May 15

planning for July 11 12 2014. Payson Scottish Festival.

Whitsunday -quarter days were the four dates in each year on which servants were hired, and rents were due. They fell on four religious festivals roughly three months apart and close to the two solstices and two equinoxes. The Church’s Whit Sunday, also known as Pentecost Sunday, is the seventh Sunday after Easter, and is movable in England, but fixed in Scotland.

1239 Alexander II remarried. His second wife was Marie de Coucy. The marriage took place on 15 May 1239, and produced one son, the future Alexander III, born in 1241.

Seal of Alexander II of Scotland.  King mounted riding horse, drawn sword in right hand. Wikipedia

1488 – Lady Mary, eldest daughter of King James II Stewart, died. Mary is the ancestor of the Hamilton’s, who remained very near kin to the throne and immediately in the line of succession for a century.  Lady Mary Hamilton, Princess of Scotland, Countess of Arran

www.wikitree.com/wiki/Stewart-6847

 

1555 – The bishops of Scotland viewed John Knox as a threat to their authority and summoned him to appear in Edinburgh on 15 May (1556 Wikipedia) (1555 Biographia Scoticana by Howie). Knox was accompanied to the trial by so many influential persons that the bishops decided to call the hearing off. Knox was now free to preach openly in Edinburgh. William Keith, the Earl Marischal, was impressed and urged Knox to write to the queen regent, Mary.

Keith of Dunnottarin Kincardine 1109 2Stewart2Campbell 2Montgomery2Blair 2Cochrane2Miller 2Simmons2Choate zoe Blair5

Barr Castle in Galston, or Lockhart’s Tower, as it was known locally, is one of the few historic castles of Ayrshire in close proximity to a town or village. Galston is a town in East Ayrshire, Scotland. 4 miles up-river from Kilmarnock and is one a group of the small towns located in the Irvine Valley between the towns of Hurlford and Newmilns. bbc.co.uk /scotland –  Plaque. The Ayrshire Coastal Path. Be ye Man – or Bairn – or Wumman, Be ye gaun – or be ye comin, For Scotland’s Pride – no Scotland’s shame. Gather yer litter – an tak it Hame!

The first of the Lockharts of Bar of whom any authentic record has been kept is one Andrew Lockhart, who had a charter of the Land of Bar, Gallartlands, Maxwodes and Newton in the barony of Walters Kyle from Robert 111, at the close of the fourteenth century. According to legend, Sir William Wallace,

WALLACE. once sought refuge behind its walls. It is also said that his soldiers who were billeted there played haun ‘ba’ to keep fit for battle. The game was played against the castle wall (at the Barr alley) from the early nineteenth century by the miners and weavers of the Irvine Valley community. Irvine

John Lockhart of Bar, was instrumental in bringing John Knox to Ayrshire in 1556 and protecting Knox from Knox’s enemies. The castle has been restored by the Galston Masonic Fraternity who have created a small heritage museum on the top floor.

http://www.callycastles.plus.com/castles/strathclyde/barrtower.htm

Lockhart of Barr 1297 2Miller 2Simmons 2Choate 2Sorensen

Barr Castle, Galston, Ayrshire, Scotland

www.lockharts.com

 

1560 Seige of Leith, port for Edinburgh. Richard Lee made a map of Leith, which Norfolk sent to London on 15 May. This map or “platte”, perhaps made as much for an enquiry into the May 7 events as for future works, was the basis for the surviving drawing. The French continued to make sallies from the town, despite their shortness of provisions. The besiegers, conversely, were well-supplied with men and provisions from England and Scotland.

1565 Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, King of Scots was made Lord of Ardmanoch, and Earl of Ross at Stirling Castle on 15 May 1565. An entourage of 15 men were made knights, including Sir Robert Stewart of Strathdon, one of Mary’s half brothers. The title of Duke of Albany was to follow.

Lonach Highlanders. since 1823, the group has held a “gathering,” a march through the towns around Strathdon in eastern Scotland, culminating in an afternoon of traditional Scottish games.

travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/scotland-photos/#/lonach-highlanders-march_9068_600x450.jpg

1567 Mary Queen of Scots married James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell

Holyrood Palace 15 May 1567, 3 months after the murder of Henry on 10 February 1566. Tytler’s Britannica.

  1. Mary Queen of Scots, by Wierix

1568 RUTHVEN, WILLIAM, provost of Perth, fourth Lord Ruthven and first Earl of Gowrie, present at Mary Queen of Scots defeat at Langside on 13 May 1568 (Hist. of James the Sext, p. 27);

1648          Peace of Westphalia treaties involved the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand III of the House of Habsburg, the Kingdoms of Spain, France, Sweden, the Dutch Republic, the Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, and sovereigns of the Free imperial cities.

1751- Whitsunday   One of the Scottish quarter days, always falling on 15 May. [Robert Miller III] sermon ‘Not delivered Whitsundy 1751 being stopt from going to Church by a great Rain.’ manuscript sermons, yellowed but still entirely legible, in the possession of Col. Francis Pickens Miller in 1970, was delivered before leaving Scotland. 83 YYMA]

1778 The Seaforth Highlanders (Ross-shire Buffs, The Duke of Albany’s) (1881 – 1961)

www.lairdofportabeul.com. Queen’s Own Highlanders formed in 1991 merging the Seaforth Highlanders and Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders.

Cameron

 

1791 Alexander J. Dallas (U.S. Navy officer) (May 15, 1791 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA – June 3, 1844 in Callao, Peru).

1829 Joseph Smith Jr wrote ‘The messenger who visited us on this occasion and conferred this Priesthood upon us, said that his name was John, the same that is called John the Baptist in the New Testament, and that he acted under the direction of Peter, James and John, the ancient Apostles, who held the keys of the Priesthood of Melchizedek, which Priesthood, he said, would in due time be conferred on us, and that I should be called the first Elder of the Church, and he (Oliver Cowdery) the second. It was on the fifteenth day of May, 1829, that we were ordained under the hand of this messenger, and baptized.’

Rough painting of the appearance of John the Baptist to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. This may have been the painting by C.C.A. Christensen

John Mack born 6 mar 1653 Inverness Scotland married in 1681 in Salisbury Massachusetts Bay Colony to Sarah Bagley, had Ebenezer, had Solomon, had Lucy Smith (nee Mack) had Joseph Smith Junior (1806-1844).

Doctrine and Covenants 13. Upon ye my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken again from the earth, until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.

A Mack crest.

1947 Bulldog Drummond at Bay. Fictional Scots hero. “Bulldog” Drummond is vacationing in his country home in England, and it was robbed.

 

1990 Lockerbie bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988 when the wreckage fell on the town of Lockerbie in the Dumfries and Galloway region of south-western Scotland.

Mrs Korologos and the President’s Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism, PCAST team submitted their report, with its 64 recommendations, on 15 May 1990. The PCAST team leader also handed a sealed envelope to the President which was widely believed to apportion blame for the PanAm 103 bombing. Extensively covered in The Guardian the next day, the PCAST report concluded:

“National will, and the moral courage to exercise it ,are the ultimate means of defeating terrorism. The Commission recommends a more vigorous policy that not only pursues and punishes terrorists, but also makes state sponsors of terrorism pay a price for their actions.”   [Didn’t happen, Libya’s Ghadafi continued in power for a generation, then Libya was taken over by terrorists by 2012.]

2015 UK PM Cameron meets Nicola Sturgeon for Scotland talks.

Sturgeon’s party upended Britain’s political landscape last this month when it swept 56 of Scotland’s 59 seats in the U.K. Parliament in the general election. That surge made the SNP the third largest bloc in Parliament, a force Cameron cannot ignore. [The Conservative party won a majority out right.]

 

2016 Utah is ranked 2nd highest (4.6% of the state population) among the 50 United States with the top percentages of Scottish residents (Wikipedia 26 March 2017 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Americans#Scottish_Americans_by_state ).   How are the Scots in Utah doing?

Utah, known as the Beehive State because its people are so industrious, proves its point with a convincing win in our 10th annual Top States for Business ranking. Never before in our 10 years of keeping score has a state finished in the top half in each of our 10 categories of competitiveness. July 12, 2016

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/12/utah-is-americas-top-state-for-business-in-2016.html

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