Note 136 — ORIGINS OF THE ’FORTY-FIVE PAPERS OF JOHN MURRAY OF BROUGHTON

One evening after I had waited an hour in L[ord] T[ra]q[uai]r’s lodgings at Edinburgh till such time as he should come in to talk with me about his journey to London he told me he understood that I was no friend to Bishop Keith, and upon asking what ground he had to think so, he told me that one Mr. Gordon, a Roman Catholick Bishop, had informed him of it, it seems Bishop Keith was of his acquaintance had been complaining to him that I had not represented him in a favourable Light. By which I conjectured that Keith had been applying that way to be named Bishop of Edinburgh for how should L[ord] J[ohn] Drummond have acquainted Lady Clanronald of Mr. Rattrae’s being named, which was a thing entirely foreign to both him and her if Keith had not been endeavouring to procure that preferment through the interest of the Roman Catholicks,[649] and Lord Drummond did write to Lady Clanronald that I had procured an order for Bishop Rattrae’s Election is certain, for it was by her means quite well known in Edinburgh before I came back from London and Lord T[ra]q[uai]r assured me from Bishop Gordon that L[ord] J[ohn] had wrote it to Lady Clanranald.