Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 25.djvu/271

Hay and Laing prints the second in full, with illustrative specimens of the others. Hay's poetic work is a translation from the French into upwards of twenty thousand Scottish verses of ‘The Buke of the Conqueror Alexaunder the Great.’ The work is only extant in a manuscript at Taymouth Castle, which seems to have been written in 1493, after the translator's death. It has never been printed in full, but copious extracts were printed for the Bannatyne Club in 1834.

Hay's vigorous command of his native tongue insured him a measure of importance, and his ‘Buke of King Alexaunder’ has sufficiently distinctive merits to warrant allusion to the writer by Dunbar in his ‘Lament for the Makaris’ (before 1508) and by Sir David Lyndsay in the prologue to his ‘Papyngo.’

 HAY, JAMES, first (d. 1636), son of Sir James Hay of Kingask (d. 1610), by Margaret Murray, and grandson of Sir Peter Hay of Megginch, was born at Pitscorthy in Fifeshire (, Peerage, ed. Wood, ii. 44). James I taking a fancy to him, as ‘a person well qualified by his breeding in France and by study in human learning’ (, i. 133), knighted him and brought him with him to England. (According to, Secret Hist. of the Court of King James, i. 330, he came from France to meet James on his arrival in England, and was introduced by him to the French ambassador. As, however, his name does not appear in the list of knights made in England, it would seem that, if the story is true, he must have met James to the north of the border.) He soon became a gentleman of the bedchamber. James not only overwhelmed him with a succession of grants, but provided for him a marriage with Honora Denny, the heiress of Sir Edward Denny. So far as can be conjectured from documents which have reached us, there seems to have been some difficulty in gaining the assent either of the lady or of her father. On 17 Sept. 1604 the king granted Strixton Manor and other lands to Sir James Hay and Honora Denny and their lawful issue (Pat. 2 Jac. I, part 29; Mrs. Everett Green, in her description of the docquet 15 Sept. in the ‘Calendar of Domestic State Papers,’ erroneously describes the lady as Sir James's wife), and on 27 Oct. Denny was created a baron. As, however, the farmer of the manor of Strixton under the crown retained his hold on it till 1606 (Ministers' Accounts, P. R. O., Northampton Roll, 2 and 3 Jac. I, No. 24, 3 and 4 Jac. I, No. 22), it looks as if James kept back the patent, taking this curious way of holding out a temptation to the new peer to part with his daughter. On 21 June 1606 Hay himself was created a baron for life, though without a seat in the House of Lords (Pat. 4 Jac. I, part 1), and the marriage took place on 6 Jan. 1607 (, Annals of James I). Both in the sermon, ‘The Royal Merchant,’ preached by Robert Wilkinson, and in Campion's ‘Masque’ (, Progresses, ii. 105;, Works, ed. Bullen, pp. 145 sq.), James is lauded as the founder of a marriage in which not only two persons, but two kingdoms, were united. James gave the couple a further start in life by paying off the debts of the bridegroom (State Papers, Dom. xxvi. 45). On 4 June 1610 Hay was made a knight of the Bath at the creation of the king's eldest son Henry as prince of Wales, and in 1613 he became master of the wardrobe (Grant Book, State Papers, Dom. p. 93). On 29 June 1615 (Pat. 13 Jac. I, part 16) he was created Lord Hay of Sawley, this time without any unusual restrictions.

Hay's character as a spendthrift was already established. Satirists, perhaps with some exaggeration, delighted to tell of his unbounded extravagance. One particular freak, that of the double suppers, was remembered against him. The invited guests would, it is said, find themselves in the presence of a cold supper composed of the greatest rarities. Before they had time to help themselves it was snatched away and replaced by a hot supper of equal costliness (, ‘Traditional Memoirs’ in the Secret Hist. of the Court of James I, i. 270). Hay in fact took life easily. With a master ready to supply his requirements there was no need to stint himself. This facility of temper carried him through the slippery career of a courtier without making a single enemy. He never presumed on his position, never lost his temper, and was no man's rival, because he was never jealous of any one. Hay's good nature was based upon a wide foundation of common sense. He did not indeed rise to the rank of a statesman, and he was apt to think in political affairs much as people with whom he was in daily converse were thinking. But within these limitations he had usually good advice to give. The evidence of the better side of his character is to be found in the very numerous despatches which he wrote in the course of his career, most of which are still in manuscript in the Record Office. In these he shows himself shrewd, observant and sensible. 