Historical account of the Macdonnells of Antrim

SIR RANDAL MACDONNELL 2/[t
Stewart, to possess himselfe of my house in Kinlochcheran (90) for the use and behove of Randall
Viscount Dunluce, and to putt any in whome he shall think fitt to keep itt for the said Lord Dun-
luce's use ; and in case the key be either lost or put out of the way, I tollerate the said Archibald
Stewart to break open the doore and put on another loke, and possess himself. Written and
subscrivit with my owne hand, the 16 of January, 1635.
"KlNTYRE." (91)
The hint expressed above as to the probable disappearance of the key is significant, and thereby
hangs a curious tale of illegal and violent opposition on the part of lord Lome to the bargain which
had been amicably concluded between his brother and the earl of Antrim. The following very
interesting account of Lome's conduct on that occasion is still preserved at Glenarm castle, and as
its revelations are quite characteristic of Gillaspick Grumach, and of the period in Scotland to which
it refers, it is here submitted to the reader in extenso : —
" An: A T aration of the Bargain? betwixt the Earl oj Antrim and the Lord of Kintyre for the
Lands of Kintyre and Jura.
" Archebald Acheson acquainted the Earle of Antrim a year and a halfe agoe that Kintyre was
to sell the lands of Kintyre, uppon which the Earle gave him commission to buy them for him : but
hee (Acheson) dyed before the said bargaine was perfected. The Lord of Kintyre made an offer of
said lands unto his brother, the Lord of Lome, (92) and hee refuseing to buy them, procured ane
letter from Lome to his father, the Earle of Argyle, showing that he would not buy the said lands,
and giving the said Kintyre his full consent to sell them to whome hee pleased, which letter is ready
to be produced by Lord Kintyre. The Earle of Antrim bought the said lands in his sone Dunluce
his name, and to his use, with his Maties consente, as appeareth by his letters unto his Exchequer ;
and uppon the perfyting the securities after the custome and land of Scotland, the said Earle paied
of the said purchase money unto Kintyre the sume of fifteen hundred pounds sterlinge. The Earle
of Antrim was in chardges in passing the said securities (being ane ample disposition) containing
fifteen sheets of paper, two charters, ane to be holden ' of himselfe, and other of his Matie, and in
takeing of livery and seissing and ffeas to his learned Counsell and writers, and his agent his chardges
for ^250 sterling. Att the tyme the afoirsaid securitie was a drawing upp, at Edinburgh, the Lord
of Lome came to the towne, and brought with him a greate number of his friends, vizt. the Lord of
Loudone, (93) the laird of Caddell, (94) the laird of Larggs. (95) the Provost of Kilmun, (96) the
(90) Kinlochcheran. — See p. 24, supra. colonel Gordon, brother to the laird of Abergeldie.''
(91) Kintyre. — See p. 237, supra. This lord Kintyre History of the Troubles in Scotland, pp. 303, 304.
was created earl of Irvine in 1642. Spalding has the (92) Lome. — See p. 240, supra. Until lord Lorne
following notice of his departure to France in 1642: — became earl of Argyle in 163S, he resided at Rosneath
"About the 10th of September, the Earl of Irvine, lawful castle, in Dumbartonshire. He was married to his cousin,
brother (half-brother) to the Marquis of Argyll, taking up Margaret Douglas, daughter of William, earl of Morton,
a regiment for France, came to the Marquis of Huntly, lord-treasurer. She was a nobly-endowed woman, worthy
his own good-brother, who was well entertained in Strath- of a nobler and more enlightened husband,
bogie, and got forty soldiers frae him to keep his regiment. (93) Loudone. — Margaret Campbell, baroness of Lou*
From that he came to Aberdeen, and was blythly ban- don, was daughter of George Master of Loudon, who died
quetted ; his soldiers were shipped here at Aberdeen, in 1612. See p. 98, supra. She married sir John
under the conduct of lieutenant Blair, and thereafter Campbell of Lawers, a member of the Breadalbane family,
other men were shipped for his regiment, with lieutenant- and this nobleman is referred to in the abovementioned
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