118 THE MarRiaGE OF JOHN, LORD MaxweELt. 
1ith November, 1921. 
Chairman—Dr. W. SEMPLE. 
The Marriage of John, Lord Maxwell, and 
Elizabeth Douglas in 1572. 
By Mr Davip C. HErRIEs. 
In an important unfinished. work on the eastern part of 
Dumfriesshire by Mr Robert Bruce Armstrong, of which the 
first part was published in 1883 under the title of ‘‘. A History 
of Liddesdale, Eskdale, Ewesdale, Wauchopedale, and the 
Debateable Land,’’ there occurs this passage (pp. 81-82) :— 
‘* A custom, although not peculiar to the border, may here be 
noticed. At the junction of the White and Black Esk there 
is a place still called ‘ Hand-fasting Haugh,’ where in former 
days a fair was held, to which the young people of both sexes 
resorted in great numbers, between whom engagements were 
then made by joining hands, or ‘ hand-fasting.’ The connec- 
tion so formed was binding for one year only, at the expira- 
tion of which time either party was at liberty to withdraw 
from the engagement, or in the event of both being satisfied, 
the ‘ hand-fasting ’ was renewed for life. The custom is 
mentioned by several authors, and was by no means confined 
to the lower classes, John, Lord Maxwell, and a sister of the 
Earl of Angus being thus contracted in January, 1572.”’ 
What is found in such a work as this if uncontradicted 
is apt to be copied into lesser works. I propose, therefore, 
to examine that part of this passage which relates to Lord 
Maxwell, and I think I shall be able to show that it is founded 
on a mistaken interpretation of an expression used by a 
writer, who is believed to have been a contemporary of this 
Lord Maxwell. 
We are asked by Mr Armstrong to believe that a daugh- 
ter of the great house of Angus—a girl, as we shall see, who 
was under age and in whose concerns such potentates as the 
Regent and the Lord Chancellor of Scotland were interested— 
was allowed in January, 1572, to go to ‘‘ Hand-fasting 
Haugh,”’ there to be taken by Lord Maxwell on trial for a 
year with a view to legal matrimony if that young gentleman 
