# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Maxwell, John (1586?-1612)

Date of death 1613 in the ODNB.
​MAXWELL, JOHN, eighth or ninth Lord Maxwell (1586?–1612), eldest son of John, seventh or eighth baron Maxwell [q. v.], by his wife Lady Elizabeth Douglas, was born about 1586 and was served heir to his father 10 March 1596–7. His guardian was William Maxwell, fifth baron Herries [q. v.] A combination of circumstances tended to foster in him a peculiar lawlessness; he had the death of his father at the hand of Johnstone to revenge; he was at feud with the Douglases, earls of Morton, regarding that earldom; and his hereditary faith was catholic. He was thus in perpetual conflict with the government, and special acts had constantly to be passed by the council to hold him in restraint. On 27 June 1598 he attended a ​convention of estates for the rooting out of deadly feuds (Reg. P. C. Scotl. v. 462), and on 6 March 1598–9 promised, in presence of the king and council, to appear on the 22nd and give ‘ane resoluit answer’ anent subscribing an assurance to the laird of Johnstone, and in the meantime not to repair within the bounds of Nithsdale or shire of Dumfries (ib. p. 535). On the 22nd Lord Hamilton undertook under a bond of 5,000l. to keep Maxwell in his company, without permitting him to go to Nithsdale, and to enter him before the king and council on 6 June (ib. p. 719). On 15 Sept. it was ordained, for the better quieting of the west march, that Maxwell should be warded in Edinburgh Castle, and that the laird of Johnstone should also still be retained in ward (ib. vi. 31). It would appear that he was not warded, for, being on 18 Nov. summoned to appear before the council to answer for the obedience of his men, he failed to do so (ib. p. 851). On 30 April 1600 he and Johnstone were charged by open proclamation at the cross of Dumfries to subscribe within six hours a bond of mutual assurance, Maxwell being required, should he refuse, to find caution in 10,000l. within six days to depart the realm within forty days (ib. p. 105). As he failed to appear he was on 27 June denounced a rebel (ib. p. 121), but on 21 July he gave caution in ten thousand merks to repair within forty-eight hours to the house of John, marquis of Hamilton, and there remain six months, or at least not to visit Nithsdale, Annandale, or Galloway without the king's authority (ib. p. 658). On 21 May 1601 he was charged to answer for a new design against Johnstone (ib. p. 240); on 15 Feb. 1601–2 he was again charged to answer for his misdeeds (ib. p. 352), and on 3 March he signed a band for the better observance of the king's peace (ib. p. 356). On 11 July he appeared before the council, but on his refusing to subscribe an assurance to Johnstone, he was on the 16th warded in the castle of Edinburgh (ib. p. 419). Besides his constant plots against Johnstone, he had for some time countenanced popish practices in Dumfries and elsewhere; and Calderwood states that, a little before Maxwell's imprisonment, ‘John Hamilton the apostate taught in Maxwell's gallery publicly’ (History, vi. 146). Consequently at the ensuing assembly in November he was included among those nobles for whose ‘confirmation in the truth’ special provision was made, a minister being appointed to attend on him for this purpose so long as he remained in the castle of Edinburgh (ib. p. 166). On 29 Nov. 1602 it was declared that, as he still refused to subscribe an assurance to Johnstone, he should not be released till he found caution in twenty thousand merks to repair to certain places and remain there till 1 March, the time appointed for his going abroad, but on 12 Jan. he made his escape and returned to his own country (Reg. P. C. Scotl. vi. 831).
On 18 April 1605 Maxwell appeared before the council and expressed his readiness, ‘without submission or other ceremony, to take the laird of Johnstone by the hand and to be reconciled to him’ (ib. vii. 38). Consequently, on 11 June they joined hands before the council in token of reconciliation (ib. p. 58), and on the 25th he gave in a ‘letter of Slains’ to the laird of Johnstone for the murder of his father (ib. p. 64). Hardly was his feud with Johnstone settled, when his claims on the earldom of Morton led to the proposal for a duel between him and William Douglas, eldest son of the laird of Drumlanrig, which, on 6 March 1606, was stopped by order of the council (ib. p. 187). At the Linlithgow convention of the clergy on 10 Dec. it was recommended that the king should order Lord Maxwell to reside in Leith for the benefit of instruction from the clergy (Calderwood, vi. 608). His residence was apparently fixed in Edinburgh, for on 9 Jan. 1607 the council had to make regulations for the better keeping of the peace in Edinburgh between him and the Marquis of Hamilton, it being provided that they should not appear on the streets at the same time (Reg. P. C. Scotl. vii. 295). Meantime the feud between him and the Earl of Morton was gradually reaching a crisis. On 23 May 1607 they subscribed an assurance that there was no feud between them, but only some civil actions which they meant to pursue ‘according to law’ (ib. p. 370); but on 29 July Maxwell, to avoid quarrels between him and Morton, was charged not to come to Edinburgh to attend the meeting of parliament (ib. p. 420); and on 8 Aug. he was denounced a rebel for not appearing before the council for sending a challenge to Morton, and was required not to send any further challenge on pain of treason (ib. p. 425). On 19 Aug. the king sent a letter to the council directing that Maxwell, for his ‘youthful riot and insolence,’ should be committed to the castle of Edinburgh (ib. p. 539); and after excuses had, on 24 Sept., been heard for his conduct, effect was given to the king's request (ib. p. 441). In answer to a petition for his liberty, the council on 5 Nov. ordained that he be detained in ward till he submitted the differences between him and the Earl of Morton to the council (ib. viii. 2); but on the night of 4 Dec. ​he, with the aid of a fellow-prisoner, Sir James Maconell, made his escape (cf. ib. p. 17; Calderwood, vi. 686; and deposition of Sir James Maconell in Pitcairn, Criminal Trials, iii. 10–11). A warrant was immediately issued for his apprehension (ib. p. 19), and also a proclamation against resetting him (ib. p. 20); on 17 Dec. he was denounced as a rebel (ib. p. 24); on the 30th a commission was given to the captain of the guard for his pursuit (ib. p. 29); and on 12 Jan. a summons of forfeiture was libelled against him (ib. p. 33). He continued, however, to defy all the edicts, and evaded all efforts to capture him, notwithstanding that on 9 Feb. the whole company of the guard was ordered to proceed to Dumfries, and either apprehend him and other rebels, or put them out of the country (ib. p. 48). His perilous position, instead of inducing him to surrender, drove him to desperation; and, knowing that he must either be captured or leave the country, he resolved, before bidding farewell to Scotland, to have at least revenge on his father's murderer, Johnstone. He therefore sent Johnstone a message, thanking him for holding aloof from his pursuit, and asking for a conference with him for the final settlement of their differences, each to be accompanied by only one attendant. While Johnstone and Maxwell were conferring together, Maxwell's attendant began a quarrel with Johnstone's attendant, and shot him with a pistol. Johnstone shouted ‘Treason!’ and turned to see ‘what the matter meant,’ whereupon Maxwell immediately fired at him from behind and shot him dead (Calderwood vi. 704). On 9 April a new proclamation was therefore made for Maxwell's pursuit (Reg. P. C. Scotl. viii. 70); and all skippers were warned against carrying him forth of the realm under pain of death (ib. p. 70), a royal proclamation being also, on 28 April, issued for his capture dead or alive (ib. p. 83). Nevertheless, so faithful were his followers that he succeeded for some months in evading the most strenuous efforts to capture him, and ultimately made good his escape to the continent. The sympathy of the people with his misfortunes was indicated in the ballad ‘Lord Maxwell's Lament.’
In his absence Maxwell was, by the parliament of June 1609, found guilty of three separate charges of treason: the slaughter of two Johnstones in 1602; breaking his ward in Edinburgh Castle in December 1607; and the murder of the laird of Johnstone under trust in April 1608; and was condemned to death and the loss of his honours and estates (ib. pp. 805–9; Acta Parl. Scot. iv. 414–19; Pitcairn, Criminal Trials, iii. 32–41). In March 1612 he returned to Scotland (Calderwood, vii. 165), and a commission for his pursuit having been issued on 4 July (Reg. P. C. Scotl. ix. 359), he was apprehended in Caithness, and, after being brought by sea to Leith, was on 10 Sept. warded in the gaol of Edinburgh (Calderwood, vii. 165). For some time no further proceedings were taken against him, but the Johnstones having on 21 April sent in a petition for his execution (Reg. P. C. Scotl. x. 29), an order was issued by the council on 10 May that the sentence passed against him in his absence should be carried out. He was accordingly, on the 21st, beheaded at the market-cross of Edinburgh. ‘He died comfortless,’ writes Calderwood, ‘having none of the ministers present to pray for him, or to make exhortation to him or the people. He desired them not; neither was he content to receive information from them touching his religion’ (History, vii. 177). His body was interred by Mark Ker in the abbey of Newbattle. By his wife, Lady Margaret Hamilton, only daughter of John, first marquis of Hamilton, he left no issue. The title and estates were, on 13 Oct. 1618, restored to his brother Robert, who also was, on 29 Aug. 1620, invested with the title of Earl of Nithsdale in lieu of that of Earl of Morton, with precedency of the former title.
[Reg. P. C. Scotl. vols. v–x.; Histories of Calderwood and Spotiswood; Letters of John Colville (Bannatyne Club); Pitcairn's Criminal Trials; Sir William Fraser's Book of Caerlaverock, i. 300–24; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood) ii. 319–20.]
T. F. H.