In 1605 the church minister John Welsh of Ayr wrote to him from his prison cell in Blackness Castle, assuring him that the wrath of God would fall on Archbishop Spottiswood and his family.
[1] He kept in touch with the court of King James in London and was a correspondent of Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox and Margaret Hartsyde, a Scottish servant of Anne of Denmark, the chamberer who looked after the queen's jewels.
However, Lennox claimed that placing more Scottish people in the king's household was increasingly difficult.
Hartsyde was hoping to buy a house in Libberton in Lanarkshire with her husband John Buchanan.
[6] Margaret Fleming, Lady Torwood, aunt of his eldest son's bride, wrote to him in 1609.