302 An Account of bimprin, Berwickshire, by Jas Hardy. 



Parliament, 1662, Patrick Gillespie in Simprein, was appointed 

 to pay, " Three hundreth three score pund" (£360).* The senti- 

 ment of the great body of the ministers, was also in contrariety 

 to the Engagement. Mr Patrick Melvil, minister of Simprin, 

 narrowly escaped being assaulted by a soldier, for having, as he 

 thought, said something against that enterprise. 



December 10, 1657, Sir Archibald Cockburn of Langton, suc- 

 ceeded his father in the Kirklands of Simpren.f Sir Archibald 

 — a representative of Berwickshire in Parliament, and the holder 

 of a variety of public offices — was a man of considerable ability 

 and resource, but undertaking improvements of his estate beyond 

 his means, he fell bankrupt about the beginning of 1690 ;| and 

 becoming hampered with lawsuits and decreets of session against 

 him, he was never able for the rest of his lifetime, although pro- 

 tected from time to time by the Estates of Parliament, to extri- 

 cate himself from his involvements. Before 1681, he had made 

 " great and considerable enclosures at Langton. "§ Although 

 drowned in debt, he was confident, when affairs were at their 

 worst, in his power to do justice to all concerned, and reports that 

 none " were so able to demonstrate his manner of improvement 

 of land so well as himself." || " Such is the condition of his es- 

 tate by reason of the singular improvements that he hath made 

 thereof, that it cannot be better manaclged than by allowing him 

 the administration and manadgment thereof."^ The Court of 

 Session caused the estate to be rouped for terms of years, and or- 

 dained placards and intimations to be published at the adjacent 

 church doors, and that the highest bidder should obtain the tack. 

 Undaunted, he outbids the public by a large advance, and ob- 

 tains the lease ; or he associates himself with a person of means, 

 and keeps himself at the head of affairs. The annual rent of the 

 two estates was 24,000 nierks.** Once he is incarcerated by cer- 

 tain creditors in the Tolbooth jail, in Edinburgh, " but made his 

 escape that night the rabble broke up the prison on the 20th of 

 June, 1700. "ft It was he who possessed the whole parish of 



* Ibid, vii., p. 422. In Wodrow's List, Hist, of the Sufferings, &c, vol. 



i., p. 272, this is perverted into " Patrick Gillespie in Stenrpreneze." 



t Inq. Ret. Abbrev. Ber, No. 308. X Acts Pari. Scot, ix., p. 479. 



§ lb. viii.j p. 246. |] Fountainhall's Decis. i., p. 107. 



H Acts Pari. Scot, ix., p. 184. ** Fountainhall's Dec. i., p. 640, etc.- 



tt Fountainhall's Dec. ii., p. 107. 



