henry Scrimgeour 1600's

[Renaud]

Well Isabel only one word comes to mind if he left or quit, that begins with d.e.p. and that's departed.
Having had a closer look at the script and how the writer wrote lower case 't's I think you may be right and the contentious letter being the 't'. That said what follows 'dishaunted' looks like 'it' to me.
 "but not being very dexterous, he dishaunted it" seems an unusual sentence ??.
                                    Renaud       

[MKG]

Off the top of my head ...

There's little difference between "c" and "t". Could that word be "dishaunced", a rather archaic opposite version of "enhanced"? So - enhaunce is to improve, dishaunce is to spoil.

Maybe.

Mike

[Isabel H]

only one word comes to mind if he left or quit, that begins with d.e.p. and that's departed.
Having had a closer look at the script and how the writer wrote lower case 't's I think you may be right and the contentious letter being the 't'. That said what follows 'dishaunted' looks like 'it' to me.
 "but not being very dexterous, he dishaunted it" seems an unusual sentence ??

Your earlier suggestion of "deposed" seems more likely to me, as he seems to have offended in various ways. I agree that "dishaunted it" is odd; Mike's "dishaunced" makes better sense - except that when I PMd Kaz the article I found, she sent me a clearer version of the text in question, and the c/t looks to me as if it is a crossed t.
Kaz, could you upload that image for the others to see?
Isabel

[Redroger]

I make it dishonoured, and black covenant; with those caveats I agree with Isabel.I have fvound when decyphering 17th century documents much depends on the author; i.e. his age and education, some are as difficult as Tudor handwriting, others almost modern; their location, authors based in the bigger centres, London, Bristol etc. and those based near the location of a bishopric seem to be clearer, whilst those based in the countryside are often very difficult to decypher. Anyone agree or any other thoughts?

[MKG]

Ah well - I did say it was off the top of my head. An exhaustive search of the complete OED shows no record of the useage of "dishaunced". However, to "dishaunt" is to leave or to quit, and has had that meaning since the sixteenth century.

So, "attempted to read the Service Book but not being very dexterous he dishaunted it" appears to be a way of saying that his reading wasn't so great and he broke off and stopped in the middle of public reading. Given the strong feeling about the introduction of the book of Common Prayer (that's the Service Book) in Scotland, it could also mean that he insisted on reading it and started a riot. Or that he deliberately misread it and was forced to stop.

It's actually pretty difficult to work out whose side he was on.

Mike

EDIT: No, it isn't. He was a supporter of the king and his attempts to gain control over the Scottish Kirk. After reading about other clergymen around at the time who were deposed by the Glasgow Assembly, I think it safe to say that "dep." does stand for deposed (probably by the same assembly). So that "dishaunt" is now more likely to mean that he left off reading because he had to - the riot had begun. The fact that he ended up in England also supports this.

[Renaud]

Hi Mike, I trust kaz has seen the result of your research and the explanations, you have obviously conducted a thorough investigation and your edit piece makes sense of the obscure writings on the document. Good detective work, well done.
                               Renaud,