TRANSAUTIONS. 117 
and divers others; certified and signed by Herbert Cunynghame, Notary 
Public, Dumfries.” - 
We ascertain for certain that the above John Welsh of 
Colustoun and Cuthbert 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 
Holywood there had been various holders or proprietors of 
more or less extensive portions of land, such as of Bargregane, 
Redskarris, 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- 
Trongray, was the eldest son of a William Welsh “ of Redskarris,” 
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 
family history. By the testament of John Welsh of Collustoun, 
11th November, 1661, it appears that he died without male heirs, 
leaving, as we have said, the daughter and heiress, Hellen Welsh. 
This testament mentions also John Kirks, otherwise Kirkhaught 
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 
