Agnews of Lochnaw

1527.] THE FIFTH HEREDITARY SHERIFF. 153
sister of M'Clellan's bride, and became brother-in-law to this
Laird of Bomby, whose grandson was created Lord Kirkcud-
bright by Charles I. l
In 1527, Gilbert, second Earl of Cassilis, " ves killed at the Pow
of Prestick, in Kyle, by Hew Campbell of Loudoun, Sheriff of
Ayr, the 28th of December." 2 He was succeeded by his son,
Gilbert, as third Earl of Cassilis. His eldest daughter, Janet, had
married the Laird of Ereuch ; and his youngest, Helen, the
Sheriff's nephew, William Adair of Kilhilt. Cassilis left also
seven sons, of whom the third, Quintine, was the celebrated
Abbot of Crossreagle ; who, after his death, was canonized as a
saint, for his services in holding a public disputation with John
Knox respecting the sacrifice of the mass.
Young Gilbert, at his succession, was pursuing his studies
at the university of St. Andrews ; and there, while still a boy,
he was obliged by Beaton, the archbishop, to sign the sentence
of death pronounced against Patrick Hamilton, Abbot of Eerne,
the first martyr of the Eeformation.
This cruel act first disposed the young earl towards the re-
formed doctrines, which he himself soon after openly professed. 3
These reformed opinions were making their way quietly in
Galloway. The Gordons and Stewarts were both favourable to
the movement ; Gordon of Airds, their kinsman, had obtained
a copy of Wickliffe's Testament ; and this at a time when the
possession of such a book exposed the owner to severe penalties.
The Sheriff was intimately connected with both these families,
the members of which are said to have had regular secret meet-
1 There is in the Barnbarroch charter-chest a Precept (of this period) ofBail-
liary by William Maxwell of Tinwald to Stewart of Garlies, authorising him to
collect his mails and duties in the lands of Monreith, and to deliver them at his
house of Broughton ; excepting the lands of Barmeal, " whilk he hath gotten till
his son Herbert" (1525).
2 Balfour.
8 James Beaton, the Primate, unfavourably known as a persecutor, was in
1503 Prior of Whithorn, in 1508 Bishop of Galloway, 1509 Archbishop of Glas-
gow, and in 1522 was translated to St. Andrews. The archbishop's nephew,
David — an archbishop also, and Cardinal — was the still more notorious person
under whose sentence George Wishart suffered, 1st March 1546.