Part 13 (1/2)
That Kate Nike Neiving--not M'Niven, as her name is generally p.r.o.nounced--was among the first to suffer as the result of the pa.s.sing of this statute, is clearly proved by referring to the case of John Brughe, the notorious Glendevon wizard, who was tried at Edinburgh on November 24th, 1643, for practising sorcery and other unholy arts. It was alleged against him that he had obtained his knowledge ”from a wedow woman, named Neane Nikclerith, of threescoir years of age, quha wis sister dochter to Nike Neveing, that notorious infamous witche in Monzie, quha for her sorcerie and witchcraft was brunt fourscoir of yeir since or thereby.”[9]
That the date of the burning of the witch at Monzie took place in the year 1563, and not, as is generally supposed, in the year 1715 is not only proved by the recorded evidence in the case of John Brughe already referred to, it also receives confirmation from the fact that although reference is made over and over again in the Session Records to public events, there is no mention made of the witch. An additional argument for the earlier date is also found in the fact that Patrick Graeme, younger of Inchbrakie (referred to by Dr. Marshall as the person who brought Kate to the stake, and by Mr Blair as the man who would prove the means of her death), had been for over twenty years in exile.
Having slain John, the Master of Rollo, when returning homewards from a revel at Invermay, he escaped abroad, and it was not till the year 1720 that he procured remission of his sentence and returned to Inchbrakie.
That he did return is proved by the fact that he was a witness to a feu-charter, granted by Anthony Murray of Dollary, to Donald Fisher, taylzior in Crieff, dated ”at Dollary,” January 13th, 1725.
An attempt has been made not only to fix the date as 1715, but also to give a list of the ”understanding gentlemen, magistrates, and ministers of the neighbourhood,” who acted as judges on the occasion; and in particular the then minister of Monzie--Mr Bowie--is singled out as one of those who are said to have been bitter against the witch, and because of the part he is supposed to have taken in bringing her to justice, not only was a curse p.r.o.nounced upon the parish, but for rhyming purposes a curse is also p.r.o.nounced on Mr Bowie and his successors in office--
”Yon bonnie manse shall ne'er a tenant see Who shall not yet this bitter day abye,”--
a curse which has not been realised, so far as we know, in the case of any of those who have ministered in holy things in the parish. If there is any honour attached to the work of burning witches, we conclude that the parish can claim the honour of being the first to obey the law enacted on the 4th of June, 1563, and if the evidence given at the trial of John Brughe be at all reliable--as we have no reason to doubt--the real name of the witch was Kate Nike Neiving.
Fifty years ago, Monzie was a flouris.h.i.+ng village of one hundred and twenty inhabitants, while in the immediate neighbourhood there would be perhaps two hundred and thirty more. Now, the population over the same area is not above a fourth of that number. The few cottages that remain speak of other days, and the old churchyard, and the jougs--an iron collar in which offenders were pilloried--fastened to the porch of the church, bring back the long-forgotten past. Many changes have taken place during the last fifty years. Pendicles have been swept into large farms; the industry of weaving and spinning has disappeared.
But the natural aspect of Monzie is unchanged: the Almond and the s.h.a.ggie still run sunny and clear from the everlasting hills through her silent vales, which look upon the lover of nature with a face of beauty as fresh and entrancing as ever.
[1] _Statistical Account of Monzie_, by Mr Laurie.
[2] _Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland_, 1732.
[3] _Liber Insule Missarum_.
[4] _Memorials and Queries_. Printed by Constable, Edinburgh, 1846.
[5] _The Holocaust_. By Rev. George Blair. Edinburgh: 1845.
[6] The first Graeme of Inchbrakie was a son of the first Earl of Montrose. His father gave him a charter to it, and to Aberuthven, dated June, 1513.
[7] The stone had been honoured by being set in a gold ring.
[8] _Waverley Anecdotes_, p. 190.
[9] _The Darker Superst.i.tions of Scotland_. By John Graham Dalziel.
Glasgow: 1835, p. 579.
THE CASTLE, BARONY, AND SHERIFFDOM OF AUCHTERARDER
By A. G. REID, F.S.A., Scot., Auchterarder
Tradition a.s.serts that the Castle of Auchterarder was one of the seats of the Scottish Kings and the residence of King Malcolm Canmore, who granted the Common Muir to the neighbouring burgh. The Barony was originally a Crown possession. Being situated on the road from the Royal Palaces of Scone and Forteviot to Stirling, and the princ.i.p.al manor place of a Barony belonging to the Crown, there is every probability that the tradition of its having been a royal palace is correct, and that the warlike Malcolm and the sainted Margaret abode within its walls.
Auchterarder was one of the Royal Burghs of Scotland. It may be said that no charter of erection is in existence, but its absence is explained by the fact that the proximity of a royal seat gave the neighbouring town the status of a Royal Burgh. Whether or not Auchterarder got a charter of erection from the Sovereign, no doubt can exist that at a very early period it was one of the Royal Burghs of Scotland. In the charter of William, the son of Malise, of the lands within or outside the town of Auchterarder, still known as the Abbey lands, granted to the Canons of Inchaffray, which lands he had bought from John, the son of Baltin, he not only appended his own seal to the writing, but, for greater security and fuller evidence, procured to be appended thereto the common seal of the Burgh of Auchterarder.
The Barony of Auchterarder remained Crown property until the time of King Robert the Bruce. King Alexander II., by charter, dated at Cluny, the 13th day of August, in the eleventh year of his reign (1227), granted to the Canons of the Abbey of Inchaffray the teind of his duties of Auchterarder to be drawn yearly by the hands of his tacksmen and bailies of Auchterarder.
In 1296, Edward I. invaded Scotland with 5000 armed horse and 30,000 footmen. He pa.s.sed the River Tweed on 28th March, and continued his progress until 24th April, when he routed the Scots at Dunbar with great slaughter. He continued his triumphant progress northwards, resting at various places. We are told that ”on the Thursday he went to Stirling, and they who were within the Castle fled, and none remained but the porter, who surrendered the Castle, and there came the Earl of Strathearn 'to the peace,' and there tarried the King five days. On the Wednesday before the Feast of St. John (20th June) the King pa.s.sed the Scottish sea, and lay at Auchterarder, his Castle; on the Thursday, at St. John of Perth, a good town, and there abode Friday, Sat.u.r.day, and Sunday; this same day was John the Baptist's Day.” His progress and the places at which he stayed are circ.u.mstantially narrated in the Itinerary from which we quote. He returned to Berwick on 22nd August, and the chronicler adds--”And he conquered the realm of Scotland, and searched it, as is above written, within twenty-one weeks without any more.”[1]
Attention is directed to the terms of the words of the Norman French Itinerary in reference to the King having taken up his residence in Auchterarder Castle. ”_Le Mescredy devaunt Seint Johne pa.s.sa le roi le Mere d'Escoce et jut a Outreard, son chastelle._” Reference is made in the narrative to many other castles in which the King lay, but only in this instance is the castle stated to have belonged to him. This is conclusive evidence that the Castle was the property of the Crown, and that the King took up his abode in it as such.
The halting of Edward I. with his army at Auchterarder was not the only occasion upon which Auchterarder received an embattled host. In 1332 the Scottish army of Donald, the Earl of Mar, 30,000 strong, lay at Auchterarder previous to the disastrous Battle of Dupplin,[2] and in 1559 the army of the Dowager Queen Mary, under the Duke of Hamilton and Monsieur d'Osel, lay there, prepared to encounter the Lords of the Congregation.[3] The most disastrous military visit and the last was when the Earl of Mar, in 1716, burnt the town.