The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border

“Be it kend till all men be thir present lettres, me Thomas Kirkpatrik of Closburn, to be bundin and oblist, and be the tenor heirof, bindis and oblissis me be the faith and treuth of my body, in manrent and service to ane nobil and mychty lord, Robert Lord Maxwell, induring all the dayis of my lyfe; and byndis and oblissis me, as said is, to be leill and trew man and servand to the said Robert Lord Maxwell, my master, and sall nowthir heir nor se his skaith, but sall lat the samyn at my uter power, an warn him therof.  And I sall conceill it that the said lord schawis to me, and sall gif him agane the best leill and trew counsale that I can, quhen he ony askis at me; and that I sall ryde with my kin, freyndis, servandis, and allies, that wil do for me, or to gang with the said lord; and do to him aefauld, trew, and thankful service, and take aefauld playne part with the said lord, my maister, in all and sindry his actionis, causis, querrellis, leful and honest, movit, or to be movit be him, or aganis him, baith in peace and weir, contrair or aganis all thae that leiffes or de may (my allegeant to owr soveran ladye the quenis grace, her tutor and governor, allanerly except).  And thir my lettres of manrent, for all the dayis of my life foresaid to indure, all dissimulations, fraud, or gyle, secludit and away put.  In witness, &c.”  The deed is signed at Edinburgh, 3d February, 1542.

In the collection, from which this extract is made, there are bonds of a similar nature granted to Lord Maxwell, by Douglas of Drumlanrig, ancestor of the Duke of Queensberry; by Crichton Lord Sanquhar, ancestor of the earls of Dumfries, and many of his kindred; by Stuart of Castlemilk; by Stuart of Garlies, ancestor of the earls of Galloway; by Murray of Cockpool, ancestor of the Murrays, lords Annandale; by Grierson of Lagg, Gordon of Lochmaben, and many other of the most ancient and respectable barons in the south-west of Scotland, binding themselves, in the most submissive terms, to become the liegemen and the vassals of the house of Maxwell; a circumstance which must highly excite our idea of the power of that family.  Nay, even the rival chieftain, Johnstone of Johnstone, seems at one time to have come under a similar obligation to Maxwell, by a bond, dated 11th February 1528, in which reference is made to the counter-obligation of the patron, in these words:  “Forasmeikle as the said lord has oblist him to supple, maintene, and defend me, in the peciabill brouking and joysing of all my landis, rentis, &c. and to take my aefald, leill and trew part, in all my good actionis, causis, and quarles, leiful and honest, aganes all deedlie, his alledgeance to our soveraigne lord the king allanerly excepted, as at mair length is contained in his lettres of maintenance maid to me therupon; therfore, &c.” he proceeds to bind himself as liegeman to the Maxwell.

I cannot dismiss the subject without observing, that, in the dangerous times of Queen Mary, when most of these bonds are dated, many barons, for the sake of maintaining unanimity and good order, may have chosen to enroll themselves among the clients of Lord Maxwell, then warden of the border, from which, at a less turbulent period, personal considerations would have deterred them.

Adieu! my castle of the Thrieve.—­P. 268. v. 2.

This fortress is situated in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, upon an island about two acres in extent, formed by the river Dee.  The walls are very thick and strong, and bear the marks of great antiquity.  It was a royal castle; but the keeping of it, agreeable to the feudal practice, was granted by charter, or sometimes by a more temporary and precarious right, to different powerful families, together with lands for their good service in maintaining and defending the place.  This office of heritable keeper remained with the Nithesdale family (chief of the Maxwells) till their forfeiture, 1715.  The garrison seems to have been victualled upon feudal principles; for each parish in the stewartry was burdened with the yearly payment of a lardner mart cow, i.e. a cow fit for being killed and salted at Martinmas, for winter provisions.  The right of levying these cattle was retained by the Nithesdale family, when they sold the castle and estate, in 1704, and they did not cease to exercise it till their attainder.—­Fountainhall’s Decisions, Vol.  I. p. 688.

This same castle of the Thrieve was, A.D. 1451-2, the scene of an outrageous and cruel insult upon the royal authority.  The fortress was then held by William VIII.  Earl of Douglas, who, in fact, possessed a more unlimited authority over the southern districts of Scotland, than the reigning monarch.  The earl had, on some pretence, seized and imprisoned a baron, called Maclellan, tutor of Bombie, whom he threatened to bring to trial, by his power of hereditary jurisdiction.  The uncle of this gentleman, Sir Patrick Gray of Foulis, who commanded the body-guard of James II., obtained from that prince a warrant, requiring from Earl Douglas the body of the prisoner.  When Gray appeared, the earl instantly suspected his errand.  “You have not dined,” said he, without suffering him to open his commission:  “it is ill talking between a full man and a fasting.”  While Gray was at meat, the unfortunate prisoner was, by Douglas’s command, led forth to the court-yard and beheaded.  When the repast was finished, the king’s letter was presented and opened.  “Sir Patrick,” says Douglas, leading Gray to the court, “right glad had I been to honour the king’s messenger; but you have come too late.  Yonder lies your sister’s son, without the head:  you are welcome to his dead body.”  Gray, having mounted his horse, turned to the earl, and expressed his wrath in a deadly oath, that he would requite the injury with Douglas’s heart’s blood.—­“To horse!” cried the haughty baron, and the messenger of his prince was pursued till within a few miles of Edinburgh.  Gray, however, had an opportunity of keeping his vow; for, being upon guard in the king’s anti-chamber at Stirling, when James, incensed at the insolence of the earl, struck him with his dagger, Sir Patrick rushed in, and dispatched him with a pole-axe.  The castle of Thrieve was the last of the fortresses which held out for the house of Douglas, after their grand rebellion in 1553.  James II. writes an account of the exile of this potent family, to Charles VII. of France, 8th July, 1555; and adds, that all their castles had been yielded to him, Excepto duntaxat castro de Trefe, per nostres fideles impraesentiarum obsesso; quod domino concedente in brevi obtinere speramus.—­Pinkerton’s History, Appendix, Vol.  I. p. 486.—­See Pitscottie’s History, Godscroft, &c.

And most part of his friends were, there,—­P. 269. v. 3.  The ancestor of the present Mr. Maxwell of Broomholm is particularly mentioned in Glenriddell’s MS. as having attended his chieftain in his distress, and as having received a grant of lands, in reward of this manifestation of attachment.

Sae now he’s o’er the floods sae gray.—­P. 269. v. 3.

This seems to have been a favourite epithet in old romances, Thus in Hornchilde, and Maiden Rimuild,

  Thai sayled ower the flode so gray,
  In Inglond arrived were thay,
  Ther him levest ware.