into between Patrick Sinclair of Woodhouselee and John Sinclair, his natural son, on the one part, and James Hamilton of Innerwick and Isabella Hamilton, his lawful daughter, on the other, conveying to John and Isabella and the longest liver of them the lands of Castlelaw, Eastlaw, &c., and to John Sinclair and his heirs the lands of Woodhouselee, &c., also Spottis and other lands in Galloway. Here, then, we have the father of the co-heiresses Isabella and Alison Sinclair, who were thus, through their mother, likewise connected with the house of Innerwick, a powerful branch of the Hamiltons, and it was no doubt through this connection that James Hamilton and his brother first obtained a footing in the old house on the banks of the Esk. In pursuing such investigations, it is often in byways or unexpected quarters that we come upon the information of which we are in quest. It is not in connection with Woodhouselee or Bothwellhaugh that we get our next piece of information respecting this matter, but in connection with the estate of Spottis, in the county of Kirkcudbright. Among the Special Services connected with that county, we find under date December 12, 1643, the service of James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh as heir of Alison Sinclair, legitimate daughter of John Sinclair of Woodhouselee, his grandmother, to one half of the lands of Spottis; and on the same date the service of Alison Hamilton, relict of Bishop Gavin Hamilton, as heiress of Isabella Sinclair, legitimate daughter of John Sinclair of Woodhouselee, her mother, to the other half of the lands of Spottis. As connected with the same, we find in the Commissary Records of Glasgow confirmation of the testament testamentary and inventory of the guides, gear, &c. which pertained to the late David Hamilton Elder of Bothwellhaugh, who died in the month of March 1613, faithfully made and given up by Claud Hamilton, his second son, and also testament dative and inventory of the guides, gear, &c. which pertained to the late Alison Sinclair of Bothwellhaugh, who died in the month of June 1618, faithfully made and given up by Claud Hamilton, lawful son of the defunct. Under date November 29, 1628, there is a general service of James Hamilton as heir of David Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, his grandfather; and under date February 23, 1630, general services of James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, as heir of Alison Sinclair, his grandmother, and Alison Hamilton, as heiress of Isabella Sinclair, her mother. Further, under date March 13, 1629, we find the service of Henry Home of Ardgaty and Lundies as heir male and of taillie of Captain Patrick Home, lawful son of George Home of Lundies, his grand-uncle. re In referring to the service of the summons at the dwelling places of the two brothers, Mr. Maidment says: "This summons quired to be executed in due legal form, and as regards these two men the citation was not edictal, which it ought to have been had it been known that they had left Scotland, but at "their dwelling places in Bothwellhaugh, whar baith their wiffis and family makis their residence:" adding that 'A citation of this nature would not be worth anything unless the husbands' domicile was where they had their residence, of which fact there was no proof adduced.' The fact is that the summons was also served edictally, as is shown by the officer's execution appended thereto. He says that Upon the 27th day of July being Monunday and mercatday of the burgh of Edinburgh, 1579,' he passed to the mercat We have thus, we trust, satisfactorily shown that Oliver Sinclair, the unpopular favourite of James V., was not the father of the heiresses, and never had anything to do with the Woodhouselee estate; that on the forfeiture of the Hamiltons, the estate did not pass into the hands of Sir John Bellenden (who was, besides, no connection of the heiresses), but that the life-rent interests which vested in the two brothers were transferred to Patrick Hume, a strong supporter of the Regent, and also a relative of his. As there is no reason to think that Bothwellhaugh was at this time forfeited, but various reasons for thinking the contrary, then Isabella Sinclair could not have been driven to take refuge at Woodhouselee, and her presence there had probably been rather intended to obstruct the entrance of the new possessor. In these circumstances it is not at all unlikely that she may have been subjected to somewhat harsh and even cruel treatment, and therefore we are inclined to think that private feelings of revenge may have had something to do in spurring Bothwellhaugh on to the commission of his crime, and that there may be after all some truth in the old story. At the same time, we trust we have vindicated the character of the good Regent from the charge of having seized upon the estate in order to enrich a greedy favourite,' or even of having connived at a project for defeating a harsh law.' The act was a strictly legal one, and one, as we have said before, rendered necessary by the circumstances of the case and the character of the man with whom he had to deal. It went no farther than the personal interests of Bothwellhaugh and his brother in the estate; and it was very natural that the estate should be entrusted to a member of the family that had formerly possessed it. At the same time, it is easy to see the effect of all this upon the mind of a passionate and disappointed man like James Hamil ton. The relationship which subsisted between Captain Hume and the Regent would naturally draw his attention to the latter rather than the former; and if, as we suppose, his wife had been subjected to harsh or cruel treatment, then in striking at the Regent he would. only imagine that he was going to the root of the matter. Along with all this it is necessary to keep in view his connection with the ducal house of Hamilton, which must have been of the most intimate character. His father, David the 'gudeman of Bothwellhaugh,' was the fifth and youngest son of John Hamilton of Orbiston, whose father was Gavin, third son of James, the first Lord Hamilton, and consequently the murderer of the Regent stood in no very distant relationship to the ducal house. His mother, Catherine Shaw, is also said to have been a sister uterine of John Hamilton, the Archbishop of St. Andrews. Further, the estate of Bothwellhaugh stood on the right bank of the Clyde, directly opposite the ducal estates, from which it was separated only by the river, so that a close intimacy must have subsisted between the two houses; and hence James Bothwell may have been the more readily induced to undertake the commission of a deed which he was led to believe would be of the greatest service to those whom he regarded as intimate friends and near kinsmen. Be this, however, as it may, we have, we trust, succeeded in throwing some light upon a hitherto misunderstood and misrepresented part of Scotch history. [Most of the materials that have been used in the preparation of this article (all of them that give value to it) were collected by the late Mr. W. Williamson, of London. A Scotchman by birth and education, he continued even after his settlement in the Southern Capital to manifest the deepest interest in everything connected with his native country. Its history, antiquities, language, literature (especially its ballad poetry), were to him never-failing objects of interest. In particular his knowledge of the events connected with the Reformation, and of the condition and power of the religious houses in the times immediately preceding, was such as we believe to be equalled or surpassed by few. It was not, however, till within a short time of his death, that he began to commit to writing any part of his knowledge, or to note down the result of his researches with a view to possible publication; and then, though from the extent of his knowledge and his high mental powers he could not have failed to throw light and interest round any point or period of Scotch history that he had chosen to take up, it was to the incidents more or less historical connected with his native parish of Lasswade, and to the history of distinguished families who had lived there, that he first turned his attention. Hence one of the points that he set about investigating critically was that which forms the subject of this article. In all probability, too, the story of the Woodhouselee Ghost had been among the earliest of his recollections, and he may have felt dissatisfied with the way in which Mr. Maidment has handed over everything connected with it to the region of fiction. For carrying out historical investigations on either a large or a small scale, he was singularly well qualified; and had he lived, we doubt not that he would have thrown light upon other and more important points in Scotch history, that are at present involved in doubt. He possessed great power of seeking out and arriving at the truth. He seemed to be led as by a species of instinct to the right sources for information; and if not successful at first, he would return to the subject again and again, assailing it from different points, and never rest satisfied till he had solved the difficulty, though it might be years afterwards. He had the faculty of readily grasping a subject in all its details, stripping it of all extraneous matter, and laying bare its strong or its weak points. His natural powers in this respect were doubtless much improved and strengthened through his having enjoyed the advantage of a legal training in the office of a firm of Writers to the Signet in Edinburgh. During this time he had a principal share in getting up the evidence in at least one noted case of disputed succession, and he used frequently afterwards to refer to the pleasure he derived from going over the old documents and bringing together the evidence bearing upon this case. To this, we think, in great measure may be traced the interest he afterwards took in consulting early records, and the desire he felt, wherever possible, to take his historic facts from the original sources. One distinguishing feature of his character was his intense love of truth. The point involved might to ordinary minds seem small or unimportant, but to him nothing was small or unimportant in which truth was concerned. It was the truth or falsehood involved in a point that gave it to him its importance. Hence he would spare no pains, grudge no labour, in arriving at the truth in regard to a subject that he had once taken up, however unimportant it might be in itself. The truth once reached he held firmly, and would not let it go. He could not, like some, play with truth; he could not imagine it concealed under a cloak of falsehood, nor could he tolerate falsehood under the guise of truth. His conduct was the image or embodiment of his thought. Truthfulness was his distinguishing characteristic. Guile or deceit, in any form, were entirely foreign to his nature; and he made use of language strictly to express his thoughts, not to conceal them. It would be out of place here to enter upon those qualities of heart that chiefly endeared him to a large circle of friends and acquaintances, and yet these were, after all, the most marked features of his character. One of the most unselfish and self-denying of men, his attention was ever directed to the happiness of others rather than his own. His great aim was to diffuse happiness to all around him, and his own happiness was in proportion to his power to make others happy. One could not be long in his society without being struck with this feature of his character; and those who, like the present writer, had known him intimately for many years, cannot but feel that they can scarcely hope to meet with his like again. Speaking humanly and after the event, one can scarcely help thinking that had his devotion to his favourite studies been less, his days might have been prolonged. As an acting partner of a large mercantile house in the City, there must have been a constant daily strain upon his mental energies; and when in addition to this he would generally spend a number of hours at night among his books, it could scarcely have been but that even unconsciously to himself his vital energies had been impaired. He left London about a fortnight before his death, in apparently his usual health, and during this time we find him day after day in the Register House at Edinburgh, making extracts from the ancient records. Among the last entries in his note-book are extracts from the Treasurer's accounts respecting the Patrick Sinclair mentioned in this article, so that this subject had received some of his latest as well as his earlier thoughts. While suffering from a slight temporary indisposition, the action of the heart suddenly failed, and in a few seconds he had ceased to exist, though to all appearance yet in the full strength and vigour of manhood.] D. K. THE THE PROTESTANT RESTORATION IN FRANCE, HE Revocation of the Edict of VOL. VIII.-NO. XLV. NEW SERIES. the authorities. In Dauphiné and Languedoc, on the other hand, a hardy population, inclined to fanaticism, and worked upon by the mystic utterances of teachers drawn from their own ranks, broke out into the famous Camisard revolt. For three years, amid the rugged fastnesses of the Cevennes, some two thousand peasantry of these southern provinces resisted with success the efforts of the best officers and most carefully trained soldiers of Louis XIV.to overpower them; albeit outnumbered as by thirty to one, and manoeuvred, not by skilled generalship, but by the supposed inspirations of their unlettered 'prophets.' The The phenomenon of the Inspirés is the most notable fact connected with this survival of Protestantism in the South of France. We have seen how, in quite recent times, a belief in visible communications with the other world is still a characteristic of the people inhabiting that portion of the realm. Catholic pilgrimages to La Salette and Lourdes, the wild stories of the Virgin Mary's appearance on "mountain slopes and river banks to shepherd boys and girls, which first incited those pilgrimages-what are these save reproductions, under other formulas, of the tendencies which helped to mould the Calvinist 'prophets' and 'prophetesses' of the Desert in the days of Louis XIV. and the Regency? The 'prophets' first appeared immediately after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, when, the fancies of youth being heated by the tales of suffering for religion's sake which, circulated among the homesteads of the Reformed, children, full of crude notions about the persecution of saints and the iniquities of the Apocalyptic Beast, wandered from village to village, uttering cries and EE |