History of the life and death of John, Earl of Gowrie

COUNTESS OF GOWRIE. #7
proof of its having been believed in the reign of
Charles II.
William Drummond, Viscount of Strathallan,
collected the materials of his MS. history of the
Drummonds in the year 1681. He died in the
year 1688. The copy of his MS. belonging to the
Perth Literary and Antiquarian Society, bears this
attestation : " This copied from the original MS.
by Mr. David Drummond, Advocate, anno 1689."
The Viscount, when speaking of William the
first Earl of Gowrie, says, " His lady was Doro-
thea Stewart, daughter to the Lord Meffen, begot-
ten on the body of Queen Margaret, Regent in
1515, who was divorced from Archibald Earl of
Angus." * Indeed, some person, into whose hands
the MS. had happened to fall, very rudely, with re-
gard to his Lordship, interlined these words : " 'Tis
false ! for the Queen had no living child to Lord
Methven." But that person was mistaken, as will
afterwards appear.
When the abdication of King James VII. was
declared in the year 1689, what is now only a mat-
ter of historical amusement became the subject of
* Drummond's MS. p. 41.