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The which day in this present parliament held at Perth, 11 July 1604, by virtue of a special commission granted by his highness to that effect under his majesty's great seal, of the date at Hampton Court, 8 February 1604, Master William Oliphant, in name and on behalf of Sir Thomas Hamilton of Monkland, knight, advocate to our sovereign lord, exhibited and produced before a noble and potent lord John [Graham], earl of Montrose, lord Graham and Mugdock, great commissioner of this present parliament, and before the whole estates thereof, the summons of treason underwritten, raised and pursued at the instance of our sovereign lord, his highness's justice and advocate against William Borthwick of Soutra, whereby he was summoned to compear before our said sovereign lord and estates of parliament on 6 July 1604, with continuation of days, to have answered to the points of treason and other crimes underwritten contained in the said summons, of the which summons the tenor follows:
James, by the grace of God, king of Scots, English, French and Irish, and defender of the faith, gives greetings to our beloved lyon king of arms, Islay, Albany, Ross, Rothesay, Snowdon and Marchmont, heralds, Robert Stewart, David Bryson, Alexander Douglas and James Chalmers, our armsbearers and macers, Ormond, Bute, Unicorn and Carrick, pursuivants, and also William Mackieson, Bute pursuivant, and messengers, and, jointly and severally, our sheriffs specially constituted in that part. We mandate and instruct you to summon lawfully and peremptorily William Borthwick of Soutra at his house of residence of Johnstoneburn in which he has been accustomed to reside before his departure from our kingdom, and also at the market cross of our burgh of Edinburgh and the port of Leith, on notice of sixty days, because at present he is staying outwith our kingdom of Scotland, that he should compear before us, our commissioners and the estates of our realm of Scotland in Edinburgh, or where it happens that our commissioners and the estates of our realm are staying at the time, on 6 July next, in our parliament held and opened on 10 April last and continued until 3 July next, at the time of dealing with cases, with continuation of days, in order to answer to us and at the instance of our beloved familiar Lord Thomas Hamilton of Monkland, knight, our advocate, for our interest. For hearing and seeing, it is decided and decreed, by us and by the decreet and opinion of the estates of our realm, that the said William Borthwick of Soutra has committed the crimes of lese-majesty specified below, and thus as accused of lese-majesty according to the laws and custom of our realm he ought to be punished with the capital penalty and loss of life, goods both immovable and movable, for the reasons and causes which follow. First, because by the act of our parliament held in Edinburgh on 29 July in the year of the Lord 1587 it was established and ordained that if it should happen that anyone possessing in heritage lands, property and possessions (commonly referred to as 'any landed man') should be at any time convicted of the crimes of notorious and manifest theft, reset of theft, or theft with robbery and force (commonly, 'of common theft, receipt of theft or stouthreif'), then and in that case the foresaid persons or person should be thus properly and lawfully convicted, and he should incur the charge and penalty of lese-majesty, namely loss and forfeiture of life, lands and all goods, as the said act of parliament sets out at greater length. And thus it is in reality, because the said William Borthwick, holding lands, property and possessions in heritage, and particularly having the lands of Soutra, Barns, Redhall, Hangingshaw, Nethershiel, Couperflack and Threeburnford, all lying within our sheriffdom of Edinburgh,† and also certain lands of Nenthorn, lying within our sheriffdom of Berwick, or at least any part of the foresaid lands and property pertaining to him in heritage, shamefully and treasonably, against the honour and office of and generous and freeborn man, possessing in heritage lands and property expressly contrary to the intention of the said act of parliament - with his accomplices on 8 July in the year of the Lord 1599 or thereabouts, furtively and with the mind and intention to rob, set out from our burgh of Edinburgh by the crossing and port commonly called Queensferry towards Castle Campbell, and there, in the evening and in the silence of night, broke in by force and plundered that house and stable belonging to James Scrimgeour of Fordell, entered furtively, and after breaking down the doors and plundering the stable, took away four horses belonging to the foresaid James. On them, the said William and his accomplices scattered at will. Therefore, the said William is guilty of the said odious crime of violent theft, namely theft with robbery (commonly referred to as stouthreif), and ought to suffer the penalty of lese-majesty, namely loss and forfeiture of life, lands and goods as has been said. Secondly, in all past times it has been inviolably observed that those who coin false money or issue it or knowing it to be false and adulterated pay or give it to our subjects are held to be guilty as if of lese-majesty, and those convicted of this in the past suffered capital punishment, with, that is to say, loss and forfeiture of life, lands and all goods. And so it is in reality, because the said William Borthwick of Soutra, on account of the impunity of the said crimes perpetrated by him, proceeding from bad to worse, with no respect for the holy spirit or for us, and flouting and despising our authority and laws, with the late Thomas MacAlister of Drummaquhen and the late George Douglas (called of Bangour), and his other accomplices entered upon a plot, and treasonably adulterated our money and struck adulerated coinage, and issued it knowing and aware of its being adulterated currency, namely he issued to our subjects in Scotland five pound pieces and four pound pieces and crowns and various other kinds of money of our realm, both gold and silver, knowing it was false and adulterated, and handed it over to our subjects, not knowing otherwise, as true and sufficient currency. And in particular the said William Borthwick and his accomplices contracted a plot with the late Robert Young in Gogar, and David Johnston, makers of false currency, and plotted with them and frequently deliberated over the striking and open distribution of the said false money. The said William Borthwick and the said late George Douglas, after they had bought and accepted the said adulterated money from the said Robert Young and David Johnston, entering upon this with the sole intention of distributing it by nefarious means to the great and most grave injury and detriment of themselves and our subjects, set off together for our burgh of Ayr and there on 24 June in the year of the Lord 1599, which was the day of the public fair of the said burgh, they bought a horse from John Hamilton, servant of [Alan Cathcart], master of Cathcart, for the sum of £26 or thereabouts, which sum the said William Borthwick and George Douglas paid him in false and adulterated gold and the foresaid money, and at the time the foresaid William and George bought a mare at the same fair and paid for it the sum of £20 of the said false money. While they were returning from that town together with the intention of going back to parts of Loudoun with the said horse and mare, the foresaid John Hamilton, who had sold them the said horse, was later informed that the said money was false and adulterated, and followed the said William and the late George. After he had caught up with them, he compelled them to take back the adulterated money. At this, the said late George and the said Thomas MacAlister of Drummaquhen and the late William Maxwell, a servant of the the said William Borthwick, when examined in the presence of our justice by certain of our lords of the privy council, confessed it was true, as their depositions and testimony state. And accordingly by means of the said enquiry they were found guilty of lese-majesty just as the said William, guilty of the said crimes for which his foresaid accomplices had been convicted and punished with the penalty for lese-majesty, and aware of his guilt and in terror of the punishment inflicted on his foresaid accomplices for their treasonable crimes mentioned above, fled from Scotland to the shores and borders of England where he spent his time among nefarious men of the same ill fame, as if a manifest and notorious robber, until it seemed right to God to move us to our sceptre of England, whence a little later, when he began to be unable to hide, on account of fear of punishment, he decided to make his way to overseas parts, where he still remains, guilty of the said crimes. And so it ought to be decided by the decreet and sentence of the said estates of our realm in our parliament that the said William has committed the foresaid crimes of lese-majesty, and ought to be punished as guilty of this crime according to the laws and custom of our realm by the capital and ultimate punishment and loss and forfeiture of life, lands and goods, for the causes and reasons stated above. Therefore you are to summon Lord John Cockburn of Ormiston, knight, justice clerk, Master William Hart of Preston, justice depute, to compear before us and our commissioners and the foresaid estates of our realm of Scotland, on the foresaid day and in the foresaid place, at the time of hearing cases, with continuation of days, to bear true and loyal testimony in the foresaid case on pain of rebellion, and putting to the horn, making it clear that if they do not compear, another letter of ours will be addressed, by which they will be declared as rebels against us and put to the horn. To carry this out, we grant you and any of you jointly and severally full authority by this letter of ours, to be handed over, duly and lawfully endorsed, to the bearer of the present document, to be passed on and delivered. Given under testimony of our great seal at Edinburgh on 2 May in the year of the Lord 1604 and in the thirty-seventh year of our reign in Scotland, and the second year of our reign in England, France and Ireland.
Here follows the tenor of the executions and endorsements of the said summons of treason upon 5 May 1604:
I, William Mackieson, Bute pursuivant, passed at command of these our sovereign lord's letters within written, and lawfully summoned, warned and charged William Borthwick of Soutra at his dwelling place of Johnstoneburn, where his wife and bairns make residence and where he dwelt with them at his departing out of this realm, and affixed and left a just and authentic copy hereof upon the gate of his said dwelling place after I had knocked six times thereat, to compear before the three estates of parliament, day and place mentioned within, in the hour of cause, with continuation of days, to answer at the instance of our sovereign lord's advocate in manner, to the effect and with intimation and certification as is contained within, according to the tenor and command of these our sovereign lord's letters within written in all points. And this I did before these witnesses, John Cass, writer, and Oliver Selby, servant to Mark [Kerr], lord Newbattle, with diverse others. And for the more verification to this my execution, subscribed with my hand, my signet is affixed. It is thus subscribed, William Mackieson, Bute pursuivant.
And likewise upon the same 5 May, the year of God above-written, I, the said William Mackieson, Bute pursuivant, passed at command of these our said sovereign lord's letters to the market cross of the burgh of Edinburgh and there, by open proclamation in his highness's name and authority, lawfully summoned, warned and charged the said William Borthwick of Soutra, upon 60 days' warning because he is presently out of this realm of Scotland, to compear before the three estates of parliament, day and place mentioned within, in the hour of cause, with continuation of days, to answer at the instance of our sovereign lord's advocate in manner, to the effect and with intimation and certification as is contained within, according to the tenor and charge of these our sovereign lord's letters within written in all points; of the which I affixed and left a just copy upon the said market cross. And this I did before these witnesses, the said John Cass, writer, Robert Lowrie, messenger, and John Gillespie, servant to Robert Gardener, writer, with diverse others. And for the more verification to this my execution,† subscribed with my hand, my signet is affixed. It is thus subscribed, William Mackieson, Bute pursuivant.
And likewise upon the same 5 May, the year of God above-written, I, the said William Mackieson, Bute pursuivant, passed at command of these our sovereign lord's letters to the shore and pier of Leith and there, by open proclamation in his highness's name and authority, lawfully summoned, warned and charged the said William Borthwick of Soutra, upon 60 days' warning because he is presently out of this realm, to compear before the three estates of parliament, day and place mentioned within, in the hour of cause, with continuation of days, to answer at the instance of our sovereign lord's advocate in manner, to the effect and with intimation and certification as contained within, according to the tenor and charge of these our sovereign lord's letters within written in all points; of the which I affixed and left a just copy upon the said shore and pier of Leith. And this I did before these witnesses, the said John Cass, writer, Robert Lowrie, messenger, and the said John Gillespie, servant to the said Robert Gardener, writer, with diverse others. And for the more verification to this my execution, subscribed with my hand, my signet is affixed. It is thus subscribed, William Mackieson, Bute pursuivant.
Which summons, with the executions and endorsements thereof respectively foresaid, being this instant day read in presence of the said lord commissioner and whole estates of parliament, first in Latin and next in Scots, and the said William Borthwick of Soutra being often called at the tolbooth window of the said burgh of Perth to have compeared and answered to the said summons and reasons contained therein, and he not compearing to have defended in the said matter and to have answered to the said summons of treason, the said Master William Oliphant, substitute for our said sovereign lord's advocate, desired the estates' declaration if the reasons of the said summons were relevant against the said William Borthwick; which estates, all in one voice, found the said summons and both the reasons contained therein and either of them relevant against the said William Borthwick. Therefore, the said Master William Oliphant, in name of our said sovereign lord's advocate, for proving of the said reasons contained in the said summons of treason, produced and repeated diverse sasines and contracts bearing the said William Borthwick to be infeft in sundry lands and annualrents, and also produced and repeated the doom and sentence pronounced before the justice against the late George Douglas in Bangour, Thomas MacAlister of Drummaquhen, James Johnstone, sometime servant to the late John Johnstone, writer, and William Maxwell, servant to the said William Borthwick, and their depositions and confessions, which doom was pronounced against them upon 29 May 1601, notoriety of the facts and deeds mentioned in the said summons, and repeated the whole process and pieces produced by him in the said matter for verifying of the said summons and reasons contained therein, and desired the foresaid estates of parliament to advise upon the probation of the said summons and reasons thereof and to pronounce their sentence of parliament therein according to the same probations and their consciences. And thereafter the depositions of the said persons executed to the death, whole writs and probations being read, seen and considered by the said whole estates of parliament in presence of our said sovereign lord's said great commissioner, and they therewith being ripely advised, the said lord commissioner and whole estates of parliament find, decree and declare that the said William Borthwick of Soutra has done treason in the committing of theft in manner specified in the said first reason, and also find that the said William Borthwick has committed treason by using and outing of false and adulterous coinage in manner specified in the said last reason. And, therefore, it was given for doom by the mouth of William Hay in Perth, dempster of parliament, in manner and form as follows:
This court of parliament shows for law that the said William Borthwick of Soutra has committed and incurred the crimes of treason above-written, in manner at length contained in the reasons of the said summons, and therefore finds and declares that the said William Borthwick has lost, been deprived and forfeited for ever all his lands, heritages, rooms, possessions, offices, goods and gear whatsoever belonging to him in any manner of way, and discerns the same to have appertained and to appertain to our said sovereign lord, to be confiscated and remain with his highness as his property in all time coming; and also that the said William Borthwick has lost his same honour and dignity, and decrees him to be punished as a traitor according to the laws of this realm. And this I give for doom.