John Lord Maxwell was at this time the most powerful man in the
south-west province of Scotland. He possessed Caerlaverock Castle
and many fair estates. The next man in the district was the chief of
the clan Johnston, usually called Johnston of that Ilk, or the Laird
of Johnston. The jealousy in which these great lords of the land
usually stood of each other chanced at this time to be inflamed into
hostilities, and Maxwell took such an attitude towards the profligate
government of the Earl of Arran, as to cause himself to be denounced as
a rebel. According to the common practice, the court gave a commission
to Johnston to proceed against Lord Maxwell, only helping him with two
companies of hired troops under the command of Captains Cranstoun and
Lammie.
[Sidenote: 1585.]
This proved an unfortunate movement for the house of Johnston. The
two hired bands were cut to pieces on Crawford Moor[130] by Robert
Maxwell, natural brother to the earl. The same bold man proceeded to
Johnston’s castle of Lochwood, and at the date noted set fire to it,
jestingly remarking that he would give Lady Johnston light ‘to set
her hood.’ Johnston himself sustained a defeat at the hands of the
Maxwells, was made prisoner by them, and died of a broken heart.
This was only the beginning of a protracted feud between the Maxwells
and Johnstons, which cost each family, as will be seen, the destruction
of two of its chiefs.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: APR. 30.
1585.]
John Livingstone of Belstane[131] complained to the Council of an
assault which had been made upon him on the 3d of the preceding
February by sundry persons, whose motive in so assailing him does not
appear. The affair is most characteristic--indeed, a type of numberless
other lawless proceedings of the time. John quietly leaves his house
before sunrise, meaning no harm to any one, and expecting none to
himself. He walks out, as he says, under God’s peace and the king’s,
when suddenly he is beset by about forty people who had him at feud,
‘all bodin in feir of weir;’ namely, armed with jacks, steel-bonnets,
spears, lance-staffs, bows, hagbuts, pistolets, and other invasive
weapons forbidden by the laws. At the head of them was William, Master
of Yester--a denounced rebel on account of his slaughter of the Laird
of Westerhall’s servant--Alexander Jardine, younger of Applegarth;
his servants, Stephen Jardine and Matthew Moffat in Woodend, James
Borthwick of Colela, John Lauder of Hartpool, Michael Hunter of
Polmood, John Hoppringle in Peebles, James Hoppringle of the same
place, William Brenarde [Burnett?] of the Barns, John Cockburn of Glen,
and Colin Langton of Earlshaugh, were among the company, evidently all
of them men of some figure and importance. Having come for the purpose
of attacking Livingstone, they no sooner saw him than they set upon
him, with discharge of their firearms, to deprive him of his life. He
narrowly escaped, and ran back to his house, which they immediately
environed in the most furious manner, firing in at the windows and
through every other aperture, for a space of three hours. A ‘bullon’
pierced his hat. As they departed, they met his wife and daughter, whom
they abused shamefully. In short, it seems altogether to have been an
affair of the most barbarous and violent kind. The offenders were all
denounced rebels.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAY 7.]
The pest, which had commenced in Perth in the previous September,
was believed to be now brought thence by a servant-woman to the
Fishmarket in Edinburgh (_Moy._), where it ‘was first knawn to be in
Simon Mercerbanks’s house.’ (_Bir._) From accident or otherwise, the
king acted on this occasion exactly as he had done at Perth, when the
plague first declared itself there. On the very day when the disease
appeared in Edinburgh, he left the city, and ‘rode to Dirleton[132]
to a sumptuous banquet prepared by the Earl of Arran.’ (_Cal._) The
pest continued in the capital till the subsequent January, sometimes
carrying off twenty-four people in a single night. ‘The haill people
whilk was able to flee, fled out of the town: nevertheless there died
of people which were not able to flee, fourteen hundred and some odd.’
(_Bir._) It was at St Andrews in August, ‘and continued till upwards
of four hundred people died, and the place was left almost desolate.’
(_Moy._) Dunse is cited as a place where this pestilence ‘raged
extremely.’ (_Mar._). In Perth, between 24th September 1584, and August
1585, when it ceased, it carried off fourteen hundred and twenty-seven
persons, young and old, or thereby. (_Chron. Perth._) This could not be
less than a sixth of the entire population.
June 23, 1585, on account of the pest being in Edinburgh, the business
of the cunyie-house was ordered to be transported to Dundee, and the
coining of gold, silver, and alloyed money to go on there as it had
hitherto done in Edinburgh. On the alloyed pennies, OPPIDUM DUNDEE
was to be substituted for OPPIDUM EDINBURGI. The Exchequer was also
removed to Falkland, and the Court of Session to Stirling. On the 21st
of October, the pest being now in Dundee, the coining was ordered to be
removed to Perth, and the name of that burgh to be substituted in the
circumscription.--_P. C. R._
[Sidenote: 1585.]
The severity of this pestilence excited the rage of the people against
the Earl of Arran and his lady, the then ruling power of the country,
to whose infamous life, and to the banishment of the Protestant
leaders, the evil was attributed. In the course of the summer, the
air being ‘perpetually nebulous,’ and the growing crop ‘universally
corrupted,’[133] the popular feeling was further excited in the same
direction, and the general cry was that the Lord would not stay his
hand till the banished lords were brought home again. These lords
actually did draw nearer to the Border, under the encouragement which
the plague thus afforded them (_Ja. Mel._), and by reason that the
citizens of Edinburgh were not now able to come forward and act, in
blind obedience to court-orders, as they were wont.
The revolution effected by the ultra Protestant party at Stirling
(November 2, 1585), was followed by a stoppage of the pestilence, ‘not
by degrees or piecemeal, but in a instant, as it were; so that never
any after that hour was known to have been infected, nor any of such
as were infected before, to have died. The lane, also, in Stirling by
which they [the banished lords] entered, was wholly infected; yet no
man [of their party] was known to have been tainted with it, or to have
received any hurt: nay, the men of Annandale did rob and ransack the
pest-lodges which were in the field about Stirling, and carried away
the clothes of the infected, but were never known to have been touched
therewith themselves, or any others that got or wore the clothes. They
also that were in the lodges, returned to their houses, and conversed
with their neighbours in the town, who received them without fear,
suspicion, or reproof, and no harm did ensue upon it. As for Edinburgh,
before the 1st of February, within three months it was so well peopled
and filled again with inhabitants, as none could perceive by the number
that any had died out of it.’ This change--‘nothing can be alleged to
have brought it to pass but the very finger of God. Let mankind advert
and admire it; and whosoever shall go about to bereave God of his glory
by laying it upon fortune, may his chance be such as his perverseness
deserveth!‘--_H. of G._
The assumed immunity of the Border thieves is extremely amusing. Being
here engaged in the right cause, it mattered not that they committed
the monstrous inhumanity of plundering the sick and cheating the heirs
of the dead.
[Sidenote: 1585.]
James Melville remarks the same connection of circumstances, but places
the improvement of the public health a month later. From the meeting
of the parliament in December, under the auspices of the king’s new
advisers, ‘the pest abated, and began to be strangely and remarkably
withdrawn by the merciful hand of God, sae that Edinburgh was
frequented again that winter; and at the entry of the spring, all the
towns, almost desolate before, repeopled--St Andrews among the rest.’
Melville relates a remarkable anecdote of this pestilence, under
November, when he had occasion to return from banishment at Berwick,
and to proceed through Edinburgh on his way to attend a General
Assembly at Linlithgow. ‘On the morn, we made haste, and, coming to
Losterrick [Restalrig], disjuned, and about eleven hours, came riding
in at the Water-gate, up through the Canongate, and rade in at the
Nether Bow, through the great street of Edinburgh, to the West Port,
_in all whilk way we saw not three persons_, sae that I miskenned
Edinburgh, and almost forgot that I had ever seen sic a town.’
* * * * *
[Sidenote: NOV. 2.]
‘The news of the taking of Stirling was at the court of England and in
London within aught and forty hours; for it being done on Tuesday in
the morning, on the Thursday thereafter Mr Bowes tauld us, and on the
Friday it was common in the mouths of all London.’--_Ja. Mel._
Under March 17, 1578, is another instance of extraordinary quickness
in the communication of intelligence from Stirling to Edinburgh. In
that case, we might suppose that the event only fulfilled a previous
design. Such could scarcely be the case here. Sir John G. Dalyell
remarks, that ‘rumours subsequently verified are undoubtedly sometimes
in circulation. The author recollects very well that the result of the
battle of Trafalgar, or of Corunna, was currently reported in the city
of Edinburgh, previous to any certain intelligence known to have been
received of the fact through what was esteemed the speediest channel:
nor, on subsequently computing the intervals, could satisfactory
conjectures be formed how it had arrived.’[134] It may be remembered
by many that, in the war in Afghanistan in 1842-3, the natives were
remarked often to be possessed of intelligence of events occurring
at a distance, long before any information had come to the British
through recognised channels. The author just quoted expresses his
opinion that, in such cases, there has merely been an anticipation on
probable grounds of an event which was subsequently ascertained to have
happened.