Spottiswoode Society > History of the affairs of the Church and State of Scotland from the beginning of the reformation to the year 1568 > Volume 1

Ixxviii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE
of Kincardine, and of me, Mr Robert Keith, residing for the
present time, anno 1750, in Edinburgh, as is evident by
copies of charters in my possession taken from the Public
Records. Then Mr Alexander Keith, the Clerk, proceeds —
" I shall not controvert, indeed, that you might, when going
through the family papers or records, have seen and taken
a copy of the original sasine of the lands of Pittcndrum
in favour of this Earl's youngest son Alexander, but that
you or nephew are the lineal representatives of this Alex-
ander I absolutely deny. Nor do I think any copies of
sasine or charters will serve your purpose, without you
could connect to them, which I am pretty sure you cannot.
You will remember several years ago, when with you in your
house in Canongate, you broached this to me, when I only
then asked you, as I still do, if you could condescend on
any one of your predecessors who resided or had a fur of
land in any part of the county of Buchan where Pitten-
drum lies, since the time that Alexander got these lands \
and I think you could not. You will forgive me to say, that
such a surmise was never heard of till you set it abroad
yourself. But as you have been so full of conjectures,
allow me to use one, and I think with as much probability
as some of your own, and that is, that you and nephew
are come of Keith of Auchterhouse, Sheriff-depute of the
Mearns. 11 Thus far Mr Alexander Keith in this remark
of his.
Now, would not one be ready to think, that Mr Alex-
ander Keith, the Clerk, should have been well apprised of
all that Mr Robert Keith had to reply, before he had made
use of so magisterial and peremptory an expression, / abso-
lutely deny, and again, 1 am pretty sure you cannot ? Whereas
indeed it appears he knows nothing at all of the matter.
I shall therefore here give a deduction of the whole case.
From my infancy I was told that my grandfather had had
an estate called Pitteudrum, lying in the shire of Aberdeen.
In the year 1704, I having then the honour to be tutor or
preceptor to the Lord Keith, Mr James Keith of Aforsk,
at that time Sheriff-Depute of Kincardine <»r Mcarns, told