+The Text+ is from Motherwell's _Minstrelsy_. He received the ballad
from Charles Kirkpatrick Sharp. In Maidment's _North Countrie Garland_
there is a similar version with a number of small verbal differences.
+The Story.+--Frendraught in Aberdeenshire, and Rothiemay in Banffshire,
lie on opposite sides of the Deveron, which separates the counties.
A feud began (as the result of a dispute over fishing rights) between
Crichton of Frendraught and Gordon of Rothiemay, and in a fight on the
first day of the year 1630, Rothiemay and others were killed. Kinsmen of
both parties were involved; and though the broil was temporarily
settled, another soon sprang up. The Lord John of the ballad was
Viscount Melgum, the second son of the Marquis of Huntly, who was
appealed to as a peacemaker between the factions of Leslie and Crichton.
Lord John and Rothiemay were sent by the Marquis to escort Frendraught
to his home, a precaution rendered necessary by the knowledge that the
Leslies were in ambuscade. Arrived at Frendraught, the laird and lady
entreated the two young men to remain the night, and eventually
prevailed on them to do so.
However (though it was long disputed whether the fire was an accident or
not), it seems that the ancient grudge against Rothiemay moved
Frendraught to sacrifice 'a great quantity of silver, both coined and
uncoined,' in the firing of his house for the sake of burning Rothiemay.
Sophia Hay (25.1) was the daughter of the Earl of Erroll, and Viscount
Melgum's wife. The last two lines of the ballad are not easily
explained, as the lady is recorded to have been deeply attached to her
husband; but it is possible that they have been inserted from a similar
stanza in some other ballad.