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