[32] The baptismal name of Lady Stair is left blank in the MS., and Calderwood, who copied from Knox, inserted the letter N., to indicate this; while David Buchanan supplied the name of Isabella. On the supposition that Knox himself had so written it, Professor Forbes, in noticing the Lord President Stair's descent from one of the Lollards of Kyle, says, "The Historian hath mistaken the Lady's name; for, by writings in the Earl of Stair's hand, it appears she was called Marion Chalmers, daughter to Mr. John Chalmers of Gadgirth, whose good family was very steady in the matters of religion."—(Journal of Decisions, &c., p. 29, Edinb. 1714, folio.)—On the other hand, in the pedigree of the Gadgirth family, in Nisbet, William Dalrymple of Stair is said to have married Isabella Chalmers.
[33] This "Register," and "the Scrollis" referred to in the former page, were probably the Court-books of the Official of Glasgow, an office usually held by one of the Canons of the diocese. But no registers of the kind are known to be preserved.
[34] The additions to Articles 4, 8, 9, 19, and 31, included within a parenthesis, are evidently comments by Knox.
[35] In MSS. G, A, &c., "bread."
[36] That is, to judge in matters of divine worship.
[37] Vautroullier's suppressed edition of the History commences, on sign. B., page 17, with those three words. The previous sheet, or 16 pages, containing the title and preface, had no doubt been set up, but the sheet may have been either delayed at press till the volume was completed, or all the copies carried off and destroyed when the book was prohibited.
[38] In Vautr. edit., and MSS. G, A, &c., "doubtfully spoken."
[39] In this place, the MS. has "Basqueming," and Vautroullier's edition makes it "Adam reade of blaspheming."—Adam Reid of Stair-White, or Barskyming, the representative of an ancient family in Ayrshire, probably accompanied James the Fourth, in his first voyage to the Western Isles, in July 1494. He obtained two charters, under the Great Seal, of the King's fortress of Ardcardane, and some lands near Tarbert, in North Kintyre, dated 15th September 1498, and 27th August 1499, in which he is designated "Adam Rede de Sterquhite." The service annexed to the first grant included the maintenance of six archers sufficiently provided with bows and arrows, upon occasion of the King's curbing the inhabitants of the Isles, who had long set the royal authority at defiance: "Neenon sustentando sex homines defensivos architenentes, cum arcubus et sagittis bene suffultos, ad serviendum Regi, et successoribus suis, in guerris si quas Reges in Insulis contra inhabitantes carundem habere contigerit, cum dictus Adam vel hæredes sui ad hoc requisitus fuerit."
[40] For "shut up;" in Vautr. edit., and MSS. G, A, &c., "set up."
[41] The erroneous date of 1500 occurs in the MS. and in all the subsequent copies; it is also repeated by Spotiswood. The actual time of his decease is thus recorded,—"Obitus Roberti Blacader primi Archiepiscopi Glasguensis, vigesimo octavo die Julij a.d. 1508."—(Regist. Episcop. Glasg., vol. ii. p. 616.) The place where Blackader died is not ascertained; but Bishop Lesley confirms Knox's statement, that he had set out on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. "Scotia discedit, paucis post diebus, Episcopus Glasgoensis, Robertus Blacaderus pio studio illa loca (quæ Christi vestigiis trita, aliisque humilitatis, virtutisque monumentis illustrata erant) invisendi flagrans Hierosolymitana profectione suscepta; sed mortis impetu præclusa, ad coelites in itinere migravit."—(De Rebus Gestis, &c., p. 349, Romæ, 1578, 4to.) In his English History, Lesley mentions this more briefly, "About this time, [5th of July 1508,] the Bishop of Glasgow, quha wes passit to Jerusalem, or he com to the end of his journay, deceissit the xxix [28th] day of July. He was ane noble, wyse, and godlie man."—(Hist. p. 78, Edinb. 1830, 4to.)