observed that the initials are not E. M. but M. M. (explained as Mistress Melvill). By the death of his kinsman, the second lord Colvill of Culros, in 1640, John Colvill became of right the third lord, but did not assume the title. Hereldestson, Alexander [q.v.] (1620-1676), is separately noticed. Armstrong (Launcelot Temple) refers to a melody known as Lady Culross's dream as 'an old composition, now I am afraid lost; perhaps because it was almost too terrible for the ear' (Miscellanies (1770) on Vulgar Errors), and in 1859 Lady Lytton communicated to 'Notes and Queries' the fact that she had once possessed a ballad printed in the reign of Richard III in which the following couplet occurred:
It was fals Sir Gawyn's culp that faire Alice
now did seme
Like the ghast Ladye of Culrosse in her
wild shrieking dreme.
It is probable that the existing poem is a rifacimento of a much earlier one, the subject or reputed author of which was a certain lady of Culross. The existing poem, which answers on the whole very ill to the description 'wild shrieking dreme,' after passing through various editions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was reprinted with a biographical note in 'Early Metrical Tales,' edited by David Laing, 1826.
[Douglas's Peerage of Scotland, i. 355; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. viii. 247, 312.]
COLVILLE, Sir JAMES (d. 1540?), of Easter Wemyss, lord of session and diplomatist, was the elder son of Robert Colville of Ochiltree and Margaret Logan. He was one of the commissioners to parliament on 15 Feb. 1525, and was appointed to the office of comptroller previous to 1527. In 1529 he exchanged the lands of Ochiltree with Sir James Hamilton of Finnart for the lands of Easter Wemyss and Lochorshyre in Fifeshire. The same year he was appointed a director of the chancery. He was one of the commissioners to parliament on 24 April and 13 May 1531, 15 Dec. 1535, and 29 April 1536. He was nominated a lord of the articles on 13 May 1532 and 7 June 1535, and at the latter date was chosen a commissioner for the taxation of 6,000l. voted by the three estates to James V on his approaching marriage. On the institution of the College of Justice in 1532 he was appointed one of the judges on the temporal side of the bench, and received the honour of knighthood. He was one of the commissioners at the truce of Newcastle on 8 Oct. 1533, and was sent again into England to treat of peace in the following year. For siding with the Douglases he was in 1538 deprived of the office of comptroller, and on 30 May 1539 a summons of treason was executed against him for affording them in various ways countenance and assistance. He appeared to answer to the charge before the parliament on 18 July 1539, when the only charge persisted in against him was that while comptroller he, on 14 July 1528, had made a pretended assignation for the benefit of Archibald Douglas of Kilspindy, when he knew that a summons of treason against him had been at that time executed. For this he was ordered on 21 Aug. to enter himself in ward in the castle of Blackness. This order he disobeyed, and, returning to England, associated with Angus and his brother in treasonable attempts against the king. He died some time previous to 10 Jan. 1541, when a summons was executed against his widow and children, on account of his having incurred the crime of 'lese-majesty.' His estate was annexed to the crown, but was afterwards bestowed on Norman Leslie of Rothes. The forfeiture was rescinded in parliament on 12 Dec. 1543, under the direction of Cardinal Beaton, to which fact Father Hay in his 'Memoirs' attributes the prominent part played by Leslie in the murder of the cardinal in 1546. Colville was twice married: first, to Alison, eldest daughter of Sir David Bruce of Clackmannan, and, second, to Margaret Forrester, who survived him. Besides several legitimate children, he had a natural son, Robert, ancestor of the Lord Colvilles of Ochiltree.
[Douglas's Scottish Peerage, i. 353-4; Lord Hailes's Catalogue of the Lords of Session; Scot's Staggering State of Scottish Statesmen; Foster's Members of the Parliament of Scotland, 78.]
COLVILLE, JOHN (1542?–1605), Scotch divine and politician, was the second son of Robert Colville of Cleish, Kinrossshire, by Margaret, daughter of James Lindsay of Dowhill. He was educated in the university of St. Andrews, where he graduated M.A., probably in 1561. He became a presbyterian minister, and was parson of Kilbride in Clydesdale in 1567, and two years later he was appointed chantor or precentor of Glasgow. In 1571, when new arrangements were introduced into the church and sanctioned by the general assembly, he was chosen to act as representative of the archdeacon of Teviotdale in the election of a titular archbishop. In the register of ministers for 1574 Colville is entered as minister of the united parishes of Kilbride, Torrens, Carmunnock, and Egleschame, his stipend extending to 200l, being the 'haill Chantorye of Glas-
