Note 32 — PREFACE

The baptismal name of Lady Stair is left blank in the MS., and Calderwood, who copied from Knox, inserted the letter N., to indicate this; while David Buchanan supplied the name of Isabella. On the supposition that Knox himself had so written it, Professor Forbes, in noticing the Lord President Stair's descent from one of the Lollards of Kyle, says, "The Historian hath mistaken the Lady's name; for, by writings in the Earl of Stair's hand, it appears she was called Marion Chalmers, daughter to Mr. John Chalmers of Gadgirth, whose good family was very steady in the matters of religion."—(Journal of Decisions, &c., p. 29, Edinb. 1714, folio.)—On the other hand, in the pedigree of the Gadgirth family, in Nisbet, William Dalrymple of Stair is said to have married Isabella Chalmers.