Chapter 19

This affair made matters worse between the Murrays and the Drummonds. Sir Alexander and his friends set about trying to emancipate themselves from the jurisdiction of the Stewards of Strathearn. They found an aider and abettor in Sir Patrick Graham, who had assumed the title of Earl of Strathearn in right of his wife. Sir John Drummond of Concraig, the Steward, was his brother-in-law, but disposed to stand stiffly upon his position as hereditary Steward. He declined to resign his office into the hands of the Earl of Strathearn as superior. Upon this there ensued a bitter personal quarrel between the Earl and the Steward. The Murray party saw their advantage and took it. The wife of the Laird of Ogilvy was grand-niece to the second wife of the Earl of Strathearn, and through this connection or otherwise he was induced to give a pledge that he should either have power to dispose of the Steward's office or not be Earl of Strathearn. He set out from Methven Castle with the intention of breaking up the Steward's Court at the Stayt of Crieff. Sir John and his friends encountered him in the park of Ferntower at a place still marked by a large standing-stone. The Earl was killed, and Sir John and his friends fled to Ireland. Fordun states that none of them were brought to justice, except William and Walter Oliphant. These were probably sons or grandsons of Sir Walter Oliphant of Gask, who married Elizabeth, the youngest daughter of Robert the Bruce, on 11th Jan., 1364. This fatal encounter in the park of Ferntower took place in 1413, during the regency of Albany, who succeeded to power in 1406, after the death of his brother, King Robert III. Sir John had secured the succession to his lands and offices in favour of his son, Malcolm, so that the outlawry decreed against him affected himself only. He died in Ireland. But misfortune dogged his House. Even in the time of his grandson, the family historian states "that ever since the killing of the Earl of Strathearn the family had no settled peace, but were forced to keep house to so many friends and servants for their security that it brought a consumption upon their fortune, ingadged it in burdens, and made him pairt with many of his lands to relieve his debts." In 1474 the laird of the time, Maurice Keir Drummond, sold lands and his office of Steward to his chief, John Drummond of Cargill, afterwards Lord Drummond.

Thus the Murrays had gained their object, so far. The family of Concraig was ruined. But they were foiled in their attempt upon the Stewardship. They had tried for that many ways. In 1441, Sir David Murray of Tullibardine had attempted "to wind himself once in possession of the Stewartrie" by proposing a marriage alliance between his daughter, Isabella, and Malcolm Drummond, son of Sir John. The scheme fell through somehow. Meantime, King James I. had put new life into the central governing body. Parliament was now waking up to a sense of its rights and duties. The actual reign of James I. only lasted for thirteen years (1424-1437), but he held no fewer than thirteen Parliaments during these years. It was his object to break the power of the nobles and local dignitaries. The unique position of the Earldom of Strathearn and the hereditary Stewardships which had grown up alongside of it attracted his attention. The Earldom was the only Palatinate within the bounds of Scotland; the only Earldom possessing Royal privileges. King James I. was a reformer of the "hot-haste" school. The execution of a plan of action followed hard upon the heels of the conception of it. An Act of his first Parliament directed an inquest to be made by the Sheriff--"what lands pertain to the King, or has pertained during the reign of the last three kings, and in whose hands they now are." In terms of this statute, King James I. resumed the Earldom of Strathearn on the ground that it was a male fee, and did not pass to the wife of Patrick Graham, the heir-female. This happened in 1436, and it cost the King his life the following year at the hands of Robert Graham, uncle and tutor of the young heir, Malise, who was still detained as a hostage in England in security for the payment of the King's ransom. But the impulse had been given; though dead, the reformer King still spoke to the nation, and in 1442 James II, and his Parliament declared that the Earldom had fallen to the Crown. In 1455 it was enacted that all regalities in the King's hands should be annexed to the royalty, and subject to the King's Court. This action in Scotland had the support of the Murray faction. They had come to see the futility of any attempt upon the Stewardship. In the year 1474--the very year in which Maurice Keir Drummond of Concraig had parted with lands and office to his kinsman, the Laird of Cargill--Sir William Murray of Tullibardine obtained from King James III. a discharge or dishonouration of the Seneschalship of Strathearn. The effect of this was that his person and his lands were emancipated from the jurisdiction of the Steward's Court. This example was followed by the Laird of Abercairny, who held a tack of the lands of Tullichettle, which Sir William Stirling of Keir, the granter, was called on to warrant. In 1483, the Laird of Abercairny, Humphrey Murray, appeared at the Stayt of Crieff and withdrew his suit--"_Levavit sectam suam de predicta curia_," which was transferred by Crown charter to the King's Sheriff Court at Perth. Thus terminated the jurisdiction of the Earls Palatine of Strathearn. It was followed up by a declaration of date 16th February, 1505, to the effect that "the Baroneys of new create and maid within the King's Earldom of Strathearn within thir three years bipast" were released of all service in the Steward Court of the King's Earldom of Strathearn. Such service was now due to the King's Sheriff Court of Perth "in all times to cum."

In giving this rapid sketch of the early history of Crieff, I have followed mainly the guidance of the writer of a historical introduction to a little book entitled _The Beauties of Upper Strathearn_. For the short account of the Skait of Crieff, I am indebted to one or two articles in the _Strathearn Herald_, written by the late H. B. Farnie, on the 17th and 24th days of November, 1860, just when the trenching and levelling were in full swing. We must now turn to the later period during which Crieff tasted the sweet uses of adversity. It suffered eclipse for 200 years--from the year 1483, when the jurisdiction of the Earl Palatine terminated, down to 1683, when a citizen of Crieff--George Drummond of Milnab--became Lord Provost of Edinburgh. During these long years, Crieff was an ordinary kirk-town, nowise distinguished among its fellows. It had its Gothic Church, which seems to have dated from a very remote period. When it was demolished, in 1787, forty gold coins of Robert I. were found in a hole in the wall six feet from the ground. There was a law plea for the possession of these coins between the Crown and James Gentle, the purchaser of the old walls, which was decided in favour of the Crown. The houses of Crieff were clustered round this old church--mainly east and north and south. Crieff had no west end beyond the Cross until after 1731, when the Master of Drummond made good his title to the Perth Estate, after the forfeiture which ensued upon the proceedings of 1715. It was burned to the ground in this year, but, thanks to the Master of Drummond, it had reached a thriving condition as a market town for the midland and western districts of Scotland, when the Highlanders broke loose again in 1745. It suffered no second burning, though the Highlanders had possession of it, and Prince Charlie held a stormy council of war in the old Drummond Arms, at the foot of Hill's Wynd. Since then, Crieff has become a "braw toon" without the other "singe" its Highland neighbours destined for it. The coming of the railway in 1856, and the adoption of the Police Act in 1864, have done wonders, enabling it to take full advantage of its many attractions. It was loyal to the Hanoverian dynasty during the troubles of the "'15" and the "'45"; but one hundred years before the last outbreak it gave a kindly welcome to Montrose, who entrenched himself very securely at Callum's Hill, having doubtless his headquarters at the house of his kinsman, Inchbrakie.

We come now to look more closely at Crieff, when it set out upon its comparatively undistinguished career as a kirk-town. No doubt it felt the loss of the Court of the Steward of the Earl Palatine of Strathearn, just as the whole strath felt the want of the sunshine of the Royal favour after the murder of King James I. in the Blackfriars Monastery of Perth, at Christmastide, 1437. But though, doubtless, many forsook it, some remained, and there were kirk-lands near by for the maintenance of the Gospel. Conflicting interests began to stir in connection with these lands. When they come under our notice the kirk-lands of Crieff are attached to the Chapel Royal at Stirling. In "Ane Index of Rights of the Chappell and of their Bulls or Patents" we read, as one of the contents, "Applicatio prima fructuum de Air, Kincardin, Crieff, et Pettie Brachley." This seems to have been sanctioned by a Bull of Alexander VI., of date May 16th, 1502; and surely it is interesting to know that the kirk-lands of Crieff, Ayr, Kincardine, and Pettie Brachley--wherever that was--were allocated to the Chapel Royal at Stirling by the Borgia Pope, Alexander VI., one of the prime disgraces of the Chair of St. Peter. But the allocation did not pass unchallenged. Crieff had its perpetual pensionary vicar in those days, and naturally enough he could see neither rhyme nor reason in the arrangement which a Pope had no doubt sanctioned, but which completely ignored his interests. The name of the worthy vicar was Master John Broune,[1] a discreet man, as he is called in the public instrument in which the process is recorded, by means of which he got an augmentation of stipend. The instrument begins in this way:--

"In the name of God. Amen. By this present public instrument, be it evidently known to all men, that in the year of the Incarnation of our Lord, 1511, on the 5th day of March, the 15th year of the Indiction, being the 9th year of the Pontificate of the Most Holy Father in Christ, and Master of our Master, Julius II., Pope by the Divine Providence. Compeared in person, in Court, Master John Broune, perpetual pensionary vicar of the parish of Crieff, in Stratherne, on the one part, and on the other, Masters William Sterheid and John Goldsmyth, Canons of the said Chapel Royal and Prebendaries of the same Church of Crieff."

The President of the Court was Master David Abercrummy, principal official of Candida Casa and of the Chapel Royal, Stirling, also sub-deacon of the same Chapel Royal. A notary public was also present and certain subscribing witnesses. Master John Broune, the vicar, stoutly maintained that the pension was too small and mean (_exigua parva et exilis_) for his proper maintenance, and strengthened his plea by the production of two documents--one subscribed by the proper hand of the most excellent Prince and Master of our Master, James IV., the most illustrious King of the Scots; the other subscribed by the proper hand of the reverend Father in Christ, and Master of our Master, David, by the Divine compassion, Bishop of Candida Casa and of the Chapel Royal, Stirling. Then follows the King's letter in "braid Scots":--

"We, as patrone of the Kyrk of Creyf, gyffis our full consent and assent to thir ouyr lettres that the Bishop of ouyr Chapel Rial erec and mak the vicar's pension of the said kyrk equivalent to the utheris vicaris pensionarys of the Kyrks of Balmaclellene, Suthwyth, and Kellys, unit and erectit to our said chappell with ane manse, yard, and gleyb of twa akaris of the kyrk-land of Creyf, callyt 'For,' next adjacent to the said kyrk, to the sustentacion of the vicar thairof to serve the cuyr, payand procuragis and synnagis, and mak the dene rural expensys in visitacion as efferys, and ordains that this be done be the Bishop of ouyr Chapell Ryal and official tharof by tharis dyscrecionys, the quantyte of the cuyr beyng consyderit.

"Subscrivit with ouyr hand at Edynbrugh, the xxv. daye of September, and of our reng the xxiiij.or zeir, 1512. _Et sequitir subscripcio manualis_. Rex James."

There is a slight discrepancy in the above record; for whereas the Royal letter is dated the 25th day of September, 1512, it is stated to have been produced by the vicar before the Court of Master David Abercrummy on the 5th day of March, 1511. The explanation may be that it was found difficult to grit the augmentation out of the clutches of the Stirling Canons, even after the Bishop of Candida Casa (Whithorn) had decreed in the vicar's favour, and that the Royal authority had again to be invoked to give effect to it. However this may be, it is certain that Master John Broune gained his point, as will appear from the following document, also in "braid Scots":--

"Schyr official, forsamekyll as the vicarage of the Kyrk of Creyf, is nocht contenyt, in the erectioun of our Souerane lordis Chapell Rial as the layf of the vicarages that are incorporat tharto, this is, tharfor, that ze assygne and mak ouyr vicar of Creyf als meikle zeyrly to his pensioun of the fructis o' the sayd vicarage to sustene him and serve the cuyr as ony of the vicarages of Balmaclellene, Suchwych, or Kellis has, with ane manse, zard, and gleyb and twa akaris of the kyrk-land callyt 'For,' next adjacent to the sayd kyrk, wyth certain gress soums for gudying of the sayd gleyb, according to the extent of the sayd kyrk-land, he payand of the samyn procurage and synnage aucht and wount and makand the deyne rurale expense quhen he vesiis the sayd kyrk.

"Alanerlye, for that our Souerane lordis, patroun of the sayd Kyrk of Creyf, has consentyt heirto, and commendit us to hys writtings to do the samyn, keip this our mandment for your warand, and cause the samyn to be fulfyllyt, sa that we heir na complant tharof in tymys cuming. Subscrivit wyth our hand at Edinbrugh, the v. day of March, the zer of God im. vc. xi. zeris. _Et sequitur subscripcio manualis dicti Episcopi D. Candide Case et Cappelle Regie Striuelingensis Episcopus_."

Then follows a narrative of proceedings in monk Latin, which I have been at some pains to translate thus:--

"Certain relevant documents having been publicly examined and shown in open Court, the said vicar immediately demanded from the judge that he should proceed with the augmentation of his annual pension of the said perpetual vicarage according to the tenor of the said two documents, especially because no reasonable bar had been alleged in Court why the augmentation in this kind should not be granted. And Master Abercrummy, the foresaid judge, having carefully examined the two documents and the foundation of the foresaid Chapel Royal, Stirling, particularly in that point where it treats of the erection of perpetual vicarages and of their annual pensions, as in the case of the Parish Churches of Suchwych (Southwick), Kellis (Kells), and Balmaclellan, belonging to the said Chapel Royal, augmented the annual pension of the perpetual vicarage of Crieff in the manner which follows, and ordained--viz., that the perpetual vicar of the Church of Crieff, in Strathearn, who has had, _pro tempore_, shall have in perpetuity of the fruits of that Church of Crieff for his own sustenance and for those dependent on him, wherewith he may be able to live in comfort, twenty-four merks of the usual money of Scotland and two acres of arable land adjacent to the said church of the town, which is called 'For,' pertaining to the same church and (origin?) the house built upon it, along with pasture for his own animals according to the congruency (convenience?) of the same said acres, and with 'hearth-rights in the muirs and marshes of the said town' (focalibus competentinus in moris et marresiis ejusdem villae.) [The Latin is barbarous, and may mean anything; but it does seem to have some connection with the right of digging peats.] And besides, that the forenamed vicar, who has been bound, _pro tempore_, so, hereafter is, in perpetuity, bound to pay annually to the bishop in ordinary of the place the procurations aucht and wount on behalf of the said church, the synodal moneys and expense in ordinary for the Dean of Christianity who has annually visited the said Church of Crieff, in Strathearn, and the parish thereof; and that the payment of the pension, as regards the said 24 merks, shall be made to the said vicar of Crieff for the time being, at the four usual annual terms, in equal portions, to be lifted annually out of the fruits of the said Church of Crieff--viz., at the Festivals of the Finding of the Holy Cross; of St. Peter of the Chain; of All Saints; and of the Purification of our Lady.

"Upon which premises--all and single--the foresaid John Broune, perpetual pensionary vicar of the said parochial Church of Crieff, in Strathearn, asked the present public instruments to be executed for him by me, notary public undersigned. These deeds were lodged in the Chapel Royal, near the town of Edinburgh, in the consistory of the same, at the twelfth hour before mid-day, or thereby, in the year, day, month, indiction, and pontificate as above, there being present discreet men, Masters Ninian Spottiswoode, Archdeacon of the furesaid Chapel Royal, Stirling; John Tod, Alexander Painter, William Atkyn, Nicholas Buchan, all of the Chapel; James Aikman, burgess of Edinburgh; John Abercrummy, and Alexander Ramsay, with divers others, witnesses to the premises.

(Signed) "J. PRYMROIS."

It would appear from all this that there was a deal of trouble in connection with the erection of the Church of Crieff. One is apt to get confused among the Popes, Bishops, principal officials, and notaries public who were all concerned in the erection. We seem to reach the close of the long process on the first day of September, 1537, the year of the marriage of James V. to Madeleine of France, the year which lies almost exactly midway between the Battle of Flodden and the outbreak of the Reformation in 1560. Upon the second day of December, 1537, "the reverend father in Christ, Henry, by the Divine compassion, Bishop of the forenamed Chapel and of Candida Casa, from the tribunal with the consent of his brother canons, or at all events of the greater part of them, being assembled in Chapter, and as a memorial of a perpetual thing, ordered, ordained, and decreed that the erection of the Vicar Church of Crieff should be registered by Master John Lambert, Prebendary of the sacred Chapel and scribe of the foresaid Chapter, and to be inscribed and placed upon the books of the Registrars of the oft-mentioned Chapel."

I am greatly indebted to A. G. Reid, Esq., Auchterarder, for kindly furnishing me with the above valuable extracts, and I bring the paper to a close with a word or two about the Crieff of a later time. The annals of Crieff as a kirk-town are a dreary waste in the judgment of one who assures us that he has waded through the records of services from 1549 to 1700. One incident, however, took place between these dates which may be mentioned as being the last expiring flicker of the old jurisdiction exercised by the Stewards of Strathearn. The Earl of Perth discharged the duties of the office--what remained of them--down to the abolition of heritable jurisdictions in 1748. In the year 1682, the minister of Trinity-Gask, by name Richard Duncan, was condemned to death for the murder of a child which was found concealed under his own hearth-stone. Lord Fountainhall reports that he was convicted on very insufficient evidence, and the country people took the same view of the case. He was hanged on the "kind gallows of Crieff," on the knoll near the Cemetery, still marked by a solitary tree. The story goes that a messenger was seen and heard approaching, bearing a reprieve, but he came too late. Local sympathy asserted that the hour of execution was anticipated to gratify the spite of some one in authority. However this may be, the hanging of the Episcopal minister of Trinity-Gask was the last exercise of criminal jurisdiction on the part of the Steward of Strathearn. This was the last time the "kind gallows of Crieff" bore its ghastly fruit. The Highlanders' salutation to it is familiar to everybody.

A pleasanter sight by far than a string of dangling caterans was the great annual tryst, or Michaelmas Market. It was largely frequented, as being the only market of any consequence between Stirling and Inverness. We have it on the authority of Macky, a Government secret agent, who visited Scotland in 1723, that no fewer than thirty thousand cattle were sold to English dealers for thirty thousand guineas. He came from Stirling expressly to see the market, and here is his graphic description of what he saw:--

"The Highland gentlemen were mighty civil, dressed in their slash'd short waistcoats, a trousing (which is breechen and stockings of one piece of striped stuff), with a plaid for a cloak and a blue bonnet. They have a ponyard knife and a fork in one sheath, hanging at one side of their belt, their pistol at the other, and their snuff-mull before, with a great broadsword by their side. Their attendance was very numerous, all in belted plaids, girt like women's petticoats down to the knee, their thighs and half of the leg all bare. They had each also their broadsword and poynard, and spake all Irish, an unintelligible language to the English. However, these poor creatures hired themselves out for a shilling a day to drive cattle to England, and to return home at their own charge. There was no leaving anything loose here but it would have been stolen."

The Michaelmas Market was shorn of its glory and its picturesque aspect by the transference of the cattle tryst to Falkirk in 1770. There was occasional bloodshed at these gatherings, the peace being with difficulty preserved by the authority of the Lord of Drummond, who collected the customs of the fairs of Crieff and Foulis. These customs amounted, in 1734, to nearly L600 Scots. The Lochaber axes carried by the guardians of the peace may still be seen in the armoury at Drummond Castle. This last shred of baronial supervision--the ghost of the ancient Stewardship--disappeared in 1831. But perhaps the most interesting memorial of the Crieff Michaelmas Tryst is a poem written by one of the Highland drovers, whose appearance moved the compassion of Macky, the tourist of 1723. His name is Robert Doun or Donn. He had left his heart behind him in his native glen, as people will do, drovers as well as others. There is a ring of genuine poetry in the verses in which he expresses his love-sickness--his desire to go upon the wings of the wind as it whistles northward, northward:--

"Easy is my bed--it is easy, But it is not to sleep that I incline. The wind whistles northwards, northwards, And my thoughts move with it. More pleasant were it to be with thee In the little glen of calves Than to be counting of droves In the enclosures of Crieff."