These are the memoirs of Colin Lindsay who was the 3rd Earl of Balcarres during the Rule of King James II of England (who was also James VII of Scotland). They are written as a supporter of the king and give an interesting insight into the political dynamics of the period, particularly concerning the revolution in which the daughter of James II, Mary and her husband the Prince of Orange took the throne and allowed James to escape to France.
Colin Lindsay was born in Kilconquhar, Fife, Scotland, in the year 1652. He became the 3rd Earl of Balcarres in 1662. In 1668, King Charles II gave him a troop of horse and a £1,000 per year pension. Under King James II, Lindsay was a Privy Counsellor, Commissioner of the Treasury and a member of the Counsel of Six, which ran the administration. As a Jacobite he joined the disasterous Jacobite Uprising of 1715 against George I, which was to install James III (James II's son, who was living in France). After the failure of the revolution, Lindsay was allowed to live in retirement on his estates for the rest of his life.
The complete book, including inside covers and fly leafs has been scanned in a series of 82 images showing facing pages. There is some historical interest to this particular edition as is was kept for a period in the Library of St. Germain, where King James II lived in exile. I have begun to transcribe the book into electronic form, but am, as yet, not finished. The transcription includes the printed spellings used by the author along with pencilled notes or glosses added to the volume over the years.
Special Characters
Two conditions exist in this document that require special handling. I use the
following non-standard characters to handle them:
| • | ƒ | used to represent the "long" version of 's' shown in texts of this period. |
| • | ‡ | used to represent an unrecognisable character |
Currently I have transcribed upto page (23)