It was addressed to "oure louit Johnne Faw, lord and erle of Litill Egipt" ("our beloved Johnne Faw, Lord and Earl of Little Egypt") establishing his authority over all Gypsies in Scotland and calling on all sheriffs in the country to assist him "in executione of justice upoun his company and folkis", who were to "conforme to the lawis of Egipt".
Johnnie Faa is associated with the tragic tale of "The Countess and the Gypsy", a version of the ballad known as "The Raggle Taggle Gyspy".
He hanged Faa and his followers on a Dule Tree on a mound in front of the Castle Gate at Cassillis while his wife was forced to watch from an upstairs room.
It was an oaken chest, elaborately bound with iron, and containing two pewter plates stamped with official marks bearing dates from 1600 to 1764.
[2] In S. R. Crockett's The Raiders and Silver Sand, Faa is placed in south-west Scotland in the late seventeenth century, as a contemporary of Grierson of Lag during the Killing Times.