Two chronicles, possibly by the same author,[2] state that James VI of Scotland arranged his marriage to a bride without a dowry to punish the family because Thomas Kennedy laird of Bargany had taken part in a riot in Edinburgh on 17 November 1596.
[4] As the chronicles mention, after this disturbance Lord Lindsay of the Byres' property was forfeit, and Bargany was punished by a marriage that was to "the wreck of his house".
In 1615 the dowry or "tochter" money was still unpaid, and their son claimed the sum from Sir John Stewart of Traquair and his legal tutor Robert Stuart.
In April 1615 the Privy Council of Scotland wrote to King James that Traquair ought not to be liable because Sir William had been following the queen's direction "whose commandment was ever unto him a law".
In May, Anne of Denmark asked her lady-in-waiting Jean Ker, Countess of Roxburghe to write to her husband to intercede with James to the same effect, to pay what Traquair owed for the dowry.
[1] The Earl claimed in his defence to the Privy Council that Bargany's party that day included men denounced by the king as rebels that he had a commission to pursue with fire and sword.
[12] She died in Edinburgh in September 1605 and left a will with an inventory of her belongings including her clothes, jewellery, beds, and six "stands" or sets of tartan curtains.
On 6 October 1619 after her usual morning prayers at Bargany Castle, she was walking in the garden with her psalm book in her hands, and was surprised by her husband's servant Patrick Kennedy, who asked where she had been.
Margaret found her way out of the back door and escaped through the hedge and waded through the deep water of the Girvan, hiding in the woods and reaching the safety of her aunt's house at Dailly the next day.