132 Mellerstain and the Haitlies thereof. 



pledges himself to obey the Lord Regent. Henry died 

 sometime between then and 1578, leaving a son, John, and 

 survived by Helena Edmestoun, his second wife, who had 

 the liferent of the East half of Fawnis. She married 

 (marriage contract dated 23rd June 1566) subsequently, 

 William Home above mentioned, afterwards of Bassendean, 

 as his second wife. In 1578-79 she and her husband, with 

 their tenants of Fawuis, bring an action against John Haitlie 

 of MeUerstane for wrongous molestation in the peaceable 

 possession of her half of the town and lands of Fawnis. On 

 the 15th June 1580 it was agreed upon between John Haitlie 

 of Mellerstanis and his grandson, John Haitlie, on the one 

 part, and Helen Edmestoun on the other part, for the settling 

 of sundry debates between them, regarding her lands of the 

 Easter half of Fawnis, that William Home, her husband, was 

 to have a tak, for 19 years after her death, of the Easter 

 half of the lands and mansion house of Fawnis. 



It was probably about this period that John, himself an old 

 man, his three elder sons, George, Alexander, and Henry, dead, 

 and the latter's son, the heir apparent, a minor, made over the 

 liferent of Mellerstain to Walter Ker of Littledean, who was 

 of the Cessford family, and probably a near relation of Jonet 

 Ker, John's wife. John's death, which must have occurred 

 not long afterwards, was followed by quarrels between parties 

 for possession ; the Kers breaking into and forcibly seizing 

 the tower, on the ground that it had been left to Walter 

 Ker by John. The result does not seem to have been 

 favourable to the contentions of Ker, who also claimed the 

 marriage of the young heir, for we find, in February 1584, 

 the latter, as John Haitlie of Melostanis, with consent of his 

 curators, giving a tack of the East half of Fannis to William 

 Home, in terms similar to those given by him and his 

 grandfather in 1580. Prior to Whitsunday 1589, John 

 Haitlie of Mellerstains warned William Home, his servants, 

 and tenants to remove themselves from the East half of 

 Fawnis. William Home refused on the ground that he had 

 a tak of the same for 19 years after the decease of Helen 

 Edmestoun, his wife, and which occurred in May 1588. 



A further stage in the dispute appears on the 14th July 

 1590, when William Carnecors of Colmslie raises an action 

 against John, to see the terms and " veritie " of the tack 



