Publications of the Clan Lindsay Society - Electric Scotland

THE HOUSE OF DUNROD. 31
inactive when all the able-bodied men of the country
were engaged on one side or the other. If we may
infer the possession of military capacity from his havinobeen
appointed in 1574 to su})ervise tlie Wappenshaws
in Lanarkshire,* it is probable that he rendered im-
prtant service to his party. Neverthele.ss he seems
to have remained on good terms witli his powerful
neighbours, the Hamiltons, who were the main strength
of the Queen's or Catholic faction ; for, when in 1579,
the Regent Morton was engaged in the destruction of
that house, he became cautioner for the good behaviour
of several of its prominent members and adherents, f
He was commanded " to serche, seik, and bring to his
Majestic, ane lettrun (writing desk) pertening to David
Hammiltoun of Botliuilehauch, quhairin are contenit
certane writtis." An article so easily disposed of could
scarcely have been taken by force ;
neither apparently
could it be got by direct injunction to the possessors
to deliver it up to the officers of the crown. It is
likely then that Dunrod was chosen, as a man esteemed
by his political opponents, to negotiate for the produc-
tion of the "lettrun," and that it was as a friendly
ambassador he was able to procure it and deliver it to
the Privy Council. {
From 1579 till 1581 or longer Lindsay was provost
of Rutherglen, and he sat in the Parliament of 1579
as commissioner of that royal burgh. § Like his father
Ads of Pari, Vol. III., p. 92.
t Reg. Priv. Goun., Vol. III., pp. 171, 172, 185, 188, 260.
I Reg. Priv. Goun., Vol. III., p. 17(j. Pitcairn ; Griminal Trials,
Vol. I., p. 88.
§ Acts of Pari, Vol. III., pp. 122, 123, 128; Exch. Rollsl Vol. XXL,
p. 651.