ACCOUNT OF THE DUNDONALD FAMILY. 15 to have the command of one of the regiments of foot before they were converted into horse, he will now be disappointed, as likewise will Col. Cunninghame, of their expectations. We have, therefore, thought fit to desire you to shift your brother up to the army to us, and we do oblige ourselves to take him into our particular favor, and to give him the command of a regiment either of horse or foot. "We likewise find you desire the removing of the garrison from Newark, but having advised twice with our Committee of Estate, we find it is not for the good of the service to remove the said garrison; but we are content that the strength be reduced to the number of threttie soldiers only. "We shall desire that you would be assisted in hasting these levies, and continue in your barony all public despatch, so as you may be in continual receipt of our respects to you. "So we bid you now heartily farewell, from our Camp Royal at Woodhend, the fifth of August, 1651. "To our right trusty and well-beloved, the Lord Cocorane." The preceding letter marks the dawn of that ingratitude towards his tried adherents of which Charles has been, not without reason, accused. Lord Cochrane's reward for raising "the first regiment of horse in Scotland" was the displacement of his brother from the command, in favour of a Dutchman; notwithstanding that the whole expenditure had been borne by his lordship, whose fate it subsequently was that the Stuarts should draw largely upon resources which, to the injury of his descendants, his loyalty ungrudgingly supplied. Passing over the defeat which followed, I select from others a letter addressed by Charles, when in exile, to Lord Cochrane, under the assumed name of "Lenos and Richmond;" its purport being to show that the un 16 ACCOUNT OF THE DUNDONALD FAMILY. fortunate royal family depended upon Lord Cochrane's management not only for advice, but, what was more to the purpose, for the means of subsistence. "February 2nd, 1657. "MY LORD,-I find myself very much obliged to your lordship by your great care of my dear son's interests and mine, and have seen your letter concerning the gentleman recommended for a commissioner, who, though a stranger to me—yet, since it is the opinion of your lordship that he be added to the number of the commissioners, I do in this, as in all other things, hearken to your lordship's advice; relying on your lordship's favour to me, and therefore do hereby invite him, if he will accept the trouble, with many thanks to your lordship and to him. "I must further beseech of your lordship to intend the raising five thousand pounds upon Glasgow, and to labour the sale of Methuen and Killmorocate, both with all possible expedition. * "I hope to have the happiness of seeing your lordship in these parts ere long, that I may have a larger conveniency of making my acknowledgments to your lordship for your eminent favour to 66 For my "Your lordship's most humble servant, Lord Cochrane." "C. R. LENOS and RICHMOND. Whether Lord Cochrane visited the exiled court or not, I have no documents to decide; nor is it at all material; these letters being adduced to show the nature of his connection with the Stuarts in their day of humiliation, which only appeared to add to his zeal for their welfare. *This letter appears to mix up the affairs of Charles and the Duke, probably with a view to avert danger to Lord Cochrane, if intercepted. ACCOUNT OF THE DUNDONALD FAMILY. 17 The "son" alluded to in the preceding letter was the Duke of Monmouth *, for espousing whose cause, in the subsequent reign of James II., the Cochrane family suffered severely. Soon after the Restoration in 1660, Lord Cochrane was sworn a privy councillor; and by his Majesty's special choice was constituted one of the Commissioners of the Treasury and Exchequer, which great and weighty employment, says Crawfurd, "he discharged with admirable prudence and integrity, to the general satisfaction of the whole nation. Increasing still more in wealth and honour, he acquired the lordship of Paisley, where he fixed his seat, and lived with great splendour and hospitality for many years. After the barbarous murder of the late king, his lordship contributed his best and hearty endeavours towards bringing home Charles II. to inherit the rightful possession of the throne of these realms; which, no doubt, was the cause, when Oliver Cromwell came to be called protector, why he fined my Lord Cochrane, among other royalists, in 50007. sterling, by special ordinance of the Commonwealth of England, dated April 12th, 1654.” * "Charles, when a wanderer on the Continent, had fallen in at the Hague with Lucy Walters, a Welsh girl of great beauty, but of weak understanding. She became his mistress, and presented him with a son, upon whom he poured forth such an overflowing fondness as seemed hardly to belong to his cool and careless nature. Soon after the Restoration the young favourite made his appearance at Whitehall, where he was lodged in the palace and permitted to enjoy distinctions till then confined to princes of the blood royal." Lord Macaulay. 18 ACCOUNT OF THE DUNDONALD FAMILY. The following letters from the Dukes of Lenox and Monmouth are still in my possession, and from historic interest alone require no apology for their introduction in this place. 66 "London, Dec. 27, 1662. "MY LORD,-I received a discharge from your lordship, which being ill-drawn, I have forborne to sign it; but shall readily perform it so soon as it comes to my hands corrected by Mr. Graham. "I must intreat of your lordship's endeavours to raise fifteen hundred pounds upon the two years' rent of Jyla and my other lands for the year 1661; with which I would desire your lordship to discharge the six hundred pounds you borrowed for me when I was at Edinburgh, and the seven hundred pounds I borrowed of Sir James Stuart at the same time. The rest to be returned to me, who am "Your lordship's humble servant, "LENOS and RICHMOND. "For my Lord Cochrane." "P.S.-I desire your lordship to excuse my own writing, for nothing but illness should make me make use of another." แ London, Feb. 26th, 1663. "MY LORD,-Give me leave to add this trouble to your lordship's favours, in desiring that you will be pleased to send me a full account of all you know of the condition of my affairs in Scotland. And wherein and how And wherein and how you conceive any part of my estate proper or casual may be better improved to my advantage, with your lordship's advice for the management thereof for the future. If you know of any grants made by me to any person in Scotland when I was there, which may be prejudicial to or on my estates, you will be pleased to acquaint me with it; for I am resolved to repose all my confidence upon your lordship's directions, and to take measures of all the management of my affairs from them. ACCOUNT OF THE DUNDONALD FAMILY. 19 "I shall wholly trust to your lordship, and therefore entreat you will not impart this to anybody, but conceal the request of "Your lordship's very humble servant, "For my Lord Cochrane." "LENOS and RICHMOND. "Whitehall, Aug. 25th, 1663. "MY LORD,—I must desire your lordship to give yourself the trouble of sending me word how my engagements stand to my estate mortgaged in Scotland, that I may know whether it be convenient that the several persons to whom it is mortgaged should receive the profits of the lands mortgaged to them till both principal and interest is satisfied. Or whether it be convenient if one person, in the name of the rest, should receive the whole profits of the estate, and engage to pay all the debts, both principal and interest, in so many years, and then to return the estate to me again. I must beg your lordship's faithful advice in this, having found it so formerly. And, good my lord, let me know in how many years my estate will pay the debt upon it, both principal and interest. I cannot believe anybody will be so warm in my concerns as yourself, and therefore wholly repose this trust in you, desiring you to send me in writing a conveyance of my estate to yourself for the payment of the debt in the aforesaid years, with the return of the estate into my hands, who am, my lord, "Your lordship's most obliged servant, "LENOS and RICHMOND." The following letter, written to Lord Cochrane after the removal of the Court to Oxford on account of the plague raging in London, will show the straits to which even the wealthiest of the Scottish nobility had been reduced. |