^^^^^KSIilH^^H -jmnnBH JilHWfllffll mmummfflliniHIlHHiT IWHIIMHIW willliiHillvn iiIuilHitiilti nMB BIBB hhh Hi m rat 1 JWHttHlBBtWflHfi - B IB kuECOLuIuuiX 4 fa 4 National Library of Scotland *B000451228* '"". • l Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from National Library of Scotland http://www.archive.org/details/kingsofcarrickhiOOrobe THE KINGS OF CARRICK — — — — — — — — — BY THE SAME AUTHOR. HISTORICAL TALES AND LEGENDS OF AYRSHIRE. Post 8vo., Price 5/- " The author has done Ayrshire good service." Kilmarnock Herald. " Will be sure to commend itself readily." Ayr Observer. "Told with the skill of an accomplished literary artist." Ardrossan Herald. "Cannot fail to be read with interest and delight by all lovers of bonnie Scotland." Court Journal. " All related in a very popular style." Ayr Advertiser. "One cannot help being pleased that so excellent a story-teller took up his pen to illustrate the feudal, social, and domestic history of the Shire." Glasgow Herald. "This is a volume which every leal-hearted west countryman both at home and abroad will be bound to add to his collection." North British Daily Mail. " A book which to every lover of Ayrshire literature and lore is indispensable, and once taken up is difficult to lay down till its con- tents have been devoured." Kilmarnock Standard. " In Ayrshire Mr. Robertson has had a particularly rich field in which to wo rk. The book altogether is well written and is of much f more than local interest." Pall Mall Gazette. "With admirable skill and eclectic discretion, Mr. Robertson has so contrived that his book is virtually a series of historical pictures of the social, feudal, and national history of the Shire" Vanity Fair. THE Kings of Carrick A Historical Romance of the Kennedys of Ayrshire BY WILLIAM ROBERTSON " Author of Historical Tales and Legends of Ayrshire" &•<;. SECOND EDITION LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO GLASGOW: THOMAS D. MORISON 1890 PREFACE. The history of the Carrick division of Ayrshire during the last six hundred years is largely that of the Kennedy family. The present Marquis of Ailsa is the seventeenth in direct lineal male descent from a certain John de Kennedy, who, so far back as 1357-8, was confirmed by David II. in all the lands belonging to him. And that this John de Kennedy was descended from the more remote De Carricks, hardly admits of any doubt. It goes without saying that a family that can look back across five or six centuries of continuity must necessarily have a story that is worth the telling. Vastly important centuries in the history of Scotland, they necessarily evolved men meet for the times ; and inasmuch as Ayrshire during all that long period shared largely in the alternating fortunes of the centuries, it is beyond any reasonable doubt that its sons were men of character and of intrepidity. It was a Kennedy who stormed the grey Keep of Dunure, and drove thence a Norse baron who had long held it in his safe keeping. A Kennedy was one of the hostages for vi PREFACE David II. in 1358. "With one of the Douglases, a Kennedy for some unknown reason incurred in 1431 the ire of the Sovereign, and was kept in close custody in the Castle of Stirling after his fellow conspirator—if, indeed, they were conspirators—had regained his freedom. A Ken- nedy was Bishop of Dunkeld in 1438, Bishop of St. Andrews and Chancellor of Scotland in 1440, and was appointed one of the Eegents of Scotland during the minority of James III. ; and left his memory savoury in the halls of learning, in that he founded the College of St. Salvator in St. Andrews, in the year 1450. A Kennedy formed one of the retinue who attended Margaret of Scot- land on her marriage to the Dauphin Louis in 1436. A Kennedy, the parson of Douglas in the beginning of the 16 th century, was accounted worthy to occupy a place in Gawin Douglas's " Palace of Honour," and himself courted the muse to some purpose when he wrote the " Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedy." A Kennedy, the first Earl of his race, was slain on the field of Flodden. The second Earl was Ambassador to England in 1515-16. The third, a pupil of the celebrated George Buchanan, was one of the Lords of Secret Council to James V., was taken prisoner at the rout of Solway in 1542, is said to have been converted to the Pro- testant faith by Cranmer, and was successively a Lieutenant- General of horse to Queen Mary, an extraordinary Lord of Session, one of the nation's deputies at the marriage of PREFACE vii Queen Mary to Francis the Dauphin of France, and Lord High Treasurer of Scotland. The fourth Earl was with Queen Mary at Langside, though, sooth to say, he is better remembered as the King of Carrick who roasted the Com- mendator of Crossraguel in the black vault of Dunure. The fifth Earl was Treasurer of Scotland in 1599. The sixth was prominent in resistance to the designs of Charles I. in 1638, and was one of the three ruling elders sent to the West- minster Assembly of Divines in 1643. The seventh was the only Member of Parliament who in 1670 voted against the Act for punishing Conventicles. The records of the family might be still further continued; but these are sufficient to show that the house of Kennedy has produced many sons who have done the State some service. Naturally, their position in Ayrshire has never been questioned. They have contributed largely to its history, and to some extent have made it what it is. This it would not be difficult to show, were this the proper place to discuss the nature of the influence they have wielded. It was, perhaps, unavoidable that the Kings of Carrick should have come into sharp contact with the families whose rights or whose prejudices they disturbed, or who were jeal- ous of their broad acres and all but unlimited power. In the work which follows the author has selected a period in what was perhaps the greatest of their feuds, and the most viii PREFACE brimful of interest. And what renders this particular feud the more notable is, that it was essentially a family quarrel, the Cassillis Kennedys opposed to the Kennedys of Bargany. John Mure of Auchendrane, who figures prominently in these pages, was not the last of his race. The family existed till the eighteenth century, when it went out in the person of a poor and distressed man. Arrested for debt, he was preparing to accompany the bailiff to the gaol of Ayr. The officer, touched by his situation, offered to accept the dule tree of Auchendrane—the tree of mourning, an exceptionally fine plane tree—in payment of the debt. " What !" said the last of the Mures, still proud in his poverty, " sell the dule tree of Auchendrane ! I will sooner die in the worst dungeon of your prison !" And to prison he went. " The Kings of Carrick" is best described as a revised edi- tion of " The Kennedys," which found such favour with the public of the west country that a second edition has been rendered necessary. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Peepaeing foe the Encountee, 13 CHAPTER II. The Teagedy of the Beockloch Buen, 24 CHAPTER III. AUCHENDEANE INSPIEES TO VENGEANCE, 37 CHAPTER IV. Slain in the Wood of St Leonaed's, 49 CHAPTER V. FOEESHADOWING VENGEANCE UPON AUCHENDEANE, . 62 CHAPTER VI. AUCHENDEANE AND HIS SON GEOW SYMPATHETIC, . 75 CHAPTER VII. auchendeane responds to the summons of the Peivy Council, 88 CHAPTER VIII. Muee Seeks Safety in the House of Newark, . 100 x CONTENTS CHAPTEE IX. The Tide of Battle Surges against the Walls of Newark, 113 CHAPTEE X. AUCHENDRANE PLOTS, AND BARGANY EXECUTES, . 127 CHAPTEE XL Auchensoul Fired—The Countess and Master of Cassillis in the Toils, 140 CHAPTEE XII Bargany Enlists a New Ally, 154 CHAPTEE XIII. Hung from the Yett of Craigneil, 16-7 CHAPTEE XIV. Cassillis and Bargany Eesolve to Bury the Hatchet, 180 CHAPTEE XV. AUCHENDRANE TRIES TO RID HIMSELF OF DANGER, . 194 CHAPTEE XVI. Mure is Eeawakened to a Sense of Danger, . 210 CHAPTEE XVII. The Mures Prepare a Horror, 222 CHAPTEE XVIII. The Tragedy of Auchendrane, 237 CONTENTS xi CHAPTEE XIX. The Sea gives up its Dead, 252 CHAPTEE XX. In the Toils, 266 CHAPTEE XXI. The Toetuee is Ineffectual to Exteact Confession, 279 CHAPTEE XXII. auchendeane makes acquaintance with the spirits of the Past, 293 CHAPTEE XXIII. Auchendeane's Peedestination is Summed Up, . 307 — THE KINGS OF CARRICK. CHAPTEE I. PREPARING FOR THE ENCOUNTER. The old House of Cassillis stands on the banks of the river Doon, on the very border of the Carrick division of Ayrshire, three miles distant from the Capital of Carrick, Maybole, and seven from the town of Ayr. And here, for centuries, dwelt the great heads of the family of Kennedy—a race of feudal chiefs, who came into prominence with the battle of Largs, and who were so dominant in the south-west of Scotland that their power passed into the immortality of that terse, doggerel verse which holds its own while more refined and artistic productions pass into oblivion 'Twixt Wigton and the town of Ayr, Portpatrick and the Cruives of Cree, No man need think for to bide there, Unless he court St. Kennedy. The Castle itself is one of the old square peels which were wont to stud the country side. Its heavy, solid walls, twelve and fourteen feet in thickness, proclaim that it was built for purposes of defence and of defiance.