Series 5 > Miscellany [of the Scottish History Society] XIII

TWEEDDALE’S ‘RELATIONE’, 1683
289
Kingdome, and the apprehension they had that he might take occasion
from theire refuseall to change the intail which they then thought had
been entire though indeed it was not the order of redemption having
been used befor} The Lord Yester and his Lady were forced to
submitt the wholl matter to himself and put ane ample Renunciation &
discharge of all they could claim through his or his Ladys decease in
his hand, which his daughter was so unwilling to subscrive as it had
almost coast [i.e. cost] her her life, neither hath she ever been so well
nor corned abroad since.2 Upon the delivery of this discharge to
himself he promised in presence of Sir George Locart & Sir John
Cuningham* that his daughter should have a considerable share of all,
and that the Bond & Backbond should be destroyed, or at least the
Bond delivered, as also valueing himself upon his overreaching the
Earle of Tweeddale & his goodsone by theire exuberant trust of him,
he bragged what great matters he would do of his own good will to
the President of the Session & advocat,4 whom he had formerly
consulted about the L[or]d Yesters contract of Mariage, Complaining
that theire interest of the Moveables was not discharged & the portion
excepted in satisfaction thereof, which at the time was never
demanded nor comuned upon and was as far from the Earle of
Lauderdales minde & purpose to demand as it would have been from
the Earle of Tweeddales to grant. But the performance of this promise
was by the present of ane Amathist of 5 lib value and of a night gown
worth 10 lib from the Dutchess of Lawderdale whereof the first was
throwen away into the fire and the last not receaved, and the
Backbond was keeped up still though demanded upon every occasion
by the L[or]d Yester & his Mother as afores[ai]d. But at length the
Dutchess finding that she might now be concerned if Hattons name
were filled up in the backbond, as in truth it was, because the debt did
affect all her Lords movables, and the Match between her Daughter &
his son was quit[e] broke off,5 upon a process intended by the L[or]d
Yester for exhibiting the s[ai]d papers wherin the Duke was to give
1 Yester added the italicized passage in the margin of the original draft.
2 Her health could not have been altogether destroyed: she lived until 1702.
3 Tweeddale added the names in the margin of the original draft. Sir George Lockhart
and Sir John Cunningham were very prominent members of the Edinburgh legal
establishment. Lockhart had been lord advocate during the Protectorate and was
regarded as the best pleader of his time.
4 Sir James Dalrymple of Stair and Sir John Nisbet respectively.
5 See above, introduction, pp. 272-3. The bond and backbond were destroyed at
Holyrood on 7 Aug. 1677. NLS, MS 14549, fo. 138.