History and traditions of the land of the Lindsays, in Angus and Mearns

GUTHRIE FAMILIES. 373
and was accordingly executed at the Cross of Edinburgh.
Arnot well said, that "it is a fortunate maxim in our juris-
prudence that statute laws prescribe." 1
There was also a James Guthrie " laird " about this time,
but whether he was father of James Guthrie, the famous
martyr, who was executed in the Grassmarket of Edinburgh
in 1661, is not so certain.
Owing to the difficulties into which the family were thrown
about that period, James's brother — perhaps Patrick (at least
there was a Patrick Guthrie, who designed himself in 1655, as
"sometime of that Ilk"), 2 — sold the estates to Mr. John Guthrie,
Bishop of Moray, and on this the original stock and line of
" Guthrie of that Ilk " practically ceased to have connection
with the lands that bore their name, the Bishop being but
remotely related to the family of that Ilk. 3 We have been
unable to ascertain the exact date of the Bishop's purchase ;
but he received infeftment on December 29th, 1636, and in
1640 (on being deprived of his living, and forced out of his
official residence of Spynie Castle), he retired " to his own
estate of Guthrie, in the county of Angus," where "he died
during the course of the grand rebellion." 4 From the diary
of his brother James, the minister of Arbirlot, and ancestor
of the Craigie and Taybank Guthries, we learn that the Bishop
died in Guthrie on Tuesday 28th August 1649, and was buried
in "y e He of y e kirk of Guthrie," beside Mcolas Wood his
wife. Bishop Guthrie's daughter married her cousin, Guthrie
of Gaigie, and thus became maternal ancestor of the present
laird of Guthrie and Gaigie, John Douglas Maude Guthrie,
who succeeded his father in 1877. About the end of the
seventeenth century, Ochterlony gives a pleasant account of
the parish: "The most part of the parish belongs to the
Laird of Guthrie of that Ilk [sic], a very ancient gentle -
1 Arnot, Cel. Crim. Trials, p. 312.
2 Services of Heirs in Chancery Office, vi. p. 90.
3 For an account of Bishop Guthrie and his family, see Jervise, Epit. ii. p. 149.
4 Keith, Catal. of Scotch Bishojis, p. 152.