[596] In printing these names, Vautr. edit. is very incorrect; instead of John Sibbald, John Gray, William Guthrie, &c., it has "John Sibbard, John Gray, within gathered, and Stevin Bell." Yet this unintelligible nonsense is literally copied in MSS. L 2 and 1. MSS. A, W, and E, have "Sibbard," but give Guthry's name correctly. In the summons of treason against the conspirators, John Sibbald is called "brother of the Laird of Cukiston;" and Auchinleck is styled Sir John Auchinleck, chaplain. For mention of Guthrey, in connexion with an indignity offered to the Cardinal's body, the reader may be referred to Pitscottie. In the Treasurer's Accounts, we find 10s. was paid to a messenger, sent on the 3d of December 1547, with "Letters to serche and seik the gudes of Maister Jhonne Gray, persoun of Sanct Nycholace Kirk, beside Cowper, quhilkis pertenis to our Souerane Lady be resoun of eschete, throu the said Maister Jhonnis being fugitive fra the lawes for art and part of the slauchter of the Cardinall."—Gray's name, however, is not included in the list of persons forfeited by the Parliament on the 14th August 1546.
[597] From the above paragraph in Knox, it appears that the prisoners were liberated at different periods between the Winter of 1548-9, and July 1550.
[598] This statement of Knox, written in 1566, or twenty years after the event, is certainly very much opposed to assertions which are easier made than proved, that all the persons concerned in Cardinal Beaton's assassination came to a violent death. There is no doubt that Bishop Lesley says, "Cædis ujus auctores violenta morte Deo vindice mulctantur;" (De Rebus Gestis, &c., p. 482;) but he passes this over in silence, in his English History. Dempster also asserts "Nam nullus nefariorum percussorum non violenta morte extinctus est."—(Hist. Eccles. p. 89.) "So, 'tis observed by the Protestants, that there was not one of his (Beaton's) murderers but afterwards died a violent, and, for the most part, an ignominious death."—(Preface to Beaugué's History, p. 50.) It is not necessary to quote similar assertions reiterated by writers of the present day. James Melville died, it is true, during his imprisonment, in 1548 or 1549, but certainly not a violent death. Norman Lesley died of his wounds, but in no inglorious manner, in 1554; and nineteen years later, in August 1573, Sir William Kirkaldy of Grange, after his gallant defence of the Castle of Edinburgh, suffered an ignominious death. Any other instance of a violent death remains to be proven.
[599] James Melvin or Melville. [See note [449]. Spotiswood says he was "one of the house of Carnbee." In this way, we may conjecture he was brother of John Mailvile of Carnbee, who had charters of the lands of Granton, 21st February 1508-9, and to his wife Margaret Leirmonth, 26th May 1513. Their son, John Mailvile of Carnbee junior, and his wife Janet Inglis, had a charter of half of these lands, 26th June 1509. The person who acted such a prominent part in Cardinal Beaton's murder, was called Senior, probably to distinguish him from James, "naturali et legitimo filio" of John Mailvile of Carnbee, who had a charter of half the lands of Carnbee, 15th November 1528.—Brist in Bartanzea, is the same as Brest, the well known sea-port of France, one of the best harbours in Europe, on the west coast of Britanny.
[600] MS. G, "Gif we, I say, or they."
[601] In Vautr. edit. "yeare of our Lord."
[602] In Vautr. edit. the word villain was mistaken for the name of a person, and thus we have "his other William;" and in the marginal note, "The slaughter of that Williame Davie."—The date of this event, so memorable in Scotish history, from its relation to Queen Mary, was the 9th of March 1565-6.
[603] Balfour, as stated at page 202, was Official of Lothian, and he still retained his ecclesiastical denomination, Parson of Flisk, when raised to the bench, 12th November 1561. Immediately after Rizzio's murder, in March 1566, he was knighted, and appointed Lord Clerk-Register, in place of Mr. James Macgill, one of the conspirators. And on the 6th December 1567, Balfour became Lord President, by the title of Pettendreich.
[604] John Sinclair, Bishop of Brechin, died in April 1560: see subsequent note.
[605] The person here referred to, and whose baptismal name is left blank in the MS., and in all the later copies, was John Lesley, Bishop of Ross. This eminent and learned Prelate, whom Knox calls "a priest's gett," or illegitimate child, was the natural son of Gawin Lesley, parson of Kingussie, as Keith, in his Catalogue of Bishops, has shown from original documents. Lesley's several preferments will afterwards be noticed. He survived till the year 1596.