fraternity, and taking to himself a wife. In the year 1557, however, the seceder demanded pardon for his errors of the Grand-Master and council. On reconciliation to the church he was readmitted into the fraternity, and in May, 1.558, it was decreed “that on account of the poverty of the brother George Dudley, at present the only English brother of the venerable langue of England, permission should be granted to him to sue for, exact, and recover all the revenues and rents of houses belonging to the said langue from any and all of the tenants, and to give receipts for the same.”
Oliver Slarkey was Latin secretary to La Valette, and was present at the siege of Malta. He appears to have thoroughly enjoyed the confidence of his chief, and to have been held in high estimation by all the members of the convent. He was reduced to so great destitution whilst at Malta, that a pension of 100 scudi (£8 6s. 8d.) was awarded to him from the treasury. He was buried at the foot of the tomb of the chief he had loved and served so well, in the crypt beneath St. John’s church at Valetta, being the only knight not a Grand-Master who was so honoured.
James Sandlands was preceptor of Torphichen and Lord of St. John. lie was the intimate personal friend of John Knox, and by the persuasion of that reformer renounced the Catholic faith in 1553. He, however, continued for some time longer to maintain his office and dignities. In 1560 he was sent by the congregation parliament of Scotland to France to lay its proceedings before Francis and Mary. There the cardinal of Lorraine loaded him with reproaches, accusing him of violating his obligations us a knight of a Holy Order. Notwithstanding all his efforts to soothe the prelate, and the most assiduous endeavours to recommend himself to the queen,. he was dismissed without any answer. After this, feeling himself no longer authorized to retain his office, he resigned the entire property of the Order of St. John into the hands of the crown. Upon this, the queen, on the 24th January, 1563-4, was pleased, on condition of an immediate payment of 10,000 crowns and an annual duty of 500 marks, and in consideration of “his faithful, noble, and gratuitous services to herself and to her royal parents,” to convert it into the
