Note 363 — THE PREFACE. (continued 2)

Mr. Stephen Wilson, who probably held some preferment in the Romish Church, was an active partisan of Queen Mary. He had also been in the service of her mother, the Queen Regent. On the 11th February 1559-60, the Treasurer paid, "be the Quenis Grace speciale command to Maister Stevin Wilsone, passand of Edinburgh throuch Ingland, in the Quenis Grace effairis, in France," the sum of £80. Randolph, in a letter to Cecil, 7th February 1565-6, referring to a Band or Confederacy "to maintayne Papistrye throughout Christendome," but more especially directed against Queen Elizabeth and the Protestants in Scotland, which had been sent from France to be signed by the Queen of Scots; he says, it was "to be returned very shortlie, as I heare, by Mr. Steven Wilson, a fit minister for such devilish devices." Killegrew, in a letter to Lord Burghley, written from Edinburgh, 4th March 1573, says, "Stephen Wilson, that carried letters from the Erle of Argile into France, is returned, and taken by the Regentis commandment. To-morrow he shall be examined." (Wright's Queen Elizabeth, vol. i. pp. 220, 470.) His intercepted correspondence is also mentioned in Killegrew's letter, on the 9th March, quoted by Mr. Tytler, vol. vii. p. 340.