beyond sea, and also to require them to subscribe the confession of faith (ib. p. 682). In 1584 Ker was appointed warden of the middle marches and keeper of Liddesdale. During a meeting held by him on 27 July 1585 with Sir John Forster, the English warden, a fray arose between the Scots and English, in which Francis, lord Russell, was fatally wounded. The English suspected this to be a deliberate plot of Ferniehirst, prompted by Arran, to break off the conference. The Scottish king talked for a time of sending them into England to be tried, but afterwards changed his mind. On 18 Aug. Ferniehirst appeared before the council and made a declaration absolving Arran from all connection with the murder (Reg. P. C. Scotl. iv. 4). Shortly afterwards Ker was committed to ward in Aberdeen, where he died some time in 1586. He is described by Camden as ‘a stout and able warrior, ready for any great attempt and undertaking, and of an immovable fidelity to the Queen of Scots and the king, her son; having been once or twice turned out of all his lands and fortunes, and banished the sight of his country and children, which yet he endured patiently, and, after so many crosses falling upon him together, persisted unshaken and always like himself.’ He was twice married. By his first wife, Janet, daughter of Sir William Kirkaldy of Grange [q. v.], he had a son, Andrew, who succeeded him, and two daughters: Janet, married, first to Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth, and secondly to Thomas earl of Haddington; and Margaret, married to Robert, second lord Melville of Monimail. By his second wife, Janet, sister of Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch, he had three sons: Sir James Ker of Crailing; Thomas, who inherited from his father the lands of Oxenhame; and Robert [see Carr, Robert, Earl of Somerset], the favourite of King James; and a daughter, Janet, married to John, lord Balgy.
[Sadler's State Papers; Reg. P. C. Scotl. vols. i–iv.; Lord Herries's Memoirs (Abbotsford Club); Calderwood's Hist. of the Church of Scotland; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), ii. 133–4.]
KER, Sir WALTER (d. 1584?), of Cessfurd, eldest son of Sir Andrew Ker of Cessfurd [q. v.], by his wife Agnes, daughter of Robert, second lord Crichton of Sanquhar, was served heir to his father 12 May 1528. He had charters of various lands on 23 April and 21 Sept. 1542, and in 1543 he received the lands and barony of Cessfurd, with the castle of the same and their annexes (Reg. Mag. Sig. 1513–46, entry 2785). In October 1552 Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch was killed in the High Street of Edinburgh in a nocturnal encounter with the Kers, headed by Sir Walter of Cessfurd. On 8 Dec. they petitioned the privy council regarding the ‘unhappy chance,’ offering to submit to anything to save their lives and heritages (Reg. P. C. Scotl. i. 133). It was decided that they should be banished to France, but on 16 May 1553 they received a full pardon (ib. p. 141). On 9 Aug. of this year Cessfurd, with John Ker of Ferniehirst and Andrew Ker of Hirsell, signed a bond to be ‘leill and trew men’ to John Hamilton, archbishop of St. Andrews, and James, earl of Arran, &c. (Hamilton MSS., Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. App. pt. vi. p. 39). On 28 Aug. 1559 he was appointed one of the commissioners to treat for the ransoming of prisoners taken by the English in the late war (Cal. State Papers, For. Ser. 1558–9, entry 1266). Cessfurd as a catholic sympathised with the queen-regent, but in April 1560 he came with Lord Home to the camp of the lords of the congregation (ib. Scott. Ser. p. 140). On the return of the young Queen Mary to Scotland Cessfurd was reappointed to his old office of warden of the middle marches (Reg. P. C. Scotl. i. 169). When the chiefs of the border clans were ordered in 1567 to enter the castle of Edinburgh on the pretext that they might hinder the success of Bothwell's expedition into Liddesdale, Cessfurd, ‘a weill-meaning man, suspecting nothing,’ was the only one except Ker of Ferniehirst who obeyed (Calderwood, ii. 360). He was one of the chief leaders against the queen at Carberry Hill (ib. p. 363), and also at Langside, where he fought side by side with Lord Home (Sir James Melville, Memoirs, p. 201). On 3 April 1569 he signed the bond of Teviotdale, promising obedience to the regent (Reg. P. C. i. 653), and he served under Morton at the siege of Edinburgh. When Ker of Ferniehirst and others of the queen's party advanced to plunder Jedburgh in 1571, the inhabitants sent to Cessfurd for assistance, and by his aid and that of Lord Ruthven they were completely routed (Calderwood, iii. 155). Cessfurd was one of those who, under Atholl and Argyll, took up arms against Morton in 1578. In 1582 he signed the bond which resulted in the raid of Ruthven. He died in 1584 or 1585. By his wife Isabel, daughter of Andrew Ker of Ferniehirst [q. v.], he had two sons: Andrew, who predeceased him, and William, warden of the middle marches; and two daughters: Agnes, married to John Edmonstoune of Edmonstoune, and Margaret, to Alexander, fourth earl of Home.
