LEE-Penny, or Lee-stone, a curious piece of antiquity belonging to the family of Lee in Scotland, and of which the following account has been given in the Gentleman's Magazine for December 1787.
It is a stone of a dark red colour and triangular shape, and its size about half an inch each side. It is set in a piece of silver coin, which, though much defaced, by some letters still remaining is supposed to be a shilling of Edward I. the cross being very plain, as it is on his shillings.—It has been, by tradition, in the Lee family since the year 1320; that is, a little after the death of King Robert Bruce, who having ordered his heart to be carried to the Holy Land, there to be buried, one of the noble family of Douglas was sent with it, and it is said got the crowned heart in his arms from that circumstance: but the person who carried the heart was Simon Locard of Lee, who just about this time borrowed a large sum of money from Sir William de Lendsay, prior of Air, for which he granted a bond of annuity of ten pounds of silver, during the life of the said Sir William de Lendsay, out of his lands of Lee and Cartland. The original bond, dated 1323, and witnessed by the principal nobility of the country, is still remaining among the family papers.
As this was a great sum in those days, it is thought it was borrowed for that expedition; and, from his being the person who carried the royal heart, he changed his name to Lockhart, as it is sometimes spelled, or Lockhart, and got a heart within a lock for part of his arms, with the motto Corda ferata pande.—This Simon Lockhart having taken prisoner a Saracen prince or chief, his wife came to ransom him; and on counting out the money or jewels, this stone fell out of her purse, which she hastily snatched up; which Simon Lockhart observing, insisted to have it, else he would not give up his prisoner.—Upon this the lady gave it him, and told him its many virtues, viz. that it cured all diseases in cattle, and the bite of a mad dog both in man and beast. It is used by dipping the stone in water, which is given to the diseased cattle to drink; and the person who has been bit, and the wound or part infected, is washed with the water. There are no words used in the dipping of the stone, or any money taken by the servants, without incurring the owner's displeasure. Many are the cures said to be performed by it, and people come from all parts of Scotland, and even as far up in England as Yorkshire, to get the water in which the stone is dipped, to give their cattle, when ill of the murain especially, and black-leg.—A great many years ago, a complaint was made to the ecclesiastical courts against the laird of Lee, then Sir James Lockhart, for using witchcraft.—It is said, when the plague was last at Newcastle, the inhabitants sent for the Lee-penny, and gave a bond for a large sum in trust for the loan; and that they thought it did so much good, that they offered to pay the money, and keep the Lee-penny; but the gentleman would not part with it. A copy of this bond is very well attested to have been among the family papers, but supposed to have been spoiled, along with many more valuable ones, about 50 years ago, by rain getting into the charter room, during a long minority, and no family residing at Lee.
We have given this history, not on account of the utility of the information, but as a proof of the superstition of the times. None of the virtues which the stone was formerly supposed to possess, are now ascribed to it, excepting, we believe, in the case of some of the diseases of cattle; and even these in more enlightened times will become daily less numerous and less powerful.