John  Leith of Harthill

	Extract from The Book of Bennachie, published by the Bailies of Bennachie Harthill Castle "John Leith of Harthill was an equally enthusiastic Royalist, albeit eccentric if not, indeed, mentally unbalanced. At Christmas, 1639, when Aberdeen was firmly in the hands of the Covenanters, vowing "by God's wounds, I'll sit beside the Provost and in no other place o' the kirk," he occupied the Provost's pew in St. Nicholas Kirk and had to be forcibly removed by the town's officers. When he appeared before the magistrates, with the provost presiding, he called the latter "a doited cock and an ass," tore up the charge, and threw the "penner and inkhorn" in the face of the clerk of the court "to the great effusion of his blood."
	He was ordered to be detained in Aberdeen Tolbooth, where he made himself as much of a nuisance as possible. He tried to set fire to the place because the chimney smoked; had daggers and cudgels smuggled in and attacked the warders; somehow acquired a gun and entertained himself by firing at passers-by on the Castlegate; and, finally, barricaded himself inside The Tolbooth, Aberdeen
	The Window in the Cell where John Leith may have been held A note about John Leith in the Aberdeen Tolbooth Museum The Aberdeen Tolbooth showing the window whence John Leith fired at passers-by The Heart of Midlothian, Edinburgh, later  immortalised by  Sir Walter Scott   in his novel of the  same name

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Clan Leith - Genealogy