The Honourable Harry Maule of Kelly, a gallant soldier and an accomplished historical antiquary, in his 'Epistle to the Reader,' prefixed to his 'Registrum de Panmure,' says, 'I have read over a good many Histories and Genealogies of Families in Scotland, some in manuscript, others printed, and have examined and compared some of them with what I found in Public Records and in the chartularies of our Bishopricks and Abbeys, and found many of them stuffed and filled with fables, falsehoods, and errors, and written to flatter the persons now concerned, and so became to doubt of everything contained in them. Therefore, that I might not fall in the error or impose on the readers, I resolved to make a register of all the charters, authentic writes, or documents that had been collected from those of the above families [those of Maule de Valoniis and Brechin], that the readers may make their own judgment of them, and not depend on anything I say or others may have said some hundreds of years after the time they write of.'

The materials which Mr. Maule, with the assistance of his second son, James Maule, thus collected for the 'Registrum de Panmure,' have been employed by him with great care and a strict regard to historical accuracy. Mr. James Maule, in mentioning his reasons for giving a history of the illustrious family to which he belonged, says that 'having designed to write the history of some one of our Scots families, like those done abroad, which nobody has ever yet attempted, I pitched on that of the family of Panmure: not but that of Hamilton had borne greater offices and higher honours, Douglas more renowned for military actions, and several others more in history for alliances, cadets, offices, &c.; but in the family of Panmure I found, 1st. An antiquity not to be paralleled, being as ancient in Scotland as any name ever there found, as ancient in England as the Conquest, an age before we have anything certain of Scots families, and traced in France a century above that. 2. Their continuing in a male line so great a time as seven hundred and sixty years, and five hundred and upwards enjoying the same principal barony and style of Panmure in Scotland, in a direct line. 3. The nobleness and grandeur of their original. 4. The great variety which their history affords to engage a reader; for having flourished in France, England, and Scotland, they are concerned in the wars of all these three kingdoms, the Holy Wars, the wars of Italy, Greece, and Hungary. They have enjoyed peerages and dignities in all these kingdoms, had offices by which the great places of all the three are treated of; and by their alliances the noblest families of France, the Low Countries, England, Scotland, and Ireland are mentioned, and the different characters and fortunes of Valoignes and Brechin enrich the story and render it agreeable. 5. Beside their ancient military virtue and loyalty and love to their country, in later times for all public and private qualities the family of Panmure has produced sexcentas viritutes virorum, as in D. of Halicarnassus, &c. 6. The compleat and full documents still preserved of that family, which would have been so difficult in some others to get. [Registrum de Panmure, I. lxxvii., lxxviii. Edited by John Stuart, LL.D.] The character and exploits of the members of this ancient and powerful family fully bear out the eulogium of its historian.

The MAULES are a family of Norman origin and derive their surname from the town and lordship of Maule, in Normandy, which for four centuries were in possession of the family. Many graphic sketches of the various members of the house in these early days are to be found in the 'Chronicle of Ordericus,' and it is interesting to notice that the prominent features of their characters closely resemble those of their descendants in Scotland in later times. Of PETER OF MAULE, who flourished towards the close of the eleventh century, it is recorded 'that he was much beloved by his tenants and neighbours, because his manners were frank, and he did not strengthen himself with craft and deceit. His alms were bountiful, and he delighted in giving. But he had no liking for fasts, and as far as it was in his power shunned having anything to do with them.' ANSOLD, Peter's son, was tall and powerful in person and a most gallant soldier, having, when a youth, joined the brave Duke Guiscard in his expedition into Greece, and fought gallantly in the battle near Duratzo, in which Alexius, Emperor of Constantinople, was defeated and put to flight, on the 18th of October, 1081. 'He was constant in attending the services of the Church. His habits were strict and frugal. He never tasted apples in an orchard, grapes in a vineyard, or nuts in the woods, taking food only when the table was spread at regular hours. Fasting and all bodily abstinence he both praised and practised in his own person. He made no predatory excursions, and while husbanding his own property, he was careful to make payment of what was due from it for tithes, firstfruits, and alms. He not only gave nothing to strollers, buffoons, and dancing girls, but would have no kind of intercourse or familiar conversation with them.' Of all the knights of Maule the chronicler relates that they gave freely to the Church, during their lives, of their lands and substance; the order of monks was treated by them with great respect, and at the hour of death their aid was earnestly sought for the salvation of their souls. The last of the Norman Maules was killed at the battle of Nicopolis, in Hungary, fought against the Turks in the year 1398. His great estates went to his daughter, who married Simon de Morainvilliers, Lord of Flacourt. They next passed by marriage to the Harlays of Sancy, and the heiress of that great family married the Marquis of Villeroy, grandfather to the Marshal and Duke of Villeroy.

Several centuries before the extinction of the male line of the family in Normandy, a junior branch of the Maules had taken root in Scotland. A son of Peter, the first Lord Maule of that name, accompanied William the Conqueror into England, and received from him a part of the lordship of Hatton de Cleveland, in Yorkshire, and other extensive estates. ROBERT DE MAULE, one of his sons, became attached to David, Earl of Huntingdon, afterwards David I. of Scotland, and obtained from him a grant of lands in Midlothian. His eldest son, WILLIAM DE MAULE, was with King David at the Battle of the Standard, A.D. 1138, and received from that monarch a gift of the lands of Fowlis, in the Carse of Gowrie. He died without male issue, and the line of succession was carried on through ROGER MAULE, his younger brother—the progenitor of the Maules of Panmure. His grandson, SIR PETER MAULE, married Christian, only child and heiress of William de Valoniis, the representative of a great Norman family whose immediate ancestor settled in Scotland at the end of the reign of Malcolm IV., and was appointed by William the Lion High Chamberlain about 1180. Sir Peter obtained with her the baronies of Panmure and Benvie in Forfarshire, and other estates both in England and Scotland, thus uniting the fortunes of two ancient and influential houses. He had two sons, WILLIAM—by whom he was succeeded—and SIR THOMAS, who was a soldier of distinguished valour and 'a most audacious knight in mind and body.’ His character has been oftener than once reproduced in the family. He was governor of Brechin Castle, the only fortress in the north which shut its gates against Edward I. in his progress through the country in 1303. ‘Trusting to the strength of the walls, the governor made no account of the war machines brought against them. The King of England's men incessantly threw stones against the walls without effect. Sir Thomas held the castle for twenty days against the assaults of the English army, and was so confident of its strength that he stood on the ramparts and contemptuously wiped off with a towel the dust and rubbish raised by the stones thrown from the English battering engines.' But he was at last mortally wounded by a splinter broken from the wall by the force of a stone missile. 'While he lay expiring on the ground, being asked if the castle should now be surrendered, he cursed the men as cowards who made the suggestion.' The garrison, however, capitulated next day. Henry de Maule of Panmure, the nephew of this gallant soldier, fought on the patriotic side in the War of Independence, and was knighted for his services by King Robert Bruce. Sir Thomas Maule, the head of the family at the commencement of the fifteenth century, fought under the banner of the Earl of Mar at the sanguinary battle of Harlaw, in August, 1411, along with the chivalry of Angus and Mearns, and was among the slain. As the old ballad says— 'The knicht of Panmure, as was sene, A mortel man in armour bricht;Sir Thomas Murray stout and kene, Left to the world their last gude-nicht.' His posthumous son, THOMAS MAULE, notwithstanding his infancy, was served heir to his father in 1412, in virtue of an Act of Parliament which was passed permitting this service in the case of heirs in nonage whose fathers had fallen in that battle.

At this period, the lordship of the ancient family of the Barclays of Brechin should have fallen to Sir Thomas Maule, who was grandson of Jean Barclay, the heiress of their estates. He was only able, however, to obtain possession of a comparatively slender portion of the property, the lordship itself being annexed to the Crown on the forfeiture of Walter Stewart, Earl of Athole, who was executed for his complicity in the conspiracy which led to the assassination of James I., in 1437. The Earl, on the day of his execution, formally acknowledged that he had held the lordship only by courtesy since the death of his wife, Elizabeth Barclay, and that it belonged by right to Sir Thomas Maule. But the policy of the late King, to diminish the power of the great nobles, was carried out by his successor, and like the earldoms of Mar and Strathearn, the greater part of the Barclay estates was appropriated by the sovereign.

Sir Thomas, who died in 1450, was succeeded by his son, who bore the same name. His first wife was Elizabeth Lyndsay, daughter of Alexander, first Earl of Crawford. Connected with this marriage and the subsequent repudiation of the lady by her husband, Commissary Maule relates an incident which throws great light on the morals of that period. It appears that Sir David Guthrie, who had married the sister of Sir Thomas Maule, after she had borne him a number of children desired to get rid of his wife, and sued for a divorce before the Consistory Court of St. Andrews, on the plea that she was related to him within the prohibited degrees—a common pretext at that time for the dissolution of the marriages of ill-matched couples. The ecclesiastical court readily lent their sanction to this device, and Sir David Guthrie was allowed to put away his wife. The Earl of Crawford, it appears, had assisted Sir David in procuring this divorce, and 'thearfor Sir Thomas Maule did tak sic indignatione at the Earle that he did repudiat his wyf, albeit ane innocent woman, and to quhome no man could reproche any notoure fault. Sche liveit long after him.' Sir Thomas took for his second wife Catherine Cramond, daughter of the Laird of Aldbar. After his marriage Sir Thomas, when ‘rydand at the huntes neir to the Green Lawe of Brechin, suddanlie became blind and lost his sight, quharfor he was called the blind knight.'

ALEXANDER MAULE, the eldest son of Sir Thomas, predeceased his father. 'He was ane prodigal man,' says Commissary Maule, 'not given for the weil of his house, quharthrowe his father, conceivit ane evil opinione of him, and thairfor put him not in fea but [except] of Cameston, and of ane annuel of sax lib., to be liftit out of the baronie.' Alexander and his second son left the country about the year 1498. 'The cause why the said Alexander past furth of Scotland,' says the Commissary, 'is said to be ane haitret he consavit against his wyf and hir frindis for hir misbehaveor. Alexander took gryt somes of money with him, as we have by tradition, as lykwayes that he past to England; but thereafter never word was of them. It is thought they had fallen into the hands of brigands, quha for the money they had, had murdered them: his son Sir Thomas, quha did succeed to the heritage, did many years after look for his home-cominge, and it is said that there did never ane schip come into the Tay, but he looked for his father, or word fra him.'

SIR THOMAS, the son and successor of this ill-fated laird, was noted for his generosity to the Church, and appears to have been somewhat turbulent in his youth. 'It is said,' wrote the Commissary, 'that he was subject to women: for ane indignation he consevit against Ihon Liddel of Panlathyne, he burnt the said Ihon’s hail biggen; quharupon he did obtain ane remission under the gryt seale, quharen is contenit the hail narrative of the matter and causs of the said remission; yet afterwards he became verie penitent of this, as lyk of all other offences of his youth committed against God and nychbours, as may be easily perseavid by sundry donations to religious housis, and pilgramages done by him.' One of these pilgrimages was made to the shrine of St. John of Amiens, in Picardy. His donations to the 'religious houses' must have been unusually liberal, for we are told that 'he obtanit ane letter of con-fraternity fra the general vicar of the Minorites, that he and his wyf and children should be participant of their whole prayers, suffrages, and divine service, not only of those of that order quha at the present time were within the realm of Scotland, but also of all them quha were dispersit threw the hail parts of Christendom, and not only of the brethren of Sanct Francis, quhom we call Grayfreres, but also of the Sisters of Saincte Clara.'

The Commissary proceeds to mention a curious incident which occurred one day, when Sir Thomas was hunting in company with several other gentlemen. His greyhound caught, and, as was supposed, killed a hare, which was hung by 'one of the laird’s servants to his saddle’s tore [pummel]. A little after there was another hare found, who would not rise for them. At last, he that had the hare at his saddle-tore loosed her and flung her at that hare that would not rise out of her seat for them. Both of them ran away without a turn, and both of them escaped with their lives without a turn.' Sir Thomas Maule fell fighting under the royal banner in the bloody field of Flodden. According to the account of Commissary Maule, Sir Thomas was exceedingly corpulent, 'and therefore was not able, by reason of the great press, to draw his sword; whairfor the Laird of Guthrie drew it furth to him, and he fell with the greater part of his friends and vassals.'

ROBERT MAULE, the eldest son of Sir Thomas by his first wife, succeeded to the family estates when he was only sixteen years of age. He assisted the Earl of Lennox in his unsuccessful attempt in 1526 to rescue James V. out of the hands of the Douglases, for which he afterwards got remission from the King. Two years later he obtained a royal license, dispensing with his attendance at all musters or meetings of the estates, on account of the faithful services which he had rendered to his Majesty. He belonged to the party who resolutely opposed the scheme for the marriage of the infant queen Mary to Edward Prince of Wales, and in 1547 was taken prisoner, and severely wounded when defending his house of Panmure against an English force, assisted by some traitorous Scotsmen. He was conveyed by sea to London, and imprisoned for two years in the Tower, but was ultimately released at the solicitation of the Marquis d' Elbœuf, the French ambassador to Scotland. 'He was ane man of comlie behaviour, of high stature, sanguine in collour, both of hyd [skin] and hair, colerique of nature, and subject to suddane anger; ane natural man, expert in the lawes of the country, of gude language, expert in counting of genalogies. During his first wyfe's time, he did cause build the house of Panmore as it is at this day. He was very temperate of his mouth, but given to lecherie, ane able man on foot, and ane gude horseman; lyket weil to be honorable in apparel and weil horsed, mickel honorit with his nychbours, and in gude estimation. He had great delight in hawkine and hunting. He took plesure in playing at the football, and for that cause the moor of Bathil was appointed, and during his days it was not casten, but only reservit for that game. Lykeways he exerciset the gowf [golf] and offtimes past to Barry Links, when the wadfie [stake] was for drink. If he tint [lost] he never wad enter in ane browster house, but causit ane of his servants to gang and pay for all.' After the death of his wife he became very penitent of his former lyfe, and embraced the Reformed religion. He had with him at syndry times the ministers that then were chiefest in the country, to wit Paul Meffane and Ihone Brabner. This Ihone was a vehement man, inculcating the law and pain thereof, but Paul Meffane was ane mair myld man, preaching the evangel of grace and remission of Jesus in the blude of Christ. His youngest son begotten on his first wyfe, called Robert, ane godlie person, given to reading of the Scripture, did nychtlie walk beside his father, instructing him in the chief points of religion, for he was ane man that had been brought up rudely without letters, so that he could neither read nor write.' He died in the year 1540, and was succeeded by his eldest son—THOMAS MAULE, at that time in his twentieth year. Robert Maule was evidently resolved that his son should not suffer as he had done from the want of education, for the family historian mentions that from the time Thomas was seven years of age 'he was sent to Edinburgh, to ane Robert Leslie, quha was ane famous man of law in that time, and also held the chief innes of the hail towne for noble men. Hereafter, coming to be ane young man, he did wait on Cardinal David Beaton, and was contracted in marriage with his daughter. But on ane day cuming riding in companie out of Arbroath with King James the Fyft, the king did call him asyde, quha having afore heard of the contract, said to him, "Marrie never ane priest’s geat" [child], whereupon that marriage did cease.' He subsequently married a daughter of George Haliburton of Pitcur, the widow of John Ogilvy of Balfour. 'The year following his marriage, in the month of September, was the battle of Pinkie, where he was in the Earl of Angus's battle, but the victory inclining to England they fled, and had ane great impediment of the water, quhilk was dammed behind them, for they did all wade the same, quhilk made them heavy and unable to flee, wherethrow great slaughter did ensewe of our people. After Thomas had past the water, he did cast off his jack, and had impediment to get it fra him, by reason he had his purse under his oxter [armpit], quhilk did stay the offcoming of the same: yet at the pleasure of God he was relevit of it, and took the nearest way on foot to Edinburgh, with his sword in his hand and a steel bonnet on his head. The Englishmen followed fast on horseback, quha till eschew them, and being tyrit and heavie with wading the water, entered in the cornyard of Brunstane, where finding ane great cherrie tree, clamb up in the thickest of the branches thereof, and he scarcely settlet, there enters twa Englishmen on horse within the yard, and looked up and down if they could find any man, but as God willed he was not perceivit. In this meantime, while as they were bowne away forth of the yard, there fell fra ane of them something, but what it was he could not perceive, but appearit to be ane purse. The Englishman being on horse drew his sword, and had mickel ado to get up the same upon the point thereof; quhilk space Thomas was in great fear: he said he never thought ane tyme so long. But thereafter, they riding away he past to Edinburgh, where finding syndrie of his folks, remainit there all night, and on the morn passed to the Queensferrie and came home that way. His father hearing of the defeat was in ane mervillous fear and perplexitie, for his wyfe was now known to be with child, the lands not tailzeit [entailed]: if she had been deliverit of ane daughter the house should have gone fra the name, so that his father neither did eat nor sleep, and nane of his domestiques durst almaist come in his presence, for he had in mind the field of Flodden, where his father, Sir Thomas, was slane, as also the Harlaw, where Sir Thomas Maule was slane, and nane of his name living in lyfe: and except his wyfe had been deliverit of ane son the name had been altogether extinguishit: and by and attour this he did bear ane singular luve and favour to his son.’ Thomas Maule was afterwards taken prisoner along with his father, when Panmure I-louse was captured by the English. He took part in the battle of Hadden-rig, a few miles east of Kelso, where, in 1542, an English army, assisted by the Douglases, was completely defeated by the Earls of Huntly and Home, but young Maule was carried off by the fugitives and kept for some time at Morpeth. After the death of James V. he was set at liberty by order of Henry VIII. The murder of Darnley seems to have had the effect of alienating him from the Queen, for he became a zealous supporter of the Regent Moray and of the cause of the infant King.

The family historian gives a graphic picture of Thomas Maule's personal appearance and pursuits. 'He was ane fair man,' he says, 'of personage lyke to his father, of ruddie collour, his hair red-yellow, and his beard; of ane liberal face and blythe countenance, never for na adversitie dejected. In mind, given to honest pastime, but chiefly to hunting and hawking, in the quhilk he took sic delight that he would ride all day at the same, fasting, except in the morning he would take ane drink of aile, and thereafter ane lytel acquavite, and continue to the evening without either meat or drink, and at his first coming hame at even would call for ane drink. Na fair day almost through the hail year but he was on horseback, even in his old age, except on the Sunday.' It appears that when he was a young man an accident which befel a favourite hawk on a Sunday made him ever after avoid amusing himself on that day. 'Thirty years before his death he never did ryde with ane cloak, but a coat alane, in the cauldest weather in winter, and wald never lyght to gang for heat, and coming to ane water, when as it drew near even, wald lyght fra his horse, and in the cauld frost wald wash his hawk's supper, and never shrink for cauld; and then coming hame wald call for ane drink before ever he came to the fire. He was ane man not curious of the world, and wald rather suffer loss of gudes than enter in pley with his neighbours.' This excellent specimen of a stout and hardy old Scottish laird died A.D. 1600, in the seventy-ninth year of his age. 'Ane lytil before his death, after the laird of Pitcur and his son the young laird had taken their leave, he causit put out all the dogs out of his chalmer, and then causit ishewe all the persons that were therein, except his son Thomas Maule, then confessit his sins to God, thereafter said the Belief and the Lord's Prayer; whilk done he willed them all to gang to their supper in the hall, except ane woman to attend on him, and immediately after they are set down his speiche fails him and he gives up the ghost! The lady his wyf thereafter wald suffer no man or woman to touch him but herself; sche closed his eyes and streiked him, syne did wyne [wind] him with her awen hand's, with ane womanlie countenance and courage, never shedding any tears, but uttering some few words in her commendation of his honest and loving heart, albeit I at the writing hereof could not do it without gretine [weeping].' The lady of whom Commissary Maule writes in such glowing terms was Thomas Maule’s second wife. He married first, in 1526, Lady Elizabeth Lindsay, daughter of David, Earl of Crawford, who left no family; and secondly, in 1546, Margaret Haliburton, with whom he lived fifty-two years, who bore him eight sons and three daughters, and survived her husband two years. 'She was,' says her son, 'ane religious and godly woman, mikil given to prayer and reading of the Word, luving and benign to all persons, almousful to the poor and needy, delytit mikel to talk of auld histories, knew the hail genealogie of hir father's house, as also of hir mother's, gave meat and drink with ane marvellous cheerful countenance, loved all godlie and honest men, detested vice: ane sober and chaste woman.' It may be said of this lady, as of the virtuous woman described in the Book of Proverbs, 'her children arise up and call her blessed.'

Part Two

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