CAITHNESS FAMILY HISTORY F CAITHNESS FAMILY HISTORY
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H~SOLIJ 8 L'·:: L 1C-i.A.R'r BHIGr\Ar.. YG<.. \3 'J liVERSil' pf,.J\ 0, UTAH Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Brigham Young University http://www.archive.org/details/caithnessfamilyhOObyuhend NOTES ON CAITHNESS FAMILY HISTORY f CAITHNESS FAMILY HISTORY Bv JOHN HENDERSON, W.S. EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS MDCCCLXXXIV - ~ THE LIBRARY BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY. PROVO, UTAH CONTENTS. EDITOR's NoTE, ix BrooRAPHICAL SKETCH, xi AUTHOR'S PREFACE, xix INTRODUCTION, xxi BRODIES, 308 BRUCE OF HAM, 267 BRUCE OF HASTIOROW AND SEATER, 273 BRUCE OF LYTH, 270 BRUCE OF STANSTILL, 262 BuDGE OF ToFTINGALL, 181 CAITHNESS, EARLS OF, CALDER oF AcHINGALE AND NEwTo:N, 215 CALDER OF LYNEGAR, 209 CALDER OF STRATH, • 217 CAMPBELLs OF QuoYCROOK, LocHE:ND, CASTLEHILL, ETc., 275 CoGHILL OF THAT ILK, 253 CUNNINGHAM OF BROWNHILL1 ETC., 201 DAVIDSON oF AcHINGILLS AND BucKrEs, ETv., 301 DouLL OF TRUSTER, • 324 DuNBAR' oF HEMPRIGGs, 219 PuNBAR OF NoRTHFIELD AND BoWER!IfADDEN, 226 VI CONTENTS. GIBSONS, 304 GoRDON OF SwiNEY, 326 GUNNS, 319 HElWERSON oF AcuALIBSTEit .AND "\VESTERDALE, 288 HENDERSON OF NOTTINGHAM AND GERSAY,. 293 HENDERSON OF STEMSTER, 283 INNES OF SANDSIDE, • 245 INNES OF TuUI\SATER, ETC., 238 KENNEDY OF STROMA, 328 MANSONS, 312 lliANSON·SINCLAIR OF BRIDOEND, 148 MowAT oF BRABSTERMYRE AND SwiNZIE, 178 MowAT oF BucuoLLIE, 173 MURRAY OF CLAIRDEN AND CASTLEHILL, 196 MURRAY OF PENNYLAND, 189 NICOLSOY OF SHEBSTER, 317 OswALDs, 232 SINCLAIR oF AcHINGALE AND NEWTON, 142 SINCLAIR oF AssERY, 31 SINCLAIR OF BARROCK, 97 SINCLAIR oF BoRLUM AND TuuRA, 255 SINCLAIR OF BRABSTERDORRAN, 125 SINCLAIR oF Du~, 107 SINCLAIR OF DUNBEATU AND LATHERON, 83 SINCLAIR OF DuRRAN, 75 SINCLAIR oF FoRss, • 128 SINCLAIR OF FRESWICK, 51 SINCLAIR OF GEISE, • 43 SINCLAIR OF GREENLAND AND RAT'rAR, 44 CONTENTS. Vll SINCLAIR OF HoY A...'<D 0LDFIELD1 • 146 SINCLAIR OF KIRK AND MYRELANDHORN, 3:30 SINCLAIR OF LYBSTER1 36 SINCLAIR OF LYBSTER1 REAY, 144 SINCLAIR OF MEY, 60 SINCLAIR OF MuRKLE, 24 SINCLAIR OF 0LRIG, • 80 SINCLAIR OF SCOTSCALDER, 39 SINCLAIR OF SOUTHDUN, 120 SINCLAIR OF STEMSTER AND DUNBEATH, 14 SINCLAIR OF STIRKOKE1 103 SINCLAIR OF ULBSTER1 67 SINCLAIR SuTHERLAND oF BRABSTER, 93 SINCLAIR SUTHERLAND OF SWINZIE, • 171 ST. CLAIR, MAJOR·GENERAL ARTHUR, 334 SUTHERLAND OF FoRSE, 151 SuTHERLAND oF LANGWELL, 163 SUTHERLAND OF WESTER, 332 TAYLOR OF THURA, • 299 TRAILL OF CASTLEHILL AND RATTAR, 229 WILLIAMSON OF AcnoRLIE AND BANNISKIRK, 295 LIST OF HERITORS AND W ADSETTERS, 339 EDITOR'S NOTE. THESE notes on Caithness Family History are given to the public as left by the author, and the Editor desires to thank those friends who, by their advice, have aided in the preparation of the book for the press. The Editor also wishes gratefully to acknowledge the courtesy of the Earl of Caithness in permitting the use of the arms of his ancestor, George, fourth Earl of Caith ness, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Graham, daughter of the Earl of Montrose, copied from an old carving in Barrogill Castle, which form the vignette on the title page; and the valuable assistance most kindly rendered by Mr. Burnett, Lyon King of Arms, in revising the work, and enriching it with notes (printed within brackets), which elucidate or confirm the text. b BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. IT may not be considered inappropriate to preface the " Notes of Caithness Family History" now published by a brief sketch of their author. John Henderson was descended from the Brabster dorran branch of the Caithness Hendersons. Of his grandfather's three sons, two were, like himself, long_and intimately associated with the public business of their native county. Captain John Henderson, the eldest of the brothers, after serving in the Caithness Fencibles during the Irish Rebellion, spent his later years at Castlegreen, Thurso, which he built. He died there in 1828, aged sixty-nine. He was for many years factor on the Ulbster estates, and was the first agent in Thurso for the Commercial Bank of Scotland. In 1812 he published a "General View of the Agriculture of Caithness," the first family contribution to the annals of the county, and a work of considerable interest. He married Jane, daughter of Captain William Maclean of the 40th Regiment, and his wife, Mary, daughter of John Sutherland of Forse. The only sur- xii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. vivor of their family is Major-General William Hender son, R.A. William, the second brother, and father of the subject of this notice, after an extended legal practice in Thnrso, and also acting as factor on many estates in the county, was appointed Sheriff-Substitute of Caithness, an office which he held until his death in 1826, aged fifty-eight. He was proprietor of the estate of Scotscalder, which he bought from Captain Balfour. He married Anne, daughter of Patrick Brodie, Esq. Of four deceased sons of their large family, the eldest, Dr. Patrick, was the author of an unpublished "History of Caithness," and several other works. J qhn was the second son. Alex ander, the third, succeeded his uncle, Captain John, as agent for the Commercial Bank in Thurso. The fourth, Dr. William, was a distinguished physician and Professor of General Pathology in the University of Edinburgh. James, the third of the brothers, was Captain in the Ross-shire Militia. He married Eliza, daughter of Sir Edmund Lacon, Bart., who, with their only child, pre deceased him. He died in 1825, aged fifty-five. John Henderson was born in the old house of Ormlie, near Thurso, on the 21st December 1800. He received his early education in his native town, and subsequently attended Tain Academy, concluding his academical career at the University of Aberdeen. On leaving Aberdeen he served his apprenticeship in the office of Mr. Inglis, W.S., and after completing his legal studies, was admitted Writer BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. xiii to the Signet in 1824. Circumstances led him to decide upon commencing business in Wick, where he settled in 1828. He there received the appointment of Procurator Fiscal, which he retained until his removal to Thurso in 1852. He afterwards held all the important county appointments, and in addition to these a large number of factorships. His resignation of the Freswick factorship in 1879 terminated a business connection between the proprietors of these estates and his family of more than sixty years. And at different periods Mr. Henderson was also factor on the Hempriggs, Thrumster, Forse, Brabster, Lochend, Forss, and Rattar estates. In 1852 he removed to Thurso to take up, on his brother Alexander's retirement, the agency of the Com mercial Bank, which he held until his death. He was for many years an elder in the parish church of Thurso, and was an attached but not sectarian member of the Church of Scotland. In 1829 he married his cousin, Barbara, daughter of William Henderson, Esq., Edinburgh, and sister of John Henderson, the first Queen's Remembrancer. She was in all respects worthy of her husband, and her death, in 1859, threw an abiding shadow over his remaining years. During his long life Mr. Henderson had seen many and great changes pass over the community to which he belonged. The world into which he was born was, he used to say, a different one from that of his later years. As a boy he had worshipped in the ancient and now xiv BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. ruined parish church of St. Peter, and remembered its curiously painted wood-work and quaint galleries and pews; and he had heard the "dead-bells" tolled before the coffin, as funerals passed down to the old churchyard. Little of the New Town of Thurso was then built, and thatch prevailed more than slates on the roofs of the houses which did exist. In these days the citizens' cows grazed on the " common " pasture-ground ; were gathered in the evening on the " Cling rag " (or Lingering) Hill, and conducted collectively to the entrance of the main street, whence each animal sedately took her way to her own place of abode. He remembered the annual game of "knotty," which took place on New-Year's day on the sands of Thurso, below the long "links," which have now disappeared; the regularly recurring faction fights on the market-days at which he and his companions delightedly "assisted"; and the cock-fights which the schoolboys were encouraged to promote, the winning bird being always considered a perquisite of the Master. He recol lected the anival of the news of the battle of Salamanca, and other victories of the Peninsular war. These were events of moment to Caithness wives and mothers, for above two thousand Caithness recruits were " attested " during that period, and the Williamsons, Inneses, and Davidsons lost more than one gallant soldier-son at Fuentes de On oro, -the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo; Sala manca, and the siege of Burgos. He used to tell of the rejoicings for the battle of Waterloo, when a Thurso BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. XV bailie, who had vowed never to change his wig while Bonaparte retained power, came down from his house, and preceded by the town-piper, and followed by his maid-servant bearing a new wig under her apron, marched three times round the bon-fire in MacDonald Square, and at the end of the last circuit threw the time-honoured head-gear into the flames. His journeyings to and from his father's house and Edinburgh were chiefly performed on board the coasting vessels, which were then the ~ost available means of communication between North and South. The fort night's voyage between Thurso and Leith was sometimes exceeded by days, or even weeks; and on one occasion, in consequence of an unusually prolonged detention, the passengers and crew of the "Jolm o' Groat" were con strained to consume the gifts of Caithness geese, and other Christmas fare, which were on their way from " country cousins" to expectant, but disappointed reci pients in the Scottish capital.