466 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2*» S. IX. June 1G. '60. 



fession declares that the Earl of Argyll " did all 

 his craftie diligence to intyse me to slay and de- 

 stroy the Laird of Ardinkaipill, the quhilk I did 

 refuse, in respect of my faithfull promeis maid to 

 M'kallay of befor." Glenstrae's confession cer- 

 tainly exhibits throughout strong animus against 

 his captor Argyll, but the hostility of the latter 

 to his neighbour, the Laird of Ardincaple, is borne 

 out by an entry in the books of the Lord Trea- 

 surer under date Nov. 1602 : — 



" Item. To Patrick M'Omeis, messinger passand of 

 Edinburghe, with Lettres to charge A rd Earl of Argyle 

 to compeir personallie befoir the Counsall the xvj day of 

 December nixt, to ansuer to sic thiDgs as salbe inquirit 

 at him, tuiching his lying at await for the Laird of Ar- 

 dincapill, ypoune set purpois to have slane him, — xvj 



lib:' 



When Argyll sought to direct the sharp power 

 of the law against M'Aulay, the latter was attend- 

 ing the Duke of Lennox in the train of King 

 James, then journeying to London to ascend the 

 vacant throne. In conformity with representa- 

 tions made by Lennox, a royal precept was is- 

 sued commanding the justice-general and his 

 deputies to "desert the dyet" against M'Aulay, 

 as he was altogether free and innocent of the 

 crimes alleged against him. In the Records of 

 Secret Council is a minute regarding the joint 

 application of Lennox and M'Aulay to the king, 

 dated at Dunfermline, 28th April, 1602. Ardin- 

 caple afterwards obtained the honour of knight- 

 hood, though his conduct was not free from suspi- 

 cion, as appears from a bond of caution entered 

 into on his account on the 8th September, 1610. 

 He was twice married, but died in December, 

 1617, without issue. In accordance with a scheme 

 of succession settled in 1614, Sir Aulay was suc- 

 ceeded in the property by his cousin Alexander, 

 and with whose grandson, Aulay, began the de- 

 cline of the family. He alienated a considerable 

 portion of the estate, and burdened the remainder 

 to maintain his wasteful expenditure. Among other 

 children Aulay had a daughter, Jane, married 

 to Sir James Smollett of Bonhill, father of Archi- 

 bald of Dalquhurn, and grandfather of the author 

 of Roderick Random* Archibald, the successor 

 of Aulay, was one of the Commissioners of Justi- 

 ciary appointed for trying the adherents of the 

 Covenant in Dumbartonshire. His son Aulay 

 sold the Laggarie and Blairvadden portions of the 

 estate to Dr. George M'Aulay of London, re- 

 puted to be a cadet of the family. A nephew of 



* This seems a not inappropriate place to correct a 

 slight error committed by the writer of an interesting 

 article on Tobias Smollett in the Quarterly Review, No. 

 205. The novelist's grandfather is there said to have 

 been married to a daughter of Sir Aulay M'Aulay of 

 Ardincaple, Bart. There was no baronet of the name up 

 to Smollett's time, and the only title of honour we have 

 been able to discover in the family was the knighthood 

 bestowed on the Aulay mentioned above. Smollett's 

 great-grandfather was simply Aulay M'Aulay. 



the same name sold the last remnant of the once 

 wide paternal inheritance. From the dismantled 

 condition of the old castle of Ardincaple longer 

 residence in it was impossible, and this Aulay, 

 the last of the old stock of Ardincaple, sought a 

 shelter for his houseless head at Laggarie, where 

 he died about 1767. I have not been able to 

 trace the main line of the family after this, though 

 it may be quite correct, as stated by your corre- 

 spondent I. M. A., that the representation of this 

 ancient house devolved upon John M'Aulay, 

 Town Clerk of Dumbarton about the close of last 

 century. At least one of his daughters and a 

 number of grand-children still survive. The sur- 

 name is of frequent occurrence throughout Dum- 

 bartonshire, but I have not been able to connect 

 any of those who bear it with what I consider the 

 parent house of Ardincaple. A correspondent 

 in Coleraine has been good enough to draw my 

 attention to a certain Alexander M'Aulay, a ma- 

 jor in the Scotch army of Charles I. in Ulster, 

 whose gravestone still exists in the burying-ground 

 of Layd, county Antrim. He appears to have 

 been married to Alice Stewart of Ballinloy, and 

 may not improperly be regarded as the founder 

 of the present Irish branch of the family of Ardin- 

 caple. Joseph Ibyihg. 

 Dumbarton. 



NATHANIEL HOOKE. 



(2 nd S. ix. 427.) 



The answer to your correspondent (p. 427) is not 

 altogether satisfactory. Loekhart speaks of " one 

 Hookes," the agent of the old Pretender, and tells 

 us that he had been chaplain to the Duke of 

 Monmouth ; had afterwards turned Roman Ca- 

 tholic, and that in 1705 he was a colonel and com- 

 mander of a regiment of foot in the French army. 

 This Hookes, in the letter to M. Chamillard pub- 

 lished in his Secret History, signs himself simply 

 " Hoocke," which makes it not improbable that he 

 had been created a peer at St. Germains, and that 

 the document sold among the Betham MSS. was 

 the patent of his creation. But that this Hoocke, 

 of whom we lose all trace after 1 708 — this chaplain 

 of 1 685, this colonel commanding a regiment in 1 705, 

 this busy, stirring, intriguing politician of 1708 — 

 should turn out to be the quiet, amiable, studious, 

 laborious historian, first heard of in 1722, and who 

 died so late as 1764, does seem to me in the 

 greatest degree improbable. How too, if they 

 were the same, could the son of the historian re- 

 ply, when applied to for materials for a memoir of 

 his father, that his father had "lived always a 

 very private life, distinguished by no peculiar or 

 remarkable event ? " Is it not more probable that 

 the historian was the son of the titular lord? 

 When we first hear of him he was engaged in 

 translating from the French the Life of the Arch- 



