CRAIGINGELT,
a surname derived from lands of that name in Stirlingshire. In
November 1555, Mr. Alexander Livingston, and three others of the same
name, with three of their servants, found surety to underly the law
for art and part of the mutilation of John Craigingelt of that ilk and
Robert his son of their left arms, committed within the burgh of
Stirling on the preceding 21st of August. In 1614, Thomas
Craigingelt of that ilk was one of the assize on the trial of Helen
Erskine, Isobel Erskine and Annas Erskine, sisters of Robert Erskine,
brother of the laird of Dun, for poisoning their nephew, John Erskine,
heir-apparent of David Erskine, their eldest brother, and his brother,
Alexander Erskine. They were found guilty, and two of them executed;
the third, Helen, being banished the kingdom. In 1600, George
Craigingelt, one of the earl of Gowrie’s attendants, was tried for his
share in the Gowrie conspiracy, and being found guilty was, on the 22d
August, hanged with two others of his lordship’s retainers who were
condemned for the same crime, at the market-cross of Perth. It does
not appear that he had any direct hand in the conspiracy, but he was
seen keeping the back gate, with a drawn double-handed sword in his
hand, during the time of the fray. He had previously been ill in bed,
but on hearing the noise he rose and ran up the close, and cried with
the rest of the town there convened, “Give us our provost, or the
king’s green coats shall pay for it.” His deposition will be found
inserted at length in the second volume of Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials,
pages 157, 158.
