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Updated: June 17, 2025
It might be argued that, as the man was said to be locked in a house, and as James was not taken out of Gowrie House to see him, James must have known that, when he went upstairs with the Master, he was not going to see the prisoner. The error here is that, in the language of the period, a house often means a room, or chamber.
Gowrie was at dinner, having taken no notice of the two earlier messengers. James therefore directed his conversation to Gowrie, getting from him 'but half words and imperfect sentences. When dinner came Gowrie stood pensively by the King's table, often whispering to the servants, 'and oft-times went in and out, as he also did before dinner.
Ruthven seized him, and, under his arm, found 'a great wide pot, all full of coined gold in great pieces. Ruthven keeping the secret to himself, took the man to Perth, and locked him in 'a privy derned house' that is, a room. At 4 A.M. he himself left Perth to tell the King, urging him to 'take order' in the matter at once, as not even Lord Gowrie knew of it.
It follows that the whole affair of Sprot, and of the alleged Logan letters, adds nothing certain to the reasons for believing that there was a Gowrie conspiracy. Such is a brief summary of the facts.
Once, he said, he had been nearly drowned: but God preserved him for this great day of confession and repentance. But ‘no unbeliever in the guilt of Gowrie,’ says Calderwood, ‘was one whit the more convinced.’ Of course not, nor would the death of Henderson—which they clamoured for—have convinced them.
Then, according to the apologist, Gowrie himself at last entered the chamber; the King’s friends attacked him, but he was too cunning of fence for them. Gowrie dropped his points, Ramsay stabbed him, he died committing his soul to God, and declaring that he was a true subject. All these three were tried and hanged. The apologist adds that James’s companions will swear to whatever he pleases.
As against James’s grandmother, Mary of Guise, the grandfather of Gowrie, Lord Ruthven, had early joined the Reformers, who opposed her in arms. Later, in 1566, it was Gowrie’s grandfather who took the leading part in the murder of Riccio. He fled to England, and there died soon after his exploit, beholding, it was said, a vision of angels.
He had been blabbing in his cups, it is said, about the Gowrie affair; certainly most compromising documents, apparently in Logan’s hand, and with his signature, were found on Sprot’s person. They still bear the worn softened look of papers carried for long in the pockets.
If there was an armed man in the turret, he was either placed there by the King, to protect him while he summoned his minions by feigned cries of treason, or he was placed there by Gowrie to help the Master to seize the King. In the latter case, the Master’s position was now desperate; in lieu of an ally he had procured a witness against himself.
Extracts, however, of a letter from Gowrie to Logan, and of one from Logan to Gowrie, were quoted in Sprot’s formal Indictment. They were also quoted in an official publication, an account of Sprot’s case, prepared by Sir William Hart, the Chief Justice, and issued in 1608.
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