Mark Kerr (abbot)

At a parliament held at Edinburgh on 15 December of this year he was appointed one of a commission to inquire into the jurisdiction that should pertain to the kirk.

By one of the articles of the Pacification of Perth in February 1572-3 he was nominated one of the judges for the trial "of all attempts committed against the abstinence be south the water of Tay".

Receiving in 1581, after the second fall of Morton, a ratification of the commendatorship of Newbattle, he continued to be a loyal supporter of Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox, the favourite of James VI.

[3] Esmé Stewart gave Kerr a "buffet" or cupboard, a key piece of furniture in domestic ritual, for his hall at Prestongrange House and the room was painted for him in 1581 with vivid emblems and comic figures copied from a French illustrated book Richard Breton's Songes drôlatiques de Pantagruel.

[4] On 15 July 1581 Kerr was appointed to hear and report on the case of Sir James Balfour, who was endeavouring to be reinstated in his rights of citizenship.