James Lindsay, Provost of Lincluden.- 299 



who had been the chief opponents of the party to which he had 

 fonnerly adhered, but by this time he upon whom had devolved 

 the leadership of that party, if such it could still be called, James, 

 9th Earl of Douglas, was utterly discredited. It is little to be 

 wondered at that Lindsay should have abandoned the lost cause of 

 the Black Douglas ; and he was not acting at variance with the 

 spirit of his times in now so cultivating the Red Douglas, George 

 Earl of Angus, as to obtain from him a gift of various lands in the 

 neighbourhood of his barony of Covington. ^^ It does not seem to 

 have been his conduct in this respect but rather his intriguing with 

 rebels, perhaps even at the time when he was holding a Govern- 

 ment oiSce, that called down upon his head the condemnation that 

 has been quoted from the Auchinleck Chronicle. 



To the Provost of Lincluden was entrusted the care of Queen 

 Margaret of England when she fled to Scotland for refuge upon 

 the defeat and capture of her husband, King Henr}- VI., by the 

 Yorkists. At Lincluden she was lodged as the guest of the 

 nation, and there being visited by the Queen of Scotland, the 

 resources of the Provost must have been taxed to accommodate 

 these two royal ladies and their trains. In the other public busi- 

 ness of the country Lindsay appears in his capacity as Lord Privy 

 Seal as witness to most of the royal charters of the period. On 

 two occasions he went to England to arrange a treaty of peace, the 

 other euA'oys being the Bishops of Glasgow and Aberdeen, the 

 Abbot of Holvrood, the Earls of Crawford and Argyle, Lords 

 Livingstone, Borthwick, and Boyd, and Sir Alexander Boyd of 

 Drumcoll.16 We hear of him also going to various places on the 

 King's business or to hold courts." In the latter half of the year 

 1468 he became Lord High Treasurer of Scotland; but died 

 before the end of the same year.^^ 



It is of local interest to mention that there is very good reason 

 for believing that this Provost of Lincluden received as a personal 

 gift from the Earl of Douglas the lands of Fairgirth and others in 

 the parish of Southwick. If so he settled them on a kinsman and 



15. Frazer, The Douglas Book, Vol. III., p. 91. 



16. Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland, Vol. IV., 1341, 13.50, 1362, 



1363. 



17. Excheq. Rolls, Vol. VII., pp. 118, 152, 293, 455, 512 ; Vol. VIII., p. 45. 



18. Ibid., Vol. VII., pp. 520, 593, 656, 670, 672. 



