They ate sae meikle o' the venison, And drank sae meikle o' the blude, That Johnie and his twa gray hunds, Fell asleep in yonder wud, wud, Fell asleep in yonder wud. By there cam a silly auld man, "What news, what news, my silly auld man, What news, come tell to me?" "Na news, na news," said the silly auld man, "But what my een did see, see, But what my een did see. "As I cam in by yon greenwud, The bonniest youth that e'er I saw, "The sark that he had on his back Was o' the Holland sma'; And the coat that he had on his back Was laced wi' gowd fu' braw, braw, Up bespak the first forester, The first forester of a' "An this be Johnie o' Cocklesmuir, It's time we were awa, awa, It's time we were awa." Up bespak the neist forester, The neist forester of a' "An this be Johnie o' Cocklesmuir, The first shot that they did shoot, They woundit him on the thie; Up bespak the uncle's son, "The niest will gar him die, die, "Stand stout, stand stout, my noble dogs, Stand stout and dinna flee; Stand fast, stand fast, my gude gray hunds, And we will mak them die, die, And we will mak them die." He has killed six o' the proud foresters, He laid his leg out owre his steed, THE WARRISTON MURDER, 1600. -- UPON the 2nd of July 1600, according to Birrel,* the inhabitants of the city of Edinburgh were thrown into a state of consternation by the appalling intelligence that John Kincaid of Warriston an estate in the Barony of Broughton, situated between the metropolis and Leithhad been murdered, at the instigation of his wife, by Robert Weir, a former servant of the Laird of Duniepace, the lady's father, with the assistance of Jonet, or Janet, Murdo, her nurse. The husband and wife were of the higher class, the murdered man being a landed proprietor of considerable estate, and the murderess, Jean Livingston, daughter of the Laird of Duniepace, in the county of Stirling, to which county both parties belonged: Warriston being a cadet of the old family of Kincaid of that Ilk, and his wife a descendant of the still more ancient race of Livingston, her parent being a direct descendant of the uncle of the first Lord Livingston. Justice speedily overtook the parties. The Lady of Warriston was beheaded by the "Maiden," an instrument of death said to have been introduced into Scotland by the Regent Morton, and by which he is alleged to have been the first victim. Her original punishment was to have been "worried at the stake, and brint,"-that is to say, strangled, and her body reduced to ashes. Her paternal relatives, the Lords Livingstone, although unable, from the atrocity of the act, to seek a pardon, procured a change of the mode of death, and decapitation was substituted for strangling and burning. The nurse, who had no powerful lords to befriend * Diary. her, was worried accordingly, and burnt to ashes. No time was lost the murder was perpetrated on the 2nd of July. The lady and nurse were taken red-hand, as happened with Marie Hamilton. She was immediately tried, convicted, and with her nurse put to death on the 5th. Quick work, certainly. From there being no record of her trial in the Records of the Court of Justiciary, she must have been subjected to the summary jurisdiction either of the magistrates of Edinburgh or the baillie of the Barony of Broughton. She was beheaded on a scaffold erected in the centre of the street of the Canongate, near the Girth-cross. The actual murderer, Robert Weir, who had made his escape, was afterwards apprehended, tried, and convicted before the High Court of Justiciary. His trial will be found in Pitcairn, under the date of the 26th June 1604.* His sentence was to be, "Broken on ane cart wheel with ane culter of a plough in the hand of the Hangman, for murdering the Gudeman of Warrestone, quhilk he did 2nd Julii 1600."+ Weir's indictment discloses the particulars of the murder, but not the inducing cause. The nurse was the go between n; and Weir, who lived in Holyrood, was brought by her to Warristoune, where he was secretly concealed in a "laich" cellar, where he remained until midnight, when, accompanied by the lady—who, it will be observed, was under twenty years of age, and who had been with him therecame up to the hall, and from thence proceeded to the Laird's bedroom, who, being alarmed by their “dyn,” pressed our his bed stok," when Weir, rushing forward, struck him on the jugular vein, threw him on the ground with violence, repeatedly striking him on the belly, 66 -- "he gave a grit cry," whereupon he seized his victim by the "thrott or waison," and strangled him. During this scene, the lady was present, and assisted; but the indictment does not aver that the nurse, Janet Murdo, was. + Birrel's Diary. * Criminal Trials, vol. ii. part ii. p. 448. Mr. Pitcairn mentions, on the authority of Calderwood, that the nurse and "ane hyred woman, the lady's accomplices, were burnt on the Castle-hill." This is singular, because the indictment of Weir-styled by Calderwood, a horse-boy —is entirely silent as to any accomplice, except the nurse. It is also alleged that Weir refused to take the lady with him when he escaped, as his flight alone would, if the murder were discovered, at once fix the guilt upon him. In the strange confession to be immediately noticed, Lady Warriston specially exonerates the female servants,— entreats that they should neither be put to death, nor tortured, “because I testify they are both innocent, and knew nothing of the deed before it was done, and the meantime of doing it." If one or both did suffer, it may be inferred that their concealment made them accessories after the fact. It is a great pity the records of the lady's trial have perished, as it would then have been ascertained upon what evidence she was convicted. Weir, when brought to trial, saved judge and jury much trouble by confessing. There were no less than four brothers of Warriston as private prosecutors in the indictment against Weir. One of them, Patrick, is called "Tutour of Warristoune." He was, perhaps, the guardian or protector of the young infant, mentioned in the wretched mother's conversion of a Sinner into a Saint, and which Mr. C. K. Sharpe brought to light from the collections of the Rev. Robert Wodrow.* It is entitled "A Memorial of the Conversion of Jean Livingston, Lady Wariston, with an account of her carriage at her execution July 1600." The compiler or reporter is unknown, but Mr. Sharpe was inclined to think it might have been Mr. James Balfour, colleague of the more celebrated Mr. Robert Bruce. When originally requested to wait upon the lady, the reverend gentleman found her certainly in a state not at * Privately printed, small 4to., 1827. |
