APPENDIX. No. I. NOTICES OF THE LYON KINGS-OF-ARMS, FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. [THE following notices of the Lyon Kings-of-Arms-of whom, strange to state, no record is to be found at the Lyon Office-have been carefully prepared, under the belief that they will prove interesting. For a good deal of the information, the Author is indebted to his obliging friend, Mr. David Laing, of the Signet Library, and also to the labours of an anonymous writer in that useful periodical, Notes and Queries. It is somewhat remarkable that of the twenty Lyon Kings here noticed, no fewer than ten were connected with the "Kingdom" of Fife, viz., four Lindsays, two Erskines, Nairne, Forman, Balfour, and Durham.] 1. ALEXANDER NAIRNE of Saintfoord (St. Fort), Co. Fife 1437-60. Held the office, according to Sir Robert Sibbald, during the reign of James II. (History of Fife and Kinross, 8vo edit. p. 263.) He also appears to have been Comptroller of the Household. (Douglas' Peerage, ii. 279.) "Alexander Nairne de Sandforde, armiger" (without any special designation), is included in various safe-conducts to England, between 1446 and 1452. (Rotuli Scotiæ, vol. ii. 3296, 344-5 a, 358a.) The estate of Sandford appears, from the printed Retours, to have been in the possession of the Nairne family towards the end of the seventeenth century:- "Jan. 11, 1670. Alexander Nairne de Sanctfuird, hæres Domini Thomæ Nairne de Sanctfuird, patris." 2. DUNCAN DUNDAS of Newliston, Co. Linlithgow-1450-90. Third son of James Dundas of that Ilk, by his first wife (name unknown); or, according to another authority, second son of Sir James Dundas of Fingask, by Elizabeth, daughter of Lord Caledon. "A man of great parts." Held the office, according to Sir Robert Douglas, in the reigns of James II. and III. (Baronage of Scotland, p. 176), and was employed in State negotiations between 1453 and 1484. Safeconducts to "Duncan Dundas de Scotia, armiger," occur between 1451 and 1485. The "Leo Armorum Rex" mentioned in the Rolls, in 1485, appears to have been a different person from Dundas, but the word "et" between the title and his name may be a mistake in the record. He is referred to as Lyon King in Lord Strathallan's Genealogie of the House of Drummond (p. 133) in connexion with the year 1484, and in Douglas' Baronage, is said to have died between that year and 1488. His son is mentioned as his heir in 1492 (Acta Dom. Concilii). In the existing volume of Treasurer's Accounts (temp. Jac. I.), we find a sum paid to the "Lyon Herald" on his journey to London in October 1473, and again in May 1474; also in October 1474 to the "Lyon King-of-Arms"- -no name, however, being given in either case. Mention is also made, in the same Accounts, of "Unicorn" and "Snadown" Heralds. 3. HENRY THOMSON-1504-1512. In the Canongate Protocol Books, sasines are recorded in favour of Thomson and Cristina Dowglas, his spouse, dated 11th April 1504, and 2d March 1505-6. That he was not involved in the calamity at Flodden (1513) appears from a deed, dated 15th December 1512, in favour of his nephew, "Johannes Thomson, filius fratris et hæres quondam Henrici Thomson, alias Leonis Regis Armorum.” Christina Dowglas is described in the Privy Seal Register as the "relict of umqle Lyon King-of-Armes," 26th January 1513-14. 4. SIR WILLIAM CUMYNG of Inverallochy, Co. Aberdeen—c. 1512. Second son of William Cumyng of Culter and Inverallochy (?), by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Meldrum of Fyvie, and fourth in descent from Jardine, second son of William Cumyng, Earl of Buchan, who got the lands of Inverallochy from his father in the year 1270. (Nisbet's Heraldry, ii. Appendix, p. 57). Sir William appears to have held the office of Marchmont Herald in the year 1499 (Reg. Secreti Sigilli); and the lands of Innerlochy were granted to him and Margaret Hay, his spouse, by a charter under the Great Seal, dated 18th January 1503-4. He was knighted in 1507, and in a charter of glebe lands in favour of John Quhyte (31st January 1513), he is described as "circumspectus vir Willms Cumyn de Innerlochy, Rex Armorum supremi domini nostri Regis." (General Hutton's Transcripts, Adv. Lib.) His character of "circumspectus" (canny) is thus referred to by Bishop Leslie, in connexion with the year 1513:-" Leo fecialis Angli Regis responsum sapienter eludit." (History of Scotland, 1578, p. 361.) In a deed dated 17th July 1514, he is styled "Willelmus Cumyng de Innerallochy miles, alias Leo Rex Armorum ;" and again, in 1518, he is designed "Lioun King-of-Armes." The following curious account of Cumyng's insult by Lord Drummond, in the year 1515 (supra, p. 29), is from the Genealogie of the House of Drummond, compiled by the first Viscount Strathallan in 1681, and printed about thirty years ago :-" John Lord Drummond was a great promoter of the match betwixt his own grandchild, Archibald Earle of Angus, and the widdow Queen of King James the Fourth, Margaret Teudores; for he caused his own brother, Master Walter Drummond's sone, Mr. John Drummond, dean of Dumblane and person of Kinnowl, solemnize the matrimonial bond in the Kirk of Kinnowl in the year 1514. Bot this marriage begot such jealousie in the rulers of the State, that the Earle of Angus was cited to appear before the Council, and Sir William Cummin of Inneralochy, Knight, Lyon King-at-Armes, appointed to deliver the charge; in doeing whereof, he seemed to the Lord Drummond to have approached the Earle with more boldness than discretion, for which he (Lord D.) gave the Lyon a box on the ear; whereof he complained to John Duke of Albany, then newly made Governor to King James the Fifth, and the Governor, to give ane example of his justice at his first entry to his new office, caused imprison the Lord Drummond's person in the Castle of Blackness, and forfault his estate to the Crown for his rashness. Bot the Duke considering, after information, what a fyne man the Lord was, and how strongly allyed with most of the great families in the nation, wes well pleased that the Queen-mother and three Estates of Parliament should interceed for him; so he was soone restored to his libbertie and fortune." Lord Drummond died in 1519, ætat. 81. 5. SIR DAVID LINDSAY of the Mount, Co. Fife-c. 1530. Born 1490. Great-grandson of Andrew Lindsay of Garleton, in East Lothian, who was a natural son of William Lindsay of the Byres. Author of the oldest Armorial Register in Scotland; blazoned in 1542, and now in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates (supra, pp. 42, 69). In an entry in one of the Protocol Books of Haddington, dated 4th January 1529, Lindsay is described as acting "nomine et ex parte Leonis Regis Armorum," along with three others, who are specially designed Marchmont, Ross, and Ilay "Heralds" respectively. Possibly the office of Lyon was then vacant, and Sir David merely performing the duties ad interim. His regular appointment, however, is usually assigned to the year 1530. He appears to have died without issue about the year 1555, when he was succeeded in the estate of the Mount by his brother Alexander, father of Sir David Lindsay, who was appointed Lyon King in 1591. Celebrated as a poet and a satirist, he has been termed the "Scottish Aristophanes ;" and, besides being Lyon King-at-Arms under James V., he was "the herald, in a higher sense, of almost every improvement, civil and ecclesiastical, that took place in Scotland during the succeeding centuries. His works, with the national epics, Barbour's 'Bruce' and Blind Harry's 'Wallace,' formed, till very recently, the poetical library of every cottage north of the Tweed;" and the well-known saying, "It's no between the brods (boards) o' Davie Lindsay," implies that not even Sir David, whom almost nothing escapes, has noticed the matter in question. -- In his Moral Dialogue, published in 1564, Dr. Boleyn (brother of Queen Anne), who had visited Scotland, after describing Chaucer and Lydgate, thus paints the Scottish King-at-Arms :-" Nexte theim, in a blacke chaine of gette stone, in a coate of armes, satte an anciente Knight, in orange-tawnie, as one forsaken; bearyng upon his breast a white lion, with a crown of riche golde on his hedde: his name was Sir Davie Linse uppon the Mounte, with a hammer of strong steele in his hande, breakyng asonder the counterfeicte Crosse-Kaies of Rome, forged by Antichriste. And this good Knight of Scotlande saide to Englande the elder brother, and Scotlande the younger— 1 Dr. Boleyn is not the only Englishman who substitutes argent for gules in describing the Lion of Scotland. A similar mistake was made, about two years ago, by a writer in the Times, in the course of his critique upon Mr. Stirling of Keir's Championship of the Scottish Universities. |