OS1/19/11/18

List of names as written Various modes of spelling Authorities for spelling Situation Description remarks
Sheriff's Kettle (continued) [continued from page 17]
Sheriff's Kettle. "Another of the Melvills was Sheriff of Kincardineshire in the time of James I., and of his horrible death by boiling in a caldron on the hill of Garvock Sir Walter Scott in noticing the Similar fate of Lord Soulis, Says - "The tradition regarding the death of Lord Soulis however Singular is not without its parallel in the real history of Scotland. The same extraordinary mode of cookery was actually practised (horresco referens), upon the body of a Sheriff of the Mearns. This person whose name was Melvill of Glenbervie, bore his faculties so harshly that he became detested by the barons of the County. Reiterated complaints of his conduct having been made to James I (or as others Say, to the Duke of Albany), the monarch answered in a moment of unguarded impatience 'Sorrow gin the Sheriff were soddon and supped in broo!' The complainers retired perfectly Satisfied. Shortly after, the lairds of Arbuthnott, Mathers, Lauriston and Pitarrow decoyed Melville to the top of the hill of Garvock, under pretence of a great hunting party. Upon this place, Still called the Sheriff's Pot, the barons had prepared a fire and a boiling caldron into which they plunged the unlucky Sheriff. After he was 'Soddon', as the King termed it, for a Sufficient time, the Savages, that they might literally observe the royal mandate, concluded the Scene of abomanation by actually partaking of the hell-broth. - Memorials of Angus and Mearns page 94.

Continued entries/extra info

[Page] 18
Parish of Garvock

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