The gipsies, who are usually said to have wandered into Europe from
the East in the beginning of the fifteenth century, are not heard of
in Scotland before 1540, when a writ of the Privy Seal was passed in
favour of ‘John Faw, Lord and Earl of Little Egypt,’ enabling him
to rule his company in conformity with the laws of his pretended
country. First accepted as noble refugees, possessing a semi-religious
character, they were in time discovered to be mere rogues and
vagabonds. It was now declared in the Privy Council, that ‘the
commonweal of this realm was greatumly damnifiet and harmit through
certain vagabond, idle, and counterfeit people of divers nations,
falsely named Egyptians, living on stowth and other unlawful means.’
These people were commanded to settle to fixed habitations and honest
industry; otherwise it should be competent to seize and throw them into
the nearest prison, when, if they could not give caution for a due
obedience to this edict, they were ‘to be scourgit throughout the town
or parish, and sae to be imprisonit and scourgit fra parish to parish,
while [till] they be utterly renderit furth of this realm.’--_P. C. R._
Little more than three years onward (August 27, 1576), it was declared
that this act had ‘wantit execution’--a very common misfortune to
acts of council in those days; and it was found that ‘the said idle
vagabonds has continuit in their wicked and mischievous manner of
living, committing murders, theft, and abusing the simple and ignorant
people with sorcery and divination.’ Men in authority were now enjoined
to stricter courses with these wanderers, on pain of being held as
their accomplices.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAY 2.]
An English force having come to help the Regent in winning Edinburgh
Castle, the operations of the siege commenced by the fixing up of
twenty ‘great pieces’ at four several places around the ancient
fortress. ‘They shot so hard continually, that the second day they had
beat down wholly three towers. The Laird of Grange ... would not give
over, but shot at them continually, both with great shot and small; so
that there was a very great slaughter amongst the English cannoneers,
sundry of them having their legs and arms torn from their bodies in the
air by the violence of the great shot. At last, the Regent continuing
his siege so close and hard--the captain being forced by the defendants
for lack of victuals--rendered the same, after a great many of them
were slain [May 29].’--_Bir._
Mr Robert Hamilton, minister of St Andrews, was in Edinburgh at
this time, along with the servant who had written down John Knox’s
prediction regarding the fate of Kirkaldy (see under 1571). According
to James Melville, ‘they gaed up to the Castle-hill, and saw the
forewark of the castle all demolished, and running like a sandy brae;
they saw the men of weir all set in order. The captain, with a little
staff in his hand, taken down over the walls upon the ladders, and Mr
Robert, troubled with the thrang of the people, says: “Go, what have
I ado here?” In going away, the servant remembers his master of the
sermon, and the words, wha was compelled to glorify God, and say he was
a true prophet.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: AUG. 3.
1573.]
‘William Kirkaldy of Grange, knight, sometime captain of the Castle
of Edinburgh, and James Mosman, goldsmith, were harlit in twa carts
backward, frae the Abbey to the Cross of Edinburgh, where they, with Mr
James [Kirkaldy] and James Cockie, were hangit,’ ‘for keeping of the
said castle against the king and his regent.’--_D. O._ _Bir._
Such was the dismal end of one who had undoubtedly been a most valiant
soldier, though, it must be added, an unsteady politician, and too
much a follower of private ends in public affairs. His concern in
the assassination of Cardinal Beaton also detracts somewhat from the
sympathy which would naturally be felt for him on this occasion. James
Melville relates some curious particulars regarding his latter days and
his execution:
When John Knox was on his death-bed in Edinburgh, November 1572,
the situation of Kirkaldy and his friends in the castle had become
critical. Mr David Lindsay, minister of Leith, came to visit the
reformer, and asked how he did. ‘He answerit: “Weel, brother, I thank
God; I have desired all this day to have you, that I may send you yet
to yon man in the castle, whom ye ken I have loved sae dearly. Go, I
pray you, tell him that I have sent you to him yet ance to warn and
bid him, in the name of God, leave that evil cause, and give ower that
castle: gif not, he shall be brought down ower the walls with shame,
and hing against the sun: sae God has assured me.” Mr David, howbeit
he thought the message hard, and the threatening over particular, yet
obeyed, and passed to the castle; and meeting with Sir Robert Melville
walking on the wall, tauld him, wha was, as he thought, meikle movit
with the matter. Thereafter [he] communed with the captain, whom he
thought also somewhat moved; but he passed from him into the Secretar
Lethington, with whom, when he had conferred a while, he came out to
Mr David again, and said to him: “Go, tell Mr Knox he is but ane ...
prophet.” Mr David, returning, tauld Mr Knox he had discharged the
commission faithfully, but that it was not weel accepted of after the
captain had conferrit with the secretar. “Weel (says Mr Knox) I have
been earnest with my God anent the twa men; for the ane [Kirkaldy] I am
sorry that so should befall him; yet God assures me there is mercy for
his saul: for that other [the Secretary Lethington], I have nae warrant
that ever he shall be weel.”’
[Sidenote: 1573.]
The castle surrendered, and Kirkaldy fell into the power of the Regent
Morton. He offered all he possessed for his life. But the reformer’s
prophecy was to be fulfilled, and how far it served to fulfil
itself, we may surmise from what Morton wrote to the English agent.
‘Considering,’ he says, ‘what has been, and daily is, _spoken by the
preachers, that God’s plague will not cease while the land be purged
of blood_, and having regard that such as are interested by the death
of their friends, the destruction of their houses, and away taking
of their goods, could not be satisfied by any offer made to me in
particular.... I deliberated to let justice proceed.’[87]
Mr David Lindsay, who had gone with Kirkaldy’s fruitless offer, ‘the
morn by nine hours comes again to the captain, the Laird of Grange
[who was now confined under a guard in a house in the High Street],
and taking him to a fore-stair of the lodging apart, resolves him it
behoved him to suffer. “O, then, Mr David (says he), for our auld
friendship, and for Christ’s sake, leave me not.” So he remains with
him, wha, passing up and down a while, came to a shot [a hole fitted
with a sliding panel in the wooden front of the house], and seeing the
day fair, the sun clear, and a scaffold preparing at the Cross, he
falls in a great study [reverie], and alters countenance and colour;
whilk, when Mr David perceived, he came to him and asked what he was
doing. “Faith, Mr David (says he), I perceive weel now that Mr Knox was
the true servant of God, and his threatening is to be accomplished.”’
Lindsay mentioned the assurance which Knox had had regarding the
ultimate salvation of the unfortunate man; which gave him much comfort
and renewed courage; ‘sae that he dined moderately, and thereafter took
Mr David apart for his strengthening to suffer that death, and in [the]
end beseeks him not to leave him, but to convoy him to the place of
execution. “And take heed (says he), I hope in God, after I shall be
thought past, to give you a taiken of the assurance of that mercy to my
saul, according to the speaking of that man of God.”
‘Sae, about three hours afternoon, he was brought out, and Mr David
with him, and about four, the sun being wast about the northward nook
of the steeple, he was put aff the ladder, and his face first fell to
the east, but within a little while, turned about to the west, and
there remained against the sun; at whilk time Mr David, ever present,
says he marked him, when all thought he was away [dead], to lift up his
hands that were bund before him, and lay them down again saftly; whilk
moved him with exclamation to glorify God before all the people.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: AUG.
1573.]
On the destruction of the queen’s party, ‘the burgesses and craftsmen
wha remainit the time of the cummers [troubles] in Edinburgh, behovit
to compone for their life, and the least that any man payit was twenty
merks, and they that had nocht to pay were continuit to the third
day of the aire, with fifteen days’ warning, to be halden within the
sheriffdom. This composition should have been equally distributed
betwixt the Regent and the burgesses that had their houses destroyit;
but the Regent causit bring the haill to the Castle of Edinburgh,
and wald not part with ane penny; for the whilk causes the burgesses
stayit and wald not pursue nane hereafter, by occasion they were nocht
the better, and also therethrough obteinit the indignation of their
neighbours. God of his grace grant the poor consolation, for they thole
great trouble!’
Afterwards--‘the burgesses and craftsmen and others wha remainit in the
town in the time of the cummers, were chargit that they, on their awn
expenses, might mak black gray gowns, with the whilk they stood at the
kirk door ane hour before the preaching ..., whilk gowns were decernit
to be dealt to the poor.’--_D. O._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: AUG. 25.]
During the late troubles, the Border-men had been in a great measure
left to pursue their own courses unmolested. Now that the civil war was
ended, Morton was able to turn his attention in that direction. At this
date, he proceeded from Dalkeith with a host of 4000 men to Peebles,
where he was met by the Earl of Argyle with a hundred horse and an
equal number of ‘carriage-men;’ and the party then went to Jedburgh
against ‘the thieves.’ ‘Some thieves came in and gave baud for the
rest, and some pledges were delivered to the Regent for good order; but
or [ere] they wald obey, their corns and houses were destroyed, with
great spulyie of their goods.’ The Regent returned in a few days to
Dalkeith. ‘Notwithstanding of this raid, the haill thieves convenit,
and harried the country, following ay on the host.’ A second and more
vigorous expedition of the same kind having then been resolved on,
‘seven score or thereby of the thieves come to the Regent, and pledges
for the rest, wha was put in prison, some in the Castle of Edinburgh,
some in the Tolbooth thereof, and some in the north land.’--_D. O._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1573-81.]
The burgh records of Glasgow from 1573 to 1581, of which liberal
excerpts have been published by the Maitland Club,[88] throw much
light on manners and the state of society, and also on the burgal or
municipal customs. Glasgow was then a little town, undistinguished
from any other of its size, excepting in its university and a small
commerce, chiefly of a coasting description. We see in these records
all the common affairs of a petty town, but with the rough character
proper to an age of ignorance and ill-regulated feeling.
The quarrels, flytings (scoldings), and acts of personal violence form
by far the most conspicuous entries in these records. Men strike women,
women clapperclaw each other, and even the dignitaries of the town
are assailed on the street and in their council-house. Whingers (that
is, swords) and pistols are frequently used in these conflicts, and
sometimes with dire effects. As examples--
_April 9, 1574._--‘Alexander Curry and Marion Smith, spouses, are found
in the wrang for troublance done by them to Margaret Hunter, in casting
down of two pair of sheets, tramping them in the gutter, and striking
of the said Margaret.’ Surety is given that Alexander and Marion shall
in future abstain from striking each other; and ‘gif they flyte, to
be _brankit_‘--that is, invested with the kind of iron bridle, with a
tongue retroverted into the mouth, of which a description has already
been given. (See under Oct. 30, 1567.)
_April 23._--William Wilson is found in the wrong for blooding of
Richard Wardrope on the head. Richard and Andrew Wardrope are at the
same time found in the wrong as the occasion thereof; and John and
Andrew Wardrope, for hurting and wounding of the said William Wilson,
to the great effusion of his blood in the Gallowgate on the morning
thereafter. So also, Richard and John Wardrope are declared guilty
of ‘onsetting and invading of the said William with drawn swords and
pistols in the mercat, on Shere Thursday last.’ Shere Thursday,[89]
otherwise called Maundy Thursday, is the day before Good Friday.
[Sidenote: 1573-81.]
One common species of case is an attack of one female upon another,
‘striking of her, scarting of her, and dinging her to the erd’ [earth];
in one instance, ‘shooting of her down in her awn fire.’ Injurious
words often accompany or provoke these violent acts. Bartilmo Lawteth
strikes ‘ane poor wife’ to the effusion of her blood. Ninian Swan
strikes Marion Simpson with ‘ane tangs’ [pair of tongs], and knocks her
down--she, however, having previously spit in his face. ‘Andrew Heriot
is [November 8, 1575] fund in the wrang and amerciament of court for
troublance done to David Morison, in striking of him with his neive
in Master Henry Gibson’s writing-chamber, on the haffet [side of the
head], and also for the hitting of him on the face with his neive upon
the Hie Gait, and making him baith blae and bloody therewith.’
George Elphinstone of Blythswood, one of the bailies, suffered a
violent attack in the council-house (August 24, 1574) from Robert
Pirry, a tailor, who wounded him with his whinger, striking one of
the officers at the same time. For this, Pirry lost his freedom as a
burgess. Six years afterwards, the same magistrate was assaulted on the
street by George Herbertson, ‘saying how durst he be sae pert to deal
ony wines without his advice;’ after which he threatened the bailie
with his whinger. Immediately thereafter, Herbertson assailed the
magistrate in the Tolbooth, ‘giving him many injurious words, sic as
knave, skaybell, matteyne, and loon, and that he was gentiller nor he,
having his hand on his whinger, rugging it halflings in and out, and
that he cared him not, nor the land that he had nowther.’
In June 1589, Thomas Miln, chirurgeon, was brought before the
magistrates for slanderous speeches against them, and for applying
to the town itself an epithet which now, at least, appears strangely
inapplicable--the Hungry Town of Glasgow. He was sentenced to appear at
the Cross and openly confess his fault.
Much light is thrown on the character of the age by the magistrates
ordering ‘every booth-halder [shopkeeper] to have in readiness within
the booth ane halbert, jack, and steel bonnet, for eschewing of
sic inconveniences as may happen, conform to the auld statute made
thereanent.’
The streets of the town appear to have been kept much in the same
state in which we now find those of neglected country villages, yet
not without efforts towards a better order of things. The ordinances
for good order may be said to prove the disorder. It is statute (1574)
‘that there be nae middings laid upon the fore-gate [front street],
nor yet in the Green, and that nae fleshers toom their uschawis upon
the fore-gate, and that nae stanes or timber lie on the gate langer
nor year and day.’ In 1577, this statute is renewed in nearly the same
words, shewing that it was but imperfectly obeyed; and next year there
is a simple order ‘that the haill middings be removed off the Hie Gait,
and that nane scrape on the Hie Gait.’
[Sidenote: 1573-81.]
The town, according to a common custom, had its ‘minstrels,’ by
which is inferred simply musicians--probably a couple of bagpipers.
In 1579, there is an entry of ten shillings ‘to the minstrels, for
their expenses to Hamilton siege.’ This was a siege in which popular
affections would probably be engaged at Glasgow, as its object was
to destroy the last vestige of the queen’s interest in Scotland. At
the Whitsunday court 1574, the minstrels are continued until ‘the
Summerhill,’ by which was meant a court annually held at a place so
called, when the marches of the town’s property were subjected to
review. There, accordingly, on Sunday the 20th June, Archibald Bordland
and Robert Duncan are ‘admittit to be menstrals to the town for this
instant year, and to have frae ilk freeman allenarly, but meat, twa
shillings money at the least, with mair at the giver’s pleasure.’
In the treasurer’s accounts, we are struck by the many considerable
presents, chiefly of wine, given by the town to noblemen possessing
influence over its fortunes. We find, amongst frequent propines of wine
to the Earl of Argyle, as much as seventeen gallons given at once.
Two hogsheads are given to Lord Boyd, six quarts to the lord provost,
two quarts to the parson of Glasgow, and so forth. At the town’s
banquets, aquavitæ figures on several occasions, a quart being charged
twenty-four shillings.
Several allusions are made in these records to the ‘knocks’--that is,
clocks--set up for the public conveniency. An old one is repaired,
and James Scott gets a sum ‘for labour done by him in colouring of
the knock, moon, and horologe, and other common work of the town.’
References are made to several trades not known in our age by the same
names, as a _lorimer_, the maker of the ironwork in horse-furniture; a
_snap-maker_, by which is to be understood a maker of firelocks, then
called _snap-hances_; a _ladleman_; a tabroner, meaning a drummer; &c.
In 1577, the magistrates grant a pension of ten marks to Alexander Hay,
chirurgeon, to encourage him to remain in Glasgow, ‘in readiness for
serving of the town by his craft and art.’ This gentleman would bleed
the citizens in exigencies of their health, and shave them daily.
[Sidenote: 1573-81.]
The editor of these records remarks on the treasurer’s accounts,
that the revenue is fully stated, and the whole expenditure minutely
detailed. ‘It is true,’ he says, ‘the magistrates and “divers honest
men” occasionally treat themselves to a dejeune; but this is after
the completion of some public business, tending to the honour and
profit of the commonweal. Indeed, the class of disbursements which,
strictly speaking, are the least legal, the most rigid corrector of
abuses could not well object to. We allude to the numerous benevolences
bestowed upon poor scholars to buy them a suit of clothes, or books, to
enable them to prosecute their studies; the sums voted to shipwrecked
mariners, to ruined merchants who had lost their horses by some
untoward accident, or to the widows and children of those burgesses
whom unforeseen difficulties had plunged into absolute want. Not a
little of the public funds is sometimes devoted to ransom unfortunate
burgesses from captivity among the Turks, while considerable sums are
expended in providing medical aid for those afflicted with physical
infirmities, or who have met with severe bodily injuries.... Much
curious matter may be elicited regarding the sports and pastimes of
the people. The diverse disbursements for foot-balls are not unworthy
of notice. We also meet with payments made to a piper called _Ryall
Dayis_, and to “a fule with a treen sword,” as well as to certain young
men of the town, for their playing--probably bearing a part in some
mask or public pageant. The care bestowed on the decorement of the
town’s minstrels is evinced in the entry of the purchase of blue cloth
to make two coats for them, with as much “cramosie” as would serve for
containing the town’s arms thereon. Nevertheless, though this care
was shewn for the recognised minstrels of the burgh, the profession
had thus early fallen into disrepute; for in the ordinance anent the
pest [in 1574], “pipers, fiddlers, and minstrels,” are unceremoniously
classed together as vagabonds, and threatened with severe penalties,
should they venture into the city in contravention of the act.’
In those days, the citizens of Glasgow kept each his cow, which was
fed, under the care of a town’s herdsman, in a common beyond the walls,
as is the case with small burghs like Lauder and Peebles at the present
day. In March 1589, John Templeton and John Hair were appointed herds
for the year to come, John Templeton for ‘the nolt and guids aboon the
Cross,’ and John Hair for ‘the nolt and guids beneath the Cross and the
rest of the nether parts of the town.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1574.