Series 1 > Journal of the Hon. John Erskine of Carnock, 1683-1687

JOURNAL
June, 1683.
5th.—I came from Torrie1 this morning, and was at Stirling
before the court sat. My Lord Collington, Castlehill, and
Forret were appointed for the Justiceaire; but Perth, the
Justice General, and Lord Maitland, the Justice Clerk, sat
here. They went together from their lodging to the Church,
and after sermon to the Tolbooth, where the court sat in
their robes. The town magistrates were going before them,
having a company of townsmen guarding the entry; after them
were two trumpeters and the court macers, and then two
heralds with their coats ; and before the Lords the sherriff-
deputes, walking bareheaded; after the Lords the principal
sherriff and others, noblemen and gentlemen and others
dwelling and freeholders within the shires, appointed to be at
Stirling by the proclamation. After fencing the court, the
suite rolls were called, and the absents fined : after noon the
roll of pannells was called. The marquis of Athole went away
before the sitting doun of the court.
6th.—This day they were almost wholly taken up in
examining witnesses privately in the Justice General’s lodgings.
Dasher,2 a Kippen laird, took the Test, and two or three other
countrymen, and so were declared free, being the first who
broke the ice.
I went from Stirling with Boquhan 3 at midnight, and having
1 The residence of his mother, the Dowager Lady Cardross, in the parish of
Torrybum, and near Culross.
2 Mr. William Leckie of Dasher, in the barony of Carden.
* In the parish of Gargunnock. William Cunningham, laird of Boquhan, was
brother-in-law to the author of the Journal, having married his eldest sister,
Margaret Erskine: she died sometime before the end of 1682.