Series 1 > Miscellany of the Scottish History Society (Second volume)

INTRODUCTION
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for friendship.’1 Under these circumstances, it is at once
agreeable and surprising to find that he seems to have
profited by the law; as in 1628 he acquired Banachtie and
Mill of Bourtie from William Seton of Meldrum, and in
1634 Crimond in Aberdeenshire from John Johnston of
that Ilk.2
He was not, however, altogether dependent on his pro¬
fession; as on 24th February 1620 he married Elizabeth
Mawle or Mauld,3 youngest daughter and coheir of William
Mawle of Glaster (son of Robert Mawle of Panmure),4
merchant burgess of Edinburgh. On 5th October of that
year she executed a will in her husband’s favour, mentioning
sum of inventory i?1500, debts J?666, 13s. 4d., free gear
J?833, 6s. 8d. ;5 on 17th December was baptized their
daughter Bethia,6 who is said to have died in childhood;7
and on 27th December 1621 Elizabeth Burnet died. Pre¬
sumably about 1624 8 her husband remarried with Rachel,
daughter of James Johnston, merchant in Edinburgh.
Mr. Burnet’s second marriage brought him into the
closest relations with the Puritan party in Scotland. The
Johnstons, for at least two generations, had been in the very
forefront of the Presbyterian ranks. Archibald Johnston,
the Warriston of the Civil Wars, was younger brother to
Rachel Burnet; and Rachel Burnet herself, passionately
devoted to her brother, shared to the full his Presbyterian
fanaticism.9
Under these circumstances it is reasonable to suppose that
the young lawyer, at the time of his marriage, sympathised
1 Supplement to Burnet's History, p. 452. See also Cockburn’s tribute in
Specimen of .. . Remarks (on Burnet’s History), pp. 25-6.
2 Family of Burnett, p. 131. 3 Register of Marriages, Edinburgh.
* Family of Burnett, p. 133.
5 Will of Elizabeth, Edinburgh Commissariot Testaments.
8 Edinburgh Baptisms. 7 Family of Burnett, p. 133.
8 The Edinburgh Registers have been searched in vain for this marriage.
9 Burnet’s History, ed. Airy, vol. i. p. 424; Supplement to Burnet, p. 459.