The Last Baird Laird of Auchmedden and Strichen. the Case of Mr. Abington
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£/ 76 7(32 BULLOCH (John I.Ialcolm) J, The last Baird of Auchmedden and Strichen ABERDEEN 1934 National Library of Scotland *B000 196410* Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from National Library of Scotland http://www.archive.org/details/lastbairdlairdofOObull THE LAST BAIRD LAIRD OF AUCHMEDDEN AND STRICHEN THE CASE OF MR. ABINGTON BY JOHN MALCOLM BULLOCH ABERDEEN PRIVATELY PRINTED 1934 / f**> V ^•970 * — Manchester 1. Telei Manchester Office . » ithy Grove, ALLIED NEVv COBS IOKO CAMKOSE, rman. !i\RT., GR. n- puf ; Chairman i l * """ W M, TKA IiB ALS nine counties, ranging from Inverness to deteriorated, as he undoubtedly did, when Dumfries on the west and Berwick on the he gave up having to keep fit for racing— east. than those writers, most of them jour- nalists, followed career a Matching the curious fact that great who his as man- about-town in he was, even soldiers frequently have no male issue, London, where in the early 'nineties, almost the last of or only poor specimens, four of these eight the Mohicans. They play the Pierce captains of industry had no issue, leaving Egan to his career, or, when they moralise, they their property to the other four brothers, perform who had between them only nine sons and the function of Holcroft in bring- ing " " eight daughters. Mr. Abington was par- The Road to Ruin up to date. Indeed, one peer has ticularly lucky as a legatee, for his father, who knew him well bluntly described him to as a George of Strichen, inherited Stichill, in me " ruffian," expressed Roxburgh, from his brother David, who and his surprise that I should " waste my time " in piecing his bought it in 1853 for £150,000, and he him- story together. I do it to show the violent self got Auchmedden from his uncle and almost incredible contrast between James, a man of great force of character Mr. Abington and the remarkably indus- the last of the eight brothers to die (in trious and enterprising family from whom 1875) —although, unhappily, Mr. Abington he sprang: the pit from which he was dug did not inherit the quality which had made would be an absolutely literal phrase. James give £500,000 to the Church of If George Baird of Strichen had not died Scotland. Before he finished his rake's suddenly at Strichen House in the autumn page one — THE LAST BAIRD LAIRD OF AUCHMEDDEN AND STRICHEN. THE CASE OF MR ABINGTON. George Alexander Baird, better known progress, Mr. Abington made some of the as " Mr. Abington," the gentleman jockey, Baird millions melt like last year's snow. laird of Auchmedden, the cradle of the Although a great deal has been written northern Bairds, and of Strichen in Aber- from first to last about Mr. Abington, it deenshire and of Stichill in Roxburgh, who is scattered through the lighter, and some- flickered out his wasted life at New Orleans times scandalous, papers of the period, in March, 1893, at the age of thirty-two, and in gossipy books by racing folk, men- forms a strikingly ironic illustration of the about-town and journalists. Baird figures self-defeating contrasts which are constantly in no book of reference except Boase's to be found in families. He represented, comprehensive " Modern English Bio- " on an exaggerated scale, everything that graphy "—Burke's " Landed Gentry his family, the millionaire mining Bairds naturally does not mention his racing name of Gartsherrie, were not. The industry of Mr Abington—and nothing approaching from which they drew their millions : and a regular biography has been attempted. the land, to, which as hereditary farmers One of his neighbours at Kelso, who knew they were passionately devoted, and in him as a boy, and who watched his short which they invested large parts of their career with appalled " amazement," tells fortune, made no appeal to him. His me he would like to write a little book, tastes, wholly uncontrolled, were all for after the pattern of Nimrod's classic book sport—the Turf, the * ring—and riotous on the notorious Jack Mytton. Again, a living, all conducted on the most spend- Scotsman in Lancaster, a racing expert, thrift scale. who knew him well, informs me that he The story of the Gartsherrie Bairds reads has thought of writing a book about him— " like a modern version of Aladdin. It or as much about him as can be told." began with Mr. Abington's grandfather, That is just it. A great deal of it cannot Alexander Baird (1765-1833), a little crofter be told, for Baird really belonged in spirit in Lanark, who married a hard-headed to the eighteenth century, and we have servant lass, Jean Moffat. In 1809, at the not got eighteenth century conditions. age of forty-four, he began to work a coal Again, so far as the later part of his career mine. Helped all the time by his eight is concerned, some of the people with sons, he became an ironmaster in 1828, whom he had associated are still alive. and in the course of a few years the Bairds In going over all sources of information were turning out 300,000 tons of iron a year, about him, both in books and unwritten and employing 10,000 men, while the for- recollections—for I have simply made a tunes accumulated by the eight brothers mosaic of them all —I find that the racing must have run into several millions, of men who knew him take a far more lenient which £2,000,000 were invested in land in view of him—if only because he had not nine counties, ranging from Inverness to deteriorated, as he undoubtedly did, when Dumfries on the west and Berwick on the he gave up having to keep fit for racing— east. than those writers, most of them jour- Matching the curious fact that great nalists, who followed his career as a man- soldiers frequently have no male issue, about-town in London, where he was, even or only poor specimens, four of these eight in the early 'nineties, almost the last of the captains of industry had no issue, leaving Mohicans. They play the Pierce Egan to his their property to the other four brothers, career, or, when they moralise, they who had between them only nine sons and perform the function of Holcroft in bring- ing " " eight daughters. Mr. Abington was par- The Road to Ruin up to date. Indeed, ticularly lucky as a legatee, for his father, one peer who knew him well has bluntly George of Strichen, inherited Stichill, in described him to me as a " ruffian." Roxburgh, from his brother David, who and expressed his surprise that I should " waste my time " in piecing his bought it in 1853 for £150,000, and he him- story together. self got Auchmedden from his uncle I do it to show the violent and almost Jamas, a man of great force of character incredible contrast between Mr. Abington and the remarkably the last of the eight brothers to die (in indus- trious and enterprising 1876) —although, unhappily, Mr. Abington family from whom he sprang: the from did not inherit the quality which had made pit which he was dug would be an absolutely literal James give £500,000 to the Church of phrase. If George Baird of Strichen Scotland. Before he finished his rake's had not died suddenly at Strichen House in the autumn page one — of 1870, it is probable that his nine-year-old pedestrian, who was a sort of Mr Abington millionaire heir, George Alexander Baird, of his time. might have turned out very differently In addition to Strichen, where he found from what he did, and might probably only eight slated houses, George Baird, as have founded a real live landed family. noted, had also come in for the estate of At any rate, he might not have become a Stichill in Roxburgh. In all he owned jockey like Mr Abington, and ended so 17,000 acres, bringing in £20,000 a year. tragically, or, rather, sordidly, as he did at Thus, with two estates to his credit, George the early age of thirty-two. Baird decided to settle down and become " The Gartsherrie Bairds' attempts to somebody of the county " type. So at found a family in the North failed on three the mature age of forty-eight he married occasions as follows: an Irish gentlewoman, Cecilia, elder daughter of Vice-Admiral Villiers Francis (1) In 1854, Robert Baird, the fifth of the brothers, bought the estate of Auch- Hatton of Clonard, Wexford, M.P. for his county. I not medden, the parish in Aberdour, from the do know how or where he met her. Forbeses of Newe and Edinglassie. He She was five-and-thirty at the time did so with the idea of bringing back into and had little or no fortune. But she belonged the possession of a Gartsherrie Baird an to the Quality, and had known the great estate which had been held for two Duke of Wellington—a friend of her father who had written hundred and fifty years by one of the old — her letters which she lines of the Bairds, who had footled away used to show proudly to her friends: I wonder what has of their fortune in a. way not unknown to become them. She suited landowners. An old fret predicted that Baird, for though his neighbour at Kelso, there would be an eagle in the crags at Sir George Douglas, Bart, of Pennan while there was a Baird in Auch- Springfield Park, a great friend of the late Sir William medden.