[BITList] Fwd: Meiting twa for twa

[John Feltham]

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Ker,  Robert, first earl of Roxburghe  (1569/70-1650), politician, was the eldest son of Sir William Ker of Cessford (d. 1600) and Janet Douglas, daughter of Sir James Douglas of Drumlanrig. Robert was probably born in 1570, being described as fifteen in November 1585 at the time of the fall from power of James Stewart, earl of Arran. He first received lands from the crown in March 1573, including his father's barony of Cessford. He seems to have married relatively young, his wedding to Margaret Maitland taking place on 5 December 1587. She was the only daughter of Sir William Maitland of Lethington, secretary of state under Mary of Guise and Mary, queen of Scots, and his wife, Jean Fleming, one of the famous 'four Marys', ladies-in-waiting to Mary, queen of Scots. Robert and Margaret had three daughters and one son, William, Lord Ker, who graduated MA from Edinburgh in July 1610 and died in France eight years later. In 1590 Robert Ker murdered William Ker of Ancrum, a member of the rival house of the Kers of Ferniehirst, under cover of darkness in Edinburgh. He was denounced a rebel, his property was escheated to the crown, and he fled to England immediately. He was called back late in the following year by John Maitland of Thirlestane, his wife's uncle, who was attempting to construct a favourable faction at court. Through Maitland's dealings, Ker received a remission under the great seal in November 1591. The feud between the houses of Cessford and Ferniehirst was not settled until 1607, when Robert Ker of Cessford apologized to the Ferniehirst Kers and paid them 10,000 merks (£6666 13s. 4d.).

In January 1592 Robert received further lands as a result of the forfeiture of Francis Stewart, first earl of Bothwell. In the autumn of the following year, Maitland of Thirlestane and Ker went to Linlithgow with over 200 horse to lend support to the royal campaign against Bothwell, who had risen in arms. At this meeting Ker was reconciled with Lord Hume, another border rival. A few weeks later the young laird of Cessford left Edinburgh to go to his wife, accompanied only by one servant. By accident he encountered Bothwell, who also had only one companion, near Humbie and 'meiting twa for twa, they focht allong tyme on horsback'. Cessford's servant was wounded on the cheek but 'at lenthe beathe parteis so wearied with long fechting ... they assentit baithe to let utheris depairt and ryd away for that tyme'. Ker returned to Edinburgh 'and tald the Kingis Majestie of that accident'  (Moysie, 111). As a result orders were given to raze Bothwell's castle of Crichton. In the spring of 1594 Ker, by now warden depute of the middle march, was appointed, along with Lord Hume and the laird of Buccleuch, to muster troops in the Merse and Teviotdale to resist Bothwell once again.

Ker's aid to the king against Bothwell increased his credit at court. In August he attended the baptism of Prince Henry and was one of four bearers of the 'paile' or canopy of velvet fringed with gold which was held over the infant prince. In October he was promoted warden of the middle march but, in spite of this, he is known to have carried on the border tradition of raiding into England. In February 1598 he was arrested by Sir Robert Carey and handed over to the custody of the archbishop of York, although, probably because of his position, he was released by the beginning of June.

In May 1599 Ker was admitted to the reconstituted privy council and was thereafter a fairly regular attender at meetings of the council, although a number of quite prolonged absences after 1603 suggest sojourns at court in England. He attended his first convention of estates in December 1599, and late in the following year he was raised to the peerage as Lord Roxburghe on the occasion of the baptism of Prince Charles. He subsequently received various lands in the shires of Roxburgh, Dumfries, Peebles, and Berwick. Although licensed 'to depairt and pas furth of' Scotland in August 1602  (Reg. PCS, 1st ser., 6.440-41), he does not seem to have taken advantage of this permission but he did accompany his sovereign on his journey south to take up the English throne in April 1603. His absence from the sederunts of the privy council until the beginning of 1606 would suggest that he may have remained at court for a good deal of that time. He did, however, attend parliament at Edinburgh in July 1604, when he was elected one of the lords of the articles, the committee which drafted acts and received petitions. He was also appointed one of the commissioners for negotiating a closer union with England.

A long-standing feud with Sir Robert Ker of Ancrum, resulting from the murder of Ancrum's father, William, was resolved during 1606. After several appearances before the privy council, the parties agreed to be reconciled and 'choppit handis' before the council on 20 November  (Reg. PCS, 1st ser., 7.272). In 1607 Roxburghe was the commissioner to the synod of Merse and Teviotdale and to the presbyteries within that synod, on behalf of the privy council. In the previous December a packed general assembly at Linlithgow had agreed to have permanent or 'constant' moderators for these ecclesiastical courts but, knowing that there would be opposition within the kirk, prominent local landowners were commissioned by the council in an attempt to ensure their acceptance. In March 1607 Roxburghe sent a messenger to the presbytery of Melrose with a charge from the privy council ordering it to accept their nominated constant moderator within twenty-four hours, 'quhilk was thoucht be the presbiterie to be hard and precipitant deilling'  (Melrose presbytery register, NA Scot., CH2/327/1, fol. 2v). They refused, and a week later Roxburghe turned up in person, yet still the presbytery stood firm. The matter dragged on through the summer with repeated pressure being applied by Lord Roxburghe yet, in October, the presbytery elected its own moderator in the usual manner. Roxburghe went to the synod in October and urged them to accept a constant moderator and to force their presbyteries to do likewise. According to Calderwood, a member of that synod, 'he got a flatt Nolumus'  (Calderwood, 6.680).

In that year Roxburghe was granted the properties of the abbacy of Kelso by parliament, in which he was again elected one of the lords of the articles. Throughout the rest of his political career he was very much involved in parliamentary business, attending most meetings of the estates and being appointed to several parliamentary commissions on taxation and ecclesiastical affairs. He was also appointed to several privy council commissions and in 1610 was reappointed to the reconstituted privy council.

Early in 1614, having been widowed, Roxburghe married for a second time, at Somerset House in London, the marriage contract being dated 10 January. His new wife was Jean Drummond (d. 1643) [see Ker,  Jane, countess of Roxburghe], daughter of Patrick, Lord Drummond, and governess to the children of James VI; they had one child, Harry, born in 1618. On 18 September 1616 Roxburghe became the first earl of Roxburghe, Lord Ker of Cessford and Caverton, and was granted the right to make four knights on the occasion of his elevation. In spite of this he was disappointed at being passed over for the office of chamberlain; his wife fell from favour with Queen Anne and, as a result, they left court for a time. Although apparently initially reluctant to adhere to the five articles of Perth, particularly that which enjoined that communicants receive the sacrament kneeling, he was elected to the lords of the articles in the parliament of 1621 and voted to ratify them. In November of that year he was appointed to the inner 'cabinet' council, a subcommittee of the privy council for dealing with higher affairs of state. Two years later he was appointed to the commission for grievances, intended as a conduit to James VI for Scottish problems and complaints. He was at court at the time of the death of James VI and he attended the king's funeral. Roxburghe had been on a commission responsible for managing the affairs of Prince Charles in Scotland since 1619, and the new king soon confirmed his position as a privy councillor and a member of the grievances commission. He continued to be active in affairs of state, both in England and Scotland, in spite of his advancing years.

In 1637 Roxburghe was made lord privy seal, in spite of his lack of Latin. He was in Edinburgh at the time of the anti-prayer book riot on 23 July and the bishop of Edinburgh used Roxburghe's coach to escape the angry mob after the morning service, the earl's footmen keeping them off with drawn swords. In the autumn the earl attempted to achieve reconciliation by acting as an intermediary between dissident ministers, including Alexander Henderson, and the bishops. In December, having been at court, he was sent by Charles I to Scotland 'to try if he could find aney way to compose bussines' but this did not bear fruit  (Historical Works of Balfour, 2.237). At the general assembly at Glasgow in November 1638, he was one of six royal nominees to be assessors to the marquess of Hamilton, the king's commissioner. The assembly refused to allow the assessors the right to vote, fearing a precedent which might allow the king to appoint any number of voting commissioner's assessors. In August 1639 he again attended the general assembly, as one of the assessors of the king's commissioner. He attended parliament in the same month but was initially debarred from the parliament house in 1641 because he had not signed the national covenant. After subscribing he was admitted and was soon appointed to a number of committees.

During the 1640s Roxburghe remained prominent in politics, in spite of being in his seventies. He was on the covenanting committees of war for the shire of Roxburgh and the constabularies of Haddington and Lauderdale and he attended parliament regularly. In 1643 his son and his second wife died. He went on to marry Lady Isabel Douglas (d. 1672), daughter of William Douglas, fifth earl of Morton. They had no children. Because of his support for the engagement with Charles I in 1648, he was stripped of all public office by parliament in 1649. He died in the following year, on 18 January, at his house of Floors Castle, near Kelso, and was buried in the family tomb at Bowden kirk on 20 March. His wife lived on until 16 December 1672. According to Roxburghe's direction, his estates and titles passed to his son-in-law Sir William Drummond, husband of his eldest daughter, Jean.

Alan R. MacDonald 

Sources  Scots peerage, vol. 7 + The historical works of Sir James Balfour, ed. J. Haig, 4 vols. (1824-5) + J. Gordon, History of Scots affairs from 1637-1641, ed. J. Robertson and G. Grub, 1, Spalding Club, 1 (1841) + J. Spalding, Memorialls of the trubles in Scotland and in England, AD 1624 - AD 1645, ed. J. Stuart, 2 vols., Spalding Club, [21, 23] (1850-51) + Reg. PCS, 1st ser. + Reg. PCS, 2nd ser. + D. Calderwood, The history of the Kirk of Scotland, ed. T. Thomson and D. Laing, 8 vols., Wodrow Society, 7 (1842-9) + [T. Thomson], ed., The historie and life of King James the Sext, Bannatyne Club, 13 (1825) + APS, 1593-1660 + D. Moysie, Memoirs of the affairs of Scotland, 1577-1603, ed. J. Dennistoun, Bannatyne Club, 39 (1830) + register of testaments, NA Scot., Edinburgh commissary court records, CC8/8/66A
Archives Floors Castle, Kelso, Innes Ker family, dukes of Roxburghe + NRA, priv. coll., household accounts and material
Likenesses  oils, Floors Castle, Kelso [see illus.]
Wealth at death  £84,039 Scots: register of testaments, NA Scot., Edinburgh commissary court records, CC8/8/66A, 125-37, 1655




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