CuurcH or St. JOHN THE Baptist, Datry. 81 
ecclesiastical state of Dalry in the middle of the 16th century, for 
although confirmed by King James VI. in 1578, the original charter 
was really granted and drawn up at Edinburgh in 1556, and brings 
before us several notable persons, alive when the charter was 
granted, but deceased at its confirmation. The patron was the 
notorious James, Earl of Bothwell, husband of Queen Mary, who 
was banished and died abroad just a year before the confirmation 
of the charter. Both granter and grantee were Hepburnes, the 
former a brother of the last Pre-Reformation Bishop of Moray. 
He was first prior of St. Andrews, then in 1535 Bishop of Moray, 
and perpetual commendator of Scone Abbey, and filled various 
high positions. Although deprived of his Bishopric at the Refor- 
mation, he kept possession of his Episcopal residence at Spynie 
Castle, and died there June 20, 1575, and was buried in the choir 
of Elgin Cathedral. The only ecclesiastic connected with St. 
John’s in 1556 who was not a Hepburne was one of the attesting 
witnesses, Mr David Forman, pensionary vicar of Dalry. 
The next entry brings us down to the year 1581, when, owing 
to the forfeiture of the Earl of Bothwell, who, as we have just 
seen, died in 1577, all his titles and vast possessions came to be 
vested, by gift of the crown, in his nephew, Francis Stewart, a 
grandson of King James V., who was at the same time appointed 
Lord High Admiral of Scotland. This sudden rise came to as 
quick a downfall, for in ten years, viz., 1591, the new Harl was 
himself forfeited, and deprived of all the honours and great estate 
the favour of his sovereign had conferred upon him. Becoming 
deeply involved in the religious and political intrigues of that 
time, as represented by the great contending parties owning 
allegiance to Queen Mary or her son, and being, as Hill Burton 
calls him, ‘‘ perhaps the most daring, powerful, and unprincipled of 
all the higher nobles,” very soon came under a like ban of forfeit- 
ure with his uncle, and so also fled the country, and died abroad. 
The next entry, dated Aug., 1591, follows as a direct result of this 
forfeiture, the barony of Harlston being detached from the vast 
estates of the Earls of Bothwell and conferred upon Andrew, 
Master of Ochiltree, a son of the good Lord Ochiltree, who did so 
much in forwarding the Reformation. So far the Registers of the 
Great Seal. 
From the Acts of the Scottish Parliament two entries are 
given, the first being a ratification of the royal grant to Francis 
