KEITH AND ITS LAIRDS

BY

G. C. WELSH, M.A., LL.B.

REPRINTED FROM “THE BANFFSHIRE HERALD”,

March, 1958.

Foreword by Sir Thomas Innes of Learney, K.C.V.O., K.St.J.,

LL.D., F.S.A. Scot., Advocate, Lord Lyon King of Arms.

The North-East of Scotland is one of the areas of the Ancient

Kingdom having the richest heritage of history, romance, and architecture, but unlike the Borders and the Trossachs, and indeed

the Western Isles, the entrancing story of the North-East is all too little known – now - even to its inhabitants, and still less to the

tourists and visitors to whom the old-world tales and songs can do

so much to send home with fresh inspirations, and which no less spur on the sons and daughters of the three counties,

Aberdeenshire, Banffshire, and Moray, in making their way in the wider world.

In a land where picturesque little turreted castles, built, not for

warfare, but as hearths of historic races, - communities which spread around through marriages of younger bairns into the farms

and villages round bye. Long low Ha-hooses of tacksmen and lesser lairds, and around each, legends and stories of picturesque old days

and colourful customs, which lightened life in the grey and brown moss and heather spread braes around, cast a glamour over the life

of a realm where couthy kinship spread through burgh and landward, giving all an interest in far off legends of chieftains,

Barons, fair lassies, gallant steeds, ploughmen - with horse - and no

less the auld twal-owsen-ploo, of earlier days, burgesses and craftsmen, and of the Abbots and monks whose fortalices looked

down on the spreading haugh land of Grange.

So it is that romance has lingered along the banks of Isla and in the little glen where the roofs and gables of Keith rise above the old

bow brig, and down beside the Linn the little park, with remains of Milton Tower recall memories of Oliphants and Ogilvies whose

stories carry us a sough of great events further afield in Scotland.

In the past half century, however, whilst so much has been elsewhere rescued, all too little has been done to save our native

heritage of history and legend in the rich background of Nor’-East life, and our younger folks are in danger of never knowing the olden

stories of their homeland, and how behind the Keith of to-day, lies

much record and story of the life of Strathisla in the days lang syne.

How much then de we owe to Mr Welsh for having, over many years and inspired by interest fostered from his early days in Grange,

laboured to collect authentic record of the history of Keith’s own romantic beauty spot, the Linn and Tower of Milton-Keith and of the

lairds and ladies who dwelt there, and of their ongoings and life up and down Strathisla. Garnered from parchments and yellowed

documents in the charter-room at Cullen, kindly made available by Lady Seafield, and from many other ancient records in the Register

House at Edinburgh and in the various Kirk Sessions, and other estates around, he has with such legends as have been handed

down, built together a work which will be a mine of information for those who have to weave together in forms for many purposes the

tales of old-time Keith. At first it seemed there was to be little

chance of his labours ever getting printed, but in days when so many municipalities have been criticised for casting aside the

priceless symbols which link them to Scotland’s storied past, the farsighted and progressive Councillors of Keith have wisely

preserved their ancient tower, the beauties of its Linn and glen, and the Burgh Welfare Committee has now made Mr Welsh’s work a

proud memorial to a worthy son of Strathisla, and a volume to be proud of about life in the Abbey-“halidome” of Kinloss within its

Regality of Strathisla.

PART I. MILLTOUN OF KEITH,

In pre-reformation times the life of rural Scotland centred largely round the Kirk and the Mill, neither, it is to be feared, regarded as

an unqualified blessing by the folk they were supposed to serve, but

both forming focal points in the life of the common man. Associated with each of these there was often a separate village and Kirktouns

and Milltouns were common throughout the land. There were many mills situated at convenient points on the River

Isla and on the lesser burns which join it, some now derelict, some completely erased. Of these the most important in the vicinity of

Keith was probably that which, though much altered through the centuries, still stands beside the Linn, where the waters of Isla

tumble in a cascade into a swirling pool as grim and forbidding as any on the river, and the little community which grew up nearby

was known as the Milltoun of Keith. Now the Milltoun was not the whole of Keith nor even the most

important part, but of the few reminders of the past which survive to-day that which attracts the greatest interest is the ruin beside

the Linn, a small fragment of the. ancient Castle or Tower of Mill-

toun. Regarding the ruin many questions have been asked but few

have hitherto been answered. When was the castle built and by

whom? What manner of people lived there? Why was it abandoned and when?

The Milltoun of Keith lay in the lands of Drumnakeith, the earliest reference to which in the Register of the Great Seal of Scotland oc-

curs in a Roll of missing Charters by King David II (1331-1371) where there is mention of a grant of the Lands of Netherdull of

Drumbeth or Drumkeyth and Pettinbruynache” with the office of Constabulary of Cullen to Thome de Lipp.

The lands of “Pittenbringan” and office of Constabulary of Cullen

were later transferred by “John Matulan of Natherdale” to “John da Haya of Tulibothi” whose son David and his wife Elizabeth had this

grant confirmed on 21st July, 1408, by Robert, Duke of Albany, Regent of Scotland. On 10th November, 1407, the above John Matu-

lan or Maitland granted to David and Elizabeth Hay a Bond of Man-

rent whereby he obliged himself to “loose and make free from Alisander Comyne and fra al othyrs all the lands of Drumnakeith

and to warrant their lands of Pettnabringan.”

Subsequently the Drumnakeith property came into the possession of Sir Patrick Maitland and in 1463 he and his wife Christian had a

charter of the “Lands of Drumnakeith in Strathyla” from King James III.

They were succeeded by their daughters, Elizabeth and Janet

Maitland and on a resignation by them, George, Lord Gordon, later Second Earl of Huntly, had a Royal Charter of these lands in 1467.

This grant covered also “Naterdale and Pettinbringan.

George Gordon was thrice married and had a considerable family,

but so obscure are his matrimonial affairs that it is impossible to say who were the mothers of most of his children. Our interest here

is in his daughter, Agnes. It has for long been believed that she was illegitimate but this is at least doubtful. A distant descendant of hers

who matriculated arms at the Lyon Office some three centuries after her day stated that her mother was the Princess Jean, fifth

daughter of King James I. Now we know that Gordon’s second wife was the Princess (more generally known as Princess Annabella).

She had previously married in 1447 Louis, Count of Geneva, son of Louis, Duke of Savoy, from whom she was divorced through the in-

trigues of the King of France. Her marriage to Gordon took place before 10th March, 1459/60, and was dissolved on 14th July, 1471

(The Scots Peerage vol. IV pp. 528/529). The historian Ferrerius states that she did have a daughter to Gordon. Agnes’ son

Alexander, moreover, was referred to by the Third Earl of Huntly as

“consanguineus meus.” It is, of course, natural that the entry in the

Lyon Register should attempt to put the family history in the most

favourable light possible, but until evidence to the contrary is discovered there is no reason to deny that Agnes was of Royal

blood.

The Scots Peerage states that Gordon married Annabella before 10th March 1459/60. If Annabella were her mother Agnes could have

been no more than 10 In 1470 (the date of the Great Seal Charter on the Resignation of Drumnakeith by Gordon to James Ogilvie,

Agnes’ future father-in-law), unless the marriage of Gordon and the Princess took place considerably before 1460. Is it likely that she

could have been betrothed to Ogilvie at that age and her dowry then made over to his father? The Resignation to Agnes and her

Spouse was not granted until 1479. Could her marriage have taken place only then when she might have been 18 or 19? The Scots

Peerage quotes the Records of Aboyne 414 as stating that Agnes

was illegitimate but continues “no proof of the assertion is forthcoming.” But Gordon had another daughter Agnes (S.P. IV

531). One or other of these Agneses must surely have been illegitimate.

Be that as it may, on the betrothal of Agnes Gordon to James

Ogilvie, son and heir apparent of Sir James Ogilvie of Deskford and Findlater her dowry was the Lands of Drumnakeith. (Charter by

King James III to James Ogilvie of Deskford and Findlater on Resignation of George Lord Gordon Reg. Mag. Sig. 20 April 1470

Instrument of Resignation of James Ogilvie of Deskford in favour of James Ogilvie his apparent heir and Agnes Gordon his Spouse 16

Feb. 1479.)

Of the marriage between Agnes Gordon and James Ogilvie, there

were born five sons, Alexander, James, John, Patrick and George, and for two of these, James and George, their parents carved out

from the lands of Drumnakeith the small estates of Kempcairn and Milton respectively.

If Charters were granted in their favour they are not now extant,

but we have a reference to James Ogilvie of Kempcairn in a Back-bond of Reversion which he granted over the lands of Wester Drum

in 1500 and the first Laird of Milton is identified in the Lyon Matrialation mentioned above. Lyon Register Vol. I Folio 199, as

well as in the Charter in favour of his son referred to later.

Their father died on 1st February 1505/1506 without having suc-ceeded to the Deskford and Findlater estates, old Sir James Ogilvie

being then still alive. He died on 13th February 1509/1510 and his

estates passed to his grandson Alexander sometimes designed as of

Deskford and Findlater but more commonly referred to as Alexander

Ogilvie of that Ilk. His whole estates including the lands of Drumnakeith were in 1517 consolidated into one Barony called the

Barony of Ogilvie.

Whether or not the Gordons or their predecessors had established a castle beside the Linn at Milton, it is certain that George Ogilvie had

one there at the beginning of the sixteenth century and it was certainly a building of some strength. He died before 1536 leaving a

son also named George who married his cousin Janet, daughter of Alexander Ogilvie of that Ilk by his first wife Janet Abernethy,

second daughter of James, third Lord Saltoun. As mentioned above Alexander had succeeded to the Deskford and Findlater estates on

the death of his grandfather and by a Charter signed by him at Findlater Castle on 16th May 1536 he granted a title to the lands of

Milton to George Ogilvie (who was both his nephew and his son-in-

law) and his wife Janet at a nominal feu-duty of one penny Scots. The boundaries of the estate are described in great detail, an un-

usual feature in a deed of this period.

The following is an excerpt from the Charter. Sasine was taken on 20th May, 1536.

“Bounds of the Lands of Milton according to the Charter by Alex-

ander Ogilvie of that Ilk in favour of George and Janet Ogilvy, dated 16th May 1536, at Findlater.

Beginning from a certain great stone in the ground hard by the

Black Hillock or Kilpott to the East, near to the Water of the Islay towards the North, and thence ascending in a line to another stone

towards the south situated at the foot of the forked hill (montis

furcarum), from thence ascending in a line to another stone at the summit of the hill laid down for a land mark and thence ascending

along the face of the hill to another great stone laid on the ground and situated near the little houses or dwelling of David Dow, cottar,

of Miltoun aforesaid, towards the south and from thence there are boundary marks in the ground from the foresaid forked hill des-

cending to the Blackfold, including Blackfold wholly within the lands and property of the foresaid lands of Milton just as the stones are

specially placed for a boundary from thence descending in line to the BUBBLING SPRING. From the head of the forked hill towards the

west there is placed a boundary stone near the brook from the aforesaid Spring flowing into the wooden lade of Craigduff dividing

the Bishop of Moray’s lands from the lands of Milton up to the inflow of the said lade into the waterfall at Keith.”

The Charter was granted, not as we might expect, to confirm

George’s right to Milton as heir of his father. It expressly states that he had renounced that right in favour of Alexander as superior and

that the grant to George and Janet was part of Janet’s dowry. At first sight it seems rather curious that a man should be given his

own property as part of his wife’s dowry but the explanation is probably this. George or his father may have borrowed money from

Alexander on the security of Milton and the effect of the Charter was to give a clear title, the debt being thereby extinguished. It was

by no means uncommon in these days for the owner of mortgaged land to woo the daughter of the bondholder so that he might get

with her as her tocher, not a payment in cash, but a discharge of the bond.

It is not proposed to trace in detail the history of the Superiors of

Drumnakeith, they being the main line of the Ogilvies of Findlater,

but it is of interest in passing to say something of that eccentric Laird, Alexander Ogilvie of that Ilk, and his heir-apparent, James

Ogilvie of Cardell, brother of Janet Ogilvie of Milton.

Before 31st December 1535 Alexander Ogilvie of that Ilk married as his second wife Elizabeth, natural daughter of Adam Gordon, Dean

of Caithness, son of Alexander first Earl of Huntly. She conceived an affection for John Gordon third son of the fourth Earl of Huntly and

she succeeded in inducing her husband to favour him. She successfully poisoned his mind against her stepson, James Ogilvie

of Cardell, while he was in France as Master of the Household of Queen Mary. Alexander disinherited his son and entered into a

bargain with the Earl of Huntly whereby he made John Gordon heir to the Ogilvie possessions.

Alexander died in July 1554 and soon afterwards his widow married John Gordon who had now adopted the surname Ogilvie (that being

one of the conditions imposed by his benefactor). She was thus in the curious position of having married the heir of her late husband.

Charter by Alexander Ogilvy of that ilk in favour of George Ogilvy and Janet Ogilvy, his wife, granting them the lands and fortalice of

Miltoun and defining bounds of the estate. 1536.

Dr Cramond dismisses as “too absurd for repetition” the suggestion that this marriage took place (Church and Churchyard of Cullen p.

63). Absurd the story may appear but it is none the less true. In an action raised by this lady and John Gordon against Alexander Forbes

of Pitsligo and others who were attempting to exclude them from Findlater Castle, John Gordon is clearly described as “now spouse to

the said Elizabeth” (Reg. of Acts and Decreets. Vol. 17 Folio 297 (262) 2 Aug. 1559).

But whereas John Gordon alias Ogilvie had secured the favour

merely of a “priest’s geit” and had through her “devilement” won

wealth and power, his triumph was to be short lived for James of

Cardell had in the meantime found favour with the young Queen

herself and her mother Mary of Guise.

There were several abortive attempts by Queen Mary and her mother to restore Cardell to his patrimony by peaceful means which

we need not here discuss. Suffice to say, when the Queen landed in Scotland in 1561 she made no pretence of placating the Gordons. In

the ensuing troubles Huntly and his son John were outlawed the latter being executed at Aberdeen on 31st October 1562 after the

battle of Corrichie and James Ogilvie of Cardell had restored to him the Barony of Findlater and Deskford, the Barony of Drumnakeith

and all the other possessions which together formed the Ogilvie Estates. (By Charter of Queen Mary 2nd February 1563.)

Shortly afterwards James Ogilvie, late of Cardell and now of

Findlater granted to his brother-in-law George of Milton a new

Charter of the lands of Milton.

The actual Charter dated 4th May 1564 does not appear to be extant but the Instrument of Sasine following upon it is preserved and is

dated 10th May 1564.

Milton of Keith at the time of the Union of the Crowns, the National Covenant, and the Civil War.

Before 1587, the year in which Queen Mary was executed, George

Ogilvie of Milton died. In 1545 Patrick Hepburn, Bishop of Moray (of whom something will be said in the section dealing with the Kirkton)

had granted him the lands of Auchoynany on the lower slopes of the Balloch Hill, together with Little Cantully, the Brewery or Alehouse

of Keith, and Craigduffcroft. John Ogilvie his son succeeded to both

Milton and Auchoynany, and he in due course settled his eldest son Walter in Auchoynany.

Walter Ogilvie in 1600 married Margaret Gordon 2nd daughter of

John Gordon of Cairnburrow and widow of John Duff of Muldavit who died in 1593. Margaret Gordon had been John Duff’s second

wife and to him she is reputed to have borne eleven sons, the most noteworthy of whom was Adam. Walter Ogilvie had in 1573 bought

the property of Clunybeg and his stepson Adam Duff, who had been placed in Ardrone in 1611, was later placed in Clunybeg with which

property his name was thereafter invariably linked. Adam Duff in Clunybeg was the ancestor of many distinguished bearers of the

name of Duff, including the Earls of Fife and their Royal descendants.

Of the marriage between Walter Ogilvie and Margaret Gordon were

born a son John and a daughter Margaret. The daughter married John Stewart of Ardbreck and figured in a strange case of alleged

witchcraft at Little Towie which came to the notice of the Botriphnie Kirk Session in 1656. It was complained by George Riach in Slagrein

that Marjorie Baron had said that his mother Katharin Nell, “in prejudice of her neighbours buried a cat and her four feet upwards.”

Marjorie Baron denied that she had said so, but only said that Agnes Low, spouse of James Mill in Towie, said so. Agnes Low

declared that she had heard Adam Duff of Clunybeg say to his sister Margaret Ogilvie, “Ye cannot thrive heer for they say ther was a cat

yearded heer and her four feet upward.” Adam Duff “denyed utterlie that ever he spake any such.” The matter was referred to the

Presbytery, but as the Presbytery Records do not survive, we do not know if it was ever established who was the biggest liar.

Walter Ogilvie, who had been in Auchoynany in his father’s lifetime, inherited Milton as well in 1610 on his father’s death, but although

he is on occasion referred to as “of Milton” he seems to have preferred to remain in his original home, and on the marriage of his

son John to Ann Douglas, daughter of James Lord Melrose in 1619 he made over Milton to them.

Walter was dead before 21st May 1642. On that date his son John

made a contract with Findlater (referred to later) from the stated terms of which it is clear that Walter was then dead.

John took Sasine on Milton on 18th November 1642 but he never

made up title to Auchoynany.

In 1633 John Ogilvie of Milton married as his second wife Jean

Innes, daughter of Alexander Innes of Coxton, that gaunt and formidable fortress tower which still stands near Lhanbryde. She

was the widow of Robert Innes, Baillie of Elgin, whom she had married nine years before.

A few months after his second marriage John Ogilvie was seized

with a “deidlie disease” or so it was alleged, and he consulted one Dr Oschall of Elgin whose terms were so much cash down and the

balance of his fee after a cure had been effected. The patient recovered either through the skill of the Physician or by reason of

the fact that the powers of resistance of the human body are so great as to be able to survive almost any medical maltreatment. Be

that as it may the doctor claimed the credit and as the patient refused to pay the balance of his fee he sued him on the narrative

that:-

“Quhar the said defender being heavilie diseasit with ane deidlie

paine and quinancie in his throt and craig almost speichless and in a manner remediless, hie about the moneth of November 1633 or

thereby agreit with the said Mr John to cuir him of the said disease in presence of divers famous witnesses and delyverit to him 14

dollars at 58/- each piece and by and attour the same he promist suld he fullie cuir him of the said disease under God, to pay him

other 12 dollars, and albeit it be of veritie that the said Mr John, throw Gods Grace, and be his paines cair and dilgens, has cuirit the

said defender of the said deidlie disease, manifest to the world, yet he refuses to pay the 12 dollars.”

As the defender did not appear to express an opinion on his treat-

ment the pursuer got decree in absence and warrant to poind.

Between the shopkeepers of Elgin and those of Keith there was a

good deal of jealousy. Indeed at a later date the inhabitants of Elgin were forbidden to buy or sell at the Mercat of Keith. Whether or not

the Keith folks had any scruples about trading in Elgin, we know that Jean Innes went to Elgin to buy nick-nacks for herself and

domestic articles for Milton Castle. The items that we know about are those she failed to pay for. She was sued for example by Robert

Kinnaird for £3 for ane pair of worset schankis (woollen stockings); £3 for ane furneist (decorated) mirror gilt glass, with sissors kame

and spingie (scissors, comb and sponge); 40/- for ane pair of tartane schetis (tartan sheets); £4 for ane great civat box (large

perfume box), and £6 for ane cheyne of beads; and by Christian Chalmer for a number of items including ane quart of acquavitie.

(Comissary Books of Moray 27th January and 4th August 1635).

If we are to believe a statement made about her to the Presbytery,

this Lady of Milton appears to have had some faith in the power of sorcery which was then fairly widely practiced. On 12th April 1637

Isobell Malcolme, parishoner of Botary, being accused of charming confessed that she had practiced this art for twenty years. Among

those she alleged she had attended was “Jean Innes spouse to John Ogilvye of Miltoune” whom she had charmed “for the bairne bed.”

With a zeal strictly in accordance with the conceptions of Christian charity then in vogue the brethren continued the censure of the said

Isobell “in the hope that she should be found yet more guiltye.” Her case dragged on for some years but no more is heard of her

dealings with John Ogilvie’s spouse.

On 14th December 1642 John Ogilvie the younger, a son of his father’s first marriage to Ann Douglas, and the future Laird of

Milton, appeared before the Presbytery and confessed to fornication

with “ a certain lady Margaret Adamsoun (possibly of Braco). He

was ordained to pay £60 penalty and to stand seven Sundays at the

pillar fit in sackcloth.

These were days of insecurity and violence. As an illustration of this we may take an extract from the records of the Privy Council of 13th

November 1634 relating mainly to the plight of the Laird of Frendraught who, over a period of years, had been the victim of

raids upon his property, and whose case came to the notice of the Privy Council more than once.

[The House of Frendraught was burned in 1630. There were some

who ascribed the fire (in which among others Viscount Melgum son of the Marquis of Huntly and John Gordon of Rothiemay who were

guests at the time, perished) to the treachery of the Laird of Fren-draught and his Lady themselves but a reasonable motive is difficult

to find.]

The Lords were in 1634 Informed that “great numbers of sorners

and brokin men of the Clan Gregour, Clan Lachlane, and other brokin clans in Lochquaber, Strathdoun, Glencoe, Bramar and

others parts of the Hielands as alswa diuerse of the name of Gordoun ... have this long time and now latlie verie greevouslie

infested his Majesteis loyal subjects in the north parts especiallie the Laird of Frendraught and his tenants, by frequent slauchters,

heirships and barbarous cruelties committed upon thame and be ane last treasonable fyreraising within the said Laird of Frendraught

his bounds whereby not onlie is all the gentlemans lands laid waist, his haill goods and bestiall spoyled, slane and maigled, some of his

servants killed and cruellie demayned, bot also the haill tennants of his lands and domesticks of his hous have left his service, and

himself, with the hazard of his life, has been forced to steal away

under nyght and have his refuge to his Majesteis counsell, and thir disorders are grown to that hight that almost no where in the north

countrie can his Majesteis subjicts promise safetie to thare persones or means, the breake of his Majesteis peace in these bounds being

so universall as the verie borrowes and touns thameselffes are in continuall feare and danger of some suddane surprise by fire or

otherwayes from thir brokin men.”

Many of the Lairds were summoned personally to give the Privy Council such information as they could regarding this state of law-

lessness and to receive orders for securing the future peace of the country. John Ogilvie of Milton was among those charged to appear.

A large number of Ministers and others were also charged to give evidence. These Included Walter Barclay, an Elder of the Kirk of

Keith.

But these disorders were of a minor character compared with the

civil strife which followed the ill-advised attempt of Charles I to introduce English Episcopacy into Scotland which resulted in the

signing of the National Covenant in 1638. Of these troubles and of the campaigns of Montrose so far as they affected Strathisla more

will be told in the section dealing with the Kirkton.

So far as Milton is concerned the Ogilvies were active anti-Covenanters. In 1643 it was reported to the Presbytery that John

Ogilvie (the elder) had failed to subscribe the Covenant. On 15th April 1644 in concert with his half brother, Adam Duff of Clunybeg,

and other members of his family he took part in a raid on the House of Auchagatt, the residence of the Covenanter, Alexander Strachan

of Glenkindie. The “spulzing of the House of Auchagatt” was only one of a number of exploits in which these gentlemen were

concerned and appears to have been carried out with thoroughness.

The raiders came “bodily in force with swords, durks, bands, staves, hagbuts, pistolles and other invasive weapons . . . and violently,

with force and instruments of hammers and others brought be them to the said place of Auchagatt, break up the yeattis and doors

thereof and having taken entry within the samen, broke up the haill kists, coffers and other lock-fast lumies, and theftously by way of

masterful sleuth and theft, reif, staw, and awaytook the complainers hail silver work to the availl of an thousand pounds, as

also an thousand merks of lying money, breaking his Charter kist and staw and awaytook furth his haill evidents of his lands together

with dwerie bonds, obligations and other securities containing great sums of money addebted to him be his debtors extending to the

sum of twenty thousand merks together also with the haill guids, gear, insight, plenishing of the said place, and victuals being within

his girnals to the avail of two thousand merks.”

(Banff Hornings quoted in the Book of the Duffs pp. 44-5.)

But these minor exploits did not satisfy the Laird of Milton. He threw

in his lot with Montrose and fell in action at the Battle of Alford on 2nd July 1645.

What was happening to Milton itself in the meantime and subse-

quently is somewhat obscure. At all events in 1643 John Ogilvie re-signed the estate to Findlater who thereupon granted a Charter to

Walter Ogilvie of Cairstoune. In 1647 Milton was again resigned to Findlater who in 1649 granted a Charter to John Gordon of Park

under an annual feuduty of 10 merks.

The reason for all this is not apparent but it was probably not

unconnected with the financial difficulties which the Ogilvies of Milton were then experiencing.

They had fallen into arrears with the teinds of Auchoynanie and Sir

William Forbes of Craigievar, patron of the Kirk in 1643 obtained a Decreet before the Lords of Session against John Ogilvie and his

tenants for teinds for the period 1620- 1635. He assigned his rights under this Decreet to John Gordon of Park who obtained a further

Decreet for teinds for the period 1635 -1640. John Ogilvie the elder was now dead and before Park could put his Decreets into effect he

had to force John Ogilvie the younger to make up title. He therefore raised Letters of Poinding and Appraising and obtained Decreet for

28,393 merks and Sheriff fee extending to £679 Scots. But not even had John the elder made up title to Auchoynanie and when John the

younger was at last forced to do so it was as heir to his grandfather

Walter. But he seems to have been in no hurry to satisfy Park.

In 1649 Park obtained from Findlater his Charter of Milton already referred to.

On 17th January 1650 John Ogilvie entered into a Contract of

Alienation binding himself to infeft Park in Auchoynanie in liferent and his eldest son John Gordon of Clunie in fee and on the same

day- he obtained from Park a conveyance of Milton. But Park was determined to retain a hold on Milton and the Charter of Alienation

which he granted to John Ogllvie created a mid-superiority with a nominal feuduty of one penny Scots payable to himself.

It was not however until six years later that John Ogilvie was re-

toured as heir to his grandfather Walter. The precept of Sasine

which is dated 5th July 1656 is given in name of Oliver, Lord Pro-tector of the Commonwealth, and narrates that the lands “wer hold-

ine of the deceist (!) and late King be vertue off the act off Parliament off this natione abolishing all episcopacie and annexing

all rents and revenues belonging yrto to the croune of this natione and are now holdine off us (i.e. Cromwell).” The Precept takes

security, for £574 Scots representing, feuduty of £27 6s 8d per year for 20 years and one term.

John Ogilvie took Sasine on 20th September 1656, but matters were

still unsettled in 1662 when we find an Inhibition against John Ogilvie at the instance of Park proceeding up on the Contract of

1650. This appears to have been required to fortify a Disposition of Auchoynanie which John Gordon of Clunie granted to his brother

David on 2nd August 1662. This ended the connection of the Ogilvies

of Milton with Auchoynanie.

John Ogilvie retained from the Auchoynanie lands Craigduff Croft, the alehouse and certain other buildings in Keith which thereafter

were attached to Milton. The subsequent history of Auchoynanie is as follows:- John Gordon of Clunie attempted in a Court of Session

Action to reduce the Disposition which he had granted in 1662 to his brother David but this was unsuccessful and he ratified that Dis-

position in 1668. In 1704 David Gordon disponed to Sir Alexander Innes of Coxton who in 1706 disported to Walter Grant of Airndilly

in liferent and his eldest son Thomas in fee. In 1757 Alexander only son of Thomas Grant, had a title from his father. In 1760 Alexander

Grant executed a Commission in favour of Sir Archibald Grant and others empowering them to dispose of his estate of Auchoynanie

etc., which they did to the Earl of Findlater in 1763 by way of an excambion receiving in exchange the lands of Edinvillie and

Aikenway.

The younger John Ogilvie of Milton was, like his father, an ardent

Royalist, but he did eventually sign the Covenant. To understand his motive we must follow the activities of the King himself at this time.

News of the execution of Charles I by the English in 1649 produced

a wave of indignation in Scotland where his son, then in Holland, was immediately proclaimed King as Charles II. But the Crown was

offered to him only on certain conditions, one of these being that he should sign the Covenant. This he refused at first to do and

Montrose who had himself been in exile since his defeat at Philiphaugh landed in Orkney hoping to raise an army and set the

King on the throne by force. But this brief adventure ended in defeat at Carbisdale and the King decided to accept the terms

offered by the Scots. He landed at Garmouth on 23rd June, 1650

and signed the Covenant. The Royalist cause was now linked with that of the Covenanters. Cromwell was the common foe and at

Dunbar on 3rd September he routed the forces of the King and the Covenant.

John Ogilvie was now prepared to take the Covenant like the King

and he submitted himself to the Presbytery. He was of course re-quired first of all to purge his former sins.

At Botarie on 25th September, 1650, he “did compeir and gaue in

his supplicatioun humblie acknowledging his accession to the late horrid rebellion against God and his cause, ingenuuslie declaring his

gryt greif of heart for the same, promising to walk more religiouslie in all tyme coming, and so for taking away his scandell of his gryt

offence, he humblie submittit himself to the presbytry, quhervpon

he was desyred to subscryw the band made thereanent, quhilk he

presentlie obeyed, and ordained to mak his repentance, in

sackcloth, in Keyth, and thereafter to be resaued to the League and Covenant. (Presbytery Book of Strathbogie p. 159).

It is not clear which “horrid rebellion” he had joined. It may have

been Hamilton’s “Engagement” of 1648 which was undertaken on behalf of Charles I and which ended in defeat at Preston, but it

seems more likely to have been the premature rising of Mackenzie of Pluscarden which was undertaken as a curtain-raiser for

Montrose’s last campaign on behalf of Charles II (before the King had agreed to take the Covenant) and which ended in disaster at

Balvenie Castle in May 1649.

Milton of Keith at the time of the Restoration, the Revolution and the Union of Parliaments.

John Ogilvie the younger of Milton married Janet Seaton of the Pitmedden family and had by her two daughters Mary and Jean. It

seems to have been a matter of regret to him that he did not have a son to succeed him as Laird, and in 1670 he visited Edinburgh

where he had prepared by George Dallas, Writer to Signet, an elaborate document regulating the succession to Milton. This is a

Disposition, signed by him at Edinburgh on 30th July, by which he made over the whole Milton Lands to the elder daughter Mary,

whom failing to the younger Jean, reserving the liferent for himself and his wife. The Disposition of 1670 in dealing with the question of

Mary’s marriage provides that (failing her mother) Alexander Seaton of Pitmedden would be consulted. But he was careful to

stipulate that if a son were born he was to be entitled to redeem Milton from his sisters. A son of the marriage to Janet Seaton could

do so for a nominal payment of a Rose Noble of Gold or £16 Scots.

A son of another marriage would pay as compensation 8000 merks to Mary and 4000 merks to Jean or if either of them died without

heirs 12,000 merks to the survivor. If there were no son to redeem Milton and Mary became owner in her own right she would be

required to pay 4000 merles to Jean. It was stipulated further that if they were to take benefit under this deed, Mary and Jean could

marry only with their parents’ consent and detailed directions were given regarding the penalties they would pay if this condition were

disregarded.

(The deed is in the form of a continuous scroll and measures seven feet in length).

The careful wording of this lengthy document shows clearly that the

Laird had great hopes for the future of Milton, but these were not

destined to be fulfilled. No son appeared to redeem the estate and it

fell to Mary Ogilvie to provide for the succession. In 1672 with the consent of both her parents she married Peter Mel-

drum of Laithers (Marriage contract 8th July, 1672) but he did not long survive. There were two daughters of this marriage.

On 24th December, 1692, the second daughter Jean, with consent of

her husband Sir Alexander Innes of Coxton, granted a Discharge of her rights under her parents’ Marriage Contract.

In 1678 with the consent of her father Mary married Charles,

Seventh Lord Oliphant, and in due course an heir was born, Patrick, designed Master of Oliphant.

Charles, who had succeeded to the Oliphant title before 16th

October, 1674, was the son of Patrick the Sixth Lord and his third

wife Mary, 3rd daughter of James Crichton of Frendraught. From her brother, Mary Crichton and her husband had a grant of the lands of

Pittendreich on the Deveron in Banffshire, which were in 1646 erected into the Barony of Oliphant. The old hereditary possessions

of the Oliphants including Aberdalgie, Dupplin and Gask had all been alienated by the Fifth Lord whose spendthift habits had

brought the family fortunes near to ruin. (Oliphants in Scotland, edited by Joseph Anderson).

Having been brought up in the old faith Charles hoped that

Catholicism might be re-established by James VII when he succeeded Charles II as King in 1685. He was in that year made a

Commissioner of Supply for Banffshire and his name appears in a list of Catholics dispensed from taking the Test.

But in 1688 came the Revolution. James fled to France and William and Mary came to the throne. Lord Oliphant remained faithful to

James and in February 1689, even before the Rising of Dundee, he was apprehended for signing an association to stand by his King

with life and fortune. In July the hopes of the Jacobites were virtu-ally extinguished by’-the death of Dundee at Killiecrankie in the hour

of victory but Oliphant did not take any more kindly to the new regime on that account. In February of the following year he was

again arrested along with his wife Mary Ogilvie so we may surmise that she shared his views. She no doubt was released soon after.

On 11th April Oliphant petitioned the Privy Council for release and they recommended “to Major General McKay to write to Colonel

Livingstone for an account from him or Lieutenant Agnew, who apprehended the petitioner, of the cause for which he was taken

into custody; and, in the meantime, recommend to the Earl of

Mortone to try if he find caution for his peaceable behaviour and

appearance when called in the ordinary terms under the penalty of

two hundred pounds sterling.”

On 18th April he was liberated, the Earl of Morton being his cautioner. He was fined for his absence from the Head Courts of the

County frequently during William’s reign, and precepts for the recovery of the fines were more than once issued.

In 1693 a fine of £1200 Scots each was imposed on Lord Oliphant and a number of other Scottish peers for absenting themselves from

Parliament but he remained true to his Jacobite principles and did not again take his place there.

Two relics survive which relate to the union of Lord Oliphant with

Mary Ogilvie. In the Kirkyard of Keith there still stands a portion of the gable of the old Parish Kirk and built into the north side of this

is a sculptured coat of arms, now somewhat weather-worn but still

decipherable, representing the arms of Oliphant quartered with those of Ogilvie; and built into a wall of a granary at Milton Distillery

is a triangular stone which came from Milton Castle and which bears the representation of a coronet and the letters “L.M.O.” standing for

Lady Mary Oliphant.

Soon after the marriage of Lord Oliphant to Mary Ogilvie they fell into acute financial difficulties. In 1685 Mary granted a Bond for 100

merks to George Mackie of Newmill with John Ogilvie, her father, and Janet Seaton, her mother, as cautioners. It is evident from this

that all was not well at Milton and from this small start a pile of debt began to accumulate.

Mackie’s son, James, assigned this debt to Alexander Duff of Braco

on 16th June, 1705.

John Ogilvie was dead before 24th December, 1692 (Date of Dis-

charge by Jean Meldrum).

John Ogilvie wrote to the Earl of Findlater from Newmill on 10th February, 1691, in the following terms::-

“The Lord Oliphant is remowed from this countrea with his Ladie and familie, so yt I cannot give give your Lo. anie ansuer from him

unlesse I could hav spoken with him myself; bot I fear he is not provyded to give your Lo. monie at this tyme, and I may say I know

so much by exsperience in ane affair of my own. It is lyk I may sie your Lo. som day this weick, and I shal use mor freidome in this

affair than now I can doe; nr think I yt your Lo. may mowe much in this session. And I know he does realie desing you Lo. satisfaction,

though he be not prepared for the tyme; yet I judge that it is meit

your Lo. and he should meit and cleir things, yt he may endeavor to

doe busines at the nixt tearme. And this is all I can say for the

tyme.”

Lord Oliphant himself wrote to Findlater on 25th April in the same year as follows::-

“ I receved you Lo. immedeatlie, as leakwais ane line from Park the outher day conserning that affaire, and I hope your Lo. knowes I

was alwaies willing to doe what was just and incumbent for me; and accordinglie I am resolved to send ane espress, God willing, the

beginning of this inshuing week for my peapers to Edbr. from my Lord Pittmeden, whereby I may be in a condishione to treat wt Sir

John.”

This correspondence must relate to difficulties which Findlater was having in collecting the sums due to him as Superior under the

Charter of 1649 in favour of Gordon of Park. It has already been

mentioned that when Park conveyed Milton to Mary Ogilvie’s father in 1650 he created a mid-superiority in favour of himself hoping

thereby to retain a hold on the Laird of Milton. But this arrangement was more of a nuisance than an advantage to Park for he remained

primarily liable to Findlater for the feuduty of 10 merks and for the other feudal obligations in the Charter. Thus when the Oliphants

defaulted in these obligations Findlater looked to him for satisfaction but he appears to have avoided becoming deeply involved.

Gable of the Old Parish Church of Keith.

However willing Oliphant may have been to “doe what was just and incumbent” for him, he was utterly incapable of fulfilling his

obligations and the feuduty of Milton had been unpaid for we know not how many years. There was at this time in Banffshire one man

who was prepared to take a gamble on being able to collect unpaid debts, Alexander Duff of Braco, and to him in 1693 Findlater, with

the consent of his second son James, assigned nonentry dues of Milton, feuduties unpaid up to Whitsunday of that year, and future

feudutlies up to Whitsunday 1696. There was a further assignation in 1697.

In 1697 Lord and Lady Oliphant on the security of Milton borrowed

2800 merks from Braco and another 1400 merks in the following

year.

In 1698 Robert Imlack, Notary Publick in Keith, got a Bond from Mary Ogilvie for 125 merks (dated 5th January, 1698. This debt was

assigned 26th November, 1711, to Alexander Duff’s heir William).

She was dead before 30th September, 1701, when James Paterson, Merchant in Keith, obtained warrant to poind as a result of an action

which he raised against Lord Oliphant before the Commissary of Moray for 200 merks contained in a Bond granted by Lord and Lady

Oliphant six years earlier. This debt was paid by Braco. In the same year Lord Oliphant and his son Patrick raised a further loan

amounting to 700 merks from Braco who also paid for them a debt of £120 Scots to Robert Sanders, son of the Provost of Banff, which

Lord Oliphant had contracted the previous year and a debt of £12 Scots incurred by Patrick to Alexander Richardson, painter.

On 14th January, 1702, a Bond of Corroboration for debts

amounting in all to £7500 Scots was granted to Braco by the Oliphants. In this young Oliphant declares it to be for the purpose of

“doeing and redding any affairs concerning my estate and lands of

Milnetoun and Keith and also for my maintenance and education abroad furth of this realme.” Braco had as security not only Milton

but the Lands of Pittendreich and Ardfour in the Parishes of Aberchirder and Inverkeithney as well.

The Oliphants were now at the mercy of Braco as many other im-

poverished landowners in Banffshire. and elsewhere had been be-fore them. His father Alexander

Duff of Keithmore, popularly known as Creely Duff (It has been said that‘ this nickname was a reference to his having at one time, like

Hamewith’s Packman, gone round the countryside with a creel, and a ballad was written about him on this theme. The Book of The

Duffs Vol.I p.53. Another suggestion is that the name was derived from “croil”- a distorted person or dwarf), the eldest son of Adam

Duff of Clunybeg to whom reference has already been made, had

amassed considerable wealth and Braco was determined to expand the family estates by all means at his disposal. “I’ll gar a’ that reek

gae thro’ ae lum yet” said he looking out from Balveny on the smoke rising from the chimneys of the homesteads round about.

The knowledge of feudal law which he had acquired in .his early legal training in a W.S. Office in Edinburgh, combined with the

possession of a sufficiency of ready cash, enabled him to realise his ambitions, and a glance at the Sasine Registers of the day where

his acquisitions of land are recorded is sufficient to show how successful he was.

In a country exhausted by long civil wars and by a succession of

bad harvests, on top of which came the disaster of Darien, many of the lairds, both great and small, were steeped in debt. Braco was

only too pleased to buy up their existing debts or to grant them new

loans, with an eye mainly on the possibility of entering into posses-

sion himself when, as usually happened, the obligations were not

met. That he often dealt harshly is more than likely and there were many who felt like the Earl of Kintore who is said to have included

in his prayers the plea, “Lord, keep the Hill of Foudlin between me and that dammed Duff.”

This has however been truly said, “The Duffs made their money by

merchandice, agriculture, private banking, money-lending and other arts of industry and peace pursued for a long period of time and

with every favourable advantage and thus acquired an enormous estate by fair trade. They offer a favourable contrast to most of the

ancient families in the north who gained their estates generally by war and bloodshed and preying on their weaker neighbours.”

Braco himself died in December, 1705. He did not therefore live to see the conclusion of the Milton affair, the outcome of which is fairly

certainly not what he designed. The rise of the Duffs as powerful

Banffshire landowners must have been viewed with some misgivings by the Ogilvies of Findlater who were themselves in fin-

ancial straits. The Third Earl had made over the family estates, heavily burdened with debt, to his second son James who later

succeeded as Fourth Earl, his elder brother Walter having died vita patris. James being a younger son entered the Law and was in 1685

called to the Bar where he had a successful career. In 1693 he was knighted and appointed Solicitor-General and three years later was

appointed a Secretary of State. Created Viscount Seafleld and Lord Ogilvy of Cullen in 1698 he was appointed President of the

Parliament of that year. In 1701 he was created Earl Seafield, Viscount Reidhaven and Lord Ogilvy of Deskford and Cullen and the

following year was appointed Lord High Chancellor of Scotland, an appointment which he lost in 1704 but regained in 1705. From the

generous salaries which his official appointments brought him he

was able not only to redeem his own family estates but to add to them as well. In 1704 he entered into negotiations with the Master

of Oliphant and his father Lord Oliphant and took over Milton, burdened as it was with debt to Braco, the title being taken in the

first instance in name of Alexander Ogilvie of Forglen who continued as nominal owner until 1725 when he denuded in favour of Seafield.

(A large number of writs relate to this transaction the final instrument of Resignation ad Remanentiam being dated 15th

October and recorded 9th December 1725.)

There had now to be a reckoning with the Duffs. When Braco died in 1705 he left his wealth to his son William. On his death by his own

hand in 1718 the fortune passed to his uncle William Duff of Dipple (Keithmore’s second son). He died in 1722 to be succeeded by his

son William later to become Lord Braco, First Lord Fife. He it was

who collected from Seafield, (who on the death of his father in 1711

had succeeded him as Fourth Earl of Findlater) the sums contained

in the various Bonds granted by the Oliphants and so the title was cleared. (Disposition by William Duff of Braco 8th June 1727.)

Patrick, Master of Oliphant had, like certain of his ancestors, a

somewhat stormy career. His favourite sport is said to have been horse-racing and from an Agreement which survives we learn, not

only that the loss of Milton in no way diminished his love for a gamble or a race, but that the placing of a bet was a much more

cumbersome undertaking then than it is in these days of credit bookmakers and mechanical totalisators. The following is an extract

from the Agreement which he made on 3rd January, 1706, with James Mitchell of Achanacie. “It is condescended and agreed upon

betwixt the pairties following viz. Patrick Master of Oliphant on the ane pairt and James Mitchell of Achanacie on the other pairt in

manner following to wit: That upon the first twesday of Apryle next

to come they are to run ane horse race betwixt Speymouth and Buckle for seven guineas gold. The horse to be run for the Master is

the mear belonging to Walter Montgomerie in Milne of Ruthven which was run at King Charles fair and that of Achanacies is his own

sorall whyte faced who had the course with the mear the said day. The ryders are to weigh seven stone and ane half merchant weight

with this provision allwayes that the said Walter Montgomerie allow the Master the use of his mear and lastly the loser oblidges himself

instantly to pay to the gainer the said seven guineas and both pairties hine inde to others under the penaltie of two guineas to be

payed by the pairtie failzier to the pairtie observer or willing to observe by and attour performance.”

On his father’s death in April or May 1706 he succeeded him as Eighth Lord Oliphant. His name appears in the list of Members of

Parliament which met on 3rd October 1706 and he took the oaths on

the 12th of that month. Like Braco he strongly opposed the Union and voted consistently against it in Parliament. In that he probably

more truly represented the temper of the country than the promoters of the Treaty of whom the chief was Chancellor Seafield.

He supported among others the Earl of Atholl who protested that “this from a Soveraign Independent Monarchie shall dissolve its

Constitution and be at the disposall of England whose Constitution is not in the least to be altered by the Treaty” and who thus summed

up the position “It evidently appears not only from the many protests of the honourable and worthie members of this House, but

also from the multitudes of Addresses and Petitions from the several parts of the Kingdome . . . that there is a generall dislike

and aversion to this incorporating union ... and there is not one Address from any part of the Kingdome in its favour . . .” (Acta Parl.

Scot. 7th January 1707.) On 27th January, 1707, Lord Oliphant’s

name appears for the last time on the list of voters.

Contract of sale of the Miltoun Estate between James Earl of Seafleld, High Chancellor of Scotland, and Patrick Master of

Oliphant, dated 7th February, 1704. The Earl of Seafield pays nothing. for the House of Miltoun but

advances £414 Scots to the Master of Oliphant and promises to pay him 1900 Merks Scots for each Chalder of Meal and Bear of yearly

rent and like sums for each. 100 Merks Scots of yearly money rent. The price of the lands to be applied for clearing the wadsets and

other debts on the. property.

It is not known if he was the Patrick Oliphant who had a commission in Ferguson’s Regiment in 1704 and who was wounded’ at

Blenheim, but he was at any rate a Captain in the 1st Battalion Royal Scots in 1708 and in Brigadier Stanwix’s Regiment in 1715.

He served under Marlborough at the taking of Bouchain in 1711.

Having taken up soldiering as a career he sold what remained of his

Banffshire Estates in 1709 to James Oliphant of Gask and he re-signed, failing male heirs of his own, the honour, title and dignity of

Lord Oliphant to Gask “our near relation and the only person cap-able to support and preserve our family.”

On Patrick’s death, however, the title did not devolve on Gask who had no wish to press his claim to the exclusion of one nearer in

blood, although he did intervene to oppose the claim of an imposter, one Andrew Oliphant.

By hereditary right the title fell to Patrick’s uncle, Colonel William

Oliphant, an ardent Jacobite, and he assumed the honour. He had joined Dundee before Killiecrankie and was again in the field for the

Stuarts in the ‘15. Because of his sympathies the official view of the time was that not he but his nephew Francis was the 9th Lord.

As a postscript to the foregoing the following is of interest. Writing

to Prince Charles in exile at Rome on 14th March 1749 the loyal Jacobite, Laurence Oliphant of Gask, himself in exile at Toulouse,

said “I beg your Royal Highness may excuse the giveing this trouble

in representing that in the year seventeen hunder and nine Patrick, Lord Oliphant made a Resignation of his Honours to the King, in fav-

our of James Oliphant of Gask, my Fater. His Lops Cousin Franceis, the late Lord, dyed in May last, without leaving any children. I have

inform’d the King of these facts by this post that his Majesty and your Royal Highness may doe in this matter as you shall think

proper.”

He had a reply from James Edgar the “King’s” Secretary in Rome dated 8th April indicating that, while it would be agreeable to Gask,

“H.M. thinks this is not a proper time to enter upon the merits of the Resignation of honours you mention.”

Apparently Gask was not content to let the matter rest there for on

8th June, 1751, Edgar wrote again from Albano explaining at some

length why the time was unpropitious for pressing his claim. But as the chances of a Stuart restoration receded the Old Chevalier’s

belief in his own power appears to have grown, for on 14th July, 1760, from his Court at Rome “James the eight, by the grace of

God, King of Scotland, England, France, and Ireland,” issued. to Gask his long awaited Patent of Peerage. Needless, to say the

House of Gask never received any practical benefit from this Patent.

Patrick himself died in poor circumstances in London on 14th January; 1780, unmarried, but survived by a natural son Charles.

His landlady, Isabella Harrison, reporting his death to his uncle Wil-liam, then living in Orleans, wrote on 30th -January. “He had no

relations about him but strangers, but had a, decent buriall; he came sick to my house and laboured seven weeks under a sore

distemper which was a dropsie, a hectick fever and consumption. I

thought it was charity as well as duty to acquaint you of this last

mournful scene for he was mallancholly to the highest degree, he

was carfully tenderly took care on while he was here. He never write to any of his relations because he was not capable of doing it

himself by reason of his weakness but as much in his right reason to the hour of his death as he was in his best health.”

Of his Keith home there is not much more to relate. Milton Castle

seems to have been standing as late as 1725 for the Instrument of Resignation in favour of Findlater granted in that year refers to the

Tower and Fortalice, but it is unlikely that it was still then in occupation. In any event not only must its subsequent

disintegration have been rapid but the memory of its late occupants seems to have faded very quickly.

A description of the Parish of Keith written in 1742 contains no more

than a passing reference to “an old ruinous House called Milltoun of

Keith” and in his contribution to the Statistical Account published in 1793 the Rev. Alexander Humphrey, who had been Assistant

Minister of Keith and was then Minister of Fordyce, could tell no more of Milton than this. “A little below the old village of Keith there

is a beautiful fall of water, called the Lin of Keith where the Isla precipitates itself over a pretty high rock forming a very pleasant

cascade. On the top of the rock which overhangs this cascade stand the scanty remains of a once large ruin said to have formerly

belonged to a gentleman of the name of Oliphant who had been one of the Senators of the College of Justice. Tradition gives no par-

ticular account of this ruin; it does not however seem to have been of any very great antiquity.”

“A survey of the Province of Moray” printed for Isaac Forsyth,

Bookseller, Elgin, in 1798 goes a little further. “Tradition relates

that a part of the edifice of Lord Oliphant’s castle in which the Plate was deposited projected over the pool of the cascade; the

foundation failed and the whole submerged to the bottom. His Lordship brought experienced divers from England, the first of

whom having gone down, floated after a considerable time to the surface, his bowels torn out; none of the rest had sufficient

resolution to make another essay and the Plate was lost.”

Milton Castle, 1795.

The illustration here reproduced is taken from a work by the Rev. Charles Cordiner of Banff (with engraving by Peter Mazell) produced

in 1795 under the title “Remarkable Ruins and Romantic Prospects of North Britain with Ancient Monuments and Singular Subjects of

Natural History.” The accuracy of Cordiner’s work has sometimes been questioned, not without reason, and he was wide of the mark

in that he attributed the erection of Milton to the Oliphants, but his illustration is probably a fair enough representation of the ruin as it

was when he saw it. He refers to it thus. “When admiring the situation of the tower and its demesnes, Lord Oliphant seems to

demand great credit as a man of taste, in placing his residence in so wildly rural a scene; but on perceiving that it is not the slight simple

edifice of a country seat, open around and easy of access; but a

species of fortress walled about with jealous care, placed on peninsulated precipices, Constructed with these small embrazures,

from which they might fearless annoy approaching enemies and prevent the assailants attack, the illusion of the fancied choice

vanishes, and less pleasing motives are seen to have determined the place of abode.”

It is of interest to mention that after more than two centuries of

decay the small roofless portion of the building which survives was made to do duty as a strong point during Hitler’s War, but the

veterans of the Home Guard who stood behind the embrazures waited in vain for approaching enemies whom they might fearless

annoy. PART II.

KIRKTOUN OF KEITH

About half a mile further up the Isla from the old Milltoun is a deep dark pool in the river known as the Gaun’s Pot where in days gone

by the witches of Keith were drowned, and not far from there, on a

piece of rising ground deep-set in the river valley, stood the Kirk

and clustered . round it the village known as the Kirktoun, lying on the north-eastern fringe of the vast possessions of the mighty

Bishopric of Moray. (The Gaun’s Pot is now spanned by the bridge carrying the main Aberdeen-Inverness road.)

This was certainly a centre of habitation in early Christian times. As

the military grip of the Romans on Britain relaxed the Christian missionaries from the West commenced their systematic campaign

of spiritual conquest, penetrating indeed to areas where no Roman legionary had ever set foot. From the monastery founded by Saint

Congall at Bangor in Ulster to Applecross in Ross-shire came Saint Maelrubha. (His name appears in several forms the more usual of

these being St. Rufus, Summarius or Summereve.) There in 673 he founded a monastery and from this centre he evangelised a wide

area of northern and eastern Pictland, Keith and Fordyce being the

eastern limits of his penetration.

How the natives of Strathisla fared during the period of the Danish and Norwegian inroads we can only guess but that they knew

something of war and bloodshed in these turbulent times can hardly be doubted. Certain it is that Norsemen descended in large numbers

on the coasts of the Moray Firth, first as raiders and later as settlers, and the fertile Laich of Moray at any rate was extensively

colonised. In Banffshire in 961 in the Battle of the Baads at Findochty, Eric of the Bloody Axe, was defeated by King Indulphus

who himself fell in the fight. In the battle of the Bleedy Pits, too, at Gamrie, and in the Great Battle of Mortlach the Scandinavians

suffered defeat. But in the extreme north they were firmly established and thinking to set up friendly relations with them,

Malcolm McKenneth gave his daughter in marriage to Sigurd the

Stout, Jarl of Orkney and Caithness. Their son Thorfinn succeeded to the Jarldom. McKenneth gave another daughter in marriage to

Crinan, Lay Abbot of Dunkeld. Their son Duncan, who succeeded to his grandfather’s crown, attempted to bring his cousin Thorfinn into

subjection by force of arms but was defeated by him at Torfness (Burghead) in 1040 and was himself slain by Macbeth, Maemor of

the independent principality of Moray. Malcolm, son of the slain King, who had taken refuge at the Court of Edward of England while

Macbeth ruled in Scotland, later returned to avenge his father. Macbeth was slain at Lumphannan in Mar in 1057 as was his

kinsman Lulach at Essie in Strathbogie soon afterwards. Thorfinn too fell in battle and with the assumption of the Crown by Malcolm,

now called Ceanmore or Great Chief, although there was not yet unity in the land, a new era in the history of Scotland began.

To the government of the country Malcolm applied many of the

principles which he had learned during his exile and the introduction of English notions was further advanced by his marriage to the

Princess Margaret of England who, with her brother Edgar the Athe-ling had taken refuge at his court at Dunfermline from the Norman

invaders.

While the influence on both State and Church of Malcolm and his Queen was felt throughout the kingdom events during the succes-

sive reigns of their sons Alexander and David were of more direct consequence to the North-east. Their elder brother Edgar occupied

the throne before them and when he died in 1107 he divided the kingdom between his two brothers, leaving the part north of the

Forth and Clyde to Alexander and the remainder to David. There was then only one Bishopric for the whole country, that of St.

Andrews. Alexander, deeply religious like his mother Queen

Margaret, considered this insufficient for the needs of so large an area and as part of his policy of ecclesiastical expansion he

established soon after his accession the Bishopric of Moray having for its Cathedral the Church of Birnie. The Episcopal seat

subsequently moved to Kinnedar, then to Spynie, and finally in the early part of the 13th Century to Elgin. Thus was established in the

Laich of Moray the “Lantern of the North,” that “glorious cathedral” the remnants of which have “survived through fire and violence and

long neglect to recall some memory of the taste and religious feeling of an age called unenlightened.” (Cosmo Innes, Scotland in

the Middle Ages, P.XXIX.)

Under beneficent royal patronage the Bishopric grew rich in endow-ments and formidable in power, the bishops being not only great

spiritual leaders but great temporal lords as well.

On Alexander’s death, David, the “Sair Sanct,” succeeded his

brother and thus became King of all Scotland. He had lived for some years at the Court of the Norman Kings of England and he brought

to Scotland many of his Norman friends. Norman laws and customs were introduced in preference to those of Saxon origin which had

been adopted by his predecessors and feudalism in its Norman form, still the basis of our system of land tenure, was established.

It was during this reign that the Principality of Moray became finally

attached to the Crown and it was often visited by the King. The story goes that while hunting alone one day near Forres, King David

lost his way in a dense forest. He prayed for deliverance and in answer a white dove appeared and guided him into open country.

He spent the night in a shepherd’s cottage and in his sleep the

Virgin appeared and directed him to erect a chapel on the spot

where he had been saved. The next day he marked out with his

sword a site for the building and so, in the year 1150, the Abbey of Kinloss was founded and given over to Monks of the Cistercian

Order.

To this Abbey William the Lion, who reigned from 1165 to 1214, “for the salvation of his soul and of the souls of all his predecessors and

successors as Kings of Scotland and of all the faithful departed,” granted all the lands of Strathisla as far as Keith. (The name ap-

pears in the form “Gethe” in this Charter which is reproduced at length in the Antiquities of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff

(Spalding) Vol. II pp. 230-233.) This grant wass confirmed by his son Alexander II in 1226. Again by Robert the Bruce in 1312, two

years before Bannockburn, and again by James I in 1424.

In 1451 the possessions of the Bishop of Moray “for service and

council done to the King and his father,” were erected by King James II into the Barony of Spynie, and in the following year into a

Regality, the highest form of feudal tenure.

In the great ecclesiastical machine of Moray the Church of Keith, dedicated to St. Maelrubha, was a small but important cog. As one

of the twelve mensal churches of the Bishopric it had the honour of contributing to the table allowance of the Bishop himself, the

rectorial or great teinds being appropriated towards his mainten-ance. The Bishop was parson or rector of his mensal churches and

employed by a vicar or stipendiary to serve the cure, he being entitled only to the small or vicarial teinds. The vicar did the work

but the Bishop drew the bulk of the wages. In some cases the vicar drew a fixed stipend or pension and the whole teinds went to the

Bishop.

The first vicar of Keith of whom we have a record is Malcolm who

was a signatory of a Charter of Bishop Bricius erecting eight prebends in the Cathedral Church at Spynie between 1208 and

1214 and who subscribed new constitutions of Bishop Andrew de Moravia at the Church of St. Giles in Elgin in 1226. The Church of

Keith and certain other mensal churches were confirmed to the Bishop of Moray by a Deed granted by a Papal Legate at Kelso

between 1203 and 1224 and by Papal Bull in 1222.

There is not much more heard of the Kirk of Keith until October 1497 when it received a visit from King James IV under whose

patronage was founded King’s College, Aberdeen. He had been implicated as a boy in the murder of his father after Sauchieburn

and in later years, right up to the time when he himself fell at

Flodden, the memory of this deed troubled him. Popularly known as

James of the Iron Belt from the penitential belt which he is reputed

to have worn, he made frequent pilgrimages to holy places including several to the Shrine of St. Duthac at Tain. The accounts of the Lord

High Treasurer of Scotland (John Stuart, Records of the Priory of the Isle of May, pp. LXXIX et seq.) tell a good deal about these trips

and indicate that the King’s mood was not always so penitential as to prevent him from combining with his quest for spiritual comfort

pleasures of a more mundane sort. On a November night in 1504 in Strathbogie, for example, he received £14 “to play at the cartis”

and at Darnaway he received a further sum of 20/- for the same purpose. In October the following year in musical mood he was ac-

companied by four Italian minstrels and a Moorish “tabrouner.” At Dunottar 18/- was paid “to the chield playit on the monocordis”;

18/- “to the piparis in Abirdene”; 9/- “to the maddins of Forres that dansit to the King”; 11/6 “to the maddins that dansit at Elgin sic-

like”; 14/- “to the maddins that dansit at Dernway; and 14/- “to the

Lard of Balnagownis harper.” When “cummand hame agane” he “baytit” at Inverurie and 14/2 was paid to “ane wif” who entertained

him there. On his 1497 pilgrimage he broke his journey at Keith when 18/- was paid “at the Kirk of Keth to the gudwif of the houss”

and 16 pence “to the prest that sed mes to the King thair,” but there is nothing to show whether he was entertained by local

dancing girls on that occasion, so that we have no means of judging if the maddins of Keith were as talented as their sisters of Forres,

Elgin and Darnaway.

As the occasion arose a Regality Court sat in the Kirk of Keith. When the steeple was built it did duty as a jail. (Margaret Gordon,

spouse of Walter Ogilvie of Auchoynanie, is credited with the erection of the steeple. Balbithan M.S. House of Gordon New

Spalding Club). The powers of the Regality Courts of the Bishops of

Moray were formidable for they had jurisdiction even in the four points of the Crown, robbery, rape, arson and murder. The

proceedings were of a summary nature if we judge by the records for the period 1592 to 1601 relating to the Court which sat in the

Cathedral at Elgin, and the dice was heavily loaded against an accused. The reading of the charge was followed by the words

“quilk ye can nocht denye”.and the fate of the prisoner was indicated with laconic brevity by the words “convictit,” or “hangit” or

“drounit.”

At Keith the gallows stood on the hill to the south-east of the Kirk-ton. There is a reference to the Gallows Hill in the 1536 Charter of

Milton. The Gallows Hill became the site of New Keith, the Seafleld Arms Inn being built near the spot where the gallows stood. Witches

were pushed from an overhanging rock into the Gaun’s Pot where

their struggles afforded entertainment for the populace. So com-

pelling, indeed, was this spectacle that on one occasion, so we are

told, a malefactor whose ear had been nailed to the gallows tree, wrenched himself free in order that he might join an eager crowd on

the river bank, watching a witch undergo the ordeal of the Gaun’s Pot.

In 1535, the year before George and Janet Ogilvie received their

Charter of Milton, Patrick Hepburn, son of Patrick, First Earl of Both-well, became Bishop of Moray. Coming from a clever family he was

himself a man of considerable talent. By reason of his position he took a prominent part in affairs of State and his name is linked with

a number of the important events of the time. In 1543, for example, following the defeat of the Scots at Solway Moss and the

death of James V, he was one of the peace emissaries to Henry VIII of England, and he was one of the commissioners who negotiated

the marriage of Mary Stuart with the Dauphin of France in 1558.

But he is remembered more for the notoriety of his private life than for any distinction he attained as a public figure. Concerning him

John Knox relates this “meary bourd.” “Thare was a Prelatt or at least a Prelattis peir a trew servand to the King of luif, who upon a

nycht after suppar asked at his gentillmen, be the fayth that thel awght to the King of luif that thei should trewlie declare how many

syndrie wemen everie ane of them had haid, and how many of thame war menis wyffis. Ane answered, he had lyne with fyve and

two of thame war maryed. The other answered “I have haid sevin, and thrie of thame are maryed.” It came at last to my Lord himself

who macking it veray nyce for a lytill space gave in the end ane plain confession and said “I am the yongest man and yitt have I

haid the round desone; and sevin of them are menis wyffis” This Prelatt was knowin by his proper tochenes to have bene Priour

Patrick Hepburne, now Bishop of Murray, who to this day hes

continued in the professioun that he anes maid to his God and king of luif.” (The works of John Knox Vol. I pp. 40-41.)

There is no reason to doubt that Patrick made this boast and his

boast, if made, was quite likely true, for authentic history in the form of the Register of the Great Seal records letters of legitimation

for ten of his illegitimate children by at least four different mothers. How many others there may have been is a matter for conjecture.

There was at anyrate one other, Jean, who married Peter, second son of the third Lord Oliphant. (In Scots Peerage, Vol. VI p. 545.)

To provide for his irregular family he embarked upon a systematic process of alienation of the Church lands and freely appropriated

the proceeds for his private uses. He was no doubt encouraged in this policy by the belief that the Reformation must succeed, an

event which he was shrewd enough to foresee, and he was

determined that, whatever happened to his spirituality, his

temporality should be secure. He braved the storm with remarkable

success. “Shutting himself up in his palace of Spynie he carried on his wild merry unprincipled life to the end and died there - not how-

ever in the odour of sanctity - on 20th June 1573. (Charles Rampini, History of Moray and Nairn, p. 97).

In the course of his despoliation of the property of the Church

Bishop Patrick in 1554 disposed of the Kirkton of Keith to Magister John Gordon, Vicar of Kincardine and Rothiemurchus in liferent and

in fee to his son James and his heirs male, whom failing to his son John and his heirs male, whom failing to Alexander Gordon in

Auchortels and the heirs male, born of his marriage to Catherine Gordon, all whom failing to the nearest heirs male of his son John,

bearing the name and arms of Gordon. In the Instrument of Sasine, following on the Charter, James is referred to as a natural son of

John the Vicar.

This Magister John Gordon was Vicar of Kincardine and Rothie-

murchus between 1554 and 1557 and was probably the same John Gordon who had been Vicar of Keith between 1540 and 1547.

The writing on the Charter of the Kirkton has faded and in ordinary

light the parchment appears almost blank. Photography by ultra-violet light carried out in the laboratories of the Edinburgh C.I.D.

has, however, made it possible for much of it to be read.

The subjects disponed are described simply as the “Ecclesiastical Lands of Keith” but the pertinents are set out at great length in the

Charter, from which the following excerpt is taken:- “ All and each part of the lands of Kirkton of Keith with its pertin-

ents lying within the Barony of Keith, Regality of Spynie and County

of Banff with tofts, crofts, houses, buildings, woods, plains, roads, paths, waters still and flowing, meadows, grazings, pastures, mills,

multures and their sequels, fowling, hunting, fishings, coal, charcoal, mines, caves, doves, dove cotes, forges, brewhouses,

briars, brooms, trees, groves, thickets, timber, quarries, stone, lime, ironworks, hills, valleys, hillocks with common pasture, with

the power of digging, working and cultivating new husbandry on the lands above mentioned with free entry and exit and with all other

and several rights, easements, advantages and conveniences and its fixed pertinents whatsoever, both named and un-named, both

under the ground and above the ground, far off and near to the foresaid lands, examining or wishing to examine them by right, in

whatever way it pleases in the future, freely, quietly, fully, impartially, honourably, well and in peace without any impediment,

revocation, contradiction, or obstacle whatsoever ….“

“ Giving from thence annually to the said Master John Gordon the

sum of six pounds thirteen shillings and fourpence of the usual money of the kingdom of Scotland and also the sum of forty four

shillings, five pence and the third part of a penny in the said money for grassum, and also the sum of three shillings and fourpence in

augmentation of our rentals, extending in all to the sum of nine pounds thirteen pennies and a third of a penny together with two

fourth parts of a mart (ox killed and salted at Martinmas), two sheep, 22 capons, two geese, two bolls of oats, and for use of the

mill three bolls of dry multure for two years the customary limits, by equal portions.

The following entry in the Registrum Episcopatus Moraviensis (P.

448) in a statement of the rental of the Bishopric relates to the foregoing grant.”

(The Barony of Keith is assessed in feu farm . . .

The Kirkton of Keith paying in a year £ 6 16s 8d Scots by way of feu farm two quarters of a Mart, two sheep, twelve capons, two lambs,

two geese, two bolls of oats, three bolls of dry multure, with servitudes …

Master John Gordon. This differs slightly from the terms of the Charter).

These were taken almost verbatim from the original Great Seal

Charter erecting the Bishop’s lands into the Barony of Spynie and most of them can have meant little or nothing when applied to the

Kirk lands of Keith. The scribes of these days loved to pad out their deeds with fine sounding words whether they meant anything or

not. Parts of the deed which did mean something were those relating to the annual payments to be made by the grantee. The

Bishop expressly reserved to himself the rectorial or great teinds -

the decimae garbales. Annual cash payments by way of rent or feuduty were specified amounting in all to £ 6 16s 8d with grassum

of £2 4s 5d and one third of a penny, together also with a number of payments in kind - livestock and grain. In addition the grantee

was required to give suit in the Regality Court of the Bishop when required, wherever it might be held, and the performance of certain

personal services was prescribed including military service by the grantee and his tenants. This grant was later confirmed by an

elaborate Charter by Papal Legates Alexander Kyd and James Nathan.

Charter dated 1554 in which Bishop Patrick disposed of the Kirkton

of Keith to Magister John Gordon, Vicar of Kincardine and Rothie-murchus.

In the Moray Chartulary there is a Rental of the Bishopric for 1565

which shows the payments due by “Magister Johannes Gordoun” for the Kirk lands but of the Charter itself in his favour and of the

subsequent transmissions of the Kirk lands there is no mention, and there is nothing to show who John Gordon was. While he was no

doubt the same John Gordon who had been vicar of Keith at an ear-lier date it should be remembered that his interest in the Kirk lands

in 1565 was feudal and not spiritual. In that year the vicar of Keith was “Maister William Wysman, quhae was the best wryttar within

the bisschopreik of Murray at that time.”

In 1566 the Bishop granted a further Charter of the Kirk lands to

John Gordon the Vicar in liferent but the fee this time went direct to

Alexander Gordon of Auchorteis and Catherine Gordon his spouse.

What had happened in the meantime to the vicar’s sons James and John we do not know.

Kirkton of Keith at the time of the Union of the Crowns, the

National Covenant and the Civil War. In 1580 or 1581 George Gordon of Auchorteis, as heir to his father

Alexander, succeeded to his Kirkton. In 1591 he disponed to George Ogilvie of Acharn who in turn in 1596 disponed to James Grant of

Ardmellie and Katherine Ross his spouse. The Superior who confirmed these last two transfers was not the

Bishop but Alexander, Lord Spynie and it is interesting to notice the reason for this. The change to Protestantism had caused little up-

heaval in the North which “acquiesced in” “rather than warmly embraced” the Reformation and the subsequent fluctations between

Episcopacy and Presbyterianism were accepted by the Northern

Scots with little enthusiasm for one side or for the other. But for those having an interest in the property of the Church these

changes were of considerable importance.

On the death of Bishop Patrick Hepburn, George Douglas was on 12th August 1573 appointed the first Protestant Bishop of Moray. By

Act of Parliament of 1587 the temporalities of all benefices were annexed to the Crown, reserving to the Bishops their palaces and

mansions, and on the death of Bishop Douglas in 1589 King James VI conferred what remained of the possessions of the Bishopric of

Moray upon his Vice-Chamberlain and close personal friend Alexander Lindsay, fourth son of David, 10th Earl of Crawford.

Lindsay had accompanied the King on his expedition to woo the Princess Anna of Denmark but had fallen ill in Norway where James

had to leave him. From the Castle of Croneburg where, he said, he

was “drinking and dryving our in the auld maner” James wrote to his dear Sandy to cheer him in his illness, promising on his return to

Scotland to erect him “the temporalitie of Murraye in a temporal lordship with all honouris thairto apperteining.”

The lands, lordships and baronies of Spynie, Kynneder, Birneth,

Reffort, Ardclayth, Kylmylies, Strathspey, Moy and Keith were all duly conveyed to Lindsay who assumed the dignity of Lord Spynie.

In 1592 Episcopacy was abolished and Presbyterianism was estab-

lished but this change was objectionable to the King and upon ascending the English throne in 1603 he set about reviving Episco-

pacy in Scotland. He succeeded in 1606 only to be faced with demands by the Bishops for their temporalities to be restored to

them. Alexander Douglas was now Bishop of Moray and to satisfy

him the King was forced to request Lord Spynie to surrender the

Moray lands, which he did for a cash consideration and a Bond for

10,000 merks from the Bishop.

Several of the Kirkton writs are docqueted with reference to their having been produced judicially before the Bishop on 7th

September, 1606.

We may notice here in passing that it was shortly after this that the Isla was spanned a little way above the Gaun’s Pot by a fine bridge

of a single arch which was admired by Daniel Defoe when he visited Keith almost a century later in 1706 and which still survives in its

entirety, a silent witness to the skill of the craftsmen of a bygone age. A stone in the Auld Brig bears the names of Thomas Murray

and Janet Lindsay, their coat of arms and the date1609. But we know no more of these good people than the fact that in 1601 they

acquired from John Gordon of Pitlurg the Lands of Little Auchortels,

occupied by Margaret Ogilvie and William Gall who were still tenants in 1604 when John Grant of Freuchie acquired the property. It may

be that there is something in the tradition mentioned by Gordon that a favourite son was drowned at the spot and the bridge was

built by his parents for the safety of others.

In 1614 the Kirkton of Keith became linked with the Estate of Kempcairn and the Laird of Kempcairn is thereafter sometimes re-

ferred to as the Laird of Keith, a title which never applied to the Laird of Milton. Kempcairn was part of the Lands of Drumnakeith

and the House of Kempcairn stood on the south side of the Isla on high ground some distance back from the river, about a mile below

Milton. About the end of the 15th century this was the seat of James Ogilvie, brother of Alexander Ogilvie of that Ilk and of George Ogil-

vie, the first Laird of Milton. In 1587 the Laird of Kempcairn was

Walter Ogilvie and in that year he resigned the estate to Sir Walter Ogilvie of Findlater. (Charter 23rd July, 1587. Charter of Confir-

mation by Alexander Bishop of Moray, November 1614.)

In 1614 Sir Walter, for a consideration of 4500 merks, had a conveyance of the Kirkton of Keith from James Grant of Ardmellie

which transfer was duly confirmed by Bishop Alexander Douglas. The Kirkton had earlier been held by John Leslie of Haughs in

security of a loan of 3500 merks.

In 1615, Sir Walter Ogilvie of Findlater made over to his second son Alexander (by his second wife Marie Douglas daughter of the Earl of

Morton), the estate of Kempcairn including Meikletoun of Drum, Litletoun of Drum or Westertoun, Corse, Over and Nether Montgrew

and the Kirk lands of Keith, with the privilege of holding there

weekly Saturday mercats and the three day annual St. Rufus Fair.

Alexander about 1624 married Catherine, fourth daughter of John

Grant, fifth Laird of Freuchie. Some mention has already been made in the section dealing with

Milton of the troubles which afflicted the country at this time resulting from the attempt of Charles I to make religion in Scotland

conform to the English pattern and the signing of the National Covenant in 1638. The King tried at first through his Commissioner

the Marquis of Hamilton, by making certain concessions, to induce his Scottish subjects to lay aside the Covenant, and he summoned a

free Assembly of the Kirk to meet at Glasgow in November. At a meeting of the Presbytery at Botary on 20th October Joseph Brodie,

Minister of Keith, and John Annand, Minister of Kinnoir and Dumbennand, were chosen to represent Strathbogie at this

Assembly. There were days of acrimonious debate at Glasgow. On 13th December Brodie and Annand were back at Botary. The

brethren “demaunded them what reason they had to leave the

Assemblie so soone, sieing as yet the Assemblie was not dissolved. The answer was, that my Lord Marques of Hammiltoune,

Commissioner, had charged the Assemblie to ryse, vnder paine of treason; in obedience to which charge they had left the Assemblie

and were come home to their stations”.

By far the greater number of the delegates, however, prominent among them the Earls of Argyll and Montrose, had not been so

obedient. Declaring that in spiritual matters the Kirk was independent of the Crown they proceeded systematically to revise

all ecclesiastical regulations made since the Union of the Crowns. Civil War now seemed inevitable. While General Alexander Leslie

secured for the Covenanters the Castle of Edinburgh and other strongholds in the South, the Marquis of Huntly raised the King’s

Standard in the North. Montrose and his Covenanting army

marched northwards.

The subsequent campaign which ended with Montrose in possession of Aberdeen terminated on 18th June 1639 when news was received

that the King had entered into a Treaty of Pacification at Berwick. It soon became obvious, however, that the pacification was no more

than temporary but by the time that hostilities broke out again the King had won Montrose over to his side.

The King did in fact make a serious attempt to pacify the Scots but

his motives were suspect and the Covenanters resolved to throw in their lot with the English Parliament in their struggle with the King,

which flared into Civil War in 1642 when Charles raised his standard at Nottingham on 25th October. In 1643 the Solemn League and

Covenant was signed. On 10th November there was placed before

the Strathbogie Presbytery a letter from the Commissioners of the

General Assemby “requyring the care and diligence of the brethren

in vrging the subscription of the League and Covenant”. The Letter proceeds “Ve earnestlie recommend to your care the zealous perfor-

mance of the particularis contained in the act. The present danger of religion requyres it of yow. The papistis now being in armes

expecting forraine ayd, the cessation of armes nov being concludit in Irland by authoritie, vith verie great advantage to the rebellis,

vho are treated vith as his Majesties Roman Catholick subjectis. Much, brethren, dependis at this tyme vpon your zeale, fidelitie, and

example; and therefor, seing the pressing of so solemne a League and Covenant is so conduceable a meane for promowing that

intendit vork of reformation and blissed vnion of the two kingdomes, and for strengthening ourselfs and

veakening and discouring our enemies, we beseech yow to be care-full that this Covenant be realie and religiouslie suorne and

subscribit; and quher yow conceave ther may be any impediment or

slaknes, that yov send some of your number, ministeris and elderis, to countenance and assist the actioun. For your further

encouragement heirvnto, yow sail knov that this day the Covenant hes bean verie solemnlie suorne and subscrivit heir in the Eist Kirk

of Edinburgh by the Commissioneris of the Estaitis of this kingdome, the Commissionerls of the Parliament of England, and vs, the

Commissioneris of the Generall Assemblie, in presence of the congregatioun”.

This appeal evoked an instant response and the Covenant was

widely signed in Strathbogie. Joseph Brodie, Minister of Keith, was now apparently untroubled by the scruples which had caused him to

walk out of the Glasgow Assembly of 1638 when he feared to defy the King’s authority and on 20th December he reported to the

Presbytery that “he had solemnlie subscryved the Covenant in

presence of his people and that all his people had done the same except John Ogilvie of Militoun, John Coupland of Haughes and to

the number of fourtie or fyftie of the meaner sort quherof some ver sick, some ignorant and some negligent”. (Presbytery Book of

Strathbogie p. 44.)

In January 1644 Montrose met the King at Oxford and plans were made for his return to Scotland. In May the King created him

Marquis of Montrose and September 1644 found him in Perth after defeating the Covenanters at Tippermuir.

Aberdeen was entered and plundered and from there he ranged far

and wide through the High lands and Lowlands of Central Scotland, playing hide and seek for the most part with the army of Argyll until

defeating it decisively at Inverlochy on 2nd February 1645.

On his return to the North Garmouth, Cullen, Banff and other towns

were plundered. The Earl of Findlater, who was a Colonel of Foot for Banffshire, was at the time away from home and Cullen House was

saved from destruction only by the intervention of the Countess who had been left in charge. The Strathbogie Presbytery Minutes re-

flect the dangers of the time. There was no Meeting on 18th February as “the brethren could not saiflie convein together”, nor on

5th March as “the vhole brethren ver forced to flie from their houses”. On 26th March there was a meeting of four, the rest being

absent “vpon the report of some two or three hundredth Highlanders vho ver sorning and plundring within the boundis of the

presbytrie. (Presbytery Book of Strathbogie p. 62.)

In April Montrose was in Dundee which was sacked but was back in the North by the end of the month. At Auldearn near Nairn early in

May he routed the army of Hurry whose colleague Baillie then

marched north with his army. For a time Montrose avoided a further trial of strength but on hearing that Baillie intended to lay seige to

the Marquis of Huntly’s Castle, the Bog of Gight, Montrose cautiously approached his enemy. Advancing by way of

Auchindachy he learned from his scouts that Baillie’s foot were drawn up about two miles away on rising ground above Keith

(probably on the Cuthil or part of the Muir on which the new town of Keith was later built) and that his horse held a narrow pass about

halfway be tween the two armies (thought by some to have been the Glen of the Lowrie Burn but more probably part of the Glen of

the Isla itself). Some skirmishing took place and Baillie’s horse withdrew under covering fire from his musketeers. Montrose sent a

trumpeter to Baillie offering to engage him on open ground but Baillie answered, as one might expect, that he did not take orders

from his enemy. Montrose then by-passed Keith and crossed to

Donside. Baillie, thinking that his enemy was in full retreat, gave chase and thus fell into the trap prepared for him. He overtook

Montrose at Alford where on 2nd July the Covenanters suffered an-other decisive defeat. Among those who fell there fighting for

Montrose was the Laird of Milton.

At Kilsyth in August both Baillie and Argyll were defeated and Mon-trose received the submission of Glasgow and Edinburgh. But his

achievements were completely nullified by events across the border where the King had been utterly defeated at Naseby by the armies

of Cromwell.

Montrose was ordered south by the King but his army was thinned by the wholesale desertion of his Highlanders and he was left with

few but the Irishmen who had served him well throughout most of

his campaign. He was no match for the powerful army sent from

England under General David Leslie and at Philiphaugh where he

was surprised on 13th September his forces were cut to pieces. He retired again to the north. In May 1646 the King gave himself up to

the Scots and sent Montrose orders to disband his army and leave the country, which he did. The King himself, refusing to comply with

the demands of the Scots, the principal of which was that he should sign the Covenant, was handed over to the English Parliament and

in 1649 he was executed.

His son then in Holland was proclaimed King by the Scots but he refused to accept their conditions and remained in exile. Montrose

however, determined to attempt to establish him on the throne by force of arms.

In March 1650 he landed in Orkney and attempted to gather an

army to fight in the King’s cause. He was not, however, destined to

recapture the glory of his earlier campaigns. At Carbiesdale his small army was overwhelmed and at Assynt he himself was

overtaken and made prisoner. He was taken south and was subjected to all manner of insults and indignities on the way. The

once proud soldier must have presented a sorry spectacle bareheaded, with a ragged plaid round his shoulders and

mounted upon a little highland shelty, his feet bound together under its belly. At Keith a halt was made and he was forced to join

in an open-air service conducted in the Kirkyard by the Minister Wil-liam Kininmonth, formerly Military Chaplain to General David Leslie.

The preacher chose as his text the words of Samuel to Agag (1 Sam. XV 33) - “As thy sword hath made women childless so shall

thy mother be childless among women.” He can scarcely have imagined that he would ever have such an opportunity to vent his

wrath upon the great Montrose in person, and he made the most of

his advantage. “Additional fuel would no doubt be added to the fire of his invective as from time to time his eye alighted on his manse

and manse buildings lying before him burnt and demolished by Montrose’s men.” (Cramond, Church of Keith, p. 14.)

“Rail on”, said Montrose, as the tirade fell upon his ears. He was to

suffer far greater abuse and more ignominious treatment by the time his career ended on the scaffold in the High Street of

Edinburgh before the month was out, but he endured it all with dignity and composure.

Of the King’s subsequent landing at Garmouth and acceptance of

the Covenant something has already been said. At Worcester on 3rd September 1651 his hopes of wresting power from Cromwell were

extinguished and the tyranny of the Commonwealth settled on the

land.

In the midst of these troubles generous provision was made for the education of the young of the Parish of Keith. In 1647 Alexander

Ogilvie, Writer in Edinburgh, “out of love and affection which he had to learning and virtuous education of children within the parochin of

Keith where he was born and bred,” mortified his lands of Edindaich to the ministers, elders and deacons of the Parish Kirk of Keith “to

the use, utility and behoof of the schoolmaster - present and to come - at the said Kirk, for bigging, building, and upholding of an

School, and maintaining of an Schoolmaster thereat in all time coming.” Unfortunately the schoolmaster did not long enjoy the full

benefit of the endowment. In 1687 a claim was made for 40 years arrears of teinds by Alexander Duff of Braco. There was much un-

profitable litigation over the dispute which ensued and eventually the Edindaich lands were made over to his successor, Lord Fife,

under burden of paying a mere 300 merks to the schoolmaster. A

subsequent attempt to regain the mortified lands for the purpose for which they were intended was unsuccessful.

Throughout the period covered by the campaigns of Montrose the

Laird of Kempcairn and Keith, unlike his kinsman the Laird of Milton, appears to have adhered readily enough to the Covenant and to

have enjoyed the confidence of the “brethren”. As an elder of the Kirk his name appears frequently in the Presbytery minutes. He was

on occasion appointed as a Commissioner to the General Assembly and in 1644 he served on a Commission for the suppression of sor-

cerers and charmers. He was dead before 1669.

In 1655 his son John married Mary Forbes daughter of Alexander Forbes of Pitsligo and in 1675 John and his spouse had a Charter

under the Great Seal of the whole Kempcairn Lands including the

Kirktoun of Keith.

The Restoration of Charles II in 1660 produced a violent reaction to the rigours of Cromwell’s despotism and Episcopacy took the place

of the extreme Presbyterianism of the Covenants. In the hills the Covenanters held their services and at Ruilion Green, Drumclog and

Bothwell Brig, they fought for their beliefs.

With the accession of James II and VII to the throne in 1685 re-ligious persecution was for a time intensified and Protestantism

itself appeared to be endangered by the policies of the Catholic King. Religion apart, his attempt to rule on the principle that the

King could do no wrong inevitably evoked hostility and there were intrigues to replaced him with his daughter Mary and her Protestant

husband William of Orange.

In June 1688 a son was born to the King. In the North of Scotland

at any rate the prospect of having another Catholic King does not appear to have caused much concern and in obedience to an edict

of the Privy Council services of thanksgiving for “the Queen’s happie conception” were held in most Banffshire Kirks. But this event

complicated matters for William and his supporters as his wife was no longer next in line for the Crown. To bring matters to a head the

Dutchman landed in England on 5th November. So successful had his intrigues been that James found it impossible to oppose him and

fled to the Continent.

The Jacobite spirit had practical expression under the leadership of John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee, who raised the

standard of James on the Law of Dundee in April 1689. On a rapid recruiting march through the North he was in Keith on 21st April and

from there proceeded as far as Forres. James Philip of Almerieclose,

Dundee’s cousin and standard-bearer, thus described this part of the journey in Latin hexameters.

“Ad Bacchi Cererisque insignem munere Ketham Venimus, et pul-

chram pinnis sublimibus arcem Gordoneam, et celsas post terga re-linquimus aedes, Hinc celeri undantem remeamus gurgite Speiam

Turrigerasque aedes atque Elgini nobile fanum linquimus et Flavis Lossum tranamus arenis. Tandem inter dulces Forressae insedimus

agros Monstrat frugiferas ubi laeta Moravia messes.” (The Grameid, Scottish History Society, p. 51.)

[Translation by Bill Ettles: We came to the town of Keith, which

bore the marks of Ceres (agriculture) and Bacchus (Drink -? Whisky) and then moved rapidly (a sheer guess) leaving behind the

buildings and the raging waters of the Spey, to the town of Elgin, a

noble shrine which we left behind to cross the River Lossie. However, we stayed in the pleasant (town?) of Forres where the

fields showed the fruitfulness and crops of the Laich of Moray.]

Retracing his steps to Deeside Dundee avoided contact with Mac-kay’s Dragoons and again passed through Keith on 1st May on his

way back to Gordon Castle.

“Jam lepidam rapidis Ketham praetervolat alis, Domum Gordonii perventum ad moenia Castri. (Ibid p. 53.)

So began Dundee’s campaign which culminated for the Jacobites at

Killiecrankie (27th July 1689) in success and at the same time in disaster. There the Highlanders won a resounding military victory

but this was overshadowed by the loss in action of their leader and

on the Haughs of Cromdale on Speyside the rising virtually petered

out on 30th April 1690.

John Ogilvie of Kempcairn and his son Alexander (who had Sasine of the Manor Place of Kempcairn on 1st April 1680) appear to have

taken a realistic view and transferred their loyalty to William and Mary, for their names appear in the list of Commissioners of Supply

appointed in 1689 to apportion and uplift in Banffshire a tax or cess for the maintenance of the new King’s Army.

Nevertheless Alexander, at any rate, was arrested along with Lord

Oliphant, the Laird of Milton and his wife Mary Ogilvie, and others suspected of having Jacobite sympathies. According to the Banff

Town Council Minutes for February 1690 Walter Gellie and three others were fined forty shillings Scots for “concelling and

abstracteing there horses efter they were ordained to have them in

radieness for convoyeing the persones of Charles, Lord Oliphant, and his Ladie, the Laird of Kempcairne and uyrs presoners”.

Oliphant remained true to his Jacobite principles as has been

mentioned earlier but the arrest of Ogilvie seems to have been a mistake. He, his son Robert and John Gordon of Davidston,

petitioned the Privy Council for release stating that on 18th February they had been apprehended by a party of Colonel Livingstone’s

Regiment of Dragoons “being in the house of Alexander Ogilvie, younger, of Kemptcairne, accidentally passing a visit, and carried

prisoners from thence to Banff and from that to Aberdeen”; that they had been apprehended by mistake and without any warrant;

and that they knew of no crime they were guilty of that might have occasioned their confinement. On 24th March the Privy Council

commissioned William, Master of Forbes, to examine the petitioners

and to order their release if he were satisfied of their innocence.

The sympathies of the parish ministers in Banffshire were, on the whole, with James, for Episcopacy had become fairly firmly estab-

lished, and they did not take kindly to the idea of Presbyterianism being reimposed. Among others, James Strachan who had been

minister of Keith since 1665 was on 7th November 1689 deprived by the Privy Council for not reading the proclamation of the Estates, for

not praying for William and Mary and for praying for the restoration of James to the throne.

Apart from political and religious unrest there was a good deal of

lawlessness in Banffshire towards the end of the 17th century. On a night in 1667 Peter Roy McGregor and his gang of freebooters,

accompanied, it is said by a Highland prophetess Meg Mulloch or

Meg with the hairy hand, arrived in Keith where they established

themselves in the inn. This is according to Robert Sim’s version of

the incident (Legends of Strathisla). But in the Literature of the Highlands Maag Moulach was the name of an apparition associated

with Tullochgorum (Lachlan Shaw, History of the Province of Moray [J. F. S.Gordon’s Edition] Vol. III pp. 329-330, etc.). As they sat

carousing far into the morning and talking among themselves in Gaelic they laid their plans for the next day. They were, however,

overheard and understood by a servant girl who learned with alarm that they intended to hang the landlord from the cupple bauks of his

own barn. By pouring sowens into their muskets which stood loaded in the passage she rendered them useless and raised the alarm.

The ringing of the Kirk bell brought a large crowd to the Kirkyard where the parties came to grips. Roy was wounded by Gordon of

Glengerrack and escaped from the scene, while Glengerrack was engaged by his deputy whose left hand was all but severed in the

fray. Tearing off his mutilated hand the Highlander flung it at the

Kirk wall. There is a tradition that a red stone in the gable of the Kirk owed its colour to his blood. The stone was later built into a

house near the Kirkyard.

The raiders were dispersed and Roy himself was traced next day through the tale of a little girl who spoke of a “bleedy man” in a

barn at Whiteley. With several of his accomplices he was sent to Edinburgh for trial. The Justiciciary proceedings (Justiciary Records,

Scottish History Society Vol.I pp. 198-200) of 25th March 1667 enumerate their crimes which included theft, robbery, stouthrief

and receipt of theft, sorning and taking black maill, wilful fireraising, taking and incarcerating and detaining his Majesties free lieges, the

killing and murthering of them, and continue, “The said Pannells and their Associates with the number of 40 men did assault the

town of Keith in Banffshyre for not paying black maill, and fought

against these who opposed them, and in particular against Alexander Gordon of Glengaroch, and his brother Thomas Gordon

and John Ogilvie of Milton and their followers, and did wound and mutilate the said John Ogilvie and Thomas Gordon, and the Pannells

themselves being ill wounded at the time and not able to flee far, were taken prisoners the next day and conveyed from Shyre to

Shyre to the Tolbooth of Edinburgh where they are now prisoners”.

McGregor and his accomplice Patrick Drummond were sentenced to be taken on 27th March to the Mercate Cross of Edinburgh, there to

have their right hands cut off, then to be hanged, their bodies thereafter to be hung up in chains on the gallows between Leith and

Edinburgh “which sentence was accordingly execute “.

“Pat. Roy McGregor was a most notorious and villainous person, but

of a most courageous and resolute mind. He was a little, thick,

short man, red-haired and from thence called Roy Roy. He had red

eyes like a hawk and a fierce countenance which was remarked by every person. He endured the torture of the Boots in the Privy

Counsill with great obstinacy and suffered many strokes of the cutting of his hands with wonderful patience, to the great

admiration of the spectators, the Executioner having done his duty so ill that the next day he was deposed for it.” (Ibid. p. 200.)

The example set by McGregor was faithfully followed by the raider

James Macpherson. His mother is said to have been a Gipsy and his father a Macpherson of Invereshie. Until his father was slain by

cattle raiders the boy was reared in his house but was then taken charge of by his mother and thus found himself among associates of

a very different character from those he had known in his early youth. Of fine physique and appearance as well as of considerable

accomplishments, he became the leader of a band “knoune holden

and repute to be Egiptians and vagabonds and oppressors of his Majesties free lieges in ane bangstrie manner and going up and

doune the country armed and keeping the mercats in ane hostile manner, thieves and receptors of thieves “.

It was to Alexander Duff of Braco, a man of courage as well as of

shrewd business ability, that the Banffshire folk were indebted for bringing these activities to and end. He determined to attempt to

seize the leaders and disperse their followers. His opportunity came at the Keith St. Rufus Fair of 1700 which they attended. With the

assistance of his brother-in-law Lesmurdie and several others Braco set upon the freebooters. The fairground was just next to the

Kirkyard - There can still be seen in the outside face of the dyke at the south-east corner of the Kirkyard the outline of five blind arches

or Kreams, now built up, used by merchants as show stands for

their wares - and there was fighting among the gravestones on this occasion as on others. Braco himself was wounded .but Macpherson

and others were captured. Despite interference by the Laird of Grant who claimed them as his tenants and therefore subject to no

jurisdiction but his own, the prisoners were brought to trial before the Sheriff of Banff, convicted and sentenced to hang.

The story goes that Macpherson ;took his violin with him to the

place of execution; that below the gallows tree he played the Rant which he had composed while lying in prison - “Macpherson’s

Farewell - for which Burns later wrote the words; that he offered his violin to anyone in the crowd who would accept it; and that when it

was refused by all he smashed it on his ;knee and tossed the pieces into the .grave that was ready to receive his .body. But how true

this story is we cannot say.

Violence and bloodshed are usual features of the aftermath of war.

Bankruptcy is another and by the time the 17th century closed the Ogiivies of Kempcalrn, like so many others, were deep in debt.

Not confining themselves to a single creditor as the Ollphants had

done in the case of Milton, they appear to have borrowed money freely from anyone who would lend and more than thirty different

creditors, among them Patrick Stewart of Tannachy, John Grant of Easter Elchies, John Grant of Ballindalloch and several members of

the Ogilvie family held Bonds either personal or heritable over various portions of the estate. They had 500 merks in 1675 from

Peter Meldrum of Laithers, first husband of Mary Ogilvie of Milton, and in 1688 they borrowed even from Alexander Ker the minister of

Grange who received a Bond for £1000 Scots over the lands of Drum. One name which does not appear in the list of creditors is

that of Alexander Duff of Braco and we can only guess at the reason

for this, but his relative John Duff, Messenger in Aberdeen, lent them £226 13s 4d Scots in 1696 and 900 merks the following year.

The Kempcairn situation caused some concern to the Ogilvies of Findlater, James the younger now President of Parliament and re-

cently created Viscount Seafleld wrote to his father the Earl of Findlater from Whitehall on 27th December, 1698, as follows:-

“As for Kempcairne I shall be very ready to serve him by ad-vanceing that money that is desyred, but I would gladly know how

it is to be disposed off, and what security I am to have for it. I per-ceave he has been injured by Tanachie; but if Tanachie should be

brought to take what is justly owing him, I would gladly know if Kempcairne could preserve his estates; and I assure yor Lop noth-

ing could perswade me to engage in it, -if it were not to doe them service.” (Seafield Correspondence p. 252).

By 1700 the situation had become desperate and on 14th March Seafield wrote to his father “ I believe the family of Kempcalrn have

no better friends than yor Lop and my Lord Boyn, and I am sure were they in a condition to keep the estate I should be very well

satisfyed, and if on the other hand they must needs sell, it is better that it return to me than that it fall into the hands of strangers, and

I believe non will deal more kindly with them than I. I wish yor Lop and my Lord Boyn would bring them to some conclusion speedily,

for if they and I conclude I must raise money at ye term.”

Arrangements for taking over Kempcairn went ahead and in a letter from Whitehall to his father dated 25th April Seafleld said “ I leave

that affair of Kempcairne entirely to yor Lops manadgement, and what bonds you give I shall ratify at my comeing to Edinburgh. I

cant say whither I can come to the north or not, but if I do I will

transact wt all the rest of the creditors, and clear the summ.”

On 9th May 1700 John Ogilvie of Kempcairn with the consent of his son Alexander, granted to Seafield a Disposition of the whole of

Kempcairn lands including the Kirktoun of Keith and the various Bonds affecting the property were taken over by him. Seafield’s

able Chamberlain, William Lorimer, seems to have had some misgivings about the affair. He wrote to Seafield on 2nd December

as follows: “All that is done in your Lops business with Kempcairn, since you

went from this place is that the Lady Kempcairn hath renounced her liferent right of the lands you are to possess, but would not sign her

husband and son’s disposition in your Lops favoures alledging she was under oath not to doe the same. However she hath judiciailie

confirmed it, and it is now deposited in my Lord Boynds hand with the rest of the papers. It is not fitt your Lop should allow any more

money to be payed to old Kempcairn, ffor he will still be im-

portuning yor Lady for money here, and I fear the summs yor Lop hes already payed and is now to engage for will exceed. the value

of the lands you are to possess of that estate. Your valuation is now distinguished from Kempcairns, but nothing done as to the houses

in Keith. They are all waste, and none will engadge to take them, and Kempcairn will never rebuild them, so they cannot be reckoned

rent to yor Lop.”

In the same letter Lorimer goes on to say “When I was in Keith receiving your Lops rents, the tennents yr intreated your Lop might

obtain a liberty from the Parliament of other two yearly mercatts in that place, the one to be on the third Tuesday of May called James

fair, and the other on the last Tuesday of November called Ander-mass fair. If your Lop would obtain this priviledge they promise to

tenant all your waste lands yr, and engadge under tacks with their

own”

Seafield lost no time in meeting the wishes of his Keith tenants. On 31st January 1701 an Act of Parliament was passed and these two

new fairs were duly authorised. But the winding up of Kempcairn’s affairs and the satisfaction of the

creditors took a long time and there is a large number of writs relating to the whole transaction right up to the year 1721.

To John Ogilvie of Kempcairn, Mary Forbes his wife and their

grandson John Ogilvie, son of Alexander Ogilvie their son, Seafleld gave Over and Nether Montgrew and the Mill of Myres on condition

that they should not sell them to anyone but himself. In 1717 even this small residue of the once considerable estate returned to Sea-

field. (Disposition 16 May 1717.) The House of Kempcairn was

deserted. It was ruinous in 1742 and no part of it now survives.

PART III. KEITH AT THE TIME OF THE ’15, THE ’45 AND BEYOND.

So it was that early in the 18th Century the whole of Keith came into

the hands of the leading Statesman of the day. There was the Milton with its deserted castle, part of an estate which a Gordon had

once given to an Ogilvie as the dowry of his daughter, whose mother may or may not have been a Stuart Princess; and there was

the Kirkton with its dilapidated houses and discontented tenants, the old village which a dissipated Bishop had once used as a source

of revenue to assist him in keeping the sons and daughters of his various paramours. The whole was burdened with more debt than it

could carry and the evidences of poverty, frustration and neglect were everywhere to be seen. There were, however, better times

ahead but the full benefits which the change of ownership were to

bring were not to be felt for some considerable time.

Seafield, the politician, was, at the outset of his career, universally popular with his countrymen but his opposition to the Darien

Scheme, in which nearly every family in Scotland had a stake, made for him many enemies. His adaptability too, which enabled him

invariably to suit his policies to those of the occupant of the throne for the time being inevitably evoked suspicion. Although he had

loyally supported James in the early days of the Revolution he ap-parently found no difficulty in giving William his unqualified alle-

giance when the Jacobite cause appeared lost and when Anne became Queen she too found him a ready servant.

G. M. Trevelyan’s estimation of Seafield is this “He frankly offered

himself to each successive government as the useful man serving

the public faithfully with his best abilities but without party prejudice or allegiance. Always unaffected by the waves of other

men’s passion he was unpopular because he had not been the dupe of the patriotic infatuation over Darien. So cool a head was a useful

ally to any government“ Many will disagree with the implication that those who subscribed to the Darien enterprise were dupes or that

they were motivated by mere patriotic infatuation. But the fact remains that the difficulties had been imperfectly foreseen and this

comment of Hume Brown’s is probably fair. “It was in accordance with his principles that he opposed the enterprise as being

disapproved by William, but we may believe that, with his cold and luminous intelligance, he may have recognised its futility from the

beginning.”

For the part he played in the Union with England which he carried

through in the teeth of bitter opposition from many of his

compatriots he attracted more personal disfavour even in his own

family. “Better sell nowte than sell nations,” was the retort he had from his brother Patrick on suggesting to him that his occupation of

cattle-dealing was undignified. It had been abundantly clear from the beginning that the eagerness of the English to absorb the Parlia-

ment of Scotland in their own arose from no feelings of benevolence towards the Scots. So widespread indeed was exasperation with the

policy of the first Parliament of Great Britain that Seafield himself had second thoughts on the matter and in 1713 moved for repeal of

the Act of Union to be defeated by only four proxy votes. In consequence he was dropped from the list of Scots representative

Peers. On the arrival of the wee German Lairdie the country was ripe for revolt and had there been competent leadership the

Jacobite rising of 1715 might well have had a different result.

Although he had no Jacobite leanings, Seafield’s standing with the

Hanoverian government was precarious. On 24th August 1715 he wrote from Edinburgh to William Lorimer his Chamberlain full of

foreboding regarding the imminent rising and informing him that his son Lord Deskford was a prisoner in Edinburgh Castle on suspicion

of Jacobite sympathies. He continued, “I dare not offer to remove from this, least it should be my own fate, which has being talked of

for some days but not to myself by any in authority. Take care to have some competent guard ready for my house; and I think my

own cattle should be driven of some way in case of immediat danger, but not otherwayes. The Earl of Mar is in the Highlands; I

know not what part he may act. Do your best, and I must trust to God and Providence. The Laird of Grant is made Lord Livetennant of

Bamfeshyre; his commission is passing the sealls, which may be a further evidence to you in what condition I am in.” Deskford’s

imprisonment was of short duration, but his father’s influence

remained low.

On 6th September Mar raised the Standard at Braemar. The Duke of Gordon was a prisoner but his son the Marquis of Huntly proclaimed

the Chevalier at Gordon Castle. The clans gathered and moved south. John Skinner, the Whig schoolmaster of Keith, noted their

departure on 2nd October. “At this time the country was all in a consternation. No safety was to goe out or in; for this day the Earl

of Huntly began his march to the rebells army with his cavalcade of horse. The foot being to march to Merins. This day, immediately

after sermon, the writer was seized by a party of Auchynachie’s men, as was pretended by the Earl of Huntly’s order, and very

harshly dealt with, and the School much broke.” We feel no surprise that Skinner was thus treated for he, in common with the

Presbyterian ministers with their Hanoverian bias, was bitter in his

denunciation of the rising. In Banffshire, strongly held for the

Jacobites, he could expect short shrift.

At Sheriffmuir on 13th November “We ran and they ran and they ran and we ran.” For a time there was stalemate, but the Jacobite

strength was ebbing. The Keith Kirk Session records relate that on 18th December “the Earl of Huntly immediately after sermon passed

through Keith on his return very disheartened like”; that on the 22nd “about sixty or more of the Strathdone rebels headed by Black Joke,

alias John Forbes, and Sclater Forbes came and lay in town about a week, where they committed unheard of insolencies, robbed the

school chamber and carried off many things, as did afterwards about the beginning of the year Glenbuckets men who were also

monsters of wickedness “; and that from 18th December 1715 to 12th February 1716 “there was no peace to goe out or in, by reason

of intestine troubes and the marches and counter marches of the

rebells.”

On 22nd December 1715 the Old Chevalier landed at Peterhead and was crowned at Scone on the 23rd of the following month. But by

the end of that month he was in full retreat before the advancing army of Argyll and on 4th February 1716 at Montrose he embarked

again for France. The Clans, retiring to their dispersal in the Highlands, reached Keith on the 9th and the Kirk Session records tell

that “ the rebell army consisting of about 4000 quartered in this parish, and did a world of mischief by robbing, plundering, etc. They

were flying from the brave Duke of Argile and King George’s Army.”

On 8th February Seafield wrote from Edinburgh to Lorimer, “ My greatest anxiety is to know how the Highlanders have left me, and

what comes off me by the march of both armys through my

countrey. Because of straglers you should keep a guaird about Cullen, and the people of Keith and Deskford should doe the lyke.”

Replying on the 26th Lorimer urged him to stay where he was but on the 28th Seafield wrote to say he was coming home. “I long to see

the desolate circumstances of my countrey, and I have great compassion for my unhappy neighbours. I did not expect to have

mett with the bad useage I have received from some of them, but I hope in God to recover this loss … Being so soon to be at home, I’le

write no more, only have sent the garden seeds by the bearer.”

The garden seeds were doubtless planted and allowed to bloom in peace. At all events the enforcement of the Disarming Act deprived

the local population of the means of making war. At Cullen there were delivered up 136 guns, 74 pistols, 9 barrels of guns, 236

swords, 33 dirks, a steel cape and 3 calivers; at Banff 66 guns, 15

pistols, 26 swords, 3 dirks, and 4 Danish axes or halberts; but far

greater was the haul at Keith where the authorities took charge of

634 swords, 91 dirks, 396 guns and barrels of guns, 15 locks of guns, 219 pistols, 37 halberts or partisans, 18 targets, and one

steel breastplate.

Negligible as had been Seafleld’s influence on the course of events during the ‘15, the personal rewards which his former high offices of

State had brought him had not been lost. Whether or not he ren-dered a service to his country in acquiring these rewards is a ques-

tion upon which opinions differ. Be that as it may he undoubtedly rendered high service in his own estates for he had put the family

fortune on so substantial a basis that his son and grandson were able, in more settled times, to undertake practical steps for the

development of the estates.

His son James succeeded him as fifth Earl of Findlater and second

Earl Seafield in 1730. In 1734 he became one of the sixteen repre-sentative Peers of Scotland and a Lord of Police, but had long before

then taken an active part in County administration. As already mentioned he was for a short time a prisoner in the Castle of Edin-

burgh on the eve of the ‘15. In 1737 he was appointed Vice-Admiral of Scotland, and, in the ‘45 there was no doubt as to his allegiance

to the reigning House. His eldest son too was called James. Writing of him to General Conway at Rome on 23rd April 1740 Horace

Walpole said “Harry, you saw Lord Deskford at Geneva. Don’t you like him? He is a mighty sensible man; there are few young people

have so good an understanding. He is mighty grave and so are you; but you both can be pleasant when you have a mind. Indeed one

can make you pleasant; but his solemn Scotchery is not a little formidable.”

He was appointed a Commissioner of Customs in Scotland in 1754 and in 1761 he became Chancellor of the University of King’s

College, Aberdeen. In 1764 he succeeded his father as sixth Earl Findlater and third Earl Seafield and the following year was ap-

pointed a Lord of Police.

It was the administration of these two gentlemen which determined the lines upon which the town of Keith was to develop but

something must first be said of the part played by the House of Findlater in the Jacobite Rising of 1745 and of its impact on

Strathisla.

On 19th August, 1745, Prince Charles raised his Standard at Glenfinnan and on the same day General Cope marched north from

Edinburgh to meet him. Towards the end of the month Cope

reached Inverness having missed the Prince on his way to

Edinburgh. On 2nd September Lord Findlater wrote from Cullen

House to the Lord President. “In the situation in which I am, in a corner where tho’ far the greater of my tenants are really well

affected, yet they have no arms and have never been accustomed to use them, and there are many popish and disaffected persons in

the neighbourhood, you may be sure I am under great uneasiness, especially as we are dayly allarmed and entertained with various

storys totally differing from one another.” Almost immediately he left Cullen House with Lady Findlater and at Elgin met Cope who

was then on his way to Aberdeen. They returned to Cullen with Cope but when he moved on they thought it safer to leave the

district and they sought refuge at Castle Grant, the residence of Findlater’s son-in-law Ludovick Grant.

While Cope was on his way to defeat at Prestonpans and when

subsequently the Prince was advancing to Derby and retiring again,

the Jacobites were left with a free hand in Banffshire and Aberdeenshire of which Counties Lord Lewis Gordon (son of the

Marquis of Huntly who was out in the ‘15 and brother of the Duke of Gordon, who be it noted, was a Hanovarlan supporter) had been

appointed Lord-Lieutenant by the Prince, although not yet 21 years of age. Repeated demands for men and money were made

throughout the district with threats of dire action in case of refusal. Military executions were decreed to take place against defaulters at

Keith on 10th December but there is doubt as to whether this threat was carried out. At all events on the following day Thomas Grant of

Auchoynany wrote to Ludovick Grant reporting that there were about 300 Jacobites in the neighbourhood but they were “mostly

herds and hiremen in and about Strathbogey”, and that many of them were not enthusiastic and did not know the use of arms. He

went on to say that Gordon of Avochie “came to Keith yesternight“

with 60 men and was causing much trouble to the inhabitants, and especially to the tenants of Lord Findlater. He was told by one of

these that “he saw a greate many of them, greeting and wringing their hands, and praying and wishing they were your (i.e. Ludovick

Grant’s ) men, and if you would send down 100 men, they would all join and rather die than be used in the way they are.” He added

that he had been assured by Cantly (his butler, the early tutor of James Ferguson the illustrious astronomer) that the people of Keith

and Grange parish were content and that they would support any number of men that might be sent to Keith by Ludovick Grant,

whom they regarded as “the only saviour they look for this side of time”.

The Laird of Grant (the headship of the Clan had been handed over

to Ludovick by his father whose Parliamentary duties necessitated

his presence in London) lost no time in acting on Auchoynany’s

suggestion. On 13th December he wrote to Lord Loudon “Late last

night I received an express from Grant of Auchoynany informing me that the violence and plundertags is begun which I can no longer

stand. For which reason I have five or six hundred of my men to-gether. I am now in my boots and design to be in Keith

tomorrow...”

After a diversion to Fochabers he reached Keith on the 16th. There he received letters from both Lord Deskford and Lord Loudon not,

as we might expect, praising his enterprise but mildly rebuking him for his interference. He took the hint and returned to Strathspey.

MacLeod and Munro who were advancing upon Aberdeen from

Inverness had hoped to join forces with Grant at Keith, and they at least would have welcomed his help, for at Inverurie on 23rd De-

cember they were routed by Lord Lewis Gordon. The North-east was

still a Jacobite stronghold.

In the South, however, there was retreat. The Battle of Falkirk in January 1746 raised the flagging hopes of the Prince’s supporters,

but the strength of the opposition was growing and retiral to Inver-ness was decided upon.

On 27th February Cumberland reached Aberdeen where he was

warmly welcomed. There he stayed for six weeks by which time his welcome was wearing rather thin. He was joined by a number of

Government supporters including the Duke of Gordon, Lord and Lady Findlater, Lord and Lady Braco and Ludovick Grant and his

Lady. The only actual fighting there was on Banffshire soil took place on

the night of 20th March. General Humphrey Bland had sent a force

of 70 Argyllshire militia and 30 of Kingston’s horse under Captain Campbell to reconnoitre at Keith. The Captain appears to have ex-

ceeded his order, if we are to believe the General’s dispatches which give this account of his actions. “Being determined to do something

that should transmit his name to future ages he took upon himself to act quite contrary to my orders. He formed a wild project of his

own to surprise Forcoborse (! ) and lay all night at Keith where he was surprised. By the obstinacy of this officer he has lost his whole

party except five of Kingston’s men and one Highlander. As Kingston’s cornet (one Thomas Smith) has made his escape on foot,

after his horse fell into a bogg, I took his examination of that unlucky affair till a more perfect account can be got. The rebells

marched from Forcoborse in the night and surrounded Keith and entered at both ends. By what the cornet says the rebells had about

500 Foot besides their Huzzars, and as the Campbells lay in the

Church and defended the Churchyard for above half an hour, and

that he heard very brisk firing during that time, he makes no doubt

the rebells paid dear for their conquest ... I hope we will soon have our revenge with interest.” The return of the killed and missing

gives 53 Campbells and 31 of Kingston’s Horse.

According to the Jacobite account of the incident the Hanoverian party had carried out some plundering in the town and, incensed by

this, certain of the inhabitants had acted as guides to the party from Fochabers. The Jacobites, who were commanded by a French-

man, Major Nicholas Glascoe, were far fewer than the 500 reported to General Bland. There appear to have been 50 men under Captain

Robert Stewart, a few of Lord Ogilvy’s men, 16 Frenchmen and 20 cavalry. The bulk of Campbell’s men were taken prisoner but a

number of dead were left in the Kirkyard and in the nearby street. Some of the Campbells are said to have hidden for a time under the

large rock to the west of the Auld Brig, but this they could hardly

have done unless the cavity, still known as “The Campbell’s Hole,” was then much deeper than it is to-day. There is a local tradition

that from this point a tunnel once ran to Milton Tower about half a mile away.

On the night of 7th and 8th April, the Findlaters being still with

Cumberland in Aberdeen, Cullen House was plundered by Jacobites, Major Glascoe, hero of the Keith affair, taking a prominent part in

the proceedings. Three days later the Findlaters felt safe to return to their home as they were accompanied by Cumberland and his

entire army! After spending a night there the Hanoverian army moved on westwards, and on 16th April the battle of Culloden was

fought. Among those who watched the fight from a safe distance were Lord and Lady Findlater. The lady is said subsequently to have

driven over the battlefield, and Ronald Macdonald of Bellfinlay gave

this account of the incident. “I can assure you that in the afternoon of the day of the battle, after that Cumberland and his army had

marched from the field into Inverness, and I was lying on the field stripped of all my cloaths, I saw a coach and 6 driving over the field

towards Inverness and approaching so near the spot where I was lying that I begun to be afraid they would drive over my naked

body, which made me stir a little and look up, and then in their passing I saw ladies in the coach, but I dare not say from my own

proper knowledge that it was the Countess of Findlater’s coach. Only I heard afterwards that the Countess of Findlater’s coach was

the only one that had been there at that time, so that I have it only by report that it was her coach which I saw driving over the field of

battle and which came so near me that the coachman made a lick at me with his whip as if I had been a dog. However I suffered no

harm by it, for the point of the lash touched my head but slightly.”

(Bishop Forbes “The Lyon in mourning.”) For their part in the ‘45

the Findlaters could claim little admiration but they managed at any

rate to come out on the winning side and they were in at the kill.

With the crushing of the Rising the country settled down to an era of internal peace. An able Laird could now do much to improve con-

ditions for his tenants and to develop the latent resources of his estates. Keith was fortunate in having a Laird both far sighted and

free from financial embarrassment - a Laird, moreover, whose eldest son was, perhaps, more able than he was himself.

The great cartographer, Robert Gordon of Straloch, had, almost a

century before, pointed out the merits of Keith’s geographical situ-ation [Keath vicus ade flumen, stato mercatu singulis septimanis,

loci opportunitate, frequentiam hominum, potissimum e superioribus regionibus, hue allicit. (Blaeu’s Theatrum Orbis

Terrarum 1662:)] and the merchants from all over the country who

congregated there each year for the great St. Rufus Fair and taxed to the uttermost the capacity of the town to accommodate them,

were in no doubt as to its advantages as a place of business. There was an awareness, too, in Straloch’s day of the value, or at least

the potential value, of the native resources of Strathisla. Agriculture was of prime importance but the manufacture of lime from the local

mineral and linen cloth and thread from home grown flax provided a livelihood for many.

[ Districtus hic, feraci solo, segete et gramine laetus, multum

juvante r lapide calcaris, cujus tanta hic copia, ut tota aedificia hoc lapide constent. Hic calci excoquendae, tum ad suos usus, tum ut

emptoribus parata sit, non segnis opera impenditur; tells etiam lineis, tenuioris fill, rem faciunt, quae, tamen, in nundinis a Strath-

Bogia nomen habent: ex bobus ad macellum saginatis, quaestum

faciunt. (Ibid.)]

[Translation by Bill Ettles: This district, lacking fruitfulness but happy with grass and corn, possesses a fine, much appreciated,

limestone rock, of which there is abundance, so that all building is of this stone. ??? and dried, it is sometimes put to this use (?

Building) and sometimes prepared for purchasers (a suggestion of application is fields – as now). There is also a crop of linen (flax)

producing a light thread made and traded to the district of Strathbogie.

From the seeds (another guess) beef (cattle) are fed – a profitable industry.]

Shortly afterwards Claverhouse’s poet tells us that Keith was noted

for its whisky and oats. He goes on to describe the town as “merry”,

but unfortunately he does not say how far the whisky contributed to

the merriment. Poetic licence may perhaps explain the use of the

epithet for there could have been small cause then for rejoicing. Scotland was poor and the man whose toil gave him a moderate

standard of life was indeed fortunate.

Daniel Defoe, who toured Scotland as an emissary of the English Government just before the Union, [He reached Keith on a Sunday

and was somewhat dismayed on finding that the only refreshment he could have at the posthouse was “an egg or two, with some

wine, or thick Scots ale.” (Tour Through Great Britain, Vol. IV p.185.) ] recorded that “the shire of Banff deserves some notice for

the following particulars: For that in it is situated Strathyla which drives a great trade in lime and fat cattle. They carry on a trade in

fine linen also, by means of their weekly markets at Keith.” Defoe’s brief visit can scarcely have qualified him to estimate the

importance of these trades and they were probably not so great as

he imagined. There were, however, in the glen of the Isla the seeds of prosperity and in time they developed and bore fruit. But this

development was no spontaneous growth. It required encour-agement from above and this encouragement may be said to have

fallen under three main headings - improvement of communications, introduction of scientific methods of agriculture

and, so far as Keith itself is concerned, town planning.

At the time of the ‘15 the horse equipped with curracks or crook-saddle, was the only means of transport which most of the Banff-

shire roads could carry. On 15th May, 1718, the Justices of the Peace for the shire met under the presidency of Chancellor

Seafleld’s son, then Lord Deskford, and “ considering that by several acts of Parliament they were appointed to cause the

highwayes and bridges... to be repaired, and that the highwayes

within the shyre of Banff were generally neglected and in many places in the winter impassable,’ they inaugurated a policy of road

management which opened up the county and made the gradual introduction of wheeled transport possible. To the prosecution of

this policy the future Earl continued to devote his energies and to him goes the main credit for its initial success.

His son, the Lord Deskford, whom Walpole knew, concerned himself

with road development also, but his chief interest was agriculture. Though Banffshire does not enjoy so mild a climate nor possess so

fertile a soil as the Laich of Moray beyond the Spey he realised that there were immense possibilities for farming in the county. On his

private experimental farm near Banff he tried out with success the methods of cultivation and management practiced in the South.

Among his many innovations he introduced the system of rotation

of crops; he introduced the turnip as a field crop, which eased the

difficulty of providing winter cattlefeed; and he is credited with

having brought the potato to the North. His tenants, suspicious as always of change, were induced in time to adopt his methods by his

granting them long leases on condition that the farms were enclosed and run on the lines he prescribed and in course of time

the face of the countryside was transformed.

By the year 1750 plans were made for the development of Keith. We may assume that something had been done by then to repair

the neglect suffered under the Lairds of Kempcairn, but the old village by the Gaun’s Pot with its narrow streets and mean dwellings

called for more drastic action than the mere patching up of its deficiencies. The market place for a rich agricultural hinterland, the

natural centre of a county where the means of inter-communication were being improved, a point we may say where the Highlands and

Lowlands of Banffshire meet, the halfway house between Aberdeen

and Inverness - a position so advantageous was worthy of special treatment.

The plan adopted was ambitious. The muir to the south and east,

the Gallows Hill of old, was chosen as the site for a new Keith and there were marked out the parallel streets, the regular feus, the

spacious square, the symmetrical town which we know to-day. The project did not immediately find favour with the inhabitants of the

Kirkton who were reluctant to leave their sheltered hollow for a windswept muir, but gradually the new town grew and prospered

and the vision of its founders was more than justified.

The welfare of a community does not to-day depend upon the Initiative of its Laird as once it did. It is private enterprise which has

raised the town of Keith to its present status. But, when Culloden

brought peace to the country, the old feudal system of the Normans which William the Conqueror brought to England and which David I

brought to Scotland had not yet been greatly modified, and vassals were still to a large extent dependant on their overlord. While the

Laird could not himself bring prosperity to his tenants he could create conditions in which prosperity was-possible - often indeed in

the face of opposition from those who were most likely to benefit -and that is precisely what was done for Keith.

Keith still depends largely on the farmer but farming has progressed

mightily since the days of the leisurely team of oxen and the cumbersome wooden plough. The agricultural machinery now in

common use is far beyond anything that Lord Deskford the “Improver” can have dreamed of, and by scientific stock-breeding

and the application of knowledge gained in the soil-research

laboratories results are achieved which he would regard as

miraculous. Strathisla is still famed for its whisky but the great

distilleries of today were unknown in the days of Claverhouse. The trade in linen which grew to considerable dimensions by the end of

the 18th century eventually died out in face of competition from the Irish but its place was taken by an industry of far greater

importance. The hand looms have gone but from their giant power looms the great tweed and wool mills of Keith send their products

forth to the markets of the world.

What might have been the fate of Keith If the Findlater fortunes had not been restored by the Chancellor Earl to enable him to step in

and meet the creditors of Milton and Kempcairn? At Milton it is possible, but far from certain, that the Duffs might have established

a new town. Oh their land across the Isla they did indeed do so in the early years of the 19th century when they formed Fife-Keith but

that was done only in an attempt to emulate the success of the

Seafield experiment. As for the old Kirkton, what might have hap-pened to it if Kempcairn’s creditors had been permitted to tear the

estate apart? If Findlater had not become Seafleld would we have the carefully planned and prosperous town we know to-day? Or

would the old Gallows Hill still be a bleak and barren muir, home of the whaup and peewit and mountain hare? Who can tell?

End