Sir Alexander and his friends set about trying to emancipate themselves
from the jurisdiction of the Stewards of Strathearn. They found an
aider and abettor in Sir Patrick Graham, who had assumed the title of
Earl of Strathearn in right of his wife. Sir John Drummond of
Concraig, the Steward, was his brother-in-law, but disposed to stand
stiffly upon his position as hereditary Steward. He declined to resign
his office into the hands of the Earl of Strathearn as superior. Upon
this there ensued a bitter personal quarrel between the Earl and the
Steward. The Murray party saw their advantage and took it. The wife
of the Laird of Ogilvy was grand-niece to the second wife of the Earl
of Strathearn, and through this connection or otherwise he was induced
to give a pledge that he should either have power to dispose of the
Steward's office or not be Earl of Strathearn. He set out from Methven
Castle with the intention of breaking up the Steward's Court at the
Stayt of Crieff. Sir John and his friends encountered him in the park
of Ferntower at a place still marked by a large standing-stone. The
Earl was killed, and Sir John and his friends fled to Ireland. Fordun
states that none of them were brought to justice, except William and
Walter Oliphant. These were probably sons or grandsons of Sir Walter
Oliphant of Gask, who married Elizabeth, the youngest daughter of
Robert the Bruce, on 11th Jan., 1364. This fatal encounter in the park
of Ferntower took place in 1413, during the regency of Albany, who
succeeded to power in 1406, after the death of his brother, King Robert
III. Sir John had secured the succession to his lands and offices in
favour of his son, Malcolm, so that the outlawry decreed against him
affected himself only. He died in Ireland. But misfortune dogged his
House. Even in the time of his grandson, the family historian states
"that ever since the killing of the Earl of Strathearn the family had
no settled peace, but were forced to keep house to so many friends and
servants for their security that it brought a consumption upon their
fortune, ingadged it in burdens, and made him pairt with many of his
lands to relieve his debts." In 1474 the laird of the time, Maurice
Keir Drummond, sold lands and his office of Steward to his chief, John
Drummond of Cargill, afterwards Lord Drummond.
Thus the Murrays had gained their object, so far. The family of
Concraig was ruined. But they were foiled in their attempt upon the
Stewardship. They had tried for that many ways. In 1441, Sir David
Murray of Tullibardine had attempted "to wind himself once in
possession of the Stewartrie" by proposing a marriage alliance between
his daughter, Isabella, and Malcolm Drummond, son of Sir John. The
scheme fell through somehow. Meantime, King James I. had put new life
into the central governing body. Parliament was now waking up to a
sense of its rights and duties. The actual reign of James I. only
lasted for thirteen years (1424-1437), but he held no fewer than
thirteen Parliaments during these years. It was his object to break
the power of the nobles and local dignitaries. The unique position of
the Earldom of Strathearn and the hereditary Stewardships which had
grown up alongside of it attracted his attention. The Earldom was the
only Palatinate within the bounds of Scotland; the only Earldom
possessing Royal privileges. King James I. was a reformer of the
"hot-haste" school. The execution of a plan of action followed hard
upon the heels of the conception of it. An Act of his first Parliament
directed an inquest to be made by the Sheriff--"what lands pertain to
the King, or has pertained during the reign of the last three kings,
and in whose hands they now are." In terms of this statute, King James
I. resumed the Earldom of Strathearn on the ground that it was a male
fee, and did not pass to the wife of Patrick Graham, the heir-female.
This happened in 1436, and it cost the King his life the following year
at the hands of Robert Graham, uncle and tutor of the young heir,
Malise, who was still detained as a hostage in England in security for
the payment of the King's ransom. But the impulse had been given;
though dead, the reformer King still spoke to the nation, and in 1442
James II, and his Parliament declared that the Earldom had fallen to
the Crown. In 1455 it was enacted that all regalities in the King's
hands should be annexed to the royalty, and subject to the King's
Court. This action in Scotland had the support of the Murray faction.
They had come to see the futility of any attempt upon the Stewardship.
In the year 1474--the very year in which Maurice Keir Drummond of
Concraig had parted with lands and office to his kinsman, the Laird of
Cargill--Sir William Murray of Tullibardine obtained from King James
III. a discharge or dishonouration of the Seneschalship of Strathearn.
The effect of this was that his person and his lands were emancipated
from the jurisdiction of the Steward's Court. This example was
followed by the Laird of Abercairny, who held a tack of the lands of
Tullichettle, which Sir William Stirling of Keir, the granter, was
called on to warrant. In 1483, the Laird of Abercairny, Humphrey
Murray, appeared at the Stayt of Crieff and withdrew his
suit--"_Levavit sectam suam de predicta curia_," which was transferred
by Crown charter to the King's Sheriff Court at Perth. Thus terminated
the jurisdiction of the Earls Palatine of Strathearn. It was followed
up by a declaration of date 16th February, 1505, to the effect that
"the Baroneys of new create and maid within the King's Earldom of
Strathearn within thir three years bipast" were released of all service
in the Steward Court of the King's Earldom of Strathearn. Such service
was now due to the King's Sheriff Court of Perth "in all times to cum."
In giving this rapid sketch of the early history of Crieff, I have
followed mainly the guidance of the writer of a historical introduction
to a little book entitled _The Beauties of Upper Strathearn_. For the
short account of the Skait of Crieff, I am indebted to one or two
articles in the _Strathearn Herald_, written by the late H. B. Farnie,
on the 17th and 24th days of November, 1860, just when the trenching
and levelling were in full swing. We must now turn to the later period
during which Crieff tasted the sweet uses of adversity. It suffered
eclipse for 200 years--from the year 1483, when the jurisdiction of the
Earl Palatine terminated, down to 1683, when a citizen of
Crieff--George Drummond of Milnab--became Lord Provost of Edinburgh.
During these long years, Crieff was an ordinary kirk-town, nowise
distinguished among its fellows. It had its Gothic Church, which seems
to have dated from a very remote period. When it was demolished, in
1787, forty gold coins of Robert I. were found in a hole in the wall
six feet from the ground. There was a law plea for the possession of
these coins between the Crown and James Gentle, the purchaser of the
old walls, which was decided in favour of the Crown. The houses of
Crieff were clustered round this old church--mainly east and north and
south. Crieff had no west end beyond the Cross until after 1731, when
the Master of Drummond made good his title to the Perth Estate, after
the forfeiture which ensued upon the proceedings of 1715. It was
burned to the ground in this year, but, thanks to the Master of
Drummond, it had reached a thriving condition as a market town for the
midland and western districts of Scotland, when the Highlanders broke
loose again in 1745. It suffered no second burning, though the
Highlanders had possession of it, and Prince Charlie held a stormy
council of war in the old Drummond Arms, at the foot of Hill's Wynd.
Since then, Crieff has become a "braw toon" without the other "singe"
its Highland neighbours destined for it. The coming of the railway in
1856, and the adoption of the Police Act in 1864, have done wonders,
enabling it to take full advantage of its many attractions. It was
loyal to the Hanoverian dynasty during the troubles of the "'15" and
the "'45"; but one hundred years before the last outbreak it gave a
kindly welcome to Montrose, who entrenched himself very securely at
Callum's Hill, having doubtless his headquarters at the house of his
kinsman, Inchbrakie.
We come now to look more closely at Crieff, when it set out upon its
comparatively undistinguished career as a kirk-town. No doubt it felt
the loss of the Court of the Steward of the Earl Palatine of
Strathearn, just as the whole strath felt the want of the sunshine of
the Royal favour after the murder of King James I. in the Blackfriars
Monastery of Perth, at Christmastide, 1437. But though, doubtless,
many forsook it, some remained, and there were kirk-lands near by for
the maintenance of the Gospel. Conflicting interests began to stir in
connection with these lands. When they come under our notice the
kirk-lands of Crieff are attached to the Chapel Royal at Stirling. In
"Ane Index of Rights of the Chappell and of their Bulls or Patents" we
read, as one of the contents, "Applicatio prima fructuum de Air,
Kincardin, Crieff, et Pettie Brachley." This seems to have been
sanctioned by a Bull of Alexander VI., of date May 16th, 1502; and
surely it is interesting to know that the kirk-lands of Crieff, Ayr,
Kincardine, and Pettie Brachley--wherever that was--were allocated to
the Chapel Royal at Stirling by the Borgia Pope, Alexander VI., one of
the prime disgraces of the Chair of St. Peter. But the allocation did
not pass unchallenged. Crieff had its perpetual pensionary vicar in
those days, and naturally enough he could see neither rhyme nor reason
in the arrangement which a Pope had no doubt sanctioned, but which
completely ignored his interests. The name of the worthy vicar was
Master John Broune,[1] a discreet man, as he is called in the public
instrument in which the process is recorded, by means of which he got
an augmentation of stipend. The instrument begins in this way:--
"In the name of God. Amen. By this present public instrument, be it
evidently known to all men, that in the year of the Incarnation of our
Lord, 1511, on the 5th day of March, the 15th year of the Indiction,
being the 9th year of the Pontificate of the Most Holy Father in
Christ, and Master of our Master, Julius II., Pope by the Divine
Providence. Compeared in person, in Court, Master John Broune,
perpetual pensionary vicar of the parish of Crieff, in Stratherne, on
the one part, and on the other, Masters William Sterheid and John
Goldsmyth, Canons of the said Chapel Royal and Prebendaries of the same
Church of Crieff."
The President of the Court was Master David Abercrummy, principal
official of Candida Casa and of the Chapel Royal, Stirling, also
sub-deacon of the same Chapel Royal. A notary public was also present
and certain subscribing witnesses. Master John Broune, the vicar,
stoutly maintained that the pension was too small and mean (_exigua
parva et exilis_) for his proper maintenance, and strengthened his plea
by the production of two documents--one subscribed by the proper hand
of the most excellent Prince and Master of our Master, James IV., the
most illustrious King of the Scots; the other subscribed by the proper
hand of the reverend Father in Christ, and Master of our Master, David,
by the Divine compassion, Bishop of Candida Casa and of the Chapel
Royal, Stirling. Then follows the King's letter in "braid Scots":--
"We, as patrone of the Kyrk of Creyf, gyffis our full consent and
assent to thir ouyr lettres that the Bishop of ouyr Chapel Rial erec
and mak the vicar's pension of the said kyrk equivalent to the utheris
vicaris pensionarys of the Kyrks of Balmaclellene, Suthwyth, and
Kellys, unit and erectit to our said chappell with ane manse, yard, and
gleyb of twa akaris of the kyrk-land of Creyf, callyt 'For,' next
adjacent to the said kyrk, to the sustentacion of the vicar thairof to
serve the cuyr, payand procuragis and synnagis, and mak the dene rural
expensys in visitacion as efferys, and ordains that this be done be the
Bishop of ouyr Chapell Ryal and official tharof by tharis dyscrecionys,
the quantyte of the cuyr beyng consyderit.
"Subscrivit with ouyr hand at Edynbrugh, the xxv. daye of September,
and of our reng the xxiiij.or zeir, 1512. _Et sequitir subscripcio
manualis_. Rex James."
There is a slight discrepancy in the above record; for whereas the
Royal letter is dated the 25th day of September, 1512, it is stated to
have been produced by the vicar before the Court of Master David
Abercrummy on the 5th day of March, 1511. The explanation may be that
it was found difficult to grit the augmentation out of the clutches of
the Stirling Canons, even after the Bishop of Candida Casa (Whithorn)
had decreed in the vicar's favour, and that the Royal authority had
again to be invoked to give effect to it. However this may be, it is
certain that Master John Broune gained his point, as will appear from
the following document, also in "braid Scots":--
"Schyr official, forsamekyll as the vicarage of the Kyrk of Creyf, is
nocht contenyt, in the erectioun of our Souerane lordis Chapell Rial as
the layf of the vicarages that are incorporat tharto, this is, tharfor,
that ze assygne and mak ouyr vicar of Creyf als meikle zeyrly to his
pensioun of the fructis o' the sayd vicarage to sustene him and serve
the cuyr as ony of the vicarages of Balmaclellene, Suchwych, or Kellis
has, with ane manse, zard, and gleyb and twa akaris of the kyrk-land
callyt 'For,' next adjacent to the sayd kyrk, wyth certain gress soums
for gudying of the sayd gleyb, according to the extent of the sayd
kyrk-land, he payand of the samyn procurage and synnage aucht and wount
and makand the deyne rurale expense quhen he vesiis the sayd kyrk.
"Alanerlye, for that our Souerane lordis, patroun of the sayd Kyrk of
Creyf, has consentyt heirto, and commendit us to hys writtings to do
the samyn, keip this our mandment for your warand, and cause the samyn
to be fulfyllyt, sa that we heir na complant tharof in tymys cuming.
Subscrivit wyth our hand at Edinbrugh, the v. day of March, the zer of
God im. vc. xi. zeris. _Et sequitur subscripcio manualis dicti
Episcopi D. Candide Case et Cappelle Regie Striuelingensis Episcopus_."
Then follows a narrative of proceedings in monk Latin, which I have
been at some pains to translate thus:--
"Certain relevant documents having been publicly examined and shown in
open Court, the said vicar immediately demanded from the judge that he
should proceed with the augmentation of his annual pension of the said
perpetual vicarage according to the tenor of the said two documents,
especially because no reasonable bar had been alleged in Court why the
augmentation in this kind should not be granted. And Master
Abercrummy, the foresaid judge, having carefully examined the two
documents and the foundation of the foresaid Chapel Royal, Stirling,
particularly in that point where it treats of the erection of perpetual
vicarages and of their annual pensions, as in the case of the Parish
Churches of Suchwych (Southwick), Kellis (Kells), and Balmaclellan,
belonging to the said Chapel Royal, augmented the annual pension of the
perpetual vicarage of Crieff in the manner which follows, and
ordained--viz., that the perpetual vicar of the Church of Crieff, in
Strathearn, who has had, _pro tempore_, shall have in perpetuity of the
fruits of that Church of Crieff for his own sustenance and for those
dependent on him, wherewith he may be able to live in comfort,
twenty-four merks of the usual money of Scotland and two acres of
arable land adjacent to the said church of the town, which is called
'For,' pertaining to the same church and (origin?) the house built upon
it, along with pasture for his own animals according to the congruency
(convenience?) of the same said acres, and with 'hearth-rights in the
muirs and marshes of the said town' (focalibus competentinus in moris
et marresiis ejusdem villae.) [The Latin is barbarous, and may mean
anything; but it does seem to have some connection with the right of
digging peats.] And besides, that the forenamed vicar, who has been
bound, _pro tempore_, so, hereafter is, in perpetuity, bound to pay
annually to the bishop in ordinary of the place the procurations aucht
and wount on behalf of the said church, the synodal moneys and expense
in ordinary for the Dean of Christianity who has annually visited the
said Church of Crieff, in Strathearn, and the parish thereof; and that
the payment of the pension, as regards the said 24 merks, shall be made
to the said vicar of Crieff for the time being, at the four usual
annual terms, in equal portions, to be lifted annually out of the
fruits of the said Church of Crieff--viz., at the Festivals of the
Finding of the Holy Cross; of St. Peter of the Chain; of All Saints;
and of the Purification of our Lady.
"Upon which premises--all and single--the foresaid John Broune,
perpetual pensionary vicar of the said parochial Church of Crieff, in
Strathearn, asked the present public instruments to be executed for him
by me, notary public undersigned. These deeds were lodged in the
Chapel Royal, near the town of Edinburgh, in the consistory of the
same, at the twelfth hour before mid-day, or thereby, in the year, day,
month, indiction, and pontificate as above, there being present
discreet men, Masters Ninian Spottiswoode, Archdeacon of the furesaid
Chapel Royal, Stirling; John Tod, Alexander Painter, William Atkyn,
Nicholas Buchan, all of the Chapel; James Aikman, burgess of Edinburgh;
John Abercrummy, and Alexander Ramsay, with divers others, witnesses to
the premises.
(Signed) "J. PRYMROIS."
It would appear from all this that there was a deal of trouble in
connection with the erection of the Church of Crieff. One is apt to
get confused among the Popes, Bishops, principal officials, and
notaries public who were all concerned in the erection. We seem to
reach the close of the long process on the first day of September,
1537, the year of the marriage of James V. to Madeleine of France, the
year which lies almost exactly midway between the Battle of Flodden and
the outbreak of the Reformation in 1560. Upon the second day of
December, 1537, "the reverend father in Christ, Henry, by the Divine
compassion, Bishop of the forenamed Chapel and of Candida Casa, from
the tribunal with the consent of his brother canons, or at all events
of the greater part of them, being assembled in Chapter, and as a
memorial of a perpetual thing, ordered, ordained, and decreed that the
erection of the Vicar Church of Crieff should be registered by Master
John Lambert, Prebendary of the sacred Chapel and scribe of the
foresaid Chapter, and to be inscribed and placed upon the books of the
Registrars of the oft-mentioned Chapel."
I am greatly indebted to A. G. Reid, Esq., Auchterarder, for kindly
furnishing me with the above valuable extracts, and I bring the paper
to a close with a word or two about the Crieff of a later time. The
annals of Crieff as a kirk-town are a dreary waste in the judgment of
one who assures us that he has waded through the records of services
from 1549 to 1700. One incident, however, took place between these
dates which may be mentioned as being the last expiring flicker of the
old jurisdiction exercised by the Stewards of Strathearn. The Earl of
Perth discharged the duties of the office--what remained of them--down
to the abolition of heritable jurisdictions in 1748. In the year 1682,
the minister of Trinity-Gask, by name Richard Duncan, was condemned to
death for the murder of a child which was found concealed under his own
hearth-stone. Lord Fountainhall reports that he was convicted on very
insufficient evidence, and the country people took the same view of the
case. He was hanged on the "kind gallows of Crieff," on the knoll near
the Cemetery, still marked by a solitary tree. The story goes that a
messenger was seen and heard approaching, bearing a reprieve, but he
came too late. Local sympathy asserted that the hour of execution was
anticipated to gratify the spite of some one in authority. However
this may be, the hanging of the Episcopal minister of Trinity-Gask was
the last exercise of criminal jurisdiction on the part of the Steward
of Strathearn. This was the last time the "kind gallows of Crieff"
bore its ghastly fruit. The Highlanders' salutation to it is familiar
to everybody.
A pleasanter sight by far than a string of dangling caterans was the
great annual tryst, or Michaelmas Market. It was largely frequented,
as being the only market of any consequence between Stirling and
Inverness. We have it on the authority of Macky, a Government secret
agent, who visited Scotland in 1723, that no fewer than thirty thousand
cattle were sold to English dealers for thirty thousand guineas. He
came from Stirling expressly to see the market, and here is his graphic
description of what he saw:--
"The Highland gentlemen were mighty civil, dressed in their slash'd
short waistcoats, a trousing (which is breechen and stockings of one
piece of striped stuff), with a plaid for a cloak and a blue bonnet.
They have a ponyard knife and a fork in one sheath, hanging at one side
of their belt, their pistol at the other, and their snuff-mull before,
with a great broadsword by their side. Their attendance was very
numerous, all in belted plaids, girt like women's petticoats down to
the knee, their thighs and half of the leg all bare. They had each
also their broadsword and poynard, and spake all Irish, an
unintelligible language to the English. However, these poor creatures
hired themselves out for a shilling a day to drive cattle to England,
and to return home at their own charge. There was no leaving anything
loose here but it would have been stolen."
The Michaelmas Market was shorn of its glory and its picturesque aspect
by the transference of the cattle tryst to Falkirk in 1770. There was
occasional bloodshed at these gatherings, the peace being with
difficulty preserved by the authority of the Lord of Drummond, who
collected the customs of the fairs of Crieff and Foulis. These customs
amounted, in 1734, to nearly £600 Scots. The Lochaber axes carried by
the guardians of the peace may still be seen in the armoury at Drummond
Castle. This last shred of baronial supervision--the ghost of the
ancient Stewardship--disappeared in 1831. But perhaps the most
interesting memorial of the Crieff Michaelmas Tryst is a poem written
by one of the Highland drovers, whose appearance moved the compassion
of Macky, the tourist of 1723. His name is Robert Doun or Donn. He
had left his heart behind him in his native glen, as people will do,
drovers as well as others. There is a ring of genuine poetry in the
verses in which he expresses his love-sickness--his desire to go upon
the wings of the wind as it whistles northward, northward:--
"Easy is my bed--it is easy,
But it is not to sleep that I incline.
The wind whistles northwards, northwards,
And my thoughts move with it.
More pleasant were it to be with thee
In the little glen of calves
Than to be counting of droves
In the enclosures of Crieff."
Mention of the name of Robert Doun brings up recollections of another
literary name--that of David Mallet, or Malloch, who is said to have
been born in Crieff. He has the honour of being mentioned several
times in Boswell's _Life of Johnson_. The latter had no great respect
for him, though, perhaps, he did not mean all he said in his famous
criticism of Lord Bolingbroke's philosophy, which Mallet published
after the author's death. "Sir, he was a scoundrel and a coward--a
scoundrel, for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a
coward, because he had no resolution to fire it off himself, but left
half-a-crown to a beggarly Scotchman to fire it off after his death."
It has been disputed whether Mallet, or Thomson of the "Seasons," wrote
"Rule Britannia." I do not care to enter into it. After all, David
Mallet was a lesser light in the literary firmament. It more concerns
the literary honour of Crieff that John Cunningham, the historian of
the Church of Scotland, did his life-work here; and that in the year
1793, Rachel Barlas, daughter of the Secession minister of Crieff, went
to Comrie as wife of Samuel Gilfillan and became the mother of George
Gilfillan, late of Dundee, a man of fine gifts and of glowing
imagination--somewhat loosely controlled, who wrote much--too much; but
unfortunately left nothing worthy of the reputation he had among his
intimates.
[1] Vicars of Crieff at an earlier date were Bricius, who was a witness
to the reconciliation of Earl Robert and Innocent, Abbot of Inchaffray,
in the Church of Strogeth. The entry is--"_Bricio persona de Creffe,
et Malisio filio ejus_," showing that celibacy was not the universal
clerical custom; and Nicholas, who in one charter, of date 1258, is
called "_Camerario Comitis_" (Malise); and in another, "_Meo filio_,"
by "_Malisius filius Gilberti quondam Comitis de Stratherne_." Hence
he was a cousin of the Malise to whom he was "camerarius."
APPENDIX
[Transcriber's notes: