Scv SHV h ■ ' ' I I * PUBLICATIONS OF THE SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY SECOND SERIES V O L. XI LETTERS RELATING TO SCOTLAND IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE BY JAMES OGILVY FIRST EARL OF SEAFIELD, AND OTHERS November 1915 V LETTERS RELATING TO SCOTLAND IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE BY JAMES OGILVY, FIRST EARL OF SEAFIELD, AND OTHERS Edited by P. HUME BROWN, M.A., LL.D. FRASER PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT (SCOTTISH) HISTORY AND PALAEOGRAPHY, HISTORIOGRAPHER-ROYAL FOR SCOTLAND EDINBURGH Printed at the University Press by T. and A. Constable. for the Scottish History Society 1915 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION, vii I. Letters of James Ogilvy, First Earl of Sea- field, Lord Chancellor of Scotland, . 1-110 II. Letters of James, Fourth Duke of Hamilton, 111-117 III. The First Causes of Scotland’s Divisions, by Lord Tarbat, ...... 118-133 IV. Letters of John Murray, Second Marquess, AFTERWARDS DUKE OF AtHOLL, KEEPER OF the Privy Seal of Scotland, . 134-141 V. Letters of Robert Harley, Speaker of the House of Commons, afterwards Earl of Oxford, ....... 142-148 VI. Letters of Lieut.-General George Ramsay, . 149-151 VII. Letters of David Melville, Third Earl of Leven, afterwards Second Earl of Mel- ville, Commander-in-Chief in Scotland, . 152-158 VIII. Letter of Sir George Mackenzie, First Earl of Cromartie, Lord Justice-General of Scot- land, ........ 159 IX. Letters of Charles Montagu, First Lord, AFTERWARDS EaRL OF, HALIFAX, . l6‘0-l63 CONTENTS X. Letters of Adam Cockburne, Lord Ormistoun, Lord of Session, and afterwards Lord Justice-Clerk, ...... 164-169 XL Letters of Hugh Campbell, Third Earl of Loudoun, Secretary of State in Scotland, 170-172 XII. Letter of Thomas Hay, Viscount Dupplin, AFTERWARDS SlXTH E.ARL OF KlNNOUL, . 173-174 XIII. Letters of John Erskine, Eleventh Earl of Mar, Secretary of State in Scotland, 17.5-177 XIV. Letters of David Boyle, First Earl of Glasgow, ....... 178-184 XV. Letters of Alexander Rigby, 185-189 XVI. Coppies of Papers signed and delivered by James M‘Daniell to His Grace the Duke of Argyl, , . 190-199 INDEX. 201 INTRODUCTION I The majority of the letters contained in the present volume relate to the years 1702-1707. The period is a momentous one in the national history, as it saw the be- ginning and the end of the negotiations that resulted in the abolition of the National Assembly of Scotland and its incorporation with that of England. As throwing fresh light on these negotiations the letters here brought'together may be said to be of prime importance. They were all written by persons who took a leading part in the successive proceedings which led up to the union of the two Parliaments, and written at the moment and on the spot when and where the events to which they refer actually occurred. The writers, moreover, were all men of ability and experience, and possessed the faculty of saying briefly and clearly what they had to communicate. The letters as a whole, indeed, bear favourable comparison with those of English statesmen of the same period, and confirm the impression we receive from other sources that, as an order, the Scottish nobility were an accomplished body of men. The greater number and the most important of the letters were written by James Ogilvy, at the time when he wrote them, first Earl of Seafield, and subsequently fourth Earl of Findlater. In his Introduction to the Seafield Correspondence, edited by him for the Scottish History Society, Mr. James Grant has given a full ac- count of the Ogilvy pedigree; here, therefore, it is sufficient viii INTRODUCTION' to recall the main facts of Seafield’s life. He was born on July 11, 1663, and was the second son of James, third Earl of Findlater, and Lady Anna Montgomery, eldest daughter of Hugh, seventh Earl of Eglintoun. After receiving the elements of his education under a private tutor, he was sent, at the age of twelve, to the University of Aberdeen, where he studied for three years. His parents wished him to enter the army, but, from all we know of him, Seafield was born a man of peace, and he preferred the law as more congenial to his natural temper. After a brief stay in Holland (1683), he settled down to his legal studies in Edinburgh, and was admitted advocate in 1685. At the Revolution he was elected to the Convention Parlia- ment as Commissioner for Cullen, and his political career began. It seems to have been Seafield’s maxim from the beginning of his public life to accept the powers that were and, in his own interest, to serve them to the best of his ability : in his letters it is his constant refrain that he considered it his sole duty to give effect to the wishes of the authorities by whose grace he held such offices as he did. In the Convention he signalised himself as one of the five members who dissented from the ‘ forfaulture ’ of James vn., yet, in the same year (1689), he took the oaths to William and Mary and received from them the honour of knighthood. His services and his family con- nections secured him rapid promotion. In 1693 he was made Solicitor-General; in 1696 Joint-Secretary of State ; and in 1698 he was created Viscount Seafield and Lord Ogilvy of Cullen. The last years of the reign of William in Scotland were agitated by the affair of Darien, and Seafield’s attitude to it affected his future estimation in public opinion. It was in accordance with his prin- ciples that he opposed the enterprise as being disapproved by William, but we may believe that, with his cold and luminous intelligence, he may have recognised its futility INTRODUCTION ix from the beginning. Hitherto popular among his country- men, his opposition to the venture to which the nation had so passionately committed itself stamped him as one who was ready to sacrifice his country’s interests for favour at Court. On the other hand, his services to the Crown secured him still further honours. In 1700 he was ap- pointed Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly —at that time a post of peculiar difficulty and responsi- bility—and in 1701 he was created Earl of Seafield— holding all the time the office of conjunct-Secretary of State. William was succeeded by Anne in 1702, and, as her English advisers decided that there should be no immediate change of policy, Seafield was re-appointed Secretary. In the same year (November) he received the office of Lord High Chancellor of Scotland, and in March 1703 he again acted as Lord High Commissioner of the General Assembly. It is at this point of his career that his letters here collected begin. Two character sketches of Seafield—neither drawn by a friendly hand—may indicate the general impression he made on his contemporaries, and exhibit, at the same time, the line of policy he followed in Scottish affairs. The first is by George Lockhart of Carnwath, the arch-Jacobite of the time, for whom Seafield incarnated every political principle deserving of reprobation. In Lockhart’s eyes Seafield had committed the unpardonable sin of first sup- porting the House of Stewart and then deserting it, and it is, therefore, with the writer’s prejudices in our minds that we must take his estimate of Seafield’s character and career. ‘ In the Convention 1689 he [Seafield] was much taken notice of by reason of a speech he made against the for- feiting of King James : but he did not long continue in these measures; for, by William Duke of Hamilton’s means, he was made solicitor to King William, and enjoy’d that office several years ; during which time he prosecuted INTRODUCTION his employment to good purpose, and made a fair estate. In the year 1696 he was call’d to Court to be one of King William’s secretaries of state ; and indeed it must be own’d he serv’d him very faithfully, consenting to and going alongst with any thing demanded of him, tho’ visibly against the interest of his country, and trimm’d and trick’d so shamefully in the affair of Darien, that he thereby, from being generally well belov’d, drew upon himself the hatred of all who wished well to that glorious undertaking. He was believ’d to be of loyal enough principles, but had so mean and selfish a soul, that he wanted both resolution and honesty enough to adhere to them ; which evidently appear’d from his changing sides so often, and cleaving to that party he found rising. People were willing to excuse, at least extenuate, his first faults, because of the lowness of his worldly circumstances ; but after he had raised them to a considerable height, and had a fair occasion of retrieving his reputation, when he joined with the Cavaliers [the Jacobite party] in the Parliament 1703, to leave them so basely and meanly as he did, is altogether inexcusable.1 He was finely accom- plished ; a learned lawyer, a just judge ; courteous and good-natured ; but withall so intirely abandon’d to serve the Court measures, be what they will, that he seldom or never consulted his own inclinations, but was a blank sheet of paper, which the Court might fill up with what they pleas’d. As he thus sacrificed his honour and prin- ciples, so he easily deserted his friend when his interest (which he was only firm to) did not stand in competition. He made a good figure, and proceeded extremely well in the Parliament and Session, where he dispatch’d business to the general satisfaction of the Judges.’ 2 1 Seafield’s relations to the Jacobite party in the session of 1703 are explained in his letters that follow.