Transactions. 117 



.and divers others ; certilied and signed by Herbert Cunynghamc, Notary 

 Public, Dumfries." 



We ascertain for certain that the above John Welsh of 

 Colustoun and Cathbert Welsh of Stepfurd were respectively 

 the father and the uncle, or father's brother, of the Reformer. 

 In other sections of the extensive churchlands and barony of 

 Holyvvood there had been various holders or proprietors of 

 more or less extensive portions of land, such as of Bargregane, 

 Eedskarris, or Skarr. Cornilie, Stepfurd, all occupied by persons 

 of the surname of Welsh, who may most probably have been 

 originally of the Collistoun family, which, as we may presently 

 find, had in its direct line ended in an heiress about the beginning 

 of the reign of King Charles the Second. A John Welsh of Scarr, 

 who at this time was an elder of the Parish Church of Kirkpatrick- 

 Irongray, was the eldest son of a William Welsh " of Eedskarris," 

 or " Skarris," and had been present at Pentland's Battle a few 

 years later. This John Welsh of Scarr must have been among the 

 nearest of kin of the John Welsh, the reputed " last laird of 

 Collistoun," as his daughter, the very young " Hellen Welsh," his 

 heiress, has for her tutors-nominate, under her father's testament, 

 " John Welsh of Skarr and John Welsh of Cornilie." Craigen- 

 puttock, as a possession of the family of Welsh, seems to us to 

 belong to their more recent rather than to the earlier eras of the 

 fomily history. By the testament of John Welsh of Collustoun, 

 lull November, 1661, it appears that he died Avithout male heirs, 

 leaving, as we have said, the daughter and heiress, Hellen Welsh. 

 This testament mentions also John Kirks, otherwise Kirkliaught 

 of Bogrie ; the famous Rev. John Welsh, of Irongray, the originator 

 of the open-air convocation familiar as the " Scottish Conventicle ;" 

 and James Welsh, writer in Edinburgh, who are of the attesting 

 witnesses It is also otherwise mentioned that the Rev. John 

 Welsh, of Irongray, had attended the deathbed of the testator. 

 The following note, taken also from its original, carries on the 

 historical narrative of the Collustoun line : 



" Anno 1678. 

 " John Welsh, in Glenburn, Bailie in that part, for Mary Welsh, spouse 

 of John Gordon, of Kirkconnell, and sister and heiress of her deceased 

 brother-german, John Welsh, Junior of Collistoun, the hereditary proprie- 

 tor of the lands, under a Charter of Alienation, by the said Mary Welsh, 

 and her said husband, dated the 21st of December, 1669, grants to John 

 Maxwell, of Steelston (her kinsman) seisin of the twenty shilling land of 



