Hugh Weir of Cloburn, a boy of fourteen years, had been taken out of
the town of Edinburgh from his mother’s friends, and carried over to
Ireland, and there married to the daughter of the Laird of Corehouse.
He ‘was, by Sir James Hamilton’s means, apprehended in Ireland, and
sent back to Scotland, and presented to the Council. He was imprisoned
in the Tolbooth, in a room next the Laird of Blackwood, by whose means
the boy was taken away and sent into Ireland.’--_Bal._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: MAR. 3.]
(Tuesday) at ‘half an hour to sax in the morning, ane earthquake had
in divers places.’ ‘On Thursday thereafter, ane other earthquake at 12
hours in the night, had baith in land and burgh.’-_Chron. Perth._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: AUG. 12.]
[Sidenote: 1614.]
Theophilus Howard, Lord Walden (afterwards Earl of Suffolk), made a
short journey of pleasure in Scotland; and as the details give some
idea of the means there were in the country of entertaining a stranger
of distinction, they may be worth noting. His lordship was received
by the Earl of Home into Dunglass House, in Berwickshire, and ‘used
very honourably.’ He dined next day with his brother-in-law, Sir James
Home of Cowdenknowes, at Broxmouth House, near Dunbar. Advancing
thence towards Edinburgh, he was met by the secretary of state, Sir
Thomas Hamilton of Binning, accompanied by a number of gentlemen of
the country, all of whom had waited for him the preceding night at
Musselburgh Links, but were disappointed of his coming forward. He
was by them convoyed to the Canongate, and lodged in John Killoch’s
house. Next morning, he proceeded to the Castle, and ‘viewed the site,
fortification, and natural strength thereof.’ Having dined, he rode
from Edinburgh with the Lord Chancellor to Dunfermline, where he was
entertained with all kindness and respect till Monday, the 16th. He
then went to Culross, to see Sir George Bruce’s coal-works, which
were one of the wonders of the age; ‘where, having received the best
entertainment they could make him, my Lord Chancellor took leave of
him, and left him to be convoyed by my Lord Erskine to Stirling, where
he could not be persuaded to stay above one night. The next day, he saw
the park of Stirling, dined in the Castle, and raid that night towards
Falkland.’ On the way, Lord Erskine transferred him to the care of
Lord Scone, who, assisted by many gentlemen of Fife, took him to his
house in Falkland.’ There, doubtless to the great distress of Lord
Scone, no entreaties could prevail upon Lord Walden to stay longer than
a night, ‘to receive that entertainment which he wald gladly have made
langer to him.’ So, ‘after the sight of the park and palace, having
dined, his lordship and my Lord of Scone came to Burntisland, where
he had ready and speedy passage; but the wind being very loud, he was
exceeding sick at sea.’ Landing at Leith, the distinguished company was
received for refreshment into the house of a rich and prominent person
of that day, Bernard Lindsay, whom we shall see erelong entertaining
Ben Jonson in the same place. Here the secretary again took up
the stranger, and convoyed him once more to John Killoch’s in the
Canongate, ‘whither the bailies of Edinburgh came to him, and invited
him to supper the next day, but could not induce him by any entreaty to
stay.’ Having dismissed them, he went to see the palace of Holyrood.
Next day, the 19th of August, he left Edinburgh, and rode with the
secretary to Seton, ‘where he was received by the Countess of Winton
and her children, and used with all due respect.’ After taking a sight
of the house, which was of princely elegance, with beautiful gardens,
Lord Walden proceeded to Broxmouth, and there spent the night.
‘In all his journey through this country,’ says the contemporary
writer, ‘great and loving respect has been borne to him by all honest
men, whereof he has proven most worthy; for he has esteemed all things
to the uttermost of their worth, and in his courteous discretion has
favourably excused all oversights and defects.... Every honest man here
wishes him happiness in all his other journeys and enterprises, for the
honourable, wise, and humane behaviour he has used amang them.’[351]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1614.]
In this year, a small volume was printed and published by Andro Hart
of Edinburgh, under the title of _Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis
Descriptio_, &c., _Auctore et Inventore Joanne Napero, Barone
Merchistonii, Scoto_. This was a remarkable event in the midst of so
many traits of barbarism, bigotry, and ignorance; for in Napier’s
volume was presented a mode of calculation forming an essential
pre-requisite to the solution of all the great problems involving
numbers which have since been brought before mankind.
John Napier is believed to have been engaged in the elaboration of his
Logarithms for fully twenty years, while at the same time giving some
of his time to such inventions as burning-glasses for the destruction
of fleets, to theological discussions, and the occult sciences. The
tall, antique tower of Merchiston, in which he lived and pursued his
studies, still exists at the head of the Burgh-moor of Edinburgh.
[Sidenote: 1614]
Napier’s little book was published in an English translation by Henry
Briggs of Oxford, the greatest mathematician of his day in England.
The admiration of Briggs for the person of Napier was testified in the
summer of 1615 by his paying a visit to Scotland, in order to see him.
Of this rencontre there is a curious and interesting account preserved
by William Lilly in his _Life and Times_. ‘I will acquaint you,’
says he, ‘with one memorable story related unto me by John Marr, an
excellent mathematician and geometrician, whom I conceive you remember.
He was a servant to King James I. and Charles I. When Merchiston first
published his Logarithms, Mr Briggs, then reader of the astronomy
lectures at Gresham College in London, was so surprised with admiration
of them, that he could have no quietness in himself until he had seen
that noble person whose only invention they were. He acquaints John
Marr therewith, who went in[to] Scotland before Mr Briggs, purposely
to be there when these two so learned persons should meet. Mr Briggs
appoints a certain day when to meet at Edinburgh; but failing thereof,
Merchiston was fearful he would not come. It happened one day, as John
Marr and Lord Napier were speaking of Mr Briggs, “Oh! John,” saith
Merchiston, “Mr Briggs will not come now.” At the very instant, one
knocks at the gate. John Marr hasted down, and it proved to be Mr
Briggs, to his great contentment. He brings Mr Briggs into my lord’s
chamber, where almost one quarter of an hour was spent, each beholding
other with admiration, before one word was spoken. At last Mr Briggs
began: “My lord, I have undertaken this long journey purposely to see
your person, and to know by what engine of wit or ingenuity you came
first to think of this most excellent help unto astronomy--namely, the
Logarithms; but, my lord, being by you found out, I wonder nobody else
found it out before, when, now being known, it appears so easy.” He
was nobly entertained by the Lord Napier; and every summer after that,
during the laird’s being alive, this venerable man went purposely to
Scotland to visit him.’
As Napier (whom Lilly erroneously calls lord) died in April 1617, Mr
Briggs could not have made more than one other summer pilgrimage to
Merchiston.
* * * * *
Died John M‘Birnie, minister of St Nicolas’ Church, Aberdeen--a typical
example of the more zealous and self-denying of the Presbyterian clergy
of that age. A similar one of the next age says of M‘Birnie: ‘I heard
Lady Culross say: “He was a godly, zealous, and painful preacher; and
that he used always, when he rode, to have two Bibles hanging at a
leather girdle about his middle, the one original, the other English;
as also, a little sand-glass in a brazen case: and being alone, he
read, or meditated, or prayed; and if any company were with him,
he would read or speak from the Word to them.”... When he died, he
called his wife, and told her he had no outward means to leave her,
or his only daughter, but that he had got good assurance that the
Lord would provide for them; and accordingly, the day he was buried,
the magistrates of the town came to the house, after the burial, and
brought two subscribed papers, one of a competent maintenance to his
wife during her life, another of a provision for his daughter.’[352]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1615.]
The latter part of the winter 1614-15 was of such severity as to
be attended with several remarkable circumstances which were long
remembered. In February, the Tay was frozen over so strongly as
to admit of passage for both horse and man. ‘Upon Fasten’s E’en
[February 21], there was twa puncheons of Bourdeaux wine carriet,
_sting and ling_,[353] on men’s shoulders, on the ice, at the mids of
the North Inch, the weight of the puncheon and the bearers, estimate
to three score twelve stane weight.’ This state of things, however,
was inconvenient for the ferrymen, ‘being thereby prejudgit of their
commodity.’ So they, ‘in the night-time, brak the ice at the entry, and
stayit the passage.’--_Chron. Perth._
[Sidenote: 1615.]
An enormous fall of snow took place early in March, so as to stop all
communication throughout the country. On its third day, many men and
horse perished in vain attempts to travel. The accumulation of snow was
beyond all that any man remembered.
‘In some places, men devised snow-ploughs to clear the ground, and
fodder the cattle.’--_Bal._ The snow fell to such a depth, and endured
so long upon the ground, that, according to Sir Robert Gordon, ‘most
part of all the horse, nolt, and sheep of the kingdom did perish, but
chiefly in the north.’[354]
The Privy Council, viewing the ‘universal death, destruction, and
wrack of the beasts and goods throughout all parts of the country,’
apprehended that, without some extraordinary care, there would not be
enough of lambs left to replenish the farms with sheep for future use.
They accordingly interfered with a decree forbidding the use of lamb
for a certain time. Nevertheless, so early as the 26th of April, it was
ascertained that there were undutiful subjects, who, ‘preferring their
own private contentment and their inordinate appetite, and the delicate
feeding of their bellies, to the reverence and obedience of the law,’
continued to use lamb, only purchasing it in secret places, as if
no such prohibition had ever been uttered. It was therefore become
necessary that severe punishment should be threatened for this offence.
The threats launched forth on this occasion were found next year to
have been of some effect in preserving the remnant of the lamb stock;
and, to complete the restoration of the stock, a new decree to the like
effect was then made (March 14, 1616).
[Sidenote: JAN.]
[Sidenote: 1615.]
The king and his English council having, with the usual short-sighted
policy of the age, decreed that no goods should be imported into or
exported out of England, except in English vessels, the burghs of
Scotland were not slow to perceive that the interests of their country
would be deeply injured thereby, as other states would of course
establish similar restrictions, ‘and if so, there is naething to be
expected but decay and wrack to our shipping, insaemickle as the best
ships of Scotland are continually employed in the service of Frenchmen,
not only within the dominions of France, but also within the bounds
of Spain, Italy, and Barbary, where their trade lies, whilk is ane
chief cause of the increase of the number of Scots ships and of their
maintenance, whereas by the contrary, the half of the number of ships
whilk are presently in Scotland will serve for our awn privat trade and
negotiation.’
The king of France did in reality revenge the selfish policy of England
by issuing a similar order in favour of French shipping, the first
consequence of which was that an English vessel and a Dutch one, lading
in Normandy, were obliged to disburden themselves and come empty home.
‘Ane Scottish bark perteining to Andrew Allan, whilk that same time was
lading with French merchandise,’ would have been subjected to the same
inconvenience, if the master had not pretended to an immunity in favour
of his country, through its ancient alliance with France, ‘inviolably
kept these 800 years bypast.’ The Scots factors in France entered a
complaint before the parliament of Paris, reminding it of that ancient
alliance, and pleading that the French had ever had liberty of trade in
all Scottish ports; shewing, indeed, that Scotland was not comprised
in the edict of the English monarch and his council. The parliament
accordingly decreed that the Scotch should remain in the enjoyment of
freedom of trade within France, as heretofore.
The attention of the king being necessarily called to the interests
of Scotland in this matter, he was found obstinate in favour of the
general principle of the English order in council. ‘Natural reason,’
he said, ‘teaches us that Scotland, being part of an isle, cannot
be mainteined or preserved without shipping, and shipping cannot be
mainteined without employment; and the very law of nature teacheth
every sort of corporation, kingdom, or country, first to set their own
vessels on work, before they employ any stranger.’[355] He was willing,
however, to relax in particular cases. James argues logically, but he
had not sagacity to anticipate the doctrines of Adam Smith.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: FEB. 6.]
This day saw the extraordinary sight of a Scottish earl, cousin-german
to the king, led out to a scaffold in the High Street of Edinburgh, and
there beheaded. The sufferer was Patrick Earl of Orkney, whose father
was a natural son of King James V. Forty years earlier, this man would
have stood his ground against the law: now, it was too strong for him,
and he fell before it.
[Sidenote: 1615.]
Earl Patrick appears to have been a man of grand and ambitious views,
and his dream of life was to make himself a sort of independent prince
in the remote group of islands where lay his estate. The sketch given
of his style of living there by a contemporary writer is striking:
‘He had a princely and royal revenue; and indeed behavit himself
with sic sovereignty, and, gif I durst say the plain verity, rather
tyrannically, by the shadow of Danish laws, different and more rigorous
nor [than] the municipal or criminal laws of the rest of Scotland;
whereby no man of rent or purse might enjoy his property in Orkney,
without his special favour, and the same dear bought.... Fitchit and
forgit faults was so devisit against many of them, that they were
compellit by imprisonment and small rewaird to resign their heritable
titles to him; and gif he had a stieve purse and no rent, then was some
crime devisit against him, whereby he was compellit [to give up] either
half or haill thereof, gif not life and all beside. And his pomp was
so great there [in Kirkwall], as he never went from his castle to the
kirk, nor abroad otherwise, without the convoy of fifty musketeers and
other gentlemen of convoy and guard. And siclike, before dinner and
supper, there were three trumpeters that soundit still till the meat of
the first service was set at table, and siclike at the second service;
and consequently, after the grace. He had also his ships directit to
the sea, to intercept pirates, and collect tribute of uncouth [foreign]
fishers, that came yearly to these seas. Whereby he made sic collection
of great guns and other weapons for weir [war] as no house, palace, nor
castle, yea all in Scotland were not furnished with the like.’
[Sidenote: 1615.]
The doings of this insular potentate at length attracted the attention
of the law, and he was summoned in 1610 to answer for various acts of
the nature of a usurpation of the royal authority during the preceding
twenty years. It appears from this summons, that he made laws of his
own, and prosecuted divers gentlemen for disobeying them. He had forced
some of these persons into a Bond of Manrent, obliging themselves to
maintain his cause against whatsoever persons, and that they should
never know of any ‘skaith’ threatening him but they would reveal it
within twenty-four hours. He had imprisoned sundry persons in irons
and stocks sundry days and weeks, and compelled many of the poorer
class ‘to work for him all manner of work and labour by sea and land,
in rowing and sailing his ships and boats, working in the stane quarry
... loading his boats with stane and lime ... bigging his park dykes,
and all other sorts of servile and painful labour, without either meat,
drink, or hire.’ While forbidding the people generally to sell any of
the produce of their lands without his licence, he imposed on them
grievous taxations. In short, he had acted the baronial tyrant in the
extremest form of the character.
The earl was now a prisoner in Edinburgh Castle, and there could
have been no difficulty in convicting and punishing him. The king,
however, felt mercifully towards his cousin; and after several briefer
postponements, the case was hung up, and the earl conveyed, for the
safer custody of his person, to Dumbarton Castle. It is believed that
King James was even willing to have come to a compromise with the
culprit, granting him the lucrative keepership of some one of the royal
palaces, on condition of his renouncing all claim to Orkney. The earl
refused to temporise, and continued to entertain the secret resolution
to regain, if possible, his island sovereignty, and there set all law
at defiance.
He had a natural son, Robert, a fitting instrument for his designs.
Under his instructions, this youth proceeded to Orkney in 1614, and
there assembling a company, took possession of the castle of Kirkwall,
at the same time fortifying the church and steeple. Voluntarily or by
compulsion, a great number of the islanders signed a bond, engaging to
support him; and it was soon understood that Orkney was in rebellion
against the crown. The Privy Council met to consider what should be
done. The Earl of Caithness was now in Edinburgh, attempting to obtain
remission for offences of his own, one of which consisted in his
waging war in the preceding year against the Earl of Sutherland. It
readily occurred to his wily mind, that, for a culprit like himself,
nothing could be so good as to offer to help the government to punish
the crimes of others. It was, moreover, rather a pleasure than a duty
to carry war into Orkney. His offered services were accepted, and he
quickly sailed with a strong military party for Kirkwall. He found the
fortress strong, the country people generally in favour of the rebels,
and great deficiency of provision for his troops. He nevertheless
beleaguered the castle for about a month, during which time some damage
was done by ordnance on both sides. At length, by adroit dealing with
one Patrick Halcro, the chief associate of Robert Stuart, he brought
about a surrender of the house and all it contained (September 29,
1614), with a condition for the saving of Halcro’s life, but for no
favour to any other.
[Sidenote: 1615.