Margaret Kennedy, Countess of Cassilis

The story is told in a ballad, The Raggle Taggle Gypsy, including in some versions the execution of John Faa at the dule tree of the Place of Casillis.

A later countess, Jean Hamilton, wife of John Kennedy, 6th Earl of Cassilis is also suggested as the subject of the ballad.

[10] In January 1576 she heard that her son by her first marriage, the Laird of Craigie, was negotiating to sell the lands of Ferstoun to Regent Morton.

The Laird had been taken prisoner by her grandson Gilbert Kennedy, 4th Earl of Cassilis for withholding a valuable gold artefact or coin discovered in a barn.

As a postscript, the Countess added that she had seen a "rammage" velvet skirt belonging to Elizabeth Durham, the wife of the President of Session, which was the right stuff for her cloak.