position by James VI at Falkland Palace and had to overcome the Queen's initial suspicions of him as her keeper and a potential informant. In July 1593 an advisory council for the administration of her estates, the genesis of the "Octavians", was appointed and Melville was not included. On 24 July, Melville went to reassure two Danish ambassadors, Steen Bille and Niels Krag who were lodged at John Kinloch's house in the Canongate after the Raid of Holyrood. He attended Anne of Denmark at the baptism of Prince Henry at Stirling Castle in August 1594, standing behind her and making speeches for her in French to the ambassadors who brought gifts. Having been adopted as his heir by the reformer Henry Balnaves, he inherited from him, at his death in 1579, the estate of Halhill in Fife; and he retired there in 1603, refusing the request of James to accompany him to London on his accession to the English throne. By his wife, Christina Boswell, he had one son and two daughters; the elder of these, Elizabeth Melville, who married John Colville, de jure 3rd Baron Colville of Culross, has been identified with the author of a poem published in 1603, entitled Ane Godlie Dreame. Sir James Melville died at Halhill on 13 November 1617. He was buried in Collessie churchyard. "Halhill" was the name of the main house of the lands of Easter Collessie in Fife. Marriage and children In 1569 Melville married Christian Boswell (d. 1609), a daughter of David Boswell of Balmuto in Fife. Her father was said to have been a devout Catholic who welcomed a visit of Mary, Queen of Scots as an opportunity for his seven sons to hear mass said in their home. Their children included: James Melville. Robert Melville Margaret Melville, who married Andrew Balfour of Montquhanie Elizabeth Melville, poet, mother to Alexander Colville Christian Melville, who married John Bonar of Lumquhat Works At Halhill, Melville wrote the Memoirs of my own Life, a valuable authority for the history of the period, first published by his grandson, George Scott of Pitlochie, in 1683, from a manuscript discovered at Edinburgh Castle in 1660. The most complete edition of the Memoirs is that prepared by Thomas Thomson for the Bannatyne Club (Edinburgh, 1827), based on a manuscript discovered in 1827. Some eighteenth-century Scottish historians doubted the authenticity of Scott's publication. Gordon Donaldson notes in