Henry Echlin (soldier)

Henry Echlin, Laird of Pittadro (died 1608) was a Scottish soldier and Constable of Edinburgh Castle during the Marian civil war.

Echlin was known by his territorial designation as the "Laird of Pittadro", a property about a mile north of Dalgety Bay in the parish of Inverkeithing in Fife, Scotland.

[4] Henry Echlin, as laird of Pittadro or "Pittadrow",[5] is sometimes confused with the comptroller of Scotland, John Wishart of Pitarrow (died 1585).

[9] Echlin was found guilty of treason by the Parliament of Scotland in August 1571, along with his kinsman Robert Melville, a Fife neighbour Henry Wardlaw of Torrie, and many others.

[12][13][14] James Melville of Halhill wrote that "Pittadrow" was sent from the castle to Regent Morton to "hear out of his own mouth" his responses to Grange's proposals.

David Hume of Godscroft wrote that these veterans of the Castle faction like "warts and freckles in a beautiful body" stained the lustre of Regent Morton's government.

[32] They were said to be involved in the overthrow of Regent Morton around the year 1579 and "advancing secretly and indirectly" the association of Mary, Queen of Scots, and James VI.

After his death, in 1629 when the courtier Robert Kerr of Ancram recommended Echlin's son David for employment by the Earl of Carlisle, he wrote that his father "the worthy laird of Pittadro, was one of the last men that stuck to the Queen our master's grandmother, and was loved and esteemed for it all his lyffe by K: James".

[37] Describing the surrender of Edinburgh Castle in 1573, the 17th-century historian Robert Johnston wrote that Henry Echlin was "of great authority and estimation amongst those of his own faction".