BARGENY, Baron, a title (now dormant) in the peerage
of Scotland, first conferred, in 1639, on Sir John
Hamilton of Carriden, only son of Sir John Hamilton
of Letterick, natural son of John first marquis of
Hamilton. The father of the first peer had obtained
a legitimation under the great seal 22d December
1600, and acquired considerable estates in the
counties of Ayr and Lanark. Among the rest he had
charters of Bargeny, which had formerly belonged to
the Kennedys, Carlok, and other lands in Ayrshire,
23d December 1631. From the former his son, the
first lord, took his designation. This peerage was
created with limitation to the heirs male of the
first lord’s body. In 1648 Lord Bargeny accompanied
the duke of Hamilton, in his unfortunate expedition
into England, and was excepted by Cromwell out of
his act of grace and pardon, 12th April, 1654. He
died April 1658. He married Lady Jean Douglas,
second daughter of William first marquis of Douglas,
and had two sons and five daughters.
The older son, John, second Lord Bargeny, was served
heir to his father 17th October, 1662. His liberal
principles made him obnoxious to the ministry of
Charles the Second, and he was imprisoned in
Blackness castle in November 1679. From thence he
was removed to Edinburgh, and indicted for high
treason, for having compassed the life of the duke
of Lauderdale and others of the nobility, encouraged
rebellion to the sovereign, and openly declaimed
against episcopacy, then the established religion in
Scotland. From want of evidence, however, this
indictment was not brought to trial. A letter from
the king, dated 11th May 1680, was laid before his
privy council in Scotland, bearing that his majesty
had received a petition from Lord Bargeny,
representing his father’s loyalty and sufferings,
and declaring his innocence of the crimes laid to
his charge; in consequence of which he was released,
on finding security to stand trial, in fifty
thousand merks. After being set at liberty he
discovered that Cunningham of Mountgrennan and his
servant, two of the prisoners taken at Bothwell-bridge,
were suborned by Sir Charles Maitland of Hatton and
Sir John Dalrymple, to give false evidence against
him. Their depositions, which also affected the duke
of Hamilton, were prepared beforehand, and they were
promised a share of the confiscated estates; but
when the trial approached, their consciences
revolted against the crime. Lord Bargeny’s evidence
was ready to be produced before parliament, 28th
July 1681, but the duke of York interposed to
prevent inquiry. [Anderson’s History of the House of
Hamilton, p. 218.] His lordship entered heartily
into the Revolution, and in 1689 he raised a
regiment of six hundred foot for the public service.
He died 25th May 1693. He was twice married, first,
to Lady Margaret Cunningham, second daughter of
William ninth earl of Glencairn, lord high
chancellor of Scotland, and had issue two sons and a
daughter; the latter, named Nicolas, married to Sir
Alexander Hope of Kerse, baronet; secondly, in 1676,
to Lady Alice Moore, dowager countess of Clan
Brassil, eldest daughter of Henry first earl of
Drogheda, by whom he had no children. His eldest
son, John, Master of Bargeny, died before his
father. He married, 19th June 1688, Jean, daughter
of Sir Robert Sinclair of Longformacus, baronet, and
had one daughter, Joanna, heiress of Bargeny,
married, in 1707, to Sir Robert Dalrymple of
Castleton, knight.
The younger son, William, succeeded his father in
1693, and became third Lord Bargeny. He took the
oaths and his seat in the Scotch parliament 9th May
1695, and exerted himself in opposition to the
treaty of Union in 1706. He died about 1712. He was
twice married, first to Mary, eldest daughter of Sir
William Primrose of Carrington, sister of the first
viscount Primrose, by whom he had a daughter, the
Hon. Grizel Hamilton, married 15th February 1713 to
Thomas Buchan of Cairnbulgh, advocate; and secondly,
to Margaret, eldest daughter of Robert Dundas of
Arniston, a lord of session, sister of the first
President Dundas, by whom he had a son,
James, fourth Lord Bargeny, born 29th November 1710.
He succeeded his father in 1712, and competed his
education by visiting foreign countries, as appears
from Hamilton of Bangour’s epitaph on the companion
of his travels, who,
“With kind Bargeny, faithful
to his word,
Whom heaven made good and
social, though a lord,
The cities viewed of many-languaged
men”
His
lordship died unmarried at Edinburgh, 28th March,
1736, in the 26th year of his age, and was buried,
5th April, in the Abbey-church of Holyrood-house.
The title has remained dormant ever since. A
competition arose for the estate, between first, the
children of Joanna, Lady Dalrymple, only daughter of
John, Master of Bargeny; secondly, the children of
the Hon. Mrs. Buchan of Cairnbulgh, daughter of the
third lord; and thirdly, Sir Alexander Hope of Kerse,
son of the Hon. Nicolas Hamilton, daughter of the
second lord. It was ultimately decided in the House
of Lords in favour of the first, by whose
representative, Henrietta Dundas Dalrymple, Duchess
de Coigny, daughter of the late Sir Hew Dalrymple
Hamilton of North Berwick, baronet, it came to be
possessed.
The murder of the young Kennedy of Bargeny by the
earl of Cassillis in December 1601, led to the dark
and bloody deeds which form the subject of the
Auchindrane tragedy, dramatised by Sir Walter Scott,
and included in Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, arising
out of the feuds between the earls of Cassillis and
the lairds of Bargeny. See CASSILLIS, earl of.
