12 SCOTS TRIALS
THE PARSON OF SPOTT
N.B.--No mischief but a woman or a priest in it,--here
both.
--The Journal of Mr. Groves, 1788.
THE criminous clerk is
a character but seldom impersonated
by what may be called the stock company of the Justiciary
Opera. The part has been long a popular one on the Continent,
and France especially has produced many eminent players.
"From the consummate Riembauer, so graphically described
by Feuerbach, through Mingrat and Contrafatto, down to the
Abbés Boudes and Bruneau of our own day, the crimes of priests
have possessed an atrocity all their own." Thus Mr. H. B.
Irving, in his admirable Studies of French Criminals of the
Nineteenth Century. But the Roman Catholic clergy do not
possess the exclusive right of representation; Protestant Eng-
land, for instance, is secure in the supremacy of Dr. Titus Oates
in the role, and very capable performers have been furnished
from time to time by a variety of sects. In Scotland, however,
we must go back more than three centuries to find an actor of
outstanding merit.
So remote is the period that only a glimpse
of this old-time
tragedy is now obtainable from a brief entry in the official
record, and from certain scanty notices by contemporary
historians of the Kirk, who, as is their wont in dealing with
such scandals, devote more space to the culprit's contrition
than to the particulars of his crime. The murderer's own con-
fession, fortunately, has been preserved. "The Confessione
of Mr. Johnne Kello, minister of Spott ; together with his
earnest repentance maid upon the scaffald befoir his suffering,
the fourt day of October 1570," was "imprinted at Edinburgh
be Robert Leckprivicke " in that year. It is reprinted with
some variations both in the Journal and Memorials of
Richard
[1]
Bannatyne, secretary to John Knox, and also in Calderwood's
History of the .Kirk of Scotland. Though doubtless edited
for behoof of the godly, it remains a human document of
rare interest, and such facts of the case as have survived
sufficiently prove that the.Reverend John Kello was no whit
inferior to his clerical rivals of other days and climes.
The time was the year of grace 1570. Calvinism
had
triumphed, and the cause of Queen Mary and the "Auld
Faith " was lost. That unhappy lady was safely in Eliza-
beth's parlour, the gallant Kirkcaldy still kept the flag of
his Royal mistress flying on the castle of Edinburgh, and
the ambition of her ambiguous brother, the " Good Regent,"
had lately been abridged by the bullet of Bothwellhaugh
at Linlithgow. The scene was the hill parish of Spott, on
the eastern slope of the Lammermuirs, near the coast town
of Dunbar. The little East Lothian village, with its ancient
church and manse, lies remote from the highroad of history,
but echoes of its name are sometimes heard among the
crash of great events. A son of Home of Cowdenknowes
was rector at the Reformation. George Home of Spott,
tried for the murder of Darnley, was himself one of the
assize on the trial of Archibald Douglas for the same
crime. He was murdered by his son-in-law, James Douglas
of Spott, who in 1591 helped Francis, Earl of Bothwell, to beset
Chancellor Maitland at Holyrood, when they "made a stour"
that nearly frightened King James out of his princely wits.
In 1650 General Leslie pitched his camp upon the summit
of Doon Hill before the battle of Dunbar, which he lost by
abandoning that strong position at the command of the prophets
who accompanied his army; and Cromwell himself is said to
have spent the night after his victory at the house of Spott.
The parish is celebrated, too, as being the scene of the last
witch-burnings in Scotland, for so late as October 1705, only two
years before the Union, the minutes of the Kirk Session signifi-
cantly record: "Many witches burnt on the top of Spott Loan."
[2]
In the sixteenth century a strange fatality
attached to
the incumbency of this quiet rural parish, the church of which,
previous to the Reformation, was a Prebend of the Collegiate
Church of Dunbar. Robert Galbraith, parson of Spott, who
afterwards attained the dignity of a Senator of the College
of Justice--a post no longer open to the established clergy--was
murdered in 1543 by one John Carkettle, a burgess of Edin-
burgh. The next rector, John Hamilton, brother of the Regent
Arran, succeeded Cardinal Beaton in the See of St. Andrews,
and was the Archbishop Hamilton of Queen Mary's reign.
He was taken prisoner at the capture of Dumbarton Castle in
1571, and was hanged at Stirling for complicity in the assassina-
tion of the Regent Moray, his captor being that Crawford of
Jordanhill who kept such careful note of what passed between
Mary and Darnley at Glasgow. The fate of the archbishop's
successor in the manse of Spott, the first minister of the new
and purified Kirk, forms the subject of the present study.
The Reverend John Kello is mentioned by Calderwood
among those who were "thought apt and able to minister" by
the first General Assembly of the reformed Kirk of Scotland,
held on 20th December 1560. Owing to "the raritie of pastors
in the infancie of our kirk" the list was something of the
shortest. The names were given in by the ministers and
commissioners within their own bounds, and Mr. John was
probably nominated by George Home of Spott, who was a
member of assembly. Kello was a parson of the new school,
a man of humble origin but great ambitions, married, and, by
all accounts, an eloquent and powerful preacher. "I was
brocht up from my youth," he tells us in his confession, "in
exercise of learning, and imployed my mynd so diligentlie to
the meditatione of vertue that I was not esteamed in the leist
sort of thai that did minister Godis word into this realme. And
the treuth is, that I myself had nocht only the testimonie of
a trew preicher in the countreis whair I did travell, but
lykwayis of ane sinceir and uncorrupted conversatioune." No
[3]
doubt he considered these gifts inadequately rewarded by the
ministry of Spott, the stipend of which in 1567, as we learn
from Scott's Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ, amounted
to £100
Scots--£8, 6s. 8d. of modern money. He had chosen a wife from
his own station in life, one Margaret Thomson, by whom he
had three children, but, although an affectionate and loyal help-
mate, she does not seem to have been an ideal partner for a
rising young man bent on achieving at any cost social and
professional advancement. The chroniclers concur in testifying
to her many virtues: "a woman sa loving of him and of his
estait as any woman could have bene reportit to have favorit or
obeyit hir husband in all respectis"; and Mr. John himself, when
displaying in public for the last time his powers of eloquence
on the scaffold, described her as one who had never given him
any just cause of offence. "For wer it possible," said he, " that
the course of my aige mycht be renewed, and the tyme spent
brocht bak agane, thair is no fleshe I wold rather chouse to
be associat with in mariage then hir." During the lady's life,
unfortunately, this feeling was in abeyance, and he came to
regard his amiable but plebeian consort as a stumbling-block in
the path of his future career.
"I had anis ane litle portione of money in
my owin hands,"
he informs us, "which I bestowit in Linlythgow upon proffeit."
The investment turned out well, for Mr. John " did wickedlie
resave some gaines and filthie ocker [interest] therby ; ane
thing (alace!)," he laments, "ower meikle used in this countrey."
Like many a wiser man he was emboldened by this first success
to try his luck further, or, in his own words, "This maner of
dealing kindled in me ane desyre of avarice, whiche the apostle
Paull, nocht without caus, termit `the route of all evill.' " At
the time, however, he took a less moral view of the result, and
having raised money on his Linlithgow property he bought
some land at Spott. This speculation does not seem to have
prospered, and he contracted further debt. Then his relations
with the authorities of the infant Kirk proved unsatisfactory;
[4]
he complains of being "disappointed of the ordinar provisione
for preiching of the Word, and not weill entreated of thame
whois dewtie was to have taken cair of me.' His position
would be rendered less agreeable when he recalled the very
different fortunes of his Episcopal predecessor. The affairs
of the popular preacher became involved, he suffered much from
mental worry, and his perplexities " openede ane reddie window
to the tentatiounes of the Enemie." He describes with curious
callousness how he reviewed the situation. If he were a single
man, "without ane pairtie," he might the more "easilie" spend
his time; then, in case he should marry again, he might join
himself with such an one as should have friends in the country
to maintain him in his possession and procure his further
advancement. Plainly he had the second Mrs. Kello in his
eye; no less a lady, it seems, than the daughter of the laird.
"Thir wer the glistering promises whairwith Sathan, efter his
accustomed maner, eludit my senses." On his own showing
the motive which induced him to murder his faithful and
devoted wife was the peculiarly base one of making a better
.marriage: "Nather did ony uther thing move me to this
wicked interprise but the continwall suggestione of the
wicked spreit to advance myself farther and farther in the
world."
If the late ingenious Dr. Pritchard had told
the truth, which
he never so far forgot himself as to do, we should probably find
that in destroying his wife he also was moved by a similar
purpose. The doctor, by the way, attributed his crimes to the
influence of ardent, not evil, spirits.
Mr. John, having satisfied himself of his
grounds for action,
with diabolic subtlety " did spreid abroad ane rumoure of hir
that sche was tempted terriblie in the night, that it mycht
thairefter appeir hir self to have bene the author and murtherer
of hir owin self." As an additional precaution the wily
man made a will, therein appointing his widow to have "the
whole cair of my geir" and the upbringing of his children,
[5]
which testamentary intentions he casually communicated to the
neighbourhood. The train thus laid, he spent forty days awaiting
"onlie upon the oportunitie of tyme " for achieving his nefarious
end, and though "sometymes having the commoditie offered,"
he was stricken with "sic terrouris " that his heart failed him
and the deed was still to do. On the expiry of that period
he was himself "visited with seiknes and grit disease," which,
after his conviction, he perceived to be "messengeris of God,"
but at the time were contrived by him to further his design.
Under pretence that his wife might also suffer from the like
indisposition he "laboured secretlie to have taken hir away
by poysone." The strength of the lady's constitution, or, as
he puts it, "the cleannes of hir stommocke," enabling her to
"reject that violence," some other means had to be devised.
During his illness the reverend sufferer availed himself of the
professional services of Mr. Andrew Simpson, the first minister
of Dunbar after the Reformation, to whom he imprudently
related a remarkable dream which was later interpreted by that
prophet with telling effect, as we shall presently see. So soon
as the invalid felt himself sufficiently restored to health
and strength he decided to carry through his scheme without
further delay.
On the morning of Sunday, 24th September 1570,
when
his wife was performing her devotions in her own chamber,
Mr. John Kello at length perceived the long-looked-for oppor-
tunity, embracing which he strangled her, as she knelt,
with a towel. "In the verie death," he admits, "she could
not beleive I bure hir ony evill will, bot was glaid, as sche
than said, to depairt, gif hir death could doe me ather vantage
or pleasoure." Verily it is difficult to write with patience of
the Reverend John. The willing victim sacrificed, he tied a
rope round her neck and hung the body from a hook in the
ceiling of her own room. He then locked the front door of
the manse, leaving the key on the inside, and went out by the
back. As he says, "Efter I had strangled hir, I left the keyis
[6]
within, and escapit by ane back dure of my studie, which was
not accustomed to be opened." The murderer's next act is
unique in the criminal annals of any country. It is best
described in the quaint words of the contemporary author of
the Historie of King James the Sext : "For he stranglit hir
in
hir owin chalmer, and tharefter closit the ordinar dur that
was within the hous for his awin passage, and sa fynelie
semit to cullor that purpose efter that he had done it, that
immediatelie he past to the kirk, and in presence of the people
maid sermon, as thoght he had done na sik thing. And when
he was returnit hayme, he broght sum nychtbours in to his
hous to vissie his wyffe, and callit at the ordinar dur, but na
answer was maid; then he past to another bak passage with
the nychtbours, and that was fund oppin, and she hinging
stranglit at the ruf of the hous. Then with admiratioun he
cryit out, as thoght he had knawin na thing of the purpose;
and thay for pitie in lyke maner cryit out." The inviting of
some of the congregation was obviously in furtherance of his
preconceived plan; they had been prepared by his false reports
of Mrs. Kello's mental condition. "Vissie " may either mean
simply to visit, or alternatively to make a particular scrutiny.
The murderer himself gives no details of the crime. "I was
alwayes preissed fordward be the tentatioune of the Enemie till
I had performed that crewell fact with my handis against hir "
is all that he says, and the official record of his conviction
merely states that the deed was "committit be him within his
awin lugeing in the toun of Spot for the tyme, be strangling
of hir with ane towale, upon the xxiiij day of September last
bypast, befoir noyne [noon]."
The Rev. John Thomson, writing in 1836, gives
in the New
Statistical Account of Scotland a slightly different version
of the
facts, probably from local tradition: " The murder was com-
mitted on a Sabbath. Having before divine worship suspended
his wife behind a door in the manse, he repaired to the church,
where, in the course of the service, he was remarked to have
[7]
delivered a more than usually eloquent sermon. The services
being over, and the congregation dismissed, he went to the
residence of a neighbour, stating to the lady of the house that
his wife (Mrs. Kello) had for some time been rather in a
depressed state of mind, and that he had called to request that
she would kindly come over and join them in their family
dinner, and endeavour to cheer her up. The request was at
once complied with. On arriving at the manse, to the seeming
amazement of both, the doors and windows of the manse were
found barricaded. After some little time Mr. Kello contrived
to effect an entrance. A few moments after he came running
to a window, exclaiming to the lady who accompanied him, `My
wife, my wife, my beloved wife is gone! "'
This is the only instance on record of a murderer
going
red-handed into church and conducting public worship to the
edification of the faithful. The Reverend John was no common
criminal; as he himself modestly remarks, " the caice is rair."
The incident is referred to both by Froude
and Hill Burton,
and later Mr. Andrew Lang has woven the strange facts into
a picturesque tale, as told in vivid Scots by a supposed spectator
-one Archibald Dunbar, from whose narrative the follow-
ing passage may be quoted: "About this time it chanced to
be the Sabbath day, a fine sunny day in September, and the
kirk bell was jowing. I was not then under conviction, but
rather inclined to hang off from the preaching of the Word.
For I had no clearness that Daniel, and Haggai, and the other
Prophets of old, did no one thing but threip against our Sove-
reign Lady, Queen Mary, now in an English prison, in sore
fear of her life. But so Mr. Kello laid it down, every Sabbath,
in the preaching place, and so I was stravaguing but slowly
and no very well pleased, to the kirk. Then the bell stopped
jowing, and I saw the minister, that aye was in the vestry
before exercise began, come running out by a back door of his
study which was not accustomed to be opened. He ran across
the little green to the kirk door, and spanged up the pulpit stairs,
[8]
SPOTT KIRK
wiping his brow with a fine lawn napkin, while he went peching
through the first prayer. But when it came to the sermon,
having had a bit rest in the psalm singing, he yoked to Aholah
and Aholibah, that were other than good ones, and, in the
application, he made it clearly to appear that the King's mother
was both the one and the other of these limmers. His wife was
not in the kirk with the bairns, that sat glowering at their
father, feared like, for he was under a very great gale." The
dramatic scene after the sermon was over, when the elders
returned with the minister to the manse, may be read by the
curious in the story (Longman's Magazine, February 1901).
The political tone of the good man's discourse,
as reported
by his imaginary hearer, has warrant in his own confession :
"Nather was thair ony of my vocatioune within this realme of
Scotland that detestit moir from the hart, and publictlie in the
chayre of trueth, the abhominable murtheraris of Harie Stewart,
king of this land, and my Lord Regent, laitly murthered, declar-
ing out of the buike of God that the plages shuld never ceis
quhill [until] the land were purgit, and the inventaris, con-
spyraris, [and] pertakeris proponit [proposed] ane publict
exemple of Godis seveir judgmentis." Such an "exemple "
the preacher himself was soon to furnish, little though he
foresaw it at the time. Whether the poor woman was in
fact buried according to the dreadful manner of suicides in
those days, as Archibald Dunbar in the tale relates, we do
not know; but it seems certain that no suspicion at first
attached to her husband regarding her death, and that Mrs.
Kello was believed to have taken her own life in a fit of mental
depression. "When the bruite [rumour] did aryse that sche
had murthered hir self," says the reverend rogue, " for the gude
opinione that everie ane had alsweill [both] of my doctrine and
conversatioune maid no man to suspect my innocencie," he pre-
tended that his sole anxiety was for her salvation in view of the
presumed manner of her taking off. He disputed with those
who came to comfort him in his bereavement whether it were
[9]
possible that she who had thus laid hands upon herself "could
be under the protectioune of God," and speculated as to the
probability that, "being under so terrible tentatioune, sche
could anes sob [once cry] for Godis mercie ? "The opinion of
the comforters being unfavourable to the deceased's chances
in this regard, the disconsolate widower, in order, as he says,
that his "affectione towardis hir mycht appeir the greitter,"
denied in plain terms the existence of a God who suffered so
innocent a creature to give place to the "tentatioune and rage
of Sathan." Such sentiments from an approved saint must
have been painful hearing, but no doubt the godly excused them
by reason of the greatness of his grief. "Which thingis," he
explains, "I passed about most craftelie to conceill," and, for
the time, with apparent success.
If Mr. John Kello had been content to let well alone
he
might in due course have married again, if not with a clear con-
science at least with the approval of the righteous; but with a
fatuity fortunately common in criminals he needs must consult
his reverend colleague of Dunbar, Mr. Andrew Simpson, in the
matter of his wife's suicide and his own religious scruples there-
anent. Whether that astute divine was already on the alert,
having heard some "sough " of suspicion from the neighbouring
parish, or whether Mr. John, with professional enthusiasm, over-
acted his part for this experienced critic, does not appear, but
something transpired at the performance which enabled Mr.
Simpson to assume the role of Nathan the prophet, with equally
startling results. "Brother," said he, " I doe remember quhan
I visitate yow, in tyme of your grit seiknes, ye did open to me
that visione ; that ye war caried be ane grym man befoir the
face of ane terrible Judge, and to escaip his furie ye did precipi-
tate your self in ane deip river, when his angelis and messingeris
did follow you with two-edged swordes; and ever quhan thai
struike at you, ye did declyne and jowke [dodge] in the water;
while in the end, by ane way unknowin to you, ye did escape.
This visione I do so interprete that ye are the author your self
[10]
of this crwell murther, then consaved in your hart; and ye are
careit befoir the terrible judgmentis of God in your owin con-
science, which now standis in Godis presence to accuse you; the
messingeris of God is the justice of the countrie, befoir the
whitche ye sall be presented; the water whairin ye stude is
that vaine hypocrisie of your owin, and feanezead [feigned]
blaspheming of Godis name, whairby ye purpose to cullour
your impietie. Your delyverance sal be spirituall, ffor, albeit
ye have utherwayis deservit, yit God sall pull you furth of the
bandis of Sathan, and caus you to confes your offense, to his
glory and confusione of the Enemie. Nather do ye in ony
wayes mistrust in Godis promises, for you sall find no sinne,
almost, committed be the reprobat, but ye sall find the childrene
of God to have fallin in the lyke; and yit the same mercies of
God abydis you, gif from your hart ye acknowledge your offence
and desyris at God pardon."
This prophetic achievement earned for Mr.
Simpson a more
than local fame. Nicol Burne, "Professor of Philosophie in S.
Leonardis College, in the Citie of Sanctandrois," who, proposing
to defend the old religion in debate before the General Assembly
of the Kirk, was imprisoned in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh in
1580, published at Paris in the following year his Admonition
to the Antichristian Ministers in the Deformit Kirk of Scotland,
in which he refers to the incident as follows :--
Symson of Dunbar, quhat sall I say of thee?
I know thow waittis Lieutenentis place to have;
I grant thy wisdom soleid for to be,
As Kellochis dreame bearis witnes ouer the lave.
Sa may thow baldlie ane hear [higher] place cum crave,
War not thou seis [essayest] full ill the band to leid
The less experience hes thow thy flock to save
Kilt up thy connie, to Geneve haist with speid.
The cryptic phrase in the last line may be rendered,
"Pack
up and be off," but time has blunted the point of the topical
allusions. Simpson, who, as was not uncommon in those days,
[11]
combined the offices of parish minister and master of the
grammar school at Dunbar, was by birth a Catholic, and is said
to have been led to adopt the new faith by reading the poems
of Sir David Lindsay. When seven years later the prophet,
emboldened by his palpable hit in the matter of the dream,
foretold the loss of the fishing fleet wrecked off Dunbar, he was
grieved to find his gift less generally acclaimed.
The Reverend John did not at once capitulate.
He tells us,
with characteristic caution, "I discovrsed within my owin hart
what thing ratherest to doe for my owin releife"; whether to
flee the country forthwith, or, in modern parlance, to stay and
face the music. The first course was open to the objection that
he would live in constant terror and bear the mark of Cain
wherever he might go, besides leaving "a perpetuall infamie
upon the Kirk of God, whairof befoir I was compted ane mem-
ber, albeit unworthie." He then considered whether, having
privately repented, it was necessary to publish his shame before
men. Mr. Simpson, however, pursuing his advantage, "did so
lyvlie rype furthe the inward cogitatiounes" of the sinner that
in the end Mr. John says, "I persuadit my self God spak in
him." In addition to the interpretation of the dream, "utheris
notable conjecturis which he trwelie deduced befoir my eyes"
finally clinched the business.
The author of the Historie of King James
the Sext says: " He
[Kello] differrit na langer tyme with counsall and convoy of this
wyse godlie man, that he immediathe came to Edinburgh, and
thair delatit his turpitude to the Juge criminall, and to certayne
uther preachers, and how willing he was to suffer puneishment
tharefore. Brieflie, be his awin confessioun being clearlie con-
vict, he was condamnit to be hangit, and his bodie to be cassin
in the fyre, and brynt to ashes, and so to dee without buriall."
No account of the proceedings of the trial has been preserved,
but the following is the official record of the sentence, under
date 4th October 1570: "For the quhilk he was adjugeit be
dome pronounceit, to be hangit to the deid, and thairefter his
[12]
body to be cassin in ane fyre and brint in assis; and his gudis
and geir quhatsumevir (peitening to our soveran lord) to be
confiscat, &c." The latter part of the sentence, relating to the
confiscation of the convict's property to the Crown, was remitted,
as appears from an entry in the Register of the Privy Seal, of
date 5th October, to the effect that Bartilmo, Barbara, and Bessie
Kello, "sone and dochteris to umquhile [the late] Mr. Johnne
Kello," got a gift of his escheat "throw the said umquhile Mr.
Johnne being convict and justifeit to the deid for the crewell
and odious murthure of umquhile Margaret Thomesoun, his
spous."
Mr. John was allowed but short shrift, as
we see from
the following entry in Lamont's Diary: "1570, Oct. 4.
Mr. John Kellok, minister of Spot, hangit in Edinb. for
murder of` his wyfe." In accordance with the etiquette of the
time the culprit delivered from the scaffold an address to "ane
grit multitude" assembled to witness his execution, wherein
he expressed in common form his contrition for the crime of
which he had been convicted. He also touched on the political
aspect of his fate, and expressed a pious anxiety lest "the
enemies of the Evangle, with oppin mouthis," should find in his
own lapse an excuse for the failings of his sovereign lady,
Queen Mary. "What mervell is it, will thai say, that ane
waike veshell, brocht up in pleasouris, had not the feir of
God befoir hir eyes, when ane minister, nocht of smallest
reputatioune, hes sa trespassed?" Superstition was rampant
in Scotland after the Reformation, and belief in witchcraft was
a foremost article of the new creed. Every crime was con-
sidered to be the result of direct negotiations with the devil
himself, and fortunate was that criminal who had not to answer
for other than real offences. In the present case it is evident
that the Reverend John, who, as we have seen, laid the "wyte "
of his wickedness on Satan, had not escaped the popular accusa-
tion. "For as concerning the uther whairof I am slanderit,"
he protests, " I take God and his angellis witnessis in the
[13]
contrare, that nather had I any ingres in the wicked practises
of the Magicienis, nather was farder curious to understand then
God had manifested in his Word." Little wonder that so rigid
a professor resented the imputation of the sin of witchcraft.
In conclusion he gave his hearers this sensible advice:
"Measoure not the treuth of Godis word altogether be the
lyvis of sic as are apointed pastouris ower you, for thei beir
the self same fleshe of corruptioune that ye doe, and the moir
godlie the charge is whairunto thai are called, the readier the
Enemie to draw thame bak from Godis obedience." Finally, as
he perceived that his voice was "not able to straicht the self
unto the earis of the multitude heir convenit," he would be
content to leave "ane short memoriall" against himself of his
own offence. "And thus," says the author of the Historie, "
he
departit this lyfe with ane extreyme penitent and contreit hart,
bayth for this, and all uther his offences in generall, to the
great gude example and comfort of all the behalders."
The editor of the posthumous confession explains
that he
doubted the wisdom of publishing it to the world, and that
personally he "wald rather have wished the memorie thairof
to have been buried, then be ony manis industrie and labouris
sa wicked exemple continowed to the posteritie"; his reason
being that, as regards the godly, his pen "culd serve nothing
towardis thame but to ingraffe greater dolour and lamentatioune
in thair hertis," while by the wicked it would be received with
"contempt and mockage." But he was inclined to publish the
true facts of that painful case from the knowledge "that sundrie
of the poysonet sect of the Antechrist had not only written in
uther cuntreis of this murther, but lykwayes be diverse licen-
tious and ungodlie picturis, labored to withdraw the simple
from Godis obedience, and irreverantlie spake of the servantis
of God." Plainly the doings of the Reverend John had given
occasion for the enemies of the Kirk to blaspheme; but the
editor challenges them "gif thay be able to make thair proffeit
farther of this tragedie than Sathan himself, whais counsallis
[14]
be his [Kello's] godlie repentance was confoundit, and the pray
which he had in ane maner devored, be [by] Godis providence
preservit from his tyrannie. Gif God disapointed the Father
of Iniquitie, how can his childrene erect this baner to the
mainteanance of his kyngdome ?" Still, one would like to
have seen those "picturis."
In considering the case of this singular divine
we are struck
by the fact that so cool and crafty a miscreant, having success-
fully accomplished his purpose, should prove such an easy con-
quest for the prophet of Dunbar. That many persons in his
age voluntarily charged themselves with the commission of
incredible crimes, inviting thereby the direst penalties, is un-
deniable, and raises the question whether after all it is not
possible.that the man himself was mad, and had nothing to do
with his wife's death. But when we remember the making of
the will, the spreading of reports as to her incipient mania, the
ingenious setting of the scene of the supposed suicide, his
amazing appearance in the pulpit immediately after the deed,
and, further, that he expressly disclaimed those dealings with
the devil which are an invariable feature of such self-accusa-
tions, little doubt remains that he was guilty of his wife's blood.
In any view the Reverend John Kello was a type of parson
with whose unusual gifts his Kirk was well able to dispense.
"What a pity that R. L. S. did not write on
Mr. K., who
seems to have been really a bad one," wrote Mr. Lang to me a
few days before his lamented death; and all who have walked
with Gordon Darnaway in Sandag Bay or met Thrawn
Janet by Dule Water in the gloaming, will heartily agree with
him.
In January 1913 the great beech tree which
adjoined the
site of the old manse of Spott was blown down; the "new "
manse, built across the road about a hundred years ago, has no
connection with Mr. Kello and his crime.
[15]
|
