  Aberdeen  in  1439.  His  son,  Thomas,  claiming  to  be  Earl  of  Mar,  was,  in 
1457,  nonsuited  by  an  Assize  of  Error,  held  at  Aberdeen,  which  declared  that  the  king, 
while  a  minor,  could  not  be  deprived  of  what  came  to  him  of  his  father's  rights.  The 
injury  was  softened  by  the  bestowal  of  a  peerage  upon  the  disappointed  litigant,  with 
the  title  of  Lord  Erskine.  It  was  1565  before  the  title  claimed  was  bestowed,  by  Queen 
Mary  of  Scotland  upon  John  fifth  Lord  Erskine,  on  the  occasion  of  her  nuptials,  in 
July  of  that  year,  with  Henry,  Lord  Darnley.  During  the  time  of  the  eclipse  of  their 
heritable  honours,  the  line  of  Erskine  were  men  of  mark  in  national  affairs,  and 
probably  much  absent  from  Aberdeenshire.  They  continued,  however,  to  hold  their 
Garioch  estates  untd  the  reign  of  James  V.,  when  that  king's  secretary,  Sir  Thomas 
Erskine  of  Brechin,  a  cadet  of  the  family  of  Dun,  descended  from  an  early  head  of  the 
family,  exchanged  his  Forfarshire  property  for  the  Garioch  property  of  their  chief,  and 
originated  the  present  family  of  Erskine  of  Pittodrie.  When  James  I.  was  restored 
to  his  kingdom,  Sir  Robert  Erskine  was  a  hostage  for  the  payment  of  the  stipulated 
ransom,  called  costs  of  the  king's  maintenance,  a  fellow  hostage  being  Alexander 
Seton,  Lord  of  Gordon — at  which  time  Erskine's  yearly  income  was  1000  merks,  equal 
to  that  of  the  Earls  of  Moray  and  Crawford  ;  whde  that  of  the  ancestor  of  the  Cock 
of  the  North,  was  but  400,  and  the  Marischal  (Keith)  and  the  Constable  (Hay)  each 
800  merks. 

STATE     OF     SOCIETY. 

The  century  which  in  Scotland  contained,  amongst  its  annals,  the  great  internecine 
struggle  of  Harlaw  was  a  troubled  one  in  European  history.  An  outbreak  of  the  plague 
in  1401,  for  the  first  time  universal  in  Europe,  was  but  a  parallel  to  the  moral  condition 
of  society.  The  murder  of  Richard  II.  of  England  was  recent.  Under  his  successor, 
Henry  IV.,  the  young  Kin:;  of  Scotland,  the  first  James,  was  in  captivity  in  England, 
treacherously  detained  there,  with  the  connivance  of  his  uncle,  Albany  Governor  of 
Scotland  in  his  name,  who  had  already  sacrificed  James's  elder  brother,  David,  Duke  of 
Rothesay,  to  his  designs  upon  the  throne  held  at  that  time  by  his  own  virtuous  but 
feeble  brother,  Robert  the  Third,  in  whose  stead  he  was  acting  as  Regent.  France  was 
torn  by  the  factions  of  Orleans  and  Burgundy,  to  which  the  king,  Charles  VI.,  the 
entertainer  of  Stewart,  Earl  of  Mar,  was  alternately  subject.  These  rival  houses  were 
both  plotted  with  by  Henry  of  England,  himself  an  usurper.  He  also  managed  the 
Governor  of  Scotland  by  application  of  fear,  cajolery,  or  force ;  on  one  occasion  even  pre- 
senting himself  in  threatening  power  at  Edinburgh  ;  but  his  own  authority  was  tasked  to 
the  utmost  by  a  Welsh  rebellion.  He  died  on  March  13,  1412,  and  the  Scottish  Regent  in 
1419.     The  English  power  was,  in  1415,  established  for  a  time  in  France  by  Henry  V.'s 


State  of  Society.  107 


victory  of  Agincourt.  The  prestige  acquired  by  that  battle  was  first  broken  at  Bauge,  in 
1421,  by  the  Scotch  troops  that  were  carried  over  by  the  Earl  of  Buchan,  a  son  of  the 
Begent  Albany,  under  connivance  of  his  brother,  the  second  Duke,  Governor  of  Scotland 
since  his  father's  death.  The  Scottish  King  was  with  Henry  Y.,  and  made  to  issue  orders 
to  the  Scottish  troops  to  withdraw,  but  Buchan  refused  to  obey  a  king  in  captivity.  It 
was  in  reward  of  that  victory  that  the  high  office  of  Constable  of  France  was  conferred, 
by  Charles  of  France,  upon  the  Scottish  leader.  Constable  Buchan,  however,  in  turn 
suffered  a  defeat,  and  the  loss  of  his  own  life,  at  Verneuil,  in  1424  ;  and  France  had  to 
wait  her  emancipation  four  years  more,  until  the  Maid  of  Orleans  made  her  romantic 
appearance  in  the  annals  of  war.  Even  the  Court  of  Borne  was  in  a  state  of  hopeless 
dissension  at  that  distracted  period  ;  and  a  rival  Pope  was  enthroned  at  Avignon.  The 
first  year  of  the  century  witnessed  the  first  martyrdom  in  England,  of  an  adherent  of  the 
religious  doctrines  of  "Wycliffe  ;  which,  during  the  next  hundred  and  fifty  years,  were  to 
work  their  way,  partly  by  such  means,  to  national  adoption  in  the  Beformation. 

In  Scotland,  about  1400,  life  and  property  must  have  been  to  the  last  degree 
insecure,  in  the  state  of  tolerated  lawlessness  which  allowed  men  such  as  the  hero  of 
Harlaw  to  rise  to  the  highest  level  of  society.  Another  element  essential  to  social  wel- 
fare— that  of  domestic  purity — was  as  conspicuously  absent  as  was  public  honour. 
Bastardy,  which  in  our  time  is  assumed,  with  scant  accuracy  of  comparative  observation, 
to  be  the  peculiar  reproach  of  Scotland,  was  at  that  period  considered  to  attach  no  shame 
in  the  highest  ranks  of  life  in  either  kingdom.  Bobert  II.,  in  addition  to  four  sons  and 
five  daughters  lawfully  born,  had  eight  illegitimate  sons,  who  stood  around  the  throne  in 
equal  state  with  the  untainted  nobles  of  the  land.  Alexander  Stewart,  the  Earl  of  Mar, 
was  one  of  the  bastard  offspring  of  Bobert  II. 's  savage  son,  the  Wolf  of  Badenoch  ; 
another  of  whom  led  the  cateran  horde  down  upon  the  braes  of  Angus,  where  they 
killed  the  flower  of  the  local  nobility.  Alexander  himself,  though  suspected  to  be  virtu- 
ally the  murderer  of  the  first  husband  of  his  wife  Isabel,  the  Countess  of  Mar  and 
Garioch,  was  a  favourite  guest  with  the  most  honourable  citizens  of  Aberdeen,  both  lay 
and  clerical,  before  and  after  his  notorious  seizure  of  the  Castle  of  Kildrummy  and  his 
marriage  of  its  mistress. 

The  Earl's  "  Master  of  Horse  at  Harlaw,"  Sir  Andrew  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  was  an 
example,  wildly  conspicuous  in  the  Garioch,  of  the  uncontrolled  state  of  social  life  then 
prevalent.  He  is  said  to  have  been  the  builder  of  the  rude  fortress  which  occupies  the 
summit  of  Benachie,  and  of  the  causeway  which  leads  to  it  over  the  marshy  ground  on  its 
only  accessible  side.  To  that  lofty  stronghold  he  carried  off  young  women,  whose  beauty 
excited  his  unbridled  passions ;  and  he  had  himself  to  take  refuge  in  its  fastness  from 
the  displeasure  of  his  lord  superior,  the  Earl  of  Mar,  after  some  lawless  proceedings  of 
his  family.  One  of  his  natural  sons,  it  is  said,  had  carried  off  the  daughter  of  Thomas 
Bisset  of  Balhaggarty,  the  Fair  Maid  of  Kenmay,  who  was  at  the  time  the  betrothed  of 
the  Earl's  Baillie  of  the  Begality,  Sir  John  Forbes  of  Drumminnor.    Sir  John,  raising  his 


108  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

friends,  attacked  the  castle  of  Balquhain,  and  took  and  burned  it ;  and  Sir  Andrew,  in 
reprisal,  immediately  afterwards  harried  the  Forbes  lands,  with  great  slaughter  of  the 
inhabitants.  From  the  fortress  on  Benachie,  the  family  traditions  also  say  he  made  an 
excursion,  with  his  retainers  and  the  chief  of  the  clan  Allan,  into  Strathdon,  and  carried 
off  a  lady,  called  the  Fair  Maid  of  Strathdon.  This  lady  became  the  mother  of  one  of  the 
bastard  lairds  whom  he  planted  in  the  Leslie  lands.  A  scandalous  feud  with  the  Fortieses 
afterwards  drew  the  attention  of  Regent  Albany's  Government  upon  Balquhain,  and 
the  Sheriff  of  Angus  was  sent  in  January,  1420,  to  put  down  the  insubordinate  baron. 
Fir  Andrew  gave  battle  to  the  Sheriff's  force  at  Braco,  and  was  slain  in  the  conflict. 
His  widow,  Isabel  Mortimer,  erected  a  chaplainry  for  his  needy  soul  near  the  spot,  and 
the  Sheriff's  family  mortified  some  lands  in  Angus,  with  the  same  benevolent  purpose, 
for  another  mass  in  the  Chapel  of  the  Garioch.  Sir  Andrew's  son  and  successor,  Sir 
William,  was  the  common  ancestor  of  all  the  Leslie  families  localized  in  the  Garioch. 

Alexander  Stewart,  Earl  of  Mar  and  Garioch,  lived  until  1435;  but,  after  Harlaw, 
his  history  connects  him  with  the  Garioch  only  by  two  acts  of  his  Court  of  Begality. 
He  must  have  been  a  man  of  singular  ability.  The  wild  cub  of  the  Wolf  of  Badenoch 
became  a  skilled  courtier  and  confidant  of  James  I.,  after  Murdac  of  Albany  brought 
the  King  home,  for  his  own  purposes,  in  1423  ;  but  he  had  to  help  the  somewhat  jealous- 
minded  and  revengeful  monarch  to  make  relentless  reprisals  upon  the  family  of  Albany, 
whose  ambition  had  made  away  with  the  King's  elder  brother,  and  had  kept  himself 
so  long  out  of  the  throne.  The  Earl  was  one  of  the  jury  that  found  Murdac,  Duke  of 
Albany,  the  son  of  his  former  patron,  guilty  of  the  capital  offence  of  treason.  In  1431, 
Stewart  added  to  his  dignities  of  Mar,  Garioch,  and  Duffle,  that  of  Admiral  of  Scotland, 
in  which  capacity  a  new  Hebridean  rebel,  Donald  Balloch,  a  kinsman  of  his  old  anta- 
gonist, Donald  of  the  Isles,  had  the  satisfaction  of  inflicting  a  defeat  upon  him,  at 
Inverlochy ;  where,  two  centuries  later,  the  Covenanting  Earl  of  Argyle,  after  appearing 
to  chase  the  Earl  of  Montrose  over  Aberdeenshire  and  Lochaber,  took  to  his  galleys  to 
escape  the  dashing  royalist  chief.  By  the  death  of  Mar,  who  outlived  his  son,  the  King, 
as  it  has  been  already  noticed,  became  possessed  of  both  the  Earldoms ;  and  the  Pce- 
galitjr  of  the  Garioch  appears  for  a  considerable  period  a  royal  appanage,  latterly  held 
by  one  subject  after  another  until  the  time  of  Charles  I. 

The  ballad  of  Young  Waters,  adds  another  tragic  incident  to  Alexander  Stewart's 
life,  as  a  courtier  of  King  James.  It  is  supposed  to  describe  the  execution  of  Walter 
Stewart,  the  son  of  Duke  Murdac,  one  of  the  victims  of  the  king's  resentment ;  or  per- 
haps, as  the  known  behaviour  of  Walter  to  his  own  father,  when  governor,  might  suggest, 
one  of  the  turbulent  nobles  who  had  to  be  dealt  with  summarily.  "  Young  Walter," 
the  king's  own  relative,  on  his  first  riding  to  Stirling,  to  offer  his  duty  to  the  King,  is 
remarked  by  the  frank  English  Queen  for  his  pre-eminently  handsome  person  and  style. 
Her  words  offend  the  King  who  was  small  and  uncomely  himself,  and  whose  long  suffering 
of  undeserved  oppression  in  his  juvenile  days,  partly  caused  by  the  youth's  father,  had 


Local  Government.  109 


warped  his  mind  into  habits  of  suspicion  and  vindictiveness,  and  he  takes  immediate 
occasion,  while  the  courtier  kneels,  to  reproach  him  with  treason,  of  which  his  family 
had  undoubtedly  been  guilty.  He  orders  him  to  be  taken  to  the  Heading  Hill,  and  the 
Earl  of  Mar  was  commissioned  to  be  his  executioner,  but  refused  the  office  : 

*'  Oh  God  forbid,"  the  Earl  he  said, 
"The  like  should  e're  fa'  me, 
My  body  e'er  should  bear  the  brand 
That  gars  Young  Waters  dee." 

Then  he  has  loosed  his  trusty  brand, 

And  east  it  in  the  sea, 
Says — "  Never  let  them  get  a  brand 

Till  it  come  back  to  me. " 

The  position  proposed  to  Mar  was  a  cruel  one,  and  may  have  been  intended  to  be  so 
by  the  King,  whose  severity  towards  his  more  powerful  subjects  soon  cost  him  his  life. 

King  James  must  have  visited  the  Garioch  during  Alexander  Stewart's  Lordship. 
He  enquired  personally  into  the  particulars  of  the  condition  of  bis  kingdom,  of  which 
he  heard  endless  complaints  at  the  time  of  his  release,  and  he  would  naturally  like  to  look 
at  the  anticipated  addition  to  his  Royal  possessions  ;  for  poverty  was  one  of  the  injuries 
wbich  Governor  Albany  had  inflicted  upon  him,  by  the  profuse  alienation  of  Crown 
lands,  which  he  had  made  the  means  of  bribing  the  nobility  into  acquiescence  in  his 
rule,  and  possible  succession  to  the  crown.  There  is  no  question  that  the  humorous  poem, 
"Christ's  Kirk  on  the  Green,"  of  which  James  I.  was  the  author,  must  have  been  written 
after  he  had  seen  the  nocturnal  fair  of  the  Sleepy  Market,  which  was  held  in  the  month  of 
May,  at  the  parish  church  of  Christ's  Kirk,  or  Rathmuriel,  situated  between  Insch  and 
Leslie.  The  awkward  archery,  which  he  ridiculed  in  the  poem,  must  have  appeared  to 
him  a  dangerous  defect  in  his  subjects,  knowing  what  he  did  of  the  skill  of  the  English 
bowmen ;  in  the  Sovereign's  estimation  it  would  be  reckoned  one  of  the  fruits  of  Albany's 
utter  neglect  of  the  national  interests. 

The  strange  nocturnal  fair — continued  for  many  generations  after  King  James's  cele- 
bration of  it — was  at  length  changed,  as  to  the  time  of  holding  it,  to  daylight,  because 
of  the  excesses  which  had  come  to  occur  in  it ;  but  the  consequence  of  altering  the 
hours  of  keeping  it  from  the  night  season  to  the  day  time  was  the  speedy  abandon- 
ment of  the  Tryst  by  the  country  people. 

LOCAL  GOVERNMENT. 

The  king  who  had  made  many  enemies  to  himself  by  his  manner  of  government, 
was  murdered,  in  the  house  of  the  Dominican  Friars  at  Perth,  during  the  Christmas 
festivities  of  1436,  leaving  his  son,  James  II.,  a  boy  of  seven  years  old.  He  had  not,  it  is 
likely,  provided  any  local  successor  to  the  recently  deceased  Earl  of  Mar,  in  ruling  the 
Regality.  The  Regency,  immediately  required  for  the  kingdom,  probably  made  pro- 
visional arrangements  for  the  new  acquisition,  as  we  find  one  of  the  leading  nobles,  who 


110  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Gartocn. 

had  been  in  charge  of  important  business  under  James  L,  acting,  in  1441,  as  Lord  of 
the  Regality,  though  Sir  Eobert  Erskine  had  assumed  the  title  of  Earl  of  Mar  from  the 
time  of  Stewart's  death.  Erskine  on  9th  August,  1442,  took  legal  protest  before  the 
King  and  Council  that  he  was  Lord  of  the  Garioch. 

On  October  31,  1441,  William,  Earl  of  Orkney,  Lord  of  St.  Clair,  and  of  the 
regality  of  Garviauch,  Great  Chamberlain  of  Scotland,  gave  precept  to  William  Leslie, 
Knight,  Sheriff  of  Garioch,  to  infeft  Walter  Barclay,  as  heir  of  Alexander  Barclay,  his 
father,  in  the  lands  of  Bourtie.  William,  third  Earl  of  Orkney  of  the  surname  of 
Sinclair,  was  one  of  the  nobles  who  conducted  James  to  his  own  kingdom  in  1  423. 
In  1436,  as  Admiral  of  Scotland,  he  escorted  the  young  Princess  Margaret  to  France 
in  order  to  be  married  to  the  Dauphin  ;  and  he  filled  at  different  times,  during  the  two 
succeeding  reigns,  all  the  principal  offices  of  state.  He  was  the  builder  of  the 
beautiful  Eoslin  Chapel  near  Edinburgh — still  in  a  state  of  good  preservation.  His 
eldest  son  was  the  first  Lord  Sinclair,  and  his  second  son  the  first  Sinclair,  Earl  of 
Caithness. 

The  Lordship  of  the  Garioch  was,  in  1453,  in  the  hands  of  James  the  Second's 
Queen,  with  Sir  William  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  her  Baillie  as  before.  In  that  year  he  had 
to  infeft  in  the  lands  of  Drumdurnoch,  John  of  Winton  of  Andat,  a  relative  of  the  famous 
Prior  of  St.  Serf,  the  writer  of  the  "  Chronykil,"  and  the  second  poetical  historian  of 
Scoiland,  who  seems  to  have  been  as  warmly  attached  to  the  great  Earl  of  Mar,  as 
John  Barbour  had  been  to  the  Bruce.  The  Wintons  retained  land  close  by  the  Chapel 
of  the  Garioch  down  to  the  Reformation. 

While  the  Queen  held  the  Regality,  Thomas,  Lord  Erskine,  claimed  the  Earldom 
of  Mar,  his  father  having  been  served  heir  in  1438  ;  but  the  King  got  an  Assize  composed 
of  the  Marischal  and  other  northern  nobles,  to  set  aside  that  finding  in  1457,  and  His 
Majesty  then  gave  the  title  and  lands  to  his  son,  John  ;  who,  in  1477,  directed  his 
Baillie,  William  Leith  of  Bernis  (Barnes),  to  infeft  in  the  lands  of  Johnston,  Alexander 
Johnston  (grandson  of  Gilbert  Johnston  of  that  Ilk),  and  his  spouse,  Agnes  Glaster, 
daughter  of  the  laird  ofGlack. 

James  III.  became  very  jealous  of  his  brother  John,  and  the  Lord  of  the  Garioch 
died  unexpectedly,  under  suspicious  circumstances,  at  Edinburgh  in  1479.  The  King 
then  conferred  the  Earldom  of  Mar  on  his  favourite,  Robert  Cochrane,  who  held  the 
same  until  he  was  hanged  at  Lauder  Bridge  by  the  indignant  nobles  of  Scotland.  There- 
after the  king's  brother  obtained  the  lands  and  dignities.  He  had,  apparently  in  1482, 
a  charter  to  "  Alexander  Duke  of  Albany,  Earl  of  March,  Lord  of  Annandale  and  Mar, 
the  King's  Lieutenant^General,  Great  Admiral  of  the  Realm,  and  Warden  of  East  and 
West  Marches,"  of  the  lands  and  Earldom  of  Mar  and  Garioch,  with  the  Castle  of 
Kildrummy.  Such  accumulation  of  honours  was  altogether  undeserved.  Albany  had, 
according  to  the  propensity  of  the  Stewart  house,  been  a  traitor.  He  had  been  insti- 
gated by  the  great  international  plotter  of  the  time,  Louis  XI.  of  France,  whom  Scott 


Loral  Government.  Ill 


so  graphically  depicts  in  Quentin  Durward,  and  was  afterwards  received  into  favour 
at  Louis'  intercession  ;  but  he  speedily  misbehaved  again,  and  the  King,  in  1486,  gavo 
the  honours  to  his  own  third  son,  John. 

In  1490,  Nov.  15,  John,  Earl  of  Mar  and  Garioch,  upon  resignation,  gave  new- 
investiture  of  the  lands  of  Westerhouse  to  James,  King  of  Bourtie,  and  his  wife  Mar- 
garet Berclay,  within  the  Earl's  house  in  the  burgh  of  Aberdeen  (formerly  of  John 
Wormet ) ;  Walter  Berclay  of  Towie  took  instruments.  One  of  the  witnesses  was  James 
Crichton  of  Frendraught,  Knight. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  following  century,  the  next  king,  James  IV.,  began  to  dis- 
tribute the  possessions  of  both  the  Earldom  of  Mar  and  the  Lordship  of  the  Garioch. 
Some  of  them  went,  in  1507,  along  with  part  of  the  Mar  lands,  to  the  ancestor  of  the 
Lords  Elphinstone,  the  husband  of  Elizabeth  Berlay,  the  Queen's  servant,  and,  it  is  said, 
too  much  of  a  favourite  with  the  amorous  monarch.  The  Mar  Vault,  in  the  churchyard 
of  Kildrummy,  is  a  relic  of  the  Elphinstone  period  of  possession.  Andrew  Elphinstone 
of  Selmys  was  infefting  sheriff  in  the  Elphinstone  gift  bestowed  by  the  Sovereign. 

Next  year  the  King  feued  to  John  Leslie  of  Wardens,  the  lands  of  the  Thanage  of 
Kintore,  viz.,  the  Over  and  Nether  Davach  of  Kin  tore,  with  the  Mills,  the  lands  of 
Crichie,  Tavilty,  Meikil  Kynaldy,  and  the  Mill,  Little  Kynaldy,  Pitmedden,  Nether 
Dyce,  and  the  yearly  fishings  on  the  Don,  and  the  lakes  and  bogs  of  the  same.  In  the 
same  year,  he  made  Leslie  Baillie  of  all  the  king's  lands  in  the  Garioch,  in  payment  of 
certain  sums  due  to  Alexander  Leslie,  his  father,  when  he  was  King's  Comptroller  in 
the  previous  reign.  Two  years  later,  1510,  the  King  gave  him  the  actual  property  of 
all  the  regality  lands  remaining  to  the  Crown,  in  excambion  for  the  lands  of  Balcomy 
in  Fife. 

John  Leslie,  who  thus  became,  in  Inverurie  and  the  neighbourhood,  the  feudal 
representative  of  the  great  Lords  of  the  Garioch,  was  the  son  of  Alexander  Leslie, 
"  familiare  servant,"  or  page,  of  James  III.  ;  who  had,  it  is  likely,  got  that  appointment 
when  his  own  father,  Sir  William  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  was  baillie  of  the  Garioch  to  the 
future  king's  mother,  the  Queen  of  James  II. 

The  lands  of  the  regality  disponed  to  Wardes,  were  "  Duncanstoun,  Gillander- 
stoun,  with  the  Mill,  Donydure,  with  the  Mill,  Rochmuriell,  the  Davache  of  Ardune 
with  the  Mill,  Warthill,  Durnoch,  and  the  Mylnetown,  the  Mill  of  Durnoch,  Harlaw, 
Tullifoure,  Torreis,  Knockinbarde,  with  the  Mill,  and  Knockinmorgan,  also  Inverurie 
with  the  Davach  and  Mill  ". 

Three  years  after  the  deed  now  referred  to,  which  first  specifies  the  Regality  lands 
lying  in  Inverurie,  the  King  perished  in  September,  1513,*  on  the  field  of  Flodden, 
where  died  with  him  so  many  members  of  every  noble  and  baronial  family  in  Scot- 
land, that  several  genealogies,  in  recording  that  period,  continue  the  representation  of 
the  families  by  a  posthumous  son.  In  the  unfortunate  host  was  William  Johnston,  the 
laird  of  Caskieben,  and  with  him  the  stalwart  youths,  as  we  may  well  believe,  of  not  a 


112  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

few  vassal  homes  in  Monkegy,  Inverurie,  Rayne,  Dyce,  and  Leslie,  where  the  John- 
ston possessions  then  lay.  Many  a  heart-sore  moan  over  them  was  to  be  made  before 
the  altar  of  St.  Serve,  in  the  kirk  of  Monkegy,  whde  the  priest  of  Inverurie,  vicar  of 
both  kirks,  was  singing  masses  for  their  souls'  repose.  Other  victims  of  the  King's  rash- 
ness at  Hodden  were  Sir  James  Abercromby  of  Pitmedden  and  Birkenbog,  George 
Ogilvy,  a  grandson  of  Sir  Walter  of  Auchleven,  and  two  sons  of  the  Marischal. 

THE  SETON-GORDON. 

In  1424,  Alexander  Stewart,  Earl  of  Mar,  introduced  among  the  lairds  of  the  Re- 
gality, a  man,  whose  descendants  were  destined  to  occupy  as  dominant  a  position  in  the 
North  as  lie  himself  had  done.  In  that  year  he  gave  a  charter  of  Christian  Bruce's 
former  possessions  of  Meiklewardes,  near  Dunnideer,  to  Alexander  Seton  de  Gordon, 
the  ancestor  of  the  Dukes  of  Gordon,  for  service  to  be  rendered  to  the  King,  used  and 
wont,  and  tres  sectas  to  the  Earl,  at  his  three  head  courts  of  regality  at  Inuyrowy. 

Alexander  Seton,  who  became  Gordon,  by  marrying,  in  1408,  Elizabeth  the  heiress 
of  Adam  de  Gordon  deceased,  was  himself  the  second  son  of  Sir  William  Seton  of 
Seton,  and  his  own  second  son,  William  Seton,  was  the  common  ancestor  of  the  Garioch 
Setons  already  mentioned.  Alexander  fought  at  Harlaw,  under  the  Earl  of  Mar,  and 
at  Bauge,  under  the  Constable  Buchan ;  and  he  likewise  was  one  of  the  commissioners 
treating  for  the  release  of  James  I.,  and  also  one  of  the  hostages,  after  1424,  for  the 
requisite  payment. 

Alexander  Gordon,  his  eldest  son,  who  was  made  Earl  of  Huntly  by  James  II., 
about  1449-50,  had  been  employed  in  state  service  by  the  late  king,  and  in  the  condi- 
tion of  rebellion  which  prevailed  in  the  early  part  of  the  reign  of  James  II. — the 
result  of  his  father's  firmness  of  government,  and  severe  usage  of  those  who  had 
encroached  upon  the  crown  and  its  possessions — the  Lord  of  Gordon  was  among  the 
most  active  opponents  of  the  rebels.  In  1452,  in  the  battle  of  Brechin,  Huntly  sup- 
pressed a  formidable  insurrection,  headed  by  Lindsay,  Earl  of  Crawford,  on  which 
occasion  his  brother,  William  Seton  of  Meldrum,  was  slain.  The  good  service  was 
rewarded  with  the  hereditary  office  of  Sheriff  of  Aberdeenshire,  to  which,  in  1529,  the 
Sheriffdom  of  Inverness  was  added;  and  the  Earls  of  Huntly  held  both  until  the  reign 
of  Charles  I.,  when  that  monarch,  jealous  of  the  power  of  the  Cock  of  the  North, 
deprived  the  then  Marquis  of  both  dignities. 

The  representatives  of  the  female  line  of  Gordon,  who  thus  became  the  local  con- 
trollers in  the  Garioch  of  .the  wild  manners  of  the  fifteenth  century,  came  to  be  distin- 
guished in  their  domain  by  the  name  of  Seton  Gordons ;  the  descendants  in  the  male 
line,  of  an  earlier  generation,  being  called  the  Jock  and  Tarn  Gordons,  of  which  Gordon 
of  Pitlurg  is  the  reputed  representative.  The  Huntly  Gordons,  in  later  times,  earned 
for  themselves  the  title  of  Bow  o'  Meal  Gordons,  because  of  their  giving,  as  is  said, 


the  Burgh.  113 


that  acknowledgement  for  the  naming  of  a  male  child  after  the  family,  as  a  future 
clansman. 

The  raising  of  a  family,  new  in  the  district,  to  the  supreme  magistracy  of  it,  may 
have  been  partly  owing  to  the  necessity  of  providing  a  sufficient  counterpoise  to  the 
power  of  Lord  Erskine  whose  claims  upon  the  Mar  Earldom  and  Eegality  of  the  Garioch 
could  not  readily  be  ignored.  The  alliances  formed  by  Sir  Eobert  Erskine,  before  he 
inherited  his  rights,  for  the  purpose  of  defending  them,  proved  to  be  the  origin  of  a 
local  power,  which,  through  all  the  succeeding  period,  operated  as  a  check  upon  the 
Gordon  influence.  The  house  of  Forbes,  chief  vassals  of  Mar,  and  ennobled  about 
1442,  became  the  centre  of  a  combination  opposed  to  any  ambitious  action  on  the  part 
of  the  Earls  of  Huntly.  With  Lord  Forbes  the  Johnstons  acted  ;  and  during  two 
centuries,  formed  matrimonial  alliances — not  only  with  the  principal  house,  but  with 
not  a  few  of  the  Cadet  families  of  the  Forbes  surname ;  while  the  Leslies  adhered  to 
the  Gordons.  Other  families  ranged  themselves,  as  occasion  arose,  on  the  different 
sides,  as  their  natural  place.  When  the  Reformation  came,  the  habit  of  association  in 
the  two  factions,  may  have  had  something  to  do  in  bringing  about  that  change  in  the 
North  of  Scotland ;  the  Protestant  and  Roman  Catholic  parties  in  the  Garioch  were, 
substantialy,  the  old  Forbes  and  Gordon  factions  respectively. 

THE  BURGH. 

One  of  the  greatest  national  sufferings,  to  the  cure  of  which  James  I.  had  to  ad- 
dress himself,  was  the  destructive  oppression  of  the  common  people  by  the  lawless 
barons,  whom  Regent  Albany's  necessities  and  inactivity  had  allowed  to  become  so  intol- 
erable as  neighbours,  that  frequent  insurrection  was  provoked.  The  stern  administra- 
tion of  James  I.,  which  gave  a  forced  peace  to  society,  allowed  the  growth  of  a  middle-class, 
possessed  of  some  means,  and  disposed  likewise  to  take  the  part  of  a  state  government, 
which  made  their  interests  safe.  The  Burghs  of  Scotland,  became,  in  this  way,  valuable 
supports  to  the  Royal  authority. 

The  Burgh  of  Inverthurin  appearing  in  a  deed  respecting  one  of  its  '  tofts,'  in 
1195,  is  an  instance,  among  many,  that  Royal  Burghs  dated  from  the  earliest  period  of 
Scottish  monarch}' — in  imitation,  it  is  likely,  of  France.  Considerably  before  King 
William's  time,  a  Hanse  of  Four  Burghs  had  existed  in  the  south,  which  had  the  power 
of  making  common  laws  for  their  internal  government — the  Burghs  being  Berwick, 
Roxburgh,  Edinburgh,  and  Stirling.  At  any  time  when  Berwick,  or  Roxburgh,  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  English,  another  burgh  was  introduced'temporarily.  The  Laws 
of  the  Four  Burghs  were  the  work  of  that  Southern  Hanse.  King  William  created  a 
Northern  Hanse,  to  which  Inverurie  may  have  belonged — as  it  included  Aberdeen,  and 
all  his  burgesses  of  Moray,  and  all  his  burgesses  benorth  the  Munth,  and  those  were 
empowered  to   hold  their   meetings   when   and   where   they  pleased.      The  two  self- 

15 


114  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

governing  combinations  may  be  regarded  as  the  first  effort  of  that  exercise  of  the  influence 
of  the  Commons  in  the  realm,  which,  afterwards,  took  the  form  of  the  representation  of 
every  Burgh  by  a  Commissioner  or  Burgess  in  Parliament. 

Burgh  life  in  Inverurie  begins  to  show  itself,  to  the  antiquarian  student,  a  little 
before  the  great  battle  of  Harlaw.  We  have  only  probability  as  grounds  for  setting 
down  the  names  of  the  citizens  of  Urbs  Inrure,  whom  the  approach  of  the  Highland 
host  must  have  "  fluttered  ";  but  we  can  realize  something  of  the  condition  of  the  Burgh 
at  the  beginning  of  that  century. 

The  Lady  Isabel,  last  of  that  seemingly  favourite  name  among  the  illustrious  descen- 
dants of  David  of  Huntingdon,  was  Superior  of  the  Regality,  holding  her  courts  at 
Inrure.  The  progenitor  of  the  Johnstons — Stephen,  the  clerkly  founder  of  the  house 
— was  then  at  grassy  Caskieben,  across  the  Ury,  the  nearest  neighbour  of  the  burghers ; 
and  down  the  water  at  Kiukell,  the  polished  Henry  Lichton  was  sometimes  resident  in 
his  parsonage.  His  nieces — the  Laird  of  Usan's  daughters — named  Elene  Lichton,  and 
her  sister,  Janet,  one  of  the  youthful  Johnstons  and  young  Andrew  Glaster  of  Clack 
were  going  a  courting,  and,  mayhap,  buying  "fairing"  for  at  Michael  Fail',  within  cry  of 
the  dwelling  of  the  reverend  uncle  of  the  two  young  ladies.  The  Bishop  of  the  time — 
Gilbert  Greenlaw — was  Chancellor  of  the  Kingdom,  and  doubtless  made  a  stately  spec- 
tacle at  times,  riding  to  Fetternear,  past  the  end  of  the  burgh,  and  over  the  Corseman 
Hill.  The  figure  of  John  Barbour,  the  genial  Archdeacon,  the  patriotic  describer  of  the 
Battle  of  Inrure,  would  be  well  remembered  in  the  burgh,  in  his  occasional  passings  to 
and  fro  between  the  Cathedral  and  his  parochial  charge  at  Rayne.    He  died  only  in  1396. 

We  know  where  the  headquarters  of  the  burgh  was,  the  municipal  "  capitol  ". 
The  "  Lord  Superior  of  the  Begality  "  retained,  in  his  own  immediate  possession,  two 
portions  of  the  Upper  Boods — one  of  which  is  now  the  south  part  of  the  Minister's 
Glebe,  the  other  the  Roods  on  which  the  Kintore  Arms  Hotel  is  partly  built,  and  on 
which  the  Cuning  Hill  stands.  Between  these  two  "  lands  of  the  Lord  Superior  of  the 
Regality,"  there  lie  two  Roods,  which  were  described  in  that  generation  as  "  in  the 
middle  of  the  burgh  ;  and,  at  a  later  period,  particularized  as  being  at  "  the  Cross  ".  It 
was  upon  these  Roods  that  the  Town-Hall,  built  in  1660,  was  erected.  The  Standard, 
or  Guage  Rig — by  which,  probably,  the  Deans  of  Guild  had  to  verify  the  measurements 
claimed  by  holders  of  Roods — lay  close  by,  immediately  south  of  the  Lord  Superior's 
lands.  When  we  come  upon  records  of  royal  proclamations,  long  after,  we  find  that 
they  were  made  at  the  Cross,  and  at  the  Cuning  Hill. 

The  tradition  of  that  mound  being  the  sepulchre  of  the  ancient  King  Aodh,  may 
have  led  to  the  founder  of  the  burgh  retaining,  as  his  own  "  terras,"  the  Roods  containing 
it,  and  also  to  these  lands  becoming  the  "  sacred  place  "  of  the  municipality.  The  owner 
of  these  Roods,  bounded  on  both  sides  by  the  lands  of  the  Superior,  was,  about  the  time 
of  Harlaw,  John  Badyno,  who  also  had  Roods,  in  two  other  portions,  in  the  much- 
divided  lands  of  the  Burgh.     It  would  be  interesting  to  believe  this  representative  of 


The  Burgh.  115 


the  traditional  farmer,  Bainzie,  to  have  inherited  the  first-named  Roods,  as  the  actual  gift 
of  the  Royal  Bruce,  made  to  his  ancestor,  out  of  the  superiority  lands,  for  his  stout 
aid  at  the  battle  of  Inverurie.  One  of  Bainzie,  or  Badyno's  other  possessions  was  the 
three  northmost  Upper  Roods  ;  which  were  bounded  by  the  Gallowslacks,  and  by  the  high 
road  leading  out  of  the  Burgh  at  that  time,  when,  it  may  be,  the  Powtate  Loch  occu- 
pied all  the  wide  north  end  of  Market  Place  and  West  High  Street,  overflowing  th; 
Crosslit  Croft. 

The  town,  which,  three  hundred  years  after,  was  described  as  a  single  street  with  a 
very  moderate  number  of  houses,  was  probably  in  1400  all  within  sight  and  cry  of  the 
Cross  ;  and  the  Cross  "Well  may  have  served  the  whole  community.  Who  at  that  time 
turned  its  waters  into  "  ail  or  beer,"  as  was  very  largely  done  two  centuries  after,  we 
know  not,  nor  much  about  those  who  drank  them  pure  or  transmuted ;  not  long  after 
Harlaw  was  fought,  we  find  names  on  record  which  enable  us  to  reconstruct  at  least  the 
skeleton  of  a  Town  Council.  The  earliest  denizens,  however,  whom  we  know  by  name 
appear  in  1402,  and  belong  to  the  less  honoured  of  the  two  classes  specified  by  the 
Aberdeen  minister  in  his  prayer,  that  the  magistrates  of  that  city  might  be  a  terror  to 
"evil-doers,  and  to  those  that  sit  in  council  with  them". 

Those  first  personages  of  history  in  Inverurie  were  Michael  Sutor,  John  Atkynson, 
and  John  Andrew.  Along  with  John  Inglis  in  Balbithan,  Robert  Watson  in  Fourdha- 
lassis  (Fuirdalehouse  in  Bourtie),  and  Meg  Cambrouno  in  Monymusk,  they  appear  on  the 
criminal  roll  of  the  Justiciar's  Court,  held  at  Aberdeen,  under  the  authority  of  Regent 
Albany,  for  trial  of  offences.  They  were  described  as  tannatores,  i.e.,  tanners.  They 
were,  probably,  shoemakers  who  made  their  own  leather ;  and  their  crime  may  have 
been  one  or  other  of  the  following  offences,  punishable  under  the  common  laws  of  Scot- 
tish burghs  at  that  time,  when  the  interests  of  purchasers  were  protected  by  a  multitude 
of  statutes  allowing  no  germ  of  free  trade  to  have  place.  The  Justiciar  had  in  his  ayre, 
or  circuit,  to  enquire  respecting  "  soutars  " — if  they  were  guilty  of  tanning  improper 
hides,  which  were  defined  as  hides  not  having  the  ear  and  the  horn  of  the  same  length  ; 
if  they  made  shoes  or  boots,  or  other  graith,  of  the  leather  before  it  was  barkit ;  if  they 
sewed  with  false  and  rotten  thread,  "  through  the  which  the  shoes  are  tynt  or  thai  be 
halff  worne  "  ;  if  they  gave  their  leather  good  oil  and  tallow,  or  only  water  and  salt ;  if 
they  worked  it  before  it  was  "  courait  "  (curried  or  cured),  "  to  the  great  hindering  and 
skaith  of  the  King's  lieges  ". 

The  principal  crime  tried  at  the  circuit  (1402)  was  that  of  "  forestalling".  The 
word  meant,  as  it  does  now,  anticipating  the  open  market.  To  do  that  was  forbidden 
by  law  ;  and  hucksters  were  enquired  about  by  the  Justiciar,  whether  they  sold  privately 
"  in  their  own  floor,"  so  as  to  escape  paying  the  King's  custom ;  a  tax  originally  col- 
lected in  each  burgh  by  the  King's  baillie,  but  which  began  under  Robert  I.  to  be 
collected  by  the  burgh,  which  paid  a  commuted  revenue  to  the  Crown  for  the  same. 

Strict  laws  were  in  force  againt  the  sale  of  unsound  meat.     Bad  salmon  was  to 


116  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

be  seized  by  the  Baillies,  and  given  to  the  "  lipper  folk  "  (lepers),  if  there  were  any — - 
otherwise  to  be  destroyed. 

Other  laws  indicate  the  wild  state  of  manners  prevailing  during  the  most  unsettled 
part  of  the  14th  century.  In  burghs  a  gudd  brother  "  sticking  another  with  his  niff," 
was  fined  half-a-merk,  and  had  to  make  amends  "  at  the  wdl  of  the  Alderman,  the  Den, 
and  the  laiff  of  the  brethren".  No  burgess  was  at  liberty  to  wear  a  "knyff"  with  a 
point,  under  a  fine  of  twelve  pennies.  Four  pennies  was  the  penalty  thought  necessary  to 
repress  the  unseemly  practice  of  "  stalling  at  the  gate  of  the  gilde,  or  upon  the  wall  "• 
But  the  laws  against  theft  were  of  a  severity  which  proves  property  to  have  been  to  the 
last  degree  unsafe.  A  thief  caught  with  a  half-penny  loaf  was  to  be  whipped  through 
the  town  ;  for  a  theft  of  value  between  a  halfpenny  and  fourpence  to  be  whipped  more 
severely ;  for  stealing  a  pair  of  shoes,  value  fourpence,  to  be  put  on  the  cukstool,  and 
after  that  led  to  the  head  of  the  town,  and  there  made  to  forswear  the  town  ;  for  four- 
pence  to  eightpence  farthing  to  be  pilloried  in  the  same  way,  and  led  to  the  head  of  the 
town,  and  there  he  that  took  the  thief  was  to  cut  off  his  ear  ;  for  eightpence  farthing 
the  same  exposure  and  the  other  ear.  "  If  after  that  he  be  ta'en  with  eightpence 
farthing  he  that  takes  him  sail  hyng  him."  "  Item,  for  32  pennies  1  ob.  he  that  tak's 
him  may  hyng  him." 

No  doubt  the  frequent  scarcity  of  food  which  approached  starvation,  made  theft  very 
common.  The  abnost  constant  state  of  warfare  kept  the  counties  on  both  sides  of  the 
border  waste  for  a  great  distance ;  so  much  so  that  often  one  great  inducement  to  a  peace 
was  that  licence  would  thereby  be  got  from  the  English  King,  to  import  grain  and  other 
food.  Even  Scottish  castles,  held  by  English  garrisons,  had  at  times  to  be  provisioned 
from  Ireland.  It  was  also  a  consequence  of  Albany's  corrupt  administration  of  law, 
against  which  he  and  his  immediate  party  were  the  chief  transgressors,  that  the  powerful 
knights  compelled  to  use  their  strength  against  rival  neighbours  for  self-preservation,  used 
it  as  readily  for  self  indulgence,  or  in  carelessness,  against  the  humbler  classes,  and  the 
whole  crops  of  a  season  were  frequently  destroyed  in  that  way. 

It  is  amusing  to  notice  amidst  these  serious  illustrations  of  the  times,  traits  of 
the  uniformity  of  human  nature  in  certain  handicrafts.  The  complaints  to  be 
enquired  into  at  the  justice  ayre  included  offences  by  weavers, — of  making  too  long 
thrums,  and  of  weighing  the  dry  yarn  when  they  took  it  from  the  customer,  and  wetting 
it,  or  mixing  heavy  substances  with  it,  when  they  weighed  the  work  back  again.  Tailors 
were  suspected  of  a  propensity  to  make  too  large  refuse  clippings,  and  "  to  take 
pieces,  sleeves,  and  other  small  things,"  and  to  make  clothes  otherwise  than  as  the 
customer  had  ordered.  Dealers,  of  all  kinds,  had  to  be  looked  after  for  using  false 
measures  and  weights,  and  the  public  weighers,  lest  they  should  show  favour.  A  graphic 
ordinance  sets  before  us  the  temptation  that  lay  in  the  way  of  the  public  tasters,  who 
had  to  examine  and  set  a  price  upon  the  ale  brewed  for  sale  at  the  numerous  taverns, — 
one  of  which,  in  Aberdeen,  the  famous  Eobert  Davidson,  the  Provost,  kept.    The  tasters 


The  Burgh.  .  117 


must  not  go  into  the  house,  and  "  fars  their  wames  (swell  their  bellit's)  in  drinking,  when 
they  sulde  stand  in  the  middle  of  the  street  before  the  door,  and  send  one  of  their  falows 
in  with  the  bedal,  that  sail  chose  of  what  pot  he  will  taste,  the  whilk  he  sail  present  to 
his  falows,  and  they  sail  descern  what  price  to  put  upon  it."  After  days  exhibit  the 
tasters  in  active  office  in  Inverurie. 

In  these  ancient  burgh  laws,  mostly  enacted  for  the  Southern  Hanse  of  the  Four 
Burghs,  but  doubtless  used  in  the  subsequently  erected  Northern  Hanse,  we  find  an 
interesting  germ  of  social  freedom.  One  of  the  ways  in  which  a  serf  or  bondsman  could 
attain  freedom  was  by  his  living  within  one  of  the  burghs  for  a  year  and  a  day,  with- 
out being  claimed  by  his  master,  or  on  his  behalf.  It  was  the  beginning  of  the  principle 
of  British  law — so  illustrious  a  contrast  in  after  centuries  to  all  other  national  law — that 
a  slave  stepping  on  to  the  soil  of  Britain  became  free. 

"Within  the  municipality,  however,  "  liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity  "  were  far  from 
being  thought  of.  A  sort  of  Venetian  aristocracy  was  kept  up  by  the  merchant  burgesses 
into  which  no  handicraftsman  might  aspire  to  enter.  Traders  were  a  class  who  held 
themselves  as  much  above  workmen,  as  the  feudal  lord  of  much  later  times  would  have 
conserved  his  rank  from  contact  with  men  of  the  plough.  Robert  Davidson,  the  Baillie 
and  Alderman  of  Aberdeen,  though  he  sold  wine  in  his  booth,  was  a  very  different  person 
from  the  baxters  and  fabers  of  his  time ;  and  Alexander  Stewart,  the  rising  scion  of 
nobility,  would  think  him  desirable  company  in  his  humbler  days,  and  not  unmeet 
company  when  he  was  the  potent  Earl  of  Mar  and  Garioch,  and  Lord  of  Duffle  in  Bra- 
bant. In  England,  so  early  as  the  reign  of  Edward  III.,  some  of  the  larger  cities  and 
municipalities  set  obstacles  in  the  way  of  ambitious  weavers  and  fullers  seeking  entrance 
to  the  Merchant  Guild ;  and  Alexander  II.  gave  the  Aberdeen  burgesses  the  privilege  of 
a  Merchant  Guild,  which  should  exclude  these  two  classes.  The  exclusion  of  tradesmen 
from  the  Municipal  Council  naturally  led  to  the  formation  of  associations  among  the 
various  excluded  bodies,  so  as,  in  the  end,  to  secure  some  voice  in  the  election  of  Burgh 
magistrates.  The  earliest  law  known  for  municipal  elections  of  baillies  made  the  election 
be  "  by  certain  good  men  of  the  best  and  most  discreet  and  trustworthy," — terms  which 
did  not  seem  to  exclude  any  technical  class  of  burgesses,  and  consequently  resulted  in 
the  election  being  attended  often  with  much  popular  excitement.  It  was  to  remedy 
the  state  of  dispeace  thus  occasioned  in  a  jealous  community,  that  the  famous  Act  of 
Parliament  was  passed  which  regulated  all  municipal  elections  preceding  the  passing,  in 
1833,  of  the  Burgh  Reform  Act.  The  old  enactment  had  declared  that  the  "  chusing  of 
the  new  officiaris  be  in  this  wyse,  that  is  to  say,  that  the  auld  Consail  of  the  town  sail 
choise  the  new  Consail  in  sic  nowmer  as  accords  to  the  town,  as  alderman,  bailys,  Dene 
of  Gild,  and  utheris  officiaris,  and  that  ilka  craft  sail  choise  a  person  of  the  samyn  craft 
that  sail  have  voice  in  the  said  election  of  the  officiaris  ". 

If  John  Badyno  of  H64  was  the  lineal  descendant  of  Farmer  Benzie,  and  lived  on 
lands  bestowed  on  Farmer  Bainzie  in  1308,  the  case  brings  to  mind  a  law  of  King 


118  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

William  the  Lion,  respecting  burghs — that  a  burgage  holder,  if  impoverished  and  needing 
to  sell  his  land,  must  offer  it  first  to  the  nearest  heir.  The  rule  was  doubtless  derived 
from  Hebrew  law,  and  would  bear  with  it  something  of  a  religious  sentiment.  If  the 
nearest  heir  was  out  of  the  country  in  the  nearest  foreign  kingdom,  the  seller  must  wait 
40  days  after  giving  notice  of  his  intention.  If  he  were  in  the  next  distant  kingdom,  40 
days  more  must  be  allowed,  and  so  on.  A  necessary  qualification  for  being  a  burgess  was 
the  possession  of  a  "  toft  of  land  in  the  burgh  ".  "  A  rebelliour  again  the  communitie," 
or  one  convicted  of  fraud,  had,  for  punishment,  that  his  house  be  "  strycken  to  the 
erde,"  and  himself  be  put  out  of  the  town.  A  burgess,  fallen  into  destitution,  was  to  be 
helped  by  the  Gild ;  and  such  a  brother  dying,  to  be  "  erded  "  decently  by  the  Gild. 
A  daughter  left  in  such  a  case,  if  of  good  fame  and  approved  conversation,  had  to  be 
dowered  for  a  husband  by  the  Gild  ;  or  if  she  elected  to  go  into  a  religious  house,  then  to 
be  provided  for  there  as  she  required.  The  next-of-kin  purchasing  a  poor  burgess's 
holding  had  to  provide  him  in  food  and  clothing  equal  to  his  own,  the  clothing  to  be 
of  one  colour,  grey  or  white. 

At  an  early  period  means  had  to  be  taken  to  protect  the  general  interests  of  the 
community  from  the  combinations  formed  in  burghs  for  selfish  ends.  The  history  of 
strikes  in  Scotland  is  at  least  as  old  as  1493,  when  an  act  was  passed  "For  the  putting 
down  of  Deakons  of  Craftis  who  made  statutes  for  the  singular  profite  and  availe  of  their 
craftis,  contrair  the  common  profite ;  and  also  for  the  prevention  of  Maisons  and  other 
men  of  Crafte  exacting  wages  for  the  Halie  day  as  for  the  wark  day,  or  else  refusing  to 
work  ". 

The  importance  of  the  Burghs  of  Inverurie  and  Kintore  to  a  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer,  in  the  15th  century,  must  have  been  small ;  for  they  do  not  appear  among 
the  burghs  beyond  the  Forth  taxed  by  the  Crown  in  1483.  Both  were,  for  a  long  period 
after  that,  taxed  in  the  shire.  Kintore  had,  however,  some  years  before,  asserted  its 
position  against  the  assumption  of  the  more  important  city  of  Aberdeen,  by  vindicating 
its  right  to  try  a  burgess  of  its  own,  whom  the  authorities  of  that  city  had  thought  they 
might  exercise  justice  upon. 

Of  the  appearance  of  the  single  street  of  Urbs  Inrure  in  those  days  we  know  but 
little;  but  the  Upper  and  Lower  Boods  were  possessed  in  much  the  same  size  of  hold- 
ings as  centuries  after,  and  described  by  tbe  same  boundaries- — the  Ourye  on  the  east, 
the  Davauche  lands  on  the  west  (called  also  the  Keylands,  now  vernacularly  Kellands), 
with  the  Via  Begia,  or  King's  Gait,  between,  while  the  Common  Lands  of  the  burgh 
bounded  the  northmost  Upper  Boods  as  at  present. 

Master  Walter  Ydill  was  the  Vicar  of  Inverurie  in  1428,  and  is  the  first,  after  Doni- 
inus  Bicardus  of  1262,  and  Dominus  Thomas  of  1297,  whose  name  has  been  preserved. 

Six  dispositions  of  different  parcels  of  Boods,  between  1464  and  1486,  exhibit  a 
number  of  burgage  holders  of  the  same  names  as  were  common  in  the  proprietary  of  the 
burgh  after  1600. 


The  Burgh.  119 


The  Bainzie  family,  traditionally  holders  from  Eobert  the  Bruce,  and  disappearing 
from  the  burgh  roll  only  in  the  eighteenth  century,  was  represented,  in  1464,  by  John, 
Walter,  and  Agnes  Badenoch,  all  Bood  proprietors.  John — already  mentioned  as  a  pro- 
prietor at  three  points  of  the  town,  including  the  two  Upper  Boods  where  the  Tol- 
booth  of  1660  stood,  and  which  were  described,  in  1464,  as  in  the  middle  of  the  burgh, 
bounded  on  both  sides  by  the  lands  of  the  Lord  Superior  of  the  Begality — himself  lived 
on  the  northermost  Upper  Boods,  where  now  the  West  High  Street  Public  School  is 
built. 

His  neighbour  southward  was  Walter  Young,  laird  of  the  large  amount  of  eleven 
Boods  above  and  below  the  high  road ;  who  seems  to  have  affected  a  seal  of  his  own, 
which  he  appended  along  with  that  of  the  burgh,  to  a  disposition  granted  by  him  in 
1466. 

Next  to  Walter  Young  southward,  the  property  now  containing  Buby  Cottage,  was 
in  the  ownership  of  John,  the  son  of  Andrew,  one  of  two  families  named  Anderson, 
both  at  that  time  burgage  lairds,  and,  it  may  be,  the  ancestors  of  Andersons  who  con- 
tinued in  that  position  until  near  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  scattered  distribution  of  the  minister's  glebe,  which,  in  1853,  consisted  of  one 
portion  in  the  Upper  Boods,  and  four  different  parts  in  the  Lower,  existed  in  the 
fifteenth  century ;  and  if  we  can  infer  anything  in  the  matter  from  the  upper  portion 
being  called  terra  vicarii,  while  the  rest  is  called  terrce  ecclesiasticce,  the  vicarage  may 
ere  then  have  been  transported  from  Cold  wells  to  where  the  Manse  stood  after  1600 — 
the  site  of  the  present  parish  church,  in  a  three  cornered  nook  on  the  north  bank  of  the 
Skettrie  Burn.  The  vicar's  north  neighbour  was  John  Boss,  in  1476;  north  of  whom 
was  the  senior  John  Anderson. 

On  the  Lower  Boods,  the  south  neighbour  of  one  of  the  terrae  ecclesiasticce  was 
■  Alexander  de  Menus,  son  and  heir  of  quondam  William  de  Mernis,  a  name  also  continu- 
ing in  the  eighteenth  century  in  the  burgh  lairdship.  In  1476,  he  held  the  two  roods 
on  which  the  Episcopal  Chapel  is  built,  and  next  him,  on  the  south,  was  Bobert  the  son 
of  Hugh,  possibly  the  same  Dom.  Bobert  Howieson,  who  appears  a  witness  on  John 
Boss's  charter,  in  1476,  and  who  may  then  have  been  the  vicar's  curate. 

-Other  names  of  burgage-holders  preserved  in  the  six  dispositions  quoted,  which 
appear  also  long  after,  were  Currie,  Lesly,  Bobertson,  Hucheson  or  Hutcheon,  Tailyeour, 
and  Blakhall.  Groups  of  neighbours  on  the  Upper  Boods  were  Walter  Badenoch, 
Patrick  Anderson,  burgess  of  Aberdeen,  and  Andrew  Anderson ;  Bobert  Mearns,  John 
Boss,  John  Anderson,  and  John  Blakhall ;  and  on  the  Lower  Boods,  William  Leslie, 
Batrick  Leslie,  and  William  Forsyth ;  John  Hucheson,  Bobert  Anderson,  and  Agnes 
Badenoch ;  Walter  Curry,  John  Blakhall,  and  John  Anderson,  junior.  The  names 
Brakanth  or  Brakath,  Clark,  Johnston,  Panton,  and  Henderson  also  appear  in  the  deeds. 
Alexander  de  Mernis  was,  besides  his  Lower  Boods,  part  proprietor  of  Blakhall,  probably 
by  temporal  y  mortgage  or  by  marriage  provision. 


120  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

The  purchaser  of  most  of  the  annual  rents,  secured  by  these  dispositions,  was  Richard 
Forbes,  Dean  of  Aberdeen  (1466),  son  of  quondam  Alexander  de  Forbes  de  eodem, 
Knight.  Another  son  of  the  chief  of  the  Forbeses,  William,  Vicar  of  Edinburgh, 
witnesses  a  sasine  on  one  of  the  items  along  with  William  Scrogy,  chaplain  curate  of 
Inveroury,  and  Duncan  Red,  chaplain. 

The  name  Walter  Ydill  appears  about  that  date,  as  that  of  a  dignitary  in  the 
Church.  If  it  was  the  Vicar  of  Inverurie,  Scrogy  would  be  the  chaplain  curate,  and,  as 
he  also  is  called  presbyter,  was,  it  is  likely,  the  Vicar's  substitute  in  his  Garioch  parish. 

In  these  Latin  dispositions,  the  names  are  almost  all  given  as  if  the  usage,  still 
remaining  in  some  parts  of  England,  then  prevailed — of  naming  a  man  by  his  paternity, 
e.g.,  John  Alius  Andre.  That, may  have  been  only  the  Latin  rendering  deemed  to  be 
correct  of  John  Anderson  ;  but  an  interesting  illustration  of  the  origin  of  new  names 
occurs  in  one  of  them.  John  Badenoch's  neighbour,  Walter  Young,  was  the  son  of  John, 
the  son  of  Walter ;  which  must  mean  young  Walter,  the  grandson  of  old  Walter.  He 
had  the  name  of  Walter  Young,  while  his  father  would,  in  all  likelihood,  be  called 
John  Watson. 

Henry,  son  of  Andrew,  &c,  Henry  Anderson,  in  1466,  appears  in  Walter  Young's 
charter  as  a  "  baillie  of  said  burgh,"  infefting  the  purchaser,  Richard  Forbes,  Dean  of 
Aberdeen.  He  is  the  first  baillie  whose  name  is  preserved.  In  the  instrument  of  sasine 
following  on  the  Charter,  we  have  the  earliest  known  town  and  parish  clerk.  The 
pluralist  was  Thomas,  son  of  Andrew,  a  relative,  possibly,  of  the  baillie.  William 
Panton  of  Futhes  (Fiddes)  was  a  witness.  In  the  same  year,  we  come  upon  a  beginning 
of  another  line  of  burgh  Officials — the  town-sergeants.  That  officer,  in  1466,  was 
Andrew,  son  of  Robert.     He  was  witness  to  a  charter  by  Alexander  Mernis. 

Somewhere  between  1451  and  1486,  Patrick  Leslie,  burgess  of  Aberdeen,  noticed 
as  a  proprietor  in  Inverurie,  endowed  the  Altar  of  the  Three  Kings  in  Aberdeen,  with  a 
rent  partly  from  his  own  lands,  and  partly  from  Roods  belonging  to  William  de  Blak- 
hall,  possibly  the  father  of  John  de  Blakhall  who  was  de  eodem  in  1467. 

A  deed  of  147G  names  William  Chalmer,  armiger,  possibly  a  part  proprietor  of 
Thainston,  which  was  held,  sometime  before,  in  portions  by  Chalmers  of  Balnacraig, 
Wardrop  of  Gothnys,  James  Herman,  and  Alexander  Ardbekye  of  that  ilk.  In  that 
deed,  Walter  Currie,  baillie,  and  William  Ra,  sergeant  pro  temp.,  are  named.  There 
are  also  two  who  may  have  been  the  priest  and  parish  clerk  of  the  time.  They  are 
styled  as  such  officials  would  be,  Dom.  Robert  Howieson  and  Magister  Thomas  Brown. 

If  family  tradition — confidently  held — be  of  value,  a  race  bearing  the  name  of 
Fergus,  had  been,  at  that  time,  for  a  century  owners  of  Lower  Roods,  along  the  edge  of 
Powtate,  and  another  race  named  Stephen,  a  little  to  the  south  of  them,  on  the  same 
line. 

Of  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  the  Burgh  we  know  some  particulars  at 
different  periods  of   the    century.     Murdoch   Glaster  was  laird  of  Glack  in    1418,  as 


The  Burgh.  121 


heir  of  his  mother  Alice  Pilmor,  the  last  of  her  name.  From  his  father  he  inherited 
Lumgair,  and  part  of  Dunnottar,  in  the  Mearns.  He  must  have  been  man  grown  at  the 
date  of  Harlaw,  as  his  eldest  son,  Andrew,  was  married  in  1428. 

Andrew  Glaster's  marriage  with  the  Bishop's  niece,  Janet  Lichton,  opens  to  our 
observation  a  little  of  the  family  condition  of  the  household  of  Caskieben.  It  was  then 
apparently  in  the  second  generation  of  the  Johnston  name.  The  marriage  contract  was 
signed,  on  the  part  of  the  bride,  by  Gilbert  Johnston  of  Balnedache,  who  was,  before 
that  time,  married  to  her  sister  Elene.  The  deed  notes  that  he  "procurit  the  seal  of  John 
of  Johnston,  his  fader,  to  be  put  forthi  that  he  has  na  seele  of  his  own  ".  We  may 
thence  infer  that  the  wearer  of  the  seal — John  de  Johnston — was  then  the  Head  of 
the  family,  and  tbat  the  Clerk  of  1375  was  no  more. 

The  pedigree  of  the  family  contained  in  the  Baronage  of  Scotland — (Title 
Johnston  of  Caskieben,  now  of  that  Ilk)  records  that  John  Johnston  of  Caskieben,  the 
husband  of  Marjory  Lichton,  daughter  of  the  Laird  of  Usan  in  Angus,  by  whom  he  had 
a  son  Gilbert  his  heir,  lived  to  a  great  age  and  died  in  the  reign  of  King  James  I.  ;  and 
that  Gilbert  de  Johnston,  afterwards  of  Caskieben,  was  in  his  father's  lifetime  designed 
by  the  title  of  Ballindallach,  (Balnedache,  now  called  Bendauch,  in  Dyce  parish). 
Bishop  Henry  (Lichton)  of  Aberdeen,  granted,  in  1430  to  Gilbert  de  Johnston,  a  lease 
for  all  the  days  of  his  life,  of  the  town  of  Bishop  Clinterty,  which  is  in  the. close  vicinity 
of  Bendauch.  This  lease  or  tack  of  one  of  the  farms  then  belonging  in  property  to  the 
See  of  Aberdeen,  bears  date  about  a  couple  of  years  after  the  period  of  the  marriage  of 
Andrew  Glaster  of  Glack  with  the  Bishop  of  Aberdeen's  niece — Janet  Lichton — the 
sister-in-law  of  Gilbert  de  Johnston.  Elene  Lichton,  wife  of  Gilbert  Johnston,  and 
Janet  Lichton,  the  spouse  of  Andrew  Glaster,  may  very  likely  have  been  nieces  of 
Marjory  Lichton  the  wife  of  John  de  Johnston  of  Caskieben — which  Marjory  may  her- 
self have  been  sister  of  Bishop  Henry  Lichton,  and  thus  the  old  Lady  of  Caskieben 
had  been  mother-in-law,  as  well  as  aunt,  of  Elene.  In  the  pedigree  of  the  Johnstons 
no  mention  is  made  of  the  marriage  of  Gilbert  de  Johnston  with  Elene  Lichton. 
Gilbert  is  therein  stated  to  have  been  twice  married  ;  first  to  Elizabeth  Vass,  or  Vaus, 
daughter  of  the  Laird  of  Menie,  by  whom  he  is  said  to  have  had  one  son  Alexander,  his 
heir,  and  three  daughters ;  and  secondly,  to  a  daughter  of  Sir  Alexander  Forbes,  second 
Baron  of  Pitsligo,  which  last  bore  to  Gilbert  de  Johnston,  a  son,  William,  who  is 
represented  as  having  got  from  his  father  the  lands  of  Bendauch,  the  superiority  whereof 
was  retained  in  the  family.  The  said  William  Johnston  of  Bendauch  was  progenitor  of 
a  branch  of  the  Caskieben  race  which  has  been  long  extinct.  In  a  more  recent 
generation  of  that  family  the  young  bachelor  Johnstons  appear  to  have  looked  kindly 
upon  their  female  cousins.  The  son  (or  grandson  it  would  seem)  of  Gilbert  de  Johnston, 
viz.  :  Alexander  Johnston  of  Caskieben,  mentioned  in  the  Baronage  of  Scotland  as 
having  died  in  the  reign  of.  King  James  III.,  married  and  had  issue  by  Agnes  Glaster, 
daughter  of  the  Laird  of  Glack.     The  bride  had  been  endowed  with  the  moderate  tocher 

16 


122  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

of  four  merks  yearly,  which  the  spouses  agreed,  in  1481,  to  resign  for  a  payment  of 
forty  pounds  Scots — the  redemption  money  to  be  paid  at  the  altar  of  St.  Serve,  in  the 
kirk  of  Monkegy.  The  market  of  St.  Serve  (now  known  as  St.  Sair's  fair)  was,  at 
this  period,  held  on  St.  Serve's  Hill,  immediately  south  of  the  kirk  of  Monkegy.  Its 
subsequent  removal  to  the  parish  of  Culsalmond — where  it  has  long  stood — took  place, 
it  is  said,  in  consequence  of  a  clause  contained  in  a  Marriage  Contract.  A  genealogy  of 
the  Caskieben  Johnstons  will  be  found  in  another  part  of  this  volume.  The  family 
during  the  century  after  1450  were  forming  that  intimate  connection  with  the  name  of 
Forbes  which  resulted  in  an  alliance  between  the  Forbeses  and  Johnstons  upon  all 
public  questions,  when  the  Reformation  took  place  a.d.  15(J0. 

The  Johnstons  appear  following  the  Stuart  kings  in  their  frequent  rash  attacks  on 
England ;  and,  with  their  retainers,  suffered  deeply  for  their  loyalty — one  head  of  their 
race  having  fallen  at  Flodden,  in  1513  ;  and  his  grandson — the  Young  Laird  of  the 
family — at  Pinkie,  in  1547. 

William  de  Blakhall  in  1398,  Eobert  de  Blakhall  in  1418,  John  Blakhall  of  that 
Ilk  in  1447,  William  Blakhall  from  1451  to  1486,  and  Robert  Blakhall  of  that  Ilk  in 
1491,  residing  on  the  lands  called  after  their  own  names,  were  the  near  neighbours  of 
the  burgh,  and  principal  persons,  it  is  likely,  in  the  parish  of  Inverurie  within  the  range 
of  these  dates. 

Among  the  neighbours  of  the  burgh  in  1476,  besides  the  Biakhalls,  we  find  James 
Kyng  of  Barraucht,  and  Alexander  Seton  of  Meldrum.  The  big  lairds  were  not  then 
examples  of  quiet  and  orderliness.  '  In  1492,  Alexander  Johnston  of  Caskieben  was, 
among  a  number  of  persons,  ordered  by  the  Lords  of  the  Council  to  pay  a  heavy 
fine  to  William  Hay  of  Ardendraught,  for  burning  the  House  of  Ardendraught,  in  the 
parish  of  Cruden.  Among  the  offenders,  who  seemed  to  have  belonged  to  a  faction  of 
Forbeses  and  Johnstons  then  at  feud  with  the  Leslies  and  Gordons,  we  rind  some  neigh- 
bours of  Inverurie — Thomas  Leslie,  parish  clerk  of  Logydurnocht,  John  Donaldson  at 
the  Mylne  of  Inveramsey,  Thomas  Chawmir  of  Boundis  (Boynds),  and  the  Inverurie 
name  of  Watson,  alias  Curry. 

A  decreet  obtained  in  1473,  by  the  parson  of  Kinkell,  William  Auchinleck,  for 
his  stipend,  preserves  an  interesting  list  of  names  among  his  parishioners,  as  follows  : — 
Andro  Alanesone,  Jhone  Symsone,  Andro  Matheousone,  Thome  Duncan,  Jhone  of  Kyner, 
Johne  Baxtare,  and  Gawane  of  Myll,  xxx.  merkis  ;  Andro  Scherare,  William  Philp- 
sone,  Nichole  Hervy,  and  William  Garioch,  ix.  merkis  and  a  half  ;  Isabell  Scherare,  vi. 
merkis ;  Thomas  Sampesone,  Jhone  Eobert,  Jhone  Thomsone,  vi.  merkis  ;  William 
Garioche,  David  Garioche,  iv.  merkis  and  a  half  ;  William  Fowlare  and  Andro  Beldi- 
stoune,  viii.  merkis;  David  Colisone  and  Eanald  Diss,  vi.  merkis;  Adam  Andersone, 
vi.  merkis  ;  William  Chaumer,  vi.  pundis  ;  James  Hireman,  viii.  merkis  ;  David  Ogilby, 
vii.  merkis ;  and  the  said  Eanald  Diss,  vi.  merkis. 

In  1498,  we  obtain  a  glimpse  of  the  chief  personages  forming  the  municipal  body 


J 


Sentiment.  123 


of  the  neighbouring  burgh  of  Kintore.  John  Smerfc,  William  Chaumer,  William 
Thomson  appear  as  baillies  ;  and,  next  year,  Andrew  Keitht.  The  number  of  burgh 
lairds  at  the  time  included  William  Oudny  of  that  Ilk,  son  of  Cristina  Kintor,  Henry 
Chamer,  son  of  Margaret  Kintor,  John  Ketht,  Stephen  Dunansone,  William  Adamsone, 
Pavid  Chamer,  Andrew  Scherar,  Robert  Clerk,  John  Forbes,  William  Kelly,  Thomas 
Anfrays,  John  Denys,  Robert  Cordoner,  Andrew  Molisone,  William  Kelly,  Thomas 
Williamson,  Henry  Forbess,  William  Myll,  Fergus  Philpsone. 

The  high  value  of  money  in  the  period  of  the  Inverurie  mortifications  is  indicated 
by  the  fact  that  while  6s.  8d.,  and  13s.  4d.  were  the  highest  annual  rents  secured,  four 
acres  of  land  were  disponed  in  pledge  for  the  larger  sum.  A  curious  list  of  prices  is 
preserved  in  an  inventory,  dated  1479,  of  goods  seized  at  Esslemont,  the  property  of 
Henry  Cheyne  the  laird.  "  Thre  ston  of  woll,  24  sh.  ;  four  ston  of  lint,  2  merkis  ;  thre 
pare  of  schetes  25  sh.  lOd  ;  thre  double  blankets,  16  sh.  ;  twa  new  sekkis,  4  sh.  ;  a 
mantel,  5  sh. ;  a  hewin  ax,  10  pun;  12  oxen,  price  of  the  peice,  24  sh."  Land  was 
sold  in  the  Garioch,  by  "  common  use,"  about  this  time  at  twenty  years'  purchase,  as 
appears  by  Johnston  papers  now  in  Lord  Saltoun's  possession. 

SENTIMENT. 

We  have  but  scanty  means  of  knowing  what  habit  of  thought  influenced  these 
Burghers,  and  Barons,  and  tillers  of  the  soil. 

It  would  almost  seem  as  if  the  widespread  wail  over  the  dead  who  fell  at  Harlaw 
affected  the  sentiment  of  the  whole  generation  that  lived  after  the  battle.  The  records 
of  the  time  speak  more  of  mortuary  settlements,  and  masses  for  the  dead,  than  of  almost 
all  other  business.  Isabel  Mortimer,  the  lady  of  Balquhain,  sought,  in  1420,  to  perpet- 
uate, in  this  manner,  the  memory  of  her  grief  for  her  six  sons  slain  on  the  fatal  field, 
and  for  her  husband,  Sir  Andrew,  less  honourably  brought  to  his  end.  The  conqueror 
of  Harlaw,  when  death  claimed  him  in  his  turn,  had  a  like  pious  honour  decreed  for 
him  in  1457,  by  the  famous  Canon  Clat  of  Aberdeen,  at  his  new  altar  of  St.  Kath- 
arine in  the  Cathedral  of  Aberdeen.  There  are  records  of  some  six  annual  rents,  pur- 
chased from  the  Roods  of  Inverurie,  between  the  years  1464  and  1486,  with  the  same 
devout  regard  to  the  memory  of  other  individuals.  It  is  in  the  conveyances  of  these 
mortifications  that  we  come  first  upon  the  names  of  important  residents  in  the  burgh. 

The  combination  of  sentiment  and  manners,  in  that  century,  is  curiously  instruc- 
tive. Lawless  violence  and  piety,  of  the  kind  exemplified  by  the  annual  rents 
purchased  in  Inverurie,  were  not  thought  incompatible.  In  1440,  a  miracle  play  of  the 
Halyblude  was  performed  at  the  Woolmanhill  in  Aberdeen,  to  which  the  religious 
audience  was  probably  summoned  by  the  great  bell  Laurence,  in  the  steeple  of  St. 
Nicholas  Kirk  overhanging  them,  a  memorial  of  Provost  Leith's  atonement  for  slaying 
Baillie  Cattanach — a  colleague,  it  is  likely,  of  the  Laird  of  Barnes  in  the  Magistracy  of 


124  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Gariocli. 

Aberdeen.     To  some  later  date,  but  before  the  end  of  the  century,  must  he  assigned  the 

record  which  used  to  be  quoted  by  a  deceased  Garioch  laird  from  his  family  papers — 

"  This  day  oov  Jock  sticket  Glaster  o'  Clack's  aul'est  son, 
Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy  Ghost.'' 

In  a  subsequent  generation,  anno  1533,  Elphinstone  of  Glack  made  an  offer  of  com- 
pensation, quite  characteristic  of  the  state  of  criminal  law  and  religious  sentiment  at  the 
time,  for  slaying  a  poor  woman's  husband, — pleading  to  be  let  off  for  little  of  pecuniary 
fine,  but  offering  large  "  bodily  exercise,"  in  the  shape  of  making  pilgrimages  to  the 
three  head  shrines  of  Scotland,  there  to  do  penance,  and  offer  "  messes  and  suffragis  for 
the  saul  "  of  the  slaughtered  man. 

The  belief  of  that  age  in  the  efficacy  of  pilgrimage  to  certain  shrines  for  the  relief 
of  bodily,  as  well  as  spiritual,  necessities,  is  curiously  illustrated  by  a  record  lately  dis- 
covered under  the  hands  of  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  Canterbury,  dated  27th  July,  1445, 
certifying  that  a  man  from  Aberdeen,  travelling  to  the  shrine  of  St.  Mary  of  Segut, 
diverged  to  the  shrine  of  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury,  and  there  was  cured  of  lameness 
caused  by  contracted  feet,  and  grievous  sores  with  worms,  so  that  he  danced  on  the 
ground  for  three  days.  He  afterwards  went  to  a  famous  shrine  in  Germany.  The  case, 
it  may  be  observed,  also  throws  light  upon  the  habits  of  travel,  and  the  ability  to  meet 
the  expenses  of  such  a  journey  to  be  found  in  Aberdeenshire  at  the  time. 

LOCAL  CLERGY. 

"We  know  somewhat  of  the  local  clergy  of  the  period — the  directors,  as  far  as  such 
officials  can  be,  of  the  religious  sentiment  of  society  and  the  representatives  of  its  best 
condition  of  intellectual  culture.  They  appear  characterized,  as  their  order  has  been  at 
many  periods  of  history,  by  liberal  expenditure  of  their  incomes  upon  objects  deemed  in 
their  time  to  be  of  religious  importance. 

The  marriage  contract  of  Andrew  Glaster  and  Janet  Lichton  was  witnessed  by  the 
Vicar  of  Inverurie — the  first  we  can  name  since  Dominus  Thomas  of  1297,  who  was  the 
contemporary  of  Bruce  and  Wallace,  and  possibly  the  parish  priest  of  the  last  of  the 
Constables.  In  1428,  Latin  had  ceased  to  be  the  absolutely  sacred  language  of  ecclesi- 
astical nomenclature,  and  the  vicar  is  named  Maister  Walter  Ydill.  Before  that  century 
ended  the  Vicar  was  styled  neither  Dominus  nor  Maister  but  Schir — a  title,  however, 
interchangeable  with  Master. 

There  were  at  least  two  successors  of  Walter  Ydill  and  William  Scrogy  (and  per- 
haps Bobert  Howieson),  in  the  kirk  of  Inverurie,  during  the  century,  after  1466  and 
1476. 

Schyr  George  Andersone  had  been  Vicar  before  1494,  when  his  executors  obtained 
a  decreet  of  the  Lords  of  Council  for  50  merks  against  William  Garioch,  burgess  of 
Aberdeen,  which  debt  they  had  ceded  to  Schyr  Alexander  Monymele,  chaplain. 

In  1492,  Magister  Andro  Bisset  was  Vicar  of  Inverurie.       In  that  year  he  and 


Local  Clergy.  125 


Duncan  Scherare,  rector  of  Clatt,  each  obtained  a  disposition  by  the  Bishop  of  16  per- 
ticates  or  roods  of  land  in  the  city  of  Aberdeen,  lying  west  from  the  Manse  of  Inner- 
nochty.  Bisset  was,  in  1498,  witness  to  a  deed  by  Alexander  Johnston  of  that  Ilk,  dis- 
poning a  tenement  in  Old  Aberdeen,  lying  north  and  west  from  the  Manse  of  Mortlach, 
near  the  common  passage  from  the  Canonry  of  Aberdeen,  which  leads  to  the  hill  of 
Dillydron.  The  members  of  the  Chapter  evidently  had  official  dwellings  in  that  quiet 
and  lovely  spot ;  and  some  of  the  parish  priests,  not  belonging  to  their  body,  may,  like 
Andrew  Bisset,  have  sought  admission  into  the  social  coterie,  and  built  town  manses 
amongst  them. 

After  Master  Andro,  we  know  the  name  of  only  one  other  Vicar  of  Inverurie — 
Gilbert  Cranstons,  who  is  commemorated  in  affectionate  terms  by  the  celebrated  Parson 
of  Kinkell — Alexander  Galloway. 

The  nearest  clerical  neighbours  to  the  Inverurie  Vicars,  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
were  Henry  Lichton,  parson  of  Kinkell  in  1410;  William  Auchinleck,  parson  in  1473, 
and  also  Collyhill  Chaplain  at  the  Chapel  of  the  Garioch ;  and  Adam  of  Gordon  in 
1494.  James  Ogilvie,  parson  of  Kinkell  and  Abbot  of  Dryburgh,  died  at  Paris,  May 
30,  1518.  Alexander  Galloway  was  Collyhill  Chaplain  twelve  years  before  that,  and 
may  have  succeeded  the  Abbot  at  Kinkell.  In  1454,  Thomas  Singlar,  or  Sinklar,  was 
Vicar  of  Logydurnocht,  and  John  Murray,  or  Mureff,  Vicar  of  Oyne.  In  1455,  James 
Cruickshank  was  Vicar  of  Daviot. 

The  Kirk  of  Kinkell,  whose  sepulchral  riches  were,  we  may  believe,  increased  by 
several  of  the  heroes  of  Harlaw,  besides  Gilbert  de  Greenlaw,  was  in  1420,  with  its  six 
subordinate  kirks — of  Kintore,  Kemnay,  Skene,  Kinnellar,  Drumblade,  and  Dyce — 
erected  into  a  prebend  of  Aberdeen,  by  its  former  Parson,  Henry  Lichton,  who  was  then 
Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  after  having  held  the  See  of  Moray. 

Henry  Lichton  was  the  priest  who  had  received  for  sepulture,  in  St.  Michael's  of 
Kinkell,  the  body  of  the  Harlaw  soldier,  Gilbert  de  Greenlaw.  That  ecclesiastic  has  a 
nobler  monument  existing  at  the  present  day,  than  most  of  his  contemporaries  of  the 
same  rank.  The  west  front  of  the  Cathedral  of  Old  Machar  and  its  two  fine  towers 
were  built  by  Bishop  Lichton,  as  was  a  part  of  the  building  which  afterwards  fell  into 
ruin  along  with  Bishop  Elphinstone's  central  tower,  built  nearly  a  century  later.  Bishop 
Lichton  had  two  namesakes,  possibly  brothers,  in  the  church  in  1422,  Alexander,  Prior 
of  Torphichen.  and  Duncan,  chancellor  of  Aberdeen,  from  1436  to  1464. 

The  early  history  of  the  good  Bishop's  Garioch  church  is  not  known.  With  its  six 
chapels  it  was  a  monument  of  the  times  of  the  Knights  Templars  (1118-1312),  and  had 
the  appellation  of  ecclesia  plebania.  The  ruin  now  existing  is  not  part  of  Henry 
Lichton's  church  but  of  one  built  more  than  a  century  after  his  time,  partly,  at  least, 
by  Alexander  Galloway,  a  man  not  less  celebrated,  though  never  attaining  the  mitre. 
After  Alexander  Galloway,  Henry  Lumsden  appears  Rector  of  Kinkell  in  1545,  and 
again  Prebendary  in  1563.     Thomas  Lumsden  was  parson  in  1571. 


126  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

The  ex  officio  position  of  the  Parson  of  Rayne  enables  us  to  identify  three  of  John 
Barbour's  successors.  Priest  Lundie,  the  military  hero  of  Otterburn,  is  said  to  have  been 
Archdeacon  of  Aberdeen,  and  if  so,  must  have  succeeded  John  Barbour  almost  im- 
mediately. Thomas  Tynningham  appears  in  deeds  as  Archdeacon  from  1423  to  1436, 
and  Lawrence  Pyot  from  1450  to  1478. 

If  the  Chancellor  was  always  Vicar  of  Bethelnie,  then  Hugh  Bennum  held  that 
cure  in  1268,  Alexander  Inglis  in  1404,  Duncan  Petit  1424-6,  Duncan  Lichton 
1436-64,  Alexander  Inglis  1476,  John  Reid  1543,  and  Alexander  Seton  1556. 

The  kirk  of  Daviot,  held  along  with  the  office  of  Treasurer,  must  have  been  served 
by  Andrew  Liel,  from  1470  to  1475,  when  Andrew  Bell  appears  in  1476.  Andrew  Liel, 
probably  a  second  of  the  name,  is  recorded  in  1491  and  1501,  and  Robert  Elphinstone, 
probably  a  younger  son  of  the  Glack  family,  in  1522.  Patrick  Myreton  who  witnessed 
the  Reformation  changes,  was  there  from  1569  to  1571. 

Monymusk,  for  some  period,  however  long,  before  the  Reformation,  had  a  Vicar  as 
well  as  the  Monastic  establishment.  The  latter  was  in  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
requiring  protection  from  its  lay  neighbours  the  Forbeses ;  one  of  which  name,  in  time, 
succeeded  in  possessing  himself  of  its  wealthy  territories. 

The  church  tower,  still  standing,  commemorates  the  visit  of  the  last  Gaelic-speaking 
King  to  its  sacred  precincts,  where  Celtic  civilization  had  its  first  abode  in  the  Garioch. 
Two  Norman  arches  within  the  church,  are  memorials  of  the  same  period.  In  the  fif- 
teenth century  it  continued  to  retain  for  its  priests  the  name  of  Culdees ;  of  whom  it 
possessed  four.  These  were  also  called  Denes,  and  were  presided  over  by  a  Prior,  in 
conformity  with  the  constitution  of  the  Augustinian  Priory  of  St.  Andrews,  of  which 
Monymusk  was  a  cell. 

It  had  been  absorbed  in  that  form  into  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  before  1211. 
In  1337,  Brice,  Prior  at  that  time,  disponed  part  of  the  lands  to  the  Bishop  of  St. 
Andrews ;  and  likewise  the  patronage  of  the  Priory,  to  the  extent  of  selecting  a 
Prior  from  among  three  Canons,  presented  to  him  by  the  Culdees.  The  Culdees,  at  the 
same  time,  agreed  to  do  the  Bishop  homage  by  meeting  him  in  procession,  on  his  visits 
to  Monymusk  ;  and  consented  to  have  no  separate  burying  ground  attached  to  the  Priory. 

The  establishment  contained  one  oratory,  one  refectory,  and  one  dormitory ;  and 
had  attached  to  it,  besides  two  gardens,  a  croft  equal  to  ten  bolls'  sowing,  and  pasture 
for  six  horses  and  fifteen  wethers.  The  lands  of  Abersnithock  (Braehead),  Ramstone, 
Ardniedly  and  Balvack  belonged  to  it.  The  ancient  patronage  of  the  churches  of  Kin- 
drocht,  Keig,  Alford  and  Leochel  the  Priory  seems  to  have  retained  down  to  the  time 
of  the  Reformation. 

The  rental  of  the  Priory  from  these  four  parishes  and  the  names  (recognizable  under 
their  ancient  spelling)  of  the  lands  yielding  it,  are  preserved  in  the  rent-roll  of  the 
Forbes  famity. 

In  Alford  the  establishment  derived  from  Argathyne  40  merks  ;  Aslong,  18  lbs.  ; 


Local  Clergy.  127 


Auchintowill,  20  lbs.;  Carnav>rane,  U  merks  ;  Archballoch,  17  lbs.  and  12  geese; 
Kynstare,  21  lbs.  6s.  8d.  ;  Lytilldindivie,  4  lbs.  13s.  4d. ;  Tullichetlie,  4  lbs.  13s.  4d.  ; 
Braidgauch  of  Kynstare,  with  the  myll,  10  lbs.  13s.  4d.  ;  Mekilldindovie,  13  lbs.  6s. 
8d.  ;  Pofluge,  4  lbs. ;  Bandly,  4  lbs.  13s.  4d. ;  Baddivine, . 

In  Keig— teind  silver— Sevidlie,  19  lbs.  6s.  8d. ;  Westerkeig,  16  lbs.  ;  Ballgawan, 
10  lbs. ;  Brvnye,  4  lbs.  ;  Puttachy,  8  lbs.  ;  Auchnagathill,  6  lbs.  13s.  4d. ;  Pittendreich, 
6  lbs.  13s.  4d.  ;  Glentoune,  7  lbs.  6s.  8d.  ;  Mylln  of  Keig,  2  lbs. 

In  Leochel — Craigyvare,  40  lbs.;  Lenturkis,  16  lbs.  :  Esterfoullis,  with  the  myll, 
12  lbs.  13s.  4d.  ;  Westerfoullis,  8  lbs.  ;  Craigmyll,  3  lbs.  6s.  8d.  ;  Ouer  Loehal,  10  lbs., 
twa  wedders. 

Kyndrocht,  45  lbs. 

Temporal  lands  of  Lochalle,  32  lbs.,  with  7  dissoun  pultre,  twa  weddirs,  twa  boillis 
aitts,  with  the  fodder;  Thomebeg,  40  sh.  ;  Abersnythock,  11  lbs.  6s.  8d.,  3  dissoun  of 
eapones,  twa  wedders;  the  Mains  of  Monymusk,  26  lbs.  13s.  4d. 

The  vicarages  paid  to  Alford,  Leochel,  and  Keig  by  the  Priory  were  50  merks, 
20  lbs.,  and  20  lbs.  At  some  period  a  Jon  Straquhen  contracted  with  Lord  Forbes  to  do 
the  whole  duties  thought  necessary,  including  quarterly  preaching,  paying  his  Lordship 
12  lbs.  out  of  the  total  vicarage. 

Andrew,  Prior  of  Monymusk,  was  a  witness  to  a  deed  by  Thomas,  Earl  of  Mar,  in 
1365. 

In  1496,  when  its  tiends  were  in  danger,  Master  Gavin  Douglas  seems  to  have 
been  Prior;  and,  hi  the  reign  of  James  IV.,  the  office  was  held  by  Richard  Strachan, 
whose  illegitimate  daughter  was  married  to  William  Forbes  of  Braehead,  a  son  of  the 
first  Forbes  of  Tolquhon. 

Thomas  Scherar  was  Vicar  of  Monymusk  in  1524,  when  John  Akynheid  was  Prior, 
and  John  Hay  was  a  Canon  regular. 

In  1522,  John  Akynheid  had  David  Farlie  appointed  as  his  colleague,  the  emeritus 
Prior  enjoying  certain  frudus  of  the  benefice.  A  document  in  relation  to  this  matter 
records  the  fact  that  Lord  Forbes  was  under  obligation  to  defend  the  Priory  in  all 
causes  and  actions — a  species  of  patronage  which  seems  not  to  have  induced  him  to 
interfere  when  his  clansman,  Duncan  Forbes  took  somewhat  violent  possession  of  the 
whole  property. 

In  1534,  David  Farlie,  with  consent  of  John  Akynheid,  revoked  certain  tacks  of 
land  given  by  former  Priors,  Dene  Alexander  Spens  and  Dene  Richard  Strachan.  The 
names  of  the  Canons  about  that  time  included  William  Wilson,  Andrew  Mason,  Patrick 
Anderson,  and  James  Child.  Farlie's  introduction  was  probably  required  for  the 
restoration  of  discipline.  Insubordination  seems  to  have  crept  into  the  small  com- 
munity, and  Dene  Alane  Gait,  one  of  the  Canons,  was  condemned  to  solitude,  with 
a  diet  of  bread  and  ale  and  water,  until  the  Prior  should  judge  him  worthy  to  be 
released  from  penance.     David  Farlie  had  to  defend  the  property  of  the  monastery,  as 


128  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

well  as  its  character,  and  got  legal  authority  in  1542,  to  restrain  a  neighbour,  "  Bous- 
teous  John  "  Forbes,  from  occupying  four  oxgang  of  his  lands. 

The  Vicar  of  Monymusk,  in  1535,  was  John  Reid,  in  which  year  he  was  a  witness, 
along  with  William  Hurrie  of  Pitfichie,  to  a  notarial  protest  taken  by  Dene  Alane  Gait 
against  Prior  Farlie's  proceedings. 

John  Elphinstone,  a  son  of  the  second  Lord  Elphinstone,  was  appointed  coadjutor  to 
David  Farlie,  in  1542,  by  the  Earl  of  Arran,  then  Governor  of  Scotland ;  and  the  two 
Priors,  with  the  consent  of  the  Canons,  signed  the  charter  of  the  Priory  lands,  which 
legalized  the  possession  taken  of  them  by  Duncan  Forbes,  the  first  Forbes  of  Mony- 
musk. 

The  last  Prior,  Robert,  fourth  son  of  William  Lord  Forbes,  elected  Prior  in  1556, 
adopted  the  Protestant  faith,  and  married  Agnes,  daughter  of  William  Forbes  of  Corse ; 
and,  in  1570,  James  Johnston  was  parson  of  Monymusk,  and  one  of  the  Chapter  of 
Aberdeen  ;  he  was  possibly  the  last  Roman  Catholic  incumbent. 

The  first  half  of  the  century  that  was  fatal  to  the  Church  of  Rome  in  Scotland, 
exhibits  several  incidents  of  quiet  life  in  the  Garioch,  chiefly  clerical.  In  1503,  William 
Blakhall  of  that  Ilk  appears  in  a  charter  of  James  IV.,  as  Coroner  and  Forester  of  the 
Garioch.  In  the  preceding  year  Adam  Gordon,  rector  of  Kinkell,  patron  of  the  six 
Churches  of  Skene,  Kinnellar,  Dyce,  Kintore,  Kemnay,  and  Drumblade,  appointed  as 
his  vicar  pensioner  at  Kemnay,  John  Gareaueht,  with  10  lbs.  of  a  stipend — a  modest 
living,  for  which  he  served  the  cure  long.  In  1540,  Gareaueht  appointed  his  brother, 
Alexander,  his  clerk-depute  there.  The  laird  of  Kemnay,  Sir  Archibald  Douglas  of 
Glenbervie,  who  signed  the  deed  of  appointment  as  witness,  had  come  to  look  at  his 
Kemnay  property  in  1534.  When  he  was  at  the  house,  with  a  notary,  taking  an  in- 
ventory of  its  ruinous  furnishings,  nothing  seems  to  have  been  in  repair,  but  two  fixed 
beds  and  a  gauntrees.  Sir  Archibald  was  the  second  Douglas  of  Kemnay.  His  father, 
Sir  William,  son  of  Archibald,  5th  Earl  of  Angus,  known  as  "  Bell  the  Cat,"  was 
slain  at  Flodden  ;  and  his  son,  also  Sir  William,  became  9th  Earl  of  Angus. 

In  1505,  the  last  addition  to  the  chaplainry  endowments  of  the  Chapel  of  the 
Blessed  Virgin  of  the  Garioch,  was  made  by  Sir  Alexander  Galloway,  at  that  time  the 
Collyhill  Chaplain,  but  afterwards  the  best  known  of  the  Parsons  of  Kinkell.  His 
gift  to  the  ancient  and  honoured  Chapel  he  had  bought  from  the  Baron  of  Balquhain. 
It  consisted  of  two  acres  of  land,  bounded  on  the  east  and  south  by  Balquhain's 
lands,  on  the  west  by  the  croft  of  the  Chaplain  of  Pitcaple,  and  on  the  north  by  the 
lands  of  Lord  Erskine  (now  Pittodrie),  and  of  Alexander  Winton  of  Andat.  The  de- 
scription of  the  acres  would  appear  to  make  them  part  of  the  present  glebe  of  the 
Minister  of  Chapel  of  Garioch. 

The  ground  was  for  the  erection  of  a  manse  for  himself  and  successors,  the 
Chaplains  of  Collyhill ;  and  the  Collyhill  Chaplain  was  to  pay  out  of  his  rents, 
annually,  five  shillings  usual  money  of  Scotland,  to  the  other  five  chaplains,  in  equal 


Local  Clergy.  129 


portions  of  twelve  pennies  each,  on  the  morrow  of  the  Assumption  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin,  for  which  they,  along  with  the  Collyhill  Chaplain,  were,  two  and  two  together, 
to  celebrate  masses  on  that  day  for  the  souls  of  the  after-mentioned  persons,  also  saying 
the  psalm,  "  Lord,  thou  hast  searched  me," — the  collect,  "  To  Thee,  O  Lord," — and  the 
"  De  Profundis  ".  The  service  was  to  be  for  the  souls  of  the  founder  and  his  parents, 
of  William  Elphinstone,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  his  own  special  patron,  of  Walter  Ogilvy 
of  the  Boyne,  Knight,  of  Andrew  Elphinstone  of  Selmys,  of  Duncan  Schexare,  once 
rector  of  Clatt,  of  William  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  and  of  his  wife,  Elizabeth  Ogilvy. 
Bobert  Patonsoune  and  David  Liell,  chaplains,  probably  two  of  his  colleagues,  were 
among  the  witnesses  to  the  deed  of  gift. 

The  picturesque  deed  is  the  last  chapter  we  have  of  the  history  of  the  aristocratic 
little  temple,  until  sixty  years  thereafter;  when  it  enjoyed  its  last  brilliancy,  but  also 
the  sunset  of  its  worldly  glory,  in  the  presence  at  its  masses  of  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots, 
the  young  widow  of  France,  then  making  her  first  progress  through  her  ancestral  king- 
dom, in  which  she  had  hoped  never  to  have  to  dwell,  and  over  which  she  was  so  ill 
prepared  to  reign. 

At  the  time  of  Galloway's  foundation,  the  rector,  or  parson,  of  Kinkell  was  James 
Ogilvie ;  who  also  held  the  much  higher  dignity  of  Abbot,  or  Commendator,  of  Dry- 
burgh,  where  it  is  likely  his  residence  was.  He  died  at  Paris  in  1518  ;  and  seems  to 
have  been  succeeded  in  Kinkell  by  Alexander  Galloway. 

Of  the  men  of  less  mark,  who  were  discharging  the  priest's  office  in  the  several 
parishes  of  the  Garioch  when  the  two  important  centuries  were  meeting,  some  names 
have  been  preserved.  Andrew  Bisset,  vicar  of  Inverurie  in  1498,  had  as  neighbour  at 
Kintore,  Gilbert  Chalmer,  chaplain,  like  the  chaplain  of  Kemnay,  under  the  parson  of 
Kinkell.  Sir  John  Stirling  was,  in  the  same  year,  a  notary  public  in  the  neighbouring 
burgh,  as  he  was  during  many  following  years. 

In  1529,  Andrew  Cullen  was  parson  of  Fetternear.  His  successor,  Andrew  Leslie, 
was  also  Sheriff-Clerk  of  the  County,  and  held  both  offices  until  after  the  Beformation 
— doubtless  by  help  of  Sir  William  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  Sheriff- Depute  of  Aberdeen,  who 
for  his  stout  defence  of  the  Cathedral,  from  the  southern  rabble  that  came  over  the  Tollo- 
hill  to  destroy  it,  received  from  Bishop  William  Gordon,  a  disposition  of  the  Bishop's 
palace  and  lands  of  Fetternear,  in  1566. 

There  is  preserved  a  list  of  the  Bishop's  tenants  in  1511,  when  his  lands  of  Fetter- 
near were  let  in  holdings  of  four  oxgangs  each  :  They  were  John  Stevin,  4  bouate  ; 
William  Smith,  4  ;  John  Barcar,  4  ;  Elizabeth  Kow,  4  ;  William  Bisset,  6  ;  William 
Cristison,  2  ;  William  Benzie,  4  ;  Alexander  Cristison,  4.  Some  of  these  may  well 
have  been  ancestors  of  families  bearing  the  same  surnames  still  in  the  neighbourhood. 

Two  years  later,  1513,  the  head  of  the  Caskieben  Johnstons  fell  at  Flodden,  as  has 
been  noticed.     Among  the  witnesses  to  a  charter  in  1509,  securing  to  William  Johnston 

17 


130  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

of  that  Ilk  the  lands  of  Bendauch  in  Dyce,  Antony  Keith  occurs,,  a  name  well  known 
on  the  Caskieben  estates  three  centuries  later ;  also  Mr.  Alexander  Seton,  vicar  of 
Bethelny,  the  laird  of  Meldruni's  brother  ;  and  Mr.  Gilbert  Chalmer,  vicar  of  Tulich. 

A  peculiar  illustration  of  tenant  right  occurred  in  1514, — that  of  a  blacksmith 
receiving  infeftment  in  his  office. 

LEARNING. 

The  tumultuous  century  which  witnessed  Harlaw,  had  a  history  of  remarkably  con- 
trasting elements.  Containing  that  episode  of  civil  war,  containing  also  the  spectacle  of 
the  crown  being  able  to  influence  a  commission  of  Parliament,  composed  of  the  chief 
nobles  of  the  land,  to  frustrate  the  just  action  of  the  Courts  of  Law  in  protecting  a 
subject  in  his  rights  against  the  King,  it  exhibits  to  us  the  establishing  of  three  of  the 
great  civilizing  institutions  of  Scotland,  which  subsequently  elevated  the  nation  to  so 
high  a  position  in  education,  compared  with  its  social  wealth.  The  Universities  of  St. 
Andrews,  Glasgow,  and  Old  Aberdeen,  were  founded  in  1411,  1451,  and  1494 
respectively. 

The  last  was  due  to  the  patriotism  of  a  man  of  pre-eminent  abilities,  one  of  the 
honourable  names  belonging  to  the  Garioch — like  John  Barbour  before,  and  Arthur 
Johnston  afterwards.  Bishop  Elphinstone,  the  founder,  and,  to  a  large  extent,  the  first 
endower  of  King's  College,  Aberdeen,  was  a  relative  of  the  laird  of  Glack.  He  was  the 
son  of  a  priest,  "William  Elphinstone,  rector  of  Kirkmichael,  and  Archdeacon  of  Teviot- 
dale,  who  belonged  to  the  ennobled  branch  of  the  Elphinstones.  An  uncle,  Laurence 
Elphinstone,  was,  after  young  William's  education  at  Glasgow  had  been  completed,  the 
means  of  stimulating  him  to  an  ambitious  career.  He  sent  him  to  Paris,  where  he 
pursued  for  a  time  what  was  then  the  chief  study  of  ecclesiastics,  viz.,  the  Canon  Law, 
his  knowledge  of  which  he  subsequently  perfected  at  Orleans,  then  celebrated  in  that 
respect.  He  is  said  to  have  taken  his  degree  of  Master  of  Arts,  and,  in  the  same  year, 
priest's  orders,  at  the  age  of  twenty-four.  He  was  nominated  bishop  in  1483,  only  after 
he  had  shown  himself,  in  public  business,  capable  of  great  services  to  his  country.  He 
died,  25th  October  1514,  in  the  83d  or  84th  year  of  his  age. 

Like  more  than  one  occupant  of  the  See  of  Aberdeen,  Bishop  Elphinstone  was  at 
one  time  Chancellor  of  the  Kingdom.  It  was  not  lives  like  those  of  Elphinstone  and  of  a 
successor,  Bishop  Dunbar,  that  provoked  the  outburst  of  popular  feeling  against  the  clergy, 
which  accompanied  the  Beformation.  Yet  the  revival  of  learning,  of  which  the 
institution  of  the  three  universities  was  an  effect,  took  the  higher  clergy  so  much  to 
Paris,  the  seat,  at  that  period,  of  a  great  university — which  became  the  chief  model  of 
the  new  Scottish  universities — that  the  more  luxurious  life  of  the  French  capital  had  an 
evil  influence  on  their  fitness  for  their  place  at  home  among  their  ruder  fellow-country- 


Learning,  131 

men.  The  insidious  vice  of  the  great  city  also  doubtless  corrupted  the  morals  of  many 
of  them,  and  prepared  for  the  extinction  of  their  order  in  the  following  century. 

One  of  Bishop  Elphinstone's  principal  plans  for  the  university  he  founded  was  the 
erection  of  a  school  of  theology  in  it,  to  be  called  the  College  of  St.  Mary's,  for  the 
training  of  six  students  supported  by  endowments.  Andrew  Elphinstone  of  Selmys,  who 
resigned  Glack  into  the  Bishop's  hands,  as  Superior,  for  investiture  of  his  brother  Nicolas, 
helped  largely  by  gifts  from  other  lands  possessed  by  him,  in  the  provision  necessary 
for  the  proposed  college ;  and  out  of  his  gifts  the  Bishop  allotted  to  one  of  the  students 
an  aliment  of  eight  pounds  Scots  a-year.  Besides  Theology,  the  university  was  designed 
for  the  study  of  Canon  and  Civil  law,  Medicine  and  Music. 

A  number  of  retours  made  a  little  before  1512,  by  Alexander  Bannerman  of 
"Waterton,  Sheriff  Depute  of  Aberdeenshire,  afford  us  a  list,  probably  not  far  from  com- 
plete, of  the  resident  landed  gentry  of  the  county  ;  from  whose  families  the  Bishop  would 
expect  to  be  produced  the  earliest  alumni  of  his  university.  The  Garioch  furnishes 
the  names  of  Tillydaff,  Blakhall,  and  Johnston, — all  of  that  Ilk  ;  Cruickshank  of 
Tillymorgan  (and  Little  Warthill),  Chalmer  of  Strichen,  Gordon  of  Over  (and 
Nether)  Bodome,  Urrie  of  Pitfichie,  Forbes  of  Kinnellar  (and  Thainston),  Barclay 
of  Towie  (and  Bourtie),  Leslie  of  Wardes,  Leslie  of  Ardoyne,  Leslie  of  Balquhain, 
Mortimer  of  Cragievar  (and  Achorthies),  Winton  of  Andait  (and  Drumdurno),  Wood 
of  Bonynton,  Kyng  of  Barracht,  Gordon  of  Methlic  (and  Braco).  Other  names,  of 
which  some  are  extinct,  like  part  of  the  above,  were  Udny,  Skene,  Knox,  Dunbrek, 
Leask,  Ogston,  and  Allardes, — all  of  that  Ilk  ;  Gordon  of  Schivas,  Gordon  of  Uthaw, 
Gordon  of  Kennerty,  Gordon  of  Abergeldy,  Fraser  of  Philorth,  Fraser  of  Staniewood 
(ancestor  of  Lord  Fraser  and  Fraser  of  Castle  Fraser),  Chene  of  Essilmond,  Chene  of 
Straloch,  Crawford  of  Federay,  Forbes  of  Echt,  Forbes  of  Tolquhon,  Forbes  of  Towys, 
Vaus  of  Meny,  Stuart  of  Laithers,  Garden  of  Dorlaithers,  Annand  of  Ochterellon, 
Troup  of  Comalegy,  Hay  of  Ardendraught,  Hay  of  Delgaty,  Harrower  of  Ardgrain, 
Bedheuch  of  Tillychiddel,  Mowat  of  Loseragy,  Dempster  of  Ochterless,  Burnet  of  Gask, 
Burnet  of  Balmaud,  Turing  of  Foverne,  Panton  of  Petmethane,  Hepburn  of  Craigis, 
Duguid  of  Auchenhuff,  Tulloch  of  Moncoffer,  Caldour  of  Synaharde,  Dalgarno  of 
Dalgarno  Finteray,  Boss  of  Auchlossin,  Keith  of  Inverugie,  Crag  of  Cragsfmtra,  Cum- 
minge  of  Culter,  Buchan  of  Auchmacoy,  Panton  of  Haudauch,  Strachan  of  Glenkindie, 
Leith  of  Barnes.     The  names  are  given  in  the  orthography  of  the  documents. 

Mr.  Cosmo  Innes  writes  that,  in  1549,  when  Alexander  Galloway,  Parson  of 
Kinkell,  was  Bector  of  the  University,  his  record  of  visitation  exhibits  it  in  a  low 
condition.  There  were  no  lay  teachers,  and  few  students  ;  only  such  as  were  preparing 
for  the  church,  or  to  practice  in  its  courts.  Bursars  of  Arts  were  not  admissible,  unless 
"  mere  pauperes."  and  they  were  educated  and  maintained  gratis.  Beformers  of  the 
University  in  subsequent  times  found  the  same  radical  defects  continuing  ;  and  Bishop 


132  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Patrick  Forbes,  in  1619,  had  to  devote  his  influence  and  opportunities,  not  only  to  pro- 
vide a  satisfactory  teaching  agency,  but  also  to  collect  pupils  to  be  taught.  All  along,  it  is 
evident  that  the  resort  to  the  Universities,  in  early  times  as  now,  was  for  such  education 
or  lea  rning  as  would  be  of  pecuniary  value.  Law  and  the  universal  language — Latin — 
were  the  acquisitions  most  helpful  to  promotion  in  Bishop  Elphinstone's  time  ;  and  the 
alumn  i  of  his  University  only  studied  as  he  himself  had  done.  The  Universities  did 
not  provide  much  of  systematic  education.  They  were,  in  reality,  but  recognized  places 
where  the  studious,  and  persons  professing  to  teach,  might  expect  to  meet  for  any  one 
study  or  another.  The  graduates  of  a  University  were  bound  to  teach  in  it  for  some 
time  after  taking  their  degree  ;  but  permanent  professors  were  perhaps  exceptional 
Teachers  moved  from  University  to  University  according  as  their  own  reputation  or  a 
concurrence  of  students  promised  them  better  remuneration.  It  is  to  this  habit  of 
learned  men  travelling  both  for  study  and  the  hope  of  preferment,  that  we  are  to 
attribute  the  number  of  Scottish  scholars  whose  fame  connected  them  in  former  days 
with  celebrated  Continental  Universities,  and  not  to  the  existence  of  such  an  apprecia- 
tion of  their  value  as,  in  modern  times,  leads  to  a  teacher  of  eminence  being  invited  to 
fill  a  University  Chair. 

In  1514,  the  patriotic  founder  of  King's  College  died.  He  had  contemplated 
another  great  benefaction  to  Aberdeen,  the  establishment  of  good  communication  with 
the  south  of  Scotland,  by  a  bridge  over  the  Dee,  and  he  left  that  task  in  charge  to  his 
friend,  Gavin  Dunbar,  who  became  Bishop  in  1518,  after  the  Laird  of  Haddo's  son  had 
held  the  office  for  four  years.  To  the  support  of  the  bridge,  Dunbar  dedicated  the 
lands  of  Ardlair  in  Kennethmont,  which  the  Bishops  of  Aberdeen  got,  before  1199,  from 
David,  Earl  of* Huntingdon  and  the  Garioch,  in  exchange  for  the  tenths  of  certain  Garioch 
parishes.  Dunbar  was  a  worthy  successor  of  "William  Elphinstone  in  public  spirit,  and 
began  the  work  as  soon  as  he  was  in  the  Episcopal  chair.  The  bridge  was  completed  in 
six;  years ;  and  in  1529  the  mortification  of  Ardlair  for  its  upholding  was  executed, 
Provost  Gilbert  Menzies  undertaking  the  trust  on  the  part  of  the  town.  The  bridge 
continued  until  the  eighteenth  century,  when  it  was  rebudt  with  seven  arches.  It  was 
first  constructed  with  ten. 

The  architect  of  that  work  was  Alexander  Galloway,  Parson  of  Kinkell,  an  excellent 
example  of  the  better  class  of  clergy  at  the  period,  learned  in  the  degree  then  possible, 
and  munificent.  His  provision  for  the  Collyhill  chaplain  of  the  Garioch  has  been 
noticed.  He  afterwards  purchased  from  William,  Earl  Marischal,  a  similar  benefaction, 
which  he  bestowed  on  his  chaplain  at  the  Kirk  of  Skene. 

Architecture  was  much  studied  by  the  more  educated  clergy  of  the  time.  A  former 
parson  of  Kinkell,  Bishop  Lichton,  built  an  aisle,  now  destroyed,  to  the  Cathedral, 
where  he  wished  to  be  buried.  Galloway  seems  to  have  given  large  attention  to  the 
favourite  subject.     He  left  some  exquisite  sculpture  in  his  own  Kirk  of  Kinkell,  which 


Learning.  133 

the  ministers  of  Kinkell,  in  covenanting  times,  apparently  could  not  bring  themselves 
to  destroy  completely,  though  repeatedly  ordered,  on  their  peril,  by  the  Synod  to 
obliterate  the  "  superstitious  monuments  ".  He  probably  also  aided  in  the  erection  of 
Bishop  Dunbar's  magnificent  episcopal  palace.  On  his  own  account  he  made  some 
additions  to  the  Cathedral  Close,  in  which  he  provided  a  lodging  for  the  Parson  of 
Kinkell's  chaplain.  The  city  of  Aberdeen  also  employed  him  to  superintend  some 
works  of  importance  on  the  city  walls  which  were  thought  necessary. 

His  name  is  associated  with  a  more  enduring  work,  the  completion  of  the  chartulary 
of  Aberdeen,  which  he  directed,  employing  a  Carmelite  monk,  William  Scevan  (Shewan) 
to  write  it  out.  Through  that  document,  Inverurie  is  indebted  to  him  for  the  first 
extant  notice  of  its  magistrates.  Mr.  Alexander  Galloway  seems  to  have  been  one  of  a 
class  of  public  men,  fortunately  never  unrepresented,  who  being  both  capable  and  willing, 
have  assigued  to  them,  by  their  less  industrious  neighbours,  the  combined  honour  and 
burden  of  executing  every  troublesome  piece  of  work. 

The  Parson  of  Kinkell's  beautiful  church  was,  long  after  his  death,  utilised  as  he 
himself  had  been,  during  his  life,  for  the  relief  of  duties  which  should  have  been 
otherwise  performed.  In  1774,  the  heritors  of  the  united  parishes  of  Keithhall  and 
Kinkell  removed  the  roof  of  it,  to  form  the  roof  of  the  new  church  they  were,  in  1773, 
obliged  to  build.  Decay  and  depredation  soon  followed  the  free  entrance  thus  permitted 
to  the  elements.  The  initials  of  the  builder  are  seen  in  an  accidentally  protected  bit  of 
wall,  still  perfectly  fresh,  upon  a  small  bit  of  as  well  preserved  sculpture. 

Other  moveable  portions  of  the  disintegrated  temple  were  transported  to  greater 
distances  from  their  own  position.  The  baptismal  font  was  found  some  years  since 
utilised  for  some  gardening  purpose  in  Aberdeen,  and  was  acquired  by  the  proprietors  of 
St.  John's  Episcopal  Chapel  in  Aberdeen,  who  had  it  polished  and  appropriated  to 
sacred  uses  in  their  congregation.  A  piece  of  beautiful  sculpture,  of  the  same  style  and 
scale  as  that  remaining  in  the  ruins  of  the  Kirk  of  Kinkell,  is  now  built  into  the  wall  of 
the  Church  of  Kintore.  It  had  apparently  been  the  reredos  of  an  altar  to  the  Virgin 
in  the  Kirk  of  that  parish,  which  was  one  of  the  six  chapels  subordinate  to  the  rector  of 
Kinkell.  The  relic  was  found  in  Aberdeen,  and  was  placed  hi  its  present  position  by 
Mr.  Eobert  Shand,  son  of  a  late  minister  of  Kintore. 

The  disuse  of  the  Kirk  of  Kinkell,  in  1773,  arose  from  a  movement  made,  twenty 
years  before,  by  the  ministers  of  Keith-hall  (Monkegy)  and  Kinkell,  for  obtaining  an 
augmentation  of  stipend.  The  heritors  of  the  parishes  proposed  instead  that  the  parish 
of  'Kinkell  should  be  divided,  and  annexed  to  the  adjoining  parishes  of  Keith-hall 
and  Kintore.  Their  design  was  that  the  Kirk  of  Kinkell  should  be  retained  as 
the  Church  of  a  united  parish  of  Keith-hall  and  Kinkell ;  the  Kirk  of  Monkegy  being, 
it  is  likely,  dilapidated,  as  no  remains  exist  of  it  now.  The  inconvenient  position  of 
the  Kirk  of  Kinkell  for  the  united  parish  led  to  that  proposal  being  resisted,  and  the 


1 34  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Court  of  Session  ultimately  ordered  a  new  Church  to  be  built  in  the  centre  of  the  parish, 
where  the  building,  erected  in  1773,  still  continues. 

A  writer  in  1732  says  that  the  Kirk  of  Kinkell  had  formerly  a  turret  in  the  middle 
and  a  great  window  in  the  east  end.  Its  chancel  was  separated  from  the  rest  of  the 
church  by  a  timber  wall,  and  on  the  south  side  of  the  chancel  it  had  three  pillars.  The 
pillars  are  now  gone,  and  the  remains  still  apparent  are  described  by  Mr.  Jervise 
(Epitaphs  and  Inscriptions)  thus:  "The  aumbry  is  flanked  by  two  graceful  scrolls, 
underneath  is  the  inscription — 

A.  HIC.    EST.    SVATV.  G. 

A.  COEP'.    DE.    VGIE.    NATVM.  G. 

(Here  is  preserved  the  Body  born  of  the  Virgin.) 

Below  on  the  centre  of  the  sill  of  the  aumbry,  a  shield  bears  the  Scotch  Lion,  over 
which  is  the  word  MEOEAEE.  Upon  the  right  are  the  initials  A.G.  ;  on  the  left, 
ANO    D;NtI    1528. 

In  the  same  wall,  a  little  to  the  westward  of  the  aumbry,  and  within  a  plain  stone 
frame,  is  a  fine  carving  of  Our  Saviour  upon  the  Cross,  with  the  legend  ESTBI  upon  the 
arms  of  the  calvary.  A  winged  angel  in  the  act  of  raising  the  host  (!)  kneels  upon  the 
left  side  of  the  cross,  below  which  a  ribbon  between  four  human  heads  bears  prs  satom 
(preces  sanctorum).  Upon  the  right  of  the  cross  stands  a  draped  figure  with  nimbus — 
below  is  the  fragment  of  a  smaller  figure,  apparently  seated.  The  calvary  or  cross 
is  raised  upon  three  steps,  in  front  of  which  is  a  chalice,  also  the  remains  of  some  other 
object.  Below  are  the  initials  A.G.,  and  incised  upon  the  frame  A.G.  AjSTO.  1525. 
The  dates  probably  refer  to  the  beginning  and  completion  of  the  work."  The  writer  of 
1723  read  OBIJTM.  A.G.  1528,  which  might  indicate  that  there  had  been  two  Gallo- 
ways, which  does  not  seem  to  have  been  the  case. 

The  earliest  fruits  of  the  revival  of  learning  in  the  age  that  preceded  the  Reforma- 
tion, were  not  scientific,  but  belonged  almost  wholly  to  the  departments  of  aesthetic 
culture,  with  the  addition  of  a  little  metaphysical  philosophy.  The  models  of  taste 
found  in  the  treasures  of  Greek  and  Roman  manuscripts,  then  newly  discovered,  and  the 
beauties  of  form  exhibited  by  the  remains  of  architecture  and  sculpture  in  the  classic 
lands,  awoke  the  fresh  faculties  of  a  new  race  to  a  fascinating  enjoyment,  and  drew  them 
on  to  the  study  of  art,  with  results  which  no  after  period  has  excelled.  It  was,  how- 
ever, a  luxurious  kind  of  intellectual  life  that  was  ministered  to  by  the  success  of  so 
many  labourers  as  arose  in  the  field  of  aesthetic  study  ;  and,  unfortunately,  the  sort  of 
sensuous  delight  became  too  readily  attractive  to  the  spirits  of  the  wealthy  within,  as 
widl  as  beyond,  the  Church  ;  and  Pagan  metaphysics  did  not  counteract  the  tendency. 
Regent  Albany,  the  centre  of  the  corrupt  court  during  the  reign  of  the  first  three 
Stewarts,  could   discourse   philosophy  grandly.     Polish  and  looseness  of  morals  grew 


Learning.  \  35 

together  among  the  educated  clergy,  and  in  the  end  provoked  the  Preformation  even  to 
the  length  of  destroying  many  works  of  art  associated  with  scandalous  histories. 

Science,  as  the  word  is  now  understood,  had  its  fundamental  principles  recognized 
only  afterwards,  in  the  severer  state  of  society  which  followed  the  Reformation,  when 
the  golden  age  of  painting  and  architecture  was  past ;  and  it  is  amusing  as  well  as 
instructive  to  read  the  theories  formed,  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  upon 
subjects  of  experimental  philosophy,  by  men  whom  we  must  acknowledge  as  masters  in 
the  department  of  taste. 

The  accomplished,  tasteful,  and  generous  Parson  of  Kinkell,  Alexander  Galloway, 
has  left  behind  him  a  study  in  natural  science,  which  must  amuse  any  reader  trained 
to  modern  accuracy  of  observation.  Along  with  the  celebrated  Principal  of  King's 
College,  Hector  Boethius,  he  made  a  voyage  to  the  Western  Isles  of  Scotland,  to  study 
some  remarkable  phenomena  reported  to  exist  there.  The  Principal  has  recorded  their 
study  and  conclusions  in  a  treatise  "  On  the  Nature  of  the  Hebridean  Isles  and  the 
Goosebearing  Trees  ". 

"  The  Claik  Geis  remains  now  to  speak  of  ;  the  geis  generit  of  the  sea  namit  clakis.  Some  men 
believes  thir  clakis  grows  on  trees  by  the  uebs.  But  their  opinion  is  vain.  And  because  the  nature 
and  procreation  of  thir  clakis  is  strange,  we  have  made  no  little  labour  and  diligence  to  search  the 
truth  and  verity  thereof.  We  have  saelit  throw  the  seas  where  thir  clakis  are  bred,  and  find  by  great 
experience  that  the  nature  of  the  seas  is  mair  relevant  cause  of  their  procreation  than  any  other  thing. 
And  howbeit  the  geis  are  bred  many  sundry  ways,  they  are  bred  aye  allenarly  by  the  nature  of  the 
seas.  For  all  trees  that  are  cassen  in  the  seas  by  the  process  of  time  appears  first  wormeaten,  and  in 
the  small  bores  and  holes  thereof  grows  small  worms.  First  they  show  their  head  and  feet,  and  last 
of  all  they  show  their  plumes  and  wings.  Finally,  when  they  are  coming  to  the  just  measure  and 
quantity  of  geis,  they  Hie  in  the  air  as  other  fowls  does,  as  was  notably  proven  in  the  year  of  God  one 
thousand  four  hundred  and  eighty,  in  sicht  of  many  people,  beside  the  Castle  of  Pitsligo.  Ane  great 
tree  was  there  brought  to  the  laird  of  the  ground,  whilk  soon  after  gart  divide  it  by  ane  saw. 
Apperit  then  ane  multitude  of  worms  thrawing  themselves  out  of  syndry  holes  and  bores  of  this  tree. 
Some  of  them  were  rude,  as  if  but  new  schapen.  Some  of  them  had  baith  head,  feet,  and  wings,  but 
they  had  nae  fedders.  Some  of  them  were  perfect  schapen  fowlis.  At  last  the  people,  having  this 
tree  ilk  day  mair  in  admiration,  brocht  it  to  the  Kirk  of  Sanct  Andrew's  beside  the  town  of  Fyvie, 
where  it  remains  yet  to  our  days  And  within  twa  years  after  happenit  sic  ane  like  tree  to  come  in 
the  Firth  of  Tay,  beside  Dundee,  worm-eaten  and  full  of  young  geis  in  the  same  manner.  Sick-like  in 
the  port  of  Leith,  beside  Edinburgh,  within  few  years  after  happenit  sic  like  ane  case  of  ane  schip 
named  the  Cristofer  (after  that  she  had  lain  three  years  at  anchor  in  one  of  thir  isles)  was  brocht  to 
Leith,  and  because  her  timmer  (as  appeirit)  failed,  she  was  broken  down.  Incontinent  appeirit  (as 
afore)  all  the  inmost  parts  of  her  worm-eaten  and  all  the  holes  thereof  full  of  geis  in  the  same  manner 
as  we  have  schawin.  Attoure  gif  any  man  would  allege  by  vain  argument  that  this  Cristofer  was  made 
of  sic  trees  as  grows  allenarly  on  the  His  and  that  all  the  roots  and  trees  that  grows  in  the  said  Isles 
are  of  that  nature  to  be  finally  by  nature  of  the  seas  resolvit  in  geis,  we  prief  the  contre  thereof  by  ane 
notable  example  schawin  afore  our  ane.  Maister  Alexander  Galloway,  Parson  of  Kynkell,  was  with  us 
in  thir  Islis  gevand  his  mind  with  most  earnest  busyness  to  search  the  verity  of  thir  obscure  and  misty 
doubts,  and  by  adventure  lifted  up  the  sea  tangle  hyngand  full  of  missil  shells  frae  the  root  to  the 
branches.  Soon  after  he  openit  some  of  the  musyll  schells,  but  then  he  was  mair  astonyt  than  before. 
For  lie  saw  no  fische  in  it  but  ane  perfect  schapen  fowl,  small  and  great,  aye  effeiring  to  the  quantity 
of  the  schell.  This  clerk  knowin'  us  richt  desirous  of  sic  uncouth  tilings  came  hastily  with  the  said 
tangle  and  openit  it  with  all  circumstance  afore  rehersit.  By  thir  and  many  other  reasons  and 
examples  we  can  not  believe  that  thir  clakis  are  producit  by  any  nature  of  trees  or  roots  thereof,  but 
allenarly  by  the  nature  of  the  ocean  sea  which  is  the  cause  and  production  of  many  wonderful  things. 
And  because  the  rude  and  ignorant  pepyl  saw  ofttimes  the  fruits  that  fall  off  the  trees  (whilk  stand 
near  the  sea)  convertit  within  short  time  iii  geis  they  believe't  that  thir  geis  grew  upon  the  trees  hin- 


136  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  Hie  Garioch. 

gaud  by  tlier  nibs  siclike  as  apples  and  other  fruits  hings  by  their  stalks,  but  their  opinion  is  nocht  to 
be  sustenit.  For  as  soon  as  thir  apples  or  fruits  falls  off  the  tree  in  the  sea  flood  they  grow  first 
worm-eaten  and  by  schort  process  of  time  are  alterit  in  geis. " — Bocthius'  Oosmographie. 

The  estimable  Alexander  Galloway's  incumbency  at  Kinkell  was  a  long  one, 
extending  from  1518  to  1552,  when  he  died  October  6.  He  lived,  it  is  likely,  for  a 
number  of  years  before  his  death  in  the  Canonry.  having  a  vicar  at  Kinkell.  In  1543, 
the  duties  of  the  parish  were  discharged  in  this  way  by  Alexander  Anderson,  Sub- 
Principal  of  King's  College,  afterwards  the  last  Roman  Catholic  Principal.  Galloway 
and  the  parson  of  Clatt  were  Bishop  Dunbar's  executors.  Mr.  Alexander  Spittert  and 
they  built  the  chaplain's  house,  where  the  Divinity  Manse  was  until  1820.  Like  the 
Palace,  which  stood  east  of  the  Cathedral,  it  was  built  in  a  form  suited  for  defence,  that 
of  a  court  having  a  well  in  the  centre.  As  was  the  fashion  of  his  time,  Alexander  Gallo- 
way founded  an  altar,  that  of  St.  Michael,  the  patron  saint  of  Kinkell,  in  the  Cathedral. 

Galloway  seems  to  have  been  the  leading  spirit  of  the  Chapter,  getting  everything 
of  consequence  to  attend  to,  and  willingly  undertaking  the  tasks.  We  are  indebted  to 
him  for  our  earliest  information  concerning  Inverurie  burgage  holders  and  burgh 
officials,  from  1464  to  1487,  whose  names  are  preserved  in  the  Cathedral  Chartulary, 
which  he  employed  the  monk  Scevan  to  write  out.  His  gifts  to  the  chaplains  of  the 
Cathedral  were  numerous,  and  in  confirming  one  of  them  in  1537,  Bishop  Gordon, 
Dunbar's  successor,  states  that  he  had  done  especial  service  to  the  Church  of  Aberdeen, 
both  in  Scotland  and  in  Flanders.  In  1543,  he  granted  to  the  chaplains  Crynes  land, 
in  Futtie.  How  these  were  his  property,  whether  by  heritage  or  purchase,  does  not 
appear.  In  1549  he  was  for  the  fourth  time  Rector  of  King's  College,  where  a  name- 
sake, probably  a  relative,  held  the  office  of  sub-principal  in  1569. 

Alexander  Galloway  had  a  nephew,  "William  Galloway,  a  brother's  son,  who  got, 
in  1545,  a  feu  of  the  Kirktown  of  Culsalmond  from  the  Abbey  of  Lindores.  In 
1549,  he  was  requested  by  the  Chapter  of  the  Diocese  to  draw  up  an  inventory  of  the 
jewels  belonging  to  the  Cathedral,  the  occasion  of  which  lets  in  a  glimpse  of  the  coming 
light  of  the  Reformation — as  the  lairds  of  Scotland  understood  the  reformation  proper  for 
the  Church,  after  they  were  enlightened  by  the  performances  in  that  way  of  Henry  the 
Eighth  and  his  English  barons.  In  1544,  two  years  after  the  disastrous  rout  of  the  Scot- 
tish army  at  the  Solway  Moss,  and  the  consequent  death  of  the  King,  James  V.,  leaving 
his  successor,  Queen  Mary,  an  infant  of  eight  days  old,  the  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  afraid  of 
the  northward  progress  of  the  English  forces  into  the  county,  sent  a  servant  with  all  the 
Cathedral  plate,  and  jewels,  and  vestments,  to  deposit  them  in  a  place  of  safety.  A 
little  beyond  the  Bridge  of  Don,  the  man  was  attacked  and  robbed  of  his  charge  by 
James  Forbes  of  Corsindae,  who  refused  to  give  up  the  stolen  goods  to  the  Bishop, 
except  for  a  perpetual  feu  of  the  lands  of  Montgarry,  in  Tullynessle,  or  the  payment  of 
six  hundred  merks ;  which  sum  was  actually  paid  him  afterwards.  Their  being  thus 
recovered,  in  1549,  was  the  occasion  of  the  parson  of  Kinkell  being  asked  to  make  an 


Life  among  the  Barons  on  the  Eve  of  the  Reformation.  ,      137 

inventory  of  the  various  articles.  In  that  same  year  Corsindae  seems  to  have  advanced 
some  money  to  the  Priory  of  Monymusk,  in  payment  of  which  he  is  said  to  have  pos- 
sessed himself  of  the  whole  lands  at  the  Eeformation.  Certain  rents,  payable  to  the 
Crown  from  the  Priory  of  Monymusk,  appear  so  long  afterwards  as  in  1695,  granted 
along  with  the  rents  of  Auchlossan  and  of  the  Abbey  of  Crossraguel,  by  order  of  King 
William,  to  his  chaplain,  and  chief  adviser  on  ecclesiastical  matters  in  Scotland,  Mr. 
William  Carstairs. 

LIFE  AMONG  THE  BARONS  ON  THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION. 

The  unfortunate  condition  of  Israel  when  there  was  no  king,  and  "  every  man  did 
that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes,"  represents  very  much  the  experience  of  social 
life,  in  Scotland,  during  the  reigns  of  the  Stewarts.  From  the  days  of  David  Bruce, 
the  weak  son  of  Scotland's  greatest  king,  the  country  owed  all  its  prosperity  to  the 
patriotism  of  its  nobility,  and  suffered,  likewise,  most  of  its  miseries  from  their  turbulence. 
Feudal  power  continued  longer  with  them  than  the  great  proprietors  in  other  countries 
had  been  able  to  retain  it ;  the  ablest  kings  of  Scotland  never  having  attained  to  such 
strength  as  Henry  VII.  of  England,  and  Louis  XL  of  France,  managed  to  exercise  in 
breaking  down  the  influence  of  the  great  lords.  James  I.  laid  the  foundation  of  a 
central  administration  of  justice,  by  forming  a  Committee  of  Parliament  into  a  body 
called  Lords  of  Session,  empowered  to  try  all  civil  causes,  and  meeting  for  that  pur- 
pose, when  he  directed  them,  three  times  in  a  year,  for  forty  days  at  a  time.  James 
rV".  created  a  new  Court,  the  Lords  of  Daily  Council,  to  sit  daily  in  Edinburgh ; 
and  James  V.  gave  the  judicial  body  the  form  and  jurisdiction  which  Scotland  now 
possesses,  by  creating  the  College  of  Justice,  whose  senators  were,  and  continue  to  be, 
the  Lords  of  Council  and  Session.  The  form  did  not,  of  course,  all  at  once  carry  the 
power  along  with  it  of  keeping  order  in  the  land.  Many  of  the  great  Lords  had 
retinues  superior  to  that  of  the  king  himself,  and  might  was  right  to  no  small  extent. 
The  lesser  barons  were  as  big  of  heart  in  their  narrower  spheres  ;  and  what  order 
subsisted  in  their  different  neighbourhoods  was  the  result  of  a  "  balance  of  power  " 
existing  among  themselves. 

About  the  time  when  the  busy  parson  of  Kinkell  was  building  the  bridge  over  the 
Dee,  endowed  by  the  good  Bishop  Gavin  Dunbar,  a  baronial  exploit  of  a  different 
character  took  place  on  the  other  side  of  the  town  of  Aberdeen.  On  Sunday,  1st 
October,  1525,  according  to  Kennedy's  "Annals  of  Aberdeen,"  William  Leslie,  baron 
of  Bakpjhain  ;  Alexander  Seton  of  Meldrum  ;  and  John  Leslie  of  Wardes,  three  potent 
barons  of  the  Garioch,  in  revenge  of  an  injury  supposed  to  have  been  done  to  them, 
entered  the  city  of  Aberdeen  at  night  with  their  confederates  and  retainers,  numbering 
eighty  men,  armed  with  spears  and  other  weapons.  They  attacked  the  inhabitants  with 
great  fury,  who  instantly  flew  to  arms  and  gave  battle  to  the  invaders.  After  a 
bloody  conflict,  in  which  eighty  citizens,  including  several  of  the  magistrates,  were 

18 


138  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

killed  or  wounded,  the  invaders  were  repulsed  and  driven  out  of  the  town.  Upon 
complaint,  the  affair  was  investigated,  and  was  finally  terminated  by  the  arbitration  of 
certain  bishops  and  nobles.  The  barons  had  to  become  bound  under  a  penalty  of  £2000 
to  keep  the  peace ;  and  the  magistrates  fortified  the  town  better.  The  ports  or  gates 
were  ordered  to  be  repaired,  and  the  vennels,  back  dykes,  and  waste  places  to  be  built 
up ;  a  watch  to  be  kept  by  sixteen  persons  every  night,  and  two  sentinels  in  every 
steeple  by  day ;  all  able  men  to  be  supplied  with  culverins  or  cross-bows,  hand-bows, 
and  shooting  pieces ;  two  additional  gunners  to  be  engaged  for  the  artUlery  ;  and  wapin- 
schaws  to  be  held  weekly. 

The  Leslie  raid  into  Aberdeen  must  have  required  some  light,  in  order  to  avoid 
pitfalls  of  a  kind  awkward  for  such  gentle  invaders.  It  was  not  until  1538  that  the 
magistrates  issued  ordinances  for  the  removal  of  "  middings  "  from  the  streets  of  the  city. 

A  furious  state  of  faction  warfare  subsisted  at  that  time  between  the  Leslies  and 
their  powerful  neighbour  on  the  west  side,  Lord  Forbes.  In  the  local  disturbances,  the 
Castle  of  Balquhain  was  burnt  by  the  Forbeses  and  their  allies  in  1526  ;  and  peace  was 
re-established  only  by  the  intervention  of  Archibald,  Earl  of  Angus,  then  Chancellor  of 
the  Kingdom,  the  Lords  of  Council,  and  nobles  friends  of  both  parties.  The  castle, 
now  rapidly  falling  into  ruin,  was  built  in  the  year  following. 

The  national  calamity  of  Flodden,  9  th  September,  1513,  crossed  the  family  history 
of  many  a  Scottish  house  with  a  black  line.  Among  those  who  followed  the  rash 
monarch,  James  IV.,  to  that  fatal  field,  mention  has  been  made  of  Agnes  Glaster's  son 
William  Johnston  of  that  Ilk  and  Caskieben,  and  Sir  Wdliam  Douglas  of  Glenbervie 
and  Keinnay,  and  one  of  the  Abercrombys. 

The  shield-bearer  of  the  preceding  king,  James  III.,  was  Alexander  Leslie,  the 
first  laird  of  Wardes,  who  had  been  the  King's  familiar  servant,  possibly  his  com- 
panion-attendant in  boyhood.  He  received  from  the  King  a  charter  of  the  royal  lands 
in  the  Thanage  of  Kintore.  He  had  enriched  himself  by  marrying  Isabella  de  Lauder 
of  Balcomie,  in  Fife,  and  he  founded  a  chaplainry  in  the  Chapel  of  the  Garioch,  for 
behoof  of  her  sold  and  his  own.  He  was  dead  before  Flodden,  and  though  his  second 
son,  Walter,  who  was  provided  for  by  his  mother's  estate,  was  one  of  the  Marshalls  of 
the  Eoyal  Household,  the  heir,  John  Leslie  of  Wardes,  seems  not  to  have  been  employed 
about  the  Court.  He  got,  in  quittance  of  the  King's  debts  to  his  father — who  had  been 
Keceiver — the  Bailiary  of  the  King's  lands  in  the  Garioch ;  and,  three  years  before 
Flodden,  got  the  Regality  lands  themselves  in  excambion  for  Balcomie.  He  was  the 
John  Leslie  of  the  raid  upon  Aberdeen,  to  which  his  sister's  son,  Alexander  Seton 
of  Meldrum,  and  William  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  were  instigated  by  Provost  Collison,  an 
Aberdeen  Coriolanus,  Seton's  stepfather  then.  Johu  Leslie  has  the  patriarchal  record 
made  of  him,  that  he  had  five  wives  called  after  his  name,  by  the  last  four  of  whom 
he  had  children.  The  son  of  his  fifth  wife,  Annabella  Chalmer  of  Balbithan,  fell,  as 
did  the  grandson  of  William  Johnston  of  Caskieben,  at  Pinkie,  10th  September,  1547. 


Life  among  the  Barons  on  the  Eve  of  the  Reformation.  139 

The  ancient  line  of  Douglas,  once  represented  in  the  Garioch  by  the  last  Lord  anil 
Lady  of  the  Eegality  of  the  first  dynasty,  took  a  place  among  the  lairds  during  the 
sixteenth  century.  The  estate  of  Kemnay,  by  the  death  of  the  last  Melville,  the 
unfortunate  Sheriff,  passed  to'  his  daughter's  husband,  Auchinleck,  then  of  Glenbervie 
and  Kemnay,  the  heiress  of  which  family,  two  generations  later,  took  both  estates  into 
the  Douglas  family.  She  was  the  wife  of  Sir  William  Douglas,  second  son  of  Archibald 
Bell-the-Cat,  fifth  Earl  of  Angus,  and  uncle  of  the  Earl  of  Angus  who  had  to  interfere 
in  the  great  feud  of  the  Gordons  and  Fortieses. 

The  first  Douglas  of  Kemnay  perished  on  the  field  of  Flodden.  His  son,  Sir 
Archibald,  knighted  by  James  V.,  but  a  minor  at  his  father's  death,  was  not  at  first 
resident  at  Kemnay.  On  12th  June,  1534,  he  took  a  notarial  instrument  as  to  the 
state  of  the  house,  when  the  contents  were  found  to  be  a  table  in  the  hall,  two 
beds  in  one  chamber,  with  a  little  table  before  each  bed,  an  old  door  lying  in 
the  chamber,  and  in  the  wine  cellar  one  gantrees.  He  was  in  Kemnay  in  1540, 
possibly  resident,  when  he  witnessed  the  appointment  of  Alexander  Gareaucht 
to  the  depute  clerkship  of  Kemnay,  of  which  his  brother,  John,  had  been  chaplain, 
under  the  rector  of  Kinkell,  since  1502.  Sir  Archibald's  wife  was  Agnes  Kejth, 
daughter  of  William,  third  Earl  Marischal,  and  his  only  daughter,  Elizabeth,  married 
Sir  Alexander  Ealconer  of  Halkerton.  His  second  son,  James  Douglas,  minister  of 
Glenbervie  after  the  Reformation,  was  the  common  ancestor  of  many  families.  The 
heir,  Sir  William,  the  most  illustrious  in  rank  of  the  lairds  of  Kemnay,  became 
ninth  Earl  of  Angus,  after  contesting  the  honours  with  King  James  VI.  He,  it  is 
likely,  lived  in  his  earlier  days  at  Kemnay,  and  the  neighbouring  lairds  found  them- 
selves drawn  to  his  mansion  by  its  female  attractions.  His  eldest  daughter,  Margaret, 
married  William  Forbes,  second  laird  of  Monymusk,  and  was  the  mother  of  the  first 
Forbes  of  Leslie.  The  second,  Elizabeth,  married  Sir  Alexander  Gordon  of  Cluny, 
father  of  a  Sir  Alexander  heard  of  afterwards.  Sarah,  the  youngest  wedded  Eobert 
Strachan,  younger  of  Thornton.  Sir  William  Douglas  was  with  Queen  Mary  in  her 
progress  through  Scotland,  when,  in  1562,  she  visited  Balquhain,  and  fought  on  her 
behalf  in  the  battle  of  Corrichie.     He  died  1591,  in  his  59th  year. 

On  30th  January,  1527,  Alexander  Seton  of  Meldrum  was  murdered,  in  the  house 
of  the  Provost  of  Aberdeen,  Menzies  of  Pitfoddels,  by  the  Master  of  Forbes  and  some 
retainers ;  one  of  whom,  Alexander  Forbes,  an  agile  ruffian  nicknamed  "  the  Spangare," 
was,  by  a  sort  of  amateur  justice,  slaughtered  a  few  days  afterwards  by  John  Leslie, 
younger  of  Balquhain,  Alexander  Leslie  of  Kincraigie,  and  John  Keith,  while  attempt- 
ing the  robbery  of  a  tenant  of  the  Bishop  on  a  Sunday,  the  day  of  the  week  frequently 
signalised  by  these  outrages.  They  obtained  a  pardon  from  the  king,  dated  9th 
February,  1527.  The  murderers  of  Seton  took  refuge  in  France;  and  the  Forbes  and 
Leslie  feud  threatened  to  break  out  again,  because  the  Leslies,  constant  adherents  of  the 
Earls  of  Huntly  in  their  quarrels  with  the  clan  Forbes,  agreed  with  other  barons  of  the 


140  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

North  to  obey  George  Earl  of  Huntly  in  his  office  of  Lieutenant  of  the  North,  and  to 
search  for  and  deliver  the  culprits  to  the  judge  ordinary. 

The  Master  of  Forbes  got  a  remission  under  the  great  seal,  10th  Oct.,  1530  ;  but  in 
that  same  year  his  clan  was  engaged  in  a  new  outrage.  Lord  Forbes  bad  been  wont  to 
receive  a  tun  of  wine  annually  from  the  City  of  Aberdeen  for  protecting  the  Town's 
fishings  on  Dee  and  Don.  His  own  followers  were  discovered  to  be  the  principal 
depredators,  and  the  black  mail  present  of  wine  was  withheld,  greatly  to  the  disap- 
pointment of  the  recipients.  On  30th  July,  1530,  Forbes  of  Pitsligo,  Forbes  of  Brux, 
and  others  of  the  clan,  among  whom  was  one  known  by  the  descriptive  name  of 
Evil  Willie,  invaded  the  town.  Being  expected  by  the  citizens,  the  Forbeses  were, 
after  some  fatal  bloodsheding,  surrounded,  and  kept  prisoners  in  the  Grey  Friars'  place 
for  a  day,  and  released  only  with  the  loss  of  their  horses.  Seven  years  later  on  the 
occasion  of  King  James  V.  visiting  Aberdeen,  the  same  turbulent  Master  of  Forbes 
was  accused  of  entering  into  some  conspiracy  against  his  Majesty's  safety,  for  which 
he  was  tried  and  executed  ;  being,  by  way  of  favour,  beheaded  instead  of  hanged. 

Singularly  enough,  some  time  after  the  execution  of  the  Master,  his  next  younger 
brother,  who  became  seventh  Lord  Forbes,  was  appointed  by  King  James  V.  one  of  the 
gentlemen  of  his  bed-chamber.  One  reason,  perhaps,  for  both  the  death  of  John, 
Master  of  Forbes,  and  the  favour  shown  to  his  brother  was,  that  the  family  was  at  that 
time  of  sufficient  influence  to  be  a  cause  of  jealousy  to  Lord  Huntly,  and  to  be  worth 
being  conciliated  by  the  Monarch.  The  rent  roll  of  William,  seventh  Lord  Forbes,  in 
1552,  which  is  still  extant,  shows  him  to  have  possessed  estates  in  Auchindoir,  Tully- 
nessle  and  Forbes,  Alford,  Glenmuick,  Tough,  Cluny,  Kincardine  O'Neil,  Midmar,  Birse, 
Foveran,  and  King-Edward.  He  was  married  to  a  sister  of  the  Countess  Marischal,  and 
their  third  daughter  was  the  mother  of  Dr.  Arthur  Johnston,  the  poet.  His  fourth  son, 
Kobert  Forbes,  was  the  last  Prior  of  Monymusk. 

The  first  Leslie  of  Warthill,  who  was  the  second  son  of  John  Leslie,  second  baron 
of  Wardes,  and  died  in  1561,  was,  a  few  years  before  his  death,  knocked  down  in  some 
quarrel  at  Lawrence  Fair  of  Kayne,  by  the  possessor  of  the  other  half  of  Warthill, 
Tullidaff,  the  representative  probably  of  the  Harlaw  soldier.  Leslie's  father  and  brother 
were  present,  and  supposing  him  to  be  slain,  they  pursued  Tullidaff,  and  killed  him  on 
the  Moor  of  Kayne,  where  Tullidaff's  cairn  still  marks  the  spot. 

The  vigour  of  baronial  life  in  those  days  had  a  curious  exemplification  in  the 
person  of  Janet  Cruikshank,  the  wife  of  the  first  Warthill.  On  the  occasion  of  the 
marriage  of  their  sixteenth  child — when  their"  children  and  grandchildren  present 
numbered  thirty-four — the  old  couple  danced  with  the  rest ;  and  after  his  death,  the 
widow,  then  above  sixty  years  of  age,  and  mother  of  twenty-one  children,  married 
again. 

Half  a  century  later,  manners  of  a  very  rough  order  occasionally  appeared.  The 
eleventh  Baron  of  Balquhain  had  to  obtain  letters   of  remission  for  a  manslaughter. 


Parochial  Matters  in  the  Garioch.  141 

His  father  had  three  wives  all  living  at  the  same  time.     The  father  and  son,  by  their 
extravagance,  brought  ruin  on  the  family  represented  by  them. 

The  Elphinstones  of  Glack  seem  to  have  belonged  to  the  party  of  the  Forbeses,  and 
were  sharers  in  the  unquiet  life  of  the  period.  In  1533,  William  Forbes  of  Corsindae 
presented  himself  within  the  larger  chamber  of  the  Palace  of  the  Bishop  of  Aberdeen, 
as  cautioner  for  William  Elphinstone  of  Glack,  and  Symon  Elphinstone,  that,  as 
satisfaction  for  a  homicide,  they,  though  "  sobir  in  guidis,"  would  pay  ten  merks  to  the 
wife  and  bairns  of  the  slain  man,  and  go  to  the  three  heid  pilgrimages  in  Scotland  and 
get  masses  said  for  his  soul. 

A  new  Garioch  family,  the  Setons  of  Mounie,  was  originated  through  the  foreseeing 
alienation  of  Church  lands  on  the  eve  of  the  Eeformation.  In  1556,  the  Chancellor, 
Alexander  Seton,  had  several  of  the  holdings  now  comprised  in  the  estate  of  Mounie 
in  possession,  and  his  brother  William,  the  laird  of  Meldrum,  got  the  rest.  Upon 
resignation,  in  1575,  the  whole  were  granted  by  the  Bishop  to  William's  second  son, 
John  Seton  of  Lumphart,  thereafter  John  Seton  of  Mounie.  His  line  is  extinct,  and 
the  estate  is  now  possessed  by  a  descendant  of  his'  half  brother,  James,  the  first  Seton  of 
Pitmedden,  whose  family  are  the  only  Setons  now  in  Aberdeenshire. 

The  Forbes  rent-roll  of  1552  exhibits  a  condition  of  covenanted  tenancy  long 
established  in  Aberdeenshire,  which  was  attempted,  only  fifty  years  later,  to  be  forced 
upon  the  adoption  of  the  Western  clan  chiefs,  to  prepare  the  way  for  law  and  order 
taking  the  place  of  abused  patriarchal  rule.  All  the  estates  had  evidently  been  rented 
at  a  much  earlier  period  in  holdings  of  the  uniform  size  of  one  pleuch,  or  eight  oxgang, 
which  had  come  to  be  much  subdivided  by  equal  partition,  so  that,  in  1552,  the  original 
pleuch  was  represented  by  mixtures  of  halves,  fourths,  and  eights,  all  classed  under  the 
original  title,  with  the  rent  distributed  proportionally.  A  uniform  grassum  of  eight 
merks  was  paid  for  entrance  to  one  pleuch ;  and  the  same  sum  was  the  money  part  of  a 
pleuch  rent  whatever  the  value  of  the  holding.  The  rest  of  the  rent  consisted,  in  the 
upland  parishes,  of  live  stock  entirely,  but  in  the  low  country  contained  malt,  meal, 
oats,  and  peats.  In  Tough  and  Cluny,  a  pleuch  yielded  eight  merks,  two  wedders,  a 
dozen  capons,  one  swyne,  and  two  leitts  of  peats.  In  Foveran,  a  pleuch-rent  was  eight 
merks,  one  boll  malt,  one  and  a  half  of  meal,  two  wedders,  two  bolls  oats,  a  dozen 
capons,  one-fourth  of  a  custom  cow,  and  two  leitts  of  peats.  Money  must  have  been  in 
some  degree  of  circulation,  as  the  laird  could  demand  value  for  the  articles  of  rent ;  a 
custom  cow  being  held  as  worth  40s.,  a  swyne  20s.,  a  wedder  10s.,  and  a  leitt  of  peats,  2s. 

PAROCHIAL  MATTERS   IN   THE  GARIOCH. 

Some  scraps  of  local  history,  at  Rayne  and  Insch,  at  that  period,  are  of  the  same 
rude  type  as  the  incidents  just  noticed.  In  1535,  at  a  Bishop's  Court  held  at  Bayne, 
James  Hill,  in  Fingess,  was  prosecuted  for  banning  Dominus  de  Johnston  and  the  vicar 
of  Rayne,  saying — "  I  pray  God  that  the  ayris  of  Caskebenne  never  prospere,  for  the 


142  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioeh. 

thinggis  they  do  to  me  " ;  and,  addressing  the  vicar,  who  had  been  Caskieben's  repre- 
sentative— "  I  pray  to  God,  Schir  Wieair,  that  ye  never  se  the  faice  of  God  ". 

The  next  year,  in  Insch,  where  the  priest  and  clerk  both  seem  to  have  served  by 
deputy,  the  deputies  came  to  severe  conclusions.  The  curate,  William  Anderson, 
claimed  the  intervention  of  the  Dean  of  the  Garioeh,  Master  Duncan  Oudny,  in  his 
behalf  against  Andrew  Gardyne,  clerk-depute.  The  depute-priest  had  put  the  depute- 
clerk  under  some  deserved,  but  unwelcome,  discipline,  and  the  culprit,  "  on  the  day  of 
the  holy  Epiphany,  said  to  him,  in  presence  of  the  sacrament,  and  before  the 
parishioners," — "  And  ye  gar  me  gang  furtht  of  the  Kyrk  ;  gif  I  be  cursit  I  sail  do  ane 
cursit  deid,  and  gif  you  with  ane  quhynger  " — threatening  the  same,  because  he  com- 
manded the  clerk  to  go  out  of  the  church. 

The  earliest  parochial  transaction  on  record,  respecting  Inverurie,  took  place  23rd 
June,  1536,  and  was  the  election  of  a  parish  clerk  apparently  by  universal  suffrage,  in 
which  females  as  well  as  males  voted.  Similar  elections,  about  the  same  time,  in 
Daviot  and  Leochel  are  on  record.  It  is  very  interesting  to  find,  at  that  date,  a  con-, 
stituency  entirely  popular,  which  has  been  supposed  to  be  a  gift  of  modern  Liberalism. 
The  Inverurie  election  gives  us  a  long  list  of  names  of  the  families  then  resident  in  the 
parish.  On  the  day  named  there  appeared,  within  the  Church  of  Inverurie : — "  Alexander 
Leslie  of  Kincragy ;  Patrick  TJrcan,  David  Urcan,  Patrick  Robertson,  Umphray  Henre, 
John  Urcan,  Ingram  Mortimar,  Thomas  Henry,  Bessie  Mortimar,  Alexander  Davidson, 
Maryiota  Seitoun,  George  Mortymer,  Thomas  Crag,  Patrick  Mill,  Thomas  Mill,  David 
Mill,  "William  Bennet,  James  Leslie,  John  Mortimar,  Alexander  Creychtoun,  John 
Swaipe,  William  Smyth,  Thomas  Cove,  William  Duncanson,  John  Brachra,  John  Wat, 
John  Wilsoune,  Alexander  Dikkie,  William  Wat,  Marjorie  Dikkie,  Andrew  Makkie,  Paul 
Donaldson,  James  Andrew,  David  Bobertson,  Patrick  Endeaucht,  William  Henry, 
William  Urcane,  George  Grub,  John  Makkie,  Bobert  Johnsoune,  John  Wychtman, 
William  Cowe,  William  Bobertson,  William  Barnet,  William  Philpe,  John  Andrew, 
James  Banyeaucht,  Bobert  Fergus,  Andrew  Bonaldson,  John  Tailyoure,  Walter  Tail- 
youre,  Cuthbert  Jhonston,  John  Bobertson,  Patrick  Coupar,  William  Blackhall,  John 
Jack,  Bobert  Andersoune,  Antony  Makkie,  Alexander  Bonaldson,  Mallie  Clark,  Mallie 
Urcane,  John  Huchoun,  Walter  Banyeaucht,  John  Wobstar,  John  Johnstoun,  Dominus 
James  Kyd,  vicar,  Alexander  Crommie,  William  Wobstar — so  many  parishioners  of 
Inuerovre,  and  gave  their  votes  to  John  Leslie,  to  enjoy  and  possess  the  office  of  Clerk 
of  Inuervry,  when  it  should  vacate  by  the  decease  of  John  Blackhall,  last  parish  clerk, 
or  any  other  way  :  Upon  which  the  said  presentee  took  instruments  : — Done  within 
the  said  parish  between  the  hours  of  six  before  noon  and  one  after  noon,  or  thereabout, 
in  presence  of  John  Patre,  John  Beche,  Walter  Tailyeoure,  Bobert  Fergus,  and  a 
notary." 

On  24th  June,  1536,  John  Leslie,  son  of  Alexander  Leslie  of  Kincragy,  appeared 
personally  at  the  high  altar  within  the  Parish  Kirk  of  Inveroury,  alleging  himself  to 


Parochial  Matters  in  the  Garioch.  1 43 

have  been  true  and  undoubted  elected  and  presented  parish  clerk  of  Inuerovry ;  and, 
lest  that  Church  should  remain  destitute  of  service,  offering  himself  as  prepared  to 
serve  the  vicar  in  altar  and  person,  in  all  things  pertaining  to  the  office  of  parish  clerk. 
He  took  instruments,  at  ten  hours,  a.m.,  in  presence  of  Dom.  James  Kyd,  vicar  pensioner, 
Walter  Banyeaucht,  William  Duncan,  John  Tailyeour,  and  a  notary,  and  many  others 
of  the  parishioners. 

The  same  day  William  Blakhall  of  that  Ilk  appeared  personally,  and  protested  that 
he  was  the  depute  of  John  Blakhall,  parish  clerk  of  Inuerovry ;  and  offered  himself  as 
being  prepared  to  do  service,  protesting  also  that  the  election  of  John  Leslie  was  void, 
because  the  parishioners  had  not  been  properly  informed  of  the  matter. 

The  Inverurie  election  seems  to  have  been  a  characteristic  example  of  parish 
politics  ;  the  attempt  of  one  important  party  to  supplant  another  in  local  position, — a 
bit  of  village  life  not  seldom  repeated  since.  Blakhall  of  that  Ilk  was  at  the  head  of 
society  in  the  parish,  and  Kincraigie — a  cadet  of  the  house  of  Balquhain — was  then  rising 
into  influence. 

Kincraigie  was  one  of  the  slayers  of  the  "  Spangare  ".  Possibly  he  may  have  been 
the  Abbey  tenant  of  Badifurrow,  as  his  grandson,  "  Bonnie  Patrick,"  became  afterwards 
owner  and  the  first  laird  we  know  of  that  estate.  John,  the  clerk  elect,  was  Kincraigie's 
second  son.  He  would  be  supported  by  the  Balquhain  faction,  to  which  belonged  the 
Mortimers — some  of  the  Craigievar  family,  then  resident  in  Auchorthies,  of  which  they 
were  part  proprietors  for  a  long  period.  Possibly  others  of  the  electors  were  Balquhain 
tenants,  the  same  names  appearing  long  after  in  the  tenant-roll  of  that  property.  Not  a 
few  of  the  names  recorded  at  the  election  will  be  recognised  as  still  local  names.  Several 
of  them  appear  in  the  proprietary  of  Inverurie  immediately  after  1600,  e.g.,  Banyeaucht, 
Hucheon,  Craig,  Seton,  and  Johnston.  Robert  Fergus,  in  all  likelihood,  was  ancestor 
of  the  Aberdeenshire  families  of  Ferguson.  It  is  possible  that  John  Blakhall,  the  aged 
clerk,  after  the  manner  of  the  well-to-do  clergy — with  whom  as  a  man  of  family  he  might 
associate — took  his  duties  easily,  and  gave  colourable  occasion  to  the  movement  of  Kin- 
craigie. Dominus  James  Kyd,  vicar  pensioner,  was  only  the  vicar's  substitute,  like  the 
chaplain-curate-presbyter  Scroggy,  of  the  former  century. 

The  vicar  of  the  time  seems  to  have  been  Gilbert  Cranstone  (a  friend  of  the  parson 
of  Kinkell),  who  it  is  likely  seldom  left  the  polished  society  of  the  Cathedral  Close, 
where  the  vicar  of  1500,  Andrew  Bisset,  built  an  Inverurie  Manse,  near  Caskieben's 
town  house  and  the  prebendary  of  Clatt's  residence.  Before  1543,  Cranstone  had  died 
at  some  considerable  age.  In  that  year,  his  friend,  Canon  Galloway,  mortified  his 
property  of  Cryne's  land,  in  Futtie,  Aberdeen,  for  the  spiritual  weal  of  "  Mary  Queen 
of  Scots,  and  of  the  souls  of  James  IV.  and  James  V.,  of  Bishops  Elphinstone  and 
Dunbar,  and  of  hers,  and  lastly,  of  a  late  venerable  man,  Gilbert  Cranstone,  oncevicar 
of  Inveroury  ". 

The  minutes  of    election  of   a   parish    clerk   at   Daviot,    in    1550,    preserve  the 


144  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

names  of  a  number  of  the  parishioners  at  that  date.  John  Leslie,  student  in  Aberdeen, 
was  elected  apparently  colleague  to  Master  Andrew  Leslie,  the  clerk.  The  voters  were 
Thomas  Davidsone,  Mallata  (Mallie)  Elphinston,  Andrew  Greige,  John  Keyth,  William 
Mathers,  William  Philp,  William  Bruis,  John  Johnstone,  John  Davidsone,  Andrew 
Criste,  John  Murdo,  William  Senzeour,  William  Styll,  David  Senzeour,  William 
Duncane,  William  Udo,  John  Paterson,  Agnes  Criste,  Bessie  Philp,  David  Hyll,  John 
Sowtar,  John  Andrew,  John  Gouper,  Thomas  Kempe,  Andrew  Duncane,  Elizabeth 
Cromme,  Lady  of  Glak,  William  Duncan,  David  Sowtar,  Henry  Maling,  Janet  Kyng, 
Alexander  Johnston,  Andrew  Johnston,  Mallata  Criste,  James  Duncan,  William  Criste, 
Andrew  Blyth,  Cristian  Litiljohne,  Mariota  Bannerman,  Andrew  Duncan,  John  Clark, 
William  Endeaucht,  George  Andersone,  Alexander  Henersone,  Thomas  Murdo,  Alex- 
ander Fudes,  John  Browne,  Ebbota  (Eppie  ?)  Criste,  William  Browistar,  William 
Henersone,  Alexander  Strath,  John  Philp,  Thomas  Andersone,  William  Duncan,  John 
Findlay,  James  Wobstar,  John  Patre,  John  Waulcar,  Patrick  Quhit,  Andrew  Harve, 
William  Benet,  Gilbert  Styll,  William  Hyll,  Andrew  Maling,  Adam  Hyll,  Janet  Hyll, 
John  Paterson,  Alexander  Cowe,  James  Chapman,  Andrew  Davidsone,  Elizabeth 
Maling,  John  Nicholl,  John  Findlay,  Alexander  Davidsone,  Thomas  Davidsone,  James 
Myll,  Thomas  Myll,  Alexander  Myll,  William  Myll,  William  Cutberd,  David  Eeche, 
Thomas  Kemp,  Katrine  Leslie,  Margaret  Trumbill,  Thomas  Stevin,  Alexander 
Gowane,  William  Lenyeour,  John  Cordinar. 

THE  EVE    OF  THE  REFORMATION. 

It  is  not  an  uncommon  experience  on  the  eve  of  great  changes  in  human  affairs,  to 
behold  arrangements  being  made  which  presuppose  that  no  such  changes  are  within  the 
bounds  of  probability.  A  few  years  were  to  render  the  generous  dedication  of  his 
property,  by  the  parson  of  Kinkell,  futile,  by  making  masses  no  longer  legal  in  his 
beloved  Cathedral;  and  were  even  to  throw  down  his  own  altar  of  St.  Michael,  and  his 
predecessor  Parson  Lichton's  aisle  in  the  great  Cathedral,  along  with  the  palace  which 
Galloway  had  helped  to  plan  and  decorate  for  his  friend,  Bishop  Dunbar.  The  pious 
mortifications  were  to  be  begged  for,  scrambled  for,  and  possibly  filched,  by  the  barons 
— as  ready  for  activity  in  that  profitable  way  as  in  making  raids  upon  the  burgesses  of 
a  town,  or  waylaying  an  offending  member  of  a  rival  family,  to  run  him  through  with 
their  whingers. 

The  most  powerful  families  about  the  seats  of  the  great  abbeys  had,  before  then, 
begun  to  have  lay  members  of  their  houses  made  Commendators,  or  lay  abbots.  The 
Abbeys  of  Deer  and  Lindores  were,  already,  thus  appropriated  to  scions  of  the  families 
of  Keith  and  Leslie,  At  the  Reformation,  some  of  these  Commendators  adopted  the 
new  doctrines ;  and  were  thereby  able  to  retain  most  of  the  revenues  which  they 
had  previously  administered.  A  temporal  lordship  of  Lindores,  vested  in  the  person  of  a 
Leslie,  son  of  a  Commendator  of  the  Abbey,  had,  in  this  way,  a  great  mass  of  the  Abbey 


The  Eve  of  the  Reformation.  145 


possessions  appropriated  to  it,  including  the  Inverurie  lands,  and,  generally,  the  Garioch 
property  of  that  Ahhey  ;  and  the  new  Lord  Lindores  quickly  spent  it,  as  it  was 
prophesied  that  the  then  Earl  Marischal  would  do  with  the  Buchan  estates  of  the 
Abbey  of  Deer. 

Only  sixteen  years  after  the  parson  of  Kinkell  had  provided  the  mass  for  Gilbert 
Cranstone,  and  but  six  years  after  the  good  man's  own  eyes  were  closed  upon  his  many 
works,  the  Bishop,  William  Gordon  (brother  of  the  Earl  of  Huntly),  in  1559,  consigned 
part  of  the  plate  of  the  Cathedral  to  the  canons,  for  concealment  during  the  storm  that 
he  saw  impending ;  and,  subsequently,  he  handed  over  his  Palace  of  Fetternear,  and 
other  Garioch  estates,  to  William  Leslie,  the  ninth  baron  of  Balquhain,  by  a  grant  which 
received  royal  confirmation  in  1602. 

The  baron  of  Balquhain  was  not  among  those  who  played  for  the  winning  game. 
He  earned  his  gift  of  Fetternear  honourably ;  by  protecting  the  Cathedral  of  Aberdeen 
from  total  destruction,  when  a  body  of  reformers  by  fire  and  sword  from  the  south 
country  invaded  Aberdeen.  His  duty  as  Sheriff-depute,  under  Lord  Huntly,  gave  him 
that  task  to  perform. 

The  Diocese  of  Aberdeen  seems  to  have  been  in  a  bad  condition  when  the  Beforma- 
tion  overtook  it;  and  the  clergy,  who  were  about  the  bishop,  themselves  saw  the 
necessity  of  trying  to  avert  public  indignation,  by  spontaneously  inaugurating  a 
change  for  the  better.  In  1547,  a  preaching  canon  was  appointed  to  lecture  on 
theology,  in  the  Cathedral,  twice  a  week,  and  to  perambulate  the  country,  preaching  in 
the  churches ;  which  evidently  had  been  in  a  great  measure  silent  in  that  respect,  or 
had  only  some  service  like  the  quarterly  preachings  enjoyed  by  the  parishes  belonging 
to  the  Priory  of  Monymusk.  In  1558,  the  Dean  and  Chapter  addressed  to  the  Bishop 
a  "  counsall,"  the  following  extract  from  which  too  well  sets  forth  the  desertion  of 
duties,  and  the  vicious  lives,  chargeable  upon  the  priesthood  : — "  Imprimis  that  my 
Lord  of  Aberdene  cause  the  kirkmen  within  his  Lordschipe's  diocie  to  reforme  thaim- 
selfs  in  all  thair  sclanderous  maner  of  Lyving,  and  to  remove  thair  oppin  concubinis, 
als  well  greit  as  small.  .  .  .  Item  for  preching  to  be  maid  within  the  hail  Diocie. 
That  there  be  sent  letters  monitorie  upon  the  haill  personis,  abbotes  and  prioris  to  cause 
preching  to  be  maid  within  their  kirkis,  betwixt  this  (5th  January,  1558)  and  Fastern's 
Evin  next,  at  least  once  in  ilk  paroch  kirk,  and  an  uthir  tyme  between  that  and  Pasche, 
with  continuation ;  and  failzeing  thereof  that  my  Lord  cause  send  ane  prechor  to  ever 
ilk  kirk  that  is  nocht  prechit  in  Lentron  thaireaftir." 

Little  margin  of  time,  however,  was  left  wherein  to  avert  the  approaching  destruc- 
tion, by  this  late  amendment.  In  1560,  the  riots,  which  dishonoured  the  Eeformation, 
reached  Aberdeen  ;  and  Huntly,  the  Queen's  lieutenant  in  the  north,  had  to  come  with 
his  Sheriff,  Balquhain,  to  the  protection  of  the  Cathedral  and  of  the  Bishop,  who,  by 
their  aid,  was  able  to  remain  in  his  diocese,  when  the  other  Bishops  in  Scotland  had 
to  seek  safety  in  flight. 

19 


146  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

The  reformed  doctrines  received  the  sanction  of  Parliament  in  1560,  but  the 
Bishop  of  Aberdeen  retained  his  possessions  for  six  years  longer. 

QUEEN  MARY'S  VISIT  TO   BALQUHAIN. 

The  fortunate,  but  deserving,  Laird  of  Balquhain,  William  Leslie,  son  of  John 
Leslie,  eighth  baron,  and  of  his  wife,  the  daughter  of  Patrick  Leslie  of  Ardoyne,  succeeded 
his  father  in  1561.  The  next  year  he  had  the  honour  of  entertaining  the  young 
widowed  Queen  Mary,  when,  having  returned  home  from  Prance,  she  was  making  her 
first  progress  through  her  kingdom. 

At  the  Castle  of  Balquhain  she  passed  the  night  of  the  9th  September,  1562.  It 
is  said  that,  during  the  Queen's  visit,  the  Pari  of  Huntly  proposed  to  Balquhain  that  he 
should  be  his  accomplice  in  putting  to  death  her  natural  brother,  Lord  James  Stewart, 
who  had  been  recently  created  by  her  Pari  of  Moray — a  dignity  which  Huntly  had 
himself  possessed.  During  the  Queen's  absence  in  Prance,  Huntly  had  been  deprived 
of  several  high  offices ;  some  of  which,  on  his  pleading  his  cause  to  her,  she  restored  to 
him.  He,  however,  regarded  the  new  Pari  of  Moray  as  his  enemy,  and  plotted  his 
death.  Balquhain,  who  had,  on  other  occasions,  been  able  to  calm  the  temper  of  the 
great  chief,  whose  ally  he  was,  managed  to  turn  him  from  his  violent  purpose. 

Huntly,  however,  in  consequence  of  his  being  the  head  of  the  Catholic  party,  was, 
at  that  time,  made  much  of  by  the  Queen's  French  relatives,  who  perhaps  believed  he 
could  restore  the  old  religion,  and  they  held  forth,  as  a  bait  to  him,  the  chance  of  the 
Queen  taking  his  handsome  son,  Sir  John  Gordon  of  Pindlater,  for  her  second  husband. 
At  Balquhain,  Huntly  had  pressed  Her  Majesty  too  warmly  to  visit  him  in  his  Castle 
of  Strathbogy,  so  that  she  was  offended,  and  refused  his  hospitality,  passing  on  to 
Inverness.  He  suspected,  from  her  conduct,  that  other  causes  were  at  work  than  his 
ill-timed  importunity,  and  that  his  enemies  were  too  strong  for  him  at  court.  Huntly 
permitted  himself  to  be  frightened  into  overt  acts  of  rebellion  and  took  up  arms.  The. 
result  was  the  battle  of  Corrichie,  fought  24th  October  the  same  year,  and  his  own 
death,  and  the  execution  of  his  son,  Sir  John  Gordon,  a  few  days  afterwards,  at 
Aberdeen.  Huntly  himself,  who  was  a  corpulent  man,  was  smothered  in  the  crowd 
when  he  was  taken  prisoner.  The  tragical  downfall  of  the  Gordons,  by  that  rash 
treason,  gave  origin  to  the  ballad  of  "  The  Battle  of  Corrichie  ". 

An  incident  related  of  Huntly's  rebellion  belongs  to  the  superstitious  habits  of  the 
period  In  his  march  southward  he  encamped  near  Inverurie,  on  the  Hill  of  Crichie ; 
but  being  warned,  by  a  warlock,  to  beware  of  Corrichie,  he  hastily  departed,  thinking 
he  was  leaving  the  place  of  the  fatal  name  behind  him,  and  halted  not  until  he  reached 
the  spot  to  which  the  words  of  doom  really  bore  reference — the  How  of  Corrichie,  on 
the  Hill  of  Fare. 

Queen  Mary's  brief  lodging  place  on  her  passage  through  the  regality  of  the 
Garioch,  the  Castle  of  Balquhain — erected  soon  after  1525 — was,  when  she  visited  it,  a 


Queen  Mary's  Visit  to  Balquhain.  147 

tall  square  tower,  with  outlying  buildings,  placed  picturesquely  on  a  rocky  knoll,  which 
overhangs  the  Natrick, — a  mile,  or  more,  eastward  from  the  old  rude  Balquhain  fastness 
on  the  summit  of  Benachie.  During  the  last  few  years,  large  portions  of  this  once 
imposing  stronghold  have  been  tumbling  down,  taking  away  angle  after  angle  of  the 
interesting  pile.     "  The  Queen's  Tree  "  at  Pitcaple  is  a  tradition  of  her  visit. 

During  her  stay  at  the  Leslies'  castle,  Queen  Mary  attended  mass  at  the  Chapel  of 
the  Blessed  Virgin  of  the  Garioch.  As  the  Reformation  was  then  two  years  old,  her 
presence  was,  it  is  likely,  among  the  last  occasions  on  which  its  six  stately  chaplains 
assembled.  The  royal  visit  formed  a  fitting  close  to  the  two  centuries  of  aristocratic 
history  belonging  to  the  little  tabernacle — erected  by  the  heroic  Christian  Bruce,  first 
Lady  of  the  Garioch,  on  the  high  place  of  her  regality.  Its  services  had  always  been 
associated  with  the  memory  of  the  great ;  and  of  those  who  were  ambitious  of  mixing 
among  the  great,  though  it  were  but  in  prayers  for  the  weal  of  their  disembodied 
spirits. 

No  stone  of  the  ancient  Chapel  is  now  discernible.  What  became  of  its  revenues 
when  it  was  silenced,  we  can  conjecture  from  knowing  the  destination  of  most 
of  the  ecclesiastical  endowments  ;  which  were  carefully  diverted  from  the  possibility  of 
ecclesiastical  abuse  any  more,  and  found  a  safe  asylum,  from  even  religious  uses,  in  the 
pockets  of  the  reforming  nobles.  A  document  among  the  Bourtie  papers  records  an 
appointment  to  one  of  the  chaplainries,  after  the  ditties  of  such  office  had  become 
impossible.  On  28th  March,  1600,  David,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  gave  "collation  to  Mr. 
George  Seton  in  the  Chaplainry  of  Collihill,  of  which  the  Earl  of  Mar  was  undoubted 
patron  ".  James  Seton  was  laird  of  Bourtie  at  the  time,  and  accountable  for  the  ten 
libs  rent  payable  to  the  Colliehill  chaplain,  who  was  his  own  brother,  titular  Chancellor 
of  the  See  of  Aberdeen  at  that  time. 

The  last  legal  form  taken  by  the  ancient  institution  appears  in  the  following  extract 
from  a  proof  of  the  Pittodrie  rental  in  1797  : — 

"  As  also  the  Bight  of  Patronage  and  Superiority  of  the  Hospital  of  Balhaggarty, 
which  of  old  was  the  Patronage  of  the  Chaplainries  of  the  Chappel  of  Garioch,  Wartle, 
Colliehill,  Pitgavenny,  and  Kh'kinglass,  now  erected  into  the  said  Hospital  called  the 
Hospital  of  Balhaggarty,  by  virtue  of  an  Act  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  and  conformable  to  an  Act  of  Parliament  holden  at  Edinburgh  the  seven- 
teenth day  of  November,  in  sixteen  hundred  and  fifty-one." 

In  1599,  the  Parish  Church  of  the  united  parishes  of  Logydurno  and  Fetternear 
was  erected  where  the  Chapel  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  of  the  Garioch  had  been,  and  the 
new  parish  took  the  inherited  name  of  Chapel  of  Garioch.  An  entrance  gateway  on  one 
of  the  walls  of  the  burying-ground,  containing  a  stone  with  the  date  162(3,  was,  until 
lately,  a  funeral  porch,  through  which  all  the  dead  were  borne  into  the  sacred  place, 
and  under  the  broad  roof  of  which  the  bier  had,  in  old  times,  been  set  down  during  the 
solemn  burial  service. 


148  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Gar  loch. 


THE   LAST   OF  THE   PRIESTS. 

The  fall  of  the  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  was  broken  by  several  years  of  respite  from 
deprivation  of  his  lands  and  position,  and  he  had  time  to  execute  a  number  of  charters 
by  way  of  feu,  disposing  of  parts  of  the  property  of  the  See.  These  documents,  always 
subscribed  by  some  members  of  the  Chapter,  preserve  the  names  of  incumbents  of 
several  of  the  Garioch  parishes,  last  lights  of  the  disappearing  Church. 

A  charter  of  Glastermuir,  dated  1549,  exhibits  Alexander  Galloway  at  Kinkell ; 
and  Alexander  Seton,  Chancellor ;  Patrick  Myreton,  Archdeacon  ;  and  John  Stewart, 
Treasurer — which  three  offices  carried  with  them  generally,  if  not  ex  officio,  the  charge  of 
the  parishes  of  Bethelnie,  Bayne,  and  Daviot,  respectively.  James  Wawan  was  the 
parson  and  prebendary  of  Oyne.  Bobert  Elphinstone,  then  sub-prior  of  Monymusk,  had 
been  Archdeaeon  in  1499  and  Treasurer  in  1512.  A  charter  by  the  Bishop  of  Moray, 
in  1545,  is  witnessed  by  Henry  Lumsden,  rector  of  Kinkell — a  record  which  needs  some 
explanation  in  the  face  of  Alexander  -Galloway's  signature  in  the  same  capacity,  in 
1549.  Henry  Lumsden,  however,  appears  in  the  Chapter  of  Aberdeen,  in  1563,  as  at 
Kinkell,  after  Galloway's  death,  signing  a  charter  of  Torreleith,  along  with  the  same 
Chancellor,  and  Patrick  Myreton,  then  Treasurer,  and  John  Leslie  at  Oyne.  In  1570,  a 
charter  of  the  Lochlands  bears  the  subscription  of  Thomas  Lumsden  at  Kinkell,  Andrew 
Leslie  at  Oyne,  and  James  Johnston  at  Monymusk.  The  Chancellor  is  called  Gulielmus 
Seton  ;  but  in  a  charter,  dated  the  following  year,  of  land  in  Banchory-Devenick, 
Alexander  Seton  occurs  again,  and  also  Patrick  Myreton,  Treasurer,  and  Thomas 
Lumsden,  prebendary  of  Kinkell.  In  another  deed  the  rectory  of  Fetternear  appears, 
in  1504,  conferred  on  James  Chamer.     Andrew  Leslie  was  its  last  priest,  in  1569. 

Alexander  Seton,  vicar  of  Bethelnie,  the  Chancellor,  was  the  second  son  of 
Alexander  Seton  of  Meldrum  by  his  first  wife,  a  daughter  of  Patrick  Gordon  of  Haddo. 
He  was  uncle  of  James  Seton,  the  first  Seton  of  Pitmedden  and  of  Bourtie,  and  of 
George,  his  brother,  laird  of  Barra  in  1598,  and  Chancellor  himself  afterwards,  and 
chaplain  of  Collyhill. 

The  last  priest  of  Kemnay  whom  we  know  was  James  Garioch,  in  1540.  The 
subordinate  chapels  of  Kinkell  fared  ill  for  a  long  time  after  the  Beformation. 

John  Leslie,  parson  of  Oyne,  was  a  prominent  individual  in  the  Scottish  politics  of 
the  time.  He  belonged  to  the  family  of  Leslie  of  Cults,  descendants  of  the  Harlaw  baron 
of  Balquhain,  Sir  Andrew  Leslie,  by  the  Fair  Maid  of  Strathdon,  one  of  that  mid 
baron's  enforced  lemans,  and  was  himself  the  son  of  a  priest,  as  Bishop  Elphinstone 
was — a  connection  which  did  not  then  infer  the  entire  stain  of  bastardy.  Mani- 
festing at  the  University  of  Aberdeen  extraordinary  talents,  he  was,  in  1544,  presented 
by  the  Magistrates  of  the  City  to  the  office  of  organist  and  teacher  of  the  Song  School, 
with  a  salary  of  £20  Scots,  when  but  eighteen  years  of  age.  In  1553,  he  was  Canonist, 
or  teacher  of  canon  law,  in  King's  College,  but  pursued  his  legal  studies  afterwards  in 


The  last  of  the  Priests.  149 


Poictiers,  Toulouse,  and  Paris,  and  taught  both  canon  and  civil  law,  and  took  the 
degree  of  Doctor  Utriusque  Juris.    Dr.  Leslie  took  holy  orders  in  1558,  and  was  appointed 
official,  or  ecclesiastical  judge,  in  the  diocese  of  Aberdeen,  and  next  year  became  pre- 
bendary of  Oyne,  the  teinds  of  which  he  attempted  long  after  to  obtain  against  the 
possession  of  John  Abercromby,  the  incumbent.      In  1559,  dread  of  the  approach  of 
the  Eeformation  led   the  Bishop  to  seek  means  of  securing  the  valuable  utensils  and 
furniture  of  the   Cathedral,   and  the  articles  were  distributed  in  charge   among   the 
canons.     On  7th  July,  there  was  confided  "  to  Mr.  John  Leslie,  parson  of  Oyne,  the 
image  of  the  Virgin  Mary,   114  ounces,   in  silver".       One  of  the  witnesses   to  the 
inventory   was  Duncan  Forbes   of   Monymusk,   whose   brother   James,   of   Corsindae, 
fifteen  years  before,  had  waylaid  and  seized  the  whole  of  those  Cathedral  treasures,  while 
on  then-  way  to  a  place  of  safety  from  an  apprehended  incursion  of  the  English.     In  the 
preliminary  discussions  of  the  questions  of  the  Eeformation,  which  took  place  by  order 
of  the  Lords  of  the  Congregation.  John  Leslie  was  summoned,  along  with  Principal 
Anderson,  late  vicar  of  Kinkell,  Patrick  Myreton,  and  James  Strachan,  to  hold  argument 
with  John  Knox  and  others,  in  which  the  rough-tongued  reformer  stigmatised  Leslie  as 
"a  priest's giett".   "When  both  parties  in  the  country  thought  it  necessary  that  Queen  Mary 
should  be  solicited  to  return  to  Scotland,  and  Lord  James  Stewart,  her  natural  brother,  was 
deputed  by  the  Eeformers  to  go  to  her,  the  Catholic  Lords  sent  Dr.  Leslie  on  their  side, 
and  he  managed  to  get  her  ear  first.     He  returned  with  her  in  1561,  and  continued  her 
close  and  trusted  friend  until  her  death.      He  joined  her  on  her  escape  from  Loch 
Leven  Castle ;  was  one  of  her  commissioners  to  appeal  to  Elizabeth  against  her  inimical 
subjects ;  and  afterwards  her  messenger  to  the  English  Queen  to  remonstrate  against  the 
illegal  detention  of  Mary  in  captivity.     He  planned  the  unsuccessful  enterprise  of  the 
Duke  of  Norfolk,  and  for  his  complicity  therein  was  seized  and  sent  to  the  Tower  of 
London,  and  afterwards  banished  from  England.     From  his  retirement  in  the  Nether- 
lands he  sent  to  his  royal  mistress  a  treatise  on  afflictions  and  tranquillity  of  mind, 
composed  for  her  comfort.     The  tidings  of  her  death  so  horrified  him  that  he  retired 
into  a  monastery  near  Brussels,  where  he  died,  in  1596,  at  the  age  of  seventy. 

Dr.  Leslie  was  appointed  Bishop  of  Eoss  in  1565,  and  was  also  a  judge  in  the 
Court  of  Session.  In  1566,  by  means  of  a  royal  commission  obtained  by  him,  the  laws 
of  Scotland  were,  for  the  first  time,  collected  into  a  volume.  They  were  printed  that 
year  in  Saxon  type,  from  which  they  got  the  name  of  the  Black  Acts  of  Parliament. 

Several  of  the  Garioch  priests,  as  well  as  John  Leslie,  had  held  office  in  Bishop 
Elphinstone's  University.  Andrew  Liell,  parson  of  Daviot,  was  rector,  1498  and  1501  ; 
in  1506,  Alexander  Cullan,  prebendary  of  Oyne ;  Alexander  Galloway,  parson  of 
Kinkell,  in  1516,  1530,  and  1549— both  his  vicar  of  Kinkell,  Alexander  Anderson,  and 
himself  holding  the  rank  of  Sub-Principal  occasionally.  The  rector  of  1563  was  the 
vicar  of  Bethelnie,  Alexander  Seton,  Chancellor  of  Aberdeen. 


Chapter  V. 
THE  EEFOKMED  KIEK  AND  KING  JAMES'S  EPISCOPACY. 

Royal  Charter  of  Novodamus  to  Inverurie — Baillies  and  Town  Clerk— Prices — Manners  among 
the  Lairds— Demon  craft.  The  Beginning  of  the  Reformed  Kirk—  Garioch  Parishes — 
Substitutes  for  Ministers — New  Parish  of  Chapel — Papists.  King  James's  Kirks— Lordship  of 
Lindores— History  of  Stipends — First  Ministers  of  Inverurie,  Leslie,  Prcmnay,  and  Bourtie— 
Mr.  James  Mill — Shakespeare  in  Aberdeen — Bishops.  Education — Foundation  of  Mariichal 
College — Dr.  Arthur  Johnston — Whar  Gadie  rins.  The  School  of  Inverurie  under  Kino 
James's  Episcopacy  —  Public  Schools — The  Gramer  Scoill  of  Inverurie  —  Masters  —  Mr. 
Alexander  Mitchell.  Urbs  In  Rure — Burgh  Families.  Ardtannies.  The  Mill  of 
Inverurie — Walter  Innes — Contemporary  Matters — Contract  of  Multures.  The  Twall- 
pairt  Lands — The  Haughs — The  Landward  Parish. 

ROYAL  CHARTER  OF  NOVODAMUS  TO  INVERURIE. 

J  FN  Inverurie,  the  date  of  the  Eeformation  is  locally  remarkable  as  that  of  the 
resuscitation  of  the  municipal  life  of  the  Burgh,  when  Queen  Mary  granted  it  a 
new  charter,  in  1558 — which  document  narrated  that  its  ancient  evidents  had 
been  lost  through  pestilence,  troubles,  and  negligent  keeping,  but  that  it  had  been  a 
Burgh  beyond  the  memory  of  man.  The  Novodanius  charter  then  records  and  confirms 
the  privileges  which  had  been  enjoyed  from  time  immemorial  by  the  Burgh. 

These  included  the  right  to  erect  a  Market  Cross,  and  hold  two  weekly  markets, 
on  Wednesday  and  Saturday,  and  two  annual  fairs,  beginning  on  the  days  of  the 
Nativity  of  the  Virgin  and  of  St.  Apollinaris,  and  each  continuing  eight  days.  The 
Burgh,  which  possessed  the  right  to  elect  a  provost  and  baillies  did  not,  for  at  least  a 
century  after  the  new  charter  was  granted,  elect  a  higher  magistrate  than  baillies ;  of 
whom  there  were  generally  two,  and  sometimes  three. 

Of  the  transactions  of  the  renovated  Burgh  after  the  Novodamus  charter  had 
rehabilitated  it  in  municipal  rank,  only  a  single  fragmentary  scrap  older  than  1600 
remains.  It  is  a  torn  portion  of  the  Michaelmas  election  of  magistrates  in  a.d.  1580; 
and  is  interesting  as  illustrative  of  the  State  policy  of  the  time,  and  the  transitional 
condition  of  the  affairs  of  the  municipality  : — 

"  The  said  day  the  haill  burgesses  and  .  .  .  burgh,  after  long  and  discreet 
reasoning     ...     off  the  necessities  and  weil  of  the  toune     .     .     .     elected  William 


Royal  Charier  of  Nonodamus  to  Inverurie.  151 

Leslie  and  William  M'Kie  .  .  .  Aue  year  to  minister  justice  equalie  .  .  .  elyk 
without  respect  of  persones  or  parties  .  .  .  maintain  and  defend  the  religion  now 
stab     .     .     .     realme,  &c. 

"  The  said  day  John  Johnston,  John  Robertson  .  .  .  and  William  Thomson 
are  elected  and  chosen  he  com  ...  off  the  haill  burgers  and  communitie  to  be 
demesters  barleymen,  as  thai  are  called  to  .  .  .  geir  and  biggings,  march  landis 
even  debaitis     ...     of  controversys  among  the  nybours  for  one  yeir     .     .     ." 

The  town  clerk  of  that  date,  and  the  first  of  whom  manuscript  record  exists,  was 
Mr.  Alexander  Davidson,  notary  public. 

The  will  of  David  Chalmers  of  Balbithan,  who  died  in  1580,  affords  an  interesting 
record  of  prices  obtaining  at  the  time.  His  inventory  contained — 24  drawin  oxin, 
worth  each  8  lib.  ;  12  ky,  four  thereof  with  ther  kair  at  their  feitt,  8  merks  each  ;  3 
stirkis,  ane  yeir  auld,  30sh.  each ;  8  quoyis,  twa  yeir  auldis,  8  lib. ;  3  hors,  8  lib.  each  ; 
3  meirs,  twa  with  foilis  at  ther  feit,  6  lib.  6sh.  8d.  each  ;  6  score  auld  scheepe,  20sh. 
each ;  50  lambs,  lOsh.  each  ;  18  scoir  bollis  aittis  and  26  score  in  the  barnes  and  barne- 
yeardis,  each  boll  with  the  fodder,  26sh.  8d.  ;  60  bolls  beir,  and  5  score  8  bolls  in  barn 
and  yard,  40sh.  with  fodder ;  12  bolls  quheit,  and  19  bolls  2  peccis  in  barn  and  yards, 
3  libs,  with  fodder. 

A  sudden  transformation  of  the  rude  manners  of  the  people  was  not  to  be  looked 
for  from  a  Reformation  which  had  religious  considerations  only  in  part,  and  considera- 
tions of  plunder,  in  a  very  large  measure,  as  its  moving  causes.  The  moral  reformation 
had  yet  to  come ;  and  the  rough  rule  of  force  continued  as  before  in  the  case  of  clashing 
interests. 

Notice  has  been  already  taken  of  the  action  raised,  in  1573,  by  Lord  Forbes,  in  the 
Court  of  Session  against  the  Sheriff  of  Aberdeenshire  himself,  the  Earl  of  Huntly,  for 
oppression  of  the  kinsmen  and  vassals  of  the  house  of  Forbes.  Among  the  Forbes's 
adherents  enumerated  was  George  Johnston  of  that  Ilk,  and  three  of  his  near  relatives. 
That  laird  of  Caskieben  was  son  of  William  Johnston,  younger  of  that  Ilk,  who,  in  his 
father's  lifetime,  was  killed  in  the  battle  of  Pinkie,  in  September,  1547.  He  was 
himself  Lord  Forbes's  son-in-law,  and  father  of  the  well-known  Dr.  Arthur  Johnston ; 
and  of  twelve  more  children,  providing  for  whom  much  impaired  the  family  estates. 

In  1584,  the  laird  of  Owchorsk  (Aquhorsk)  was  slain,  in  Aberdeen,  by  another  laird, 
John  Chalmers  of  Balbithan  ;  and  six  years  later,  in  1590,  Chalmers's  cousin,  Alexander 
Seton,  the  young  laird  of  Meldrum,  was  killed  by  his  neighbour,  William  Kyng  of 
Barraucht,  and  his  brother,  David  Kyng,  "and  their  complessis  ".  In  February,  1587, 
Balquhain,  with  fifty  horsemen,  made  a  bragging  raid  upon  the  town  of  Aberdeen. 
Next  month,  his  son  with  twenty  followers,  made  another  raid  upon  the  house  of 
Achnacant,  in  Buchan,  in  which  murder  was  done.  In  1595,  William  Kyng  was  at 
"  deidlie  feid "  with  James  Cheyne  of  Straloch.  Their  two  estates  are  now  the 
property  of  one  and  the  same  owner. 


152  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

So  late  as  1606,  the  heads  of  the  principal  families  of  Forbes  came  under  a  bond, 
on  the  part  of  the  whole  clan,  to  deliver  up  a  brother  of  Forbes  of  Corsindae,  and  some 
others,  for  murdering  a  servant  of  Irvine  of  Artarnford,  and  for  the  attempted  murder  of 
some  of  the  Irvine  race,  to  the  sentence  of  Alexander  Irvine  of  Drum,  their  chief.  The 
penalty  inflicted  was  2000  pounds  for  the  murdered  man,  and  for  the  wounding  of  two 
other  individuals,  1000  pounds  to  each  of  them. 

Belief  in  demoncraft  was,  in  1594,  so  prevalent  that  ministers  and  elders  were 
directed  by  the  Church  to  make  all  efforts  to  put  an  end  to  the  superstitious  practice  of 
leaving  a  "  good  man's  croft "  uncultivated  on  a  farm  or  estate.  It  was  a  piece  of 
ground  left  to  the  occupation  of  supernatural  beings,  in  honour  of  whom  the  tillers  of 
the  soil  threw  stones  upon  it  with  some  ceremonies.  Inverurie,  Monkegy,  and  Forgue 
all  furnish  examples  of  the  practice.  The  order  of  the  Church  must  have  got  scant 
attention,  for  it  had  to  be  repeated  a  century  afterwards. 

In  1596,  four  pirates  were  hanged  at  the  pier  of  Aberdeen  ;  and  next  year  several 
women  were  burned  as  witches.  In  that  same  year — 1597 — a  witch,  Isobel  Straquhan, 
alias  Skudder,  was  too  near  Inverurie  for  its  peace  of  mind.  When  she  had  brought  to 
trial,  "  The  haill  browsteris,  smythis,  and  millwartis  within  the  parochin  of  Fintrey  were 
summonitt  to  testify  against  her ".  Part  of  the  evidence  was  that  "  she  com  to 
the  Mill  of  Kaskieben,  and  askit  meill  from  the  millwart,  and  he  refusit  to  girf  her 
ony ;  and  for  rewenge  thereof,  she  passed  to  the  niillquheillis,  and  with  her  witchcraft 
causit  both  of  the  quheillis  of  the  mill  to  brak  ". 

The  continuous  records  of  both  the  parish  and  burgh  of  Inverurie  begins  three 
years  after  Skudder  thus  "reistit,"  as  the  phrase  went  in  minor  witchcraft,  the  wheels 
of  what  is  now  the  Mill  of  Keith-hall. 

THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  REFORMED   KIRK. 

Two  years  after  the  Novodainus  charter  was  granted  to  Inverurie,  the  Scottish 
Parliament  sanctioned  the  reformed  doctrines ;  and  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Eeformed  Church  met.  The  celebration  of  mass,  in  1562,  in  the  Chapel  of  the  Garioch, 
when  Queen  Mary  was  present,  is  but  one  of  several  proofs  that  the  Reformation  spread 
slowly  in  Aberdeenshire.  Indeed,  it  seems  to  have  established  itself  as  tardily  as  the 
Church  of  the  Revolution  Settlement,  130  years  afterwards,  gained  ground  in  the 
country — when  twenty  years  elapsed  ere  all  the  pxilpits  of  the  Synod  of  Aberdeen  could 
be  filled  with  Presbyterian  ministers.  In  1570,  only  about  twenty  ministers  were 
obtainable  for  all  Aberdeenshire.  There  were  but  few  in  the  Garioch.  One  only,  Mr. 
John  Abercromby,  minister  of  Owne  (Oyne)  and  Premnay,  had  the  vicarage  and 
parsonage  income — an  exceptional  case,  due,  perhaps,  to  the  circumstance  that  he  was 
himself  laird  of  Westhall,  his  father  being  proprietor  also  of  a  good  deal  more  of  the 
parish.  Generally  the  ministers  got  but  a  third  or  other  part  of  their  benefices — from 
40  to  100  lbs.  Scots. 

The  ecclesiastical  picture  presented  is  the  gradual  clearing  up  of  a  chaos  which 


The  Beginning  of  the  Reformed  Kirk.  153 

resulted  from  the  sudden  vacating  of  all  the  parishes,  and,  along  with  the  disappearance 
of  the  priests,  the  vanishing  also  of  all  the  ecclesiastical  revenues ;  one-third  only  of 
which  had  gone  to  the  Crown  for  the  purpose  of  providing  ministers  to  the  parishes, 
while  the  rest  went  in  various  ways,  from  the  Abbeys  and  Cathedral  Chapters  into  the 
hands  of  lay  proprietors.  Up  to  1600  there  was  constantly  going  on  a  temporary 
arranging  of  parishes  in  convenient  groups,  under  the  care  of  ecclesiastical  officials 
holding  the  various  positions  of  readers,  exhorters,  and  ministers,  who  at  first  resided  in 
the  larger  towns  and  only  visited  their  districts  to  do  duty. 

Stephen  Masoun,  minister,  was  for  a  little  while,  from  1567,  pluralist,  in  this  way, 
of  Insch,  Logiedurno,  and  Culsalmond  ;  and  afterwards,  for  over  twenty  years,  had 
Bethelnie,  with  Bourtie  and  Bayne  at  one  period,  and  Fyvie  and  Tarves  at  another, 
attached  to  it. 

Kemnay,  one  of  the  six  chaplainries  of  Kinlcell — which  were  all  deprived  of  their 
stipends,  Kinkell  alone  being  recognised — shared  with  Echt  and  Dalmoak  (Drumoak) 
the  services  of  one  minister. 

It  is  in  this  way  that  Inverurie  first  presents  itself  after  the  Beforrnation,  the 
central  parish,  in  1573,  of  a  group  comprising  Daviot,,Monkegy,  Kinkell,  and  Kintore, 
under  the  charge  of  a  great  notable  of  the  time,  Mr.  George  Paterson — whose  stipend 
was  200  lb.,  or  £16  3s.  4d.  sterling ;  out  of  which  he  paid  the  reader  at  Daviot. 

Paterson  appears,  in  the  end  of  the  century,  commissioned  by  successive  Assemblies 
to  discharge  a  series  of  Episcopal-looking  functions  ;  overseeing  the  kirks  in  the  Garioch, 
the  Laigh  of  Mar,  and  the  Mearns  north  of  the  Mount,  on  the  waterside ;  arranging 
the  bounds  of  Presbyteries  as  they  were  gradually  constituted;  and,  in  1592,  appointed 
to  watch  over  the  practices  of  the  opponents  of  the  Beformed  Beligion.  Three  vicars, 
Alexander  Mackie  at  Inverurie,  Walter  Innes  at  Leslie,  and  Thomas  Mit  hell  at 
Bourtie,  all  deposed  about  that  time,  were  probably  of  those  who  gave  occasion  for  the 
watch  thus  directed  to  be  kept. 

The  patronage  of  the  kirks  was  assumed  by  the  Sovereign,  along  with  the  thirds 
of  the  tithes ;  which  were  made  a  common  fund  for  payment  of  the  ministers ;  and 
King  James  appears  presenting  universally  to  the  benefices. 

The  Presbyteries,  as  at  first  arranged  by  the  Assembly  in  1581,  included  a 
Presbytery  of  Inverurie,  which  got  the  name  of  Garioch  only  in  the  beginning  of  the 
following  century  ;  that  of  Alford  bearing  the  name  of  Mar  for  a  time.  The  succession 
of  ministers  occupying  the  parishes  in  the  Garioch,  when  the  group  finally  dissolved 
into  its  individual  elements,  contained  not  a  few  who  are  favourably  recorded  for  their 
status  among  educated  men ; — if  not  so  eminent  as  their  predecessors,  John  Barbour, 
Archdeacon  of  Aberdeen  and  parson  of  Bayne,  and  Alexander  Galloway,  Collyhill 
chaplain  and  parson  of  Kinkell  and  of  its  six  kirks.  The  universities  seem  to  have  at 
that  time  retained  their  most  accomplished  students,  after  their  course  of  study  was 
completed,  to  act  as  instructors,  under  the  title  of  Begents.     The   Aberdeen  colleges 

20 


154-  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom,  of  the  Gfarioch. 

furnished  not  a  few  ministers  to  the  Garioch  from  that  class  of  the  alumni ;  one  of  whom, 
Eobert  Burnet,  was  promoted  to  Oyne,  in  1596.  A  number  of  examples  occurred 
during  the  next  century. 

Logiedurno  had  a  minister  to  itself  first  in  1588,  when  Mr.  William  Strathauchin 
served  the  cure  for  three  years.  Alexander  Paterson,  transported  from  Insch  upon  pre- 
sentation by  the  King,  served  from  1592  to  1620.     His  son  became  Bishop  of  Boss. 

Bourtie  was  long  in  emerging  from  the  system  of  grouped  parishes.  From  1578 
it  was  in  charge  of  James  Johnston,  minister  of  the  parish  of  Monymusk  ;  but  it  had  a 
minister  of  its  own  in  1595,  in  the  person  of  William  Barclay,  who  went  to  tnsch  in 
1596.  Stephen  Masoun  is  said  to  have  served  Meldrum  and  it  for  some  time  after ; 
but  in  1611  Gilbert  Keith  became  minister  of  Bourtie  alone,  and  he  lived  through  great 
part  of  both  Episcopacies,  as  well  as  the  intervening  Covenant  period. 

Culsalmond,  after  a  course  of  Readers  from  1567  to  1595,  had  apparently  its  first 
minister,  Thomas  Spens,  before  1607. 

Daviot,  after  a  period  of  Beader  incumbency,  was  to  have  had  Patrick  Myreton 
(probably  its  former  parson)  for  its  first  minister  in  1573  ;  but  he  did  not  accept  the 
king's  presentation,  which  was  given,  the  same  year,  to  the  minister  of  Belhelvie,  George 
Paterson,  the  individual  who  played  the  part  of  a  small  bishop  for  more  than  twenty 
years  in  the  Garioch. 

Insch,  along  with  Logiedurno  and  Culsalmond,  was  Stephen  Masoun's  first  charge 
in  1567.  Before  1585,  Walter  Robertson,  transported  from  Clatt,  was  minister  of  Insch, 
with  Culsalmond,  Kinkell,  and  Kintore  added ;  and  leaving  it  for  Oyne,  gave  place  to 
Alexander  Paterson,  minister  of  Logie-Durno,  in  1592.  William  Barclay,  leaving 
Bourty,  served  the  cure  of  Insch  from  1596  till  1603,  obtaining  his  presentation  in  1599. 
The  Records  of  the  Family  of  Leslie  name  a  vicar  of  Insch — James  Spence — son  of 
Spence  of  Boddam,  the  husband  of  a  Leslie  of  New  Leslie,  another  of  which  family 
married  the  minister  of  Inverurie,  about  1603. 

Inverurie  appearing  first  under  the  charge  of  the  pluralist,  Mr.  George  Paterson, 
became  the  parish  of  Alexander  Mackie  ;  whose  deposition  was  followed  by  the  king 
presenting  Mr.  James  Mill,  in  1600,  to  Inverurie  and  Monkegy. 

Kemnay,  a  subordinate  kirk  of  Kinkell,  was  left  unprovided  for  at  the  Reformation  ; 
John  Walcar,  the  minister  of  Kinkell,  served  it  for  two  years,  before  1602,  for  nothing. 

Kinkell,  the  ancient  Templar  Church,  head  of  six  others,  had  only  a  Reader  up  to 
1580  ;  and  from  1586  to  1597  shared  the  services  of  its  minister,  William  Johnston, 
with  the  adjoining  parish  of  Kintore.  John  Walcar  was  there  in  1599.  He  was  formally 
presented  in  1613  to  the  benefice  of  Kinkell,  comprehending  the  kirks  of  Kinkell, 
Skene,  Drumblait,  Kemnay,  Dyce,  Kintore,  and  Kinellar. 

Kintore,  part  of  the  Presbytery  of  Aberdeen  in  the  Reformed  Church,  until  it  was 
united  to  Garioch  in  1702,  had  William  Forbes  as  its  first  minister  ;  and  lost  him  because, 
like  Kemnay,  it  furnished  no  stipend  to  a  minister.     He  went,  without  authority  of  the 


The  Beginning  of  the  Reformation.  155 

Church  courts,  to  Leslie,  in  1600,  where  he  was  offered  a  living.     His  successor  at  Kin- 
tore  was  Archibald  Eait,  who,  however,  got  a  stipend  of  fifty  rnerks  (£2  15s.  6fd). 

Leslie,  after  being  served  by  Headers  from  1574  to  1591,  was  occupied  in  1600  by 
William  Forbes,  the  starved-out  minister  of  Kintore,  who  had  a  presentation  from  the 
king  in  1602. 

Bethelnie  (Meldrum),  the  centre  of  successive  groups — first  Bethelnie,  Bourtie,  and 
Rayne,  in  1574 ;  next,  in  1585,  Bethelnie,  Fyvie,  and  Tarves  ;  and  later  Bethelnie  and 
Bourtie,  and  unconnected  after  1601 — was  served  by  Stephen  Masoun,  previously  of 
Insch,  from  1574  to  1612,  when  he  removed  to  Slains,  in  Buchan. 

Monymusk,  the  first  seat  of  Christianity  in  the  Garioch,  was  presented  to,  soon 
after  the  Reformation,  by  the  King.  James  Murray  was  to  have  it  and  Kynnairny 
(Kinnernie),  together  with  100  merks  of  stipend.  He  served  from  1567,  and  was  presented 
in  1573  ;  but  apparently  never  collated.  He  continued  as  Reader  until  1589.  John 
Forbes,  son  to  Duncan  Forbes,  laird  of  Monymusk,  also  had  a  presentation  in  1572, 
.but'  was  not  admitted.  The  first  settled  minister  was  James  Johnston,  the  vicar  of 
1570,  a  cadet,  it  is  believed  of  Caskieben.  In  1574  he  had  Cluny  also  in  charge,  with  a 
pension  of  1 33  libs.  6s.  8d,  or  £ 1 1  2s.  3|d.  In  1576,  he  had  Monymusk  only,  and  Bourtie 
was  added,  1578  to  1593,  after  which  year  Fetternear  was  substituted.  He  died  19th 
March,  1615,  aged  76.     In  1607,  he  disponed  to  his  son  one  third  part  of  Aquhorthies. 

Oyne  was  the  only  parish  in  the  Garioch  able  to  retain  its  stipend  at  the  Reformation. 
The  incumbent,  in  1570,  was  the  laird  of  Westhall  in  that  parish,  John  Abercromby, 
son  of  Abercromby  of  Pitmedden.  He  had  Premnay  also  in  charge  ;  and,  in  1574,  Logie- 
durno  likewise — he  died  before  1586.  Walter  Richardson  was,  in  that  year,  presented 
by  the  king, — a  presentation,  in  April  of  that  same  year,  to  the  vicarage  and  parsonage 
of  Rayne,  "  callit  the  arch-deaconry  of  Aberdeen,"  not  having  been  carried  out.  The 
well-known  bishop  of  Ross,  John  Leslie,  who  had  previously  been  minister  of  Oyne, 
attempted  to  obtain  possession  again;  but  Richardson  continued  until  1595,  when  he 
was  translated  to  Gartly.  Robert  Burnet,  Regent  in  King's  College,  was  promoted  to 
Oyne,  in  1596.  He  was  permanent  moderator  of  the  Presbytery,  under  the  first  Episco- 
pacy ;  having  been  appointed  by  the  Assembly  in  December,  1606,  the  Privy  Council 
ordering  the  Presbytery  to  receive  him. 

Premnay,  carried  on  by  Readers  from  1567  to  1599,  had  Robert  Burnet  as  its 
minister  in  1601  ;  and  Robert  Irving  in  1607-8. 

Rayne  was  served  by  Readers  from  1567  to  1580.  The  first  minister,  Walter  Aber- 
cromby, was  presented,  in  1585,  by  James  VI.,  having  Kennethmont  and  Christ's  Kirk 
also  in  charge.     Next  year  he  was  presented  to  the  vicarage  and  parsonage  of  Oyne. 

Among  the  notabilities  of  the  Reformed  Kirk  was  one  of  the  Garioch  Johnstons — 
John  Johnston,  of  the  Crimond  family.  He  was,  at  the  request  of  Andrew  Melville, 
appointed  his  colleague  in  the  Theological  department  of  the  University  of  St.  Andrews, 
when  it  came  under  Protestant  rule. 


156  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

The  parish,  church  of  Logiedurno  was  disused  in  1599,  and  a  church  for  the 
united  parishes  of  Logiedurno  and  Fetternear  (which  was  still  a  separate  parish  in 
1586),  erected  where  the  Chapel  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary  of  the  Garioch  had  stood, 
the  comhined  parish  inheriting  from  that  old  foundation  the  name  of  Chapel  of  Garioch. 
As  has  heen  noticed,  the  Pittodrie  family,  by  an  Act  of  Parliament  long  after  the 
Eeformation,  got  the  patronage  of  five,  or  four,  of  the  Chaplanaries  of  the  ancient 
Chapel  conferred  upon  them ;  and  these  were  erected  by  the  General  Assembly 
into  an  Hospital  of  Balhaggarty.  It  was  this  Hospital  which,  at  some  later  period, 
was  described  as  being  contained  in  "  two  chambers  and  one  mid-room,  upholding 
four  poor  men  who  ought  to  have  each  one  peck  of  meal  and  half  a  peck  of  malt  weekly, 
to  wear  livery  gowns,  and  go  to  church  on  Sundays  before  the  family  ". 

In  the  Garioch,  the  Romanists,  when  Mr.  George  Paterson  was  appointed  in 
1592,  had  in  1588  been  too  much  for  his  predecessor  in  the  superintendence,  Mr.  Peter 
Blackburn.  Some  Jesuit  priests — James  Gordon,  Edmond  Hay,  Alexander  MacWhirrie, 
John  Scott,  Alexander  Meldrum,  Arthure  Pantone — residing  chiefly  in  Moray  and  Strath- 
bogy,  were  complained  of  by  the  General  Assembly  as  seducing  everywhere  in  Buchan, 
Garioch,  Aberdeen,  and  Mar.  In  the  Garioch,  the  Laird  of  Leslie,  and  Andrew  Leslie 
of  the  Peill,  and  young  Glenbervie  (and  Kemnay)  were  named.  They  had  public  mass 
celebrated  in  the  laird  of  Leslie's  chapel,  with  "  twa  idols  above  the  altar,"  and  Mr.  Peter 
Blackburn  was  compelled  to  desist  from  visitation  by  king's  letters  purchased  by  the 
Bishop  of  Aberdeen.  Young  Douglass  did  not  continue  laird  of  Kemnay  and  Glen- 
bervie, which  went  to  his  brother,  Sir  Robert,  he  himself  becoming  tenth  Earl  of  Angus 
upon  his  father's  death,  in  1591.  He  had  become  a  Roman  Catholic,  and,  in  1592, 
joined  Lords  Erroll  and  Huntly  in  a  plot  to  restore  the  old  religion,  by  the  help  of  the 
King  of  Spain.  He  spent  the  latter  years  of  his  life  a  devotee  in  Paris,  where  he  built 
the  church  of  St.  Germain  de  Prez,  where  there  is  a  monument  to  his  memory. 

The  nominal  bishops  superadded  to  John  Knox's  Presbyterian  form  of  church, 
were  removed  in  1592,  to  re-appear  from  1606  to  1638,  and,  after  another  aboli- 
tion lasting  until  1662,  were  restored  for  nearly  thirty  years  before  the  final  establish- 
ment of  the  present  form  of  Church  government  in  Scotland. 

Scottish  history,  during  the  seventeenth  century,  was  to  be  almost  entirely 
ecclesiastical.  In  the  Garioch,  the  first  year  of  that  century  brought  the  first  of  four  or 
five  successive  forms  of  church  government  which  the  next  hundred  years  were  to  see. 

KING   JAMES'S    KIRKS. 

The  King  established  the  Garioch  vicarages  of  Lindores  into  parishes  in  1600  ;  when 
he  erected  the  bulk  of  the  Abbey  possessions  into  a  short-lived  temporal  Lordship  of 
Lindores,  in  the  person  of  Patrick  Leslie.  He  was  grandson  of  the  Earl  of  Rothes, 
and  son  of  Sir  Patrick  Leslie,  whom  King  James  had  made  Commendator  of  Lin- 
dores, when  that  office  was  resigned,  five  years  after  the  Reformation  Parliament,  by 


King  James's  Kirks.  157 


John  Leslie,  Bishop  of  Eoss,  parson  of  Oyne  in  1569.  The  King,  in  1602,  gave  John 
Leslie,  son  of  William  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  the  defender  of  the  Aberdeen  Cathedral,  per- 
manent possession  of  the  Bishop's  lands  of  Fetternear,  with  the  title  of  Constable  of 
Fetternear,  and  an  annual  rent  from  the  Bishop's  lands  in  Clatt. 

The  charter  of  erection  of  the  lordship  of  Lindores,  dated  31st  March  1600,  evi- 
dences what  lands  and  livings  had  come  into  possession  of  the  great  Abbe}',  founded 
above  four  hundred  years  before  by  David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon  and  Garioch.  The  list 
included  numerous  lands  and  rents  in  the  counties  of  Fife,  Perth,  Forfar,  and  Kincardine. 
In  Aberdeenshire,  the  Garioch,  with  the  parish  of  Fintray,  was  the  area  within  which 
the  Abbey  drew  extensive  revenues  and  upheld  religious  ordinances.  The  Abbey  pos- 
sessions included  the  lands  and  barony  of  Wranghame  ;  the  lands  of  Craigtoune,  Kirk- 
hill,  Wostoune,  Christ's  Kirk,  the  Mill  of  Leslie,  the  Kirklauds  of  Auld  Leslie ;  the  lands 
of  Largie,  Newton,  Wranghame,  with  the  mill  and  ward  of  the  same ;  Kirktown  of  Cul- 
salmond,  Pilquhyit,  Ledinghame,  and  Williamston,  with  the  mill ;  Malingsyd,  Flindirs, 
Logydurno,  Etherlik,  Kirktown  of  Insch ;  Kirktown  of  Premnay  ;  Tillymorgan ;  the 
Kirklauds  of  Kennethmont,  Christ's  Kirk,  Premnay,  Insch,  Culsalmond,  and  Logydurno  ; 
the  Chapel  Lands  of  Garioch  ;  the  lands  and  barony  of  Fintray ;  the  lands  of  Logy- 
fintray,  Fosterissait,  Wester  Fintray,  Langcruick,  Milton  of  Fintray,  Balbithan,  with  the 
fishing  in  the  Don  ;  Hedderwick ;  Craigforthie  ;  Badiforie,  with  the  fishing  in  the  Don  ; 
Monkegie ;  Westbynnes ;  Kinmuck  ;  Tullycherie ;  Wester  Disblair  ;  Easter  Disblair  ; 
Cavilsmill ;  Middle  Disblair  ;  Smedyhouse  ;  Smedycroft ;  Ailhouscroft ;  Inschdero- 
croft,  the  salmon  fishings  on  the  Don,  and  house  and  small  garden,  and  coble  fishing  at 
Futtey ;  annual  rents  from  Balhagartie,  Kellie,  and  Inverurie ;  the  Kirklands  of 
Fintray,  Inverurie,  and  Montkegie.  The  patronage  of  sixteen  churches,  including 
Fintray,  Inverurie,  Montkegy,  Logiedurno,  Culsalmond,  Insch,  Kennethmont,  Christ's 
Kirk,  Auld  Leslie,  and  Premnay,  were  included  in  the  temporal  lordship ;  but  these 
were  all  sold  by  the  first  holder  of  the  Lindores  peerage. 

The  charter  burdened  the  Lordship  with  certain  stipends  to  the  ministers  of  those 
churches.  The  King  had  an  idea,  which  he  managed  by  degrees  to  carry  out,  that  the 
right  kind  of  Kirk  for  the  monarchy  to  have  in  Scotland  would  be,  not  the  self-governing 
Presbytery  which  had  been  so  intractable  under  his  mother,  but  an  Episcopacy  in  which 
the  Bishops  should  be  dependent  on  him  for  their  positions  of  honour, — neither  presbyters 
nor  bishops,  being,  however,  in  such  pecuniary  condition  as  should  permit  them  to  be  re- 
fractory. The  King,  therefore,  gave  most  of  the  revenues  of  the  abbey  vicarages,  which  he 
could  command,  to  temporal  impropriators ;  endowing  the  parish  ministers  with  the 
smallest  part  of  them.  Each  minister,  or  rector  as  he  was  also  called,  was  to  possess  the 
small  vicarage  tithes  of  the  kirk,  or  kirks,  which  he  served ;  and,  in  addition,  a  fixed 
sum  of  money,  namely,  Fintray,  a  hundred  pounds  ;  Inverurie,  with  Monkegy,  a  hundred 
merks ;  Logydurno  (the  kirk  to  be  at  the  Chapel  of  Garioch),  a  hundred  merks ;  Cul- 
salmond, a  hundred  merks  ;  Insch,  eighty  pounds  ;  and  Premnay,  forty  pounds. 


158  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  tlie  Garioch. 

The  way  in  which  the  Garioch  ministers,  successors  of  the  Lindores  vicars,  came  to 
have  so  moderate  a  living  secured  to  them,  out  of  the  church  jsroperty  of  their  parishes, 
is  explained,  in  a  manner  characteristic  of  the  times,  by  an  Act  of  Secret  Council 
obtained,  in  1572,  by  John,  Master  of  Forbes,  against  Master  James  Harvy,  factor  of  the 
Kirks  of  the  Abbey  of  Lindores.  The  Master  of  Forbes  had  obtained,  under  the  Privy 
Seal,  during  the  distribution  of  clerical  spoil  after  1560  which  rewarded  the  new 
orthodoxy,  a  gift  of  all  the  teinds,  fruits,  and  emoluments  of  the  parish  kirks  of  Fintray, 
Monkegy,  Enrowry,  Logy-Durno,  Prymna,  Leslie,  Culsalmond,  Inche,  Christ's  Kirk, 
and  Trewle  Kirk ;  but  Master  James  Harvy,  accustomed  to  the  mode  of  collecting 
these,  had  been  too  sharp  for  him,  and  the  Master  of  Forbes  was  likely  to  find  his 
Protestant  virtue  its  own  sole  reward,  and  so  invoked  the  aid  of  the  Secret  Council. 

The  vicar's  living  at  Inverurie,  in  1297,  was  33  merks,  with  the  altarage  and  the 
tithes  of  Conglass.  The  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  had,  in  that  century,  obtained  a  Papal 
order  that  the  vicars  of  abbeys  within  his  diocese  should  have  but  15  chalders  ;  but  the 
abbeys  of  Arbroath  and  Lindores  got  the  order  withdrawn.  In  1366,  the  ecclesiastical 
revenue  of  the  parish  amounted  to  17  merks  per  vicarium,  25  chalders  of  victual,  9 
merks,  and  10  shillings.  After  King  James  fixed  the  ministers'  living  at  100  merks, 
we  have  two  valuations  of  benefices,  in  1644  and  1677,  when  that  of  Inverurie  appears 
in  those  different  years,  £2547  and  £2317 — large  sums  to  whomsoever  the  overplus 
went  which  was  left  after  payment  of  the  minister's  100  merks. 

A  short  notice  of  the  manner  of  the  transition,  from  the  ancient  endowments  to 
the  modern  system  of  stipends,  may  be  here  of  some  historical  interest. 

The  Papist  clergy  offered  Queen  Mary  part  of  their  revenues,  in  order  to  avert  the 
greater  revolution  then  impending.  The  Crown  agreed  to  take  one-third,  wherewith  to 
pay  stipends  to  the  parochial  clergy.  The  returns  of  incomes  made,  beginning  with  1560, 
showed  the  maximum  stipend,  paid  out  of  that  third,  to  be  but  300  merks,  or  £16  13s.  4d. 
In  1564,  the  General  Assembly  applied  to  the  Queen  for  more  ample  support  to  the 
ministers;  and  a  little  more  was  given.  In  1567,  an  Act  was  passed  upon  the  narrative 
that  the  ministers  had  been  long  defrauded  of  their  stipends,  ordering  the  payment  of  the 
third  to  the  ministers,  and  their  collectors,  notwithstanding  of  any  discharge  granted  by 
the  Queen,  "aye  and  until  the  kirk  come  to  their  full  possession  of  their  patrimony,  whilk 
is  the  teinds  ".  Some  years  later,  the  reformed  clergy  were  induced,  by  promise  of  a 
more  liberal  provision,  to  allow  the  third  to  be  uplifted,  as  before,  by  the  Crown's 
collectors  ;  and  a  Commission  was  appointed  to  modify  stipends  out  of  the  third.  The 
stipends  were  not,  however,  found  out  of  the  local  teinds,  but  out  of  the  general  fund, 
and  the  Bishop's  rents  were  exempted  from  payment  into  it.  Until  1617,  stipends  were 
not  provided  from  the  teinds  of  the  respective  parishes.  By  an  Act  of  that  year 
a  Commission  was  empowered  to  modify  a  perpetual  local  stipend.  The  minimum 
was  to  be  500  merks,  equal  to  £27  15s.  6|d.,  and  to  consist  of  five  chalders  of 
victual     and    mone}',    together   equal    in    value    to    500    merks,    exclusive    of    manse 


King  James's  Kirks.  159 


and  glebe.  The  maximum  was  to  be  ten  chalders,  or  £55  lis.  l^d.,  and  a 
manse  and  glebe.  The  Commission  consisted  of  thirty-two  persons,  eight  being 
selected  from  each  of  the  four  estates  of  bishops,  lords,  barons,  and  burgesses. 
In  1621,  another  Act  reduced  the  Commission  to  six  of  each  estate,  and  removed 
the  limit  to  the  stipend  that  should  be  modified,  but  prohibited  the  Commission 
from  altering  or  meddling  with  any  stipend  settled  by  the  Commission  of  1617.  King 
Charles  I.,  in  1625,  by  an  Act  of  Privy  Council,  revoked  all  former  grants  of  ecclesias- 
tical property  made  by  the  Crown,  and  all  Acts  of  Parliament  relating  thereto.  The 
nobles,  in  alarm,  petitioned  the  King,  in  1626,  to  appoint  a  Commission.  A  Commission 
of  Surrenders  and  Teinds  was  accordingly  issued,  inter  alia,  "  to  make  sufficient 
provision  for  those  churches  of  which  the  teinds  will  be  received,  if  the  said  churches 
be  not  already  sufficiently  provided ".  The  carrying  of  the  Surrender  into  effect  was 
one  of  the  causes  of  the  King's  losing  the  favour  of  such  of  the  Scottish  nobles  as  had 
got  possession  of  the  church  property.  These  were  so  incensed  at  the  measure  that,  it 
is  said,  a  conspiracy  was  formed  to  massacre,  during  the  sitting  of  Parliament,  the 
nobles  whom  the  sovereign  had  got  to  promote  his  views.  In  1641,  an  Act  authorised 
augmentation  of  stipends  to  a  minimum  of  eight  chalders,  or  800  merks.  The  Act  was 
renewed  in  1644  and  1649,  and  appointed  three  of  the  chalders  to  be  in  victual,  and  the 
rest  in  money.  In  the  seventeenth  century,  the  usual  amount  of  a  stipend  was  eight 
chalders. 

The  first- minister  settled  in  the  Garioch  under  the  new  arrangement  of  the  Lindores 
benefices,  was  Mr.  James  Mill,  presented  to  Inverurie  and  Monkegy  by  the  King  him- 
self. The  process  of  settlement  is  interesting  as  differing  much  from  the  present  usage. 
The  King's  presentation,  dated  16th  January,  1600,  at  Holyrood,  gave  Mr.  Mill  the  be- 
nefice, "  in  room  of  Alexander  Mackie,  formerly  vicar,  deposed  ".  His  institution,  as  it 
was  called,  took  the  form  of  a  feudal  investiture ;  and  is  recorded  in  the  protocol  book 
of  George  Barclay,  notary  public,  at  that  time  Town-Clerk  of  Inverurie.  It  proceeded 
upon  certain  documents,  viz.  : — the  King's  presentation,  and  the  letter  patent  under  the 
hands  of  the  Moderator  and  Clerk  of  the  Presbytery  of  Garioch,  addressed  to  Mr.  John 
Walker,  minister  of  Kinkell,  directing  him  to  put  Mr.  James  Mill  in  corporal  and  actual 
possession  of  the  said  vicarages  of  Inverurie  and  Monkegy,  and  all  their  tithes. 

Three  other  institutions  of  that  period  appear  in  Mr.  Barclay's  protocol.  The  King, 
in  1602,  presented  Mr.  William  Forbes  to  Leslie,  vacant  by  the  deprivation  of  Walter 
Innes.  Along  with  the  presentation,  a  deed  of  collation  and  admission  passed  upon  it 
by  the  brethren  of  the  Presbytery  of  Mar,  was  put  in  the  hands  of  Master  Alexander 
Guthrie,  parson  of  Tullynessle,  directing  him  to  give  ordination,  "  which  letters  he  gladly 
received,  and  in  presence  of  the  persons  concernit,  openly  read  the  said  letters  .  .  . 
and  for  obedience  thereof  received  the  profession  of  the  said  Mr.  William  his  faith  to 
God  .  .  .  with  his  aith  of  obedience  to  his  ordinar  and  lawful  execution  of  his 
office     .     .     .     Also  he  deliverit  to  the  said  Mr.  William  Forbes  the  bybill  within  the 


1  60  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

said  kirk  of  Leslie  .  .  .  and  actual,  possession  of  the  glebe,  manse,  and  kirkland 
.  .  .  be  erde  and  stane  ".  Mr.  Forbes  thereupon  took  instruments  in  the  notary's 
hands. 

In  1604,  on  a  presentation  by  the  Commendator  of  Lindores,  and  patent  letters  of 
collation  by  the  Presbytery  of  Garioch  dated  1st  May,  Mr.  AVilliam  Barclay  was  insti- 
tuted in  Premnay  by  Mr.  George  Paterson,  rector  of  the  Church  of  Daviot,  on  5th 
August,  "  by  giving  him  the  book  of  sacred  books,  none  opposing  or  contradicting  ". 

In  1611,  at  the  institution  of  Mr.  Gilbert  Keith,  in  Bourtie,  a  new  document  ap- 
pears ;  the  first  Episcopacy  begun  in  1606  having  attained  full  recognition  in  1610.  The 
presentation  issued  by  Ludovicus,  Duke  of  Lennox,  Earl  of  Darnley,  Lord  of  St.  Andrews, 
Methven,  and  Aubigny,  dated  Lyons,  April  29,  1611,  was  addressed  to  the  venerable 
Peter  (Blackburn)  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  ;  whose  letters  of  collation,  dated  11th  July,  were 
addressed  to  Mr.  Robert  Burnett,  rector  of  Oyne,  and  moderator  of  the  Presbytery  of 
Garioch.  These  were,  along  with  letters  of  special  mandate  from  the  said  moderator,  to 
Mr.  James  Mill,  minister  of  the  church  of  Inverurie,  ordaining  him  to  give  institution 
to  Mr.  Gilbert  Keith,  in  the  room  of  Mr.  Thomas  Mitchell,  the  former  vicar,  deposed. 
The  institution  took  place  15th  July,  within  the  Church  of  Bourtie,  where  Mr.  Keith 
took  instruments  in  the  notary's  hands  at  ten  o'clock,  ante  meridiem.  The  witnesses  were — 
Ninian  Seton,  in  Kirkton  ;  Gilbert  Cooper,  in  Thornton  ;  John  Wischart  there  ;  Andrew 
Thomson,  in  Muirton ;  James  Brewster  there.  Mr.  Keith  continued  minister  of  Bourtie, 
through  the  whole  of  King  James's  Episcopacy  and  the  Covenanting  Church  which  suc- 
ceeded ;  and  lived  to  see  the  second  Episcopacy  set  up  in  1660. 

Gilbert  was  a  family  name  among  the  Keiths  of  Aquhorsk,  now  represented  by  the 
grandson  of  Dr.  Skene  Keith,  once  minister  of  Keith-hall.  A  Mr.  Gilbert  Keith  was 
master  of  the  Grammar  School  of  Inverurie,  in  1607.  About  the  date  of  the  Bourtie 
settlement,  Mr.  Gilbert  Keith,  Aquhorsk,  registered  at  Inverurie  his  sasine  of  a  property 
in  Keninay,  and  one  in  Schoolhill  of  Aberdeen.  If  he  was  the  presentee  to  Bourtie,  he 
might  naturally  register  at  Inverurie  rather  than  at  Aberdeen.  Another  Gilbert  Keith 
was,  while  barely  qualified,  promoted  from  being  a  Eegent  in  King's  College,  Aberdeen, 
to  be  minister  of  Skene  where  he  died  before  1638. 

The  best  known  to  us  of  these  four  rectors  was  the  minister  of  Inverurie.  It  was 
his  fortune  to  begin  life  at  the  time  when  the  King  had  a  strong  desire  to  establish  Epis- 
copacy in  Scotland,  as  being  a  form  of  Church  government  more  likely  to  help  his  mon- 
archical views  than  he  remembered  the  Church  of  John  Knox  to  have  been  under  his 
Royal  mother.  King  James  was  a  manoeuvering  monarch,  and  treated  the  Assembly  of 
the  Kirk  to  a  good  deal  of  browbeating,  besides  favouring  it  with  not  a  few  fast  and 
loose  promises.  Mr.  James  Mill  had,  in  his  youthful  zeal,  taken  part  in  a  meeting  of 
the  General  Assembly  convened,  in  1604,  at  Aberdeen,  which  showed  more  front  against 
the  King's  practices  than  the  Sovereign  was  prepared  to  permit ;  aud  the  Privy  Council 
took  the  opportunity  to  teach  the  few  ministers  who  attended  a  sharp  lesson,  which 


King  James's  Kirks'.  161 


others  might  perhaps  read,  and  thus  save  future  trouble.  Some  were  imprisoned.  Mr. 
Mill  was  admonished  to  restrict  himself  to  the  clerical  duties  of  his  own  parish  ;  and 
seems  to  have  thought  the  advice  a  prudent  one  to  follow.  "We  owe  some  interesting 
notices  of  his  times,  to  his  enforced  abstinence  from  ecclesiastical  politics.  He  became 
a  quiet  overseer  of  his  diversified  flock,  enjoying  social  position — and  apparently  culti- 
vating it  in  each  of  his  two  marriages  ;  sometimes  taking  a  share  in  municipal  business 
as  a  Town  Councillor,  and  seeking  the  permanent  benefit  of  his  parish  by  means  of 
improved  educational  machinery.  He  was  fond  of  recording  events,  in  his  parish,  in 
connection  with  christenings,  and  last  wills,  and  deaths  ;  some  of  his  records  being  of 
value  as  illustrating  the  events  and  manners  of  the  time.  An  example  of  Mr.  Mill's 
evidently  enjoyed  registrations  is  afforded  by  his  entries  as  to  his  own  family  : 

Mr.  James  Mill,  minister  of  Inverurie,  ane  lawful  son  bnpt.  called  James.  Wit  : — Sir  George 
Jonstonne  of  that  Ilk  and  Caskieben,  James  Elphinstone  of  Glaek,  Alex.  Leslie  of  Tullos,  and  Mr. 
Andrew  Logy,  parson  of  Rane,  13th  October,  lb'30.  Quha  was  borne  2nd  October,  1630.  Whilk 
day  Jas.  Lesly  of  Achorthies  was  schot  in  the  richt  arm  be  the  laird  of  Condlan  in  Frendraneht's 
conipanie.     9  October,  1630,  Frendraucht's  house   brunt  :  within  it  six  men  brunt  deid. 

Master  James  Will,  minister,  ane  lawful  dochter  borne  the  sixtent  day  of  Februar,  1632,  being 
Thursday  ;  and  was  baptisit  the  twentie-ane  day  thereoff,  callit  Elizabeth.  Wit : — George  Leslie  of 
Kiiiiiaigie,  elder,  James  Reid  in  Artonies,  Wr.  Jon.  Cheyne,  Mr.  Andro  Logy,  and  Mr.  Wm.  Strachan. 

Mr.  James  Mill  ane  lawful  dother  the  twenty  nynt  day  of  October,  being  Tysday,  1633,  bapt. 
callit  Jeane.  Wit  : — George  Leslie  of  Kiucraigie  ;  and  Mr.  Wm.  Strachan,  person  of  Daviot ;  and  Mr. 
Patrick  Leslie,  minister  of  Kinkell. 

James  Mill,  minister  of  Inverury,  ane  lawful  son,  bapt.  callit  Andrew.  Wit  :— James  Elphinstone 
of  Glack  ;  Basting  limes,  at  the  Mill  of  Saphock  ;  and  Mr.  Samuel  Walcar,  4  Oct.  ;  who  was  born  3 
of  the  same,  1635. 

Master  James  Mill  and  Mariorie  Elphinstone,  ane  lawful  sone,  borne  the  fourt  day  of  Januarie, 
1637,  being  Wednesday  last,  about  supper  time,  bapt.  the  tent,  day  of  Jan.,  1637,  callit  Alexander. 
Wit :— Alexander  Leslie  of  Tullos  ;  Wr.  Gilbert  Keith,  minister  of  Borty  ;  Ml'.  Samuel  Walcar,  minister 
at  Montkegy  ;  George  Grub,  in  Inverurie  ;  Mr.  Alex.  Mitchell  there. 

Master  James  Will,  minister  of  Inverury,  and  Mariorie  Elphinstone,  ane  lawful  son  borne  the  28 
day  of  August,  being  Tysday,  bapt.  29  Aug.,  1638,  callit  George.  Wit  : — G.  Lesl}',  son  to  George 
Lesly  callit  of  Bogis,   George  Leslie  of  Kincraigie,  Wm.  Johnstone,  bailyie  in  Inverury. 

James  Will,  minister  at  Inverury,  and  Mariorie  Elphinstone,  ane  lawful  dother,  bapt.  callit 
Mariorie.  Wit  : — Patrick  Forbes  of  Blairtone,  and  Wr.  Samuel  Walcar,  minister  at  Wonkegy,  31  March, 
1640. 

The  first  Mrs.  Mill,  named  Margaret  Leslie,  the  widow  of  Alexander  Leslie,  was  a 
sister  of  the  laird  of  New  Leslie.  She  bore  no  family  to  her  husband,  Mr.  Mill.  He 
had  married  her  early  in  his  ministry  ;  and  she  brought  him  considerable  means.  Mrs. 
Mariorie  Elphinstone's  contributions  to  the  population  of  the  manse  were  abundant  for 
her  time.  They  ceased  with  her  name-daughter  :  and  the  minister's  last  entry  was  made 
in  the  next  year,  1641.  Of  his  sons,  James — who  was  born  a  week  before  "the  burn- 
ing of  Frendraught " — became  a  physician  in  Inverurie  ;  and  Alexander,  who  appeared, 
on  the  mundane  stage  in  1637,  on  ""Wednesday  last,  about  supper  time,"  was,  in  his 
time,  minister  of  Glasgow.     Both  changed  the  spelling  of  their  surname  to  Milne. 

The  two  brothers — admitted  burgesses  of  Inverurie,  23  August,  1675,  a  few  days 
afterwards  had  the  same  honour  conferred  at  Aberdeen.  Alexander  was  ordained  to  the 
ministry  in  Glasgow  in  1664,  having  charge  of  the  west  district  of  the  city  and  parish  of 

21 


162  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Glasgow,  till  1689,  when  Presbyterianism  was  established  ;  he  was  annually  elected  Dean 
of  Faculty  by  the  University,  in  the  years  1679-81,  and  died  in  1691.  His  wife  who 
died  April,  1716,  was  Ann,  youngest  daughter  of  James  Hamilton  of  Broomhill,  Lord 
Bishop  of  Galloway.  They  had  three  sons,  James,  Alexander,  and  John,  and  two  daugh- 
ters, Barbara  and  Margaret,  who  married  (as  his  second  wife)  her  cousin,  John  Birnie 
of  Broomhill,  and  had  issue.  Dr.  James  Milne,  who  became  a  considerable  burgh  pro- 
prietor, was  in  his  time  the  only  doctor  between  Aberdeen  and  Huntly. 

From  Mr.  Mill's  registers,  and  the  Protocol  of  George  Barclay,  Notary  Public, 
and  once  town  clerk  of  Inverurie,  as  well  as  from  the  court  books  of  the  burgh,  we  have 
the  means  of  illustrating  the  condition  of  Inverurie,  and,  to  some  extent,  the  general 
manners  and  social  life  of  that  period. 

Who  the  clerical  neighbours  of  the  worthy  rector  were,  he  so  far  informs  us  in  the 
above  records  of  christening.  They  had,  in  the  first  generation  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  changed  considerably.  In  Inverurie  the  welcome  given  to  Mr.  James  Mill  him- 
self may  not  have  been  entirely  cordial.  The  magistrates  of  Inverurie,  in  1600,  whose 
names  we  have  in  a  contract  of  multures  of  that  year,  do  not  appear  witnessing  his 
induction.  The  lukewarmness  may  have  originated  from  local  discontent  at  the  depriva- 
tion of  Alexander  Mackie,  and  at  the  new  erection  of  the  parish  by  King  James,  in  a 
condition  of  impoverishment  for  the  benefit  of  Lord  Lindores.  Mr.  John  Walker,  then 
minister  of  Kinkell,  inducted  Mr.  Mill,  by  order  of  the  Presbytery ;  who  took  notarial 
instruments,  in  presence  of  Mr.  William  Forbes,  minister  of  Kintore,  William  Kyd  in 
Inverurie,  James  Tailyeour  there,  John  Gibb  and  Alexander  Udny  in  Monkegy,  Mr. 
Bartholomew  Bobertson   in  Inverurie,  Arthur  Forbes,  George  Kyng,  and  Bonald  Chein. 

The  year  after  King  James  presented  Mr.  Mill  to  Inverurie,  his  Majesty  was  in 
Aberdeen,  and  had  in  his  suite  a  company  of  players,  one  of  whom  was  William 
Shakespeare — as  believed  by  the  great  dramatist's  latest  commentator,  Mr.  Charles 
Knight. 

The  Bishops  under  whom  Mr.  James  Mill  served  the  cure  of  Inverurie  were  mostly 
connected  with  the  Garioch  district.  Mr.  Peter  Blackburn,  the  second  Protestant  Bishop 
of  Aberdeen,  was  brother-in-law  of  John  Johnston  of  that  Bk  and  Caskieben  and  of  Dr. 
Arthur  Johnston.  He  held  many  offices,  having  been,  under  the  Beformed  Kirk, 
Commissioner,  before  Mr.  George  Paterson,  over  the  Kirks  of  the  Garioch,  Laigh  of 
Mar,  and  the  Mearns  north  of  the  Munth,  on  the  side  of  the  Dee,  and  after  1606,  King 
James'  Bishop  of  Aberdeen — being  all  the  while  minister  of  Aberdeen  and  a  Begent  of 
Marischal  College.     Bishop  Blackburn  died  in  June,  1616. 

Bishop  Alexander  Forbes,  who  succeeded  Blackburn,  was  previously  Bishop  of 
Caithness ;  to  which  rank  he  had  been  promoted  from  being  minister  of  St.  Cyrus  in 
Kincardineshire.  He  was  son  of  John  Forbes  of  Ardmurdo,  whose  death  (July  8,  1592, 
aged  65)  is  recorded  on  the  back  of  the  tombstone  of  Gilbertus  de  Grie  .  .  ,  in  the 
church  of  Kinkell ;  and  which  John  was  the  fourth  laird  of  Ardmuido  of  the  surname 


State  of  Education — Foundation  of  Marischal  College.  163 

of  Forbes.  The  Bishop  died  after  less  than  two  years'  incumbency  of  the  See  of 
Aberdeen. 

The  successor  of  Alexander  Forbes  was  the  celebrated  Bishop  Patrick  Forbes,  laird 
of  Corse,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  from  1618  to  1635.  In  his  care  to  foster  education  within 
the  two  Universities  contained  in  his  diocese,  he  was  a  worthy  successor  of  the  early 
bishops,  Elphinstone  and  Dunbar. 

Adam  Ballenden,  who  appears  in  Mr.  Mill's  entries,  was  the  last  Bishop  of  Aber- 
deen of  the  succession  revived  by  King  James.  The  General  Assembly  of  1638  de- 
posed Bishop  Ballenden  for  consecrating  a  chapel  to  "  an  infamous  woman,  the  Lady  of 
Wardes  ". 

STATE  OF  EDUCATION— FOUNDATION  OF  MARISCHAL  COLLEGE.. 

The  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  which  was  almost  reached  before  the  desolated 
parish  churches  were  supplied  with  permanent  ministers,  brought  about  one  event  to  be 
set  against  the  universal  dilapidation  of  churches  and  schools  which  the  barons  of  the 
Beformation  effected.  The  Marischal  College  was  founded  in  Aberdeen  in  1593,  con- 
sisting of  a  principal  and  four  professors  of  philosophy  ;  a  small  equipment,  which  was, 
however,  augmented  speedily,  and  by  a  succession  of  benefactors,  making  it  ultimately 
an  institution  of  incalculable  value  to  the  North  of  Scotland ;  which,  by  means  of  it  and 
the  much  older  King's  College,  came  to  attain  pre-eminence  in  education  over  the  whole 
kingdom.  It  was  founded  as  a  Protestant  University  by  the  inheritor  of  the  revenues 
of  the  Abbey  of  Deer,  George,  fifth  Earl  Marischal,  nephew  of  Bobert,  Commendator  of 
Deer,  who  had  been  created  Lord  Altrie,  with  a  charter  of  the  possessions  of  the  Abbey, 
but  died  without  male  issue.  The  Earl  was  aided  in  his  patriotic  plans  by  the  Magis- 
trates of  Aberdeen,  who  made  over  for  his  college  the  buildings  of  the  Greyfriars' 
Monastery,  which  they  had  purchased  for  1800  merks.  The  monastery  was  built  about 
1471,  on  lands  granted  in  1469  by  Bichard  Vaus  of  Meny,  burgess  of  Aberdeen,  to  the 
Franciscan  Friars,  lying  on  the  east  side  of  vims  fur  ear  am,  or  Gallowgate,  and  at  the 
Beformation  was  ordered  by  Begent  Morton  to  be  set  in  heritable  feu,  except  as  much  as 
was  necessary  for  the  use  and  sustenance  of  the  poor. 

The  Earl  Marischal  who  founded  the  College  was  one  of  the  most  accomplished  of 
his  line;  and  of  such  pre-eminence  in  the  State  as  to  be  chosen,  in  1609,  by  King  James, 
then  King  of  England,  Commissioner  to  represent  him  in  the  Scottish  Parliament.  He 
had  doubtless  been  observant  of  the  need  existing  for  a  better  educated  clergy.  Twenty 
years  before  he  founded  his  University,  the  General  Assembly  forbade  any  person  to  be 
admitted  to  the  ministry  who  could  not  interpret  the  commentaries  made  in  Latin, 
and  speak  congruous  Latin,  and  ordered  ministers  who  had  not  books  to  be  supplied 
with  them  by  the  collector  of  stipends  and  paid  from  their  stipends. 

The  erection  of  the  Protestant  College  was  an  outcome  of  that  already  eventful 
struggle  between  the  old  and  the  new  forms  of  religion,  which  was  for  a  hundred  years 


164  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

more  to  give  rise  to  the  most  important  contests  which  marked  that  period  in  the  district 
served  by  the  University.  In  the  year  after  Marischal  College  was  founded  the  Battle 
of  Balrinnes,  celebrated  in  song,  was  fought  hi  Glenlivat,  the  first  of  many  conflicts  in 
which  the  houses  of  Gordon  and  Forbes,  long  feudal  antagonists,  stood  against  each 
other  in  arms  for  religious  causes.  The  Popish  Lords  as  they  were  called,  viz.,  the 
Earls  of  Huntly,  Erroll,  and  Angus,  (the  last  the  son  of  the  laird  of  Kemnay  and  Gleii- 
bervie)  had  been  engaged  in  the  conspiracy  with  the  King  of  Spain  to  reimpose  Popery 
upon  England  and  Scotland,  which  led  to  the  disastrous  attempt  of  the  Spanish  Armada 
— one  of  whose  ships  was  sunk  near  Lord  ErroU's  Castle  of  Slams.  The  Aberdeenshire 
allies  were,  in  1594,  in  arms  again  for  mutual  defence  against  the  apprehended  severity 
of  the  Crown.  In  the  royal  force  sent  against  them  under  the  Earl  of  Argyll,  then  a 
youth  of  nineteen,  the  eighth  Lord  Forbes  was  second  in  command.  A  marriage  had 
united  the  houses  of  Gordon  and  Forbes  by  ties  of  blood,  but  the  irreconcdable 
religious  and  worldly  interests  of  Protestantism  and  Eoman  Catholicism,  continued  to 
arrange  them  against  one  another ;  along  with  the  Hays,  Leslies,  Setons,  and  Leiths  on 
the  Gordon  side,  and  the  Johnstons,  Keiths,  Elphinstones,  and  Frasers  on  that  of  Forbes. 
Lord  Forbes  married  a  daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Huntly,  who  fell  at  Corrichie,  and  it  was 
against  her  nephew,  afterwards  first  Marquess  of  Huntly,  that  he  was  present  in  Glenlivat. 
The  Protestant  Lord  Forbes  was  also  nearly  related  to  the  Earl  Marischal ;  and  his 
sister  was  the  mother  of  the  large  family  left  orphans  at  Caskieben  the  year  before,  of 
whom  the  youngest  son  was  to  be  the  first  Professor  of  Mathematics  in  the  Marischal 
College,  in  1626.  In  less  than  half-a-century  after  the  latter  date,  the  ancient  barony  of 
Caskieben  was  to  pass  through  the  hands  of  a  bondholder,  from  the  Professor's  nephew 
to  a  grandson  of  the  learned  Earl  Marischal,  the  first  of  the  Earls  of  Kintore. 

The  foundation  of  Marischal  College  serves  to  bring  into  our  notice  Dr.  Arthur 
Johnston,  afterwards  celebrated  as  a  Latin  poet,  who  was  one  of  the  earlier  students  in  the 
new  institution,  and  was  a  cadet  of  the  house  of  Caskieben.  His  father,  George  John- 
ston of  Caskieben  (the  son  of  William  Johnston,  who  fell  at  Pinkie),  died  in  1593,  the 
year  in  which  Marischal  College  was  founded,  leaving  six  sons  and  seven  daughters  by 
his  wife,  Christian  Forbes,  dauglrter  of  Lord  Forbes,  who  survived  her  husband  untd 
1622.  The  second  daughter,  Isabel,  married  Mr.  Peter  Blackburn,  already  noticed. 
Under  his  care  doubtless  it  was  that  Arthur  Johnston  and  his  younger  brother  William 
were  sent  to  the  new  college  ;  where  William,  after  studying  medicine,  as  Arthur  did, 
and  acquiring  by  foreign  travel  and  study  such  a  position  that  he  taught  for  some  time 
in  the  University  of  Sedan,  became  the  first  Professor  of  Mathematics  in  his  alma 
mater.  These  two  boys,  deprived  of  their  father's  care  when  the  elder  was  but  in 
his  sixth  year,  owed  the  upbringing  which  prepared  them  for  the  eminence  they 
attained,  to  their  brother,  John ;  who  was  already  in  his  majority  when  Arthur  was  born. 
In  the  poem  upon  his  birthplace,  quoted  below,  Arthur  refers  with  delicate  feeling  to  his 
eldest  brother  in  the  lines — 


State  of  Education — Dr.  Arthur  Johnston.  165 

Beside  the  stream  a  castle  proud 
Rises  amid  the  passing  cloud 

And  rules  a  wide  domain, 
Unequal  to  its  lord's  desert. 

John  Johnston  of  that  Ilk  and  Caskieben  ruled  his  domain  from  1593  to  1613, 
discharging,  as  will  afterwards  appear,  the  duties  of  his  station  in  a  manner  fully 
accordant  with  the  supposition  of  his  having,  when  in  early  manhood,  acted  the  part  of 
a  father  to  the  younger  brothers  who  were  left  under  his  guardianship. 

Dr.  Arthur  Johnston  was  born  at  Caskieben  in  1587 — when  the  last  of  the  vicars  of 
Inverurie  was  giving  place  to  the  makeshift  ministrations  of  an  exhorter,  or  reader ;  which 
function  Andro  Spens  was  discharging  at  Monkegy  for  20  lbs.  Scots  a-year.  Andro's 
Latin,  it  is  likely,  was  not  abundant ;  for  young  Johnston  was  sent  to  learn  that  tongue 
at  the  school  of  Kintore,  from  which  he  went  to  the  new  University  of  Marischal 
College.  On  leaving  Aberdeen  he  travelled,  as  was  then  customary  among  Scottish 
students  of  family.  He  studied  medicine  and  took  his  degree  of  doctor  at  Padua  in 
1610;  and  in  the  same  year  was  Professor  of  Logic  in  Sedan.  About  that  time  he 
was,  in  Paris,  laureated  a  poet  before  he  was  twenty-three.  He  subsequently  travelled 
through  Italy,  Germany,  Holland,  and  Denmark,  settling  for  several  years  in  Prance.  He 
married,  it  is  likely  during  that  period,  his  first  wife,  Mary  Kynuncle,  a  native  of  Mechlin 
in  Brabant,  who  died  in  Aberdeen  in  1624.  They  had  at  least  four  sons  and  two 
daughters.  After  his  return  to  his  native  country,  Charles  I.  appointed  him  his  physician 
in  ordinary,  before  1628  ;  a  promotion  for  which  he  was  possibly  indebted  to  Archbishop 
Laud,  who  was  his  friend,  and  at  whose  request  he  made  his  translation  of  the  Psalms  of 
David  into  Latin,  published  in  1637,  in  which  year  he  was  rector  of  King's  College, 
Aberdeen.  Several  of  his  children  died  before  1630.  Before  1629  he  had  again  married. 
His  second  wife,  Barbara  Gordon,  had  a  son,  "William,  baptised  at  Aberdeen  in  December, 
1636,  and  noticed  in  1659  as  his  eldest  son.  William  Johnston  became  professor  of  Civil 
Law  in  King's  College  in  1669,  in  which  office,  he  was  succeeded  in  1673,  by  a  native  of 
Aberdeen,  Sir  George  Meolson  of  Kemnay,  a  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Session  by  the  style 
of  Lord  Kemnay.  Barbara  Gordon  survived  her  husband,  and  died  at  Aberdeen  in 
March,  1650.  He  himself  died  in  1641  at  Oxford,  where  he  had  gone  to  visit  a 
daughter  married  to  an  English  clergyman,  and  was  buried  there.  The  daughter  in 
whose  house  he  died  was  either  Mary  or  Susannah,  his  first  wife's  chddren.  Of  the 
second  family  there  were  at  any  rate  three  daughters,  Barbara,  born  1631;  Elizabeth 
and  Margaret.  According  to  the  Inverurie  registers,  Margaret  was  married  in  January, 
1652 — then  residing  in  her  sister's  house  in  Inverurie — to  George  Dalgarno,  son  to 
Dalgarno  of  Peathill  in  Kinkell.  Barbara,  in  1656,  married,  as  his  second  wife,  Provost 
George  Cullen  of  Aberdeen,  whose  daughter  Helen  her  brother  William  wedded  in  1662. 

Arthur  Johnston's  poetical  talent  did  not  leave  his  native  spot  unnoticed.  In 
Latin  verses  of  great  beauty  he  described  his  recollections  of  Caskieben  and  Inverurie. 
He  has  been  ridiculed  for  the  terms  in  which  he  fondly  recalls  the  scene ;  which  is,  how 


166  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

ever,  in  certain  states  of  the  atmosphere,  one  of  uncommon  loveliness.  The  following  is  a 
translation  printed  of  Johnston's  ode  on  his  birth  place.  In  an  epigram  upon  Inverurie, 
he  notices  that  at  the  ecpainoxes  the  shadow  of  Benachie,  when  the  sun  was  setting,  fell 
upon  his  native  place  : — 

Here,  traveller,  a  vale  behold, 
As  fair  as  Tempe  famed  of  old, 

Beneath  the  northern  sky. 
Here  Urie  with  her  silver  waves 
Her  banks  in  verdure  smiling  laves, 

And  winding  wimples  by. 
Here  Benachie  high  towering  spreads 
Around  on  all  his  evening  shades, 

When  twilight  grey  conies  on. 
'With  sparkling  gems  the  river  glows  ; 
As  precious  stones  the  mountain  shows 

As  in  the  east  are  known. 
Here  nature  spreads  a  bosom  sweet, 
And  native  dyes  beneath  the  feet 

Bedeck  the  joyous  ground  ; 
Sport  in  the  liquid  air  the  birds, 
And  fishes  in  the  stream  :  the  herds 

In  meadows  wanton  round. 
Here  ample  barnyards  still  are  stored 
With  relics  of  last  autumn's  hoard 

And  firstlings  of  this  year. 
There  waving  fields  of  yellow  corn. 
And  ruddy  apples  that  adorn 

The  bending  boughs  appear. 
Beside  the  stream  a  castle  proud 
Rises  amid  the  passing  cloud 

And  rules  a  wide  domain 
(Unequal  to  its  lord's  desert). 
A  village  near  with  lowlier  art 

Is  built  upon  the  plain. 
Here  was  I  torn  ;  o'er  all  the  land 
Around  the  Johnstons  bear  command, 

Of  high  and  ancient  line. 
Mantua  acquired  a  noted  name. 
As  Virgil's  birthplace,  I  my  fame 

Inherit  still  from  mine. 

The  concluding  line,  in  its  modesty,  described  the  exact  reverse  of  what  time  has 
brought  about.  No  part  remains  of  the  dwelling  of  the  Johnstons,  unless  a  narrow  and 
tall  pile  of  vaulted  structure,  forming  part  of  the  house  of  Keith-hall,  and  called  by  the 
servants  Caskieben,  be  accepted  as  a  relic  of  the  Johnstons,  notwithstanding  its  bearing 
the  date  1665  over  one  of  its  windows.  A  deep  circular  moat  amidst  fine  old  trees, 
near  the  present  house,  encloses  a  space  where  the  ancient  and  mediaeval  lords  of 
Caskieben,  from  Norman  the  Constable  to  the  poet's  father,  held  their  state.  John 
Johnston  died,  and  the  children  of  Sir  George  Johnston,  his  son,  were  born  in  Ardi- 
harrall,  another  house  on  the  property. 

Dr.  Arthur  Johnston  at  one  time  possessed  the  lands  of  New  Leslie,  on  Gadie- 
side,  and   tradition  has  given  him   as  the  author  of   a  song,  which  is   said  to  have 


State  of  Education — Dr.  Arthur  Johnston.  167 

discovered  to  some  Scottish  soldiers  at  the  siege  of  Pondicherry  the  neighbourhood 

of  a  compatriot  in  captivity — a  lady,  who  made  known  her  place  of  confinement  by 

singing— 

"  Oh  !  gin  I  war  where  Gadie  rins, 
At  the  back  o'  Benachie." 

The  delightful  verses  now  sung  to  that  refrain  are  not  so  old  as  the  siege 
of  Pondicherry,  and  were  written  by  the  late  Eev.  John  Park,  D.D.,  minister  of  St. 
Andrews,  when  a  young  man.  They,  with  a  slight  poetic  licence,  describe  the  locality 
of  the  fertile  stream  faithfully  : 

I  WISH  I  WERE  WHERE   GADIE   RINS. 

I  wish  I  were  where  Gadie  rins, 
Where  Gadie  rins,  where  Gadie  rins, 
I  wish  I  were  where  Gadie  rins, 
At  the  back  o'  Benachie. 

Ance  mair  to  hear  the  wild  bird's  sang, 
To  wander  birks  and  braes  amang, 
Wi'  friends  and  fav'rites  left  sae  laug, 
At  the  back  o'  Benachie. 

I  wish  I  were,  &c. 

Oh  !  mony  a  day  in  blithe  spring  time, 
Oh  !  mony  a  day  in  summer's  prime, 
I've  wandering  wiled  awa'  the  time, 
At  the  back  o'  Benachie. 

I  wish  I  were,  &c. 

Oh  !    there  wi'  Jean,  on  ilka  night, 
When  baith  our  hearts  were  young  and  light, 
We've  wandered,  by  the  cool  moonlight, 
At  the  back  o'  Benachie. 

I  wish  I  were,  &c. 

Oh  !  Fortune's  flowers  wi'  thorns  are  rife, 
And  wealth  is  won  wi'  toil  and  strife — 
Ae  day  gie  me  o'  youthful  life, 
At  the  back  o'  Benachie. 

Ance  mair,  ance  niair,  where  Gadie  rins, 
Where  Gadie  rins,  where  Gadie  rins — 
Oh  !  let  me  die  where  Gadie  rins, 
At  the  back  o'  Benachie. 

Arthur  Johnston  makes  reference  to  the  Gadie  in  one  of  his  Latin  compositions — 

"  Crede  mihi,  toti  notus  jam  Gadius  orbi  est," 

and  there  used  to  be  sung  to  the  well-known  air  some  verses  which  the  writer  has  heard, 

in  a  form  evidently  impaired,  which  may  have  been  part  of  the  song  traditionally 

ascribed  to  Johnston- — 

Oh  !  gin  I  war  where  Gadie  rins, 
Where  Gadie  rins,  where  Gadie  rins, 
Oh  !  gin  I  war  where  Gadie  rins, 
At  the  back  o'  Benachie. 


168  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

I  wad  ne'er  seek  hame  again, 
Seek  hame  again,  seek  hame  again, 
I  wad  ne'er  seek  hame  again, 
To  view  my  ain  couutrie. 

For  its  there  the  bormie  lassie  lives, 
The  lassie  lives,  the  lassie  lives, 
For  its  there  the  bonnie  lassie  lives, 
"Wha's  promised  to  be  mine. 

An'  I'll  buy  to  her  the  silken  hose, 
The  silken  hose,  the  silken  hose, 
An'  1  '11  buy  to  her  the  silken  hose, 
To  deck  her  ankles  fine. 

An'  a  gowden  band  sail  belt  her  waist, 

Sail  belt  her  waist,  sail  belt  her  waist, 

An'  a  gowden  band  sail  belt  her  waist, 

Wi'  a  diamond  clasp  to  bind. 

An'  I'll  braid  her  hair  o'  the  chestnut  hue, 
The  chestnut  hue,  the  chestnut  hue, 
An'  I'll  braid  her  hair  o'  the  chestnut  hue, 
As  it  waves  in  the  summer  wind. 

Wi'  the  rose  sae  red  and  the  rose  sae  white, 
Wi'  the  rose  sae  red  and  the  rose  sae  white, 
Wi'  the  rose  sae  red  and  the  rose  sae  white, 
For  she's  to  be  my  bride. 

An'  syne-awa'  to  the  kirk  they've  gane, 
To  the  kirk  they've  gane,  to  the  kirk  they've  gane, 
An'  syne  awa'  to  the  kirk  they've  gane, 
Where  they  stood  side  by  side. 

An'  the  bands  were  tied  an'  the  blessin'  said, 
An'  the  blessin'  said,  an'  the  blessin'  said, 
An'  the  bands  were  tied  an'  the  blessin'  said, 
An'  a  happier  pair  than  they 

You  wadna  hae  seen  whar  Gadie  rins, 
Whar  Gadie  rins,  whar  Gadie  rins, 
You  wadna  hae  seen  whar  Gadie  rins, 
In  a  lang,  lang  summer  day. 

Two  portraits  of  Arthur  Johnston  exist,  both  the  work  of  his  friend,  George 
Jameson.  One  is  in  Marischal  College,  dated  1623,— the  year  after  the  poet  was  ad- 
mitted a  Guild  Burgess  of  Aberdeen,  and  when  he  was  contemplating  a  period  of  foreign 
residence,  in  prospect  of  which  he  nominated  guardians  to  his  children — James, 
Ludovick,  Nicolas,  George,  Mary,  and  Susannah.  The  curators  were  Mr.  Duncan 
Forbes  of  Balnagask  and  his  son,  John  Forbes,  and  Gilbert  Johnston  of  Forresterhill, 
Dr.  Johnston's  own  brother.  The  other  portrait  (hanging  in  King's  College)  was  painted 
in  1629,  about  the  time  of  his  second  marriage,  and  the  year  after  he  published  Elegias 
Dure,  at  Aberdeen,  when  the  author  is  styled  Medicus  Begins.  The  warm  tints, 
characteristic  of  the  works  of  the  Scottish  Vandyke,  clothe  the  gentle  and  intellectual 
countenance  of  the  poet  with  a  pleasing  atmosphere  of  colour. 


The  School  of  Inverurie  under  King  James's  Episcopacy.  169 


THE  SCHOOL   OF   INVERURIE  UNDER  KING  JAMES'S   EPISCOPACY.— 

PUBLIC   SCHOOLS. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  and  honourable  efforts  of  the  burgh  towards  a 
substantial  condition  of  prosperity  in  the  early  times  of  its  renascence,  was  made  in 
the  way  generally  considered  as  characteristic  of  Scotland,  and  most  associated  with  the 
welfare  of  the  country.  In  the  beginning  of  the  century,  the  magistrates  had  obviously 
been  in  communication  with  the  lairds  and  parish  ministers  around,  regarding  the 
possibility  of  erecting  a  school  of  a  superior  order ;  and  the  result  was  that  the  Laird  of 
Caskieben,  Arthur  Johnston's  eldest  brother,  became  a  baillie  for  one  year,  and,  along 
with  Patrick  Leslie  of  Kincraigie,  and  Xorman  Leslie,  two  other  of  the  baillies,  got  the 
council  and  community  to  adopt  a  formal  resolution  to  erect  and  uphold  "  a  grajier 
scoill  " ; — the  neighbouring  gentlemen  and  ministers  contributing  half  the  maintenance 
of  the  teacher. 

The  term  Grammar  School,  employed  to  designate  the  school  proposed  to  be 
established,  is  instructive.  It  is  not  likely  that  any  general  system  of  popular  education 
existed  before  the  Eeformation ;  and  the  only  schools  existing,  outside  the  monasteries, 
would  be  grammar,  or  Latin,  schools.  Within  the  religious  houses  an  excellent 
education  was  often  to  be  obtained  ;  and  the  monks,  going  constantly  about  among  the 
people,  would  select  talented  youths — as  the  Scottish  parish  schoolmaster  generously 
did  long  afterwards — and  induce  them  to  be  trained  in  liberal  acquirements,  or  in 
skilful  handicraft.  Men  of  superior  parts  were  thus  secured  for  the  priesthood,  as  John 
Barbour  had  been.  Within  such  religions  houses,  it  is  likely,  more  than  in  the  few 
schools  found  in  the  country,  exceptional  youths  of  the  upper  ranks  acquired  their 
accomplishments,  who  gained  for  themselves  positions  of  distinction  in  a  rude  age,  like 
Stephen  De  Johnston,  "  the  Clerk  ". 

In  important  localities  schools  had,  it  is  likely,  existed  for  centuries.  Thomas  de 
Bennin  was  rector  of  the  schools  of  Aberdeen  in  1263.  The  scheme  of  John  Knox  to 
devote  a  third  of  the  ecclesiastical  revenues,  confiscated  at  the  Eeformation,  to  the 
education  of  the  people,  if  it  referred  to  the  establishment  of  a  novel  institution, 
would  be  more  readily  checked  bjr  the  sneers  of  the  reforming  lords  at  the  proposal, 
as  a  devout  imagination,  than  if  it  had  been  a  suggestion  to  render  more  efficient  the 
then  existing  means  of  education. 

There  had,  doubtless,  been  a  school  at  Inverurie  before  the  beginning  of  the 
seventeenth  century;  but  the  first  notice  of  such  an  institution  is  in  1608,  when  it  is 
mentioned  as  being  enjoined  by  the  feudal  charter  of  the  burgh's  lands. 

During  the  first  generation  after  Popery  was  disestablished  in  1560,  it  must  have 
proved  nearly  as  difficult  to  find  schoolmasters  for  the  schools,  as  it  was  to  have  the 
parishes  served  by  competent  clergymen.  The  readers,  who  very  defectively  supplied 
the  place  of  parish  ministers,  may  generally  have  acted,  as  they  certainly  in  some  cases 


170  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

did,  as  schoolmasters  ;  and  many  of  them  being  former  schoolmasters,  or  conforming 
priests,  would  be  qualified  to  overtake  the  work  in  so  far  as  their  numbers  went. 

In  1601,  schools  were  very  deficient;  for  in  that  year  the  General  Assembly 
complained  of  the  decay  of  schools,  and  of  the  imperfect  education  of  the  youth  in  the 
knowledge  of  good  letters  and  godliness — especially  in  the  uplandish  parts — for  lack  of 
sufficient  provision  to  entertain  a  qualified  schoolmaster. 

The  state  of  education  in  the  beginning  of  the  century  is  indicated  by  the  number 
of  notaries  who  found  employment ;  places  like  Kirktown  of  Chapel  and  Eocharrald 
appearing  as  the  residences  of  such  officials,  as  well  as  cities,  burghs,  and  villages.  The 
frequent  granting  of  wadsets  at  that  period  would  give  much  occasion  for  their  services, 
but  the  proportion  of  the  population  having  occasion  to  transact  business,  who  were 
unable  to  write,  was  large.  At  the  contract  of  the  multures,  entered  into  by  the 
magistrates  of  Inverurie  with  the  laird  of  Wardes,  hardly  one  of  the  burgesses,  parties 
to  the  deed,  signed,  except  with  his  hand  at  the  notary's  pen. 

Inverurie  probably  contained  one  of  the  decayed  schools.  Dr.  Arthur  Johnston, 
son  of  the  laird  of  Caskieben,  laid  the  foundation  of  his  much  admired  facility  in  Latin 
at  the  school  of  Kintore.  His  school  days  fell  in  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  when  Kintore  parish  engaged  the  entire  services  of  a  reader,  John  Chalmers,  at 
20  lbs.  Scots  a-year ;  besides  sharing  with  Kinnellar  in  the  ministerial  services  of  Mr. 
George  Paterson,  appointed  at  Beltane,  1570,  with  a  stipend  of  100  lbs.  Scots.  The 
erudition  of  Andro  Spens,  who  was  reader  at  Monkegy,  at  20  lbs.  a-year,  was  not,  it 
is  likely,  deemed  sufficient  for  the  training  of  the  talented  Johnston. 

The  Burgh  Eecords  of  Aberdeen  of  1612,  afford  instructive  illustration  of  the 
condition  of  school  discipline  at  that  period,  the  nature  of  the  higher  schools,  and  the 
resort  of  the  young  squirearchy  to  the  schools  of  large  burghs ;  at  the  same  time 
notably  exhibiting  the  difficulty  of  making  great  changes  by  law  in  social  customs. 
Under  date  3rd  December,  1612,  it  is  recorded  that  "the  quhilk  day  Alexander 
Gordoune,  sone  to  Maister  AVilleame  Gordoune,  commissar  of  Moray ;  Alexander 
Gordoune,  sone  to  James  Gordoune  of  Lesmoir ;  Johnne  Innes,  sone  to  Alexander  Innes 
of  Coltis ;  Johne  Johnestoune,  sone  to  Bobert  Johnestoune  at  Kayesniylne ;  Hew 
Cummyng,  sone  to  Umquhill  Alexr.  Cummyng  of  Culter ;  and  Willeame  Fraser,  sone 
to  [  ]  Fraser  of  [  ],  wer  accusit  this  day  be  Alexander  Butherfurd, 

provest,  for  the  great  enormities,  disordour,  and  abuse  done  and  committit  be  thame  and 
thair  associat  scollaris  within  the  Grammer,  Sang  Schuill,  and  Writing  Schuillis  of  this 
burghe,  in  tacking  of  the  said  Sang  Schuill  upone  the  first  day  of  this  instant  December, 
lang  befoir  the  superstitious  tyme  of  yuill,  against  the  laudabill  Actis  and  statutis  maid 
thairanent  obefoir,  nochtwithstanding  that  souirtie  wes  found  be  thame  that  they  sould 
not  tack  the  saidis  scuillis  at  that  tyme,  nor  na  uther  tyme  of  the  year ;  and  that  thay 
sould  observe  gude  ordour  and  discipline  within  the  saidis  schullis  ;  lykewayis  for 
wearing  of  mines  and  schoitting  thairwith,  alswoll  on  the  nicht  as  on  the  day,  and  for 


The  School  at  Inverurie  under  King  James's  Episcopacy.  171 

greit  deidis  of  oppressioune  and  ryottis  committit  be  thame  sen  the  first  day  of 
December,  againis  diveris  nichtbouris  of  this  burghe,  in  cumeing  to  thair  houssis,  and 
bracking  up  thair  durris  and  windowis,  and  maisterfullie  away  tacking  of  thair  foullis, 
pnltrie,  breid,  and  vivaris,  and  als  for  tacking,  at  thair  awin  hand,  of  fewall  and  vivaris, 
cumeing  to  this  burghe  and  mercat  thairof,  &c."  It  appears  that  the  lads  had  taken 
possession  of  the  writing  school  on  the  first  of  December,  and  held  it  until  the 
afternoon  of  the  third,  with  hagbuttis,  pistollis,  swordis,  and  lang  wapynnis,  until  the 
magistrates  took  the  insurgents  by  force,  and  incarcerated  them  in  the  "  Tolbuith  ".  Gil- 
bert Leslie,  reader,  and  master  of  the  writing  school,  joined  the  magistrates  in  the  attempt 
to  establish  order,  and  engaged  to  receive  no  scholars  in  future  without  sufficient 
caution  for  their  good  conduct.  In  consequence,  he  was  attacked  next  day  by  a  party 
of  youths  from  the  country  ;  and  though  they  were  punished,  the  attack  was  repeated 
soon  afterwards,  for  which  repeated  offence  the  delinquents  were  fined,  and  ordained  to 
receive  public  rebuke  in  the  aukl  kirk  of  the  burgh,  in  front  of  the  pulpit ;  and  there 
to  beg  pardon  of  God,  and  of  the  magistrates,  turning  to  their  "  dask  " ;  and  lastly,  "  to 
crawe  the  said  Gilbert  Leslie,  qnhome  thay  hurt,  pardoun  and  forgiveness  for  the  same, 
schak  handis  with  him,  and  promeis  newer  to  do  the  lyk  in  tyme  cumming". 

This  account  of  the  "  tacking "  of  the  schools,  and  holding  them  with  offensive 
weapons,  reads  exactly  like  an  account  of  "  barring-out "  in  an  English  public  school 
fifty  years  ago — appropriate  testimony  to  the  identity  of  boy  nature.  The  source  of  the 
riot — which  was  the  alleged  suppression  of  the  customs  of  the  Christmas  season — was  one 
that  gave  much  trouble  for  half  a-century  to  the  Church  authorities,  in  the  case  of  the 
rural  population.  The  circumstance  of  the  culprits  in  the  Aberdeen  riot  having  been 
all  gentlemen's  sons  from  the  country,  points  to  the  great  deficiency  of  schools  in  the 
rural  districts,  which  is  noticed  in  other  documents. 

The  Gramer  Scoill  of  Inverurie  appears  in  its  origin  as  follows  : — 

20  Oct.,  1606.— The  Council  electit  John  Johnston  of  that  Ilk,  Patrick  Leslie  of  Kincraigie,  and 
Normand  Leslie,  Bailies. 

Said  day  it  is  statute  and  ordanit  be  Advyse  of  the  said  bailies,  and  common  consent  of  the 
counseill  and  communitie,  to  have  ane  Gramer  Scole  erectit  and  upholdin  within  the  said  bruch. 
And  for  the  upholdin  and  sustenation  of  the  said  scole  the  haill  township,  be  this  present  act,  binds 
and  obleises  them  to  gitf  yearlie  twenty  punds  money  to  help  to  pay  the  Scoillniaister's  build  ;  where- 
upon the  said  bailies  took  act  and  instrument. 

19  Oct.,  1607.— At  the  Kirk  of  Inverurie— 

The  bailies  and  counseill  being  agreeit  that  the  Mr  of  Scoill,  Mr.  Gilbert  Keyth,  his  stipend  of 
twenty  lbs.,  for  this  year  for  bygane,  sail  be  payit,  quam  primum,  and  the  saidScoil  be  main tenit  from 
henceforth  :  And  the  said  twentie  lbs.  for  the  Mr  of  Scoill's  fee,  to  be  payit  yearlie  as  follows,  viz.,  5 
libs,  at  Ilk  quarter.     And  that  out  of  the  common  guid. 

23  Oct.,  1607. — According  to  ane  former  act  set  down  be  the  bailies  and  conseil  for  upholding  of 
ane  Gramer  Schoill,  conforme  to  the  narrative  of  the  feu  charters  of  the  toune  lands  :  It  is  contractit 
and  finalie  agreeit  between  the  said  bailies  and  conseill  on  the  ane  part,  and  Mr.  Adam  Barclay  on  the 
other  part,  for  teaching  of  ane  Gramer  Scoill  for  ane  year,  as  efter  follows,  viz  : — The  said  Mr.  Adam 
sail  faithlullie  and  diligentlie  discharge  his  dewtie  in  teaching  the  said  schoil  for  ane  year,  his  entrie 
being  at  this  present  Hallowday,  iu  anno  1607  years.  And  for  sure  performance  of  his  dewties — The 
laird  of  Corse  is  become  cautioner  to  the  Presbyterie  of  Garioch,  be  his  letter.  And  the  said  Adam  has 
subscribit  the  present  Act.  And  the  bailies  and  conseill  of  Inverurie  sail  gyff  to  the  said  Mr.  Adam 
20  lbs.   money,   to   be  payet  quarterlie;    for  the  qlk    the    Thcsaurer  William   Kob'sone   is  become 


172  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

cautioner,  with  ane  free  house  and  ane  chawmer.  And  the  other  20  lbs.  to  be  payit,  be  the  gentlemen 
and  ministers  next  adjacent  to  Inverurie,  be  ane  voluntarie  collection,  for  the  qlk  Mr.  John  Walcar, 
minister  at  Kynkell,  is  become  obligit  ;  and  for  the  observing  of  the  hail  contract  hereof  the  saids 
parties  hes  subscryvit  thir  presents  with  their  hands,  day,  year,  and  place  above  written.  Mr.  Adam 
Barclay  with  my  hand.      Kincraigy,  Normand  Leslie,  ballyie.     Will.  Robertson  with  my  hand. 

24  Dec,  1608. — Said  day,  according  to  ane  former  Act  sett  doune  be  the  baillies  and  consall,  for 
upholding  of  ane  Gramer  Sehoill  according  to  the  narrative  of  their  feu  charter  upon  the  common 
lands,  it  is  contractit  and  agreeit  betwixt  the  said  bailies  and  consall  of  the  said  bruch,  on  the  ane 
part,  and  Mr.  George  Keith  on  the  other  part,  for  teaching  of  ane  Gramer  Sehoill  for  ane  year  as  fol- 
lows, viz.,  the  said  Mr.  George  Keith  sail  faithfullie  and  diligently  discharge  his  dewties  in  teaching 
the  said  sehoill,  for  ane  year,  his  entrance  to  be  at  the  present,  as  giff  it  had  been  at  hallowday  last 
160S.  And  for  performing  the  said  Mr.  George  Keith  his  dewties  therein,  the  said  Mr.  George  obleisit 
him  to  discharge  his  honest  dewtie.  And  that  onlie  on  conditions  as  sail  be  intiraat  to  him  be  the 
presbeterie,  bailzies  and  consall  of  the  bruch  ;  and  in  testification  hereof  the  said  Mr.  George  Keith  has 
subscrivit  thir  presents,  and  the  said  bailies  sub.  and  binds  them  to  pay  yearlie  to  the  said  Mr. 
George  Keith  for  the  said  yeir,  20  lbs.,  viz.,  5  lbs.  quarterlie  :  And  other  20  lbs.  yeirlie  to  be  payit  to 
the  said  Mr.  George,  be  the  gentillmen  and  presbyterie  of  Garioch,  for  which  Mr.  James  Mill  and  Mr. 
John  Walcar  become  cautioners. 

10  Oct.,  1612. — Court  held  be  Patrick  Leslie  of  Kincraigy  and  William  Robertson,  Bailzies  ;  the 
sergent  calls  the  court,  lawfullie  fencit  and  affermit. 

The  said  day  anent  the  election  of  Mr.  Alexander  Mitchell,  sehoill  master  within  the  bruch,  for 
the  educating  and  instructing  of  the  youth  of  the  same  in  the  Latin  Tiling.     And  to  the  effect  the  said 
Mr.  Alex,  may  haif  the  better  courage  to  behaif  himself  diligentlie  in  his  said  caling,  compeirit  the 
persons  and  ratit  themselffis  in  payment  to  the  said  Mr.  Alex,  of  the  soumes  of  silar  and 
victual  respectively  following  : — Viz.,  Alex.  Porter,  Alex.  Fergus,  ane  peck  meill ;  Mr.  James 

Mill  ane  firlotte  meill  ;  John  Johnston  ;  George  Mackieson,  20sh. ;  John  Angous,  four  sh.  4p. ; 

Andrew  Hutcheon,  6sh.8p.  ;  George  Grub,  lOsh,  ;  John  Mackieson,  26sh.  8p.  ;  Wm.  Robertson,  two 
tirlots  meill  ;  Alex.  Badyenot,  two  pecks  meill ;  John  Rotsone,  6sh.;  Thomas  Smyth  Alex. 

Smyth,  12sh.  ;  John  Ronald,  ane  free  house  ;  Wm.  Johnstone,  younger,  a  perk,  and  lOsh.  ;  AVm. 
Stevin,  a  peck  meill  ;  Wm.  Johnstone,  elder,  13sh.  4p.  ;  Wm.  Smyth,  13sh.  ;  John  Thomson  ; 

William  Thomson  ;  umquhille  John  Johnstone,  Robert  Taylor,  6sh.  ;  George  Smyth,  ane  firlott  meill  ; 
Patrick  Leslie  of  Kincraigy,  ane  bow  meill ;  Walter  Innes,  of  Ardtannes,  ane  bow  meill  :  Whilk  par- 
ticular persons  agreeit  the  execution  of  poynding  follow. 

Lyke  as  the  baillies  and  consall  give  special  command  and  direction  to  pay  to  the  said  Mr. 
Alexander  twenty  pounds  money  out  of  the  common  guid,  and  the  thesanrer  at  his  next  collecting  to 
pay  the  same  :  Quhilk  particular  soume  of  money  and  victuale  sail  be  quarterlie  callit  and  upliftit  be 
the  bailies  for  the  time,  and  delivered  to  the  said  Mr.  Alexander  ;  the  first  collection  being  at  Hallow- 
mas next,  the  second  at  Candlemas  following,  the  third  at  raid  Day,  the  fourth  and  last  at  lambas. 

And  that  the  said  Mr.  Alex,  may  reseid  and  continue  still  at  the  same  carriag,  during  the  space 
above  specified  :  Compeired  Patrick  Leslie  of  Kincraigy,  and  became  cautioner  to  the  effect  aforesaid, 

Whereupon  the  said  Mr.  Alexander,  for  himself  and  Mr.  James  Milne,  minister  of  the  Kirk  of 
Inverurie,  in  name  of  the  tuik  acts  and  instruments. 

Mr.  Alexander  Mitchell  appears  once,  or  oftener,  as  re-elected.  Trie  Burgh  records 
are  wanting  from  1620  to  1646,  and  after  the  latter  date  they  bear  no  reference  to  the 
school,  which  appears  first  again,  in  1649  in  the  minutes  of  the  Presbyteiy.  His 
name  occurs  in  the  minister's  register  frequently,  and  he  seems  to  have  discharged  his 
duties  with  a  degree  of  comfort  and  security,  contrasting  strongly  with  that  apparent 
in  the  condition  of  Inverurie  schoolmasters  when  the  century  was  half  through.  He 
continued  schoolmaster  until  1636 ;  and  possibly  until  the  Covenanting  troubles 
unsettled  parochial  affairs  a  second  time,  and  brought  on  numerous  depositions  and 
suspensions  of  ministers,  and  excommunications  of  laymen  for  malignancy — a 
constructive  crime,  charged  against  those  who  desired  to  retain  their  allegiance  to  King 
Charles  I.,  irrespective  of  the  resolutions  of  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant. 

Mr.  Mitchell  married,  apparently,  a  sister  of  George  Leslie  of  Eothmaise,  one  of  the 


Urbs  in  Rare.  173 


aristocracy  of  the  town  and  neighbourhood,  which  comprehended  the  lairds  of  Blakhall, 
Badifurrow,  Glack,  and  Caskieben  ;  with  whom,  and  the  municipal  dignitaries,  the 
schoolmaster  exchanged  such  friendly  offices  as  that  of  witness  at  baptisms,  will  makings, 
&c.  Mr.  Alexander  Mitchell  was  appointed,  in  1636,  by  the  Bishop  along  with  the 
minister  of  Inverurie  and  Kinkell,  the  baillie  of  Inverurie,  and  the  Laird  of  Kincraigie 
to  hold  an  inquest  upon  a  child,  supposed  to  have  met  its  death  by  cruel  means. 

Mr.  Mitchell  possessed,  in  security  of  the  marriage  portion  with  his  wife,  the  rood 
of  land  in  the  Upper  Eoods,  on  which  the  row  of  cottages,  No.  107  High  Street,  now 
stands — George  Leslie  of  Bothmaise  then  living  on  the  lands  afterwards  called  Stone- 
house.  The  Over  Cobill  Haugh  (a  part  of  the  burgh  lying  south  of  the  Don),  as  well  as 
the  Broadholme,  and  the  Little  Croft,  now  the  north  part  of  Urybank,  all  belonged, 
at  one  time,  to  Mr.  Mitchell.  His  name  does  not  appear  amongst  the  burgh  heritors  in 
a  list  dated  164:5-6  ;  and  four  years  later  a  charge  of  horning  appears  against  Alexander 
Mitchell,  son  of  Alexander  Mitchell,  at  the  instance  of  Alexander  Paterson,  the  burgh 
Thesaurer. 

"What  sort  of  schoolroom  the  Inverurie  teacher  then  occupied  does  not  appear. 
Later  records  respecting  repairs  of  both  school  and  kirk,  indicate  a  shortcoming 
inclination  on  the  part  of  heritors  to  spend  money  on  public  objects  of  that  description. 
The  "  free  house  "  which  John  Ronald  could  give,  must  have  been  in  Market  Place  ; 
the  locality  occupied  by  all  the  Parish  Schools  of  after  times.  An  Act  of  Privy 
Council  in  1616,  which  was  followed  by  an  Act  of  Parliament  in  1633,  had  to  be 
resorted  to  in  order  to  compel  provision  for  the  education  of  the  young ;  and,  evidently, 
the  duty  was  neither  welcome  nor  extensively  performed ;  unceasing  efforts  on  the  part 
of  the  Church,  and  by  degrees  the  compulsion  of  the  Court  of  Session,  were  required  to 
make  educational  provision  general. 

In  1649,  when  the  country  was  settling  down  again,  after  the  prolonged  tumult  in 
social  life  which  accompanied  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  the  Inverurie  school 
had  to  be  recommenced,  as  if  it  had  never  existed. 


URBS     IN   RURE. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  when  local  records  first  throw  light 
upon  the  life  of  Inverurie,  several  families  of  Johnstons,  all,  it  is  likely,  originally 
offshoots  of  the  house  of  Caskieben,  had  formed  the  municipal  aristocracy,  along  with 
a  single  family  of  Leslies,  who,  in  a  state  of  ascending  fortunes,  were  becoming,  by 
purchase,  or  heritable  bond,  masters  of  numerous  holdings,  the  former  property  of 
Johnstons,  Thomsons,  and  others. 

Norman  Leslie,  a  brewer  of  local  importance,  had  his  inclosed  square  of  houses 
with  yards,  where  Kirkland  Terrace  now  spreads  itself ;  and  he  looked  across  the  King's 
Gait  upon  a  wide  expanse  of  eighteen  roods,  which  he  called  his  own,  separated  from  the 


174  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Stream  Head  by  the  Mill  Gait.  Norman  had  no  child ;  and  a  much  younger  brother, 
George,  succeeded  to  his  property  when  a  boy  in  1610  ;  and  became  himself,  afterwards, 
the  great  man  of  Inverurie,  building  a  mansion,  called  the  Stone  House,  on  the  eighteen 
roods,  and  making  out  for  himself  a  garden,  of  nine  roods'  breadth,  on  the  site  of  his 
brother's  former  abode.  Alexander  Leslie,  their  father,  after  succeeding  his  own  brother, 
William,  who  was  laird,  about  1590,  of  fourth  part  of  Barra,  and  in  Inverurie  of  the 
Castlehill  and  Castleyards,  had  died  sometime  before  1G00  ;  and  his  widow  married  the 
minister,  Mr.  James  Mill,  in  1603.  He  had  a  son,  James,  older  than  Norman,  who 
went,  like  many  of  the  Scottish  youth  of  the  period,  to  Poland,  and  Andrew  the  son 
of  James,  claiming  the  heritage  long  after,  brought  George  Leslie  apparently  to  the 
end  of  his  prosperity. 

Different  families  of  Johnstons,  almost  all  having  a  "William  among  their  sons  (and 
so  obliged  to  use  distinctive  names,  such  as  Rob's  Willie),  possessed  all  the  Lower  Roods, 
from  near  Norman  Leslie's  to  opposite  the  present  church,  upon  the  site  of  which  the 
manse  then  stood  ;  a  Fergus  family  occupying  the  land  where  the  Station  Eoad  now  is. 

The  opposite  Upper  Roods,  northward  from  Norman  Leslie's  large  possession,  were 
in  the  hands  of  Johnstons,  Fergusons,  Andersons,  Bainzies,  Gibs,  and  Bodwells.  Several 
kilnbams,  recorded  as  standing  on  the  ends  of  these  roods,  preserve  the  memory  of  the 
brewing  done  in  that  end  of  the  town. 

The  market  cross  stood  in  the  only  street  of  the  Burgh,  near  the  spot  where  the  top 
of  it  is  now  built  into  the  garden  wall  of  the  hotel.  The  Gauge  Rig,  presumably  the 
standard  rood,  was  alongside  the  Cuninghill  or  Dava  Roods,  belonging  to  the  Lord 
Superior  of  the  Regality.  The  Town-House,  frequently  dated  from  as  the  Prajtorium 
in  the  earlier  minutes  of  the  burgh  courts,  was,  it  is  likely,  near  by. 

The  house  used  for  the  earliest  tolbooth  now  traceable,  was  bought  by  Baillie 
George  Leslie,  from  James  Fergus  and  his  wife,  as  late  as  1643,  and  stood  where  No. 
81  High  Street  now  is ;  part  of  the  regality  lands,  and  the  then  glebe  lands,  lying  north 
of  it. 

The  Sketry  Burn,  crossing  the  glebe  angularly,  cut  off  a  five-sided  nook  of  land, 
upon  which  the  minister's  modest  square  of  buildings  stood,  enclosed  by  the  regulation 
wall  of  an  ell  height  of  stones,  and  the  rest  of  turf.  His  dwelling-house,  if  like  the 
manse  of  a  century  later,  had  borne  a  resemblance  to  two  boxes  placed  one  a-top  of  the 
other,  the  upper  being  reached  by  a  stair,  built  on  to  the  side  of  the  rooms,  and  covered 
over  by  an  ordinary  roof  and  wall,  forming  a  hall,  which  contained  a  cellar  as  well. 
The  kitchen  was  a  detached  work  of  drystone  and  turf,  with  three  little  windows ; — 
and  also  detached  were  a  cow-house,  hen-house,  and  barn. 

In  the  Lower  Roods,  north  of  the  Sketry  Burn,  now  covered  over,  a  rood,  wadset 
in  1580  by  a  Robert  Fergus  to  Gilbert  Craig,  was  succeeded  by  a  holding  of  six  roods, 
belonging  to  John  Johnston  of  that  Ilk  and  Caskieben,  also  held  in  wadset,  as  many 
lands    then   were.       Johnstons,    Robertsons,    Ferguses,   Ronalds,    Hutchesons,    all    old 


Ardtannies.  175 


families  succeeded ;  a  narrow  rood  of  the  Kirk  Glebe,  separating  them  from  other 
possessors,  named  respectively  Angus,  Fergus,  Craig,  Bowman,  Webster,  Scott,  and 
Steven,- — to  where  High  Street  and  Market  Place  meet.  Then  followed  Johnston, 
Eonald,  Ferguson  (the  Crichie  family) ;  a  large  family  of  Eobertsons  terminating  the 
Lower  Eood  hardship,  and  possessing,  also,  the  adjacent  Burn  Eigs  across  the  Overburn. 

Over  against  these,  upon  the  Upper  Eoods,  between  the  manse  and  the  Gallowslack 
Croft,  along  which  the  high  road  went,  bounding  the  Upper  Eoods  on  the  north,  were 
in  several  cases  the  same  proprietors  ;  the  possessions  being  generally  of  portions  on  both 
sides  of  the  King's  Gait.  The  early  family  of  Grub  mingled  with  the  departing 
Johnstons  north  of  the  glebe ;  Baillie  William  Johnston  appearing  in  a  constant 
succession  of  heritable  bonds,  granted  over  one  or  other  of  his  many  roods,  to  one  great 
man  after  another — Wardes,  Kincraigie,  Blakhall,  &c.  ;  or  to  smaller  neighbours,  who 
became  at  last  proprietors  of  his  holdings,  as  Norman  Leslie  did  of  many  of  them. 

Midtown  of  Inverurie,  occupying  the  space  from  31  to  27  High  Street,  was  in  the 
possession  of  a  family  named  successively  Makkie,  Mackieson,  and  Mackie,  their  next 
neighbours  being  the  Craigs,  and  next  the  Andersons,  both  dating  from  about  1580, 
after  which  Angus,  of  the  same  date,  then  an  early  Walter  Fergus  succeeded,  the  Grubs 
coming  next  in  order.  Their  large  possession,  along  with  Walter  Fergus's,  filled  up  the 
side  of  Market  Place,  until  other  Mackiesons  completed  the  succession  of  Upper  Eood 
proprietors. 

A  number  of  these  burgh  holders  appear  in  the  local  records  of  the  time.  The 
body,  however,  included  several  non-residents ;  even  the  baillies  of  the  burgh  frequently 
not  being  indwellers  therein,  but  living,  it  may  be,  three  or  four  miles  beyond  the 
parish  boundaries.  A  household  of  the  immemorial  Bainzies,  with  possibly  one  or  two 
Fergus  and  Johnston  neighbours,  had  their  thatched  abodes  upon  the  line  now  occupied 
by  the  Town  Hall,  and  stood  many  a  summer  afternoon,  under  their  eaves,  criticising 
the  play  going  on  among  the  leisurely  burgesses  upon  the  Ball  Green,  which  came  up  to 
their  doors  ;  and  in  winter,  looked  out  upon  the  skating  rink  of  Powtate,  and  the 
snow-ball  practice  pretty  sure  to  be  exhibited  when  the  school  discharged  its  boisterous 
tenants. 

The  single  street,  along  which  the  burgh  habitations  at  that  time  extended,  in  the 
two  lines  now  indicated,  began  at  the  Mill  Eoad,  as  it  was  called  as  often  as  by  its 
other  name  of  Kirk  Eoad,  which  crossed  from  the  kirkyard  along  the  edge  of  the  brae 
above  Streamhead  and  the  Heugh  Butts,  to  the  Corseman  Hill  and  Ardtannies. 
Northwards  the  street  and  town  terminated  at  the  Ball  Green.  Beyond  the  Ball  Green 
— east,  or  west,  or  north — no  bouse  was  built  for  about  two  centuries  after  1600. 

ARDTANNIES. 
Before  proceeding  to  give  some  notices  of  burgh  life  in  the  beginning  of  the  17th 
century,  which  we  find  in  the  registers  of  the  burgh,  and  in  those  left  by  Mr.  Mill,  it 


176  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

may  be  convenient  to  take  a  historical  glance  at  the  important  residence  of  Ardtannies, 
the  oldest  inhabited  spot  in  the  royal  burgh,  and  to  set  before  the  reader  the  inhabited 
condition  of  the  parish  around. 

"  The  Ard  tonies  "  is  the  knowe  or  promontory  of  the  imps  or  "  little  deevils ". 
Those  unembodied  spirits  which  fill  up  many  effective  corners  of  the  mythological  tableaux 
vivamts  of  ancient  Scotland,  must  have  had  assigned  to  them,  in  early  times,  the  deep 
set  angular  haugh  and  its  often  misty  surrounding  river,  for  their  shadowy  moonlight 
revels.  The  spot  had,  also,  undoubtedly  active  and  well-clothed  spirits  frequenting  its 
rich  fishing  grounds,  and  its  grassy  terraces  for  peaceful  or  warlike  residence,  ages 
before  means  existed  of  recording  their  names. 

Ardtannies  first  appears  in  history  when  the  great  Scottish  King,  whose  chief 
messuage  (as  the  Earl  of  the  Garioch)  it  was,  resorted  to  it,  in  his  heavy  sickness,  as  a 
quiet  resting  place ;  lying  for  safety  in  the  hollow,  since  called  Bruce's  Cave,  situated 
in  the  inner  angle  of  the  hillside,  across  the  Don  from  the  point  of  the  Ardtannies 
haugh ;  while  the  select  following  he  had,  in  his  yet  struggling  fortunes,  lay  around 
him,  as  Barbour  describes,  on  "  yonde  hauche,"  and  as  tradition  adds,  in  the  fortified 
Bruce's  camp  on  the  hill  of  Crichie  overhanging  his  resting-place.  From  that  point  he 
issued  to  his  first  decided  success,  by  the  battle  of  Inverurie,  in  1308.  If  we  believe, 
as  strategic  considerations  perhaps  compel,  that  Alexander  Stewart,  the  Earl  of  Mar, 
marshalled  part  of  his  valiant  companions  on  the  haugh  of  Ardtannies,  before  marching 
upon  Harlaw  in  1411,  we  know  also  that  he,  and  successive  holders  of  the  Garioch 
Earldom  before  his  time,  held,  at  that  spot,  their  feudal  courts,  receiving  resignations, 
and  granting  investitures,  of  surrounding  estates,  to  successive  generations  of  lairds. 

The  next  appearance  of  Ardtannies  is  in  local  manuscripts.  The  Earldom  sank  out 
of  notice  when  it  was  roughly  appropriated  by  the  Crown  ;  and  its  chief  manor-place 
comes  into  notice  again,  in  1510,  when  it  was  the  property  of  the  second  Leslie  of 
Wardes,  who  was  the  son  of  James  the  Third's  treasurer,  and  acquired  the  Garioch  lands 
from  that  King's  successor.  By  the  second  of  his  five  marriages  he  was  the  father  of 
the  first  Leslie  of  Warthill  At  the  period  now  treated  of,  Ardtannies  was,  apparently, 
the  occasional  residence  of  Wardes  ;  but  in  the  way  of  being  occupied  by  tenants  of 
some  social  position.  Mr.  Mill  had  to  record  christenings  there  to  Walter  Innes  up  to 
1615;  afterwards  to  William  Coutts,  fiar  of  Auchtercoull ;  afterwards  to  John  Leslie, 
the  son  of  Badifurra.  Norman  Leslie,  the  laird's  brother,  and  Walter  Innes's  successor 
in  marriage,  and  ancestor,  by  a  second  wife,  of  the  present  baronets  of  Wardes,  also 
lived  at  Ardtannies. 

The  Dava  with  the  mill  thereof,  as  the  Ardtannies  property  was  described  in 
David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon's  deed  of  gift  to  the  Abbey  of  Lindores,  was,  in  1600, 
styled  Ardtannies  and  the  Mill  of  Enrowrie — Walter  Innes  being  the  miller.  Among 
the  earliest  transactions  of  the  burgh  on  record  is  the  agreement  between  the  tutor  of 
Wardes  and  the  Magistrates  respecting  the  mill. 


Ardtannies.  177 


Walter  Innes  was,  in  some  way, — probably  as  wadsetter, — possessor  of  Ardtannies 
before  1608  ;  as  his  wife  is  recorded  as  resigning  her  terce  of  the  lands.  Walter  wa8 
subsequently  farmer,  as  well  as  miller. 

Gilbert  Johnston,  brother  of  John  Johnston  of  that  Ilk,  and  of  Dr.  Arthur 
Johnston,  had  possessed  Ardtannies  in  the  later  years  of  Walter  Innes's  tenantcy  of  the 
land,  as  he  is  called  "of  Ardtannies,"  in  1613,  being,  it  is  likely,  the  then  wadsetter  of 
the  estate. 

In  1621,  John  Leslie  of  Wardes  gave  a  charter  of  Ardtannies  to  William  Coutts, 
appearand  of  Auchtercoull,  and  Janet  Gordon,  his  wife  ;  which  couple  had  a  son, 
Alexander,  christened  there  in  1622,  and  Eobert,  the  year  after; — -the  baronet  of  Cluny, 
Sir  Alexander  Gordon,  and  his  son,  and  the  laird  of  Wardes,  being  witnesses.  That 
period  was  a  rude  enough  one  in  such  houses.  Mr.  Mill  records  a  homicide,  at 
Ardtannies,  thus  : — "  John  Johnston,  callit  of  Inglistown,  son  to  umquhill  Patrick 
Johnston,  dwelling  in  Inverurie,  upon  the  sevent  day  of  May,  1623,  being  Saturday,  at 
Ardtannies,  was  woundit  in  the  left  side  of  his  head  by  ane  gryte  straik,  alledgit  strucken 
by  John  Leslie  of  Badifurra,  in  ane  meeting  after  drinking.  Stricken  down  of  the 
straik,  departit  this  life  the  28th  May,  being  Thursday,  at  nicht — buriet  in  Monkeggy." 

In  1636,  David  Makkie  was  miller  at  Ardtannies.  John  Leslie  of  Badifurra  was 
himself  the  resident  at  the  Hall  in  1631 ;  where  his  father-in-law,  William  Strachan  of 
Tipperty,  died  in  that  year. 

The  transference  of  Ardtannies  from  hand  to  hand  was  frequent.  Sir  George 
Johnston,  the  first  baronet  of  Caskieben,  acquired  all  the  Wardes  lands  in  Inverurie ; 
he  held  them  only  for  a  short  time,  when  they  passed  from  him,  in  wadset,  to 
Alexander  Jaffray,  Provost  of  Aberdeen.  Alexander  Jaffray,  his  son,  was  served  heir, 
in  1645,  in  the  wadset  lands,  including  Ardtannes  ;  and,  after  great  part  of  those 
wadset  lands  had  passed  into  the  possession  of  Sir  John  Keith,  the  first  Earl  of 
Kintore,  Andrew  Jaffray,  grandson  of  the  Provost,  was  laird  of  Ardtannies,  and  was 
registered  in  that  character  in  the  Poll  Book  in  1696. 

The  ancient  Hall,  which  had  such  a  variety  of  tenants  in  that  changeful  century, 
stood  near  where  a  solitary  tree,  once  part  of  its  ornamental  planting,  remains  on  the 
edge  of  a  broad  platform  overhanging  the  river  haugh.  It  was  a  two-storey  house, 
having  the  form  of  the  letter  T.  Its  tenants  in  the  end  of  the  century  proved  but  of 
small  comfort  to  the  minister,  Mr.  William  Forbes  (Mr.  Mill's  successor),  whose 
misfortune  it  was  to  experience  the  zealous  times  of  both  the  Covenant  and  the  second 
Episcopacy.  During  the  proprietorship  of  the  second  Alexander  Jaffray,  the  famous 
Quaker — author  of  the  interesting  diary  called  by  his  name — a  tenant,  George  Ferguson, 
was  delated  by  Mr.  Forbes  before  the  Bishop,  for  assault  during  public  worship,  for 
which  George  had  to  "  satisfy  "  in  sackcloth.  Some  years  later,  Jaffray's  tenant,  or 
principal  servant,  a  convert  to  his  master's  ecclesiastical  notions,  being,  according  to  the 
mistaken  ideas  of  duty  on  the  part  of  the  Church,  in  all  its  phases,  during  that  century, 


23 


1 78  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

prosecuted  for  Nonconformity,  made  the  most  of  his  position  to  exhibit  himself  as  a 
martyr,  and,  without  any  suffering  to  himself,  contrived  to  bring  down  on  the  minister's 
head  the  ban  of  a  persecutor — the  Quaker  narrative  making  him  be  visited  with  a 
judicial  death  in  the  pulpit. 

During  the  last  days  of  the  Hall  being  occupied  as  a  residence,  its  close  neighbour, 
the  mill,  was  a  busy  scene,  and  continued  to  be  so  until  a  generation  ago. 

THE    MILL    OF    INVERURIE. 

The  Mill  must  everywhere  be  an  institution  as  old  as,  if  not  older,  than  the  Kirk, 
with  which  the  Scotch  proverb  associates  it.  Several  mills  appear  in  the  Inverurie 
records.  The  Castle  had,  in  early  times,  had  a  mill  on  the  TJry,  the  place  of  which  is 
indicated  by  the  Mdnbutts  and  the  Damriggs.  The  Mill  of  Knockinglews  was  the 
Mill  of  Glascha.  Aquhorties,  long  a  separate  property  from  Knockinglews,  had  a  mill 
of  its  own  on  the  same  stream,  on  the  west  side  of  the  estate,  not  far  from  Glascha. 
The  Mill  of  Woodhill  and  Badifurrow  stood  on  the  burn  of  Polnar,  where  the 
foundation  of  it  is  still  to  be  seen,  about  twenty  yards  below  the  bridge.  Conglass 
and  Drimmies  were  sucken  to  the  very  ancient  Mill  of  Inveramsay.  The  mill  known 
as  the  Mill  of  Inverurie  was  the  Mill  of  Ardtannies.  The  royal  charter  of  the  Garioch 
lands,  given  by  James  IV.  to  John  Leslie  of  Wardes,  in  1510,  included  Inverowry, 
with  the  Dava  and  the  Mill  of  the  same,  all  as  they  were  held  formerly  by  the  Earls 
of  Mar. 

The  first  Ardtannies'  miller  whose  name  we  have,  was  "Walter  Innes ;  he,  in 
1604,  was  conjoint  with  John  Leslie,  the  proprietor,  in  a  contract  of  multures,  which 
they  entered  into  with  the  Magistrates  of  Inverurie,  who  took  burden  upon  them  for 
themselves,  and  the  burgh  heritors.  The  tombstone  of  this  "Walter  Innes  is  still  in  the 
kirkyard  of  Inverurie,  recording  his  death  in  1616,  as  well  as  that  of  his  wife, 
Mariorie  Elphinstone,  in  1622. 

Walter  Innes  was  a  man  of  importance  in  the  community.  Living  close  by  the 
Hall  of  Ardtannies,  the  residence  of  a  succession  of  lairds  who  dwelt  there  either  as 
proprietors,  tenants,  or  wadsetters,  he  appears  in  the  records  of  christenings  associated 
with  the  families  of  Caskieben,  Blakhall,  Glack,  &c.  His  wife  had  apparently  been  one  of 
the  Glack  Elphinstones.  In  her  widowhood  she  married  Norcnan  Leslie,  a  brother  of  the 
unfortunate  laird  of  Wardes,  who  lost  Ardtannies.  Marjorie  Elphinstone  removed 
with  Norman  Leslie  to  Whitehaugh,  on  Fetternear,  where  she  died.  On  being  buried, 
she  was  said  to  have  been  awakened  from  the  death-sleep  by  the  gravedigger  trying  to 
cut  the  wedding  ring  off  her  finger,  and  to  have  gone  back  to  her  first  home  at 
Ardtannies.  The  legend  has,  fittingly,  corrupted  her  name  into  "Mary  Eerie  Orie 
(Meriorie)  Elphinstone  ".  Norman,  by  a  second  wife,  was  ancestor  of  the  more  recent 
baronets  of  Wardes. 


The  Mill  of  Inverurie.  179 


"Walter  Innes  was  the  father  of  a  large  family,  some  of  -whom  were  infants  at  the 
period  of  his  death.  His  eldest  son  was  a  captain  in  the  army  ere  that  time.  Besides 
these  he  had  Walter,  who  died  in  1622,  Alexander  and  John,  and  three  daughters — 
Janet,  Marjorie,  and  Margaret.  He  left  as  tutors  to  them  in  their  nonage  "William 
Buchan ;  Henrie  Petrie,  burgess  in  Aberdeen  ;  James  Elphinstone  of  Glack  ;  and  Mr. 
James  Mill,  minister  of  Inverurie ;  nominating  also,  as  "  oversmen  to  his  bairnis,"  my 
Lord  Elphinstone,  and  his  eldest  son,  my  Lord  Kildrimmie,  the  guideman  of  Auchter- 
coull,  and  the  Tutor  of  Cromarty.  Lord  Elphinstone  was,  at  that  time,  proprietor 
of  the  neighbouring  barony  of  Criehie,  by  a  charter  from  Wardes,  dated  1616,  includ- 
ing the  lands  of  Meikle  Warthill. 

Margaret  seems  to  have  married  the  miller  of  Cromlet.  in  Bourtie,  or  his  father. 
A  family  bible,  printed  1613,  London,  belonging  to  "  Waltere  Gordon  and  Marit  Inis," 
went  to  George  Gordon  at  the  Miln  of  Cromlet  (1640-1660),  and  now  belongs  to  Sir 
Charles  Shand  (Chief  Justice  of  the  Mauritius),  a  descendant. 

"We  are  indebted  to  the  singular  liking  to  register  facts  which  the  minister 
possessed,  for  an  interesting  glimpse  of  the  social  position  of  the  miller  of  Ardtannies  at 
the  time.  His  will  was  made,  as  were  many  of  those  registered  by  Mr.  Mill, 
immediately  before  his  death,  being  dated  26th  June,  1616,  the  day  before  Walter 
Innes's  death.  The  witnesses  were  John  Gordon,  in  Drimmies ;  George  Leslie, 
hi  Broomend  ;  Robert  Murdo,  in  Ardtannies  ;  Henrie  Petrie,  burgess  of  Aberdeen  ;  and 
the  minister  himself. 

The  inventory  included  10  plough  oxen,  overhead  16  libs,  each;  2  old  nowt  oxen,  10 
merks  each  ;  5  kie  and  12  car,  12  m.  a-piece ;  6  two-year-old  steers,  20  merks  each;  2 
quyocks,  5  sh.  each ;  an  auld  cow,  10  merks;  3  wark  horse  and  mares,  20  merks  each  ; 
60  sheep,  at  35  sh.  each ;  33  lambs,  7  sh.  each.  Beir  and  corn  8  bolls,  oats  sown  3  sc. 
(score)  bolls  ;  small  corn  60  bolls,  and  8  bolls  corns  in  the  intowne,  insight  and 
plenishing  100  lbs.  Item,  7  years'  tack  of  his  roume,  paying  theirfor  yearly  16  m. 
maill  and  mill  suken,  1 2  capons,  according  to  the  assedation  ;  and  for  the  mill  and  mill 
croft  and  the  brew  croft  according  to  the  assedation. 

Walter  Innes  was  a  somewhat  extensive  creditor.  The  young  laird  of  Balquhain, 
whose  family  was  then  getting  into  prolonged  difficulties,  as  others  in  that  vicinity  were, 
likewise,  soon  to  do,  owed  him  1200  merks.  Among  the  cautioners  were  Gilbert  Baird 
of  Auchmedden  and  George  Leslie  of  Kincraigie  (son  of  Bonny  Patrick,  who  died  in 
1613),  and  Thomas  and  John  Crombie,  in  Fetternear. 

On  the  other  hand  Walter  owed  Marjorie  Innes,  his  brother's  daughter,  300  m.  20 
libs.  ;  James  Innes,  "  now  in  Pow,"  200,  and  a  Gilbert  Johnston,  merchant  in  Inver- 
urie (the  first  "  merchant  "  we  read  of)  20  libs.  Several  individuals  are  mentioned  in 
the  Inverurie  records  about  that  period  as  resident  in  Pow  or  Poill,  (Poland). 

Ardtannies,  in  Walter  Innes's  time,  was  a  secluded  nook,  with  no  approach  up  or 
down  the  river  side,  except  by  a  steep  path  from  the  top  of  the  height  behind  it,  passing 


180  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioeh. 

the  circular  structures  and  table-stone  before  noticed.  The  abrupt  descent  led  from 
the  high  road  which  led  from  Inverurie,  along  the  top  of  the  Corseman  to  Polnar, 
Badifurrow,  and  Fetternear.  By  that  mountain  road  the  vassals  of  the  Earl  of  Mar,  in 
earlier  centuries,  had  come  to  the  regality  courts,  held  on  the  haugh  where  the  Bruce 
encamped  in  the  winter  of  1308.  On  the  Sunday  mornings  of  Mr.  Mill's  early  ministry, 
the  form  of  the  stalwart  miller  would  be  seen  climbing  the  whinny  brae  to  the  level  of 
the  "  Miller's  Park,"  with  his  well-connected  wife,  on  their  way,  to  the  Kirk,  accom- 
panied by  their  neighbours  Gilbert  Johnston,  or  Norman  Leslie,  or  young  Auchtercoull. 
At  the  top  of  the  steep  they  would  meet  with  Kincraigie  and  his  following,  or  a  little 
further  on  with  Blakhall  of  that  Ilk,  whose  road  was  by  the  ancient  highway,  across 
the  Dava,  past  the  "merchants'  graves".  And  the  appearance  of  the  well-known  figures 
on  the  height  of  the  Overboat  hill  would  apprise  William  Davidson,  the  bellman, 
looking  out  from  the  Kirk  green  down  at  the  Bass,  that  the  "gentles"  were  coming.  Innes 
would  also  have  an  occasional  Sunday  talk  with  other  more  professional  friends,  the 
Glennies,  who  held  the  mills  of  Aquhorties  and  Glascha ;  and  while  Mrs  Marjorie 
Elphinstone  stepped  on  with  her  future  admirer,  Norman  Leslie,  would  discuss  the 
probable  multures  of  the  season,  as  the  manner  of  millers  has  been  since  the  time  when 
Scott's  miller  of  Kennaquhair  paid  his  annual  harvest  visit  to  Dame  Glendinning.  In 
Scotland,  the  Kirk  and  the  Kirk  road  were,  for  the  two  centuries  after  "Walter  Innes  left 
this  world,  the  most  usual  agricultural  exchange ;  and  no  doubt  the  Corseman  hill  had 
its  associations  of  bargain-making  as  well  as  the  Bialto. 

The  sheltered  winding  river  hollow  must  have  been  a  sweet  spot  in  those  days ; 
and  as  its  name  indicates,  was,  it  is  likely,  the  scene  of  legends  of  the  smaller  super- 
natural experiences  of  earlier  times.  The  broad  river  haugh,  towered  over  by  the  steep 
banks  rising  on  the  other  side  of  the  abrupt  bend  of  the  Don,  was  the  constant  prospect 
looked  upon  by  the  solitary  priests  of  Apollinaris  Chapel.  Unless  they  and  their  less 
instructed  clerks,  and  their  humble  neighbours  on  the  braes  of  Badifurrow,  were  more 
free  from  superstition  than  the  rest  of  Scotland  then  was,  the  frosty  mists  and  hazy 
moonshine  which  frequently  filled  the  hollow  of  Ardtannies  must  have,  now  and  then, 
to  their  eyes  and  ears,  sheltered  and  revealed  the  forms  of  the  fairy  folk,  or  little  devils 
(tonies),  and  their  rougher  confreres,  the  kelpies — those  powerful,  but  untrustworthy, 
miller's  men  whose  tricks  found  as  much  credit  with  our  despised  ancestors,  as  spirit- 
rapping  does  now  with  some  advanced  philosophers,  who  are  at  the  same  time  above 
believing  in  the  supernatural  narratives  of  the  Bible.  The  miller's  profession  continued 
long  to  be  associated  in  Scotland  with  the  "black  art"  or  "  millerty,"  as  it  was  called, 
whereby  mill-wheels  could  be  stopped  or  broken,  as  the  Skudder  did  with  the  wheels 
of  the  mill  of  Caskieben. 

"Walter  Innes  had  become  tenant  of  the  whole  lands  of  Ardtannies,  and  seems  to 
have  given  up  the  mill  before  1609 ;  for  in  that  year  the  burgh  gained  a  lawsuit  against 
the  Laird  of  Wardes  and  Maister  George  Bisset,  his  tenant  in  the  mill. 


The  Mill  of  Inverurie.  181 


A  family  of  Eeids  were  either  miller's  men,  or  millers  at  Ardtaimies  for  a  consider- 
able time.  In  1611,  William  Eeid,  "at  the  mill,"  had  a  daughter  Janet.  John  Eeid 
was  miller  in  1626,  when  he  had  a  son  James  baptized,  and  had  been  there  four  years. 
So  late  as  1708,  George  Eeid,  mill  of  Ardtannies,  was  a  baillie  giving  sasine  in  a  Badi- 
furrow  infeftment.  In  1636,  David  Makkie  was  at  the  mill  of  Enrowrie ;  and  was,  it  is 
likely,  one  of  the  locally  important  family  of  Mackieson  or  Mackies,  some  of  whom 
lived  long  in  Badifurra,  and  others  were  prominent  burgesses,  and  one  a  notary  in  the 
burgh. 

Contemporary  with  these  early  millers  of  Inverurie,  officials  of  the  same  craft  and 
monopoly  presided  in  the  baronies  of  Knockinglews  and  Aquhorties. 

The  mill  of  Knockinglews,  by  that  time  called  the  mill  of  Glascha,  stood  where  the 
farm  called  Mill  of  Braco  has  its  buildings  now.  Nether  Glascha  was  near  it ;  and 
Upper  Glascha  at  the  west  edge  of  the  wood,  near  the  mansion-house  of  Braco ;  a  Brae 
Croft  occupied  another  section  of  the  slope.  The  house  of  Braco,  then  existing,  was  on 
the  opposite  slope,  on  the  lower  grounds  of  Benachie.  A  family  named  Glennie  occupied 
the  mill  of  Glascha,  in  the  first  years  of  the  century ;  John,  William,  and  Alexander 
Glennie  appearing  as  witnesses  to  sasines  between  1604  and  1608.  In  1622,  William 
Ferar  was  at  the  mill  of  Balqiihain,  the  same  mill.  In  1626,  William  Simmers  was 
miller,  and  had  a  daughter,  Janet,  baptized  ;  and  another,  named  Elizabeth,  in  1634. 

The  mill  of  Aquhorties — of  which  no  trace  now  remains,  except  the  name  of  the 
"Milltown  Bark" — was  occupied  from  1611  to  1622  by  Glennies,  apparently  those  who 
had  before  been  in  the  mill  of  Glascha  :  George  and  John  Glennie,  were  both  at  the 
mill  of  Aquhorties  in  1615,  and  their  sons,  Alexander,  "Walter,  and  Fatrick  were  on 
the  estate. 

George  Glennie,  at  the  mill,  and  Margaret  Forbes  had,  when  they  came  thither, 
two  sons,  William  and  James.  A  daughter,  Elspet,  was  born  in  1615  ;  George  died  in 
October,  1623,  some  weeks  before  the  birth  of  a  twin  boy  and  girl,  of  whom  the  boy 
died,  when  on  the  way  to  the  kirk  to  be  christaned,  on  the  10th  December. 

The  next  miller  of  Aquhorties — Gilbert  Johnston — seems  to  have  had  the  mill 
before  George  Glennie  died,  being  called  Myllwart  in  Achorthes  on  18th  July,  1622 — 
on  the  occasion  of  the  christening  of  twin  daughters,  Margaret  and  Isobel.     His  juvenile 
inmates  were  augmented  in  number,  by  George,  1623;  Mariorie,  1625;  James,  1627 
William,  1629;  and  Christian. 

William  Snape  seems  to  have  been  miller's  man  to  both  these  millers  of  Aquhor- 
ties.    He  was  there  from  1611  to  1631  :  and  had  a  daughter  in  1611,  buried  in  1627. 

The  history  of  the  mill  of  Laverurie,  as  a  place  of  importance,  continued  until  a 
late  period.  The  law  of  the  sucken,  as  it  obtained  in  Inverurie  during  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries  is,  however,  a  matter  of  interest.  The  earliest  burgh  transaction, 
a  fully  preserved  record,  is  a  renewal  of  a  contract  between  the  young  laird  of  Wardes 
and  the  magistrates  and  inhabitants  of  Inverurie,  respecting  the  Mill  of  Inverurie,  and 


182  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

the  Dava  lands  belonging  to  him.  It  places  before  us  in  one  view  the  notables  of 
Inverurie  in  1 600 — the  same  year  in  which  the  new  order  of  Church  was  fairly  inaugu- 
rated, recalling  the  Scotch  adage  of  making  a  "  kirk  and  a  mill  o't  "  : 

Contract  of  Multures  and  Set  of  Daaehe  Lands  between  John  Leslie  of  "Wardes  and  the  town  of 
Inverary. 

At  Aberdeen,  Dyce,  and  Inverury,  upon  the  tenth  and  eleventh  days  of  May,  year  of  God,  one 
thousand  six  hundred  years,  it  is  appointed,  contracted,  and  faithfully  agreit  betwixt  honourable  men 
John  Leslie  of  Cultis,  with  consent  and  assent  of  James  Gordon,  fiar  of  Newton,  William  Leslie  of 
Wardes,  George  Gordon  of  Terpersie,  John  Leyth,  appearand  of  Harthill,  curators  to  the  said  John 
Leslie  of  Cultis,  Mr.  William  Leslie  of  Warthill,  James  Leslie  of  Milnton  of  Durnoch,  John  Leslie  of 
Flinders,  Robert  Spens  of  Boighall,  and  James  Leslie  of  Ardoyne,  cautioners  and  sureties  for  the 
performance  of  the  said  John  Leslie's  part  of  the  present  contract  on  tbe  ain  pairt ;  William  Johnston 
in  Inverury,  Robert  Anderson  there,  bailies  of  the  said  burgh  ;  Alex.  Leslie  there,  John  Johnston 
there,  Alexander  Makysone  there,  William  Robertson  there,  Robert  Fergus  there,  James  Badyno 
there,  William  Macky  there,  and  George  Macky,  his  son,  John  Ronald  there,  persons  of  the  counsal  of 
the  said  burgh  ;  Andrew  Innes,  Robert  Johnston,  Thomas  Johnston,  Alexander  Badynoch,  Walter 
Hutcheon  and  Andrew  Hutcheon,  and  James  Tailyeour,  for  themselves  and  taking  burden  on  them  for 
the  remanent  inhabitants  and  communitie  of  the  said  burgh  bind  themselves,  their  airs, 

and  assignees. 

That  the  said  baillies,  counsal,  and  communitie  shall  grind  the  haill  cornes  of  the  said  burgh  of 
Inverury,  at  John  Leslie's  niitn  of  Inverury,  in  all  tym  coming  as  iusucken  (the  fue  teynd  and  myrbeir 
being  deducted  as  follows),  and  to  pay  to  the  said  John  Leslie  of  Cultis  his  airs  and  assignees,  the 
multures  of  the  said  miln,  the  twenty-four  peck  for  the  multure  and  ane  peck  of  ilk  six  bolls  for  the 
knaveship  yearly,  as  iusucken  duty  as  said  is. 

Farther  agreed  that  the  said  haill  inhabitants  of  Inverury,  and  the  occupiers  of  the  said  John 
Leslie's  half  daaehe  lands,  and  lands  in  Stanners  pertaining  to  the  said  half  daaehe  lands,  as  also  the 
said  John  Leslie's  other  half  daaehe  lands  of  Inverary,  called  Ardtanis,  with  the  mill  lands  and  crofts 
of  the  same  ilk  ane  of  them  pro  rata  sail  uphold  the  said  mill  of  Inverary  in  the  manner  following 
— They  shall  uphold  and  big  the  mill-house,  big  the  mill-damis,  cast  the  watter  gang,  carry  stanes 
and  trees  to  the  said  mill  as  insucken  for  upholding  of  the  said  mill  and  water  lead  and  mill-house, 
as  said  is,  and  the  millers  of  the  said  mill  shall  find  the  hail  timber  on  their  own  expenses. 

If  the  miller  fail  of  doing  his  work  sufficiently,  he  shall  be  tried  in  a  court  holden  by  the  baillies, 
with  advice  of  said  John  Leslie,  &c.  &c,  as  titular's  of  the  said  Milne,  his  baillie  or  baillies  for  the 
time  being,  and  the  said  miller  condemned,  shall  be  fined  double  of  the  skaith  suffered,  and  the  said 
miller  be  removed  at  Witsunday  thereafter,  and  a  sufficient  miller  provided. 

If  the  inhabitants  or  any  of  them  abstract  corn  that  should  be  ground  at  the  mill,  and  take  it  to 
be  ground  elsewhere,  they  shall  pay  double  of  the  multures  abstracted  to  the  miller. 

Also,  said  John  Leslie  shall  set  in  tack  and  assedation  to  the  said  baillies  and  consal  contractors 
above  written,  and  to  sic  other  inhabitants  of  the  said  burgh  as  they  shall  all  and  haill  the 

said  John  Leslie's  half  daaehe  lands  of  Inverury  above  written  last  occupied  by  the  said  inhabitants  of 
Inverury,  at  the  least  ane  guide  pairt  thereof  (exceptand  always  the  Stanners'  raids  and  tofts  pertain- 
ing to  said  John  Leslie,  and  his  said  half  daaehe  lands  of  Inverury  above  expressed),  for  all  the  days 
and  terms  of  five  years  next  to  the  year  following  the  said  baillies  and  counsal  entries  thereon,  which 
was  at  the  feast  of  Whitsunday  last  bypast,  in  the  year  of  God  one  thousand  six  hundred  years, 
Payand  therefore  the  said  baillies  counsel  and  sic  other  inhabitants  as  the  said  bailies  and 

coxinsel  thinks  good  to  the  said  John  Leslie  of  Cultis  and  his  forsaids,  titulars,  for  the  said  half  daaehe 
lands,  the  sum  of  forty  ponds  usual  Scottish  money,  at  Whitsunday  and  Martinmas  in  wynter,  by 
equal  portions  allenarlie,  beginning  the  first  demi-payment  at  Candlemas,  and  if  the  baillies  shall 
happen  to  make  a  set  of  the  said  half  daaehe  lands  (deducting  as  said  is),  to  any  other  inhabitants, 
said  John  Leslie  binds  himself  to  agree  thereto. 

Item,  that  the  said  inhabitants  of  Inverary  shall  cast  eird,  fewall,  fail],  and  divots  npon  the  said 
half  daaehe  lands,  hoil  stane  therein,  lead  and  transport  the  same,  togedder  with  the  eird,  fewill,  faill, 
and  divots,  to  their  own  use  during  the  five  years  of  their  tack. 

In  witness  whereof  said  parties  subscribe  this  presents  written  by  John  Maekj'sonne,  son  to 
Alexander  Mackysonne,  burgess  of  Inverary,  day  year  and  month  before  represent,  before  witnesses, 
James  Leslie  of  'Ardoyne,  Mr.  John  Leyth,  Advocate,  John  Leslie,  servant  of  the  said  Mr.  William 
Leslie,  Alexander  Leslie,  burgess  of  Aberdeen,  and  said  John  Mackysonne,  writer  of  the  paper. 

Parties : — John  Leslie  of  Cultis,  Mr.  William  Leslie  of  Warthill ;  John  Leslie,  commissioner  ; 


The  Twal  Pairt  Lands.  183 


James  Leslie,  commissioner ;  James  Gordon,  Fiar  of  Newton  as  curator  consents.  John  Leyth, 
appearand  of  Harthill  as  curator  consents.  AVilliam  Johnston,  one  of  the  baillies  ;  AVilliam 
Robertson,  Alexander  Mackison,  John  Johnston,  Robert  Anderson,  James  Badynach,  and  William 
Fergus,  with  our  hands  at  the  pen  led  be  the  notar  underwritten  at  our  command.  Ita  est  M. 
Johannis  Leyth  notarius  publicus  de  speeiali  mandate  dictarum  personarum  scribere  rogatus. 

George  Mackay,  Alexander  Badynoch,  Walter  Hutcheon,  Andrew  Hutcheon,  James  Tailyeour, 
Andrew  Innes,  James  Johnston,  John  Johnston,  with  our  hands  at  the  pen  led  by  the  notar,  under- 
writin  because  we  cannot  wreit  ourselffs.     Ita  est  Joannis  Mackieson,  not.  pub. 

Alexander  Leslie,  in  Inverury,  with  my  hand  at  the  pen  led  by  the  notar.  Ita  est  Alexander 
Davidson,  not.  pub. 

Alexander  Leslie,  wit.  ;  John  Lesly,  wit.  ;  George  Leslie,  wit.  ;  James  King,  wit.  ;  George 
Forbes,  fiar  of  Kynstar,  wit.  ;  to  the  subscribing  of  Alexander  Leslie,  Alexander  Leslie,  servant  to 
John  Leslie  of  Cultis,  witness  to  the  subscribing  of  Alexander  Leslie,  in  Inverury. 

The  number  of  municipal  dignitaries  who  were  unable  to  write  exhibits  the  state 
of  education  at  the  period,  and  also  explains  the  occurrence  of  so  manj'  notaries  as  appear 
over  the  country  for  a  long  time  after  1600. 

The  contract  of  multures  was  prosecuted  on  in  1604,  by  John  Leslie  of  Wardes, 
"  and  "Walter  Innes,  niilner  at  the  said  John  Leslie's  miln  of  Inverury,  callit  the  milu  of 
Artanies  ".     Young  Wardes,  it  is  likely,  held  Cults  in  marriage  provision. 

The  connection  of  the  burgh  with  the  mill  appears  frequently  afterwards  in  some- 
times graphic  orders  by  the  magistrates,  for  the  muster  of  the  burghers,  about  the  dam- 
dyke,  and  other  works,  which  they  had  to  keep  in  repair.  From  a  case  at  Leslie,  in 
1601,  it  appears  that  seisin  of  a  mill  was  given  by  putting  the  mill  clap  into  the 
hands  of  the  new  proprietor,  as  the  appropriate  symbol  of  ownership. 

THE  TWAL  PAIRT  LANDS. 

In  the  latter  half  of  the  preceding  century  the  formation  of  crofts  out  of  the 
common  lands  of  the  burgh  had  been  begun.  All  the  lands  within  the  burgh 
boundaries,  lying  around  the  two  ranges  of  Upper  and  Lower  Eoods,  held  immediately 
of  the  Crown  by  individual  proprietors,  were  originally  the  property  of  the  burgh ;  except 
the  Dava  lands  enumerated  in  the  contract  of  multures  given  above,  which  were  the  por- 
tions retained  by  the  Lord  Superior  of  the  Kegality  from  David  of  Huntingdon's  time, 
until  King  James  IV.  bestowed  the  same  on  John  Leslie  of  Wardes. 

The  common  lands  were  of  various  values.  Among  the  untilled  rough  pastures  lay 
portions  of  better  quality,  which  were  early  brought  under  cultivation.  These  were 
known  by  peculiar  names.  The  Burn  Rigs  lay  north  of  the  Overburn  and  the  Ballgreen 
at  right  angles  to  the  burn.  Across  their  northern  extremity  were  a  few  strips  called 
the  Content  Butts.  East  of  these  rigs  and  butts  lay  a  fan-shaped  cluster  of  long 
triangular  strips  named  the  Crawstane  Butts ;  and  eastward  from  these,  abutting  on  the 
Northburn,  lay  a  wide  range  of  long  rigs,  intersected  by  the  road  to  Meldrum,  called  the 
Longland  Folds,  extending  from  the  Crawstane  Butts  nearly  all  the  way  to  the  Ury, 
and  had  the  North  Burn  for  their  south  boundary.  Other  minute  portions  of  cultivated 
twelfth-part  lands  lay  in  the  Stanners,  Currie's  Haugh,  and  the  Hungry  Hill. 

From  an  unknown  date — possibly  that  assigned  by  local  legend  to  farmer  Bainzie 


184  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

and  his  eleven  sons,  the  good  soldier  of  Eobert  the  Bruce  at  the  battle  of  Inverurie — 
these  cultivated  patches  of  the  common  lands  had  been  divided  into  twelfth  parts,  to 
each  of  which  was  appended  in  property  a  portion  of  pasture  ground  in  the  haughs  or 
moors,  which  lay  uncultivated  on  the  outer  edges  of  the  burgh  lands.  Whether  the 
term  "  Twal  Pairt,"  the  designation  of  those  lands  held  in  feu  of  the  community,  was 
due  to  an  original  distribution  into  twelve  equal  portions  by  royal  gift,  or  to  any  other 
circumstance  connected  with  the  lands  themselves,  is  unknown  ;  but  the  parts  had,  by 
the  time  of  the  earliest  notices,  become  divided  into  half-twelfths  and  quarter-twelfths, 
and  some  were  aggregated  into  larger  holdings. 

Crofts  existed  also  of  the  common  lands.  Within  the  cultivated  twelfths,  now 
described,  were  Eobin's  Croft,  now  the  east  side  of  Constitution  Street ;  and  the  Crosslet 
Croft  at  the  junction  of  West  High  Street  with  Market  Place ;  whde  the  Gallowslack 
Croft  at  the  Porthead  lay  opposite,  bounding  the  Upper  Eoods.  Brandsbutt  very  early 
appears  at  the  Burgh's  march  with  Blackball ;  and  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  burgh  was 
Crofthead  on  the  Don  adjoining  Upperboat,  the  east  extremity  of  Ardtannies. 

The  common  lands  called  Twelfth  Parts  had,  within  the  memory  of  persons  living 
in  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  been  held  not  in  absolute  property,  but 
merely  by  a  right  of  cropping  in  turn.  Originally,  or  at  anyrate,  about  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  owners  of  Twelfth  Parts  had  their  lands  divided 
among  them  periodically  by  lot,  according  to  the  number,  or  the  fraction,  of  the 
standard  "  part "  to  which  they  had  right ;  and  the  pieces  falling  to  them  were 
cultivated  by  them  untd  a  new  distribution  was  resolved  upon.  This  method  of 
cultivation  had  been  felt  to  be  so  inconvenient  that,  before  1580,  it  was  entirely 
abandoned,  and  the  magistrates  issued  charters  giving  the  twelfth-part  owners  possession 
of  allotted  shares  in  permanence. 

That  completion  of  the  settlement  of  the  twelfth-part  properties,  in  this  form,  was 
established  on  evidence  in  1616,  in  a  process  before  the  Burgh  Court,  which  originated 
in  a  prosecution  for  the  strong-handed  uplifting  of  a  neighbour's  crop  from  a  portion  of 
twelfth-part  lands.  The  offender  was  the  John  Mackieson,  the  'writer  of  the  multure  con- 
tract. He  pleaded,  in  defence,  the  old  custom  of  the  burgh  of  working  the  common 
lands  in  cavel,  or  turns  arranged  by  lot ;  and  William  Johnston,  the  baillie,  contracting 
in  the  same  multure  settlement,  who  was  in  1616  a  very  old  man,  gave  evidence  as  to 
the  system  being  changed  in,  or  before,  his  boyhood. 

These  cultivated,  or  intown  twelfth-part  lands  lay  close  to  the  Roods,  almost  all  on 
the  north-east  side.  Outside  the  Roods  and  twelfths  lay  a  number  of  less  valuable 
portions,  seldom  tilled,  some  of  them  never  cultivated,  which  were  let  to  individuals,  or 
used  as  common  folds  for  the  burgesses'  cattle  or  sheep.  Others  were  outfield  portions 
of  the  twelfth-parts,  belonging  to  the  owners  of  particular  intown  portions. 

Beginning  at  the  southmost  meeting  point  of  the  Regality  Dava  lands  with  the 
Burgh  Lands — Crofthead,  the  Heugh  Butts,  the  Streamhead,  and  the  Ducat  Haugh  and 


The  Twal  Pairt  Lauds,  185 


Donbraes  filled  up  the  bank  of  the  river  Don,  to  the  point  where  Killiewalker,  an  occa- 
sional water  course  lying  between  the  Don  and  the  Ury,  is  crossed  to  the  great  peninsula 
called  the  Stanners.  The  Royalty  included  the  Broominch,  lying  in  the  Don,  and, 
across  the  river,  the  Over  Cable  Haugh,  between  the  stream  and  the  barony  of  Crichie. 

Filling  up  the  centre  of  the  Stanners  in  an  order  from  north  to  south,  the  Bearbutts, 
adjoining  Killiewalker  and  the  Kirkgreen — were  followed  by  the  Short  Croft  and 
Cairnbutts,  in  line  with  the  Long  Croft ;  the  Madder  Yards  lying  south  of  the  former 
while  Goodman's  Croft,  Castle  Croft,  lay  south  of  Long  Croft ;  a  large  patch  of  culti- 
vated Common  Butts  farther  south  completed  the  middle  portions.  Bound  the  river 
side  the  Coble  Haugh  and  Cable  Tack  were  upon  the  Don,  with  the  Greenleyford,  and 
the  Feaseland,  in  continuation — on  to  the  junction  of  the  Ury  with  the  Don.  Along  the 
Ury  northwards,  the  Child  Big,  Dambutt,  and  Millbutt,  separating  the  Broadbank  from 
the  river,  conducted  to  the  Castle  Yards ;  which  occupied  the  broad  north  end  of  the 
Stanners  containing  the  Castle  Hill  commonly  called  the  Bass. 

Upwards,  along  the  Ury  from  Killiewalker,  small  patches  called  Grant's  Barrel, 
Gibbon's  Butts,  and  the  Sax  Bigs,  led  to  the  meeting  of  the  Lower  Boods  with  the 
river ;  which  north  of  that  point  sweeps  round  an  extensive  haugh,  almost  level  with  the 
stream,  called  the  Cruick,  the  north  end  of  which  is  the  Broadholme  and  the  Horn 
Butts.  The  Bive  Haugh,  containing  the  Lint  Butts,  lies  between  the  Cruick  and  the 
immemorial  skating  ground  of  the  Inverurie  school  boys,  the  Currie,  on  Currie's  Haugh. 
Gordon's  Haugh  next  fills  the  space  between  the  Boods  and  the  Ury  to  the  North  Burn. 
Beyond  the  Burn  the  Souterford  Haugh,  marching  with  the  great  field  of  Longland 
Folds,  reaches  from  Jossford  to  Souterford,  where  the  high  road  to  Old  Meldrum 
crosses.  The  Boat  Haugh  there  lies  between  the  river  and  a  mass  of  common  lands 
called  the  Hungry  Hill,  the  Scabbedley  Folds  and  Faughs,  and  the  Harps  Haugh.  The 
Puddockburn  Butts  are  next  on  the  river  side,  and  the  Willanwell  Haugh  which 
includes  a  Swandale  Haugh.  Patches  of  Boynds  and  Portstoun  separate  these  from 
each  other,  and  from  the  Sandyknow  at  the  north-east  corner  of  the  Upper  Haughs, 
where  the  Ury  receives  the  Lochter  Burn.  The  Ury,  straightened  in  1875,  had  formerly 
numerous  sharp  turnings  on  the  north  end  of  the  haughs,  one  of  which  gave  form  to  a 
rectangular  little  tongue  of  land  called  the  Butt  of  Balhaggarty.  Where  the  course  of 
the  Ury  is  again  north  and  south,  lay  Johnnie  Aukl,  and  Leslie's  Horn,  and  the  Coble 
Haugh,  one  north  of  the  other  until  Howford  and  the  boundary  of  the  Boyalty  was  reached. 

Inside  the  bounding  line  of  haughs  now  described,  lay  the  Burghgate  Folds, 
south  of  which  came  the  Fouldub  Folds,  reaching  nearly  to  the  Content  Butts.  A 
wide  central  tract  of  uncultivated  "  Dava,"  called  the  Burgh  Muir,  lay  west  of  these, 
skirted  on  the  north  and  west  by  the  Calfward,  the  Whiteleys,  and  Leslie's  Croft,  and 
on  the  south-west  by  the  Corsfaulds,  Middlemuir,  and  the  Rutherfords  ;  while  south  of 
the  Burgh  Muir,  the  Gallowfold,  of  which  the  Broomfold  was  a  part,  filled  up  the  space 
to  the  Upper  Boods  and  Kellands,  called  in  early  deeds  Keylands.     Eastward  of  the 

24 


186  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Gallowfold,  Robin's  Croft,  now  the  east  side  of  Constitution  Street,  adjoined  the  Bum- 
lands,  of  which  Crosslit  Croft  was  a  part,  opposite  to  which  the  Gallowslack  Croft, 
afterwards  called  Porthead,  lay  close  to  the  Upper  Eoods.  A  later  addition  was  Chelsea 
Croft  in  West  High  Street. 

THE    LANDWARD    PARISH. 

The  little  burgh,  rising  into  busy  life,  and  asserting  its  vitality  in  Queen  Mary's 
Charter  of  Novodamus,  was  not  without  a  numerous  population  surrounding  it  in  the 
parish,  as  well  as  in  the  Garioch  generally.  Badifurrow,  with  its  "town"  of  Apollinaris' 
Chapel,  as  well  as  Colliston  Croft  and  Woodhill,  had  many  more  homesteads  upon  it 
than  it  has  now ;  for  then  Bonnie  Patrick  Leslie  of  Kincraigie,  living  in  the  mansion 
house — if  there  was  one — had  around  him  families  named  Angus,  Nuccoll,  Smythe, 
Ledigen,  Crombie,  Bichie,  Mackieson,  Pirie,  Donald,  Glennie,  and  Bonald. 

A  large  diversity  of  family  names  had  local  habitations  along  the  braes  of 
Aquhorties,  in  its  various  towns  of  the  Mill,  Netherbiggin,  Overtown,  Muirhead,  and 
the  Manor-house.  John  Glennie  died  at  the  Mill  of  Aquhorties  (long  since  obliterated), 
in  1616  ;  and  Gilbert  Johnston  ground  corns  and  had  annual  christenings  after  him, 
from  1622,  for  a  dozen  years,  until  David  Pirie  succeeded  him  in  both  functions — their 
neighbour,  John  Anderson,  nicknamed  "  Ginkin,"  weaving,  and  "William  Crombie 
tailoring,  for  a  host  of  Glennies,  Snapes,  Lightons,  Weirs,  Taylors,  Robertsons* 
Hendersons,  Andersons,  &c,  who  surrounded  them. 

In  the  three  towns  of  Oldtown,  Middletown,  and  Nethertown  of  Knockinglews, 
and  the  western  brae  of  Upper  and  Nether  Glascha  and  its  Mill,  the  names  of  Watt, 
Dikkie,  Thomson,  Ronald,  Lyon,  Glennie,  Mill,  Davidson,  and  Lighton,  were  represented 
by  parents  and  children  ;  and  by  occasional  contracts  of  marriage,  in  which  tochers  were 
secured  by  bonds  upon  neighbouring  properties. 

Drimmies,  the  property  of  William,  and  then  of  John,  Gordon,  and,  in  1636,  of 
Alexander  Chalmers,  had  its  proportion  of  households  bearing  the  surnames  of  Melin, 
Black,  Murdo,  and  Smith. 

Donalds,  Blacks,  Andersons,  Whytes,  Papes,  Patersons,  Smyths,  and  Wrights,  and 
in  later  years,  Strachans  and  Murdos,  were  christened  and  reared  on  Conglass. 

Crofthead,  now  part  of  Upperboat,  was  a  small  hamlet  in  which  a  family  of 
Stephens  were  the  principal  people. 


Chapter  VI. 

LIFE  IX  INVERUKIE  IN  THE  TIME  OF  JAMES  VI. 

A  Rural  Burgh  in  1600. — General  nature  of  buildings,  occupations 'and  manners.  Burgh  Inci- 
dents.— Pasturing  rules  —  Criminals  —  Brewing  —  Buildings  —  JVapinsehaw — The  Plague  — 
Sunday — The  Eerd—  Town's  Charter — Ale  Tasters — Offences  and  Punishments — Idlers.  A 
Burgh  Feud. — Contempt  of  Court — Protection  policy — Quarrel  with  City  of  Aberdeen.  The 
Leslies.  Mr.  Mill's  Eegisters  oe  Births  and  Deaths. — Hills — Natural  events — Records  of 
character.  Social  Intercourse. — Resident  and  neighbouring  Lairds — Two  dashing  Barons  of 
Balguhain — Style  of  the  Lairds. 

A  RURAL  BURGH  IN  1600. 

tHE  period  here  selected  for  description,  generally  represents  the  duration  of  the 
first  Episcopacy,  and  the  continuance  of  Mr.  Mill's  incumbency.  The  Common- 
wealth and  the  domination  of  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  came  immediately 
after,  and  brought  with  them,  without  doubt,  new  conditions  of  life.  It  has  to  he 
marked,  however,  as  illustrative  of  the  manner  wherein  changes  of  very  considerable  con- 
sequence to  a  country,  and  which  are  to  take  their  place  in  the  works  of  subsequent 
Historians  as  the  great  events  of  the  nation's  life,  pass  over  little  noted  in  contemporary 
records,  that  the  ordinary  business  of  the  rather  busy  burgh  went  on,  during  all  the 
troubled  17th  century,  with  hardly  a  notice  of  the  great  occurrences  taking  place  in 
Church  and  State  having  been  known  there. 

The  municipal  town  of  Enrowrie,  when  its  extant  registers  first  let  us  see  the 
manner  of  its  life,  was  fitly  describable  by  the  appellation  of  an  urbs  in  rure. 

Its  single  short  street  was  sparsely  studded  with  buildings,  whose  walls  of  drystone 
and  turf,  supporting  low-thatched  roofs,  contained  both  the  dwelling-house  and  shop  of 
cordiners,  tailzeours,  fabers  in  wood  or  in  iron,  wabsters,  browsters,  and  merchants. 
Barns  and  byres  stood  alongside  most  of  the  houses ;  kilnbarns  marking  the  several 
brew-houses  that  supplied  the  ale,  which  formed  at  that  time  an  important  article  of  food. 

Every  artizan,  or  trader,  lived  as  much  by  the  plough  and  spade  as  by  his  urban 
calling.  His  house  and  shop  stood  on  the  end  of  his  own  burgh  roods.  These  roods  he 
laboured  with  his  own  hands ;  and  one  of  his  most  valuable  interests  was  his  rights,  as 
a  freeman,  to  the  burgh  pasturages;  and,  if  he  was  a  holder  of  "  twelft-part"  lands,  or 


188  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

a  renter  of  Dava  lands,  the  privileges  then  attached  to  these  agricultural  possessions. 
Burgesses  were  occasionally  fined  for  non-residence. 

The  Dava  lands,  including  the  Kellands  and  the  hill,  were  rented,  from  the  Lord 
of  Kegality,  hy  the  magistrates,  and  re-let  to  indwellers.  The  fields  and  open  pastures 
of  the  rest  of  the  burgh  lands  formed  commons,  on  which  the  burgh  heritors  and  twelfth- 
part  proprietors  had  right  to  graze  a  limited  number  of  cattle  and  sheep,  under  the 
charge  of  a  common  herd. 

Agriculture  having  been  the  principal  interest  of  the  burghers,  the  routine  business 
of  the  magistracy  was  confined  to  the  regulation  of  the  pasturage  and  the  protection  of 
crops  ;  fixing  the  duties  of  the  common  herd,  aud  his  emoluments ;  collecting  the  "  Dava 
duties  "  or  rents ;  summoning  the  burgesses  to  the  annual  building  and  watching  of  the 
folds,  and  for  the  repair  of  the  mill  and  its  dam  dyke,  or  mill  lead  or  kiln,  and  of  the 
road  to  the  Kerunay  moss  ;  which  had,  from  time  to  time,  to  be  put  into  a  state  to  ad- 
mit of  the  primitive  carts  then  in  existence  getting  with  safety  through  the  Don  at 
Ardtannies,  and  along  the  braes  of  Crichie  and  Bogfur. 

The  burgh  laws  enacted,  so  far  back  as  the  14th  century,  by  the  great  burghs,  still 
directed  the  principal  municipal  government.  The  rights  of  freemen  were  carefully 
conserved,  and  the  common  interest  of  the  community  protected  from  individual  en- 
croachment. The  staple  article  of  provision,  beer  and  ale,  was  annually  appraised  or 
taken  proof  of,  by  public  tasters.  The  minimum  strength  of  house  walls  and  boundary 
dykes  was  regulated  by  statute.  Strict  limits  were  set  to  the  extent  of  house  accomo- 
dation which  every  burgh  proprietor  could  erect  for  the  purpose  of  letting ;  and  he  was 
made  responsible  for  his  tenants  having  a  sufficient  provision  of  kail  and  peats.  It  is 
interesting  to  compare  this  precaution,  taken  against  pauperism,  with  the  burgh  law 
recently  in  full  force  in  the  free  city  of  Hamburgh,  by  which,  licence  to  marry  coidd  be 
obtained  only  after  security  had  been  given  that  the  parties  had  a  certain  income  to 
live  upon.  Enactments  of  the  same  economical  tendency  prevented  the  harbouring  of 
idlers,  or  of  servants  deserting  tbeir  engagements. 

Considerable  rudeness  of  manners  is  recorded  in  the  appropriate  form  of  frequent 
complaint  made,  before  the  baillies,  of  assault,  under  the  various  descriptions  of  "  ding- 
ing," "  bluid  drawing,"  and  occasional  "sticking  with  a  durk,"  or  sword.  Inhibition, 
occasionally,  had  to  be  laid  upon  all  the  brewsters  and  ale  sellers  of  the  place  against 
supplying  drink  to  some  unruly  indweller,  whose  drunken  and  violent  conduct  had 
become  "  habit  and  repute  ".  No  unusual  occasion  of  rough  dealing  was  supplied  by 
"  the  moss,"  where  people  had  annually  to  congregate,  by  summons,  to  prepare  their 
winter's  fuel;  and  complaints  were  often  enough  made,  by  individuals  of  the  male 
gender,  against  the  heavy  hands  of  the  gentler  sex.  Probably  the  complainers  were 
crabbed  dyspeptics  of  the  sedentary  occupations  ;  but  the  softer  sex  in  Inverurie,  at 
the  time,  was  seasoned  with  a  considerable  proportion  of  "randies" — whose  tongues 
were  exercised  upon   their  neighbours,  and   at  times   upon  even  a    civic   dignitary, 


Burgh  Incidents.  189 


with  a  degree  of  freedom  sufficient  to  bring  them  into  trouble.  Offences  charged  were 
frequently  referred  to  the  oath  of  the  accused,  but  perjury  never  seems  to  have  been 
attempted. 

The  occurrence  of  using  the  dirk,  in  hasty  quarrels  between  neighbours,  indicates 
that  that  weapon  was  commonly  worn  at  the  time.  The  Wapinschaws  ordained,  at  a 
later  period,  to  be  held  everywhere,  afford  evidence  of  the  extent  to  which  personal 
armour  was  still  used  in  the  country.  Inverurie,  in  1608,  could  have  furnished  abun- 
dant materials  for  a  picture  such  as  those  which  commemorate  the  appearance  of  the 
historical  Cavaliers  and  Eoundheads  when  equipped  for  fight.     The  kindred  sight  was 

not  unexampled  of 

The  good  old  rule,  the  simple  plan, 

That  they  shall  take  who  have  the  power, 

And  they  shall  keep  who  can. 

A  case  long  occupied  the  bench  of  justice  in  the  Burgh  about  the  period  now  treated 
of,  and  proved  rather  too  much  for  the  strength  of  magistrates  possessing  only  the  social 
position  held  by  the  baillies  then  in  office.  It  arose  out  of  a  piece  of  rural  burglary — the 
cutting  and  violent  awaytaking  of  a  burgess's  crop  by  a  former  town-clerk,  who  was 
supported  by  an  armed  band,  partly  furnished  by  the  chief  man  of  the  neighbourhood — 
the  Laird  of  Caskieben — himself  afterwards  Sheriff  of  the  county,  and  a  competitor  for 
the  honours  of  the  peerage. 

In  criminal  law,  municipal  justice  did  not  apparently  go  further,  in  the  punishments 
inflicted,  than  banishment  from  the  burgh ;  but  an  instance  of  capital  punishment  is 
recorded  in  Mr.  Mill's  registers,  when  death  by  drowning  was  inflicted  by  the  Sheriff. 

More  satisfactory  reading  in  the  Inverurie  papers  exhibits  sustained  endeavours  on 
the  part  of  the  burgesses,  with  the  help  of  the  neighbouring  lairds  and  ministers,  to 
establish  and  uphold  in  Inverurie  a  superior  kind  of  school,  affording  instruction  in 
Latin. 

Repeated  burgh  minutes  also  record  something  like  head  courts  adopting  resolutions, 
on  the  part  of  the  community,  for  the  purpose  of  constraining  unruly  and  careless 
indwellers  into  respect  for  the  ordinances  of  religion.  The  proceedings,  as  recorded,  re- 
mind one  of  the  present  American  Liquor  Law  of  Maine,  which  is  wished  to  be  copied 
into  the  British  Statute  Book  by  some  who  would  deem  the  Inverurie  Head  Courts 
against  ungodliness  an  intolerable  intermeddling  with  individual  liberty. 

BURGH    INCIDENTS. 

The  following  selection  from  the  records  of  the  Garioch  municipal  town  give  a 
somewhat  realistic  picture  of  the  life  led  within  a  rural  royal  burgh  in  Scotland  during 
the  first  twenty  years  of  the  seventeenth  century  : — 

RIGHTS   OF   PASTURAGE. 

1605,  1st  June. — Patrick  Leslie  of  Kincraigie,  Normand  Leslie,  and  Alexander  Mackieson, 
bailies  ;  George  Barclay,  not.  pub.  and  clerk.     It  is  statute  and  ordeinit  be  the  bailies  with  consent  of 


190  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

the  hail  community  that  no  twalff  pairt  man  haiff  rit  or  power  to  hold  na  mair  nor  sax  nowlt, 
twenty  scheip  ;  and  every  half  twealff  pairt  half  als  mony,  and  that  no  tacksman  to  haiff  power  to 
hold  ony  mair  but  ane  kow  with  ane  follower,  with  sax  scheip  ; — except  libertie  he  socht  and  obtained 
by  ony  freeman  or  ontacksman  at  the  baillies  and  counsalls  hands.  And  na  tacksman  lessand  ane 
twalff  pairt  to  hold  any  byhaimis  except  ane  teddert  beist  upon  their  own  hainit  girs,  and  any  person 
contravener  of  this  to  pay  ffourtie  sh.  and  so  often  to  be  dowbellit. 

CUSTOMS. 

28  June. — Wm.  Stewin  ordenit  to  take  up  the  haill  customs  of  our  twa  markets,  Pollinar  and 
Letter-Marieday,  with  the  toft  maill,  and  James  Grub's  few  mail  of  Bransbutt  ;  for  which  he  under- 
takes the  chakker  compt  and  to  keep  the  towne  skaithless  at  the  hands  of  the  lords  of  chakkir  (the 
Lords  of  Exchequer). 

OFFICER  DEPOSED. 

21  July. — Thomas  Johnston,  officer,  accusit  and  convictit  of  troubling  his  neighbours,  is  deposed 
from  his  office. 

CRIMINALS   BANISHED   THE  TOWN. 

September.  —Margaret  Johnston,  Margaret  Wytman,  and  Elspet  Rob,  ilk  ane  convictit  in 
judgment  as  infamous  persons  being  baneisit  the  town  of  befor  for  unworthie  demeritt,  and  newlie 
challencit  for  steilling  of  lint  being  spread  upon  the  land,  and  that  upon  the  last  day  of  August — the 
magistrates,  with  consent  of  the  haill  inhabitants,  decreit  they  be  baneisit  the  town  for  ever,  and 
every  resetter  of  them  to  be  fined  2  lbs.  for  the  first  fault  and  doubltt  for  every  repetition. 

BUILDING    FAULDS. 

1  Nov. — All  occupiers  of  the  burrow  lands  or  Dava  lands  sail  big  their  pairt  of  the  fauld  this 
yeir  in  dew  time  ;  as  well  the  remover  as  the  resident  dweller,  the  remover  to  be  satisfiet  be  the 
entering  tenant  for  his  troubill. 

RESTRICTION   OF   BREWERS— WATCH   AND   WARD. 

1606,  3  July. — It  is  statut  and  ordanet  that  na  breweris  be  within  this  bruch,  bot  thrie  only— 
viz.,  Normand  Leslie,  William  Fergus,  and  William  Davidson,  except  everie  to  brew  his  own  drink, 
under  the  pains  of  confiscation  of  ther  haill  guids  and  fourtie  lbs.  of  penalties,  and  the  present  brewst  to 
be  confiscat  and  selt  at  the  Cross  ;  lykwise,  that  na  personne  nor  personnes,  householders  within  the 
bruch,  sail,  fra  this  present  hour  foreward,  resave  na  stranger  nor  passenger  of  na  estate  nor  degrie 
within  their  house,  under  the  pains  of  confiscation  of  ther  haill  geir. 

The  said  day  it  is  statut  and  ordainit  that  everie  twa  householders  beand  free  men  within  the 
town  sail  keep  the  hail  town  thair  day  about,  under  the  pain  of  ten  lbs.  .  .  .  And  to  begin  at 
the  south  end  of  the  bruch,  on  the  east  side  of  the  samyn,  at  the  house  of  Normand  Leslie,  and  sua  to 
continue  ordeiiie  in  watch  and  ward  as  said  is,  qll.  the  samyn  be  dischargit  be  advyse  of  the  bailies 
and  counsall. 

OATH   ANENT  STEALING   CORN   IN   HARVEST. 

19th  August.— The  haill  inhabitants  of  the  bruch  of  Inverurie  comperit  in  judgment,  and 
ther  has  giffen  ther  aiths,  particularlie  ilk  ane  for  ther  own  pairts,  that  they  will  compeir  at  the  next 
court  after  the  harvest,  after  lawful  warning  thereto  ;  and  purge  themselffs,  ther  wyffs,  bairnis, 
servauds  within  the  hous,  and  sub-tenants  haiffing  houses  of  ther  own,  of  uther  men  or  nybor's  cornis, 
lint,  geis,  or  fowlis,  peattis,  kail,  or  cassin  faill,  or  divotts. 

NEW   COUNCIL. 

20th  October. — Patrick  Leslie  of  Kincraigie,  Normand  Leslie,  and  William  Johnston  resign 
their  offices  in  the  hands  of  the  clerk.  The  Council  choose  as  their  successors  for  a  year  John 
Johnston  of  that  Ilk,  Patrick  Leslie  of  Kincraigie,  and  Normand  Leslie.  William  Robertson  was 
elected  treasurer,  and  John  Johnston,  William  Johnston  elder,  Alexander  Mackie,  George  Mackie, 
William  Robertson,  James  Bainzie,  persons  of  Council. 

The  number  of  the  baillies  in  the  preceding  century,  and  also  after  Patrick  Leslie's 
death,  in  1613,  was  two.  Kincraigie  had  been  taken  into  the  magistracy  as  a  man  of 
weight ;  and  from  the  date  of  his  election,  as  a  third  baillie,  the  business  of  the  burgh 
seems  to  have  been  conducted  with  vigour.  The  other  influential  neighbour  of  the 
town,  the  Laird  of  Caskieben,  was  introduced  in  1606,  and  continued  for  a  year  only, 


Burgh  Incidents.  191 


attending  but  few  meetings.     The  end  to  be  served  by  bis  election  seems  to  have  been 
the  establishment  of  a  Grammar  School. 

George  Barclay,  clerk,  resigned,  and  was  re-elected  for  a  year ;  the  Ufe  tenure  of 
his  office  was  not  then  in  use.  The  number  of  Councillors  seems  not  to  have  been  a 
uniformly  fixed  one.  A  case  occurs  in  which  an  application,  made  and  agreed  to,  for 
admission  into  the  freedom,  and  into  the  office  of  Councillor,  was  on  the  ground  that 
the  applicant  was  the  son  of  a  baillie.  The  officials  comprised  one  or  sometimes  two 
doomsters,  and  two  officers,  the  clerk,  and  at  times  a  clerk-depute,  all  elected  for  a  year, 
— the  depute  for  a  shorter  time. 

TURFING — QUALITY  OF   BUILDINGS. 

1607. — No  person  to  cast  faill  or  divott,  nor  futt  fail  nor  turfs  within  the  territorie  of  Inverurie, 
until  sic  tym  as  the  persons  of  the  couusell  and  bailies  of  the  hruch  convene  and  sicht  everie  man's 
necessitie,  what  everie  man's  need  requires  to  serve  his  bigging,  and  the  same  to  be  restrictit  be  the 
said  bailies  and  conseil  where  they  may  cast  and  how  meikill. 

No  yaird  dykes  or  yairds  or  others  be  bigit  bot  of  stein  and  mud  till  it  be  sax  quarter  heigh  or 
heigher  as  they  pleise,  with  only  three  gang  of  faill  above  the  sam. 

VISITATION   OF   BOUNDARIES,  &C. 

The  same  day  ane  of  the  bailies  with  the  counsell  of  the  towne  has  passit  throch  the  haill  town  : 

and  has  wisseit  the  greves  (offences)  of  the  towne,   conform  to  ane  auld   order  set  doun  be  the 

bailies  and  conseill  of  the  toun  and  has  fund  certain  greves,  viz.,  making  of  yeird  middings,  casting 

of  reiskyerd  forder  nor  they  oueht  to  haiff  downe,  to  wit  John  Eandal,  John  Angus,  and  George  Grub. 

THE   EWE   BUCHTS. 

9th  July. — All  ewes  within  the  toun  to  be  milked  at  the  buchts  from  this  night  furth. 

A   LAND  TAX, 
19th  October. — Ane  taxation  to  be  raissit  of  merks  for  sending  south  to  the  parliament, 

the  twa  pairt  to  be  raisit  aff  the  ruids  and  the  threid  aff  the  common  lands,  to  be  given  to  Kincraigie, 
for  payment  of  the  said  sowme  being  borrowit  fra  him. 

TAKING   ORDER. 

1608,  18th  March. — No  swine  to  be  kept  within  the  town  except  the  owners  keep  them  frae 
other  men's  skaith,  either  be  corn,  kell,  or  girs. 

It  is  statut  and  ordanit,  in  respect  of  the  informalitie  of  Jou  Rae  being  so  often  mistemperit  he 
drink,  that  na  browster  give  to  the  said  John  Eae  nor  sell  him  ony  aill  within  ther  hous,  under  pain 
of  40  shillings  for  ilk  offence, 

John  Angus  complained  upon  William  Johnston,  son  of  Robert,  for  stricking  him  with  ane  rung 
at  the  But  of  Balhagartie. 

A  WAPINSCHAW. 

6th  June. — At  a  court  held  within  the  Tolbuith  by  Patrick  Leslie  of  Kincraigie  ;  Norman 
Leslie  ;  and  John  Johnston,  bailie, 

John  Robertson,  found  sufficient  in  arms,  viz.,  knapska,  plait  steil,  and  sword  ;  the  said  John 
being  ane  barkar  of  craft. 

Alex.  Smyth  of  the  same  craft  siclyke. 

Wm,  Fergus,  ane  horsman,  sufficientlie  in  arms  conform  to  the  proclamation. 

Thomas,  footman,  sufficient  in  arms. 

John  Ronald,  futman,  sufficient,  conform  to  the  proclamation. 

John  Scot,  sufficient  futman,  according  to  the  proclamation. 

William  Johnston,  elder,  horsman  sufficient. 

Wm.  Johnston,  son  to  umqll  Robert  Johnston,  ordanit  to  haiff  ane  jack,  otherwise  sufficient. 

Wm.  Smith,  craftsman,  ordanit  to  haiff  plaitstellis,  otherwise  sufficient. 

John  Thomson,  onsufficient  in  all  things. 

Robert  Tailyeour,  found  sufficient  in  armor,  and  ordeint  to  be  ane  horsman. 

Norman  Leslie,  found  sufficient  in  hors  and  armor.  » 

John  Gib,  fund  sufficient,  and  ordenit  to  haiff  plaitstellis. 


192  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

James  Bainzie,  in  hors  and  armor  sufficient. 

Alex.  Fergus,  in  geir  sufficient. 

John  Johnston,  bailie,  hors  and  armour  sufficient. 

Andrew  Innes,  ordanit  to  haiff  sufficient  armor. 

John  Angus,  fund  sufficient  in  hors  and  armor. 

Andrew  Hutcheon,  ordeinit  to  be  suffieientlie  provydit. 

Wm,  Porter,  tailzeour,  sufficient,  ordeiut  to  haiff  ane  staff. 

George  Grub,  ane  knapska,  plaitstellis,  sword,  gauutlettes,  and  ordanit  to  be  haiff  ane  ff 

Alex.  Mackieson,  in  hors  and  geir. 

Wm.  Chein,  craftsman,  sufficient. 

Wm.  Robertson,  absent. 

James  Tailyeour,  wright,  sufficient  in  geir. 

Alex.  Bainzie,  sufficient  in  geir,  and  ordaint  to  haiff  ane  hors. 

Wm.  Steven,  officer,  sufficient. 

IDLERS. 

Said  day  it  is  statut  that  all  servands  being  vagabonds,  and  no  wayis  stapillit  and  fied  to 
maisters,  not  to  be  Rscept  be  any  within  the  towne  at  ludgiug  or  meitting,  and  who  that  giffis  thame 
ludging  to  pay  therefor  ten  lbs.  for  ilk  night  toties  quoties. 

MILL  SERVICE. 

13  June. — The  haill  inhabitants  ordeint  to  compeir  at  the  Mill  of  Ardtannies  on  the  14  of 
this  instaut,  by  sax  hours  of  the  morning,  and  that  to  pairt  the  mill  water  and  big  in  the  same. 

THE   PLAGUE, 

18  October. — No  brewer  be  grantit  to  brew  fra  this  day  furth  except  Kormand  Leslie,  John 
Gib,  Alexander  Fergus,  Wm.  Davidson,  and  Wm.  Ferguson.  And  thois  persons  only  to  be  brewers 
during  this  trubsom  tym  of  the  plaig,  and  not  anie  of  thame  to  be  resetters  of  any  strangers  within 
their  houses,  without  ane  sufficient  testimoniall  producit  to  the  bailies  or  minister  of  the  towne. 

The  said  day  Andrew  Innes  is  permitted  to  brew  with  the  rest. 

The  Treasurer's  accounts  of  the  City  of  Aberdeen  show  33s.  4d.  allowed  him,  at 
this  date,  for  horse  hire,  to  go  to  Kintore  and  Inverurie,  to  try  the  truth  of  a  report  of 
the  plague. 

In  the  election  for  1608,  the  minister  was  chosen  one  of  the  Council,  of  which  he 
was  frequently  a  member  afterwards.  The  oath  administered  to  the  municipal 
authorities  no  longer  contained,  as  it  did  in  1580,  a  vow  to  maintain  and  defend  the 
religion  now  established,  but  respected  only  the  burgh  privileges  which  they  were  taken 
bound  not  to  conspire  against.  Norman  Leslie  died  shortly  after  his  election  at 
Michaelmas  of  that  year. 

BREACH    OF   BURGH   LAWS. 

1608,  25th  October. — Alex.  Bodwell  and  John  Gib  compeared  in  judgment  and  complained  upon 
the  not  keeping  of  the  fredome  conform  to  the  laws  of  burrows,  and  in  speeiall  for  the  sellers  of  roch 
ledder.  It  is  statut  that  no  burgess  nor  freeman  within  the  town  offer  onie  roch  ledder  to  other  crafts 
or  dwellers  without  the  town,  or  sell  the  same  ;  the  sellers  thereof  sail  be  halden  to  pay  for  selling  or 
offering  of  geir  to  be  sould  the  sowme  of  toties  qtcotics.     And  that 

nather  beir,  aitts,  ledder,  or  uther  ,  be  offert  first  to  the  Indwellers  and  freemen  within  the 

said  bruch,  and  to  be  sauld  to  ony  within  the  towne  willing  to  by,  of  sic  pryces  as  the  same  is  sauld 
to  uthers.  And  giff  it  sail  hapen  ony  geir  be  sauld  better  schaip  to  uther  men,  nor  it  is  offert  to 
thame  within  the  towne,  the  sellers  thereof  to  be  holden  to  pay  the  sowme  above  written; 

HEAD   COURT  RESPECTING   SUNDAY. 

30  November. — It  is  statut  and  ordeinit  be  the  bailzies  consall  and  inhabitants  of  the 
town  that  the  haill  inhabitants  of  the  toune  sail  convene  baith  at  preaching  and  prayer.  And  na 
drink  to  be  sauld  befor  the  same,  and  whosomever  contravenes  the  samyn,  ether  be  selling  of  drink, 
or  drynking  before  preaching,  or  absenting  themselffs,  sail,  ilk  person,  pay  toties  quoties,  without  ane 
lawful  excuse  admittet  be  the  session  sail  pay  sex  sh.  8d.     Whereon  Mr.  James  Mill,  minister,  took 


Burgh  Incidents.  193 


act  of  Court,  and  instructit  and  ordeint  the  kirk  officer  to  concur  with  the  town  officer  for  poynding 
and  uptaking  of  the  soumes. 

TAYMENT   OF  TEIND   COLLECTOR. 

The  said  day  it  is  statut  and  ordeinit  be  the  bailzies  and  eonsall  of  the  bruch,  that  George 
Mackie  sail  gang  to  the  laird  of  Drum,  and  ileal]  with  him  for  payment  of  the  teind  wittall  to  be 
payit  at  this  term  :  And  for  the  said  George  Mackie  his  recompense  for  his  travell,  because  he  is  but 
ane  of  the  towne  and  doan  the  cowmond  turn,  the  said  bailzies  ordenis  the  persons  under  written  to 
help  the  said  George  Mackie  with  their  hors  in  mucking  ane  day  quam  primum,  viz.,  the  haill 
inhabitants  within  the  town  benorth  the  said  George  Maekie's  dwelling. 

Irvine,  laird  of  Drum,  was  then  tacksman  of  the  teinds,  under  a  lease  from 
the  Commendator  of  Lindores.  George's  dwelling  was,  it  is  likely,  opposite  the  present 
Parish  Church. 

CONTRACT   ENFORCED. 
The  said  day  James  Tailzeour  is  decernit  to  mak  ane  bed  and  ane  chair  according  to  the 
pactiouuis,  viz.,  Win.  Cheinis  bed  and  Win.  Grub's  chair,  and  deliver  the  same  to  Wm.  Smyth  within 
term  of  law,  under  pain  of  poynding  for  the  sowme  of  ten  merks  monie. 

THE   LESLIES. 

6th  December.— Mr.  James  Mill,  minister,  gave  in  ane  brief  of  inquest  finding  George  Leslie 
heir  to  his  brother  Normand  Leslie. 

George  Leslie,  a  minor,  was  the  half  brother  of  Norman  Leslie.  The  minister 
married  George's  mother,  in  her  widowhood.  He  became  George  Leslie  of  Eothmaise, 
and  after  1640  was,  for  a  time,  chief  badlie  of  the  burgh.  He  was  the  builder  of  the 
first  stone  and  lime  dwelling  house  in  Inverurie — named,  in  consequence,  Stone  House. 

HOUSES  TO   BE   LET  ONLY  WITH   CONSENT   OF   THE   MAGISTRATES. 

1609 — 31st  January. — The  setters  of  houses  by  consent  of  bailies  and  eonsall  to  be  fined  10  lbs. 
each,  viz.,  Alex.  Bainzie,  James  Grub,  Thomas  Smyth,  Andrew  Hutcheon,  for  twa  tenants  ;  George 
Mackie,  for  Barbara  Inging,  Isabella  Malan  ;  William  Reid,  for  setting  of  John  Rae  ;  Robert  Tailyor, 
for  setting  of  Janet  Fergus  ;  James  Andrew,  for  re-setting  of  ane  baneist  person. 

20th  April. — The  bailies  and  eonsall  tolerate  James  Andrew  to  take  home  his  dochter,  and  her 
husband,  in  household  with  them  at  Whitsunday  next. 

FEE   OF   THE   COMMON   HERD. 

14th  April.  — Statut  by  the  bailzies,  with  the  consent  of  the  haill  inhabitants  for  the  maist 
pairt,  —That  the  haill  guids  within  the  town  of  Inverurie  sail  pay  to  the  cowmond  herd  for  everie  beast, 
except  the  hairst  milk  ky  with  their  followers,  ane  peek  of  meill,  and  everie  auld  sheep  12d.,  and  for 
everie  hog  6d.  But  the  ontaxinen  to  pay  for  their  milk  ky  pro  rata,  because  they  haill'  na  hainit  girs 
of  their  own  to  keep  their  ky. 

William  Jack  is  admittit  cowmond  herd  for  this  year,  to  keep  baith  sheip  and  nowdt  qll  (until) 
Michalday  next  or  trewillday  next  ;  for  the  keeping  of  the  qlk  guids  the  said  William  sail  haiff  for  ilk 
week  four  pecks  meill  mett  with  ane  peck,  with  ten  merks  silver  for  the  scheip  ;  and  that  at  three 
terms,  viz.,  ane  threid  at  midsymer,  ane  threid  at  lames,  and  the  last  threid  at  trewilday,  with  ilk 
twall  pairt  ane  led  of  peitts,  to  be  led  to  the  said  William  Jack's  house.  And  as  to  the  onfreemen  ;  to 
be  sensurit  be  the  counsall  what  they  sail  pay  of  peitts  to  the  bird  ;  and  the  said  bird  has  giffen  his  aith 
to  be  ane  sufficient  bird  and  puudler  till  the  corne  be  iu  the  yairds. 

ARBITRATION   OF   BLOOD. 

13th  May.— John  Mackieson,  son  to  Alexander  Mackieson,  and  William  Johnston,  son  to 
Robert  Johnston,  has  submitted  the  action  of  bluid  depending  betwixt  them  to  meutuall  friends,  viz:  — 
for  John  Mackieson,  John  Leslie,  Baleairn,  and  Gilbert  Johnston  of  Muirtou  :  and  on  the  part  of 
William  Johnston,  John  Leslie  of  Largie,  and  Walter  Inues  ;  who  are  to  convene  at  the  Kirk  of 
Inverurie,  16th  instant,  and  decide  the  same. 

PASTURING   RULES,    AND  WATCHING   OF  CROP. 

26th  May. — Ordeinit  that  the  weitt  fauld  be  biggit  and  hainit  betwit  tliis  and  the  elevent  day  of 

25 


194  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioeh. 

June  next,  to  the  effect  that  the  car  may  be  keipit  therein  from  polliuar  day  furth  :  And  na  uther  hors 
nor  beast  be  put  therein  until  the  hairst  begin. 

Fra  this  nicht  furth  everie  twa  twalt  pairts  men,  and  evry  twa  Davanch  men,  their  nyt  about  sail, 
gang  and  vissie  and  sicht  baith  corns  and  liainit  girs  until  the  corns  be  begun  to  scheir  ;  and  the  said 
persons  to  haiff  power  to  poynd  any  trespasser. 

CONSTITUTION   OF   TOWN   COUNCIL. 

25th  October. — Patrick  Leslie,  John  Johnston,  and  George  Mackie  are  elected  and  chosen 
bailzies  for  the  year  ;  Wm.  Johnston,  elder,  Wm.  Robertson,  James  Bainzie,  Mr.  James  Mill,  and 
Win.  Randall,  persons  of  Consall  ;  George  Barclay,  not  pub.,  cowmond  clerk  for  a  year  ;  "Wm.  Stewin, 
and  Thomas  Fergus,  officers  ;  and  Thomas  Johnston,  alias  Commissar,  Dowmster. 

1610,  26th  Apryle.— John  Mackie  gave  in  ane  suit  for  to  be  accepit  as  ane  of  the  numer  of  the 
senate  and  of  the  consall  of  the  bruch,  conform  to  the  order  of  the  town,  and  that  because  he  is  the  son 
of  ane  magistrate,  and  is  willing  to  do  therein  according  to  their  judgment. 

Item. — "William  Johnston  younger,  son  to  John  Johnston,  gaiff  in  the  lyk  suit  ;  which  persons  be 
the  cowmond  wreitt  of  the  bailzies  and  persons  of  consall  are  admittit  consallers  conjunct  with  the  rest. 

The  said  day  George  Leslie  of  Crichie,  Alex.  Hervie  in  Inverurie,  and  George  Leslie,  pupill,  gaiff 
in  their  several  bills  for  to  be  admittet  burgesses. 

The  set  of  the  burgh — if  there  was  one — evidently  did  not  precisely  define  the 
number  of  the  council ;  nor  were  minors  ineligible  to  the  rank  of  burgesses,  as  the 
above  entry  shows. 

CONDITIONS   OPPORTUNELY   MADE. 

15th  May. — Contiuuit  the  bills  of  George  Leslie  of  Crichie,  George  Leslie,  pupill,  brother 
German  to  umnuhill  Norman  Leslie,  And  Alexander  Hervie  :  After  mature  deliberation  it  is  found 
that  said  persons  audit  not  to  become  burgessis  of  the  said  bruch,  nor  their  suit  grantit,  till  the  said 
persons  ather  be  themselfis,  or  be  their  tutoris  and  curators,  conform  to  the  conditions  following,  viz. — 
the  said  George  Leslie  of  Crichie  merche  with  the  said  brach,  and  sett  perfyt  division  betwix  the 
proper  bunds  of  Crichie  and  the  cowmond  lands  of  the  said  bruch  ;  And  also  to  infeft  the  said  inhabi- 
tants in  the  peit  gett,  as  the  said  was  propit  of  Auld  :  George  Leslie,  pupill,  and  his  curatoris  and 
tutors,  to  giff  and  deliver  to  the  town's  bailzies  and  consall  the  town's  charters  and  principal  wreatts, 
the  wliilk  was  in  the  keeping  of  the  said  umquhill  Norman,  and  within  his  possession  the  tym  of  his 
deceis  :  Or  other  ways  cais  (i.e.  cause)  the  said  wreatts  extract  out  of  the  register,  and  bring  it  hame  as 
said  is  ;  And  for  performance  thereof,  ilk  ane  the  saids  tutors  and  curatoris  to  gyff  and  subscribe  ane 
sufficient  obligation  for  the  soume  of  ane  thousand  pounds. 

Alexander  Hervie  had  married  Janet  Leslie — Norman  Leslie's  widow.  He  became, 
in  a  few  years,  a  principal  member  of  council,  and  head  of  a  faction  opposed  to  that  of 
the  Johnstons.  His  social  importance  procured  his  being  made  a  baillie  on  his  first 
entrance  into  the  council.  George  Leslie  of  Crichie  was  a  brother  of  the  laird  of 
"Wardes;  Crichie  was  conveyed  to  him  in  1607;  and  in  1616,  to  Lord  Elpbinstone. 
The  Novodamus  Charter  of  Queen  Mary  was  given  up  in  1613,  16th  March  to  George 
M'Kie,  the  treasurer,  by  Andrew  Leslie  of  New  Leslie,  uncle  of  young  George  Leslie. 

GRASS   SEASON. 

21  July. — None  allowed  to  feed  or  seiner  girs  on  the  haughs  fra  this  day  furth. 

TOFT   MAIL — KING'S  DUES. 

Said  day  it  is  statut  and  ordeinit  that  payers  of  the  toft  maill,  otherways  callit  the  King's  few 
dewtie,  who  do  not  pay  the  same  this  day  be  six  hours  at  even,  be  answerable  lor  the  King's  uulaws. 

MODE   OF   MUNICIPAL   RESIGNATION. 

22  October. — Curia  capitalis  tenia  in  praitorio,  &c,  Comperit  Patrick  Leslie,  John  Johnston, 
and  George  Mackie,  bailzies,  and  freely  dischargit  thame  of  their  offices  of  bailzies,  and  jurisdiction 
thereof,  be  deliverance  of  the  wand  in  the  hands  of  the  clerk  and  consall. 


Burgh  Incidents.  195 


MILL   ASSESSMENT. 

4  December. — Ordeinit  a  taxation   of  three  pennies  be  taken  upo   ilk   lang  mid  in  Inverurie, 
.  according  to  the  sett  and  rentall  of  the  tiend,  for  bringing  of  the  milne  dore. 

THE   BRO0MF0LD. 

Said  day  it  is  statute  and  ordainit  that  the  brayfauld  of  the  Gallowfauld  be  dykit  and  sawin  with 
the  breim. 

ALE  TASTERS. 

The  said  day  John  Ronald,  Wm.  Fergus,  Wm.  Johnrstowne,  yoimger,  and  John  Angus,  are 
appointit  taisters  funsters  of  aill  within  the  bruch,  wliilk  persons  sail  everio  oulk  anee  visie  the 
taverners  and  their  hous,  and  sett  such  prices  on  the  aill  as  they  think  the  samyn  worth  on  their 
consciences.  And  that  they  be  dewdy  advertisit  be  the  brewsteris  when  the  samyn  are  staill  And 
thereafter  that  ane  or  twa  of  thame  pas  within  the  lions  wdier  the  aill  is,  and  draw  furthe  of  ony  stand 
or  bowie  he  lyke  ane  chapiu  aill,  and  carie  the  saime  furthe  to  ther  nybors  taisters  to  be  taistit  and 
valuet.  And  that  finalie  thereafter,  befoir  ony  com  to  drink  ony  of  the  aill  within  the  said  hous, 
they  giff  furthe  the  pryce  of  the  aill.  And  whosoever  resaves  ony  gryter  price  nor  the  taisters  Impoiss, 
they  are  to  be  in  amerceament  of  fourtie  sh.  for  ilk  browst.  And  so  often  as  they  happen  to  brew  and 
hous  staill  aill,  the  parties  advertise  the  taisters  to  com  ami  put  ane  pryce  thereon  befoir  ony  be  sauld, 
under  the  pains  forsaid  ;  and  who  evere  refuses  to  gif  lawful  obedience  to  the  funsters  or  Bailis,  and 
upbraidis  them  in  word  or  deid,  publicklie  or  privatlie,  to  be  Imeditle  poyndit  for  the  said  penaltie, 
Anil  the  samyn  to  be  employit  to  the  particular  weill  of  the  funsters. 

POLICE. 
1612,  28  Januar.  —  In  respect  of  ane  ha;,  nous  complaint  giffen  in  by  John  Ronald  upon  Wm. 
Ronald,  his  son,  for  troubling  and  molesting  him,  and  putting  hand  on  his  father,  within  his  hous,  as 
also  troubling  of  dyvers  persons  within  the  toun.  .  .  .  It  is  statnt  and  ordeinit  be  the  bailzie  that 
na  browster  in  the  toun,  frae  this  day  furthe,  sell  ony  aill  to  the  said  William  Ronald,  to  be  drunken 
within  their  own  hous. 

EMOLUMENTS   OF   COMMON   HERD. 
August.— Every    twalf    pairt  within    the   bruch    sail    be    haulden    to   pay    to  John    Wischert, 
common  herd,   twa  pecks  meill,   for  the  whilk  he  sail  four  heid  of  nowt  ;  and  whatsomever 

possessor  of  the  twelf  pts.  hed  ane  greater  number  of  yauds,  to  pay  for  ilk  heid  of  the  superflus  ane  peck 
meil.     Lyk  as  ilk  ane  of  the  and  indwallers  of  the  bruch  shall  be  haulden  to  pay  ane  peek 

meal  for  ilk  pare  of  their  cattels  whilk  pasture  in  the  common  herd,  togedder  with  ane  cart  full  of 
peitts,  of  ilk  househaulder  who  hav  horse  passing  to  the  moss  ;  And  failing  of  the  cartful  of  peitts, 
sax  sh.  the  pryce  of  the  peek  meill  sex  sh.  audit  pence. 

AGAINST  TURFING. 

No  futt  faill  to  be  casten  upon  the  burrowfauld  of  the  bruch,  from  this  day  furth,  whether  to  big 
slapis  or  dykes,  or  ground  middingis,  under  the  poinne  of  ten  pounds. 

COMPLAINTS  AND    OFFENCES  AND   PUNISHMENTS. 

19  June. — Compeirit  Alex.  Stiven,  son  to  umquhil  John  Stevin,  barges  of  the  bruch,  aud  gave  in 
ane  complaint  against  Alexander  Bodwill  and  Isobel  Chapman,  for  wrong  and  molest  and  bluid- 
drawing  upon  him  and  his  spouse  Jeane  Keith,  the  said  Alexander  his  richt  leg,  and  the  said  Jeane 
her  hed  and  brow. 

12  Deer. — Janet  Johnston,  spouse  to  Andrew  Hutcheon,  fined  10  sh.  for  bluid-drawing  of  Normand 
Hutcheon,  her  son-in-law. 

Margaret  Mackieson  is  ordaint  to  big  ane  cassie,  the  bred  of  her  toft  beginning  at  John  Ronald 
his  house,  and  Wm.  Fergus  toft,  the  bred  four  futt  in  all  pairtis  sufficientlie  sairt  and  cassiet, 
betwixt  and  the  aucht  day  of  Januar  next,  under  pain  of  10  lbs.  money. 

1613,  4  Feb. — John  Mackieson  complainit  upon  George  Grubb,  for  raising  of  certain  merch 
staues  betwixt  their  lauds. 

18  June. — William  Johnston,  alias  Kelt,  fined  4  lbs.  for  putting  of  violent  hauld  on  Andrew 
Gib,  in  presence  of  the  bailies. 

29  June. — Ordeint  in  respect  of  the  disobedience  of  Wm.  Johnston,  son  of  Robert,  that  he  sail 
no  ways  bring  peitts  or  fewall  furth  of  the  moss  designit  mercht  aud  appointed  to  the  inhabitants  of 
the  bruch,  without  licence  and  consent  of  the  magistrates,  under  pain  of  tinsel  of  his  freedom,  and  10 
lbs.  money  for  wrong  and  onlay  (fine). 


196  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the.  Garioch. 

.  .  .  For  every  calf  found  within  the  bruch,  the  apprender  to  receive  from  the  owner  6sh.  8d. 
toties  quoties. 

No  geis  to  be  found  from  this  day  within  the  bruch  under  pain  of  10  sh.,  and  if  the  geis  be  put 
in  a  hous  the  onlay  to  be  added. 

27  July. — Statute  that  whatsomever  inhabitants  of  this  bruch  resettis,  maintains,  or  gifes 
meat  or  drink,  or  hospitalitie  and  retreat  to  any  nybors  trends,  indwellers  within  the  same,  passing 
from  their  maister's  service,  shall  be  poyndit  for  ten  lbs.  monie,  toties  quoties,  the  ane  half  to  the 
pairtie  offendit,  the  other  to  the  bruch. 

5  October.— John  Mackieson  complains  upon  Geo.  Grub,  for  the  slauchter  of  ane  guise 
poyndit  be  him,  allegit  commitit  be  the  said  George,  his  wife,  and  woman  servant,  be  hounding  of 
ane  dog. 

THE   MALT   MILL,    AND   NUMBER   OF   BREWERS. 

5  October.— Robert  Fergus,  John  Thamson,  John  Gib,  Alex.  Fergus,  John  Clerk,  Win. 
Davidson,  Wm.  Fergus,  Geo.  Smyth,  and  John  Stevin,  brewsters  and  ail-sellers,  sucken  to  the  mill, 
are  decreit  to  put  up  the  malt  wall  of  the  mill  sufficientlie,  with  stack  and  clay  doub,  at  the  sicht  of 
Walter  Innes  of  Ardtannies  within  aucht  days. 

ALE   MEASURES   REGULATED. 

1614,  6th  November.  —  Ordeint  that  na  aill  be  sauld  fra  this  day  furth  darer  nor  12d  the  pynt, 
under  the  pain  of  .  .  .  sh.  toties  quoties  and  that  na  brewster  saill  aill  with  ony  met,  lowme, 
stoup,  or  coig,  bat  with  sick  as  ar  seilit  with  the  cowmond  seill  of  the  town.  [The  ale  was  raised  to 
16  pennies  in  the  following  February,  and  the  beer  to  18,  by  statute.] 

UNFREEMEN   OF   CORDWAINERS'    CRAFT. 

15th  November. — James  Hill,  James  Hutcheon,  and  John  Fergus,  cordiners,  sail  not  cut 
ony  new  lether  from  this  day  furth,  under  penaltie  of  ten  shs.,  until  they  mak  themselves  freemen  of 
the  said  craft. 

GOOD   HOURS. 

No  tavern  within  this  town  to  sell  aill  to  ony  person  behind  the  nyn  hours  at  even,  under  the 
pain  of  ten  shs.,  and  giff  ony  towne's  peopill  beis  found  wagand  on  the  gaitt  after  the  hour  of  ten,  the 
person  fund  wagand  sail  be  poyndt  as  if  they  wer  wagands. 

THE   SABOTHE — GAMES. 

1615,  3  January. — Statute  and  ordeint  thattheSabothebehaden  and  keepit  be  the  haill  indwalleris 
of  this  bruch,  in  keeping  of  the  kirk  before  noon  at  preaching  or  prayers,  and  efternoon  at  the 
evening  prayers,  under  the  pain  of  sex  schillings  money,  to  be  exact  of  ilk  contravener,  the  maister 
of  familie,  or  unoccupied  domestick.  And  sicklykes,  that  na  person  outwith  the  aig  of  fourteen  yeris, 
be  fund  at  the  futball  on  the  Sabothe  days. 

CHURCH    AND   STATE    DISCIPLINE. 

14  February. — The  said  day  George  Mackie  is  become  caution  that  Alex.  Fergus,  younger,  sail 
compeir  before  the  minister  and  session  and  obey  the  discipline  of  the  kirk,  according  to  the  will  of 
the  minister  and  session,  in  all  the  whilk  the  said  minister  and  session  choose  to  enquire. 

PURGING    THE    TOWN    OF    IDLERS. 

14th  March. — Statute  and  ordeint  for  purging  of  this  bruch  from  evill  memberis  ydellars, 
not  haiflng  moyen  and  Industrie  to  sustain  themselns  honestlie,  without  damage  to  the  common  walthe 
and  members  thereof :  that  it  sail  not  be  lesum  to  ony  burghes  or  Indwaller,  of  whatsomever  station  or 
condition  they  be,  to  sett  upon  ther  possessions  or  onsteds  inwithe  this  bruch  ony  girsman,  cottar,  or 
bot  That  thae  and  like  ane  of  thame  fulfil  and  keep  the  particular  rente  set  down  to  every  ane 

of  thame  in  manner  following — That  is  to  say  that  Alex.  Hervie  sail  be  ony  licentiate  to  haif  on  his 
possession  ane  cottar,  and  ane  girsman  or  gras  house  kindlinge  only  twa  fyres ;  John  Badyeno  younger, 
ane  ;  Alex.  Fergus,  ane  ;  Mr.  James  Mill,  ane  ;  John  Jackson,  ane  ;  George  Mackieson,  ane  ;  George 
Grub,  ane  croftsman  allenarlie  ;  John  Mackieson,  ane ;  William  Robertsone,  ane  ;  Wm.  Fergus,  ane  ; 
John  and  William  Ronald,  ane  croftsman  ;  Wm.  Jonston,  alias  Robert's  Willie,  and  Robert  Tailyour, 
ane  ;  Wm.  Stevin,  ane ;  Whilkis,  particular  persons  above  rehersit  sail  be  anseribill,  ilk  ane 
respectivelie,  to  furneis  their  own  tenants  conform  to  their  desiguation,  with  sufficiency  of  kaill  and 
peittis,  be  the  sicht  of  visitors  to  be  appoyntit  for  that  effect,  who  sail  sicht  the  biggings  and  furniter 
upon  the  tent  of  August. 

A   TROUBLESOME  FAMILY. 

14th  March. — John  Ronald  fined    for   wrongous  troubling  and  dinging  of   James  Hutcheon, 


A  Burgh  Fetid.  197 


within  the  yaird  of  the  said  James  Hutcheon,  and  missmacking  and  spoilling  of  the  new  sawn  beddis 
and  skailling  of  the  seids,  as  was  judiciallie  proven. 

1  July. — Ordeiut  that  William  Ronald  sail  keip  his  own  house  in  mieting  and  susteuta- 
tion  of  himself,  and  not  to  drink  in  the  ostlar  house  ;  and  gyff  the  said  William  Ronald,  from  this 
time  furth,  be  found  drinking  in  the  ostlar  house  the  said  Wm.  sail  be  poyndit  for  fourtie  sh.,  and 
the  browster  with  whom  he  drinks  four  punds. 

18th  July. — Robert  Fergus,  Janet  Thomson,  Alex.  Barclay,  Thomas  Johnston,  and  John  Fergus 
ilk  ane  of  them  convictit  for  break  of  the  former  Act,  maid  anent  selling  of  aill  to  Wm.  Ronald. 
Each  fined  4  lbs.  and  Wm.  Ronald  40  sh.  to  the  common  good,  and  40  sh.  to  the  bailies.  The  same 
day  Wm.  Ronald  sought  law  burrows  against  his  father. 

THATCHING  THE  KIRK. 
18  July. — Ordeint  that  whatsomever  person  bringis  not  in  ther  kirk  hedder,  according  to  fyve 
thraive  ilk  twall  ruids,  and  fyve  thraive  ilk  twalff  pairt,  sail  be  poyndit  ten  lbs.  monie.  [This  order  was 
supplemented  21  July.]  The  inhabitants  of  Inverurie  ilk  ane  of  them  sail  inbring,  to  the  kirk,  half  als 
meikill  hedder  as  they  have  done  alreddie,  and  that  upon  the  last  day  of  present  instant  under  pain 
of  10  lbs. 

INTERDICTS. 

21  July. — Ordeint  that  no  man  or  inhabitant  receipt,  nor  receive,  Wm.  Johnston,  servitor 
to  John  Johnston,  either  by  day  or  uicht,  under  penalty  of  40  sh.  Mies  quolies. 

4  Aug. — No  hors  to  be  out  of  the  hous  fra  this  nicht  forth,  except  it  be  within  his  own  proper 
girs  :     And  in  especiall  Middlemuir,  Whitleys,  and  Weetsweils. 

The  act  anent  the  cruiffing  of  fowlis,  geis,  and  swyn  is  ratifiet,  approvit,  and  confirmit,  with  the 
addition  that  it  sail  be  lesum  to  fell,  or  ston,  them,  by  (without)  the  owner's  permission. 

Whosoever  be  challencit  or  apprehendit  within  the  yairds,  outsides,  or  on  the  dykes  thereof, 
cutting,  barking,  or  demolishing,  or  destroying,  the  plantit  wood  or  herbs,  within  the 

said  yairdis,  sail  be  immediatlie  poyndit  5  merks. 

9  Sept. — No  inhabitant  to  give  to  his  bestiall,  ayther  be  nyt  or  day,  any  cornis,  ayther  of  their 
own  or  uther  menis,  in  tyme  of  harvest,  or  until  the  cornis  be  put  halelie  within  dykes. 

LAST  SASINE   IN   FAVOUR  OF   THE  JOHNSTONS   OF   CASKIEBEN. 

24  August. — Sasine,  upon  Charter  under  the  Great  Seal,  in  favour  of  George  Johnston  of  that 
Ilk  and  Caskieben,  and  Elisabeth  Forbes,  his  spouse,  of  the  lands  of  Johnston  and  the  Mill  ; 
Caskieben,  with  the  tower,  fortalice,  manor,  orchards,  and  gardens  thereof ;  Mill  of  Caskieben ;  and 
towns  of  Ingliston,  Isaackstoun,  or  Jackstoun,  Mill  called  Pettiesmill,  Leggat,  Fawels  eighth  part  of 
Ardoun,  half  lands  of  Crimond,  and  mill  and  mill  lands  of  the  same,  all  lying  within  the  barony  of 
Johnston  ;  also  of  the  lands  of  Boynds,  Porterstoun,  Bendauch,  Begsley,  Craig,  Corshill,  Buchthills, 
Standiustanes,  Sleepiehillock,  Woodhead,  Overtoun  of  Dyce,  Boginjoss,  and  Pleyheuchs. 

A    BURGH    FEUD. 

The  magisterial  bench  had  lost  its  social  prestige  by  the  death  of  Kincraigie  and 
the  good  John  Johnston  of  Caskieben.  Alexander  Hervie  who  married  Norman  Leslie's 
widow,  had  acquired  some  consequence,  as  administrator  of  that  relict's  life-rent  in 
her  first  husband's  large  burgh  property.  Hervie  appears  to  have  been  disliked  by  the 
Johnstons — long  the  burgh  great  people — and  not  reverenced  by  the  officials  who  had 
served  under  the  influential  magistrates  above-named.  Alexander  Hervie  and  Wdliam 
Johnston,  junior,  were  bailies  from  1613  to  1614.  Next  year  they  were  replaced  by 
the  elder  Johnston  and  John  Bainzie,  a  member  of  the  ancient  family  of  Badynoch — 
denominated  "  right  worshipful  men ".  During  that  year  a  riot  of  extraordinary 
character  occurred — partly  meant  to  annoy  Baillie  Hervie — which  merits  notice  on 
account  of  the  parties  concerned  in  it,  as  well  as  from  its  graphic  exhibition  of  the  state 
of  society,  and  the  glimpse  it  gives  of  the  tenure  by  which  the  common  lands  were  held 
some  time  before.     The  chief  rioter  was  the  town  clerk,   and  his   principal  abettors 


198  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

were  a  former  baillie  and  the  Laird  of  Caskieben,  who  had,  shortly  before,  succeeded 
his  father,  John  Johnston,  in  the  family  estate. 

1615,  16  Sept. — Court  :  BailHes — William  Johnston,  elder  ;  John  Bainzie,  younger  ;  Bobert 
Fergus  and  AVilliam  Stewin,  officers  ;  and  Wm.  Johnston,  son  to  umquhile  Alexander  Johnston, 
Dowmster.  Comperit—  Alexander  Hervie,  John  Johnston,  John  Bainzie,  younger,  and  compleinit 
upone  William  Botsone  and  John  Mackieson,  eomburgeises  of  this  brouch,  that  quhain  they,  accom- 
paniet  with  the  laird  of  Caskieben,  his  servands  and  friendis,  Bodin  in  fear  of  weir  and  convocation  of 
the  Kingis  legis,  with  Jackis,  steill  bonnetis,  speiris,  lances,  and  swourdis,  this  day  forsaid,  bein  the 
sixtein  day  of  September  above  wretin,  came  to  their  proper  lands  callit  the  Cowmonttie  of  Curries 
Hauch  ;  and  these  schore  and  led  away,  and  with  horse  and  nowlt  eit  and  destroyit,  their  cornis 
growing  in  and  upon  the  saids  lands.  And  mr  fullie  led  away  and  put  thereof  to  the  Mains  of 
Caskieben  ;  quhilk  deid  was  done  as  they  allegit  under  silence  of  nyt,  at  lest  before  the  sone  rysing 
ane  hour  or  thereby.     [The  baillies  appointed  a  trial  to  take  place  some  days  afterwards.] 

22  Sept. — Compeirit  anent  the  action  of  allegit  sheiring  comitit  by  the  persons  contenit 
on  ane  bill  gifin  in  be  the  saids  persons  above  wreitin  against  the  defenders  therein  contenit,  whereof 
the  tenor  follows  : — Unto  your  wisdomes  huniblie  meins  and  complains  Mr.  Alexander  Hervie,  John 
Johnston,  William  Johnston,  his  son,  and  John  Benzie,  ane  of  the  baillies  of  this  bruch,  upon  George 
Johnston  of  Caskieben,  Wm.  Bobertson  and  John  Mackieson,  burgesses  of  this  bruch, — that  they 
upon  Setterday  last,  the  sixtein  day  of  this  instant  September,  under  silence  of  nyt,  at  lest  before  sone 
rysing,  they  and  their  complcssis,  with  convocation  of  the  King's  legis,  boden  in  fear  of  weir,  with  lang 
staves  and  speirs,  lancis,  swordis,  and  steell  bonnetis,  came  to  the  cowmond  land  of  Inverowrie,  callit 
the  cowmontie  of  Curries  Hauch,  and  there  cuttit,  sehure,  tuik  away  at  their  plesure,  our  cornis  of  the 
saids  lands  ;  aud  convenit  horse  and  nowlt,  eit  and  destroyit  the  rest  thereof,  to  our  heavie  hurt  and 
skaith  in  manifest  contempt  of  His  Majestie  his  Highnpss  laws,  And  evil  example  to  uthers, 
neighbours  of  this  bruich,  to  do  the  lyk  in  tym  coming  ;  quhilk  giff  it  become  ane  cowmond  practice 
to  uthers,  barones  and  nyhbours  without  this  bruch,  and  within,  may  turne  to  the  utter  wrak,  and 
thereof,  not  onlie  to  particular  persons  bot  to  the  haill  inhabitants  of  the  bruch 
without  Kemeid  be  provydit. 

Mackieson  was  the  late  Town  Clerk,  and  Robertson  had  recently  been  a  baillie. 
They  appeared  for  the  accused,  and  gave  in  a  number  of  defences,  denying  the  juris- 
diction of  the  court,  and  claiming  the  lands  as  their  own.  The  baillies  repelled  their 
defence ;  ordered  the  defenders  to  produce  their  evidents,  and  fined  them  20  merks 
each,  besides  the  value  of  the  property  taken  away.  The  defenders  gave  in  pleadings, 
but  continued  insubordinate. 

MILL  SERVICE. 

10  Oct. — Statut  that  the  haill  inhabitants  of  this  bruch,  sail  immediatelye  after  the  rysing 
of  this  court  pass  presentlie  to  the  mill,  and  bring  in  faill  and  stanis  to  the  mill  watter,  And  the 
haill  taxmen  to  have  horse  and  cartis,  and  the  untaxmen  to  have  fut  spades. 

14  Oct. — No  swyne  to  be  permitted  to  be  kept  outwith  the  house  of  the  owners. 

THE   FEUD. — USE   AND   WONT   OF   COMMON   LANDS. 

Statement  given  in  by  John  Mackieson,  as  procurator  for  the  defenders,  including  himself. 

The  possessors  of  the  cowmontie  were  in  use  to  part  and  cavaill  the  same  be  equal  divisions. 
That  umquhil,  Wm.  Leslie,  umquhile  James  Fergus  and  John  Johnston,  possessors  for  the  time  of  the 
sun  half  of  the  Cruik,  finding  themselves  to  have  the  better  part,  howso  the  same  came  in  their 
possession  by  ane  cavel  ;  and  after  the  occupation  thereof  at  the  expiry  of  the  year  or  years  of  cavel 
being  desired  by  umquhile  John  Bobertson,  umquhile  Wm.  Thomson,  umquhile  John  Banzie,  and 
umquhile  Walter  Banzie,  the  possessors  of  the  shaddow  half  of  the  said  lands  to  part  cavel  and  divide 
of  new  again,  refused  alloterlie  to  do  the  same  ;  but  granted  to  anex  eik  and  to  the  shaddow 

half  of  the  said  Cruik  ane  piece  of  land,  to  make  the  shaddow  half  so  good  as  the  sun  half.  And  for 
the  effect  assigned,  the  cowmontie  and  Curries  Hauch  to  be  adjoinit  to  the  said  shaddow  half  there- 
with, aye  and  until  there  happened  ane  new  partesing  of  the  haill  lands  of  the  bruch. 

The  above  written  possessors  of  the  shadow  half  lands,  accepting  the  said  augmentation, 
intromittit  with  the  same  ;  which  cowmontie  of  Curries  Hauch  they  and  their  successors  possessit  still 
aye  and  until  the  time  of  the  wadsetting  thereof  to  John  Bonald  and  John  Grub.     And  the  umquhile 


A  Dunjh  Feud.  109 


possessors  of  the  Sim  half  neither  by  themselves  nor  their  snecessoris,  neither  yet  John  Johnston,  who 
enterit  never  thereafter  with  the  said  conimontie,  neither  had  the  possession  of  the  same 
since  the  time  of  the  wadset.     (Signed)  John  Mackieson  :  Wm,  Robertson. 

Deposition  of  John  Johnston.  That  lang  sene,  be  the  space  of  thretie  years  and  mair,  they  were 
in  use  to  cavel  the  cowmontie,  but  never  sin  syne,  and  was  ordeinit  and  pairtit  so  to  stand  in  all 
tyme  coming  as  it  now  stands,  and  everie  one  to  have  their  own  rig  in  the  said  cowmontie  of  Currie's 
Hauch,  As  well  the  possessors  of  the  sun  half  of  the  said  lands,  as  the  possessors  of  the  shadow. 

That  the  cowmontie  of  Currie's  Hauch  was  never  grantit  to  be  adjoinit  to  the  shaddow  half  of 
the  Cruik  ;  Albeit,  the  same  was  craved  by  the  possessors  of  the  shadow  half  of  the  Cruik,  But  everie 
one  kept  their  own  rig  of  the  cowmontie  of  Currie's  Hauch,  both  sun  and  shadow  possessors. 

That  the  occupants  of  the  shadow  half  of  the  Cruik  had  never  the  occupation  nor  possession  of 
the  sun  half  of  the  said  cowmontie  of  Currie's  Hauch  before  the  wadset. 

Deposition  of  James  Benzie  as  before. 

Deposition  of  John  Benzie.  Being  but  a  young  man  remembers  nothing  of  the  sun  side  of  the 
lands  coming  into  cavelling.  He  remembers  none  that  the  sun  half  of  Currie's  Hauch  was  ever  given 
to  the  shadow  half.  He  never  saw  the  possessors  of  the  shadow  half  lands  in  possession  of  the  sun 
half  of  the  cowmontie  of  Curries's  Hauch. 

The  court  found  that  the  pursuers  and  defenders  should  each  have  an  entrie  to  their  own  rigs, 
and  the  defenders  are  liable  to  the  pursuers  for  bolls  of  white  oats. 

THE   BAILLIEs'   KIGHT   TO   FINES, 

19  Oct. — Ordaiued  by  the  bailies,  with  advice  of  the  haill  counsel,  except  onlie  John  Mackie- 
son, that  the  bailies  now  present  sail  have  the  haill  onlays  fallen  in  their  time,  accordinge  to  the 
modification  presentlie  set  down. 

RONALD   AGAIN. 

30  Oct. — Court  :  Assault  by  Wm.  Ronald,  upon  Thomas  Johnston,  on  Sabbath,  at  even,  the 
20th  instant  :  Proved  by  witnesses  that  Wm.  Ronald,  accompanied  by  Alex.  Fergus,  younger,  came 
to  Thomas  Johnstou's  house  at  night,  and  called  for  drink,  and  would  have  compelled  him  to  give 
it  to  them,  and  likewise  offered  to  ding  John  Ronald,  father  to  the  said  William.  And  the  said 
Thomas  commanding  them  to  his  door,  and  to  give  him  God's  peace  and  the  King's,  they  fell  on 
him  and  dang,  oppressed  him  and  bled  him,  within  his  own  house,  and  upon  the  King's  gaitt.  And 
that  said  Thomas  goiug  to  complain  to  the  magistrates,  the  said  William  Ronald,  accompanied  by  the 
said  Alexander  Fergus,  the  said  Thomas  back  coming  to  his  own  house,  sett  on  him  again,  dang  and 
oppressit  him  :  Fined  5  punds. 

SMALL  DEBT. 
1616.,  Feb.  14. — James  Hutcheon  decernit  to  restore  to   Alex.  Mackieson  ane  sword  of  the  said 
Alexr.  presentlie  ;  and  decerns  the  said  Alexr.  to  deliver  to  the  said  James  nine  shilling  four  pennies 
bebursit  by  the  said  James  to  ane  Wilkieson. 

DIVISION   OF   TWELFTII-rART   LANDS. 

16th  March.— The  bailies  and  consal,  with  consent  of  the  most  part  of  the  possessors  of  the 
common  lands,  anent  of  that  part  of  the  haughs  of  Inverowrie,  which  is  over  the  water 

of  Urie,   lying  adjacent  to   the  lands  of   Balhagartie,   For  eschewing   of  confusion  among  the  haill 
neighbours,  possessors  of  1he  said  lands,    The  bailies,  with  advice  present  decerns  and  ordeins  that 
everie  single  possessor  of  the  said  haill  twelfth  part  sail  conven  upon  the  said  lands  and  ground  thereof, 
,,  and  there  sail  be  the  bailies  forsaid,  and  perfatalie  sett  down  to  everie  twelft  pairt  and  everie 

occupear. 

SABOTHE. — HEAD   COURT. 

19  March.— Ordeint  by  the  bailies,  with  full  consent  of  the  persons  of  the  counsal,  and  haill 
consent  of  the  haill  bodie  of  the  toun,  That  all  the  haill  Inhabitants  of  the  toune  sail  convene  every 
Sabothe  efternoon  before  three  hours  efteruoou,  and  there  to  remain  until  the  prayers  be  eudit ;  and 
when  there  bides  away  any  man  or  wyfT  or  serwand  at  the  said  hour,  ilk  person  to  be  poyndid  for  aucht 
sh.  toties  qiwtics,  and  the  soume  to  be  doublit  ay  as  aft  as  the  happen  to  break  order  as  said  is.  Mr. 
James  Mill  took  act  of  court. 

A    NEW   WEEKLY   MARKET. 
8th  April. — The  said  day  it  is  statut  and  ordeint  be  the  bailzies,  with  advyce  of  the  consall,  be 
virtew  of  ane  warraud  grantit  be  our  Sovran  Lord,  And  his  henis'  consall,  Be  the  whilk  ther  is 
decreet  contenand  proclamation  of  ane  weeklie  market  upon  Wednesday  within  this  bruch  of  Inverurie  ; 
for  the  whilk  rasous  Alex.  Hervie  and  Wm.  Johnston,  elders,  bailies  of  this  bruch,  decreitis  this 


200  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

present  with  the  berer  hereof  To  mack  publication  and  proclamation  of  the  forsaid  market  to  hold 
everie  Wednesday  weeklie  as  said  is  :  The  said  publication  to  be  maid  be  the  berer  forsaid  in  all  places 
necessar,  Bayth  in  cowmond  markets  and  at  paroch  Kirks,  And  bruchs,  within  the  Shrefdom  of  Aber- 
deen. And  for  the  better  Weill  "and  comodite  of  our  sovran  lords  legis,  who  pleiss  to  repair  to  the 
markett  forsaid,  They  sail  have  all  kinds  of  wairs  whilk  they  please  to  put  within  the  said  bruch  of 
Inverurie  to  by  and  sell,  on  fallin  custome,  for  the  space  of  twa  years  next  and  Immedeatlie  following 
this  present  Wednesday  next  the  seventeen  of  this  instant,  Apryll,  1616  years. 

BUILDING  THE  HEED'S   HOUSE. 

14th  May. — All  inhabitants  who  have  hors,  sail  yok  ane  hors  be  six  hours  on  the  morning  the 
15th  day  of  May,  and  bring  in  and  lead  faill  and  divotts  to  the  herds  hous  ;  And  also  they  that  has 
not  hors  to  yok,  to  be  thair  tharneselffs  to  bigg  the  said  hous. 

HEEDING   EEGULATIONS. 

2  April.  —  Ordenit  that  George  Wightman,  herd,  sail  enter  baith  with  seheip  and  nowlt  upon  the 
third  day  of  this  instant  Apryll  ;  and  the  said  George  shall  have  for  keeping  of  the  nowlt  and  sheip 
ane  hadish  meill  of  everie  house  having  nowlt  or  sheip,  ilk  day  until  the  three  day  of  May  next. 

1st  June. — No  inhabitants  sail  bring  any  sheip  to  the  hous,  either  to  be  milkit  or  otherwise,  fra 
this  time  furth,  except  to  be  clippit,  or  to  Spain  the  lambis,  but  not  to  be  kept  or  holdin  fra  the  fauld 
till  the  said  lambis  be  fully  spainit,  but  only  to  tak  them  up,  and  the  said  lambs  to  be  put  out  of  the 
town  and  spaint  ;  and  wha  that  taks  hame  the  yowes  or  other  sheep,  and  breaks  this  .  .  .  sail  be 
rinet  40  sh. 

Likewise  the  buchts  ordainted  to  be  biggit  at  the  outfields  for  milking. 

No  horse  nor  novvte  be  led  or  fed  upon  banks,  waterside,  or  lochs  within  haining  fra  this  tiuie 
furth,  within  corns,  and  especially  within  hammock  of  the  haughs,  Barnskell,  Weitfaulds,  and  Schaw- 
fields. 

MAEKET   LAWS. 

5th  June. — All  craftsmen  within  the  bruch,  sic  as  cordiners,  coupers,  and  other  craftis,  upon 
everie  Wednesday  or  ordinarie  market  day,  sail  set  furth  and  bring  to  merkat  to  be  sauld,  or  at  least 
presentit  and  offered  to  be  sauld,  ony  geir  they  may  have  to  be  sauld.  If  they  do  not  they  are  to  be 
outlawit  for  40  sh.,  toties  quoties. 

CONTEMPT   OF   A   MAGISTEATE. 

Margaret  Chalmers,  spouse  to  William  Stephen,  convictit  for  blaspheming  Alex.  Hervie,  bailzie,  be 
outrageous  language  against  him  being  a  magistrate,  condemnit  1.  to  appear  presentlie  in  visage  of  the 
Court,  and  ask  the  said  Alex.  Hervie  magistrate's  forgiveness,  upon  her  bair  knees,  in  the  presence  of 
the  haill  Court  :  2.  To  compeir  upon  Sunday  next  within  the  Kirk  of  Inverurie,  and  sail  set  on  the 
stool  of  repentance  the  time  of  preening,  and  sail  crave  first  God  her  sin,  and  the  said  Alex.  Hervie 
his  forgiveness,  and  haill  congregation,  for  her  offence  comittit  against  the  said  Alex.  Hervie. 

QUALITY   OF   HOUSES. 

19th  June. — Ordeint  that  na  person  big  fire  house  nor  chalmers  but  they  be  fundit  with  stein 
ane  ell  hyt  round  about,  and  then  to  get  mud  and  faill  to  serve  the  rest  of  the  house. 

THE   TEAT   EOAD. 

Ordeint  that  thair  be  ane  out  of  everie  reikand  hous  come  and  convene  at  sex  hours  the  morn, 
the  twenti  day  of  this  instant,  At  the  peit  third,  to  stain  the  fuird,  and  stain  the  gett,  and  big  in  the  « 
cowmond  watter  of  the  mill  dam,  and  to  mak  cart  gett  sufficientlie  red  to  the  moss  fra  that  furth. 

THE   BURGH    FEUD. 

24  August— The  court  of  Inverurie,  holden  within  the  tolbuith  of  the  same,  the  twentie-fourt 
day  of  August,  1616  years,  Be  Wm.  Johnston,  and  Alex.  Hervie,  bailies  ;  George  Barclay,  and 
Mr.  George  Hervie,  notary  publick,  clerks  ;  Wm.  Stevin,  and  Robert  Fergus,  officers ;  and  Thomas 
Johnston,  dowmster.     The  sectis  callit,  the  court  lawfullie  fensit  and  affirmit. 

The  said  day  compeirit  Alexander  Hervie,  bailzie  of  Inverurie,  and  having  in  his  hands  the 
court  buik  of  Inverurie,  reddie  to  produce  the  same,  according  to  the  chairge  giffin  to  him  for 
exhibition  of  the  said  buik  ;  But  refusit  to  deliver  the  said  buik  to  John  Mackieson,  cowmond  clerk  of 
Fraser's-bruch,  who  can  not  be  clerk  in  Inverurie  dwelling  in  Fraser-bruch,  in  respect  of  the  distance 
of  the  places,  And  come  no  ways  to  serve  our  use  sen  our  last  election  :  That  George  Barclay,  not. 
public,  was  chusen  cowmond  clerk,  till  now,  that  within  this  few  days,  the  said  Jon.  came  to  this 
town  to  foster  sedition  and  insurrection  in  our  towne  for  girling  away  of  the  cowmond  lands  to  Wm. 


A  Burgh  Feud.  201 


Johnston,  elder  bailzie,  of  our  brnch,  whilk  is  like  to  come  to  the  utter  wrack  and  ruing  of  the  samyn, 
whereupon  the  said  Alex.  Hervie  tuik  Act  of  Court  and  Instrument. 

Syklyk  the  said  John  Mackieson,  upon  the  tent  day  of  August  instant,  came  to  our  Court,  and 
there  wald  gilt'  no  silense,  but  rais  up,  with  sword  and  gauntlet,  braiging  and  minassing  the  said 
Alex.  Hervie,  bailzie,  George  Barclay,  clerk,  and  Mr.  James  Mill,  our  pastour,  who  came  to  gitf  their 
consall  for  sattling  of  the  cowmond  affairs  of  the  towne,  according  to  conscience  and  justice,  The  said 
Jou.  being  commandit  silence  oft-tymes, — In  his  M.  name  and  authoritie  of  the  bailzies  ;  And  sua 
raisit  sic  ane  tumult  and  parturbatiou  into  the  court,  being  lawfullie  fensit  and  ahirmit,  that  na  justice 
culd  proeeid  ;  desyriug,  or  rather  commanding,  to  gif  him  aue  act  that  he  was  chosen  and  electit  pr. 
for  the  commuuitie  and  cowmond  caus  of  the  towne  ;  whilk  the  haill  burgesses  of  the  towne,  Except 
five  or  sex  in  numer  whilk  the  other  bailzie,  Win.  Johnston,  and  the  said  Jon.  Mackieson  haid  seducit, 
Kaiss  up  and  plainlie  oppouit  agains  the  samyn  ;  And  therefor  the  bailie,  Alex.  Hervie,  with  advyse 
of  the  haill  body  of  the  town  feuers,  disolvit  the  said  court  and  comandit  that  nane  war  sae  pervert  as 
to  brak  his  M.  paice  under  all  pain  and  chairge  that  after  may  follow  for  the  whilk  cause.  The  said 
Alex.  Hervie  being  removit  and  the  haill  bodie  of  the  town,  the  said  Win,  Johnston,  the  uther  bailzie, 
satt  down  with  the  said  John  Mackieson,  and  fensit  aue  new  court,  and,  without  any  kind  of  lawfull 
order,  deposit  the  said  Alex.  Hervie,  the  bailzie  lawfullie  chosen  for  ane  yeir  Be  cowmond  voittis  of 
the  maist  part  of  the  lawfull  comburgessis  of  the  bruch,  upon  what  raison  is  unknown  to  the  said 
Alex,  and  because  no  citation  past  a  befoir  known  to  the  said  Alex.  Hervie  for  that  effect ;  whilk  most 
wilful  proceedings  the  said  Alex,  referris  to  the  tryal  of  his  M.  secret  consall,  or  session  and  consall  ; 
And,  therefor,  the  said  Alex.  Hervie,  with  the  advyse  of  the  bodie  of  the  toun  aforesaid,  discharges 
Wru.  Johnston,  bailzie,  and  the  said  persons  of  consall  and  clerk,  viz.,  John  Johnston,  Wm.  Johnston 
his  sone,  Wm.  Bobertson,  outland  burgess  dwelland  furth  of  the  toun,  Wm.  Fergusone,  Alex. 
Mackieson,  And,  in  his  hienes  name  and  authoritie  and  myn,  discharges  the  foresaid  Wm.  Johnston, 
bailzie,  and  they  of  his  counsellors  seducit  be  him  till  these  malicious  intentions,  that  they  nor  nane 
of  them  tack  upon  hand  to  hold  court  or  pleid  within  this  bruch  till  the  new  election  of  magistrattis  : 
And  the  said  Thomas  Johnston,  dowmster,  prouuncit  dowm  therein  ;  whereupon  the  said  Alex.  Hervie 
and  George  Mackieson,  thesaurer,  in  name  of  the  haill  bodie  of  the  towne  tuik  act  of  court  and 
instrument. 

The  said  day  George  Mackieson,  thesaurer,  being  callit  and  pursuit  this  day  be  the  said  seditious 
persons,  for  macking  of  compt  reckoning  and  payment  of  the  cowmond  guid  of  this  bruch  sen  his  first 
election  to  the  office,  extending  to  the  number  of  fourtein  yeirs  as  thai  allege,  and  twa  or  threi  of  the 
saids  persons  themselfis  occupiet  the  place  of  thesaurer  within  the  said  yeirs,  wilfullie  Bufisit  to  giff 
the  said  George  Mackieson  any  lawfull  day  to  defend  agains  this  ther  malicious  Intention,  notwith- 
standing thameselffis,  (at  leist)  the  maist  part  off  thame,  has  ruellit  with  the  said  cowmond  guid,  and 
applyit  to  ther  proper  uses,  without  consent  of  the  said  George  Mackieson,  swa  that  the  said  George 
deponis  upon  his  consience  that  he  was  never  Intromiter  with  the  said  cowmon  guid,  but  only  thai 
usit  his  name  to  the  said  office,  And  compellit  him,  under  tbe  pain  of  amercement  of  court,  sic  as  thai 
plesit  to  inipois  upon  the  said  George,  to  giff  acquitanees  and  discharges  to  thamsclffis,  and  now  charges 
the  said  George  mellinger  for  the  same.  Therefore  the  said  Alex.  Hervie  continews  the  proceeding  of 
the  said  action  agains  the  said  George  till  the  first  tysday  after  Michelmas,  whilk  is  the  first  of  October, 
till  the  new  election  of  magistrates.  Whereupon  the  said  George  Mackieson  tuik  act  of  court  and 
instrument. 

William  Johnston,  elder,  the  then  baillie,  one  of  Mackieson's  party,  held  opposition 

meetings  of  council,  whereof  the  following  is  one  of  the  minutes  : — 

1616,  10  Sept. — William  Johnston,  baillie,  sitting  in  court,  fines  James  Barnett  for  refusing 
to  supplie  the  office  of  doomster  in  absence  of  the  ordinary  doonister.  The  Court  goes  on  with  process 
against  George  Mackieson  to  give  complete  reckoning,  and  pay  the  common  good  to  William  Johnston, 
present  thesaurer. 

On  19th  September  the  other  baillie,  Alexander  Hervie,  with  the  acting  clerk, 

officers,  and  the  doomster,  held  court  and  suspended  the  action  against  George  Mackieson 

until  1st  October,  the   day  of   the  new  election.      Mackieson's  party  wound  up  this 

contest  with  a  practical  joke  : — 

21  September — The  said  day  compcrit  Alexander  Hervie,  bailzie  of  this  bmgh,  Mr.  James 
Mill,  minister,  John  Bainzie,  younger,  sumtyme  bailie,  George  Mackie,  thesaurer,  Be  verteu  of  ane 
chairge  giffen  be  Wm.   Stewin  and  Eobert  Fergus,   officers,   At  the  instance  of  William  Johnston, 

26 


202  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

elder,  allegit  bailzie  of  this  bruch,  charging  us  upon  commandment  of  our  counsall  to  compeir  about 
said  tulbuith  this  day,  at  sex  hours  in  the  morning,  for  what  caus  we  know  not.  Thairfor  the  said 
hour  being  past  by  the  space  of  twa  hours,  and  the  said  William  not  compering,  nor  the  remanent  of 
the  consall  for  the  iuterestit  parties,  as  we  allege,  Thairfor  the  bailzie,  Alexander  Hervie,  with  the 
advyss  of  the  persons  forsaid  convenit  for  the  tyme,  and  thai  for  their  own  interest,  taks  instruments 
and  act,  that  nathing  doune  nor  to  be  doune  be  the  said  William  or  his  seducit  faction  be  hurtfull  or 
prejudicial  to  the  cowmond  Weill  of  this  bruch,  Ather  for  disposition  of  our  cowmond  lands,  or  appro- 
priating of  the  samyn  to  their  own  particular  uses,  privat  or  public  assignations  to  our  cowmond  guid, 
or  onlaws,  amercements  of  court,  or  any  uther  thing  that  may  be  hurtfull  or  prejudicial  to  our  cow- 
mond Weill  or  liberties  of  our  bruch,  whilk,  giff  thai  do,  the  same  to  be  null  and  of  non  effect ;  where- 
for  the  balizie  forsaid,  Mr.  James  Mill,  minister,  George  Mackieson,  and  John  Bainzie,  tuik  act  and 
instruments. 

The  said  day  the  bailzie  forsaid  in  his  M.  name  and  authoritie  and  his,  inhibits  John  Leslie, 
cowmond  clerk  of  Kintor,  being  present,  no  wayes  to  mell  or  intromitt  with  ony  thing,  at  the 
command  of  the  said  allegit  Bailzie,  in  prejudice  of  the  cowmond  weill. 

THE    MUNICIPAL    DEFEAT    OF    THE    JOHNSTONS. 

The  court  of  Inverurie,  holden  within  the  Towbuith  of  the  same,  the  first  day  of  October,  the 
yeir  of  God  one  thousand  sex  hundred  and  sexteen  yeirs,  Be  Alexander  Hervie  and  William  Johnston, 
elder  Bailzies.  Present— George  Barclay,  not.  publick,  clerk  ;  William  Stewin  and  Robert  Ferguson, 
officers  ;  and  Thomas  Johnston,  dowmster  :  The  sectis  callit,  the  court  lawfullie  fensit  and  affirmit. 

The  said  day  comperit  William  Johnston,  elder,  and  confessit  in  judgment  to  have  alreddie  de- 
mittit  his  office  of  bailzie.  Likewise  comperit  Alexander  Hervie,  and  judiciallie  demittit  his  office  of 
bailzie  forsaid,  in  favors  of  the  town.  The  said  day  comperit  William  Stewin  and  Robert  Fergusone, 
officers,  and  demittit  ther  offices  of  officiaris. 

The  Court  of  Inverurie  holden  of  new  again,  be  Alexander  Hervie  and  John  Bainzie,  Bailzies, 
lawfullie  electit  and  chosen,  the  said  first  day  of  October,  1616  yeirs,  and  admittit  be  cowmond 
consent  of  maist  of  the  bodie  of  the  towne  :  And  persons  of  consall,  viz.,  George  Mackieson, 
thesaurer  ;  George  Grub,  Andrew  Angus,  Robert  Fergusone,  elder  ;  Alexander  Fergus,  elder  ;  Gilbert 
Johnston,  merchand  ;  James  Tailyeour.  younger  ;  John  Bainzie,  elder ;  John  Robertson,  Alexander 
Smyth,  John  Ronald,  John  Thomson,  William  Johnston,  son  to  umquhil  Robert  Johnston  ;  and  Mr. 
James  Mill,  minister.  George  Barclay,  cowmond  clerk  ;  William  Stewin  and  Walter  Ferguson, 
officers  ;  and  George  Wytman,  doomster — all  members  of  court,  lawfullie  electit  and  chosen  for  one 
year. 

The  said  day  the  bailzies,  counsall,  and  communitie  hes  sensurit  William  Johnston,  elder,  John 
Johnston,  his  brother,  William  Johnston,  his  sone,  William  Ferguson,  sister's  sone  to  the  said 
William  Johnston,  elder,  William  Robertson,  in  Hilbrae,  Alexander  Mackieson  and  Andrew  Hutcheon, 
whilk  persons,  being  seven  in  numer,  comperit  this  day  at  our  tolbuith,  befour  seven  hours  in  the 
morning,  whilk  is  our  lawful  tym  of  day  for  holding  of  courttis,  And  ther  without  the  consent  of  the 
uther  bailzie,  consell,  or  communitie,  or  ony  wreit  of  thers,  or  of  ony  four  com-burgessis  of  this  bruch, 
And  fiatlie  agains  their  consents  minassing  and  bosting  thame  with  injurious  words,  calling  thame 
liars  and  knaves  that  opponit  or  reasonit  against  thame.  Thairfor,  the  Bailzies,  with  advyss  of  the 
consell  and  communitie,  decernis  thame  in  aue  amercement  of  court  and  ilk  ane  of  them  for  the  sowme 
of  ten  punds,  to  be  payit  within  term  of  law,  efter  the  chairge  giffen  to  thame  for  the  same,  be  the 
officers  ;  whilk  term  of  law  being  bypast,  whilk  is  fyftein  days,  immediatlye  efter  the  officers  poynd 
the  saids  persons. 

The  said  day  William  Johnston,  elder,  John  Johnston,  his  brother,  William  Johnston,  sone  to 
the  said  Jon.,  William  Ferguson  sister's  sone  to  the  said  William,  William  Rotsone,  Hilbrae,  John 
Mackie,  Alexander  Mackie,  and  Andrew  Hutcheon  are  sensurit  be  the  bailie,  consell,  and  communitie, 
And  dischairgit  of  holding  the  office  of  Bailzie,  consalour,  clerk,  or  officer,  and  never  to  court  any  of 
the  said  offices  in  all  tym  coming,  And  that  becaus  the  saids  persons  has  maist  wickedlie  and  wTang- 
ouslie,  Be  thair  seditious  faction  sen  the  beginning  of  Junii  last  bypast,  down  manifest  wrang  to  the 
haill  bodie  of  the  communitie  of  this  bruch,  In  giffing  away  their  cowmond  lands,  appropriating  the 
samyn  to  thaim  selffis,  alleging  at  ther  meitings  and  drynkings  that  thai  may  be  thaiui  selfis,  without 
the  consent  of  the  honest  neighbours  and  four  burgessis,  communitie,  ather  bailzie,  consell,  uther  nor 
thame  selfis,  sell  and  dyspon  the  haill  cowmond  lands  of  this  bruch,  and  appropriat  the  samyn  to 
whatsomever  person  or  persons  thai  pleiss,  for  the  whilk  causes  the  bailzies,  forsaid  consall,  and  com- 
munitie dischairgit  thame,  as  is  above  specifiet. 

4  Oct. — All  acts  done  in  court  be  William  Johnston,  elder  bailie,  from  the  first  June,  1616, 
declared  null  and  of  no  effect,  and  he  and  his  accomplices  declared  incapable  of  holding  office  in  time 
coming. 


A  Burgh  Feud.  203 


Alexander  Stevin,  brother  to  Jon.  Stevin  in  Croftheid,  inhibited  from  acting  as  officer,  for  insist- 
ing in  the  office  of  officer,  being  inhibited  be  the  bailzies,  and  taking  it  on  at  command  or  desire  of 
William  Johnston  and  the  others  ;  And  for  being  art  and  part  of  knaverie  with  Thomas  Bonner,  who 
was  baniest  a  lang  tym  sen  syn,  The  particular  cause  whereof  is  perfectlie  known  to  the  bailzies, 
counsal,  and  communitie. 

From  the  above  it  would  appear  that  a  Court  could  be  held  at  the  requisition  of  four 
burgesses.  John  Mackieson,  the  turbulent  clerk,  disappears  from  the  record  after  this. 
William  Johnston,  elder,  was,  before  1616,  immersed  in  wadsets,  from  which  he  never 
got  free.  The  distracted  state  of  the  Council  at  this  period  contrasts  with  the  harmony 
of  Kincraigie's  time,  when  also  the  quiet  and  prudent  John  Johnston  of  that  Ilk  was 
the  town's  influential  neighbour.  His  son  George  subsequently  Sir  George  Johnston, 
whom  the  gauntletted  Town  Clerk  got  to  back  him  in  the  reiving  attack  upon  Curries- 
haugh,  waxed  ambitious,  and  had  to  burden  his  property  irremediably,  as  before  re- 
marked. Alexander  Hervie  owed  his  then  position  to  having  married  Norman  Leslie's 
widow,  as  during  the  minority  of  George  Leslie,  Norman's  younger  brother,  he  became 
the  head  of  the  family  and  its  faction  untU  George  came  of  age. 

BUILDING    THE    MILL. 

4  Oct. — All  inhabitants  convene  at  the  Mill  of  Ardtannes  the  morn,  the  5th  of  this  instant,  by 
seven  hours  in  the  morning,  with  horse,  servants,  thak  and  raipes,  to  big  and  theik  the  mill,  ilk  ane 
for  his  own  pairt. 

OFFENCES. 

1617,  7  January. — Andrew  Angus  cnmpleins  upon  AValter  Fergus  that  he  dang  him  in  the  face, 
and  bluidit  him  with  straiks,  under  silence  of  nyt  in  the  hous  of  Jon.  Eeid  in  Ardtannes. 

7  March. — Mariorie  Elphinstone,  guid  wyffe  of  Ardtannes,  persued  Alexander  Hill  for  his  dog 
worrying  a  scheip  of  hers,  and  that  though  desirit  be  the  guidnian  of  Ardtannes  to  put  away  hia 
dog  as  a  scheip  worrier,  fined  33s  4d. 

Also  that  George  Smith,  iu  Bransbutt,  had  abstracted  his  multures  and  haill  comes,  for  the  years 
1614,  1615,  and  1616. 

THE    OFFICER    DEFORCED. 

7  March. — The  said  day  William  Stewin,  officer,  gave  in  ane  bill  of  complaint  agains  James 
Mitchell,  skynner,  whereof  the  tenor  follows  : — I,  William  Stevin,  officer  ordinal'  of  Inverurie, 
humblie  meins  and  compleins  upon  James  Mitchell,  skynner,  that  upon  the  first  day  of  this  instant 
March,  I  being  in  execution  of  ane  decreit  pronuncit  against  the  said  James  in  ane  court  held  within  the 
tolbuith  of  this  bruch,  upon  the  seventeen  day  of  Januar  last,  the  said  James  wilfullie  deforsit  me  in 
my  punding,  and  wold  not  suffer  me  to  poynd  :  But  minassit  me  with  ane  sword  in  his  hand  ;  And 
said  girf  I  poyndit  any  geir  that  he  suld  gitf  me  as  mukle  as  my  nybour  bed  gotten.  And  in  respect 
of  his  disobedience  to  his  M.  lawis,  I  moneist  him  in  his  M.  name  to  suffer  justice  to  proceed,  qho 

anserit  me  irreverentlie  in  saying  " upon   you  and  your  charge  bayth  ".      In  respect  whereof  I, 

conform  to  the  order,  brak  my  wand  on  him,  whereof  1  crave  justice. 

MORE    OF    THE    FEUD. 

Compeirit  Andrew  Angus,  and  producit  three  recent  wounds  bluiding  giffin  him  be  William 
Johnston,  younger  son  to  umquhile  John  Johnston.  Accused  not  appearing,  proof  was  taken  by 
witnesses  that  he  committit  the  said  fact  and  deid,  with  ane  lance  staff  and  ane  durk  ;  for  the  whilk 
he  was  fined  40  lbs. 

KIRK    PENALTIES. 

24  March. — John  Leslie,  in  Badifory,  collector  to  the  Kirk  Common  Guid  of  Inverurie,  purseuit 
William  Johnston,  son  to  late  John  Johnston,  for  a  fine  imposed  in  the  session  of  July,  1615,  amount- 
ing to  lOmerks,  for  sklander  against  Walter  Angus.  Also  for  10  merks  for  satisfaction  of  his  lata 
father's  burial. 

Also  10  lbs.  penaltie  by  John  Banzie,  younger,  for  his  inconstancie  in  lowping  back  fra  marriage 
of  Christian  Tailzeour. 

18  Apryll. — Claris    Hutcheon,  wife   of   William  Donaldson  (the  drunkard  of  former  notices), 


S04  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garloch. 

persewit  for  stopping  and  molesting  Alexander  Hill,  in  labouring  his  laud,  taking  his  hors  out  of  his 
cart,  aud  saying  he  suld  never  labor  the  laud  while  she  levit.- 

a  baillie's  troubles  and  honours. 

3rd  June. — Alexander  Hervie  complenit  against  James  Mitchell,  skynner,  that  he  has  abusit 
the  said  Alexander  Hervie,  his  magistral;,  in  blasphemous  language  and  disobedience  to  the  said 
bailie  in  execution  of  his  office,  at  wbilk  tym  the  said  James  said  he  was  als  honest  as  he  or  ony  he  in 
Inverurie,  or  in  the  land  that  he  was  in,  and  offerit  to  draw  ane  durk  to  him,  upon  the  wbilk  the 
bailie  aforesaid  causit  the  officer  chairge  him  to  the  tolbuith,  when  lykeways  he  disobeyit.  Upon  the 
wbilk  the  said  bailzie  causit  the  officer  with  his  assistants  bring  him  to  the  tolbuith,  where  the  other 
bailzie,  with  the  advyss  of  the  eonsall,  convicts  the  said  James  to  ward  in  the  tolbuith  at  his  own 
expensiss,  and  to  ly  in  the  stocks  ay  and  until  he  gett  sufficient  caution  to  satisfy  the  bailies  and 
consell. 

13th  June.— The  bailzies  and  consell  elected,  nominatit,  and  choise  Alexander  Hervie  com- 
missioner to  pass  to  the  Parliament  to  be  holden  in  Edinburgh,  the  day  of  June,  1617  ;  and 
order  George  Mackieson,  thesaurer,  to  pay  him  40  lbs.  for  his  expensise. 

July  12. — Compeared  Alexander  Hervie,  one  of  the  bailzies,  and  complains  as  follows  ; — 

Unto  their  wisdoms  the  bailzies,  humblie  meius  and  complains  upon  Win.  Johnston,  elder, 
burgess  of  this  bruch,  that  he  cam  to  the  yett  of  my  dwalling-house  upon  the  twenti-sext  day  of  June 
last  by-past ;  and  there  with  forthocht  fellonie,  boden  in  feir  of  weir  with  sword  whinger  and  plait 
stellis,  of  intention  as  appearit  to  half  murdert  me  and  tain  my  life, — And  finding  me,  the  said  Alex. 
going  in  maist  sober  maner,  putting  my  scheip  out  of  an  house  to  the  feding,  without  onie  wapiu  on 
me  invasive,  ther  he  most  cruellie  set  upon  me,  and,  or  I  was  wair  of  him,  with  anp  drawn  sword  he 
struck  me  in  the  womb  (wame  ?),  to  the  gryt  hasert  of  my  lyffe,  and  effusion  of  my  bluid. 

George  Leslie  was  now  of  age  to  be  infeft  in  his  brother  Norman  Leslie's  lands  ; 
and  on  23rd  September,  1617,  the  minister,  one  of  his  curators,  appeared  in  Court, 
craving  a  charge  to  Alexander  Hervie  to  remove  furth  of  certain  of  these  lands. 

A  STRONG  TOWN  COUNCIL. 

30th  September. — The  new  Council  which  took  office  at  Michaelmas  after  the 
civil  conflict  was  terminated,  must  have  formed  a  large  per  centage  of  the  community. 
They  consisted  of  Alex.  Hervie  and  Wm.  Johnston,  younger,  baillies.  Persons  of  Council 
— George  Mackieson  ;  John  Benzie,  younger ;  Alex.  Ferguson,  elder  ;  Alex.  Mackieson  ; 
John  Mackieson  ;  John  Thomson ;  Robert  Fergus,  elder ;  John  Benzie,  elder ;  Robert 
Tailyeour,  younger  ;  William  Johnston,  son  to  Robert ;  James  Tailyeour,  wright ;  John 
Robertson,  Alex.  Smyth,  John  Ronald,  George  Grub,  Andrew  Angus,  Gilbert  Johnston, 
and  James  Bainzie  :— Clerk,  George  Barclay,  for  a  year;  Officers  for  the  year,  William 
Steven  and  Walter  Ferguson ;  Doomsters,  George  Wytman  and  Thomas  Johnston,  alias 
Comissar. 

THE   MILL    LADE. 

1618 — 19th  January — Ilk  occupier  of  ane  hail  twelf-pairt  to  go  to  the  mill-water,  himself  and 
ane  servant,  ilk  occupier  of  ane  half  twelf  himself  :  the  occupiers  of  the  ruids  to  gang  themselfs.  And 
who  that  gaes  not  with  schoillis,  spaids  and  uther  materials  needful  to  cast  the  thrott  of  the  laid,  and 
put  the  parts  of  the  mill-water  sufficient,  to  be  poyndit  14s.  4d. 

MOSS   DUTY. 

13th  Way — The  haill  persons  within  the  bruch,  stentit  for  myrbeir  (moor  rent),  to  pay  their 
pairt  to  the  laird  of  Glenbervie,  at  his  mains  of  Kemnay,  within  24  hours. 

TUREING   FORBIDDEN. 

11th  June— Fra  this  day  the  common  muir  of  the  bruch  be  hanit,  and  not  brocken  be  casting  of 
turves  thereon. 


Burgh  Incidents.  205 


DINGING. 

7th  July — Andrew  Gib  accusit  Mariorie  Anderson  for  dinging  and  misusing  him  ;  and  she  accusit 
him  for  dinging  and  misusing  her, — botli  at  the  moss. 

John  Bainzie  found  guilty  of  troubling  "William  Stevin,  and  dinging  him  with  ane  tow  on  the 
head  :  fined  10  lbs. 

PROTECTION   POLICY. 

21st  Jnly. — Statut  that  henceforth  in  na  yeir  to  come  at  the  time  of  the  comon  markets  in 
Schent  Apollinar  and  Lettermarie  fair,  that  na  burgess  or  other  inhabitant  sett  hous  to  ony  outland 
browster  under  the  pain  of  ten  merks  nionie,  to  be  presently  thereafter  upliftit  and  delyvert  to  the 
bailzies  of  the  bruch.  And  gif  it  hapin  ony  outland  browster  to  be  that  bald  as  to  erect  ony  tent  or 
pailzean  (pavilion)  to  sell  either  aill,  wyn,  or  heir,  within  the  fredom  or  territorie  of  the  said  bruch, 
during  the  tym  forsaid,  in  that  case  the  said  browster,  or  erector  of  the  tent  or  pailzean,  to  be  pundit 
for  the  said  sum  of  ten  merks,  and  the  hail  aill,  beir,  or  wyn  eschectit,  and  delt  frelie  to  all  men. 

QUARREL  WITH  THE  CITY  OF  ABERDEEN. 
5th  August — The  whilk  day  the  bailzies,  consell,  and  communitie  of  the  bruch  of  Inverurie, 
hes  nominat,  electit,  and  chosen  Gilbert  Johnston,  burges  of  the  said  bruch,  ther  commissioner, 
actor,  factor,  and  speciall  erraud-berer  to  compeir  before  the  Lords  of  Couusell  and  Session.  And 
ther,  in  name  of  the  said  bruch, and  for  defence  of  the  liberties  thereof,  to  produce  the  evident  grantit 
be  his  JI.  to  testifie  to  the  Lords  of  Session  and  Consell  forsaid  ;  That  the  bruch  of  Inverurie  is 
ane  free  bruch  of  royaltie  ;  and  the  said  Gilbert  Johnston,  ane  of  the  free  burgesses  of  the  said  bruch 
being  chairgit,  be  virtue  of  our  sovran  lord's  acts  grantit  in  presence  of  the  provost,  bailzies,  and 
bruch  of  Aberdeen,  agains  forstallers,  be  vertue  wherof  thai  hav  chairgit  the  said  Gilbert  Johnston,  as 
ane  forstaller  he  being  ane  free  burges  of  the  said  bruch  of  Inverurie  as  said  is. 

A  compromise  of  the  case  seems  to  have  been  thought  advisable. 

11th  August. — The  bailzies,  with  advyss  of  the  counsell,  hes  nominat,  electit,  and  chose  Alex. 
Hervie  and  Win.  Johnston,  bailzies  of  bruch,  ther  commissioners  to  compeir  for  us  and  in  our  names, 
before  the  provost  bailzies  and  consell  of  Aberdeen,  there  to  solisit,  reason,  and  desire  the  saids 
provost,  bailzies,  and  consell,  that  they  will  desist  and  seis  fra  the  execution  of  the  chairges  usit  at 
thair  instances  against  our  said  bruch,  in  especial  agains  Gilbert  Johnston.  ...  In  respect  the 
auld  inhabitants  and  free  burgesses  of  Inverurie  has  ever  fund  the  provost,  bailzies,  and  consell  of  the 
bruch  of  Aberdeen  ther  freindis  in  all  ther  honest  actionis.  .  .  George  Mackieson,  thesaurer, 
ordenit  to  giff  to  Alex.  Hervie  fourtie  sh.  for  two  days'  expenssis  in  ryding  to  Aberdeen  .  .  .  and 
to  Win.  Johnston,  bailzie,  for  ane  day's  going  to  Aberdeen,  10  sh. 

PEASE   NEEDING   PROTECTION. 

The  said  day  statut  that  the  haill  inhabitants  be  answerable  ilk  for  his  familie,  man,  wyff,  bairn, 
and  servand,  that  nain  gang  to  ony  manis  peis,  to  pull  or  tak  away  any  of  thame. 

DOMESTIC   STRIFE. 
21st  Aug. — Andrew  Angus  compleins  upon  his  brother  germane,  Walter,  for  dinging  his  wyff  in 
his  own  house  :  Walter  denied  and  referred  to  the  oath  of  Cristen  Smith,  Andrew's  wyff.     She  swoir 
that,  within  her  own  house,  the  said  Walter  keist  her  down,  and  dang  her  wi'  ain  iron  taingis. 

TEMPERANCE    AND    KIRK-KEEPING. 

7th  Oct. — First  Court  day  of  the  new  Council.  Statute  After  this  day  furth  that  na  person 
within  this  bruch  be  extraordinar  in  ther  drynking,  either  be  day  or  after  nin  hours  at  even  ;  and 
that  all  inhabitants  within  this  bruch  on  the  Sabbath,  if  he  be  absent  frae  the  kirk  either  at  the 
preaching  before  nown,  or  prayer  after  nown,  they  being  admoniest  out  of  the  pulpit  be  the  minister  : 
Ilk  person  found  culpapill  in  any  of  that  particular  several  poyntis,  ilk  person  to  be  poyudid  for  four- 
teen shillings  Mies  quoties. 

REDDING  OF   MARCHES   ROUND   THE   BURGH   LANDS  AND   MOSS. 

1619,  2nd  April. — All  inhabitants  having  comoditie  and  fogage,  fewall,  faill,  or  devatts,  within 
the  said  bruch  and  comontie  thereof,  sail  gang,  being  advertist  he  the  officer  to  cast  ane  fowse  directlie 
at  the  marches  betwix  the  towne's  lands  of  Inverurie,  and  uther  nybors'  lands,  next  adjunct,  round 
about. 

27th  May. — Ordeint  that  all  inhabitants  of  this  bruch,  payers  of  the  myerbeir,  be  in  the 
moss  the  morn,  the  28  day  of  Maie,  with  spaids,  fut  spaids,  and  schullis  and  qnhell  barrows,  be  aueht 
hours,  to  cast  the  fousis  ordeint  to  be  cassin  in  the  moss,  according  to  the  dowusett  of  the  quarter 
maister  and  George  Foular,  bailzie  of  the  saids  lands  of  Kemnay. 


206  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

OVER   BUILDING. 

1619— 11th  Aug. — William  Ferguson  sensurit  for  building  out  on  the  wast  end  of  his  fyrehous 
ane  stain  wall,  in  augmentation  of  the  said  William  Ferguson  his  propertie,  furder  nor  the  rest  of  the 
towne,  contrar  to  the  laws  of  burrows,  and  lykwise  for  disobeying  of  the  bailzies  cornand,  being 
inhibit  :  Fined  500  merks. 

John  Ronald,  fined  20  lbs.  for  building  out  upon  the  Kingis  gett,  by  (contrary  to)  the  law  of 
burrows. 

THE   FINES   THE   ONLY   PERQUISITE   OF   THE   BAILLIES. 

27th  Sept. — The  bailzies— Wm.  Johnston,  younger,  and  John  Bainzie,  younger — requirit  the 
thesaurer,  George  Mackiesone,  to  pay  and  deliver  to  thame  ther  bailzie  fees,  sic  as  usit  to  be  giffen 
to  the  preceding  bailzies  yeirlie  out  of  the  comond  guid,  or  else  to  allow  the  same  to  them  on  the 
first  end  of  ther  own  few  maill.  To  the  whilk  their  dosyr  the  said  thesaurer  wald  gift  Da  anser,  By 
adwyss  of  the  remanent  persons  of  Consal  and  inhabitants  of  the  said  bruch  ;  who  all  being  ryplie  and 
maturlie  adwysit  therewith,  plainlie  Refusit  to  gif  to  thame  any  of  the  cowmond  guid,  Be  rasoue  ther 
was  uther  cowmond  affairs  to  be  down  therewith,  sic  as  Redemption  of  the  puddock-buttis  and  uthers. 
And  affirniit  plainlie  they  wuld  giff  nain  uther  for  ther  fee  to  thame  bot  sic  unlaws  convickit  be  decreit 
of  Court ;  wherewith  they  ordeint  the  said  bailzies  to  satisfie  thame  selfs  for  ther  fee  this  year  sen  their 
election,  whilk  was  upon  the  first  day  of  October  last,  1618  yeirs. 

THE  FEUD.— THE  OFFENDERS  RESTORED  TO  PRIVILEGE. 

The  Court  was  taken  up  during  1618  and  1619,  chiefly  with  matters  of  debt  and 

transfer  of  land,  and  occasional  riots.     The  feud  still  continued,  the  last  act  of  it,  the 

assault  by  "William  Johnston,  in   full  armour,  upon  the   sober  magistrate,  Alexander 

Hervie,  having  found  its  way  before  the  Lords  of  Council  and  Session.     In  return,  the 

old  pugnacious  Baillie  Johnston,  watched  his  opportunity  of  procuring  some  magistrates 

favourable  to  him,  in  order  to  attack  Hervie  before  the  Burgh  Court.     The  schism  was 

at  last  healed. 

6th  Oct. — The  bailzies  with  advyss  of  consall,  considerit  the  humilation  made  be  Wm.  John- 
ston, younger,  Alex.  Mackieson,  John  Mackieson,  his  brother,  Andrew  Hutcheon,  and  Wm.  Robert- 
son comburgessis  of  this  bruch,  for  ther  former  transgression  and  disobedience.  The  said  bailzies, 
with  advyss  forsaid,  has  remittet  the.  saids  persons  ther  former  transgressions,  because  thei  are 
adjudged  be  court  alreddie,  and  hes  satisfeit  in  all  poyntis. 

HONOUR  OF    RE-ELECTION  : — A   DEAN   OF   GUILD   FIRST   MENTIONED. 

The  said  day  Wm.  Johnston,  younger,  and  John  Benzie,  bailzies,  giff  over  the  offices  of  bailzies 
deliverit  the  wand  thereof. 

The  said  day  the  hail  consal  and  communitie  .  .  .  finds  na  uthers  persons  within  the  bruch 
for  the  present  sae  meitt  to  exercise  the  said  office  of  bailzie     .     .     .     Thai  are  of  new  admittit. 

George  Mackieson  is  continuit  in  the  office  of  thesaurer,  and  George  Grub,  Dain  of  Gild  for  an 
year. 

Council  George  Mackieson,  Alex.  Fergus,  elder,  George  Grab,  Andrew  Angus,  Alex.  Hervie, 
John  Robertson,  Alex.  Mackie,  Robert  Fergus,  elder,  Robert  Tailzeour,  younger,  James  Tailzeour, 
wricht,  and  Wm.  Robertson. 

This  is  the  last  magistracy  we  have  any  record  of,  until  1645 — the  court  books 

from  1620  to  1645  being  lost. 

THATCHING  THE   MILL. 

14th  Oct. — Ordainit  that  all  twallT-pairt  men  within  the  bruch  according  to  his  own  pairt 
thereof,  bring  with  them  to  the  miln  betwixt  and  Setturday  next,  ilk  twalff  pairt  man  twa  thack 
scheives,  ilk  half  twalff-pairt  man  ane  scheff,  ilk  qrt.  twalf  ane  schaiff,  with  raipes  conform  ;  and 
also  ilk  ane  oxgait  man  ane  thack  scheff,  with  the  raipes  and  twa  winlingis  of  stray. 


Mr.  Mill's  Registers  of  Births  and  Deaths.  207 


THE  LESLIES  :— A  FOREIGN  CLAIMANT. 

5th  November,  William  Davidson,  Advocate  in  Aberdeen,  procurator  for  George 
Leslie  of  Bogs  of  Leslie,  produced  a  brieve  from  the  Chancery  for  serving  heir  to  all  the 
lands  of  Norman  Leslie,  now  claimed  by  George  his  youngest  brother,  and  partly  life- 
rented  by  his  (Norman's)  widow,  (Alexander  Hervie's  wife).  George  Leslie,  of  Bogs, 
acted  on  behalf  of  Andrew  Leslie,  pupil,  in  Cryn  in  Poill,  son  of  the  deceased  James 
Leslie,  burgess  of  Cryn,  eldest  lawful  son  of  Alexander  Leslie,  burgess  of  Inverurie, 
Norman's  father. 

The  plea  urged  against  the  lad — Andrew  Leslie,  then  in  Poland,  or  at  least  against 

the  Baillies'  at  once  proceeding  to  inquire  as  to  the  beads  of  inquest,  is  curious  : 

Mr.  Wm.  Rae,  burgess  of  Aberdeen,  as  procurator  for  David  Cargill,  also  of  the  said  brucb, 
compeirt,  and  under  protestation,  nowayis  admit.tand  the  bailzies  presently  sittand  in  judgment 
judges  competent  to  cognosce  on  the  showin  desyrit  this  day,  and  siclike  for  nullitie  of  .  .  .  this 
day, — being  the  fyft  day  of  November,  apoyntit  to  be  free,  when  na  judges,  ather  superior  or  inferior, 
can  sit  and  cognosce  iu  any  cause  being  appoyntit  to  be  solemnizit  for  his  M.  Releise  of  powder  trasin 
intendit  agains  bim. 

This  plea  was  repelled  ;  and  nothing  having  been  produced  to  contradict  the  state- 
ment of  propinquity,  as  set  forth  in  the  Chancery  brieve  ;  an  inquest  was  impannelled 
to  judge  of  the  case,  the  jury  consisting  of  John  Leslie  of  Wardes ;  William  Johnston, 
elder  ;  Alexander  Bodwell ;  Thomas  Johnston  ;  John  Stevin  ;  George  Mackie  ;  Andrew 
Angus  ;  William  Davidson ;  William  Fergus ;  Alexander  Fergus,  elder ;  John  Bobert- 
son  ;  John  Bonald ;  John  Bainzie,  elder ;  Alexander  Mackie  ;  George  Grub ;  James 
Tailzeour  ;  Bobert  Tailzeour,  younger ;  William  Johnston,  son  to  Bobert  Johnston,  and 
William  Smith.  The  Men  of  Inquest,  (except  George  Mackie  and  Andrew  Angus) 
found  Andrew  Leslie  to  be  lawful  heir  in  all  the  subjects  contained  in  the  petition, 
and  served  him  as  such  heir  accordingly.  The  Stonehouse  lands  were  afterwards  sold 
to  John  Galloway,  merchant  in  Aberdeen,  from  whose  son,  Alexander  Galloway,  gold- 
smith there,  John  Ferguson  bought  them. 

DESECRATION   OF  THE   LORD'S   DAY. 

1620,  21st  April. — Court  held  by  Wm.  Johnston,  younger,  and  John  Badyno  :  complaint 
given  in  be  George  Grub,  dean  of  gild,  agains  James  and  George  Smyth  and  James  Scott,  makand 
mention  that  the  saids  persons  on  Sonnday  last,  the  16tli  day  of  Apryle,  being  pace  day,  being  at  the 
buttis  of  the  said  bruch,  at  ther  unlesum  games  and  pastymes,  not  worthy  to  be  usit  on  such  ane  day, 
strack  dang  and  keist  and  kepit  uthers,  trublit  molestit  the  haill  town,  being  the  day  of  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  communion  :  fined  40  sh.  each. 

MARCHES   WITH   BLAKHALL. 

13th  May. — The  heritors,  bailies,  counsall,  and  communitie,  agres  to  refer  to  George  Johnston 
of  Caskieben,  the  marches  between  their  lands  and  those  of  William  Blakhall,  fiar  of  that  Ilk. 

MR.  MILL'S  REGISTERS  OF  BIRTHS  AND  DEATHS. 

The  registers  left  by  Mr.  James  Mill,  minister  of  Inverurie  and  Monkegy,  form  the 
only  record  available  of  local  events  for  some  years  after  1620,  and  until  the  covenant- 
ing period  was  at  hand.    They  afford  glimpses  of  the  domestic  condition  of  the  people  as 


208  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

interesting  in  their  way  as  the  pictures  of  out-door  life  yielded  by  the  disputes  and 
judgments  written  in  the  doings  of  the  baillie  court.  Two  imperfect  volumes  now  in 
the  Eegister  House,  Edinburgh,  record  baptisms  performed  by  him  from  1611  to  1641, 
and  deaths  occurring  from  1609  to  1638. 

Mr.  Mill  took,  at  times,  an  active  share  in  the  business  of  the  burgh,  being  repeat- 
edly "  a  person  of  counseil,"  and  was,  as  the  minister,  much  employed  to  draw  Wills 
made  within  his  two  parishes,  from  the  great  lairds  down  to  very  meagrely  endowed 
testators.  Evidently  formal  in  his  habits,  he  has  recorded  interesting  catalogues  of 
household  properties,  both  articles  of  furniture  and  of  personal  apparel,  particulars  of 
farm-plenishing,  with  the  prices  of  the  items,  as  well  as  the  value  of  the  personal  or 
moveable  estate  then  to  be  found  in  families  of  widely  different  social  positions. 

The  notices  of  baptisms  and  burials,  afford  frequent  illustrations  of  habits  and 
sentiments,  characteristic  of  the  period;  and  compendious  descriptions  of  individual 
character  are  at  times  recorded,  as  well  as  references  to  remarkable  contemporaneous 
events. 

In  1613,  Mr.  Mill  had  to  write  the  Testament  of  John  Johnston  of  Caskieben  ;  in 
1616,  that  of  Walter  Innes,  the  miller  and  tacksman  of  Ardtannies ;  and  in  1623,  that  of 
William  Elakhall  of  that  Ilk.  These  testamentary  documents  exhibit  something  of 
the  pecuniary  means  which  may  have  at  that  era  supported  a  place  in  the  upper  rank 
of  local  society. 

1613 — 4th  February. — John  Johnston,  of  Caskieben,  departit  this  life,  buriet  5th  February,  in 
Monkegy  Kirk — ane  very  godlie  and  verteous  man.  His  testament,  made  be  his  own  mouth — in  his 
own  house  in  Ardyharrel — the  23rd  day  of  January,  1613,  before  witnesses,  Mr.  James  Cargill,  Mr. 
John  Walker,  minister  of  Kinkell,  Ronald  Cheyne  in  Ardyharrel,  Gilbert  Johnston  of  Petty 's  mill, 
and  Mr.  James  Mill. 

The  testator  directs  his  inventory  to  be  given  up  by  his  brother  Gilbert  Johnston, 
whom  he  nominates  his  executor,  with  a  legacy  of  2000  merks — the  testator's  eldest 
son  George  being  then  a  minor.  To  his  sons,  John  and  Gilbert,  he  leaves  4000  merks 
each,  and  to  his  son  James,  and  to  his  daughters  Jean,  Margaret,  and  Christian,  3000 
merks  each — to  be  payable  as  these  children  severally  became  of  age — his  eldest  son 
to  inherit  the  share,  or  shares,  of  any  of  them  who  might  die  in  minority,  and  in  the 
meantime,  the  minor  children  to  be  honestly  brought  up  in  virtue,  and  entertained  in 
food  and  raiment  by  his  eldest  son.  It  is  further  stated  that — by  contract  with 
Katherine  Lundy,  the  testator's  then  wife — Thomas  Johnston,  the  eldest  son  of  the 
testator's  second  nuptials,  afterwards  Thomas  Johnston  of  Craig,  in  Dyce — was  pro- 
vided with  the  sum  of  15,000  merks.     The  will  opens  with  the  solemn  declaration — 

"The  Laird  of  Caskieben,  sick  in  body,  but  whole  in  spirit,  assured  of  salvation  in 
the  merits  of  Jesus  Christ  only,  and  attending  for  his  last  delivery  out  of  this  mortal 
life,  commands  his  body  to  be  honestly  buried  among  the  faithful  at  Monkegy,  without 
pomp  of  gorgeous  funeral." 

Walter  Innes's  will  has  been  noticed  above  (p.  179),  the  inventory  recording  the 
displenish  of  Ardtannies,  with  the  valuation  of  cattle  and  corns. 


Mr.  Mill's  Register  of  Births  and  Deaths.  209 

1623,  27  Nov. — William  Blakhall  of  that  Ilk,  departit  this  life,  buried  in  the  Kirk  of  In- 
verury. 

William  Blakhall  died  proprietor,  by  wadset,  of  Auldtown  of  Knockinglews,  of 
which  the  rent  due  for  that  year  by  Thomas  Dicky,  Win.  Duncan,  and  Wm.  Wat, 
consisted  of  5  chadder  of  ferme  meal,  two  parts  meil,  third  part  beir  at  5  lbs.  the  boll. 
He  was  due  the  minister  100  nierks  for  ane  chadder  of  victual  teynd,  twa  part  meil, 
third  part  beir.  He  left,  as  curators  to  his  bairns  (John,  Margaret,  Janet,  and 
Catherine),  Sir  Thomas  Burnet  of  Leys,  James  Burnet  of  Craigmyle,  Mr.  Robert 
Burnet,  advocate  in  Aberdeen,  John  Strachan,  tutor  of  Thornton,  Mr.  Patrick  Maitland 
of  Auchencrieff,  and  John  Seton  of  Minnes.     His  wife  was  named  Elizabeth  Strachan. 

The  inventory  exhibits  10  draught  oxen,  18  merks  each;  7  cows,  8  lbs.  each;  6 
steers  and  1  quey,  80  lbs. ;  4  two-year-olds,  40  sh.  each ;  60  old  sheep,  30  sh.  each  ; 
12  hogs,  13sh.  4d.  each  ;  4  horses,  24  merks  each  ;  2  mares,  20  merks  each ;  200  bolls 
oats,  4  lbs.  per  boll,  80  bolls  beir,  10  merks  per  boll. 

The  tenants  of  Badifurrow  and  Crimond,  left  inventories,  showing  prices  in  1(311 
and  1616. 

1611 — Dec. — John  Duncan,  in  Badifurra,  made  his  testament  before  witnesses,  Patrick  Leslie  of 
Badifurra,  Will.  Garioch  there,  John  Donald  in  Fetternear,  and  Sir.  James  Mill. 

Inventorie  :  Imprimis — 4  ox  at  4  lb. ;  4  quyacks  at  10  m.;  4  young  steers  at  5  lbs. ;  2  meires  at 
10  m.  ;  2  year  auld  stasis  at  4  lbs.  ;  7  auld  sheep.  Insight  and  plenishing,  10  m.  In  yeard  and 
barn,  60  bolls  aits,  at  40  sh.  ;  10  bolls  beir  at  4  lbs.  Debts,  among  others  his  master  (landlord,  as 
rent),  10  bolls,  two  part  meal,  third  part  beir. 

1616,  19  March— Charles  Chalmers  in  Crimond  made  his  testament.  The  inventory: — 9  draught 
oxen  and  a  plough — price  of  the  piece  10  lbs.  ;  2  steers  10  m.  each  ;  2  quyacks  5  lbs.  each  ;  work 
naigs  20  m.  the  pair  ;  young  staigs  5  lbs.  ;  2  hogs  20  sh.  each. 

The  articles  bequeathed  include  at  times  very  trifling  items,  some  of  them  of  a 
kind  not  comprehended  in  the  testaments  of  later  times. 

1613,  25  October. — Patrick  Lesly  of  Kiucraigie  departit,  buried  in  the  Chappel  of  Garioch.  His 
sister  Margaret,  in  Schielbog,  died  1  May,  1614  ;  leaving  100  m.  and  her  claes  to  her  oy  Marjorie 
Anderson  ;  and  200  m.  to  her  son  George  Anderson,  now  in  Poill. 

2  December. — Testament  of  Gilbert  Norowaymade  by  his  own  mouth  in  John  Thomson's  house 
in  Inverurie.  He  has  makin  black  claes,  as  well  as  three  eln  or  thereby  of  walkit  claith,  whilk  is  at 
Steven  Stewart's,  and  John  Steven  in  Cluny  has  them.  He  has  ane  new  plaid,  and  twa  auld  plaids, 
and  his  ganging  claes  ;  and  ane  coat  in  William  Sangster's  house. 

1615,  24  Jan. — John  Anderson  in  Inverurie's  testament. 

Inuentorie. — Item,  ane  meir  estimat  at  8  lbs.  ;  five  yowes  at  2  merks  the  piece  ;  ane  chair,  25  sh.  ; 
a  buik,  10  sh.  ;  a  tub,  8  sh.  ;  a  kist,  20  sh.  ;  a  cannas,  4  m.  ;  a  little  pan  and  a  pot,  5  m.  ;  a  tangis, 
5  sh.  ;  two  plaids— ane  at  3  lb.,  the  other  48  sh.  ;  two  tailor's  shears — aue  at  7  sh.,  the  other  at  6sh. 

1615,  19  March.— James  Johnston,  parson  of  Monymusk,  departit  this  life  ganging  in  his  77th 
year  of  his  age — leaving  his  son  James  his  executor,  with  the  by-rents  of  Isaaekston. 

4  September. — The  testament  of  Elspet  Symmers,  spouse  to  Gilbert  Brown  in  Monkegy,  bequeaths, 
among  other  articles,  a  halved  plaid  and  a  white  wallicoat — a  part  of  female  dress  mentioned  in  other 
wills. 

Under  dates  1625,  3  October,  and  1626,  13  August,  appear — "Gilbert  Banzie  in 

Inverury  departit ;  testit  8th  day  of  Aug.,"  and  "  Mariorie  Meklrum,  relict  of  Gilbert 

Banzie,  Inverurie,  dep.  buriet  in  the  kirkyard  of  Monkegy."    Gilbert's  will  shows  that  this 

head  of  the  Bainzies,  for  the  time,  was  a  comfortable  burgh  farmer.     He  lived  on  the 

upper  rood  south  of  the  present  hotel,  and  was  one  of  the  Dava  tacksmen,  and  had 

27 


210  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 


three  sons-in-law  to  inherit  bairns'  gear.  One  of  his  bequests  is  illustrative  of  the  time- 
being  his  sword  and  steel  bonnet,  which  he  left  to  his  brother.  He  left  20  m.  6  sh.  to 
pay  °for  his  lair  within  the  kirk  of  Inverurie.  (To  be  buried  in  templo  seems  to  have 
been  then  no  small  distinction).  An  entry  in  the  widow's  will  shows  the  change  about  to 
come  upon  the  house  of  Caskieben.  She  was  a  tenant  on  the  estate,  and  owed  "  20  merks 
of  maill  to  Caskieben  and  Mr.  Alex.  Jaffray,  for  the  duty  of  her  roods,  this  year  and 
the  last".  Mariorie  seems  to  have  been  rich  in  plaids,  having  left  her  "  Hielan  plaid," 
"  her  plaid  at  the  wobster,"  and  "  her  plaid  at  the  litster,"  to  three  several  legatees: 

The  deaths  of  notable  persons  are  entered  with  occasional  indications  of  the 
minister's  opinion  of  the  defunct.  Burial  very  soon  after  death  seems  to  have  been 
common. 

1616,  29  July— Katherine  Lundy,  Lady  Caskiben,  departit  this  life  in  Ardycharral,  and  buriet  in 

1620   22  Auc. — "William  Johnston,  son  to  George  Johnston  of  Caskieben. 

1622',  8  January.— Christian  Forbes,  Lady  Caskieben,  departit  this  life,  of  age  three  score  and 

1622,  17  Dec.— John  Johnston,  brother  to  the  Laird  of  Caskieben,  dep.  in  his  own  house,  buriet 

lei624  20th°Aiiniy— Janet  Leslie,  Ladv  Kincraigie,  relict  of  umqll  Patrick  Leslie  of  Kincraigie, 
ane  aged  woman  of  four  score  years,  departit.  Buriet  in  the  chappel  of  Garioch  21st  April  ;  ane  Godly 
graiff  woman,  ane  verteous  woman.  ok™.™ 

1635,  24  January.— George  Barclay,  notar  m  Inverury,  ane  aged  man,  about  84  or  85  years, 
dep.  in  ane  gryte  storm. 

Mr.  George  Barclay  had  commenced  professional  life,  as  a  notary  public,  in  1599, 
residing  at  Chapel  of  Garioch;  and  was  afterwards  town-clerk  of  Inverury.  His 
protocol  book  forms  the  oldest  register  of  sasines  in  the  burgh ;  and  contains  numerous 
entries  of  interest  respecting  transactions  within  a  considerable  circuit  round  Inverurie. 
His  widow,  Christian  Leslie,  died  18  November  same  year. 

1622  15th  Nov  —  Meriorie  Elphinstone,  sometym  spouse  to  Walter  Innes  in  Artoneis,  now 
spouse  toNorman  Leslie,  brother  to  the  laird  of  Wardes,  dep.  this  life  at  the  Mill  of  Whitehaugh,  and 
was  buriet  in  the  Kirk  of  Inverury. 

The  mural  tablet,  now  lying  in  the  Churchyard  of  Inverurie,  recording  the  deaths  of 
Walter  Innes  and  his  wife,  makes  no  mention  of  her  second  marriage.  The  tradition 
of  her  rising  from  her  grave,  and  going  home  to  Ardtannies,  and  not  to  Whitehaugh, 
would  indicate  that  the  earlier  conjunction  had  been  the  one  most  agreeable  to  her. 

1629,  20  April.— Margaret  Leslie,  spous  to  Mr.  James  Mill,  minister  of  Inverury,  dep.  :— About 
77,  ane  godly  virtuous  woman,  buriet  in  the  kirk  of  Inverury. 

When  Mrs.  Margaret  wedded  the  minister  in  1603,  she  must  have  attained  the 
unromantic  age  of  51,  and  been  considerably  older  than  her  husband,  who  lived  until 
1641.     She  was  a  daughter  of  the  Laird  of  New  Leslie. 

1629  2  May.-George  Leslie  burgess  of  Aberdeen,  callit  of  Bogis,  dwelling  in  Inverury,  departit 
this  life  :  an  aged  man  of  70  or  thereby  ;  carriet  to  the  kirk  of  Premnay,  and  buriet  there  beside  his 
mother,  Bessie  Forbes,  first  guidwyfe  of  New  Leslie,  thereafter  guidwyfe  of  Laws. 

George  Leslie  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  small  lairds  who  found  the  burgh  a 


Mr.  Mill's  Register  of  Births  and  Deaths.  211 

convenient  place  of  residence.      His  son  Patrick  died  there  2nd  January  next  year. 
George  of  Bogis  was  the  brother  of  the  minister  of  Inverurie's  first  wife,  Margaret  Leslie. 

1634,  2  Feb. — John  Black,  husband  to  Violet  Mathieson,  husbandman  in  Conglass,  about  the 
age  of  45,  dept. 

The  peculiar  entry  of  John's  connubial  position  is  accompanied  in  his  ■will  with 
an  exceptional  provision  of  an  anticipatory,  or  at  any  rate  precautionary  nature,  viz., 
that  his  children  be  left  with  their  mother  as  long  as  she  does  well  with  them ;  and 
during  their  tutor's  pleasure.     !?he  speedily  married  again. 

The  minister's  notices  of  defuncts  were  not  always  commendatory. 

1629,  Nov.  20. — John  Roualdson  dept.,  an  old  man  of  four-score. 

The  minister  gives  no  character  of  this  patriarch,  who  probably  did  not  possess 

one  which  would  have  graced  a  register.     He  was  the  father  of  the  drunkard,  William , 

whose  wife  attained  a  distinctly  expressed  record  of  her  conduct. 

1633,  14  Nov. — Claris  Huchone,  wife  to  Wm.  Ronald,  in  Iuverury,  dep.  ;  quha  was  ane  very 
evill  kirk  keeper. 

The  following  entries  are  of  interest  as  regards  the  criminal    jurisprudence    of 

Scotland  at  the  period. 

1629,  4  Aug. — Alexander  Fergus,  alias  Walace,  in  Inverurie,  attached  by  the  Sheriff  of  theft,  and 
drowned  in  Uryf  in  the  pot  called  the  Ginken  holl  till  he  was  deid ;  buriet  in  the  kirkyard  of  Inverurie. 

The   execution  of  "  "Walace "  must  have  had  an  impressive  effect.      He  was  a 

resident  in  Inverurie,  the  father  of  a  family ;  the  youngest  of  whom  was  baptised  but 

two  months  before  August  1629. 

6  Aug.,  1636. — John  Pirie,  son  to  Wm.  Pirie,  in  Fetternear,  dep.  this  lyff  in  his  father's  house  in 
Fetternear,  buriet  in  the  kirkyaird  of  Inverury.  Was  raissit  again  upon  the  13  day  of  Augt.  upon  ane 
bruit  that  he  had  gotten  wrong,  in  cutting  his  genitals  from  him.  The  body  being  viewed  by  sundry 
feirnouss  and  honest  persons  at  the  command  of  Adam  Ballantyne,  Bischope  of  Aberdeen  for  the  tyme,  it 
was  found  that  the  body  of  the  said  John  Pirie  had  gotten  no  wrong.  Tryers  of  the  corpus,  Mr.  John 
Clieyne,  parson  of  Kinkell  ;  Mr.  James  Mill,  minister  of  Inverurie  ;  William  Johnston,  B.,  there  ; 
Mr.  Alex.  Mitchell,  there  ;  and  George  Lesly  of  Kincraigie. 

Affecting,  or  otherwise  remarkable  deaths,  or  burials,  drew  graphic  notices  from 
the  reverend  registrar. 

1620. — John  Johnston,  son  to  Robert  Johnston,  in  Corsehill,  plenisher  of  Lofthillock,  in  his 
passing  through  among  friends  for  cornis,  was  slain  be  aue  schot  be  Harie  Gordon,  in  Haddo,  at  the 
said  Harie  his  upon  24  day  of  March,  and  buriet  in  Monkegy,  25  day  of  March. 

1622,  4th  May. — Elspet  Anderson,  dother  to  Will.  Anderson  in  Conglass,  made  her  testament 
with  her  own  mouth,  in  the  house  of  Thomas  Smyth  in  Inverury.  She  leaves  all  to  Wm.  Ferguson, 
to  whom  she  is  coutractit  in  marriage  ;  and  to  whom  she  has  borne  ane  man  bairn.  She  leaves  to  the 
said  William  wliatsomever  my  justly  appertain  to  her  also  be  the  death  of  her  mother,  Margt.  Smyth, 
and  be  decease  of  her  guiddam,  Isobel  Benzie,  or  by  promise  of  her  father,  and  what  she  has  in  her 
own  ;  and  leaves  her  young  bairnie  to  the  said  Wm.  Ferguson,  his  father,  charging  him,  as 

he  will  answer  to  God,  to  do  his  fatherly  duty  to  the  bairn,  not  as  to  ane  bastard,  but  as  to  ane  lawful 
bairn,  because  it  was  gotten  under  the  promise  of  marriage.  Whilk  the  said  William  Ferguson, 
faithfully  and  solemnly  promised  to  do.  And  she  nominates  the  said  William  her  executor  and 
intromiter  with  her  whole  geir. 

The  touching  record  of  penitence  expressing  itself  in  this  poor  girl's  anxiety  for 
the  protection  of  her  infant  from  shame,  and  exacting  a  vow  from  her  lover  to  protect 


212  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

it,  while  she  lay  dying  in  her  grandfather's  house,  where  she  had  sought  refuge  pro- 
bably from  her  own  home,  was  signed  by  Mr.  Mill,  who  adds — "  The  same  said  day  the 
said  Elspet  departit  this  life." 

1620,  20  Dec. — William  Reid,  girseman  in  Meikle  Wardes,  travelling  from  Aberdeen,  was 
found  dead  at  the  Arnfield  Loch,  and  buriet  in  the  kirkyard,  Inverurie 

1624 — Annes  Davidson,  dep.  :  deid  there  out  at  the  fauld  dykes  of  Netkertou,  being  ane  cauld 
stormie  nieht. 

1621,  11th  April. — "William  Johnston,  elderin  Inverurie,  departit,  buriet  in  the  kirk  of  Inverury 
(This  was  the  noted  baillie  of  1616). 

1621,  27  Aug. — Isabella  Mackay,  spouse  to  Robert  Taylor,  elder,  departit  this  life  in  the  Ord  ; 
and  was  carriet  to  the  kirk  of  Inverury,   and  buriet  the   stone  on  the  south  syde  there. 

Same  nicht  raissit  agane  be  her  father  and  friends,  and  buriet  in  the  north  east  nuik  of  the  said  kirk. 

1621,  8  Sept. — Wm.  Couper,  servand  to  Wm.  Johnston,  Bailzie,  departit  this  life.  Alleged  felled 
be  George  Morgan,  for  the  qukilk  the  said  George  suffered  the  inquest  of  ane  assize,  and  was  absolvit. 

1623,  28  May — John  Johnston,  callit  of  Ingliston,  son  to  umquhill  Patrick  Johnston,  dwelling  in 
Inverury,  upon  the  7  day  of  May,  1623,  being  Setterday,  at  Artoneis,  was  wondit  in  the  left  side  of 
his  head  by  ane  gryte  straik,  allegit  strueken  by  John  Leslie  of  Badifurra,  in  ane  meetin  after  drink- 
ing.    Striken  down  of  the  straik,  and  departit  this  life  on  the  28th  May,  being  Thursday,  at  night. 

1623,  10th  Dec. — Margaret  Forbes,  relict  of  umqll  George  Glennie,  was  delyverd  to  him  of  twa 
twinns,  ane  lass  and  ane  laid  ;  the  laid  departit  coming  to  the  kirk,  the  lass  baptisit  callit  Meriorie — 
witnesses — Alex.  Glenny  in  Auchorthes  ;  Wat.  Glenny  there. 

Baptism  in  church  must  have  been  then  the  rule,  else  infants  would  not  have  been 

carried  from  mill  of  Aquhorties  to  Inverurie  in  the  month  of  December.     Their  father 

had  died  in  October — one  of  a  large  family  of  Glennies. 

1623,  28th  Dec. — Bessie  Chalmers,  beggar,  died  in  Thomas  Johnston's  house  in  the  Eirkgreen. 

1624,  19th  January. — John  Cuming,  traveller,  with  a  wife  and  six  bairns,  from  hielauds  to  low- 
lands, departit  this  life  in  Alex.  Glenny's  house  in  Auchorthes. 

Among  the  last  mortuary  entries  in  Mr.  Mill's  Eegister  is  the  following  touch- 
ing one  : — 

Walter  Malcolmson,  son  to  John  Malcolmson  in  Woodhill,  being  ane  boy  of  three  years  of  age, 
upon  ane  Wendesday,  ane  fair  sun  Schyning,  the  aught  day  of  Februar,  1637,  strayed  out  of  his 
father's  house  in  Woodhill,  and  after  long  seeking  was  found  dead  a  little  south-east  from  his  father's 
house  the  threttie  day  of  Feb.  1637. 

1626,  4  July. — Walter  Cheyne,  son  to  William  Cheyne,  tailzeour  in  Inverury,  being  in  service 
with  George  Grubb,  in  Inverury,  coming  from  the  peat  moss  with  his  Mr.  The  said  W alter  drowned 
coming  over  Don,  in  ane  salmon  coble,  upon  the  black  pot  of  Artoneis. 

1628,  17  Feb. — Helen  Glennie,  spouse  to  Wm.  Walker  in  Inglistonne  dep.  Buriet  in  the 
kirkyard  of  Inverury,  with  the  rest  of  the  Glennies. 

The  recording  of  nicknames  did  not  offend  the  minister's  graphic  pen. 

1620,  11  Dec. — Barbara  More,  in  Inverury,  spouse  to  Alexander  Henderson,  alias  Danser, 
departit. 

1624,  31st  January. — Themas  Johnston  alias  Comissar,  departit. 

1633,  18  June. — William  Lightoune,  burgess  of  Enrowrie,  alias  callit  Barrone  Lightoune,  dept." 

14  Dec.  —  Margarit  Banzie,  alias  feel  Magie,  a  natural  foul  from  her  birth,  dep." 

1622,  20  Oct. — Alexander  Anderson,  alias  Genkin  ane  lawful  son,  baptisit. 

The  name  appears  also  Genkin,  alias  Anderson. 

The  records  of  births  occasionally  are  interesting  for  the  names  of  the  christening 

company  ;  which  enable  us  to  see  who  were  recognised  as  of  the  better  sort  in  the  parish 

society. 

1611,  18  April — John  Leslie  in  Badifurra  had  a  son  baptised  Patrick— wit.  :  Patrick  Forbes  of 
Corse,  John  Leslie  fiar  of  Balquhain,  and  John  Hervie. 


Mr.  Mill's  Register  of  Births  aud  Deaths.  213 

1627,  9  July. — James  Leslie  of  Auchorthes,  ane  lawful  dother  bapt.  callit  Elspet — wit.  :  John 
Lesly  of  Balquhain,  and  Patrick  Gordon  of  Bracca. 

1617,  11  March — William  Blakhall  of  that  Ilk  had  a  son  baptiset  ;  witnesses — John  Strnchan  of 
CoTskie ;  Wm.  Wood  of  Colpnay  ;  Alex.  Tulloch  of  Craignesin  ;  William  Johnston,  baillie  of  Inverury, 
and  Mr.  Alexander  Mitchell,  schoolmaster  there. 

1618,  1  Feb. — George  Johnston  of  Caskieben,  his  oldest  dother  born  in  Ardiharral,  baptisit  the 
15th  Feb.  ;  whilk  day  the  laft  at  the  Kirk  of  Monkegy  fell. 

1622,  19th  May. — William  Blakhall  of  that  Ilk,  ane  dother  baptisit  callit  Katherine.  Witnesses- 
William  Colitis,  fiar  of  Auchtercoul,  Norman  Leslie  in  Inverury,  and  William  Johnston,  baillie  there. 

23rd  May. — Maister  Alexander  Mitchell,  ane  lawful  dother  baptisit  callit  Meriorie.  Witnesses, 
William  Blakhall  of  that  Ilk,  George  Leslie,  guidman  of  Rothmaise,  Nomian  Leslie  in  Ardtannes,  and 
John  Leslie  of  Badifurrow. 

Norman  Leslie  must  have  left  Ardtannies  at  the  "Whitsunday  of  that  year,  1622,  as 
his  wife  and  her  second  son  by  her  first  husband,  Walter  Innes  the  miller,  both  died  at 
Whitehaugh,  the  son  on  28th  September,  and  the  mother  15th  November,  1622. 

1622,  20  Oct. — Wm.  Fergus  in  Inverury,  ane  lawful  son,  baptisit  callit  Robert. 

It  is  possible  that  this  Ferguson  was  Spalding's  Baillie  William,  and  father  of 
William  of  Crichie,  the  common  ancestor  of  the  Aberdeenshire  families  of  the  name. 

1622,  15th  Oct. —William  Coutis,  fiar  of  Auchtercoull,  dwelling  in  Artoneis,  ane  lawful  sone, 
baptisit  callit  Alexander.  Witnesses— Sir  Alex.  Gordon  of  Cluny,  Kt.  ;  Alexander  Gordon,  appearand 
of  Cluny  ;  John  Lesly  of  Wardes. 

On  the  previous  December  15,  1621,  Wardes  had  disponed  Ardtannies  to  William 
Coutts  and  his  wife,  Janet  Gordon,  and  they  were  infeft  on  22nd  December,  1622.  Wardes 
was  then  close  upon  his  ruin,  and  the  Knight  of  Cluny,  his  helper  thereto,  was  in  much 
the  same  state. 

1626,  28th  April. — William  Johnston,  bailzie  in  Inverury,  ane  lawful  son  baptisit,  callit  James — 
wit.  :  Mr.  James  Mill,  minister,  James  Fergus,  George  Leslie  in  Rothmaise. 

The  presence  of  the  Baillie  at  christenings  in  the  families  of  the  upper  class,  around 

as  well  as  in  the  municipality,  indicates  that  his  position,  as  head  of  the  burgh,  was  one 

which  imparted  some  degree  of  social  prestige.     George  Leslie  ere  long  became  his 

colleague,  and,  in  turn,  appears  to  have  been  principal  baillie.     No  provost  was  elected 

until  the  next  century. 

1630 — 1  April. — John  Leslie,  in  Artoneis,  ane  lawful  dother  bapt.,  callit  Margaret — wit.  :  George 
Leslie  of  Kincraigie,  and  Hector  Abercromby  of  Fetternear. 

13  October. — Mr.  James  Mill,  minister  at  Inverurie,  ane  lawful  sone  bapt.  callit  James — wit., 
Sir  George  Johnstonne  of  that  ilk  and  Caskieben  ;  James  Elphinstonne  of  Glack  ;  Alex.  Leslie  of 
Tullos,  and  Mr.  Andrew  Logy,  person  of  Rane.     Borne  2  Oct.,  1630. 

The  minister  seems  to  have  been  cordially  disposed  to  celebrate  his  accession  to 
the  dignity  of  paternity ;  and  that  by  a  wife  belonging  to  one  of  the  county  families, 
probably  considered  as  an  advance  upon  his  previous  twenty-six  years  alliance  with  a 
ruling  burgh  house.  The  laird  of  Glack  may  have  been  the  father  of  his  wife,  Meriorie  ; 
who  collected  her  husband's  friends  at  christenings  pretty  frequently  afterwards. 
Caskieben,  the  son  of  Mr.  Mill's  old  friend — godly  and  virtuous  John  Johnston — had 
been  five  years  a  baronet  in  1630,  and  was  Sheriff  of  the  county,  in  succession  to  the 
Earl  of  Huntly,  removed  by  Charles  I.  in  his  policy  of  curbing  the  great  nobles.  Mr. 
Mill's  other  christenings,   with  their  graphic  records,  have  been  noted  already.      He 


214  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

appends  to  this,  the  first  of  his  Mause  baptisms,  notice  of  an  historical  event,  which 
made  a  great  commotion  at  the  time,  "  the  burning  of  Frendraught,"  supposed  to  have 
been  a  malicious  and  cruel  act. of  faction  strife.  The  date  of  the  birth  was  2nd  October, 
1630,  the  same  day  that  the  sad  tragedy  had  its  beginning. 

Ilk  day  Jas.  Leslie  of  Achortheis  was  schot  in  the  richt  arm  be  the  laird  of  Condlan  in  Fren- 
draucht's  coinpanie.     9  Oct.,  1630,  Frendraucht's  house  brant ;  within  it  six  men  brant  deid. 

1635,  7  March. — John  Leslie  of  Balquhain  and  Janet  Innes,  ane  son  bapt.,  callit  Alex.  Wit. — 
Alex.  Leslie  in  Tullos,  Wm.  Leslie  of  Carchnie,  in  respect  there  was  no  minister  at  the  Chappel  after 
the  death  of  Mr.  Andro  Straqn. 

For  three  years  later  the  minister's  register  of  baptisms  goes  on  in  the  same 
general  style  of  entry;  recording  in  1639  a  birth  to  Eobert  Nuccol,  pyper, 
and  his  wyfe ;  and  also  one  to  Violet  Mathieson  in  Conglass,  whose  first  husband, 
John  Black,  had  exhibited  in  1634  some  want  of  faith  in  her  doing  well  with 
his  children,  and  who,  in  1640,  appears  as  the  wife  of  John  Johnston.  Two  notaries 
resident  together  ■  in  Inverurie  appear,  John  Mackyson,  notar,  having  a  daughter 
Mariorie,  by  his  wife  Margaret  Lyndsay,  10th  January,  1636  ;  and  John  Macky,  notar, 
who  made  his  will  23rd  March  in  the  same  year,  in  the  schoolmaster's  house,  when  one 
of  the  witnesses  was  a  new  laird  of  Drimmies,  Alexander  Chalmers,  whose  son 
William  succeeded  him  before  1660. 

A  different  hand  is  apparent  in  a  portion  of  a  baptismal  register,  added  to  Mr. 
Mill's,  and  beginning  21st  May,  1643.  An  entry  in  1644,  shows  the  old  minister  to 
have  been  replaced  by  Mr.  William  Forbes ;  who  was  to  live  through  the  most  charac- 
teristic period  of  the  century — that  which  saw  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  the  covenant- 
ing rule. 

1644,  15th  April — Mr.  William  Forbes,  minister,  and  Margaret  Strachan,  ane  lawful  son,  baptisit 
William.  Wit. : — Mr.  Samuel  Waker,  minister  at  Monkegy,  and  Mr.  William  Leith,  minister  at 
Kinkell. 

Mr.  Waker  was  deposed  for  malignancy  by  the  covenanters,  and  reponed  after 
1660  by  the  Episcopal  Synod,  Mr.  Leith  was  "dealt  with"  in  1647,  and  deposed 
in  1649. 

A  new  baillie  is  prominent  in  the  new  register,  making  occasional  entries,  viz.,  John 
Johnston  :  whose  initials  appeared  on  the  Town-House  of  1662. 

In  1646,  William  Eobertson  of  Aquhorties,  with  a  second  wife,  Margaret  Collieson, 
registered  a  daughter  Jean.  William  Fergus  in  Crichie,  the  ancestor  of  the  Fergu- 
sons of  Aberdeenshire,  appears  witnessing  (6th  Aug.,  1645),  the  christening  of  William, 
son  of  James  Fergus,  notary,  Town-Clerk  of  Inverury,  by  his  wife  Jean  Rait. 

The  christening  parties  invited  by  the  minister  and  schoolmaster  of  Inverurie, 
illustrate  the  intercourse  that  obtained  in  the  higher  social  grade  of  the  Garioch  burgh, 
when  James  the  Sixth  was  king.  Its  municipal  rulers  were  then  almost  all  Leslies  and 
Johnstons,  cousins,  by  at  least  Scotch  reckoning,  of  the  neighbouring  lords  of  Balquhain 
and  Caskieben.  Several  lairds,  cadets  of  the  former  family,  had  their  homes  in  Inverurie — 
their  properties  possessing,  it  is  likely,  no  mansion  houses.     Leslie  of  Rothmaise  and 


Mr.  Mill's  Register  of  Births  and  Deaths.  215 

Leslie  of  Bogs  lived  in  the  burgh,  and  the  Kincraigie  family  had  done  so  for  three,  if 
not  six  generations.  Ardtannies  in  Mr.  James  Mill's  time,  was  the  residence  in  succes- 
sion of  Leslie  of  Wardes  the  proprietor,  of  Walter  Innes  the  wealthy  miller  of  Inverurie, 
brother-in-law  probably  of  the  laird  of  Glack,  of  Gilbert  Johnston,  Caskieben's  next 
younger  brother,  of  William  Coutts  the  young  laird  of  Auchtercoull,  newly  wedded  to 
a  daughter  of  the  baronet  of  Cluny,  and  of  John  Leslie  of  Badifurrow,  Kincraigie's 
second  son ;  all  of  whom  were  in  tbeir  turn  wadsetters  of  Ardtannies.  The  Blakhalls  of 
that  Ilk,  Coroners  and  Foresters  of  the  Garioch  were  close  by,  and  in  near  neighbour- 
hood, James  Elphinstone  of  Glack,  father-in-law  in  1630  apparently  to  both  the  middle 
aged  minister  of  Inverurie  and  Monkegy,  and  to  Alexander  Leslie  of  Tullos  then  a 
young  man,  who  forty  years  afterwards  became  fourteenth  baron  of  Balquhain,  and  a 
Count  of  the  Holy  Boman  Empire — which  dignity  his  brother  Walter,  pushing  his 
fortunes  abroad,  had  attained  in  the  service  of  Austria. 

We  find  no  sign  of  Alexander  Leslie's  father  or  brother,  the  tenth  and  eleventh 
barons  of  Balquhain,  and  local  chiefs  of  the  Leslies,  associating  with  the  burgesses  of  the 
town,  in  the  familiar  friendship  indicated  by  the  christening  entries  of  Mr.  Mill,  Both 
these  gentlemen  were  of  extravagant  habits,  and  between  them  wasted  the  wide 
property,  which  the  preceding  laird,  William — the  entertainer  of  Queen  Mary — ruled  over 
with  honour. 

John,  tenth  baron,  who  was  the  great  man  of  the  Garioch  from  1571  to  1622,  kept 
up  the  dashing  and  turbulent  style  common  in  his  class  when  he  was  a  boy,  and  used 
never  to  ride  out  but  with  a  retinue  of  twenty  mounted  vassals  and  retainers.  He  was 
the  chief  actor  in  the  following  feat  recorded  among  the  historical  incidents  belong- 
ing to  the  town  of  Aberdeen. 

On  the  6th  of  February,  1587,  the  laird  of  Balquhain  came  to  the  Justiss  Port,  with  sertan 
horsmen  to  the  noumer  of  fifte,  to  be  in  the  toune  contrar  the  will  of  the  haill  magistratts  and 
commands,  quha  was  repulsit,  and  got  na  entrans,  the  haill  toune  beand  in  armour  withstanen  the 
said  laird.  On  the  niorne  he  came  to  the  Crabstane  with  his  horsmen  to  se  gyff  the.  toune  wald 
come  out,  quha  came  outt  to  the  croftis  on  the  north  syd  of  the  toun,  and  thairefter  came  to  the 
Womanhill  in  ordour,  and  foynd  nane  of  themye  thair. 

Only  two  months  later  his  son  John,  with  a  company  of  twenty  persons  including  his 
father,  attacked  and  plundered  the  house  of  Achnacant,  in  Buchan,  murdering  a  servant 
of  Alexander  Cullen,  the  proprietor ;  for  which  he  got  a  remission  under  the  Privy 
Seal,  in  1620. 

The  conjugal  sentiment  of  an  age  that  could  tolerate  Henry  VIII.  of  England,  was 
not  delicate ;  and  John,  tenth  baron  of  Balquhain,  is  recorded  as  having  had  three 
wives,  said  to  have  been  all  on  one  occasion  present  in  the  kirk  of  Chapel  of  Garioch 
at  the  same  time.  When  the  Earl  of  Huntly  was  in  his  brief  ostensible  banishment 
for  the  Spanish  Armada  conspiracy,  Balquhain  was  made  principal  Sheriff  of  Aberdeen- 
shire in  1594.  He  was  in  risk  of  being  mixed  up  with  the  expedition  against  the 
Catholic  lords  in  that  year.  The  Earl  of  Argyle,  King's  Lieutenant,  had  summoned  the 
incongruous  houses  of  Leslie,  Forbes,  Drum,  and  Ogilvie,  to  attend  him  on  his  march, 


216  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

but  a  chance  death  in  the  gathering  gave  rise  to  such  mutual  suspicion  as  caused 
the  breaking  up  of  the  Aberdeenshire  portion  of  the  army.  Huntly  was  a 
favourite  with  the  small-minded  and  shifty  King.  He  had  served  him  acceptably 
when  being  commissioned  to  put  down  the  Earl  of  Moray,  he  had,  in  February,  1591, 
burned  Dunnibirsel,  and  slain  the  earl ;  who  it  is  said  owed  the  monarch's  displeasure 
to  the  Queen's  remarks  on  his  handsome  figure,  a  speciality  of  approval  which  had  been 
so  fatal  to  "  Young  Waters  "  in  the  court  of  the  first  King  James.  The  king  did  not 
regret  the  defeat  of  the  royal  force  under  Argyll  and  Forbes  by  the  Earl  at  Balrinnes, 
and  in  1599  Huntly's  banishment  ended  in  recall  and  his  elevation  to  the  rank  of 
Marquis.  His  Sheriffdom  was  restored,  and  that  of  Inverness  added  ;  both  which  the 
Marquis  continued  to  enjoy  until  Charles  I.,  jealous  of  his  almost  regal  power  in  the  north, 
deprived  him  of  them  in  1630.  Three  of  John  Leslie's  sons  became  barons  of  Balqu- 
hain,  with  the  diminishing  pride  of  place  which  his  extravagance  had  assured  to  them. 

His  eldest  son  John  eleventh  baron,  succeeded  in  1622.  While  yet  only  fiar  of 
Balquhain,  he  was,  in  1616,  elected  along  with  John  Cheyne  of  Arnage,  commissioner  for 
Aberdeenshire  in  Parliament.  Having  the  same  tastes  as  his  father,  he  had  to  continue 
the  process  of  alienating  portion  after  portion  of  the  lands  in  wadset,  until  he  could  leave 
his  son  in  1638  little  but  the  Castle  and  Mains  of  Balquhain,  and  the  young  man  went 
into  the  Scottish  army  under  his  relative  General  Leslie,  and  afterwards  into  the  Mus- 
covite service.  Fetternear,  the  fine  property  earned  by  William  Leslie's  defence  of  the 
Cathedral  of  Aberdeen,  his  grandson  Hector  Abercromby  of  Westhall,  second  son  of 
Alexander  Abercromby  of  Birkenbog,  acquired  in  1627  from  Sir  Alexander  Hay  of 
Delgatie,  to  whom  John  Leslie  in  the  previous  year  had  disponed  much  of  his  property. 
The  eleventh  baron  of  Balquhain,  and  several  of  his  successors,  professed  Protestantism 
with  the  scant  sincerity  which  brought  not 'a  few  of  the  less  powerful  lairds  over  to 
the  religion  of  King  James  VI.  Hector  Abercromby  was  one  of  that  class ;  and 
Margaret  Leslie,  a  full  sister  of  Alexander  Leslie  of  Tullos,  who  married  first 
a  brother  of  Delgatie' s,  and  on  his  death  William  Grant  in  Conglass,  reverted  to  popery 
when  an  elderly  woman,  and  drew  her  husband  after  her,  who  had  been  a  prominent 
elder  of  the  kirk  of  Inverurie  under  the  Covenant.  Their  prosecution  by  the  church 
courts  caused  much  excitement  and  local  disturbance. 

In  the  friendly  socialities  of  the  Garioch  burgh  exemplified  in  the  christening 
gatherings,  there  would  be  no  risk  of  the  proper  respect  being  lost  sight  of  that  was  due 
to  individuals  of  superior  rank.  The  position  of  "the  Laird"  was  one  cordially  recognised  in 
Scottish  life  centuries  later.  In  the  time  now  referred  to,  it  was  kept  graphically 
prominent.  As  a  rule,  every  bondholder  over  a  property  assumed  a  territorial  designa- 
tion from  the  lands  wadset  to  him,  and  occasionally  at  any  rate,  lairds  appended  their 
designation  instead  of  their  names  to  important  documents.  When  John  Johnston  of  that 
Ilk,  and  Patrick  Leslie  of  Kincraigie,  during  the  time  they  were  Baillies  of  Inverurie  signed 
the  minutes  of  council,  it  was  as  "  Caskieben  "  and  "  Kincraigie  "  ;  the  peerage  like  style 


Mr.  Mill's  Register  of  Births  and  Deaths.  217 

contrasting  effectively  with  the  other  signatures — done  "  with  my  hand  at  the  pen  ". 
Such  honours  of  long  descent  are  rare  in  any  land  as  were  recognised  in  that 
generation  in  the  person  of  a  small  laird,  George  Leslie  the  last  Leslie  of  Leslie — who 
could  trace  his  forebears  six  centuries  back,  and  be  declared  the  representative  of  the 
father  of  a  crusader.  On  27th  January,  1623,  George  Leslie  of  that  Ilk  was  served 
heir  of  Malcolm  Leslie,  the  great-great-great-great-grandfather  of  the  great-great-great- 
great-grandfather  of  his  father  ;  of  Norman  Leslie  the  great-great-great-great-grandfather 
of  his  great-great -great-great-grandfather ;  and  of  Norman  Leslie  the  great-great-great- 
great-grandfather  of  his  great-great-grandfather.  Malcolm  and  Norman  were  the 
Constables,  the  son  and  grandson  of  Bartolf ;  the  second  Norman  was  Sir  Norman 
Leslie,  the  first  who  adopted  the  surname,  Edward  I.'s  Sheriff  of  Aberdeenshire. 

James  Leslie  of  Aquhorties,  who  was  shot  through  the  arm  on  the  day  when  Mr. 
Mill's  eldest  son,  afterwards  Dr.  James  Milne,  came  into  the  world,  was  the  second 
son  of  John  Leslie,  sixth  baron  of  Pitcaple ;  in  whose  line  royal  blood  flowed, 
from  their  ancestress,  Euphemia  Lindsay  of  Crawford,  third  wife  of  Sir  William  Leslie 
of  Balquhain,  and  great-grand-daughter  of  King  Eobert  II.  The  shot  was  fired  by  Eobert 
Crichton,  a  relative  of  Frendraught,  in  the  grounds  of  Pitcaple,  whither  the  Crichtons 
had  come  in  pursuit  of  John  Meldr'um,  Pitcaple's  brother-in-law,  a  rough  character  of 
the  period,  who  had  rendered  some  service  to  Erendraught,  and  thinking  himself  under- 
paid, helped  himself  to  two  of  his  horses.  The  wound  was  supposed  to  be  mortal,  and 
vengeance  was  immediately  sought  by  the  Leslies  ;  in  conseqnence  of  which  the  hasty 
journeys  ensued  that  terminated  in  the  terrible  calamity  of  "  the  burning  of  Fren- 
draught," seven  days  after,  for  which  the  same  John  Meldrum  was  hanged.  James 
Leslie  survived  his  wound  to  meet  a  more  honourable  death,  twenty  years  afterwards,  on 
the  field  of  Worcester,  3d  September  1657,  fighting  for  Charles  II. ;  on  which  occasion 
his  elder  brother,  John,  then  laird,  also  received  his  death-wound. 


28 


Chapter  VII. 

LOCAL  CHANCES  BEFORE  THE  CIVIL  WAR. 

New  Proprietors.  Badifurrow. — Leslie  of  Kincraigic.  The  First  Baronet  of  Wardes. — 
Castle  of  Wardcrys.  Warthill. — Leslies.  The  First  Baronet  of  Caskieben. — The 
iMndys—Ncwplace.  Provost  Alexander  Jaffray. — Chambcrley  Croft.  Criciiie. — Leslie — 
Lord  Elphinstonc — Elphinstonc  of  Warthill.  Blakhall  of  that  Ilk.  Bourtie. — Barclay 
dc  Tolly — Scton — Collyhill — Clutplains.  Mounie. — Scion— Farquhar — Scion.  Aquhithie. 
Ardmurdo.  Balbithan.  Thainston.  Lethinty.  Findgask.  Meldrum. — Templar 
Lands— Dalgarno  of  that  Ilk —Chahner  of  Balbithan — Forbes  of  Thainston— Patrick  Urquhart — 
Forbes  of  Pitsligo — Cathedral  Chapter  in  IG15.  Kemxay. — Douglas— Crombie— Slrachan. 
The  Leiths.  —  Harthill —  Licklyhcad.  Abercromby  of  Birkenboo.  —  Fclterncar — Lord 
Glassfoord.  Newton.  Aquhorties. — Barony  of  Craigicvar  and  Fintray— Mortimer  of 
Craigicvar.  Forbes  of  Monymusk. — Pitsligo  and  Fcltcrcairn.  Forbes  of  Leslie. — Leslie 
Castle— Lcithha.ll.  Wadsetters  and  Reversers.  Clerical  Changes  after  1600. — Cha- 
racter of  the  Garioch  Clergy.  The  Marquis  of  Huntly.  The  Burning  of  Frendraught. — 
Lady  Frendraught.  Social  Features.' — Drinking  Habits — The  Highland  Chiefs — Fairs— 
Lowrin  Fair — Burgh  Magistrates — Members  of  Parliament.  The  Eve  of  the  Covenant. — 
Aberdeenshire  Becusant— Bishops  of  Aberdeen — The  Aberdeen  Doctors — Papist  Houses— Father 
Blackhall— Prominent  Families  and  Individuals — Balqahain — Drimmics  —Piltodrie — Burnet  of 
Crimond—  Bishop  Burnet—  Crowncr  Johnston — Farquhar  of  Mounie — John  Leith  of  Harthill — 
Sir  William  Forbes—  General  Urrie —  Urric  ofPilfichu — Chalmers  of  Cults — Field-Marshal  Leslie 
— General  King.    Inverurie  Burgh  Lairds.  —Contract  of  Teincls — Monkegy. 


NEW  PROPRIETORS. 


Cif. 


[N  the  seventeenth  century  the  well-peopled  Garioch  could  hardly  escape  being 
^Ji     the  scene  of  social  changes,  the  result,  in  local  details,  of  the  disturbance  which 

the  great  regulating  institutions  of  the  country  had  undergone.  Such  over-turnings 
in  the  constitution  of  the  State,  following  those  of  the  national  Church,  have  never 
taken  place  but  with  the  accompaniment  of  old  families  being  every  now  and  again, 
replaced  by  others  in  the  holding  of  property.  The  Landlord  has  always,  as  a  national 
institution,  possessed  the  same  great,  or  little,  stability  which  has  been  allowed  to  the 
throne,  the  church,  or  other  great  expressions  of  national  agreement.  In  the  Garioch, 
and  prominently  about  its  chief  town,  wadsets,  ending  in  alienation,  of  estates,  were  as 
extensive  during  the  first  half  year  of  the  century  as  were  the  changes  in  civil  and  eccle- 
siastical authority. 

It  has  been  noted  that  the  seventeenth  century  began  in  the  Garioch  with  the 


Badifurrow.  219 

institution,  by  King  James,  of  a  new  foundation  of  churches,  taking  the  place  of  the 
ancient  vicarages  of  the  Abbey  of  Lindores — but  endowed  with  only  a  small  portion  of 
the  parochial  revenues. 

The  great  bulk  of  the  Abbey's  possessions  secularised  by  the  king,  had  been  erected 
into  the  temporal  lordship  of  Lindores,  which  shortly  sank  into  poverty,  through  the 
dispersion  of  what  was  regarded  by  many  as  "  illgotten  gear."  The  sale  of  the  lands 
originated  a  number  of  lairdships  new  to  the  proprietary  roll  of  the  country. 

BADIFURROW. 

One  of  these  was  Badifurrow,  now  the  chief  portion  of  Manar ;  which  had  been  a 
property  of  the  great  Abbey  from,  probably,  the  time  of  Malcolm  Leslie,  the  crusader 
companion  of  David  Earl  of  Huntingdon  and  the  Garioch.  The  Leslies  of  Kincraigie 
in  Tough,  were  the  first  Lairds  of  Badifurrow.  The  family  had  lived  in  Inverurie  from 
before  1536,  being  then  of  such  local  importance  that  they  succeeded  in  carrying,  for  a 
second  son,  the  election  to  the  clerkship  of  the  parish  against  the  influence  of  the  oldest 
family  in  the  same  parish,  viz  :  the  Blakhalls  of  that  Ilk.  It  may  be  that  the  laird  of 
Kincraigie  had  rented  Badifurrow  from  the  Abbey,  and  had  resided  upon  it  during  that 
period.  Patrick  Leslie  of  Kincraigie  called  "  Bonnie  Patrick,"  was  laird  of  Badifurrow, 
before  1610  ;  in  which  year  he  bonded  it  for  10,000  nierks,  as  a  marriage  provision  for 
his  second  son  John,  on  his  wedding  with  Marjorie  Strachan,  daughter  of  the  laird  of 
Tipperty.  The  money  was  payable  into  the  hands  of  the  bride's  father,  within  the  parish 
church  of  St.  Nicholas,  Aberdeen,  and  evidently  was  not  paid  for  a  long  time.  Patrick 
Leslie  was  an  active  chief  magistrate  in  Inverurie,  and  in  1606,  along  with  John  Johnston, 
of  that  Ilk  and  Caskieben,  then  officiating  as  a  baillie,  effectually  aided  the  well-wishers 
of  the  burgh,  with  the  aid  of  the  neighbouring  gentleman  and  ministers  in  establishing 
a  Grammar  School  in  the  town  of  Inverurie. 

George  Leslie  of  Kincraigie,  eldest  son  of  "  Bonnie  Patrick,"  succeeded  in  1613.  He 
does  not  appear  in  the  local  records  as  a  public  man.  He  continued  in  possession  of  the 
property  until  1643.  His  brother  John  was  still  called  of  Badifurro,  in  1020,  the 
redemption  money  probably  being  still  unpaid.  In  that  year  ho  became  proprietor  in 
wadset  of  Netherton  of  Knockinglews  ;  and  he  was  at  one  time  also  styled  of  "  Artoneis." 
In  1627,  George  Leslie  and  Magdalen  Wood  of  Bonnyton,  his  spouse  and  cousin  were  in 
possession  of  Badifurrow,  as  in  that  year  they  pledged  the  town  and  lands  of  Appolinaris 
Chapel  for  800  nierks  to  Mr  Mill  the  minister  of  Inverurie  and  his  wife  Margaret 
Leslie.     Magdalen  Wood  was  among  the  last  of  an  old  Garioch  family  (p.  131). 

In  1632,  their  son  George,  younger  of  Badifurrow,  married  Lucretia  Abercromby, 
daughter  of  Alexander  Abercromby  of  Birkenbog,  and  got  a  charter  in  provision  from 
thorn,  upon  which  infeftment  in  favour  of  George  Leslie,  younger,  from  the  laird  of  Leslie, 
passed  in  16-13.     In  1655,  the  second  George  who  had  a  large  family,  by  which  he  was 


220  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Gariuch. 

much  impoverished,  sold  the  estate  of  Badifurrow,  with  consent  of  his  son,  Patrick,  to 
William  Ferguson  in  Crichie,  the  father  of  the  Ferguson  families  of  Aberdeenshire,  and  to 
his  son  William,  whose  son  Mr  James  Ferguson,  an  Edinburgh  advocate,  disposed  of  it  in 
1699,  to  Mrs.  Jean  Forbes,  widow  of  a  then  lately  deceased  minister  of  Fintray;  about 
which  period  Mr.  James  Ferguson  acquired  the  Estate  of  Pitfour  in  Buchan. 

THE  FIRST  BARONET  OF  WARDES.    • 

Neglect  of  economy,  or  want  of  management,  gave  occasion  to  greater  changes, 
about  that  time,  in  the  lairdship  of  the  neighbourhood.  Social  ostentation  and  its 
natural  result  of  ruined  fortunes  marked  the  period  of  the  two  Charleses.  The  impover- 
ishment which  appears,  in  those  two  reigns,  to  have  befallen  families  previously  wealthy, 
was  not  entirely  the  result  of  events  occurring  in  that  time  of  universal  unsettlement. 
In  earlier  generations,  the  great,  and  also  the  lesser,  barons  had  possessed  an  individual 
importance  in  both  national  and  local  affairs,  which,  of  course,  they  ceased  to  be  able  to 
retain  in  the  same  form  of  actual  power  when  the  King  of  Scotland,  sitting  on  the 
English  throne,  could  wield  a  vastly  increased  central  authority.  The  heads  of  families 
who,  in  I  his  way,  had  begun  to  find  themselves  without  the  old  family  prestige,  adopted 
the  modes  of  self-assertion  which  after  times  have  seen  resorted  to  when  constitutional 
changes  had  worked  similar  levelling  of  political  ranks.  They  affected  a  social  conse- 
quence which  would  keep  them  distinct  from  the  community  around  them,  in  as  marked 
a  fashion  as  the  immemorial  dignity  of  baronial  rank  had  of  old  kept  their  ancestors.  The 
case  of  the  tenth  and  eleventh  barons  of  Balquhain  has  been  already  noticed.  Distinc- 
tion was  sought  by  every  available  means  of  display,  but  at  the  inevitable  cost  of  fatally 
encumbering  old  family  estates.  The  new  dignity  of  Knight  Baronet  of  Nova  Scotia 
gilded  the  sunset  of  several  families,  which  were  in  a  former  day  more  substantially  up- 
held in  society.  Notably  the  houses  of  Wardes  and  Caskieben  had  their  decline 
immediately  prefaced  by  the  acquisition  of  that  title.  John  Leslie  of  Wardes,  the  repre- 
sentative in  Inverurie  of  the  grand  old  Earldom  of  the  Garioch,  was,  in  the  first  quarter  of 
the  century,  a  dissipated  member  of  the  cavalier  aristocracy  driving  fast  to  ruin  by 
his  own  habits  and  the  misconduct  of  a  bad  'wife.  A  succession  of  wadsets,  beginning 
before  1G08,  deprived  him,  every  now  and  then,  of  portions  of  his  Inverurie  property; 
until  it  fell  at  length  into  the  retentive  hands  of  Alexander  Jaffray  of  Kingswells. 

That  wadset  marked  the  fall  of  a  family  in  its  time  more  than  locally  important, 
whose  fortunes  were  illustrative  of  the  age.  The  Wardes  lands  comprehended  Glander- 
stown,  with  the  mill;  Tullyfoure;  Duncanstown;  Donydure,  with  the  mill;  Eochmuriel; 
Knockinbard,  with  the  mill ;  Ardown ;  Buchanstown,  with  the  mill ;  Harlaw ;  Meikle 
Durno,  with  the  mill ;  Torreys  ;  Eihill ;  Warthill ;  and  the  Davache  of  Liverurie,  with 
the  mill.  The  office  of  King's  Baillie  of  the  Kegality  of  the  Garioch  was  attached  to 
the  lands  of  Wardes     About  the  same  time  the  King  granted  John  Leslie  of  Wardes, 


The  First  Baronet  of  Wardes.  221 

a  charter  of  feuferm  on  the  lands  of  Crichie  ;  Tavilty ;  Mekil  KyxmaLdy,  with  the  mill ; 
Litill  Kynnaldy  ;  Pitmeddm  ;  and  Nether  Dyee. 

John  Leslie,  second  baron  of  Wardes,  who  got  these  lands  from  the  king,  James 
IV.,  was  five  times  married.  He  is  now  represented  in  the  Garioch  by  the  Leslies  of 
Warthill,  descended  from  a  younger  son.  His  heir,  Alexander,  born  by  his  second 
wife,  Margaret,  daughter  of  William  Crichton  of  Frendraught,  was  thrice  married,  the 
last  time  when  in  his  eightieth  year,  and  died  in  1573. 

William  Leslie,  eldest  son  of  Alexander,  and  of  his  first  wife  Margaret  Forbes, 
daughter  of  Alexander  Forbes  of  Towie,  was  Falconer  to  King  James  VI.  He  was 
extremely  swift  of  foot,  and  it  is  said  cut  the  ground  when  he  leaped.  His  feats  in  that 
way  were  unequalled  at  the  Court,  and  got  him  from  the  not  over-dignified  Monarch  the 
appellation  of  "  William  Cut".  He  seems  to  have  had  the  common  "  yird  hunger  "  of 
lairds  in  unsettled  times,  and  had  tried  to  encroach  upon  the  Benachie  possessions  of 
John  of  Balhaggarty,  who,  in  1589,  received  from  the  King  licence,  "notwithstanding 
the  proclamation  regarding  the  pest,  to  pursue  William  Leslie  of  Wardis,  and  John 
Leslie  his  son,  for  wrongous  molestation  in  his  possession."  William  Leslie  had  a 
large  family.  Two  daughters  were  married  to  Sir  George  Meldrutn  of  Fyvie,  and  George 
Chalmer  of  Balbithian.  His  second  son,  known  as  George  Leslie  of  Crichie,  had  a  son, 
Dr  John  Leslie,  Bishop  of  Clogher  and  Baphoe,  ancestor  of  the  Leslies  of  Glaslough, 
in  Ireland. 

John  Leslie,  eldest  son  of  William  Leslie,  and  his  wife,  Janet  Lines  of  Invermarkie, 
succeeded  his  father  in  1602.  He  married  Jane  Crichton,  daughter  of  Sir  James 
Crichton  of  Frendraught,  and  died  about  1620. 

The  first  baronet,  Sir  John  Leslie,  his  eldest  son,  apparently  while  a  minor,  had  the 
misfortune  to  marry  Elizabeth  Gordon,  daughter  of  John  Gordon  of  Newton,  and  by  her 
infidelity  and  his  own  reckless  conduct  the  lands  were,  before  his  death,  entirely  separated 
from  the  baronetcy.  He  was  probably  a  weak-minded  man,  and  latterly  was  of  very  dissi- 
pated habits.  The  first  appearance  he  and  his  wife  make  in  local  records  is  in  1601 ;  when 
they  were  dealt  with  by  the  Presbytery  of  Aberdeen  as  contumacious  Papists.  The  lady 
was  the  more  obstinate  of  the  two,  and  prevaricated  less  than  her  husband ;  who  tried 
the  usual  subterfuges  then  employed  to  escape  the  close  pursuit  which  Boman  Catholicism 
had,  in  its  turn,  to  suffer  from  the  dominant  party. 

It  is  said  that  Sir  John  Leslie's  disorderly  habits  left  his  wife  too  much  in  the 
company  of  a  ruined  laird,  Sir  Alexander  Gordon  of  Cluny,  who  seems  to  have  sorned 
upon  them,  and  the  lady  and  Cluny  became  over  intimate.  After  Wardes  died,  Sir 
Alexander  married  her,  and  they  lived  a  deservedly  unhappy  life  until  she  died  in 
December,  1642,  at  Durham,  a  miserable  death  from  cancer  in  one  of  her  breasts. 
Spalding  describes  her  as  a  "  woman  of  suspect  chastetie,  and  thocht  over  familiar  with 
Sir  Alexander  Gordon  of  Cluny  thir  many  years  bygone  in  hir  first  husband's  time  ; 
and  thocht  an  evill  instrument  to  the  doune  throwing  of  both  ther  fair  and  flourishing 
estates." 


222  Inverurie  and  thu  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

The  immediate  occasion  of  Sir  John  Leslie  losing  his  lands  is  said  to  have  been  a 
bargain  made  by  him  with  Mr.  Robert  Farquhar  of  Mounie  for  delivery  of  meal  hi  Aberdeen 
under  a  penalty.  He  failed  in  his  undertaking,  and  let  his  estate  be  seized  upon.  He 
happened  at  the  same  juncture  to  be  pursued  by  the  Earl  of  Mar  for  arrears  of  feu-duties  ; 
and  in  his  difficulties,  and  probably  in  a  besotted  incapacity  for  business,  tried  to  evade 
his  obligation  by  making  over  his  lands  to  Cluny — who  himself  was  bankrupt — and  then 
to  the  Earl  of  Rothes,  who  apparently  would  not  meddle  in  the  affair.  The  result  was 
the  lands  passed,  about  1630,  into  the  hands  of  Sir  George  Johnston  of  Caskieben,  who 
being  unable  to  retain  them  had  to  let  them  "o  in  mort"a"e  along  with  his  own  estates 
to  Provost  Alexander  Jaffray,  of  Aberdeen,  from  whom,  and  Farquhar,  then  Sir  Robert) 
Sir  John  Keith,  the  first  Earl  of  Kintore,  acquired  a  great  part  of  them  in  the 
latter  end  of  the  century.  Sir  John  Leslie  died  in  1640,  and  "  was  buriet,"  Spalding 
says,  "  in  his  own  chapel  at  Tullyfour,  where  never  laird  of  "Wardes  was  buriet  before, 
and  himself  being  the  last  laird  of  Wardes  was  first  buriet  there.  He  had  three  sons 
who  all  went  to  Germany,  where  the  two  youngest  died  in  the  wars." 

Sir  John  Leslie,  the  eldest  son  of  the  last  laird,  is  thus  noticed  by  the  quaint  wrriter 
of  the  "History  of  the  Trubles  in  Scotland".  Speaking  of  1642,  Spalding  says: — ■ 
"  About  this  time  Sir  John  Leslie,  eldest  son  of  the  defunct  laird  of  Wardis  came  home 
out  of  Germany,  but  his  father's  fair  estate  was  dilapidated,  and  little  or  nothing  left 
him  whereupon  to  live,  so  that  he  behoved  to  shift  for  himself  and  went  south  to 
Edinburgh."  He  adds,  under  the  year  1645,  "upon  the  third  of  February,  Sir  John 
Leslie  of  Wardes,  knight-baronet,  departit  this  life  in  new  Aberdeen,  a  great  enemy  to 
the  laird  of  Cluny  who  had  melit  with  his  estate.  Cluny  wairdit  in  the  tolbuith  of 
Edinburgh." 

Sir  William  Leslie,  his  uncle,  brother  of  the  first  Baronet,  succeeded  to  the  title,  hut 
did  not  adopt  it.  The  barony  of  Wardes  in  Kinnethmont  was  lost  by  the  family  about 
1650,  and  after  being  the  property  for  some  years  of  Robert  Farquharson  of  Invercauld, 
who  wedded  a  daughter  of  Erskine  of  Pittodrie,  was  sold  to  Sir  John  Gordon  of  Beldor- 
ney  whose  descendants  still  possess  it. 

Norman,  another  brother  of  the  first  Sir  John,  continued  about  Inverurie,  and 
married  Marjorie  Elphinstone,  the  widow  of  Walter  limes,  the  wealthy  miller  of 
Ardtannies.  He  became,  by  a  second  marriage,  the  ancestor  of  the  present  line  of 
Baronets  of  Wardes. 

The  house  of  Wardes,  in  which  the  later  generations  of  the  Leslies  perhaps  lived, 
and  which  is  now  thrown  down,  stood  about  an  English  mile  west  from  the  Castle  of 
Dunideer,  upon  the  site  of  an  ancient  castle,  some  features  of  which  were  discernible 
in  the  end  of  last  century,  or  at  least  were  known  by  tradition.  A  manuscript,  written 
with  a  view  to  the  first  Statistical  Account  of  Scotland,  says,  "  It  had  been  built  on  a 
rising  ground,  in  a  valley  between  two  hills,  upon  the  water  of  Shevock.  It  has  had  a 
moat  of  water  round  it.     The  ditch  may  still  be  traced,  but  the  castle  is  in  ruins.     It 


The  First  Baronet  of  GasMeben.  223 

is  said  to  have  been  a  high  house,  but  of  little  breadth  or  length.  The  walls  had  been 
very  thick,  and  formed  of  rough  stones,  with  very  few  windows,  and  of  the  narrow 
slit  kind.  The  lowest  fiat  had  been  arched.  The  entrance  to  it  had  been  a  draw 
bridge ;  it  had  been  incapable  of  containing  many  men.  There  was  a  new  house  built 
beside  the  old  castle,  about  80  or  90  years  ago ;  but  it  is  in  ruins  also." 

The  position  of  the  ancient  building,  on  the  border  of  the  Garioch  in  the  widest 
opening  from  the  hills,  and  the  name  of  Warderys  originally  borne  by  the  estate, 
sufficiently  vouch  for  the  Warders  of  the  Garioch  having  had  their  official  residence  in 
that  principal  scene  of  their  duties. 

The  office  of  Baillie  of  the  Legality  of  the  Garioch,  conferred  by  King  James  IV 
upon  the  second  Leslie  of  Wardes,  was,  about  1700,  held  by  the  Leslies  of  Warthill, 
the  representatives  in  the  Garioch  of  the  Wardes  line. 

WARTHILL. 

Warthill  is  one  of  the  properties  that  took  a  new  place  in  the  Garioch,  in  the  period 
now  treated  of.  The  estate  came  unto  the  family  through  the  marriage  of  William, 
second  son  of  John  Leslie,  second  Baron  of  Wardes,  with  Janet  Cruickshank,  daughter 
of  John,  the  son  of  Adam  Cruickshank  of  Tillymorgan,  whose  family  had  been  tenants 
of  Tillymorgan,  under  the  Abbots  of  Lindores,  and  were  proprietors  after  the  Eeforma- 
tion  down  to  Covenanting  times.  In  1482,  Adam  Cruickshank  had  bought  half  of  the 
Templar  lands  of  Warthill,  from  Alexander  Glaster  of  Glack;  and  that  purchase 
became  the  dowry  of  his  grand-daughter,  Janet,  and  gave  the  title  of  William  Leslie  of 
Warthill  to  her  husband.  William  Leslie  acquired  afterwards  the  other  half  from  the 
heirs  of  a  former  wadsetter,  Tullidaff,  the  representative  of  William  Tullidaff  who  fell  at 
Harlaw.  The  mural  tablet  erected  in  the  kirk  of  Bayne,  opposite  the  grave  of  the  first 
seven  lairds  of  Warthill,  gave  the  ages  of  the  second,  third,  and  fourth,  at  the 
remarkable  number  of  90,  80,  and  105. 

THE  FIRST  BARONET  OF  CASKIEBEN. 

John  Johnston  of  that  Ilk,  the  eldest  brother  of  Dr.  Arthur  Johnston,  succeeded 
in  1593,  to  their  father  George  Johnston,  in  his  various  possessions.  John  was  twice 
married,  His  first  wife,  the  mother  of  his  heir,  and  of  a  son  and  two  daughters  besides, 
was  Janet  Turing  of  Foveran.  John  Johnston's  second  spouse,  Katherine  Lundy, 
whom  he  married  in  1597,  was  a  descendant  of  Eobert,  the  illegitimate  son  of  William 
the  Lion,  and  her  descendants  now  quarter  the  Eoyal  Arms.  She  was  a  daughter  of 
William  Lundy  of  that  Ilk  in  Fife,  a  member  of  the  Scottish  Bar.  With  his  aged 
father,  Walter,  ho  is  recorded  as  an  active  promoter  of  the  Preformation  principles. 
Katherine  Lundy  brought  her  husband  several  children,  who  were  all  left  young  by 
their  father's  death  in  1613.  She  survived  him  three  years,  and  died  at  Ardiharrall 
now  called  Kendal,  in  Keith-hall,  on  the  29th  July,  1616,  and  was  buried  in  the  Kirk  of 


224-  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  GaHoCh. 

Monkegy.  The  mother  of  this  Lady  of  Caskieben  was  Christian  Euthven,  sister  to 
Patrick  Lord  Euthven,  who  was  concerned  in  the  slaughter  of  David  Rizzio  at  Holyrood 
House,  in  March,  1566.  "William  Lundy  of  that  Ilk,  her  father,  held  the  distinguished 
position,  in  1580,  of  being  King  James's  Commissioner,  along  with  the  titular  Prior  of 
Pittenween  in  the  General  Assembly. 

The  whole  of  the  male  representatives  now  known  to  exist  of  the  family  founded  by 
Stephen  de  Johnston,  are  the  descendants  of  Katherine  Lundy ;  whose  ancestors  had 
very  early  association  with  the  Garioch  and  its  neighbourhood.  The  female  repre- 
sentative of  the  house  was  married  by  Robert,  son  of  William  the  Lion — one  of  the 
donors,  under  the  acquired  name  of  Robert  de  Lundi,  to  David  of  Huntingdon's  Abbey 
of  Lindores.  The  Durwards  who  were  lords  of  Coull,  and  in  the  reign  of  Alexander  II. 
claimed  the  Earldom  of  Mar,  were  of  the  family;  they  took  the  name  of  Doonvard 
from  the  hereditary  office  of  Hostiarius  held  by  the  Lairds  of  Lundy.  The  Lundys  of 
that  Ilk  held  an  honourable  rank  throughout  Scottish  history.  One  of  the  chiefs  of 
the  house  fell  at  Otterburn;  where  one  of  his  kinsmen,  Priest  Lundy,  afterwards  Parson 
of  Rayne,  was  the  protector,  battle-axe  in  hand,  of  the  slain  Earl  of  Douglas — whose 
chaplain  he  was. 

John  Johnston's  "  godlie  verteous "  life  has  been  noticed,  and  his  death  at 
Ardiharrall,  4th  February,  1613-14.  His  mother,  the  old  lady  of  Caskieben,  Christian 
Forbes — who  saw  her  husband,  her  oldest  son,  and  both  his  wives,  all  laid  in  the  grave — 
lived  herself  until  1622,  attaining  the  age  of  seventy-six,  notwithstanding  the  burdens 
of  maternity  recorded  of  her  in  the  family  history,  that  she  "  buir  ane  fair  bearntyne  " 
to  her  husband.  The  provision  required  for  the  six  sons  and  seven  daughters,  who  of 
her  children  attained  maturity,  dilapidated  the  once  extensive  estate,  and  along  with 
further  alienations  required  for  John  Johnston's  family,  prepared  the  way  for  his  son, 
the  first  baronet,  being  likewise  the  last  proprietor  of  Caskieben. 

Sir  George  Johnston  of  that  Ilk  succeeded  his  father  in  the  lands  ;  and  in  1625  or 
1626,  was  made  by  Charles  I.  a  Knight  Baronet  of  Nova  Scotia  for  the  services  of  his 
family  and  himself  to  the  Crown  ;  and  according  to  Douglas  was  not  improbably  the 
premier  Baronet  of  that  order.  In  1630,  when  the  Hereditary  Sheriffship  of  Aberdeen- 
shire was  taken  from  George,  Marquis  of  Huntly,  the  Laird  of  Caskieben  was  by  Royal 
Commission  appointed  Sheriff  for  a  year.  In  the  first  year  of  his  lairdship,  he  would 
have  have  considered  as  scarcely  qualified  for  such  an  office,  having  been  engaged 
in  the  cause  of  a  deprived  Town-Clerk,  in  a  boot-and-saddle  association  with  some 
unruly  burghers  of  Inverurie  which  strongly  smacks  of  the  manners  of  the 
period.  George  Johnston  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  William  Forbes  of 
Tolquhon,  and  had  by  her  his  successor,  George,  also  John  of  ISTewplace  and  William, 
besides  two  daughters,  Jean,  married  to  Irvine  of  Brucklay,  and  Christian,  married  to 
William  Keith  of  Lintush,  minister  of  Monkegy  in  1650,  and  ultimately  of  St. 
Cuttibart's  in  Edinburgh,  where  he  was,  from  1664  to  1674,  Professor  of  Divinity. 


The  First  Baronet  of  CasMeben.  225 

Sir  George  was  making  efforts  to  attain  high  rank  for  his  family  when  his 
landed  estates  were  on  the  point  of  departing  from  the  name  for  ever.  About  1628  he 
contended  against  John  Erskine,  Earl  of  Mar,  for  the  Earldom  of  Mar  and  Garioch, 
claiming  from  Helen  of  Mar,  whom  he  alleged  to  have  been  the  wife  of  Sir  James  de 
Garviach,  grandmother  of  Margaret  the  wife  of  the  first  Johnston  of  Caskieben.  The 
matter  was  compromised,  as  has  been  already  noticed.  Sir  George  had  acquired  from  the 
down-going  Wardes  family  all  the  lands  in  Inverurie,  belonging  to  the  Eegality,  viz.,  the 
Dava,  the  Eegality  Upper  Eoods,  and  lands  in  the  Stanners.  He  drew  his  last  rent,  how 
ever,  apparently  in  1633,  and  the  whole  of  his  property  fell,  by  wadset,  into  the  hands  of 
Alexander  Jaffray,  of  Aberdeen,  Provost  of  that  city,  and  for  some  time  its  Commis- 
sioner in  the  Scottish  Parliament.  The  service  of  Alexander  Jaffray,  younger,  in  1645, 
in  his  father's  wadset  possessions,  exhibits  the  extent  of  the  estate  which  Sir  George 
Johnston  had  to  abandon,  when  failing  in  the  struggle  to  elevate  the  rank  of  his 
paternal  house.  It  included  the  town  and  lands  of  Inglistown,  with  the  Mill  and 
Milltown  of  Caskieben  ;  the  town  and  lands  of  Newplace,  Isaackstown,  Legats  Old  and 
New ;  the  town  and  lands  of  Corshill,  Buchthills,  Standanstanes,  Sleipiehillock,  Over- 
town  of  Dyce  ;  the  dominical  lands  of  Caskieben,  with  the  haughs  on  each  side  of  the 
Urie ;  the  town  and  lands  of  Newplace  of  Caskieben ;  Over  and  Nether  Crimond,  with 
the  Mills  of  Crimond  ;  the  town  and  lands  of  Shielbog  and  Ardiharrald  ;  with  the  teind 
sheaves  of  the  foresaid  lands — all  situated  respectively  in  the  parishes  of  Dyce,  Monkegy, 
and  Inverurie ;  the  town  and  lands  of  Porterstown,  with  the  Mill ;  the  town  and 
lands  of  Boynds,  and  the  crofts  called  the  Braidmyre ;  the  town  and  lands  of  Loft- 
hillock  ;  the  town  and  lands  of  Muirtown,  with  the  Fulling  Mill ;  the  lands  called  the 
Davach  lands  of  Inverurie ;  the  town  and  lands  of  Ardtannies,  with  the  Mill  of  Inver- 
urie, now  called  the  Mill  of  Ardtannies,  and  the  roods  called  the  Davach  roods ;  Third 
Part  lands  in  the  Stanners,  with  the  ferryboat  and  its  croft,  called  the  Over  Boat  of 
Inverurie,  with  the  salmon  fishings  belonging  to  the  said  lands,  upon  the  water  of  Don — 
with  the  Bailliary  of  the  foresaid  lands ;  within  the  lordship  of  Garioch,  and  parish  of 
Inverurie,  and  the  teind  sheaves  of  the  foresaid  lands. 

Newplacenow  belonging  to  the  Synod  of  Aberdeen,  was  in  1619,  wadset  by  George 
Johnston  of  that  Ilk,  to  John  his  brother,  and  Beatrice  Hay,  his  wife.  John  disponed  it 
in  1621,  to  his  nephew,  John  (of  Newplace),  who  married  his  cousin,  Margaret,  daughter 
of  Thomas  Johnston  of  Craig.  Their  son,  Sir  John,  who  succeeded  to  the  family  title 
after  the  tragic  death  of  his  cousin  (vindictively  executed  for  abetting  an  abduction,  the 
perpetrator  of  which  was  left  unpunished),  had  to  let  Newplace  go  to  his  father's 
creditors.  Andrew  Burnet  of  Elrick  acquired  it  in  1707,  and  his  son  John  sold  it  in 
1739,  for  £3746  2s.  Scots,  to  the  Managers  of  the  Synod's  Fund  for  indigent  widows 
and  children  of  ministers. 

Sir  George's  father,  John  Johnston  of  that  Ilk,  seems  to  have  been  obliged,  in  1595, 
to  sell  a  very  early  possession  held   by  his   ancestors  in  the  Garioch — the  estate  of 

29 


226  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Johnston  in  Leslie  parish.      John  Leith,  fiar  of  Mongerrie,  bought  it,  and  his   des- 
cendant, the  late  Mr.  Forbes  Leith,  sold  it  260  years  afterwards. 

PKOVOST  ALEXANDER  JAFFRAY. 

Provost  Alexander  Jaffray  was  a  man  of  the  period — a  successful  politician,  and 
an  extensive  money  lender.  He  represented  the  Burgh  of  Aberdeen  in  the  Scottish 
Parliament,  in  what  radical  politicians  would  reckon  a  golden  age,  viz.,  at  a  period  when 
members  of  Parliament  were  paid.  By  his  mother,  Jaffray  was  descended  from  the 
Burnets  of  Leys,  and  was  cousin  to  Mr.  Eobert  Burnet  of  Crimond  in  Keithhall  parish, 
advocate  in  Edinburgh,  father  of  the  celebrated  Bishop  Burnet.  The  Bishop's  father, 
who  was  elevated  to  the  bench,  took  the  title  of  Lord  Crimond. 

The  provost  had  another  connection  with  the  Garioch,  having  been  brother-in-law  of 
the  laird  of  Pittodrie.  He  was  infeft  in  1615,  in  the  Chamberley  Croft  of  the  chaplainry 
of  Coynglass — possibly  in  payment,  or  security,  of  a  marriage  portion;  a  kind  of  endowment 
which  he  afterwards  obtained  in  very  business-like  fashion  for  his  son.  Alexander 
Jaffray's  connection  with  the  Croft  of  the  Chaplain  of  Conglass,  forms  an  interesting  and 
picturesque  ending  to  the  history  of  the  famous  Chapel  of  Our  Lady  of  the  Garioch ; 
beginning  with  the  chivalric  dame,  Christian  Bruce,  the  sister  of  the  patriot  King,  and 
concluding  with  a  wary  Aberdeen  money-lender. 

Provost  Jaffray's  relative,  Pittodrie,  was  one  of  the  heads  of  Garioch  families  which 
do  not  appear  at  that  epoch  with  dilapidated  fortunes.  The  Erskines  had  represented 
Pittodrie  from  the  time  of  the  first  Stewarts, — the  lands  having  passed  from  one  line  of 
the  house  to  another.  In  1604,  John  Erskine  of  Balhaggarty,  and  his  son  John, 
entered  into  contract  with  Sir  John  Gordon  of  Cluny,  and  Marjorie  his  daughter,  for 
the  marriage  of  the  two  young  people ;  and  in  that  year  Pittodrie  gave  a  disposition, 
fulfilling  the  contract,  upon  Coynglass,  Drumdurno,  and  Dorlaithen,  excepting  the  croft 
of  Chappleton  of  Garioch,  probably  that  held  by  Alexander  Jaffray. 

Jaffray's  great  feat  in  the  chosen  object  of  his  life  was  the  acquisition  of  the  entire 
lands  of  Caskieben,  about  1633. 

Alexander  Jaffray,  who  was  Provost  Jaffray's  son  and  successor  in  this  great  wadset, 
tells  us  of  the  keen  eye  his  father  had  to  money.  He  married  him  in  1632,  at  the  age  of 
18,  to  Jean,  daughter  of  Principal  Dun,  "  for  materis  and  ends  not  right,  but  carnal  and 
worldly,"  and  taking  the  young  lady  home  to  his  house  after  the  marriage,  sent  the 
youthful  bridegroom  away  to  travel.  Jaffray  appears  to  have  continued  a  hard  business 
man  to  the  end  ;  although  his  son  looking  back  upon  his  whole  recollections  of  him, 
called  him  a  kind  enough  father.  In  1640  the  Provost  lost  his  wife,  and  made  an  economi- 
cal bargain  with  his  son  and  daughter-in-law  that  they  should  board  with  him.  After- 
wards when  the  Irish  rifled  his  house  in  Aberdeen,  in  1644,  he  boarded  with 
his  son,  who  became  a  widower  in  that  year.  The  old  man  died  in  the  next  January. 
His  son,  in  his  religious  diary,  besides  the  incidental  illustration  he  gives  of  the  Provost's 


Blackhdl  of  that  Ilk.  227 


close  habits  in  money  matters,  supplies  a  glimpse  of  the  father's  character,  in  speaking 

of  his  death  :    "  He  was  much  reformed,   and  withdrawn  from  company-keeping  in 

1  averns  before  his  death  ".     It  must  be  stated  to  his  credit  that  he  was  one  of  the  early 

•nefactors  of  Marischal  College,  in  the  way  of  endowing  it. 

By  the  death  of  the  first  wadsetter  of  the  Caskieben  and  Ardtannies  lands,  these 

came,  from  1645,  to  be   represented  by  Alexander   Jaffray   of   Kingswells,  who  was 

also  in  his  time  Provost  of  Aberdeen ;  and  who  as  will  appear  afterwards,  played  a 

prominent  part  in  national  politics,  upon  the  covenanting  side,  although  he  ended  in 

becoming  an  active  propagator  of  Quakerism,  especially  in  the  Garioch. 

"When  married,  and  twenty  days  afterwards  sent  away  by  his  father  on  his  travels, 

young  Jaffray  witnessed  the  coronation  of  Charles  I.,  at  Edinburgh,  in  January,  1633. 

The  King  had  given  the  town  of  Aberdeen  authority  to  establish  a  house  of  correction, 

in  which  prisoners  were  to  be  employed  in  weaving  woollen  cloth ;  and  Jaffray,  possibly 

by  his  father's  directions,  went  to   the  towns  of   Leeds  and    Wakefield  to   see  the 

business  of  cloth  manufacture,  as  carried  on  in  Yorkshire.     A  company  conducted  the 

business    at  Aberdeen,  under  the  King's  patent,  for  several  years.     Alexander  Jaffray 

thereafter  went  to  France  in  September,  1634,  where  he  spent  about  a  year,  with  the  not 

profitless  result  of  being  able  to  recommend  that  young  people  should  not  be  sent  thither 

until  they  had  acquired  sufficient  principle  and  sense  to  take  care  of  themselves. 

By  his  first  wife — an  excellent  person  apparently,  and  who  was  enabled  to  live 

agreeably  with  his  parents,  and  also  to  give  good  counsel  to  her  own  relatives  at  her 

death — he  had  ten  children,  of  whom  only  one  son  grew  up,  but  who  did  not  live  to 

succeed  him,  dying  the  year  before  his  father.     Jaffray,  in  1647,  married  for  his  second 

spouse,  Sarah  Cant,  the  daughter  of  Mr.  Andrew  Cant,  minister  of  Aberdeen,  one  of  the 

most  active  and  best  remembered  of  the  numerous  clerical  politicians  of  the  time.     His 

eldest  son  by  her,  born  8th  August,  1653,  was  Andrew  Jaffray,  laird  of  Ardtannies 

in  1696. 

C  R I  C  H  I  E. 

The  break  up  of  the  Wardes  lands  brought,  for  a  time,  into  the  roll  of  local  proprie- 
tors Lord  Elphinstone,  then  holder  of  the  Kildrummy  heritage  of  the  Earls  of  Mar. 
The  Mar  vault,  which  rises  like  a  small  chapel  from  the  summit  of  the  conical  church- 
yard of  Kildrummy,  was  erected  by  that  race  of  quondam  representatives  of  the  great 
Earldom.  Lord  Elphinstone  became  by  a  disposition  from  John  Leslie  of  Wardes,  in 
1616,  laird  of  Crichie,  and  also  of  Meikle  Warthill.  Those  estates  had  been  held  in 
1609,  by  George  Leslie,  a  younger  brother  of  the  Wardes  house — in  succession  to  his 
brother  "William.     Lord  Elphinstone's  son,  John,  became  Elphinstone  of  WarthilL- 

BLAKHALL  OF  THAT  ILK. 

One  of  the  families  bearing  the  peculiar  Scottish  rank  of  that  Ilk,  who  had  named 
their  lands  after  themselves,  or  taken   their  name  from  the  estate,  dwelt  long  upon 


228  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

the  rising  ground  at  Blakhall,  in  Inverurie,  which  became  in  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  busy  repeatedly  with  the  encamping  of  Argyll,  Montrose,  and  Huntly. 

The  origin  of  the  Blakhalls  of  that  Ilk  is  not  known,  nor  that  of  the  dignity  they 
enjoyed  of  hereditary  Foresters  and  Coroners  of  the  Garioch.  In  right  of  that  office,  they 
carried  arms  "  gules,  a  hand  issuing  out  of  the  sinister  flank ;  and  thereupon  a  falcon 
perching  and  hooded,  or ;  and  on  a  chief  argent,  three  mullets  azure  ".  The  following 
dates  are  associated  with  the  name — 

In  1398,  William  de  Blakhall  was  on  the  jury  serving  William  de  Tullidaff  of 
Lentush  and  Botmaise,  heir  to  his  father  John  de  Tullidaff,  who  afterwards  fell  at 
Harlaw.  In  1418,  Bobert  de  Blakhall  was  on  an  inquest  regarding  the  lands  of 
Glack.  In  1424,  John  Blakhall  was  baillie  in  a  sasine  on  Little  Warthill  in  favour 
of  Alexander  Forbes. 

In  1447,  John  Blakhall  of  that  Ilk  witnessed  a  disposition  of  annual  rents  of  some 
lands  in  Inverurie;  and  again  William  Blakhall,  between  1451  and  1486.  In  1491, 
Bobert  Blakhall  of  that  Hk  received  by  charter  a  fourth  part  of  the  lands  of  Blakhall 
from  William  de  Merenys,  the  son,  probably,  of  Alexander  de  Merenys,  who  held  land  so 
described  in  1466 — very  likely  possessing  it  in  marriage  portion. 

In  1503,  King  James  IV.  granted  a  charter  to  Wilbam  Blakhall  of  that  Ilk,  of  half 
the  lands  of  Folablackwater,  in  the  barony  of  Kynedward,  and  the  whole  lands  of  Blak- 
hall and  pertinents,  and  also  upon  the  offices,  of  Foresters  and  Coroner  of  regality  of  the 
Garioch,  which  belonged  to  the  said  William,  hereditarily.  His  wife's  name  was  Isabel 
Hay.  The  Folablackwater  here  mentioned  was  the  land  of  Little  Folia,  in  Bayne 
known  in  1376  as  Folethrule;  one  of  the  Bules,  or  places  named  after  St.  Bule  or  Eegul- 
us,  and  the  early  site  of  a  chapel  dedicated  to  that  famous  missionary,  which  stood  near 
where  the  Episcopal  Chapel  of  Little  Folia  now  is  situated.  In  1519,  Bobert  Blakhall 
obtained  sasine  on  Little  Folia. 

Another  William  Blakhall  at  the  same  time  was  laird  of  Barra  in  the  parish  of 
Bourtie,  probably  the  "  goodman  of  Barra,  Blackhall,"  who  married  a  daughter  of  Gilbert 
Johnston  of  Caskieben.  In  the  middle  of  the  century  a  succeeding  laird  married 
Katherine  Gordon  of  Lesmoir. 

La  1536,  William  Blakhall  of  that  Ilk  claimed  the  right  to  discharge  the  duties  of 
parish  clerk  of  Inverurie,  as  deputy  of  his  brother,  John  Blakhall.  The  clerk  may  have 
had  to  wife,  Margaret,  daughter  of  the  Laird  of  Caskieben,  who  fell  at  Flodden — she 
having  married,  "  a  son  of  Blakhall  of  that  Ilk  ".  During  that  century  the  family 
was  prosperous,  and  held  large  wadsets  upon  the  neighbouring  lands  of  Balcjuhain,  the 
owners  of  which  were  for  a  long  period  in  a  depressed  condition. 

In  1547,  William  Blakhall  was  served  heir  to  his  father,  William  Blakhall,  in  the 
regality  offices.  He  died  at  Aberdeen,  5th  August,  1589,  leaving  a  daughter,  Margaret. 
His  cousin,  Alexander,  was  in  1591,  served  heir  to  him,  in  the  estates  and  offices. 
Alexander  Blakhill  of  that  Ilk,   in  March,   1592,  subscribed  the  "Band  anent  the 


Bourtie.  229 

Religion  "  at  Aberdeen — the  Protestant  Covenant,  which  probably  suggested  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Solemn  League  of  the  Covenanters  of  the  next  reign. 

Before  1600,  the  time  when  Inverurie  begins  to  appear  much  in  existing  docu- 
ments, the  family  had  begun  to  decay.  Alexander  Blakhall  had  to  mortgage  a  part  of  his 
land  in  that  year,  and  another  in  1613.  His  son  William  Blakhall's  wife,  named  Elizabeth 
Strachan,  gave  up  in  1615  her  life-rent  of  the  Ledingham  Croft  and  Gawain's  Croft, 
then  bonded.  In  1613,  King  James  VI.  granted  a  charter  of  Blakhall,  and  the 
offices  of  Forester  and  Coroner  to  Alexander  Burnett  of  Leys.  The  Laird  of  Leys 
was  a  relative — being  grand  nephew  to  Isabel  Burnet,  Lady  Blakhall,  possibly  the  wife 
of  William,  the  Laird,  in  1547.  In  1643,  John  Blakhall  was  served  heir  to  his  father, 
William  Blakhall  of  that  Ilk,  in  the  Blakhall  lands  and  offices,  as  well  as  in  the 
town  of  Auldtoun  of  Knockinglews.  The  charter  was  in  preparation  probably  for  the 
final  alienation  of  the  estates.  The  marches  between  Blakhall  and  the  Burgh  of 
Inverurie  were,  in  1620,  referred  to  the  arbitration  of  George  Johnston  of  Caskieben. 

An  entry  appears  in  1647  among  the  brieves  of  birth  in  the  burgh  records  of  Aber- 
deen, "  William  Blakhall,  now  in  the  university  of  Broomyberrie,  within  the  dukedom 
of  Spruce,  is  found  son  of  late  Robert  Blakhall,  burgess  of  Aberdeen,  and  Elspet  Shand, 
his  spouse,  and  lineally  descended  on  the  father's  side  from  the  Blakhalls  of  that  Ilk 
and  the  lairds  of  Ury,  Hay,  and  on  the  mother's  side  lawfully  descended  from  the  lairds 
of  Pitfodels,  Eeid,  and  Menzies  of  Durn  ". 

The  Blakhalls  and  Johnstons  adopted  the  Eeformed  faith,  while  the  Wardes  family, 
like  their  chiefs  of  Bahpihain,  continued  in  the  proscribed  allegiance  to  Eome.  In  the 
registers  which  Mr  James  Mill  was  fond  of  keeping,  of  events  in  the  lives  of  his  parish- 
ioners, christenings  at  Blakhall  of  sons  and  daughters  of  William  Blakhall  of  that  Ilk 
appear  in  due  number,  graced  by  the  presence  of  the  aristocracy  of  the  burgh  and  its 
neighbourhood.  John  who  was  served  his  father's  heir  in  1643,  made  his  entrance  thus 
into  society,  11th  March,  1617 — the  last  child  but  one  baptised  to  his  father  whose  final 
appearance  in  Mr  Mill's  registers  is  in  the  record  of  his  last  will  made  in  September,  1623, 
and  his  death  two  months  afterwards  (p.  209).  In  the  pious  language  of  testamentary 
deeds  of  the  time,  he  left  his  soul  to  God,  and  then  his  gear  to  be  equally  parted  amongst 
his  four  bairns,  John,  Margaret,  Janet,  and  Catherine  ;  their  mother,  Elizabeth  Strachan, 
being  nominated  their  tutor. 

The  family  has  now  altogether  disappeared  from  the  Garioch.  John,  the  son 
above  noticed,  was  in  February,  1648,  married  at  Aberdeen,  as  Captain  John  Blakhill 
of  that  Ilk,  to  Isabel  Bobertson. 

BOURTIE. 

The  estate  of  Auld  Bourtie,  with  part  of  Pitgaveny,  which  Christian,  Lady  of  the 
Garioch,  gave  a  charter  of  to  .  .  .  Abernethie  in  1346,  and  which  Margaret,  Lady 
of  the  Garioch  in  1387,  confirmed  to  John  of  Abernethie's  brother,  Alexander  Barclay, 


230  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

son  of  William  Barclay  of  Kercow  in  the  Carse  of  Gowrie — was  down  to  1598  generally 
a  younger  son's  portion  among  the  possessions  of  the  Barclays  de  Tolly,  but  frequently 
recurring  to  the  head  of  the  house. 

The  ancient  house  of  Barclay  of  Tolly  is  very  widely  represented  in  the  present 
day.  Their  connection  with  the  Garioch  was  their  being  possessors  of  the  estate  of 
Bourtie.  The  charters  of  1346  and  1387,  have  been  noticed  above  (p.  64).  The  titles 
of  the  lands  of  Bourtie  contain  the  following  documents  in  continuation. 

In  1441,  Walter  Barclay  was  infeft  in  the  Bourtie  lands  as  heir -to  his  grandfather, 
Alexander  (of  1387),  upon  precept  for  William  Earl  of  Orkney,  Lord  of  the  Begality. 

In  1458,  the  king  granted  charter  on  the  lands  of  Auld  Bourtie,  and  third  part  of 
Pitgaveny  to  Walter  Barclay  de  Tolly. 

In  1503,  Patrick  Barclay  and  Elizabeth  Barclay  his  spouse,  got  a  crown  charter  of 
the  same  lands  on  resignation  by  Walter,  his  father. 

In  1531,  Patrick  Barclay,  was  retoured  heir  to  Patrick  Barclay  of  Tolly,  his  father, 
Alexander  Ogilvie  of  that  Ilk,  Sheriff  Principal  of  Aberdeen,  ordered  George  Bisset 
Mair  offer  to  infeft  him. 

In  1551,  Queen  Mary  granted  charter  of  Auld  Bourtie  and  Hillbrae  to  Patrick 
Barclay  de  Tolly  and  Elizabeth  Forbes,  his  wife. 

In  1.584,  John  Barclay  was  returned  legitimate  and  nearest  heir  of  Patrick  Barclay 
and  Elizabeth  Forbes  on  the  same  lands. 

In  1598,  Walter  Barclay  of  Towie  with  consent  of  his  son  Patrick,  sold  Old 
Bourtie,  the  Mill-lands,  and  Hillbrae  for  20,000  merks,  to  James  Seton,  portioner  of 
Barrack,  and  John  Urquhart,  Tutor  of  Cromarty,  his  cautioner,  which  last  was  the 
husband  of  his  relative,  Elizabeth  Seton,  afterwards  heiress  of  entail  of  the  lands  of 
Meldrum,  and  by  her  was  ancestor  of  the  Urquharts  of  Meldrum.  Janet  Elphingston, 
the  wife  of  Patrick  Barclay  of  Towie,  resigned  her  life-rent  of  the  lands  at  the  same 
time. 

A  crown  charter  of  Bourtie  was  granted  in  1608,  by  which  time  James  Seton  was 
married  to  Margaret  Holland,  daughter  of  Mr.  William  Holland,  King  James  VI. 's  Master 
of  the  Mint  at  Aberdeen.  He  became,  before  1619,  James  Seton  of  Pitniedden,  a 
property  in  Udny  still  held  by  his  representative,  Sir  William  Coote  Seton.  John  Seton, 
the  grandson  of  James  Seton  of  Bourtie  and  Pitmedden,  was  prominent  in  the  Civil  War 
in  Scotland,  and  was  killed  at  the  Bridge  of  Dee  in  June,  1639.  His  two  sons  were  left 
children,  and  impoverished.  The  heir,  James,  sold  Bourtie  in  1655  to  Mr.  James  Reid, 
Advocate  in  Aberdeen,  and  Isabel  Hay,  his  spouse. 

The  culminating  period  of  the  Garioch  was  about  1600.  George  Seton,  the  elder 
brother  of  James  Seton,  who  acquired  Bourtie,  was  then  laird  of  Barra.  He  was  Chancellor 
of  Aberdeen,  vicar  of  Bethelny,  and  Collihill  chaplain.  The  Collihill  chaplainry 
founded  by  Margaret  of  Douglass  in  1384,  was  endowed  with  ten  pounds  from  the 
lands  of  Collihill.     These  lands  are  now  conjoined  in  property  with  Bourtie.     In  1542, 


Aquhithie,  Ardmurdo,  Balbithan,  TJiainston,  Lethenty,  Findgask,  Meldrum.     231 

Collihill  belonged  to  Gilbert  Annand  and  Agnes  Hay  his  wife,  possibly  the  persons  com- 
memorated on  the  broken  tombstone  in  Bourtie  churchyard  (siqjra,  p.  103).  In  that 
year,  Mr.  William  Hay,  vicar  of  Migvie,  and  chaplain  of  Collihill,  made  over  the  security 
to  Gilbert  Annand  and  his  wife.  Three  chaplains  are  mentioned  in  the  Collihill 
documents  after  the  vicar  of  Migvie,  viz.,  Thomas  Hay,  Cuthbert  Herd,  probably  the 
chaplain  of  Queen  Mary's  visit,  and  James  Wardlaw  who  was  instituted  22nd  August, 
1567 — the  presentation  having  been  made  that  year  by  John  Earl  of  Mar,  Lord  Erskine, 
upon  the  resignation  of  Cuthbert  Herd. 

MOUNIE. 

The  lands  of  Mounie  continued  in  the  first  Seton  family  who  held  them,  until 
1623,  when  "William  Seton  sold  them  to  the  Tutor  of  Cromarty,  and  his  wife  Elizabeth 
Seton.  Their  son  Patrick  Urquhart,  then  of  Lethinty,  disponed  Mounie  to  Mr.  Robert 
Farquhar,  baillie  of  Aberdeen,  from  whom  it  passed  by  disposition  in  1633  to  Patrick 
Farquhar,  eldest  son  of  Mr.  Alexander  Farquhar  of  Tonley.  The  price  seems  never  to  have 
been  paid  by  the  Aberdeen  baillie,  who  was  Wardes's  fatal  creditor,  and  a  busy  man  in 
those  troublesome  times.  Sir  Eobert  Farquhar's  heirs  were  prosecuted  by  Sir  John 
Urquhart  of  Cromarty  in  1669.  Alexander  Farquhar  of  Mounie's  property  was  all  se- 
questrated in  1701-2  for  debt,  and  in  1714  George  Seton,  second  son  of  Alexander 
Seton  of  Pitmedden  repurchased  the  estate;  and  it  is  now  held  by  descendents 
representing,  with  the  adopted  name  of  Seton,  his  eldest  daughter,  Margaret,  wife  of 
James  Anderson,  LL.D.,  of  Cobenshaw.  Her  grandson  was  the  Colonel  Seton  of  the 
heroic  story  of  the  loss  of  the  Birkenhead,  in  1852. 

AQUHITHIE,  ARDMURDO,  BALBITHAN,  THAINSTON,  LETHINTY, 
FINDGASK,  MELDRUM. 

In  1611,  Mr.  George  Barclay's  protocol  book  records  several  interesting  sasines  of 
these  properties.  One  is  of  the  Templer  croft  of  Aquhithie  in  Kemnay,  the  charter 
being  granted  by  Lord  Torphichen,  the  representative  in  Scotland  of  the  ancient  Knight 
Templars.  The  charter  included  also  a  Temple  Tenement  in  Aberdeen  in  vico  montis 
scolaris,  the  village  or  street  (originally  synonymous),  of  Schoolhill,  marching  with 
property  of  the  chaplain  of  St.  Nicholas.  The  person  infeft  was  Mr.  Gilbert  Keith 
in  Aquhorsk,  probably  he  who  became  the  minister  of  Bourtie  in  the  July  of  that  year. 

In  1612,  John  Forbes  of  Ardmurdo  died ;  and  in  1623  William  Barclay,  advocate, 
Aberdeen,  and  Agnes  Hay,  his  wife,  conveyed  that  estate  to  William  Lumsden, 
advocate,  Aberdeen. 

In  1615,  a  crown  charter  of  Caskieben  presents  us  with  "the  names  of  William 
Dalgarno  of  that  Hk,  representative  of  a  family  dating  from  at  least  1400,  then,  or 
soon  after,  laird  of  Peithill ;  and  whose  son  George,  24th  January,  1652,  married 
Margaret  Johnston,  a  daughter  of  the  celebrated  Dr.  Arthur  at  Inverurie. 


232  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Balbithan  in  Kinkell,  part  of  the  possessions  of  the  Abbey  of  Lindores,  and 
included  in  the  temporal  Lordship  of  Lindores,  had  probably  been  feued  long  before  the 
Keformation  by  the  Chalmers  family,  originally  of  Ivintore,  afterwards  of  Balnaeraig,  a 
section  of  which,  distinguished  in  municipal  rank  in  the  city  of  Aberdeen,  terminated  in 
a  daughter,  the  mother  of  Sir  John  Urrie,  the  soldier  of  the  Covenanting  period.  John 
Chalmer  or  Chalmers  of  Balbithan,  about  1490,  married  Christian  Leslie. 

About  1526,  Annabella  Chalmer,  possibly  his  daughter,  became  the  fifth  wife  of 
the  second  Baron  of  Wardes,  by  whom  she  had  a  son,  Robert,  one  of  the  victims  of 
Pinkie,  10th  Sept.,  1547. 

In  1565,  David  Chalmer  was  laird  of  Balbithan.  He  or  a  namesake  died  in  1580 ; 
and  his  will  was  proved  in  1588,  by  his  executors  dative,  Mr.  William,  Mr.  James, 
and  Henrie  Chalmer,  his  sons. 

In  1584,  John  Chalmer,  probably  his  heir,  was  laird,  and  killed  the  laird  of 
Aquhorsk  of  Aberdeen.     His  wife  was  Margaret  Seton  of  Meldrum. 

Before  1 600,  George  Chalmer  of  Balbithan  married  a  daughter  of  "William  Leslie 
of  Wardes.  The  estate  appears  in  1627  in  the  hands  of  John  Irvine,  a  cadet  of  the 
Drum  family,  and  in  the  Poll  Book  (1696),  as  belonging  to  James  Balfour,  merchant 
in  Edinburgh,  another  entry  being  the  name  of  James  Chalmers,  lately  of  Balbithan, 
whose  labouring  was  valued  at  £50. 

Thainston  originally  possessed  in  part  by  the  Chalmer  family,  and  so  much  of 
it  acquired  by  Henry  Forbes  of  Kinnellar  in  1467,  and  the  rest  in  1535  by  Henry 
Forbes  of  Thainston,  belonged  to  the  Forbeses  of  Tulquhon  from  at  least  1610 
until  about  1716,  when  it  passed  into  the  hands  of  Thomas  Mitchell,  an  Aberdeen 
citizen,  whose  only  child,  Barbara,  married  Andrew  Mitchell,  afterwards  Sir  Andrew 
Mitchell,  British  Minister  to  Frederick  the  Great.  Sir  Andrew  having  no  heir  of  his 
body,  left  the  property  to  the  second  son  of  his  friend,  Sir  Arthur  Forbes  of  Fintray, 
from  whom  the  present  Thainston  family  descends. 

Patrick  Urquhart,  son  of  John  Urquhart  of  Craigfintray  (commonly  called  the 
Tutor  of  Cromarty),  and  Elizabeth,  sister  of  Meldrum,  was  a  prominent  person  in  the 
transfer  of  Garioch  lands  in  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century ;  becoming  in  his 
time,  laird  of  the  long-descended  estates  of  Lethinty,  in  the  Regality  of  the  Garioch, 
and  of  the  Episcopal  lands  of  Findgask,  and  was  the  first  Urquhart  of  Meldrum. 

Lethinty  had  been  in  the  hands  of  the  Forbeses  of  Pitsligo,  from  at  least  1455 
(p.  101). 

In  1477,  Sir  Alexander  Forbes  of  Kynaldy  died,  vested  hi  Lethinty. 

In  1485,  George,  his  son,  sold  for  an  annual  rent,  his  rights  to  his  son  Alexander 
Forbes,  who  had  been  served  heir  to  his  grandfather  in  1477. 

In  1496,  John  Forbes  of  Pitsligo  was  infeft  as  heir  to  his  father  Alexander,  in 
Pitsligo  and  Lethinty,  when  only  nine  years  of  age.  In  1524,  Isabella  Wemys,  lady  of 
Pitsligo,  granted  a  lease  of  her  terce  "  to  her  lovit  carnale  sone,  John  Forbes  of  Pitsligo  ". 


Lethinty,  Findgask,  Meldrum.  233 

Alexander  Forbes  of  Pitsligo,  John's  son,  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  William 
Forbes,  of  Melgum ;  who  in  1551,  as  grandson  of  John  Forbes  of  Pitsligo,  obtained  for 
himself  and  Katherine  Gordoun,  his  wife,  a  feu  of  the  Lands  and  Mill  of  Findgask, 
from  "William  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  for  a  grassum,  a  rent  of  131bs.  6s.  8d.,  two  chalders 
meal  and  malt,  two  marts,  four  sheep,  four  bolls  of  oats,  four  dozen  capons,  six-and-eight- 
pence  for  bondage,  forty  shillings,  one  fed  swine,  twelve  well-fed  capons,  or  two  shillings 
for  every  capon,  twelve  hens,  two  bolls  mair  malt;  with  arriages  and  carriages. 

William  was  infeft  in  Pitsligo  in  1563,  as  his  father's  heir,  and  in  the  same  year 
granted  precept  to  infeft  in  various  lands,  including  Lethinty,  Alexander  Forbes  of 
Auchanaseis,  to  whom  they  had  been  sold  by  him,  reserving  his  own  life-rent  and  the 
terce  of  Katherine  Gordoun  his  wife. 

Lethinty  disappears  from  the  charters  and  services  of  Pitsligo  of  1577  and  1600; 
but  in  1614,  Duncan  Forbes  of  Balnagask,  in  Nigg,  obtained  sasine  of  the  lands  of 
Lethinty,  with  the  pendicle  of  Auchenclyth,  which  had  belonged  to  Janet  Forbes,  relict 
of  Mr.  Duncan  Davidson,  rector  of  Eathen,  one  of  the  two  daughters  and  co-heiresses  of 
William  Forbes  of  Pitsligo.  In  1634,  it  belonged  to  Patrick  Urquhart,  who  two  years 
later  had  a  charter  of  the  lands  of  Meldrum.  He  married  Margaret  Ogilvy,  daughter  of 
James,  first  Earl  of  Airly.  In  March,  1645,  her  father,  ill  of  fever,  was  sent  to  Lethinty 
to  be  nursed  by  her,  from  Montrose's  army,  then  lying  at  Kintore,  a  guard  of  300  men 
accompanying  him. 

In  1615,  sasine  of  Findgask,  originally  granted  by  the  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  in 
1551,  to  William  Forbes,  grandson  of  John  Forbes  of  Pitsligo,  was  given  to  John 
Urquhart  of  Craigfintray  and  Patrick  Urquhart,  his  son  by  his  wife  Elizabeth  Seton. 
The  charter  by  Alexander  Forbes  of  Findgask,  and  John  Forbes  of  Pitsligo,  was  dated 
at  Boyndlie,  25th  April,  1615.  The  confirmation  by  the  superior  is  interesting,  as 
being  one  of  very  few  acts  of  Cathedral  chapters  at  a  date  so  modern. 

The  subscribing  clergy  were  Peter  Blackburn,  Bishop  ;  David  Bait,  dean,  and 
primarius  collegii ;  Bobert  Jamieson,  minister  and  parson  of  Clait  and  Forbes  ;  Eobert 

Merser,  rector  of   Banchory   Devenyck  ;  ■ ■  Strathachin,  rector  of  Coldstaen ; 

John  Walker,  rector  of  Kinkell ;  Alexander  Scrogy,  parsone  of  Drumoak  ;  W.  Forbes, 
rector  of  Monymusk  ;  George  Seton,  chancellor  of  Aberdeen ;  Alexander  Guthrie,  rector 
of  Tullynessle ;  Walter  Abercromby,  Archdeacon — the  office  attached  to  the  rectory  of 

Bayne  ;   John    Strathachin,  rector  of   Kincardin  ;   ■  clerk  person  in  Ahindor ; 

George  Hay,  rector  of  Turreff ;  Bobert  Burnet,  person  of  Oyne. 

Patrick  Urquhart's  mother,  Elizabeth  Seton,  was  heir  of  line  of  the  Meldrum 
estates,  and  her  son  became  the  first  Urquhart  of  Meldrum. 

The  charter  of  Old  Meldrum  as  a  Burgh  of  Barony  bears  date  1672.  The  village 
is  some  thirty  years  older.  About  1634  the  population  of  the  new  place  had  so  greatly 
increased,  as  to  procure  the  removal  of  the  parish  church  from  Bethelny  to  its  present 

locality;  the  position  of  the  manse  being  changed  in  1710. 

30 


234  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

KEMNAY. 
The  Douglas  family,  whose  time  in  the  Garioch  coincided  with  that  of  the  Blakhalls 
of  that  Ilk,  left  Kemnay  about  1624.  The  Earl  of  Angus  was  succeeded  in  his  estates 
of  Glenbervie  and  Kemnay  by  his  second  son,  Sir  Robert,  in  1591 ;  and  Sir  Robert's  son, 
William,  who  was  created  a  baronet  of  Nova  Scotia,  was  the  last  Douglas  of  Kemnay. 
His  sister  was  married  to  Sir  Thomas  Burnet  of  Leys,  one  of  whose  descendants  was  to 
become  laird  of  Kemnay  in  1688.  The  author  of  the  Peerage,  Sir  Robert  Douglas  of 
Glenbervie,  was  the  lineal  descendant  of  Sir  William.  Sir  William  acquired  the  pro- 
perty of  the  Teinds  of  Inverurie  in  1623,  from  Sir  Alexander  Irvine  of  Drum,  and  in 
June,  1624,  disponed  them  again  to  Sir  Thomas  Crombie,  and  it  is  likely  conveyed 
the  Kemnay  estate  at  the  same  time.  The  new  laird  was  Sheriff  of  Aberdeenshire  in 
1633-34.  The  plundering  of  his  girnals  at  Kemnay  House  in  1639  was  the  first  overt 
act  of  the  Civil  War.  Sir  Thomas  Crombie  was  the  builder  of  Kemnay  House,  altered 
since  his  time.  He  died  about  1644,  and  a  few  years  afterwards  the  estate  was  sold  by 
the  heir  portioners,  a  sister  and  a  nephew, — to  Alexander  Strachan  of  Glenkindie,  whose 

son  retained  it  until  1 682. 

THE    LEITHS. 

The  numerous  family  of  Leiths  on  Gadieside  were  in  a  state  of  considerable 
mutation  during  the  period  now  treated  of.  They  retained  Harthill  upon  which,  in  1638) 
they  built  the  Castle  now  in  ruins.  Edingarroch  and  Licklyhead  were,  in  1629,  sold  to 
the  new  family  of  Forbes  of  Leslie,  powerful  for  a  time,  who  built  the  present  Castle 
of  Leslie.     Licklyhead  Castle  dates  from  1609. 

On  the  lower  Gadie  the  Leiths  had  succeeded  as  proprietors  to  the  Abercrombys  ■ 
Henry  Leith  of  Barns,  the  common  ancestor  of  the  existing  Garioch  families  of  the  name, 
possessing  Harthill,  in  1490,  when  he  was  also  proprietor  of  Licklyhead,  Auchleven, 
Ardoyne,  Harlaw,  and  Drumrossie. 

ABERCROMBY  OF  BIRKENBOG. 

This  family  appears  in  the  Garioch  under  the  following  dates.     (P.  65.) 

1345-60,  Alexander  Abercromby  bought  part  of  Halton  of  Ardhunyer  (Ardoyne)  in 
Oyne. 

1360,  Alexander  Abercromby  pledged  Pethnialwhy  and  Herthill  for  payment 
of  a  feu-duty. 

1407,  John  Abercromby,  his  heir,  was  found  liable  for  the  payment. 

1457,  Humphrey  Abercromby  had  a  crown  charter  on  Herthill,  Pitmedden, 
Petmachy,  and  eighth  part  of  Ardoyne.     His  son  Alexander  succeeded  him. 

1484,  Alexander  Abercromby  got  sasine  of  the  same  lands  as  heir  to  his  father, 
Alexander.  They  succeeded  James  Abercromby  of  Ley  and  Birkenbog,  designed  also  of 
Pitmedden,  one  of  the  victims  of  Flodden. 

1505,  George  Abercromby  was  retoured  heir  to  his  father,  Alexander,  in  the  same 
lands. 


Aquhorties.  235 


1544,  William  Abercromby,  eldest  son,  and  heir  of  James  Abercromby  of 
Pitmedden,  feued  Westhall  from  Laurence  Young,  chaplain,  with  consent  of  William, 
Bishop  of  Aberdeen. 

1570,  John  Abercromby  of  Westhall,  son  of  James  of  Pitmedden,  was  minister  of 
Oyne. 

Circa,  1593,  Alexander  Abercromby  of  Birkenbog,  married  Margaret  Leslie, 
daughter  of  William,  ninth  Baron  of  Balquhain,  the  first  laird  of  Fetternear. 

1626,  Hector  Abercromby,  their  second  son,  acquired  the  wadset  right  of 
Fetternear. 

1670,  Alexander  Abercromby,  succeeding  Hector,  his  father,  had  a  papal  charter  of 
Fetternear.  He  married  Jean,  daughter  of  John  Seton  of  Newark,  and  by  her  had 
Francis  Abercromby,  their  eldest  son,  who  succeeded  to  Fetternear.  He  married  Anna, 
Baroness  Sempill,  who  died  in  1698.  Francis  Abercromby  was  in  1685  created  Lord 
Glasfoord,  for  his  own  lifetime  only.  He  sold  Fetternear  to  Patrick  Leslie  of  Balquhain 
in  1690.     His  descendants  by  Lady  Sempill  bear  the  title  of  Baron  Sempill. 

NEWTON". 

The  estate  of  Newton,  in  the  parish  of  Culsalmond,  one  of  the  possessions  of  the 
Abbey  of  Lindores  was,  about  1600,  in  the  hands  of  George  Gordon,  second  son  of 
George,  the  third  Gordon  of  Lesmoir.  The  Gordons  of  Newton  possessed  the  pro- 
perty until  well  through  the  century,  when  it  was  sold  to  Alexander  Davidson.  The 
family  inter-married  extensively  with  the  Garioch  lairds,  and  in  the  "troubles"  were 
among  the  must  prominent  supporters  of  their  chief,  the  Marquis  of  Huntly. 

AQUHORTIES. 

Among  the  changes  occurring  in  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  was  the 
disappearance  of  the  Mortimers,  formerly  of  Aquhorties,  from  the  roll  of  landholders, 
and  the  transfer  of  the  estates  of  Craigicvar  and  Fintray,  to  the  family  of  Forbes  still 
possessing  them.  In  1610,  John  Mortimer,  and  Helen  Symers,  his  spouse,  sold  Craigie- 
var to  Master  William  Forbes  of  Meny;  and,  in  1617,  Mr.  William  Forbes,  and  William, 
his  eldest  son,  had  Logie  Fintray  erected  into  a  Baron}',  comprehending  the  lands  of 
Logie  Fintray  and  Frosterseat,  with  the  advowsons  of  the  churches  of  Fintray,  Cul- 
salmond, Kincardine  O'Neil,  Glentanner,  Lumphannan,  Cluny,  Midmar,  and  Auchter- 
coull.  The  right  of  presentation  to  most  of  these  churches  remained  in  the  Craigievar 
Forbes  family  until  the  abolition  of  patronage  in  1875. 

When  Aquhorties,  Blairdaff,  and  Aquhorsk  were  given  by  Sir  Andrew  de  Leslie, 
dominus  ejiisdem,  to  his  sister  and  her  husband,  David  de  Abercromby,  hi  1391,  the 
wife  of  the  contemporary  laird  of  Balquhain,  Sir  Andrew  Leslie,  was  Isabel,  daughter  of 
Bernard  Mortimer  of  Craigievar.  In  1513,  his  descendant,  William  Mortimer  of 
Craigievar,  was  infeft  in  half  of  the  above  lands,  and  his  descendants  held  the  whole  of 


236  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

tliem.  Some  of  them  must  have  resided  on  the  place  in  1535,  when  four  Mortimers 
appear,  including  a  female,  voting  in  the  election  of  a  parish  clerk  of  Inverurie.  Mortimer 
of  Craigievar  received  or  granted  charters  of  Aquhorties  lands  down  to  1627 — William, 
in  1528  ;  William,  in  1554,  when  John,  the  grandson  of  Alexander,  was  his  heir;  George, 
in  1563;  William,  in  1573;  James,  in  1594.  James  Mortimer  disponed  the  sun  half, 
in  1616,  to  John  Leslie,  fiar  of  Balquhain,  and  the  shadow-half,  in  1627,  to  James 
Leslie,  second  son  of  the  laird  of  Pitcaple,  who  appears  repeatedly  in  Mr.  Mill's 
registers.  John  Mortimer  of  Craigievar  was  buried  at  Aberdeen,  in  July,  1615,  and 
James  Mortimer  sometime  of  Craigievar,  in  September,  1631.  The  Mortimers  had 
been  partially  alienating  Aquhorties  before  1616.  In  1588,  Thomas  Dempster  appears 
possessing  the  shadow-half.  In  1607,  James  Johnston,  rector  of  Monymusk,  executed 
at  Caskieben,  a  charter  to  his  second  son  James  of  a  solar  third  of  Aquhorties,  con- 
firmed by  James  Mortimer,  fiar  of  Craigievar,  and  in  1611,  Thomas  Dempster  of 
Aquhorties  appears  witness  to  a  sasine  on  a  solar  plough  of  Fetternear,  belonging  to 
George  Leslie  of  KLncraigie.  Later  in  the  century,  William  Robertson  of  Aquhorties 
lived  in  Inverurie,  from  1638  to  1646,  and  in  1663,  Major  Thomas  Forbes  of  Aquhorties. 
Patrick  Leslie  of  Kincraigie  resigned  Aquhorties  in  1688,  to  Patrick  Leslie  of  Balquhain. 

FORBES  OF   MONYMUSK. 

Monymusk  was  one  of  the  ecclesiastical  properties  that  came  into  secular  lairdship 
before  the  Reformation.  Prior  David  Farlie  and  his  coadjutor,  John  Elphinstone,  then 
heads  of  the  Priory,  made  that  estate  over  in  1549,  to  Mr.  Duncan  Forbes;  and  his  son, 
named  William  Forbes,  got  the  ruinous  buildings  of  the  Monastery,  sometime  after  1556, 
from  Robert  Forbes,  then  the  Commendator,  out  of  which  the  mansion  house  was  after- 
wards erected. 

James,  second  Lord  Forbes,  by  his  wife  Egidia  Keith,  daughter  of  William,  first 
Earl  Marischal,  had  three  sons,  William,  Master  of  Forbes,  Duncan  Forbes  of 
Corsindae,  and  Patrick  Forbes  of  Corse,  ancestor  of  the  Forbeses  of  Craigievar. 

Duncan  Forbes  of  Corsindae  had  a  son,  William  of  Corsindae,  whose  second  son 
was  Duncan  Forbes  of  Monymusk ;  who  in  1554  had  a  crown  charter  of  Coclarachie, 
and  in  1581,  another  of  the  teinds  of  Torry,  near  Aberdeen,  with  certain  salmon  fishings 
on  the  river  Dee.  He  had  a  son,  John,  afterwards  Forbes  of  Camphill,  who  was  pre- 
sented in  1572,  by  the  king,  to  the  parish  of  Monymusk,  but  was  not  admitted.  Duncan 
died  in  1587.  His  wife's  name  was  Agnes  Gray,  daughter  of  Baillie  William  Gray  of 
Aberdeen. 

William  Forbes  of  Monyrnusk,  his  eldest  son,  married  his  neighbour,  Margaret 
Douglas,  daughter  of  Sir  William  Douglas  of  Kemnay,  who,  in  1588,  became  ninth 
Earl  of  Angus.  By  her  he  had  two  sons,  of  whom  the  second,  John  Forbes,  acquired 
the  lands  of  Leslie  from  George,  the  last  Leslie  of  that  Ilk.     Isabel  Forbes,  their  eldest 


Forbes  of  Leslie.  237 


daughter,  married  Gordon  of  Newton.  Both  sons  figured  in  the  "troubles"  of  the  Civil 
"War,  active  Covenanters. 

Sir  William  Forbes,  the  eldest  son,  succeeded  before  1618,  when  he  had  a  charter 
of  Portlethen,  and  another  of  the  barony  of  Torry,  both  in  Kincardineshire,  in  favour  of 
himself  and  Elizabeth  Wishart  of  Pitarrow,  his  wife.  He  was  created  a  Knight  Baronet 
of  Scotland  and  Nova  Scotia  in  1626,  by  Charles  I.  His  eldest  daughter,  Jean,  married 
the  parson  of  Monymusk,  Mr.  Alexander  Lunan,  who  removed  to  Kintore  in  1628. 

His  son,  Sir  William  Forbes,  second  Baronet,  married  Jean,  daughter  of  Sir  Thomas 
Burnet  of  Leys,  by  whom  he  had,  besides  one  daughter,  a  son  (laird  in  1653,  but  a  minor), 

Sir  John  Forbes,  third  baronet ;  who  was  twice  married.  His  first  wife,  Margaret, 
daughter  of  Eobert,  first  Viscount  Arbuthnot,  was  the  mother  of  his  heir.  By  his 
second  wife,  Barbara,  daughter  of  Sir  John  Dalmahoy  of  that  Ilk,  in  Midlothian,  he 
had  among  other  children,  Barbara,  who  married  Thomas  Mitchell  of  Thainston,  whose 
only  daughter,  Barbara  Mitchell,  wedded  her  namesake,  Andrew,  afterwards  Sir  Andrew, 
Mitchell  of  Thainston,  British  Minister  at  the  Court  of  Frederick  the  Great  of  Prussia. 

Sir  William  Forbes,  fourth  Baronet,  was  served  heir  to  his  father  in  1702.  About 
1680  he  had  married  Lady  Jean  Keith,  daughter  of  John,  first  Earl  of  Kintore.  Their 
third  daughter,  Jean,  married  in  1719,  Mr.  George  Moir,  Minister  of  Towie.  Mary, 
their  fourth  daughter,  married  William  Urquhart  of  Meldrum.  Their  elder  son,  John 
Forbes,  who  predeceased  his  father,  married  the  Honourable  Mary  Forbes,  daughter  of 
Alexander,  third  Lord  Pitsligo.  She  was  the  oidy  sister  of  Alexander,  fourth  Lord 
Pitsligo,  who  was  forfeited  for  his  joining  in  the  rebellion  of  1745,  and  died  at  Auchiries 
in  Eathen,  in  December,  1762 ;  and  when  Lord  Pitsligo's  only  son  John  died  without 
issue  in  1781,  her  descendants  represented  the  Pitsligo  line.  The  Forbeses  sold  the  estate 
of  Monymusk,  in  1712,  for  £116,000  Scots,  to  Sir  Francis  Grant  of  Cullen,  one  of 
the   Senators   of  the   College   of  Justice. 

Sir  AVilliam  Forbes,  fifth  Baronet,  son  of  John,  succeeded  his  grandfather.  Sir 
William  was  an  advocate  in  Edinburgh,  and  was  Professor  of  Civd  Law  in  King's 
College,  Aberdeen.  His  eldest  son  John  died  young.  He  himself  died,  aged  36,  in 
1643,  and  was  buried  at  Kearn. 

Sir  William,  sixth  Baronet,  his  second  son,  succeeded  to  the  title,  in  1643.  Through 
the  death  of  John,  Master  of  Pitsligo,  in  1781  he  became  Sir  William  Forbes  of 
Pitsligo,  and  from  him  is  descended  in  the  direct  male  line  the  representatives  of  the 
Forbes  of  Pitsligo  and  Fettercairn.  This  Baronet  was  the  senior  partner  of  the  eminent 
banking  firm  in  Edinburgh,  Sir  William  Forbes,  Hunter,  and  Company. 

FORBES   OF   LESLIE. 

John  Forbes,  second  son  of  William  Forbes  of  Monymusk,  and  Lady  Margaret 

Douglas,  obtained  the  lands  of  Leslie,  about  1620,  from  George  Leslie  of  that  Ilk, 

having  paid  the  debts  lying  upon  them.     He  married  Jean  Leslie,  sister  of  Patrick 

second  Lord  Liudores,  from  whom  he  is  said  to  have  got  for  a  trifling  sum  a  considerable 


238  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garloch. 

portion  of  the  estates  of  that  quickly  dissipated  Lordship.  He  bought  Edingarroch  and 
Licklykead  from  Patrick  Leith  in  1625.  Along  with  John  Leslie,  younger,  of  Pitcaple, 
he  made  a  representation  to  the  Covenanting  Lords  against  the  blockade  of  the  harbour 
of  Aberdeen,  31st  May,  1639.  An  active  covenanter,  he  had  his  property  of  Durris 
on  Deeside  plundered,  and  was  himself  engaged  in  the  burning  of  Pitcaple  Castle,  9th 
September,  1645,  at  the  time  when  Messrs  Jaffray  and  Cant  were  prisoners  there. 

He  was  succeeded  by  William  Forbes,  his  son,  who,  according  to  his  tombstone 
in  the  kirkyard  of  Leslie,  "  lyved  fifty-fyve  yeers,  and  departed  this  lyfe,  November 
12,  1670  yeers".  He  is  believed  to  have  been  the  continuator  of  Mr.  Matthew 
Lumsden's  Genealogy  of  the  family  of  Forbes,  from  his  death  in  1580  to  1665.  Leslie 
Castle — now  a  picturesque  ruin,  which  might  have  been  preserved  at  little  cost  in  a 
habitable  condition — was  rebuilt  or  repaired  by  him,  as  appears  by  an  inscription  on  the 
wall,  dated  17th  June,  1661. 

John  Forbes  of  Leslie,  his  son  and  successor,  married,  in  1662,  Helen  Scot, 
daughter  of  the  laird  of  Ardross,  in  Fife,  by  whom  he  had  several  daughters.  One  of 
these,  Christian  Forbes,  was  married,  first  to  John  Skene  of  Dyce,  and  secondly,  in 
October,  1734,  to  John  Paton  of  Grandholme.  To  John  Leslie,  David,  his  younger 
brother,  was  served  heir  in  October,  1691  ;  but  soon  thereafter  the  lands  of  Leslie  were 
purchased  by  John  Leith  of  Leithhall,  the  great-grandnephew  of  Patrick  Leith  of 
Edingarroch,  who  had  sold  part  of  them  to  John  Forbes,  the  first  of  Leslie. 

WADSETTERS  AND  REVERTERS. 

The  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  might  be  termed  the  period  of  wadsets ; 
so  frequent  was  the  burdening  of  landed  property,  doubtless  occasioned,  in  a  great 
degree,  by  the  distress  of  the  times.  A  list  of  "Wadsetters  in  Aberdeenshire,  made  up  by 
the  Sheriff  in  1633-34,  contains  the  following  names  of  creditors  and  reversers  in  wadsets, 
resident  in  Inverurie  and  elsewhere  in  that  neighbourhood.  They  are  of  interest  as 
showing  us  some  of  the  witnesses,  as  well  as  active  participators,  in  the  "  troubles  ". 

James  Leslie  of  Auchorthies ;  John  Mackie,  notar,  Inverurie  :  Hector  Abercromby 
of  Fetternear ;  Thomas  Bruce  in  Kemnay ;  James  Black  in  Inverurie ;  Mr.  John 
Cheyne,  Parson  of  Kinkell ;  Charles  Dune  in  Kinkell ;  Sir  John  Leslie  of  Wardes ; 
George  Chalmer  of  Balbithan ;  James  Crichtoun  of  Frendraucht ;  George  Leslie  of 
Crichie  ;  Thomas  Erskine  of  Balhaggarty;  Walter  Forbes  of  Thaynistoun;  John  Leith  of 
Harthill  ;  George  Leslie,  elder  of  Kincraigie ;  Sir  William  Forbes  of  Craigievar  ;  George 
Leslie,  portioner  of  Inverurie  ;  John  Leslie  of  Balquhain  ;  George  Leslie  of  Eothmaise  ; 
John  Leslie  of  Pitcaple ;  John  Irving  of  Balbithan  ;  Sir  George  Johnston  of  that  Ilk  ; 
Sir  William  Forbes  of  Monymusk ;  Andrew  Steven  in  Kinmuck ;  George  Gray  in 
Isaackstown ;  John  Forbes  of  Ardmurdo  ;  John  Keith  in  Achorsk  and  Eobert  Keith 
his  brother ;  Adam  Abercromby  of  Auld  Eayne ;  Mr.  William  Chalmer  of  Wester 
Disblair;  Sir  Alexander  Gordon  of  Cluny ;  George  Gordon  of  Newton;  Mr.  Andrew 


Clerical  Changes  after  1600.  239 


Logie,  Parson  of  Eayne  ;  William  Seton  of  Meldrum  ;  Alexander,  Master  of  Forbes  ; 
John  Forbes  of  Leslie ;  Patrick  Leith  of  Whitehaugh  ;  Alexander  Chaliner  in  Kinkell ; 
"William  Smyth  in  Blairdaff ;  Widow  Gray  in  Ardmurdo  ;  Alexander  Smyth  in  Cowlie ; 
Marie  Cruickskank,  guidwyfe  of  Bothniaise. 

CLERICAL  CHANGES  AFTER  1600. 

Logie  Durno  was  served  for  some  years  after  1608,  by  Mr.  Andrew  Strachan, 
formerly  a  regent  in  King's  College,  who  returned  thither  in  1633,  to  become  Divinity 
Professor ;  when  his  brother,  Alexander  Strachan,  succeeded  him  in  Logie  Durno  parish. 

Bourtie  was  under  the  long-lived  Mr.  Gilbert  Keith  till  the  second  Episcopacy.  A 
namesake,  possibly  a  relative,  was  presented  at  a  later  period  to  Dunnottar  by  Earl 
Marischal. 

In  Culsalmond,  George  Leith,  University  Eegent,  succeeded  Thomas  Spens  before 
1635,  and  in  1647  Arthur  Ore  succeeded,  and  remained  for  the  whole  remaining  period 
of  the  Covenant,  dying  in  1664,  on  Sunday,  16th  September. 

In  Daviot,  after  1608,  was  the  minister  of  Inverurie's  friend,  Mr.  William 
Strachan ;  afterwards  a  stiff  opponent  of  the  Covenant,  whose  politics  cost  him  his  place 
in  1649. 

At  Insch,  John  Logie,  son  of  an  advocate,  presented  while  a  student,  was  minister 
from  1607  to  1613,  after  which  he  went  to  Bethelny.  Alexander  Eoss,  son  of  Mr. 
James  Eoss,  minister  of  Aberdeen,  left  Insch,  for  Footdee.  in  1631  ;  and  another 
Alexander  Eoss  succeeded,  and  held  the  cure  for  a  time,  at  least  from  1651  to  1660. 

Inverurie  lost  Mr.  James  Mill  about  1643,  and  Mr.  William  Forbes  appears  in  his 
place  in  1644. 

Monkegy  ceased  to  be  under  the  charge  of  the  minister  of  Inverurie  in  1630,  and 
got  for  its  first  incumbent  Mr.  Samuel  Walcar,  a  long-lived  witness  of  ecclesiastical 
changes,  amidst  which  he  was  himself  deprived  and  excommunicated  for  "  malignancy  " 
(the  crime  of  favouring  the  cause  of  Charles  I.)  ;  he  was  relieved  soon  from  excom- 
munication, after  well-catechised  penitence ;  and,  under  the  second  Episcopacy,  was  re- 
stored to  his  parish,  as  having  been  illegally  extruded. 

The  Kinkell  chaplainry  of  Kemnay  was  erected  into  a  parish,  by  the  Assembly,  in 
1632  ;  and  Alexander  Sibbald  brought  from  Kinneff  to  serve  the  cure.  His  successor, 
John  Seaton,  Eegent  in  Marischal  College,  was  there  from  before  1641  to  1649,  when 
he  left  for  Foveran,  and  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  David  Leith,  deprived  in  1653  for  de- 
serting his  parish.  Dr.  Scott  (Fasti)  calls  him  Leiche,  and  says  he  was  made  D.D.  in  1653. 

At  Kinkell,  Mr.  Mill's  baptism  registers  show  Mr.  John  Walcar  no  longer  there, 
but  Mr.  Patrick  Leslie.  It  is  suggested  in  Scott's  Fasti,  that  Mr.  Leslie  was  helper  to 
Mr.  John  Cheyne,  whom  Dr.  Scott  believes  to  have  been  minister  of  Kinkell  from  1623 
to  1643.  William  Leith  is  also  called  minister  of  Kinkell  in  1640.  He  was  deprived  in 
1649. 


240  Inverurie  unci  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Archibald  Bait  continued  at  Kintore  from  1602  to  1624;  Mr.  Alexander  Lunan 
came  thither  from  Monymusk  in  1625.  In  1632,  he  married  Jean,  eldest  daughter  of 
Sir  William  Forbes,  first  baronet  of  Monymusk.  (Their  son,  William  Lunan,  born  at 
Kintore  in  1633,  had  a  son,  William,  born  at  Delab,  in  Monymusk,  8th  Nov.,  1664, 
who  married  Isabel,  daughter  of  William  Thain  of  Blackball,  4th  October,  1691.  Their 
fourth  child,  John  Lunan,  born  1698,  had  a  daughter,  Jane,  married  21st  December, 
1748,  to  David  Shirreffs,  by  whom  she  had  two  sons,  Alexander  Shirrefs,  Advocate, 
Aberdeen,  and  Dr.  James  Shirrefs,  minister  of  the  West  Kirk  there).  Mr.  John  Cheyne 
was  minister  of  Kintore  in  March,  1645,  when  he  entertained  the  Marquis  of  Montrose  in 
the  manse  there.  Andrew  Strachan,  translated  from  Tullynessle,  succeeded  Mr.  Cheyne 
before  1649,  and  was  minister  of  Kintore  until  his  death  in  1679. 

In  Leslie,  John  Middleton — a  zealous  Covenanter  in  his  time — was  incumbent  some 
time  after  Mr.  Forbes,  and  was  translated  to  Bayne  in  1643,  leaving  the  pulpit  of  Leslie 
open  to  the  services  of  Duncan  Forbes,  fourth  son  of  Duncan  Forbes  of  Byth.  John 
Gellie,  younger,  took  his  place  in  1647,  and  left  for  Kinkell  in  1651. 

Stephen  Mason's  successor,  after  1614,  at  Bethelny,  was  John  Logie,  formerly  the 
minister  of  Insch,  who  again  left  for  Bathven  in  1629.  William  Wedderburn.  Begent 
in  Marischal  College,  presented  by  Charles  I.,  1st  November,  1633,  was  repeatedly  under 
censure.  George  Leith,  transported  from  Culsalmond,  was  minister  of  Bethelny  from 
1647  until  after  1660. 

At  Monymusk,  James  Irvine,  translated  from  Tough,  was,  after  some  delay, 
admitted  in  1613,  but  was  deprived  before  October,  1615.  William  Forbes  was 
presented  by  James  VI.,  and  translated  from  Alford,  1615,  and  went  in  a  year  or  two  to 
Aberdeen.  Thomas  Forbes  succeeded  him,  and  demitted  before  1622  ;  Adam  Barclay, 
minister  of  Leochel,  being  next  incumbent  until  he  changed  to  Alford,  in  1625.  In  that 
year,  Charles  I.  presented  to  the  living  of  Monymusk,  Alexander  Lunan,  regent  in 
King's  College,  Aberdeen,  who  next  appears  as  minister  of  Kintore  in  1628.  The 
King's  next  presentee  was  John  Gellie,  elder,  minister  of  Fremnay,  a  Covenanter,  who 
continued  from  1629  until  his  death  about  1652.  He  is  still  represented  in  Aberdeen- 
shire. A  quickly  carried  out  call  translated  Alexander  Boss  from  Kinernie  in  October, 
1653  ;  and  he  continued  at  Monymusk  until  his  death,  after  March,  1674.  By  his  wife, 
Anna,  daughter  of  John  Forbes  of  Balfluig  in  Alford,  he  was  father  of  Dr.  John  Boss, 
minister  of  Foveran,  and  of  Bishop  Boss  of  Edmburgh. 

Mr.  Bobert  Burnet,  the  moderator  of  the  Presbytery,  continued  at  Oyne  until 
1613.  An  Alexander  Burnet  was  there — possibly  assistant — from  1613  to  1615  ;  and 
one  William  Burnet  was  minister  from  1647  to  1660 — the  interval  of  the  Covenanting 
rule — disappearing  before  John  Strachan,  son  of  the  minister  of  Kintore,  appointed 
about  1661. 

How  long  Bobert  Irving  remained  at  Premnay  after  1608,  does  not  appear.  John 
Gellie   was   translated   from   Premnay   to  Monymusk,  after   September,   1629.      His 


Clerical  Changes  after  1600.  241 

successor,  George  Myln,  had  a  long  incumbency.  He  had.  been  a  regent  of  King's 
College,  and  was  Clerk  of  the  Synod  of  Aberdeen  during  much  of  the  Covenant  period, 
and  under  the  second  Episcopacy,  until  1664.     He  died  in  1669. 

One  of  Mr.  Mill's  christening  witnesses  in  1632,  Mr.  Andro  Logie,  was  twice 
minister  at  Eayne.  He  succeeded  Mr.  Abercromby  sometime  before  1624.  He  was  a 
steady  opponent  of  the  Covenant,  and  had  a  son,  Captain  John  Logie,  who  suffered 
death  by  beheading  at  the  Cross  of  Edinburgh,  along  with  John  Gordon  of  Haddo,  in 
July,  1644,  in  tbe  cause  of  Charles  I.  Logie  was  deposed  in  1640.  The  sentence  was 
relaxed  in  the  next  year;  but  he  was  again  deprived  in  1643.  Two  Middletons  succeeded 
him,  John,  a  Covenanter,  who  died  in  1653,  and  Alexander,  of  the  opposite  politics, 
whom  the  Covenanting  party  turned  out  of  the  Sub-Principalship  of  King's  College. 
Mr.  Logie  was  restored,  in  1662,  to  the  pastoral  charge  of  Rayne,  on  the  restoration  of 
Episcopacy. 

The  Garioch  clergy  of  the  seventeenth  century  had  evidently  held  a  good  literary 
position.  Several  of  them  were  University  teachers,  as  Regents,  before  being  appointed 
to  parishes.  Robert  Burnet  was  promoted  to  Oyne  from  that  University  position  in 
1596,  Alexander  Lunan  to  Monymusk  in  1625,  Andrew  Strachan  before  that  time  to 
Logie  Durno,  from  which  he  returned  as  Divinity  Professor  to  the  University  again 
in  1633 ;  William  Wedderburn  to  Bethelny  in  1633,  George  Leith  to  Culsalmond  before 
1635,  John  Seaton  to  Kemnay  in  1641,  George  Myln  to  Premnay  after  1628. 
Alexander  Middleton,  minister  of  Rayne  in  1656,  had  been  Sub-Principal  of  King's 
College.  Several  of  those  who  lived  in  the  most  troubled  periods  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  won  for  themselves  some  literary  reputation.  Dr.  David  Leith,  minister  of 
Kemnay  from  1650  to  1653,  corresponded  with  Drummond  of  Hawthornden,  and  is 
spoken  of  by  Sir  Thomas  Urquhart  as  a  most  fluent  poet  in  the  Latin  tongue,  an  ex- 
quisite philosopher,  and  a  profound  theologian.  He  had  published  a  work  called 
Philusoplda  Illachryma  in  1633.  A  volume  of  Latin  poems,  Parerga,  appeared  at 
London  in  1657,  and  he  also  printed  Oratio  Funebris  in  obitum  Patricii  Episcopi 
Ahenlonensis.  ■  Andrew  Logie,  who  was  minister  at  Rayne  under  both  Episcopacies,  and 
a  deposed  minister  in  the  interval,  was  the  author  of  several  polemical  writings  against 
both  Roman  Catholics  and  Presbyterians.  Scott's  Fasti  also  notices  a  religious  work  on 
the  festivals  of  the  Church,  by  Alexander  Lunan,  the  last  indulged  minister  of  Daviot, 
and  one  on  Rhetoric,  by  Robert  Brown,  minister  of  Bourtie,  from  1666  to  1675.  Mr. 
Brown's  initials  and  the  date  1671  are  upon  an  ornate  wooden  collection  ladle  still 
preserved  in  Bourtie. 

How  did  the  various  rectors,  parsons,  and  ministers  contrive  to  exist  upon  the  small 
allowances  conceded  by  such  arrangements  as  King  James  had  made  for  his  Kirk  in  that 
ecclesiastical  age;  when  he  also  created  as  Bishops,  Churchmen  who  were  styled 
"  Tulchans  " — or  mediums  for  allowing  of  the  benefices  being  sucked  of  their  revenues 
for  the  benefit  of  the  Lay  Impropriators? 

31 


242  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Perhaps  young  parsons,  in  those  days,  took  example  from  impoverished  lords  and 
lairds,  who,  then  as  well  as  since,  married  where  money  chanced  to  come  along  with  the 
object  of  affection.  Mr.  Mill  of  Inverurie  wedded  a  wealthy  widow,  old  enough  to  have 
been  his  mother,  if  he  had  married  as  young  as  did  Alexander  Jaffray,  junior.  Mr. 
Robert  Burnet,  the  parson  of  Oyne,  had  performed  much  the  same  exploit  before  him ; 
and  figures,  in  Barclay's  Protocol  in  1601,  as  having  a  large  claim  upon  Gight,  on  the 
part  of  his  wife,  Marjory  Auchinleck,  widow  of  Captain  John  Gordon.  The  poverty  of 
the  clergy  became  at  length  so  great  a  scandal  that  King  James  passed  an  Act,  in  1617, 
raising  their  stipends  to  the  minimum  value  of  500  merks — with  800  merks  as  a  maxi- 
mum endowment. 

THE    MARQUIS    OF    HUNTLY. 

The  numerous  cases  of  social  depression  which  marked  the  first  half  of  the  17th 
century  in  the  Garioch  included  the  Balquhain  family.  The  cause  was  partly  that 
already  referred  to — the  extravagance  of  two  of  the  Balquhain  lairds.  Another  cause 
was,  however,  of  a  more  public  nature.  The  Leslies  belonged  to  the  party  of  the  Marquis 
of  Huntly,  whose  bonds  of  manrent  had  drawn  around  him  such  a  following  as  alarmed 
the  first  Charles,  to  whom  the  great  noble's  power  appeared  incompatible  with  that 
exercise  of  sovereignty  which  lie,  the  first  declarer  of  divine  right,  believed  that  a  king 
ought  to  possess.  Huntly  had  been  a  great  favourite  with  the  more  light-minded  King 
James,  whose  good  fortune  as  actual  inheritor  of  the  English  throne,  allowed  him  to  be 
tolerated  in  many  an  attempt  on  the  liberties  of  his  Scottish  subjects,  and  made  him 
also  less  exasperated  by  the  effectual  resistance  which  his  encroachments  frequently  en- 
countered. 

King  James  had,  however,  in  his  time,  been  forced  into  laying  the  strong  hand  upon 
the  Cock  of  the  North  when  the  papist  conspiracy  was  active,  and  had  destroyed  his 
Castle  of  Strathbogy;  at  which  time  he  also  inflicted  similar  punishment  upon  Huntly 's 
clansman,  Gordon  of  Newton. 

His  successor,  Charles,  of  a  more  determined  temper,  and  more  grave  in  character, 
never  let  drop  what  he  planned,  but  waited  opportunities  of  advancing  towards  his 
purpose.  He  set  about  undermining  Huntly's  local  influence  by  increasing  the  power 
and  position  of  that  nobleman's  neighbours,  while  he  lowered  the  official  condition  of  the 
great  Marquis  by  depriving  him  of  the  hereditary  Sheriffships  of  Aberdeen  and  Inver- 
ness. Sir  George  Johnston  of  Caskieben,  who,  in  1630,  was  the  first  Sheriff-Principal 
of  Aberdeenshire  appointed  after  Huntly,  belonged  to  the  faction  opposed  to  the  Gordons  ; 
and  it  is  possible  the  Baronetcy  granted  to  Caskieben,  some  years  before,  was  conferred 
not  without  the  intention  of  elevating  one  who  was  a  steady  opponent  of  the  Marquis's 
influence. 

James  Crichton  of  Frendraught  was  made  the  chief  agent  in  the  design  of  King 
Charles  of  fomenting  local  opposition  to  the  powerful  Marquis ;  and  the  tragedy  of  the 


The  Marquis  of  Huntly.  243 


Burning  of  Frendraught,  in  October,  1630,  noticed  by  Mr.  Mill  in  bis  register  of  the 
birth  of  his  own  eldest  son,  was  indirectly  the  result  of  this  weak  royal  policy. 

The  favourite — Crichton — did  not  possess  power  sufficient  for  the  position  of 
local  opponent  of  the  great  chief  who  had  ruled  the  North  for  long.  The  vassal  families 
of  the  Huntly  league  were  settled  all  around  Frendraught.  The  habits  of  the  time  afforded 
ample  opportunity  for  quarrels,  ending  in  bloodshed  or  slaughter.  In  one  of  these  ren- 
contres "James  Leslie  of  Aquhorties  was  shot  through  the  arm  in  Frendraught's  company" 
by  a  relative  of  Crichton's,  as  already  related,  and  the  wounded  man's  father  was  watching 
for  vengeance  at  the  time  when  the  great  tragedy  was  enacted.  Frendraught,  possibly 
intoxicated  with  the  royal  favour,  had  sometime  let  expressions  escape  him  of  enmity 
to  the  Marquis,  and  these  were  quoted  against  him  when  the  Marquis's  son  lost  bis 
life  in  the  conflagration.  The  day  before  the  burning  of  his  bouse  he  was  at  the  Bog 
of  Gicht,  as  Gordon  Castle  was  then  called,  in  order  to  make  amends,  by  a  heavy  money 
payment,  for  wrong  done  to  one  of  the  great  lord's  friends,  and  was  escorted  back  to 
Frendraught  by  Viscount  Melgum,  the  Marquis'  second  son,  and  a  party  from  the  Castle. 
Crichton  and  his  lady  pressed  the  Gordons  to  remain  over  the  night,  and  accept  a  re- 
turn of  the  hospitality  witli  which  Huntly  had  entertained  him  on  his  errand  of  peace- 
making. The  Gordons  consented,  and,  after  an  evening  spent  according  to  the  manner 
of  the  time,  they  were  all  lodged  in  one  wing  of  the  house.  Their  lodging  was  not 
shut  upon  them,  as  the  ballad  represents ;  but  when  the  outbreak  of  fire  in  the  middle 
of  the  night  awoke  them,  all,  except  three  of  the  party  who  escaped,  seem  to  have  lost 
their  presence  of  mind,  and  eight  persons,  including  the  Viscount  and  young  Eothiemay, 
into  whose  bedchamber  he  had  run,  failed  to  make  their  way  out,  and  perished  in  the 
flames. 

The  fire  appears  to  have  been  accidental,  but  the  contrary  was  suspected  at  the 
time,  and  a  long  criminal  trial  of  the  Crichtons  was  held.  Several  incidents  transpired 
that  seemed  to  exculpate  them,  and  to  fasten  the  guilt  upon  an  enemy  of  the  house, 
who,  it  was  believed,  had  set  fire  to  the  building  out  of  private  revenge.  That  individual 
— John  Meldrum — was,  in  August,  1633,  tried,  convicted,  and  executed  at  Edinburgh; 
but  this  fact  did  not  save  Crichton  from  ruin.  He  became  the  unprotected  prey  of  every 
lawless  attack  upon  his  property ;  and  the  family  ceased,  ere  long  time  had  elapsed,  to 
have  a  place  in  the  country. 

In  1633,  after  his  acquittal,  James  Crichton  bestowed  a  set  of  silver  communion 
vessels  upon  each  of  the  parishes  of  Forgue,  Inverkeithnj',  and  Marnoch.  He  filled  the 
office  of  an  elder  in  Forgue  in  1640.  His  son  was  in  1642  created  a  Viscount  by  King 
Charles  I.,  the  Laird  declining  the  rank;  which  was  offered  him  as  male  representative 
of  Lord  Chancellor  Crichton.  The  Lady  of  Frendraught,  Lady  Elizabeth  Gordon, 
eldest  daughter  of  John,  twelfth  Earl  of  Sutherland,  who  had  been  suspected  of  the  fire- 
raising  at  Frendraught,  turned  Eoman  Catholic.  After  the  family  removed  to  Kinnairdie, 
in  the  parish   of  Marnoch,  the  Fresbytery  of    Strathbogy   found   her  ladyship  a  fit 


241:  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

subject  of  numerous  entries  in  its  minutes.  Her  communion  cup,  a  silver  chalice  and 
paten,  is  in  the  kirk  of  Forgue,  presented  by  her  son  after  he  had  been  created  a  Viscount. 
It  is  of  the  kiud  made  at  that  period  for  the  use  of  wandering  priests,  capable  of  being 
taken  to  pieces  and  carried  about  easily.  The  Frendraught  estate  afterwards  passed  into 
the  hands  of  the  Bognie  family,  by  the  marriage  of  the  widow  of  James  Crichton, 
second  Viscount  Frendraught,  with  her  neighbour  and  factor,  Morison  of  Bognie. 

SOCIAL    FEATURES. 

The  Burgh  Court  Book  of  Inverurie  and  Mr.  Mill's  entries  in  his  registers  afford 
some  indications  of  the  excesses  gone  to  in  convivial  drinking,  which  so  often,  as  in  the 
case  of  Frendraught,  preceded  serious  acts  of  violence.  A  valuable  paper  by  the  late  Dr. 
Joseph  Eobertson,  the  historical  antiquary,  presents  a  picture  of  drinking  habits  in  the 
Highlands  in  1616,  which,  if  unvouched,  would  now  surpass  belief. 

The  consumption  of  foreign  wines  in  the  Hebrides  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that 
the  arrival  of  a  vessel  bringing  a  cargo  of  wine  from  France  occasionally  drew  the  whole 
local  population  near  the  landing  place  ;  when  an  orgy  took  place  which  was  terminated 
only  by  the  exhaustion  of  the  supply  that  had  arrived.  The  Privy  Council  felt  the  ne- 
cessity of  imposing  restrictive  regulations  upon  the  use  of  French  wines  by  the  Highland 
chiefs ;  and  an  energetic  attempt  was  made  by  the  crown  to  introduce  habits  of  industry 
and  domestication  among  the  Celtic  population.  Broken  clans  were  disinherited ;  and 
the  Highlands  and  Islands  were  partitioned  among  a  few  great  chiefs  from  Argyll  on 
the  south  to  Seaforth  on  the  north.  These  were  ordered  to  erect  mansion  houses,  with 
certain  amenities,  in  spots  appointed  to  them  ;  to  establish  home  farms,  as  an  example 
of  cultivation ;  and  to  let  portions  of  land,  at  fixed  rents,  to  their  clansmen,  and  no 
longer  retain  these,  as  idle  followers,  fed  at  the  chief's  table.  The  chiefs  were,  at  the 
same  time,  obliged  to  send  their  own  children  to  the  Lowlands  to  be  educated. 

The  quantity  of  wine  which  each  great  landholder  was  at  liberty  to  purchase,  during 
a  year,  was  fixed  according  to  the  extent  of  his  dominion ;  but  the  smallest  allowance 
was  enormous.  The  least  important  of  them  had  four  hogsheads — equal  to  about  220 
dozen ;  whde  some — of  whom  was  Macleod  of  Dunvegan — might  jmrchase  four  tuns,  or 
876  dozen. 

At  that  period,  Ireland,  under  the  great  chiefs  who  then  ruled  the  population, 
frequently  in  resistance  of  English  rule,  presented  pictures  of  even  greater  drinking  and 
excess.  Native  whisky,  or  poteen,  was  a  large  component  of  Irish  debauches.  The 
whisky  of  Scotland  is  of  later  date.  Brandy  is  the  only  addition  to  ale,  or  wine,  that 
appears,  even  in  the  next  century,  in  the  Inverurie  Thesaurer's  accounts,  for  the  dinners 
and  other  entertainments  of  the  baillies.  Unless  otherwise  named,  wine  meant  Claret  in 
the  Lowlands,  as  well  as  in  the  Hebrides  and  West  Highlands.  In  Aberdeenshire, 
Claret  was  largely  used  untd  two  generations  back  ;  and  it  was  probably  sold  in  bulk  in 
the  few  great  fairs,  much  after  the  date  when  Leslie  of  Pitcaple  bought  up  all  the  wine 


Social  Conditions.  245 


to  be  got  in  Lawrence  Fair  of  Eayne,  to  entertain  Charles  II.  withal,  on  his  way  south 
to  make  his  first  experience  of  the  Scottish  crown. 

The  local  fairs,  which  date  from  an  immemorial  period,  when  they  began  with  the 
opportunities  afforded  for  business  transactions  by  the  religious  gatherings  that  took 
place  on  certain  saints'  days,  formed  an  important  feature  in  social  life  in  the  Garioch 
during  some  centuries  preceding  the  rise  of  modern  agriculture  in  Aberdeenshire.  St. 
Sair's  Fair,  originally  held  in  Monkegy,  now  in  Culsalmond,  Lawrence  Fair  in  Old  Eayne, 
Polander  (or  Apollinaris)  Fair  in  Inverurie,  and  Michael  Fair  in  Kinkell,  are  now  little 
conspicuous  in  the  Garioch  calendar,  amidst  the  unbroken  succession  of  cattle  markets 
that  have  been  established  to  supply  London  with  so  much  of  the  roast  beef  of  Old 
England.  The  saintly  association  of  the  old  markets,  or  so  much  thereof  as  ever  existed, 
seems  also  lost  in  the  crowd,  if  one  may  judge  by  the  advice  tendered  in  Aberdeenshire 
Doric  to  a  minister  of  Eayne  on  St.  Sair's  morning,  by  one  of  his  parishioners — "  Ye're 
nae  gaen  to  the  market,  sir,  I  houp  1 "  "  Foo  that,  Johnl  "  "  Cause,  sir,  it's  just  oon- 
possible,  near,  to  keep  fae  leein'  an'  cheatin' ;  an'  I  think  that's  fat  ministers  sidna  dee." 

The  Garioch  fairs  are  still  prominent,  to  some  extent,  among  the  markets,  and 
exhibit  remains  of  the  ancient  miscellaneous  assemblages  of  dealers  and  wares,  though 
they  have  for  long  ceased  to  gather  together  the  whole  aristocracy  of  the  district,  as  they 
did  when  that  class  was  more  numerous  and  continuously  resident  than  is  the  case  now. 

Lawrence  Fair,  vernacularly  Lowrin  Fair,  stands  in  the  town  of  Old  Eayne — 
originally,  it  would  seem,  an  Episcopal  hamlet,  gathered  beside  a  Palace  of  the  Bishop  of 
Aberdeen.  A  market  cross,  of  great  age,  still  rears  its  rough  granite  pedestal  in  a  widened 
part  of  the  highway.  Here,  in  the  end  of  the  14th  century,  Archdeacon  John  Barbour, 
the  parson  of  Eayne,  had,  we  may  believe,  many  a  glowing  talk  about  the  hero  of  his 
immortal  poem,  the  Patriot  King,  with  old  men  who  had  marched  by  Brace's  sick 
litter,  on  the  snowy  Martinmas,  to  Slevach ;  or  who  had,  at  the  following  Yule,  followed 
the  warrior  in  hot  haste  from  Ardtannies,  in  his  impetuous  ride  through  Inverurie,  when 
he  broke  the  power  of  the  Comyn,  and  fairly  began  his  triumph  in  the  cause  of  Scot- 
land's freedom — that  "  nobyll  thynge  ".  In  the  next  century,  standing  by  the  old  cross, 
Winton,  the  famous  "  cronikler,"  may  have  enriched  his  knowledge  of  his  chosen  subject 
of  poetical  laudation—  the  Yerl  o'  Man — in  meeting  with  old  Harlaw  men.  He  had 
relatives  who  were  portioncrs  near  the  Blessed  Virgin's  Chapel  of  the  Garioch. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  17th  century  we  find  the  market  customs  levied  at  the 
fair,  a  matter  of  such  moment  to  the  Aberdeenshire  lairds,  and  even  to  the  city  of  Bon- 
Accord  itself,  as  to  make  them  unite  in  trying  to  bring  the  heavy  hand  of  the  Court  of 
Session  down  upon  the  superiors  of  the  markets,  i.e.,  the  receivers  of  the  market  dues. 

Harthill,  and  the  superiority  of  Lawrence  Fair,  belonged,  before  1606,  to  the  Leiths, 
who  held  the  lands  until  a  later  period,  and  who  took  a  prominent  part  on  the  side  of 
Charles  I.  in  the  civil  war.  The  subjoined  extract  from  the  burgh  records  of  Aberdeen, 
bearing  date  1st  April,   1606,  indicates  a  disposition  towards  high-handed  behaviour, 


24:6  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

which  the  ecclesiastical  records  of  the  neighbourhood  exhibit  in  the  same  family  at  a 
later  date  : — George  Leslie  of  Creychie,  in  name  of  the  Council  and  Community,  and 
also  in  that  of  "  Johne  Leslie  of  Wardess,  Johne  Leslie  of  Pettcappil,  George  Leslie  of 
Creychie,  George  Leslie  of  Auld  Craig,  James  Arbuthnot  of  Lentusche,  for  thame  selffis, 
and  utheris  thair  tennentis  and  servandis  "  had  raised  letters  summoning  John  Leith, 
elder  of  Harthill,  and  John  Leith,  younger,  his  son,  to  compear  before  the  Lords  of 
Council  for  imposing  an  exorbitant  tax  on  goods  sold  at  St.  Lawrence  Fair,  in  Auld 
Eayne.  The  charge  made  had  been — for  every  stand  set  down  for  holding  of  merchan- 
dises, 13s.  4d.  ;  for  every  ox,  cow,  or  horse,  16d.  ;  for  every  sheep,  8d. ;  for  every  stone 
of  wool,  one  pound  of  it ;  for  every  elne  of  linen,  or  woollen  cloth,  4d. 

The  following  ditty  evidently  belongs  to  the  Garioch  of  a  more  recent  century,  but 
exhibits  the  miscellaneous  character  of  the  merchandise  then  still  sold  : — 

Oh,  minnie,  I'm  gaen  to  Lowrin  Fair, 
Oh,  Jamie,  fat  are  ye  gaen  to  dee  there  ? 
To  buy  some  harrow-graith  and  some  bows, 
To  strick  up  a  pleuch  in  Ba'eairn's  knowes  : 

Sae  whilk  o'  ye  lasses  '11  gang  to  Ba'caim  ? 

Whilk  o'  ye  lasses  '11  gang  to  Ba'cairn  ? 

Whilk  o'  ye  lasses  '11  gang  to  Ba'cairn, 

An'  be  the  goodwife  o'  bonny  Ba'cairn  ? 

I'm  nae  for  the  lass  wi'  the  gowden  locks, 
Nor  yet  for  the  lass  \vi'  the  ribbon-knota, 
But  I'm  for  the  lass  wi'  the  bonny  bank-notes, 
To  plenis'  the  haudin'  o'  bonny  Ba'cairn. 
Sae  whilk  o'  ye  lasses,  &c. 

An'  I'll  get  a  thiggin'  fae  aul  John  Black, 
An'  I'll  get  ane  fae  the  Leddie  o'  Glack, 
Wi'  some  harrow-graith  fae  James  Gray, 
For  haudin'  his  owsen  sae  lang  on  the  brae. 
Sae  whilk  o'  ye  lasses,  &c. 

There  sits  a  man  on  Ba'eairn's  knowes, 
Wi'  legs  as  crooket  as  twa  owson  bows  ; 
'Twad  set  him  far  better  to  be  herdin'  at  yowes, 
Than  fermin'  the  haudin'  o'  bonny  Ba'cairn. 

Sae  whilk  o'  ye  lasses  '11  gang  to  Ba'cairn  ? 

Oh,  whilk  o'  ye  lasses  '11  gang  to  Ba'cairn  1 

Whilk  o'  ye  lasses  '11  gang  to  Ba'cairn, 

An'  be  the  goodwife  o'  bonny  Ba'cairn  ? 

The  extracts  from  the  Inverurie  registers  afford  some  insight  into  the  social  position 
at  that  day  of  the  dwellers  in  the  Eoyal  Burgh.  Many  possessed,  at  the  time  of  their 
decease,  some  means.  A  few  families  had  members  "  pushing  their  fortunes  abroad,"  in 
Northern  Germany  or  Poland — the  land  of  enterprise  of  the  time.  Some  householders  in 
tha  burgh  employed  servants,  but  merely  as  a  help  in  their  own  labour,  and  not  as 
substitutes.  Few  in  the  burghal  community  rose,  in  means  or  dignity,  above  the 
common  level,  so  much  as  to  esnimand  reverence  without  asserting  it ;  and  the  trans- 
ference of  the  magistracy  from  men  of  wealth  and  family  like  the  Lairds  of  Caskieben 
and   Kincraigie,  who  would    sign  council  minutes   and  decrees   with  their  territorial 


Social  Conditions.  247 


designation,  to  a  burgage  rood  proprietor  of  a  rig  or  two,  occasioned  some  difficulty 
in  keeping  up  that  observance  of  respect  for  the  bench  which  is  considered  essential  to 
good  government. 

Baillie  Alexander  Hervie  had  evidently  found  the  Chief  Magistrate's  wand  of  office 
no  magic  sceptre.  He  was,  likely  enough,  a  fussy  upsetting  body,  and  would  not,  may- 
hap, be  the  more  respected  for  having  attained  his  position,  as  a  principal  burgh  laird, 
through  marriage  with  the  widow  of  the  wealthy  head  of  an  old  family — the  brewer, 
Norman  Leslie.  Hervie  also  complained  over-much  about  his  dignity  being  disregarded  ; 
and  was,  it  is  probable,  more  solicitous  in  caring  for  it,  and  more  anxious  to  acquire 
fresh  honours,  than  the  baillies  of  Inverurie  of  older  standing,  and  of  more  established 
social  position,  had  deemed  it  needful,  or  meet,  to  be.  Baillie  Hervie  does  not  appear,  in 
the  minister's  registers  of  christenings  and  burials,  as  associating  with  the  neighbouring 
gentry,  like  his  predecessors  and  successors  in  the  civic-  dignity.  He  is,  however,  the 
first  who  appears,  in  the  extant  burgh  records,  as  seeking  the  position  of  member  of 
Parliament  for  the  Burgh.  The  provision  made  at  that  time  for  upholding  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  royal  burgh  in  the  Supreme  Council  of  the  nation  was  not  extravagant. 
A  sum  of  40  lbs.  Scots  was  ordained  to  be  paid  to  the  Commissioner  by  the  Thesaurer  of 
the  Burgh. 

The  Assemblage  of  the  Scottish  legislators,  about  that  period,  within  the  ancient 
Hall  of  Parliament  at  Edinburgh,  must  have  been  a  motley  one,  and  doubtless  included, 
at  times,  some  as  ragged  elements  as  the  beautiful  chamber,  now  known  as  the  Parlia- 
ment House,  occasionally  presents  in  the  different  class  which  is  fascinated  by  its  dire 
attractions.  Sixty  years  later  than  the  time  of  Baillie  Hervie's  parliamentary  career,  the 
'Fife  burghs  are  recorded  as  having,  in  some  cases,  to  provide  large  cloaks,  to  be  worn  by 
their  Commissioners,  when  seated  among  the  nobles,  knights  of  shires,  and  well-to-do  repre- 
sentatives of  the  larger  towns,  so  that  the  imperfect  state  of  their  garments  might  not 
appear,  and  put  them,  and  the  royal  burghs  represented  by  them,  to  shame.  The  Com- 
missioners were  paid  6s.  8d.  daily,  during  their  attendance;  and  in  Anstruther,  in  1686, 
the  Baillies  and  Council,  considering  that  the  heavier  burdens  of  that  burgh  made  it  un- 
able to  send  and  keep  a  Commissioner  to  attend  to  their  interests  in  Parliament,  for 
warded  a  blank  commission — along  with  a  blank  burgess  ticket,  or  diploma — to  the  King's 
Commissioner,  in  order  that  the  Kepresentative  of  Eoyalty  might,  himself,  select  some 
suitable  man  to  act  as  a  burgess  and  as  M.P.  for  that  burgh,  in  that  Convention  of 
Estates. 

John  Leslie — fiar  of  Balquhain — sat  in  the  same  parliament  with  Baillie  Hervie  as 
one  of  the  two  members  chosen  for  the  Shire  of  Aberdeen.  The  other  Commissioner  for 
the  county,  elected  along  with  Balquhain,  was  Mr.  John  Cheyne  of  Arnage.  At  this, 
the  earliest,  election  for  Members  of  Parliament  appearing  in  the  Sheriff  Court  records 
of  Aberdeen,  twenty-two  barons  and  freeholders  of  the  shire  are  mentioned  in  Kennedy's 
Annals  of  Aberdeen  as  having  been  convened  at  the  Michaelmas  Head  Court,  held 


248  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Gariocli. 

within  the  Tolbooth  of  Aberdeen,  on  1st  October,  1616.  Among  them  were  several 
lairds  belonging  to  the  Garioch,  viz.,  John  Setonne  of  Meldrum,  John  Leslie  of 
Wardes,  John  Leslie  of  Pitcappill,  George  Johnstone  of  yat  Ilk,  John  Erskine  of 
Balhagartie,  and  ]NIr.  George  Settone  of  Barra. 

EVE  OF  THE  COVENANT. 

"When  Scotland,  from  the  Solway  Firth  to  Caithness,  gave  adherence  to  the  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant,  the  City  of  Aberdeen  and  most  part  of  the  County  persistently 
refused  to  accept  it.  The  consequence  was  that  Aberdeenshire,  and,  in  a  marked  degree, 
its  central  district,  the  Garioch,  became  a  principal  theatre  of  the  "  troubles,"  as  Spald- 
ing terms  them,  which  characterised  the  beginning  of  the  Covenanting  times,  but  which 
were  too  soon  succeeded  elsewhere  by  events  of  an  appalling  nature. 

The  Civil  War  began  its  afterwards  tragic  course  with  some  plundering  in  the 
Garioch.  A  portion  of  the  local  ministers  soon  afterwards  found  themselves  in  prison  ; 
and  the  exercise  of  ecclesiastical  discipline,  on  account  of  the  political  question  of  the 
Covenant,  brought  on,  in  that  district,  a  social  struggle  of  ten  years'  duration,  which, 
involving,  as  it  did,  all  classes  of  the  community,  renders  the  history  of  it  an  instructive 
study  of  the  peculiar  cause  and  times. 

Aberdeenshire  had  not  had  so  much  reason  as  some  other  parts  of  Scotland  to  be 
discontented  with  the  Presbyterian  Episcopacy,  which  had  been  the  form  of  the  National 
Church  since  the  Reformation,  with  the  exception  of  the  years  between  1592  and  1606. 
The  Bishops  of  Aberdeen  whom  King  James  had  added  to  the  Presbyterian  Synod  of 
the  Church  had  been  men  of  good  sense ;  and  it  is  likely  that  they  had  exercised  their 
functions  with  better  understanding  and  acceptance,  that  after  1606,  they  belonged  to 
or  were  connected  with  local  families.  The  first  of  the  new  line  of  Bishops  introduced 
at  that  date  was  Mr.  Peter  Blackburn,  already  well-known  as  an  Aberdeen  clergyman, 
and  one  of  the  original  Eegents  of  the  Earl  Marischal's  new  College.  Bishop  Blackburn 
cultivated  popularity — although  not  with  complete  success — by  abstaining  from  exacting 
his  Episcopal  dues.  His  successor,  Alexander  Forbes,  bishop  from  1615  to  1618,  was 
a  son  of  the  laird  of  Ardmurdo,  in  the  parish  of  Kinkell.  After  him  an  exceptionally 
worthy  prelate  had  been  appointed — Patrick  Forbes — himself  the  laird  of  Corse,  in 
Coull  parish,  and  who,  from  1618  to  1635,  fulfilled  the  duties  of  his  prominent  position 
with  the  most  beneficial  results  to  his  diocese ;  in  especial,  by  his  government  of  the  two 
universities  under  his  care,  -conferring  such  benefit  upon  the  community  as  made  his 
name  worthy  to  be  connected  with  that  of  the  originator  of  university  education  in  the 
North.  Bishop  Patrick  Forbes  had  found  both  Bishop  Elphinstone's  and  the  Earl 
Marischal's  Colleges  in  a  disorganised  condition,  and  nurtured  them  back  into  such  effi- 
ciency as  for  long  placed  Aberdeen  before  the  other  University  seats  in  Scotland.  He 
was  paralytic  for  several  years  before  his  death,  and  able  only  to  be  carried  to  church, 


Eve  of  the  Covenant.  249 


or  to  preside  in  the  Synod;  and  he  died  on  Easter  Eve,  1635,  two  years  before  the  first 
private  conferences  began  which  resulted  in  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant. 

The  Aberdeen  Doctors,  often  referred  to  in  the  history  of  that  period  as  having 
alone  in  Scotland  entered  into  argumentative  controversy  with  the  leaders  of  the  Cove- 
nant, were  but  the  exponents  of  the  political  sentiment  which  prevailed  in  the  district. 
These  courageous  worthies  were  the  Bishop's  son,  Dr.  John  Forbes,  Professor  of  Divinity 
in  King's  College ;  Dr.  Eobert  Baron,  Professor  of  Divinity,  and  Minister  in  Aberdeen  ; 
Dr.  Alexander  Scrogie,  Minister  of  Old  Aberdeen ;  Dr.  William  Leslie,  Principal 
of  King's  College;  and  Drs.  James  Sibbald  and  Alexander  Eoss,  both  Ministers  in 
Aberdeen. 

Perhaps  there  still  existed  the  restraining  influence  of  the  sharp  check  which  King 
James  administered  to  freedom  of  opinion  on  the  occasion  of  the  Aberdeen  Assembly  of 
160-4 ;  but  there  was  in  the  district  at  the  time  a  leaven  of  the  element  of  society  then 
most  antagonistic  to  the  Covenanting  Church.  The  General  Assembly  of  1606  com- 
plained to  the  King  that  the  Papist  Earls  of  Huntly  and  Erroll,  and  the  lairds  of  Gicht 
and  Newton,  were  always  protected  from  the  efforts  of  the  Church  to  bring  them  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth,  legal  writs  being  granted,  discharging  the  Church  Courts  from 
exercising  upon  them  the  necessary  discipline.  In  the  year  1637,  Father  Gilbert 
Blakhall  was  perambulating  the  shires  of  Aberdeen  and  Banff  as  a  missionary  of  the 
Eomish  Church  notwithstanding  the  penal  laws  enacted  in  the  beginning  of  the  King's 
reign.  Blakhall  made  his  rounds  periodically  to  certain  stations  to  hear  confession  ;  his 
houses  of  call  being  Blair,  Schivas,  Gicht,  Artrochy,  Cruden,  Strathbogy,  Cairnburrow 
and  Craig.  The  laird  of  New  Leslie,  and  his  daughter,  sometimes  confessed  at  Cairnbur- 
row, where  also  others  met  the  Father.  In  Huntly — then  called  the  Eaws  of  Strathbogie 
— he  received  the  poor  Catholics  at  an  hostelry  kept  by  one  Eobert  Eennie.  The  laird 
of  Blair  himself — Dr.  James  Seton — a  physician,  was,  sometime  later,  looked  upon  by  the 
Church  Courts  as,  under  cover  of  his  medical  opportunities,  a  propagator  of  the  for- 
bidden faith. 

Of  the  local  families,  the  Leslies,  Leiths,  Urquharts,  Setons,  Abercrombys,  and 
Gordons,  were  avowed,  or  concealed  Papists.  The  Elphinstones  and  Johnstons  were 
supporters  of  the  King  in  the  political  struggle.  Sir  Thomas  Crombie  of  Kemnay 
appears  as  a  frequent  sufferer  at  the  hands  of  the  Covenanters.  A  family  now  unrepre- 
sented in  the  Garioch,  Wood  of  Bonnyton,  appears  at  that  time  extensively  intermarry- 
ing with  the  Leslies,  Elphinstones,  &c,  and  evidently  was  of  the  Catholic  party. 

The  rule  of  the  Church,  when  the  Covenant  became  dominant,  was  not  far  from 
creating  a  reign  of  terror ;  and  strange  changes  of  part  in  the  drama  occurred — the 
Gordons  of  Newton  appearing  at  one  time  as  elders  in  the  parish  church  of  Culsalmond, 
and  being  at  another  extruded  as  obstinate  recusants.  George  Gordon  of  Newton,  second 
son  of  the  third  Gordon  of  Lesmoir,  by  Katharine  Forbes  of  Tolquhon,  his  wife,  was 
as  well  as  his  son,  mixed  up  with  the  acts  of  the  Popish  Marquis  of  Huntly,  as  were 

32 


250  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

also  Gordon  of  Haddo,  Gordon  of  Gicht,  and  Patrick  Gordon,  nicknamed  Steelhand. 
George  Leslie  of  Badiefurrow  is  not  mentioned  in  the  politics  of  the  time,  but  his  wife, 
Magdalene  "Wood  of  Bonnyton,  was  excommunicated  for  Popery.  Sir  George  Johnston 
was  out  of  his  estate,  and  does  not  appear  in  the  troubles,  except  as  subscribing  the 
Covenant,  at  the  instance  of  the  Presbytery,  for  the  second  time,  about  1650.  His 
uncle,  Dr.  Arthur  Johnston,  was  Eector  of  King's  College  in  1G37,  but  it  is  likely  was 
not,  at  that  time,  permanently  resident  in  Aberdeenshire. 

The  successive  heads  of  the  Balquhain  family  were  mostly  abroad  during  the  Civil 
"War.  John  Leslie,  the  twelfth  baron,  was  a  Protestant,  and  served,  from  1639  to  1647, 
in  the  Scottish  army  under  Field-Marshal  Leslie,  the  leader  of  the  Covenanting  army, 
and  subserviently  of  that  sent  into  England  in  support  of  Charles  II.  Balquhain  went 
abroad  afterwards,  and  took  service  in  Bussia,  and  died  during  the  invasion  of  Poland 
in  1655.  His  uncle  William,  also  a  Protestant,  succeeded  him.  He  had  been  a 
faithful  servant  to  King  Charles  I.,  both  in  the  Council  and  in  the  field  ;  and  after  the 
slaughter  of  his  Sovereign  he  left  the  country  and  lived  in  Holland.  He  resigned  the 
estates  to  his  brother  "Walter,  a  soldier  of  the  Boman  Catholic  League  under  the  Emperor 
of  Austria.  "Walter  passed  his  Garioch  heritage  to  his  brother  Alexander ;  who  appears,  in 
the  Inverurie  documents  as  Alexander  Leslie  of  Tullos,  living  quietly  at  the  House  of 
Tullos,  at  the  foot  of  Benachie,  a  real,  or  apparent  Protestant,  but  needing  to  be  enjoined, 
by  the  watchful  Presbytery,  to  "  keep  his  parish  kirk  of  Oyne  ". 

The  laird  of  Drimmies  of  the  time,  Alexander  Chalmers,  was  among  the  Boyalists, 
though  Protestant ;  his  son,  actively  so,  was  to  fall,  sword  in  hand,  into  the  power  of 
Argyll  at  the  taking  of  the  House  of  Kelly.  Cruickshank  of  Tillymorgan  was  on  the 
same  side.  The  laird  of  Fetternear,  Hector  Abercromby,  appears,  along  with  his  wife, 
long  exercising  their  ingenuity  to  keep  their  fidelity  to  the  Church  of  Borne  a  secret.  The 
laird  of  Pittodrie  of  the  time,  Thomas  Erskine,  brother-in-law  of  the  elder  Alexander 
Jaffray,  was  Protestant  and  Covenanting,  as  were  the  whole  of  the  Erskines,  though 
both  his  mother  and  wife  belonged  to  families  of  the  opposite  side,  the  one  being  a 
Gordon  and  the  other  a  Seton. 

Another  relative  of  Provost  Jaffray,  Bobert  Burnet,  advocate,  laird  of  Crimond,  in 
Monkegy,  and  before  his  death  a  judge  of  the  Court  of  Session  by  the  title  of  Lord 
Crimond,  was  an  exception  to  all  of  his  name  and  family, — the  Burnets  of  Leys,  who 
espoused  the  side  of  the  Covenant.  He  was  younger  brother  of  Sir  Thomas  Burnet, 
first  baronet  of  Leys,  and  of  James  Burnet  of  Craigmyle,  the  father  of  the  first  Burnet 
of  Kemnay,  and  was  a  man  so  honest  and  single-minded  as  to  be  misunderstood  by  his 
contemporaries.  His  reproofs  of  the  proceedings  of  the  bishops  in  1637,  which  disgusted 
him,  made  him  be  regarded  by  them  as  a  Puritan,  but  when  he  saw  that  the  Covenanters, 
instead  of  merely  reforming,  meant  to  subvert  the  existing  order  of  things,  he  espoused 
the  side  of  the  Crown  so  decidedly  that  he  had  to  spend  some  years  in  exile.  Bobert 
Burnet,  Lord  Crimond,  is  remarkable  in  the  history  of  the  time  for  more  than  his  own 


Eve  of  the  Covenant.  251 


position  and  merits.  Gilbert  Burnet,  minister  of  Salton  in  East  Lothian  from  1665  to 
1669,  subsequently  Professor  of  Divinity  at  Glasgow,  after  the  Eestoration,  and  after- 
wards Bishop  of  Salisbury,  was  one  of  his  sons— the  fifth  and  youngest.  Gilbert  was 
born  in  1643  at  Edinburgh,  and  of  course  was  but  a  child  in  the  most  interesting  years 
of  the  Covenant.  When  very  young,  he  was  employed  as  a  messenger  in  the  many  com- 
munications held  by  Charles  II.  with  his  friends  in  Britain,  and  had  his  memory  stored 
with  the  details  put  on  record  afterwards  in  his  History  of  his  own  Times.  Mr  Bobert 
Burnet  acquired  the  property  of  Crimond  in  1634,  about  the  date  of  Alexander 
Jaffray's  getting  possession  of  the  Caskieben  estates,  of  which  it  at  one  time  had  formed 
part.  His  second  wife,  the  mother  of  the  bishop,  was  sister  of  Sir  Archibald  Johnston, 
Lord  Warriston,  the  most  prominent  Scottish  statesman  in  the  Commonwealth  period. 
There  is  something  so  redeeming  to  the  times  in  the  tribute  paid  to  Lord  Crimond's 
.memory  by  his  grandson,  a  son  of  the  bishop,  and  himself  a  Judge  of  Common  Pleas  in 
England,  that  it  is  well  to  have  it  to  read  in  connection  with  a  state  of  society  so  un- 
attractive morally  as  that  in  which  the  Covenant  had  to  play  its  part  in  the  progress  of  the 
Eeformation.  "  He  was  eminent  for  probity  and  generosity  in  his  practice,  insomuch  that 
near  one-half  of  his  income  went  in  acts  of  charity  and  friendship.  Erom  the  poor  he 
never  took  a  fee,  nor  from  a  clergyman,  when  he  sued  in  the  right  of  his  church." 
Bobert  Burnet  of  Crimond,  appointed  a  Judge  at  the  Eestoration,  lived  to  hold  the  office 
of  a  Lord  of  Session  only  three  months.  His  descendants  were  numerous  and  several  of 
them  distinguished. 

A  previous  laird  of  Crimond  was  Bobert  Johnston  (a  cadet  of  the  Caskieben  stock, 
and  also  brother-in-law  of  John  Johnston  of  that  Ilk).  He  was  chosen  Provost  of  Aberdeen 
in  Autumn  1635,  but  was  removed  by  the  Lords  of  Privy  Council  in  January  1636,  when 
Alexander  Jaffray  of  Kingswells  was  appointed  Provost  in  his  stead.  Bobert  Johnston 
was  again  elected  Provost  in  1637  ;  and  held  office  for  a  year.  As  with  Lord  Crimond, 
he  is  less  noted  in  history  than  his  son — Lieutenant-Colonel  AVilliam  Johnston — the 
most  efficient  officer  that  the  Boyalist  cause  had  in  the  North  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Civil  War,  and  the  actual  leader  in  the  few  successes  then  obtained  by  the  Aberdeen- 
shire barons.  Like  Leslie,  General  of  the  Covenanting  army,  and  the  Master  of  Eorbes, 
one  of  its  local  chiefs,  AVilliam  Johnston  had  learned  the  art  of  soldiery  in  the  Protestant 
army  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  then  carrying  on  the  long  contest  against  the  Eonian 
Catholic  League.  Of  this  gallant  Cavalier,  Commissary  Clerk  Spalding  writes : — 
"  Generall  Johnstoun  for  his  wit  and  policie  was  honored  amongst  them  all,  and  had 
the  first  place  at  all  thair  meittiiigis  ":  i.e.,  the  meetings  of  the  Aberdeenshire  Eoyalists. 

Mr  Bobert  Farquhar  of  Mounie,  a  Garioch  laird,  who,  on  the  Eestoration,  became 
Sir  Bobert,  was  apparently  a  zealous  Covenanter.  He  was  intimately  associated  with 
Alexander  Jaffray,  the  younger,  in  the  civic  politics  of  Aberdeen,  as  well  as  in  business 
transactions.  Farquhar's  chief  employment  seems  to  have  been  that  of  a  wholesale 
dealer  in  victual.     A  transaction  of  that  nature  brought  the  Baronet  of  Wardes  into  his 


252  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

power,  as  has  been  noticed.  During  the  Civil  War  bis  political  action  brought  him  into 
trouble,  at  times,  with  the  Gordons ;  and  under  the  Covenanting  rulers  his  department 
.was  in  the  profitable  line  of  the  Commissariat ;  hi  which,  however,  he  met  occasionally 
the  fate  of  other  creditors. 

A  principal  actor  in  the  troubles  which  began  in  the  Garioch  with  1639,  was  John 
Lcith  of  Harthill,  an  ardent  Eoyalist,  whose  somewhat  insane  actions  led  to  his  spending 
much  of  his  time  in  irons  within  the  "  Mids  o'  Mar,"  as  the  Aberdeen  jail  was  called,  or 
in  the  companion  prison  of  the  capital,  "  the  Heart  of  Midlothian".  Leith's  first  exploit 
was  forcing  his  way,  on  the  24th  December,  1639,  into  the  Provost's  pew  in  the  Old 
Kirk  of  Aberdeen  during  the  second  prayer;  swearing  at  the  Town-serjeants,  who  offered 
him  another  seat,  "  By  God's  wounds,  I  shall  sit  beside  the  Provost,  and  in  no  other 
place  of  the  kirk,"  and  drawing  bis  sword  upon  the  town's  officer.  He  was  with  difficulty 
secured  and  taken  to  the  Tolbooth,  terrifying  the  Eaillies  by  a  threat  that  he  would  break 
out  and  burn  the  town.  At  the  examination,  held  immediately  after  the  service,  he  told 
the  officer  he  should  fence  the  Court  in  the  Devil's  name;  calling  the  Provost  "but  a  doittit 
cock  and  ane  ass ;  and  while  the  Clerk  was  reading  the  complaint  and  accusation  against 
him,  not  only  did  Harthill  violently  pluck  the  paper  furth  of  his  hand,  and  tear  the 
same  in  pieces,  but  likewise  took  the  Clerk,  Mr  George  Robertson,  his  penner  and  ink- 
horne,  quhilk  was  lying  befoir  him  on  the  table,  and  cast  the  same  eagerlie  at  his  face, 
and  thairwith  hurt  and  wounded  him  in  two  several  parts,  to  the  great  effusion  of  his 
blood".  The  case  proved  too  much  for  the  minds  of  the  magistracy  to  deal  with,  and  they 
put  him  in  prison  ad  interim  ;  but  he  first  nearly  set  the  place  on  fire,  and  next  made 
such  a  breach  in  the  wall  as  cost  the  sum  of  £35  3s.  Scots  to  repair;  and  having  got 
arms  from  his  friends,  he  attacked  his  jailors  and  fired  out  upon  the  citizens  outside,  and 
at  length  had  to  be  put  in  irons.  His  manacles  soon  disappeared,  and  he  afterwards  ex- 
plained that  "he  had  sent  them  up  to  Harthill".  He  made  himself  master  of  the  jail,  and 
set  all  his  fellow-captives  free,  while  he  remained  himself  "  going  throw  the  hous  as  ane 
commander".  He  next  "  rameforced"  the  outer  door  of  the  Tolbooth  against  all  entrance, 
and  refused  to  come  out.  After  an  imprisonment  of  nine  months  and  fifteen  days,  he 
was,  by  order  of  the  Committee  of  Estates,  removed  to  Edinburgh,  where  he  remained 
in  confinement  till  Montrose  made  himself  master  of  the  city,  Harthill  seems  to  have 
been  regarded  as  a  madman  and  left  at  liberty.  Long  after  he  appears  in  the  Presbytery 
records  of  the  Garioch  exhibiting  the  like  frantic  violence  in  that  Court,  and  against  in- 
dividual ministers,  about  some  communion  cups  which  his  son  had  given  to  the  parishes 
of  Oyne  and  Eayne. 

On  the  Covenanting  side,  at  the  beginning  of  the  troubles,  the  leaders  in  the  Garioch 
were  the  old  hereditary  antagonists  of  the  Marquis  of  Huntly — the  Forbeses,  of  whom 
the  lairds  of  Monymusk  and  Leslie  were  at  that  time  persons  of  means  and  influence. 
Pitsligo,  Tolquhon,  and  Echt  were  always  along  with  these, — their  recognised  chief 
being  the  Master  of  Forbes,  one  of  the  soldiers  of  fortune  of  the  time,  trained  in  the 


Eve  of  the  Covenant.  253 


Swedish  army.  A  prominent  individual  on  the  Covenanting  side  in  the  Garioeh,  when 
in  1639  open  strife  first  began  by  an  appeal  to  arms,  was  the  Knight  of  Craigievar, 
Sir  William  Forbes,  made  a  Baronet  of  Nova  Scotia  by  Charles  I.  in  1630.  He  was 
a  nephew  of  the  good  Bishop,  Dr.  Patrick  Forbes  of  Corse,  but  became  the  most  active 
oppressor  of  those  who  sympathised  with  the  Bishop's  sentiments  and  sought  to  defend 
the  King's  position,  in  the  country.  He  died  before  the  tragic  conclusion  of  the  Civil 
War. 

The  Craigievar  family  of  Forbes  now  represents  the  line  of  Corse,  which  sprang  from 
Patrick,  third  son  of  the  second  Lord  Forbes ;  in  the  generation  in  which  the  Cor- 
sindae  branch  of  the  name  began  with  Duncan  the  second  son  of  the  same  Lord 
Forbes,  and  progenitor  also  of  the  families  of  Monymusk  and  Leslie.  The  bishop  was 
the  fifth  Forbes  of  Corse,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  two  sons,  William,  the  elder,  and 
John,  who  was  extruded  from  the  Professorship  of  Divinity  in  King's  College  Aberdeen, 
by  the  Covenanting  Church.  Neither  of  these  sons  has  now  any' male  representative. 
The  bishop's  brother,  William,  was  aided  by  him  in  a  mercantile  career,  which  he 
chose ;  and  he  became  laird  of  Meny  about  1607,  and,  before  1610,  acquired  the  lands 
of  Craigievar,  which  had  long  been  possessed  by  the  Mortimer  family.  His  son  was 
the  first  baronet,  Sir  William  Forbes  of  Craigievar,  Salton,  Glencorse,  Logy-Fintray,  &c. 
The  present  baronet  is  his  representative  in  an  unbroken  lineal  descent  from  father  to 
son.  The  fourth  baronet,  Sir  Arthur,  was  in  the  time  of  the  rebellion  of  1745-6  repre- 
sentative of  Aberdeenshire  in  Parliament,  and  was  an  intimate  and  valued  friend  of 
Sir  Andrew  Mitchell  of  Thainston,  British  Plenipotentiary  at  the  Court  of  Berlin ;  by 
whose  will  Mr.  Duncan  Forbes,  a  younger  son  of  Sir  Arthur,  became  laird  of  Thain- 
ston, taking  the  name  of  Forbes-Mitchell,  by  which  family  name  the  representative  of 
that  line  continues  to  be  designated. 

Another  Garioeh  name  deserves  to  be  noticed  among  the  actors  in  the  troubles 
which  preceded  the  death  of  King  Charles.  The  subordinate  general  in  the  Covenanting 
army,  sent  north  in  1645  against  the  Marquis  of  Montrose,  was  Sir  John  Urrie  or. 
Hurrie,  of  the  family  of  Urrie  of  Pitfiehie,  in  Monymusk  parish.  He  seems  to  have 
been  one  of  the  officers  trained  in  foreign  service  who  came  to  the  front  in  the  military 
actions  of  the  time.  His  wife  was  apparently  of  one  of  the  Spanish  families  settled  in 
Holland  —  Maria  Magdalena  van  Jaxheim,  daughter  of  Christopher  Sebastian  van 
Jaxheim  de  Erlabrun  in  Germany.  A  brief  of  birth  obtained  by  his  daughter,  Mary 
Margaret  Urrie,  Lady  Lamont,  in  1669,  exhibits  him  as  the  ninth  Urrie  of  Pitfiehie 
in  lineal  descent.  He  may  have  had  as  his  ancestor  the  Urrie  who  appears  in  the 
Eagman  Bolls.  On  the  mother's  side  he  was  of  the  blood  of  the  Chalrderses  of  Cults, 
an  Aberdeen  family,  of  municipal  rank,  descended  from  the  House  of  Balnacraig,  trace- 
able to  the  latter  part  of  the  14th  century.  The  pedigree  was  a  long  one,  and  worth 
recording  if  any  one  lives  now  to  whom  it  is  part  of  his  own  origines.  Besides  the 
entry  in  the  Bagman  Bolls  the  name  Urrie  appears  in  1388  in  aForglen  charter  of  some 


254  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  GariocJi. 

lands  resigned  to  John  Eraser  by  Gilbert  Urrie  and  bis  spouse  Joanna,  heir  of  deceased 
Marjorie,  the  wife  of  John  Fraser,  daughter  and  heir  of  Sir  John  of  Monymusk  ;  and 
again  in  1466  the  name  of  Andre  Uurrie  in  connection  with  the  same  lands.  The  family 
bearing  the  territorial  name  of  Monymusk  had  possessed  Pitfichie,  but  forfeited  it  (p.  65). 
The  pedigree  sanctioned  by  the  Heralds  College  in  1669  to  Lady  Lamont,  and  partly 
corroborated  by  documents  which  the  Spalding  Club  has  printed,  gives  the  following 
description  from  father  to  son  of  Lairds  of  Pitfichie  : — 

John  Urrie  of  Pitfichie  married  Catherine,  daughter  of  Lord  Forbes ;  Gilbert 
Urrie,  a  person  of  distinction,  married  Elizabeth  Lawder,  daughter  of  the  Laird  of 
Basse;  William  Urrie  married  Barbara  Crichton,  daughter  of  the  Laird  of  Frendraught ; 
David  Urrie  married  Joanna  Leslie,  daughter  of  the  Laird  of  Balquhain;  George  Urrie, 
married  Elizabeth  Fraser,  daughter  of  the  Laird  of  Muchals  ;  William  Urrie  married 
Agnes  Leslie,  daughter  of  the  Laird  of  Wardes ;  William  Urrie,  married  Elizabeth 
Erskine,  daughter  of  the  laird  of  Dun ;  John  Urrie  married  Margaret  Chalmers,  daughter 
of  Alexander  Chalmers  of  Cults.     Sir  John  Urrie  was  their  son. 

William  Urrie  of  Pitfichie  appears  on  numerous  juries  of  inquest  about  1506.  In 
1535  William  Urrie  of  Pitfichie  was  a  witness  to  transactions  of  the  Prior  of  Mony- 
musk. In  1531  Thomas  Fraser  of  Staneywood,  ancestor  of  the  Lords  Fraser  of  Muchals, 
had  a  charter  of  Wester  Corse  and  JSTorham,  which  lands  belonged  in  1540  to  Urrie  of 
Pitfichie.  The  records  of  the  Leslie  family  make  Ann  Leslie,  daughter  of  3rd  Lord 
of  Wardes,  widow  of  Urrie  of  Pitfichie  in  1580. 

The  maternal  pedigree  of  Sir  John,  obtained  by  his  daughter,  traces  from  the 
Chalmerses  of  Balnacraig,  who  were  also  of  Kintore  (p.  62),  and  held  high  municipal 
position  in  Aberdeen.  In  1388  William  Chalmers  had  a  lease  of  Murtle  from  Adam, 
Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  and  in  1402  bis  son  Thomas  (also  Laird  of  Findon)  had  a  renewal 
from  Bishop  Gilbert,  and  in  1488  Alexander  Chalmers  of  Cults  renounced  it.  The 
pedigree  of  1669  (father  and  son)  is  as  follows  : — 

Alexander  Chalmers  of  Cults,  son  of  the  House  of  Balnacraig,  married  Agnes 
Hay,  daughter  of  Earl  of  Erroll ;  Alexander  Chalmers  married  Janet,  daughter  of  John 
Leslie  of  that  Ilk  ;  Alexander  Chalmers  married  Elizabeth  Douglass  of  Glenbervie ; 
Thomas  Chalmers  married  Mary  Menzies,  daughter  of  the  Laird  of  Pitfodels  ;  Alexander 
Chalmers  married  Helen  Eait,  daughter  of  the  Laird  of  Halgreen ;  Alexander  Chalmers 
married  Janet  Lumsden,  daughter  of  the  Laird  of  Cushnie ;  Gilbert  Chalmers  married 
Elizabeth  Fraser,  daughter  of  the  Laird  of  Durris ;  Alexander  Chalmers  married  Janet, 
daughter  of  James  Irving,  brother  of  the  Laird  of  Drum ;  Marjory  Chalmers,  their  only 
child,  was  mother  of  Sir  John  Urrie. 

There  was  no  John  Leslie  of  that  Ilk  ;  the  first  John  Leslie  of  Balquhain  died  in 
1561  ;  the  first  John  of  Wardes  died  in  1546.  In  1505  Thomas  Chalmers  was  served 
heir  to  his  father  Alexander  in  the  lands  of  Cults  and  Little  Methlick.  The  same  jury 
found  Mariot  Matheson,  widow  of  Alexander  Chalmers,  entitled  to  her  terce  of  two- 


Eve  of  the  Covenant.  255 


thirds  of  Cults  and  her  terce  of  Methlick,  excepting  ten  pounds  formerly  granted  to 
Thomas  Chalmers  and  Elen  Rate  his  wife.  In  1 548  Thomas  was  on  an  assize.  Alex- 
ander Chalmers  was  Provost  of  Aherdeen  in  1567,  and  had  two  sons,  Gilbert,  his 
successor,  and  Mr.  William,  Minister  of  Boyndie.  Gilbert  in  1601  had  a  Great  Seal 
Charter  of  Cults.     He  sold  Cults  in  1612  to  the  Laird  of  Lesmoir. 

The  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  evoked  by  the  King's  introducing  the 
Service  Book  prepared  by  Archbishop  Laud,  was  the  national  protest  against  his  con- 
firmation of  Episcopacy  in  a  strict  form,  of  which  that  book  was  a  symbol.  The  Cove- 
nant was  first  signed  upon  the  first  day  of  March,  1638,  by  a  multitude  of  all  classes, 
upon  tables  erected  in  the  churchyard  of  the  Grey  friars  in  Edinburgh  ;  and  committees 
of  nobles,  lairds,  and  ministers  were  appointed  to  carry  it  to  different  parts  of  the 
country  for  the  signature  of  the  whole  nation.  One  of  the  clerical  commissioners 
who  perambulated  the  North  was  Mr.  Andrew  Cant,  the  first  parish  minister  of  Pit- 
sligo,  in  Buchan,  an  individual  typical  of  the  period,  and  afterwards  much  recorded 
in  its  annals.  Henderson  and  Dickson,  his  colleagues,  were  with  him  only  in  Aber- 
deen. 

The  marvellous  success  which  attended  those  commissioners — Apostles  of  the  Cove- 
nant as  they  were  termed — was  partly  due  to  the  foresight  of  the  Earl  of  Eothes,  the 
head  of  the  Protestant  branch  of  the  great  House  of  Leslie,  the  junior  Balquhain  branch 
whereof  continued  partly  to  be  Roman  Catholic.  The  Earl  of  Eothes  had  before  the 
outbreak  sent  for  his  kinsman,  Field-Marshal  Leslie,  from  the  Queen  of  Sweden's 
service,  and  secured  his  co-operation  in  the  national  rising  then  anticipated.  That  dis- 
tinguished soldier  was  an  illegitimate  descendant  of  the  New  Leslie  branch  of  the  House 
of  Balquhain.  Utterly  destitute  of  education,  so  that  it  was  believed  he  never  could 
sign  his  own  name,  he  manifested  ■  such  ability  as  a  military  commander,  and  so  much 
strength  and  worth  of  character,  that  he  was  well  fitted  to  uphold  the  dignity  of  Earl  of 
Leven,  which  he  ultimately  attained.  On  coming  home  Leslie  set  at  once  about  train- 
ing the  tenants  of  the  Earl  of  Rothes  and  others  obtainable ;  and  sent  quietly  for  certain 
Scottish  officers  serving  abroad,  whom  he  selected  for  their  fitness  for  the  expected  work. 
In  consequence  he  had,  when  the  force  of  arms  came  to  be  appealed  to,  a  trained  body 
of  troops  for  the  nucleus  of  the  Covenanting  army;  a  provision  which  gave  his 
followers  great  advantage  over  the  feudal  levies  brought  against  him,  which,  according 
to  immemorial  custom,  were  never  for  any  long  time  kept  together,  but  were  assembled 
only  when  occasion  arose,  and  were  disbanded  after  either  victory  or  defeat.  Leslie  was 
the  actual  leader  of  the  combined  force,  although  the  title  of  Lord-General  was  given  to 
some  nobleman,  the  Earl  of  Montrose  holding  that  position  at  the  beginning,  and  the 
Earl  of  Argyll  at  a  later  period. 

The  camp  of  the  Covenanters,  when  under  General  Leslie's  command,  is  described 
as  a  scene  of  singular  and  becoming  order — Divine  worship  regularly  uniting  the  entire 
host,  aud  harmony  of  action  being  procured  by  the  Marshal's  prudent  and  firm  manage- 


256  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

ment  of  the  self-seeking  nobleinen  and  hot-headed  clerical  delegates,  who  were   con- 
stantly wishing  to  interfere  with  the  action  of  the  army. 

The  principal  General  of  King  Charles,  though  also  with  a  subordinate  rank,  was 
sprung  from  a  Garioch  family— General  King,  whom  Charles  I.  made  Lieutenant- 
General  of  his  army  under  the  Earl  of  Newcastle,  which  last,  Clarendon  says,  was  unac- 
quainted with  the  art  of  Avar.  Sir  James  King  was  the  son  of  the  last  of  the  family 
of  King,  who  was  proprietor  of  Barra,  and  himself  retained  the  designation,  being 
called  of  Barraucht  and  Birness — a  property  in  Buclian  which  he  had,  it  may  be,  acquired 
by  purchase.  Like  his  contemporaries — Marshal  Leslie,  Crowner  Johnston,  and  the 
Master  of  Forbes — he  was  a  pupU  of  the  soldier  King  of  Sweden,  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
and  had  attained  the  rank  of  Lieutenant-General,  as  well  as  the  highest  reputation 
in  that  monarch's  service.  King  Charles  in  1642  conferred  on  him  the  title  of  Lord 
Eythin  or  Ythan,  from  the  river  so  named  not  far  from  his  Buchan  property.  The  Scot- 
tish Parliament  passed  an  Act  of  forfeiture  against  him  in  1644,  and  rescinded  it  in 
1647.  The  title  became  extinct  by  his  death  without  heirs  male.  A  daughter  of 
Lord  Ythan's  seems  to  have  resided  at  one  time  near  Peterhead. 

BURGH  LAIRDS  AT  THE  TIME  OF  THE  COVENANT. 

"We  are  enabled  to  ascertain,  with  accuracy,  who  were  holders  of  Burgh  Eoods  and 
Common  Lands  of  Inverurie  shortly  before  the  Civil  War  began,  from  a  contract  as  to 
the  Teinds  between  Sir  Thomas  Crombie  of  Kemnay  and  William  Johnston,  George 
Leslie,  and  James  Eergus,  baillies  and  burgesses  of  the  burgh,  acting  for  themselves, 
and  on  behalf  of  certain  holders  of  burgage  lands  and  common  lands  in  the  burgh. 
The  contract  was  signed  at  Inverurie,  in  April,  1633,  before  witnesses — Sir  George 
Johnston  of  that  Ilk,  "Walter  Forbes  of  Thaynestoun,  William  Gell,  servitor  to  the  said 
laird  of  Kemnay,  and  William  Smith,  servitor  to  Caskieben,  and  was  written  by 
Patrick  Smith,  Notary  Public. 

The  contract  narrates  rights  disponed  by  Sir  Thomas  Crombie  to  the  Burgh  : — 

1.  Tack  and  assedation,  of  dait  the  ellevent  day  of  May,  1593,  granted  by  um- 
quhille  Patrick  commendator  of  Lyndoris,  and  convent  thereof,  to  umquhillo  Alexander 
Irving,  styled  for  the  time  fiar  of  Drum,  and  his  airs  and  assignees,  for  his  lyfetime,  and 
three  nynteen  years  thereafter,  of  all  and  sundrie  the  teind  sheaves  of  the  said  town  of 
Inverury,  lands  thereof,  niilne  lands  and  davauch  lands  of  the  same,  with  the  outsettis, 
pairts,  pendicles  and  pertinents  ;  for  the  yearlie  payment  of  twenty-four  pounds  Scots 
money.  Whilk  was  ratified  and  approved,  thereafter,  by  Patrick,  Lord  of  Lyndoris, 
heritable  proprietor  of  the  same,  at  Edinburgh,  aucht  day  of  May,  1615. 

2.  Another  tack  and  assedation  made  by  said  Patrick,  Lord  of  Lyndoris,  to  said 
umquhille  Alexander  Irving  of  Drum,  in  lyferent  and  three  nyneteen  years  next  after 
the  entrie,  whilk  was  appointit  to  be  at  Lambas,  1615,  for  yearlie  payment  of  twenty- 


Burgh  Lairds  at  the  Time  of  the  Covenant.  257 

four  pounds,  and  relief  of  taxation,  reparation  of  kirk,  and  furnishing  of  elements. 
Which  tack  was  assigned,  same  date,  by  Alexander  Irving  to  Sir  Alexander  his  son.  Sir 
Alexander,  with  consent  of  Dame  Margaret  Scrimgeour,  his  spouse,  disponed  the  same 
on  ninth  and  twelfth  May,  1623,  to  Sir  "William  Douglas  of  Glenbervie.  The  said  Sir 
William,  by  assignation  twenty-twa  day  of  June,  1624,  disponed  the  said  tack  to  Sir 
Thomas  Crombie. 

There  were  excepted  from  the  whole  teinds  of  the  town  of  Inverurie  thus  disponed 
the  teind  sheaves  disponed  by  the  said  Thomas  to  Sir  George  Johnston  of  that  Ilk, 
knight  baronet,  viz.,  the  Davauch  lands  of  Inverurie,  lands  of  Ardtannies,  milne  lands, 
ruddis,  crofts,  and  others,  at  Edinburgh,  the  sixteen  day  of  March,  1632  ;  Also, 
those  ruddis  and  lands  which  belong  to  the  laird  of  Wardis,  upon  the  syid  of  the  said 
town  of  Inverury,  which  are  presently  possessed  and  occupied  by  the  said  William  John- 
ston, baillie,  the  teind  sheaves  of  which  it  shall  be  lessum  to  said  Thomas  to  dispone  at 
his  pleasure ;  Also  reserving  to  said  Thomas  to  dispose  of  at  his  pleasure,  the  teind 
sheaves  of  that  piece  of  land  pertaining  to  Thomas  Johnston  ;  Likewise  the  heritable 
richt  made  by  said  Thomas  to  John  Stiven,  upon  that  raid  callit  Susan  Stiven's  raid, 
shall  remain  with  the  said  John  and  his  heirs,  so  that  it  shall  be  lessum  to  them  to 
dispose  upon  it. 

For  the  portion  disposed  of  by  contract  with  the  baillies  for  themselves  and  others, 
they  became  bound  to  relievethe  said  Thomas  and  his  successors  of  the  sowme  of  auch- 
teen  poundis  Scottis,  as  the  just  pairt  and  portion  of  the  sowme  of  twenty-four  poundis 
money,  quhilk  he  by  his  infef tment  is  obleisit  to  pay  yearlie  to  the  minister  of  Inverurie 
and  of  his  majestie's  annuitie  imposit,  or  to  be  imposit,  upon  the  said  teynd  sheaves ; 
and  of  all  taxations,  impositions,  and  other  burdings,  repairing  and  upholding  the  kirk, 
furneising  of  elements  to  the  communion;  and  of  all  others,  pro  rata,  according  to  the 
value  of  the  teind  sheaves, — provyding  his  majestie's  confirmation  be  purchesit  and 
obtained  by  the  said  baillies  and  heritors  by  their  own  nioyen,  and  at  their  own  charges 
and  expenses. 

The  following  are  the  burgh  properties  included  in  the  contract : — 
_  Auchtene  ruddis  of  land,  lyand  on  the  west  syd  of  the  burgh  of  Inverury,  above  the  said  George 
Leslie's  mansion  and  dwelling-house     [Afterwards  Stonehouse,  extending  to  Streamhead] ;    Ane  twelff 
part  bu'row  lands  with  pairts,  pendicles,  and  pertinents  thereof ;  ane  piece  callit  the  Castell  yardis  and 
Milne  butts. 

The  lands  callit  the  Twa  pairt  and  Three  pairt  Stanners  ;  the  Gudeman's  Croft  ;  the  Dowcot 
and  Cobill  hauchis  ;  the  lands  callit  the  Garden  ruddis,  lyan  before  the  said  Geo.  Leslie,  his  dwelling- 
house,  extending  to  nyne  ruddis  land  ;  the  Barbuts,  Boutrie  bous  riggis,  and  the  Dame  rig,  in  the 
Stanners  ;  all  pertaining  to  George  Leslie. 

Four  ruddis  on  west  side  of  burgh,  pert,  to  Walter  Fergus. 

The  Litell  Croft  pert,  to  Mr.  Alex.  Mitchell.     [Part  of  Ury  Bank.] 

Six  ruddis  on  east  syde  of  burgh,  and  ane  half!'  twalff  pairt  burrow  lands,  pert,  to  James  Fergus. 

Fire  ruddis  on  east  syde  of  burgh  ;  twa  ruddis  on  west  syde  ;  ane  quarter  twalff  pairt  burrow 
lands  ;  all  pert,  to  William  Ronald. 

Ane  rude  on  west  syde,  pert,  to  Ion  Gib. 

Ane  rude  on  west  syde  ;  ane  croft  callit  the  Barcroft  of  Cobill  Seat  ;  with  the  hauchis  thereof, 
called  Susana  Steven's  rude  [west  side  of  Stanners,  where  the  boat  was] ;  pert,  to  Ion  Steven,  or  Susana 
his  sister. 

33 


258  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Thrie  ruides  on  west  syde  ;  Time  come  buttis  and  four  common  buttis  on  east  syde,  pelt,  to 
Andro  Gib. 

Fyve  ruidis  on  the  west  syde  ;  the  Mather  Yard  in  the  Stanners  ;  twa  ruiddis  there  ;  the  Short 
Croft ;  ane  and  a  quarter  rude  of  the  Gudeman's  Croft ;  ane  twalff  pairt  Common  laudis  ;  pert,  to  James 
Black. 

Twa  rudes  and  half  ane  rude  on  east  syde,  pert,  to  Christian  Tailyier. 

Twa  rudis  on  the  east  syde  ;  ane  rude  in  the  Stanners  ;  ane  halff  twalff  pairt  common  lands ;  pert, 
to  Wm.  Johnston,  alias  Kobb's  Willie. 

Twa  rudis  on  west  pairt ;  Fyve  rudis  on  east  pairt  ;  ane  quarter  twalff  pairt  burrow  lands  ;  twa 
rudes  on  the  Stanners ;  pert,  to  Alex.  Fergus. 

Ane  rude  on  east  pairt ;  the  Lint  Butt ;  ane  sixteine  pairt  burrow  lands ;  pert,  to  Mr.  James  Miln. 
Twa  rudis  in  the  west  pairt,  pert,  to  Ion  Anderson. 

Thrie  rudis  and  three  quarteris  on  the  west  syde,  pert,  to  William  Davidson. 
Fyve  rudis  on  the  east  pairt  ;  Fyve  rudis  on  the  west  pairt  ;  ane  twellf  pairt  burrow  lands,  with 
the  pendicles  thereof  callit  Content,  Crawstone  but  and  the  Burn  rig  ;  which  Burn  rig  pertains  to  Wm. 
Robertson,  burgess  of  Aberdeen,  and  all  the  rest  heritably  in  propertie  to  William  Johnston,  bailie. 

Aucht  rudis  and  half  ane  rude  on  west  syde  [from  23  to  27  High  Street,  once  known  as  Mid- 
town  of  Inverurie]  ;  ane  twelff  pairt  burrow  laudis  and  haill  pendicles,  [in  Burnland,  Contents,  Crow- 
stone,  Longlands,  Dpperhaugh,  and  Burghmuir] ;  pert,  to  John  Mackiesoue,  younger. 

Twa  rudis  and  ane  quarter  on  west  syde  ;  thrie  rudis  on  east  syde  ;  pert,  to  James  Anderson. 
Six  rudis  on  the  west  pairt  ;   four  rudis  on  the  east  pairt,  whereof  twa  rudis  belongs  to  Mr. 
Charles  Angus,  br.  to  Andro. 

Twa  halff  twelff  pairtis  burrow  lands,  with  the  Crawstone  but  and  Content,  pertaining  heritablie 
to  Wm.  Robertson,  burges  of  Aberdeen,  presently  possessed  by  Christiane  Mathewsone  ;  all  pert,  herit- 
ablie to  Androw  Angus. 

Ane  rude  and  ane  half  on  west  pairt,  pert,  to  James  Hutcheown. 

Twa  rudis  and  half  rude  on  west  syde  ;  third  pairt  rude  in  Currie's  hauch  ;  pert,  to  James  Benzie 
and  Marjorie  Ronald. 

Ane  rude  and  half  ane  rude  on  west  syde  ;  ane  twa  pairt  rude  on  east  syde;  pert,  to  Wm.  Porter 
and  Geo.  Grub,  wobster. ' 

Seven  rudis  and  half  ane  rude  in  west  pairt  ;  the  croft  of  Brandsbutt;  pert,  to  George  Grub. 
Twa  rudis  and  half  ane  rude  in  west  pairt ;  four  rudis  on  east  pairt ;  ane  twelff  pairt  burgh  lands 
and  hail  pendicles ;   pert,  to  John  Mackieson,  elder,  notar. 
Anne  rude  on  west  pairt,  pert,  to  Ion  Porter. 
Burn  rig,  Crawstonbut,  and  Content  rig,  pert,  to  Thomas  Smith. 
The  Croslitt  Croft  ;  a  little  rig  on  the  Langlands  fauld ;  pert,  to  James  Tailzier. 
Twa  rudis  on  west  ;  ane  croft  of  laud  in  the  Burne  lands  ;   ane  twellf  pairt  and  half  twelff  pairt 
burrow  laudis,  of  ane  rig  in  the  Burn  lands,  Crawstone  but,  and  Content ;  pert,  to  John  Benzie. 
Ane  rude  and  half  ane  rude  on  east  pairt,  p.  to  John  Robertson. 
Twa  rudis  and  halff  rude  on  east  pairt,  pert,  to  James  Robertson. 
Ane  quarter  twelff  pairt,  pert,  to  Patrick  Robertson. 

Ane  sixteine  pairt  in  burrow  lands,  Crawston  but,  and  Content,  pert,  to  William  Anderson. 
Fyve  rudis  and  halff  rude  on  east  pairt  ;  ane  burne  rig  ;  ane  Crowstone  but  rig  ;   ane  rig  on  tha 
Stanners ;  pert,  to  William  Steven. 

Twa  rudis  on  east  pairt,  pert  to  William  Lichtoun. 
Ane  rude  on  east  pairt,  pert,  to  Wm.  Johnestoun,  alias  Kelt. 

Thrie  rudes  on  east  pairt,  pert,  to  Ion  Fergus  ;  twa  rudes  to  George  Fergus.     Burne  land,  Craw- 
stone but,  and  Content  to  James  Fergus ;  conform  to  their  several  rights. 
Twa  rudis  and  a  halff  on  east  pairt ;  pert,  to  Alexander  Barclay. 

Fyve  rudis  and  a  half  ane  rude  on  east  pairt  ;  the  Castle  Croft  in  the  Stanners  ;  Thrie 
hillock  riggis  ;  thrie  riggis,  and  twa  Dam  riggis  in  the  Stanners  ;  pert,  to  Gilbert  Johnestoun. 

Three  rudis  and  halff  ane  rude  in  the  wast  pairt ;  fyve  rudis  and  halff  ane  rude  in  east  pairt ;  ane 
rig  in  the  Stanners  ;  the  Guage  rude  on  the  west,  [now  part  of  the  hotel  feu — probably  the  standard 
rojd  of  the  Burgh]  ;  Pert,  to  John  Thomesonne. 

Twa  rudis  in  the  west  pairt ;  twa  riggis  in  the  Burne  land  ;  the  Gallow  Croft  and  Slackis  thereof; 
pert,  to  Alex.  Joise. 

Twa  rudis  and  half  ane  rude  on  east  syde  ;   ane  quarter  twelff  pairt ;  pert,  to  James  Smith. 
Ane  half  twelff  pairt  burrow  lands  (burn  rig),  occupied  by  said  James  Smith,  whilk  pertains  to 
James  Tailyer  and  to  the  said  James  Smith  in  wadset. 

Thrie  rudis  on  east  pairt  of  burgh,  pert,  to  Alexander  Webster. 


Burgh  Lairds  at  the  Time  of  the  Covenant.  259 

John  Steven's  rood,  called  "  Susana  Steven's  rude,"  was  in  the  Stanners,  near  the 
ferry. 

Thomas  Johnston  lived  at  the  Kirkgreen.  His  "piece  of  land"  may  have  been  the 
original  "  toft"  belonging  to  the  Abbey  of  Lindores,  now  Fittie's  Croft,  which  belonged 
to  persons  named  Johnston  in  the  eighteenth  centurj'. 

The  Burgh  took  sasine  of  the  teinds  in  1644 — the  representing  bailhes  being  George 
Leslie,  John  Johnston,  and  Alexander  Eeid. 

By  Act  of  Parliament,  the  King's  annuities  became  commutable  at  ten  years'  pur- 
chase. Those  of  the  Inverurie  "  aikers  "  had  been  acquired  from  the  King  by  John, 
Earl  of  Lowdon,  and  he  disponed  them  to  the  Burgh,  in  1655,  for  1431bs.  13sh.  8d.,  the 
baillies  receiving  being  Walter  Ferguson,  Alexander  Paterson,  and  Bobert  Ferguson. 

The  above  list  exhibits  both  the  Boods  which  were  burgage  holdings,  and  the 
Twelfth  Parts,  which  were  common  or  burgh  lands,  in  a  much  divided  condition. 
There  are  several  indications  that  the  Boods  had,  anciently,  been  held  in  portions  of 
about  nine  roods,  or  four  and  a-half  Scots  acres,  and  that  the  same  proprietor  had  pos- 
sessed both  Upper  and  Lower  Boods,  lying  opposite  to  each  other,  separated  only 
by  the  King's  gait.  Abstracting  the  Minister's  glebe,  which  consisted  of  about  nine 
roods,  there  would  be  very  close  upon  twelve  double  portions  of  nine  Upper,  and  nine 
Lower  Boods.  The  earliest  records  show  an  entire  twelfth  part  of  Common  Lands 
held  along  with  about  nine  Boods  ;  and  half,  or  quarter,  twelfths,  associated  with 
smaller  portions  of  Boods. 

One  or  two  of  the  families  dating,  by  their  own  tradition,  from  the  division  of  lands 
said  to  have  been  made  by  the  Bruce  after  the  battle  of  Inverurie,  appear  as  burgage 
and  twelfth  part  heritors  so  late  as  1795;  when  the  earliest  extant  plan  of  the  burgh 
lands  was  made  by  Colin  Innes,  Land  Surveyor  in  Aberdeen.  The  Fergusons  ceased 
to  be  burgh  heritors  only  about  1806.  The  last  representative  of  an  old  race,  named 
Mackie  or  Mackieson,  of  Midtoune  of  Inverurie,  parted  with  an  unbroken  burgage  and 
twelfth  part  holding,  when  a  merchant  in  Culm,  in  Polish  Prussia,  about  1730,  and  it 
passed  through  the  respective  hands  of  Elphinstone  of  Glack,  Burnet  of  Kemnay,  and 
the  Earl  of  Findlater,  into  the  possession  of  the  Earl  of  Kintore.  Another  Mackieson 
was  ancestor  of  Baillie  Lyon,  a  noted  chief  magistrate  of  Inverurie  some  sixty  or  seventy 
years  ago.  The  Benzies  had  all  disappeared  before  Colin  Innes  made  his  survey,  and 
one  only  of  the  claimants  of  aboriginal  rank,  besides  the  Fergusons,  remained — Widow 
Stiven,  the  representative  of  the  William  Stephen,  of  the  teind  list.  Her  grandson  is 
the  present  Mr  Bobert  Boyd  Tytler,  of  Ceylon,  whose  father,  the  husband  of  a  co-heiress, 
concurred  in  selling  the  property  about  1810. 

The  contract  of  teinds  is  so  far  associated  with  the  erection  of  Monkegy  into  a 
parish  separate  from  Inverurie.  Sir  George  Johnston  of  Caskieben  became  proprietor 
of  his  part  of  the  Lindores  teinds,  a  little  before  the  Inverurie  teinds  were  conveyed;  and 
the  Presbytery  and  Synod  minutes,  of  a  later  date,  contain  references  to  his  having  pro- 


260 


Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 


mised  the  small  teinds  of  Monkegy  for  provision  to  a  minister  there.  The  first  minister, 
Mr.  Samuel  "Walcar,  was  appointed  ahout  1630;  and  was  one  of  the  earliest  clerical 
victims  of  the  Covenant,  which  he  had  characterised,  after  Montrose  won  the  battle  of 
Kilsyth,  in  terms  so  contumelious  as  were  not  to  he  forgotten  when  the  Covenant  was 
all  powerful  again,  but  cost  him  his  place,  and  the  humiliating  submission  required 
in  those  days,  and  a  life  of  privation  afterwards,  until  the  second  Episcopacy  restored 
him — a  martyr  to  the  truth — to  a  new  lease  of  life  as  Parson  of  Monkegy. 


Chapter    VIII. 

THE   TROUBLES    IN   THE   GARIOCH. 

The  Solemn  League  and  Covenant. — Power  of  the  Gordons  Broken — The  Second  Marquis  of  Huntly. 
First  Appeal  to  Arms. — A.D.  1639 — The  Committee  at  Turriff— The  Earl  of  Montrose  and 
General  Leslie  in  the  North — Runthj's  Commission  Published — Inverurie  the  Scene  of  the  First 
Muster — Covenanting  Army  at  Kintorc — Conference  at  Inverurie,  the  Marquis  Overreached — 
Kemnay's  Girnal  Plundered— Temporary  Submission  of  Catholic  Lairds — Lord  Aboyne  Compelled 
to  Rise — Vacillation  of  Covenanting  Chiefs— Aboyne  Deserts — Crowncr  Johnston — The  Trot  of 
Turriff — The  Local  Chiefs  of  the  Tioo  Parties— Plundering — Prompt  Action  of  the  Tables- 
Flight  and  Return  of  the  Royalist  Barons.  Lord  Aboyne  Kino's  Lieutenant. — Plundering — 
Battle  of  the  Bridge  of  Dee — Death  of  John  Scton  of  Bourtie— Flight  of  Royalist  Officers  and  Lairds 
to  the  King  at  Berwick — Pacification — A.D.  1640 — Preparations  for  Conflict — Sliarcs  of  Spoil — 
Pillaging  of  Garioch  Mansions  and  Seizure  of  Ministers.  The  Earl  of  Argyll. — Burning  of 
Airly — Taxation  for  the  Army— Quarrels  over  the  Collection— Combination  to  Resist  Argyll — 
A.D.  I64I — Tlic  Covenant  Supreme  in  the  Garioch— Universal  Plundering — Another  Pacification 
— Distribution  of  Honours  and  Gifts — Andrexo  Cant  and  John  Row — A.D.  1643 — Attempt  to 
Suppress  Festivals — John  Keith — Changes  in  Worship — A.D.  1643 — Portents— Divisions — 
Argyll  Supreme.  The  Marquis  of  Huntly  in  Arms. — Flight  of  Covenanters— A.D.  I644 — 
Camp  at  Inverurie — Argyll  in  the  Garioch— Huntly 's  Desertion  and  Escape.  The  Marquis 
of  Montrose.—  In  the  Garioch — The  Irishes — Argyll  Deserted  by  Covenanting  Lords  — 
Leaders  at  Feud— Quasi  Pursuit  of  Montrose — Young  Harlhill  at  Inverurie — Montrose  at  Inver- 
urie— Earl  of  Airly  at  Lcthintic — General  Urrie — Craigievar's  Share  in  the  Wars— Accessions  to 
the  King's  Standard — End  of  the  Conflict — Montrose  leaves  the  Kingdom — Huntly  again  in 
Arms  at  Inverurie  and  Aberdeen — Retired  to  the  Highlands — Sold  and  Executed.  Incidents 
of  the  Troubles. — Pitcaple  Castle — Mr.  Samuel  Walcar — Wardes  Castle— Mr.  Andrew  Cant 
and  Provost  Robert  Farquhar.  Inverurie  About  1645. — Burgh  Heritors — Military  Assess- 
ment— Rev.  William  Forbes — Burgh  Rulers — The  Plague  in  1647 — Time  of  the  King's  Death — ■ 
The  Marquis  of  Montrose  at  Pitcaple — Charles  II.  at  Pitcaple. 

THE  SOLEMN  LEAGUE  AND  COVENANT. 

JHE  purchase  of  a  heritable  right  to  the  Inverurie  teinds,  which  first  brings  the 
names  of  the  burgh  heritors  in  a  body  to  our  notice,  marked  an  important  epoch  in 
Scottish  history.  The  subject  of  teinds  had  just  been  put  upon  a  legal  footing 
by  King  Charles  L,  with  the  concurrence  of  the  Estates.  The  clergy,  who  were  left 
bare  by  the  new  ecclesiastical  lairds,  were  secured  only  in  a  very  moderate  share 
of  the  Church  property ;  while  the  king  earned  much  ill-will  by  his  honest  attempt  to 
arrange  by  arbitration  the  payment  of  ministers'  stipends.  The  reforming  barons  were 
unwilling  to  part  with  the  revenues  of  the  Church,  which  they  had  got  hold  of,  and 


262  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

though  they  obtained  a  large  slice  for  themselves  by  the  King's  decreet,  in  order  to 
induce  their  acquiescence,  they  yet  grudged  his  settling  the  property  by  law  ;  and  in 
1638  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  was  much  more  extensively  signed  in 
consequence  of  discontent  at  the  settlement  of  the  teinds,  and  the  apprehension  that, 
if  the  king  succeeded  in  his  desire  to  establish  Episcopacy,  the  result  would  be  the 
surrender  of  still  more  of  the  plunder  of  the  Kirk.  The  king's  policy,  in  other  respects, 
was,  however,  producing  such  alarm  that  the  nobles  and  large  landowners  took  a  much 
greater  part  in  the  wide-spread  combination  to  withstand  him  than  was  done  by  the 
clergy,  whom  popular  ideas  credit  with  being  the  head  and  front  of  the  Solemn  League 
and  Covenant.  Montrose  himself,  as  well  as  others  who  became  leadersof  the  Eoyalist 
party  in  later  times,  was  at  first  a  Covenanter. 

That  famous  combination,  which  was  at  the  time  so  generally  felt  to  be  necessary 
for  the  defence  of  civil  and  religious  rights,  bears  something  of  the  appearance  of 
rebellion,  when  viewed  in  the  light  of  the  sentiment  which  constitutional  government 
has,  in  our  day,  produced  in  the  subjects  of  a  State.  It  was  a  proceeding,  however, 
entirely  in  harmony  with  the  habits  of  public  life  at  the  time.  A  Eoman  Catholic 
League  then  united  the  most  powerful  sovereigns  of  Europe  in  an  effort  to  nndo  the 
work  of  the  Eeformation ;  and  James,  the  late  king,  had  originated  a  National  League 
against  Eopery.  The  Scottish  nobility  had  inherited  an  immemorial  practice  of  forming 
bonds  of  Manrent,  by  which  they  engaged  followings,  as  numerous  as  they  could,  to 
support  them  in  cases  of  apprehended  necessity,  and  also  of  forming  combinations  with 
one  another  to  force  from  the  Crown  national  or  party  advantages.  The  latter  pro- 
ceeding had  in  fact  practically  the  same  meaning  and  value  as  the  formation  of  parties 
for  combined  Farliamentary  action  now  possesses. 

A  dozen  years'  experience  of  the  King's  conscientious  belief  in  his  divine  right  to 
govern  according  to  his  own  opinions  of  national  welfare,  and  of  his  persistent  turn  of 
mind,  which  never  abandoned  a  projected  measure  though  he  might  keep  it  in  abeyance, 
demanded  that  those  whose  civil  or  religious  liberty  was  threatened  should  take  means  to 
protect  themselves.  The  necessity  for  resistance,  on  one  account  or  another,  was  almost 
universally  felt. 

In  Scotland  the  king's  attempt  to  force  Episcopacy  upon  the  country  in  a  mode 
generally  distasteful,  gave  occasion  to  the  League  and  Covenant  being  addressed  against 
that  form  of  church  government,  to  such  an  extent  as  naturally  to  raise  opposition  on 
the  part  of  Episcopalians,  who  otherwise  would  willingly  enough  have  joined  their  neigh- 
bours in  restraining  the  king's  encroachments  upon  civil  liberties.  The  Eoman  Catholic 
lords  and  their  followings,  were,  however,  the  only  class  standing  in  fixed  opposition 
to  the  new  combination ;  and  to  them  the  King  was  obliged  to  turn  for  support  in  resist- 
ing the  demands  to  which  he  was  unwilling  to  yield. 

King  Charles,  who  had  in  1630  jealously  removed  the  Cock  of  the  North  from  his 
pride  of  place,  misapprehending  the  character  of  the  Marquis,  which  was  peaceable  and 


First  Appeal  to  Arms.  263 


the  reverse  of  enterprising,  had  now  to  look  to  his  son  as  the  only  likely  individual  to 
head  a  party  in  support  of  the  Eoyal  authority.  But  the  name  of  the  Marquis  of  Huntly 
was  not  a  word  of  influence  so  powerful  as  when  the  prestige  of  long  descended 
hereditary  authority  belonged  to  it ;  and  the  violent  unsettling  of  Lord  Huntly's 
position  in  the  north  had  likewise  done  something  to  slacken  the  connection  that  for 
long  had  bound  numerous  subordinate  families  to  him,  by  these  contracts  of  Manrent 
which  made  Huntly  their  chief  as  well  as  their  protector.  Since  the  Marquis  was 
deprived  of  the  Sheriffships,  a  dangerous,  because  largo  and  irritated  and  unscrupulous, 
body  of  his  old  adherents  had  for  a  while  held  the  country  in  terror,  and  the  authorities 
were  unable  to  restrain  their  violence. 

The  old  Marquis  was  by  this  time  dead.  He  had  been  for  some  time  in  prison  in 
Edinburgh,  upon  the  complaint  of  Crichton  of  Frendraught ;  who  had  been  the  chief 
sufferer  from  the  "  broken  men,"  as  they  were  significantly  termed,  and  accused  the 
Marquis  of  hounding  them  on  to  such  depredations  upon  the  lands  of  Frendraught  as 
were  ruining  him.  The  Marquis  had  been  released,  and  got  leave  to  go  home,  but  died 
on  his  way  at  Dundee,  13th  June,  1636,  at  the  age  of  seventy-three.  The  second 
Marquis,  to  whom,  in  1639,  the  king  gave  commission  as  his  Lieutenant  from  the 
river  Esk  to  Caithness,  was  not  possessed  of  qualities  requisite  for  the  work  desired 
by  the  king ;  even  if  he  had  not  laboured  under  the  diminution  of  his  family 
influence  that  the  monarch  himself  had  brought  about.  He  was  little  known  in  the 
country,  having  been  abroad  at  the  beginning  of  the  national  difficulties,  in  the  service 
of  the  King  of  France  ;  and  the  Covenanters  even  ventured  to  make  overtures  to  bun, 
doubtless  counting  upon  his  close  relationship  with  the  leading  spirit  among  them — 
the  Earl  of  Argyll — whose  brother-in-law  he  was. 

FIRST  APPEAL  TO  ARMS. 

AVhen  the  Covenanting  lords,  who  had  hitherto  resisted  the  king's  measures  only  by 
protests  and  petitions,  appeared  in  the  field,  Charles  issued  his  commission  to  the  Marquis 
of  Huntly,  but  with  the  direction  not  to  publish  it  until  it  became  necessary,  and  to 
avoid  striking  the  first  blow.  Huntly  acted  in  the  spirit  of  his  instructions,  and  some 
bloodless  meetings  took  place  in  the  Garioch,  before  the  tragic  conflict  broke  out ;  and 
these  were  the  first  overt  acts  of  the  Civil  War. 

The  year  1639  was  to  be  a  year  of  constant  trouble  in  Aberdeenshire;  and  the 
south  part  of  the  Garioch  was  seldom,  for  many  weeks,  free  from  the  presence  of 
armed  gatherings. 

The  first  meeting  of  hostile  forces  took  place  at  Turriff,  which  was  the  point  selected 
by  the  Tables — the  central  authority  of  the  Covenanters — at  which  a  deputed  committee 
was  to  meet  periodically  for  the  conduct  of  their  designs  in  Aberdeenshire.  A  meeting 
was  appointed  by  the  Tables  to  be  holden  there  on  the  14th  February,  in  order  to  stent 


7< 


264  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

the  country  and  ascertain  who  were  adherents,  and  who  not  adherents,  to  the 
Covenant.  The  Committee  that  sat  there  included  the  Earls  of  Montrose  and  Kinghorn, 
Lords  Couper  and  Fraser,  and  the  Master  of  Forbes.  The  Marquis  of  Huntly,  then 
having  his  headquarters  in  Aberdeen,  was  twitted  with  allowing  such  a  meeting  to  be 
held  with  impunity,  and  he  hastily  resolved  to  attack  them,  with  his  two  sons  Lord 
Gordon  and  Lord  Aboyne,  the  Earl  of  Findlater,  the  Master  of  Eeay,  and  the  Lairds  of 
Drum,  Banff,  Gight,  Haddo,  Eitfoddels,  Foveran  and  Newton — his  force  nunibsring  about 
200  men,  imperfectly  armed.  On  reaching  Turriff  on  the  14th,  from  Kelly  (now  Haddo 
House),  where  he  had  halted  for  the  night,  he  found  the  Covenanters  aware  of  his 
approach,  and  too  well  posted  to  be  meddled  with,  and  he  thereupon  disbanded  his 
following,  and  went  himself  to  Forglen  House,  the  residence  of  Ogilvy,  Laird  of  Banff. 
The  Committee  quietly  continued  their  task,  and  then  marched  south  by  Inverurie  and 
Kintore  to  Lord  Fraser's  house  of  Muchalls  (Castle  Fraser).  On  their  march  further 
south  they  were  hospitably  entertained  at  Dunnottar  by  the  Earl  Marischal,  a  youth  of 
twenty-three,  who  by  that  overt  act  first  declared  himself  of  the  Covenanting  party. 

The  Lord  Fraser  who  appears  in  the  narrative  of  the  "  Troubles "  was  Andrew 
Fraser,  great-grandson  of  Thomas  Fraser  of  Stonywood  (1528),  and  was  ennobled  in 
1633.  He  was  one  of  the  Parliamentary  Commissioners  for  putting  down  rebels  and 
nialignants  in  the  North  in  1644.  He  is  now  represented,  through  a  female  descendant, 
by  Fraser  of  Castle  Fraser  and  Inverallochy. 

The  citizens  of  Aberdeen,  which  was  the  only  place  of  consequence  holding 
out  against  the  Covenant,  were  fortifying  the  town,  and  Montrose  resolved  to 
reduce  both  the  city  and  the  outstanding  district  north  of  it  to  obedience  by  force  of 
arms.  A  force  of  9000  from  the  Covenanting  army,  then  in  the  south  under  the 
command  of  Field-Marshal  Leslie,  was  ordered  to  proceed  to  Aberdeen,  to  be  joined 
there  by  those  who  could  be  brought  into  the  field  by  the  Forbeses,  Frasers,  and  Keiths; 
who,  accordingly,  mustered  their  dependents  at  Kintore,  to  the  number  of  2000  men. 
On  that  occasion — which  was  to  be  the  beginning  of  actual  violence — General  Leslie  first 
appeared  in  the  North.  The  Earl  of  Montrose  bore  the  title  of  Lord  General,  and  there 
were  with  him  the  Earls  Marischal  and  Kinghorn,  and  Lords  Carnegie  and  Elcho.  At 
the  head  of  the  other  contingent  were  Lord  Fraser,  the  Master  of  Forbes,  and  Alexander 
Forbes  of  Boyndlie,  tutor  of  Lord  Pitsligo.  This  action  of  the  Covenanting  Lords  was 
hastened  by  a  Eoyal  proclamation,  issued  in  England,  declaring  the  Covenanters  to  be 
rebels ;  the  publication  of  which  in  Scotland  they  resisted,  upon  the  legal  plea  that  they 
could  not  be  called  rebels  without  trial. 

The  threatened  attack  upon  Aberdeen  caused  extreme  consternation.  King's  Col- 
lege broke  up  its  sittings,  and  several  of  the  professors,  as  also  the  Aberdeen  Doctors,  the 
Bishop,  and  the  lairds  of  Drum,  Pitfoddels,  young  Foveran,  and  others  fled  the  country 
by  sea.  The  Marquis,  in  Aberdeen,  was  not  well  prepared  for  the  danger  that  was 
imminent.     He  was  not  apparently  possessed  of  the  resources  and  courage  requisite  for 


First  Appeal  to  Arms.  2G5 


the  task  imposed  on  him  ;  and  the  King's  policy  of  delay  had,  besides,  seriously  hampered 
him.  On  the  17th  March,  however,  he  received  from  the  King,  by  the  hands  of  Sir 
Alexander  Gordon  of  Cluny,  whom  he  had  sent  to  the  royal  headquarters,  a  supply -of 
arms — 2000  muskets,  bandoleers,  and  musket-staves,  1000  pikes,  with  harness  and  arms 
for  footmen  and  horsemen,  carabines,  pistols,  lead  and  match,  and  gunpowder.  The 
kind  of  troops  available  to  the  royalists  were  merely  the  undrilled  and  somewhat 
tumultuary  feudal  gatherings  of  tenantry,  who  were  never  called  out  except  when  action 
was  immediately  in  prospect,  and  could  not  be  kept  together  should  family  cares  or 
harvesting  or  other  work  require  their  presence  at  home.  Huntly's  force  would  consist 
partly  of  the  broken  men  of  his  name,  lawless,  and  of  more  value  for  harrying  the 
country  than  for  being  handled  in  the  field.  To  have  encountered  with  such  materials 
the  army  which  General  Leslie  and  the  skilled  officers  fetched  by  him  from  Germany, 
had  been  accustoming  to  discipline,  was  a  prospect  ■which  apparently  paralysed  the 
royalist  lairds,  except  a  few  daring  spirits  like  Sir  George  Ogilvie  of  Banff,  John  Leith 
of  Harthill,  and  John  Seton  of  Bourtie.  There  was  indeed  but  one  well  trained  officer 
among  them,  Lieutenant  Crowner  Johnston,  already  referred  to  ;  and  Colonel  Johnston 
was  in  practical  command  at  any  successes  obtained  by  the  royalists  after  hostilities 
had  begun. 

Huntly  published  his  Commission  of  Lieutenancy  on  16th  March,  and  summoned, 
by  proclamation,  all  the  king's  liege  subjects,  between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  sixty,  to 
meet  him  at  Inverurie,  on  the  25th,  with  fifteen  days'  provisions.  He  sent  charges  to 
the  same  effect  to  all  the  Covenanting  lairds  still  professing  to  be  loyal  subjects,  but  of 
course  'without  effect. 

On  the  twenty-fifth  of  March — which  was  a  Monday — the  Marquis,  leaving  directions 
for  his  family  to  be  removed  to  Strathbogy,  rode  out  of  Aberdeen  with  100  horse  to  the 
rendezvous,  accompanied  by  the  Lord  Seton.  Two  hundred  men  from  the  Old  Town, 
Spital,  and  Seaton  followed  him.  At  Inverurie,  about  5000  answered  to  the  Lieuten- 
ant's summons — well  armed,  but  not  trained.  The  Earl  of  Findlater  failed  to  appear, 
and  shortly  thereafter  took  the  opposite  side,  as  the  Marquis's  eldest  son,  Lord  GcHkm, 
was  likewise  induced  to  do  by  his  uncle,  the  Earl  of  Argyll,  sometime  afterwards. 

On  the  twenty-eighth,  three  days  later,  the  Aberdeenshire  Covenanters  met  so  near 
Huntly's  camp  as  Kintore,  and  marched  to  Aberdeen  ;  every  man  upon  Earl  Marischal's 
lands  of  Hall-forest  being  pressed  into  the  service.  The  well-eqvffpped  army  of  General 
Leslie  halted  on  the  Tollo  Hill,  immediately  south  of  the  Bridge  of  Dee,  on  the  twenty- 
ninth,  and  next  day  occupied  Aberdeen.  They  had  five  colours,  Montrose  exhibiting 
one  with  the  motto,  "  For  Eeligion,  the  Covenant,  and  the  Country  " ;  and  all  wore  a 
blue  ribbon  as  a  badge — the  Eoyalists  showing  one  of  a  flesh  red  colour.  The  main  army 
did  not  remain  in  Aberdeen,  but,  the  same  day,  under  General  Leslie  and  the  Earls  of 
Montrose  and  Marischal,  advanced  to  Kintore.  They  encamped  apparently  at  Tilty,  and 
next  day,  being  Sunday,  31st  March,  had  divine  service  conducted  by  a  minister  of  their 

34 


266  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

own — the  parson,  Mr.  John  Cheyne,  being  of  the  opposite  side.  Next  day,  1st  April, 
they  marched  two  miles  towards  Inverurie,  where  they  encamped.  They  must  have 
halted  south  of  the  Don,  on  the  advantageous  position  of  Crichie,  and  Huntly  had  held 
his  post  apparently  as  far  north  as  about  the  Castle  of  Balquhain. 

The  next  step  in  the  Marquis's  actings  was  perhaps  the  most  advisable  in  the  cir- 
cumstances, when  no  blood  had  yet  been  shed  ;  but  it  led  to  ruinous  cousequences  to 
himself,  and  ultimately  to  the  king's  interests,  when  Montrose  became  His  Majesty's 
principal  general. 

Lord  Huntly  sent  Mr.  Eobert  Gordon  of  Straloch  and  Dr.  Gordon,  physician  in 
Aberdeen,  to  the  Earl  of  Montrose,  proposing  an  interview  at  the  "Sparrmuir"  (probably 
spare  moor  or  common),  near  Blakkall,  two  miles  distant  from  the  camp.  They  met  on 
Thursday,  4th  April,  Huntly  having  with  him  Lord  Oliphant,  his  own  son  James  Lord 
Aboyne,  and  nine  others — eleven  persons  likewise  accompanying  the  Earl  of  Montrose,  of 
whom  Lords  Elcho  and  Couper  were  two.  After  an  ineffectual  parley,  Montrose  rode 
back  to  his  camp,  and  the  Marquis  went  to  Legatsden,  where  he  dined,  and  then  to 
Pitcaple  for  the  night.  They  met  again  next  day,  and  came  to  an  agreement,  by  which, 
however,  Huntly  in  a  few  days  found  himself  entrapped  and  a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of 
the  Covenanting  lords,  when,  in  compliance  with  his  agreement,  he  went  to  Aberdeen  to 
exercise  his  influence  in  establishing  peace. 

The  army  of  General  Leslie  broke  up  their  camp  on  the  6th,  and  the  first  violence 
committed  in  Scotland  in  the  Civil  War  took  place  on  that  occasion.  The  Covenanting 
army  left  Inverurie  on  the  Saturday  somewhat  full-handed,  having  plundered  Sir 
Thomas  Crombie's  girnal,  at  Kemnay  House,  of  twenty-two  score  bolls  of  meal ;  which 
they  were  unable  to  carry  away,  and  sold  cheaply  at  6s.  8d.  the  boll.  The  Earl  Marischal's 
men  were  very  busy,  Spalding  says,  about  this  plundering.  At  the  same  time,  the  lands 
of  Barra  were  harried.  On  their  way  south,  the  Generals  met  500  Highlanders  sent  by 
Argyll  to  join  their  force,  and  having  no  immediate  occasion  for  their  services,  sent  them 
to  Deeside,  to  find  their  living,  in  the  meantime,  upon  the  lands  of  Drum  and  Pitfoddels, 
and  to  keep  together  (which  in  such  circumstances  they  readily  did)  until  further  orders. 
Lord  Erskine  at  the  same  time  plundered  the  lands  of  Kildrummy. 

Gordon,  parson  of  Bothiemay,  in  his  History  of  Scots  Affairs,  gives  an  amusing 
account  of  the  effect  of  the  encamping  of  the  Covenanting  army  at  Inverurie.  "  The 
Covenant  began  to  be  propagated  by  another  sort  of  apostles,  for  no  sooner  was  Mon- 
trose come  to  Innerowyre  but  his  men  must  be  billetted,  most  pairt  upon  free  qwarter, 
a  langwage  that  till  then  was  not  understood  in  thes  places,  though  afterwardes  evry 
body  came  to  know  weall  eneuch  what  it  meand.  Nor  was  this  all,  for  being  that  most 
pairt  of  the  countrey  next  adjacent  to  ther  qwarters  was  anti-Covenanters,  the  souldiers 
wer  connived  at  for  to  carry  rudly  in  their  qwarters,  and  had  underhand  warrant  for  to 
rifle  the  houses  of  some  gentlemen  who  were  fledde."  The  alarm  of  plundering  brought 
many  converts  to  the  Covenant.     The  Covenanters  had  some  field  pieces  with  them  at 


First  Appeal  to  Arms.  267 


Inverurie,  which  were  afterwards  much  used  by  them.  They  were  a  sort  of  small 
cannon,  about  three  feet  long,  and  somewhat  wide,  nicknamed  Deer  Sandys,  after  their 
reputed  inventor,  Colonel  Alexander  Hamilton. 

One  consequence  of  Huntly's  submission  to  the  Covenanting  lords,  which  his  agree- 
ment practically  amounted  to — and  it  may  be  in  no  small  degree  of  Field-Marshal 
Leslie's  presence  with  such  a  following — was  that,  as  Spalding  narrates,  the  lairds  of 
Gight,  Haddo,  Newton,  Foveran,  Pitmedden,  Harthill,  and  divers  others  came  in  per- 
force and  subscribed  the  Covenant ;  but  nothing  could  move  the  laird  of  Banff  to  com- 
ply. Upon  the  Marquis's  being  found  to  have  been  overreached,  these  gentlemen,  most 
or  all  of  whom  were  Roman  Catholics,  appeared  within  a  few  days  in  the  field  again. 

Huntly,  it  seems,  agreed  to  a  pledge  at  Inverurie  to  maintain,  along  with  his 
loyalty  to  the  king,  the  liberties  of  Church  and  State.  He  received  there  a  written 
assurance  of  full  liberty  to  retire  to  his  own  house  within  a  certain  time,  whether  he 
came  to  agreement  with  the  Covenanting  leaders  or  no.  On  the  faith  of  this  he  went, 
after  taking  this  modified  pledge  instead  of  the  Covenant,  to  Aberdeen,  where  he  was 
detained,  Gordon  says,  by  the  influence  of  the  Erasers  and  Forbeses,  and  of  James 
Crichton  of  Frcndraught,  his  personal  enemy,  and  was  carried  under  a  guard  to  Edin- 
burgh. He  suspected  Montrose  of  duplicity  in  the  matter,  which  occasioned  permanent 
enmity  between  them,  so  that  when,  afterwards,  Montrose  joined  the  King's  party,  and 
became  his  chief  general,  Huntly  would  never  act  with  him  heartily.  Spalding,  whose 
sarcastic  humour  sometimes  reveals  his  opinion  of  individuals,  does  not  seem  to  have 
greatly  admired  the  Marquis,  for  he  refers  to  him  at  an  after  period  as  living  in  the 
Canongate  of  Edinburgh,  a  good  Covenanter. 

When  in  the  hands  of  the  Covenanters  Lord  Huntly  was  persuaded  to  give  up  his 
Royal  Commission,  as  an  informal  document  which  had  not  passed  the  legal  office  in 
Scotland.  By  his  resignation  of  the  Lieutenancy,  and  his  personal  absence,  the  Royalists 
of  the  north  felt  themselves  at  disadvantage — being  without  any  recognised  leader  and 
chief — and  they  insisted  upon  the  Marquis's  second  son,  Lord  Aboyne,  taking  his  father's 
place.  Huntly  had  sent  for  him  to  bring  his  necessary  baggage,  and  a  supply  of 
money,  to  Edinburgh.  Lord  Aboyne,  on  his  way  thither,  was  breakfasting,  on  the  1 6th 
April,  at  the  small  hostelry  of  Parcock,  near  Oldmeldrum — where  the  Tree  of  Parcock 
still  marks  the  site — when  the  lairds  of  Haddo,  Gight,  Foveran,  and  some  others  inter- 
cepted him,  and  told  him  that  he  should  not  go  south,  but  remain  in  the  country,  now 
left  headless,  and  that  it  was  too  great  a  pledge  to  have  both  his  father  and  brother 
south  at  the  Green  Table  already.  Lord  Aboj'ne  yielded  somewhat  unwillingly,  as  it 
afterwards  appeared ;  and,  sending  his  charge  back  to  Strathbogy,  prepared  for  joint 
action. 

The  new  movement  of  the  Royalists  occasioned  much  perturbation  among  the 
local  Covenanting  leaders.  The  Tables  had  appointed  a  Committee  to  be  holden 
at  Turriff  on  the  24th  April,  by  the  Lords  Marischal  and  Seaforth,  Lord  Fraser,  and  the 


268  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garloch. 

Master  of  Forbes,  to  which,  all  who  had  not  subscribed  the  Covenant  were  required 
to  come  and  do  so  under  pain  of  plundering.  The  Master  of  Forbes  was  one  of  the 
Scottish  officers  trained  under  Gustavus  Adolphus,  and  was  little  in  Scotland.  His 
cousin,  Patrick  Gordon,  Earl  of  Sutherland,  was  of  the  same  side  in  politics.  Their 
mothers  were  daughters  of  Alexander,  the  fourth  Lord  Elphinstone,  noticed  in  the  will 
of  the  Miller  of  Ardtannies  (p.  179).  On  the  occasion  of  their  marriage,  1st  February, 
1 600,  the  observance  of  Lent  was  delayed  to  give  time  for  the  festivities. 

The  members  of  the  Committee  met,  on  the  22nd  April,  at  Monymusk,  to  advise 
about  proceedings,  but  there  they  postponed  the  Turriff  meeting  to  the  26th,  and  adjourned 
to  meet  again  at  Kintore  on  the  24th,  in  the  hope  that  by  that  day  they  would  be  re- 
inforced by  help  from  Caithness,  Sutherland,  and  Boss  ;  where  all,  including  Lord  Lovat, 
were  ardent  Covenanters.  At  Kintore,  about  fifty  musketeers  attended  from  Aberdeen 
by  command  of  the  Lords,  but  turned  back  on  hearing  of  Aboyne  being  ready  for 
action.  Earl  Marischal  took  Lord  Seaforth  with  him  to  Hall-forest  for  the  night,  and, 
next  day,  another  council  was  held  at  Aberdeen ;  where  finding  a  force  of  about  3000 
men  come  in  from  the  Covenanting  lairds  in  Buchan,  Mar,  and  Garioch,  Marischal  took 
possession  of  the  town.  The  day  following  was  that  appointed  for  the  Turriff  meeting ; 
but  the  cautious  Earls  made  no  appearance.  Leaving  their  retainers  to  muster  under 
then'  respective  officers,  and  formally  postponing  the  meeting  to  the  28th,  they  betook 
themselves  to  their  own  homes  in  the  meantime.  A  muster  took  place  at  Turriff  of  the 
deserted  retainers  of  Marischal,  Seafortb,  Findlater,  Erroll,  and  Pitsligo ;  and  the  lairds 
of  Grant  and  Lines,  with  1600  men,  had  come  from  Moray  to  join  them.  The  appointed 
actors  in  the  demonstration  having  failed  to  appear,  "  the  committee  dissolved,  and  each 
man  went  home,  being  the  first  committee  that  ever  was  so  dissolved  without  more 
ado".  Sir  Eobert  Douglas  who  in  his  Peerage  and  Baronage  gives  the  Earl  Marischal  and 
Forbes  of  Monymusk  the  character  of  devoted  servants  to  the  King,  had  not  read  of  this. 

The  Eoyalists  were  in  a  few  days  again  to  be  disappointed  by  the  conduct  of  their 
chief.  The  Marquis  of  Huntly  was  in  prison,  carrying  on  a  legal  contest  with  the  Tables 
in  the  form  of  declarations,  accusations,  and  defences  ;  and  his  son,  Lord  Aboyne,  seeing 
some  reason  for  being  at  Court,  disbanded  his  army,  and  going  home,  took  ship  on 
Friday,  3rd  May,  at  Crooked  Haven,  in  the  Enzie,  and  went  to  the  King,  to  the  delight 
of  his  enemies.  The  Eoyalist  lairds,  however,  declined  to  disband.  They  had  Colonel 
Johnston  with  them,  and,  on  the  7th  of  May,  the  laird  of  Banff  got  them  and  their  fol- 
lowing together  at  Auchterlcss,  whence  they  started  upon  a  round  of  domiciliary  visits, 
in  order  to  impose  an  Engagement  against  the  Covenant. 

On  the  8th  of  May,  the  Forbeses  and  Frasers,  having  heard  of  Lord  Aboyne's  de- 
parture, met  at  Inverurie,  and  resolved  upon  a  committee  at  Turriff,  to  be  held  on  the 
20th  May,  a  special  object  being  to  harry  the  laird  of  Banff,  and  other  individuals.  The 
leaders  of  their  party  could  hardly  for  shame  avoid  the  risk  of  holding  the  so-frequently 
postponed  meeting ;  and  Colonel  Johnston's  Eoyalist  force,  well  in  hand  by  their  occupa- 


First  Appeal  to  Arms.  269 


tion  of  daily  riding  over  the  country,  -were  in  the  best  condition  they  could  expect  to  he 
in,  for  an  exploit  upon  the  occasion.  Hearing,  upon  the  13th  May,  that  the  Covenanting 
lairds  due  at  the  appointed  Committee  were  beginning  to  assemble,  the  Boyalists  pre- 
pared to  attack  them.  About  1200  horse  and  foot  were  at  Turriff  on  the  13th,  compris- 
ing Earl  Marischal's  men  from  Buchan — without  himself;  the  retainers  of  the  two  Lords 
Enroll  and  Pitsligo,  who  were  themselves  minors  at  the  time,  under  Hay  of  Delgatie 
and  Forbes  of  Boyndlie ;  Lord  Fraser ;  the  Master  of  Forbes ;  Barclay  of  Towie ; 
Keith  of  Ludquharn;  Skene  of  Skene;  and  the  lairds — all  Forbeses — of  Craigievar,  Edit, 
Tolquhon,  and  "Waterton.  The  Donside  Forbeses  seem  to  have  been  unrepresented.  The 
barons  under  Colonel  Johnston,  Abraham  Forbes  of  Blaktown,  and  some  other  com- 
manders, had  but  800  men,  with  four  brass  field-pieces — the  lairds  present  being  Ogilvie 
of  Banff,  the  Gordons  of  Abergeldie,  Haddo,  Craig,  Auchendoir,  Gicht.  and  Newton, 
young  Cromarty  (Urquhart),  Turing  of  Foveran,  Leith  of  Harthill,  Udny  of  Udny,  and 
the  laird  of  Crommie.  They  resolved  to  attack  the  Turriff  gathering,  and  on  the  same 
day  (Monday  the  13th)  Spalding  records  that  they  began  to  march  in  very  quiet  and 
sober  manner,  "  quhairof  the  Covenantiris  watches  could  have  no  knowledge,  to  the 
town  of  Turef,  the  trumpettis  schortlie  began  to  sound,  and  the  drums  to  touk.  The 
Covenantiris,  quhairof  sum  were  sleiping  in  their  bedis,  uther  sum  drinking  and  smoking 
tobacca,  utheris  sum  walking  and  moving  up  and  down,  heiring  this  feirfull  noiss  of 
drums  and  trumpettis,  ran  to  their  armes,  and  confusedlie  to  array  and  recollectis  thame- 
selffis.  And,  be  now,  both  the  Covenantiris  and  Anti-covenantiris  ar  standing  in  uther 
sightis,  in  ordour  of  batteLL  Thair  was  twa  schottis  schot  out  of  the  Erll  of  Errollis 
hous  ogainst  the  barrones,  quhilk  thay  quiklie  ansuerit  with  twa  field  peices.  Then  the 
Covenantiris  began  on  hot  service,  and  the  Barrones  both,  and  schot  many  muscat  schot. 
Then  the  Barrones  schot  ane  field  peice  in  amonges  thame,  quhilk  did  no  skaith,  but 
fleyit  the  commons.  Both  pairteis  playit  on  uther.  At  last  ane  uther  field  peice  was 
agane  schot,  the  feir  quhairof  maid  thame  all  cleirlie  to  tak  the  flight.  Follouit  the  chase. 
The  Lord  Fraser  wes  said  to  have  foull  fauldingis ;  he  wan  away ;  the  lairds  of  Echt  and 
Skene  and  some  others,  were  taken  prisoners ;  there  was  some  hurt  and  some  slain ;  the 
Barrones  sounded  the  retreat,  and  came  presently  back  to  Turriff,  where  they  took  meat  and 
drink  at  their  pleasure,  and  fleyit  Mr.  Thomas  Mitchell,  minister  of  Turref,  veray  evill ; 
and  so  this  committee  wes  efter  this  manner  discharged  at  this  time  !  " 

The  Boyalists  designated  this  exploit  "The  Trot  of  Turriff" — a  little  of  grim  plea- 
santry being,  as  yet,  admissible  in  the  conduct  of  the  civil  broil.  Plundering  ensued, 
with,  of  course,  a  change  of  actors.  The  Barons  marched  to  Aberdeen  from  Turriff  on  the 
15th.  The  chief  Covenanters  escaped  from  the  City,  except  the  Provost,  Mr  Alexander 
Jaffray,  "  who  for  schame  could  not  weill  flie  ".  The  Covenanters'  wives  and  bairns, 
however,  supplied  the  soldiers  abundantly,  and  many  of  the  Covenanters  of  the  name  of 
Forbes — "  throu  plane  fear  "—  came  on  to  Aberdeen  and  yielded  to  the  Barons.  The 
Boyalists  of  Deeside  came  down  with  Gordon  of  Abergeldie  and  Donald  Farquharson 


J 


270  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

who  commanded  a  party  of  Huntly's  retainers,  and  -was  accompanied  by  Lord  Ludovic 
Gordon,  fourth  son  of  the  Marquis,  a  schoolboy,  who  had  escaped  from  his  guardians  to 
be  in  the  midst  of  the  general  fray.  One  of  the  leaders  of  the  broken  men  of  the  Gordon 
faction  also  appeared  with  500  men  at  his  back.  Durris,  belonging  to  John  Forbes  of 
Leslie,  was  pillaged  by  them ;  and  Echt,  Skene,  Monymusk,  and  other  houses  pertaining 
to  the  name  of  Forbes,  were  next  visited  for  the  same  purpose. 

The  victorious  Barons  attempted  to  come  to  an  agreement  with  the  Earl  Marischal, 
at  Dunnottar,  on  the  part  of  their  opponents.  His  answer  led  them  unwisely  to  resolve 
upon  disbanding,  which  accordingly  they  did  on  the  21st ;  whereupon  Marischal  convened 
immediately  the  strength  then  lying  in  Angus  and  Mearns ;  and  the  Aberdeenshire 
Covenanters  were  at  once  raised  again  under  their  former  leaders,  and  encamped  in 
and  about  Aberdeen,  to  the  number  of  2000.  Craigievar,  who  seems  to  have  been  desti- 
tute of  equipment,  took  arms  from  the  citizens  for  his  men,  also  pillaging  the  Bishop's 
palace — the  residence  of  his  uncle  a  few  years  before. 

The  Royalist  success  of  Turriff  naturally  led  to  the  Tables  concentrating  their  forces 
upon  Aberdeenshire — the  only  outstanding  part  of  the  country ;  and  the  Covenanting 
army  was  marched  thither  at  once.  Earl  Marischal  and  the  Forbeses  in  possession 
of  Aberdeen  were  joined,  on  the  25th,  by  the  Earls  of  Montrose  and  Kinghorn,  Lords 
Drummond  and  Couper,  the  Master  of  Gray,  the  Constable  of  Dundee,  and  the  Earl  of 
Atholl ;  when  the  combined  force  amounted  to  above  7000  men.  Four  thousand  more 
were  expected  from  beyond  the  Spey,  under  the  leadership  of  Lord  Seaforth,  Lord  Lovat, 
Lord  Beay,  the  Sheriff  of  Moray,  and  the  lairds  of  limes  and  Pluscardine ;  but  these  were 
persuaded  to  remain  where  they  were,  by  the  prompt  action  of  the  laird  of  Banff  and 
the  Gordon  men,  who  boldly  crossed  the  Spey  to  check  them. 

The  Aberdeenshire.  Royalists,  hopeless  in  the  face  of  such  power,  gave  up  the  con- 
test ;  and  the  lairds  of  Banff,  Foveran,  Fedderat,  Newton,  and  others,  arranged  to  escape 
to  the  King,  who  was  then  at  Berwick ;  and  getting  into  a  small  craft  at  Downies,  a  rocky 
creek  south  of  the  bay  of  Nigg,  put  to  sea.  They  soon  were  met  on  their  voyage  by  a 
collier  vessel  bringing,  from  the  King,  Lord  Aboyne,  with  a  commission  as  King's  Lieu- 
tenant, the  Earls  of  Glencairn  and  Tullibardine,  the  laird  of  Drum,  and  some  English 
officers ;  one  of  whom,  Colonel  Gun,  was  to  be  Aboyne's  general  guide,  but  was  afterwards 
suspected  of  having  betrayed  him.  The  fugitives  went  on  board  Aboyne's  ship,  and  re- 
turned to  Aberdeen.  A  larger  vessel  containing  stores  accompanied  the  lords,  and  put 
into  the  Firth  of  Forth  to  correspond  with  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton,  the  King's 
Admiral;  who,  however,  being  an  undecided  politician,  spoiled  Aboyne's  intended 
operation,  by  leaving  him  without  the  troops  he  was  ordered  to  send  off  to  his  lord- 
ship to  Aberdeen.  The  larger  vessel  also  contained  some  ministers,  sent  back 
from  their  flight  to  the  King,  among  them  Mr.  Thomas  Thoirs,  minister  of  Udny, 
and  shortly  after  his  return,  of  Daviot,  and,  for  a  time,  a  penitent  professor  of  the 
Covenant. 


Lord  Aboyne,  the  King's  Lieutenant.  271 


LORD  ABOYNE,  THE  KING'S  LIEUTENANT. 

The  landing  of  Lord  Aboyne  on  the  6th  June,  along  with  the  news  that  the  King 
was  at  Berwick  with  an  army,  caused  a  speedy  retreat  of  the  Covenanting  host  from 
Aberdeen.  Part  of  it  was  then  besieging  the  house  of  Gicht,  but  being  warned,  marched 
south.  Marischal  betook  himself  to  Dunnottar  again,  and  the  town  of  Aberdeen  was  once 
more  in  the  hands  of  the  Boyalists,  and  Aboyne  then  published  his  commission.  Four 
days  afterwards  he  set  out,  with  a  force  of  2000  men,  to  Kintore,  to  impose  the  oath  and  a 
Bond  of  Allegiance  to  the  King,  devised  in  opposition  to  the  Covenant.  Hall-forest  was 
there  surrendered  and  plundered ;  and  Gordon  of  Haddo,  whose  house  Craigievar's 
friends  had  just  been  investing,  had  the  satisfaction  of  pillaging  Fintray.  Lord  Fraser 
was  next  waited  upon  at  Castle  Fraser,  but  was  absent.  These  plunderings  took  place 
on  10th,  11th,  and  12th  of  June.  On  the  14th  Aboyne  marched  from  Aberdeen 
for  Stonehaven,  but  his  Highlanders  having  got  a  scare  near  Stonehaven  by  the  sight  of 
some  cannons  fired  in  their  faces,  he  returned  to  Aberdeen.  He  was  speedily  followed, 
and  crushed  by  losing  the  battle  of  the  Brig  o'  Dee,  where  Montrose  outmanoeuvred  him. 

The  bridge — little  more  than  a  mile  south  of  Aberdeen — was  properly  fortified  by 
Colonel  Johnston,  but  Montrose,  by  making  a  feint  of  crossing  the  river  above  the  bridge) 
drew  Lord  Aboyne  away  from  the  works,  and  carried  the  bridge,  which  Johnston  had  de- 
fended up  to  the  time  of  his  being  carried  to  Aberdeen  severely  wounded.  John  Seton  of 
Bourtie,  carrying  the  Boyal  colours,  was  killed  in  the  fight.  Montrose  had  such  respect 
for  him  that  he  honoured  his  remains  by  a  military  funeral,  along  with  these  of  Bamsay 
of  Balmain's  brother,  an  officer  of  his  own,  who  had  also  fallen.  The  Covenanters  firing 
over  the  body  of  the  latter,  at  the  door  of  the  Old  Kirk,  now  the  "West  Church  of 
Aberdeen,  shot  through  the  head  William  Erskine,  brother  of  the  laird  of  Pittodrie, 
and  one  of  their  own  supporters,  "  Quhairof,"  says  Spalding  quaintly,  "  never  word 
nor  tryell  wes  gottin,  quhilk  wes  thocht  mervallous,  bot  indeid  he  wes  a  wilful], 
malitious  Covenanter".  Colonel  Johnston  had  offered  to  check  the  Covenanting 
force  at  a  place  south  of  the  Dee,  but  his  counsel  was  overruled  by  Crowner 
Gunn.  Johnston  believing  the  decision  to  have  been  given  in  bad  faith,  soon  thereafter 
gave  up  the  King's  cause  and  went  beyond  seas,  after  denouncing  in  the  Boyal  presence, 
at  Berwick,  his  former  commander,  Gunn,  as  a  traitor,  challenging  him  to  single  combat 
— a  challenge  not  accepted  by  his  opponent. 

Lord  Aboyne,  with  the  English  officers  who  came  with  him,  and  the  traitor  Gunn, 
as  he  is  called  by  Spalding,  escaped  on  board  their  vessel,  which  continued  to  lie  off 
Aberdeen,  and  joined  the  King  again  at  Berwick.  His  Majesty,  however,  was  at  that 
juncture  in  possession  of  such  a  force  that  the  Covenanters  made  overtures  for  a  pacifica- 
tion, which  resulted  in  Charles  agreeing  to  abandon  the  attempted  encroachments  upon 
the  Presbyterian  forms  of  worship  and  government.  The  Marquis  of  Huntly  was  released 
from  prison,  but  thought  fit  to  take  up  his  abode  in  Edinburgh,  where,  Spalding  says,  he 


272  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch, 

had  two  daughters  married ;  one  a  precise  Puritan,  the  other  a  Eoman  Catholic ;  the 
Marquis  himself  being  a  good  Covenanter  at  the  time.  The  historian's  notice  of  the 
diversified  household  is  quite  in  keeping  with  the  times.  The  Earl  of  Argyll,  the  uncle 
of  the  young  ladies,  was  match-maker  in  the  Papist  as  well  as  the  Puritan  alliance.  Huntly 
soon  after  seems  to  have  thought  the  King's  quarters  the  safest  place  for  him,  and  re- 
moved thither  with  his  sons  Lords  Gordon  and  Aboyne,  securing  also  a  safe  conduct  for 
Ludovick,  the  fourth  son,  to  follow.  Sir  Thomas  Crombie  of  Kemnay  speedily  made 
after  him,  and  next  the  lairds  of  Cluny  and  Poveran. 

The  pacification  agreed  to  was  evidently  not  likely  to  continue ;  the  early  part  of 
1640  was  accordingly  employed  by  each  party  in  making  ready  for  a  renewal  of  the 
conflict.  The  English  Parliament  summoned  by  the  king  would  not  support  him  against 
the  Scottish  Covenanters  ;  and  the  king  was  indebted  to  the  purses  and  the  influence 
of  the  English  clergy  for  the  means  of  raising  a  new  army,  and  that  one  not  quite  trust- 
worthy, in  his  cause.  Between  that  force  and  the  Scots  no  collision  took  place  until 
August,  1640,  when  the  Covenanting  troops,  having  marched  into  England,  routed  the 
king's  forces  at  Newcastle  while  Charles  was  himself  at  York.  But  General  Leslie 
had  been,  in  April,  called  again  to  take  command  of  the  Scottish  army,  and  the 
Covenanting  chiefs  set  about  imposing  a  new  engagement  upon  the  country  in  the 
form  of  a  bond  to  assess  all  property  for  the  maintenance  of  the  executive  of  the 
Covenant.  The  local  committee  that  was  to  deal  with  the  tax  to  be  levied  on  Aber- 
deenshire were  Lord  Fraser,  the  Master  of  Forbes,  the  Lairds  of  Philorth,  Mony- 
musk,  and  Craigievar,  and  George  Baird  of  Auchmedden.  Walter  Forbes  of  Thainston, 
called  Young  Tolquhon,  was  a  subordinate.  His  son  Sir  Alexander,  then  a  boy, 
fought  for  Charles  I.  at  Worcester.  The  proceedings  of  those  tax-masters  were  of 
an  interesting  and  instructive  character.  The  Earl  Marischal,  being  General  of  the 
North,  took  an  oath  of  the  committee  that  they  should  do  nothing  but  by  his  advice. 
In  the  matter  of  taxation,  congenial  to  the  whole  of  them,  he  seems  to  have  displayed 
his  skill  as  a  strategist,  collecting  from  some  parishes  what  the  Forbeses  thought  had 
been  assigned  to  their  handling,  and  the  loss  of  which  made  them  complain  more  loudly 
than  collectors  for  a  common  purse  generally  do  when  they  are  saved  trouble  by  some 
part  of  their  work  being  done  for  them.  The  taxation  made  was  evidently  of  that 
elastic  kind  which  could  supplement  itself  by  a  little  plundering ;  a  protective  force, 
under  General  Munro,  having  been  sent  to  Aberdeen  to  let  the  appointed  work  be  carried 
on  without  resistance. 

The  Garioch  was  of  course  attended  to  along  with  other  districts.  A  pillaging  force 
from  Aberdeen  visited  the  Kemnay  girnal  once  more  and  emptied  it,  and  then  went  on 
to  Fetternear ;  but  being  prepared  only  to  steal,  and  not  to  fight,  turned  back  upon 
finding  Hector  Abercromby  have  his  gates  barred  and  himself  ready  to  shoot  his  un- 
welcome visitors.  The  fall  of  a  soldier  caused  the  whole  foraging  party  to  retire  forth- 
with ;  hut  the  laird,  anticipating  another  attack,  immediately  packed  up  all  he  could 


Tlie  Earl  of  Argyll  273 


transport,  and  with  his  family  set  off  for  the  universal  refuge — the  King.  Shortly  after- 
wards, on  the  27th  of  June,  a  force  of  200  witb  their  officers  plundered  the  Houses  of  , 
Balbithan  and  Hedderwick  (Chalmers)  and  Lcthinty  (Urquhart),  and  destroyed  the 
doors  and  gates  of  Newton  (Gordon) ;  and  crowned  their  day's  exploits  by  seizing  some 
anti-Covenanter  ministers  of  the  Garioch,  whom  they  forced  to  march  on  foot  to  Aberdeen 
to  prison.  These  were  Mr.  Andrew  Logie  of  Bayne,  Mr.  John  Cheyne  of  Kintore,  Mr. 
William  Leith  of  Kinkell,  Mr.  William  Strachan  of  Daviot,  and  Mr.  Samuel  Walcar  of 
Monkegy.  The  Garioch  pillaging  party,  with  their  prey  and  prisoners,  reached  Aber- 
deen on  1st  July.  Next  day  the  young  Earl  Marischal  returned  to  Aberdeen  from 
Edinburgh,  and  set  about  the  work  in  which,  while  a  Covenanter,  he  is  seen  more  in 
than  in  fighting.  His  kinsman,  the  Laird  of  Haddo,  had,  in  order  to  save  his  property,"'' 
professed  to  join  the  Covenanting  party,  giving  in  his  adherence  personally  to  the  Earl ; 
and  Marischal  let  him  go  home  from  Eunnottar  to  Kelly,  after  making  him  unexpectedly 
pay  a  smart  fine  of  1600  merks,  which  he  had  thought  to  escape  by  submission.  Gordon 
of  Newton  sought  safety  in  the  same  way,  but,  with  the  degree  of  faith  prevalent  at  the 
time,  only  speedily  to  break  his  oath.  The  utter  insecurity  of  property  Spalding  illus- 
trates by  one  example  : — "  In  the  meintyme  Marschalli's  men,  who  wes  plunderit  be  the 
Gordouns  and  thair  companie  at  Straquhan,  Kintor,  and  Halforrest,  as  ye  may  reid  befoir, 
wes  soundlie  payit  bak  at  thair  owne  hand  with  the  annuellis,  but  making  of  price.  So 
an  evill  turne  meitis  ane  uther."  Safe  plundering,  combined  with  prudent  avoidance 
of  danger  in  fighting,  is  the  kind  of  occurrence  that  is  with  amusing  frequency 
set  before  the  reader  of  the  Aberdeen  Commissary  Clerk's  graphic  notes;  and  no 
one  can  read  them  and  entertain  much  respect  for  the  mass  of  tbe  actors  in  a  contest 
which  was  all  the  while  resonant  with  professions  of  high  principle.  Indeed  the  his- 
tory of  the  Eeformation  in  Scotland  from  the  beginning,  as  far  as  the  great  lairds  were 
actually  engaged  in  it,  was  too  generally  such  as  to  make  the  plundering  of  the 
girnal  its  appropriate  type.  One  of  the  Garioch  clerical  prisoners  of  1st  July,  Mr. 
Logie,  was  suspended  by  a  committee  of  Assembly  then  sitting  in  Aberdeen,  and  on 
28th  July  the  General  Assembly  sitting  at  Aberdeen  deposed  him. 

THE  EARL  OF  AKGYLL. 

It  was  during  the  suspension  of  active  hostilities  against  the  King,  in  1640,  that  the 
Earl  of  Argyll,  afterwards  a  moving  spirit  in  the  tragic  events  of  the  Civil  War,  appeared 
first  as  a  leader.  The  Committee  of  Estates  assigned  to  him  the  task  of  harrying  the 
property  of  some  of  his  personal  foes,  especially  that  of  burning  "  the  bonnie  House  o' 
Airly".  The  Earl  of  Airly  had  fled  to  England,  and  Argyll  had  the  work  of  destroying 
an  undefended  house  and  thoroughly  ravaging  the  lands  around  it.  That  bit  of 
cateran-like  violence  took  place  in  June,  and  at  the  same  time  Athol  and  Lochaber  were 
reduced  to  subjection,  while  opportunity  continued  of  getting  opponents  easily  put  down. 

35 


274  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Gordon  says  about  the  affair — "  In  this  acte  it  was  observed  by  all  that  Argyll  was  the 
first  who  raised  fyre  in  Scotland,  by  burning  Airly's  house,  as  Generall  Lesly  had  first 
begunne  plundering  at  Inverowrye."  Argyll  had  two  mfeims  often  on  his  tongue, 
which  were  of  very  comprehensive  consequence  in  his  subsequent  practice  :  "  Absein- 
dantur  qui  nos  perturbant "  ;    and  "  Mortui  non  mordent  ". 

The  Earl  of  Argyll  was  at  that  time  forty-two  years  of  age,  and  had  twenty  years 
of  a  painfully  eventful  life  before  him,  which  terminated  in  his  own  execution  eleven 
years  after  he  had  indulged  himself  in  the  bitter  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  Marquis  of 
Montrose  suffer  a  similar  fate.  Two  portraits  of  Argyll  hang  in  the  Castle  of  Inverary, 
showing  very  different  countenances.  One,  which  might  be  of  the  date  of  his  first  ap- 
pearance, is  a  disagreeable  one—  a  hard  cynical  look  being  intensified  by  something 
like  a  cast  of  the  eyes.  The  other  portrait,  painted  long  after,  exhibits  a  countenance 
burdened  with  care,  irresolute  in  expression,  and  as  if  under  a  forecast  of  fear.  A  like- 
ness of  Montrose  hangs  above  this  portrait,  a  younger  face  of  course,  for  he  suffered  at 
the  age  of  38.  It  shows  a  heavy  jaw,  broad  firm  features,  and  a  rather  low  brow.  A 
memorial  of  Argyll  still  remains  near  Inverary,  but  is  wasting  now.  It  is  the  fine  beech 
avenue  of  the  Dim  Loch  which  he  planted  in  1660,  the  year  before  his  death. 

During  1640  the  Committee  of  Estates,  then  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the 
-  Covenanting  Nobles,  was,  while  professing  loyalty  to  the  King,  levying  taxes  to  make 
war  upon  him.  The  rental  of  the  country  had  been  taken  up,  and  every  rent  of  50 
chalders  was  required  to  furnish  one  rickmaster,  with  sword,  pistol,  carbine  or  lance,  and 
a  horse  worth  80  pounds  Scots.  A  receipt  from  the  Earl  Marischal  dated  7th  August, 
1640,  certifies  "  George  Leslie,  late  Eailie  of  Inverurie,  and  the  rest  of  the  communitie, 
has  given  aucht  men  to  Capitanne  Thomas ,  all  furnished  according  to  their  stent ". 

The  serious  work  of  the  Covenanters  was  at  this  time  resting  on  the  shoulders  of 
General  Leslie,  who  was  upon  the  Eorder  or  in  England  with  his  army,  in  which  his 
relative,  the  Baron  of  Balquhain,  was  serving.  The  North  under  the  presidency  of 
General  Munro  was  chiefly  a  scene  of  plunder.  The  Earl  Marischal  and  the  Master  of 
Forbes,  rivals  for  local  supremacy,  had  to  be  quieted  by  the  Committee  of  Estates.  Each 
wished  to  have  the  chief  handling  of  the  assessment  imposed  ;  Marischal  because  he  was 
commander  in  the  district,  and  the  Master  because  he  was  chief  of  a  clan,  and  bound  to 
give  obedience  to  no  man.  Forbes  was  to  be  disbanded  by  the  Estates,  but  he  rode  to 
General  Leslie  who  established  his  regiment;  but  in  February,  1641,  it  was  disbanded, 
not  without  the  Earl  Marischal's  "  procurement  in  sum  measour  becaus  they  war  hot 
sillie  poor  naikit  soldiouris  burdenabill  to  the  countrie,  and  not  meit  for  soldiarie.  Thus 
is  he  set  besyde  the  cushioun  for  his  sinceritie  and  forwardnes  in  the  good  causs." 

The  pressure  of  Argyll's  political  influence  was  becoming  disagreeable  in  the  self- 
seeking  community  of  Lords,  and  a  new  league  and  covenant  upon  a  small  scale  was 
secretly  signed  by  the  Earls  Montrose,  Marischal,  Marr,  Strathearn,  Southesk,  Seaforth, 
Wigton,  Perth,  Lord  Napier,  and  others,  to  cast  off  the  peremptory  rule  sought  to  be 


The  Earl  of  Argyll.  275 


established  by  the  Earls  of  Argyll  and  Eothes,  Lords  Lindsay,  Loudoun,  Balmerinocli, 
Couper,  and  others,  "  over  as  worthie  nobles  as  thanieselffis".  This  document  had  to  be 
burned  in  presence  of  the  Committee  of  Estates,  in  order  to  prevent  the  common  enemy 
from  taking  advantage  of  the  evident  disruption  of  confidence  evinced  by  it.  Only  a 
nominal  harmony  was  restored,  however ;  and  the  way  was  opened  for  a  new  formation 
of  parties,  two  or  three  years  later,  when  the  successes  of  the  English  Parliamentarian 
party  made  the  Scottish  barons  and  clergy  generaUy  aware  that  the  English  would  look 
to  their  own  objects  more  than  to  the  special  ecclesiastical  desires  of  the  northern 
kingdom.  Argyll  pursued  his  self-aggrandising  policy  with  unscrupulous  perseverance, 
until  he  became  the  chief  power  in  the  state;  and  in  his  course  had  first  to  set  himself  to 
suppress  all  his  most  powerful  confederates  of  former  years,  as  dangerous  rivals.  Mon- 
trose was  shortly  in  prison,  and  when  he  appeared  in  the  face  of  the  country  again  it 
was  as  the  best  soldier  of  King  Charles,  leading  a  brilliant  but  not  successful  enterprise 
on  his  bahalf,  with  Argyll  generally  keeping  out  of  his  way. 

In  the  spring  of  1641  submission  to  the  Covenant  was  the  universal  policy ;  because 
of  the  cost  of  standing  apart  when  there  were  so  many  administrators  of  the  rough  and 
ready  discipline  of  plundering.  In  March,  1641,  Lethinty  was  visited  by  a  new  exactor, 
Lord  Sinclair,  who  had  received  from  the  laird,  Patrick  Urquhart,  600  merks  of  cess  for 
his  regiment,  and  immediately  needed  3000  more  in  lieu  of  harrying  his  lands.  The 
crafty  Commissary  for  the  Northern  Shires — Mr.  Eobert  Farquhar  of  Mounie — was  like 
to  be  in  some  trouble  for  paying  the  Aberdonians  in  mity  meal  for  quartering  the 
regiment  of  Frasers,  which  seems  to  have  been  a  despicably  debauched  body,  causing 
Aberdeen  much  shame.  The  Laird  of  Haddo  had  tried  to  purchase  immunity  from 
being  pillaged  by  asking  the  Earl  Marischal,  his  relative,  to  receive  him  as  a  Cove- 
nanter, and  paying  him  a  fine.  He  had,  however,  fixed  himself  in  the  recollection  of 
Andrew  Lord  Fraser,  and  of  John  Forbes  of  Leslie  by  plundering  Muchalls,  and  taking 
Forbes  to  Strathbogy,  and  pjutting  him  to  ransom  at  1000  merks,  besides  appropriating  his 
best  horse  ;  and  the  two  got  him  condemned  by  the  Committee  of  Estates  to  pay  10,000 
merks  to  Lord  Fraser  and  3500  to  the  Laird  of  Leslie.  The  most  indomitable  of  the 
Garioch  Eoyalists,  John  Leith  of  Harthill,  was  at  that  time  chained  by  the  foot  in  the 
prison  of  Aberdeen,  as  much  a  terror  to  the  authorities  as  if  he  had  been  a  wild  beast. 
In  January  of  that  year  Lord  Gordon  subscribed  the  Covenant  at  Newcastle. 

The  custom  of  wearing  arms,  which  unavoidably  arose  in  the  existing  condition  of 
the  country,  led  to  many  unfortunate  encounters.  One  occurred  on  Monday,  31st 
October,  1642,  between  John  Forbes  of  Leslie  and  Sir  Gilbert  Menzies  of  Pitfoddels. 
The  two  were  on  indifferent  terms  because  of  some  old  revenges  ;  Leslie's  father  having 
killed  Pitfoddels'  goodsire's  brother  unworthily,  and  Leslie  having  broken  tryst  with 
Menzies  anent  a  meeting  to  settle  a  dispute  about  a  Moss.  They  chanced  to  meet,  on  the 
Monday  named,  at  the  Craibstane,  the  scene  of  several  encounters  of  country  lairds 
with  Aberdeen  citizens  in  earlier  times.    Spalding  describes  the  encounter  thus  :  "  Thay 


276  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

meit,  gois  by,  but  salutation.  Pitfoddellis  took  it  unkyndlie,  and  pursewis,  betwixt 
whome  sindrie  schottis  was  schott,  as  is  said.  Aluays  thay  pairtit,  both  cumis  on  to 
the  towne.  Pitfoddelis  gois  to  his  owne  houss,  and  Leslie  to  Mr.  Robert  Farquharis 
hous.  He  lay  under  care  quhill  Januar,  1643,  and  then  began  to  walk  upone  ane  staf 
feblie,  and  not  soundlie  heallit."  The  Craibstane  in  Hardgate  of  Aberdeen  is  still  to  be 
seen  at  the  back  of  "West  Craibstone  Street.  In  those  days  a  region  of  crofts  possessed 
by  the  burgesses  occupied  the  site  of  modern  Aberdeen  west  of  the  Denburn  and  its  Bow- 
brig,  by  which  the  King's  highway  issued  southward,  climbing  and  descending  the  Win d- 
millbrae  and  the  Hardgate,  along  many  a  gradient,  to  the  Brig  o'  Dee.  Historical  names 
survive  in  the  titles  of  the  crofts,  one  called  Ediepingle,  thus  commemorating  Adam 
Pyngill,  burgess  of  Aberdeen  in  1376,  at  that  time  a  small  laird  in  the  Garioch  (p.  66). 

By  midsummer,  1641,  a  new  phase  came  upon  Scottish  affairs.  The  Scots  army 
under  General  Leslie  had  come  in  sight  of  the  King's  English  force  in  the  north  of  Eng- 
land, and  an  interview  granted  by  his  Majesty  to  the  General  led  the  way  to  a  pacifica- 
tion. The  King  accompanied  Leslie  to  Edinburgh  :  a  Parliament  was  held,  and  political 
prisoners  were  set  at  liberty.  Both  parties  were  gratified  by  the  bestowal  of  honours 
from  the  Crown  :  Argyll  was  made  Marquis;  Loudoun  an  Earl;  General  Leslie  created 
Earl  of  Leven;  Sir  George  Ogilvie  created  Lord  Banff;  John  Gordon  of  Haddo  a 
Baronet ;  while  the  Earl  Marischal  got  a  profitable  tack  of  the  customs  of  Aberdeen, 
and  the  new  Marquis  of  Argyll  valuable  wadsets  from  his  brother-in-law  the  Marquis  of 
Huntly.  The  young  Laird  of  Frendraught  was  created  Viscount  Crichton,  his  father 
refusing  to  be  called  anything  but  Laird. 

In  August  of  that  year,  Aberdeen  acquired  the  but  partially  welcome  possession  of 
Mr.  Andrew  Cant  as  one  of  its  ministers,  the  General  Assembly  settling  him  against 
opposition.  Mr.  Andrew  Cant  had  been  minister  of  Pitsligo,  and  in  1639  was  translated 
to  Xewbottle.  He  was  chosen  one  of  the  three  clerical  members  of  the  Tables,  and 
learned  there  the  exercise  of  a  dictatorial  temper,  which  made  him  a  prominent  indi- 
vidual for  the  next  twenty  years.  The  other  clerical  leaders  were  Henderson  and  Dickson. 
The  famous  Gillespie  had  also  been  proposed  by  the  General  Assembly  as  a  proper 
minister  for  the  stiff-necked  city  of  Bon-Accord,  but  had  refused  to  go.  During  the 
general  conciliation  the  King  bestowed  pensions  on  both  Henderson  and  him ;  Cant  we 
may  believe  presented  no  promise  of  friendliness.  He  was  in  after  life  tyrannical  when 
in  power,  and  insubordinate  where  he  might,  when  in  a  minority  ;  patronising  heresy 
when  he  chose,  and  using  his  influence  to  overstep  the  law,  in  getting  arrests  executed 
on  the  Sabbath,  for  his  own  purposes.  In  the  following  year  Cant  contrived  to  get 
Mr.  John  Bow,  schoolmaster  of  St.  Johnston,  brought  to  one  of  the  Aberdeen  churches 
and  the  pair  afterwards  dominated  in  the  Presbytery  and  Synod,  or  set  the  rest  at 
defiance  by  means  of  personal  boldness ;  and  when  threatened  with  discipline  for  schis- 
matic proceedings,  procured  the  intervention  of  Cromwell's  Colonels.  Dr.  John  Forbes, 
Professor   of  Divinity   in   King's  College,  the  late  Bishop's  son,  was  deposed  as  an 


The  Earl  of  Argyll.  277 


anti-Covenanter,  and  the  Garioch  Presbytery,  which  contained  at  the  time  several 
ministers  of  a  high  class,  sent  two  candidates  to  the  competition  for  his  chair — Mr. 
John  Seton  of  Kemnay  and  Mr.  George  Leith  of  Culsalmond.  The  minister  of  Forgue, 
Mr.  William  Douglas,  was  elected.  .--  . 

In  1642,  the  first  gallery  was  erected  in  Old  Aberdeen  Cathedral.  The  reredos  of 
the  higli  altar  had  remained  since  the  Keformation — a  magnificent  wall  of  carved  oak. 
The  minister  broke  it  down,  making  a  gallery  of  the  cut-up  ornament.  He  could  not 
get  a  carpenter  to  do  the  work  until  he  first  put  his  own  hand  to  the  Vandal- 
like act.  The  students  and  schoolboys  of  that  time  were  wont  to  put  the  dicta- 
torial clergy  to  no  small  trouble.  Yule-day  happening  in  1642  to  fall  on  a  Monday, 
the  ministers  of  the  Old  Town  sent  out  the  bellman,  ordering  all  manner  of  men  to  open 
their  booth  doors  and  go  to  work ;  but  the  students  fell  upon  the  man  and  took  the  bell 
from  him,  and  the  people  kept  Christmas  according  to  their  own  tastes.  On  Candlemas- 
day,  next  year,  the  boys  of  the  Old  Town  Grammar  school  ostentatiously  arranged  a  new 
kind  of  procession.  They  marched  bearing  lighted  candles,  to  set  a  torch  upon  the  top 
of  the  Cross,  and  then,  with  their  candles  burning,  conducted  home,  to  his  lodgings  in 
the  Chanonry,  John  Keith,  the  •  Earl  Marischal's  brother,  afterwards  the  first  Earl  of 
Kintore,  whom  they  had  chosen  for  their  king  on  the  occasion. 

The  sympathies  of  the  Aberdonians  were  evidently  much  with  the  forms  and 
customs  of  public  worship  to  which  they  had  been  accustomed.  The  fatal  Service  Book, 
which  in  Edinburgh  was  the  occasion  of  the  irresistible  combination  being  formed 
against  the  king's  ecclesiastical  measures,  was  accepted  pleasantly  enough  in  Aberdeen. 
The  Presbyterian  form  of  communion  observance  was  a  novelty  there  in  1641,  al- 
though forty  years  later,  under  the  second  Episcopacy,  nothing  else  was  known  in 
Scotland,  even  in  the  Cathedrals.  Spalding  describes  the  service  in  1641,  as  conducted 
by  Mr.  William  Strachan  in  Old  Aberdeen,  exactly  as  an  Englishman  might  describe 
the  service  now,  noting  the  same  differences  from  what  he  had  been  accustomed  to. 
In  1643,  he  depicts  with  his  own  realistic  talent  how  the  service  was  held  by  Mr. 
Andrew  Cant  "  not  efter  the  old  fashion,  kneilling,  bot  sitting,  nor  the  people  sufferit  to 
pray  when  Mr.  Androw  Cant  prayit,  as  their  custom  wes  befoir,  but  all  to  be  silent  and 
dum,  nor  their  communiun  breid  baikin  nor  distribute  as  wes  wont,  bot  efter  ane  new 
fashioun  of  breid,  for  it  was  baikin  in  ane  round  loaf  lyk  ane  trynscheour,  syne  cuttit 
out  in  lang  scheives,  hanging  be  ane  tak ;  and  first  the  minister  takis  ane  scheive  efter 
the  blissing,  and  brakis  ane  peice,  and  gives  to  him  who  is  narrest,  and  he  gives  the 
scheive  to  his  nightbour,  who  takis  ane  peice,  and  syne  gives  it  to  his  nightbour,  whill 
it  be  spent ;  and  syne  an  elder  gives  in  ane  uther  scheive  where  the  first  scheive  left,  and 
so  forth.  The  like  breid  and  service  wes  nevir  sein  in  Abirdene  befoir  the  cuming  of 
Mr.  Androw  Cant  to  be  thair  minister." 

In  1642  the  Covenanting  leaders  deceived  themselves  grievously  in  their  negotia- 
tions with   Ihe   Parliament  of  England.       When  a  severe  contest  with  the  King  was 


278  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Gfarioch. 

plainly  imminent  the  Parliament  looked  for  aid  to  a  Scottish  army.  The  Episcopalian 
hierarchy  were  in  England  the  chief  support  of  the  Royal  cause,  and  perhaps  to  punish 
them  as  well  as  to  conciliate  the  Scots  the  Parliament  adopted  the  Solemn  League  and 
Covenant.  To  the  wishful  thoughts  of  the  Tables  that  was  the  adoption  of  Scottish 
Presbyterianism  for  the  national  religion  of  Britain,  and  they  accepted  a  subsidy  of 
£10,000  for  the  purpose  of  equipping  a  Scottish  force  to  co-operate  with  the  army  of  the 
Parliament  in  the  great  cause.  They  discovered  their  mistake  as  soon  as  the  contest 
had  resulted  in  the  defeat  of  King  Charles ;  when  they  found  the  Independents,  who 
abounded  in  the  English  army,  asserting  themselves  with  something  of  the  power  of  the 
sword  against  all  ecclesiastical  organisations  and  offices  alike.  Before  long  Cromwell's 
Colonels  commanding  in  Scotland  were  a  fixed  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  Kirk. 

When  in  February,  1643,  the  king  was  engaged  in  hostilities  with  the  army  raised 
by  the  English  Parliament,  the  Lieutenant-General  of  the  royal  forces  was  General  King, 
the  last  nominal  King  of  Barra.  He  had  just  brought  from  Denmark  to  Charles,  £500,000 
and  a  number  of  good  officers.  Whether  the  product  of  imaginations  excited  by  the 
incessant  troubles  then  occurring,  or  having  an  ex  post  f  ado  origin,  various  portents  of  the 
victories  obtained  by  the  king  were  reported  from  different  places  as  having  occurred,  in 
the  form  of  drums  heard  beating  at  Ellon,  armies  seen  in  the  air  at  the  Muir  of  Forfar, 
a  battle  fought  by  a  great  army  of  horse  aud  foot,  seen  in  the  mist,  at  eight  in  the 
morning,  on  the  Brimmond  Hill,  near  Craibston,  in  Aberdeenshire. 

In  the  summer  of  1643,  the  Scots  in  England  were  finding  themselves  cavalierly 
treated  by  the  leaders  of  the  Parliamentary  army,  and  defections  were  taking  place. 
General  Urrie  resigned  the  command  he  held  in  General  Leslie's  army,  and  went  to 
the  king.  He  soon  left  him  again,  and  we  find  him  afterwards  serving  in  the  Garioch, 
on  the  Covenanting  side,  and  defeated  by  Montrose.  Proclamations  and  counter  decla- 
rations, by  the  King  and  the  Estates,  were  pleading  the  opposite  sides  before  the 
country.  On  15th  June,  the  Marquis  of  Huntly,  by  his  Majesty's  command,  convened 
his  friends  at  Aberdeen  and  then  at  Inverurie,  and  published  a  declaration,  emitted  by 
the  king  at  Oxford,  21st  April,  1643,  rebutting  the  allegations  of  the  Covenanters.  At 
Broomend,  near  Inverurie,  a  little  later,  on  the  occasion  of  the  laird  of  Braco's  funeral, 
Sir  John  Gordon  of  Haddo,  Braco's  relative,  quarrelled  with  Alexander  Jaffray,  junior, 
afterwards  of  Ardtannies,  who,  with  his  father  and  brother,  were  there,  and  assaulted 
the  Baillie  seriously,  following  up  the  violence  by  a  foolish  bravado  in  the  streets  of 
Aberdeen.  This  attack  was  an  item  in  the  catalogue  of  offences  that  caused  Haddo  to  be 
condemned  to  death  and  executed  at  Edinburgh,  in  July,  1644. 

The  inevitable  falling  out  of  confederates  in  a  double-minded  counsel  went  on 
apace  in  1643.  Lord  Gordon,  the  Covenanter — whom  his  father,  the  Marquis  of  Huntly, 
could  not  be  prevailed  upon  to  receive  into  favour  and  support  farther  than  to  let  him 
have  the  use  of  his  house  in  Aberdeen,  and  the  supply  of  peats  stacked  in  the  court — had 
to  be  provided  for.     The  Committee  of  Estates  divided  the  Sheriffdom  of  Aberdeen 


The  Earl  of  Argyll  279 


between  him  and  Earl  Marischal.  Discontent  was  first  bred  by  this  in  Lord  Forbes, 
whose  influence  had  not  been  sufficient  to  procure  him  a  share  in  the  taxable  territory ; 
and  next  in  Marischal,  because  Lord  Gordon  had  got  the  biggest  share.  A  portion  had 
to  be  found  for  Lord  Forbes,  who  thereupon  had  a  rival  presenting  himself  in  the  person 
of  Frendraught,  now  Viscount  Crichton,  but  succeeded  in  securing  the  new  place  for 
himself.  Inverurie,  it  is  likely,  was  included  in  the  Earl  Marischal's  slice  of  the  county, 
as  he  appears  there  frequently  at  that  time. 

THE  MARQUIS   OF  HUNTLY  IN  ARMS. 

Argyll  was  now  fairly  at  the  head  of  affairs,  Lord  General  of  the  Earl  of  Leven's 
army,  an  ornamental  post,  which,  well  for  him,  had  inferred  no  necessity  of  military 
skill,  but  which  must  have  exercised  Leslie's  remarkable  power  of  management  to  keep 
from  resulting  in  abundant  harm.  Among  the  nobles  not  attending  the  army,  the  new 
Marquis  was  becoming  more  and  more  suspected  and  dreaded,  and  matters  were  rapidly 
becoming  ripe  for  the  appearance  on  the  field  of  Montrose — likewise  bearing  the  rank  of 
Marquis,  but  now  holding  the  King's  Commission.  , — » 

The  Marquis  of  Huntly  was  not  in  arms  at  that  time ;  but,  being  suspected  by  the 
Estates,  an  order  was  issued  for  his  arrest — by  authority  of  the  Committee  of  Estates — 
addressed  to  the  laird  of  Drum,  Sheriff-Principal  of  the  County  of  Aberdeen,  which 
order  Drum  seemed  to  fail  in  executing.  Huntly  resolved  to  rise  in  his  own 
defence,  while  he  had  yet  time.  He  tried  Earl  Marischal  and  others  to  co-operate  with 
him ;  but  caution  still  prevailed  in  that  party,  however  discontented  with  Argyll  they 
were.  On  26th  March,  Gordon  came  to  Kintore  with  240  horse,  and,  largely  reinforced 
by  the  lairds  of  his  old  party,  he  rode  to  Aberdeen  and  published  a  declaration  that  he 
was  forced  to  rise  in  defence  of  his  personal  liberty.  There  stood  by  the  Marquis  in 
that  demonstration  young  Drum  (his  father  keeping  quiet) ;  the  Lairds  of  Echt,  elder 
and  younger ;  Newton,  elder  and  younger ;  Haddo,  Abergeldie,  Carnburrow,  Letter- 
furie,  and  Invermarkie,  Arradoul,  and  Ardlogie — all  Gordons  ;  Innes  of  Tibberty,  Innes 
of  Balveny,  Seton  of  Schethin,  Leith  of  Harthill,  Meldrum  of  Iden,  and — a  sign  of  new 
councils — some  of  the  Earl  Marischal's  men  joined  him  at  Kintore. 

The  Marquis's  appearance  in  such  guise  alarmed  all  the  Covenanting  local  chiefs. 
They  hastily  removed  their  meal  girnals  and  other  goods  to  such  places  of  safety  as 
they  could.  Craigievar,  Echt,  Tolquhon,  Waterton,  and  Monymusk  all  prepared  to 
defend  their  own  houses.  Lord  Fraser  carried  all  his  victual  to  Cairnbulg,  except  his 
corn  ricks  at  Stoneywood,  and  these  he  threshed  out,  and  sowed  the  grain  upon  untilled 
ground,  ploughing  down  the  seed  hastily.  The  Lord  Forbes  fled  to  Kildrummj'.  One 
armed  band  was  roaming  the  country,  which  respected  no  one  worth  plundering.  It 
was  a  party  of  the  broken  men  under  James  Grant,  a  notorious  partisan  of  Huntly 
in  former  times.     He  rifled  the  royalist  house  of  Kemnay  of  600  merks  of  money  and 


280  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

all  its  valuables,  and  next  the  Covenanting  laird  of  Pittodrie's  lands,  and  house  of 
Mounie,  at  that  time  the  property  of  Mr.  Eobert  Farquhar.  The  last  Seton  of  Meldrum, 
son-in-law  of  Frendraught,  and  "  a  precise  puritane,"  was  a  sufferer  at  the  same  time  — 
the  Laird  of  Haddo,  Sehethin,  and  Tibbertie,  with  20  horse  and  80  musketeers,  having 
visited  him,  as  at  the  same  Straloeh,  Turriff,  Towie,  and  Barclay,  with  the  customary  results. 

The  dashing  exploits  of  Huntly's  followers  he  was  never  engaged  in  himself.  The 
first  was  a  picturesque  one.  On  the  1st  March,  Sir  John  Gordon  of  Haddo,  Alexander 
Irvine  younger  of  Drum,  Eobert  his  brother,  "William  Seton  of  Shethin,  William  Lines 
of  Tibberty,  and  some  others,  with  about  sixty  horse,  galloped  through  the  Old  Town  of 
Aberdeen  about  seven  in  the  morning  to  the  city,  and  took  Provost  Leslie,  Mr.  Eobert 
Farquhar,  and  Alexander  Jaffrey,  junior,  and  his  brother  John,  out  of  their  houses, 
and  plundered  the  laird  of  Pittodrie's  saddle  horse,  and  some  others,  and  left  the  town 
only  about  ten  o'clock  without  any  opposition,  riding  through  the  Gallowgate  back  to  the 
Old  Town.  They  rode  through  the  Loch  Wynd,  drank  at  Kintore,  lodged  all  night  at 
Legatsden,  and  carried  then-  captives  to  Strathbogy,  whence  they  were  taken  to  Auchin- 
doun.  Huntly  in  a  few  weeks  set  them  free  in  a  fright  while  he  was  starting  upon  a 
solitary  night  before  the  enemy  he  had  never  boldly  faced.  The  insult  to  the  city  seems 
to  have  been  deeply  felt,  and  revenge  was  sought  through  the  Committee  of  Estates. 

The  Garioch  was  immediately  to  become  the  scene  of  the  assembling  of  the  oppos- 
ing Scottish  parties,  which  the  timidity  of  both  the  antagonistic  Marquises  made  little 
more  than  an  affair  of  masters.  Inverurie  was  the  place  of  a  gathering  on  behalf  of  the 
King,  on  11th  April,  1644.  Huntly  had  appointed  the  rendezvous,  and  there  were  present 
about  2500  troops,  of  which  400  was  cavalry.  The  lairds  of  Gicht  and  Newton  were 
with  him,  and  the  Tutor  of  Struan  came  out  of  Athol  with  about  60  men  to  him.  "  He 
stayit  at  Innerurie  Saterday  and  Sonday,  and  lodgit  in  umquhil  William  Fergus,  his 
hous,"  and  his  men  quartered  about  him  within  the  town.  His  lodging  was  on  the  east 
side  of  Market  Place,  in  the  part  of  the  house  which  William  Ferguson  was  fined  1 00 
lbs.  for  building  beyond  his  ground  in  1619.  On  that  Sunday  Huntly  and  several  of 
them  that  joined  him  at  Kintore  were  excommunicated  in  the  Church  of  St.  Giles, 
Edinburgh. 

This  display  was  the  forerunner  of  but  little  action  ;  to  account  for  which  at  least 
in  part,  it  has  to  be  recalled  to  mind  that  the  Marquis  of  Huntly  had  suffered  badly 
from  previously  trusting  Montrose.  He  in  consequence  shrank  from  confiding  in  the 
new  Marquis,  even  when  now  in  command  for  the  King. 

They  marched  to  Aberdeen  on  Monday,  about  six  hours  at  even,  with  a  banner 
bearing  "  C.E.  For  God,  the  King,  and  against  all  Traitors.  God  save  the  King." 
Spalding  says,  "  The  Marquis  and  his  followers  weir  ane  black  tafletie  about  their  craig, 
quhilk  was  ane  signe  to  fight  to  the  death ;  but  it  provit  otherwayes,"  he  quaintly  adds. 
Hearing  at  Aberdeen,  on  Wednesday  the  17th  April,  that  the  Covenanting  party  were 
drawing  strongly  to  a  head  against  him — Lord  Elcho  having  arrived  at  Dundee  with  500 


The  Marquis  of  H until/  in  Ann".  281 

Fife  men,  the  Earls  of  Kinghorn  and  Soutliesk  bringing  800,  the  Marquis  of  Argyll 
having  500  from  Perthshire  and  1000  from  Argyll,  with  800  from  Ireland,  and  Earl 
Marischal  and  Lord  Arhuthnot  bringing  500  out  of  the  Mearns.  Huntly  seems  to  have 
been  backward  to  take  action  at  first,  but  on  the  urgency  of  his  friends,  he  ordered  by 
sound  of  trumpet  at  the  cross  of  Aberdeen,  all  who  had  his  protection  to  meet  him  at 
Inverurie  next  day,  18th  April.  Leaving  Major  Hay  with  some  horse  and  foot  to  keep 
Aberdeen,  he  rode  to  Inverurie  on  the  17th,  Alexander  Irvine  of  Drum  following  him 
in  the  afternoon  with  some  40  horse.  He  quartered  his  men  in  Inverurie,  Kintore,  and 
Castle  Eraser,  and  lodged  again  in  William  Ferguson's  house  on  Wednesday  and  Thurs- 
day. He  despatched  an  expedition  into  Forfarshire,  under  the  Tutor  of  Struan,  with 
M'Eanald,  and  Donald  Farquharson  of  Invercauld  or  Monaltrie,  a  man  much  esteemed 
by  the  king,  and  returned  himself  to  Aberdeen  on  the  Friday.  He  lay  inactive  in 
Aberdeen  until  Argyll,  after  some  check  by  the  party  sent  into  Forfarshire,  approached 
in  force,  and  the  Forbeses  and  Frasers  and  other  Covenanters  came  out  again — who  had 
taken  to  their  defensible  houses  upon  Huntly  showing  some  courage  at  first.  He  was 
urged  to  go  out  of  the  town,  to  meet  the  enemies  approaching,  but  pleaded  that  the 
Aberdeenshire  Covenanters  would  immediately  seize  it.  In  a  few  days  he  resolved  to 
retire  to  his  own  fastnesses  at  Strathbogy,  Auchindoun,  and  the  Bog. 

On  the  4th  May,  Argyll  was  at  Inverurie  in  pursuit,  after  plundering  the  house  of 
Drum,  on  account  of  the  young  laird's  partnership  with  Huntly.  His  troop  encamped 
from  Kintore  to  Inverurie,  and  were  provisioned  from  Aberdeen.  From  Inverurie  he 
held  some  communication  with  the  Marquis  of  Huntly  at  Auchindoun,  and  on  Monday, 
7th  May,  he  made  an  expedition  to  Kelly  (Haddo  House)  where  the  laird,  a  partizan  of 
Huntly's,  had  fortified  himself.  Baillie  Jaffray  reached  his  force  there  from  Auchin- 
doun. With  Argyll  there  went  from  Inverurie  the  Earl  Marischal,  the  Lord  Gordon, 
the  Lord  Fraser,  the  Master  of  Forbes,  and  divers  other  barons.  The  regiment  of 
Irishes  was  left  behind  at  Inverurie.  The  laird  of  Haddo  had  to  surrender,  and  among 
his  party  holding  out  Kelly  with  him  were  Captain  Logie  from  Eayne  Manse,  and  a 
son  of  Chalmcr  of  Drimmies. 

At  Inverurie,  Argyll,  as  commander-in-Chief,  under  the  Convention  of  Estates, 
issued,  on  6th  May,  his  proclamation  to  the  heritors  and  freeholders  within  the  Sheriff- 
dom of  Aberdeen  and  Banff,  to  repair  to  Turriff  by  10  forenoon  on  16th  May  instant, 
with  their  best  horses  and  horsemen,  arms,  and  48  hours'  provisions.  He  ordered  the 
proclamation  to  be  read  from  the  pulpits,  and  recommended  the  moderator  of  every 
Presbytery  in  the  bounds  to  give  up  lists  of  the  heritors  and  freeholders  in  their  dis- 
tricts. Another  act  was  to  be  read  out  of  the  pulpits  at  the  same  time,  excommunicating 
Huntly  and  his  chief  adherents.  The  proclamation  was  pretty  well  obeyed,  and  the 
muster  at  Turriff  amounted  to  709  horse  and  1300  foot.  "They  met  on  the  Inch  at 
Turriff,  and  had  ten  colours,  ten  drums,  six  trumpeters,  with  brave  captains,  and  well- 
armed   soldiers."     Huntly,    with   continuing   pusillanimity,   left   Auchindoun   on   the 

36 


K 


282  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

threatening  approach  of  Argyll,  and,  carrying  what  money  and  goods  with  him  he  could, 
escaped  alone  per  varios  casus  to  Caithness.  One  of  his  party  was  caught  in  the  attempt 
to  rifle  his  treasure  chest.  The  Laird  of  Drum,  son-in-law  to  the  Marquis,  with  some 
others,  went  after  him  to  Caithness,  and  were  sold  to  the  Covenanters  by  Francis 
Sinclair,  brother  of  the  Earl  of  Caithness. 

Argyll's  departure  from  Inverurie  has  its  date  probably  fixed  by  the  following 
receipt :  "  1644,  4th  June.  Capitaine  William  Erskine,  of  my  Lord  Gordon  his  regi- 
ment, grants  the  receipt  of  William  Petrie  and  Alexander  Hay,  from  George  Leslie  and 
Thomas  Eandall,  on  behalf  of  the  towne  of  Inverurie,  complete  arms,  lin  arms,  and  trans- 
port money,  and  their  half  of  ane  baggage  hors."  Argyll,  with  Lord  Gordon,  in  hot 
haste  went  north,  and,  missing  both  Marquis  and  treasure,  set  his  Irishes  upon  Auchin- 
doun.  His  own  turn  to  retreat,  however,  was  at  hand,  and  Inverurie  received  another 
visit  from  his  pursuer,  Montrose,  who  was  now  in  arms  for  the  King,  and  bearing  the 
title  of  Marquis. 

THE  MARQUIS  OF  MONTROSE. 

The  historian  Hume  attributes  Montrose's  adherence  at  first  to  the  Covenant  to 
resentment  at  having  been  slighted  by  the  King,  through  the  jealous  management  of  the 
Marquis  of  Hamilton,  when,  on  coming  home  from  his  travels,  he  was  first  presented  to 
his  Majesty  ;  and  says  that  afterwards,  when  he  had  an  interview  with  King  Charles  as 
an  envoy  from  the  Tables,  the  reception  he  received  fascinated  him  so,  that  he  from  that 
day  became  a  devoted  Eoyalist.  When  he  took  the  field  for  the  King  it  was  at  the 
head  of  a  force  which  he  had  assembled  in  Athol.  He  was  joined  by  the  Early  of  Airly, 
Lord  Spynie,  Lord  Dupplin,  and  a  number  more.  His  following  contained  a  valuable  con- 
tingent of  Irish  soldiers,  much  heard  of  afterwards.  He  made  for  the  North,  marching 
with  pretty  steady  success,  by  the  same  route  Argyll  had  taken  against  Huntly,  through 
Perthshire,  Angus,  and  Mearns,  towards  the  Dee.  He  crossed  at  the  Mills  of  Drum,  and 
made  his  head-quarters  in  Crathes,  which  the  Baronet  of  Leys  surrendered.  On  the  1 3th 
September  he  fought  the  Battle  of  Aberdeen  at  the  Two-mile  Cross  on  Deeside — his  Irish 
soldiers  securing  the  victory,  and  getting  as  reward  the  town  to  plunder,  which  they  did 
with  sufficient  activity.  The  appetite  of  the  Irish  in  that  way  was  omnivorous,  as  ap- 
pears from  minutes  of  Presbyterial  visitations  of  parishes  about  16G0,  which  report  that 
the  passage  of  the  "  Irishes  "  over  the  Garioch  left  the  kirks  bare  of  pulpit  bibles,  com- 
munion tablecloths,  &c.  On  Saturday,  14th  September,  the  Marquis  ordered  the  march 
of  his  troops,  with  the  exception  of  the  Irish  plunderers,  to  Kintore,  Inverurie,  and  the 
Garioch.  He  himself  stayed  in  Aberdeen  over  Sunday,  and  on  Monday  marched  with 
the  part  of  his  forces  left  in  Aberdeen.  His  camp  extended  from  Kintore  to  Liklyhead. 
Sir  William  Forbes  of  Craigievar,  who  had  been  made  prisoner  in  the  battle,  he  carried 
with  him,  but  very  speedily  granted  him  liberty  on  parole,  which  that  baronet  broke. 

Argyll  was  at  Brechin  when  he  heard  of  the  Eoyalist  victory.  After  consultation 
with  the  Earl  Marischal,  Lord  Forbes,  Lord  Fraser,  and  Lord  Crichton,  he  started  in  his 


The  Marquis  of  Montrose.  383 


peculiar  way  of  pursuit,  ami  reached  the  Dee  the  day  after  Montrose  left  Aberdeen  ; 
but  stopped  before  going  further,  to  plunder  the  lands  of  Drum,  proclaim  Montrose  a 
traitor,  and  offer  a  reward  for  his  body  living  or  dead,  instead  of  going  to  take  it  himself. 

Montrose  left  Inverurie  on  1 8th  September,  on  hearing  of  Argyll's  neighbourhood 
with  such  a  force  as  he  was  reported  to  have  had.  He  retired  upon  the  Spey,  and  being 
unable  to  cross  it  for  want  of  boats,  and  also  finding  the  county  of  Moray  opposed  to 
him,  went  westward  and  took  up  a  position  in  the  wood  of  Abernethy.  Argyll,  after 
waiting  until  his  enemy  had  two  days'  start  of  him  instead  of  half-a-day's,  followed  him 
from  Drum  the  length  of  Strathbogy,  but  retired  again  to  Aberdeen,  where  the  Earl  of 
Findlater  and  several  county  barons  met  him.  There  he  held  a  council  of  war  on 
23rd  September,  attended  by  Earl  Marischal,  Lord  Gordon,  Lord  Forbes,  Lord 
Eraser,  Lord  Crichton,  &c;  but  they  seem  to  have  given  counsel  alone,  and  no  assistance 
for  the  f ui'ther  pursuit  of  the  enemy.  The  Eoyalist  Marquis,  on  finding  himself  not  fol- 
lowed, left  the  wood  of  Abernethy  and  got  to  Eothiemurcus  ;  thence  proceeded  through 
Badenoch  and  Athol,  adding  much  to  his  following ;  and  sweeping  down  again  upon 
Forfarshire,  seized  the  House  of  Dun,  where  much  property  of  the  burgesses  of  Mon- 
trose was  laid  up  for  safety,  and  also  four  brass  field-pieces,  lost  by  Lord  Aboyne  at 
the  Bridge  of  Dee. 

That  exploit  forced  his  politic  but  unsoldierly  opponent  into  action  again ;  but  \ 
under  the  serious  difficulty  of  having  the  Covenanting  lords  in  a  state  of  chronic  dis- 
content with  him.  Argyll  was  at  the  Bog  of  Gight.  He  resolved  to  attack  the  Boyalists, 
and  planned  with  the  aid  of  the  Earl  Marischal,  who  was  in  possession  of  Aberdeen, 
to  environ  then  at  the  Bridge  of  Dee.  The  Eoyalist  leader,  a  more  skilled  strategist, 
escaped  with  his  smaller  force  between  the  two.  He  crossed  Hhe  river  at  Crathes 
(where  the  laird  entertained  him),  marched  through  Echt,  burning  the  Kirktown, — 
burned  Pittodrio  on  18th  October, — dined  at  Monymusk  on  Saturday,  the  19th,  with 
the  Lady  (the  Laird  of  Crathes'  daughter),  who  managed  to  get  the  place  exempted 
from  pillage — and  next  day,  Sunday,  marched  towards  Frendraught,  and,  foraging,  went 
on  to  Strathbogy.  Douglas  in  his  Baronage  records  his  relative,  Sir  William  Forbes  of 
Monymusk,  as  a  great  loyalist  who  suffered  much  in  the  Eing's  cause.  His  only  suf- 
ferings were,  as  an  active  Covenanter,  from  the  King's  actual  supporters.  The  lairds 
of  the  harried  houses  got  authority  from  the  Estates  subsequently  to  recoup  them- 
selves out  of  the  rents  of  certain  "  Papists  ". 

The  Aberdeenshire  Covenanters  were  getting  into  a  state  of  suicidal  disagreement. 
Lord  Gordon  had  been  nominated,  by  the  Committee  of  Estates,  Lieutenant  of  the 
North ;  but  when  he  appointed  a  rendezvous  at  Eildrummy  for  2nd  September,  Lord 
Forbes,  Lord  Fraser,  and  Lord  Crichton  would  not  condescend  to  follow  him  ;  and  he 
was  left  with  his  own  force,  afraid  to  quit  the  Erskine  stronghold.  The  Committee,  in 
order  not  to  lose  the  services  of  their  so-called  clans,  revised  the  commissions  issued, 
and  gave  a  command  to  Lord  Forbes  ;    whereupon  Lord  Gordon  withdrew,  and,  as  the 


284  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Gar  loch. 

\  result  of  bis  chagrin,  Ire  ultimately  joined  Montrose.  The  Covenanting  muster,  which 
\  was  ordered  to  take  place  at  Aberdeen,  of  the  sheriffdoms  of  Kincardine,  Aberdeen, 
iand  Banff,  wanted  all  Kincardine  and  most  of  Banff,  Lord  Gordon,  and  the  Earl 
Marischal.  Only  the  Forbeses  of  Monymusk,  Leslie,  Tolquhon  Ecbt,  Corsindae,  Lairgy, 
and  Waterton,  Lord  Forbes,  the  Frasers,  the  Crichtons,  Skene,  Udny,  Glenkindie,  Lord 
Erroll's  men,  and  some  Keiths  from  Buchan,  arrived  at  the  muster. 

On  Friday,  25th  October,  a  week  after  Montrose  bad  burned  the  place  of  Pittodrie, 
the  Marquis  of  Argyll  crossed  the  Gariocb  in  pursuit  of  him  from  Aberdeen  with  a  force 
of  2000  men.  He  slept  the  first  night  in  Kintore,  next  night  in  Inverurie,  and  heard 
sermon  there  on  Sunday.  Lord  Lothian's  regiment  came  to  him  there,  but  neither 
Mariscbal  nor  Lord  Gordon  would  rise  with  him,  such  was  their  dread  of  Montrose.  Mon- 
trose had  gone  down  to  Fyvie,  where,  and  at  Tolly  Barclay,  he  was  able  to  provision 
himself.  On  the  Monday,  Argyle  marched  from  Inverurie  to  the  wood  of  Fyvie,  where 
be  learned  that  the  Royalists  were  lying,  but  their  commander  made  excellent  use  of 
his  position  in  the  wood  against  the  enemy's  horse.  In  a  hot  skbmish  which  ensued, 
Alexander  Keith,  brother  to  the  Earl  Mariscbal,  fell ;  and,  during  Tuesday  and  Wed- 
nesday, Montrose,  with  little  loss  to  himself,  inflicted  great  slaughter  on  his  assailants. 
Argyll  retired  to  Cricbie  in  Formartine,  and  his  enemy  marched  off  after  that  in 
"  fair  day  licht  "  to  Turriff,  which  he  plundered,  and  next  to  Eothiemay,  which  place 
met  with  a  similar  fate.  The  flight  of  Argyll  on  board  his  galleys  at  Inverlochy  before 
the  army  of  Montrose  followed  on  Candlemas  day,  1645. 

The  Gariocb  until  next  year  was  free  from  the  presence  of  the  main  forces  of  either 
side,  and  had  only  to  endure  the  local  plunderings,  flights,  and  revenges,  which  were 
always  sure  to  till  up  gaps  in  the  tragic  action  of  the  time.  A  clever  seizure,  effected  in 
order  to  help  out  the  furnishing  of  a  troop  to  serve  Montrose,  took  place  on  23rd 
February,  1645,  at  Inverurie.  Young  Gicht,  young  Harthill,  and  some  acconipbces, 
took  ten  of  Craigievar's  troop  lying  carelessly  on  their  beds  within  their  quarters  at 
Inverurie.  They  took  their  horses,  their  moneys,  their  apparel  and  arms,  and  gave  the 
men  liberty  to  go  ;  "  whairat,"  Spalding  needlessly  adds,  "  Craigievar  wes  heichlie 
offendit ".     Craigievar  liked  better  to  plunder  than  to  be  plundered. 

Patrick  Leith,  Younger,  of  Harthill,  paid  for  this  exploit  with  his  life.  He  was 
shortly  after  taken,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty-five  suffered  death  at  the  hands  of  the  relent- 
less party  then  in  power.  Craigievar  obtained  afterwards  a  revenge  more  gratifying  than 
creditable ;  that  of  turning  the  Lady  of  Lethinty  out  of  her  undefended  house,  and 
emptying  it,  and  afterwards  putting  the  Laird  of  Kemnay's  widow  to  the  door.  She 
lost  Sir  Thomas  Crombie  in  1644.  The  Covenanting  Committee  of  Aberdeen  had  the 
year  before  assigned  to  Craigievar  the  duty  of  going  to  Harthill  and  turning  out  the 
lady,  with  her  children  and  servants,  while  her  husband  was  lying  in  prison  in  Edin- 
burgh and  no  one  left  to  defend  his  house. 

After  chasing  Argyll  into  the  sea  at  Inverlochy,  Montrose  was  supreme  in  the 


The  Marquis  of  Montrose.  2S5 


North.  He  made  his  head-quarters  at  Elgin,  where  he  was  joined  by  the  Laird  of 
Grant ;  and  punished  the  Covenanting  barons,,  especially  harrying  the  lands  of  the 
Earl  of  Findlater  and  the  Laird  of  Frendraught.  The  town  of  Aberdeen  made  terms 
with  him,  and  on  the  10th  March  he  wrote  ordering  the  drum  to  summon  all  within 
the  shire,  between  16  and  60,  to  meet  him,  with  their  best  arms  and  best  horse,  on 
the  15  th  March,  at  his  camp  at  Inverurie,  under  pain  of  fire  and  sword.  He  had  to 
make  this  preparation  to  meet  the  approach  of  a  new  commander— Lord  Balcarras — sent 
against  him  by  the  Estates.  He  marched  on  12th  March  from  Frendraught  to  Kintore, 
Kinkell,  and  Inverurie,  in  which  neighbourhood  his  army  was  quartered.  He  himself 
lodged  in  the  house  of  Mr  John  Cheyne,  minister  at  Kintore.  Balcarras'  force  threatened 
to  give  him  trouble,  chiefly  under  the  command  of  Major-General  Urrie,  the  repre- 
sentative of  two  long  lines,  those  of  Urrie  of  Pitfichie,  in  Monymusk,  and  Chalmers 
of  Aberdeen,  but  in  1645  a  soldier  of  fortune. 

When  the  opposing  forces  approached  each  other  in  the  Garioch,  both  sides  seem  to 
have  avoided  making  an  attack.  Montrose  marched  southward ;  and  the  Aberdeen- 
shire Covenanters  who — according  to  their  wont — had  kept  separately  quiet  while  he  was 
near,  came  forth  again  to  execute  small  reprisals  upon  the  lairds  who  adhered  to  him. 
Among  others,  Hector  Abercromby  of  Fetternear  was  taken  to  Fendraught,  but  soon  set 
at  liberty.  Montrose  had  been  obliged  to  send  the  Earl  of  Airly,  who  fell  sick  with  him 
when  at  Kintore  to  the  House  of  Lethinty,  and  thereby  brought  upon  it  the  ire  of 
the  Forbeses  and  Erasers.  The  Lady  of  Lethinty  was  Lord  Airly's  daughter,  and  next 
year  she  bravely  effected  the  escape  of  her  brother  (whom  she  very  much  resembled)  from 
prison  at  St.  Andrews,  on  the  night  before  he  was  to  be  executed,  by  changing  clothes 
with  him,  when  she  had  got  leave  to  pay  a  visit  to  him  in  his  cell. 

General  Urrie  was  never  allowed  by  his  superiors  to  attack  Montrose ;  but  was 
ordered  north,  apparently  to  go  over  the  country  and  re-possess  it  after  Montrose's  occu- 
pancy. He  had  to  quiet  a  mutiny  at  Aberdeen  among  his  soldiers,  whom  the  Com- 
mittee of  Estates  had  left  but  ill  provided.  The  Burgh  of  Aberdeen  seems  to  have  had 
a  good  deal  to  bear  on  this  occasion.  Immediately  after,  on  19th  April,  Urrie  marched 
towards  Kintore  and  Inverurie,  and  from  that  to  Old  Eayne,  plundering  the  lands  of 
Newton  and  Harthill. 

The  House  of  Kemnay — where  the  first  act  of  violence  in  the  Civil  "War  was  com- 
mitted— seems  to  have  possessed  peculiar  attractions  for  the  Covenanters.  Sir  WiHiam 
Forbes  took  his  turn  of  it  now.  On  the  23  th  April,  Spalding  says  he  seized  and 
garrisoned  it,  "it  being  stankit  about  and  of  good  defenss  ".  "  He  plunderit  cornes  and 
victuallis  for  his  soldiers  from  the  Laird  of  Kincraigie  (probably  from  Badifurrow,  winch 
was  his  property),  and  seized  his  best  saddle  horse."  It  would  seem  from  this  that  the 
Leslies  of  Badifurrow  were  like  their  neighbours  at  Fetternear,  of  the  King's  party. 
Craigievar's  visits  at  that  time  extended  to  Newton  and  Harthill.  His  booty  included 
160  oxen,  which  he  sent  to  Fife  to  market.     After  Montrose's  victory  at  Alford  he 


286  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

abandoned  Kemnay  House,  which  was  then  manned  hy  young  Abercrornby  of  Birken- 
bog.  Craigievar  had  the  army  at  his  back  at  Aberdeen  at  that  time,  where  Committee 
meetings  were  again  going  on,  dictating  to  the  parishes  and  lairds  the  payments  re- 
quired of  them. 

Lord  Gordon  had  joined  Montrose  ere  then ;  and  Lord  Aboyne,  the  Master  of 
Napier  and  Hay  of  Delgaty  (the  Earl  of  Erroll's  representative),  who  had  been  prisoners 
in  England,  but  broke  out  of  Carlisle,  and  with  28  horse  forced  their  way  through 
General  Leslie's  forces,  also  reached  the  Royalist  chief.  Probably  Earl  Marischal  began 
about  that  time  to  earn  the  loyalist  reputation  he  afterwards  merited. 

Sir  Robert  Douglas  (Peerage)  gives  an  incorrect  impression  of  the  conduct  of  the 
Earl  Marischal  in  the  beginning  of  the  "Troubles,"  when  he  states  that  he  in  1641 
joined  the  association  in  favour  of  Charles  I.  at  Cumbernauld.  He  did  stand  for  the 
King  afterwards,  as  more  of  the  early  Covenanters  did.  In  1648  he  raised  a  troop  of 
horse  for  the  engagement  to  attempt  the  rescue  of  the  King.  He  escaped  from  the 
route  at  Preston;  and  in  1650  entertained  Charles  II.  at  Dunnottar.  The  Earl  Maris- 
chal's  younger  brother  and  successor,  George,  was  also  at  Preston,  and  fought  after- 
,  wards  at  Worcester  in  behalf  of  Charles  II. 

Severe  repiisals  followed  the  acts  of  violence  noted  above.  Montrose  turned  and 
pursued  after  Urrie,  whom  he  overtook  and  engaged  at  Auldearn  upon  9th  May,  1645, 
defeating  his  forces  with  very  great  slaughter';  after  which  he  spoiled  and  destroyed  most 
of  the  houses  and  lands  of  his  opponents  in  Moray  and  Banffshire.  A  few  days  later  he 
inflicted  another  defeat  upon  Urrie  at  Afford,  and  going  south  gained  his  last  victory 
at  Kilsyth,  5th  August,  after  which  irretrievable  misfortunes  overtook  the  Royal  arms, 
and  the  absolute  dominion  of  the  Covenanters  began.  The  two  opponents  were  soon  at 
the  end  of  all  their  battles  :  Urrie,  whose  last  change  was  to  the  Royalist  cause,  was 
with  the  Marquis  of  Montrose  when  in  1650  he  raised  the  standard  of  Charles  II.  He 
was  made  prisoner  along  with  him,  and  they  went  to  the  scaffold  together. 

The  Marquis  of  Montrose  was  utterly  defeated  at  Philiphaugh  on  13th  September, 
1645,  by  General  David  Leslie,  one  of  the  many  soldiers  trained  under  Gustavus,  King 
of  Sweden.  He  had,  in  1644,  been  appointed  Major-General  in  the  Earl  of  Leven's 
army  in  England,  and  was  despatched  in  1645  to  Scotland  to  check  Montrose  in  the 
career  which  the  Battle  of  Kilsyth  seem  to  be  opening  to  him.  He  was  the  fifth  son  of 
Patrick,  Commendator  of  Lindores,  and  himself  the  first  Earl  of  Newark.  The  ruins  of 
his  castle  at  Newark  are  a  prominent  object  on  the  rocks  of  the  East  Neuk  of  Fife. 

Montrose  retired  after  his  defeat  into  the  Highlands,  where  he  carried  on  an 
obscure  mountain  warfare  for  about  a  year,  and  disbanded  his  army  only  at  the 
urgent  command  of  the  King,  who  was  then  in  the  hands  of  the  Earl  of  Leven's  army, 
and  afraid  for  the  safety  of  Ms  chivalrie  general.  With  a  few  adherents,  who  were  too 
obnoxious  to  the  Covenanting  chiefs  to  surrender  with  safety,  he  escaped  to  Norway 
3rd  September,  1646. 


Incidents  of  the  Troubles.  287 


Two  months  after  Montrose's  defeat  the  Marquis  of  Huntly  took  the  field  a^ain 
with  his  own  following,  which  ho  had  kept  back  in  the  time  of  greatest  need — all  but  a 
body  of  them  which  his  son,  Lord  Gordon,  persuaded  to  join  the  brave  leader  with  him. 
In  January,  1646,  the  Estates  had  to  watch  the  movements  of  both  chiefs,  and  for  that 
purpose  sent  General  Middleton  to  occupy  Aberdeen.  In  April  that  officer  had  to  march 
against  Montrose  then  engaged  in  the  siege  of  Inverness.  On  13th  May,  Huntly  was 
again  in  the  Garioch.  He  mustered  his  forces  at  Inverurie  and  Kintore.  Colonel  Mont- 
gomerie,  left  in  Aberdeen  with  a  regiment  of  foot  and  another  of  horse,  made  a  sudden 
attack  upon  the  Gordons  but  was  repulsed  with  loss,  and  followed  to  Aberdeen,  where 
Lord  Aboyne,  getting  entrance  into  the  town  through  a  part  which  had  been  set  on  fire, 
made  a  furious  charge  upon  Montgomerie's  force  and  put  it  to  utter  rout  with  consider- 
able slaughter,  taking  three  hundred  prisoners,  sixteen  colours,  and  a  large  quantity  of 
ammunition,  he  himself  losing  but  twenty  men. 

This  Eoyalist  victory  came  too  late,  the  King  having  already  surrendered  himself, 
and  having  as  a  consequence  to  order  Huntly  to  lay  down  his  arms,  as  he  afterwards 
with  difficulty  got  Montrose  to  do.  Huntly,  whose  estates  were  in  the  hands  of  his 
relative  and  enemy  the  Marquis  of  Argyll,  was  a  doomed  man  from  that  date.  He  was 
excepted  in  a  pardon  granted  in  1647  to  so-called  rebels,  and  escaped  to  hide  himself  in 
Strathnaven.  A  proclamation  had,  however  ,been  hanging  over  his  head  since  1644  of 
a  reward  decreed  by  a  Committee  of  Estates  sitting  in  Aberdeen  for  delivery  of  his  body 
living  or  dead.  The  reward  was  12,000  lbs.,  chargeable  upon  the  Marquis'  estates,  and  it 
was  paid  at  Inverary  by  the  Marquis  of  Argyll,  24th  June,  1648,  to  Colonel  James 
Fraser,  and  Huntly  was  in  March,  1649,  tried  at  Edinburgh  and  beheaded  at  the  Market 
Cross.     The  slaughter  of  the  King  in  January  made  meaner  blood  easily  shed. 

INCIDENTS   OF  THE  TROUBLES. 

We  have  not  on  record  much  of  personal  details,  beyond  what  has  been  incidentally 
noticed,  illustrating  the  manners  prevailing  during  the  internecine  strife  which  afflicted 
the  17th  century.  Alexander  Jaffray's  Diary,  however,  affords  some  interesting  items 
of  individual  experience  of  the  time. 

The  son  of  the  Wadsetter  of  Ardtannies  and  Caskieben — Alexander  Jaffray,  the 
younger — was  a  sufferer  in  the  strife,  and  behaved  in  a  manner  sufficiently  creditable. 
Spalding  narrates  that  upon  Tuesday,  19th  March,  1644,  the  young  laird  of  Drum, 
Eobert  Irvine,  his  brother,  the  lairds  of  Haddo,  Gicht,  and  some  others,  about  the 
number  of  sixty  horses,  about  seven  hours  in  the  morning,  came  galloping  through  the 
Old  Town  to  .New  Aberdeen,  and  suddenly  took  Provost  Leslie,  Mr.  Eobert  Farquhar,  and 
Alexander  Jaffray,  late  baillies,  and  John  Jaffray,  Dean  of  Guild,  his  brother,  out  of  their 
houses,  and  had  them  to  Skipper  Anderson's  house.  It  is  said  that  there  was  plundered, 
out  of  Alexander  Jaffray's  house,  some  gold  rings  and  chains,  but  little  money.  They 
missed  Mr.  Alexander  Jaffray  (the  father),  for  he  was  not  in  the  town. 


288  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Jaffray  in  his  diary  narrates  : — 

They  carried  us  to  Strathbogy  Castle,  where  we  were  kept  ten  or  twelve  clays  ;  after  we  were  sent 
to  Auchiudoun  Castle,  and  left  there  five  weeks  close  prisoners,  until,  by  the  Marquis  of  Argyle's  com- 
ing north,  the  Marquis  of  Huntly  aud  his  freinds  quitted  the  field  ;  himself  came  to  Auchindoun,  where 
any  little  treasure  he  had  was  ;  and  fearing  that  the  keeping  of  us  prisoners  might  have  drawn  some 
siege  to  that  house,  he  dismissed  us.  We  were  by  him  and  his  order  very  cruelly  used  all  the  time  of 
our  imprisonment.  The  quarrel  he  alleged  against  us  was  that  we  were  Covenanters,  and  had  given 
bad  information  against  him  and  his  friends.  We  being  dismissed  by  him  went  first  to  Murray,  where 
we  were  kindly  received  by  our  friends  there,  thereafter  to  Keelie  (Kelly),  the  laird  of  Haddo's  house, 
about  which  the  Marquis  of  Argyle  and  his  forces  were  then  lying.  The  house  being  rendered,  I  had 
leave  to  go  in  with  an  order  to  the  laird  to  render  me  some  rights  (documents),  and  my  wife's  rings  and 
chains,  and  some  other  silver  work  he  had  taken  from  me  at  my  seizure  in  Aberdeen,  the  most  part  of 
which  afterwards  I  had  back  from  him.  I  spoke  my  mind  to  him  there  some  way  freely,  exhorting 
him  to  repent  for  the  wrong  he  had  done  to  me — especially  that  great  wrong  above  all  the  rest — his 
fury  and  violence  in  taking  me,  by  which  he  had  hastened  the  death  of  my  dear  wife,  who,  within 
three  or  four  days  after  my  being  taken,  departed  this  life.  .  .  In  that  contest  I  had  with  the 
laird  of  Haddo,  I  was  wonderfully  delivered  from  extreme  danger.  The  first  time  that  we  encountered 
near  Kintore,  he  fired  two  pistols  at  me,  one  after  another,  being  then  twice  the  length  of  his  horse 
from  me  ;  both  of  them  mis-served,  whereat  he  was  in  great  fury,  alleging  they  had  never  done  the  like 
before.  And  that  same  night  in  Old  Aberdeen,  to  try  them  if  they  would  mis-serve  again,  he  put  out 
the  candle  at  which  he  shot.  The  other  time  was  that  day  when  he  took  me  prisoner.  He,  having 
entered  my  father's  study,  fired  a  pistol  at  me  from  the  window,  whence  he  pursued  me  in  another 
study.  Just  opposite  the  window  where  he  was  that  pistol  also  mis-served,  whereat  he  cursed,  alleging 
that  he  would  never  get  me  felled.  I  knew  nothing  of  this  second  attempt  before  he  himself  told  it  me 
in  Aberdeen,  as  he  was  going  prisoner  to  Edinburgh,  sent  by  the  Marquis  of  Argyle,  after  taking  of  his 
house. 

Shortly  after  this  (in  1644)  the  Irish  that  entered  Scotland  under  Alister  Macdonald  and  Mon- 
trose, having  come  the  length  of  Aberdeen,  were  fought  by  a  regiment  of  the  country  soldiers  under 
the  command  of  Lord  Burghly,  accompanied  with  some  country  gentlemen  and  most  of  all  the  citizens 
of  Aberdeen,  when  about  seven  or  eight  score  men,  besides  women  and  children,  were  killed.  I  was  at 
that  time  in  no  small  hazard,  having  stayed  too  long  on  the  field  after  our  men  began  to  run  ;  yet  it 
pleased  God  to  deliver  me.  Being  very  evily  horsed,  I  was  well  near  among  the  Irish  hands  ;  yet,  by 
the  good  providence  of  God,  I  escaped,  carrying  a  pair  of  colours  with  me,  which  I  had  taken  from  one 
of  our  soldiers,  who  was  casting  the  same  from  him  in  the  flight. 

Thereafter  the  country  being  so  torn  and  broken,  I  could  not  safely  stay  at  Aberdeen,  so  went 
with  sundry  other  honest  families  to  Dunnottar,  where  we  were  very  kindly  received  by  the  Earl 
Marischal,  having  house-room  from  him  and  our  entertainment  from  Aberdeen  and  Stonehaven.  One 
day  having  gone  with  Mr.  Andrew  Cant  (whose  daughter  became  Jaffray's  second  wife)  to  Crathes  to 
visit  his  son,  Mr.  Alexander  (minister  of  Upper  Banchory),  on  our  way  back  we  were  encountered  by 
the  Laird  of  Harthill,  the  younger,  who  was  then  returning  from  the  Battle  of  Kilsyth,  where  Mon- 
trose had  gained  the  sixth  and  last  battle  he  had  over  Scotland.  We  were  by  the  said  Harthill  and 
the  Laird  of  Newton  (Gordon)  taken  prisoners  (Mr.  Andrew  Cant,  my  brother  Thomas,  and  I)  after 
very  much  threatening  presently  to  have  killed  us — especially  I  was  threatened  as  being  guilty,  they 
alleged,  of  Haddo's  death,  who  had  been  executed  for  his  rebellion  against  the  State  ;  yet  it  pleased 
the  Lord  to  restrain  their  fury.  We  were  that  night  kept  prisoners  at  Aberdeen,  and  the  morrow 
carried  to  Pitcaple,  where  we  were  kept  under  the  custody  of  one  Petrie  Leathe,  brother  to  Old  Hart- 
hill. Many  things  I  might  remember  that  would  be  too  tedious  here  to  insert,  only  some  few  I  shall 
point  out  whereiu  the  Lord's  goodness  aud  His  wonderful  hand  in  delivering  us  did  most  eminently 
appear. 

At  first,  on  our  taking,  when  they  with  great  fury  and  main  fearful  oaths  did  threaten  sore  yet 
not  one  of  our  heads  did  fall  to  the  ground  ;  secondly,  all  the  time  of  our  being  prisoners,  which  was 
for  the  space  of  five  or  seven  weeks,  though  they  were  a  company  of  as  vile  profligate  men  as  any  I  did 
ever  see,  yet  there,  was  so  much  restraint  laid  on  them  as  that  they  carried  themselves  civilly  before  us. 
Aud  sometimes  some  of  them  were  content  to  be  present  at  our  private  exercise  of  worship,  morning  and 
evening,  which  was  constantly  performed  by  that  gracious  and  worthy  man,  Mr.  Andrew  Cant,  who  on 
the  Lord's  day  occasionally  preached  publicly  in  the  Great  Hall.  Sometimes  all  of  them  were  present, 
and  had  something  like  convictions  at  the  hearing  of  the  word,  which  was  preached  unto  them  with 
much  boldness  and  freedom.  Yet  they  did  go  on  in  the  frequent  practice  of  their  drunkenness  and 
abominable  vices  ;  so  that  we,  being  very  weary  of  their  company,  frequently  would  project  and  talk 
among  ourselves  of  ways  to  escape.     At  last  we  attempted  a  very  desperate  like  piece  of  service,  which 


Incidents  of  the  Troubles.  289 


had  it  not  pleased  the  Lord  in  a  wonderful  manner  both  to  give  us  courage  and  success  more  than  ordi- 
nary, we  would  never  in  any  probability  have  been  able  to  have  carried  through.  One  day  in  the 
afternoon,  all  the  men  except  two  being  abroad,  whereof  one  was  an  old  decrepit  body,  we  resolved  to 
go  and  shut  the  gate.  Having  had  advertisement  that  some  of  our  friends,  commanded  by  Major- 
General  Hamilton,  were  that  night  in  Aberdcon,  having  come  north  after  the  Battle  of  Philiphaugh, 
which  took  place  on  the  13th  of  the  month  called  September  (the  beginning  of  Royal  defeats  in  Scot- 
land), we  were  confident  that  if  we  could  get  possession  and  maintain  the  house  till  the  morrow  morn- 
ing our  friends  would  before  that  time  be  at  us  for  onr  relief.  "We  having  gone  down  (I  and  my  brother 
Thomas,  with  a  soldier  of  Middleton's,  whom  the  garrison  had  taken  straggling  from  his  colours), 
found,  by  our  expectation,  two  as  able  men  as  any  in  the  company  standing  in  the  very  passage  of  the 
door,  being  about  the  flaying  of  an  ox,  which  they  had  laying  within  the  door.  I  being  first,  when  I 
saw  them,  began  to  think  of  retiring,  but  fearing  that  they  would  espy  what  we  were  about  by  the 
others  following  me,  I  resolved  to  go  forward,  and  was  much  encouraged  by  them  withdrawing  a  little 
without  the  door,  to  make  sharp  their  knives  for  the  work  they  were  abont.  Finding  them  without, 
though  they  were  close  at  the  door,  we  went  down  and  offered  to  make  it  fast,  which  at  last,  with 
much  ado,  we  got  done.  Then  having  full  possession  of  the  house,  we  made  fast  the  iron  gate,  and 
put  ourselves  in  a  position  of  defence.  The  rest  being  advertised,  came  about  the  house,  and  so  con- 
tinued until  night.  By  reason  of  their  being  there,  one  of  our  servants  who  had  undertaken  to  give 
advertisement  to  onr  friends  at  Aberdeen  that  they  should  come  for  our  relief,  was  forced  to  lie  and  hide 
himself  all  that  day,  so  that  it  was  the  morrow  at  one  hour  before  he  came  to  Aberdeen,  and  then  our 
friends  were  gone.  So  our  help  that  way  was  disappointed  ;  but  the  Lord  provided  for  us  another 
way.  The  Laird  of  Leslie,  the  younger,  having  advertisement  from  the  country  people  that  we  had 
taken  the  house,  gave  advertisement  to  some  friends,  who  came  on  the  morrow  by  one  or  two  hours  in 
the  afternoon,  the  Lord  Frisell,  the  Laird  of  Echt,  Colonel  Forbes,  with  the  number  of  30  horse  or 
thereabout,  and  50  or  60  foot.  This  was  very  observable  that,  as  they  came  without  any  advertise- 
ment from  us,  so  did  they  come  in  the  most  seasonable  time  when  we  were  well  near  spent,  having 
been  pursued  very  sharply  for  nine  hours  till  then.  After  we  had  beaten  them  several  times  off,  and 
killed  one  of  them  at  least,  they  were  driving  through  the  wall  at  a  place  where  we  could  get  no  sight 
of  them,  and  when  they  were  almost  gotten  fully  through  them,  our  friends  came  when  we  were  even 
fainting  and  giving  it  over.  We  received  our  friends  and  entertained  them  the  best  we  could,  and 
parted  that  night  with  them,  having  set  onr  prison  on  fire,  it  not  being  tenable. 

From  the  Parliamentary  Records  of  Scotland,  19th  February,  1649,  it  appears 
that  of  that  date  a  supplication  had  been  presented  (which  was  remitted  to  the  con- 
sideration of  a  Committee  of  the  Estates)  craving  on  the  part  of  John  Forbes  of  Leslie, 
Alexander  Jaffray,  Baillie  of  Aberdeen,  Mr.  Andrew  Cant,  Minister  of  God's  Word  at 
Aberdeen,  and  Thomas  Jaffray,  that  an  Act  of  Approbation  be  passed  by  the  Parliament 
and  granted  in  favour  of  the  Master  of  Forbes,  the  Lord  Fraser,  the  Lairds  of  Skene, 
Monymusk,  Echt,  young  Forbes  of  Leslie,  and  others,  their  friends  and  followers,  for 
having  burned  in  September,  1645,  the  House  of  Pitcaple.  The  Committee  having 
reported  that  in  their  humble  opinion  the  desire  of  the  supplication  ought  to  be  granted 
as  most  just  and  reasonable,  the  same  was  on  2nd  March  read,  voted,  and  approved  of 
by  the  House.  jSTo  similar  act  of  grace  had  been  accorded  to  the  opposing  party  ;  for 
the  Laird  of  Haddo  suffered  capitally  at  the  Cross  of  Edinburgh  under  a  vote  of  the 
Scottish  Parliament  dated  July  10,  1644,  for  his  taking  Patrick  Leslie,  Provost  of  Aber- 
deen, Mr.  Robert  Farquhar,  Commissary  for  the  Public,  Baillie  Jaffray,  and  his 
brother,  the  Dean  of  Guild,  and  putting  them  in  prison,  "  they  being  the  king's  free 
leidges  and  public  persons". 

Alexander  Jaffray  appears  shortly  afterwards  on  the  Commission  for  the  trial  of  the 
malignants,  which  was  the  term  applied  to  the  opponents  of  the  Covenant.  One  of 
these  in  the  Garioch  was   Mr.    Samuel  Walcar,  Minister  of  Monkegy,  whose  crime  is 

37 


290  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

worth  noticing  as  probably  a  specimen  of  the  feeling  and  language  ready  to  be  adopted 
on  either  side  as  the  scale  of  victory  turned.  In  the  next  century,  the  first  victories  of 
Prince  Charles  Stuart  sent  the  Jacobites  of  the  North  well-nigh  out  of  their  senses.  Mr. 
Samuel  Walcar  had  been  similarly  affected  by  the  news  of  Montrose's  victory  at  Kil- 
syth ;  and  on  the  Sunday  after  the  news  came  the  pulpit  of  Monkegy  exhibited  his  sym- 
pathies too  prominently.  He  reminded  his  congregation  that  he  had  often  told  them 
that  the  Covenant  would  come  to  nothing,  but  go  off  like  a  blast  of  stinking  wind,  and 
now  it  had  come  to  pass.  He  was  tried  for  malignancy  soon  after,  upon  the  Cove- 
nanters getting  in  their  turn  the  upper  hand.  Mr.  Alexander  Jaffray  may  have  been 
one  of  his  judges.  Deposition,  and  even  excommunication,  followed  his  conviction. 
The  church  courts  were  willing  to  relieve  him  speedily  from  the  latter  sentence,  but  his 
neighbours  and  old  friends  who  had  to  deal  with  him  had  difficulty  for  a  long  time  in 
coming  to  a  confident  report  that  he  was  penitent  for  his  racy  speech ;  and  he  had  to  do 
penance  in  sackcloth,  from  kirk  to  kirk,  for  a  while. 

When  the  reverses  of  the  Eoyal  forces  had  come,  the  Garioch  furnished  a  parallel 
case  to  the  imprisonment  of  Jaffray  in  the  House  of  Pitcaple.  A  small  body  of  "Irishes" 
was  besieged  in  the  moated  House  of  Wardes,  in  Insch.  A  neighbouring  miller,  a 
Eoyalist  himself,  but  who  had  a  son  in  the  garrison,  in  order  to  save  his  boy  offered  the 
Covenanting  besiegers  to  make  a  way  for  them  to  the  house.  The  miller  got  the  ditch 
tapped  during  the  night,  and  so  destroyed  the  defence  of  the  garrison  ;  which  was 
therefore  conquered  and  put  to  the  sword.  The  place  where  the  Irish  soldiers  were 
buried  was  known,  even  up  to  the  end  of  last  century,  as  the  Irish  Fauld. 

An  amusing  story  is  told  by  Sir  James  Balfour  of  the  kind  of  management  to 
which  persons  like  Andrew  Cant,  to  whom  temporary  circumstances  had  given  a  species 
of  importance  and  had  rendered  influential  for  a  brief  period,  were  subjected  in  the  sort 
of  reign  of  terror  exercised  about  this  period  by  the  Covenanters. 

The  hero  of  the  following  anecdote  was  the  crafty  Provost  of  Aberdeen,  Mr.  Robert 

Farquhar,  who  had  in  1648  been  one  of  the  engagers  for  the  rescue  of  the  King : — 

In  the  beginning  of  1649,  Mr.  Robert  Farquer  in  Aberdeine,  being  fallen  in  disfyke  with  the 
Campbells  and  present  governours  for  his  agility  in  the  late  expeditione  to  England,  being  then  Com- 
missarey  for  the  Northern  shyres,  was  now  called  to  ane  aecompte,  and  summoned  to  Edinburgh  for 
that  end.  He  was  greatly  perplexed,  fearing  that  if  he  came  in  their  handes  without  some  holy 
recommendatione,  per  expressum,  notwithstanding  the  natural  dryness  of  his  laucke  lean  body,  yet 
they  would  so  squisse  him  with  their  screws,  so  long  as  they  could  perceave  any  comfortable  juice  in 
him,  that  heirafter  he  would  look  rather  lyke  ane  thunderslaine  than  a  living  creature.  Bot  he,  a 
sutle  craftie  fellow,  having  wexed  himselve  a  long  tyme  qnhat  coursse  to  take  to  evitt  the  rackes  and 
gins  layed  for  him,  at  last  bethinkes  himselve  of  one  way  of  addresse  as  the  moste  essured  of  all  otheres, 
wich  was  thus  :  The  tyme  of  his  comperence  at  Edinburghe  drawing  neir  (for  he  behoved  to  take 
jorney  one  Monday),  causses  against  Sunday  at  night  lies  wyffe  make  good  cheire,  and  sends  a  parti- 
cular confident  of  his  to  Mr.  Andrew  Cant,  the  Minister  of  Aberdein  (one  quhose  northerly  motion 
hade  werey  grate  influence  one  the  south,  he  knowing  Arcana  Imperii),  to  invitt  him  to  supper.  He 
refuses  to  come,  once,  twyce  ;  at  last  Mr.  Robert  resolves  with  himselve  to  have  him  at  aney  rait,  and 
furthwith  goes  to  his  housse  himselve,  and  werey  earnestly  in  submissive  and  humble  termes  entreats 
him  to  lett  him  be  honoured  with  his  company  at  supper.  The  minister  refusses,  in  respecte  of  the 
coldness  of  the  night  ;  he  still  urges  him  to  goe,  and  he  should  find  ane  sure  antidote  for  any  cold. 
At  last,  being  overcome  by  Mr.  Robert's  importunity,  he  goes  home  with  him  (all  this  tyme  it  is  observ- 


Inverurie  during  the  Troubles.  291 


able  how  he  caled  him  no  other  but  still  Master  Robert),  and  being  sett  by  the  fyre,  and  made  werey 
veleome,  Mr  Robert  goes  to  his  closet  and  brings  to  the  hall  a  goune  of  blacke  velvett,  lyned  with 
martrickes,  and  wold  have  Mr.  Androw  putt  it  one,  wich  with  small  entretty  he  did  (thereafter  in  all 
his  discourses  he  calls  him  either  Provost  or  Comissary,  and  not  Mr.  Robert)  ;  and  so  having  supt, 
and  made  plentiful!  meall,  and  being  againe  sett  by  the  fyre,  Mr.  Robert  asks  the  minister  if  he  had 
any  service  to  command  to  Edinburghe,  for  he  was  eitted  to  appeir  ther  before  the  Parliament  to  make 
his  accompt,  and  therefor  besought  Mr.  Androw  that  he  would  recommend  him  to  some  of  his  most 
confident  friends,  which  he  promised  to  doe.  At  last,  bed  tyme  drawing  neire,  Mr.  Androw  rysses  to 
be  gone,  and  wold  have  casten  off  the  goune,  but  Mr.  Robert  intreatted  him  not  to  doe  so,  nor  wrong 
him  that  farr,  in  respect  he  had  brought  him  from  his  oven  varme  house  in  so  cold  and  rigid  a  night, 
to  partake  of  so  homely  fair,  for  no  other  end  bot  to  bestow  that  chamber  goune  on  him,  as  befitting 
his  age  and  gravity,  wishing  it  had  been  better  for  his  causse  ;  but  such  as  it  was  he  humbly  intreatted 
him  to  accept  of  it,  as  ane  assurance  and  tokin  of  hes  love  and  affection  to  him,  which  Mr.  Androw 
did  without  more  ceremonies.  So  Mr.  Robert  did  accompany  him  home  with  his  goune  on  his  shoul- 
ders, and  at  parting  Mr.  Androw  told  him  he  should  not  doe  well  to  goe  without  his  letters.  He  said 
he  wold  not.  To-morrow  he  got  his  letters,  one  to  Argyle,  one  uther  to  Lothean,  and  the  3d  to  the 
Register,  Waristone,  with  2  to  some  ministers,  wich  made  him  veleome  to  Edinburghe,  and  afterwards 
to  dance  about  that  fyre  wich,  as  he  fearid,  should,  if  not  burned  him,  yet  at  least  scalded  him  verey 
sore. 

The  Provost  had  told  the  story  afterwards  to  some  appreciative  hearer.  Sir  James  Balfour 

adds — "  This  history  I  had  from  a  werey  confident  and  intrinsicke  friend  of  Mr.  Robert's, 

quho  had   it  from  his  aven  mouthe,  and  told  it  to  me  the  10th  of  September,  1669." 

The  self-complacency  of  Mr.  Andrew  Cant  here  recorded  agrees  with  the  story  told  of 

him,  that  though  he  could  not,  in  his  fear  of  Popery,  sleep  in  a  room  containing  a 

portrait  of  the  Apostle  Peter,  he  had  his  own  likeness  painted  by  George  Jameson. 

Mr.  Robert  Farquhar  received  the  honour  of  knighthood  from  Charles  II.    "While 

his  friend  Jaffray,  wandering  through  the  mazes  of  conceited  Puritanism,  lived  a  moral 

life,    Sir  Robert  appears  in  later  years  in  the  Church  records    in  the  character  too 

common  in  the  reign  of  the  second  Charles. 

INVERURIE  DURING  THE  TROUBLES. 
The  Garioch  records  of  the  period  of  the  Troubles  are  lost,  or  the'minutes  of 
burghal  or  sessional  proceedings  would  have  illustrated  to  some  extent  the  frequent 
military  occupations  of  the  district,  and  we  miss  in  the  notes  of  Spalding  local  names 
well  known  to  us.  The  resident  Leslies  and  Elphinstones  and  Johnstons  are  not  men- 
tioned. The  Caskieben  family  was  in  a  depressed  condition.  Alexander  Leslie  of 
Tullos,  the  local  representative  of  the  house  of  Balquhain,  was  in  similar  circumstances, 
and  James  Elphinston  of  Glack  was  a  very  old  man.  The  prominent  persons  on 
both  sides  were  plainly  in  frequent  difficulty  what  to  do,  and  others  with  peculiar  do- 
mestic cares  lying  upon  them  may  well  enough  be  conceived  to  have  kept  as  quiet  as 
they  could.  Among  the  ministers  figuring  as  sufferers  for  the  part  they  took  Mr.  James 
Mill  does  not  appear.  In  the  spring  of  1640,  when  the  Covenanting  lords  were  arrang- 
ing to  harry  the  district  in  the  form  of  stenting  for  the  raising  of  a  military  force,  the 
minister,  then  probably  wearing  towards  the  threescore  years  and  ten,  was  rocking  his 
last  baby,  christened  31st  March  without  the  presence  of  any  of  the  lairds  from  Caskieben, 
Glack,  Badiefurrow,  or  Tullos,  that  rejoiced  with  him  over  the  first  chdd  of  his  mature 
life  ten  years  before.     His  witnesses  were  only  Patrick  Forbes  of  Blairtonne  and  his 


292  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

young  friend  Mr.  Samuel  Walcar,  minister  of  Monkegy,  whose  outspoken  despising  of 
the  Covenant  was  ao  soon  to  bring  both  deposition  and  excommunication  upon  him. 
Mr.  Mill's  youngish  wife  and  the  bairns,  as  well  as  a  little  prudence  inherited  from  his 
experience  in  1605,  would  keep  his  patriotism  quiet.  His  widow  appears  in  the  list  of 
Inverurie  proprietors  taxed  for  the  Covenanting  troops  in  1645.  When  in  May,  1644, 
Argyll  spent  a  Sunday  at  Inverurie,  Mr.  Mill  was  away  where  the  wicked  cease  from 
troubling  ;  and  as  the  new  minister  was  a  Forbes  and  his  wife  a  Strachan,  both  which 
names  were  prominently  loyal  to  the  Argyll  Covenant,  the  Marquis  may  have  been  able 
to  hear  preaching  by  the  parish  minister  instead  of  by  an  army  chaplain,  such  as  he  had 
before  to  employ  at  Kintore — the  doctrine  of  Mr.  John  Cheyne,  the  niiuister,  being  of 
the  wrong  complexion,  and  perhaps  not  safe  for  troops  to  hear. 

In  1645  Inverurie  had  a  taste  of  compulsory  assessment.  The  Earl  of  Balcarras, 
commanding  for  the  Covenant  against  Montrose,  was  in  Aberdeenshire  some  weeks 
before  the  two  defeats  which  the  Royalist  leader  inflicted  upon  Urrie  at  Auldearn  and 
Alford.  Some  of  Balcarras'  dragoons  under  General  Urrie  were  about  Inverurie,  and 
gave  occasion  to  the  following  Act  of  Council  framed  in  haste  : — 

Upon  the  twenty-four  of  April  ane  thousand  sax  hundred  fourtie-tive  years,  the  Baillies  now  sub- 
scribing, has  appoyntit,  be  the  advyse  of  sik  of  the  Counsell  as  was  present,  George  Leslie,  the  collector 
for  uptaking  the  taxation  of  the  dragowneis,  aud  ordains  him  to  lift  half  murks  for  the  boll  teuid, 
within  twentie  four  hours  after  the  dait  of  thir  presents,  under  pain  of  doubling. 

Jacobus  Fergus,  no.  p.  W.  Johnston. 

ac  clcricas  dicti  bwrgi.  John  Mackie. 

Walter  Fergus. 

The  collector's  note  of  his  receipts  presents  us  with  names  of  ratepayers  on  the 
occasion,  affording,  of  course,  a  complete  roll  of  the  burgh  heritors  twelve  years  later 
than  the  purchase  of  the  teinds  : — 

James  Fergus,  4s.  2d.  ;  William  Downie,  6s.  4d.  ;  Marjorie  Elphinstone,  2\  merks ;  .  .  .  18s.  ; 
Jon  Steven,  6s.  2d.  ;  James  Anderson,  20s.  5d.  ;  William  Anderson,  40s.  2d.  ;  Alex.  Stiven,  16s.  8d. ; 
Isabel  Blak,  20s.  ;  Christian  Matheson,  6s.  6d.  ;  John  Fergus,  5s.  8d.  ;  John  Mackie,  20s.  5d.  ;  Gib 
Buchan,  5  merk  ;  Alex.  Johnston,  i  merk  ;  James  Fergus,  ;  Cirstan  Tailyr,  5s.  4d.  ;  Andrew  Gib, 
12s.  ;  James  Johnston,  42s.  6d.  for  himself  and  his  mother,  and  Jean  Blak  ;  John  Gib,  3s.  ;  George 
Fergus,  3s.  2d.  ;  Cristan  Gairdein,  3s.  2d.  ;  Alex.  Fergus,  8s.  4d.  ;  George  Randall,  30s.  ;  George 
Grub,  40s.;  Janet  Petrie,  15s. ;  John  Webster,  4s.  2d. ;  the  old  baillie,  10s.  4d. ;  George  Grub,  22s.  6d. ; 
John  Stiven  and  William  Robertson,  9s.  2d.;  Robert  Tailyeour,  4s.;  Agnes  Benzie,  4s.;  John  Tailyeour, 
14s.;  Janet  Robertson,  18s.;  John  Stiven  for  .  .  9s.;  Thomas  Mackie,  4s.  ;  John  Robertson,  4s.; 
Alex.  Fergus,  younger,  4s.;  Alex.  Benzie,  80s.;  Robt.  Johnston,  20s.;  James  Roland,  2s.;  Robert 
Murdo,  32s. 

Restaud  by  Robert  Tailyour,  20s. 

Twentie  lbs.  for  Dragonnis  to  Urrie. 

In  the  same  year  the  baillies  had  to  meet  an  account  illustrative  of  the  times.  By 
a  bond,  of  date  9th  June,  1644,  they  had  agreed  to  pay  thirteen  score  merks  to  John 
Johnston,  of  New  Place  of  Caskieben,  sister's  son  to  Mr.  William  Forbes  ;  he  engaging 
to  furnish  to  the  burgh,  before  the  23rd  June,  1644,  a  man  and  horse,  well  furnished 
with  all  arms  pertaining  to  a  trooper,  and  to  produce  a  sufficient  discharge  from  the 
routmaster,  upon  the  receipt  of  the  said  man  and  horse  and  arms.  Johnston  did  not 
furnish  the  trooper,  which  the  burgh  had  to  do,  but  he  assigned  the  burgh's  bond  to  his 
uncle,  who  pursued  for  recovery. 


Inverurie  during  the  Troubles.  293 


Another  taxation,  speedily  following,  exhibits  a  considerable  change  of  proprietors 
in  two  years  : — 

1646,  July  10.—  Alexander  Cheyne  of  Pitfichie  gives  receipt  to  Thomas  Ronald,  burgess  of  In- 
verurie, for  26  lbs. ,  for  outputting  of  an  horse  and  man  to  the  Maister  of  Fraser. 

Aecompt  for  outputting  the  foot  souldiers. 

Item  for  ,  futman  of  ,  and  ane  part  of  an  baggage  horse,  four  poundes,  four 

shillings,  and  this  for  the  part  of  five. 

Item,  thrie  score  ane  pound  five  shillings. 

Mair,  for  three  muskets  threetie  poundes  with  the 

Bandoliers  for  two  pikes,  6  lbs. 

For  five  swords,  twentie  pounds. 

Inde  fifty-six  poundis. 

Mair,  to  twelve  shillings  for  apparel. 

The  Maister  of  Forbes,  his  first  taxation,  the  fourt  of  September,  1646. 

Geilly  Ross,  5s.  8d.  ;  James  Smyth,  1  lb.  12s. ;  Isobel  Blak,  8s.  ;  Jon.  Fergus,  1  lb.  6s.  ; 
Alexander  Paterson,  4  lb.  3s.  ;.Jon.  Mackie,  6  lb.  ;  James  Anderson,  6  lb.  5s.  ;  Cristain  Gairden, 
14s.  ;  Cristan  Matheson,  18s.  ;  Thomas  Randall,  1  lb.  12s.  ;  Robert  Fergus,  3  lb.  12s.  ;  Jon.  Wobstar, 
1  lb.  6s.  ;  James  Fergus,  younger,  4  lb.  ;  George  Grub,  16s.  ;  Alexr.  Johnston,  younger,  3  lb.  12s.  ; 
Jon.  Gib,  6  lb.  6s.  ;  John  Mackie,  16s.  ;  John  Stiven,  elder,  1  lb.  4s.  ;  James  Johnston,  8  lb.  12s.  ; 
George  Fergus,  14s.  ;  Cristan  Tailyeour,  1  lb.  8s.  ;  Alex.  Johnston,  elder,  1  lb.  6s.  ;  Gilbert  Buchan, 
1  lb.  12s.  ;  John  Banzie,  1  lb.  4s.  ;  William  Anderson,  15s.  ;  Andrew  Gib,  -2  lb.  18s.  ;  William 
Robertson,  1  lb.  ;  Janet  Anderson,  1  lb.  6s.  ;  John  Johnston,  bailie,  7s.  6d.  ;  Alex.  Porter,  4s.  ; 
John  Tailleour,  6s.  4d.  ;  John  Johnston,  4s.  ;  Lewis  Fergus,  1  lb.  17s.  ;  Wm.  Johnstone,  3  lb.  ; 
George  Porter,  12s.  ;  Alex.  Fergus,  1  lb.  18s.  ;  John  Robertson,  19s.  8d.  ;  James  Smyth,  8s.  8d.  ; 
Marjorie  Elphinstone,  for  her  and  Agnes  Bainzie,  8  lb.  13s.  ;  William  Fergus,  younger,  16s.  ;  William 
Downie,  1  lb.  10s.  ;  janot  Mackie,  12s.  ;  William  Fergus,  elder,  18s.  ;  Alex.  Banzie,  2  lb.  2s.  ;  Adam 
Hill,  1  lb.  12s. 

These  formed  an  important  part  of  the  parishioners  of  Inverurie,  upon  whom  the 
severe  discipline  of  the  Covenanting  Kirk  was  to  descend  ;  when  the  result  of  the  civil 
war  invited  Cromwell  in  England,  and  the  emancipated  Presbyterian  Church  in  Scot- 
land, to  follow  up,  more  Jiumano,  the  enjoyment  of  freedom  from  royal  tyranny  by  the 
exercise  of  a  tyranny  of  their  own. 

At  the  Kirk  of  Inverurie,  after  the  death  of  Mr.  James  Mill,  Mr.  "William  Forbes, 
must  have  been  admitted  in  or  before  1644,  in  which  year  he  granted  receipt  to  George 
Leslie,  baillie  in  Inverurie,  for  part  of  his  stipend  ;  and  he  continued  minister  of  In- 
verurie until  1C78,  as  appears  by  a  discharge  to  John  Keith  and  John  Anderson, 
baillies,  for  27  lb.^10  sh.  silver  stipend,  payable  at  the  feast  and  term  of  Whitsunday, 
1678,  the  discharge  being  written  by  Eobert  Forbes,  his  lawful  son.  The  Eev.  Mr. 
Forbes  was  married  to  Margaret  Strachan.  He  had  at  least  another  son,  born  15th  April, 
1644,  named  William,  and  a  daughter,  Margaret,  born  1646  ;  and  a  daughter,  Jean,  who 
became  a  historical  personage.     His  son  Robert  was  a  licentiate  of  the  Church. 

The  successor  of  Mr.  Mill  became,  it  is  likely,  minister  by  popular  election.  The 
patronage  of  the  kirk  of  Inverurie  had  passed,  in  1617,  from  Lord  Lindores  to  Mr. 
Duncan  Forbes  of  Lethinty  ;  but  Presbyterianism,  at  the  time  of  Mr.  Forbes's  induc- 
tion, excluded  lay  patronage.  The  records  of  his  incumbency,  unlike  the  quaint  registers 
of  family  events  which  Mr.  Mill  delighted  to  keep,  tell  in  their  earlier  years  of  the  offi- 
cious and  stern  ecclesiastical  discipline  which,  becoming  oppressive  in  inconsiderate 
hands,  was  to  lead  to  its  own  defeat. 


294  Inverurie  mid  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

The  Inverurie  court  book  for  1645-1G82,  helps  us  to  a  few  of  the  names  of  the  local 
rulers  during  those  brief  but  burdensome  military  musters,  of  which  Inverurie  %vas  gene- 
rally the  centre. 

"  Umquhile  William  Ferguson,"  in  whose  house  the  Marquis  of  Huntly  lodged 
when  encamping  at  Inverurie,  was,  it  seems  pretty  certain,  the  father  of  the  "William 
Ferguson  in  Crichie,  ancestor  of  the  present  Pitfour,  Kinmundy,  and  other  families  of 
the  same  name. 

The  collector  of  the  assessment  for  Urrie's  dragoons  was  the  last  of  the  Leslies  who 
had  so  long  been  burgesses  of  Inverurie,  and  proprietors  of  extensive  Roods  in  the  south 
end  of  the  burgh.  The  late  minister's  ward  and  stepson,  George  Leslie,  half  brother  of 
the  eminent  Baillie  Norman  Leslie  of  forty  years  before,  had  been  himself  repeatedly 
baillie.  He  inherited  his  brother's  extensive  burgh  property,  and  built  a  stone  mansion 
upon  his  eighteen  Upper  Eoods,  from  which  they  have  had  the  name  of  Stonehouse  ever 
since  ;  and  spread  a  spacious  garden  of  nine  roods'  breadth  upon  the  Lower  Eoods  oppo- 
site. The  burgh  minutes  show  him,  in  1646,  one  of  a  triumvirate,  as  his  brother  Nor- 
man had  been.  He  was  elected,  2nd  March,  1648,  Commissioner  for  Inverurie  in  the  Con- 
vention of  Estates ;  and  received  two-and-sixpence  a-day  during  his  attendance,  and 
"  whatever  other  expenses  he  might  bestow  upon  Lawers  and  other  offices  expedient  and 
needful".  He  died,  apparently  unmarried,  before  July,  1655  ;  and  Stonehouse  was  sold 
to  John  Galloway,  merchant  and  burgess  of  Aberdeen,  by  Sir  Patrick  Leslie  of  Whyt- 
ball,  and  Alexander  Leslie  of  Tullos  (the  Balquhain  of  the  time),  who  possibly  may  have 
been  George  Leslie's  executors. 

The  other  baillies  were  Walter  Ferguson  and  John  Johnston,  which  last  afterwards 
had  the  honour  of  placing  his  initials  upon  the  entablature  of  the  new  town-house.  He 
was  the  grandson  of  the  Baillie  William  Johnston  noted  in  the  great  burgh  feud. 

The  baillies  seem,  at  that  disturbed  period,  to  have  felt  the  need  of  some  substitute 
for  the  "  divinity  that  doth  hedge  "  legitimate  authority  as  much  as  Baillie  Hervie  of  the 
past  generation  did.     The  following  ordinance  and  illustration  are  on  record  : — ■ 

1646,  Oct. — Whatsotnever  indweller  troubles  the  bailies  or  other  office  men,  either  be  injurious 
speech  or  any  other  wrong,  shall  pay  40  lbs. 

1647,  6  April. — George  Leslie,  bailie,  complained  on  Gillie  Ross  and  Annas  Grub,  her  dother,  for 
putting  violent  hands  on  his  body,  and  deforcing  him  of  his  office.  The  bailies  ordain  her  to  pay  100 
lbs.  fine,  and  40  lbs.  damages  ;  and  appoint  the  officer  to  poynd  her  goods,  and  put  the  accused  in 
ward. 

Mrs.  Grub  was  the  widow  of  George  Grub,  laird  of  Brandsbutt,  and  of  several  Eood 
holdings.  Of  two  families  of  the  name,  individuals  appear  continuously  afterwards 
holding  municipal  office.  The  family  is  commemorated  in  the  Grub  mortification,  left 
by  the  last  representative — an  Aberdeen  stocking  merchant — who  died  about  1850,  and 
whose  portrait  hangs  in  the  Council  Chamber  of  Inverurie. 

Mr.  Alexander  Mitchell,  the  schoolmaster  of  1616,  was  still  alive  ;  but  apparently 
his  school,  like  many  others  in  the  neighbourhood,  was  abandoned  for  want  of  main- 
tenance.    The  Synod,  four  years  afterwards,  ordered  a  school  to  be  "  sowne  "  at  Inver- 


The  Time  of  the  King's  Death.  295 

urie ;  and,  upon  a  contested  election,  Mr.  Mitchell  was  appointed  to  the  charge  for  a 
period  of  three  months,  which  he  did  not  complete.  His  son,  Alexander,  a  somewhat 
unruly  youth,  who  afterwards  became  what  passed  for  a  staid  magistrate  and  respectable 
elder,  was  served  heir  to  him  in  1652. 

A  month  after  Mrs.  Grub's  case,  a  more  serious  matter  occupied  the  attention  of  the 
burgh  court  for  some  time.  The  town  had  to  be  kept  by  watch  and  ward  for  six 
months,  against  the  approach  of  the  plague. 

1647,  10  May.  — Ordeinit  that  the  haill  inhabitants,  widowes  and  others,  sail  watche,  twa  of  them 
nichtiie,  Induring  the  spaice  of  twenty-four  houres,  at  both  the  ends  of  the  burghe,  under  paine  of  ane 
hundred  pounds  failzie,  and  to  continue  during  the  time  of  suspitione  of  the  plague  ;  the  haill  bottis 
(ferry-boats)  landing  within  our  freedom,  to  wit,  Croftheid,  John  Fergus  and  Andrew  Steivin's  bot,  to 
be  drawn  during  the  spaice  aforesaid, two  widows  to  furnish  ane  man. 

18th  Nov. — Ordenit  that  the  watchers  sail  continue  till  ten  hours  at  even  nichtiie,  and  enter  on  be 
the  sky-rysing  in  the  morning,  and  to  delyver  and  set  in  the  pykes  in  George  Leslie  and  Robert 
Murdo's  hous  (the  south  and  north  extremities  of  the  burgh),  whereupon  they  may  challence  the  trewth 
of  their  keeping  of  their  dewtie. 

30th  Nov. — No  stranger  to  be  received  be  onie  inhabitants  without  convoy  of  the  guard,  with  ane 
warrant  from  the  bailie  or  minister,  either  of  them. 

3d  Dec. — Statute  that  no  inhabitant,  indweller,  or  onie  other  person  within  this  burgh,  pass 
without  this  toune  without  libertie  of  the  bailies  or  minister,  under  paine  of  10  lbs.  money  in  case  of 
failzie. 

Also  no  indweller  have  ane  sickness,  either  man,  woman,  or  bairne,  but  sail  acquaint  the  minister 
and  bailies  of  their  sickness  in  all  tynies  coming,  under  pain  of  10  lbs.  in  case  of  failzie,  before  that  ouy 
neighbour  visit  him. 

Alexander  Porter  is  dicernet  to  pay  10  lbs.  money,  for  passing  without  this  our  burgh,  bot 
libertie  grantit  to  him  to  ane  burial  at  least  suspectit  ;  and  siclyke  James  Taylor  is  decernit  to  pay 
fourtie  schillings  money,  for  going  with  him  as  accompliss. 

The  session  of  King's  College  was  held  that  year  at  Fraserburgh,  with  the  exception 
of  the  divinity  class,  which  the  Synod  appointed  to  meet  at  "  Kintoir,"  because  of  the 
cost  to  which  Mr.  William  Douglass,  the  professor,  would  be  put,  if  he  removed  his 
numerous  family  to  Fraserburgh. 

The  meeting  of  Estates  in  which  Baillie  George  Leslie  represented  his  Majesty's 
royal  burgh  of  Inverurie,  had  to  deal  with  the  Engagement  which  Charles,  in  his  prison 
at  Newport,  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  secretly  entered  into  with  the  Scotch  Commissioners 
who  visited  him  there,  that  he  would  be  "  the  Covenanted  King  of  a  Presbyterian 
people".  We  may  place  the  member  for  Inverurie  in  the  majority  which  ratified  that  agree- 
ment on  the  part  of  the  Kingdom  of  Scotland ;  and  which  ordered  an  army  to  be  raised 
to  proceed  into  England,  to  the  help  of  the  king.  Argyll  headed  a  party  who  resisted 
the  agreement ;  and  the  Church  took  that  side,  being  distrustful  of  an  alliance  with 
English  Presbyterians  and  Cavaliers,  as  an  unfaithful  union  with  prelatical  malignants. 
In  the  battle  of  Preston  Cromwell  routed  the  Scotch  army,  and  Argyll  and  the 
ecclesiastical  party  became  supreme  in  Scotland.  The  Church  Courts  for  years  after- 
wards, exacted  from  those  who  had  been  royalists  at  that  juncture,  penance  for  having 
been  concerned  in  the  "  unlawful  engagement ", 

THE  TIME  OF  THE  KING'S  DEATH. 
Historical  critics  have  not  infrequently  assumed  that  events  of  unusual  importance 


296  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

to  a  community  ought  to  be  found  referred  to  in  almost  every  contemporary  public  re- 
cord. Unless  the  event  had  produced  immediate  local  effects,  it  is  much  more  likely 
not  to  be  noticed  in  local  records.  The  minutes  of  burghal  and  ecclesiastical  courts 
in  the  Garioch  contain  not  the  slightest  reference  to  the  death  of  Charles  I.  on  30th 
January,  1649  :  and  none  to  the  establishment  of  the  Commonwealth,  except  the 
following  summons  addressed  to  runaway  burgesses  to  return  home  in  order  to  be 
taxed : — 

1649,  9  May. — No  inhabitant  or  indweller  to  remove  themselffis  furth  of  this  burghe  in  tyme 
coming  under  failzie  of  200  lbs.,  and  those  who  have  removit  to  return  home  and  make  their  actual 
residence,  within  fifteen  days,  under  failzie  aforesaid.  Because  they  remove  themselffis  at  ther  pleasure 
for  eschewing  of  the  present  taxes,  letters,  and  quarterings  imposit,  or  to  be  imposit,  be  the  estates  and 
committees  of  schyres,  for  the  public  calamities  of  our  countrie. 

The  "  happy  restoration  "  of  Charles  II.  in  1660,  would  have  left  just  as  little  notice 
behind  it,  in  the  local  records  of  his  royal  burgh,  had  it  not  been  that  the  Don  was  in 
spate  on  the  Sunday  when  the  minister  of  Inverurie  was  to  render  thanks  for  the  memor- 
able event ;  and  as  the  people  could  not  get  to  the  flood-encircled  church,  the  minutes 
'  of  session  bear  that  the  beadle  was  to  go  through  the  parish,  during  the  week,  to  give 
notice  of  thanksgiving  for  the  following  Sunday. 

The  burgh  was  busy  with  its  own  important,  or  most  trifling,  public  affairs  at  the 
time  when  London  was  in  agonies  of  spirit  over  the  terrible  consummation  of  the  political 
struggle  between  Charles  I.  and  his  excited  and  exasperated  subjects.  Actions  for 
"bluiding"  and  "dinging"  occupied  the  bench  as  of  old  time,  along  with  the  infeftments 
of  heirs,  collection  of  public  burdens,  ordinances  as  to  the  mill,  the  folds,  the  roods,  the 
herd's  fee,  the  prices  of  ale,  the  regulation  of  pasturage,  and  prosecution  of  careless  tres- 
passers upon  the  corn,  bear,  and  peats  of  neighbours.  An  official  residence  was  being 
built  for  the  town  herd  ;  and  in  the  month  which  witnessed  the  execution  of  the  King, 
the  most  important  transaction  of  the  burgh  court  was  the  granting  leave  to  two  single 
women,  Isobel  Davidson  and  Isobel  More,  to  remain  unremovit  until  Whitsunday 
next,  1649,  they  being  sufficientlie  provydit  in  kaill  and  peitts. 

In  the  month  of  May  following,  on  the  same  day  that  the  order  was  issued  ordering 
the  return  of  fugitives  from  taxation,  the  first  tack  of  the  moss  of  Bogfur  from  Alexander 
Strachan,  younger  of  Glenkindie,  laird  of  Kemnay,  was  agreed  to  by  the  haill  inhabitants, 
except  Thomas  Ronald  and  Robert  Murdo.  The  bargain  was  renewed  from  time  to  time 
until,  at  least,  1740.  Alexander  Strachan,  elder  and  younger,  of  Glenkindie  on  Don- 
side,  had,  a  few.  years  after  Sir  Thomas  Crombie's  death,  purchased  Kemnay  from  a 
a  sister  and  nephew  of  Sir  Thomas,  who  were  his  heirs  portioners. 

The  rude  state  of  society  within  the  burgh,  where  the  magistrates  were  at  the  time 
issuing  hruta  fuhnina,  in  the  form  of  fines  imposed  but  not  paid,  for  violence  committed 
by  respectable  indwellers,  was  of  a  piece  with  the  state  of  the  neighbourhood,  as  we  find 
it  indicated  in  the  measures  taken,  by  the  church  courts,  to  have  morals  and  manners  re- 
duced to.  order,  schools  re-opened,  churches  made  wind  and  water-tight,  pulpit-bibles 


The  Time  of  the  King's  Death.  297 

and  communion  tables  and  table  cloths  provided,  the  property  of  defuncts  protected  from 
abstraction,  and  such  like. 

The  course  of  small  events  of  local  consequence,  making  up  the  history  of  the 
Garioch  at  that  epoch,  was  crossed  by  two  short  scenes  of  national  history — the  passage 
southward  of  Montrose  as  a  prisoner  going  to  his  death,  and  of  Charles  II.  conducted,  as 
he  imagined,  to  his  kingdom. 

After  the  slaughter  of  Charles  I.  by  the  dominant  party  in  England,  the  Scots, 
terrified  for  their  own  liberties,  on  account  of  which  alone  they  had  been  at  variance 
with  the  King,  deemed  it  their  best  national  policy  to  treat  with  his  son,  and  offer  him 
the  Crown  of  Scotland,  upon  condition  of  his  accepting  the  Covenant.  Commissioners 
were  sent  to  him  in  Holland,  of  whom  Alexander  Jaffray  was  one ;  and  they  succeeded 
in  persuading  him  to  take  the  pledge,  which  Jaffray  and  others  were  clear-sighted  enough 
to  foresee  would  not  be  regarded  by  him.  Montrose,  at  the  same  time,  conceived  a  plan  for 
placing  Charles  on  the  throne  untrammelled.  The  Prince  entertained  both  proposals, 
little  heeding  the  consequences  which  the  failure  of  either  might  bring  upon  his 
other  friends. 

Montrose,  with  a  force  of  about  6000  German  mercenaries,  and  a  small  number  of 
Royalists — like  himself,  refugees — landed  in  March,  1650,  in  Orkney.  The  inhabitants, 
instead  of  joining  his  army,  fled  at  its  approach.  He  was  met  at  the  Pass  of  Invercharron, 
in  Ross-shire,  by  General  Leslie's  troops,  and  totally  defeated.  He  sought  refuge  with 
Macleod  of  Assynt,  and  was  given  up  by  him.  Montrose  was  afterwards  carried  south, 
a  prisoner,  to  Edinburgh,  in  a  manner  dishonourable  to  his  captors.  He  was  dressed 
meanly,  in  the  garb  wherein  he  had  disguised  himself  for  concealment,  and  mounted 
on  a  Highland  pony,  having  his  feet  tied  with  straw  ropes,  a  herald,  with  needless 
parade,  riding  before  him  and  proclaiming,  "  Here  comes  James  Graham,  a  traitor  to  his 
country ".  In  this  state  Montrose  passed  through  the  Garioch,  Pitearjle  Castle  being 
made  his  prison  for  a  night.  The  laird's  wife  was  the  Marquis's  own  cousin,  and  she 
tried  to  induce  him  to  attempt  escape,  by  a  hole  in  the  wall,  which  led  out  by  a  subter- 
ranean passage,  but  he  refused  and  was  borne  on  to  the  capital,  where  he  was  beheaded, 
21st  May,  1650,  in  virtue  of  a  sentence  passed  upon  him  before  he  was  taken.  Sir 
John  Urrie,  one  of  the  officers  of  his  expedition,  suffered  at  the  same  time.  The  room 
in  Pitcaple,  occupied  by  the  fallen  chief  is  still  known  as  Montrose's  Room. 

Pitcaple  Castle  next  received  the  unworthy  master  for  whom  Montrose  bad  sacrificed 
himself.  Charles  landed  at  Garmouth,  or  Kingston,  on  the  Spey,  in  July,  1650 ;  and 
lodged  at  the  Bog  of  Gight  near  that  creek.  Prom  that  seat  of  his  late  subject  the  Marquis 
of  Huntly,  he  set  out  on  his  progress,  accompanied  by  Huntly's  greatest  enemy,  Argyll, 
and  the  Duke  of  Buckingham.  The  royal  party  entered  the  Garioch  by  the  passage 
through  the  Hills  of  Poudland,  and  while  St.  Sair's  Pair  was  being  held ;  the  tents  of 
which  they  mistook  for  an  encampment  of  Covenanters,  and  made  a  detour  to  avoid 
their  neighbourhood.    The  laird  of  Pitcaple,  knowing  that  his  house  was  to  be  a  resting 

38 


298 


Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 


place,  purchased  all  the  claret  brought  to  St.  Sair's  Fair  on  that  occasion.  In  the  grounds 
of  Pitcaple  stands  a  large  thorn  tree,  under  which  the  royal  party  is  said  to  have  danced  on 
the  night  of  the  sojourn,  when  all  the  Royalists  of  the  neighbourhood  had  assembled  to 
welcome  the  young  prince  and  a  ball  took  place.  Charles,  in  after  days,  would  recollect 
the  Pitcaple  thorn  more  pleasantly  than  the  Royal  Oak  which  afforded  him  shelter  sub- 
sequently. A  field  near  the  Castle  is  still  called  England,  from  a  remark  of  the  Prince 
that  the  view  reminded  him  of  England.  On  his  departure  from  Pitcaple,  with 
Buckingham  riding  on  his  right  hand,  and  Argyll  on  his  left,  the  Goodwife  of  Glack 
is  said  to  have  addressed  Charles  in  a  loud  tone  from  amidst  the  onlooking  assemblage, 
invoking  blessings  on  his  journey,  but  bidding  him  beware  of  the  man  on  his  left 
hand,  who  had  taken  off  his  father's  head,  and  if  he  did  not  take  care  would  have  his 
next.  The  Laird  and  his  brother  James  Leslie  both  gave  their  lives  to  the  ineffectual 
support  of  his  cause  next  year  on  the  field  of  "Worcester. 

Alexander  Jaffray  was  one  of  the  Commissioners  who  brought  Charles  to  his  then 
short-lived  reign.  Jaffray  would  experience  peculiar  sensations,  upon  finding  himself 
within  his  former  prison  again,  in  so  different  a  position. 

William,  Earl  Marischal,  eldest  brother  of  the  first  Earl  of  Kintore,  received  the 
young  King,  some  days  after,  at  Dunnottar  Castle ;  and  his  brother,  George,  was  taken 
prisoner,  sword  in  hand,  at  the  fatal  battle  of  "Worcester.  The  King  had  forbidden 
Earl  "William  to  leave  his  charge  of  Dunnottar  Castle,  where  the  Eegalia  was  to  be 
preserved. 


Chapter   IX.' 

THE   RULE   OF   THE   KIRK. 

Mr.  Andrew  Cant.  General  Government. — Discipline — Controversial  Books — Tlie  Engagement — 
Gerdon  of  Newton —  Visitation  of  Inverurie — Lairds'  Processed — Renewal  of  the  Covenant —  Visi- 
tations— Bourtie,  &c. — Lairds  Submitting — Property  of  Defuncts — Depositions — Residents — 
Witchcraft — Extreme  Crimes — Row's  History — Marischal  College — Clerical  Dress — Mixed  Wine 
--Submissions — Converse  with  Excommunicates— Military  Chaplains— Daviot  Annexations — 
Pressure  of  Cromwell — Rectification  of  Parish  Boundaries — Kcmnay  Kirk  and  Minister — Laird 
of  Fettcrnear — Papists —  Visitation  of  Inverurie^Rights  of  Electors.  Discipline  op  Ministers. 
Discipline  of  Parishes. — Platform  of  Sessional  Duties — Paupers — Manners — Communion  Ser- 
vice— Sabbath-breaking —Alehouse  Restrictions  —  Kirk  Catalogue — Cromwell's  Independents — 
Elders — Rough  Manners — Kirk  of  Inverurie.  Schools  under  the  Covenant  and  Second 
Episcopacy. — Schoolmasters  of  Inverurie,  lGIfi  to  1670 — Oarioch  Schoolmasters. 

Mr.    ANDREW    CANT. 

"*HE  state  of  society  in  Scotland  during  the  years  from  1649  to  1660  was  practically 
an  Ecclesiastical  Government,  which  was  perhaps  most  strenuously  exercised  in 
Aberdeenshire,  the  part  of  the  country  that  had  been  but  imperfectly  subdued. 
Disappointment  in  the  expectation  formed  by  the  party  of  the  Marquis  of  Argyll  that 
Scotland  was  to  be  followed  by  the  larger  Kingdom  in  Presbyterianism,  and  the  existence 
of  much  reaction  of  feeling  respecting  the  Covenanting  policy — which  had  been  one  of 
the  lines  by  which  the  country  had  been  led  to  the  awful  regicide — made  the  party  in 
power  in  Scotland  apparently  feel  it  to  be  necessary  to  fortify  their  position  by  enforcing 
the  bonds  of  the  Covenant  anew.  They  made  its  adoption  a  condition  in  offering  the 
crown  of  Scotland  in  1649  to  the  son  of  the  slaughtered  King,  and  the  ecclesiastical 
records  for  some  years  after  exhibit  a  renewal  of  subscription  to  the  Covenant  being 
enforced  upon  all  classes  of  the  people. 

In  Aberdeenshire  the  director  of  ecclesiastical  affairs,  during  this  revival  of  dis- 
cipline, was  Mr.  Andrew  Cant,  who  dominated  in  the  Synod,  and  was,  in  all  likelihood, 
the  constructor  of  the  remarkable  code  of  laws  under  which  the  kirk-sessions  of  the 
parishes  were  ordered  to  address  themselves  to  secure  the  faithfulness  of  their  parish- 
ioners. Beyond  his  public  life  there  is  not  much  known  of  the  celebrated  Aberdonian, 
from  whose  name  the  Spectator  of  Queen  Anne's  days  derived  the  term  "  cant  "  used 
of  a  certain  style  of  religious  language.  A  Mr.  Andrew  Cant  of  Glendy  married,  in 
1655,  Anna,  a  daughter  of  the  Covenanting  baronet  of  Leys,  Sir  Thomas  Burnet,  of 


300  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

whose  parish  of  Banchory-Ternan  Mr.  Cant's  sou  Alexander  was  minister  from  1649 
to  1660;  and  Mr.  Andrew  was  at  one  time  proprietor  of  some  lands  in  Alford. 
Cant  is  said  to  have  hegun  his  university  attendance  late  in  life ;  a  circumstance 
quite  in  accordance  with  his  force  of  character,  which  may  have  impelled  him  into  a 
more  active  life  than  he  had  originally  fallen  into.  He  graduated  at  King's  College, 
Aberdeen,  in  1612,  when  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  and  had  been  of  such  eminence  in 
scholarship  that  he  held  the  office  of  Humanist  in  1614,  and  not  later  than  1617 
became  minister  of  Alford,  where  he  still  was  in  1629.  In  1625  he  purchased 
"Wellhouse  and  part  of  Ardgethin  from  the  Master  of  Forbes,  and  in  1629  two 
crofts  in  the  Kirktown  of  Alford,  all  which  he  renounced  in  1649  to  John  Forbes 
of  Leslie  for  4800  nierks.  In  the  deeds  of  renunciation  a  deceased  son  James  is  named, 
also  Alexander,  Andrew,  Sarah  (wife  afterwards  of  Provost  Jaffray),  and  Margaret. 
All  these  seem  to  have  been  born  after  1625,  the  date  of  his  first  purchase,  except 
Alexander.  Andrew,  the  son,  was  Mr.  Andrew  in  1649.  An  anonymous  writer  states 
that  Mr.  Cant  resigned  his  parish  because  in  bad  odour  with  the  dominant  party,  and 
became  tutor  to  Lord  Pitsligo's  family  and  first  minister  of  Pitsligo  in  1634.  Heap- 
pears,  however,  as  minister  of  Pitsligo  in  1633,  when  he  took  part  with  the  other 
heritors  of  Alford  in  the  honourable  work  of  providing  a  permanent  salary  for  the 
school  of  Alford,  of  which  Mr.  John  Leslie  was  master.  The  kirk  of  Pitsligo,  long 
called  Cant's  kirk,  is  still  in  use.  It  had  a  medallion  portrait  of  Mr.  Cant  inserted  in 
the  wall. 

The  characteristic  period  of  Mr.  Cant's  life  began  when  resistance  to  the  Epis- 
copalian encroachments  attempted  by  the  King  roused  active  resistance  within  the 
Scottish  Church.  With  Henderson  and  Dickson  he  rushed  to  the  front ;  and  he  was 
able  to  hold  position  as  a  leader  duriug  the  fierce  contest  then  entered  upon.  He  was 
one  of  the  three  members  of  the  Clergy's  Table,  formed  along  with  the  Tables  of  the 
Barons  and  of  the  Burgesses,  for  the  promulgation  or  enforcement  of  the  Covenant. 
Spalding,  writing  of  the  year  1629,  says:  "  Vpone  the  first  of  Marche  Mr.  Androw 
Cant,  minister  at  Petsligo,  cam  with  his  wyf  and  children  to  Old  Abirdein,  whair  he 
lodgit  all  nicht ;  and  vpone  the  nixt  Sonday  in  his  journey  teichit  at  Banchrie-Devnik, 
to  whome  flokkit  sindrie  puritanes  out  of  Abirdein  to  heir  him — a  gryte  Covenanter, 
veray  bussy  in  thir  alterationis  and  mortal  enemy  touardis  the  bischoppis."  He  had 
been  one  of  the  Commission  sent  to  enforce  the  Covenant  upon  the  Aberdouians  in 
1638,  and  was,  much  against  the  wish  of  the  citizens,  next  sent  to  be  minister  there 
in  1640.  He  seems  to  have  possessed  a  fierce  eloquence  and  indomitable  courage, 
which  appeared  not  only  in  his  domination  of  the  city,  but  also  in  his  defiant  advocacy 
of  Charles  II.  in  the  face  of  Cromwell's  colonels  who  were  sitting  in  his  audience. 
His  vanity  and  inconsistency  has  been  noticed  above.  His  singular  force  of  character 
and  confidence  in  himself  and  his  cause  gave  form  to  the  proceedings  of  the  Kirk  in 
the  Garioch  after  1649.     He  seems  to  have  regarded  the  Synod  as  his  own  court,  where 


General  Government.  301 


lie  was  ably  supported  by  Mr.  John  Bow,  whom  ho  had  brought  to  Aberdeen,  and  who 
became  Principal  of  King's  College  during  Cant's  period  of  domination,  from  1651  down 
to  the  Eestoration.  Eow  was  for  his  learning  worthy  of  the  promotion  he  received. 
In  political  spirit  he  was  a  meet  ally  of  Mr.  Cant.  The  two  with  a  single  follower,  Mr. 
John  Menzies,  Professor  of  Divinity  in  Marischal  College,  attempted  to  organise  a 
secession  upon  the  plea  of  purity  of  communion.  Eow  and  Menzies,  with  Mr.  John 
Seaton  of  Old  Aberdeen,  were  dealt  with  for  independency  in  1652,  and  when  the 
Synod,  after  enduring  their  unruly  conduct  for  a  while,  sought  to  reduce  them  to  order 
by  discipline,  they  procured  an  injunction  from  the  military  commandant  in  the  town 
to  desist  from  processing  them.  The  universal  revulsion  of  feeling  which  resulted  in 
the  Eestoration  of  the  Monarchy  put  an  end  to  Cant's  power  though  not  to  his  grand 
courage.  An  outrageous  attack  from  the  pulpit  upon  those  engaged  in  celebrating  the 
return  of  Charles  II.  to  his  kingdom  made  him  be  summoned  before  the  Town 
Council  upon  the  complaint  of  those  he  had  vilified,  and  he  fled  the  town,  taking 
refuge  with  Andrew  his  son,  then  minister  of  Liberton,  who  had  deserted  his  father's 
colours  and  adopted  the  new  Episcopacy,  and  afterwards  became  Principal  of  Edin- 
burgh University.  He  returned  to  Aberdeen  where  he  was  deposed.  He  died  30th 
April,  1663,  and  was  buried  in  St.  Nicholas  Churchyard,  Aberdeen.  The  explanation 
of  Cant's  prolonged  domination  is  that  he  was  practically,  and  it  would  appear  recog- 
nised, the  representative  in  the  North  of  the  Marquis  of  Argyll,  during  all  the  years  that 
nobleman  ruled  Scottish  affairs,  in  progress  as  a  Covenanter,  the  patron  of  Charles  II., 
and  an  ally  perforce  of  Cromwell. 

GENERAL  GOVERNMENT. 

Eecords  of  the  Synod  of  Aberdeen  from  1647,  of  the  Presbytery  of  Garioch  from 
1617,  and  of  the  Kirk-Session  of  Inverurie  from  1619,  and  of  the  Court- Book  of  the 
Burgh  of  Inverurie  from  1645,  afford  illustrations  of  the  general  condition  of  society  and 
of  the  measures  thought  necessary  by  the  existing  powers  for  the  public  weal.  The 
Church  Courts  appear  exercising  a  rigorous  supervision  of  morals,  social  habits,  and  re- 
ligious observances,  and  exacting  provision  for  religious  ordinances,  for  schools  and  the  poor. 
The  latter  three  matters  were  inquired  into  at  periodical  visitations  of  parishes  made  by 
the  local  Presbytery ;  while  the  Synod  issued  general  instructions  as  occasion  arose,  and 
superintended  the  exercise  of  discipline,  flagrant  cases  of  immorality,  and  in  others  con- 
nected with  national  politics.  Mabgnancy,  comprehending  all  disinclination  to  the 
Covenant,  was  a  standing  crime  in  the  ecclesiastical  calendar;  and  after  1648  another 
was  the  Engagement — the  futile  attempt,  made  in  accordance  with  a  resolution  of  the 
Scottish  Estates,  to  rescue  the  King  from  the  Parliament  of  England. 

(Synod) — discipline  and  orders. 

1647,  Oct. — Exconimunicat  persons  in  the  Garioch — Patrick  Leith,  younger  of  Harthill  ;  Wm. 
Gordon  of  Newton  ;  Setons  of  Blair,  elder  and  younger,  and  Jean  Mallin. 


302  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Ordained  that  whosoever  haunts  the  company  of  excommunicat  persons,  or  resets  them  in  their 
houses,  be  according  to  the  ordinance  of  the  Assembly  (Synod).     The  Assembly  recommends 

the  judicatories  to  be  erected  in  everie  parochin,  for  censiing  of  sweirers,  mockers  of  pietie,  drunkards, 
Sabbath-breakers  ;  and  the  mrs.  that  shall  be  found  remiss  herein  to  be  sharplie  censered,  and  ilk 
presbyterie,  at  the'next  meeting,  to  take  tryall  of  the  diligence  of  the  minrs.  thereanent. 

The  Presbytery  of  Garioch  is  ordained  to  give  Mr.  William  Leith  presentation  to  the  whole  bene- 
fice of  the  kirkes  of  Kinkell,  aud  he  thereafter  to  dissolve  the  said  benefice  in  a  legall  way  by  sight  of 
the  Presbytery  for  provision  of  the  several  kirks  of  that  benefice  (Kinkell,  Kintore,  Drumblat,  Skein, 
Kinnellar,  aud  Dyce),  and  that  he  do  this  in  that  way  that  may  satisfy  the  Assembly,  and  to  report 
ther  diligence,  as  they  shall  be  anserable  to  the  next  Assembly. 

It  is  ordanit  that  sermon  begin  in  ilk  landwart  parochin  at  ten  hors  in  the  winter  season,  and 
halfe  to  ten  in  the  summer  ;  and  the  mini',  to  kep  the  sd  hors,  and  to  atend  the  dyet  of  none. 

(Presbytery)— controversial  prints. 

23rd  March. — A  letter  received  this  day  from  the  moderator  of  the  General  Assembly,  requyring 
payment  to  James  Murray,  for  the  printed  papers,  with  the  fourtene  copies  of  the  hundred  and  eleven 
propositions,  at  5  shs.  the  piece,  and  fourtene  Catechisms  at  10  shs.  the  piece. 

NEWTON. 

13  Apryll  — James  Gordon,  younger  of  Newton,  compeared,  neglecting  of  the  public 

and  private  worship  of  God,  and  taking  away  the  registers  of  the  presbytery,  the  session  book,  and 
their  own  minister  s  books  of  Culsalmond,  and  not  countenancing  the  ministers  of  the  gospel,  but 
rather  persecuting  the  same,  ever  since  he  was  a  man.  And  being  present  this  day,  was  called  and 
compeird  in  sackcloth,  confessing  with  grief  and  sorrow  his  accession  to  the  late  horrid  rebellion, 
whereby  he  had  been  an  enemie  to  the  cause  and  covenant  of  God,  begging  of  the  Lord  and 

forgiveness  of  the  same,  and  promising  by  the  strength  and  power  of  God's  grace,  to  amend  all  his 
former  wicked  wayes  and  workes,  and  to  avoid  all  such  wickedness  with  the  authors  and 

favourers  thereof,  and  in  face  of  the  Presbyterie,  with  an  uplifted  hand,  subseribt  the  Covenant,  and  is 
ordained  to  go  to  his  own  parish  church,  and  sit  in  sackcloth  before  the  congregation,  aud  subscryve 
the  national  Covenant,  with  the  solemn  League  and  Covenant, 

(Synod) — market,  kirks,  burials. 

1648,  April. — The  Satterdy  market  at  Insch  ordained  to  be  changed. 

The  heritors  in  all  parishes  are  ordained  to  keep  the  kirk  wind-fast  and  water-tight,  and  glass 
the  same. 

The  groundless  custom  of  not  burying  at  the  back  of  the  kirk,  is  referred  to  the  General  Assembly, 
that  they  may  pass  an  Act  upon  it. 

(Presbytery) — FOOTBALL— THE   ENGAGEMENT — NEWTON. 

Scandelous  behaviour  reported  of  diverse  of  the  parishioners  of  Raine  and  Culsalmond  iu  conven- 
ing themselves  upon  the  Lord's  day  to  a  public  footballing. 

1  June.  — A  letter  was  read  from  the  commission  of  the  General  Assembly,  with  twentie  copies  of 
informations,  and  desyring  the  brethren  not  to  give  assistance  in  any  way  to  the  proceedings  of  the 
high  court  of  Parliament. 

4  Julie. — Act  of  Commission  of  Assembly  read,  requiring  moderators  to  see  if  every  brother  had 
declared  against  the  present  engagement,  and  given  public  information  to  the  people  of  the  unlawful- 
ness thereof. 

1 7  Aug.  — The  minister  of  Culsalmond  reports  that  George  Gordon,  elder,  of  Newton,  being  urged 
to  subscribe  the  Solemn  Leage  and  Covenant,  as  he  had  faithfullie  promised,  refused  in  regard  the 
Scots  armie  is  now  gone  into  England  against  it  :  whereat  the  Presbytery  was  highly  offended,  and 
the  minister  of  Culsalmond  ordained  to  require  him,  and  to  process  him  if  he  refuse  to  attend. 

(Synod) — kinkell. 

October — The  provinciall  assemblie  thinks  it  incumbent  for  the  Presbyterie  of  Garioch  to  put 
up  their  grievances  to  the  Parliament  for  ratification  of  the  disollution  of  the  Kirk  of  Kinkell  in 
particular,  according  to  the  Acts  of  Parliament  passed  alreadie. 

Every  minister  to  advertise  his  people  that  the  magistrates  of  Aberdeen  have  promised  to  take 
order  with  swearers,  drunkards,  and  turbulent  persons  from  the  country,  and  put  them  in  firmauce. 


General  Government.  303 


INVERURIE   SCHOOL  AND   KIRK. 

Mr.  William  Forbes,  minister  of  Inverurie,  is  ordayned  to  have  a  care  to  sowe  a  school  there  to 
propagate  the  gospell,  and  use  all  diligence  to  have  the  kirk  helped  ;  and  for  the  better  effectuating  of 
these  things,  the  Presbyterie  of  Garioch  is  ordained  to  have  a  visitation  of  that  church  with  all  con- 
venient diligence,  and  Mr.  Andrew  Strachan,  Mr.  James  Jarvie,  and  Mr.  Andrew  Abercrombie  to  be 
assessors. 

Account  to  be  taken  of  all  heritors  and  wadsetters  who  had  sent  out  men  to  the  unlawful 
engagement. 

The  keepers  of  Youll  day,  and  setters  on  of  midsummer  fires  and  candles,  to  be.  punishit. 

Eecommended  to  the  whole  ministers  within  the  province,  to  have  a  week-day  for  lecturing  and 
catechising. 

(Presbytery) — lairds  op  fetternear  and  blair. 

28  Dec. — Mr.  John  Gellie,  at  Monymusk,  reported  that  he  and  Mr.  John  Seaton  had  conferred 
with  the  Laird  of  Fetternear  ^Abercromby)  and  his  lady,  anent  their  dishaimting  their  paroch  kirk, 
and  Recepting  of  Seminarie  priests ;  who  utterlie  denied  any  fellowship,  privatlie  or  publiclie,  with 
men  of  that  stamp  ;  and  that  they  were  willing  to  purge  themselves  by  their  oath  that  such  persons 
were  never  in  their  eompanie  ;  and  as  for  their  keeping  of  the  kirk  of  Fetternear,  declared  that  he  ordi- 
norlie  keeped  the  same,  except  on  a  tempestuous  day,  and  should  strive  to  keep  the  same  in  all  tyme 
coming  ;  and  for  his  Lady  he  urged  she  was  great  with  child,  and  far  distant  from  his  own  paroch 
kirk,  and  he  besought  the  Presbyterie  for  the  favour  to  suffer  his  Lady  to  keep  Kemnay,  being  the 
nearest  paroch  kirk,  until  she  should  be  delyvered. 

They  were,  however,  Roman  Catholics  all  the  time,  and  the  minister  of  Kemnay's 
wife  was  much  the  same.  Mr.  John  Row  next  year  demanded  on  the  part  of  the  Synod 
that  she  should  be  given  up  to  discipline  for  papistical  practices.  Her  husband,  Dr. 
David  Leith,  left  his  parish  for  years,  and  was  found,  after  much  inquiry,  to  be  officiat- 
ing in  a  chapel  near  London,  whereupon  the  Synod  ordered  him  to  be  deprived. 

VISITATION   OF   INVERURIE. 

1649,  13  Feb. — Report — Collections  for  the  poor  were  verrie  small,  and  the  compt  of  the  distri- 
bution thereof  was  not  insert  in  the  Session  Book. 

The  officer,  John  Gibb,  approven  in  his  calling. 

The  elders  were  too  few,  in  regard  many  of  them  were  debarred  from  the  function,  be  reason  of 
their  subscribing  the  Parliamentarian  Act,  and  the  minister  was  desired  to  make  choice  of  some  other 
elders,  free  of  the  like  guiltiness,  to  concurre  with  him  in  furthering  Kirk  discipline. 

Next  year,  John  Johnston,  the  baillie,  one  of  the  guilty,  was  allowed  to  renew  the 

Covenant,  in  face  of  the  congregation  of  Inverurie.     The  instruction  as  to  the  Schools 

was  carried  out.     ( Vide  Schools  under  the  Covenant,  and  the  Second  Episcopacy). 

(Synod) — seton  of  blair. 

April.— It  is  ordanit  that  Seton  of  Blair,  excommunicat  papist,  giving  great  offence  to  the 

professors  of  the  truth  by  being  employed,  as  a  physician  through  all  the  parishes  of  the  country,  the 
Assembly,  as  of  befor,  ordaynes  ilk  minister  within  the  province  to  take  notice  of  the  pairts  wherein  he 
haunts,  and  the  employers  and  receptors  of  him,  and  discharge  the  same,  and  prepare  discipline  against 
the  Transgressors  of  the  Acts,  as  they  will  be  answerable  to  the  next  provincial  Assembly. 

(Presbytery) — signing  of  the  covenant  by  parishes. 

29th  March. — The  said  day  the  whole  Brethren  were  posed  how  farr  the  League  and  Covenant " 
was  advanced  within  their  several  congregations.      In  the  most  part  they  declared  it  was  subscryved 
by  the  whole  congregations  except  such  as  were  debarred  by  Act  of  Commission  ;  and  Mr.  John  Mid- 
dleton  (Rayne),  Mr.  William  Leith  (Einkell),  and  Mr.  William  Strachan  (Daviot),  declared  that  the 
most  part  of  the  parishioners  refused  to  subscribe  at  all. 

(Synod) — the  covenant. 

April.—  Every  minister  to  convene  his   Kirk-S^ssion,  and  ascertain  why  they  have  not  sub- 


304  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

scribed  to  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  and  urge  them  to  do  so  ;  which  if  they  refuse  to,  declare 
them,  out  of  the  pulpit,  enemies  to  the  work  of  the  Information. 

At  everie  third  meeting  of  Presbyterie,  in  winter,  and  every  second,  in  summer,  the  Moderator 
to  inquire  at  every  member  what  his  text  for  lecture  was,  and  how  the  Lord's  day  was  spent  be  the 
people. 

Ignorant  persons  to  be  catechised  before  baptism,  or  marriage. 

(Presbytery) — visitation  of  bouktie. 

18  Aug. — This  day  being  appointed  for  the  visitation  of  this  church,  the  names  of  the  elders  were 
given  up  be  the  minister,  and  called  one  by  one. 

The  Moderator  showed  the  end  of  their  coming  there,  conform  to  the  practice  of  the  apostles,  and 
those  that  lived  in  the  primitive  church,  was  to  visit  the  state  of  the  congregation,  and  accordinglie 
to  see  how  the  gospel  prospered  among  them,  and  how  the  work  of  God  was  done  both  be  pastor  and 
people. 

The  minister  being  removed,  the  elders  sworne  one  by  one,  with  uplifted  hand,  to  answer  to  the 
platforme  of  queries,  declare,  as  in  the  sight  of  God,  that  the  minister  is  powerful  in  his  doctrine, 
careful  in  his  discipline,  and  unblameable  in  his  lyffs,  and  accomplished  and  faithful  and  forward  in 
the  work  of  Reformation  ;  his  Lecture  on  the  Lord's  Day  on  the  12  Joshua,  and  his  Sermon  before  and 
after  noon  28  Acts,  27-28  verses  :  his  Lecture  on  the  Week  Day,  4  Job  and  proceedes  ;  he  observes 
the  directory  and  Acts  of  General  Assemblie.  There  is  no  school,  nor  schoolmaster,  for  want  of 
maintenance. 

The  minister  being  called,  it  is  ordained  he  deall  with  the  parishioners  for  maintenance  to  ane 
schoolmaster.  There  is  found  two  hundred  merks  of  mortified  moneys  be  the  laird  of  Pitmedden,  now 
in  the  tutor  his  hands  ;  the  minister  ordayned  to  deal  with  the  tutor  for  securitie  thereof,  and  report 
to  the  presbiterie  before  the  provincial  assemblie.  [The  Laird  of  Bourtie  and  Pitmedden,  Johu  Seton, 
was  a  minor,  and  the  Earl  of  Winton  was  his  tutor.] 

The  minister  ordayned  to  cause  labour  the  Dominie  his  croft. 

Within  that  congregation  the  stipend  is  aucht  chalders  of  victual.  The  minister  has  no  grass. 
Ordayned  to  serve  an  edict  for  that  effect,  that  counsel  may  be  taken  thereanent.  There  is  no  magis- 
trate erected  as  yet.  The  session  book  visited  and  allowed.  The  officer,  Thomas  Middleton,  admo- 
nished aud  exhorted  to  obedience. 

The  elders  removed,  and  the'minister  posed  what  he  knew  of  them,  desyrs  them  to  be  gravelie 
admonished,  which  they  were,  and  took  it  in  good  part.  The  moderator  exhorted  the  minister  to 
continuance,  the  elders  to  faithfulness,  and  all  of  them  to  a  love  of  the  truth,  and  assured  them  of  a 
blessed  and  glorious  reward  in  the  end. 

national  fast. 

A  fast  appointed  by  the  General  Assembly  for  the  last  of  this  present  August.  Causes  :  witch- 
craft, opposition  to  the  work  of  God's  people  by  sectaries  in  England,  and  malignants  in  Ireland,  the 
King's  not  yet  granting  the  just  and  necessary  desyrs  of  this  kirk  and  kingdom,  and  his  making  peace 
with  the  Irish  rebells,  who  have  shed  so  much  blood  of  the  Lord's  people,  and  giving  them  the  full 
liberty  of  poprie. 

Young  King  Charles  had  been  difficult  of  persuasion  to  comply  with  the  conditions 
prescribed  by  the  Commissioners  sent  to  him. 

(Presbytery)—  visitations. 

Leslie,  30  Aug. — Minister  characterised  in  the  same  terms  as  at  Bourtie.  No  school  for 
want  of  maintenance.     In  the  Kirk  some  "  pumfells  "  to  be  demolished,  primo  quo  tempore. 

Bethelnie,  15  Sept. — Minister's  stipend,  500  merks  of  money,  24  bolls  victual ;  no  grass  designed  ; 
no  schoolmaster  for  want  of  maintenance  ;  the  Act  of  Parliament  respecting  the  poor  not  yet  put  in 
force,  but  about  to  be. 

Kinkell,  Sept.  27.— Stipend,  34  bolls,  victuals,  3  firlots ;  100  merks  money,  4  sh.  less,  with  the 
vicarage  ;  no  grass  nor  desyned  moss. 

The  monuments  of  idolatrie  in  the  kirk  ordayned  to  be  demolished,  against  the  next  meeting,  be 
the  minister  and  elders,  as  they  will  be  answerable. 

lairds  submitting. 

John  Leslie  of  Pitcaple  ;  James  Elphinstone,  younger  of  Glack  ;  John  Gordon,  Eothmaise  :  and 


General  Government.  305 


others  of  that  nature,  compeared  before  the  Presbyterie,  and  desired  to  be  received  and  admitted  to 
the  Renewing  of  the  League  and  Covenant.  The  moderator  asked  them  if  they  were  willing  to  sub- 
scrive  the  late  acknowledgment  and  declaration  of  the  General  Assembly  ;  answered  they  could  not 
take  upon  them  the  guiltiness  contained  therein.     Their  petition  was  refused. 

(Synod)— catechism — charming — general  orders. 

October. — Children  to  be  brought  up  with  the  lesser  catechism  in  every  parish  ;  and  the  old 
catechism  to  be  discharged. 

All  ministers  recommended  to  make  search  for  trying  out  of  charmirTg  and  witchcraft ;  and  if 
they  find  any  solid  ground  for  ane  commission,  to  send  for  it. 

Every  minister  who  keeps  his  session  scrolls  unbooked  longer  than  three  months  to  be  censured. 

property  of  defuncts. 

The  Assemblie  taking  into  their  serious  consideration  the  great  loss  sustained  by  orphans, 
widows,  legatees,  and  lawful  creditors,  by  entries  with  defuncts'  goods  and  geir,  dilapidating  the  same 
before  any  finding  of  caution  and  confirming  of  the  defuncts'  tesments,  tand  especially  by  relicts  who 
enter  into  second  marriages,  before  they  give  up  inventors  or  confirm  their  defunct  husbands'  tes- 
ments. Therefor,  upon  the  special  petition  of  the  Comissar  of  Aberdeen  remonstrating  the  great 
abuse  and  prejudice  in  the  forsaid,  they  have  ordained  that  no  minister  within  the  province  sail  marry 
any  relict,  or  husband,  of  any  defunct  person,  until  they  report  ane  confirmed  testament  of  the  de- 
funct ;  and  that  every  minister  send  in  to  the  procurator  fiscal!,  or  clerk  of  the  comissar,  within 

days,  the  whole  names  of  the  defuncts  within  their  parishes  the  six  years  bygone  ;  and  in  all  time 
coming,  to  send  them  in  twice  in  the  year,  to  wit  at  the  provincial  meetings,  to  the  effect  forsaid,  and 
also  the  name  of  intromitters  with  the  goods,  and  such  information  as  they  can  give  of  the  inventors 
and  wreits  of  the  defunct. 

(Presbytery) — depositions. 

29th  November.— Mr.  John  Middletou  reported  he  had  gone  to  the  Kirk  of  Monkegye,  and 
declared  it  vacant,  by  the  deposition  of  Mr.  Samuel  Walter  for  malignancy. 

Mr.  George  Mill  reported  he  had  gone  to  the  Kirk  of  Daviot,  and  did  intimate  the  suspension  of 
Mr.  Will.  Strachan,  late  minister  there. 

Mr.  George  Leith  reported  he  had  declared  the  Kirk  of  Kinkell  vacant,  by  the  deposition  of  Mr. 
William  Leith. 

troublesome  lairds. 

1650,  15th  January. — The  Lairds  ofWardhouse,  elder  and  younger,  summoned  for  dishaunting 
the  public  worship  of  God  at  their  Parish  Kirk,  so  far  as  the  Presbyterie  could  learn,  and  for  wilful 
withstanding  to  subscribe  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  save  only  that  old  Wardhouse  had 
subscribed  the  League,  with  a  reservation  whereof  the  Presb.  could  noways  allow  ;  Called,  and  not 
appearing,  summoned^™  teriio. 

Mr.  Will.  Burnet  regretted  to  the  Presbyterie  the  great  wrong  and  violence  offered  to  him  be 
John  Leyth  of  Harthill  in  the  time  of  divine  service. 

HarthLU's  violence  appears  repeatedly  again.  The  above  deposed  or  suspended 
ministers,  along  with  Mr.  John  Cheyne  of  Kintore,  had  been  outstanders  against  the 
Solemn  League  and  Covenant ;  and  were  removed  from  their  offices  by  a  judgment 
of  the  Synod  in  June,  1649. 

Mr.  John  Middleton,  a  hot  Covenanter,  whose  zeal  had  not  begun  to  be  tempered 
by  years,  would  find  the  task  congenial  of  declaring  the  deposition  of  the  malignant 
minister  at  Monkegy.  He  had  been  chaplain  in  General  Middleton's  force  for  the 
months  from  March  to  July,  and  October  to  December,  1645,  and  in  March  and  April, 
1 647  ;  for  satisfaction  whereof  Mr.  John  had  applied  to  the  Estates  for  some  reparation 
for  his  losses  and  sufferings  sustained  from  the  rebels  and  enemies  of  the  kingdom,  by 
his  fidelity  and  constancy  to  the  Covenant  and  country.  His  important  services  to 
society  wero  terminated  in  1653,  when  he  died  at  the  age  of  forty-four.  His 
memory  was  perpetuated  in  the  following  epitaph  : — 

39 


306  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Whereas  I  stood  in  pulpit  round, 

And  now  I  ly  alow  the  ground  ; 

When  as  you  corse  (cross)  my  corpse  so  cold 

Remember  the  words  that  I  you  told. 

Mr.  John  Middleton  got  the  living  of  Rayne  after  Mr.  Andrew  Logie  was  extruded 
upon  an  accusation  of  heresy  in  1643.  Logie  was  a  man  of  talent,  and  in  strong  sym- 
pathy in  all  matters  eft  national  politics  with  the  general  population  of  the  Garioch  ; 
circumstances  which  explain  the  fact  that  he  continued  to  act  practically  as  the  minister 
of  Eayne  though  deposed.  The  people  had  unanimously,  it  would  appear,  refused  to 
subscribe  the  Covenant ;  and  after  the  removal  of  Middleton's  successor  to  Old  Machar, 
in  1661,  Logie  was  replaced  in  his  original  charge. 

CASKIEBEN  AND  BALBITHAN". 

Mr.  Gilbert  Keith  appointed  to  go  next  Lord's  Day  to  the  Kirk  of  Monkegy,  and  receive  the 
Laird  of  Caskieben  to  the  renewing  of  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant.  Mr.  Arthur  Ore  to  go  to 
Kinkell,  and  receive  William  Chalmers  to  repentance,  in  the  most  humble  manner,  for  his  compliance 
and  other  malignant  anoyance,  and  upon  his  repentance  to  receive  him  to  the  renewing  of  the  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant. 

CASE   OF   WITCHCRAFT. 

At  Insch,  12  March. — This  day,  according  to  the  ordinance  of  the  Presbyterie,  convened  the 
Laird  of  Pitodrie,  Alexander  Erskine,  with  the  ruling  elders  of  Insch  ;  and  Mr.  George  Mill,  Mr. 
Robert  Cheyne,  Mr.  Arthur  Ore,  Mr.  Alexander  Ross,  and  Mr.  Alexander  Strachan,  for  tryal  of  Mar- 
garet Ogg,  challenged  for  witchcraft ;  and  Maister  Alexander  Ross  declared  that  he  had  caused  sum- 
mons all  pairties  that  could  give  Light  and  Information  on  the  said  businesse  :  And  therefore  Isabel 
Ro'tson,  Margaret  Cgg,  and  Janet  Johnston,  her  daughter,  George  Mortimer,  Andrew  Walker,  George 
Traile,  Elspet  Ross,  Margaret  Wyllie,  Elspet  Ro'tsone,  Patrick  Chrystie,  Marjorie  Garioch,  and  James 
Wyslie. 

Imprimis : — Isabella  Ro'tsone  being  deeply  sworne,  what  she  knew  against  Margaret  Ogg,  what 
scandall  of  witchcraft,  and  being  posed  anent  the  particulars  following,  declares  that  she  had  mett 
three  several  times  with  Margaret  Ogg  since  she  was  challenged  of  witchcraft,  and  desyred  her  to  go  to 
the  p'trie  to  clear  her,  and  she  would  give  her  ane  handiss  of  meall  ;  who  declared  she  would  have 
nothing  of  her's,  nor  would  she  go  with  her  :  Declares  also  that  Margaret  Ogg  prayed  to  God  and 
our  lady,  to  help  her  daughter  in  travailling,  and  that  her  mother  came  to  her  in  tyme  o'  sickness  ; 
and  that  her  mistress,  Janet  Johnston,  being  extremely  diseased  and  one  her  knees,  would  have 
none  to  come  into  her  until  her  mother,  Margaret  Ogg,  should  come  :  Item— She  declares  that  when 
her  mother  came  to  her  they  fell  asleep  together,  and  that  her  mother  went  away  in  the  morning  . 
Hem,  that  after  her  mother's  waygoing,  the  sick  woman,  Janet  Johnston,  did  break  some  bread  to  her- 
«elffe  and  the  children,  and  gave  some  thereof  to  Isabel  Ro'tsone,  and  cold  kaill,  and  imediatlie  after 
her  eating  thereof  there  came  ane  great  pain  in  her  bellie,  and  after  the  swelling  of  her  wombe  she  did 
vomit  until  her  bellie  came  to  her  very  back,  and  the  pain  did  continue  with  her,  from  Fryday  in  the 
Biorning,  until  the  Lord's  Day  at  night  :  Item,  she  declares  she  was  pained  in  her  back  and  bellie  and 
shinbone,  &c,  be  reason  whereof  she  did  gnaw  her  finger  and  shack  the  kist  and  the  crook,  and  acknow- 
ledged she  had  seen  women  in  travail,  and  thought  she  had  such  pains  :  Item,  she  declares  she  fell  asleep 
on  the  Lord's  Day  at  night,  and  thereafter  her  mistress'  pains  overtook  her,  and  when  she  did  waken  out 
of  sleep  her  mistress  was  delyvered,  and  thereafter  the  pains  left  her,  except  some  stoundiugs  of  the 
grinding  that  continued  with  her,  for  the  space  of  ane  month,  in  the  same  pairts  of  her  body  that  she 
was  troubled  before  :  Item — She  declares  that  country  people  docs  curse  her  and  her  mother  ever  since 
the  time,  Margaret  Ogg  was  challenged  of  witchcraft. 

Master  Robert  Cheyne  declares  that  Margaret  Ogg  confessed  to  him  that  her  daughter  was  de- 
lyver  upon  Monday  in  the  morning,  about  the  whilk  tyme  she  hard  the  lass  was  eased  of  her  pain  ; 
whilk  the  said  Margaret  Ogg  denyed  in  the  presence  of  the  brethren  and  ruling  elders. 

George  Mortimer,  being  deeplie  sworne,  declares  that  he  did  see  Isabel  Ro'stone  in  her  sickness, 
and  that  she  cryed  on  her  back  and  bellie,  and  did  strike  the  wall ;  and  that  he  heard  women  say  it 
was  lyke  the  sickness  of  a  woman  in  traivall,  as  also  that  Isabel  Ro'tson  was  eased  of  her  pains  after 
the  sick  womi.n  was  delyvered. 

Andro  Walker,  being  deaplie  sworne,  declares  onlie  that  he  saw  Isabel  Ro'tsone  in  her  sickness, 
hut  knew  not  the  nature  of  it. 


General  Government  307 


George  Traill,  being  deeplie  sworne,  declares  that  Isabel  Ro'tsone  was  sick  in  his  house,  and  did 
cry  on  her  back  and  bellie  ;  and  that  some  women  said  it  was  lyke  the  sickness  of  a  woman  in  traivell ; 
and  that  the  said  Isabel  Ro'tsone  tok  the  pains  on  fryday  at  ten  hours,  and  that  the  paines  left  her  on 
the  Lord's  day  at  4  hours. 

Patrick  Chrystie,  being  deeplie  sworne,  declares  he  heard  Margaret  Ogg  say,  after  her  attending 
before  the  committee  in  the  churchyard  of  Inch,  "Alas  !  alas  !  for  me  and  my  fyve  children  ;  but  if 
I  thole  any  skaith,  them  that  hald  their  head  higher  shall  thole  skaith  as  soon  as  I." 

The  case  was  sent  to  the  Synod. 

LAIRDS   SUBMITTING. 

21  March. — Alexander  Abercromby  of  Fetternear,  William  Leith  of  Auldrayne,  George  Gordon 
of  Newton,  and  George  Gordon  of  Rayne,  compeared  and  acknowledged  their  fault  in  subscribing  the 
unlawful  Act  of  Parliament  (the  Engagement). 

Alexander  Lesly,  younger  of  Pitcappell,  confessed  being  in  that  unlawful  engagement  against 
England,  wished  leave  to  subscribe  the  League  and  Covenant. 

James  Leslie  of  Auquhorsk  compeared  and  desired  the  appointment  of  some  brethren  to  converse 
with  him  as  to  his  doubts  anent  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant. 

Auquhorsk  is,  at  next  Presbytery,  reported  as^having  promised  to  come  and  confer 

with  the  brethren,  but  "  did  nothing  but  slight  the  Presbytery,  and  keeps  no  promise  ". 

His  wife  came  and  declared  herself  convinced,  and  subscribed  the  Solemn  League  and 

Covenant  publiclie. 

"William  Leslie,  younger  of  Wardhouse,  compeared  and  promised  satisfaction,  and  was  admitted 
to  renew  the  Covenant.     His  father  and  mother  frequent  the  Kirk  of  Oyne,  and  are  to  subscribe. 

(Synod) — extreme  crimes. 
April. — Presbytery  of  Aberdeen. — William  Lumsden,  sometime  advocate  in  Aberdeen,  Helen  Bar- 
clay, his  spouse,  Jean  and  Agnes  Lumsden,  his  daughters,  Robert  Irvine  and  Jean  Menzies,  Jean 
Robsone,  Isabel  Blackhall,  relict  of  umquhill  Mr.  Thomas  Blackhall,  Jeane  Anderson,  relict  of  umquhill 
Mr.  Alex.  Paip,  Thomas  Menzies  of  Balgownie  and  his  wife,  Mr.  Alex.  Irvine  and  Marjorie  Menzies  his 
wife,  Thomas  Menzies,  brother's  son  to  Balgownie — all  excommunicated  for  popery.  Alexander 
Irvine,  sometime  of  Beltie,  for  rebellion  and  poperie  ;  Alexander  Davidson,  ane  enemie  to  the  cause  of 
God  and  the  work  of  Reformation;  Ludovick  Garden,  formerly  of  Froghall,  Alexander  Irvine, 
younger  of  Drum,  Patrick  Gordon,  alias  Steelhand,  Alexander  Gordon,  Arradoul — all  excommuni- 
cated as  rebells. 

Robert  Mill  and  John  Bird  for  murther  ;  William  Robb  and  Christian  Farquhar  for  adulterie  ; 
Menzies  for  incest. 

Fugitives — James  Burnett,  incestuous ;  Mr.  John  Gordon,  late  minister  of  Elgin,  excom.  for 
blasphemous  railing  against  the  cause,  and  other  vicious  facts. 

Presb.   of  Deer — George,  Elizabeth,   Henry,  and  Janet  Smith,  for  poperie  ;  Alexander  Burnett, 

Violet  Smith,  ■ couper,  and  George  Petrie,  for  adulterie  ;    and  also  Patrick  Robertson,  railing 

vagabond. 

Fugitives— Bessie  Dickie,  James  Antone,  Isabel  Copland,  adulterers. 
Presb.  of  Turriff— Patrick  Meldrum,  sometime  of  Iden,  exc.  for  murther. 

The  Laird  of  Delgaty,  Sophia  and  Anne  Hays,  his  daughters,  Janet  and  Marjorie  Malcolm,  for 
poperie  ;  and  also  James  Cove,  who  is  now  returned  to  the  country  again. 

Fugitives— Patrick  Reid  and  Isabel  Burgess,  adulterers,  Turriff;  Alexander  Walker,  Jean  Bisset, 
and  Katheren  Ro'tsone,  contemners  of  the  truth,   King-Edward. 

Presb.  of  Ellon — Isabel  Hay,  spouse  to  Captaine  Strachan,  the  L.  of  Sehivas  and  his  lady,  and 

Susannah for  poperie  ;    Mr,  William  Maitland,  for  rebellion  ;  Gilbert  Fraser,   for  murther ; 

the  L.  of  Schethin  for  malignancy  and  rebellion. 

Presb.  of  Kincardine,.— Fugitives — Isabel   Rait,  from  Banchorie,  exc.  for  fornication  ;    Margaret 

Davidson,   Tarland,  for  incest ;  Thomas  Cordner,   from  Aboyne,  ■ Farquharson,  from  Glen- 

muick,  for  poperie. 

Presb.  of  Al ford— James  Gordon,  brother  to  William  Gordon  of  Balgownie,  Patrick  Gordon  of 
Kincraigie,  Magdalen  Wood,  relict  of  George  Leslie  of  Kincraigie,  for  poperie. 

Presb.  of  Fordi/ce — George  Shand,  for  adulterie,  also  John  King  and  Jean . 

Presb.  of  Garioch — Mr.  Samuel  Walker,  min.  of  Monkegy,  excommunicated  at  the  ordinance  of 
the  provincial  Assembly  for  affirming,  in   a   sermon  on   a  Sabbath   Day,  shortly  after  the  battle  of 


303  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garlocli. 

Kilsyth,  in  September,  that  he  had  told  them  often  that  the  Covenant  and  work  of  reformation  was  a 
cloud,  and  now  it  was  dispelled  in  a  ruck  of  stinking  wind. 

Presbytery  of  Garioch  to  take  care  that  the  laird  of  Newton,  and  James  Cruickshank  of  Tilly- 
morgau,  being  men  of  bad  conversation  heretofor,  and  now  were  found  customary  swearers,  be  exauc- 
torate  of  the  charge  of  eldership,  which  they  have  in  the  church  of  Culsalmond. 

PROJECTED   HISTORY   OF   THE   TIMES. 

All  who  can  furnish  historical  narrations,  conducing  to  the  history  of  the  times,  are  appointed 
to  send  in  the  same  to  Mr.  John  Row,  betwixt  and  fifteen  day  of  May  next  to  come.  [This  instruc- 
tion was  repeated  afterwards.] 

MARISCHAL  COLLEGE.       "ECONOMIE". 

The  Assemblie,  taking  to  heart  the  commendable  aim  of  the  masters  and  members  of  the  college, 
in  New  Aberdeen,  to  have  ane  economie  erected,  appoint  everie  minister  to  collect  donations  in  his 
parish  for  it. 

A  new  paraphrase  of  the  Psalms,  to  be  had  from  Mr.  Andrew  Ker,  recommended  to  be  bought 
with  all  convenient  speed :  The  price  is  16s.  the  piece. 

CLERICAL  APPAREL. 

■   It  is  seriouslie  recommended  to  everie  minister  to  refrain  from  lightness  of  apparel, — such  as 
slakers  at  the  knees, — according  to  ane  Act  of  the  General  Assembly,  1646. 

COMMUNION  WINE. 

Question  to  be  added  to  the  platform  for  visiting  kirks —  "Is  your  wine,  for  the  Holy  Com- 
munion, mixed  with  water  or  not  ?" 

(Presbytery) — submissions. 

23rd  May. — James  Gordon  of  Deuchries,  Oyne,  Major  George  Meldrum,  Colonel  Andrew  Meldrum 
in  Rayne,  supplicate  to  be  received  for  their  being  in  the  sinful  engagement,  Alexander  Gordon  in 
Culsalmond,  and  James  Elphinstone  of  Warthill,  and  George  Seton  of  Blair,  supplicate  to  be  relieved 
from  excommunication. 

VISITATIONS. 

Culsalmond,  17th  July. — No  Bible  since  the  Irishes  took  it  away;  exhorted  to  buy  one.  No 
cups.  No  schoolmaster,  he  being  lately  removed ;  since  which  time  the  minister  is  session  clerk 
himself. 

Oyne,  8th  Aug.— Sacrameut  given  once  in  the  year,  and  all  in  one  day.  No  communion 
tables,  nor  tablecloths.  The  wine  mixed  with  water,  but  not  since  the  ordinance  of  Prov.  Ass.  The 
day  called  Yule  Day  not  forgotten,  in  regard  they  neither  plough  nor  spin.  There  are  three  pieces  of 
land  called  "  the  Goodman's  fold  "not  laboured.  The  minister  is  ordained  to  process  them,  aye  and 
while  they  labour  the  same. 

Troops  Raised  for  Charles  II. 

22nd  Aug. — John  Leslie  of  Pitcaple,  commissioner  from  the  Committee  of  Aberdeen,  did  desire 
the  brethren  to  intimate  to  their  parishioners,  and  others  liable  for  maintenance,  to  be  present  at 
Coupar  of  Angus,  with  their  best  horses  and  arms,  upon  the  2nd  of  September,  1650. 

(Synod) — converse  with  excommunicats. 

A  select  committee  of  ministers  and  elders  shall  be  chosen  be  everie  presbeterie,  who  shall 
summon  such  before  them,  and  examine  them  upon  oath:— 1.  If  they  have  conversed  with  excom- 
municats, being  particularlie  interrogat  of  every  one  within  the  roll  of  excommunicats,  especially 
those  who  have  most  ordinarie  residence  in  their  own  bounds.  2.  Whom  they  know  to  have  conversed 
with  them  ;  and  as  many  as  are  delated  to  summon  them,  and  examine  them  on  oath,  as  the  rest.  3. 
If  they  have  seen,  or  been  in  companie  with,  any  priest,  particularlie  Bruce,  Seaton,  Smith,  Thomson, 
Leslie,  Green,  &c.  4.  If  they  have  seen  mass  in  companie,  or  out  of  companie,  particularly  in  Old,  or 
New  Aberdeen,  Grandom,  Kairnfield,  Susan  Leithe's,  or  other  suspect  places.  5.  Whether  they  have 
partaken  of  masse,  and  whom  in  particular  they  have  seen  there.  6.  If  they  have  eaten  and  drunk- 
en, and  how  oft.  If  they  have  received  them  to  lodging,  or  lodged  with  them,  bought  or  sold  with  them, 
approved  their  business,  &c.  7.  If  they  have  crucifixes,  or  any  such  superstitious  things  in  their 
houses. 

(Presbytery) — ministers  with  the  army. 

7th  Nov. — The  Moderator  read  an  ordinance  from  the  Commission,  for  getting  ane  collection  to 
our  pastors  in  England,  who  are  dying  for  hunger  and  cold— the  collection  to  be  directed  to  John 
Short,  Provost,  or  Duucane  Nairne,  Dean  of  Guild,  of  Stirling. 


General  Government.  309 


(Presbytery) — Leslie. 
1651.     26th  March. — Leslie  vacant,  and  the  people  refuse  to  call  a  minister,  until  there  be  a  com- 
petent provision  for  him.     [A  proposal  to  annex  Leslie  to  Premnay  was  agitated  for  some  years,  but 
abandoned.  ] 

EXCOMMUNICATS. 

3rd  Apryll. — The  Commission  of  Presbytery  chosen  to  try  persons  having  intercourse  with  excom- 
municats,  met  at  Inverurie,  18th  September,  1650  ;  Bourtie,  ISth  March,  1651 ;  Inverurie,  28th  March  ; 
and  at  Chappell.     The  report  approved  ; — culprits  classified. 

1. — Those  that  did  eat  and  drink,  and  ordinarilie  converse  with  them,  making  no  difference  for 
conscience  sake  betwixt  them  and  others,  as  Ninian  Black  and  Alexander  Byrs,  parishioners  of  Bourtie, 
to  satisfie  in  sackcloth  ;  and  the  said  Alexander  Byrs,  being  an  elder,  to  be  exautorate.  2.  Those 
that  had  fallen  out  of  infirmitie  and  occasionally  meeting  with  such,  and  never  more,  as  Gilbert  John- 
ston, John  Byrs,  James  Yet,  Alexander  Bannerman,  parishioners  of  Bourtie,  James  Simpson,  parishioner 
of  Daviot,  to  appear  before  the  congregation,  apart  from  others,  on  ane  Lord's  day,  and  in  ane  most 
humble  manner  confess  their  sin. 

daviot  Quoad  Sacra. 
11th  Apryll. — Mr.  George  Tailifer,  present  minister  of  Daviot,  presented  an  Act  of  Annexation, 
made  by  the  Provincial  Assemblie  of  Aberdeen,  of  the  date  22nd  Oct.,  1623,  wherein  the  lands  of 
Lethentie  and  Saphock  are  appointed  to  have  their  ense  at  Daviot  in  all  time  coming  ;  and  frequent 
the  said  kirk  for  the  benefit  of  all  church  ordinances.  The  minister  protested  against  liability  to  give 
ministerial  service  to  the  indwellers  in  these  lands,  as  they  were  still  held  liable  for  all  duties  to  the 
kirks  of  Fyvie  and  Chapel,  and  no  stipend  was  paid  to  him  for  the  annexed  lands. 

(Synod) — stnodical  visitation. 
April. — A  commission  appointed  to  visit  the  kirks  of  Eght,   Cluny,   Midmar,   Coul,   Crathy, 
Kindroucht,  Glenmuick,  Glengarden,  TuLUch,  Auchindoir,   and  Kildrummy,  in  order,  beginning  at 
Eght,  on  the  third  Tuesday  of  June  next. 

PRESSURE  OF  CROMWELL. 

Each  Presbytery  to  prepare  a  full  and  clear  representation  of  the  pressures  within  the  bounds 
thereof,  through  the  oppression  of  souldiers,  particularised  and  qualified  nominis  in  re  factis,  to  be  sent 
to  the  Commission  of  the  General  Assemblie,  at  their  next  quarterlie  meeting. 

(Presbgtcry)— steelhand  and  harthill. 

Lesly,  18th  Sept. — Patrick  Gordon,  alias  Steelhand,  dealt  with  for  his  malignancy,  by  order  of 
General  Assembly.  He  had  subscribed  the  Covenant  National,  called  the  League.  His  backsliding  to 
the  malignant  party  was  after  the  battle  of  Kilsyth.  He  was  with  his  chief,  the  late  Marquis  of 
Huntly,  and  did  not  serve  under  James  Graeme.  He  was  with  Huntly  at  Banff,  and  the  onfall  at 
Aberdeen.     Had  no  special  hand  in  the  robbery  there  committed. 

John  Leyth  of  Harthill,  this  day,  as  divers  tymes  before,  in  ane  most  unchristian  way,  with 
cursing  and  swearing,  compeared  and  required  the  silver  cups  mortified  by  his  umquhile  sone  to  the 
churches  of  Oyne  and  Rayne.  The  Presbytry  ordaint  Mr.  Wm.  Burnet,  minr.  at  Oyne,  and  Mr. 
John  Middleton,  minister  at  Rayne,  to  bring  the  cups  to  the  Presbytry,  that  they  may  be  disposed 
upon. 

(Presbytery) — minister  censdred. 

Daviot,  2nd  Oct. —  Visitation.— Sacrament  not  dispensed  since  the  minister's  entry,  in  regard  to 
the  evil  tymes  ;  and  he  has  not  visited  all  his  parishioners.  The  bookis  not  filled  up  particularly  anent 
the  tymes.  The  minister  and  elders  directed  to  repair  the  fabric  of  the  church  with  all  diligence,  to 
build  communion  tables  and  buy  table-cloths  ;  and  for  that  effect  appoint  a  collection,  on  ane  Lord's 
day  amongst  the  parishioners. 

The  parishioners  have  received  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant. 

Air.  Tailifer  had  been  petitioned  for  by  the  people  when  Mr.  Strachan  was  deposed. 
He  speedily  protested  against  doing  duty  at  Lehinty  and  Saphock  without  payment ; 
and  afterwards  declined  to  obey  the  injunctions  of  the  General  Assembly,  as  to  national 
matters.  In  the  end  he  was  deposed  for  treasonable  speeches,  and  the  first  Lunan 
succeeded  him  as  minister  of  Daviot. 


310  Inverurie  awl  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

(Synod)—  national  sins. 

Oct.  — A  fast  to  be  kept  28th  November  next.     Reasons  : — 

The  sins  of  the  land  ;  as  atheism  in  many  ;  gross  ignorance  of  God  and  of  His  Saviour  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  in  His  person,  natures,  offices,  aperances,  excellencies,  suerties,  lov,  laws,  majestie  and 
power  ;  barrenness  under  the  Word ;  the  rode  swearing,  cursing,  blasphemy,  perjurie,  drunken- 
ness, uncleanness  in  all  sorts,  profanitie,  lasciviousness,  ryotous  living  in  many,  falsehood,  deceit, 
fraud,  stryff,  envy,  opression,  lying,  dissembling,  hypocrisie,  carnal]  securitie. 

The  sins  of  the  King  and  his  familie  :  of  judicatories,  civill  and  ecclesiastical ;  of  nobles  and 
gentry  ;  of  the  ininistrie  ;  of  the  armie  ;  of  merchants  and  craftsmen.  The  grand  mane  cause  is  the 
sudden  wrath  of  God  lying  on  our  land,  evidenced,  first,  against  the  King  and  his  familie  ;  secondlie, 
against  our  armie  ;  3,  against  our  nobles  and  countrie  ;  i,  against  the  ministrie ;  5th,  against  the 
whole  land,  by  ane  imminent  yoke  of  bondage  lyklie  to  be  on  our  neckis  ;  sixthlie,  by  the  fearful  rents 
and  divisions  in  Kirk  and  State. 

Pitcaple's  call  for  soldiers  and  the  collection  required  for  starving  army  chaplains, 
both  belong  to  the  unsuccessful  attempt  to  set  Charles  II.  on  the  throne.  The  presence 
of  Cromwell's  English  soldiers  in  Scotland  after  that  attempt  was  defeated  by  him, 
introduced  a  considerable  disposition  to  non-conformity  with  any  established  order  in 
ecclesiastical  matters,  and  consequent  insubordination  to  discipline;  and  in  1653, 
Mr.  Douglas,  the  Professor  of  Divinity  at  King's  College,  was  commissioned  to  report 
"  to  the  meeting  of  Commission  of  Assembly  what  had  been  done  with  Separatists, 
Anabaptista,  Independents,  and  others  of  that  manner,  the  growth  of  which  goes  on 
apace  within  the  bounds  ". 

(Frcshjtery) — rectification  of  parishes. 

16th  Oct. — There  was  laid  on  the  table  Agreement  dated  15th  Oct.,  1651,  come  to,  at 
Wardhouse,  between  Robert  Farquharson  of  Wardhouse  for  himself,  Mr.  Robert  Cheyne  for  the 
Presbytery  of  Alford,  and  Mr.  Alexander  Ross  for  the  Presbytery  of  Garioch.  The  lands  of  Wrays,  in 
the  parish  of  Insch,  being  far  from  the  Kirk,  to  be  annexed  to  Kinnethmont,  with  11  lbs.  and  the 
vicarage  teynd  formerly  paid  to  the  minister  of  Insch.  The  lands  of  Rochmuriel,  in  Kinnethmont, 
being  far  from  the  Kirk,  to  be  annexed  to  Insch,  with  16.  lbs.  money  and  3  bolls  victual  and  the 
vicarage  teyndg. 

Such  straightening  of  the  marches  of  parishes  was  directed  in  a  number  of  cases 
about  that  period  by  the  Synod ;  and  was  called  visiting  the  incompetencies  of  the 
parishes.  The  Presbytery  of  Garioch  had  to  arrange,  with  that  of  Kincardine,  the 
boundary  between  Cluny  parish  and  Craig  Erne ;  which,  from  the  entry,  would  seem  at 
one  time  to  have  been  a  separately  named  parish  in  Keninay,  and  possibly  was  the 
site  of  St.  Bryde's  Kirk,  where  the  minister  of  Kemnay  appears,  by  kirk-session  minutes 
ten  years  later,  to  have  occasionally  given  service.  No  trace  appears  in  any  documents 
of  St.  Bryde's  Kirk  at  any  other  period. 

hahtiiill. 

1652,  April. — John  Leith  of  Harthill,  in  ane  most  blasphemous  and  barbarous  way,  compeared 
before  the  Ptrie.,  with  cursing  and  imprecations  and  did  threaten  dyvers  brethern,  and  did  break 
the  windows. 

GORDON    OF  NEWTON. 

June  24. — Mr.  Arthur  Ore,  Culsalmond,  reports  that  he  has  proclaimed  the  banns  of  James 
Gordon  of  Newton  with  Janet  Buchan,  danghter  to  the  Laird  of  Auchmacoy  ;  and  that  he  had  received 
ane  testimony  from  Mr.  William  Seatone,  minister  at  Logie,  that  the  banns  were  proclaimed  within 
that  parish. 

DESERTED   KIRK   OF   KEMNAY. 

1653,  January  13. — At  the  Commission  of  Presbytery  appeared  the  Lairds  of  Kemnay  and  Fet- 


General  Government.  311 


ternear,  and  the  rest  of  the  elders  and  parishioners.  Kemnay  said  the  minister,  Mr.  David  Leith,  was 
at  liberty  and  living  not  far  from  London.  He  had  promised  to  return  before  the  1st  November  by 
past  and  had  not  done  so.  He  and  the  parishioners  wish  the  church  to  be  declared  vacant  and  a 
minister  appointed. 

June  2. — Elspet  Gordon,  minister's  wife  of  Kemnay,  requested  the  Presbytery  to  appoint  Mr. 
George  Melville  to  catechise  the  congregation,  and  the  Laird  of  Kemuay  would  satisfy  him  for  his 
trouble.  Same  day  a  letter  read  from  the  ministers  of  Edinburgh,  dated  1 6th  May,  1653,  that  they 
had  learned  that  Mr.  Leith  had  a  church  in  the  country  on  the  rodeway  not  far  from  London,  but 
could  not  tell  whether  he  had  purpose  to  settle  himself  there  or  not. 

RULING   ELDERS. 

March  10. — The  following  elders  were  chosen  by  the  different  congregations  and  sessions  to 
attend  the  next  Synod  and  the  Presbytery  meetings  : — Monymusk — Robert  Forbes  (of  Barnes),  tutor 
of  Monymusk  ;  Logiedurno — Alexander  Black  ;  Premnay  — James  Anderson;  Inverurie — William 
Grant ;  Bourtie — Gilbert  Keith  ;  Monkegie — George  Johnston  ;  Payne—  Mr.  William  Strachan, 
younger  ;  Insch— Alexander  Leyth  ;  Daviot — James  Elphinstone  ;  Culsalmond— William  Lesly  ; 
Oyne— John  Wallace. 

1654,  8th  June. — Mr.  Alexander  Eoss  and  Mr.  William  Forbes  reported  that  they  had  gone  to 
the  Laird  of  Fetternear,  who  refused  io  give  ane  declaration  of  his  relegione  whether  he  was  papist  or 
not.  Also  being  posed  about  the  lawfulness  of  Presbyterial  government,  answered  that  in  his  judg- 
ment it  was  unlawful.  His  lady  being  posed  on  her  religione,  answered  that  she  was  ane  Roman 
Catholic  and  would  continue  so. 

FETTERNEAR. 

1655,  March  1. — Fetternear,  which  at  the  laird's  desire  had  formerly  been  annexed  to  Kemnay, 
but  which  the  minister  of  Kemnay  has  refused  to  take  charge  of,  is  annexed  to  Chapel. 

VISITATATION   OF  THE   KIRK   OF   INVERURIE. 

10th  July. — The  minister  is  found  to  preach  on  the  Lord's  day  in  earner,  befor  and  afternone,  and 
in  the  winter  he  lectures  and  preaches.  His  present  text  is  5  Matthew,  9  v.  Also  upon  extraordinarie 
occasions  he  choises  extraordinarie  texts,  and  observes  the  directorie  in  administering  the  sacraments. 
Ignorant  and  scandalous  persons  debarred,  and  exortation  before  everie  tabill.  No  mixture  of  wyne. 
Weeklie  catechisings,  and  ane  day  appointed  for  lecturing  and  baptising,  but  not  Weill  observed  ;  he 
visits  the  sick  ;  familie  worship  practised  ;  visits  families  ;  no  fugitives  nor  servants  receipt  without 
testimonials.  Care  held  be  the  minister  to  restrain  abuse  at  penny  brydals.  There  is  land  within  the 
parochyn  dedicat  to  the  devill,  comonly  called  the  Gudeman's  Fold.  It  is  ordained  the  minister  and 
elders  mak  enquirie,  throughout  the  whole  parochyn,  what  land  is  dedicat  to  this  purpose,  and  ordayne 
the  heritors  to  labour  the  samen,  otherwise  to  process  them. 

There  is  ane  church  bybell,  and  communion  table  cloths,  two  cups  of  Tiuue.  There  is  ane  box 
and  two  keys.  Chalmers  of  Drimmies  keeps  one,  and  James  Fergus  another.  The  poor's  money  dis- 
tribute Sabbathlie,  as  need  is.  There  is  ane  schoolmaster,  Mr.  William  Chalmers,  who  is  presentlie 
entered,  and  is  ordained  to  repair  to  the  Presbyterie,  if  he  stay  within  the  bounds  of  the  Pres'trie,  as 
ane  schoolmaster, — that  tryali  may  be  had  of  his  Literature,  Lyffe,  and  conversation. 

The  minister  removed,  and  the  elders  solemnly  posed,  with  uplifted  hands  declared  that  the 
minister  had  answered  truelie  to  inquiries,  and  that  they  were  edified  by  his  preaching,  that  he  was 
blameless  in  Lyfe  and  conversation  ;  and  is  desyred  that  he  should  visit  the  sick  oftener,  and  to  be 
some  longer  in  his  sermons,  and  to  Lecture  as  before. 

PAPISTS. 

August  16th. — It  is  found  be  the  brethern  that  there  is  of  papists  within  the  bounds  of  the 
Presbyterie  Alexander  Abercrombie  of  Fetternear,  Jane  Seatone,  his  lady,  Alexander  Leslie,  uncle  to 
Piteaple,  now  and  then  resident  within  the  parochen  of  the  Chappell  of  Garioch,  long  syne  excommuni- 
cated be  Robert  Burnet,  minister  at  Oyne  ;  Margaret  Balfour,  spous  to  Johne  Gordoun  of  Deuchras, 
was  within  the  parochin  of  the  Chapel  of  Garioch  ;  Thomas  Abercrombie  and  Isobel  Bisset,  in  Bourtie 
parochyn,  Mr.  William  Lumsden,  his  wyfe  and  children. 

(Synod) — rights  of  parishioners. 
1658,  April.— The  Presb.  of  Garioch  reported  that  Mr.  Gilbert  Keith,  at  Bourtie,  had  appointed 
Mr.  William  Gordon,  schoolmaster  at   Monymusk,  to  be  his  helper,  and  the  parishioners  had  given 
him  a  call  ;  but  George  Seaton  of  Blair,  Mr.  James  Reid  of  Bourtie,  and  George  Moiison  of  Barra,  ap- 
peared and  protested  against  the  call,  alleging  that  they  are  willing  that  Mr.  Gilbert  Keith  have  a 


312  Inoerurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Gurioch. 

helper,  but  protesting,  that,  after  his  death,  the  parishioners  have  a  right  to  call  a  minister.  The 
Synod  order  the  Presbytery  to  take  Mr.  Gordon  on  trials,  but  not  to  ordain  him  until  next  Assembly, 
in  consequence  of  the  difficulties  of  the  matter,  in  order  to  prevent  a  minislcrium  vagum. 

DISCIPLINE  EXERCISED  OVER  MINISTERS, 

The  abolition  of  Episcopal  overseers  in  1638  did  not,  by  any  means,  relieve  the 
parochial  clergy  from  supervision.  That  exercised  by  the  Presbytery  was,  in  some 
particulars,  of  a  sharp  order. 

"Within  the  humble  tabernacle  where  Mr.  Forbes  had  to  pronounce  many  disagree- 
able exhortations,  he  himself  did  not  escape  scaithless  from  the  all-embracing  discipline 
of  the  system  which  derived  its  spirit  from  the  control  assumed  under  the  Covenant. 
At  the  first  recorded  visitation,  13th  February,  1649,  the  elders  "deponed  that  he 
approved  liimself  as  ane  faithfull  servant  of  Christ ".  The  presbytery,  the  same  year, 
after  hearing  liim  exercise,  "grawlie  admonished  him  to  be  equall  in  his  woyce  and 
delyverie,  and  to  mend  the  discordance  thereof  ".  His  pidpit  appearance,  it  would  thus 
seem,  had  been  deemed  better  in  matter  than  in  manner.  At  a  visitation  of  Inverurie, 
seven  years  afterwards,  the  elders  said  they  were  edified  by  him,  and  that  he  was  blame- 
less in  life  and  conversation,  but  desired  he  be  some  longer  in  his  sermons,  and  to  lecture 
as  he  did  before. 

Those  Presbyterial  visitations  of  parishes  were  made  so  many  in  a  year,  by  direction 
of  the  Synod,  the  visitors  being  the  Presbytery,  along  with  some  commissioners  from 
other  Presbyteries.  The  visitations  were  of  value  in  hastening  the  restoration  of  paro- 
chial organisation ;  which,  however,  was  worked  out  slowly  and  with  difficulty.  The 
visitors  urged  the  erection  of  schools,  the  repair  of  kirks,  the  designation  or  recovery  of 
glebes,  and  also  the  recovery  of  mortifications  which  had  been  lost  sight  of  or  withheld. 

Their  ordinary  and  regular  function  was  to  incpiire  into  the  efficiency  with  which 
the  minister  and  elders  discharged  their  duties.  These  were  examined  as  to  each  other's 
fidelity  according  to  an  arranged  table  of  queries ;  and  both  were  questioned  as  to  the 
conduct  of  the  people.  The  answers  to  the  queries  were  often  formal ;  and  the  exhort- 
ation of  the  moderator,  at  the  close,  the  same.  Occasionally,  however,  an  amendment  was 
suggested  as  in  the  case  of  the  minister  of  Inverurie's  short  sermons.  The  Presbytery 
did  not  always  agree  with  the  elders  as  to  the  quabty  of  the  minister's  preaching.  A 
minister  called  "powerful  in  his  doctrine,"  by  his  elders,  was  rebuked  by  the  Presbytery 
for  not  being  "spiritual  and  powerful  ". 

At  every  meeting  of  Presbytery  it  was  the  custom  for  one  member  to  "  exercise  " ; 
another  being  appointed  to  "  add "  remarks  on  the  discourse.  The  rest  followed,  and 
passed  judgment  upon  both  speakers,  occasionally  of  a  kind  useful  rather  than  agreeable. 
We  find  one  exhorted  "to  be  more  popular  in  his  giftes  ;"  another  "to  digest  his  speeches 
better,  and  speak  more  agreeable  to  method";  another  to  "eschew  that  singing  woyce  in 
his  preaching  and  prayer  "  ;  another  "  to  take  paines  at  his  book,  and  to  study  and  pray"  ; 
another  to  "  be  more  succinct  in  his  observations  "  ;  another  to  "  take  up  the  meaning  of 


Discipline  of  Parishes  313 


his  text  more  clearly" ;  another  "  to  be  more  plain  and  familiar,  and  not  so  high  and 
rhetorical;"  another  to  use  "a  more  lyvlie  and  spiritual  way  of  deliverie";  another  "  not 
to  he  so  languid  in  his  deliverie  and  so  cadent  in  his  voyce";  another  is  "approven  in 
hopeful  beginnings  ". 

DISCIPLINE  OF  PARISHES. 

The  earliest  minutes  of  the  Kirk-Session  of  Inverurie  present  the  minister,  in  1G50, 
engaged  every  Wednesday  in  his  tumble-down  thatched  kirk,  examining  the  people,  and 
swearing  them  to  fidelity  to  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant.  "  Ilk  an,  baith  men  and 
women,  as  they  are  examinatt,  doe,  with  uplyfted  hands,  promise  fidelity  in  the  Solemn 
Leaug  and  Covenant,"  is  an  entry  which  occurs  frequently  up  to  1C53.  At  the  first 
communion,  all  persons  from  other  parishes,  who  had  not  subscribed  the  Covenant,  were 
debarred. 

The  parochial  discipline,  considered  necessary  at  the  time,  is  well  described  in  the 
following  document  which  had  been  elaborated  by  the  Synod,  and  was,  in  October,  1650, 
ordered  by  that  court  to  be  engrossed  in  the  record  of  every  Presbytery  and  Session. 

PLATFORM  FOR  ORDERING  SESSION  BOOKS. 

1.  That  there  be  ane  weell  bound  book  of  good  paper,  paged  throughout,  keeping  a  fair  equable 
margent  for  the  compend  of  acts. 

2.  That  everie  meeting  begin  and  close  with  prayer  and  praise  to  God  by  the  minister. 

3.  That  the  sederunt  be  marked,  and  absents  fra  the  last  meeting  be  vemowed  and  censured.  If 
they  have  bene  aftener  absent  than  ance  or  twysse,  (the  excuses  always  be  found  unrelevant),  lett  the 
censur  still  be  heichened  accordinglie. 

4.  That  upon  ane  orderlie  delation  of  a  scandal],  sumonds  be  directit  for  appairence,  and,  Iff  ance 
personallie  aprehendit,  111"  the  delinquent  be  contumax,  the  session  proceed  to  declair  that  person  con- 
tumax. After  a  third  citation  con  temped,  then  to  report  it  to  the  presbitrie,  and  qn  it  comes  to 
publick  admonitions,  and  praying,  and  sentence,  that  all  be  markit  particularlie  on  the  register.  Iff 
the  person  citit  appair,  Lett  the  appairence  be  marked,  and  the  charg  or  challenge  proceed. 

5.  Qv  no  delation  is  for  a  long  tyme,  seeing  scandales  are  so  frequent,  assuredlie  it  is  iufidelitie 
in  the  elders,  and  remisness  iu  the  minister ;  for  harlotrie,  dnmknes,  swelling,  bailing,  cursing, 
scoulding,  and  absence  from  publick  worship  on  the  Lord's  day,  and  many  uther  waves  how  the  Sab- 
bath is  prophaned,  and  lying,  ka.  ar  so  frequent  that  they  ar  obvious  to  the  eyes  and  ers  of  all  ;  qrfor  hi 
tali  rnsii,  Let  the  minister  charg  the  elders  with  their  oath  and  certifie,  if  it  be  mad  guid  that  they 
conceill  scandales  coming  to  their  no;ice  They  must  mak  publick  repentance  for  prewaricating  in 
their  oath  of  admission  defirleli  administrations,  and  be  exautorated.  Let  the  minister  bestir  himself 
for  he  cannot  choise,  but  find  sundrie  guiltie  of  sweiring,  Sabbath-breaking,  bailing :  qrfor  lett  the 
pariss  be  dewydit  in  parcells,  and  each  Sabbath  Lett  him  reid  such  parcell  of  his  catalogue  (not  obser- 
ving a  certain  order,  Lest  it  be  obserwit  by  the  people  qt  parcell  he  will  read  the  next  Sabbath),  and 
lett  the  absents  be  markit  and  censured  ;  aud  finallie  Lett  all  uther  honest  people  be  exhortit  to  declair 
to  the  minister  the  scandales  they  sie  or  hear,  That  they  may  be.  taken  away,  That  God  wrath  may 
be  remowit  qn  sin  is  punishit ;  and  this  to  extend  to  man,  wytf,  serwand,  and  children  capable  of  cove- 
nant and  communion,  seeing  it  is  but  in  a  secret  way,  but  when  they  delat  a  fault  Let  them  tell  conform 
scicntia,  That  groundles  surmises  be  not  taken  for  scandells. 

6.  That  session  be  keepit  once  ewerie  vveeke,  and  that  they  labour  for  a  weekday  rather  than  a 
Sabbath  to  liauld  the  session  upon,  viz.,  on  the  Lectin  day  and  day  of  Catechising. 

7.  That  the  moderator  of  the  session  and  the  clerk  be  two  distinct  persons,  and  qr  the  clerk  has 
Littcll  scriwaud  dexteritie,  let  the  moderator  belli  him  in  formalie  flaming  and  dexterous  wording  of 
nets. 

8.  That  ewerie  Leiff  ower  the  head  of  the  page  hawe  the.  yeir  of  God,  and  the  inscription  of  ewerie 
session  day  hawe  the  day  of  the  moneth. 

9.  That  no  blank,  or  blot,  be  in  the  register. 

IU.    That  the  rebuik  given  to  delinquents  in  face  of  session  be  proportionatied  to  the  delinquencie 

40 


314  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Gartoch. 

and  that  it  be  registrant.     And  that  each  day  they  appair  befor  the  congregation  they  be  spokin  unto 
in  a  sutable  way,  but  most  the  first  day  of  appairance  in  publick  and  the  last  day,  the  day  of  absolution. 

11.  That  all  publiek  acts  and  intimations  of  ecclesiastical  concernment  be  registrat  in  the  session 
bulk — as  the  intimation  to  thoisse  who  ar  to  be  catechised  the  next  Lectin-  day,  a  preparation  sermon 
befor  a  comunion  or  any  other  solemn  sabbath  (such  as  can  atten  it).  The.  celebration  of  comunion, 
the  sermon  of  thanksgiwing,  and  direction  of  lyff  and  conversation  for  tym  to  com,  solem  convenanting 
renewing  of  covenant  league  or  covenant  of  the  three  unitet  kingdoms,  publick  parts  of  the  uuifor- 
mitie,  solem  warning,  and  declarations,  &c.  and  finallie  qtewer,  is  intimated  from  pulpit,  proceeding  ; 
either  from  presbitrie,  prowenciall,  or  general  assemblies,  comissionars  of  the  generall  assemblie  or 
visitors  qt  somewer,  is  to  be  registtrat  compendiousiie  in  the  session-buik. 

12.  Labour  for  a  distinction  of  elder  and  deacon,  and  Lett  each  of  these  cloath  himself  with  his 
own  charge.  The  elder  to  oversie  the  manners  of  the  people,  delat  scandales,  and  censur  them.  The. 
deacon  for  the  poor  and  seeck  and  alms-gathering,  and,  with  adwysse  of  the  session,  distributing  it- 
yea  all  to  be  asisting  in  discipline. 

13.  That  no  elder  be  admittit  or  sworn  but  in  face  of  the  congregation. 

14.  To  abstein  and  amend  basse  and  unseamlie  expressions,  and  to  labour  to  have  things  rightlie 
wordit — as  for  his  partie,  to  say  his  whore,  for  Laick  elder  (which  is  popishe),  to  say  railing  elder,  and 
for,  ane  ruling  elder  was  chosin,  or,  such  a  man  was  chosen  railing  to  attend  the  presbitrie  and  pro- 
winciall  assemble,  to  say  such  a  man  on  of  our  railing  elders  was  chosen  to  attend,  &c,  for,  stooll  of 
repentance  say,  place  apoyntit  for  publick  repentance  and  confession  of  sin.  for,  absolvit  from  his 
repentance,  or,  mad  his  repentance,  say,  he  was  absolvit,  for,  he  crawes  god  and  the  congregation 
pardon,  say  he  crawes  god  pardon,  and  entreats  the  congregation  not  to  be  scandalizit  any  moir,  or 
offendit  with  his  scandalous  cariag,  beging  the  aid  of  their  prayers,  &c,  promising  for  efterwards,  &c. 
A  man  went  out  and  declairit  back  nor  edge,  for  deponit  and  declairit  nothing.  A  service  day  for,  day 
of  celebration  of  the  Lord's  holie  supper.  The  parissin  quaiterit,  for  dwydit  in  seweral  precincts, 
Sunday,  for  Sabbath  or  Lord's  day,  parson  for  minister  or  pastor,  Megie  for  Meriorie,  Magie  for 
Margaret,  competitor  for  complained  wpon,  Nans  for  Agnes,  Katie  for  Catherin,  precanter  for  pre- 
center  ;  Elspie,  or  Elpie,  for  Elspett. 

15.  That,  at  the  intimation  of  a  fast  or  thanksgiving,  the  causes  therefor  be  intimat,  and  they 
sett  down  compendious  on  the  register. 

16.  That  delinquents  be  sett  down  by  nam  and  surnam,  and  when  called  upon  in  publick,  or 
registrat  in  the  buik,  Iff  the  sin  be  harlotrie,  it  be  expressed  with  whom  they  did  lull  in  that  sin  of 
uncleanness. 

17.  That  everie  depending  proceiss  be  mentioned  everie  session  day  in  register,  till  it  be  put  to  ane 
end,  or  brought  to  some  period  And  still  left  that  period  be  expressit  ;  as,  iff  the  delinquent  be  fugitive, 
for  first,  let  search  be  mad  in  the  parisse  for  the  delinquent,  next,  intimat  the  flight  out  of  pulpit,  3, 
from  all  pulpits  in  the  presbitrie,  4,  from  pulpits  in  the  province. 

18.  That  qn  maters  of  publick,  or  great,  concernment  ar  caried  on  either  for,  or  against,  the 
work  of  God,  that  the  registers  be  cariags  of  ministers  and  sessioners — cxm  gratia,  qt  faythful,  plain,  and 
tymous  warning  was  given  to  beware  of  the  unlawful  cursed  ingagment  against  Ingland,  contrarie  to 
our  covenant  and  treatties  betwixt  the  nations,  qt  plain  and  frie  warning  was  given  for  refusing  to  sub- 
scrive  that  wickit  Act  of  Parliament,  June  12,  1648,  yea  or  not,  qt  alacritie  in  exhorting  people  to  put 
out  their  lewies  of  men,  qn  the  busines  by  the  kirk  and  stat  is  cleared  to  be  for  the  troutli  and  caus  of 
God,  and  qt  discharging  to  put  out  men  or  coutribut  anything  for  or  give  any  to  the  asisting  in  earring 
on  of  any  crookit  or  wicket  design  qrin  the  kirk  is  not  going  with  the  kirk  and  estates  of  the  land. 

19.  That  eweiie  session  have  five  distinct  registers,  on  for  proceisses,  discipline,  ecclesiastical  acts, 
and  alms  collectit  ;  aneother  (qlk  is  the  magistrate)  for  fynings,  penalties,  corporall  paines,  as  jogging, 
brankes,  &e.  ;  a  third  for  marriags,  apart  be  themselves  ;  a  fourt  for  baptisms  ;  a  fyft  for  burialls  :  yett 
ther  need  not  to  be  fyw  buiks  but  two,  one  belonging  to  the  magistrat,  another  to  the  session,  diwydit 
in  four  parcells. 

20.  That  ther  be  no  acts  blotted  out,  nor  cancellit,  in  whole,  nor  in  part,  in  the  register,  nor 
inter-lyning,  nor  aets  written  in  whole  nor  in  part  in  margin.  That  no  adition  be  with  another  hand, 
or  with  other  ink. 

21.  That  discipline  be  impartiallie  exercised,  and  no  mans  publick  confessing  of  sin,  (how  great 
soever  he  be)  be  sould  for  money,  or  be  redeamable  that  way,  be  compensation. 

22.  That  the  communion  be  celebratit  on  diverse  sabbathes,  and  that  the  session-book  have  the 
names  of  thosse  who  ar  debarred  ether  for  ignorance,  or  scandulous  cariag,  and  let  the  abstensiou  be 
act  of  session. 

23.  That  ewery  session-book  beir  the.  names  of  all  excommunicat  within  the  province  ;  and  that 
the  intimation  of  them  each  communion  day  be  registered. 


Discipline  of  Parishes.  315 


24.  That  ewery  session  day  ye  minister's  four  texts  (at  least)  be  insert  ;  viz.,  his  Lecture  on  the 
Sabbath  before  noon,  his  two  sermons  and  his  weeklie  Lecture. 

25.  That  elders,  ether  solysting  or  pleading  in  a  partiall  way  for  any  delinquent  because  of  kin, 
friend,  or  allaya,  or  being  byassedbyany  basse  or  by  respect,  bereinuved,  censured,  and  sharplie  rebuikit 
pro  primo,  for  being  unfaithful  in  oath  of  impartiall  adminstration  of  his  office.  And  iff  he  mend  not, 
that  he  be  exauctorated. 

26.  That  refers  from  visitation  presbiterial  be  insert  in  the  session-book. 

27.  That  minesters  cast  not  ower  the  blame  of  faults  iu  the  register  upon  the  dark ;  but  that  they 
oversee  the  registrating  of  the  acts  themselves,  both  for  matter  and  wording  and  right  form,  and  to  be 
ansuerable  for  all  omissions. 

Some  extracts  of  Inverurie  session  and  burgh  minutes,  taken  in  the  order  of  date, 

will  exemplify  the  application  that  was  made  of  the   "  Platform ".      They  give  some 

interesting  illustrations,  besides,  of  social  life  at  the  time. 

PAUPERS. 

1649. — This  day  it  is  ordered  that  the  poor  in  the  parish  be  supplied  be  the  several  towns  in 
the  parish,  in  the  manner  as  after  follows  :— Nans  Fergus  and  Mariory  Leslie,  be  the  town  of  Iuverury  ; 
Margaret  Anderson,  be  the  town  of  Aulton  ;  Christian  Matheson,  be  the.  town  of  Glasehi  ;  James 
Miln,  be  the  town  and  lands  of  Achortes  ;  James  Watt,  be  the  towns  and  lands  of  Badifurro,  Miln  of 
Artanues,  and  Crofthead  ;  Nans  Angus,  be  Bla  khall  and  town  of  Artannes  ;  Elspet  Pirie,  be  Conglas 
and  Drimies  ;  Margaret  Glennie,  be  Middleton  and  Netherton. 

Ordainit  that  whosoever  shall  supply  any  stranger  poor,  not  having  his  residence  in  the  parish, 
or  shall  refuse  to  give  competent  supply  to  the  forenamed  respectit  persons,  shall  be  lyabill  Mies  quulics 
to  the  payment  of  five  pounds  money. 

The  distribution  affords  means  of  an  interesting  comparison  of  the  values  of  the 
different  places  at  the  time.    Each  pauper  was  paid  6s.  Sd.,  on  the  3rd  of  March  following. 

SWEARING  TO   THE   COVENANT. 
1650.     January  16,  Wednesday. — After  sermon,  examination  of  the  people.      Ilk  an,  both  men 
and  women,  as  they  are  examined,  with  uplifted  hands  did  promise  iidelitie  to  the  solemn  leug  and 
covenant. 

YULE   KEEPING,    DRINKING,    SWEARING,    ABSENCE   FROM   CHURCH. 

January  20. — The  Lords  Day  : — Robert  Anderson  and  Normand  Davidson  did  iu  all  humbill 
manner,  before  the  pulpit,  acknowledge  their  superstitious  observance  of  the  25th  day  of  December, 
promising  be  the  assistance  of  God,  in  all  tyme  coming,  to  be  diligent  in  their  calling  on  that  day  as 
on  any  other  day. 

John  Keid  at  the  Miln  of  Artannes,  is  delaitit  to  have  sitten  too  long  in  the  ail  house  drinking. 

January  27. — This  day  Marjory  Craig  did,  iu  all  humbill  manner,  acknowledge  her  offending  of 
God  be  swearing  and  cursing  ;  promising  be  the  assistance  of  God  to  amend. 

This  day  it  is  ordainit  that  George  Davidson,  William  Dicky,  James  Umphra  iu  Middleton, 
absents  from  the  kirk,  and  that  ordinarily,  be  cited  till  the  next  day. 

SACRAMENTAL  SERVICES. 

Februar  3.  The  Lord's  Day  :  This  day  intimattit  to  the  peopill  that  the  holy  communion  is  to  be 
celebratit  the  next  Lord's  day. 

The  peopill  ar  desyrit  to  come  frequently  upon  Freddy,  the  8  of  tliis  instant,  to  the  preparation 
sermon. 

Februar  8,  Fredday  :  This  day  ane  preparation  sermon— 1  Cor.  11,  28  ;— and  thatt  before  the 
communion. 

James  Johnston  is  ordainit  to  collect  the  money  for  the  poor,  Thomas  Konald  the  tokens,  William 
Johnston  and  Jhon  Steven  to  attend  the  communion  elements. 

This  day  William  Robertson,  of  Achortes,  and  Jhon  Leslie,  of  Nethertoun,  having  the  7  of  this 
instant,  before  the  presbitry,  subscryvit  thatt  Act  and  declaration  of  the  General  Assembly  anent  the 
receaving  of  engagers,  do  this  day  in  a  solemn  manner,  with  uplifted  hands,  subscryv  the  Leaug  and 
Covenant. 

Februar  10.     The  Lord's  day  :  Session  begun  with  prayer. 

Sermon  ante  m.   on  the  12,  13,  14  verses  of  the  13  chapter  to  the  Romans.     The  sermon  being 


31G  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

clossitt  with  prayer,  ane  exhortation  is  maid  expressing  the  grytt  comforts  peopHl  hav  he  the  sacrament 
of  the  Lord's  Supper  :  also  the  ends  of  it  ar  expressit,  with  the  gryt  need  peopill  hav  to  come  to  it 
with  knowledge,  faith,  and  repentance.  All  profan,  ignorant,  and  scandalous  persons  are  dischargit 
from  coming  to  the  tahill  of  the.  Lord.  All  persons  of  other  parishes  who  hav  not  reuewit  the  solem 
Leaug  and  Covenant  are  deharrit.  All  penitent  hungring  and  thirsting  souls  for  Chryst  are  exhortit 
to  com. 

The  action  is  b'-gun  with  sanctifying  and  blessing  the  elements  of  bread  and  wyn. 

Post  m.  sermon  on  the  23  verse  of  the  14  of  Jhon. 

This  day  collected  he  James  Johnston,  4  lbs.  3  sh. 

The  communion  celebrated  the  next  Lord's  day  to  some  people  who  were  sick  the  former  day. 

Ihe  kirk-officer  was  sent  regularly  to  Aberdeen  to  purchase  the  bread  and  wine 
used  in  the  communion  service  ;  receiving  a  merk  for  his  travelling  expenses. 

SABBATH-BREAKING. — DOGS   IN   CHURCH. 

Feb.  7. — Alexander  Selby  and  Thomas  Glenny,  in  Glascha,  are  delaittit  for  hreaking  of  the 
Sabbath,  in  grinding  of  meill  on  the  Lord's  day. 

Feb.  17- — Every  an  that  brings  doggs  to  the  kirk  with  them  to  pay  40  sh.  for  the  first  time  ; 
hav  a  merk  for  the  second  tym,  whilk  is  still  to  be  douhlit,  so  long  as  they  continue  so  doing. 

March  3. —  Selby  and  Glenny  having  confessit,  they  are  ordainit  to  satisffie  as  fornicators,  and 
hegin  their  repentance  the  next  day,  and  bring  in  their  penalty. 

March  24. — Thomas  Miln,  younger  in  Achortes,  eallit,  compearit,  and  being  posed  if  he  would 
confess  his  break  of  the  Sabbath,  be  thrashing  corn  on  the  Lord's  day,  answered,  he  did  not  give  twall 
chappis  with  the  flail. 

KNOWLEDGE   QUALIFICATION. 
April  21. — Intimatt  that  any  that  would  have  the  benefit  of  marriage  -to  themselves,  or  haptism 
to  their  children,  come  3  days  before,  and  gave  ane  evidence  of  their  proficiency  in  the  Shorter  Cate- 
chism, otherwise  the  benefit  is  to  be  deyned. 

ALEHOUSE   LAWS. 

May  19.  —  It  is  ordaiut  that  no  alehouse  shall  sell  drink  on  the  Lord's  Day,  neither  ony  buy 
drink  on  the  Lord's  Day,  except  it  he  for  necessar  refreshment  hetwixt  sermons.  It  is  ordainit  that 
the  faultie  persons  herein  be  puniset  as  brakers  of  the  Sabbath.  It  is  ordaint  ther  be  no  drinking  iu 
alehouses  on  any  nicht,  after  ten  o'clock  at  nicht,  and  the  faultie  persons  to  satisfie  as  fornicators. 

THE   CHURCH   CATALOGUE. 

May  25,  1651. — George  Buchan,  Wm.  Robertson,  Alex.  Porter,  Meriorie  Anderson,  after  calling 
a  part  of  the  Catalogue,  are  found  absent.  It  is  ordanit  they  be  eallit  to  the  next  day.  June  1st,  Their 
excuses  accepted  for  the  present  time.     No  excuse  to  be  admittet  but  want  of  health. 

THE   MARQUIS   OF   MONTROSE. 

May  29. — Intimation  of  a  solem  thanksgiving,  to  he  keepet  next  lord's  day,  for  that  gryt  de- 
liverance of  the  Church  from  the  bloody  persecution  intendit  be  the  enemies  of  it — viz.,  James 
Graham  and  his  adherents,  and  for  the  lord  his  subduing  of  these  rebels,  and  bearing  them  down. 

DISCIPLINE   FOR   DEFAMING   A   MINISTER. 

June  30. — George  Matheson,  in  Caskieben,  having  failed  in  probation  of  his  lybell  against  Mr. 
Gilbert  Keith,  minister  at  Bourty,  and  being  ordainit  be  the  commission  of  the  provincial  Assembly 
sitting  at  Bourty  the  11  June,  as  at  the  other  kirks  so  also  at  this,  humbly  to  repent  for  that  his  malici- 
ous carriage,  did  appear  before  us  this  day,  at  the  second  bell,  and  did  stand  at  the  kirk  door  from  that 
time  till  the  minister  went  to  pulpit,  having  sackcloth  about  him,  bare  headed,  bare  leggit  and  footit. 
Sermon  being  endit,  cam  down  from  the  pillar  and  humblit  himself  before  God  in  the  midst  of  the 
congregation  ;  yet  was  very  in  acknowledging  any  guiltiness.      He  is  desyrit  to  goe  the  next 

Sabbath  day  to  the  kirk  of  the  Chappel  of  Gerie. 

In  1655,  July  1,  the  whole  persons  in  the  town  of  Middleton,  were  ordanet  to  be  cited  for  ab- 
sence, except  Jon  Leith  ;  and,  on  confession,  had  to  make  public  acknowledgment. 

The  thanksgiving  intimated  29th  May,  1650,  eight  days  after  the  destruction  of 

James  Graham,  and  only  two  months  before  his  enemy,  who  beheaded  him  as  a  rebel 

for  serving  Charles  II.,  was  to  march  through  the  length  of  Scotland  leading  Charles  to 


Discipline  of  Parishes.  31" 


the  throne,  sets  in  a  clear  light  how  entirely  Argyll  was  then  using  the  Covenanting 
Kirk  as  a  political  instrument,  and  it  illustrates  also  how  at  that  period  the  only  available 
way  of  managing  the  Scotch  for  political  purposes,  was  through  their^devotion  to  the 
Kirk.     The  facing  about  of  the  Argyll  policy  was  very  rapid  in  1650. 

After  the  death  of  King  Charles  I.,  the  two  parties,  hitherto  antagonistic,  agreed  so 
far  as  to  reject  the  proposal  made  to  Scotland,  by  the  English  Parliament,  to  adopt  a  Re- 
publican Government.  The  Independents  had,  in  England,  prevented  the  settlement  of 
Presbyterian  discipline ;  and  the  apprehension  that  they  might  overthrow  it  in  Scotland 
made  the  rulers  of  the  Kirk  join  cause  with  the  Royalists.  The  resolution  was  come  to  of 
proclaiming  the.  King's  son  by  the  title  of  Charles  II.,  King  of  Scotland,  if  he  would  em- 
brace the  Covenant.  The  condition  was  as  distasteful  to  him  as  it  had  been  to  his  father  ; 
but  he  allowed  himself  to  be  persuaded  to  agree  to  terms  which  he  did  little  towards 
keeping.  One  of  the  delegates  sent  by  the  Estates  to  treat  with  him  was  the  Inverurie 
laird,  Alexander  Jaffray ;  who  records,  in  his  Diary,  bitter  regret  at  having  attempted  the 
hollow  compromise.  The  struggle  with  England  which  ensued  was  necessarily  an 
unequal  one,  and  very  brief  as  respected  the  fortunes  of  the  young  king  ;  whose  nominal 
reign  began  in  June,  1650,  and  ended  with  the  Battle  of  Worcester,  in  September,  1651. 
The  following  minutes,  spread  over  four  years,  exhibit  both  the  discontent  felt  witlrthe 
King's  manner,  and  the  weakness  of  Scotland  when  opposed  to  the  forces  of  the  English 
Parliament. 

The  third  Marquis  of  Huntly,  the  Lord  Lewis  Gordon  of  the  last  chapter,  appears 
in  the  brief  episode.  The  English  army,  then  on  the  march,  was  soon  to  turn  the  Mar- 
quis of  Argyll  and  Alexander  Jaffrey  again  from  their  Eoyalism. 

ckomwell's  independents. 

1651,  July  31. — A  fast  next  Lord's  Day,  because  of  the  danger  religion,  country  and  king  are  in, 
becauae  of  that  sectarian  English  army  lying  beside  Edinbro  already  ;  all  the  people  required  to  keep  a 
privat  fast  in  their  families. 

_  Aug.  4.  -Fast  solemnly  kept.  Reply  of  the  General  Assembly  to  the  declaration  of  the  Inglish 
Armie  upon  the  march  was  read  and  explained. 

^  Sept.  21. — Fast  kept  for  the  great  ignorance  and  profanity  in  the  land  ;  the  provocations  of  the 
king's  house  as  yet  not  repented  for  ;  the  keeping  about  the  king  many  maliguants,  &c.  Declaration 
of  the  commission  of  the  kirk,  daittedSept.  12,  1650,  against  the  despot  at  Dunbar  is  read  and  explained. 

Aug.  31. — This  day  a  sudden  report  being  com,  concerning  the  near  approach  of  the  Inglishes, 
the  people  fled  from  church. 

The  officer  is  sent  throw  the  pariss  to  acquant  the  people  that  the  next  Sabbath  is  a  day  of  humili- 
ation and  fasting  for  with  other  outcome  of  the  gryt  prevalence  of  that  proud  sectarian  partie. 

elders. 

Sept.  7.— No  session  because  of  the  absens  of  the  elders,  occasinit  be  the  Marcus  of  Huntlie, 
his  quartering  upon  them. 

The  town  elders  of  the  Kirk  for  the  time — who  probably  had  Huntly's  troop  to 
entertain  on  a  flying  visit, — were  Baillie  John  Johnston,  James  Johnston,  Alexander 
Johnston,  and  Jon  Mackie.  The  country  elders  were  John  Leslie  and  Walter  Duncan 
in  Badif  urrow,  William  Grant  in  Conglass,  John  Duncan  in  Auldtoun  or  Blackball,  Henry 
Davidson  in  Netherton  or  Drimmies,  Thomas  Glcnnie  in  Glascha,  Andro  Watt  in  Achortes, 


318  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Qarioch. 

and  William  Mackie  in  Artannies.  Alexander  Chalmers,  of  Drimmies,  and  John  Shewan, 
were  added  in  1655. 

In  several  minutes  of  the  appointment  of  elders  which  are  preserved,  there  is  no 
notice  of  any  test,  or  confession  of  belief  being  required  of  them  then,  except  their 
taking  of  an  oath  de  fideli  administratione.  Occasionally  afterwards,  there  appears  an 
examination  as  to  their  knowledge,  and  some  acknowledgement  of  their  faith,  with- 
out notice  of  any  form  of  subscription  being  required.  No  subscription  of  a  creed  by 
elders  appears  throughout  the  period  of  the  Covenant  and  the  second  Episeojsacy. 

1652.  July  25. — The  fast  (intimated  July  18,  to  entreat  the  Lord  to  bless  the  proceedings  of  the 
next  General  Assembly,  whilk  is  to  sit  down  in  Edinburg  21  July),  could  not  be  keepit,  be  reason  of 
the  violence  threatenit  by  the  sectarian  partie  upon  the  report  of  the  Session's  intimation. 

1653.  March  27. — -Fast  keepit.  The  causes  red — 1,  The  growing  evidents  of  the  Lord's  displea- 
sure against  the  land.  2,  The  growth  of  sin  of  all  sorts.  3,  The  miness  and  fightings  for  noisie 
ditferences  and  divisions.  4,  The  many  sad  encroachments  maid  from  divers  hands,  and  like  to  be 
maid  upon  the  precious  liberties  of  the  Kingdom  of  our  Lord  Jesus.  5,  The  general  distemper  in  the 
spirits  of  all  sorts  of  peopill,  all  seeking  their  own  things,  and  not  the  things  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Nov.  6.  Jon  Porter  (summoned  in  discipline  to  the  Session)  was  absent,  having  lately  gone  to 
the  lousse  men  in  the  hills. 

1655.  Sept.  9. — No  Session,  because  of  aue  number  of  Inglishmen  presentlie  com  into  town. 

1656.  Ap.  27. — Intimation  of  a  fast  to  be  kept  the  next  Lord's  day.  Reasons.  .  .  .  The 
continuance  of  the  sad  division  in  the  Kirk. 

The  division  referred  to  was  that  headed  by  Messrs.  Cant  &  Bow  which  continued 
for  some  time  after  the  above  date.  The  "  distemper  in  the  spirits  of  all  sorts  of  peopill  " 
is  exemplified  by  the  history  of  the  school  given  below,  which  shows  six  changes  of 
schoolmasters  within  as  many  years,  mostly  in  consequence  of  no  salary  being  obtainable. 
The  distemper  is  further  illustrated  by  prevailing  rudeness. 

ROUGH    MANNERS. 

1651.  Oct.  27. — Norniand  Davidson  and  James  Fergus,  at  the  Cross,  are  delait  for  tollerating 
their  children  to  swear  and  curse,  and  that  without  interrupping  of  them. 

1652.  Dec.  12. — Barbara  Gibb  Mart.  Currie,  Isbell  Wichtoun,  delait  for  excessive  drinking. 

1654.  Aug.  6. — Normand  Davidson  and  lsbella  Macky  delait  for  swearing  and  cursing  :  [They 
obeyed  only  the  third  citation.] 

1655.  Jan.  17. — Christen  Tayleour  to  be  citet  for  going  out  of  the  kirk  before  divyn  worship 
was  endit. 

Aug.  11. — The  people  of  Middleton,  viz.,  Henry  Davidson  and  Gilbert  Glenny,  to  be  cited  pro 
secundo,  for  absence  from  church.      [Heury  Davidson  was  an  elder.] 

Sept.  9. — The  people  of  Netherton  publicly  acknowledged  their  fault. 

1656.  30  March.  — Burgh  Court  held  within  the  chalmer  of  John  Johnston,  by  said  John  Johnston 
and  Walter  Fergus,  bailies  : — 

Mr.  William  Forbes,  minister,  gave  in  a  complaint  against  Margaret  Currie,  spouse  to  James 
Fergus,  at  the  Cross,  for  injurious  speeches  and  scolding  of  him  most  unjustlie.  She  Confessit.  The 
bailzies  discern  her  to  pass  to  the  kirk  of  Inverurie  upon  the  sext  day  of  Apryll  next  to  come,  being  the 
Sabbath  day,  and  ther,  with  all  deu  reverence,  liumbill  herselff  before  the  pulpit,  and  crave  God  and 
the  minister  offendit  forgiveness  ;  acknowledging  and  confessing  her  guiltiness,  and  that  under  tailzie 
of  20  lbs.  Scots.  Her  husband  becomes  cautioner  that  she  shall  not  scould  or  molest  the  said  Mr.  Wm 
Forbes  or  onie  other  indweller.     [She  was  next  door  neighbour  to  the  Manse.] 

May  4. — Alexander  Mitchell  being  delait  for  break  of  Sabbath  by  sifting  grain,  he  denied,  but 
afterwards  confessed.  His  penance  continued  because  he  refused  to  pay  the  officer's  fee.  It  is  thought 
by  the  session,  give  the  officer  be  not  payit  then  discipline  will  grow  less.  Thomas  Forbes  of  Achortes, 
one  of  the  justices  of  peace,  undertook  to  consult  with  some  of  his  colleg  justices  thereabout  ;  and  on 
July  6,  "  It  being  thought  by  some  of  the  session  the  absolution  of  Alexander  Mitchell  ought  not  to 


Discipline  of  Parishes.  319 


be  delayed  because  of  the  not  payment  of  ane  pecuniall  matter,  it  is  ordaint  that  after  his  acknowledg- 
ment of  his  break  of  Sabbath  in  all  humbill  manner,  he  be  absolved." 

May  11. — John  Bodwell  delait  for  break  of  Sabbath,  by  dinging  of  his  wyff  thereon,  and  that  in 
public  upon  the  way  in  presence  of  people  going  up  and  down. 

1657.  March  2. — John  Mill  and  Isabel  Mackie  confessed  the  sin  of  charming.  He  began  his 
repentance. 

She  had  to  wait  till  he  was  through,  in  order  to  get  the  sackcloth,  of  which  there 

had  been  but  one  in  stock. 

May  24.  —Gilbert  Ritchie  delated  to  be  found  drunk  upon  his  marriage  day  ;  and,  in  his  drink,  to 
have  profanelie  cursed  and  sweared,  and  thretned  to  straick  his  new  married  wyfe. 

July  17. — It  is  ordaint  that  the  master  of  the  house  where  a  marriage  feast  is  to  be  held,  he  lay 
down  a  pledge  before  the  marriage,  equivalent  to  ane  dolar,  or  the  money  itself,  as  penall  securing  for 
good  order  and  decencie  at  that  feast,  and  securing  that  there  be  no  excessive  drinking  or  feighting  at 
the  tyme  of  that  meeting  ;  and  this  to  be  by  and  attour  the  pledges  to  be  laid  down  by  the  persons  to 
be  married,  for  securing  of  performance  and  abstinence. 

1660.  March  25.  — Intimation  that  Elizabeth  Leslie  was  excommunicated  by  the  Presbytery. 
No  collection  be  reason  in  the  sture  of  the  church,  occasioned  by  sore  offence  some  persons  touke  at 
the  excommunication  of  the  said  Elizabeth  Leslie. 

Elizabeth  Leslie  was  the  wife  of  one  of  the  elders,  William  Grant  in  Conglass ;  and 
in  1685  had  been  prosecuted  for  dishaunting  of  ordinances,  but  was  contumacious.  She 
had  been  in  reality  a  papist.  In  1633  her  husband  was  under  discipline  for  dishaunting  ; 
and  was,  by  the  Episcopal  Synod,  afterwards  excommunicated  for  popery.  The  relapses 
to  popery  were  becoming  frequent  at  that  date.  Mrs.  Grant's  brother,  Alexander  Leslie 
of  Tullos,  afterwards  Count  Leslie  of  Balquhain  and  Alexander  Abercromby  of  Fetter- 
near,  and  his  lady  and  brother,  were  all  excommunicated  the  year  before. 

The  foregoing  extracts  represent  the  morals  and  manners  of  the  time,  which  seem 
to  have  deteriorated  as  the  harsh  discipline  of  the  Covenant  lost  its  influence  by  custom. 
From  this  date  the  Covenant  disappears  from  local  records  until  1680,  when  it  appears 
to  have  been  looked  back  npon  with  regret  for  its  loss. 

The  popular  manifestation  against  discipline  made  in  Inverurie,  on  25th  March 
1660,  was  doubtless  the  growth  of  years.     Immediately  after  the  platform  was  insti- 
tuted, the  exercise  of  discipline  was  of  an  irritating  kind.      No  person  accused,  though 
found  innocent,  was  dismissed  without  an  admonition — thus  assuming  him  to  be  <nrilty. 

The  minutes  show  passive  resistance  to  discipline,  very  soon  carried  to  the  len«th  of 
exhausting  every  allowed  grace,  and  submitting  only  when  an  extreme  censure  was  the 
■  next  step  in  the  process.  The  Kjyk  was  too  powerful  to  permit  her  highest  censures 
to  be  lightly  braved  ;  but  every  kind  of  subterfuge  and  procrastination  was  adopted  to 
stave  off  the  incurring  of  her  excommunication  ;  while  ostensible  respect  was  exchanged 
for  defiance,  or  disregard,  when  any  triumph  of  the  royal  arms  checked  for  a  time  the 
Covenanting  troops  in  the  field.  Few  of  the  Royalist  lairds,  indeed,  exhibited  the 
violence  of  the  swearing  laird  of  Harthdl,  demanding  back  the  communion  cups  which 
his  son  had  bestowed  on  the  kirks  of  Oyne  and  Rayne ;  but  others,  like  the  lairds  of 
Newton  and  Fetternear,  vibrated  in  their  submission  to  ecclesiastical  supervision,  just 
as  they  deemed  it  safe  ;  while  their  better  halves,  less  prudent,  would  snap  their  fingers 
in  the  face  of  authority,  and  declare  themselves  Papists.      Under  the  Covenant,  excom  • 


320  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garloch. 

munication  was  a  powerful  political  instrument,  and  was  so  employed  as  well  as  to  serve 
religious  ends,  the  sentence  having  continued  to  entail,  as  in  Roman  Catholic  times, 
social  consequences  that  hardly  any  one  had  the  courage  to  brave..  Passive  resistance 
to  pecuniary  liabilities  seems  to  have  been  common ;  and  the  example  of  Royalists 
was  probably  followed  by  Covenanters  in  that  respect,  from  the  convenience  experi- 
enced in  saving  their  pockets. 

The  regulations  for  the  care  of  the  parish  poor  have  been  noticed.  Church  collec- 
tions went  partly  to  their  relief  ;  but  these  were  also  regarded  as  a  common  fund,  to  be 
drawn  upon  for  other  purposes  not  of  parochial  necessity  only,  but  for  objects  of  charity 
or  public  utility,  in  the  neighbourhood  or  the  province  or  any  where  in  the  kingdom ; 
and  collections  were  applied  for  upon  the  recommendation  of  the  superior  Church  Courts, 
or  of  the  Privy  Council ;  while  bursars  studying  divinity  were  regularly  allowanced,  by 
every  Presbytery,  from  the  same  source. 

Entries  occur  of  part,  or  the  whole,  of  a  collection  being  given  "  to  a  strange  gen- 
tleman, callit  Major  Gray  "  ;  "  to  a  distressed  gentlewoman,  once  a  minister's  wyffe  "  ; 
"  to  a  poor  woman,  Agnes  Taileour,  lying  bedfast  in  James  Tailour's  house  " ;  "  to  a 
woman  in  the  parish  of  Oyne,  stricken  with  the  palsy  " ;  "  to  a  supplicant  callit  JoTin 
Gordon,  in  Grandom,  recommendit  by  the  bishop  "  ;  "  to  a  distressed  Hungarian,  callit 
Mr.  John  Shombathy,  a  converted  Jew  ". 

In  1652,  a  collection  was  appointed  by  the  General  Assembly  for  "  the  relief  of  the 
"people  of  Glasgow,  after  a  lamentable  burning  of  the  town  and  guids  therein".  The 
Bridge  of  Dye,  on  the  Cuirn  o'  Mount  road,  was  built  by  the  same  means.  King's 
College,  in  1658,  got  a  recommendation  for  church-door  aid,  as  well  as  contributions 
from  the  nobles,  gentry,  &c,  for  some  erection  to  substitute  "  an  unseemlie  vacant  place 
north-east  of  the  College  ". 

The  extracts  now  given  exhibit  in  how  divided  a  condition  society  was,  at  the 
period  when  the  resistance  which  became  so  unavoidable  to  the  King's  exercise  of  prero- 
gative, had  in  its  success  gone  the  tragical  length  which  it  reached  in  England. 

In  Scotland  the  Covenanting  party,  which  practically  was  at  first  universal,  except 
in  the  North,  sought  to  combine  loyalty  to  the  Throne  with  care  for  civil  and  religious 
liberty.  The  Cavaliers,  however,  naturally  distrusted  the  ambition  of  the  Covenanters, 
whom  they  could  hardly  afford  to  separate  in  policy  from  the  powerful  party  which 
Cromwell  had  led  on  to  regicide  ;  and  as  the  Church  was,  in  Scotland,  the  chief  represen 
tative  of  the  Covenanters  and  of  the  organisation  by  which  they  acted,  the  policy  of 
the  Royalists  came  to  consist  of  opposition  to  the  Church  Courts,  with  a  general  effort  to 
weaken  the  position  of  the  clergy  in  the  country. 

The  landed  proprietors  of  that  party  evidently  were  studiously  avoiding  to  fulfil 
their  legal  obligations  in  the  matter  of  schools  and  kirks.  Schools  were  left  without 
school  salaries  ;  churches  without  Bibles ;  communion  tables  without  table-cloths  ;  and 
stipends  were  withheld  occasionally. 


Discipline  of  Parishes  321 


At  Inverurie,  the  persons  properly  liable  for  the  cost  of  public  buildings  appear,  on 
one  occasion,  seeking  to  transfer  tbeir  task,  partly  or  in  whole,  to  the  revenue  called  the 
Common  Good,  which  consisted  of  church  collections  and  discipline  fines. 

Schools  and  kirks  were  unwelcome  burdens.  In  the  case  of  the  former,  a  per- 
missive law,  enacted  very  early,  allowed  o"f  the  imposition  which  had  soon  to  be  made 
compulsory ;  but  in  Mr.  Forbes's  time  sis  schoolmasters  succeeded  one  another  in  as 
many  years ;  and  then  one  remained  with  some  permanence,  having  gone  to  the  expense 
of  a  charge  of  horning  in  order  to  secure  his  salary.  Before  that  the  session  had  to  pay 
at  times  for  carrying  on  the  work  of  education,  for  which  the  people  of  Scotland  are 
said  to  have  always  exhibited  a  high  appreciation.  The  history  of  kirk  repairs,  in  the 
same  period,  throws  light  upon  the  quality  of  the  buildings  devoted  in  those  days  to  the 
purpose  of  divine  worship.  Since  the  Eeformation  the  churches  had  been  allowed  to 
fall  into  a  state  of  ruinous  disrepair.  The  large  landholders  who  had  made  the  compro- 
mise of  the  Eeformation  in  Scotland,  and  abandoned  Popery  in  consideration  of  a  great 
portion  of  the  church  lands  becoming  theirs,  in  no  long  time  came  to  look  on  these  as 
their  own,  and  to  think  of  the  rights  of  property  without  much  sense  of  the  accompany- 
ing responsibilities.  The  Act  of  Parliament  which,  in  1563,  professed  to  provide  for 
churches,  was  followed,  in  1572,  by  an  Order  of  the  Privy  Council,  evoked  by  the 
neglect  of  the  Act ;  but  the  Order  was  neglected  in  its  turn,  and  the  better  practice  of 
after  centuries  grew  up  only  under  the  gradual  and  salutary  compulsion  of  the  Court  of 
Session. 

Matters  remained  in  much  the  same  unsatisfactory  condition  during  the  Second 
Episcopacy,  when  the  lairds  were  no  longer  in  antagonism  with  the  clergy.  The  sub- 
joined extract,  respecting  the  Kirk  of  Inverurie,  presents  the  edifice  in  a  condition, 
wherein  it  was  allowed  to  remain  for  twenty  years  with  similar  repairs ;  and  the  Kirk- 
Session  entries  and  others  respecting  the  school  exhibit  unmistakeably  the  neglect  with 
which  the  social  necessity  of  educating  the  young  was  treated,  in  that  long  generation 
which  lived  in  ceaseless  political  turmoil. 

With  our  present  notions  of  Eoman  Catholic  churches,  we  would  form  a  very 
erroneous  picture  of  the  Kirk  of  Inverurie  from  reading  how,  in  1536,  John  Leslie,  son 
of  the  Laird  of  Kincraigie,  appeared  at  the  high  altar  of  that  church,  and  took  instru- 
ments, upon  his  election  as  Parish  Clerk.  It  was  probably  in  that  same  building  that- 
Mr.  Forbes  swore  the  people  to  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  in  1650;  and  it  was 
then  a  poor  heather-thatched  place,  in  risk  of  falling.  A  torn  leaf  of  the  session  book 
contains  imperfect  entries  respecting  the  repairs  of  the  kirk  in  1649. 

.     .     .     gus  to  buy  steimys  to  the  kirk. 

.     .     .     ag  Fergus  to  buy  deals  and  wands  to  the  kirk. 

Alex.  Lassen,  at  the  agreement  with  him  for  repayring  of  the  kirk,  6sh  Sd. 

Item  to  buy  necessars  for  repayring  the  kirk,  ten  merks. 

Item  to  the  workmen  that  repayred  the  kirk,  twenty-two  merks. 

1650.  March  21— To  Alex.  Lassen,  stober,  20sh. 

The  "  stennys  "  were,  in  all  probability  procured  to  buttress  the  walls.      The  deals 

41 


322  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

and  wands,  and  the  stobber's  account,  indicate  repairs  including  some  thatching  work. 
These  repairs  had,  possibly,  lain  over  from  the  date  of  Mr.  Forbes'  entry. 

A  loft  was  in  the  church;  and,  in  1650,  the  space  below  on  the  floor  was  unoccu- 
pied. On  June  23  of  that  year,  any  heritor,  or  wadsetter,  claiming  a  right  to  that  space 
was  publicly  summoned  to  come  to  the  session,  and  show  his  right,  and  willingness  to 
supply  the  vacant  place  "  with  ane  dask  ".  No  one  claiming,  the  session  assigned  the 
sjaace  for  a  dask  to  be  erected  by  "  certain  portioners  and  indwellers  in  the  town  de- 
syring  that  libertie,  viz.,  Alex.  Johnston,  John  Mackay,  George  Prot,  Eobert  Ander- 
son, George  Buchan,  George  Fergus,  John  Taylour,  aud  William  Robertson." 

THE  SCHOOL  OF  INVERURIE  UNDER  THE  COVENANT  AND  THE  SECOND 

EPISCOPACY. 

The  first  notice  we  possess  of  the  school  of  Inverurie,  after  Mr.  Mitchell  appears 
as  schoolmaster,  in  1636,  is  of  its  condition  in  the  sad  period  comprehending  the  year 
1649,  which  was  marked  by  the  terrible  catastrophe  of  the  judicial  slaughter  of 
Charles  I. 

Fourteen  days  after  the  fatal  30th  January,  1649,  we  find  a  Presbyterial  visitation 
of  the  parish  of  Inverurie  taking  place  by  order  of  the  Synod.  In  the  Synod  minutes 
of  Oct.  1648,  Mr.  "William  Forbes,  minister  at  Enrowrie,  is  ordayned  to  have  a  care  to 
sowe  ane  shool  there,  to  propagate  the  gosrjell. 

The  Presbytery  minute  continues  the  narrative  : — 

1649,  13  February. — The  said  day  it  was  declared  to  the  parishoners  that  the  chief  end  of  this 
visitation  was  the  vant  and  decay  of  ane  school  at  this  kirk,  and  helping  (repairing)  of  their  kirk,  qlk 
two  vare  recommended  to  the  Presbytery,  be  the  provincial!  assemblie  seeing  the  pairt  vas  eminent, 
and  good  accommodatione  for  buirding  of  children,  and  ane  purpose  verie  profitabill  for  themselffis  and 
ther  neighbours,  therfor  the  presbitrie  desired  that  this  neglect  should  be  mended.  Compeared  the 
magistrates  of  the  toune,  aud  willinglie  offered  yearlie  20  lbs.  money,  and  two  holies  wictual.  Item, 
Thomas  Ronald,  ane  firlott  wictual ;  the  Laird  of  Kincraigie,  thre  sc  boll  wictual  ;  "Walter  Grant, 
ane  boll  for  the  lands  of  ;  Robert  Murdo,  two  peckis  wictual  ;  and  the  rest  that  were  absent 
the  minister  promised  to  stint  them  accordinglie,  and  to  report  his  diligence  anent  the  stinting  to  the 
presbytrie  ;  as  also,  to  try  out  a  man  fitt  for  that  office;  and  with  all  possible  diligence  to  have  the 
school  erected.  [At  the  next  meeting  of  Presbytery,  on  13th  March,  1649,  the  minister,  Mr. 
William  Forbes  at  Inverurie,  reported  that  the  rest  of  the  haritowris  had  wilinglie  stinted  themselffis, 
wdio  ware  absent  befor,  and  the  soume  of  all  extended  to  nyne  bolles  wictual,  aud  fourtie  lbs.  money.] 

That  Inverurie  was  no  isolated  example  of  educational  destitution  at  the  time  is 
evident  from  the  minutes  of  Presbyterial  visitations  of  the  parishes  around,  about  1650, 
in  which  the  entry  is  common — "  No  school  for  lack  of  maintenance  for  a  schoolmaster  ". 
The  Church  Courts  could  merely  urge  the  erection  of  schools  ;  and  the  only  local  com- 
pulsion provided  by  law  was  the  influence  of  "  twelve  honest  men,"  to  be  chosen  in 
every  parish  by  the  Presbytery,  to  carry  out  the  law  ;  a  provision  found  to  be  quite 
inadequate.  Matters  seem  to  have  been  ripe  in  Inverurie,  in  the  course  of  a  year,  for 
setting  the  school  agoing,  as  appears  from  the  following  minute  of  the  Session  : — - 

1650.  Feb.  3,  the.  Lord's  Day  :  (edict  served  the  Sunday  before). —This  day  the  aritors,  wadsetters, 
lyferenters,  aud  other  honest  men  within  the  parish  ar  desyrit  to  be  at  the  session  to  giv  ther  jndgment 


The  School  of  Inverurie  under  the  Covenant  and  the  Second  Episcopacy.       323 

anent  the  man  they  would  hav  to  he  ther  schoolmaster,  ther  being  two  in  ther  offer,  Mr.  Alex. 
Mitchell  and  Mr.  Walter  Torie.  Ther  judgments  and  voices  being  askit,  some  wer  for  Mr.  Walter 
Torie,  som  for  Mr.  Alex.  Mitchell,  but  most  for  Mr.  Alex.  Mitchell  ;  hereupon  the  session,  and  other 
honest  men  iu  the  parish,  did  condescend  with  Mr.  Alex.  Mitchell,  only  for  ane  quarter  of  a  yeir,  and 
that  to  try  how  the  youngors  profitit  with  him  ;  assuring  him  iff  be  any  neglect  in  him  the  youngors 
did  not  make  proficiency,  he  should  he  chaugit  at  the  quarter  end. 

Mr.  Alexander  Mitchell,  the  schoolmaster  from  1611  to  1636,  was  in  1650  the 
narrowly  successful  candidate.  The  reason  of  his  grudged  success  probably  lay  in  the 
political  condition  of  the  electing  body,  which  may  have  carried  the  vote  against  the 
kirk-session,  and  the  "  honest  men  " — who  were  the  Presbytery's  nominees.  Malignancy 
abounded  in  the  neighbourhood.  The  Presbytery,  in  the  preceding  year,  had  deposed 
or  suspended,  the  ministers  of  Monkegie,  Daviot,  and  Kinkell.  Several  kirk-sessions 
were  short  in  number,  from  want  of  persons  free  of  malignancy  to  appoint  as  elders. 
Inverurie  was  one  of  the  number  that  year.  If  Mr.  Mitchell  was  the  candidate  of  the 
obnoxious  party,  it  is  likely  the  honest  men  had  been  chosen  by  the  Presbytery  for 
political  fidelity — what  the  later  Jacobites  called  honesty — and  that  they  were  willing, 
along  with  the  session,  to  hamper  the  unwelcome  choice  of  the  electors  as  much  as 
they  could.  From  whatever  cause,  the  office  was  vacated  before  the  quarter  expired.  The 
history  of  the  whole  process  is  included  in  the  following  minutes  : — 

Appryl  3,  Wednesday. 

This  day  the  Commission  of  the  Provinciall  Assembly  mett  at  this  kirk  (Inverurie),  for  the 
visiting  of  it     ...     . 

It  is  ordaint  also,  he  (the  minister)  provyd  another  scoollmr.,  and  that  before  the  down  sitting 
of  the  Commission  of  the  Provincial  Assembly  next. 

Appryll  7,  the  Lord's  Day. 

This  day  the  session,  togidder  with  the  aritors,  wadsetters,  and  uther  honest  men  within  the 
parish,  dois  choys  George  Eobertson  (for  the  tyme  scolmr.  at  Scoun)  to  be  seoolmaster,  and  thinks  it 
convenient  he  be  tryed  befor  the  Presbytery  befor  his  entry  ;  whilk  is  to  be  at  Wittsondy  nixt,  1650. 

The  collector  paid  George  Eobertson,  7  April,  1650,  3  lbs. 

The  new  schoolmaster  had,  evidently,  been  fixed  on  before  the  Synod's  order 
was  issued.  He  was  probably  recommended,  from  the  more  faithful  district  of  Scotland, 
by  leaders  of  the  dominant  party,  and  the  session  had  agreed  to  pay  the  expenses  of  his 
travelling  to  Inverurie.  It  will  be  observed  that  he  does  not  bear  the  University  title 
of  Master,  possessed  by  the  preceding  candidates  and  schoolmasters.  The  two  Colleges 
at  Aberdeen  were  already  bearing  fruit  in  a  larger  proportion  of  educated  men  than  the 
South  possessed.  George  Eobertson's  incumbency  was  short.  He  must  have  left  before 
November  16,  1651.  The  reason  may  perhaps  be  gathered  from  the  narrative  of  the 
next  attempt  to  provide  a  schoolmaster. 

1652,  Feb.  1. — Mr.  Jhon  Duu  this  day  did  appear  befor  the  session,  with  testificats  from  such 
places  as  he  had  been  in,  desrying  the  libertie  and  power  of  teaching  a  school  within  the  town  of 
Inverury.  The  session  condescended  to  his  desyr,  and  also  requested  the  minister  to  caus  draw  up  sum 
lynes  for  securing  of  him  iu  the  matter  of  his  school  duty,  that  the  in  or  he  might  be  encourigit  to  giv 
attendance  on  his  charg.  The  young  man  is  desyrt  to  be  present  the  next  Tysday,  when  all  the  heritors 
are  to  be  present  in  this  town,  for  other  weighty  business  concerning  themselves,  that  he  may  see 
the  lynes  relatting  to  the  securing  of  him  on  his  stipeu  subvt. 

1652,  Feb.  8.— Report  is  maid  be  the  minister,  to  the  session  thatt  he,  with  Mr.  Jhon  Dun,  went 
to  the  airitors,  they  being  in  Bayly  Jhonston's  hows,  and  desyritt  ther  subscription  to  the  paper  con- 
taining Mr.  Jhon  Dun,  his  security  anent  the  school  duty  ;  butt  could  have  no  subscription,  but  only 


324  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 


the  subsciption  of  Major  Thomas  Forbes  of  Achortes.  Mr.  Jhon  Dun  seeing  he  could  not  he  secured 
in  his  stipend,  did  show  the  session  he  would  not  any  further  meddle  in  it. 

Minute  of  the  Presbytery  of  Garioch— 1st  Apryll,  1652.  At  the  Chappell  of  Garioch,  Mr.  George 
Leyth,  Mr.  George  Mill,  Mr.  William  Keyth,  moderator  ;  Mr.  Arthur  Ore,  clerk  ;  .Mr.  George  Melville, 
Mr.  George  Taillifer,  and  Mr.  Alexander  Strachan,  were  appointed  to  meet  and  visit  the  schools  of  the 
Presbyterie. 

Acts  of  1633  and  1646  then  in  existence,  required  the  heritors  of  every  parish  to 
establish  a  school  in  the  parish ;  and  stent  themselves  for  its  maintenance,  and  for  the 
payment  of  a  salary  to  the  master.  No  salary,  however,  was  specified,  and  the  jus  devo- 
lution of  election  was  confided  to  no  more  influential  a  body  than  twelve  honest  men, 
nominated  by  the  Presbytery.  The  disorganised  state  of  society  which  prevailed  during 
the  civil  war,  made  all  laws  inoperative ;  and  an  efficient  condition  of  public  schools 
was  arrived  at  only  in  the  course  of  many  years  after  the  Eestoration.  On  the  "  School 
Board"  declining  to  provide  a  salary,  in  1652,  for  an  efficient  schoolmaster,  the  session 
seems  to  have  made  some  arrangement  as  to  a  female  teacher.  The  collector's 
disbursements  exhibit  between  July  and  October  of  that  year,  "To  Mart.  Hay  scooll- 
mistress,  40  sh." 

Another  attempt  to  carry  out  the  law  was  made  next  year,  at  the  instance  of  the 

Presbytery. 

1653,  March  20.— The  sd  day  appeared  Mr.  Arthur  Forbes,  son  to  Knaperna,  as  being  reco- 
mendit  be  the  Presbitrie  to  the  session  for  being  scoolmr.  The  session  thought  it  convenient  he  should 
return  the  next  Lo'day  and  get  an  answer  ;  witliall,  did  recommend  to  the  officer  to  goe  to  the  antors 
of  the  parish  for  desyring  them  to  be  prt.  the  next  Lo'day,  for  consulting  about  that  "letter. 

March  27.— The  sd  day  appeared  Mr.  Arthur  Forbes,  expecting  his  answer.  lhe  antors 
comperinc  according  to  the  former  ordinance,  some  of  them  did  assent  to  his  entry,  some  not.  the 
session  not  finding  the  reasons  of  the  dissenters  of  his  entry  to  be  valid,  did  ordain  the  sd  Mr.  Arthur 
Forbes,  to  be  admittet  scoolmaster  as  soon  as  possible  he  could  enter  to  the  scool,  for  instructing  and 
teaching  the  young  ones. 

Mr.  Forbes,  Idee  his  predecessors,  had  but  a  brief  tenure  of  office.  He  was  a 
nephew  of  Sir  George  Johnston,  the  first  baronet  of  Caskieben,  whose  sister,  Jean,  was 
married  to  William  Forbes  of  Knapernay,  a  cadet  of  the  House  of  Tolquhon.  Mr.  Arthur 
Forbes,  was  subsequently  settled  as  a  minister  in  Ireland,  and  married  and  had  issue. 

1655,  January  28.— This  day  all  aritors,  wadsetters,  lyfrenters,  and  others,  lyabill  in  payment  of 
the  scooll  duty  are,  publickly  from  pulpit,  requyrit  and  warnit  to  cum  to  session  the  mxt  Lord  s  day, 
for  declaring  itr  they  hev  anything  to  object  against  the  entrie  of  Mr.  Johu  Walker  to  be  scoollmaster. 

Feb  4.— The  aritors,  wadsetters,  &c,  according  to  the  former  requisition,  being  callvt  on, 
and  many  of  them  being  found  absent,  the  session,  with  such  of  them  as  were  present  of  the  aritors, 
condescendit  with  Mr.  Johu  Walker  to  be  scoullmastsr  for  a  tym. 

Exactly  two  years  later  another  appointment  had  to  be  made. 

1657,  Feb.  8.— All  aritors,  wadsetters,  lyfrenters,  conjunct  fears,  are  publicklie  requirit  to  be  at 
session  the  next  Lord's  day,  for  declaring  what  they  have  to  say  concerning  Mr.  \\  llham  Charmer, 
whom  the  session  is  to  admit  to  be  schoolmaster  for  the  toune  and  parishe  of  Inverurie. 

Feb.  15.— This  day  Mr.  William  Charmer,  getting  a  good  testimonje  from  such  heritors,  wad- 
setters, lyferenters  as  was  present  for  the  time,  the  session  did  admitt  liim  to  be  schoolmaster. 

Mr.  Chalmers  incumbency  was  more  prolonged  ;  the  reason  being  perhaps  indicated 

by  a  minute  of  session  of  the  following  year  : — 

1658,  April]  4.— The  schoolmaster  lying  out  of  some  of  his  stipend,  publieke  intimatione  is  made 
from  pulpit  for  a  meeting  of  all  the  heritors,  wadsetters,  lyfrenters,  conjunct  liars,  and  others  having 


The  School  of  Inverurie  under  the  Covenant  and  the  Second  Episcopacy.        325 

interest,  the  meeting  to  be  at  Inverurie,  the  12  of  April],  to  the  effect  that  eyerie  one  may  se  ther  par- 
ticular proportion  they  owe  to  the  scholmaister  for  stipend,  as  it  is  contened  in  letters  of  horning  latlie 
come  from  the  south,  raised  upon  a  decreet  made  for  establishing  and  sattliug  ane  stipend  for  a  schol- 
maister in  the  parishe  of  Inverurie. 

In  1662  Mr.  "William  Chalmers  appears  in  the  burgh  accounts  as  paid  21  lbs.  4  sh. 
Scots,  as  the  burgh's  part  of  his  salary,  which  was  the  sum  that  continued  to  be  paid  to 
the  schoolmaster  for  a  century  after.  Mr.  Chalmers  seems  to  have  held  his  office  on  a 
fixity  of  tenure  belonging  more  to  the  after  history  of  parish  schools  than  to  the  period 
of  their  origin.  The  later  notices  of  him  are  few  and  of  mixed  character.  He  was  paid 
4  merks  as  session-clerk's  salary  in  1666,  and  in  1670  he  was  a  preacher.  Some 
years  later  opposition  seems  to  have  arisen  to  his  school,  with  such  prospect  of  success 
as  to  call  forth  a  process  of  inhibition ;  which  may  have  been  raised  either  in  the  in- 
terests of  Mr.  Chalmers,  or  of  the  subordination  to  canonical  order  required  by  the  Church, 
then  in  the  freshness  of  the  new  Episcopacy. 

1673.  May  IS. The  Presbytery  inhibits  "William  Ferguson  teaching  any  scholars,  within 

the  town  and  parish  of  Inverurie,  till  he.be  orderlie  chosen  to  that  office,  and  ordains  him  to  acknow- 
ledge his  fault. 

Sept.  21.  —Mr.  William  Ferguson  compears  before  the  pulpit  (of  Inverurie)  in  presence  of  the 
congregation,  and  acknowledges  his  fault  ;  and  promises  to  obey  the  ordinances  of  the  Presbitrie  in  de- 
sisting from  further  teaching  of  scolaris,  in  any  parish,  till  he  be  orderlie  callit. 

1674.  11th  July. — Every  tenant  within  the  burgh  of  Inverurie,  who  possesses  lands  pertaining 
to  heritors  that  dwells  without  the  burgh,  is  ordaint  to  advertise  his  maister  be  ane  letter  from  the 
present  baillie,  and  to  bring  ane  answer  tymously  thereanent  ;  that  Saturday  next  is  appointed  to  be 
keeped  in  the  tolbuith  of  Inverurie,  about  ten  o'clock  in  the  forenoon,  being  the  eighteenth  day  of 
July  instant,  for  settling  and  agreeing  with  Mr.  Win.  Chalmers,  scolmester,  anent  what  is  owing  him 
of  seoole  dewties,  for  all  bygon  years  since' his  entrie  be  the  town  of  Inverurie. 

The  Synod  in  October  1674  and  April  1675  issued  the  following  orders  : — ■ 
1671. — Rules  for  visitation  of  parishes.  Query  2 — If  there  he  a  school,  and  what  encouragement 
is  given  to  the  schoolmaster  ?  What  is  done  towards  making  parents  send  their  children  to  school  ? 
If  anything  is  given  to  the  schoolmaster  out  of  the  box  for  teaching  poor  children  ?  If  the  school- 
master be  blameless  in  conduct,  and  diligent  in  office  ?  If  he  makes  his  scholars  learn  the  catechism, 
and  a  form  of  prayer  for  morning  and  evening,  and  a  blessing  before  and  after  meat  ?  If  he  chastise 
them  for  cursing  and  swearing,  lying  or  speaking  profanely,  for  disobedience  to  parents,  and  other  vices 
that  appear  in  them. 

Presbyteries  who  have  not  called  chaplains  and  schoolmasters  within  their  bounds  to  take  the 
oath  of  allegiance  ami  the  promise  of  canonical  obedience,  to  do  so  immediately. 

In  that  year  Mr.  Robert  Forbes,  son  of  the  minister,  and  a  preacher,  is  once  referred 

to  as  schoolmaster  at  Inverurie,  from  which  it  is  possible  that  Mr.  Chalmers  school  was 

being  deserted  for  a  reason  apparent  in  the  following  minute  of  Synod  : — 

1679.  Oct.  16. — On  a  reference  from  the  Presbytery  of  Garioch,  Mr.  'William  Chalmers 
compeared  to  answer  to  an  accusation  of  adultery,  and  offered  to  purge  himself  by  oath.  The 
Synod  rejected  his  defence  ;  and  enjoined  the  Presbytery  to  hold  their  next  meeting  at  Inverurie, 
to  visit  the  school,  which  was  reported  to  be  very  much  decayed.  The  Synod  also  suspended  him  from 
the  office  of  reader  aud  precentor  in  the  kirk  of  Inverurie,  and  ordained  him  to  give  up  to  the  moder- 
ator of  Presbytery  the  licence  which  he  held  to  preach  the  Gospel.  [Mr.  "William  Chalmers  is  mentioned 
in  the  burgh  treasurer's  accounts  for  1690  as  late  schoolmaster.] 

The  district,  served  by  the  Aberdeen  Colleges,  was  wont  to  be  quoted  in  recent 

times  as  enjoying  by  their  means  the  advantage,  exceptional  in  Scotland,  of  having  the 

parish  schools  taught  by  men  who  were  University  graduates,  and  in  many  cases  qualified 

to  take  office  in  the  sacred  ministry.     We  find  the  same  relatively  high  class  of  teachers 


323  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garivch. 

in  the  schools  of  the  Garioch  from  the  earliest  records  now  existing.  The  session  books 
of  Kemnay  and  Oyne,  giving  records  from  1661  to  1668,  and  from  1663  to  1688  respec- 
tively, name,  among  the  preachers  occasionally  officiating,  the  following  schoolmasters .- — 
Mr.  George  Birnie,  Cnlsalmond,  1644  ;  Mr.  William  Thomson,  Bayne,  1688 ;  Mr.  William 
Idell,  Chapel  of  Garioch,  1670;  Mr.  William  Chalmers,  Inverurie,  1670;  Mr.  John 
Forbes,  Kintore,  1671  ;  Mr.  Eobert  Morgane,  Oyne,  1672;  and  Mr.  George  Duncan, 
Culsalmond,  1674;  Mr.  William  Watson,  Monymusk,  1675;  Mr.  George  Birnie, 
Logiedurnoch,  1675  ;  Mr.  Eobert  Keith,  Kintore,  1676  ;  Mr.  George  Birnie,  Kintore, 
1683;  Mr.  George  Crightone,  Insch,  1685;  Mr.  Alexander  Hay,  Monymusk,  1688. 
Mr.  James  Bainy  was  schoolmaster  of  Kemnay  in  1663,  and  Mr.  William  Johnston, 
1687;  Mr.  John  Mitchell,  at  Oyne,  from  1681  to  1683;  Mr.  John  Shand  for  some 
years  thereafter,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  James  Leask,  from  the  school  of  Prem- 
nay.  Leask  had  an  advanced  salary,  being  20  pounds  from  the  Common  Good  and 
two  pecks  from  every  pleugh,  making  5  bolls,  and  3s.  4d.  from  each  croft. 

The  easily  erected  style  of  edifices  occupied  as  school-houses  by  those  Masters  of  Arts 
is  indicated  by  a  minute  of  date  13th  October,  1672,  respecting  the  school  of  Oyne  (where 
Mr.  Robert  Morgane  had  4  bolls  of  victual  from  the  parish  and  10  lbs.  money  from  the 
session),  ordaining  that  the  school  be  put  up  on  Wednesday  come  eight  days — two 
horse  and  a  man  to  come  to  repair  it  from  everie  pleugh  of  the  paroche.  Forty  years 
later  a  new  school  was  built  at  Chapel  of  Garioch,  the  general  specification  presenting — 
a  school  and  school  chamber,  of  an  ell  height  of  drystone,  with  foot  and  flaughter-fail 
above,  and  with  doors,  windows,  and  a  partition  wall  and  other  requisites — the  cost 
being  £30  3s.  4d.  Scots,  by  and  attour  the  timber  of  the  old  school  and  chamber. 

One  of  the  schoolmasters  of  Chapel  of  Garioch  during  the  Second  Episcopacy  was 
Mr.  William  Leslie,  of  the  Warthill  family,  who,  being  influenced  by  his  relatives  of 
Balquhain,  went  abroad,  and  turned  Soman  Catholic.  He  became  subsequently  Bishop 
of  Laybach  and  a  Prince  of  the  Empire. 


Chapter  X. 
THE  RESTORATION  OF  THE  MONARCHY. 

Garioch  Families — Sir  Alexander  Forbes  of  Tolquhon— Alexander  Leslie  of  Tullos  —Religious  Reac- 
tion— Popery — New  Sects— Demoralization  of  Society  —Sunday.  Charles  II. 's  Episcopacy. — 
Nature  of  Scottish  Episcopacy — Successive  Prayer  Books —  The  Reader — Political  Character  of  the 
Church — Changes  attempted.  State  of  Society. — Church  Discipline — Breach  of  Sabbath — Public 
Works  and  Charities.  Parochial  Incidents. — St.  Bryde's  Kirk,  Kcmnay — The  Jougs—Mr. 
Ore's  Death — Churchyard  Patrol —  Taverns  Visited — Assault  on  Minister  of  Inverurie — Bleaching 
Clothes  on  Sunday — Apostates  to  Popery  ami  Quakerism — Collections  for  Bridges,  Harbours,  &c. 
— Dogclip — Kirk  of  Oyne  falling  — Child  offered  to  the  G-rave— Fairies— Privy  Council  Com- 
mission on  Nonconformity  —Sunday  Drinking — Public  Marriages — Lifted  to  be  Elders — Slaves  to 
the  Turks — Payment  of  Reader — Bridge  of  Tone — Accidental  Breach  of  Sabbath.  Quakerism. 
— Garioch  Perverts — Alexander  Jaffray,  James  Urquharl,  Dr.  William  Johnstons  widow. 
■ — Quakers  Imprisoned  at  Inverurie  — Monkcgy — Minister  of  Inverurie's  Daughter — Bishop 
Scougal.  Heritors  and  the  Church.  —  Origin  of  Public  Burdens.  The  Kirk  of  Inverurie. 
Repairs  and  arrangement.  The  Manse.  Kemnay.  Oyne  and  Monymusk. — Dilapidations 
— School  at  Oyne — Monymusk  Kirk  Reseated — Seats  Let.  The  Burgh  of  Inverurie  at  the 
Restoration.  —  Thanksgiving  Sunday — New  Tolbooth — Jurisdiction — John  Earl  of  Mar — Sir 
John  Keith — Caskicben.  The  Fergusons  of  Inverurie. — A  Genealogy—"  Umquhill  William 
Fergus" — William  Ferguson  in  Crichic — His  Six  Sons — Alexander  Jaffray's  Death — Mr. 
William  Forbes — Mr.  William  Murray.  Inverurie  Individuals. — Burgh  incidents — M.P. 
for  Inverurie — Market  Cross  Erected — Importance  of  Royal  Burghs.  The  Earldom  of 
Kintore.  —  The  Regalia. 

GARIOCH    FAMILIES. 

TiT^THEN  Charles  II.  returned  in  1660  to  his  native  land,  a  welcome  king,  the  face 


V^V^  of  society  had  changed  considerably  in  the  Garioch,  and  his  reign  was  to  see 
still  more  of  the  disintegration  and  reconstruction  belonging  to  all  national 
revolutions.  His  host  at  Pitcaple  in  1650  had  followed  him,  as  also  his  brother  James 
Leslie  (wounded  in  Frendaucht's  company,  2nd  October,  1630),  and  both  fell  at  Wor- 
cester. His  acquaintance,  Alexander  Jaffray  of  Kingswells,  had  his  principal  resi- 
dence at  Artannies  in  Inverurie,  where  in  a  few  years  he  was  propagating  Quakerism. 

The  head  of  the  Gordons  was  then  a  boy  of  ten  years  old,  who  only  in  the  fol- 
lowing year  got  his  grandfather's  estates  restored  to  him  from  the  forfeiture  of  1648. 
He  was  the  son  of  Lewis  Gordon,  the  schoolboy  who  in  1639  escaped  from  his  guardians 
to  be  with  the  Gordons  in  arms  for  the  Royal  cause.  Lord  Lewis  by  the  pre-decease  of 
his  two  elder  brothers,  George  Lord  Gordon  in  1645,  and  James  Viscount  of  Aboyne  in 
the  beginning  of   1549,  was  eldest  surviving  son  when  George  the  second  Marquis,  his 


328  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  GariocJi. 

father,  was  executed  in  March,  1649,  and  he  had  the  family  honours  restored  to  him  hy 
Charles  II.  in  1651,  which  he  lived  to  hold  only  until  Decemher,  1653. 

The  ancient  family  of  Caskiehen  was  ahout  to  he  replaced  hy  a  new  Earldom,  com- 
memorative of  the  fortunes  of  the  King,  conferred  upon  a  brother  of  the  Earl  Marischal 
of  the  Troubles,  and  the  family  name  of  Keith-hall  was  to  supersede  the  immemorial 
names  of  Caskieben  and  Monkegy.  The  head  of  the  departing  house,  the  first  Baronet 
of  Caskieben,  was  still  alive,  an  elder  of  the  kirk  of  Monkegy,  dwelling  quietly  at 
Ardiharrall,  where,  indeed,  he  had  lived  most  of  his  time,  if  not  the  whole. 

The  house  of  Forbes,  the  ancient  allies  of  the  Johnstons  against  the  Gordons  and 
the  Leslies,  was  like  all  these  families  no  longer  prominent  in  the  district.  The  active 
first  baronet  of  Eintray  and  Craigievar,  was  dead.  The  Pitsligo  Forbeses  had  ceded  their 
properties  of  Lethinty  and  Findgask  to  Patrick  Urquhart ;  who  himself  was  the  founder 
of  a  new  Meldrum  family  in  succession  to  the  Setons,  that  had  come  in  place  of  the 
Meldrums,  as  Patrick  now  came  into  theirs,  by  female  inheritance.  The  Forbes  lairds 
of  Monymusk  and  Leslie  were  living  quietly  at  home,  possibly  practising  the  Eoyalist 
character  attributed  to  them  by  Douglas  in  his  Baronage.  The  Tolquhon  laird  of 
Thainston  of  the  time,  Sir  Alexander  Forbes,  was  an  old  brother-in-arms  of  the  King. 
Sir  Alexander's  mother  was  infeft  in  Thainston  when  a  widow  in  1661.  He  had 
married,  in  1649,  Bathia  Murray,  the  widow  of  Sir  William  Forbes  of  Craigievar. 
That  lady  would  have  needed  to  be  a  wife  of  no  political  thoughts,  for  her  second 
husband  was  a  great  contrast  to  her  first  in  that  respect.  He  had  grown  up  a  Eoyalist, 
after  his  father,  like  others  of  the  Forbeses,  had  been  scared  by  the  progress  of  the 
Argyll  policy.  The  Tolquhon  papers  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Forbes  Leith  of  White- 
haugh — who  now  represents  that  family — contain  a  letter  in  the  handwriting  of 
Charles  II.,  dated  14th  June,  1651,  forbidding  any  levy  to  be  made  upon  Tolquhon, 
as  the  laird  (Walter  Forbes,  Alexander's  father)  was  past  sixty  years  old,  and  his  son 
was  commanding  a  regiment  of  foot  as  colonel.  The  colonel  fought  at  Worcester,  and 
on  the  failure  of  the  Eoyalist  army  mounted  the  King  on  his  own  horse  and  then 
checked  the  pursuit  while  he  escaped  ;  but  was  himself  cut  down  and  left.  He  was 
afterwards  an  agent  in  the  escape  of  Charles  from  England.  The  exiled  King  knighted 
him  in  1653-4.  Sir  Alexander  received  civic  honours  from  the  burgh  of  Haddington  in 
1653,  and  in  1655  from  both  St.  Andrews  and  Glasgow.  Major  Thomas  Forbes,  one  of 
the  lairds  of  Aquhorties  in  1652,  was  probably  his  uncle,  called  in  the  family  pedigree 
Thomas  Forbes  of  Watterton. 

Blackball  in  Inverurie,  from  which  the  lairds  of  that  name  were  gone  apparently 
before  1650,\appears  in  1661  in  the  possession  of  Alexander  Abercromby  of  Fetternear 
and  Francis  Abercromby,  his  son,  who  were  then,  and  for  about  twenty  years  later, 
proprietors  of  Fetternear.  In  1687  William  Thain  of  Blackball  became  "debitor"  to 
the  Kirk-session  of  Kemnay  for  some  moneys  previously  held  on  loan  by  Patrick  Leslie 
of  Kineraigy  who  sold  Badifurrow. 


Garioch  Families.  329 


Alexander  Chalmers  of  Drimmies  was  since  1655  an  elder  of  the  Kirk  of  Inverurie. 
His  son  William  sold  Drimmies,  in  1679,  to  his  wife's  brother,  John  Leslie  of  Aquhorsk, 
the  son  of  the  James  Leslie  of  Aquhorties  already  noticed.  Drimmies  was,  in  1609,  held 
by  John  Gordon,  whose  ancestor,  Patrick  Gordon,  son  and  apparent  heir  of  William 
Gordon  of  Auchindore,  bought  it  in  1538  from  Alexander  Gordon  of  Braco.  It  was 
originally  part  of  the  Leslie  barony  of  Kuockinglewis,  and  was  sold  about  1490  to 
Patrick  Gordon  of  Methlic ;  whose  eldest  son,  George,  became  ancestor  of  the  Haddo 
family,  subsequently  Earls  of  Aberdeen,  while  his  second  son,  Alexander,  founded  the 
family  of  Gordon  of  Braco;  the  last  of  whom,  John  Gordon,  called  of  Braco  in  1678, 
probably  sold  that  property  to  the  Earl  of  Aberdeen,  who  held  it  at  a  later  date  for  some 
time. 

In  the  parish  of  Oyne  Alexander  Gordon  of  Torreis  and  Ann  Leith,  his  wife,  ap- 
pear in  1668  in  the  home  of  the  famous  Leiths  of  Harthill ;  and  in  the  neighbourhood 
the  Abercromby  possession  of  Westhall  had  in  1672  John  Campbell  as  laird,  and  before 
long  Mr.  James  Horn,  minister  of  Elgin. 

The  Cess  collector  of  1650  was  James  Ogilvy  of  Westhall.  Patrick  Anderson  of 
Tillymorgan  held  the  same  office  in  1668.  At  that  date  the  Kirk-session  book  of  Oyne 
presents  us  with  the  names  of  John  Leith  of  Newlands,  Patrick  Leith  of  Cairden,  and 
Gilbert  Leslie  of  Buchanston. 

Some  entries  in  the  Inverurie  Court  Books  preserve  the  surnames  of  proprietors  then 
in  the  neighbourhood  not  now  represented  : — 

1668,  7th  Aug. — Beatrix,  Elizabeth,  and  Jean  Gordon,  wives  respectively  of  Patrick  Forbes, 
Patrick  Gordon,  ami  James  Leslie,  were  coheiresses  and  portioners  of  Redhall  in  Auchterless. 

1671  — James  Leslie  of  Buchanston  had  to  answer  for  blinding  Alexander  Straehan  of 

Kinadie. 

1671,  10th  Nov.—  Elizabeth  Forbes,  spouse  to  Alexander  Straehan  of  Kinadie,  heritable  pro- 
prietor of  the  barony  and  lands  of  Aquhorties,  ratified  a  Disposition  of  these  to  Sir  Alexander  Forbes 
of  Tolquhon  and  bis  brother,  Thomas  Forbes,  Advocate  in  Edinburgh. 

1671,  21th  Nov. — Ann  dimming,  spouse  to  John  Gordon,  younger  of  Law,  concurred  in  his 
Disposition  of  part  of  Rothie  to  William  Forbes,  brother  of  Sir  Alexander  Forbes  of  Tolquhon. 

1672,  3rd  June. — Margaret  Lamb,  widow  of  George  Leith  of  Milne  of  Ardoyne  and  Scottbrig, 
resigned  her  liferent  to  George  Leith  of  Craighall  and  Helen  Leith,  his  wile. 

1673,  15th  Dec. — John  Gairden  of  Bruckles  in  Auchterless,  and  Jean  Gairden,  wife  of  James 
Mennie,  coheiresses  of  John  Gairden  of  Bruckles,  resigned  rights  to  James  Leslie  at  Mill  of  Williamston. 

1673,  27th  Dec. — Elizabeth  Elphinstone,  spouse  to  William  Gordon  of  Tilliangus,  resigntd 
rights  to  Lewis  Gordon  of  Auchlyard. 

1674,  31st  Aug. — Margaret  Harvie,  spouse  to  James  Abercrombie,  portioner  of  Harlaw,  resigned 
to  her  brother,  Master  Robert  Harvie  of  Slagmngully,  part  of  TiUigrige  in  Udny  parish,  her  rights 
therein. 

1675,  6th  Feb. — Elizabeth  Straehan,  spouse  to  George  Petendreich,  portioner  of  Laws  in  Rayne, 
resigned  her  rights  over  twelve  oxengaitt  extending  to  aue  pleuch  and  half  ane  pleuch  of  the  town  of 
Laws,  in  favour  of  William  Erskine  of  Pittodrie. 

1675,  19th  April.  — Isabel  Bisset,  wife  of  Thomas  Abercrombie,  designed  of  Collyhill,  resigned 
Jackston,  &c. ,  Fyvie. 

1676,  23rd  May. — Elizabeth  Abercrombie,  spouse  of  Master  William  Straehan  of  Luesk,  resigned 
her  right  therein  to  George  Leith  of  Trceneld. 

1677,  8th  June. — Alexander  Symsone  and  Margaret  Symsone,  his  spouse,  resigned  their  rights 
in  Lawelside,  in  Bourtie,  to  Robert  Symsone  of  Thornton  for  3000  merks. 

42 


330  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

1677,  26th  Jul}-. — Margaret  Gordon,  spouse  to  Master  John  Walker,  minister  of  Tillinessle, 
resigned  her  right  over  the  lands  of  Warestoun  to  James  Gordon  of  Delpersie  and  his  son  George. 

In  1684,  John  Tyrie  was  served  heir  to  his  father,  David  Tyrie,  of  Dunnydeir,  in  the  lands  of 
Dunydier,  with  the  pendicle  called  Poyck,  held  of  Charles  Earl  of  Mar,  Lord  Erskine  and  Garioch,  for 
the  yearly  payment  of  20  lbs.  Scots  2  marts  24 and  4  doz.  copons. 

Eclipsed  by  the  lustre  of  the  foreign  members  of  the  family,  Alexander  Leslie  of 
Tullos  was  living,  when  King  Charles  returned,  virtual  laird  of  Balquhain  since  1659, 
though  not  legally  such  until  his  brother  "William's  death  in  1671.  He  had  probably 
removed  from  the  narrow  mansion  house  of  Tullos  to  the  more  ample  ancestral  castle. 

Alexander  Leslie  had  gone  back  to  the  family  faith.  The  Elphinstones  of  Meikle 
Warthill  were  also  Roman  Catholics.  That  property  bought  by  Lord  Elphinstone  in 
1616  from  John  Leslie  of  Wardes  (p.  227)  continued  in  the  family  for  about  a  century. 
One  of  the  lairds  had  to  wife  a  sister  of  the  well-known  Eobert  Gordon  of  Straloch. 
The  family  ended  in  an  heir  female,  who  married  Gardyne  of  Bellamore.  The  estate 
was  then  sold  to  Sir  John  Elphinstone,  second  baronet  of  Logie,  and  his  descendant,  Sir 
Eobert  D.  H.  Elphinstone,  sold  it  to  Mr.  Gordon  of  Newton,  whose  descendants  still 
hold  it. 

RELIGIOUS  REACTION. 
Apostacy  to  Popery  was  frequent  about  1660,  and  the  most  rational  account  of  the 
fact  is  furnished  by  the  condition  of  society  at  the  time.  So  universal  a  change  of 
religious  profession  as  occurred  at  the  Reformation  in  Scotland  was,  if  sincere,  a  thing 
unexampled  in  history  ;  and  it  is  likely  there  had  been  a  considerable  extent  of  attach- 
ment to  the  abrogated  faith  kept  hidden  because  of  the  civil  pains  and  penalties 
it  incurred.  The  necessity  of  these  was  kept  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  King  and  the 
great  Protestant  nobles  by  the  prolonged  attempt  of  the  Catholic  powers  of  Europe  to 
put  down  the  Reformed  religion  by  force  of  arms;  which  in  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth 
and  James  led  to  the  attempted  invasion  of  Britain  by  the  Spanish  Armada,  and  after- 
wards to  the  Thirty  years'  War.  Roman  Catholics  only  of  the  highest  rank,  such  as 
the  Earl  of  Huntly,  were  able  by  the  protection  of  the  Sovereign,  who  could  not 
afford  to  make  them  desperate,  to  resist  the  pressure  of  the  Kirk  requiring  all  to 
enter  her  communion.  The  one  exercise  of  authority  which  the  two  Kings,  James 
and  Charles— both  disliking  the  Scottish  Church — supported  her  in,  was  the  suppres- 
sion of  Popery ;  and  the  Church  Courts  were  first  substantially  checked  in  their  rule 
of  terror  by  the  sectarian  officers  of  the  armies  of  the  Commonwealth,  who,  being 
placed  in  garrison  in  the  chief  towns  of  the  kingdom,  were  willing  to  receive  solicita- 
tions from  any  individuals  for  help  against  an  authority  which  they  disapproved  of. 
We  find  even  Mr.  Andrew  Cant  in  1656  seeking  their  protection  from  his  own  ecclesi- 
astical court.  Concealed  Papists  would  in  that  state  of  things  take  courage  to  throw  off 
the  long-worn  pretence  of  conformity.  It  shows  how  strong  the  sentiment  accepting  the 
Reformation  had  been  in  Scotland  that  a  century  elapsed  before  it  could  be  braved  by 
persons  of  the  middle  rank  of  society. 


Garioch  Families.  331 


The  religious  aspect  of  the  time  presents  another  account  that  may  be  given  of  the 
frequent  perversions  occurring.  It  was  not  to  Popery  only  that  individuals  of  good 
repute  were  apostatising.  Quakerism  and  Independency  became  the  refuge  of  a  number 
of  persons  here  and  there.  These  forms  of  dissent  were  imported  from  England, 
where  Cromwell's  own  example  of  individualism  in  religion  propagated  itself  widely 
among  his  attached  military  followers.  In  Scotland  the  licentious  life  led  by  many 
Royalists,  professing  to  attach  themselves  to  the  religion  of  Charles  I.,  discredited  the 
Episcopal  form  ;  while  the  flagrant  abuse  made  of  the  Covenanting  Church,  to  serve  politi- 
cal and  sometimes  individual  ends,  in  which  the  maxim  Abscindantur  qui  ?ios  pertur- 
bant  was  a  recognised  rule  of  action,  made  some  good  men  sick  of  a  law  which  could 
minister  to  so  much  unrighteousness.  It  requires  much  wisdom  to  walk  wisely  in 
religious  straits  of  such  a  kind,  and  while  some  may  have  sought  rest  in  the  Church 
which  pretends  all  power  to  protect  the  soul,  others  may  have  fled  for  freedom  to  the 
new  sects,  whose  inherent  faults  had  not  as  yet  had  time  to  appear. 

The  divine  right  of  ruling  first  believed  in  and  propounded  by  King  Charles  I.  had 
thirty  years  before  1660  given  rise  to  a  correlative  belief  in  a  divine  right  of  resistance, 
which  raised  up,  and  educated  in  self-assertion,  a  civil  organisation  in  England  nominally 
Parliamentary,  and  in  Scotland  an  ecclesiastical  organisation  as  widely  operative  ;  and 
the  explanation  of  the  fact  of  society  becoming  so  demoralised  before  1660  seems  to  be 
that  these  powers  having  in  combination  succeeded  in  putting  down  the  divine  right 
of  Kings,  each  assumed  the  same  celestial  authority  for  itself,  and  by-and-bye  so  disa- 
greed that  each  encouraged  or  protected  the  community  in  resisting  the  authority  of 
the  other.  Two  competing  and  conflicting  tyrannies  had  in  this  way  to  bo  borne,  and 
the  people,  universally  worn  out  with  the  "  ills  they  had  "  were  ready  as  an  escape  from 
them,  to  take  back  the  King.  Before  long  his  mischievous  shortcomings  as  a  man  and  as 
a  king  were  felt,  but  in  1660  the  excitement  of  relief  from  the  colonels  of  the  Common- 
wealth on  the  one  hand,  and  from  the  Kirk  on  the  other,  gave  so  exciting  relief  that 
soberness  of  manners  and  of  morals  alike  was  abandoned.  Extravagance  in  display,  and 
in  indulgence,  came  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  badge  of  loyalty  to  the  thoughtless,  witty, 
and  loose  court,  and  the  Bishops  had  to  put  a  rein  upon  the  jollity  even  of  the  clergy, 
and  issued  orders  against  their  display  of  ribbons,  and  occasionally  against  more  grave 
excesses. 

The  demoralisation  that  had  come  over  public  sentiment  in  regard  to  religious  ob- 
servances during  the  long  troubled  period — rest  from  which  was  sought  by  the  whole 
nation  in  the  recall  of  the  King — receives  a  graphic  illustration  in  one  of  the  Acts  of  his 
first  Parliament,  which  exhibits  the  outward  distinction  between  the  Sunday  and  other 
days  as  nearly  forgotten.  The  Act  forbade  "  salmon  fishing  on  Sunday,  going  of 
salt  pans,  mills,  kilns,  hiring  servants,  carrying  loads,  keeping  markets,  or  offering  mer- 
chandise". A  subsequent  Act  was  deemed  necessary  providing  for  the  appointment  in 
every  parish  of  an  authorised  prosecutor  for  such  offences,  but  the  evil  had  eaten  so 


332  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Gurioch. 

deeply  into  the  moral  sense  of  the  community  that  twenty-three  years  afterwards  the 
Bishops,  through  the  parish  ministers,  were  reminding  the  people  of  the  existence  of 
those  Acts  as  a  means  of  restraining  ordinary  labour  on  the  sacred  day. 

CHARLES  II.  'S  EPISCOPACY. 

The  most  marked  historical  feature  of  the  Eestoration  in  Scotland  was  the  reintro- 
duction  of  Episcopacy  as  the  national  form  of  Church.  Looked  back  upon  from  the 
present  time  the  ecclesiastical  change  presents  itself  as  having  been  both  intended  and 
accepted  as  a  monument  of  the  return,  by  the  national  will,  of  the  Eoyal  Stuarts  to 
reign  again.  The  abolition  of  the  Episcopal  Church  was  one  of  the  Acts  of  Parliament 
that  signalised  the  defeat  of  Charles  I.'s  sovereign  power,  and  the  Parliament  of  1660 
simply  repealed  that  abrogation  along  with  other  laws  passed  against  the  Stuarts.  The 
Episcopal  Church  of  Scotland  passed  away  again  from  the  national  recognition  immedi- 
ately on  the  last  Stuart  king  losing  his  seat  on  the  throne,  which  catastrophe  was 
much  hastened  by  his  manner  of  using  that  Church  as  an  instrument  of  kingly  power ; 
and  during  the  two  generations  which  followed  the  flight  of  King  James,  while  Scottish 
families  were  showing  a  divided  allegiance,  the  profession  of  Episcopacy  continued  to  be 
a  badge  of  fidelity  to  the  exiled  Stuarts ;  and  until  a  much  later  time  it  was  associated 
with  the  cherishing  of  Jacobite  sentiment  after  Jacobite  politics  had  become  impossible. 

The  Scottish  Episcopacy  of  the  17th  century  would  be  very  much  misconceived  if 
we  pictured  it  to  ourselves  as  at  any  time  resembling  the  Episcopacy  of  the  Church  of 
England,  in  respect  either  of  government  or  of  form  of  worship.  It  was  simply  the 
Presbyterianism  devised  after  the  Beformation,  with  the  addition  of  Bishops  instead  of  the 
Superintendents  appointed  under  that  system.  Peter  Blackburn,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen, 
■whom  we  have  noticed  as  continuing  one  of  the  ordinary  ministers  of  Aberdeen  after  his 
elevation  to  Episcopal  rank,  and  drawing  little  or  nothing  of  revenue  as  Bishop,  was  an 
illustration  of  the  position  of  that  office  in  the  Scottish  Church.  The  Bishop  was  in 
authority  not  much  more  than  perpetual  Moderator  of  the  Provincial  Synod ;  with  some 
undefined  power  of  restriction  upon  the  exercise  of  discipline,  and  the  natural  function 
of  originating  certain  proceedings  proper  to  be  taken  by  the  Synod. 

The  form  of  worship  belonging  to  the  Episcopacy  of  Charles  II.,  as  before  to  the 
Kirk  of  King  James,  was  that  inherited  from  the  Presbyterian  Church  formed  by  Knox 
and  his  contemporaries.  The  ministers  conducted  the  parts  of  the  service  that  fell  to 
them  exactly  as  is  done  in  the  parish  churches  of  Scotland  at  present ;  while  in  England, 
then  as  now,  the  minister  used  a  manual  of  devotion.  A  manual  was  in  use  in  the  first 
Befornied  Kirk  for  the  guidance  of  the  Keaders,  who  had  to  be  employed  for  lack  of 
qualified  ministers.  The  one  first  used  was  King  Edward's  Prayer  Booh,  which  was 
superseded  by  the  work  called  Knox's  Liturgy,  or  the  Book  of  Common  Order,  partly 
borrowed  from  the  compilation  the  great  Eeformer  had  been  accustomed  to  in  Geneva. 


Charles  II.'s  Episcopacy.  333 


The  Book  of  Common  Order  was  the  substantial  guide  of  Beaders  down  to  the  time  of 
the  Covenant;  and  was  then  substituted  by  the  Directory  for  Public  Worship,  drawn  up 
by  the  combined  English  and  Scotch  Church  reformers  of  that  period.  The  Scottish 
clergy  had  never  practised  other  than  extemporary,  or  what  was  called  "  conceived  " 
prayer  in  their  public  ministrations ;  and  the  reason  why  Archbishop  Laud's  New  Manual 
of  Church  Service  was  rejected  so  strongly,  by  a  church  in  which  a  manual  was  in  use, 
was  that  the  proposed  change  was  understood  to  include  the  use  of  the  new  service  book 
by  the  clergy  of  Scotland  as  in  the  Episcopal  Church  of  England. 

The  system  of  Beaders  was  not  required  in  England,  where  at  the  Eeformation  the 
parochial  clergy  mostly  conformed  to  the  transfer  of  supremacy  from  the  Fope  to  King 
Henry  VIII.  In  Scotland  it  was  the  only  expedient  available  for  keeping  up  anything 
like  congregational  worship  for  a  long  time  after  the  Eeformation.  Individuals  qualified 
to  discharge  the  function  were  to  be  found  also  ready  to  hand,  in  the  persons  of  conform- 
ing priests  and  the  parish  clerks,  some  of  whom  were  men  of  position  and  education. 
The  office  of  Eeader  was  found  so  convenient  an  addition  to  the  system  of  parochial 
ministry,  that  it  continued,  with  variation  of  practice,  down  to  last  century  ;  the  23arish 
of  Inverurie  possessing  it  until  1799  in  the  form  of  regular  reading  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
catechising  of  the  congregation  by  the  schoolmaster  every  Sunday  before  the  minister 
entered  the  pulpit.  The  form  of  the  Reader's  service  was  as  follows  : — On  the  ringing 
of  the  second  bell,  an  hour  after  the  first  Sabbath  bell  was  tolled,  the  Eeader  entered  the 
lectern  and  read  the  common  prayer,  and  in  some  churches  the  Commandments  and  the 
Belief.  Ho  then  gave  out  a  large  portion  of  the  Esalter,  the  singing  of  which  was 
concluded  with  the  Doxolugy,  when  he  proceeded  to  read  from  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment, taking  his  lessons  in  regular  order.  It  was  during  the  hour  occupied  in  the 
Beader's  service,  that  persons  suffering  severe  discipline  were  kept  standing  at  the  door 
in  sackcloth.  On  the  ringing  of  the  third  bell  the  preacher  entered  the  pulpit,  knelt  in 
private  supplication,  and  then  led  the  devotions  of  the  people  in  a  conceived  prayer, 
after  which  he  preached ;  and  a  thanksgiving  conducted  in  the  same  way,  and  praise 
by  singing,  concluded  the  service.  The  position  of  the  people  in  the  communion  service 
was'  what  is  now  observed  in  Fresbyterian  congregations,  and  presents  the  greatest 
difference  from  the  Episcopalian  ritual.  Even  in  cathedrals  nothing  in  the  shape  of 
ritual  was  used.  Episcopalian  ministers,  both  English  and  Scottish,  who  lived  in  the 
end  of  the  Caroline  Episcopacy,  agree  in  giving  this  account  of  the  service  in  the  Church 
of  Scotland ;  the  historical  continuity  of  which  practice  Mr.  Sprott  in  his  Freface  to  a 
reprint  of  the  Book  of  Common  Order  has  convincingly  traced  from  the  beginning  of 
the  Eeformed  Kirk.  In  the  St.  Andrew's  Episcopalian  congregation  of  Aberdeen,  which 
at  first  had  a  meeting-house  at  the  back  of  the  Tolbooth,  no  prayer-book  was  used  either 

by  the  first  pastor,  Mr.  Andrew  Jaffray,  nor  by  the  second,  Mr.  ■ Milne,  and  read 

prayers  were  introduced  only  by  Mr.  Smith,  the  third  incumbent,  who  was  there 

until  1746,  and  under  whom  the  meetings  were  removed  to  Concert  Close,  and  after- 


334  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 


wards  to  a  dwelling-house  in  a  close  on  the  west  side  of  the  Guestrow  when  the  Govern- 
ment deemed  it  needful  to  repress  the  Jacobite  attempts  of  the  Scottish  Episcopalians. 

The  ecclesiastical  change  was  to  mark  a  return  to  the  order  of  things  obtaining  be- 
fore the  lamented  troubles  began,  and  the  Episcopal  Synod  of  Aberdeen,  assembled  first 
in  1662,  set  itself  to  erase  the  forms  of  the  Church  that  had  ruled  during  the  interregnum, 
with  much  the  same  desire  of  forgetting  a  history  too  deeply  incised  in  national  memory 
as  the  new  Parliament  showed  in  its  destruction  of  the  prominent  associations  of  the 
Commonwealth.  The  very  names  of  Presbytery  and  Kirk-session  were  attempted  to  be 
dropped,  but  were  very  soon  admitted  again,  the  reality  continuing  all  the  while  ;  and 
the  strong  technicalities  used  in  the  Platform  of  1649  framed  by  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  were  at  once  retranslated  into  the  expressions  for  which  the  unsesthetic  con- 
structors of  that  remarkable  document  had  substituted  their  plain-speaking  words ;  but 
the  relaxation  of  terms  was  accompanied  by  no  relaxation  of  discipline,  the  remedial 
power  of  which  was  more  needed  than  ever  in  the  prevalent  state  of  morals.  The  desire 
to  mark  an  ecclesiastical  triumph  was  directly  indicated  by  an  order  issued  by  the 
Aberdeen  Synod  of  October,  1663,  that  all  the  brethren  should  purchase  from  "Mr. 
John  Forbes,  stationer  in  Aberdeen,  a  volume  to  be  printed  by  him,  price  fifteen 
shillings  Scots  money,  containing  the  queries,  replies,  and  duplies  of  the  Doctors  of 
Aberdeen  and  Professors  of  Divinitie  there  ".  They  were  also  to  purchase  "  The  de- 
clinator of  the  Bishops  at  the  pretended  Assemblie  in  Glasgow".  The  first  Synod  at 
once  ordered  that  "  the  directorie  practised  by  the  late  pretended  General  Assemblies  be 
layed  assyed  and  not  made  use  of  in  tyme  coming  ". 

The  most  impressive  outward  change  that  marked  the  end  of  the  Covenanting  rule 
,was  that  all  the  surviving  ministers  of  the  preceding  Episcopacy  who  had  been  removed 
by  the  Covenanters  were  at  once  replaced  in  their  parishes ;  and  every  minister  entered 
since  1649  was  inhibited  from  seeking  horning  for  recovery  of  his  stipend  without  leave 
obtained  from  the  Bishop.  All  such  had  also  to  obtain  presentations  from  the  formerly 
recognised  patrons  of  their  respective  parishes.  The  right  of  patronage,  replaced  under 
the  Covenanting  rule  by  a  congregational  call,  with  the  freedom  of  which  the  Church 
Courts  or  despotic  members  of  them,  such  as  Mr.  Andrew  Cant,  frequently  interfered, 
became  of  value  again  ;  and  in  1664  we  find  the  patronage  of  Oyne  resigned  by 
Margaret  Eeith,  daughter  and  coheiress  of  the  former  patron,  George  Eeith  of  Harthill, 
to  William  Leith  of  Old  Eayne. 

The  close  connection  of  the  new  Church  in  sentiment,  as  well  as  in  fact,  with  the 
dominancy  of  the  reigning  house,  proved  to  be  the  source  of  ruin  to  both  Church  and  King. 
The  very  rough  discipline  by  which  the  Presbyterian  Church  attempted  to  produce  con- 
formity was  succeeded  by  a  more  oppressive  compulsion.  The  Secret  Council  became 
the  supreme  executive  in  discipline ;  and  conformity  to  the  Church  was  sought  to  be 
enforced  by  fine  and  imprisonment,  and  the  military  supression  of  conventicles  at  the 
instance  of  curates.     This  latter  mode  of  discipline  was  in  the  end  gone  about  occa- 


Charles  II.' s  Episcopacy.  335 


sionally  with  so  much  of  brutality  that  not  only  did  it  hasten  the  dethronement  of  the 
impolitic  monarch,  hut  made  Episcopacy  an  object  of  combined  hatred  and  horror  in 
those  parts  of  the  country  where  the  cruel  dragoonadcs  were  resorted  to.  The  contrast 
experienced  by  the  country  in  the  policy  of  William  of  Orange,  when  he  ascended  the 
British  throne,  did  much  to  give  peace  to  his  reign  as  well  as  to  the  country.  When 
Presbyterianism  was  re-established  in  Scotland  in  1690,  he  insisted  and  the  Church  con- 
curred— both  showing  large-mindedness  therein — that  the  Episcopalian  incumbents 
should  not  be  ousted  anywhere  as  the  Presbyterian  ministers  had  been  after  1660,  but 
be  allowed  to  retain  their  parochial  position,  though  without  a  scat  in  the  church  courts, 
provided  they  took  an  oath  of  civil  allegiance.  All  willing  to  do  that  remained,  not 
always  contented  or  well  behaved,  but  perfectly  protected  and  tolerated  until  their 
death;  and  the  few  surviving  until  1715  were  then  mostly  deposed  for  Jacobite  treason 
and  for  no  ecclesiastical  offence,  those  wise  enough  to  avoid  the  politics  of  that  epoch 
continuing  entirely  undisturbed. 

The  lay  Episcopalians  in  the  country  continued  to  be  mostly  Jacobites,  and  sup- 
ported the  Chevalier  in  1745.  Many  picturesque  stories  remain  of  their  convivial 
allegiance  to  the  "  King  over  the  water,"  and  in  Church  their  ingenuity  and  good  man- 
ners were  greatly  taxed  hj  the  prayer  for  the  King  and  the  Eoyal  Family,  in  which  they 
had  to  join.  Captain  Burt,  an  English  officer  of  Engineers,  employed  in  Scotland  about 
1730,  says  in  an  account  of  St.  Paul's  Episcopal  congregation  in  Aberdeen,  that  when 
the  prayer  for  King  George  was  read,  the  devout  decorum  seen  during  all  the  rest  of  the 
Litany,  was  exchanged  for  ostentatious  trifling,  taking  of  snuff,  and  such  like.  Burt  re- 
presents the  Non-jurors  as  preaching  politics  much  more  than  religion  ;  but  the  combina- 
tion of  secular  with  sacred  interests  in  the  pulpit,  had  been  doubtless  a  time-honoured 
custom  before  that  day.  Eighty  years  later,  the  same  political  element  prevailed  in 
Scottish  Episcopacy.  The  minister  of  Inverurie  of  that  time,  married  the  daughter  o* 
an  Episcopalian  lady,  who,  on  being  congratulated  on  the  good  match  her  daughter  had 
made,  gave  her  estimate  of  him  as  "  a  fulyie  Whiggy  bodie". 

The  acts  of  the  first  Episcopal  Synods  look  like  the  inauguration  of  great  changes, 
but  they  proved  little  more  than  a  testimony  in  words  to  the  change  that  had  come  upon 
national  rule.  The  presiding  Bishop,  Adam  Mitchell,  had  known  the  uses  of  adversity 
and  did  not  seek  to  magnify  his  office.  A  dignitary  before  the  civil  war,  he  had  been 
extruded  by  the  Covenanters,  and  took  refuge  in  Holland,  where,  possessing  a  mechanical 
turn,  he  supported  himself  by  clock  making.  His  three  successors,  who  made  up  the 
line  until  the  order  was  obliterated  again,  namely,  Alexander  Burnett,  Patrick  Scougal, 
and  George  Haliburton,  seem  all  to  have  acted  with  similar  prudence. 

Among  the  new  appointments  made  by  the  Episcopal  Synod,  October,  1662,  it  was 
ordered  that  morning  and  evening  prayers  be  said, 

Especially  in  the  places  after  following,  viz.  : — In  the  townes  of  Old  and  New  Aberdeen,  in  Banff, 
in  Deer,  in  Peterhead,  in  Fraserburgh,  in  Kyntoir,  in  Inverurie,  in  Kir.cardyn  O'Neil,  in  Turriff,  in 


336  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Cullen,  in  Ellon,  in  Tarves,  in  Fordyce,  in  Monymusk,  in  Upper  Banchory  ;  and  that  the  Liturgie  in 
the  Old  Psalm-Book  be  used  and  practised. 

Four  years  later  the  people  of  Inverurie  had  to  he  exhorted  to  come  to  the  church 
for  prayers  at  the  ringing  of  the  hell;  which  instrument  had  in  1665,  heing  mended  at 
the  cost  of  12  shillings  Scots. 

At  the  same  Synod  of  1662,  directions  weTe  framed  for  the  guidance  of  Readers. 
These  officials,  a  heritage  of  the  Reformation  difficulties,  had  evidently  continued 
to  be  employed  in  some  parishes  since  ever  they  were  had  recourse  to  at  the  Reformation, 
albeit  the  zealous  Covenanters  set  their  faces  against  them,  and  the  minister  of  Towie 
got  himself  sharply  rebuked  by  the  Synod,  in  1657,  for  asking  leave  to  employ 
one.  The  Reader  was  directed  to  use  a  form  of  prayer,  including  the  Lord's  Prayer 
and  the  Apostles'  Creed,  and  to  read  portions  from  both  the  Old  and  New  Testaments, 
and  to  conclude  with  the  Ten  Commandments.  If  there  was  no  Reader,  the  minister 
was  instructed  to  read  the  Scripture  himself.  The  Reader  was  not  to  pronounce 
the  blessing  on  the  Lord's  Day,  except  when  the  minister  was  "absent.  There  was, 
also,  added  to  the  ordinary  worship  several  religious  festivals,  to  wit,  for  the  King's 
Restoration  and  his  Nativity,  and  for  the  deliverance  of  King  James  from  the  Gun- 
powder Plot. 

Conformity  to  the  suddenly  changed  Ecclesiastical  order  was  apparently  quite  as 
difficult  to  accomplish  as  it  had  been  under  the  Covenant.  The  very  same  prohibitions 
had  to  be  issued  against  deposed  ministers  continuing  to  discharge  ministerial  functions ; 
and  precisely  the  same  state  of  matters  presented  itself  within  the  parishes,  the  people, 
with  passive  resistance,  harbouring  and  employing  their  old  ministers. 

In  the  first  freshness  of  Diocesan  ordinances,  they  must  have  been  carried  out  in 
some  cases  with  impressment.  The  minister  of  Kemnay,  Dr.  Willox,  thus  records  how 
he  guided  his  congregation  through  the  new  forms  : 

1062,  Nov.  23.— Said  day  conform  to  the  Act  and  ordinance  of  the  provinciall  assemblie,  The 
lord's  prayer,  the  creed  and  the  ten  commandments  war  rehearsed  befor  the  prayerbefor  sermon;  and 
in  the  prayer  after  sermon,  the  king  was  prayed  for,  as  supream  (under  God),  above  all  persons  both 
in  causes  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  within  his  dominions  ;  also,  after  the  singing  of  the  psalm  when 
Glore  was  sung  to  the  persons  of  the  trinite,  all  did  stand. 

Lykewayes .the  said  day  the  minister  did  intimate  to  the  people,  that  in  tynie  of  prayer  the 
people  should' bow  their  knees,  and  they  that  could  not  conveneentlie  bow  their  knees  should  stand. 

STATE  OF  SOCIETY  AFTER  16(!0. 

The  Kirk-Sessiou  records  of  the  17th  century  did  much  towards  fulfilling  the 
historical  function  now  discharged  by  the  newspaper  press ;  preserving  a  great  deal  of 
what  is  now  valuable  as  illustrative  of  the  manners  and  social  life  of  the  period.  The 
records  of  Inverurie,  Kemnay,  Oyne,  and  Monymusk,  for  the  latter  part  of  that  century 
exhibit  the  ordinary  habits  of  the  people ;  and  also  the  mode,  so  different  from  that 
now  obtaining,  in  which  works  of  public  utility  were  provided  for. 

The  harsh  Church  discipline,  derived  from  the  rough  penances  of  Roman  Catholic 


State  of  Society  after  1660.  337 

times  was  still  tolerated  ;  tlie  long  continuance  of  it  under  all  the  successive  Churches 
testifies  to  the  bluntness  of  feeling  upon  moral  objects,  which  the  history  of  the  period 
otherwise  demonstrates  ;  and  is  an  example  of  how  slowly  an  elevated  public  opinion  can 
be  called  into  existence.  Sexual  licentiousness  which  degraded  priest  and  people  before 
the  fall  of  the  Eomish  Church  in  Britain,  left  its  taint  a  heritage  to  several  generations. 

The  crimes  of  adultery,  incest,  and  seemingly  habitual  unchastity,  appear  in  all 
ranks  of  society — calling  for  so  strong-handed  putting  to  shame,  that  every  Sunday 
exhibited  piteous  sights  at  the  doors  of  Churches,  and  for  the  extreme  measure  also 
of  excommunication,  which  at  that  time  was  akin  to  outlawry,  or  rather  ostracism.  The 
disregard  of  the  sacredness  of  the  day  of  worship,  partly  encouraged  by  the  tradition  of 
the  holiday-making  of  ancient  times,  continued  extremely  difficult  to  suppress.  The 
carrying  on  of  manufactures,  fishings,  and  ordinary  agricultural  employments  on  the 
Lord's  day,  called  forth  one  of  the  first  Acts  of  Parliament  under  Charles  II.,  and  a 
subsequent  Act  appointing  a  special  magistracy  to  prosecute  for  such  offences.  The 
delations-  for  "  Breach  of  Sabbath,"  which  appear  in  the  Session  records,  sometimes 
descended  to  things  trifling  in  themselves,  but  which  were  taken  cognisance  of,  it  is 
likely,  as  symptons  of  a  disordered  state  of  public  sentiment.  In  Kemnay,  repeated 
complaints  appear  about  "  watering  and  bleaching  of  clothes  "  on  Sunday.  Drying 
malt  was  another  common  offence  ;  likewise  "  hummelling  of  corns,"  removing  a  plough 
from  one  bit  of  land  to  another,  rude  acts  of  "  striking,  bluiding,  and  reviling  one 
another  on  the  Lord's  day,"  but,  in  the  hands  of  unreasonable  ministers,  such  actions 
also  as  putting  up  at  six  in  the  morning  some  peats  that  had  fallen  from  a  peat  stack. 
The  holiday-making  to  which  part  of  the  Sunday  had  been  devoted  before  the  Reforma- 
tion, was  not  obliterated,  and  foot-ball  on  that  day  had  to  be  interdicted  again  and  again 
in  different  parishes.  Much  restraint  had  to  be  attempted  upon  the  indecent  disorder, 
common  in  some  parishes,  of  remaining  outside  the  Church  during  the  reading  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  leaving  the  Church  at  any  time  during  the  service— largely  before  the 
benediction.  Some  ministers  afforded  an  example  to  the  people  of  want  of  respect  for 
ordinances — neglecting  for  years  to  celebrate  the  Communion ;  but  in  Kemnay,  the 
minister  entered  frequent  complaints  in  the  Session  minutes,  tmtt  wha»  the  bell  was 
rung,  after  the  interval  allowed  between  forenoon  and  afternoon  service,  he  sat  in  the 
pulpit  waiting  for  a  congregation  which  did  not  appear. 

As  had  been  the  case  during  the  Covenant,  the  parish  Churches  were  made  the 
receiving  offices  for  collecting  the  funds  required  for  miscellaneous  public  purposes 
over  the  kingdom,  notably  the  building  of  bridges  and  harbours,  the  relief  of  foreign 
refugees,  especially  when  they  professed  to  be  suffering  for  religion's  sake,  the  help  of 
ousted  ministers  and  their  widows,  and  not  unfrequently  the  redemption  of  sailors  from 
the  hands  of  Algerinc  pirates. 


43 


333  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

PAROCHIAL  INCIDENTS. 

Kemnay,  1661,  Aug. — Ordered  that  new  parishioners  present  their  testimonials  within  fifteen 
days  of  coming  to  the  parish,  and  no  one  to  reset  those  who  do  not. 

December  15.  —Intimation  made  that  William  Forbes,  natural  son  to  the  Laird  of  Leslie,  was 
excommunicated  for  murthering  Kincowsay. 

1662,  March  16. — The  Minister  intended  beginning  of  afternoon  preaching,  but  few  or  none  did 
stay. 

May  29. — Thursday— observed  by  prayer  and  preaching  in  remembrance  of  his  Majesty's  joyful 
birth. 

1663,  Sept.  13. — No  sermon,  the  minister  not  being  at  home,  being  necessitate  thereto;  but 
he  preached  the  same  day  at  St.  Bryde's  Church,  the  minister's  wyffe  thereof  having  departed  this 
life  the  day  before. 

Inverurie,  1664,  April  10. —It  is  ordained  ther  be  no  playing  at  the  ball  on  the  Sabbath  day,  and 
those  to  be  censured  that  played. 

Kemnay,  April  10. — The  holy  Communion  was  celebrate  with  all  reverence  and  humility, 
and  the  text,  Psalm  xxii.  26  in  the  forenoon,  and  in  the  middle  day  ;  and,  in  the  afternoon,  a  sermon 
of  thanksgiving  upou  the  same  text  till  fyve  hours  in  the  afternoon. 

April  1 2.  —  Jean  Hutcheon  having  been  at  the  presbyterie,  was  by  them  ordered  to  satisfie  as  an 
adultress,  and  did  stand  at  the  kirk  door  betwixt  the  ringing  of  the  second  and  third  bell  in  sackcloth  ; 
and  thereafter  in  sackloth,  at  the  pillar  fit,  till  the  text  was  read  ;  and  thereafter  appeared  at  the 
public  place  of  repentance  in  sackcloth  pro  prima,  thejougs  being  about  her  craigall  the  time  she  stood 
at  the  pillar  fit — she  being  always  barefooted. 

July  11. — The  minister  regretit  that  the  people  resortit  not  tymouslie  to  the  kirk,  nothwith- 
standing  of  an  act  made  thereanent ;  whereupon  the  former  act  was  renewed,  bearing  that  the  first 
sermon  should  preciselie  begin  at  ten  hours  ;  and  that  after  the  first  sermon  was  endit,  there  should  be 
reading  of  the  Scriptures  betwixt  the  second  and  third  bell,  before  the  beginniug  of  the  afternoon 
sermon. 

Sept.  18. — No  sermon,  because  the  minister  had  been  written  by  letter  to  visit  Mr.  Arthur  Ore 
(Culsalmond),  on  his  death-bed  ;  who  departed  this  life,  that  same  day. 

Oyne,  1664,  October. — Elders  appointed  to  inspect  and  see  if  any  persons  were  in  the  churchyard 
during  the  time  of  the  reading  : — George  Scott  of  the  Mill  of  Ardowne,  for  October  yth  and  16th  ; 
James  Anderson  in  Ordoine,  October  23rd  and  30th  ;  John  Meldrum  at  Milne  of  Buchanstone,  Nov.  6 
and  13  ;  Patrick  Martane  in  Westhall,  Nov.  20  and  27  ;  Alexander  Martane  in  Nether  Buchanstone, 
December  4  and  11,  and  Walter  Anderson  in  Craigwell,  Dec.  18  and  25  : — 

Synod,  October. — That  the  Lord's  day  be  exactlie  keeped  and  all  attend  the  reading  and  hearing 
of  the  Word  before  sermon,  and  none  depart  from  church  before  pronouncing  of  the  blessing,  and  that 
visitors  for  everie  part  of  the  paroche  be  appointed  be  the  ministers  for  visiting  taverns  and  ail  houses  ; 
That  there  be  no  excessive  drinking,  nor  the  people  continue  tipling  in  those  places  ;  But  that  all 
diligent  people  resort  to  their  own  houses  for  going  about  their  familie  duties,  suitable  to  the  holiness 
of  the  day  ;  that  their  be  no  bargaining,  feeing  of  servaudis,  or  other  secular  exercise  gone  about  on 
that  day,  and  that  notice  be  taken  of  such  as  travel  on  the  Lord's  day. 

Collection  recommended  from  everie  parish,  for  two  young  Poloniane  students  who  live  in  Aber- 
deen, who  stand  in  much  need  of  charitable  help,  having  left  their  own  countrey,  being  troubled 
for  the  profession  of  the  true  Protestant  religune. 

Return  of  value  of  stipends  ordered,  in  order  to  a  tax  by  Parliament  for  the  additional  help  of 
universities.     The  Bishop  promised  to  make  the  tax  as  little  burdensome  as  possible. 

1665,  Synod,  April. — Collection  recommended  for  the  Bridge  of  Dye. 

Inverurie,  Sept.  10. — Intimation  of  a  fast  to  be  keepit  on  13th  of  this  month,  Wednesday 
next,  and  that  for  supplicating  the  Lord  on  behalf  of  the  city  of  London,  and  other  adjacent  villages, 
groaning  for  the  time  under  the  sad  burden  of  the  pestilence. 

Synod,  Oct. —Collection  recommended  to  rectify  the  School  of  Banchory. 

Oct.  18.— Complaint  be  Mr.  William  Forbes,  Minister  at  Inverurie,  against  George  Ferguson  in 
Ardtannies,  for  wronging  and  injuring  him  upon  the  Lord's  day,  whilst  he  was  about  his  duetie  at 
divyne  service.  Ordered  be  the  Lord  Bishop  and  Synode  that  George  Ferguson  evidence  his  repentance 
publicklie  in  sackcloath,  on  one  day  at  his  own  parish  kirk  at  Inverurie. 

Inverurie,  Dec.  31. — Alex.  Roch  delait  for  drying  malt  on  the  Sabbath. 

1666,  Inverurie,  April  1. — Robert  Clerk  to  make  satisfaction  before  pulpit,  for  making  trouble 
in  the  Church  in  tyme  of  devyn  worship. 

Synod,  May. — Collection  recommended  for  the  harbours  of  lnverkeithing  and  Kilburnie. 


Parochial  Incidents.  339 


Kemnay,  25th  May. — The  Minister  publicklie  out  of  the  pulpit  regrated  the  gross  brack  of 
Sabboth  in  the  summer  time,  of  sundries  who  was  iu  use  of  wattering  and  bleaching  their  cloaths  on 
the  Sabboth  day. 

Oyne,  Dec.  23. — Proclamation  read  for  suppression  of  the  rebels  latelie  risen  in  the  west. 

1667,  Synod,  April. — Complaint  made  of  several  deposed  ministers  and  others  who  had 
deserted  their  charge,  not  only  not  attending  ordinances  in  the  parishes  where  they  reside,  but  assem- 
bling the  people  in  private  conventicles. 

1668,  Oyne,  April  12. — The  Minister  declared  that  Alexander  Gordon  of  Torreis,  and  Ann  Leith 
his  bed-fellow,  came  to  him  with  a  maid  child  which  had  been  laid  down  at  their  barn  door. 

Synod,  Oct. — Sentence  of  excommunication,  approved  by  the  Bishop,  on  John  Gordon  of  Bracko, 
suspect  of  adulterie  and  apostacie  to  poperie  ;  Margaret  Auchinclech,  spouse  to  said  John  Gordon, 
Margaret  Seton,  spous  to  Alexander  Pringle,  William  Grant  of  Corglass,  apostates  to  poperie  ;  Alex- 
ander Jaffray  and  James  Urquhart  in  Inverurie,  apostates  to  quakerism. 

The  Synod  directed  the  Presb.  of  Garioch  to  put  Mr.  Lunan,  minister  of  Daviot,  in  mind  of  his  duty; 
the  visitors  having  reported  neglect  of  the  ministration  of  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  in 
Daviot. 

1670,  Synod,  21  April. — Eecommendation  by  the  Lords  of  Privy  Council  read,  that  the  Bishops 
make  exact  lists  of  all  perverts  from  the  Protestant  faith  to  popery,  that  they  may  be  excommunicated. 

Collection  ordered  for  help  to  the  Burgh  of  Dundee,  to  repair  its  bulwark  and  harbour  ;  also  for 
bridge  over  the  Don  at  Towie,  and  one  over  the  Ythan  at  Seggat. 

1670,  Kemnay,  August  20. — Intimation  to  all  who  have  children  and  little  servants,  who  are  in 
any  wise  capable  of  instruction,  cause  them  to  frequent  the  catechiseings  that  they  may  hear  and  learn. 

1671,  Inverurie,  Feb.  19. — The  session  rind  that  some  disorderlie  persons,  among  others  Marjory 
Gib  and  Margaret  C'urrie,  goes  out  of  church  before  public  worship  be  ended. 

Oyne,  Feb.  26. — Intimation  of  a  collection  to  be  taken  up  for  a  town  in  the  west,  called 
Kilmarnock,  having  received  prejudice  by  fyre;  and  being  recommended  by  the  presbyterie  for  that 
effect. 

Inverurie,  April  16. — William  Ferguson,  son  to  George  Ferguson,  and  Alexander  Ferguson,  son 
to  Margaret  Currie,  delait  to  have  profaned  the  Sabbath  by  playing  at  foot-ball. 

Synod,  April. — Presbytery  of  Garioch  ordered  to  use  their  best  endeavours  for  restricting  of 
Quakerism,  and  meetings  of  quakers,  within  the  parochin  of  Monkegie  and  there  about. 

For  securing  the  right  of  widows,  minors,  and  orphans,  ministers  ordered  to  prepare  registers  of 
deaths,  and  give  extracts  when  required  by  the  Commissary,  and  to  deny  marriage  to  any  widow  or 
widower,  until  the  will  of  the  deceased  be  confirmed. 

Oyne,  May  7. — Next  Lord's  day  collection  to  be  taken  up  for  renewing  the  bridge  of  the  Gadie. 

June  4. — No  sermon  to  be  next  Sabbath,  the  minister  going  to  assist  his  father  at  the  Com- 
munion in  Kintore. 

Oct.  8. — Fast  to  be  keepit  next  Lord's  day,  because  of  the  stormes  of  wind  and  rain — the  comes 
laid,  and  much  suffring  and  more  lyke  to  suffer. 

1673,  March,  23. — Appointed  that  Patrick  Mortimer,  elder,  wait  next  Lord's  day,  betwixt  the  second 
and  third  bells,  and  observe  who  brought  dogs,  and  take  the  clip  and  draw  them  to  the  Church  style; 
the  owners  of  the  dogs  to  satisfle  as  Sabbath  breakers. 

Synod,  Oct. — All  persons  who  go  to  wells  for  superstitious  design,  to  be  censured  by  their 
ministers. 

Inverurie,  Oct.  9. — Fast  intimated,  because  of  the  great  rains  which  are  continuing  upon  the 
comes. 

1674,  Oyne,  January  31. — No  sermon  because  of  the  renewed  fall  of  the  church,  and  because  of 
the  same  there  would  be  no  sermon  at  the  foresaid  place  until  3rd  of  May  following. 

Inverurie,  Dec.  6. — William  Robertson,  John  Macrobert,  younger,  William  Anderson,  Walter 
and  George  Porters,  John  Willson,  George  Mearns,  younger,  Patrick  Sharp,  and  Robert  Ferguson, 
younger,  are  delait  to  have  played  at  the  cairds  on  Sabbath  last  by-past. 

1675,  Kemnay,  Feb.  28.  — The  said  day  the  minister  reportit  that  Elspet  Crombie,  spouse  to 
Alexr.  Glennie,  in  Aquhythie,  at  the  desire  of  Margrat  Cupar,  hade  made  a  grave  before  her  dwelling- 
house,  and  that  Margrat  Cupar  under  silence  of  the  nicht  had  brocht  furth  a  child,  which  child  being 
long  diseaset  belonging  to  the  said  Elspet  Crombie,  and  offerit  the  child  to  the  grave,  and  not  long 
thereafter  the  child  which  was  presentit  to  the  grave  belonging  to  Elspet  Crombie,  and  also  Margrat 
Cupar  her  own  young  child,  were  both  removit  by  death.  And  Elspet  Crombie  being  present  in  the 
church  was  causit  appear  before  the  sessione,  and  there  confessit  she  did  cast  up  a  laile  at  Margrat 
Cupel's  desyre  besyde  her  dwelling-house,  and  the  child  was  offerrit  to  the  grave,  and  affirmed  that 
Margrat  Cupar  said  that  the  like  was  done  to  herselfe,  and  that  the  child  would  either  mend  or  paire 


3 -tO  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Gariooh. 

shortlie  thereafter.  March  14. — Margaret  Cupar  compeirit  and  declared  that  Elspet  Crombie  sent  for 
her  under  silence  of  the  nicht,  and  desyrit  her  to  carie  furth  her  child,  which  she  did,  and  presentit 
the  child  to  the  grave  and  left  the  child  there,  and  said,  "God  send  it  health  or  heaven  ". 

Synod,  Oct. — Diverse  complaints  and  regraitts  given  into  the  Synod  by  several  brethern  that 
some,  under  pretence  of  trances  or  familiaritie  with  spirits,  by  going  with  these  spirits  commonlie 
called  the  fairies,  hath  spoken  reproachfullie  of  some  persones. 

1676,  April  19. — It  being  represented  to  the  Lord  Bishop  and  Synod  that  there  are  thrie  noble- 
men of  his  Majestie's  Privie  Council  commissionat  and  empowered  to  meet  at  Ellon  on  Tuesday  nixt 
to  notice  the  conventicles  of  Quakers,  Non-conformists,  and  Papists,  some  brethern  are  appointed  to 
attend  and  give  information. 

Oct.  10. — James  Watt,  in  Old  Bourtie,  delete  to  the  Synod  for  incest  and  adultery,  and  Alex- 
ander Graham,  in  Bethelny,  for  adultery. 

It  is  found  too  frequently,  in  many  congregations,  that  some  persons  withdraw  from  communion 
in  their  parish  churches  because  of  violence  and  discord  with  their  neighbours,  while  yet  they  refuse  to 
come  to  friendly  reconciliation.     The  lesser  excommunication  to  be  inflicted. 

1677,  Oyne,  January  14. — James  Taillore,  servitour  to  John  Lcith  of  Newlands ;  James  Wire, 
servitour  to  John  Meldrum,  at  Milne  of  Westhall  ;  James  Wilson,  servitour  to  John  Erskine,  brother- 
germane  to  the  laird  of  Pittodrie,  and  Grizell  Mackrcll,  in  Nether  Cardeane,  being  accused  of  drinking 
themselves  drunk  on  Sabbath  night  last  by-past  in  John  Browne's  house  in  Over  Westhall,  evidence 
was  led.  James  Cruickshank  coming  in  to  the  said  John  Browne's  house,  accidentallie,  did  hear 
James  Taillour  and  James  Wire  making  rymes  upon  Grisell  Mackrell  and  James  Wilson  drew  ane 
dirk  and  vunded  James  Tailloirc's  head  with  it,  and  he  saw  James  Taillore  have  ane  pistoll  in  his  on 
hand  and  ane  drawn  dirk  in  his  other  hand,  with  which  dirk  he  made  offering  to  stab  James  Wire, 
and  that  James  Wire  was  bled  in  the  face.  Janet  Cruickshank  did  see  James  Taillore  have  ane  pistoll 
in  his  hand,  wherewith  he  did  strike  James  Wire  in  the  face  to  the  effusion  of  his  blood.  The  wit- 
i  esses  declare  that  Grisell  Mackrell  was  beastlie  drank. 

Kemnay,  Aug  1. — Act  of  Presbytery  read  against  abuses  of  public  marriages — discharging  all 
promiscuous  dancing,  and  that  the  master  of  the  feast  lay  down  two  dollars  in  pledge,  that  if  there 
be  anie  abuse  be  any  persons  the  bridegroom  and  bryde  hath  not  invited,  the  master  of  the  feast  his 
pledge  sail  fall,  and  anie  abuse  committed  be  anie  person  invited  be  either  of  the  parties,  then  they 
sail  pay  for  it.     [The  Synod  left  this  matter  to  the  discretion  of  individual  ministers.] 

Nov. — Collection  for  repairing  the  bridge  of  the  Blackburn. 

Kemnay,  1678,  Feb.  3. — Patrick  Christie  fallen — 1st,  with  a  woman  whom  he  married  ;  2nd,  with 
a  woman  he  did  not  marry  ;  and  3rd,  with  a  woman  he  purposes  to  marry  ;  ordained  by  the  Presbytery 
to  appear  two  Sundays  before  the  congregation  in  the  ordinarie  habit  of  fornicators,  and  on  third  in 
sackcloth,  and  then  the  minister  may  marry  him  at  his  convenience. 

Monymusk,  Aug.  18. — The  said  day  Master  John  Burnet,  late  minister  of  Culross,  was 
receaved  Minister  of  Monymusk. by  Mr.  James  Straehan,  moderator  of  the  Presbyterie  of  Gareoch. 

Dec.  15. — Intimation  made  of  a  fast  to  be  kept  upon  Wednesday,  18th  instant,  for  the  defeating 
of  that  most  horrid  papist  plott  against  King  and  country,  and  all  the  traitorous  designs  that  was 
already  set  on  foot  or  might  yet  be  hatched  against  the  King's  life  or  peace  of  the  country. 

Dec.  29. — Kobert  Coutts,  Alexander  Thomson,  James  Mcston,  and  James  Eeid  were  lifted  to  be 
elders,  and  exhorted  to  circumspection  of  their  own  life,  and  inspection  of  the  lifes  of  the  people,  and 
took  the  oath  dc  fideli. 

1679,  Kemnay,  March  28. — A  collection  intimated  by  order  of  Council  for  the  relief  of  some 
Grecian  priests,  and  John  Atchison,  skipper  of  the  "  Anna  "  of  Pitenween,  slaves  to  the  Turks. 

Sept.  19. — Collection  by  order  of  Council  for  building  a  bridge  at  Inverness  and  a  harbour  at 
Portsoy. 

1681,  Kemnay,  Sept.  19. — Arthur  Birnie,  son  of  Mr.  George  Birnie,  schoolmaster  in  Kintor,  was 
paid  18  sh.  Scots  for  reading  and  precenting  upon  Friday,  the  day  of  preparation,  also  upon  the  Com- . 
munion  day  and  day  of  thanksgiving,  becaifse  there  was  no  schoolmaster  at  the  time. 

1682,  Monymusk,  Nov.  5. — There  being  need  and  desire  for  building  a  bridge  over  the  burn  of 
Tone,  and  many  parishioners  willing  to  contribute  it  was  appointed  to  speak  to  John  Forbes  of  Mony- 
musk about  it.  The  laird  consulted  Daniel  Eoss,  mason  in  Eight,  who  thought  it  might  be  done, 
provided  all  the  people  would  concur  in  it.  The  elders  found  all  the  people,  tenants,  sub-tenants,  and 
servants  willing,  but  considering  their  contributions  would  be  insufficient  the  session  resolved  to  give 
100  merks  out  of  the  box,  which  Mr.  John  Gellie,  late  minister,  had  mortified,  as  was  said,  to  that 
effect,  together  with  the  sum  34  lb.  14  sh.  and  8  p.  making  in  all  £101  8sh.  Scots. 

16S3,  Oyne,  March  18. — George  Harper  and  William  Straehan,  being  accused  of  grinding  malt  on 
the  Lord's  day,  George  Harper  confessed  that  it  being  a  speat  of  water  he  let  it  on  lest  the  dam  should 


Quakerism.  341 


break,  and  William  Strachan  said  that  the  water  come  down  and  caused  the  mill  to  go  about,  and_he 
lifting  up  the  wedges  she  ground  the  malt. 

Kemuay,  March  25. — No  sermon,  the  minister  being  called  to  visit  the  laird  of  Fetternear,  being 
in  danger  of  death. 

Monymusk,  Aug.  26. — The  discovery  of  the  damnable  plot  against  the  King  was  read,  and  the 
next  Sunday  appoiuted  for  thanksgiving. 

QUAKERISM. 

Quakerism  made  its  appearance  in  the  Garioch  in  1663,  and  was  successfully  pro- 
pagated by  the  second  Alexander  Jaffray,  who  has  already  been  noticed  in  various  con- 
nections. In  his  interesting  Diary  he  dates  his  first  ideas  of  Nonconformity  to  conver- 
sations with  Cromwell,  with  whom  he  was  very  well  acquainted  and  held  in  high  esteem 
and  employment.  Jaffray's  father-in-law,  Andrew  Cant,  had  got  over  his  own  short^fit 
of  sectarianism,  and  was  bitterly  opposed  to  his  relative's  new  views.  These  came  under 
public  notice  in  1663,  when  Jaffray  being  in  Inverurie,  was  found  to  be  a  dishaunter  of 
ordinances.  He  was  processed  for  it  in  common  form,  but  paid  no  attention  to  the 
Session's  citation,  and,  in  due  progress,  his  case  came  before  the  Synod.  The  Bishop 
tried  mild  measures  for  a  time  with  him,  but  at  last  sentence  of  excommunication  passed 
upon  him  in  1665. 

Among  those  seduced  into  Quakerism  at  that  time  were  the  widow  of  Dr.  William 
Johnston,  the  Professor  of  Mathematics,  and  his  daughter  Elizabeth,  whose  second  hus- 
band, Mr.  George  Keith,  a  native  of  the  town  of  Aberdeen,  was  a  ringleader  in  the  new 
sect,  and  a  personal  friend  of  the  celebrated  Quaker,  William  Penn.  Keith,  like 
Andrew  Cant  and  others,  who  for  a  time  sympathised  with  the  prevailing  separative 
sentiment,  became  afterwards  strongly  opposed  to  it.  He  was  in  his  later  years  a 
clergyman  in  the  Church  of  England. 

In  1667,  an  Act  of  the  Privy  Council  was  issued  for  the  suppression  of  Popery  and 
Quakerism  ;  and  the  Presbyteries  were  obliged  to  give  up  the  names  of  all  suspected  per- 
sons. The  conjunction  is  instructive  as  to  the  danger  apprehended  from  the  new  Non- 
conformists. It  was  in  all  likelihood  by  the  influence  of  Alexander  Jaffray  that 
Quakerism  became  infectious  in  Monkegy,  where  a  chapel  for  that  profession  still  exists, 
though  there  are  but  few  local  frequenters  of  it.  In  that  same  year  Sir  John  Keith, 
perhaps  annoyed  that  his  own  parish  should  exhibit  the  worst  condition  of  disloyalty  of 
any  in  the  neighbourhood,  seized  some  of  the  Friends  and  got  them  imprisoned  in  Baillie 
Johnston's  new  Tolbooth  in  Inverurie ;  from  which  Sir  John  carried  them  to  Aberdeen 
whence  the  magistrates  sent  them  under  guard  to  Edinburgh. 

In  1669,  a  fast  was  appointed  by  the  Synod,  "because  of  the  desertion  of  the 
truth  by  so  many  in  this  part  of  the  land  "  ;  and,  in  1671,  the  Presbytery  of  Garioch 
were  directed  to  use  their  best  endeavours  for  restraining  of  Quakerism  and  meetings  of 
Quakers  in  the  Parochin  of  Monkegy  and  thereabout.  The  repressive  measures  failed, 
as  happened  in  the  case  of  the  more  extensive  nonconformity  of  Whiggish  Covenanters 
in  the  west   country.     In    1674  the  Synod  resolved,  because  of   "the  insolence  of 


342  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Quakers,"  to  represent  to  the  Sheriff  the  propriety  of  having  the  Act  of  Council  anent 
Conventicles  put  in  force. 

Inverurie  furnished  an  instance  to  which  the  phrase  about  insolence  is  sufficiently 
applicable.  James  Urquhart,  whose  name  appears  alongside  of  Alexander  Jaffray's  in 
the  list  of  excommunicates  in  1668,  was  apparently  Jaffray's  tenant  in  Ardtannies.  He 
was  in  Blackhall  formerly,  and  was  conjoint  in  a  proposal  for  purchasing  the  Davo  lands 
of  Inverurie  from  Alexander  Jaffray,  in  1662.  James  Urquhart,  with  his  wife  and  two 
other  persons,  Robert  Gordon  and  John  Robertson,  had  become  converts  of  Jaffray's. 
Urquhart  treated  all  the  citations  of  the  different  church  courts  with  contempt ;  but 
his  excommunication  was  made  much  of  by  the  party. 

In  Barclay's  Memoir  of  the  People  called  Quakers  the  discipline  afterwards  exercised 
upon  Urquhart  is  treated  in  the  heroic  style  employed  in  records  of  modern  ecclesiasti- 
cal martyrdom  ;  and  the  Providence  of  God  is  introduced  as  specially  witnessing  for 
James  Urquhart  in  the  form  of  poetical  justice.  The  minister  of  Inverurie,  Mr.  William 
Forbes,  is  described  as  having  pronounced  the  sentence  of  excommunication  against  the 
dictates  of  his  conscience,  being  moved  thereto  by  fear  for  his  stipend ;  in  judicial 
recompense  of  which,  infidelity  to  the  truth  he  had  afterwards  to  pass  a  similar  sentence 
upon  his  daughter  for  the  same  cause,  and  died  in  the  pulpit  with  the  words  of  the 
anathema  issuing  from  his  mouth.  The  elements  of  this  pictorial  narrative  are  how- 
ever, as  it  appears,  not  to  be  found  anywhere  but  in  Barclay's  book. 

The  Bishop  who  had  to  preside  at  all  the  Synods  which  dealt  with  Quakerism  was 
Patrick  Scougal ;  described  as  big-eyed,  grey-haired,  tall  and  stooping,  and  of  a  very 
fearful  aspect.  He  had  previously  been  parson  of  Salton  in  Haddingtonshire,  and  be- 
came Bishop  of  Aberdeen  in  1661.  He  died,  of  asthma,  in  the  Chanonry,  Old  Aber- 
deen, in  1682  ;  but  the  Quakers  seem  not  to  have  considered  his  sufferings  a  visitation 
of  God  on  their  behalf. 

HERITORS  AND  THE  CHURCH. 

The  principle  that  now  recognises  "  public  burdens  "  as  a  just  debt,  chargeable  upon 
property,  had  to  be  originated  when  the  1 7th  century  had  run  its  course.  It  arose  by 
degrees  as  landed  property  repeatedly  changed  hands,  and  the  new  proprietors  became 
accustomed  to  the  fact,  that  in  buying  land  they  bought  it  with  burdens  attached  to  it, 
and  paid  a  smaller  price  in  consequence.  Public  burdens  came  into  necessity  when 
the  revenues  of  the  Church  were  confiscated,  which  had  previously  provided  for 
the  poor,  and  for  education,  and  for  the  erection  and  upholding  of  religious  buildings ; 
and  formed  but  a  trifling  charge  upon  the  rents  of  the  great  estates,  which  bishops  on  the 
eve  of  the  Reformation  had  conveyed  to  their  most  deserving  or  pressing  supporters,  or 
which  after  the  Reformation  were  acquired  as  cheaply  by  the  most  powerful  or  astute 
of  those  who  went  into  that  national  revolution  with  some  of  the  views  of  speculators. 


Heritors  and  the  Church.  34,3 


Under  the  sentiment  that  had  its  origin  in  the  early  benefactions,  whereby  wealthy 
persons  originally  built  and  endowed  churches,  monasteries,  schools,  and  hospitals, 
the  clergy  themselves,  who  were  in  many  cases  rich  because  of  the  accumulations  of 
said  benefactions,  built,  at  their  own  cost,  the  great  cathedrals — the  ornate  parish 
churches,  and  also  other  works  of  public  utility,  such  as  bridges — as  Aberdeenshire 
owed  its  first  University  and  the  Bridge  of  Dee  to  Bishops  Elphinstone  and  Dunbar. 
The  source  of  such  public  works  was  gone  after  the  lands  and  their  rents,  which  used  to 
furnish  the  cost  of  them,  fell  into  the  hands  of  laymen  new  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  ample 
means  and  not  trained,  like  the  displaced  clergy,  to  any  sense  of  stewardship  accom- 
panying the  gifts  they  had  received.  Just  as  the  first  lay  holders  of  ecclesiastical  lands 
had  agreed  to  make  light  of  Knox's  proposal  that  legal  provision  should  at  once  be  made 
for  the  poor  and  for  common  education,  so  subsequent  legal  enactments  for  schools,  which 
came  to  be  felt  necessary,  were  systematically  evaded  for  a  century  and  a  half,  and  a 
compulsory  maintenance  for  the  parochial  clergy  was  the  repeated  subject  of  enactment, 
until  the  stipends  were  extorted  with  approximation  to  sufficiency  and  regularity  only 
under  Charles  I.  The  same  passive  resistance  to  parting  with  any  of  the  rents  of  the  new 
gotten  estates,  to  build  or  even  repair  churches  and  provide  decently  for  the  ordinances 
of  Communion,  went  on  through  both  Episcopacies  and  the  intervening  Presbyterianism. 
The  bishops  after  1662,  had  to  address  themselves  with  all  the  power  they  could  com- 
mand, to  get  scandalous  dilapidation  of  churches,  manses,  and  glebes  rectified,  whilst 
numerous  cases  occur  of  want  of  pulpit  bibles  and  communion  vessels,  or  even  covers 
for  the  tables. 

THE  KIRK  OF  INVERURIE. 

The  Kirk  of  Inverurie  at  the  time  had  a  history  illustrative  of  the  state  of  matters 
prevailing. 

In  the  last  half  of  the  year  of  "  the  happy  restoration  "  the  kirk-session  were  busy 

with  two  great  works — the  erection  of  a  sun-dial,  which  they  had  not  money  to  pay  for, 

and  the  new  thatching  of  the  kirk  which  was  approaching  absolute  ruin. 

1600,  Aug.  5. —It  is  condesended  betwixt  the  Session  and  William  Car  that  the  said  William 
Car  shall  hev  eight  merks  for  a  sun  diall.  The  Session  finding  no  way  for  payment  of  the  said  eight 
merks  without  a  contribution  to  that  effect,  thinks  it  fitt  that  the  next  Lord's  day  the  minister  make 
intimation  of  a  contribution  to  be,  the  next  Lord  s  day  following,  for  that  end. 

The  stuns  of  2  lbs.  2  s.  Scots,  and  1  lb.  Scots,  were  collected  on  the  two  following 

Sundays.     The  first  public  clock  in  Inverurie,  that  which  still  makes  note  of  time  under 

the  belfry  of  the  parish  church,  was  made  by  Charles  Lunan,  Aberdeen,  in  1774.     It 

was  purchased  and  upheld  by  subscription,  and  the  constitution  of  the  annually  elected 

clock  committee,  with  a  fine  prescience  of  the  days  of  self-government,  provided  that 

not  more  than  two  of  the  magistrates  should  be  members. 

The  following  repairs  in  1660  hid  the  frailties  of  the  kirk  roof  for  a  few  years  : — 

Oct.  28. — It  is  ordainit  that  ilk  pleugli  in  the  parishe  bring  a  load  of  heather,  for  reparation  of 


344  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Gurloch. 

the  kirk,  againe  Wednesday  at  night  next,  tho  last  of  this  month,  and  deficients  herein  to  be  cited  to 

the  Presbetrie  to  anser  for  their  deficiencies  in  such  a  good  work. 

Among  the  ''  debursemeuts  "  of  the  kirk  treasurer  in  1660,  were  : — 

To  Mr.  James  Fergus,  for  putting  hedder  on  the  kirk,     .         .        .         .         .         .  7  sh 

Robert  Docker,  for  repairing  the  bell 4  merks. 

James  Fergus  again,  for  repairing  of  the  kirk. •.  12  sh. 

In  1667,  February  10,  the  kirk-session  desired  the  minister  to  apply  to  the  heritors 

in  the  terms  following  : — 

1667,  Feb.  17. — The  minister  reports  he  wreit  a  letter  as  he  was  desyrit  (by  minute  of  Feb.  10) 
to  the  heritors  and  wadsetters  of  the  lands  within  the  parishe,  anent  the  caire  of  the  place  for  publick 
worship,  desyring  them  to  come  and  view  the  same,  and  reports  that  in  obedience  to  the  said  de=yre 
they  came  ;  and  after  taking  a  view  of  the  said  place  for  publick  worship,  as  finding  the  dangerous 
poustare  the  place  was  in  for  the  tynie,  did  earnestlie  desyre  for  the  better  prevension  of  any  probable, 
prejudice  either  to  people  that  possibly  might  frequent  that  place  for  worship,  or  to  the  couples  that 
might  fall  uppon  a  suddent,  and  so  serve  for  no  more  guid  use,  or  daskes  that  might  be  bruised  be 
reason  of  that  fall — that  the  minister  and  session  would  be  pleased  to  advance,  furth  and  out  of  the 
common  guid  so  much  monies  to  workmen  as  might  be  their  hyre  for  taking  aff  the  heather  off  of  the 
ruife  of  the  said  place  for  publick  worship,  and  setting  the  couples  straight. 

The  session,  gravly  thinking  upon  the  said  desyr  of  the  heritors,  hav  thought  fitt  that  some 
workmen  be  condescended  with,  and  that  moneys  be  advanced  to  them  for  that  effect,  according  as  in  a 
prudentiall  way  they  can  be  agreid  with . 

Feb.  24. — The  minister  reports  that  upon  Monday  last  in  the  morning,  he  agreed  with  Andrew 
"Walker,  James  Tailor,  and  Patrick  Banzie,  for  taking  off  the  heather  off  the  place  for  publick  worship 
and  getting  the  couples  straight,  to  give  them  in  the  name  of  the  session,  sixten  marks,  <rrof.  8  marks 
given  in  hand. 

The  Collector's  accounts  for  the  year  illustrate  the  undertaking  more  expressively. 

Given  to  Margaret  Curry,  relict  of  James  Fergus,  for  his  repairing  a  little  of  the  kirke,        11  sh. 

To  James  Tailor,  wright,  for  going  in  to  the  towne  of  Aberdeen  to  ineit  witli  the  Laird  of  barra 
for  procuring  libertie  to  buy  some  of  the  old  trees  qlk  was  upon  the  kirk  of  Bourtie,  to  be  propes  for 
holding  up  the  kirk  of  Inverury,  its  walls,  . 12  sh. 

To  the  said  James  Tailor,  for  arleing  of  some  pieces  of  trees  belongiug  to  the  kirk  of  Bourtie  for 
forsd. 

Item  given  to  the  workmen  who  toke  the  heather  off  of  the  kirk  and  sett  the  couples 
straight, 8  merks. 

The  concern  expressed  by  the  heritors  and  wadsetters  equally  for  the  couples,  desks, 
and  possible  frequenters  of  that  place  of  worship,  is  fitly  accompanied  by  their  earnest 
desire  that  the  Kirk-Session  should  pay  for  the  unavoidable  repairs.  The  repetition  of 
such  cases  as  that  of  Inverurie  gave  rise,  in  1674,  to  an  order  by  the  Bishop  that  sums 
for  repairs,  taken  from  the  Common  Good,  should  be  repaid  at  the  next  stent. 

The  success  achieved  by  propping  the  Inverurie  kirk  walls  with  trees  taken  from 

the  kirk  of  Bourtie,  seems  to  have  been  as  small  as  the  difficulty  proved  great  of  getting 

anything  done  effectually.     The  Bishop  and  Synod  had  ultimately  to  interfere  ;  and  in 

October,   1668,   recommended  to   the  moderator   and   brethren   of   the  Presbytery  of 

Garioch  : — 

To  be  careful  in  looking  to  the  condition  of  the  Kirk  of  Inverurie  that  is  near  fallen,  and  for  that 
effect  to  call  (if  need  be)  for  the  assistance  of  the  next  adjacent  ministers  of  other  Presbyteries,  to  deal 
with  the  heritors  of  the  said  parochiu  for  repairing  the  said  kirk  again  with  all  diligence." 

The  kirk  seems  to  have  been  extensively  repaired,  if  not  rebuilt,  after  this,  and  the 

interior  re-arranged.    A  Presbytery  minute  of  date  3rd  Morch,  1669,  records  the  division 

of  the  church  agreed  upon  by  the  heritors,  under  the  superintendence  of  the  Presbytery, 

who  met  that  day  in  the  Tolbooth  of  Inverurie. 


Kirk  of  Inverurie.  345 


It  is  interesting  to  recall  the  arrangement  of  the  church  at  that  period.  It  stood 
East  and  West  on  the  north  part  of  the  churchyard,  having  the  door  apparently  in  the 
centre  of  the  south  wall,  the  pulpit  on  the  east  end,  a  loft  on  the  west  end  of  the  church, 
and  a  passage,  probably  extending  from  the  one  end  to  the  other.  The  graves  of  Mr. 
AVatt,  one  of  its  ministers  and  of  some  of  his  successors,  are  situated  at  the  west  end  of 
the  site  formerly  occupied  by  the  church. 

On  entering  the  church  the  first  dask,  or  pew,  on  the  south  wall  belonged  to  Sir 
John  Keith,  of  Keith-hall,  afterwards  Earl  of  Kintore.  It  had  before  the  repairs  been 
the  Council  seat.  The  Badifurrow  seat  adjoined  eastward ;  then  the  dask  of  Aquborties 
and  Conglass — having  six  feet  added  to  it  from  the  dask  belonging  to  Ardtannies,  the 
rest  of  which,  apparently  occupying  the  corner  on  the  left  hand  of  the  pulpit — belonged 
to  the  heritor  of  the  town  of  Ardtannies.  On  the  north-east  corner  was  the  Blackball  seat, 
and  adjoining  it,  along  the  north  wall,  those  of  Drimmies,  and  of  Oldtown  and  Netherton, 
the  property  of  the  laird  of  Balquhain.  The  Magistrates'  pew  was  in  the  centre  ;  then, 
apparently,  that  of  William  Ferguson,  proprietor  of  Burgh  Lands,  that  of  Baillie  John 
Johnston,  and  that  of  the  heirs  of  Mr.  James  Milne,  the  former  minister.  On  the  side 
of  the  door,  opposite  to  Sir  John  Keith's  seat,  it  would  seem  was  the  dask  of  Middleton 
and  Glascha,  at  that  time  belonging  to  John  Gordon  of  Braco.  The  rest  of  the  room, 
comprehending  all  the  west  "  gavell "  and  the  south  side  up  to  that  dask,  and  the  loft, 
was  appropriated  to  tenants  and  others  according  to  their  valuation. 

Twenty  years  later,  in  1698,  an  Act  of  the  Convention  of  Burghs  was  passed  res- 
pecting the  building  of  a  bulwark  to  defend  the  church  and  churchyard  of  Inverurie 
from  the  river  Don.  It  is  the  only  benevolence  Inverurie  bad  required  among  all  the 
public  works  done  by  miscellaneous  subscriptions  in  the  period. 

Sir  John  Keith's  right  to  a  dask  in  the  kirk  had  been  in  consequence  of  his  pur- 
chase of  the  Davo.  His  own  residence  at  Keith-ball  bears,  on  the  top  of  one  of  the 
windows,  the  date  1665. 

The  heritors  of  Inverurie  who  signed  the  Presbytery's  minute  of  agreement  divid- 
ing the  church  in  1669  were  : — 

Thomas  Forbes  (Aquhorthies),  John  Gordon  (Braco),  John  Johnston  (the  Burgh),  William 
C'halmer  (Drimmies),  William  Erskine  (Conglass),  Patrick  Leslie,  "  tor  my  father  "  (Balquhain),  A. 
Abercrombie,  (Blackball),  William  Ferguson,  elder,  and  William  Ferguson,  younger  (Badifurrow). 

Thomas  Forbes  of  Aquhorties  was  an  Edinburgh  advocate,  brother  to  the  laird  of 
Tolquhon.  The  minister  had  been  under  the  necessity  of  obtaining  letters  of  horning  in 
1668  against  the  heritors  for  their  not  up-putting  of  the  kirk.  On  23rd  June  of  that 
year,  the  Council  took  out  an  inhibition  against  his  putting  the  Burgh  heritors  to  the 
horn,  as  their  stent  of  600  rnerks  was  forthcoming.  If  the  proportion  of  parochial 
assessment  paid  by  the  Burgh  was  then  the  same  as  in  all  later  stents  of  which  details 
remain,  the  cost  of  the  kirk  works  decerned  for  had  been  3000  merks. 

Some  repairs  were  executed  upon  the  "minister's  houses  "  before  June,  1678.     It 

44 


346  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

must  have  been  very  shortly  before  the  death  of  Mr.  Forbes,  as  we  find  by  a  minute, 
8th  August,  1679,  that  his  widow  had  been  warned  "to  flitt  and  remove  herself  out  of 
the  houses  and  manse  at  the  term  of  Whitsunday  last  bypast,"  and  was  summoned  for 
disobeying  the  citation. 

THE  MANSE. 

A  country  manse  is  generally  a  fair  example  of  what  was  accounted  substantial,  in 
the  matter  of  domestic  accommodation,  in  the  neighbourhood,  at  the  time  when  it  was 
built.  We  have  a  description  of  the  manse  of  Inverurie  as  it  stood  at  the  end  of  the 
incumbency  of  Mr.  Forties's  successor ;  and  as  manses  generally  attain  to  the  age  of  a 
hundred  years  at  least,  we  may  believe  it  to  have  been  the  manse  of  Mr.  James  Mill.  It 
was  what  would  now  be  known  as  a  half-house  cottage,  roofed  with  turf,  and  having  its 
windows  secured  with  iron  stanchions  ;  and  it  stood  where  the  parish  church  now  has 
its  place. 

The  Skettrie  Burn,  untd  the  approach  to  the  present  manse  was  formed,  was  an 
open  water-course,  which  before  the  days  of  turnpike  roads,  flowed  across  the  highway 
down  the  vennel,  now  covered  over,  beside  Loan  Cottage,  and  made  its  way  to  the  Ury 
by  the  Broadholme.  The  burn  cut  off  a  triangular  patch  of  glebe  close  to  the  highway, 
bounded  on  the  north  by  the  neighbouring  Roods  whereon  Mr.  Mdl's  son,  Dr.  James, 
had  his  enclosed  square  of  houses  afterwards,  when  he  was  the  only  medical  man 
between  Aberdeen  and  Huntly.  The  nook  of  glebe,  so  isolated,  was  enclosed  by  a  low 
wall  of  dry  stone  and  turf,  which  opened  by  a  gate  to  the  street.  Within  the  enclo- 
sure, and  facing  the  burn,  rose  the  humble  dwelling  of  the  Rector. 

It  consisted  of  a  "laigh  chamber,"  atop  of  which  was  another  chamber,  and  a 
wardrobe  or  clothes  press.  Access  to  the  upper  chamber  was  obtained  by  a  stair  at- 
tached to  the  east  wall  of  these  two  chambers  ;  and  a  sloping  enclosure,  that  covered  in 
the  stair,  gave  room  on  the  ground  floor  for  a  cellar.     Such  was  the  manse  proper. 

Apart  from  the  manse,  on  the  west,  or  south  west,  were  offices  built  of  stone  and 
turf,  probably  after  the  measure  prescribed  in  the  early  burgh  minutes  for  such  build 
ings,  i.e.,  "  fundit  with  stane,  ane  ell  hyt  round  about,  and  then  mud  and  faill  to  serve 
the  rest  of  the  houss  ".  These  were  a  "  kitchy,"  having  three  windows,  a  peat-house,  a 
hen-honse,  a  byre,  a  stable,  and  a  thrashing-barn. 

A  kail-yard  occupied  the  corner  of  the  enclosure  up  to  the  burn  ;  and  it  is  recorded 
that  there  was  no  room  for  a  "  corn-yard ".  The  anachronism  may  be  pardoned  of 
describing  here  how  the  meagre  principal  mansion  was  accommodated  to  the  advanced 
ideas  of  the  year  1723  ;  when  it  was  put  in  condition  for  Mr.  Watt's  entrance,  at  a  cost 
of  367  lbs.  4  sh.  Scots,  which,  however,  was  the  reduced  estimate  obtained  by  roofing 
with  divot  instead  of  slate,  which  would  have  raised  the  grand  total  to  653  lbs.  4  sh., 
or  a  little  above  £54  sterling.     The  Presbyterial  visitors  report,  after  the  repairs — 

May  2nd,  1723. — In  the  principal  house  there  are  these  rooms  following,  viz.  : — A  hall,  a  laigh 
chamber  floored,  within  the  said  hall,  a  cellar  within  the  said  chamber,  and  another  cellar  in  the  east 


Kemnay,  Oyne,  and  Monyniusk.  347 

end  of  the  house.  A  chamber  up  stairs  in  the  west  end  of  the  house,  and  a  closet  with  a  hanging 
chamber  therein  ;  a  chamber  up  stairs  in  the  east  end  of  the  house  above  the  cellar ;  and  wardrobe 
above  the  hall,  and  a  little  room  betwixt  the  wardrobe  and  the  east  chamber. 

This  compact  abode  had  been  produced  by  the  following  repairs  upon  the   original 

which  the  visitors,  in  1718,  had  thought  "at  least"  necessary. 

That  the  walls  of  the  hall  and  cellar  be  heighted  alike  to  the  east  chimney  and  gavel,  that  the 
windows  be  enlarged,  table  stone  put  in  the  west  end  of  the  hall,  and  the  whole  wall  of  the  house  be 
pinned  and  harled,  and  the  hearths  be  hewn  stone  ;  that  the  whole  house  be  beam-filled  ;  that  the  whole 
rooff  be  repaired  and  new  covered  :  that  the  walls  be  all  plastered.  That  the  laigh  chamber  be  floored 
and  divided  ;  that  it  get  a  new  window,  and  the  old  be  mended  :  that  the  hall  get  a  new  partition 
wall,  door,  and  stair,  to  the  east  chamber  ;  that  the  wardrobe  be  new  floored  and  get  a  new  door  ;  that 
the  east  chamber  get  a  new  door  and  window,  and  a  chimney  ;  that  the  west  chamber  floor  be  mended, 
and  a  closet  taken  off  the  same,  having  a  chimney  and  a  new  window ;  that  their  be  another  new 
window  in  the  west  chamber. 

A  striking  part  of  the  inspection  report  detailing  a  great  quantity  of  iron  work,  in 

the  shape  of  stanchions  and  locks,  is    suggestive  of  the  insecurity  under  which  the 

burghers  lived  in  those  unsettled  days. 

KEMNAY,  OYNE,  AND  MONYMUSK. 

Abaut  the  time  that  success  was  obtained  in  having  the  Kirk  of  Inverurie  repaired 
we  find  instructive  minutes  of  Kemnay,  Oyne,  and  Monyniusk. 

Kemnay,  10th  May,  1667. — Concludit  that  a  new  tablecloth  be  bought  for  the  com.  table  in 
respect  the  kirk  has  not  ane.  Also  the  two  old  basons  that  are  in  the  kirk  be  exchangit  with  ane 
good  bason  to  serve  both  for  baptisms  and  the  table  of  the  Lord. 

24th  May,  1665. —The  minister  did  enter  protestation  against  the  practice  of  buying  the  ele- 
ments of  communion  out  of  the  collections  until  ane  ordinance  ordering  the  same  should  be  produced. 

The  laird  of  Glenkindie  was  heritor  at  that  time,  and  seems  to  have  let  the 

Session  do  as  much  as  possible  with  the  collections. 

20th  Dec,  1666. — 24  sh.  given  to  Wm.  Gordon,  smith,  for  twa  pair  of  bands  and  other  necessars 
to  the  meikle  window  of  the  Kirk. 

Four  years  later  the  heritor  had  refused  to  pay  for  repairing  the  kirk-bell,  and  the 

Presbytery  being  consulted  on  the  law  of  the  case  replied  that  without  all  doubt  the 

burden  lay  upon  him. 

Oyne,  Oct.  13,  1672. — Ordained  that  the  school  be  put  up  on  Wednesday  eight  days — two  horse 
and  a  man  to  come  to  repair  it  from  every  pleugh  of  the  parish. 

21st  Sept.,  1673. — The  basine  for  baptisms,  aud  the  cups  being  renewed,  wer  presented  to 
the  Session  ;  the  price  for  the  renewing  being  two  pounds  fyfteene  shillings  ten  pennies,  the  which 
price  the  collector  was  appointed  to  send  in  to  Abd.  with  the  first  occasion  ;  and  upon  the  sd  basine 
and  cups  were  eugraven  in  great  letters,  For  the  Church  of  Oyne. 

30th  May,  1675. — After  sermon  the  minister  and  heritors  convened  for  taking  some  effec- 
tual course  for  repairing  the  churchyard  dykes.  Agreed  that  every  heritor  or  ane  for  him  draw  lots 
which  of  them  shall  begin  ;  they  did  so,  and  the  first  fell  to  Buchanstone,  the  2nd  to  the  Lands  of 
Harthill,  the  3rd  to  Westhall,  the  4th  to  Pitmedden,  the  5th  to  Retties  pleugh,  the  6th  to  Shethin's 
pleugh,  the  7th  the  Lands  of  Kyhill,  the  8th  to  the  Lands  of  Firbogs,  the  9th  to  Newlands  ;  it  being 
ordained  that  every  pleugh  should  have  their  proportion  four  elle  hi  length  and  two  in  height,  and 
that  every  one  should  keep  up  their  part  in  time  coming  ;  and  the  two  publick  gateheeds  are  to  he 
built  and  maintained  be  the  comoner  good,  together  with  seven  reed  upon  the  north-easter  of  the  sd 
dyke,  which  was  over  and  above  the  distribution  amongst  the  paroch. 

Monymusk,  1679,  Aug.  10. — The  minister  and  elders,  considering  that  there  is  no  church-bible, 
and  having  gotten  intelligence  that  Alexander  Orem,  merchant  in  Aberdeen,  hes  some  besyde  him,  it 
was  ordered  that  the  thesaurer  should  buy  on  from  him  (the  price  was  15  lbs.  6s.  8d.) 


348  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garloch. 

Kemnay,  Sept.  7.  — The  bell  being  found  to  want  bands,  the  old  bands  being  wnrne  are  in  danger 
to  fall,  Wm.  Gardyne,  smith,  was  employit  to  repair  the  same,  and  receavit  by  yron  and  workmanship, 
be  consent  of  the  session  out  of  John  Kotson's  penaltie  3  lbs.  to  be  repayit  be  the  Laird. 

The  year  1685  brought  an  interesting  survey  of  the  Kirk  of  Monymusk,  the  impetus 
to  which  was  a  visitation  by  the  Presbytery,  at  which  the  minister,  Mr.  Burnet,  reported 
the  peculiar  circumstance,  that  there  was  no  room  set  apart  among  the  seats  for  the 
minister  serving  the  cure.  The  visitors  designated  a  space,  and  on  Mr.  Burnet's  proposal 
the  Kirk-session  built  "  a  dask  "  for  the  minister  out  of  the  money  in  their  hands,  he 
agreeing  to  pay  rent  for  it  ;  which  obligation  the  Laird  was  careful  to  have  minuted 
afterwards,  in  form  of  a  protest  that  the  Session  should  exact  the  payment.  The  whole 
church  was  afterwards  reseated  at  the  cost,  not  of  the  heritor,  but  of  the  kirk-box, 
repayment  being  looked  for  by  seat-rents,  and  the  transaction  justified  upon  the  repre- 
sentation that  it  would  be  for  the  advantage  of  the  poor. 

July  19,  1685. — The  said  day  it  was  moved  by  the  minister,  that  whereas  there  is  now  a  great 
deal  of  confusion  and  disorder  in  the  body  of  the  kirk  bj'  chairs  and  seats,  and  the  people  not  so  weel 
accommodate,  that  therefor  piews  might  be  built  and  foraeats  of  every  desk  taken  away  for  that  end, 
to  which  the  elders  consented  and  the  thesaurer  is  ordaned  to  buy  materials  and  imploy  workmen  for 
that  effect. 

The  said  day  also  the  minister  overtured,  that  whereas  he  had  receaved  several  complaints  that 
there  was  so  little  accommodation  in  the  comon  loft  by  reason  that  the  seats  wer  so  few  and  the  people 
so  numerous— that  thcrfor  ther  might  be  many  mor  seats  built,  and  the  loft  put  in  another  order. 
To  which  the  elders  consented  as  most  reasonable, 

Oct.  4. — The  said  day  the  minister  reported  that  the  piews  were  now  built  for  the  better  accommo- 
dation of  the  people,  and  therefor  craved  the  elders  mind  and  opinion  what  might  be  reasonably  ex- 
acted for  seat-rents  in  the  piews.  Some  were  for  three  shillings,  other  for  three  shillings  four  pennies, 
and  other  for  four  shillings,  and  it  being  votted  it  carried  three  shillings  four  pennies. 

The  seats  were  let  on  17th  October.  The  roll  of  seat-holders  contains  names  stdl 
or  recently  represented  in  the  parish — 

In  the  backside  of  the  Kirk. 

1st  Piew — James  Meston  and  William  Shewan,  three  seats  ;  2.  Robert  Messar,  William  Robert- 
son, James  Farquhar  ;  3.  Andrew  Messar,  James  Glennie,  Isobel  Crookshank;  4.  Elspet  Alerdes,  Margt. 
Petry,  Margt.  Davidson  ;  5.  John  RiddelL  Thomas  Angus,  James  Leslie  ;  6.  Alexr.  and  James  Reids, 
John  Adam  ;  7.  Gilbert  Lessel,  James  Crombie,  Malcolm  M 'Galium  ;  S.  Patrick  Lesly,  Mason  King, 
William  Thain ;  9.  Archibald  Thomson,  William  Adam,  John  Messar ;  10.  Alexr.  and  George 
Thains,  Elizabeth  Paterson  ;  11.  John  Forbes  and  William,  three  seats;  12.  Robert-  Cowts,  John 
Harper,  Robert  Henderson  ;  13.  William  Gray,  Robert  Farquharson,  Win.  Farqher  ;  14.  J.  Hay, 
Marjorie  Paterson,  Elspet  Dickie ;  15.  John  Shewan,  Patrick  Shewan,  John  Brownie. 

In  die  foreside  of  the  Kirk. 

1.  Alexr.  Gellon  and  Alexr.  Mellen,  three  seats  ;  2.  William  Thomson,  Robert  Donald,  Alexr. 
Midleton  ;  William  Thomson  (Dilab),  John  Wynnes,  Janet  Wilson  ;  4.  Alexr.  Thomson  (Iuver), 
James  Duncan,  Janet  Smith  ;  5.  Gilbert  Thomson,  Thomas  Ewan,  Elspet  Idle  ;  6.  John  Mowat, 
Alexr.  Scot  (Couly^,  John  Burle  ;  7.  Peter  Craigmyl,  John  Murrow,  James  Adam  ;  8.  Jean  Paterson, 
James  Duncan,  Elizabeth  Matheson  ;  9.  Robert  Midlton,  Alexr.  Milne,  Isabel  Simpson  ;  10.  John 
Glennie,  Alexr.  Scot,  Jean  Patton  ;  11.  Janet  Lessel,  Wm.  Craigmyle,  Peter  Leslie;  12.  Robert 
Chine,  Elspet  Emslie,  Peter  Smith ;  13.  James  Couper,  Alexr.  Henrie,  Robert  Jameson  ;  14.  The 
Laird  of  Monymusk,  elder;   15.   Monymusk,  yor. 

In  the  other  long  piew — Wm.  Marshall,  Anna  Hill,  Margt.  Farquhar,  John  Sutherland,  David- 
son's relict. 

1686,  January  17. — The  said  day  John  Fergus  gave  in  a  petition  to  the  Session,  craving  liberty 
tfl  build  a  desk  in  the  room  behind  the  comon  kirk-door  where  now  the  stool  of  repentance  stood, 
and  for  that  end  he  might  take  down  the  stool  of  repentance,  obliging  himself  to  build  another  before 
tile  breast  of  the  comon  loft,  and  to  uphold  it  upon  his  own  expenses. 


The  Burgh  of  Inverurie  at  the  Restoration.  349 

The  Session  granted  the  petition  stipulating  that  when  John  left  the  parish  he  should 
assign  the  whole  desk  to  such  tenants  as  wanted  seats  according  as  they  could  agree. 

THE  BURGH  OF  INVERURIE  AT  THE  RESTORATION. 

The  sole  contemporary  notice  which  appears  in  the  records,  burghal  or  ecclesiastical, 
of  the  Royal  Burgh  of  Inverurie,  that  so  momentous  a  change  had  taken  place  in  the 
kingdom  as  the  complete  overthrow  of  Cromwell's  vigorous  Commonwealth,  and  the 
restoration  of  the  son  of  the  beheaded  King,  is  the  following  minute  of  Kirk-Session  : — 

June  24,  1660. — No  sermon,  because  of  the  speat  of  water  overuning  the  kirk  yet.  The  officer 
went  along  the  parish  and  invited  the  people  to  come  to  a  thanksgiving  sermon  upon  the  next  Lord's 
day,  for  the  king  his  happy  restoration. 

July  1,  1660. — This  day,  thanksgiving  is  keeped  and  gone  about  for  the  king's  majestie's  happy 
restoration  to  his  royal  privilidges. 

When  the  important  year  1660  arrived  the  rulers  of  the  burgh  were  engaged  in  the 
routine  of  their  local  duties,  and  the  burgh  seems  to  have  been  recovering  from  a  period 
of  depression.  Some  misconduct  had  occasionally  to  be  taken  order  with  among  divers 
classes  of  the  community  ;  but  the  imposition  of  fines  seems,  in  some  cases,  to  have  been 
but  a  hruturti  fulmen— the  fines  remaining  unpaid. 

The  year  of  the  Eestoration  completed,  in  Inverurie,  a  project  for  the  erection  of  a 
new  Tolbooth,  which  had  been  long  maturing.  The  earliest  minutes  of  the  burgh,  those 
dated  a  little  after  1600,  speak  of  conned  business  transacted  withiu  the  prcetorium,  but 
nothing  indicates  the  locality  of  that  building.  In  1642,  10th  August,  a  contract  was 
entered  into  "  between  George  Leslie  and  Alexander  Fergus,  baillies,  for  the  community, 
and  James  Fergus,  and  his  wife  Margaret  Currie "  (the  heroine  of  sundry  minutes  of 
discipline  for  scolding,  swearing,  dinging,  &c),  whereby  there  was  sold,  for  100  nierks, 
to  the  town  "  their  eastmost  house  where  they  presentlie  dwell  to  be  holden  in  all  time 
coming  of  the  badlies,  counsall,  and  heritors  of  the  bruch,  and  erected  be  them  to  be 
ano  Tolbuith  within  the  said  bruch,  and  to  hold  their  borrow  courttis  therein  for  ad- 
ministration of  justice,  and  punishment  of  transgressors  ". 

Some  considerable  time  before  1660  the  house,  purchased  from  James  Fergus,  had 
become  ddapidated,  and  the  burgh  courts  were  always  held  in  the  "  chalmer  "  of  some 
one  of  the  baillies.  A  new  erection  had  been  resolved  upon  ;  that  which  continued 
standing  until  1868,  when  it  was  pulled  down  to  give  place  to  the  house  No.  81  High 
Street.  In  1660,  16th  February,  one  of  the  decrees  of  a  General  Act  is,  "that  everie 
indweller  within  this  burgh  be  readie  to  drawe  stone,  lyme,  and  tymber  to  the  tolbuith, 
upon  twenty-four  hours  advertisement  ". 

The  budding,  erected  in  1660,  consisted  of  a  low-roofed  prison  on  the  ground  floor, 
double-chambered,  and  a  councd  room  above,  approached  by  a  massive  stone  stair  having 
a  solid  balustrade  of  mason  work.  The  site  was  part  of  the  possession  held,  in  1464, 
by  John  Badenoch,  which  was  bounded  on  both  sides  by  the  lands  of  the  Lord  Superior 
of  the  Regality. 


350  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  _  the  Garioch. 

John  Johnston  was  the  principal  baillie  at  that  time,  and  his  initials  appeared  in 
relief  on  the  entablature  of  the  building.  The  first  minute  dated  within  the  Tolbooth 
was  of  24th  October,  1662.  In  1661,  2nd  March,  an  assessment  of  two  pecks  of  lime 
for  ilk  teynd  boll,  for  building  of  the  Tolbooth  stair,  was  laid  upon  all  heritors,  wad- 
setters, and  lyfrenters.  Outland  or  non-resident  burgesses  were  ordered  to  compeir,  and 
scot  and  lot  with  the  baillies,  within  fourteen  days,  under  payne  of  tinsell  of  their  free- 
dom.    The  builders  seem  to  have  been  all  paid  before  26th  April,  1665. 

Inverurie  was  enrolled  in  the  convention  of  burghs  in  1661 — William  Ferguson 
appearing  at  Edinburgh  as  commissioner  to  supplicate  the  enrolment.  It  was  only  in 
1669  that,  by  decreet  of  the  Lords  of  Council  and  Session,  Kintore  and  Inverurie  first 
paid  cess  with  the  Burghs  and  not  in  Shire. 

An  interesting  record  of  the  jurisdiction  claimed  by  the  Baillies,  appears  under  date 
21st  November,  1660.  The  court  ordained  that  "  whatsomever  person,  indweller,  or 
heritors,  purseu  an  action  either  criminal  or  civill  before  anie  other  judge  except  before 
the  baillies  of  the  burgh,  provyding  the  saids  baillies  refuse  them  not  justice,  sail  pay 
a  hundred  pounds  Scots  money  ". 

An  assertion  of  sole  jurisdiction  had  been  made  by  the  Burgh  in  1647 — in  which 
year  John  Johnston,  baillie,  appeared  at  Howford  in  presence  of  Thomas  Davidson,  of 
Greystone,  Shei  ill-Depute  of  Aberdeenshire,  and  for  himself  and  the  inhabitants,  pro- 
tested against  the  Sheriff's  authority. 

Shortly  after  the  ordinance  of  1660  the  Scottish  Parliament  either  renewed  or  made 
authoritative  publication  of  the  ancient  court  of  the  Eegality  of  the  Garioch.  Upon 
the  petition  of  John,  Earl  of  Mar,  the  Parliament  of  1663,  in  which  William  Ferguson, 
of  Badifurrow,  sat  as  Commissioner  for  the  Burgh,  appointed  the  Burgh  of  Inverowry 
to  be  the  place  where  all  courts  of  justice  and  all  executions  belonging  to  the  regality  of 
the  Garioch,  as  homings,  inhibitions,  &c.  should  sit  and  be  put  in  force. 

The  Earl  of  Mar  seems  at  that  time  to  have  been  looking  after  his  interests  in 
detail.  In  1664  he  had  a  dispute  with  the  burgesses  of  Aberdeen  about  the  fishings  of 
the  Don,  and  at  the  head  of  about  2000  followers  destroyed  the  cruive  dykes  on  the 
river. 

No  reference  to  the  Eegality  Court  appears  in  the  burgh  transactions  until  1680, 
when  a  fine  of  fourteen  pounds  was  ordained  to  be  inflicted  upon  any  one  within  the 
burgh,  who  should  receipt  any  person  to  hold  regality  courts  in  name  and  behalf  of  the 
Earl  of  Mar. 

!  About  1663,  when  John,  Earl  of  Mar  petitioned  Parliament  for  the  Eegality  appoint- 

ment, the  ancestor  of  the  present  family  of  Keith-hall,  Sir  John  Keith,  afterwards 
Earl  of  Kintore,  purchased  from  -Sir  Eobert  Farquhar  and  Alexander  Jaifray,  most  of 
the  wadset  lands  which  Sir  George  Johnston  of  that  Ilk  and  Caskieben  had  possessed, 
and  gave  the  name  of  Keith-hall  to  Caskieben.  Ardtannies  (the  Upper  Davo),  remained 
in  the  possession  of  the  wadset  holder ;  and,  in  1696,  belonged  to  Andrew  Jaffray,  his  son, 


The  Bunjh  of  Inverurie  at  the  Restoration.  351 

but  the  Lower  Davo  was  part  of  Sir  John's  portion.  The  disappearance  of  the  ancient 
family  at  this  time  from  the  proprietary  roll  of  the  Garioch,  is  indicated  by  a  record  made 
in  the  Inverurie  Court  Book,  under  date  1656,  of  discharges  by  George  Johnston, 
younger  of  Caskieben,  assignee  constituted  by  Mr.  "William  Forbes  of  Fingask,  Advo- 
cate, donator  of  the  escheat  goods  and  gear  of  Sir  George  Johnston  of  Caskieben,  having 
reference  to  decreets  obtained  in  1637,  against  Andrew  Gib,  John  Mackie,  "William 
Stiven,  and  his  son  John  Stiven,  George  Grub,  and  Robert  Anderson,  for  Davo  rents, 
due  for  1631-34.  The  decreets  had  been  pronounced  28th  July,  1637.  They  were 
assigned  in  1641,  and  letters  of  horning  were  obtained  on  3rd  April,  1656.  In 
1659,  25th  October,  the  haill  indwellers  and  occupiers  of  the  Davo  lands  were  ordained 
to  pay  to  Sir  Eobert  Farquhar  and  Alexander  Jaffray  their  multures  and  duties  for  their 
several  holdings.  Alexander  Jaffray 's  wadset  upon  the  lands  of  Sir  George  Johnston, 
would  seem  from  these  entries  to  have  dated  from  1634,  and  to  have  been  foreclosed 
before  1659. 

The  change  of  local  dynasty  seems  not  to  have  passed  without  some  disturbance. 

In  1662,  Sir  Robert  Farquhar  took  out  law-burrows  against  the  magistrates,  which 
were  discharged  in  1668. 

In  1664,  19th  May,  an  action  of  the  same  kind  was  passed  against  Sir  John  Keith 
at  the  instance  of  certain  burgh  heritors.     The  complainers  were  : — 

William  Ferguson,  bailie  in  Inverurie;  Paul  Murdo  in  Ailhouse  of  Well;  Robert  Ferguson  ; 
John  and  George  Grub,  and  Alex.  Patersou,  burgesses  of  said  burgh  ;  Geils  Ross,  relect  of  deceasd 
George  Grub,  sometime  burgess  ;  Cristan  Angus,  relict  of  Walter  Ferguson,  burgess  ;  Andro  Stiven  in 
Crofthead  ;  Andro  Walker  at  the  Mylne  of  Ardtanneis  ;  James  Wright  in  Inverurie  ;  Alex.  Mitchell 
there  ;  John  Johnston,  bailzie  there  ;  Alex.  Reid  ;  Robert  Lundie  ;  Alex.  Johnston,  elder  ;  and  John 
Steven,  all  indwellers.  The  accused  were  Sir  John  Keith  of  Caskieben',  Knight  Marshall ;  George  Moir, 
William  Mylne,  James  Benzie,  and  Alexander  Smith,  in  Maynes  of  Caskieben  ;  Win.  and  John  Glenns, 
at  the  Mylne  of  Caskieben  ;  Patrick  Stevin  and  John  Matheson,  in  New  Legat ;  Alexander  Moir  and 
Wm.  Garioch,  in  Old  Legat  ;  James  Gray  and  John  Bannerman,  in  Inglestown  ;  James  Ligeitwood, 
in  Isaackstown  ;  James  Taylor,  William  Symers,  John  Logic,  and  James  Christie,  in  Lochtillock  ;  Win. 
Glen,  Patrick  Thomsone,  Alex.  Black,  and  George  Konald,  in  lioynds  ;.  James  and  John  Glens,  Porters- 
town  ;  James  Webster,  aud  Margaret  Anderson  there,  and  Thomas  Davidson,  at  the  Mylne  of  Porters- 
town — who  have  conceived  ane  deadlie  hatred  and  evil  will  and  malace  agaiust  the  said  complainers  . 
.  .  and  daylie  and  continuallie  molest,  trouble,  and  oppress  the  said  complainers  in  the  peaceable 
possession  of  their  lands,  heritages,  tacks,  stablings,  &c. 

Sir  John  Keith's  acquisition  of  Caskieben,  and  a  portion  of  the  Regality  lands  of ! 
the  Garioch  was  very  probably  the  occasion  of  his  uncle  John,  Earl  of  Mar,  then  in. 
high  office  in  Scotland,  applying  to  Parliament  for  a  substantial  recognition  of  his  posi- 
tion as  lord  of  the  Regality.  Sir  John  Keith  was  in  great  favour  with  the  King ;  and 
the  Erskines  of  Mar  had,  in  their  family  history,  abundant  reason  to  connect  royal 
favour  with  a  transference  of  dignities  and  rights  from  one  subject  to  another.  Sir  John 
was,  it  is  likely,  a  subject  of  church  and  state  such  as  the  second  Charles  loved.  His 
youthful  manifestation  of  spirit,  when  he  was  chosen  captain  of  the  band  of  Old  Town 
pupils,  in  holding  Christmas  after  schoolboy  fashion,  in  spite  of  Mr.  Andrew  Cant  and 
the  covenai.tinj  inhibitors  of  Yule,  has  already  been  noticed.     At  Keith-hall  he  was  an 


352  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Gariocli. 

ardent  promoter  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  conformity  to  the  newly  established  rule. 
The  King  had  already,  so  early  as  1661,  the  year  after  his  restoration,  conferred  upon 
him  a  title  and  office  akin  to  that  held  by  the  head  of  his  family,  that  of  Knight- 
Marischal. 

The  John  Johnston  of  the  Tolbooth,  grandson  of  the  old  baillie,  William  Johnston, 
of  50  years  before,  had  been  for  several  years  an  active  magistrate,  having  for  his  col- 
league, generally,  William  Ferguson,  the  laird  of  Badifurrow.  We  find  them  engaged, 
for  a  number  of  years,  in  putting  the  affairs  of  the  burgh  into  a  business-like  shape.  In 
1653,  they  inspected  and  marked  the  marches  between  the  burgh  proprietors'  lands,  and 
those  in  a  state  of  transition,  through  Jaffray's  wadset. 

They  chose  John  Benzie  in  Mains  of  Caskiebeu,  late  baillie,  John  Mackie,  late  baillie,  Andrew 
and  John  Gibb,  burghers — all  men  of  three  score  and  ten  years  of  age,  or  thereby,  to  set  down  inarches 
between  the  Ducat  Haugh  and  the  common  lands  of  Streamhead  ;  also  between  the  Ducat  Hangh  and 
the  common  lands  between  it  and  the  Stanners  ;  and  so  along  between  the  Stammers  and  the  water  of 
Don  to  the  Braidfurd  of  the  Don.  Also  at  the  Heids,  being  the  west  end  of  the  Heuch  Butts,  and  one 
part  of  the  west  end  of  the  roods  pertaining  to  the  acres  ot  John  Galloway,  and  lykwayes  at  the  east 
end  of  the  said  Heuch  Butts. 

In  1655,  they  rented  the  Kemnay  moss  from  Alexander  Strachan  of  Glenkindie 
for  200  merks  to  be  possessed,  in  marched  portions,  by  inhabitant  heritors  and  life-renters. 
They  also  were  paying  to  George  Leith  of  Freefield,  collector,  assessments  levied  bi- 
monthly as  maintainance,  cess,  and  coal  and  candle.  They  protected  the  burgh  muir 
from  being  indiscriminately  turffed,  and  directed  the  rotation  of  labouring  twelfth-part 
lands,  requiring  every  owner  to  crop  his  "  planks  in  halves  " — taking  three  years'  crops 
from  each  half  in  succession.  William  Ferguson,  late  baillie,  was  complained  upon 
in  1673  by  the  minister  for  pasturing  in  the  churchyard. 

Mr.  Alexander  Jaffray  and  the  laird  of  Badifurrow,  seem  to  have  got  the  Council 
to  act  as  preservers  of  the  fishings  possessed,  or  claimed,  by  them.  In  1661,  2nd 
March,  a  court  decreet  forbade  any  one  to  fish  the  waters  of  Ardtannies  and  Badifurrow 
"without  ane  sett  thereof".  A  similar  inhibition  was  published,  in  1679,  with  respect 
to  the  "  Earl  of  Kintore's  "  water  of  Ardtannies.  In  October  of  the  same  year  visitors 
were  appointed  to  see  who  had  sufficient  kail  and  peats  to  maintain  themselves,  without 
troubling  "nybors". 

In  1662,  before  Sir  John  Keith  made  his  purchase  from  Sir  Robert  Farquhar  and 
Alexander  Jaffray,  Baillies  Johnston  and  Ferguson,  had  attempted  a  purchase  of  the  Davo 
lands  for  individual  burgh  heritors.  The  following  persons  bound  themselves  at  a 
baillie  court,  on  22nd  January,  to  agree  in  the  purchase  of  the  respective  proportions 
of  the  Davo  lands  : — 

And.  Stevin,  half-oxgait  ;  Alex.  Paterson,  half-oxgait ;  John  Grub,  quarter-oxgait ;  Alex.  Mit- 
chell, half-oxgait ;  James  Urhart,  half-oxgait ;  George  Grub,  half-oxgait ;  Paul  Murdo,  half-oxgait ; 
And.  Gibb  and  George  Beverla,  qr.-oxgait  ;  James  Taylor  and  Alex.  Johnston,  elder,  qr. -oxgait ;  Rt. 
Smith,  half-oxgait ;  Alex.  Keid,  qr.-oxgait;  John  Fergus  and  George  Smith,  qr.-oxgait  ;  Janet  John- 
ston and  John  Johnston,  qr.-oxgait;  John  Johnston,  bailie,  half-oxgait;  John  Bodwell  and  George 
Fergus,  qr.-oxgait;  Wm.  Stiven  and  Wm.  Downie,  qr.-oxgait;  Wm.  Robertson,  elder,  and  Win. 
Robertson,  yr.,  qr.-oxgait ;  Alex.  Johnston  and  Robert  Lundie,  qr.-oxgait  ;  Wm.  Ferguson  Bailie, 
half-oxgait. 


The  Burgh  of  Inverurie  at  the  Restoration.  353 

John  Johnston,  the  prominent  baillie  in  these  transactions,  survived  to  old.  age, 
having  been  always  looked  upon  as  a  principal  personage  in  the  burgh.  William  Fer- 
guson, baillie  along  with  him  after  1650,  was  the  common  ancestor  of  the  Aberdeenshire 
families  of  the  name. 

THE  FERGUSONS  OF  INVERURIE. 

The  Inverurie  Fergusons — now  very  widely  represented  in  lineage  and  also 
in  name — came  into  genealogical  history  iu  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  in  the 
person  of  William  Ferguson  in  Crichie,  their  common  ancestor,  who  acquired  Badifurrow 
by  purchase  in  1655.  His  father  was  the  "  umquhile  William  Ferguson,"  in  whose 
house  the  Marquis  of  Huntly  lodged  during  his  military  occupation  of  Inverurie  in  1611. 
Other  three  sons  are  recognisable  in  the  local  records;  of  whom  one,  Mr.  James  Ferguson, 
notary-public,  was  Town-Clerk  of  Inverurie  from  1645  to  1673,  and  another,  John,  who 
had  his  residence  at  Stonehaven  some  time,  seems  to  have  emigrated  to  Poland.  A  fourth 
was  named  Fiobert,  the  name  given  by  William  to  his  eldest  son.  In  1613  there  was 
a  Eobert  Ferguson,  senior,  burgess  of  Inverurie.  He  died  1622.  and  in  1614,  Walter 
Fergus,  burgess,  his  eldest  son,  was  infeft  in  1£  W.  Food. 

The  original  name  Fergus  was  largely  represented  in  Inverurie  at  the  opening  of 
the  century  ;  but  local  documents  do  not  enable  us  to  fix  distinctly  the  parentage  of 
'•  Wdliarn  Ferguson  in  Crichie".  The  family  tradition  is  that  his  ancestors  had  lived  for 
centuries  on  the  large  holding  of  seven  Lower  Foods,  now  occupying  a  good  part  of  the 
east  side  of  Market  place.  A  genealogical  document  is  in  possesion  of  the  younger  of 
six  families  deriving  from  William  of  Crichie,  which  is  obviously  inaccurate  in  the 
names  given  in  it,  for  a  period  when  the  family  marriages  were  well  enough  known, 
but  which  is  interesting  as  an  illustration  of  the  construction  of  pedigrees  by  an  anti- 
quarian inexpert  in  testing  evidence.  The  clothing  of  probable  fact  with  unestablished 
circumstantiality  is  remarkable  ;  and  the  assumption  of  the  Town  CouncU  of  Edinburgh 
having  been  a  court  of  genealogy  is  amusingly  curious  : 

"  To  all  and  each  whom  it  may  interest,  or  shall  hereafter  interest.  We,  the  Lord 
Provost  and  Council  of  the  city  of  Edinburgh — the  head  of  all  the  ancient  Scottish 
kingdom — declare  and  pronounce  that  James  Cunimynge,  Esq.,  of  the  Eoyal  Society  of 
Antiquaries  of  Scotland,  to  whom  from  letters  it  hath  been  given  for  inspection  to  weave 
together  the  history  of  gentle  matters  before  us  sitting  in  the  senate,  hath  prepared  and 
brought  forward  certain  undoubted  and  assured  writings  and  instruments,  of  which 
chiefly  the  following  history  is  the  sentence  : — 

He  both  hath  declared  and  ...  to  wit  : — 
That  a  very  ancient  Family  Name  among  the  Scots  from  Fergus,  and  which  it  was  the  custom 
anciently  to  write  Fergus,  was  lengthened  about  the  middle  of  the  former  age  into  Ferguson.  By  the 
same  documents,  it  appears  that  there  was  a  very  noble  chief  of  this  name,  of  a  family  in  the  northern 
part,  of  the  Baronie  of  Crichie  in  Aberdeenshire,  of  which  Walter  of  Crichie  received  hospitably  in 
his  own  house,  the  great  avenger  of  his  country,  King  Robert  Bruce,  setting  out  into  that  part  of  the 
kingdom  to  curb  the  rebels,  and  with  his  three  three  sons  and  dependants  in  the  memorable  battle  of 

45 


354  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioeh. 

Inverurie  in  the  year  1308,  afforded  ready  and  manly  aid.  On  account  of  which  distinguished  assist- 
ance King  Robert  gave  him  ample  possessions  of  the  adjacent  lands  of  Inverurie  ;  which  lands,  as 
appears  from  the  same  documents  have  hitherto  been  perpetual  and  are  now  also  held  by  the  Chief. 
From  the  above  mentioned  Walter,  Baron  of  Crichie,  by  eight  paternal  descents  was  sprung  the  noble 
William  Ferguson,  himself  also  a  baron  of  Crichie,  who  flourished  with  military  reputation  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  nor  with  less  devotion  toward  the  king,  as  Colonel  of  a  squadron  of  horse,  did  he 
stand  in  battle  for  King  Charles  the  First  against  the  impious  and  rebellious  citizens  in  1648.  He 
married  Anna,  daughter  of  Walter  Ogilvy,  Knight  of  Boyne,  sprung  on  the  father's  side  from  a  race  of 
the  Counts  of  Airly,  Peers  of  Old  Scotland,  and  of  the  Ogilvies,  chiefs  of  illustrious  name— from  which 
Anna  he  begat  as  heir  William,  Baron  of  Chrichie. 

William,  the  son,  received  in  marriage  Margaret,  daughter  of  the  noble  Henry  Guthrie  of  King- 
Edward,  Knight-Baronet.  He  was  sprung  from  the  ancient  and  distinguished  stock  of  Barons  of 
Guthrie  in  Forfarshire,  chiefs  of  their  name.  From  his  wife  he  begat  a  son  and  heir,  Walter  Ferguson, 
baron  of  Chrichie,  who  took  to  wife  Margaret,  daughter  of  the  noble  George  Nicholson  of  Kemnay, 
Knight-Baronet  and  senator  in  the  supreme  Court,  both  to  civil  and  religious  affairs,  and  Chief  of  his 
own  ancient  race. 

From  her  he  had  four  male  children,  namely — 

I.  James,  his  successor,  to  whom  Isabella,  daughter  of  George  Scott,  Esq. ,  was  married.  George's 
noble  father,  Robert  Scott  of  Balveary,  knight,  of  ancient  race,  was  chief  of  his  name  in  Fifeshire. 
From  her,  James,  her  husband,  begat  a  son,  Walter  Ferguson  of  Kinnaird,  Esq.,  male  heir  of  this 
ancient  race. 

II.  William  Ferguson,  Esq.,  who  having  proceeded  to  Poland  in  the  beginning  of  this  century, 
settled  there,  as  appears  from  testimony  produced.  He,  in  the  year  1714,  received  in  marriage 
Catherine  Concordia  Tepper,  a  citizen  at  Posen,  from  whom  he  begat  Peter  Ferguson  Tepper.  In  the 
year  1762,  etseq,  Peter,  from  his  wife  Philipine  Valentina,  begat  a  numerous  family. 

III.  George  Ferguson,  who  went  with  his  brother  to  Poland. 

IV.  John,  who  deceased  without  issue. 

In  testimony  of  which  things,  and  certain,  we  set  our  seal,  July,  1786. 

The  illustrious  genealogical  structure  thus  solemnly  declared,  and  credited  to  Mr. 
James  Cumming — who  was  keeper  of  the  Records  in  the  office  of  the  Lord  Lyon  King 
at  Arms  in  Scotland — must  be  corrected  from  the  date  when  it  comes  into  competi- 
tion with  authentic  and  accessible  documents.  The  only  "William  Ferguson  connected 
with  Crichie  in  the  time  of  Charles  I.  was  Baillie  William  Ferguson,  in  Crichie.  He  does 
not  appear  to  have  been  of  higher  station  than  tenant  of  Crichie,  but  was  evidently  a 
man  of  both  talent  and  substance. 

The  antiquity  of  the  family  may -be  truly  represented  by  the  mythical  genealogy  ; 
as  appears  from  the  fact  that  when  its  ancestral  property  in  Inverurie  was  sold  in  1797  by 
the  Widow  of  Walter  Ferguson,  W.S.,  the  grandson  of  William  of  Crichie's  youngest 
son  Walter,  it  was  believed  by  the  family  that  the  lands  had  been  their's  for  five 
hundred  years. 

The  Colonel  of  horse,  figuring  in  the  genealogy,  would  correspond  to  William's 
father,  the  "  umquhile  William  Ferguson"  of  Spalding's  narrative,  who  may  have  held 
a  subordinate  command  in  some  musters  of  his  time.  He  was  dead  before  the 
Civil  War.  His  house  had,  it  is  likely,  been  commodious  for  the  place,  and  also  of 
good  repute,  when  Huntly  lodged  there  in  1644.  He  was  fined  100  lbs.  for  over- 
building it  in  1619.  The  name  of  his  wife  may  be  correctly  given  as  Anna  Ogilvy, 
but  the  genealogy  so  abounds  in  chiefs  who  in  reliable  history  were  only  common  place 
persons  as  to  discredit  her  share  of  attributed  nobility.  William  Ferguson  in  Crichie, 
baillie  of  Inverurie  for  a  number  of  years  from  1650,  and  laird  of  Badifurrow  from  1655 


The  Fergusons  of  Inverurie.  355 

to  1658,  was  the  novus  homo  of  the  family;  he  has,  however,  a  much  wider  representation, 
at  the  present  day,  than  most  of  his  contemporaries  have  left  behind  them.  He  must 
have  lived  to  a  considerable  age.  In  1680  he  sold  his  ancestral  property  in  Inverurie 
to  Walter  his  youngest  son.  In  1658  he  had,  with  consent  of  Janet  Clark  his  wife, 
disponed  Badifurrow  to  "William  their  second  son,  who  in  1674  had  a  new  infeftment  of 
the  same  to  himself  in  liferent,  and  his  son  James  Ferguson  in  free. 

William  Ferguson,  by  his  wife  Janet  Clark,  had  six  sons,  of  whom  the  eldest 
fulfilled  the  Scotch  proverb,  "  that  it  is  a  poor  family  that  cannot  spare  one  to  the  pot 
and  another  to  the  gallows".  Neither  of  those  fates  overtook  Eobert  Ferguson,  known 
in  family  tradition  as  The  Bishop.  Macaulay  has  pilloried  him,  in  history,  for  the  unscru- 
pulous abuse  of  his  great  talents  to  treasonable  purposes  in  the  reigns  of  Charles  II., 
James  II.,  and  William  III.  He  seems  in  reality  to  have  been  only  a  pre-eminent 
example  of  the  politician  of  the  time,  arising  in  a  rank  of  life  that  could  not  out- 
brazen  infamy.  The  rascality  of  many  public  men  of  the  period  was  covered  by  the 
position  of  nobility,  and  the  yet  lingering  feudal  influence  of  great  houses — an  influence 
that  in  the  reign  of  William  attempted  to  establish  the  rule  of  a  Venetian  sort  of 
aristocracy. 

The  second  brother,  William,  was  twice  married,  1st  to  Jean  Elphinston,  sister  to 
Sir  James  Elphinston  of  Logie — daughter  of  William  Elphinstone  in  Milltown  of  Durno 
and  his  wife,  Margaret  Forbes — by  whom  his  heir  was  born ;  and  2ndly  to  Lucretia 
Burnett,  who  was  his  widow  in  1 696.  William  Ferguson's  son  and  heir,  James,  was 
the  father  of  the  first  Ferguson  of  Pitfour,  and  great-grandfather  of  a  man  of  eminent 
position  in  his  day,  the  representative  in  Parliament  of  Aberdeenshire,  and  for  many 
years  a  confidential  friend  of  William  Pitt.  James  Ferguson  of  Badifurrow,  the 
purchaser  of  Pitfour,  was  an  Edinburgh  advocate,  and  was  closely  connected  with  the 
burgh  of  Inverurie  as  agent.  His  son  and  namesake  was  a  Eord  of  Session,  and  by  his 
wife,  Anne  Murray,  daughter  of  Lord  Ellbank,  became  the  father  of  James  Ferguson  of 
Pitfour,  M.P.  for  Aberdeenshire. 

James  Ferguson,  the  third  son  of  William  of  Crichie,  served  under  Charles  II., 
James  II,  William  III.,  and  Queen  Anne,  and  attained  the  rank  of  Brigadier-General. 
He  was  the  first  of  the  Fergusons  of  Kinrnundy. 

The  fourth  of  the  Crichie  household,  George  Ferguson,  the  common  ancestor  of  a 
number  of  families  still  resident  in  Aberdeenshire,  himself  lived  and  died  Chamberlain 
on  the  Meldrum  estate,  his  large  family  spreading  about  in  various  lines  of  life — agri- 
cultural, commercial,  and  professional. 

John  Ferguson  of  Stonehouse  was  William  Ferguson  of  Crichie's  fifth  son,  and  was 
for  a  considerable  time  prominent  in  the  locality,  and  a  principal  magistrate  of  Inverurie- 
and  burgh  proprietor.  He  acquired  the  large  burgh  property  of  Stonehouse  before 
1681,  having  been  tenant  of  it  in  1670.  He  and  his  youngest  brother,  Walter,  were  gene- 
rally the  baillies  of  Inverurie  from  that  date  until  near  the  close  of  the  century.     In 


356  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioeh. 

1696  he  was  the   Commissioner  chosen  to  take  up  the  poll  lists  for  Inverurie,  his  son 
George  being  clerk  and  collector. 

The  youngest  of  the  six  brothers,  was  the  last  "  Walter,  baron  of  Crichie"  of  the 
grandiloqent  genealogy.  In  1680,  when  he  seems  to  have  married,  he  purchased  from 
his  father  the  Inverurie  Eoods  and  Common  Lands,  which  had  been  so  long  in  the 
hands  of  his'  ancestors.  His  wife  was  named  Margaret  Panton,  not  Margaret  the 
daughter  of  Sir  George  Klcolson,  who  it  need  scarcely  be  remarked  was  no  chief  of  his 
name,  but  the  honourably  successful  son  of  an  Aberdeen  merchant. 

The  four  sons  of  Walter  recorded  in  Cummynge's  genealogy  were  historical 
personages ;  and  their  connections  such  as  are  described,  with  the  exception,  perhaps,  of 
the  inevitable  chieftainship  allotted  to  the  father  of  the  Town  Clerk  of  Inverurie. 

James,  the  eldest  son,  through  the  descendents  of  whose  eldest  daughter,  Walter 
Ferguson  is  now  chiefly  or  solely  represented  in  this  country,  was  a  merchant  in 
Inverurie  in  his  youth,  somewhat  addicted  to  practical  jokes  against  Presbyterian 
ministers,  at  the  time  when  these  last  were  very  few  in  the  Garioeh. 

Walter  Ferguson  died  in  April,  1728,  before  which  time  James,  his  eldest  son,  had 
removed  with  his  considerable  family  to  various  places  in  the  Garioeh,  and  finally  to 
East  Lothian.  His  eldest  son,  Walter  Ferguson,  W.S.,  left  the  Inverurie  property  to 
his  wife,  Katherine  Swinton,  a  daughter  of  Lord  Swinton,  of  the  Court  of  Session. 
She  sold  it  in  1798. 

Janet,  the  only  daughter  of  the  large  Crichie  household,  married  one  of  her  Fergu- 
son cousins,  and  continued  the  name  in  a  seventh  line  of  descendents. 

The  Polnar  Kirkyard  contains  some  small  granite  stones  commemorating  members 
WF 
of  the  family.     They  are— I  C  ;  A  F  1662 ;  E  F  1662 ;  and  P  F  1666. 

59 
The  stone  marked  59  with  the  initials  of  William  Ferguson,  senior,  and  his  wife, 
may  have  been  erected  on  occasion  of  her  death.     It  was  the  year  after  they  had  made 
over  Badifurrow  to  their  second  son  William.       The  other  initials  have  nothing  in  the 
family  genealogy  corresponding  to  them. 

In  1699  James  Ferguson,  son  of  William  Ferguson,  younger  of  Badifurrow,  with 
consent  of  Jean  Stewart,  his  spouse,  sold  that  estate. 

John  Ferguson  of  Stonehouse  was  succeeded  in  most  of  that  property  by  his  eldest 
son  William,  who  sold  it  to  William,  second  Earl  of  Ivintore,  sometime  before  1718. 

The  aneestoral  Seven  Lower  Eoods  and  One  Sixteenth  Common  Lands  of  the 
Fergusons  were  thus  the  last  remaining  link  of  the  family  to  Inverurie.  The  Sixteenth — 
which  had  been  mortgaged  by  Walter  Ferguson  in  1721  to  Lord  Pitfour — measured 
about  16  acres  2  roods  Scots,  and  was  sold  to  Anthony,  Earl  of  Kintore,  for  £275.  It 
lay  in  thirteen  patches,  as  detailed  in  Colin  Innes's  map  of  the  Burgh,  in  the  various 
divisions  of  the  Common  Lands,  several  portions  being  on  the  present  farm  of  Brandsbutt. 


The  Fergusons  of  Inverurie.  357 


The  distribution  of  the  Ferguson  families  as  shown  m  the  genealogy  illustrates  the 
social  condition  of  Scotland  about  the  close  of  the  Stuart  dynasty.  Of  those  who  did 
not  follow  agricultural  pursuits,  most  adopted  the  profession  of  arms ;  some  went  into 
the  various  legal  lines  of  life ;  wlr'e  those  who  adopted  business  occupations  went 
abroad.  One  of  Baillie  Walter's  sons  went  to  Poland.  His  sister,  the  only  daughter 
of  William  the  common  ancestor,  married  a  cousin,,  a  Polish  merchant,  an  emigrant 
probably  of  an  earlier  generation. 

The  Mackies  of  MidLown  of  Inverurie  disappeared  in  the  same  land  of  commercial 
enterprise.  A  hundred  years  earlier  ons  of  the  Leslies  of  the  south  end  of  the  burgh 
was  settled  in  "  Poll,"  and  other  individuals  are  mentioned  with  the  same  indication  of 
their  line  of  life. 

In  1673  the  exceedingly  eventful  life  of  Alexander  Jaffray  of  Kingswells,  the  Laird 
of  Ardtannies,  came  to  a  close.  He  had  passed  through  several  religious  conversions, 
w-hereof  one  is  generally  enough  for  any  man.  since  the  time  when  he  probably  rode 
through  Inv jruvie  in  the  train  of  Charles  II.  in  1 G50  from  his  ownf ormer  prison  at  Pitcaple. 
He  had  then  just  persuaded  the  lightly  principled  son  of  Charles  I.  to  make  a  profession 
of  the  Covenant  in  ordei'  to  obtain  the  Scottish  crown,  and  he  accompanied  him  to  Dunbar 
where  after  fighting  well,  and  being  thrice  wounded  he  was  taken  prisoner.  During  his  con- 
finement Jaffray  had  many  conferences  on  religious  subjects  with  Cromwell,  who  treated 
him  with  great  courtesy.  He  became  an  Independent,  from  which  point  his  fanaticism 
led  him  into  the  ranks  of  the  Millenarians  or  Fifth  Monarchy  men,  who  expected  the 
immediate  appearance  of  Chv'st  to  reign  visibly  as  King  over  all  the  Earth.  He  rose 
speedily  in  favour  with  Cromwell,  who  appointed  him,  in  1652,  Director  of  the  Chancery 
in  Scotland,  and  next  year  got  him  elected  one  of  the  five  Scottish  members  of  the  Par- 
l;ament  which  came  to  be  named  after  Praise-God  Barebones,  and  which  brought  con- 
temptuous expulsion  upon  itself  by  attempt)  >ig  to  oppose  the  \ioleuce  of  the.  Usurper. 
Jaii'ray's  courage  in  resisting  Cromwell  did  not  alienate  the  Protector,  who 
must  have  estimated  at  a  high  rate  the  iufluence  such  a  man  was  capable  of  exer- 
cising. He  requested  Jaffray  to  accept  the  office  of  a  judge  in  Scotland,  and  on  his 
declining  granted  him  an  order  for  £1500  sterling,  as  part  of  the  debt  which  ho  and 
his  colleagues  had  contracted  on  their  visit  to  Charles  II.  in  Holland.  The  Book  of 
Bon-Accord  concludes  a  biographical  notice  of  this  famous  Provost  of  Aberdeen  as 
follows  : — "  On  his  return  to  Scotland  Jaffray  removed  his  residence  to  Edinburgh, 
where  for  a  considerable  time  he  continued  to  discharge  the  duties  of  his  office  in  the 
Chancery.  His  Diaiy  dining  this  period  presents  a  strange  picture  of  fanaticism.  No 
step,  however  trivial,  in  the  business  of  life  was  taken,  no  journey  was  commenced,  a 
dwelling-house  was  not  changed,  nor  a  friend  visited,  without  his  having,  as  he  believed, 
a  manifest  warrant  for  it  by  direct  revelation  from  the  Deity.  After  the  Bestoration  in 
16G0  he  was  thrown  into  prison,  where  he  lay  for  nine  months.  But  persecution  served 
only  by  inflaming  his  zeal  to  impel  him  to  farther  extravagances,  and  in  1662  'we  find 


358  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

him  at  the  head  of  a  few  persons  in  Aberdeen  who  declared  themselves  converts  to  the 
jmnciples  of  the  Society  of  Friends.  In  this  new  faith  he  was  as  devoted  as  he  had 
formerly  been  in  the  cause  of  Presbytery,  of  Independency,  or  of  the  Fifth  Monarchy. 
By  his  wealth,  his  influence,  and  his  writings  he  laboured  to  increase  the  numbers  of 
his  sect,  which  prospered  so  rapidly  that  measures  were  taken  for  its  suppression,  and 
Jaffray  was  imprisoned  in  the  jail  of  Banff  for  nearly  ten  months.  He  continued  stead- 
fast in  his  fourth  creed  until  his  death.  His  exhortations  during  his  last  illness  effected 
the  conversion  of  his  wife,  the  daughter  of  Andrew  Cant,  who  survived  him  but  a  few 
months." 

Jaffray  filled  a  large  place  in  public  life  in  his  time,  besides  occupying  the  positions 
of  baillie  and  Provost  in  his  native  city  on  successive  occasions.  He  was  in 
1644  one  of  the  Commissioners  appointed  by  the  Scottish  Parliament  for  suppressing 
the  Rebellion  which  was  put  down  by  Argyll;  and  sat  in  that  year,  and  1646  and  1648,  on 
a  Committee  of  War  for  the  County  of  Aberdeen.  In  1649,  Member  of  Parliament  for 
Aberdeen,  he  acted  on  all  the  important  committees;  and  after  the  King's  death  and  the 
separation  of  the  Scots  from  the  Parliament  party  of  England,  he  was  appointed,  along 
with  the  Earl  of  Cassilis,  and  the  Lairds  of  Brodie  and  Liberton,  to  negotiate  with  Prince 
Charles,  and  again,  the  following  year,  along  with  Lord  Lothian  and  two  commoners 
added,  when  they  brought  Charles  to  Scotland,  landing  at  Speymouth  in  summer,  1650. 

Me.  WILLIAM  FORBES  AND  Mr,  WILLIAM  MURRAY. 

Mr.  William  Forbes,  the  minister  of  Inverurie  from  1644  to  1679,  is  less  recosr- 
nisable  by  the  extant  notices  of  him  than  his  predecessor;  whose  love  for  registering 
events  and  characters  recorded  many  particulars  of  his  domestic  and  official  life,  and  also 
exhibited  by  reflection  much  of  the  character  of  the  man  himself.  Mr.  Forbes  has  left 
nothing  to  indicate  the  place  of  his  birth.  Several  of  the  name  were  attending  King's 
College  about  1630;  about  which  time  George  Gordon,  the  second  Marquis  of  Huntly, 
George  Johnston,  the  second  baronet  of  Caskieben,  and  Mr.  Andrew  Cant's  son,  Alex- 
ander, afterwards  minister  of  Banchory,  were  matriculated.  Mr.  Forbes  was  evidently  a 
married  man  when  he  became  minister  of  Inverurie,  as  in  the  same  year  he  registered  the 
baptism  of  a  son,  William,  born  to  him  by  his  wife,  Margaret  Strachan.  He  had  another 
son,  Eobert,  who  in  1675  was  a  preacher,  and  is  referred  to  as  schoolmaster  of  Inverurie, 
probably  being  substitute  for  Mr.  William  Chalmers,  schoolmaster  from  1657  to  between 
1680  and  1690.     Besides  these  there  were  at  the  manse  of  Inverurie  several  daughters. 

Mr.  Forbes  did  not  share  in  the  municipal  importance  his  predecessor  enjoyed. 
His  prudence  was  sufficiently  tasked  by  his  duties  as  a  parish  minister — administering 
the  Covenant  under  its  first  iron  rule,  drilling  an  imperfectly  obedient  population  in 
taking  the  new  vows,  repressing  the  propensity  to  keep  Yule  and  to  be  irregular  in 
church-going,  which  some  of  his  flock  manifested. 

Li  his  office  he  did  not  escape  criticism  himself  and  the  recommendation  of  amend- 


Mr.  William  Forbes  and  Mr.  William  Murray.  359 

merit.  He  seems  to  have  been  far  from  a  musical  speaker  in  1649,  when  ho  had  been 
four  years  in  practice,  and,  when  he  had  been  a  dozen  years  minister,  his  people  grudged  the 
shortness  of  his  sermons  and  complained  of  his  giving  up  lecturing.  He  appears  a  regular 
attender  of  Synod,  accompanied  by  William  Grant  in  Conglass  as  ruling  elder,  whose 
wife,  a  sister  of  the  laird  of  Balquhain,  turned  Papist,  along  with  her  brother,  about  the 
end  of  the  period  of  the  Covenant,  and  some  time  after  took  her  husband  with  her. 
Serving  out  the  hard  rule  of  the  Covenant,  Mr.  Forbes  accepted  the  succeeding  Epis- 
copacy, and  lived  throughout  nearly  its  whole  period  meekly  bearing  disagreeable  occur- 
rences of  various  kinds.  The  chief  of  these  were  dealing  with  the  apostacy  of  his  elder's 
wife,  whose  excommunication  caused  extraordinary  disturbance  in  the  congregation,  and 
afterwards  with  his  old  friend,  her  husband.  He  had  also  the  misfortune  to  have  as  a 
parishioner  and  cause  of  dissent  in  his  parish  the  influential  and  talented  laird  of  Ard- 
tannies,  Alexander  Jaffray  of  Kingswells,  whom  lie  had  to  process  for  dishaunting  ordi- 
nances, and  appearing  as  a  propagator  of  Quakerism.  Mr.  Forbes,  moreover,  has  the 
distinction  of  being  recorded  in  the  historical  book  of  the  northern  Quakers,  in  which 
he  is  credited  with  pronouncing  excommunication  upon  a  Quaker  parishioner  against 
his  conscience,  and  being  visited,  in  poetical  justice,  with  the  fate  of  having  to  do  the 
same  by  a  daughter  of  his  own,  and  dying  in  the  pulpit  in  the  act.  There  is  no  corro- 
boration of  this  story  to  be  found,  and  no  dates  are  given  in  it  allowing  it  to  be  com- 
pared with  existing  documents.  His  wife  survived  him,  but  nothing  appears  of  the  after 
life  of  his  family.  His  last  receipt  for  stipend  was  written  out  by  his  son  Robert.  His 
widow  was  warned  out  of  the  manse  at  Whitsunday,  1679,  and  his  successor  was  there 
that  same  year. 

Mr.  William  Murray,  who  succeeded  Mr.  Forbes,  was  apparently  a  zealous  Episco- 
palian ;  and,  on  the  overthrow  of  the  Caroline  Church,  needed  some,  though  little,  tolera- 
tion on  the  part  of  his  brethren.  His  ecclesiastical  feelings  appeared  most  in  the  fatal 
year  1715,  when  the  son  of  James  VII.  landed  at  Peterhead,  and  issued  Eoyal  proclam- 
ations. Mr.  Murray  was  one  of  the  ministers  who  read  the  proclamations  from  his 
pulpit,  and  prayed  for  him  as  King  James,  and  in  consequence  he  next  year  suffered 
deposition  for  treason.  His  wife  was  Magdalen  Gellie,  probably  daughter  of  Mr.  John 
Gellie,  younger,  minister  of  Kinkell,  one  of  the  zealous  adherents  of  the  Cove- 
nant. He  had  a  son,  Mr.  William  Murray,  who  became  an  Episcopalian  minister  in 
Old  Aberdeen  Mr.  William  Murray  was  a  native  of  the  Garioch  as  appears  by  his 
matriculation  entry  at  King's  College  in  1663.  He  graduated  in  1667.  He  possessed 
or  acquired  some  means  ;  for  after  his  deposition  he  bought  some  Upper  Eoods,  a  portion 
of  which  he  disponed  to  the  Kirk-session  of  Inverurie  in  repayment  of  funds  lying' in 
his  hands.  The  land  remained  in  the  possession  of  the  Session  until  1816,  the  march 
stones  bearing  his  initial  M.  He  is  entered  in  the  Poll  Book,  1696,  with  his  wife  as 
having  five  children  in  familia,  a  man  servant,  fee  per  annum,  £16,  and  two  female 
servants,  £12  and  £11  each,  Scots. 


360  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 


THE  TOWN'S  PEOPLE  ABOUT  1660. 

It  has  been  noticed  that  two  prominent  persons  in  the  burgh  affairs  for  a  num- 
ber of  years  in  the  latter  half  of  the  17th  century  were  John  Johnston  and  William 
Ferguson,  who  had  been  baillies  together  from  1650.  In  1666  they  were  both,  on  the 
recommendation  of  the  Lord  Bishop,  requested  to  become  elders.  Badifurrow  was  "  infirm 
on  his  legs,  in  so  f arre  that  at  tymes,  especially  in  the  winter,  he  was  unabill  to  come  to 
church,  which  he  says  he  had  signified  to  the  Lord  Bishop."  Baillie  Johnston,  after 
some  local  pressure,  accepted  office. 

A  fragmentary  communion  roll,  belonging  to  the  last  years  of  Mr.  Forbes'  ministry, 
affords  an  interesting  comparative  estimate  of  the  population  in  different  parts  of  the 
parish  at  that  period.  Netherton,  Oldtown,  and  Glashie  are  awanting.  The  burgh 
furnishes  146  names;  Croftheid,  a  small  "  town,"  where  Upperboat  is,  8;  Ardtannies, 
9  ;  Aquhorties,  under  the  heads  Achortes,  Cottown,  and  Mylu  of  Achortes,  35  ;  Middle- 
ton,  16;  Drimmies,  10;  Conglass,  24;  Brandsbutt,  1;  Blackball,  10.  The 
Garioch  parishes  fluctuated  a  good  deal  in  the  course  of  the  next  century  in  respect 
of  populousness.  Inverurie  may  have  had  more  inhabitants  in  1679  than  about  1800, 
when  their  number  was  800,  of  whom  half  were  resident  in  the  burgh.  The  population 
in  1755  was  730,  and  in  1791,  712,  the  number  of  burgh  portioners  being  60.  The 
Presbytery  book  of  Turriff  records  that  in  1646,  when  the  erection  of  part  of  the  parish 
of  Turriff  into  the  parish  of  Monquhitter  was  projected,  the  communicants  in  Turriff 
numbered  2000 — an  indication  of  the  relative  importance  of  Turriff  at  the  time  when  it 
was  the  scene  of  some  of  the  skirmishes  in  the  civil  war.  The  number  of  marriages 
taking  place  in  Inverurie  about  1670  averaged  from  three  to  nine  in  a  year,  numbers 
quite  out  of  proportion  to  the  above  given  number  of  communicants.  Ecclesiastical 
order  had,  it  is  likely,  made  the  number  of  communicants  large  at  that  period. 

The  manners  of  the  Inverurie  parishioners  of  the  period  were  not  always  gentle. 
In  1681,  15th  January,  Alexander  Beid  complained  to  the  badlies  that,  going  with 
his  farm  meal  to  Lord  Haddo's,  he  was  assaulted  by  William  Ferguson,  late  baillie, 
and  Walter  his  son,  "  calling  him  liar  and  knave,  putting  out  a  durk  to  stick  at  him, 
and  calling  Ins  wife  thief's  giet ".  Braco  had,  it  would  appear,  become  before  that  date 
the  property  of  the  Earl  of  Aberdeen  ;  who  continued  to  possess  it  for  a  long  period  after. 
In  1673  the  three  brothers,  Williarn  Ferguson  of  Badifurrow,  John  of  Stonehouse,  and 
Walter,  youngest  son  of  William  Ferguson,  late  baillie,  appear  in  a  quarrel  with  Baillie 
John  Anderson,  in  which  Badifurrow  and  the  Baillie  slapped  each  other's  faces. 

It  is  indicative  of  the  rougher  complexion  of  the  period  to  find  several  names  in  the 
lists  of  town  councUlors,  or  of  elders,  which  had  their  only  previous  publicity  in  prosecu- 
tions for  the  rudest  offences  which  came  under  reprehension.  Old  offenders  turning  up 
in  time  as  magistrates,  or  ecclesiastical  overseers,  do  not,  however,  seem  so  much  out  of 
place  at  a  time  when  Episcopal  ordinances  had  to  be  issued  against  violent  carrying 


The  Towns  People  about  1660.  361 

away  of  women,  especially  by  men  of  the  Highland  country,  under  pretence  of  marry- 
ing them. 

The  acts  of  government  required  of  Baillie  Johnston  and  Badifurrow  were  as 
heterogeneous  as  those  which  fell  to  Bainzie,  Leslie,  Johnston,  and  Hervie,  baillies  when 
the  Eoyal  Burgh  was  fifty  years  younger  in  the  progress  of  civilisation. 

165S,  June  12. — Alexander  Mitchell  complained  upon  Alexander  Johnston,  elder,  that  he  came 
to  him  under  silence  of  nicht  and  struck  him  in  his  bed,  he  being  nacked. 

1659,  4th  Hay. — The  hail  inhabitants  and  gersmeu  within  the  burgh  who  are  not  sufficientlie 
furnished  with  peits  and  kaill  for  this  year  are  decerned  to  be  removed  turth  out  of  the  toune,  and 
their  maester  to  pay  five  lbs.  in  case  he  cause  them  not  to  be  tymeouslie  provydid. 

1660,  16th  Feb. — Alexander  Johnston,  youngei',  and  Alexander  Mitchell,  chosen  visitors  of 
bigging  and  fryers  of  aill.  They  sail  have  ane  pynt  of  ail  from  everie  brewer,  and  giy  onie  person  have 
ane  unseilit  stoup  they  sail  braik  the  same,  and  delait  the  pairtye  to  the  bailies. 

1663. — Margaret  Fergus,  widow  of  Normand  Davidson,  complained  upon  James  Fergus  at  the 
Cross  that  he  would  not  subscribe  a  contract  of  disposition  to  her  upon  her  house.     She  deponed  that : 

The  disposition  and  seasing  was  burnt  upon  the  31st  October,  165S,  being  Hallow  even,  about 
nyne  or  ten  hours  in  the  nicht.  Her  house  tuik  fyre,  shoe  being  sleeping  with  her  bairns.  The  house 
when  they  awaikit  was  past  reding,  being  ane  tempestuous  nicht  of  wind  and  rayne,  and  be  the  provi- 
dence of  Almightie  God  shoe,  with  her  husband  and  children,  came  forth  saiflie  with  their  lyves,  and 
the  haiil  house  burnt  and  peryshed  with  all  that  was  within  it. 

1665,  24th  Nov. — James  Ferguson,  notar,  accused  for  striking  and  dinging  Janet  Gordon,  widow 
of  Alexander  Bainzie  at  Mill  of  Caskieben,  and  bluiding  her.  Denied  the  bluid.  Witnesses  proved 
that  he  struck  her  on  the  back  only  and  did  not  bluid  her.  But  "  shee  rubit  her  noss  with  her  owen 
hand  and  caused  some  draps  of  blood  came  furth  ".  She  was  fined  and  forbidden  to  be  resetted  by 
any  inhabitant. 

James  Ferguson,  the  accused  in  that  action,  was  Badifurrow's  brother,  the  Town 
Clerk  from  1645  to  1673. 

1667,  20th  March. — Value  of  manure.  If  it  sail  happen  that  William  Downie  and  Michael 
Davidson  has  changit  from  their  guidet  land,  they  who  sail  chance  to  get  their  guidet  land  sail  five 
them  guiding  to  theirs  sufficient,  or  else  sax  pennies  for  ilk  load  of  guiding. 

1669,  4th  June. — An  excise  on  ale  was  fixed  to  be  levied  weeklie  by  stenters. 

1671,  20th  Oct. — Andrew  Hutcheon  shoemaker,  was  chosen  Deacon  of  the  Shoemakers. 

This  is  the  only  notice  that  occurs  of  a  trade  organisation  in  Inverurie  ;  and  shoes 
must  have  been  a  staple  product  of  the  place  as,  in  a  sett  of  the  customs  of  Polander 
and  Latter  Marie  Fairs  of  that  period,  they  are  the  only  article  specially  noticed  besides 
cattle  and  sheep. 

1675.— Lime  to  be  brought  from  Stryla  to  the  Mill  of  Ardtannies. 

The  Eestoration  of  the  Monarchy  in  1660,  and  the  cpuiet  transmutation  of  the 
Church,  were  perhaps  less  interesting  in  Urbs  In  Rure  than  the  facts  of  William  Ferou- 
son's  becoming  laird  of  Badifurrow  in  1658,  and  Sir  John  Keith  laird  of  Caskieben  in 
1662.  The  new  heathering  of  the  kirk  in  1660,  the  enterprising  erection  of  a  sun 
dial,  and  the  greater  undertaking  of  the  Tolbooth,  would  doubtless  concentrate  the  atten- 
tion of  the  community  upon  home  affairs.  In  1665  the  kirk  had  to  witness  the  excom- 
munication of  Mr.  Alexander  Jaffray,  and  the  King's  naval  victories  over  the  Dutch 
formed  the  subject  of  thanksgiving. 

When  the  Earl  of  Mar,  Chancellor  of  Scotland  in  1663,  recovered  his  ancestral  rights 
of  regality  from  the  Scottish  Parliament,  William  Ferguson  of  Badifurrow  was  M.P.  for 
Inverurie.    Mr.  James  Elphinstonc  of  Glack  represented  the  Burgh  in  1669 ;  and  ten  years 

46 


362  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

later  a  burgh  merchant,  Alexander  Forbes,  sat  for  Inverurie  in  the  Convention  of 
Estates,  whose  emoluments  for  discharging  the  legislative  functions  confided  to  him  are  on 
record.  The  Parliament  was  to  be  holden  on  20th  and  21st  of  June,  1678,  and  "  for 
his  pains  he  was  to  have  twentie  shillings  ilk  day  he  was  employed  attending,  with 
twelve  shillings  daily  for  sis  days  going  to  and  fro  Edinburgh,  and  ordinal-  hyre  of  a 
horse  from  Edinburgh  to  Glasgow,  and  from  Edinburgh  home  to  Inverurie ".  Four 
years  before  that  date  the  same  dignitary  was  accused  of  abuse  given  to  the  chief  baillio 
— upon  whom  he  may  have  been  practising  his  eloquence. 

Baillie  John  Johnston  disappears  from  the  Council  in  1666  ;  but  in  1669  was  called 
to  account  for  his  intromissions  with  "the  excyse  on  beer".  Badifurrow  was  chief 
baillie  for  some  time  thereafter.  Baillie  John,  like  his  grandfather  before  him,  was  find- 
ing a  new  race  rise  up  around  him.  The  north  end  of  the  town  had  become  ambitious  of 
being  the  centre  of  importance  ;  and  the  grand  municipal  event  ordained  in  the  following 
minute  was  brought  to  ripeness  : — 

In  1671,  the  baillies,  with  advice  of  the  haill  counsell,  elected  an  sufficient  market  place  at  the 
pairting  of  the  gaitts  besouth  of  the  draw  well,  in  the  middle  part  of  the  pairting  of  the  said  gaitts, 
and  to  build  ane  cross  there  of  hewn  work.  And  also  that  the  old  cross  sail  be  removit  presently  to 
the  said  plaice,  and  that  whatsoever  person  or  persons  preasses  to  gain  stand  the  changing  of  the  said 
cross  to  pay,  &c.  .  .  .  And  that  everie  indwaller  sail  be  redie  to  leid  stanes  aud  mortar  for  build- 
ing of  the  said  cross,  under  paynes  of  fourtie  shillings. 

The  convenience,  or  the  taste,  of  the  public,  which  is  a  body  about  as  difficult 
to  turn  out  of  an  accustomed  course  as  an  alluvial  stream,  produced  a  revocation  of  this 
important  edict  in  a  short  time ;  and  in  the  year  of  Mr.  Alexander  Forbes's  six  days' 
journeys  to  sit  in  Parliament,  the  Cross  was  ordained  to  be  removed  from  William 
Downie's  land  back  to  where  it  stood  before.  The  municipal  centre  of  the  burgh  con- 
tinued at  the  Cross  "Well  until  1803  ;  when  a  new  Town-Hall  was  erected  on  a  site 
immediately  in  front  of  the  present  one. 

In  1671,  the  year  of  the  Powtate  Cross,  the  Burgh  and  Sir  John  Keith's  baillie, 
Mr.  Alexander  Paton  of  Kinaldie,  made  an  engagement  about  the  Mill  of  Ardtannies, 
where  John  Beid  was  miller.  The  "  sichters  "  appointed  by  the  contracting  parties  to 
inspect  the  buildings  and  mill,  were,  for  the  Knight,  Andrew  Walker  of  Newmill  of 
Crimond — a  name  still  represented  in  Keith-hall — and  for  the  Burgh,  Robert  Melving. 

In  that  year  Baillie  John  Anderson  was  appointed  Commissioner  to  the  Convention 
of  Burghs,  indicted  to  meet  at  Dundee;  and  right  of  way  was  declared  by  the 
Sketterie  burn  up  and  down,  and  by  Meglutton  to  the  Cruik  and  Gibbon's  butts. 

Next  year,  in  1672,  the  burgh  assessment  for  supplying  three  soldiers  to  the  national 
militia  had  to  be  calculated.  Burgh  taxes  were  always  rated  by  the  teind  boll.  That 
property  was  found  divisible  into  three  equal  parts  of  23  bolls  9  pecks,  and  collectors 
were  appointed  for  the  south,  middle,  and  north  thirds  of  the  town,  to  raise  for  each 
third  "  the  fee  for  ane  man,  also  sixpence  qiiarterlie  ilk  Eande wow-day  and  three  six- 
pences to  ilk  man  of  three  souldiers  for  the  general  Eandewow  ".  The  personal  appear- 
ance of  the  troops  thus  furnished  we  partly  know  from  the  following : — 


TJw  Town's  People  about  1660.  363 

Receipt,  1672,  to  the  town  of  Inverurie,  by  Maister  John  Forbes,  sheriff  depute,  for  50  merks  for 
transporting  Alx.  Forfar  to  Bruntyland  and  eloathing  liira  with  a  hat  and  new  blew  coat,  lined  with 
wyt,  according  to  the  act  of  His  Majesty's  privie  Counsell. 

In  1670,  the  town  had  paid  31  lbs.  6p.  Scots  to  buy  standards  for  mounting  of 
trumpeters  and  drummers. 

Protection  of  resident  artizans  against  travelling  tradesmen  was  enjoined  in  1672  ; 
and  at  the  same  time  freedom  of  municipal  election — "  ilk  heritor,  life-renter,  wadsetter, 
and  burgess  to  have  ane  free  woitt  of  chuissing  of  their  bailies  yearlie  and  counsallers  ". 

The  aged  Town  Clerk,  James  Fergus  or  Ferguson,  died  about  that  time,  who,  imme- 
diately after  the  erection  of  the  Commonwealth,  signed  his  name  as  notary  "  under  the 
authority  of  the  commissioners  for  the  administration  of  justice  to  the  people  in  Scot- 
land ".  The  Council  elected  his  son,  Mr.  William  Ferguson,  but  the  election  was 
objected  to  on  the  part  of  Sir  John  Keith,  because  lie  was  not  represented  at  the  court, 
and  because  the  presiding  baillie  was  not  legally  qualified.  A  new  election  took  place, 
and  Mr.  William  Chalmers  was  chosen,  and  got  his  appointment,  ad  vitam  aut  culpam 
— a  right  never  conferred  until  then,  and  which  was  legally  abolished  only  a  few  years 
ago. 

The  freely  elected  Town  Council  of  Inverurie  was  perhaps  necessary  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  the  first  task  undertaken  by  the  magistracy  in  1673,  viz.,  the  great  esthetic 
innovation  of  ordering  that  "  peat  stacks  and  middens  no  longer  be  on  the  highway  ". 
The  city  of  Aberdeen  had  discharged  the  street  middens  in  1538. 

A  remarkable  criminal  case  marks  the  year  1674,  which  is  worth  quoting  for  its 
details  : — 

John  Farquhar,  who  was  apprehended,  judiciallie  confessed  that  upon  the  3rd  day  of  August 
instant  lait  at  even  he  opened  John  Gib's  barn  dore  in  Inverurie,  and  did  steill  two  half  sydes  of 
barkit  leather,  two  pairis  of  shoes  ;  and  upon  the  same  uieht  did  steill  a  horse  halter  and  hair  of  the 
hors  taill  and  a  saddill  out  of  Alex.  Eeid's  house  in  Inverurie,  from  ane  hors  pertaining  to  Henrie 
Adam,  shoemaker  in  Old  Aberdeen  ;  and  lykways  he  confessed  judicially  that  when  he  was  fast  laid  in 
prison,  he  loused  his  own  hands,  and  also  drew  his  foot  out  of  the  stocks,  and  took  the  stocks  to  a  window 
of  the  prison  to  have  broken  the  stanchions  thereof ;  and  lykways  that  when  he  was  intending  to  come 
out  of  the  window,  he  did  cast  the  two  pairs  of  shoes  out  before  him,  and  he  carried  them  away  with 
him,  and  lykwise  he  confessit  that  he  had  several  tymes  before  stolen  horse  halters  and  tethers.  Being 
tried  by  assize,  he  was  condemned  to  be  publieklie  scourged  through  the  town  of  Inverurie  by  the 
hangman  ;  and  further  certified  that,  if  ever  he  be  found  after  within  the  privileges  and  liberties  of  the 
said  burgh  he  shall  suffer  death. 

The  severity  of  the  sentence  is  difficult  to  understand,  proceeding  as  it  did  from  a 
municipal  tribunal. 

In  1677,  Sir  John  Keith  was  created  Earl  of  Kiutore,  and  the  Inverurie  community 

hastened  to  exercise  their  new  franchise,  in  doing  him  honour  in  the  somewhat  humblo 

way  of  electing,  not  himself  but  his  "  servitor,"  to  the  magisterial  bench,  along  with 

their  own  Baillie  Anderson,  and  a  large  body  of  councillors — 

27th  Sept.,  1677. — The  hail  heritors,  wadsetters,  lyferenters,  and  burgesses,  with  unanimous 
consent  nominates,  elects,  and  choises  John  Keith,  servitor,  to  the  Noble  Earle  of  Kintor,  Lord  of 
Inverury  and  Keith-hall,  and  John  Anderson,  to  be  Baillies  of  Inverury  from  Michael-day,  1677,  to 
Michael-day,  1678  ;  and  to  be  councillors,  Adam  Pittendreich,  John  Johnston,  of  New  Place  ;  Wra. 


364  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Logie,  in  Bogheads  ;  John  Gordon,  at  Milne  of  Bom-tie  ;  Alexander  Gordon,  in  Inverurie  ;  Alexr. 
Johnston  their  ;  Alex.  Forbes  ;  George  Lesly  ;  John  Taileour,  Dean  of  Guild ;  William  Steviu, 
thesaurer  ;  Andrew  Stevin  ;  Miehael  Davidson  ;  George  Meams  ;  James  Hntcheon  ;  George  Stevin  ; 
Alexander  Reid,  elder  ;   James  Taileour,  weaver  ;  and  William  Ferguson,  late  Baillie. 

In  the  next  century,  the  political  influence  of  the  Burgh  was  deemed  a  matter  of 
sufficient  moment  for  powerful  neighbours  to  desire  the  command  of.  The  Earls  of 
Fife  could  control  the  Burgh  of  Banff;  and  the  Earls  of  Kintore  had  both  Kintore  and 
Inverurie  much  at  their  bidding.  These  burghs,  with  the  municipalities  of  Cullen  and 
Elgin,  formed,  after  the  period  of  the  Union  with  England,  what  was  known  as  the  Elgin 
District  of  Burghs,  returning  one  member  to  the  British  House  of  Commons.  The 
minutes  connecting  the  founder  of  the  House  of  Keith-hall  with  the  burgh  council  of 
Inverurie,  may  have  proved  the  beginning  of  that  political  connection.  Early  in  the  suc- 
ceeding century  Inverurie  elected  Provosts  from  among  the  neighbouring  gentry,  and 
ceased  to  be  a  self-contained  municipality.     George  Burnett  of  Kemnay  was  the  first. 

The  ordinary  business  which  the  Burgh  of  Inverurie  had  to  transact  in  Edinburgh 
in  the  Convention  and  otherwise,  was  afterwards  conducted  by  Mr.  James  Ferguson  of 
Pifour  for  20  merks  a-year.  In  his  time  the  process  of  getting  extracts  of  documents 
in  process  in  the  Supreme  Court  evidently  included  the  drinking  of  a  bottle  of  wine 
with  the  judge's  clerk,  as  appears  by  Mr.  Ferguson's  bills  of  charges. 

During  two  or  three  years  about  the  period  of  the  above  peculiar  election,  a  number 
of  persons  of  some  social  position  living  at  a  distance,  were  admitted  into  the  freedom  of 
the  Burgh,  James  Elphinstone  of  Glack,  the  late  M.P.,  and  his  son  John,  fiar  of  Glack  ; 
Alexander  Grant,  brother  to  the  Laird  of  Ballindalloch ;  John  Erskine,  brother  to  the 

Laird  of  Pittodrie  ;  Alexander  Forbes,  son  of  Forbes  of ;  Mr.  Alexander  Anderson, 

advocate  in  Edinburgh;  Mr.  Alexander  Eobertson,  advocate  in  Aberdeen  ;  William  Ferrier 
and  William  Barker,  "  wreitors  "  there;  also  the  chamberlains  of  Keith-hall  and  Kemnay, 
servitors  of  the  Earl  Marischal  and  of  the  Earl  of  Kintore,  and  a  number  of  "  mer- 
chands  "  over  the  country,  and  residents  of  the  neighbouring  parishes.  In  the  midst  of 
them  we  have  two  of  the  old  minister's  sons  recorded  :  "  Aug.  23,  1675,  Maister  James 
Milne,  doctor  of  phisick,  and  Mr.  Alexander  Milne,  minister  of  Glasgow,  sons  of  the 
Verie  Reverend  Umquhile  Maister  James  Milne,  somtyme  minister  of  Inverurie  ". 

It  was  the  Town  Council  of  1677  that  recalled  the  Cross  of  Inverurie  back  again 
to  "  the  place  where  it  stode  aunciently,"  for  the  which  they  deserve  honourable  men- 
tion. The  next  year  was  to  see  the  minister's  house  repaired,  and  himself  terminate  his 
eventful  ministry,  a  period  of  incumbency  which  comprehended  all  the  disturbed  years 
of  the  Covenant,  and  after  the  temporary  "  happiness "  of  the  Restoration,  saw  the 
rising  discontent  which  in  a  dozen  years  more  brought  about  the  final  departure  of  the 
Stuart  dynasty  from  the  throne.  Mr.  Forbes'  successor  appears  along  with  Mr.  Samuel 
Walker's  successor  at  Monkegie  in  the  burgess  list,  9th  August,  1682 — "  Mr.  George  Keith, 
minister  of  Monkegie,  and  Mr.  William  Murray,  minister  of  the  Burgh". 

In  1680  the  Earl  of  Errol,  passing  through  the  Garioch  to  officiate  as  Lord  High 


The  Earldom  of  Kintore.  365 


Constable  of  Scotland,  at  the  Court  of  Charles  II.,  lodged  at  Kintore.  For  supper  and 
breakfast,  and  corn  and  straw,  for  one  night,  he  paid  10  lbs.  6sh.  4d.  Scots,  and 
18sh.  Scots  for  his  servants,  to  William  Fraser,  innkeeper — a  name  appearing  in  the  same 
position  in  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

«  /  THE  EARLDOM  OF  KINTORE. 

The  eventful  epoch  of  the  Restoration  was  marked  in  the  south  end  of  the  Garioch 
by  a  great  change — the  disappearance  of  the  historical  names  of  Caskieben  and  Monkegy 
so  often  mentioned  in  these  pages.  Sir  John  Keith  had  the  names  of  both  the  estate 
and  parish  changed  into  Keith-hall.  The  Johnstons,  who  henceforth  disappear  from  the 
Garioch  as  landed  proprietors,  perpetuated  their  ancient  designation  by  calling  part  of 
their  property  in  the  parish  of  Dyce,  which  they  were  able  to  retain,  by  the  name  of 
Caskieben ;  but  even  that  last  remnant  of  their  ancient  and  formerly  extensive  posses- 
sions has  long  been- the  property  of  others. 

In  passing  into  the  hands  of  a  member  of  the  Marisohal  family  the  former  seat  of 
the  Johnstons  did  not  become  the  property  of  entire  strangers.  A  connection  in  blood, 
in  patriotic  alliance,  and  in  honourable  association  with  the  dissemination  of  higher 
education,  closely  linked  together  the  Keiths  and  the  Johnstons  in  the  hundred  years 
which  included  the  Reformation  and  the  disastrous  Civil  War.  The  accomplished  grand- 
father of  Sir  John  Keith,  viz.,  George  Earl  Marischal,  the  travelled  student,  the  pupil 
of  Beza,  King  James's  honoured  Ambassador  to  conduct  Queen  Anne  from  Denmark  to 
the  Court  of  her  husband,  was  the  founder  of  Marischal  College — the  first  Protestant 
University  established  in  the  Scottish  kingdom — and  its  first  Professor  of  Mathematics 
was  William  Johnston,  doctor  of  physic,  the  younger  brother  of  the  celebrated  Dr. 
Arthur  Johnston,  and  uncle  of  Sir  George  Johnston,  from  whom  the  estate  of 
Caskieben  passed,  through  the  hands  of  the  two  Alexander  Jaffrays,  to  Sir  John  Keith. 
Arthur  and  William  Johnston  had  been  among  the  earliest  students  at  the  new  College  of  . 
Aberdeen,  while  its  first  Regent  was  Peter  Blackburn,  their  brother-in-law,  afterwards 
Bishop  of  Aberdeen.  Kinsmanship  united  the  two  houses.  The  Earl  Marischal,  who 
founded  the  College,  and  the  two  Johnstons  who  were  among  its  earliest  alumni,  were 
the  grandsons  of  two  sisters,  the  daughters  of  Sir  William  Keith  of  Inverugie.  George, 
Earl  Marischal,  was  the  grandson  of  Margaret  Keith,  the  elder  daughter  and  co-heiress  of 
Sir  William  Keith  of  Inverugie,  the  successor  in  blood  and  possessions  of  the  ancient 
family  of  Cheyne ;  and  through  her  came  that  property  which  is  associated  in  a  melan- 
choly way  with  the  Marischal  family — as  the  birthplace  of  the  last  of  the  line,  and  the  only 
possession  he  bought  back  with  the  Parliamentry  grant  that  accompanied  the  so  honour- 
able reversal  of  his  attainder.  The  younger  sister  of  the  Countess  Marischal — Elizabeth 
Keith — was  wife  of  the  seventh  Lord  Forbes,  and  grandmother  of  the  two  boys,  Arthur 
and  William  Johnston. 


366  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Gariocli. 

Community  of  sentiment  in  religion  brought  the  two  families  into  connection. 
The  Johnston  family,  in  a  former  age,  when  the  whole  landed  community  in 
Aberdeenshire  was  divided  into  two  great  portions,  united  in  bonds  of  man-rent  to 
the  Chiefs  of  the  Gordons  or  the  Forbeses,  sided  with  Lord  Forbes.  When  the  Mar- 
quis of  Huntly  and  the  Leslies  were  drawn  more  closely  than  ever  together,  by  their 
religious  sympathies,  in  resistance  to  the  Eeformation,  the  Caskieben  family,  which  had 
very  early  declared  for  the  reformed  religion,  was,  by  the  new  bond  of  adopted  faith, 
united  in  action  with  the  Forbeses  and  Keiths  ;  and  when  the  progress  of  events  made 
another  combination  necessary  in  the  defence  of  the  King,  the  bond  was  confirmed 
yet  more  between  the  Johnstons  and  the  Earl  Marischal. 

The  ancient  Caskieben  stock  disappearing  from  baronial  rank  in  the  Garioch, 
retained  prominent  position  in  the  kind  of  distinction  which  procured  for  the  first  of 
the  family  the  honourable  surname  of  "  The  Clerk  ".  Dr.  Arthur  had  a  son  William, 
who,  after  having  filled  the  office  of  one  of  the  Eegents  from  1657,  became  in  1669 
Professor  of  Civil  Law  in  King's  College,  of  which  his  father  had  been  chosen  Eector  in 
1637.  He  was  succeeded  in  1673,  as  Civilist,  by  George  Kicolson.  the  Laird  of  Kemnay, 
who  was  afterwards  a  Lord  of  Session,  and  adopted  the  designation  of  Lord  Kemnay. 
Dr.  William  Johnston,  the  younger  brother  of  Dr.  Arthur,  practised  medicine  in  the 
Burgh  of  Aberdeen,  and  thereby  acquired  the  means  of  purchasing  the  lands  of  Beidle- 
ston  in  Dyce.  He  appears  in  1663  in  an  interesting  asssociation  with  Alexander  Jaffrey 
and  Eobert  Farquhar,  with  the  former  of  whom  his  nephew,  Sir  George,  was  involved 
in  unfortunate  pecuniary  transactions.  Principal  Dun,  in  forming  a  trust  for  the 
administration  of  property  left  by  him  to  found  salaries  for  masters  in  the  Grammar 
School,  Aberdeen,  appointed  his  loving  friends,  William  Johnston,  Alexander  Jaffray, 
and  Eobert  Farquhar,  trustees,  along  with  three  nephews  of  his  own.  William  John- 
ston's widow,  Mrs.  Larbara  Forbes,  and  his  daughter,  Elizabeth,  widow  of  Mr.  Alex- 
ander Whyte,  Eegent  in  Marischal  College,  Aberdeen,  and  wife  of  Mr.  Keith,  both  were 
attracted  into  the  Quakerism  which  so  fascinated  many  good  people  in  the  latter 
half  of  the  17th  century,  when  irreligion  and  false  pretence  to  religiousness  were  very 
prevalent. 

The  Earldom  of  Kintore  was  created  in  1667  by  King  Charles  II.,  in  connection 
with  the  preservation  of  the  regalia  of  the  Scottish  Crown  from  the  grasp  of  Cromwell ; 
through  whose  hands  it  might  have  taken  the  same  course  as  the  magnificent  cande- 
labra made  for  Edward  VI. 's  coronation — and  used  at  that  of  Charles  I. — which  are 
now  shown  to  tourists  on  the  high  altar  of  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Bavon  in  Ghent,  as 
having  been  sold  to  the  then  Archbishop  by  Oliver  Comwell. 

-  The  Earl  Marischal,  eldest  brother  of   Sir  John  Keith,  was  the  hereditary  custodier 
of  the  Crown  jewels,  and  after  they  had  been  used  in  the  coronation  of  Charles  II.  in 
1651,  the  Earl  put  them  for  safety  into  the  Castle  of  Dunnottar  ;  selecting  as  Governor  ' 
of  the    castle,  a  trustworthy  neighbour,  George  Ogilvie  of   Barras,    who  accordingly 


The  Earldom  of  Kintore.  367 


held  the  castle  by  the  King's  commission.  During  Cromwell's  subsequent  successes 
against  the  forces  of  Charles,  in  Scotland,  great  apprehensions  were  entertained  as  to 
the  safety  of  the  precious  trust.  Ogilvie's  wife,  a  lady  descended  from  the  Douglases, 
and  possessed  of  no  small  share  of  their  spirit,  keeping  her  thoughts  secret  from  her 
husband,  laid  a  plan  to  get  the  Eegalia  removed  without  his  knowledge,  so  that  he 
might  not  he  compromised  when  they  were  missed.  The  castle  having  been  besieged 
by  the  time  she  got  to  action,  she  took  into  her  counsel  her  parish  minister,  Mr.  James 
Grainger  of  Kinneff,  and  his  wife.  The  latter  one  day  finding  occasion  to  proceed 
past  Dunnottar  to  Stonehaven  for  a  supply  of  flax  to  spin,  rode  to  the  town  followed 
on  foot  by  a  servant  woman  who  was  to  carry  the  flax.  On  her  return  she  asked 
leave  of  the  commander  of  the  besieging  forces,  Major-General  Morgan,  to  visit  Mrs. 
Ogilvie  in  the  castle,  and  was  allowed  to  pass,  followed  by  her  servant,  with  her  "  birn  " 
of  flax  on  her  back.  On  reaching  the  Governor's  quarters  the  servant,  relieved  of  her 
burden,  was  dismissed  to  her  confrers,  while  the  two  matrons  enjoyed  their  "  crack," 
and  when  Mrs.  Grainger  returned  from  the  castle  through  the  lines,  and  was  cour- 
teously assisted  to  her  horse  by  the  officer,  the  girl,  knowing  nothing  of  what  occurred, 
was  carrying  the  crown,  sceptre,  and  sword  of  the  Kingdom  of  Scotland  inside  her  flax 
burden.  On  reaching  the  manse  of  Kinneff,  the  bundle  was  taken  by  the  mistress, 
and  during  the  night  the  Minister  and  she  made  a  receptacle  for  the  Eegalia  in  the 
sand  beneath  the  pulpit  of  the  church.  Sometimes  there,  at  other  times  in  a  double- 
bottomed  bed  in  a  room  in  the  manse,  still  in  existence,  and  known  as  the  Crown 
Room,  the  jewels  were  hid  until  the  Eestoration  in  1660,  when  they  were  consigned 
to  the  care  of  Mr.  George  Ogilvie  of  Barras,  who  restored  them  to  the  Court. 

The  future  Earl  of  Kintore  was  connected  with  the  remarkable  exploit  in  this  wise 
Mrs.  Ogilvie,  in  order  to  divert  attention  from  the  true  state  of  matters,  dropped  in  the 
way  of  the  besiegers  a  letter  purporting  to  be  addressed  to  Governor  OgUvie,  by  John 
Keith,  the  Earl  Marischal's  youngest  brother,  saying  that  he  had  reached  the  Con- 
tinent safely  with  the  crown  jewels  which  he  had  taken  away,  and  would  give  them  up 
to  the  King.  It  is  said  that  the  mother  of  the  three  brothers  Keith,  namely,  Earl 
AVilliam,  George,  next  Earl,  and  John,  first  Earl  of  Kintore,  made  use  of  the  letter  so 
as  to  obtain  from  Charles  II.,  for  her  youngest  son,  the  post  of  Knight  Marischal  in 
1661,  and  in  1677  the  Earldom  of  Kintore.  It  would  appear  to  have  been  reckoned 
quite  legitimate  in  that  reign,  and  in  several  succeeding  ones,  for  persons  near  the 
throne  to  endeavour  to  get  for  themselves  the  lion's  share  of  reward  for  a  public 
service  in  which  they  might  have  played  but  a  trifling  part  themselves.  The  Countess 
was  a  sister  of  the  Earl  of  Mar,  and  her  father,  brother,  and  eldest  son  all  held  high 
offices.  The  family,  however,  had  some  claim  upon  the  Eoyal  favour  for  the  services  of 
those  two  Earls  in  the  cause  of  Charles  II.,  in  which  the  elder  suffered  the  loss  of  all 
his  lands  while  the  Commonwealth  lasted,  and  the  other,  after  valiantly  fighting  for  the 
young  King  in  1651,  had,  as  well  as  John,  to  live  long  in  exile.     The  title  conferred 


368  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garloch. 

upon  Sir  John  Keith  was  meant  to  commemorate  the  preservation  of  the  Eegalia, 
and  the  motto  inscribed  upon  the  coat  armour  of  the  Earldom  was  Quce  Amissa  Salva. 
The  Knight  Marischalship  was  accompanied  with  the  grant  of  £400  a-year. 

The  Ogilvies  were  less  amply  recompensed,  and  had,  besides,  before  their  reward 
came,  suffered  so  severely  at  the  hands  of  Cromwell,  who  was  incensed  at  the  rescue 
of  the  Regalia  from  his  grasp,  that  Mrs.  Ogilvie  died  within  two  years  after  the  sur- 
render of  the  castle,  a  victim  of  the  cruelties  inflicted  upon  her  through  imprisonment 
by  the  baffled  partisans  of  the  usurper.  Her  husband,  the  Governor  of  Duunottar,  was 
also  subjected  to  harsh  treatment.  The  minister  of  Kinneff  and  his  faithful  helpmate 
do  not  seem  to  have  been,  for  a  long  time,  even  suspected  of  having  aided  in  the 
clever  rescue  of  the  Honours  of  Scotland.  On  the  Bestoration  of  King  Charles  II., 
when  their  part  in  the  transaction  was  made  known,  they  were  rewarded  with  the  gift 
of  2000  merks  Scots,  but  it  is  believed  that  they  never  received  the  money.  The 
Ogilvies  had  bestowed  upon  them  the  title  of  Knight  Baronet  of  Kova  Scotia,  with  a 
grant  of  armorial  bearings  having  reference  to  the  saving  by  them  of  the  Kegalia ;  and 
the  holding  of  the  estate  of  Barras  was  changed  from  ward  to  blanch  tenure. 

Of  the  persons  chiefly  concerned  in  this  interesting  episode  of  Scottish  history,  it 
may  be  mentioned  that  Mr.  Grainger  and  his  wife  left  no  issue  behind  them,  so  far  as  is 
known.  The  male  line  of  the  Ogilvies  failed  on  the  decease,  in  1837,  of  Sir  George 
Musgrave  Ogilvie,  the  sixth  Baronet.  Legitimate  descendants  of  the  Governor  and  his 
heroic  wife  still  represent  them.  Elizabeth  Ogilvie,  daughter  of  David,  third  Baronet 
of  Barras,  married  in  1738  Patrick  Anderson  of  Bourtie,  in  the  Garioch.  Their  daugh- 
ter Mary,  became  in  1781  the  second  wife  of  William  Young  of  Sheddockslcy,  mer- 
chant, and  sometime  Provost  of  Aberdeen.  Her  five  daughters,  born  to  him,  succeeded, 
on  the  death  of  their  bachelor  uncle,  Alexander  Anderson  of  Bourtie,  as  co-heiresses  of 
his  lands  and  considerable  fortune.  Three  of  them  who  married,  and  left  issue,  are  now 
represented  by  John  Leith  Eoss  of  Arnage,  in  Buchan,  Dr.  Patrick  Black,  Senior 
Physician  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Hospital,  London,  and  Dr.  John  Abercrombie,  Physician, 
Cheltenham. 

Sir  John  Keith  seems  to  have  wished  to  found  a  new  family  in  the  honourable 
line  of  the  Keiths.  Such  a  wish  is  the  best  reason  that  can  be  offered  for  the  change 
made  in  the  names  of  Caskieben  and  Monkegy,  which  were  etymologically  distinc- 
tive and  bore  upon  them  the  memory  of  so  many  centuries,  from  the  time  of  John  the 
Scot  and  Xorman,  Constable  of  Enrowrie,  for  a  name,  commonplace  in  form,  and  speaking 
historically  only  of  himself.  Sir  John  built  some  part  of  the  existing  house  of  Keith- 
hall,  but  how  much  is  uncertain.  Dr.  Skene  Keith,  without  quoting  any  authority, 
says  he  built  the  south  and  east  parts,  and  that  there  remained  in  1811  a 
building  erected  by  the  Garviachs  and  another  house  built  by  the  Johnstons.  There 
is  in  the  present  mansion  a  narrow  towering  portion  consisting  of  small  vaulted  rooms 
which  is  known  to  the  servants  of  the  house  as  Caskieben.      The  date  1G65  is  upon  it, 


The  Town's  People  about  1660.  369 

which  may  indicate  its  being  repaired  by  Sir  John.  Mr.  Mill's  registers  show  that  the 
family  events  of  the  Johnstons  were,  in  the  generation  preceding  the  loss  of  the  property, 
taking  place  at  Ardiharrall.  Local  tradition,  however,  has  preserved  the  rather  too 
picturesque  apparition  of  two  starved  old  ladies  obstinately  cleaving  to  the  old  John- 
ston chambers,  and  in  their  need  going  up  to  the  neighbouring  Kirktown  of  Monkegy, 
where  the  aisle  of  the  gentle  Johnstons,  a  part  of  the  old  kirk,  sheltered  the  remains  of 
their  ancestors,  and  begging  a  drop  of  "  sowens,"  and  at  times  a  peat  from  the  cottars, 
and  carrying  the  peat  home  in  the  tail  of  their  silk  gowns. 

The  Gallowhill  of  Caskieben  was  trenched  for  cidtivation  a  little  over  two  genera- 
tions ago,  and  was  found  to  contain  the  skeletons  of  a  man  and  his  wife,  the  last 
criminals  executed  in  the  barony.  It  was  situated  near  the  Ury  and  the  Mill  of  Keith- 
hall.  Sir  John  Keith's  improvements  included  a  more  seemly  field,  namely,  a  bowling- 
green,  for  the  formation  of  which  the  Council  minutes  of  Inverurie  record  that  the 
Baillies,  in  1673,  sold  him  "  the  scruiff  of  the  Kirk-green  and  Streamhead  ". 


47 


Chapter  XI. 
THE  REVOLUTION  SETTLEMENT. 

Political  Discontent. — Test  imposed — Monmouth's  Rebellion.  Earl  of  Argyll. — Sir  John  John- 
ston. Ferguson  the  Plotter. — Brigadier  Ferguson.  Incidents. — Sir  George  Nicolson — 
Parochial  Matters.  Birth  of  the  Pretender.  The  late  King  James.  The  Temper 
or  the  Times. — Kcmnay  Parishioners — Monymusk  Bells  and  Clock.  Social  Condition  of 
the  Garioch. — Tlic  Poll  Lists — Old  Meldrum,  Insch  and  Inverurie — George  Ferguson— John 
Ferguson — Thain  of  Blackhall — Household  Establishments — Garioch  Ministers.  Families  in 
the  Garioch. — The  Legal  Profession.  The  Burgh  Lairds  of  Inverurie. — Fettcmear — 
The  Counts  Leslie — Wallcnslein — Siege  of  Vienna— Later  Lairds  of  Balquhain.  Leith-iiall. 
Freefield.  Keith-hall. — Keith  Earls  of  Kintore — The  Last  Earl  Marischal — Lady  Kintore 
— The  Lady  of  Leslie.  Monymusk. — Pitftchic — Forbes  of  Pilsligo — Badifurrow  and  Woodhill 
— Fergusons — Forbcses — Incidents  of  the  'Jfi — Johnstons.  "Warthill. — Prince  Bishop  of '  Laybach 
— Elphinstone  of  Warthill.  Glack. —  The  Elphinsloncs.  Logie  Eli>hinstone. —  Wcsthall. 
Horn — Dalrymple.  Castle  Fraser.  Balbithan.  Inveramsay.  Pitcaple.  Newplace. 
Pittodrie.  Bourtie. — Anderson.  Barra. — Eeid.  Kehn  w.  —  1'homas  Burnett — Court  of 
Hanover — First  Provost  of  Inverurie — Secretary  Burnett.  Religious  Disabilities — Ordinances 
— Confession  of  Faith.  Introduction  of  Presbyterian  Ministers. — Settlements  of  Kcmnay 
— Meldrum — Insch  and  Payne. 

POLITICAL  DISCONTENT. 

Scotland  the  Revolution  Settlement  of  1688  was  the  last  great  act  of  the 
national  Reformation  from  Popery,  the  first  of  which  took  place  in  1560 ;  and  it 
was  brought  on  by  the  persistent  attempts  of  Charles  II.  and  James  II.  to  evade 
the  conditions  upon  which  they  occupied  the  throne.  The  nation  so  recently  at  rest  from 
the  prolonged  tribulation  of  the  Civil  War,  and  averse  to  a  renewal  of  violence,  was  dis- 
posed to  await  the  death  of  the  Papist  King  James,  so  long  as  the  heir  to  the  throne  was 
the  Protestant  wife  of  WUliam,  Prince  of  Orange;  and  it  arose  to  assert  its  dearly-bought 
freedom  from  the  yoke  of  Rome  only  when  the  birth  of  a  Prince  as  heir  to  the  crown — who 
would  be  reared  by  the  Ring  and  his  Italian  Queen,  both  humble  subjects  of  the  Jesuits 
— gave  occasion  to  the  Roman  Catholic  families  in  the  country  to  let  their  wishes  and 
purposes  be  known.  The  thought  that  was  uppermost  in  the  popular  mind  in  connection 
with  the  Revolution,  appears  in  a  juvende  exploit  at  Aberdeen,  which  was  paralleled  at 
one  of  the  Southern  Scottish  Universities.  The  Students  of  Marischal  College  in  1689 
burned  the  Pope  in  effigy  after  a  procession  through  the  streets,  and  the  bell  of  the 
Trinity  Church  was  rung  all  night  on  the  occasion. 

The  tide  of  popular  feeling  which  arose  to  sudden  flood  in  1660,  respecting  the 


Political  Discontent.  371 


degree  of  happiness  which  had  been  secured  to  the  nation  by  the  restoration  of  the 
Stuarts  to  supremacy  in  the  State  and  the  Church  alike,  had  been  ebbing  since ;  and 
before  1680  the  sentiments  of  1638  were  dangerously  often  upon  men's  lips.  The 
King's  royal  privileges,  as  their  fathers  had  described  them,  had  been  more  susceptible 
of  resistance  than  the  privUeges  of  Cromwell's  colonels  were  found  to  be,  and  hence 
the  welcome  given  to  Charles  II.  By  and  bye,  however,  experience  of  what  the  Koyal 
Charles  and  his  less  scrupulous  brother  and  heir  sought  in  civil,  and  yet  more  in  church, 
affairs,  seems  to  have  made  the  policy  of  the  Covenant  be  thought  of  again.  Before 
1680,  the  doctrines  of  passive  resistance  must  have  been  discussed  with  alarming 
openness ;  for  a  new  oath  was  sent  down  to  the  Municipalities,  to  be  taken  by  all  in 
civil  office.  The  following  declaration  appears  in  the  Inverurie  Court  Book  as  having 
been  emitted  by  all  the  Council  in  1680  and  1681: — "We  doe  sincerely  affirm  and 
declare  that  we  judge  it  unlawful  for  subjects,  upon  pretence  of  reformation,  or  other 
pretence  whatsomever,  to  enter  into  leagues  or  covenants,  or  to  take  up  arms  against  the 
King  or  those  commissionate  by  him,  and  that  all  those  gatherings  and  convocations, 
petitions,  protestations,  and  wreitings,  or  keeping  of  counsell  tables  that  were  used  in 
the  beginning  for  raising  one  of  the  last  troubles,  were  unlawful  seditions,  and  particu- 
larlie  that  those  oathes,  whereoff  one  was  called  the  National  Covenant,  commonly  as  it 
was  sworne  and  explained  in  the  year  one  thousand  six  hundred  and  thirty-eight,  and 
thereafter,  and  the  other  intituled  ane  solemn  league  and  covenant,  were,  and  are,  in 
themselves  unlawful  oathes,  and  were  taken  and  imposed  upon  the  subjects  of  this  king- 
dom against  the  fundamental  laws  and  liberties  of  the  same,  and  that  there  lyeth  no 
obligation  upon  me,  or  any  of  the  subjects,  from  the  said  oathes,  or  either  of  them,  to 
endeavour  any  change  or  alteration  of  the  government,  either  in  Church  or  State,  as  it 
is  now  established  be  the  laws  of  the  kingdom  ". 

It  was  the  South  and  "West  of  Scotland  that  felt  most  severely  the  barbarous 
measures  adopted  by  James  VII.  against  Presbyterians.  Colonel  Erskine  of  Cardioss, 
the  father  of  the  celebrated  author  of  the  Institutes,  states,  in  an  unpublished  diary, 
that  in  1682  he  accompanied  the  Assize,  then  imposing  the  test  at  different  central 
places,  and  he  saw  men  sent  off  to  be  hanged,  for  simply  declining  to  call  the  action  at 
Bothwell  rebellion,  while  some  fifty  or  sixty  adulterers  brought  up  to  the  Court  for 
trial — their  crime  being  then  penal — were  smilingly  dismissed,  and  bidden  be  loyal 
subjects  and  go  home. 

The  Garioch  records  contain,  besides  two  proclamations  respecting  the  Monmouth 
episode,  only  a  couple  of  picturesque  announcements  of  the  coming  into  the  world  of 
the  unfortunate  Pretender.  That  late  birth  of  a  son  to  the  King  was  hailed  by  the 
Eoman  Catholic  party,  in  both  England  and  Scotland,  with  a  joy  that  showed  how  en- 
tirely they  mistook  the  self-restraint  the  country  had  exercised  while  hope  of  relief 
presented  itself  in  the  probable  succession  to  King  James  of  one  of  the  daughters  of  his 
first  Queen,  Ann  Hyde,  the  daughter  of  the  great  Chancellor. 


372  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Gar  loch. 

The  Monmouth  rebellion  was,  however,  to  intervene  before  King  James  added  his 
share  to  the  misgovernment  that  provoked  the  Revolution.  Upon  the  death  of  Charles 
II.,  6th  February,  1685,  James  Scot,  Duke  of  Monmouth,  the  King's  son  by  Lucy 
Walters,  claimed  the  throne.  He  believed  the  King  to  have  been  married  to  his  mother, 
and  in  1680  had  asserted  his  legitimacy.  He  was  living  in  Holland,  in  exile,  when  the 
sudden  death  of  Charles  happened.  In  the  same  refuge  for  British  Protestants,  the 
Earl  of  Argyll,  son  of  the  Covenanting  Marquis,  was  also  abiding,  out  of  the  reach  of 
the  Duke  of  York  ;  whose  enmity  he  had  incurred  by  opposition  to  the  attempts  made 
by  the  Duke  towards  his  great  ecclesiastical  object,  while  he  represented  the  King  in 
Scotland.  It  was  concerted  in  Holland  that  Monmouth  should  claim  the  Crown,  and 
make  a  descent  upon  the  South  Coast  of  England  in  the  month  of  May,  and  that 
Argyll  should  second  his  attempt  by  a  rising  in  the  West  of  Scotland.  Neither,  the  Duke 
nor  the  Earl  were  capable  persons  for  such  an  exploit,  and  history  records  how  speedily 
both  efforts  were  crushed,  and  ended  in  the  execution  of  Argyll  before  the  end  of  June, 
and  that  of  Monmouth  in  the  succeeding  month.  The  termination  of  the  ill-planned 
attempt  was  made  known  to  the  country  in  the  following  proclamations  enjoined  to  be 
read  from  the  pulpit. 

At  Oyne,  19  July,  1685. — The  parson  read  a  publiek  proclamation  from  the  pulpit,  by  the  order 
of  his  Ma'tie's  privy  eounsell,  for  apprehending  som  rebells,  confederals  of  Argyle,  and  that  non  should 
entertain,  harbour,  or  converse  \v'-  any  pson  or  psons  who  hade  not  a  pass  from  under  the  hands  of 
those  authorised  for  the  same. 

At  Oyne,  9th  Aug.,  1685. — The  sd  day  ther  was  a  publick  proclamation  read  from  pulpit  by  the 
parson  by  order  of  his  Ma'tie's  Privie  Counsel],  ordaining  and  instituting  a  solemn  and  religious  tlianks- 
giveing,  qch  is  universally  throughout  this  diocess  to   be  observed  on  Thursday  next  the  thirteenth 

instant,  for  the  great  victorie  over  the  usurpers  and  enemies  of  this ,  viz.  James  Scot,  late 

Duke  of  Monmouth,  and  Archibald  Campbell,  late  Earle  of  Argyle,  and  diverse  others. 

The  Monymusk  record  gives  the  names  of  the  others  principally  denounced  in  the  pro- 
clamation, viz.,  Sir  Charles  Campbell  the  Earl's  son,  Sir  John  Cochran,  and  Balfour  of 
Burley. 

The  minister  of  Oyne  on  the  appointed  day  of  thanksgiving  preached  from  Job 
xxxiv.  29.  Mr.  James  Strachan  had  a  skill  in  selecting  texts,  as  will  be  observed 
afterwards. 

THE  EARL  OF  ARGYLL. 

The  Marquis  of  Argyll  so  well  known  in  the  Garioch  in  the  disastrous  years  of 
King  James's  father,  and  whose  last  appearance  there  was  in  conducting  Prince  Charles 
southward  to  be  crowned  by  him  at  Scone,  a  few  weeks  after  he  had  got  Montrose 
beheaded  for  attempting  the  same  thing,  became  after  the  successes  of  Cromwell 
a  distinct  supporter  of  the  Protector  or  Usurper,  as  he  was  variously  termed,  and  he 
suffered  death  as  a  traitor  after  the  Eestoration,  being  decapitated  27th  May,  1661,  by  the 
Scottish  guillotine  called  the  Maiden.     Argyll's  fortitude  on  the  scaffold  is  a  redeeming 


The  Earl  of  Argyll.  373 


portion  of  his  history.  His  words,  when  he  first  beheld  the  instrument  of  death,  recall 
the  incident  of  his  life  in  1650  noticed  in  these  pages,  when  the  Goodwife  of  Glack 
said  aloud  to  Prince  Charles  as  he  was  leaving  Pitcaple  :  "  They're  riden  on  your  right 
hand  that  took  aft0  yer  father's  head,  and  if  ye  tak'  na  care  'ill  tak'  aff  yours  ".  Argyll, 
looking  on  the  block,  said,  "  I  had  the  honour  to  set  the  crown  upon  the  King's  head, 
and  now  he  hastens  me  to  a  better  crown  than  his  own".  The  destruction  of  the 
Marquis  is  said  to  have  been  partly  due  to  the  desire  of  his  enemy  the  Earl  of  Mid- 
dleton,  the  King's  principal  minister  in  Scotland  at  the  time,  to  have  the  Argyll  estates 
forfeited  and  bestowed  upon  himself.  If  it  was  so  the  motive  was  characteristic 
of  the  age  and  a  grim  sort  of  poetical  justice  coming  after  some  of  the  Marquis's  actions 
during  his  day  of  power. 

Lord  Lorn  who,  twenty-four  years  after  his  father,  was  to  pass  from  mortal  life  by 
the  same  bloody  exit,  leaving  behind  him  a  higher  character  for  true  patriotism,  had 
deserved  well  of  King  Charles  ;  though  his  services  were  not  so  estimated  by  the  King  as 
to  secure  a  favourable  hearing  to  his  petitions  on  his  father's  behalf.  In  1650  Lord  Lorn 
was  Colonel  of  the  young  King's  Foot-guards  ;  and  he  had  obtained  his  commission 
therein  from  Charles  himself,  refusing  to  accept  it  from  the  Parliament.  While  the 
King  remained  in  the  country,  and  after  his  flight,  Lorn  was  so  active  and  formidable  in 
his  cause  that  Cromwell  excepted  him  out  of  his  Act  of  Grace  and  Pardon  issued  12th 
April,  1654  ;  and  although  straits  compelled  him  to  submit  to  the  Protector  he  con- 
tinued to  be  watched  and  oppressed  ;  and  at  last  was  imprisoned  in  1657  in  Edinburgh 
Castle — where  he  had  his  skull  fractured  by  an  accidental  blow  from  a  ball  thrown  by 
the  Governor  in  play,  and  underwent  the  operation  for  trepan.  Being  of  course  released 
in  1660,  upon  the  restoration  of  the  King,  he  went  to  London,  carrying  a  letter  to  the 
King  from  Ids  father.  He  was  himself  well  received;  but  the  escape  of  Argyll  from 
his  fate  was  neither  deserved  nor,  considering  the  power  of  his  opponents,  possible. 
After  the  Earl  of  Middleton  lost  his  influence,  Lord  Lorn  got  a  patent  from  the  King, 
not  of  his  father's  Marquisate,  but  of  the  Earldom  of  Argyll  held  by  his  grandfather. 
His  life  was  thenceforth  to  be  spent  mostly  in  resistance  to  the  designs  which  the  royal 
brothers  developed  upon  the  security  of  Protestantism  in  Scotland.  In  Parliament  and 
in  the  Council  he  opposed  the  proposals  of  the  Duke  of  York,  then  resident  in  Scotland. 
The  insidious  and  violent  means  taken  by  the  Duke  to  crush  all  opposition  to  his  eccle- 
siastical policy  are  matter  of  history,  and  the  Earl  was  one  of  the  sufferers.  In  1681, 
he  was  ordered  to  surrender  himself  at  Edinburgh  Castle  to  be  tried  for  treason.  He  was 
defended  by  Lockhart,  and  a  majority  of  the  judges  eould  not  be  mustered  against  him, 
except  by  bringing  up  an  aged  judge,  who  had  not  been  present  at  the  trial,  and  could 
not  be  kept  awake  to  hear  the  conclusion  of  it.  He  was  condemned,  but  on  the  evening 
of  20th  December  he  escaped  from  the  Castle  in  the  guise  of  a  page,  holding  up  the  train 
of  his  step-daughter,  Lady  Sophia  Lindsay.  His  third  son,  Colonel  Charles  Campbell, 
afterwards  married  the  brave  young  lady.     Escaping  to  London,  the  Earl  was  protected 


374  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch, 

from  arrest  by  the  good  nature  of  King  Charles,  and  allowed  to  pass  to  Holland.  "When, 
after  the  King's  death,  he  undertook  a  patriotic  attempt  in  Scotland  against  James  VII., 
while  Monmonth  was  doing  the  same  in  England,  Argyll  expected  to  get  a  great  fol- 
lowing in  his  own  country ;  but  those  he  counted  upon  were  mostly  in  prison  or  held 
to  bail.  He  found  himself  almost  alone,  and  was  taken.  A  fresco  in  the  Houses  of 
Parliament — The  Sleep  of  Argyll — commemorates  the  last  night  of  the  patriotic  Earl. 
He  was  executed  30th  June,  1685.  One  of  his  followers  in  the  rising  was  Colonel 
Erskine,  above  referred  to,  an  ancestor  of  the  present  family  of  Burnett  of  Kemnay. 

The  Earl's  fourth  son  was  connected  by  a  most  tragic  association  with  the  Garioch  and 
with  the  close  of  the  elder  line  of  the  Baronets  of  Caskieben.  On  14th  November,  1C90, 
The  Hon.  James  Campbell,  with  the  aid  of  Sir  John  Johnston  of  that  Ilk  and  Caskieben, 
and  another  friend,  abducted  and  married  Mary  Wharton, — a  young  lady  of  thirteen, 
possessing  an  estate  of  £1500  a-year — daughter  of  Sir  George  Wharton.  The  act,  which 
was  a  repetition  of  various  feats  in  the  history  of  the  house  of  Argyll,  was  considered  a 
capital  crime.  Six  John  Johnston  was  prosecuted  for  his  share  in  the  abduction  at 
the  instance  of  the  young  lady's  guardian,  Lord  Wharton ;  who,  by  relentless  exercise 
of  the  influence  he  possessed  with  King  William,  procured  that  Sir  John,  who  was 
condemned,  should  be  hanged  at  Tyburn,  23rd  December,  1690.  Campbell  escaped,  and 
strangely  enough  for  the  distribution  of  justice  in  those  times,  appears  afterwards  in  the 
rank  of  Colonel  and  sitting  as  Member  of  Parliament  for  Campbeltown.  The  lady's 
conduct  in  the  affair  was  not  to  her  credit. 

FERGUSON  THE  PLOTTER. 

Monmouth's  rebellion  has  an  interest  of  special  kind  in  connection  with  Inverurie. 
The  person  who,  according  to  the  historian  Burton,  was  chiefly  instrumental  in  inciting 
that  insurrection  both  in  England  and  Scotland,  was  Eobert  Ferguson,  the  eldest  of  the 
six  sons  of  William  Ferguson  in  Crichie  and  Janet  Clark,  who  had  gone  to  England 
early  in  his  life.  This  extraordinary  man,  a  too  well  ripened  fruit  of  a  state  of  society 
chacteristically  false  in  politics,  Macaulay  selects  as  one  of  his  subjects  of  political 
portraiture,  describing  him  with  his  usual  study  of  effect.  "  He  was  the  Judas  of 
Dryden's  greatest  satire.  He  was  by  birth  a  Scot,  but  England  had  long  been  his 
residence.  At  the  time  of  the  Eestoration  indeed  he  had  held  a  living  in  Kent.  He 
had  been  bred  a  Presbyterian,  but  the  Presbyterians  had  cast  him  out,  and  he  had 
become  an  Independent.  He  had  been  master  of  an  academy  which  the  Dissenters 
had  set  up  at  Islington,  as  a  rival  to  Westminster  School  and  the  Charter  House, 
and  had  preached  to  large  congregations  at  a  meeting  house  at  Moorfields.  He  aban- 
doned theology,  and  took  to  the  worst  part  of  politics.  He  seems  to  have  been  an  informer 
as  well  as  a  plotter."     He  went  to  England  in  1656  when  about  25  years  of  age. 

Five  years  before  the  death  of  Charles  II.,  Ferguson  had,  in  anonymous  pamphlets 


Ferguson  the  Plotter.  375 


which  obtained  great  circulation,  infused  into  the  mind  of  the  public  a  belief  that  the 
King  had  been  married  to  the  mother  of  the  Duke  of  Monmouth.  The  effect  produced 
was  such,  that  the  King  and  the  Privy  Council  made  solemn  declarations,  circumstantially 
contradicting  the  allegation.  In  letters  addressed  to  the  Earl  of  Aberdeen,  in  16S3, 
he  is  described  as,  "  One  Ferguson  (borne  neir  Aberdeen),  a  phanatick  preacher, 
who  has  been  near  thirty  yeares  in  this  country,"  and  is  fartrrer  alluded  to  as  having 
been  concerned  in  a  hellish  contrivance  for  the  murder  of  the  King  and  the  Duke 
and  Duchess  and  Lady  Anne,  on  the  way  from  Newmarket,  in  June,  1683.  Upon 
the  King's  death,  Ferguson  prepared  the  proclamations  and  other  papers  which  tho 
Duke  of  Monmouth  issued  when  he  left  Holland  upon  liis  ill-fated  enterprise  ;  and 
it  was  said  that  his  recompense  was  to  be  the  Archbishopric  of  Canterbury. 
Ferguson  kept  his  unworthy  head  upon  his  shoulders  when  the  popular  Duke  perished ; 
and  he  appeared,  in  1688,  in  the  train  of  William  of  Orange  on  his  arrival  from 
Holland.  Under  King  William,  he  received  a  place  in  the  Excise  with  £500  a-year,  but 
unchanged  in  his  propensities  was  soon  suspected  to  be  implicated  in  a  Jacobite  intrigue 
called  the  Montgomery  Plot ;  and  in  1706  he  published,  under  his  own  name,  a  History 
of  the  Kevolution,  in  which  he  made  the  Prince  of  Orange  appear  as  an  agent  of  the 
Jesuits,  and  the  Eevolution -itself  a  bold  stroke  for  the  furtherance  of  the  Church  of 
Eome.  Nearly  a  score  of  political  pamphlets,  from  his  son,  appeared  between  1673  and 
1714.  He  must  have  been  under  the  secret  protection  of  the  successive  governments 
of  the  time,  purchased  apparently  by  scraps  of  information  communicated  by  him  in 
the  character  of  a  spy ;  for  although  sufficiently  recognisable  in  person,  and  frequently 
pursued  by  the  authorities  for  treasonable  acts,  he  was  very  seldom  taken,  and  always 
soon  dismissed.  At  one  time  he  had  four  different  lodgings  in  London,  and  went  under 
many  names ;  at  another  he  hid  himself  from  pursuit  in  the  prison  of  Edinburgh,  paying 
a  visit  to  the  Governor,  upon  whom  he  had  some  hold.  About  45  years  of  age,  in  1685° 
he  was  to  be  discovered  by  a  broad  Scottish  accent,  taU  lean  figure,  lantern  jaws,  sharp 
eyes  always  overhung  by  his  wig,  cheeks  inflamed  by  an  eruption,  shoulders  stooping, 
and  a  peculiar  shuffling  gait.  Brought  up  till  his  fifteenth  year  in  the  Garioch  amidst 
the  tortuous  Scottish  politics  of  the  time  of  the  Covenant  and  Commonwealth,  he  seems 
to  have  been  all  his  life  under  a  fascination  to  plot  political  turmoil,  but  he  is  not 
accused  of  having  ever  betrayed  his  accomplices.  He  and  another  alone  remained 
faithful  to  Shaftesbury,  and  the  Ahithophel  of  the  Monmouth  rebellion  died  in  his  arms 
in  Holland.  A  fund  of  humour,  sometimes  profane,  helped  his  influence  over  his  asso- 
ciates of  high  degree.  In  Monmouth's  expedition  he  relieved  the  commissariat  in  a  strait 
by  getting  the  Duke's  authority  to  proclaim  a  religious  fast;  and  at  Exeter  on  the 
landing  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  when  Bishop  Burnett  was  preaching  in  the  Cathedral, 
he  tried  to  make  his  way  into  the  pulpit  of  a  Presbyterian  church,  and,  being  kept  back, 
drew  his  sword  and  said,  "  I  shall  be  forced  to  take  the  kingdom  of  heaven  by  storm  ".' 
Originally  assistant  to  Dr.  John  Owen,  the  nonconformist  divine,  Ferguson  in  1689,  in 


376  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Gariocli. 

an  apology  for  his  life,  proclaimed  himself  an  admiring  convert  to  the  Church  of 
England.  He  seems  to  have  succeeded  in  obtaining  orders  and  a  living  in  that  church, 
but  in  1713  he  is  said  to  have  been  in  destitute  circumstances.  "When  in  1699  he  was 
summoned  by  the  Court  of  Session  (but  without  answering)  to  serve  himself  heir  to 
his  father,  William  Ferguson  of  Badifurrow,  as  eldest  son,  at  the  instance  of  Mr.  James 
Ferguson  of  Badifurrow,  then  about  to  sell  that  estate,  he  was  described  as  a  minister 
in  London. 

He  appears  in  the  writings  of  two  antagonistic  political  schemers  of  the  period,  as 
being  well  known  in  character  to  both.  Lockhart,  author  of  "  Memoirs  on  the  Affairs  of 
Scotland,"  and  son  of  the  distinguished  lawyer  and  politician  who  defended  the  Earl  of 
Argyll,  speaks  of  him  as  "  the  famous  Mr.  Ferguson  "  ;  and  Simon,  Lord  Lovat,  one  of 
whose  Jacobite  intrigues,  Lockhart  says,  was  discovered  and  defeated  by  Ferguson, 
refers  in  his  Memoirs  to  familiar  intercourse  with  him  when  in  London.  In  1703,  he 
was  plotting  in  behalf  of  the  Pretender,  and  sending  the  strongest  protestations 
by  Lovat  to  the  Court  of  St.  Gerrnains,  of  his  fidelity  to  the  Jacobite  cause.  Lord 
Lovat  says  that,  in  London,  he  got  a  letter  from  "  Old  Mr.  Ferguson  to  Major-General 
Ferguson,  his  brother,  who  then  commanded  the  troops  at  Bois  le  Due".  Lovat  had  occa- 
sion to  make  use  of  the  recommendation  afterwards,  when  his  tortuous  course  brought  him 
into  great  danger,  and  by  General  Ferguson's  aid  he  escaped  across  the  Dutch  frontier. 
He  represents  the  General  as  having  taken  service  under  King  William  and  the  Dutch 
Republic  for  a  subsistence,  but  as  being  in  his  heart  faithfully  attached  to  King  James. 
The  word  of  Simon,  Lord  Lovat,  was  not  reliable  testimony,  but  the  Fergusons  were 
Jacobites  afterwards,  as  they  had  been  Boyalists  before.  In  the  public  funeral  accorded 
after  the  Eestoration  to  the  remains  of  the  Marquis  of  Montrose,  and  Hay  of  Delgaty, 
as  royalist  martyrs,  Wdliam  Ferguson  of  Badifurrow  was  honoured  to  bear  the 
"gumphion  "  (gonfalon  or  standard). 

Mr.  Eobert  Ferguson  is,  or  was  recently,  represented  by  a  physician  high  in  the 
medical  staff  in  England,  the  descendant  of  a  daughter. 

Brigadier-General  Ferguson  was  the  third  son  of  Wilbam  Ferguson,  in  Crichie,  and 
was  the  ancestor  of  the  Fergusons  of  Kinmundy.  He  died  in  Holland  in  1705.  Family 
tradition  has  it  that  his  end  was  untimely,  and  owing  to  the  jealousy  of  his  superior 
officer.  He  was  with  the  Scots  regiment  in  the  Dutch  service  in  1688,  and  came  over 
with  William  of  Orange,  whom  he  afterwards  served  in  Scotland  under  Mackay.  He  was 
not  at  Killiecrankie,  but  had  chief  command  in  Argyleshire  when  one  of  the  Buchans 
of  Auchmacoy  was  James's  general,  and  he  was  in  command  of  the  detachment  that 
commenced  the  budding  of  Fort  WiUiam.  In  1698  he  was  Colonel  of  one  of  the  Soots 
regiments  in  the  service  of  the  States  of  Holland,  his  adjutant  being  John  Ferguson,  and 
three  ensigns,  John,  Eobert,  and  James  Ferguson.  He  served  under  Marlborough  in 
1704,  and  led  the  most  perilous  and  successful  advance  in  the  battle  of  Blenheim,  after 
which,  with  five  English  battalions,  he  escorted  the  great  mass  of  prisoners  taken,  by 


Incidents.  377 


Rhine  boats,  from  Mainz  into  Holland.  A  grotesque  story  is  told  of  his  fertility  of 
device.  An  inconveniently  large  number  of  prisoners  had  to  be  escorted  to  a  secure 
place  of  detention,  and  all  the  officers  in  command  shrunk  from  the  dangerous  duty ; 
but  Ferguson  undertook  it  and  carried  it  out  successful^.  He  cut  the  fastenings  of 
the  small  clothes  of  all  the  prisoners,  so  that  they  were  forced  to  occupy  their  hands 
during  the  march  in  holding  them  up.  He  died  14th  October,  1705,  at  Bosch,  or  Bois 
le  Due,  in  Brabant,  immediately  on  his  return  from  court,  whither  he  had  been  sum- 
moned to  receive  promotion  for  his  services.  The  cause  of  his  death  was  supposed  to  be 
poison.  He  had  been  twice  married.  His  daughter  Ann  Elizabeth,  by  his  second 
wife,  Hester  Elizabeth  Hibelet,  became  the  wife  of  a  countryman,  Gerard  Vinck.  His 
first  family,  James  and  Elizabeth,  whose  mother  was  Ann  Drummond,  lived  some  time 
after  hisdeath  with  their  uncle  Robert's  wife,  Mrs.  Hannah  Ferguson,  in  London. 
James  sold  his  father's  property  of  Balmakelly,  in  Kincardineshire,  and  bought  Kin- 
mundy,  in  Buchan,  in  1724. 

INCIDENTS. 

In  1685,  the  year  of  the  vain  attempt  of  Monmouth  and  Argyll,  the  representa- 
tion of  Aberdeenshire  in  the  Scottish  Parliament  was  contested  by  two  individuals 
connected  with  the  Garioch — Sir  Alexander  Seton  of  Pitmedden,  representative  of  the 
Setons  of  Bourtie,  and  Sir  George  Nicolson,  Lord  Kemnay.  A  double  return  was  made, 
and  Pitmedden's  election  was  sustained.  Seton,  like  Nicolson,  was  a  Judge,  hut  resigned 
at  the  Revoluton,  and  would  not  take  office  again. 

Sir  George  Nicolson  bought  Kemnay,  in  1682,  from  Alexander  Strachan,  younger 
of  Glenkindie.  He  was  the  son  of  an  Aberdeen  merchant ;  and  was  called  to  the 
Scottish  Bar  in  1661.  He  succeeded  Dr.  Arthur  Johnston's  son,  William,  as  Civilist  in 
King's  College,  Aberdeen,  at  which  time,  and  into  1861,  ho  was  styled  "  of  Cluny  ". 
He  was  made  a  Judge  of  Session  in  1682,  taking  the  title  of  Lord  Kemnay,  from 
his  newly  acquired  property.  He  sold  Kemnay,  in  1688,  to  Thomas  Burnett,  ancestor 
of  the  present  proprietor.  Afterwards  he  acquired  Balcaskie,  in  Fife,  and  some 
property  in  Berwickshire,  and  was  alive  as  late  as  the  Union.  His  second  wife, 
Margaret  Halyburton,  died  in  August,  1722.  He  had  at  least  two  sons.  Thomas, 
the  eldest,  was  made  Baronet  in  1700,  and  had  by  his  wife,  Dame  Margaret  Nicolson, 
relict  of  James  Hamilton  of  Balnacrief,  to  whom  he  was  married  in  1688,  several 
daughters,  one  of  whom  was  Margaret,  Marchioness  of  Lothian ;  but  no  son.  The 
baronetcy  went  to  his  brother,  William  Nicolson  of  Mergie.  Sir  William  restored  the 
historical  association  of  Kemnay  and  Glenbervie,  by  becoming,  11th  February,  1721, 
proprietor  of  the  latter  estate,  whish  he  bought  from  Catherine,  daughter  and  heiress  of 
Thomas  Burnet  of  Glenbervie,  whose  widow  he  married.  Sir  William  four  times 
married  and  had  twenty-two  children.    His  fifth  daughter,  John  Nicolson,  who  inherited 

48 


378  Inverurie  and  tJie  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Glenbervie,  married  Mr.  James  Wilson,  Minister  of  Farnel,  and  her  daughter,  Ann 
Wilson  Nicolson  of  Glenbervie,  became  the  wife  of  Dr.  Eobert  Badenach  of  Arthur- 
house.  Their  son,  James  Badenach  Kicolson,  Advocate,  presently  Secretary  to  the 
Lord  Advocate  for  Scotland,  is  the  representative  of  the  name  of  Nicolson  of  Kemnay. 

Sir  George  Nicolson,  Lord  Kemnay,  had  been  first  married  to  Elizabeth  Abercromby, 
of  the  Birkenbog  family,  a  near  relative  of  the  Boman  Catholic  family  then  proprietors 
of  Fetternear.  A  son  by  this  marriage  was  the  first  Vicar  Apostolic  appointed  by  the 
Pope  in  Scotland.  Bishop  Nicolson  had  his  residence  at  Preshome,  in  the  Enzie, 
where,  from  his  appointment  in  1694  to  Bishop  Kyle's  death  in  1869,  he  and  his  suc- 
cessors continued  to  dwell.  Jj 

The  brewing  of  the  revolutionary  storm  was  indicated  in  1686,  by  an  Act  of 
Privy  Council,  issued  October  24,  for  the  suppression  of  slanderers  and  leasing  makers, 
which  was  appointed  to  be  read  from  the  pulpits  four  times  in  the  year  at  the  beginning 
of  each  quarter — the  slanderers  meant  being  political  malcontents. 

Kirk  Session  minutes  narrating  the  ordinary  conduct  of  church  services,  show 
special  days  of  thanksgiving  annually  observed  for  the  Bestoration  of  Eoyal  Govern- 
ment, and  the  celebration  of  the  King's  birthday.  Regularly  before  the  operations  of 
seed  time  and  harvest,  solemn  fasts  appear  to  have  been  kept,  with  supplication  for  the 
blessing  of  God.  The  presence  of  a  minister  at  a  death  bed  of  important  persons  in  his 
own  parish,  or  a  neighbouring  one,  seems  to  have  been  regarded  as  a  sufficient  reason 
for  his  pulpit  duties  being  delegated  to  others.  The  parson  of  Oyne  was  in  this  way, 
on  14th  March,  1686,  waiting  upon  the  Dowager  Lady  of  Leslie,  her  own  minister,  Mr 
John  Shand  of  Premnay,  preaching  for  him;  and  on  7th  August,  1687,  was  "  called 
instantlie  to  the  Laird  of  Lesly,  he  being  upon  his  death  bed,  as  was  suspected,"  leaving 
his  church  without  afternoon  service.  Both  the  Laird  and  his  mother  survived  to  be 
entered  in  the  Poll  Lists  in  1696. 

The  Session  Becord  of  Oyne,  for  1686,  contains  a  description  of  the  celebration  of 
the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  which  is  of  interest  as  belonging  to  the  period 
when  the  constitution  of  the  Church  was  Episcopalian. 

1686,  March  28. — The  parson  did  publieklie  inthnat  from  pulpit  that  the  sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  was  to  be  celebrat  in  that  place  (God  willing)  this  day  eight  dayes  And  therfor  he  de- 
sired the  people  in  order  to  the  better  preparation  for  that  holy  and  solemn  work  to  convceu  frequentlie 
about  ther  ordinary  times  on  fridday  next  for  hearing  sermon  to  that  effect. 

The  elders  were  ordeant  to  take  particular  notice  in  ther  severall  quarters  who  are  at  varriance, 
and  strive  to  reconcile  them  betwixt  this  and  fridday  next,  otherwayes  to  give  a  List  of  them  to  the 
session  on  fridday  next  that  they  might  be  debard. 

Apprile  2. — Text  Canticles  3  cap.  1,2,  3&  4  verses  preached  upon  be  Mr  Wm  Wattson  ininr  of 
the  gospell  at  Lesly,  that  being  the  day  of  preparation  before  the  sacrament. 

The  sd  day  the  session  being  callit  eonveend  and  after  prayer  the  parson  having  posed  the  elders 
whom  they  knew  Liveing  in  malice  and  would  not  be  reconciled.  These  persons  were  delete  [eight  in- 
dividuals who  along  with  some  persons  under  censure  were  debarred.] 

"  The  sd  day  tokens  distribute  to  those  who  were  to  communicate  and  the  elders  ordeant  to  wait  on 
ther  severall  employments  on  the  ensuing  sabbath  day  (Wiz)  John  Scott  of  Newlands  and  Alexander 
farcher  in  Ryhill  to  gather  up  the  tokens  ;  George  Duncan  and  Alexr  watt  to  gather  up  the  money  ; 
John  meldrum  to  attend  to  the  breid  and  george  davidson  the  wine.  Thomas  Lesly  to  have  inspection 
of  the  people  ther  orderlie  address  unto  the  table. 


Birth  of  the  Pretender.  379 


The  sd  day  the  parson  desired  the  people  to  he  minding  serriouslie  the  holy  and  solemn  work 
they  hade  in  hand,  and  to  com  timelie  in  the  morning  on  sabbath  day  next,  for  he  intended  to  begin 
that  holy  work  be  nine  o  clock  in  the  morning. 

Apprile  4. — Text  in  the  sermon  1  cap.  of  St.  John  24  vei'se,  preached  upon  be  our  parson,  and  he 
and  Mr  Wm.  Watson,  minr  at  Lesly  served  the  tables  per  vices,  and  the  sd  Mr.  Wm.  Watson  preached 
in  the  afternoon  upon  Collossians  2  cap.  6  and  7  verses. 

The  compulsory  observance  of  the  preparation  day  is  recorded  in  a  minute  of  next  year. 

16S7,  March  25. — John  Sharp,  at  the  Miln  of  Ardoyn,  being  accused  of  having  his  milu  going 
upon  the  day  of  fast,  he  declared  that  he  was  grinding  nothing,  but  that  he  had  sett  on  the  watter 
upon  the  miln  for  sharpening  his  picks  to  graith  the  miln  for  a  man's  ferm  that  was  to  com  upon  the 
morrow.     He  promised  not  to  do  the  like  again. 


BIBTH  OF  THE  PKETEXDEE. 

The  beginning  of  the  fatal  year  1688  produced  proclamations  far  from  anticipating 
the  very  different  documents  of  the  same  order  which  were  to  mark  the  succeeding  year. 
The  birth  of  a  male  heir  to  King  James  was  both  heralded  and  announced  with  a  ful- 
ness of  self-gratulation  which  it  is  somewhat  melancholy  to  record. 

1688,  Feb.  12. — This  day  ther  was  ane  act  of  Iris  M'tics  privie  connsall  read  from  pulpit  ordean- 
ing  a  publick  and  solemn  day  of  thanksgiving  to  be  dewlie  kept  and  observed  this  day  eight  days,  by 
all  his  Ma'ties  pious  and  Loyall  subjects, celebrating  praise  to  Almightie  God  in  regard  that  his  Ma'tie 
has  fresh  hopes  of  ane  lioyall  issue  from  his  gracious  and  serene  consort  the  queen's  Ma'tie,  she  being 
with  child.  In  obedience  to  which  the  parson  desired  the  people  of  his  congregation  to  come  punctu- 
ally to  this  place  next  sabbath  day  for  hearing  sermon  to  that  effect. 

On  the  appointed  day  the  parson  of  Oyne  preached  from  Psalm  118  v.  9,  "He 
maketh  the  barren  woman  to  keep  house  and  to  be  a  joyful  mother  of  children  ". 

The  coming  event  thus  uniquely  foreshadowed  to  "  his  Ma'tie's  pious  &  Loyall 

subjects"  took  place  on  the  tenth  of  June,  and  was  with  all  convenient  and  inconvenient 

speed  made  the  occasion  for  a  repetition  of  the  national  piety  and  loyalty. 

June  24. — The  said  day  ther  was  ane  act  of  privie  counsell  by  his  Ma'tie's  speciall  command  read 
from  pulpit  ordeaning  a  public  and  solemn  day  of  thanksgiving  to  be  duelie  keepit  and  observed  by  all 
his  Ma'tie's  pious  and  Loyall  subjects  in  the  North  and  South  pairts  of  Scotland,  except  the  three 
Louthians  which  have  alreadie  done  it,  on.thursday  next  the  twenty-eight  instant,  for  celebrating 
praise  to  Almightie  God  for  his  tender  mercies  bestowed  upon  our  gracious  Queen  in  bringing  her  to 
safe  deliverance  of  ane  hapilie  bom  son,  Duke  of  Albanie  and  Prince  of  Wales. 

The  Minister  on  this  occasion  took  as  his  motto  Eccles.  chap.   10,  v.   17.     The 

blessedness  of  the  land  therein  referred  to  was  not  to  come  by  the  luckless  infant  so 

rejoiced  over.     He  was  to  be  suckled  and  reared  in  exile,  and  make  his  first  entrance 

into  his  father's  kingdom,  a  sombre  silent  man  at  the  age  of  twenty-seven,  getting  on 

shore  at  Peterhead  from  a  small  French  vessel,  on  the  back  of  Captain  Park,  a  stout 

sk'pper   of   the   port;   and  completing   his   acquaintance   with   his  native  land  by  a 

hurried  ride  along  the  eastern  shore  of  three  of  its  counties ;  when,  after  causing  several 

of  its  most  chivalrous  nobles  to  ruin  themselves  in  his  useless  venture,  he  was  to  escape  to 

the  half-hearted  protection  of  Louis  Quatorze,  whose  creed  in  morals  and  everything  else 

was  symbolized  by  his  famous  political  maxim  :   "  L'etat ;  c'est  moi  !  " 


380  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 


THE  LATE  KING  JAMES. 

Eleven  months  after  the  birth  of  that  celebrated  heir  to  the  crown  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  another  proclamation  was  made  on  2nd  May,  1689,  from  the  pulpits,  inhibiting 
all  persons  to  keep  converse  with  the  late  King  James;  also  ordaining  prayers  to  be  made 
for  King  William  and  Queen  Mary.  The  existence  of  a  diversified  state  of  feeling  among 
the  Garioch  ministers,  as  to  the  events  then  transpiring,  may  be  inferred  from  the  circum- 
stance that  the  proclamation  is  recorded  in  the  Monyniusk  Session  book,  and  does  not 
appear  in  that  of  Kemnay,  but  Dr.  Willox,  who  had  preached  from  Ps.  lxxii.  on 
the  celebration  of  the  birth  of  King  James's  son,  merely  records  on  May  16,  1689,  the 
observance  of  an  appointed  thanksgiving,  the  text  being  an  id  supra  one.  Mr  John 
Burnet  of  Monyniusk,  who  had  celebrated  "  the  birth  of  the  most  serene  and  high-born 
prince,  the  Prince  of  Scotland,"  had  the  good  sense  in  1715  not  to  read  his  proclamation 
as  James  VIII.  of  Scotland. 

THE  TEMPER  CF  THE  TIMES. 

The  minister  of  Kemnay  was  failing  in  health  before  1688,  and  was  frequently 
absent  from  his  pulpit  from  "  sickness"  and  :'  tenderness  ".  It  is  said  that  Dr.  James 
Willox  had  at  one  time  suffered  severely  at  the  hands  of  the  Turks,  and  prayed  nightly 
for  their  downfall.  His  exuberant  descriptions  in  1662  of  how  he  directed  his  congre- 
gation in  the  carrying  out  of  the  new  Synodical  orders  as  to  ritual,  are  succeeded,  in 
1689,  by  frequent  complaints  of  the  people  absenting  themselves  from  catechisings, 
afternoon  services,  and  Monday  thanksgivings  for  the  communion, — they,  "being 
mostly  labourers,  cold  not  or  wold  not  come  on  a  week  day  ".  It  is  probable  that  the 
severity  of  rule  experienced  at  the  hands  of  the  dominant  powers,  alike  in  Church  and 
State,  during  the  three  previous  reigns  had  by  degrees  produced  no  little  of  passive  resis- 
tance to  all  injunctions  not  accompanied  by  force.  The  following  extracts  seem  to  indi- 
cate as  much — 

At  Kemnay,  13  May,  1688. — The  tyme  in  the  afternoon  was  spent  in  exacting  the  notes  of  the 
forenoon  sermon  and  in  catechising.  The  people  were  seriously  exhorted  to  be  frequently  present  upon 
tuesday  nixt,  in  remembrance  of  the  late  King  of  blessed  memory  his  birth,  coronatiun,  and  restoration 
of  royal  government. 

28th  June. — Solemn  thanksgiving  observed  for  the  birth  of  the  young  prince. 

9th  Sept.  — Harvest  being  begun,  no  preaching  iu  afternoon. 

7th  Oct. — Sacrament  intimated  for  next  Lord's  day. 

14th  Oct. — The  minister  sent  to  Sir  George  Nicolson  before  the  summer  session,  that  he  might 
give  order  for  Communion  elements.  His  answer  was  that  wfc  should  write  to  the  new  Laird  ;  before 
the  new  Laird  came  home  the  harvest  was  at  hand  ;  the  harvest  was  not  weel  ended,  when  there  arose 
such  an  uproar  about  the  sending  forth  of  the  Militia  souldiers,  that  the  people  were  so  indisposed  for 
such  a  sacred  action,  for  which  cause  the  celebration  was  delayed  till  a  more  convenient  tyme. 

1 8th  Nov.  —Monies  paid  by  Patrick  Leslie  of  Kincraigie,  lent  again  to  William  Forbes  of  Pitfielue. 
younger  of  Monyniusk,  and  to  William  Thain  of  Blackball. 

23rd  Dec— The  parishioners  were  seriously  exhorted  to  be  frequently  present  for  divyne  service 
upon  tuesday  nixt,  seeing  no  statute  nor  command  could  restrain  them  from  idleness,  and  many  tymes 
from  prophan  carrage  and  behaviour  :  being  Cliristmass  day,  that,  if  exhortation  could  prevaill,  that 
day,  or  at  least  a  part  of  the  day  might  be  spent  in  the  service  of  God. 


Social  Condition  of  the  Gariocli.  381 

25th  Dec.  Text  St.  Jo.  1-29. — The  people  were  exhorted  after  sermon  to  observe  the  remnant  of 
the  day  to  the  Lord,  and  to  beware  of  druukeness,  and  all  other  prophanity,  and  that  the  remnant  of 
the  day  might  be  spent  in  praying  unto  God,  and  praysing  liim  in  reading  of  Scriptures  and  Godly 
converences. 

August,  11,  16S9. — The  said  day  the  bells  were  tolled.  The  Minister  was  ready,  but  no  meeting 
of  the  people,  because  Livetenant  Generall  M'Kay  with  his  army,  the  said  day,  was  marching  to 
Iuverury,  and  the  people  of  our  parioch  being  nixt  adjacent,  did  wait  upon  ther  corns  lest  by  ther 
horses  they  should  have  been  destroyed. 

More  of  the  Garioch  churches  than  Inverurie  seem  to  have  been  in  need  of  a  revo- 
lution settlement  that  would  make  them  habitable ;  while  at  Monymusk  something  of 
the  nature  of  ajstketic  improvement  was  in  contemplation. 

Kenmay,  1690,  Oct.  12. —Men  of  understanding  who  were  present  were  desired  to  abyde  after 
divyne  service,  together  with  the  factor  (ground  officer)  to  consider  the  fabrick  of  the  kirk  being  so 
ruinous  that  the  people  without  danger  could  not  assemble  together.  After  inspection,  they  did  conclude 
to  take  some  course  therewith. 

Monymusk,  1691,  Januar,  18. — The  said  day  the  minister  reports  that  the  Laird  of  Monymusk 
had  gifted  his  mortcloth  to  the  Session,  wherefor  the  minister  craved  the  mind  of  the  Session  what 
every  one  should  pay  to  the  use  of  the  poor  who  borrowed  it,  but  the  mind  of  the  Session  was  that  the 
mortcloth  should  be  mended,  and  afterwards  a  pryce  to  .be  set  upon  it. 

The  said  day  the  minister  represented  to  the  Session  how  necessar  it  was  to  have  foursilver  cups  made 
for  serving  the  communion  tables,  and  craved  the  mind  of  the  Session  anent  it.  To  which  the  elders 
consented  and  ordered  the  clerk  to  draw  up  a  commission  to  the  young  Laird  of  Monymusk  to  agree 
with  some  silver  smith  to  make  them  at  as  easy  a  rate  as  he  could. 

June  28,  1691. — The  four  cups  cost  121  lbs.  Ss.,  with  14s.  to  the  goldsmith's  servant,  and  weighed 
thirty-two  ounces  and  a  shilling  sterling.  The  discharge  written  by  William  Lunan,  merchant  in 
Aberdeen,  now  in  Kiiktown,  Monymusk,  was  signed  by  William  Forbes,  junior  ;  Master  Alexander 
Hay,  Schoolmaster,  and  William  Luuan,  witness. 

Same  day  the  minister  represented  to  the  Session  how  necessar  it  was  to  have  thre  hard  mettal 
basons  with  a  ewer,  two  of  them  for  holding  the  elements;  and  the  other  for  holding  the  water  when 
children  are  baptised. 

The  young  Laird  acted  as  agent  in  procuring  these  also ;  they  cost  18  lbs.  3  sh. 

The  improvements  in  the  Kirk  of  Monymusk  were  completed  in  1697,  partly  by 

the  liberality  of  the  laird  and  his  son. 

1697,  August  8.— This  day  the  Laird  of  Monymusk,  elder,  acquainted  the  Session  that  in  respect 
that  the  two  bells  in  the  steeple  wer  not  good  and  though  both  were  casten  in  on,  yet  they  wold  not  be 
on  good  without  ane  addition  of  mor  mettal,  they  both  but  weighing  nyne  ston  ;  therefore  if  that 
pleased  he  wold  be  at  the  expense  to  cast  a  new  on  good,  and  would  agree  with  a  founder  lor  that  effect. 
To  which  the  Session  assented  and  gave  him  thanks. 

The  single  bell  turned  out  to  be  too  small  and,  three  years  later,  it  was  recast  and 

enlarged  at  the  Laird's  cost  by  John  Meikle,  Edinburgh.     A  clock  was  next  projected. 

1697,  Oct.  3.  —  This  day  there  was  ane  overture  made  by  the  young  Laird  of  Monymusk  and  others 
to  the  Session,  that  since  they  wer  now  to  have  a  good  bell,  they  may  think  of  making  a  clock, 
which  would  be  both  for  ornament  and  use  to  the  place.  The  Session  was  pleased  with  the  motion  as 
very  agreeable  and  reasonable,  if  so  be  it  could  be  done  without  prejudice  to  the  poor. 

The  sum  of  £10  sterling  was  allowed  from    the  Session  treasury — "the  young 

Laird  ond  others  "  not  proposing  to  pay  anything.     The  clock  was  made  by  Patrick 

Kilgour,  Holyrood  House,  and  cost  145  lbs.  6s.  8d.  Scots. 

SOCIAL  CONDITION  OF  THE  GARIOCH. 

Much  interesting  information  as  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Garioch  and  their  occu- 
pations and  state  of  wealth,  in  the  period  of  the  Eevolution  Settlement,  is  preserved  in 


382  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

the  Poll  Book  of  Aberdeenshire, — the  only  one  of  all  the  county  registers  made  up  in 
Scotland  in  1696  that  has  come  down  to  us.  The  occasion  of  the  Poll  List  being  drawn 
up  is  itself  an  important  feature  of  the  history  of  the  time.  It  was  one  of  the  early 
measures  of  that  constitutional  Government  under  which  the  nation  has  ever  since  sub- 
sisted, whereby  the  Government  and  the  defences  of  the  country  are  provided  for  by 
taxes  levied  by  authority  of  a  representative  Parliament.  A  direct  tax  existed  before  in 
the  form  of  a  Land  Pent  payable  to  the  Crown.  The  Poll  Tax  enacted  in  1695  was  a 
personal  tax,  and  was  graduated  not  according  to  the  means  alone,  but  also  to  the  social 
rank  of  individuals,  the  different  orders  of  nobility,  the  position  of  a  gentleman, 
a  commissioned  officer,  a  doctor  of  medicine,  an  advocate,  a  writer,  a  notary,  a  clerk 
of  court,  a  merchant,  a  householder  having  a  trade,  a  married  or  a  single  woman  The 
only  escape  from  a  prescribed  rate  of  tax  was  that  a  person  rated  as  a  gentleman  might 
formally  renounce  all  claim  to  that  position,  and  so  escape  a  certain  tax,  and  have 
his  resignation  of  rank  recorded  gratis  in  the  Herald's  register.  Very  few  took  advantage 
of  that  exemption  ;  but  though  the  poll  tax  was  a  very  moderate  one,  ranging  from  6  sh. 
Scots  for  a  servant  or  child  to  3  lbs.  Scots  for  a  gentleman,  it  was  collected  with  extreme 
difficulty,  and  imperfectly.  The  tax  for  servants  was  a  fortieth  part  of  their  yearly 
wage ;  for  tenants  an  hundredth  part  of  their  rent ;  for  heritors  a  tax  of  twenty  shillings 
for  twenty  pounds  of  rent  up  to  one  of  twenty-four  pounds  for  a  thousand  of  rent.  Mer- 
chants paid  from  2  lbs.  10  sh.  for  500  merks  of  stock  to  10  lbs.  for  10,000  merks ; 
notaries  and  others  of  the  inferior  law  courts,  4  lbs.  to  6  lbs. ;  Members  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  doctors,  surgeons,  and  apothecaries,  12  lbs.  ;  commissioned  officers,  two 
days'  pay.  Ministers  seem  to  have  simply  been  charged  the  tax  for  a  gentleman.  The 
nobility  paid  from  40  lbs.,  the  tax  of  a  Lord,  to  100  lbs.,  that  of  a  Duke,  besides  then- 
property  tax.  Cottars  who  had  no  land,  but  only  a  house,  paid  6  sh.  These  were  also 
called  grassmen  or  grasswomen,  probably  from  their  originally  having  a  right  to  make 
use  of  common  pasture  for  a  beast.  The  poll  tax  had  been  had  recourse  to  first  in  1693, 
and  was  again  used  in  1698,  but  the  same  method  of  .taxation  was  not  afterwards 
employed.  It  produced  in  1696  in  Aberdeenshire  only  28,1 4S  lbs.  7  sh.  Id.  Scots,  or 
£2345  13s.  7d.  sterling.     A  tax  under  3  per  cent,  in  1842  yielded  £25,000.. 

Old  Meldrum,  just  outside  the  Garioch  district,  seems  to  have  been  at  the  time 
a  sort  of  centre  of  the  commercial  activity  then  possible.  Sixteen  Merchants  were  then 
in  it,  some  giving  their  stock  at  5,000  merks,  while  Inverurie  returned  but  four,  all  at 
under  500,  Insch  and  Kintore  recording  one  each.  Few  of  these  merchants  may  have 
been  shopkeepers,  and  all  may  not  have  been  dealers  in  general  merchandise,  for  the 
Poll  Act  included  Tradesmen  among  Merchants,  and  Chapmen,  of  which  class  two  were 
returned  in  the  parish  of  Leslie.  Five  Glovers  appear  in  Culsalmond  and  Payne,  and  a 
Master  Fashioner  in  Oyne,  while  Chapel  of  Garioch  abounded  in  Horseboys,  a  special 
name  perhaps  for  ploughmen.  Shoemakers  generally  appear  as  cordiners,  the  other 
handicrafts  being  denominated  as  at  present.     A  Gunsmith  and  a  Saddler  are  entered  in 


Social  Condition  of  the  Garioch.  383 

Old  Meldrum.  The  number  of  householders  there  and  at  Inverurie  was  nearly  the 
same,  the  Garioch  burgh  having  68  and  the  other  65.  The  relative  condition  of  the 
two  towns  at  different  periods  has  been  remarkable.  In  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century  Old  Meldrum  was  the  seat  of  a  great  trade  in  cattle,  bought  to  be  fattened  in 
the  English  pastures  aud  described  south  of  the  Tweed  as  "  Scotch  bones  and  English 
beef,"  and  that  village  used  to  supply  the  total  wants  of  Inverurie  in  butcher  meat  at 
the  rate  sometimes  of  half  a  sheep  in  the  week.  At  present  Inverurie  is  the  centre  of 
an  extensive  trade  in  dead  meat,  aud  sends  to  the  English  markets  annually  3000  tons 
of  beef,  sold  at  £80  a  ton,  and  representing  9000  animals  killed  in  the  place  for  export, 
a  considerable  trade  in  fat  live  stock  being  also  carried  on. 

The  fourth  of  the  six  Ferguson  brothers  of  Inverurie,  George  Ferguson,  was  in 
1696  in  Old  Meldrum,  chamberlain  and  gentleman,  a  widower  apparently,  having  with 
him  Janet  Ferguson  his  daughter,  and  also  "William,  George,  Christian,  Mary  and 
Magdalene,  under  age,  and  two  male  servants.  A  record  of  July  and  August  of  that 
year  honourable  to  George  Ferguson  remains.  A  scarcity  in  the  counties  of  Aberdeen 
and  Banff  threatened  wide  starvation.  Mr.  Ferguson  along  with  Mr.  Alexander  Smith  of 
Edinburgh,  proposed  to  purchase  for  sale,  at  prime  cost,  1000  to  1200  bolls  of  meal 
there,  to  be  shipped  for  Aberdeen,  &c,  they  applied  to  the  Privy  Council  for  the  convoy 
of  a  war  vessel  for  protection  from  the  French. 

Insch,  a  century  after  the  date  of  the  Poll  Book,  was  noted  for  the  manufacture  of 
brogues,  or  shoes  made  of  untanned  leather,  a  staple  article  in  the  Friday  market  of 
Insch.  Weavers  and  travelling  tailors  were,  shortly  after  1 700,  numerous  in  the  villages 
of  Insch  and  Upper  Boddam.  Alehouses  were  largely  established  by  the  lairds  in 
order  to  the  sale  and  consumption  of  the  bear  crops  in  malt,  and  their  tenants  were 
required  to  make  all  their  weddings  penny  bridals,  and  held  at  an  alehouse;  where  the 
innkeeper  supplied  eatables  on  the  occasion  gratis,  finding  his  profit  in  the  ale  consumed 
during  the  festivities,  which  were  prolonged  for  days. 

The  abundant  peat  mosses  of  the  time  seem  to  have  been  economised  for  building 
purposes  in  the  mansion  houses — conserving  a  family  likeness  between  them  and  the 
drystone  turf  and  divot  domiciles  of  the  tenantry.  When  the  house  of  Mastrick  in 
Rayne,  built  sometime  after  1 700,  was  pulled  down,  the  plastered  dividing  walls  were 
found  to  be  built  of  hard  jieat  neatly  squared. 

The  Burgh  of  Inverurie  in  1696  possessed  four  merchants,  three  tailors,  six 
masons,  seven  shoemakers,  three  smiths,  and  one  wright.  Fifteen  of  its  sixty-eight 
householders  had  servants.  Only  one  of  the  merchants  appears  as  an  heritor,  viz., 
William  Lundie,  with  400  merks  of  stock,  who  with  his  wife  Isabel  Ferguson  had  no 
servant.  The  wealthiest  merchant  (500  merks)  was  George  Temple,  a  Quaker,  who 
with  his  wife  Margaret  Anderson  feed  a  woman,  a  man,  and  a  boy,  probably  being  a 
tenant  of  Dava  lands.  The  yearly  wages  of  servants,  which  in  Scottish  money — twelve 
times   the    sterling  amount — seems  large,  continued  with    but  little  change  until  the 


384  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

rise  of  modern  agriculture  in  Scotland.     They  ranged  from  1 2  lbs.  to  20  lbs.  for  men,  6 
lbs.  to  42  lbs.  for  women,  and  2  lbs.  to  6  lbs.  for  boys  or  girls. 

Mr.  George  Scott  was  Town  Clerk  in  1696,  and  tenant  of  the  Mill  of  Keith-hall, 
having  in  family  James,  Alexander,  Charles,  and  Isobel ;  his  namesake,  also  Town 
Clerk,  not  being  born  till  his  father's  marriage  to  his  second  wife,  Baillie  Walter 
Ferguson's  daughter  Margaret.  During  her  time  he  was  tenant  of  Mill  of  Ardtannies, 
nntil  1721,  and  afterwards  lived  on  the  site  of  Eose  Lane,  in  Inverurie.  The  minister, 
Mr.  William  Murray,  and  his  wife  Magdalen  Gellie,  and  five  children,  paid  his  man 
servant  16  lbs.  yearly  fee,  and  two  females  12  lbs.  and  11  lbs.  His  next  neighbour, 
Dr.  James  Milne,  with  his  wife,  Marie  Irvine,  and  one  son,  James,  paid  20  lbs.  to  each 
of  two  men  servants,  6  lbs.  13  sh.  4d.  to  a  third,  and  10  lbs.  and  8  lbs.  13  sh.  4d.  to  two 
females.  His  daughter  and  heiress,  Jean,  is  not  mentioned.  His  mother,  Marjorie 
Elphinstone,  does  not  appear,  and  was  probably  dead  and  her  family  all  removed. 
The  doctor  paid  12  lbs.  poll  tax,  the  largest  paid  in  the  burgh,  the  minister  and 
Baillies  John  and  Walter  Ferguson,  paying  but  3  lbs.  6  sh.  each. 

Baillie  John  Ferguson  of  Stonehouse,  fifth  son  of  William  of  Crichie,  with  Bathia 
Kerr,  his  wife,  and  two  sons,  James  and  George,  had  two  servants.  His  brother  Walter, 
living  on  the  paternal  acres  on  the  east  side  of  Powtate,  with  his  wife,  Margaret  Panton, 
had  four  sons  in  family,  James,  William,  Walter,  and  John,  and  three  daughters,  Mar- 
garet, Janet,  and  Mary,  to  whom  two  more,  Barbara  and  Bathia,  were  afterwards  added. 
One  man  and  one  woman  servant  seem  to  have  sufficed  as  help  in  labouring  their  seven 
Roods  and  scattered  twelfth-part  lands.  The  whole  family  left  Inverurie  in  quest  of 
improved  fortunes,  James  entering  the  Excise. 

At  Ardtannies  lived  Andrew  Jaffray  of  Kingswells,  apparently  unmarried,  the  son  of 
Alexander  Jaffray  and  Sarah  Cant,  and  the  Mill  was  tenanted  by  the  early  schoolmaster's 
son,  Alexander  Mitchell  and  his  wife  Isobel  Thomson,  and  Robert  Wishart,  miller, 
and  his  wife  Elspet  Smith,  neither  couple  having  children. 

The  Laird  of  Blackball,  William  Thain,  and  Margaret  Kentie,  his  wife,  had  one 
son,  Mr.  William  Thain,  and  Margaret  and  Jean,  two  daughters,  with  four  servants. 
Two  tenants  sat  under  him,  probably  in  Gavin's  Croft  and  the  Ledingham  Croft.  A 
daughter  Isabel,  married  in  1691  to  William  Lunan,  merchant  in  Monymusk,  has  been 
noticed  above  (p.  240). 

The  Laird  of  Pittodrie  owned  Conglass,  which  he  let  to  six  tenants,  one  of  whom, 
John  Stevin,  was  the  ancestor  of  the  present  tenant  of  the  whole.  One  artizan,  a  shoe- 
maker, with  his  wife,  lived  on  the  estate. 

Drimmies  was  in  the  hands  of  two  tenants,  and  belonged  to  the  Laird  of  Aquhorsk ; 
a  shoemaker,  with  his  wife,  having  a  house  there  also. 

Badifurrow  was  the  property  of  James  Ferguson,  and  was  farmed  by  four  tenants, 
his  stepmother,  Lucress  Burnett,  widow  of  William  Ferguson,  tenanting  the  house,  with 
Patrick,  Walter,  and  Mary,  her  children.    Two  tailors,  both  tenants,  were  on  Badifurrow. 


Social  Condition  of  the  Gariocli.  385 

The  Earl  of  Aberdeen  was  laird  of  Braco,  the  Inverurie  part  of  which  is  entered  in 
the  Poll  Book  as  Glacca.  Three  tenants  occupied  the  lands  and  one  sub-tenant.  A 
weaver,  with  his  wife,  lived  on  the  principal  holding,  and  one  of  the  tenants  was  a 
mason. 

Count  Leslie  possessed,  in  1696,  Aquhorties,  Oldtown,  Middleton,  and  Netherton, 
on  which  respectively  there  were  twelve,  three,  six,  and  two  tenants,  a  merchant  being 
located  upon  Aquhorties,  and  a  weaver  and  smith,  while  Oldtown  possessed  a  weaver, 
and  Middleton  a  wright. 

The  chief  personages  of  the  neighbourhood — the  Earl  of  Kintore  and  his  son 
William,  Lord  Inverurie — were  living  in  separate  households,  the  latter  perhaps  at 
Ardiharrall,  as  in  the  Poll  Lists  the  tenants  there  follow  his  establishment. 

The  Lord  Inverurie  had  one  daughter,  Ladie  Katherin  Keith.  Two  pages,  getting  no 
fee,  are  entered,  and  six  other  male  servants,  one  with  a  wage  of  40  lbs.,  the  others 
from  24  lbs.  to  4  lbs.  ;  four  maids,  one  getting  48  lbs.,  the  others  from  12  lbs.  to  4  lbs. ; 
a  cottar,  a  gardener,  with  a  fee  of  12  lbs.,  a  mason,  and  their  wives.  Lord  Inverurie 
had  a  Mains  of  his  own  valued  at  80  lbs. 

The  Earl's  Mains  was  valued  at  200  lbs.  Besides  the  Countess  and  himself  there 
was  in  the  family  only  a  son,  Mr.  Charles  Keith.  Fourteen  men  servants,  apparently 
for  the  house,  included  the  coachman  (fee,  48  lbs.),  and  John  Boyle,  the  foot-runner, 
(fee,  12  lbs.),  and  a  page.  Eleven  female  servants,  one  having  48  lbs.  of  wage, 
another  24  lbs.,  were  in  the  establishment.  Outside  there  appear  the  gardener,  receiving 
40  lbs.,  with  two  apprentices,  the  ditcher,  the  girnal  man,  the  officer,  the  wright,  the 
weaver  and  apprentice,  the  carter,  the  herd,  and  two  masons.  These,  with  the  wives 
most  of  them  had,  numbered  24. 

The  Garioch  ministers  and  schoolmasters  at  that  interesting  period  are  mostly 
recorded  in  the  Poll  Book. 

William  Watson,  minister  of  Lesly,  with  his  wife,  Mary  Ramsay,  had  no  family. 
They  kept  four  servants.  He  died  1699,  leaving  his  means  to  found  four  bursaries  after 
his  wife's  death.  The  manner  directed  by  him  for  selecting  two  divinity  bursars  is 
picturesque.  He  provides  that  "  the  said  two  burses  shall  be  disposed  of  by  lot  by  the 
oversight  of  the  Presbytery  of  the  Garioch.  That  is,  such  students  in  divinity  that 
sought  after  these  burses  are  to  make  application  to  the  Presbytery  and  give  up  their 
names,  being  young  men  of  ane  sober,  grave  behaviour,  and  having  ane  good  testimony, 
and  the  Presbytery,  after  prayer  for  that  effect,  are  to  cast  lots  for  those  students  who 
have  given  up  their  names,  and  the  young  men  are  to  be  absent  themselves  when  the 
lots  are  casten,  and  such  are  to  have  the  Burses  for  whom  God  in  his  providence  orders 
the  same  by  lot." 

At  Premnay  were  Mr.  John  Shand,  minister,  and  Jean  Panton,  his  spouse.  Mr. 
James  Shand,  his  son,  and  Mary  and  Janet,  daughters,  and  a  household  of  two  servants, 
paid  19  merks  and  14  merks  a-year  respectively.     No   schoolmaster  is  named.     The 

49 


386  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Communion  Cups  then  used  are  still  preserved,  though  long  superseded.     They  are  a 
pair  of  beautiful  horn  cups  of  the  usual  shape. 

In  Culsalmond  the  minister,  Mr.  William  Garioch,  and  his  wife,  Margaret  Moir, 
had  a  son  Peter  and  a  daughter  Magdalen,  and  employed  a  man  servant  and  three  females. 

Kayne  had  then  Mr.  Robert  Burnet  as  minister.  He  had  married  a  widow  whose 
son,  Charles  Forbes,  lived  in  the  manse. 

At  Oyne,  James  Leask,  Eeader  at  the  Kirk  of  Oyne,  was  schoolmaster.  The 
minister,  Mr.  James  Strachan,  is  not  mentioned. 

At  Logiedurno,  Mr.  Walter  Irving,  Reader  at  the  Kirk  of  Logiedurno,  was  school- 
master. Mr.  George  Clark,  the  minister,  is  not  mentioned.  He  was  deposed  several 
years  afterwards  for  immorality. 

Daviot  had  then  for  minister  Alexander  Lunan,  son  of  William  Lunan,  his  prede- 
cessor, and  himself  minister  until  he  was  deposed  in  1716  for  Jacobite  treason,  after 
which  he  founded  the  Episcopalian  congregation  at  Meiklefollow.  Alexander  Lunan 
was  married  to  Janet  Elphinstone,  and  in  1696  had  three  sons  and  four  daughters.  Mr. 
William  Adam  was  schoolmaster,  married  to  Elizabeth  Lunan,  probably  the  minister's 
sister,  and  had  a  son  and  daughter,  having  also  three  servants,  the  number  hired  by  the  min- 
ister. Alexander  Lunan  wrote  a  quarto  volume  on  the  "  Mystery  of  Man's  Redemption  " 
(Ed.,  1712),  which  he  dedicated  to  Sir  James  Elphinstone  of  Logie.  He  was  deposed 
in  1716  for  Jacobite  treason.  A  pair  of  communion  cups  in  use  in  the  Parish  Church 
of  Daviut  were  gifted  by  him  for  the  service  of  the  Episcopal  congregation  in  Daviot  to 
which  he  ministered  after  his  deposition.  Mr.  Jervise  (Epitaphs  and  Inscriptions)  states 
that  a  son  Alexander  followed  his  father's  calling.  Ordained  in  Aberdeen,  28th  October, 
1729,  he  preached  his  first  sermon  in  the  meeting-house  at  Warthill  the  following  Sunday, 
and  immediately  thereafter  took  charge  of  a  congregation  at  BlairdafF,  a  property  in 
Chapel  of  Garioch  then  belonging  to  an  ardently  Jacobite  family  named  Smith,  where, 
according  to  his  diary,  possessed  by  Mr.  Jervise,  he  dispensed  the  communion  to  270 — 
300  persons  annually.  He  removed  in  1744  to  a  charge  in  Forfarshire,  in  which  he  was 
supported  by  Lord  Halkerton  and  others.  His  successor  at  Elairdaff  could  only  get 
forty  members  of  his  congregation  to  bind  themselves  to  give  him  a  dwelling-house  and  a 
money  stipend  of  £13  sterling.  A  family  genealogy  makes  Alexander  Lunan  the  son 
of  William  Lunan  and  Isobel  Thane  above  noticed,  and  states  that  she  died  at  Elairdaff 
in  1739. 

Mr.  William  Urquhart,  unmarried,  was  minister  of  Bethelny,  apparently  living  in 
Oldmeldrum,  although  the  manse  was  removed  there  only  after  1 700.  James  Adam, 
also  a  bachelor,  is  entered  as  schoolmaster  and  precentor. 

The  Kirk  of  Bourtie  was  served  by  Mr.  Alexander  Sharpe — his  wife,  two  sons, 
five  daughters,  and  a  man  and  maid  servant  making  up  his  household.  Mr.  John 
Anderson  was  schoolmaster,  having  apparently  neither  wife  nor  servant. 

Mr.  William  Keith,  with  his  wife,  son,  and  two  daughters,  was  at  Keith -hall — the 


Families  in  the  Garioch.  387 


old  Kirk  of  Monkegy — Mr.  George  Eleis  being  schoolmaster.     The  minister  had  a  man 
and  woman  servant. 

Kinkell  had  a  laird  for  minister,  Mr.  Thomas  Weenies  of  Feynges  and  Foodie  in 
Fife,  (yielding  under  1000  lbs.  rent).  His  wife,  two  sons,  three  daughters,  and  his 
mother,  relict  of  David  Weenies  of  Foodie,  and  her  son  James,  and  a  man  and  two 
female  servants,  made  up  the  household.  Weemes  was  deposed  in  1695  for  non-juring. 
The  Poll  List  must  have  been  made  up  in  that  year. 

The  old  blind  minister  of  Kemnay,  Dr.  James  Willox,  died  the  year  before  the 
Poll  Book  was  dated/t,/  JJis  wife,  Anne  Lindsay,  was  a  heroine  of  the  troublous  times, 
having  been  the  means  of  rescuing  valuable  papers  from  Dunnottar  Castle,  from  which 
Mrs.  Fletcher  of  Kinneff  Manse  carried  off  the  Kegalia.  The  schoolmaster  of  Kemnay 
is  not  given.     His  name  was  Johnston. 

At  the  Manse  of  Monymusk  were  Mr.  John  Burnet  and  his  wife,  with  two  sons 
and  three  daughters.  The  schoolmaster  was  Mr.  James  Hay,  whose  wife's  name  was 
Agnes  Newton. 

Kintore  was  vacated  in  1695  by  Mr.  William  Gordon  for  non-juring.  The  school- 
master was  Mr.  George  Birnie. 

FAMILIES  IN  THE  GAEIOCH. 

In  looking  over  the  Lairdship  of  the  Garioch  when  the  Kevolution  Settlement  was 
a  few  years  old  we  find  ourselves  in  something  like  a  new  world.  There  appears  a 
mass  of  small  estates,  the  names  of  whose  proprietors  were  soon  to  disappear  again. 
Among  the  families  not  changed,  as  well  as  among  the  new  lairds,  a  marked  proportion 
of  lawyers  occur;  and  not  a  few  properties  seem  to  have  been  purchased  as  an  invest- 
ment and  not  for  residence.  The  position  of  the  Baron  was  gone,  and  likewise  the  lines 
of  ambition  open  to  his  feudal  kind  of  influence  ;  and  the  quiet  and  beneficent  life  of  the 
Scotch  Laird  did  not  come  into  the  order  of  things  until  long  after,  when  the  country 
had  slowly  settled  down  into  a  condition  of  peaceableness  after  Jacobitism  had  ceased  to 
cause  disturbance.  In  the  beginning  of  the  period  inaugurated  by  1688,  political  am- 
bition for  Scotchmen  who  did  not  belong  to  noble  families,  opened  its  most  promising 
field  in  the  law  courts  of  Edinburgh,  and  the  biographies  of  the  time  show  the  bar  and 
the  bench  chief  arenas  of  intriguing  competition  for  advancement.  The  frequency  with 
which  we  find  the  title  of  Advocate  and  Writer  to  the  Signet,  or  the  appellation  of 
Master,  belonging  to  landed  proprietors  or  their  sons,  indicates  the  extent  to  which  the  class 
which  in  earlier  times  sought  in  military  service  an  addition  to  the  limited  competence 
afforded  by  their  landed  property  now  sought  both  means  and  honour  among  the  noblesse 
de  robe.     Excise  appointments  and  tacks  of  the  mills  provided  for  less  ambitious  sons.  I 

The  Fortieses  of  Lethinty,  Kinaldie,  and  Learnie  were  lawyers,  so  were  the  Elphin- 
stones  of  Glack  and  the  Fergusons  of  Badifurrow.      Westhall  appears  in  the  possession 


388  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

of  Mr.  Horn,  son  of  a  former  vicar  of  Elgin,  but  himself  a  lawyer.  His  estate  passed 
to  his  grandson,  David  Dalrymple,  Lord  "Westhall  of  the  Court  of  Session,  the  fourth  of 
his  family  who  were  Judges  in  the  Scottish  Court,  his  father  being  Lord  Drummore,  his 
grandfather,  Sir  Hew  Dalrymple,  Lord  President,  and  his  great-grandfather,  James  Vis- 
count Stair,  Lord  President. 

The  estate  of  the  old  royalist  Gordons  of  Newton  was  held  by  Mr.  Alexander  David- 
son, advocate,  a  son  of  whom,  apparently,  Captain  Davidson,  sold  it  to  the  ancestor  of  Mr. 
Gordon,  the  present  owner.     Tillymorgan  was  still  in  the  hands  of  the  Cruicksbanks. 

Logie  became  the  property  of  Mr.  James  Elphinstone,  W.S.  The  young  laird  of 
Glack  was  also  a  lawyer. 

The  Monymusk  lands  were  sold  by  the  Forbeses  in  1712  to  a  Scotch  Judge,  Lord 
Cullen  (Sir  Francis  Grant),  whose  descendants  possess  them.  The  heir  of  the  last  laird 
of  the  Forbes  family  himself  resorted  to  the  Bar,  and  was  Professor  of  Civil  Law  in 
King's  College  in  Aberdeen  in  1741.     He  died,  1743,  at  the  age  of  36. 

Sir  George  Nicolson,  the  Laird  of  Kemnay,  immediately- preceding  the  present 
family,  was  a  Lord  of  Session. 

The  last  Ferguson  of  Badifurrow,  himself  a  lawyer,  was  succeeded  by  his  son, 
Lord  Pitfour,  a  Lord  of  Session. 

The  adoption  of  the  legal  profession  by  so  many  of  the  class  needing  lucrative 
employment  is  to  be  accounted  for  perhaps  by  appeals  to  the  superior  courts  being 
frequent  in  that  period.  Colonel  Erskinc,  already  referred  to,  the  father  of  John 
Erskine,  the  eminent  jurist,  author  of  "  Erskine's  Institutes  ";  has  it  told  of  him  that 
on  his  death-bed  he  lamented  the  peaceable  disposition  of  his  son,  saying  :  "  Havena  I 
thirty  good  gangin  pleas,  and  that  fulo  Jock  will  hae  compounded  them  a'  in  a  fortnight 
after  I'm  deid  ". 

In  1G96  Leslie  was  still  held  by  the  last  of  the  short  line  of  Forbeses,  David 
Forbes,  with  his  wife,  Margaret  Farrpiharson,  three  sons  and  four  daughters. 

Newton  of  Premnay  was  held  by  Mr.  Patrick  Anderson,  and  Eothnie  by  George 
Gordon,  an  Edinburgh  lawyer. 

Barnes  had  been  owned  by  John  Moir,  whose  widow,  Mary  Cochrane,  was  taxed 
for  it. 

At  Licklyhead  the  dowager  Lady  of  Leslie  and  her  daughters  were  living,  and  ap- 
parently in  the  same  family  Mr.  Archibald  Forbes,  third  son  of  Lord  Forbes,  with  his 
wife  and  a  son  and  daughter,  he  appearing  as  proprietor  of  Licklyhead  and  Auchleven. 

In  the  parish  of  Insch  were  Mr.  Alexander  Ross  of  Insch,  Thomas  Gordon  of  Nether 
Boddom,  John  Logie  of  Overboddom,  David  Tyrie  of  Dunnideer,  and  John  Rose  of 
Rosehill.  Count  Leslie  owned  the  lands  still  held  by  the  family,  and  Glens  of  Johnsleys 
belonged  to  Gordon  of  Lesmoir. 

In  Rayne,  Lentush  belonged  to  Dr.  Chalmers,  and  the  Kirkton  to  Mr.  Alexander 
Irvine,  and  Lonhead  to  Andrew  Logie,  all  in  Aberdeen  ;  Rothmaise  to  Alexander  Ross, 


The  Burgh  Lairds  of  Inverurie.  389 

Badechash  to  George  Gellie  of  Blackford,  and  New  Rayne  was  held  in  halves  by  Patrick 
Leslie  and  Thomas  Ogilvy. 

Ardoyne  belonged  to  two  brothers,  John  and  William  Leith,  and  Ryehill  to  Sir 
Robert  Gordon  of  Gordonston  in  Auchterless,  while  Captain  James  Leslie  was  laird  of 
Buchanston,  and  George  Gordon,  Messenger,  was  styled  of  Torreis,  and  John  Leith  of 
Cairdin. 

Lethinty  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  Robert  Burnett,  who  resided  there  with  his 
wife,  a  son  Robert,  and  two  grandcbildren ;  and  Mounie  belonged  to  the  last  of  Sir 
Robert  Farquhar's  heirs,  Alexander,  dwelling  there  with  his  wife,  Elizabeth  M'Intosh, 
six  sons  and  two  daughters. 

At  Glack,  John  Elphinstone  was  resident  with  Anne  Irvine,  his  wife,  and  Mr. 
William  and  Patrick,  his  sons.  Findgask  belonged  to  the  Laird  of  Meldrum,  as  did 
Balcairn.  The  lands  of  Daviot  had  a  William  Robertson  for  laird.  Meikle  Wartbill 
was  owned  by  Alexander  Elphinstone,  who  lived  in  Aberdeen. 

In  Bourtie,  Sir  John  Reid,  with  his  wife,  a  son  and  three  daughters,  were  at  Barra ; 
two  sisters,  Margaret  and  Elizabeth  Seton,  at  Blair ;  Robert  Simpson  owned  Thornton, 
Lawellside,  and  Pitgaveny,  residing  himself  upon  Mains  of  Thornton,  with  his  wife,  a 
son  and  daughter,  while  his  eldest  son  Robert,  younger  of  Thornton,  lived  at  Pitgaveny. 
Blockhouse  belonged  to  John  Panton,  who  lived  upon  it,  with  Margaret  Strachan, 
his  mother.  Colliehill  belonged  to  John  Forbes  of  Achortes,  in  Tarves,  and  Old  Bourtie 
to  two  brothers,  Alexander  and  John  Anderson,  residing  in  Aberdeen. 

In  the  parish  of  Kinkell  the  Laird  of  Tolquhon  still  possessed  Thainston.  John 
Dalgardno  of  Kirkton  of  Fetterangus,  in  Banffshire,  was  living  on  Crichie,  being  pro- 
bably the  representative  of  Dalgardno  of  Peathill.  James  Chalmers  of  Balbithan  was 
residing  on  his  ancestral  property,  but  the  laird  now  was  James  Balfour,  merchant, 
in  Edinburgh,  and  Kinmuck  belonged  to  Irvine  of  Drum. 

THE  BURGH  LAIRDS  OF  INVERURIE. 

For  a  century  after  the  Revolution  Settlement  the  burgh  of  Inverurie  continued  to 
be  represented  by  a  single  street  without  branches,  extending  from  the  Kirk  Green  to 
the  Overburn. 

Stonehouse,  the  large  property  on  its  south  extremity,  from  which  the  aristocratic 
family  of  Leslie  had  disappeared  before  1655,  through  the  vanishing  point  of  bachelorhood 
had  come  through  John  Galloway,  merchant  in  Aberdeen,  and  his  son  Alexander,  gold- 
smith there,  into  the  hands  of  John  Ferguson  of  Stonehouse,  the  fifth  son  of  William 
Ferguson,  the  purchaser  of  Badifurrow.  Baillie  John  Ferguson,  from  about  1675, 
held  the  old  Leslie  Roods  on  both  sides  of  the  King's  Gait. 

In  1681  he  sold  the  five  northmost  of  his  Upper  Roods  (125-130  High  Street)  to 
Alexander  Davidson,  the  future  schoolmaster,  and  his  father.     The  rest  of  the  property 


390  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

the  baillie  and  his  son  afterwards  sold  to  the  Earl  of  Kintore.     He  died  in  Inverurie, 
and  his  family  removed  to  Buchan.     He  was  Baillie  in  1721. 

North  of  the  schoolmaster's  five  roods  a  namesake,  and  probably  a  relative, 
William  Davidson  and  his  son  Michael,  both  shoemakers,  held  four  and  a-half  Roods 
(120-123  High  Street).     They  are  still  represented  in  Inverurie. 

In  1699  the  next  two  Roods  (117-119  High  Street),  the  property,  in  1614,  of  one  of 
the  many  Fergus  families,  was  owned  by  William  Lundie,  "  merchant,"  a  name  then 
represented  in  Kemnay  and  for  150  years  after  in  Inverurie. 

The  same  Ferguses  held  the  next  Rood,  the  last  of  them  dying  sometime  before  1725, 
when  Robert  Brown  in  Inglistownwas  served  heir  to  William  Ferguson,  tailor  in  Inverurie. 

The  succeeding  two  Roods  (107  High  Street),  which  had  in  1604  been  the  jointure 
of  Alexander  Leslie's  widow  when  the  minister,  Mr.  Mill,  married  her,  and  in 
1621  were  a  marriage  portion  apparently  to  the  wife  of  Mr.  Alexander  Mitchell,  the 
schoolmaster,  and  belonged  in  1652  to  his  son,  Alexander  Mitchell,  as  heir  to  James, 
his  younger  brother,  passed,  sometime  after  1700,  to  Alexander  Low,  burgess,  and 
became  in  1768  the  property  of  Baillie  Alexander  Forbes,  whose  relatives  possessed  the 
property  until  1877,  when  they  were  bought  by  Dr.  Paterson  of  Inverurie. 

John  Gib,  a  condiner,  representative  of  an  old  Inverurie  famOy,  as  was  also  Chris- 
tian Bainzie,  his  wife,  resigned  the  next  Rood  (105  High  Street),  in  1681,  in  provision 
for  his  daughter  Christian,  wife  of  James  Leslie,  youngest  son  of  Gdbert  Leslie  in 
Leggat.     Their  descendants  held  it  for  a  century. 

In  1 692,  Janet  and  Marjorie  Stiven,  children  of  John  Stiven,  once  boatman  at 
Netherboat,  called  boat  of  Criehie,  possessed  the  next  Rood  in  equal  halves  with  Mar- 
garet Bartlet,  the  widow  of  their  brother  Alexander. 

Three  Roods,  with  a  kiln-barn,  next  succeeding  (97-101  High  Street),  were  in 
1696  disponed  by  Andrew  Gib,  one  of  the  large  family  of  that  name,  to  his  sister's  son, 
Williain  Steven,  from  one  of  whose  descendants  (married  to  William  Bruce,  merchant 
in  Inverurie,  in  1741),  the  present  proprietor  inherits. 

Alexander  Kennedy,  the  smith,  and  Marjorie  Johnston,  followed  next  upon  five 
Roods  (87-95  High  Street),  a  long  time  belonging  to  the  Bainzie  family,  who  had  to  sell 
them  to  Robert  Farquhar,  the  Aberdeen  baillie,  proprietor  of  Mounie,  by  whom  they 
came  to  Robert  Murdo  in  Dalmadilly  of  Kemnay,  whose  son  sold  them  to  Alexander 
Johnston,  burgess  in  Inverurie,  Kennedy's  father-in-law.  Mr.  William  Murray,  late 
Episcopal  incumbent  of  Inverurie,  bought  them  in  1721.  A  Rood  and  half,  made 
over  by  him  to  the  Kirk-Session,  continued  in  that  ownership  until  sold  in  1846.  The 
rest  of  the  land  Mr.  Murray's  son  William,  minister  at  Old  Aberdeen,  sold  in  1738  to 
James  Forbes,  merchant,  the  ancestor  of  the  present  proprietor. 

One  Rood  next  adjoining,  which  belonged  to  Alexander  Bod  well  condiner,  in  1616, 
was  sold  in  1847  by  his  lineal  descendant,  William  Bothwell,  for  £105.  It  had  been 
disjoined  from  the  next  Rood  and  half  in  1645,  and  was  disponed  in  1821  for  £45. 


The  Burgh  Lairds  of  Inverurie.  391 

The  Kintore  Arms  Hotel  now  occupies  the  east  end  of  the  six  next  adjacent  Roods 
which  in  1696  were  in  four  properties. 

The  same  Bothwells  or  Bodwells  had  one  and  a  half  Roods  north  of  the  single 
rood  just  noticed.  The  property  was  divided  in  1672  on  the  marriage  of  Elspet  Bod- 
well  to  Patrick  Ferguson. 

The  next  Rood,  enriched,  as  was  Bothwell's  single  Rood,  by  the  possession  of  a  kiln- 
barn,  was  held  by  descendants  of  the  "William  Johnston  of  former  times  known  as  Rob's 
Willie.  The  last  of  them,  Thomas  Johnston,  sold  it  in  the  year  of  Culloden  to  John 
Davidson,  from  whom  it  passed  through  the  laird  of  Kemnay's  hands  to  Anthony,  Earl 
of  Kintore.  Thomas  Johnston  and  Agnes  Ferguson,  his  wife,  were  in  the  Poll  List 
in  1696. 

The  Guage  Rig — apparently  the  standard  breadth  for  a  legal  Burgh  Rood — was 
in  the  hands  of  a  Fergus  family  in  1615.  In  1645  the  same  Bothwell  had  it.  It  was  sold 
bytwo  co-heiresses, Bothwell,  living  in  1746  in  the  Kirktown  of  Daviot,  to  John  Davidson 
— passing  to  Alexander  Burnett  and  Lord  Kintore,  with  the  above  rood,  before  1783. 

Next  in  line  two  and  a  half  Cuning  Hill  Roods,  called  in  1464  "Lands  of  the 
Lord  Superior  of  the  Royalty,"  must,  in  1696,  have  belonged  to  the  Earl  of  Kintore,  as 
part  of  the  Wardes  lands  acquired  by  him  from  Alexander  Jaffray  and  Sir  Robert 
Farquhar. 

Two  Roods  (79-81  High  Street),  the  property  in  1464  of  John  Badenoch,  and 
from  1610  the  property  of  a  Fergus  family,  who  in  1642  sold  their  eastmost  house  to 
the  Burgh  to  be  a  Tolbooth,  continued  in  the  same  family  apparently  until  they  became 
the  property  in  succession  of  George  Grub,  Alexander  Simpson  of  Concraig,  and  Mr. 
George  Scott,  Town  Clerk,  and  were,  along  with  other  three  portions  of  Inverurie  Roods, 
sold  under  redemption  by  his  grandson,  Alexander  Ferguson,  W.S.,  to  the  Earl  of  Kintore, 
and  redeemed  long  after.     They  came  to  be  called  Scott's  Lands. 

The  next  portion  of  Roods,  three  in  apparent  extent  (69-75  High  Street),  was  part 
of  the  Superiority  lands.  In  1853  these  by  excombion  became  Minister's  glebe,  along 
with  the  parts  of  the  four  next  mentioned  portions  of  roods  lying  south  of  the  Sketry  burn. 

The  Minister's  Glebe,  lying  in  five  divisions  among  the  Roods,  had  a  portion  of 
two  Roods  next  the  Regality  lands,  separated  at  the  eastern  extremity  from  them  by  the 
Sketry  Burn,  which  bounded  the  curtilage  of  the  manse  on  two  sides,  where  the  Parish 
Church  now  stands.  There  in  1696  Mr.  William  Murray  resided,  and  until  1716 
when  he  was  inconsiderate  enough  to  expose  himself  to  prosecution  for  treason  as  a 
Jacobite,  and  was  deposed. 

North  of  the  Manse  (63-65  High  Street)  the  old  minister's  son,  Mr.  James  Milne, 
physician,  the  only  one  between  Aberdeen  and  Huntly,  with  his  wife  Marie  Irvine,  James 
Milne,  his  son,  three  male  and  two  female  servants,  were  living  when  the  Poll  Book  was 
drawn  up.  Besides  nine  Roods  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  street  he  had  three  Roods 
behind  his  house,  which  was  "  a  stone  tenement,  high  and  laigh,  back  and  fore  ". 


392  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioeh. 

William  Eobertson  of  Aquhorties  was  Dr.  Milne's  next  neighbour  upon  two  Eoods 
(61  Higli  Street)  before  1604,  when  he  disponed  his  land  to  the  Earl  of  Kintore. 

The  next  four  Eoods  (53-57  High  Street)  belonged,  as  Eobertson's  had  done,  to  the 
important  Inverurie  family  of  Grub.  They  were  part  of  the  Scott's  lands,  and  followed 
the  same  course.     They  were  called  the  Cuttings  of  the  Bear  Hill. 

Five  Eoods  (43-49  High  Street)  north  of  the  Cuttings  were  before  1G77  sold  by  the 
decayed  baillie,  John  Johnston,  to  Sir  John  Keith  and  remained  his. 

The  representatives  of  Thomas  M'Kie  at  that  time  held  the  next  two  Eoods  (39-41 
High  Street),  and  after  them  George  Eonald  and  Thomas  Smith  in  succession.  The 
present  holder  is  the  last  of  a  line  of  the  name  of  Adams  who  farmed  Arnedlie  in  Mony- 
musk  from  before  the  time  of  the  Foil  Book  until  he  gave  up  the  holding  himself. 

The  important  Inverurie  family  sometimes  called  Mackie,  sometimes  Mackieson, 
possessed  eight  and  a  half  Eoods  next  adjoining,  (25-37  High  Street)  from  1538,  when 
John  Mackieson  in  Conglass  obtained  sasine  of  six  and  a  half  of  them  under  the  hand  of 
Mr.  John  Nicolson,  probably  the  Town  Clerk  of  that  date,  until  John  Mackie,  merchant 
in  Culm,  in  Polish  Prussia,  son  and  heir  of  John  Mackie  of  Midtoun  of  Inverurie, 
disponed  the  eight  Eoods  to  John  Elphinston  of  Glack  in  1732. 

Next  to  Midtoun,  one  and  a  half  Eoods  (19-21  High  Street),  now  known  as  Paul's 
Eig,  had  belonged  to  Gilbert  Craig  and  Janet  Johnston,  his  wife,  in  1587,  and  by  1700 
had  apparently  been  sold  by  Isobel  Davidson,  daughter  of  the  deceased  John  Davidson  in 
Mill  of  Lumphart,  to  George  Paul,  from  whom  it  passed  to  other  parishioners  of  Daviot — 
Porter  and  Glennie.  John  Porter  died  within  sixy  days  of  selling  it  to  Glennie,  and 
evidence  was  led  that  he  had  been  to  kirk  and  market,  at  the  first  of  which,  in  Aber- 
deen, he  had  heard  Mr.  John  Bisset  preach,  and  at  the  other  he  had  bought  some  "  ingans  ". 

Two  and  a  quarter  Eoods  next  in  order  (Jackson's  Lane  and  13  High  Street)  had 
before  1582  belonged  to  Walter  Eobertson,  whose  son  Thomas  succeeded  him  as  pro- 
prietor of  five  Eoods.  Thomas's  sisters,  his  heirs,  with  their  husbands,  divided  these 
between  them.  Janet's  husband,  James  Anderson,  transmitted  the  soutlimost  two  and 
a  half  Eoods  to  his  descendants  until  1719.  Mr.  James  Elphinston  of  Logie  held  a 
heritable  bond  on  them  in  1699. 

The  other  two  and  a  half  roods  (5-9  High  Street)  went  with  Elspet  Eobertson  to 
her  husband,  William  Davidson,  the  same  who  held  Paul's  Eig ;  and  they  were  sold 
along  with  it. 

In  1582,  the  neighbours  of  the  Eobertsons  had  been  a  well-to-do  family  named 
Angus,  proprietors  of  six  Eoods  there  (1  High  Street — 65  Market  Place),  which  about 
1C60  became  the  property  of  two  co-heiresses,  Cirstan  and  Jean  Angus,  married  to 
Walter  Fergus  and  James  Hutcheon,  and  ultimately  of  the  family  of  Alexander  Pater- 
son,  Thesaurer  of  Inverurie,  brother-in-law  of  Cirstan.  His  grandson  possessed  the 
land,  in  two  parts,  at  the  close  of  the  century.  Baillie  Smith  of  Inverurie  had  the  north 
half  in  1784.  aud  his  grandson  is  now  proprietor  and  occupant. 


The  Burgh  Lairds  of  Inverurie.  393 

One  and  a  half  Roods,  on  the  north  side  of  these,  belonged  to  Jean  Angus's  husband, 
James  Hutcheon.  John  Tailor,  "merchant,"  lived  upon  them  in  1681.  Before  1717 
they  had  belonged  to  a  John  Erskine,  and  been  sold,  by  James  Erskine,  to  William, 
Earl  of  Kintore. 

The  next  four  Roods  (49-55  Market  Place),  now  in  three  holdings,  were,  in  1668, 
held  in  mortgage  by  Sir  George  Gordon  of  Haddo,  the  proprietors  being  Thomas 
Eonald  and  his  wife  Barbara  Touches.  John  Ferguson  and  Janet  Mauld,  his  wife,  pos- 
sessed them  before  1739,  when  he  died.  The  north  part  belonged  about  1800  to 
Baillie  John  Bobertson,  a  very  astute  municipal  politician,  whose  wife  was  Agnes 
Ferguson. 

North  of  John  Ferguson's,  a  possession  of  two  Roods  (43-45  Market  Place),  belong- 
ing in  1608  to  the  heirs  of  James  Bowman,  was  one  of  the  Grub  properties,  from  at  least 
1640,  when  George  Grub  in  Crichie  owned  them,  until  1787,  when  George  Grub, 
merchant  in  Aberdeen,  father  of  the  founder  of  the  Grub  Mortification,  was  conjoint 
with  his  mother,  Margaret  Hay,  in  disponing  these  Roods,  belonging  to  his  late  father, 
George  Grub,  baillie  in  Inverurie.  The  Roods  belonged  about  1460  to  John  Clerk — John 
Badenoch  being  then  owner  of  the  three  adjacent.  Roods. 

Another  family  of  Grubs,  holders  once  of  Brandsbutt,  owned  those  next  three  Roods 
(Rose  Lane  and  39-41  Market  Place)  in  1609.  They  belonged  about  1709  to  Mr. 
George  Grub,  writer ;  and  were  thereafter  part  of  Scott's  Lands  already  mentioned, 
held  for  some  time  by  Mr.  George  Scott,  Town  Clerk,  and  his  residence  after  1721. 

Upon  two  and  a  half  Roods,  now  29  Market  Place,  Alexander  Mackieson,  one  of 
the  Mackieson  families  (of  which  there  seems  to  have  been  three  at  that  time),  was,  in 
1609,  next  neighbour  to  William  Grub  and  his  brother  George  who  succeeded  him  in 
that  year.  John  Mackie,  notar  public,  was  there  before  1649,  with  Margaret  Lyndsay 
his  wife.  His  daughter  Marjorie  was  served  heir  to  him  then ;  and  four  years  later  had 
to  sell  her  heritage  of  two  and  a  half  roods  to  Baillie  John  Johnston,  whose  grandfather, 
the  Baillie  William  Johnston  of  1616  had  once  possessed  them.  William  Lundie  pos- 
sessed the  roods  in  1717.  A  Mackie  held  them  again  in  1771 — Janet  Mackie  or 
Lyon,  mother  of  George  Lyon  the  well  known  Inverurie  Baillie  of  1800. 

A  single  Rood  (25  Market  Place),  the  property  of  "  John  Porter's  heirs"  in  1648; 
and  of  George  Porter  in  1053,  was,  after  belonging  to  a  Robert  Ferguson,  the  property 
of  the  same  William  Lundie  in  1717.  His  grandson,  John  Lundie,  watchmaker,  dis- 
poned a  tenement  on  the  east  end  of  the  rig  to  a  family,  the  descendants  of  an  Inverurie 
chirurgeon  named  Chillas. 

The  three  Roods  terminating  the  Upper  Roods,  with  the  conterminous  Gallowslacks 
— bounded  by  the  King's  Gait  east  and  north — were  owned  in  1633  by  Alexander 
Joiss,  and  in  1648  by  his  son  John,  succeeding  his  brother  Robert.  In  the  beginning 
of  the  next  century  Alexander  Murdoch  in  Ardtannies  sold  them  to  William,  second 
Earl  of  Kintore.     The  east  end  is  now  occupied  by  schools. 

50 


394  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

The  northrnost  of  the  Upper  Boods  was  skirted  by  the  high  road  out  of  the 
Burgh  ;  between  which  and  the  present  highway  lay,  unoccupied,  the  sites  now  marked 
by  No.  1  to  43  West  High  Street,  and  also  those  from  No.  3  to  No.  17  Market  Place. 

The  East  side  of  the  Burgh  highway  was,  about  1700,  in  many  cases  possessed  by 
the  same  proprietors  as  the  Upper  Roods. 

It  is  possible  that  the  first  historical  habitation  in  Inverurie— the  House  and  Toft 
belonging  to  the  Abbey  of  Lindores  apud  Futtie — may  have  always  continued  a  dwelling- 
place;  as  not  long  after  1600  a  Thomas  Johnston  lived  at  the  Kirk  Green,  and  the  toft 
known  in  1777  as  Puttie's  Croft,  had  been  possessed  in  1677  by  Alexander  Johnston, 
younger,  and  his  wife,  Margaret  Anderson;  who  before  1694,  sold  two  portions  of 
land  thereabout  to  the  Earl  of  Kintore. 

The  Little  Croft  and  Meglutton,  possessed  in  1633  by  the  schoolmaster,  Mr.  Alex- 
ander Mitchell,  and  now  with  Fittie's  Croft,  Fittie's  Loan,  and  some  more,  making  the 
property  known  as  Urybank,  was  probably  not  inhabited  until  after  1700. 
.  A  portion  of  Glebe  bounded  Mr.  Mitchell's  property  on  the  north. 

Three  Boods  succeeded,  sold  before  1694  by  Adam  Hill  to  the  first  Earl  of  Kintore, 
and  to  these  five  and  a  half  Boods,  now  partly  occupied  by  Kirkland  Terrace,  which, 
the  Earl,  when  Sir  John  Keith,  acquired  from  the  Johnstons  just  mentioned.  Alexander 
Johnston  had  houses  on  these  Eoods. 

The  Chapel  and  Barsonage  of  St.  Mary's,  with  Commercial  Boad,  and  part  of  Kirkland 
Terrace,  are  now  where  Baillie  George  Leslie's  nine  Garden  Boods  extended  in  1633 
opposite  to  his  stone  mansion  ;  which  probably  stood  where  the  triangle  of  Upper 
Boods  lies  south  of  the  present  highway  from  the  Bridge  of  Don.  In  the  end  of  the 
17th  century  the  nine  Boods  belonged  partly  to  John  Ferguson  of  Stonehouse,  and  partly 
to  Dr.  James  Milne,  son  of  the  former  minister.  John  Ferguson  and  his  son  William 
sold  their  portion  to  William,  second  Earl  of  Kintore ;  and  Dr.  Milne's  daughter  Jean 
disowned  the  rest  to  the  Earl  Marischal,  who  inherited,  as  heir  of  the  Keiths  Earls  of 
Kintore. 

The  largest  portion  of  Glebe  adjoined  Dr.  Milne's  Lower  Boods ;  and  is  now 
built  upon  as  St.  Mary's  Place ;  the  site  of  which  includes  also  one  and  a  half  Boods 
north  of  the  Glebe,  disponed,  before  1694,  by  Baillie  John  Johnston  to  the  first  Earl  of 
Kintore. 

One  and  a  half  Boods,  now  Beverley  Boad,  belonged  about  that  time  to  John 
Beverley,  burgess  in  Inverurie;  and  had  in  1620  belonged  to  John  Thomson,  owner  of 
several  other  portions  of  Eoods. 

Nine  Eoods  (100-106  High  Street),  which  in  1620  belonged  to  George  Johnston  of 
that  Ilk  and  Caskieben,  were,  in  1694,  the  property  of  James  Schincy — the  last  of  four 
of  that  name  who  held  them. 

A  narrow  strip  of  Glebe  succeeded  these  nine  Roods  on  the  north.     Thomas  John- 


Hie  Burgh  Lairds  of  Inverurie.  395 


ston,  proprietor  of  Upper  Eoods,  nephew  of  Rob's  Willie  of  1644,  possessed,  about  1700, 
the  two  Eoods  next  to  the  Glebe  (86  High  Street).  The  Eoods  and  Glebe  are  now 
united. 

On  the  next  adjacent  two  and  a  half  Eoods  (84  High  Street),  lived  in  1696  the 
schoolmaster,  Mr.  James  Anderson,  with  his  brother  Patrick,  his  sisters  Jean  and  Anna, 
three  men  servants,  and  a  woman  servant.  At  the  Ee volution  Alexander  Eeid,  merchant 
lived  there  with  his  wife,  Girzell  Kempt,  relict  of  John  Joiss. 

A  single  Eood  and  half,  now  occupied  by  the  houses  in  Station  Eoad,  had  then  the 
Cross  Well  at  the  end  of  it,  in  the  middle,  or  nearly  so,  of  the  King's  highway,  and 
the  Cross  itself,  the  remains  of  which  are  to  be  seen  across  the  High  Street,  built  into 
the  garden  wall  of  the  Hotel.  There  "  James  Fergus  at  the  Cross"  and  his  wife  Margaret 
Curry,  resided,  it  may  be,  after  selling  their  house  on  the  other  side  of  the  highway  for 
a  Tolbooth,  in  1942.  John  Ferguson,  James's  son,  had  both  Upper  and  Lower  Eoods 
resigned  by  his  mother  to  him  in  1674.  They  were  both  parts  of  Scott's  Lands 
already  noticed, 

Another  strip  of  Lower  Eood,  of  the  same  extent  succeeded — now  covered  by  the 
Station  Eoad.  It  belonged  to  the  schoolmaster  of  1696,  Mr.  James  Anderson,  who 
sold  it,  in  1729,  to  John  Davidson,  along  with  "a  stone  shop,  high  and  laigh  booths, 
built  upon  it ". 

The  Union  Bank  (80  High  Street)  now  stands  on  two  and  a  half  Eoods  next  adja- 
cent, sold,  before  1694,  to  the  first  Earl  of  Kintore  by  John  Johnston,  Baillie  of  Inverurie, 
grandson  of  the  Baillie  William  Johnston  of  the  Burgh  Feud. 

One  and  a  half  Eoods,  now  built  upon  by  Dalury  Cottage  were  disponed,  in  1699,  by 
James  Taylor,  "  wy ver  in  Inverurie,"  to  his  son-in-law,  William  Gray,  whose  descendant 
"Geordie  Gray,"  driver  of  the  "Banks  of  Don"  coach,  sold  them,  about  1840,  to  the 
then  Minister,  Mr.  Eobert  Lessel. 

The  next  Eood  and  half,  called  Two  Sketry  Eoods,  filled  up  the  Lower  Eoods  to 
the  Sketry  Burn.  In  1699,  they  belonged  to  William  Lundie  who  probably  had  his 
"merchan'  shop"  there  in  1696,  when  his  stock  was  valued  at  400  merks.  A  shop 
has  been  there  frequently,  if  not  continuously,  since.  The  Cross,  the  Tolbooth,  and  the 
Minister's  Manse  were  all  close  by.  William  Lundie,  merchant,  had  other  Lower  Eoods 
in  1686. 

Across  the  Burn,  now  covered  over  and  made  a  road,  a  single  Eood  was  possessed 
by  three  generations  of  Patersons  from  about  1660;  and  sold  by  Baillie  John  Johnston 
to  Lord  Kintore  before  1694.    . 

Nine  Eoods  adjoined,  which  had  been  accumulated  by  Dr.  James  Milne  before  1705, 
when  he  disponed  them  to  the  Earl  of  Kintore.  They  are  skirted  now  by  Nos.  60-72 
High  Street.  The  two  southmost  had  belonged  in  1616  to  Alexander  Her  vie  ;  the 
next  one,  wadset  in  1581  to  Gilbert  Craig  by  Eobert  Fergus,  was  redeemed  and  sold  to 
Mr  James  Mill,  the  Minister,  in  1616.     In  the  other  six  Eoods,  George  Johnston  of 


396  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom,  of  the  Garioch. 

Caskieben   was   served   heir  to  his  father   in   1613,   and  sold  them  to  the  minister 
in  1616. 

Three  Roods  next  adjacent  (58  High  Street),  belonged  from  1660  to  Robert,  Alex- 
ander, and  James  Smith  in  succession,  the  first  a  burgess,  the  last  his  grandson,  farmer 
of  Inglistoun  in  Keithall. 

The  Lower  Roods,  now  containing  Nos.  36-48  High  Street,  and  belonging  to  the 
Earl  of  Kintore,  were  in  several  properties  about  1700. 

The  first  two  on  the  south  side  were  part  of  Baillie  John  Johnston's  dispositions 
to  the  first  Earl  of  Kintore. 

The  next  Rood  and  half  belonged  from  1633  to  1765  to  a  family  of  Robertsons, 
burgesses  in  Inverurie,  the  last  of  whom,  Alexander,  was  in  1765  a  litster  (dyer)  in 
Fraserburgh. 

George  Ferguson,  burgess  in  Inverurie,  possessed  the  next  Rood,  1669,  and  his 
grandson,  William,  in  1730.  It  was  part  of  four  Roods  in  which  Clara  Hutcheon  was 
served  heir  to  her  father,  Walter,  in  1609. 

One  Rood,  with  a  Butt  in  Curries's  Haugh,  was  settled  in  1669  on  George  Ronald, 
eldest  son  of  the  late  George  Ronald,  burgess  of  Inverurie,  on  his  marriage  with  Elspet, 
George  Grub's  daughter.  He  was  the  descendant  of  William  Ronald  and  Clara 
Hutcheon  of  Mr.  Mill's  Registers.    The  Rood  belonged  from  1723  to  1827  to  the  Burgh. 

Clara  Hutcheon's  remaining  two  Roods  belonged  to  the  second  Alexander  Paterson 
in  1681,  then  served  heir  to  Alexander,  his  father;  but  to  James  Forbes  before  1723. 

The  northmost  of  four  portions  of  Glebe,  lying  in  the  Lower  Roods,  next  followed, 
amounting  to  two  Roods. 

Two  Roods  succeeded,  belonging  in  1607  to  Benzies,  from  that  time  to  1660  to 
Anguses,  and  in  1681  to  Alexander  Paterson  as  heir  to  his  father,  whose  wife  was  an 
Angus.     They  were  sold  before  1727  to  Robert  Ferguson,  litster  in  Peterhead. 

The  next  two,  belonging  in  1587  to  Robert  Fergus,  were  disponed  in  1616  by 
Alexander  Hervie  to  Alexander  Fergus,  junior ;  and  George  Fergus  had  them  in  1660. 

A  Rood,  now  belonging  to  Lord  Kintore,  lies  next  adjacent ;  one  of  three  belonging 
in  1587  to  Gilbert  Craig,  who  was  that  year  infeft  in  them  under  the  hand  of  Mr. 
Alexander  Davidson,  Town  Clerk.  In  1717,  it  was  secured  by  George  Stephen  in 
marriage  contract  to  himself  and  Margaret  Anderson,  his  wife;  and  in  1790,  John 
Stephen  disponed  it  to  Robert  Innes,  merchant  in  Aberdeen,  whose  son  sold  it  in  1804 
to  the  Earl  of  Kintore. 

The  other  two  of  Gilbert  Craig's  three  Roods  (Knight's  Lane  and  30  High  Street), 
belonged  in  1660  to  Marjorie  Fergus — heir  to  her  grandfather,  John  Fergus,  in  one,  and 
to  her  father  Robert,  in  the  other.  George  Stephen,  late  of  Crofthead,  in  1724  sold 
both  of  them  to  William  Angus  at  Boat  of  Crichie. 

The  next  Rood,  now  bounded  on  the  north  by  the  Congregational  Chapel,  belonged 
in  1624  to  James  Clark  in  Middle  Pisblair,  who  in  that  year  resigned  it  to  James 


The  Burgh  Lairds  of  Inverurie.  397 

Benzie;  pertaining  later  to  James  Bowman  and  to  William  Porter,  and  in  1660-1675 
to  George  Grub,  in  Windyedge  of  Crichie,  whose  grandson,  George  Grub,  Dean  of  Guild 
of  Inverurie,  was  served  heir  to  him  in  it  in  1752. 

Three  Boods  next  succeeding  on  the  north  (20  High  Street  and  Congregational 
Chapel)  belonged,  from  1632  to  1776,  to  a  family  named  "Webster,  living  in  1635  at 
Portstown.     James  Webster  who  held  them  in  1720  was  a  physician. 

The  next  two  roods  (16-18  High  Street),  belonged  in  1610  to  James  Scott,  then  to 
his  brother  Walter,  afterwards  to  Anthony  Scott,  in  1633  to  William  Lychton,  "the 
Baronne,"  in  1647  to  his  son,  John  Lychton  in  Fetternear,  were  sold  by  his  mother 
and  him  in  1654,  and  belonged  in  1729  to  James  Panton  as  heir  to  his  grandfather. 

Four  and  a  half  Boods  (4-8  High  Street)  next  in  the  line  belonged  from  the  earliest 
record  to  1802  to  a  family  of  Stephens,  to  which  Mr.  Boyd  Tytler  of  Ceylon  belongs. 

A  rood  and  a  half  further  north  (68-72  Market  Place),  belonging  to  Johnstons  in 
1607,  sold  in  1622  by  Baillie  William  Johnston  to  William  Anderson  in  Eoquharrcl, 
were  sold  in  1674  by  William  Anderson  in  Cottown  of  Hall-forest  to  George  Mearns. 
merchant  in  Inverurie,  whose  descendants  sold  them  in  1755. 

Five  Boods  (56-64  Market  Place),  belonging  in  1622  to  John  Bonaldson,  pertained 
from  before  1654  to  1728  to  a  family  named  Downie,  prominent  latterly  of  Kemnay. 

Two  Boods  next  adjoining  (50-52  Market  Place),  the  property  in  1654  of  James  , 
Ferguson,  belonged  in  1729  to  the  granddaughters  of  James  Ferguson,  weaver,  Anna  and 
Marjory  Mill,  daughters  of  the  deceased  Bobert  Mill,  in  Dam  of  Dilie,  in  Kemnay. 

The  next  property  (26-42  Market  Place),  seven  Boods  belonged  in  1680  to  William 
Ferguson,  elder  of  Badifurrow ;  having  been,  according  to  tradition,  in  his  family  for 
four  centuries  previous  to  that  date,  when  his  youngest  son  got  it ;  whose  representa- 
tives sold  it  in  1798. 

Three  Boods  (14-22  Market  Place)  followed,  belonging  to  Paul  Murdo  in  1666, 
were  sold  in  1686  by  Alexander  Beid,  burgess  of  Inverurie,  and  Alexander  Farquhar  of 
Mounie,  with  consent  of  Isabel  Downie,  relict  of  Alexander  Keith,  baillie  of  Inverurie, 
to  William  Lundie,  merchant  in  Inverurie. 

The  next  Bood  and  quarter  (12  Market  Place),  resigned  in  1666  by  Margaret  Smith, 
spouse  of  William  Matthewson,  in  Pardess  of  Old  Craig,  to  George  Ferguson,  weaver  in 
Inverurie,  were  possessed  in  1772  by  James  Ferguson,  burgess,  his  grandson. 

Northburn  Cottage  now  represents  the  remaining  parts  of  the  Lower  Boods,  com. 
prising  three  and  three-fourths  Boods  and  the  Outing  Big,  bounded  by  the  Northburn  ; 
which  all  belonged  in  1659  to  William  Bobertson,  as  heir  to  his  grandfather,  John  Bobert- 
son,  the  family  possessing  also  Burn-rigs,  in  the  neighbourhood.  The  same  family  held  the 
land  after  1690  in  divided  portions — the  south  Bood  and  quarter  belonging  to  William's 
son  James  and  Margaret  Panton  his  wife,  in  1693,  and  the  north  two  and  a  half  Boods 
before  1741.  In  1697,  William  gave  the  Outing  Big  to  his  second  son  Walter,  a 
weaver.     That  terminal  Lower  Bood  had  belonged,  before  1655,  to  William  Smith,  in 


398  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

succession  to  James  Smith,  burgess.  Marjorie  Smith,  wife  of  William  Matthewson,  in 
Pardess  of  Old  Craig,  sold  in  1664  to  William  Robertson  the  west  end  of  it;  form- 
ing quarter  of  a  Eood,  which  now  belongs  to  George  Robertson,  Market  Place,  Inverurie. 
At  the  north  end  of  the  single  street  of  Inverurie,  the  lines  of  Upper  and  Lower 
Poods,  diverging  towards  the  roads  leading  to  Chapel  and  Old  Meldrum,  formed,  with  the 
Overburn,  the  triangular  area  now  called  Market  Place.  The  south  bank  of  the  Over- 
burn  contained  a  line  of  cottage  dwellings,  with  their  variously  extensive  "yards,"  upon 
the  same  sites  which  the  Town  Hall  and  its  flanking  lines  of  dwellings  now  occupy. 
The  westmost  of  these — probably  already  an  inn — upon  the  Crosslit  Croft,  which  at  the 
beginning  of  the  century  belonged  to  one  of  the  immemorial  Benzie  family,  was  at  the 
end  of  it  the  property  of  John  Beverley,  a  Chelsea  pensioner,  whose  name  and  designation 
have  both  been  commemorated  in  the  topography  of  the  burgh.  His  neighbours,  in  line 
eastward,  were  John  Gib,  Margaret  Benzie  (widow  of  James  Ferguson),  John  Glennay's 
f..mily,  William  Porter,  and  the  Robertsons.  The  daily  prospect  of  these  indwellers  was 
the  revels  of  the  school  children  upon  the  Ballgreen ;  near  the  south  end  of  which  stood 
the  humble  thatched  tenement  that  represented  the  cause  of  education  in  the  Royal 
Burgh  ;  and  which  contained,  besides  a  very  barely  furnished  schoolroom,  a  "  chamber  " 
boarded  off  for  the  schoolmaster's  only  accommodation.  The  school  was  on  the  west 
side  of  the  intermittent  loch  called  Powtate,  which  could  at  times  be  crossed  by 
pedestrians,  but  in  general  only  by  ducks. 

FETTERNEAE. 

The  ancient  residence  of  the  Bishops  of  Aberdeen  became,  about  1690,  the  seat  of 
the  Lairds  of  Balquhain.  It  had  undergone  many  modifications  in  early  times  to  fit  it 
for  defence ;  and  in  quieter  periods  to  adapt  it  for  convenient  and  sumptuous  residence  ; 
with  which  last  object  Count  Patrick  Leslie  spent  much  upon  it,  when  he  acquired  it 
after  it  had  been  for  a  long  century  alienated  from  the  Leslie  family  and  possessed  by 
their  relatives  the  Abercrombys.  The  recovered  prosperity  of  the  house  of  Balquhain 
was  marked  by  removal  from  the  confined  fortalice  of  Balquhain  to  the  amenities  of 
Fetternear. 

A  new  chapter  was  at  the  Restoration  beginning  in  the  fortunes  of  the  Barons  of 
Balquhain,  which  had  reached  their  lowest  when  John,  the  twelfth  Baron,  found 
himself,  on  the  death  of  his  father,  lord  of  the  Castle  and  Mains  of  Balquhain,  and 
of  nothing  else.  The  refuge  of  poor  Scottish  lairds  at  that  time  was  the  various  armies 
of  the  Continental  nations — the  French,  Swedes,  Russians,  Austrians,  or  Turks.  The 
thirty  years'  war  between  the  Protestant  and  Catholic  powers  had  trained  the  principal 
Scottish  officers  who  came  home  to  take  commands  in  the  civil  war  of  Britain,  and 
Russia  was  engaged  in  its  chronic  attempts  at  conquest.  John  Leslie  came  to  the  end 
of  his  impoverished  life,  in  1655,  at  the  siege  of  Ingolwitz  during  the  Russian  invasion 
of  Poland.     His  heir-at-law  was  his  uncle  William,  second  son  of  the  dashing  laird, 


The  Counts  Leslie.  399 


John  Leslie,  tenth  Baron,  and  one  of  the  actual  Protestants  of  the  family  in  that  period 
of  constrained  compliance  with  the  Reformed  Religion.  "William,  who  was  a  civilian, 
served  Charles  I.  in  the  Secret  Council,  and,  after  the  King's  death,  sought  an  asylum 
in  Holland,  where  he  passed  the  remainder  of  his  life.  He  wished  to  dispose  of  his 
rights  to  Balquhain  for  an  annuity,  and  instead  of  offering  them  to  the  next  heir, 
Alexander  Leslie  of  Tullos,  his  half-brother,  he  made  the  estate  over  to  Alexander's 
younger  brother  "Walter,  then  a  wealthy  noble  of  Austria,  who  next  disponed  it  to  his 
brother  Alexander,  the  rightful  heir. 

THE  COUNTS  LESLIE. 

"Walter,  second  son  of  John,  tenth  Baron,  by  his  third  wife,  Jean  Erskine,  sister  of 
the  first  Earl  of  Kellie,  was  born  about  1606 ;  and  in  early  youth  entered  the  Austrian 
service.  In  1632  he  held  the  rank  of  major  in  a  body  1000  strong  of  Scottish  and 
Irish  musketeers,  of  which  another  Scotchman,  Colonel  Gordon,  was  commandant.  The 
celebrated  "Wallenstein  was  then  at  the  head  of  the  Catholic  Army  of  the  Austrian 
Emperor,  opposed  to  the  great  Protestant  leader,  Gustavus,  King  of  Sweden.  Leslie  was 
a  captain  in  "Wallenstein's  guard,  and  became  aware  of  a  treasonable  design  formed  by 
him  to  give  up  the  town  of  Eger  to  the  enemy.  He  felt  it  to  be  his  duty  to  inform  Colonel 
Gordon,  the  governor  of  Eger,  who  thought  his  only  course  was  to  seize  "Wallenstein  and 
deliver  him  up  to  the  Emperor.  The  Duke's  plans,  however,  were  too  near  execution  to 
allow  that  to  be  attempted  ;  and  the  council  summoned  by  the  Governor  determined 
upon  the  more  sure  expedient  of  slaughter.  "Wallenstein  was  assaulted  in  his  own 
chamber  by  Colonel  Butler,  Captain  Devereux,  and  six  Dutch  soldiers,  on  25th  February, 
1634.  "Walter  Leslie  was  sent  by  Colonel  Gordon  to  convey  to  the  Emperor  Ferdinand 
II.  the  tidings  of  Wallenstein's  death,  and  was  rewarded  by  marked  promotion  in  his 
service ;  and  the  next  Emperor,  Ferdinand  III.,  on  his  accession  in  1637,  bestowed  on 
him  the  lordship  of  Neustadt,  in  Bohemia,  valued  at  200,000  florins,  and  created  him  a 
Count  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire.  He  became  afterwards  Governor  of  Sclavonia,  a 
Field-Marshal  and  Knight  of  the  Golden  Fleece  ;  and  entered  upon  a  career  of  magnifi- 
cence, his  adaptability  to  which  he  may  have  inherited  from  his  father.  In  1640,  Count 
"Walter  Leslie  married  Princess  Anna  de  Dietrichstein,  daughter  of  Maximilian,  Prince 
de  Dietrichstein,  Prime  Minister  and  Grand  Chamberlain  to  the  Emperor,  and  with 
her  he  received  considerable  possessions.  Leopold  I.  sent  him  in  1664  his  ambassador- 
plenipotentiary  to  the  Sublime  Porte,  then  one  of  the  great  powers  of  Europe,  to  regulate 
the  terms  of  a  permanent  peace.  His  progress  by  barges  down  the  Danube  to  Presburg 
and  Buda,  and  from  Belgrade  by  easy  stages,  with  two  hundred  waggons  carrying  the 
baggage,  was  °f  so  imposing  a  character  as  to  be  reported  to  the  Sultan,  who  in 
consequence  watched  the  final  entrance  of  the  embassy  into  Constantinople  from  the 
Seraglio  window,  declaring  that  he  had  never  seen  such  a  sight. 

To  a  man  whose  tastes  could  employ  magnificence  interesting  to  a  Saltan  of  that 


400  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

period  there  would  be  no  overpowering  attraction  in  the  recollection  of  the  rough  walls  and 
narrow  boundaries  of  the  Garioch  stronghold.  While,  however,  he  sold  his  brother 
William's  disposition  of  Balquhain  to  the  Scottish  brother,  Alexander  Leslie  of  Tullos,  he 
sent  him  afterwards  many  gifts  of  money  to  enable  him  to  buy  back  portions  of  the  family 
estates  as  they  came  into  the  market ;  and  he  added  more  substantial  kindness. 
Having  no  prospect  of  family  by  his  marriage  with  the  Princess,  he  sent  in  1655  for  his 
brother's  second  son  James,  with  the  view  of  leaving  his  wealth  to  him.  He  had  him 
educated  with  the  greatest  care,  and  James  rose  to  high  rank,  appearing  in  positions  of 
great  distinction  in  the  Imperial  Household  and  Army  from  1660  to  1685. 

Count  James  Leslie  led  the  force  that  in  the  siege  of  Vienna  by  the  Turks,  in  1683, 
broke  through  the  besieging  army,  throwing  reinforcements  into  the  city,  which  effectually 
rescued  it ;  and  it  was  by  means  of  brilliant  successes  achieved  by  him  when  serving 
under  the  Duke  of  Lorraine,  Austrian  generalessimo,  that  Hungary  was  liberated  from 
the  Turkish  dominion  in  1685.  A  principal  exploit  was  the  burning  of  one  of  the 
immense  wooden  bridges  (five  miles  long)  built  by  Solyman  the  Magnificent  in  152 1  across 
the  marshes  of  Hungary  as  part  of  his  military  roads  when  he  subdued  that  kingdom. 

In  1666  James,  by  his  uncle's  management,  obtained  in  marriage  the  Princess 
Maria  Teresa  of  Lichtenstein.  Count  Walter  spent  50,000  rix  dollars  (at  the  lowest 
exchange  £7000)  upon  the  wedding  festivities,  at  which  the  Emperor  and  Empress 
and  most  of  the  Court  were  present.  James  succeeded  his  uncle  as  seeoud  Count  Leslie 
in  1667,  the  year  following  his  marriage.  He  was  then  his  father's  eldest  surviving  son, 
his  elder  brother  having  died  in  1659  ;  but  he  resigned  his  rights  to  his  younger 
brother  Patrick,  whom  he  helped  by  remittances  to  go  on  redeeming  the  Balquhain  estates. 
The  Princess  Lichtenstein  was  childless,  and  Count  James  summoned  a  nephew  from 
home  to  be  brought  up  as  heir  to  his  Austrian  estates,  as  his  uncle  had  done  by  himself. 

James  Ernest,  the  elder  son  of  his  brother  Patrick,  afterwards  consented  to  renounce 
the  Scnteh  estate  in  consideration  of  his  succeeding  Count  James,  his  uncle.  He  began 
a  line  of  Counts  Leslie  of  Gratz,  in  Styria,  while  his  brother  George  ranked  as  Baron 
of  Balquhain,  in  which  position  his  son  was  the  last  male  heir  that  held  Balcp-ihain  ;  which 
afterwards  came  into  the  possession  of  descendants  of  two  sisters  of  George. 

The  line  of  the  Counts  Leslie  descending  from  the  eldest  son  of  Patrick,  Baron 
of  Balquhain,  became  extinct  about  1858  ;  and  after  prolonged  proceedings  in  the  law 
courts  of  Austria  part  of  the  Gratz  property  was  adjudged  to  the  Balquhain  family 
descended  from  Teresa,  his  sister,  who  married  Bobert  Duguid  of  Auchenhove,  in  the 
parish  of  Lumphanan,  Aberdeenshire. 

LEITH-HALL. 
The    original    lands    of    the   Leslies   on   the   banks  of  the  Gadie   were    at    the 
end    of  the    seventeenth   century   without   a   representative   in   the    family   to  whom 
they  gave  their  name.     In  1650  the  western  portions  of  them  were  gathered  together,  in 


Freefield.  401 

the  connection  they  now  present,  by  the  common  ancestor  of  the  Leith-Hays  of  Leith- 
hall  and  the  Leiths  of  Freefield,  descended  from  William  Leith,  Provost  of  Aberdeen, 
the  contemporary  of  the  earliest  Johnston  of  the  Caskieben  line.  John  Leith  selling 
lands  in  Eayne  and  purchasing  New  Leslie,  Peel,  Syde,  and  Arnbog,  made  New  Leslie 
the  family  seat,  and  took  his  designation  from  New  Leslie.  James,  his  son,  was  the 
first  of  Leith-hall,  now  possessed  by  the  family  of  Leith-Hay — chief  of  the  name.  James 
built  the  house  of  Leith-hall  on  the  lands  of  Peel.  By  his  marriage  with  Margaret, 
daughter  of  Alexander  Strachan  of  Glenkindie  (for  some  time  proprietor  of  Kemnay),  he 
began  the  connection  which  subsequently  brought  the  lands  of  Glenkindie  to  his 
descendants,  the  Leiths  of  Freefield.  His  son  and  heir,  John,  married  Janet,  daughter 
of  George  Ogilvie,  second  Lord  Banff,  and  by  her  had  a  son,  John,  who  married  Mary, 
daughter  of  Charles  Hay  of  Eannes,  and  thereby  appended  the  name  of  Hay  to  his  son's 
ancestral  name  of  Leith.  His  descendant,  General  Hay  of  Eannes,  was  a  public  man  in 
the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Sir  Andrew 
Leith-Hay,  who  distinguished  himself  in  the  Peninsular  war.  Sir  Andrew's  son,  Colonel 
Leith-Hay,  now  possesses  Leith-hall. 

Sir  Andrew  Leith-Hay's  beautiful  "  Castellated  Buildings  of  Aberdeenshire  "  has 
preserved  the  outward  appearance  of  the  picturesque  strongholds  of  Leslie,  Licklyhead, 
and  HarthilL  which  dominated  over  the  valley  of  the  Gadie  in  the  17th  century.  Of 
these,  Harthill  now  belongs  to  the  Laird  of  Pittodrie.  Licklyhead  and  the  village  of 
Auchleven,  which  at  the  Eevolution  belonged  to  Forbes  of  Leslie,  passed,  through  a 
time  of  possession  by  others,  into  the  hands  of  the  Lumsdens  of  Clova.  The 
adjoining  lands  of  Edingarroch,  the  earliest  possession  of  the  Leiths,  are  theirs  again. 
The  original  lands  of  Leslie,  with  the  castle  built  by  the  Forbeses,  were  soon  after  1696 
sold  by  David,  the  last  Forbes,  to  the  laird  of  Leith-hall ;  which  completed  the  re-union  of 
that  portion  of  the  Leslie  lands. 

FREEFIELD. 
Alexander  Leith,  second  son  of  James  Leith  and  Margaret  Strachan,  became  by 
purchase,  in  1702,  laird  of  Freefield,  before  called  Treefield ;  adding  also  New  Eayne  and 
Barreldykes.  He  also  in  1738  purchased  the  lands  of  Glenkindie.  Alexander,  first  of 
Freefield  and  Glenkindie,  lived  to  the  age  of  ninety,  dying  in  1754.  His  son, 
Alexander,  succeeded  him,  whose  grandson,  the  fourth  Alexander  Leith,  brought  to  the 
family  a  military  honour,  which  has  been  added  to  by  his  son,  still  living.  The  fourth 
Alexander  Leith  of  Freefield  and  Glenkindy,  was  a  trusted  officer  of  the  great  Duke  of 
Wellington,  and  had  the  dignity  of  K.C.B.  conferred  upon  him.  He  married  Maria 
Disney  Thorp  of  Yorkshire,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  eldest  son,  Alexander.  A 
younger  son,  named  Eobert  William  Disney  Leith,  now  a  general  officer,  distinguished 
himself  at  the  siege  of  Moultan,  in  the  East  Indies.  Sir  Alexander  married  late  in  life, 
as  his  second  wife,  the  sister  of  the  late  John  Mackenzie,  Esq.  of  Glack. 

51 


402  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 


KEITHHALL. 

The  liouse  of  Keithhall  is  still  partly  surrounded  by  the  fine  remains  of  avenues, 
mostly  planted  by  Sir  John  Keith,  who  gave  his  own  name  to  the  ancient  barony  of 
Caskieben. 

The  genealogy  of  the  Marischal  family  shows  Sir  John  Keith  first  Earl  of  Kintore 
the  fourth  and  youngest  son  of  William,  the  sixth  Earl  Marischal,  and  twenty-third 
Chief  of  the  line  of  Keith,  who  had  been  Marischals  of  Scotland  from  A.D.  10 10.  He 
married  his  own  cousin-german,  Lady  Margaret  Hamilton,  born  1G41,  posthumous  child 
of  Thomas,  second  Earl  of  Haddington,  and  granddaughter  of  John  Erskine,  Earl  of  Mar. 
By  her  he  had  a  son  William,  who  succeeded  him,  and,  as  Lord  Inverurie,  appears  in 
various  purchases  of  Inverurie  Eoods  and  Twelfth-part  lands.  Like  their  relatives,  the  Earl 
Marischal  and  the  future  Marshal  Keith,  the  Earl  and  Lord  Inverurie  took  the  Jacobite  side 
in  1715,  but  did  not  suffer  attainder — the  sole  punishment  apparently  awarded  being  the 
forfeiture  of  the  title  of  Knight  Marischal  of  Scotland.  William  assumed  the  fantastic 
sign  of  mourning  not  uncommon  in  that  cause,  of  never  shaving  his  beard  after  the  defeat 
of  the  Roj'al  Stuarts.  He  married  a  daughter  of  David  Murray,  Viscount  Stormont, 
by  whom  he  had  two  sons  ;  John,  third  Earl,  and  William,  fourth  Earl  of  Kintore  ; 
and  two  daughters,  of  whom  one,  Lady  Catherine  Margaret  became  Lady  Ealconer  "of 
Halkerton;  into  whose  line  the  Earldom  was  to  pass.  Earl  John  had  no  son,  and 
William  never  married.  Earl  John's  wife  was  Mary  Erskine,  daughter  of  Erskine 
of  Grange,  Lord  Justice-Clerk  of  Scotland.  The  story  of  her  mother,  who  was  either 
mad  or  extremely  ill-used  by  her  husband,  is  a  disagreeable  illustration  of  the  social 
possibilities  of  that  period.  It  was  once  proposed  to  put  her  under  her  daughter's  care 
at  Keitlihall. 

The  male  descent  from  the  first  Earl  of  Kintore  terminated  in  Earl  William, 
and  the  estates  went  to  the  representative  of  the  principal  family  of  Keith.  The 
most  famous  of  the  Earls  Marischal,  the  last  bearer  of  the  title,  Sir  John's  grand- 
nephew,  came  to  be  proprietor  for  a  short  period.  During  his  proprietorship  there  was 
some  prospect  of  the  place  becoming  the  residence  of  the  notorious  Jean  Jacque  Eousseau, 
but  the  Garioch  was  saved  from  the  undesirable  association  by  an  outburst  of  that  con- 
temptible philosopher's  selfish  jealousy  of  his  too  indulgent  friend,  the  Earl  Marischal. 
On  the  death  of  his  Lordship,  unmarried,  and  that  of  his  brother,  the  great 
Marshal  Keith,  also  a  bachelor,  his  illustrious  title  came  to  an  end.  The  Earldom  of 
Kintore  and  the  lands  went  to  the  descendants  of  David  Falconer,  Lord  Halkerton,  to 
whom  Sir  John  Keith's  granddaughter  was  married.  Anthony,  first  Earl  of  Kintore  of 
the  Ealconer  Earls,  became  thus  the  proprietor  of  Keithhall,  and  handed  it  down  to  his 
descendants,  who  continue  to  possess  it. 

An  inventory  of  silver  plate  belonging  to  the  Earl  Marischal  at  Keithhall  in  17(34 
is  of  interest,  as  illustrative  of  his  personal  estate,  and  also  of  the  period. 


Kc'ithhall.  403 


"  Silver  Plate  Belonging  to  Earl  Marischall  pack'd  up  from  Keithhall  to  be  sent  to 
Hamburg — 

Tea  pott  &  standert,  Eleven  old  spoons, 

Milk  pott,  Three  dozen  spoon  forks, 

Suggar  Box,  Three  dozen  knives,  handles  different  sizes, 

Two  Cannesters,  Three  dividing  spoons, 

Four  small  salvers,  A  small  mustard  spoon, 

One  large      Do.,  A  set  of  Casters, 

Three  Do.,  One  Dozen  Tea  spoons  &  one  suggar  spoon, 

Seven  pair  Candlesticks,  A  punch  drainer  &  ladle, 

Six  branches  &  three  sockets,  Three  dozen  table  spoons, 

One  pair  snuffers,  A  sugar  tongs, 

Four  Juggs,  A  Bell  for  a  Tea  Table, 

Four  Salts,  Three  pair-  of  Candlesticks  and  a  pair  of 

A  large  Cup,  Snuffers,  formerly  taken  from  Keithhall. 

Keithhall,  May  15,  1764.— All  the  above  silver  plate  sent  from  Keithhall  by  Earl 
Marischall's  Order.  Maeischall." 

Local  tradition  makes  the  first  Countess  of  Kintore  the  chief  person  in  a  story  suffi- 
ciently characteristic  of  the  times.  Upon  a  certain  Sunday,  when  she  was  riding  the 
short  but  somewhat  swampy  road  to  the  Kirk  of  Monkegy  with  her  two  sons,  accom- 
panied by  some  dogs,  the  dogs  started  a  hare,  and  the  sons  set  off  in  pursuit,  the 
lady  following  the  whole.  The  minister  beheld  the  scene  on  his  way  to  church,  and  on 
the  hunters  coming  in  a  little  late  reproved  them  in  a  manner  more  pointed  than 
polite.  When  the  lady  left  the  church  she  said,  "  The  prig  o'  a  mannie  fell  out  upo' 
me  as  if  I  had  done  anything  wrong,"  and  she  made  the  place  too  hot  for  him,  so  that 
he  managed  to  get  translated  to  Old  Deer.  Authentic  dates  suit  the  story  well  enough. 
Mr.  George  Keith  was  translated  from  Monkegy  to  Old  Deer  in  1683.  A  Mr.  Andrew 
Levinstone  appears  as  chaplain  at  Keithhall  in  1682.  The  office,  which  occurs  in 
connection  with  other  houses,  probably  meant  private  tutor. 

In  the  churchyard  there  was  a  gravestone,  still  remembered,  containing  a  legend  not 
without  parallel  in  the  period  it  belonged  to — 

Here  lies  John  Boyle, 

Wha  ran  with  Lord  Kintore  mony  a  mile. 

It  is  said  that  the  Earl,  not  being  on  the  most  comfortable  terms  with  his  wife,  took 
fright  at  her  once,  when  they  were  living  in  Edinburgh,  and  hurriedly  started  for  Keith- 
hall. On  mounting  his  horse  he  threw  a  shilling  to  John,  and  bade  him  make  his  way 
to  Keithhall  how  he  best  could,  for  he  was  riding  for  his  life  ;  and  when  he  came  to 
Keithhall,  John  was  at  the  loupin'-on-stane  to  receive  his  master's  horse.  "' 


404  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

A  Lady  of  Leslie  of  that  period  was  upon  rather  worse  terms  with  the  minister 
than  was  the  case  in  Monkegy.  Her  husband  and  she  had  opposed  his  settlement, 
and  being  thwarted,  would  not  attend  his  preaching  ;  and  for  their  nonconformity 
had,  as  frequently  came  to  pass  then,  to  pay  a  heavy  fine.  She  appeared  one  day 
in  the  church  door  when  the  minister  was  half  through  his  discourse,  and  calling 
his  attention,  bade  him  stop  and  come  and  turn  his  cows  out  of  her  field,  saying, 
"  Gin  yer  fowk  be  as  foo  o'  grace  as  yer  coos  is  o'  my  girs,  they've  eneuch  for 
ae  day  ". 

MONYMUSK,  vide  p.  236. 

Much  of  the  original  house  of  Monymusk  remains,  testifying  to  the  security  which 
was  as  essential  as  comfort  at  the  time  when  the  stones  as  well  as  the  acres  of  the 
Priory  were  saved  from  priestly  abuse  by  Corsindae  turning  them  to  lay  uses.  The 
house  has  the  finest  situation  in  the  Garioch,  possessing  the  best  elements  of  the  pic- 
turesque in  fine  trees,  mountain  prospect,  and  ample  reaches  of  river.  The  rich  woods, 
which,  for  the  two  past  generations,  have  yielded  a  large  revenue,  are  due  to  the  fore- 
sight of  Sir  Archibald  Grant,  Lord  Cullen's  son,  who  planted  fifty  millions  of  trees  in 
the  course  of  his  long  life.  An  extensive  landscape  garden  of  the  French  style,  laid 
out  before  his  time  on  a  romantic  bend  of  the  river  Don,  and  named  Paradise,  has  left  a 
few  magnificent  firs,  unequalled  in  the  North  of  Scotland. 

Pitfichie,  the  ancient  property  of  Henry  of  Monymusk,  and  later  of  the  Chalmers 
family  and  for  long  of  the  Urvies,  was,  before  the  time  now  treated  of,  held  in  joint  pro- 
perty with  Monymusk ;  under  the  Crown  as  superior,  while  Monymusk  was  held  of  the 
Duke  of  Gordon  as  representative  of  the  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews.  Pitfichie  Castle, 
the  pretty  ruins  of  which  are  still  in  good  order,  makes  a  great  addition  to  the  beauty  of 
the  scenery  amidst  which  it  stands. 

The  eldest  daughter  of  the  first  Earl  and  Countess  of  Kintore  became  the  wife  of 
the  young  Laird  of  Monymusk  who  appears  in  the  session  minutes  of  that  jjarish  re- 
commending a  clock  for  the  steeple  and  commissioned  to  bargain  for  one.  Lady  Jean 
and  her  husband,  "William  Forbes,  lived,  at  the  date  of  the  Poll  Book,  in  Pitfichie 
Castle,  which  looked  down  the  Don  upon  the  mansion-house  of  Monymusk,  then  stand- 
ing on  the  broad  river  haugh ;  where  the  Priory  had  been  the  chief  point  in  that  view  to 
the  generations  of  Urries  who  inhabited  some  more  ancient  pile  than  that  now  in  ruins. 
In  1696  the  young  Laird  and  his  Lady  had  a  son,  John,  then  under  sixteen  years  of  age, 
and  three  daughters  under  eight,  and  were  to  have  another,  who  became  Lady  of  Meldrum. 
Young  Monymusk  then  possessed,  it  may  be  in  marriage  provision,  some  lands  in  Port- 
lethen  and  Torry,  near  Aberdeen,  belonging  to  the  family.  A  pretty  ballad  remains  in 
a  fragmentary  state  commemorating  Lady  Jean, — apparently  a  sample  of  the  pleasant 
banter  which  brides  do  not  dislike. 


Badifurrow  and  Woodhill.  405 


Hoo  dee  ye  like  Pitfichie,  Oh,  ye'll  get  wine  an'  wa'nuts, 
Hoo  like  ye  there  to  dwall,  An'  servants  aye  at  yer  call, 

Hoo  dee  ye  like  Pitfichie,  An'  young  Monymusk  to  dawt  ye  ; 
Gentle  Jean  o'  Keithhall  ?  Ye  had  na  that  at  Keithhall. 

Oh,  weel  I  like  Pitfichie,  Oh,  I  had  wine  an'  wa'nuts, 
An'  I  like  there  to  dwall,  An'  servants  aye  at  my  call, 

Oh,  weel  I  like  Pitfichie,  An'  the  bonny  Laird  o'  Fyvie 
But  nae  half  sae  weel's  Keithhall.  To  see  me  at  Keithhall. 

The  sale  of  the  Monymusk  lands,  which  took  place  about  1712,  was  probably  contem- 
plated before  the  death  of  her  father-in-law,  Sir  John  Forbes,  as  she  is  credited  with 
the  humorous  comparison  of  herself  looking  from  Pitfichie  towards  the  principal 
mansion-house  with  Moses  looking  from  Pisgah  to  the  land  of  Canaan.  Her  eldest  son, 
John  Forbes  of  Pitfichie,  died  in  1707,  leaving  a  son,  William,  who  became  the  fifth 
Baronet,  and  died  at  the  early  age  of  36  in  1743.  The  estate  was  sold  by  his  grand- 
father, Sir  William.  Sir  Francis  Grant,  a  Judge  of  Session  by  the  style  of  Lord  Cidlen, 
the  ancestor  of  the  present  proprietor,  bought  it  for  £120,000  Scots. 

Sir  William  Forbes,  fifth  Baronet  of  Monymusk,  like  many  of  his  class,  sought  his 
fortune  in  the  legal  profession.  He  became  an  Edinburgh  advocate  ;  and  was  for  a  short 
time  Civilist  in  King's  College,  Aberdeen.  He  was  buried  in  Keam  churchyard,  the 
sepulchre  of  the  Lords  Forbes.     His  tombstone  describes  him  thus — 

Adorned  with  many  virtues,  stained  with  no  crimes, 
With  the  shattered  remains  of  paternal  possessions,  once 
Ample  and  nourishing,  he  supported  through  life  without 
Ostentation,  but  with  dignity  and  spirit,  that  rank  to 
Which  he  was  by  birth  entitled. 

Sir  William  Forbes's  wife  was  Dame  Christian  Forbes  of  Boyndlie.     Their  son 

succeeded  in  1781  to  the  name  of  Forbes  of  Pitsligo.     The  story  of  her  widowhood, 

written    by    her    son,    Sir    William    Forbes    of    Pitsligo,   the    eminent    banker, — a 

tribute  of  filial  admiration,— was,  after  lying  ninety  years  in  manuscript,  printed  by 

her  descendant,  Bishop  Forbes  of  Brechin.       As  well    as   a   graphic   picture   of   the 

honourable  struggles  of  her  days  of  poverty  and  of  the  success  of  her  son — who  was  able 

to  purchase  all  the  scattered  estates  of  Lord  Pitsligo,  whose  name  he  inherited — the 

writer  gives  an  interesting  picture  of  the  social  life  of  the  upper  classes  in  Edinburgh  in 

the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

BADIFURROW  AND  WOODHILL. 

William  Ferguson,  in  Crichie,  Baillie  in  Inverurie,  acquired  Badifurrow  from 
George  Leslie  and  Patrick,  his  son,  in  1655. 

In  1658  William  Ferguson,  with  consent  of  Janet  Clark,  his  spouse,  disponed  the 
lands  to  William  Ferguson,  their  second  son.  He  was  commissioner  for  Inverurie  in 
the  Parliament  of  1663 — if  it  was  not  his  son,  as  in  1666  he  was  too  infirm  for  walking 
to  church.     When  the  Scottish  Parliament,  after  the  Restoration,  decreed  an  honour- 


406  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garloch. 

able  burial  to  the  remains  of  the  Marquis  of  Montrose  and  Sir  Francis  Hay  of  Delgaty, 
William  Ferguson  of  Badifurrow  was  the  standard-bearer  in  the  funeral  procession. 
In  1674  a  charter  was  obtained  in  favour  of  William  Ferguson,  younger,  in  life- 
rent, and  James  Ferguson,  his  only  lawful  son  by  the  deceased  Jean  Elphinstone,  his 
wife,  in  fee.  A  procuratory  of  resignation  had  been  granted  10th  May  of  that  year  by 
William  Ferguson,  elder.  Janet  Clark,  his  wife,  not  being  named  in  it,  was  probably 
dead.  The  elder  William  was  still  alive  in  1686.  Jean  Elphinstone  was  the  daughter 
of  William  Elphinstone,  in  Milntown  of  Durno,  and  Margaret  Forbes,  his  wife,  and 
sister  to  Sir  James  Elphinstone  of  Logie. 

In  1694,  William  Ferguson  had  a  Great  Seal  Charter  of  Badifurrow  to  himself  and 
Master  James  Ferguson,  his  eldest  lawful  son.  Two  years  later  Lucress  Burnett,  the 
widow  of  William  Ferguson  of  Badifurrow,  appears  in  the  Poll  Book  resident,  as  tenant, 
at  Badifurrow,  with  her  sons  Patrick  and  Walter,  and  her  daughter  Mary. 

In  1699,  14th  Aug.,  Mr.  James  Ferguson,  Advocate,  for  himself  and  others 
having  right,  obtained,  in  the  Court  of  Session,  letters  of  general  charge  against 
Mr.  Robert  Ferguson,  Minister  in  London,  eldest  lawful  son  to  the  deceased  William 
Ferguson  of  Badifurrow,  to  enter  as  heir  in  general  to  his  deceased  father.  On  19th 
June,  1700,  Mr.  Eobert  Ferguson,  not  entering  appearance,  the  Court  confirmed  Mr. 
James  Ferguson  in  his  possession. 

In  1699,  James  Ferguson,  with  consent  of  Ann  Stewart,  his  spouse,  disponed  the 
estate  to  Jean  Forbes,  relict  of  Mr.  Alexander  Forbes,  Minister  of  Fintray,  under  burden 
of  .£1000  Scots,  secured  to  Lucretia  Burnett,  his  father's  widow. 

In  1708,  5th  Aug.,  a  Crown  Charter  was  granted  to  Jean  Forbes,  relict  of  Mr. 
Alexander  Forbes,  and  to  William  Forbes,  their  eldest  son  and  heirs  of  body  ;  whom 
failing,  to  John,  second  son  and  heirs  of  body ;  whom  failing,  to  James,  third  son  and 
heirs  of  body ;  whom  failing,  his  heirs  and  assignees. 

FORBES  OF  BADIFURROW. 

In  the  Poll  Book,  1696,  John  Forbes,  in  Tombeg,  Monymusk,  occurs,  and  Anna 
Lunan,  his  wife,  with  William,  Alexander,  Eobert,  and  Jean,  their  children.  Wdliaiu 
was  William  Forbes  of  Badifurrow,  son-in-law  of  Mrs.  Jean  Forbes. 

John  Forbes  in  Tombeg  was  the  son  of  William  Forbes  to  whom  Spalding  refers  as 
brother  to  Pitnacadle,  son  of  William  Forbes  of  Tolquhon  ;  and  Anna  Lunan  was 
daughter  to  Mr.  Alexander  Lunan,  minister  at  Monymusk,  and  afterwards  at  Kintore. 
Her  mother  was  Jean  Forbes,  eldest  daughter  of  the  first  Baronet  of  Monymusk.  The 
genealogy  of  a  son  James,  born  after  1696  to  these  spouses,  is  locally  interesting. 
James,  the  youngest  brother  of  William  Forbes  of  Badifurrow,  married  13th  August, 
1739,  Jean  Forbes,  daughter  of  James  Forbes,  sometime  in  Mill  of  Drum, 
who  was  the  son  (noted  above)  of  Jean  Forbes  of  Badifurrow,  and  had  children — 
Alexander  in  1741,  and  William  in  1743.     She  died  2nd  April,  1745,  and  on  19th  Dec, 


Forbes  of  Badifurrow,  407 


1745,  the  widower  married  Margaret  Barron,  daughter  to  Robert  Barron,  sometime  in 
Whitehnns.  James  Forbes  was,  before  his  first  marriage,  a  merchant  in  Inverurie,  and 
under  that  designation  had  property  (at  9L-93  High  Street)  disponed  to  him  22nd 
November,  1738,  by  Mr.  William  Murray,  minister  in  Old  Aberdeen,  son  of  the  former 
minister  of  Inverurie.  While  the  festivities  on  the  occasion  of  his  second  marriage 
were  in  progress,  some  shots  came  through  the  windows,  one  hitting  the  leg  of  the  table, 
and  the  wedding  guests  became  aware  that  the  Chevalier's  troops  were  in  Inverurie. 
The  soldiers  entering  soon  cleared  the  board ;  and  the  late-comers,  finding  nothing,  sat 
down  round  a  firkin  of  salt  butter,  and  with  horn  spoons  finished  the  contents  without 
harm.  The  two  little  boys,  Alexander  and  Williain,  were  in  the  meantime  carried  safely 
to  Badifurrow,  in  creels  on  a  pony's  back,  with  the  protection  of  white  cockades  in  their 
bonnets.  The  writer  received  this  tradition  from  Alexander's  grandson,  Mr.  John 
Forbes  Robertson  of  London,  author  of  "  The  Great  Painters  of  Christendom.  "• 
Alexander  Forbes  married  about  1768  Mary  Bairnsfather,  widow  of  John  Mackie, 
burgess  in  Inverurie,  and  by  her  acquired  Meglutton  and  three  Upper  Roods  (at  107 
High  Street).  The  first  he  sold  to  his  nephew,  Anthony  Donald,  in  1817,  and  the  other 
in  ISIS  to  his  half-brother,  Robert.  He  died  about  1822.  He  has  a  representative 
now  in  the  person  of  Alexander  Forbes,  M.D.,  Aberdeen.  The  second  marriage  of 
James  Forbes,  the  Inverurie  merchant,  produced  three  children.  Anne,  born  17th  Sept., 
1751,  became  the  wife  of  James  Donald  Mill  of  Keith-hall,  whose  descendants  are 
numerous.  One  of  his  sons,  William,  was  minister  of  Peterhead,  whose  only  son, 
James,  is  now  minister  of  Keith-hall.  A  son  of  the  merchant  by  his  second  marriage, 
and  his  successor  in  part  to  the  Inverurie  property,  was  Mr.  Robert  Forbes,  a  master  in 
the  Grammar  School  of  Aberdeen,  whose  grandchildren  by  his  son,  Mr.  Robert  Forbes, 
minister  at  Woodside,  near  Aberdeen,  now  possess  the  Inverurie  Roods. 

The  following  amusing  and  illustrative  episode  of  the  "  '45  "  may  be  added  here  to 
the  above  wedding  anecdote,  from  a  letter  addressed  to  Charles  Hacket,  son  of  a  well- 
known  Garioch  Jacobite,  by  Mr.  James  Troup,  whose  father  was  an  Episcopalian  minister 
at  Muchals,  in  Kincardineshire.  It  is  a  song  about  the  battle  of  Inverurie,  in  which  the 
rebels  had  the  victory,  written  by  a  noted  maker  and  vendor  of  ephemeral  ballads, 
Charles  Leslie,  a  natural  son  of  a  Laird  of  Pitcaple — a  thin,  spare  man,  with  red  bushy 
hair,  small  red  eyes,  out-set  chin,  and  a  small  mouth,  who  went  by  the  name  of 
"  niussel-niou'd  Charlie ".  His  likeness  was  painted  by  Mr.  Wellis  about  the  year 
1783,  when  Charlie  was  103  or  105  years  old;  but  he  lived  several  years  after  that, 
though  quite  blind.  Mr  Troup  says  : — "  He  was  a  staunch  Jacobite,  and  feared  nothing. 
He  travelled  the  country,  and  sold  small  story-books,  songs,  dying  speeches,  and  small 
almanacks.  When  he  knew  of  an  execution  in  Edinburgh,  or  Glasgow,  he  attended  them, 
and  was  the  first  commonly  in  Aberdeen  with  the  account  of  their  death,  with  their 
dying  speech.  He  was  well-known  at  all  the  gentlemen's  houses  in  the  several  shires  of 
Aberdeen,  Banff,  Mearns,  and  Forfar,  and  for  the  most  part  was  made  very  welcome  for 


408  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

his  news,  and  songs  of  his  own  composing,  especially  about  the  year  '45.  He  had  a  great 
memory,  and  could  have  given  an  account  of  the  genealogy  of  most  of  the  old  families  on 
Dee  and  Donside,  with  their  connections,  for  several  generations  back.  I  have  seen  him 
often  at  my  father's,  on  his  way  south  or  north,  which  was  about  half-way  between 
Aberdeen  and  Stonehive.  He  always  left  his  news  and  some  comical  sayings,  or  songs, 
memorable  for  some  time  after  him.  He  was  often  put  into  prison  in  Aberdeen  for 
singing  what  they  called  rebellious  songs,  and  examined  : — 'Where  he  got  themV  He 
said,  '  Where  they  were  cheapest.'  '  Who  printed  them  V — '  Nobody.'  '  Why  did  not 
he  sing  other  songs  than  that  rebellious  songs  V — '  Because  they  would  not  buy  them 
from  him.'  He  was  twice  put  up  in  one  week,  viz.,  that  week  that  the  battle  of 
Inverury  was  fought  in  Provost  Morison's  time.  But  on  the  morrow  after  he  was 
liberated  ;  and  in  the  afternoon  he  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  his  friends  take  the  Provost 
up  to  the  Cross  and  force  him  to  drink  Prince  Charlie's  health  in  a  glass  of  wine.  This 
I  had  from  an  old  servant  of  a  gentleman's  family  in  town  who  supplied  Charlie  every 
day  with  victuals,  &c,  when  he  was  put  into  jail,  and  was  a  witness  of  seeing  the  Provost 
drink  the  Prince's  health.  Many  more  were  liberated  at  the  same  time  who  had  been 
put  in  on  suspicion  of  being  disaffected  to  Government,  and  those  that  were  taken  at 
Inverury  were  put  up  in  their  stead.  Charlie  was  no  sooner  down  the  prison  stair  than 
he  began  in  the  throng  with  the  following  as  near  as  I  can  remember  : — 

Come,  countryman,  and  sit  awhile, 

And  listen  to  my  sang,  man  ; 
I'll  gi'e  my  aith  'twill  gar  you  smile, 

And  winna  keep  you  lang,  man. 

How  godless  Whigs  wi'  their  intrigues, 

Together  did  convene,  man, 
At  Inverury,  on  the  Riggs, 

On  Thursday's  afterneen,  man. 

Macleod  cam'  doon  frae  Inverness, 

Wi'  a'  his  clan  an'  mair,  man, 
The  loyal  Gordons  to  suppress, 

An'  tirr  their  hurdies  bare,  man. 

The  second  chieftain  of  Monros 

Cam'  'cross  the  Murray  firth,  man  ; 
But  ye  shall  hear,  before  ye  go, 

The  Gordons  marred  their  mirth,  man, 

Lord  Lewis  for  the  Royal  cause, 

He  fought  wi'  courage  keen,  man, 
His  clan  behaved,  as  in  the  Raws, 

On  Tuesday  afterneen,  man. 

Blelack,  wi'  his  trusty  blade, 

A  heart  as  stout  as  steel,  man, 
He  lion-like  about  him  laid, 

An'  gar'd  the  rebels  reel,  man. 


Forbes  of  Badifurrow.  409 


Brave  Avochy  the  water  wade, 

While  Crighton  pap'd  them  down,  man, 
Monaltrie  and  Stoneywood 

Drove  them  quite  through  the  town,  man. 

The  pickets  bold  the  field  did  grace, 

MacDermond  eek'd  the  slaughter  ; 
Had  you  been  there  to  see  the  race, 

You'd  rived  your  chafts  wi'  laughter. 

The  Angus  hero,  Ferrier, 

The  rebels  did  oppose, -man, 
He  proved  himself  a  warrior 

When  he  was  at  Montrose,  man. 

M'Leod  that  nicht  got  sie  a  fricht, 

Rode  aff  by  break  o'  day,  man, 
He  tint  his  bridle  in  the  fecht, 

Rode  aff  wi'  ane  o'  strae,  man. 

Among  other  things  M'Leod  forgot, 

Was  found  upon  the  field,  man, 
A  guid  claymore  and  tartan  coat, 

An's  luckydady's  shield,  man. 

Chalmers,  too,  the  Logic  scholar, 

Was  there  to  show  his  zeal,  man, 
But  frichtened  wi'  a  hempen  collar, 

His  terrier  phiz  grew  pale,  man. 

There  was  more  than  ten  times  six 

Were  brought  to  Bon- Accord,  man, 
Which  did  perplex  and  greatly  vex 

The  people  o'  the  Lord,  man. 

Sir  James  Kinloch  he  marched  them  on 

To  Perth,  that  stands  on  Tay,  man, 
Where  I  shall  leave  them  to  cry  oh  !  hon  ! 

The  day  they  crossed  the  Spey,  man." 

A  M'Leod  on  that  occasion  showed  such  spirit  as  elicited  the  respect  of  his  foes. 
He  set  his  back  to  the  gable  of  a  house  where  Beverley  Eoad  now  is,  and  kept  a 
number  of  assailants  at  bay  until  a  tailor  of  the  place,  thinking  to  be  popular  with  the 
stronger  party,  mounted  the  roof  of  the  house  at  the  other  end,  and,  crawling  onwards, 
stabbed  M'Leod  from  above ;  for  which  exploit  the  indignant  rebels  shot  him. 

William  Forbes  of  Badifurrow,  the  eldest  of  eleven  children  of  John  Forbes,  in 
Tombeg,  was  born  in  1687,  and  died  at  Badifurrow  in  1740.  He  was  married  to  Anna 
Forbes,  daughter  of  Mr  Alexander  Forbes,  sometime  minister  of  Fintray.  Their 
children  were  John,  born,  1720,  in  Kendal,  and  Jean,  born  in  Badifurrow,  1721. 

On  27th  April,  1721,  Mrs  Jean  Forbes  of  Badifurrow,  sold  Badifurrow  to  her 
son-in-law,  William  Forbes,  Chamberlain  to  the  Earl  of  Kintore,  as  before  noticed. 
In  1742,  after  the  Chamberlain's  decease,  his  son  John  sold  the  estate  to  William 
Johnston,  pewterer  in  Aberdeen,  the  husband  of  Jean  Forbes,  his  sister,  reserving  life- 
rent right  of  his  mother,  Anna  Forbes.  John  emigrated  to  America,  and  was  in  1757 
accidentally  drowned  near  Norfolk,  Virginia. 

52 


410  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Gariocli. 


JOHNSTON  OF    BADIFURROW. 

The  connection  of  the  Johnstons  of  that  Ilk  with  Inverurie  was  renewed  for  a  period 
in  the  persons  of  William  and  James  Johnston  of  Badifurrow,  who  were  cadets  of  that 
race. 

Thomas  Johnston  of  Craig,  eldest  son  of  John  Johnston  of  that  Ilk  and  Caskieben, 
by  his  second  wife,  Katharine  Lundy,  was  himself  twice  married.  By  Mary  Irvine, 
Thomas's  second  wife,  he  had  four  sons.  James,  the  youngest,  was  the  father  of  William 
Johnston  of  Badifurrow. 

William  Johnston,  stannarius  (pewterer)  in  Aberdeen,  and  for  some  time  Convener 
of  the  Incorporated  Trades  of  that  city,  married  in  1741,  Jean,  only  daughter  of  William 
Forbes  of  Badifurrow.  In  1742  he  bought  that  property  from  John,  only  son  and  heir 
of  William  Forbes.  Convener  Johnston  died  in  1764,  aged  65;  his  wife  in  January, 
177S.  To  her  mother's  care  the  two  little  boys,  her  relations,  had  been  sent  from  In- 
verurie in  1745  when  Prince  Charles's  troops  surprised  their  father's  wedding  party. 

James  Johnston,  born  1742,  only  child  of  William  Johnston  and  Jean  Forbes, 
intended  by  his  father  for  the  legal  profession,  abandoned  that  calling,  and  entered  into 
partnership  in  the  firm  known  subsequently  as  Leys,  Mason,  &  Company.  In  1781, 
having  previously  retired  from  business  to  reside  at  Badifurrow,  he  married  Ann, 
daughter  of  Bobert  Farquharson  of  Kinaldie,  of  the  Monaltrie  family.  In  1796  the 
property  was  sold  to  Colonel  Erskine  Fraser.  Mr  Johnston  spent  most  of  his  latter 
years  at  Broadford,  near  Aberdeen,  where  his  daughter  Jane,  last  survivor  of  his  children, 
died  in  1855.  He  was  for  many  years  one  of  the  Surveyors  of  Taxes  in  Aberdeen,  and 
died  there  in  1819.   After  his  time,  a  tenant — a  weaver — occupied  the  house  of  Badifurrow. 

Colonel  Erskine  Fraser  named  the  property  WoodhiU.  He  died  in  1804,  and  in  1808 
Hugh  Gordon,  the  grandfather  of  the  present  proprietor,  bought  the  estate  and  named  it 
Manar,  in  commemoration  of  his  residence  near  the  Straits  of  Manar,  where  he  had 
acquired  a  fortune.  James  Gordon  of  Manar — a  name  well-known  for  over  thirty  years 
in  Aberdeenshire — succeeded  his  father,  and  was  in  1874  succeeded  by  his  son,  Henry 
Gordon  of  Manar.     Manar  House  was  built  by  Mr.  Hugh  Gordon. 

WARTH1LL.     P.  223. 

The  Leslies  of  Warthill,  now  representatives  in  the  Garioeh  of  the  male  line  of 
the  race  of  Bartolf,  were,  in  the  time  of  the  Revolution  Settlement,  represented  at 
home  by  a  domestic  laird,  aged  about  32;  but  abroad  by  a  younger  brother,  whose 
fortunes  were  as  picturesque,  and  likewise  as  creditable  to  his  talents  and  worth,  as 
were  those  of  his  relatives,  the  Counts  Leslie. 

Their  grandfather,  the  fourth  Laird,  had  in  1660  resigned  the  estate  to  his  eldest 
son,  their  father,  but  survived  him  three  years,  and  died  in  1679,  aged  95,  or,  according 
to  other  accounts,  105.     His  family,  born  of  the  daughter  of  the  minister  of  Bayne, 


Wurthill.  411 


Walter  Abercrornby,  were  themselves  much  connected  with  the  church;  one  of  them 
marrying  Isabella  Logie,  daughter  of  a  succeeding  minister  of  Bayne;  another  becoming 
minister  of  Crail,  in  Fife ;  while  a  son  and  daughter  of  another  son  chose  similar 
fortunes.  The  eldest  son,  "William,  married  Anne  Elphinstone,  daughter  of  James 
Elphinstone  of  Glack,  and  by  her  had  four  sons — Alexander,  born  1656,  who  succeeded 
his  grandfather  as  Laird  ;  William,  born  1657,  now  to  be  referred  to ;  James,  a  merchant 
in  Aberdeen ;  and  John,  a  writer  to  the  signet  in  Edinburgh,  who  joined  the  army  of 
King  James  at  the  Revolution,  and  had  to  take  refuge  in  France,  and  was  never  heard 
of  again. 

William,  the  second  brother,  had  a  singular  career.  From  being  a  Garioch  Dominie 
he  became  a  Prince  Bishop  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire.  He  was  born  in  1657,  and  after 
classical  instruction  in  the  School  of  Rayne,  entered  the  University  of  Aberdeen,  perhaps 
at  the  early  age  of  11,  as  iu  1668  a  Gulielmus  Leslmus  Gareochensls  appears  there.  He 
was  schoolmaster  of  Chapel  of  Garioch  for  some  years;  during  which  it  is  likely  he  was 
much  in  the  society  of  his  relative,  Alexander  Leslie  of  Tullos,  the  baron  of  Bahiuhain 
of  the  time,  a  recent  convert  to  the  old  faith  of  his  family.  William  Leslie  is  said  to 
have  been  won  to  Roman  Catholicism  by  him,' and  he  went  in  1684  to  study  in  the 
University  of  Padua,  where  he  adopted  the  Romish  faith,  and  took  holy  orders.  He 
was  so  greatly  noted  for  his  learning,  that  Cardinal  Barbarigo  appointed  him  Professor 
of  Theology  in  that  University.  After  the  death  of  Count  James  Leslie,  he  was 
much  with  Count  James  Earnest,  son  of  Patrick  Leslie,  in  his  German  estates  in 
Bohemia,  and  aided  him  in  the  management  and  arrangement  of  his  affairs.  By  the 
influence  of  these  powerful  relatives,  he  was  made  Bishop  of  Waitzen  in  1716,  and, 
two  years  later,  of  Laybach  in  Styria,  and  became  Metropolitan  of  Carniola,  and  a 
Prince  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire.  A  letter  to  his  brother,  sent  home  in  1725,  with  a 
portrait  of  himself,  and  his  Padua  diploma,  is  worth  recording.  He  says  : — "  You  may 
direct  to  me — '  To  the  Bishop  of  Laybach,  Metropolitan  of  Carniola,  betwixt  Vienna 
and  Venice,  Privy  Councillor  to  His  Imperial  Majesty  '.  The  title  of  Eight  Reverend 
here  is  due  to  others  who  are  inferior  to  Bishop  ;  and  albeit  I  be  Prince  of  the  Empire, 
which  the  Emperor  himself,  and  all  the  other  Princes  in  Germany  allow  me,  who  enjoy 
their  courtesy,  of  their  grace,  yet  I  am  nowise  desirous  of  those  titles  in  a  foreign  kingdom, 
much  less  in  the  Land  of  Cakes.  I  judge  nevertheless  fitting  that  the  graces  and  honours 
which  His  Majesty  has  bestowed  on  me  be  known  to  my  best  friends  and  nearest 
relations,  as  a  badge  of  the  esteem  of  the  greatest  of  Monarchs,  and  as  an  evidence  of 
my  comportment  and  behaviour,  whereby  I  have  not  degenerated  from  my  birth  and 
pedigree."     William  Leslie  died  in  1727. 

The  succession  of  the  eldest  son  of  the  first  Leslie  of  Wartle  became  extinct  in  the 
ninth  degree,  and  the  representative  of  the  second  son  of  the  first  laird,  and  himself  laird 
of  Little  Folia,  came  into  the  line  of  Wartle.  He  was  William  Leslie,  father  of  the 
present  proprietor,  and  was  a  distinguished  man  after  the  manner  of  later  times,  being 


412  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

a  leading  agriculturist  in  the  Garioch.  He  took  a  considerable  part  in  the  business  of 
the  County.  His  eldest  son,  the  present  laird  of  Wartle,  was  member  of  Parliament 
for  Aberdeenshire  from  1860  to  1866.  He  and  all  his  brothers  entered  into  mercantile 
life  in  the  East. 

Meikle  "Warthill  (p.  330),  into  which  the  Elphinstones  came  in  1616,  was  in  that 
family  untd  after  the  Revolution  settlement.     Their  genealogy  is  in  brief  as  follows  : — 

The  Honourable  John  Elphinstone,  first  of  "Warthdl,  son  of  Lord  Elphinstone, 
married  Barbara  Gordon  of  Pitlurg,  and  died  in  his  father's  lifetime.     His  son, 

James  Elphinstone,  "  oye  of  Alexander,  Lord  Elphinstone,"  and  "  son  of  umquhile 
John  Elphinstone  of  "Wartle,"  had  a  charter  along  with  his  grandfather  in  1636  of  "the 
chapel  lands  of  St.  Mary  of  Garioch,  in  Meikle  "Wartle,"  from  Sir  John  Leslie  of  Wardess, 
and  Sir  A  Gordo'n  of  Cluny.  They  appear  previously  in  1625  to  have  had  a  charter  of 
the  teind  shares  of  Meikle  Warthdl  from  the  Parson  of  Eayne. 

In  1665,  Alexander  Elphinstone  had  a  precept  of  dare  constat  by  the  Earl  of  Mar, 
as  heir  to  his  brother  James. 

James  Elphinstone,  son  of  Alexander,  had  a  disposition  of  Meikle  Warthill  from  his 
father  in  1696,  and  was  stdl  living  in  1738.  He  had  a  sister  Katharine,  who  had  three 
ploughs  of  land  on  the  sunnyside  of  Meikle  Warthill.  She  married  John  Gardine  of 
Bellamore,  their  contract  of  marriage  being  dated  at  Braelyne  of  Glentaner,  1740.  The 
famdy  were  at  that  time  Roman  Catholic.  James  married  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Seton  at 
Aberdeen  in  1698,  and,  on  her  death,  a  daughter  of  John  Gordon  of  Rothiemay,  by 
Elizabeth  Barclay,  heiress  of  Towie.  He  seems  to  have  had  no  male  heir,  and  the  estate 
was  sold,  probably  by  him,  to  the  Baronet  of  Logie-Elphinstone. 

GLACK.     P.  63. 

The  house  of  Glack — a  broad  and  high  many-windowed  mansion,  now  hidden 
behind  an  imposing  edifice  of  the  Scotch  baronial  style,  finished  in  1876 — was  built  in 
1723.  The  Elphinstones,  who  had  possessed  the  old  estate  from  1499,  were  to  continue 
proprietors  until  1787.  They  had,  during  the  troubled  period  of  the  17th  century,  been 
of  the  Royalist  party  in  politics,  but  did  not  come  into  prominent  notice.  James  was  a 
favourite  name  for  sons  in  the  Glack  family,  and  Marjorie  for  daughters,  two  of  which 
name — the  wives  of  Walter  Innes  of  Ardtannies,  and  of  Mr.  James  Mdl,  minister  of 
Inverurie — were  contemporaries.  The  former  was  probably  a  daughter  of  James  Elphin- 
stone who  married,  in  1559,  Marjorie  Leslie  of  Pitcaple.  Marjorie  Elphinstone,  the  miller's 
widow,  died  in  1622.  Her  brother  James,  infeft  in  Glack  in  1586,  was,  it  is  likely,  the 
father  of  Marjorie,  wife  of  Mr.  James  Mill.  Robert  Elphinstone  of  Glack  is  mentioned 
in  Colonel  Leslie's  "  Records  of  the  Family  of  Leslie,"  as  appearing  in  a  lawsuit  at  the 
instance  of  the  Earl  of  Rothes  in  1620.  James  Elphinstone  of  Glack,  by  marriage 
contract   13th   August,   1641,    wedded  Jean  Leslie,  daughter  of   the   11th   baron   of 


Logie-Elphinstone.  413 


Bulquhain ;  Ms  own  sister,  Jean,  about  the  same  time  marrying  Jean  Leslie's  brother, 
Alexander,  afterwards  14th  baron  of  Balquhain. 

James  Elphinstone  of  Glack,  who  iii  1669  represented  the  Burgh  of  Inverurie  in 
the  Scottish  Parliament,  was.  in  1671,  along  with  his  son  John,  admitted  a  burgess  of 
Inverurie  ;  another  son,  Alexander,  getting  the  same  honour  in  Aberdeen  in  1681.  The 
Laird  in  1688  was  a  subscriber  towards  the  new  building  at  King's  College.  Infeft  in 
Glack  in  1670,  he  had  settled  a  portion  of  it  in  1676  upon  his  son  John,  who  succeeded 
to  the  whole  before  1696. 

The  Poll  Book  (1696)  records  John  Elphinstone  of  Glack,  and  his  wife,  Anna 
Irvine,  with  Mr.  "William  and  Patrick,  his  children.  He  was  married  to  Margaret 
Forbes  in  1691,  but  his  sons  must  have  been  of  an  earlier  marriage. 

His  eldest  son,  John  Elphinstone,  was  served  heir  to  his  father  2nd  October,  1734. 
He  married,  before  1741,  Jean,  daughter  of  Alexander  Achyndachy  of  that  ilk,  long 
Chamberlain  of  Fyvie,  and  he  died  at  Glack  in  1758. 

Alexander  Elphinstone,  their  son,  was  admitted  an  Edinburgh  advocate,  1764.  In 
1766  he  represented  the  burgh  of  Kintore  in  the  General  Assembly,  and  he  appears  in 
1777  as  Sheriff-Depute  of  Aberdeen.  He  had  got  into  pecuniary  difficulties,  and  the 
estate  was  sold  by  his  trustees  in  1795  to  the  family  now  possessing  it.  The  Eev.  Colin 
Mackenzie,  minister  of  Fodderty,  in  Ross-shire,  became  the  proprietor.  His  son, 
Eoderick  Mackenzie,  resided  in  Glack,  and  had  a  numerous  family,  of  whom  only  one 
now  survives,  Lady  Leith  of  Westhall,  widow  of  Sir  Alexander  Leith  of  Freeiield. 
John  Mackenzie,  his  son  and  successor  on  the  property,  died  in  1877  without  issue. 
The  estate  is  now  possessed  by  his  cousin,  John  Mackenzie,  son  of  Donald  Mackenzie, 
the  second  son  of  the  purchaser. 

LOGIE-ELPHINSTONE. 

In  the  "  View  of  the  Diocese  of  Aberdeen,"  it  is  noted  that  about  1732  Logie  was 

"  a  neat  little  house  built  by  the  late   Mr.   James  Elphinstone  of  Logie  (Writer  to  the 

Signet),  grandson  to  Elphinstone  of  Glack.     These  lauds  were  formerly  possessed  by 

the  Forbeses  of  Logie  (the  first  of  whom  was  Henry  Forbes  of  Logie,  son  to  Sir  John, 

second  laird  of  Tolquhon),  but  their  house  is  now  ruined."     That  connection  carries 

the  name  of  the  property  back  to  about  1450.     The  house  (built  before  1722,  when 

Sir  James   died)    still   remains,    with  additions  preserving   a  comfortable  home-look, 

upon  the  sheltered  river  terrace,  within  sound  of  the  occasionally  demonstrative  streams 

of  the  Garioch,  which  come  together  in  a  deep  wooded  hollow  near  it.     According  to 

William  Thorn,  the  Inverurie  poet — 

Ury  wi'  its  murmurs  sweet, 
Gadie  wi'  its  waters  fleet, 
They  hae  trystit  aye  to  meet 
Amang  the  woods  o'  Logy. 

There  had  been  an  earlier  Elphinstone  of   Logie;  as  we  find  in  1658   "James 


414  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Elphinstone,  Eques  de  Logie,"  was  matriculated  in  King's  College,  Aberdeen,  but  no 
connection  with  the  present  family  Las  been  traced. 

The  grandfather  of  Mr.,  afterwards  Sir  James,  Elphinstone,  the  first  of  Logie,  was 
James  Elphinstone  of  Glack,  who  in  1630  was  one  of  Mr.  James  Mill  of  Inverurie's 
christening  witnesses,  Mrs.  Mill  having  been  apparently  his  sister.  He  was  twice  married, 
first  to  Elizabeth  Wood,  of  Bonnyton,  and  second,  in  1641,  to  Jane  Leslie  of  Balquhain. 
His  second  son  William  was  the  father  of  James  of  Logie,  and  of  Jean,  the  first  wife  of 
William  Ferguson  of  Badifurrow.  His  wife's  name  was  Margaret  Forbes,  and  they 
lived  at  Milntown  of  Durno.     The  mills  were  then  frequently  held  by  younger  sons. 

James  Elphinstone,  grandson  of  James  of  Glack,  acquired  Logie  Durno  and  other 
lands  about  1670.  In  1696  he  was  one  of  the  Commissaries  of  Edinburgh.  He  seems  to 
have  been  admitted  Writer  to  the  Signet  in  August,  1671.  In  1696  he  was  a  subscriber 
to  the  extent  of  £1000  sterling  in  the  luckless  Darien  scheme,  a  misfortune  from  which 
Scotchmen  were  widely  saved  by  lack  of  money  probably  rather  than  by  prudence.  He 
represented  Aberdeenshire  in  Parliament,  from  1693  to  1702  ;  and  was  created  a  Baronet 
on  2nd  December,  1701,  with  remainder  to  his  heirs  male.  In  1720,  he  appears  as  a 
Commissioner  of  the  Signet  in  a  printed  list  of  the  Writers  living  at  that  date,  but  is 
noted  in  an  old  handwriting  on  the  margin  of  that  document  as  having  died  in  March, 
1722.  He  married  Cecilia,  daughter  of  John  Denholm  of  Muirhouse  (son  of  West- 
shield),  and  had,  besides  his  son  and  heir,  a  daughter,  married  to  Bobert  Forbes,  advocate 
in  Edinburgh,  afterwards  Sir  Robert  Forbes  of  Learney,  second  son  of  Sir  John  Forbes, 
second  baronet  of  Craigievar. 

Sir  John  Elpbinstone,  who  succeeded  his  father  in  1722,  was,  on  6th  July,  1716, 
as  John  Elphinstone,  junior  of  Logie,  appointed  a  Commissioner  to  visit  the  University 
of  Aberdeen,  along  with  the  Earls  of  Bothes  and  Buchan,  Forbes  of  Echt,  Forbes  of 
Culloden,  and  some  others  ;  he  being  then  Sheriff  of  Aberdeen.  By  his  wife,  Mary 
Elliot  of  Minto,  he  left,  besides  two  sons,  seven  daughters,  five  of  whom  married,  two 
leaving  issue,  viz.  : — Cecilia,  wife  of  James  Balfour  of  Pilrig,  and  Elizabeth,  wife  of 
Henry  Crawford  of  Monorgan.     The  sons  James  and  John  both  succeeded. 

Sir  James  Elphinstone,  when  James  Elphinstone  younger  of  Logie,  was,  in  1724, 
admitted  an  honorary  burgess  of  Aberdeen.  He  married  Jean  Rattray,  daughter  of  Dr. 
Thomas  Rattray  of  that  Ilk  and  Craighall,  Perthshire,  who,  after  his  decease,  married 
Colonel  George  Mure,  brother  of  the  laird  of  Caldwell.  Sir  James  was,  it  is  believed, 
a  member  of  the  Faculty  of  Advocates.  He  died  in  1739,  and  was  succeeded  by  Sir 
John  Elphinstone,  his  brother,  an  officer  in  the  army,  who  died  in  1743  a  bachelor,  at 
the  age  of  26.     The  baronetage  became  extinct  by  his  death. 

Mary  Elphinstone,  of  Logie-Elphinstone,  daughter  of  Sir  James,  married,  in  July 
1754,  General  Robert  Dalrymple  Horn  of  Horn,  son  of  Hew  Dalrymple,  Lord 
Drummore  of  the  Court  of  Session.  He  was  an  officer  of  long  and  distinguished  service 
(50    years),    which   commenced  actively    in  the   expedition    to    Carthagena,  when   he 


WesthdU.  415 


embarked  as  aide-de-camp  to  his  relative,  Lord  Catlicart.  Smollet,  an  assistant  surgeon 
in  the  expedition,  describes  it  in  "  Eoderick  Random  ".  He  was  taken  prisoner  at 
Fontenoy.  The  attainted  Lord  Pitsligo  had  one  of  his  many  hiding  places  on  the 
heights  of  Benachie,  opposite  Logie,  whence  he  was  able  sometimes  to  obtain  the 
relief  of  an  evening  in  Logie  with  General  Horn  ;  whose  lady  once  remarking  upon 
the  hard  drinking  into  which  the  two  friends  would  fall  on  a  safe  night,  was 
answered  by  the  humorous  refugee  that  '•  if  she  was  sitten  upon  a  cauld 
bare  stane  up  in  Benachie,  wi'  naething  but  burn  water,  she  micht  ca'  that  hard 
drinkin' ". 

The  present  proprietor  of  Logie  is  the  General's  grandson,  Sir  James  Dalrymple 
Horn  Elphinstone. 

WESTHALL.    P.  101. 

Westhall,  now  a  lovely  braeside  where  an  ample  mansion-house  stands  amidst 
fine  trees  picturesquely  distributed,  belonged  in  1570  to  Mr.  John  Abercromby,  minister 
of  Oyne  and  Premnay,  son  of  the  laird  of  Pitmedden.  In  1589,  Walter  Gordon  of 
Westhall  is  mentioned,  and  Mr.  Walter  Gordon  in  1597.  In  1649-50,  James  Gordon 
of  Westhall  was  Collector  of  Cess.  In  1671,  Mr.  John  Campbell  of  Westhall  had  a 
son,  James  Hew  Campbell,  buried  at  Oyne,  after  sermon  on  Sunday,  28th  January. 

The  lands  of  Westhall,  Eyehill,  Pitmedden,  Ardoyne,  Old  Rayne,  Pitmachie,  and 
others,  were  acquired  by  Mr.  James  Horn,  vicar  of  Elgin  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II., 
those  of  Westhall  and  Pitmedden  being  purchased  from  Sir  Alexander  Abercromby  of 
Birkenbog  in  1681. 

Mr.  James  Horn,  who  appears  repeatedly  from  the  year  1675  preaching  at 
Oyne,  married  Isobel  Leslie  of  Pitcaple,  and  had  a  son,  John,  who  became  a  lawyer. 

Mr.  John  Horn  married  the  Hon.  Anne  Arbuthnot,  daughter  of  Robert,  second 
Viscount  Arbuthnot.  He  had  a  charter  from  James  II.  of  the  above-mentioned  lands, 
with  the  barony  of  Horn,  and  had  a  daughter,  an  only  child. 

Anne  Horn  of  Westhall  married  Hew  Dalrymple  of  Drummore,  born  30th  Nov., 
1690,  sixth  son  of  Sir  Hew  Dalrymple  of  North  Berwick,  who  was  the  third  son  of 
President  Dalrymple,  first  Viscount  Stair.  Hew  Dalrymple,  the  husband  of  Ann  Horn, 
was  a  Judge  of  Session  by  the  title  of  Lord  Drummore,  and  their  second  son,  David 
Dalrymple,  held  the  same  rank,  with  the  designation  of  Lord  Westhall. 

Robert  Dalrymple  Horn,  the  eldest  son,  who  succeeded  his  mother,  was  born  in  1718, 
and  was  known  in  the  Garioch  as  General  Horn.  He  married,  in  1754,  Mary  Elphin- 
stone of  Logie,  by  which  union  the  estates  were  brought  together,  their  successors 
taking  the  name  of  Dalrymple  Horn  Elphinstone. 

Westhall  was  lost  to  the  family  some  years  ago,  and  is  now  divided  into  several 
properties,  that  which  contains  the  mansion  house  having  been  bought  by  Lady  Leith, 
widow  of  General  Sir  Alexander  Leith  of  Freefield. 


416  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 


CASTLE  FKASER. 

Prominent  among  the  remains  of  the  period  of  the  Troubles,  the  House  of 
Muchalls  or  Castle  Fraser,  still  occupied,  is  one  of  the  finest  specimens  of  the  Flemish 
style  in  Scotland.  It  was  approached  in  ancient  times  from  the  north,  where  an  avenue 
of  sycamores  thirty  yards  wide  remains  in  the  field.  The  modern  parts  of  the  building 
exhibit  the  dates  1617,  1618.  The  highest  tower  bears  the  Eoyal  Arms  of  Scotland 
and  the  date  1576;  but  the  oldest  part,  a  square  tower,  probably  belongs  to  the 
fifteenth  century.  The  Lord  Fraser  of  this  narrative  (p.  264), — second  Lord — succeeded 
in  1637.  Charles,  the  fourth  Lord  Fraser,  was  succeeded  in  his  estates  by  William  Fraser 
of  Inverallochy,  who  died  in  1720,  the  title  becoming  dormant.  William  Fraser  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son  Charles,  who  lived  to  a  great  age,  and  was  the  father  of  three  sons,  the 
eldest  of  whom,  Charles,  fell  at  Culloden,  where  he  commanded  the  Frasers  ;  the  second, 
Simon,  was  killed  in  America,  and  William,  the  youngest,  died  without  issue.  The 
Lovat  Estates  had  been  entailed  upon  Inverallochy  in  the  first  place  ;  and,  in  consequence 
of  the  males  of  that  house  dying  without  issue,  went  to  the  next  heirs  of  tailzie,  the 
Frasers  of  Strichen. 

The  Inverallochy  and  Castle  Fraser  properties  devolved  on  the  two  sisters  of  the  three 
brothers  above-named.  By  arrangement  Miss  Eliza  Fraser  got  Castle  Fraser,  to  which, 
after  her  death,  in  1814,  Colonel  Charles  Fraser  of  Inverallochy  succeeded.  He  was 
grandson  and  heir  of  Eliza  Fraser's  sister  Martha,  who  had  married  Colin  Mackenzie  of 
Kilcoy.  Colonel  Fraser  was  for  some  years  M.P.  for  Ross-shire.  He  died  in  1871, 
leaving  a  son  and  daughter.  Colonel  Frederick  Mackenzie  Fraser  is  now  proprietor  of 
Castle  Fraser  and  Inverallochy. 

BALBITHAN.     P.  232. 

Balbitb.an  House,  the  work  of  a  later  Chalmers  of  Balbithan,  was  built  in  partial 
imitation  of  the  baronial  halls  of  early  times,  but  with  improvements  by  a  subsequent 
proprietor,  William  Forbes  of  Skellater.  An  earlier  house  of  Balbithan  stood  at  Old 
Balbithan  on  a  rising  ground  above  the  Don,  opposite  the  Burgh  of  Kintore.  The 
proximity  may  have  given  rise  to  quarrels  between  the  baronial  and  burghal  neighbours, 
so  as  to  induce  the  selection  of  another  site  for  the  new  house  in  the  singular  position  it 
occupies, — in  the  bottom  of  a  hollow  where  it  is  invisible,  even  at  a  short  distance. 
The  traditional  reason  for  the  removal  is  that  a  shot  from  the  Earl  Marischal's  castle  of 
Hall-forest  once  reached  the  walls  of  Balbithan. 

In  1666,  James  Chalmers  of  Balbithan  appears  as  agent  for  the  town  of  Inverurie, 
paying  cess.  In  1696,  James  Balfour,  merchant  in  Edinburgh,  paid  poll  tax  for  the 
lands  of  Balbithan,  and  James  Chalmers  is  entered  as  lately  of  Balbithan.  In  1699, 
William  Hay  of  Balbithan  paid  cess   for  the  town  of  Inverurie,  and  in  1707,  Barbara 


Inveramsay,  Pitcaple,  and  ISewplace.  '  417 

Menzies  appears  as  his  relict  and  executrix.  The  property  descended  by  entad  from  the 
Forbeses  of  Skellater  to  Mr.  Benjamin  Abernethy  Gordon,  who  sold  it  to  the  Earl  of 
Kintore. 

INVERAMSAY.     P.  63. 

Sir  Robert  Erskine's  property  of  Inveramsay  appears  in  local  records  from  the 
date  1357,  when  Thomas,  Earl  of  Mar,  gave  the  great  Chancellor  a  charter  of  it.  A  very 
old  house  of  the  many-windowed  order,  now  a  farmhouse,  was,  after  the  "  forty-five," 
inhabited  by  a  well-known  Garioch  Jacobite,  named  Charles  Hacket.  In  his  time  it  was 
called  Peelwa's — a  name  which  indicates  that  it  occupied  the  place  of  an  ancient  peel  or 
stronghold.  Smith  of  Inveramsay,  a  Jacobite,  is  recorded,  who  may  have  been  the 
builder.  He  possessed  Inveramsay  and  Drimmies  in  175-1.  The  heroine  of  the  ballad 
"  Mill  o'  Tif tie's  Annie"  has  been  supposed  to  have  belonged  to  that  family  of  Smith. 

PITCAPLE. 
The  Pitcaple  Castle  of  the  present  day  is  the  historical  budding  renovated  about 
1830  under  the  care  of  an  Edinburgh  Architect,  Mr.  Burns.  Its  situation  is  excellent 
viewed  from  across  the  Ury,  having  Bcnachie  in  the  background,  rising  over  the  wooded 
haugh  and  braes.  Pitcaple  at  the  Bevolution  belonged  to  the  father  of  the  last  Laird  of 
the  Leslie  family.  The  last  Laird,  an  .officer  in  the  army,  died  in  1757,  when  the  property 
fell  to  his  sister,  who  married  John  Lumsden,  Professor  of  Divinity  in  King's  College, 
Aberdeen  ;  whose  two  daughters  sold  Pitcaple  to  Henry  Lumsden,  grandfather  of  the 
present  proprietor. 

NEWPLACE. 

Newplace,  a  small  property  in  the  parish  of  Monkegy,  which  now  belongs  to  the 
Synod  of  Aberdeen,  for  behoof  of  indigent  children  of  ministers,  was  the  only  part  of 
the  Barony  of  Caskieben  in  the  Garioch  which  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Johnston 
family  after  the  first  Sir  George  had  wadset  his  lands  to  Alexander  Jaffray  of  Kingwells. 
Newplace  had  been  granted  in  provision  to  John,  that  baronet's  second  son,  whose  son, 
also  named  John,  a  merchant  in  Aberdeen,  succeeded  to  the  baronetcy  after  the  tragic 
end  of  Sir  John  Johnston,  the  last  representative  of  Sir  George's  eldest  son,  in  1690. 
He  became  by  that  succession  Sir  John  Johnston,  fourth  baronet  of  Caskieben,  and 
having  obtained  a  Crown  charter  of  Craig  of  Dyce  in  1700,  he  gave  to  the  western 
portion  of  it  the  name  of  the  ancient  family  estate  (Caskieben).  He  wedded,  in  1683, 
Janet  Mitchell,  sister  of  Provost  Thomas  Mitchell  of  Aberdeen,  the  first  laird  of 
Thaiuston  after  that  estate  was  lost  by  the  ToLpahon  family. 

In  1707  Sir  John  Johnston  disponed  Newplace  to  his  son-indaw,  Andrew  Burnet 
of  Elrick,  whose  son  and  heir,  Baillie  John  Burnet  of  Aberdeen,  sold  it  in  1739  to  the 
Synod  of  Aberdeen ;  among  the  clerical  members  of  that  body  the  purchase  price  was 

53 


418  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

raised  by  contribution,  in  consideration  of  which  a  prior  claim  to  relief  from  the  fund 
provided  by  the  rents  of  Newplace  is  allowed  to  descendants  of  the  original  subscribers. 

PITTODRIE.     P.  63. 

The  modern  bouse  of  Pittodrie  is  a  fine  mountain  chateau,  placed  amidst  avenues 
of  marvellous  hollies,  on  the  southern  slope  of  one  of  the  high  levels  of  the  most 
accessible  shoulder  of  Benachie,  near  the  site  of  Dame  Christian  Bruce's  Chapel  of  the 
Blessed  Virgin  of  the  Garioch.  The  spot  was  not  inhabited  in  all  likelihood  until  long 
after  the  time  of  the  first  historical  Erskiue  of  the  Garioch,  the  Scottish  king-maker,  Sir 
Robert  Erskine.  Pittodrie  was  one  of  his  numerous  possessions  in  the  Garioch  in  1357, 
but  for  long  after  the  Garioch  lands  of  the  family  had  come  into  the  hands  of  the 
collateral  branch  which  now  holds  them,  Balhaggardy  gave  title  to  the  lairds;  and 
Erskine  of  Pittodrie  occurs  as  a  familiar  designation  only  in  the  seventeenth  century. 

Like  all  of  the  name  of  Erskine,  the  Pittodrie  family  took  the  side  of  the 
Covenant,  but  do  not  appear  in  any  prominent  position  in  the  Civil  War.  They  seem 
to  have  lived  quietly  as  local  proprietors. 

In  1G04,  John  Erskine,  junior,  gave  a  charter  of  Conglass,  Drumdurnocb,  and 
Dorlaithen  to  his  wife,  Marjorie  Gordon,  in  security,  following  a  marriage  contract  made 
with  consent  of  John  Erskine,  his  father,  and  the  deceased  John  Gordon  of  Cluny.  In 
1609,  John  Erskine  of  Balhaggardy  obtained  sasine  on  the  lands  of  Ward  of  Kinmundy, 
to  be  held  of  James  Harvie,  eldest  son  of  Andrew  Harvie  of  Danestone.  In  1615,  in  a 
sasine  obtained  by  Mr.  Alexander  Jaffrey  of  Kingswells  on  the  Chalmerley  Croft, 
pertaining  to  the  Chaplainry  of  Conglass,  Thomas  Erskine  of  Balhaggardy,  patron, 
consents.  In  the  same  year  Thomas  Erskine,  fiar  of  Balhaggardy,  as  procurator  for 
John  Erskine  of  Balhaggardy,  obtained  sasine  in  the  same  for  John  Erskine,  proceeding 
upon  charter  by  Alexander  Jaffrey.  In  1625,  John  Erskine  of  Balhaggardy  resigned 
some  lands  in  Inverurie.  Either  bis  sister  or  aunt  seems  to  have  been  the  wife  of  the 
elder  Alexander  Jaffray.  One  of  his  sons,  named  William,  was  accidentally  killed  in  the 
churchyard  of  St.  Nicholas  in  June,  1639,  at  the  funeral  of  John  Seton  of  Pitmedden, 
laird  of  Bourtie. 

The  family  came,  in  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  to  be  represented  by  an 
heiress.  She  married  Colonel  Henry  Knight ;  and  their  descendants  now  inherit 
Pittodrie,  bearing  the  name  of  Knight  Erskine. 

BOURTIE.  Pp.  64,  229. 
The  Seton  family,  who  sold  the  lands  of  Auld  Bourtie  in  1657,  after  some  sixty 
years'  possession,  was,  in  1688,  still  represented,  at  Blair,  by  Margaret  and  Elizabeth 
Seton,  daughters  and  co-heiresses,  it  is  likely,  of  the  physician  who  was  the  object  of 
such  solicitude,  along  with  certain  seminary  priests,  to  the  Church  a  generation  before. 
Part   of   the   property,    however — viz.,    Blockhouse   and   the    Lady    Croft — had   been 


Barra.  419 

alienated;  for,  in  1688,  "William  Panton,  W.S.,  was  served  heir  to  his  father,  James,  in 
that  possession.  The  sisters  were  "both  alive  in  1G96,  but  before  1724  Blair  had  gone,  by 
the  marriage  of  the  heiress,  to  a  gentleman  of  the  surname  of  Stewart.  The  entire 
property  belonged  in  1761  to  Mr.  Leith,  whose  heirs  retained  it  down  to  1877,  when  it 
was  sold. 

The  ownership  of  the  lands  of  Auld  Bourtie,  sold  in  1598  to  James  Seton,  portioner 
of  Barra,  by  Patrick  Barclay  of  Towie,  whose  ancestors  held  them  from  the  time  of  the 
Goblauch,  passed  through  two  additional  names  in  the  seventeenth  century.  James 
Seton  of  Pitmedden,  on  4th  December,  1657,  disponed  them  to  Mr.  James  Eeid, 
advocate  in  Aberdeen,  and  Isabella  Hay,  his  wife,  then  of  Barra — Lord  Protector 
Cromwell  confirming  the  Disposition.  On  18th  February,  1663,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Reid 
conveyed  the  said  lands  of  Auld  Bourtie  and  Hillbrae  to  John  Anderson,  skipper, 
burgess  of  Aberdeen,  resident  in  Torrie,  in  life  rent,  and  to  his  sons,  Alexander  and 
John  Anderson,  in  fee. 

Skipper  Anderson's  name  is  prominent  in  the  notes  of  Commissary-Clerk  Spalding. 
In  the  time  of  the  Troubles  the  leaders  of  both  parties  seem  to  have  frequently  made  im- 
portant use  of  his  house,  which,  being  across  the  Dee,  may  have  been  considered  a  place  of 
securhVy  His  grandson,  Patrick  Anderson,  had  to  wife  Elizabeth  Ogilvie,  a  lady  of 
famous  lineage,  she  being  the  great-granddaughter  of  Mrs.  Ogilvy  of  Barras  who 
planned  the  saving  of  the  crown  jewels  from  the  hands  of  Cromwell's  general  at 
Dunnottar  in  1552.  Patrick  Anderson  built  the  present  House  of  Bourtie,  upon  the 
front  of  which  are  his  initials  and  those  of  his  wife,  with  the  date  1754.  The  house 
is  in  good  preservation,  amidst  fine  trees,  and  is  of  the  comfortable  style  of  panelled 
rooms,  with  an  ample  entrance-hall  and  staircase.  The  last  Anderson  of  Bourtie, 
Alexander  Anderson — a  person  of  considerable  mechanical  genius,  well  known  in 
Aberdeen,  where  he  lived  in  his  mansion  in  Bourtie's  Close  in  the  Upperkirkgate — 
died  in  1825,  when  he  was  succeeded  in  his  lands  of  Bourtie,  &c,  by  five  sisters — his 
neices  and  co-heiresses — the  children  of  Mrs.  Mary  Anderson,  who  in  1781  became 
the  second  wife  of  William  Young  of  Sheddocksley,  formerly  Provost  of  Aberdeen. 
Of  these  ladies  the  eldest  became  the  wife  of  Mr.  Leith  Ross  of  Arnage,  in  Buchan,  and 
she  with  her  sisters,  subsequent  to  1825,  sold  the  lands  of  Bourtie  and  Hillbrae  to  Peter 
Duguid,  Esq.,  banker  in  Aberdeen,  the  father  of  the  present  proprietor. 

BARRA.      P.  102. 

Barra  was  sold  by  the  Setons  to  Mr.  James  Reid  in  1630,  and  it  continued  until 
after  1749  in  the  possession  of  his  descendants;  who  obtained  the  rank  of  baronets. 

In  1705,  Barra  had  for  its  laird  Sir  Alexander  Reid,  who  in  that  year  married 
Agnes,  daughter  of  Sir  Alexander  Ogilvy  of  Forglen,  second  son  of  the  second  Lord 
Banff,  appointed  one  of  the  Senators  of  the  College  of  Justice  in  1705.  Sir  John  Reid 
was  laird  in  1710,  and  Sir  James  Reid  in  1740. 


4120  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

Before  1773  the  estate  belonged  to  Mr.  Ramsay,  the  ancestor  of  the  present  laird. 
The  Castle  of  Barra,  still  habitable,  is  an  imposing  pile.     The  lowest  storey  is 
vaulted,  but  nothing  is  known  as  to  the  date  of  the  building. 

KEMNAY.     Pp.  65,  234. 

The  mansion  house  of  Kemnay  was  built  by  Sir  Thomas  Crombie  in  the  middle  of 
the  Nth  century.  George  Burnett  made  some  alterations  and  repairs  rendered  necessary 
by  the  state  of  neglect  into  which  it  had  fallen.  More  extensive  changes  were  made  in 
1808  and  1830,  by  which  it  has  been  deprived  of  much  of  its  original  character ;  great 
liberties  have  been  taken  with  the  interior,  including  the  modernising  of  the  curious  old 
dining-room,  which  had  a  unique  and  embossed  ceiling  ;  but  there  are  still  a  few  antique 
rooms  and  a  remarkably  fine  old  spiral  staircase. 

Thomas  Burnett,  the  purchaser  of  Kemnay  in  1688,  whose  descendants  still  continue 
in  possession,  was  second  son  of  James  Burnett  of  Craigmyle,  immediate  younger  brother 
of  Sir  Thomas  Burnett  of  Leys,  Knight-baronet,  and  immediate  elder  brother  of  Bobert 
Burnett  of  Crimond,  the  father  of  the  Bishop  of  Salisbury.  The  Burnetts  had  been  a 
family  of  influence  and  importance  on  Deeside  ever  since  1324;  when  Alexander 
Burnard  (such  was  the  older  form  of  the  name),  an  adherent  of  Bruce,  got  considerable 
grants  of  forfeited  lands,  which  are  to  a  great  extent  the  lands  still  possessed  by  the 
Burnetts  of  Leys.  Their  family  seat,  Crathes  Castle,  is  among  the  finest  old  baronial 
residences  in  Scotland.  Alexander  Burnard's  immediate  .  ancestors,  who  owned 
Farningdown,  county  Boxburgh,  were  an  offshoot  of  a  family  who  for  two  centuries 
after  the  Norman  Conquest  had  been  among  the  most  considerable  landowners  in 
Wiltshire  and  Bedfordshire. 

Within  a  year  after  his  purchase  of  Kemnay,  Thomas  Burnett  died,  leaving  a  son 
and  successor  of  the  same  name,  who  became  a  man  of  considerable  mark.  He  is  known 
in  the  literary  and  political  history  of  the  period  as  a  voluminous  correspondent  with 
many  of  the  notable  people  of  Ms  day.  From  1695  onwards  he  was  a  conspicuous 
member  of  the  brilliant  Court  circle  at  Hanover,  of  which  the  Electress  Sophia  was  the 
centre,  and  on  a  footing  of  confidential  intimacy  with  that  distinguished  lady.  His 
unpublished  letters  to  the  Electress,  in  the  archives  of  Hanover,  are  described  by  Mr.  J. 
M.  Kemble  as  numerous  enough  to  fill  a  large  volume,  and  full  of  curious  information  on 
the  most  varied  topics — politics,  theology,  philosojihy,  poetry,  and  small  talk.  His 
correspondence  with  Leibnitz,  Locke,  and  Miss  Trotter  (afterwards  Mrs.  Cockburn),  is  of 
a  more  solid  and  serious  description,  and  exhibits  Thomas  Burnett  as  a  man  of  original 
thought,  very  high  principle,  and  a. vast  amount  of  experience  gained  by  reading,  foreign 
travel,  and  intercourse  with  men  of  eminence  at  home  and  abroad.  When  the  death  of 
the  Puke  of  Gloucester  opened  the  possible  prospect  of  succession  to  the  English  throne 
to  the  Electress,  Mr.  Burnet  returned  home  charged  with  secret  instructions  to  convey 
her  sentiments  to  some  of  the  leading  politicians  in  England.     Thence  he  went  to  Paris, 


Kemnay.  421 

a  few  months  before  the  war  of  the  Spanish  Succession  had  broken  out.  Louis  XIV. 's 
recognition,  on  James  II. 's  death,  of  the  title  of  his  son  had  just  then  caused  a  great 
ferment  in  England,  and  was  the  immediate  cause  of  Queen  Anne's  declaration  of  war 
with  France  in  May,  1702.  At  the  instance  of  some  of  the  adherents  of  the  Court  of 
St.  Germains,  to  whom  he  had  been  obnoxious  from  his  intimacy  with  the  Electress, 
Mr.  Burnett  was  suddenly  arrested  on  some  frivolous  pretext,  and  hurried  off  to  the 
Bastile,  where  he  remained  unheard  of  for  about  a  year  and  a  half.  Accident  at  length 
made  his  situation  known  to  the  Electress,  and  by  means  of  the  powerful  influence 
which  she  was  able  to  exert  through  her  niece,  the  Duchess  of  Orleans,  he  was  restored 
to  liberty  towards  the  close  of  1703. 

In  the  year  1713,  Thomas  Burnett,  then  about  55  years  of  age,  married  a  young 
and  beautiful  wife,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Richard  Brickenden  of  Inkpen,  Berks, 
and  settled  at  Kemnay.  The  re-marriage  of  this  lady,  soon  after  his  death,  with 
her  son's  tutor,  gave  offence  to  her  husband's  relations,  aud  the  children  were  taken  to 
Crathes  and  educated  by  Sir  Alexander  Burnett.  This  tutor,  however,  in  the  course  of 
time  rose  to  be  a  distinguished  London  physician  ;  and  his  wife  had  inherited  some 
means,  which,  on  Dr  Lamont's  death  at  a  great  age  in  1795,  were  left  to  Secretary 
Burnett,  her  grandson.  This  succession  consisted  in  part  of  property  in  Kent,  which 
was  almost  immediately  sold  ;  but  if  retained  would  have  been  of  considerable  value,  as  a 
great  part  of  Tunbridge  Wells  has  since  been  built  on  it.  There  are  portraits  at  Kemnay 
of  "Betty  Brickend'en,"  both  her  husbands,  and  her  two  brothers — one  of  them  known 
as  "  Beau  Brickenden,"  the  richness  of  whose  costume  illustrates  the  style  affected  by 
the  exquisites  of  that  age. 

George  Burnett  of  Kemnay,  Thomas's  only  son,  and  who  became  the  first  Provost  of 
Inverurie,  ever  elected  at  least  after  the  Novodamus  Charter  granted  by  Queen  Mary, 
married  at  the  age  of  20  the  daughter  of  his  cousin  and  guardian  (Sir  Alexander  Burnett 
of  Leys) — a  lady  whose  worth  and  accomplishments  were  long  remembered  and  have 
been  celebrated  in  verse.*  Kemnay  House,  when  he  took  up  his  residence  there,  was 
bleak  and  cheerless  in  its  surroundings  :  before  his  death  the  pleasure  grounds  of 
Kemnay  were  reputed  to  be  among  the  most  beautiful  in  Scotland.  The  "  wilderness," 
an  ornamental  plantation  of  choice  trees,  with  a  labyrinth  of  grass  walks,  a  pond,  and  a 

The  following  lines,  describing  her  after  the  fashion  of  the  day  under  a  pseudonym,  occurs  in  a 
descriptive  poem  called  "Don,"  already  referred  to  :— 

"  Mind  Kemnay's  seat,  how  beautifully  placed, 
With  shady  woods  and  flowery  gardens  graced. 
See  how  the  feathered  choir  extend  their  throats, 
By  nature  taught — hark  how  they  swell  their  notes  ! 
Yet  when  fair  Peggy,  mistress  of  the  grove, 
Joins  her  sweet  voice  to  sing  the  praise  of  love, 
The  birds  sit  listening  to  the  wondrous  song, 
The  river  cairns  and  smoothly  glides  along  ; 
The  gentle  zephyrs  with  her  tresses  play, 
And  from  her  balmy  breath  steal  sweets  away. 


422  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garinch. 


"  hermitage,"  all  laid  out  in  conformity  with  the  quaint  fashion  of  the  day,  was  greatly 
admired.  It,  as  well  as  the  formal  parterres  and  flower-gardens,  got  into  a  neglected 
condition  during  the  minority  of  a  subsequent  proprietor,  and  the  changes  since  effected 
have  greatly  altered  their  character  ;  but  the  avenue  which  forms  the  approach  is  still 
unequalled  in  the  district.  It  is  a  gentle  ascent  along  the  ample  floor  of  a  long  shady 
aisle  formed  by  two  straight  lines  of  beech  trees  meeting  far  overhead  in  a  Gothic  arch. 
Mr.  George  Burnett  had  a  great  reputation  in  his  day  as  an  agricultural  improver.  Being 
a  man  of  active  temperament  and  strong  will,  he  took  a  lead  in  local  politics  and  county 
business,  and  he  was  reputed  a  strict  disciplinarian  in  his  home  and  elsewhere. 

On  the  death,  in  1759,  of  Sir  Bobert  Burnett  of  Leys,  who  survived  his  father,  Sir 
Alexander,  in  delicate  health  for  about  a  year,  a  competition  for  the  succession  to  the 
Leys  Estates  arose  between  the  heir  male  (Sir  Thomas)  and  the  only  son  of  George 
Burnett  of  Kernnay  as  heir  of  line  through  his  mother  ;  the  question  turning  on  whether 
Sir  Alexander  had  effectually  altered  the  investiture  from  heirs  male  to  heirs  general. 
The  heir  male  and  George  Burnett  of  Kemnay  were  both  at  Crathes  Castle  when  Sir 
Bobert  died ;  and  for  a  time,  it  is  said,  that  each,  regarding  the  other  as  his  guest, 
treated  him  with  the  most  courteous  hospitality.  This,  however,  could  not  last ;  and 
one  day  Kemnay,  locking  up  the  Castle,  carried  away  the  key ;  which  has  ever  since 
remained  in  the  possession  of  his  descendants.  The  Leys'  Succession  was  the  subject  of 
a  protracted  law  plea — carried  to  the  House  of  Lords — which  ended  in  favour  of  the  heir 
male. 

Alexander  Burnett  of  Kemnay,  who  succeeded  his  father  in  1 780,  had  received  his 
early  education  in  Holland  j  and  in  1756,  when  Mr  Mitchell  of  Thainston  (afterwards 
Sir  Andrew)  was  appointed  Ambassador  to  the  Prussian  Court,  he  went  abroad  with  him 
as  Secretary.  He  was  held  in  high  regard  by  Frederick  the  Great,  whom  he  attended 
during  the  campaigns  of  the  Seven  Years'  War.  During  Mitchell's  absence  in  1765  he 
conducted  the  correspondence  of  the  Embassy,  and  after  Mitchell's  death  he  remained  for 
a  year  at  Berlin  as  Charge  d'Affaires.  There  is  a  beautiful  full-length  portrait  of  him  at 
Kemnay  by  Angelica  Kauffmann.  His  son,  John  Burnett,  father  of  the  present 
proprietor,  did  much  by  judicious  improvements  and  encouragement  of  his  tenantry  to 
increase  the  value  of  the  property,  and  by  the  extensive  woods  which  he  planted  added 
much  to  its  amenity. 

RELIGIOUS  DISABILITIES. 
The  policy  of  religious  toleration  which  was  accepted  by  the  country  in  1688,  when 
it  sought  a  dynastic  security  against  any  re-imposition  of  Popery,  by  raising  "William 
and  Mary  to  the  throne,  was  speedily  taken  advantage  of  in  the  interests  of  the  abro- 
gated form  of  religion — so  as  to  bring  it  again  into  open  notice  in  Scotland,  in  place 
of  the  hidden  existence  of  which  lurking  seminary  priests  had  been  the  essential 
support.     In  1694,  the  Pope  appointed  Bishop  Nicolson,  son  of  Sir  Thomas  Nieolson, 


Religions  Disabilities.  423 


formerly  of  Kemnay,  his  first  Vicar  Apostolic  in  Scotland  ;  the  Jesuits  in  Scotland 
having  until  then  been  superintended  by  an  English  official.  About  that  time  a  Eeport, 
obtained  by  the  Propaganda  at  Eome,  showed  the  number  of  Roman  Catholics  in 
Scotland  to  be  but  1400;  of  which  total,  1000  were  in  Banffshire,  chiefly  in  the  Enzie, 
then  called  the  Papistical  Country,  where  they  had  the  powerful  protection  of  the 
House  of  Gordon.  There  were  70  in  Angus  and  Mearns  ;  50  in  Glasgow  and  its 
neighbourhood  ;  and  8  in  Morayshire.  Of  405  in  Aberdeenshire,  most  were  in  Braemar. 
In  the  Garioch,  in  1702,  three  families  were  Romanist— the  Leslies  of  Fetternear,  the 
Leslies  of  Pitcaple,  and  Tyrie  of  Dunnideer. 

Disabilities  of  an  oppressive  kind,  however,  continued  to  burden  Roman  Catholics ; 
one  reason  for  which  was  that  they  were  partizans  of  the  exiled  Stuarts,  and  more 
ready  to  plot  for  their  restoration  than  even  the  Episcopalian  Incumbents  were ;  who,  in 
political  sympathy  with  them,  did  what  they  could  apparently  to  obstruct  the  inquiries 
of  Presbyteries  as  to  the  movements  and  actions  of  the  "trafficking  priests".  The 
Episcopalian  Incumbents,  being  prevented  from  themselves  doing  anything  openly 
against  the  established  order  in  Church  and  State,  were  in  some  quarters  carrying  on  the 
same  illicit  policy  by  the  instrumentality  of  assistants,  employed  ostensibly  for  their 
ministerial  duties,  but  whom  no  pledge  to  the  civil  authority  confined,  as  the  Incum- 
bents were  confined,  to  those  duties.  In  1702,  the  united  Presbytery  of  Garioch  and 
Alford  found  upon  investigation  that  there  were  within  its  bounds  "  priest  Buquhan, 
priest  Gordon,  another  priest  Gordon,  Mr.  Leslie,  brother  to  Count  Leslie,  another  priest 
Leslie,  Dr.  Levingstone,  priest  Ross  alias  Seton,  and  priest  "Wilson".  In  1712,  Letters 
of  Caption  against  trafficking  priests  Were  put  into  the  hands  of  a  member  of  the 
Garioch  Presbytery,  to  be  used  as  he  should  see  cause. 

Very  serious  considerations  can  alone  have  justified  the  deprivation  of  religious 
ordinances  then  inflicted  upon  Roman  Catholics.  Mr.  Maxwell,  an  outlawed  priest, 
baptized  in  May,  1711,  a  child  to  Count  George  Leslie  at  Fetternear  (James,  afterward 
17th  baron  of  Balquhain,  born  25th  May,  1711),  and  was  like  to  be  prosecuted  for  the 
act  at  the  Circuit  Court  of  Justiciary.  Shortly  before,  Count  George's  sister  was  about 
to  be  married  to  George  Leslie  of  Iden,  a  Protestant.  The  bridegroom  and  the  lady's 
father  both  petitioned  the  Presbytery  for  their  sanction  to  the  schoolmaster  of  Chapel 
proclaiming  the  banns  of  marriage,  and  the  minister  performing  the  marriage  solemnity  ; 
but  leave  was  refused  upon  the  ground  that  such  marriages  are  contrary  to  the  Word  of 
God,  the  Confession  of  Faith,  and  the  practice  of  all  Reformed  Churches,  and  in  coun- 
tries where  Popery  is  established  are  regarded  as  no  marriages  at  all. 

The  disorderly  condition  of  society  at  the  time  is  exemplified  by  the  frequent 
occurrence  of  irregular  marriages,  and  marriages  of  persons  not  absolutely  certain  that 
they  had  not  a  husband  or  wife  living.  One,  not  in  that  way  reprehensible  and  some- 
what romantic  in  its  details,  brought  Mr.  James  Gordon,  the  newly -settled  minister  of 
Bourtie,  into  sudden  trouble  in  1710,  and  occasioned  a  pro  re  nata  meeting  of  Presby- 


424  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

tery,  in  order  to  correct  the  error  committed.  Adam  Irvine,  described  as  "  sometime  of 
Brucklaw,"  had  won  the  affections  of  Mrs.  Margaret  Reid,  daughter  of  Sir  John  Eeid  of 
Barra,  but  the  consent  of  her  parents  was  beyond  his  reach.  The  young  people,  resolved 
upon  being  wedded,  resorted  to  a  clandestine  expedient.  Irvine  got  an  "  old  minister, 
Mr.  Donald  M'Comtosh,"  residing  in  Badenoch,  to  come  all  the  way  to  Bourtie,  and 
provided  also  a  couple  of  witnesses  from  Strathdon,  and  on  21st  September,  the  young 
lady,  being  apprised,  slipped  out  of  the  castle  and  was  married  close  by,  probably  in  the 
wood.  On  the  marriage  being  discovered  some  days  after,  the  girl  was  turned  out  of 
doors,  and  it  may  be  sought  refuge  from  scandal  and  relief  in  her  distress  at  the  manse, 
after  going  immediately  to  her  husband.  The  culprits  having  substantiated  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  Presbytery  their  account  of  the  circumstances,  were  appointed  to  make 
open  declaration  of  their  marriage  before  the  congregation  in  the  parish  church,  and  after 
being  rebuked,  had  the  "  defects  of  the  marriage  made  up  in  the  way  usual  in  such 
cases,"  whatever  that  may  have  been. 

Great  difficulty  seems  to  have  been  found  in  bringing  the  schoolmasters  into 
subordination  to  the  order  of  things  "  settled"  by  the  Revolution,  especially  in  parishes 
where  an  indulged  Episcopalian  Incumbent  continued  as  parish  minister.  In  1698  the 
Presbytery  appointed  the  several  schoolmasters  within  the  bounds  to  be  cited  before 
them  to  be  examined  anent  their  principles  and  qualifications.  To  repeated  citations 
to  appear  and  sign  the  Confession  of  Faith,  Mr.  Alexander  Davidson,  schoolmaster  of 
Inverurie,  had  answered  with  contumacy  and  disrespect,  and  the  Presbytery  deprived 
him  of  his  office.  Mr.  James  Ferguson,  schoolmaster  of  Insch,  had  in  1709  "no  present 
scruples  anent  the  Confession,  but  had  not  got  time,  by  reason  of  several  divertisements, 
to  consider  it  fully  ".  Next  year  Mr.  Robert  Milne,  Inverurie,  had  "  considered  a  great 
part  of  it,  but  not  so  fully  as  he  would  wish  to  do  ".  He  was  tolerated  upon  stating 
that  he  did  not  teach  anything  contrary  to  the  Confession,  and  did  teach  the  Westminster 
Catechism. 

The  school  work  attempted  about  1700  appears  from  the  subjects  prescribed  in  a 
competitive  examination  for  the  office  of  schoolmaster  of  Insch  in  1713 — which  the 
Presbytery  conducted  at  the  request  of  the  heritors.  The  examination  was  in  knowledge 
of  the  Latin  tongue  and  skill  in  singing  the  common  tunes  and  writing,  and  fitness  to 
teach  the  same  to  youth.  In  1737,  the  Presbytery,  at  a  visitation  of  the  school  of 
Inverurie,  laid  down  the  following  Rules  and  Directions  to  the  schoolmaster,  who  had 
seemingly  been  in  considerable  need  of  admonition  : — "  lmo,  That  he  be  careful  to  train  up 
the  scholars  in  the  knowledge  of  God  and  the  principles  of  the  Protestant  reformed  religion; 
2ndo,  That  he  take  special  care  of  the  manners  and  behaviour  of  the  scholars,  and  correct 
them  for  lying,  cursing,  and  profaning  the  Lord's  day ;  3tio,  That  he  attend  his  business 
in  the  school  from  the  time  that  his  scholars  can  see  to  read  in  the  morning  till  twelve  ; 
and  from  one  afternoon  till  light  fail  them  at  night,  from  the  beginning  of  November 
till  the  beginning  of  February ;  and  thereafter  the  rest  of  the  year  from  eight  in  the 


Introduction  of  Presbyterian  Ministers.  425 

morning  till  twelve,  and  from  two  afternoon  till  six  in  the  evening  ;  and  that  he  oblige 
his  scholars  to  observe  these  hours ;  4to,  That  he  take  care  that  his  scholars  frequent 
publick  worship  on  the  Lord's  day,  and  that  he  call  them  to  give  account  of  what  they 
remember  of  lecture  and  sermon ;  and  that,  5to,  He  himself  be  of  a  blameless  and 
orderly  walk  and  conversation,  and  particularly  that  he  abstain  from  tippling  and  ex- 
cessive drinking  ".  Such  an  exercise  of  discipline  was  then,  however,  rare ;  the  Presby- 
tery being  most  frequently  engaged  in  dealing  with  backward  heritors  for  providing  of 
schools  for  the  teachers  according  to  statute. 

In  1710,  the  following  schoolmasters  in  the  Presbytery  signed  the  Confession  of 
Faith : — William  Duncan  at  Bourtie,  James  Leask  at  Oyne,  James  Monnie  at  Leslie, 
William  Bruce  at  Kintore,  Patrick  Wishart  at  Kinkell,  Charles  Forbes  at  Eayne,  John 
Farquhar  at  Kemnay,  Alexander  Leslie  at  Chapel,  and  James  Farquhar  at  Insch. 

INTRODUCTION  OF  PRESBYTERIAN  MINISTERS. 

The  Eevolution  Settlement  was  necessarily  for  a  long  period  more  of  a  proposed 
than  an  accomplished  arrangement,  in  secular  as  well  as  ecclesiastical  matters.  In 
Scotland  the  Eevolution  led  to  the  legal  establishment  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  as  it 
has  continued  ever  since  ;  but  in  the  north  the  progress  of  the  Church  to  a  position  de 
fucto,  such  as  it  had  obtained  de  jure,  was  a  work  of  time  ;  and  the  local  history  of  the 
change  illustrates  the  difficulty  with  which  new  laws  get  into  smooth  operation  in  the 
regulation  of  a  popular  franchise. 

It  is  well  known  that  it  was  by  accident  that  the  legitimate  power  and  the  personal 
influence  of  the  joint  sovereigns  were  not  put  forth  as  was  designed  to  force  an  Episcopal 
Church  upon  Scotland  ;  and  that  the  King's  most  trusted  adviser  upon  Scottish  affairs, 
Mr.  William  Carstairs — the  exiled  Presbyterian  minister  whom  the  King  appointed  his 
chaplain  when  called  to  the  throne  of  Britain — by  a  bold  and  hazardous  intrusion  upon 
the  Monarch's  privacy,  induced  him  to  recall  the  messenger  who  was  proceeding  to 
Scotland  with  the  obnoxious  decree  for  the  establishment  of  Episcopacy.  The  Queen 
did  not  like  Presbyterianism ;  and  the  King  was  a  purely  political  ruler,  to  whom 
uniformity  in  Church  government,  in  the  two  great  divisions  of  the  realm  must  have 
been  an  arrangement  highly  desirable.  Had  the  projected  Episcopacy  been  proclaimed,  it 
would  have  been  welcomed,  or  quietly  acquiesced  in,  in  Aberdeenshire  ;  and  disturbance 
on  account  of  the  establishment  of  Presbytery  was  prevented  there  very  materially  by 
the  conditions  imposed  upon  the  newly  established  Presbyterian  Church,  that  Episco- 
palian Incumbents  should  be  allowed  to  continue  in  possession  of  their  cures  and  livings, 
though  without  a  seat  in  the  Church  Courts,  provided  they  gave  a  certain  adhesion  to 
the  new  secular  arrangements.  Within  the  bounds  of  the  Synod  of  Aberdeen — compris- 
ing the  counties  of  Aberdeen  and  Banff — the  mass  of  the  Episcopalian  ministers  accepted 
the  indulgence,  and  continued  to  be   parish  ministers  till  their  death  ;  a  few   only 

5-1 


426       .  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

surviving  1715 — when  their  attachment  to  the  exiled  house  of  Stuart  led  some  of  them 
into  complicity  with  the  rising  in  favour  of  the  son  of  James  VII.,  in  consequence  of 
which  they  were,  in  the  following  year,  deprived  for  the  crime  of  treason. 

Upon  the  establishment  of  Preshyterianism  in  1690,  the  whole  of  the  Synod  was, 
because  of  the  paucity  of  the  Presbyterian  ministers,  constituted  into  one  Presbytery 
instead  of  eight — its  old  number.  Several  years  after  the  legal  establishment  of 
Presbytery  the  number  of  ministers  qualified  to  be  members  of  the  Court  was  sixteen  ; 
and,  sitting  as  a  Synod,  they  divided  themselves  into  three  Presbyteries.  The  roll  of 
the  Synod,  which  met  18th  May,  1697,  contained  only  the  following  ministers  : 
Messrs  Thomas  Eamsay  and  James  Osborn,  Aberdeen ;  David  Lindsay,  Dalmoak  ; 
William  Thomson,  Kintore  ;  Martin  Shanks,  ]STewhills  ;  Alexander  Thomson,  Peter- 
culter ;  and  Thomas  Kinnear,  Echt,  forming  the  Presbytery  of  Aberdeen  and  Kincardine 
—  Messrs  George  Skeen,  Kinkell  ;  George  Anderson,  Tarves  ;  William  Fraser,  Slains  ; 
and  William  Hunter,  Tyrie,  making  the  Presbytery  of  Ellon,  Garioch,  and  Deer — 
Messrs  William  Garioch,  Kennethmont ;  Patrick  Innes,  Banff;  William  Johnston, 
Auchterless  ;  Eobert  Tait,  Cullen  ;  Thomas  Thomson,  Turriff,  constituting  the  Presbytery 
of  Alford,  Turriff,  and  Fordyce. 

As  the  tolerated  ministers  gradually  died  out,  great  difficulty  was  often  found  in 
getting  the  heritors,  elders,  and  parishioners — witli  which  bodies  the  appointment  of 
ministers  practically  lay — to  call  qualified  persons  to  fill  the  vacant  pulpits ;  so  much  so 
that  in  1698  a  legal  remedy  was  devised  by  the  State  for  the  abuses  then  occurring. 

THE  SETTLEMENT  AT  KEMNAY. 
The  Parish  of  Kemnay  having  become  vacant  by  the  death  of  Dr.  Willox,  the 
delays  and  obstructions  to  an  appointment  of  a  successor  occupied  two  years  as  appears 
by  the  minutes  of  Presbytery. 

July  14th,  1697. — Mr.  Win.  Ebald,  in  the  parioch  of  Kemnay,  compeared,  presenting  a  letter  from 
the  pariocheners,  desiring  the  Presbyterie  to  send  one  of  their  number  to  moderate  a  call  from  the 
parioch  to  Mr.  John  Angus,  probationer.  The  Presbyterie,  considering  that  Mr.  John  Angus  had 
already  received  a  call  from  the  parioch  of  Kinneller,  desired  that  the  parioehouers  of  Kemnay  would 
pitch  upon  some  other  person. 

Nov.  10th,  1697. — The  vacancy  of  Kemnay  being  taken  into  consideration,  they  appoint  Mr. 
Skeen  to  speak  to  the  Earle  of  Kintore  and  others  concerned,  and  in  the  meantyme  to  recommend  a 
list  to  them,  appointed  by  the  Synod,  viz.  : — Mr.  Hugh  Innes,  Mr.  John  Hui,  Mr.  Arthur  Sheppard. 

Feb.  9th,  1698. — Anent  the  vacancy  of  Kemnay,  Mr.  Skeen  reports  that,  not  having  spoken  with 
the  Earl  of  Kintore,  he  did  speake  with  his  chamberlan,  who  after  some  tym  returned  this  answer  from 
my  Lord's  own  mouth,  that  he  was  willing  that  Mr.  Innes  should  be  setled  at  Kemnay,  provideing 
the  Presbyterie  wold  gratifie  him  so  far  as  to  setlo  Mr.  Johnston  at  Skeen. 

March  9th,  1698. — This  day,  the  Ptrie.,  considering  the  Earle  of  Kintore's  answer,  with  respect  to 
the  parish  of  Kemnay,  doe  appoint  Mr.  Thomson,  minister  at  Kintore,  to  speak  again  to  the  said  Earle 
and  parishioners  for  setling  Mr,  Hew  Innes  ther,  with  certification,  if  they  will  not  speedily  call,  the 
Presbytry  will  proceed  to  setle  the  said  Mr.  Innes  there  tavquam  jure  dcvoluto. 

April  13th,  1698. — A  letter  was  produced  from  the  Chamberlan  of  Kemnay  to  the  Presbyterie, 
bearing  the  people's  desire  to  hear  some  other  young  men.  The  Presbyterie  having  no  young  men  to 
spare  at  this  tyme,  appoints  Mr.  George  Anderson  to  visit  that  parish,  and  again  recommend  Mr.  Hew 
Innes  and  to  report. 

May  17th,  1698. — This  day  some  of  the  elders  of  the  session  of  Kemnay  compeared  before  the 
Presbyterie,  desyring  some  young  men  might  be  sent  to  preach  among  them,  and  particularly  Mr.  Win. 


The  Settlement  at  Kemnay.  427 


Johnston,  the  late  schoolmaster.  In  answer  to  which  the  Preshyterie  promised  some  young  men  to 
them  if  they  could  be  gotten,  and  withall  told  them  that  they  thought  Mr.  Johnston  might  be  useful 
in  another  place,  and  therefore  desired  them  not  to  hinder  the  sfitling  of  the  place  in  expectation  of  him. 

June  8th,  1698. —This  day,  Mr.  Skeen  reports  that  some  of  the  paroch  of  Kemnay  had  told  him 
that  they  were  very  well  pleased  with  Mr.  Henry  Kobine,  wdiom  they  had  heard,  and  were  desirous  to 
have  him  for  their  minister  ;  whereupon  the  Preshyterie  appoints  the  said  Mr.  George  Skeen  to  preach 
at  Kemnay,  Sabbath  next,  and  to  search  further  into  the  inclinations  of  the  said  people. 

June  22nd,  1698.-  Mr.  Skeen  reports.  .  .  .  The  people  declared  themselves  well  pleased  with 
Mr.  Henry  Robine,  but  desired  to  hear  some  more  young  men.  And  Mr.  George  Anderson  having 
spoke  to  the  Earle  of  Kintore,  the  said  Earle  declared  himself  well  pleased.  The  Preshyterie  having  no 
more  young  men  at  present,  appoint  a  Presbyterial  call  to  be  drawn  up  to  Mr.  Robine. 

July  6th,  1698.  —  Mr.  Mulligan  reports  that  he  preached  at  Kemnay  according  to  appointment,  and 
that  the  session  declared  themselves  well  pleased  with  Mr.  Robine,  but  they  desired  that  the  Laird  of 
Kemnay  might  be  acquainted,  before  they  subscribe  a  call.  Likewise  Mr.  Mulligan  presented  a  call 
tii  tin'  said  Mr.  Robine,  subscribed  by  the  Earle  of  Kintore,  to  the  forsaid  Church  of  Kemnay,  where 
his  Lordship  has  interest.  The  Presbytery  thereupon  appointed  Mr.  Robine  to  enter  on  his  trials,  and 
that  he  have  an  exercise  and  addition  against  the  next  Preshyterie  as  part  of  his  trial. 

Sept.  14th,  1698. — A  letter  from  the  Laird  of  Kemnay 's  brother  was  produced,  bearing  that  some 
of  the  people  had  heard  of  the  receptione  of  Mr.  Robert  Burnet,  late  minister  at  Bancborie,  into  the 
Government;  they  are  most  willing  to  have  him  for  their  minister,  and  that  the  Laird  of  Kemnay 
hath  written  to  that  effect  from  London.  The  Presbytrie  taking  the  affair  to  their  consideration,  and 
finding  that  they  had  proceeded  some  length  in  order  to  the  settlement  of  Mr.  Henry  Robine  in  that 
place,  and  had  been  encouraged  by  the  said  paroch,  are  exceedingly  surprised  that  they  should  men- 
tion the  calling  of  another — whereupon  they  refer  the  whole  affair  to  the  Synod  for  advice,  and  appoint 
the  Moderator  to  write  a  return  to  the  letter  of  Kemnay  to  this  effect,  which  was  done  before  the 
rising  of  the  Presbytery. 

Oct.  19th,  1698.  — Anent  the  affair  of  Kemnay,  the  Synod  having  been  consulted,  did  advise  that 
the  Presb.  should  desist  from  their  purpose  of  setting  Mr.  Robine  at  Kemnay  in  respect  the  said  Mr. 
Robine  is  removed  out  of  the  bounds,  also  that  he  was  unwilling  to  embrace  the  said  call,  and  that  the 
presbetry  should  proceed  to  setle  the  place  some  other  way.  The  said  day  the  moderator  having  ac- 
quainted the  presb.  that  Mr.  Burnet,  brother  to  the  Laird  of  Kemnay,  desired  that  a  minister  might 
be  appointed  to  moderate  a  call  for  Mr.  Robert  Burnet,  late  minister  at  Upper  Banehry  to  be  minr.  at 
Kemnay,  the  Presb.  appoints  Mr.  George  Skeen  to  preach  at  Kemnay  Nov.  Sixt  and  to  moderat  a 
call,  and  that  he  make  intimatione  to  the  parish  timously  of  his  coming  ther  for  that  effect. 

Nov.  9,  1698. — Mr.  Skeen  reported  that  he  had  on  November  6th  moderated  a  call  to  Mr. 
Burnet,  which  was  produced  by  Alexander  Downy  having  commission  from  the  Session  and  parish  to 
prosecute  the  call. 

The  Presbytery  approved  the  call,  and  at  Mr.  Burnet's  desire  allowed  liim  till 
next  meeting  to  consider  of  accepting.  Mr.  Burnet  had,  in  the  meantime,  been  called  to 
Fintray  as  appeared  by  a  letter  from  Sir  John  Forbes  of  Graigievar.  At  next  meeting, 
November  23rd,  the  two  competing  calls  were  considered,  and  by  a  vote  Mr.  Burnet  was 
appointed  to  be  settled  at  Fintray ;  and  the  case  of  Kemnay  opened  a  new  chapter. 

Dec.  28th,  1698. — Mr.  Skeen  is  appointed  to  commune  with  the  heritors  and  others  of  the  parish 
of  Kemnay,  and  recommend  them  to  have  their  thoughts  of  a  fit  man  for  speedy  planting  their  church. 

January  25th,  1699. — Mr.  George  Skeen  went  to  Kemnay  and  spoke  to  the  elders  and  parishioners 
and  others  concerning  the  planting  of  the  church,  and  found  them  not  resolved  to  call  any  person 
who  could  be  obtained.  It  is  recommended  to  him  to  deal  further  with  them  and  to  report  to  the 
next  dyet. 

March  21st,  1699. — Anent  the  affair  at  Kemnay  this  day,  compeared  Mr.  Burnet,  brother  to  the 
laird  of  Kemnay,  desiring  there  might  be  a  minister  appointed  to  moderate  a  call  to  Mr.  Win.  Lesly, 
probationer,  to  be  minister  at  Kemnay.  The  Presbytery  found  Mr.  Lesly  was  under  a  call  already 
from  Oyne,  and  that  they  could  not  countenance  a  call  from  Kemnay,  but  recommended  Mr.  Burnet 
and  the  parishioners  to  pitch  upon  some  other  person,  promising  to  assist  them  all  they  could. 

The  call  from  Oyne  was  not  subscribed  to  Mr.  Lesly's  satisfaction ;  and  the  Synod 
having  been  consulted,  advised  the  Presbytery  to  allow  a  competition  of  calls.     On 


428  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Gariock 

April  6th,  Mr.  George  Skeen  was  appointed  to  summon  the  congregation  of  Kemnay  to 
meet  and  call  a  minister. 

April  19th,  1699. — A  call  was  given  from  the  parish  of  Kemnay  to  Mr.  Lesly,  probationer,  to  be 
their  minister,  which  call  had  been  supervised  and  attested  by  Mr.  George  .Skeen. 

May  3rd,  1699. — Compeared  Will.  Able,  and  produced  a  commission  from  the  parish  of  Kemnay, 
desiring  in  their  name  that  Mr.  Wm.  Lesly,  whom  they  have  called,  might  be  settled  among  them  as 
their  minister — also  produced  a  letter  from  Mr.  Eot.  Burnet,  brother  germane  to  the  Laird  of  Kemnay, 
to  the  effect  forsaid. 

Mr.  Wm.  Lesly  being  present,  the  call  from  Kemnay  was  put  into  his  hands,  and  he  submitting 
himself  to  the  presb.,  they  resolved  to  proceed  in  his  trials  with  respect  to  his  settlement  in  that  con- 
gregation, in  regard  that  no  person  appeared  from  the  parish  of  Oyne  to  prosecute  the  call  they  had 
given  to  the  said  Mr.  Wm.,  notwithstanding  they  had  been  timeously  advertised  so  to  doe. 

Mr.  Lesly  was  ordained  and  settled  in  Kemnay,  on  Wednesday,  July  19th,  1G99, 

the   form   of   induction   "being   that   still   in   use   in    Scotland.       Under   Episcopacy, 

"  institution  "  was  given,  on  a  Sunday,  hy  a  neighbouring  Parson. 

THE  SETTLEMENT  AT  MELDRUM. 

The  congregational  electors  in  Meldrum   had   so  long  delayed  to  take  any  steps 

necessary  to  calling   a  minister   that   the   Presbytery    had    appointed   a    Mr.   Arthur 

Shepherd  :  which  proceeding  at  length  brought  the  local  parties  to  take  action. 

July  29,  1697.— The  said  day  the  presbyterie  having  received  a  letter  from  the  laird  of  Meldrum 
wherein  he  declares  his  dissatisfaction  with  Mr.  Arthur  Shepherd  his  entry  to  the  ministry  of  Old 
Meldrum  in  respect,  the  said  Mr.  Arthur  was  called  tanquam  jure  devoluto,  and  desiring  that  there 
might  be  an  eldership  established  in  Old  Meldrum  in  order  to  the  calling  of  a  minister,  the  presby- 
terie referred  the  matter  to  further  consideration  in  a  fuller  meeting. 

At  a  subsequent  meeting  on  11th  August,  the  Presbytery  appointed  an  edict  to  be 
served  the  nest  Sunday,  calling  all  persons  interested  having  objections  to  Mr.  Shep- 
herd's induction  to  compear  before  the  Presbytery  on  the  26th  August,  at  Aberdeen. 
There  appeared  George  Ferguson  and  James  Christie,  feuars  in  Old  Meldrum,  with  a 
notary,  James  Eainy,  and  protested  against  the  Presbytery  proceeding  further  with  the 
settlement  of  Mr.  Shepherd,  and  also  presented  a  letter  from  the  laird  of  Meldrum  to 
the  same  effect.  The  Presbytery  appointed  two  members  to  "  commune "  with  the 
laird  about  the  matter. 

The  Presbytery,  10th  November,  appointed  the  minister  of  Tarves  to  speak  to 
Meldrum  and  the  parishioners  anent  the  vacancy ;  and  to  recommend  a  list  of  three,  from 
which  to  choose  a  minister.  No  record  appears  of  any  result.  On  9th  March,  1698, 
Mr.  Anderson  reported  he  had  spoken  to  the  laird  of  Meldrum,  who  had  sent  his 
answer  in  writing.  It  was  read,  and  the  Presbytery  was  more  satisfied  ;  and  they 
appointed  a  Presby  ferial  call  to  be  given  to  Mr.  John  Mulligan,  in  "pursuance  of  the 
the  contents  of  the  said  letter.  Mr.  Mulligan,  who  was  not  one  of  the  Presbytery's 
leet,  was  inducted  ;  but  a  call  had  been  given  him  from  Old  Aberdeen,  and  it  was  only 
by  the  intervention  by  a  Committee  of  the  General  Assembly,  and  after  a  proposal 
"  for  the  easing  of  his  conscience  "  that  the  parishioners  of  Meldrum  should  subscribe  a 
declaration  of  their  wish  for  him,  that  his  settlement  at  Meldrum  was  finally  disposed 
of  in  June  following. 


The  Settlement  at  Lesly  and  at  Insch.  429 


SETTLEMENT  AT  LESLY. 

Mr.  "VVatspn,  the  Episcopalian  incumbent  of  Lesly,  was  infirm  and  unable  for  duty 

in  the  end  of  1698.     The  Presbytery  appointed  a  probationer,  Mr.  William  Lesly,  to 

go  and  give  supply  for  him,  who  reported,  23rd  November,  that  he  had  been  refused 

access ;  and  the  Court  resolved  to  refer  the  matter  to  the  Synod,  that  it  might  be  delayed 

a  while.     The  minister  died  before  December  27,  1699. 

On  21st  February,  1700. —  Appoints  Mr.  ¥m.  Lesly  to  go  to  the  kirk  of  Lesly,  and  take  up  a 
list  of  persons  fit  to  be  elders  in  the  same  parish,  and  examine  them  betwixt  and  the  next  Presbytery. 

He  got  a  list  from  the  heritors  on  13th  March  ;  and  found  all  to  be  of  competent 
knowledge. 

On  27th  Nov.,  the  Presbyterie,  upon  a  motion  from  the  parish  of  Lesly,  appoint  Mr.  Win. 
Forbes,  probationer,  to  preach  again  the  three  last  Lord's  days  of  December. 

On  7th  Feb.,  1701. — The  Presbytery  considering  the  parish  has  now  been  a  long  time  vacant,  and 
yet  they  are  not  offering  to  call  a  minister,  appointed  intimation  to  be  made  that  a  call  would  be 
moderated  on  a  certain  Sabbath  if  they  were  inclined,  but  if  no  call  were  given  the  Presbytery  would 
plant  the  place  as  empowered  by  a  jus  clcvolutam. 

An  unanimous  call  was  in  consequence  given  to  Mr.  William  Forbes,  and  he  was 

inducted  by  the  United  Presbytery  of  Garioch  and  Ellon,  the  30th  April,  1701.     The 

Presbytery  of  Deer  had  been  disjoined  by  the  previous  Synod. 

SETTLEMENT  AT  INSCH. 

Insch  had  become  vacant  in  1691  by  the  death  of  Mr.  John  Patton,  who  was 
translated  there  from  Leoehel  in  1680.  The  Parishioners  or  their  leaders,  in  l(i92, 
called,  and  for  a  number  of  years  kept  in  possession  an  unqualified  Episcopalian,  Mr. 
John  Turing,  who  would  not  take  the  conformist  pledge  to  Government. 

June  25th,  1701. — The  Moderator  reports  ane  answer  of  the  letter  to  the  Moderator  of  the  Commis- 
sion, aneut  intruders,  and  helpers,  and  episcopal  incumbents,  and  had  given  warrant  to  the  kirk 
officer  at  Oyne  to  cite  Mr.  John  Turing,  intruder  of  Insch,  to  appear  before  the  Commission. 

July  29th,  1701. — Said  day  was  produced  a  letter  from  the  King's  advocate,  directed  to  Mr.  John 
Turing,  at  Insch.  The  Presbytery  appointed  Mr.  William  Mair  to  bear  it  to  the  said  Mr.  Turing,  and 
require  his  positive  answer  whether  he  will  forbear  to  exercise  any  part  of  his  ministerial  office  there, 
and  report  to  the  Moderator  of  the  Commission  of  the  Synod. 

Sept.  3rd,  1701. — Mr.  Mair  reports  he  obeyed  his  appointment  anent  Mr.  Turing  ;  but  was  denied 
access  to  preach  at  Insch 

Dec.  3rd,  1701. — This  day  the  lairds  of  Piothny,  elder  and  younger,  and  Boddom,  elder  and 
younger,  compeared  before  the  Pby.,  and  desired  their  concurrence  for  settling  ane  eldership  at  Insch, 
Mr.  Lesly  at  Tough  is  appointed  to  preach  at  Insch,  21st  Dec,  and  intimate  a  meeting  of  the  heritors 
and  heads  of  families,  and  to  receive  from  them  a  list  of  such  persons  as  they  shall  agree  with  for  being 
elders,  and  to  appoint  some  day  in  that  week  for  speaking  with  these  persons,  and  trying  their  qualifi- 
cation for  the  office  of  ane  elder. 

31st  Dec,  1701.— Mr.  Lesly,  minister,  reported  that  having  preached  at  Insch,  a  case  of  discipline 
had  to  be  discharged  against  one  of  the  lairds  before  he  made  his  intimation  ;  and  the  people  went  out 
of  the  church  in  a  disorderly  way,  before  the  intimation  could  be  made. 

The  Presbytery  delayed  proceedings  anent  the  eldership  till  next  meeting  ;  at  which 

the  laird  referred  to  appeared  and  gave  excuse,  which  was  sustained,  for  the  conduct  of 

the  people.     Mr.  John  Turing,  in  the  meantime,  reported  himself  as  having  got  more 


430  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Gariotih, 

light  than  he  had  before  possessed  as  to  ecclesiastical  matters,  and  sought  conference  with 
the  Presbytery,  but  does  not  seem  to  have  satisfied  the  court,  which  accordingly 
appointed  him  to  confer  with  members  separately  anont — "  the  Government  of  the 
Church,  his  motives  in  addressing  at  this  tym,  and  also  his  knowledge  of  orthodoxy  in 
the  great  truths  of  the  gospel".  The  interviews  gave  satisfaction,  and  Mr.  Turing's  case 
was  reported  to  the  Synod,  but  at  his  compearance  before  that  Court  he  seems  to  have 
given  offence,  and  he  appears  afterwards  making  renewed  application  to  the  Presbytery, 
who,  not  to  discourage  him,  appointed  him  to  confer  with  certain  members. 

An  eldership  was  recommended  and  approved,  but  was  not  appointed  up  to  the 
time  when  a  minister  was  called.  The  persons  were  James  White  in  Drumrossie,  We 
]  )a vidson  in  Knockinbaird,  John  Tulloch  in  Boddom,  John  Eoid  in  Myrtown,  Alex. 
Reid  in  Largy,  Alexander  Anderson  in  Wantonwalls,  William  Betty  in  Dunydeer,  and 
James  M'Rob  in  Glenns. 

July  21st,  1702. — The  sd  day  compeared  some  heads  of  familys  in  the  paroch  of  Insch,  craving  that 
some  effectual  course  might  be  taken  for  settling  a  minister  among  them,  in  respect  of  the  great  loss 
they  sustained  tor  the  want  of  the  ordinances.  The  l'trey  taking  the  case  into  consideration,  appoints 
Mr.  William  Mitchell  to  preach  there  on  Sabbath  come  a  fortnyt,  to  call  a  meeting  of  the  heritors  and 
heads  of  families,  and  to  labour  to  dispose  them  forgiving  a  call  either  to  Mr.  William  Carnegy  or  Mr. 
John  Maitland,  probationers. 

Sept.  9th. — The  sd  day  compeared  the  Lairds  of  Kosehill  andBoddoin,  younger,  desiring  a  minister 
should  be  sent  to  preach  at  Insch,  and  to  supervise  a  call  in  order  to  the  settling  of  a  fixed  pastor 
among  them.  The  Presbytery  appointed  Mr.  Carnegy  and  Mr.  Maitland  to  supply  the  next  three 
Sundays  by  turns,  and  at  the  last  time  to  intimate  that  that  day  fifteen  days  a  minister  would  preach, 
and,  uuaniinitio  being  found  among  them,  supervise  a  call. 

Oct.  7th.  — Mr.  Mair  reported  that  he  had  preached  at  Insch  on  Sabbath,  and  called  a  meeting  of 
the  heritors  ami  heads  of  families,  who  all  signified  their  willingness  to  subscribe  a  call  to  Mr.  John 
Maitland  except  ane  Ho.  More.  He  protested  that  the  call  should  he  delayed,  because  there  was  no 
constituted  eldership,  and  that  qualified  voters  were  prelimited  by  the  heritors. 

Mr.  More  explained  afterwards  that  two  calls  had  been  offered  to  the  people,  one  for 

Turing  first,  and  then  the  call  to  Mr.  Maitland.     He  himself  had  no  objection  to  Mr. 

Maitland  ;  but  that  there  might  be  as  good  as  him.     A  call  was  accomplished  at  last,  and 

Mr.  Maitland  was  settled  on  26th  April,  1703,  about  two  years  after  the  process  vvas 

begun. 

SETTLEMENT  AT  KAYNE. 

Mr  Robert  Burnet,  the  Episcopalian  incumbent  at  Rayno,  died  sometime  after 
February,  1703  ;  upon  May  12,  Mr  Mair  of  Dyne  was  sent  by  the  Presbytery  to  declare 
the  Church  vacant.  The  heritors,  however,  immediately  on  Mr  Burnet's  death,  seem  to 
have  obtained  the  services  of  a  non-juring  Episcopalian  who  had  to  leave  his  own  parish. 

June  9th,  1703. — Mr.  Mair  sent  an  instrument  under  the  hand  of  a  nottar  publiek,  bearing  that  he 
hade  offered  to  preach  at  Rain,  anil  declare  that  kirk  vacant  as  appointed,  but  was  opposed  By  s.aue 
gentlemen  in  the  parish,  who  hade  employed  one  Mr  Patrick  Chalmers,  late  incumbent  at  Loyndic,  to 
preach  ;  and  so  could  have  no  access,  The  Presbytery  delayed  consideration  of  that  affair  until  a  fuller 
meeting. 

June  23rd,  1703. — Anont  the  vacancy  of  Rain,  the  Thy.  resolves  to  take  the  benefit  of  the  Act  of 
Pari.  K.W.,  Q.M.,  Sess.  7,  Aug.  30th,  10US,  entituled  Act  for  preventing  of  disorder  in  supplying  and 
planting  of  vacancies;    and  therefore  appointed  Mr   Mair   to  repair  to  the  heritors  of  Lain,  or  the 


The  Settlement  at  Ruijae.  431 


ordinary  havers  of  the  keys  of  the  kirk  door  of  that  parish,  on  the  first  of  July  next  ensuing,  taking 
along  with  him  a  nottar  pnblick,  and  require  the  keys  of  the  kirk  doors  ;  and,  upon  their  refusal  or 
shifting,  to  take  instruments  in  the  hands  of  the  nottar,  and  protest  against  them  as  breakers  of  the 
laws  ;  which  done,  to  repair  to  Wartle  Lesly,  his  house,  and,  under  form  of  instrument,  require  him, 
as  being  a  Justice  of  Peace  and  Bailly  of  Regality,  to  put  in  execution  the  forsd  act  of  parliament,  by 
making  patent  the  kirk  doors  of  Rain,  affixing  new  locks,  and  delivering  the  keys  to  the  sd  Mr.  Win. 
Mair,  who  is  empowered  by  the  presbytrie  to  grant  receipt  therefor  in  their  name',  and  that  under  tin! 
tailzie  contained  in  the  said  act,  and  further  appoints  thesd  Mr.  Mair,  incase  access  be  obtained  to  the 

kirk,  to  preach  there  on  Sabbath  come  eight  days,  and  declare  the  kirk  va< I. 

_  Aug.  6th. — It  is  reported  to  the  Presbytery  that  a  letter  is  addressed  by  Her  Majesty's  Advocate  to 
theSherifl    Depots  of  Aberdeenshire,  desiring  them  to  put  in  execution  the  Act   1098  so  as  to  give 

peaceable  access  to  the  kirk  of  Rain  to  the  Presbytery  and  that  the  letter  had  1 n  delivered  to  Andrew 

one  ol  the  Shenll-lieputs,  and  a  letter  obtained  from  him  to  Mail  Deput,  to  go  with  one  or  two 

ministers  commissioned  from  the  Presbytery  to  demand  the  keys  from  the  heritors,  and  if  refused,  to 
make  patent  the  doors  and  put  on  new  locks.  Mr.  Mair  at  the  same  time  reported  that  lie  had  obeyed 
the  Presbytery's  injunctions,  been  refused  access,  and  taken  instrument  and  protest  in  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Alex,  lines,  nottar  publiek,  which  lie  lodged  with  the  clerk.  The  Presbpty.  appoint  two  ministers  to 
go  with  the  Mair  Depute  and  demand  execution  of  the  orders  of  the  Advocate. 

Aug.  18th.— Anent  the  vacancy  of  Rain  the  Moderator  and  the  brethren  appointed  with  him,  re- 
port they  obeyed,  lint  were  denyed  the  keys  of  the  kirk  door  by  George  Ogilvy  of  New  Haiti,  who 
acknowledged  he  had  them,  and  the  Deput  offering  to  execute  theSheriff's  precept,  was  deforced  by  said 
George  Ogilvy  and  John  Leith  in  Mill  of  Bonnetown,  comfonri  to  an  instrument  taken  in  the  hands  of 
Mr.  Innes,  nottar.  The  Presbytery  resolved  to  send  a  minister  to  Aberdeen  to  take  advice  as  to  further 
proceedings  in  the.  matter. 

The  Aberdeen  ministers,  who  seem  to  have  been  recognised  correspondents  with 
the  Lord  Advocate  upon  church  affairs  in  the  district,  advised  that  the  moderator  of  the 
Commission  of  Assembly  should  be  written  to  with  a  recommendation,  that  the  intrusion 
of  Mr.  Patrick  Chalmers,  and  the  opposition  given  to  the  Presbytery,  should  be 
represented  to  Her  Majesty's  Advocate. 

Nov.  3rd,  1703.— Anent  the  affair  of  Rain  itisreported  that  by  advice  of  the  late  Synod,  there  was 
a  letter  written  to  my  Lord  Advocate,  and  another  to  the  Kirk  Agent,  which  were  both  transmitted 
(with  the  instruments  taken  in  that  affair),  craving  that  Council  letters  might  be  raised  against  Mr. 
Chalmers  and  the  abettors  of  his  intrusion. 

Feb.  2nd,  1704.  —Anent  Main  a  letter  was  written  this  day  to  my  Lord  Advocate,  another  to  the 
Moderator  of  the  Commission,  and  another  to  the  Kirk  Agent,  requesting  that  affair  may  be  brought  to 
an  issue.  ° 

March  2nd.— Anent  the  affair  of  Bain,  Mr.  Thomson  informed  that  immediately  after  the  last 
meeting  he  had  received  from  Master  Blackwell,  minister  of  Aberdeen,  Council  letters  against  Mr. 
Chalmers,  and  witness  ;  which  letters  being  execute,  and  the  execution  sent  the  Kirk  Agent,  and  this 
being  the  day  ,,i  compearance,  the  Presbytery,  considering  that  they  had  several  tymes  sent  of  their 
number  to  Rain,  who  bad  met  with  opposition,  and  that  those  opposed  (as  the  Presbytery  was  informed), 
had  declared  themselves  both  by  word  and  deed,  to  continue  to  oppose  the  Presbytery  in  their  attempts 
to  take  possession  of  Church  of  Rain,  until  Mr.  Chalmers  should  be  one  way  or  another  sentenced  by 
the  Council,  and  also  that  the  said  Mr.  Chalmers,  when  he  went  to  Edinburgh,  took  the  keys  of  the 
kirk  door  from  the  officer,  so  that  there  was  no  expectation  of  getting  entry  without  violence  :  "Upon  all 
which  the  Presbytery  thought  tit  not  to  expose  themselves  by  appointing  any  one  to  preach  there  until 
the  Councils  sentence  anent  Mr.  Chalmers  should  be  known.  And,  therefore,  appoints  Mr.  Lesly 
of  rough  to  preach  at  Rain,  Sabbath  come  a  fourtuight,  if  the  Council  sentence  Mr.  Chalmers,  anil 
declare  the  Church  vacant  and,  least  there  should  be  opposition,  to  take  a  nottar  with  him  and  protest 
against  the  opposes  ;  in  which  ease  he  is  only  to  preach  in  the  kirkyard  if  he  get  hearers,  and  there 
declare  the  vaeancie. 

March  28th,  1702.— Mr.  Lesly  reports  that  he  had  not  preached  at  Rain  in  respect  that  Mr. 
lialmers  had  returned  from  Edinburgh,  ami  yet  kept  possession  of  that  kirk— Certified  information  of 
the  Councils  sentence  had  not  been  received. 

Ap.  19th,  1701.— Anent  the  affair  of  Rain  there  having  come  a  letter  to  Mr.  (.'lialmers,  intruder 
there,  from  the  Queen's  advocate,  in  tyme.  of  Synod,  which  was  accordingly  sent,  and  the  Presby.  was 
advised  to  wait  some  tyme  that  they  should  see  if  Mr.  Chalmers  should  give  obedience  by  removing  ; 


432  Inverurie  and  the  Earldom  of  the  Garioch. 

which,  if  he  did  not,  in  that  case  the  Presby.  should  represent  the  same  to  the  Advocate.  The  Presby. 
being  well  informed  that  the  said  Mr.  Chalmers  did  still  continue  his  intrusion,  did,  in  complyance 
with  the  Synod's  advice,  appoint  the  Moderator  to  write  to  the  Advocate  auent  him  and  report. 

July  19th,  1704. — The  Moderator  reports  he  had  written  to  Mr.  Blackwell  anent  the  affair  of  Eain, 
according  to  appointment,  but  had  got  no  return,  he  is  appointed  to  write  again. 

Sept.  12th,  170-1. — The  Moderator  reports  that  lie  had  received  a  letter  from  Mr.  Blackwell  anent 
Eain,  bearing  that  the  Lard  Advocate  had  promised  to  cause  effectually  remove  Mr.  Chalmers  in- 
truder there. 

Oct.  19th. — The  Presby.  considering  the  Synod's  act  appoynting  Presbytries  to  plant  vacancies  in 
there  bounds  tounquwm  jure  devoluto,  when  the  power  was  in  their  hands,  even  though  such  churches 
were  illegally  intruded  upon,  did  appoint  Messrs.  Mair  and  Maitland  to  discourse  the  heritors  of  Rain, 
and  the  Moderator  and  Mr.  Johnston  the  heritors  of  Chappel,  anent  the  removing  of  the  intruders, 
and  the  planting  of  their  vacancies,  and  auquaint  them  with  the  Synod's  Act,  and  report. 

Mr.  Clark,  the  incumbent  of  Chapel  of  Garioch,  had  been  libelled,  and  was  to  be 
excommunicated. 

Nov.  15th,  1704. — The  ministers  appointed  report  that  they  had  spoken  with  most  of  the  Pro- 
testant heritors  of  these  parioches,  who  said  they  would  not  be  active  in  putting  out  the  intruders,  but 
seemed  not  altogether  averse  to  have  the  places  settled  with  such  as  the  Presby.  and  they  could  agree 
upou,  providing  the  intruders  were  legally  removed.  The  Presby.,  considering  that  Sir  James  Elphin- 
stone  is  the  most  considerable  heritor  in  both  parioches,  appointed  him  to  be  written  to  acquainting  him 
with  the  Synod's  Act  and  craving  his  concurrence  with  the  Presby.  in  the  settlement  of  these  churches 
and  to  give  him  a  Hat  of  the  Probationers  that  he  may  turn  his  thoughts  anent  them. 

Dec.  19th,  1704.—  Sir  James  Elphinstone's  reply  is  that  he  was  desirous  the  Churches  of  Raue  and 
Chapell  should  be  settled,  and  was  ready  to  concur  with  the  Presby.  for  that  end,  but  was  not  yet  ripe 
for  giving  his  thoughts  anent  the  young  men  tire  Presbytery  had  mentioned  in  their  letter,  not  being 
acquainted  with  them,  but  should  take  advice  thereanent.  The  Presbytery  appointed  another  letter 
to  be  written  to  Sir  James,  showing  him  that  the  Presby.  by  virtue  of  an  Act  of  Synod  was  obliged  to 
proceed  very  shortly  to  the  settlement  of  said  churches.  The  Moderator  and  Mr.  Lesly  reported  that 
they  had  seen  a  letter  from  the  Queen's  Advocate  to  the  professor  anent  Mr.  Chalmers,  signifying  that 
letters  of  denunciation  were  sent  against  him,  hut  desyring  that  the  said  Mr.  Chalmers  might  be 
acquainted,  and  have  eight  or  ten  days  respite  granted  him  before  they  should  be  executed,  and 
accordingly  they  had  gone  and  showed  the  said  Mr.  Chalmers  the  said  letters,  who  would  give  them 
no  answer  whether  he  would  leave  of  his  intrusion.  Mr.  Clark  had  appealled  against  his  excommuni- 
cation to  the  Court  of  Session.  The  above  ministers  were  appointed  to  send  word  of  Mr.  Chalmers 
continuing  to  intrude,  to  the  ministers  at  Aberdeen  who  had  not  yet  denounced  Mr.  Chalmers. 

Jaur.  17th,  1705. — Anentthe  vacancy  of  Raine  and  Chapel,  the  Modr.  and  Mr.  Leslie  of  Kemnay 
report  they  had  again  written  to  Sir  James,  and  produced  an  answer  from  him  devolving  the  power  ou 
the  Presbytrie's  hand  to  plant  these  churches  as  they  shall  see  cause,  promising  his  concurrence  therein. 
And  whereas  he  desyres  in  the  said  letter  that  the  Presbytrie  advise  with  Pittodrie  and  Wartle  anent 
the  planting  of  those  vacancies,  the  Presbytrie  resolve  to  call  one  to  Kain  the  next  Presbytrie  day,-  and 
iu  the  meantime  appoints  Mr.  Lesly  of  Kemnay  to  discourse  Pittodrie  and  Wartle,  and  endeavour  that 
those,  two  gentlemen  may  agree  upon  one  of  our  probationers  for  the  said  post,  which  will  have  much 
weight  with  the  Presbytrie,  and  give  them  great  clearness  to  call  the  said  young  man. 

7th  Feb.,  1705. — It  is  reported  that  the  lairds  of  Pittodrie  and  Wartle  declare  their  willingness 
the  Presbytery  should  call  one  to  be  minister  whom  they  judged  qualified,  and  further  signified  their 
inclination  for  Mr.  Walter  Turing  beyond  any  other,  promising  their  concurrence  if  the  Presbytery 
should  call  the  said  young  man. 

The  Presby.  agree  to  appoint  Mr.  Turing,  give  him  subjects  for  trial,  and  appoint  him  to  preach 
within  the  parish  of  Raine,  wherever  he  should  get  access,  in  respect  Mr.  Chalmers  still  keeps  posses- 
sion of  the  Church,  till  the  next  Pby. 

Access  was  at  last  got  to  the  Church  by  the  agency  of  a  son  of  Mortimer,  the  bellman, 
who  had  been  accustomed  to  enter  the  tower  by  a  hole,  probably  in  search  of  birds' 
nests.  He  opened  the  door  from  within,  and  the  parishioners,  who  by  that  time,  if  not 
before,  were  willing  for  Presbyterianism,  took  possession.  Mr.  Chalmers  disappeared 
and  Mr.  Turing  became  minister. 


APPENDIX. 


55 


GENEALOGICAL     APPENDIX 

OF 

GAEIOCH  FAMILIES  FLOURISHING  AT  THE  TIME  OF 
THE  EE VOLUTION  SETTLEMENT, 

AND  STILL  EEPKESENTED. 


KEITH. 

Tradition  and  early  chronicles  bring  the  Keiths  to  Scotland,  by  compulsory  emigration,  from 
the  district  of  Hesse  Cassel,  the  German  home  of  the  Catti  until  conquered  by  the  Roman 
Legions  ;  and  mark  their  progress  first  to  Batavia,  where  the  name  of  a  town,  Catwig,  com- 
memorated their  sojourn,  and  thence  to  the  northern  extremity  of  Scotland,  where  they 
obtained  some  prolonged  settlement,  and  gave  the  name  of  Caithness  to  the  region  there  secured 
by  them.  Their  chief  is  said  to  have  become  the  son-in-law  of  the  Pictish  king,  Brude,  who 
had  his  capital  on  the  Ness,  and  they  in  consequence  shared  the  misfortunes  of  the  Picts  when 
subjugated  by  the  Scots  in  the  next  generation.  They  were  driven  to  the  wilds  of  Lochaber, 
where  the  several  tribes  that  claim  to  belong  to  the  comprehensive  Clan  Chattan  took  origin. 

The  line  of  the  Earls  Marischal,  who,  in  later  Scottish  history,  were  the  chief  representa- 
tatives  of  the  Catti  under  the  name  of  Keith,  is  given  as  under,  down  to  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  partly  from  a  manuscript  preserved  in  the  family,  and  printed  in  1820  by 
the  late  Peter  Buchan,  of  Peterhead. 

I. — Robert,  Prince  of  the  Catti,  fighting  under  the  first  King  Malcolm  against  Danish 
invaders,  at  Barry  in  1010,  killed  Camus,  the  leader  of  the  Danes,  and  so  obtained  the  victory. 
The  king,  in  recognition  of  this  service,  appointed  him  his  grand  Marischal. 

II.— Sir  Robert  Keith,  his  son,  fought  at  Culross  against  the  Norwegians  invading  Fife 
under  Sueno,  temp.,  King  Duncan.     He  married  Elizabeth  Straquhan. 

III. — Sir  Robert  Keith,  his  father's  successor,  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  John  Cumyn, 
of  that  Ilk,  temp.,  Alexander  I. 

IV. — Sir  Patrick  Keith,  his  son,  married  Margaret,  daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Mar. 

V.— Sir  William  Keith  succeeded  his  father,  under  David  I.  He  led  the  Scots  successfully 
against  the  English  army  of  King  Stephen,  at  Allerton,  in  1133,  when  he  took  the  English 
leader  prisoner.     He  married  Elizabeth  Seton.     Their  son, 

VI.— Sir  Robert  Keith,  succeeded.  He  defeated  the  rebel  Thane  of  Argyle,  Somerled, 
temp.,  Malcolm  IV.     By  his  wife,  Elisabeth  Fraser,  he  had 


436  Appendix. 


VII. — Sir  Henry  Keith,  Marisehal  under  William  the  Lion.  He  married  Margaret, 
daughter  of  William  of  Douglas.     His  son, 

VIII. — Sir  William  Keith,  also  served  King  William.  He  accompanied  the  King  and  his 
brother,  David  of  Huntingdon  and  the  Garioch,  to  England  to  meet  King  Richard  on  his  return 
to  his  kingdom.     By  his  wife,  Jean  de  Gordon,  he  had  a  son, 

IX. — Sir  William  Keith,  who  attended  Alexander  II.  and  his  Queen  in  their  progress 
through  the  northern  parts  of  the  kingdom. 

X. — Sir  Robert  Keith,  his  son,  was  with  Alexander  III.,  when  at  Largs  he  routed  the 
Norwegians  invading  the  Western  Isles.     He  married  Jean  Ogilvy. 

XI. — Sir  John  Keith,  their  son,  succeeded  him.  He  married  Margaret  Cumyn,  daughter 
of  the  Earl  of  Buchan. 

Douglas  (Peerage),  quoting  evidence  from  "  Caledonia,"  and  from  sundry  charters,  gives  a 
different  genealogy  anterior  to  Sir  John  Keith  ;  also  leaving  an  indefinite  blank  after  Robert, 
the  conqueror  of  Camus  ;  his  'first  Marisehal,  Herveus  de  Keith,  corresponding  with  Sir  Henry 
of  the  manuscript  :— 

1.  Herveus,  son  of  Warin,  witnessed  the  gift  of  Annandale  by  David  I.  to  Robert  de  Brus. 

He  possessed  half  the  district  of  Keth,  in  East  Lothian. 

2.  Herveus  de  Keth,  King's  Marisehal  under  Malcolm  IV.  and  William  I.,  witnessed  several 

charters  of  King  William  after  1189,  but  died  before  1196.  His  son,  Malcolm,  designed  in 
1185  son  of  Herveus  de  Keth  great  Marisehal  of  Scotland,  predeceased  his  father,  leaving 
two  sons,  Philip  (the  next  Marisehal)  and  David,  who  appears  associated  in  the  Marischal's 
duties  with  Philip  in  1201,  and  with  Philip's  son  (Herveus)  in  1220. 

3.  Philip  de  Keth,  designed  great  Marisehal  of  Scotland,  1195-1214,  died  before  1220.     By  his 

wife,  Eda  Lorens,  he  had  a  son, 

4.  Herveus   de  Keth,  who,-  with  his  uncle  David,  acted  as  Marischals  at  the  marriage    of 

Alexander  II.  to  Joan  of  England,  at  York,  15th  June,  1220.  He  died  before  1250, 
leaving  a  son,  Sir  John  de  Keth  (above-mentioned). 
Sir  John  de  Keth  designed  great  Marisehal  of  Scotland,  in  a  charter  of  Alexander  II.,  1238, 
died  before  1270,  leaving  by  his  wife,  the  Earl  of  Buehan's  daughter,  Sir  William,  who 
does  not  appear  as  Marisehal  ;  Sir  Robert,  successor  of  Sir  John  ;  Adam,  Rector  of  Keith - 
Marisehal,  in  1292  ;  and  ajjparently  another  son,  father  of  Sir  William  Keith  of  Gals- 
•toun.  The  manuscript  genealogy  contains  a  Sir  Robert,  besides  the  Sir  Robert  recorded 
by  Douglas,  stating  that  he  married  Barbara  Seton  of  Winton,  and  had  a  daughter,  the 
mother  of  the  good  Sir  James  of  Douglas.  These  family  particulars  are  attached  by 
Douglas  to  the  name  of  Sir  William  de  Keth.  The  figures  that  follow  are  the  line  of 
Marischals,  not  of  family  succession. 

XII. — Sir  Robert  de  Keith  (not  Keth),  great  Marisehal  of  Scotland,  had  a  charter  from 
John  Baliol,  1294.  He  was  the  companion  of  Bruce,  and  fought  at  Inverurie  and  Bannock- 
burn,  and  lost  his  life  in  the  surprise  at  Dupplin,  1332.  He  was  the  first  Keith  of  the  Garioch 
(p.  62),  having  received  in  1324  a  grant  of  Hallforest  from  the  King,  and  also  of  Aden  in 
Buchan,  and  of  some  lands  in  Strathbogy.  He  was  married  to  Barbara  Douglas,  and  had  a 
son,  John,  who  predeceased  him,  leaving  a  son, 

XIII. — Sir  Robert  Keith,  his  grandfather's  successor  in  1332.  He,  was  for  some  time 
Sheriff  of  Aberdeen  and  was  active  in  the  expulsion  of  Edward  Baliol,  and  in  the  subjuga- 
tion  of  the  English   party  at  Kilblene.     He   married  Margaret,  daughter  of  Gilbert  de  la 


Keith.  437 

Haye,  the  first  Constable  of  Scotland  of  that  name.  Douglas  says  he  had  no  issue  by  her, 
and  was  succeeded  by  his  grand-uncle.  The  manuscript  genealogy  assigns  two  sons  to  the 
marriage — Sir  William  and  Sir-  Edward.  Both  accounts  say  he  died  in  1346  in  the  battle  of 
Durham,  in  which  David  II.  became  captive  to  the  English.  A  charter  in  the  Spalding 
Club  Collections,  gives  a  Sir  William  Keith,  Marischal  of  Scotland  in  1342 — a  record  best 
explainable  by  supposing  that  Sir  William  was  the  son  of  Sir  Robert  and  associated  with  him 
in  the  office  of  Marischal,  and  had  died  before  him. 

XIV. — Sir  Edward  Keith,  designed  "  son  of  Robert  de  Keith  great  Marischal  of  Scotland," 
appears  on  an  inquisition  in  1341.  He  died  before  1350.  He  married  (1st)  Isabel  de  Keth  of 
Galstoun,  and  (2ndly)  Christian,  daughter  of  Sir  John  Menteith  and  Elyne  of  Mar,  by  whom 
he  had  a  daughter,  Janet,  who  marrying  Sir  Thomas  Erskine,  became  ancestress  of  the 
Erskines  Earls  of  Mar.  Sir  Edward  had  two  sons — Sir  William,  and  John  (designed  in  1354 
the  son  of  Sir  Edward  and  brother  of  Sir  William  great  Marischal  of  Scotland).  John,  marrying 
Mariota,  daughter  of  Sir-  Reginald  Cheyne  of  Inverugie,  began  the  line  of  the  Inverugie  Keiths. 
Of  two  daughters  of  Sir  Edward,  Catharine  married  Alexander  Barclay,  ancestor  of  Barclay  of 
Ury,  and  Janet  married  Sir  David  Hamilton  of  Cadyow.  The  manuscript  gives  another 
Edward,  whom  it  describes  as  the  first  Lord  Keith,  and  the  father  of  Janet,  Lady  Hamilton. 

XV.— Sir  William  Keith,  Great  Marischal  of  Scotland,  is  in  1354  designed  son 
of  Sir  Edward  Keith.  He  appears  in  documents  from  1357  to  1407,  and  died  before  1412. 
He  married  Margaret  Fraser,  only  .child  of  Sir-  John  Fraser,  who  was  the  eldest  son  of  Sir 
Alexander  Fraser,  High  Chamberlain  of  Scotland  by  Mary,  sister  of  King  Robert  the  Bruce. 
This  Sir  William  Keith  acquired  in  excambion  for  some  lands  in  Fife  the  lands  of  Dunnottar, 
and  built  the  Castle  of  Dunnottar,  which  from  that  time  became  the  chief  seat  of  the  Keith- 
Marisehal  family.  Sir  William  and  Margaret  Fraser  had  three  sons  and  four  daughters — 1,  Sir 
John  ;  2,  Sir  Robert  Keith  of  Troup  ;  3,  Sir  Alexander  Keith  of  Grandowme,  believed  to 
have  been  the  commander  of  horse  at  Harlaw  ;  1,  Muriel,  2nd  wife  of  Robert,  Duke,  of 
Albany,  Regent  of  Scotland,  and  mother  of  John  Stewart,  Earl  of  Buchan,  Constable  of 
France. ;  2,  Janet,  wife  of  Philip  Arbuthnott  of  Arbuthnott  ;  3,  Christian,  wife  of  Sir  James 
Lindsay  of  Crawford  (p.  77)  ;  4,  Elizabeth,  married  to  Sir  Adam  de  Gordon  of  Huntly.  The 
Marischal's  eldest  son  John  in  1373-4  had  from  his  father  a  charter  of  all  his  possessions  and 
offices.  He  took  his  father's  official  post  at  the  battle  of  Otterbum,  and  after  the  fall  of 
James  of  Douglas,  recovered  the  battle,  taking  Ralph  Percy  prisoner.  He  married  one  of  the 
sisters  of  Robert  III.,  and  had  a  son  Robert,  the  hero  of  Winton's  "  Fecht  at  Bourtie  ".  John 
and  his  son  both  died  before  the  Marischal — Robert,  leaving  a  daughter  Jean,  who  married 
(s.  p.)  Alexander,  first  Earl  of  Huntly.  The  Marischal's  second  son,  Sir  Robert,  also  prede- 
ceased him,  but  during  his  brother's  lifetime  he  had  married  the  heiress  of  Troup,  and  had  two 
sons — Sir  William  the  next  Marischal,  and  John  who  got  Troup — and  whose  descendant 
George  Keith  of  Northneld,  was,  24th  September  1742,  served  heir  male  of  Sir  Robert  Keith, 
great  Marischal  of  Scotland.  One  daughter  Margaret,  married  Hugh  Arbuthnott  of  Arbuthnott ; 
another,  Elizabeth,  married  Alexander  Irvine  of  Drum. 

XVIIL— Sir  William  Keith,  first  Earl  Marischal,  eldest  son  of  Sir  Robert  of  Troup, 
marrying  Mary,  daughter  of  Sir  James  Hamilton  of  Cadyow  had  four  sons,  the  second  of  whom 
succeeded  him,  and  two  daughters,  of  whom,  Egidia,  the  younger,  married  John,  2nd  Lord 
Forbes.  He  was  created  Earl  Marischal  by  James  II.,  before  4th  July,  1458,  and  died  before 
1476.     He  served  his  country  well,  by  his  influence  and  prudence  dming  the  discords  between 


438  Appendix. 


Regent  Livingston  and  Chancellor  Crichton  in  the  minority  of  James  II.,  preserving  peace 
in  the  North. 

XIX. — William,  second  Earl  Marischal,  largely  increased  the  family  estates.  He  married 
Mariota  or  Muriella,  daughter  of  Thomas,  first  Lord  Erskine.  His  third  son,  Alexander,  got 
from  him  Aquhorsk  in  Mar  ;  and  his  line,  now  represented  by  a  grandson  of  Dr.  George  Skene 
Keith,  once  Minister  of  Keith-hall,  is  perhaps  the  only  existing  male  branch  of  the  family. 
The  second  Earl  Marischal  served  hi  the  Parliaments  of  1476  and  1488.     His  eldest  son, 

XX. — William,  third  Earl  Marischal,  under  James  III.  and  IV.,  married  Elizabeth  Gordon, 
daughter  of  the  second  Earl  of  Huntly.  He  had  a  charter  as  Marischal  in  1511-2,  and  died 
about  1530.  His  two  eldest  sons,  Robert  and  William,  fell  at  Flodden.  Robert,  Lord  Keith, 
marrying  Elizabeth  Douglas,  daughter  of  John,  Earl  of  Morton,  had  William,  the  fourth  Ear) 
Marischal  ;  and  Robert,  Commendator  of  Deer. 

XXI. — William,  fourth  Earl  Marischal,  succeeded  his  grandfather  after  1530.  He  reunited 
the  Inverugie  branch  to  the  main  line  of  the  family  by  marrying  Margaret,  elder  daughter  of 
Sir  William  Keith  of  Inverugie,  who  died  at  Flodden.  He  was  present  with  his  followers 
at  Pinkie  in  1547,  where  his  eldest  son  William,  Master  of  Marischal,  was  taken  prisoner. 
Robert,  the  Earl's  second  son,  was  the  Commendator  of  Deer,  created  Lord  Altrie  in  1587, 
who  died  without  male  succession  before  1590,  his  nephew  George,  fifth  Earl,  becoming  his  heir. 
Earl  William  was  a  zealous  promoter  of  the  Reformation,  yet  much  valued  by  the  widowed 
Queen,  who,  when  dying,  commended  her  daughter  and  the  peace  of  the  kingdom  to  his  care. 
He  moved  the  ratification  of  the  Protestant  Confession  of  Faith  in  the  Parliament  of  1560.  In 
order  to  retrieve  his  estate,  which  his  position  had  led  him  into  burdening  heavily,  he  confined 
himself,  during  the  last  eighteen  years  of  his  life,  to  his  castle  of  Dunnottar,  administering 
justice  in  the  Mearns,  and  known  by  the  name  of  William  of  the  Tower.  He  died  in  1581,  and 
was  succeeded  by  George,  the  son  of  William,  Master  of  Marischal,  and  Elizabeth  Hay,  his 
wife,  daughter  of  George,  sixth  Earl  of  Erroll. 

XXII. — George,  fifth  Earl  Marischal,  well  accomplished  in  classics,  was  sent  at  eighteen  to 
France  with  his  brother  AVilliain,  for  education,  and  afterwards  resided  and  studied  in  Beza's 
household  at  Geneva  ;  where  William  met  his  death  in  a  tumult.  Earl  George  returned  home 
after  extensive  travel,  and  occupied  a  prominent  position  in  the  country.  King  James  chose 
him  to  go  to  Denmark  to  conduct  his  betrothed  queen  to  Scotland  in  1589  ;  and  afterwards 
made  him  Lieutenant  of  the  North,  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  plot.  He  was  the  founder  of 
Marischal  College  in  1593  ;  in  which  year  he  gave  a  charter  to  Peterhead.  He  died  in  his 
70th  year  at  Dunnottar,  in  1623.  By  his  first  wife,  Margaret,  daughter  of  Lord  Home,  he 
had  William,  Margaret,  and  Anne,  wife  of  William,  Earl  of  Morton.  By  his  second  wife, 
Margaret,  daughter  of  James,  Lord  Ogilvy  of  Airly,  he  had  Sir  James  Keith  of  Benholm. 

XXIII. — William,  sixth  Earl  Marischal,  a  valued  Privy  Councillor  of  Charles  I.,  died  in 
the  prime  of  his  age  in  1635,  leaving  by  his  wife,  Mary  Erskine,  daughter  of  John,  Earl  of 
Mar,  High  Treasurer  of  Scotland,  four  sons,  William,  the  Earl  Marischal  of  the  Tro\ibles  ; 
George,  also  Earl  Marischal  ;  Sir  Robert ;  and  John,  the  first  Earl  of  Kintore  ;  and  three 
daughters,  Maiy,  married  to  Lord  Kilpont,  son  and  heir  of  William,  Earl  of  Airth  and 
Menteith  ;  Jean,  wife  of  Alexander,  Lord  Pitsligo  ;  and  Lady  Anne  Keith. 

XXIV. — William,  seventh  Earl  Marischal,  a  minor  and  in  France  when  his  father  died,  was 
continued  there  by  the  king  for  some  time.  He  took  the  Covenanter  side  for  some  years  of  the 
Civil  war,  but  like  other  noblemen,  went  over  in  1648  to  the  King's  side.     He  received  Charles 


The  Earls  of  Kiiitore.  439 


II.  at  Dunnottar  in  1650,  where  the  Regalia  was  afterwards  committed  to  his  charge.  He 
shortly  fell  himself  into  the  hands  of  Cromwell's  Government,  and  his  estates  being  seized,  his 
mother  furnished  the  means  of  his  support  while  a  prisoner.  On  the  Restoration,  he  received 
many  marks  of  royal  favour.  He  had  no  son  who  outlived  infancy.  His  daughters,  Mary, 
Elizabeth,  Jean,  and  Isabel,  became  the  wives  respectively  of  Sir  James  Hope  of  Hopetown, 
afterwards  of  Sir  Archibald  Murray  of  Blackbarony  ;  Robert,  Viscount  Arbuthnott  ;  George, 
Lord  Banff,  and  Sir  Edward  Turner. 

XXV. — George,  eighth  Earl  Marischal,  succeeded  on  his  brother's  death  at  Inverugie  in 
1661.  He  had  fought  for  Charles  I.  at  Preston,  and  for  Charles  II.  at  Worcester,  where  he 
was  taken  prisoner.  He  married  Lady  Mary  Hay,  daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Kinnoul,  and  had  an 
only  son,  who  succeeded  upon  his  father's  death,  in  1694,  at  Inverugie. 

XXVI. — William,  ninth  Earl  Marischal,  distinguished  himself  as  an  opponent  of  the 
union  of  the  two  kingdoms  ;  against  which  he  entered  a  protest  in  the  books  of  the  Scottish 
Parliament.  He  was  generous  so  much  as  to  dilapidate  his  estates  seriously.  By  his  wife 
Mary,  daughter  of  James,  Earl  of  Perth,  he  was  the  father  of  two  celebrated  sons,  George,  the 
last  Earl  Marischal,  and  Field-Marshal  James  Keith,  and  two  daughters,  Mary,  Countess 
of  Wigton,  and  Anne,  Countess  of  Galloway.     He  died  in  1712. 

XXVII. — George,  tenth  Earl  Marischal,  a  favourite  with  Queen  Anne,  taking  offence  at 
some  unaccountable  treatment  he  and  his  brother,  both  in  extreme  youth,  received  when 
going  south  to  offer  their  services  to  George  I.,  and  influenced  by  their  mother,  who  was  a 
Roman  Catholic,  joined  the  attempt  made  by  the  Earl  of  Mar  in  1715  to  seat  James  Stuart 
on  the  throne.  After  the  disastrous  end  of  that  rising,  both  escaped  to  the  Continent,  where 
they  attained  very  great  distinction ;  the  elder  in  the  civil,  the  younger  in  the  military,  service 
of  various  courts.  The  Earl  died  at  Potsdam  unmarried  in  1778  ;  James,  Field-Marshal  under 
Frederick  the  Great,  fell  in  the  battle  of  Hochkirchen,  in  1758,  also  unmarried  (p.  402.) 

THE  EARLS  OF  KINTOBE.     P.  365. 

I. — John  Keith,  sonUfWilliam,  sixth  Earl  Marischal,  appointed  Knight  Marischal  by  King 
Charles  in  1660,  was  created  Earl  of  Kintore  26th  June,  1677.  He  married  Margaret,  posthumous 
daughter  of  Thomas,  2nd  Earl  of  Haddington,  and  by  her  had  a  son  William,  Lord  Keith, 
and  two  daughters— Lady  Jean,  married  to  William  Forbes,  younger  of  Monymusk,  and 
Margaret,  wife  of  Gavin  Hamilton  of  Eaploch.  John,  first  Earl  of  Kintore  (p.  402),  obtained 
in  February,  1694,  a  new  patent  of  the  Kintore  Peerage,  limiting  the  honours  to  the  heirs 
male  of  his  body,  and  of  his  brother  George,  Earl  Marischal  ;  whom  failing,  to  the  heirs 
female  of  his  body  ;  with  the  precedency  conferred  in  1677. 

II. — William  Keith,  second  Earl  of  Kintore,  succeeded  his  father  in  1714.  He  joined  the 
Jacobite  rising  in  1715,  for  which  he  suffered  only  deprivation  of  the  office  of  Knight  Maris- 
chal. He  married  Catherine,  eldest  daughter  of  David,  Viscount  Stormont,  and  had  issue — 
John,  3rd  Earl,  William,  4th  Earl,  and  Catherine  Margaret  wife  of  David,  5th  Lord  Falconer 
of  Halkerton,  ancestor  of  the  second  bine  of  Earls  of  Kintore. 

III. — John  Keith,  third  Earl  of  Kintore,  succeeded  in  1718,  and  died  in  1758.  He  mar- 
ried a  daughter  of  James  Erskine  of  Grange,  Lord  Grange  of  the  Court  of  Session,  brother  of 
the  attainted  Earl  of  Mar ;  and  himself  a  political  plotter  after  the  manner  of  the  time,  who 
caused  his  wife,  Lady  Kintore's  mother,  because  she  was  in  dangerous  possession  of  his  secrets, 
and  on  bad  terms  with  himself,  to  be  abducted  in  1733,  and  confined,  the  rest  of  her  life,  in  the 


440  Appendix. 


Hebrides,  first  in  St.  Hilda,  and  afterwards  in  Skye.  John,  third  Earl  of  Kintore,  bought 
Ardtannies — the  Upper  Davo  of  Invernrie,  from  Andrew  Jaffray  in  1723.  His  grandfather 
had  bought  the  Lower  Davo,  in  1664,  from  Alexander  Jaffray.  Dying  without  issue,  Earl 
John  was  succeeded  by  his  brother, 

IV. — William  Keith,  fourth  Earl  of  Kintore,  who  never  married,  and  died  in  1761.  On 
his  death  the  estates  went  to  George,  last  Earl  Maxischal,  the  title  becoming  dormant  during 
the  lifetime  of  the  Earl  Marischal,  who  died  in  1778. 

V. — Anthony  Adrian  Keith-Falconer,  fifth  Earl  of  Kintore  in  1778,  was  eighth  Lord 
Falconer  of  Halkerton,  being  the  son  of  "William,  seventh  Lord  Falconer,  who  was  the  second 
son  of  Lady  Catherine-Margaret  Keith  by  her  husband,  David,  fifth  Lord  Falconer.  The  Earl 
married  Christiana  Elizabeth  Sighterman  of  Groningen,  and  had  issue  William  and  five 
daughters — Ladies  Isabella,  who  died  in  1792,  Maria-Kembertina,  Catherine-Margaret,  Francina- 
Constantia,  Jean,  Christiana-Elizabeth,  who  died  in  1820,  and  Helen  who  died  young. 

VI. — William  Keith-Falconer,  sixth  Earl  of  Kintore,  succeeded  on  his  father's  death  in 
1804.  In  1793  he  married  Maria,  daughter  of  Sir  Alexander  Bannerman,  Bart.,  M.D.,  and 
had  issue  Anthony-Adrian,  Alexander,  Captain  William  Keith-Falconer,  R.N.,  and  Lady  Mary 
born  in  1795. 

VII. — Anthony  Adrian  Keith-Falconer,  seventh  Earl  of  Kintore,  succeeded  on  his  father's 
death  in  1812.  He  was  created  a  Baron  of  Great  Britain  in  1838,  and  died  in  1844.  By  his 
second  marriage  with  Miss  Louisa  Hawkins,  he  left  two  sons,  his  heir  and  Major  Charles 
James  Keith-Falconer,  Commissioner  of  Inland  Revenue,  and  a  daughter  Lady  Isabella,  wife  of 
Henry  Grant,  Esq.  of  Congalton. 

VIII. — Francis  Alexander  Keith-Falconer,  eighth  Earl  of  Kintore,  is  married  to  his 
cousin,  Louiza-Madeleine  Hawkins,  and  has  issue  two  sons,  Algernon  Hawkins-Thomond, 
Lord  Inverurie  (married,  with  issue,  to  Lady  Sidney  Charlotte  Montague,  daughter  of  the  sixth 
Duke  of  Manchester),  and  Ion  Grant  Neville,  and  three  daughters,  Ladies  Madeleine-Dora, 
Blanche-Catherine,  and  Maude. 

ARMS  OF   EARL  OF   KINTORE, 

Quarterly  1st  and  4th  Gules,  a  sceptre  arid  sword  in  Saltire,  with  an  imperial  crown  in 
chief  within  an  orle  of  eight  thistles  or  as  a  coat  of  augmentation  for  preserving  the  regalia  of 
Scotland.     2nd  and  3rd  Argent,  a  chief  paly  of  six  or  and  gules  for  Keith. 

Crests — A  demiwoman  richly  attired  holding  in  her  right  hand  a  garland  of  laurel  ppr. 

Crest  for  Falconer  of  Halkerton.   An  angel  in  a  praying  posture  or  within  orle  of  laurel  ppr. 

Supporters — Two  men  in  complete  armour,  each  holding  a  pike  ppr. 

Motto — Quce  amissa  salva. 

LESLIE. 

Colonel  Leslie,  K.H.  of  Balquhain,  printed,  in  1869,  "  Historical  Records  of  the  Family 
of  Leslie,"  in  which  he  authenticates  the  later  pedigree  of  the  Leslies  from  numerous  docu- 
ments in  his  possession.  The  earlier  portion  is  taken  partly  from  Laurus  Leslaeana,  written 
1692,  by  a  Jesuit  priest  of  the  Balquhain  family,  but  is  compared  with  all  available  authorities. 

THE   ORIGINAL   FAMILY. 

I.  Bartolf  or  Bartholomew,  for.,  1067-1121  ;  married  Beatrix,  sister  of  Malcobn  Canmore 
(p.  16).     It  is  uncertain  whether  he  was  a  Hungarian  or  a  Fleming. 

II.  Malcolm,  son  of  Bartolf,  Constable  of  Enrowrie,  who  died  circa,  1176,  had  two  sons, 
Norman  and  Malcolm  (p.  31). 


Leslie  of  that  Ilk  and  Leslie  of  Balquhain.  441 

III.  Norman,  son  of  Malcolm,  Constable  of  Enrowrie  (charter  1199),  had  three  sons,  Norino, 
Leonard,  and  Bartholomew  (p.  33). 

IV.  Norino  the  Constable,  son  of  Norman  (charter  1248)  (p.  34). 

V.  Sir  Norman  de  Leslie  (1282),  first  bearer  of  the  surname,  married  Elizabeth  Leith, 
heiress  of  Edingarroch  ;  or  a  daughter  of  Watson  of  Rothes,  as  by  another  account  (p.  37). 

VI.  Sir  Andrew  de  Leslie  (1320).  By  his  wife,  Mary,  daughter  of  Alexander  Abernethy, 
dominus  ejusdem,  he  had  five  sons.  1.  Andrew  ;  2.  Norman  ;  3.  The  ancestor  of  the  Earls 
of  Rothes  ;  4.  Walter,  Earl  of  Ross  ;  5.  George,  first  of  Balquhain  (p.  73). 

VII.  Sir  Andrew  de  Leslie  (1325-1353),  had  a  son  Andrew,  and  a  daughter  Margaret, 
married  to  David  de  Abercromby,  laird,  in  1391,  of  Aquhorties,  &c. 

VIII.  Sir  Andrew  de  Leslie  had  a  son  Norman,  who  predeceased  him.  They  bequeathed 
the  mass  of  the  family  estates  to  Sir  George  Leslie  of  Rothes,  grandfather  of  the  first  Earl 
of  Bothes  (p.  104). 

IX.  David  de  Leslie  (died  1439),  son  of  Norman,  was  supposed  dead  when  Norman  made 
his  settlement  in  1390,  but  he  reappeared.  He  married  Margaret,  daughter  of  Robert  Davidson, 
Brovost  of  Aberdeen,  who  fell  at  Harlaw.  Their  only  child,  Margaret,  married  Alexander 
Leslie,  son  to  Sir  Andrew,  third  Baron  of  Balquhain,  who  had  by  her  a  son  John,  said  to  have 
been  poisoned  by  Ms  stepmother,  and  a  daughter  Johanna,  married  to  a  brother  of  Strachan  of 
Thornton  (p.   105). 

LESLIE  OF  THAT  ILK.     P.   104. 

I.  Alexander  Lesb'e  of  that  Ilk,  husband  of  Margaret,  married  secondly  Janet  Mowat  of 
Balquhollie,  and  had  two  sons,  William,  born  1430,  and  George,  the  next  of  that  Ilk. 

II.  George  Leslie  of  that  Ilk,  born  1432,  died  before  1513.     His  oldest  son  succeeded. 

III.  Alexander  Leslie  of  that  Ilk,  by  his  wife,  Janet  Leslie,  daughter  of  George  Leslie,  first 
of  New  Leslie,  had  two  daughters,  of  whom  Christian  married  Alexander  Leslie  of  Bitnamoon, 
who  in  her  right  succeeded  her  father  about  1520. 

IV.  Alexander  Leslie  of  that  Ilk,  by  his  wife,  Christian  Leslie,  had  two  sons,  John  and 
Walter. 

V.  John  Leslie  of  that  Ilk  in  1546  had  a  lease  of  the  teinds  of  lands  in  Leslie  from  John, 
Abbot  of  Lindores,  and,  in  1579-1584,  of  other  church  property  in  Bremnay.  By  his  wife 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Dempster  of  Muiresk,  he  had  Batrick  and  Isabella. 

VI.  Batrick  Leslie  of  that  Ilk  married  Margaret,  daughter  of  Robert  Lumsden  of  Aberdeen  ; 
and,  after  her  death  in  1575,  Sarah  Keith,  by  whom  he  had  two  sons,  each  of  whom  succeeded 
him,  viz.,  John  and  George. 

VII.  John  Leslie  of  that  Ilk,  died  without  issue  before  1608,  and  was  succeeded  by 

VIII.  George  Leslie  of  that  Ilk  (p.  217),  the  last  holder  of  the  patronymic  lands  of  Leslie. 
He  granted  a  charter  of  half  the  lands  of  Aquhorties  to  William  Robertson^  elder,  and  William 
Robertson,  younger.  In  1620,  being  in  pecuniary  difficulties,  he  sold  Auld  Leslie  to  John 
Forbes  of  Enzean,  second  son  of  William  Forbes  of  Monymusk  (p.  237).  By  his  wife,  Cathe- 
rine Henderson,  he  had  a  son  John,  served  heir  to  his  mother  in  1646. 

LESLIE  OF  BALQUHAIN.     P.  66. 

I.  Sir  George  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  (1340-51)  fifth  son  of  Sir  Andrew  Leslie,  sixth  Dominus 
ejusdem,  married  Elizabeth  Keith  of  Inverugie  (p.  66). 

56 


442  Appendix. 


II.  Sir  Hamelin  Leslie  of  Balquhadn  succeeded  his  father  in  1351,  and  died  in  1378.  By 
his  wife,  Anna,  daughter  of  Lord  Maxwell  of  Caerlaverock,  he  had 

III.  Sir  Andrew  Leslie  of  Balquhain  (p.  107),  who  married  Isahel  Mortimer,  daughter  of 
Bernard  Mortimer  of  Craigievar,  succeeded  his  father  in  1378,  and  was  killed  in  1420.  Of 
three  daughters  one  married  Glaster  of  Glack,  another  Munro  of  Foulis,  and  another 
Cheyne  of  Straloch.  The  second  son,  Alexander,  marrying  Margaret,  only  child  of  David  de 
Leslie,  became  the  first  Leslie  of  Leslie.     Sir  Andrew's  eldest  son, 

IV.  Sir  William  Leslie  of  Balquhain  (p.  100),  succeeded  in  1420.  He  was  the  common 
ancestor  of  the  Leslies  of  Kincraigie,  by  his  first  wife,  Elizabeth  Fraser,  daughter  of  Hugh,  first 
Lord  Lovat ;  and  of  the  Leslies  of  Wardes  and  the  Leslies  of  New  Leslie,  by  his  second  wife, 
Agnes  Irvine  of  Drum  ;  and  of  the  Leslies  of  Pitcaple  by  his  third  wife,  Euphemia  Lindsay, 
granddaughter  of  David,  first  Earl  of  Crawford,  and  Janet,  daughter  of  King  Robert  II. 

V.  Alexander  Leslie  of  Balquhain  succeeded  his  father  in  1467.  By  his  first  wife,  Janet 
Gordon  of  Cairnbarrow,  he  had,  among  other  children, 

VI.  Patrick  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  who  succeeded  in  1472,  whose  wife  was  Murial  Grant, 
daughter  of  Sir  Donald  Grant  of  Fruchie  (Castle  Grant). 

VII.  William  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  his  son,  succeeded  in  1496  (p.  137).  By  his  wife  Eliza- 
beth, daughter  of  Sir  Walter  Ogilvie  of  the  Boyne,  he  had,  among  others,  Isabel,  married 
secondly  to  Alexander  Seton  of  Meldrum  ;  Jean,  married  to  Patrick  Leith,  younger  of  Edin- 
garroch,  and  his  heir, 

VIII.  John  Leslie  of  Balquhain  (p.  139),  who  succeeded  in  1545,  and  died  in  France  in  1561. 
He  married  Elizabeth  Leslie,  daughter  of  Patrick  Leslie  of  Ardoyne.  His  eldest  son  prede- 
ceased him  without  male  issue.  Four  daughters,  Janet,  Agnes,  Margaret,  and  Barbara,  mar- 
ried respectively  William  Duguid  of  Auchinhove,  James  Harvey  of  Boyndis,  Dunbar  of 
Bonnyfield,  and  William  Cumming  of  Auchry.     He  was  succeeded  by  his  second  son, 

IX.  William  Leslie  of  Balquhain  (p.  146),  who  was  Sheriff  under  the  Earl  of  Huntly  at  the 
Reformation,  and  protected  the  Cathedral  of  Aberdeen  from  destruction.  He  was  the  first 
lay  proprietor  of  Fetternear.  His  first  wife,  the  mother  of  his  heir,  was  Janet,  daughter  of 
John,  sixth  Lord  Forbes,  and  widow  in  succession  of  John,  Earl  of  Atholl,  and  Alexander  Hay 
of  Delgatie.  Their  daughter  Jean  married  Thomas  Dempster  of  Muiresk  in  1588,  and  their 
daughter  Margaret  became  wife  of  Alexander  Abercromby  of  Birkenbog,  and  her  second  son 
became  Abercromby  of  Fetternear. 

X.  John  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  eldest  son,  succeeded  in  1571  (p.  215).  He  was  the  prin- 
cipal dilapidator  of  the  family  estates.  He  was  married  in  succession  to  Elizabeth,  daughter  to 
the  Laird  of  Grant,  in  1564  ;  to  Lady  Elizabeth  Hay,  daughter  of  George,  sixth  Earl  of  Erroll, 
before  1595 ;  and  to  Jean  Erskine,  sister  of  Thomas,  first  Earl  of  Kelbie,  in  1598.  His  sons  by  his 
first  wife,  John  and  William,  became  eleventh  and  thirteenth  barons  of  Balquhain  ;  Alexander 
and  Walter,  sons  by  his  third  wife,  became  fourteenth  baron  and  first  Count  Leslie.  Their 
sister  Elizabeth  married,  as  her  second  husband,  William  Grant  in  Conglass  (p.  319). 

XL  John  Leslie  of  Balquhain  succeeded  in  1622,  and  died  in  1638,  having  all  but  com- 
pleted the  ruin  of  the  .family  property  (p.  216).  By  his  wife  Janet,  daughter  of  Innes  of 
Auchintoul,  he  had  John,  his  heir,  Alexander,  baptised  by  the  minister  of  Inverurie  7th  March, 
1635,  and  Jean,  wife  of  James  Elphinstone  of  Glack. 

XII.  John  Leslie  of  Balquhain  (p.  250),  on  his  father's  death  in  1638,  succeeded  to  the  Castle 
and  Mains  alone.     Leaving  his  estate  to  nurse,  he  became  a  soldier,  first  under  General  Leslie 


Leslie  of  Balquhain.  443 


in  Scotland,  and  afterwards  in  the  Muscovite  service  ;  in  which  he  was  killed,  at  the  storming 
of  Ingolwitz  in  Poland,  30th  August,  1655.  He  was  married,  but  lost  wife  and  children  by  the 
pestilence. 

XIII.  William  Leslie  of  Balquhain  (p.  250),  second  son  of  John,  eleventh  of  Balquhain, 
succeeded  his  nephew.  Having  served  King  Charles  I.  in  the  army  and  at  the  Court,  he 
retired  to  Holland  after  the  King's  death.  He  had  no  son  ;  and  on  succeeding  to  the  family 
property,  he  renounced  it  for  an  annuity  to  his  half-brother  Walter,  Count  Leslie  (p.  399),  who 
again  about  1659  surrendered  it  to  his  own  elder  brother  Alexander,  being  himself  possessed 
of  large  estates  in  Germany. 

XIV.  Alexander,  Count  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  long  styled  Alexander  Leslie  of  Tullos, 
succeeded  his  brother  William  in  1671  (p.  330).  By  his  wife  Jean,  daughter  of  James  Elphin- 
stone  of  Glack,  he  had  four  sons,  of  whom  the  eldest  died  early  ;  the  second,  James,  adopted  by 
his  uncle  Walter,  became  second  Count  Leslie  in  Germany  (p.  400)  ;  the  third,  Patrick, 
became  fifteenth  baron  of  Balquhain  ;  and  the  fourth  was  a  Jesuit  priest,  William  Aloysius, 
author  of  Laurus  Leslocana,  published  at  Gratz,  1692.  Alexander  Count  Leslie  died  in  his 
eightieth  year  in  1677,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  second  surviving  son, 

XV.  Patrick  Count  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  in  whose  time  the  recovery  of  the  dispersed  family 
estates  was  completed,  through  the  aid  afforded  by  the  prosperous  Counts  Leslie  to  his  father 
and  himself.  He  married  in  1661,  Elizabeth  Douglas,  granddaughter  of  William,  Earl  of 
Angus,  and  by  her  had  two  sons  and  four  daughters.  The  eldest  son  chose  the  lot  offered  him 
of  succeeding  his  uncle  James,  second  Count  Leslie  in  Styria,  and  the  second  son  having  died 
without  issue  the  succession  became  ultimately  subject  of  contest  among  the  descendants  of  two 
of  the  daughters  ;  one  of  them,  Teresa,  married  to  Robert  Duguid  of  Auchinhove,  became  mother 
of  the  twenty-first  baron  of  Balquhain,  whose  descendants  now  possess  the  estate  (p.  400). 

Count  Patrick  in  1679  married,  as  his  second  wife,  Mary  Irvine  of  Drum  ;  and  a  son  George, 
born  by  her  in  1682,  succeeded  his  father. 

XVI.  George,  Count  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  succeeded  in  1710.  In  1695  his  elder  brother 
James  Ernest,  Count  of  the  German  Empire,  conveyed  to  him  his  rights  over  the  Balquhain 
estates,  for  which  purpose  he  met  him  at  Cologne,  because  he  could  not  receive  him  at  his  own 
residence  at  Gratz  in  Styria,  unless  George  could  appear  with  a  retinue  of  horse  and  men  repre- 
senting a  charge  of  30,000  merits.  Count  George  married  Margaret,  daughter  of  John,  eighth 
Lord  Elphinstone,  and  had  two  sons,  both  of  whom  became  lairds  of  Balquhain. 

XVII.  James,  Count  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  was  on  his  father's  death  in  1715,  in  his  fourth 
year.     He  died  in  Paris  in  his  twentieth  year  unmarried. 

XVIII.  Ernest,  Count  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  the  younger  son  of  Count  George  of  Balquhain, 
succeeded  in  1731,  being  still  a  minor,  and  died  in  1739. 

XIX.  Anthony,  Count  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  second  son  of  Count  Charles  Cajeton,  the  son  of 
James  Ernest,  Count  Leslie,  elder  brother  of  Count  George  (XVI.),  succeeded  by  a  decision  of  the 
House  of  Lords  in  1742  ;_but  in  1762,  the  Court  of  Session  finding  that  he  was  not  the  next 
Protestant  heir  of  entail,  he  had  to  denude  himself  of  the  estates. 

XX.  Peter  Leslie  Grant  of  Balquhain,  who  was  by  the  Court  of  Session's  decision  declared 
the  true  heir,  was  the  son  of  Anna  Erancisca,  second  daughter  of  Count  Patrick  Leslie  (XV.) 
by  her  husband,  John  Boy  Grant  of  Ballindalloch.  He  entered  the  Dutch  service  ;  and  died 
unmarried  at  Fetternear  in  1775. 

XXI.  Patrick  Leslie  Duguid  of  Auchinhove,  son  of  Teresa,  Count  Patrick  Leslie's  third 


444  Appendix. 


daughter,  succeeded  as  laird  of  Balquhain.  By  his  second  wife,  Amelia  Irvine,  daughter  of 
James  Irvine  of  Kingcausie,  in  the  Meams,  he  had  eleven  children.  Three  daughters  and 
their  mother  died  in  1762.  The  two  eldest  sons  became  priests,  and  the  third  died  unmarried  ; 
the  fourth  (born  1751),  succeeding  his  father  in  1777. 

XXII. — John  Leslie  of  Balquhain  married,  in  1774,  Violet  Dalzell,  daughter  of  John 
Dalzell  of  Barncrosh.  They  had  fifteen  children.  Three  of  the  sons  succeeded  to  the  laird - 
ship,  and  a  daughter,  Amelia,  married  Alexander  Fraser  of  Strichen,  and  by  him  had  an  only 
son,  Thomas  Alexander  Fraser,  to  whom  the  forfeited  Barony  Lovat  .was  restored.  Mr.  Leslie's 
papers  illustrate  largely  the  disabilities  then  affecting  landowners  who  were  Roman  Catholics. 
In  Ms  time  the  farm  of  Aquhorties  was  let  upon  a  lease  of  ninety-nine  years,  from  1 796,  in 
order  to  the  foundation  of  the  first  Roman  Catholic  College  in  Scotland.  The  College  was 
transferred  to  Blairs,  in  Kincardineshire,  in  1829.  He  died  in  1828,  and  was  succeeded  by  his 
eldest  son,  born  1675,  studied  at  Ratisbou  1788-1795,  then  a  cadet  in  La  Tour's  Dragoons. 

XXIII. — Ernest,  Count  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  assumed,  (with  recognition  by  the  Austrian 
Court,  in  whose  service  he  was),  the  German  title  obtained  by  the  family.  He  married  in 
1812  iu  Hungary,  the  Baroness  Fanny  Stillfried,  daughter  of  Emmanuel,  Baron  Stillfried, 
Imperial  Chamberlain,  and  died  at  Frankfort  in  1836. 

XXIV. — John  Edward,  Count  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  their  only  son,  born  at  Brussels  in 
1820,  succeeded  his  father  in  1836,  and  died  in  1844,  unmarried. 

XXV. — James  Michael  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  his  uncle,  fourth  son  of  John  Leslie,  spent 
most  of  his  life  in  Jamaica.    Succeeding  Count  John,  he  died  at  Fetternear  in  1849,  unmarried. 

XXVI. — Colonel  Charles  Leslie,  K.H.  of  Balquhain,  fifth  son  of  John  Leslie  succeeded 
his  brother.  He  was  twice  married.  By  his  first  wife,  Mary,  daughter  of  Major-General  Sir 
Charles  Holloway,  he  had  two  soils,  the  elder  of  whom  died  the  day  of  his  birth.  His  second 
wife,  Lady  Dorothy  Eyre,  died  Countess  of  Newburgh  in  1853,  leaving  her  husband  extensive 
estates  in  England.     She  had  no  children. 

XXVII. — Charles  Stephen  Leslie  of  Balquhain,  born  1832,  succeeded  on  his  father's  death 
in  1870.     He  married  in  1853,  Jane,  daughter  of  John  Rounding,  Esq.,  and  by  her  has  issue. 

Arms — Argent,  on  a  fess  azure  three  buckles  or.  Crest — A  griffin's  head  erased  ppr. 
Motto — Grip  fast. 

LESLIE  OF  WARDES.     Pp.  100,  111,  120. 

I. — Alexander  Leslie  of  Wardes  (p.  138),  Receiver-General  under  James  III.,  and  the 
King's  shield  bearer,  was  the  eldest  son  of  Sir  William  Leslie,  fourth  baron  of  Balquhain,  by 
his  second  wife,  Agnes  Irvine  of  Drum.  He  married  Isabella  de  Lauder,  the  heiress  of  Bal- 
comie,  in  Crail,  Fifeshire,  by  whom  he  had  two  sons,  John  and  Walter,  and  several  daughters, 
the  eldest  of  whom  married,  1st,  William  Seton  of  Meldrum,  and  2nd,  Provost  John  Collison 
of  Aberdeen,  the  instigator  of  an  attack  made  upon  that  town  in  1525  by  some  of  his  wife's 
relatives  (p.  138).  Another  daughter  married  Spence  of  Boddom ;  and  the  youngest,  Robert 
Keith,  who  was  killed  at  Flodden,  in  1513. 

II. — John  Leslie  of  Wardes  (p.  138),  born  1460,  succeeded  his  father  in  1500.  In  1504 
he  was  Provost  of  Aberdeen  ;  and  he  obtained  the  Regality  lands  of  the  Garioch  in  1510.  He 
was  married  five  times — first  to  a  daughter  of  the  Bishop  of  Moray,  without  issue. 

By  his  second  wife,  Margaret,  daughter  of  William,  Lord  Crichton  of  Frendraught,  he  had 
Alexander,  his  heir,  and  Margaret,  married  to  the  Laird  of  Cobairdy. 


Leslie  of  Wardes.  445 


By  his  third  wife,  Margaret  Forbes  of  Echt,  relict  of  Walter  Stewart  of  Dryland,  he  had 
two  sons,  the  younger  of  whom  died  without  issue.  The  elder  was  William,  first  laird  of 
Wai'thill ;  whose  descendants  now  represent  the  Wardes  line  in  the  Garioch. 

By  his  fourth  wife,  Agnes,  daughter  of  Patrick  Gordon  of  Haddo,  he  had  Andrew,  pro- 
genitor of  the  Leslies  of  Bucharn  and  the  Leslies  of  Clisson  in  France  ;  Bessie,  wile  of  Robert 
Winton,  next  of  Andrew  Menzies  ;  Marjory,  married  to  James  Keith  of  Aquhorsk  ;  another 
daughter,  married  to  John,  son  of  Patrick  Leith  of  Edingarroch. 

By  his  fifth  wife,  Annabella  Chalmers  of  Balbithan,  with  whom  jointly  he  had  a  charter 
of  Tullyfour  in  the  Regality  of  the  Garioch,  in  1525,  he  had  Robert— killed  at  Pinkie  ;  Clara, 
married  to  Patrick  Leith  of  Harthill,  to  which  spouses  King  James  gave  a  charter  of  Auch- 
leven  and  others,  1531  ;  Isabella,  married,  1st,  to  William  Troup  of  Comaleggie,  2ndly,  to 
Andrew  Craig  of  Balmellie;  Annabella,  wife  of  Andrew  Bremner,  in  Aberdeen. 

III. — Alexander  Leslie  of  Wardes  succeeded  in  1546.  By  his  wife  Margaret,  daughter  of 
Alexander  Forbes  of  Towie— along  with  whom,  in  1546,  he  got  from  Queen  Mary  a  charter  of 
Tavilty — he  had  William  his  successor,  Patrick  of  Duncanstone,  and  Alexander,  who  «ot  a 
Crown  charter  of  Kirktown  of  Dyce  in  1585.  Alexander  Leslie  of  Wardes  was  thrice  married, 
the  last  time  when  in  his  eightieth  year,  and  died  in  1573. 

IV.— William  Leslie  of  Wardes  (p.  221),  called  "Cutt"  by  King  James  VI.— under  whom  he 
was  Falconer — married  Janet  Innes,  daughter  of  Robert  limes  of  Innermarkie.  Two  daughters 
became  the  wives  respectively  of  Thomas  Meldrum,  son  of  Sir  George  of  Fyvie,  and  George 
Chalmers  of  Balbithan.  John,  eldest  son,  succeeded  him.  George,  second  son — known 
as  (p.  227)  "  of  Crichie  "  and  of  Meikle  Warthill,  both  of  which  properties  were  sold  to  Lord 
Elphinstone— was  the  father  of  Dr.  John  Leslie,  Bishop  of  Orkney  and  afterwards  of  Kaphoe 
and  Clogher,  progenitor  of  the  Leslies  of  Glasslough,  in  Ireland.  William,  the  third  son, 
who  got  a  charter  from  his  father  of  some  Garioch  lands  and  of  the  Thanage  of  Kintore  in 
1596,  died  without  succession.  James,  the  fourth  son,  by  his  wife,  Margaret  Erskine  of 
Pittodrie,  was  ancestor  of  the  Leslies  of  Tarbet  in  Ireland. 

V.— John  Leslie  of  Wardes  succeeded  in  1602.  He  married  Jane  Crichton,  daughter  of  Sir 
James  Crichton  of  Frendraught,  and  had  three  sons,  John,  William,  and  Norman  ;  and  several 
daughters,  of  whom,  Anne  was  married  to  John  Leith  of  Edingarroch,  about  1570,  and  Marjory 
to  Gilbert  Johnston,  second  sou  of  George  Johnston  of  Caskieben  (p.  177).     He  died  1620. 

VI.— Sir  John  Leslie  of  Wardes  succeeded  his  father,  and  was  in  1625  created  a  Knight 
Baronet  of  Scotland  and  Nova  Scotia  (p.  220).  He  married  Elspet  Gordon,  daughter  of  John 
Gordon  of  Newton,  by  whom  he  had  John  his  successor,  Francis  and  Alexander,  both  killed 
in  the  German  wars,  and  three  daughters,  who  all  married  twice— Janet  to  John  Gordon  of 
Avochie,  and  then  to  George  Gordon  of  Newton  ;  Elizabeth  to  Sir  John  Gordon  of  Cluny,  and 
next  to  Colonel  Sir  George  Currier  ;  and  Marjory  to  Alexander  Bannerman  of  Elsick,  and 
afterwards  to  Sir  John  Fletcher,  King's  Advocate..    He  died  in  1640. 

VII.— Six.  John  Leslie  of  Wardes  succeeding  to  ruined  fortunes  went  into  foreign  military 
service.     He  died  unmarried  and  was  buried  at  Insch,  1645. 

VIIL— Sir  William  Leslie,  his  uncle,  second  son  of  John  Leslie  succeeded  to  the  title  but 
did  not  adopt  it.  His  third  daughter  married  Sir  George  Johnston,  second  baronet  of  Caskieben. 
His  four  sons,  John,  Patrick,  Alexander,  and  William  (who  was  younger  of  Wardes  in  1650),  all 
four  died  without  issue.  The  lands  of  Wardes  were  out  of  the  family  in  1651  (p.  310).  The 
barren  title  went  to  the  descendants  of  his  brother  Norman  ;  whose  first  wife  (without  sirr- 


446  Appendix. 


viving  issue)  was  Marjory  Elphinstone,  widow  of  Walter  Innes,  Miller  of  Ardtannies.  By  his 
second  wife,  Marjory,  daughter  of  John  Leith  of  Harthill,  Norman  Leslie  had  a  son,  John 
Leslie  of  New  Rayne,  who  married  Janet  Gordon  of  Newton,  and  had  Patrick  Leslie  of  New 
Rayne,  whose  grandson,  John  Leslie — great-great  grandson  of  Norman — claimed  and  obtained 
the  baronetcy  last  inherited  by  Norman's  elder  brother,  William. 

IX.  Sir  John  Leslie  of  Wardes,  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Writers  to  the  Signet,  married, 
in  1794,  Caroline,  daughter  of  Abraham  Leslie  of  Findrassie,  and  died  in  1825. 

X.  Sir  Charles  Abraham  Leslie  of  Wardes,  his  eldest  son  married  Anne,  daughter  of 
Adam  Walker.     By  her,  who  died  1845,  he  had  two  sons  and  two  daughters. 

XL  Sir  Norman  Robert  Leslie  of  Wardes,  the  elder  son,  born  1820,  was  killed  in  the 
Sepoy  mutiny,  in  1857,  leaving  a  son, 

XII. — Sir  Charles  Henry  Leslie  of  Wardes,  bom  1848,  an  officer  in  the  Indian  Staff  Corps. 

Arms — Leslie  of  Wardes  and  Findrassie,  Bart. — Quarterly  1st  and  4th,  Argent,  on  a  bend 
azure,  between  two  holly  leaves,  vert,  three  buckles  or.  2nd  and  3rd,  counter  quartered,  for 
Leslie  of  Findrassie,  1st  and  4th  Argent  on  a  bend  azure,  three  buckles  or.  2  and  3  or,  a  lion 
rampant  gules,  surmounted  by  a  baton  sable ;  all  within  a  bordure  cheeky  gules  and  or.  Crest — 
a  demi-griffin  proper.     Motto — Grip  fast. 

LESLIE  OF  WARTHILL.     Pp.  140,  223,  410. 

I. — William  Leslie  of  Warthill  (p.  140),  who  died  in  1561,  in  his  72nd  year,  was  the  second 
son  of  John  Leslie,  second  baron  of  Wardes.  He  married  a  daughter  of  William  Rowan,  burgess 
in  Aberdeen,  in  1511,  and  by  her  had  a  son  Robert,  who  fell  at  Pinkie,  in  1547,  along  with 
his  uncle  Robert,  son  of  John  Leslie  of  Wardes. 

William  Leslie,  by  his  second  wife,  Janet  Cruickshank,  heiress  of  half  the  lands  of  Little 
Warthill,  grand-daughter  of  Adam  Cruickshank  of  Tillymorgan,  had  twenty-one  children,  of 
whom  sixteen  married. 

II.— Stephen  Leslie  of  Warthill,  their  eldest  son,  born  1520,  died  1610.  He  married 
Marjory,  daughter  of  Patrick  Leith  of  Licklyhead,  by  whom  he  had  two  sons.  The  second, 
Alexander,  married  Isabella,  daughter  of  John  Runciman,  parson  of  Oyne. 

III.— William  Leslie  of  Warthill,  the  elder  son,  who  died  1640,  in  his  80th  year,  acquired  the 
other  half  of  Little  Warthill,  and  also  bought  Little  Folia  fromGordon  of  Tilliehoudie,  husband 
of  his  daughter  Beatrix.  By  his  wife  Margaret,  daughter  of  Gilbert  Gray  of  Tullo,  he  had  James, 
his  successor  in  Warthill,  and  William  ;  to  whom  he  gave  Little  Folia,  and  whose  descendantsj 
in  1799,  succeeded  also  to  Warthill. 

IV.— James  Leslie  of  Warthill,  bom  1584,  died  1679.  He  married  Beatrix,  daughter  of 
Walter  Abercromby,  the  Minister  of  Rayne,  son  of  Alexander  Abercromby  of  Birkenbog. 
They  had  twenty-one  children.  William,  the  heir,  was  bom  in  1623.  John,  bom  1624,  served 
in  the  battles  of  Dunbar  and  Worcester,  and  in  1651  married  Janet,  daughter  of  Jerome  Innes, 
minister  of  Fyvie.  James,  born  1625,  married  Isabella,  daughter  of  Andrew  Logie,  minister 
of  Eayne.  Alexander,  fourth  son,  became  minister  of  Crail,  but  resigned  at  the  Revolution 
Settlement.  The  fifth  son,  Patrick,  marrying  Elspet  Keith  of  Aquhorsk,  had  a  son  George, 
one  of  the  Ministers  of  Aberdeen  ;  and  a  son,  John,  who  married  Margaret  Keith,  daughter  of 
the  Minister  of  Old  Deer,  and  had  a  daughter,  Ann,  wife  of  George  Seton  of  Mounie.  One  of 
the  daughters  of  the  fourth  laird  of  Warthill,  viz.,  Marjory,  married  Robert  Burnet,  parson 
of  Oyne.     James  Leslie  survived  his  son  William,  attaining  the  age  of  96  or  105. 


Family  of  Leslie  of  Little  Folia.  447 

V. — William  Leslie  of  WartMll  got  the  lands  in  his  father's  life  time  but  predeceased  Mm 
by  three  years,  dying  in  1676,  aged  56.  His  wife  was  Anne,  daughter  of  James  Elphin- 
stone  of  Glack.  Their,  second  son  William,  born  1657,  was  for  sometime  schoolmaster 
of  Chapel  of  Garioch,  but  died  a  Prince  Bishop  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  (p.  411).  They  hail 
other  two  sons  besides  the  heir,  one  a  merchant,  the  other  a  writer  to  the  signet,  who  dis- 
appeared in  France,  a  refugee  on  account  of  Jacobite  politics. 

VI. — Alexander  Leslie  of  WartMll,  born  1656,  died  1721.  He  married  Elizabeth  Gordon  of 
Badenscoth,  and  had  tMee  sons,  of  whom  John,  his  heir,  alone  left  issue. 

VII. — John  Leslie  of  WartMll,  born  1683,  died  1747.  By  his  second  wife,  Margaret, 
daughter  of  Patrick  Dun  of  Tarty,  he  had  his  heir,  Ms  only  child,  who  grew  up. 

VIII. — Alexander  Leslie  of  WartMll, born  1711,  succeeded  on  Ms  father's  death  in  1747.  He 
married  in  1730,  Helen,  daughter  of  George  Seton  of  Moimie.  The  third  of  five  sons  alone 
survived  their  father.  Mary,  eldest  married  daughter,  became  the  wife  of  George  Leslie, 
seventh  laird  of  Little  Folia,  and  their  son  was  tenth  laird  of  Warthill. 

IX.  Alexander  Leslie  of  Warthill  succeeded  Ms  father  in  1764,  but  died  without  issue  in 
1799,  M  his  55th  year.     His  nephew, 

X.— William  Leslie,  reumted  in  himself  the  families  and  estates  of  Warthill  and  Little 
Folia.  He  married,  in  1813,  Jane,  daughter  of  Dr.  Patrick  Davidson,  Minister  of  Rayne,  and 
died  in  1857  in  Ms  87th  year,  leaving  six  sons  and  two  daughters — 1  William,  his  heir  ;  2 
Patrick  ;  3,  Walter .;  4,  George  ;  5,  James  ;  6,  Thomas  Coutts,  married  to  Henrietta,  daughter 
of  Sir  R.  D.  H.  Elphinstone  ;  7  Mary-Anne,  wife  of  Dr.  Patrick  Davidson  of  Inchniarlo, 
Professor  of  Law  ;  and  8,  Catherine,  wife  of  Christopher  Rollestone,  Esq. 

XL  William  Leslie  of  Warthill,  born  1814,  married  Matilda  Robertson  and  has  issue.  He 
was  M.P.  for  Aberdeenshire,  1860-6. 

The  Leslies  of  Warthill  now  represent  the  male  line  of  Leslie  in  the  Garioch 

Arms — Argent  on  a  bend  azure,  tMee  buckles,  or ;  and  (in  consequence  of  descent  from 
Wardes),  two  holly  leaves.     Crest — A  griffin's  head  erased  ppr.     Motto — Grip  fast. 

FAMILY  OF  LESLIE  OF  LITTLE  FOLLA. 

I. — William  Leslie  of  Folia,  2nd  son  of  William  Leslie,  3rd  of  Warthill,  had  by  his  wife, 
Marjory,  daughter  of  William  Crichton,  brother  of  Viscount  Frendraught,  a  son  and  three 
daughters.     He  got  the  lands  of  Little  Folia  from  his  father  in  1611,  and  died  in  1657. 

II. — James  Leslie  of  Little  Folia,  born  1630,  married  Isabella  MiMe,  daughter  of  Monks- 
hill,  and  had  tMee  sons  and  one  daughter.  He  died,  aged  60,  in  1693.  George,  son  of  the  third 
son,  was  the  first  Leslie  of  Kinbroon  and  RotMenorman,  purchased  with  money  from  his 
uncle  William. 

III. — Rev.  William  Leslie  of  Little  Folia,  (M  1684,  of  Butler  Newtoune  in  County  Fer- 
managh, Ireland,)  was  Rector  of  Aquareagh  in  Fermanagh,  which  he  resigned  in  1711,  returning 
to  live  at  Little  Folia.     He  died  unmarried  in  1722,  having  been  born  in  1651. 

IV. — George  Leslie  of  Little  Folia,  Ms  brother,  born  1655,  succeeded.  His  wife  Isabella, 
daughter  of  William  Cheyne  of  Kaithen,  bare  him  two  sons,  successively  lairds  of  Little 
Folia,  and  three  daughters.     He  died  in  1730.     His  elder  son, 

V. — Rev.  William  Leslie  of  Little  Folia,  was  in  succession,  Schoolmaster  of  Auchterless, 
assistant  to  his  uncle  in  Aquareagh,  and  in  1715   Pastor  of  the  Episcopal  Congregation  at 


448  Appendix. 


Ellon.  Being  ejected  in  1716,  and  his  chapel  burned,  he  conducted  Episcopal  services  in  a  room 
at  Little  Folia,  until  his  death  in  1743,  in  his  64th  year.     He  never  married.      His  brother, 

VI. — John  Leslie  of  Little  Folia,  born  in  1697,  married  Elizabeth  Gordon,  daughter  of 
Hugh,  laird  of  Cults,  and  had  ten  children,  who  all,  except  his  eldest  son,  died  without  issue. 
He  died  1783.     His  son, 

VII. — George  Leslie  of  Little  Folia,  married  Mary,  daughter  of  Alexander  Leslie,  eighth 
laird  of  Warthill.  She,  on  the  death  of  her  brother  Alexander,  the  ninth  laird,  became  heir 
female  to  Warthill  ;  and  her  son  William,  born  1770,  united  the  families  of  Warthill  and 
Little  Folia,  as  stated  above.  George  Leslie  died  in  1807.  He  had  sold  the  lands  of  Little 
Folia  to  Mr.  Gordon  of  Coclarachie,  and  his  son  William  bought  them  back. 

JOHNSTON  OF  THAT  ILK  AND  CASKIEBEN.     P.  62. 

Dominus  Andrew  de  Garviach,  Sheriff  of  Aberdeen  in  1264,  appears  in  1273  (p.  50). 

Sir  James  de  Garviach,  appears  of  Cordyce  in  1316  (p.  61),  and  of  Balnacraig  in  1324-9 
(p.  62),  and  was  married  to  "  Helen  of  Mar ".  He  had  a  daughter,  Elene,  married  to  Robert 
Chalmers  of  Kintore,  in  1357,  the  first  Chalmers  of  Balnacraig.     Sir  James's  son, 

Sir  Andrew  de  Garviach,  was  Dominus  de  Caskieben,  in  1357  (p.  62).  His  daughter  and 
heiress  Margaret,  became  the  wife  of  the  first  Johnston  of  Caskieben  (p.  63). 

I. — Stephen  de  Johnston,  called  The  Clerk,  married  Margaret  de  Garviach,  before  April,  1380. 
Secretary  of  Thomas  Earl  of  Mar,  who  died  in  1377,  he  appears  in  1384,  a  witness  to,  and 
probably  was  the  writer  of,  a  charter  of  the  Collihill  chaplainry,  by  Margaret,  Countess  of 
Mar  (p.  75).     The  Clerk's  son, 

II. — John  de  Johnston  married  Marjory  Lichton  and  siirvived  1428,  (p.  121). 

III.— Gilbert  de  Johnston,  Ms  son,  was  married  before  1428  to  Elene  Lichton,  daughter  of 
the  Laird  of  Usan,  and  seems  to  have  survived  to  1476,  when  Gilbert  Johnston  de  eodem  is 
mentioned. 

A  manuscript  history  of  the  family  of  Caskieben,  written  about  1610,  mentions  Gilbert 
Johnston  (p.  121)  as  having  married — 1st,  Elizabeth  Vaus  of  Meny,  mother  of  Alexander  his 
heir,  and  of  three  daughters,  married  respectively  to  Blakhall  of  Barra,  Abercromby  of 
Birkenbog,  and  William  Hay  of  Artrochy  ;  2nd,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Sir  Alexander  Forbes,  2nd 
Baron  of  Pitsligo,  by  whom  he  had  a  son,  William  Johnston  of  Bendauch,  ancestor  of  the 
Johnstons  of  Crimond,  for  which  property  Bendauch  was  excambed.  It  seems  probable  that 
this  Gilbert  was  the  son  of  Gilbert  de  Johnston  and  Elene  Lichton,  and  predeceased  him. 

IV.— Alexander  Johnston  of  that  Ilk,  succeeded  before  1481  (p.  121).  Before  1st  March, 
1476,  he  was  married  to  Agnes  Glaster  of  Glack,  as  grandson  and  heir  of  Gilbert  Johnston  of 
that  Ilk.     The  spouses  were  infeft  at  that  date  in  the  lands  of  Johnston,  by  John,  Earl  of  Mar. 

V. — William  Johnston  of  that  Ilk  and  Caskieben,  served  heir  to  his  father,  Alexander,  in 
1508,  fell  at  Flodden,  in  1513.  He  was  twice  married.  By  his  first  wife,  Margaret  Meldrum, 
daughter  of  the  Laird  of  Fyvie,  he  had  James,  his  heir,  and  a  daughter,  married  into  the 
Blakhall  family  (p.  228).  By  his  second  wife,  Margaret  Lumsden,  daughter  of  the  Laird  of 
Condland  in  Fife,  progenitor  of  the  Lumsdens  of  Cushnie,  he  had  a  son,  Gilbert,  and  two 
daughters ;  Christian,  married  to  the  Laird  of  Cairndae  (now  called  Linton),  and  Margaret, 
married  to  William  Forbes  of  Finziach,  in  the  parish  of  Keig. 

VI. — James  Johnston  of  that  Ilk  and  Caskieben,  who  succeeded  his  father  in  1513,  married, 
Clara,  daughter  of  Barclay  of  Gartly.     They  had  three  sons  and  four  daughters. 


Johnston  of  that  Ilk  and  Caskieben.  449 

William,  married  to  Margaret  Hay  of  Delgaty,  was  killed  at  the  battle  of  Pinkie,  1547, 
leaving  a  son,  George,  who  succeeded  his  grandfather. 

Gilbert  Johnston  of  Standingston.es,  married  Margaret  Forbes  of  Corsindae,  and  had  issue. 
Mr.  George,  a  merchant  in  Aberdeen,  married  Katharine,  daughter  of  Thomas  Menzies  of 
Pitfoddels,  Provost  of  Aberdeen,  and  had  issue  (p.  456). 

Agnes,  Isabel,  Bessy,  and  Janet  married  respectively  the  Lairds  of  Colliston,  (Reid) 
Asloun,  Alexander  Chalmers  of  Strichen,  and  Patrick  Leith  of  Edingarroch. 

William,  besides  his  son,  left  three  daughters  ;  Bessy  married  to  Gilbert  Hay  of  Percok 
in  Buchan  ;  Margaret,  wife  of  James  Johnston,  a  cadet  of  the  family  ;  and  Violet,  married 
to  Patrick  Chalmers,  Burgess  of  Banff,  and  Sheriff-clerk  of  Banffshire. 

VII. — George  Johnston  of  that  Ilk  and  Caskieben  succeeded  his  grandfather  in  1548,  and 
died  in  1593  (p.  164).     He  married  Christian  Forbes,  daughter  of  William,  7th  Lord  Forbes, 
who  survived  him  until  1622.     They  had  six  sons  and  seven  daughters. 
1. — John,  Ms  heir. 

2. — Gilbert,  married  to  Marjory,  daughter  of  John  Leslie  of  Wardes  (p.  177). 
3. — George,  married  to  Agnes  Lundy,  daughter  of  the  Laird  of  Conland,  in  Fife. 
4.— Mr.  Thomas,  Dean  of  Guild  of  Aberdeen,  in  1618  and  1620. 
5. — Dr.  Arthur,  Medicus  Regius,  the  Latin  poet  (p.  165),  born  1587. 
6. — Dr.  William,  first  Professor  of  Mathematics  in  Marischal  College,  Aberdeen  (p.  164). 
7. — Margaret,   married,    1st,  to  Skene   of  Skene ;    2ndly,   to   Duncan  Forbes   (son  of 
Monyniusk),  Laird  of  Lethinty  in  the  Garioch,  and  of  Balnagask  in  the  Mearns. 
8. — Isabel,  married,  to  Mr.  Peter  Blackburn,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  (p.  164). 
9. — Agnes,  married  to  Robert  Johnston  of  Crimond  (p.  251). 
10. — Janet,  married  to  Robert  Johnston  of  Caiesmill. 

11. — Barbara,  married  to  Mr.  Robert  Elphinston  of  Kinbroun.  Her  brother,  John  John- 
ston, granted  them  a  charter,  in  feu  ferm,  of  Kinbroun  and  half  of  Badechash,  22nd  January, 
1606. 

12. — Helen,  married  to  the  Laird  of  Boddom. 
13. — Jean,  married  to  Thomas  Johnston  of  Middle  Disblair. 

VIII. — John  Johnston  of  that  Ilk  and  Caskieben  (p.  165)  was  twice  married.  His  first 
wife,  Janet  Turing  of  Foveran,  bore  to  him  two  sons,  viz.,  George,  the  first  Baronet,  and  John, 
of  Sleipiehillock,  married  to  Beatrix  Hay ;  and  two  daughters,  Elizabeth,  married  to 
Bannennan  of  Elsick,  and  Jean,  married  to  Forbes  of  Knaperna.  The  family  of  John 
Johnston  and  Janet  Turing  became  extinct  in  1724  by  the  death  of  the  fourth  Baronet. 

John  Johnston  married,  as  his  second  wife,  Katherine,  daughter  of  William  Lundy  of  that 
Ilk  (p.  223),  a  niece  of  Patrick  Lord  Ruthven.     She  died  in  1616. 

IX.— Sir  George  Johnston  of  that  Ilk  and  Caskieben  (p.  224)  succeeded  his  father  in  1613, 
He  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  William  Forbes  of  Tolquhon,  and  had  three  sons  and  two 
daughters  : 

1. — George,  his  heir. 

2. — John  Johnston  of  Newplace  married,  in  1646,  his  cousin,  Margaret  Johnston,  daughter 
of  Thomas  Johnston  of  Craig,  and  had  issue,  John,  fourth  Baronet  of  Caskieben  (p.  417). 
3.— William. 

4.— Jean,  married  to  John  Irvine  of  Brucklay,  in  Buchan. 

5.— Christian,  married   to  Dr  William  Keith   of  Lentush,  minister  of  Kinnellar  before 

57 


450  Appendix. 


1 650,  afterwards  of  Monkegy  and  Udny  in  succession,  and  latterly  Professor  of  Divinity  in 
Edinburgh  University,  and  minister  of  the  second  charge  of  St.  Cuthbert's  in  that  city. 

Sir  George  was  in  March,  1625  or  1626,  created  a  Baronet  of  Scotland  and  Nova  Scotia, 
and,  according  to  Douglas,  his  was  the  premier  Baronetcy.  He  was  appointed  Sheriff  of 
Aberdeenshire  for  one  year,  1630-1,  when  the  Marquis  of  Huntly  was  deprived  of  the  hereditary 
office.  Becoming  much  embarrassed  in  means,  he  mortgaged  his  estates  about  1633,  and  never 
was  able  to  redeem  them. 

X. — Sir  George  Johnston,  his  son,  had  by  his  wife,  who  was  a  daughter  of  Sir  William 
Leslie  of  Wardes,  an  only  son, 

XL — Sir  John  Johnston  of  that  Ilk,  who  was  an  officer  in  the  army,  and  a  Captain  in 
Colonel  Wauchope's  Regiment.  In  him  the  direct  line  came  to  a  tragic  end,  by  his  suffering 
capitally  for  being  accomplice  in  the  abduction,  by  a  brother  of  the  Earl  of  Argyll,  of  Miss 
Mary  Wharton,  an  heiress  under  age  (p.  374). 

XII. — Sir  John  Johnston  of  that  Ilk  and  Newplace,  son  of  the  second  son  of  the  first  baronet, 
succeeded  as  fourth  baronet  in  1690, — the  third  baronet  having  left  no  issne.  He  married  a 
sister  of  Provost  Mitchell  of  Aberdeen,  laird  of  Thainston.  His  sons  by  her  having  predeceased 
him,  the  honours  of  the  family  passed,  upon  Sir  John's  decease,  from  the  descendants  of  Janet 
Turing  (p.  417). 

The  present  bine  of  Baronets  of  Johnston  of  that  Ilk,  descended  from -John  Johnston  of 
that  Ilk,  who  died  in  1613,  by  his  second  wife  Katherine  Lundy.  The  issue  of  that  marriage 
was  (p.  208)— 

1.  Thomas  Johnston  of  Craig,  in  the  parish  of  Dyce. 

2.  Gilbert. 

3.  James. 

4.  Margaret,  married  to  Parson  Cheyne. 

5.  Christian,  wife  of  John  Forbes  of  Pitnacalder. 

Thomas  Johnston  of  Craig,  Sheriff-Depute  of  Aberdeenshire  under  his  brother  in  1630-1, 
married  twice.  By  his  first  wife,  Elspet  Strachan,  he  had,  besides  some  sons  who  died  young, 
1,  Margaret,  wife  of  John  Johnston  of  Newplace,  and  mother  of  Sir  John  Johnston,  4th 
baronet  ;  2,  Elizabeth,  married,  in  1652,  to  Alexander  Leith  of  Bucharne,  nicknamed  Hardhead  ; 
3,  Isobel,  married,  in  1654,  to  Robert,  son  of  Mr.  John  Cheyne,  parson  of  Kintore. 

By  his  second  spouse,  Mary  Irvine  of  Kingcausie,  Thomas  Johnston  of  Craig  had  four  sons. 

1.  Thomas,  his  successor,  who  died  a  bachelor.  2.  William,  also  of  Craig,  died  without 
heirs  of  his  body.  3.  John  of  Bishopstown,  father  of  the  5th  Baronet.  4.  James,  Litster  in 
Aberdeen  and  Burgess  thereof.     He  was  the  predecessor  of  Johnston  of  Badifurrow  (p.  410). 

Thomas  Johnston,  second  of  Craig,  died  unmarried  in  1686,  when  William,  his  brother, 
an  officer  in  the  army,  succeeded  as  laird  of  Craig.  He  married  in  Holland,  Joanna  Van 
Millan,  but  died  without  issue  in  1716. 

John  Johnston  of  Bishopstown  in  Newhills,  born  in  Dyce,  in  1649,  married,  in  1672, 
Margaret,  daughter  and  co-heiress  of  John  Alexander,  an  opulent  Merchant  Burgess  of 
Aberdeen.  He  died  in  1716  ;  and  his  widow  twenty  years  thereafter.  Of  their  sons,  William 
and  John  married,  and  had  issue. 

XI II.— Sir  William  Johnston  of  Craig,  the  eldest  son,  became  fifth  baronet  in  November, 
1724.  He  was,  in  1695,  apprentice  to  Andrew  Logie  of  Loanhead,  Advocate  in  Aberdeen,  and 
was  himself  admitted  an  Advocate  there  in  1700.     Upon  succeeding  to  the  baronetcy,  it  was 


Johnston  of  that  Ilk  and  Caskiehen.  45 1 

found  that  Sir  John,  fourth  baronet,  had  died  deeply  in  debt ;  his  successor  in  the  title  was  much 
involved  with  him.  These  liabilities  in  addition  to  others  personal  to  himself,  reduced  Sir 
William  to  bankruptcy,  and  Craig, — the  last  portion  of  the  old  Caskieben  property  remaining  in 
the  family, — was  disposed  of ;  his  brothers  John  and  Thomas,  joint  tacksmen  of  Standing- 
stones  in  Dyce,  had  also  to  give  up  possession  of  their  farm.  By  his  marriage  with  Jean, 
daughter  of  James  Sandilands  of  Craibstone,  Sir  William  had,  out  of  a  large  family,  one  son 
who  left  issue,  viz.  : 

XIV. — Sir  William  Johnstone,  who  entered  the  Navy  when  young.  Having  gone  by  sea  to 
London,  the  Baronet  was  wont  to  relate  that  he  crossed  the  bar  at  the  Harbour  of  Aberdeen . 
with  only  half-a-crown  in  his  pocket.  By  prudent  management  he  was  able  to  purchase,  in 
1750,  the  lands  of  Hilton  in  Old  Machar — sold  by  his  descendants  after  1852.  He  died  in  London 
in  1794,  aged  80,  leaving  one  son,  by  the  second  of  his  three  wives,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of 
Captain  William  Cleland,  R.N.,  representative  of  Cleland  of  that  Ilk,  in  Lanarkshire. 

XV. — Sir  William  Johnston  of  Hilton,  born  there  in  1760,  entered  the  British  Army.  He 
was  M.P.  for  Windsor  from  1797  to  1802,  and,  in  1799,  became  a  Colonel  in  the  Army,  in 
consequence  of  having  raised  a  regiment  of  Feneible  Infantry  for  general  service.  By  his 
second  wife,  Maria,  only  daughter  of  John  Bacon  of  Friern  House,  Barnet,  Middlesex, 
Receiver  of  the  First  Fruits,  London,  he  had  a  large  family.  He  died,  aged  eighty-four,  at 
the  Hague,  in  1844,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  eldest  surviving  son, 

XVI. — Sir  William  Bacon  Johnston,  born  1806.     He  entered  the  Army  when  young  ;  but 
involved  in  his  father's  pecuniary  liabilities  had  to  sell  out,  and  led  an  obscure  life.     He  went 
to  reside  at  Hilton,  in  1858,  where  he  died  in  1865,  leaving  an  only  son, 
XVII. — Sir  William  Johnston,  ninth  Baronet. 

Sir  William  Bacon  Johnston  (XVI.),  by  his  wife,  Mary  Ann  Tye  (daughter  of  John  Tye 
and  his  wife,  Susan  Hewlett,  or  Tye,  villagers  of  Mendlesham,  a  small  hamlet  not  far  distant 
from  the  town  of  Stowmarket  in  Suffolk),  had  a  family  of  six  daughters  besides  his  son  and 
heir — born  in  July,  1849,  in  Hawley  Boad,  Kentish  Town,  Middlesex.  These  children  had 
been  born,  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  London,  between  1840  and  1854.  In  the  year  1855 
— some  two  years  after  the  decease,  at  Edinburgh,  of  Sir  W.  Bacon  Johnston's  only  surviving 
brother,  Captain  Arthur  Lake  Johnston — the  Baronet  and  Miss  Tye  were  married,  in  the 
Parish  Church  of  St.  Pancras,  Middlesex,  on  11th  September,  having  (the  marriage  certificate 
bears)  been  previously  married,  according  to  the  Scotch  law.  It  is  understood,  indeed,  that 
some  irregular  form  of  marrying  the  couple  had  been  gone  through,  at  Edinburgh,  in  Summer, 
1855.  In  the  marriage  register  both  parties  are  described  as  of  full  age — the  bridegroom  as  a 
Bachelor  and  Baronet,  the  bride  being  styled  Spinster,  of  Bury  St.  Edmunds,  Suffolk ;  her  father's 
name  and  surname,  John  Tye — his  profession  or  rank,  that  of  a  gentleman.  The  effect  of  this 
marriage,  in  Scottish  law,  was  to  render  legitimate,  in  Scotland,  the  whole  children  of 
Sir  William  born  of  his  connection  with  Miss  Tye,  even  although  all  of  them  had  been  bom 
out  of  Scotland.  Another  result  of  the  wedding  was  to  render  imperative,  at  a  future  period, 
certain  proceedings,  both  novel  and  interesting,  in  the  Supreme  Civil  Court  of  Scotland,  to  be 
hereinafter  noticed. 

Sir  W.  Bacon  Johnston,  on  the  decease,  at  the  Hague,  in  January,  1844,  of  his  father,  the 
seventh  Baronet,  succeeded  as  next  heir  of  entail  to  the  Hilton  property,  near  Aberdeen.  Soon 
after  the  passing  of  the  Act  of  Parliament,  11  and  12  Queen  Victoria,  cap.  36  (1848),  Sir  W. 
Bacon  Johnston  being  desirous  of  effecting  a  disentail  of  that  estate,  made  application  to  the 


452  Appendix. 


then  next  existing  three  substitute  heirs  of  entail  for  their  consents  to  disentail  the  Hilton 
estate,  as   required  by  the  Act  of  Legislature  referred  to.     The  sums  agreed  to  be  paid,   in 
1852,  to  those  three  next  existing  heirs  amounted  altogether  to  £4,300  sterling,  considerably  more 
than  double  the  price  paid,  in  1750,  for  the  fee  simple  of  the  Hilton  property,  by  the  sixth 
Baronet ;  -which  price  is  understood  to  have  been  £2,000  sterling.     In  the  printed  petition  for 
authority  to  disentail,  presented  in  May,  1852,  to  the  Court  of  Session,  it  is  stated  that  Sir 
AVilliam  B.  Johnston,  the  heir  of  entail  then  in  possession  of  the  estate  of  Hilton,  was  of  full 
age,  and  was  unmarried  ;  and  that  the  three  next  substitute  heirs  of  Tailzie  thereof,  then  in 
existence,  were  the  petitioner's  only  brother  and  presumptive  heir — "  Captain  Arthur  Lake 
Johnston,   of  Her  Majesty's  22nd  Regiment,  lately  in  the  East  Indies,  now  in  London,  or 
elsewhere  abroad  ;  David  Morice  Johnston,  Esq.,  formerly  of  the  Inner  Temple,  now  of  Old 
Palace  Yard,  Westminster,  Solicitor  in  London  ;  and  Alexander  Johnston,  junior,  Esq.,  Writer 
to  the   Signet,    Drurnmond   Place,    Edinburgh ".     No   objection   having  been  raised  to  the 
disentailing  procedure,  a  judgment,  or  interlocutor,  was  in  July,  1852,  pronounced  by  the  Lords 
of  the  First  Division  of  the  Court,  whereby,  on  executing  the  usual  instrument  of  disentail,  the 
petitioner,  Sir  W.  B.  Johnston,  should  hold  the  Hilton  lands  in  fee  simple  ;  which  judgment, 
of  course,  conferred  on  Sir  W.  Bacon  Johnston  full  power  to  sell,  feu,  or  otherwise  dispose  of 
the  formerly  entailed  estate,  as  he  might  deem  fit.     Captain  Arthur  L.  Johnston  died,  unmarried, 
at  Edinburgh,  on  21st  February,  1853  ;  and  Mr.  David  M.  Johnston  survived  him  for  exactly 
ten  years,  having  died,  a  bachelor,  at  London,  on  21st  February,  1863.     After  the  disentailing 
of  Hilton,  in  July,  1852,  frequent  endeavours  were  made  to  dispose  of  that  property,  but  with 
indifferent  success, — some  small  portions  only  of  the  estate  having  been  sold  or  feued  off.     At 
length,  in  1S73,  the  remaining,  and  the  much  larger,  portion  of  the  estate  found  a  purchaser  in 
Mr.  James  Anderson,  merchant  in  London,  whose  legal  agents  required  that  their  client  should 
be  furnished  with  a  complete  and  indefeasible  feudal  title  to  his  recently  acquired  property.     The 
wedding,   in  1S55,  of  Sir  William  Bacon  Johnston  with   Mary   Ann  Tye,   rendered  their 
son,  William,  legitimate  in  Scotland  at  from  July,   1849  ;  and  as  the  disentail  was  carried 
through  in  July,  1852 — three  years  subsequent  to  the  birth  of  that  boy — with  the  consent  of 
the  three  then  next  existing  heirs  of  entail — as  in  fact  the  three  Messrs  Johnston  actually  then 
(1852)  were — it  seemed  advisable,  in  order  to  provide  an  unexceptionable  title  to  the  several 
parties  who  had  purchased  the  various  portions  of  Hilton,  to  cite,  in  an  action  before  the  Court 
of  Session,  not  only  Mr.  Johnston,  W.S.  (the  only  one  surviving,  in  1873,  of  the  three  substitute 
heirs  of  entail  who  had,  in  1852,  consented  to  the  disentail  thereof),  but  also  all  the  individuals 
who,  in   1873,  bore  the  character  of  substitute   heirs  of  entail   of  Hilton,  in   terms  of  the 
Tailzie,    executed  in   February,    1784.     The   description   in   that   deed   of  the  more  remote 
substitute  heirs  thereby  called — viz.,  the  heirs  male  whatsoever  of  the  entailer,  Sir  William,  the 
sixth  Baronet — comprehended  every  maleperson,  of  legitimate  birth,  of  the  surname  of  Johnston, 
descended,  or  claiming  descent,  from  Stephen  de  Johnston,    "  the  Clerk,"   the  founder,  in 
Aberdeenshire,  of  the  Caskieben  Johnston  race,  in  the  latter  half  of  the  fourteenth  century. 
It  is  a  singular  fact  that,  although  of  Stephen,  "  the  Clerk,"  all  the  Johnstons  in  the  north  are 
stated  by  Sir  Robert  Douglas  (Baronage  of  Scotland,  page  35)  to  have  beendescended,  not  more  than 
a  dozen  individuals  were  found,  after  the  most  anxious  investigation,  to  bear,  in  1874-5,  the 
character  of  heirs  male  whatsoever  of  the  entailer  of  Hilton  ;  or,  in  other  words,  of  heirs  male 
lineally   descended  from  Stephen  de  Johnston,    "the   Clerk".     With   the  exception  of  Sir 
William,  ninth  Baronet,  all  the  other  existing  heirs  male  of  the  Caskieben  Johnston  stock  were 


Juhnston  of  that  Ilk  and  Caskieben.  453 

direct  descendants  of  John  Johnston  (who  died  in  1770)  and  his  spouse,  Mrs.  Margaret  Chalmers 
or  Johnston,  who  died  in  1812. 

This  matter  was  definitely  and  authoritatively  settled  by  judgment  of  Lord  Curriehill, 
sitting  as  Ordinary  in  the  Outer  House  of  the  Court  of  Session,  on  1st  June,  1875,  pronounced 
in  absence  of  the  defenders,  in  the  action  of  declarator  and  implement,  brought  at  the  instance 
of  Dame  Mary  Ann  Tye,  or  Johnston,  and  others.  The  following  were  the  names  of  the  several 
defenders,  of  the  Caskieben  Johnston  race,  specified  in  the  printed  minute  book  of  the  Court  of 
Session,  for  1875,  pp.  497-98  : — Sir  William  Johnston,  Baronet  ;  Alexander  Johnston,  W.S., 
residing  at  Johnston,  near  Aberdeen  ;  Robert  Johnston,  formerly  Merchant  in  Aberdeen, 
residing  in  Laurencekirk  ;  William  Johnston,  Surgeon  in  the  Army  Medical  Staff,  stationed  at 
Aldershot,  and  George  Johnston,  Planter  in  Ceylon,  sons  of  the  said  Robert  Johnston  ;  William 
Johnston,  a  pupil,  residing  at  Fochabers,  son  of  Andrew  Johnston,  deceased,  who  was  son  of 
William  Johnston,  sometime  Merchant  in  Aberdeen,  also  deceased  ;  William  Johnston,  in 
Mobile,  in  the  State  of  Alabama,  in  the  United  States  of  America,  also  son  of  the  said  deceased 
William  Johnston,  sometime  Merchant  in  Aberdeen  ;  Thomas  Alexander  Johnston,  a  minor, 
John  Johnston,  and  Curtis  Laudiner  Johnston,  pupils,  children  of  the  said  William 
Johnston,  of  Mobile  ;  Thomas  Johnston,  Ship  Carpenter,  Greenock,  also  son  of  the  said  deceased 
William  Johnston,  sometime  Merchant  in  Aberdeen,  and  William  Johnston,  pupil,  son  of 
Thomas  Johnston,  (the  Ship  Carpenter);  and  Andrew  Johnston,  residing  at  Davah  Cottage, 
Inverurie,  formerly  in  Balquhain.  Andrew  Johnston,  last-named  (in  1875,  the  only  surviving 
son  of  Captain  Andrew  Johnston),  died  at  Davah  Cottage,  unmarried,  in  July,  1876. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  of  the  eight  individuals  who  bore  the  Caskieben  Baronetcy  between 
1625-26  and  1865,  only  one,  viz.,  Sir  William  Johnston,  sixth  Baronet,  died  in  other  than 
bankrupt  circumstances,  or,  at  any  rate  in  the  utmost  impecuniosity. 

The  fact  of  Stephen  de  Johnston,  "  the  Clerk,"  having  been  uniformly  represented 
as  having  been  brother  of  the  Laird  of  Johnston  in  Annandale,  formed  the  groundwork  of  a 
claim  unsuccessfully  advanced,  about  1810,  by  Sir  William,  seventh  Baronet,  to  the  then — and 
still — dormant,  Marquisdom  of  Annandale. 

Of  the  now  only  existing  younger  branch  of  the  Caskieben  Johnstons,  represented  by  Mr. 
Alexander  Johnston,  a  few  particulars  may  here  be  added. 

John  Johnston  of  Bishopstown,  in  Newhills  parish,  Aberdeenshire  (born  1649,  died  1716), 
had  by  his  wife,  Mrs.  Margaret  Alexander,  besides  Sir  AVilliam,  the  Aberdeen  Advocate,  and 
Thomas  Johnston,  who  died  unmarried,  another  son,  named  John  Johnston,  who,  for  a  long 
period,  farmed  the  small  property  of  Bishopstown  ;  and  also,  along  with  his  brother  Thomas, 
occupied  for  a  time  the  farm  of  Standingstones  of  Dyce.  This  John  wedded  (Marriage 
Contract  dated  16th  February,  1717)  Isobel  Marnoch,  "  the  Maiden  of  Balnagask,"  i.e.,  the  eldest 
daughter  of  John  Marnoch,  tenant  of  Balnagask,  in  the  parish  of  Nigg,  in  the  Mearns.  Mr.  and 
and  Mrs.  John  Johnston,  besides  an  only  daughter, — who  became  wife  of  Alexander  Low,  farmer 
in  Skene, — had  four  sons,  of  whom  one  only  left  male  issue — viz.,  John  Johnston,  born  at 
Standingstones,  in  Dyce,  in  1725  ;  who  wedded  at  Dyce,  in  1758,  Margaret,  daughter  of  William 
Chalmers,  in  Meikletown  of  Dyce,  by  whom  he  had  four  sons  and  a  daughter ;  which  last  and 
two  of  her  brothers,  died  unmarried.  John  Johnston,  himself,  died  atMilbowie,  in  Skene,  in 
1770.  His  widow,  Mrs.  Margaret  Chalmers,  survived  until  1812  ;  when  she  departed  this 
life  at  Hilton,  near  Aberdeen,  aged  82,  leaving  two  sons,  William  and  Andrew,  each  of  whom 
married  and  had  issue. 


454  Appendix. 


William  Johnston,  the  eldest  son  of  his  parents,  was  born  at  his  father's  farm  of  Boginjoss, 
on  the  lands  now  called  Caskieben,  in  Dyce  parish,  in  1762.  He  became  a  Merchant  and 
extensive  Shipowner  in  Aberdeen  ;  and  to  him  fell  the  gratifying  task  of  being  able,  through 
long  continued  and  diligent  attention  to  business,  to  retrieve  the  fallen  circumstances  of  his 
progenitors ;  who — i.e.,  his  grandfather  and  father — had  been  much  reduced,  in  consequence  of  the 
misfortunes  which  befell  Sir  William,  the  Aberdeen  Advocate  already  mentioned.  Mr.  William 
Johnston  married,  in  1801,  at  Tullos,  in  Nigg,  Catharine  Morice,  eldest  daughter  of  David 
Morice  of  Tullos,  Sheriff-Substitute  of  the  County  of  Aberdeen, — which  lady  had  five  sons  and 
two  daughters  ;  who  all  survived  their  parents,  except  two  of  the  sons,  viz.,  William  and  James 
Farquhar  Johnston,  both  of  whom  died  in  childhood.  William  Johnston  died  suddenly,  in 
February,  1832,  at  his  house  of  Viewfield,  near  Aberdeen  ;  which  property  he  had  acquired  a 
few  years  previous  to  his  decease.* 

*Soon  after  being  admitted,  in  1792,  a  Guild  brother  of  Aberdeen,  Mr.  William  Johnston  became 
a  member  of  the  Town  Council  of  Bon-Accord, — on  the  introduction  of  bis  relative,  Baillie  Andrew 
Burnett  (of  the  Ehiek  family),  then  an  influential  member  of  the  Municipal  body.     In  Dean  of  Guild 
Walker's  list  of  the  Deans  of  Guild  of  Aberdeen,  from  1436  to  1S75  (privately  printed  in  1875),  it  is 
mentioned  that  William  Johnston  was  Dean  of  Guild  of  the  City  in  1S15,  and  again  in  1822.     That 
office  was  held  by  Mm  for  one  year  on  each  occasion.     Mr.  Johnston  had  at  sundry  times,  during  his  long 
connection — extending  to  some  forty  years — with  the  Aberdeen  Town  Couucd,   filled  various  offices 
therein,  including  those  of  City  Treasurer,  Master  of  Shoreworks,  &c.     That  gentleman,  through  his 
marriage,  in  1801,  with  Miss  Morice,  became  closely  connected  with  one  or  two  families  in  the  burgh 
who,  towards  the  close  of  the  last,  and  in  the  beginning  of  the  present,  century,  bore  a  leading  part  in 
the  management  of  Aberdeen  town's  affairs.     Mr.  Johnston's  mother-in-law— Mrs.  Rachel  Young  or 
Morice  — was  daughter  of  James  Young  and  Rachel  Cruickshank,  his  spouse  ;  which  James  Young  had 
been  a  member  of  the  Aberdeen  Town  Council.     Two  of  James  Young's  sons — William  and  James — 
and  two  of  Ins  sons-in-law,  and  several  of  his  grandsons,   were  Deans  of  Guild.     James'   eldest  son  — 
William  Young,  afterwards  of  Sheddoeksley,  and  Provost  of  Aberdeen — was  Dean  of  Guild  in  1766  ; 
while  William's  brother,  James  Young,  filled  the  same  office  in  1775,  and  again  in  1779.     Old  James 
Young's  son-in-law — Mr.,  afterwards  Baillie,  John 'Farquhar— was  Dean  of  Guild  in  1760  ;  while  Ms 
friend  and  partner — also  a  son-in-law  of  old  James  Young — Mr.,  afterwards  Baillie,  Alexander  Hadden, 
held  the  same  office  in  1761.     The  wives  of  Baillies  Farquhar  and  Hadden  were  respectively  named 
Rachel  and   Elspet  Young.     Their  husbands  were  the  original  partners  of  the  firm  of  Farquhar  & 
Hadden,  Stocking  Merchants,  in  the  Green ;  which  business,  after  Baillie  Farquhar's  death  in  1768,  was 
carried  on  by  the  surviving  partner  and  one  or  two  of  his  sons  ;  and  still  exists,  under  the  firm  of 
Alexander   Hadden   &    Sons ;    their  business   being   carried   on   nearly   on  the   site  of  the  original 
manufactory,  in  the  Green  of  Aberdeen.     The  eldest  son  of  Baillie  Hadden  and  his  wife  (Mrs.   Elspet 
Y'oung),   viz.,  James  Hadden  of  Persley,  was  also  Dean  of  Guild  of  the  burgh  in  1787  and  in  1791  ; 
and  his  brother,  Mr.  Gavin  Hadden,  in  1798,  in  1804,  in  1S08,  and  again  in  1819.     Both  James  and 
Gavin  Hadden  respectively  filled,  during  several  years,  the  Civic  Chair.     A  son  of  Provost  William 
Young,  viz.,  Mr.,  afterwards  Baillie,  John  Young,  was  Dean  of  Guild  of  Aberdeen  in  1803  ;  while  the 
same  position  was  occupied,  in  1807,   by  Mr.  John  Young's  cousin-german  and  partner  in  business — 
James  Young,  junior  ^on  of  Dean  of  Guild  James  Young  of  1775  and  1779).     Mr.  James  Young, 
junior,  was  Provost  of  Aberdeen  from  1811  until  1813.     In  1814  he  left  Aberdeen,   with  his  wife  and 
family,  for  Holland  ;  and,  in  the  City  of  Rotterdam,  carried  on  successfully  a  mercantile  business  until 
his  decease  in  1834.     Dean  of  Guild,  afterwards  Baillie,  John  Farquhar  died  in  1768  ;  and,  in  1773,  his 
widow,  Mrs  Rachel  Young,   Wedded  a  second  husband,   Mr.   David  Morice  of  Tullos,  Advocate  in 
Aberdeen,  who,  in  1799,  was  appointed  Sheriff-Substitute,  of  Aberdeenshire.     The  wife  of  Mr.  William 
Johnston  was  Catharine  Morice,  eldest  daughter  of  David  Morice  and  his  spouse,  Mrs.  Rachel  Young. 
For  several  years  prior  to  his  death  in  1806,  David  Morice  was  Legal  Assessor  (or  Town's  Consulter, 
as  it  was  commonly  termed)  to  the  Magistrates  of  Aberdeen, — an  appointment  subsequently  held,  at 
the  distance  of  many  years,  by  the  Sheriff's  sou,  Robert  Morice,  Advocate  in  Aberdeen  ;  and  afterwards 
by  Mr.  Robert  Morice's  eldest  sou,  the  late  David  Robert  Morice,  also  Advocate  there.     A  son  of  Mrs. 
Rachel  Young,  by  her  first  marriage  with  Badlie  John  Farquhar,  was  the  late  James  Farquhar,  Proctor, 
of  Doctor's  Commons,  London,  who  for  many  years  held  the  valuable  office  of  Deputy-Registrar  of  the 
Court  of  Admiralty  of  Great  Britain.     The  principal  registrarship, — familiarly  known  as  "  the  great 
sinecure," — was  long  occupied  by  Lord  Arden,  brother  of  Mr.  Spencer  Percival,  the  Prime  Minister, 


Johnston  of  that  Ilk  and  Caskieben.  455 

On  the  death  of  William  of  Viewfield,  this  branch  of  the  Caskieben  Johnstons  fell  to  be 
represented  by  William's  son, 

David  Morice  Johnston,  who,  and  his  younger  brother,  Alexander,  were  educated  at  the 
Grammar  School  and  Marischal  College  of  their  native  city.  At  that  University  (which  is 
understood  to  have  been,  also,  the  Alma  Mater  of  Doctors  Arthur  and  William  Johnston  about 
the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century)  Mr.  D.  M.  Johnston  distinguished  himself  as  a 
student ;  having,  in  1819,  been  the  successful  competitor  for  "  the  Silver  Pen," — the  prize  at  that 
time  awarded  to  the  best  scholar  in  the  first  Greek  class.  David  M.  Johnston,  born  in  1804,  was 
subsequently  bred  to  the  profession  of  the  law  in  England  ;  and  for  many  years  before  his  death, 
in  1863,  enjoyed  a  lucrative  professional  income  as  senior  partner  of  the  firm  of  Johnston, 
Farquhar,  &  Co.,  of  Westminster,  and  of  Moorgate  Street,  London — a  firm  well  known  and 
esteemed  in  the  legal  circles  of  the  great  Metropolis. 

William  of  Viewfield's  second  surviving  son,  Alexander  Johnston,  was  educated  in 
Scotland,  for  the  legal  profession  ;  and  was,  in  1831,  admitted  Writer  to  the  Signet.  He 
married,  at  Aberdeen,  in  1836,  Christina  Martha,  second  daughter  of  John  Leith-Eoss,  of 
Arnage,  in  Buchan,  (a  younger  son  of  the  family  of  Leith  of  Freefleld  and  Glenkindie),  by  his 
spouse,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Young,  or  Boss, — the  eldest  co-heiress  of  Bourtie, — daughter  of  Provost 
William  Young  of  Sheddocksley,  born  of  the  Provost's  second  marriage  with  Mary  Anderson, 
daughter  of  Patrick  Anderson  of  Bourtie,  in  the  Garioch.  Mrs.  Alexander  Johnston  died, 
without  issue,  in  1 878. 

William  of  Viewfield's  youngest  son,  Bobert  Johnston,  Merchant  in  Aberdeen,  married,  in 
1835,  Mary,  daughter  of  George  Hadden,  Merchant  in  London,  (youngest  brother  of  Provosts 
James  and  Gavin  Hadden  of  Aberdeen).  Besides  three  daughters,  there  are  are  now  living  two 
sons  born  of  Bobert  Johnston's  marriage,  viz.,  William  Johnston,  M.D.  (Edin.),  Surgeon-Major 
in  the  Medical  Department  of  the  British  Army  ;  and  George  Johnston,  late  Coffee  Planter  in 
Ceylon,  who  wedded,  in  1876,  Agnes  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  the  Beverend  Bichard  J.  Sparke, 
Bector  of  Aldfold,  in  Surrey. 

William  Johnston  of  Viewfield's  younger  brother,  Andrew  Johnston,  Burgess  of  Guild,  and 
formerly  Shipmaster  in  Aberdeen,  for  many  years  occupied  the  farm  of  Mains  of  Balquhain,  in 
the  Garioch.     Andrew  was  born  at  Cairntradlin,  Kinnellar  parish,  in  1769  (a  few  months  before' 

assassinated  in  1812  in  the  Lobby  of  the  House  of  Commons, — of  which  murder,  it  may  be  mentioned, 
Mr.  James  Farquhar  was  an  eye-witness,  being  at  the  moment  passing  into  the  House  (of  which  he  was 
then  a  member)  immediately  behind  the  unfortunate  Statesman.  Air.  James  Farquhar,  afterwards 
proprietor  of  Johnston  Lodge,  near  Laurencekirk,  and  of  Hallgreen,  or  Inverbervie,  Loth  in 
Kincardineshire,  was  first  elected  M.P.  for  his  native  city  of  Aberdeen,  and  the  burghs  in  Angus  and 
the  Mearns  therewith  connected,  in  1S01  ;  and  continued  to  represent  the  Aberdeen  district  of 
Burghs  in  Parliament  for  many  years.  After  being  for  some  years  without  a  seat  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  Mr.  James  Farquhar  was,  in  1S24,  elected  M.P.  for  the  Irish  Borough  of  Portarlington  ; 
which  town  he  represented  until  1830,  when  he  finally  retired  from  Parliament.  He  died  (s.p.)  at  his 
house  in  Duke  Street,  Westminster,  in  1833,   aged  69.. 

The  names  of  Mr.  Farquhar,  M.P.,  and  of  his  brother-in-law,  Mr.  William  Johnston,  were,  in  a 
prominent  way,  brought  under  the  notice  of  the  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  which,  in 
1819,  under  the  chairmanship  of  the  lute  Lord  Archibald  Hamilton,  took  evidence  on  the  subject  of 
Burgh  Reform  in  Scotland, — in  whose  report  Inverurie  figures  in  a  remarkable  manner.  The  two 
gentlemen  referred  to  had,  about  the  close  of  1816,  when  the  financial  affairs  of  the  Corporation  of 
Aberdeen  were  falling  into  temporary  embarrassment,  from  their  own  private  means,  and  at  tbeir  own 
risk,  respectively  advanced  sums  of  money  in  aid  of  the  Burgh  ail'airs, — a  circumstance  which  would 
almost  appear  to  have  been  considered,  by  the  Burgh  Reformers  of  that  day,  in  the  light  of  a  grievance 
inflicted  on  the  good  town. — (Minutes  of  Evidence  relative  to  the  Case  of  Aberdeen,  ordered  by  the 
House  of  Commons  to  be  printed,  12th  July,  1S19 ;  pp.  91,  97,  307,  SOS.) 


456  Appendix. 


the  decease  of  his  father,  John  Johnston),  and  died  at  Coullie,  Monynrask,  in  1845 — having 
survived  his  wife,  Margaret  Inglis — whom  Andrew  married,  at  London,  in  1794 — several  years. 
Of  the  marriage  last  mentioned,  several  sons  and  daughters  were  born ;  the  last  survivor  of  the 
sons  having  been  Andrew,  the  heir  of  Tailzie  of  Hilton  specified  in  the  Court  of  Session 
proceedings  of  1875. 

Andrew's  eldest  son,  William  Johnston,  Burgess  of  Guild  and  Tobacco  Manufacturer,  Aber- 
deen, married,  in  1818,  Ann  Craig,  by  whom  he  had  several  children.  William  died  at 
Aberdeen,  in  1865,  leaving,  besides  daughters,  the  sons  and  grandsons  enumerated  in  the 
Court  of  Session  action  just  adverted  to. 

Although  William  of  Viewfield  was  the  last  of  his  family  connected  with  the  Municipal 
Government  of  the  city  of  Bon-Accord,  not  a  few  of  the  Johnston  race  had,  in  former 
generations,  held  the  office  of  Magistrate  there.  Of  them  the  first  of  whom  record  has  been 
found  was  Mr.  George  Johnston,  Baillie  of  Aberdeen,  and  for  many  years  Dean  of  Guild  thereof, 
in  conjunction  with  one  or  other  of  the  members  of  the  civic  body.  Mr.  George  was  third  and 
youngest  son  of  James  Johnston  of  that  Ilk  and  his  spouse,  Clara  Barclay,  daughter  of  the  Laird 
of  Gartly,  in  Strathbogie.  From  the  prefix  to  his  name,  Mr.  George  would  seem  to  have  been 
a  Graduate  of  Arts — a  degree  probably  acquired  by  him  at  King's  College,  Old  Aberdeen. 
During  many  consecutive  years  after  1567,  it  is  stated,  in  Dean  of  Guild  Walker's  list  of  the 
Deans  of  Guild  of  Aberdeen,  that,  at  the  Michaelmas  election  of  Magistrates  there,  Mr.  George 
Johnston  had  been  appointed  to  that  office  jointly  with  some  other  member  of  the  Council.  In 
1618,  and  again  in  1G20,  the  Deanship  was  held  by  Mr.  Thomas  Johnston,  fourth  son  of  George 
Johnston  of  that  Ilk  and  Caskieben,  and  immediate  elder  brother  of  Dr.  Arthur  Johnston. 
Other  cadets  of  the  race  held,  in  former  days,  municipal  office  in  the  town.  In  1635  and  1637 
the  Civic  Chair  was  occupied  by  Robert  Johnston  of  Crimond,  in  Monkegy  parish,  brother-in- 
law  and  near  kinsman  of  Mr.  Thomas  just  referred  to  ;  which  Provost  Robert  Johnston  was  the 
father  of  Lieutenant-Colonel,  or  Crowner,  William  Johnston,  described  by  Mr.  James  Gordon, 
Parson  of  Rothiemay,  in  his  History  of  Scots  Affairs,  as  having  been  "  bredd  upp  at  the  wane, 
and  wanted  neither  gallantrye  nor  resolutione  "  (p.  271). 

Another  Johnston  of  the  Caskieben  race  was  Mr.  John  Johnston,  Merchant  in,  and  one  of 
the  Baillies  of,  Aberdeen,  who,  at  Michaelmas,  1697,  as  mentioned  in  Mr.  Walter  Thorn's 
History  of  Aberdeen  (vol.  II.,  p.  3),  had  exceptions  taken  to  his  election  as  Provost  "  by  several 
members  of  the  Council,  who  raised  an  action  of  reduction  before  the  Lords  of  the  Privy 
Council,  which  was  sustained ".  This  gentleman  died  within  a  year  or  two  after  these 
proceedings,  leaving  no  children  by  his  wife,  who  survived  him,  viz.,  Elspet,  daughter  of  Robert 
Cruikshank  of  Banchory,  Provost  of  Aberdeen.  George  Johnston  of  Caskieben  (father  of  Dean 
of  Guild  Thomas  Johnston  of  1618  and  1620)  was  one  of  "  the  Barons  of  the  North  "  who,  at 
Aberdeen,  in  September,  1574,  subscribed  the  obligation,  or  bond,  to  continue  faithful  subjects 
to  the  youthful  King,  James  VI.  of  Scotland. 

Mr.  George  Johnston,  Dean  of  Guild  of  Aberdeen,  was,  on  13th  October,  1577,by  Mr.  David 
Cunningham,  first  Protestant  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  inaugurated  as  one  of  the  elders  chosen  by  the 
Kirk  and  Congregation  of  the  Burgh.  He  wedded  Katherine  Menzies,  daughter  of  Thomas  Menzies 
of  Pitfoddels,  Provost  of  Aberdeen,  by  whom  he  had  issue.  In  December,  1578,  Patrick 
Johnston,  son  of  the  above  couple,  died  at  Aberdeen  from  the  effects  of  a  gunshot  wound 
recklessly  inflicted  by  Keith,  young  Laird  of  Ludquharne,  in  Buchan.  Mr.  George  Johnston 
himself  died,  in  April,  1579,  at  Aberdeen ;  and  his  widow,  Katherine  Menzies,  departed  this  life 


Jolintson  of  that  Ilk  and  Caslciaben.  457 

there,  in  May,  1599.  Her  father,  Thomas  Menzies  of  Pitfoddels  had,  in  1538,  discharged  the 
duties  of  Marischal-Depute  of  Scotland  ;  and,  in  1543,  was  Comptroller  of  the  Royal 
Household.  Long  before  Provost  Thomas's  day,  the  family  of  Menzies  had  acquired  a 
preponderating  influence  in  the  Municipality  of  Aberdeen.  The  father  of  Thomas, — Gilbert 
Menzies  of  Pitfoddels,  known  by  the  sobriquet  of  "  Banison  Gib," — had  been  frequently  Chief 
Magistrate  of  Aberdeen.  His  (Gilbert's)  wife,  Marjory  Chalmers,  was  daughter  of  the  Laird  of 
Murtle,  on  Deeside — also,  of  old,  a  leading  family  amongst  the  Aberdonians.  Thomas 
Menzies,  their  son,  father-in-law  of  Mr.  George  Johnston,  was  Provost  of  Aberdeen  on  vaiious 
occasions  before  1547;  from  which  year,  continuously  down  to  1576,  when  Thomas  died,  he  was 
the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  town — he  having  shortly  before  his  decease,  and  at  Michaelmas, 
1576,  been  succeeded,  in  the  Civic  Chair,  by  his  son  and  heir,  Gilbert  Menzies  of  Pitfoddels  ; 
which  last,  the  brother  of  Mrs.  George  Johnston,  had,  in  April,  1567,  been  appointed  one  of  the 
Lords  of  the  Articles  in  the  Scottish  Parliament,  then  assembled  at  Edinburgh — of  which 
Gilbert  was  a  member,  as  representative  of  the  Burgh  of  Aberdeen.  About  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century  the  Pitfoddels  family  had  a  mansion  in  the  burgh  ;  which  habitation,  built  of 
wood  and  situated  in  the  Castlegate,  was,  in  1529,  accidentally  burned  down.  "Within  a  year 
or  two  thereafter,  a  house  on  the  same  site  was  built  in  stone  ;  and  continued,  probably  much  in 
its  original  state,  until  removed  about  1800  ;  when  the  site  of  "  Pitfoddels'  Lodging  "  was 
disposed  of ;  and  the  house  then  built  thereon,  at  the  top  of  Marischal  Street,  is  now  occupied 
by  the  Union  Bank  of  Scotland.  Of  the  original  edifice — the  scene  of  more  than  one  incident 
in  Scottish  history — the  author  of  the  Book  of  Bon-Accord  (published  at  Aberdeen,  in  1839,  p. 
105)  writes  : — "  At  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  city  probably  did  not  contain 
one  private  mansion  which  was  not  built  of  timber.  In  1545  a  stone  edifice  was  considered  a 
mark  of  the  greatest  opulence  ;  and,  in  defying  Thomas  Menzies  of  Pitfoddels,  one  of  the 
inhabitants  said  he  did  not  care  for  all  his  (Thomas  Menzies)  power,  or  his  stane  house."  The 
owner  of  this  important  mansion,  as  well  as  his  son-in-law,  Mr.  George  Johnston,  embraced  at 
an  early  period  the  tenets  of  the  Reformed  faith.  In  John  Knox's  History  of  the  Reformation 
(vol.  IL,  of  the  Wodrow  Society  Edition,  1846,  pp.  163-64),  Thomas  Menzies  is  mentioned  as 
one  of  the  six  deputies  directed  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  on  28th 
May,  1561,  to  meet  the  Lords  of  the  Secret  Council,  and  to  present  to  them  the  supplication 
and  articles  "  tuitching  the  suppressioun  of  idolatrie  ".  At  what  period  of  their  family  history 
the  Pitfoddels  Menzies  renounced  the  Protestant  faith  has  not  been  ascertained.  The  last 
known  male  representative  of  that  race,  the  late  John  Menzies  of  Pitfoddels,  who  died,  a 
widower,  at  Edinburgh,  in  1843,  aged  87,  made  over  in  his  lifetime,  or  bequeathed  by  settle- 
ment, the  bulk  of  his  fortune  for  purposes  connected  with  the  Roman  Catholic  faith ;  his 
family  mansion  house  of  Blairs,  in  Maryculter  parish,  on  Deeside,  having  for  many  years  bygone 
been  occupied  as  a  seminary  for  the  education  of  young  men  intended  for  the  Romish  Priest- 
hood, under  the  name  of  St.  Mary's  College. 

"William  Johnston  of  Viewfield  and  his  parents,  John  Johnston  and  Margaret  Chalmers, 
firmly  adhered  to  the  principles  of  the  Established  Church  of  Scotland,  as  did  also  the  whole  of 
William's  children  settled  in  North  Britain.  His  two  sons,  Alexander  and  Robert, 
respectively  filled,  for  many  years,  the  office  of  elder — like  their  ancestor,  Dean  of  Guild  George 
Johnston,  of  the  days  of  the  Reformation — in  the  General  Kirk  Session  of  St.  Nicholas, 
or  town  of  Aberdeen. 

In  1840,  and  for  a  long  time  afterwards,  Mr.  Johnston,  W.S.,  was  a  ruling  elder  in  the 

58 


458  Appendix. 


General  Assembly  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  ;  having  been  an  eyewitness  of  the  exodus  from  the 
Assembly  Hall,  in  May,  1843,  of  the  section  of  members  of  that  memorable  meeting  which 
formed  themselves  into  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland. 

For  several  bygone  generations'"  their  surname  has,  by  the  existing  branches  of  the 
Caskieben  stock,  been  uniformly  written  Johnston. 

Arms. — Of  the  arms  of  the  Johnstons  of  Caskieben  and  of  that  Ilk,  Nisbet  writes  (System  of 
Heraldry,  vol.  I.,  p.  144,  Edinburgh  Edition,  1816)  : — "  There  was  an  ancient  family  of  the  name 
of  Johnston  in  the  North,  designed  of  Caskieben  :  Sir  George  Johnston  of  Caskieben  carried, 
quarterly,  1st  and  4th  Argent,  a  saltier  sable,  and  on  a  chief  gules,  three  cushions  or,  for  John- 
ston ;  2nd  and  3rd  Azure,  on  a  bend  between  three  harts'  heads  erased  Argent,  attired  or,  as 
many  cross  crosslets  fitched  of  the  second,  for  Marr,  and  Garioch  of  Caskieben,  composed 
together  in  one  coat.  Supporters — Two  Indians,  ppr.,  wreathed  about  the  head  and  middle 
with  laurel  vert.     Crest — A  phoenix  in  flames,  ppr.     Motto — Vive  tit  postea  vivas." 


LEITH. 

The  Garioch  Family  of  Leith  who  held  municipal  rank  in  the  City  of  Aberdeen,  in  the 
middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  continued  to  be  represented  there  during  greater  part  of  the 
fifteenth  century. 

I.— "William  Leith  of  Ruthrieston  is  mentioned  in  the  Burgh  records  of  Aberdeen  in  1352 
and  1355,  as  Provost  of  the  Burgh.  He,  who  was  the  donor  of  the  great  bell  Laurence  to  the 
Church  of  St.  Nicholas,  Aberdeen  (p.  72),  had  two  sons,  Laurence  and  John  ;  the  last  was 
much  engaged  in  national  affairs.     The  elder  son, 

II. — Laurence  Leith  of  Barnes  (p.  72),  was  also  Provost  of  Aberdeen,  viz.,  in  the  years 
1401-1403  and  1411. 

III. — Norman  Leith  of  Barnes,  his  son,  was  father  of  Henry  of  Barnes,  of  Gilbert,  and 
of  John,  progenitor  of  the  Leiths  of  Overhall. 

IV. — Henry  Leith  of  Barnes  had  George  of  Barnes ;  William  of  Edingarroch,  ancestor  of 
Leith  of  Leith-hall ;  Patrick,  first  of  Harthill ;  and  another  son,  ancestor  of  Leith  of  Montgarrie. 
Henry  died  before  1479  ;  his  widow,  Elizabeth  Gordon,  in  1505,  resigned  certain  rights  over 
Pittodrie  and  part  of  Pitscurrie. 

LEITH  OF  LEITH-HALL. 

This  family  had  at  different  periods  the  designations  of  Barnes,  Edingarroch,  and  Lickly- 
head  ;  and  was  resident  in  the  Garioch  half  a  century  before  the  Reformation. 

I. — George  Leith  of  Barnes,  eldest  son  of  Henry,  died  without  male  issue  in  1505, 
leaving  a  daughter,  Elizabeth,  married  to  Mr.  John  Forbes  of  Towie.  Their  son,  William 
Forbes  of  Towie,  had  a  crown  charter,  1550,  of  part  of  Barnes  as  his  mother's  apparent  heir. 

II. — William  Leith  of  Barnes,  heir  male  of  his  brother  George,  acquired  Edingarroch  in 
1-199,  from  George  Leslie  of  that  Ilk.  By  his  wife,  Ann,  daughter  of  George  Gordon  of 
Strathdon,  he  had  two  sons,  lairds  in  succession. 

III. — Patrick  Leith  of  Edingarroch,  eldest  son,  married,  without  issue,  Janet,  daughter  of 
James  Johnston  of  Caskieben,  and  died  before  1550. 

IV.— George  Leith  of  Edingarroch,  his  brother  and  heir,  was  in  1550,  served— before  John 


Leith  of  Lelth-Hall.  459 


Leslie  of  Balquhain,  Sheriff  of  Aberdeen, — heir  of  his  uncle  George  Leith  of  Barnes,  becoming 
thus  Leith  of  Edingarroch  and  Barnes. 

V. — William  Leith,  his  son,  died  before  1598  ;  succeeded  by  Patrick,  his  son. 

VI. — Patrick  Leith  of  Licklyhead,  was,  in  1598,  served  heir  to  William,  his  father,  in  fourth 
part  of  Auchleven  and  others  ;  and  in  1605,  in  other  parts  of  Auchleven,  Ardoyne,  Harlaw, 
&c,  in  the  Regality  of  the  Garioch.  By  his  wife,  Jean,  second  daughter  of  William  Leslie, 
seventh  baron  of  Balquhain,  he  had  four  sons — 1,  Patrick,  his  heir,  and  2,  John  of  Edingarroch, 
who  both  died  without  male  issue  ;  3,  Laurence  Leith  of  Kirktown  of  Rayne,  who  continued 
the  line  ;  and  4,  Henry,  unnoticed. 

VII.  Patrick  Leith,  served,  in  1620,  heir  to  his  grandfather,  William  Leith,  in  the  lands  of 
Edingarroch  and  Licklyhead,  sold  them  to  John  Forbes  of  Leslie,  and  died  about  1629. 

VIII.— Laurence  Leith  of  Kirktown  of  Rayne,  resided  in  Bucharne  in  Gartly,  which  was 
wadset  to  him  by  the  Marquis  of  Huntly.  He  married  first  (s.p.)  Agnes,  daughter  of  Alexander 
Leslie  of  Wardes  ;  second,  Bessy,  daughter  of  Sir  George  Gordon  of  Coclarachie,  and  had  a 
son, 

IX. — John  Leith  of  Bucharne  and  New  Leslie,  who  sold  Kirktown  of  Rayne,  and  bought 
the  lands,  afterwards  called  Leith-hall,  at  that  time  New  Leslie,  Peill,  Syde,  Arnbog,  &c.  His 
wife,  daughter  of  Arthur  Forbes,  and  grand-daughter  of  Alexander  Forbes,  6th  Lord  Pitsligo, 
bare  him  two  sons,  James,  his  heir ;  and  Alexander,  progenitor  of  the  Leiths  of  Bucharne, 
Leiths  of  Blair,  and  Leiths  of  Whiteriggs  in  the  Mearns. 

X. — James  Leith  built  the  House  of  Leith-hall,  and  his  descendants  were  designed  "  of 
Leith-hall  ".  In  1650,  as  eldest  lawful  son  of  John  Leith  of  Bucharne  and  New  Leslie,  he  had 
a  Crown  charter  of  New  Leslie,  Christ's  Kirk,  Peill,  Syde,  and  Arnbog.  He  married  Margaret, 
daughter  of  Alexander  Strachan  of  Glenkindie  ;  and  from  their  two  sons,  John  and  Alexander, 
descended  the  two  families  of  Leith-Hay  of  Leith-hall,  and  Leith  of  Freefield  and  Glenkindie. 

XL — John  Leith  of  Leith-hall,  married  Janet  Ogilvie,  daughter  of  George,  second  Lord 
Banlf.  His  third  son,  George,  owned,  for  a  time,  Blackball  in  Inverurie.  From  a  fourth  son, 
Laurence  Leith  in  New  Flinders,  John  Farley  Leith,  M.P.  for  Aberdeen,  is  descended. 

XII. — John  Leith  of  Leith-hall,  the  heir,  married  Mary,  daughter  of  Charles  Hay  of  Rannes. 
He  died  in  1736.     Their  son, 

XIII. — John  Leith  of  Leith-hall,  married  Harriet,  daughter  of  Alexander  Stewart  of 
Auchluncart.  He  had  of  sons,  John  and  Alexander, — who  were  lairds  in  succession  ;  and 
Lieutenant-General  Sir  James  Leith,  Governor  of  Barbadoes,  who  died  1816. 

XIV. — John  Leith  of  Leith-hall,  died  (s.  p.)  in  1776. 

XV. — Alexander  Leith-Hay  of  Leith-hall  (also  of  Rannes,  on  the  death  of  Andrew 
Hay  of  Rannes,)  was  usually  known  as  General  Hay.  He  was  born  1758,  and  died  1838. 
By  his  wife,  Mary,  daughter  of  Charles  Forbes  of  Ballogie,  he  had  Andrew  Leith  Hay,  and  John 
Leith,  who  became  Rear-Admiral  Leith. 

XVI.— Sir  Andrew  Leith-Hay,  Knight,  of  Rannes  and  Leith-hall,  (M.P.,  1833-8,  Governor 
of  Bermudas,  1838-41,)  had  by  his  wife  Mary  Margaret,  daughter  of  William  Clark  of  Buckland . 
House,   Devonshire,  three  sons,  Alexander  Sebastian,   James,   and  Charles,  and  a  daughter, 
Caroline  Elizabeth.     He  died  1862,  when  Ms  eldest  son, 

XVII.— Colonel  Alexander  Sebastian  Leith  Hay  of  Leith-hall,  C.B.,  succeeded. 

Arms. — Leith  of  Leith-hall. — Or,  a  cross  crosslet  fltched  sable  between  three  crescents  in  chief 
and  as  many  fusils  in  base,  gules:  (now  quartered  with  Hay  of  Rannes,  viz.,  Quarterly,  1  and 


460  Appendix. 

4  arg.,  three  inescutcheons  gules:  2  and  3  az.,  three  cincjuei'oils  arg.,  in  the  centre  crescent  for 
difference).     Crest — A  cross  crosslet  fitched  sable.     Motto — Trustie  to  the  end. 

LEITH  OF  FREEFIELD. 

I; — Alexander  Leith,  second  son  of  James  Leith,  and  Margaret  Strachan,  acquired  in  1702, 
from  George  Leith  of  Treefield,  with  consent  of  his  son,  Peter,  the  lands  of  Treefield  and  Bonny- 
town  ;  and  having  added  to  these  by  purchase  got  a  Crown  Charter  in  1705,  erecting  the  whole 
into  a  free  barony,  to  be  called  Freefield. 

He  afterwards  purchased  Glenkindie  from  his  cousin,  Sir  Patrick  Strachan.  He  died,  aged 
ninety,  in  1754.  By  his  wife,  Christian,  daughter  of  Alexander  Davidson  of  Newton,  he  had 
four  sons,  who  attained  manhood,  Alexander,  Walter,  Patrick,  and  George. 

II. — Alexander  Leith  of  Freefield  and  Glenkindie,  married  Jean  Garden,  daughter  of 
Alexander  Garden  of  Troup,  and  had  his  heir,  Alexander  ;  a  second  son  named  Garden,  and 
four  daughters,  Jean,  Christian,  Bathia,  and  Agnes.  By  a  second  marriage  with  Martha, 
daughter  of  John  Boss  of  Arnage  in  Ellon,  he  originated  the  family  of  Leith-Boss  of  Arnage, 
in  Buchan. 

III. — Alexander  Leith  of  Freefield  and  Glenkindie,  married  Mary  Eliza,  daughter  of  James 
Gordon  of  Cobairdy.  He  died  in  1828.  Besides  his  heir,  he  had  a  son,  William  Leith  of 
Palmer's  Cross,  Elgin,  and  a  daughter,  Elizabeth,  second  wife  of  Peter  Gordon  of  Abergeldie  (s.  p.). 

IV. — General  Sir  Alexander  Leith,  K.C.B.,  a  distinguished  peninsular  officer,  married  first 
Maria,  daughter  of  Bobert  Disney  Thorp,  M.D.  ;  secondly,  Mary,  daughter  of  Boderick 
Mackenzie  of  Glack.  By  his  first  marriage  he  had  Alexander,  his  heir  ;  2,  Major-General  Disney 
Leith,  distinguished  in  the  Indian  Service  ;  3,  Major  James,  V.C.  ;  4,  Major  Thomas  ;  and 
two  daughters,  Anne  Katherine,  wife  of  Alexander  Innes  of  Baemoir,  and  Mary  Sarah,  wife 
of  Bobert  Farquharson  of  Haughton. 

V. — Alexander  Leith  of  Freefield  and  Glenkindie,  is  a  member  of  the  Faculty  of  Advocates. 

Arms. — Leith  of  Freefield  (as  recorded  1766). — Quarterly  1st  and  4th  :  Or,  a  cross  crosslet 
fitched  sable,  between  three  crescents  in  chief  and  as  many  fusils  in  base  gules,  within  a  bordure 
azure,  for  Leith.  2nd  and  3rd,  azure,  a  hart  trippant  or,  attired  and  unguled  gules,  for 
Strachan.  Crests — A  cross  crosslet  fitched  sable.  Motto — Trustie  to  the  end  : — for  Leith. 
A  hart  at  gaze  azure  attired  sable.     Motto— Non  timeo  sed  caveo : — for  Strachan. 

LEITH  OF  OVERHALL. 

I. — John  Leith  of  Overhall,  third  son  of  Norman  Leith  of  Barnes,  acquired  in  1520,  a 
portion  of  the  estate  of  Barnes,  afterwards  called  Overhall  of  Barnes,  which  his  descendants 
possessed  until  1817,  when  the  last  male  representative  of  the  family  died  at  Bath.  John 
Leith  by  his  wife,  a  daughter  of  Lyon  of  Muiresk,  had  two  sons,  lairds  in  succession. 

II. — Gilbert  Leith  of  Overhall,  elder  son,  got,  in  1536,  a  Charter  of  half  the  lands  of 
Newton,  as  his  father's  heir. 

III. — William  Leith  of  Overhall,  his  brother  and  successor,  married  Christian,  daughter 
of  Auchinleck  of  that  Ilk,  and  had  one  son. 

IV. — Gilbert  Leith  of  Overhall,  served  heir  to  William,  his  father  in  1583.  By  his  wife 
Margaret,  daughter  of  John  Forbes  of  Barnes,  he  had  a  son, 

V. — George  Leith  of  Overhall  of  Barnes,  so  styled  in  a  Great  Seal  Charter  of  1618  ;  who 
married  Magdalene,  daughter  of  John  Leith  of  Haithill,  and  had  one  son, 


Leith  of  Hart/till.  461 


VI. — George  Leith  of  Overhall ;  infeft  as  heir  in  1633.  He  married  Isabel,  daughter  of 
John  Dunbar  of  Burgie,  and  had  a  son. 

VII. — George  Leith  of  Overhall,  served  heir  in  1655.  He  married  Marjory,  daughter  of 
Eobert  Farquharson  of  Invercauld,  then  also  laird  of  Wardes. 

VIII. — Eobert  Leith  of  Overhall,  their  son,  retoured  in  1678  ;  married  Margaret,  daughter  of 
Francis  Ross  of  Auehlossin,  and  had  a  son. 

IX.— George  Leith  of  Overhall,  retoured  in  1700.  He  married  Cecilia,  daughter  of  Eobert 
Young  of  Auldbar,  and  died  in  1762,  leaving  a  son, 

.  X. — Eobert  Leith  of  Overhall,  Clerk  of  Justiciary,  who  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of 
Sir  Arthur  Forbes  of  Craigievar,  by  that  baronet's  first  spouse,  Christian  Eoss,  daughter  of  John 
Boss  of  Arnage,  Provost  of  Aberdeen.    He  died  in  1768,  leaving  two  sons,  George  and  Arthur. 

XI. — George  Leith,  last  of  Overhall,  married,  but  had  no  issue  ;  and  died  in  1817. 

Arms.— Eobert  Leith  of  Overhall  of  Barnes  (recorded  1672). — Or,  a  cheveron  between 
three  fusils  azure.     Crest — A  turtle  dove  proper.     Motto — Semper  fidus. 

LEITH  OF  HARTHILL. 

I. — Patrick  Leith,  son  of  Henry  Leith  of  Barnes,  got  Harthill  from  his  father.  He 
married  Clara,  daughter  of  John  Leslie,  second  baron  of  Wardes.  They  had  a  Crown  Charter 
in  1531,  of  Auchleven,  Ardojme,  Buchanston,  Harlaw,  &c.  He  subscribed  at  Aberdeen,  in 
September,  1574,  the  Bond  of  the  Barons  of  the  North,  promising  allegiance  to  King  James 
VI.     He  had  one  son  and  one  daughter. 

II. — John  Leith  of  Harthill,  his  son,  had  a  charter,  as  his  father's  heir,  in  1599.  By  his 
first  wife,  Beatrix  Fraser,  he  had  1,  John,  his  heir  ;  2,  Peter,  married  to  Elizabeth,  daughter 
of  Udny  of  that  Ilk;  and  3,  George,  who  in  1605,  got  Treefield  from  his  father;  also  a 
daughter,  Magdalene,  wife  of  George  Leith  of  Overhall.  By  his  second  wife,  Janet  Gordon,  he 
had  a  son  Alexander,  and  a  daughter  Elizabeth.  Elizabeth  died  before  July,  1631.  Alexander 
was,  in  1636,  the  subject  of  a  proclamation  anent  "Alexander  Leith,  sonne  to  umquhill  Johne 
Leith  of  Harthill,  and  sundry  light  horsemen  of  the  name  of  Gordon," — who  had  been  per- 
petrating acts  of  violence  on  the  lands  of  Frendraught  in  revenge  for  the  death  of  Viscount 
Aboyne,  at  the  House  of  Frendraught,  in  October,  1630. 

III. — John  Leith  of  Harthill,  succeeded  his  father  about  1612.  In  1611,  he  had  a 
charter  of  Kirktown  of  Eayne ;  and  in  1625  was  served  heir  male  to  his  father.  He  had  two 
sons,  Patrick  and  John,  both  remarkable  in  the  Civil  War.  Patrick,  who  never  came  into  the 
estate,  was  "  young  Harthill,"  the  hero  of  the  dashing  raid  upon  Craigievar's  troopers,  at 
Inverurie,  in  1645  (p.  284).  He  was  beheaded  as  a  rebel  at  Edinburgh,  26th  October,  1647, 
when  not  over  twenty-five  years  of  age. 

IV.— John  Leith  of  Harthill,  second  son,  was  the  violent  Laird  of  Harthill  (p.  252).     He 
succeeded  to  Harthill  on  his  father's  death,  about  1651,  and  is  believed  to  have  died  not  lon>' 
after.     His  wife  was  Jean,  daughter  of  Abraham  Forbes  of  Blacktown.     They  had  William, " 
his  heir,  and  Anna,  married  to  Alexander  Gordon,  brother  of  William  Gordon  of  Newton  ;  and 
also  a  son  who  predeceased  him  (p.  309). 

V — William  Leith  of  Harthill,  married  the  eldest  daughter  of  John  Leslie,  seventh 
baron  of  Pitcaple,  whose  wife,  a  cousin  of  the  Marquis  of  Montrose,  offered  to  provide  for  the 
Marquis's  escape  from  Pitcaple  Castle,  in  1650  (p.  297).     They  had  three  sons,  Patrick,  the 


462  Appendix. 


heir,  and  George  and  William  ;  who  in  1 679,  both  resigned  all  right  in  New  Eayne  and  Barrel- 
dykes,  to  Marjory,  heiress  of  George  Leith  of  New  Eayne. 

VI. — Patrick  Leith  of  Harthill  and  Jean  Ogilvy,  his  wife,  had  three  sons,  Patrick, 
Captain  James,  and  Walter.     The  Poll  Book  gives  also  Thomas  and  Ann,  in  1695. 

VII. — Patrick  Leith  of  Harthill,  was  the  last  of  the  name  who  possessed  the  estate  ;  which 
was  sold  to  Erskine  of  Pittodrie. 

Local  registers  record  the  marriage,  in  1720,  of  a  daughter,  Jean,  to  George  Gordon  of 
Knockespock,  and  of  Sophia,  daughter  of  Lady  Harthill,  to  Mr.  Alexander  Sympson,  Minister  of 
Insch ;  and  in  1751,  the  death,  at  Banff,  of  Helen,  daughter  of  Patrick  Leith,  late  of  Harthill, 
and  spouse  to  John  Stewart,  Supervisor  of  Excise. 

Arms. — Leith  of  Harthill. — Or,  a  cross  crosslet  fitched  azure  between  two  crescents  in  chief 
and  a  fusil  in  base  gules. 

LEITH  OF  TKEEFIELD. 

The  Treefield  Leiths — whose  estate  formed  ultimately  the  nucleus  of  the  Freefield  Barony — 
began  with  George,  third  son  of  John  Leith,  the  second  of  Harthill, 

I. — George  Leith  got  Treefield  from  his  father  in  1605.  He  married — 1st,  Helen,  daughter 
of  John  Leith  of  Montgarrie  ;  and,  2nd,  a  daughter  of  Adam  Abercromby  of  Old  Eayne.  He 
died  in  1643. 

II. — George  Leith  of  Treefield,  his  son,  married  Isobel,  daughter  of  Thomas  Erskine  of 
Balhaggardy. 

III. — George  Leith,  last  of  Treefield,  their  son,  married,  in  1660,  Jean,  daughter  of  James 
Gordon  of  Terpersie,  and  had  issue  Peter,  William,  and  Helen — wife,  in  1712,  of  Mr.  William 
Garioch,  minister  of  Kinnethmont.  Peter  married  his  cousin,  daughter  of  George  Gordon  of 
Terpersie,  and,  besides  other  children,  had  a  son,  Alexander,  who  married  Janet,  daughter  of 
William  Eaitt,  in  Cuslmy,  Auchterless. 

George  Leith  sold  Treefield  to  the  first  laird  of  Freefield,  in  1702. 

LEITH  OF  BUCHABNE— A  Wadset  by  the  Makquts  of  Huntly. 

I. — Alexander  Leith  of  Bucharne  was  the  second  son  of  John  Leith,  who  acquired  the  estate 
of  Leith-hall.  Alexander's  intrepidity  earned  for  him  the  name  of  "  Hardhead ".  He 
married,  26th  October,  1652,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Thomas  Johnston  of  Craig,  younger  brother 
of  Sir  George  Johnston — first  Baronet  of  Caskieben.  Evidence  of  proclamation  at  Gartly  was 
not  produced  at  the  marriage — objections  having  been  taken  to  the  "purpose  of  marriage  "  by 
Eobert  Gordon  of  Collithie,  on  the  ground,  inter  alia,  that  Alexander  Leith  was  tinder  promise  of 
marriage  to  his  daughter,  Anna  Gordon.  Mr.  Nicol  Blake,  who  performed  the  marriage, 
had  to  profess  repentance  publicly,  at  the  Kirks  of  Dyce  and  Kinnellar,  for  the  irregularity. 
Two  sons,  John  and  Alexander,  were  born  of  the  marriage. 

II. — John  Leith  of  Bucharne  married  Beatrix,  daughter  of  Major  Walter  Ogilvie,  third  son 
of  Sir  Patrick  Ogilvie  of  the  Boyne,  Lord  of  Session.  The  wadset  of  Bucharne  expired  in 
John's  time.  His  eldest  son,  Alexander,  became  tacksman  of  the  farm.  John,  his  second  son, 
became  John  Leith  of  Blair  in  Bourtie  ;  whose  descendant,  John  Leith,  called  of  Kinguidie,  died 
in  1764,  and,  in  1807,  his  daughter  Ann,  liferentrix.     There  was  a  third  son  named  George  Leith. 

III. — Alexander  Leith  in  Bucharne  married  Margaret,  daughter   of  Walter   Halket   of 


Seton.  4G3 

Caimton,  and  had  six  sons,  viz.,  1,  Alexander  ;  2,  John  ;  3,  Walter  ;  4,  James  ;  5,  Charles  ; 
and  6,  Laurence  ;  and  at  least  two  daughters — Elizabeth,  second  wife  of  Dr.  John  Stuart  of 
Inchhreck  ;  the  other  married  Mr.  Fyfe  in  Banff,  and  left  issue. 

Laurence,  the  youngest  son,  a  Lieutenant  of  the  89th  Regiment,  got  a  renewal  of  the  lease 
of  Bucharne.  He  died,  unmarried,  in  1795.  Little  is  known  of  John  and  Walter.  The  sons 
— Alexander,  James,  and  Charles — are  noticed  below. 

IV. — Alexander  Leith,  eldest  son  of  Alexander  Leith  in  Bucharne,  commanded  the  Artillery 
at  the  siege  of  Havannah  in  1763 ;  and  was  there  killed. 

V. — Sir  Alexander  Charles  George  Leith,  his  son,  Lieut.-Col.  of  88th  Foot,  was,  in  November, 
1775,  created  a  Baronet  of  Great  Britain,  and  died  in  Jamaica  in  1780.  By  his  wife,  Margaret, 
eldest  daughter  of  Thomas  Hay  of  Huntington,  a  Lord  of  Session,  he  had 

VI. — Sir  George  Alexander  William  Leith,  a  Major-General  in  the  Army  ;  who  died  at 
London,  January,  1842,  leaving  two  sons,  Alexander,  and  George  Gordon  Brown  Leith ;  which 
last  married  a  daughter  of  John  Ferrier,  W.S.,  Edinburgh. 

VII. — Sir  Alexander  Wellesley  William  Leith,  a  member  of  the  Faculty  of  Advocates,  died, 
(three  months  after  his  father)  in  April,  1842,  leaving  by  his  wife,  Jemima,  second  daughter  of 
Hector  Macdonald  Buchanan,  W.S.,  of  Boss,  Dumbartonshire,  a  Principal  clerk  of  Session,  a  son, 

VIII. — Sir  George  Hector  Leith,  of  Burgh  St.  Peter's,  Norfolk,  and  ofDrygrange,  near  Mel- 
rose, and  of  Ross  Priory,  Dumbartonshire, — the  present  representative  of  the  Bucharne  Leiths. 


I. — James  Leith,  fourth  son  of  Alexander  Leith  and  Margaret  Halket,  became  Sheriff- 
Substitute  of  Kincardineshire.  He  married  Margaret,  daughter  of  John  Young  of  Stank, 
Sheriff-Clerk  of  the  Mearns,  and  had  several  children,  amongst  others,  James  and  Janet. 

II. — Major-General  James  Leith  of  Leithheld,  the  son,  died,  unmarried,  at  Madras,  in  1829, 
where  he  was  for  some  time  Judge-Advocate-General.  He  bought  back  into  his  family  the 
lands  of  Whiteriggs,  called  Leithfield,  in  Fordoun. 

Janet  Leith  married  James  Arnott  in  Arbikie,  Forfarshire.  Of  her  children,  Charles 
Arnott,  Solicitor,  London,  and  Major  David  Leith  Arnott,  H.E.I.C.S.,  died  unmarried.  James 
Arnott,  W.S.,  the  eldest  son,  after  the  death  of  his  uncle  acquired  the  property  of  Leith- 
field ;  which  was  sold  after  Mr.  James  Arnott's  decease  in  1866.  By  his  wife,  Emily  Sophia 
Fletcher,  he  had  several  children.  Dr.  Neil  Arnott  of  London  was  cousin-german  of  Mr.  James 
Arnott. 

Two  sisters  of  those  three  brothers  were  married — one  to  Captain  Grice,  the  other, 
Elizabeth,  to  Captain  Maughan,  both  of  the  Indian  Navy.  The  only  daughter  of  Elizabeth, 
(Mrs.  Maughan,)  is  the  wife  of  Dr.  Story,  minister  of  Roseneath. 

Dr.  Charles  Leith,  fifth  son  of  Alexander  Leith  and  Margaret  Halket,  who  had  been  a 
practitioner  of  medicine  in  Maryland,  U.S.,  died,  unmarried,  in  May,  1781,  at  Johnston,  near 
Laurencekirk,  of  which  he  had  a  life-rent  lease  from  Francis  Garden,  Lord  Gardenston,  who, 
after  his  tenant's  decease,  left  in  writing  the  remark,  "  I  revere  the  Doctor's  memory,  and  have 
great  regard  to  his  representatives  ". 

SETON. 
Sir  William  Seton  of  that  Ilk,  of  Winton,  and  Tranent  in  East  Lothian,  and  of  Winchburgh, 
West  Lothian,  had  by  his  wife,  Katherine,  daughter  of  Sir  William  Sinclair  of  Herdmanstoun, 
two  sons.    The  elder,  Sir  John  Seton  of  that  Ilk,  was  ancestor  of  the  Earls  of  Winton,  attainted 


464  Appendix. 


1716,  of  tlie  Earls  of  Dunfermline,  Lords  of  F3rvie  and  Urquhart,  attainted  1690,  and  of  the 
Viscounts  Kingston,  attainted  1715.  The  second  son  was  the  ancestor  of  the  Setons  of  Strath- 
bogie  and  of  the  Garioch  (p.  112). 

Sir  Alexander  Seton  married,  circa  1408,  Elizabeth  de  Gordon,  heiress  of  Gordon,  and 
became  Lord  Gordon,  and  their  sons  were  Alexander,  first  Earl  of  Huntly  ;  William,  first  Seton 
of  Meldruni ;  and  Henry,  killed  along  with  his  brother  William  in  the  battle  of  Brechin  (1452). 


SETON  OF  MELDEUM. 

I. — William  Seton  married  Elizabeth  de  Meldruni,  heiress  of  Meldrum,  whose  mother  was 
a  daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Sutherland.     He  fell  in  the  battle  of  Brechin,  in  1452  (p.  112). 

II. — Alexander  Seton  of  Meldrum,  their  son,  married  Muriel,  daughter  of  Sutherland, 
ancestor  of  the  Lord  Duffus.     He  was  served  heir  to  his  mother  in  1456. 

III. — William  Seton  of  Meldrum  was  put  in  possession  of  the  estate  in  his  father's  lifetime, 
but  predeceased  him.  He  and  his  wife,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Alexander  Leslie  of  Wardes,  had 
a  charter  of  Balcairn,  in  1490.  She  married  John  Collison,  Provost  of  Aberdeen,  after 
the  decease  of  her  husband,  William  Seton  (p.  133). 

IV. — Alexander  Seton  of  Meldrum  (p.  137),  son  of  William,  was,  in  1512,  served  heir  to  his 
grandfather  in  the  Lordship  of  Meldrum.  He  was  killed  at  Aberdeen  in  1527.  He  married 
— 1st,  Agnes,  daughter  of  Patrick  Gordon  of  Haddo,  ancestor  of  the  Earls  of  Aberdeen,  and 
had  by  her  two  sons,  William  of  Meldrum  and  Alexander  of  Mounie.  By  his  second  wife, 
Janet,  daughter  and  co-heiress  of  George  Leith  of  Barnes  he  had  John  Seton  of  Blah',  who  got 
a  charter,  in  1526,  of  half  the  lands  of  Auchleven,  Drumrossy,  and  others,  inheriting  also  Blair 
from  his  mother. 

V.— William  Seton  of  Meldrum,  served  heir  to  his  father  Alexander  in  1533,  married  (first) 
Janet,  daughter  of  James  Gordon-  of  Lesmoir,  and  by  her  had  three  sons — Alexander  of 
Meldrum,  John  of  Lumphard,  afterwards  of  Mounie,  and  William  of  Slatie.  By  his  second 
wife,  Margaret,  daughter  of  Innes  of  Leuchars,  he  had  two  sons — George  Seton  of  Barra  and 
James  Seton  of  Pitmedden.     William  Seton  of  Meldrum  died  in  1571. 

VI. — Alexander  Seton  of  Meldrum,  served  heir  to  his  father  William,  3rd  May,  1581,  married 
twice.  His  first  wife,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Alexander  Irvine  of  Drum,  bare  him  one  son, 
Alexander,  who  married,  in  1584,  Christian,  daughter  of  Michael  Eraser  of  Stonywood,  and  had  a 
daughter,  Elizabeth — afterwards  heiress  of  Meldrum,  and  ancestor  of  the  Urquharts  of  Meldrum. 
He  died  before  his  father,  having  been  killed  in  1590  (p.  151).  The  second  marriage  of 
Alexander,  sixth  of  Meldrum,  was  with  Jean,  daughter  of  Alexander,  sixth  Lord  Abernethy  of 
Salton.  Two  sons  were  born  of  it — John  ;  and  William,  the  last  Seton  of  Meldrum— and  two 
daughters,  Margaret,  wife  of  Chalmers  of  Balbithan,  and  Isabel,  wife  of  Erskine  of 
Pittodrie. 

VII. — John  Seton  of  Meldrum  succeeded  his  father,  and  married  Lady  Grizel  Stewart,  but 
died  without  issue,  about  1619,  and  was  succeeded  by 

VIII.— William  Seton,  his  brother,  who  married  Ann,  daughter  of  James  Crichton  of  Fren- 
draught.  Having  no  children,  he  settled  the  estate,  in  1635,  upon  Patrick  Urquhart  of 
Lethinty,  the  son  of  his  niece,  Elizabeth  Seton,  by  her  marriage  with  John  Urquhart  of 
Craigfintray,  Tutor  of  Cromarty,  contracted  in  1610. 


Setoff  of  Mounie.  46o 


Patrick  Urquhart,  first  of  Meldrum,  succeeded  about  1636.  His  mother,  in  her  widowhood 
married  Sir  Alexander  Fraser  of  Philorth,  afterwards  tenth  Lord  Salton,  and  had  a  son, 
Alexander,  who  died  Master  of  Salton,  in  1682,  and  was  the  father  of  William,  eleventh  Lord 
Salton. 

Arms : — Seton  (Meldrum,  co.  Aberdeen ;  heiress  m.  Urquhart,  of  Craigfintry).  Quarterly, 
1st  and  4th,  or,  three  crescents  within  a  double  tressure  flory  and  counterflory  gu.  ;  2nd  and 
3rd,  argent,  a  demi  otter  sable  issuing  out  of  a  bar  wavy  crowned  gules,  for  Meldrum. 

SETON  OF  MOUNIE.     First  Line.     Pp.  141-231. 

I. — John  Seton  of  Lumphard,  son  of  William  Seton,  fifth  of  Meldrum,  and  nephew  of 
Alexander  Seton,  Vicar  of  Bethelnie,  Chancellor  of  the  Diocese  of  Aberdeen,  got  the  separate 
farms  of  the  lands  of  Mounie,  which  had  been  held  partly  by  his  father  and  partly  by  his 
uncle,  under  Episcopal  Charter  of  1556,  united  under  a  Great  Seal  Charter  in  1575.  He  married 
a  daughter  of  John  Panton  of  Pitmedden,  and  dying  about  1596,  left  a  son, 

II. — William  Seton  of  Mounie  ;  who  was  served  heir  in  1597 ;  and,  in  1598,  was  admitted 
an  honorary  burgess  of  Aberdeen,  at  the  request  of  Alexander  Seton,  Lord  Fyvie.  He  married 
Helen,  daughter  and  heiress  of  Udny  of  that  Ilk  ;  and  in  1623,  under  the  designation  of  William 
Seton  of  Udny,  he  sold  Mounie  to  John  Urquhart  of  Craigfintray  and  Elizabeth  Seton,  his 
wife.  Their  son,  Patrick  Urquhart,  disponed  Mounie  in  1636-7  to  Mr.  Robert  Farquhar, — 
whose  heirs  lost  the  lands  by  bankruptcy  in  1702  ;  when  they  became  temporarily  the  property 
of  Alexander  Hay  of  Arnbath,  and  were  re-purchased,  in  1714,  by  George  Seton,  ancestor  of  the 
present  Setons  of  Mounie.  William  Seton  had  two  sons — William  Seton  of  Meanie  and 
Alexander  Seton  of  Kinloch,  which  last  died  in  1672. 

III. — William  Seton,  called  of  Meanie,  in  Buchan,  son  of  William  of  Mounie  and  Helen 
Udny,  married  Margaret  Graham,  daughter  of  Sir  Robert  Graham  of  Morphie,  and  had  a  son, 

IV. — William  Seton  of  Meanie,  whose  son, 

V. — James  Seton,  last  of  Meanie,  died  without  issue  in  1707,  when  the  line  was 
represented  by 

VI. — Robert  Seton,  son  of  Alexander  Seton,  of  Kinloch,  the  second  son  of  William  Seton 
of  Mounie  and  Helen  Udny. 

VII. — Robert  Seton,  his  son,  was  the  last  of  the  line. 

SETONS  OF  MOUNIE.     Second  Line.     P.  231. 

I. — George  Seton,  Advocate,  who  was  second  son  of  Sir  Alexander  Seton  (a  Lord  of 
Session,  by  the  title  of  Lord  Pitmedden),  having  inherited  a  considerable  provision  from  his 
mother,  purchased  Mounie.  By  his  second  wife,  Ann,  daughter  of  John  Leslie  of  Tocher, 
grandson  of  James  Leslie  of  Warthill,  he  had  a  son  and  several  daughters,  of  whom  Isabella 
married  Dr.  Skene  Ogilvy,  minister  of  Old  Machar.     He  died  about  1763. 

II.— William  Seton,  the  son,  succeeded  his  father,  but  died  unmarried,  and  was  succeeded 
by  his  sister,  Margaret  Seton,  wife  of  James  Anderson,  LL.D.,  of  Cobenshaw,  who,  in  terms 
of  succession,  assumed  the  name  of  Seton.     Their  son  became 

III.— Alexander  Seton  of  Mounie  (born  1769,  died  1850).  He  married,  in  1810,  his 
cousin,  Janet  Skene,  daughter  of  the  above  named  Dr.  Skene  Ogilvy,  and  had  three  sons 
— Alexander,  David,  and  George.     George,  a  Major  in  the  Army,  married  Anne-Lucy,  daughter 

59 


466  Appendix. 


of  Baldwin  Wake,  Esq.,  grandson  of  Sir  William  Wake  of  Courteen  Hall,  Northamptonshire, 
seventh  Baronet,  and  has  'issue — Alexander,  David. 

IV. — Alexander  Seton,  Colonel  in  the  Army,  was  the  commander  of  the  troops  on  board 
the  troop-ship  '  Birkenhead,' which  was  wrecked,  26th  February,  1852,  near  .the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  when  Colonel  Seton  and  almost  all  on  board  perished.     He  was  succeeded  by  his  brother, 

V. — David  Seton,  now  of  Mounie,  formerly  an  Officer  in  the  93rd  Highlanders  and  49th 
Kegiment. 

Arms  :—  Seton  (Mounie,  co.  Aberdeen).  As  Pitmedden,  with  a  crescent  an.  in  the  centre 
of  the  quarters. 

SETON  OF  BLAIR.     P.  418. 

John  Seton,  son  of  Alexander  Seton,  fourth  of  Meldruni,  and  his  second  wife,  Janet  Leith, 
daughter  and  co-heiress  of  George  Leith  of  Barnes,  inherited  Blair  from  his  mother.  His 
descendants  cannot  be  traced  continuously. 

William  Seton  of  Blair  was  a  burgess  of  Aberdeen  in  1595  ;  and  superior  of  Licklyhead. 

William  Seton  of  Blair  was  served  heir  to  his  father  William  in  1612  and  1616.  He  had 
a  brother,  Alexander,  admitted  a  burgess  of  Aberdeen,  20th  September,  1619. 

George  Seton  of  Blair,  in  1651,  protested  against  the  appointment  of  an  assistant  and 
successor  to  the  minister  of  Bourtie.  His  daughters,  Margaret  and  Elizabeth,  were  served 
heirs  portioners  in  the  lands  of  Blair  in  1661  ;  and  are  so  stated  in  the  Poll  Book,  1696.  George 
seems  to  have  been  a  physician,  and  was  regarded  by  the  Church  Courts  as  a  propagator  of 
Romanism. 

SETON  OF  BOURTIE,  NOW  OF  PITMEDDEN.     P.  230. 

•  Mr.  George  Seton  of  Barra,  Chancellor  of  Aberdeen,  and  his  brother  and  heir,  were  the  sons 
of  William  Seton,  fifth  of  Meldnim,  by  his  second  wife,  Margaret,  daughter  of  Innes  of  Leuchars. 
William  Seton  of  Meldrum,  the  Chancellor's  nephew,  was,  in  L627,  served  heir  male  to  1dm 
in  Barra, — which  must  have  meant  part  of  Barra,  as  James  Seton  was,  in  1598,  styled  portioner 
of  Barra. 

I. — James  Seton,  portioner  of  Barra,  in  1598,  acquired  from  the  Barclays  of  Towie  the 
lands  of  Auld  Bourtie,  -with  the  Mill,  Hillbrae,  Selbie,  and  Lochtulloch  ;  which  two  last 
properties  were  afterwards  sold  to  Sir  George  Johnston  of  Caskieben.  He  married  Margaret, 
grand-daughter  of  Mr.  William  Rolland,  Master  of  the  Mint  at  Aberdeen  to  King  James  V.  In 
1619,  in  a  Crown  charter  of  Auchmore,  &c,  he  was  styled  of  Pitmedden. 

II. — Alexander  Seton  of  Pitmedden,  his  son  (served  heir  to  him  in  1628),  married  Beatrix, 
daughter  of  Sir  Walter  Ogilvy  of  Dunlugas,  sister  of  George,  first  Lord  Banff.  He  had  a  charter 
in  1630  of  the  estate  of  Barra  disponed  to  him  by  William  Seton,  last  of  Meldrum.  He  was 
succeeded  by  his  son, 

III. — John  Seton  of  Pitmedden,  the  Royalist  soldier  ;  who,  in  1633  shortly  after  succeeding, 
married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Sir  Samuel  Johnston  of  Elphinston,  by  whom  he  had  two  sons. 
He  fell  in  battle  at  the  Bridge  of  Dee,  in  June,  1639,  with  the  Royal  Standard  in  his  hands, 
and  was  buried  with  military  honours  by  the  Covenanters'  General,  the  Earl  of  Montrose.  His 
two  sons,  James  and  Alexander,  left  fatherless  very  young,  were  taken  charge  of  by  the  Earl  of 
Winton,  their  mother  marrying  the  Earl  of  Hartfell.  The  boys  were  educated  at  Marischal 
College,  and  both  attained  some  eminence.     "  Bonnie  John  "  of  Pitmedden's  elder  son, 


Seton  of  Bourtie,  now  of  Pitmedden.  •  467 

IV. — James  Seton  of  Pitmedden  entered  the  Navy,  after  having  spent  some  time  in  foreign 
travel.  He  fought  in  the  victory  obtained  over  the  Dutch  by  the  Duke  of  York,  off  Harwich 
in  1665.  He  died  of  wounds  received  in  another  naval  engagement,  in  1667.  He  had  sold 
Bourtie,  in  1657,  to  Mr.  James  Reid,  Advocate,  Aberdeen.  He  was  married,  but  died  without 
issue  in  London.     His  brother, 

V. — Sir  Alexander  Seton,  a  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Session,  by  the  title  of  Lord  Pitmedden, 
under  Charles  II.,  was  his  successor  in  Pitmedden.  He  was  Knighted  in  1664,  and  appointed 
a  Judge  in  1677.  He  served  in  several  Parliaments  for  Aberdeenshire  ;  and  in  1684  Charles  II. 
bestowed  upon  him  the  rank  of  Baronet.  After  the  Revolution,  King  William  offered  him  his 
old  position  of  Judge,  but  he  declined,  thinking  acceptance  incompatible  with  the  oaths 
previously  taken.  He  married  Margaret,  daughter  of  William  Lauder,  one  of  the  Clerks  of 
Session,  and  had,  besides  several  other  children,  two  sons — Sir  William,  his  heir,  and  Mr. 
George  Seton,  Advocate,  first  of  the  present  Setons  of  Mounie.  Sir  Alexander  died  at  a  very 
advanced  age,  in  1719.  Of  three  daughters,  Elizabeth  married  Sir  Alexander  Wedderburn  of 
Blackness,  Bart.  ;  Margaret  married  Sir  John  Lauder  of  Fountainhall,  Bart.  ;  and  Anne 
married  William  Dick  of  Grange.  The  Baronets,  Dick  Lauder  of  Grange,  descend  from  a  son 
of  Margaret  and  a  daughter  of  Anne. 

VI. — Sir  William  Seton,  second  Baronet  of  Pitmedden,  wdio  in  his  father's  lifetime 
represented  Aberdeenshire  in  the  Scottish  Parliament  from  1702  to  1706,  (when  Queen  Anne 
appointed  him  one  of  the  Commissioners  about  the  union  between  Scotland  and  England,) 
married  Katherine,  daughter  of  Sir  Thomas  Burnet  of  Leys,  and  had  five  sons  and  four 
daughters.  He  died  in  1744,  and  was  succeeded  by  three  of  his  five  sons,  and  by  a  son  of  his 
fifth  son.     Two  of  his  daughters  manned  ;  Margaret  becoming  the  wife  of  Sir  John  Paterson, 

Bart.  ;  and  Katherine,  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  Forbes. 

VII. — Sir  Alexander  Seton  of  Pitmedden  succeeded  his  father  as  third  Baronet.  He  was 
an  Officer  in  the  Guards,  and  died,  s.p.,  at  Pitmedden  House,  in  July,  1750,  aged  47. 

VIII. — Sir  William  Seton  of  Pitmedden,  fourth  Baronet,  succeeded  his  brother,  but  died 
s.p. 

IX. — Sir  Archibald  Seton  of  Pitmedden,  fifth  Baronet,  succeeded  his  brother.  He  was  in 
the  Royal  Navy.     He  died,  s.p. 

X. — Sir  William  Seton  of  Pitmedden,  sixth  Baronet,  son  of  Charles  Seton,  the  fifth  son  of  the 
second  Baronet,  succeeded  his  uncle,  Sir  Archibald.  Sir  William  married  Margaret,  daughter 
of  James  Ligertwood  of  Tillery,  and  had  issue — 1,  Charles,  died  yoimg  ;  2,  James,  Major  in  the 
92nd  Highlanders,  killed  in  the  Peninsular  War,  1814.  He  married  Frances,  daughter  of 
Captdin  George  Coote,  nephew  of  Sir  Eyre  Coote,  and  had  issue,  William  Coote,  who  succeeded 
his  grandfather.     Sir  William  died  in  1819,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  grandson, 

XL — Sir  William  Coote  Seton  of  Pitmedden,  seventh  Baronet,  who  was  admitted  a 
member  of  the  Faculty  of  Advocates,  Edinburgh,  in  1831.  He  married,  in  1834,  Eliza 
Henrietta,  daughter  of  Henry  Lumsden  of  Cushnie,  county  Aberdeen,-  and  relict  of  Captain 
John  Wilson,  H.E.I.C.S.,  and  had  issue  :— 1,  James  Lumsden,  Captain  102nd  Foot  (retired) ; 
2,  William  Samuel,  Major,  Bombay  Staff  Corps,  married  Eva  Kate  St.  Leger,  only  daughter  of 
Colonel  Hastings  Wood,  C.B.,  and  has  issue ;  3,  Henry,  in  holy  orders,  died,  unmarried,  in 
1867  ;  4,  Matthew,.  Barrister-at-Law,  married  Theresa  Prudence  Rose,  only  daughter  of  Mr. 
Pierre  Bonnet;  5,  Charles;  daughters — 1,  Eliza,  wife  of  David  Dyce  Brown, JEsq.,  M.D.  ;  2, 
Magdalen  Frances,  wife  of  Arthur  Talbot  Bevan,  Esq.  ;  3,  Frances. 


468  Appendix. 


Arms  :  — Seton  (Pitmedden,  co.  Aberdeen,  bart.,  1684).  Quarterly,  1st  and  4th,  or,  three 
crescents,  and  in  the  centre  a  man's  heart  distilling  blood,  the  whole  within  a  double  treasure 
flory  and  counterflory  gu.,  for  Seton  :  2nd  and  3rd,  ar.  a  demi  otter  sa.  crowned  or  issuing 
out  of  a  bar  wavy  of  the  second,  for  Meldeum.  Crest — A  demi  man  in  military  habit,  holding 
the  banner  of  Scotland,  proper.  Supporters — Dexter,  a  deerhound  argent  collared — gu.  charged 
with  a  crescent  or;  sinister,  an  otter  sa.  Mottos — Above  the  crest:  Sustento  sanguine  signa ; 
below  the  arms  :  Merces  lueo  certa  lahorum. 

Individuals  of  two  Aberdeenshire  families  of  the  name  of  Seton — viz.,  Setons  of  Schethin 
and  of  Disblair  (probably  connected  with  the  Setons  of  Meldrum  or  Blair) — appear  in  the 
Spalding  Club  publications.  The  Abreviates  of  Retours  of  Service  contain  the  following 
notices  : — 

Oct.  4th,  1625— To  George  Seton  of  Schethin  deceased,  his  son,  William  Seton  of  Schethin, 
served  heir  in  various  lands,  4th  October.  June  26th,  1668— Mr.  William  Seton,  Rector  of 
Logie  Buchan,  served  heir  to  his  brother,  Mr.  John  Seton,  Minister  of  the  Church  of  Foveren, 
in  the  lands  of  Schethin,  in  the  parish  of  Tarves,  26th  June.  Nov.  1st,  1672 — James  Seton, 
son  of  Mr.  William  Seton,  Minister  at  Logie  Buchan,  served  heir  to  his  said  father,  in  the  lands 
of  Schethin,  in  the  parish  of  Tarves. 

April  26th,  1623— William  Seton  of  Disblair,  hen-  portioner  of  Andrew  Tulliduff  of  that  Ilk, 
his  grandfather  on  the  mother's  side.  Feb.  27th,  1658 — William  Seton,  sometime  of  Easter 
Disblair,  heir  male  and  of  taillzie  of  John  Seton  of  Easter  Disblair,  his  brother,  in  the  lands  of 
Easter  Disblair  and  the  Mill  of  Cavill,  within  the  Regality  of  St.  Andrews. 

URQUHART  OF  MELDRUM.     P.  233. 

John  Urquhart  of  Craigfintray,  the  Tutor  of  Cromarty,  "  renowned  all  over  Britain  for 
his  deep  reach  of  natural  art,"  married  as  his  third  wife  Elizabeth  Seton,  only  daughter  of 
Alexander  Seton,  younger  of  Meldrum,  and  ultimately  heiress  of  that  estate.  The  Tutor  of 
Cromarty  died  8th  November,  1631,  aged  84. 

I. — Patrick  Urquhart  of  Meldrum,  their  eldest  son  (p.  232),  succeeded  to  the  Meldrum  estate, 
in  1636.  By  his  wife,  Margaret  Ogilvy,  daughter  of  James,  first  Earl  of  Airly,  he  had,  besides 
his  eldest  son,  John,  who  predeceased  him,  Adam,  his  heir  ;  James,  first  of  Knockleith  ;  Patrick, 
Professor  of  Medicine,  King's  College,  Aberdeen ;  Captain  Alexander,  killed  1685  ;  and 
Elizabeth,  wife  first  of  Sir  George  Gordon  of  Gight,  afterwards  of  Major-General  Buchan  of  the 
Auehmacoy  family. 

II. — Adam  Urquhart  of  Meldrum,  born  1635,  once  M.P.  for  Aberdeenshire,  married  in 
1667,  Mary  Gordon,  sister  of  the  first  Duke  of  Gordon  ;  who  after  his  death  married  James,  Earl 
of  Perth,  and  died  at  St.  Germains,  1726.  Their  children  were  :  John,  the  heir  ;  James  of 
Byth  ;  Adam  and  Lewis,  priests  in  France  ;  Mary,  a  nun  ;  Elizabeth,  wife  of  David  Ogilvy  of 
Clova  ;  Anne,  married  to  Sir  Florence  Odonachie. 

III. — John  Urquhart  of  Meldrum,  born  1668,  succeeded  on  his  father's  death  in  1684.  By 
his  wife,  Jean,  daughter  of  Sir  Hugh  Campbell  of  Calder,  he  had — Adam,  who  predeceased 
his  father  ;  William,  his  heir  ;  Mary,  wife  of  William  Menzies  of  Pitfoddels  ;  Jean,  wife  of 
Alexander  Stewart  of  Auchluncart  ;  Elizabeth,  wife  of  William  Forbes  of  Tillery  ;  and  Anne, 
wife  of  Charles  Gordon  of  Blelack. 


Urquhart  of  Meldrum.  469 


IV. — "William  Urquhart  of  Meldrum  succeeded  in  1726.  He  married  Mary,  daughter  of 
Sir  William  Forbes  of  Monynmsk,  and  had — Keith,  his  heir  ;  Jane,  wife  of  John  Urquhart  of 
Craigston ;  and  Elizabeth,  wife  of  John  Turner  of  Turnerhall.  By  a  third  wife,  Isabella,  daughter 
of  George  Douglas  of  Whiteriggs,  of  the  Glenbervie  family,  he  had  a  son  George,  whose  son, 
Beauchamp  Colclough  Urquhart,  eventually  succeeded  to  Meldrum. 

V. — Keith  Urquhart  of  Meldrum  succeeded  his  father  ;  married  Jane  Duff,  daughter  of 
William,  third  Earl  of  Fife  ;  and  dying  in  1793,  was  succeeded  by  his  son, 

VI. — James  Urquhart  of  Meldrum,  horn  1750,  who  married,  in  1788,  a  daughter  of 
William  Forbes  of  Skellater  and  Balbithan,  but  died  without  issue. 

VII. — Beauchamp  Colclough  Urqhuhart  of  Meldrum  succeeded,  being  the  only  son  of 
George,  younger  son  of  William,  fourth  of  Meldrum,  who  married,  1784,  Bridget,  only  daughter 
of  deceased  Beauchamp  Colclough  of  Bohermore,  Galway.  Born  1796,  he  married,  in  1819, 
Anne  Jane,  daughter  of  Patrick  Fitzsimnions.  His  eldest  son,  George,  died  before  him.  The 
younger  children  were — Beauchamp,  his  heir  ;  William  Henry,  born  1839  ;  Thomas  Bedford, 
born  1842  ;  Sarah  ;  Henrietta,  married  1855  to  Major  Champion,  Bombay  Army  ;  Douglas, 
first  wife  of  Garden  William  Duff  of  Hatton  ;  Elizabeth,  married  (1st)  to  John  Fraser  of  Brae- 
langwell,  Ross-shire,  (2nd)  to  Luther  Martin,  Esq.  ;  Mary,  wife  of  Dr.  Pirrie  ;  and  Charlotte, 
wife  of  William  Hill,  Esq.,  Indian  Civil  Service. 

VIII. — Beauchamp  Colclough  Urquhart  of  Meldrum  succeeded  1861.  By  his  wife,  Isabel 
Fraser  (Braelangwell),  deceased,  he  has  one  son,  Beauchamp,  and  one  daughter,  Isabel  Annie, 
wife  of  Garden  Alexander  Duff  of  Hatton. 

Urquhart  (Meldrum,  co.  Aberdeen,  as  recorded  1672).  Quarterly,  1st  aud  4th,  or.,  a 
deroi  otter  sa.  crowned  with  an  antique  crown,  or,  issuing  out  of  a  bar  wavy  of  the  second,  for 
Meldrum  ;  2nd  and  3rd,  or,  three  crescents  within  a  double  tressure  flory  counterflory  gu.,  for 
Seton.     Crest — A  boar's  head  erased  or.     Motto — Per  mare  et  terras. 

The  celebrated  Sir  Thomas  Urquhart  of  Cromarty  (born  in  1613,  Knighted  at  Whitehall, 
by  Charles  I.,  in  1641),  left  among  his  Tracts  a  whimsical  genealogy  of  the  family  of  Urquhart, 
beginning,  in  the  year  of  the  world,  one,  with  Adam,  surnamed  the  Protoplast.  On  the  death 
of  Sir  Alexander  Urquhart  of  Cromarty,  brother  and  heir  of  Sir  Thomas,  the  honours  of  the 
family,  as  well  as  the  estates  of  Cromarty,  passed  to  Sir  John  Urquhart,  son  of  John  Urquhart 
of  Craigfintray,  Laithers,  and  Craigston,  who  was  the  son  of  John  Urquhart  of  Craigfintray  and 
Culbo,  Tutor  of  Cromarty,  by  an  earlier  marriage  than  that  with  the  heiress  of  Meldrum.  Sir 
John's  son,  Jonathan,  sold  Cromarty  to  Viscount  Tarbet,  first  Earl  of  Cromarty,  and  on  the 
death  of  Jonathan's  son,  James,  in  1741,  the  Tutor's  descendant,  William  Urquhart  of 
Meldrum,  became  representative  of  Urquhart  of  Cromarty.  In  that  year  William  Urquhart  of 
Meldrum  and  James  Urquhart  of  Byth,  grandson  of  Adam  Urquhart  of  Meldrum,  had  the 
following  armorial  bearings  registered,  both  of  which  now  belong  to  Urquhart  of  Meldrum,  as 
being  also  Urquhart  of  Byth. 

Urquhart  (Meldrum,  as  representative  of  Cromarty).  Or,  three  boars'  heads  erased  gu., 
languedog.  Supporters — Two  greyhounds  ppr.,  collared  gu.,  and  leashed  or.  Crest — A  demi 
otter  issuing  sa.  crowned  with  an  antique  crown  or,  holding  betwixt  his  paws  a  crescent  gu., 
these  being  the  armorial  figures  of  Meldrum  of  that  Ilk  and  Seton  of  Meldrum.  Motto— Per 
mare  et  terras ;  and  below,  the  words,  Mean,  Speak,  and  Do  well — the  ancient  motto  of 
Urquhart  of  Cromarty. 


470  Appendix. 


Urqdhart  of  Byth.  Three  coats  quarterly,  1st  and  4th,  three  hoars'  heads  erased  gu., 
langued  az.  ;  2nd,  argent,  a  deini  otter  issuing  out  of  a  har  waved  sa.  crowned  or  ;  3rd,  or,  three 
crescents  within  a  double  tressure  counterflowered  gu.  Crest — A  dagger  and  a  hranch  of  palm 
slipped  and  disposed  saltier  ways  ppr.     Motto — Weigh  well. 

ELPHINSTONE  OF  GLACE.     P.  412. 

This  family  descends  from  Sir  Henry  Elphinstone  of  Pittendreich,  chief  of  his  name  in  the 
the  latter  part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  who  married  a  daughter  of  Cuninghame  of  Polmaise,  in 
Stirlingshire,  and  left  at  least  four  sons — 1,  James,  whose  great-grandson,  Alexander  Elphin- 
stone, was  created  Lord  Elphinstone  by  James  IV.,  in  1509  ;  2,  Andrew  Elphinstone  of  Selmys, 
wholeft  two  sons — Andrew,  married  toa.daugb.ter  of  Wardlaw  of  Riccartoim,and  William,  Provost 
of  the  Collegiate  Church  of  Bothwell  ;  3,  Nicholas,  ancestor  of  the  Glack  family ;  and,  4, 
Lawrence. 

Nicholas  Elphinstone  of  Glack  had,  in  1499,  a  charter  of  Glack  from  Bishop  Elphin- 
stone, upon  resignation  by  his  brother,  Andrew  of  Selmys,  who  owned  Glack  from  at  least  1492. 
Nicholas  and  his  wife,  Elizabeth  Abercromby  of  Pitmedden,  had,  in  1509,  a  Royal  charter  of 
part  of  Ardoyne,  which  two  daughters,  co-heiresses  of  Henry  Leslie,  had  disponed  to  them.  At 
least  two  sons,  William  and  Symon,  were  born  of  the  union. 

William  Efphinstone  was  infeft  in  Glack  in  1515.  He  appears  in  history,  inl523(p.  144); 
and  his  wife,  "  Elizabeth  Cromme,  goodwife  of  Glack,"  as  also  Mallota  Elphinstone  (p.  144), 
probably  a  sister  or  daughter,  voted,  in  1550,  in  the  election  of  a  Parish  Clerk  of  Daviot. 

James  Elphinstone  of  Glack,  in  1559,  married  Marjory  Leslie,  daughter  of  Alexander 
Leslie,  fourth  Baron  of  Pitcaple.  Their  daughter,  Marjory,  married  Walter  Innes,  Miller,  and 
for  a  time  Laird,  of  Ardtannies,  in  Inverurie,  and  died  in  1622,  leaving  a  large  family. 

James  Elphinstone  of  Glack,  infeft  in  1586,  was  probably  the  father  of  Marjory  Elphin- 
stone, who,  in  1629-30,  became  the  second  wife  of  Mr.  James  Mill,  Minister  of  Inverurie.  He 
is  said  to  have  been  still  living  in  1665,  and  if  so  he  must  have  resigned  the  estate  during  his 
lifetime. 

Robert  Elphinstone  of  Glack  Iras,  in  1620,  summoned  as  a  "haver"  in  an  action  at  the 
instance  of  the  Earl  of  Rothes. 

James  Elphinstone  of  Glack  (son  of  Alexander,  the  son  of  James  Elphinston  of  Glack,  who 
died  in  his  father's  lifetime)  appears  as  a  witness  inl630,  at  the  baptism  ofMarjory  Elphinstone's 
first  child  by  Mr.  James  Mill.  Hemarried  (1st)  Elizabeth  Wood  of  Bonnytoun,  and  (2nd)  in  May, 
1641,  Jean  Leslie,  daughter  of  John  Leslie,  eleventh  Baron  of  Balquhain.  His  children  were  — 
James,  his  successor  ;  William,  ancestor  of  the  Elphinstones  of  Logie  Elphinstone  ;  Harry,  who 
married  Agnes,  daughter  of  Sir  John  Forbes  of  Monymusk,  in  1661  ;  Jean,  married,  about  1634, 
to  Alexander  Leslie  of  Tullos,  afterwards  Count  Leslie,  and  fourteenth  Baron  of  Balquhain  ; 
and  Anna,  married  to  William  Leslie,  fifth  Laird  of  Warthill,  whose  second  son  by  her  was 
born  in  1657,  and  became  a  Prince  Bishop  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire. 

James  Elphinstone,  who  appears  in  the  Presbytery  Book  of  Garioch,  in  1650,  as  younger 
of  Glack,  was  infeft  in  Glack  in  1670.  He  was,  in  1669,  elected  Commissioner  for  the  Burgh 
of  Inverurie  in  the  Scottish  Parliament ;  and  was,  in  1671,  with  his  son,  John  Elphinstone, 
fiar  of  Glack,  admitted  a  Burgess  of  Inverurie — another  son,  Alexander,  getting  the  like  honour 
at  Aberdeen,  in  1681.  James  Elphinstone  of  Glack  subscribed,  in  1688,  to  the  new  buildings 
at  King's  College,  Aberdeen. 


Lotjie  of  Logie  Elphinstone.  471 


John  Elphinstone  had  a  grant  of  the  estate  from  his  father,  in  1676. 

John  Elphinstone,  his  son,  was.infeft  in  Glack,  in  1691,  in  virtue  of  his  contract  of 
marriage  with  Margaret  ForLes.  He  married  (2nd)  Anna  Irvine,  with  whom,  and  Mr.  William 
and  Patrick,  his  children,  he  appears  in  the  Poll  Book,  in  1696.  He  had  an  older  son,  John, 
his  heir,  and  a  daughter,  Rachel,  who  was  married  to  John  Ogilvy,  Collector  of  Customs  at 
Aberdeen,  in  March,  1731.  He  lived  until  after  1731,  in  which  year  he  was  admitted  an 
Honorary  Burgess  of  Aberdeen.  Cecilia  Elphinstone  of  Glack  was,  about  1740,  married  to 
William  Chalmers  of  Auldbar,  son  of  the  eldest  daughter  of  Sir Forbes  of  Foveran. 

John  Elphinstone  of  Glack  was,  2nd  October,  1734,  served  heir  to  his  deceased 
father,  John  Elphinstone  of  Glack.  Before  1741  he  married  Jean,  daughter  of  Alexander 
Achyndachy  of  that  Ilk,  long  chamberlain  of  Fyvie,  who  died  in  her  80th  year  at  Aberdeen,  in 
April,  1794.  A  daughter,  Sarah,  iii  1762,  married  George  Gordon  of  Bothney,  Merchant  in 
Aberdeen,  and  died  in  December,  1775.  (With  their  two  children — William  Gordon,  W.S.,  of 
Bothney,  who  died  in  1824,  and  Mary,  his  heir,  who  died  in  1836 — the  Gordons  of  Rothney  are 
believed  to  have  become  extinct.)  John  Elphinstone  of  Glack  is  noticed  in  the  Scots  Magazine 
of  1758  as  having  died  in  September,  1758,  in  the  93rd  year  of  his  age,  and  is  styled  of 
that  Ilk. 

Alexander  Elphinstone  of  Glack,  infeft  in  1757,  was  admitted  an  Advocate  in  Edinburgh 
in  1764,  and  was  Sheriff-Depute  of  Aberdeenshire  in  1777.  He  married,  in  1766,  Jean, 
daughter  of  Colin  Mackenzie  of  Kilcoy,  Boss,  and  had  a  son,  John,  and  two  daughters.  Mary, 
the  younger,  died  unmarried,  at  Edinburgh,  in  1796,  and  Jane  married,  in  1787,  John 
Mackenzie  of  Applecross,  with  issue.  Glack  was  sold  by  Alexander  Elphinstone's  trustees,  in 
1787,  to  the  Bev.  Colin  Mackenzie  of  Fodderty,  ancestor  of  the  present  proprietor. 

John  Elphinstone  entered  the  service  of  the  East  Indian  Company,  and  was  for  many 
years  Member  of  Council  at  Bombay.  He  died  in  1825.  A  son,  Alexander,  survives,  whose 
son,  John  Elphinstone,  is  in  the  East  Indian  Civil  Service. 

Arms  : — Elphinstone  of  Glack  (as  recorded  in  1672).  Argent,  on  a  cheveron  sable  between 
three  boars'  heads  erased  gules,  a  mitre  of  the  first.  Crest — A  dexter  hand  holding  a  garb 
proper.     Motto — Non  vi  seal  virtute. 

ELPHINSTONE  OF  LOGIE  ELPHINSTONE.     P.  413. 

William  Elphinstone,  a  younger  son  of  James  Elphinstone  of  Glack  by  his  first  wife, 
Elizabeth  Wood  of  Bonnytoun,  had  the  lands  of  Whiteinehes,  in  Chapel  of  Garioch,  and  died 
about  1660,  leaving  by  his  wife,  Margaret  Forbes,  besides  other  issue,  a  son, 

I. — James  Elphinstone,  who  became  a  Writer  to  the  Signet  in  1671,  was  made  an  Honorary 
Burgess  of  Aberdeen  in  1675,  and,  in  1696,  a  Judge  of  the  Commissary  Court  in  Edinburgh, 
with  remainder  of  that  office  to  his  son.  He  was  created  a  Baronet  of  Scotland  and  Nova 
Scotia  in  1701,  with  remainder  to  his  heirs  male.  He  purchased  the  lands  of  Craighouse,  in 
Midlothian,  and  between  1670  and  1680,  the  lands  of  Logiedurno  and  others  (afterwards  called 
Logie  Elphinstone)  in  Aberdeenshire  ;  which  comity  here  presented  in  Parliament  from  1693  to 
1702.  He  was  a  Commissioner  of  the  Signet  in  1720,  and  died  in  March,  1722.  Sir  James 
Elphinstone  married  Cecill,  daughter  of  John  Denholme  of  Muirhouse  (ancestor  of  Sir  James 
Stuart  Denholme),  and  left  (besides  a  daughter,  Margaret,  married  to  Sir  Bobert  Forbes  of 
Leamey,  son  of  Sir-  John  Forbes,  Baronet  of  Craigievar,)  a  son,  who  succeeded  him. 


472  Appendix. 


II. — Sir  John  Elphinstone  of  Craighouse  and  Logie  Elphinstone  was,  while  John  Elphin- 
stone  younger  of  Logie,  one  of  the  Commissioners  appointed,  in  1716,  to  visit  the  University 
of  Aberdeen.  He  was,  in  1707,  appointed  Sheriff  of  Aberdeenshire,  and  he  succeeded  his  father 
as  a  Commissary  of  Edinburgh.  He  died  in  1732,  leaving  by  his  wife,  Mary,  daughter  of  Sir 
Gilbert  Elliot  of  Headshaw  and  Minto  (who  died  1767) — 1,  James,  his  successor  ;  2,  John, 
fourth  Baronet  ;  3,  Mary,  married  after  1745  to  Sir  Andrew  Mitchell,  Bart,  of  Westshore, 
Shetland,  who  left  her  without  issue  a  widow,  in  1764  ;  4,  Helena,  married,  in  1751,  to  Thomas 
Elliot,  M.D.,  who  died  at  Edinburgh  the  same  year,  she  dying  in  1807  ;  5,  Cecilia,  married 
to  James  Balfour  of  Pilrig,  with  issue  ;  6,  Elizabeth,  married  to  Henry  Crawford  of  Monorgan, 
with  issue  ;  7,  Jean,  8,  Margaret,  9,  Marion — unmarried. 

III. — Sir  James  Elphinstone  of  Logie  Elphinstone  married  Jean,  second  daughter  of 
Thomas  Rattray,  D.D.,  of  that  Ilk  and  Craighall,  in  the  Stormont  (by  his  wife,  the  Hon.  Marjory 
Galloway,  daughter  of  the  second  Lord  Dvmkeld),  and  by  her  (who  married  secondly  Colonel 
George  Mure,  brother  of  Caldwell)  had  issue,  two  daughters  only — Mary,  who  succeeded  to  the 
estate  of  Logie  Elphinstone,  and  Margaret,  who  died,  in  1765,  unmarried.  In  1733  he 
executed  a  heritable  bond  of  provision  for  his  brother  and  his  sisters.     He  died  in  1739. 

IV. — Sir  John  Elphinstone  succeeded  his  brother  ;  and  the  Baronetcy  became  extinct  by  his 
death,  which  took  place  in  1743.     He  was  an  officer  in  the  Army. 

V. — Mary  Elphinstone  of  Logie  Elphinstone  married,  in  1754,  Captain  Robert  Dalrymple 
Horn  of  Horn  and  Westhall,  of  the  1st  Royal  Scots  Regiment,  afterwards  a  General  in  the 
Army  and  Colonel  of  the  53rd  Regiment  of  Foot,  who  assumed  after  his  marriage,  the  additional 
name  of  Elphinstone.  He  was  the  son  of  Hew  Dalrymple,  Lord  Driunmore  of  the  Court  of 
Session.  Mrs.  Dalrymple  Horn  Elphinstone  died  in  1776,  leaving  of  surviving  issue  by  her 
husband  (who  died  in  1794,  aged  74)  two  sons,  James  and  Robert,  who  each  succeeded  to  the 
estate,  and  six  daughters,  all  married,  for  whom  see  Burke's  Baronetage. 

VI. — James  Dalrymple  Horn  Elphinstone  inherited  Logie  Elphinstone  on  his  father's 
death.  It  is  from  this  gentleman  that  the  village  of  Port  Elphinstone,  near  Inverurie,  derives 
its  name,  which  was  given  to  it  as  an  acknowledgment  of  the  energetic  and  substantial  support 
afforded  by  him  to  the  canal  from  Aberdeen  to  Inverurie,  the  terminus  of  which  was  at  Port 
Elphinstone  ;  and  the  traffic  carried  by  which  was  the  source  of  such  prosperity  to  the  Burgh 
of  Inverurie  that  its  population  advanced  in  fifty  years  from  400  to  2000.  James  D.  H. 
Elphinstone  married  Margaret,  only  child  and  heiress  of  James  Davidson,  Esq.  of  Midmar,  but 
died,  without  issue,  in  1798,  while  on  a  voyage  to  Lisbon.     He  was  succeeded  by  his  brother, 

VII. — Robert  Dalrymple  Horn  Elphinstone,  Lieutenant-Colonel  3rd  Regiment  of  Foot 
Guards.  Born  in  1766,  he  entered  the  Army  in  1782  ;  served  in  the  campaigns  of  1793  and  1794 
in  Flanders  under  the  Duke  of  York ;  aud  was  promoted  for  gallant  conduct.  He  retired  from 
the  Army  soon  after  succeeding  to  his  estates  ;  on  which  he  resided  during  most  of  his  after 
life,  extending  to  over  half  a  century.  He  was  for  many  years  Convener  of  the  County  of 
Aberdeen. 

In  1S28,  he  was  created  a  Baronet  of  Great  Britain,  as  a  renewal  of  the  title  held  by  his 
mother's  ancestors.  He  married,  in  1800,  Graeme,  daughter  of  Colonel  David  Hepburn,  second 
son  of  James  Congalton  Riccart  Hepburn  of  Congalton,  Riccarton,  and  Keith  Marisehal,  by  whom 
he  had  fifteen  children,  seven  of  whom  predeceased  him.  Sir  Robert  died  in  1848,  and  his 
widow  in  1870,  aged  87  years.  His  surviving  children,  besides  1,  Sir  James,  his  successor, 
were — 2,   Hew   Drummond,   Master   Attendant,  Madrass,  Presidency,   married   to   Helenora 


Erskine  of  Pittodrie.  473 


Catherine,  daughter  of  Sir  J.  H.  Maxwell  of  Springkell,  and  has  issue  ;  3,  Mary  Frances,  wife  of 
Patrick  Boyle,  Esq.,  of  Shewalton,  Ayrshire,  with  issue  ;  4,  Francis  Anstruther,  Judge  in 
Bengal,  married  Mary  Anne,  daughter  of  General  Bowen,  C.B.,  and  has  issue  ;  5,  Charles  of 
Kinellar  Lodge,  Aherdeenshire,  married  (1st)  to  Harriet  Albinia,  daughter  of  Alexander  Gordon 
of  Ellon,  and  (2nd)  to  Christian,  daughter  of  William  Gordon  of  Pitlurg,  and  has  issue  by  both  ; 
6,  John  Hamilton,  General  in  the  Army,  C.B.,  and  Knight  of  the  Turkish  Order  ofMedjidie, 
married  to  Georgina  Anne,  daughter  of  William  P.  Brigstoke,  Esq.,  Somerset ;  7,  Henrietta 
Marion,  married  to  Thomas  C.  Leslie,  Esq.,  youngest  son  of  William  Leslie,  Esq.  of  Warthill ; 
8,  George  Augustus  Frederick,  sometime  Colonial  Secretary,  Queensland,  died  in  1876. 

Sir  James  Dalrymple  Horn  Elphinstone  commanded  an  East  Indiaman  in  his  early  years, 
and  as  Captain  Dalrymple  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  business  and  public  interests  of  the 
county.  He  is  at  present  (1878)  Member  of  Parliament  for  the  Borough  of  Portsmouth,  and 
one  of  the  Lords  of  Her  Majesty's  Treasury.  He  married,  in  1836,  Mary,  fourth  daughter  of 
Lieutenant-General  Sir  John  Heron  Maxwell,  Bart.,  of  Keroughtrie  and  Springkell,  who  died 
in  1877.  By  her  he  had  issue — John,  Commander  in  the  Navy,  deceased  ;  Robert,  married  to 
Nora,  daughter  of  John  Balfour,  Esq.  ;  Graeme  Hepburn,  married  to  Alice,  daughter  of  James 
Ogilvie  Fairlie,  Esq.  ;  and  Margaret  Burnett,  married  to  the  Rev.  John  Maturin  Warren. 

Arms  of  Dalrymple  Horn  Elphinstone  (Logie  Elphinstone,  co.  Aberdeen,  bart,  1827). 
Quarterly,  1st  and  4th,  or,  on  a  saltire  azure  between  two  water  budgets  in  flanks  sable  nine 
lozenges  of  the  field  for  Dalrymple  ;  2nd  and  3rd,  or,  three  hunting  horns  gules,  for  Horn  ; 
en  surtout  argent,  on  a  cheveron  sable  between  three  boars'  heads  gules,  a  mitre  or,  a  bordure  of 
the  third,  for  Elphinstone.  Crests — Two  horns  erect  per  fesse  or  and  sable  countecchanged, 
for  Horn  ;  a  rock  proper,  on  which  the  Motto,  Firm,  for  Dalrymple  ;  and  an  armed  hand 
erect  proper  holding  an  ostrich  feather  sable,  for  Elphinstone.  Supporters — Dexter,  a  bull 
sable  armed  and  unguled  or ;  sinister,  an  eagle,  wings  expanded,  sable  armed  or.  Motto — (below 
the  shield)  Moneo  et  munio. 

EKSKINE  OF  PITTODRIE. 

Sir  Thomas  Erskine,  son  of  the  great  Chamberlain,  had  by  his  second  wife,  Janet  Keith) 
grand-daughter  of  Elyne  of  Mar,  two  sons — Sir  Robert,  whose  descendants  became  Earls  of 
Mar,  and  John,  the  founder  of  the  family  of  Erskine  of  Dun.  John  Erskine  of  Dun,  who 
was  killed  at  Flodden,  in  1513,  had  two  sons,  the  younger  of  whom,  styled  Thomas  Erskine  of 
Haltoun,  was  the  ancestor  of  the  Pittodrie  family.  The  elder,  John,  who  fell  with  his  father  at 
Flodden,  was  the  father  of  the  well-known  Erskine  of  Dun,  of  the  Reformation  period. 

In  1525  Master  Thomas  Erskine  of  Haltoun  was  appointed  "  secretar  "  to  King  James  V., 
then  a  boy  of  twelve  years  old,  and  continued  in  that  office  until  the  King's  death  in  1542. 
Thomas,  in  1529-30,  was  Knighted  and  made  Warder  of  Tantallon  Castle  ;  and  soon  afterwards, 
in  exchange  for  that  appointment,  he  received  grant  of  the  lordship  of  Brechin  and  Navar. 

I. — Sir  Thomas  Erskine  exchanged  these  estates,  in  1550,  for  the  Barony  of  Balhaggardy, 
with  John,  Lord  Erskine.  Sir  Thomas  by  his  wife,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Sir  James  Scrimgeour 
of  .Dudhope,  had  two  sons,  the  second  of  whom,  born  in  1528,  became  his  heir. 

If  Burke  {Landed  Gentry)  is  correct  in  placing  only  one  other  John  in  the  succession,  John 
Erskine,  first  of  Balhaggardy,  must  have  survived  1604  (p.  418). 

II. — John  Erskine  of  Balhaggardy  married  before  1551,  a  daughter  of  the  neighbouring 

GO 


474-  Appendix. 


Laird  of  Kenmay,  Sir  Archibald  Douglas  of  Glenbervie,  and  had  a  son,  John,  (who  appears  in 
1565  as  eldest  son).     John  Erskine  of  Balhaggardy  also  appears  in  1598  (p.  221). 

III. — John  Erskine  of  Balhaggardy  must  have  succeeded  before  1615,  when  Thomas 
Erskine  appears  as  fiar  (p.  418).  He  was  married,  in  1604,  to  Marjory  Gordon,  daughter  of 
Sir  Thomas  Gordon  of  Cluny,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Thomas,  in  1625.  He  had  other 
two  sons,  Alexander  and  William,  the  latter  of  whom  was  killed  at  Aberdeen,  in  1639  (p.  271). 
A  daughter,  Margaret,  or  Magdalon,  married  James,  fourth  son  of  William  Leslie,  the  fourth  of 
Wardes — ancestor  of  the  Leslies  of  Tarbet,  in  Ireland. 

IV. — Thomas  Erskine  of  Pittodrie  succeeded  in  1625.  He  married  Isabel,  daughter  of 
Alexander  Seton  of  Meldrum,  and  had  a  son,  Thomas,  and  a  daughter,  Isabel,  wife  of  George 
Leith  of  Treefield. 

V. — Thomas  Erskine  of  Pittodrie,  married  (1643)  Helen,  daughter  of  Sir  William 
Auchinleck  of  Balmanno.  They  had,  besides  William,  the  heir,  two  sons,  who  studied  at 
King's  College,  Aberdeen,  in  1666.     A  son,  John,  appears  in  1677  (pp.  340,  364). 

VI. — William  Erskine  of  Pittodrie,  founder  of  the  Hospital  (p.  147),  appears,  in  1675  ;  he 
took  the  oaths  of  allegiance  to  William  and  Mary  in  1689.  By  his  wife,  Mary,  daughter  of 
Patrick  Grant  of  Ballindalloch,  he  had,  besides  his  heir,  a  daughter,  Jean,  married  to  James 
Moir  of  Stoneywood,  the  Jacobite  Colonel  of  1 745. 

VII. — Thomas  Erskine  of  Pittodrie  married  (1st)  in  1705,  Margaret,  daughter  of  Sir  Alex- 
ander Burnet  of  Craigmyle,  by  whom  he  had  a  son,  William,  who  died,  unmarried,  at  the 
age  of  forty;  and  (2nd)  in  1746,  the  Honourable  Anne  Forbes,  daughter  of  James,  fifteenth 
Lord  Forbes.     By  her  he  had  an  only  daughter,  his  successor. 

VIII. —  Mary  Erskine  of  Pittodrie,  heir  of  settlement  of  1754,  married  Colonel  Henry 
Knight,  and  by  him  had,  besides  a  daughter,  Mary  Ann,  who  died  in  1862,  a  son, — his  mother's 
heir, 

IX. — Colonel  William  Knight  Erskine  of  Pittodrie,  who  married  Grace,  daughter  of 
Captain  James  Norwood,  and  had  two  sons,  the  elder  of  whom  succeeded. 

X. — Colonel  Henry  Knight  Erskine  of  Pittodrie,  married  Mary  Ann,  daughter  of  George 
Moir,  Esq.  of  Denmore,  Aberdeenshire,  and  had  a  son,  the  present  proprietor,  and  a  daughter, 
wife  of  Rev.  Mr.  Flower. 

Arms  of  Erskine  of  Pittodrie. — Quarterly  1  and  4,  Argent  on  a  pale  sable,  three  fleurs  de  lis 
or,  for  Erskine  :  2,  or,  three  piles  in  point  gules,  for  Brechin  :  3,  Argent,  tlrree  pallets  gules, 
on  a  canton  azure,  a  spur,  the  rowel  downwards,  or,  for  Knight  :  over  all,  Argent,  three 
negroes'  heads  couped  proper  banded  of  the  field,  for  Moir.  Crest — A  demi  lion  rampant 
gules,  holding  in  his  dexter  paw  a  thistle  proper,  and  in  his  sinister  a  fleur  de  lis  azure. 
Supporters — Two  naked  boys  proper  WTeathed  about  the  middle  with  scarf  azure.  Mottoes — 
Je pense  plus ; — Fisus  etfidas  et  regia  duxit. 

THE  FERGUSONS  OF  INVERURIE.     (P.  353.) 

A  number  of  families,  bearing  the  surname  of  Fergus,  lived  about  Inverurie  during  the 
first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Robert  Fergus,  a  parishioner  of  Inverurie,  appears  in 
1536,  and  from  his  name  was  probably  one  of  a  line  traditionally  traced  to  the  beginning  of  the 
fourteenth  century.  From  about  1610  two  families,  both  containing  a  Robert  and  a  Walter, 
used  the  new  form  of  name,  Ferguson — other  families  continuing  to  call  themselves  Fergus. 
Three  Fergusons,  who  were  brothers,  appear  in  prominence,  viz. — William  Ferguson,  after- 


The  Fergusons  of  Inverurie.  475 

wards  in  Crichie  ;  Mr.  James  Ferguson,  Town-Clerk  of  Inverurie  from  1645  to  1673  ;  and 
John  Ferguson,  who  removed  to  Stonehaven,  and  died  there,  or  in  Poland,  before  1662.  A 
fourth  probably  was  the  younger  of  two  Walters  ;  the  elder,  a  Baillie,  while  these  others  were 
yet  young,  being  the  son  of  a  Robert,  who  nourished  in  1587.  The  brothers  were  the 
sons  of  Umquhile  William  Fergus  or  Ferguson,  whose  house  the  Marquis  of  Huntly  repeatedly 
made  his  headquarters  in  the  Troubles,  and  who  enlarged  his  domicile  in  1619.  Walter's 
propinquity  alone  is  uncertain.  William  Ferguson  of  Crichie  was  the  ancestor  of  the  families 
now  recorded  in  the  Ferguson  pedigree. 

William  Ferguson,  in  Crichie,  sometime  Baillie  in  Inverurie,  Laird  of  Badifurrow  from 
1655  until  after  16S6,  married  Janet  Clark,  who  died  probably  in  1659,  by  whom  he  had  six 
sons  and  one  daughter — I.,  Robert ;  II.,  William  ;  III.,  James  ;  IV.,  George  ;  V.,  John  ;  VI., 
Walter  ;  VII.,  Janet ;  who  all  founded  families,  five  of  which,  at  least,  are  still  known  to  be 
represented. 

I. — Robert,  First  Son  of  William  Ferguson,  in  Crichie  (p.  31b). 

Robert  Ferguson  (born  about   1640,  died  after   1713),   known   as   the   Plotter,  married 

Hannah ,  and  had  two  daughters.     A  descendant,  whose  father-  was  a  Naval  Officer, 

was  lately  a  Medical  Inspector. 

II. — William,  Second  Son  of  William  Ferguson,  in  Crichie. — Ferguson  of  Badifurrow 

and  of  Pitfour  (p.  355). 

I. — William  Ferguson,  infeft  as  successor  by  his  father  in  Badifurrow,  in  1655, 
married  Jean  Elphinstone,  daughter  of  William  Elphinstone,  in  Milntown  of  Dunio,  and 
Margaret  Forbes,  his  wife, — the  parents  also  of  Sir  James  Elphinstone  of  Logie, — and  had  by 
her  a  son,  James  Ferguson  of  Pitfour.  Jean  Elphinstone  died  before  17th  June,  1674. 
William  Ferguson  married  (secondly)  Lucretia  Burnett,  by  whom  he  had  three  sons,  who  all 
went  abroad.  Two  of  them — Patrick  and  Walter — and  a  sister,  Mary,  were  living  at 
Badifurrow,  with  their  mother,  in  1696.  Their  father  had  died  after  4th  March,  1694  ;  the 
date  of  a  Great  Seal  Charter  of  Badifurrow,  in  favour  of  William  Ferguson,  in  liferent,  and  his 
son,  Mr.  James  Ferguson,  in  fee  (p.  406). 

II. — Mr.  James  Ferguson  of  Badifurrow,  Advocate  in  Edinburgh,  married  Ann  Stewart,  and 
had  a  son,  James  (Lord  Pitfour),  and  a  daughter,  Elizabeth,  who  died  unmarried.  In  1699,  he 
sold  Badifurrow,  and  purchased  Pitfour,  in  Buchan.  In  1710  he  was  appointed  Sheriff- 
Substitute  of  Aberdeenshire  by  his  cousin,  Sir  John  Elphinstone  of  Logie,  who  had  been,  in 
1707,  made  Sheriff-Depute.     His  son,  born  about  1700,  was 

III. — James  Ferguson,  Senator  of  the  College  of  Justice,  and  a  Lord  of  Justiciary  by  the 
title  Lord  Pitfour.  He  married  Ann  Murray,  daughter  of  Alexander  Murray,  Lord  Elibank, 
and  by  her  had  three  sons — James  (born  about  1736), -Patrick,  and  George — and  three  daughters 
—Jane,  Elizabeth,  and  Ann.  Elizabeth  alone  married,  but  without  issue.  Her  husband 
was  Mr.  Wedderburn  of  Burkhill.     Lord  Pitfour,  raised  to  the  Bench  in  1764,  died  in  1777. 

The  first  and  third  sons  both  inherited  Pitfour.  Patrick,  born  in  1744,  entered  the  North 
British  Dragoons,  at  the  age  of  14.  He  was  killed  in  the  action  at  King's  Mountain,  South 
Carolina,  7th  October,  1780.  The  New  York  Gazette  of  the  time  styles  him  Major  ;  family 
tradition  gives  him  the  rank  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  (probably  brevet). 

Lord  Pitfour,  a  known  Jacobite,  was  at  the  Scottish  Bar  in  1745.  He  got  his  Judgeship 
through  the  astute  management  of  his  friend,  Lord  Mansfield.     Learning,  while  at  Court,  that 


476  Appendix. 


an  appointment  had  become  vacant,  the  Chief  Justice  at  once  stated  what  had  occurred,  and 
recommended  Mr.  Ferguson.  The  King  immediately  asked  whether  he  was  not  objectionable 
on  political  grounds,  and  Lord  Mansfield,  in  reply,  said,  in  a  matter  of  course  way,  that  the 
Duke  of  Argyll  (who  was  in  the  presence  of  the  King  at  the  time)  would  vouch  for  Mr. 
Ferguson's  loyalty.  The  Whig  Duke,  deprived  perchance  of  presence  of  mind  by  the 
unexpected  appeal,  merely  bowed. 

IV. — Mr.  James  Ferguson — the  well-known  Pitfour  of  the  House  of  Commons  during  the 
ministry  of  the  younger  Pitt,  and  that  Minister's  intimate  friend — was  called  to  the  Scottish 
Bar  in  1757.  He  purchased  for  his  father  the  lands,  in  St.  Fergus  parish,  belonging  to  the  last 
Earl  Marischal,  who,  finding  himself  unable  to  live  in  Scotland,  seems  to  have  wished  his 
estates  there  to  be  sold  to  either  of  two  friendly  proprietors, — Mr.  Ferguson  and  Mr.  Cumine  of 
Rattray, — and  ultimately  selected  Pitfour.  Mr.  Ferguson  was  elected  M.P.  for  Aberdeenshire 
in  1790,  and  served  until  his  death,  at  London,  at  the  age  of  84,  in  September,  1820.  He  is 
credited  with  the  saying  that  he  never  voted  against  Mr.  Pitt  but  twice,  and  on  both  occasions 
mature  reflection  convinced  him  that  Mr.  Pitt  was  right  and  he  wrong. 

Mr.  Ferguson  possessed  the  humorous  talents  exhibited  by  the  Plotter,  and  others  of  their 
name  and  kindred.  On  one  occasion  he  so  answered  a  number  of  silly  questions  put  to  him  by 
a  London  lady—  a  pronounced  example  of  the  ignorance  then  universal  in  English  society 
regarding  North  Britain — that  she  believed  Scotland  to  be  a  country  containing  neither  corn, 
nor  trees,  nor  grass,  but  covered  all  over  with  long  coarse  hair. 

Jane,  Duchess  of  Gordon,  an  esprit  fort  of  the  time,  was  familiar  in  her  manners  in  the 
bright  circle  in  which  she  shone.  Among  her  intimates  Pitfour  was  one,  and,  as  a  consequence, 
to  a  certain  extent,  John,  a  remarkable  man  servant,  who  was  his  inseparable  attendant.  She 
allowed  herself  once,  at  least,  the  whim  of  inviting  Mr.  Ferguson  to  Gordon  Castle  by  a  letter 
addressed  to  the  valet,  saying,  "  Dear  John,  come  to  Gordon  Castle  next  week,  and  bring  your 
master  with  you  ".  John,  of  course,  took  the  letter  to  Mr.  Ferguson,  who  directed  him  to 
write,  accepting  the  invitation  ;  but  that  being  John's  first  occasion  of  writing  to  the  Duchess, 
he  asked  what  he  shotild  say.  Pitfour  told  him  that  it  would  be  "  menners  "  to  write  just  as 
she  had  written  to  him.  If  she  begun  "  Dear  John,"  he  would  need  to  begin  "  Dear  Jean  ". 
Mr.  Ferguson  was  unsuccessful  in  his  first  candidature  for  the  position  of  Knight  of  the 
Shire,  in  Aberdeen.  The  seat  became  vacant  by  the  death,  on  22nd  December,  1785,  at  his 
mansion  house  of  Troup,  of  Alexander  Garden  of  Troup,  who  had  long  represented  the  county. 
The  election  following  was  made  the  occasion  of  a  trial  of  strength  between  the  Tory  Gordons 
—  long  leaders  of  the  North — and  the  Duff  House  family,  recently  enobled  with  the  Irish  title 
of  Earl  of  Fife.  The  Duffs  took  the  Whig  side,  and  brought  forward  their  relative,  George 
Skene  of  Skene,  against  Mr.  Ferguson,  who  was  the  Duke's  nominee.  Mr.  Skene  carried  the 
election  by  a  small  majority.  The  following  verses,  written  on  the  occasion,  preserve  the  names 
of  some  of  the  actors  in  the  contest. 

ELECTION  SONG,  1786. 

Chorus  :  Derry  Down,  etc.,  die,  &c. 

\.  I  sing  the  election  'twixt  Skene  and  Pitfour, 
My  song  shall  be  sweet  tho'  my  subject  be  sour  ; 
I'll  tell  you  what  Barons  and  Beauties  were  there, 
And  hit  you  their  characters  all  to  a  hair. 


The  Fergusons  of  Inverurie.  477 


2.  There  was  a  rich  peer  of  Irish  *  creation, 

A  commoner  here,  tho'  a  Lord  of  the  Nation, 
And  because  he  could  vote  without  favour  or  fear, 
They  voted  this  noble  Lord  into  the  chair. 

3.  And  there  was  a  Lord  +  who  had  lately  succeeded 

To  a  troup  of  new  friends,  which  he  very  much  needed, 
But  this  Lord  being  old,  said  not  much  pro  or  con, 
Yet  he  still  shook  his  head  as  the  voting  went  on. 

4.  There,  too,  was  the  Lord  J  of  the  Protestant  Mob, 
Who  came  post  a  long  way  to  assist  at  the  job, 
And  yet  when  he  came  no  assistance  could  grant, 
For  no  oath  he  would  take  but  the  old  Covenant. 

5.  And  there  were  some  Knights  of  famous  renown, 
With  Generals  and  Colonels  all  mustered  in  town, 
For  though  red  coats  are  forbid  at  elections, 

There  are  colours  besides  that  will  suit  all  complexions. 

6.  A  Colonel  ||  there  was  from  the  banks  of  the  Shannon. 
He'd  been  better  at  home  looking  after  his  cannon  ; 
For  five  hundred  miles  he  had  travelled  in  vain, 
And  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  ride  back  again. 

7.  And  there  was  an  Englishman,  §  married  in  haste 
To  an  Heiress  that  suited  him  just  to  his  taste, 
Yet  his  right  of  attendance  in  court  was  not  clear, 
So  they  sent  him  to  dance  it  at  home  for  a  year. 

8.  And  there  were  the  Gordons  of  every  degree, 
As  stately  and  gentle  as  Gordons  should  be, 
But  how  many  were  true  or  false  to  their  chief, 
Perhaps  I  could  tell,  but  you'd  not  give  belief. 

9.  And  there  were  the  Duffs,  all  arranged  on  one  side, 
All  true  to  the  Dun  Cow,  whate'er  might  betide  ; 
Their  chief  they  were  sure  would  always  prevail, 
For  ten  of  a  majority  never  can  fail. 

10.  A  Gordon  there  was  some  folks  to  reprove, 
For  he  now  and  then  prayed  to  a  Being  above, 

And  because  he  was  thought  to  depend  on  His  Grace, 
They  found  he  had  prayed  in  an  unentered  place. 

11.  A  Duff,  too,  there  was,  but  I  cannot  well  tell 
If  ever  he  thought  of  a  Heaven  or  a  Hell, 

For  fearing  his  vote  would  be  cast  on  that  score, 
He'd  prayed  nowhere  at  all  for  a  twelvemonth  or  more. 

12.  And  there  were  some  Parsons  11  of  piety  rare, 
Who  with  reverence  bowed  to  the  Preses's  chair  ; 
But  ah  !  what  an  honour  they  were  to  the  cloth 
When  with  fervent  devotion  they  took  the  trust  oath. 

13.  And  there  were  some  gentlemen  of  the  long  robe, 
With  wigs  of  all  sizes,  curled,  longtail,  and  bob. 
The  carrion  had  smelt,  tho'  cold  was  the  weather, 
And  therefore  the  vultures  were  gathered  together. 

*  James,  second  Earl  of  Fife,  t  Francis  Garden,  Lord  Gardenstown,  the  new  Laird  of  Troup,  t  Lord  George 
Gordon.  ||  Colonel  Henry  Knight,  husband  of  Mary  Erskine  of  Pittodrie,  §  Captain  John  Byron,  married  to  Miss 
Gordon,  heiress  of  Gight,  father  of  Lord  Byron.    U  Supposed  to  refer  to  tho  Rev.  William  Lesile,  Lhanbride,  near  Elgin. 


478  Appendix. 

14.  And  there  were  great  bundles  of  parchment  and  rights, 
If  the  boys  had  but  got  them,  what  store  of  fine  kites  ! 
Such  as  made  for  the  cause  were  rubbed  up  and  sustained, 
And  the  rest,  they  as  wisely  sent  off  to  be  cleaned. 

15.  But  to  know  all  were  there  your  patience  would  fail, 
Of  masters  and  misses,  tag-rag  and  bob-tail, 

Who  had  all  come  to  towu  with  a  pious  intent, 
To  keep  the  feast  day  on  the  first  day  of  Lent. 

16.  And  a  joyful  day  it  was  to  be  sure, 

For  the  victuals  were  good  and  the  claret  was  pure, 
While  the  rabble  roared  out— such  roaring  was  never 
"  For  Skene  and  Lord  George,  beef  and  porter  for  ever  ". 

V.  — George  Ferguson,  Lord  Pitfour's  youngest  son,  was  the  next  Laird.  He  had,  for  many 
years,  been  Governor  of  the  Island  of  Tobago.  He  survived  his  brother  James,  only  three 
months,  dying,  unmarried,  on  29th  December,  1820.  He  left  the  estates  to  his  son  George, 
afterwards  Admiral  Ferguson,  whose  son  now  possesses  them. 

Amis  of  Mr.  James  Ferguson,  Advocate  (1750). — Azure  a  buckle  argent,  between  three 
boars'  heads,  couped  or,  a  bordure  of  the  second. .  Crest — A  crescent  or  rising  from  a  cloud 
proper.     Motto —  Virtute. 

III. — James,  Third  Son  of  William  Ferguson,  in  Crichie. — Ferguson  of  Kinmundy  (p.  355). 

I. — James  Ferguson,  third  son  of  William  Ferguson,  in  Crichie,  in  the  course  of  a 
military  service  extending  over  four  reigns,  from  Charles  II.  to  Anne,  attained  the  rank  of 
Brigadier-General  (p.  376).  He  died  in  Holland  in  1705.  In  1695  he  bought  the  estates  of 
Balmakelly,  Kirktonhill,  and  Marykirk,  in  the  Mearns.  By  his  first  wife,  Anne  Drummond, 
he  left  an  only  son,  James,  and  a  daughter,  Elizabeth  ;  and  by  his  second  wife,  Hester  Elizabeth 
Hibelet,  a  Dutch  lady,  he  left  a  daughter,  Anna  Elizabeth,  who  became  the  wife  of  Gerard 
Vinck,  brother  of  the  Comptroller  General  of  the  Dutch  Fortifications. 

II. — James  Ferguson  of  Kinmundy  (who  died  in  1777),  in  1723,  sold  his  father's  estates, 
and  bought  Kinmundy,  in  Buchan,  to  which,  in  1744,  he  added  Coynach.  In  1756,  he  sold,  to 
Alexander  Eussel  of  Moncoffer,  the  lands  of  Aden  (Old  Deer),  Burnt  Brae,  and  Biffie,  acquired 
by  him  from  Pitfour.  He  married  (1st)  Elizabeth  Deans  of  Longhermiston,  in  Haddington,  and 
(2nd)  Margaret  Irvine  of  Artamford.  By  his  first  marriage,  he  had  a  son,  James,  and  a 
daughter,  Marjory. 

Marjory  married  James  Gumming  of  Kininmonth,  and  had  two  daughters  ;  one  of  whom, 
Margaret,  married,  in  1792,  Alexander  Eussel  of  Aden,  grandfather  of  the  present  proprietor 
(see  Burke's  Landed  Gentry)  ;  and  Catherine,  who  married  her  cousin,  Thomas  Ferguson,  W.S., 
and  died  in  1810. 

III. — James  Ferguson  of  Kinmundy  (who  died  in  1787)  married  Elizabeth  Urquhart,  by 
whom  he  had  three  sons— James  (his  heir),  Thomas,  W.S.,  and  William — and  three  daughters 
— Elizabeth,  Isabella,  and  Margaret  (unmarried). 

Thomas  married  his  cousin,  Catherine  Cumming,  and,  besides  a  daughter,  Marjory 
(unmarried),  had  a  son,  James,  now  resident  in  Aberdeen,  who  by  his  wife,  Annie  Macpherson, 
has  several  children.  William  (unmarried)  became  a  farmer  at  Clola.  Elizabeth,  married  to 
Rev.  D.  Meek,  left  three  children — Andrew,  James,  and  Eliza.     Isabel,  married  to  Rev.  John 


The  Fergusons  of  Inverurie.  479 


Aiken,  Aberdeen,  left  a  son,  John,  and  a  daughter,  Margaret.  John,  by  his  wife,  Jessie 
Somerville,  has  three  daughters. 

IV. — James  Ferguson  of  Kinmundy  (who  died  in  1816)  married,  in  August,  1787,  Isabella, 
daughter  of  Rev.  William  Brown  of  Oraigdam.  She  died  on  4th  June,  1807.  Their  children 
were — James  (the  heir),  William,  Thomas,  John,  Alexander,  and  Isabella. 

Thomas  Ferguson,  W.S.,  married  B.  Hutchison.    John  farmed  Brae  of  Coynach.     Alexander 

(who  died  in  1857)  was  for  some  time  in  America,  where  he   married  Maitland, 

who,  with  their  three  children,  William,  Margaret,  and  Agnes,  survive  him. 

V. — James  Ferguson  of  Kinmundy  (born  21st  May,  1789,  died  1862)  married,  6th  August, 
1817,  Emily,  daughter  of  Rev.  Alexander  Chalmers  of  Haddington,  and  left  two  sons — 
William  (his  heir)  and  Thomas— and  a  daughter,  Isabella.     He  died  1842. 

Thomas  Ferguson  (born  29th  December,  1828),  at  Alton  of  Coynach,  by  his  wife,  Agnes 
White,  had  Robert,  William,  Agnes,  Emily,  and  James. 

VI. — William  Ferguson  of  Kinmundy  married  Eliza  Williamson,  and  has  James  and 
Agnes  Adair.     Andrew,  a  younger  son,  died  in  1864. 

Arms  of  Major  James  Ferguson,  in  Col.  Lauder's  Regiment  (1691). — Azure  a  buckle 
argent,  between  three  boars'  heads  couped  or,  a  bordured  embattled  of  the  last.  Crest — A  dexter 
hand  rising  from  a  cloud,  holding  a  broken  spear  in  bend  proper.     Motto — Arte  et  animo. 

IV. — George,  Fourth  Son  of  William  Ferguson,  in  Crichie  (p.  355). 

T- — George  Ferguson,  fourth  son  of  William  Ferguson,  in  Crichie,  was,  in  1696, 
Chamberlain  to  the  Laird  of  Meldrum,  and  lived  in  Old  Meldrum.  He  was  twice  married — 
(1st)  to  Jean  Forbes,  and  (2nd)  to  Christian  Stiven.  The  issue  of  the  second  marriage  became 
extinct  in  the  first  generation,  consisting  of  three  daughters — Margaret,  Elizabeth,  and  Isabel 
— the  last  only  of  whom  married,  but  died  s.  p.  Her  husband  was  a  Mr.  Murdoch,  in  Old 
Meldrum. 

By  the  first  marriage  there  were  four  sons  and  five  daughters — Robert,  John,  William, 
George,  Jean,  Janet,  Christian,  Magdalene,  and  Mary.  Mary  alone  of  the  daughters  married. 
She  left  by  her  husband,  John  Milne,  two  daughters,  the  younger  of  whom  married  (issue 
unknown).  William  alone  of  the  sons  married,  and  is  now  represented  by  several  families. 
The  first  and  second  sons  attained  high  positions  in  the  army  (regiments  unknown). 

II. — William,  the  third  son,  lived  at  Mill  of  Insch,  and,  being  a  man  of  sound  judgment  and 
quick  penetration,  went  commonly  by  the  name  of  "  The  Judge".  He  married  Mary  Panton, 
and  had  two  sons — George  and  John — and  two  daughters — Elizabeth,  whose  descendants  now 
represent  the  family  in  Aberdeenshire  ;  and  Mary,  who  died  unmarried. 

Ill- — George  lived  at  Kilmory,  and  married  Margaret  Tulloch,  of  the  family  of  Tannaehie, 
in  Morayshire,  and  had  a  son,  William,  a  Merchant  in  London  (1761;,  and  a  daughter,  Mary, 
who  died  unmarried. 

HI. — John,  the  second  son,  was,  in  1764,  a  Captain  in  the  Navy.  He  married  Lydia 
Camber,  and  had  John,  a  Captain  in  the  Navy  ;  William,  a  Captain  in  the  Army  ;  Lydia, 
married  to Sheridan  ;  and  Marion,  married  to  Dr.  Smith. 

Ill- — Elizabeth,  elder  daughter  of  "  The  Judge,"  married  A.  Jardine,  an  Officer  of 
Excise.  She  had  to  him  three  sons — William,  Captain  of  a  West  India  trader  ;  James,  a 
Merchant  in  Insch  ;  John,  a  Lieutenant  in  the  Navy  ;  and  Mary,  wife  of  Andrew  Jopp,  Insch. 

IV. — Mary  Jardine  and  her  husband,  Andrew  Jopp,  had  one  son,  Andrew,  Advocate  in 


480  Appendix. 


Aberdeen  ;  Elizabeth,  wife  of  William  Adam  ;  Janet,  wife  of  Dr.  Beattie  ;  Jane,  wife  of  James 
Staats  Forbes  of  Lochermick,  s.  p.  ;  and  Mary,  who  died  unmarried. 

V. — Andrew  Jopp,  Advocate  in  Aberdeen,  married  Margaret  Abercrombie,  a' daughter  of 
Provost  John  Abercrombie,  Stocking  Merchant,  and  some  time  Chief  Magistrate  of  Aberdeen, 
and  by  her  had  ten  sons  and  one  daughter — 1,  Alexander,  Advocate,  Aberdeen  ;  2,  John,  W.S.  ; 
3,  Andrew  ;  4,  Robert  ;  5,  James,  M.D.  ;  6,  William,  AVine  Merchant,  Aberdeen ;  7,  David  ;  8, 
Keith,  M.D.  ;  9,  Charles,  Engineer  in  Edinburgh  ;  10,  Archibald  ;  11,  Katherine,  wife  of  John 
Taylor.  The  sons,  except  James,  David,  and  Archibald,  married,  and  with  issue  ;  1,  2, 
3,  7,  10,  and  their  sister  are  dead.     Her  children  are  deceased. 

V. — Elizabeth  Jopp,  married  to  William  Adam,  Advocate  in  Aberdeen,  Town-Clerk  of 
Inverurie  from  1797  to  1805,  had  two  sons  and  three  daughters  ;  the  youngest  of  whom,  Janet 
Margaret  Adam,  Inverurie,  alone  survives. 

V. — Janet  Jopp  married  Dr.  Peter  Beattie,  in  Dnnnideer,  Insch,  and  had  five  sons — Andrew, 
farmer  in  Dnnnideer  ;  Alexander,  M.D.,  Indian  Service  ;  James,  Land  Surveyor,  Aberdeen  ; 
William,  and  John.     The  three  elder  are  represented  ;  Alexander  alone  surviving. 

Arms  of  William  Ferguson,  Esq.,  of  London  (1761).  Azure,  a  buckle  argent,  between 
three  boars'  heads,  couped  or,  within  a  bordure  of  the  last  charged  with  four  cross  crosslets 
fitched  gules.  Crest — A  dexter  arm  from  the  shoulder  in  armour  holding  a  broken  lance  all 
proper.     Motto — True  to  the  end. 

Perhaps  the  following  Arms,  registered,  in  1757,  as  those  of  Captain  John  Ferguson, 
Commandar  of  a  ship  in  the  Royal  Navy,  were  those  of  John,  Captain  in  1764 : — Argent,  a  ship 
of  war  under  sail  proper,  and  on  a  chief,  azure,  three  boars'  heads  couped  or.  Crest — A  dexter 
hand  grasping  a  broad  sword  proper.  Motto — Pro  rege  ct  patria.  One  of  the  ships  that  chased 
Prince  Charles  Edward  in  his  escape  to  France  in  1746  was  commanded  by  a  Captain  Ferguson. 
V. — John,  Fifth  Son  of  William  Ferguson,  in  Crichie  (p.  355). 

I, — John  Ferguson  of  Stonehouse,  fifth  sCn  of  William  Ferguson,  in  Crichie,  was  for  a 
long  period  prior  to  1721,  a  Baillie  of  Inverurie,  generally  associated  with  his  younger  brother, 
Walter.  He  purchased  the  southern  part  of  the  Inverurie  Poods,  called  Stonehouse,  about 
1676.  In  1696  he  was  sole  Commissioner  i'or  the  Poll-Tax  in  Inverurie  Parish  ;  his  youngest 
son,  George,  acting  as  Clerk  and  Collector. 

John  Ferguson  married  Bathia  Karr,  and  had  three  sons  ;  the  second  of  whom,  James, 
entered  the  Austrian  Service,  and  George,  the  youngest,  died  in  his  youth. 

II. — William,  the  eldest  son,  married Keith.     He  sold  Stonehouse  to  William, 

second  Earl  of  Kintore,  and  leaving  Inverurie,  lived  at  Millbraick,  near  Kinmundy.     He  had 
one  son  and  five  daughters. 

III. — Alexander  the  only  son,  died  master  of  a  trading  ship.     Henrietta,  the  eldest  daughter, 

married Ryon,  Officer  of  Excise,  and   had,  besides  a  daughter,  Elizabeth,  two  sons,  William 

and  Alexander — both  in  the  Navy.     Margaret  and  Catherine  died  unmarried.     Bathia,  fourth 

daughter,  married  Gordon,  and  had  one  daughter,  Anne.     Isabel,  youngest   daughter, 

married Gray,  a  gentleman  in  Edinburgh,  but  had  no  issue. 

VI. — Walter,  Sixth  Son  of  William  Ferguson,  in  Crichie  (p.  356). 

I. — Walter  Ferguson,  sixth  son  of  William  Ferguson,  in  Crichie,  had  the  ancestral 
property  in  Inverurie  (26-42  Market  Place)  disponed  by  his  father  to  him  and  Margaret  Panton, 
his  wife,  in  1680.     Family  tradition  says  that  his  progenitors  had  owned  the  same  possession 


The  Fergusons  of  Inverurie.  481 


for  four  centuries  before  that  time.  He  appears,  in  the  Poll  Book  of  1696,  with  four  sons  and 
three  daughters,  viz. — James,  William,  Walter,  John,  Margaret,  Janet,  and  Mary.  One  son, 
George,  and  two  daughters,  Barbara  and  Bathia,  were  added  afterwards.  He  survived  to  1728, 
and  was  a  Baillie  of  Inverurie,  for  a  long  period,  prior  to  1723  ;  his  brother,  John,  appearing 
along  with  him  until  1721.  John,  the  fourth  son,  left  issue,  but  no  record  is  known  of 
Walter.  The  eldest  son's  descendants  only  are  traceable  to  the  present  day.  Some  of  the 
other  branches  possess  some  interest. 

II.— James,  the  eldest  son,  born  28th  April,  1681,  married,  on  29th  December,  1709,  Isabella 
Scott,  born  26th  December,  1691,  daughter  of  Mr  George  Scott,  Town-Clerk  of  Inverurie.  He 
was  a  merchant  in  Inverurie,  but  after  several  removals  appears,  in  1728,  Salt  Officer  at 
Bonhard.  He  died,  aged  72,  at  Thirlstane,  14th  September,  1753  ;  and  his  widow,  at  Edinburgh, 
in  1775,  aged  83.     Ten  children  were  born  to  them,  between  1711  and  1730. 

1.  Margaret,  born  at  Inverurie,  20th  June,  1711,  died  at  London,  18th  June,  1794.  2. 
George,  born  at  Inverurie,  14th  February,  1713,  died  there,  10th  May,  1713.  3.  Walter,  born 
at  Tocherford,  6th  September,  1714,  died  at  Edinburgh,  25th  May,  1797.  4.  William,  born  at 
Tocherford,  29th  June,  1716,  died  at  Mill  of  Ardtannies,  27th  January,  1721.  5.  Mary,  bom 
at  Old  Meldrum,  28th  May,  1719,  died  at  Leith,  3rd  October,  1797.  6.  Janet,  born  at  Grangepans, 
13th  September,  1721,  married  Mr.  Robert  Lock,  and  died  at  Crookstone,  near  Paisley,  16th 
July,  1779.  7.  James,  born  at  Thirlstane,  16th  July,  1723,  died  14th  February,  1793,  at 
Greenwich  Hospital,  of  which  he  was  appointed  Lieutenant-Governor  on  20th  March,  1784.  8. 
John,  born  at  Thirlstane,  13th  March,  1725,  died  20th  April,  1751,  a  Lieutenant  in  Brigadier 
Halket's  Regiment  in  the  Dutch  service.  9.  Charles,  born  at  Cuffabout,  6th  November,  1728, 
died  there  6th  February,  1729.  10.  Anthony,  born  at  Cuffabout,  15th  April,  1730,  had  a  son, 
an  eminent  physician  in  Dublin,  and  settled  there  himself.     His  wife  died  about  1793. 

James  Ferguson,  then  Salt  Officer  at  Bonhard  Pans,  bonded  the  Inverurie  Common  Lands 
inherited  by  him  to  his  relative,  Pitfour  ;  and  his  son,  Walter,  redeemed  them.  Walter's  widow 
sold  them  to  the  Earl  of  Kintore,  in  1798. 

III.— Walter  Ferguson,  second  son,  Writer  in  Edinburgh,  married  Katherine  Swinton,  sister 
of  John  Swinton  of  Kimmerghame,  Lord  Swinton  of  the  Court  of  Session.  She  was  infeft, 
14th  December,  1797,  in  the  family  possessions  in  Inverurie— of  Lower  Roods  (26-40  Market 
Place) ;  and  Common  Lands  known  as  Pitfour's  Lands. 

Letters  from  Mr.  Walter  Ferguson  and  his  widow  to  Mr.  William  Davidson,  Minister  of 
Inverurie,  dated  from  1784  to  1798  are  preserved.  They  were  sealed  with  the  arms  registered 
2nd  November,  1762,  for  Walter  Ferguson  of  Kinnaird.  Only  one  is  holograph.  The  signa- 
ture is  very  shaken  in  1784,  when  he  was  at  the  age  of  70,  and  ceases  in  1794  ;  his  wife 
writing  his  name  after  that  date. 

In  1784,  11th  May,  he  discredits  a  report  heard  in  Edinburgh,  that  the  Magistrates  of 
Inverurie  had  refused  £4,000  in  bank  notes  for  the  burgh's  vote  for  a  Member  of  Parliament- 
asks  if  they  have  got  cash,  or  only  subscriptions,  for  the  building  of  a  bridge  over  the  Don- 
mentions  the  appointment  of  his  brother,  Captain  James,  without  solicitation  by  himself  or 
others,  to  be  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Greenwich  Hospital,  with  £560  a-year,  a  house  better 
than  Keith-hall,  and  coals  and  candles  estimated  as  emoluments — equal  in  all  to  £700— the 
duties  also  being  more  of  an  amusement  than  fatigue.  His  brother  became  partially  paralysed 
in  1788,  and  died  in  1793, 

In    1786,    he    complains    of   the   Magistrates   of   Inverurie    for   leaving    his    accounts 

61 


482  Appendix. 


for  agency  unpaid,  and  then  appointing  a  person,  a  stranger  to  the  interests  of  the  Burgh, 
Commissioner,  in  his  stead,  to  the  Convention  of  Royal  Burghs  ;  but  is  not  surprised  at  the 
ingratitude,  seeing  there  is  a  party  desirous  of  throwing  off  the  connection  of  Inverurie  with 
the  Keith-hall  family,  in  view  of  advances  made  from  Duff  House — thinks  Inverurie  would 
be  a  good  place  for  an  Academy  for  Education  but  for  the  want  of  suitable  accommodation  for 
pupils,  and  suggests  the  enlargement  of  the  Manse,  that  the  Minister,  after  the  manner  of 
English  Parsons,  might  take  pupils — makes  uncomplimentary  references  to  George  Scott,  the 
Town-Clerk  of  1746,  and  his  ingratitude  to  those  who  saved  him  from  having  to  make  a 
journey  to  Carlisle  in  that  year— has  got  an  elegant  plan  for  a  building,  creditable  to  the  town, 
upon  his  grandfather's  property,  and  wishes  to  acquire  some  ten  acres  of  commonty — the 
property  had  been  in  the  family  500  years. 

1788,  7th  November.— Has  been  to  England  to  see  his  brother— is  glad  to  hear  proprietors 
are  proposing  to  build  bridges  over  Don  and  Ury  next  spring — yesterday's  accounts  of  His 
Majesty's  condition  were  hopeful. 

1789.— Had  got  £200  from  the  Convention  towards  the  Inverurie  Bridges,  and  hoped  to  get 
£300  from  other  sources. 

1791. — Still  has  building  in  view — his  tenant  may  put  a  temporary  roof  on  the  walls  of 
his  grandfather's  house,  but  with  no  claim  for  recompense— happy  to  hear  that  the  Bridge  over 
Don  is  finished. 

1794. — Happy  to  hear  that  the  Bridge  over  Ury  is  going  on— has  had  many  deaths  among 
his  relatives,  including  his  eldest  sister,  Margaret  ;  his  brother,  James,  the  Governor  ;  his 
brother  Anthony's  wife  ;  his  cousin,  Peter  Ferguson  Tepper  of  Warsaw— his  wife  has  lost  her 
eldest  sister,  Mary,  an  umarried  lady  ;  her  uncle,  Mr.  Keith  of  Ravelstone,  and  his  lady  ;  and 
her  nephew,  Samuel  Hepburn,  son  of  Commissioner  Hepburn  of  the  Excise. 

1796.— Observes  that  Pitfour  has  asked  leave  to  bring  in  a  Bill  for  the  construction  of  a 
Navigable  Canal  from  Aberdeen  to  Inverurie — had  often  thought  of  such  a  thing,  and  of  the  two 
capital  objections  to  it,  viz.,  the  cost  of  making  a  canal  and  the  want  of  trade  to  employ  it— has 
given  up  all  idea  of  building  in  Inverurie,  his  brother,  the  governor,  being  dead,  and  his  brother, 
Anthony,  permanently  settled  in  Dublin — intends  now  to  sell— had  five  acres  on  the  north  side 
of  Edinburgh,  which  being  feued,  in  consequence  of  the  improvements,  became  worth  £20,000 
— thinks  land  in  Inverurie  should  rise  in  price  since  the  building  of  the  Bridges — remembers, 
like  a  dream,  Potate  sometimes  dry,  sometimes  full  of  water,  and  the  ducks  and  geese  waddling 
in  it — asks  if  the  street  of  Inverurie  is  paved — if  the  bouses  are  still  allowed  to  be  built  with 
the  gable  to  the  street— if  the  chief  employment  of  the  girls  continues  to  be  shanking  (the 
knitting  of  shanks  or  hose),  or  if  the  making  of  linen  yarn  has  been  introduced,  for  which  the 
side  of  the  Don  would  afford  good  bleaching  ground. 

Walter  Ferguson,  W.S.,  died  at  Edinburgh,  25th  May,  1797,  without  lawful  issue,  and 
his  widow,  next  year,  completed  the  sale  of  the  Inverurie  property,  begun  before  his  death  ; 
the  Earl  of  Kintore  purchasing  the  Common  Lands,  called  "  Pitfour's  Lands  ". 

Arms  of  Walter  Ferguson  of  Kinnaird  (1762).  Azure,  on  a  cheveron  argent,  betwixt 
three  boars'  heads,  couped  or,  armed  and  langued  proper,  a  buckle  betwixt  two  falcons  of  the 
first.     Crest— A  denii  lion  gules,  armed  and  langued  azure.     Motto — Virtus  sibi  premium. 

III. — Janet  Ferguson,  third  daughter  of  James,  was  the  ancestor  of  the  representatives  now 


The  Fergusons  of  Inverurie.  483 


known  of  the  sixth  son  of  William  Ferguson,  in  Crichie.     The  following  particulars  are  taken 
from  an  old  family  Bible  belonging  to  Lieutenant-Colonel  Andrew  Lock,  50th  Foot. 

Robert  Lock,  son  of  John  and  Mary  Lock  had,  by  his  marriage  with  Janet  Ferguson,  nine 
children  born  in  the  years  1748-1764. 

IV. — Walter  Lock,  second  son  of  the  nine  children,  was  born  December  20,  1755,  became 
Vice- Admiral,  R.N.,  and  died  at  Ryde,  Isle  of  Wight,  in  1835.  He  married,  7th  February, 
1787,  Sarah  Ann  Grilliin,  at  Fareham,  Hants,  and  had  nine  children. 

V. — Campbell  Lock,  their  fifth  son,  born  10th  May,  1795,  died  at  Haylands,  Isle  of  Wight, 
18th  May,  1861.  His  wife,  Helen  Knox,  daughter  of  Andrew  Knox  of  Keithock,  Forfarshire, 
born  2nd  November,  1795,  died  27th  February,  1873.     They  had  nine  children. 

VI. — 1,  Walter,  Captain  Royal  Artillery,  born  at  Montrose,  1825,  died  at  Ryde,  November, 
1865  ;  2,  Andrew  Campbell,  Colonel  50th  Regiment,  born  at  Montrose,  1827  ;  3,  Henry,  Colonel 
108th  Regiment,  born  at  Ryde,  1828,  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Captain  William  Hunter 
of  Blackness,  near  Dundee,  and  has  issue  ;  4,  James  Elphinstone,  Lieutenant  Royal  Marines, 
died  of  yellow  fever,  in  the  West  Indies,  21st  December,  1851  ;  5,  Frederick  Carnegy,  born  at 
Ryde,  1831  ;  6,  Nagle  Brooke,  died  at  St.  Servan,  France,  14th  November,  1866  ;  7,  James 
Carnegy,  late  Royal  Navy,  born  at  Ryde,  1834,  married,  in  New  Zealand,  in  1866,  Anne, 
daughter  of  A.  Starke,  Esq.,  and  has  issue  ;  8,  George  Fortescue  died,  1874,  in  New  Zealand  ;  9, 
Rev.  Campbell,  Rector  of  Chalton,  Hants,  born  at  Haylands,  Isle  of  Wight,  in  1838,  married,  in 
1871,  Mary,  daughter  of  Sir  Robert  Oliver,  K.C.B. 

II. — William  Ferguson,  second  son  of  Walter  Ferguson  of  Inverurie,  went  to  Poland,  in 
1703,  accompanied  by  his  brother,  George,  and  there,  in  1714,  married  Catherine  Concordia 
Tepper,  a  citizen  of  Posen,  sister  of  a  rich  Banker  at  Warsaw,  and  died  in  1732. 

III. — Peter  Ferguson  Tepper,  their  son,  married,  in  1762,  Philippina  Valentina.  He 
succeeded  his  uncle  as  a  Banker  and  Merchant  in  Warsaw  ;  and  obtained  Royal  License  in 
Britain,  12th  June,  1779,  to  use  the  additional  surname  and  arms  of  Tepper.  He  died  before 
May,  1794. 

IV. — His  son,  Philip  Bernard  Ferguson  Tepper  of  Warsaw,  said  to  be  then  the  second 
Banker  in  Europe,  visited  Scotland,  and  received  the  Freedom  of  the  City  of  Edinburgh,  5th 
July,  1786, — the  same  month  in  which  that  City  gave  forth  the  mythical  genealogy  constructed 
by  "James  Cummynge,  Esq.,  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Antequarians  of  Scotland  "  (p.  353). 

II. — Margaret  Ferguson,  eldest  daughter  of  Baillie  Walter  Ferguson,  became  the  second  wife 
of  Mr.  George  Scott,  Town-Clerk  of  Inverurie  from  1681  to  1729,  whose  eldest  daughter  her 
brother,  James,  had  married  in  1709.  Margaret  Ferguson  had — George,  Town-Clerk  of 
Inverurie  (1736-50)  ;  Margaret,  wife  of  Alexander  Ferguson  (Baillie  in  Inverurie,  after  Walter 
Ferguson,  whose  sister,  Janet,  was  his  mother)  ;  Helen  ;  Barbara,  wife  of  J.  Wood  ;  John,  born 
in  1717,  at  Mill  of  Ardtannies  ;  Bathia,  born  in  1719  ;  and  James,  born  in  1721  ;  also  Sophia 
and  Ann,  born  1723  and  1725,  in  Inverurie,  (where  Rose  Lane  now  is). 

III. — George  Scott,  who,  ruined  in  means,  left  Inverurie  for  Mill  of  Aden,  died  in  1789  ; 
his  sister,  Sophia,  and  another  surviving  him. 

II. — Janet  Ferguson,  second  daughter  of  Baillie  Walter  Ferguson,  married,  in  1718  (contract,  ■ 
January  20,  at  Ardtannies),  Alexander  Paterson,  the  third  of  four  of  the  same  name  who 


484  Appendix. 


possessed  Upper  Roods  in  Inverurie,  now  1  High  Street  to  65  Market  Place, — the  property 
once  of  an  earlier  Baillie  Walter  Ferguson,  probably  her  father's  uncle. 

VII. — Janet,  Daughter  of  William  Ferguson,  in  Crichie  (p.  S56). 

I. — Janet  Ferguson,  called  "  gentle  Janet," — from  alleged  unappropriateness  in  the 
epithet, — was  the  only  daughter  of  William  Ferguson,  in  Crichie.  She  is  said  to  have  married 
her  cousin,  John  Ferguson,  a  Polish  Merchant.  She  had  a  cousin,  John,  about  her  own  age, 
being  in  pupilarity  in  1662,  who  may  have  gone  to  Poland  either  before  or  a  good  while  after 
the  date  of  her  marriage.  He  was  "  John  Ferguson,  eldest  lawful  son  of  deceased  John 
Ferguson,  somtyme  in  Stonhyve,"  who,  on  14th  March,  1662,  before  the  Baillies  of  Inverurie, 
chose  James  and  William  Ferguson,  his  uncles,  to  be  his  curators  to  grant  dispositions  along 
with  him.  Some  Scotchmen,  of  the  name  of  Ferguson,  had  a  large  brewery  in  Warsaw» 
sometime  after  the  period  of  Janet's  marriage.  The  marriage  produced  six  children — John, 
Robert,  Alexander,  Janet,  Margaret,  and  Jane.  The  daughters  all  died  unmarried ;  and  the 
eldest  son  settled  in  Poland.     The  families  of  Robert  and  Alexander  alone  are  known. 

II. — Robert  Ferguson  "  went  with  his  father  to  Poland,"  but  returned  to  this  country,  and 
settled  at  Peterhead.  He  married  Jean  Smith,  by  whom  he  had  two  sons — Alexander  and 
William — and  a  daughter,  Jean,  who  died  unmarried. 

III.— Alexander,  master  of  a  trading  vessel,  married  Elizabeth  Clark,  and  had  three  sons — 
William,  Robert,  and  James,  who  became  a  Captain  of  a  West  Indian  ship,  and  had  one 
daughter. 

III. — William,  his  brother,  first  a  sub-Lieutenant  in  the  Royal  Navy,  afterwards  a  Captain 
of  an  armed  veasel  in  the  Merchant  Service,  married  Isabella  Arbuthnot,  daughter  of  Thomas 
Arbuthnot,  Baillie  and  Chief  Magistrate  of  Peterhead,  commonly  called  "the  old  Baillie,"  and 
had  three  daughters — Jane,  Margaret,  and  Christian.  He  settled  in  Peterhead.  His  two  elder 
daughters  continued  the  line. 

IV. — Jane, married  to  Mr.  James'Hutchison,  Merchant  in  Peterhead,  had  four  sons — Robert, 
who  died  when  a  boy  ;  William,  Master  of  a  Peterhead  whaler  ;  James,  who  engaged  in  business 
in  Peterhead  ;  and  John — but  she  and  her  husband  are  represented  only  through  three  of 
their  five  daughters. 

V. — Isabella  Hutchison  married  Mr.  Wallace,  Civil  Engineer,  and  has  children  ;  Barbara 
Hutchison  married  Thomas  Ferguson,  W.S.  (Kinmundy)  ;  Jane  Hutchison  married  William 
Bruce,  M.D.,  Inspector-General  of  Hospitals,  her  cousin  ;  Christian  and  Ann  Hutchison  were 
not  married. 

IV. — Margaret  Ferguson,  daughter  of  William  (III.),marriedto  Alexander  Bruce,  Supervisor 
of  Excise  in  Old  Meldrum,  had  four  sons — William,  James,  Alexander,  and  Ferguson — and  one 
daughter,  Isabella,  who  died  young.  Their  father  died  at  Peterhead,  23rd  April,  1820.  The 
three  younger  sons  all  entered  the  Excise. 

V.— William  Bruce,  M.D.,  the  eldest  son,  Inspector-General  of  Hospitals,  married  Jane 
Hutchison,  his  cousin,  December  1821,  and  settled  in  Peterhead.  He  had  four  children — 
William,  Barbara,  Christian,  and  Erskine. 

VI.— William  Bruce,  B.D.,  Cantab,  the  eldest,  is  Episcopal  Minister  at  St.  Serfs  Episcopal 
Chapel,  Dunimarle,  near  Culross,  on  the  Forth. 


Burnett  of  Kemnay.  485 


II. — Alexander  Ferguson,  the  second  son  of  Janet  and  John  Ferguson,  became  a  Merchant  in 
Aberdeen,  but  (afterwards  apparently)  was  a  Baillie  in  Inverurie  after  1723,  when  his  uncle 
"Walter  ceased  to  be  recorded  in  that  position.  He  married  Margaret  Scott,  daughter  of  Mr. 
George  Scott,  Town-Clerk  of  Inverurie,  and  grand-daughter  of  Baillie  Walter  Ferguson,  sixth 
son  of  William  Ferguson,  in  Crichie.  He  had  a  daughter  baptised  on  October  3,  1725  ;  his 
father-in-law  having  one  on  3rd  November  following.  The  Inverurie  registers  contain  the 
baptisms  of  eight  children  to  Alexander  Ferguson,  viz. — George,  in  1723  ;  Margaret,  in  1725  ; 
Janet,  in  1727  ;  William,  in  1731  ;  James,  in  1737  ;  Anne,  in  1738  ;  Elizabeth,  in  1740  ;  and 
Alexander,  in  1744.     Only  Mary,  Anne,  and  Alexander  grew  up. 

III. — Mary  married  James  Black,  Aberdeen,  and  had  three  daughters.  Her  sister  Anne 
married  William  Forbes  there,  and  had  John,  Robert,  James,  and  Elizabeth. 

III. — Alexander  Ferguson,  W.S.,  the  one  surviving  son,  married  Jane  Legrand,  of  the  family 
of  Bonnington,  and  had  five  sons  and  three  daughters.  Three  sons  grew  up — Edward  Legrand, 
M.D.,  who  died  in  Edinburgh,  on  24th  Oetober,  1822  ;  John,  who  died  in  Bio  Janeiro,  where 
he  was  engaged  in  trade  ;  and  Smith,  Silk  Mercer  in  Edinburgh.  The  Inverurie  property  of 
Mr.  George  Scott  (described  in  the  text  as  Scott's  Lands)  was,  in  1786  and  1788,  disponed  by 
George  Scott,  junior,  to  his  cousin,  Alexander  Ferguson,  W.S.  ;  who,  falling  into  pecuniary 
difficulties,  sold  it  under  redemption  to  the  Earl  of  Kintore,  from  whom  it  was  recovered 
by  Smith  Ferguson,  but  only  to  be  re-sold.     No  descendants  represent  the  family. 

BURNETT  OF   KEMNAY.     (P.  420.) 

Alexander  Burnett  of  Leys  married  Katherine,  daughter  of  Alexander  Gordon  of  Lesmoir, 
and  died  in  1619,  leaving,  with  other  issue,  three  sons — 1,  -Sir  Thomas  Burnett  of  Leys,  created 
a  Baronet  of  Nova  Scotia,  in  1626,  ancestor  of  the  subsequent  Baronets  of  Leys  ;  2,  James 
Burnett  of  Craigmyle  ;  and,  3,  Robert  Burnett  of  Crimond  (p.  250).  Unlike  their  younger 
brother,  Lord  Crimond,  Sir  Thomas  and  James  were  supporters  of  the  Covenant :  they  were, 
however,  conspicuous  for  their  loyalty,  and  trusted  by  the  King  ;  and  in  the  local  history  of 
the  period  Craigmyle  ever  figures  as  a  peacemaker  and  enemy  of  bloodshed. 

James  Burnett  of  Craigmyle,  in  1608,  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Thomas  Burnett  of 
Craigmyle, — a  cadet  of  the  family,  and  maternally  representative  of  the  Craigmyles  of  that  Ilk, 
— by  whom  he  got  Craigmyle,  Pitmedden,  and  other  estates  in  Aberdeenshire.  Dying  in  1644 
or  1645,  he  left  four  sons  and  a  daughter.  Of  these  the  eldest  (Alexander)  succeeded  him  in 
Crigmyle,  and  was  father  of  Sir  Alexander  Burnett  of  Craigmyle,  knighted  by  Charles  II., 
who  left  daughters  only.  The  second  was  Thomas  Burnett,  first  of  Kemnay,  and  the 
third  was  James  Burnett  of  Allagavan  (or  Lagavin)  and  Monboddo,  great  grandfather  of  the 
famous  Judge,  Lord  Monboddo.  The  fourth  son,  Robert  of  Cowtoun,  Muchalls,  and  Criggie, 
"  Tutor  of  Leys,"  had  three  daughters  ;  the  eldest  of  whom,  Helen,  married  the  fourth  Baronet 
of  Leys,  and  was  grandmother,  through  a  daughter,  of  Secretary  Burnett,  fourth  of  Kemnay  ; 
the  second,  Agnes,  was  the  wife  (1st)  of  Thomas  Burnett  of  Glenbervie,  and  (2nd)  of  Sir 
William  Nicolson  of  Glenbervie  (p.  377)  ;  and  the  third,  Jane,  was  grandmother  of  the  sixth 
Baronet  of  Leys. 

I. — Thomas  Burnett  of  Kemnay  married,  in  1665,  Margaret  (who  died  in  1699),  only  child 
of  John  Pierson,  Merchant  in  Edinburgh,  of  the  family  of  Balmadies,  in  Forfar.  He  purchased 
Kemnay  from  Sir  George  Nicolson,  Lord  Kemnay,  in  1688,  and  died  in  the  same  year,  having 


486  Appendix. 


had  issue,  only  two  children,  who  survived,  viz.,  the  heir,  and  Andrew  Burnett  (p.  427),  who 
married  his  cousin,  Jane  Burnett  of  Craigmyle,  but  died  s.p. 

II. — Thomas  Burnett  of  Kemnay  married,  circa,  1713,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Richard 
Brickenden  of  Inkpen,  Berkshire  (by  his  second  wife,  Dorothy  Robinson),  who,  after  his  death, 
married  Dr.  George  Lamont.     Thomas  Burnett  of  Kemnay  died  in  1729,  having  had  issue, 

III. — George  Burnett  of  Kemnay  (the  first  recorded  Provost  of  Inverurie,  whose  chief 
magistrate  had  until  then  been  Baillie).  He  was  born  in  1714,  and  married  (1st),  in  1733, 
Helen,  eldest  daughter  of  Sir  Alexander  Burnett  of  Leys,  fourth  Baronet.  She  died  in  1750, 
and,  in  1752,  he  married  (2nd)  Janet  (who  died  in  1820),  daughter  of  James  Dyce  of  Disblair. 
George  Burnett  died  in  1780,  leaving  issue  of  his  first  marriage — Alexander,  his  heir  ;  and  four 
daughters,  of  whom  the  fourth  only  married,  becoming  the  wife  of  Alexander  Dunbar  of  Boath, 
Nairnshire,  and  grandmother  of  the  present  Sir  James  Dunbar  of  Boath,  Bart. 

IV. — Alexander  Burnett  of  Kemnay,  bom  in  1734,  was,  from  1756  to  1778,  Secretary  of 
Embassy  at  the  Prussian  Court,  and  for  a  short  time  afterwards  Charge  dAffaires.  He 
married,  in  1782,  Christian  (who  died  in  1842),  daughter  of  John  Leslie,  Professor  of  Greek  in 
King's  College,  Aberdeen,  by  Isabella,  daughter  of  Hugh  Fraser  of  Powis  :  and  died  in  1802, 
having  had  issue  : — 

1,  George,  born  in  1782,  died  in  1784  ;  2,  John,  his  heir  ;  3,  Helen,  born  in  1784,  married, 
in  1805,  to  Dr.  James  Bannerman,  Professor  of  Medicine  in  King's  College,  Aberdeen,  second 
son  of  Sir  Alexander  Bannerman  of  Elsick,  sixth  Baronet,  and  died  s.p.,  18G5  ;  4,  Elizabeth, 
born  in  1787,  died,  unmarried,  in  1806  ;  5,  Christian,  bom  1789,  died  in  1874 ;  6,  Lamont, 
bom  in  1792,  died  1842. 

V. — John  Burnett  of  Kemnay,  born  in  1786,  married,  in  1814,  Mary  (who  died  in  1872), 
third  daughter  of  Charles  Stuart  of  Dunearn,  in  Fife  (great-grandson  of  Honourable  Archibald 
Stuart  of  Dunearn,  third  son  of  the  third  Earl  of  Murray),  by  Mary,  daughter  of  John  Erskine 
of  Carnock,  D.D.,  and  grand-daughter  of  John  Erskine  of  Carnock  and  Cardross,  author  of  the 
"  Institutes  of  the  Law  of  Scotland  ".     He  died  in  1867,  leaving  issue : — 

1.  Alexander  George,  his  heir.  2.  Charles  John,  born  in  1820.  3.  George,  born  in  1822  ;  a 
member  of  the  Scottish  Bar  in  1845  ;  appointed  Lyon  King  of  Arms  in  1866  ;  married,  at  Dres- 
den, in  1870,  his  cousin,  Alice,  youngest  daughter  of  John  Alexander  Stuart,  Esq.,  second  son  of 
Charles  Stuart  of  Dunearn,  and  has  a  son,  John  George,  born  in  1876,  and  a  daughter,  Alice 
Christina.  4.  Stuart  Moubray,  born  in  1824.  5.  Henry,  born  in  1826.  6.  Erskine  William, 
born  in  1828,  died  in  1848.     7.  Mary  Erskine.     8.  Christian  Leslie,  died,  unmarried,  in  1866. 

VI. — Alexander  George  Burnett  of  Kemnay,  born  in  1816,  married,  in  1849,  Letitia 
Amelia  (who  died  in  1859),  daughter  of  William  Kendall,  Esq.,  and  has  issue  : — 

1. — John  Alexander,  born  in  1851,  married,  in  1877,  to  Charlotte  Susan,  daughter  of 
Arthur  Forbes  Gordon,  Esq.,  of  Rayne,  grandson  of  Sir  Arthur  Forbes  of  Craigievar,  fourth 
Baronet,  has  a  son,  born  24th  December,  187S. 

2,  William  Kendall.     3,  Letitia.     4,  Amelia. 

Mr.  Burnett  married  (2ndly),  in  1877,  Miss  Anna  Maria  Pledge,  by  whom  he  has  a  son, 
born  in  1878. 

Arms  of  Burnett  of  Kemnay.  Quarterly  1st  and  4th  Argent,  three  holly  leaves  in  chief 
vert,  and  a  hunting  horn  in  base  sable,  garnished  and  stringed  gules,  for  Burnett  ;  2nd  and  3id, 
Azure,  three  garbs  or,  for  Craigmyle.  Crest — A  dexter  hand  holding  a  branch  of  palm  proper. 
Motto — Qua;  veriXant  crcscunt. 


Drimmies.  487 


ADDENDUM  TO  P.  329.     DRIMMIES. 

1st  May,  1669. — Marjorie  Leslie,  spouse  to  William  Chalmers  of  Drymes,  resigned  her  right 
on  the  sun  half  of  Drymes  in  favour  of  her  brother-german,  John  Leslie  of  Aquhorsk. 

1671. — A  Royal  Charter  erected  certain  lands,  including  Drimmies,  into  a  Barony  of 
Aquhorsk,  in  favour  of  John  Leslie. 

1683. — John  Leslie  was  served  heir  to  his  father,  John  Leslie  of  Aquhorsk,  in  Drimmies, 
as  part  of  said  Barony. 

1718. — The  Laird  of  Aquhorsk  was  rated  for  Drimmies  in  the  cost  of  repairs  on  the  Manse 
of  Inverurie. 

1754. — Sir  Alexander  Forbes  of  Craigievar,  titular  of  the  tenuis  of  Drimmies,  disponed 
them  to  Alexander  Smith  of  Inveramsay,  proprietor  of  Drimmies. 

1773. — Clementina,  Janet,  Marjory,  Rachel,  and  Helen,  daughters  of  deceased  Patrick  Smith 
of  Inveramsay,  obtained  sasine  on  Drimmies  in  favour  of  themselves  and  Alexander  Smith, 
their  brother.     Alexander  Hacket,  husband  of  Helen,  consented. 

1786. — By  arbitration,  Drimmies,  as  one-fifth  the  value  of  Inveramsay  and  Drimmies, 
became  the  property  of  Clementina  Smith  and  Hugh  Gordon,  Watchmaker  in  Aberdeen,  her 
husband. 

1787. — Hugh  Gordon  disponed  Drimmies  in  liferent  to  John  Craig  of  Mugiemoss,  Sheriff- 
Clerk  Depute  of  Aberdeen,  and  infeft  to  Thomas  Craig,  his  son,  by  his  spouse,  Jane,  daughter 
of  the  said  Hugh  Gordon. 

Margaret,  and  Clementina,  and  Ann  Craig,  sisters  of  Thomas  Craig,  heir  portioners  to 
him,  aod  married  respectively  to  George  Munro,  John  Imray,  Brewer,  Inverness,  and  John 
Burnett,  Writer  in  Stonehaven,  had  their  rights  to  Drimmies  determined  by  David  Hume, 
Prof.  Scots  Law,  Edinburgh,  as  Arbiter. 

About  1816,  Mrs.  Imray  sold  Drimmies  to  the  trustees  of  Colonel  Shand  of  Templand,  by 
whose  will  it  became  the  property  of  the  late  Alexander  Sharpe  Shand. 


Copy  of  the  Marches  betwixt  Dromys,  Cingless,  and  Balhagarty,  in  1569. 

That  is  to  say,  beginning  at  the  nearest  foord  of  burne  dennie,  and  therefrom  descending  as 
the  watter  furr  goes  to  the  nuick  of  the  fold  of  drumdevane  at  the  north-west  syd  of  the 
haltonne  fold  of  Knockinglas,  and  keeping  the  auld  dyke  of  Knockinglass  and  hadin  doune  the 
samen  to  the  end  thereof,  and  therefro  descending  as  it  is  potit  cairnit  and  merchit  to  ane 
great  standing  stoine  upon  the  head  of  the  nieyr  myre  of  drumdevane,  and  therefro  descending 
ay  the  green  hill  strype  on  the  north-west  syd  of  the  barland  of  Knockinglas,  and  therefro 
as  it  is  potit  and  cairnit  descending  to  the  mill  style,  and  therefro  passing  to  the  east  end  of 
the  dagman  hauch,  and  entering  there  in  the  water  of  Urie,  and  therefro  coming  to  the  east  end 
of  the  auld  monbra  and  keeping  the  said  monbra  ay  passind  west  to  the  neist  end  thereof  as  it 
is  potit  and  marched,  and  then  entrand  on  the  water  of  Urie,  and  ascending  up  the  said  water 
to  the  east  end  of  the  backwater,  and  therefro  ascending  up  the  said  backwater  and  keeping  the 
same  to  the  west  end  thereof,  and  then  fallen  in  the  great  water  of  Urie,  and  then  ascending 
and  keeping  the  same  great  water  of  Urie,  while  it  come  to  the  east  end  of  crainles  haugh  on 
the  north  side  of  the  samen  water,  and  then  passin  out  of  the  said  water  on  the  north  side,  and 
entering  betwixt  the  toune  land  and  the  ley  unlaboured  and  then  passin  west  and  northwest 


488  Appendix. 


in  betwixt  the  said  ley  and  toune  land  of  craisles  haugli  forsaid,  while  it  comes  to  the  north 
west  end  of  the  samen,  and  then  entrand  in  the  said  watter  of  Urie ;  whilks  lands  within  the 
said  Marches  lyand  on  the  south  southwest  and  west  syd  of  the  said  watter  and  the  forsaid  ley 
lyand  on  the  north  syd  of  the  said  watter  betwixt  the  samen  watter  and  craisles  haugh  as  it 
is  potit  cairnit,  and  marchit  shall  portion  in  property  to  the  said  William  Gordon  and  his  lands 
of  Drimies,  and  all  the  lands  lyand  on  the  north  and  northeast,  south  and  southeast  sides  of  the 
said  watter  and  marches  to  pertain  to  John  Erskine  and  his  aires. 


Note  to  p.  414.— "James  Elfhinstone,  Eques  de  Logie."— This  refers  to  Sir  James 
Elphinstone  of  Logie,  created  a  baronet  in  1701.  In  the  University  Register  the  words  "  Eques 
de  Logie  ".  are  evidently  interpolated,  and  had  been  inserted  after  the  student  of  1658  was 
proprietor  of  Logie  and  an  Eques.  Such  interpolations  occur  in  the  Register  in  the  case  of 
other  students  who  attained  eminence. 


INDEX. 


A. 

Abbeys,  36.     Abbey  Vicarages  in  the  Garioch,  35,  36. 
Aberchirder,  St  Marnan  of  (1200),  55. 

Abercromby,  65,  90,  99,  100,  216,  234,  235,  462;  of  Aquhorties  (1391-1688),  65,  335,  441;  of 
Ardoyne,  Pitmachy,  Pitmedden,  and  Harthill  (1360.1544),  65,  234,  235  ;  of  Anld  Rayna 
(1633),  238  ;  of  Birkenbog  (1513-1645),  112,  216,  219,  234,  286,  446  ;  of  Blakhall  (1661-69), 
328,  345  ;  of  Collihill  (1675),  329  ;  of  Fetternear  (1627-1690),  213,  233,  235,  250,  272,  285, 
307,  811,  328  ;  of  Forglen,  65  ;  of  Harlaw  (1674),  329 ;  of  Pitmedden  (1457-1544),  112,  155, 
234,  235  ;  of  Westhall  (1544-1627),  216,  235. 
Abercromby,  Adam,  of  Auld  Eayne  (1633),  238,  462. 

Abercromby,   Alexander,  of  Ardoyne  and   Pitruachy,  Pitmedden,  and   Harthill  (1360),    234  ,    do. 
{ante),   484  ;    do.    (1484),  234  ;   of  Birkenbog  (1593),  216,  219,   235,  442,  446 ;  of  Blakhall 
(1661-69),  328,  345  ;  of  Fetternear  (1650-69),  311,  328,  335,  345.     Sir  Alexander  of  Birkenbog 
(1681),  415. 
Abercromby,  Andrew,  minister  at  Fintray  (1648),  303. 
Abercromby,  Beatrix,  wife  of  James  Leslie  of  Warthill,  446. 
Abercromby,  David  de,  of  Aquhorties  (1391),  65,  441. 
Abercromby,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Nicholas  Elphinstone  (1505),  469  ;  do.,  wife  of  Sir  George  Nicolson 

of  Kemnay,  378  ;  do.,  wife  of  Strachan  of  Luesk  (1676),  329. 
Abercromby,  Francis,  Lord  Glasfoord,  235,  328,  398. 

Abercromby,  George,  of  Ardoyne,  Pitmachy,  Pitmedden,  and  Harthill  (1505),  234. 
Abercromby,  Hector,  of  Westhall  and  Fetternear  (1627,  ante   1650),  213,  216,  235,  238,  250,  272, 

285. 
Abercromby,  Humphrey,  of  Ardoyne,  Pitmachy,  Pitmedden,  and  Harthill  (1457),  65,  234. 
Abercromby,  James,   of  Harlaw  (1674),   329  :  do.   of  Ley  and   Birkenbog  {ante  1484),    234 ;  do.,   of 

Pitmedden  {ante  1544),  235  ;  Sir  James,  of  Pitmedden  and  Birkenbog  (1513),  112. 
Abercromby,  John,  of  Ardoyne,  Pitmachy,  and  Harthill  (1407),  234;  do.,  Minister  of  Oyne  (1570), 

235  ;  do.,  John  of  Cheltenham  (1878),  368. 
Abercromby,  Lucretia,  wife  of  George  Leslie  of  Badifurrow  (1632),  219. 
Abercromby,  Thomas,  in  Bourtie  (1655),  311  ;  do.  of  Collihill  (1675),  329. 
Abercromby,  Walter,  minister  at  Rayne,  Kennethmont,  and  Christ's   Kirk  (1585),  155  ;    do.,  minister 

at  Eayne  (1615),  233,  411,  446. 
Abercomby,  William,  of  Westhall  and  Pitmedden  (1544),  235. 

S2 


490  Index. 

Aberdeen,  Battle  of  (1644),  282  ;  Burgesses  of  (1411),  89. 
Aberdeen,  Canonry  of,  125. 

Aberdeen,  Cathedral  {circa  1228),  55;  (1314),  41,  68  ;  (circa  1430),  125,  132  ;  Jewels  (1544),  136; 
Chartulary  (1549),  133,  136  ;  Chapters  (1558),  145,  (1615),  233 ;  Defended  (1560),  145  ; 
Eeredos  (1642),  277. 

Aberdeen,  City  of,  21,  40,  89,  137,  138,  205,  267-288  ;  Crofts,  276  ;  Deans  of  Guild,  454,  456. 

Aberdeen,  Diocese  of  :  Archdeacons  (ex  off.  Parsons  of  Rayne),  Simon  (1119),  21,  34  ;  Oinor(1214), 
21  ;  Malcolm  (1224),  21  ;  John  Barbour  (1357-96),  46,  81,  114,  176,  245  ;  Lundy,  82,  126  ; 
Thomas  Tynningham  (1423-36),  126  ;  Lawrence  Pyot  (1450-78),  102,  126  ;  Robert  Elphin- 
stone  (1499),  148  ;  Patrick  Myreton  (1549),  148  ;  Walter  Abercromby  (1615),  233. 

Aberdeen,  Diocese  :  Bishops.  St.  Edward  (1157-63),  20  ;  Matthew  Kinnimond  (1163-1207),  12,  31-3, 
37  ;  Richard  Pottock  (1257-72),  37  ;  Henry  Cheyne  (1282-1328),  39-41,  48,  68  ;  William  de  Deyn 
(1341-50),  78  ;  Adam  Cunningham  (1380-89),  254  ;  Gilbert  Greenlaw  (1389-1422),  87,  114, 
254  ;  Henry  Lichton  (1422-40),  121,  125,  132  ;  William  Elphinstone  (—  1514),  129-133  ; 
Gavin  Dunbar  (1518-31),  32,  132,  136  ;  William  Stewart  (1531-65),  136,  145,  233  ;  William 
Gordon  (1565-77),  129  ;  Peter  Blackburn  (1606-15),  160,  162,  233,  248,  332  ;  Alexander  Forbes 
(1615-17),  162,  248  ;  Patrick  Forbes  (1618-35),  104,  132,  163,  248,  253 ;  Adam  Ballenden 
(1635-8),  163,  211. 

Aberdeen,  Diocese  :  Chancellors  (ex  off.  Vicars  of  Bethelnie),  Hugh  Bennum  (1268),  126  ;  Alexander 
Inglis  (1404),  126  ;  Duncan  Petit  (1224-6),  126  ;  Duncan  Lichton  (1434-64),  126  ;  Alexander 
Inglis  (1476),  126  ;  John  Reid  (1543),  126 ;  Alexander  Seton  (1549-71),  101,  126,  148  ;  George 
Seton  [not  Vicar]  (1600-1616),  230,  233. 

Aberdeen,  Diocese  :  Treasurers  (ex  off.  Parsons  of  Daviot),  William  (1224),  21  ;  James  Cruickshank 
(1455),  125  ;  Andrew  Liel  (1470-5),  126  ;  Andrew  Bell  (1476),  126  ;  Andrew  Liel  (1491-1501), 
126  ;  Robert  Elphinstone  (1512-22),  126  ;  John  Stewart  (1549),  148  ;  Patrick  Myreton  (1569- 
71),  126,  154. 

Aberdeen  Doctors,  The,  249,  264,  334. 

Aberdeen,  Earls  of,  102,  329,  374. 

Aberdeen,  Ministers  of,  William  Forbes  (1620),  240  ;  Thomas  Eamsay  and  James  Osborne  (1697), 
426  ;  Thomas  BlackweU  (1703),  431,  432  ;  George  Leslie  (17—),  446. 

Aberdeen,  Mint  at,  466. 

Aberdeen,  Schools  of  (1262),  37  ;  (1612),  170,  171  ;  (1642),  277 ;  (1663),  366. 

Aberdeen,  Sheriff  of,  Sir  Robert  Keith  (1332),  436;  Earl  of  Huntly  (1452-1630),  112,  262  ;  William 
Leslie,  of  Balquhain  (1560),  145  ;  Sir  George  Johnston  (1630),  224  ;  Thomas  Davidson  (1647), 
350  ;  John  Elphinstone  (1707),  431-2,  472  ;  James  Ferguson  (1710),  475  ;  Alexander  Elphin- 
stone (1777),  413,  471 ;  John  Craig  (1787),  487. 

Aberdeen,  Synod  of,  225  (1647-1658),  301-11. 

Aberdeen,  University  of,  130,  131,  149,  153,  241,  308,  320,  414. 

Aberdeen,  Vicar  of,  Roger  (1259),  50. 

Abernethy,  Alexander,  of  that  Ilk  (circa  1320),  441  ;  Lord  Salton,  464. 

Abernethy,  Forest  of,  283. 

Abernethy,  Jane,  wife  of  Alexander  Seton  (1590),  464. 

Abernethy,  John  de,  of  Aukl  Bourtie  (ante  1384),  64. 

Abernethy,  Margaret  de  (1384),  64. 

Abernethy,  Mary  de,  wife  of  Sir  Andrew  de  Leslie  (1320),  441. 

Abernethy,  Sir  William  (1411),  89. 

Abersuithock,  17,  126. 


Index.  491 

Aboyne,  Lord  (1639-49),  264-72,  327. 

Achorthes,  in  Tarves,  John  Forbes  of  (1696),  389. 

Acliyndachy,  Alexander,  of  that  Ilk,  Chamberlain  of  Fyvie  (1741),  413,  471. 

Aehyndachy,  Jean,  wife  of  John  Elphinstone  of  Glaek  (1741),  413,  471. 

Acts,  The  Black  (1566),  149. 

Ada,  Countess,  wife  of  Prince  Henry  (1140),  18,  25. 

Adam,  Clerk  of  Ellon  (1199),  21. 

Adam,  George  (Inverurie,  1878),  392. 

Adam,  Henrie  (Old  Aberdeen,  1674),  363. 

Adam,  James,  John,  and  William  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 

Adam,  James,  Schoolmaster,  Bethelnie  (1696),  386. 

Adam,  Janet-Margaret  (Inverurie,  1878),  480. 

Adam  of  Rayne  (1300),  51. 

Adam,  William,  Schoolmaster,  Daviot  (1696),  386  ;  do.,  Town  Clerk  of  Inverurie  (1805),  480. 

Adamsone,  William  (Kintore,  1498),  123. 

Aden,  in  Buchan  (1324),  436  ;  Eussel  of  (1756),  474. 

Aden,  Mill  of  (1789),  483. 

Admiral  of  Scotland,  Stewart  Earl  of  Mar  (1431),  108  ;  St.   Clair,  Earl  of  Orkney  (1436),  110  ;  Duke 

of  Albany  (1482),  110. 
Agnes,  Countess  of  Mar  (circa  1156),  £5. 
Aiken,  Rev.  James,  John,  and  Margaret,  Aberdeen,  479. 
Ailhouse  of  Well,  Kemnay,  351  ;  Ailhouse  Croft,  157. 

Airley,  First  Earl  of,  233,  282,  285,  468  ;  House  of,  burned,  278  ;  James,  Lord  Ogilvy  of,  438. 
Airth  and  Menteith,  William,  Earl  of,  438. 

Aitkyson,  Atkyson,  John  (Aberdeen,  1411),  89  ;  do.  (Inverurie,  1402),  115. 
Akynheid,  John,  Prior  of  Monymusk  (1522),  127. 
Alansone,  Andrew  (Kinkell,  1473),  122. 
Albany,  Duke  of,  Alexander  (1482),  110  ;  James  (The  Pretender,  1688),  379  ;  Murdoc  (Regent  1419- 

24),  54,  105,  108  ;  Robert  (Regent  1406-19),  54,  83,  84,  88,  437. 
Ale,  Excise  on  (Inverurie,  1699),  361  ;  measures  (Inverurie,   1614),  196  ;  tasters,   116  ;    (1610),  195  ; 

alehouse  laws,  197,  316. 
Alexander  II.,  King,  21,  23,  28,  31,  37,  56,  117,  436. 
Alexander  III.,  28,  38,  56,  436. 

Alexander,  John  (Aberdeen,  1672) ;  and  Margaret,  wife  of  John  Johnston  (1672),  450,  453. 
Alford  (St.  Andrew),   18,   55,  126,  127  ;  Battle  of  (1645),  286  ;  (1688) ;  William  Forbes,  Minister 

(1617),  240. 
Allagavan,  James  Burnett  of,  485. 

AUardyce,  Alexander  (1272),  50  ;  Elspet  (Monymusk  1685),  348  ;  of  that  Ilk  (1512),  131. 
Alliance,  Bonds  of,  76,  84,  100,  113,  366. 
Altar  of  the  Three  Kings,  Aberdeen,  120. 
Altarage,  35,  36. 
Altrie,  Lord  (1587-90),  163,  438. 
Anabaptists  (1663),  310. 
Andait,  Winton  of,  75  ;  (1512),  131. 
Anderson,  Adam  (Kinkell,  1473),  122. 
Anderson,  Alexander,  of  Bourtie  (1696),   389 ;  do.   (1825),   419  ;  Advocate,  Edinburgh  (1675),  364 ; 

{alias  Genkin,  Inverurie,  1622),  212 ;  Vicar  of  Kinkell,  Sub-Principal  King's  College  (1543), 

136,  149  ;  (Wantonwalls,  Insch,  1701),  430. 


492  Index. 

Anderson,  Andrew,  John,  Patrick,  and  Robert  (Inverurie,  1476),  119. 

Anderson,  Ann  and  Jean  (Inverurie,  1696),  395  ;  Elspet  (Inverurie,  1622)  211. 

Anderson,  George,  Vicar  of  Inverurie  (ante  1494),  124  ;  do.,   Minister  of  Tarves  (1697),  426,  428  ; 

George  and  Thomas  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 
Anderson,  Henry,  Baillie,  and  Thomas,  Town  and  Parish  Clerk  of  Inverurie  (1466),  120. 
Anderson,  James  (Inverurie,  1616),  392  ;    do.   (do.,   1633),  258  ;  do.   (do.,   1645-6),  293,   293  ;    do., 

Schoolmaster,   (Inverurie,  1696),   395  ;   James  and  Walter  (Oyne,   1664),   338  ;  Dr.  James  of 

Cobenshaw,  231,  465. 
Anderson,  Janet  (Inverurie,  1646),  293. 
Anderson,  Jean,  relict  of  Mr.  Alexander  Paip  (1650),  307. 
Anderson,  John  (Inverurie,  1633),  258  ;  do.  (Baillie  there,  1673-7),   360,  362,   363  ;  do.  of  Bourtie 

(1663),  410  ;  (1696),  389  ;  do.,  Schoolmaster  of  Bourtie  (1696),  386  ;  do.,  alias  Genkin  (Aqu- 

horties,  1622),  186. 
Anderson,  Margaret  (Inverurie,  1649),  315  ;  do.  (Portstown,   1664),  351  ;  do.,  wife  of  Thomas  John- 
ston (Inverurie,  1677),  394  ;  do.,  wife  of  George  Stephen  (Inverurie,  1717),  396. 
Anderson,  Marjory  (Inverurie,  1615,  1618),  205,  316. 

Anderson,  Mary,  second,  wife  of  William  Young  of  Sheddocksley  (1781),  368,  414,  455. 
Anderson,  Patrick,   Canon  of  Monymusk   (1534),    127  ;    do.   of  Bourtie  (1738-54),  368,   419  ;    do. 

(Inverurie,  1696),  395  ;  do.  (Newton  of  Premnay,  1696),  388  ;  do.  of  Tillymorgan  (1668),  329. 
Anderson,  Robert  (Inverurie,  1536),  142 ;  do.  (Baillie  there,  1600),  182  ;  do.  (do.  1650),  315,  322,  351. 
Anderson,  Skipper  (John,  sen.,  of  Bourtie,  1663,  1644),  287,  419. 
Anderson,  William  (Conglass,   1622),   211;  do,  (Hallforest,  1674),   397;  do.  (Inverurie,  1633),  258; 

do.  (do.  1645-6),  292,  3  ;  do.   (do.  1674),  239  ;  do.  (Roquharrel  (1622),  397. 
Andrew,  James  (Inverurie,  1536),  142. 
Andrew,  John  (Inverurie,  1402),   115;   do.  (do.  1536),   142;   do.  (Daviot,  1550),  144;  do.  Prior  of 

Monymusk  (1365),  127. 
Andrews  (1200),  33. 
Anfrays,  Thomas  (Kintore  1498),  123. 

Angus,  Andrew  (Inverurie,  1616-33),  202,  203,  204,  206,  207,  258. 
Angus,  Mr.  Charles,  Writer  (Inverurie,  1633),  258,  316. 
Angus,  Christian,  wife  of  Walter  Ferguson,  Inverurie  (1664),  351,  392,  396. 
Angus,  5th  Ear]  of  ("  Bell  the  Cat,")  102,  128 ;  9th,  128,  138,  236  ;  10th,  156,  164,  234. 
Angus,  Jean,  wife  of  James  Hutcheon  (Inverurie,  1660),  392,  393,  396. 

Angus,  John  (Inverurie,  1582),  392  ;  do.  (do.  1606-10),  172,  192,  195  ;  do.  (Probationer,  1697),  426. 
Angus,  Nans  (Inverurie,  1649),  315. 
Angus,  Sheriff  of,  Sir  Alexander  Ogilvie  (1411),  89,  108. 
Angus,  Thomas  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 
Angus,  Walter  (Inverurie,  1617),  203. 
Angus,  William  (Boat  of  Crichie,  1724),  396. 

Anna  of  Dietrichstein,  wife  of  Count  Walter  Leslie  (1640),  399,  400. 
Annabella  Drummond,  Queen  of  Robert  III.,  68. 

Annand,  of  Auchterellon  (1500),  131  ;  Gilbert,  of  Collihill  (1542),  231. 
Annandale,  Johnston  of,  453  ;  Marquisate  of,  453. 
Anne,  Queen  of  Great  Britain.  375  ;  do.,  Queen  of  James  VI.,  365. 
Apollinaris,  St.,  Fair  of,  150,  190,  205  ;  Polnar  Chapel,  6,  14,  19  ;  Priest'o  House,  5. 
Apostacy,  Religious  (circa  1660),  330,  331,  339,  340,  341. 
Applecross,  John  Mackenzie  of  (1787),  470. 


Index.  493 

Aquareagh  in  Fermanagh,  Leslie,  Rector  of  (1711),  447. 

Aquhorsk  in  the  Garioch,  Abercromby  of  (1391),  65,  235  ;  Leslie  of  (1650),  96,  307,  329,  384,  487. 

Aquhorsk  in  Mar,  Keith  of,  and  in  (1611),  160,  231 ;  (1633),  238,  438,  445,  446. 

Aquhorsk,  Laird  of  (1584),  151. 

Aquhorties,  in  Inverurie,  65,  235,  315,  316,  317,  360,  385,  444. 

Aquhorties,  Lairds  of  ;  Earl  of  the  Garioch,  De  Leslie  (circa  1170),  17  ;  Abercromby  (1391),  65,  444  ; 
Mortimer  (1513-1627),  235,  236  ;  Johnston  (1607),  236  ;  Dempster  (1611),  236  ;  Leslie  (1630), 
161,  214,  217,236,329;  Robertson  (1646),  214,  236,  441;  Forbes  (1652),  324,  328,  329; 
Leslie  of  Balquhain  (1688),  236. 

Aquhythie,  Kemnay  (1611),  231  ;  (1675)  329. 

Arbitration  of  Blood  (1609),  193. 

Arbroath,  Abbey,  Vicarages  of,  in  the  Garioch,  19,  37,  55,  79. 

Arbuthnott  of  Arbuthnott,  Philip  ;  Hugh,  437  ;  Robert,  Viscount,  439. 

Arbuthnott,  Ann,  wife  of  John  Horn  of  Westhall,  415. 

Arbuthnott,  James,  of  Lentush  (1606),  246. 

Arbuthnott,  Margaret,  wife  of  Sir  John  Forbes  of  Monymusk,  237. 

Arbuthnott,  Thomas,  Baillie  of  Peterhead,  and  Isabella,  wife  of  Lieutenant  Ferguson,  484. 

Archdeacon,  vide  Aberdeen  Diocese. 

Architecture,  132, 

Ardbekye,  Arbikie  (of  that  Ilk  and  Thainston,  1476),  120  ;  Amott  in  [circa  1820),  463. 

Arden,  Lord  (1812),  454. 

Ardendraught,  Hay  Of  (1492),  122  ;  (1512),  132. 

Ardiharrald,  208,  210,  223,  328,  369,  385. 

Ardlair,  Ardlar,  32,  60,  132. 

Ardmurdo,  Forbes  of  {ante  1592-1633),  162,  231,  238  ;  Barclay,  Lumsden  (1616),  231. 

Arnedlie,  Monymusk,  126,  392. 

Ardoyne,  Abercromby  of  (1315),  65  ;  Hay  (ante  1345),  65  ;  Abercromby  (1360),  65  ;  Leslie  (1509- 
40),  111,  442,  470  ;  Leith  (1531-96),  329,  389,  461  ;  Horn,  415. 

Ardoyne,  Hill  of,  88  ;  Mill  of  (1664),  338. 

Ardross,  Scot  of  (,1662),  238. 

Ardtannies,  Ardtoneis,  2-7,  14,  15,  19,  29,  30,  37,  47,  175-82,  192,  195,  196,  198,  203,  204,  206,  212, 
213,  225,  318,  360. 

Ardtannies,  Lairds  of  ;  Earls  of  the  Garioch  ;  Lords  of  the  Garioch  (1326-1510),  54  ;  Leslie  of  Wardes 
(1510),  111,  vide  Wardes;  Innes(1608),  177  ;  Johnston  (1613),  177  ;  Coutts  (1621),  177  ;  John- 
ston (circa  1630),  177  ;  Jaffray  (1633-1723),  177,  357,  384,  440  ;  Earls  of  Kintore  (1723),  440. 

Ardtannies,  Mill  of,  176-80,  203,  225,  315 ;  Tenants,  Walter  Innes  and  his  widow  (1604-17),  176-80, 
203  ;  David  Mackie  (1636),  181  ;  Andrew  Walker  (1664),  351  ;  Alexander  Mitchell  (1696),  384  ; 
George  Reid  (1708),  181 ;  Alexander  Murdoch  (1714),  393  ;  Mr.  George  Scott  (1721),  384. 

Ardtannies,  Millers,  Walter  Innes  and  his  widow  (1604-17),  176-80  ;  Mr.  George  Bissett  (1609),  180  ; 
John  Reid  (1620),  181  ;  John  Reid  (1671),  362  ;  Robert  Wishart  (1696),  384. 

Argyll,  Somerled,  Thane  of,  435  ;  Earl  of  (1594),  164,  (1639-41),  263,  266,  274-6  ;  Marquis  (1641-61), 
276,  281,  283,  284,  287,  288,  291,  298,  317,  358,  372,  373  ;  Earl,  son  of  Marquis  (1650-85), 
372-4. 

Armegard,  Queen  of  William  the  Lion,  26. 

Arms,  Heraldic,  72,  440,  444,  446,  447,  458,  459-62,  465,  466,  468-71,  473,  474,  478-80,  482,  486. 

Arms,  Body  (1608),  191,  210,  (1642)  275. 

Arnage,  Cheyne  of  (1616),  247  ;  Ross,  460,  461  ;  Leith  Ross,  368,  419,  455. 


494  Index. 

Arnbath,  Alexander  Hay  of  (1702),  465. 

Arnhog  in  Leslie,  401. 

Arnfield  Loch  (1620),  212. 

Aruott,    Charles,    London;   James  in  Arbikie  ;    James,   W.S.    (1866);    Elizabth,    wile  of  Captain 

Maughan  ; wife  of  Captain  Grieve  ;  Dr.  Neil,  London,  463. 

Arradoul,  Alexander  Gordon  of  (1650),  307. 

Arran,  Sir  John  Menteith,  Lord  of,  husband  of  Elyne  of  Mar,  59. 

Artamford,  Irvine  of  (1606),  152;  do.,  478. 

Arthur-house,  Dr.  Robert  Badenach  of,  378. 

Artisans  within  Burghs  (1400),  117. 

Artroehy,  William  Hay  of  (circa  1480),  448  ;  House  of  (1637),  249. 

Assessments,  Public  (circa  1660),  352. 

Atholl,  Earl  of  (1306),  43,  45  ;  (1335),  70  ;  (circa  1500),  442. 

Auchanaseis,  Forbes  of  (1563),  233. 

Auchenclyth  in  Lethinty  (1614),  233. 

Auehencrieff,  Mr.  Patrick  Maitland  of  (1623),  209. 

Auchindoir,  Lairds  in,  Alexander  Irvine  of  Drum  (1410),  87  ;  William  Gordon  (1538),  329. 

Auchindoir,  Ministers,  ■ Clerk  (1615),  233  ;  William  Johnston  (1698),  432. 

Auchindown,  280,  288. 

Auchinhive,  Auchenhove,  Auchenhuff,  Duguid  of  (1512),  131  ;  William  (circa  1550),  442  ;   Robert 

(circa  1700),  443. 
Aucbinleck,  of  that  Ilk,  Sir  John  (1468),  102  ;  (circa  1580),  460. 
Auchinleck,  Christian,  wife  of  William  Leith  of  Overhall,  460. 
Auehinleck,  Helen,  wife  of  Thomas  Erskine  (1643),  473. 
Auchinleck,  Margaret,  wife  of  John  Gordon  of  Braco  (1668),  339. 

Auchinleck,  Marjory,  widow  of  Captain  John  Gordon,  wife  of  Robert  Bumet  (1601),  242. 
Auchinleck,  William,  Parson  of  KinkeU,  and  Collihill  Chaplain  (1473),  125  ;  Sir  William  of  Balmanno 

(1643),  473.' 
Ancbintoul,  Innes  of  (1635),  442. 
Auchleuchry,  John  Gordon  of  (1480),  102. 
Auchleven,  St.  James  of,  Premnay,  17. 
Auchleven,  Lairds  of  ;  Earls  of  the  Garioch,  Lords  of  the  Garioch,  Ogilvy  (1453-87),  101  ;  Wemys 

(1488),  102  ;  Leith  (1490,  1531),  102,  234,  461  ;  Seton  (1526),   464  ;  Forbes  (1688-96),  388, 

401  ;  Lumsden  (1800),  401. 
Auchlossin,  Ross  of  (1500),  131,  461. 
Auchluncart,  Alexander  Stewart  of  (circa  1680),  468. 
Auchlyard,  Lewis  Gordon  of  (1673),  329. 
Auchmacoy,  Buchan  of,  49,  310,  376,  468. 

Auchmedden,  Gilbert  Baird  of  (1616),  179  ;  George,  do.  (1640),  272. 
Auchmore,  Seton  of  (1619),  466. 
Auchnacant,  Raid  upon  (15S7),  151. 
Auchry,  William  Cumming  of  (circa  1550),  442. 
Auchtercbull,  Courts  of  (1621),  177,  213. 
Aucbterless  (1200),  33  ;  (1639)  268  ;  Dempster  of  (1512),  131  ;  William  Johnston,  Minister  (1697), 

426  ;  William  Leslie,  Schoolmaster  (circa  1700),  447. 
Auldbar,  William  Chalmers  of  (1740),  471  ;  Robert  Young  of  (circa  1700),  461. 
Auldearn,  Battle  of,  236. 


Index.  495 


Auld  Rayne,  245,  246  ;  William  Leith  of  (1650),  307. 
Avoohie,  John  Gordon  of  (circa  1650),  445. 


B. 


Bacon,  John  (Middlesex),  451,  and  Maria,  wife  of  Sir  William  Johnston  (circa  1800),  451. 
Badechash,  Andrew  de  Garviach  of;  Stephen  de  Johnston  (1380),  63  ;  Robert  Elpliinston  (1606),  449  ; 

Ceorge  Gellie  (1696),  389  ;  Little  do.,  Kirkland  of  Bish.  of  Aberdeen,  Adam  Pyngle  (1376),  66. 
Badenach,  Dr.  Robert,  of  Arthurhouse,  371. 
Badenoch,  vide  Bainzie  ;  The  Wolf  of,  58 . 
Badenscoth,  Gordon  of  (circa  1700),  447. 
Badifunw,  3,  6,  14;  (1200),  32;  (1620-50),  186,  209,   285,   315,  317;  (1669-96),  345,   352,  384; 

(1721-1808),  410  ;  Mill  of,  178. 
Badifurrow,  Lairds  of ;  Earls  of  the  Garioch  ;  De  Leslie  (circa  1170),  17  ;  Abbey  of  Lindores,  Lord 

Lindores  (1600),  157  ;  Leslie  of  Kincraigie  (1610-1655),  219,  220,  285,  328  (vide  Kincraigie)  ; 

Ferguson  (1655-99),  220,  345,   354-6,  376,   475  ;  Forbes  (1699-1721),  376  ;  Forbes  (1721-42), 

409,  510  ;  Johnston  (1742-1796),  410,  450  ;  Fraser  (1796-1808),  410  ;  Gordon  (1808),  410. 
Baillie,  Sir  William,  of  Hoprick  (1432),  105. 
Baillies  of  Inverurie  (1466,  1476,  1580),  120,  151 ;  (1605-33),  189,  190,  194,  197,  198,  200,  202,  204, 

206,  213,  258  ;  (1642-78)  349,  292,  294,  350,  351,  352,  393;  Rights  and  Perquisites  of,  199,  206. 
Bainzie,  Benzie,  Badenoch,  Badyno  (Inverurie),  50,  90,  259. 
Bainzie,  Agnes  (Inverurie,  1464),  119  ;  do.  (do.  1645-6),  292-3. 
Bainzie,  Alexander  (Inverurie,  1600-12),  172,  182,  192,  193  ;  do.  (do.  1645-6),  292-3. 
Bainzie,  Christian,  wife  of  John  Gib  (1681),  390. 
Bainzie,  Gilbert  (Inverurie,  1625),  390. 
Bainzie,  James  (Inverurie,  1536),  142  ;  do.  (do.  1600-17),  182,  192,  199,  204,  396  ;  do.  (do.  1624-33), 

258,  397  ;  do.  (Caskieben,  1664),  351. 
Bainzie,  John  (Inverurie,  1464),  114,  119,  349,  391,  393  :  do.  (do.  1615,  1617),  198,  199,  204  ;  do. 

(do.  1633),  258. 
Bainzie,  Margaret,  widow  of  James  Ferguson  (1695),  398. 
Bainzie,  Patrick  (1607),  344. 

Bainzie,  Walter  (Inverurie,  1464),  119  ;  do.  (do.  1536),  142. 
Bainzie,  William  (Fetternear,  1511),  129. 

Baird  of  Auchmeddan,  Gilbert  (1616),  179  ;  George  (1640),  272. 
Bairnsfather,  Mary,  widow  of  John  Mackie,  wife  of  Alexander  Forbes  (176S),  407. 
Balbithan,  House  of,  7,  273,  416. 
Balbithan,  Lairds  of;  Abbey  of  Lindores  ;  Lord  Lindores  (1600),  157  ;  Chalmers  (1490,  circa  1696), 

221,  232,  238,  306,  416  ;  James  Balfour  (1699),  416  ;  William  Hay  (1699),   416  ;  William 

Forbes  of  Skellater,  416,  469  ;  Benjamin  Abernethy  Gordon,  417  ;  Francis,  Earl  of  Kintore,  417. 
Balcairn,  William  Seton  of  (1490),  464  ;  John  Leslie  in  (1609),  193. 
Balcarres,  Earl  of  (1645),  285. 
Balcaskie,  Sir  George  Nicolson  of  (1688),  377. 
Balcomy,  59,  111  ;  Lauder  of,  444. 
Balfluig,  John  Forbes  of  (1674),  240. 


496  Index. 

Balfour  ;  of  Burley  (16S5),  372  ;  of  Balbithan  (1696),  416  ;  of  Pilrig  {circa  1740),  414,  472  ;  Nora, 

wife  of  Robert  Elphinstone  (1877),  473. 
Balgonen,  William  and  James  Gordon  of  (1650),  307. 
Balgownie,  Malcolm  (1273),  50;  Thomas  Menzies  of  (1650),  307. 

Balhaggardy,  Balhaggarty,  Balehagirdy,  8,  60,  157  ;  Butt  of,  185,  199  ;  Hospital  of,  147,  156. 
Balhaggardy,  Lairds  of;  Earl  of  the  Garioch,  Lord  of  the  Garioch  (ante  1357),  63  ;  Erskine  of  Mar 
(1357-1550),  59,  63,  89,  110,  113,  128,  472  ;  Erskine  of  Pittodrie  (1550-1835),  221,  226,  238, 

418  ;  Gordon  of  Manar  (1835). 
Baliol,  King  John,  23,  38,  56  ;  Edward,  69,  58,  436. 
Ballenden,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  163,  211. 
Ballgreen  of  Inverurie,  175,  183,  398. 
Ballindalloch,  Grant  of  (1670-1770),  364,  443,  473. 
Balloch,  Donald  (circa  1432),  108. 
Ballogie,  Charles  Forbes  of,  459. 
Balmadies,  Pierson  of,  485. 
Balmakelly,  Ferguson  of  (1705-1724),  377,  478. 
Balmanno,  Sir  William  Auehinleck  of  (1643),  473. 
Balmellie,  Andrew  Craig  of  (circa  1530),  445. 
Balnacraig,  Lairds  of;  Randolph,  Earl  of  Moray;  Sir  Jame9  Garviach  (circa  1324),  62  ;  Andrew  de 

Garviach ;  Chalmers  (1357),  62,  120,  254. 
Balnagask,  Duncan  Forbes  of  (1614-22),  168,  233,  453  ;  John  Marnoch  in  (1717),  453. 
Balnerosk,  Chalmers  of,  Monymusk  (temp.  David  II.),  65. 

Balquhain  Castle,  8,  9,  (1420),  108,  (1562),  146,  (1636),  216,  (1639),  266,  398,  vide  Knockinglews. 
Balquhain,  Lairds  of,  vide  Appendix,  Leslie  of  Balquhain. 
Balquhain,  Lands  of,  17,  (1340),  66,  (1572-1638),  215,  216,  (1640-96),  385,  400. 
Balrinnes,  Battle  of  (1594),  216. 
Balrodyn,  Walter  (1259),  50. 
Balvack,  Monymusk,  Oratory,  17  ;  Lands  of,  126. 
Balveny,  Innes  of  (1644),  279. 
Banchory-Devenick,  Cruickshank  of  (circa  1660),  456  ;  Robert  Merser,  Minister  (1615),  233  ;  Andrew 

Cant  at  (1629),  300. 
Banchory-Teruan,    Roger  Stainforth,  Vicar  (1262),   37  ;    Alexander  Cant,  Minister  (1649-60),  300, 

358  ;  (1662)  336. 
Banff  (Toft  in  Burgh,  circa  1200),  21  ;  Castle  (1296),  40  ;  Jail  (1662),  358  ;  George,  1st  Lord  (1641), 

276  ;  George,  2nd  Lord,  401,  439,  459  ;  Minister,  Patrick  Innes  (1697),  426. 
"  Banks  of  Don,"  Coach,  395. 
Bannerman,  Alexander  (Bourtie,  1651),  309 ;  do.  of  Elsick  (circa  1640),  445  ;  do.  (Prof.  King's  Coll., 

1805),  486  ;  Sir  Alexander,  sixth  Baronet  of  Elsick  (1800),  485  ;  Sir  Alexander,  M.D.  (1793), 

440. 
Bannerman,  John  (Ingleston,  1664),  351. 

Bannerman,  Marie,  wife  of  William,  sixth  Earl  of  Kintore,  440. 
Bannerman,  Mariot  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 
Bannoekburn,  Battle  of,  436. 
Baptism  (1623),  212,  (1711),  423. 
Barberigo,  Cardinal,  411. 

Barbour,  John,  Parson  of  Rayne  (1357-96),  46,  81,  114,  176,  245. 
Barcar,  John  (Fetternear,  1511),  129. 


Index.  497 

Barclay,  61  ;  of  Bourtie  (1387-1598),  90,  229,  230  ;  of  Gainfully,  Gartly  (1100),  64,  418 ;  of  Kerkow 

(1314-1387),  65,  230  ;  of  Tolly,  Towie  (1314-1598),  64,  90,  230,  466  ;  of  Ury,  437. 
Barclay,  Adam,  Schoolmaster  of  Inverurie  (1607),  171. 
Barclay,  Alexander,  of  Bourtie  (1387),  64,  229  ;   do.    (Inverurie,   1615-33),   197,  258  ;  do.   (Kercow, 

temp.  Robert  I.),  65  ;  do.  (ancestor  of  Ury,  circa  1400),  437  ;  Sir  Alexander,  of  Towie  (1136),  64. 
Barclay,  Clara,  wife  of  James  Johnston  (1513),  448. 
Barclay,  Sir  David  de  (1306),  43. 
Barclay,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  John  Gordon  of  Rothiemay  (ante  1698),  412  ;  do.  wife  of  Patrick  Barclay 

of  Bourtie  (1503),  230. 
Barclay,  George,  Town.Clerk  of  Inverurie  (1599-1620),  159,  189,  200,  202,  204,  210,  231, 
Barclay,  Heleu,  wife  of  William  Lumsden,  Advocate,  Aberdeen  (1650),  307. 
Barclay,  John  de  {circa  1100),  64  ;  do.,  of  Bourtie  (1584),  230. 
Barclay,  Marjory  wife  of  James  King  of  Barrow,  (1493),  103. 
Barclay,  Patrick,  of  Bourtie  (1533),  230  ;  of  Towie  (1531),  230  ;  do.  of  Bourtie  and  Towie  (1551),  230  ; 

younger  of  do.  (1598),  230,  419. 
Barclay,  Roger  de  {circa  1080),  64. 
Barclay,  Walter,  of  Bourtie,  (1441),  119,  230;  do.  of  Towie  (1458),  230  ;  do.  (1490),  111  ;  do.  (1503), 

230;  do.  of  Towie  and  Bourtie  (1598),  230. 
Barclay,  William  of  Ardmurdo,  (1623),  231. 
Barebones  Parliament,  387, 

Barker  (Tanner),  191  ;  William  (Writer,  Aberdeen,  1670),  366. 
Barncrosh,  John  Dalzell,  of  (1774),  444. 
Barnes,  Lairds  of;  Leith  {ante  1400,  circa  1630),  72,  90,  110,  234,  464,  466  j  Forbes  (1550),  458,  460 ; 

Forbes  (1653),  311  ;  John  Moir  {ante  1696),  388. 
Barnet,  William  (Inverurie,  1536),  142. 
Barnskell,  in  Lower  Davo,  Inverurie,  200. 
Baron,  Dr.  Robert,  Aberdeen  (1638),  249. 
Baronne  Lychtonne,  Inverurie  (1633),  397. 
"Barons  of  the  North"  (1574),  456,  461. 

Barron,  Margaret,  wife  of  James  Forbes  (1745),  407  ;  Robert,  in  Whitelums  (1745),  407. 
Barra,  Castle  of,  51,  420,  424  ;  Hill  of,  4,  51. 
Barra,  Lairds  of;  Blakhall  (1505-48),  103,  228,  448 ;  King  (1490-1596),  103,  151  ;  Leslie  (1593),  103  ; 

Seton  (1600),  230,  464,  466  :  Morison  (1655),  311  ;  Reid  (1630-1749),  344,  389,  419 ;  Ramsay 

(1773),  420. 
Barras,  Ogilvie  of,  George  (1651-80),  366-8  ;  Sir  David,  third  Baronet  (1737),  368  ;  Sir  Musgrave, 

sixth  Baronet  (1837),  368. 
Barry,  Battle  of,  15,  431.  . 

Bartlet,  Margaret,  wife  of  Alexander  Steven,  Inverurie  {ante  1692),  390. 
Bartolfde  Leslie,  21,  440. 
Bass,  The,  Inverurie,  1,  2,  13,  185. 
Bastile,  The  (1702),  112. 
Batavia,  435. 
Bauge,  Battle  of,  112. 
Bavon,  St.,  Cathedral  of,  Ghent,  366. 
Baxter,  John  (Kinkell,  1473),  122. 
Bearhill,  Cuttings  of  the,  Inverurie,  392. 
Beatrix,  wife  of  Bartolf,  440. 

63 


498  Index. 

Beattie,  William  (Dunnideer,  1701),  430  ;  Peter  and  family  (do.  circa  1800),  490. 

Beaumont,  Lord  Henry  de  (1335),  70. 

Beck,  Anthony,  Bishop  of  Durham  (1290),  46. 

Bede,  the  Piet,  Marmaor  of  Buehan  (6th  century),  13. 

Begsley,  Dyce,  197. 

Belcombe,  Farquhar  (1273),  50. 

Beldistone,  Andrew  (Kinkell,  1473),  122. 

Belgrade  (1664),  399. 

Belhelvie,  Minister,  George  Paterson  (1573),  154. 

"  Bell  the  Cat,"  Archibald,  102,  128. 

Beltie,  Irvine  of  (1650),  307. 

Benachie,  1,  107,  415,  418. 

Bendauch,  197  ;  William  Johnston  of  {circa  1380),  121,  448. 

Benet,  William  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 

Benholm,  Sir  James  Keith  of  (circa  1600),  438. 

Benzie,  vide  Bainzie. 

Bervie  (Toft  in  Burgh,  1200),  21. 

Berwick  (Toft  in  Burgh,  1200),  21  ;  (1639),  270. 

Bethelnie,  Meldrum,  Alexander  Graham  in  (1676),  340. 

Bethelnie  Kirk,  a  Vicarage  of  Arbroath  (1221),  19  ;  (1262),  37  ;  Endowments  (1257),  36,  (1366),  79  ; 

Transplanted  (1634),  233  ;  Visited  (1649),  304  ;  Settlement  at  (1698),  428. 
Bethelnie,  Ministers  of,   Stephen  Mason  (1574-1612),  155  ;  John   Logie  (1614-29),    240  ;   William 

Wedderburn  (1633),  240  ;  George  Leith  (1647-60),  240  ;  William  Urquhart  (1696),  386  ;  John 

Mulligan  (1698),  428. 
Bethelnie,  Schoolmaster,  James  Adam  (1696),  386. 
Bethelnie,  Vicars,  vide  Aberdeen  Diocese  Chancellor. 
Sevan,  Arthur  Talbot,  467. 
Beverley,  George  (Inverurie,  1662),  352  ;  John  (Inverurie,  ante  1715),  394,  398  ;   Road,  Inverurie, 

394,  409. 
Beza,  365,  433. 

Bibles,  Pulpit  (1650),  308,  (1679),  347. 
Bird,  John  (Murderer,  1650),  307. 
Birkenbog,  vide  Abercromby. 
Birkenhead,  Loss  of  the  (1852),  231,  466. 

Birnie,  George,  Schoolmaster,  Culsalmond,  Logiedurno,  Kintore  (1664-96),  326,  340,  387. 
Birse,  Brass,  Lands  of  (circa  (1137),  20,  (1242),  36. 
Bishop,  vide  Aberdeen  Diocese  ;  Courts,  Inverurie  (1262),  37  ;  Rayne  (1535),  141  ;  Palace  of,  36,  133  ; 

Tenants  at  Fetternear  (1511),  129. 
Bishopstown,  John  Johnston  of  (1649),  450,  453. 
Bisset  [circa  1200),  33,  (1411),  91. 
Bisset,  Andrew,  Vicar  of  Inverurie  (1492^8),  124,  125, 

Bisset,  George,  Mair  of  Fee  (1531),  230  ;  Mr.  George,  Miller  at  Ardtannies  (1609),  180. 
Bisset,  Isabel,  wife  of  Thomas  Abercromby  of  Collihill  (1655),  311,  (1676),  329. 
Bisset,  John,  Minister  at  Aberdeen  (1736),  392. 
Bisset,  Thomas,  of  Balhaggardy  (1411),  89. 
Bisset,  Walter,  of  Lessendrum  (1357-64),  67,  91 . 
Bisset,  William  (Fetternear,  1511),  129. 


Index.  499 

Black  Acts  (1566),  149. 

Black,  Alexander  (Logiedurro,  1653),  311  ;  do.  (Boynds,  1664),  351. 

Black,  Isabel  (Inverurie,  1645-6),  292-3  ;  James  (do.  1633),  258  ;  Jean  (do.  1645),  292. 

Black,  John  (Conglass,  1634,  211. 

Black,  Ninian  (Bourtie,  1651),  309. 

Black,  Dr.  Patrick  (London),  368. 

Blackbarony,  Sir  Archibald  Murray  of  {circa  1660),  439. 

Blackbogs,  Leith  of  (1359),  66. 

Blackburn,  Peter,  Minister  of  Aberdeen,  University  Regent,  Superintendent,  and  Bishop  (1588-1615), 

156,  160,  162,  164,  233,  248,  332,  365,  449. 
Blackburn,  Bridge  of  (1677),  340. 
Blackford,  George  Gellie  of  (1696),  389. 
Blackhall,  vide  Blakhall. 

Blacktown,  Abraham  Forbes  of  (1639),  269,  461. 

Blackwater,  Marjory,  wife  of  Ade  Pyngell  (1376),  66  ;  Walter  of  (1273),  50. 
Blackwell,  Thomas,  Minister  at  Aberdeen  (1703),  431. 
Blair,  House  of  (1637),  249. 
Blair  Hussey,  151. 
Blair,  Lairds  of;  Leith  of  Barnes  (1505),  101  ;  Seton  (1520-1696),  101,  301,  303,  418,  466  ;  Panton 

(1688-96),  389,  419  ;  Stewart  (1724),  419 ;  Leith  (1761-1807),  419,  459,  462. 
Blairdaff,  Chapel  at,  (1729),  386. 
Blairdaff,  Lairds  of ;  Earl  of  the  Garioch,  De  Leslie  (circa  1170),  17 ;  Abercromby  (1391),  65,  235  ; 

Smith  (1696),  386. 
Blairs,  Roman  Catholic  College,  444,  457. 
Blairtone,  Patrick  Forbes  of  (1640),  161. 
Blake,  Neil,  Minister  at  Dyce  (1652),  462. 

Blakhall  (of  that  Ilk,  Coroner  and  Forester  of  the  Garioch),  20,  30,  99,  122,  180,  219,  227,  228,  229. 
Blakhall,  of  Barra,  vide  Burra  ;  of  Littlefolla,  vide  Littlefolla. 
Blakhall,  Alexander  of  that  Ilk  (1591),  228  ;  (1613)  229. 
Blakhall,  Father  Gilbert  (1637),  249. 

Blakhall,  Isabel,  widow  of  Mr.  Thomas  Blakhall  (1650),  307. 
Blakhall,  John,  Baillie  of  Sasine  (1424),   228  ;   do.,   of  That  Ilk  (1447),  122,  228  ;  do.  (Inverurie, 

1470),  119  ;  do.,  of  Barra  (1505),  103  ;  do.,  Parish  Clerk  of  Inverurie  (1536),  142,  143,  228  ;  do. 

Captain  John  (1643-8),  229. 
Blakhall,  Lairds  of :  Earl  of  the  Garioch  ;  Coroners  and  Foresters  of  the  Garioch  ;  Blakhall  (1424-1643), 

228-9  ;  Abercromby  (1661-9),   328,   345  ;  Thain  (1687-1723),   240,  328,   380 ;   Grant  (1726)  ; 

Leith  (1732-85)  ;  Gordon  of  Brae  (1785)  ;  Gordon  of  Manar  (1834). 
Blakhall,  Lands  of,  6,  7,  8,  20,  207,  (1615),  229,  (1639),  266,  (1660),  360. 
Blakhall,  Robert  (de  1418),  122,  228  ;  (of  That  Ilk,  1491),  122,  228;  do.  (also  of  Littlefolla,  1519), 

228  ;  (burgess  of  Aberdeen,  1647),  229. 
Blakhall,  Mr.  Thomas  (1650),  307. 

Blakhall,  William  de  (1398),  122,  128  ;  of  that  Ilk  and  Blakhall  (1451-86),  122,  128  ;  also  of  Fola- 
blackwater  (1503),  228 ;  do.  (1536),  142,  228  ;  do.  (1547),  228;  do.  (1615-23),  203,  208,  209,  213, 

229  ;  do.  (of  Barra,  1505-48),  103,  228  ;   do.,  of  Bourtie  (150C),  103 ;   do.   (of  University  of 
Broomyberry),  229. 

Blelack,  Charles  Gordon  of,  465. 
Blenheim,  Battle  of,  376. 


500  Index. 

Blockhouse  of  Blair  (Panton,  1688-96),  389,  41S. 

Blyth,  Andrew  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 

Boats,  Ferry,  Inverurie,  225,  (1647),  290 ;  Boathaugh,  185. 

Boddon,  Insch,  Over  and  Nether,  Gordon  (1512),  131 ;  Nether  B.  Gordon  (1696),  388;  Over  B.  Spence 

(circa  1520),  444,  (1600),  154  ;  Logie  (1696-1701),  388,  429. 
Boethius,  Hector,  135. 
Bogfur  Moss,  Tack  of  (1649),  396. 
Bogheads,  Kintore,  7. 
Bogie,  Water  of,  92. 
Boginjoss,  Dyce,  197. 
Bognie,  Morison  of,  244. 

Bogs,  George  Leslie  of,  sen.  and  jun.  (163S),  161,  207. 
Bohermore,  Colclough  of  (1784),  469. 
Bois  le  Due,  376. 

Bonds  of  Alliance,  76,  84,  100,  113,  ;  of  Loyalty  to  James  VI.,  456,  461. 
Bonhard  Salt  Pans. 

Bonkill,  Sir  Alexander  Stewart  of  (1332),  69. 
Bonnet,  M.  Pierre  ;  Theresa,  wife  of  Matthew  Seton,  467. 
Bonny  field,  Dunbar  of  (circa  1550),  442. 

Bonnyton,  Bonnytoun,  Bondington  (1259)>  61,  (1702),  460  ;  Mill  of  (1703),  431  ;  vide  Wood  of 
Bonshaw,  Irvine  of  (1306),  61. 
Boswell  (circa  1200),  33. 

Bothwell  Collegiate  Church  of  ;  William  Elphinstone,  Provost  (circa  1500),  470. 
Bothwell,  Bodwell,  Bodle,  Alexander  (Inverurie,  1612-19),  195,  207,  390. 
Bothwell,  Elspet,  wife  of  Patrick  Ferguson  (1672),  391. 
Bothwell,  John  (Inverurie,  1656),  319  ;  do.  (do.  1662),  352. 
Bothwell,  William  (Inverurie,  1847),  390. 
Boundaries,  Parochial,  Rectified  (1661),  310. 
Bourtie  (Auld  Bourtie,  1342-87),  63,   64,  80  ;  (1411),  92;  (1441),   110,  229,  230,  311  ;  (1598),  466; 

(1676),  340,  418,  419. 
Bourtie,  "  Fecht"  at  (circa  1390),  78,  437. 

Bourtie,  House  of  (1754),  419  ;  Mill  of,  John  Gordon  at  (1677),  364. 
Bourtie,  Kirk  of,  Vicarage  of  St.  Andrews  (1199),  21  ;  glebe  (1199),  21  ;  endowments  (1119),  21,  32  ; 

(1366),  79;  institution  at  (1611),   160;  visitation    of  (1649),   304;  election  at  (1658),   311; 

fabric,  344. 
Bourtie,  Kirkton  of,  Ninian  Seaton  at  (1611),  160  ;  Manse  of  (1199),  21. 
Bourtie,  Lairds  of ;  Earls  of  the  Garioch,  Lords  of  the  Garioch,  Matthew  the  Smith  (1342),  64  ;  John 

of  Abernethy  (1346),  64,  229  ;  Barclay  (1387-1598),   64,   110,   229,    230  ;    Seton  (1598-1655), 

230,  418,  vide  Pitmedden  ;  Beid  (1655-1663),  230,   311,  419,  467  ;  Anderson  (1663-1825),  389, 

419  ;  Mrs.  Leith  Ross  and  Sisters  (1825-1847),  419  ;  Duguid  (1827,  1847),  419. 
Bourtie,    Ministers,   Hugh,  rector  (1199),  21 ;   James  Johnston  (1578),  154  ;  Stephen  Mason,  154  ; 

Thomas  Mitchell  (ante  1611),  160  ;   Gilbert  Keith  (1611-166- ),  154,  160,   239,  304,  311,  316  ; 

George  Melville,   assistant  (1650-4),   311,   324  ;     William  Gordon,    assistant  (1658-     ),    311  ; 

Robert  Brown  (1666-75),  241  ;  Alexander  Sharpe  (1675-1709),  386  ;  James  Gordon  (1710),  423. 
Bourtie,  Officer,  Thomas  Middleton  (1649),  304. 
Bourtie,  Parishioners  (1611),  160  ;  (1651),  309. 
Bourtie,  Patron,  William  de  Lamberton  (1199),  21  ;  Duke  of  Lennox  (1611),  160. 


Index.  501 

Bourtie,  School  (1649),   304  ;   Schoolmasters,  John  Anderson  (1696),  386  ;  James  Davidson  (1710), 

424. 
Bower,  Walter,  Aberdeen  (1411),  89. 

Bowen,  Mary  Ann  (wife  of  Francis  Elphinstone,  1878),  473. 
Bowling  Green,  Keithhall  (1673),  369. 
Bowman,  James,  Inverurie  (ante  1600),  393. 
Boyle,  John,  Foot-runner,  Keithhall  (1696),  403. 
Boyle,  Patrick,  of  Shewalton,  473. 

Boyndie,  Minister*  William  Chalmers  (ante  1600),  255  ;  Patrick  Chalmers  (ante  1690),  430. 
Boyndlie,  Forbes  of  (1781),  405. 
Boynds,  Bowndis,  Buudys,  in  Moukegy,  185;  Westbynnes,  157;  Braidmyre  of,  225;  George  Ronald 

in,  (1664),  351. 
Boynds,  Lairds  of;   Earls  of  the  Garioch,  Lords  of  the  Garioch,  Sir  Eobert   Erskine   (1357),  63  ; 
Thomas  Chawmir  (1492),  122  ;  James  Harvey  (circa  1550),  442  ;  Johnston  of  That  Ilk  (ante 
1615),  197  ;  Jaffray  (1645),  225,  440  ;  Earls  of  Kintore  (1664),  351»  440. 
Boyne,  The,  100,  462  ;  Ogilvie  of,  129,  354,  442,  462. 
Brabant,  Lordship  of  (1408),  47. 
Brachra,  John  (Inverurie,  1536),  122. 

Braco  in  Knockinglews,  Inverurie  (1690)  ;  Brae  Croft  of,  181. 
Braco  in  Knockinglews,  Inverurie,  Families  upon  (1604-26),  181,  186  ;  (1696),  385. 
Braco  in  Knockinglews,  Inverurie,  House  of,  181. 

Braco  in  Knockinglews,  Inverurie,  Lairds  of;  Earls  of  the.  Garioch,  De  Leslie  (circa  1070),  17  ;  Leslie 
of  Balquhain  (1340)),  66  ;  Gordon  (circa  1490-1678),   102,   213,   278,  329,  345  ;  Earl  of  Aber- 
deen (1681,  1692),  329,  360,  385. 
Braco  in  Knochinglews,  Inverurie,  Mill  and  Millers  (1604-26),  181. 
Braelangwell,  Fraser  of,  469. 
Braelyne  in  Glentaner,  Gardine  of  (1740),  412. 
Braemar  (6th  century),  13. 
Brandsbutt,  4,  5,   184  ;  (1670),  364  ;  (1721),   356  ;  George  Smith  of  (1614-16),   203  ;    George  Grub 

(1633),  258,  294. 
Brechin,  Battle  of  (1452),  101,  112,  464  ;  Sir  David  of,  at  Inverurie  (1308),  46  ;  do.,  Constable,  51  ; 
Henry,   Lord  of,   51  ;    Lordship    of  Brechin  aud    Navar,    Sir    Thomas    Erskine    ^1530-50), 
473  ;  William  (1257),  50. 
Brewers  in  Inverurie  (1606-13),  190,  192,  196. 
Brewhouses  (circa  1200),  22,  25. 

Brewster,  James  (Muirton  in  Bourtie,  1611),  160  ;  William  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 
Brice  of  Douglas,  Bishop  of  Moray  (circa  1200),  55. 
Brickenden  Beau,  421-4 ;  Elizabeth,   wife  first  of  Thomas  Bumet  of  Keninay  (1713)  ;  second,  of  Dr. 

Lamont,  485  ;  Richard  of  Inkpen,  421,  486. 
Bridge  of  Dee  built  (circa  1520),  132  ;  battle  of  (1639),  271. 
Bridges,  Church  collections  for,  338,  339,  340. 

Brigstoke,  William  (Somerset),  473  ;  Georgina  Ann,  wife  of  General  John  Dalrymple  (1878),  473, 
Brimmond  Hill,  Portents  seen  at  (1643),  278. 
Bristol  Castle,  45,  69. 

Broadford,  The  Inverurie  (1653),  352  ;  do.,  Aberdeen,  410. 
Broadholme,  The,  Inverurie,  185. 
Brodie,  The  Laird  of  (1649),  348. 


502  Index. 

Broomend,  Crichie,  Stone  period,  4,  5,  6,  7 ;  George  Leslie  in  (1616),  179  ;  assault  at  (1643),  278. 

Broomfold,  Inverurie,  7,  185,  195. 

Broomhill,  John  Birnie  of  (1700),  162 ;  James  Hamilton  of,  Bishop  of  Galloway  (circa  1680),  162. 

Broominch,  Inverurie,  7,  185. 

Broomybenie,  University  of  (1647),  229. 

Brown,  David  Dyce,  M.D.,  467. 

Brown,  Gilbert  (Monkegy,  1615),  209. 

Brown,  Isabella  (wife  of  James  Ferguson,  1807),  479. 

Brown,  John  (Daviot,  1550),  144  ;  do.  (Westhall,  1677),  340. 

Brown,  Robert,  minister  at  Bourtie  (1616-75),  241  ;  do.  Ingliston,  (1725),  390. 

Brown,  Mr.  Thomas  (Inverurie,  1476),  120. 

Brown,  William,  U.P.  Minister,  Craigdam  (1807),  479. 

Brownie,  John,  Monymusk  (1685),  348. 

Bruce,  Alexander  (Old  Meldrum,  1820),  and  family,  484. 

Bruce,  Christian,  vide  Christian  Lady  of  the  Garioch. 

Bruce,  Marjory,  mother  of  Robert  II.,  45. 

Bruce,  Mary,  wife  of  Sir  Alexander  Fraser  of  Dunnottar  (circa  1350),  437. 

Bruce,  Maud,  sister  of  David  II.,  62. 

Bruce,  Niel,  brother  of  Robert  I.,  45. 

Bruce,  Robert,  Lord  of  Annandale,  temp.  David  I.,  23,  24;  do.   (1248),   Competitor  with  Baliol,  23, 

24,  34,  38,  39  ;  do.  Crusader  (1268),  24,  34,  39,  41 ;  do.  Eail  of  Carrick,  and  King,  24,  34,  39, 

42-9,  259,  353,  436,   437. 
Bruce,  Thomas  (Kemnay,  1633),  238. 
Bruce,  William   (Daviot,   1550),    144  ;   do.    Schoolmaster  of  Kintore   (1710),   425  ;  do.    Merchant, 

Inverurie  (1741),  390  ;  do.  M.D.,  and  Family  (1878),  484:  do.  B.D.,   Episcopalian  minister, 

Dunimarle  (1878),  484. 
Bruce's  Camp,  Cave,  and  Howe,  48,  176. 

Brucklay,  John  Irvine  of  (circa  1620),  449  ;  Adam  Irvine,  late  of  (1710),  424. 
Bruckles  in  Auchterless,  John  Gairdon  of  (1673),  329. 
Brux,  John  Cameron  of  (circa  1364),  75,  91  ;    Sir  Hugh  Cameron  (post  1400),   75  ;   Black  Robert 

(1411),  91  ;  Alister  Cam  Forbes  (post  1400),  91  ;  Forbes  of  (1530),  140. 
Buchan  of  Auchmacoy,  49;  (1512),  131  ;  (1652),  310  ;  (1688),  376,  468. 

Buchan,  Burned  (1408),  49  ;   Mormaors  of— Bede  the  Pict  (sixth  century),  13,  Gartrait  (1132),  55. 
Buchan,  Earls  of,  William  Cumyn  (circa  1200),  37  ;  John  Cumyn  (1308),  46,  49  ;  Alexander  Cumyn 

(1335),  70  ;  Alexander  Stewart,   "  Wolf  of  Badenoch  "  (1390),   85  ;  Sir  James  Lindsay  (ante 

1400),  67,  437 ;  John  Stewart  (1424),  88,  107,  437  ;  Erskine  (1716),  414. 
Buchan,  Constable  of  France  (1424),  88,  107. 
Buchan,  George  (Inverurie  1651),  316,  322. 
Buchan,  Gilbert  (Inverurie,  1645-6).  292,  3. 
Buchan,  Janet,  wife  of  James  Gordon  of  Newton  (1652),  310. 
Buchan,  Priest  (1702),  423. 

Bnchanan  of  Ross  (1840),  463  ;  Jemima,  wife  of  Sir  Alexander  Leith  (1842),  463. 
Buchanstone,  Barony  of  Wardes  (1510),   220;  Patrick  Leith  (1531),  461  ;  Gilbert  Leslie  of  (1668), 

329;   Captain  James  Leslie  of  (1696),   389  ;   Alexander  Martane  in  Nether  B.  (1664),  338; 

John  Meldrum,  in  Mill  of  B.  (1664),  338. 
Bucharn,  Leslies  of,  445. 
Bucharne,  Leiths  of,  459,  462. 


Index.  503 

Buehthills,  Dyce,  197. 

Buchts-Ewe,  Inverurie  (1616),  200. 

Buckingham,  Duke  of,  at  Pitcaple  (1650),  297. 

Buda  (1664),  399. 

Buildings,  Primstone,  3  ;  quality  of,  in  the  17th  century,  174,  200,  206. 

Burgesses,  Guilds  of  (1200),  117,  118,  188,  201. 

Burgh  Life  in  Inverurie  (1199),  27;  (1400-86),  113-20;  (1600-40),  187-217,  256-60;  (1640-50), 
291-6  ;  (1650^60),  313-25  ;  (1660),  349-60  ;  (1696),  383,  384;  Politics  in  the  18thceutury,  364. 

Burghs,  Convention  of  (1671),  362,  364;  Elgin  District  of,  364;  Laws  of  the  Four  B.,  113,  192  ; 
Report  upon  (1818),  455. 

Burgie,  John  Dunbar  of  (1633),  461 . 

Burgundy,  Duke  of  (1408),  87. 

Burials,  Speedy  (1620),  210  ;  at  hack  of  church  (1648),  302. 

Burle,  John  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 

Burley,  Lord  (1644),  288  ;  Balfour  (1655),  372. 

Burnard,  vide  Burnett. 

Burnlands,  Inverurie,  183,  258. 

Burnervie,  6. 

Burnett,  Burnet,  Burnard  of  Allagavan  (1623),  485  ;  of  Balmaud  (1512),  131  ;  of  Cowton  and 
Criggie  (1680),  485  ;  of  Craigmyle  (1608,  1623),  209,  485  ;  of  Crimond  (1634),  251,  485 ;  of 
Elrick  (1707,  1737),  225,  417  ;  of  Gask  (1512),  131  ;  of  Glenbervie  (circa  1700),  377  ;  of 
Kemnay  (1688),  120,  485  ;  of  Lethenty  (1396),  66  ;  (1696),  389  ;  of  Leys  (1314),  239,  420, 
422,  485  ;  of  Malingall  (1395),  66  ;  of  Monboddo  (1680),  485  ;  of  Muchals  (1680),  485. 

Burnett,  Agnes;   wife,  first  of  Thomas  Burnet,  second,  of  Sir  William  Nicolson,  377,  485. 

Burnett,  Alexander,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  (1683),  355  ;  do.  of  Kemnay,  Secretary  of  Legation  (1700), 
422,  and  family,  486  ;  do.  of  Kemnay  and  family  (1867),  486  ;  do.  of  Leys  (temp.  Robert  I.), 
420  ;  do.  of  do.  (1613),  229  ;  minister  at  Oyne  (1613-15),  240  ;  Sir  Alexander  of  Craigmyle 
and  family  (166- ),  485  ;  do.  of  Leys,  4th  Baronet  (1733-58),  422,  486. 

Burnett,  Andrew,  of  Elrick  (1707),  225,  417,  454  ;  do.  (Kemnay  1713),  427,  485. 

Burnett,  Anna,  wife  of  Andrew  Cant  of  Glendy  (1655),  299, 

Burnett  Arms,  486. 

Burnett,  Catherine  of  Glenbervie  (1721),  377. 

Burnett,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  James  Burnett  (1608),  485. 

Burnett,  George  of  Kemnay  (b  1742)  and  family,  486  ;  do.  Lyon  King  of  Arms  (1866),  486. 

Burnett,  Gilbert,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  251,  375,  420. 

Burnett,  Helen,  wife  of  Sir  Alexander  Burnett  of  Leys,  4th  Baronet,  485  ;  do.  wife  of  George 
Burnett  of  Kemnay,  421,  486. 

Burnett,  James,  of  Allagavan  and  Monboddo  (1645),  485  :  do.  of  Craigmyle  (1608-44),  209,  420,  485. 

Burnett,  Jane  (Craigmyle),  wife  of  Andrew  Burnett  (1713),  485. 

Burnett,  Jean,  wife  of  Sir  William  Forbes,  2nd  Baronet  of  Monymusk,  237. 

Burnett,  John,  of  Elrick  (1737),  225,  417  ;  do.  of  Kemnay  (1784),  and  family,  486  ;  do.  Minister  of 
Monymusk  (1689),  380;  do.,  Writer,  Stonehaven  (1800),  487. 

Burnett,  Lucretia,  second  wife  of  William  Ferguson  (1696),  355,  384,  406,  475. 

Burnett,  Margaret,  wife  of  Thomas  Erskine,  473. 

Burnett,  Lord  Monboddo,  485. 

Burnett,  Sir  Robert  of  Leys  (1759),  422. 

Bnrnett,  Teresa  (wife  of  Matthew  Seton),  467. 


504  Index. 

Burnett,  Robert  of  Cowton,  Muchals,  and  Criggie,  Tutor  of  Leys  (1644),  485  ;  do.  of  Crimond,  Lord 
Crimond  (1623),  209  ;  (1660),  226,  250,  251,  420,  485  ;  do.  of  Lethinty,  senior  and  junior 
(1696),  389 ;  do.  of  Lethinty  and  Malingall  (1395),  66  ;  do.  Minister  at  Oyne  (1596-1613), 
155,  166,  233,  240,  242,  311,  446  ;  do.  Minister  at  Rayne  (1666-1703),  386,  430  ;  do.  Minister 
of  Banchory-Ternan  {ante  1697),  and  of  Fintray  (1698),  427. 

Burnett,  Thomas,  of  Craigmyle  (1608),  485  ;  do.  of  Glenbervie  (circa  1700),  377  ;  do.  of  Kemnay 
(1688),  420,  and  family,  485  ;  do.  of  do.  (1689),  420,  and  family,  485  ;  Sir  Thomas  of  Leys  (1623), 
209,  237,  299J  420,  485  j  do.  (1759),  422. 

Burnett,  William,  Minister  at  Oyne  (1647-60),  240,  305. 

Burntisland  (1672),  363. 

Bursars  (1549),  131. 

Burt,  Captain,  at  Aberdeen  (1730),  335. 

Butler,  Colonel,  Slayer  of  Wallenstein  (1634),  399. 

Buttergach,  Andrew,  of  Conglas,  Iuveramsay  and  Meikle  Worde  temp.  Dav.  I.,  63  ;  John  (BaiUie  of 
Regality,  1359),  63  ;  Robert  (1413),  104. 

Byron,  Captain  John  (1786),  477,  father  of  Lord  Byron. 

Byth,  Duncan  Forbes  of  (1643),  240  ;  Urquhart  of,  469. 


Cadyow,  Hamilton  of  ;  Sir  David  (circa  1350),  437  ;  Sir  James  (circa  1450),  437. 

Caerlaveroch,  Lord  Maxwell  of  (1350),  442. 

Caiesmill,  Robert  Johnston  of  (circa  1600),  449. 

Cairden,  Oyne,  Leith  of  ;  Patrick  (1668),  329,  John  (1696),  389. 

Cairelogion,  12. 

Cairnborrow,  Gordon  of  (1467-1644),  279,  442  ;  House  of  (1637),  249. 

Cairnbulg,  Lord  Fraser  of  (1644),  279. 

Cairndae,  now  Linton,  448. 

Cairnhill,  in  Rayne,  Roman  Road  at,  9. 

Cairn  O'Mount,  13. 

Cairns,  3. 

Cairnton,  Walter  Halket  of,  463. 

Caithness,  282,  435  ;  Earl  of,  110,  282. 

Calder,  Sir  Hugh  Campbell  of  (1680),  468. 

Calder  of  Synahard  (1512),  131. 

Calfward,  Inverurie,  185. 

Campbell,  Sir  Charles  (1685),  372,  373. 

Campbell,  Sir  Hugh,  of  Calder  (1680),  468. 

Campbell,  James  Hew,  Oyne  (1671),  415 ;  Hon.  James  (1690),  374. 

Campbell,  Jean  (wife  of  John  Urquhart,  1684),  468. 

Campbell,  John,  of  Westhall  (1671-2),  329,  415. 

Campbelton  (circa  1700),  374. 

Camber,  Lydia,  wife  of  Captain  John  Ferguson,  479. 


Index.  505 

Cameron,  Cambrun,   Cambruno  (circa  1200),   33  ;  of  Brux,  John  (circa  1364),  75  ;  Sir  Hugh  (circa 

1400),  75  ;  do.,  of  Lochiel  (1411),  91. 
Cameron,  Meg.,  tanner  in  Monymusk  (1402),  115. 
Camphffi,  Patrick  Forbes  of  (1573),  236. 
Camps,  British  and  Roman,  4,  9,  51 ;  do.  in  the  Civil  War,  264,  265,  266,  269,  270,  2S0,  281,  282, 

284,  285,  287. 
Camus,  Danish  Chief  (1010),  15,  435. 
Candelabra  of  Edward  VI.,  366. 

Cannor,  Loch,  Lake  Dwellings  in,  40  ;  Peel  in  (1335),  70. 
Canon,  Jordanus,  Insch  (1244),  79. 

Cant,  Alexander,  Minister,  Banchory- Ternan  (1649-60),  300,  358. 
Cant,  Andrew,  Minister,  Pitsligo,  Newbottle  and  Aberdeen,  227,  255,  276,  277,  288-91,  299-301,  330, 

334,  341,   351,   358  ;  do.   Minister  of  Liberton  (1663).     Principal  of  Edinburgh  University, 

300,  301. 
Cant,  Sarah,  second  wife  of  Alexander  Jaffray,  jun.,  227,  300,  358. 
Cant's  Kirk,  Pitsligo  Church,  300. 

Capital  Punishments  (1400),  116,  (1629),  211,  (1674),  363. 
Caprington,  William  Leith  of  (ante  1388),  72  ;  Laurence  Leith  of  (1388),  72. 
Car,  William,  dialmaker  (1660),  343. 
Caran,  St.,  of  Premnay,  17. 
Carchnie,  William  Leslie  of  (1635),  214. 
Card-playing  on  Sunday  (1674),  339. 
Cardross,  Erskine  of,  486. 
Carlisle  (1645),  286  ;  (1746),  483. 
Carnegie,  Lord  (1639),  264. 
Carnegie,  William,  probationer  (1702),  430. 
Carniola,  Leslie,  Metropolitan  of  (1725),  411. 
Carnoch,  Dr.  John  Erskine  of,  486. 
Carrick,  Countess  of,  24  ;  King  Robert  I. ,  Earl  of,  24. 
Carstairs,  William,  chaplain  to  William  of  Orange,  137,  425. 
Carthagena,  Expedition  to,  414. 
Caskieben,   7,  368  ;  Barony,  32,  365,  417  ;   Castle,    166  ;  Gallowhill  of,  369  ;   Lands  (1615),   197, 

(1633),  225  ;  Mains,  (1615),  198,  (1664),  351  ;  Mill  of  (1597),  152,  (1664),  351. 
Caskieben,  Lairds  :  Earls  of  the  Garioch,  34  ;  Norman  the  Constable  (ante  1237),  34  ;  de  Garviach 

(ante  1357),  62,  63,  448  ;  Johnston  (circa  1400),  89,  448  ;  Jaffray  (1633),  225  ;  Keith  (1664), 

440.     Vide  Johnston. 
Cassilis,  Earl  of  (1649),  358. 
"  Castellated  Buildings  in  Aberdeenshire,"  401. 
Castles  in  1426,  105. 

Catalogue  in  Church  (1649),  313,  315,  316. 
Catechism,  Lesser  and  Old  (1649),  305. 
Cathcart,  Lord,  415. 
Cathedral,  vide  Aberdeen. 

Catholic  Disabilities  (1690),  422,  423,  (1762),  443. 
Catti,  Prince  of  the,  15,  435. 
Catwig  in  Holland,  435. 
Cavel  in  husbandry,  184,  198  (1667),  361. 

64 


506  Index. 

Cavers,  James,  Lord  of  (1388),  58. 

Cavelsniill  (1600),  157,  468. 

Celtic  Civilisation,  13,  126. 

Chalmers,  Chalmer,  Chawmer  ;  of  Auldbar,  471  ;  of  Balbithan  {circa  1490-1696),  151,  232,  389,  445  ; 

of  Balnacraig  (1357),  62,  120,  254  ;  of  Cults  (1505-1612),  254,  255  ;  of  Disblair  (1633),  238  ; 

of  Drimmies   (1636-60),   214,   281,   318,   329  ;    of  Findon  (1402),    254  ;   of  Foullertown  and 

Thainston  {temp.  David  I.),  62 ;  of  Lentush  (1696),  388  ;  of  Little  Methlick  (1505),  254  ;  of 

Murtle  (1388-1488),  254  ;  of  Pitfichie  and  Balnerosk  {temp.  David  II.),  65  ;  of  Strichen  (1512), 

131,  449. 
Chalmers,  Alexander,  Provost  of  Aberdeen  (1567),  255  ;  do.,  of  Cults  and  Little  Methlick  (1505),  254  ; 

do.,  of  Drimmies  (1636-55),  214,  281,  318,  329  ;  do.  (Kinkell,  1633),  239  ;  do.  of  Strichen,  449  ; 

Rev.  Alexander  (Haddington,  1817),  479. 
Chalmers,  Annabella,  wife  of  John  Leslie  of  Wardes  (1525),  138,  232,  445. 
Chalmers,  Charles,  in  Crimond  (1616),  209. 
Chalmers,  David,  of  Balbithan  (1565-88),  151,  232  ;  do.  (Eintore,  1498),  123  ;  do.,  of  Pitfichie  and 

Balnerosk  (temp.  David  II.),  65. 
Chalmers,  Emily  (wife  of  James  Ferguson),  479. 
Chalmers,  George,  of  Balbithan  (1600),  232,  445. 
Chalmers,  Gilbert,  254  ;  of  Cults  (1601-12),  255  ;  do.,  Chaplain  of  Kintore  (1498),  129  ;  do.,  Vicar  of 

Tullich  (1509),  130. 
Chalmers,  Henry  (Balbithan,  15S8),  232 ;  do.  (Kintore,  1498),  123. 
Chalmers,  James  (Balbithan,  1588),  232  ;  do.  of  Balbithan  (1696),  232,  3S9  ;  do.,  Rector  of  Fetternear 

(1504),  148. 
Chalmers,  John,  of  Balbithan  {circa  1490),  232  ;  do.  (1584),  151,  232  ;  do.,  Reader  at  Kintore  (circa 

1570),  170. 
Chalmers,  Margaret,  wife  of  John  Johnston  (died  1812),  453-7. 

Chalmers,  Marjory,  mother  of  Sir  John  Urie,  232,  254;  do.,  wife  of  Provost  Gilbert  Menzies,  457. 
Chalmers,  Patrick,  Minister  at  Boyndie  (ante  1690),  430  ;  do.,  Sheriff  Clerk,  Banff,  449. 
Chalmers,  Professor  (1745),  409. 

Chalmers,  Robert,  of  Kintore  aud  Balnacraig  (1357),  62. 
Chalmers,  Thomas,  of  Cults  and  Little  Methlick  (1505-4S),  254,  255  ;  do.,  of  Findon  and  Murtle  (1402), 

254  ;  do.  (Kinkell,  1473),  122. 
Chalmers,  William,   Minister  of  Boyndie  (ante  1600),  255  ;    do.,   of  Auldbar  (1740),   471  ;   do.,  of 

Drimmies    (1660-69),    214,    329,    487 ;   do,    (Dyce,    1758),    453  ;   do.,    of   Foullertown    and 

Thainston  (temp.  David  II.),  62  ;  do.,  Schoolmaster,  Inverurie  (1657-90),  324,  325,  358;  do., 

Town-Clerk  of  Inverurie,  ad  vilam  aut  culpam  (1672),  363  ;  do.,  Baillie  of  Kintore  (1498),  123  ; 

do.,   of  Murtle  (1388),  254  ;  do.,  of  Wester  Disblair  (1633),   238  ;  do.  (Kinkell,  1650),  306; 

Mr.  William  (Balbithan,  1588),  232. 
Chalmerley  or  Chamberley  Croft  (1615),  226,  418. 
Chamberlain  of  Scotland:  Barclay  (temp.  William  I.),  64;  Sir  Alexander  Fraser  (temp.  Robert  I.), 

437  ;'Sir  Robert  Erskine  (temp.  David  II),  74. 
Champion,  Major,  Bombay  Army,  469. 

Chancellor  of  Scotland,  Bishop  Greenlaw  (1410),  87  ;  Bishop  Elphinstone,  130. 
Chancellor  of  Aberdeen  vide  Aberdeen  Diocese. 
Chapel  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary  of  the  Garioch  (1357-1511),  80,  81,  108,  128,  (1542-67),  147,  230 

231,  (1615),  236,  (1636),  412,  418. 
Chapel  of  Garioch,  Parish  (1599),  vide  Logie  Durno. 


Index.  507 

Chapel  of  Garioch,  Schoolmaster  of,  William  Idell  (1670). 

Chapels  in  the  Garioch,  Early,  17,  18. 

Chaplain,  Curate  of. Inverurie,  William  Scrogy  (1466),  120. 

Chaplainry  Patrons,  147,  230,  418. 

Chaplainries  of  the  Chapel  of  the  Garioch  :  Collihill,  80,  128,  147,  230,  231;  Patron  of  do.  (1600), 

230  ;   Conglass  or  Kirkinglass,    147,    226,  418  ;   Patron  of  do.    (1615),   418  ;  Pitcaple,    80  ; 

Pitgavenny,  147 ;  Wardes  (1474),  80  ;  Wartle,  147. 
Chaplains  of  Collihill,  William  Auchinleck  (1473),  125  ;  Alexander  Galloway  (1505),  128  ;  William 

Hay  (1542),  231  ;  Thomas  Hay,  231  ;  Cuthbert  Herd,  231  ;  James  Warlaw  (1567),  231  ;  George 

Seton  (1600),  147,  230. 
Chaplains  of  the  Garioch,  Robert  Patensoune  and  David  Liell  (1505),  129. 
Chaplains  of  Kinkell, — at  Keinnay,  John  Gareaucht  (1502),  128  ;  at  Kintore,  Gilbert  Chalmer  (1498)> 

129  ;  at  Skene,  132. 
Chapman,  Isabel,  Inverurie  (1612),  195. 
Chapman,  James,  Daviot  (1550),  144. 
Charles  I.,  King,  Coronation,  227,  366  ;  Arbitration  of  Tiends,  261  ;  Civil  War  (1630),  262  ;  (1639), 

263,  264,  270,  271  ;  (1640),  272  ;  (1641),  276  ;  (1642),  278  ;  (1644),  282 ;  (1646),  287  ;  (1648), 

295  ;  (1649),  296. 
Charles  II.,  King,  Troops  raised  for  (1650),  308  ;  at  Pitcaple  (1650),  297,  327,  328,  355,  357,  358, 

361,  366-8,  370-4,  467. 
Charles  VI.  of  France  (140S),  87,  106,  107. 
Charming  (1649),  305,  (1657),  319,  (1675),  339. 
Charter  of  Inverurie,  150,  194. 
Charters  of  Garioch  Estates,  61-67. 
Chattan,  The  Clan,  435. 
Cheese  (1228),  18,  22. 
Chekar,  Thomas,  Aberdeen  (1411),  89. 
Chelsea  Croft,  and  Lane,  7,  186,  398. 
Chester,  Randolph,  Earl  of,  23. 
Chevalier,  The  (1745),  407. 
Cheyne  (circa  1200),  33. 
Cheyne,  Alexander,  of  Pitfichie  (1646),  293. 
Cheyne,  Francis,  of  Inverurie  (circa  1250),  40. 
Cheyne,  Henry,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  (1282-1328),  39-41,  48,  63. 
Cheyne,  Isabella,  wife  of  George  Leslie,  Little  Folia  (1730),  447. 
Cheyne,  James,  of  Straloch  (1595),  103,  151. 
Cheyne,  John,  of  Arnage  (M.P.,  1616),  247. 
Cheyne,  John,  Minister  at  Kinkell  (1623-43),  161,  211,  238,  239. 
Cheyne,  John,  Minister  at  Kintore  (1645-9),  240,  266,  273,  285,  305,  450. 
Cheyne,  Mariota,  wife  of  John  Keith  of  Inverugie  (circa  1380),  437. 
Cheyne,  Parson  (circa  1600),  450. 

Cheyne,  Reginald  le,  of  Fyvie  (1250-96),  50,  67  ;  Sir  Reginald,  of  Inverugie  (circa  1350),  437. 
Cheyne,  Robert,  Minister  at  Kennethmont  (1651),  306  ;  do.  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 
Cheyne,  Ronald,  in  Ardeharrall  (1600-13),  162,  208. 
Cheyne,  of  Straloch  (circa  1400),  442  ;  James  (1595),  151. 
Cheyne,  William,  Inverurie  (1608),  192,  193  ;  do.,  William,  of  Kaithen. 
Child,  James,  Canon  of  Monymusk  (1534),  127. 


508  Index. 

Childrig,  Inverurie,  185. 

ChUlas,  Chirurgeon,  Inverurie  (17 — ),  393. 

Chivalry,  84. 

Christie,  Agnes,  Andrew,  Eppie,  Mallie,  and  William  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 

Christie,  Cleek  (1339),  71. 

Christie,  James  (Lofthillock,  1664),  351  ;  do.  (Old  Meldrum,  1697),  428. 

Christie,  Patrick  (Insch,  1650),  307  ;  do.  (Kemnay,  1678),  340. 

Christmas,  vide  Yule  ;  Services  (16S8),  3S0. 

Christ's  Kirk,  25,  155,  157  ;  Fair  of,  8,  109  ;  Patronage  of  (1600),  157  ;  Lands  of  (1650),  459. 

Church,  Culdee,  13  ;  Romish,  16. 

Church  Discipline  (1615),  196,  (1647-60),  301-320,  330-42,  380. 

Church  Keeping  (1608),  192,  (1615),  196,  (1651),  318,  (1662),  338. 

Clare,  Isabel  de,  wife  of  Robert  Bruce,  24. 

Claret  in  Scotland  (circa,  1616),  244. 

Clark,  James,  Disblair  (1624),  396. 

Clark,  Janet  (wife  of  William  Ferguson,  sen.,  of  Badifurrow,  1658),  355,  374,  475. 

Clark,  Mary  (wife  of  Sir  Andrew  Leith  Hay),  459. 

Clark,  William,  of  Buckland  House,  459. 

Clatt,  Vicarage  of  Lindores,  19  ;  Endowments  (1366),  79. 

Cleland,  Captain  William,  R.N.,  and  Elizabeth  (wife  of  Sir  William  Johnston),  451. 

Clergy,  Society  for  Children  of,  225. 

Clerk, Parson  of  Auchindoir  (1615),  233. 

Clerk,  John  (Inverurie,  1480),  393  ;  do.  (do.,  1613),  196. 

Clerk,  Robert  (Kintore,  1498),  123  ;  do.  (Inverurie,  1666),  338. 

Clerk,  Stephen  the,  63. 

Clinterty  (1430),  121. 

Clontarf,  Battle  of,  55. 

Cloth  Manufactory,  Aberdeen  [circa  1630),  227. 

Clothing,  Articles  of  (1620),  209,  210. 

Clova,  Lumsden  of,  401. 

Cluny,  Kirk  of,  James  Johnston,  Minister  (1574),  155  ;  Patronage  of  (1617),  235. 

Cluny,  Lairds  of,  Gordon  ;  Sir  Thomas  (ante  1604),  474  ;  do.  (1604),  226  ;  Sir  Alexander  (1622),  213 

(1639)  265,  272 ;  (1642)  221,  222,  238  ;  Sir  John  (circa  1640),  445. 
Cobairdy,  James  Gordon  of  (circa  1800),  460. 
Cobenshaw,  Dr.  James  Anderson  of  (1769),  405. 
Coble  Haugh  and  Tack,  Inverurie,  173,  185. 
Cochran,  Sir  John  (1685),  372. 

Cochran,  Mary,  wife  of  John  Moir  of  Barnes  (ante  1696),  388. 
Cochran,  Robert,  Earl  of  Mar,  Lord  of  the  Garioch  (1480),  110. 
Cock  of  the  North,  112,  242. 

Coclarachie,  Duncan  Forbes  of  (1554),  236  ;  Gordon  of,  459. 
Colclough,  Beauchamp,  of  Bohermore,  and  Bridget  (wife  of  George  Urquhart),  469. 

Coldstone, Strachan,  Rector  of  (1615),  233. 

Coldwells,  Inverurie,  6. 

Collections  in  Churches  for  Bridges,  Harbours,  &c,  320. 

College  of  St.  Mary,  Aberdeen,  131. 

Colleges,  Aberdeen,  323,  325. 


Index.  509 

Collihill,  vide  Chaplainry. 

Collihill,   Lairds  of:  Gilbert  Annand  (1543),   231  ;  Hay  (1580),  103;  Thomas  Abercromby 

(1675),  329  ;  John  Forbes  ^696),  389.  , 

Collison,  Collieson,  John,  Provost  of  Aberdeen,  138,  464. 

Collison,  Margaret,  wife  of  William  Robertson  of  Aquhorties,  214. 

Colliston,  Eeid  of  (15—),  449. 

Colliston  Croft,  Badifurrow,  186. 

Collithie,  Robert  Gordon  of  (1652),  462. 

Cologne  (circa  1700),  443. 

Colpnay,  William  Wood  of  (1617),  213. 

Columba,  St.,  13,  17. 

Comaleggie,  Troup  of  (1512),  131  ;  William  [circa  1540),  445. 

Commendators,  144  ;  of  Deer,  163  ;  of  Lindores,  156,  160. 

Commercial  Road,  Inverurie,  394. 

"Commissar,"  Thomas  Johnston,  Inverurie  (1609),  194,  204. 

Commissious  on  Minsters'  Stipends  (Queen  Mary),  158  ;  (Charles  I.),  159. 

Committees  of  the  Tables  (1639),  264,  267,  268,  269. 

Common  Good,  The,  321. 

Common  Lauds  of  Inverurie,  183,  199,  202. 

Commonwealth,  Soldiers  of  the,  309,  330. 

Communion  Services  (1643),  277,  (1650),  315,  (1686),  378  ;  Roll  of  Inverurie  (167—),  360. 

Concraig,  Alexander  Simpson  of,  391. 

Condland,  in  Aberdeenshire,  Crichton  of  (1630),  214  ;  do.,  in  Fife,  Lumsden  of  (circa  1500),  448. 

Confession  of  Faith,  The  (circa  1700),  424,  425. 

Congalton,  Grant  of,  440  ;  Hepburn  of,  472. 

Conglass,  Knockinglass,  Kirkinglas,  3,  8,  19,  20  (1257),  60  (1411),  89  ;  Marches  (1569),  417  ;  Chap- 
lainry (1615),  226  ;  Tenants  in  (1649-51),  315,  317,  359,  (167—),  360,  (1696),  384. 

Conglass,  Lairds  of :  Earls  of  the  Garioch,  Lords  of  the  Garioch  ;  Andrew  Buthergask  (temp.  David 
II.),  63  ;  Erskine  (1357-1835),  59,  63,  89,  345  ;  Gordon  of  Manar  (1835), 

Couland,  Lundy  of  (circa  1600),  449. 

Constable  of  Fetternear  (1602),  157  ;  of  France  (1424),  107,   437  ;  of  Inverurie  (1147-1219),  30-35, 
440  ;  of  Scotland  (1308-1318),  16,  70,  436. 

Constance,  Council  of,  87. 

Constantinople  (1664),  399. 

Constitution  Street,  Inverurie,  186. 

Content  Butts,  Inverurie,  183,  258. 

Controversial  Prints,  Covenanting  (1647),  302  ;  Episcopalian  (1663),  334. 

Cooper,  Cupar,  Cowper,  Gilbert  (Thornton,  1611),  160. 

Cooper,  James  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 

Cooper,  John  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 

Cooper,  Lord  (1639),  264,  266. 

Cooper,  Margaret  (Kemnay,  1675),  339. 

Cooper,  Patrick  (Inverurie,  1536),  142. 

Cooper,  William  (Inverurie,  1621),  212. 

Coote,  Sir  Eyre  ;  Captain  George  ;  and  Frances  (wife  of  Sir  William  Setou),  467. 

Cordiner,  Cordener,  Cordner,  John  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 

Cordiner,  Robert,  Kintore  (1498),  123. 


510  Index. 

Cordiner,  Thomas,  Aboyne  (1650),  307. 
Cordwainers'  Craft,  Inverurie  (1614),  196. 
•Corrichie,  Battle  of  (1562),  139,  146. 
Corse,  Forbes  of  (ante  1500),  104,  128,  163,  212,  253. 
Corseman  Hill,  Inverurie,  3,  4,  6,  92,  175,  180. 
Corshill,  Inverurie,  Caskieben,  197,  211. 
Corsindae,  Forbes  of  {ante  1500),  104,  236. 
Corskie,  John  Straehan  of  (1617),  213. 
Cottown  of  Aquhorties,  360. 

Coull,  Auchtercoull  ;  Castle  of,  18  ;  Church  of  235. 
Coull,  Lairds  of;  Durward  (1228),  18  ;  Coutts  (1622),  177,  213. 
Coullie,  Mouyrnusk,  Alexander  Smith  in  (1633),  239  ;  Alexander  Soot  in  (1685),  348. 
Court  of  Session,  Origin  of,  137. 

Courteen  Hall,  Northamptonshire,  Sir  William  "Wake  of,  466. 
Courteston,  Cruterystown,  Leslie,  74. 
Coutts,  Robert,  Monymusk  (1678,  1685),  340,  348i 
Coutts,  William,  fiar  of  Auchtercoull  (1622),  213. 
Covenant,  National,  262,  371. 
Covenant,  Solemn  League  and,  imposed  (1639),  262,  438  ;  renewed  (1649),  299,  303,  306,307,  313,  315, 

358,  359  ;  abolished  (1660,  1680),  332  ;  abjured  (1680),  371. 
Covenanters  in  the  Civil  War,  249,  250,  263-286. 
Coynach  in  Buchan,  478. 

Cowe,  Cove,  Alexander,  Thomas,  and  William  (Daviot,  1550),  144  ;  James  (Excom.  1650),  307. 
Crab,  Paule,  Lethinty  (1395),  66. 

Craibstone,  Aberdeen,  215,  275,  276;  Sandilands  of,  451. 
Craig,  Andrew,  of  Balmellie  (1530),  445. 
Craig,  Ann,  wife  of  John  Burnett  (ante  1800),  487* 
Craig,  Auld,  George  Leslie  of  (1606),  246. 
Craig,  Clementina,  wife  of  John  Imray  (1816),  487; 
Craig,  of  Craigtintray  (1512),  131. 

Craig,  in  Dyce  (1621-1700),  208,  225  ;  Johnston  of,  417,  449,  450,  451. 
Craig,  Gilbert  (Inverurie,  1580-7),  174,  392,  395,  396. 
Craig,  John,  of  Mugiemoss,  Sheriff  of  Aberdeen  (1787),  487. 
Craig,  Margaret,  wife  of  George  Munro  (ante  1816),  487. 
Craig,  Marjorie  (Inverurie,  1650),  315. 
Craig,  Thomas,  of  Drimmies  (1787),  487. 
Craigdam,  Rev.  William  Brown  (1807),  479. 
Craigearn,  Kemnay,  17. 

Craigfmtray,  Craig  of  (1512),  131  ;  Urquhart  of  (1610),  232,  233,  464,  468,  469.     Vide  Urquhart. 
Craigforthie,  Lindores  Abbey,  104,  157. 

Craighall,  Aberdeenshire,  George  Leith  of  (1672),  329  ;  do.,  Perthshire,  Rattray  of,  472. 
Craighouse,  Sir  James  Elphinstone  of  (1670),  471  ;  Sir  John  do.  (died  1732),  472. 
Craigie,  Hepburn  of  (1512),  131. 

Craigievar,  Mortimer  of  (ante  1391-1610),  235  ;  Forbes  of  (1610),  235,  vide  Mortimer  and  Forbes. 
Craigievar,  Baronets  of,  253. 

Craigmyle,  of  That  Ilk,  485  j  Burnett  of  (1608),  485. 
Craigmyle,  Peter  and  William  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 


Index.  511 

Craignesin,  Alexander  Tulloch  of  (1617),  213. 

Craigsley,  Chapel  of  Garioch,  8. 

Craigston,  Urquhart  of,  469. 

Craigtoune,  Lindores  Abbey,  157. 

Craigwell,  Oyne  (1664),  338. 

Crail,  Toft  in  Burgh  (1200),  21  ;  Balcomie  in,  444  ;  Minister,  Alexander  Leslie  (1688),  446. 

Cranstone,  Gilbert,  Viear  of  Inverurie  (ante  1543),  125,  143. 

Crathes,  House  of  (1644),  283  ;  (1759),  422. 

Crawford,  Lindsay,  Earl  of,  Sir  James  (1390),  77  ;  David  (1452),  101,  112,  442. 

Crawford  of  Fedderay,  Fedderet  (1512),  181. 

Crawford,  Henry  of,  Monorgan  (circa  1720),  414. 

Crawstane  Butts,  Inverurie,  183,  258. 

Crichie,  Boat  of  (1690),  390. 

Criehie  in  Buchan,  284  ;  in  the  Garioch,  14,  62,  185,  194. 

Crichie,  Lairds  of:  Earls  of  Garioch,  Lords  of  the  Garioch,  111  ;  Leslie  of  Wardes  (1510),  111,  221  ; 

William  Leslie  (1596-1606),  445  ;   George  Leslie  (1607-16),  194,   221,  445  ;    Lord  Elphinstone 

(1616),  194,  227  ;  George  Leslie  (1633),  238,  246. 
Crichie  Tenants— George  Grub    (1646),    393 ;    "William    Ferguson    (1650),    354  ;    John    Dalgardno 

(1696),  389. 
Crichton,  Creychtoun,  Alexander  (Inverurie,  1536),  142. 
Crichton,  Ann,  wife  of  William  Seton  (1619),  464. 
Crichton,  Chancellor  (temp  James  II.),  243,  438. 
Crichton,  George,  schoolmaster,  Insch  (1685),  326. 
Crichton,  James,  of  Frendraught,  217,  238,  242-4,  263,  464  ;  Sir  James  (1490),  111  ;  do.,  of  Fren- 

draught  (1602),  445. 
Crichton,  Jane,  wife  of  John  Leslie  of  Wardes  (1602),  445. 
Crichton,  William,  Lord  (1500),  444. 
Crichton,  Robert,  of  Condland  (1630),  217. 
Crichton,  Viscount,  243,  276,  279,  282,  283. 
Crimes,  Compounded  for  (circa  1400),  123  ;  (1533),  141  ;  Excommunicated  for  (1650),  307  ;  Punished 

(1400),  115,  116,  (1605),  190,  (1612),  195,  (1617),  203,  (1629),  211,  (1674),  363. 
Criminal  Jurisdiction  (Inverurie,  1629,  1674),  211,  363. 
Crimond,  Burnet  of  (Lord  Crimoud),  209,  226,  250,  251,  420. 
Crimond,  Charles  Chalmers  in  (1616),  209. 
Crimond,  Johnston  of,  155,  251,  448,  449. 
Crimond,  Inventory  of  Farm  (1616),  209. 
Crimond,  Lairds  of,  197,  225,  448. 

Cristison,  Alexander  and  William  (Fetternear,  1511),  129. 
Crofts  of  Aberdeen,  276 ;  do.  of  Inverurie,  184,  185. 

Crofthead,  Inverurie,  184,  (1649)  315,  (1670)  360  ;  Boat  at  (295)  ;  Stevens  of,  186,  203,  351. 
Crooked  Haven,  Enzie  (1639),  268. 
Cromarty,  Laird  of  (1639)  269,  469. 
Cromarty,  Tutor  of,  vide  John  Urcpuhart. 
Crombie,  Crommie,  Alexander,  Inverurie  (1535),  142. 
Crombie,  Elizabeth,  Lady  of  Glack  (1550),  144,  470. 
Crombie,  Elspet  (Aquhythie,  Kemnay,  1675),  339. 
Crombie,  James  (Monyniusk,  1685),  348. 


512  Index. 

Crombie,  John  and  James  (Fetternear,  1616),  179. 

Crombie,  Sir  Thomas  of  Kemnay  (1624-44),  29,  234,  249,  256,  257,  266,  272,  284,  296,  420. 

Cromlet,  Mill  of,  George  Gordon  (1640-60),  179. 

Cromwell,  276,  310,  317,  318,  331,  357,  366,  367,  371,  372,  419. 

Cross  of  Inverurie,  9,  14,  174,  192,  364,  395  ;  Powtate  Cross  (1671),  362. 

Cross  Well,  Inverurie,  362,  395. 

Cruickhaugh,  Inverurie,  185,  198,  199,  362. 

Cruickshank,  Adam,  of  Tillymorgan  and  Little  Wartle  (1482),  223,  446. 

Cruickshank,  Elspet,  wife  of  Mr.  John  Johnston  (1697),  456. 

Cruickshank,  Isabel  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 

Cruickshank,  James,  of  Tillymorgan,  250  (1650),  308  ;  do.  of  do.   (1696),  388  ;  do.,  James,  Vicar  of 

Daviot  (1455),  125  ;  do.,  James  (Oyne,  1677),  340. 
Cruickshank,  Janet,  wife  of  "William  Leslie,  1st  of  Warthill,  223,  446. 
Cruickshank,  John,  of  Tillymorgan  {circa  1500),  223. 
Cruickshank,  Mary,  guidwife  of  Eothmaise  (1633),  239. 
Cruickshank,  Rachel,  wife  of  James  Young,  454. 
Cruickshank,  Robert,  of  Banchory,  Provost  of  Aberdeen,  456. 
Crusades,  The,  7,  22,  23,  24,  31,  32. 
Cryn  in  Poland,  174. 
Cryne's  Land,  Footdee,  Aberdeen,  136. 
Cuffabout,  481. 

Culbo,  Urquhart  of  (1600),  469. 
Culdees,  The,  6,  13,  17,  26,  126. 

Cullen,  Invercullen,  Toft  in  Burgh  (1200),  21  ;  (1296),  40  ;  (1662),  336,  (18th  cent.)  364. 
Cullen,  Alexander,  Parson  of  Oyne  (1506),  149. 
Cullen,  Andrew,  Parson  of  Fetternear  (1529),  129. 
Cullen,  Lord,  Sir  Francis  Grant,  237,  404. 
Cullen,  Minister  at,  Robert  Tait  (1697),  426. 
Culross,  John  Burnet,  Minister  at  (ante  1678),  340. 
Culsalmond,  Culsalmuel,  8,  25,  157. 
Culsalmond,   Kirk  of,   Vicarage  of  Lindores,   19,  25,   157  ;  Endowments  of  (1257),  36,  (1366),   79, 

(1600),  157;  Kirklands  of  (1600),   157;  Patronage  of  (1600),   157;   (1617),    235;   plundered 

(1639),  302,  visited  (1650),  308. 
Culsalmond,  Ministers  of,  Stephen  Mason(1567),  153  ;  Thomas  Spens  (1607),  154;  George  Leith  (1635), 

239  ;  Arthur  Ore  (1647-64),  239,  306,  324,  338  ;  William  Garioch  (1696),  386. 
Culsalmond,  Schoolmasters  of,  George  Birnie  (1664),  326  ;  George  Duncan  (1674),  326. 
Cults,  Chalmers  of,  62,  245,  255  ;  Innesof  (1612),  170  ;  Hugh  Gordon  of  (circa  1700),  448. 
Cumming,  Cumyn,  Comyn,  Cumniine  (circa  1200),  33. 
Cumming,  Agnes,  wife  of  Sir  Philip  de  Melgdrum  (1221),  37. 
Cumming,  Alexander,  Earl  of  Buchan  (1335),  70. 
Cumming,  Catherine,  wife  of  Thomas  Ferguson,  W.S.  (1810),  478. 
Cumming,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Sir  Robert  Keith  (lemp  Alexander  I.),  435. 
Cumming,  James,  Lyon  Office  (1786),  353,  354,  483  ;  do.  of  Kinninmouth  (circa  1770),  478. 
Cumming,  John,  Earl  of  Badenoch,  nephew  of  John  Baliol  (1297),  39,  41,  43,  70. 
Cumming,  John,  Earl  of  Buchan  (1308),  39,  40,  46,  47,  49. 
Cumming,  Sir  John,  Warden  of  Scotland  (1291),  56. 
Cumming,  of  Culter  (1512),  131. 


Index.  513 

dimming,  Margaret,  wife  of  Sir  John  Keith  (1270),  436  ;  do.,  wife  of  Alexander  Russel  (1792),  478. 

Gumming,  of  Rattray  (circa  1770),  476. 

Cumming,  William,  1st  Earl  of  Buehan  {circa  1200),  37  ;  do.,  of  Auohry  (1550),  442. 

Cumyn's  Camp,  51. 

Cuning  Hill,  Inverurie,  1,  14,  30,  114,  174,  391. 

Cunningham,  David  (Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  1577),  456  ;  of  Polmaise  (14 — ),  470. 

Cuphio  writing,  56. 

Currie,  Curry,  Inverurie,  "Walter  (1476),  119,  120  ;  Margaret  (1642-71),  318,  339,  349,  395. 

Currie's  Haugh,  Inverurie,  183,  185,  198,  199,  203,  258,  396. 

Cushnie,  Leslie  of  (1400-1682),  104  ;  Lumsden  of,  448,  467  ;  do.  in  Auchterless,  William  Raitt  in,  462. 

Cuthbert,  "William,  Daviot  (1550),  144. 

"Cutt,"  William,  4th  Leslie  of  "Wardes  (1589),  221. 


D. 

Daily  Prayers  in  Church  (1662),  335. 

Dalgarno,  of  Dalgamo-Fintray  (1512),  131. 

Dalgarno,  George  (Kinkell,  1652),  165,  231. 

Dalgarno,  of  That  Ilk  (1400),  "William  (1615),  231. 

Dalgarno,  John,  in  Criehie  (1696),  389. 

Dalgarno,  of  Peithill,  "William  (1615),  231,  289. 

Dalmahoy,  Barbara,  wife  of  Sir  John  Forbes  of  Monymusk  (ante  1700),  237. 

Dalmahoy,  Sir  John,  of  That  Ilk  (ante  1700),  237. 

Dalrymple,  Charles,  of  Kinnellar  Lodge,  473. 

Dalrymple,  David,  Lord  "Westhall  (17     ),  388,  415. 

Dalrymple,  Francis  Anstruther,  Judge,  Bengal,  473. 

Dalrymple,  George  Augustus  Frederick,  Queensland,  473. 

Dalrymple,  Henrietta  Maria,  wife  of  Thomas  Leslie,  Esq.,  447,  473. 

Dalrymple,  Hew,  of  Dmmmore,  Lord  Drummore  (1690),  388,  414,  415  ;  Hew  Drummond,  Madras 
(187—),  472. 

Dalrymple,  Sir  Hew,  of  North  Berwick,  Lord  President  (1690),  388,  415. 

Dalrymple,  James,  Viscount  Stair,  388. 

Dalrymple,  John  Hamilton,  C.B.,  General,  473. 

Dalrymple,  Mary,  wife  of  Patrick  Boyle  of  Shewalton,  473. 

Dalury  Cottage,  Inverurie,  395. 

Dalwearie,  Kintore,  5. 

Dalzell,  John,  ofBarncrosh  (1774),  444;  and  Violet,  wife  of  John  Leslie  of  Balquhain  (1774),  444. 

Dambutts,  Inverurie,  175  ;  Damriggs,  do.,  188. 

Danes,  15,  21. 

Daneston,  James,  son  of  Andrew  Harvie  of  (1609),  418. 

Danube,  The  (1664),  399. 

Darien  Scheme,  The  (1696),  414. 

Darnley,  Henry  Lord  (1565),  106. 

Dasks  or  Pews  in  Church  (1650-85),  322,  348. 

65 


514  Index. 

Dava,  Davo,  Davach  of  Inverurie,  Upper  and  Lower,  3,  5,  28,  29,  30,  176,  182,  350,  351,  440. 

Dava,  Lairds  of:  Earls  of  the  Garioch  (■ 1326),  28  ;  Lords  of  the  Garioch  (1326-1510),  54  ;  Leslie 

of  Wardes  (1510),  111  ;  Jaffray  (1633 — ),  222  ;  Earls  of  Kintore  (1664  and  1723),  440. 
Dava,  Mill  of,  6,  176-183. 
Dava,  Tacksmen  of,  182. 
David,  King,  I.,  17,  18,  55. 
David,  King,  II.,  53,  62,  68-75,  437. 

David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon  and  the  Garioch,  2,  21,  25-34,  55,  157,  176,  436  ;  Family,  19,  23  ;  Style,  20_ 
David,  Duke  of  Rothesay,  54. 
David,  son  of  David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon,  26. 
David,  of  Strathhogie,  61,  70. 
Davidson  or  Dhai,  Clan  (1396),  85. 
Davidson,  Agnes  or  Annas,  Inverurie  (1624),  212. 
Davidson,  Alexander,  Andrew,  John,  and  Thomas,  Daviot  (1550),  144. 
Davidson,  Alexander,  N.P. ,  Town-Clerk  of  Inverurie  (1580),  151,  396  ;  do.,  Alexander,  Schoolmaster, 

Inverurie  (1699),  389. 
Davidson,  Alexander,  of  Newton  (1696),  388,  460. 
Davidson,  Christian  (wife  of  Alexander  Leith  of  Freefield),  460. 
Davidson,  Duncan,  Rector  of  Eathen  (ante  1614),  233. 

Davidson,  George  (Inverurie,  1650),  315  ;  Henry  (do.,  1655),  318  ;  Isabel  (do.,  1650),  315. 
Davidson,  James,  of  Midmar  (17     ),  472. 

Davidson,  Jane,  wife  of  William  Leslie  of  Warthill  (1818),  447. 
Davidson,  John  (Inverurie,  1729),  395  ;  (do.,  1745),  391,  395  ;  do.  (Mill  of  Lumphart,  1640),  392,  and 

Isabel  (do.,  1700),  392. 
Davidson,  Margaret  wife  of  David  de  Leslie,  (1439),  105,  441  ;  do.  (Monymusk,  1685),  348  ;  do.,  wife 

of  James  D.  H.  Elphinstone,  472. 
Davidson,  Michael,  Inverurie  (1667-1699),  361,  364,  390. 
Davidson,  Normand,  Inverurie  (1650),  315,  318,  8'61. 

Davidson,  Dr.  Patrick,  Minister  of  Kayne  (1813),  447  ;  do.  of  Inchmarlo  (1878),  447. 
Davidson,  Robert,  Provost  of  Aberdeen  (1411),  2,  85,  86,  88,  94,  105,  116,  441. 

Davidson,  Thomas,  of  Greystone,  Sheriff  of  Aberdeen  (1647),  350  ;  do.,  Mill  of  Portstown  (1664),  351. 
Davidson,  William,  Inverurie  (1606-19),  180,  192,  196,  207  ;  do.,  (do.,  1699),  390;  do.,  Knockenbaird, 

Insch,  1701),  430  ;  do.,  Minister  of  Inverurie  (d.  1799),  481. 
Daviot,  St.  Columba,  13  ;  Schyre  of  (1137),  20  ;  Election  of  Clerk  (1550),  144,  470  ;  Parish  (1623), 

309,  (1649)  303,  (1651),  309  ;  Communion  Cups,  386. 
Daviot,  Ministers  :  George  Paterson  (1573),  154  ;  William  Strachan  (1608-49),  239,  273,  303,  305  ; 

George  Tailefer  (1651-60),  309,  324  ;  Thomas  Thoirs  (1660-3),  270  ;  William  Lunan  (1663-72), 

339  ;  Alexander  Lunan  (1673-1716),  386. 
Daviot,  Parsons,  vide  Aberdeen  Diocese  Treasurer. 
Daviot,  Schoolmaster,  William  Adam  (1696),  386. 
Daviot,  William  Robertson  of  (1696),  389. 
Dawain  Loch,  41. 

Dean  of  Guild,  Inverurie  (1619),  206. 

Deans,  Denys,  John  (Kintore,  1498),  123  ;  Elizabeth,  Longhermiston,  wife  of  James  Ferguson,  478. 
Death-Bed  Services  (1680),  378. 

Dee,  The,  55  ;  First  Bridge  {circa  1520),  32,  137,  271,  466  ;  Fishings  (1530),  140,  (1581),  236. 
"  Deer  Sandys  "  (1639),  267. 


Index.  515 

Delab,  Monymusk,  240,  348. 

Delgatie,  Delgaty,  Hay  of ;  Alexander  (circa  1550),  442  ;  Sir  Francis,   Tutor  of  Errol  (1639),  269, 

406  ;  Sophia  and  Ann  (1650),  307. 
Delpersie  vide  Terpersie. 
Dempster  of  Auchterless  (1512),  131. 

Dempster,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  John  Leslie  of  Leslie  (circa  1570),  441. 
Dempster,  of  Muiresk  (circa  1570),  441  ;  Thomas  (1588),  442. 
Dempster,  Thomas  of  Aquhorties  (1588-1611),  236. 

Denholme,  Ceeill,  wife  of  Sir  James  Elphinstone  of  Logic  (1720),  414,  471. 
Denholme,  John  of  Muirhouse,  and  Sir  James,  414,  471. 
Denmore,  Moir  of,  474. 
Densyburn,  15. 
Devana,  41. 

Deuchries,  Oyne,  James  Gordon  of  (1650),  308  ;  John  do.  (1655),  311. 
Devereaux,  Captain,  Slayer  of  Wallenstein  (1634),  399. 
Dhai  Clan  (1396),  85. 

Dickie,  Dicky,  Inverurie;  Alexander,  Marjory  (1536),  142  ;  Thomas  (1623),  209;  William  (1650),  315. 
Dickie,  Elspet  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 

Dietrichstein,  Princess  Anna  de,  wife  of  Count  Walter  Leslie  (1640),  399  ;  Maximilian  Prince  de,  399. 
Dillyhill  of  Conglass,  3. 
Dinging  (Assault)  (1617),  205. 
Disblair,  Easter,  Wester,  and  Middle,  Lordship  of  Lindores  (1600),  157  ;  Thomas  Johnston  of  (circa 

1600),  449  ;  William  Chalmers  of  (1633),  238  ;  Setcm  of  (1623-58),  468  ;  Dyce  of  (1752),  486. 
Discipline,  Ecclesiastical  (1650-60),  301,  320,  (1662-1688),  335,  342. 
Divine  Right,  331. 
Docker,  Robert  (1660),  344. 

Dogs  at  Church  (1650),  316  ;  Dog  Clip  (1673),  339. 
Dolbethock  (1211),  55. 
Don,  The,  1,  2,  5,  6,  7,  9,  13,  19,  60  ;  Bridge  at  Aberdeen  (1544),  136  ;  Fishings  (1530),  140,  (1661 

1679),  352  ;  Fords  at  Inverurie,  6,  9,  200  ;  Bulwark  (1698),  345  ;  Bridge  (1794),  i. 
Donald,  Balloch  (1431),  108. 
Donald,  Anthony,  Inverurie  (1817),  407. 

Donald,  Earl  of  Mar  (1014),  55  ;  do.  (circa  1273-1297),  41,  42,  45,  56  ;  do.  (1396-1332),  56,  57,  69. 
Donald,  James,  Mill  of  Keith-hall  (1800),  407  ;  do.,  Minister  of  Keith-hall  (1878),  407. 
Donald,  John,  Fetternear  (1611),  209. 
Donald,  Lord  of  the  Isles,  3,  88,  91,  93,  108. 
Donald,  William,  Minister  of  Peterhead  (1830),  407. 
Donaldson,  John,  Mill  of  Inveramsay  (1492),  122. 
Donaldson,  Paul,  Inverurie  (1536),  142. 
Doomster,  Inverurie  (1615),  198,  201,  202,  204. 
Dorlaithen  (1604),  226,  418. 
Douglass  of  Glenbervie,  102 ;  of  Kemnay  (ante  1513-1623),  102, 128, 139, 156,  234, 236 ;  of  Whiteriggs,  469. 

Douglass, ,  wife  of  George  Ogilvie  of  Ban-as  (1652),  367,  368. 

Douglass,  Sir  Archibald,  of  Kemnay  (1534),  128,  139,  474. 

Douglass,  Barbara,  wife  of  Sir  Robert  Keith  (1324),   436. 

Douglass,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Robert  Lord  Keith  (1513),  438  ;    do.,  wife  of  Patrick  Leslie  of  Balquham 

(1661),  443. 


516  Index. 

Douglass,  Gavin,  Prior  of  Monymusk  (1496),  127. 

Douglass,  George,  of  Whiteriggs  (Glenbervie,  17 — ),  469. 

Douglass,  Isabella,  (wife  of  George  Urquhart  of  Meldrum),  469. 

Douglass,  James  Earl  of  (1338),  58,  437  ;  do.,   Minister  of  Glenbervie  (post  1560),  139  ;  Sir  James 

(1306),  44,  45,  436. 
Douglass,  John,  Earl  of  Morton  {circa,  1500),  438. 
Douglass,  Margaret,  wife  of  William  Forbes  of  Monymusk  (1588),  235;  do.,  wife  of  Sir  Henry  Keith 

(temp  William  I.),  436. 
Douglass,  Sir  Robert,  of  Kemnay  (1591),  156;  do.,  Sir  Robert,  of  Glenbervie,  author  of  "Peerage," 

&c,  234. 
Douglass,  William  of  («Ycal200),  436  ;  do.,  Earl  of  Douglass  and  Mar  (1334-70),  70,  74,  76  ;  do.,  son  of 

Earl  James  (1389),  57  ;  Sir  William  of  Kemnay  \,ante  1513),  102,  (do.  1623)  234;  do.,  9th  Ear1 

of  Angus  (1591),  139,  236,  443. 
Dowuie,  Alexander  (Kemnay,  1698-1728),  397,  427  ;  do.  (Senior  and  Junior,  Inverurie,  1724),  397. 
Downie,  Isabel,  widow  of  Alexander  Keith,  Inverurie  (1686),  397. 
Downie,  James,  Bonnyton  (1710),  397. 
Downies,  Nigg  (1639),  270. 
Draw-well,  Powtate,  Inverurie  (1671),  9,  362. 
Dress  of  Ministers  (1646),  308,  (1662),  331. 
Drimmies,  5,  6,  8,  (1670),  360  ;  Marches  of  (1569),  487. 
Drimmies,  Lairds  of :  Earls  of  the  Garioch  ;  De  Leslie  (circa  1070),  17  ;  Leslie  of  Balquhain  (1340), 

100;  Gordon  (1490-1609),   179,  329,  487;   Chalmers  (1643-1669),  214,   281,   318,  329,  487; 

Leslie  (1671-1683),  487  ;  Smith  (1754-1773),  487  ;  Gordon  (1786),  487  ;  Craig  (1787),  487 ; 

Imray  (1800),  487  ;  Shand  (1816),  487. 
Drum,  Forest  of  (1324),  61. 
Drum,  Irvine  of  (1324),  61,  (1408-11)  87,  91,  94,  437,  (1593-1615),  256,  257,  (1639-44),  264,  270,  279, 

282,  287,  (1650)  307. 
Drum,  Mills  of,  282. 
Drum's  Aisle,  73. 
Drumblade,  20,  125. 
Drumdevane,  Inverurie  (1569),  487. 
Drumdurnoch  (1357),  63,  (1453),  110,  (1604),  226,  418. 
Drumminner,  91,  96,  107. 

Drummond,  Ann,  wife  of  Brigadier  Ferguson  (circa  1700),  377,  478. 
Drummond,  Sir  Malcolm  (1395),  66,  (1402),  78,  86. 
Drummond,  Mary,  wife  of  William,  ninth  Earl  Marischal,  439. 
Drummore,  Lord,  388,  414,  415,  472. 

Drumoak,  Alexander  Scrogy,  Parson  of  (1615),  233  ;  David  Lindsay,  Minister  (1697),  426. 
Drumrossie,  Leith  of  :  William  (1369),  66  ;  Henry  (1490),  234  ;  John  (1526),  101,  464. 
Drumrossie,  Tiends  of  (1357),  36. 

Drunkards,  Restriction  of  Inverurie,  (1608-15),  191,  195,  197. 
Dryburgh,  Abbot  of,  Ogilvie,  Parson  of  Kinkell  (1518),  125. 
Dryland,  Walter  Stewart  of  (circa  1500),  445. 
Dubston,  Inverurie,  6. 
Ducat  Haugh,  Inverurie,  7,  1S4. 
Duff,  Earl  of  Fife,  476. 
Duff,  of  Hatton,  William  Garden  (1860)  ;  Alexander  Garden  (1878),  469. 


Index.  i  1 7 

Duff,  Jane  (wife  of  Keith  Urquhart),  469. 

Duffle,  Alexander  Stewart,  Lord  of,  2,  87  ;  Mary,  Lady  of,  87. 

Duffus,  Lord,  464. 

Duguid,  of  Auchinhove  (1512),  131  ;  William  (circa  1550),  442;  Robert  {circa  1 700),  400,  443. 

Duguid,  of  Bourtie,  Peter,  Senior  and  Junior,  419. 

Dumbarton,  Castle  of,  12,  (1334),  70. 

Dumfries,  Castle  of,  12  ;  High  Altar  of,  43. 

Dun,  House  of  (1644),  283. 

Dun,  Charles  (in  Kiukell,  1633),  238. 

Dun,  Jean,  first  wife  of  Alexander  Jaffray,  Jun.,  of  Kingswalls  (1632),  226. 

Dun,  Margaret,  wife  of  John  Leslie  of  Warthill  (circa  1700),  447. 

Dim,  Patrick,  of  Tarty  (1700),  447. 

Dun,  Principal,  226,  (1663),  366. 

Dunbar  (1650),  357.. 

Dunbar  of  Boath,  Alexander  and  Sir  James,  486. 

Dunbar  of  Burgie,  John  (1633)  ;  and  Isobel,  wife  of  George  Leith,  461. 

Dunbar,  Gavin,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  (1518-31),  33,  132. 

Dunbreck  of  That  Ilk  (1512),  131. 

Duncan,  Andrew,  James,  and  William,  Daviot  (1550),  144. 

Duncan,  Earl  of  Mar  (1228),  55. 

Duncan,  George,  schoolmaster,  Culsalmond  (1674),  326  ;  do.,  Elder,  Oyne  (1686),  378. 

Duncan,  James  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 

Duncan,  John  (Inverurie,  1611),  209,  do.  (do.,  1651)  317. 

Duncan,  Thomas  (Kinkell,  1473),  122. 

Duncan,  Walter  (Inverurie,  1651),  317. 

Duncan,  William  (Inverurie,  1623),  209  ;  do.,  schoolmaster,  Bourtie  (1710),  425. 

Duncanson,  Stephen  (Kintore,  1498),  123. 

Duucanson,  William  (Inverurie,  1536),  142. 

Duncanstoun,  Lord  Elpinstone  (1507),  102  ;  do.,  Wardes  (1508),  111,  220. 

Dundarg,  Siege  of,  (1334),  70,  71. 

Dundee,  23  ;  Toft  in  Burgh  of  (1195),  25  ;  Bulwark  and  Harbour  (1670),  339  ;  Constable  of,  Scrimgeour 
of  Dudhope  (1411),  93,  (1639),  270. 

Dunearn,  Stewart  of,  486. 

Dunfermline,  Seton,  Earl  of,  464. 

Dunkeld,  2nd  Lord,  472. 

Dunnibersel,  Burning  of  (1591),  216. 

Dunideer,  Donydure  (878),  2,  3,  6,  8,  12,  14,  54  ;   (1510),  Wardes,  111,  220  ;  Tyrie  of  (1684,  1696), 
330,  388  ;  William  Beattie  in  (1701)  430. 

Dunnottar  Castle  (circa  1400),  437,  (1581),  438,  (1639),  271,  273,  (1650),  286,  298,  439,  (1652),  367,  387. 

Dunnottar,  Lairds  of :  Glaster  (ante  1381),  63  ;  Fraser  (ante  1400)  ;  Keith  (circa  1600). 

Dunnottar,  Gilbert  Keith,  Minister  at,  239. 

Dupplin,  Battle  of  (1332),  69,  436  ;  Lord  (1644),  282. 

Durno,  Durnoch,  Durnach,  Leslie  of  (1510),  111,  220. 

Durham,  Battle  of,  1346,  437. 

Durris,  Forbes  of;  Plundered  (1639),  238,  270. 

Dunvard,  Doorward  (Hostiarius),  Lords  of  Coull  (1224),  IS. 

Durward,  Alan,  son  of  Thomas  (1257),  56. 


518  Index. 

Durward,  John,  at  Siege  of  Acre,  22. 

Durward,  Thomas,  son  of  Malcolm  of  Lundy  (1211),  18,  55,  224. 

Dyce,  Cordyce,  Forest  of;  Garviach  (1316),  61  ;  Johnston  of  (1400),  161,  197  ;  Skene  of  (1734),  238. 

Dyce,  James,  of  Disblair,  and  Janet,  wife  of  George  Burnett  (1752),  486. 

Dyce,  Kirk  of,  20,  (1420)  125,  (1682)  462. 

Dyce,  Kirktown  of,  Leslie  of,  445. 

Dyce,  Nether,  Thanage  of  Kintore,  Wardes  (1508),  111,  221. 

Dyce,  Ranald  (Kiukell,  1473),  122. 

Dyce,  Standing-stones  of,  5. 

Dye,  Bridge  of  Dye  (1652),  320. 


Ebald  (Abel),  William  Kemnay  (1697),  426. 

Echt,  Forbes  of  (1512-1644),  131,  289. 

Echt,  Kirktown  of  (1644),  233. 

Echt,  Minister  of,  Thomas  Kinnear  (1697),  426. 

Edinpingle,  Croft  of,  Aberdeen,  276. 

Edinburgh,  12 ;  Castle  (1070),   16  ;  (1312),  51  ;    (1657,   1681),  373  ;   Prison,  252,  375  ;    New  Town 

(1794),  482. 
Edingarroch,  Leith  of  (1282-1629),  38,  234,  238,  445  s  Leslie  (1625),  238  ;  Leith  (post  1696),  401,  449, 

458,  459. 
Edward  I.,  King  of  England,  7,  37,  40,  42,  45,  56,  67  ;  do.  VI.  of  England,  366. 
Edward  Baliol,  69,  70. 
Eger,  Town  of  (1632),  399. 
Elcho,  Lord  (1639-44),  264,  266,  280. 

Elders,  Aberdeen  (1577)  456  ;  Qualifications  of  (1650),  318  (1677),  340 ;  Ruling  (Garioch,  1653),  311. 
Election  of  Ministers  (1658),  311,  (1697-1705),  426-32. 
Election  of  Parish  Clerk,  Inverurie  (1536),  142  j  do.,  Daviot  (1550),  144. 
Elgin  Toft  in  Burgh  (1200),  21  ;  Minster  (1390),  85  ;  District  of  Burghs,  364  ;  Ministers,  John  Gordon 

{wide  1650),  307  ;  James  Horn  (1675),  415. 
Elibank,  Lord,  355,  475. 

Elliot,  Sir  Gilbert  of  Headshaw  and  Minto  (1767),  472. 
Elliot,  Mar}-,  wife  of  Sir  John  Elphinstone  (1716),  414. 
Elliot,  Thomas,  M.D.  (1751),  472. 

Ellis,  Eleis,  {ante  1200),  33  ;  George,  Schoolmaster,  Keithhall  (1696),  387. 
Ellen,  wife  of  Donald,  Earl  of  Mar  (1293),  56. 

Ellon,  Adam,  Priest  of  {ante  1199),  21  ;  Portents  at  (1643),  273  ;  Town  of  (1662),  336  ;  Gordon  of  473. 
Elphinstone,  of  Glack  (1499-1787)  412,  470  ;  of  Logie  (1670)  413,  471  ;  of  Warthill  (1616-1730)  330, 

412  ;  of  Wliiteinches,  470. 
Elphinstone,  Alexander,  younger  of  Glack  (16—),  470  ;  do.   (Glack  1681),  470  ;  do.  of  Glack  (1758- 

95),  413  ;  and  family,  471  ;  do.  (Glack  1835),  471  ;  do.  1st  Lord  (1507),  59,  111,  470  ;  do.  2nd 

Lord  (1547),    128 ;  do.  4th  Lord  (1616),   179,   227,   268,  330,   412  ;  do.  of  Warthill  (1665, 

1696),  412. 


Index.  519 

Elphinstone,  Andrew,  of  Selmys  and  Glack  (1499,  1507),  101,  131,  470. 

Elphinstone,  Anne,  (Glack)  wife  of  William  Leslie  of  Wartliill  (1657),  411,  447,  470. 

Elphinstone  Arms,  Glack,  471  ;  do.,  Logie,  473. 

Elphinstone,  Cecilia,  (Logie)  wife  of  James  Balfour  (1700),  414,  472  ;  do.  (Glack)  wife  of  William 
Chalmers  (1740),  471. 

Elphinstone,  Elizabeth,  (Logie)  wife  of  Henry  Crawford  of  Monorgan  (circa  1700),  414  ;  wife  of 
William  Gordon  of  Tillungas  (1673),  329. 

Elphinstone,  Graeme  Hepburn,  Ceylon  (1878),  473. 

Elphinstone,  Harry  (Glack  1661),  470. 

Elphinstone,  Helena,  (Logie)  wife  of  Thomas  Elliot,  M.D.,  472 

Elphinstone,  Sir  Henry  of  Pittendrelch  (15th  century),  470. 

Elphinstone,  of  That  Ilk,  (1758),  471. 

Elphinstone,  James,  brother  of  1st  of  Glack,  470  ;  of  Glack  (1559),  412,  470  ;  do.,  do.  (1586-1665),  213, 
304,  412,  442,  470,  471  ;  do.,  do.  (1641-1653),  311  ;  do.,  do.,  M.P.  for  Inverurie  (1669),  361, 
364,  413,  414  ;  do.  Dalrymple  Home,  of  Logie  (1776-94),  472  ;  do.,  of  Wartliill  (1636-50),  308, 
412  ;  do.  (1696-1738),  412  ;  Sir  James  of  Logie  (1658),  414  ;  of  Logie-Elphiustone,  1st  Baronet 
(1658-1722),  386,  392,  406,  414,  432,  471,  475,  488  ;  do.,  3rd  Baronet  (1724-39),  414  ;  and 
family,  472  ;  do.,  Dalrymple  Home  of  Logie- Elphinstone  (1848),  415,  473. 

Elphinstone,  Janet,  .wife  of  Patrick  Barclay  of  Towie  (1598),  230;  do.,  wife  of  Alexander  Lunan, 
Minister  of  Daviot  (1690),  386. 

Elphinstone,  Jean,  Jane,  wife  of  Alexander  Leslie  of  Tullos,  (circa  1634),  413,  443,  470  ;  do.,  wife  of 
William  Ferguson  of  Badiefurrow  (circa  1670),  355,  406,  414,  475  ;  do.,  wife  of  John  Mackenzie 
of  Applecross  (1787),  471. 

Elphinstone,  John  de  (1296),  51. 

Elphinstone  John,  of  Glack  (1671-96),  364,  389,  413,  414,  471  ;  do.,  do.  (1696-1731),  471  ;  do.,  do. 
(1732-58),  259,  392,  413,  471  ;  do.,  do.  (1787),  471  ;  do.  (Glack,  1825),  471  ;  do.  (Glack, 
1878),  471  ;  do.,  (Logie),  473  ;  do.,  7th  Lord  (circa  1700),  443  ;  do.,  Prior  of  Monymusk  (1542-9), 
128,  236  ;  do.,  of  Warthill  (1616),  227,  412  ;  Sir  John,  2nd  Baronet  of  Logie  (1716-32),  330, 
414,  472,  475  ;  and  family,  472  ;  do.,  4th  Baronet  of  Logie  (1739-43),  414,  472. 

Elphinstone,  Katherine  (Warthill),  wife  of  John  Gardine  of  Bellamore  (1740),  330,  412. 

Elphinstone,  Lawrence,  brother  of  1st  of  Glack,  470  ;  do.  uncle  of  Bishop  Elphinstone,  130. 

Elphinstone,  Mallie  (Daviot,  1550),  144,  470. 

Elphinstone,  Margaret,  wife  of  George  Leslie  of  Balquhain  (circa  1710),  443  ;  do.,  wife  of  Sir  Robert 
Forbes,  471  ;  do.,  wife  of  Rev.  J.  W.  Warren,  473. 

Elphinstone,  Marjory,  wife  of  Walter  limes,  Ardtannies  (died  1622),  178,  203,  210,  412,  446,  470  ; 
do.,  wife  of  James  Mill,  Minister  of  Inverurie  (1630-46),  161,  292,  293,  384,  412,  470. 

Elphinstone,  Mary,  of  Logie-Elphinstone  (1743-54),  414,  415 ;  do.  (Logie),  wife  of  Sir  Andrew 
Mitchell  of  Westhore,  Orkney  (1745),  472. 

Elphinstone,  Nicholas,  of  Glack  (1499),  101,  470. 

Elphinstone,  Patrick  (Glack,  1696),  389,  413,  471. 

Elphinstone,  Rachel,  wife  of  John  Ogilvy  (1731),  471. 

Elphinstone,  Robert,  Archdeacon,  Treasurer,  (1499-1549),  126,  148;  do.,  of  Glack  (1620),  412,  470; 
Mr.  Robert,  of  Kinbroon  and  Badechash  (1606),  449. 

Elphinstone,  Sir  Robert  D.  H.,  of  Logie  (1782-1870),  472. 

Elphinstone,  Sir  Samuel,  of  Johnston  (1633),  466. 

Elphinstone,  Sarah,  wife  of  George  Gordon  of  Rothney,  471. 

Elphinstone,  Symon  (Glack,  1533),  141,  470. 


520  Index. 

Elphinstone,  William,   Bishop  of  Aberdeen  (1483-1514),  129,  133;   do.,  Provost  of  Bothwell,  470; 

do.,  of  Glack  (1515),  470;  do.,  do.  (1533),  124,  141  ;  do.,  Bector  of  Kirkmichael  (circa  1450), 

130;  do.  of  Whiteinches  (circa  1670),  355,  406,  414,  470,  475  ;  Mr.  William  (Glaek,  1696),  889, 

413,  471. 
Elrick,  Burnett  of  (1707-1739),  225,  417,  454. 
Elsick,  Alexander  Bannerman  of  (circa  1640),  445. 
Elyne,  Ellen,  Helen,  of  Mar  (1308),  wife  of  Sir  John  Menteith  of  Arran,  56,  59,  437  ;  do.,  wife  of  Sir 

James  Garviach,  63,  225. 
Emancipation  of  Serfs  in  Burghs,  117. 

Emoluments  of  Garioeh  Vicarages  (1257)  35,  36,  (1366)  79,  (1600)  157. 
Emslie,  Elspet  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 

Endeaucht,  Patrick  (Inverurie,  1536),  142  ;  William  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 
Engagement,  The  (1648),  301,  302,  307. 
Enzean,  John  Forbes  of  (1620),  441. 

Enzie,  The  (1296),  40,  (1411),  88,  (1639),  268,  (1664),  378,  423. 
Episcopacy  in  Scotland  (temp  James  VI.),  156,  160;    (temp  Charles  I.  and  James  VII.)  332-36  ;  (post 

1688)  425-32. 
Episcopal  Congregations,  Blairdaff,  386  ;  Ellon,  448  ;  Little  Folia,  448  ;•  Meikle  Folia,  386. 
Episcopal  Incumbents  (1690-1716),  359,  423  ;  do.  Intruders,  429,  430. 
Erde  Houses,  40. 
Errol,  Earls  of,  1st  (1318),  61  ;    6th  (circa  1570),  442  ;  8th  (1592-1600),  156,  164,  249  ;   9th  (1639), 

269,  284,  286  ;  11th  (1680),  364. 
Errol,  Tutor  of.  Sir  Francis  Hay  of  Dalgatie,  269,  286,  406. 
Erskine  of  Balhaggardy  (1350-1550),  56,  59,  63,  106,  418 ;   of  Brechin  and  Haltoun  (1529-50),  106 

473  ;  of  Cardross,  371  ;  of  Carnock,  486  :    of  Dun,   106,  473  ;   of  Pittodrie  (1550),  106,  306, 

364,  401,  418,  445,  462,  473. 

Erskine (Pittodrie),  wife  of  Robert  Farquharson,  (1657),  222. 

Erskine,  Alexander  (Insch,  1650),  300. 

Erskine  Arms,  474. 

Erskine,  Colonel,  of  Cardross  (1682-5),  371,  374,  388. 

Erskine,  Earls  of  Mar,  54,  56,  57,  59,  402,  437. 

Erskine,  Henry  Knight,  of  Pittodrie,  474. 

Erskine,  Isobel,  wife  of  George  Leith  (circa  1643),  462,  474. 

Erskine,  James,  Lord  Grange  (1733).  402,  439. 

Erskine,  Jean,  wife  of  John  Leslie  (1598),  442  ;  do.,  wife  of  James  Moir  (1745),  474. 

Erskine,  John,  of  Balhaggardy  or  Pittodrie  (1567-1604),  221,  226,  418,  473, 487  ;  do.,  do.  (1615-25),  226, 

248,  474  ;  do.   (Ptitodrie,  1677),  340,  364,  374  ;  do.,  of  Dun,  Senior  and  Junior  (1513),  473  ; 

do.,  Author  of  "The  Institutes,"  388,  486  ;  do.  and  James  (Inverurie,  ante  1717),  393. 
Erskine,  Dr.  John,  of  Carnock,  486. 
Erskine,  Sir  John,  of  Erskine  Park,  74. 

Erskine,  Lord  ;  Thomas  (1457),  110,  113  ;  (505)  128  ;  (1550)  173  ;  (1565)  59,  106  ;  (1639)  266. 
Erskine,  Margaret  or  Magdalene  (Pittodrie),  wife  of  James  Leslie  (circa  1602),  455,  473. 
Erskine,  Mariota,  wife  of  William,  second  Earl  Marischal  (1480),  438. 
Erskine,  Mary,  wife  of  William,  sixth  Earl  Marischal  (ante  1635),  438 ;  do.,  wife  of  John,  third  Earl 

of  Kintore  (1730),  402,  439  ;  do.,  of  Pittodrie  (1754),  474,  477. 
Erskine,  Sir  Robert,  of  Balhaggardy,  Chamberlain  of  Scotland  (1350-85),  58,  59,  63,  72,  73,  74,  105, 

417,  418,  473  ;  do.  (1441),  106,  110. 


Index.  521 

Erskine,  Thomas,  of  Balhaggardy  or  Pittodrie  (post  1615-1654),  238,  250,  418,  462,  474;  do.  (1654), 

474;  do.  (ante  1675),  474  ;  do.  (1705),  474. 
Erskine,  Sir  Thomas,  of  Balhaggardy  or  Pittodrie  (1385),  59,  63,  77,  84,  87,  89,  437,  473 :  do.,  first 

Lord  Erskine  (1457-94),  106,  438 ;  do.  of  Halton,  of  Brechin  and  of  Pittodrie  (1529-50),  106, 

473. 
Erskine,  William,  of  Pittodrie  (1675-89),  329,  340,  473;  do.  (Knight),  474;  do.  (Pittodrie,  1639),  271, 

418,  473. 
Essat,  The,  92. 

Essenheid,  part  of  Redhouse,  Bourtie,  103. 
Eth,  Aodh,  or  Hugh,  King  of  Scotland  (878),  2,  13,  14,  30,  114. 
Etherlick,  Insch,  157. 
Ewe.buchts  (1607),  191. 

Ewen,  of  Kothney  (1333),  71  ;  Thomas  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 
Excise  on  Ale  (1669),  361,  362. 
Excommunication,  302,  307,  308,  309,  319. 
Eyre,  Lady  Dorothy,  wife  of  Colonel  Leslie,  K.H.,  of  Balquhain,  444. 


Factions  in  the  Garioch,  113,  122,  138,  164,  366. 

Fairies,  176,  180,  (1675)  340. 

Fairlie,  Alice,  wife  of  Graeme  H.  Elphinstone,  473. 

Fairs  in  the  Garioch,  244-6. 

Falconer,  Matthew  le  (1202),  26  ;  Robert  le  (1296),  51  ;  Sir  Alexander  (circa  1500),  139  ;  David,  fifth 

Lord  (circa  1720),  386,  402,  439,  440. 
Falconer,  William  Leslie,  King's  (1589),  221. 
Fallawe  (part  of  Muirton,  Barra),  103. 
Families  in  the  Garioch  (circa  1200),  37  ;  (1250-1400),  50-78  ;   (circa  1400),  99-109  ;  (circa  1450), 

118-123  ;  (1500-50),  127-144)  ;  (circa  1600),  151-6  ;  (circa  1600),  327-30  ;  (circa  1700),  360-9,  375. 
Famine  (1339),  71. 

Farlie,  David,  Prior  of  Monymusk  (1522-49),  127,  236. 
Farningdown,  Burnard  of  (1300),  420. 
Farquhar,  Alexander,  of  Mounie  (1686-1701),  231,  389,  397  ;  do.,  in  Ryhill,  Oyne  (1686),  378  ;  do.  of 

Tonley  (1633),  231. 
Farquhar,  James,  Proctor,  Doct.  Com-,  454,  5  ;  do.,  Schoolmaster,  Insch  (1710),  425. 
Farquhar,  James,  Margaret,  Robert,  William  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 
Farquhar,  John  (Aberdeen,  1779  and  1811),  454  ;  do.   (Inverurie,  1674),  363;  do.,  Schoolmaster  of 

Kemnay,  (1710),  425. 
Farquhar,  Patrick,  of  Mounie  (1633),  231. 
Farquhar,  Sir  Robert,  of  Mounie  (1630-62),  222,  231,  251,  275,  280,  287,  289,  290,  350,  351,  366, 

390,  465. 
Farquharson,  Ann,  wife  of  James  Johnston  (1781),  410. 
Farquharson,  Donald  (1639),  269. 
Farquharson,  Margaret,  wife  of  David  Forbes  (1696),  388. 

60 


522  Index. 

Farquharson,  Marjory,  wife  of  George  Leith  (1655),  461. 

Fartiuharson,  Robert,  of  Wardhouse  (1651),  222,  310  ;  do.,  of  Kinaldie  (1781),  410  ;  do.,  of  Haughton 

(1878),  460. 
Eastern's  Even  (1558),  145. 
Fawels  (1615),  197. 

Ferrar,  William,  Mill  of  Balquhain  (1622),  181. 
Ferdinand  II.,  Emperor  (1634)  and  III.  (1637),  399. 
Fergus,  Alexander  (Inverurie,  1608-46),  172,  192,  193,  196,  199,  202,  207,  258,  292,  293,  349 ;  do. 

(do.,  1615-46),  192,  193,  196,  396  ;  do.  (alias  "Wallace  do.,  executed,  1622),  211. 
Fergus,  George  (Inverurie,  1633-62),  258,  292,  293,  322,  352,  396. 
Fergus,  James  (Inverurie,  ante  1600),  198  ;  do.  (do.  1626-46),  213,  256,  258,  292,  293  ;  do.  (do.,  at 

the  Cross,  1642— ante  1677),  318,  344,  349,  361,  391,  395. 
Fergus,  John  (Inverurie,  1614),  196,  197;  do.  (do.,  1633),  258,  396;  do.  (do.,  1646),  292,  3;  do.  (do., 

1647),  295 ;  do.  (do.,  1662),  352  ;  do.  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 
Fergus,  Lewis  (Inverurie,  1646),  293. 
Fergus,  Margaret,  wife  of  Normand  Davidson,  (1662),  361 
Fergus,  Marjorie  (Inverurie,  1660),  396. 
Fergus,  Nans  (Inverurie,  1649),  315. 
Fergus,  Eobert  (Inverurie,  1536),  142,  143  ;  do.  (do.,  1581,  1587),  395,  396  ;  do.  (do.,  1600-17),  182, 

196-8,  200,  201  ;  do.  (do.,  1617-46),  204,  206,  213,  293  ;  do.  (do.,  1660),  396  ;  do.  (Peterhead, 

1727),  396. 
Fergus,  Thomas  (Inverurie,  1609),  194. 
Fergus,  Walter  (Inverurie,  1633),  257. 

Fergus,  William  (Inverurie,  1600-46),  190,  191,  195,  196,  207,  213,  293  ;  do.  (do.,  1646),  293. 
Ferguson  of  Badifurrow  (1655-99),  405,  475  ;  of  Inverurie,  353,  474  ;  of  Kinmundy  (1723),  376,  478  ; 

of  Pitfour  (circa  1700),  355,  476. 
Ferguson,  Agnes,   wife  of  Thomas  Johnston,    Inverurie  (1696),  391  ;  do.,  wife  of  John  Kobertson, 

Inverurie  (1800),  393. 
Ferguson,  Alexander  (Inverurie,  1617),  204;  do.  (do.,  son  of  James  Fergus,  1671),  339  ;  do.   (do., 

1723),  and  family,  484,  485;  do.   (Peterhead,  17—),  and  family,  484;  do.  (W.S.,  Edinburgh, 

1790),  391,  485  ;  do.  (Kinmundy,  1857),  474. 
Ferguson,  Ann,  wife  of  William  Forbes  (1738),  485  ;  Ann  Elizabeth,  wife  of  General  Vinck  (1700), 

377,  478. 
Ferguson,  Anthony  (Dublin,  1788),  481. 
Ferguson,  Arms,  478,  479,  480,  482. 
Ferguson,  Edward  Legrand,  M.D.  (died  1822),  4S5. 
Ferguson,  Elizabeth  (Kinmundy,  1700),  377,  478 ;  do.  wife  of  A.  Jardine,  479  ;  do.  wife  of  Rev.  D. 

Meek,  478. 
Ferguson,  George  (Ardtannies,  1665),  177,  388  ;  do.  (Inverurie  1666-9),  396,  7;  do.  (Kilmory),  479;  do. 

Chamberlain  to  Meldrum  (1696),  355,  383,   428,  and  family,  479  ;  do.,  of  Pitfour  (died  1820), 

478  ;  do.  Admiral,  478  ;  do.  (Stonehouse,  1696),  29,  356. 

Ferguson,  Henrietta,  wife  of Pyon,  4S0. 

Ferguson,  Isabel,  wife  of  William  Lundy,  Inverurie  (1696),  383  ;  do.  wife  of  Rev.  John  Aiken,  479  ; 

do.,  wife  of Murdoch,  479. 

Ferguson,  James  (Aberdeen,  1878),  478  ;  Mr.  do.,  of  Badifurrow  (1674-99),  220,  355,  364,  376,  384, 

406,  475 ;  do.,  of  Pitfour,  475  ;  do.,  Lord  Pitfour,  355,  475  ;  do.,  of  Pitfour,  M.P.  (died  1820), 

355,  476-8,  482;  do.,  Brigadier  (1695-1705),  355,  376,  377,  478;  do.,  Governor  of  Greenwich 


Index.  523 

Hospital  (died  1793),  481 ;  do.  (Inverurie,  1654),  397  ;  do.  (do.,  1681-1753),  354,  356,  384,  and 
family,  481  ;  do.   (do.,  1772),  397;  Mr  do.,  Town-Clerk,  Inverurie  (1645-73),  214,  292,353, 
361,  363,  364,  484  ;  do.,  of  Kiamundy  (1723),  377,  478  ;  do.,  do.  (1787),  and  family,  478  ;  do., 
do.  (1816),  and  family,  479;  do.,  do.  (1862),  and  family,  481  ;  do.  (Peterhead),  484. 
Ferguson,  Jane,  wife  of  James  Hutchison,  and  family,  484. 
Ferguson,  Janet,  wife  of  John  Ferguson,  Poland,  357,  484  ;   do.,  wife  of  Robert  Lock  (1748),  and 

family,  482-3  ;  do.,  wife  of  Alexander  Paterson  (1718),  483. 
Ferguson,  John  (Adjutant — John,  Robert,  and  James,  Ensigns  1698),  376  ;   do.  (Inverurie,  1674), 

395;  do.  (do.,  1696),  354,  384;  do.  (do.,  aide  1739),  393;  do.,  Captain  R.N.  (1764),  479; 

do.,  Lieutenant  R.N.,  479;  do.  (Poland),  484;  do.,  of  Stonehouse  (1676-1721),  29,  353,  355, 

360,  384,  389,  390,  394,  484,  and  family,  480. 

Ferguson,  Lydia,  wife  of Sheridan,  479. 

Ferguson,  Margaret,  wife  of  Alexander  Bruce,  and  family,  484  ;  do.,  second  wife  of  Mr.  George  Scott, 

384,  and  family,  483. 
Ferguson,  Marion,  wife  of  Dr.  Smith,  479. 
Ferguson,  Mary,  wife  of  James  Black,  and  family,  485. 

Ferguson,  Patrick  (Inverurie,  1672),  391  ;  do.  (Badifurrow,  1696),  384,  475  ;  do.  Major  (1780),  475. 
Ferguson,   Robert   (Inverurie,    1536),   474;   do.  (do.,    1587),    474;    do.    (do.,    1610),    474;   do.   (do., 

1613-22),  202,  353  ;  do.  (do.,  1655-64),  259,  351  ;  do.,  The  Plotter,  353,  355,  374-7,  393,  406, 

and  family,  475;  do.  (Peterhead,  1727),  and  family,   484. 
Ferguson,  Smith  (Edinburgh,  1834),  485. 

Ferguson,  Thomas  (W.S.,  178—),  478  ;  do.  (W.S.,  18—),  479;  do.  (Alton  of  Coynach),  andfamily,  479. 
Ferguson,  Walter  (Crichie),  353,  354;  do.  (Inverurie,  1610),  474;  do.  (do.,  1614-6),  202,  204,  353; 

do.  (do.,  1655— ante  1664),  259,  294,  351,  392 ;  do.  (Badifurrow,  1696),  475  ;  do.  (do.,  1681- 

1728),  355,  356,  360,  384,  397,  and  family,  481,  485;  do.  (W.S.,  of  Kinnaird,  1797),  354,  356, 

481,  482. 
Ferguson,  William  (in  Crichie),  of  Badifurrow  (1645-86),  214,  220,  351,  353,  355,  357,  360,  361,  364, 

374,  376,  397,  405,  406,  and  family,  355,  356,  474,  484  ;  do.,  do.    (1674-94),  355,  356,  406, 

and  family,  406,  475;  do.  (Captain  17—),  484;  do.  (Clola,  17—),  478 ;  do.  (Mill  of  Insch,  "The 

Judge,"  17—),   479;  do.   (Inverurie,   1608),  192;  do.  (do.,   1616),   292;  do.   (do.,  1619),  206, 

280,  281,  294,  353,  384,   475;  do.   (do.,  1671),   339;  do.    (do.,  mite  1725),   390;  do.,  of  Kin- 

mundy  (1862),  and  family,  479  ;   do.  (London,   1761),  479  ;   do.  (Poland,  1714),    483  ;  do. 

(Captain  in  Army,  1800),  479  ;  do.,  Shipmaster,   479  ;  do.   (R.N.),   484  ;  do.   (of  Stonehouse, 

1728),  480;  Mr.  William  (Inverurie,   1645,   1672),  214,  363;  do.   (do.,  Schoolmaster,   1673), 

325  ;  do.  (New  Craig,  1730,  Descendants  still  in  Daviot),  396. 
Ferrier,  John  (W.S.,  Edinburgh,  1840),  463  ;  William  (Writer,  Aberdeen,  1670),  364. 
Fettercairn,  Forbes  of,  237. 
Fetternear,  Church  and  Parish  (St.  Ninians),  17  ;  (1599),  147,  (1655),  311  ;  Parsons  of,  William  (1242), 

37  ;  John,  Vicar  (1242),  37  ;  James  Chamer,  Rector  (1504),  148  ;  Andrew  Cullen,  Parson  (1529), 

129;  Andrew  Leslie,  Parsonand  Sheriff-Clerk  (1560),  129  ;  James  Johnston,  Minister  (1593),  155. 
Fetternear,   Palace  and  Township— Bishop  Edward  (1157),  20  ;  Bishop  Ralph  (1242),   37  ;  Bishop 

Cheyne  (1300),  39  ;  Wallace  Tower,  41 ;  Bishop  Greenlaw  (1400),  114  j  Tenants  (1511),  129  ; 

Earl  of  Huntly  (1543),  104  ;  Leslie  of  Balquhain  (1566),  129,   (1602),  157  ;  Abercromby  (1626- 

1690),   213,   235,   238,  250,   272,  285,  307,   311,   328,  442  ;   Leslie  of  Balquhain  (1690),  398, 

(1711),  423. 
Feud,  Municipal  (Inverurie,  1615-19),  197,  200,  203,  206  ;  do.,  Forbes  and  Leslie  {circa  1400),  107, 

108,  (1492),  122. 


524  Index. 

Feudal  Heddcnda,  Auchleven  (1500),  102 ;  Cordyce  (1316),  61  ;  Lentush  (1333),  61  ;  Lethinty  (1485), 
61  ;  Rothmaise  (1333),  61  ;  Rothney  (1350),  66. 

Fiddes,  Alexander  (Daviot,  1550),  144  ;  John  of  (1333),  74. 

Fife,  Earl  of,  364  ;  James,  second  Earl,  476. 

Fifth  Monarchy  Men,  357,  358. 

Findlater,  Earl  of,  102,  (1639),  264,  265,  (1645),  285,  (1775),  259. 

Findlay,  John,  Daviot  (1550),  144. 

Findon,  Thomas  Chalmers  of  (1402),  254. 

Findrassie,  Abraham  Leslie  of  (1794),  446. 

Fingask,  Findgask,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  (1551),  233  ;  Forbes  of  Pitsligo  (1551-1615),  233  ;   Urquhar 
(1615-1696),  232,  233,  389. 

Finnersie,  William  Blakhall  of  (1517),  103. 

Fintray,  Forbes  of,  232,  235.      Vide  Craigievar. 

Fintray,  Kirk  and  Parish,  25,  151  ;  Tithes  (circa  1200),  32  ;  Emoluments  (1366),  79,  (1600),  157  ; 
Ministers,  Alexander  Forbes  {ante  1698),  Robert  Burnet  (1698),  427. 

Finzeach,  William  Forbes  of  (circa  1500),  448. 

Firbogs,  Oyne  (1675),  347. 

Fisheries  Protected  (1664),  350,  (1661,  1679),  352. 

Fifties  Croft  and  Loan,  Inverurie,  27,  157,  259,  394. 

Fitzsimmons,  Patrick,  and  Anne  Jane,  wife  of  Beachamp  C.  Urquhart,  469. 

Flemings  and  Fleming  Law,  in  Leslie,  21,  33,  40,  74. 

Fletcher,  Emily  Sophia,  wife  of  James  Arnott  (1666),  463. 

Fletcher,  Sir  John,  King's  Advocate  (circa  1640),  445 

Flinders,  21,  (1600),  157  ;  John  Leslie  of,  1S2. 

Flodden,  Battle  of,  111,  128,  129,  138,  234,  438,  448. 

Fodderty,  Minister  of,  Colin  Mackenzie  (1795),  471. 

Folds,  Inverurie,  184,  185,  190. 

Folethmile,  Mill  of,  Adam  Pyngle  of  (1376),  66  ;  Chapel  at,  66,  228. 

Folia,  Little,  Folia  Blackwater ;   Pyngle  (1376),  66  ;  Blakhall  (1505-19),   228 ;   Leslie  (1657-1785), 
448  ;  Episcopal  Chapel  at  (17 — ),  386,  448. 

Fontenoy,  Battle  of,  415. 

Football  on  Sunday  (1648),  302,  (1671),  339 

Footdee,  Aberdeen,  Minister  of,  Alexander  Ross  (1631),  239. 

Footranner  (1696),  403. 

Forbes,  Family,  59,  84,  91,  99,  101,  152,  328  ;  Branches  of,  91  ;  Covenanters,  252,  269,  270,  284  ; 
Factions  of,  113,  122,  138,  139,  152,  164,  328  ;  of  Aquhorties,  Inverurie  (1652  71),  324,  329, 
349  ;  do.,  Tarves  (1696),  389  ;  of  Ardmurdo  (1592-1633),  162,  231,  238  ;  of  Auchanaseis  (1563), 
233  ;  of  Badifurrow  (1699-1742),  406-9  ;  of  Balbithan  (circa  1780),  416,  469;  of  Ballogie  (circa 
1800),  459  ;  of  Balfling  (1653),  240  ;  of  Balnagask  (1614-23),  168,  233,  459  ;  of  Blairtone 
(1639),  269  ;  of  Boyndlie  (1639),  264,  269,  405  ;  of  Brux  (1530),  140  ;  of  Byth  (1643),  240  ; 
of  Camphill  (1581),  236  ;  of  Coclarachie  (1554),  236  ;  of  Collihill  (1696),  389  :  of  Corse  (1500), 
104,  12S,  212,  236,  253  ;  of  Corsindae  (ante  1500),  104,  136,  230,  236  ;  of  Craigievar  (1610) 
232,  235,  238,  253;  of  Culloden  (1716),  414;  of  Drumminnor  (1400),  107  ;  of  Echt  (1512-1716), 
131,  269,  270,  284,  414  ;  of  Fettercairn,  237  ;  of  Fingask  (1551-1616),  233,  328 ;  of  Finzeach 
(circa  1500),  448  ;  of  Foveran,  471  ;  of  Kinaldie  (1477-96),  101,  232 ;  of  Knaperna  (1600-53), 
324,  449  ;  of  Lairgy  (1639),  284  ;  of  Leslie  (1620-96),  234,  236,  237,  238,  239,  270  ;  of  Lethinty 
(1455-1607),  101,  232,  233,  293  ;  of  Melgum  (1551),  233  ;  of  Meny  (1610),  235  ;  of  Monymusk 


Index.  525 

(1554-1743),   128,    155,   237,   252,   270,   283,    284  ;   of  Pitfichie,    405  ;   of  Pitnacalder,    406 ; 

of  Pitnamoon   (1520),    441  ;    of  Pitsligo  (1400-1781),   vide    Pitsligo ;    of   Putachie,    101  ;   of 

Eothie   (1671),    329  ;    of   Skellator,    416,    469  ;    of  Thainston   (1535-1671),   232,    238,    252, 

256,  269,  272,  281,  328,  329  ;   of  Tolquhon  (1420-1671),  91,  127,  224,  232,  238,  249,  252, 

256,  269,  272,  284,  328,  329,  406,   449  ;  of  Towie  (1512-1600),  181,  221,  458;  of  "Waterton 

(1639),  269. 
Forbes,  Abraham,  of  Blaktown  (1639),  269,  461. 

Forbes,  Alexander,  Jean,  John,  Eobert,  and  William  (Tonibeg,  Monymusk,  1696),  406. 
Forbes,  Alexander,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  (1615),  162,  248  ;  do.,  M.D.,  Aberdeen  (1878),  407  ;  do.,  Bishop 

of  Brechin  (1857),  405  ;  do.,  of  Auchanaseis  and  Lethinty  (1563),  233  ;  of  Boyndlie  (1639),  264, 

269  ;  do.,  of  Fingask  (1616),  233 ;  do.,  Minister  of  Fintray  (ante  1698),  406,  409  ;  do.,  M.P. 

(Inverurie,  1678),  362 ;  do.  (do.,  1741-1822),  390,  406,  407  ;  do.,  of  Kinaldie,  Lethinty,  and 

Pitsligo  (1485-96),  101  ;  do.,  "The  Spangare  "  (1527),  139;  do.,  of  Towie  (circa  1550),  221. 
Forbes,  Sir  Alexander,  of  That  Ilk  (1466),  120  ;  do.,  of  Kinaldie  and  Lethinty  (1455-77),  101,  232 ; 

do.,   second  of  Pitsligo,    121,   448;    do.,    sixth  Lord  Pitsligo,   459;    do.,   of  Tolquhon  and 

Thainston  (1649-71),  328,  329. 
Forbes,  Ann,  Anne,  Anna,   wife  of  James  Donald,  Mill  of  Keith-hill,  407  ;  Honourable  do.,  wife  of 

Thomas  Erskine  (1746),  473  ;   do.,  wife  of  Kobert  Forbes  (1556),  128  ;   do.  wife  of  "William 

Forbes  (1740),  409  ;  do.,  wife  of  Kev.  Alexander  Eoss  (1653),  240. 
Forbes,  Archibald,  son  of  Lord  Forbes  (1696),  388. 

Forbes,  Arthur  (Pitsligo,  circa  1640),  459;  do.,  Schoolmaster,  Inverurie  (1653),  324. 
Forbes,  Sir  Arthur,  of  Craigievar  (1745),  232,  253,  461,  487. 
Forbes,  Barbara,  wife  of  Thomas  Mitchell  (16—),  237. 
Forbes,  Bessie,  goodwife  of  Laws  and  of  New  Leslie  (1629),  210. 

Forbes,  Charles,  Schoolmaster  of  Eayne  (1710),  386,  425  ;  do.,  of  Ballogie  (drca  1800),  459. 
Forbes,  Charlotte,  wife  of  John  Burnett  (1877),  486. 
Forbes,  Christian,  wife  of  George  Johnston,  of  That  Ilk  (died  1622),  140,  164,  210,  224,  449  ;  do, 

wife  of  Sir  William  Forbes  (1781),  405  ;  do.  wife  first  of  John  Skene  of  Dyce,  second  of  John 

Paton  of  Grandholme  (1734),  238. 
Forbes,  Colonel  (1644),  289. 
Forbes,  David,  of  Leslie  (1691-1696),  238,  388. 
Forbes,  Duncan,  of  Balnagask  and  Lethinty  (1614-23),  168,  233,  449  ;  do.,  of  Byth  (1643).  240;  do., 

of  Coclarachie  (1549),  236  ;  do.,  of  Corsiudae,  236  ;  do.,  Minister  at  Leslie  (1643),  240  ;  do.,  of 

Monymusk  (1549),  128. 
Forbes,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Patrick  Barclay  (1551),  230  ;  do.,  wife  of  Gilbert  Johnston  (mite  1480),  121, 

448  ;  do.,  wife  of  Sir  George  Johnston  (1630),  224,  449  ;  do.,  wife  of  Eobert  Leith  (1768),  461  ; 

do.,  wife  of  Alexander  Strachan  (1671),  329,  441. 
Forbes  Factions,  119,  122,  138,  162,  366. 
Forbes,  George,  of  Lethinty  (1458),  232. 
Forbes,  Henry,  of  Kinnellar  (1467),  232  ;  do.  (Kintore,  1498),  123  ;  do.,  of  Logie  (circa  1450),  413  ; 

do.,  of  Thainston  (1535),  232. 
Forbes,  Isabel,  wife  of  Gordon  of  Newton,  236. 
Forbes,  James  (Badifurrow,  1708),   406;  do.,  of  Corsindae  (1544),  136;  do.  (Mill  of  Drum,  1739), 

406  ;  do.  (Inverurie,  1738-45),  390,  396,  406,  407  ;  do.,  of  Lochermick,  480. 
Forbes,  Janet,  wife  first  of  John,  Earl  of  Athol,  second  of  Alexander  Hay,  third  of  William  Leslie, 

1560),  442. 
Forbes,  Jean,  of  Badifurrow  (1699-1721),  220,  406,  409;  do.,  wife  of  George  Ferguson  (ante  1696),  479  ; 


526  .  Index. 

do.,  wife  of  James  Forbes  (1739),  406;  do.,  wife  of  William  Johnston  (1741),  409,  410;  do.,  wife 
of  John  Leith  (1681),  461  ;  do.,  wife  of  Rev.  Alexander  Lunan  (1632),  240,  406. 

Forbes,  John,  Stationer,  Aberdeen  (1662),  334  ;  do.,  Mr.,  Sheriff  of  Aberdeen  (1672),  363  ;  do.,  of 
Aquhorties,  Tarves  (1696),  389;  do.,  of  Ardmurdo  (1612),  231;  do.,  of  Badifurrow  (1742),  409, 
410;  do.,  of  Balfling  (1653),  240;  do.,  of  Balnagask  (1623),  168;  do.  ("Bounteous  John,"  1542), 
128  ;  do.,  of  Camphill  (1572),  236;  do.,  of  Collihill  (1696),  389;  do.,  Kintore  (1498),  131  ; 
do.  (do.,  Schoolmaster,  1671),  326  ;  do.,  of  Leslie  (1620-45),  234,  236-9,  270,  441,  459  ;  do.,  of 
Leslie  (1662-91),  238;  do.,  of  Lethinty  (1496),  232;  do.,  Younger  of  Monymusk  (1707), 
237  ;  do.,  do.,  237  ;  do.,  of  Pitfichie  (1707),  404,  405  ;  do.,  of  Pituacalder,  406,  450  ;  do. 
Tombeg,  Monymusk  (1696),  406. 

Forbes,  Dr.  John,  Professor  of  Divinity,  Aberdeen  (1638),  249,  253,  276. 

Forbes,  Sir  John,  of  Craigievar  (circa  1700),  414,  471  ;  do.,  of  Drumminnor  (circa  1400),  107  ;  do.,  of 
Monymusk  (1653-90),  237,  340,  348,  381,  405,  470  ;  do.,  first  of  Tolquhon  (1420),  91  ;  do., 
second  of  do.,  413. 

Forbes,  Katherine,  wife  of  Gordon  of  Lesmoir  (circa  1600),  249. 

Forbes,  Lord,  II.,  236,  437  ;  IV.,  442  ;  VII.,  128,  140,  141  ;  VIII.,  164  ;  X.,  279,  282-4;  XV.,  473. 

Forbes,  Margaret,  wife  first  of  Walter  Stewart,  second  of  John  Leslie  (circa  1500),  221,  445  ;  do. 
wife  of  William  Leslie  (1546),  221,  445  ;  do.,  wife  of  Gilbert  Johnston  (1550),  449  ;  do.,  wife 
of  Gilbert  Leith,  1583),  460  ;  do.,  wife  of  William  Elphinstone  (circa  1650),  406,  414,  471,  475  ; 
do.,  wife  of  John  Elphinstone  (1691),  413,  471. 

Forbes,  Mary,  wife  of  John  Forbes  (1708),  237  ;  do.,  wife  of  William  Urquhart  (circa  1720),  237,  469  ; 
do. ,  wife  of  General  Hay,  459. 

Forbes,  Master  of,  William  (1460),  236  ;  John  (1530),  140  ;  John  (1572),  158  ;  Alexander  (1633),  239 
(1639-41),  251,  252,  264,  268,  269,  272,  274. 

Forbes,  Patrick,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  (1619),  104,  132,  163,  248,  253  ;  do.,  of  Blairtone  (1640),  161  ;  do., 
of  Corse  (1611),  212. 

Forbes,  Richard,  Dean  of  Aberdeen  (1466),  120. 

Forbes,  Robert,  Aberdeen  Grammar  School  (1818),  407;  do.,  of  Barnes  (Tutor  of  Monymusk,  1653),  311 ; 
do.  (Inverurie  Manse,  1675),  293,  358;  do.,  Prior  of  Monymusk  (1586),  128;  Minister  at 
Woodside,  Aberdeen  (1843),  407. 

Forbes,  Sir  Robert,  of  Learnie,  414,  471. 

Forbes,  Thomas,  of  Aquhorties  (1652),  324;  do.,  Advocate,  Edinburgh  (1669),  329,  345;  do., 
Minister  at  Monynmsk  (1620),  240. 

Forbes,  Walter,  of  Thainston  (1631-61),  238,  252,  269,  272,  2S4,  328. 

Forbes,  William,  of  Badifurrow  (1721-40),  406,  409  ;  do.  (Badifurrow,  1708),  406  ;  do.,  of  Corse 
(1556),  128;  do.,  Vicar  of  Edinburgh  (1466),  120;  do.,  of  Finzeach  (circa  1500),  448;  do., 
Minister  at  Inverurie  (1644-79),  177,  214,  239,  293,  303,  312,  318,  321,  322,  338,  342,  346, 
858,  359,  364  ;  do.  (Inverurie,  1743),  406,  407  ;  do.,  Minister  first  of  Kintore,  second  of  Leslie 
(1600),  155,  159  ;  do.,  of  Knaperna  (1653),  324  ;  do.,  of  Leslie  (1661-70),  238  ;  do.,  of  Logie- 
Fintray  (1617),  235  ;  do.,  of  Melgum  (1551),  233  ;  do.,  of  Meny  (1616),  235  ;  do.,  of  Monymusk 
(1587-1617),  236;  do.,  Minister  first  at  Alford,  second  at  Monymusk,  third  at  Aberdeen  (1615), 
240  ;  do.,  of  Pitfichie  (1688),  380  ;  do.,  of  Pitsligo  (1563),  233  ;  do.,  of  Rothie  (1671),  329  ; 
do.,  of  Skellater,  416,  469  ;  do.,  of  Tillery  (1684),  468  ;  do.,  of  Tolquhon,  224,  406,  449  ;  of 
Towie  (1550),  458. 

Forbes,  Mr.  William,  of  Meny,  Craigievar,  Logie-Fintray,  and  Froterseat  (1610,  1617),  235 ;  do.  of 
Tolquhon  (1664),  292. 

Forbes,  Sir  William,  of  Craigievar  (1633-45),  238,  253,  269,  282,  284,  328;  do.,  of  Monymusk,  I., 


Index.  527 

237  ;  II.,  237  ;  IV.,  237,  381,  404,  439,  469  ;  V.,  237,  405  ;  VI.,  237,  405 ;  do.,  of  Pitsligo, 
237,  405. 

Forbes-Robertson,  Jobn  (London,  1878),  407. 

Fordalehouse,  Bourtie  (1402),  115,  (1517),  103. 

Fordyce,  Town  of  (1662),  326. 

Foress,  Toft  in,  Burgh  (1200),  21. 

Fovestallers  (1400),  115,  (1618),  205. 

Forfar,  Toft  in,  Burgh  (1200),  21  ;  Portents  at  (1643),  278. 

Forfar,  Alexander  (Inverurie  Militiaman,  1672),  363. 

Forglen  (House,  1639),  264  ;  Sir  Alexander  Ogilvie  of  (1705),  419. 

Forgue,  Roman  Camp,  9 ;  Communion  Cups,  243. 

Formartine  (temp.  David  II.),  62,  (1411),  91,  284. 

Fornathy  (1211),  55. 

Forteviot,  13. 

Fortifications,  Primitive,  at  Inverurie,  3. 

Fouldub  Fold,  Inverurie,  185. 

Foular,  George  (Kemnay,  Baillie,  1618),  205  ;  William  (Kinkell,  1473),  122. 

Foullertown,  Chalmers  of  (temp.  David  II.),  62. 

Foveran,  Laird  of  (1639),  264,  267,  272  ;  Turing  of  (1600),  449  ;  John  Seton,  Minister  of  (1649),  239 

(1668),  468. 
Fraser,  of  Castle  Fraser  or  Muchals  (1576),  264,  416;  of  Dunnottar  (temp.  Robert  I.),  437;  of  Inver- 

alloehy  (1720-1878),   264,   416  ;  of  Philorth  (1512),   131  ;  of  Stonywood  (1528-1644),  131,  254, 

264,  279,  464  ;  do.,  of  Strichen  (1800),  444. 
Fraser,  Alexander,  of  Strichen  (1800),  444. 
Fraser,  Sir  Alexander,  of  Dunnottar  (temp.  Robert  I.),  437. 
Fraser,  Beatrix  (wife  of  John  Leith,  1599),  461. 
Fraser,  Castle,  264,  271,  275,  281,  461. 
Fraser,  Charles,  fourth  Lord,  416  ;  do.  of  Inverallochy,  Senior  and  Junior  (1720-46),  416  ;  do.,  Colonel 

Mackenzie  (1814-71),  416. 
Fraser,  Christian,  wife  of  Alexander  Seton  (1584),  464. 
Fraser,  Eliza,  of  Castle  Fraser  (1814),  416. 
Fraser,  Elizabeth  (temp.  Malcolm  IV.),  wife  of  Sir  Robert  Keith,  435  ;  do.,  wife  of  Sir  William  Leslie, 

(1420),  442. 
Fraser,  Colonel  Erskine,  of  Woodhill  (1796),  410. 
Fraser,  Colonel  Frederick  Mackenzie  (1878),  416. 
Fraser,  Gilbert  (Murderer,  1650),  307. 

Fraser,  Hugh,  first  Lord  Lovat  (1400),  442  ;  do.,  of  Powis  (17—),  486. 
Fraser,  Isabel,  wife  of  Beachamp  Urquhart  (1860),  456. 
Fraser,  Colonel  James  (1648),  287. 
Fraser,  John,  of  Braelangwall,  469. 
Fraser,  Sir  John  (1400),   437. 
Fraser,  Lord,  I.  (1633)  264  ;  II.  (1633-49),  254,  264,  267,  272,  279,  282,  283,  289  364,  416  ;  do.,  IV, 

416. 
Fraser,  Lord  Lovat,  Hugh,  442 ;  Simon,  376     Thomas  Alexander,  444. 
Fraser,  Martha,  wife  of  Colin  Mackenzie  (ante,  1800),  416. 
Fraser,  Master  of  (1646),  293. 
Fraser,  Michael,  of  Stonywood  (1584),  464. 


528  Index. 

Fraser  Regiment  (1641),  275. 

Fraser,  Thomas,  of  Stonywood  (1531),  254,  264. 

Fraser,  William,  af  Inverallochy  (1720),  416;  do.  (Kintore,   1680),  365  ;  do.,  Schoolmaster  of  Slains 

(1697),  426. 
Fraserburgh,  College  at  (1647),  295  ;  Town  of  (1662),  335  ;  Town-Clerk  of  (1616),  200. 
Frederick  the  Great  of  Prussia,  232,  237. 
Freefield  (1702),  401,  460  ;  Leith  of,  401,  460. 
Freemen  in  Burghs,  117,  118,  192,  195,  196,  422,  439. 
Frendraught  (1200),  33  ;  Barony  of  (1630),  161,  214,  243,  461  ;  Lady  of,  243  ;  Lairds  of:  Sir  James 

Crichton  (1490),  111,  465  ;  James  Crichton  (1633-45),  217,  242,  243,  285,  464. 
Frendraught,  Lord  Crichton  of,  444. 
Frendraught,  Viscount,  279,  283. 
Freuchie  (Castle  Grant),  442. 
Friends,  Society  of,  358. 
Froghall,  Ludovich  Gordon  of  (1650),  307. 
Frosterseat,  in  Fintray,  157,  235. 
Fyvie  Castle,  7,  40,  77,  78,  91,  284  ;  Lands  of,  67. 
Fyvie,  Lairds  of :  Lindsay,  Earl  of  Crawford  (1390),  77  ;  Sir  Henry  Preston  (1390),  77,  91  ;  Meldrum 

(14—),  91  ;  Sir  George  M.  (1600),  221. 
Fyvie,  Lord  (Alexander  Seton),  465. 
Fyvie,  Preston  and  Meldrum,  Towers  of,  91. 


G. 

Gadie,  8,  40,  60  ;  "  Gadie  Fans,"  167,  168  ;  Bridge  Renewed  (1671),  339. 

Gairden,  Christian  (Inverurie,  1645,  6),  292,  3. 

Gairden,  Jean,  wife  of  James  Mennie  (1673),  329. 

Gairden,  John  of  Bruckles,  Sen.  and  Jim.  (1673),  329. 

Galbraith,  William  (Aberdeen,  1411),  89. 

Galloway,  Alexander,  Parson  of  Kinkell,  Collihill  Chaplain  (1506-52),  125,  132,  136,  148  ;  do.,  and 

John  (Aberdeen,  1675),  389. 
Galloway,  James  Hamilton,  Bishop  of  (1688),  162. 
Galloway,  Hon.  Marjory,  wife  of  Dr.  Thomas  Rattray  (circa  1700),  472. 
Galloway,  William  (Culsalmond,  1545),  136. 

Gallow  Croft,  Inverurie,  258  ;  Gallowfold,  do.,  185  ;  Gallowhill,  do.,  7 ;  Gallowslaks,  do.,  7,  258,  393. 
Galo,  Papal  Legate  (1200),  22,  30. 
Galrygyn,  Lavid  (Aberdeen,  1411),  89. 

Galston,  Sir  William  Keith  of,  (circa  1300),  436  ;  Isobel  de  Keith  of  (13—),  437. 
Gait,  Alan,  Dene  of  Monymusk  (1534),  127. 

Garden  of  Dorlaithers  (1512),  131  ;  Alexander  M.P.,  (1785),  of  Troup,  460,  476. 
Garden,  Jean,  wife  of  Alexander  Leith  (1750),  460. 
Gardenston,  Francis  Garden,  Lord  (1786),  463,  477. 
Gardine,  John,  of  Bellamore  (1740),  412. 
Gardine,  William  (Kemnay,  1666-79),  347,  348. 


Index.  529 

Gardyn,  Andrew,  Clerk  Depute  of  Jnsch  (1536),  142. 

Gareaueht,  Alexander,  Clerk  Depute  of  Kemnay  (1540),  128. 

Gareaucht,  John,  Vicar  of  Kemnay  (1540),  128. 

Garioch,  vide  Chapel  of  ;  Chaplain,  Chaplainries. 

Garioch,  Chapels  in,  17,  18. 

Garioch,  Clergy  of  (ante  1300),  21  ;  (1406-1560),  124,  130  ;  (1560-1611),  152-160  ;  (1600-60),  239-42 

273,  300-18  (1680-1704),  378-87,  325-432. 
Garioch,  "  in  the  Crown,"  13,  18. 
Garioch,  David  (Kinkell,  1473),  122. 
Garioch,  Dean  of,  Duncan  Oudney  (1536),  142. 

Garioch,  Earldom  of,  18  ;  Extent,  19  ;  Termination,  24  ;  Resumption,  108. 
Garioch,  Earls  of,  David  (1160-1218)',  2,  14,  18-23  ;  John  the  Scot  (1218-37),  23  ;  Alexander  (1404- 

35),  86,  108  ;  John  (1457-77),  110  ;  Alexander  (1482),  110  ;  John  (1490),  111. 
Garioch  Fairs,  245,  246. 

Garioch  Families,  16,  60-67,  89,  90,  99-105,  436-486. 
Garioch,  Foresters  of,  Blakhall  of  that  Ilk,  228. 
Garioch  Highways,  5-10. 
Garioch,  Ladies  and  Lords  of,  Christian,  24,  54,  57  ;  Thomas,  57,  74,  75  ;  Margaret,  57,  74  ;  James, 

58  ;  Isabel,  58  ;  Alexander,  58  ;  St.  Clair,  110  ;  Queen  Margaret,  110  ;  John,  110  ;  Cochrane, 

110  ;  Alexander,  110  ;  John,  111  ;  Erskine,  58,  110. 
Garioch,  Lands  in,  16,  31,  37,  60-67,  99-105,  110,  111  ;  (1696),  388. 
Garioch,  Lordship  of,  24,  54,  110. 

Garioch,  Magdalen  and  Peter  (Culsalmond  Manse,  1696),  386. 

Garioch,  Presbytery  of,  153,  159,  301-313. 

Garioch,  Regality  of,  53  ;  Bailies  of  (1359),  63  (1508),  220  (1703),  431  ;  Court,  54,  350  ;  Lands  of,  59, 

111  ;  Lord  Superior's  Lands  in  Inverurie  (1464),  391. 

Garioch  Schoolmasters  (1600-50),  170-3  ;  (1650-88),  322-6  ;  (1710),  425. 

Garioch,  Vicarages  and  Stipends  (1257),  35,  36  ;  (1366),  79  ;  (1600),  157. 

Garioch,  William  (Aberdeen,  1494),  124  ;  (Badifurrow,  1611),  209  ;  (Kendall,  1664),  351  ;  (Kinkell, 

1473),  122;  do.,  Minister  at  Culsalmond  (1696),  3S6  ;  do.,  Minister  at  Kennethmont  (1697, 

1712),  426,  462. 
Gartly,  Barclay  of  (1513),  448. 
Gartnait,  Earl  of  Buchan  (1132),  55. 
Gartney,  Earl  of  Mar  (1297),  41,  42,  54,  56. 

Garviach,  Andrew  de  (1273),  50,  448  ;  Sir  Andrew  de  (1357),  34,  62,  63,  44S. 
Garviach,  Elene,  wife  of  Robert  Chalmers  (1357),  62,  448. 
Garviach,  Sir  James  (1316),  57,  61,  62,  63,  68,  225,  448. 
Garviach,  Margaret,  wife  of  Stephen  Johnston  (1680),  63,  448. 
Gauge  Rigg,  Inverurie,  174. 
Gavin's  Croft,  Inverurie,  6,  (1696),  384. 
Geese,  Claik  (1480),  135. 
Gellie,  George,  of  Blackford  (1696),  389. 
Gellie,  John,  elder,  Minister  at  Monymusk  (1652),  240,  203,  340,  359  ;  do.,  younger,  Minister  first  at 

Leslie,  second  at  Kinkell  (1647-61),  240,  359. 
Gellie,  Magdalen,  wife  of  Rev.  William  Murray  (1696),  384. 
Gellon,  Alexander  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 
General  Assembly  at  Aberdeen  (1604),  160. 

67 


530  Index. 

George  I.,  439. 

Gib,  Andrew  (Inverurie,  1618-62),  205,  258,  292,  293,  351,  352  ;  do.  (do.,  1696),  390. 

Gib,  Barbara  (Inverurie,  1652),  318. 

Gib,  Christian,  wife  of  James  Leslie  (1681),  390. 

Gib,  John  (Inverurie,  1608-62),  191,  192,  193,  303,  352  ;  do.   (do.,  1674),  363  ;  do.   (do.,  1681),  390, 

398  ;  do5(Monkegy,  1600),  162. 
Gib,  Marjory  (Inverurie,  1652),  318. 
Gibbon's  Butts,  Inverurie,  185,  362. 
Gight,  242  ;  Bog  of,  243  ;  House  of,  271. 

Gight,  Gordon  of  (1639-45),  250,  267,  269,  280  ;  younger,  284,  287  ;  (Sir  George,  1685),  468. 
Gilchrist,  Gillechrist,  Earl  of  Mar  (1200),  18,  33,  55. 
Gillecukongal,  Gilleneraa,  Gillemarte  (1200;,  33. 
Gillespie,  Mr.  (1641),  276. 
Ginken  alias  Anderson  (Inverurie,  1622),  212. 
Ginken  Hole  in  Ury,  211. 

Girzel  Kempt,  wife  first  of  Alexander  Joiss,  second  of  Alexander  Eeid  (1660),  395. 
Glack,  Goodwife  of  (1650),  298,  373. 
Glack,  House  of  (1723,  1876),  412. 
Glack,  Lady  of,  Elizabeth  Cronibie  (1550),  144. 
Glack,  Lairds  of,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  (ante  1272),  37  ;  Pilmor  (1272-1418),  37,  63  ;  Glaster  (1418- 

1492),    100,    102,    120,  442  ;   Elphinstone   (1492-1795),  101,  126,  130,   259,   361,  389  ;   do., 

Mackenzie  (1795),  401,  413,  471. 
Glanderston,  Gillanderston,  102,  111,  220. 

Glaschaw,  Glasha,  Glashi,  102,  315,  316,  345,  385  ;  Lairds  of,  vide  Braco. 
Glaschaw,  Mill  of,  102,  178,  181,  316  ;  Millers,  Glennie,  Ferrar,  Simmers,  181. 
Glasclune,  Battle  of  (1392),  85. 
Glasford,  Lord,  235. 

Glasco-forest,  Robert  Glen  of  (temp  David  II.),  62. 

Glasgow,  328  ;  Burning  of  (1652),  320  ;  Alexander  Milne,  Minister  of  (1664),  161. 
Glaslough,  Leslies  of,  221,  445. 

Glaster  of  Glack,  100 ;  Agnes,  110,  121  ;  Alexander,  102  ;  Andrew,  121,  124  ;  Murdoch,  63,  77,   120. 
Glaster  of  Dunottar  and  Lumgair,  63,  100. 
Glastermuir,  148. 
Glen,   James  and  John  at  Partstown,  John  and  William  at  Mill  of  Caskieben,  William  at  Boynds 

(1664).  351. 
Glen,  Robert,  of  Glasgow  le  forest  (temp  David  II.),  62. 
Glenbervie,  Lairds  of,  Melville  (ante  1468),  102  ;  Auchinleck  (1468),  102  ;  Douglas  (circa  1500-168—), 

102,  128,  204,  234,  469  ;  Burnet  (ante  1721),  377  ;  Nicolson  (1721),  377. 
Glenbervie,  Minister  of,  James  Douglas  (post  1560),  132. 
Glencairn,  Earl  of  (1639),  270. 
Glendy,  Mr.  Andrew  Cant  of  (1655),  292. 

Glenkindie,  Strachan  of  (1357-1738),  67,  131,  234,  296,  347,  401,  460  ;  Leith  of  (1738),  401,  489,  460. 
Glenlivat,  Battle  of  (1594),  164. 
Glenmailen,  Roman  Camp  at,  9. 
Glenmuick,  Farquharson  (1650),  307. 
Glennie,  Glenny,  Inverurie  (1611-22)  ;  Alexander,  181,  212 ;  George,  181 ;  Helen,  212 ;  James,  181  ; 

John,  181,  186  ;  do.  (1695),  398  ;  Margaret  (1649),  315  ;  Patrick  (1613),  181  ;  Thomas  (1659), 

316,  317  ;  Walter  (1613),  181. 


Index.  531 

Glennie,  James  and  John,  Monymusk  (1685),  348. 

Glennie,  William,  Cuttleraigs  (1737),  392. 

Glens  of  Johnsley,  Insch(1696),  388  (1701),  430. 

Glentanner,  Glentaner,  412  ;  Kirk  of  (1617),  235. 

Gleslogy,  Robert  (1273),  50. 

Gloucester,  Duke  of,  420. 

Glovers  (1696),  382. 

Goblauch  the  Smith  (Auld  Bourtie,  1342),  65,  419. 

Gordon,  of  Abergeldie  (1512-1639),  131,  262  ;  of  Arradoul  (1650),  307  ;  of  Auchindoir  (1538,  1639), 
267,  329  ;  of  Auchleuchry  (1480),  102  ;  of  Auchlyard  (1673),  329  ;  of  Avochie  (164n),  445  ; 
of  Balbithan  (1860),  417  ;  of  Balgonen  in  Eeig  (1650),  307  ;  of  Beldorny,  222  ;  of  Blelack 
(1720),  468  ;  of  Boddom  (1512,  1696),  131,  388;  of  Braco  (1490-1696),  102,  213,  278,  329,  839, 
345,  385  ;  of  Cairnborrow  (1467-1637),  249,  279,  442  ;  of  Cluny  (1604-42),  213,  221,  222,  226, 
238,  265,  272,  418,  445,  474;  of  Cobairdy  (1800),  460  ;  of  Coclarachie  (1629,  1800),  448,  459; 
of  Collithie  (1652),  462 ;  of  Craig  (1639),  269  ;  of  Cults  (17—),  448  ;  of  Denehries  (1650-5), 
308,  311  ;  of  Drimmies  (1490-1609),  102,  329  ;  do.,  do.  (1787),  488  ;  of  Ellon,  473  ;  of  Find- 
later  (1562),  146;   of  Froghall  (1650),   307  ;   of  Gight  (1639-1786),  242,   250,   269,   468  ;  of 

Gordonston  (1696),  389  ;  of  Haddo  (1500 ),  148,  241,  250,  267,  269,  271,  275,  276,  278, 

329,  448  ;  of  Kennerty  (1512),  131  ;  of  Kincraigie  (1650),  3u7  ;  of  Knockespock  (1720),  462  ; 
of  Law  (1671),  329  ;  of  Lesmoir  (15 — 1696),  170,  235,  249,  388,  464,  485  ;  of  Lumgair  (circa 
1690),  100,  102  ;  of  Manar  (1808),  410;  of  Methlick  (1490),  102,  329  ;  of  Newton  (1600-52), 
182,  235,  236,  237,  242,  301,  302,  310,  388,  445-6,  461  ;  of  Pitlurg.(1630),  412,  473  ;  of  Rayne 
(1650),  307  ;  of  Redhall  (1668),  329  ;  of  Rothie  (1671),  329  ;  of  Rothiemay  (17-),  412  ;  of 
Rothuie  (1696-1836),  388,  471  ;  of  Rothmaise  (1649),  304  ;  of  Sehives  (1512),  131  ;  of  Straloeh 
(1639),  266,  330  ;  of  Strathdon  (1499),  458  ;  of  Terpersie  (1690-1712),  182,  330,  462;  of  Tilli- 
angus  (1673),  329  ;  of  Tilliehoudie  (1640),  446  ;  of  Torreis  (166S-96),  329,  389 ;  of  Uthaw  (1512), 
131 ;  of  Westhall  (1589,  1597,  1649),  415. 

Gordon,  Sir  Adam  de  (died  1401),  12,  437  ;  do.,  Parson  of  Kinkell  (1494),  125. 

Gordon,  Agnes,  wife  of  Alexander  Seton  (1512),  464. 

Gordon,  Alexander,  Bishop,  Aberdeen  (1514-8),  132  ;  do.,  of  Arradoul  (1650),  307;  do.,  of  Braco  and 
Drimmies  (1538),  329  ;  do.,  of  Cluny  (1622-42),  213,  221,  222,  238,  265,  272  ;  do.,  of  Ellon, 
473;  do.  (Inverurie,  1677),  364;  do.  (Lesmoir,  1612),  170.  485;  do.,  Commissar  of  Moray 
(1612),  170  ;  do.  (.Newton,  1650),  461  ;  do.,  of  Torreis  (1668),  329. 

Gordon,  Sir  Alexander,  of  Cluny  (1622-39),  213,  238,  265,  412. 

Gordon,  Ann,  wife  of  "William  Leith  (1499),  458. 

Gordon,  Arthur  Forbes-,  of  Rayne  (1877),  47  . 

Gordon,  Barbara,  second  wife  of  Dr.  Arthur  Johnston,  165  ;  do.,  wife  of  John  Elphinstone  (1636),  412. 

Gordon,  Beatrix,  wife  of  Patrick  Forbes  (1668),  329. 

Gordon,  Benjamin  Abernethy-,  of  Balbithan,  417. 

Gordon,  Bessie,  wife  of  Laurence  Leith  (1629),  459. 

Gordon,  "  Bow  o'  Meal,"  112. 

Gordon,  Charles,  of  Blelack  (1720),  468. 

Gordon,  Charlotte,  wife  of  John  Burnett  (1877),  486. 

Gordon,  Christian,  wife  of  Charles  Dalrymple,  473. 

Gordon,  Colonel  (Austrian  Service   1634),  399. 

Gordon,  Dr.  (Aberdeen,  1639),  266. 

Gordon,  Duke  of,  404,  468. 


532  Index. 

Gordon,  Elizabeth  de,  wife  of  Sir  Alexander  Seton  (1408),  112,  464  ;  do.,  wife  of  Henry  Leith  (1505), 

458  ;  do.,  wife  of  Patrick  Gordon  (1668),  329  ;  do.,  wife  of  John  Leslie  (1700),  458. 
Gordon,  Elspet,  wife  of  Sir  John  Leslie  (died  1642),  221,  445  ;  wife  of  Rev.  David  Leith  (1652),  311. 
Gordon,  Faction,  112,  113,  122,  164,  366. 
Gordon,  George,  of  Haddo  (1500),  329;   do.,  of  Knockespoek  (1720),   463;   do.   (Mill   of  Cromlet, 

1640-60),  179  ;  do.,  of  Newton  (1600),  235-7,  249,  (1633),  238,  (1647-50),  304,  307,  308,  445; 

do.,  of  Kayne  (1650),  307,  (1877),  486  ;  do.,  of  Rothie  (1762),  471  ;  do.,  ot  Rothnie  (1696),  388, 

(1775),  471  ;  do.,  of  Strathdon  (1499),  458;  do.,  of  Terpersie  (1600),  182,  (1677-1712),  330, 

462  ;  do.,  of  Torreis  (1696),  389. 
Gordon,  Sir  George,  of  Coclarachie  (1629),  459  ;  do.,  of  Haddo  (1668),  393  ;  do.,  of  Gight  (1680),  468. 
Gordon,  Henry,  of  Manar  (1874),  410. 

Gordon,  Hugh,  of  Cults  (17—),  448  ;  do.,  of  Drimmies  (1786),  487  ;  do.,  of  Manar  (1808),  410. 
Gordon,  James,  of  Balgonen  (1650),  307  ;  do.,  Minister  at  Preranay  (1709),  at  Bourtie  (1710),  423  ; 

do.,  of  Cobairdy  (1800),  460  ;  do.,  of  Deuchries  (1050),  308  ;  do.,  Jesuit  Priest  (1588),  156  ; 

do.,   of  Lesmoir  (1533),   464,    (1610),  170  ;  do.,  of  Manar  (died  1874),  410;  do.,  of  Newton 

(Younger,  1600,  1647),  182,  302,  (Laird,  1652),  310  ;  do.,  Parson  of  Rothiemay,  456  ;  do.,  of 

Terpersie  (1660-77),  330,  462  ;  do.,  of  Westhall  (1649),  415. 
Gordon,  Jane,  Duchess  of,  476  ;  do.,  wife  of  Thomas  Craig  (1787),  487. 
Gordon,  Janet,  wife  of  Alexander  Leslie  (1467),  442  ;  do.,  wife  of  William  Seton  (1533),  464;  do., 

wife  of  William  Courts  (1622),  213  ;  do.,  wife  of  John  Leslie  (1660),  446  ;  do.,  wife  of  Alexander 

Benzie  (1665),  361. 
Gordon,  Jean  de,  wife  of  Sir  William  Keith  (temp.  William),  436  ;  do.,  wife  of  George  Leith  (1660), 

462  ;  do.,  wife  of  James  Leslie  (1668),  329. 
Gordon,  "Jock  and  Tarn,"  112. 
Gordon,  John,  of  Aucleuchry  (1490),  102;  do.,  of  Avochy  (1640),  445  ;  do.   (Mill  of  Bourtie,  1677), 

364  ;  do.,  of  Braco  (1668-78),  329,  339,  345  ;  do.,  of  Cluny  (1604),  226,  418  ;  do.,  of  Deuchries 

(1655),   311  ;  do.,   of  Drimmies  (1609),   329;   do.,    Minister  at  Elgin  (ante  1650),  307  ;   do. 

(Gight,  1600),  242  ;  do.  (Grandholme),  320  ;  do.,   of  Law  and  Rothie  (1671),   329  ;   do.,  of 

Lumgair  (circa  1490),  100,  102  ;  do.,  of  Newton  (16—),  221,  445  ;  do.,  of  Rothiemay  (17—), 

412  ;  do.,  of  Rothmaise  (1649),  304. 
Gordon,  Sir  John,  of  Beldorney,  222  ;  do.,  of  Cluny  (1604,  circa  1640),  445  ;  do.,  of  Findlater  (1562), 

146  ;  do.,  of  Haddo  (1639-44),  241,  250,  267,  271,  275,  276,  278. 
Gordon,  Katherine,  wife  of  William  Forbes  (1551),  233  ;  do.,  wife  of  Alexander  Burnett  (ante  1619),  485. 
Gordon,  Lewis,  of  Auchlyard  (1673),  329. 
Gordon,  Lord  (1639-45),  264,  265,  272,  275,  278,  281-4,  286,  287,  327  ;  do.,  Lewis  (1639-53),  270, 

317,  327,  32S  ;  do.,  do.  (1745),  408  ;  do.,  George  (1786),  477,  478. 
Gordon,  Ludovic,  of  Froghill  (1650),  307. 
Gordon,  Margaret,  wife  of  Rev.  John  Walker  (1677),  330. 
Gordon,  Marjory,  wife  of  John  Erskine  (1604),  226,  418,  474. 
Gordon,  Mary,  wife  first  of  Adam  Urquhart,  second  of  James,  Earl  of  Perth  died  (1726),  468;  do. 

wife  of  Alexander  Leith  (1828),  460;  do.,  of  Rothie  (1836),  421. 
Gordon,  Patrick  (1668),  329  ;  do.,  of  Auchiudoir  (1538),  329  ;  do.,  of  Braco  (1490),  102,  329,  (1627), 

213,  278  ;  do.,  of  Drimmies  (1490),  329,  (1538),  329  ;  do.,  of  Haddo  (a'rasl500),  148,  445  ;  do., 

of  Kincraigie  (1650),  307  ;  do.,  of  Methlick  (1490),  102,  329,  464  ;  of  Pitlurg  (1630),  412  ;  do 

(alias  "  Steelhand  "),  250,  307. 
Gordon,  Priest  (1702),  423. 
Gordon,  Robert,  of  Collithie  (1652),  462  ;  do. ,  of  Straloch  (1639),  266,  330  ;  Quaker  (1662),  342. 


Index.  533 

Gordon,  Thomas,  of  Nether  Boddom  (1696),  381. 

Gordon,  Sir  Thomas,  of  Cluny,  474. 

Gordon,  "Walter,  {ante  1640),  179  ;  do.,  of  "Westhall  (1589),  415;  Mr.  Walter,  of  do.  (1599),  415. 

Gordon,  William,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  (1566),  129  :  do.,  of  Auehindoir  (1538)  329  ;  do.,  of  Balgonen 
(1650),  307  ;  do.,  of  Drimmies  (1569),  329,  487  ;  do.,  Minister  at  Kintore  (1695),  387  ;  do., 
Schoolmaster,  Monymusk,  Assistant  Minister,  Bourtie  (1658),  311 ;  do.,  of  Newton  (1647), 
301,  (1650),  461;  do.,  of  Pitlurg,  473;  do.,  of  Rothnie  (1824),  471;  do.,  of  Tilliangus 
(1673),  329. 

Gordon,  Mr.  William,  Commissar  of  Moray  (1612),  170. 

Gothnys,  Wardrop  of,  Thainston  (ante  1476),  120. 

Gowane,  Alexander  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 

Graeme,  Sir  John  The,  95. 

Graham  (circa  1200),  33. 

Grainger,  James,  Minister  at  Kinneff  (1651-60),  367,  368. 

Grammar  School  of  Aberdeen  (1612,  1663),  170,  366;  of  Inverurie  (1606),  171. 

Grandholme,  John  Paton  of  (1734),  238. 

Grange,  Lady  (1733),  439. 

Grangepans  (1721),  481 

Grant's  Barrel,  Inverurie,  185. 

Grant,  of  Ballindalloch,  443,  474  ;  of  Congalton,  440  ;  of  Freuchie,  442  ;  of  That  Ilk,  71,  442  ;  of 
Monymusk,  237,  404. 

Grant,  Alexander  (Ballindalloch,  1677),  364. 

Grant,  Sir  Archibald,  of  Monymusk  (17—),  404. 

Grant  Castle,  442. 

Grant,  Sir  Donald,  of  Freuchie  (1472),  442. 

Grant,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  John  Leslie  (1564),  442. 

Grant,  Henry,  of  Congalton,  440. 

Grant,  of  That  Ilk  (1333),  71,  (1564),  442. 

Grant,  James  (Cateran,  1639),  279. 

Grant,  JohnKoy,  of  Ballindalloch  (17—),  443. 

Grant,  Mary  (wife  of  William  Erskine,  1675),  473. 

Grant,  Muriel  (wife  of  Patrick  Leslie,  1472),  442. 

Grant,  Patrick,  of  Ballindalloch  (1675),  474. 

Grant,  Thomas  of  (1333),  71. 

Grant,  Walter  (Inverurie,  1649),  322. 

Grant,  William  (Conglass,  Inverurie,  1650-8),  216,  311,  317,  339,  359,  442. 

Grassmen,  Inverurie  (1615),  196,  (1659),  361. 

Grassums  (1552),  141. 

Gratz  (in  Styria),  Counts  Leslie  of,  400,  443. 

Gray,  Agnes,  wife  of  Duncan  Forbes  of  Monymusk  (1587),  237. 

Gray,  George  (Isaacketoon,  1633),  238  ;  do.,  "  Geordie  "  (Inverurie,  1S40),  395. 

Gray,  Gilbert,  of  Tullo  (circa  1600),  446. 

Gray,  Isabella,  wife  of  William  Blakhall  (1517),  103. 

Gray,  James  (Inglistown,  1664),  351. 

Gray,  Major,  Pauper  (165—),  320. 

Gray,  Margaret,  wife  of  William  Leslie  (1640),  446. 

Gray,  Widow  (Ardmurdo,  1633),  239. 


534  Index. 

Gray,  William  (Monymusk,  1685),  348  ;  do.  (Inverurie,  1699),  395  ;   do.,   Baillie,   Aberdeen  (circa 

1570),  236. 
Greek  Priests  in  Slavery  (1679),  340. 

Greenlaw,  Gilbert  de  (1411),  93  ;  do.,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  (1389-1422),  87,  104. 
Greenleyibrd,  Inverurie,  6,  7,  9. 

Gregory,  Grig,  or  Cyric,  Mormaor  (circa  880),  2,  13,  14. 
Greig,  Andrew  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 
Greyfriars'  Monastery,  Aberdeen,  163. 

Greystone,  Thomas  Davidson  of,  Sheriff  of  Aberdeen  (1647),  353. 
Grip-Fast,  2,  16. 

Grub,  Annas  (Inverurie,  1647),  294. 
Grub,  Elspet,  wife  of  George  Bonald  (1669),  396. 
Grub,  George  (Inverurie,  1536),  142  ;  do.  (do  ,  1608-46),  161,  192,  196,  202,  204,  206,  207,  258,  293, 

294,  391,   393  ;  do.  (do.,  1662-4),  351,   352  ;  do.   (Dean  of  Guild,  Inverurie,  1619,  1752),  206, 

397  ;   do.  (Brandsbutt,   ante  1646),   393  ;    do.   (Crichie,   1646-75),  393,   397 ;  do.   (Aberdeen, 

1787),  393. 
Grub,  Mr.  George,  Writer  in  Inverurie  (1709),  393. 
Grub,  James  (Inverurie,  1609),  193. 

Grub,  John  (Inverurie,  a;Ue  1600),  198  ;  do.  (do.,  1662-4),  351,  352. 
Grub,  Mortification,  393. 
Grub,  William  (Inverurie,  1608),  103,  393. 
Guage  Rig,  Inverurie,  391. 
Gun,  Colonel  (1639),  270,  271. 
Gunpowder  Plot,  207,  336. 
Gustavus  of  Sweden,  251,  399. 

Guthrie,  Alexander,  Parson  of  Tullynessle  (1602-15),  159,  233. 
Guthrie,  Andrew  (Aberdeen,  1411),  89. 
Guthrie,  Barons  of,  354. 
Guthrie,  Sir  Henry,  of  King  Edward,  354. 


H. 

Hadden,  Family  of,  Aberdeen,  454,  455. 

Hadden,  Mary  (wife  of  Robert  Johnston),  455. 

Haddington,  Thomas,  second  Earl  of,  402,  439  ;  Burgh  of  (1653),  328  ;  Rev.  Alex.  Chalmers  at,  479, 

Haddo  House  or  Kelly,  264,  271,  281,  218  ;  Lairds  of,  vide  Gordon  of  Haddo. 

Haddo,  Lord  (1681),  36. 

Halkerton,  vide  Falconer. 

Halket,  Hacket,  Charles,  407,  417  (1773),  487. 

Halket,  Margaret,  wife  of  Alexander  Leith  (17—),  462. 

Halket,  Walter,  of  Cairntown  (17—),  462. 

Hallforest,  35,  40,  62,  68,  265,  268,  271,  273,  416,  436. 

Hallgreen,  Farquhar  of,  455. 

Halyburton,  George,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  (1633),  335. 


Index.  535 

Halyburton,  Margaret  (wife  of  Sir  George  Nicolson,  1722),  377. 

Hamilton,  Colonel  Alexander  (1639),  267. 

Hamilton,  Ann,  wife  of  Rev.  Alexander  Milne  (1716),  162. 

Hamilton,  Sir  David,  of  Cadzow,  437. 

Hamilton,  Gavin,  of  Raplock,  439. 

Hamilton,  James,  of  Broomhill,  Bishop  of  Galloway,  162  ;  Sir  James,  of  Cadzow  (1458),  473. 

Hamilton,  Major-General  (1645),  289. 

Hamilton,  Margaret,  wife  of  John,  first  Earl  of  Kintore,  402-4,  439. 

Hamilton,  Mary,  wife  of  first  Earl  Marischal,  437. 

Hamilton,  Thomas,  second  Earl  of  Haddington,  439. 

Hanover,  Court  of  (1695),  420. 

Hunse,  The,  Northern  and  Southern,  113. 

Hardgate  of  Aberdeen,  276 

Hareboggs,  Insch,  66. 

Harlaw,  Battle  of,  53,  88-98. 

Harlaw,  Lairds  of :  Earls  and  Lords  of  the  Garioch  ;  Leith  (1490),  234  ;  Leslie  (1510),  111  ;  Leith 
(1531),  461  ;  Abercromby  (1674),  329. 

Harper,  George  (Oyne,  1683),  340. 

Harper,  John  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 

Harps  Haugh,  Inverurie,  185. 

Harrower  of  Ardgrain  (1512),  131. 

Hartfell,  Earl  of  (post  1639),  466. 

Harthill,  House  of  (1638),  234,  (1645),  284,  285  ;  Lands  of  (1675),  347,  462. 

Harthill,  Lairds  of:  Abercromby  (1315-1457),  65,  234;  Leith  (1499-1720),  246,  265,  267,  284,  301, 
305,  310,  334,  339,  445,  448,  460-2. 

Harvest  Oath  (1606),  190. 

Harvie,  Harvy,  Alexander  (Inverurie,  1616),  396. 

Harvie,  Andrew  (Daviot,  1550),  144  ;  do.,  of  Danestone  (1609),  418. 

Harvie,  James,  of  Boynds  (1550),  442  ;  do.,  Factor  for  Lindores  Abbey  (1572),  158  ;  do.,  of  Danestone 
(1609),  418. 

Harvie,  Margaret,  wife  of  James  Abercromby  (1674),  329. 

Harvie,  Robert,  of  Slagmagully  (1674),  329. 

Harwich,  Battle  of  (1665),  467. 

Hastings,  Lord  (1290),  23,  28. 

Hatton,  Dun*  of,  469. 

Haughton,  Fanjuharson  of,  460. 

Havannah,  Siege  of  (1763),  463. 

Hawkins,  Louiza,  wife  of  seventh  Earl  of  Kintore,  440. 

Hawkins,  Louiza  Madeline,  wife  of  eighth  Earl  of  Kintore,  440. 

Hay,  of  Ardendraught  (1492-1512),  122,  131  ;  of  Ardoyne  (1345-60),  65  ;  of  Arnbath  (1700),  465  ; 
of  Artrochy  (14—),  448  ;  of  Balbithan  (1699),  416  ;  of  Delgatie,  131,  216,  269,307,  406,  442  ; 
of  Huntington  (1775),  463  ;  of  Percok  (15—),  449  ;  of  Rannes  (1700),  401,  459. 

Hay,  Agnes,  wife  of  Gilbert  Aunand  (1542),  231  ;  do.,  wife  of  William  Barclay  (1623),  231. 

Hay,  Alexander,  of  Delgatie  (circa  1540),  442  ;  do.  (Inverurie,  1644),  282  ;  do.,  Schoolmaster,  Mony- 
musk (1688),  326  ;  do.,  of  Arnbath  (1700),  465  ;  Sir  Alexander,  of  Delgatie  (1626),  216. 

Hay,  Ann  (Delgatie,  1650),  307. 

Hay,  Beatrix,  wife  of  John  Johnston  (1600),  449. 


536  Index. 

Hay,  Charles,  of  Ramies  (circa  1700),  401,  459. 

Hay,  Edmond,  Jesuit  Priest  (1588),  156. 

Hay,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  the  Master  of  Marischal  (1581),  438  ;  do.,  wife  of  John  Leslie  (1595),  442. 

Hay,  Sir  Francis,  of  Delgatie,  406. 

Hay,  General,  of  Leithhall  (died  182S),  459. 

Hay,  George,  Rector  of  Turriff  (1615),  233. 

Hay,  Gilbert,  of  Percok  (15—),  449. 

Hay,  Sir  Gilbert  de  la  (1296-1318),  40,  61,  437  ;  Sir  Hugh  de  la  (1296),  40. 

Hay,  Isabel,  wife  of  Captain  Strachan  (1650),  307  ;  do.,  wife  of  Mr.  James  Reid  (1657),  419. 

Hay,  J.  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 

Hay,  James,  Schoolmaster,  Monymusk  (1696),  387. 

Hay,  John,  Canon  of  Monymusk  (1524),  127. 

Hay,  Major  (1644),  281. 

Hay,  Margaret,  wife  of  Sir  Robert  Keith  (1332),  436  ;  do.,  wife  of  "William  Johnston  (1547),  449  ;  do., 

Schoolmistress,  Inverurie  (1652),  324  ;  do.,  wife  of  Sh'  Alexander  Leith  (1775),  463  ;  do.,  wife 

of  George  Grub,  1787),  393. 
Hay,  Mary,  wife  of  eighth  Earl  Marischal,  439  ;  do.  wife  of  John  Leith  (1636),  401,  459. 
Hay,  Sophia  (Delgatie,  1650),  307. 

Hay,  Thomas,  Collihill  Chaplain  {post  1542),  231  ;  do.,  of  Huntington  (1775),  463. 
Hay,  William,   of  Artrochy  (14-  ),  448  ;   do.,  Collihill  Chaplain  (1542),   231  ;   do.,   of  Balbithan 

(1699),  416. 
Head  Courts  respecting  Sunday,  Inverurie,  189,  192,  199. 
Hedderwick,  104,  157,  273. 

Henderson,  Alexander  and  William  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 
Henderson,  Catherine,  wife  of  George  Leslie  (1620),  441. 
Henderson,  Robert  (Monymusk,  1585),  348. 
Henry,  Henrie,  Alexander  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 
Henry,  Humphrey,  Thomas  and  William  (Inverurie,  1536),  142. 
Henry  III.,  King  of  England,  56. 
Henry,  Prince,  son  of  David  I.,  18,  25. 
Hepburn,  of  Craigie  (1512),  131. 
Hepburn,  David  and  James,  of  Congalton,  472. 
Hepburn,  Gra?me,  wife  of  Sir  R.  D.  H.  Elphinstone,  472. 
Herd,  Cuthbert,  Collihill  Chaplains,  231. 
Herd,  Town-,  Inverurie,  193,  195,  199,  200. 
Heritage  in  Burghs,  Law  of  (1400),  118. 
Heritors  of  Inverurie  {circa  1460),  118-120  ;  (circa  1600),  174,  175,  182  ;  (1633),  257,  258  ;  (1645-6), 

292,  293  ;  (1460-1700),  389,  398. 
Heritors  of  the  Garioch,  vide  Families. 
Herman,  James,  of  Thainston  {ante  1476),  120. 
Hervie,  Alexander  (Inverurie,  1610-19),  194,  196-206,  395. 
Hervie,  George  (Inverurie,  Notary  Public,  1616),  200. 
Hervy,  Duncan  (Aberdeen,  1411),  89. 
Hervy,  Nicholas  (Kiukell,  1473),  122. 
Hesse  Cassel,  435. 

Heugh  Butts,  Inverurie,  175,  184,  352. 
Hibelet,  Hester  E.,  wife  of  Brigadier  Ferguson  (1700),  377,  478. 


Index.  537 

Highways,  Ancient,  5-10,  22. 

Hillbrae,  202,  (1598),  466,  (1663),  419. 

Hill,  Hyll,  Adam,  David,  Janet,  Dariot  (1650),  144. 

Hill,  Adam  (Inverurie,  1646),  293  ;  do.  (do.,  ante  1694),  394. 

Hill,  Anna  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 

Hill,  Family  of,  Kintore,  62. 

Hill,  William,  Kintore,  62  ;  do.,  Indian  Service,  469. 

Hilton,  Johnston  of,  451,  453. 

Hireman,  James  (Kinkell,  1473),  122. 

History,  Row's  (1650),  308. 

Hochkirchen,  Battle  of,  439. 

Holland,  Countess  of,  Isabel,  wife  of  Alexander  Stewart,  Earl  of  Mar  (1408),  87. 

Holy  Wells,  17,  (1673),  339. 

Holyrood  House  (1697),  381. 

Holloway,  Sir  Charles  ;  and  Mary,  wife  of  Colonel  Leslie  (1832),  444. 

Homicide  in  Early  Times,  124. 

Home,  Lord  ;  and  Margaret,  wife  of  fifth  Earl  Marischal,  438. 

Homilden,  Battle  of  (1402),  57. 

Honest  Men  (1650),  323,  324. 

Hope,  Sir  James,  of  Hopetown  (1660),  439. 

Horn,  Home,  Anne  of  Westhall,  415. 

Horn,  General,  of  Westhall  (bora  1718,  died  1794),  414,  415,  472. 

Horn,  Sir  Henry,  of  Brabant  (1408),  87. 

Horn,  James,  of  Westhall,  Minister  of  Elgin  (1681),  388,  415  ;  do.,  Dalrymple  (1794-7),  472. 

Horn,  John,  of  Westhall  (1696),  388,  415. 

Homes,  Mary  de,  of  Duffle,  wife  of  Alexander  Stewart,  Earl  of  Mar  (1408),  87. 

Hornbutts,  Inverurie,  185. 

Hospital  of  Balhaggardy,  147,  156. 

Hostages  for  David  II.,  105,  106. 

Hostiarius,  vide  Durward. 

Hotel  Charges  (1680),  368. 

Hotspur  (1388),  57,  77. 

Hours  of  Worship  (1647),  302. 

Houseletting  in  Inverurie  (1612),  196. 

Howford,  Inverurie,  93,  185,  350. 

Howieson,  Eobert,  Inverurie  (1476),  119. 

Hudds  Well,  Bourtie,  64. 

Hugh,  Rector  of  Bourtie  (ante  1199),  21. 

Hui,  John,  Probationer  (1697),  426. 

Hume,  David,  Professor  of  Scotch  Law,  Edinburgh  (1800),  487. 

Humphrey,  James  (Inverurie,  1649),  315. 

Hungary,  Liberation  of  (1685),  400. 

Hungryhill,  Inverurie,  183,  185. 

Hunter,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Colonel  Henry  Lock  (1852),  483. 

Hunter,  Captain  William  of  Blackness  (1852),  483. 

Hunter,  William,  Miuister  of  Tyrie  (1697),  426. 

Huntingdon,  David  of,  vide  David. 

68 


538  Index. 

Huntington,  Thomas  Hay  of  (1775),  463. 

Huntly,  Earl  of,  Alexander  (1450),  112,  437,  464  ;  George  (1560-2),  145,  146,  156,  164,  215. 

Huntly,  Family  of,  100,  437. 

Huntly,  Marquis  of,  I.  (1599-1636),  242,  243,  263,  366,  459  ;  II.,  (1636-49),  263-7,  271,  272,  279-82, 

287,  288,  327,  358  ;  III.,  317,  327. 
Huntly,  Town  of,  249. 
Hurrie,  vide  Urrie. 

Hutcheon,  Andrew  (Inverurie,  1600-19),  172,  182,  192,  193,  195,  202,  206  ;  do.  (do.,  1671),  361. 
Hutcheon,  Clara,  wife  of  William  Ronald,  Inverurie  (1609-33),  211,  396. 
Hutcheon,  James  (Inverurie,  1614-1633),  196,  258  ;  do.  (do.,  1674-7),  364,  392,  393. 
Hutcheon,  John  (Inverurie,  1536),  142. 
Hutcheon,  Norman  (Inverurie,  1612),  195. 
Hutcheon,  Walter  (Inverurie,  1600-9),  182,  396. 

Hutchison,  Barbara,  wife  of  Thomas  Ferguson,  W.S.  (1807),  479,  and  family,  484. 
Hutchison,  Jane,  wife  of  Dr.  William  Bruce,  484. 
Hyde,  Ann,  first  wife  of  James  VII.,  371. 


I. 

Iidell,  Idell,  Ydel,  Elspet,  Monymusk  (1685),  348. 

Idell,  Walter,  Vicar  of  Inverurie  (1428),  118,  120. 

Idell,  William,  Schoolmaster,  Chapel  of  Garioch  (1670),  326. 

Iden,  Meldruni  of  (1643),  279,  307  ;  George  Leslie  of  [circa  1700),  423. 

Idlers,  Restrictions  against,  192,  196. 

Imray,  John,  of  Drimmies  (1800),  487. 

Incomes  of  Scottish  Nobles  (circa  1400),  106. 

Inchmarlo,  Davidson  of,  447. 

Independents  (1660),  310,  317,  331,  358,  374. 

Induction  of  Ministers,  Form  of  (1699),  428. 

Inging,  Barbara,  Inverurie  (1609),  193. 

Inglis,  Alexander,  Vicar  of  Bethelnie  (1404),  126  ;  do.  (1476),  126. 

Inglis,  John  (Inverurie,  1402),   115. 

Inglis,  Margaret,  wife  of  Andrew  Johnston  (1840),  456. 

Inglestown,  197,  225,  351. 

Ingolwitz,  Storming  of  (1655),  443. 

Inhabitants,  Primitive,  1,   9. 

Innes,  of  Ardtannies  (160S),  177  ;  of  Auchintoul  (1635),  442  ;  of  That  Ilk  (1639),  268  ;  of  Inver- 

markie  (1600),  445  ;  of  Leuehars  (1600),  466  ;  of  Raemoir  (1878),  460  ;  of  Tipperty  (1644),  280. 
Innes,  Alexander,  of  Cults  (1612),  170  ;  do.  (Notary  Public,  1703),  431;  do.,  of  Raemoir  (1878),  460. 
Innes,  Andrew  (Inverurie,  1600),  182,  192, 
Innes,  Basting  (Mill  of  Saphoch,  1635),  161. 
Innes,  Hugh,  Probationer  (1698),  426. 
Innes,  Janet,  wife  of  William  Leslie  (1600),  445  ;  do.,  wife  of  John  Leslie  (1635),  442;  do.,  wife  of 

John  Leslie  (1651),  446. 


Index.  539 

Innes,  Jerome,  Minister  at  Fyvie  (1650),  446. 
Innes,  John  (Cults,  1612),  170. 

Innes,  Margaret,  wife  of  William  Seton  (1571),  464,  466  ;  do.,  wife  of  Walter  Gordon  [post  1643),  179. 
Innes,  Patrick,  Minister  at  Banff  (1697),  426. 

Innes,  Robert,  of  Invermarkie  (1600),  445 ;  do.  (Aberdeen,  1790),  396. 

Innes,  Walter  (Ardtannies,  1608-16),  172,  176-9,  193,  268,  412,  470,  his  children,  Captain  Innes, 
Alexander,  Walter,  John,  Janet,  Marjorie,  Margaret,  179  ;   do.,  Vicar  of  Leslie  (ante  1600), 
153,  159. 
Innes,  William,  ofTipperty  (1644),  280  ;  Sir  William  (1296),  40. 
Insch,  Ingemabanin,  Vicarage  of  Lindores,  19,  21,  25  ;  Boundary  (1651),  310  ;  Endowments  (1257), 

35,  (1366),  79,  (1600),  157  ;  Settlement  at  (1703),  429-30  ;  Eldership,  430. 
Insch,  Laird  of,  Alexander  Ross  (1696),  388. 
Insch,  Mill  of,  479. 

Insch,  Schoolmaster,  George  Crichton  (1685),  326  ;  James  Farquhar  (1709-10),  424-5. 
Insch,  Town  of  (1257),  36  ;  Trade  in  (1696),  383. 

Insch,  Vicars  and  Ministers  :  Ralf  (1172-99),  21  ;  Stephen  Mason  (1567),  154 ;  Walter  Robertson  (1585), 
154  ;  Alexander  Paterson  (1592),  154  ;  William  Barclay  (1596-1603),  154  ;  James  Spence,  154  ; 
John  Logie  (1607-13),  239  ;  Alexander  Ross  (1631),  239  ;  Alexander  Ross  (1651-1660),  239; 
John  Paton  (1680-91),  429  ;  John  Turing,  Intruder  (1692-1702),  429,  430  ;  John  Maitland 
(1703),  430  ;  Alexander  Simpson  (1720),  462. 
Inschderocroft,  157. 

Intemperance,  Restrictions  against  (1616),  197,  205,  244. 
Inventories  (1616-40),  179,  209. 
Inver,  Monymusk  (16S5),  348. 
Inverallochy,  Fraser  of,   264  ;  William   (1720),  Charles   (1720),    Charles   (1745),  William,    Martha, 

Charles  (1814),  Frederick  (1871),  416. 
Inveramsay,  Inuiralmusy,  House,  417  ;  Lairds  of:  Earls  and  Lords  of  the  Garioeh  ;  Sir  Robert  Erskine 

1357),  63,  75  ;  Patrick  Smith  (ante  1773),  487. 
Inveramsay,  Mill  of  (1351),  63,  122,  178. 
Inverary,  Castle  of,  274. 
Invercanny  (1228),  18,  55. 
Invercauld,  Robert  Farquhar  of  (1657),  461. 

Invercullen  (Cullen),  Toft  in  Burgh  (1200),  21  ;  Manor  of  (1296),  40. 
Inverkeithing,  Toft  in  Burgh  (1200),  21  ;  Harbour  of  (1666),  338. 
Inverkeithny  (1633),  243. 
Inverlochy  (1431),  93,  108,  (1645),  284. 
Invermarkie,  Robert  Innes  of  (15—),  445. 
Inverness,  Toft  in  Burgh  (1200),  21. 

Invernochty,  Manse  of,  in  Chononry,  Aberdeen  (1492),  125. 
Inverugie,  Francis  Cheyne  of  (12—),  40  ;   Sir  Reginald  Cheync  of  (1350),  437  ;   Sir  William  Keith  of 

(1546),   365,  438. 
Inverurie,  Innerurie,  Inverury,  Inverhury,  Inverthurin,  Enrowrie,    Nrurin,   9,  11,  (878),  14,  24-30, 

39,  50,  173-186  ;  in  the  Civil  War,  264-8,  278-85. 
Inverurie,  Battle  of  (1308),  39,  46-50,  436. 
Inverurie  Canal,  472,  483. 

Inverurie,  Castle  of,    2,  5,  6,  7,    26,  31  ;    Castle   Croft,    185,    258  ;  Castle   Hill,    174,    185  ;    Castle 
Yards,  174. 


540  Index. 

Inverurie,  Constables  of,  Malcolm,  Norman,  Norino,  2,  1 6,  30-35,  368,  440. 

Inverurie,  Courts  at  (1262),  37,  (1387),  64,  (1424),  112,  (1660),  350. 

Inverurie,  Inhabitants  (1402),  115  ;  (1464),  119  ;  (1536),  142,  (1600-45),  173-217,  257-9  ;  (1649-1700), 

292,  293,  315-9,  342-6,  349-64,  383-5,  389-98. 
Inverurie,  Lord,  363,  385,  402. 
Inverurie,  Manor  of  (1359),  66. 
Inverurie,  Population  of  (1679,  1850),  360,  472. 
Inverurie,  Regality  Courts  (1663),  361. 
Inverurie,  Sculptured  Stones,  5. 
Inverurie,  Skirmishes  at  (1745),  407-9. 
Inverurie,  Stone  Circles,  Pillars,  &c,  3,  4,  5. 

Inverurie  Burgh,  21,  24,  27,  113-20,  178-207,  256-79,  291-6,  349-53,  360-4,  383,  384,  389-98. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Boundaries,  2S-30,  vide  Marches. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Bridges  (1794),  481. 
Inverurie,  Burgh  of,  Charter  of,  150,  194,  421. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Common  or  Burgh  Lands,  183,  198,  205,  256. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Cross,  9,  30,  114,  174,  190  ;  (Powtate),  362. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Crosswell,  362. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Courts,  192,  198,  199,  200-3. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Davo  of,  440. 

Inverurie  Burgh,  Ferries  and  Fords,  6,  9,  200,  295,  390. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Hangman  (1674),  363. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Heritors  of,  vide  Inverurie  Inhabitants. 

Inverurie  Burgh,  Life  in  (1600-20),  187-217,  (165 ),  315-25,  343-352,  383,  (1780),  482. 

Inverurie  Burgh,  Magistrates  and  Councillors   (1466),  120,  (1580),  151,  (1600-1700),  182,  201,  204, 

213,  214,  247,  259,  349,  350,  363-4. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Markets,  150,  199,  361. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Members  of  Parliament  :    Alexander    Hervie  (1616),  214;    George    Leslie  (1648), 

294  ;  William  Ferguson  (1663),  350,  361  :  James  Elphinstone  (1669),  361  ;  Alexander  Forbes 

(1678),  362. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Mill  of,  29,  178-180,  182,  192,  195,  196,  198,  203,  204,  206,  225. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Millers  :   Walter   Innes  (1600),  176-180  ;    George    Bisset   (1609),  180  ;   John  Reid 

(1626),  161  ;  David  Mackie  (1636),  181;  George  Reid  (1708),  181. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Muir,  185. 

Inverurie  Burgh,  Officers  of  (1476),  120,  (1600-20),  190,  194,  201-3. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Portioners  of,  vide  Inhabitants. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Privileges  150,  205,  350. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Provosts  of,  364,  421,  486. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Roods  of,  7,  119,  174,  257,  258,  289-398. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Royalty  of,  28. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Taxes  or  Customs,  115. 

Inverurie  Burgh,  Teinds,  Contract  of  (1633),  256  ;  Sasine  (1644),  259  ;  Taxes  rated  by  (1672),  362. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Tolbooth    and   Town  House    (1615),  204,   (1642),  349,   (1660),  349,    (1661),  350, 

(1667),  341,  (1669),  344,  (1674),  363)  (1803),  362,  (1863),  39S. 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Town-Clerks  :   Thomas,   son  of  Andrew  (1466),  120  ;    John  Nicolson  (1538),  392  ; 

Alexander  Davidson   (1580),    151,   396  ;   George  Barclay  (1600-9),  159,   189,  191,  194,  (1616- 

17—),  200,  201,  202,  204,  231;  John  Mackeson  (1615),  198,  199,  200,  201,  203  ;   James  Fer- 


Index.  541 

guson  (1646-73),  214,  363  ;  William  Chalmer  (1673-81),  363  ;  George  Scott  (1681-1729),  354, 

356,  384,  391,  393,  483  ;  "William  Lunanand  John  Clerk  (1729-30)  ;  Alexander  Forbes  (1730-6); 

George  Scott  (1736-50),  482,  483  ;  Alexander  Temple  (1750-92)  ;   Alexander  Dauney  (1792-7)  ; 

William  Adam  (1797-1805),  480  ;  Alexander  Tillery  (1805-27)  ;  George  Yeats  (1827-47)  ;  John 

Yeats  (1847-63)  ;  Charles  Brown  Davidson  (1863). 
Inverurie  Burgh,  Twelfth  Part  Lands,  50,  183,  198,  205. 
Inverurie  Parish  and  Kirk  (Vicarage  of  Lindores,  1199),  19,  25,  26,  32,  157,  (1699),  321,  322,  (1660- 

69),  335,  336,  343,  344,  345,  361,  391. 
Inverurie  Parish  and  Kirk,  Altar  (1536),  142;  Dial  (1600),  343  ;  Bell  (1660),  344  ;  Clock  (1774),  353. 
Inverurie  Parish  and  Kirk,  Chapel  (1199),  25. 
Inverurie  Parish  and  Kirk,  Elders  (1650),  315,  317,  (1666),  360. 
Inverurie  Parish  and  Kirk,  Endowments  (1259),  36,  60,  (1366),  79,  (1600),  158. 
Inverurie  Parish,  and  Kirk  Glebe,  27,  259-391,  394-6. 
Inverurie  Parish,  Heritors  (1669),  345. 
Inverurie  Parish,  Kirk  Green,  173,  (1600),  394,  (1673),  369. 
Inverurie  Parish,  Lands  in,  19,  20  ;  do.,  of  Kirk  Session  (1721-1846),  359,  390. 
Inverurie  Parish,  Manse,  1,  27,  125,  346,  395. 

Inverurie  Parish,  Officers,  William  Davidson  (1610),  180  ;  John  Gib  (1642),  303. 
Inverurie  Parish,   Clerks  :    Thomas,  son  of  Andrew  (1466),  120  ;    Thomas  Brown  (1476),  120  ;  John 

Blakhatl  (ante  1536),  142  ;  John  Leslie  (1536),  142. 
Inverurie  Parish,  Patronage  :  Crown  (1600),  159  ;  Lord  Lindores  (1600-17),  293  ;  Forbes  of  Lethinty 

(1617),  293. 
Inverurie  Parish,  School  (1606  36),  171,  172  ;  (1649-1700),  322  (18—),  398  ;  Emoluments  (1606-8), 

171,  172  ;  (1649-58),  322-5  ;  Visitation  of  (1737),  424. 
Inverurie  Parish,  Schoolmasters  :  Gilbert  Keith  (1601),  171  ;  Adam  Barclay  (1607),  171  ;  John  Walcar 

(1607),  172  ;  George  Keith  (1608),  172  ;  Alexander  Mitchell  (1612-49),  161,  172,  173,  211,  213, 

257,  294,  322,  323  ;  George  Robertson  (1650),  323  ;  Arthur  Forbes  (1653),  324  ;  Johu  Walker 

(1655),  324  ;  William  Chalmers  (1657— ante  1690),  324,  325  ;  James  Anderson  (1695),  395  ; 

William  Thain  (1676-8),  ;  Alexander  Davidson  (1698),  424  ;  Robert  Milne  (1710),  424. 
Inverurie  Parish,  Vicars  and  Ministers  :   Bicardus  (1262),  37  ;  Thomas  (1297),   48  ;  Walter  Ydill 

(1428),  118,  120  ;  William  Scrogy,  Chaplain  Curate  (1466),  120  ;  Robert  Howison  (1476),  219  ; 

George  Anderson  {ante  1492),  124  ;  Andrew  Bisset  (1492-8),  124,  125  ;  Gilbert  Cranstone  (ante 

1505),  125,  143  ;  James  Kyd  (1536),  143  ;  George  Paterson  (1573),  153  ;  Alexander  Mackie,  154  ; 

James  Milne  (1600-43),   159,  ct  sea.;  William  Forbes  (1644-79),  214,  et  sea.;  William  Murray 

(1679-1716),  359  ;    William  Watt  (1717-55)  ;  Patrick  Sympson  (1756-63)  ;   James  Hay  (1763- 

70) ;  William  Davidson  (1710-99),  481-2  ;  Robert  Lessel  (1800-53),  395. 
Inverurie  Parish,  Visitations  of  (1649),  303,  (1655),  311,  (1668),  344,  (1723),  346. 
Inverurie,  Presbytery  of  (1581),  153. 
Irish  in  the  Civil  War,  282,  288,  308. 
Irish  Fauld,  at  Wardhouse,  280. 
Irish,  Intemperance,  244. 
Ironside,  Fife,  25. 
Irvine,   Irving,  Irwin,   of  Artamford  (1606-1770),   152,  478  ;  of  Balbithan  (1627-33),  232,  238  ;  of 

Beltie  (ante  1650),  307  ;  of  Bonshaw  (1324),  61  ;  ofBrucklay  (1650— ante  1710— ),  224,  424  ;  of 

Drum  (1324),  61,  87,  94,  152,  256,  257,  279,  287,  3894,37,  442,  444,  464  ;  of  Kingcausie,  444, 

450  ;  of  Kinmuck,  389  ;  of  Kirkton  of  Rayne  (1696),  388. 
Irvine,  Adam,  late  of  Brucklay  (1710),  424. 


542  Index. 

Irvine,  Agnes,  wife  of  Sir  William  Leslie,  14 — ,  442,  444. 

Irvine,  Alexander  (1650),  307  ;  do.,  of  Drum  (14—),  437  ;  do  ,  do.,  (1593-1615),  152,  256,  257,  464  ; 

do.,  late  of  Beltie  (1650),  307  ;  do.,  of  Kirkton  of  Rayne  (1696),  388. 
Irvine,  Sir  Alexander,  of  Drum  (1408-11),  87,  94  ;  do.  (1615),  257,  (1639-44),  279,  287. 
Irvine,  Amelia,  wife  of  Patrick  Leslie  Duguid,  (1762),  444. 
Irvine,  Anne,  wife  of  John  Elphinstone,  (1696),  381,  413,  471. 
Irvine,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Alexander  Seton,  (1581),  464. 
Irvine,  James,  of  Kingeausie  (1750),  444  ;  do.,  Minister  first  at  Tough,  second  at  Monymusk  {circa 

1613),  240. 
Irvine,  John,  of  Balbitlian  (1627-33),  238  ;  do.,  of  Brueklay  (1650),  449. 
Irvine,  Margaret,  wife  of  James  Ferguson,  (1777),  478. 
Irvine,  Mary,  Marie,  wife  of  Thomas  Johnston,    (1650),  410,  450;  do.  wife  of  Patrick  Leslie  (1679), 

443  ;  do.,  wife  of  Dr.  James  Milne,  (1696),  391. 
Irvine,  Robert,  Minister  at  Premnay  (1608),  240  ;  do.  (Drum,  1644),  287. 
Irvine,  William,  of  Drum  (1324),  61. 

Isabel  de  Bruce,  wife  of  Robert  Bruce,  Lord  of  Annandale,  23,  24,  34. 
Isabel  de  Clare,  wife  of  Robert  Bruce,  24. 
Isabel,  Countess  of  Donald,  Earl  of  Mar  (1330),  69. 
Isabel,  of  Douglas,  Countess  of  Mar,  56,  58,  76,  78,  86,  87,  105,  114. 
Isabel,  Queen  of  Robert  I.,  41,  45. 
Isaackston,  197,  225,  238,  351. 
Isles,  Lord  of  The,  88,  108. 


Jack,  John,  Inverurie  (1536),  142. 

Jackson,  John  (Inverurie,  1614),  196  ;  William  (Aberdeen,  1411),  89. 

Jackston  of  Fyvie,  Thomas  Abercromby  of  (1675),  329. 

Jacobites,  332,  335,  352,  402,  407,  417,  439. 

Jaffray,  Alexander,  of  Kingswells,  Sen.  (1615-45),  177,  210,  220,  222,  225,  250,  251,  269,  365,  366, 
418  ;  Junior,  225,  226,  278,  280,  287,  288,  289,  297,  298,  317,  327,  341,  350,  351,  357,  358, 
359,  365,  366,  440. 

Jaffray,  Andrew,  of  Ardtannies  (1696-1723),  30,  350,  384,  440  ;  do.,  Episcopal  Minister  at  Aber- 
deen, 333. 

Jaffray,  John  (Aberdeen,  1644),  280. 

Jaffray,  Thomas  (Aberdeen,  1644),  288,  289. 

James,  Earl  of  Douglas  and  Mar,  Lord  of  the  Garioch,  57,  58,  76,  77. 

James,  King,  I.,  8,  29,  54,  58,  86,  100,  105,  106,  108,  109,  112,  137. 

James,  King,  II.,  29,  59,  109,  110,  437,  438. 

James,  King,  III.,  59,  110,  111,  176,  438. 

James,  King,  IV.,  29,  59,  111,  138,  438,  470. 

James,  King,  V.,  106,  137,  140.  « 

James,  King,  VI.,  156-160,  216,  219,  240,  242,  248,  249,  262,  438. 

James,  King,  VII.,  331,  355,  359,  370,  380,  426. 

James,  The  Pretender,  359,  380. 


Index.  543 

Jamieson,  George,  The  Painter,  168,  291. 

Jatuieson,  Robert,  Minister  at  Clatt  and  Forbes  (1615),  233  ;  do.  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 

Jardine,  A.,  Insch,  and  family,  479. 

Jardine,  Mary,  wife  of  Andrew  Jopp,  477. 

Jesuit  Priests  (1588),  156,  (1637),  249,  (1702),  423. 

Joan  of  York,  Queen  of  Alexander  III.  (1220),  436. 

John  of  Bavaria  (1408),  37. 

John,  King  of  England,  23. 

John,  The  Scot,  Earl  of  Huntingdon,  23,  34,  60,  62,  368. 

Johnnie  Auld,  Inverurie,  185. 

Johnson,  William  (Aberdeen,   1411),  89. 

Johnston,   of  Annandale,  453 ;    of    Ardtannies    (1609),   177  ;     of   Badifurrow     (1742-96),   410  ;    of 

Bendauch  (14—),  121,  130  ;  of  Caiesmill  (1610),  449  ;  of  Caskieben  (1380-1633),  25,  75,  89,  99, 

100,  122,  141,  143,  151,  162,  164-8,  170,  173,  177,  197,  198,  203,  220,  £23-5,  328,  365,  448  ; 

of  Craig  (1613-1724),  208,  225,  451  ;    of  Crimond  (16—),  251,  448  ;   of  Disblair  (circa   1600), 

469  ;   Foresterhill  (1613),  168  ;  of  That  Ilk,  208  ;  of  Ingleston  (1623),  212  ;  of  Muirton  (1609), 

193,  225  ;  of  Newplace  (1621-1707),  224,  225,  417  ;  of  Sliepiehillock  (1613),  419  ;  of  Standing 

stones  (circa  1540),  449.     See  also  below. 

Johnston,  wife  of  Alexander  Low. 

Johnston,  Agnes,  wife  of  Reid  of  Colliston,  (1550),  449  ;  do.,  wife  of  Robert  Johnston,  (1631),  449. 

Johnston  Aisle,  Church  of  Monkegy,  369. 

Johnston,  Alexander,  of  That  Ilk  and  Caskieben  (1481-1508),  110,   121,  122,   125,  418  ;  Inverurie 

(Doomster,  1615),  198,  (1665),  292,  293,  (1651),  317,  322,  (1658),  361,  390,  (1664),  351,  352, 

(1677),  364,  394  ;  do.,  W.S.,  Aberdeen  (1878),  451,  453,  455,  457. 
Johnston,  Alexander,  Andrew,  John,  Thomas  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 
Johnston,  Andrew  (Balquhain),  453,  455  ;  do.  (Inverurie),  456. 
Johnston,  Sir  Archibald,  of  Warristoun  (16 — ),  251. 
Johnston  Arms,  458. 
Johnston,  Arthur,  Medicus  Regius,  164,  165,  250,  365,  366,  449  ;  hisfamily,  168  ;  do.,  Lake  (Hilton, 

died  1853),  451,  452. 
Johnston,  Barbara,  wife  of  Mr.  Robert  Elphinstone,  (1606),  449. 
Johnston,  Barony  of,  197. 

Johnston,  Bessie,  wife  of  Alexander  Chalmers,  (15 — ),  449  ;  do.,  wife  of  Gilbert  Hay,  (1550),  449. 
Johnston,  Christian  (Caskieben,  1613),  208  ;   do.,  wife  of  Laird  of  Linton,  (15—)..  448  ;   do.  wife  of 

John  Forbes  of  Pitnacalder  (15—),  450  ;  do.  wife  of  Rev.  Dr.  Keith,  (1650),  449. 
Johnston,  Crower  (1639),  251,  265,  269,  271. 
Johnston,  Cuthbert  (Inverurie,  1536),  142. 
Johnston,  David  Morice  (London,  died  1863),  452,  455. 
Johnston,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Bannemian  of  Elsick  (1613),  449  ;  do.  wife  first  of  John  Seton,  (1639), 

second  of  the  Earl  of  Hartfell,  466  ;    do.,  wife  of  Alexander  Leith  (1652),  450,  462  ;    do.  wife 

first  of  Alexander  White,  second  of  Mr.  Keith  (circa  1670),  366. 
Johnston,  George,   of  that  Ilk  and  Caskieben  (1548-1593),  151,  164,  445,  449,  456  ;  do.,  son  of  Dr. 

Arthur  (1623),  118  ;  do.  (Caskieben,  1600),  449  ;  do.  (Ceylon,  1875),  453,  465. 
Johnston,  Mr.  George,  Dean  of  Guild  of  Aberdeen  (1577), 449,  456. 
Johnston,  Sir  George,  of  That  Ilk  and  Caskieben  (1613-61),  first  Baronet,  57,  161,  166,  177,  198,  203, 

207,  213,  222,  224,  225,  238,  242,  250,  256,  257,  259,  306,  324,  328,  350,  351,  365,  366,  394, 

395,  449,  450,  462,  466  ;  do.,  do.,  second  Baronet,  358,  445,  449,  450. 


544  Index. 

Johnston,  Gilbert  Miller,  Aquhorties,  (1622),  181,  186  ;  do.,  of  Ardtannies,  Forresterhill,  and  Muirton 
(1609),  168,  177,  193,  445,  449,  450  ;  do.  (Bourtie,  1651),  309  ;  do.  (Caskieben,  ante  1481),  121, 

448  ;  do.  (Caskieben,  1613),  208  ;  do.  (Inverurie,  1618),  202,  204,  205,  258  ;  do.,  of  Standing- 
stones  (1640),  449. 

Johnston,  Gilbert  de,  of  Caskieben  (1428-81),  121,  448. 

Johnston,  Helen,  wife  of  the  Laird  of  Boddom  (circa  1600),  449. 

Johnston,  Isabel,  wife  of  the  Laird  of  Aslown  (15 — ),  449  ;  do.,  wife  of  Bishop  Blackburn  (1600),  449  ; 

do.,  wife  of  Robert  Cheyne  (1654),  450. 
Johnston,  James  (Litster,  Aberdeen,  16—),  410,  450  ;  do.,  of  Badifurrow  (born  1742,  died  1819),  410  ; 

do.  (Caskieben,  1613),  450;  do.,  of  That  Ilk  and  Caskieben  (1513-48),   448,   456,   458;  do. 

(Inverurie,  1644-51),  292,  293,  315,  317  ;  do.,  Parson  of  Monymusk  (1570,  died  1615),  128, 155, 

209,  236  ;  do.  (son  of  last),  209. 
Johnston,  Janet,  wife  of  Patrick  Leith  (ante  1550),  449,  458  ;  do.,  wife  of  Gilbert  Craig  (1587),  392  ; 

do.,  wife  of  Robert  Johnston  (1600),  449  ;  do.,  wife  of  Andrew  Hutcheon  (1612),  198. 
Johnston,  Jean,  wife  of  Thomas  Johnston  (circa  1600),  449  ;  do.,  wife  of  Forbes  of  Knaperna  (1613), 

449  ;  do.,  wife  of  John  Irvine  of  Brucklay  (circa  1650),  449. 

Johnston,  John,  of  Bishopstown  (died  1716),  450,  453  ;  do.  (Caiesmill,  1612),  170  ;  do.,  of  Caskieben 
(1411-25),  121,  448,  456  ;  do.,  of  That  Ilk  and  Caskieben  (1593-1616),  162,  164-6,  169,  171, 
203,  208,  210,  310,  449,  450;  do.,  of  Ingliston  (1623),  212  ;  do.  (Inverurie,  1536),  142;  do. 
(do.,  Baillie,  1600,  ante  1612),  172,  182,  192,  397  ;  do.  (do.,  1615),  198,  203  ;  do.  (do.,  BaiUie, 
1644-69),  214,  259,  292,  293,  303,  317,  318,  323,  345,  350-3,  360-2,  392-6  ;  do.  (LofthiUock, 
1620),  211  ;  do.  (Millbowie,  Skene,  died  1770),  453  ;  do.,  of  Newplace  (1619),  225  ;  do.,  do. 
(1621),  224,  225,  417,  449 ;  do.,  do.,  do.  (1677),  363,  417,  450  ;  do.,  Professor  in  St.  Andrews 
(156—),  155  ;  do.,  of  Sleepiehillock  (1613),  449  ;  do.  (Standingstones,  Dyce,  died  1700),  451, 
453  ;  Mr.  John  (Aberdeen,  1697),  456. 

Johnston,  Sir  John,  of  That  Ilk  and  Caskieben,  third  BaroDet  (died  1690),  374,  417,  450  ;  do.,  of 
Newplace,  fourth  Baronet  (1690),  417,  449,  450,  451. 

Johnston,  Lands  of  (1380),  63,  (1477),  110,  (1595),  226. 

Johnston-Lodge,  Laurencekirk,  455,  463. 

Johnston,  Margaret,  wife  of  William  Forbes  (1513),  448  ;  do.,  wife  of  James  Johnston  (1540),  449  ; 
do.,  wife  first  of  Skene  of  Skene,  second  of  Duncan  Forbes  (1590),  449  ;  do.  Caskieben,  (1613), 
208  ;  do.,  daughter  of  Dr.  Arthur  (married  1652),  165,  231;  do.,  wife  of  John  Johnston 
(1646),  449  ;  do.,  wife  of  Parson  Cheyne  (1690),  390. 

Johnston,  Marjory,  wife  of  Alexander  Kennedy  (1670),  390. 

Johnston,  Partick  (Aberdeen,  1578),  456. 

Johnston,  Kobert  (Aberdeen),  453,  455,  457,  his  family,  455  ;  do.,  of  Caiesmill  (1612),  170,  449  ;  do. 
(Corsehill,  1620),  211  ;  do.,  of  Crimond  (1635-7),  251,  449,  456  ;  do.  (Inverurie,  1536),  142  ; 
do.  (do.,  1600  ante  1616),  182,  191,  193,  202  ;  do.  (do.,  1645),  292. 

Johnston,  Sir  Samuel,  of  Elphinstone  (1633),  466. 

Johnston,  Stephen  de  ("The  Clerk,"  1380),  57,  63,  75,  89,  114. 

Johnston,  Thomas,  of  Craig  (1613—),  208,  225,  410,  449,  450,  462  ;  do.,  do.  (died  1686),  450;  do., 
of  Disblair  (circa  1600),  449;  do.,  alias  "Commissar,"  Doomster  (Inverurie,  1600,  died 
1624),  182,  190,  200,  202,  207,  212  ;  do.  (do.,  1633),  257,  259  ;  do.  (do.,  1645),  292  ;  do.  (do., 
1696-1745),  391  ;  do.  (Standingstones,  Dyce,  1700),  451,  453. 

Johnston,  Mr.  Thomas  D.G.,  of  Aberdeen  (1620),  449,  456. 

Johnston,  Violet,  wife  of  Patrick  Chalmers  (1590),  449. 

Johnston,  William  (Aberdeen,  1856),  456,  his  family,  453  ;  do.,  Minister  at  Auchindoir  (1698),  432  ; 


Index.  545 

do.,  Minister  at  Auchterless  (1697),  426  ;  do.,  of  Bendauch  (14 — ),  448  ;  do.,  of  Badifurrow 
(1742,  died  1764),  409,  410  ;  do.,  of  Caskieben  and  That  Ilk  (1508-13),  111,  138,  143  ;  do., 
Younger,  of  Caskieben  (died  1547),  138  ;  do.  (Caskieben,  1613),  449  ;  do.,  Civilist  (King's 
College,  Aberdeen,  (1669-73),  169,  366  ;  do.  (Inverurie,  Baillie,  "Senior,"  1600,  died  1621), 
172,  175,  182,  190,  191,  194,  195,  198,  200,  203,  212,  352,  393,  395,  397  ;  do.  (do.,  Baillie, 
"Junior,"  1609-45),  161,  172,  195,  207,  256,  257,  258,  292,  293  ;  do.  (do.,  "Bob's  Willie," 
1609,—  ante  1648),  193,  195,  196,  202,  258,  391,  395  ;  do.  (do.,  alias  Kelt,  1613-33),  195,  258; 
do.  (do.,  son  of  John,  1617),  202,  203  ;  do.  (do.,  1650),  315  ;  do.,  Schoolmaster  of  Kemnay 
(1689),  326,  426,  427  ;  do.,  Minister  at  Kinkell  and  Kintore  (1597),  154. 

Johnston,  Dr.  William,  first  Professor  of  Mathematics,  Marischal  College,  164,  341,  365,  366,  449. 

Johnston,  Sir  William,  of  Craig  and  That  Ilk,  fifth  Baronet  (1716),  450,  451,  453,  454  ;  do.,  of  Hilton, 
&c,  sixth  Baronet  (died  1794),  451,  452  ;  do.,  do.,  seventh  Baronet  (died  1844),  451  ;  do., 
Bacon,  eighth  Baronet  (died  1865),  451-2  ;  do.,  do.,  ninth  Baronet,  451,  452,  453. 

Joss  or  Joise,  Alexander  (Inverurie,  1633),  258  ;  John  and  Robert  (164S),  393. 

Joss-Ford  on  Ury,  185. 


K. 

Kail  and  Peats,  Provision  of  (1614),  188,  196,  (1659),  361. 
Karr,  Kerr,  Bathia,  wife  of  John  Ferguson  (1696),  384,  460. 
Kearn,  Churchyard  of,  237,  405  ;  Minister  of,  William  Mitchell  (1699),  430. 
Keig,  Vicarage  of,  Monymusk,  126,  127. 

Keith,  15,  144  ;  of  Aquhithie  (1611),  23  ;  of  Aquhorsk  (14 — 1633),  238,  438,  445 ;  of  Benholme 
(1600),  438  ;  of  Galston  (1240),  436  ;  of  Grandowme  (1409),  37,  90,  437  ;  of  Inverugie  (1387- 
1547),  365,  437,  438;  Earls  of  Kintore,  429  ;  of  Ludquharn  (1578),  456  ;  Marischals  of  Scotland, 
435-9  ;  of  Northfield  (1742),  437  ;  of  Eavelstone  (1793),  483  ;  of  Troup  (14—),  437. 

Keith, ,  wife  of  William  Ferguson  (172—),  480. 

Keith,  Adam,  Rector  of  Keith-Marischal  (1292),  436. 

Keith,  Agnes,  wife  of  Sir  Archibald  Douglas  (1540),  139. 

Keith,  Alexander,   of  Aquhorsk  (14 — ),   438  ;    do.   (Inverurie,  ante  1686),  397  ;   Sir  Alexander,  of 

Grandowme  (1409-11),  87,  90,  437. 
Keith,  Andrew  (Kintore,  1498),  123. 

Keith,  Ann,  wife  of  William,  Earl  of  Morton,  438  ;  do.,  Countess  Galloway,  439. 
Keith,  Anthony  (1513),  130. 

Keith,  Anthony- Adrian,  Earl  of  Kintore  (1778),  440  ;  do.,  do.  (1812),  440. 
Keith,  Catherine,  wife  of  Alexander  Barclay  (13—),  437  ;  do.  (Keith-hall,  1696),  385  ;  Margaret,  wife 

of  David,  fifth  Lord  Falconer  of  Halkerton,  402,  439,  440. 
Keith,  Charles  (Keithhall,  1696),  385. 

Keith,  Christian,  wife  of  Sir  James  Lindsay  (1395),  77,  437. 
Keith,  David,  Marischal  (1201),  436. 
Keith,  Edward,  vide  Marischal  ;  Lord  Keith,  437. 
Keith,  Egidia,  wife  of  second  Lord  Forbes,  236,  437. 

Keith,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Sir  George  Leslie  (1350),  441  ;  do.,  wife  of  Adam  de  Gordon  (circa  1400) 
437  ;  do.,  wife  of  seventh  Lord  Forbes,  365  ;  do.,  wife  of  Alexander  Irvine  of  Dnim|(15— ), 
437  ;  do.,  wife  of  Viscount  Arbuthnot,  439. 

69 


546  Index. 

Keith,  Elspet,  wife  of  Patrick  Leslie  (1650),  446. 

Keith,  George,  vide  Marischal  ;  do.,  Minister  of  Monkegy  (1675-83),  and  of  Deer,  364,  403  ;  do.,  of 

Northfield  (1742),  437  ;  do.,  Schoolmaster  of  Inverurie  (1608),  172. 
Keith,  Dr.  George  Skene,  minister  of  Keith-hall,  160,  368,  438. 
Keith,  Mr.  George,  Quaker  (166-),  341. 
Keith,  Mr.  Gilbert,  Schoolmaster,    Inverurie    (1607),    171,   do.,    of   Aquhithie  (1611),    231;    do., 

Minister  at  Bourtie  (1611),  154,  160,  239,  306,  311,  316  ;  do.,  Minister  at  Skene  (died  163S), 

160  ;  do.  (Bourtie,  1653),  311. 
Keith,  Sir  Henry,  Marischal,  436. 

Keith,  Herveus  (temp.  David  I.),  436  ;  do.  (1189-96),  436  ;  do.  (1220-50),  436. 
Keith,  Isabel,  wife  of  Sir  Edward  Keith  (1341),  437  ;  do.,  wife  of  Sir  Edward  Turner,  439. 
Keith,  James,  of  Aquhorsk  (circa  1520),  445  ;  do.  Field-Marshal  (died  1758),  439. 
Keith,  Sir  James,  of  Benholme  (circa  1600),  438. 
Keith,  Janet,  wife  of  Sir  Thomas  Erskine  (1385),  59,  437;  do.,  wife  of  Sir  David  Hamilton  (13—), 

437  ;  do.,  wife  of  Philip  Arbuthnott  of  Arbuthnott  (14—),  437. 
Keith,  Jean,  wife  of  Alexander,  first  Earl  of  Huntly,  437  ;  do.,  wife  of  Alexander,   Lord  Pitsligo 

(1639),  43S  ;  do.,  wife  of  George,  Lord  Banff  (1660),  439  ;  do.,  wife  of  Sir  William  Forbes 

(1680),  237,  404,  439. 
Keith,  John,  (ante  1332),  436  ;  do.  (1354),  437  ;  do.,  of  Inverugie  (1387),  437  ;  do.,  of  Troup  (14—), 

437;  do.  (Kintore,  1498),  123  ;  do.   (1527),  139;  do.  (Daviot,   1550),  144  ;  do.,  of  Aquhorsk 

(1633),  238  ;  vide  Kintore  and  Marischal. 
Keith,  Sir  John  (Marischal,  1238),  436  ;  do.  (Otterburn  1388),  77,  437. 
Keith,  Lands  of  (temp.  David  I.),  436. 
Keith,  Malcolm  (1185),  436. 
Keith,  Margaret,  wife  of  Hugh  Arbuthnot  (circa  1500),  437  ;  do.,  wife  of  fourth  Earl  Marischal  (1530), 

365,   438  ;  do,,  wife  of  Gavin  Hamilton  (circa  1790),  439  ;  do.,   wife  of  John  Leslie  (circa 

1700),  446. 
Keith,  Marshall  (died  1758),  439. 
Keith,  Mary,  wife  of  Lord  Kilpont  (1630),  438  ;  do.,  wife  first  of  Sir  James  Hopetown,  second  of  Sir 

Archibald  Murray  (1660),  439. 
Keith,  Muriel,  wife  of  Robert,  Duke  of  Albany  (1411),  437. 
Keith,  Philip  and  Sir  Patrick,  vide  Marischal. 
Keith,  Robert,  Prince  of  Catti  (1010),  15,  435  ;  do.  (1325),  77,  437  ;   do.  (1513),  438 ;  do.,  Com- 

mendator  (1543),  438 ;  do.,  Lord  Alkie  (1587),  438. 
Keith,  Sir  Robert,  vide  Marischal  ;  do.,  of  Troup  (14—),  437 ;  do.  (1630),  438. 
Keith,  Sarah,  wife  of  Patrick  Leslie  (post  1575),  441. 
Keith,  William  (1513),  438  ;  do.,  Master  of  Marischal  (1547),  438  ;  do.  (circa  1580),  438  ;  do.,  Minister 

Keith-hall  (1696),  386. 
Keith,  Dr.  William,  of  Lentush,  Minister  at  Kinnellar  (ante  1650),  then  of  Monkegy,  then  of  Udny, 

then  of  St.  Cuthbert's,  Edinburgh,  and  Professor  of  Divinity,  Edin.  University,  449. 
Keith,  Sir  William,  vide  Marischal;   do.,  of  Galston  (ante  1270),   436;  do.,   of  Inverugie  (1547), 

365,  438. 
Keith-Falconer,  Families  of,  Earls  of  Kintore,  440. 
Keith-Falconer,  Algernon,  Lord  Inverurie,  440. 
Keith-Falconer,  Charles  James,  Commissioner  Inland  Revenue,  440. 
Keith-Falconer,  Ion  Grant  Neville,  Cantab,  440. 
Keith-Falconer,  Isabella,  wife  of  Henry  Grant,  440. 


Index.  547 

Keith-Falconer,  Captain  William,  K.N.,  440. 

Keith-hall  Estate  and  House,  166,  328,  345,  350,  365,  368,  402  ;  Tenants  (1664),  351. 

Keith-hall,  Mill  of,  369,  407. 

Keith-hall,  Ministers  of,  William  Keith  (1696),  386  ;  Dr.  George  Skene  Keith  (1776-1822),  160,  368, 

438;  John  Keith,  (1822-67)  ;  James  Donald  (1867),  407. 
Keith-hall,  Schoolmaster,  George  Ellis  (1696),  387. 
Keith-Marischal,  Hepburn  of  (1800),  472. 
Kellands,  Keylands,  Inverurie,  118,  188. 
Kellie,  in  Garioch,  157  ;  vide  Haddo  House. 
Kellie,  Thomas,  first  Earl  of  (1598),  442. 
Kelpy  Fold,  Conglass,  8. 

Kemnay  Estate,  vide  infra  Lairds  ;  Kaims  of,  1  ;  Tacksmen  (1728),  397. 
Kemnay,  Downie  Family  in,  397,  427. 
Kemnay,  Fair  Maid  of  (14—),  89,  107. 
Kemnay  Girnal  Plundered  (1639,  1640),  266,  272. 
Kemnay  House  (1534),  128,  139,  234,  (1639),  266,  (1640),  272,  (1644),  279,  284,  285,  286,  (1808- 

1830),  420,  421. 
Kemnay  Kirk  (a  Chaplainry  of  Kinkell,  ante  1560),  125,  154  ;  Stipend  (1502),  128  ;  Clerk  (1540), 

128  ;  a  Parish  (1633),  239,  (1662),  336  ;  (1667),  347  ;  (1648),  303  ;  (1653),  310  ;  (1662),  336  ; 

(1667),  347  ;  (1681),  381  ;  Settlement  at  (1699),  426,  427,  428. 
Kemnay,  Lairds  of :  Norman  de  Leslie,  Warden  (1348),  65  ;  Melville  (1397-1468),  65,  68,  90,  102  ; 

Auchinleck,  102  ;  Douglas  {ante  1513-1623),  102,  139,  234  ;  Sir  Thomas  Crombie  (1624-44), 

324  ;  Strachan  (1644-82),  234  ;  Sir  George  Nicholson  01682-88),  366,  377  ;  Burnett  (1688),  364, 

372,  420,  421,  422,  485,  486. 
Kemnay,  Lord,  (Sir  George  Nicolson,  1682),  366,  377. 
Kemnay,  Ministers  of  :  John  Gareaucht  (Chaplain,  1502-1540),  139  ;  Alexander  Sibbald  (1632-41),  239  ; 

John  Seton  (1641-9),  239,  468  ;  David  Leith  (1649-53),  239,  468  ;  James  Willox  (1653-97),  336, 

347,  380  ;  William  Leslie  (1699),  427,  428,  432. 
Kemnay,  Moss  of,  204,  205,  296. 

Kemnay,  Schoolmasters  of:  William  Johnston  (1687),  326,  326,  426-7  ;  John  Farquhar  (1710),  425. 
Kemnay,  Templar  Lands  in  (1611),  20,  231. 
Kendal  (Ardiharrall),  223. 

Kendal,  Letitia,  wife  of  Alexander  Burnett  (1849),  480. 
Kennedy,  Alexander  (Inverurie,  1666),  390. 
Kenneth  MacAlpine,  King  of  Scotland,  13. 
Kenneth  of  Scotland,  Prince,  32. 
Kennethmont,   Vicarage    of     Lindores    (1200),    19,   25  ;     Endowment     (1257),     36,      (1366),    79, 

Boundary,  (1651)  310. 
Kennethmont,  Ministers  :  Walter  Abercromby  (1585),  155  ;   Robert  Cheyne  (1651),   306  ;  William 

Gareoch  (1697),  426. 
Kentie,  Margaret,  wife  of  William  Thain  (1696),  384. 
Ker,  Mr.  Andrew,  Bookseller  (1650),  308. 

Kerco,  Kercow,  in  Carse  of  Gowrie,  Barclay  of  (1314-87),  64,  230. 
Keroughtrie,  Maxwell  of  (1877),  473. 
Ketterines,  Descent  of  (1392),  84,  85. 
Kilblene,  Battle  of  (1335),  70,  436. 
Kilburnie  Harbour  (1666),  338. 


648  Index. 

Kilconquhar,  Sir  Adam  of  (1268),  24. 

Kilcoy,  Colin  Mackenzie  of  (17— ),  416,  471. 

Kildrummie  Castle,  42,  45,  70,  75,  86,  87,  110,  266,  279,  283  ;  Churchyard,  227. 

Kildrummie,  Early  Peopled,  40. 

Kildrummie,  Lord  (1816),  179. 

Kilgour,  Patrick,  Holyrood-house  (1697),  381. 

Killiewalker,  Inverurie,  7,  26,  185. 

Kilmarnock  Burned  (1671),  339. 

Kilnbams,  Inverurie,  174,  391. 

Kilsyth,  Battle  of  (1645),  286,  288,  308. 

Kinaldie,  Forbes  of  (1477-96),  101,  232  ;  Paton  of  (1671),  362  ;  Strachan  of  (1671),  329  ;  Far,juharson 
of  (1781),  410. 

Kinaldie,  Little  and  Meikle,  Leslie  of  "Wardes  (1508),  111,  221. 

Kinbroon,  Garviauch,  and  Johnston  (1380),  63  ;  Elphinstone  (1606),  447-9. 

Kincraigie,  Leslie  of  (1527-1688),  139,  142,  143,  161,  169,  172,  186,  189,  210,  219,  236,  238,  285,  307, 
321,  322,  328,  345,  380. 

Kindrocht  (Braemar),  St.  Rule  of,  13  ;  St.  Andrew  of,  55,  126,  127. 

King  Aodh,  slain  at  Inverurie  (878),  14. 

King  Arthur,  12,  13. 

King  Charles  II.  at  Pitcaple,  (1650),  297. 

King  James's  Kirks  in  the  Garioch  (1600),  156. 

King,  of  Barra,  James  (1490-1506),  103,  111  ;  William  (1506),  103  ;  William  (1547),  103  ;  James  (1581), 
103 ;  William  (1577-96),  103  ;  David,  103,  151  ;  Janet  (1586),  103  ;  Sir  James,  Lord  Ythan, 
256,  278. 

King,  of  Bourtie  :  James  (1490-1505),  103,  111  ;  William  (1506-1548),  103. 

King  Edward's  Prayer-Book,  332. 

King,  Janet  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 

King,  John  (Excom.  1650),  307. 

King,  Mason  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 

Kings'  Burn,  Ford  and  Hill  (Mounie,  Daviot),  51. 

King's  College  Founded  (1494),  130  ;  Regents  in,  239,  240,  241,  366  ;  shut  (1629),  264  ;  Collection 
for  (1658),  320,  466. 

Kingcausie,  Irvine  of,  444,  456. 

King-Edward,  Barony  of,  228  ;  Discipline  (1650),  307  ;  Sir  Henry  Guthrie  of,  354. 

Kinghorn,  Earl  of  (1639),  264,  270,  281. 

Kingswalls,  Alexander  Jaffray  of,  vide  Jaffray. 

Kinguidie,  John  Leith  of  (1754)  ;  Ann  (1807),  462. 

Kinkell,  Highway  by,  Edward  I.  at,  40. 

Kinkell,  Kirk  of,  Ecchsia  Plcbania  ;  Knights  Templars,  125  ;  Chaplainries,  125  ;  a  Prebend,  125  ; 
Relics  of,  122,  133,  134,  304 ;  Dissolution  of,  302  ;  Visitation  of,  304. 

Kinkell  Parishioners  (1473),  122. 

Kinkell  Parsons,  &c,  Henry  Lichton  (1410),  87  ;  William  Auchinleck  (1473),  122,  125  ;  Adam  de 
Gordon  (1494),  125  ;  James  Ogilvie  (1503-18),  125,  129  ;  Alexander  Galloway  (1518-52),  136  ; 
Henry  Lumsden  (1563),  125  ;  Thomas  Lumsden  (1571),  125  ;  Readers  (to  1580),  154  ;  Minis- 
ters—William Johnston  (1586-97),  154  ;  John  Walker  (1595-1615),  154,  162  ;  Patrick  Leslie 
(1633),  161  ;  John  Cheyne  (1623-43),  239  ;  William  Leith  (1644-9),  214,  273,  302,  305  ;  John 
Gellie,  younger  (1651),  240  ;  Thomas  Wemyss  (1683-95),  387  ;  George  Skene  (1697),  426. 


Index.  549 

Kinkell,  Michael  Fair  of,  114,  245. 

Kinkell,  Schoolmaster  of,  Patrick  Wishart  (1710),  425. 

Einloch,  Sir  James  (1745),  409. 

Kinloch,  Alexander  Seton  of,  465. 

Kinloss,  Monks  of,  21. 

Kinmuck,  157,  238;  Irvine  of  (1 696),  389. 

Kinmundy  in  New  Machar  (1609),  418. 

Kinmundy  in  Buchan,  Ferguson  of  (1724),  355,  377,  478,  479. 

Kinnaird,  Walter  Ferguson  of,   354. 

Kinnear,  Thomas,  Minister  at  Echt  (1697),  426. 

Kinneff,  Kirk  of,  Manse  of,  Minister  of,  James  Granger  (1651),  366. 

Kinnellar,  Kirk  of,  Chaplainry  of  Kinkell,  20  ;  Minister,  Dr.  Will  Keith  {ante  1650),  449,  (1652) 
462  ;  Minister,  John  Angus  (1697),  462. 

Kinnernie,  Minister,  James  Murray  (1567-73),  155  ;  Alexander  Ross  (1653),  240. 

Kinninmond,  Matthew,  Bishop,  vide  Aberdeen  Bishop. 

Kinninmonth,  James  Cumming  of  (1750),  478. 

Kinnoul,  Earl  of  (circa  1660),  439. 

Kintore  Arms  Hotel,  Inverurie,  391,  395. 

Kintore,  Burgh  of,  3,  28,  118,  364,  416  ;  Burgh  Elder  (1760),  413  ;  Magistrates  and  Heritors  (1498), 
123  ;  Town  Clerk  (1616),  202  ;  the  Civil  War,  264,  265,  268,  271,  273,  280,  284,  295  ;  Cess 
(1669),  350  ;  Davo  of,  111. 

Kintore,  Earldom  of,  365-6  ;  Arms,  440. 

Kintore,  Earls  of,  I.  Sir  John  Keith  (1642-1714),  222,  237,  277,  341,  345,  350,  351,  362,  363,  364, 
365,  367,  369,  385,  390,  392,  394,  402,  404,  426,  438,  439  ;  II.  William  (1714-18),  385,  393, 
402,  409,  439  ;  III.  John  do.  (1718-58),  402,  439  ;  IV.  William,  402,  440  ;  V.  Anthony  Adrian 
(1778-1804),  391,  402,  440  ;  VI.  William  (1804-1812),  440  ;  VII.  Anthony  Adrian  (1812-44), 
356,  440  ;  VIII.  Francis  Alexander  (1844),  440. 

Kintore,  Forest  of  (temp.  Rob.  I.),  62. 

Kintore,  Kirk  of,  Chaplainry  of  Kinkell,  125  ;  Relics,  133  (Stipend,  1600),  154-5  ;  (1662)  335, 
(1671)  339  ;  Kintore  Ministers— Gilbert  Chalmers  (Chaplain,  1498),  129  ;  John  Chalmers 
(Reader,  1570),  170;  Walter  Robertson  (1583),  154;  William  Forbes  (1598),  154;  Archibald 
Rait  (1602-24),  240  ;  Alexander  Lunan  (1628-33),  240  ;  John  Cheyne  (1640-9),  450  ;  Andrew 
Strachan  (1649-79),  240,  339  ;  William  Gordon  (1695),  387  ;  William  Thomson  (1697),  426. 

Kintore,  Margaret  and  Christian  (Kintore,  1498),  123. 

Kintore  Schoolmasters  (15— ),  165;  John  Forbes  (1671),  326;  Robert  Keith  (1676),  326;  George 
Birnie  (1683),  826,  340  ;  William  Bruce  (1710),  425. 

Kintore,  Thanedom  or  Barony,  Extent  of,  111  ;  Holders  of — Robert  Chalmers  (1357),  62  ;  Princess 
Maude  (temp.  Dav— ),  62  ;  Earl  of  Sutherland  (do.),  62  ;  John  Dunbar,  Earl  of  Moray  (1375-83), 
62  ;  Leslie  of  Wardes  (1508),  111. 

Kirk  Keeping  (1618),  205,  (1650)  315,  (1703)  431  ;  Penalties,  205. 

Kirkhill  of  Leslie  (1600),  157. 

Kirklands  in  the  Garioch  (1600),  157. 

Kirkpatrick  ("Mak  Siccar"),  43. 

Kirks  under  Neglect  (1650),  320. 

Knaperna,  Forbes  of,  324,  449. 

Knapska,  191,  192. 

Knight  Erskine  of  Pittodrie,  418,  474 


550  Index. 

Knight,  Colonel  Henry  (1780),  474,  477. 

Knight  Marischal  of  Scotland,  367,  368,  439. 

Knights  Templars,  Kirks  and  Lands  of,  20,  125. 

Knitting  in  Inverurie  (178-),  483. 

Knookinbaird,  111,  220,  430. 

Knockinglas,  Kirkinglas,  Conglass,  60,  vide  Conglass. 

Knockinglews,   Knockingblewis,  Barony  of,  17,  19,  32 ;  Hill  of,  3  ;    Mill  of,  178,  181  ;    Millers,  181  ; 

Tenants,  209. 
Knockleith,  James  Urquhart  of  (16 — ),  468. 
Knowledge  Qualification  (1650),  316. 
Knox  of  That  Ilk  (1512),  131. 
Knox,  John,  Scheme  of  Schools,  170  ;  Liturgy,  332. 

Kyd,  Dom.  James,  Vicar  of  Inverurie  (1536),  142  ;  William  (Inverurie,  1600),  162. 
Kyle,  Bishop  (1809),  378. 
Kyner,  John  of  (Kinkell,  1473)  122. 
Kynuncle,  Mary,  first  wife  of  Dr.  Arthur  Johnston,  165. 


Lady  Craft  of  Blair,  418. 

Ladies  of  the  Garioch,  see  Garioch. 

Lagavin,  James  Burnett  of  (168-),  485. 

Lairds  {circa  1500),  131,  (circa  1600)  216,  (circa  1650)307. 

Lake  Dwellings,  40. 

Lamb,  Simon  (Aberdeen,  1411),  89. 

Lamb,  Margaret,  wife  of  George  Scott  (1671),  329. 

Lamberton,  Sir  Alexander  (1296),  40. 

Lamberton,  William  de  (1199),  19,  21  ;  do.,  Rector  of  Turriff  (1262),  37. 

Lamont,  Dr.  George  (Kemnay,  1795),  421,  486. 

Lamp,  Sepulchral  (Broomend),  5. 

Land  Tax  (1607),  191. 

Lands  and  Lairds  in  the  Garioch,  16,  31.  37,  60-67,  99-105,  110,  111,  388. 

Langcruick  (Lindores),  157. 

Lang  Johnnie  More,  74,  98. 

Largie  (Lindores),  157  ;  Leslie  of,  193  ;  John  Keid  in  (1701),  430. 

Largs,  Battle  of,  436. 

Latin  Language  in  Schools,  170,  174,  424. 

Laud,  Archbishop,  333. 

Lauder,  Bridge  of,  110. 

Lauder,  Isabella,  wife  of  Alexander  Leslie  (1460),  444. 

Lauder,  Margaret,  wife  of  Sir  Alexander  Seton,  Lord  Pitmedden,  467. 

Lauder,  William,  Clerk  of  Session  (1677),  467. 

Laurence,  Abbot  of  Melrose  (1175),  31,  60. 

Laurence,  The  Bell  (St.  Nicholas  Steeple),  72,  123. 


Index.  551 

Laurence,  Eda,  wife  of  Philip  de  Keth,  436. 

Laurieston,  Straiton  of  (Harlaw),  89. 

Lauxus,  Leslaeana,  440,  443. 

Law,  John  Gordon,  younger  of  (1671),  329. 

Lawellside,  43  ;  Simpson  (1676),  329,  (1696)  389. 

Lawrence  Fair,  140,  245,  246. 

Laws,  Bessie  Forbes,  Goodwife  of  (1629),  210  ;  Pittendreich,  Portioner  of  (1675),  329. 

Laws  of  the  Four  Burghs,  115-117. 

Laws  enacted  in  Inverurie  anent  Ale,  195,  196  ;  Bestial,  197  ;  Buildings,  191,  200  ;  Crops,  190,  193, 
194  ;  Drinking,  195,  196  ;  Geese,  196  ;  House  Letting,  193  ;  Idlers,  192,  196  ;  Maintenance, 
181,  196,  361  ;  Marketing,  200  ;  Pasturing,  189,  190,  193,  194,  200  ;  Protection  of  Trade,  166, 
192,  205  ;  Sabbath  Keeping,  192,  196,  199  ;  Sheep,  191  ;  Swine,  191  ;  Taverns,  195,  196  ; 
Turfing,  195,  201. 

Lawson,  Alexander,  Stober,  Inverurie  (1649),  321. 

Layard,  Catherine,  daughter  of  Lieut. -General  Layard,  wife  of  Colonel  Andrew  Lock  (1860),  483. 

Laybach,  William  Leslie,  Bishop  of  (1718),  41. 

Learning,  (circa  1500),  130. 

Learny,  Sir  Robert  Forbes  of  (1720),  414,  471. 

Leask  of  that  Ilk  (1512),  131. 

Leask,  James  (Aberdeen,  1411),  89  ;  do.,  Schoolmaster,  Premnay  and  Oyne  (1683-1710),  326,  386,  42§, 

Ledinghani,  Lodhgavel  (Lindores,  1200),  25,  31..60,  157. 

Ledingham  Croft  (Blakhall,  1696),  384. 

Leeds  (1633),  227. 

Legal  Profession  (circa  1700),  387. 

Legate,  Papal  (Galo,  1200),  22,  30. 

Legatsden  (1411),  96,  (1639),  266,  280. 

Leggat,  197,  (1664),  351,  390. 

Legrand,  Jane,  wife  of  Alexander  Ferguson  (1820),  485. 

Leibnitz,   420. 

Leith,  458  ;  of  Ardoyne  (1499),  329,  389  ;  of  Auld  Rayne,  307,  334  ;  of  Barnes  (1355),  72,  73,  90, 
101,  102,  105,  110,  123,  131,  234,  458,  464,  466  ;  of  Blackbogs  (1359),  66  ;  of  Blair  (1505), 
101,  (1650-1807)  419,  459,  462;  of  Blakhall,  459;  of  Bucharne  (1620),  458,  459,  462,  463;  of 
Cairden  (1668),  329,  389  ;  of  Caprington  (1388),  72  ;  of  Craighall  (1672),  329  ;  of  Drumrossie 
(1369),  66  ;  of  Edingarroch  (1282),  38,  72,  234,  238,  401,  449,  458,  459  ;  of  Harthill  (1499- 
1720),  246,  265,  267,  284,  301,  305,  310,  334,  339,  445,  448,  460,  461,  462  ;  of  Kirktown  of 
Rayne  (1630),  459  ;  of  Leithfield  (1829),  463  ;  of  Leith-hall  (1650),  238,  400,  401,  458,  459  ; 
of  Licklyhead  (1598-1620),  238,  446,  459  ;  of  Montgarrie  (1595),  326  ;  of  Newlands  (1668, 
1677),  329,  340  ;  of  New  Leslie,  401,  459  ;  of  Overhill  (1536-1817),  460,  461  ;  of  Treefield 
(1605-1702),  329,  352,  401,  410,  462,  473  ;  of  Whiteriggs,  459. 

Leith, ,  (Bucharne),  wife  of  Mr.  Fyfe  (18—),  463. 

Leith,  Alexander,  of  or  in  Bucharne  (1652),  450,  462 ;  do.,  462 ;  do.  (died  1763)  and  family,  463 ;  of 
Freefield  and  Glenkindie  (died  1794),  401,  and  family,  460  ;  do.,  401,  and  family,  460  ;  do. 
(died  1828),  460  ;  do.,  401,  460  ;  (Harthill,  1630)  461  ;  of  Leith-hall,  Leith  Hay  ;  (died  1838), 
459  ;  do.  (1862),  459  ;  (Treefield,  circa  1712)  462  ;  (Insch,  1652)  311. 

Leith,  Sir  Alexander,  Lieut. -Colonel  (Bucharne,  died  1783),  463  ;  do.,  Advocate  (Bucharne,  died 
1842),  463  ;  do.,  K.C.B.  (Freefield),  401,  413,  460. 

Leith,  Sir  Andrew,  of  Leith-haD,  and  family,  459. 


552  Index. 

Leith,  Anna,  wife  of  Alexander  Gordon  (1608),  339,  461;  do.,  wife  of  Alexander  Innes  (1878),  460  ; 

do.  (Kingurdie,  1807),  462. 
Leith  Arms,  72,  459,  460,  461,  462. 
Leith,  Dr.  Charles  (Johnston,  died  1781),  463. 
Leith,  Dr.  David,  Minister  of  Kemnay  (1649-53),  239,  303,  311. 
Leith,  Disney,  Major-General,  401,  460. 
Leith,  Elizabeth,  of  Edingarroch,  wife  of  Norman  Leslie  (1320),  73  ;   do.  wife  of  Mr.  John  Forbes 

(1505),   458;   do.,  wife  of  Dr.  John  Stewart    (circa  1800),  463  ;    do.,  wife  of  Peter  Gordon  of 

Abergeldie,  460. 
Leith,  George,  of  Mill  of  Axdoyne  and  Seattbrig  (1672),  329  ;  do.  of  Barnes  and  Blair  (died  1505),  101, 

458,  464,  466  ;     do.  of  Blakhall,  459  ;   do.  (Bucharne),  462  ;   of  Craighall  (1672),  329  ;  do.  of 

Edingarroch  (1550),   458;    do.   (Harthill,   1679),   334,  462;   do.  (London,  1842),  463;    do.  of 

New  Rayne  (1679),  462  ;   do.  of  Overhall  (1618),  460  ;   do.  (1633),  461  ;    do.  (do.  1655),  461 ; 

do.  (do.  1700),  461  ;  do.  (do.  died  1817),  461  ;  do.  of  Treefield  (1605),  334,  460,  461,  462  ;  do. 

(do.  1643),  462,  473  ;    do.  (do.  1665-1702),  352,  462  ;    do.  Minister  at  Culsalniond  (1635),  239, 

and  at  Bethelny  (1660),  240,  305. 
Leith,  Sir  George  (Bucharne  died  1842),  463  ;  do.  (Bucharne,  1878),  463. 
Leith,  Gilbert,  of  Overhall  (1536),  460  ;  do.  (do.  1583),  460. 
Leith,  Helen,  wife  of  George  Leith  (1605),  462  ;    do.,  wife  of  George  Leith  (1672),  329  ;    do.  wife  of 

William  Garioch  (1712),  462;  do.,  wife  of  John  Stewart  (died  1751),  462. 
Leith,  Henry  (Aberdeen,  1411),  89  ;  do.  of  Barnes  (1490),  102,  234,  458. 
Leith,  James  of  Leith-hall  (1650),  401,  459  ;  do.,  Sheriff  of  Kincardineshire,  463  ;  do.,  of  Leithfield, 

Major-General  (died  1829),  363  ;  do.  (Major  V.  G),  460. 
Leith,  Janet,  wife  of  Alexander  Seton  (1526),  464,  466  ;  do.,  wife  of  James  Amott  (18—),  463. 
Leith,  Jean,  wife  of  George  Gordon  (1720),  462. 
Leith,  John  de  (1412-20),  72,  105,  458. 
Leith,   John  de,  of  Ardoyne  (1696),   389  ;   do.  of  Blair  (17—),  462  ;  do.  (do.  died  1764),   462 ;    of 

Bucharne,  459,  462  ;  of  Cairden  (1696),  389  ;    do.  (Edingarroch,  1570),  445,  459  ;  of  Harthill 

(1599-1612),  246,  461 ;  do.  (do.  1600-51),  182,  238,  246,  461  ;  do.  (do.  1651—),  275,  305,  461  ; 

do.  of  Leith-hall,   Bucharne,  and  New  Leslie  (1650),  401,  459,  462  ;   do.,  do.  238,  459;  do. 

401,  459  ;  do.  do.,  459  ;   do.,  Rear- Admiral,  459  ;  do.,  Farley,  M.P.,  459  ;  do.,  Fiar  of  Mont- 

garrie  (1595),  226  ;  do.  of  Newlands  (1668-77),  329,  340  ;  do.  of  New  Leslie,  459  ;  do.  of  Over- 
hall (1520),  460. 
Leith,  Lawrence,  of  Barnes  and  Caprington  (1388-1411),  72,  90,  458  ;   do.  of  Bucharne  and  Kirktown 

of  Rayne  (circa  1620),  458  ;    do.  Lieut.  (Bucharne,  died  1795),  463  ;  do.  (New  Flinders,  circa 

1700),  459. 
Leith,  Magdalene,  wife  of  George  Leith  (1618),  460,  461. 
Leith,  Margaret  (1664),  334. 
Leith,  Marjory,  wife  of  Stephen  Leslie  (1610),  446  ;  do.,  wife  of  Norman  Leslie  (circa  1640),  446  ;  do. 

(New  Rayne,  1679),  462. 
Leith,  Mary  Sarah,  wife  of  Robert  Farquharson  (1878),  460. 
Leith,  Norman  of  Barnes  (14—),  458,  460. 
Leith,  Robert,  of  Overhall  (1678),  461  ;  do.  (died  1768),  461. 
Leith,  Patrick  of  Cairden  (1668),  329  ;  of  Edingarroch  (died  1550),  442,  445,  449,  458  ;  do.  (do.  1598), 

459  ;  do.  (do.  1620),  459  ;  of  Harthill  (ante  1499),  445,  458,  461  ;   do.  (do.  1679)  and  family, 

462;  do.  (do.   ante  1758),  462;   do.  ("  Young  Harthill"  died  1747),  284,  288,  301.   461;    of 

Licklyhead  (1598),  446,  459;  do.  (do.  1620),  238,  459. 


Index.  553 

Leith,  Peter  (Harthill,  1644),  288,  461  ;  do.  Younger  of  Treefield  (1702),  460,  462. 

Leith,  Sophia,  wife  of  Rev.  Alexander  Simpson  (1720),  462. 

Leith,  Thomas,  Major  (Freefield,  1878),  460. 

Leith,  Walter  (Bucharne,  1790),  463. 

Leith,  William,  of  Ardoyne  (1696),  389  ;  of  Barnes  and  Euthrieston,  Provost  of  Aberdeen  (1355),  66, 
72,  73,  105,  110,  123,  401,  458  ;  of  Edingarroch  (1499),  458  ;  do.  (do.  died  ante  1598),  459 '; 
do.  of  Harthill  (1650),  46S  ;  do.,  Minister  at  Kinkell  (1644-9),  214,  273,  302,  305  ;  do.  of  Over- 
hall  (ante  1583),  460  ;  do.  of  Parson's  Green,  460  ;  do.  of  Old  Rayne  (1664),  336. 

Leith-hall,  Lands  of,  400,  459. 

Leith  Hay  of  Leith-hall  and  Rannes,  Alexander  (died  1838),  459  ;  do.  (1878),  459  ;  Sir  Andrew  (died 
1S62),  459,  and  family,  459. 

Leith  Ross  of  Arnage,  460  ;  John,  419,  455  ;  do.,  368. 

Leith  Ross,  Christina  Martha,  wife  of  Alexander  Johnston  (died  1878),  455. 

Leith  Ross,  John  (1825),  419,  455  ;  do.  (1878),  368. 

Lennox,  Duke  of  (1611),  160;  Earl  of  (11-),  23,  (1306)  43. 

Lent  Postponed  (1600),  268. 

Lentush,  Ledyntoscach,  Lairds  of,  Duncan  of  Rane  (1304),  61  ;  St.  Michael  (1304-1333),  61  •  Tulli- 
daf  (1400),  104  ;  Arbuthoiot  (1606),  246  ;  Dr.  WiUiam  Keith  (1650),  449  ;  Dr.  Chalmers '(1696) 
388. 

Leochel,  Kirk  of,  Vicarage  of  Monymusk,  20,  126,  127. 

Leopold  I.,  Emperor  (1664),  399. 

Leslie  Family,  2,  8,  92,  100,  104,  144,  328,  440  ;  in  Fife,  34  ;  in  Inverurie,  142,  173,  193,  207. 

Leslie  of  Aquhorties  and  Aquhorsk,  vide  Leslie,  James  and  John  ;   of  Ardoyne  (1505-45),  131,  442, 

470  ;  of  Badifurrow  ( 1613-55),  vide  Kincraigie  ;  of  Balquhain  (1340),  441-4  vide  infra  ;  of 

Barra  (1595),  174  ;  of  Bogs  (1638),  161,  210,  211  ;  of  Buchanstone  (1668-96),  329,  389  ;  of 
Bucharn,  445  ;  of  Carchnie  (1635),  214  ;  of  Clisson,  445  ;  of  Auld  Craig  (1606),  246  ;  of 
Criehie  (1596-1633),  245,  246  ;  of  Duncanstone  (1546),  445  ;  of  Findrassie  (1794),'  446  ;  of 
Little  Folia  (1611-1807),  411  ;  of  Iden  (1710),  423  ;  of  Kinbroon  (circa  1700),  447  ;  of  Kin- 
craigie vide  Kincraigie  ;  of  Largie  (1609),  193  ;  of  New  Leslie  (1613),  194,  441  ;  of  Netherton 
(1650),  315;  of  The  Peill  (1588),  156  ;  of  Pitcaple  (1606-1650),  238,  246,  304,  327  ;  of  Rothes 
(1391),  105,  404  ;  of  Tarbet,  474  ;  of  Tocher  (1760),  465  ;  of  Tullos  (1630)  vide  infra  Alexander  • 
of  Wardes  (14—1651),  100,  111,  220,  444  ;  of  Warthill  (15-),  140,  223,  410,  446. 

Leslie,  do.,  wife  of  Spence  of  Bodom  (1500),  444  ;  wife  of  Robert  Keith  (1513),  444  ; 

do->  wife  of  William  Leith  (1650),  461 ;  do.,  wife  of  Sir  George  Johnston  (1650) ' 

450. 

Leslie,  Abraham,  of  Findrassie  (1795),  446. 

Leslie,  Agnes,  wife  of  James  Harvie  (1550),  442  ;  do.,  wife  of  Laurence  Leith  (1630),  459. 

Leslie,  Alexander,  of  Balquhain  (1467-72),  442  ;  do.  do.  called  of  Tullos  (1671-77),  161,  215,  250,  294, 
319,  330,  345,  399,  400,  413,  442,  443,  470  ;  do.  (Inverurie circa  1600),  161,  174,  182,'  207,' 39o' 
do.  of  Kincraigie  (1527-1536),  139,  142,  321  ;  do.,  1st  Earl  of  Leven,  225  (Pitcaple,  1650);'307 
do.  (Pitcaple,  1655),  311  ;  do.  of  Wardes  (1500),  100,  180,  444,  446  ;  do.  do.  (1573),  444,  445   459 
do.  of  Warthill  (1656-1721),  411,  431,  432. 
Leslie  Alliances,  366. 

Leslie,  Amelia  (wife  of  Alexander  Fraser,  1S00),  444. 

Leslie,  Andrew  (Balquhain  15—),  445;  do.,  Cryn,  Poland  (1619),  207;  do.,  Clerk  of  Daviot  (1550),  144  ; 
do.,  Parson  of  F<4ternear  and  Sheriff  Clerk  of  Aberdeen  (1569),  139,  148;  do.,  of  New  Leslie 
(1613),  194  ;  do.,  of  the  Peill  (158S),  156. 

70 


554  Index. 

Leslie,  Sir  Andrew  de  (1320),  441  ;  do.  do.  (1325-53),  441  ;  do.  do.  (1390),  65,  104,  441  ;  do.  of  Bal- 
quhain  (1378-1420),  89,  107,  108,  235,  442. 

Leslie,  Anne,  Anna,  wife  of  John  Leitli  (1570),  445  ;  do.,  wife  of  John  R.  Grant  (167-),  443  ;  do., 
wife  of  George  Seton  (1714),  446. 

Leslie,  Annabella,  wife  of  Andrew  Bremner  (1530),  445. 

Leslie,  Barbara,  wife  of  William  dimming  (1550),  442. 

Leslie,  Bartolf  of  (11—),  16. 

Leslie,  Bessie,  wife  first  of  Robert  Winton,  second  of  Andrew  Menzies  (1550),  445. 

Leslie,  Caroline,  wife  of  Sir  John  Leslie  (1744),  446. 

Leslie,  Castle,  238,  401. 

Leslie,  Catherine,  wife  of  Christopher  Rolleston,  447. 

Leslie,  Charles,  of  Balquhain  (died  1870),  440  ;  do.  Count,  443  ;  do.  ("  Mussel  Mou,"  1745),  407,  8. 

Leslie,  Sir  Charles,  of  Wardes  (1S26),  446  ;  do.  (bom  1848),  446. 

Leslie,  Christian,  wife  of  Chalmers  of  Balbithan  (1490),  232;  do.,  wife  of  Alexander  Leslie  (1520), 
441  ;  do.,  wife  of  Alexander  Leslie  {ante  1546),  441  ;  do.,  wife  of  Secretary  Burnett  (1782), 
486. 

Leslie,  Clara,  wife  of  Patrick  Leith  (1531),  445,  461. 

Leslie,  Count,  399,  440,  443  ;  Style  of  (1664),  399,  (1695),  443. 

Leslie  Croft  and  Leslie  Horn,  Inverurie,  185. 

Leslie,  David  ;  do.  (died  1439),  89,  104,  105,  441,  442 ;  do.  1st  Earl  of  Newark,  286. 

Leslie,  Elizabeth,  wife  first  of  "William  Seton  (1490),  second  of  Provost  Collison,  138,  444,  446  ;  do., 
wife  of  John  Leslie  (1550),  442;  do.,  wife  first  of  Sir  John  Gordon,  second  of  Sir  George 
Currier  (1640),  445  ;  do.,  wife  of  William  Grant,  Conglass  (1660),  319,  359,  442. 

Leslie,  Field-Marshal,  Earl  of  Leven,  255,  264,  274,  276,  286. 

Leslie,  Forbes  of,  234,  236-9,  270,  272,  289,  338,  401. 

Leslie,  Francis  (Wardes  circa  1630),  445. 

Leslie,  George,  Minister  at  Aberdeen  (16—),  446 ;  do.,  of  Auld  Craig  (1606),  246  ;  do.  of  Balquhain, 
Count,  400,423,  443  ;  do.  of  Bogs,  senior  and  junior  (1629,  1638),  161,  210  ;  do.  of  Crichie  (1607, 
1633),  194,  221,  238,  246,  445  ;  do.  of  Little  Folia  (1655),  447  ;  do.  do.  (1807),  448  ;  do.  of 
Iden  (1710),  423  ;  do.  of  That  Ilk  (1620)  217,  441  ;  do.  (Inverurie,  1610-1650),  194,  203,  204, 
207,  238,  256-7,  274,  282,  293-5,  349,  394  ;  do.  (do.  1677),  364  ;  do.  of  Kinbroon  (circa  1700), 
447  ;  do.  of  Kincraigie  (1613-43),  161,  211,  219,  236,  238,  285,  307  ;  do.  do.  (1643-55),  219, 
322,  405  ;  do.  of  New  Leslie  (1613),  441  ;  do.  of  Rothmaise  (1633),  238  ;  do.  (Warthill,  18—), 
447. 
Leslie,  Sir  George,  of  Balquhain  (1340-51),  66,  441  ;  do.  of  Rothes  (1391),  104,  105. 

Leslie,  Gilbert,  of  Buchanstone  (1668),  329  ;  do.  (Leggat,  1681),  390. 

Leslie,  Henry  (ante  1509),  470. 

Leslie,  Isobel,  wife  of  Alexander  Seton  (circa  1500),  442  ;  do.,  wife  first  of  William  Troup,  second  of 

Andrew  Craig  (circa  1530),  445  ;  do.,  wife  of  James  Horn  (1675),  415. 
Leslie,  James  (Aberdeen,  17-),  411,  447  ;  do.  of  Aquhorties  and  Aquhorsk  (1630),  213,  214,  217,  236, 
238,  243,  298,  307,  327,  329  ;  do.  of  Balquhain  (1715-31),  423,  443  ;  do.  do.  (Michael,  1844-9), 
444  ;  do.  of  Buchanstone  (1671),  329  ;  do.,  (Captain,  1696),  389  ;  do.,  Count,  (Gratz,  1655-85), 
400,  411,  443  ;  do.,  (Ernest,  1693),  400,  411,  443  ;  do.,  (Inverurie,  1536),  142,  do.,  (do.  1681), 
393  ;  do.  of  Little  Folia  (born  1630)  447 ;  do.  (Wardes,  1640),  474  ;  do.  (Warthill,  born  1625) 
446  ;  do.  (do.  18—),  447  ;  do.  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 
Leslie,  Janet,  wife  of  Alexander  Leslie  (1520),  441  ;  do.,  wife  of  William  Duguid  (1560),  442;  do., 
wife  first  of  John  Gordon  (1630),  second  of  George  Gordon,  445. 


Index.  555 

Leslie,   Jean,  wife   of  Patrick  Leith  (circa  1500),    442;    do.,    wife   of   Thomas  Dempster  (1588), 

442  ;  do.,  wife  of  John  Forbes  (1620),   237  ;   do.,   second  wife  of  James  Elphinston  (1641), 

470. 
Leslie,  John,  of  Aquhorsk  and  Drimmies  (1669-71),  329,  487  ;  do.  do.  (1683),  487  ;  do.  of  Badifurrow 

(1631),  117,  203,  212,  213,  219,  317  ;  do.  of  Balquhain  (1545-6),  139,  442  ;  do.  do.  (1571-1622), 

215-6,  399,  442  ;  do.  do.  (1622-38),  179,  212,  216,  238,  242,  247  ;   do.  do.  (1638-55),  250,  398, 

442  ;   do.  do.   (1777-1828),  444  ;  do.  do.  (1836-43),  444;  do.,  Assistant  Clerk,  Daviot  (1550), 

144  ;  do.  of  That  Ilk  (1546),  441  ;  do.  do.  (1608),  441  ;  do.,  Parish  Clerk  of  Inverurie  (1536), 

142;   do.,  Town  Clerk  of  Eintore  (1616),   202;  do.    of  Largie  (1609),  193;  do.,  Abbot  of 

Lindores  (1579-84),  441  ;  do.  of  Nethertown  (1560),  315  ;  do.  of  New  Eayne  (17—),  446  ; 

do.  of  Pitcaple  (1650),  234,  304,  327  ;  do.  of  Tocher  (1760),  446,  465  ;  do.  of  Wardes  (1460- 

1546),  29,   59,  111,   137,  176,  444  ;  do.  do.  (1616),  207,  221,  248,  330,  445  ;  do.  (Warthill, 

1651),  446  ;  do.  (do.,  W.S.,  1715)  411. 
Leslie,  Dr.  John,  Bishop,  first  of  Orkney,  second  of  Clogher  and  Raphoe  (16 — ),   221,  445  ;  do.,  first, 

Parson  of  Oyne,  second,  Bishop  of  Ross  (1565),  148,  149,  155. 
Leslie,  Professor  John  (17 — ),  486. 
Leslie,  Sir  John,  of  Wardes  (1625),  210,  220,  221,  222,  445  ;  do.  do.  (died  1645),  222,  445  ;  do.  do. 

(died  1825),  446. 

Leslie,  Johanna,  wife  of Strachan  (14 — ),  441. 

Leslie,  Katherine  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 

Leslie,  Kirk  of,  Vicarage  of  Lindores,  34  ;  Endowments  (1257),  35,  (1366)  79  ;  Teinds  of  (1546),  441  ; 

Institution  at  (1602),  259  ;  Visited  (1649),  304  ;    Vacant  (1651-55),  309  ;  Settlement  at  (1701), 

429. 
Leslie,  Ministers— Walter  Innes,   Vicar   {ante   1602),   153;   William  Forbes   (1602—),    159;    John 

Middleton  (1643),  240  ;  Duncan  Forbes  (1643-7),   240;   John  Gellie,  younger  (1647-51),  240 ; 

Alexander  Swan   (1655-65)  ;  Alexander  Mowat  (1674-81)  ;  William  Watson  (1681-98),    378, 

379,  429  ;  William  Forbes  (1701),  429. 
Leslie,  Schoolmaster,  James  Mennie  (1710),  425. 
Leslie,  Lady  of,  Leslie,  378,  388,  404. 
Leslie,  Lands  of,  60,  401,  441  ;  Lairds,  Leslie  (1100-1620),  440;    Forbes  (1620-91),  237,  338,  388  ; 

Leith  (169—),  238. 
Leslie,  Malcolm,  Constable  (1165-99),  31,  32,  33;  do.,  son  of  Constable,  32. 
Leslie,  Margaret,  wife  of  David  de  Abercromby  (1391),  441 ;  do.,  wife  of  Cobairdy  (15 — ),  444  ;  do.,  wife 

of  Dunbar  of  Bonnyfield  (1550),  442  ;   do.,  wife  of  Alexander  Abercromby  (159—),  235,  442  ; 

do.,  wife  first  of  Alexander  Leslie,  second  of  Mr.  James  Mill  (died  1629),  161,  210. 
Leslie,  Marjory,  wife  of  James  Keith,  (15—),  445  ;   do.,  wife  of  James  Elphinstone  (1559),  412,  470  ; 

do.,  wife  of  Gilbert  Johnston  (circa  1570),  445,  449  ;    do.,  wife  of  Rev.  Robert  Burnett  (1600), 

446  ;   do.,  wife  first  of  Alexander  Bannerman,  second  of  Sir  John  Fletcher  (1630),  445 ;    do. 

(Inverurie,  1649),  315  ;  do.,  wife  of  William  Chalmers  (1669),  487. 
Leslie,  Mary,  wife  of  George  Leslie  (1770),  447,  448  ;  do.,  wife  of  Dr.  Patrick  Davidson,  447. 
Leslie,  New,  401,  459. 
Leslie,  Norino,  Constable  (1248),   34. 
Leslie,  Norman,  Constable  (1237),  33,  34,  217  ;  do.  de-  (1348-1358),  65,  66,  72,  73,  441 ;  do.  do.  (died 

1391),  104,  441  ;  do.  (Inverurie,  1605-9),  169,  171,  173,  190,  191,  192,  203,  207  ;  do.  (Wardes, 

1630),  178,  210,  213,  445. 
Leslie,  Sir  Norman  (1282-1305),  35,  38,  39,  40,  41,  63,  217,  441. 
Leslie,  Patrick,  of  Ardoyne(1545),  442  ;  do.  of  Balquhain  (1472-96),  442  ;  do.  do.  (1677-1710),  235,  236, 


556  Index. 

345,  398,  400,  443  ;  do.  do.  (1775-7),  443  ^do.  (Bogs,  died  1630),  211  ;  do.  of  Duncanstone  (1546), 

445;  do.  of  That  Ilk  (1575),  441  ;  do.  of  Kineraigie  and  Badifurrow  ( 1613),  143,  161,  169,  ' 

172, 190, 194,  209,  219  ;  do.  do.,  (1688),  236,  328,  380  ;  do.,  Minister  at  Kinkell  (1633),  161,  239  ; 

do..  Lord  Lindores  (1600),  156  ;  do.  (Monymnsk,  1685),  348  ;  do.  of  New  Kayne  (1696),  389,  446  ; 

do.  (Warthill,  16—),  446  ;  do.,  (do.  18-),  447. 
Leslie,  Sir  Patrick,  Commendator  of  Lindores,  156  ;  do.  of  Whytehall  (circa  1655),  294. 
Leslie,  Peter,  of  Balquhain  (1762-75),  443  ;  do.  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 
Leslie,  Priest  (1702),  423. 

Leslie,  Robert  de,  Rector  of  Shuns  (1273),  50  ;  do.  (Wardes,  1547),  232,  446. 
Leslie,  Teresa,  wife  of  Robert  Duguid  (16—),  400,  443. 

Leslie,  Thomas,  Parish  Clerk  of  Logiedurno  (1492),  122  ;  do.  Warthill,  (18—),  447. 
Leslie,  Walter  (Balquhain,  Count,  died  1677),  250,  399,  400,  441,  442,  443  ;  do.  Earl  of  Ross  (13—), 

441  ;  do.  (Warthill,  18—),  447. 
Leslie,  William,  of  Balquhain  (1496-1545),  129,  137,  442  ;  do.  do.  (1561-71),  129,  145,  146,  215,  442  ; 

do.  do.  (1655-71),  250,  330,  398-400,  443  ;  do.  of  Barra  (1595),  174  ;  do.  of  Carchnie  (1635), 

214  ;    do.   of  Crichie  1596),  174  ;   do.   Culsalmond,  (1653),  311  ;   do.  (Inverurie,  1476),  119  ; 

(do.  do.  1595),  103,  151,  174,  19S  ;  do.,   Bishop  of  Laybach  (Warthill,  born  1657),  326,  411, 

447,  470  ;  do.,  Miuister  of  Kemnay  (1699),  427,   428,   429,  432  ;  do.   (Aloysius,  Priest,  1670), 

443  ;  do.,  Minister  at  Tough  (1701),  429,  431  ;  do.  of  Little  Folia  (1611),  447  ;    do.   do.   (Rev. 

died  1722),  447  ;  do.    do.  (Rev.  died  1743),  447  ;  do.   of  Wardes  (1573-1602),  182,    221,  232, 

445,  474  ;    do.  of  Warthill  (1490-1561),  223,   446  ;  do.  do.   (died  1640),  182,  223,  446  ;  do.  do. 

(1620-76),  41,  447,  470  ;  do.  do.  (1770-1857),  447,  473  ;  do.  do.  (1S14),  412,   and  family,   447. 
Leslie,  Dr.  William,  Principal  of  King's  College,  Aberdeen  (1639),  249. 
Leslie,  Sir  William,  of  Balquhain  (1420-67),  59,  100,  108,  110,  442  ;  do.  of  Wardes  (1645),  222,  305, 

307,  and  family,  445,  450. 
Lesmoir,  Gordon  of,  170,  235,  249,  388,  464,  485. 
Lessel,  Gilbert  and  Janet  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 
Lessel,  Robert,  Minister  of  Inverurie  (1800-53),  395. 
Lessel,  William  (1273),  50. 

Lethinty,  Attached  to  Daviot  Parish  (1623),  309  ;  House  of,  in  Civil  War,  273,  275,  284,  285. 
Lethinty,  Lairds  of,   Earls  of  the  Garioch,  Lords  of  the  Garioch  :    Paule  Crab,  and  Robert  Burnard 

(1395),  66  ;  Forbes  of  Pitsligo  (circa  1400-1617),  90,   101,  233,   293,  449  ;    Urquhart  (1634), 

vide  Patrick  Urquhart ;  Burnett  (1696),  389. 
Lettermarie  Fair  of  Inverurie,  150,  205,  361, 
Leuchars,  Innes  of  (ante  1571),  464,  466. 
Leven,  Earl  of,  225. 
Levinstone,  Leviugstone,   Livingstone  ;    Andrew  (Keith-hall,   1682),   403  ;   Dr.   (Jesuit,  1702),  423  ; 

Begent  (1439),  438. 
Leys,  Burnett  of,  226,  237,  250,  251,  282,  420,  422. 
Lichtenstein,  Princess  Maria,  wife  of  Count  Leslie  (1666),  400. 
Lichton,  Lychton,  Alexander,  Prior  of  Torphichen  (1422),  125. 
Lichton,  Dnncan,  Vicar  of  Bethelnie  (1426-64),  125,  126. 
Lichton,  Elene,  wife  of  Gilbert  de  Johnston  (ante  1428),  121,  448. 
Lichton,  Henry,  Parson  of  Kinkell,  Bishop  first  of  Moray,  second  of  Aberdeen  (died  1440),  87,  88, 

114,  125,  132. 
Lichton,  Janet,  wife  of  Andrew  Glaster  (1428)   121. 
Lichton,  John  (Fetternear,  1650),  397. 


Index.  557 

Lichton,  Marjory,  wife  of  John  de  Johnston  (1428)  121,  448. 

Lichton,  of  Usan,  121,  448. 

Lichton,  William  (Inverurie,  1633),  397. 

Licklyhead,  Castle  of,  234,  282,  401  ;  Leith  of  (1598-1620),  238,  282,  446,  459  ;  Forbes  of  (1696),  388. 

Liege,  Siege  of  (1408),  87. 

Liell,  Andrew,  Parson  of  Daviot  (1470-5),  126,  149. 

Liell,  David,  Chaplain,  Chapel  of  Garioch  (1505),  129. 

Life  in  the  Garioch  (15-),  137,  (1600-40),  187,  217,  (1696)  381-98,  (1700)  387,  398. 

Ligertwood,  James  (Isaackstoun,  1664),  351  ;  do.  of  Tillery  (1800),  467. 

Ligertwood,  Margaret,  wife  of  Sir  William  Seton  (1800),  467. 

Lindores  Abbey,  Charter  of  (1195),  25  ;  Garioch  Vicarages  of,  19,  35,  36,  79  ;  Possessions  of,  29, 157, 

176  ;  Thomas,  Abbot  (1259),  61  ;  John,  Abbot  (1546),  441. 
Lindores,  Lords  of,  Patrick  (1600),  156,  256  ;  do.  Patrick,  237. 
Lindores,  Lordship  of,  144,  145,  157,  219. 
Lindsay  (circa  1200),  23. 

Lindsay,  Ann,  wife  of  Rev.  Dr.  Willox  (169-),  387. 

Lindsay,  David,  Earl  of  Crawford,  101  ;  do.,  Minister  of  Drumoak  (1697),  426. 
Lindsay,  Euphemia,  wife  of  Sir  William  Leslie  (1420 — ),  217,  442. 
Lindsay,  Sir  James,  Earl  of  Crawford,  67. 

Lindsay,  Margaret,  wife  of  John  Mackieson  (N.  P.,  1630),  214,  293. 
Lindsay,  Sophia,  wife  of  Hon.  Charles  Campbell  (1681),  373. 
Lintbutts,  Inverurie,  185. 
Little  Croft,  Inverurie,  173,  394. 

Little  Folia,  Blakhall  of  (1519),  228  ;  Leslie  of  (1611),  447 . 
Littlejohn,  Christian  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 
Liturgy  in  Scotland,  Presbyterian,  332  ;  Episcopalian,  336. 
Loanhead,  Andrew  Logie  of,  Advocate,  Aberdeen  (1675),  388,  450. 
Loch  Cannor,  40,  70. 
Loch  Davain,  41. 
Lochaber,  Keiths  in,  435. 
Lochdoun,  Castle  of,  45,  70. 
Lochiel,  Cameron  of,  91. 
Lochleven  Castle,  70,  149. 
Locke  the  Philosopher,   420. 
Lockhart,  the  Advocate  (1681),  373,  376. 
Lofthillock,  100,  211,  225,  351,  466. 
Logie,  Andrew,  Minister  of  Rayne  (1624-1662),  161,  213,  239,  241,  273,  306  ;  do.  of  Loanhead  (1695), 

388,  450. 
Logie,  Isobel,  wife  of  James  Leslie  (1650),  446. 
Logie,  John,  senior  and  junior,  of  Boddom  (1701)  388,  429  ;  do.  Minister  at  Insch  (1607),  239  ;  and  at 

Bethelnie  (1613),  240  ;  do.  (Lofthillock  1664),  351. 
Logie,  Captain  John  (1640),  241,  281. 
Logie,  William  (Bogheads,  1677),  364. 
Logie-Buchan,  Minister,  William  Seton  (1652-71),  310,  468. 
Logiedurno,  Vicarage  of  Lindores,  19,  25,  157  ;  Endowments  (1257),  35,  (1366),  79,  (1600),  157 ;  Kirk 

of,  at  Chapel  (1599),  147,  156. 
Logiedurno,    Ministers— Thomas  Sinclair,  Vicar  (1454),  125  ;    Stephen  Mason  (1567),  153  ;  William 


558  Index. 

Straehan  (1588),   154  ;   Alexander  Paterson  (1592),   154  ;    Andrew  Strachan  (1603-33),   239  ; 

Alexander  Strachan  (1633-77),  239,  306,  324 ;  George  Clark  (1677-1704),  386,  432. 
Logiedurno,  Parish  Clerk,  Thomas  Leslie  (1492),  122. 
Logiedurno,  Schoolmasters— William  Leslie  (16—)  326  ;    "William  Idell  (1670),  326  ;   George  Birnie 

(1679),  326  ;  Walter  Turing  (1696),  386  ;  Alexander  Leslie  (1710),  425. 
Logie-Elphinstone,  413  ;  House  of,  413. 

Logie-Elphinstone,  Lairds  of,  Henry  Forbes  (14—),  413  ;  Elphinstone  (1670;,  414,  415,  471-3. 
Logie-Fintray,  Barony  of,  235. 
Logie-Ruthven,  Kirk  of  (1207),  55. 
London,  Plague  at  (1665),  338. 
Long  Croft,  Inverurie,  185. 
Longland  Folds,  Inverurie,  183,  258. 
Longueville,  Sir  Thomas  de,  43. 
Longhermiston,  Deans  of,  478. 
Lorn,  Lord  (1660),  373. 

Lothian,  Lord  (1649),  358  ;  Marchioness  of  (17-),  377. 
Louden,  Earl  of  (1639),  259,  276,  284,  291. 
Lot,  The  (1699),  385. 

Louis,  of  France,  IX.,  34;  XL,  110  ;  XIV.,  379,  421. 
Lovat,  Lord  Hugh  (14—),  442  ;  Simon  (1703),  376  ;  Thomas  (1850),  444. 
Lovel,  James  (Aberdeen,  1411),  89. 

Low,  Alexander  (Inverurie),  1700),  390  ;  do.  (Skene,  1700),  453. 
Lowman,  Duthac  (Aberdeen,  1411),  89. 
Ludquharn,  Keith  of  (1578),  456. 

Lumgair,  Glaster  of  (1381),  100  ;  Gordon  of  (1493),  100. 
Lumphauan,  40,  400. 
Lumphard,  Seton  of  (1575),  141,  464. 
Lumphard,  Mill  of  (John  Davidson,  1640),  392. 

Lumsden  of  Ardmurdo  (1623),  231,  307  ;  of  Clova,  401  ;  of  Cushnie,  448,  467. 
Lumsden,  Agnes  (Aberdeen,  1650),  307. 

Lumsden,  Eliza,  wife  first  of  Captain  John  Wilson,  second  of  Sir  William  C.  Seton  (18 — ),  467. 
Lumsden,  Henry,  Rector  of  Kinkell  (1545-1563),  125,  148  ;  do.  of  Cushnie  (18—),  467. 
Lumsden,  Jean  (Aberdeen,  1650),  307. 

Lumsden,  John,  Professor  of  Divinity,  King's  College,  Aberdeen  (1757),  417. 

Lumsden,  Margaret,  wife  of  William  Johnston  (1513),  448  ;  do.,  wife  of  Patrick  Leslie  (1575),  441. 
Lumsden,  Thomas,  Prebendary  of  Kinkell  (1570),  125,  148. 
Lumsden,  William,  of  Ardmurdo  (1623-1650),  231,  307. 
Lunan,  Alexander,  Minister  at  Monymusk  (1625),  237,  and  at  Kintore  (1628),  240,  406  ;  do.  Minister 

at  Daviot  (1672-1716),  241  ;  do.  at  Blairdaff  (1744),  386. 
Lunan,  Ann,  wife  of  John  Forbes  (1696),  406. 
Lunan,  Charles  (Aberdeen,  1774),  343. 
Lunan,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  William  Adam  (1696),  386. 
Lunan,  John  (Monymusk,  born  1608),  240. 
Lunan,  William  (Manse  of  Kintore,  born  1633),  240  ;  do.  (his  son,  bom  1664),  240,  384,  386  ;   do., 

Minister  at  Daviot  (1663-72),  339,  386. 
Lundy,  Agnes,  wife  of  George  Johnston  (circa  1590),  449. 
Lundy  of  Conland  (16-),  449. 


Index.  559 

Lundy  of  That  Ilk,  55,  223,  224. 

Lundy,  John  (Inverurie,  1751),  393. 

Lnndy,  Katherine,  wife  of  John  Johnston  (died  1616),  208,  210,  223,  410,  449. 

Lundy,  Malcolm  of  (aide  1228),  55. 

Lundy,  Priest  (1388),  77,  90,  126,  224. 

Lundy,  Robert  of  (1200),  25,  27,  224  ;  do.  (Inverurie,  1662-4),  351,  352. 

Lundy,  Walter  of  (15—),  223. 

Lundy,  William  of  (15—),  223,  224,  449  ;  do.  (Inverurie,  1686-1717),  383,  393,  397. 

Luesk,  Strachan  of  (1676),  329. 

Lyon,  George  (Baillie,  Inverurie,  1800),  259,  393. 

Lyon  of  Muiresk  (1520),  460. 

Lyon, ,  wife  of  John  Leith  (15—),  460. 


M. 

Macdonald,  Alister  (1644),  288. 

Machar,  Old,  Minister,  Dr.  Skene  Ogilvy,  465. 

Macintosh,  M'Intosh,  Chief  of  (1411),  98,  193;  Rev.  Donald  (Badenoch,  1710),  424. 

Macintosh,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Alexander  Farquhar  (1696),  389. 

Mackay,  Lieut. -General  (1689),  376,  381. 

Mackenzie,  Colin,  of  Kilcoy  (17—),  416,  471  ;  do.  of  Glack  (1795),  413,  471. 

Mackenzie,  Jean,  wife  of  Alexander  Elphinstone  (1787),  471. 

Mackenzie,  John,  of  Glack  (died  1877),  401,  413 ;  do.  do.  (1877),  413. 

Mackenzie,  Mary,  wife  of  Sir  Alexander  Leith,  413. 

Mackie  or  Mackieson  of  Midtoun,  Inverurie  (1538-1732),  259,  357,  392. 

Mackie,  Makkie,  M'Kie,  Alexander,  Vicar  of  Inverurie  (ante  1600),  153,  154,  159  ;  do.  (Inverurie, 
1619),  206,  207. 

Mackie,  Andrew  and  Anthony  (Inverurie),  1536),  142. 

Mackie,  David,  Miller  at  Ardtannies  (1636),  181. 

Mackie,  George,  Inverurie  (1600-19),  182,  193,  194,  196,  207. 

Mackie,  Isobel  (Inverurie,  Charmer,  1657),  319. 

Mackie,  Janet  (Inverurie,  1646),  293  ;  do.  (do.  wife  of  James  Lyon,  1771),  393. 

Mackie,  John  (Inverurie,  1535),  142;  do.  (do.  1610-50),  194,  214,  238,  292,  293,  317,  322,  352,  393  ; 
do.  (do.  of  Midtoun,  ante  1732),  342  ;  do.  (in  Culm,  Polish  Prussia,  1732),  392. 

Mackie.  Marjory  (Inverurie,  1649),  393. 

Mackie,  Thomas  (Inverurie,  1645),  292. 

Mackie,  William  (Inverurie,  1580),  151  ;  do.  (do.  1600),  182;  do.  (Ardtannies,  1651),  318. 

Mackieson,  Alexander  (Inverurie,  1600-16),  182,  192,  193,  202,  204,  393. 

Mackieson,  George  (1600-19),  172,  182,  196,  201,  204,  206. 

Mackieson,  John  (Conglass,  1538),  392  ;  do.,  Inverurie  (1600-14),  172,  195,  196;  do.  (do.  1609),  193, 
204  ;  do.  (Midtoun,  1633),  258  ;  do.  (do.  N.  P.,  1633-6),  214,  258  ;  do.  (Town  Clerk  of  Fraser- 
burgh, 1615),  184,  198,  201,  203. 

Mackieson,  Margaret  (Inverurie,  1612),  195. 

Maclean,  Hector,  of  Duart  (1411),  91,  93. 


560  Index. 

Macleod  of  Dunvegan  (1616),  244 

Macleod  at  Inverurie  (1745),  408,  409. 

Mackrell,  Grisell  (Oyne,  1677),  340. 

Macranald  (1639),  281. 

Macpherson,  Annie,  wife  of  James  Ferguson  (1878),  478. 

Macrobert,  John  (Inverurie,  1674),  339. 

MacWhirrie  (Jesuit,  1588),  156. 

M'Callum,  Malcolm  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 

M'Robb,  James  (Glens,  Inseh,  1701),  430. 

Madder  Yards,  Inverurie,  185. 

Magistrates  of  Inverurie,   (1616),   Qualifications,   194  ;   Mode  of   Resignation,   194  ;    Contempt   of, 

200,  204. 
Maiden  of  Norway,  38,  40. 
Maiden  Stone,  4,  5,  8. 
Maiden,  The  (1661),  372. 

Maintenance,  Laws  anent  (Inverurie,  1614-1659),  188,  196,  361. 
Mainz  (1704),  377. 

Mair,  William,  Minister  of  Oyne  (1701),  429-32. 
Mair,  John,  Minister  of  Insch  (1703),  430,  432. 
Maitland,  Mr.  Patrick  of  Auchincrieff  (1623),  209. 
Maitland,  Mr.  AVilliam  (excommunicated  for  rebellion,  1650),  307. 
Malcolm,  Archdeacon  (ante  1224),  21  ;  do.  Son  of  Bartolf,  Constable  of  Enrowrie  (1166-1199),  27,  33, 

440  ;  do.  Son  of  Malcolm,  (1200),  32  ;  do.  Canmore,  14,  15,  410  ;  do.  The  Maiden  (11—),  19. 
Malcolmson,  John  and  Walter  (Inverurie,  1637),  212. 
Malignants  in  Civil  War,  289,  301,  309,  323. 

Maliag,  Mallin,  Malan,  Mellin,  Melvin,  Alexander  (Monymusk,  1685),  348  ;   Andrew,  Henry,  Eliza- 
beth (Daviot,  1650),  144. 
Maling,  Isabella  (Inverurie,  1609),  193. 
Maling,  Robert  (Inverurie,  1671),  362. 
Malinch,  Malingsyd,  Mellinside  (1200),  25,  31,  60,  157. 
Malise,  Earl  of  Strathearn  (1273),  56. 
Malt  (1200),  IS. 
Manar,  5,  32  ;  Garden  of,  410. 
Manners  (1650),  318,  (1681)  360. 
Manrent,  Bonds  of,  84,  262. 
Manses  in  Cathedral  Close,  125  ;  Inverurie,  174. 
Manses,  Style  of,  in  Seventeenth  Century,  346. 
Manslaughter  (1533),  141,  (1574)  155,  (1620)  211,  (1623),  212. 
Manure,  Value  of  (1667),  361. 
Maories  of  Buchan  and  Mar,  13. 
Mar,  Countess  of,   Agnes  (1222),  55  ;    Muriel   (128— ),  56  ;   Ellen  (1292),   56;    Christian  (1306),  56, 

57,  64  ;  Margaret  (1377),  38,  57,  64  ;  Isobel  (1404),  68. 
Mar,  Earldom  of,  54-60  ;    Contested,  55,  84,  106  ;   In  the  King's  hands  (14—),  108  ;  Surrendered  to 

Legal  Heir  (1565),  59  ;  Claimed  (16—),  57  ;  Attainted  (1715),  59. 
Mar,  Earls  of  Mar  surname— Domnhall,  Rothrie,  Morgrund,  Gilchrist,  Duncan,  55  ;  William,  Donald, 

Gartney,   Donald,   56  ;    Talbot,  69  ;   Thomas,  57,   63,  105  ;    William  Douglas,  57  ;    James ; 

Alexander  Stewart,  58. 


Index.  561 

Mar,  Earls  of,  in  the  Crown— John  (1477),  102,  110  ;  Cochrane  (1480),  110  ;  Alexander  Duke  of 
Albany  (1482),  110;  John  (1490),  111  ;  of  Erskine  Surname,  59,  437  ;  John  (1565),  59  ;  John 
(died  1634),  59,  402,  438  ;  John  (1663),  350,  361,  367  ;  Charles  (1684),  330  ;  John  (1715), 
59,  439. 

Mar,  Earl  of,  Duncan,  son  of  (1296),  63. 

Mar,  Elyne  of,  wife  of  Sir  James  de  Garviach,  57,  63. 

Mar,  Laigh  of,  153. 

Mar,  Mids  o',  252. 

Mar,  Morniaors  of,  6. 

Mar,  Presbytery  of  (1581),  153,  (1602),  159. 

Mar  Vault  in  Kildruinniy,  111. 

Marches  of  Conglass  aud  Drimmies  (1569),  488 :  Inverurie  Lands  (1610),  194,  (1619),  205,  (1620),  207, 
(1653),  852. 

Margaret,  Queen  of  Malcolm  Canmore  (106S),  16  ;  do.  Queen  of  Norway  (1282),  38  ;  do.  Princess  of 
Norway  (129-),  38  ;  do.  Countess  of  Mar,  Lady  of  the  Garioch  (1377),  57  ;  do.  Queen  of 
James  II.  (1453),  110. 

Marischal  College  Founded  (1593),  163,  438 ;  Endowments,  163,  227  ;  Regents  (16—),  239,  240,  365, 

366,  449  ;    "  Economic  "  (1650),  308  ;  Students  (1689),  370  ;  "  Silver  Pen,"  455. 
Marischal,  Countess  (1661),  367. 

Marischal-Depute  of  Scotlaud,  Thomas  Menzies  (1538),  457. 

Marischal  of  Scotland,  435-9  ;  Robert  (1010),  15,  435  ;  Sir  William  {temp.  William  I.),  23,  436  ;  Sir 

Robert  (1294-1332),  43,  62,  436  ;    Sir  Edward  (1341-50),   59,  432  ;    Sir  William  (1357-1412), 

77,  437. 
Marischal,  Earls,    437-9  ;    I.  William  (1412-58),   106,   110,   236,  437  ;   III.  William,  139,  438  ;    IV. 

William  (1530-81),  142,  438  ;   V.  George,  155,  163,  365,  438  ;    VI.  William,  402,  438;    VII. 

William  (1635-61),   264,  266-74,  279,  281-4,  286,  298,  366,  367,  438  ;  VIII.   George  (1661-94), 

367,  439  ;   X.  George  (1712-78),  394,  402,  403,  439,  440. 
Marischal,  Master  of,  William  (1547),  438. 

Marital  Rank  (13-),  57,  58. 

Marjory,  Countess  of  Carrick  (1268),  24  ;  Princess  (1306),  38. 

Markets  of  Inverurie,  Annual,  150,  205  ;  Weekly  (,1616),  199  ;  Custom  Dues,  190  ;  Laws,  200. 

Market  Place,  Inverurie,  7,  338. 

Marnoch,  John,  in  Balnagask,  and  Isobel,  wife  of  John  Johnston,  (1717),  453  ;  Parish  of,  243. 

Marriage— For  Protection  (13—),  83  ;  Portion  (1481),  122  ;   Feasts  Restricted  (1657),  319  ;  Irregular 

(1710),  423. 
Marshall,  William,  Monymusk  (16S5),  348. 
Martin,  Martane,  Alexander  and  Patrick  (Oyne,  1669),  338. 
Martin,  Luther  (187-),  469. 
Martyrdom,  First,  in  Britain  (1401),  107. 

Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  106,  136,  146,  149,  227,  274  ;  Queen  of  England  (1609),  380,  425. 
Mason,  Andrew,  Dene  of  Monymusk  (1534),  127. 
Mason,  Stephen,  Minister  at  Insch,  &c  (1567-1614),  153,  240. 
Mastrick,  House  of  (17— ),  383. 
Mathers,  William  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 
Mathieson  Matthewson,  Andrew,  Kinkell  (1473),  122. 
Mathieson,  Christian  (Inverurie,  1645-6),  292-3  ;  do.  (Glaschi,  1649),  315. 
Mathieson,  Elizabeth  (.Monymusk,  1685),  348. 

71 


562  Index. 

Mathieson,  George  (Caskieben,  1651),  316. 
Mathieson,  John  (New  Leggat,  1664),  351. 
Mathieson,  Violet  (Conglass,  1634),  211. 
Mathieson,  William  (Daviot,  1666),  397,  398. 
Matilda,  wife  of  David,  Earl  of  Huntingdon,  26. 
Matthew  the  Smith  (Gohlauch,  1342),  66. 

Maughan,  Captain,  and (wife  of  Rev.  Dr.  Story),  463. 

Mauld,  Janet,  wife  of  John  Ferguson,  (1739),  393. 

Maxwell,  Ann,  wife  of  Sir  Hamilton  Leslie,  (1350),  442. 

Maxwell,  Eymer  (1259),  50. 

Maxwell,  Sir  John,  of  Sprinkell,  472. 

Maxwell,  Lord  of,  Caerlaveroek  (1350),  442. 

Maxwell,  Mary,  wife  of  Sir  James  D.  H.  Elphinstone  (1836),  473. 

Maxwell,  Priest  (1711),  423. 

Meanie,  Seton  of,  465. 

Mearns,  Mearnis,  Merenys,  Alexander,  Inverurie  (1466),  119. 

Mearns,  Mernis,  George  (Inverurie,  1674-9),  364,  397. 

Mearns,  Mearnis,  William  (Inverurie,  1466),  119  ;  do.  (do.  1491),  228. 

Mearns,  Sheriff  of,  Melville  (1411),  91  ;  do.  Ogilvy  (1620),  108. 

Meek,  Rev.  D.,  and  family,  478. 

Meglutton,  Inverurie  (1633),  394,  (1671),  362,  (1768),  407. 

Meikle,  John  (Edinburgh,  1691),  381. 

Meikle  Folia,  386. 

Meikle  Warthill,  Elphinstone  of,  412. 

Meiklewardes,  63,  112. 

Meldrum,  37  ;  Aid  (1308),  49,  52  ;  Old,  7,  52,  233,  267,  355,  382,  428. 

Meldrum,  Alexander  (Jesuit,  1588),  156. 

Meldrum,  Elizabeth  de,  wife  of  William  Seton  (1450),  464. 

Meldrum,  Major  George  (Rayne,  1650),  308. 

Meldrum,  Sir  George,  of  Fyvie  (1600),  445. 

Meldrum,  John  (1630),  243  ;  do.  (Buchanstone,  1664),  338  ;  do.  (Westhall,  1677),  340. 

Meldrum,  Kirk  of  (1634),  233  ;  Settlement  at  (1697),  428. 

Meldrum,  Ladywell  of,  17. 

Meldrum,  Lairds  of,  Sir  Philip  de  (1262),  37,  66  ;  Alexander  de  (1272),  67  ;  William  de,  son  of  John 

de  (1342),   64,  67,    72  ;     Seton  (1450-1636),   67,  101,  151,  464,  466  ;     Urquhart  (1636),  232, 

233,  237,  428,  464,  465,  468,  469. 
Meldrum,  Margaret,  wife  of  William  Johnston  {ante  1500),  448. 
Meldrum,  Ministers  of,  vide  Bethelney  ;  John  Mulligan  (1698),  427-8. 
Meldrum,  Patrick,  of  Iden  (excommunicated  for  murder,  1650),  307. 
Meldrum,  Thomas  (Fyvie,  16 — ),  445. 
Melgum,  Viscount  (1630),  243. 

Melrose  Abbey,  Land  in  Rayne,  20,  31  ;  Lawrence,  Abbot  (1175-8),  31  ;  Burial  at  (1388),  77. 
Melville  (1250),  33  ;  Andrew  of  Kemnay  (1397),  65  ;  do.  (The  Reformer),  155. 
Melville,  George,  Assistant  Minister  at  Bourtie  (1650-4),  then  Minister  at  New  Machar,  311,  324. 
Melville,  Sir  Robert  (1411),  89. 
Melvin  vide  Maling. 
Menie,  Elizabeth  Van  of  (14— ),  121. 


Index.  563 

Meunie,  James  (1673),  329  ;  do.  Schoolmaster  at  Leslie  (1710),  425. 

Menteith,  Christian,  wife  of  Sir  Edward  Keith  (1340),  437. 

Menteith,  Sir  John  (13—),  59,  437. 

Menzies  of  Balgownie  (1650),   307  ;    of  Dnrn,  229  ;    of  Fothergill  {temp.  David  II.),   61  ;    of  Oyne 

(temp.  Robert  I.),  61  ;  of  Pitfoddels  (1529-1843),  132,  254,  456-7. 
Menzies,  Andrew  (15 — ),  445. 
Menzies,  Barbara,  wife  of  William  Hay  (1707),  416. 

Menzies,  Gilbert  (Aberdeen,  1411),  89  ;  do.  of  Pitfoddels  (1529),  132  ;  do.  (do.  1576),  457. 
Menzies,  Sir  Gilbert,  of  Pitfoddels  (1642),  275. 
Menzies,  Jean  (excommunicated  for  Popery,  1650),  307. 

Menzies,  John,  Professor  of  Divinity,  Marischal  College  (1650),  301 ;  do.  of  Pitfoddels  (died  1843),  457. 
Menzies,  Sir  John  de  (1408),  S7. 

Menzies,  Katherine,  wife  of  Mr.  George  Johnston  (1570),  456. 
Menzies,  Marjory,  wife  of  Mr.  Alexander  Irvine  (1650),  307. 
Menzies,  Mary,  wife  of  Thomas  Chalmers  (15 — ),  254. 

Menzies,  Thomas,  of  Pitfoddels  (1538-76),  456-7  ;  do.  of  Balgownie  (1650),  307. 
Menzies,  Sir  Thomas,  of  Oyne  (temp.  Robert  I.),  61. 
Menzies,  William  of  Pitfoddels  (17—),  468. 
Merchants  in  the  Garioch  (1696),  382,  383. 
Merchants'  Graves,  The  (Davo,  Inverurie),  6,  7,  180. 
Mergie,  Sir  William  Nieolson  of  (1721),  377. 
Mersar,  Duncan  (1273),  50. 

Mersar,  Robert,  Rector  of  Banchory-Devenec  (1616),  233. 
Messar,  Andrew,  John,  and  Robert  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 
Meston,  James  (Monymusk,  1677-85),  340,  348. 
Methlick,  Patrick  Gordon  of  (1490),  102,  329,  464. 
Methlick,  Little,  Alexander  and  Thomas  Chalmers  of  (1505),  254. 
Michael  Fair  of  Kinkell,  114,  245. 

Michael,  Henry  St.,  of  Lentush  and  Rothmaise  (1304),  61 
Middens  in  Streets  (1538),  138,  (1673)  363. 
Middlemuir,  Inverurie  (1615),  197. 

Middleton,  Alexander,  Sub-Principal,  King's  College,  Minister  at  Rayne  (1656),  241. 
Middleton,  Alexander  and  Robert,  Monymusk  (1685),  348. 

Middleton  of  Balquhain,  Tenants  (1655),  318,  (1660)  360  ;  Gordon  of  (1669),  345. 
Middleton,  Earl  of  (1660),  373. 
Middleton,  General  (1645),  287,  289,  305. 

Middleton,  John,  Minister  at  Leslie  ( 1643),  240  ;  at  Rayne  (1643-53),  241,  303,  305. 

Middleton,  Thomas  (Kirk  Officer,  Bourtie,  1649),  304. 

Midmar,  Castle  of,  43  ;  Church  of,  235  ;  Davidson  of  (17-),  472. 

Mids  o'  Mar  (Aberdeen  Prison),  252. 

Midtoun  of  Inverurie,  259,  357,  392. 

Migvie, .  Kirk  of,  Monymusk  Priory,  20,  55. 

Milbowie,  Skene,  Johnston  in,  1770,  453. 

Militia  Assessment  and  Uniform  (1672),  362-3  ;  (1688),  380. 

Mills  and  Multures  in  the  Garioch  (ante  1300),  22. 

Mills  and  Multures  in  Inverurie  (1600),  178-83. 

Miller's  Park,  Ardtannies,  180. 


564  Index. 

Mill,  Alexander,  James,  Thomas,  and  William  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 
Mill,  Ann,  Marjory,  and  Robert  (Dam  of  Dilie,  Kemnay,  1729),  397. 
Mill,  James,  Minister  of  Inverury  and  Monkegy  (1603-29)  ;   of  Inverurie  (1643),  159,  161,  194,  196, 

207-14,  291,  390,  395,  412,  414  ;  and  family,  161. 
Mill  or  Miln,  George,  Minister  at  Premnay  (1629-69),  241. 
Millar,  Johanna  Van,  wife  of  William  Johnston  (1716),  450. 
Millenarians,  357. 

Milne,  Alexander  (born  1637,  Minister  at  Glasgow,  1675),  161,  162,  364  ;  do.  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 
Milne,  Isabella,  wife  of  James  Leslie  (ante  1690),  447. 
Milne,  James  and  Thomas  (Aquhorties,  1649-50),  315-16. 

Milne,  Dr.  James  (Inverurie,  1653-96),  161,  162,  217,  346,  364,  384,  391,  394,  395;  family,  391. 
Milne,  Jean,  Inverurie  (1740). 
Milne,  John  (Old  Meldrum,  17—),  479. 
Milue,  William  (Mains  of  Caskieben,  1664),  351. 
Milntoun  of  Durno  (Elphinstone  in  1674),  414. 
Ministers  during  the  Civil  War,  273,  308. 
Minnes,  John  Seton  of  (1623),  209. 
Mint  at  Aberdeen,  230. 
Miuto,  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot  of  (17—),  473. 
Mitchell,  Alexander,  Schoolmaster  of  Inverurie  (1612-49),  161,  172,  173,  213,  257,  294,  390,  394  ;  do. 

his  son  (Inverurie,  1652-96),  295,  318,  352,  361,  384,  390. 
Mitchell,  Sir  Andrew,  of  Thainston  (Ambassador,   1756),   232,  237,  253,  422  ;    do.  of  Westshore, 

Orkney  (died  1764),  472. 
Mitchell,  Barbara,  wife  of  Sir  Andrew  Mitchell  (17—),  232,  237. 
Mitchell,  David,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  (1662),  335. 
Mitchell,  James  (Inverurie,  1617),  203,  204  ;  do.  (do.  1652),  390. 
Mitchell,  Janet,  wife  of  Sir  John  Johnston  (1683),  417,  450. 
Mitchell,  John,  Schoolmaster  of  Oyne  (1681-3),  326. 
Mitchell,  Thomas,  Vicar  of  Bourtie  (ante  1611),  153,  160  ;  do.  Minister  of  Turriff  (1639),  269  ;  do.  of 

Thainston,  Provost  of  Aberdeen  (168-),  232,  237,  450. 
Mitchell,  William,  Minister  at  Kearn(1701),  430. 
Moden,  James  and  John  (Aberdeen,  1411),  89. 
Moigne,  Sir  Walter  (1361),  75. 
Moir,  Alexander  and  George  (Keith-hall,  1664),  351. 
Moir,  George,  Minister  of  Towie  (1719),  237. 
Moir,  James,  of  Stonywood  (1745),  473. 
Moir,  Margaret,  wife  of  William  Garioch  (1696),  386. 
Moir,  Mary  Ann,  wife  of  Colonel  H.  K.  Erskine  (18—),  473. 
Monaltrie,  Farquharson  of,  410. 

Monboddo,  Strachan  of  (1663),  104;  Burnett  of  (16— ),  485  ;  Lord  (17—),  485. 
Moncoffer,  Russel  of  (1756),  47S. 
Monkegy— Kirk  and  Parish-a  Vicarage  of  Lindores  Abbey,  19,  32,  112,  133,  157,  224,  225,  306,  328, 

339,  341,  365,  368,  369. 
Monkegy,  Ministers  of,  James  Mill  (1600-30),  154,  207  ;  Samuel  Walker  (1630-49),  159,  161,  214,  239, 

260,  273,  289,  292,  305,  307  ;  Dr.  William  Keith  (1650-3),  224,  450  ;  Samuel  Walker  (1661-74) 

260  ;  George  Keith  (1675-83),  364,  403  ;  William  Keith  (1683). 
Monkshill,  Milne  of  (16—),  447. 


Index.  565 

Monmouth  Rebellion,  (1685),  372. 

Monoliths,  9. 

Monorgan,  Henry  Crawford  of  (17 — ),  414. 

Monquhitter  (1646),  360. 

Montague,  Finlay  (Aberdeen,  1411),  89. 

Montague,  Lady  Sydney,  wife  of  Lord  Inverurie  (1878),  440. 

Montgarrie,  Leith  of,  136,  226,  462. 

Montgomery,  Colonel  (1646),  287. 

Montgomery  Plot,  375. 

Montrose,  Toft  in  Burgh  (1200),  21  ;  Burgesses  of  (1644),  383. 

Montrose,  Earl  of  (1639-41),  255,   264,  265,  266,   270,  271,  274,  275,  406  ;   Marquis  (1644-50),  282, 

286,  297,  316,  466. 
Monymele,  Schyr  Alexander  (1494),  124. 
Monymusk  (13—),  65,  (1402),  115. 
Monymusk,  Culdees  of,  6,  14,  18,  22,  55,  126,  127. 
Monymusk,  Elders  (1677),  340. 
Monymusk,  Henry  de,  {temp.  Dav.  II.)  65,  404. 
Mouymusk,  House  of,  268,  283,  404. 
Monymusk,  Kirk  of  (1366),  79,  (1685),  348,  (1691-7),  381. 
Monymusk,  Lairds  of,  Henry  de  (13—),  45  ;  David  Chalmers  (13— ),  65  ;  The  Prior  ( 1549),  126-8, 

236  ;  Forbes  (1549-1712),  236,  237,  289,  404,  405  ;  Grant  (1712—),  405. 
Monymusk,    Ministers — Thomas   Scherar,  Vicar  (1524),   127  ;   John  Keid  do.   (1535),   128  ;   James 

Murray,  Reader  (1567-85),   155  ;   James  Johnston,  Parson  (1570-1613),  155,  209,  236 ;   James 

Irvine  (1613-15),  240  ;    William  Forbes  (1615-6),  240  ;    Thomas  Forbes  (1616-22),  240  ;    Adam 

Barclay  (1622-25),  240;   Alexander  Lunau  (1625-28),  240  ;  John  Gellie,  elder   (1629-52),  240  ; 

Alexander  Ross  (1653-74),  240;  John  Burnet  (1678-1722),  340. 
Monymusk  Parishioners  (1685),  348. 
Monymusk  Priors— Brice  (1337),  126  ;  Gavin  Douglas  (1496),  127;  JohnAkyhead  (1522),  127  ;  David 

Farlie  (1522-42),  127,  128  ;  John  Elphinstone  (1542),  128  ;  Robert  Forbes  (1556),  128. 
Monymusk  Priory  (1200),  14  ;  Churches  of,  18,  126,  127  ;  Lands  (1200),  55,  (1337),  126  (15—),  126,  127. 
Monymusk  Schoolmasters— William  Gordon  (1658),  311  ;    William  Watson  (1675),  326  ;    Alexander 

Hay  (1688-96),  326. 
Monymusk,  Tower  of,  16,  126. 
Moivymusk,  Tutor  of  (1653),  311. 

Morals  {circa,  1400),  107,  (circa  1550),  145,  (circa  1660),  337. 
Moray,  Region,  12  ;  Kingdom,  22. 
Moray,  Andrew  of  (1297),  42,  vide  Murray. 

Moray,  Bishop  of,  Richard  (circa  1200),  28  ;  do.  Henry  Lichton  (14—),  87. 
Moray,  Earl  of,  Randolph  (1324),  62  ;  do.  John  Dunbar  (1376),  62. 
Moray,  Freemen  of  (1291),  56. 
Moray,  Sir  Thomas  (1411),  89. 
Morgan,  George,  Inverurie  (1621),  212. 
Morgan,  Robert,  Schoolmaster,  Oyne  (1673),  326. 
Morgrund,  Earl  of  Mar  (1183),  65. 

Morice,  Catherine,  wife  of  William  Johnston  (1801),  454. 
Morice,  David,  of  Tullos  (1773),  and  descendants,  454. 
Morison,  George,  of  Barra  (1658),  311. 


566  Index. 

Mormaors  of  Buchan  and  Mar,  13,  55.     ' 

Mortimer,  ,  Bellman  of  Eayne  (1705),  432. 

Mortimer,  Bessie,  George,  Ingram,  and  John  (Inverurie,  1536),  142. 

Mortimer,  of  Craigievar  and  Aquhorties,  Bernard  (1391),  235  ;  William  (1513-28),   "William  (1554), 

John,  son  of  Alexander  (1544),  George  (1563),  William  (1573),  James  (1594),  236  ;  John  (1610- 

15),  235,  236. 
Mortimer,  George  (Insch,  1650),  306. 
Mortimer,  Patrick  (Oyne,  1673),  339. 
Mortlach  Bishoprick,  22  ;  Church,  16  ;  Manse,  125. 
Morton,  Earl  of,  John  (15—),  438  ;  William  (16— ),  438. 
Mortuary  Settlements  (1464),  123. 
Mossat,  92. 

Mostoun  of  Leslie,  157. 
Mounie,  Stone  Circle,  4  ;  Lands  of,  142,  465. 
Mounie,  Lairds  of,  Seton  (1575-1623),  101,  141,  231,  465  ;  Urquhart  (1623-36),   231,   465  ;  Farquhar 

(1636-1702),  231,  389,  397,  465  ;  Hay  (1702-14),  465  ;  Seton  (1714),  141,  231,  465,  466. 
Mowat  (1200),  33  ;  of  Abergeldie  (1411),  92  ;  of  Lascragy  (1500),  131. 
Mowat,  Ellen,  wife  of  John  Cameron  (1364),  75. 
Mowat,  John  (Monymusk  (1685),  348. 

Muehals,  275,  416,  vide  Castle  Fraser  ;  do.  in  the  Mearns,  407. 
Muiresk,  Dempster  of  (1570),  441;  John,  do.  (1588),  442;  Lyon  of  (15— ),  460. 
Muirhouse,  John  Denholme,  of  (1720),  414. 
Muirton,  Gilbert  Johnston  of  (1609),  193;  Tenants  (1611),  160. 
Mulligan,  John,  Minister  at  Bethelny  (1698),  427-8. 
Municipal  Election  (1672),  363,  (1680)  371 ;  Law  of,  117. 
Munro  of  Fowlis  (circa  1380),  443. 
Munro,  George  (Drimmies,  18 — ),  487. 
Murdac,  Duke  of  Albany,  54,  106,  108. 
Murdo,  Murdoch,  Alexander  (Ardtannies,  17—),  393. 
Murdo,  Paul  (Ailhouse  of  WelL  Kemnay,  1654-66),  351,  352,  390,  397. 

Murdo,  Robert  (Dalmadilly,  Kemnay,  1649-52),  292,  322,  390;  do.  Old  Meldrum  (17—),  479. 
Mure,  Colonel  George  (Caldwell,  174-),  472. 

Muriel, ,  first  wife  of  Donald,  Earl  of  Mar  (1290),  56. 

Murray,  Alexander,  Lord  Elibank  (17—),  355,  475. 

Murray,  Sir  Andrew,  of  Bothwell,  24,  42,  54,  57,  68,  71. 

Murray,  Ann,  wife  of  Lord  Pitfour  (1736),  355,  475. 

Murray,  Sir  Archibald,  of  Blackbarony  (1660),  439. 

Murray,  Bathia,  wife  first  of  Sir  William  Forbes,  second,  of  Sir  Alexander  Forbes  (1649),  328. 

Murray,  Catherine,  wife  of  William  Earl  of  Kintore  (1715),  439. 

Murray,  Earl  of  (III.),  486. 

Murray,  James  (Kinnearnie  and  Monymusk,  1570),  155. 

Murray,  John  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 

Murray,  William,  Minister  at  Inverurie  (1679-1716),    359,   864,  384,  390  ;   do.,  Episcopal  Minister  at 

Old  Aberdeen  (]  738),  359,  390. 
Murtle,  Chalmers  of  (1388-1488),  62,  85,  254,  457. 
Muscamp,  Marjory  (Wooler,  129-),  56. 
Myll,  Gavin  (Kinkell,  1473),  122. 
Myll,  William  (Kintore,  1498),  123, 


Index.  567 


N. 


Nairn,  Toft  in  Burgh  (1200),  21. 

Nairn,  Duncan,  Dean  of  Guild  Staling  (1650),  308. 

Names  (circa  1200),  33,  {circa  1300),  50,  (Inverurie,  1536),  142  ;  Daviot  (1550),  144. 

Natrick,  The,  8,  147. 

Napier,  Master  of  (1645),  286. 

Ness,  The,  13. 

Netherboat,  Inverurie  (1692),  390. 

Neustadt,  Lord  of,  Count  Leslie  (1637),  399. 

Newark,  1st  Earl  of  (1645),  286. 

Newbottle,  Minister,  Andrew  Cant  (1639),  276. 

Newburgh,  Countess  of  (1853),  444. 

Newhills,  Minister,  Martin  Shanks  (1697),  426. 

Newlands  (Oyne),  Leith  of  (1668-77),  329,  340,  347;  Scott  of  (1686),  378. 

New  Leslie,  Leslies  of  (1450-1649),   100,  154,  161,  194,  210,  249,  255;   do.  Arthur  Johnston,  166; 

Leith  of  (1649),  401,  459. 
Newplace,  Johnston  of  (1619-1707),   224,  225,  292,   363,  417,  449;    Burnet  of  (1707-39),  417;  Synod 

of  Aberdeen  (1739),  225,  417,  418. 
Newseat,  Lairds  of,  vide  Badifurrow. 
Newton,  Agnes,  wife  of  James  Hay  (1696),  387. 
Newton,  in  Civil  War,  273,  285. 
Newton,  Lairds  of,  Abbot  of  Lindores  (1259),  61  ;  Lord  Lindores  (1600),  157;  Gordon  (1600-52),  182, 

221,  238,  249,  267,  273,  280,  288,  301,  310,  445,  446 ;  Davidson  (1696-17—),  388,  460 ;  Gordon 

(17—),  330,  338. 
Newton  of  Premuay,  Mr.  Patrick  Anderson  of  (1696),  388. 
Newton  Stone,  4. 
Nicknames,  212. 
Nicol,  John  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 
Nicolson,  Ann,  of  Glenbervie  (died  1878),  378. 
Nicolson,  Bishop  (1694),  378,  402. 

Nicolson,  Sir  George,  of  Keninay,  Lord  Kemnay  (1673-17—),  165,  354,  356,  366,  377,  378,  380,  420,  485. 
Nicolson  of  Glenbervie  (1791-1878),  377,  378. 
Nicolson,  James  Badenoch,  of  Glenbervie  (1878),  378. 
Nicolson,  John,  Town  Clerk  of  Inverurie  (1538),  392. 
Nicolson,  John,  wife  of  Eev.  James  Wilson  (17 — ),  377. 
Nicolson,  Margaret,  wife  of  Walter  Ferguson,  354-6;    do.,  wife  first  of  James  Hamilton   (1700),  377, 

second  of  Sir  Thomas  Nicolson  (1700),  377  ;  do.,  Marchioness  of  Lothian  (17—),  377. 
Nicolson,  Sir  Thomas  (Balcaskie,  1700),  377. 
Nicolson,  Sir  William,  of  Mergie  and  Glenbervie  (1721),  377,  485. 
Norino,  Constable  of  Enrowrie  (1248),  34,  60,  63,  441. 
Norman,  Constable  of  Enrowrie,  (1199),  2,  7,  33,  34,  368,  441. 
Noi-manstoun,  Culsalmond  (1257),  36. 
Noroway,  Gilbert  (Inverury,  1613),  209. 
North  Burn,  Inverurie,  9,  183,  185. 
Norwood,  Captain  James,  and  Grace,  wife  of  Colonel  Kuight  Erskine  (18 — ),  474. 


568  Index. 

Notaries,  170,  200,  214,  217. 

Nottingham  Castle  (1199),  23. 

Nrurin,  or  Inverurie  (878),  2,  3,  11,  14. 


o. 

Oaths  of  Allegiance  (1574),  456,  (16S0)  371. 

Occupations  (1696),  382. 

Offences,  Criminal  and  Burghal  (1400,  1600),  115,  116,  188,  191,  195,  203. 

Officers  of  Burgh  (Inverurie),  120,  194,  198,  200-3. 

Ogg,  Margaret — Accused  of  Witchcraft  (Insch,  1650),  306. 

Ogilvie  of  Airly  (1640-5),  273,   285,  468  ;   of  Auchlevec  (1487),  102,  112  ;    of  Banff  (1639),  265;  of 

Barras  (1651-1837),   366,   367,  368;  of  the  Boyne  (1505),  129,  354,   442,  462;   of  Deskford 

(1487),  102;  of  Dunlugas  (1628),  466  ;  of  Forglen  (1705),  419  ;  of  New  Rayne  (1700),  389,  431. 
Ogilvie,  Agnes,  wife  of  Sir  Alexander  Reid  (1705),  419. 

Ogilvie,  Alexander,  of  That  Ilk  (1531),  230  ;  Sir  Alexander  (1411),  89  ;  do.  of  Forglen  (1705),  419. 
Ogilvie,  Anna,  wife  of  William  Ferguson,  354. 
Ogilvie,  Beatrix,  wife  of  Alexander  Seaton,  (1636),  466. 
Ogilvie,  David  (Kinkell,  1473),  122  ;  Sir  David,  of  Barras  (1738),  368. 

Ogilvie,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  William  Leslie  (1496),  442;  do.,  wife  of  Patrick  Anderson  (1737),  368,  419. 
Ogilvie,  George  (Auchleven,   1511),  112  ;    do.  of  Barras  (1651),    366  ;  do.   (do.  1660),  367  ;   do.  2nd 

Lord  Banff  (17— ),  419,  446  ;  do.  of  New  Rayne  (1703),  431. 
Ogilvie,  Sir  George,  of  Banff  (Lord  Banff)  (1639-1641),  265,  276,  439  ;  do.  of  Barras  (do.  1837),  368. 
Ogilvie,  of  That  Ilk,  Alexander,  Sheriff  of  Aberdeen  (1531),  230. 

Ogilvie,  James,  Parson  of  Kinkell,  Abbot  of  Dryburgh  (died  1518),  129  ;  do.  of  Westhall  (1650),  329. 
Ogilvie,  Janet,  wife  of  John  Leith  (17—),  401,  459. 

Ogilvie,  Jean,  wife  of  Sir  Robert  Keith  (temp. Alexander  III.),  436;  do.  wife  of  PatrickLeith  (1696),  462. 
Ogilvie,  John,  Aberdeen  (1731),  471. 
Ogilvie,  Lord,  James  (159-),  438  ;  do.  James  (1636),  439. 

Ogilvie,  Margaret,  wife  of  6th  Earl  Marischal  (16—),  438 ;  do.,  wife  of  Patrick  Urquhart  (1630),  468. 
Ogilvie,  Sir  Patrick,  of  the  Boyne  (16—),  462. 
Ogilvie,  Dr.  Skene,  Minister  of  Old  Machar  (18—),  465. 
Ogilvie,  Thomas,  of  New  Rayne  (1696),  389. 
Ogilvie,  Walter,  x>f  Auchleven  (1487),  102. 
Ogilvie,  Major  Walter  (Boyne),  462. 
Ogilvie,   Sir  Walter  of  Auchleven,  462  5    do.  of  the  Boyne  (1505),  129,  354,  442  ;   do.  of  Dunlugas 

(1628),  466. 
Ogston  of  That  Ilk  (1512),  131. 
Old  Meldrum,  7,  52,  233,  267,  355,  382,  428. 
Old  Rayne,  245,  285. 
Oliphant,  Lord  (1639),  266. 
Oliver  (Siege  of  Acre,  1200),  22. 

Oliver,  Rachel,  daughter  of  Sir  Robert  Oliver,  wife  of  Rev.  Campbell  Lock  (1871),  483. 
Omer,  Archdeacon,  Aberdeen  (1214),  21. 


Index.  569 

Orange,  Prince  of,  vide  William  III. 

Ore,  Arthur,  Minister  of  Culsalmond  (1647-64),  239,  306,  324,  338. 

Orem,  Alexander  (Aberdeen,  1679),  347. 

Orkney,  13  ;  "William,  Earl  of  (1441),  110. 

Orleans,  Duchess  of  (1703),  421. 

Osburn,  James,  Minister  at  Aberdeen  (1697),  426. 

Otterburn,  Battle  of,  77,  94,  224. 

Outing  Eig,  Inverurie,  397. 

Overboat,  Inverurie, 

Overburn,  Inverurie,  8,  183,  398. 

Over  Coblehaugh,  Inverurie,  173,  185. 

Owen,  Dr.  John,  375. 

Oyne,  Menzies  of  (temp.  Robert  I.),  61  ;  Weschell  of  (temp.  David  II.),  61. 

Oyne,  Parish  and  Kirk,   Kirklands,  19  ;   Endowments  (1306),  79  ;   Visitation  (1650),  308  ;   Patronage 

of  (1664),  334 ;  Communion  Cups  and  Churchyard  Dykes  (1673),  347  ;  Kirk  Ruinous  (1674), 

339  ;  Vacant  (1699),  427. 
Oyne,  Ministers— John  Leslie  (arete  1565);  John  Abercromby  (1570),  155,  415  j    "Walter  Richardson 

(1586-95) ;  Robert  Burnet  (1596-1613),  160,  240,  241,  446  ;  Alexander  Burnett  (1613-15);  John 

Runciman  (16—),   446;   William   Burnet  (1647-50),  240;  James  Strachan  (1685-1715),  372; 

William  Mair  (1701),  429-32. 
Oyne,  Parsons— Alexander  Cullen  (1506),  149  ;  James  Warrane  (1549),  148. 
Oyne,  Schoolmasters— Robert  Morgan  (1672),  326  ;  John  Mitchell  (1681-3),  326  ;  John  Shand  (1638—), 

326;  James  Leask  (1696-1710),  326,  386,  425. 


P. 

Pace  or  Pasche,  145,  207. 

Padua,  University  of,  165,  411. 

Paip,  Mr.  Alexander  (Aberdeen,  1650),  307. 

Pantelar  of  Scotland  (1326),  54,  57. 

Panton,  Arthur,  Jesuit  Priest  (1588),  156. 

Panton  of  Hadauch  (1512),  131. 

Panton,  James,  of  Blockhouse  (1688),  419  ;  do.,  Inverurie  (1729),  397. 

Panton,  Jean,  wife  of  Rev.  John  Shand  (1696),  385. 

Panton,  John,  of  Pitmedden  (1590),  465  ;  of  Blockhouse  (1696),  389. 

Panton,  Margaret,  wife  of  Walter  Ferguson  (1680),  356,  384,  481  ;  do.,  wife   of  James  Robertson 

(1693),  397. 
Panton,  Mary,  wife  of  William  Ferguson  (17—),  379. 
Panton,  William,  W.S.,  of  Blockhouse  (1688),  419. 
Papal  Legate  (11—),  22. 
Papists  in  Aberdeenshire  (circa  1600),  156,  221,  (1637),  249,  (1650),  216,  307,  311,  330,  (1660),  330, 

(1700),  422. 
Papists,  Lords  (1660),  249. 

Parcock  in  Meldrum  (1639),  267,  do.  in  Buchan,  Hay  of  (15—),  449. 

72 


570  Index. 

Pardes  of  Craig,  Daviot.  397,  8. 

Parish  Clerks,  election  of  (1536)  142,  (1550),  144. 

Parishes,  Institution  of,  17  ;  Grouped  at  Reformation,  153  ;  Discipline  of  (1650),  142. 

Park,  Captain  (Peterhead,  1715),  379. 

Park,  Dr.,  St.  Andrews,  167. 

Parliament,  Pay  of  Members,  204,  362. 

Passive  Resistance  (166-),  343,  371. 

Pasturage  Rights  and  Laws,  Inverurie  (16—),  189,  191,  193,  194,  195. 

Paterson,  Alexander,  Minister  at  Logiedurno  (1592-1620),  154  ;  do.,  Inverurie  (1646,  1664),  259,  293, 

351,  352,  392;  do.  (do.,  1681),  396;  do.  (do.  1710),  483. 
Paterson,  Elizabeth,  Jane,  and  John,  Monymusk  (16S5),  348. 
Paterson,  Mr.  George,  Superintendent  (1592),  153,  156. 
Paterson,  John  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 
Paterson,  Dr.  William  (Inverurie,  1877),  390. 
Paton,  Alexander,  of  Kinaldie  (1671),  362. 

Paton,  John,  of  Grandholm  ^1633),  238  ;  do.,  Minister  at  Leochel  (1680),  and  at  Insch  (1680-91),  429. 
Patonsoune,  Robert,  Chaplain  of  the  Garioch  (1505),  129. 
Patron  Saints,  17. 

Patronages  (1600),  157,  159,  160,  (1664),  334. 
Paul,  George  (Daviot,  1700),  392. 
Paul's  Rig,  Inverurie,  392. 
Paupers,  Provision  for  (1650),  315. 
Pay  of  Soldiers  (1672),  362. 
Payment  for  Labour  (1609),  193. 
Peace,  Protection  of  (1618),  205. 
Peat  Road,  Inverurie  (1616),  200. 
Peel  (Leithhall),  401. 
Peelwa's  (Inveramsay),  417. 
Peithill,  Dalgarno  of  (1652),  165. 
Penn,  William,  Quaker,  341. 

Penny  Weddings  (1657),  319,  (1677),  340,  (1700),  383. 
Percival  Spencer,  Murder  of  (1812),  454. 
Percy,  Henry  (Hotspur),  67,  77  ;  Ralph,  67,  77,  437. 
Persley,  James  Hadden  of  (1812),  454. 

Perth,  Toft  in  Burgh  (1200),  21  ;  Duel  on  Inch  (1396)  ;  James,  Earl  of  (1726),  439,  468. 
Peterhead,  Charter  of  (1593),  438  ;  Pretender  at  (1715),  379  ;  William  Donald,  Minister  (1840),  407. 
Pestilence  (1347,  1349,  1401),  71. 

Petit  Duncan,  Chancellor  Aberdeen  Diocese  (1424-6),  126. 
Pettiesmill,  197,  Gilbert  Johnston  of,  208. 
Petrie,  George  (excom.  1650),  307. 
Petrie,  Henry  (Aberdeen,  1616),  179. 
Petrie,  Janet  (Inverurie,  1645),  292. 

Petrie,  John  (Inverurie,  1536),  142 ;  do.  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 
Petrie,  Margaret,  Monymusk  (1685),  348. 
Petrie,  William  (Inverurie  militiaman,  1644),  282. 
Pews  in  Church  (1650)  322,  (1685)  348. 
Philip,  William  (Inverurie,  1536),  142  ;  do.,  and  Bessie  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 


Index.  571 

Philiphaugh,  Battle  of,  286,  289. 

Philipson,  Fergus  (Kintore,  1498),  123. 

Philipson,  WiUiam  (Kinkell,  1473),  122. 

Philorth,  Sir  A.  Fraser  of,  10th  Lord  Salton  (16—),  465. 

Pictish  Capitals,  13  ;  Chronicles,  11,  14;  Houses,  22. 

Pierson,  Margaret,  wife  of  Thomas  Burnett  (1665),  485. 

Pilgrimages,  124. 

Pillaging  in  Civil  War,  266,  268,  270-5,  279,  284,  285. 

Pilmor  of  Glack ;  Ade  (1294),  37,  63;  Alice  (1381),  63,  100. 

Pilrig,  James  Balfour  of  (1700),  414,  472. 

Pinkie,  Battle,  Deaths  at,  122,  138,  438. 

Pirie,  David,  (Aquhorties,  1634),  186. 

Pirie,  Elspet  (Conglass,  1649),  315. 

Pirie,  John  and  William  (Fetternear,  1636),  211. 

Pirrie,  Dr.,  Bournemouth,  469. 

Pitarrow,  Wishart  of  (1618),  237. 

Pitblaine,  Daviot,  John  Thomson  of  (1418),  104. 

Pithee  (1357),  63. 

Pitcaple,  Roman  Remains,  9  ;  Castle,  238,  266,  288,  289,  297,  298,  327,  373,  417 . 

Pitcaple,  Leslies  of  (1457-1757),  417,  470. 

Pitfichie  Castle,  404,  405;  Lairds  of,  Henry  de,  Monymusk  {temp.  David  II.)    Chalmers  (do.),  65; 

Urrie  (1535),  128,  253  ;  Forbes  (1688-1707),  380,  404,  405. 
Pitfoddels'  Lodging,  Aberdeen  (1529),  457 ;  Menzies  of,  132,  264,  266,  275,  456-8. 
Pitfour,  Ferguson  of,  220,  355,  356,  475-8 ;  Lord,  355,  356,  475 ;  Lands,  483. 
Pitgavenie  (1387),  64,  103,  230,  389. 
Pitlurg,  Gordon  of,  112,  412,  473. 

Pitmachie,  Abercrombie  of  (1360-1681),  65,  234;  Horn  of  (1681),  415. 
Pitmedden  in  Dyce,  Leslie  of,  111,  221. 

Pitmedden  in  Formartine,  Panton  of  (1595),  465  ;  Seton  of  (16—),  101,  304,  377,  464,  466,  467. 
Pitmedden  in  Garioch,  Abercrombies  of  (1484-1681),  65,  232,  235,  470;  Horn  of  (1671),  415. 
Pitmedden,  Lord,  467. 

Pitnacalder,  Aberdour,  John  Forbes  of,  406,  450. 
Pitnamoon,  Alexander  Leslie  of  (1520),  441. 
Pitsligo,  Church  of,  276 ;    Forbes  of  (1400-1781),  128,   155,  237,  252,  270,  283,  284,  405,  415,  438, 

448,  459. 
Pitsligo,  6th  Lord,  438,  459  ;  last,  do.,  415. 
Pitsligo,  Master  of  (died  1781),  237. 
Pitscurry  (1357),  63. 
Pitt,  Mr.,  476. 

Pittendreich,  Adam  (Keithhall,  1677),  236. 
Pittendreich,  George  of  Laws  (1675),  329. 
Pittendreich,  Sir  Henry  Elphinstone  of  (14 — ),  470. 
Pittenweem,  Prior  of  (1580),  224;  Sailors  of,  in  Slavery  (1679),  340. 
Pittodrie,  Erskine,  1st  Line  (1350-1550),  56,  59,  63,  106,  418;  2nd  Line  (1550 ),  106,  271,  306, 

329,  364,  401,  418,  445,  462,  473. 
Pittodrie  Hospital,  156. 
Pittodrie,  House  (1644),  280,  283,  418. 


572  Index. 

Plague,  The  (1607)  192,  (1647)  295. 

Platform  of  Covenanting  Discipline  (1650),  313,  334. 

Pledge,  Ann,  wife  of  Alexander  Burnett  (1877),  486. 

Pleyfauld  of  Harlaw,  95. 

Pleyhaugh  of  Dyce,  213. 

Plotter,  Ferguson,  The,  213. 

Plummer,  Nicholas  (Aberdeen,  1411),  89. 

Poland,  Poll,  Pow,  65,  179,  207,  209,  357,  484. 

Polander,  Polnar,  Appolinaris  Chapel,  Manse,  5,  14,  19 ;   Burn,  19, '28. 

Polander  Fair,  150,  361. 

Polish  Students  (1664),  338. 

Political  Discontent  (1680),  370. 

Polmaise,  Cunninghame  of  (1664),  338. 

Pond  Barrows,  40. 

Pontefract,  105. 

Population  in  Early  Times,  22. 

Port  Elphinstone,  6,  472. 

Posen  (1714),  483. 

Portents  in  the  Civil  War,  278. 

Porter,  Alexander  (Inverurie,  1608),  172,  293,  295,  316. 

Porter,  George  (Inverurie,  1645),  293  ;  do.  (do.  1653),  393;  do.  (do.  1674),  339. 

Porter,  John,  Inverurie  (1632-164-),  258,  393 ;  do.  (Daviot,  1725),  392. 

Porter,  Walter  (Inverurie,  1674),  339. 

Porter,  William  (Inverurie,  1608),  192;  do.  (do.  1632),  258;  397  ;  do.  (do.  1734),  398. 

Porterstown,  Portstown,  85,  197,  225,  351 ;  John  of  (1350),  65  ;  Mill  of  (1664),  351. 

Porthead,  Inverurie,  7. 

Portlethen,  Lands  in  (1618),  237,  404. 

Potsdam  (1778),  439. 

Pottock,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  (1262),  37,  64. 

Powtate,  8,  9,  173,  362,  384,  398,  439,  483. 

Pratt  (circa  1200),  33. 

Prayer  Books  in  Scotland,  332,  333. 

Preaching  (1560),  127,  145. 

Premnay,  Vicarage  of  Lindores  Abbey,  8,  85 ;  Brewhouse  (1257),  35 ;  Endowments  (1257),  35,  (1366) 

79,  (1600),  157  ;  Kirk  Land,  157  ;  Communion  Cups,  386. 
Premnay,    Ministers— John  Abercromby   (1570),  415;    Robert   Burnet   (1601),    155,    242;   William 

Barclay  (1604),  160  ;  Robert  Irving  (1607-8),  155  ;    John  Gellie  ( 1629),  240  ;  George  Milne 

(1629-69),    241;  George  Innes  or  Irvine  (1670);    John   Shand  (1671-96),    378,    385;  James 

Gordon  ( -1709),  423. 

Premnay,  Schoolmaster,  James  Leask  (ante  1696),  386. 

Presburg  (1664),  399. 

Presbyterial  Visitations  (circa  1650)  ;    Purpose  of,  304  ;    Bethelnie,  304 ;  Bourtie,  304  ;  Culsalmond, 

308;  Inverurie,  303,  311;  Kinkell,  304;  Oyne,  308. 
Presbyterian  Church  (1690),  425. 
Presbyteries  (1581),  153,  (1602)  159,  (1697)  426. 
Preshome  (1694),  378. 
Preston,  Battle  of,  286. 


Index.  573 

Preston,  Sir  Henry,  of  Fyvie  (1390),  67,  77,  78,  91. 

Preston,  Lawrence  (1334),  70. 

Preston,  Marjory,  wife  of  Sir  John  Forbes  (1400),  91. 

Preston,  Nicol  de  (1296),  51. 

Preston  Tower,  Fyvie  Castle  (1400),  67. 

Pretender,  The  (1688-1715),  370,  371,  379,  439. 

Prices  (circa  1300),  45,  (circa  1500)  123,  (circa  1600),  109,  179,  209  ;  of  arms  (circa  1650),  293. 

Priests  (circa  1200),  21;  Last  of  the,  148;  Trafficking  (1588),  156;  (1637)299,  (1702)423. 

Priestleys,  Conglass,  60. 

Prince  of  Scotland  (1688),  380. 

Pringle,  Pingle,  Pyngill,  Ade  (1376),  66;  Alexander  (1668),  339. 

Property  of  Defuncts  (1649),  305. 

Prot,  George  (Inverurie,  1650),  322. 

Protection  Policy  (1608-18),  192,  196,  205,  (1670)  363. 

Protestant  Confession  (1560),  438. 

Psalms,  New  Paraphrase  of  (1650),  308. 

Public  Works  and  Burdens  (1650  —90),  320,  342. 

Pumfels  in  Churches  (1449),  304. 

Punishments  by  Burgh  Laws  (1400),  116;    by  Composition  (ante  1600),  151 ;    Capital  (1630),  211  ; 

Ecclesiastical  (1650),  301-312. 
Putachie,  Forbes  of,  101. 

Pyot,  Laurence,  Archdeacon,  Aberdeen  Diocese  (1450-78),  126. 
Pypar,  John  (Aberdeen,  1411),  89. 


Q. 

Quakerism,  227,  331,  339,  341,  342,  357,  358,  359,  366. 

Queen  Anne  (James  VI.),  365,  438;  do.  (of  England),  358,  439. 

Queen  Annabella  (Robert  III.),  58. 

Queen  Armegard  (William  I.),  26. 

Queen  Isobel  (Robert  I.),  41,  45. 

Queen  Joan  (Alexander  II.),  437. 

Queen  Margaret  (Malcolm  Caumore),  21 ;  do.  (James  II.),  110  ;  do.  of  Norway,  38. 

Queen  Mary  (James  V.),  438 ;  do.  (of  Scots),  106,  136,  146,  149,  227,  274  ;  do.  (of  England),  380. 


R. 

Rae,  John,  Inverurie  (1609),  193 ;  William,  Town  Sergeant,  Inverurie  (1476),  12. 

Rae,  Mr.  William  (Aberdeen,  1619),  207. 

Raedykes,  9. 

Raemore,  Innes  of  (1878),  460. 


574  Index. 

Ralf,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  (1147),  21  j  do.  Priest  at  Insch,  21. 

Ragman  Rolls  (129-),  50. 

Railing,  Excommunication  for  (1650),  307. 

Rainy,  James,  Schoolmaster,  Kemnay  (1683),  326. 

Bait,  Archibald,  Minister  of  Kintore  (1602-24),  240. 

Rait,  David,  Dean  of  Aberdeen  (1615),  233. 

Rait,  Isobel  (Banchory,  1650),  307. 

Rait,  Janet,  wife  of  Alexander  Leith  (17 — ),  462. 

Rait,  Jean,  wife  of  James  Ferguson,  (1645),  214. 

Rait,  William  (Cushny,  17—),  462. 

Bamorgeny,  Sir  John  of  (1397),  78. 

Ramsay,  Alexander  (1334),  70. 

Bamsay,  Mary,  wife  of  Rev.  William  Watson  (1698),  385. 

Ramsay,  Thomas,  Minister  of  Aberdeen  (1697),  426. 

Randall  (Inverurie),  vide  Ronald. 

Randolph  (circa  1200),  33  ;  do.  Earl  of  Chester  (1200),  23 ;  do.  Earl  of  Moray  (died  1331),  62,  69. 

Rannes,  Hay  and  Leith  Hay  of,  459. 

Baploch,  Gavin  Hamilton  of  (1700),  439. 

Rathen,  Duncan  Davidson,  Rector  of  (1614),  233. 

Bathmuriel,  Rochmuriel,  Vicarage  of  Lindores,  8,   25 ;  Endowments  (1257),  36,  (1366),  79  ;  Lands  of 

(1507),  102,  (1510)  111,  220,  (1651)  310. 
Rattray,  Jean,  wife  first  of  Sir  James  Elphinston,  second  of  Colonel  George  Mure  (17 — ),  414,  472. 
Battray,  Dr.  Thomas,  of  That  Ilk  and  Craighill  (17—),  414,  472. 
Bathven,  Minister  at,  John  Logie  (1629),  240. 
Ravelstone,  Keith  of  (1793),  483. 
Rayne,  Adam,  Duncan,  Helen,  and  Eeginald  (1304-33),  61 ;  Bartolf  of  (1333),  71  ;  New  Eayne,  Leith 

of  (16—),  462  ;    Leslie  and  Ogilvie  (1696),   389,  431,  ,446  ;    Old  Bayne,  Abercromby  of  (16—), 

462  ;  Home  of  (1681),  415. 
Eayne,  Bishop's  Court  at  (1413),  104  ;  Schyre  of,  19,  20,  60. 
Bayne,  Kirk  of,  Archdeaconry  of  Aberdeen,  Endowments  (1366),  79 ;  Covenant  Befused  (1649),  303  ; 

Communion  Cups  (1651),  309  ;  Settlement  at  (1703-5),  430-2. 
Bayne,  Kirktownof;  Leslie  of  (1630),  459;  Irvine  of  (1696),  388. 
Eayne,  Ministers  of,  Eeaders  (1567-80),  155  ;  Walter  Abercromby  (1585-1615),  155,  233,  446  ;  Andrew 

Logie  (1624-1643),    241,    446  ;    John   Middleton   (1643-53),   305,  306 ;    Alexander  Middleton 

(1656—),   241  ;   Andrew  Logie  (166—),  241  ;    Eobert  Burnet  (1666-1703),  386,  340  ;    Patrick 

Chalmers   (Episcopal   Intruder),   1703-5),    430-2  ;    Walter  Turing  (1705),  432 ;    Dr.    Patrick 

Davidson  (1813),  447. 
Bayne,  Parsons  of,  vide  Aberdeen  Diocese  ;  Archdeacon. 

Rayne  Schoolmasters— William  Thomson  (1685),  326  ;  Charles  Forbes  (1710),  425. 
Eeaders  (1570),  152-5,  332,  333,  336,  (1696),  386. 
Reay,  Master  of  (1639),  264. 
Redhall  in  Auchterless,  Gordon  of  (1688),  329. 
Redheuch  of  Tillyehiddel  (1512),  131. 
Redinch,  Island  of,  25. 
Reformation,  The,  366,  438. 
Reformed  Kirk,  Beginning  of  The,  152. 
Regalia  of  Scotland  (1651-60),  366,  367,  439. 


Index.  575 

Regent  (14—),  vide  Albany  ;  Morton  (1560),  163. 

Registers,  Mr.  James  Mill's,  Inverurie,  207. 

Reid,  Alexander  (Inverurie,  1644),  259  ;  do.  (do.  1662-88),  351,  352,  363,  395,  397  ;  do.  (Braco,  1681), 

360  ;  do.  (Largie,  1701),  430  ;  do.  James  and  William  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 
Reid,  Sir  Alexander,  of  Barra  (1705),  419. 
Reid,  Ardtannies  Millers— William  (1611),  181 ;  John  (1626),  181  ;  James  (1632),  161  ;  John  (1650), 

315  ;  George  (1708),  181. 
Reid,  Duncan  (Chaplain,  1466),  120. 

Reid,  Mr.  James,  of  Barra  (1630),  and  of  Bourtie  (1657),  311,  419,  467  ;  Sir  James  of  Barra  (1740),  419. 
Reid,  John,  Vicar  of  Bethelnie  (1543),  126  ;   do.  Vicar  of  Monymusk  (1535),  128  ;    do.   (Myreton, 

Insch,  1701)  430. 
Reid,  Sir  John,  of  Barra  (1696-1710),  389,  419. 
Reid,  Patrick  (Turriff,  1650),  307. 
Reid  of  Pitfoddels,  229. 
Reid,  William  (Inverurie,  1609),  193. 
Religious  Disabilities  (1688),  402. 
Rennie,  Robert  (Vintner,  Huntly,  1637),  249. 
Rents  in  1552,  140,  141. 
Restoration,  The  (1660),  361. 
Rettie's  Pleugh,  Oyne  (1675),  347. 
Revolution  Settlement,  The  (1688),  370,  425,  426. 
Rewburgh,  Alexander  (1259),  50. 

Riccarton,  Wardlaw  of  (15—),  470  ;  Hepburn  of  (18—),  472. 
Richard,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen  (1272),  37,  64;  do.,  Bishop  of  Moray  (1200),  28  ;  do.  Coeur  de  Lion,  22, 

23,  31,  32 ;  do.,  Vicar  of  Inverurie  (1262),  37  ;  do.,  Vicar  of  Durno  (1257),  21. 
Richardson,  Walter,  Minister  of  Rayne  (1586),  155. 
Riddel,  John  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 
Ritcheth,  Kirk  of  (1198),  25. 
Ritchie,  David  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 
Ritchie,  Gilbert  (Inverurie,  1657),  319. 
Ritchie,  John  (Inverurie,  1536),  142. 
Rizzio,  David,  Slayers  of,  224. 
Rob's  Willie  vide  Johnston. 

Robert,  de  Bruce,  1st,  23  ;  2nd  do.  (1248),  24,  39  ;  3rd  do.  (1297),  24,  39. 
Robert,  John  (Kinkell,  1473),  122. 

Robert,  King,  I.,  24,  39,  41,  43-53,  56,  68,  69,  115,  184,  436,  437. 
Robert,  King,  II.,  54,  73,  76,  88,  107. 
Robert,  King,  III.,  54,  58,  76,  78,  86,  106. 
Robert  of  Lundy,  25,  27,  224. 

Robertson,  Alexander,  Advocate,  Aberdeen  (1677),  364  ;  do.,  Litster,  Peterhead  (1765),  396. 
Robertson,  Bartholomew  (Inverurie,  1600),  162. 
Robertson,  David  (Inverurie,  1536),  162. 
Robertson,  Elspet,  wife  of  William  Davidson  (1582),  392. 

Robertson,  George,  Schoolmaster  of  Inverurie  (1650),  323  ;  do.  (Inverurie,  1878),  398. 
Robertson,  Isabella  (Insch,  1650),  306,  307. 
Robertson,  James  (Inverurie,  1633),  258  ;  do.  (do.,  1693),  397. 
Robertson,  Janet  (Inverurie,  1645),  32.3  ;  do.,  wife  of  James  Anderson  (1592),  392. 


576  Index. 

Robertson,  John  (Inverurie,  1602-20),  172,  191,  202,  204,  207,  397  ;  do.  (do.,  1633-46),  258,  292,  293, 

396  ;  do.  (Quaker,  166-)..  342  ;  do.  (1800),  393. 
Eobertson,  Katheriue  (King-Edward,  1650),  307. 
Robertson,  Mallie  (Inverurie  (1536),  142. 
Robertson,  Matilda,  wife  of  William  Leslie  (1878),  447. 

Robertson,  Patrick,  (Inverurie,  1536),  143  ;  do.  (do.,  1633),  258  ;  do.  (Deer,  1650),  307. 
Robertson,  Thomas  (Inverurie,  1582),  392. 

Robertson,  Walter  (Inverurie  ante  1582),  392  ;  do.  (do.,   1697),  397. 
Robertson,  William,  of  Aquhorties  (1638-51),  214,  292,  293,  315,  316,  322,  441  ;  do.  {ants  1694),  392  ; 

do.  (Inverurie,  1536),  142  ;    do.  (do.,   1600-15),  172,  182,  183,  192,  194,   196,  206  ;  do.  (do., 

outland  Burgers,  1615),  198,  201  ;  do.  (do.,  1659-97),  397  ;  do.  (do.,  senior  and  junior,  1662), 

352;  do.   (do.  1664),  398,  do.   (do.,  1674),  339;  do.   (do.,  senior  and  junior,  1734),  396;   do. 

(Monymusk,  1685),  348. 
Robin's  Croft,  Inverurie,  186. 
Robine,  Henry,  Probationer  (1698),  427. 
Rocharrald,  Roquharrald,  26,  170  (1622),  397. 

Roger,  Vicar  of  Aberdeen  (1259),  50  ;  do.  Vicar  of  Rossochetes  (1297),  50. 
Roland,  James  (Inverurie,  1645),  292. 
Rolland,  Margaret,  wife  of  James  Seton  (16 — ),  466. 
Rolland,  Mr.  William,  Master  of  the  Mint,  230,  466. 
Roman  Catholic  League  (15—),  250  ;  Party  in  Scotland  (168-),  370,  371,  302  ;  College  at  Aquhorties, 

444  ;  do.  at  Blairs,  457. 
Roman  Road,  9. 
Romans  at  Inverurie,  2. 
Ronald  or  Ronaldson,  George  (Inverurie,  1645),  292  ;  do.  (do.,  166S,  1677),  392,  396  ;    do.  (Boynds, 

1664),  351. 
Ronald,  John  (Inverurie,  1600-39),  172,  182,  191,  195,  196,  198,  199,  202,  204,  207,  397. 
Ronald,  Marjory  (Inverurie,  1633),  258. 

Ronald,  Thomas  (Inverurie,  1644-68),  282,  293,  296,  322,  393. 
Ronald,  William  (son  of  John,  1609-33),  194,  196,  203,  211,  257,  396. 
Ronaldson,  Alexander  and  Andrew  (Inverurie,  1536),  142. 
Roods  of  Inverurie,  183  ;  Heritors  (1633),  257-9  ;  do.  (15—17—),  389,  398. 
Rose,  Alexander  (1259),  50. 
Rose,  Sir  James  The,  95,  97,  98. 
Rose,  John,  of  Rosehill  (Wardes,  1696),  388. 
Rose  of  Kilravock,  94. 
Rose  Lane,  Inverurie,  384,  393,  483. 
Roseneath,  Minister  of,  Dr.  Story,  463. 
Rosehill  or  Wardes  (1696),  388. 
Roslin  Chapel,  Builder  of  (14—),  110. 
Ross,  Alexander,  of  Insch  (1696),  388 ;   do.,  Minister  at  Insch  (1631),  239  ;    do.  do.   (1651-60),  239, 

306,  310  ;  do.,  Minister  at  Monymusk  (1653-74),  240  ;  do.  of  Rothmaise  (1696),  388. 
Ross,  Dr.  Alexander,  Minister  of  Aberdeen  (1638),  249. 
Ross,  Bishop  of,  Edinburgh  (17—),  240. 

Ross,  Bishop  of,  Dr.  John  Leslie  (1565),  149 ;  do.,  Paterson  (16—),  154. 

Ross,  Buchanan  of  (18—),  463. 

Ross,  Christian,  wife  of  Sir  Arthur  Forbes  (174-),  461. 


Index.  577 

Ross,  Euphemia,  Countess  of,  (14 — ),  88. 

Boss,  Earl  of  (13-),  441. 

Ross,  Francis,  of  Auchlossin  (1646),  461. 

Ross,  Geils,  wife  of  George  Grab  (1660-64),  293,  294,  351. 

Ross,  James,  Minister  at  Aberdeen  (16 — ),  239. 

Ross,  John,  of  Arnage  (17— ),  460,  461  ;  do.  (Inverurie,  1476),  119. 

Ross,  Margaret,  wife  of  Robert  Leith  (1678),  461. 

Ross,  Martha,  wife  of  Alexander  Leith  (17 — ),  460. 

Boss,  Priest  (1702),  423. 

Ross  Priory,  Leith  of  (1842),  463. 

Rossnett,  Hugh  (1273),  50. 

Rossoehetes,  Vicar  of,  Roger  (1297),  50. 

Rothael,  Eitcheth,  Bothkes  (1199-1206),  19,  24,  25,  26,  32. 

Bothes,  Earls  of,  34,  73,  104,  156,  (1630),  220,  (1638)  255,  (1716)  414. 

Rothes,  Sir  George  Leslie  of  (1390),  104. 

Rothesay,  David,  Duke  of  (1402),  54,  78,  86,  106.  ' 

Bothie,  Forbes  of  (1671),  12  ;  Gordon  of  (1671),  329. 

Eothiemay,  Castle  of  (1469),  12  ;  Laird  of  (1630),  243  ;  John  Gordon  of  (17— ),  412. 

Eothiemurcus  (1644),  283. 

Bothraaise,  Botmaise,  Eothemais,  Chapel  of,   17  ;  Lairds  of,  Bobert,  son  of  Hugh,  son  of  Spileman 

(1175),   31 ;    Duncan  of  Bane  (1304),   61  ;    Henry  St.   Michael  (1304),  61  ;  Tulledaff  (1411), 

104  ;  Leslie  (1622-1633),  213,  238,  239  ;  Alexander  Boss  (1690),  388. 
Eothney,  Eothnek,  Eothenyck,  Patrick  of  (1297),  50  ;    Leith  of  (1359),  66  ;    Gordon  of  (1696-1836), 

388,  429,  471. 
Eothney,  Eeddendum  of  (1350),  66. 
Eothrie,  Earl  of  Mar  (1120),  55. 

Eothynonnan,  Eothienorman,  33,  (1376),  66,  (1390),  104. 
Boule,  John  and  Thomas  (Aberdeen,  1411),  89. 
Bounding,  Jane,  wife  of  Charles  Stephen  Leslie,  444. 
Bousseau,  Jean  Jacques,  402. 
Bow,  John,  Minister  (1649),  276,  301,  303  ;  his  History,  306. 

Bowan, ,  wife  of  William  Leslie  (1511),  446. 

Bowan,  William  (Aberdeen,  1511),  466. 

Eoyalist  and  Covenanting  Families  (1639-49),  249,  250,  264,  265,  267,  270,  275,  280. 

Bule  of  the  Kirk,  The  (1649-60),  299,  326. 

Eunciman,  Isabella,  wife  of  Alexander  Leslie  (1600),  446. 

Eunciman,  John,  Parson  of  Oyne  (16 — ),  446. 

Bussel,  Alexander,  of  Moncoffer  (1756),  478. 

Bussel,  Eobert  (1259),  50. 

Eutherford,  Alexander,  Provost  of  Aberdeen  (1612),  170. 

Euthven,  Kirk  of  (circa  1157),  20. 

Euthven,  Patrick,  Lord  (1566),  224,  449. 

Byhill,  Oyne  (Wardes  Lands,  1510),  220,  347,  378,  415  ;  Sir  Robert  Gordon  of  (1696),  389. 


73 


578  Index. 


St.  Andrew  of  Bayne,  17,  60;  of  Alford,  55  ;  of  Kindroeht,  55. 

St.  Andrews'  Priory,  21  ;  University,  130  ;  Burgh,  328  ;  Royalty  of,  468. 

St.  Anne's  of  Kemnay,  17. 

St.  Appolinaris,  14. 

St.  Bryde's  Kirk,  310,  338. 

St.  Caran  of  Premnay,  17. 

St.  Clair,  33  ;  William,  Lord  of  (1441),  110. 

St.  Cuthbert's,  Edinburgh,  224,  450.  j 

St.  Cyrus,  162. 

St.  Finnan's  of  Abersnithie,  17. 

St.  Germains,  376,  421. 

St.  James's  of  Auehleven,  17;  do.  ofFingask,  17. 

St.  John's  of  Barra,  17. 

St.  Kilda,  449. 

St.  Mahuluoche  of  Tarland,  55. 

St.  Machar,  55. 

St.  Marnan  of  Aberchirder,  55  ;  do.  of  Leochel,  55. 

St.  Mary's,  17. 

St.  Michael's  Altar,  136  ;  Henry,  51  ;  of  Kinkell,  17. 

St.  Nachlan's  of  Bethelnie,  17. 

St.  Ninian's  of  Oyne  ;  do.  of  Fetternear,  17. 

St.  Paull's,  Aberdeen  (1730),  335. 

St.  Peter's  Hospital,  Aberdeen,  12. 

St.  Bule,  66. 

St.  Serve  of  Monkegy,  112  ;  Fair,  112,  297  ;  Hill,  122. 

St.  Wollock  of  Buthven,  55. 

Sabbath,  Breach  of  (16-),  192,  207,  302,  316,  318,  319,  331,  332,  338,  339,  340. 

Sabbath  Games,  196,  207,  339. 

Sackcloth  in  Church  (1656),  319. 

Salisbury,  Gilbert  Burnet,  Bishop  of,  251,  375,  420. 

Saltoun,  6th  Lord  Abernethy  of,  464. 

Saltoun,  10th  Lord,  465. 

Saltoun,  Master  (1682),  465. 

Sampson,  Thomas  (Kinkell,  1473),  122. 

Sandhole,  Inverurie,  7. 

Sandilands,  James,  of  Craibstone  (17—),  451  ;  and  Jean,  wife  of  Sir  William  Johnston  (17—),  451. 

Saphock,  Lands  of  (1623),  309  ;  Mill  of  (1635),  161. 

Sax  Biggs,  Inverurie,  185. 

Saxon  Civilization,  17. 

Scabbedley  Folds  and  Faughs,  Inverurie,  185. 

Scevan,  William,  Monk  (1500),  133. 

Schawfields,  Inverurie,   200. 

Schethin,  Seton  of  (1625-72),  279,  307,  468. 

Schiney,  James  (Inverurie,  1694),  394. 


Index.  579 

Schivas,  House  of  (1637),  249  ;  Laird  of  (1650),  307. 
Schoolhill,  Aberdeen,  Tenement  in  (1611),  231. 

Schoolmasters  (1606-36),  171,  172,  173  ;  (1649-1700)  322-6,  (1710),  425. 
School-work  (1612),  170,  (17—)  424. 

Schools,  Provision  for  (1612),  172,  (1672),  326  ;   Neglected  (1649-57),  322,  323,  324  ;  Visited  by  Pres- 
bytery (1652),  324,  (1737),  424. 

Scot,  John,  The,  Earl  of  Huntingdon,  23,  34,  60,  62, '368. 

Scott,  Alexander  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 

Scott,  Anthony  (Inverurie,  (16—),  397. 

Scott,  George  (Mill  of  Ardoyne,  1664,  338  ;  do.,  Town  Clerk  of  Inverurie  (1746-50),  and  .at  Mill  of 
Aden  (1789),  482,  483. 

Scott,  Mr.  George,  Town  Clerk  of  Inverurie  (1681-1729),  354,  356,  384,  391,  393,  481,   483  ;  aud 
Family,  384,  483. 

Scott,  Isabella,  wife  of  James  Ferguson  (1709),  354,  384,  and  Family,  4S1. 

Scott,  James,  Inverurie  (1610-1620),  207,  397  ;  do.,  Duke  of  Monmouth,  372,  374. 

Scott,  John,  Jesuit  Priest  (1588),  156  ;  do.  (Inverurie,  1608),  191  ;  do.  of  Newlands  (1686),  378. 

Scott,  Margaret,  wife  of  Alexander  Ferguson,  Inverurie  (1723),  483,  485. 

Scott,  Sir  Robert,  of  Balweary,  354. 

Scott,  Walter  (16—),  397. 

Scott's  Lands,  Inverurie,  391,  392,  393,  395. 

Scottbrig,  Leith  of  (1672),  329. 

Scottish  Crown,  Competition  for  (129-),  23. 

Scougal,  Patrick,  Bishop  of,  Aberdeen  (1664-82),  335,  342. 

Scrimgeour,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Sir  Thomas  Erskine  (1528),  473. 

Scrimgeour  of  Dudhope,  Sir  James  (1411),  89  ;  do.  (15 — ),  473. 

Scrogie,  Alexander,  Parson  of  Drumoak  (1615),  233  ;  do.,  Dr.  Alexander  (Aberdeen,  1638),  249. 

Scrogie,  William,  Curate,  Inverurie  (1466),  120. 

Sculpture  in  Churches  (14-),  133. 

Sculptured  Stones,  4. 

Seaforth,  Earl  of  (1639),  267,  268. 

Secret  Council,  The  (1660-88),  334. 

Sectaries,  English  (164-),  278,  310,  317. 

Sedan,  University  of  (16-),  164. 

Seggat,  Bridge  at  (1670),  339. 

Selby  and  Lofthillock,  Leslie  of  (1433),  100  ;  Seton  (1590),  466  ;  Johnston  of  (16—),  466. 

Selmys,  Elphinstone  of  (1492),  101,  470. 

Sempill,  Baroness  (1698),  235. 

Sentiment  (14—),  123. 

Sepulture,  Early,  5. 

Serfdom  (14—),  117. 

Session,  Court  of,  100,  137. 

Seton  Arms,  465,  466,  468. 

Seton  of  Barra  (1598),  419,  466  ;  of  Blair  (15—1696),  466  ;  of  Bourtie  (1598-1657),  466,  467  ;  of  Dis- 
blair  (1623-58),  468  ;  Earls  of  Winton,  Earls  of  Dunfermline,  Lords  of  Fyvie  and  TJrquhart, 
464  ;  of  That  Ilk  (12—14—),  463,  464 ;  of  Lumphard  (1575),  465  ;  of  Meanie  (17—),  464  ;  of 
Meldrum  (1456-1636),  464,  465  ;  of  Minnes  (1623),  209  ;  of  Mounie  (1575-1636,  1714),  465  ;  of 
Newark  (1670),  235  ;  of  Pitmedden  (1619),  466,  467  ;  of  Schethin  (1625-72),  468  ;  of  Slatie 
(15—),  464. 


580  Index. 

Seton,  Alexander,  1st  Earl  of  Huntly  (145-),  464  ;  do.  of  Meldrum  (1656),  103,  107,  109,  464,  466  ; 
do.  do.  (1512-33),  464  ;  do.  (do.,  1581),  464,  474  ;  do.,  Chancellor  of  Aberdeen  Diocese  (1566), 
101,  126,  141,  148,  464  ;  do.,  Lord  Fyvie  (16—),  465  ;  do.  (Blair,  1619),  466  ;  do.  of  Kinloch 
(1672),  465  ;  do.  of  Mounie  (died  1850),  465  ;  do.,  Colonel  (died  1852),  231,  466. 

Seton,  Sir  Alexander,  Lord  Gordon  (1408),  91,  95,  96,  464  ;  do.,  Lord  Pitmedden  (1664),  231,  377,  467. 

Seton,  Ann,  wife  of  William  Dick  of  Grange  (15 — ),  467. 

Seton,  Sir  Archibald,  of  Pitmedden  (17—),  467. 

Seton,  Barbara,  of  Winton,  wife  of  Sir ■ —  Keith  (12—),  436. 

Seton,  Charles  (Pitmedden,  17—),  467. 

Seton,  Sir  Christopher  (1306),  43,  45. 

Seton,  David,  of  Mounie  (1878),  465,  466. 

Seton,  Eliza,  wife  of  Dr.  D.  Brown  (1878),  467. 

Seton,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Sir  William  Keith  (1133),  435  ;  do.  of  Meldrum,  wife  first  of  John  Urquhart 
(1610)  ;  second  of  Sir  Alexander  Eraser,  10th  Lord  Saltoun,  230,  231,  464,  465,  468  ;  do.  of 
Blair  (1661-96),  389,  418,  466  ;  do.,  wife  of  James  Elphinstone  (1698),  412  ;  do.,  wife  of  Sir 
Alexander  Wedderburn  (16 — ),  467. 

Seton,  George,  of  Barra  (1598-1616),  101,  148,  230,  233,  248,  464,  466  ;  do.  of  Schethin  (1625),  468  ; 
do.  of  Blair  (1647-58),  301,  308,  311,  466  ;  do.  of  Monni'e  (1714-63),  231,  446,  447,  465,  467  ; 
do.  (Mounie,  1878),  468. 

Seton  Gordon,  The,  67,  99,  112. 

Seton,  Helen,  wife  of  John  Leslie  (1730),  447. 

Seton,  Henry  (died  1452),  464. 

Seton,  Isobel,  wife  of  Thomas  Erskine  (1625),  464,  474  ;  do.,  wife  of  Dr.  Skene  Ogilvy,  465. 

Seton,  James,  of  Barra  and  Bourtie  (1598),  and  of  Pitmedden  (1619),  101,  230,  446  ;  do.  of  Bourtie  and 
Pitmedden  (1639-67),  230,  304,  419,  467  ;  do.  of  Schethin  (1672),  468  ;  do.  of  Meanie  (died 
1707),  655  ;  do.,  Pitmedden  (died  1814),  467  ;  do.  (Pitmedden,  1878),  467. 

Seton,  Dr.  James  (164-),  249. 

Seton,  John,  of  Blair  (15—),  464,  466  ;  of  Lumphard  and  Mounie  (1575),  464,  465  ;  do.  of  Meldrum 
(died  1619),  248,  264  ;  do.  of  Minnes  (1623),  209  ;  do.  of  Bourtie  and  Pitmedden  (died  1639), 
230,  265,  271,  304,  466  ;  do.  of  Schethin  (Minister  at  Kemnay,  1641-9,  and  at  Foveran,  1649-68), 
239,  468;  do.  of  Disblair  (1658),  468. 

Seton,  Sir  John,  of  That  Ilk,  463. 

Seton,  Kathcrine,  wife  of  Rev.  Forbes  (17 — ),  467. 

Seton,  Magdalene,  wife  of  Arthur  Talbot  Bevan  (1878),  467. 

Seton,  Margaret,  wife  of  John  Chalmers  (1584),  232,  464  ;  do.  of  Blair  (1666-96),  389,  418,  466  ;  do., 
wife  of  Alexander  Pringle  (1668),  339  ;  do.,  wife  of  Sir  John  Lauder  of  Foutainhall  (16 — ),  467  ; 
do.,  wife  of  Sir  John  Paterson  (17—),  467  ;  do.,  wife  of  Dr.  Anderson  (1769),  465. 

Seton,  Matthew  (Pitmedden,  1878),  467. 

Seton,  Ninian  (Kirkton,  Bourtie,  1611),  166. 

Seton,  Priest  (alias  Ross,  1702),  423. 

Seton,  Robert  (Kinloch,  1707),  465. 

Seton,  William,  of  Meldrum  (died  1452),  67,  101,  112,  464  ;  do.,  do.  (1490),  464;  do.,  do.  (1533-81), 
464,  465  ;  do.,  do.  (1619-53),  239,  464,  466  ;  do.  of  Slatie  (156-),  464  ;  do.  of  Blair  (1595),  466  ; 
do.,  do.  (1612-47),  301,  466  ;  do.  of  Mounie  (1597),  465  ;  do.,  do.  (1763),  465  ;  do.  of  Disblair 
(1623),  468;  do.,  do.  (1658),  468  ;  do.  of  Schethin  (1625-50),  307,  468  ;  do.,  do.  (Minister  of 
Logie-Buchan  (1652-72),  310,  478  ;  do.  of  Meanie  (senior  and  junior,  ante  1703),  465  ;  do. 
(Bombay  Staff,  1878),  467. 


Index.  581 

Seton,  Sir  William,  of  That  Ilk,  112,  463  ;    do.  of  Pitmedden  (1714-43),  467  ;   do.,  do.   (1743),  467  ; 

do.,  do.  (died  1819),  467  ;  do.,  do.  (1819),  467. 
Seven  Years'  "War,  422. 
Shakespeare  in  Aberdeen,  162. 

Shand,  Alexander  Sharp,  of  Templand  and  Drimmies  (1816),  487. 
Shand,  Colonel,  of  Templand,  487. 

Shand,  Sir  Charles  (Chief  Justice  of  Mauritius,  1878),  487- 
Shand,  George  (Excommunicated,  1650),  307. 
Shand,  James  (Premnay  Manse,  1696),  385. 
Shand,  John,  Schoolmaster  of  Oyne  (1683),  326  ;   do.,  Minister  of  Premnay  (1671-96),  378,  385  ;  do. 

(Mouymusk,  1685),  348. 
Shanks,  Martin,  Minister  at  Kewhills  (1697),  426. 

Sharp,  Alexander,  Minister  at  Fordyce  ante  1675,  at  Bourtie  (1675-1709),  386. 
Sherar,  Andrew  (Kinkell,  1473),  122  ;  do.  (Kintore,  1498),  123. 
Sherar,  Duncan,  Rector  of  Clatt  (1492),  125. 
Sheddocksley,  Young  of,  368,  454. 
Shepperd,  Arthur  (Probationer,  1697),  426,  428. 
Sheriffs  of  Aberdeen  (1296),  41  ;  (1452)  112  ;  (156-),  129  ;  (1630)  242  ;  (1647),  350  ;  (17—),  472  ;  (1800) 

454. 
Shethin,  Oyne  (1675),  347. 
Shevock,  Water  of,  222. 
Shewan,  William  (Monk  circa  1500),  130. 
Shewan,  William  and  Patrick  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 

Sbirrefs,  David,  Alexander,  Advocate,  and  Dr.  James,  Minister  (Aberdeen,  (17 — ),  240. 
Shoemakers'  Craft  (1400,  1614,  1671,  1696),  115,  196,  361,  383. 
Shombathy,  John  (1650),  320. 
Short  Croft,  Inverurie,  185. 
Short,  John,  Provost  of  Dundee  (1350),  308. 
Shrewsbury,  Talbot,  1st  Earl  of,  70. 
Sibbald,  Alexander,  Minister  at  Kemnay  (1632-41),  239. 
Sibbald,  Dr.  James  (Aberdeen,  1633),  249. 

Sighterman,  Catherine,  wife  of  Anthony,  5th  Earl  of  Kintore,  440. 
Signatures  by  Notary's  Hand  (1600),  183. 
Sillerstrind,  8,  92. 

Simmers,  William,  Miller  at  Glascha  (1622),  181  ;  do.  (in  Lofthillock,  1664),  351. 
Simpson,  Alexander,  of  Lawelside  (1677),  329  ;  do.,  of  Concraig,  391  ;  do.,  Minister  at  Insch  (1720),  462. 
Simpson,  Isobel  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 
Simpson,  James  (Daviot,  1651),  309. 
Simpson,  John  (Kinkell,  1473),  122. 

Simpson,  Margaret,  wife  of  Alexander  Simpson,  (1677),  329. 
Simpson,  Robert,  of  Thornton  (1677-96),  329,  389  ;  do.,  younger  (1696),  389. 
Sinclair,  Francis  (Caithness,  1644),  282. 
Sinclair,  Katherine,  wife  of  Sir  William  Seton,  463. 
Sinclair,  Lord  (1441),  110. 
Sinclair,  Sir  William,  of  Herdmanston,  463. 
Sinclair  or  Singlar,  Thomas,  Vicar  of  Logiedurno  (1454),  125. 
Singer,  William  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 


582  Index. 

Sins,  National  (1651),  310. 

Skellater,  William  Forbes  of  (1750,  416,  417,  469. 

Skene  (1228),  18,  55  ;  Kirk  of,  a  Chaplainry  of  Kinkell,   20,  132  ;   Gilbert  Keith,  Minister  (163-), 

160;  of  That  Ilk  (1296—),  51,  131,  284,  286,  449,  476. 
Skene,  George,  of  Skene  (M.P.,  1780),  476  ;  do.,  Minister  of  Kinkell  (1697),  427. 
Skene,  Janet,  wife  of  Alexander  Seton  (1S10),  465. 
Skene,  John,  of  Dyce  (17—),  238. 
Skene,  Patrick  (1296),  51. 

Sketry  Burn,  Inverurie,  174,  346,  362,  391,  395  ;  do.,  Roods,  Inverurie,  395. 
Skipper  Anderson,  Aberdeen  and  Bourtie  (1644-63),  287,  419. 
Skudder,  The  (1597),  152. 
Slagmagully,  Robert  Hervie  of  (1674),  329. 
Slains  Castle,  61,  164. 

Slains,  Ministers  at,  Stephen  Mason  (1612),  155  ;  William  Fraser  (1697),  426. 
Slavery  (1200),  33  ;  (1400)  117  ;   (1679)  340. 
Sleipiehilloek,  197,  225,  449. 
Sleepy  Market,  109. 
Smart,  John  (Kintore,  1498),  123. 

Smiddy  Croft,  Bourtie,  54,  167  ;  do.,  Lordship  of  Lendores  (1600),  157. 
Smidddy  House,  Lordship  of  Lendores  (1600),  157. 
Smith,  Alexander  (Inverurie,  1608-17),  172,  191,  202,  204,  396  ;  do.  (Coullie,  Monymusk,  1633),  239  ; 

do.  (Edinburgh,  1696),  383. 
Smith,  Ann  ("  Mill  o'  Tiftie's  Annie  "),  417. 
Smith  of  Blairdaflf,  386. 

Smith,  Clementina,  wife  of  Hugh  Gordon  (1773-86),  487. 

Smith  of  Drimmies  and  Inveramsay,  Patrick  (ante  1754) ;  Alexander  (1754-77),  417,  487. 
Smith,  Elspet,  wife  of  Robert  Wishart  (1696),  384. 
Smith,  George  (Inverurie,  1612),  172,  196,  203  ;  do.   (do.,  1662),  352. 
Smith,  Helen,  wife  of  Charles  Hacket  (1773),  487. 

Smith,  James,  (Inverurie,  1633-46),  258,  293,  398  ;  do.  (Ingliston,  1713),  396. 
Smith,  Janet  (Inverurie,  1650),  307. 
Smith,  Margaret,  wife  of  William  Mathewson  (1664),  398. 
Smith,  Peter  and  Janet  (Monymusk,  1685),  328. 
Smith,  Robert  (Inverurie,  1660),  352,  369. 
Smith,  Thomas,  Inverurie,  1725. 
Smith,  Violet  (Excommunicated,  1650),  307. 
Smith,  William  (Fetternear,  1511),  129  ;  do.  (Inverurie,  1536),  240  ;  do.  (do.  1612-19),  172,  207  ;  do. 

(do.,  1655),  397  ;  do.  (Blairdaff,  1633),  181. 
Snape,  William,  Mill  of  Aquhorties  (1611-31),  181. 

Society,  State  of  (circa  1400),  106  ;  (circa  1600)  244  ;  circa  (1660)  331,  336  ;   (circa  1700),  387. 
Solyman,  The,  Magnificent  (1521),  400. 
Somerled,  Thane  of  Argyle,  435. 
Somerville,  Jessie,  wife  of  John  Aiken  (1878),  473. 
Sophia,  The  Electress  (1703),  421. 
Souter,  John  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 
Souterford,  9  ;  Haugh,  185. 
Southesk,  Earl  of  (1640),  274,  281. 


Index.  583 

Spaldyn,  John  (1273),  50. 

Spangare,  The  (Alexander  Forbes,  1527),  139,  143. 

Spanish  Plot,  The  (1588),  164,  215,  438. 

Sparke,  Rev.  Richard,  and  Agnes,  wife  of  George  Johnston  (1878),  455. 

Spence,  Spens,  Alexander  (Dene,  Monymusk,  1534),  127. 

Spence,  Andrew  (Reader,  Monkegy,  1570),  165. 

Spence  of  Boddom  (circa  1500),  444  ;  {post  1600),  154. 

Spence,  James,  Vicar  of  Insch  (1600),  154. 

Spence,  Thomas,  Minister  at  Culsalmond  (1607),  154,  239. 

Spey,  The,  (temp.  David  I.),  20  ;  (1644),  283. 

Spileman,  Robert,  son  of  Hugh,  son  of  (1177),  31,  36. 

Spital,  Old  Aberdeen  (ante  1199),  12,  265. 

Spittert,  Alexander  (Aberdeen,  1543),  136. 

Spruce,  Dukedom  of  (1647),  229. 

Spynie,  Lord  (1644),  282. 

Stainforth,  Roger,  Vicar  of  Banchory-Ternan  (1262),  37. 

Stair,  1st  Viscount,  388. 

Standingstones,  Dyce,  197,  449,  453  ;  do.,  Rayne.  8. 

Stanners  of  Inverurie,  1,  2,  6,  183,  185,  225,  258. 

Starke,  Anne,  wife  of  James  C.  Lock,  R.  N.  (1866),  483. 

Station  Road,  Inverurie,  395. 

Steelhand,  Patrick  Gordon,  alias  (1639-51),  250,  307,  309. 

Stele,  John,  Chaplain  to  Earl  of  Mar  (1406),  86. 

Stenting  for  Soldiers  (1640),  274. 

Stephen,  Stevin,  Steven,  Inverurie,  120,  397. 

Stephen,  Alexander  (Inverurie,  1612-16),  195,  203  ;  do.  (do.,  1645-62),  299,  352,  390. 

Stephen,  Andrew,  Inverurie  (1647,  1664,  1677),  295,  351,  364. 

Stephen,  Ann,  wife  of  Robert  Menzies  (1802),  and  Jean,  wife  of  William  Tytler  (1802),  daughters  of 

John,  Inverurie  and  Peterhead  (1785),  259,  397. 
Stephen,  Catherine,  wife  of  George  Ferguson  (17 — ),  479. 
Stephen,  George  (Inverurie,  (1677),  364  ;  do.  (do.,  1717-1724),  396. 
Stephen,  Henry  (Aberdeen,  1411),  89. 
Stephen,  Janet  and  Marjory  (Inverurie,  1692),  390. 
Stephen,  John  (Fetternear,  1511),  129  ;  (Inverurie  ante  1612)  195  ;  do.  (do.  1614-33),  196,  203,  207,  257> 

315  ;  do.  (do.,  1645— ante  1681),   292,  293,  351,  390,  397  ;    do.  (do.,  1790),  396  ;  do.  (Conglass 

1696),  384. 
Stephen,  Patrick  (Leggat,  Keithhall,  1664),  352. 
Stephen,  Ssusan  (ante  1633),  257,  259. 
Stephen,  Thomas  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 
Stephen,  William,   Inverurie  (1612-18),  172,  205  ;  do.  (do.,  1633-62),  258,  351,  352  ;  do.  (do.,  1696), 

390,  do.  (do.,  Officer,  1608-17),  192,  198,  200,  201,  203. 
Stevynson,  William,  Chaplain  to  Earl  of  Mar  (1406),  86. 
Stewart,  Alexander,  Earl  of  Mar,  58,  85,  88,  106,  108,  112. 
Stewart,  Alice,  wife  of  George  Burnett  (1877),  486. 
Stewart,  Ann,  wife  of  James  Ferguson  (1699),  406,  409,  474,  475. 
Stewart,  Grizel,  wife  of  John  Seton  (1619),  464. 
Stewart,  James,  brother  of  Earl  of  Mar  (1410),  88. 


584  Index. 

Stewart,  Lord  James,  Earl  of  Moray,  146,  149. 

Stewart,  Janet,  Countess  of  Crawford,  daughter  of  Robert  II.,  442. 

Stewart,   John,   Earl  of  Buchan,   Constable  of  France,  88,  437;    do.,  Treasurer,   Aberdeen  Diocese 

(1549),  148. 
Stewart,  Thomas,  son  of  Earl  of  Mar  (14—),  86. 
Stewart,  Walter,  of  Dryland  (circa,  1509),  445. 

Stillfried,  Baron  Eminanual,  and  Baroness  Fanny,  wife  of  Ernest  Leslie  (1836),  444. 
Stipends  of  Ministers  in  Reformed  Church,  158. 

Stirling,  Toft  in  Burgh  (1200),  21  ;  Provost  and  Dean  of  Guild  (1650),  308. 
Stirling,  Gilbert  (1257),  50. 

Stirling,  Sir  John  (Not.  Pub.,  Kintore,  1498),  129. 
Stocking  Trade  in  Aberdeen,  454. 
Stone  Circles,  Coffins,  &c,  3,  4,  9. 
Stonefield,  Inverurie,  4,  8. 
Stonehaven  (1639),  271  ;  (1662),  484. 
Stonehouse,  257,  355,  389,  394. 
Stonywood,  254,  264,  279,  464,  473. 
Stormont,  David,  Viscount  (17—),  402,  439. 
Story,  Dr.,  Minister  of  Roseneath  (1878),  463. 

Strachan,  Stradachane,  Strathachyn,  Strathauchan,  Lands  of  (1640),  273. 
Strachan  of  Corskie  (1617),  213  ;  of  Glenkindie  (1357-1738),  67,  131,  234,  296,  347,  352,  459,  460  ;  of 

Kinaldie  (1671),  329  ;  of  Luesk  (1676),  329 ;  of  Thornton  (1445-1623),  103,  104,  139,  209  ;  of 

Tipperty  (1610),  177,  219. 
Strachan,  Adam,  of  Glenkindy  (1357),  67. 
Strachan,   Alexander,  of  Glenkindie  (1645),   234,  296  ;    do.  do.   (1645-82),  234,  296,  347,  352,  459, 

460  ;  do.   of  Thornton  (15 — ),  104  ;    do.  of  Kinaldie  (1671),  329  ;    do.  Minister  of  Logiedurno 

(1633-77),  239,  306,  324. 
Strachan,  Andrew,  Minister  at  Logiedurno  (1603-23),  314,  239  ;  do.,  Minister,  1st  at  Tullynessle,  2nd 

at  Kintore  (1649-79),  240,  303. 
Strachan,  Captain  (1650),  307. 

Strachan, ,  Rector  of  Coldstone  (1615),  233. 

Strachan,  David,  of  Thornton  (1445-1512),  104. 

Strachan,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Sir  Robert  Keith  (10—),  435  ;    do.,  wife  of  "William  Blackball  (1615), 

229  ;  do.,  wife  of  George  Pittendreich  (1675),  329. 
Strachan,  Elspet,  wife  of  Thomas  Johnston  (1630),  450. 
Strachan,  Isobel  (The  Skudder,  Caskieben  1597),  152. 
Strachan,  John  de  (1357),  67  ;    do.,  Rector  of  Kincardine  (1615),  233;    do.  of  Corskie  (1617),  213  ; 

do.,  Tutor  of  Thornton,  1623),  209. 
Strachan,  James,  Priest  (1560),  149  ;  do.,  Minister  of  Oyne  (1685-1715),  372,  378. 
Strachan,  Margaret,  wife  of  Rev.  William  Forbes  (1644),  214,  358  ;  do.,  wife  of  James  Leith  (1650), 

401,  459,  460  ;  do.,  mother  of  John  Panton  (1696),  389. 
Strachan,  Marjory,  wife  of  John  Leslie  (1610),  219. 
Strachan,  Sir  Patrick,  of  Glenkindie  (1738),  460. 
Strachan,  Richard,  Dene,  Monymusk  (1534),  127. 
Strachan,  Robert,  Younger  of  Thornton  (circa  1600),  139. 
Strachan,  William,  of  Tipperty  (died  1631),  177,   219  ;    do.,  Minister  of  Logiedurno  (1588-91),  154; 


Index.  585 

do.,  Minister  at  Daviot  (1608-49),  161,  239,  273,  303,  305  ;  do.,  Minister  at  Old  Machar  (1641), 
277  ;  do.  (Rayne,  1653),  311  ;  do.  of  Luesk  (1676),  329  ;  do.  (Oyne,  1683),  340,  341. 

Straiton,  Alexander,  of  Lauriston  (1411),  89. 

Straloch,  Cheyne  of  (circa  1378-1595),  101,  151,  442. 

Strathallan  (878),  2,  14. 

Strathbogie  "  In  the  Crown"  (1200,  1324,  1411),  13,  88,  89,  436. 

Strathbogie,  Castle  of  (1465),  12  ;  (1562)  146,  (159-)  242,  (164-)  275,   283,  288. 

Strathbogie,  David  of,  61,  70. 

Strathbogie,  Lord  of,  Earl  David  (1200),  23. 

Strathbogie,  Presbytery  of  (164-),  243. 

Strathbogie,  Raws  of  (Town  of  Huntly,  163*7),  249. 

Strathdon,  "  Fair  Maid  "  of  (14—),  108. 

Strathdon,  George  Gordon  of  (1500),  458. 

Strathnavin  (1646),  287. 

Strearahead,  Inverurie,  7,  175,  184  ;  Marches  (1653),  352 ;  Turffed  (1673),  369. 

Strichen,  Chalmers  of  (15—),  131,  449  ;  Fraser  of  (18—),  444. 

Strikes,  Act  against  (1493),  118. 

Struan,  Tutor  of  (1644),  280. 

Stuart  of  Laithers  (1512),  131. 

Styria,  Counts  Leslie  in,  400,  443. 

Superintends  of  the  Church,  153,  156. 

Superstitions  (1675),  339. 

Surnames  (circa  1300),  50  ;  Formation  of,  126. 

Sutherland,  Earl  of  (1600),  268. 

Sutherland,  John  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 

Sutherland,  Muriel,  widow  of  Alexander  Seton  (1456),  464. 

Sutor,  Michael  (Inverurie,  1402),  115. 

Swinton,  John,  of  Kemmerghame,  Lord  Swinton  (1790),  356,  481. 

Swinton,  Sir  John  (died  1402),  57,  64,  76. 

Swinton,  Katherine,  wife  of  Walter  Ferguson  (1798),  356,  481. 

Swaipe,  John,  Inverurie  (1536),  142. 

Symers,  Helen,  wife  of  John  Mortimer  (1610),  235. 

Synahard,  Calder  of  (1512),  131. 


Table,  The  Round,  12 

Tailors,  Crimes  of  (14 — ),  116. 

Taillefer,  George,  Minister  at  Daviot  (1650-61),  309,  324. 

Tait,  Robert,  Minister  at  Cnllen  (1697),  426. 

Tannachie,  Tulloch  of  (17—),  479. 

Tannatores  (Tanners,  14 — ),  115. 

Tantallon  Castle,  Warder  of  (1530),  473. 

Tarbet,  Leslies  of,  445,  473. 

74 


586  Index. 

Tarland,  Patrick  Dun  of  (1700),  447. 

Tarves,  Kirk  of  (1662),  336  ;  Minister,  George  Anderson  (1697),  426. 

Tavern  Hours,  Inverurie  (1614),  196. 

Tavilty,  111,  221,  265. 

Tax,  Poll  (1695),  282. 

Taylor,  Tayleour,  Tailzeour,  Christian,  Inverurie  (1617-55),  203,  258,  292,  293,  318. 

Taylor,  Guilfrid,  Aberdeen  (1411),  89. 

Taylor,  James  (Inverurie,  Wright,  1600-56),  162,  182,  192,  204,  206,  207,  258,  293,  295  ;  do.  (his  son, 
Weaver,  1616-99),  202,  395  ;  do.  (do.,  Wright,  1662-7),  344,  352  ;  do.  (Oyne,  1677),  340. 

Taylor,  John  (Inverurie,  (1536),  142  ;  do.  (do.,  164"  31),  292,  293,  322,  364,  393. 

Taylor,  Robert  (Inverurie,  1607-21),  172,  191,  196,  212  ;  do.  (do.,  Junior,  1607-45),  204,  206,  292. 

Taylor,  Walter  (Inverurie,  1536),  122. 

Teinds,  Settlement  of  (16—),  159  j  Inverurie  Burgh  (1608),  193,  (1633),  257,  (1672),  362. 

Temperance  Enforced  (Inverurie,  1618),  205. 

Tempin  Walls  (Conglass),  19,  92. 

Temple  Croft  (Bourtie),  64. 

Temple,  George  (Inverurie,  1690),  388. 

Temple  Lands,  223,  231. 

Tenant  Eight  (1514),  130. 

Tepper,  Ferguson-,  Family  of,  354,  483. 

Terpersie,  Gordon  of  (1600-77),  330,  462. 

Thain,  Alexander,  George,  and  William  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 

Thain,  Isobel,  wife  of  William  Lunan,  (1691),  240,  384,  386. 

Thain,  William,  of  Blakhall  (1688-172-),  240,  380,  384,  and  family,  384. 

Thain,  Mr.  William  (Blakhall,  1696),  384. 

Thainston,  Lairds  of,  William  Chalmers  (temp.  David  II.),  62  ;  Chalmers,  Wardrop,  Herman, ,Ardbekye 
(ante  1467),  120  ;  Henry  Forbes  (1467),  232  ;  Forbes  of  Tolquhon  (1610-1716),  232,  238,  272,  328, 
389;  Mitchell  (1716-56),  232,  417,  422,  450;  Forbes  Mitchell  (175-),  253. 

Thanksgiving  Days  (circa.  1680),  378,  380. 

That  Ilk,  Families  of  (circa  1500),  131. 

Thirlstane  (17—),  481. 

Thirty  Years'  War,  The,  330,  398. 

Thoirs,  Thomas,  Minister  at  Udny  (1638),  at  Daviot  (1640),  270. 

Thom,  William  (Inverurie.  Poet),  413. 

Thomas,  Vicar  of  Inverurie  (1297),  50,  118  ;  do.,  The  Rhymer  (12—),  135. 

Thomson,  Alexander,  Archibald,  Gilbert,  Robert,  and  William  (Monymusk,  1685),  340,  348. 

Thomson,  Alexander,  Minister  of  Peterculter  (1697),  426. 

Thomson,  Andrew  (Muirton,  Bourtie,  1611),  160. 

Thomson,  Isobel,  wife  of  Alexander  Mitchell  (1696),  384. 

Thomson,  Janet  (Inverurie,  1614),  197. 

Thomson,  John,  of  Pitblaine  (1413),  104 ;  do.  (Kinkell,  1473),  122  ;  do.  (Inverurie,  1607-33),  172,  191, 
202,  204,  258,  394. 

Thomson,  Patrick  (Boynds,  1664),  351. 

Thomson,  Thomas,  Minister  at  Turriff  (1697),  426. 

Thomson,  William,  Baillie  of  Kintore  (1498),  123  ;  do.  (Inverurie,  1612),  172  ;  do.,  Minister  of  Kin- 
tore  (1697),  426,  431 ;  do.,  Schoolmaster  at  Rayne  ^1688),  327. 

Thornton  in  Bourtie,  Strachan  of  (1430-1623),  103,  104,  139,  209,  441  ;  Simpson  of  (1677-96),  329, 
389. 


Index.  587 

Thorp,  Maria  Disney,  wife  of  Sir  Alexander  Leith  (18—),  401,  460. 

Threepland,  61. 

Tifty's  Annie,  Mill  o',  447. 

Tillery,  William  Forbes  of  (17—),  468  ;  James  Ligertwood  (18—),  467. 

Tilliangus,  Gordon  of  (1673),  329. 

Tillygreig,  Harvie  of  (1674),  329. 

Tillychondie,  Gordon  of  (ante  1611),  446. 

Tillyfour,  Elphinstone  of  (1507),  i02  ;  Leslie  of  (15101,  111,  445. 

Tillymorgan,  Lairds  of;  Lindores  Abbey  (1259),  61  ;  Cruickshank  (14—,  1696),  157,  223,  250,  308, 

388,  446  ;  Anderson  (1668),  329. 
Tilty  vide  Tavilty. 

Tipperty,  Strachan  of  (1610),  177,  219. 
Tobago,  George  Ferguson,  Governor  of,  478. 
Tocher,  John  Leslie  of  (1760),  465. 
Toeherford  (17-),  481. 
Tofts  of  Abbeys  within  Burghs  (1200),  21. 
Tokens,  Communion  (1650),  315. 
Toleration  (1690),  422. 

Tolquhon,  Preston  of  (ante  1420),  67,  91  ;  Forbes  of,  vide  Forbes. 
Tombeg,  Alexander,  Jean,  John,  Robert,  and  William  Forbes  (1696),  406,  409. 
Tone,  Bridge  of  (1682),  340. 
Tonley,  Mr.  Alexander  Farquhar  of  (1638),  231. 
Torie,  Walter,  Teacher  (1650),  328. 

Torphichen,  Friar  Robert  of  (1342),  64  ;  Alexander  Lichton,  Prior  (1422),  125  ;  Lord  (1611),  231. 
Torries  (Harthill),  220  ;  (1668-96)  Gordon  of,  239,  389. 
Torrie  (1639),  419  ;  Lands  in  (1581-1696),  236,  237,  404. 
Torryleith,  Lands  of  (1563),  148. 
Touches,  Barbara,  wife  of  Thomas  Ronald  (1668),  393. 

Tough,  Minister  of,  James  Irvine  (1612),  240  ;  William  Leslie  (1700-4),  429,  431. 
Tours,  Sir  John  of  (1388),  77. 

Towie,  Tolly,  Castle  of  (1136),  64,  284  ;  Barclay  of  (1136—),  230. 
Towie  on  Donside,  Forbes  of  (1550),  458  ;  Bridge  at  (1670),  339. 
Towie,  Kirk  of  (1657),  336  ;  George  Moir,  Mini  ier  (1719),  237. 
Tradesmen,  Rural  (1620),  186  ;  (1671)  361,  (1696),  382,  383. 
Tragle,  Thomas  (Aberdeen,  1411),  89. 
Traill,  George  (Insch,  1650),  307. 

Treefield,  Leith  of  (1605-1702),  329,  352,  401,  460,  462,  474. 
Trinity  Church,  Aberdeen  (1689),  370. 
Trot  of  Turriff  (1539),  370. 
Trotter,  Miss  (1695),  420. 
Troubles,  in  the  Garioch,  The,  260. 

Troup,  Keith  of  (14— ),  437  ;  Gordon  of  (17— ),  460,  476  ;  of  Comaleggie  (15—),  131,  445. 
Troup,  Mr.  James,  son  of  Episcopalian  Minister  at  Muchals,  407. 
Tiumpeters  (1670),  363. 

Tullidaff,  Andrew,  of  That  Ilk  and  Lentush  (1413),  104  ;  do.  of  That  Ilk  (circa  1600),  468. 
Tullidaff,  John,  of  That  Ilk  and  Lentush  (ante  1398),  104. 
Tullidaff,  William,  of  That  Ilk  and  Lentush  (1411),  104,  223. 

\ 


588  Index. 

Tullidaffs  Cairn,  104,  140. 

Tullo,  Gilbert  Craig  of  (17—),  446. 

Tulloch,  Alexander,  of  Craignesin  (1617),  213. 

Tulloch,  John  (Aberdeen,  1411),  89  ;  do.  (Boddom,  1701),  430. 

Tulloch,  Margaret,  wife  of  George  Fergusou  (17 — ),  479. 

Tulloch  of  Moncoffer  (1512),  131. 

Tulloch  of  Tannachie  (17—),  479. 

Tullos  in  Garioch,  House  of,   330  ;  Alexander  Leslie  of,   vide  Alexander  Leslie. 

Tullos  in  Nigg,  David  Morice  of  (1S01),  454. 

Tullycherie,  157. 

Tullynessle,  Ministers  at,  Alexander  Guthrie  (1602-15),  159,  233  ;  Andrew  Strachan  (164-),  240  ;  John 

"Walker  (1677),  330. 
Tullynessle,  Schyre  of  (1137),  20. 
Tumali,  3,  6. 

Turf  in  Building  (1607,  17—1,  3S8. 
Turf,  Casting  of  (1607),  191,  195,  294. 
Turing,  Turyn  of  Foveran  (1512),  131  ;  (1639)  269. 
Turing,  John,  Episcopal  Intruder  at  Insch  (1692-1709),  429. 

Turing,  W (Aberdeen,  1411),  89. 

Turing,  Walter,  Schoolmaster,  Logiedurno  (1696),  386  ;  do.,  Minister  at  Rayne  (1707),  432. 

Tumberry  (12—),  24. 

Turnbull,  Margaret,  Daviot  (1550),  144. 

Turner,  Sir  Edward  (16—),  439. 

Turner,  John,  of  Turnerhall  (17—),  469. 

Turriff  (1639-44),  263,  264,  269,  281  ;  Population  (1646),  360;  Kirk  of  (1662),  335. 

Turriff,    Ministers  at,  George   Hay  (1615),    333  ;   Thomas   Mitchell  (1639),  269  ;  Thomas  Thomson 

(1697),  426. 
Turriff  Presbytery  (1697),  426. 
Twelfth  Part  Lands,  Inverurie,   Origin,  of  183  ;  Cropping,  1S4  ;  Division,    184,  199  ;   Duties,  206 

Holders  (1633),  258,  259. 
Tyburn  (1690),  374. 

Tye,  Mary  Ann,  wife  of  Sir  William  Bacon  Johnston,  451,  452. 
Tynnin  Plate,  The  (Paris,  1408),  87. 

Tynningham,  Thomas,  Archdeacon,  Aberdeen  (1423-36),  126. 
Tyrebaggar,  5,  7. 

Tyrie,  Minister  of,  William  Hunter  (1697),  426. 
Tyrie,  David,  of  Dunnideer  (ante  16SS),  330. 
Tyrie,  John,  of  Dunnideer  (16S4),  330  ;  (1696),  388. 
Tytler,  William  Boyd  (Ceylon,  1878),  397. 


u. 

Udny,  Alexander  (Monkegy,  1600),  162. 
Udny,  Duncan,  Dean  of  the  Garioch  (1536),  142. 
Udny,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Patrick  Leith  (16—),  461. 


Index.  589 

Udny,  Helen,  wife  of  William  Seton  (1623),  465. 

Udny,  Laird  of,  Udny  (1512),  131  ;  William  Seton  of  (1623),  284,  465. 

Udny,  Minister  of,  Dr.  William  Keith  (165-),  450. 

Udny,  William,  of  That  Ilk  (Kintore,  1492),  123. 

Udo,  William  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 

Ulster  Annals,  The,  14. 

Universities  in  Scotland,  130,  149,  153,  163,  241,  414,  472. 

Union  of  Scotland  and  England,  439. 

Union  Bank,  Inverurie,  395. 

Urbs  In  Mure,  12,  173,  187. 

Urcan,  David,  John,  Patrick  (Inverurie,  1536),  142. 

Urquhart  of  Byth  (17—),  468,  469,  470  ;  of  Craigfintray  (1598-1631),  vide  infra  John  ;   of  Craigston 

(17—),  469  ;    of  Cromarty,  468,  469  ;    of  Culbo  (17—),  469  ;    of  Knockleith  (16—),  468  ;   of 

Meldram  (1636),  468-9. 
Urquhart,  Adam,  of  Meldrum  (1684),  468,  469  ;  do.,  his  son,  French  Priest,  468. 
Urquhart,  Alexander,  Meldram  (died  1685),  468. 
Urquhart,  Sir  Alexander,  of  Cromarty  (17— ),  469. 
Urquhart)  Anne,  wife  of  Sir  Florence  Odonachie  (16—),  468  ;   do.,  wife  of  Charles  Gordon  of  Blelack 

(17-),  468. 
Urquhart  Arms,  469,  470. 
Urquhart,  Beauchamp  Calclough,  of  Meldrum  (born  1796,  died  1861),  and  family,  469  ;  do.  (1861—), 

and  family,  469. 
Urquhart,  Charlotte,  wife  of  William  Hill  (1878),  469. 
Urquhart,  Douglass,  wife  of  Gordon  William  Duff  (18— ),  469. 
Urquhart,  Elizabeth,  wife  first  of  Sir  George  Gordon,   second  of  Major-General  Buchan  (16—),  468  ; 

do.,  wife  of  David  Ogilvy  (16—),  468  ;    do.,   wife  of  William  Forbes  (17—),  468  ;  do.,  wife  of 

John  Turner  (17—),  469  ;  do.,  wife  of  James  Ferguson  (ante  1787),  478  ;  do.,  wife  first  of  John 

Fraser,  second  of  Luther  Martin  (1878),  469. 
Urquhart,  George  (Meldrum,  1726),  469  ;  do.  (Meldram,  died  184-),  469. 
Urquhart,  Henrietta,  wife  of  Major  Champion  (1855),  469. 
Urquhart,  Isobel  Annie,  wife  of  Garden  Alexander  Duff  (1S78),  469. 

Urquhart,  James,  of  Byth  (16—),  468  ;   do.  (17—),  469  ;   do.  of  Knockleith  .(16—),  468  ;  do.  (Inver- 
urie, Quaker,   1662),  339,  342,  352;   do.   (Cromarty,  died  1741),  469  ;  do.  of  Meldrum  (1788), 

469. 
Urquhart,  Jean,  wife  of  Alexander  Stewart  (16—),  468  ;  do.,  wife  of  John  Urquhart  (17—),  469. 
Urquhart,  John,  of  Craigfintray  and  Culbo,  Tutor  of  Cromarty  (1598-1631),  103,  179,  230,  231,  232, 

233,  464,  465,  468,  469  ;    do.,  his  son  (born  ante  1610),  469  ;   do.  of  Meldrum  (1684),  and 

family,  468  ;  do.  of  Craigston  (17—),  469. 
Urquhart,  Sir  John,  of  Cromarty,  469. 
Urquhart,  Jonathan,  of  Cromarty  (17—),  469. 
Urquhart,  Keith,  of  Meldrum  (died  1793),  469. 
Urquhart,  Lewis,  French  "Priest,  468. 

Urquhart,  Mary,  wife  of  William  Menzies  (16—),  468  ;  do.,  wife  of  Dr.  Pirrie  (1878),  469. 
Urquhart,  Patrick,  of  Lethinty  (1634)  ;    of  Meldram  (1636),   231,   232,  233,    273,  275,  284,  285,  328 

464,  468,  469  ;  do.,  Professor  of  Medicine,  King's  College  (his  son),  468. 
Urquhart,  Sarah  Jane  (Meldrum),  496. 
Urquhart,  Thomas  (Meldrum,  born  1832),  469. 


590  Index. 

Urquhart,  Sir  Thomas,  of  Cromarty  (born  1613),  469. 

Urquhart,  William,  Minister  at  Bethelnie  (1665-95),  386  ;  do.  of  Meldrum  (1726),  469. 

Urrie,  Hurrie,  of  Pitfichie  ;   John,  Gilbert,  William,   David,   George,  William,  William  John,  John, 

as  per  Pedigree,  254. 
Urrie,  Hugo  de  (1296),  51. 

Urrie,  Sir  John  (died  1650),  253,  278,  285,  286,  292,  297. 
Urrie,  Mary  Margaret,  Lady  Lamont  (1663),  253. 
Urrie,  William,  of  Pitfichie  (1506),  254  ;  do.  (1535),  128,  254. 
Ury,  Barclay  of  (13-),  437. 

Ury,  Water  of,  1,  5,  7,  9,  19,  35,  60,  211,  225,  369,  417,  487. 
Ury  Bridge  at  Inverurie  (1794),  482. 
Uryhank,  9,  173,  394. 
Usan,  Lichton  of,  114. 


V. 

Valentine,  Philippina,  wife  of  Peter  Ferguson-Tepper  (1763),  354,  483. 

Vassals  (1411)  of  the  Church,  90  ;  of  the  Crown  ;  of  the  Garioch  Regality,  89. 

Vans  of  Meny  (1469-1512),  131,  163. 

Vans,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Gilbert  Johnstone  (14 — ),  121,  448. 

Vans,  Richard,  of  Menie  (1469),  163. 

Veritas  Vincit  (1010),  15. 

Vicarages  of  Abbeys,  35,  36,  37,  79,  126,  127. 

Vienna,  Siege  of  (1683),  400. 

Vinck,  Gerard  (17—),  377,  478. 


w. 

Wadsetters  (circa  1633),  238. 

Wages  (1696),  383,  384. 

Waitzen,  Bishop  of,  William  Leslie  (1716),  411. 

Wake,  Baldwin,  Sir  William,  and  Lucy,  wife  of  George  Seton  (1S78),  465,  466. 

Wakefield  (Cloth  Manufacture,  1633),  227. 

Wales,  Prince  of  (1688),  379. 

Walhem,  Lordship  of  (1408),  87. 

Walker,  Alexander  (King-Edward,  1650),  307. 

Walker,   Andrew  (Inseh,  1650),  306  ;   do.  (Mill  of  Ardtannies,  1664-7),  344,  351  ;   do.  (Newmill  of 

Crimond,  1671),  362. 
Walker,  Ann,  wife  of  Sir  Charles  Leslie  (died  1845),  Adam,  her  father,  446. 
Walker,  John  (Daviot,  1550),  144  ;   do.,  Minister  at  Kinkell  (1599-1615),  154,  159,  208,  233  ;    do., 

Minister  at  Tullynessle  (1677),  330  ;  do.,  Schoolmaster,  Inverurie  (1650),  324; 


Index.  591 

"Walker,  Samuel,  Minister  at  Monkegy  (1630-49,  1661),  161,  214,  239,  260,  273,  289,  292,  305,  307. 

Wallace  (circa  1700),  33. 

Wallace,  Alexander  Fergus  alias  (Inverurie,  1629),  211. 

Wallace,  John  (Oyne,  1653),  311. 

Wallace  Tower  in  Fetternear,  41 . 

Wallace,  Sir  William,  39,  41,  42. 

Wallenstein,  Slayers  of  (1633),  399. 

Walter,  Rector  of  Foveran  (1273),  50. 

Walters,  Lucy,  372,  375. 

Wand  of  Office  (Inverurie,  1610),  194. 

Wantonwalls,  Insch  (1701),  430. 

Wapinschaw  (Inverurie,  1608),  91. 

Warders  of  Scotland— Sir  William  Wallace  (1297),  41,  56;    Randolph,  Earl  of  Murray  (1331),   69  ; 

Donald,  Earl  of  Mar  (1332),  69  ;  Sir  Andrew  Murray  (1333),  68. 
Wardes,  Warderys,  Castle  of,  5,  8,  222,  223,  290. 
Wardes,  Lady  of  (1642),  221. 

Wardes,  Lands  of  (1460-1510),  111,  220  ;  in  Inverurie,  257,  391. 
Wardes,  Lairds  of,  Leslie  of  Balquhain  (ante  1460),  100  ;  Leslie  of  Wardes  (1460-1651),  100,  101,  220, 

444  ;  Farquharson  (1651),  222,  310 ;  Rose  (name,  RosehilL  1690),  388. 
Wardes,  Leslies  of,  vide  Leslie. 

Wardlaw,  James,  Collihill  Chaplain  (1567),  231  ;  of  Riccarton  (15—),  470. 
Warrestoun  in  Terpersie  (1677),  330. 
Warren,  Earl  (1297),  56. 

Warreston,  Lord,  Sir  Archibald  Johnston  (16 — ),  251. 
Warsaw,  Fergusons  of,  483,  484. 
Warthill,  Little,  20,  223,  410,  446. 
Warthill,  Lairds  of,  Knights  Templars  (Glaster  ante  1480),  102  ;   Gordon  (1480),  102  ;    Cruickshank 

(1482),  223  ;  Leslie  (15—),  140,  223,  410,  446,  470. 
Warthill,  Meikle,  Chapel  Lands  of  Garioch,  412. 
Warthill,  Meikle,  Lairds  of,  Leslie  of  Wardes  (16—),  227  ;   Elphinstone  (1616-17—),  227,  308,  330, 

389,  412  ;  D.  H.  Elphinstone  (circa  1800),  330,  412  ;  Gordon,  330. 
Watch  and  Ward,  Inverurie  (1606),  190. 
Watson  Bursaries  (1699),  385. 
Watson,  Robert,  Tannator  (Bourtie,  1402),  115. 

Watson, ,  Rothes,  wife  of  Sir  Norman  Leslie  (1282),  441. 

Watson,  William,  Schoolmaster,  Monymusk  (1675),  326  ;    do.,  Minister  at  Leslie  (1681-99),  378,  379, 

385,  429. 
Watt,  Alexander  (Oyne,  1686),  378. 
Watt,  Andrew  (Aquhorties,  1651),  317. 

Watt,  James  (Badifurrow,  1649),  315  ;  do.  (Old  Bourtie,  1676),  340. 
Watt,  John  (Inverurie,  1536),  142. 

Watt,  William  (Inverurie,  1536),  142  ;  (Auldton,  Inverurie,  1623),  209. 
Wawan,  James,  Parson  of  Oyne  (1549),  31. 
Wealth  of  Scotland,  circa  1200,  31. 
Weapons  (16—),  189,  191,  192. 
Webster,  Alexander  (Inverurie,  1633),  258,  397. 
Webster,  James  (Mill  of  Portstown,  1664),  351  ;  do.  (Physician,  Inverurie,  1720),  397. 


592  Index. 

Webster,  John  (Inverurie,  1536),  142  ;  do.  (do.,  1635-46),  292,  293,  397  ;  do.  (Portstoun,  1635),  397. 
Wedderburn,  William,  Minister  at  Bethelnie  (1633),  240. 

Week-day  Church  Services  (1662),  203. 

Weems,  Thomas,  of  Feynges  and  Foodie,  Minister  at  Kinkell  (1696),  387. 

Weetfaulds,  Inverurie,  200. 

Weetswells,  Inverurie,  197. 

Wemys,  Isabella  (Lady  of  Pitsligo,  1524),  232. 

Wemys,  Sir  John,  of  Auchleven  and  That  Ilk  (1488),  102. 

Weschell,  Archibald,  of  Oyne  {temp.  David  II.),  61. 

Westbynes  (1600),  157. 

Westerhouse  or  Wester  Rowes  of  Barra,  between  Lochend  and  Barra  Castle,  103,  111. 

Westhall,  Chaplainry  of  (1454),  101  ;  Lairds  of,  John  Melvil  {ante  1451),  101  ;  Ramsay  (1451-4),  101  ; 
Abercromby  (1544),  152,  235  ;  Gordon  (1589,  1597,  1649),  415  ;  Ogilvy  (1650),  329  ;  Camp- 
bell  (1671),  329,  347,  415  ;  Horn  (167-),  329.  415,  472  ;  Elphinstone  (1776),  415,*  472  ; 
Leith  (186-),  415. 

Westhall,  Mill  of,  340. 

Westshield,  Denholm  of  (17—),  414. 

Westshore,  Sir  Andrew  Mitchell  of  (1745),  472. 

Wharton,  Sir  George,  Lord,  and  Mary,  married  to  Sir  John  Johnston  (1690),  374. 

AVhite,  Agnes,  wife  of  Thomas  Ferguson  (18—),  479. 

White,  James  (Drumrossie,  1701),  430. 

Whitehaugh  and  Fetteraear,  Mill  of  (1622),  178,  210. 

Whitehaugh,  in  Tullynessle,  Leith  of  (1633),  239,  328. 

Whiteinches,  Chapel  of  Garioch,  1600,  471. 

Whiteleys,  Inverurie,  185,  197. 

Whiteriggs,  Douglas  of  (17—),  469  ;  Leith  of  (1829),  459,  463. 

Whyte,  Patrick  (Daviot,  1550),  144. 

Wichtman,  Wychtman,  Wightman,  Wytman,  John  (Inverurie,  1536),  142. 

Wichtman,  George,  Inverurie  Herd  and  Doomster  (1616),  200,  202. 

Wichtman,  Isbell  (Inverurie,  1652),  318. 

Willanwell  Haugh,  Inverurie,  185. 

William  I.,  The  Lyon,  21,  22,  26,  28,  31,  113,  436  ;  III.,  Prince  of  Orange,  315,  375,  380,  425,  467. 

William,  Bishop  of  Aberdeen,  vide  Aberdeen,  Diocese. 

William,  Parson  of  Daviot  (1224),  21. 

William  of  the  Tower  (Marischal),  438. 

Williamson,  Thomas  (Kintore,  1498),  123. 

Williamston,  Culsalmond  (Lindores),  61,  157. 

Willianiston,  Mill  of  (1673),  329. 

Willox,  Dr.  James,  Minister  of  Kemnay  (1653-95),  336,  347,  380,  387,  426. 

Wills  (1580),  151  ;  (1616)  179,  (1613-23),  208,  209,  210. 

Wilson,  James,  Minister  at  Farnell  (18—),  378. 

Wilson,  Janet  and  John  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 

Wilson,  John  (Inverurie,  1536),  142  ;  (1674),  339. 

Wilson,  Priest  (1702),  423. 

Wilson,  William,  Canon  of  Monymusk  (1534),  127. 

Windyedge  of  Crichie,  6,  396. 

Wine,  Consumption  of,  in  the  Hebrides  (1616),  244. 


Index.  593 


Winton  of  Andat,  75,  110,  131,  245. 

Winton,  The,  Chronicler,  Prior  of  St.  Serf,  75,  110,  245. 

•Winton,  Earl  of,  304  ;  (163-),  463,  466. 

Winton,  Ingram,  of  (1359),  75. 

Winton,  Robert  (15—),  415. 

Wire,  James  (Oyne,  1677),  340. 

Wischart,  Elizabeth,  of  Pitarrow,  wife  of  Sir  William  Forbes  (1618),  237. 

Wischart,  John  (Thornton,  Bourtie,  1611),  160. 

Wischart,  Patrick,  Schoolmaster  at  Kinkell  (1710),  425. 

Wischart,  Robert  (Miller,  Ardtannies,  1686),  384. 

Witchcraft  (1597),  152  ;  (1650),  306. 

Wood  of  Bonnyton,  131,  219,  250,  470. 

Wood,  William,  of  Colpnay  (1617),  213. 

Wood,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  James  Elphinstone  (1630),  414,  470,  471. 

Wood,  Eva,  daughter  of  Col.  Hastings  Wood,  wife  of  George  Seton  (187S),  467. 

Woodhill,  Manar,  3,  186  ;  Fraser  of  (1796-1804),  410. 

Woodhill,  Mill  of,  178. 

Woodhill,  Lairds  of,  vide  Badifurrow,  Lairds  of. 

Worcester,  Battle  of,  217,  272,  286,  328,  439. 

Worship,  Form  of  (1660— ),  333,  336. 

Wrangham  (Lindores),  61,  157. 

Wray  (1586),  103. 

Wrays  (Kennethmont,  1651),  351. 

Wright,  James  (Inverurie,  1664),  357. 


Ydill,  Elspet  (Monymusk,  1685),  348. 

Ydill,  Walter,  Vicar  of  Inverurie  (1428),  118,  120. 

Yet,  James  (Bourtie,  1651),  209. 

York  (1220),  436  ;  (1388)  77  ;  (1423)  105. 

Young,  Cecilia,  wife  of  George  Leith  (1762),  461. 

Young,  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Alexander  Hadden  (1760),  454. 

Young,  Elspet,  wife  ofVohn  Leith  Ross  (18 — ),  455. 

Young,  James  (Aberdeen,  born  1697),  and  his  descendants,  454  ;  do.  (Aberdeen,  D.  G.,  1775),  454. 

Young,  John,  of  Stark  (17—),  463  ;  do.  (Aberdeen,  D.  G.,  1803),  454. 

Young,  Margaret,  wife  of  James  Leith  (17 — ),  463. 

Young,  Rachel,  wife  first  of  John  Farquhar  (1760),  second  of  David  Morrice),  454. 

Young,  Robert,  of  Auldbar  (1762),  461. 

Young,  William,  of  Sheddocksley,  Provost  of  Aberdeen  (1778),  368,  419,  454,  455. 

Ythan,  Lord,  Sir  James  King  (1642),  103,  256,  278. 

Yule,  Repression  of  (1612-50),  177,  277,  315,  358  ;  Revival  (1688),  380. 


ft.    J<ING    AND     po.,     PINTERS,    ^BEiUI 


BERDEEN, 


BY  THE  SAME  A  UTHOR, 

BELIEF-WHAT     IS     IT? 

OR, 

THE     NATURE     OF     FAITH. 


WILLIAM  BLACKWOOD  &  SONS.     Price  7/6. 


Dean  Stanley — "  Written  in  a  calm  and  candid  spirit." 

Prof.  Lorimer,  in  the  British  and  Foreign  Evangelical  Review. — "Important  for  the  influence 
which  it  cannot  fail  sooner  or  later  to  have  upon  the  evangelical  mind  of  the  country,  an  influence 
which,  though  sure  to  be  disliked  and  resisted,  in  the  first  instance  in  some  quarters,  in  the  interests 
of  some  long-established  conventionalisms  of  thought  and  language,  will,  in  the  end,  we  are  persuaded, 

be  generally  acknowledged  to  be,  in  the  main,  wholesome  and  happy Thoughts  which 

are  at  this  day  striving  for  utterance  in  many  minds.  The  author  has  given  to  them  a  very  able,  full, 
and  convincing  expression  and  verification,  and  in  this  regard  we  commend  his  work  to  the  special 
attention  of  "religious  teachers  "  of  all  churches  and  of  all  degrees.  The  author  is  worthy  to  be  a 
teacher  of  teachers,  a  man  of  original  mind,  of  line  culture,  and  high  spirituality." 

Edinburgh  Courant,  16th  November,  1869. — "It  is  a  remarkable  book.  The  author  has  a 
courageous  disregard  of  what  is  more  or  less  arrogantly  called  speaking  in  the  spirit  of  the  age.  If  the 
book  is  noticed  by  some  it  will  be  keenly  assailed.  By  others  it  will  be  regarded  as  an  evidence  that, 
if  the  Son  of  Man  were  to  come  now,  he  would  find  faith  on  the  earth.  By  all,  the  ability  of  the 
author  will  be  admitted." 

Dr.  Carruthers,  in  the  Inverness  Courier. — "A  good  solid  book,  full  of  thought — one  not 
merely  to  be  read,  but  to  be  studied  and  pondered  in  a  quiet  hour." 

Peter  Bayne,  in  the  Weekly  Review. — "  But  we  would  rather  recommend  the  book  on  the 
ground  of  its  great  suggestiveness.  It  is  a  book  to  study.  You  come  to  it  again  and  again,  and 
receive  at  each  perusal  fresh  thought  and  fresh  stimulus  to  thought." 

Evangelical  Magazine. — "Though  not  exclusively  addressed  to  any  specific  class  of  thinkers, 
the  discussion  will  be  chiefly  welcomed  by  biblical  students  and  divines,  from  the  wide  outline  of  the 
Scriptural  testimony  surveyed,  and  the  large  disclosure  presented  of  the  progress  and  development  of 
the  Christian  faith. 

Nonconformist. — "  It  is  a  wide  survey  of  the  plan  and  purpose  of  revealed  religion,  so  minute 
and  so  comprehensive  that  the  reader  is  alternately  delighted  with  the  analytical  skill  which  directs 
his  eye  to  some  unperceived  coincidences  and  characteristic  features  in  the  Scripture  narrative,  and 
again  ravished  by  the  glimpse  which  the  author's  method  affords  of  the  wide  field  of  the  Divine  opera- 
tions progressively  revealed  to  mankind. " 

"The  book  is  wise  and  thoughtful.  It  would  be  especially  valuable  to  ministers,  because  of  its 
suggestiveness  ;  the  practical  sagacity  of  the  author  sometimes  flashes  light  in  upon  complex  problems 
of  human  life  ;  agiin  and  again  we  have  been  struck  with  the  profound  truth  of  his  descriptions  or  his 
criticisms. " 

North  British  Daily  Mail.— "Here  is  a  remarkable  treatise,  stirkingly  original  in  its  conception 
— marked  throughout  by  signal  ability— the  product,  evidently,  of  strenuous,  patient,  disci] dined,  in- 
dependent thought,  on  the  part  of  one  who  is  himself  a  sincere  and  enlightened  believer.  His 
exposition  is  of  a  kind  which  clears  away  mountains  of  theoretical  confusion  and  practical  error. 
Without  the  remotest  approach  to  enthusiasm,  idealism,  or  mysticism,  it  tends  to  carry  men  free  of 
shadows  and  symbols,  of  mere  words  and  forms  of  thought,  onwards  to  intimate  converse  with  spiritual 
realities,  which  are  reckoned  to  be  as  true,  and  fresh,  and  inexhaustible,  as  the  truths  on  which 
natural  science  is  based." 

British  Quarterly. — "  The  author  has  treated  with  musical  sweetness  the  functions  of  imagina- 
tive reverie  and  strong  emotion.  The  10th  chapter  gives  a  most  penetrating  investigation  of  the 
moral,  intellectual,  and  social  conditions  of  healthy  faith." 


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