Tracts, legal and historical

136
shire. It would appear from Andrew Napier, mer-
chant, burgess of Edinburgh, brother of the Laird
of Merchiston, being mentioned in 1569, in a legal
transaction along with Helen Litill, wife of Alex-
ander Gray, burgess of the said burgh, 1 — while he
witnessed a deed of the previous Isabel, and her
husband in 1566, 2 that these ladies were either
sisters, or relatives. Admitting the fact, which
seems extremely likely, the Napiers would then be
connected with royalty, for it is a curious circum-
stance, and one possibly little known, that Helen
was " nwrice" (nurse,) to James VI. 3 which lacteal
relationship, it is not improbable, may have tended
to aggrandize them.
It is, therefore, quite impossible that the English
Napiers could in this way be descended from Mer-
chiston, and as it is equally inpracticable to connect
them otherwise, we may hold that their Merchiston
origin is a mistake, and that, however subsequently
1 lb. Vol. xlv. p. 99.
2 See Wood, Vol. ii. p. 288.
5 Contract, dated at Stirling 28th June 1569, between " Alex-
ander Gray, burgess of Edinbrucht, helen Litill his spouse,
Maistres nwrice to oure Soverane lord the Kingis maiestie, Ed-
ward Litill, her broder," &c. Act. Dom. Con. et Sess. Vol. xlv.
p. 99. The mother of Alexander Gray is here stated to be
Marion Napier, probably a relative of the Merchistons. By a
document, dated in 1567, in the Mar charter Chest, Nanis Gray,
Helen's daughter, assisted her mother in her important avoca-
tion.