Series 3 > Scottish correspondence of Mary of Lorraine

384 THE SCOTTISH CORRESPONDENCE OF
CCLVI
Earl of Athol to the Queen Regent
Tullibardin, 10th June [1554].
TO THE QUENIS GRAIS.
Pleis your grace to wit thair is ane slauchter committit
in the scremouche 1 wpoun George Drummond quhay wes
my mother brother,2 quhilk slauchtir wes committit
be certane servandis that dependit wpoun me, quhilk
slauch[t]ir and chans is werray hewy to me. I will assuir
your grace gif I mycht haif apprehendit tham, and thai
hed bein my brether, thai suid haif presented your grace
[sic]. And thairefter my lord Ruthven3 and my lord
Drummond cerst 4 and socht the haill cunctray and culd
nocht comprehend the committaris of the said slauchtir.
And the saidis lord Ruthven and lord Drummond hes
tane fyve or sex of puir fallowis for the said crym quhay
wor nocht at the deid doing nor knew na thing therintill.
And the men that ar in that cunctray serwis me, and gif
thai be saikles of the crym, gif it wer your grace plesour
that thai may thoill law in Edinburght or ellis till haif ane
onsuspect juge in Perth that the men suffir nocht gif thai
be saikles, becaus my lord Ruthvene wilbe haldin suspect
in my lord Drummondis actioun : for I will assuir your
grace, and the men wor other arth or part of the said crym
I suld follow tham my self for the said crym. And gif
it will pleis your grace that I may haif the mens eschettis
1 scremouche: skirmish, tumult. George Drummond of Ledcreife and Blair,
and William, his younger son, were ‘ treacherously killed ’ by the lairds of
Ardblair, Drumlochie, and Gormok and their accomplices in ‘ an unhappy
rencounter’ on Sunday, 3rd June 1554. The feud was not reconciled till
December 1558. {Genealogy of the House of Drummond, 113, 275-9.)
2 An obscurity meets the genealogist here. According to the Scots Peerage
the writer’s father was twice married. Grisel Rattray appears as his wife on
17th March 1537-8; and six months before his death he married Jean,
daughter of John, sixth Lord Forbes. (S. P. i. 443.) This letter indicates
that Jean Forbes was his third wife, and that the mother of his heir was a
daughter of the house of Ledcreife.
3 Lord Ruthven was sheriff of Perth. 4 cerst: searched.