80
Ane dochter of Gartlie,
With gryt honor and dignitie,
Quhilk than wes Barclay,
An was ane Knyght ryght worthy,” &c.
Wyntoun.
By this marriage with the heiress of Gartly, the properties became united, hut did notlong continue so, the eldest son succeeding to the estate and honours of Gartly, and the secondbecoming Laird of Tollie. In the reign of Mary, both families were warm partizans of thatunfortunate princess; they shared in all the plots of the time, and, among others, joined heartand hand with the Earls of Huntly and Erroll, in their rebellions against the Regent; and aColonel Barclay, who resided in Spain , conducted the negociations with that Court , in whatwas called “ the Spanish plot.” In consequence, on the suppression of this imprudent rebellion,their estates were seized, and the males of the race, of any consequence, were obliged to takerefuge in France and Spain . It is to this period that the inscription, “ In time of valth,” &c.,refers, and not to the erection of the castle, which, from its style, evidently belongs to thethirteenth or fourteenth centuries.
“ Tollie Barclay of the glen,
Happy to the maids, but never to the men,”
is said to have been the weird of Thomas the Rhymer to the lords of this now ruinousstronghold.
Among other males of the family who were compelled to consult their safety by imme-diate flight, was William Barclay, a very accomplished young man, an eminent scholar, andwho had been Secretary to the Queen; he sought and obtained protection at the Court ofLorraine. Having paid his addresses to a young lady of the Court , he was informed, thatprevious to a marriage taking place, he must prove his descent from an ancient and noblefamily. Accordingly, application was made to James the Sixth, and, in the edition publishedat Leyden, in 1659, of Barclay’s Argeius, there is the copy of a letter from that monarch to theDuke of Lorraine, dated 19th March, 1582, bearing testimony to the high birth and honourableaffinities of William Barclay; the certificate is most ample, and bears that it was granted atthe request of the Earl of Huntly, and several other persons of high rank, and amongst them,“ Valtero Barclay, Domino et Barone de Tollie.”
John Barclay, the author of the Argeius and other works, was a man of learning andgenius, but of great eccentricity. He was intended for the church, which he never couldbe induced to enter, and, instead of becoming a clergyman, in his celebrated work, hepublished the severest satires against the Priests and Jesuits ever written since the days ofJuvenal ; neither would he join the reformed or Protestant Church, in consequence of which,he made himself obnoxious to both. He died at Rome, leaving a large family. One of hissons went with the French Ambassador to Sweden , ultimately married in that country, andsettled in Livonia, which subsequently became a Province of Russia . His great-grandsonentered the Russian service when very young, and being a man of talent and enterprise, he