His first play The Gowrie Conspiracy, a play concerned with a botched attempt on James IV of Scotland’s, life which was performed in Edinburgh to some acclaim. He followed this up with two further plays: The Highland Widow and Margaret of Anjou. At time of writing no trace of these plays has been unearthed.

Due to tax rules at the time, it was not uncommon for the separate parts of characters to be written with the play as a whole never being published in one folio, thus avoiding the tax. It also meant many works from this period were not preserved.

His play which we still have is called The Siege and concerns the siege of Berwick by Edward III in 1333 and Lord Seton’s defense and the fate of his sons held hostage. This was published in the 17th January 1835 edition of Wilson's Tales of the Borders, as a “dramatic tale” the only play within the tales.

A similarly entitled play was written by local dignity Edward Jerningham in 1793 concerning the same siege. Its story line is slightly different, but no doubt a source of inspiration.

The project has commissioned many of the original tales to be presented in dramatic format and sponsors an award at Duns Playfest to enable a new interpretation of one of the tales to be presented there every year. For more details on our annual award please click here..

We also present a tale adapted to storytellers or actors script in have for presentation at our annual commerative dinner.