Note 39 — PREFACE
Reading edition
In this place, the MS. has "Basqueming," and Vautroullier's edition makes it "Adam reade of blaspheming."—Adam Reid of Stair-White, or Barskyming, the representative of an ancient family in Ayrshire, probably accompanied James the Fourth, in his first voyage to the Western Isles, in July 1494. He obtained two charters, under the Great Seal, of the King's fortress of Ardcardane, and some lands near Tarbert, in North Kintyre, dated 15th September 1498, and 27th August 1499, in which he is designated "Adam Rede de Sterquhite." The service annexed to the first grant included the maintenance of six archers sufficiently provided with bows and arrows, upon occasion of the King's curbing the inhabitants of the Isles, who had long set the royal authority at defiance: "Neenon sustentando sex homines defensivos architenentes, cum arcubus et sagittis bene suffultos, ad serviendum Regi, et successoribus suis, in guerris si quas Reges in Insulis contra inhabitantes carundem habere contigerit, cum dictus Adam vel hæredes sui ad hoc requisitus fuerit."