Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Home, Alexander (d.1491)
HOME or HUME, Sir ALEXANDER, first Baron Home (d. 1491), was the eldest son of Sir Alexander Home of Home (d. 1456) [q. v.] On 20 Dec. 1451 the king (James III) conceded to him the lands of Dunglass, Home, Susterpeth, and Kello in Berwickshire, which his father resigned, and which were united into the free barony of Home (Reg. Mag. Sig. Scotl. i. 512). On 4 Feb. 1451–2 the lands of Chirnside were annexed to the barony (ib. 525), and on 28 Feb. 1452–3 various other lands (ib. 596). He had a charter of the office of baillie of the monastery of Coldingham to him and his heirs confirmed 12 Jan. 1465-6 (ib. 859), and again on 25 Nov. 1472 (ib. 1093). In 1466 he sat in the estates among the barons, and he was created a lord of parliament by the title Lord Home, 2 Aug. 1473. As warden of the marches he was commanded, 16 Feb. 1475–6, to meet the master of Bolton, envoy of Edward IV, at the Tweed, and escort him to the Scottish king’s presence (Cal. Documents relating to Scotl. iv. 1438); on 2 Feb. 1476–7 was sent to conduct the bearer of the third instalment of the Princess Cecilia’s dower to Edinburgh (ib. 1445); and on 19 Feb. 1477-8 was ordered to bring almoner of Edward IV from the march to the presence of the king (ib. 1451). Jealous of the authority and rights exercised by the Duke of Albany, brother of the king, as captain of Berwick, and keeper of the castle of Dunbar, Lord Home banded with the Hepburns to sow discord between Albany and the king, and was so successful that Albany only escaped imprisonment by flight to England. The increasing favour shown by the king to Robert Cochrane, earl of Mar [q. v.], on whom he had bestowed the principal revenues of the earldom of Mar, caused a revulsion of opinion against the king. When, in 1482, the king had assembled the baronial forces to withstand a threatened invasion by Albany and the English, the chief nobles, including Home, determined to seize Cochrane in the king’s presence at Lauder. They subsequently hanged him over the bridge, and carried James III captive to Edinburgh. The king now came to terms with Albany, and, on Albany’s arrival with the English force, received his liberty, while Home and the other chiefs of the conspiracy were imprisoned in the castle of Edinburgh. At the instance of the Earl of Angus, they were, however, ultimately set free upon giving caution of 1,000l. to enter into ward again when called upon by the king. A new cause of quarrel between the nobility and the king arose in 1484. The Homes and Hepburns then resisted the king’s scheme, to which the pope had given his consent, to annex the revenues of the priory of Coldingham to the chapel royal of Stirling. Representing that the king was seriously trespassing on the rights of the nobles, they induced several lords to join them in seizing the young prince, and making him their nominal leader in a revolt against his father. The followers of Home formed part of the vanguard at the battle of Sauchieburn (18 June 1488), from which the king fled, almost before a blow had been struck, and was straightway slain by an assassin. On the nominal accession of James IV, Lord Home occupied a position of great influence, and received several important grants of land. He died probably about the beginning of 1491. He married first Mariota, daughter and heiress of Landals of Landals, by whom he had, with one daughter, three sons: Alexander, who predeceased him, and was father of Alexander, second baron Home [q. v.], and of John Home of Whiterigs and Ersilton, ancestor of the Homes of Coldingknows; George, ancestor of the Homes of Ayton; and Patrick, ancestor of the Homes of Fast Castle. He married, secondly Margaret, daughter of Alexander, master of Montgomery, by whom, he had a son, Thomas Home of Laingshaw, Ayrshire.
[Rymer’s Fœdera; Acta. Parl. Scot. Vol. ii.; Cal. Documents relating to Scotl. vol. iv.; Reg. Mag. Sig. Scotl. vol. i.; Histories of Lindsay of Pitscottie, Leslie, and Buchanan; Douglas’s Scottish Peerage (Wood), i. 732-3.]