History and traditions of the land of the Lindsays in Angus and Mearns

32 LAND OF THE LINDSAYS.
with bows and vther fensable wapins, on horse and fute." Sir
Walter, who, though from no leniency on Drum's part, appears to
have been more frightened than hurt on this occasion, succeeded
in having him deprived of the hereditary Sheriffship of Aber-
deenshire.*
Sir Walter's reign, however, drew to a close, and in due
course, he was succeeded by his son, Sir David, who was the first
of the family to assume the style and designation "of Edzell."
Like his intolerant parent, he was not unknown at the bar of the
Lords of Council, where, for sundry misdemeanours, he was
frequently arraigned. Some of these offences consisted in his
having lifted no less than fourteen " nolt " from the "bischop of
Aberdeneis tennentis of the Birse "f — his witholding a certain
sum of money, and " a cop and a couer of siluer our gilt, and a
salt fut of siluer," which Fothringham of Powry " laid in wed " for
Sir David to Bishop Thomas of Aberdeen. He was prosecuted
at same time by his mother, Isabel of Levinston, for the
" widow's terce," or her share out of the lands of Fasky, of which
there is reason to believe he had attempted to deprive her.J
Sir David's only son, Walter, a brave and courageous youth,
died before his father, having fallen along with his kinsman, the
Earl of Crawford, on the fatal field of Flodden. He was pre-
viously married, and though leaving four sons, Sir David, with
a degree of injustice, not altogether at variance with the doings
of his early life, attempted to change the succession from them
to those of his own second marriage. James V., however, with
that love of justice, and impartiality which so endeared him to his
subjects, treated this attempt at disinheritance with just indigna-
tion, and declared Sir Walter's eldest son " the rychteous
heritour," and added — in reference to the part which his father
bore at Flodden — " we havand in mynd to helpe and favour
thame that dyd gude service to our maist noble father." Sir
David of Edzell died an aged man in 1528, and his sons, Alex-
ander and David, by his second wife, Elizabeth Spens, were
* (Mar. 2, 1471)— Acta AuJitorum. p. 20.— This laird of Drum's second wife was the
daughter of a Fife gentleman, named Lindsay, who fled to the north in consequence of a
slaughter he had committed. — Inf. kindly communicated by A.F. Irvine, yr., Esq. of Drum.
t Acta Auditorum, Feb. 17, 1489.
J Acta Dom. Concil., July 12, 1-180.— Fasky was alienated from Edzell in Sir David's time,
and given by James IV., in 1510, to the ex-Lord Bothwell, founder of the knightly house of
Balmain.