" [Allangrange Service, on which
occasion thc originals were produced.] It may fairly be presumed
that, during the whole of this period, Earl Kenneth was in retirement,
and that be took no personal part in the management of his estates
for the remainder of his life.
His clansmen, however, seem to have been determined to protect
his interest as much as they could. A certain Sir John Dempster
of Pitliver had advanced Seaforth and his mother, the Countess
Dowager, a large sum of money and obtained a decree of Parliament
to have the amount refunded to him. The cash was not forthcoming,
and Sir John secured letters of horning and arrestment against
them, and employed several officers to serve them, but they returned
the letters unexecuted, not finding notum accessum in the Earl's
country, and they refused altogether to undertake the duty again
without the assistance of the King's forces in the district. Sir
John petitioned for this aid, and humbly craved the Privy Council
to allow him "a competent assistance of his Majesty's forces at
Fort-William, Inverness, or where they are lying adjacent to the
places where the said dilligence is to be put in execution, to
support and protect the messengers" in the due enforcement of the
legal dilligence against the Earl and his mother, "by horning,
poinding, arrestment, or otherways," and to recommend to the Governor
at Fort-William, or the commander of the forces at Inverness, to
grant a suitable force for the purpose.
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