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John Leith III of Leith Hall and Harriot Stuart

(Portrait — John Leith III)
(Portrait — Harriot Stuart of Auchlunkart)
The life of John Leith III of Leith Hall is perhaps best remembered for the ballad of his early demise. This ballad, composed by an old rhymester of the time, can be read in the family book on pages 27–28 and in the book on Andrew Hay of Rannes, ‘A Jacobite Exile,’ where the text appears in the Appendix. The portraits above capture their features in their prime. John’s sad and rather brutal ending is dealt with in various other works, notably family letters and the family book’s chapter on the Luckless Laird, from which these are sourced. An online account titled ‘The Death of Leith Hall’ is also a good read and well researched on the topic.
John and Harriot Stuart’s marriage was from all accounts a happy match. From it three children survived to adulthood, who through their mother’s and tutor’s support were to also change the family’s history from that of local Lairds to one whose careers, particularly soldiering ones, were highly successful and notable in their lifetimes. Harriot’s own life is a fascinating one as well, not only confined to Scotland but also the continent, with snippets on her life offering an insight into the independence of her life as a widow, while still showing her primary purpose as the carer to her three boys.

Details on the tutoring of her children, correspondence matters of estate, the medicinal needs of her children and the everyday household routines provide an 18th-century window into the life of a woman as the head of the household. John’s ending was a tragedy, but perhaps also, in hindsight, a new beginning for the family at the time, due to the influence her sons would have gained from their mother as their primary carer.

John Leith’s ballad is reproduced below. It shows the rhyme of the day, which remained in local folklore for a long time and perhaps also into the 20th century at the Hall, linked to tales of his haunting. Also included are some of the details of the court case which followed John’s death, which highlight the legal wrangles of the time and the quest for compensation for his loss.

It fell about the Martinmass
In the year sixty-three,
There happened in fair Scotland
A grievous tragedy.

When all the nobles were convened,
As they were wont to do,
And brave Leith Hall among the rest,
To pay what he was due.

Four-and-twenty gentlemen
Sat birling at the wine,
’Twas in Archie Campbell’s house
The cruel contest began.

And how the quarrel first took rise
There was no one could know;
But it proved fatal to Leith Hall,
And wrought his overthrow.

Brave Leith Hall went down the stair
Not knowing what to do;
When cruel Mayen followed him
And shot him through the brow.

He left him lying in his gore,
The vital tide stream’d down;
The cruel Mayen fled the town,
And could no more be found.

Leith’s servant bound the bleeding head,
And bore him to his bed,
And covered him with blankets warm,
And due attention paid.

His lady and his children dear
Were brought, and wept full sore;
He spoke some words which gave them hope
Which they had lost before.

But every hope was frustrate soon,
He saw but the third day,
When ghastly Death, that grim grim ghost
Snatch’d his sweet life away.

The bells were rung and mass was sung,
And gave a doleful knell;
His corpse was borne from Aberdeen
And laid down at Leith Hall.

Now for the killing of Leith Hall
And spilling of his blood,
Just vengeance fall from heaven high,
And light on Mayen’s head.

If Brave Leith Hall had been in drink,
The sin I hope is forgiven;
And I may say and trust this day
His soul is safe in heaven.

I wish it there may shine more clear
Than sunshine after rain;
Among the bright meridian stars
Where no more griefs remain.

The tragedy also led to a lengthy legal case. On the morning of 22 December 1763, John Leith of Leith Hall was killed by James Abernethy of Mayen, who fled the country immediately afterwards. Criminal proceedings were raised against Abernethy, but when he failed to appear before the circuit court at Aberdeen the following May, a sentence of fugitation (outlawry) was pronounced against him. Harriot Stuart and her three sons then pursued a civil action for assythment — compensation for the killing — against Abernethy and, since his escheat (forfeited estate) had been granted to James, Earl Fife, against the Earl as well. The case turned on a fine point of Scots law: whether assythment could be claimed from a fugitive who had never stood trial or received a royal pardon. After extended argument before the Lords, the court found, on 29 July 1767, that no assythment was due — a decision reversed on a reclaiming petition, after which the sum was fixed at £200 Sterling. The case is recorded in Maclaurin’s Arguments and Decisions in Remarkable Cases (No. 99, Stewart against Earl Fife).
Continue the Family Story

From John Leith III to John Leith IV

After John’s death in 1776, the Leith Hall succession passed to his son John Leith IV, who inherited the estate as a young man under his mother Harriot’s continued care. Continue with the next chapter of the family record.
Read John IV’s Record