Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

ccliv WILLIAM, FIRST MARQUIS OF ANXAXDALE, 1G72-1721.
from August to October, he received visits from a constant succession of
friends, who stayed with him for a longer or shorter period. These each
brought witli them from two to seven attendants, and, in some instances, as
many as eleven horses.
His lordship completed his curriculum of four sessions at the university
in 1C81. While he was still in attendance there, a notice of the large
family Bible occurs in the accounts :
—
1679, April. " Item, payed for tlie binding oft" aue greate hous Byble
perteining to the deceast Countess off Annandaile, and wcs given be the deceast
countess to the deceast jNIr. Robert Lauder to bind, and, at the death of the said
Mr. Robert, the Byble was laid in to the lious of Johnnc Muire, and now
is takeu up be the compter, and hes payed for binding of it, £4, 10s. Od."^
In 1679 the Earl of Annaudale, being fifteen years of age, took the
usual legal steps for the appointment of curators to manage his affairs till he
attained to the age of twenty-one years. The persons whom he chose to act
for him in this capacity included the Duke of Hamilton, who was a sine quo
non, the Earl of Crawford, and others. On 29th July of the following year,
he was served heir to his father at Edinburgh. He left Hamilton Palace to
attend the service, travelling to Edinburgh b}- ISIevrbie. The retour states
that the lands and baronies to which he succeeded were erected into the
earldom of Annandale and Hartfell and lordship of Johnstone, according to
the form of the charter granted by the Icing to the late earl, his father, on
23d April 1662. It also retours him in the heritable office of steward of
the stewartry of Annandale, and narrates that all the lands mentioned had
been in the king's hands since the death of his father on 17th July 1672,
for eight years and eleven days, by the non-entry of William, now Earl of
Annandale and Hartfell, lawful heir-male of his father in the same." The
retour, which is dated at the Tolbooth or new session-house of Edinburgh on
1 Accounts in Annandale Charter-cheat.
' Annandale Peerage Minutes of Evidence, 1876, pp. 6I-G4 ; 1S78, pp. 063-972.