80 The Raid at Dumfries on Lammas Even. 



he was putt in prison by K. James 4, and payed a great 

 composition for himself and all those who were with him."'* 

 These statements make it clear that the chief protagon- 

 ists were Lord Crichton and Lord Maxwell. The former 

 was Sir Robert Crichton, 2nd Lord Sanquhar, hereditary 

 Sheriff of Dumfries; the latter was John, 4th Lord Maxwell, 

 Steward of Annandale.^ The Sheriffdom of Dumfries had 

 passed in 1452 from the Kirkpatricks to the Crichtons. In 

 that year on 6th November^ Sir Robert Crichton of Sanquhar 

 was appointed Sheriff, succeeding Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, 

 whom we find exercising the office in 1434."^ He was also 

 Coroner of Nithsdale from January, 1468-9.^ Sir Robert's 

 son Edward seems to have held the Sheriffship for some 

 time.^ Sir Robert was succeeded by Robert, who, for his 

 gallant services in offering resistance to Alexander Duke of 

 Albany and James Earl of Douglas in their attack on Loch- 

 maben on 22nd July, 1484, received, a month later, ratifica- 

 tion in the Sheriffdom of Dumfries and in the barony of 

 Sanquhar. 10 On 29th January, 1487-8, he was created a 

 Lord of Parliament by the title of Lord Crichton of San- 

 quhar. He died between July, 1494, and February, 1494-5. 

 His eldest son, Robert Crichton of Riccarton, had pre- 

 deceased him prior to 149 1-2, and thus the first Lord 

 Crichton was succeeded by his grandson, the participant in 

 the raid, who may at the time of this incident have been 

 about thirty-five years of age. 



We have, unfortunately, no records to give us any idea 

 as to how the individual holding the Sheriffdom of Dumfries 



4 The Scots Peeiage, VI., 478. The Terregles MS. is a history 

 of the family of Herries preserved at Terregles House, and printed 

 in the Herries Peerage Case Minutes, pp. 294-302. D. C. Herries 

 states that it was compiled about 1677-1700, and that its early part 

 is very untrustworthy, (op. cit., 470.) 



5 Reg. Sec. Sig., I., No. 1834. 



6 Reg. Mag. Sig., Conf. Charter, No. 790, 23rd April, 1464. 



7 Exchequer Rolls, 1434, p. 600, and 1456, p. 168. 



8 Reg. Mag. Sig., 8th January, 1468-9. 



9 vide p. 84. 



10 Reg. Mag. Sig., No. 1597, 20th August, 1484. 



