History of the Johnstones, 1191-1909, with ... - Electric Scotland

CLAN SYSTEM REPRESSED 91
of moss-troopers and cattle-drivers in the Middle Marches and sending them
to Holland for the army of the Prince of Orange, who paid him for it.
Douglas of Drumlanrig was made Earl of Queensberry ; and Douglas of
Angus was created a Marquis in 1633. Both received from Charles I. the
gift of lands which their families forfeited in the fifteenth century, and as
Lochous was escheated when its owner was hanged the King gave it to
Angus. The fees paid on these transfers helped to fill the Privy purse.
Graitney's expenses were greater than the sum he received for them,
but it was not only present difficulty which made him sell his estate in 1618
to John Murray of Cockpool, "one of the grooms of His Majesty's Chamber."
He could not afford to sustain a yearly lawsuit against Murray, backed as he
was by the King's resolve to break up a clan which was strong enough to
dictate to the Crown. In 1 591 a list collected by Chancellor Maitland gives
Johnstoun, Armstrong, Scott, Beattie, Little, Thomson, Glendyning, Bell, Irving,
Carruthers, Graham, Jardine, Moffat, and Latimer as the only families in
the South-West who still have captains and chiefs on whom they depend
more than on the King—and nine of these were under Johnstoun's protection.
Buchanan, 1 the Royal tutor, like Camden, his contemporary, speaks of
the Johnstouns as the most important of the clans in the West—the great
obstacle to the English conquest—and the King could always depend on it
for promptness, loyalty, and patriotism.
In 1602 a tax was laid on every householder for the repair of the churches
"the King and Privy Council think that much of the looseness and barbarity
of the Borderers arose from the want of the Gospel being properly preached
to them." Johnstoun obeyed, but he and his heir were not very cordial to
the first Reformed ministers who were sent to them ; and those in the county
who adhered to the Church of Rome usually refused to pay the tithes.
1 George Buchanan was born in Dumbartonshire in 1506, and died in Edinburgh
1582; author of the History of Scotland. He was secretary in France for five years to
the Earl of Cassilis, and on returning to Scotland was made tutor to the eldest natural
son of James V. The King, although persecuting Reformers, thought the Franciscans
were in league with malcontent nobles, so ordered Buchanan to write a satire upon them ;
but it displeased the monks without satisfying the King, who ordered a sharper one, hence
"the Franciscan." This enraged Cardinal Beaton, and when Buchanan heard from his
friends that a sum of money was offered to the King for his head he escaped from prison
to England. There he found that "Henry VIII. cared more for his own security than
the Reformation, and almost with one and the same fire Protestants and Papists were
being burnt," so went on to the Continent. There he had many vicissitudes till recalled
by Queen Mary in 1566. She made him Principal of St. Andrews and tutor to James VI.
Note.—An Englishman wrote his impressions of the Scots in 1598. He stayed "at a
Knight's house (Buccleuch ?) near the Borders," and, as he had been sent by the Governor
of Berwick on a political errand, was entertained "after their best manner. Many servants
brought in the meat, with blue caps on their heads, the table being more than half furnished
with great platters of porridge, each having a little sodden meat. When the table was
served, the servants sat down with us ; but the upper mess instead of porridge, had a
pullet with some prunes in the broth, and I observed no art of cookery or house-hold stuff,
but rude neglect of both. The Scots living then in factions used to keep many followers
and so consumed their revenues in victuals, and were always in want of money. They
commonly eat hearth cakes of oats, but in cities have also wheaten bread. I never saw or
heard that they had inns with signs hanging out, but the better sort of citizens brew ale
their usual drink, and the same citizens will entertain passengers upon acquaintance or