from the office of Scottish Secretary of State.] "The novelty gather'd MSS. or DUKE a mob but when the meaning was known they wish'd alloud God OF ROXBURGHE, return him soon his plumes for it had never been well with the country since he wanted them.' At the same tyme one chanted the ballad "To Glasgow and doun with the Cambels was the word, John with the gold sleeves witnes to all.' " 66 One 118. In another letter, he again refers to the subject of Morebattle. Madam, Your ladyship will be pleas'd to know that one the 10 instant ther was a very throng toun at Jedburgh, the judges my lords Pencaitland and Dun. Mr. Rutherfourd, the Advocat's brother-in-law, represented him and ther were five other lawiers ther. Mr. Andrew Mc Dugal was cal'd out to appear for the Morbatle rioteres, and they had one Halliburton for ther agent. . . The Morbatle gentry to the number of 70 were cal'd and all present, and from the first to the last denyed the libele. Ther lawier, for whom and ther sollicitor they had made a stock purse of ten pounds sterling, made a very insolent rebellious speech wherein he asserted the right of the people in opposition to the call of the patron, insisting that they had done nothing illegal and that the ministers were the first agressors; besydes, that the proclamation had not been read to them, after which, he said, they had ane hour to dissperse in provided by law. I would fain have interrupted him but the judges overrul'd it. I saw the people uppish upon this mutinous harrange and prevented the Advocate by taking notice to the Lords that I was amazed to hear that gentleman trumpet up rebellion and justifye tumult and disorder; that if he had propaled that doctrine befor us as justices of the pence, we would have laid his heels fast as fomenting this growing spirite of mobs and tumult eversive of all order and goverment. The lords reprimanded him severly, and at our desyre the tryal was delayed till next day, in which tyme we took a precognition of what the witnesses could evidence against the principal actors, Walter Scot amongst the first, but to our amazement could not find two concurring witnesses to fix any fact besydes a great deal of informality and mistakes by the ministers one the one hand and the sherife depute one the other; indeed the shortnes of tyme we had to doe bussines made some excuse. Under these difficultys we consulted the judges who realy seem'd hearty in the matter, and not being able to make more of it that tyme it was concluded that the whole process should be continowed till the next circuit. When the court met next day, the advocate-depute made the proposal which in the name of the justices of peace I did second, with some very familiar language to Mr. McDugall and a great deal of freedome with such as had promoted that villanous insult. The lords express'd their outmost abhorrence at the illegal rebellious behaviour of all those that were concerned in the late tumult at Morbatle, that as the crime deserv'd it they should [have] been glad to [have] had it in ther power to make examples even into death, and if ther was any further complaint from that quarter they must exspect to meet with the outmost severity. Some of us enforced what had been said as strongly as we could, and I beleeve all will be henceforth quiet unless they are again blown up to madnes by something from the General Asembly, which I hope will not happen, &c. WILLIAM FRASER. Edinburgh, 32 Castle Street, 15th May 1891. FIRST REPORT ON THE MARCHMONT MUNIMENTS OF MARCHMONT Hugh, the third and last Earl of Marchmont, who was also Lord Polwarth of Polwarth, under an earlier creation, was a very accomplished statesman. During the six years in which he was a member of the House of Commons under the title of Lord Polwarth from 1734 to 1740, in the lifetime of his father, the second Earl of Marchmont, he greatly distinguished himself by his able opposition to Sir Robert Walpole. After his succession to his peerage of Marchmont, he was, in the year 1750, elected one of the representative peers of Scotland. He was re-elected at each subsequent general election till the year 1784. During these thirty-four years of representative service in the House of Lords, he was punctual in attendance and very active in reference to all the business which came before the House. In the year 1764, he was appointed Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland, which office he held till his death, which took place at Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, his usual English residence, on 10th January 1794, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. The Earl of Marchmont was on intimate terms with many of the eminent men of his time, including Alexander Pope, the poet, who pronounced his famous and oft-quoted panegyric on his genius. The poet died in the year 1744 and appointed the Earl one of his executors under his will. Another distinguished friend of the Earl was Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, who died in the same year as Pope. Her Grace also appointed Marchmont one of her executors, leaving him a substantial legacy of two thousand five hundred pounds. The Earl of Marchmont, Lord Bolingbroke, and Mr. Pope were all on such intimate terms that they were called the triumvirate of friends. Lord Marchmont was a zealous collector of rare books and valuable manuscripts. In some biographical notices it is stated that his collection formed one of the most curious and valuable in Britain. On the death of the third Earl of Marchmont in 1794, predeceased by his two sons without issue, several claimants appeared for his title of Earl, and also for his title of Lord Polwarth, as well as for his Marchmont estates, which included Home Castle, so prominent in the Merse as the ancient stronghold of the Earls of Home, chiefs of the Marchmont branch of that distinguished Border race. The title of Earl of Marchmont, being limited to heirs male, was claimed by Captain Alexander Home, a member of the family of Wedderburn, as the nearest heir male of the Homes of Polwarth and Marchmont. The claim was referred to the House of Lords on 10th February 1804. But it does not appear to have been actively prosecuted, as the first printed case was lodged for the claimant in 1820. Another printed case was presented in 1822. Captain Alexander Home, the claimant, died in the month of February 1823. He was succeeded by his eldest son Francis Home or Francis Douglas Home, on whose behalf an additional case was printed in the year 1842. On referring to the large volume of evidence printed on behalf of both the claimants and also for Sir Hugh Hume Campbell of Marchmont in opposition to the claims, we are reminded of several incidents connected with the original claim. Both the printed cases bear the signature of "II. Brougham" (afterwards Lord Chancellor) as one of the Counsel, who also appeared at the hearing of the case as Counsel for the original claimant and chiefly led the evidence. Sir Charles Wetherell was also another eminent Counsel for the claimant in 1822.* On the claim of Captain Alexander Home and his son to the Marchmont peerage no decision has been pronounced after the lapse of nearly a century from the death of the Earl in 1794. Another claimant after the death of Earl Hugh was his grandson, the late Hugh Scott of Harden, who claimed the peerage of Lord Polwarth of Polwarth, and his claim was found by the House of Lords to have been made out in the year 1835. The Laird of Harden thus became the Lord of Polwarth. After his death in 1841, his eldest son, Henry Francis Hepburne Scott, succeeded as the second Lord Polwarth of the House of Harden. On his death in 1867, his son, Walter Hugh Hepburne Scott, the present Lord Polwarth, is now the third Scott Lord Polwarth. The late Hugh Scott of Harden, the successful inheritor of the title of Lord Polwarth, also claimed the Marchmont estates as the heir general or heir of line of the third Earl of Marchmont through his daughter Lady Diana Hume, who was the mother of Hugh Scott of Harden, afterwards Lord Polwarth, as above mentioned. But the House of Lords decided that the settlement of the Marchmont estates made by the third Earl of Marchmont on 5th November 1790 vested them in Sir William Purves of Purves, Baronet, as descended from Lady Anne Hume, sister of the third Earl of Marchmont, in preference to Hugh Scott, Lord Polwarth, who was descended from Lady Diana Hume, the daughter of the Earl. Sir William Purves Hume Campbell of Marchmont, Baronet, was succeeded in the Marchmont estates by his only son the present Sir Hugh Hume Campbell of Marchmont, Baronet, who is the possessor of the Marchmont muniments now reported on by his special permission. The inheritors of the Marchmont estates and the peerage of Lord Polwarth, as above explained, were not the only persons who benefited by the death of the third Earl of Marchmont. His Lordship had for many years of his long life been on very intimate terms with the Right Honourable Sir George Rose, who was very prominent in many public affairs. Lord Marchmont made Sir George Rose his only executor, and specially bequeathed to him his rare and valuable library of books above mentioned. Sir George Henry Rose, son of Sir George Rose, inherited the Marchmont library from his father on his death, and after the lapse of twelve years le personally edited and published a selection from the Marchmont papers in three volumes, octavo, London, 1831. In his carefully written preface he explains that the late Earl of At a meeting of the Committee for Privileges on 8th May 1843, almost half a century ago, the minutes bear that Mr. William Fraser was called in and sworn and produced evidence on behalf of Sir Hugh Hume Campbell [Minutes of Evidence, 1843, p 380]. He had previously become acquainted with the Marchmont muniments on behalf of their owner, Sir Hugh Hume Campbell. The collection has thus been known to the Reporter for upwards of fifty years. MARCHMONT MARCHMONT MSS. Marchmont at his death deposited with his father, the late Sir George 66 The three volumes of Marchmont Papers published by Sir George Henry Rose form a very interesting work on the family of the Earls of Marchmont, and specially on the three distinguished Earls of that name, each of whom became a very prominent figure in his day. Sir George Henry Rose explains that the entire mass of Marchmont papers inherited by him was very large, and that the selections published in his three volumes only form a small portion of the entire collection. The present Report amply shows that the third Earl of Marchmont had not removed all the Marchmont muniments from Marchmont to Hemel Hempstead, his English residence, as Sir George supposed. The present Report only deals with the Marchmont Papers still preserved at Marchmont, and not in any way with those which were bequeathed to Sir George Rose. After the publication of the selections from the Marchmont papers in England, Sir George Henry Rose entered into negotiations with Hugh Scott Lord Polwarth. Under these negotiations, Lord Polwarth acquired by purchase the valuable library left by the third Earl of Marchmont to Sir George Rose, and it now forms of itself a large library in Lord Polwarth's residence at Mertoun House, Berwickshire. Although I have seen the books on several occasions there, I did not make such a minute inspection as to ascertain whether the library so acquired by Lord Polwarth included all the Marchmont papers bequeathed to Sir George Rose, and specially that portion of them which was published by his son in 1831. At a recent meeting with His Lordship on the subject he was unable to inform me of the nature and extent of the Marchmont papers which were received from Sir George H. Rose along with the library. But he promised to make inquiry on the subject. In the course of my inspection and examination of the muniments at Marchmont, and which commenced in the year 1842, in reference to the Marchmont Peerage, I discovered a large collection of State and Official documents. These were prepared when Patrick the first Earl of Marchmont held the office of Lord Chancellor, between the years 1696 and 1702 inclusive. At that period it seems to have been the practice of certain officials of high rank to retain Royal Warrants and other Crown writs in their private houses. In these earlier days the official accommodation, even for officers in important positions, appears to have been very limited, and that led to much of the public business being transacted in the private apartments of public officials. The public and official documents discovered by me at Marchmont consisted of :-(1.) Original Warrants under the sign manual of King William the Third for Patents of Peerages, Baronetcies, and other instruments. (2.) Signatures under the sign manual and cachet and the hands of the Lords of Exchequer for Crown Charters, &c. MSS. (3.) Precepts from the Privy Seal for Crown Charters passing the MARCHMONT great seal. Under the first of these classes there are Warrants for Patents of the Dukedoms of Hamilton and Argyll, the Marquisate of Lothian, the Earldoms of Tullibardin, Ruglen, March, Marchmont, Hyndford, the Viscounts of Seafield, Teviot, Dupplin, and Rosebery, and the Lords Boyle of Kelburne and Portmore; also Warrants for Commissions to High Commissioners to the Parliaments of Scotland and the General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland, and also fer Commissions to Presidents of the Privy Council, Keepers of the Privy Seal and other offices, and Warrants for Patents to several Baronetcies. The Signatures and Precepts for Crown Charters relate to numerous lands and baronies, and to public offices. All these official documents amounted to upwards of 700 in number. A detailed inventory of each of these writs was made in the year 1848. Sir Hugh Hume Campbell, as the owner and custodier of these muniments, with great public spirit handed over the entire collection to the Lord Clerk Register to be preserved in Her Majesty's General Register House as part of the National Records of Scotland.* In the preface to the first volume of the folio edition of the Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, 1844, pp. 54 and 210 (red ink), the editors refer to "The Marchmont Manuscript." It is described by one of them who examined it as a 66 folio volume of paper in Scotch written in the year 1548, and, as appears from frequent markings, by a scribe "named Robert Ewyn. It was formerly the property of Alexander "Home, of Manderstown, and is now preserved in the library at "Marchmont." The contents are then stated under 13 heads of laws of the "gude" King David in Regiam Majestatem. At the end. of the heads or chapters there is an attestation that it was written by Robert Ewyn, 1548. In the same first volume of the Acts there are notices of several other copies of the Scotch laws similar to the one at Marchmont. With these preliminary explanations which are considered necessary for understanding the rather complicated inheritance of the Marchmont estates, and also of the muniments now preserved at Marchmont House, it may be further explained that the present Report includes a selection of the most interesting and historical documents contained in the charter muniments at Marchmont House. The Report is arranged under the following six heads : Head 1. Ancient Charters and other Writs chiefly relating to the Head 2. Papers relating to the Nunnery of North Berwick, 1523- Head 3. Miscellaneous Writs of the Homes of Polwarth, &c., In the seventeenth Report to the Lord Clerk Register by the Deputy Clerk Register, 18th December 1864, under the heading, "Discoveries cf Ancient Records," it is stated, page 11, that the Marchmont Public Documents were, on 25th March 1848, transmitted to the Register House, through the kindness of Sir Hugh Hume Campbell, accompanied by an exact inventory. The same Report by the Deputy Keeper of the Records shows that the good example of Sir Hugh Hume Campbell was soon followed by her Grace, Anne Duchess of Sutherland and Countess of Cromartie, who, on 4th April 1864, transmitted to Her Majesty's General Register House a large collection of public documents found at Tarbat House, of precisely the same nature as those found at Marchmont, and relating to the period from 1703 to 1710. The late Duchess of Sutherland and her husband the late Duke were pleased to give me a commission to form the Cromartie muniments into a family history, which was completed in the year 1876 in two volumes, quarto. |