Domestic Annals of Scotland from the Reformation to the Revolution, Volume 2 (of 2)Chambers, Robert
History
Domestic Annals of Scotland from the Reformation to the Revolution, Volume 2 (of 2)
Chambers, Robert
Scotland -- History -- 16th century; Scotland -- History -- 17th century
David Dunbar is described in an elegy by Mr Andro Simpson, as a most
respectable country gentleman, an agricultural improver,[220] and yet
of studious habits. He died by a fall from his horse while riding
between Leith and Edinburgh in 1682, and was interred in Holyrood
Chapel. Andrew Lord Rutherford is stated in the Peerage to have died
childless in 1685.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: AUG. 24.]
An old man named George Wood, who died this day at the Grange above
Elie in Fife, was interred at Kilconquhar in the evening of the next
day, ‘his funerals being hastened for fear of arresting his corpse by
his creditors.’--_Lam._
[Sidenote: 1669.]
This sufficiently shews that creditors were supposed in Scotland to
have such a power by the law. In June 1677, it became a debate among
the advocates in the Court of Session, whether a dead body could be
arrested and stopped from interment on account of debt. What raised the
question was the death of the Countess of Wemyss, and the clamour made
by her numerous creditors among the merchants of Edinburgh, who feared
that her husband, from whom she had been separated, would not own her
obligations beyond her annuity of 6000 merks, all of which was already
‘fornailed.’ They talked seriously of arresting her ladyship’s body.
Lord Fountainhall says that, though it is a custom in Holland and some
other places, it is reprobated amongst us as a barbarity, and could
in no way be done, except on an express supplication to the Lords of
Session, or the Privy Council, ‘which would never be granted.’[221]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: NOV.]
Robert Donaldson, of Birdstown in Campsie, being in Edinburgh on
business, fell into the company of one Thomas Scott, an English
borderer, who travelled in the equipage of a gentleman. Scott, learning
that Donaldson possessed money, pretended an errand to Glasgow, and so
accompanied him on his way home. The two dined at Falkirk together,
and then set forward, Donaldson inviting Scott to spend the night with
him at his house. Just as they were turned off the main road into that
leading to Donaldson’s house, Scott gave his travelling companion
a stab in the neck with his rapier, and thrust him to the ground,
where he cut his throat. Donaldson was, it seems, a strong man, and
might have defended himself, if he had not been taken by surprise and
encumbered with his cloak, which was buttoned down and heavy with rain.
Scott carried off the horse and money of his victim.
Donaldson’s servants went in search of the murderer, and had gone
many miles in his track when they came up to a carrier wearing their
master’s hood. Immediately the man was interrogated, and told that
he had got the hood from a person now riding on in advance, near
Haddington. They soon came up with the said rider, and laid hands on
him. He being struck with a panic fear, confessed his guilt, for which
he was soon after hanged in Edinburgh.--_Law._
[Sidenote: 1669.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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