Montgomery manuscripts

The Montgomery Manuscripts.
17
go to the Court and impart to the King what his brother had sent : and so the Laird hastening thither
he was graciously received, but not without a severe check given him by his Majesty, who never-
theless enjoyned him to beg pardon of the Earle of Glencairne (then in Edinborough), and to
promise friendship to his Lordship's son and family, which submission being made in his Majesty's
presence, that sore was plaistered and afterwards fully cured. As soon as Mr. Conningham came
back to Scotland, his father caused him to confess to the Laird, that he had wronged him and was
sorry for it, desiring his forgiveness, and promising his own friendship to the Laird and his family
whilst he lived; and thus by his Majesty's care was the revival of the old bloody fewd between the
Montgomeries and Conninghams fully prevented; 2 the like reconciliations between all other families
having already been made by the industrious prudence of that King, who being in the yearly ex-
pectation he had of the Queen's death, would leave all quiet at home when he was to go to receive
the English crown. 3
Scottish Journal of Topography, Antiquities, &*'c, vol. ii.,
p. 208. The arrangements for persons travelling in their
own conveyances were, as may be supposed, not par-
ticularly convenient. We have a curious illustration in
the following letter from Eleanor, countess of Linlithgow,
to her daughter Anna, countess of Eglinton : —
"Lynlithgow Palic, the xxiiii. of November, 1612.
" Madame and loving dochter — My werie harthe commenda-
tions rememberit. I haif resavit zour letter, quharas ze haif writ-
ten for some carage hors to bring zour carage out of Craigiehall heir,
I haif spoken me (niy) lord for that effect; and there will be ane
doson of hors thair on Thursday tymouslie at morne. As for tumeler
cairtis, there is nan heir. As for my cairt it is broken ; but I haif
Causit command thame to bring /wekemes, creitts, and teddcris
(tetters) with tlicm Nocht farther, but remember my
commendatiouns to me Lady Seton, zour gud mother, and me Lady
Perthe. Committis zou to God, and restis your ever assurit loving
mother."
In the year 1619, the sixth earl of Eglinton was at Seton,
his native place, and before setting out on his return to
Eglinton castle, although at the season of midsummer, he
wrote to his countess to send the "kotch (coach) eist to
me efter the reset of this, and caus sax of the ablest ten-
nentis coum with her to Glasgow to pout hir by all the
straitis and dangeris." — Fraser, Memorials, vol. i., pp.
1 84, 210.
a Fully prevented. — The interposition of the king had
the effect of allaying that fatal strife for a time, but did not
eradicate the fierce passions by which it was sustained.
Several years after this date, Sir James Balfour made the
following record in his Annals of Scotland, vol. ii., p. 16 : —
"During this Parliament ther fell out grate stirre betwixt
the Earles of Eglinton and Glencairne, and their friends.
Many were hurte on both sydes, and one only man of the
Earle of Glencaime's killed. Bot this with the old feeid
betwixt these two families, byhesmajestie'sespeciall com-
mandiment, was submitted to sex of either syde toreconceill
all matters, which if they could not be reconceilled by the
mediation of friends, then did thesse Lords absoutly sub-
mitt all ther debaitts and contrawersies to the king's
Majestie's decisione; which hes Majesty and counsaill fully
composed and agried by the industrious negotione of the
Earle of Dunbarr, hes Majestie's Comissioner for that
effecte, in the moneth of February, in the following zeire,
the Earle of Eglinton himselve being dead, and Alexander,
the Lord Settone's third soune, having succidit him. " The
fifth earl of Eglinton died in 1612, so that the conflict here
mentioned must have occurred about the close of 16 10.
The author truly describes this feud as "old," forithadits
origin so early as the year 1366, when sir Hugh of Eglinton
obtained a grant from the crown of the offices of baillie in
the barony of Cunningham, and chamberlain of Irvine.
This grant was renewed and enlarged from time to time,
the Cunninghams, however, claiming the offices now
mentioned as belonging, from ancient and long-established
right, to the representatives of their family or clan. In
144S, James II. renewed the grant to lord Montgomery,
and from that date the feud continued without much
interruption for upwards of two centuries. In 1488, the
strong castle of Kerrielaw, a residence of the Cunninghams,
in the parish of Stevenston, was sacked and destroyed by
the Montgomerys, under the command of that warlike
Hugh, afterwards created first earl of Eglinton. In the
year 152S, the fall of Kerrielaw was avenged by the burning
of Eglinton castle, together with all the important family
records therein. During the interval between 14S8, and
1528, many terrible collisions had occurred, especially in
the years 1505, 1507, 1517, 1523, and 1526. Although an
arbitration, held by the earls of Angus, Argyle, and
Cassilis assisted by the bishop of Moray, had decided in
1509 in favour of Eglinton's claims, and although in 1523
the first earl of Eglinton had been honourably acquitted of
the charge of murdering Edward Cunningham of Auchin-
harvie, the feud continued with increasing fury until the
Cunninghams assassinated the fourth earl at the ford of
Annock. From that date (1586) the strife began gradually
to subside, but had not entirely ceased until the close of
the seventeenth century. — Paterson, Parishes and Families
of Ayrshire, vol. i., pp. 51, 53, 54; Fraser, Memorials, vol.
i., pp. 27, 31.
3 The English crencn. — This was a politic work on the
part of the king, but his efforts to reconcile his nobles to
each other suddenly before leaving for England did not
produce any marked results. The first and greatest
attempt of James to accomplish this object, and the one
no doubt to which our author refers, occurred in the month
of May, 1587, when he was "in yearly expectation of the
Queen's death," an event for which he had longer time to
prepare than he would have wished, it being no less than
fifteen years in coming from the date last named. The