To preserve Elizabeth's good will he refrained from assisting the Hamiltons against the regent in the following February; but he earnestly entreated her to ‘take some good order for the restitution of Queen Mary, or her party would utterly despair of her goodness, and seek the aid of some other prince’ (ib. entry 1581). On 17 May 1571 he eluded the forces sent to watch him by Morton, and joined Kirkcaldy in the castle of Edinburgh (ib. entry 1710), but shortly afterwards returned home (ib. entry 1721), his purpose having been merely to assist in mediating an agreement with Morton (ib. entry 1726). On 7 June he, however, again returned to Edinburgh to attend a parliament of the queen's party on the 12th (Calderwood, iii. 78, 91). On 21 Aug. he informed Elizabeth that ‘he must do as the others do,’ unless Elizabeth showed some disposition to interfere on behalf of the queen of Scots (ib. entry 1934); and when finally he became convinced that Elizabeth would not interfere, he saw that Mary's cause was hopeless, and some time before the capture of the castle came to terms with the regent.
Along with his relative, Lord Maxwell, who laid claim to the earldom of Morton, Herries took an active part in the scheme for depriving Morton in 1578 of the regency (Moysie, Memoirs, p. 2). He was one of those sent by the king and council to Morton on 15 March to demand the delivery of the castle of Edinburgh (ib. p. 3), and was chosen a member of the new privy council after Morton's resignation. On Morton's return to power he for some time held aloof from him, but on 8 Sept. was nominated with seven other noblemen to proceed on 20 Sept. to Stirling to assist the king in the adoption of measures for ‘the repose and quietness of the troubled commonwealth’ (Reg. P. C. Scotl. iii. 26). On 21 Jan. 1578–9 he presented a discourse to the king on the management of the west borders (ib. pp. 77–82), and shortly afterwards he was appointed to succeed his nephew, Lord Maxwell, as warden (ib. p. 76). On 21 Aug. 1579 he was succeeded as warden by his hereditary enemy, Johnstone of Johnstone (ib. p. 207). On the execution of Morton in 1581 Herries, true to his Marian sympathies, became one of the most strenuous supporters of Lennox. After the raid of Ruthven in August 1582, he joined Lennox in Edinburgh, and was one of the nobles sent by Lennox to ask a private conference with the king, but had to return with a message that Lennox must leave Scotland. Herries died suddenly on Sunday, 20 Jan. 1582–3, at Edinburgh, ‘in time of the afternoon preaching,’ in ‘an upper chamber in William Fowler's lodging,’ where, feeling too ill to go to the preaching, he had gone to ‘see the boys bicker’ (Calderwood, viii. 232). He was interred in the choir of the church of Terregles. By his wife Agnes Herries he had four sons and seven daughters. The sons were: William, fifth lord Herries [q. v.]; Sir Robert of Spottes; Edward, commendator of Dundrennan and laird of Lamington; and John of Newlaw. The daughters were: Elizabeth, lady Lochinvar; Margaret, first countess of Lothian; Agnes, lady Amisfield; Mary, lady Yester; Sarah, lady Johnstone; Grizel, lady Bombie; and Nicolas, lady Lag.
[Histories of Knox, Buchanan, Leslie, Calderwood, and Spotiswood; Herries's Memoirs (Abbotsford Club); History of James the Sext, Sir James Melville's Memoirs, Diurnal of Occurrents, and Moysie's Memoirs (all Bannatyne Club); The Proceedings of the Commissioners at Westminster in Anderson's Collections and Goodall's Examination; Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. Reign of Elizabeth, and Scott. Ser.; Reg. P. C. Scotl. vols. i–iii.; Murdin's State Papers; Cal. Hatfield MSS.; Sir William Fraser's Book of Caerlaverock, i. 497–570; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), ii. 318–319.]
MAXWELL, JOHN, seventh or eighth Lord Maxwell and also Earl of Morton (1553–1593), second son of Robert, sixth lord Maxwell, by his wife Lady Beatrix Douglas, second daughter of James, third earl of Morton, was born 24 April 1553, about six months after the death of his father. His elder brother, Robert, died young. He was brought up under the guardianship of Sir John Maxwell of Terregles, afterwards fourth Lord Herries [q. v.], through whose influence he became a supporter of Queen Mary. At the Perth convention, 30 July 1569, he voted for the queen's divorce from Bothwell (Reg. P. C. Scotl. ii. 4). He was suspected of having given support and shelter to the English rebel Leonard Dacres. Consequently his territories were in the spring of 1570 invaded by the English under Lord Scrope, who in April had two successful skirmishes with him, taking on each occasion about a hundred prisoners (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1569–71, entry 835). Morton also on the 25th advised that Scrope should make an inroad on Maxwell's country and that of Lord Herries to prevent them coming to Edinburgh (ib. entry 849). This led to a remonstrance from Kirkcaldy, who in a letter to Randolph asserted that Maxwell had not left the king's obedience or had to do with the English rebels (27 April, ib. entry 854). To this Randolph replied that he had not only maintained the queen of England's rebels, but had spoiled her subjects (1 May, ib. entry
