“ Having become a leader among the extreme Covenanters, he made use of his influence to relieve his pecuniary embarrassments, selling his support at one time to the Jacobites, at another to the government, and whenever possible to both parties at the same time. He held a licence from the government in 1707 permitting him to associate with those whose disloyalty was known or suspected, proving that he was at that date the government’s paid spy ”

“ But he was known to be a man of the worst character, and it is improbable that he succeeded in gaining the confidence of people of any importance. The duchess of Gordon was for a time, it is true, one of his correspondents, but in 1707 she had discovered him to be “a knave.” He went to London in 1709, where he seems to have extracted considerable sums of money from politicians of both parties by promising or threatening, as the case might be, to expose Godolphin’s relations with the Jacobites. ”

“ KER, JOHN (1673–1726) , Scottish spy, was born in Ayrshire on the 8th of August 1673. His true name was Crawfurd, his father being Alexander Crawfurd of Crawfurdland; but having married Anna, younger daughter of Robert Ker, of Kersland, Ayrshire, whose only son Daniel Ker was killed at the battle of Steinkirk in 1692, he assumed the name and arms of Ker in 1697, after buying the family estates from his wife’s elder sister. ”