Ayrshire > Volume 2

THE KENNEDYS 23
the lands of the Abbacy of Glenluce, which had been
seized by the Gordons, whilst Lord Cassillis had been
called by the Abbot to his assistance. In a curious MS.
in the British Museum of the period appears this entry :
" The Erie of Cassillis, called Kanethy, being with his
friends of the same surname upon the west seas, in the
countie of Carrik, a stewartrie and parcel of the shiredom
of Ay re. There is of the same name in that countie,
and descended of his house, sundrie lords and gentlemen,
whereoff the principal! is the Lord of Barganye and
Blairquhoy, of little less living than the Erie himself.
His chief houses be Cassillis and Dunnyre, 4 miles from
the bridge of Doone. The people are mingled of speeches
of Irish and English, not far distant from Carrichfergus
in Ireland."
When the Earl died, 12th December, 1576, his elder
son, and the heir to the Earldom, was eight years of
age. His widow, a daughter of Lord Glamis, survived
him, and wedded the first Marquess of Hamilton. In
addition to the young Earl, he was survived by another
son, Hew, a prominent fighter in the feuds of the period.
It was he who covenanted, though without avail, to
take the life of John Mure of Auchendrane. With his
sister-in-law, the Countess of Cassillis, he was, May,
1603, beset by the Bargany faction in the farmhouse of
Auchensoul, in the parish of Barr, which was burned
over their heads. Compelled to surrender, they granted
bonds to Bargany for a large sum of money on condition
of receiving their liberty. These bonds were afterwards
declared judicially null and void. Hew, who died
before March, 1607, was married to a daughter of John
M'Dowall of Garthland, and their eldest son, John,
became sixth Earl of Cassillis.
The fifth Earl, John, was, as has been said, but
eight years of age when he succeeded to his father. He
happened upon one of the stormiest periods of the great
Carrick feud ; the period that witnessed the Kennedy
family reft in twain and fighting the one party with the
other, with all the rancour and bitterness of blood