From the district of the name in Stirlingshire. The original name
of the Buchanans was MACAUSLAN, Buchanan of Aucmar (in 1723) says the
original patronymic was retained by the eldest cadet when disused by
the rest of the clan, but in the old genealogical tree of the
Buchanans, of date 1602, the first Buchanan mentioned is "Sir Valtir
vat conquest pairt of te landis frae ye Mauslanis" (Strahendrick,
p.284). ('Conquest' is an old Scots law term meaning the acquisition
of real property in other ways than by inheritance.)
Dominus Absolone de Buckkan witnessed a charter by Malcolm, earl of
Lennox to Sir Robert Herthford, precentor of Glasgow, a.1224 (RMP.,
p.217). Alan de Buchanan was one of the witnesses to a charter of
lands of Gartechonerane to Malcolm Macedolf c. 1270 (Levenax, p.84).
Malcolm de Bougheannan who rendered homage, 1296 (Bain, II, p.205)is
probably Malcolm Macabsolon, one of the witnesses to a charter by Earl
Malcolm to Sir John of Luss, 1316. Walter de Buchanan had a grant of
Auchmarr in 1373 (Levenax, p.59). Maurice Buchanan, who acted as
treasurer to Princess Margaret, wife of the Dauphin of France
(afterwards Louis XI) is reputed to have been the author of the Book
of Pluscarden.
George Buchanan (1506-82) was a Latin Scholar of European fame, and
James Buchanan (1791-1868), fifteenth president of the United States
was of Scottish ancestry. Amongst the Pensylvania Germans, Buchanan is
used as an Englishing of Buchenhain.
Balquhannan 1566, Balquhannen 1553, Bochannane 1627, Boquhannan and
Buchcquhannan 1536, Boquhenan 1621, Boquhennane 1622, Bowhanan and
Bowhannan 1562, Buchquhannane 1526, Buchquannan 1525, Buchunnuch 1662,
Bucquannane 1622, Bucquahannane 1492, Buhannane 1588, Buquhannan 1512,
Buquhannane 1611.
For an alternative source of the name: Entry in 'History of
Scotland': BUCHANAN
Buchanan, a surname belonging to a numerous clan in Stirlingshire,
and the country on the north side of Loch Lomond. The reputed founder
of the Buchanans was Anselan, son of O'Kyan, king of Ulster in
Ireland, who is said to have been compelled to leave his native
country, by the incursions of the Danes, and take refuge in Scotland.
He landed, with some attendants, on the northern coast of
Argyleshire, near the Lennox, about the year 1016, and having,
according to the family tradition, in all such cases made and
provided, lent his assistance to King Malcolm the Second in repelling
his old enemies the Danes, on two different occasions of their
arrival in Scotland, he received from that king for his services, a
grant of land in the north of Scotland.
The improbable character of this genealogy is manifested by its
farther stating that the aforesaid Anselan married the heiress of the
lands of Buchanan, a lady named Dennistoun; for the Dennistouns,
deriving their name from lands given to a family of the name of
Danziel, who came into Scotland with Alan the father of the founder of
the abbey of Paisley, and the first dapifer, seneschal, or steward of
Scotland, no heiress of that name could have been in Scotland until
long after the period here referred to. It is more probable that a
portion of what afterwards became the estate of Buchanan formed apart
of some royal grant as being connected with the estates of the earls
of Lennox, whom Skene and Napier have established to have been
remotely connected with the royal family of the Canmore line, and to
have been in the first instance administrators, on the part of the
crown, of the lands which were afterwards bestowed upon them.
The name of Buchanan is territorial, and is now that of a parish in Stirlingshire, which was anciently called Incheaileoch, ('old woman's island,') from an island of that name in Loch Lomond, on which in earlier ages there was a nunnery, and latterly the parish church for a century after the Reformation. In 1621 a detached part of the parish of Luss, which comprehends the lands of the family of Buchanan, was included in this parish, when the chapel of Buchanan was used for the only place of worship, and gave the name to the whole parish.
We have not a doubt that the name Buchanan has the same origin as the word BUCHAN, being its diminutive of Buchanino or Buquhanino, the little Buquhan or cattle-growing district.
Eminent Families
Anselan (in the family genealogies styled the third of that name) the seventh laird of Buchanan, and the sixth in descent from the above-named Irish prince, but not unlikely to be the first of the name, which is Norman French, is dignified in the same records with the magniloquent appellation of seneschal or chamberlain to Malcolm the first earl of Levenax (as Lennox was then called). He and two of his sons, Gilbert and Methlen, are witnesses to a charter granted by the same earl to Gilmore son of Maoldonicli, of the lands of Luss, in the reign of King Alexander the Second, a nobleman of no great influence or power, descended from administrators of one of the abthaneships of Dull, or royal lands reverting to the crown by demise of younger branches, in which charter they are more correctly designed the earl's clients or vassals. In 1225, this Anselan obtained from the same earl a charter of a email island in Lochiomond called Clareinch, witnesses Dougal, Gilebrist, and Amalyn, the earl's three brothers, the name of which island afterwards became the rallying cry of the Buchanans. The same Anselan is also mentioned as a witness in a charter granted by the earl of Lennox of the lands of Dalmanoch in mortification to the old church of Kilpatrick, by the designation of Absalon de Buchanan, Absalon being the same as Anselan. He had three sons, viz. Mothlen, ancestor of the MacMillans; Colman, ancestor of the MacColmans; and his successor Gilbert.
His eldest son, Gilbert, or Gillebrid, appears to have home the
surname of Buchanan There is a charter of confirmation of that of
Clareincli, and some other lands of Buchanan, granted in favour of
this Gilbert by King Alexander the Second in the seventeenth year of
his reign, and of our Lord 1231. The same Gilbert is also witness to a
charter, by Malcolm earl of Lennox, to the abbot and monks of Paisley,
dated at Renfrew in 1274. (Chartularly of Dumbartonshire.)
continued....
Entry in Scottish Surnames by Donald Whyte
BUCHANAN Clarinch, an island in Loch Lomond, opposite Balmaha, was
granted in 1225 by the Early of Lennox, to Absolon or Anselan, son of
MacBeth. He took his name from lands on the shore supposed to mean in
Gaelic, 'house of the canon'. He may have belonged to one of the old
families of the Celtic Church. 'Clarinch' became the war cry of the
Buchanans. Tradition tells us that the chief's surname was originally
McAuselan, a name retained by a collateral line. Those of the 'stem'
family adopted a territorial designation: Mac-a Chanonaich, in
Gaelic.
In 1282, the Earl of Lennox granted a charter to Maurice de
Bouchannane, confirming him in his lands and giving him the right to
hold courts. The Buchanan chiefs held the lands for another 400 years.
Maurice, son of Maurice, had a chatter of the carucate of land called
Bouchannane, with the land of Sallachy, by Donald, 6th Earl of Lennox,
confirmed under the Great Seal in 1371. His descendant, Sir Alexander;
went to France with the Earl of Buchan to assist against the English,
and was killed at Verneuil in 1421. He was succeeded by his brother;
Walter of Buchanan.
A younger brother; John, was ancestor of Henry
Buchanan of Leny, from whose daughter descended the Buchanans of Lany
and Bardowie. Walter married Isobel, daughter of Murdoch, Duke of
Albany, and had two sons: Walter; his heir, and Thomas, progenitor of
the Buchanans of Drumakill, from whom descended George Buchanan,
1506-82, the great Latinist. Walter's eldest son, Patrick was killed
at Flodden in 1513, and his eldest son George succeeded to Buchanan.
From his younger son Walter; descended the Buchanans of Spittal.
George was sheriff of Dunbartonshire, and fought at Pinkie in 1547.
His son John died before him, and was succeeded by his son Sir George
Buchanan, from whose half-brother; William came the Auchmar family.
Sir George's grandson, also Sir George, was involved in the Civil War;
and died a prisoner of Cromwell in 1651. John Buchanan, the last
laird, sold his ancestral estate in 1682 to the Marquess of
Montrose.
From the Spittal and Lany lines of the family descended Dr Francis
Hamilton Buchanan, who established his claim to the chiefship in 1826,
but his grandson John died in 1919, without issue. A branch of the
Buchanans of Lany held the estates of Ardinconnal and Auchintorlie, in
Dunbartonshire, and four brothers - George, merchant in Glasgow;
Andrew of Drumpelier; Neil of Hillington, and Archibald of
Auchintorlie - were the promoters of the Buchanan Society in 1725: the
oldest organisation of its kind. From Archibald descended Sir Andrew
Buchanan, created a Baronet of the UK, in 1878. The 5th Baronet of
Dunburgh is Sir Andrew George Buchanan, Lord Lt. of Nottinghamshire
since 1991. The Leith (-Buchanan) baronets (created UK, 1763), descend
from Alexander Leith, of Aberdeen. The additional surname of Buchanan
was added by Sir Alexander Leith, 3rd Baronet, who married in 1832,
Jemima, daughter of Hector MacDonald Buchanan of Ross.
Dugald Buchanan, 1716~8, son of a Strathyre miller and farmer;
became a teacher at Kinloch Rannoch, and wrote Gaelic poetry of high
quality. James Buchanan, 1791-1868, 15th President of the USA, was son
of James Buchanan, who emigrated from Donegal, Ireland, to
Pennsylvania, and is said to have been a descendant of Thomas
Buchanan, an Ulster-Scot.
Sir Maurice Buchanan, grandson of Gilbert, and son of a chief of
the same name, received from Donald earl of Lennox; a charter of the
lands of Sailoehy, with confirmation of the upper part of the carucate
of Buchanan. As his name does not appear on the roll of parties who
swore fealty to Ed-ward the First, his descendants claim the merit of
his having refused to do so. To the bond of fealty, however; a Malcolm
de Buchanan attached his name. Sir Maurice also obtained a charter of
confirmation of the lands of Buchanan from King David the Second in
the beginning of his reign.
Allan, the second son of the first Sir Maurice, married the heiress
of Leny of that ilk, descended from Gillespie Muir de Lany, supposed
to have lived about the beginning of the tenth century. According to a
family manuscript pedigree, quoted in Buchanan of Auchmar's account of
the Leny branch, the early proprietors of the estate of Leny had no
charter, but carefully preserved a large sword, and one of the teeth
of St. Fillan, the possession of which was held to be a sufficient
title to the lands. John, the third son, was always reputed the
ancestor of the Buchanans of Auchneiven.
Sir Maurice de Buchanan the second, above mentioned, married a
daughter of Menteith of Rusky, and had a son, Walter do Buchanan, who
had a charter of confirmation of some of his lands of Buchanan from
Robert the Second, in which he is designed the king's
'consanguineous,' or cousin. His eldest son, John, married Janet,
daughter and sole heiress of John Buchanan of Lany, fourth in descent
from Allan already noticed. John, who died before his father, had
three sons, viz. Sir Alexander, of whom next paragraph; Walter, who
succeeded his father; and John, who inherited the lands of Lany, and
carried on that family.
Sir Alexander Buchanan, the eldest son, accompanied the earl of
Buchan to France, when be went to assist the French king Charles
against Henry the Fifth of England, and distinguished himself at the
battle of Beaungi in Normandy, in March 1421. The victory was
principally owing to the valour of the Scots auxillaries It is stated
in Buchanan of Auchmar's account of the martial achievements of the
family of Buchanan that it was Sir Alexander Buchanan who, in this
battle, slew the duke of Clarence, a feat commonly attributed to the
earl of Buchan. lie is said to have pierced the duke through the left
eye and brain, en which the latter fell, when seizing his coronet,
Buchanan bore it off on his spearpoint. He is also said to have sold
the coronet, which was set round with jewels, to Stewart of Darnley
for one thou-sand angels of gold, and that the latter pawned the same
to Sir Robert Houston for five thousand angels. Sir Alexander Buchanan
was killed at the battle of Verneull, on the 17th of August of the
same year.
The armorial bearings of the Buchanans lend countenance to the assertion that Sir Alexander Buchanan assisted in slaying the duke of Clarence. The crest is a hand holding a ducal crown. The double tressurs with fleurs de lis was granted to him by the king of France. The mottoes "Audaces Juvo," and "Clarior Hine Honos;" are correspondent to each other and to the devices.
Sir Alexander died unmarried, and the second son, Sir Walter, succeeded to the estate of Buchanan.
This Sir Walter do Buchanan married Isabel, daughter of Murduch,
duke of Albany, governor of Scotland, by Isabel, countess of Lennox in
her own right. With a daughter, married to Gray of Foulis, ancestor of
Lord Gray, he had three sons, viz. Patrick, his successor; Maurice,
treasurer to the princess Margaret, the daughter of Ring James the
First, and dauphiness of France, with whom he left Scotland; and
Thomas founder of the Buchanans of Carbeth.
The eldest son, Patrick, acquired a part of Strathyre is 1455, and had a charter under the great seal of his estate of Buchanan dated in 1460. He and Andrew Buchanan of Leny made in 1455 mutual tailzies of their estates in favour of one another, and the heirs of their own bodies, passing some of their brethren of either side. He married Gaibraith, heiress of Killearn, Bamore, and Auchenreoch. He had two sons and a daughter, Anabella married to her cousin, James Stewart of Baldorrans, grandson of Murdoch, duke of Albany.
Their younger son, Thomas Buchanan, was, in 1482, founder of the
house of Drumakill, whence, in the third generation, cams the
celebrated George Buchanan. One of Sir Walter Scott's colleagues at
the clerk's table of the court of session was Hector Macdonald
Buchanan, Esq. of Drumakill, "a frankhearted and generous gentleman,"
says Lockhart, "not the less acceptable to Scott for the Highland
prejudices which he inherited with the high blood of Clanranald; at
whose beautiful seat of Ross priory, on the shores of Loch Lomond, he
was almost annually a visitor; a circumstance which has left many
traces in the Waverley novels".
Patrick's elder, Walter Buchanan of that ilk, married a daughter of Lord Graham, and by her had two sons, Patrick and John, and two daughters, one of them married to the laird of Lamond, and the other to the laird of Ardkinglass.
John Buchanan, the younger son, oucoeeded by testament to Menzies
of Arnprior, and was the facetious "King of Kippen," and faithful ally
of James the Fifth. The local proverb, "Out of the world, and into
Kippen," was meant to show the seclusion and singularity of this
district of Stirlingshire, of which the feudal lord was formerly
styled King. The name is supposed to be derived from the Gaelic word
Ceap-beino, 'foot of the mountain,' and the parish is partly in
Penbohire. An insulated portion of the latter county, about two miles
long and half-a-mile broad, embraces the village of Kippen. The
minister's manse stands on the east-em boundary, so that his dinner is
cooked in Perthshire and eaten in Stirlingshire. The way in which the
laird of Arnprior got the name of" King of Kippen" is thus related by
a tradition which Sir Walter Scott has introduced into his Tales of a
Grandfather. ( History of Scotland.) -" When James the Fifth travelled
in disguise, he used a name which was known only to some of his
principal nobility and attendants, He was called the Goodman (the
tenant, that is) of Ballengeich. Ballengeich is a steep pass which
leads down behind the castle of Stirling. Once upon a time when the
court was feasting in Stirling, the king sent for some venison from
the neighbouring hills. The deer was killed and put on horses' backs
to be transported to Stirling. Unluckily they had to pass the castle
gates of Amprior, belonging to a chief of the Buchanans, who chanced
to have a considerable number of guests with him. It was late, and the
company were rather short of victuals, though they had more than
enough of liquor. The chief; seeing so much fat venison passing his
very door, seized on it, and to the expostulations of the keepers, who
told him it belonged to King James, he answered insolently. that if
James was king in Scotland, he (Buchanan) was Icing in Kippen; being
the name of the district in which Arnprior lay. On hearing what had
happened the king got on horseback, and rode instantly from Stirling
to Buchanan's house, where he found a strong fierce-looking
Highlander, with an axe on his shoulder, standing sentinel at the
door. This grim warder refused the king admittance, saying that the
laird of Arnprior was at dinner, and would not be disturbed. 'Yet go
up to the company, my good friend,' said the king, 'and tell him that
the Goodman of Ballengeich is come to feast with the King of
Kippen.'
The porter went grumbling into the house, and told his master that
there was a fellow with a red beard at the gate, who called himself
the Goodman of Ballengeich, who said he was come to dine with the King
of Kippen. As soon as Buchanan heard these words, he knew that the
king was come in per-son, and hastened down to kneel at James's feet,
and to ask forgiveness for his insolent behaviour, But the king, who
only meant to give him a fright, forgave him freely, and, going into
the castle, feasted on his own venison, which Buchanan had
intercepted. Buchanan of Arnprior was ever afterwards called the King
of Kippen.' He was killed at the battle of Pinkie in 1547.
The elder son, Patrick, who fell on Flodden field, during his
father's lifetime, had married a daughter of the earl of Argyle. She
bore to him two sons and two daughters.
The younger son, Walter in 1519 conveyed to his son Walter, the
lands of Spittal, and was thus the founder of that house On the 14th
December of that year, he had a charter from his father of the
temple-lands of Easter-Catter. In 1581, he had a remission from James
the Fifth, for seizing and detaining in tire castle of Glasgow, John
duke of Albany, then governor of Scotland. In this deed he is styled
"Walter Buchanan in Spittal," the property of which was then in the
hands of his brother George Buchanan of that ilk, who resigned his
lands of Spittal of Easter-Catter to Edward, son of the said Walter
Buchanan, as appears by the confirmation in favour of this Edward, by
Gavin, archbishop of Glasgow, dated 18th September 1531.
The elder son, George Buchanan of that ilk, succeeded his
grandfather, and was sheriff of Dumbartonslrire at the critical epoch
of 1561. He must have succeeded to the estate when very young, as in
the register of the privy seal of Scotland, quoted in the appendix to
Pitcairn's Collection of Criminal Trials, under date July 11, 1526,
there is a respite to George Buchanan of that ilk, and twenty-two
others:
"extract furth of the respitt of Johne erle of Levinax, for his tressonabill asseging, taking and withhalding of our souerane lordis castle and fortalice of Dumbertene fra his seruandis keparis thairof."
He was at the battle of Pinkie, on the queen's side, in 1547, in
which, besides Buchanan of Arnprior, many others of the name of
Buchanan were slain. He was also at the battle of Langside fighting
for Queen Mary in 1568. On January 26, 1593-4, Robert Buchanan of
Spittal, Mungo Buchanan in l'ullichewne, and eight other Buchanans,
were ordained to be denounced rebels, for not relieving George
Buchanan of that ilk, of a decreet-arbitral, pronounced by Ludovick
duke of Lennox, upon a submission entered into by the laird of
Buchanan, taking burden on him for his friends, on the one part, and
Allan or Awlay McCaula of Ardincaple and his friends, on the other
part, "be tire quhilk decrete, the said George has been decernit to
mak payment to the said Allane, and vtheris his friendis, of a
certaine sowme of money, for sum violence done, and attemptit aganis
theme he the said George friendis."( Pitcairn's Trials, vol. i. part
ii p.306.) By Margaret, daughter of Edmonstone of Duntreath, George
Buchanan had a son, John, who died before his father, leaving a son.
By a second lady, Janet, daughter of Cunninghame of Craigans, he had
William, founder of the now extinct house of Auchmar. A descendant of
this house, William Buchanan of Auchmar, published at Glasgow, in
1728, a quarto volume entitled an 'Historical and Genealogical essay
upon the family and surname of Buchanan, with an Enquiry into the
Genealogy and present state of ancient Scottish surnames, and more
particularly of the Highland Clans.' An octavo edition of the same
appeared at Edinburgh in 1775. In drawing up this account of the
Buchanans, Auchmar's work has of course been consulted, hut in the
early portion especially of the genealogies, we should not be disposed
to rely implicitly on its statements, either in respect of the name of
Buchanan or any other of tlie "ancient Scottish surnames" which it
contains.
John Buchanan, above mentioned as dying before his father, George
Buchanan of that ilk, was twice married, first to the Lord
Livingston's daughter, by whom he had one son, George, who succeeded
his grandfather, and secondly to a niece of Chisholm, bishop of
Dunblane, and had by her a daughter married to Mr. Thomas Buchanan of
Ibert, lord privy seal.
The son, Sir George Buchanan, married Mary Graham, daughter of the
earl of Monteith, and had, with two daughters, a son, Sir John
Buchanan of that ilk who in 1618, mortified (or bequeathed) six
thousand pounds Scots to the university of Edinburgh, for maintaining
three bursars at the study of theology there; and an equal sum to the
university of St. Andrews, for maintaining upon the interest thereof,
three bursars at the study of philosophy there, and constituted the
magistrates of Edinburgh managers or patrons of both mortifications.
This on the authority of Buchanan of Auchmar, although Bower in his
History of the University of Edinburgh does not mention any such
bequest. Sir John married Anabella Erskine, daughter of Adam,
commendator of Cambuskenneth, a son of the Master of Mar. He had a
son, George his successor, and a daughter married to Campbell of
Rahein.
Sir George Buchanan the son married Elizabeth Preston, daughter of
the laird of Craigmillar. He was colonel of the Stirlingshire regiment
during the whole of the civil war in the reign of King Charles the
First, and was, with his regiment, at the battle of Dunbar in 1650. He
was also at the fatal conflict of Inverkeithing in the following year,
and with Major-general Sir John Brown of Fordel, colonel of the Mid
Lothian regiment, at the head of their regiments, stopped the passage
of Cromwell's troops over the Forth, for some days The Scots were,
however, eventually defeated with great loss, and Sir George Buchanan,
with Sir John Brown and other officers taken prisoner, in which state
he died in the end of 1651, leaving, with three daughters, one son,
John, the last laird of Buchanan, who was twice married, but had no
male issue. By his second wife, Jean Pringle, daughter of Mr. Andrew
Pringle, a minister, he had a daughter Janet, married to Henry
Buchanan of Leny. John, the last laird, died in December 1682. His
estate was sold by his creditors, and purchased by the ancestor of the
duke of Montrose.
The barons or lairds of Buchanan built a castle in Stirlingshire
where the present Buchanan house stands, formerly called the Peel of
Buchanan. Part of it exists, forming the charter-room A more modem
house was built by these chiefs adjoining the east side. This mansion
came into the possession of the first duke of Montrose, who made
several additions to it, as did also subsequent dukes, and it is now
he chief seat of that ducal family in Scotland.
The principal line of the Buchanans becoming, as above shown,
extinct in 1682, the representation of the family devolved on Buchanan
of Auchmar. This line because, in its urn, extinct in 1816, and in the
absence of other competitors, the late Dr. Francis Hamilton-Buchanan
of Bardowie, Spittal, and Leny, as heir-male of Walter, first of the
family of Spittal, established in 1826 his claims as chief of the
clan. Of this gentleman, the author of an account of Nepaul, amid
other works on India, a separate notice is given. See BUCHANAN
Hamilton Francis.
The last lineal male descendant of the Buchanans of Leny was Henry
Buchanan about 1728, whose daughter and heiress, Catherine, married
Thomas Buchanan of Spittal, an officer in the Dutch service, who took
for his second wife, Elizabeth, youngest daughter of John Hamilton of
Bardowie, the sole survivor of her family, and by her he had four sons
and two daughters. Their eldest son John, born in 1758, succeeded to
the estate of Bardowie, and assumed the additional name of Hamilton,
but dying without male issue, was succeeded by his brother, the above
named Dr. Francis Hamilton-Buchanan.
The first of the Buchanans of Ardoch was William Buchanan who, in
1693, acquired that estate in the parish of Kilmaronock,
Dumbartonshire. He was descended from John Buchanan, eldest son of the
second marriage of Thomas Buchanan of Carbeth, grandson of Thomas
Buchanan, third son of Sir Walter Buchanan, thirteenth laird of
Buchanan.
The Buchanans of Ardinconnal and Anchintorlie, in the same county,
are also a branch of the ancient house of Buchanan of that ilk and of
Leny. Of this family was George Buchanan, a merchant in Glasgow, and
his three brothers, Andrew of Drumpellier, in Lanarkahire; Niel, of
Hillington, county of Renfrew, M.P. for the Glasgow district of
burghs, whose male line is now extinct; and Archibald of Auchintorlie.
These four brothers were the original promoters, in 1725, of the
Buchanan Society of Glasgow, one of the most flourishing benevolent
institutions in the west of Scotland. Mary, their sister, married
George Buchanan of Auchintoshen in Dumbartonshire. The Drumpellier
branch of the Buchanan family is represented by the descendant of
Andrew's second son, Robert Carrick Buchanan, Esq. of Drumpellier.
The name of Buchanan was at one time so numerous in heritors that
it is said that the laird of Buchanan could, in a summer's day, call
fifty heritors of his own surname to his house, upon any occasion, and
all of them might with convenience return to their respective
residences before night, the most distant of their homes not being
above ten miles from Buchanan Castle.
In Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, vol. ii. pp.544-557, is given, under
date of May 31, 1608, the trial of one Margaret Hertsyde, wife of
John, afterwards Sir John Buchanan, a female servant of her majesty,
Anne, queen of James the Sixth, for stealing the queen's jewels. The
uncommon nature of the crime, and the interest of the pleadings
induced him to insert the entire arguments. He remarks that the real
cause of the criminal prosecution of this servant of the queen is
understood to have originated in Mrs. (afterwards Lady) Buchanan's
being too deeply versed in certain court intrigues, and it was deemed
necessarv to get rid of her, even in the face of the most strenuous
remonstrances on the part of her majesty. She was in the following
August found guilty, and banished to Orkney. On this case, Balfour has
the following entry in his Annals, (vol ii. p.26,)
"John Buchanan and his wyffe, Margaret Hartesyde, that had laynn
longe in prisson helm, for the allegeit stealing some of the quelna
jewells (hot the courtiers talked, that it was for revelling some of
the quems secretts to the king, wich a wysse chaimbermialde wold not
have done), was, by ane sentence, condemned to peroetualle exyle, in
the iylandes of Orkney, and declared to be ane infamous persone." The
sentence was, however, recalled in the following November.
Volume third of the same Collection contains the indictment of
several persons of the name of Buchanan, and among them Patrick the
son of George Buchanan of Auchmar. under date June 6, 1628, for the
slaughter of one Duncan McFarlane, in the preceding April The accused
gave in a supplication which revealed incidents of a most horrible
nature. It appears from it that the McFarlanes had seized one William
Buchanan, while hunting, and after torturing him for ten hours had
barbarously murdered him, His tongue and entrails they cut out, and
having slain his dogs, they took out the tongue and entrails of one of
them and transferred them to each other, and so left him and the dogs
lying on the earth, where they were not discovered for eight days the
offence of Buchanan being that he had inquired after some goods said
to have been stolen by the said Duncan McFarlane; and the latter
having afterwards stolen an ox from one of the party, he was pursued,
and firing his gun at them was slain in self-defence. The McFarlanes
on their part also gave in a supplication giving a different
complexion to the case, and the laird of Buchanan came forward and
offered to submit the matter, as it arose out of the murder of one of
his clan, to the earls of Mar, Menteith, Wigtoun, and Linlithgow, but
no records remain as to the result of this extraordinary case.