HONYMAN,
the surname of a family in Orkney, which possesses a baronetcy,
descended from Bishop Andrew Honyman, who married Mary Stewart,
heiress of Graemsay, and representative of the earls of Orkney of
that name. In 1643 he was made colleague to Mr. Robert Blair in St.
Andrews by the presbytery of that city. He was afterwards archdeacon
of St. Andrews, and succeeded Bishop Sydserf in the see of Orkney in
1664, being consecrated on 10th April of that year. On 11th
July 1668, when stepping into the coach of Archbishop Sharp on the
High-street of Edinburgh, he received a shot in his wrist with a
poisoned bullet, intended for sharp, fired by a preacher of the name
of James Mitchell, who had been at the rising of Pentland and had
been excepted from the indemnity. On the cry arising that a man was
killed, the people began to rush to the spot, but some one saying
that “it was only a bishop,” the crowd quietly dispersed. Mitchell
escaped at the time, but ten years afterwards was executed for the
deed. The wound never healed, and greatly impaired the bishop’s
health. He died in February 1676, and was buried in the cathedral
church of Kirkwall. He was the author of a work called ‘The Survey
of the insolent and infamous libel entitled Naphtali,’ small 4to,
1678, in which he attempts to refute the statements contained in
that famous presbyterian publication.
His
great-great-grandson, William Honyman, Lord Armadale, eldest son of
Patrick Honyman of Graemsay by his wife, Margaret, daughter and
heiress of M’Kay of Strathy (cousin of Lord Reay), was a
distinguished judge of the court of session. Born in December 1756,
he was admitted advocate 15th February 1777, and
appointed sheriffp-depute of Lanarkshire in 1786. On being promoted
to the bench, he took his seat, 7th February 1797, with
the judicial title of Lord Armadale, from an estate of that name
which he inherited from his mother in the county of Sutherland. On
29th June, 1799, he was named one of the lords of
justiciary, and created a baronet, 11th May, 1804. He
resigned his seat on the bench in 1811, and died at Smyllum Park,
his residence in Lanarkshire, June 5th, 1825. He had
married in 1777, Mary, eldest daughter of the Right Hon. Robert
Macqueen, Lord Braxfield, lord-justice-clerk, and had three sons and
three daughters. His eldest son, sir Richard Bemptde Johnston
Honyman, second baronet, at one time an officer in the 28th
light dragoons, died 23d February 1842, without issue, and was
succeeded by his next brother, Sir Ord John Honyman, third baronet,
a colonel in the army and major in the grenadier guards (1846);
married in 1818 the daughter of Admiral Bowen; issue, two sons and
one daughter.
Another
son of the first baronet, Lieutenant-colonel Robert Honyman, 18th
foot, distinguished himself in Egypt under Sir Ralph Abercromby, at
the capture of the Cape of Good Hope under Sir David Baird, and in
the island of Jamaica, where he died of fever Nov. 20, 1809, aged
27.
