A family history narrates that in 1521, John Drummond was given the lands and mill of Milnab in Strathearn, and the royal charter described him in Latin as; "Machinarum bellicarum ejaculator et carpentarius noster," - "keeper of the throwing machines of war and our carpenter."
[5] John Drummond and his two workmen went to France in 1538 on the ships that brought the king's bride Mary of Guise to Scotland.
[8] In 1515, John took the guns off two warships, the James and Margaret, at Dumbarton, which had been returned from France by the Duke of Albany, and took the cannon to Edinburgh overland via Glasgow.
In 1528 he and another gunner, Robert Borthwick, advised the Master of Artillery, Alexander Jardine of Applegarth on cannon and equipment required to besiege Tantallon Castle.
However, John Barton, the mariner, told Penven that the King had spoken to Drummond during the voyage, telling him how he played James Hamilton of Finnart against the Earl of Angus.
[13] After James and his French bride, Madeleine of Valois, arrived at Leith in June 1537, Drummond and two helpers spent six weeks taking the guns from the ships off their sea-stocks and mounting them on land-stocks.
In March 1539, the English messenger Henry Ray was told by a "secret friend" who was an associate of the banished Earl of Angus and an officer of the Scottish royal ordnance that 16 great cannons or culverins and 60 smaller guns had been refurnished or newly made in Edinburgh Castle.
[15] After working at Crawfordjohn and cladding the new Register House at Edinburgh Castle with imported 'Eastland' oak boards in July 1541, in August he went to the woods of Calder for twenty days and cut down 'ane hundredth grete treis' to make wheels for the artillery carts.
[16] In March 1542, when a cannon had been successfully cast at Edinburgh Castle, Drummond paid the wood-carver Andrew Mansioun to engrave the royal arms and date on the barrel.
A charter of 19 July 1536 gave lands near Haddington with Milnab to him and his wife, Christiane Brogy, without mentioning Jonet.