120 THe MarriaGe of Joun, Lorp Maxwe Lt. 
some siluer veshell, and broght the same saifly to Edinburgh. 
The Earle of Moirtoun having sustenit this small lose, for 
recompence thairof, directit sum men of his to the lands per- 
teining to the capitane of Edinburgh in Fyffe, quha brunt 
and distroyed all his coirnes and housses to his great enorme 
lessioun. Bot the toun of Dalkeith, apperteining to Moirtoun, 
that same nyght sustenit and incurrit als mikle skayth for 
that interpryse, be burning and slaughter; quhilk was done 
upoun the 8 February, 1571.’ 
Now it will be observed that this anonymous writer dis- 
contractit in marriage,”’ 
ce 
tinctly says that Lord Maxwell was 
while the custom mentioned by Mr Armstrong was by his own 
account not marriage but only a preliminary to a possible 
marriage in the future. And as one of the meanings? of the 
x) 
word ‘‘ hand-fasting ’’ was to engage in a contract of 
marriage, it is, I think, clear that the anonymous writer uses 
it in this sense and not in the sense in which Mr Armstrong 
understood it. 
Let us now see who were the parties to this marriage.° 
The bridegroom, John, Lord Maxwell, was the posthumous 
son of Robert, Lord Maxwell, by his wife, Beatrix Douglas, 
the second of the three daughters and co-heirs of James, third 
Earl of Morton. He was born the 24th April, 1553, and 
succeeded to the family honours and estates about 1555 on 
the death in early childhood of an elder brother. He was 
therefore between eighteen and nineteen years of age in 
January, 1572, and was still under the guardianship of 
curators, who were Edward Maxwell of Tinwald, Robert 
Maxwell of Cowhill, and William Douglas of Whittinge- 
hame. The bride, Elizabeth Douglas, was the sister of 
Archibald, the eighth Earl of Angus, and the daughter of 
David, the seventh Earl, who had died in July, 1557, after 
having held the earldom for a few months only. I do not 
3 That is the 8th February, 1571-2. 
4 See under Handfast and Handfasting in Murray’s New Hnglish 
Dictionary and Jamieson’s Dictionary of the Scottish Language. 
5 See under the titles of Douglas, Earl of Angus and Maxwell, 
Earl of Nithsdale, in the Scots Peerage, ed. Sir J. B. Paul, 
