Meanwhile, Thomas senior had taken a mistress, Isabella, from Clan Gordon, which must have been a bitter blow to his wife. Apparently Isabella charmed not only Thomas but James, who married her. Thomas reaction was swift: he disinherited his oldest son. James and a band of Gordons waylaid Thomas and party on the road between estates. Thomas was shot several times in the legs and suffered a sword blow to the head, as a result of which James became an outlaw, surviving by banditry in Shetland and Orkney. The younger Thomas' uncle, John Dempster, an Edinburgh lawyer, insisted he be educated abroad to remove him from the environment.