120 Transactions. 



Wodrow was proliahly quite correct in stating that the young 

 Keformer had received the rudiments of his education witliin the 

 town of Dumfries itself, althougli he has omitted to quote the 

 needful authority, which he probably well knew. 



According to the " Fasti," the parish kirk of Dumfries was 

 dedicated to St. Michael, and previous to the Eeformation belonged 

 to the Abbey of Kelso. Among the Protestant vicars of Dumfries 

 shortly after the Reformation we find " Maister John Velsche, 

 15G8;" "Maister Ninian Dalzell," who was also head-master of 

 the Grammar School of Dumfries, and " was deposed by the 

 General Assembly in 1579 for having read to his scholars the 

 Roman Catechism." Maister Peter Watson, vicar of Dumfries, 

 originally of Markinch, had also under his charge Terregles, 

 Troqueer, and Newabbey, and was by the General Assembly 

 repeatedly nominated as Commissioner for visiting Annandale and 

 Nithsdale. In 1575 he complained that "the town on Yule last, 

 seeing that neither he nor the reader would read or use doctrine, 

 brought a reader of their own, with tabron and whistle, and 

 caused him read the prayers, which exercise they used all the days 

 of Yule." He was called to account for the informal celebration of 

 the marriage of the " Laird of Garlics," and at the Kirk of Duris- 

 deer, as required, owned his transgression. Maister Thomas 

 Maxwell, vicar perpetual of Dumfries, held previous charges 

 throughout the county of Dumfries. At Morton, in Nithsdale, 

 one of his charges, it is said of him : " He cannot serve at sundry 

 places, maks no residence, but is a Jakman with Drumlanrig." 

 (Reg. Assig.) He died previous to the 23d of May, 1601. From 

 the original in the " Hoddom Collection," prompted by curiosity, 

 we seem to have been the first who had attempted or thought it pos- 

 sible to still decipher the following letter of this " Maister Thomas 

 Maxwell, vicar of Dumfries," and his kinsmen, to Homer Maxwell 

 of Speddoch, an otherwise well-known Commissary of Dumfries. 

 In one part of the letter the reference seems to be to " My Lord," 

 thereby possibly meaning to their chief, John, eighth Lord 

 Maxwell, Earl of Morton, &c., who, as we know, perished at 

 Dryfesands Battle in 1593, or some nine years after the date of 

 this letter. On the 31st of July, 1611, Homer Maxwell, of 

 Speddoche, was declared and served heir to the deceased Mr Homer 

 Maxwell, Commissary of Dumfries, his father (Records). The 

 lairds " of Couhaith " and " of Kelton " were at this period brothers- 

 german, one of whom, Robert Maxwell, was a Notary Public of 



