Ayrshire > Volume 2

THE BOYLES OF KELBURN 151
the alleged bribes were ridiculously and incredibly
small.
The correspondence between the Earl of Mar and
the Earl of Glasgow was not exclusively confined to
public business. On February 21, 1706, Lord Glasgow
wrote to Mar to bespeak his forgiveness for his brother,
James Erskine, afterwards a Lord of Session as Lord
Grange, whose marriage to Rachael Chiseley appears
to have been contracted against the will of his family.
For some reason it had a most unhappy ending.
Whether the lady was actually mad, or whether she was
merely an intemperate and insufferable woman appears
to be matter for doubt, but in any case he had her sent
to St. Kilda, where from 1734 to 1742 she remained for
all practical purposes a captive. In 1708 Lord Glasgow
submitted, at the instance of Lord Rosse, the offer of a
regiment under command of that nobleman if only the
Queen would pay them ; and Her Majesty, he adds,
" could command twenty thousand men out of the West
of Scotland," upon the same condition. He shows
himself a disciplinarian : — " In my opinion, none of the
officers in these bounds where such villanous practices
have been used, and they not to discover them, should
ever have a public commission, if they were my brothers;"
but he was less stern where the needs of a lady were at
issue— "I have at my Lady D 's importunity to
send you up the enclosed gift, that your lordship may
pass it in her favors ; it's charity to help a lady in
distress to bread."
On July 31, 1706, Lord Glasgow had a commission
from Queen Anne of the office of Baillie of the regality
of Glasgow, on the resignation of the Duke of Richmond
and Lennox, with large jurisdiction that included
power to call the lieges together when necessary, and to
hold weaponshaws, &c. ; and in November of the same
year he was chairman of a Parliamentary Committee
that enquired into, and reported favourably concerning
the progress made by Mr. James Anderson, W.S., on
the Diplomata et Numismata Scotice, a work which he