The Master of Yester, whom we have just seen as a peace-breaker, comes
once more before the Council as a turbulent and wicked person. Sir John
Stewart of Traquair, and his brother James Stewart of Shillinglaw,
lieutenant of his majesty’s guard, appear as complainers, setting
forth, in the first place, how it is well known of Sir John Stewart,
that ‘having his dwelling-place on the south side of Tweed, in a
room[137] subject to the invasions and thieves of the broken men of the
Borders, and lying betwixt them and sundry his majesty’s true lieges,
whom commonly they herry and oppress, how at all times himself, his
brother, his friends and neighbours assisting him, dwelling betwixt
the burgh of Peebles and Gaithopeburn, resistit the stouthreif and
oppressions of the said thieves and broken men, to the comfort and
relief of mony true men, in whilk course they intend, God willing,
to continue to their lives end.’ Of late, however, so proceeds the
complaint, ‘they have been, and is greatumly hindered therein, by
reason that William, Master of Yester, by the causing, direction, at
least owersicht and tolerance, of William Lord Hay of Yester, his
father, sheriff of Peebles and provost of the burgh of Peebles (wha,
by the laws of this realm ... aucht to mak his said son answerable,’
but had ‘placit him in the principal house and strength of Neidpath,’
though he has been a denounced rebel for nearly the space of a year
‘for his inobedience to underlie the laws,’ till within the last few
days that he obtained relaxation) ... had in the meantime ‘not only
usurpit and taken upon him the charge of the sheriffship of Peebles,
and provostry of the burgh thereof, but ane absolute command to
proclaim and hald wappinshawings at times nawise appointit by his
hieness’ direction, to banish and give up kindness to all persons in
burgh or land where he pleases, to tak up men’s gear under pretence
of unlaws fra wappinshawings or other unnecessar causes, never being
lawfully callit nor convenit; ... and forder, it is weel knawn to
sundry of the lords of Secret Council, that the said Master socht the
life of the said James Stewart, and dayly shores and boasts[138] to
slay him, and all others of his kin, friends, allies, assisters, and
partakers.’ On the petition of the complainers, the Council heard
parties, the peccant Master appearing for himself, and in excuse for
his father, who was sick and unable to travel. And the end of the
matter was, that the case was remitted to the judgment of the Court of
Session, to be decided by them as they might think proper. Meanwhile,
the Master was enjoined to cease molesting the Stewarts and their
friends and dependents between this and the 8th of January next.--_P.
C. R._
On the 29th April 1587, it is stated that the king had dealt between
these hostile parties, and arranged _letters of affirmance_ between
them, in order to secure peace for the future; but the Master of
Yester had refused to subscribe. For this he is threatened with being
denounced rebel, or, as the ordinary phrase was, being put to the
horn.[139] On the 12th May, the king ordered him to enter in ward north
of the Tay, and there remain till liberated; and a few weeks later, on
this order not being complied with, the Master was denounced rebel, and
all forbidden to assist or receive him.--_P. C. R._
In a memoir of the Hays of Tweeddale, composed by a member of the
family a century later, the character and objects of the parties in
this dispute are precisely reversed. The Master of Yester--whose
nickname, it seems, was _Wood-sword_--is described as a great upholder
of the laws against thieves, while the Stewarts of Traquair were the
reverse. The passage is worth transcribing, as an example of the
favourable views of which a man’s actions are always more or less
susceptible in the eyes of friends, especially after the lapse of a few
years.
[Sidenote: 1586.]
‘In his time, the Borders being much infested with broken men and
thieving, this lord, who always rode accompanied with twenty-four
horsemen and as many footmen armed, did take and hanged a great [many]
of them. He was at feud with the house of Traquair for seconding the
thieves, in pursuit of whom he received a wound in the face. King James
the Sixth being desirous to have this feud taken away, as all others of
the country, and he refusing, was committed to the Castle of Edinburgh,
out of which he made his escape, and immediately made ane new inroad
against the thieves, of whom he killed a great many, in a place called
from thence the _Bloody Haugh_, near Riskin-hope, in Rodonna; whereupon
King James was pleased to make a hunting journey, and came to the house
of Neidpath, whither the king called Traquair, with his two sons, who
made to Lord Yester acknowledgment for the wrong they had done him,
and then peace was made by the king.[140] This was witnessed by one
William Geddes, who was my lord’s butler, and lived till the year
1632.’--_Genealogy of the Hays of Tweeddale, by Father R. A. Hay._
[Sidenote: 1586-7.