THE SEAFORTH ESTATES. 415 



stipulation that their chief should be granted a free 

 pardon. 



While Seaforth was in hiding, previous to his departure 

 for the Continent, his friends were doing all in their power 

 to keep his estates intact. The story of their clever 

 jugglery, and of the events which preceded it, is instructive. 

 Colin, first Earl of Seaforth, contracted large debts by his 

 extravagant style of living and his legal disputes with 

 Argyll. George, the second Earl, claimed to have spent 

 a million of money in the cause of Charles I., and it is an 

 undoubted fact that his debts were enormous. His credi- 

 tors sued him, apprized his estates, and in 1649-50, were 

 infeft in the property. Luckily for the Seaforths, the ablest 

 lawyer in Scotland and one of the wiliest men of his day, 

 Sir George Mackenzie of Tarbat (the first Earl of Cromar- 

 tie) came to the rescue, and found the means of circum- 

 venting the creditors. Conjointly with Sir Alexander 

 Mackenzie of Coul and Colin Mackenzie of Redcastle, he 

 compounded with nine of the creditors who had recovered 

 the first apprizings, and had their decrees transferred to 

 him and his associates, and vested in their persons as 

 trustees for the heir to the estates. We have already seen 

 how, in virtue of these apprizings, Tarbat and his co- 

 trustees were infeft in the Lewis property, with the rest of 

 the Seaforth estates, by a charter dated 3Oth September, 

 1678. Being thus in virtual possession of the estates, the 

 Mackenzies were enabled to exclude the other creditors 

 from their payments. After Sir George Mackenzie and 

 his friends had re-imbursed themselves for their outlay, 

 they made over their rights, in 1680, to another trustee of 

 the family, viz., Kenneth Mackenzie, brother of Sir George 

 Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, the Lord Advocate. By him 

 they were, in 1681, transferred to Isobel, widow of Kenneth 

 Mor, third Earl of Seaforth. The matter was further com- 

 plicated by the existence of a bond, which the Countess 

 Isobel was prevailed upon to execute, for payment of an 

 annuity of 1,000 to Frances, wife of Kenneth Og. In 

 1685, tne Countess Frances obtained a Crown charter, 



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