Agnews of Lochnaw

1489-] THE THIRD HEREDITARY SHERIFF. 103
gain, and was disinclined to pay the apparently very modest
valuation of sixteen merks (not quite £1 sterling) for the furniture ;
so he appealed to the Lords of Council, and they, with all due
gravity, pronounced a deliberate judgment on the 16th of March
1489 :—
" Gif the gudes of household be deliverit again as good as
they were taken, that they defalk the sixteen merks for the
whilk the gudes were prisit, or any part of the remanent of the
said gudes being deliverit again, that to be defalkit likewise. 1
The tenor of both judgments proves that the Sheriff had suc-
ceeded in adducing extenuating circumstances.
In 1482, John, Lord Kennedy, son of the " Eight "Worshipful
Gilbert," by Catherine, daughter of the first Lord Maxwell of
Caerlaverock, obtained extensive lands in Leswalt. The family
had added to their dignities that of " Keepers of the Manor
Place of Inch," as well as Baillies of Eegality of the Bishop of
Galloway's lands on the Water of Cree. Lord Kennedy married
a daughter of Alexander, first Lord Montgomery, and by her had
an only son, known in his father's lifetime as Sir David Ken-
nedy of Leswalt, who was eventually created Earl of Cassilis. 2
We have, after this date, more frequent notices of the pre-
sence of the Kennedys in Galloway. In 1489, the Lord
Auditors decree that Lord Kennedy should abide by the condi-
tions of tack he had entered into with Quintene M'Dowall of
the lands of Culmore, Caldones, and Larg, in the parish of Inch.
That he should give Quintene possession of the said lands ;
and they further adjudge that Lord Kennedy does wrong in
withholding five score of sheep from Quintene M'Dowall.
It was easier to decree than to enforce obedience. Lord
Kennedy appears to have been entirely indifferent to their judg-
ment ; for, on the 23d February 1491, on Quintene M'Dowall's
1 Act. Dom. Con.
2 The exact determination of the property was this: — In 1482, Lord Kennedy
obtained lands termed the barony of Leswalt ; in 1487, he gave them to his second
son, Alexander, ancestor of Kennedy of Gervanmains, by his second wife, daughter
of Lord Crighton. Alexander Kennedy afterwards transferred them to his eldest
brother Sir David.