MISCELLANY THE SPALDING CLUB ABERDEEN : PRINTED BY WILLIAM BENNETT. : THE MIS( El LANY THE SPALDING CLUB VOLUME FOURTH. ABERDEEN PRINTED FOR THE CLUB. M DCCC XLIX. ^f^'^^\ THE SPALDING CLUB—November 1849. ^atrnn. HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE ALBEKT. THE EARL OF ABERDEEN, K.T. THE DUKE OF RICHMOND, K.G. THE DUKE OF SUTHERLAND, K.G. [THE EARL OF AIRLIE.] THE EARL OF SEAFIELD. LORD SALTOUN. (Kill Cnrairil. The Lord Provost of Aberdeen. Sir Robert Abercrombie, Bart. John Angus, Advocate, City Clerk, Aberdeen. Edinburgh. John Hill Burton, Advocate, . Charles Chalmers of Monkshill. P. Chalmers of Auldbar. Sir W. G. G. CuMMiNG of Altyre, Bart. Archibald Davidson, Sheriff of Aberdeenshire. John Dunn, Advocate, Aberdeen. The Earl of Ellesmere. Captain Fordyce, M.P. The Lord Forbes. Jasies Giles, R.S.A., Aberdeen. John Gordon of Cairnbulg, Advocate. George Grub, Advocate, Aberdeen. Cosmo Innes, Advocate, Edinburgh. A. F. Irvine, Yor. of Drum Principal Jack, King's College. The Right Rev. James Kyle, D.D., Preshome. Lord Lindsay. James Loch, M.P. Hugh Lumsden of Pitcaple, Sheriff of Sutliprliiiidshire. Henry Lumsden of Auchiiidoir. Lord Medwyn. The Rev. James Melvin, LL.D., Aberdeen. The Rev. Wm. Pirif, D.D., Professor of Divinity, Marischal College. Sir James Ramsay of Banff, Bart. Joseph Robertson, Edinburgh. The Right Rev. Wm. Skinner, D.D , Aberdeen. John Smith, LL.D., of Crutherland, Glasgow. Alexander Thomson of Banchory. Imrtiinf. John Stuart, Advocate, Aberdeen. Mui- i&xinmim. .John Blaikie and .John Ligertwood, Advocates, Aberdeen, luMtnrs. Alexander Stronach, Advocate. Arthur Thomson, Banker. Alexander Pirie, Juii., Manufacturer. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE. Preface ix Appendix to Preface Ixix Papers from the Charter Chest at Dun, 1 Appendix TO THE Dun Papers 88 Papers from the Charter Chest of the Karl of Airlie at Cortachy Castle, 115 Papers FROM the Charter Chest at Gordon Castle 125 Two Lettersof 1746, 322 Instrumentum super aucis Sancti Cuthberti 329 Index 331 « €^t Chitnr'B |?)rffart. THE DUN PAPERS. f) ^,;^?HE\ papers printed in the present Vohime from the Charter Chest at Dun, will be found valuable in many respects. They will enable the genealogist to fill up many gaps in the pedigree of this ancient house, and to correct several mistakes in the exist- ing tables of descent, for which, till now, he had no materials. They contribute many authentic facts illus- trative of the social position of the country, and more especially of that rich district in which the messuage of the family is situated. But perhaps they will be most generally valued for the light which they throw on that " Laird of Dun," who took so active and influential a part in the Scottish Reformation. Regarding this venerable gentleman, whose public services secured to him the esteem and confidence of the various Sovereigns under whose rule he lived, as well as the veneration of the new Church which he laboured to establish, the documents now printed furnish us with a good many new and interesting particulars, more especially in the later stages of his career. It seems likely that the Superintendent was born in 1508, the year in which his great grandfather John Erskine died. His grandfather, John Erskine, and his father of the same name, who had attained the honor of Knighthood, fell along with other members of the family in the X THE EDITOK'S PREFACE. bloody field of Flodden, in 1513.' The testaments, and inventories of goods, of these two gentlemen, as confirmed before the Commissary of St. Andrew's, are now printed, and while they afford evidence of their opulence, they serve to illustrate various particulars of the agricultural arrangements of the time. Sir Jobn Erskine had been married to Margaret, Lady Ruthven, widow of Alexander, second Earl of Buchan, and she, in conjunction with his brother, Thomas Erskine, who afterwards fulfilled many impor- tant functions as Secretary to James V., are confirmed as his executors. It is to be regretted that the materials for illustrating the first part of John Erskine's life are so scanty. Perhaps we may be allowed to see traces of an early connexion between him and the family of Melville, in the Instrument of Sasine in favour of the Provost and Canons of St. Sal- vator's College, dated 14th July, 1526 (p. 23). The precept on which this deed proceeds is granted by Erskine, with consent of Margaret, Coun- tess of Buchan, his mother, and Robert Erskine, Rector of Glenbervy, ' These facts have not hitherto been known, and it has generaUy been supposed that the Superintendents father lived till 1534 or 1535. But considerable confusion has arisen from the number of Lairds who assumed the name of John ; and it was increased by a practice which seems to have prevailed in the family, of vesting the fee of the property in the oldest son, while the father retained the liferent—both of them being designed " of Dun," at the same time. Sir John Erskine is instructed by a charter quoted in the " Notes relating to the Family of Dun," printed in the Appendix to the Preface, and by the inventory of his estate, con- firmed by the Commissary of St. Andrew's, 3d April, 1516, (p. 16.) where he is stvled Sir John Erskine younger of Dun. There is also among the charters of the Burgh of Montrose, an Instrument on the Renun- ciation, by Sir John Erskine of Dun, Knight, in favour of the Hospital of Montrose, of all right which he had to the Hospital's lands of Spittelschiells, lying in the shire of Kincardine, for the reason that the Master wished to build a new church from the foundation, and that the lands were now rather a loss to him than otherwise. He asks the said Master to give a recompense to his brother-german, Tliomas Erskine, for his liferent interest in the lands. The deed is dated in the churchyard of Holyrood, 29th October, 1509, in presence of Mr. Patrick Panter, Secretary to the King, and Principal Master of the Hospital of the Blessed Virgin Mary, ne.ar the burgh of Montrose, Henry Graham of Morphy, Walter Foulartown, William Lamb, and John Lyon, laics, Master James Lyon of Inverkeithing. vicar, and Laurence Taillefer, with others. THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. XI (apparently his uncle,) as his curators : and it is addressed to Master Walter Mailuil, Vicar of Kylmaroun, and Richard Mailuil of Baldovey, the latter of whom was father of Andrew Melville, who acted so con- spicuous a part in the troubled ecclesiastical politics of the reign of James VI. Three brothers of the latter were also ministers in the new established church.' A few years after the date of this deed, and when Erskine was still little beyond the years of majority, he appears to have killed Sir Thomas Froster, a priest of Montrose. The Instrument (XV.) which preserves the record of this fact, and of the assythment or manbote paid by him to the father of the deceased, is dated 5th Februarj', 1530. It does not, however, give any of the circumstances, beyond the fact that the deed was committed in the Bell Tower of Montrose ; nor is there any record of the event elsewhere. But however this may have been, it cannot be doubted that the event must have left a painful impression on Erskine's mind, and may have given a bent to his future career. The next deed (XVI.) instructs the marriage of John Erskine with Elizabeth Lindsay, daughter of the Earl of Crawford, of which there seems hitherto to have been no evidence ;^ the marriage, however, must have taken place sometime previously, as, on 18th February, 1534-5, he resigned the fee of the Lands of Dun to his son John, reserving his own liferent and his wife's terce.^ In 1537, the Laird of Dun has a licence (XVII.) to himself, his son John, and other relatives, permitting them " to pas to the partis of France, Italie, or any uthiris beyond se, and thair remane, for doing of thair pilgramagis, besynes, and uthir lefull erandis, for the space of thre yeiris." Sir Thomas Erskine obtained from James ^^. (on rather a remarkable ' Life of Andrew Melville, by Dr. M'Crie, vol. i. p. 3. - Wodrow's Biog. to Life of Erskine, 439. Printed for the Collections ; Notes p. ilaitland Club. 3 Ibid. p. 409. Xll THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. narrative) a gift (XXIII.) of the office of Constabulary of Montrose, which he conveyed, by the succeeding charter, (XXIV.) to his nephew, John Erskine, the Laird of Dun, in liferent, and to his son and heir ap- parent, John Erskine, in fee. In this last deed there is a minute specifi- cation of the powers and rights of the Constable. In April, 1542, John Erskine of Dun, and others, obtain a licence (XXV.) permitting them " to pas to the partis of Franche, Italie, or ony vthiris beyond sey, and thair to remane for the space of twa yeris Erskine's first wife, Lady Elizabeth Lindsay, died on 29th July, 1538, and the charter (XXVII.) to John Erskine of Dun and Barbara de Beirle, his spouse, by Sir Thomas Erskine, his uncle, dated 20th Sept., 1543, proves that his second marriage had previously occurred. During the years 1548-49, the Laird of Dun supported the Queen Dow- ager and the French party in opposing the English forces, and several letters to Erskine from Mary refer to the passing events, and shew the estima- tion in which he was held by her. From one of them, explanatory of the coming of the French Captain Beauschattel,' it would appear that Erskine had dreaded some attempt against his rights, as her Majesty assures him that there was " no intent but to keep the fort, and not to hurt him in his heritage."* ' This gentleman does not appear as one of the French captains in command of the " forces who arrived in Scotland in June 1548 ; but Guilliaum Bouchettell, lord of Sassie," was one of the French King's Commissioners for arranging a peace in 1550.—(HoUins- head's Scottish Chronicle, vol.