338 The Swintons of that Ilk, by A. Campbell Swinton. 



Joan Hepburn, sister of Patrick Hepburn, of Whitecastle ; by 

 whom lie bad two sons, Alexander and Robert, and a daughter 

 Helen, married to John Hepburn of Smeaton. He was 

 appointed Sheriff of Berwickshire in 1620, and dying six years 

 afterwards, was succeeded by his eldest son, 



XVIII. John, who survived his father only five years. On 

 his death the estates passed to the eldest son of Robert, by his 

 second marriage, 



XIX. Sir Alexander Swinton, who had acquired the lands of 

 Hilton, but disposed of them on his succession to the family 

 estates. He was appointed Sheriff of Berwickshire in 1640. 

 The same year an Act of Parliament was passed confirming to 

 him the baronies of Swinton and Cranshaws, with the tiends 

 thereof and the patronage of the church of Cranshaws.* Twenty 

 years before he had married Margaret, daughter of James Home 

 of Framepath and St. Bothans, a cadet of the family of Home. 

 Of this marriage there were six sons and five daughters. The 

 daughters were married respectively to Sir James Oockburn of 

 Ryslaw, Mark Ker of Moriston, Brown of Thorny dykes, Hep- 

 burn of Beanston, and Dr Greorge Hepburn of Monkrig. Of 

 John, the eldest son, we shall have something to say hereafter. 



The second son, Alexander, was in early life a soldier, and 

 was taken prisoner at the battle of Worcester, fighting on the 

 side of the king.f But he afterwards returned to civil pursuits, 

 and was admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates on the 

 27th of July 1671. Being a zealous Presbyterian, he 

 relinquished his profession in 1681 rather than take the 

 test, but received from the King in 1686, a special letter 

 of dispensation, and was within two years thereafter raised to 

 the Bench of the Court of Session, when he took the title of Lord 

 Mersington, from his lands of that name, in the parish of Eccles. 

 This appointment is said to have been made " to oblige the 

 Presbyterians."| And it is certain that the new judge acted 

 zealously with that party in the troubles immediately preceding 

 the Eevolution. Thus we find him among the "discontented 



* Chalmers' Caledonia, vol. ii., p. 375. 

 f It is so stated in the ' ' Case of John Swinton of Swinton in relation to his 

 Father' s pretended forfeiture," printed in 1690, when Alexander Swinton was 

 still alive. 



% Earl of Balcarras' Memoirs, printed for the Bannatyne Club, p. 12, 



