[Scottish National Memorials Contents]
PORTRAIT of James Guthrie, half-length, life-size, and painted on wood, by an unknown artist. The face bears an expression of earnest solemnity, and the hair is brought down on the brow in the same manner Gerard’s is shown in Beza’s Icones.
(421) Lent by the TRUSTEES OF THE SMITH INSTITUTE, STIRLING.
JAMES GUTHRIE’S ARM-CHAIR is a good example of the work of the first quarter of the seventeenth century. With the exception of the top-rail, which is carved, it is very plain.
(422) Lent by the TRUSTEES OF THE SMITH INSTITUTE, STIRLING.
Few men have been fired with such an ardent zeal and yet possessed such a calm tempera ment as James Guthrie. After being a regent in St. Leonard’s College at St. Andrews, he was minister of Lauder from 1642 to 1649, and then he was translated to Stirling. Wodrow’s father told him that when Guthrie swore the Covenant, he said to some of the ministers present, ‘I know I will die for what I have done this day; but I cannot die in a better cause!’ He was one of the uncompromising leaders of the Protestors; and Cromwell, with whom he had argued, said he was ‘a short man and would not bow.’ As Guthrie had pronounced the sentence of excommunication against Middleton in 1650, there was little difficulty in choosing him, after the Restoration, as the minister of whom an example should be made. According to Bumet, ‘though all people were disgusted at the Earl of Middletoun’s eagerness in the prosecution, the Earl of Tweeddale was the only man that moved against the putting him to death.’ James Dodds has happily expressed the injustice of which Guthrie was the victim in the words which he puts in his mouth:
‘ I was loyal when this kingdom bowed to Cromwell’s haughty frown;
Few would own the royal standard all defaced and trodden down.
Then the flatterers, who doom me to suffer in the street,
Whined and fawned like stricken spaniels round the Lord Protector’s feet!’
He was hanged at the Cross of Edinburgh on the 1st of June 1661 – a few days after the Marquis of Argyll – and his head was fixed on the Nether Bow Port. Burnet, who was an eye-witness, says: ‘He was so far from shewing any fear, that he rather expressed a contempt of death. He spoke an hour upon the ladder with the composedness of a man that was delivering a sermon rather than his last words. He justified all he had done, and exhorted all people to adhere to the Covenant, which he magnified highly’ (History of His Own Time, 1823, i. 216). On the 22d of July 1690, Parliament passed an Act rescinding the sentence of forfeiture passed against Guthrie twenty-nine years before.
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PROCLAMATION, by the Scottish Privy Council dated 9th of January 1662, discharging all ecclesiastical meetings in synods, presbyteries, and sessions until they be authorised and ordered by the archbishops and bishops, upon their entering unto the government of their respective sees. A copy of this Proclamation, and also of the royal letter on which it proceeds, will be found in Wodrow’s History, 1828, i. 248-250.
(323) Lent by MISS COPLAND.
PROCLAMATION, ordaining the observance of Lent, issued by the Scottish Privy Council on the 2d of February 1664, and printed by Evan Tyler. The Privy Council – ‘taking to their consideration the great advantage and profit will redound to the lieges of this kingdom by keeping of the time of lent and weekly fish-dayes, viz. Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, and discharging of all persons to eat flesh, during that time, upon the saidis dayes, or to kill or sell in mercate any sorts of flesh which are usually bought at other times, whereby the young brood and store might be preserved, and the hazard of scarcity and dearth prevented; and that the fishes, which, by the mercy of God, abound in the salt and fresh waters of this kingdom, might be made use of, for the food and entertainment of the lieges, and the incouragement of many poor families who live by fishing; the improvement whereof hath been much neglected these many years past, which hath been occasioned by the universal allowance of eating of flesh and keeping of mercats at all times without distinction or restraint’ – ordained, by their Act and Proclamation of 6th February 1662, and by their Act of 12th February 1663, that Lent should begin and be kept as it was before 1640, and that the said weekly fish-days should be strictly observed in all time thereafter under certain penalties. These Acts are now renewed, and the pains and penalties therein contained are to be exacted with all rigour.
(324) Lent by MISS COPLAND.
‘THE TURTLE DOVE, under the Absence & Presence of Her Only Choice: or, Desertion & Deliverance Revived… By a Lover of the Celestiall Muses… Edinburgh, Printed by Andrew Anderson, Printer to the Citty and Colledge. Anno Dom. 1664.’ 12mo. Pp. Ixxvi, 180. This lover of the Celestial Muses, but very poor poet, was John Fullartoun of Carletoun in Galloway. The printer was Andrew Anderson, who succeeded his father George Anderson, Glasgow’s first printer, but who removed to Edinburgh in or about 1661. This, one of the rarest books of the Covenanting times, is dedicated to the Viscountess of Kenmure, and, among other curious matter, contains an acrostic on her name, and another on the name of Marion McKnaicht. The Viscountess, Fullartoun, and Marion, were all correspondents of Rutherfurd’s. Marion, through her mother, was related to Lord Kenmure; and by her husband, William Fullartoun, Provost of Kirkcudbright, was connected to the author of the Turtle Dove, A short account of John Fullartoun, and a few extracts from his work, are appended to the Minute-Book of the War Committee of the Covenanters of Kirkcudbright, 1855, pp. 201-205.
(449) Lent by WM. MACMATH.
WATER-COLOUR DRAWING, dated August 16, 1790, of part of the village of Minnihive, now Moniaive, in Dumfriesshire, with its old market-cross. It was near Minnihive that James Renwick – to be noticed afterwards – was born; and it was to this cross that John Blackader’s second son, then a boy of ten, fled in his shirt, when a party of Sir James Turners troopers searched the house of Barndennoch by night, to apprehend that field-preacher, in the winter of 1665-6. A narrative of the occurrence, written with pathetic simplicity, is embodied in Crichton’s Memoirs of Blackader, 1826, pp. 114-116.
(451) Lent by WM. MACMATH.
SWORD, dug up from the battlefield on the Pentlands. The blade is single-edged, and barely 14 ¾ inches in length, and at the junction is 1 ⅛ inches broad. There is no guard, but the blade passes through a flat collar; and the strongly secured grip is 4 ¾ inches in length. For the unpremeditated scuffle at Dalry, the unfortunate rising to which it led. the conflict at Rullion Green on the 28th of November 1666, by which it was suppressed, and the martyrdoms by which it was followed, see the second volume of Wodrow’s History, Sir James Turner’s Memoirs, McCrie’s Memoirs of Veitch and Brysson, and Naphtali.
(406) Lent by MR. AND MRS. DODDS.
PORTRAIT of the first Marquis of Tweeddale. Life-size, three-quarters length, bare head, flowing hair, and loose robe. John, the second Earl and first Marquis of Tweeddale, was born in 1626, and subscribed both the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant. As already mentioned, he was the only one in Parliament who opposed the sen tence of death being passed on James Guthrie, and that mild opposition led to his own imprison-ment in Edinburgh Castle on the 13th of September 1661; but soon afterwards the confinement was changed to his own house at Bothans and three miles round it, anti this restriction ceased next May. He was restored to favour, and ‘was moderate in his measures as a councillor, and opposed the violent Church party under Sharp.’ After the Revolution he was appointed Lord Chancellor, and died in 1697. The leading events of his life are recorded in Brunton and Haig’s Senators of the College of Justice, pp. 384-386. The costume here is a gown of an amber-brown colour. The nobleman in this painting is somewhat younger than in the two mezzotints by John Smith after Kneller, – that striking print showing him while still Earl, in ermine-lined peer’s robes, to which the date of 1690 has been assigned, and the other, dated 1695, in his robes as Lord Chancellor, and with the purse introduced to the left. – [J. M. G.]
(333) Lent by the MARQUIS OF TWEEDDALE.
VOLUME OF LAUDERDALE CORRESPONDENCE This folio volume contains 310 letters, chiefly from Lauderdale to the above-mentioned Marquis of Tweeddale. They are nearly all arranged in chronological order, and are pasted on guards. The first is dated at Whitehall, the 8th of September 1664. The first seven are unsigned, the eighth is signed ‘Lauderdaill,’ and the thirteenth is also signed. They are dated from Whitehall, Oxford, Edinburgh, Highgate, Maltoun, Ham, Rochester, Dover, etc. No. 33 is dated from Whitehall, 16th May 1667, and at the top there is written: ‘Burne thir.’ It begins: ‘Heir is at Iast the long-promised narrative of the particulars of our great meeting.’ It is in a different hand from many of the preceding, being small and cramped; but is signed like so many others – ‘Adieu.’ From Nos. 101, 104, it appears that gold dust was used for blotting. In No. 140, which is dated at Whitehall, 26th March 1668, he describes ‘a ryot of the prentices and some other disorderly fellowes,’ concerning which a meeting of Council had been held that morning. He says: ‘One thing I must tell yow that upon occasion of this ryot I told the Duke, If the half of this had been done in Scotland what a noyse wold it have made? His highness applauded what I said and so did the King, both expressing great confidence in Scotland.’ Thin letter seems to be holograph, but is only signed ‘Dst B. Adieu.’ No. 289 is dated, ‘Ham last day of Decr 1672;’ while No. 295 is dated, ‘Highgate 11 Jul – 68.’ Of those which follow, most have merely the month and day, some not even so much, and none have the year. The correspondence was arranged in 1869, and is lettered outside: – ‘Lauderdale Letters belonging to the Marquis of Tweeddale.’ It would be superfluous to enter into the details of such a notorious life as that of the once Covenanting John Maitland, who proved so unscrupulous and played such an infamous part from the Restoration to his death in 1682.
(370) Lent by the MARQUIS OF TWEEDDALE.
VOLUME OF ROYAL LETTERS. There are twenty-one letters in this handsomely-bound volume, the title of which run, thus:- ‘Royal Letters belonging to the most honourable George, Marquess of Tweeddale, K.T. In the Charter Room at Yester, 1538-1747. Arranged at Edinburgh, 1869.’ The first is from James the Fifth, and is dated 21st March, and of our reign the 26th year, that is, 1538-39; and the last is from Frederick, Prince of Wales. They are so mounted on stiff paper that both sides can be read.
(371) Lent by the MARQUIS OF TWEEDDALE.
VOLUME OF TWEEDDALE LETTERS, consisting of commissions, instructions, letters from Privy Council, and from Sir John Cope, 1631-1744. The documents in this volume were also arranged and bound in 1869, and, including a printed declaration by Prince Charles Edward, of 10th October 1745, they number seventy-eight. No. 6 is a licence by the Lords of Secret Council to ‘Johne Lord Yester and Dame [blank] Ker Lady Yester hir mother [blank] and sich as sail accompanie yame at tabill to eat flesche dureing the forbiddine tyme of Lent and upon Wedinsday Fryday and Saturday for the space of ane yeire nixt efter dait heirof without paine or dainger … notwithstanding quhatsumever actis and proclamationes in the contrair.’ Dated at ‘Halyruidhous,’ 22d February 1631.
(371A) Lent by the MARQUIS OF TWEEDALE.
ORDER, for removing the Guards from Glasgow to Linlithgow. This document is so short that it is here given in full:-
‘Hallirudhouse Ed 22 day of October 1677.
‘The Lords of the committy of Council for publick affaires doe hereby give order and warrand to the Earle of Linlithgow Collonell of his Majesties regiment of guardes upon sight hereof to remove that part of the said regiment presently quartered at Glasgow to the toune of Linlithgow and to quarter them in the said burgh till further order.
Lauderdale, I.P.D., Con.’
The signature, which alone is Lauderdale’s, is shaky.
(347A) Lent by DAVID MURRAY, LL.D.
ARCHBISHOP SHARP’S DRINKING-GLASS. This is the only personal relic of Sharp in the collection. He was branded by his persecuted contemporaries as the Judas of the Kirk of Scotland, and recent research has furnished fresh proofs of his duplicity and treachery. The tumbler was obtained by Mr. Richard Davidson from Lady Kilbrackmont, being, it is said, all that her family received from the Archbishop for £1000 due to them.
(336) Lent by the LITERARY AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY OF PERTH.
PORTRAIT, on wood, said to be of John Balfour of Kinloch, better known as Burley. It shows a squint-eyed man, with dark grey hair, hawk-nose, thin lips, wide mouth, and double chin, more strongly resembling the description given by Sir Walter Scott, than either that given by John Howie:- ‘a little man, squint-eyed, and of a very fierce aspect’; or the other given at Rathillet’s trial:- ‘a laigh broad man, round ruddy-faced, dark brown hair.’ He is chiefly remembered for the active part he took in Sharp’s assassination, on Magus Moor, on the 3d of May 1679; and for his prowess at Drumclog and Bothwell Bridge. That he was no penniless adventurer is abundantly clear, for, in 1668, he lent ‘tua thousand mirks, good and usuall money of this realme,’ to John Seaton of Lathrisk.1 His great-granddaughter, Barbara Balfour, was married to James Wemyss. of Winthank and Wemysshall, before 1758;2 and Colonel J. Balfour Wemyss offered wager of battle to the author of Old Mortality for traducing the memory of his ancestor.’3
(335) Lent by ROBERT LAUDER.
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1 Register of Deeds, 1668-1672, in Sheriff-Clerk’s office, Cupar.
2 Sir William Fraser’s Memorials of the Wemyss Family, vol. i. p 154.
3 McCrie’s Miscellaneous Writings, p. 327.