Agnews of Lochnaw

1603.] THE HOUSE OF CULZEAN. 241
feared they would be acquitted. The assize, however, unex-
pectedly returned a verdict of guilty against all three, and they
were instantly sentenced to have their heads stricken from their
bodies, and to forfeit all their goods to the king.
All hope being now at an end, the younger Mure confessed
the whole, and at last, with much difficulty, persuaded his father
to do the same ; much to the satisfaction of the public. A con-
temporary, warming as he records their tardy repentance, thus
concludes his dismal tale : —
" Their godly resolution to make haste to receive the eternal
joys, which they expected assuredly at God's merciful hands,
gave as great comfort to the beholders of their execution, as their
wicked lives had been offensive to those who knew the actions
thereof."
Sir Thomas Kennedy left four sons and three daughters;
of whom, as already stated, the eldest had married " the young
Sheriff of Galloway ;" the second, Helen, was the wife of James
Mure, from whom it may be presumed that she had long been
separated before his execution ; and she afterwards re-married Sir
John Eergusson of Kilkerran. The third married a nephew of
the Sheriff, Sir Patrick M'Kie of Larg ; and he, after her death,
married a daughter of the Laird of Garthland.
James, the eldest son, whose dream was so strangely instru-
mental in detecting his father's murderers, died without issue ;
and Alexander, his next brother, carried on the line, whose
great-grandson, Sir Thomas Kennedy of Culzean, was served
heir to his distant relative, the eighth Earl of Cassilis, in 1760 ;
and from him descends the present Marquis of Ailsa.
In 1600 Uchtred M'Dowall died, and was succeeded by his
son John, whose wife was niece of the former, and cousin of the
present Sheriff. He is said to have been a profuse man, and to
have alienated a great many lands that had been long in his
family.
In 1603, on James' succession to the English crown, includ-
ing that of Ireland, the Sheriff, as well as many others of the
old Scotch proprietors, expected support from a native sovereign
K