Comments in refutation of pretensions advanced for the first time, and statements in a recent work "The Stirlings of Keir and their family papers"

1537
54 COMMENTS ON KEIE PERFORMANCE,
a certified copy, viz. — " Ane letre maid to Archibald Erie of Ergile, his airis
and assignais, ane or mai, of the gift of all gudis moveabile and umnoveabile,
dettis, takkis, stedingis, obligationis, soumes of money, and utheris guidis
quhatsumever, quhilkis pertenit to Charles Campbell of Bargour, and now
pertenyng or ony wiss sal happen or may pertene to our Souerane Lord, be
12. Nov, resoiin of eschete, throw being of the said Charles fugitive fra the law and at
the home, or convict for art and part of the slauchter of umquhUe Alane
Hamyltoun of Bardowie ; Andro Striveling of Bankier ; * and Eobeet Steive-
LING IN Caddek, &c. Dated at Linlithgow ye xij day of November, ye zere
of God ane thousand fyve hundred xxx vij zeris."
From a previous entry in the Books of Adjournal, unnecessary to quote particu-
larly, a violent feud appears to have existed between the Stirlings of BalHndrocht
and the Campbells of Auchinhowie, both in the immediate vicinity of Cadder ; in
the course of which Colin Campbell of Auchinhowie had been slain by Andrew
Stirling of BaUinih'ocht. In this feud Eobert appears afterwards to have been
implicated — which was probably the occasion of his and Andrew's death — an in-
terference quite natural, upon the supposition of his being the male representative
of the House of Cadder, and consequently obliged to espouse the interests of its
members.
V. — The Claimant must remind the Inqucst,-\ that, in tenns of the Alienation of
1541, ft 2"^rt of the Heritage of the Heiress of Cadder was to be secured to the
" Baiens" of an Umquhile "Eobeet Steiveling." With this exception, the re-
mainder was to be Keir's. He was to be Laird of Cadder, and would, necessarily,
have the power of carrying into effect the anterior conditions connected with the
property.
If, then, it can be proved that, immediately after the date of the transaction,
James Stieling of Keir (for his Father, in consequence of his arbitrary and san-
guinaiy proceedings towards other families, had before this been slain,!) ^^ enter
into a Treaty with " the Bairns " of an " Umquhile Eobeet Steiveling," the un-
douhted Ancestor of the Claimant, in order to secure to them certain parts of that
estate ; — and that the latter, by this and other arrangements, actually obtained
several portions of that estate ; and farther, if 7ione whatever can be found to have
been alienated to the "Baiens" of a separate "Umquhile Eobeet Steiveling,"
* This Andrew Stirling of Banl^eir was the same been the unworthy instrument of Keir in assassin-
with Andrew Stirling of Ballindrocht. Both Robert ating Buchanan of Lcny, whose daughters, coheir-
Stirling and he had an interest in Bankier. esses, he had also stript of a great part of their
+ [See again as to this, p. 5 1 , note*.] estate. To this act he was instigated by the widow
* He was murdered by Shaw of Cambusmore, of Leny, who, by Keir's machinations, had been re-
near Stirling, in a lit of compunction for having duced to the lowest distress.