Women of Moray

chapter one

Medieval Women I once thought with others that learning was quite useless to the female sex. [Sir Thomas] More has quite changed that opinion. Nothing so completely preserves the modesty or so sensibly employs the thoughts of young girls as learning.

Erasmus 15271

on 17 june 1390, Alexander Stewart, the Wolf of Badenoch, emerged from Lochindorb Castle with his ‘Wyld Wyked Heilandmen’ to burn the burgh of Elgin and, the glory of the kingdom, Elgin Cathedral. Behind those terrible acts of destruction lay the Wolf’s feelings for a woman. Eight years earlier, Alexander Stewart had married Euphemia of Ross, thereby increasing his territory and gaining the earldom of Ross. But his heart lay with Mariota and it was Mariota, mother of his children, who had lived with him in his remote castle of Lochindorb on the western fringe of Moray. In November 1389, however, Alexander had been forced to agree to return to his wife Euphemia and to treat her well. This settlement was ordered by the bishops of Ross and of Moray. The Bishop of Moray, Alexander Bur, and Alexander Stewart had long been at odds; their dispute centred on the bishop’s refusal to accept the superior jurisdiction of Alexander Stewart. The humiliating settlement regarding Euphemia was an important factor in Alexander’s decision to burn the cathedral. Despite the settlement of 1389, three years later Euphemia petitioned the pope for a separation from Alexander. The separation was granted in light of the ‘wars, plundering, arson, murders’ that were a result of their union. What of Mariota? Almost nothing is known of Mariota, sometimes known as Mairead daughter of Eachann, but her name continues to inspire stories of romance and mystery.2 Similarly, little is known of any women who lived in Moray before the Reformation of 1560. Most of the records that remain are of noblewomen whose lives are sketched in marriage contracts, divorces and legal disputes, interwoven with reports of the intrigues and violence of their fathers, brothers, husbands and sons. Occasionally their deeds, like Agnes Randolph’s defence of Dunbar Castle, are recorded independently.

19

women of moray

Lochindorb Castle 2003 (Mary Byatt)

These noblewomen came from the great castles of medieval Moray – from Duffus, where an impressive motte and bailey castle arose from the flat marshy fringes of Loch Spynie, and where another Euphemia would come as a bride bringing wealth from Ross; from Lochindorb, ancient seat of the earls of Moray until gifted to Alexander Stewart in 1371; and from Ternway, or Darnaway, Castle, probably built by the earls of Moray to replace the loss of Lochindorb. The medieval castle of Darnaway is gone, although the magnificent oak roof of the great hall remains encased in an early nineteenth century shell. Gone too is the royal forest of Darnaway where kings and queens went hunting.

The earldom of Moray is an important part of the medieval story.

Thomas Randolph, the first earl, was granted the earldom by Robert the Bruce. The territory was large, stretching from lands on the west coast to the Spey, and south through Badenoch to Perthshire. The earldom, its area reducing in size over time, passed through different families: the Randolphs, the Dunbars, the Douglases and various Stewart lines.

The education of girls was a matter of chance. James iv’s education act of 1496 related only to the first sons of the landed gentry. The great Renaissance philosopher Erasmus, quoted at the head of this chapter, was initially opposed to the education of women. Signatures on marriage contracts and other legal documents tell that some women were literate in the fifteenth century. By the middle of the sixteenth century, Agnes Keith was able to keep up a regular correspondence with her family and employees.

There was not much in the way of a childhood for girls of high rank; by twelve they might well be married. The church condoned early marriage because it was a way of avoiding the sin of fornication.3 Despite the church’s attitude, illegitimacy was common among the aristocracy. The legitimate line of succession, however, was of enormous importance. This need for legitimate claims to property explains the profusion of marriage contracts. Notaries were in high demand. The bride’s father paid a tocher, 20

medieval women

or dowry, to the husband’s family, and the bride might receive life rents of lands and property in return.

Girls did have some rights: marriage arrangements made before they were twelve could be dissolved, and when the girls reached a marriageable age they were consulted about their prospective husbands; they did not have to accept a man they did not like.4 It was the general practice for sons to inherit titles and property, but if there were no sons, the daughters could inherit. However, married women had no legal property rights and their husbands took the titles and land that their wives had inherited, as is evident in the cases of Agnes Randolph and Elizabeth Dunbar. In practice, noblewomen were often quick to defend the rights of their children. Janet Kennedy, Elizabeth Dunbar and Agnes Keith were well known in the courts.

Marriage among the aristocracy in medieval times was about making deals and acquiring land. If the couple were related, dispensation from the pope was often necessary before the marriage could take place, but for those with power gaining the dispensation was just a formality. The importance of the land and its inheritance was crucial; love might or might not have been a factor. Agnes Keith’s apparent love match was remarked upon as unusual. Divorce was possible in medieval times, although not recognised by the church. Amongst royalty and the aristocracy the notion of marriage as a business transaction continued into the twentieth century.

One only has to visit Elgin Cathedral to understand the authority of the church. The building itself speaks of wealth and power. Not even the king was immune from the control of the church. James iv did penance all his life for his involvement in his father’s death, wearing an iron belt and going on long pilgrimages. The tension between church and monarch is played out in Janet Kennedy’s life. When Janet donated money for a priest to pray for Archibald Douglas, it might have been that she was thinking partly of herself and trying to lessen her own time in purgatory as well as his. The church, though unable to control the sexual urges of its flock, remained an ever present influence on custom and practice.

Our perception of women from these early days will inevitably be unbalanced because the records of women of lower rank are generally missing, and single women are practically invisible. There is mention, by James iv’s treasurer, of the ‘madinnis that dansit at Elgun’ (1504) and the ‘wemen that sang to the king’ (1506).5 Of the lives of the maidens that danced and the women that sang we know nothing. We do have a snapshot of Cristen Varden who in June 1542 called Margarat Froster a common whore and thief; Margarat then retaliated by attacking Cristen, and the two ended up before the burgh court of Elgin: 21

women of moray The assise deliuerit that Margarat Froster wrangit in the striking of Cristen Varden with ane pan vpon the heid and draving the said Cristenis hair to greit quantate out of hir heid.6

Such squabbles amongst women are common in the burgh court records which are about all that remain to inform us of the everyday life of the women of Moray towards the end of the medieval period.

Inevitably, it is the noblewomen that appear in this chapter, and it is their marriages and liaisons that give us some insight into their lives.

Marriage for women of high rank was a highly desirable legal arrangement that enhanced the status of the woman and her family and accumulated lands and income for the next generation. For some, happiness might have ensued.

The noblewomen selected here may have been important players in the unfolding history of Scotland, but their stories reside in that place where history meets myth and where imagination sets the scene.

Gruoch (Lady Macbeth) Gruoch, or Grwok, born early eleventh century; married 1) Gillacomgain; 2) Macbeth 1033; died post 1056.

Gruoch was the first queen of Scotland to be named in historical records.

Centuries after her death she was misrepresented as the scheming and manipulative Lady Macbeth of Shakepeare’s tragedy.

Of royal descent,Gruoch was recorded as being the daughter of Bohde, or Boite, who was a son of Kenneth ii, although some sources discount Boite and claim that her father was Kenneth ii. With such a distance in time and with difficulties of translation between Gaelic and Latin writers, and later accounts of those times woven through with legends it is not surprising that there is some confusion. Whatever the facts, she is generally acknowledged to be of direct royal lineage and from the Cenél Gabrain line. Her brother and her father, (and/or her grandfather, depending on which version of her parentage is accepted) were slain during the struggle for the throne of Scots.

The two main rivals in the north during this struggle were the houses of the Cenél Loairn and the Cenél Gabrain. Gruoch grew up in the tumultuous times when Malcolm ii, of the Gabrain, secured his throne by exterminating all other claimants. Because Gruoch was a direct descendant of the royal family, her children would continue the royal line, and consequently a 22

gruoch (lady macbeth)

politically suitable marriage was required for her.

As a girl Gruoch was married to one of the many aspiring warlords of the time, so uniting two rival families. The marriage produced a son, Lulach. In the political struggle for supremacy, her husband, Gillacomgain of the Cenél Loairn, slaughtered his own relative Findaleach, mormaer (overlord) of Moray and father of Macbeth. In 1032 Gillacomgain was burnt to death in revenge for this killing, but it is not clear who was responsible for his murder. Gruoch was then a widow, but did not remain one for long. Her royal blood and her connections made her a valuable pawn in the very complex game of kings.

Gruoch married Macbeth, rightful mormaer of Moray, her late husband’s cousin and, perhaps, his murderer. Although Macbeth already had a valid claim to the kingship, his marriage to Gruoch, a direct descendant of the royal line, helped add to his status and strengthen his claim to the throne. In contrast to the turmoil of her earlier years, Gruoch’s second marriage lasted for twenty-four years and appears to have been a successful one. Some clans such as MacQuarries, MacKinnons and MacMillans, claim their descent from Macbeth and Gruoch. However, these unsubstantiated claims emerged many centuries later and any verifiable facts are lost in the mists of time.

As a powerful mormaer, Macbeth would have travelled throughout his domain with Gruoch, staying in the various hilltop forts within the area.

One of these residences could have been the hill fort on top of Cluny Hill at Forres. The supposed connection with Cawdor has no historical basis.

In 1040, aged twenty-seven, King Duncan died at Bothgowan (Pitgaveny), near Elgin, after initiating a battle with his cousin Macbeth.

Macbeth then became king of Alba and, as a descendant of the MacAlpin dynasty, proved to be the last of the great Celtic kings. His lands were under constant threat from Norse, Orcadian and English invaders, but with Gruoch as his queen, he kept them safe, despite the violent upheavals of the era, and created the first relatively peaceful governance over the country during a reign renowned for prosperity and stability. Gruoch was more than just the king’s consort; she was definitely acknowledged as a queen and the couple are described as ‘Rex et Regina Scottorum’. The St Andrews register records that, as king and queen, they supported the Columban, or Culdee, church with ‘gifts of Kirkness, Portmoak and Bogie to the Culdees of Lochleven’. This act may well have been partly political in order to gain church support, but there is no evidence that Queen Gruoch was anything like the scheming monster of Shakespeare’s play.

Kings in those times were answerable to the populace and credited with the ability to affect harvest and famine. The prosperity of a good king 23

women of moray

would be reflected in the well-being of his subjects as people protected from the ravages of war would have time and opportunity to nurture good harvests and successfully raise stock. A Latin poem composed within a generation of his death praises Macbeth’s rule and states that – fertile tempus erat – in his time there was great plenty. Another record of his reign appears in the prophecy of St Berchan which says of Macbeth: after the slaughter of the foreigners, The liberal king will possess Scotland.

The strong one was fair, yellow haired and tall.

Very pleasant was that handsome youth to me.

Brimful of food was Scotland, east and west, During the reign of the ruddy, brave king.

King Macbeth was killed in 1057 by his rival for the throne of Alba, the heir of the Cenél Gabrain line, Malcolm Canmore. Macbeth’s chosen successor from the bloodline of the Cenél Loairn was Gruoch’s son Lulach, from her first marriage. Within a few months Lulach too was eliminated

by Malcolm – the line of the Cenél Loairn was thus effectively destroyed.

After the death of her husband and her son, Queen Gruoch disappeared from history while chroniclers concentrated on recording the ensuing power struggle in the land. There followed a deliberate campaign by the conquering Canmore dynasty to blacken the name of Macbeth and his queen. This was a propaganda technique to suppress any chance of revolt or support for any possible heirs of the Macbeth dynasty. Facts were manipulated and invented throughout the centuries until the sixteenth century writer Holinshed gave a final twist to the reputation of Queen Gruoch in his interpretation of Hector Boece’s history and created the wicked Lady Macbeth.

William Shakespeare, using Holinshed’s version of history, composed his great political play warning of the dangers of kingly corruption and tyranny.

King James vi and i, who reigned during Shakespeare’s later years, was a descendant of the House of Canmore and needed to boost his own credibility.

King James did not get on with his own wife, Anne of Denmark, and the creation of a wicked queen, the monstrous Lady Macbeth, suited his prejudices. In life Macbeth and Gruoch were victims of the ambitious Malcolm Canmore but in Shakespeare’s play, written to flatter the king, facts gave way to fiction, and their reputations were destroyed for generations.

In an age of constant warfare and feuding, rulers who did not meet the needs of their people were swiftly deposed. Despite having to quell the uprisings common in a violent age, Macbeth retained respect, support and 24

euphemia of duffus

loyalty within his kingdom for seventeen years and was confident enough of this support to leave Moray while he went on a pilgrimage to Rome.

King Macbeth was interred on Iona by his people in the traditional burial place of the Scots kings. Gruoch’s fate is not recorded because with the change of dynasty she had lost her power and status. Perhaps she was slain by members of the new order, but we can hope that, since she was no longer of childbearing age and thus presented no threat to Malcolm Canmore, she was able to spend her final years in safety, sheltered by those who revered the woman who had been their queen. (JM)

Euphemia of Duffus Euphemia Mactaggart, born Applecross, Wester Ross, c.1210; married Walter of Duffus, 1224; died post 1263.

Euphemia of Duffus must be one of the earliest female residents of Moray, excepting Gruoch, to be recorded by name. By her marriage, she brought together the families of a knight of Celtic origin and of one of the foreigners granted land in Moray by David i.

Her father was Farquhar, or Ferchard, Mactaggart, second Earl of Ross and lay abbot of Applecross, where she was born. There were four surviving children – a younger sister, Christina, and two brothers, William and Malcolm. When King William the Lion died in 1214, Farquhar fought for the new king, Alexander ii, and was knighted and awarded lands in Easter Ross at Delny and founded an abbey at Fearn.

In 1224 Euphemia was married to Walter de Moravia, great-grandson of Freskin the Fleming. David i had annexed the lands of Moray in 1143 after an episode of insurgency, and the foreigner Freskin, who already had lands in Linlithgow, was given Duffus. It was Freskin who probably built the first motte and bailey castle at Duffus. David i stayed there when he was in Moray founding the monastery at nearby Kinloss in about 1150.

The stone castle, the landmark ruin of today, was not built until the fourteenth century.

Euphemia’s brother-in-law was Andrew de Moravia, formerly parson of Duffus, who succeeded Bishop Brice de Douglas as bishop of Moray.

The church of Holy Trinity juxta Elgin was consecrated as the cathedral in 1224, so it can be imagined that the development of the cathedral would have been a significant event in Euphemia’s married life. She had one surviving son, Freskin ii. He married Joanna, heiress of Strathnaver in 1248 and they had two daughters. Euphemia’s husband, Walter, died in 25

women of moray

Duffus Castle 2003 (Susan Bennett)

1262/3 and was buried ‘with his father the blessed Hugo… in the church of Duffus near the altar of the blessed Kathrine.’ Freskin II died in 1269 and ‘is buried in the chapel of S. Laurence of the parochial church of Duffus.’ There is no record of the death of Euphemia.

An undated charter may relate to her father’s arrangement for her dowry of lands at Clyne in Easter Ross. In a charter signed and sealed by Euphemia herself in 1263, she granted these lands to the diocese of Moray for the maintenance of chaplains in the cathedral church of Elgin. Though we know little of her life, Euphemia’s impact on Moray was important, because her land, and the income it brought, was used to develop the power and influence of Elgin Cathedral. (JT)

Agnes Randolph (Black Agnes) Agnes Randolph, born pre 1320; married Patrick Dunbar, eight Earl of Dunbar and second Earl of March, c1320; died 1369.

Agnes Randolph or Dunbar is famous for holding Dunbar Castle against the English. Through her, and her sister, the earldom of Moray passed to the Dunbar family.

Black Agnes, so called because of her swarthy complexion, was the daughter of Thomas Randolph, the first Earl of Moray, and Isabel Stewart, daughter of Sir John Stewart of Bunkle.

Nothing is known of Agnes’s early life. She was the eldest of four siblings: she had one sister and two brothers. It is likely that she spent some of her childhood at Lochindorb and, maybe, at a royal hunting lodge at Darnaway.

By 1324 Agnes was married to Patrick Dunbar, eighth Earl of Dunbar and second Earl of March. A dispensation from the pope was required 26

agnes randolph (black agnes)

because Agnes and Patrick were cousins. Patrick initially supported both Edward ii and Edward iii of England in the Wars of Independence and was made governor of Berwick Castle. He was allowed to refortify his castle of Dunbar, about thirty miles to the north of Berwick, which was of crucial strategic importance to the English. At this point, Patrick changed his allegiance. The English, under the Earl of Salisbury, besieged Dunbar Castle in 1338 in an attempt to regain it. Since Patrick was absent from home at the time of the siege, Agnes commanded the defence of the castle herself. When the English threatened to execute her brother John, Earl of Moray, whom they held a prisoner, it is said that Agnes retorted that, if that were to happen, she would become Countess of Moray. The castle was not taken. Black Agnes won the day. The five-month siege was much reported and Agnes’s role became a legend. Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, writing of her over two centuries later, commented that she was ‘of greater spirit than it became a woman to be’. Walter Scott, in his Tales of Grandfather, had her ladies dusting the battlements to goad the English.

He quotes a ballad, said to have told of her exploits: She kept a stir in tower and trench, That brawling boisterous Scottish wench; Came I early, came I late, I found Agnes at the gate.

Agnes was following in the tradition of her father, fighting for the independence of Scotland. Her husband is reported to have changed his allegiance more than once.

When Agnes’s brother John died fighting the English in 1346, Agnes and her sister, Isabella, inherited his lands. Patrick and Agnes took the title

Dunbar Castle 2011 (Susan Bennett)

27

women of moray

of Earl and Countess of Moray although the earldom was technically vacant and had reverted to the Crown when John died. Patrick and Agnes had no children, but Isabella, who married another Patrick Dunbar, nephew of Agnes’s husband, had two sons, the younger of whom, John, became Earl of Moray in 1372 by royal charter. Thus the title stayed in the family. John, Agnes’s nephew, became known as the first Dunbar Earl of Moray. (SB)

Elizabeth Dunbar Elizabeth Dunbar, born c.1425; married 1) Archibald Douglas, c.1442; 2) Lord George Gordon, 1455; 3) Sir John Colquhoun of Luss, c.1463; died c.1494.

It was in the early 1450s that Richard Holland, precentor of Elgin Cathedral, dedicated his poem, ‘The Buke of the Howlat’, to Elizabeth Dunbar, Countess of Moray – ‘Thus for ane dow of Dunbar drew I this dyte’.

Elizabeth and Janet, her older sister, were the only legitimate children of James Dunbar, the fourth Dunbar Earl of Moray, and his wife, Margaret Seton. James’s illegitimate son, also James, founded the Dunbar of Westfield line; a line which is still extant in Moray.

James Dunbar, the fourth earl, died when Elizabeth was about five years old. Janet and Elizabeth must have received some sort of education because they were able to sign legal documents in their own hand. The two girls probably spent some of their early life at the seat of the Earl of Moray at Darnaway. It was Elizabeth, the younger daughter, who inherited her father’s estates. Sometime before 26 April 1442, she married Archibald Douglas, third son of James, seventh Earl of Douglas. The couple became known as the Earl and Countess of Moray. They had at least two children, James and Janet. Richard Holland acted as Archibald’s secretary.

In mirthfull moneth of May, In myddis Murraye, Thus on a tyme by Ternway Happinnit Holland. [written in May, in Moray, in Darnaway, by Holland]

Thus ends the poem ‘The Buke of the Howlat’, written at a time when the Douglases were at the height of their power. The poem, of 1,001 lines in an ornate and complex style, is about an owl that complains to the pope of 28

elizabeth dunbar

his ugly appearance. The owl is given feathers, by other birds, with which to adorn himself, but, growing arrogant, the feathers are taken away as a punishment. The poem is, in part, an elaborate tribute to the Douglases: O Douglas, O Douglas Tender and trewe…

To James, lord Dowglas thay the gre gaif.

To ga with the kingis hart tharwith he nocht growit [James Douglas was given the foremost place and did not shrink from going with the king’s heart]

In contrast to the tribute, the owl’s downfall is also a reminder about the pitfalls of high office.

The heart referred to in the poem is that of Robert the Bruce, taken by James Douglas, ‘The Good Sir James’ (c.1286–1330) to the crusades – an act of unprecedented chivalry. James did not reach the Holy Land, but was killed in Spain fighting the Moors. The Douglas clan made good use of James’s daring deeds to promote themselves; they adopted the heart as their emblem. They became the most powerful family in Scotland and as James ii grew up he came to resent that power.

The power of the Douglases, however, was coming to an end. In 1455, James ii met the Douglases in battle at Arkinholm, near Langholm, and Elizabeth’s husband was killed.

On 20 May, nineteen days after she became a widow, Elizabeth signed a marriage contract with George Gordon, Master of Huntly (c.1440– 1501). The contract, signed in Forres on 20 May 1455, stated that ‘he [Huntly] sall not constrenzie the said lady to carnal copulation but of her free will’. Because they were cousins, and there were many rules about marrying relatives, the pope had to be approached ‘in gudely haste’ for dispensation. There was to be no harm to James, Elizabeth’s son. Huntly would not get the earldom of Moray automatically. ‘Richard Holande, Chantour of Murrave is one of the many signatories. Elizabeth signed the document ‘Elyzabeth Contas of Murray with my hand’. The surviving document is a notarial copy. The marriage, however, did not last and by 1459 Elizabeth was divorced.

Elizabeth’s third marriage, in about 1463, was to Sir John Colquhoun of Luss, Sheriff of Dumbarton and Comptroller of the Royal Household.

Moving west to Luss, by Loch Lomond, Elizabeth and John had a son, also John. In 1479, Sir John Colquhoun was killed by a cannonball at one of the many sieges of Dunbar Castle. Elizabeth spent much of her widowhood fighting for her inheritance.

29

women of moray

Elizabeth’s life shows us that dispensation from the pope was always an option for those with power, and that divorce was possible despite the teaching of the church. Her marriage contract demonstrates that noblewomen had certain rights that protected their status and inheritance.

At the distance of over 500 Roof-truss of Darnaway medieval hall showing years, it is not possible to get an hunting scene ( © Crown Copyright RCAHMS) idea of Elizabeth Dunbar as a person. She may have danced in the great hall of Darnaway; she may have hunted in the extensive deer forests. What does remain of her is a copy of her marriage contract to Huntly, and an impressive medieval poem dedicated to ‘The Dow of Dunbar’, which places Elizabeth at the heart of chivalric medieval Scotland. (SB and RB)

Janet Kennedy Janet Kennedy, birth unknown; various marriages of doubtful legality from c.1492; died post November 1543.

Janet Kennedy from the south-west of Scotland became the king’s mistress and bore three of his children. She spent a brief but important period of her life at Darnaway.

Flaming Janet, as she has been called, was the daughter of John, second Lord Kennedy and his second wife, Elizabeth Gordon. Elizabeth was daughter of the Earl of Huntly (Alexander Seton, died 1470 – the children took the name of Gordon). Janet’s childhood is not recorded, but it is known that she had four older brothers and three sisters, one older and two younger.

In 1491 a dispensation was granted by the pope for Janet’s marriage to a relative, Alexander Gordon, son of John Gordon of Lochinvar. There is no actual record of the marriage, but a daughter, Janet, was born in 1496.

A year later Janet Kennedy was the mistress of Archibald Douglas, fifth Earl of Angus, and a man of some importance in the court of James iv.

Both Janet and Archibald seem to have been already married to other people. To show his ‘affectione et amore’ Archibald gave Janet the baronies of Bothwell and Crawford Lindsay, and Janet became known as Lady 30

janet kennedy

Bothwell. These lands were formally transferred to her in 1498 by a charter witnessed by the Abbot of Crossraguel and members of Janet’s family.

Another year on, the Earl of Angus was out of favour in the court, and Janet had become the king’s mistress. James iv was a bachelor with three illegitimate children. He was twenty-six; Janet was probably some years younger. But James needed legitimate heirs, and so negotiations soon began for his marriage to Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry vii of England. At ten years old Margaret was considered too young for marriage. She was also related to James, and so a dispensation from the pope was needed.

This dispensation was granted in 1500. Meanwhile James and Janet enjoyed court life in Stirling. Ishbel Barnes (2007) gives an account of the lively happenings: Entertainment was provided by Peter and Francis de Lucca, two Italian ‘spelairs’ who seem to have been some sort of dancers, and by a whole group of minstrels, luters, trumpeters, harpers, pipers and drummers, as well as Jame Widderspune, ‘fithelar and teller of tales’.

The names suggest a group speaking many languages, Gaelic, French, Dutch and Italian as well as Scots… and finally Master William Dunbar [the poet].

In March 1501 Janet gave birth to the king’s son at Stirling Castle. To Janet, the king not only gave lavish gifts of velvet, silk and gold cloth for her and the baby, but also the castle of Darnaway. This gift came with a condition: Darnaway was Janet’s as long as she was faithful to the king. Her son, James, was to have the earldom of Moray, and the castle would be his in due course. The roof of Darnaway was repaired and furnishings were ordered to make it ready for Janet and her retainers. Janet did not stay long at Darnaway; sometimes she went to Bothwell Castle, sometimes she was at Stirling. It was at Stirling that, in 1502, she had her second child by the king,

Great Hall of Darnaway roof 1965 (© Crown Copyright RCAHMS)

31

women of moray

this time a daughter (who was to die shortly after her first birthday).

By now Margaret Tudor was approaching thirteen and a suitable age for marriage. The royal wedding ceremony took place at Holyrood on 8 August 1503. At about the same time Janet Kennedy moved out of Stirling Castle and went north to Darnaway. She was again pregnant with the king’s child. A daughter was born at Darnaway, and Janet remained there until the child was about five months old. Janet then spent her time between Darnaway and Bothwell and was visited by the king in both places.

But by 1505 she was married to Sir John Ramsay of Trarinzean and so forfeited Darnaway Castle. Since Janet was apparently still married to Alexander Gordon, this was not a marriage that could be recognised by the church, but the king must have liked the arrangement because Sir John Ramsay was part of his court. As Sir John’s wife, Janet Kennedy could also attend the court. There were tournaments with brightly coloured silk pavilions and jousting knights, and other celebrations organised by Sir John.

The marriage, however, was not to last; by 1508 Sir John was married to Isobel Levingston.

Janet Kennedy then moved to Edinburgh where she lived in the Cowgate beside her brother Sir David Kennedy. She lived in this fashionable part of Edinburgh for at least twenty years.

On 9 September 1513, King James iv, nine earls, fourteen lords of parliament and maybe as many as 8,000 other Scots lay dead on the field of Flodden. Scotland had lost the ‘flowers of the forest’; Janet had lost her king, her brother David, and many others of her circle. Fortunately her son, the Earl of Moray, was away in Italy being educated by Erasmus, as befitted the son of a Renaissance king.

The new king, James v, was not yet two and there was much jostling for power between the various nobles and the king’s mother. With James iv dead, Janet lost her protector. For much of her life she had been litigious, acquiring land and looking after her children’s interests, and while she was the king’s mistress the courts found in her favour. Later, Janet did not have such an easy time in the courts. She managed, however, to retain some of her lands to pass on to her son. This son, James Stewart, Earl of Moray and half brother to the James v, was soon to become one of the most important men in the court. The earl was to support the king throughout his life and when James v died in 1542, it was Moray who organised his funeral. Moray, however, was also nearing the end of his life and he died in 1544 with no legitimate children to inherit the earldom. Janet’s death, sometime after 1543, is, like her birth, unrecorded.

Was she married once only, or was she divorced? Long after her various partners were dead, on 16 May 1531, Janet Kennedy paid for a priest, in 32

agnes (annas) keith

the collegiate church of St Mary in the Fields in Edinburgh, to pray for the soul of Archibald, Earl of Angus ‘olim mariti’ – once her husband. This was the man Janet chose to remember as her husband; this was the man whom she hoped the church would consider her husband.

Such a colourful woman: glimpses of her life tell of scarlet hats, hanks of gold and coloured threads for embroidery, a silver gilt salt cellar and a black horse given by the king. Janet Kennedy had connections with Moray for only a few years but as mother of the Earl of Moray, she is part of Moray’s story. (SB)

Agnes (Annas) Keith Agnes Keith, born c.1540; married 1) Lord James Stewart, 8 February 1562; 2) Sir Colin Campbell, Earl of Argyll, 1572; died 16 July 1588.

Agnes Keith, Countess of Moray, managed the Moray estates after the murder of her husband, Regent Moray. When her second husband, the Earl of Argyll, died she managed the Argyll estates as well.

Lady Agnes Keith was born in 1540 at Dunnottar Castle to William Keith, fourth Earl Marischal, and to Margaret Keith of Inverugie. She was one of nine daughters and three sons and lived a privileged life in a wealthy family. She married when she was aged twenty-two and unlike most marriages of the time, hers was said to be a love match. Her first husband was Lord James Stewart, son of James v and his mistress Margaret Erskine.

Lord James had been contracted at the age of nineteen to marry the orphaned Christina Stewart of Buchan, aged three. He accepted the earldom of Buchan but on meeting Agnes Keith fell in love with her and married her instead of waiting for Christina to come of age.

Lord James Stewart had converted to the protestant faith around 1555.

In spite of this he was responsible for persuading his Catholic half sister, Mary, to return to Scotland and to take up the Scottish throne in 1562.

Mary then drew up the marriage contract for Lord James and Agnes Keith and they were married within a few weeks in St Giles, Edinburgh. John Knox preached during the service. Mary gave a banquet at Holyrood in honour of the newly weds. She and Agnes were good friends. John Knox disapproved and warned Lord James to stick to his protestant principles or ‘it will be said that your wife hath changed your nature’. Mary secretly created Lord James ‘the Earl of Moray’.

Portraits of Agnes Keith and her husband James, Earl of Moray, commendator of St Andrews, were painted by Hans Eworth in London.

33

women of moray

Both are shown clothed in fashionable black garments with gold trim.

Agnes’s face is long and oval, her eyes dark and wide set and her mouth small and neat. Her hair, mainly hidden under a French hood, is auburn.

For a while there was friendship and harmony between the queen and the Morays, but when in 1565 Mary married her first cousin, Lord Darnley, Moray disapproved and led an armed revolt. His skirmishes became known as the ‘Chaseabout Raid’ and resulted in temporary exile to England where he sought support of Elizabeth i. Agnes was left to look after her husband’s affairs in his absence. Moray wrote to her from England: I pray you be blythe and praise God for all that he sends, for it is He only that gives and takes and it is He only that may restore again.

Agnes, living in their house St Andrews Priory, received three sacks containing 3,000 gold coins from Queen Elizabeth. Mary Queen of Scots intercepted Agnes’s receipt for the coins and sent a letter of protest to Elizabeth.

Moray did not return to Mary’s favour until after the murder in March 1566 of Riccio, her private secretary. The murder was arranged by none other than Darnley, who had become insanely jealous of him. Darnley himself was murdered in February 1567 and Moray withdrew from Edinburgh under the pretext of visiting Agnes who he said had just had a miscarriage. In fact he went to England via France, leaving Agnes once more to look after his affairs.

When a short time later Mary married Bothwell, the uprising of the Scottish nobles was no ‘chaseabout’. Mary was taken prisoner and held on an island in Loch Leven. Mary abdicated and, much to her fury, the Earl of Moray was named regent for her small son James vi. The resentment must have extended to Agnes who was now lady regent.

The position of lady regent required fine clothing. Agnes ordered a gown bordered with lizard skin and another of figured velvet trimmed with sables. A later inventory of her possessions made in 1575 describes a coffer of clothes kept at Dunnottar Castle. It included seven regal ‘longtailed’ gowns (i.e. with trains), one of cloth of gold and others in crimson, purple and black velvet. Also in the coffer were elaborate skirts of satin and figured velvet, trimmed with silver and gold, some slashed to show brightly coloured petticoats beneath. And there were fashionable detached sleeves, slashed and trimmed.

Agnes’s position as lady regent was cut short after only three years by the assassination of her husband when riding through Linlithgow on 23 January 1570; the first recorded assassination by firearm. It was said that 34

agnes (annas) keith

Elizabeth wept but Mary rejoiced.

Moray’s funeral in St Giles, was conducted by John Knox. It was just eight years after his marriage to Agnes there. He was interred in a vault beneath St Anthony’s aisle.

A month later, Agnes commissioned two masons, Murdoch Walker and John Ryotell, to build him a handsome stone tomb bearing an inscribed brass plate. Agnes was by then seven months pregnant and retired to Dunnottar where her third daughter, Margaret, was born.

Moray’s will, dated 2 April 1567, appointed Agnes as princiPortrait of Agnes Keith by Hans Eworth, pal executor ‘provided she remains mid-sixteenth century widow undeflowered’. She was also made guardian of their eldest daughter Elizabeth, now Countess of Moray in her own right. Agnes was left with the task of repaying Moray’s debts. These had presumably accumulated during his time as regent. She made an inventory of her own jewels and used them as surety against loans to pay off the debts. William Duncan of Dundee lent 600 merks for which she gave as surety ‘the belt chain which my lord himself gave me’ and another gold belt and ‘an enamelled garnishing of gold’. The parson of Duffus lent 200 merks against surety of an enamelled gold neck chain.

James Keith lent 500 merks and received in surety ‘my principal tablet set with diamonds’. Her gowns were impounded by her creditors. During this time she looked after her dead husband’s estates, lived at Darnaway and became known in Moray as an ‘overswoman’, capable of sorting out disputes between neighbouring landowners, notably between Cawdor and Kilravock.

Agnes was only a widow for a couple of years. In January 1572 she married the childless Sir Colin Campbell, heir to the fifth Earl of Argyll. It was a marriage of her choice; widows were free to marry whom they pleased, and it is unlikely that strong-minded Agnes would have married against her will. She had probably known Colin Campbell for many years as his brother, Archibald, the ailing Earl of Argyll, had been a friend of her late husband. The fifth Earl of Argyll, died the following year and Agnes became Countess of Argyll and Moray. She now spent less time at 35

women of moray

Darnaway and remained with her new husband in his houses at Dunoon, Stirling and rented lodgings in Edinburgh. Her husband, now the sixth Earl of Argyll, acted as chancellor of Scotland, but Agnes was considered to be the dominant partner, Argyll being ‘overmuch led by his wife’.

In 1573 Agnes Keith became involved in a dispute with Regent Morton about her children’s property. She instructed the English ambassador to seek the support of Queen Elizabeth. Mary tried to disinherit Agnes’s daughter Elizabeth, Countess of Moray, saying that the earldom should revert to the Crown. This never took place.

Meanwhile Mary, now captive in England, demanded return of the jewels she had left behind in Scotland. They had fallen into Regent Moray’s hands and he had sold the famous pearls to Queen Elizabeth. Agnes denied having any of the rest, but is thought to have retained certain jewels which Moray had been paid as part of his expenses as regent. Being mindful of the need for personal security in those troubled times, she wrote to Queen Elizabeth with a request for Mary that the Queen of Scotland should at all times hereafter accept her [Agnes] and her children into her favour and be to them in all times coming their protector, so that they could peacefully enjoy their inheritance, untroubled by legal action.

People still thought that one day Queen Mary would return to the throne of Scotland.

Agnes continued to run the Moray estates for her young daughter, Elizabeth, until Elizabeth married James Stewart in 1580 and he became Earl of Moray. She employed two chamberlains, one for Moray and the other presumably for Argyll. Alexander Stewart, Darnaway chamberlain, was constantly hectored by letter and on one occasion replied: Your Ladyship sees the small mote in my eye and oversees [overlooks] the great animal in other men’s eyes.

Much of Agnes’s correspondence remains at Darnaway and illustrates her power of personality. Elizabeth addressed her mother in letters as ‘My most special lady and mother, my Lady Countess of Argyll and Moray’.

She was generally held in the greatest respect, and her siblings and other surviving daughter addressed her as ‘Madame’ and signed off as ‘Your Ladyship’s most loving and humble sister’ and ‘Your Ladyship’s most humble and obedient daughter at command’. Only her brother William, master of Marischal, showed any tenderness, addressing her as ‘Dearest 36

agnes (annas) keith

and best beloved sister’.

Three years after their marriage, Agnes provided Colin Campbell with an heir. Their first child, Archibald, was born in 1575, followed later by Colin and Agnes. They were but small children when their father died on 10 September 1584. Agnes was still looking after the Moray estates and now took on Argyll too for her young son, Archibald, the seventh Earl of Argyll. Agnes herself survived another four years and died in Edinburgh on 16 July 1588 aged only forty-eight, leaving an estate worth ÂŁ11,314:6:8, with ÂŁ1,968:6:8 owed in debts. She was buried in St Giles, Edinburgh, beside her first husband, the Regent Moray.

Early nineteenth century restoration of St Giles Cathedral destroyed many old tombs including the handsome stone monument Agnes had had erected for her first husband. In 1850, descendants of the Earl of Moray requested that the vault be opened to see if his remains could be located.

There was no sign of his coffin, but of three lead coffins stacked inside, the lowest contained the embalmed body of an auburn-haired, middle-aged lady, almost certainly that of Agnes Keith. It was carefully replaced and a plaque put on the wall above recording her burial there. (MB)

37

women of moray

chapter two

Power and Persecution

Where is the blythnes that hes been Baith in burgh and landwart seen Amang lordis and ladeis sheen; Dansing, singing, game and play?

But weill I wait nocht what they mean: All merriness is worn away.

Sir Richard Maitland (1496–1586)

on 16 october 1665, Janet and Isobell Ragge, Margaret Feld, Agnes Mitchell and Isobell Naughtie were all summoned before the Urquhart Kirk Session for ‘superstitious repairing to the chapel well at Speyside’.

The five women confessed to their sin and were ‘therfor rebuked and ordained to publict repentance a day in sackcloth’.1 Five and a half centuries later, Marywell, beside the Spey near Dipple, continues to be a site for Catholic pilgrimage.

The Reformation came to Scotland by act of parliament in 1560, when, overnight, Scotland became a protestant nation. In practice the change from Catholicism to the protestant faith was more gradual and the pace of change varied in different parts of the country. It was quite a challenge for the newly formed church to supply and train ministers to cover the whole of Scotland. The new ministers (and sometimes they were the old ministers with a new message) were themselves challenged because there was no guarantee that the populace would follow their teachings. Richard Maitland’s poem, at the beginning of the chapter, encapsulates the regret of a people who had lost ‘all merriness’. For 200 years following the Reformation, disputes and wars concerning matters of faith continued.

Religion was interwoven with the politics and the personal and dynastic intrigues of the nation. The tension between Mary Queen of Scots and John Knox – between Catholicism and the protestant faith – has been played out through the centuries and down to the present day.

In Elgin, the Kirk Session minutes begin in 1584.2 The reformed church worked hard at its task: 38

power and persecution

Elgin Cathedral – the Chanonrie Kirk, 1722

[21 April 1586] Compeirit Effame Peddar being summonit for fornicatioun with Johne Clark confessit the samyn is ordainit to mak hir repentance publiclie on Sonday nixt bair fuittit and bare leggitt and giff evir scho sall be found in the lyke failye in tyme cuming to be banischit durying hir lyftyme of this towne.

Some evidence suggests that the Elgin Kirk Session struggled to keep control. An entry in January 1597 records an act against laughing – ‘schamefull and insolent lauching within the kirk the tyme of the preiching’.

Christmas was a particularly difficult time for the session. On 26 December 1599, twenty-five women were detected singing in the Chanonrie kirk (Elgin Cathedral). The following January, a new act was declared: [4 January 1600] that all sic personis as beis found dansing, guysing and singing carrellis through the toune or in the Chanonrie kirk and wther publict places the tyme callit the halie dayis, sic as beis doaris thairof sall be committit to the joiggis and stand thairin thrie houris and thair heades clippit or scheavin for that offence… and this same act to strik on Marion Andersone for guysing through the toun in menis claythis and to be put in the joiggis.

39

women of moray

The joiggis, or jougs, was an iron collar, attached to the kirk or to the market cross, and locked around the neck of the offender. The problems of the kirk did not go away; a hundred years after the Reformation the kirk session was still trying to assert its authority in day to day matters: [11 February 1649] Ordained the ruling elders of the Colledge and ane officer to visit the Chanrie kirkyard everie Lords day that there be no abuse there and bring the report to the Sessioun…

Dissent was evident in all ranks of society. In Lhanbryde, just to the east of Elgin, the presbytery minutes note the rebellion of the goodwife of Cokstoune:3 [24 December 1640] Gilbert Ross, minister of Elgin is appointed to go to the goodman of Cokstoune and his wyfe Marie Gourdon that she may quyte her obstinacie in poperie, repair to the kirk and hear the word and partake of the Sacrament.

[29 April 1641] the goodwyfe of Cokstoune has promised to come to church…

[27 January 1642] As for Marie Gourdon, goodwife of Cokstoune, the minister has good hopes of her conversion. For the present she is sick unto death, so no process to be used against her.

[27 July 1643] The goodwife of Cokstoune to be processed if she be not a constant hearer of the word and use conferences, reading and other good meanes whilk may most conduce for her conversione from poperie and superstitione.

[10 August 1643] She declares herself to be a Protestant and of the reformed religione and promises to be a constant hearer of the word.

[2 November 1643] The goodwyfe of Cokstoune to be excommunicated if she do not constantlie heare the word.

And so it went on, through seven years of prevarication, until her death in 1647.

Ladie Grant was similarly in trouble with the presbytery of Aberlour in 1656, when it was reported that ‘even on the Sabbath day at night there is playing at the cards’, and ‘the children are bred in popperie’.4 40

power and persecution

Mary Ker, a covenanter, was at the opposite end of the religious spectrum to the goodwife and Ladie Grant. The covenanters adhered to the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643 and did not recognise the monarch as head of the kirk, or the bishops as part of its hierarchy. Lady Mary’s father-in-law, Alexander Brodie of Brodie (1617–1679) was one of a party who vandalised Elgin Cathedral in 1640. He kept a diary from 1652 until his death in 1680; his son James (Mary’s husband) continued the diary for five years until the trial of the covenanters and the death of Charles ii. From these diaries we can chart Lady Mary’s attempts to remain true to the principles of the covenant. In 1662 Charles ii reinstated the bishops, patronage was re-introduced, and the covenanters became the subject of persecution.

This continuing atmosphere of censure is the background to the witch hunts. There had been witches around for centuries in Scotland and across Europe; some were healers, some traded on superstition, some were just eccentrics. Between the first act against witchcraft of 1563, and the Act of Repeal in 1736, there were in Scotland roughly 3,000–4,000 cases of witchcraft with maybe over 1,000 executions. Eighty-five per cent of the witches were women. There were definite peak periods of persecution mostly between 1590 and 1662, after which witch hunting tailed off.5 Janet Horne of Dornoch is said to be the last woman executed for witchcraft in Scotland (in either 1722 or 1727).6 Whilst at local level the accusations against witches were usually about neighbours’ quarrels and superstition, the witch hunts arose because of an intellectual movement led by the elite: the lairds, like Brodie of Lethen and the kirk sessions (supposedly democratic, but in practice often consisting of the lairds and town councillors). James vi also joined the debate, writing Daemonologie (1597) – a dialogue about witchcraft. This intellectual persecution was driven by religion: witches were considered to be in contract with the devil. Confessions of sexual intercourse with the devil were guaranteed to excite righteousness on the part of the persecutors (though this was hardly an intellectual response). The confessions of many witches obtained under physical torture and sleep deprivation helped to develop, over many years, a culture and mythology that women like Isobel Gowdie could draw upon to influence their behaviour and their confessions.

The practice of identifying a witch was particularly unpleasant. A witch’s mark had to be found by a person known as a pricker. The mark was a place where an inserted needle would not hurt. The marks were said to indicate the places where the devil had held the witch. To find such a place the supposed witch had to remove her clothes and be pricked all over. The process had to be watched by others. James Patterson, who was 41

women of moray

a known pricker around Inverness and Elgin, was said to rub ‘the whole body with his palms’ before inserting the pin up to the hilt. For this he was paid.7 The case of Christian Caldwell illustrates the strange culture and hysteria that surrounded witch hunts. On 5 March 1662, disguised as John Dicksone, burgess of Forfar, Christian Caldwell entered into a contract with the shire of Moray to spend a year identifying witches and pricking them to find their marks. His (her) salary was six shillings a day plus six pounds for each person found guilty; a commission that could only encourage corruption. On 30 August 1662 in Edinburgh, this same Christian Caldwell was charged with false accusations, torture, and with causing the death of innocent people in Moray. One of the ways she identified witches was by looking to see if their eyes were cloudy, which suggests that anyone with cataracts was immediately suspect. At an unknown date she was charged that she ‘tock on the habit of a man’. Her fate is unknown.8 In Elgin, the Order Pot, a pool just outside the eastern boundaries of the town, was said to have been used to test witches; if the accused sank she was deemed innocent (but might well drown), if she floated she was considered guilty and burned at the stake. The pool has since been filled in.

When Barbara Innes and Mary Collie were put on trial in Elgin in 1662 and found guilty they were taken to the West Port of the town where they were strangled and then burnt.9 In Forres, witches were said to be squashed into a barrel into which metal spikes were driven before being rolled down the Cluny Hill. The barrel was burned where it stopped. A stone called the Witches’ Stone remains at the foot of the hill. Alexander Brodie of Brodie, father-in-law of Mary Ker, wrote in his diary on 4 May 1663: In the efternoon, Isobel Elder and Isabel Simson wer burnt at Forres: died obstinat; and the Lord seims to shut the dor, so that wickedness should not be discouerd nor expeld out of the land. Oh! Let the Lord glorifi himself, bring down this kingdom of Sathan, and deliuer us.10

Driven by bigots and fuelled by the fear of dissent, religious persecutions and witch hunts may be seen as an attempt to control the masses. Women, more vulnerable than men, were the easier target.

42

Isobel Gowdie Isobel Gowdie, mid 17th century; married John Gilbert.

Isobel Gowdie achieved fame – and infamy – through her graphic, extensive and allegedly unprovoked confessions of witchcraft in April and May of 1662. Nothing is known of a trial, a sentence, or of her life after these confessions.

As I was goeing betuix the townes of Drumdewin and Headis, I met with THE DEVILL, and ther covenanted, in a manner, with him; and I promeised to meit him, in the night time, in the Kirk of Aulderne, quilk I did.

So begins the first of the four confessions that she made in the presence of Harry Forbes minister of Auldearn, William Dallas of Cantray, sheriffdepute of Nairn, Thomas Dunbar of Grange, Alexander Brodie, Yr, of Leathen and half a dozen other men from the district who were witnesses.

The date was 13 April 1662. Isobel detailed her first meeting with the devil and her subsequent covenant with him.

Over the next six weeks she confessed three more times; minister Harry Forbes and a varying group of men were present to hear what she had to say at each tribunal.

Following her graphic description of her meeting with the devil in the Kirk of Auldearn, she goes on: I denied my baptisme… he was at the Readeris dask, and a blak book in his hand. Margaret Brodie in Auldearne, held me up to the Divell to be baptised by him; and he marked me on the showlder and suked out my blood at that mark…

She later confesses to ‘carnall cowpulation’ with the devil on a number of occasions: he was a meikle blak roch man verie cold and I faund his nature as cold within me as spring well water.

She went on to describe a coven in the Nairn kirkyard where an ‘unchristened child’ was removed from its grave in order to make a potion which would ensure crop failure for landowner Breadley. ‘It was pairted between two covens… Ther ar threetein persons in my Coven’, she added.

43

women of moray

Isobel Gowdie’s second confession, on the afternoon of 3 May was embellished with diabolic rhymes and tales of herself and coven members being transformed into hares, cats or other animals in order to carry out their devilish deeds; the third, on 15 May, tells tales of visiting the fairies and dining with them under the Downie Hill, on the edge of Culbin, site of an Iron Age fort. The king was ‘weill favoured and broad faced’ and the queen ‘brawlie clothed in whyt linens’. The ‘boyes’ who made the elfarrows, that the coven used to murder their victims, were small, ‘hollow and bossis baked’ and they spoke ‘gowstie lyk’.

Isobel and her companions paid a nocturnal visit to the ‘Earle of Murreyes hous’ at Darnaway. They entered through the windows, feasted on food and drink and after uttering: ‘Horse and hattack in the devil’s name’, a well known oath, then flew off on ‘little horses’, or corn straws.

Each confession lists the names of other people allegedly involved in the coven, including Janet Breadheid, who made a detailed confession to a similarly constituted group of men in Inshoch Castle on 14 April 1662, the day after Isobel’s first confession. Janet’s confession corresponds in substance and in significant detail to those of Isobel.

Isobel’s confessions are peppered with the names of places on the Nairnshire/Moray borders where her coven ‘practised’ the black arts. At East Kinloss they ‘yoaked an plewghe of paddokis’ (yoked a plough of frogs) and went up and down, praying to the ‘divell’ that thistles and briars might grow there. They killed men at Struthers, Conicavel, Tarras and Burgie. Sometimes the clerk of the proceedings cuts short the detail of Isobel’s confession or resorts to an ‘etc’, perhaps on grounds of decency. At one point, Robert Pitcairn, in an aside to his transcription in Criminal Trials in Scotland (1833), complains: It is a thousand pities that the learned Examinators have so piously declined indulging the world with the detailed descriptions of these illustrious personages. Under the singularly descriptive powers of Issobel Gowdie, much might have been learned of Fairyland and its Mythology.

Whether Isobel’s confessions were the result of psychotic illness, during which she suffered hallucinations and delusions, or whether she had come to the notice of the church for practising witchcraft is unknown. It could be that she did indeed confess through remorse or hope of leniency. She declares, to her great ‘greiff and sham’, that she has been a practising witch for fifteen years; that Harry Forbes, her chief inquisitor, and John Hay of Park, landlord of the fermtoun of Lochloy, were principal targets of her 44

isobel gowdie

Interpretation of seventeenth century Culbin (Kris Sangster)

malevolent magic; and that what troubled her conscience most was the killing of several persons.

Isobel Gowdie’s confessions are remarkable for a number of reasons: for their length; for their attention to detail and their graphic narrative style; for their coverage of the world of faerie; and for their vivid accounts of the processes of malevolent magic. It is believed that the first recorded use of the word ‘coven’, as being applied to witches, is found in her confessions.

The assertion that these confessions were ‘voluntary’ must be viewed with scepticism. In 1662 Scotland was in the grip of the most intensive and hysterical witch hunt since the previous century; hundreds were accused; perhaps 120 were executed. Isobel was almost certainly imprisoned during the six weeks that covered her confessions; if not tortured, she was almost certainly subject to sleep deprivation. Her interrogation was conducted by men who, in some instances, had felt themselves to be victims of witchcraft; questioning was hostile and was designed to elicit particular responses; there was an assumption of guilt.

From the distance of 350 years it is too easy to dismiss these confessions as the ramblings of a deranged woman. What we know of Isobel Gowdie is extremely limited: she was the wife of a poor tenant farmer, or cottar, on the fermtoun of Lochloy, on the edge of Culbin, scraping a subsistence at a time of desperate hardship in the North-East of Scotland – a time of extremes of climate, of ruined harvests, of people dying of starvation in the streets of Elgin. It was too, a time of extreme religious and political unrest, 45

women of moray

of fighting and persecution. People looked for someone to blame. In the highlands they were accustomed to ascribe misfortune to the fairies; in the lowlands they tended to blame witches. Isobel’s fate is unknown, nor do we know what became of the forty or so individuals she implicated. There is no record of a trial or of a sentence. No burial record has been found.

However, her remarkable confessions make Isobel Gowdie the most celebrated single subject in the academic study of European witchcraft, demonology and ‘faerie’ matters. An extensive entry appears in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. She has also excited the imagination of writers of fiction in works such as The Devil’s Mistress (1915) by JW Brodie-Innes and Graham Masterton’s fantasy Night Plague (1994).

Musicians have been attracted to her story; The Ballad of Isobel Gowdie is included in Creeping Myrtle’s album Devils in the Details (2003).

Scottish composer James MacMillan composed The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, which was premiered in the Royal Albert Hall in 1990. In his composer’s notes MacMillan says he was initially drawn by the dramatic potential of this ‘insane and terrible story’. He adds that he tried to produce a work which offers her the mercy and humanity which was denied her at the end of her life. ‘This work is the requiem that Isobel Gowdie never had’, he concludes. (RB and AO)

Mary Ker Mary Ker, born 28 March 1640; married James Brodie, 28 July 1659; died Brodie, March 1708.

Born at the time of religious troubles in Scotland and reaching adulthood at the time of the Restoration of 1660, Mary Ker was brought to trial for her convenanting views.

Mary Ker was the daughter of Ann, Countess of Lothian in her own right, and William Ker, first Earl of Ancrum and, by right of marriage, the third Earl of Lothian. Ann and William had three sons and seven daughters.

William was an ardent covenanter. The Brodies were also of the covenanting tradition, embracing the protestant faith and shunning a church hierarchy of bishops and monarch. Mary married James Brodie, son of Alexander, fifteenth Brodie of Brodie. Alexander, Mary’s father-in-law, wrote in his diary: My son was married with Lady Mary Ker; and on the 31st July, 1659, she did subscribe her covenant to and with God, and became his and gave up herself to him.

46

mary ker

Lady Mary was apparently irritated by her father-in-law, complaining that he meddled in her affairs. She and her husband may have moved out of Brodie Castle to live elsewhere on the estate.

At the time of the marriage Cromwell’s Commonwealth was in decline and on 14 May 1660 the Restoration of Charles ii was proclaimed in Edinburgh amidst great celebrations. With the formal reintroduction of episcopacy in 1662, covenanters and some ministers went underground, gathering at conventicles – illegal meetings in big houses or hidden parts of the country. Around Brodie they met in places such as Lethen House and Inshoch Castle. Although a staunch presbyterian and constantly torn between following his principles and avoiding trouble, Alexander strived to keep a low profile. He worried about Lady Mary and the baptisms of her many daughters: [14 October 1673] This morning my daughter-in-law was delivered (efter sor labour) of another daughter… I am perceaud that my daughter-in-law had noe mind, as she said to me, to be hastie in baptizing the child; which makes me apprehend that she inclins not to hav her baptized by any of the conform ministers.

Mary relented and the child was baptised on 29 October 1673 by Colin Falconer, the conforming minister of Forres who later became a bishop.

When Mary’s husband James took over Alexander’s diary in 1680 he frequently commented on his concerns about Mary. By then forty years old, her health was poor and her religious habits continued to court danger.

This period of history is known as the ‘Killing Times’ because of the violent persecution of the covenanters. James Brodie showed caution in the practice of his religion, but Mary was less judicious. James recorded: [10 September 1684] Lord Tweddal… spoke anent my wiffe’s not hearing [going to church], and told me the danger of it… I knew not what to doe anent her.

[29 September 1684] My wiffe was persuaded this day to goe to Church.

In 1685 the situation came to a head and commissioners were appointed to prosecute those who attended conventicles in and around Moray. The commissioners and soldiers arriving in Elgin for the trial in January 1685 organised the erection of new gallows. Amongst those called by the commissioners were Mary and James. James, alarmed by the gallows, suffered from a troubled conscience: 47

women of moray [1 February 1685] I continued in this toun [Elgin] many dais. My wiffe came to toun and appeird before the Lords. I was cald to ansvear my libel. I disound frequenting conventicls without my own hous. This is to decline fynns and punishment. Is there ani guilt in this befor God?

Mary gave her evidence on 3 February: Lady Mary Ker, Lady Brodie, being examined upon the libel, declares she abstained from the Church until September last, and that Alexander Dunbar was a servant in their family, and has prayed and read the Scriptures there, when the laird of Brodie has been from home.

James was fined £24,000 scots (£2,000 sterling), enough to cripple the family financially; many of his neighbours were similarly fined. Alexander Dunbar, the preacher, suffered a worse punishment – he was sent to the Bass Rock, an island prison noted for its appalling treatment of covenanters. On 15 April 1690, after the revolution, James Brodie petitioned the parliament of Scotland, and of William and Mary, for the return of his fine. One of his arguments was that he should not have been made liable for his wife’s crime of withdrawing from the church. The money, however, was not forthcoming and the Brodie family remained financially impoverished.

Mary and James had nine daughters, all of whom married men of Moray or nearby. Emelia married her cousin George Brodie of Asliesk and it was he who inherited the Brodie title when James died.

With the reign of William and Mary, presbyterianism became the established religion of Scotland; thus was born the Church of Scotland. The peace was uneasy; there was famine, the disaster of the Darien adventure in the Caribbean, and the massacre of Glencoe.

In the closing years of the seventeenth century, debate about a union of the parliaments took Rothes Solemn League and Covenant 1643 hold of the nation and came to fru(Elgin Museum) ition in 1707. As Mary and James 48

mary ker

Brodie reached the end of their lives in 1708 a new chapter was beginning in the history of Scotland. Religious persecution did not come to an end, but the pendulum swung in favour of presbyterianism as Episcopalians and Catholics became associated with the Jacobite risings of the eighteenth century.

Some references to the personal life of Mary Ker remain in the diaries: her continuing poor health, her visits to Edinburgh, to the ‘Castle Bogg’ (Gordon Castle) and Innes House, but the lasting sense is of a woman caught in the turbulence of sectarian dispute who stood by her religious convictions as best she could. She died a few days before her husband, and they were buried together. (SB)

49