"It was a black Parliament, " he said, "for
iniquity was seated in the high court of justice, and had
trodden equity under foot. It was a black Parliament, for
the arch-traitors had escaped; escaped, did he say, no, they
were absolved ! and now all good men might prepare themselves
for darker days; trials were at hand. It had ever been seen
that the absolving of the wicked imported the persecution
of the righteous; let us pray that the king, by some sanctified
plague, may be turned again to God. "
The new proprietor, Lord Lothian, did not long enjoy his estate,
and his immediate successor seems to have been in a most indecent
hurry to get the burden off his shoulders; for in 1609 we
find, —"After the decease of the first Earl of Lothian,
Mark Kerr, a Lord of Lothian, disposed of the estate to John
Morison. " This was the same Mark Kerr, the commendator,
who not only refused to assist Davidson in building a church,
but actually refused him liberty to bury one of his parishioners
in the old churchyard, " because it was a private burial
ground. " It was at this juncture, we understand, that
Davidson told Mark Kerr " he would not long enjoy these
lands. "
In Scot of Scotstarvet's "Staggering State of the Scots
Statesmen, " we find this remarkable story respecting
the family of Newbattle. " Playfair, a notable warlock
of that period, on being taken prisoner in Dalkeith steeple,
whither he had fled for refuge, made several confessions to
Archibald Simpson, minister there, amongst which was, that
Mark, the commendator of Newbattle, had by his wife, the Lord
Herries' daughter, thirty-one children. His lady always kept
in her company wise women or witches, and especially one Margaret
Nues, who fostered his daughter, the Lady Borthwick, and was,
long after his death, burnt in Edinburgh for witchcraft; and
my Lady Lothian's son-in-law, Sir Alexander Hamilton, told
one of his friends how one night, lying in Prestongrange,
pertaining to the said Abbey of Newbattle, he was pulled out
of his bed by the said witches and sore beaten, of which injury,
when he complained to his mother-in-law, and assured her he
would complain thereof to the council, she pacified him by
giving him a purse full of gold. That lady thereafter, being
vexed with a cancer in her breast, implored the help of the
notable warlock above mentioned, who condescended to heal
her, but with condition that the sore should fall on them
which she loved best; whereunto, she agreeing, did convalesce;
but the carl, her husband, found the boil of which he died
shortly thereafter; and the said Playfair, being soon apprehended,
was made prisoner as above. " Poor Mark Kerr! It would
almost seem that Davidson, when
he prophesied his downfall, had been in league with the
warlocks.
John Morison was an Edinburgh gentleman, but, on becoming
proprietor, became resident at Prestongrange. He was succeeded
by his son, Sir Alexander Morison, who became a Lord of Session
in 1626, and assumed the title of Lord Prestongrange. In the
"Senators of the College of Justice" he is thus
referred to (page 275): "Alexander Morison, son of John
Morison, one of the Bailies of Edinburgh, by Katherine, daughter
of Sir John Preston, Lord President. " Being bred to
the bar, he was admitted advocate on the 25th January 1604,
and an Ordinary Lord on the 14th February 1626. Lord Prestongrange
was elected Rector of the University of Edinburgh 1627, and
attended before the Town Council to give his oath de fideli;
but, according to Crawford, nothing more came of it. He
died at Prestongrange on the 20th September 1631, in the fifty-second
year of his age.
Sir Alexander Morison was succeeded by his son Alexander,
who seems to have been best known simply as the Laird of Prestongrange;
and yet he would seem to have been knighted too, like his
father, for in Scott's "Fasti, " he is, in church
matters, always referred to as Sir Alexander. He was highly
honoured at the beginning of his career, being elected first
member of Parliament for East Lothian under the united Crowns
of England and Scotland. Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun was his
opponent, and the contest was a stiff one; but the government
of the day supported Morison, and he carried the seat by nine
votes.
The Morisons, on acquiring the estate of Prestongrange, had
become chief patrons of the church, for in 1642 we find Sir
Alexander using his right by presenting Robert Ker to the
living, "whose ordination was the first in Scotland since
Episcopacy was established, " and in 1648 he also presented
John Oswald, from the Tolbooth Church in Edinburgh, to the
Parish Church of Prestonpans.
In 1682 Sir William Hamilton of Preston and Sir Alexander
Morison of Prestongrange were both fined by Privy Council,
the former because he laughed at a riot going on at the church
because the minister refused to take the test of 1681, and
the latter, being patron, for not trying to prevent the disturbance;
and in 1701 we find Sir Alexander at litigation with the parishioners,
through trying to force an obnoxious minister upon them.
Morison was originally very wealthy, and possibly his wealth
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