CARMICHAEL,
a local surname, of great antiquity in Scotland, derived from the lands
and barony of Carmichael, in the parish of that name, in the upper ward
of Lanarkshire, of which the earls of Hyndford (a title now extinct),
whose family name it was, were the proprietors. The parish appears to
have been so named from St. Michael, under whose protection it was
placed.
The first of
the family known was William de Carmichael, who is mentioned in a
charter of the lands of Ponfeigh about 1350. John de Carmichael,
supposed to be his son, was infeft in the lands of Carmichael, on a
precept from James earl of Douglas and Mar, killed at Otterburn in 1388.
The name of William de Carmichael, probably his son, occurs in a charter
of donation to the priory of St. Andrews in 1410. Sir John de
Carmichael, supposed to be the son of this William, accompanied the
Scottish auxiliaries sent to the assistance of Charles the Sixth of
France, against the English. At the battle of Beaugé in Anjou, in 1422,
he is said to have unhorsed the duke of Clarence, who commanded the
English army, a feat which decided the victory in favour of the French
and Scots. In the encounter he broke his spear, and his descendants bear
for crest a dexter hand and man armed holding a broken spear. This deed
has been attributed to the earl of Buchan, and Sir Alexander Buchanan
[See BUCHANAN], as well as to Sir John de Carmichael and the honour of
it must be equally divided among these three. Sir John died in 1436. By
his wife, supposed to have been a lady Mary Douglas, he had three sons,
namely, William, his successor; Robert, ancestor of the Carmichaels of
Balmadie; and John, provost of St. Andrews, who was one upon a
perambulation of some lands and marches in that neighbourhood in 1434.
William, the
eldest son, was one of the inquest upon the service of Sir David Hay of
Yester, in 1437. He had two sons, Sir John, and George. The latter, a
doctor of divinity, was elected bishop of Glasgow in 1482, but died
before his consecration, in the following year. He had previously been
treasurer of that see, as rector of Carnwath. The same year that he was
elected bishop, he was joined in commission with several lords and
barons, to treat of a peace with England.
Sir John
Carmichael, the elder son, had three sons and a daughter. William, the
eldest, had also three sons; Bartholomew, who predeceased him; William,
who succeeded him; and Walter, the progenitor of the Hyndford line. On
the 8th March 1528 a remission was granted to William
Carmichael of that ilk, and three others, for art, part and assistance
given by them to Archibald sometime earl of Angus, his brother and eme
(or uncle). William’s son, John Carmichael, married Elizabeth, third
daughter of the fifth lord Somerville, and had two sons, John and
Archibald, and a daughter, Mary, married to John, son of Sir Robert
Hamilton of Preston. John Carmichael, the father, his son John, his
brother Archibald, James Johnstone of Westraw, and thirty-one others,
were, January 8th, 1564, indicted before the high court of
justiciary, for wounding and deforcing a sheriff’s officer of
Lanarkshire, when apprizing certain head of cattle, and for taking one
of his assistants captive and keeping him in confinement in various
places. They were ordered to enter into ward on the north side of the
water of Spey, and remain there during her majesty’s pleasure.
Sir John
Carmichael, the elder son, was, in 1584, with his son Hugh, and William
Carmichael of Rowantreecross, forfeited for being concerned in the raid
of Ruthven. The forfeiture, however, appears soon to have been taken
off, as we afterwards find him appointed warden of the west marches, and
in 1588, he was one of the ambassadors sent to Denmark, to negotiate the
marriage between King James the Sixth and the princess Anne, daughter of
the Danish king. About the same time he was constituted captain of his
majesty’s guard. In 1590 he was sent ambassador to queen Elizabeth. In
1592 he resigned the wardenship of the west marches in favour of the
earl of Angus, but in 1598, on that nobleman’s demitting that office,
Sir John was restored to it, and as he was going to hold a warden’s
court at Lochmaben, for the punishment of offences committed on the
borders, he was murdered, 16th June, 1600, by Thomas
Armstrong, ‘sone to Sandeis Ringane,’ and nephew of Kinmont Willie, and
several associates, on their return from a match at football, such
meetings being often, in those days, arranged for the perpetration of
deeds of violence. The Armstrongs being the most turbulent of the border
clans, the warden had announced his intention to punish severely some of
their recent thefts and forays, and to prevent this they sent to him a
brother of old William Armstrong of Kinmont, (the noted Kinmont Willie,)
whose name was Alexander Armstrong, alias Sandeis Ringan or Ninian. On
being admitted to a conference with the warden he found that there was
no lenity to be expected from him; and some of Carmichael’s young
retainers having, in mockery of Ringan, slipped his sword out of his
scabbard and put yolks of eggs in it, whereby his sword, when sheathed,
would not draw, he vowed in a rage that they should see his sword out,
if they went on ground where he could avenge the insult. When he
returned home he told his sons that he had been “made shame of,” and he
would be “equal” with them yet. Next day they waylaid the warden, and
shot him with a hagbut. For this murder, Thomas Armstrong was tried
before the High Court of Justiciary, 14th November, convicted
and executed. Before he was hanged his right hand was struck off at one
stroke by the executioner. He was thereafter hung in chains on the
boroughmuir, the first instance on record, in Scotland, of a criminal
having been hung in chains. the murder of Sir John Carmichael sealed the
fate of many of the Armstrongs, the most distinguished of the warlike
thieves of the Scottish border, and led to the adoption of measures of
the utmost severity against all those of the name who were thereafter
convicted, or even suspected of any crime. Sir Walter Scott supposes
that the well-known verses “Armstrong’s Good Night,’ were composed by
Thomas Armstrong, called by him “Ringan’s Tam,’ previous to his
execution. In February 1606, another of the Armstrongs, called
Alexander, or Sandie of Rowanburne, was executed for this murder. An
epitaph on Sir John Carmichael, by John Johnstone, is printed in
Crawford’s peerage. By his wife, Margaret, daughter of Sir George
Douglas of Pittendreich, sister of the regent Morton, he had three sons
and four daughters.
Sir Hugh
Carmichael, the eldest son, was sworn a privy councillor, and appointed
master of the horse in 1593. The same year he was sent ambassador to
Denmark. He married Abigail, daughter of William Baillie of Lamington,
and had a son, Sir John, and a daughter, married to James Lockhart of
Cleghorn.
Sir John, the
son, married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth, but
died without issue. His estate was inherited by his cousin, Sir James
Carmichael of Hyndford, created Lord Carmichael in 1647, and grandfather
of the first earl of Hyndford. [See HYNDFORD, earl of.] He was descended
from Walter Carmichael of Carmichael, above mentioned. John Carmichael,
the third son of Walter’s grandson, James Carmichael, was designed of
Howgate. He had a son, John, who, choosing a military life, entered the
Russian service, and was advanced to the rank of colonel by John
Basiliowitz, the then Czar, and distinguished himself at the siege of
Plescow, where he commanded five thousand men, and afterwards was
appointed governor of that place.
From the
first-mentioned William de Carmichael to Sir Wyndham
Carmichael-Anstruther, baronet, who, in right of his ancestor, Sir John
Anstruther, marrying, in 1717, the Lady Margaret Carmichael, daughter of
the second earl of Hyndford, succeeded his nephew in the estate in 1831,
inclusive, there were twenty generations, during a period of four
hundred and eighty-one years.
Sir John
Gibson-Carmichael of Skirling, bart., grandson of John Gibson of Durie
[see GIBSON, surname of] and Helen, his wife, daughter of the Hon.
William Carmichael, advocate, son of John, first earl of Hyndford, and
father of John, fourth earl, assumed, at the death of the latter, in
conformity to an entail, the surname and arms of Carmichael in addition
to his own. He married Janet, daughter of Cornelius Elliot, Esq., clerk
to the signet, by whom he had an only daughter. The estates with the
title of baronet (conferred in 1628 on his ancestor, Sir Alexander
Gibson of Durie, an eminent lawyer in the reign of James the Sixth, and
lord president of the court of session) devolved on his brother, Sir
Thomas Gibson-Carmichael, tenth baronet of the Gibson family.
The
representation of the Carmichaels of Balmadie, above mentioned, as
descended from the second son of Sir John de Carmichael who fought at
the battle of Beaugé, devolved upon Thomas Carmichael, Esq.., who, in
1740, married Margaret, eldest daughter and heiress of James Smyth, Esq.
of Atherny, and dying in 1746, left an only son, James Carmichael, a
distinguished physician, who, in compliance with the testamentary
injunctions of his maternal grandfather, assumed the additional surname
and arms of Smyth – see a biographical notice of him in this work under
SMYTH. He had eight sons, six of whom adopted a military life, and two
daughters, the elder of whom, Maria, became the wife of Dr. Alexander
Monro, professor of anatomy in the university of Edinburgh. His eldest
son, Major-general Sir James Carmichael Smyth, K.C.H., and C.B., born
22d February 1780, was a distinguished officer, and served in command of
the engineers at the battle of Waterloo. He was created a baronet, 25th
August, 1821. At the time of his death he was governor of British
Guiana. He married, 28th May, 1816, Harriet, daughter of
General Robert Morse, and died 4th March, 1838. His son, Sir
James Robert Carmichael, of Nutwood, county Surrey, the second baronet,
dropped, by royal license, 25th February, 1841, the
additional name of Smyth, which had been assumed by his grandfather.
One of the
mistresses of King James the Fifth was Katherine Carmichael, daughter of
Sir John Carmichael of Meadowflat, Captain of Crawford, described in
that curious work ‘The Memorie of the Somervilles,’ as “a young lady,
admired for her beautie, handsomenes of persone, and vivacity of
spirit.” By her the king had John, prior of Coldinghame, &c., father of
the turbulent Francis Stewart, earl of Bothwell. She afterwards married
Sir John Somerville of Cambusnethan.
Of the third
earl of Hyndford, the most distinguished of the noble family of
Carmichael, the following is a notice.
CARMICHAEL, JOHN,
third earl of Hyndford, an eminent diplomatist, son of the second earl,
was born, according to Douglas’ Peerage, at Edinburgh, 15th
March 1701, but according to the Old Statistical Account, at Carmichael
house, Lanarkshire, in April of that year. He was for some time an
officer in the third regiment of footguards and succeeded his father in
his titles and estates, in 1737. The following year he was chosen one of
the sixteen representatives of the Scottish peerage, and four times
afterwards rechosen. In March of the same year (1738) he was appointed
one of the lords of police, an office long since abolished. He was twice
lord high commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of
Scotland, viz. in 1739 and 1740. He was always high in the favour of
George the Second, and in 1741, when the king of Prussia invaded
Silesia, the earl of Hyndford was sent, as envoy extraordinary and
plenipotentiary, to that monarch, and was so successful in accommodating
matters, that preliminaries of peace, between the empress queen of
Hungary and the king of Prussia, were signed at Bresiau, 1st
June, 1742. On the conclusion of the treaty, his lordship was nominated
a knight of the Thistle, and vested with the insignia of that order, at
Charlottenburg, 2d August, 1742, by the king of Prussia, in virtue of a
commission from King George the Second. In 1744 he was sent, on a
special mission, to Russia, and by his memorable negociations with that
power, was instrumental in accelerating the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. In
1750 he returned to England, and was sworn a privy councillor 29th
March that year, and appointed one of the lords of the bedchamber. In
1752 he was sent ambassador to Vienna, which situation he held till
1764, when he was nominated vice-admiral of Scotland, and on that
occasion he resigned his seat at the board of police. He spent the
remainder of his life at his seat in Lanarkshire. Some idea may be
formed of his assiduity, from the fact that in the library in Westraw,
there are twenty-three MS. volumes of his political life, in his own
handwriting. Besides this, during the whole of his stay abroad, he kept
up a regular correspondence with his factor at Carmichael, in which he
evinces an accurate knowledge of architecture, agriculture, and rural
affairs in general. A few years before his death, he granted leases of
fifty-seven years’ duration, in order to improve his lands, and even at
that early period, when agriculture in Scotland was in a very rude
state, he introduced clauses into the new leases which have since been
adopted as the most approved mode of farming. The greater part of the
beautiful plantations which adorn the now deserted family mansion of
Carmichael house, and which are excelled by none in Scotland, were
reared from seeds which his lordship selected when on the continent, but
particularly when he was in Russia; and for many years he employed a
great number of workmen in the buildings and plantations of Carmichael
and Westraw. He died 19th July 1767, in the 67th
year of his age, and his remains were interred in the family burial
ground in the parish of Carmichael.
CARMICHAEL, GERRHOM,
M.A., a
learned divine, was born at Glasgow in 1682, and educated in the
university of that city, where he took his degrees. He was afterwards
ordained minister of Monimail, in Fifeshire; and, in 1722, appointed
professor of moral philosophy in the university of Glasgow. For the use
of his students, he wrote some learned notes on ‘Puffendorfi de Officiis
Hominis.’ He died at Glasgow in 1738, aged 56.
CARMICHAEL,
FREDERICK,
son of the preceding, was born at Monimail in 1708, and received his
education in Marischal college, Aberdeen. He was ordained minister of
Monimail in 1737, on the presentation of the earl of Leven. In 1743 he
was translated to Inveresk, and in 1747 he was elected one of the
ministers of Edinburgh, having previously declined an offer made to him
of the divinity chair in Marischal college. In 1751 he was seized with a
fever, of which he died, aged 45. He left one volume of sermons.
From
the Dictionary of National Biography...
CARMICHAEL, FREDERICK (1708–1751),
Scotch divine, son of Professor Gershom Carmichael of Glasgow
University, was born in 1708. He took his M.A. degree on 4 May 1725, and
taught the humanity classes during the illness of Professor Ross,
1728-8. On the death of his father in 1729 he was an unsuccessful
candidate for the chair of moral philosophy. He was licensed by the
Glasgow presbytery of the church of Scotland on27 Sept. 1 83, ordained
at Monimail in March 1737, translated to Inveresk in December 1747, and
died 17 Oct. 1751. He was the author of a ‘Sermon on Christian Zeal,'
1753, and ‘Sermons on several Important Subjects,’ 1753, said to be of
‘great merit.’
[Hew Scott's Fasti Eccl. Scot. i. 80. ii.
503; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
CARMICHAEL, Sir JAMES, Lord
Carmichael (1578?–1672), was the third son of Walter Carmichael of
Hyndford, by Grizel, daughter of Sir John Carmichael of Meadowflat. He
was originally designated of Hyndford, but on purchasing the lands of
Westeraw took his title from them, until, on succeeding his cousin, Sir
John Carmichael of Carmichael [q. v.] he adopted the designation of the
older branch of the family. Having in early life been introduced to the
Earl of Dunbar at the court of James VI, he was appointed a cupbearer,
afterwards carver, and then chamberlain of the principality. He was
created a baronet of Nova Scotia on 17 Ju1y 1627, and the following year
he subscribed the submission to Charles I. He was appointed
sheriff-principal of Lanarkshire on 5 Sept. 1632, and in 1684 lord
justice clerk, which office he resigned in 1634, on being made
treasurer-depute. He was admitted an ordinary lord of session on 8 March
1639. His presence as treasurer-depute at the prorogation of parliament,
by warrant of the king's commissioners, led to the presentation of a
remonstrance against the same as illegal. On 13 Nov. he was named one of
the commissioners for executing the office of lord high treasurer, and
was at the same time appointed treasurer-depute, privy councillor, and
lord of session, to be held ad vitam aut culpam. For his services to
Charles I during the civil war, especially in lending him various sums
of money, he received a patent of Lord Carmichael; but the patent was
not made public until 3 Jan. 1651, when it was ratified by Charles II.
For his adherence to the engagement, he made a humble submission on 28
Dec. before the presbytery of Lanark, but was nevertheless deprived of
his offices by the Acts of Classes on l6 March 1649. That of
treasurer-depute was, however, bestowed on his second son, Sir Daniel
Carmichael. By Cromwell’s act, in 1651, a fine was imposed on him of
2,000l. In Douglas‘s ‘Peerage’ it is stated erroneously that after the
secession of Charles II he was sworn a privy councillor, and reappointed
lord justice clerk, that office having been bestowed on Sir John
Campbell of Lundy [q. v.] Carmichael died on 29 Nov. 1672 on his
ninety-fourth year. By his wife Agnes, sixth daughter of John Wilkie of
Foulden, he had three sons and four daughters. His eldest son, Sir
William, after serving as one of the gens d'armes of Louis XIII, joined
the committee of estates in Scotland, and commanded the Clydesdale
regiment against the Marquis of Montrose at the battle of Philiphaugh in
1648. He died before his father in 1657, leaving a son, John [q. v.],
who became second Lord Carmichael and first Earl of Hyndford. The first
Lord Carmichael had two other sons and four daughters.
[Acts of Parliament of Scotland, vol. v. passim; Haig and Brunton's
Senators of the College of Justice, 298-9; Douglas's Scottish Peerage,
ii. 754-5; Irving's Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, ii. 17-21.]
CARMICHAEL, JAMES (fl. 1587),
grammarian, was a Scotchman who published a Latin grammar at Cambridge
in September 1587. He dedicated it to James VI—‘Scotorum regi
christianissimo gratiam et pacem à Domino.’ Carmichael's work,
‘Grammatice Latino de Etymologia,’ &c., was from the press of the
university printer, Thomas Thomas, M.A., a lexicographer himself, and
its full title is given by Ames; it consists of 52 pp., and has some
commandatory poems prefixed. There is a copy of it in the Bodleian.
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantab. ii. 22; Ames’s Topogr. Antiq. (Herbert), 1414,
l4l8.]
CARMICHAEL, JAMES WILSON (1800–1868),
marine painter, was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1800. At about the
age of ten or eleven he went to sea. He returned, and was apprenticed to
a shipbuilder, who employed him in drawing an designing, a early works
are in water colours, but about 1825 he began also to paint in oils.
Between 1838 and 1862 he was a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy
at the British Institute, and at the Suffolk Street Gallery. He made his
first public appearance in the farmer year with a picture of ‘Shipping
in the Bay of Naples,’ contributed to the exhibition of the Society of
British Artists. In 1841 he sent to the Academy a drawing of the
‘Conqueror towing the Africa off the Shoals of Trafalgar,’ and in 1843
two drawings, ‘The Royal Yacht with the Queen on board off Edinburgh,’
and the ‘Arrival of the Royal Squadron.’ In the Water-Colour Collection
at South Kensington there is one example of this painter, ‘The Houses of
Parliament in course of Erection.’ About 1845, according to Redgrave, he
left Newcastle for London. Probably about 1862 (at which date he ceased
to exhibit in London) he went to Scarborough, and there died on May
1868. In the north of England his work was highly thought of. There is a
large painting by him in the Trinity House, Newcastle, ‘The Heroic
Exploit of Admiral Collingwood at the Battle of Trafalgar.’ He appears
as an author, having published ‘The Art of Marine Painting in Water
Colours,’ 1859, and ‘The Art of Marine Painting in Oil Colours,’ 1864.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists; Cat. Engl.
Coll. South Kensington Museum.]
CARMICHAEL, Sir JOHN (d. 1600), of
Carmichael, a powerful border chief, was the eldest son of Sir John
Carmichael and Elizabeth, third daughter of the fifth lord of
Somerville. He married Margaret, daughter of Sir George Douglas of
Pittendreich, sister of the regent Morton, and in 1581 he and his son
Hugh were found guilty of a treasonable conspiracy in assembling two
hundred men at the rocks of Braid, with the view of rescuing Morton from
the Castle of Edinburgh. They, however, escaped punishment by fleeing
the kingdom, and having afterwards returned were attained in 1584 for
being concerned in the raid of Ruthven, when they again fled the
kingdom. In August 1588 Carmichael was appointed captain-general of the
troops of light horse raised to assist in resisting the threatened
invasion by the Spaniards (Register of the Privy Council, iv. 315); and
when his services were not found necessary, he was appointed warden of
the west marshes. He was one of the ambassadors sent to Denmark to
negotiate the marriage between James VI and the Princess Anne of
Denmark. In 1590 he was despatched on an important mission to Queen
Elizabeth, with a result entirely satisfactory. In 1592 he resigned the
warden-ship in favour of the Earl of Angus; but on that nobleman
resigning it in 1598, he was restored to the office. While on his way to
Lochmaben, to hold a warden's court for the punishment of offences
committed on the borders, he was attacked (16 June 1600) by a body of
the Armstrongs and shot dead with a hacbut. For this murder Thomas
Armstrong, nephew of Kinmont Willie [see Armstrong, William, fl. 1596],
was executed in the following November, and Alexander Armstrong of
Rowanburne in February 1606. According to Sir Walter Scott, tradition
affirms the well-known ballad, 'Armstrong's Good Night,' to have been
composed by Thomas Armstrong previous to his execution.
[Crawford's Scottish Peerage; Douglas's Scottish Peerage, ii. 752; Acts
of the Parliament of Scotland, vols. iii. iv. and v.; Irving's Upper
Ward of Lanarkshire, i. 13-16.]
CARMICHAEL, JOHN, second Lord
Carmichael and first Earl of Hyndford (1638–1710), son of William,
master of Carmichael, and Lady Grizel Douglas, third daughter of the
first marquis of Douglas, was born on 28 Feb. 1638. He succeeded his
grandfather as Lord Carmichael in 1672. In 1689 he was appointed by
William one of the commissioners of the privy seal and a privy
councillor. The following year he was appointed William's commissioner
to the first general assembly of the newly established church of
Scotland. In 1693 he was appointed to the command of a regiment of
dragoons, which he held till the peace of Ryswick in 1697. In December
1696 he was made secretary of state for Scotland, and in January 1696-7
was chosen commissioner by the general assembly. By patent at
Kensington, on 5 June 1701, he was created Earl of Hyndford. He retained
the offices of secretary of state and privy councillor under Queen Anne.
He was one of the commissioners for the treaty of union, and cordially
supported the act for carrying it into effect. He died on 20 Sept. 1710.
By his wife, Beatrice Drummond, second daughter of the third Lord
Madderty, he had seven sons and three daughters.
[Douglas's Scottish Peerage, ii. 756; Irving's Upper Ward of Lanarkshire,
i. 21-4; Luttrell's Relation, ii. iii. iv. v.]
CARMICHAEL, JOHN, third Earl of
Hyndford (1701–1767), diplomatist, son of James, second earl, and Lady
Elizabeth Maitland, only daughter of John, fifth earl of Lauderdale, was
born at Edinburgh on 15 March 1701. He entered the third regiment of
foot-guards, in which he became captain in 1733. He succeeded to his
father's title and estates on 10 Aug. 1737, and was chosen a
representative peer on 14 March 1738, and again in 1741, 1747, 1754, and
1761. He was appointed one of the lords of police in March 1738, and
constituted sheriff-principal and lord-lieutenant of Lanark on 9 April
1739. In 1739 and 1740 he acted as lord high commissioner to the general
assembly of the kirk of Scotland. When Frederick II invaded Silesia in
1741, the Earl of Hyndford was sent to George II as envoy extraordinary
and plenipotentiary, to mediate between the king and Maria Theresa.
Carlyle, in his 'Life of Frederick,' thus delineates his
characteristics: 'We can discern a certain rough tenacity and
horse-dealer finesse in the man; a broad-based, shewdly practical Scotch
gentleman, wide awake; and can conjecture that the diplomatic function
in that element might have been in worse hands. He is often laid
metaphorically at the king's feet, king of England's; and haunts
personally the king of Prussia's elbow at all times, watching every
glance of him like a British house-dog, that will not be taken in with
suspicious travellers if he can help it; and casting perpetual
horoscopes in his dull mind.' It was in a great degree owing to the
patience and persistence of Hyndford that the treaty of Breslau was
finally signed on 11 June 1742. On its conclusion, Hyndford was
nominated a knight of the Thistle, and was invested with the insignia of
that order at Charlottenburg, on 29 Aug. 1742, by the king of Prussia,
in virtue of a commission from George II. From Frederick he also
received the gift of a silver dinner service, and was permitted the use
of the royal Prussian arms, which now enrich the shield of the
Carmichaels. In 1744 Hyndford was sent on a special mission to Russia,
when his skillful negotiations greatly accelerated the peace of
Aix-la-Chapelle. He left Moscow on 8 Oct. 1749, and after his return to
England was, on 29 March 1750, sworn a privy councillor, and was
appointed one of the lords of the bedchamber. In 1752 he was sent as
ambassador to Vienna, where he remained till 1764. On his return he was
appointed vice-admiral of Scotland, when he gave up his office at the
board of police. The remainder of his life was spent at his seat in
Lanarkshire, where he devoted his attention to the improvement and
adornment of his estate. While occupied with his diplomatic duties
abroad, he continued to take a constant interest in agricultural
affairs. To encourage his tenants in the improvement of their lands, he
granted to them leases of fifty-seven years' duration, and also
introduced clauses in the new leases which have since met with the
general approval of agriculturists. The fine plantations on the estates
have been reared from seeds brought by him from Russia. He died on 19
July 1767. He was twice married: first, to Elizabeth, eldest daughter of
Admiral Sir Clowdisley Shovell, and widow of the first Lord Romney; and
secondly, to Jean, daughter of Benjamin Vigor of Fulham, Middlesex. By
his first wife he had a son, who died in infancy, and by his second he
had no issue. The earldom passed to his cousin, John Carmichael. The
title became dormant or extinct on the death of the sixth earl in 1817.
His correspondence while ambassador abroad is in the 'State Papers,' and
there are rough copies of it in the Additional MSS. in the British
Museum.
[Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood),ii. 756-7; Irving's Upper Ward of
Lanarkshire, i. 24-5; Carlyle's Frederick; Add. MSS. 11365-87, 15870,
15946.]
CARMICHAEL, RICHARD (1779–1849),
surgeon, was born in Dublin on 6 Feb. 1779, being fourth son of Hugh
Carmichael, solicitor, who was nearly related to the Scotch family of
the earls of Hyndford. When he attained fortune, Carmichael spent much
time and money in seeking to establish the proof of his eldest brother's
title to this earldom; but the loss or destruction of some indispensable
family records rendered his efforts futile.
After a two years' apprenticeship to Peile, a well-known Dublin surgeon,
and study at the Irish College of Surgeons, Carmichael passed the
requisite examination, and was appointed assistant-surgeon (and ensign)
to the Wexford militia in 1795, when only sixteen. This position he
held, gaining considerable notice by his early skill and attention to
his duties, till 1802, when the army establishment was reduced after the
peace of Amiens. In 1800 he had become a member of the Irish College of
Surgeons, and in 1803 he commenced practice in Dublin. In the same year
he was appointed surgeon to St. George's Hospital and Dispensary, and in
1810 surgeon to the Lock Hospital. In 1816 he obtained the important
appointment of surgeon to the Richmond, Whitworth, and Hardwicke
Hospitals, an office which he held till 1836. Already in 1813, at the
early age of thirty-four, he was chosen president of the Dublin College
of Surgeons, a position he also held in 1826 and 1846. In 1835 he was
elected a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of
France, being the first Irishman to receive that distinction.
In 1826 Carmichael, in conjunction with Drs. Adams and McDowell, founded
the Richmond Hospital School of Medicine (afterwards known as the
Carmichael School), and was for two years a principal, and afterwards an
occasional lecturer. In addition to considerable donations in his
lifetime, he bequeathed 8,000l;. for its improvement, and 2,000l., the
interest to be given as prices to the best students of the school.
During the last ten years of his life (1839–49) he took deep interest in
medical reform, strongly supporting the Medical Association of Ireland,
of which he was president from its formation till his death. He aimed at
securing for the medical student a good preliminary and a high
professional education, and uniform and searching examinations by all
universities and medical and surgical colleges. He also advocated the
separation of apothecary's work from medicine and surgery as far as
practicable. To promote its objects he placed 500l. in the hands of the
Medical Association; but when it proved that the fund was not needed, he
directed its transfer to the Medical Benevolent Fund Society. To this
society, one much cared for by him, he left 4,500l. at his death. A
piece of plate was presented to him in 1841 by 410 of his professional
brethren, with an address expressing their sense of his unwearied zeal
for the interests of his profession and the advancement of medical
science.
In addition to numerous pamphlets and papers in the medical journals,
Carmichael published: 1. 'An Essay on the Effects of Carbonate of Iron
upon Cancer, with an Inquiry into tho Nature of that Disease,' London,
1806; 2nd edit. 1809. 2. 'An Essay on the Nature of Scrofula,' London,
1810 (of which a German translation was published at Leipzig in 1818).
3. 'An Essay on the Venereal Diseases which have been confounded with
Syphilis, and the Symptoms which arises exclusively from that Poison,'
4to, 1814. The latter he made in an especial manner his own subject; and
his practical views established important improvements in the treatment
of those diseases of those diseases, especially in regard to the
administration of mercury. His work went through many editions. It was
at first severly reviewed in the 'Edinburgh Medical and Surgical
Journal' (xi. 380), the review being ably answered by Carmichael in the
same volume.
Carmichael was originally a member of the established church; but in
1825 he joined a unitarian church. He was a handsome man, with a stern
cast of countenance; and was all that was admirable in domestic life. He
was drowned, on 8 June 1849, while crossing a deep arm of the sea
between Clontarf and Sutton on horseback. Among his benefactions by will
he left 3,000l. to the College of Surgeons, the interest to be applied
as prizes for the best essays on subjects specified in the will. A list
of his writings is given in the 'Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical
Science,' ix. 497-9.
[Dublin Medical Press, 4 July 1849, p. 13; Dublin Quarterly Journal of
Medical Science, ix. 493-504.]
From the
Dictionary of National Biography
CARMICHAEL, FREDERICK (1708–1751), Scotch divine, son of Professor
Gershom Carmichael of Glasgow University, was born in 1708. He took his
M.A. degree on 4 May 1725, and taught the humanity classes during the
illness of Professor Ross, 1728-8. On the death of his father in 1729 he
was an unsuccessful candidate for the chair of moral philosophy. He was
licensed by the Glasgow presbytery of the church of Scotland on27 Sept.
1 83, ordained at Monimail in March 1737, translated to Inveresk in
December 1747, and died 17 Oct. 1751. He was the author of a ‘Sermon on
Christian Zeal,' 1753, and ‘Sermons on several Important Subjects,’
1753, said to be of ‘great merit.’
CARMICHAEL, Sir JAMES, Lord Carmichael (1578?–1672), was the third
son of Walter Carmichael of Hyndford, by Grizel, daughter of Sir John
Carmichael of Meadowflat. He was originally designated of Hyndford, but
on purchasing the lands of Westeraw took his title from them, until, on
succeeding his cousin, Sir John Carmichael of Carmichael [q. v.] he
adopted the designation of the older branch of the family. Having in
early life been introduced to the Earl of Dunbar at the court of James
VI, he was appointed a cupbearer, afterwards carver, and then
chamberlain of the principality. He was created a baronet of Nova Scotia
on 17 Ju1y 1627, and the following year he subscribed the submission to
Charles I. He was appointed sheriff-principal of Lanarkshire on 5 Sept.
1632, and in 1684 lord justice clerk, which office he resigned in 1634,
on being made treasurer-depute. He was admitted an ordinary lord of
session on 8 March 1639. His presence as treasurer-depute at the
prorogation of parliament, by warrant of the king's commissioners, led
to the presentation of a remonstrance against the same as illegal. On 13
Nov. he was named one of the commissioners for executing the office of
lord high treasurer, and was at the same time appointed
treasurer-depute, privy councillor, and lord of session, to be held ad
vitam aut culpam. For his services to Charles I during the civil war,
especially in lending him various sums of money, he received a patent of
Lord Carmichael; but the patent was not made public until 3 Jan. 1651,
when it was ratified by Charles II. For his adherence to the engagement,
he made a humble submission on 28 Dec. before the presbytery of Lanark,
but was nevertheless deprived of his offices by the Acts of Classes on
l6 March 1649. That of treasurer-depute was, however, bestowed on his
second son, Sir Daniel Carmichael. By Cromwell’s act, in 1651, a fine
was imposed on him of 2,000l. In Douglas‘s ‘Peerage’ it is stated
erroneously that after the secession of Charles II he was sworn a privy
councillor, and reappointed lord justice clerk, that office having been
bestowed on Sir John Campbell of Lundy [q. v.] Carmichael died on 29
Nov. 1672 on his ninety-fourth year. By his wife Agnes, sixth daughter
of John Wilkie of Foulden, he had three sons and four daughters. His
eldest son, Sir William, after serving as one of the gens d'armes of
Louis XIII, joined the committee of estates in Scotland, and commanded
the Clydesdale regiment against the Marquis of Montrose at the battle of
Philiphaugh in 1648. He died before his father in 1657, leaving a son,
John [q. v.], who became second Lord Carmichael and first Earl of
Hyndford. The first Lord Carmichael had two other sons and four
daughters.
[Acts of Parliament of Scotland, vol. v. passim; Haig and Brunton's
Senators of the College of Justice, 298-9; Douglas's Scottish Peerage,
ii. 754-5; Irving's Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, ii. 17-21.]
CARMICHAEL, JAMES (fl. 1587), grammarian, was a Scotchman who
published a Latin grammar at Cambridge in September 1587. He dedicated
it to James VI—‘Scotorum regi christianissimo gratiam et pacem à
Domino.’ Carmichael's work, ‘Grammatice Latino de Etymologia,’ &c., was
from the press of the university printer, Thomas Thomas, M.A., a
lexicographer himself, and its full title is given by Ames; it consists
of 52 pp., and has some commandatory poems prefixed. There is a copy of
it in the Bodleian.
CARMICHAEL, JAMES WILSON (1800–1868), marine painter, was born at
Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1800. At about the age of ten or eleven he went
to sea. He returned, and was apprenticed to a shipbuilder, who employed
him in drawing an designing, a early works are in water colours, but
about 1825 he began also to paint in oils. Between 1838 and 1862 he was
a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy at the British Institute, and
at the Suffolk Street Gallery. He made his first public appearance in
the farmer year with a picture of ‘Shipping in the Bay of Naples,’
contributed to the exhibition of the Society of British Artists. In 1841
he sent to the Academy a drawing of the ‘Conqueror towing the Africa off
the Shoals of Trafalgar,’ and in 1843 two drawings, ‘The Royal Yacht
with the Queen on board off Edinburgh,’ and the ‘Arrival of the Royal
Squadron.’ In the Water-Colour Collection at South Kensington there is
one example of this painter, ‘The Houses of Parliament in course of
Erection.’ About 1845, according to Redgrave, he left Newcastle for
London. Probably about 1862 (at which date he ceased to exhibit in
London) he went to Scarborough, and there died on May 1868. In the north
of England his work was highly thought of. There is a large painting by
him in the Trinity House, Newcastle, ‘The Heroic Exploit of Admiral
Collingwood at the Battle of Trafalgar.’ He appears as an author, having
published ‘The Art of Marine Painting in Water Colours,’ 1859, and ‘The
Art of Marine Painting in Oil Colours,’ 1864.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists; Cat. Engl.
Coll. South Kensington Museum.]
CARMICHAEL, Sir JOHN (d. 1600), of Carmichael, a powerful border
chief, was the eldest son of Sir John Carmichael and Elizabeth, third
daughter of the fifth lord of Somerville. He married Margaret, daughter
of Sir George Douglas of Pittendreich, sister of the regent Morton, and
in 1581 he and his son Hugh were found guilty of a treasonable
conspiracy in assembling two hundred men at the rocks of Braid, with the
view of rescuing Morton from the Castle of Edinburgh. They, however,
escaped punishment by fleeing the kingdom, and having afterwards
returned were attained in 1584 for being concerned in the raid of
Ruthven, when they again fled the kingdom. In August 1588 Carmichael was
appointed captain-general of the troops of light horse raised to assist
in resisting the threatened invasion by the Spaniards (Register of the
Privy Council, iv. 315); and when his services were not found necessary,
he was appointed warden of the west marshes. He was one of the
ambassadors sent to Denmark to negotiate the marriage between James VI
and the Princess Anne of Denmark. In 1590 he was despatched on an
important mission to Queen Elizabeth, with a result entirely
satisfactory. In 1592 he resigned the warden-ship in favour of the Earl
of Angus; but on that nobleman resigning it in 1598, he was restored to
the office. While on his way to Lochmaben, to hold a warden's court for
the punishment of offences committed on the borders, he was attacked (16
June 1600) by a body of the Armstrongs and shot dead with a hacbut. For
this murder Thomas Armstrong, nephew of Kinmont Willie [see Armstrong,
William, fl. 1596], was executed in the following November, and
Alexander Armstrong of Rowanburne in February 1606. According to Sir
Walter Scott, tradition affirms the well-known ballad, 'Armstrong's Good
Night,' to have been composed by Thomas Armstrong previous to his
execution.
[Crawford's Scottish Peerage; Douglas's Scottish Peerage, ii. 752; Acts
of the Parliament of Scotland, vols. iii. iv. and v.; Irving's Upper
Ward of Lanarkshire, i. 13-16.]
CARMICHAEL, JOHN, second Lord Carmichael and first Earl of Hyndford
(1638–1710), son of William, master of Carmichael, and Lady Grizel
Douglas, third daughter of the first marquis of Douglas, was born on 28
Feb. 1638. He succeeded his grandfather as Lord Carmichael in 1672. In
1689 he was appointed by William one of the commissioners of the privy
seal and a privy councillor. The following year he was appointed
William's commissioner to the first general assembly of the newly
established church of Scotland. In 1693 he was appointed to the command
of a regiment of dragoons, which he held till the peace of Ryswick in
1697. In December 1696 he was made secretary of state for Scotland, and
in January 1696-7 was chosen commissioner by the general assembly. By
patent at Kensington, on 5 June 1701, he was created Earl of Hyndford.
He retained the offices of secretary of state and privy councillor under
Queen Anne. He was one of the commissioners for the treaty of union, and
cordially supported the act for carrying it into effect. He died on 20
Sept. 1710. By his wife, Beatrice Drummond, second daughter of the third
Lord Madderty, he had seven sons and three daughters.
[Douglas's Scottish Peerage, ii. 756; Irving's Upper Ward of Lanarkshire,
i. 21-4; Luttrell's Relation, ii. iii. iv. v.]
CARMICHAEL, JOHN, third Earl of Hyndford (1701–1767), diplomatist,
son of James, second earl, and Lady Elizabeth Maitland, only daughter of
John, fifth earl of Lauderdale, was born at Edinburgh on 15 March 1701.
He entered the third regiment of foot-guards, in which he became captain
in 1733. He succeeded to his father's title and estates on 10 Aug. 1737,
and was chosen a representative peer on 14 March 1738, and again in
1741, 1747, 1754, and 1761. He was appointed one of the lords of police
in March 1738, and constituted sheriff-principal and lord-lieutenant of
Lanark on 9 April 1739. In 1739 and 1740 he acted as lord high
commissioner to the general assembly of the kirk of Scotland. When
Frederick II invaded Silesia in 1741, the Earl of Hyndford was sent to
George II as envoy extraordinary and plenipotentiary, to mediate between
the king and Maria Theresa. Carlyle, in his 'Life of Frederick,' thus
delineates his characteristics: 'We can discern a certain rough tenacity
and horse-dealer finesse in the man; a broad-based, shewdly practical
Scotch gentleman, wide awake; and can conjecture that the diplomatic
function in that element might have been in worse hands. He is often
laid metaphorically at the king's feet, king of England's; and haunts
personally the king of Prussia's elbow at all times, watching every
glance of him like a British house-dog, that will not be taken in with
suspicious travellers if he can help it; and casting perpetual
horoscopes in his dull mind.' It was in a great degree owing to the
patience and persistence of Hyndford that the treaty of Breslau was
finally signed on 11 June 1742. On its conclusion, Hyndford was
nominated a knight of the Thistle, and was invested with the insignia of
that order at Charlottenburg, on 29 Aug. 1742, by the king of Prussia,
in virtue of a commission from George II. From Frederick he also
received the gift of a silver dinner service, and was permitted the use
of the royal Prussian arms, which now enrich the shield of the
Carmichaels. In 1744 Hyndford was sent on a special mission to Russia,
when his skillful negotiations greatly accelerated the peace of
Aix-la-Chapelle. He left Moscow on 8 Oct. 1749, and after his return to
England was, on 29 March 1750, sworn a privy councillor, and was
appointed one of the lords of the bedchamber. In 1752 he was sent as
ambassador to Vienna, where he remained till 1764. On his return he was
appointed vice-admiral of Scotland, when he gave up his office at the
board of police. The remainder of his life was spent at his seat in
Lanarkshire, where he devoted his attention to the improvement and
adornment of his estate. While occupied with his diplomatic duties
abroad, he continued to take a constant interest in agricultural
affairs. To encourage his tenants in the improvement of their lands, he
granted to them leases of fifty-seven years' duration, and also
introduced clauses in the new leases which have since met with the
general approval of agriculturists. The fine plantations on the estates
have been reared from seeds brought by him from Russia. He died on 19
July 1767. He was twice married: first, to Elizabeth, eldest daughter of
Admiral Sir Clowdisley Shovell, and widow of the first Lord Romney; and
secondly, to Jean, daughter of Benjamin Vigor of Fulham, Middlesex. By
his first wife he had a son, who died in infancy, and by his second he
had no issue. The earldom passed to his cousin, John Carmichael. The
title became dormant or extinct on the death of the sixth earl in 1817.
His correspondence while ambassador abroad is in the 'State Papers,' and
there are rough copies of it in the Additional MSS. in the British
Museum.
[Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood),ii. 756-7; Irving's Upper Ward of
Lanarkshire, i. 24-5; Carlyle's Frederick; Add. MSS. 11365-87, 15870,
15946.]
CARMICHAEL, RICHARD (1779–1849), surgeon, was born in Dublin on 6
Feb. 1779, being fourth son of Hugh Carmichael, solicitor, who was
nearly related to the Scotch family of the earls of Hyndford. When he
attained fortune, Carmichael spent much time and money in seeking to
establish the proof of his eldest brother's title to this earldom; but
the loss or destruction of some indispensable family records rendered
his efforts futile.
After a two years' apprenticeship to Peile, a well-known Dublin surgeon,
and study at the Irish College of Surgeons, Carmichael passed the
requisite examination, and was appointed assistant-surgeon (and ensign)
to the Wexford militia in 1795, when only sixteen. This position he
held, gaining considerable notice by his early skill and attention to
his duties, till 1802, when the army establishment was reduced after the
peace of Amiens. In 1800 he had become a member of the Irish College of
Surgeons, and in 1803 he commenced practice in Dublin. In the same year
he was appointed surgeon to St. George's Hospital and Dispensary, and in
1810 surgeon to the Lock Hospital. In 1816 he obtained the important
appointment of surgeon to the Richmond, Whitworth, and Hardwicke
Hospitals, an office which he held till 1836. Already in 1813, at the
early age of thirty-four, he was chosen president of the Dublin College
of Surgeons, a position he also held in 1826 and 1846. In 1835 he was
elected a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of
France, being the first Irishman to receive that distinction.
In 1826 Carmichael, in conjunction with Drs. Adams and McDowell, founded
the Richmond Hospital School of Medicine (afterwards known as the
Carmichael School), and was for two years a principal, and afterwards an
occasional lecturer. In addition to considerable donations in his
lifetime, he bequeathed 8,000l;. for its improvement, and 2,000l., the
interest to be given as prices to the best students of the school.
During the last ten years of his life (1839–49) he took deep interest in
medical reform, strongly supporting the Medical Association of Ireland,
of which he was president from its formation till his death. He aimed at
securing for the medical student a good preliminary and a high
professional education, and uniform and searching examinations by all
universities and medical and surgical colleges. He also advocated the
separation of apothecary's work from medicine and surgery as far as
practicable. To promote its objects he placed 500l. in the hands of the
Medical Association; but when it proved that the fund was not needed, he
directed its transfer to the Medical Benevolent Fund Society. To this
society, one much cared for by him, he left 4,500l. at his death. A
piece of plate was presented to him in 1841 by 410 of his professional
brethren, with an address expressing their sense of his unwearied zeal
for the interests of his profession and the advancement of medical
science.
In addition to numerous pamphlets and papers in the medical journals,
Carmichael published: 1. 'An Essay on the Effects of Carbonate of Iron
upon Cancer, with an Inquiry into tho Nature of that Disease,' London,
1806; 2nd edit. 1809. 2. 'An Essay on the Nature of Scrofula,' London,
1810 (of which a German translation was published at Leipzig in 1818).
3. 'An Essay on the Venereal Diseases which have been confounded with
Syphilis, and the Symptoms which arises exclusively from that Poison,'
4to, 1814. The latter he made in an especial manner his own subject; and
his practical views established important improvements in the treatment
of those diseases of those diseases, especially in regard to the
administration of mercury. His work went through many editions. It was
at first severly reviewed in the 'Edinburgh Medical and Surgical
Journal' (xi. 380), the review being ably answered by Carmichael in the
same volume.
Carmichael was originally a member of the established church; but in
1825 he joined a unitarian church. He was a handsome man, with a stern
cast of countenance; and was all that was admirable in domestic life. He
was drowned, on 8 June 1849, while crossing a deep arm of the sea
between Clontarf and Sutton on horseback. Among his benefactions by will
he left 3,000l. to the College of Surgeons, the interest to be applied
as prizes for the best essays on subjects specified in the will. A list
of his writings is given in the 'Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical
Science,' ix. 497-9.
[Dublin Medical Press, 4 July 1849, p. 13; Dublin Quarterly Journal of
Medical Science, ix. 493-504.]
John Carmichael
of Medowflat, the Captain of Crawford (pdf)
