John Leith 4th of Harthill
“John Leith of Harthill was an equally enthusiastic Royalist, albeit eccentric if not, indeed, mentally unbalanced. At Christmas, 1639, when Aberdeen was firmly in the hands of the Covenanters, vowing “by God’s wounds, I’ll sit beside the Provost and in no other place o’ the kirk,” he occupied the Provost’s pew in St. Nicholas Kirk and had to be forcibly removed by the town’s officers. When he appeared before the magistrates, with the provost presiding, he called the latter “a doited cock and an ass,” tore up the charge, and threw the “penner and inkhorn” in the face of the clerk of the court “to the great effusion of his blood.”
He was ordered to be detained in Aberdeen Tolbooth, where he made himself as much of a nuisance as possible. He tried to set fire to the place because the chimney smoked; had daggers and cudgels smuggled in and attacked the warders; somehow acquired a gun and entertained himself by firing at passers-by on the Castlegate; and, finally, barricaded himself inside.
John Leith returned to Harthill and conducted a vendetta against the minister and kirk session at Oyne, demanding the return of communion cups previously gifted by his brother. Finally, hopelessly in debt, he turned arsonist and, having set fire to Harthill Castle, sat Nero-like in “Harthill’s Cave” on Craig Shannoch and watched it burn.”
From The “Book of Bennachie”, published by the Bailies of Bennachie
This popular event is disputed in the Leiths of Harthill which explains that the Leith who burnt his family’s tower house was not the infamous John Leith of Harthill or his grandson John Gordon, son of his daughter Anna Leith (the actual last Laird, a ward of John Leith of New Leslie), but either William or Patrick Leith (son of one of John Leith’s brothers who had disputed John Leith’s ownership (c. 1660). Their families continued to dispute ownership until some time after 1693 when the son (who never was Laird) was deeply in debt due to ongoing legal costs. The property was sold to Erskine of Pittodrie.
