Rattling, Roaring Willie. By the late Sir W. Elliot. 4G9 



A careful search has been made for the proceedings on the 

 trial in the justiciary records in Jedburgh, but without success — 

 none such being preserved there. Pitcairn's " Criminal Trials " 

 only go down to 1624, and Dr Dickson of the Kegister Office 

 informs me that after the close of the 16th century, it was the 

 custom to write the minutes of the itinerary courts on separate 

 fasciculi, and that many of them have been lost. A special 

 search has been made by a skilled expert in the justiciary records 

 preserved in the General Eegister House from 1625 to 1629 

 inclusive, and in the Minute Book up to 1632, without finding 

 any trace of the trial. The proceedings of the Circuit Courts are 

 given in full at that period as far as they go, but it is added that 

 " some of them are not entered at all, for there are references to 

 various circuits simply on the margin." 



As to Sweet Milk, it is difficult to say who he was. The 

 sobriquet occurs twice, as the " to-name " of individuals brought 

 to the notice of the Privy Council, e.g. — Gib Ellott, in a list of 

 Border delinquents, who had failed to appear before the Justice 

 Court at Jedburgh in 1586-7 ; Dandie Ellott, said to be a fol- 

 lower of the Laird of Branxholm, as a marauder in certain 

 plundering forays between 1598 and 1600. It was doubtless, 

 therefore, one of the epithets or " to-names " in general use at 

 the time, to distinguish the many clansmen with the same 

 Christian name from each other. 



"Whoever he was, he appears to have been a man of the same 

 kidney as his opponent, and probably they were friends and boon 

 companions before the quarrel which terminated so fatally for 

 both. By the parish records he appears, under date October 



this also is an error. The estate of Falnash belonged to the Elliots from an 

 early period. They appear in the Register of Privy Council under the 

 name of " Eliot of Fallinesche " in 1569, and continue to be summoned in 

 subsequent years to keep the peace of the Borders up to 1602. Falnash 

 did afterwards pass into the possession of a Scott, but this was long sub- 

 sequent to the transaction with which we are dealing — and thence into the 

 estate of Buccleuch, but the exact date is not clear. In the Betours it is 

 entered in the name of " Archibald Eliot of Falnesche " up to 1675, but 

 in 1690 the entry is in the name of Walter Scott of Langshaw. 



Satchells, who lived till nearly the end of the 17th century, writes : 

 " The Elliots, brave and worthy men, 



Have been as much oppressed as any name I ken, 



For in my own time I have seen so much odds, 



No Elliot enjoyed any heritage, but Dunlibire, Fanash, and Stobs." 



