June 24th 1595

The young lovers of Cromlix

The fourth Laird of Cromlix was James Chisholm who like the rest of the family was a devout Catholic. His son, also James, was sent as a young man to France, possibly on some political mission or perhaps merely as a means of completing his education.

It must have been an exciting prospect for young James but the pleasures of anticipation were marred by one circumstance. He had fallen deeply in love with a Helen Stirling of Ardoch. She was a beautiful girl, known locally as fair Helen of Ardoch. The fact that she returned his love made the prospect of parting even more bittersweet. They swore eternal love, as young lovers do (and they were both very young) and arranged that they would correspond during his absence through the good offices of a mutual friend. It was an arrangement that worked well for many months until there was a sudden break and although Helen continued to write there were no answering letters from James.

At first she feared that he must be sick but discreet enquiries at his parent’s home revealed that this was not so and Helen was faced with the sad possibility that he had fallen in love with some beautiful French girl. Still no letters arrived from him and then one day the mutual friend informed her that he had been told by a source in Paris that Cromlix had indeed fallen in love with a noble French lady and would shortly be wedded to her. Helen was heartbroken. The confidant was sympathetic, more than sympathetic, and declared his own love for Helen. He had recently, through the death of a near relative, come into the possession of a handsome estate. He was now a most eligible young man and Helen’s parents were most anxious that she should agree to marry him.

Miserably, she accepted the inevitable and the marriage was arranged. The ceremony was performed and the guests were assembled in the banqueting hall when information somehow reached Helen that a terrible trick had been played on her. That neither her letters to James nor his to her had been delivered. Also that James had already landed in Scotland and would vindicate his honour and avenge her wrongs. She rose and denounced her husband as a black traitor She vowed that she would never acknowledge him as husband until he had faced James and proved his innocence, if indeed he was innocent. The guests were thunderstruck but none more so than the bridegroom. He made no attempt to defend his conduct but slunk from the hall with his followers amidst angry cries from the other guests. James returned soon after to Cromlix and was reunited to Helen. Her own marriage was dissolved and the two lovers were free once more to plight their troth.

It is a pretty story and apparently quite true. One of the reasons why it has been remembered for so long is that James in his misery at Helen’s apparent faithlessness composed a song of unrequited love known as Cromlet’s Lilt which became very popular. The first verse is given below;

Since all thy vows fair maid
Are blown to air
And my poor heart betrayed
To sad despair
Into some wilderness
My grief I will express
And thy hard-heartedness
Oh cruel fair.

As such songs go it is not too bad. But James, later Sir James Chisholm of Cromlix was a real person. He did marry Helen Stirling of Ardoch who bore him two sons and two daughters. He was also a Roman Catholic at a time when, although Scotland had renounced the Catholic faith, there were still many adherents of the old religion and the threat of a catholic rebellion was considered to be a real possibility.

James, though a member of the Royal household, was implicated in the mysterious affair of the Spanish Blanks. Certain blank papers signed by the Earls of Huntly, Errol, Angus and others were to be presented to the King of Spain inviting the Spanish army to invade western Scotland and promising assistance and men to help the invasion. Sir James Chisholm was originally chosen to carry these letters to Spain but he was unable to proceed immediately and George Kerr was selected in his place. Kerr was arrested while boarding ship and the papers discovered.

Cromlix was suspected of being part of the conspiracy and was denounced by the Privy Council for not appearing to answer charges “touching his practising and trafficking in sundrie treasonable matters against the true religion.”  Sir James wisely kept well out of the way hoping that the furore would die down. However the Kirk, angry and afraid, was not prepared to let the matter drop. They fulminated against “the impunity of that most monstrous ungodly and unnatural treason…the pride, boldness, malice……of these enemies in their most pernicious purpose……”  and then excommunicated all the leaders of the conspiracy including Sir James Chisholm. The northern earls made some resistance to both King and Kirk but later submitted and the rebellion was to all intents and purposes at an end.

Sir James, though not implicated directly in the rebellion, also made his peace with the Kirk. On June 24th 1595 “Sir James Chisholm compeared in presence of the whole brethren, confessed with humility his apostasy from religion, for which he craved God’s mercy; declared he professed with us the true religion, renounced the Antichrist and all his errors and craved from his heart to be received into the bosom of the Kirk.” 

The excommunication was lifted and Sir James presumably became a born again Presbyterian and lived in peace with the fair Helen and their four children.