Note 17 — REIGN OF CHARLES I.: 1625-1637.
Reading edition
In June 1569, the Regent Moray reported to the General Assembly of the church a case which had puzzled him on a justiciary visit to Elgin. It was that of one Nicol Sutherland in Forres, who was convicted by an assize of incest with a woman who had been the paramour of his mother’s brother. The regent hesitated about considering this crime as rightly named, and wished the decision of the assembly on the point. The reverend assembly had no hesitation in pronouncing in the affirmative. Nicol would consequently be hanged.—B. U. K.
In August 1626, William Hamilton of Cultes was under discipline in the presbytery of Lanark for his incestuous marriage with his good dame’s brother’s wife—that is, we presume, the widow of his step-mother or step-grandmother’s brother.—R. P. L.