The title of Sir applied to Priests; and academic titles. It can be confusing at times to see priests with the prefix Sir which was a common title given to them in England and Scotland in the sixteenth century. The origin of this application , or rather the peculiar class of the Priesthood to whom […]
Extracts from the Records of the Old Tolbooth (Edinburgh) (The Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, Vol 12.) Another source of prisoners sent to Dunnottar on 18 May 1685, released into the custody of Captain Grahame ( Patrick Grahame of the Town Guard). and another entry of 11 August 1685 of prisoners to be sent […]
The Ruthven Raid 22 August 1582 The Ruthven Raid, as it was called, was the result of a rising by the people and reaction by nobles who were thoroughly disgusted with the autocratic and offensive antics of the royal favourites, the Earl of Arran and the Duke of Lennox. A former favourite of the Regent […]
Londonderry – City of bones. Extracted from The Annals of Derry, R Simpson. As might have been expected, the City of Derry must have presented, at this time, a most dismal scene: it was, in fact, a charnel house, or City of bones! The following document was issued to persons appointed for the renovation of […]
Marian Marytrs to Spanish policy. The period 1555 – 1558 was essentially one in which Spanish policy, particularly towards religion, was enforced. Bishop Gardiner , the Lord Chancellor, had to his credit, tried to keep Spanish advisers and nobles from filling civil appointments, but this did not prevent Cardinal Pole from having supreme authority in […]
Old Mortality and his gravestones. Robert Paterson was born ca 1713 on the farm of Haggis Ha, in the parish of Hawick and as married man moved to the village of Balmaclellan . A stonemason by trade and owner of a small quarry, he spent most of his life touring the lowlands of Scotland visiting […]
Gravestones and Memorials in Scotland. Surprising as it may seem there were not many gravestones for the common man or woman before the Reformation, only some temporary markers and perhaps the occasional `chest` type of tomb of a local laird or merchant who could not secure a coveted space inside the kirk. Those with status […]
Some facts about the Siege of Londonderry – 18 April 1689 to 1 August 1689 The Siege proper lasted for 105 days but the citizens and the garrison were pent up by the presence of first the Earl of Antrim`s forces from 7 December 1688, and then by King James` forces, to 31 July 1689 […]
Bishop John Hooper ( 1495-1555) Born in Somerset in 1495 John Hooper studied at Merton College, Oxford in 1515 and was tutored there by his uncle, also John Hooper, and gained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1518. For some years after he joined with the Cistercian monks but eventually returned to Oxford where he […]
Alexander Barclay and “The Ship of Fools” ca 1519. Countering the rapaciousness of some clerics and criticising both them and the dissolute ways of the general populace, were the satirists. Chief among them must be ranked Alexander Barclay a monk, possibly of Scots origin, who had seen for himself how the church had fallen. In […]
The King’s Proclamation for the abolishing of the usurped power of the Pope, 9 June 1535. [ Acts and Monuments, John Foxe, Ed G Townsend, Seeley Burnside, London (1844) vol v p 69-70.] Trusty and well beloved we greet you well. And whereas not only upon good, and just, and virtuous grounds and respects, edified […]
“Passengers on the Henry & Francis 1685. The ship set sail on September 5, 1685, from Leith and made landfall at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, in December. Thirty one people died during the journey. Robert Adam John Arbuckle *** John Black D Robert Campbell John Campbell GT, D Christian Cavie D John Corbet CT, D […]
The events in Perth and the rabbling as recorded in The Scotichronicon (Vol 1,p 305 – 8 ), Rev J.F.S. Gordon (1867) “John Knox had been proclaimed by the Queen Regent (Mary Tudor, wife of King James V and mother of Mary Queen of Scots) as a rebel and an outlaw, and his abettors had […]
The English Reformation ( ca 1300 -1603). Index Opinion varies as to the timing of the Reformation in England, but I have commenced in the period leading up to the reign of Richard II ( r 1377-1399) when the medieval Catholic Church of Rome was at the height of its influence, and the `objectionable […]