Caithness Family History
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Gc M. C 929.2 Si62h 1190369 GENEALOGY COLLECTION 3 1833 01329 3987 CAITHNESS FAMILY HISTORY By JOHN HENDERSON . W.S. ^^^ EDINBURGH: DAVID DOUGLAS MDCCCLXXXIV 11S03G9 CONTENTS. Editor's Note, Biographical Sketch, Author's Preface, . Introduction, Brodies, Bruce op Ham, 267 Bruce op Hastigrow and Seater, 273 Bruce op Lyth, 270 Bruce op Stanstill, 262 Budge op Toftingall, 181 Caithness, Earls op, 1 Calder of Achingale and Newton. 215 Calder op Ltneqar, 209 Calder op Strath, . 217 Campbells op Quotcrook, Lochend, Castlehill, 275 Coghill op that Ilk, 253 Cunningham of Brownhill, etc., 201 Davidson op Achingills and Bdckies, etc., 301 DouLi. op Thuster, .... 324 Dunbar op Hempriggs, 219 Dunbar op Northfield and Bowermadden, 226 Gibsons, Gordon of Swiney, Henderson of Achalibster and Wester Henderson of Nottingham and Gersat, Henderson of Stemster, Innes of Sandside, . Innes of Thdrsater, etc., Kennedy of Stroma, Manson-Sinclair of Bridgend, MOWAT OP BrABSTERMYEB and SWINZIE, Mowat of Buchollie, Murray of Clairden and Castlehill, Murray of Pennyland, NicoLSON of Shebster, Oswalds, .... Sinclair of Achinqalb and Newton, Sinclair of Assery, Sinclair of Barrock, Sinclair of Borlum and Thura, . Sinclair of Brabsterdorran, Sinclair of Dun, Sinclair op Dunbeath and Latheron, Sinclair of Ddrran, Sinclair of Forss, . Sinclair of Freswick, Sinclair op Geise, . Sinclair op Greenland and Rattar, CONTENTS PAGE Sinclair op Hot and Oldfield, . 146 Sinclair of Kirk and Mtrelandiiorn, Sinclair of Ltbster, Sinclair of Ltbster, Eeay, 144 Sinclair of Met, 60 Sinclair of Murkle, 24 Sinclair of Olrig, . Sinclair of Scotscalder, . Sinclair of Southdun, 120 Sinclair of Stemster and Dunbeath, 14 Sinclair of Stireioke, 103 Sinclair of Ulbster, Sinclair Sutherland of Brabstbr, Sinclair Sutherland of Swinzie, . 171 St. Clair, Major-Genbbal Arthur, 334 Sutherland of Forse, 151 Sutherland of Lanqwell, . Sutherland of Wester, Tatlor of Thura, . Traill of Castlehill and Kattar, Williamson of Achorlie and Banniskirk, List of Heritors and Wadsetters, EDITOE'S NOTE. These notes on Caitliness Family History are given to the public as left by the autbor, and tbe 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 BarrogUl 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), Avhich elucidate or confirm the text. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. It may not be considered inappropriate to preface the " Notes of Caithness Family History " now pubhshed 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 pubhc 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, wlaich 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 Thiu'so for the Commercial Bank of Scotland. In 1812 he pubhshed 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 Thurso, 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 Balfoiu:. 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. John was the second son. Alex- ander, the third, succeeded his uncle. Captain John, as agent for the Commercial Bank in Thiu-so. 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. Inghs, W.S., and after completing his legal studies, was admitted Writer BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. XIU 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 Wilham 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 cliiirch 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 " " gi'azed on the common pasture -ground ; were gathered in the evening on the " Cliugrag " (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 Thui'so, below the long " links," which have now disappeared ; the regularly recurrmg faction fights on the market-days at wloich 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 arrival .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 Onoro, —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 most available means of conununication 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 " John 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. During his later years Mr. Henderson gradually re- signed the various appointments which he had retained during his residence in Thurso, except the bank agency and his well-earned time of comparative rest was spent in the retirement of his much-loved home at Ormhe. During those years the volume of " Notes," which had been gradually growing beneath his hand, received many additions.