Memoir of James Wyld of Gilston, and His Family. Also of Robert Stodart Of
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Mf.iqa.1 A Na jjonal Library of Scotland MEMOIR OF JAMES WYLD OF GILSTON. MEMOIR OF JAMES WYLD OF GILSTON AND HIS FAMILY. ALSO OF ROBERT STODART OF KAILZIE AND ORMISTON HILL. BY ROBERT STODART WYLD, LL.D. FOR. PRIVATE CIRCULATION. 1889. EDINBURGH ". PRINTED BY SCOTT & FERGUSON, AND BURNESS & CO., PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY. % 1958/ DEDICATED TO HIS DAUGHTER, JESSIE CASSELS SCOTT, MONTREAL, CANADA, BY THE AUTHOR. A CONTENTS. INTRODUCTORY NOTE, ...... xi CHAPTER I. ON HEREDITY—SOME TRAITS OF MY FATHER'S CHARACTER— HIS HABITS AND FIGURE— HIS MARRIAGE, .... I CHAPTER II. MY PATERNAL GRANDFATHER, HIS CHILDREN, GRANDCHILDREN, AND GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN, ...... CHAPTER III. MY UNCLE BROWN AND HIS CHILDREN, . 17 CHAPTER IV. MY FATHER'S EDUCATION AND MERCANTILE START IN LIFE— VOLUNTEER — HIS MARRIAGE—HIS FIRST HOUSE ON LEITH LINKS, ........ 26 CHAPTER V. OUR LIFE AT BONNINGTON BANK—MR DUNN'S SCHOOL — FULNEC SCHOOL, ........ 35 — viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. MY FATHER AND MOTHER'S METHODICAL LIFE AT BONNINGTON—THE COMMERCIAL BANK STARTED, ..... 42 CHAPTER VII. THE LIFE AT GILSTON—MY FATHER AND MOTHER'S DEATH, . 51 CHAPTER VIII. ROBERT STODART WYLD AND HIS FAMILY, . -71 CHAPTER IX. ROBERT STODART WYLD AND HIS FAMILY continued, . 8<)l> CHAPTER X. JAMES CHARLES WYLD, ....... I36 CHAPTER XI. HENRY WYLD, ........ 151 CHAPTER XII. WILLIAM WYLD, . l6l CHAPTER XIII. GEORGE WYLD, ....... l{$7 CHAPTER XIV. EDWARD WYLD, ....... 200 CHAPTER XV. LIEUTENANT BENJAMIN WYLD, ... 215 CONTENTS. ix CHAPTER XVI. THE DAUGHTERS, ....... 234 CHAPTER XVII. CONCLUSION, ........ 268 ADDENDUM, 272 A CLOSING REFLECTION BY THE AUTHOR, . .273 A SKETCH OF ROBERT STODART, ESQ. OF KAILZIE AND ORMISTON HILL, . .275 APPENDIX, 303 THE FAMILY OF WYLD. INTRODUCTORY NOTE. It was with the intention of recording some particulars of the lives of parents whom I loved, and also of my grandparents on the mother's side, that I began to write the following sketches. I have been led to give also some notices, so far as was in my power, of my paternal grandparents, whom I had never seen, also of my brothers and sisters, as well as of some collateral branches of the family. We were a large family, and in spite of diversities of tastes and character, and pretty strong self-will in most of us, we have through life remained wonderfully attached to each other, keeping up a constant correspondence when separated, and taking a lively interest in each other's happiness and prosperity. My father and mother had fifteen children born to them. Of these, James and John, the second and the fourth, died re- spectively at the ages of six and eight. And Charlotte Mary died at Gilston, of fever, in 1838, when twelve years of age; she was the thirteenth child. When my father died, in i860, aged eighty-four years, he left a family of twelve children, namely, seven sons and five daughters. This is not the place to analyse the character of the individual xii INTR OD UCTOR Y NO TE. members of so large a family, but speaking in the general of them as a family, I may say confidently, that we were a sober, sincere, and thoughtful race—outspoken, holding honestly to our con- victions, fond of discussion, combative even at times, ever ready to speculate on the questions of the day, and at times to dip into philosophy. In our habits, we were careful and prudent ; in temper, we were quick, ardent, and enthusiastic. \n physique, we were active and muscular, rather than hardy and enduring. We were all tall ; one of the sons, a Canadian farmer, measures six feet four inches in height, and the other sons were either six feet, or close up to this height. In prosecuting our professional careers, whether these went with the grain or against it, we were never less than steady and honour- able, and we met with varying fortunes, as shall appear in the sequel. All the sons, seven in number, who reached manhood, and two of the daughters, married, and were eminently faithful, loving, and happy in the domestic relationship. Nor was there one of our number of whom we have reason to be ashamed. For this let us thank God. One characteristic of the family, deeply stamped, I have nearly forgotten to mention, namely, an overmastering diffidence, and a nervous discomfort experienced in the presence of strangers with whom we happen to have no natural and spontaneous affinities. This constitutional weakness, coming as it does in some measure from both sides of the house, is all the more inherent and un- governable, and likely therefore only to disappear and be buried with our bones. It is pleasant, however, to observe, that greater confidence is already beginning to display itself in some of the members of the rising generations, I shall now say something regarding the origin of the Scottish Wylds. INTROD UCTOR Y NO TE. xiii Our remoter ancestors, as well as our more immediate pre- decessors, flourished in the south-western counties of Scotland, especially in Lanark and Peebles, and their tombstones are still to be found in the parishes of Biggar, Dunsyre, Walston, Carnwath, and generally throughout Tweeddale and the upper wards of Lanark. These districts, I may here also remark, are sprinkled with the names of the Gladstone and Stodart families ; and my eldest sister, when on a visit to Professor and Mrs J. S. Blackie, at Broughton, Peeblesshire, when exploring the surrounding country, found on a tombstone in Biggar Parish Churchyard the marriage recorded of a Marion Wyld to John Gladstone. This John Glad- stone was full cousin of Sir John Gladstone, Bart., father of the celebrated G. O. M. of our day. The said Marion Wyld died 13th February 1822. In Messrs Irvine & Murray's work on the Upper Wards of Lanarkshire, published in 1864, there is a handsome tombstone engraved, on which is the figure of a man standing draped in a civilian robe, within a frame supported by pillars, under which is the inscription, Robert Wyld, died 1705, aged 63. As the name of Wyld was till recent times only to be found, as we understood, in the above districts of Scotland, we very naturally concluded that our ancestors must at some distant period have migrated from the south-west of England, where the name is far from uncommon. This was our theory. When I was, however, in September 1887, at Ruthven House, spending some weeks with Lord Trayner and my daughter, my attention was directed to a fine copy of Sir Walter Scott's edition of the ancient poem of Sir Tristram, of which Thomas the Rymer is the reputed author. On perusing Sir Walter's introduction and notes (p. 36, edition 1806), I stumbled upon what amused me, by showing the possibility, —shall I say, the probability ?—of our having been allied with the family of Merlin, xiv INTR OD UCTOR Y NO TE. the celebrated wizard or bard of the sixth century. To show the ground on which I rest this idea, I shall give the substance of what Sir Walter Scott says regarding Merlin and his times. The Britons, says he, inhabited the western districts of England, and also the district of Strathclwyd, which embraced the mountains of Cumberland, and the high grounds of Liddesdale and Teviotdale, Ettrick Forest, and Tweeddale. They waged continual wars with the Saxon invaders, who occupied the eastern parts of England. In the above district flourished some of the most distinguished British Bards who mingled in the memorable events of the period, and which decided the fate of the Island. The first of these bards mentioned by Sir Walter, is Merlin Wylit, translated by the French Merlin Sauvage, who inhabited the woods of Tweeddale, and who was buried at Drumelzier, near Peebles, where there is a stone pointed out as his tomb. This account, at least, fixes the name of IVyld, then spelt Wylit, as existing in the sixth century, and in precisely the same limited district of Scotland where our family is known to have dwelt for many centuries back from the present time. Merlin was called by the Welsh, Myrdin Wylit, or Merlin the Wild ; also Merlinus Sylvestris, or Woodland Merlin ; and Mer- linus Caledonius (see Veitch's History of the Scottish Border). The family name, Wylit, was probably given to his clan, from their inhabiting the wild and wooded regions of Upper Tweeddale. Following out the subject of the antiquity of our family, and so far strengthening the argument connecting us with Merlin's family, let me record another fact. My late much esteemed cousin, Robert Stodart, of the Lyon Office, Edinburgh, whose tastes and anti- quarian genius are well known by his valuable genealogical works, some time ago directed our attention to the work of the Rev. Mr Forbes Leith, published by Mr Paterson of Edinburgh in 1832, designated The Scots Men at Arms and Life Guards in INTROD UCTOR Y NO TE. xv France from 1418 to 1830. This work shows that Scotsmen of our family name are continually recorded as serving as archers in this Royal Body Guard of the Kings of France, especially from 1479 downwards for many years. The name is spelt variously, as was common in those times, when there was no established rule for spelling ; thus Weils, Wills, Wile, Wilet, and Weilt, are indiffer- ently used. In those days, they generally divided monosyllabic words, to make them more easily pronounced, as bird-is, hang-it, wash-it, &c. ; hard sounding consonants, at the end of words, were also either elided or softened, as for example, by omitting the last consonant by writing wile or weile for wild, or by changing the harder d into the softer /, as we see in the above examples.