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THE “COMMON GOOD” OF THE BURGH – THE DIFFERENT CLASSES OF ITS POPULATION –
NOTICES OF ITS LEADING FAMILIES AT THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION: THE
M’BRAIRS, THE CORSANES, THE IRVINGS, THE LAURIES, THE ROMES, THE
CUNNINGHAMS, THE SHARPES, THE HALLIDAYS, THE DINWOODIES, THE FLEMINGS, THE
BELLS, THE GRAHAMS, AND THE KENNEDYS – THE POSITION TAKEN UP TOWARDS THE
REFORMATION BY THE CHIEF BARONS OF THE COUNTY – FREQUENT INTERMARRIAGE OF
COUNTY FAMILIES.
UP till this period, Dumfries retained possession of all, or nearly all,
its ancient landed patrimony, extending over a large portion of the
Parish. The income arising from it, and the tolls and customs levied by
the Council, must have been quite sufficient to keep the Burghal machinery
in operation, without resorting, except on rare occasions, to a person
impost on the lieges. There is too much reason to suppose, that before the
death of James IV., practices were introduced which destroyed this happy
equilibrium between income and outlay, and eventually left to the Burgh
only a small portion of its territorial inheritance. The lands granted at
various periods by the Crown were to be held for all time coming; they
were, in point of low, strictly inalienable; and it was only, at all
events, when the King, as overlord, sanctioned the sale or perpetual lease
of any of the lands, that such proceedings were allowable. So wisely
jealous was the Government lest the “res universitatis” (the “common good”
arising to Royal Burghs from rents and customs), should be tampered with,
that the Great Chamberlain of the nation was required to make periodical
inquests into their management. Once a year at least that official, or his
deputy, held a sort of exchequer court at Dumfries, at which the
magistrates made “count and reckoning” with him of their “intromissions.”
A salutary check to maladministration was thus supplied; but in the reign
of James I. the office of the Great Chamberlain was superseded by that of
the High Treasurer, who seems never to have exercised any efficient
supervision over the revenue of Burghs-Royal. Even before this change,
Parliament deemed it necessary to “statute and ordaine that the commoun
gud of all our Soverane Lordis burrowis be observit and kepit to the
common gude of the toun, and to be spendit in commoun and necessare
thingis of the burgh, be the avise of the Consale of the toun for the
tyme, and dekkynis of crafts quare thai ar – and attour that the rentis of
burrowis, as landis, fishingis, fermes, myllis, and utheris yerely
revenuis be nocht set bot for thrie yeris allenerly.” [Acts of Scottish
Parliament, 1491, vol. ii., p. 227.] Freed from a strict Government
inspection, the magistrates of burghs became, in some instances, careless
or culpable stewards of the trusts committed to them; and when, in 1503,
Parliament passed an Act permitting the King to give permanent tenures of
Crown property in lieu of short leases, and barons and freeholders to do
the same thing, a vicious precedent was introduced, which the rulers of
towns were eager to follow; and they were soon allowed to do so –
Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and several other Royal Burghs, obtaining, in the
first instance, special licenses from the sovereign for converting their
common property into heritable estates, given in feu-farm, in return for
what ere long “may be dated the commencement of that system of
maladministration which, with greater or less rapidity, ultimately tended
to the destruction of the far greater portion of the common good of
Burghs-Royal. [Report of Municipal Commissioners, p. 23.]
When James IV. was in Dumfries, however, the deteriorating process had
scarcely, if at all, begun; and this circumstance, in conjunction with
others of a favourable kind, leads us to the inference that, during his
reign, the Burgh reached its feudal meridian. In after times it acquired
increased municipal privileges, more trade, more population; but it never
was so richly endowed with territorial wealth. Under the same sovereign,
also, the Trades, who had hitherto been subordinated to the merchants,
took high social rank in the town; and it may be safely inferred, acquired
a direct representation in the Council, though the precise period at which
the deacons became members of that body cannot be ascertained.
When the reign of James V. is reached, we can speak in more precise terms
that hitherto regarding the constituents of society in Dumfries. Seven
different grades are distinctly visible: - 1. The patrician class,
possessing land in the neighbourhood, obtaining for payment, or by favour,
the freedom of the Burgh, in order that they may share the honour and
patronage that arise from the direction of its affairs. 2. The merchant
burgesses, consisting of men actually engaged in business, who may, or may
not, be also landed proprietors. 3. The master craftsmen, trying, not
without success, to hold their heads as high, and wear their furred gowns
as jauntily, as the merchants. 4. The ecclesiastics, consisting of the
dean and his clergy, the vicar, the parish priest, the Minorite Frairs,
and other churchmen, regular or secular, making altogether a numerous
body. 5. The artizans and mechanics, who work for wages. 6. The yeomen, or
free farmers. And, 7. The cotters – “hewers of wood and drawers of water”
– rapidly casting away their serfdom, though some of them are still in a
state of absolute slavery.
The earliest provosts of the Burgh were, in all likelihood, cadets of the
Douglasses, Maxwells, Kirkpatricks, Carlyles, Johnstones, and other
families who owned land and held rule in the district. In the early half
of the sixteenth century, when the Burgh was becoming increasingly
independent, some of its own sons – merchants as well as lairds – took a
leading part in the management of its affairs. Among the first of these
were the M’Brairs. Of Celtic origin, we find them at an early period
settled in Dalton, Mid-Annadale; and it is as the M’Brairs of Almagill, in
that parish, that they first appear in the records of the Burgh. A retour,
dated 19th December, 1573, warrants the supposition that they
occupied Almagill at least a hundred years before that date [We find the
following minute in Pitcairn (vol. i., p. 39.), of a case tried at
Dumfries, August 15th, 1504: - “Robert Grersoune, in Dumfreis,
produced a precept of remission for art and part of the cruel slaughter of
Sir John M’Brair, chaplain, in the town of Drumfreis. – William Douglas of
Drumlanrig became surety to satisfy parties.” (See ante, p. 184.)], as in
it Archibald M’Brair, Provost of Dumfries, is entered as heir “to his
great grandfather, William M’Brair of Almagill, in the 100s. land of
Almagill, in Meikle Dalton, and the three husbandlands in the town of
Little Dalton called Hallidayhall.” [The parish of Dalton, prior to the
Reformation, was divided into Meikle Dalton and Little Dalton; but, since
their union in 1633, the Church of Meikle Dalton is used by the
parishioners of the untied parishes as their place of worship. –
Statistical Account of Dumfriesshire, p. 371.] When the Convention of
Royal Burghs met at Edinburgh, on the 4th of April, 1552, John
M’Brair, Provost of Dumfries (probably the father of Archibald), appeared
as Commissioner for the town. Provost Archibald M’Brair and Bailie James
Rig were its representatives in the Convention of October, 1570. On the 5th
of January, 1561, John M’Brair, by obtaining a charter of The Mains, which
constituted part of the church lands of Dumfries, acquired a still
stronger footing for his family in the town; though they do not appear to
have given to it any chief magistrates after 1577. How, before the lapse
of another hundred years, this family had increased in opulence, may be
inferred from the following list of the lands belonging to Robert M’Brair
on the 10th of January, 1666: - The five-pound land Over and
Nether Almagill, with the two husbandland of Hallidayhill; the one-merk
land of Cluserd; the five-merk land of Little and Meikle Cloaks; two merks
of the four-merk land of Corsenloch (parishes of Urr and Colvend); the
five-pound land of Nether Rickhorne; the half-merk land of Glenshalloch;
the twenty-shilling land of Auchrinnies; the two-merk land of Little
Rickhorse; the forty-pound land of Over and Nether Wood, and Longholm,
holding of the Crown; part of the twenty-pound land of Rigside, with mill
and salmon fishing; the lands of Spitalfield, with the salmon fishing
formerly belonging to the Friars Minors of Dumfries, holding of the Crown;
the lands of Castledykes, holding of the Crown; four acres of land lying
between the Doocot (or Dovecot) of Castledykes, on the south of the Burgh
of Dumfries, Sinclair’s tenement on the north, King’s High Street on the
east, and the river Nith on the west; and two merks of the fifteen merks
of the Kirkland of Drumfries, feu of the King.
We find Herbert Raining Commissioner for Dumfries in the Convention of
1578, Mathew Dickson and John Marschell its Commissioners in 1582, and
Symon Johnnestown its Commissioner in 1584 – all these being familiar
household names at this early period. [At this season of the Convention of
Burghs, four of the members (one of whom was the Commissioner for
Dumfries), were unable to write, and had to sign the minutes “with our
handis at the pen led be the notaris underwritten at our commandis,
because we can nocht wryte ourselves.” – Records of the Convention.] In
the Convention of 1585, Dumfries was represented by no fewer that four
members, “Alexander Maxwell of Newlaw, Provost, Maister Homer Maxwell and
Herbert Ranying, tua of the Bailies – James Rig, thair Conburges.” Bailie
Homer Maxwell was also Commissary of Dumfries, and held the lands of
Speddoch, which originally belonged to the Monastery of Holywood.
The Corsanes, or Corsons, a more ancient family than the M’Brairs,
emulated them as municipal rulers. They claim to be descended from the
patrician Corsini, and say their first ancestor in Scotland came from
Italy to superintend the erection of Sweetheart Abbey and Devorgilla’s
bridge over the Nith. Some time before 1400, Sir Alexander Corsane was
witness to a charter granted by Archibald the Grim, Earl of Douglas, to
Sir John Stewart, of the lands of Collie. In 1408, Dominus Thomas
Corsanus, perpetual Vicar of Dumfries, granted a charter for certain
church lands within the royalty. The Corsanes took the designation of
Glen, till, in the reign of James IV., the barony so called passed with
Marion, sole child of Sir Robert Corsane, to her husband Sir Robert
Gordon, who thereupon styled himself of Glen, but afterwards of Lochinvar,
on the death of his elder brother at the battle of Flodden. From Gordon of
Lochinvar and his wife Marion sprung the barons of that ilk, and the
Viscounts of Kenmure.
Sir John Corsane, next heir male of Glen, settled at Dumfries, the head of
a far-descending line, which for eighteen generations presented an
unbroken array of heirs male, all bearing the name of John – Pedigree
occurrences that are perhaps without a parallel. John Corsane, the twelfth
in descent from Sir John, was Provost of Dumfries, and its Parliamentary
representative in the critical year 1621. He married Janet, daughter of
the seventh Lord Maxwell (slain at Dryfe-Sands), by whom he had several
children, one of whom was wedded to Stephen Laurie of Maxwelton. This
Provost Corsane was one of the richest commoners in Scotland. Besides his
country estates, the chief of which was Meikleknox, he is said to have
owned a third part of his native town; and at one time, not very far back,
many of its old houses bore the family arms: the head of a pagan pierced
by three darts, with warriors as supporters, and the motto – “Præmium
virtutis Gloria.” His life seems to have been inspired by that noble
sentiment. He died in 1629, in his seventy-sixth year, and was buried near
the entrance-gate of St. Michael’s Cemetery, at a place where eleven of
his ancestors had been laid before him. His eldest son, John Corsane of
Meikleknox, by whom he was succeeded, married Margaret, daughter and
co-heiress of Robert Maxwell of Dinwoody, obtaining with her the lands of
Barndennoch. He was also Provost of the Burgh, and, as we shall see, took
an active part in the popular struggle against the aggressions of Charles
I. The ruins of a once magnificent monument erected by him over his
father’s dust, remain to attest his filial love, and the lines upon it
were meant to inform the meditative stranger that an honoured Dumfries
worthy sleeps below; but time has so defaced the inscription that it is
quite illegible.
A somewhat faulty copy of the epitaph, however, is preserved in the late
Mr. W. F. H. Arundell’s Manuscripts, and which, as conjecturally restored,
runs thus: -
Ter tria fatales et bis tria lustra sorores,
Dimidiumque ævo contribuere tuo,
Ter tia civiles humeros circumdari fasces
Lustra dedit Sophia gratia digno tua.
Ter tribus ac binis tandem prognatus eodem,
Et cum Corsanis contumularis Avis.
These lines may be thus translated: -
The fateful sisters assigned thrice three and twice three lustres and a
half [year] to thy lifetime [i.e., seventy-five and a half years]. Regard
due to thy wisdom, caused thy shoulders to wear the badges of civic
authority for thrice three lustres [forty-five years]. Sprung at length
from thrice three and two [eleven] progenitors of [the] Corsane [family],
thou also art buried with them in the same place. [We submitted the
inscription to several good Latinists, among others to Rector Cairns of
the Dumfries Academy, whose emendations are embodied in the text, and
given in italics. To his kindness we are also indebted for the English
version of the epitaph.]
John Corsane of Meikleknox, who died in 1777, was the last of the male
line. Agnes, a daughter, was married to Mr. Peter Rae, minister of
Kirkconnel, in Upper Nithsdale. They had twelve children; the eldest of
whom, Robert, was, at his mother’s request, to assume the name and arms of
Corsane of Meikleknox when he came of age, but all the children died
minors. In this way the stem of this ancient house was unexpectedly
broken. The Corsanes of Dalwhat, parish of Glencairn, were a branch of the
family. The name Corson, often written Carson, is still common in
Dumfries; and about a hundred and sixty years after the death of Provost
Corsane of Meikleknox (in 1671), James Corson, a probable descendant, was
Provost of the Burgh.
The genealogical tree of Coel Godhebog, already noticed, gives, as one of
its goodly branches in the fifth century, the prolifie Annandale family of
Irving. Another account transplants them from Orkney to Eskdale, in the
middle in Bruce’s royal household, with whom he had become acquainted,
probably, when ruling his hereditary lordship on the banks of the Annan.
One of them, William de Irwyn, who acted as the King’s secretary; and the
other, Roger de Irwyn, who seems to have officiated as his chamberlain.
[The Accounts of the Chamberlain of Scotland, for 1329-1331, include
several entries in which their names occur: e. g.: - “Et clerico Rotulorum
pro feodo suo, viz., Willielmo de Irwyn, quamdin fuerit in dicto officio
capienti per annum viginti libras de terminis Pentecostes et Sancta
Martini hujus compoti £20.” “Idem onerat se de 348 ulnis tele linel et 3
quarteriis recept. superuis per emptionem. De quibus Rogero de Irwyn, 311
ulnis de quibus respondebit.”] An Irving, possibly the former of these
two, in Aberdeenshire. [Dr. C. Irving, in a MS. account of the family,
says, that Bruce, flying one stormy night from English, came to Bonshaw
Tower, where he was hospitably entertained. He took a younger son of the
family, Sir William, of Woodhouse, to be his secretary and companion. As a
reward for his services, the King, when settled on the throne, conferred
upon him the lands and the forest of Drum, and the pricking bay-tree or
holly, for his amorial bearings, with the motto, “Sub sola, suo umbra
virescens.” (See a valuable little work, Walks in Annandale, originally
published in the Annan Observer.)] His descendant, Sir Alexander Iruinge,
of Drum, received from the same gracious monarch the lands of Drum, was
among the slain warriors for whom
“The coronach was cried on Benachie,
And doun the Don an’ a’,
When Hieland and Lawland mournfu’ were
For the sair field o’ Harlaw.”
[Balfour’s Annals, vol. i., p. 147. The battle was fought on the 25th
of July, 1411. Irving was buried on the field; and a heap of stones raised
over the spot was long known by the name of Drum’s Cairn. – Kennedy’s
Annals of Aberdeen, vol. i., p. 51.]
The representative of the family in the reign of Charles I. espoused the
cause of that sovereign, and when lying under sentence of death by the
Covenanters, was opportunely rescued by Montrose. [This cavalier is the
hero of the favourite old ballad, “The Laird of Drum,” written on his
marrying, as his second wife, a damsel of humble birth, named Margaret
Coutts, an alliance which gave sore offence to some of his kindred. The
taunt of one of them, and the Laird’s rejoinder, are well worth quoting
from the ballad: -
“Then up bespak his brother John,
Says, ‘Ye’ve done us meikls wrang, O;
Ye’ve married ane far below our degree,
A mock to a’ our kin, O!’
“ ‘Now hand your tongue, my brother John,
What needs it thee offend, O?
I’ve married a wife to work and win,
And ye’ve married ane to spend, O!’”]
In Bonshaw Tower, on the classic banks of the Kirtle, resided the
acknowledged head of this great Border clan. Other off-shoots of the
family having as their domiciles, Cove, Robgill, Woodhouse, and Stapleton
– the ruins of which give a romantic interest to a district that is
dowered with rich natural beauty, and ever vernal in the minstrel’s magic
verse – Kirkconnel Lee. [The reference here, it need scarcely by
explained, is to the old ballad of “Fair Helen of Kirkconnel,” supposed to
have been an Irving, and who, in attempting to save her lover, Adam
Fleming, was inadvertently shot dead by her envious rival. The entire
ballad is exquisite; and poetry has produced scarcely anything more
pathetic than the closing verses in which Fleming wails forth his sorrow:
-
“Oh Helen fair! O Helen chaste!
If I were with thee, I were blest,
Where thou lies low, and takes thy rest,
On fair Kirkconnel Lee.
“I wish I were where Helen lies!
Night and day on me she cries;
And I am weary of the skies,
For her sake that died for me.”]
The Irvings of Bonshaw signalized themselves on many occasions by their
valour and patriotism. Like most Scottish families, they suffered at
Flodden – Christopher, their chief, with her son, falling on that dismal
field; while his grandson “Black Christie,” of Robgill and Annan, perished
in the pitiful catastrophe – for battle it cannot be called – of Solway
Moss. A grandson of the latter, also named Christopher, became closely
connected with two other distinguished Border houses, by marrying, in
1566, Margaret, sister of Sir James Johnstone, the victor of Dryfe-Sands,
and whose mother was one of the Scotts of Buccleuch.
Soon after that period the Irvings begin to be noticeable in Nithsdale;
and we must now somewhat abruptly leave the chief stem, to see how one of
the branches fared in Dumfries. It flourished exceedingly. Francis Irving,
on returning to the Burgh from France, where he was educated, married the
heiress of Provost Herbert Raining, already mentioned as Commissioner for
Dumfries in the Convention of 1578, acquiring with her a rich fortune of
lands and houses. We find him sitting as Member for the Burgh in the
Parliament of 1617, and high in favour at Court, receiving from King James
VI. bailiary jurisdiction over some Crown property in the County; still,
however, carrying on his business, that of a merchant, in which capacity
he was the first to form a trade connection with Bordeaux for the purpose
of importing French wines into the Burgh. [Family Tree of the Irvings,
complied by Mr. J. C. Gracie.] This merchant prince of the olden time
frequently occupied the chief magistrate’s chair; and when, in the early
autumn of an honoured life, he breathed his last, his remains were laid
close by the mouldering dust of the Corsanes – an imposing monument, like
theirs, being raised in due time to commemorate his worth. [Like the
Corsane monument, it is built into the churchyard wall, and forms the
fifth monument from the entrance-gate.] The tomb, which was renovated
about thirty years ago, has several Latin inscriptions, the chief of which
may be freely rendered as follows: - “A grateful spouse and pious children
have dedicated to Francis Irving, Consul [or Provost], a very dear husband
and a prudent father, this monument, which is far inferior to his worth.
He died, 6th November, 1633, aged 69.” “Ane epitaphe,” in the
vernacular tongue, on the lower part of the structure, is in these terms:
-
“King James at first me balive named,
Dumfreis oft since me provest clamed,
God hast for me ane crowne reserved;
For king and countrie have I served.”
For more than a century afterwards, municipal honours flowed upon the
Dumfries branch of the Irvings, some of them being also called, like their
founder, to represent the Burgh in Parliament. John, his eldest son, did
so in 1630 and 1639, and was repeatedly elected Provost. He left two sons,
John and Thomas, both of whom filled the latter office; and Thomas also
sat in Parliament for the Burgh.
According to the same doubtful pedigree which traces the descent of the
Irving family from a Cumbrian prince, Lywarch-Hen, another of the race was
the progenitor of the Lauries, one of whom, Stephen, was a flourishing
Dumfries merchant before James VI. became king. Prior to 1611 he espoused
Marior, daughter of the Provost Corsane, proprietor of Meikleknox, getting
with her a handsome marriage portion. About the same time he obtained a
charter from John, Lord Herries, of the ten-merk land and barony of
Redcastle, parish of Urr. His wealth enabled him afterwards to purchase,
from Sir Robert Gordon of Lochinvar, Bithbought, Shancastle, and
Maxwelton, for which estates he received a royal charter, dated 3rd
November, 1611. Stephen Laurie, now a man of many acres, took the
designation of Maxwelton, leaving at his death the lands and title to his
eldest son, John, married in 1630 to Agnes, daughter of Sir Robert
Grierson of lag. The next head of the house, Robert, was created a baronet
on the 27th of March, 1685. He was twice married, and had, by
his second wife, three sons and four daughters. The birth of one of the
latter is thus entered in the family register by her father: - “At the
pleasure of the Almighty God, my daughter, Anna Laurie, was borne upon the
16th day of December, 1682 years, about six o’clock in the
morning; and was baptized by Mr. Geo.” [Hunter, minister of Glencairn].
[Barjarg Manuscripts.] The minute is worth quoting here, seeing that the
little stranger, whose entry into life it announces, grew up to be the
most beautiful Dumfriesian lady of the day, and the heroine of a song
which has rendered her charms immortal: -
“Her brow is like the snaw-drift,
Her neck is like the swan,
Her face it is the fairest
That e’er the sun shone on –
That e’er the sun shone on;
And dark blue is her e’e!
And for bonnie Annie Laurie
I’d lay me down and die.”
The well-known lyric of which these lines form a part, was composed by Mr.
Douglas of Fingland, an ardent admirer of “Bonnie Annie;” she did not
reciprocate his affection, however, but preferred his rival, Alexander
Ferguson of Craigdarroch, to whom she was eventually united in marriage.
[One of the Fergusons of Isle married a sister of Annie Laurie. He was
buried in the family vault in Dunscore Churchyard; - “Here lyes entombit
ane honest and verteus mane, Alexander Fergusone,” was placed above his
remains His wife would doubtless be laid in the same grave. We have not
been able to ascertain where Bonnie Annie was buried.] While the Irvings
held rule on Kirtle Water and the western fringe of the Debatable land,
they were neighboured in Gretna by the small clan of the Romes, some of
whom settled in the County town during Archibald M’Brair’s burghal reign,
if not before, acquiring a good position in it, as it proved by the
frequent appearance of their names in the sederunts of the Council. We
find traces of them soon afterwards as landed proprietors. A retour of
1638, represents John, son of John Rome, of Dalswinton-holm, as enjoying
the multures of the thirty-six pound land of Dalgonar, including the lands
of Milligantown. In a general inquest in 1674, Robert appears as heir to
his father, John Rome of Dalswinton; so that the estate which the Red
Comyn owned had, after the lapse of four hundred years, fallen into the
hands of this Annandale family. The lands of Cluden were acquired by them
at a later period; and the first Provost of Dumfries chosen after the
Revolution, belonged to the family.
Long before Flodden was fought, the Cunninghams (of whose origin something
was said in a preceding chapter) ranked among the Corinthian pillars of
the Burgh. The lucrative office of town-clerk was frequently held by
members of the family; and the returns of property, in 1506 and 1510, show
that one of them, William, must have been in the receipt of considerable
house rents. The family mansion, situated on part of what is now
Queensberry Square, was a wonder of the town, on account of its “Painted
Hall:” a capacious chamber which seems to have been lent by them for
public purposes, and which acquired a historical interest, as in it
Protestantism was first preached to a Dumfries audience, and James VI.
gave to it the prestige of the royal presence on a memorable occasion;
while there is good ground for supposing that that King’s grandfather, the
fourth James, lodged in it during his memorable visit to the Burgh in
1504.
A few more prominent names require still to be mentioned. Among the
merchant Burgesses of Dumfries, at the opening of the seventeenth century,
were Ebenezer Gilchrist, of Celtic origin, the name signifying, in that
language, “a servant of Christ;” John Coupland, belonging to a family who
claim descent from the Yorkshire warrior by whom David II. was captured at
Neville’s Cross; George Grierson and Bailie William Carlyle, both members
of old local houses – the latter, by marrying Isabella Kirkpatrict, about
1630, adding another nuptial alliance to the many ties of that nature by
which their “forbears” were made one. Other marriage contracts, of which a
record lies before us, furnish forth both old names and new: - Thomas
M’Burnie, merchant, on wedding Isabel, eldest daughter of Bailie Edward
Edgar and Agnew Carlyle, his spouse, got with her a tocher of 1000 merks.
This was on the 2nd of January, 1663; and, on the 24th
of August, 1697, Agnes, the first fruit of the union, gave her hand to
James Grierson of Dalgonar, the tocher given with her being simply the
remission of 2000 merks out of 5500 owing by the bridegroom to the father
of the bride. On the 21st of September, 1667, John, son of
George Sharpe, also a merchant in the Burgh, espoused Elizabeth, eldest
daughter of John Hairstens of Craigs. The happy swain in this instance was
Commissary Clerk of Dumfries, which office was held a short time before by
James, son of John Halliday, advocate, cadets of an Annandale clan, who
gloried in recognizing as their founder the chief of whom Wallace spoke so
fondly: “Tom Halliday, my sister’s son so dear!”
At least four other families, from the same district, had at this time
representatives among the lairds and merchants of Dumfries: the
Dinwoodies, long settled in the parish of Applegarth, descended, it is
supposed, from Alleyn Dinwithie, whose name appears in the Ragman Roll;
the Corries, who took their name from the old parish of Corrie (a Celtic
compound, meaning “a narrow glen”), where they first appeared as vassals
of Robert Bruce; the Flemings, sons of enterprising traders from Flanders,
who gave their name to a Dumfriesshire parish, Kirkpatrick-Fleming –
where, on the left bank of the Kirtle, rose Redhall, their ancient
baronial hold; and the Bells, whose chief occupied Blacket House, on the
right bank of the same stream, and who at one time mustered so strongly in
the neighbouring parish, that “the Bells of Middlebie” became a proverbial
expression in the County. [These two last named families are both
intimately associated with the tragical story of Fair Helen of Kirkconnel
Lee, already referred to. Two neighbours, one named Adam Fleming, and the
other supposed to have been a Bell of Blacket House, sought her hand, and
she gave the preference to Fleming. The disappointed suitor, meditating
vengeance on his favoured rival, traced the lovers to their usual
nocturnal tryst on the banks of the Kirtle, and, by the light of the moon,
aimed his carabine at Fleming, and fired. Fair Helen threw herself before
her lover in order to save him, received in her breast the fatal bullet,
and died in his arms. A desperate combat followed between the two men, in
which Bell was “hacked in pieces sma’.” Poor Fleming fled to foreign
lands, seeking in vain for the peace of mind he had lost for ever; and
then, following the impulse of his heart –
“O that I were where Helen lies!
Night and day on me she cries” –
returned home and died upon her tomb; and now the ashes of the lovers
mingle together in the churchyard of Kirkconnel.]
A few Grahams from the east bank of the Esk, descendants, it is thought,
of a brave knight, Sir John Graham, named Bright Sword, were to be found
in Dumfries at this period; also some members of a celebrated Celtic
family, the Kennedys, who look upon Roland de Carrick as their founder,
and whose great grandson, Sir John Kennedy of Dunure, was the first to
assume that name instead of Carrick. [Nisbet (System of Heraldry, vol. i.,
p. 161) considers that the old Celtic thanes of Carrick, which was
originally a part of Galloway, were ancestors of the Kennedys. So far back
as the eighth century, Kennedy, father of Brian Born, was Prince of
Connaught; and, in 850, Kennethe was Thane of Carrick. The earldom of
Cassillis (now Ailsa), in Ayrshire, is held by this family. The Rev.
Alexander Kennedy, minister of Straiton, Ayrshire, born in 1663, acquired
the estate of Knockgray, in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright. His great
great granddaughter, Anne, married, 10th September, 1781, John
Clark, Esq., of Nunland, also in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright; and their
eldest son, Colonel Alexander Clark Kennedy, succeeded in 1835 to the
estate of Knockgray. An honourable augmentation was granted to his arms,
in commemoration of his having, when in command of the centre squadron of
the Royal Dragoons at Waterloo, captured the eagle and colours of the 105th
Regimen of French infantry with his own hand. (Scottish Nation, vol. ii.,
p. 609.) His son, Colonel John Clark Kennedy of Knockgray, born in
Dumfries, also a disguished officer, unsuccessfully contested the
representation of the Dumfries Burghs with Mr. William Ewart, in 1865.]
It appears from these details that Annandale and the Western Border
contributed much more to the population of Dumfries that Nithsdale; and it
is interesting to observe, that all the household names we have
enumerated, except M’Brair [The name Robert M’Brair appears in the list of
burgesses for 1708, after which we lose trace of the family] and Rome, are
still more or less common in the Burgh – a remark which also applies to
those of Turner, Lawson, Stewart, Mundell, Blacklock, Carruthers, Waugh,
Clark, Paterson, Nicholson, Scott, Beck, Welsh, Thompson, Henrison or
Henderson, Menzies, Dickson, Anderson, Lindsay, Gordon, Affleck, Ramsay,
Forsyth, Goldie, Moffat, Simpson, Farish, Gibson, Crosbie, Pagan, Tait,
Muirhead, Dalyell, Neilson, Gass, Weir, Glover, Coltart, Black, Reid,
Wilson, Craik, Lorimer, Shortridge, Newall, Rigg, Barbour, Spence, Martin,
Milligan, M’Kie, M’George, and M’Kinnell, which names, like the other,
frequently appear in the ancient burgess rolls, showing that most of their
owner have had “a local habitation” in the capital of Nithsdale for at
least three hundred years. [Most of the local names mentioned in this
chapter occur in the Retours, or Town Council Minutes, at dates extending
from 1506, downwards till the middle of the following century. The reader
will recognise modern localities in the old names of places in the second
of the two extracts that we sobjoin: - “1506. Wm. Cunyngham, 9 merk land
20 s., et 12 do.; 3 tenements in burgo de Dumfries, val 4s., de terr de
Lordburn, ac itiam 4s.; di orto infra territorium dicti burgi.” To this
valuation return the following are witnesses: - “Dom. Fergusis Barbour,
vic de Trawere [Troqueer], Hug Rig, Gul. Maxwell, David Welsche, John
Lorymare, John Rig, Thos. Cunyngham, Thos. Stewart, Herb. Patrickson,
burgos de Drumf.” Also, “Dom. Tho. Makbraire, Gilbert Bek, et John
Turnour, capillanis apud Drumf. 1510. William Cunyngham and his wyfe, de
terementi diet burg [in the said burgh of Dumfries], 12 s.; de tenementi
in dict burg. in le Sewtergait, 10 s.; de tenementi in capiti dict burg.,
6s. 8d.; de tenementi in Lochmabingait, 8s.; de alio tenementi, 4s.; de
orrio et orto prope le Mildram, et le Clerkhill, 10s.” Testified to, among
others, by “Dom. John Walker.”]
These statements will enable the reader to see by whom the town was ruled,
and its public opinion guided, during the Reformation period, and for a
century afterwards. Let us now explain what part the old leading County
families took in the conflict of creeds which had long been raging. Many
of them remained neutral, or kept the Romanist side; yet a considerable
number cast in their lot with the Reforming party. Lord Maxwell’s two
sons, as well as himself, the Earls of Angus and Glencairn, the Laird of
Johnstone, the Laird of Closeburn, the Laird of Amisfield (son of the
knight whose memorable visit from the “Gudeman of Ballengeich” is narrated
in a previous chapter), and James, chief of the Drumlanrig Douglasses,
promoted the Protestant movement from motives of policy or religion, or a
mixture of both – the last-named nobleman manifesting special zeal on its
behalf. He was descended from William, son of the hero of Otterburn, who,
by receiving the barony of Drumlanrig, in the parish of Durisdeer, from
his father, acquired the designation of Dominus de Drumlanrig. In 1470 his
direct descendant, James, married the eldest daughter of Sir David Scott
of Branxholm, ancestor of the Dukes of Buccleuch and Queensberry. William,
the son of James, fell at Flodden, leaving two sons, the younger of whom,
Robert, was Provost of Lincluden College – the last who held that
lucrative appointment; the elder, James, being the nobleman under notice,
and who signalized himself in endeavouring, with Sir Walter Scott of
Buccleuch, to rescue King James V. from the grasp of Angus in 1526. James
Douglas of Drumlanrig was knighted by the Regent Arran, and subscribed the
Presbyterian Book of Discipline in 1561, remaining ever afterwards true to
his profession. Sir Cuthbert Murray of Cockpool was also a decided
Reformer; his mother’s family, the Jardines of Applegarth, adopted the
Reformed doctrines; so did the Griersons of Lag; and all these houses were
matrimonially united to the Protestant Douglasses – the eldest surviving
son of Cockpool having wedded one of Drumlanrig’s daughters, and their
daughter having been married to the heir of Lag. [Many of the leading
families of the County were allied by intermarriage in this and succeeding
centuries; and it not unfrequently happened that those families who were
thus united took opposite sides in the wars that sprang up. The mother of
Stewart of Garlies, who, as is afterwards shown, initiated the Reformation
in Dumfries, belonged to the Catholic house of Herries. The marriage
contract, dated 12th February, 1550, sets forth that “James
Hamilton, Duke of Chatelherault, taking burden on him for John, his second
son, as his tutor and administrator, on the one part, and Katherine
Herries, with consent of James Kennedy of Blairquhan, her guidsire, on the
other, hath contracted her to be married to Alexander Stewart, son and
heir apparent of Alexander Stewart of Garlies, and is bound to pay 2300
merks of tocher with her; and grants to her, in conjunct fee with the said
spouses, the £20 land of Dalswinton, and the £30 land of Bishoptown and
Ballaghuyre.” After the lapse of another generation, Barbara Stewart, the
fruit of the marriage, was wedded by a Kirkpatrick, John, heir apparent to
Thomas Kirkpatrict of Alisland, and Barbara Stewart, wherein Alexander
Stewart of Garlies [the Reformer], her brother, and Dame Katherine
Herries, her mother, burden themselves with her tocher, 7000 merks from
Alexander, and 400 from her mother on the one part; and on the other part,
Thomas, the bridegroom’s father, engages to maintain them in his house,
and to give them 100 merks yearly to buy clothes.” Dated at Kirkcudbright,
3rd May, 1581; and attested by William Maxwell, Master of
Herries, Roger Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, Roger Grierson of Lag, Robert
Herries of Mabie, Gavin Dunbar of Baldoon, and others. The bride’s mother
and the bridegroom’s father were both unable to write.
Illustration of the general statement could readily be multiplied.
Michael, fourth Lord Carlyle, married Janet, daughter of Francis Charteris
of Amisfield; their eldest son, William, married Janet, daughter of
Johnstone of Johnstone; their second son, Michael, married Grisel,
daughter of John, fourth Lord Maxwell; John Laurie of Maxwelton married
Agnes, daughter of Sir Robert Grierson of Lag; a second daughter became
the wife of Alexander Ferguson of Isle; while a third was wedded to James
Grierson of Capenoch.] |
