The chiefs of Grant - Electric Scotland

1GG3.] LADY MAUY STKWAirr. 287
to tlie S^'nod of Moray, wlio o|i])oar to liave liad it before tliem even prior
to 1G5], they clccided to iin])use tlio sentence of exeonininnication upon lier.'
In a. letter from her Ladyship, dated nt Frcueliie, 14th J\uie IGoo, she
asks the " Provinciall Assemhhe of .Murray" to deLiy proceedings apunst
lier until they should answer her dnu'its ;
and at one meeting of the S\'nod
the Laird himself appeared and told tiie reverend liodv tliat if they carried
their threats into execution, he nui.st either abandon his wife, or live witli
an exconnnunicated person.'
Lady Grant's sister-indaw, ]\Iary Grant, ]\rarchioness of Huntly,
was subjected to similar treatment, and sentence of excommunication " for
obstlnacie in Poperic " was pronounced against her in the parish church of
Duflus on 17th October 1G5S,^ and on 15th December following the sentence
was appointed by the Presbytery of Forres to be intimated tiirougln)ut
their bounds/ The Laird's brother, ]\rungo, was afterwards, in 1G70, also
admonished to beware of popish leanings ; his intention of sending two of
his sons to France to be educated there by " one Father Grant, a seminarie
priest," having been reported. The Synod of IMoray warned him not to do
so, as he would be answerable to the Lords of Goimcil if he did.^
The old manuscript of "Anecdotes" already referred to says that Lady
Mary Stewart was extremely bold and peculiar in her way. Li the begin-
ning of her married life she lost several of her cliildren, and was so credulous
as to imagine they were bewitched, which made her listen to advice given
her about sending for an Italian pricker, that Is, a man who, by pricking
the body with iron spikes, pretended to distinguish witches frcmi those who
had no pretensions to a knowdedge of the black ai't. This man's experi-
ments were fatal to many, as numbers died in the operation. '^ The
Laird of
Brodie has a passage in his diary wlilch confirms this trait in Lady Grants
character. Under the 13th of February 1G55, he wrote that, after he
returned from Darnaway late at night Lady Grant wrote for him, but that
he " was feard to goe because she was a papist." Next day, however, he
discovered that " Ladl Grant's errand was anent the witch which wes
^ Records of the Presbytery of Forres. ' Records of tbe Preshytcry of Forre3.
^ Records of the Synod of Moray. ' Records of tlie Synod of Mor.-ij-.
' Session Records of iJuffus. ° Origin.-il MS. at Castle Graut.