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

JOHN, EARL OF GOWRIE. 16S
nis morning ride, especially if he was at any dis-
tance to the southward, might naturally have been
expected to have heard tidings of what was pass-
ing at Falkland, as news from thence would at that
time through all the country be the chief subject
of the people's inquiry. If Andrew Ruthven had
been examined, which, for some unknown reason
he was not, he was the person who could have
added weight to Henderson's evidence, or have
wholly subverted it.
In the same forenoon the Earl was visited by
Mr. John Moncrief of PittcriefF, a brother of Wil-
liam Moncrief of that ilk. His business was to get
the Earl to subscribe a Lady's right of confirma-
tion to some effects or heritage. The Earl asked
Mr. Moncrief to dine with him*. We are told, in
the depositions of the witnesses, that among the
other gentlemen who were invited to dinner, be-
sides those who ordinarily dined with the Earl, were
James Drummond of Pitcairnis, and Alexander
Peebles, Baron of Findowne.
There is no reason to doubt such facts mention-
ed in the King's Narrative, and in Henderson's
* Moncrief's Deposition.