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

ROBERT OF RAECLEUCH 105
but had only strength to say " Lord have mercy on me, Christ have mercy
on me— I am deceived " before he expired.
Maxwell fled to the Continent, and was tried when absent by a special
Parliament, June 24, 1609, which found him guilty of high treason for killing
the Warden of the Marches, and all his goods were to be confiscated. Charles
Maxwell was left free, and his brother ennobled before many years had passed.
The King had tried to reduce the influence of the Johnstouns, and
continued to do so; 1 but the law gave him an interest in a minor's estate
and, although away at Windsor, he appointed Raecleuch to be tutor of the
Johnstoun Barony and of the heir and his sisters against the protest of
their mother, who went to Edinburgh to find champions on her behalf. Lady
Johnstoun declared that she knew the weakness of the tutor, and that he
was unfit to govern the living or to manage the estate. She offered to give him
500 marks a year for himself, and to spend 2000 marks in reducing the debt of
,£50,000, which seemed likely to ruin the property, if he would give up the post.
She tried by law to obtain the custody of her children, and promised to give
them meat, clothes, and other necessaries, and to keep house for her son and his
friends, but in vain. She secretly gave the Charter chest to the care of Edward
Johnstoun of Ryehill, who owned the old castle of Annan, a strong stone
house ; and it was possibly by her advice that her son at fourteen chose Ryehill
to be one of his curators.
The King condescended to write to Raecleuch to be careful of the pupil's
education and "of the welfare and continuance of his house now fallen into
decay, to be honest and faithful, and not to look for his own gain." He
told the Lords of Council and Session to stay all proceedings against the
heir in his minority, but this did not exempt the heir from the special Crown
dues levied on a minor's estate.
Sir James had agreed to give 25,000 marks to Barbara for her claim
to Newbie, and to pay all her father's debts. He also undertook to bring
up her six sisters— Janet, Mary, Agnes, Christine, Elizabeth, and Jeannette
in his own house, charging himself with their education, board, clothes, and
ultimate marriage, " as befits ladies of their degree." Three were already
married when his death devolved their maintenance on Raecleuch.
Their mother 2 appears again with her husband, Kirkpatrick, in several
actions against James Murray of Cockpool in 1610 for "non-payment of
certain dues," which amounted to £5000. The younger girls married in time, but
as Raecleuch had taken charge of them in Newbie Castle he brought an
1 Acts of Decreets, Vol. LXXVIL, fol. 2, B. Mr John Johnstoun (of Mylnfield), advocate,
is given the ward of the late Laird's estate by a document dated April 12, 1608, four days
after the murder. This was doubtless only pending the King's appointment, as he was
Sheriff-Depute of Annandale, but it is curious that Raecleuch should have been given the ward
of Mylnfield's first cousin, and Mylnfield the ward of Raecleuch's nearest relative.
2 She gained her cause, but the King overrode the decision by a gift under the Privy
Seal in favour of Sir James Murray, knight, of his own escheat and life-rent, Dec. 22, 1610.
This deed refers to "the claim against the late Knight of Dunskellie by Elizabeth Stewart,
Lady Newbie, relict of John Johnstoun of Newbie and Master Samuel Kirkpatrick," etc.
{Mansfield Charters).