Douglas book > Angus memoirs

376 WILLIAM DOUGLAS, NINTH EARL OF ANGUS.
Assembly, when a sentence of excommunication which Mr. John Leverence,
minister of Douglas, had pronounced against him for conniving at the profana-
tion of the Lord's day in that parish, was reduced. The minister was censured
for his rashness in pronouncing the sentence, and ordained publicly to admit
his fault, while the Earl was admonished to be more careful of his servants
and tenants, and required to hold a court in Douglas on the matter. 1
Owing to the continued adherence of his eldest son to the Eoman Catholic
faith, the Earl proposed to devolve the earldom on his son, George Douglas.
But he died before his father, and the Earl was reconciled to his eldest
son. The Earl also provided for his other children, and desired the Master of
Angus to place his brother, Eobert, in possession of the barony and title of
Glenbervie. In April 1591, when purposing to leave Glenbervie for more
southerly parts, the Earl fell sick of fever, and died on 1st July following, at
the ancestral residence. He had been summoned by the king to Edinburgh
to assist in the administration of justice, but feeling unable to travel, wrote
urgently to William, Earl of Morton, with whom he maintained close friend-
ship, to attend for him. 2 He died in the fifty-ninth year of his age, and was
buried in the Douglas aisle in the church of Glenbervie. 3 His countess, who
survived him, and was still alive in 1606, erected a monument over the
grave, 4 upon which, along with inscriptions which mark the spot as the
resting-place of former lairds of Glenbervie, she inscribed the following
epitaph to her husband and herself: —
1 Calderwood, vol. v. pp. 99, 105 ; Scott's the Douglas and Graham arms, surrounded
Fasti, vol. ii. p. 323. by Scriptural mottoes. Above the sarcophagus
2 Letter, dated 8th April 1591, vol. iv. i8 a mLlral tablet ' on which is inscribed a
of this work, p. 187. brie£ genealogical table, dating back to the
year 730, of previous lairds of Glenbervie,
3 Godscroft's MS. History, Part II. p. 261. , ,,, . , . „, ,,,,
" r and some oi their achievements. 1 he tablet,
4 This monument consists of a sarcophagus, which is surmounted by sculptured figures,
on the top of which are inscribed the epitaphs also bears shields of arms of the different
of the Earl and Countess, while the front bears families named.