dumfries-1920/04-041

Transcription

INVENTORY OF MONUMENTS IN DUMFRIESSHIRE.

leading lives of idleness and plundering. These thieves, with the assistance of
English thieves, had slain the principal Scottish barons nearest the frontier - Lord
Carlyle, and the lairds of Mouswald, Kirkmichael, Kirkconnel, and Logan (Annan-
dale), with "many uther sober landit men" - entering upon and occupying the
greater parts of their lands, and so reducing the law-abiding part of the population
on whom the Warden could call for support.
Twenty years later a report by Sir William Bowes views the situation from
another angle. And both memoranda, of course, are applicable to a long-standing
state of affairs. According to Bowes, that state, along the whole Border, was one of
"winter war" by opposite garrisons, the garrisons being the "riding surnames"
or clans who lived on other men's goods. Thus "contignuall intercoorse of winninge
and losing of goods do ebb and flowe like the sea." The losers had either to steal
in turn or fall into poverty. "Wherefore may be gathered this strange conclusion
that, where suche an opposite neighbour is founde, nothing is more pernicious to a
frontier then is, in the commander, peaceable justice, and, in the obeyer, patient
innocencie." ¹ In other words, the whole weight of advantage was upon violence
and brigandage.
Nor was the course of affairs in the country as a whole during the second half
of the century favourable to peaceable occupations. The Reformation was not
consummated without blood. The tension did not relax under Queen Mary:
intrigue, rebellion, assassination, and finally civil war maintained the atmosphere
of disorderliness. Outside the town of Dumfries the ecclesiastical element in the
Reformation was scarcely likely to make appeal; on the lay or political side landed
leadership determined allegiance. Here the most powerful personality was that of
Sir John Maxwell, who in 1566 was created the first Lord Herries, and for the present
outshone his nephew, the eighth Lord Maxwell, as yet a minor. At first Sir John
showed active favour to the Protestant party; after 1565 he is a Queen's man, and
her ablest. In thus identifying himself with the Queen's cause Sir John was bring-
ing himself into line with his neighbours, for among those who, at this crisis, had
banded themselves for the Queen's support were Lord Sanquhar, the Laird of John-
stone and James Johnstone of Corrie, the Kirkpatricks of Closeburn and Kirkmichael,
and Jardine of Applegarth. ² Hereafter Dumfriesshire, town and country, is almost
wholly on the Queen's side. In the band at Hamilton, after her escape from Loch-
leven in 1568, are the names of Lords Herries, Maxwell, and Sanquhar, the barons
Johnstone, Closeburn, and Jardine, the Abbot of Holyrood, lairds Johnstone of
Torry, Johnstone of Lochmaben, Crichton of Ryehill, and Murray of Cockpool; ³
and the part which Herries played in her flight to England after the defeat at Lang-
side is well known. The Regent Murray followed up his success by traversing
Dumfriesshire, where so many of the Queen's supporters were to be found. On 18th
June he was at Dumfries, and received the surrender of divers Maxwells, Johnstones,
Irvings, Grahams, and Bells, besides the strong-house of the Maxwells in the town.
He followed a thousand fugitives to Hoddom, where only a show of resistance was
made; and he returned by way of Lochwood and Lochhouse, of both of which he took
possession. This was known as the "Hoddom Road." ⁴ The Regent could count
on only two supporters of standing in the whole district, Douglas of Drumlanrig,

1 Border Papers, ii. No. 508.
2 Keith's History of Affairs, etc., iii. (App., bk. ii.), p. 249.
3 Calendar Scottish Papers, ii. No. 650; Keith, ii. p. 809.
4 Calderwood's History of the Kirk, ii. p. 417.

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