Note 903 — PREFATIO. (continued 2)

Alexander Whitelaw of New Grange, had been a pensioner in England so early as the time of Edward the Sixth, for which the Earl of Huntly caused him to be forfeited, 5th July 1549. See before, Note 538. At a later period, he became an active and confidential agent of Knox and the Reformed party; and his name frequently occurs in their correspondence in Sir Ralph Sadler's State Papers. Knox speaks of Whitelaw as a man who had often hazarded himself, and all he had, for the cause of God. Throgmorton calls him "a very honest, sober, and godly man, and the most truly affectionate to England of any Scotsman." Accordingly, he gave him a letter of recommendation to Elizabeth's Council, and, as he was very religious, he counsels them to let him see as little sin in England as possible.—(Note by Sir Walter Scott, in Sadler's Papers, vol. i. pp. 468, 537.) In the Account of the Collector of the Thirds of Benefices, 1561, two bolls of wheat are deducted—or "defalkit for the teindis of the Newgrange of Aberbrothock, be reasone the same was nocht lauborit the zeir compted, be occasion of the pley dependand thairupon, betuix Alexander Quhytlaw and William Stewart." Three bolls of bear, and eight bolls of meal, were deducted for the same cause.