The Barony of Drum, Illustrated Comic · Chapter III of V · 1640 to the 1660s
The Earldom and the Siege
An earldom that never was, two sieges, and the family silver.
June 1640. Sir Alexander Irvine would not sign the Covenant, and the earldom of Aberdeen that Charles I meant for him never passed the seals. The Covenanters marched on Drum and dragged up their mortars. With the laird away, Lady Drum bargained for a truce, and her garrison marched out with their arms.Spring 1644. They came back. Argyll’s soldiers put the old Lady Drum and her daughter-in-law out of the house with two grey plaids over their heads, and sent them off to Aberdeen on two farm horses. Then the soldiers dug up the yard, and found the family silver.
After the Restoration, Charles II offered the laird’s son the earldom again. He turned it down.
