HAIG,
a surname, originally del Haga, possessed by an ancient family
in the Merse, proprietors from an early period of the lands of
Bemerside in Berwickshire, relative to whom Sir Thomas the Rhymer,
whose estate of Ercildon adjoined theirs, has this prophecy:
“Tide whate’er betide,
There’s aye be Haigs of Bemerside.”
Some writers are
of opinion that they are of Pictish or British extraction, (Nisbet’s
Heraldry, vol. I. P. 134), but the name del Haga is evidently
Norman. Petrus del Haga, proprietor of the lands and barony of
Bemerside, lived in the reigns of King Malcolm the Fourth and William
the Lion. In a donation of Richard de Morville, constable of Scotland
from 1162 to 1188, of the chapel of St. Leonard’s in Lauderdale to the
monastery of Dryburgh, Petrus del Haga de Bemerside is a witness. He
also appears as witness to three other charters in the Chartulary of
Kelso. Petrus del Haga is also witness in a charter of confirmation
(No. 75 in Anderson’s Diplomata Scotiae) of the said Richard de
Morville, of lands to Sir Henry Sinclair and others, before 1188. In
the same era, according to a manuscript history of the family, was
Henry del Haga, said to have been killed in the expedition of King
William against Harold earl of Caithness in 1199. Petrus del Haga, the
son of the first-mentioned Petrus, in various charters is designed
dominus de Bemerside, an evidence that this family were considerable
barons even in those early ties. This Petrus, with Sir Alexander
Davenant, was appointed by Kig Alexander the Second to pursue and
apprehend John de Bisset, for burning Patrick, earl of Athol, in his
own house at Haddington in 1242. John, his son, third baron of
Bemerside, was compelled, with many other Scots barons to swear fealty
to Edward the First in 1296; but he took the first opportunity of
joining Sir William Wallace in the struggle for independence, and was
with him at the battle of Stirling in 1297. His son, Petrus, adhered
to Bruce, and fought with him at the battle of Bannockburn, but was
killed at Halidonhill in 1333. John, fifth baron of Bemerside, the son
of Petrus, was slain at the battle of Otterburn, at an advanced age,
five years after. Gilbert Haig, the eighth baron, was present with the
earl of Ormond, commander of the Scots army, when he obtained a
complete victory over an English force under the earl of
Northumberland at Sark in 1449. He also assisted the earl of Angus in
suppressing the power of James, earl of Douglas, in 1455. His son,
James, ninth laird of Bemerside, was a warm adherent of James the
Third, and after the murder of that unfortunate monarch in 1488, he
was obliged to conceal himself till, through the interposition of
friends, he had made his peace with the young king, James the Fourth.
This, however, could only be effected on condition of resigning hs
estate to his son William, which he did 13th February,
1489. This William Haig of Bemerside fell at Flodden. His son, Robert,
who succeeded to the estate, had a command in the army, under the
regent Arran, which engaged the English near Ancrum in 1544, and the
laird of Bemerside, having taken prisoner Ralph, Lord Evers, one of
the English leaders, he obtained a discharge of all the duties due by
his family to the Crown. The great-grandson of this baron, James,
fourteenth laird of Bemerside, married a daughter of William Macdougal
of Stodrig, who had been nurse to Princess Elizabeth, queen of
Bohemia, daughter of James VI., and had a pension settled on her. Of
eight sons, the four eldest were killed in the service of the elector
palatinate, king of Bohemia, in 1629 and 1630. David, the fifth son,
(1638) carried on the line of the family. He was succeeded by his son
Antony, an officer in the service of Sweden, who married Jean,
daughter of Home of Bassenden, and had James Zerobabel, his heir, and
two younger sons. James Zerobabel Haig of Bemersyde, married
Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Gordon, Esq., principal clerk of
justiciary, (of the family of Aberdeen), and had issue, James Antony,
who succeeded him, and eleven daughters, of whom the second, Mary,
married in 1735 or 1736, Thomas Potts, Esq., sheriff-clerk of
Roxburghshire, and had issue; 1st, James, sheriff-clerk of
Roxburghshire, died S.P.; and 2d, Thomas. (The eldest daughter of
James Zerobabel Haig married the Hon. James Home of Aytonhall, second
son of Charles, 6th earl of Home, without issue.) The 2d
son of Thomas Potts and Mary Haig, Thomas Potts, Esq., married in
1777, Jane, third daughter of Robert Robertson, Esq. of Prenderguest,
Berwickshire, and had an only child, Thomas Potts, Esq., now of the
Daison, Torquay, Devonshire, born 30th June, 1784, married
1st ( in 1813) Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander Chatto,
Esq. of Mainhouse, Roxburghshire, issue, William John Potts, Esq.
barrister at law (of Lincoln’s Inn), born 23d July 1824, and
Elizabeth, married 1st to the Rev. William Nicholson,
rector of St Maurice, Winchester, and 2d (in 1852,) to Gerard Noel
Bolton, Esq., major of the Waterford militia artillery. Mr. Potts of
the Daison married 2d (1852), Elizabeth Dorothea, daughter of Foliot
Scott Stokes, Esq. of London. After the three daughters (and their
heirs) of James Zerobabel Haig of Bemersyde, Mr. Potts is heir of line
and representative of the ancient family of De Haga, which has
possessed the estate of Bemersyde for upwards of 700 years. James
Antony Haig, the only son, married the eldest daughter of William
Robertson, Esq. of Ladykirk, and left two sons, James Zerobabel,
afterwards of Bemersyde, and Isaac, died s.p. The elder, James
Zerobabel of Bemersyde, married Isabella, daughter of Samuel Watson,
Esq., Edingurgh; issue, five sons, who died s.p., and three daughters,
viz., Barbara, (Miss Haig of Bemersyde), Sophia, and Mary, 1860.)
