Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

SIR JAMES MOKTGOMERIK AND THE CLUB. cclxiii
passed constituting tlic convention a parliament. As commissioner from the
king, and as president of the convention, tlie Duke of Hamilton touched
the act witli the sceptre, by which it became law.
Although l.Uindee and other Jacobites attended the convention of estates,
and sanctioned their recent .actions, they were engaged in proceedings to
restore King James, which culminated in the battle of Killiecrankie, where
the army of King James, headed by Dundee, defeated that of King ^^'illiam
under Jlackay.
In these threatening circumstances parliament recpiircd the assistance of
the loyal members. But several of the influential representatives of the
barons were dissatisfied with certain acts of the convention. These dis-
sentients formed themselves into a separate section popularly known as the
" Club." They were for a time numerically the largest voting power in par-
liament. The leading .spirit of the club was Sir James Moutgomerie of Skel-
morlie,^ member for Ayrshire, who took a very active part in the debates of
the convention. His wife was Lady Margaret Johnstone, one of the sisters
of the Earl of Annandale. The young Earl of Annandale was easily drawn
into the schemes of his brother-in-law, Skelmorlie, along with Lord Eoss.
The Earl of Argyll, Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth, and other members of
parliament, were for some time members of the club. Sir James Jlonlgomerie
was a disappointed politician. Amidst the changes consequent upon the
devolution, Moutgomerie expected to obtain the office of lord-justice clerk,
and he expressed chagrin that it had been bestowed on another. Many
C[uestious were urged in the new parliament. On three points the members
of the club desired to have new acts of the estates passed—to have the lords
of the articles appointed by parliament, to have certain persons who were
employed in the late reigns disqualified from office under the new reign,
and to have the new judges appointed by parliament. But to none of these
• There is a notice of Sir James Montgomerie as the foiirlh baronet of Skelmorlie in the
"Memorials of the Montgomeries, Earls of Eglinton," 1859, vol. i. pp. 16.3-165,