THE Homes and Greenlaw History
THE Homes are among the oldest and most celebrated of the historical families
of Scotland. Their founder was descended from the Earls of Dunbar and March,
who sprung from the Saxon kings of England and the princes of Northumberland.
After the conquest of that country by William of Normandy, Cospatrick, the
great Earl of Northumberland, and several other Saxon nobles connected with
the northern counties, fled into Scotland in the year 1066, carrying with
them Edgar Atheling, the heir of the Saxon line, and his two sisters, Margaret
and Christina. Malcolm Canmore, who married the Princess Margaret, bestowed
on the expatriated noble the manor of Dunbar, and broad lands in the Merse
and the Lothians. Patrick, the second son of the third Earl of Dunbar, inherited
from his father the manor of Greenlaw,
and having married his cousin Ada, daughter of the fifth Earl by his wife,
a natural daughter of William the Lion, obtained with her the lands of Home
(pronounced Hume), in Berwickshire, from which the designation of the family
was taken. The armorial bearings of his ancestors,
the Earls of Dunbar, which were a white lion on a red field, were assumed
by him on a green field for a difference, referring to his paternal estate
of Greenlaw.
Under the protection of their potent kinsman, the De Homes flourished and
extended their possessions, and kept vigilant 'watch and ward' on the Eastern
Marches against the incursions of the Northumbrian freebooters. One of their
chiefs, a Sir John de Home, was so conspicuous for his successful forays
across the Border, always fighting in a white jacket, that he obtained from
the English the sobriquet of 'Willie with the White Doublet.' The son of
this redoubtable Border chief acquired the estate of Dunglass (from which
the second title of the family is taken) by his marriage to the [p.371] heiress
of Nicholas Pepdie, in the reign of Robert III. The second son of this couple
was the founder of the warlike family of Wedderburn, from which the Earls
of Marchmont are descended.
Hitherto the De Homes had acknowledged as their feudal lords the Earls of
Dunbar and March, the heads of the great house from which they sprung, who,
from their vast possessions and their strong castle of Dunbar, on the eastern
Border, having the keys of the kingdom at their girdle, as they boasted,
were among the most powerful nobles in the kingdom. Partly from ambition,
partly, it would appear, from a hereditary fickleness of character, these
barons were noted for the frequency with which they changed sides in the
wars between England and Scotland. The eleventh Earl was in the end unfairly
deprived of his earldom, castles, and estates by James I., towards the middle
of the fifteenth century, in pursuance of his policy to break down the power
of the great nobles. As some compensation for this treatment, the King conferred
upon him the title of Earl of Buchan, but he indignantly refused to accept
of the honour, and sought an asylum in England, from which he never afterwards
returned. His father, the tenth Earl of Dunbar and March, who was one of
the heroes of Otterburn, in consequence of the manner in which the contract
of marriage between his daughter and the Duke of Rothesay was broken off
(see THE DOUGLASES), renounced his allegiance for a time to his sovereign;
the De Homes, his kinsmen, abandoned his banner, and fought against him and
Harry Percy at the sanguinary battle of Homildon, where their chief, SIR
ALEXANDER HOME, was taken prisoner. On regaining his liberty he accompanied
the Earl of Douglas (Shakespeare's Earl, nicknamed Tineman) to France, shared
in his triumphs and disasters, and fell along with him at the battle of Verneuil,
in 1424, where the Scottish auxiliaries were almost annihilated. Sir Alexander's
second son, THOMAS, was the ancestor of the Homes of Tyningham and the Humes
of Ninewells, the family of which David Hume, the philosopher and historian,
was a member.
After the final overthrow of the Earls of Dunbar and March, in January, 1436,
the Homes succeeded to a portion of their vast estates, and to a great deal
of their power on the Borders as Wardens of the
Eastern Marches. SIR ALEXANDER HOME, the head of the family, was created
a peer by the title of LORD HOME, 2nd August, 1473, and seems to have possessed
considerable diplomatic ability, as he was frequently employed by James III.
in carrying out important negotiations with [p.372] the English Court. His
father and his uncle had held in succession the office of bailie of the lands
belonging to the monastery of Coldingham, and he induced the prior and chapter
to make the office hereditary in his family. He exerted all his influence
in that situation to obtain possession of the large conventual property,
and indeed seized and appropriated it to his own use. He was, therefore,
greatly irritated by the attempt of King James, with the consent of the Pope,
to attach the revenues of the priory to the Chapel Royal at Stirling, and
joined the disaffected nobles in their conspiracy against that ill-fated
sovereign. His Border spearmen contributed not a little to the defeat and
death of James at Sauchie. The Homes obtained a liberal share of the fruits
of the victory gained by the rebellious barons. The revenues of Coldingham,
the prize for which Lord Home had rebelled and fought against his sovereign,
were allowed to remain in his possession, and
ALEXANDER HOME, second baron, his grandson and heir, was appointed immediately
after the murder of James to the office of Steward of Dunbar, and obtained
besides a large share of the administration of the Lothians and Berwickshire.
He was also sworn a Privy Councillor in 1488, and was appointed for life
to the important office of Great Chamberlain of Scotland. In 1489 he was
nominated Warden of the East Marches for seven years, and at the same time
was made captain of the castle of Stirling, and governor of the young King.
The tuition of John, Earl of Mar, the brother of James IV., was likewise
committed to this potent noble. He obtained also a charter of the bailiery
of Ettrick Forest, and in the following year was appointed by the Estates
to collect the royal rents and dues within the earldom of March and barony
of Dunbar. In 1497 Lord Home repaired to the royal standard with his retainers
when James IV. invaded England in support of the pretensions of Perkin Warbeck.
In retaliation for his ravages in Northumberland and Durham, an English army,
under the Earl of Surrey, laid waste the estates of the Homes, and 'demolished
old Ayton Castle, the strongest of their forts,' as Ford terms it, in his
dramatic chronicle of 'Perkin Warbeck.'
The Homes had now gained a position in the foremost rank of the great nobles
of Scotland, and ALEXANDER, the third lord, who succeeded to the vast estates
of the family in 1506, elevated them to the highest summit of rank and power
ever attained by their house. In 1507 he was appointed to the office of Lord
Chamberlain, which [p.373] had been held by his father, and succeeded him
also in the warden-ship of the Eastern Marches.
When war was about to break out between James IV. and his brother-in-law,
Henry VIII., Lord Home, at the head of three or four thousand men, made a
foray into England and pillaged and burned several villages or hamlets on
the Borders. On their return home laden with booty, and marching carelessly
and without order, the invaders fell into an ambush laid for them by Sir
William Bulmer among the tall broom on Millfield Plain, near Woolet, and
were surprised and defeated with great slaughter.
According to the English chronicler, Holinshead, five or six hundred were
slain in the conflict, and four hundred were taken prisoners, among whom
was Sir George Home, the brother of Lord Home. Buchanan, however, estimates
the number of prisoners at two hundred, and says that it was the rear only
which fell into the ambuscade, while the other portion of the force with
their plunder arrived safely in Scotland.
This mortifying reverse deeply incensed the Scottish king, and made him doubly
impatient to commence hostilities in order to avenge the defeat sustained
by his Warden.
When James took the field shortly after, Lord Home brought a powerful array
of his followers to the royal banner, in that campaign which terminated in
the fatal battle of Flodden. The Homes and the Gordons, under Lord Huntly,
formed the vanguard of the Scottish army in that engagement, and commenced
the battle by a furious charge on the English right wing, under Sir Edmund
Howard, which they threw into confusion and totally routed. Sir Edmund's
banner was taken, he himself was beaten down and placed in imminent danger,
and with difficulty escaped to the division commanded by his brother, the
Admiral. The old English ballad on 'Flodden Field' thus describes Home's
attack on the English vanguard:—
'With whom encountered a strong Scot,
Which was the King's chief Chamberlain,
Lord Home by name, of courage hot,
Who manfully marched them again.
'Ten thousand Scots, well tried and told
Under his standard stout he led;
When the Englishmen did them behold
For fear at first they would have fled.'
Of the numerous branches of the Home family, the earliest, as well as the
most powerful and prolific, were the Homes of Wedderburn, whose courage and
savage cruelty have already been noticed. Their founder was Sir Thomas Home
of Thurston, second son of Sir Thomas Home of Home, who obtained, in 1413,
from Archibald, Earl of Douglas, a grant of the barony of Wedderburn, and
became the ancestor of the Homes of Polwarth, Kimmerghame, Manderston, Renton,
Blackadder, and Broomhouse. David Hume of Godscroft, author of a 'History
of the House and Race of Douglas and Angus,' was a cadet of this line. The
Homes of Blackadder, as we have seen, were descended from John Home, one
of the 'Seven Spears of Wedderburn,' who married the heiress of the estate.
His grandson, John Home, was created a baronet of Nova Scotia in 1671. His
younger son, Sir David Home of Crossrig, was one of the first judges in the
Court of Session nominated by King William at the Revolution. From Lord Crossrig's
eldest surviving son descended the Homes of Cowdenknowes, one of whom was
the author of several valuable medical works. Henry Home, Lord Kames, the
well-known judge and philosopher, belonged to the Homes of Renton, whose
ancestor was the second son of Sir Alexander Home of Manderston. Sir Everard
Home, Bart., the eminent surgeon, was descended from the Homes of Greenlaw Castle. His sister was the wife
of John Hunter, the celebrated anatomist.
The Homes of Manderston were a branch of the Wedderburn family, and seem
to have possessed the characteristics of that race. One of them, David Home,
was commonly termed 'Davie the Devil,' and his deeds of darkness well merited
that sobriquet.
[p.387] GEORGE HOME, the third son of Alexander Home of Manderston, was a
special favourite of James VI., and held various offices about the Court.
In 1601, he was appointed High Treasurer of Scotland. He attended the King
to London on his accession to the English throne in 1603, and in the following
year he was created an English peer by the title of Baron Home of Berwick.
In 1605 he was made Earl of Dunbar in the peerage of Scotland, and was subsequently
appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in England. From this time forward
he had the chief management of Scottish affairs, and was the principal instrument
in establishing Episcopacy in Scotland. In 1609 the Earl was sent down from
London accompanied by two eminent English divines, Dr. Abbot, subsequently
Archbishop of Canterbury, and Dr. Higgins, for the purpose of promoting this
object, on which the King had set his heart. On the approach of the Earl
and his clerical associates, Calderwood states that 'the noblemen, barons,
and councillors that were in Edinburgh went out to accompany him into the
town. So he entered in Edinburgh with a great train. The Chancellor [the
Earl of Dunfermline], the Provost, the Bailies, and many of the citizens
met him at the Nether Bow Port. It was spoken broadly that no small sums
of money were sent down with him to be distributed among the ministers and
sundry others. The English doctors seemed to have no other direction but
to persuade the Scots that there was no substantial difference in religion
betwixt the two realms, but only in things indifferent concerning government
and ceremony.'
The Earl had a different service entrusted to him, and had recourse to very
different means to perform it, when, in 1603, he was appointed 'his Majesty's
Commissioner for ordering the Borders.' Sir James Balfour says, 'he took
such a course with the broken men and sorners that in two justiciary courts
holden by him he condemned and caused hang above a hundred and forty of the
nimblest and most powerful thieves in all the Borders.' The Chancellor informed
the King that the Borders were 'now settled far by anything that ever has
been done there before.' It was soon made manifest that the effect of these
severe proceedings was only temporary, for in 1609 it became necessary for
Lord Dunbar to go once more to Dumfries to hold a justice court, and the
King was informed by the Chancellor that the Earl 'has had special care to
repress, baith in the in-country and on the Borders, the insolence of all
the proud bangsters, oppressors, and Nembroths [Nimrods], but [without] regard
or respect to [p.388] any of them; has purgit the Borders of all the chiefest
malefactors and brigands as were wont to reign and triumph there…has rendered
all those ways and passages betwixt your Majesty's kingdoms of Scotland and
England as free and peaceable as Phoebus in auld times made free and open
the ways to his awn oracle in Delphos, &c. These parts are now, I can
assure your Majesty, as lawful, as peaceable, and as quiet as any part in
any civil kingdom of Christianity.'
The chronic disorders and outrages of the Border districts were not, however,
to be so easily remedied. Not long after a representation was made to the
King by the law-abiding inhabitants of the district, declaring that 'Lord
Dunbar being now gone with his justice-courts, the thieves are returned to
their old evil courses.'
The Earl obtained the Order of the Garter in 1609, and was installed at Berwick
with extraordinary pomp and magnificence. He is described by Archbishop Spottiswood
as a man of 'deep wit, few words, and in his Majesty's service no less faithful
than fortunate.' Calderwood, who naturally took a very different view of
the Earl's services, narrates with evident satisfaction how in 1611 he was
'by death pulled down from the height of his honour, even when he was about
to solemnise magnificently his daughter's marriage with the Lord Walden (afterwards
Earl of Suffolk). He purposed to celebrate St. George's day following in
Berwick, where he had almost finished a sumptuous and glorious palace. He
was so busy and left nothing undone to overthrow the discipline of our Church,
and specially at the Assembly holden last summer in Glasgow. But none of
his posterity enjoyeth a foot broad of land this day of his conquest in Scotland.'
As the Earl left no male issue, his titles expired at his death. The elder
of his two daughters married Sir James Home of Cowdenknowes, and was the
mother of the third Earl of Home.
Two incidents which occurred at this time in connection with the family of
Home cast a striking light on the lawless state of the country even towards
the close of the seventeenth century. The only daughter of the late Laird
of Ayton, who was under age, was left in charge of the Countess of Home.
The father of the young girl had bequeathed to her his whole estate, and
when the time approached for her to choose her curators, Home of Plendergast,
the next heir male of the Ayton family, presented, in December, 1677, a petition
to the Privy Council requesting that she should be brought as usual to their
bar to make that choice in the presence of her general kindred, no doubt
with aview to the young lady [p.389] marry-
ing a member of his family. The Countess of Home, however, the young lady's
guardian, and Charles Home, the brother of the Earl, with whom the heiress
of Ayton resided, had a different object in view. On the evening of the day
when the petition was presented to the Council, Charles Home, accompanied
by Alexander Home of Linthill, Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth (afterwards first
Earl of Marchmont), John Home of Ninewells (grandfather of the celebrated
David Hume), Robert Home of Kimmerghame, elder, and Joseph Johnston of Hilton
proceeded to the residence of the young lady, who was only twelve years of
age, and carried her off across the Border. 'There they, in a most undutiful
and unchristian-like manner, carried the poor young gentlewoman up and down
like a prisoner and malefactor, protracting time till they should know how
to make the best bargain in bestowing her, and who should offer most. They
did at last send John Home of Ninewells to Edinburgh and take a poor young
boy, George Home, son of Kimmerghame, out of his bed, and marry him to the
said Jean, the very day she should have been presented to the Council.' At
the same time the Countess of Home appeared before the Council, and apologised
for the absence of her ward 'as being sickly and tender, and not able to
travel, and not fit for marriage for many years to come.'
The Council were justly indignant at the manner in which the statutes had
been violated and their commands trifled with, and they inflicted heavy penalties
on all the offending parties. The boy-husband was fined in £500 Scots,
and was deprived of his interest jure mariti; the young wife lost hers jure
relictæ, and was fined in a thousand marks for their clandestine marriage.
Further, for contempt of the Council, the lady was fined in a thousand marks,
to be paid to Home of Plendergast; Home of Ninewells was amerced in a thousand
marks to be paid to Plendergast; and a fine of two thousand was imposed upon
Johnston of Hilton. The young couple were besides sentenced to three months
imprisonment in the castle of Edinburgh. It has not been discovered at what
time or for what reason the difference in the spelling of the family name—which
is pronounced Hume—originated. David Hume, the philosopher and historian,
in a letter to Alexander Home of Westfield, of date 12th April, 1758, says:
'The practice of spelling Hume is by far the most ancient and most general
till about the Restoration, when it became common to spell Home, contrary
to the pronunciation. Our name is frequently mentioned in Rymer's Foedera,
and always spelt Hume. I find a subscription of Lord Hume in the Memoirs
of the Sydney family, where it is spelt as I do at present. These are a few
of the numberless authorities on this head.'
John Home, the author of the tragedy of Douglas, on the other hand, resolutely
maintained that Home was the original and proper spelling, and the historian
and he had many good-humoured discussions on the subject. On one occasion
David proposed that they should cast lots to decide the matter. 'It is all
very well for you, Mr. Philosopher, to make such a proposal,' was John's
rejoinder; 'for if you lose you will obtain your own proper name; but if
you win I lose mine.' In the last note which David Hume sent to Dr. Blair,
inviting him to dinner, he thus began it: 'Mr. John Home, alias Hume, alias
The Home, alias the late Lord Conservator, alias the late Minister of the
Gospel at Athelstaneford, has calculated matters so as to arrive infallibly
with his friend in St. David's Street on Wednesday evening,' &c.
It is well known that John Home had a strong dislike to port wine, and in
playful allusion to this feeling, as well as to their dispute about the proper
spelling of their name, David added the following codicil to his will, on
6th August, 1776, nineteen days before his death: 'I leave to my friend,
Mr. John Home of Kilduff, ten dozen of my old claret at his choice, and one
single bottle of that other liquor called port. I also leave to him six dozens
of port, provided that he attests under his hand, signed John Hume, that
he has himself alone finished that bottle at two sittings. By this concession
he will at once surmount the only two differences that ever were between
us concerning temporal matters.'*
The other incident, which occurred a few years later at Hirsel, the seat
of the Earl, was of a much more tragical character. During the absence of
Lord Home in London, the Countess invited a party of the neighbouring gentlemen
to the house during the Christmas holidays. Amongst these were Johnston of
Hilton, Home of Ninewells, and the Hon. William Home, brother of the Earl
and the [p.390] Sheriff of Berwickshire—three gentlemen who, like the Countess,
had all been connected with the abduction of the young heiress of Ayton.
They resorted to cards and dice, at which Home lost a considerable sum of
money. A quarrel in consequence took place, and Johnston, who was of a fiery
temper, struck Home in the face. The affair, however, seems to have been
amicably settled, and all the company had gone to bed, when William Home,
who must have brooded over the affair, rose and went to Johnston's bedroom
to call him to account for the insult he had offered him. Nothing is known
of what passed between the two except that Home stabbed Johnston in his bed,
inflicting upon him no less than nine severe wounds. Home of Ninewells, who
slept in an adjoining chamber, came to see the cause of the disturbance,
and as he entered Johnston's room, he received a sword-thrust from the sheriff,
who was now retiring, and who immediately fled into England upon Johnston's
horse.
PATRICK, the younger of the two Homes, married the elder of the St. Clair
ladies, and became the founder of the MARCHMONT HUME family. Men of the Merse.
By Archibald Campbell Swinton of Kimmerghame. A delightful little volume,
which it is earnestly hoped the accomplished author will be induced to enlarge.*
He was evidently a man of energy and activity, and in 1499 obtained the important
office of Comptroller of Scotland, which he held till 1502, when he received
the honour of knighthood. His [p.393] descendants inherited his intellectual
abilities as well as his estates, and had the sagacity and good fortune to
be always on the winning side in the successive struggles for supremacy between
Popery and Protestantism, and between the King and the people. While the
heads of the main line—the Earls of Home—were Roman Catholics, Episcopalians,
and Jacobites, the Marchmont Humes were Protestants, Presbyterians, and Hanoverians.
The former, from the Great Civil War downwards, have produced no man of great
intellectual power or commanding influence in the country; but the latter
were prominent in all the great contests for civil and religious liberty,
and rose to the highest offices of the State. The broad acres of the Homes,
which at one time stretched from the Tweed on the south to the German Ocean
on the north, have passed away almost entirely from the house; while the
Humes, 'brizzing yont' as their kinsmen receded, gradually extended their
borders and augmented their domains till Greenlaw—which
Cospatrick, the great Earl of March, bestowed on his nephew and son-in-law,
the first Home, from which he took the colour of his shield—and even Home
Castle, the cradle and patrimonial stronghold of the house, and the subject
of many a Border story, passed into the possession of this prosperous junior
branch of the family.
The great-grandson of the founder of the family, Patrick Hume of Polwarth,
took a leading part in promoting the Reformation in Scotland, and was a member
of the association which was formed in 1560 to protect the Protestant ministers.
Sir Patrick's eldest son, fifth Baron of Polwarth, who bore his Christian
name, was appointed by James VI., in 1591, Master of the Household, one of
the Gentlemen of the Bedchamber, and Warden of the Eastern Marches. He wrote
some pieces of poetry which appear to have been popular in the Court of King
James. Sir Patrick Hume, his son, seems to have been a favourite both of
King James and Charles I., for the former gave him a pension of £100
a year, and the latter created him a baronet in 1625. He died in 1648. His
younger brother, Alexander, was the author of a volume of 'Hymns and Sacred
Songs,' noted for their pious spirit rather than for their poetical merit.
The power and rank of the family culminated under Sir Patrick's son, SIR
PATRICK HUME, the second Baronet and first Earl of Marchmont. This distinguished
statesman and staunch Covenanter was born in 1641. He entered public life
in 1665 as member for the county of Berwick, and joined the small but faithful
band of patriots [p.394] who, under the Duke of Hamilton, offered a strenuous
and constitutional resistance to the wretched administration of the notorious
Duke of Lauderdale. In 1674 he accompanied Hamilton and other leading Scotsmen
to London, for the purpose of laying the grievances of the country before
the King, who in reply to their petition for redress said, 'I perceive that
Lauderdale has been guilty of many bad things against the people of Scotland,
but I cannot find he has acted anything contrary to my interest.' In the
following year Sir Patrick was imprisoned in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh by
the Privy Council, on account of his appeal to the Court of Session for protection
against the arbitrary and illegal assessment levied for the support of the
troops in garrison. This imprisonment, which lasted two years, so far from
repressing, only seems to have lent fresh ardour to his patriotic zeal. He
was again imprisoned in 1679, and on his release by order of the King, he
became a participator in the councils of Russell, Sydney, and other leading
Whigs, who were anxious to exclude the Duke of York from the succession to
the throne. On the judicial murder of these eminent patriots, and the arrest
of his venerable friend Baillie of Jerviswood, Sir Patrick, knowing that
he was a marked man, and that the Government was bent on his destruction,
quitted his mansion of Redbraes Castle, and while he was supposed to have
gone on a distant journey, took up his residence in the family burial vault
underneath the parish church of Polwarth. This ancient edifice stands in
a lonely sequestered spot, on a knoll surrounded with old trees and a brawling
burn at its foot, with no dwelling near it. The place of his retreat was
known only to his wife, his eldest daughter, and a carpenter named James
Winter. The only light which Sir Patrick enjoyed in this dismal abode was
by a slit in the wall, through which no one could see anything within. As
long as daylight lasted he spent his time in reading Buchanan's Latin version
of the Psalms, which he thus imprinted so deeply on his memory that forty
years after, when he was above fourscore years of age, he could repeat any
one of them at bidding without omitting a word.
The duty of conveying food to Sir Patrick devolved upon his eldest daughter,
Grizel, a young lady of nineteen. 'She at that time had a terror for a churchyard,'
says her daughter, Lady Murray, 'especially in the dark, as is not uncommon
at her age by idle nursery stories; 'but her filial affection so far overcame
the fears natural to her sex and youth, that she walked night after night
through the [p.395] woods of her father's 'policy' and amid the tombstones
of the churchyard, at darkest midnight, afraid of nothing but the danger
that the place of her father's concealment might be discovered. The barking
of the minister's dog, as she passed the manse on her nightly visits to the
sepulchral vault, put her in great fear of discovery. But this difficulty
was overcome by the ingenuity of her mother, who by raising a report that
a mad dog had been seen roaming through the country, prevailed upon the clergyman
to destroy the fierce mastiff which annoyed her daughter. It was not always
easy to secrete the victuals which Grizel conveyed to her father without
exciting the suspicions of the domestics, and the remarks of the younger
children. Sir Patrick was partial to the national dish of a sheep's head,
and one day at dinner Grizel took an opportunity, when her brothers and sisters
were busy at their kail, to convey the greater part of one from the plate
to her lap, with the intention of carrying it that night to her father. When
her brother Sandy, afterwards second Earl of Marchmont, raised his eyes and
saw that the dish was empty, he exclaimed, 'Mother, will ye look at Grizzy
While we have been supping our broth she has eaten up the whole sheep's head'
When Sir Patrick was told this amusing incident that night he laughed heartily,
and requested that in future Sandy might have a share of the highly prized
viands.
Another of the services which this heroic young lady performed for her father
at this period of her life was conveying a letter from Sir Patrick to his
friend Robert Baillie of Jerviswood, then imprisoned on a charge of treason
in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh. Baillie, who was as eminent for his abilities
and learning as for his fidelity to his religious principles, had shared
in the councils of the English patriots, and it was of the utmost importance
that intelligence should be communicated to him respecting the state of affairs
since his imprisonment. Miss Grizel readily undertook this difficult and
dangerous task, and managed it with great dexterity and perfect success.
The son of Mr. Baillie, a youth about her own age, had at this time been
recalled from Holland, where he was educated, to attend his father's trial.
In a cell in the famous old Tolbooth these two young persons met for the
first time, and an attachment then commenced which was destined to lead to
their union in happier days, when the Revolution had expelled the tyrant
and his infamous tools from the country. Shortly after this interview the
Ministers of State, who, as Bishop Burnet says, 'were most earnestly set'
on Mr. Baillie's destruction, [p.396] arraigned the venerable patriot, though
he was in a dying condition, before the High Court of Justiciary. In flagrant
violation both of law and justice, he was found guilty, on the morning of
December 24th, 1684, and, lest he should anticipate the sentence by a natural
death, he was executed on the afternoon of the same day, with all the revolting
barbarities of the penalties attached to treason.
Meanwhile, on the approach of winter, Lady Hume and Jamie Winter, the carpenter,
had been contriving a place of concealment for Sir Patrick more comfortable,
and less injurious to health, than the damp and dark burial vault. In one
of the rooms on the ground-floor, beneath a bed, Grizel and the faithful
retainer dug a hole in the earth, using their fingers alone to prevent noise,
and under cover of night carrying out the earth in a sheet to the garden,
and scattering it in places where it was least likely to be noticed. The
severity of this task is evident, from the fact that when it was finished
the nails were quite worn off the young lady's fingers. In the hole thus
excavated Winter placed a box large enough to contain some bedclothes, and
to afford a place of refuge for the hunted patriot, the boards above it being
bored with holes for the admission of air. Sir Patrick lived for some time
in this room, of which his daughter kept the key, but an irruption of water
into the excavation compelled him to seek another asylum; and the search
after him having become keener after the judicial murder of his friend Baillie,
he decided on making an attempt to escape from the country in disguise. A
few hours after he had quitted Redbraes a party of soldiers came to the house
in search of him. He had set out on horseback during the night, accompanied
by a trustworthy servant named John Allan, who was to conduct him part of
his way to London. In travelling towards the Tweed, Sir Patrick and his guide
accidentally separated in the darkness, and the former was not aware that
he had quitted the proper road till he reached the banks of the river. This
mistake proved his safety, for Allan was overtaken by the very soldiers who
had been sent in pursuit of his master. In the assumed character of a surgeon,
Sir Patrick reached London in safety, and thence made his way by France to
Holland, where a number of other patriots, Scots and English, had found refuge.
Sir Patrick had a wife and ten children, all young, residing at Redbraes
at this time, and they, too, were subjected to harsh treatment by the Government.
The eldest son, Patrick, a mere youth, was apprehended and put in prison,
and on the 26th of December,[p.397] 1684, he presented a petition to the
Privy Council, setting forth the piteous condition of the family, now deprived
of their father and threatened with the loss of their estate. He was but
'a poor afflicted young boy,' he said, who could do no harm to the State;
he, moreover, cherished loyal principles and a hatred of plots. All he craved
was liberty, that he might 'see to some livelihood for himself,' and 'be
in some condition to help and serve his disconsolate mother and the rest
of his father's ten starving children.' The boon was granted grudgingly by
the Ministers, who were no doubt mortified at Sir Patrick's escape, and before
the young man was set at liberty he was obliged to obtain security for his
good behaviour to the extent of two thousand pounds sterling. Young Patrick
was subsequently enrolled in the bodyguards of the Prince of Orange, afterwards
William III., and served with distinction in the campaigns of the Duke of
Marlborough. But his promising career was eventually cut short: he, by many
years, preceded his father to the grave.
In the following year (1685) Sir Patrick Hume accompanied the Earl of Argyll
in the disastrous expedition which cost that unfortunate nobleman his head.
The ruin of the enterprise, which from the outset was evidently doomed to
failure, was mainly brought about by the mutual jealousies and contentions
of the leaders. More fortunate than his chief and Sir John Cochrane, the
other second in command, Sir Patrick, after lying in concealment for some
weeks in Ayrshire, a second time made his escape to the Continent, in a vessel
which conveyed him from the west coast, first to Ireland and then to Bordeaux,
whence he proceeded to Geneva, and finally to Holland. At Bordeaux he gave
himself out for a surgeon, as he had done during his former exile, and as
he always carried lancets, and could let blood, he had no difficulty in passing
for a medical man. He travelled on foot across France to Holland. where he
was joined by his wife and children. Under the designation of Dr. Wallace,
Sir Patrick settled in Utrecht, where he spent three years and a half in
great privation, as his estate had been confiscated, and his income was both
small and precarious. His poverty prevented him from keeping a servant, and
he was frequently compelled to pawn his plate to provide for the necessities
of his family. One of Sir Patrick's younger children, named Juliana, had
been left behind in Scotland, on account of ill-health, and her eldest sister
Grizel was sent back to bring her over to Holland. She was entrusted at the
same time with the management of some business of her [p.398] father's, and
was commissioned to collect what she could of the money that was due to him.
All this she performed with her usual discretion and success.
The ship in which she took a passage to Holland for herself and her sister
encountered a severe storm on the voyage, the terrors of which were aggravated
by the barbarity of a brutal captain. The two girls were landed at Brill,
whence they set out the same night for Rotterdam in company with a Scottish
gentleman whom they accidentally met on landing. The night was cold and wet,
and Juliana, who was hardly able to walk, soon lost her shoes in the mud.
Grizel had to take the ailing child on her back and carried her all the way
to Rotterdam, while the gentleman—a sympathising fellow exile—carried their
baggage.
During Sir Patrick's residence in Holland, the greater part of the domestic
drudgery devolved upon his devoted and self-denying daughter, who was often
obliged to sit up two nights in the week to complete her work. According
to the simple and affecting narrative of her daughter, Lady Murray of Stanhope,
'She went to the market, went to the mill to have their corn ground, which
it seems is the way with good managers there; dressed the linen, cleaned
the house, made ready the dinner, mended the children's stockings and other
clothes, made what she could for them; and, in short, did everything. Her
sister Christian, who was a year or two younger, diverted her father, mother,
and the rest, who were fond of music. Out of their small income they bought
a harpsichord for little money. My aunt played and sang well, and had a great
deal of life and humour, but no turn for business. Though my mother had the
same qualification, and liked it as well as she did, she was forced to drudge;
and many jokes used to pass between the sisters about their different occupations.
Every morning before six my mother lighted her father's fire in his study,
then waked him, and got what he usually took as soon as he got up—warm small-beer
with a spoonful of bitters in it; then took up the children, and brought
them all to his room, when he taught them everything that was fit for their
age: some Latin, others French, Dutch, geography, writing, English, &c.,
and my grandmother taught them what was necessary on her part. Thus he employed
and diverted himself all the time he was there, not being able to afford
putting them to school; and my mother, when she had a moment, took a lesson
with the rest in French and Dutch, and also diverted herself with music.
[p.399] I have now a book of songs of her writing when she was there, many
of them interrupted, half writ, some broke off in the midst of a sentence.
She had no less a turn for mirth and society than any of the family, when
she could come at it without neglecting what she thought was necessary.'