praised by Dempster for his zeal in reforming the prevalent immorality of the clergy; and so scandalous were the vices of churchmen in that age, that the praise may not have been undeserved, though it is scarcely doubtful that he himself left a son, the fruit of his amours, who was created Lord Dingwall in the year 1584. Robert Keith died at Paris, on the twelfth of June 1551; and was buried, before the altar of Saint Ninian of Galloway," in the church of the Carmelites, near the Place Maubert, in the Quartiere de S. Jacques. On his tomb was inscribed: CY

GIST VENERABLE PRELAT ROBERT KEITH ESCOSSOIS FRERE DU CONTE MARISCHAL ABBE DU MONASTERE DE DIER QUI TREPESSA XIImo JUIN

The abbot of Deir sat in the parliament which met at Edinburgh on the twenty-ninth of November 1558; and was chosen, on the part of the clergy, to be one of the Lords of the Articles. His name does not appear. He was probably the last superior of the house; and to his time, perhaps, may be referred a short survey of its spiritual discipline and temporal estate, which is preserved in the library of Trinity College, at Cambridge." I regret that I have been disappointed in the hope of procuring a copy of this paper for insertion in the present volume.

The Reformation placed the possessions of the abbey, with the title of its commendator, in the hands of ROBERT KEITH, the second son of William fourth Earl Marischal. Though sharing largely in the spoils of the ancient faith, he would appear to have been at first no friend to the teachers of the new doctrines. To a request preferred by him in the year 1569, with the countenance of the Regent Murray, that he might be relieved from certain payments due by him to the preachers at the abbey's churches, the General

a Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum, t. ii., pp. 423, 424.

Dempster commemorates a Samuel, prior of Deir, whose marvellous skill in mathematics gained him the reputation of a wizard among the people; and who, dying in the year 1547, was buried in the chapel at Roslin. (Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum, t. i., p. 233.)

Spottiswoode's Religious Houses in Scotland, p. 423, in Keith's Catalogue of Scotish Bishops, edit. 1824.

• Robertson's Parliamentary Records of Scotland, pp. 729, 730.

d Among the Gale MSS. (O. vII., 42.) It is inaccurately described as "Charters relating to the monastery of Deyr in Scotland." (General Report of the Record Commissioners, appendix, p. 340, Lond. 1837.)

Assembly gave for answer, that "the kirk can in no wise remitt the thing that pertains to the poor ministers," especially to such a one as "my Lord of Deir, who debursed his money to the enemies of God, to prosecute his servants and banish them out of the realme." a

The commendator of Deir sat in the privy council on the twenty-second of July 1565; and his name occurs in the deliberations of the general assembly of the kirk during the years 1573, 1578, 1581, 1582, and 1583. He appears in the year 1574 as having granted to his father a lease of the tithes of the abbey's churches of Deir, Inverugie St. Peter, Kynedar, and Foveran. In the year 1587, when he was fifty-eight years old, he resigned the whole possessions of the monastery into the hands of the King, who immediately erected them into a temporal barony, called the Lordship of Altrie, to be held by the commendator during his life; and on his death (which took place before the year 1593), to descend to his nephew, George Earl Marischal, and his heirs male, and assigns. Soon afterwards, the abbey was seized, on what pretence does not appear, by the Earl's brother, Robert Keith of Benholm. He kept possession, by the strong hand, for six weeks; and when driven from it by the Earl, on the fifteenth of December 1590, withdrew to the castle of Fedderat, where, after a siege of three days, terms of truce were agreed to between the brethren.

d

a The Booke of the Universall Kirk of Scotland, vol. i., pp. 153, 155. Bannatyne Club edit.

Bishop Keith's History of the Affairs of Church and State in Scotland, p. 305.

See the deed printed below. A facsimile of the signature of the commendator, "R. Keytht of Deir," appended to a deed of the year 1578, is given in The Miscellany of the Spalding Club, vol. ii., plate 1.

d Mr. James Man has preserved the following passages of "A Journal of Occurrences from the year 1587 to the year 1674," written by a gentleman of Buchan :

"October 1590. Mr. Robert Keith, brother to the Earl of Mareschal, possessed himself of the Abbey of Deer, wherein he remained six weeks; and out of which, being dislodged, December 15, by Mareschal and Lord Altrie and their company, he fled to Fedderat, which they, attempting in vain three days after to take in, came to a truce with him.

"February 13, [1590-1]. He skirmished with my Lord Altrie's souldiers, slew one Macknab, and carried off all my lord's goods out of Mintlay."

(Memoirs of Scotish Affairs from 1624 to 1651, reprinted in Gordon's History of Scots Affairs, vol. i., p. [xxxiii.] note.) The Earl Marischal, on the twenty-sixth of September 1590, obtained letters from the King, "charging the haill inhabitantis and his Graceis

a

In the year 1549, the abbey's lands in the shire of Aberdeen, were valued at twenty-one pounds a year. The whole revenues of the monastery, about the year 1565, were reported to be five hundred and seventy-two pounds, eight shillings, and sixpence; thirteen bolls and a half of wheat; fourteen chalders and ten bolls of bear; sixty three chalders, nine bolls, one firlot, and three pecks and a half of meal.

b

The abbey was built on what is now a fruitful and pleasant bank of the Ugie; but in the thirteenth century, when the monks of St. Mary chose it for the site of their cloister, was probably a lonely waste of marsh and forest. Gordon of Straloch, who visited its ruins about two centuries ago, says that the monastery stood "in depressa valle, olim tota silvestri;” and it is easy to recognise in the description, the characteristic features of the solitary places in which the founders of the Cistercian order loved to dwell.

liegis within the schirefdomes of Forfar, Kincardin, Aberdene, and Banff, to pas fordwart to Deir for recovery of the hows of Deir, presentlie takin and withhaldin be Mr. Robert Keytht and his complices." (Collections for a History of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff, p. 190.)

a Collections for a History of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff, p. 120.

Books of Assumption, MSS. Adv. Bibl.; and Harleian MS., no. 46!2, Brit. Mus. According to another copy of this record, quoted by Bishop Keith, the rental of the Abbey stood thus: "money, 805l. 12s. 2d. ; meal, 59 chalders, 11 bolls; meal, 63 chalders, 9 bolls 1 firlot."

In the "Taxatio omnium prelatorum regni Scotie ad xiiijc libras pro sustentatione Novi Collegii Justicie," imposed about the year 1546, the religious foundations of the diocese of Aberdeen are thus estimated :

(Books of Council and Session, vol. v., fol. xxxvj., MS. in the Register House, Edinb.) The following fragment of a rental of the abbey, about the time of the Reformation, is found in an imperfect copy of the Books of Assumption, in the British Museum :

"ABBEY OF DEIR.

The landis of Faichhill, in the paroche of Allan, sett to James Forbes for fiftie bollis oatts, xxiiij bollis bear, iiij bollis wheat, xxiiij caponis, xxiiij pultrie, iiij wedderis, iiij schillingis for arriage and carriage, and iiij schillingis of augmentation.

Landis of Monkishill

c Collections for a History of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff, p. 19.

The house, built of red sand stone, was of ample dimensions; but, in so far as may be judged by the remains, its architecture was of that rude and simple kind," which marked the early and better days of Citeaux. The annalist of stately Melrose might well disdain the humble edifice of Deir; but if Saint Robert of Molesme, or Saint Stephen Harding, could have risen from the grave to choose between them, it cannot be doubted to which monastery they would have turned, as most in accordance with the austere and self-denying spirit of their rule.

b

The story of a memorable vision which, according to popular belief, foretold that the ancient house of the Marischal of Scotland was to date its slow decay and assured overthrow from the day of its "sacraledgeous medling with the Abisie of Deir," has of late been printed more than once."

ultricesque sedent in limine Dirae.

It was in allusion probably to this legend, or to some other of the reproaches of a like kind, which were rife in that age, that on a tower. which the Earls built on the abbey's lands, as well as on the college, which

a Cf. Collections for a History of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff, p. 185; Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xvi., p. 483; The New Statistical Account of Scotland, number xxv., pp. 148, 149.

"Anno Domini · M. CC LXVIJ • Abbas de Dere, dominus Adam de Smalham, monachus de Melros, gratis dimisit officium suum, malens dulcedinem Melrosensium, quos preexpertus fuerat, quam preesse tugurrio monachorum de Dere." (Chronica de Mailros, pp. 197, 198.)

c Collections for a History of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff, pp. 191, 192; Patrick Gordon's Short Abridgement of Britane's Distemper, pp. 112, 114. Aberdeen, 1844, printed for the Spalding Club; Sir Henry Spelman's History and Fate of Sacrilege, pp. 282-285. edit. 1846.

The feeling alluded to in the text, was not confined to the adherents of the old religion. From his bed of sickness, amid the desolated shrines of St. Andrews, John Knox wrote to the General Assembly, which met at Stirling in the autumn of 1571, adjuring his brethren that, "with uprightness and strength in God, they withstand the merciless devourers of the patrimonie of the kirk." "Gif men will spoyll," he warned them, "let them doe it to their owne perrell and condemnatione; but communicat ye not with their sins, of what estate that ever they be, neither be consent nor yet be silence; but with publick protestatione make this knawne unto the world, that ye are innocent of sic robberie, quhilk will, or it be lang, provock God's vengeance upon the committers thereof.” (The Booke of the Universall Kirk of Scotland, pp. 128, 129.)

they endowed with a portion of the doomed spoil, they inscribed these words of unavailing defiance:

thay haif said: quhat say thay lat. thame say ·

.

Carta Willelmi Cumyn comitis de Buchan super terris de Barre in Strath

Omnibus hanc cartam uisuris uel audituris. Willelmus Cumyn comes de Buchan Salutem in Domino sempiternam. Noueritis nos intuitu caritatis ad augmentum cultus diuini et religionis fomentum pro salute anime nostre Mariorie sponse nostre heredum antecessorum successorum parentum et omnium amicorum nostrorum dedisse concessisse et hac presenti carta nostra confirmasse. Deo Omnipotenti. Beatissime Uirgini Marie et omnibus sanctis Dei religiosisque uiris abbati et monachis de Deir ibidem Deo seruientibus et inperpetuum seruituris omnes et singulas terras nostras de Barre cum pertinenciis iacentes in barronia de Strathilay et infra vicecomitatum de Banf. Tenendas et habendas omnes et singulas terras de Barre cum pertinentiis dictis abbati et monachis et suis successoribus in libera foresta cum omnibus syluis nemoribus et singultis pro utilitate edificii et reparacione monasterii de Deir prout jacent in longitudine et latitudine per omnes rectas metas suas antiquas et diuisas subscriptas. Incipiendo apud Legarff de Barre

The Earls Marischal appear to have grudged payment even of the niggard pittance of the revenues of the church, which the law secured to the reformed preachers. In the year 1587, the General Assembly complains that "the kirks of Deir are all frustrated of their stipends, and the ministers thairof not [payed] according to their provision made in my Lord Marshall's infeftment. (Id. p. 717. Bannatyne Club edit.)

1 [From a copy in the possession of the Club, made from a notarial transsumpt of the original, in the year 1810, by the sheriff-clerk of Banff, who has appended the following note: "The lands of Barre were feued by the abbot of Deir, anno 1449, to Lord Saltoun; and were, anno 1557, given by him to John Abernethie, his third son, of whom Mayen was descended. The Abernethies took entries from Lord Marischal until the year 1722, when the lands were sold by them to Duff of Crombie; who, anno 1733, sold them to Peter Gordon, esquire of Ardmellie; and they are now the property of John Morison, esquire of Auchintoul."]