Historical and genealogical account of the principal families of the name of Kennedy

PREFATORY NOTICE. vii
Volume—" Which Booke King Charles the First had ranfom'd
from Rome, by a confiderable foume of money. It is certain Bifhop
Spotfwood had it and the Black Booke of Pasley, fign'd by the hands
of three Abbots, when he compil'd his Hiftory."
It is very probable, therefore, that this Volume may still be in exist-
ence, (likely in England) — and that this brief mention made of it may
prove the means of its recovery, and of having it preserved in some
Public Institution, such as the Library of the Faculty of Advocates,
Edinburgh, so as to be, at all times, accessible to the Historian. If it
should be recovered, it is very likely that it would eventually be pre-
sented to the public, in a proper form.
The same author mentions the Black Books of Paisley and Plus-
cardin, " quhich we find lifted amongft Bifhop Spotfwood's Books ;"
the Black Book of Hamilton, which is quoted by John Knox, Lib. I.
p. 47, ad annum 1543 ; the Breviary of Aberdeen, " printed in 1509,
the 22 year of King James- the Fourt his Reign, impenfis Walteri Chap-
man, mercatoris Edinburgenfis ;" the Chronicles of Melrose, Holy-
rood, and in general all the MS. Chronicles, Chartularies, and Histories
of Scotland, amounting to seventy-six.
Towards the conclusion of his valuable Catalogue, Father Hay
remarks, " The Black Booke of Pasley, frequently cited by Buchannan,
together with the famous Booke of Pluscardin, I find lifted in the
Catalogue of Bifhop Spotfwood's Library. Doctor Sibbald hath ane