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DRUMMOND,
a surname derived originally from the parish of Drymen, in what is now the
western district of Stirlingshire. The Gaelic name is Druiman,
signifying a ridge, or high ground. One of the Scottish clans, which, like
the Gordons, resided on the borders of the Highlands rather than in the
Highlands themselves, possessed this surname, and their particular clan
badge, anciently worn as the distinguishing mark of the chief, was the
holly.
The origin of
the Drummonds is traditionally traced to a nobleman of Hungary, named
Maurice, who is said to have accompanied Edgar Atheling and his two
sisters to Scotland, in 1068, when they fled to avoid the hostility of
William the Conqueror. The vessel which contained the royal fugitives was
piloted by this Maurice, but was cast, by stress of weather, on the coast
of Fife. They were received with royal munificence by Malcolm Canmore, who
married Margaret the elder of the two princesses, and conferred on the
Hungarian Maurice large possessions, particularly Drymen or Drummond in
Stirlingshire, from whence his descendants took their surname. This
Maurice was the progenitor of the earls of Perth. [See PERTH, earl of.] He
was by Malcolm Canmore appointed seneschal or steward of Lennox.
An ancestor of
the noble family of Perth thus fancifully interprets the origin of the
name: Drum in Gaelic signifies a height, and onde a wave,
the name being given to Maurice the Hungarian, to express how gallantly he
had conducted through the swelling waves the ship in which prince Edgar
and his two sisters had embarked for Hungary, when they were driven out of
their course, on the Scottish coast. There are other conjectural
derivations of the name, but the territorial definition above-mentioned
appears to be the correct one.
The chief of the
family at the epoch of their first appearing in written records was
Malcolm Beg, (or the little) chamberlain on the estate of Levenax, and the
fifth from the Hungarian Maurice, who married Ada, daughter of Malduin,
third earl of Levenax, by Beatrix, daughter of Walter lord high steward of
Scotland, and died before 1260.
Two of his
grandsons are recorded as having sworn fealty to Edward the First.
The name of one
of them, Gilbert de Dromund, “del County de Dunbretan,” appears in
Prynne’s copy of the Ragman Roll. He was Drummond of Balquapple in
Perthshire, and had a son, Malcolm de Drummond, who also swore fealty to
Edward in 1296, and was father of Bryce Drummond, killed in 1330 by the
Monteiths.
The other, the
elder brother of Gilbert, named Sir John de Dromund, took the oath to
Edward, by an obvious compulsion, as he was the same year carried prisoner
to England, and confined in the castle of Wisbeach, but was released in
1297, on condition of serving Edward against the French. He married his
relation, a daughter of Walter Stewart, earl of Menteith, and countess in
her own right.
His eldest son,
Sir Malcolm de Drummond, attached himself firmly to the cause of Bruce,
and about the time of his father’s death, he was taken prisoner by Sir
John Segrave, an English knight; on hearing which “good news” Edward, on
25th August 1301, offered oblations at the shrine of St. Mungo,
in the cathedral church of Glasgow. King Robert, after the battle of
Bannockburn, bestowed upon him certain lands in Perthshire. Sir Robert
Douglas thinks that the caltrops (or three-spiked pieces of iron, with the
motto, “Gang warily”) in the armorial bearings of the Drummonds, afford a
presumption that Sir Malcolm had been active in the use of these
formidable, and on that occasion very destructive, weapons. In the
parliament held by Bruce in 1315 at Ayr, he sat as one of the great barons
of the kingdom. He married a daughter of Sir Patrick Graham of Kincardine,
elder brother of Sir John Graham, and ancestor of the family of Montrose.
He had a son, Sir Malcolm Drummond, who died about 1346. The latter had
three sons, John, Maurice, and Walter. The two former married heiresses.
Maurice’s lady
was sole heiress of Concraig and of the stewardship of Strathearn, to both
of which he succeeded.
The wife of
John, the eldest son, was Mary, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Sir
William de Montefex, with whom he got the lands of Auchterarder,
Kincardine in Monteith, Cargill, and Stobhall in Perthshire. He had four
sons, Sir Malcolm and Sir John, who both succeeded to the possessions of
the family; William, who married Elizabeth, one of the daughters and
co-heiresses of Airth of Airth, with whom he got the lands of Carnock; and
from him the Drummonds of Carnock, Meidhope, Hawthornden, and other
families of the name are descended; and Dougal, bishop of Dunblane about
1398; and three daughters, namely, Anabella, married, in 1357, John, earl
of Carrick, high steward of Scotland, afterwards King Robert the Third,
and thus became queen of Scotland, and the mother of David, duke of
Rothesay, starved to death in the palace of Falkland, in 1402, and of
James the First, as well as of three daughters; Margaret, married to Sir
Colin Campbell of Lochow; Jean, to Stewart of Donally, and Mary, to
Macdonald of the Isles.
A portrait of
Queen Annabella is given in the second volume of Pinkerton’s Scottish
Gallery, taken from a drawing in colours by Johnson, after Jamieson, in
the collection at Taymouth. Pinkerton thinks it probable that Jamieson had
some archetype from her tomb at Dunfermline, or some old limning. A
woodcut of it is given below.
[woodcut of Anabella Drummond]
From the
weakness and lameness of her husband, Queen Annabella had considerable
influence, and supported the whole dignity of the court. Her letters to
Richard the Second of England have been printed in the Appendix to volume
I. of the History of Scotland, under the Stuarts. London, 1797, 4to.
Fordun states that Annabella, and Traill, bishop of St. Andrews, managed
with eminent prudence the affairs of the kingdom; appeasing discords among
the nobles, and receiving foreigners with hospitality and munificence; so
that on their death is was a common saying that the glory of Scotland was
departed. They both died in 1401.
In May 1360, in
consequence of a feud which had long subsisted between the Drummonds and
the Menteiths of Rusky, a compact was entered into at a meeting on the
banks of the Forth, in presence of the two justiciaries of Scotland, and
others to whom the matter had been referred by command of David the
Second, by which Sir John Drummond resigned certain lands in the Lennox,
and shortly after, the residence of the family seems to have been
transferred from Drymen in Stirlingshire, where they had chiefly lived for
about two hundred years, to Stobhall, in Perthshire, which had come years
before come into their possession by marriage.
Sir Malcolm
Drummond, the eldest son, had four hundred francs for his share of the
forth thousand sent from France, to be distributed among the principal men
in Scotland in 1385, being designed in the acquittance “Matorme de Drommod.”
He was at the battle of Otterbourne in 1388, when his brother-in-law,
James, second earl of Douglas and Mar, was killed, on which event he
succeeded to the earldom of Mar in right of his wife, Lady Isabel Douglas,
only daughter of William, first earl of Douglas. Wyntoun calls him –
“Schyre Malcolm of Drummond, lord of Mar,
A manfull knycht, baith wise and war.”
That is, wary. From
King Robert the Third he received a charter, in which the king styles him
his “beloved brother,” of a pension of £20 furth of Inverness, in
satisfaction of the third part of the ransom (which exceeded six hundred
pounds) of Sir Randolph Percy, brother of Hotspur, who appears to have
been made prisoner by his assistance at the above-named battle. His death
was a violent one, having been seized by a band of ruffians and imprisoned
till he died “of his hard captivity.” This happened before 27th
May, 1403, as one that date his countess granted a charter in her
widowhood. Subsequent transactions may help to explain the causes of his
fate, as well as create suspicion as to the actual perpetrators. Not long
after his death, Alexander Stewart, a natural son of “the Wolf of Badenoch,”
a bandit and robber by profession, having cast his eyes on the lands of
the earldom, stormed the countess’ castle of Kildrummie, and either by
violence or persuasion obtained her in marriage. Fearing, however, that
for this bold act he might be called in question, he, on 19th
September 1404, presented himself at the castle gate, and surrendered the
castle and all within it to the countess, delivering at the same time the
keys into her hands, whereupon she, of her own free will, openly and
publicly chose him for her husband, when he assumed the title of earl of
Mar, and took possession accordingly. [See MAR, earl of.]
As Sir Malcolm
Drummond had died without issue, his brother, John, succeeded him. He held
the office of justiciary of Scotland, and had a safe-conduct into England
to meet his nephew King James the First at Durham, 13th
December 1423. He died in 1428. By his wife, Elizabeth Sinclair, daughter
of Henry, earl of Orkney, he had several sons, the youngest of whom, John,
left Scotland about 1418, and settling in the island of Madiera, prospered
there. He was known by the name of John Escortio, supposed to be a
corruption of Escossio, the Portuguese word for a Scotsman. Several
letters that afterwards passed betwixt his descendants and the Drummond
family in Scotland are inserted in Viscount Strathallan’s Genealogy of the
House of Drummond, 1681. One of these descendants, Manual Alphonso
Ferriara Drummond, during the minority of James the Fifth, sent from
Portugal a message by a gentleman named Thomas Drummond, then on his
travels, requesting an account of the family from which he was descended,
“with a testificate of their gentility and the coat of arms pertaining to
the name,” and stating that the number of descendants of John Escortio in
the Portuguese dominions was no less than two hundred. In reply to this
request, David Lord Drummond, who was then a minor, obtained from the
council of Scotland “a noble testimony under the great seal of the
kingdome, wherein the descent of the Drummonds from that first Hungarian
admiral to Queen Margaret is largely attested,” – the attesters being,
with the Archbishop of St. Andrews and the bishops of Aberdeen and
Dunblane, a number of th principal peers, knights, and barons of Scotland.
A short time after, namely, in 1533, the same Davie Lord Drummond signed a
bond, wherein he acknowledged relationship with the Campbells, who
consider the Drummonds merely a branch or offshoot from their tribe, being
descended, they say, from one Duncan Drummach, a brother of Ewen Campbell,
first knight of Lochawe. The connexion could only have been by marriage,
and does not seem to have been otherwise recognised by the head of the
Campbell clan, as the earl of Argyle of the time was among the attesters
of the above “noble testimony.”
John’s eldest
son, Sir Walter Drummond, was knighted by King James the Second, and died
in 1455. He had three sons: Sir Malcolm, his successor; John, deal of
Dunblane; and Walter of Ledcrieff, ancestor of the Drummonds of
Blair-Drummond, (now the Home Drummonds, Henry Home, the celebrated Lord
Kames, having married Agatha, daughter of James Drummond of
Blair-Drummond, and successor in the estate to her nephew in 1766); of
Gairdrum; of Newton, and other families of the name. We have already (see
art. BLAIR) referred to a feud between the Drummonds and the Blairs,
which led to George Drummond, (who had purchased the estate of Blair),
with his son, William, being set upon by more than twenty persons, and
slain in cold blood, as they were leaving the kirk of Blair in Perthshire,
on Sunday, 3d June 1554. In this outrage no less than eight persons of the
name of Blair, including the laird of Ardblair, were engaged. One son,
George Drummond, luckily survived to continue the family of
Blair-Drummond.
The eldest son
of the main trunk, that is, the Cargill and Stobhall family, Sir Malcolm
by name, had great possessions in the counties of Dumbarton, Perth, and
Stirling, and died in 1470. By his wife Marion, daughter of Murray of
Tullibardine, he had six sons. His eldest son, Sir John, was first Lord
Drummond; Walter, the second son, designed of Deanston, after being rector
of St. Andrews, became chancellor of Dunkeld, and afterwards dean of
Dunblane, and at last was appointed by James the Fourth clerk register of
Scotland. James, the third son, and Thomas, the fourth, were the ancestors
of several of the landed families of Scotland of the name of Drummond.
Sir John, the
eldest son, was a personage of considerable importance in the reigns of
James the Third and Fourth, having been concerned in most of the public
transactions of that period. He sat in parliament 6th May 1471,
under the designation fo dominus de Stobhall. IN 1483, he was one of the
ambassadors to treat with the English, to whom a safe conduct was granted
29th November of that year; again on 6th August
following, to treat of the marriage of James, prince of Scotland, and Anne
de la Pole, niece of Richard the Third. He was a commissioner for settling
border differences, nominated by the treaty of Nottingham, 22d September
1484, and on the 29th of the subsequent November, he had
another safe-conduct into England; subsequently he had three others. He
was created a peer y the title of Lord Drummond, 29th January
1487-8. Soon after he joined the party against King James the Third, and
sat in the first parliament of King James the Fourth, 6th
October 1488. In the following year he suppressed the insurrection of the
earl of Lennox, whom he surprised and defeated at Tillymoss. He was a
privy-councillor to James the Fourth, justiciary of Scotland, and
constable of the castle of Stirling. Although he wrote a paper of ‘Counsel
and Advice,’ for the benefit of those who should come after him, in which
occurs one wise maxim, namely, “In all our doings discretion is to be
observed, otherwise nothing can be done aright,” yet, upon one memorable
occasion he seems to have forgot this prudent rule, as well as the family
motto “gang warily,” as on 16th July 1515, he was committed a
close prisoner to Blackness castle, by order of the regent duke of Albany,
for having struck the lion herald on the breast, when he brought a message
to the queen-dowager from the lords of Albany’s party. The queen, on his
behalf, stated that the herald had behaved with insolence, and he was
released from prison, 22d November 1516. He died in 1519. His name
frequently occurs in the great seal register.
By his wife,
Lady Elizabeth Lindsay, daughter of David, duke of Montrose, the first
Lord Drummond, had three sons, and six daughters, the eldest of whom,
Margaret, was mistress to James the Fourth. Malcolm, the eldest son,
predeceased his father. William, the second son, styled master of
Drummond, suffered on the scaffold. In the year 1490, having been informed
that a party of the Murrays, with whom the Drummonds were at feud, were
levying teinds (for George Murray, abbot of Inchaffray) on his lands in
the parish of Monyvaird, along with Duncan Campbell of Dunstaffnage, and a
large body of followers, he hastened to oppose them. The Murrays took
refuge in the church of Monyvaird, and the master and his party were
retreating, when a shot from the church killed one of the Dunstaffnage
men, on which the Highlanders returned and set fire to the building. Being
roofed with heather, it was soon consumed, and according to the complaint
of the abbot, nineteen of the Murrays were burnt to death. James the
Fourth punished the ringleaders with death. The master of Drummond being
apprehended and sent prisoner to Stirling, was tried, convicted, and
speedily executed. His mother vainly begged his life on her knees, and his
sister, Margaret, the mistress of the king, also in vain pleaded in his
behalf. Those were ruthless times. From 1488 to 1502, the royal
treasurer’s books contain entries of gifts of jewellery, dresses, and
money to “Mistress Margret Drummond,” who seems to have lived openly with
the king, and he was so much attached to her that he would not marry while
she lived. She was poisoned in 1502, along with her two youngest sisters,
Euphemia Lady Fleming, and Sybilia, who accidentally joined her at her
last fatal repast. One of the last entries regarding her in the
treasurer’s books records a payment to the priests of Edinburgh for a
“Saule-mess for Mergratt, £5" They were buried in a vault, covered with
three fair blue marble stones in the middle of the choir of the cathedral
of Dunblane, and James soon after married the princess Margaret of
England. Sir John, the third son of the first Lord Drummond, got from his
father the lands of Innerpeffry, and had two sons, John Drummond of
Innerpeffry, and Henry, ancestor of the Drummonds of Riccartoun. John, the
eldest son, married his cousin, Margaret Stewart, natural daughter of King
James the Fourth, widow of John Lord Gordon, eldest son of the third earl
of Huntly. This lady was legitimated by letters patent under the great
seal, 1st February 1558-9.
William, the
unfortunate master of Drummond, had two sons, Walter, and Andrew, ancestor
of the Drummonds of Belyclone. Walter died in 1518, before his
grandfather. By Lady Elizabeth Graham, daughter of the first earl of
Montrose, he had a son, David, second Lord Drummond, who was served heir
to his great-grandfather, John, first lord, 17th February 1520.
His name frequently occurs in the great seal register between the years
1537 and 1571. He joined the association in behalf of Queen Mary at
Hamilton 8th May 1568, and died in 1571. On coming of age he
had married Margaret Stewart, daughter of Alexander, bishop of Moray, son
of Alexander duke of Albany, and by her he had a daughter Sybilia, married
to Sir Gilbert Ogilvy of Ogilvy. By a second marriage to Lilias, daughter
of Lord Ruthven, he had two sons and five daughters.. Jean, the eldest,
married the fourth earl of Montrose, high chancellor; Anne, the second,
the seventh earl of Mar, high treasurer; Lilias, the third, the master of
Crawford; Catherine, the fourth, the earl of Tullibardine; and Mary, the
youngest, Sir James Stirling of Keir. By marriages into the best families
the Drummonds very much increased the power, influence, and possessions of
their house. Of his two sons, Patrick, the elder, was third Lord Drummond;
James, the younger, created, 31st January 1609, Lord Maderty,
was ancestor of the viscounts of Strathallan. [See STRATHALLAN, Viscount
of.]
Patrick, third
Lord Drummond, embraced the reformed religion, and spent some time in
France. He died before 1600. He was twice married, and by his first wife,
Elizabeth, daughter of David Lindsay of Edzell, eventually earl of
Crawford, he had two sons and five daughters. The eldest daughter,
Catharine, married the master of Rothes; the second, Lilias, became
countess of Dunfermline, and the third, Jane, countess of Roxburghe; the
fourth, Elizabeth, married the fifth lord Elphinstone, and the youngest,
Anne, Barclay of Towie. The third daughter, Lady Roxburghe, a lady of
great beauty, had the honour of being celebrated by the poet Daniel, and
she was held in so high estimation for her abilities and virtue as to be
selected by James the Sixth as the governess of his children. She died in
October 1643. Her funeral was appointed for a grand gathering of the
royalists to massacre the Covenanters, but they found their numbers too
inconsiderable for the attempt. The following is her fac simile, taken frm
the Gentleman’s Magazine for February 1799, and said there to be the
signature of Jane, duchess (that is countess) of Roxburghe.
[signature of
Jane Roxburghe]
It is
appended to a receipt, dated 10th May 1617, for £500, part of
the sum of three thousand pounds, of his majesty’s free and princely gift
to her, in consideration of long and faithful service done to the queen,
as one of the ladies of the bedchamber to her majesty.
The elder son, James, fourth Lord Drummond, passed a considerable portion
of his youth in France, and after James the Sixth’s accession to the
English throne, he attended the earl of Nottingham on the embassy to the
Spanish court. On his return he was created earl of Perth, 4th
March 1605. John, the younger son, succeeded his brother in 1611, as
second earl of Perth. [See PERTH, earl of.]
The Hon. John Drummond, second son of James, third earl of Perth, was
created in 1685 viscount, and in 1686 earl of Melfort; [See MELFORT, earl
of] and his representative Captain George Drummond, duc de Melfort, and
Count de Lussan in France, whose claim to the earldom of Perth in the
Scottish peerage was established by the House of Lords, June, 1853, is the
chief of the clan Drummond, which, more than any other, signalized itself
by its fidelity to the lost cause of the Stuarts.
_____
The family of Drummond of Hawthornden, in Mid Lothian, are cadets of the
Perth Drummonds. In the latter part of the fourteenth century, William
Drummond, a younger son of the family, and brother to Annabella, the queen
of Robert the Third, married Elizabeth, daughter and one of the
co-heiresses of William Airth of Airth, and with her acquired the barony
of Carnock in Stirlingshire. The Carnock estate was sold by Sir John
Drummond, the last of the elder branch of that line, to Sir Thomas
Nicholson. Sir John fell in the battle of Alford in 1645, fighting under
the celebrated marquis of Montrose. The barony of Hawthornden was
purchased by John, afterwards Sir John Drummond, second son of Sir Robert
Drummond of Carnock, and he became the founder of the Hawthornden family.
In the year 1388 Hawthornden belonged to the Abernethys, by whom it was
sold to the family of Douglas, and by them disponed to Drummond of Carnock.
The families of Abernethy and Drummond became united by the marriage of
Bishop Abernethy and Barbara Drummond, only daughter and heiress of
William Drummond, Esq. of Hawthornden.
Of
William Drummond, the celebrated poet, the most remarkable of the family
of Hawthornden, a memoir is given below.
The estate afterwards came into possession of John Forbes, Esq., commander
R.N., nephew of the said Bishop Abernethy-Drummond. He married Mary,
daughter of Dr. Ogilvie, M.D. of Murtle, a lineal descendant of Sir John
Drummond, the first of Hawthornden, and heiress by special settlement of
her cousin, the above-named Mrs. Barbara Drummond, who died in 1789, upon
which Mr. Forbes assumed the additional surname and arms of Drummond. His
only surviving daughter, Margaret Anne Forbes Drummond, married in 1810,
Francis Walker, writer to the signet, eldest son of James Walker, Esq. of
Dalry, in Mid Lothian, and he also assumed the surname and arms of
Drummond. Mr. Forbes Drummond was created a baronet 27th
February 1828, with remainder to his son-in-law, and died 28th
May 1829. Sir Francis Walker Drummond, second baronet, born in 1781, died
29th February 1844, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir
James Walker Drummond, formerly a captain in the Grenadier guards, retired
in 1844. Married, with issue.
_____
The Drummonds of Stanmore, in the county of Middlesex, are descended from
Andrew Drummond, brother of the fourth viscount of Strathallan, and
founder of the well-known banking house of Drummond and Co. of London, who
purchased the estate of Stanmore in 1729. His great-grandson, George
Harley Drummond of Stanmore, born 23d November 1783, married Margaret,
daughter of Alexander Munro, Esq. of Glasgow, with issue, is M.P. for
Surrey. (1853.)
The Drummonds of Cadlands, Hampshire, are a branch of the same family.
_____
The Drummonds of Concraig descended from the above-mentioned Sir Maurice
Drummond, (who married the heiress of Concraig,) second son of Sir Malcolm
Drummond, tenth seneschal of Lennox, and are now represented by Drummond
of the Boyce, Gloucestershire, a modern cadet of the Drummonds of Megginch
castle, Perthshire. Allusion has already been made to the feud between the
Drummonds and the Murrays, to which the unfortunate master of Drummond,
eldest surviving son of the first Lord Drummond, fell a victim on the
scaffold. It originated in the following circumstance: In the year 1391,
Sir Alexander Moray of Ogilface (or Ogilvie) and Abercairney had
accidentally killed a gentleman named William Spalding, for which he was
summoned to take his trial before Sir John Drummond, third knight of
Concraig, justiciary-coroner and seneschal or steward of Strathearn, in a
justice court held at Foulis in Perthshire; and on pleading the privilege
of being of the kin of Macduff earl of Fife (see MACDUFF,) the matter was
referred to Lord Brechin, the lord-justice-general. That functionary
decreed that the law of clan Macduff should not protect Sir Alexander from
the jurisdiction of his ordinary justice. From that jurisdiction Alexander
and his friends and successors, used every effort to be freed, but the
family of Concraig as zealously endeavoured to hold them to it, until,
upon a new occasion, in the reign of James the Third, a liberation was
granted to some of the Murrays, and secured to their posterity. In the
meantime, Patrick Graham, having, through marriage with the heiress,
become earl of Strathearn, Sir Alexander Moray and his friends prevailed
upon him to deprive Sir John Drummond, although he was his brother-in-law,
of his office, and at the head of a large retinue, he proceeded from
Methven, his place of residence, with the determination of dispersing Sir
John’s court then sitting at the Skeall of Crieff. On receiving notice of
his approach, Sir John hastened with his attendants to meet him, and the
earl was killed at the first encounter. Sir John immediately fled to
Ireland, where it is said he died. The feuds that arose out of this
unlucky event forced the Drummonds of Concraig to maintain so many
followers, that they were obliged from the expense to part with many of
their lands. The barony of Concraig was purchased from them by Sir John
Drummond of Cargill and Stobhall, and the dignities of seneschal or
steward of Strathearn, justiciary-coroner of the whole district, and
ranger of the forest, (which heritable offices had been conferred on the
Concraig Drummonds by King David the Second,) were conveyed by Maurice
Keir-Drummond, sixth baron of Concraig (who had married a daughter of Sir
Andrew Moray of Ogilvie and Abercairney) to the first Lord Drummond.
John Drummond, second son of Sir John Drummond, third knight of Concraig,
was ancestor of the Drummonds of Lennoch, in Strathearn, whose
representative in 1640, John Drummond, eighth baron of Lennoch, purchased
from Sir John Hay, ancestor of the earl of Kinnoul, the barony of Megginch
in Perthshire. Admiral Sir Adam Drummond of Megginch castle, K.C.H., the
thirteenth of Lennoch and sixth of Megginch castle, died in 1849. Born in
1770, he married in 1801, Lady Charlotte Murray, eldest daughter of John,
baronet, and had issue. His eldest son succeeded him. His brother, Sir
Gordon Drummond, C.C.B. (Created in 1817), a general in the army (1825),
died in 1854.
DRUMMOND, WILLIAM,
of Hawthornden, an elegant and ingenious poet, the son of Sir John
Drummond of Hawthornden, gentleman usher to King James the Sixth, was born
there, December 13, 1585. He was educated at the university of Edinburgh,
after which he spend four years at Bourges in France, studying the civil
law, being intended by his father for the bar. On his father’s death he
returned to Scotland in 1610, and retiring to his romantic seat of
Hawthornden, in the parish of Lasswade, Mid Lothian, and in the immediate
neighbourhood of Roslin castle, devoted himself to the perusal of the
ancient classics and the cultivation of poetry. A dangerous illness
fostered a melancholy and devout turn of mind, and his first productions
were ‘The Cypress Grove,’ in prose, containing reflections upon death, and
‘Flowers of Zion, or Spiritual Poems,’ published at Edinburgh in 1616. The
death of a young lady, a daughter of Cunninghame of Barnes, to whom he was
about to be married, overwhelmed him with grief, and to divert his
thoughts from brooding on his loss, he again proceeded to the continent,
where he remained for eight years, residing chiefly at Paris and Rome.
During his travels he made a collection of the best ancient and modern
books, which, on his return, he presented to the college of Edinburgh. The
political and religious dissensions of the times induced him to retire to
the seat of his brother-in-law, Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet, in Fife,
during his stay with whom he wrote his ‘History of the Five Jameses, Kings
of Scotland,’ a highly monarchical work, which was not published till
after his death. In his 45th year he married Elizabeth Logan,
who bore so strong a resemblance to the former object of his love that she
at once gained his affections. She was the grand-daughter of Sir Robert
Logan of Restalrig, and by her he had several children. He died December
4, 1649, in his 64th year, his death being said to have been
hastened by grief for the untimely fate of Charles the First. Among his
intimate friends and correspondents were, the earl of Stirling, Michael
Drayton, and Ben Jonson, the latter of whom walked all the way to
Hawthornden to pay him a visit, in the winter of 1618-19. Drummond has
been much blamed for having kept notes of the cursory opinions thrown out
in conversation with him by his guest, and for having chronicled some of
his personal failings, but besides being merely private memoranda, never
intended for publication, and never published by himself, a consideration
which ought to acquit him of anything mean or unworthy in the matter,
these notes are valuable as preserving characteristic traits of Ben Jonson,
which have partly been confirmed from other sources. Modern literature is
absolutely flooded with the ‘reminiscences,’ ‘diaries,’ ‘journals,’
‘correspondence,’ & c., of great and little poets, orators, and statesmen,
and no one now thinks of reprehending a system which threatens to put an
end to all friendly confidence and to all social and familiar intercourse
in literary society. Besides his History he wrote several political
tracts, all strongly in favour of royalty. It is principally as a poet,
however, that Drummond is now remembered. His poems, though occasionally
tinged with the conceits of the Italian school, possess a harmony and
sweetness unequalled by those of any poet of his time; his sonnets are
particularly distinguished for tenderness and delicacy. His works are:
Poems by that most famous wit, William Drummond of Hawthornden. London,
1656, 8vo.
Cypress Grove, Flowers of Zion, or Spiritual Poems. Edin. 1623, 1630, 4to.
The History of Scotland from the year 1423 until the year 1542: and
several memorials of State during the reigns of James VI. and Charles I.;
with an introduction by Mr. Hall. London, 1655, fol. Reprinted with cuts.
Lond. 1681, 8vo. Both editions very inaccurate as to names and dates.
Memorials of State, Familiar Epistles, Cypress Grove, &c. London, 1681,
8vo.
Polemo Middinia, or the Battle of the Dunghill, (a rare example of
burlesque, and the first macaronic poem by a native of Great Britain,)
published with Latin notes, by Bishop Gibson. Oxf. 1691, 4to. By Messrs.
Foulis of Glasgow. 1768. This piece has been republished, with some other
Tracts on the same subject, entit. Carminum Rariorum Macaronicorum
Delectus. In usum Ludorum Apollinarum. Edinburgi, 1801, 8vo.
The subjoined woodcut of Drummond of Hawthornden is from a portrait in
Pinkerton’s Scottish Gallery:
[William
Drummond of Hawthornden]
DRUMMOND, GEORGE,
a benevolent and public-spirited citizen of Edinburgh, the son of George
Drummond of Newton, was descended from the old and knightly house of
Stobhall, through a younger son of the cadet branch of Newton of Blair,
and was born June 27, 1687. He received his education at Edinburgh, and
was early distinguished for his proficiency in the science of calculation.
When only eighteen years of age he was employed by the committee of the
Scots parliament to give his assistance in arranging the national accounts
previous to the Union; and, in 1707, on the establishment of the excise,
he was appointed accountant-general. In 1715, when the earl of Mar raised
the standard of rebellion, he was the first to give notice to government
of that nobleman’s proceedings, being one of the very few gentlemen of his
Jacobite clan who appeared in arms for the reigning dynasty. Collecting a
company of volunteers, he joined the royal forces, and fought at
Sheriffmuir. The earliest notice of Argyle’s victory was despatched by him
to the magistrates of Edinburgh, in a letter written on horseback on the
field of battle. In the same year he was promoted to a seat at the board
of excise, and, in April 1717, was appointed one of the commissioners of
the board of customs. In 1725 he was elected lord provost of Edinburgh, an
office which he filled six times with uniform popularity and credit. In
1727 he was named one of the commissioners and trustees for improving the
fisheries and manufactures of Scotland, and, in October 1737, was created
one of the commissioners of excise; an office which he held till his
death. To his public spirit and patriotic zeal the city of Edinburgh is
indebted for many of its improvements. He was the principal agent in the
erection of the Royal Infirmary, and, by his exertions, a charter was
procured in August 1736, the foundation-stone being laid August, 2, 1738.
In 1745, upon the approach of the rebels, Mr. Drummond again joined the
army, and was present at the battle of Prestonpans. In September 1753, as
Grand Master of the Freemasons in Scotland, he laid the foundation of the
Royal Exchange . In 1755 he was appointed one of the trustees of the
forfeited estates, and elected a manager of the Select Society for the
encouragement of Arts and Sciences in Scotland. In October 1763, during
his sixth provostship, he laid the foundation-stone of the North Bridge,
which connects the New Town of Edinburgh with the Old. He died November 4,
1766, in the 80th year of his age, while filling the office of
lord provost, and was buried in the Canongate churchyard, being honoured
with a public funeral. To Provost Drummond Dr. Robertson, the historian,
owed his appointment as principal of the university of Edinburgh, which
was also indebted to him for the institution of five new professorships. A
few years after his death, a bust of him, by Nollekens, was erected in
their public hall by the managers of the Royal Infirmary, bearing the
following inscription from the pen of Principal Robertson: “George
Drummond, to whom this country is indebted for all the benefit which it
derives frm the Royal Infirmary.” Drummond Street, the street at the back
of the Infirmary, takes its name from him, as does also Drummond Place, in
the new town, his villa of Drummond Lodge having stood almost in the
centre of that modern square. His brother, Alexander, who was some time
British consul at Aleppo, was the author of ‘Travels through different
Cities of Germany, Italy, Greece, and several parts of Asia, as far as the
banks of the Euphrates.’ London, 1754. The provost’s daughter was married
to the Rev. John Jardine, D.D., one of the ministers of the Tron Church,
Edinburgh, and was the mother of Sir Henry Jardine, at one period king’s
remembrancer in Exchequer for Scotland, who died 11th August
1851.
DRUMMOND, ROBERT HAY,
a distinguished prelate of the Church of England, the second son of George
Henry, seventh earl of Kinnoul, by Lady Abigail Harley, second daughter of
Robert, earl of Oxford, lord high treasurer of England, was born in London
November 10. 1711. After being educated at Westminster school, he was
admitted a student of Christ church, Oxford, and having taken his degree,
he accompanied his cousin, the duke of Leeds, on a tour to the continent.
In 1735 he returned to college, and soon after entered into holy orders,
when he was presented by the Oxford family to the rectory of Bothall in
Northumberland. In 1737, on the recommendation of Queen Caroline, he was
appointed chaplain in ordinary to the king, George the Second. In 1739, he
assumed the name of Drummond, as heir of entail of his great-grandfather,
William, first viscount of Strathallan, by whom the estates of Cromlix and
Innerpeffrey were settled on the second branch of the Kinnoul family. In
1743 he attended the king when his majesty joined the army on the
continent, and on 7th July of that year, he preached the
thanksgiving sermon before him at Hanover after the victory at Dettingen.
On his return to England, he was installed prebendary of Westminster, and
in 1745, was admitted B.D. and D.D. In 1748 he was consecrated bishop of
St. Asaph. In 1753, in an examination before the privy council, he made so
eloquent a defence of the political conduct of his friends, Mr. Stone and
Mr. Murray, (afterwards Lord Chief Justice Mansfield) that the king, on
reading the examination, is said to have exclaimed, “That is indeed a man
to make a friend of!” In May 1761, he was translated to the see of
Salisbury, and in the same year he preached the coronation sermon of
George the Third. In the following November he was enthroned Archbishop of
York, and soon after was sworn a privy councillor and appointed high
almoner. He died at his palace of Bishopthorpe December 10, 1776, in the
66th year of his age, leaving the character of an amiable man
and highly estimable prelate. He had married on 31st January
1748, the daughter and heiress of Peter Auriol, merchant in London, by
whom he had a daughter, Abigail, who died young, and is commemorated in
one of the epitaphs of Mason the poet, and six sons, the eldest of whom,
Robert Auriol, became ninth earl of Kinnoul. The youngest, the Rev. George
William Hay Drummond, prebendary of York, and author of a volume of poems
entitled ‘Verses Social and Domestic,’ (Edin. 1802) was editor of his
father’s sermons, six in number, which, with a letter on Theological
Study, appeared in one volume 8vo in 1803, with a life prefixed. He was
unfortunately drowned off Bideford, while proceeding from Devonshire to
Scotland, in 1807.
DRUMMOND, WILLIAM ABERNETHY, D.D.,
bishop of Edinburgh was descended from the family of Abernethy of Saltoun,
in Banffshire, and on his marriage with the heiress of Hawthornden, in the
county of Edinburgh, he assumed the name of Drummond in addition to his
own. He at first studied medicine, but was subsequently, for many years,
minister of an episcopalian church in Edinburgh. Having paid his respects
to Prince Charles Edward, when he held his court at Holyroodhouse, he was
afterwards exposed to much annoyance and danger on that account, and was
even glad to avail himself of his medical degree, and wear for some years
the usual professional costume of the Edinburgh physicians of that period.
He was consecrated bishop of Brechin at Peterhead, September 26, 1787, and
a few months afterwards, was elected to the see of Edinburgh, in which
charge he continued till 1805, when, on the union of the two classes of
Episcopalians, he resigned in favour of Dr. Sandford. He retained,
however, his pastoral connection with the clergy in the diocese of Glasgow
till hi death, which took place August 27, 1809. Keith says his
intemperate manner defeated in most cases the benevolence of his
intentions, and only irritated those whom he had wished to convince. [Scottish
Bishops, App. p. 545.] He wrote several small tracts, and was a good
deal engaged in theological controversy both with Protestants and Roman
Catholics.
DRUMMOND, SIR WILLIAM,
an eminent scholar and antiquary, belonged to a family settled at Logie-Almond
in Perthshire, where he possessed an estate. The date of his birth is not
known, nor the circumstances of his early life. At the close of 1795, he
was returned to parliament on a vacancy in the representation of the
borough of St. Mawes, Cornwall, and in the two following parliaments,
which met in 1796 and 1801, he sat for Lostwithiel. At the time of his
second election he had been appointed envoy extraordinary and minister
plenipotentiary at the court of Naples, and soon after he was sent to
Constantinople as ambassador to the Sultan. In 1801 he was invested with
the Turkish order of the Crescent, which was confirmed by royal license
inserted in the London Gazette September 8, 1803. In 1808, while residing
as envoy at the court of Palermo, he embarked in a scheme with the duke of
Orleans (subsequently king of the French) to secure the regency of Spain
to Prince Leopold of Sicily, a project which failed at the very outset,
and for his share in which he has been severely censured in Napier’s
History of the Peninsular War [vol. i. p. 177.] In his latter years, for
the benefit of his health, which required a warmer climate than that of
England, he resided almost constantly on the continent, chiefly at Naples,
and he died at Rome March 29, 1828. He was a member of the privy council,
and a fellow of the royal societies of London and Edinburgh. Of modest,
retiring, and unobtrusive manners, he was a close and assiduous student,
and published various works, principally in the department of antiquities,
an account of which, with a memoir, is given in the Encyclopedia
Britannica, seventh edition; but his reputation as a scholar and antiquary
will chiefly rest on his ‘Origin of several Empires, States, and Cities,’
mentioned afterwards. The following is a list of his writings:
A
Review of the Government of Sparta and Athens. London, 1794, large 8vo.
The Satires of Perseus, translated. London, 1798. This work appeared about
the same time as Mr. Gifford’s version of the same poet, and in freedom
and fidelity was thought to be equal to it.
Academical questions. London, 1805, 4to. A metaphysical work; to which he
intended a subsequent volume to complete its design, but it never
appeared.
Herculanensia, or Archaeological and Philological Dissertations concerning
a Manuscript found among the Ruins of Herculaneum. London, 1810, 4to.
Published in conjunction with Robert Walpole, Esq.
An
Essay on a Punic Inscription found in the Island of Malta. London, 1811,
royal 4to.
Odin, a Poem. Part i. London, 1818, 4to. The object of this unfinished
poem, which soon fell into oblivion, was to embody in verse some of the
more striking features of the Scandinavian mythology.
Origines, or Remarks on the Origin of several Empires, States, and Cities.
London, 3 vols. 8vo. The first volume, embracing the origin of the
Babylonian, the Assyrian, and the Iranian Empires, appeared in 1824; the
second, which is wholly devoted to the subject of Egypt, including the
modern discoveries in hieroglyphics, came out in 1825; and the third,
which treats of the Phoenicians and Arabia, was published in 1826.
In
1811, he had printed for private circulation, but not published, a sort of
philological treatise entitled ‘Ædipus Judaicus,’ designed to show that
some of the narratives in the Old Testament are merely allegorical, and a
copy of it having fallen into the hands of the Rev. Dr. George Doyley,
that gentleman published an answer under the title of “Letters to the
Right Hon. Sir William Drummond, in defence of particular passages of the
Old Testament, against his late work entitled ‘Ædipus Judaicus.’ The work
was also attacked in the Edinburgh Review.
He
was also an occasional contributor to the Classical Journal, in which his
papers on subjects of antiquity, particularly the zodiac of Denderah,
attracted the general admiration of the learned of his time.
DRUMMOND, THOMAS,
the inventor of the brilliant “light” that bears his name, was born in
Edinburgh in October 1797. He was the second of three sons, and after his
father’s death, which happened whilst he was yet an infant, his mother
removed to Musselburgh, where she resided for many years. He received his
education At the High School of his native city, and at this time formed
an acquaintance with Professors Playfair, Leslie, and Brewster, and also
with Professors Wallace and Jardine, whose pupil he more especially was.
In February 1813, he was appointed to a cadetship at Woolwich, where he
soon became distinguished for his mathematical abilities. So rapid was his
progress that at Christmas of the same year he entered the second academy,
having commenced at the sixth. His friend and master at Woolwich,
Professor Barlow, thus sketched his mathematical character at this period:
“Mr. Drummond, by his amiable disposition, soon gained the esteem of the
masters under whom he was instructed; with the mathematical masters in
particular his reputation stood very high, not so much for the rapidity of
his conception as for his steady perseverance, and for the original and
independent views he took of the different subjects that were placed
before him. there were among his fellow-students some who comprehended an
investigation quicker than Drummond, but there was no one who ultimately
understood all the bearings of it so well. While a cadet in a junior
academy, not being satisfied with a rather difficult demonstration in the
conic sections, he supplied one himself on an entirely original principle,
which at the time was published in Leybourne’s ‘Mathematical Repository,’
and was subsequently taken to replace that given in Dr. Hutton’s ‘Course
of Mathematics,’ to which he had objected. This apparently trifling event
gave an increased stimulus to his exertions, and may perhaps be considered
the foundation-stone of his future scientific fame. After leaving the
academy he still continued his intercourse with his mathematical masters,
with whom he formed a friendship which only terminated in his much
lamented death.”
During his preliminary and practical instruction in the special duties of
the engineer department, his talent for mechanical combination became
conspicuous, and he also largely devoted his attention to the acquisition
of military knowledge, Jomini and Bousmard being his favourite authors.
After serving for a short time at Plymouth, he went to Chatham, and during
this period he obtained leave of absence for the purpose of visiting the
army of occupation in France, and attending one of the great reviews.
After his Chatham course was completed he was stationed at Edinburgh,
where his duties were of an ordinary character, relating merely to the
charge and repair of public works, but he eagerly availed himself of the
opportunity afforded him of pursuing the higher mathematical studies at
the college and classes, and among the scientific society for which his
native city was at that period distinguished. His prospects of promotion
at this time were, however, so disheartening that he seriously meditated
leaving the army for the English bar, and with this view had actually
entered his name at Lincoln’s Inn.
In
the autumn of 1819 he fortunately became acquainted with Colonel Colby,
when that officer was passing through Edinburgh, on his return from the
trigonometrical operations in the Scottish Highlands, and in the course of
the following year, an offer from him to take part in the trigonometrical
survey was gladly accepted. He had now the advantage of a residence during
each winter in London, and besides devoting himself more closely to the
study of the higher branches of mathematics, he began the study of
chemistry, in which he was destined to achieve his greatest and most
enduring triumph. He attended the lectures of Professors Brande and
Faraday, and soon made his new knowledge available to the duties on which
he was employed. The writer of a memoir of Captain Drummond in the Penny
Cyclopedia (supplement), to which this sketch of him is largely indebted,
thus describes the useful and important invention known by the name of
“Drummond’s light.” “The incandescence of lime,” he says, “having been
spoken of in one of the lectures, the idea struck him that it could be
employed to advantage as a substitute for argand lamps in the reflectors
used on the survey for rendering visible distant stations; because, in
addition to greater intensity, it afforded the advantage of concentrating
the light as nearly as possible into the focal point of the parabolic
mirror; by which the whole light would be available for reflecting in a
pencil of parallel rays, whereas of the argand lamp only the small portion
of rays near the focus was so reflected. On this subject his first
chemical experiments were formed. On the way from the lecture he purchased
a blowpipe, charcoal, &c., and that very evening set to work. At this
period (1824), a committee of the House of Commons recommended that the
survey of Ireland should be begun, and that Colonel Colby should make
arrangements for carrying it on. For this survey instruments of improved
construction were required. Among others, a means of rendering visible
distant stations was desirable. The recent experience of the Western
Islands had shown the probability that in a climate so misty as Ireland
the difficulty of distant observations would be greatly increased, and
Colonel Colby at once saw the important results which might follow such an
improvement of the lamp as that which Drummond had devised. Under his
judicious advice the experiments were prosecuted, and were rapidly
attended with success. Their progress and results are detailed by the
author in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ for 1826, as well as the first
application of the lamp to actual use in Ireland. When a station. Slieve
Snaught in Donegal, had long in vain been looked for from Davis mountain,
near Belfast, the distance being sixty-six miles, and passing across the
haze of Lough Neagh, Mr. Drummond took the lamp and a small party to
Slieve Snaught, and by calculation succeeded so well in directing the axis
of the reflector to the instrument that the light was seen, and its first
appearance will long be remembered by those who witnessed it. The night
was dark and cloudless, the mountain and the camp were covered with snow,
and a cold wind made the duty of observing no enviable task. The light was
to be exhibited at a given hour, and to guide the observer, one of the
lamps formerly used, an argand in a lighthouse reflector, was placed on
the tower of Randalstown church, which happened to be nearly in the line
at fifteen miles. The time approached and passed, and the observer had
quitted the telescope, when the sentry cried, ‘The light!’ and the light
indeed burst into view, a steady blaze of surpassing splendour, which
completely effaced the much nearer guiding beacon.” Mr. Drummond’s
original heliostat was not completed till 1825. Various improvements were
afterwards made on it. He also directed his attention to the improvement
of the barometer, and made a syphon with his own hands, which performed
remarkably well. Indeed, at this period, so active was his mind and so
constant his application that, we are told, scarcely an instrument existed
that he did not examine and consider, with a view to render it useful for
the purposes of the survey.
Owing to a severe illness, brought on by his close application to his
duties, Mr. Drummond was compelled to leave Ireland, and return for a time
to Edinburgh. He had taken much pains to perfect his light, and with the
view of adapting it to lighthouses, the corporation of Trinity house
placed at his disposal a small lighthouse at Purfleet, and the experiments
he made, with their success, are detailed in the ‘Philosophical
Transactions’ for 1830. His attention, however, was soon directed away
from it, and it had never yet been applied to them. His name had been
recommended by Mr. Bellenden Ker, who was employed in the preparation of
the details of the Reform Bill, to Lord Brougham, then lord chancellor, as
a person eminently qualified to superintend the laborious operations
necessary to perfecting the schedules, and he was at once appointed to
this commission. These schedules were based upon the calculations made by
him relative to the boundaries of the old and new boroughs. He was at this
time but a lieutenant of the engineers, but his talents and scientific
attainments were well known.
After
the passing of the Reform Bill (in 1832) he returned to his duties on the
survey in Ireland, but was soon appointed private secretary to Lord
Althorp )afterwards earl Spencer), then chancellor of the exchequer. On
the dissolution of the Reform ministry, he obtained, through the influence
of Lord Brougham, a pension of three hundred pounds a-year.
In
1835 he was appointed under-secretary for Ireland. He was at the head of
the commission on Irish railways, and distinguished himself greatly in the
report on the same. One striking remark of his, that “property has its
duties as well as its rights,” has been often quoted. He died April 15,
1840, and soon after his death there was a subscription for a statue of
him, executed at Rome, to be placed at Dublin. Both Lord Spencer and Lord
John Russell have borne ample testimony to his attainments and estimable
qualities, the latter in the House of Commons.
REPORT ON THE MANUSCRIPTS OF CHARLES STIRLING-HOME-DRUMMOND
MORAY, ESQUIRE, OF BLAIRDRUMMOND, AT BLAIR-DRUMMOND, AND ARDOCH, BOTH IN
THE COUNTY OF PERTH, BY WILLIAM FRASER, LL.D., EDINBURGH.
Manuscripts |
