The Swintons of that Ilk, by A. Campbell Swinton. 341 



down to invade the kingdom."* In December of the same 

 year he went over to the English forces then occupying Edin- 

 burgh. By some of his apologists it has been asserted that this 

 was not a voluntary act on his part, but that he was taken 

 prisoner by a party of Cromwell's soldiers. And it seems certain 

 that it was as a spectator only, not as a combatant, that he 

 was present with the parliamentary army at the battle of Wor- 

 cester, where, as already noticed, two, if not three of his brothers 

 fought on the side of the king. In Scotland, however, his 

 offence was looked on as unpardonable. He was excommuni- 

 cated by the Commission of the Kirk held at Perth, in May, 1651. 

 A decree of forfeiture for treason was pronounced against him 

 by the parliament of the same year. On the other hand he rose 

 rapidly in favour with Cromwell, by whom he was named one 

 of the Council of State for Scotland, and a Commissioner for the 

 administration of justice in that country. He also on several 

 occasions, represented Berwickshire in the English Parliament. 

 The one of his own countrymen who principally shared these honours 

 with "Judge Swinton," was Sir William Lockhart of Lee. "It is 

 not too much to say that by these two the affairs of Scotland were 

 in a great measure administered during the whole period of the 

 Commonwealth. Of the rancour with which they and others 

 who acted with them were afterwards assailed, a curious specimen 

 has been preservedf in a tract printed in London in 1659, under 

 the title of "A lyvely character of sum pretending Grandees of 

 Scotland, to the good old caus, digested into eight queries." 

 The query applicable to Swinton is as follows : — 

 " Whether he be fitter to be a Judge and Privy Councillor in Scotland, or 

 a Stage player at White Hall, who in anno 1650, attended the one day the 

 English Council of War at Barwick, the other the Scottish at Edenburgh ; 

 he who before installing of the late Protector, walked humbly and con- 

 tentedly under his excommunication, was a friend to persons of integrity and 

 honesty, kept sober and honest servants in his family, walked Christianly in 

 his apparel, and seemed a lover of those that feared the Lord ; who, as soon 

 as his master was lift up to a Throne, obtained his sentence of excommunica- 

 tion taken off by the Presbyterians, showed himself zealous in propping this 

 tottering Throne, choosed the most eminent and notorious malignants for his 

 intimate companions, looking upon honest Christians (if not as great as good) 

 with a supercilious eye ; who kept the places of Privy Councellour and Judge 

 in causes civil and criminal, having been equally bred in the knowledge of 



* Balfour's Annals of Scotland, vol. iv., p. 80. 

 t Nicoll's Diary, printed for the Bannatyne Club, p. 237. 



