GENEALOGICAL MEMOIRS OF THE FAMILY OF SIR WALTER SCOTT, Bart, ETC., ETC. '«* BURIAL AISLE ANCESTORS, THE HALIBURT0N3 iR WALTER SCOTT AND OF HIS IN THE ABBEY OT DRYBURGH. GENEALOGICAL MEMOIRS OF THE FAMILY OF Sm WALTER SCOTT, Bart. OF ABBOTSrORD WITH A REPllINT OF HIS MEMOEIALS OF THE HALIBUETONS Rev. CHARLES ROGERS, LL.D. HISTORIOGEAPHER TO THE ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY, FELLOW OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND, MEMBER OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF QUEBEC, MEMBER OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA, AND CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF NEW ENGLAND LONDON HOULSTON & SONS, PATERNOSTER SQUARE 1877 EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY M'FARLANE AND ERSKINE, ST JAMES SQUARE. PREFACE. Sm Walter Scott was ambitious of establishing a family which might perpetuate his name, in connection with that interesting spot on the banks of the Tweed which he had reclaimed and adorned. To be " founder of a distinct branch of the House of Scott," was, according to Mr Lockhart, " his first and last worldly ambition." "He desired," continues his biographer, " to plant a lasting root, and dreamt not of present fame, but of long distant generations rejoicing in the name of Scott of Abbotsford. By this idea, all his reveries, all his aspirations, all his plans and efforts, were shadowed and controlled. The great object and end only rose into clearer daylight, and swelled into more substantial dimensions, as public applause strengthened his confidence in his own powers and faculties ; and when he had reached the summit of universal and unrivalled honour, he clung to his first love with the faith of a Paladin." More clearly to appreciate why Sir Walter Scott was so powerfully influenced by the desire of founding a family, it is necessary to be acquainted with his relations to those who preceded him. Seldom has man of letters possessed a pedigree so dignified and honourable. On all sides, his progenitors were of the better class, and scions of houses territorially pre-eminent. Of his immediate ancestors some had occupied less conspicuous spheres, but all maintained gentle rank. Dwelling on the memory of his sires, and conceiving through the medium of a powerful fancy the importance of territorial rank, it was not unnatural that he should anticipate for his descendants a portion of that baronial splendour which, in relation to his predecessors, he had depicted so graphically. It may not be asserted that in his aspirations the Author of " Waverley " has failed. By forming alliances with the ancient and honourable families of Lockhart, Hope, and Max- well, and other distinguished sej)ts, his descendants have increased their hereditary greatness. And amidst several changes in the succession the name of Scott of Abbotsford has been preserved, as it will doubtless continue to be, so long as the works of the founder are read, which will probably be as long as the English language is understood. Sir Walter Scott especially rejoiced in being the repre- sentative of the House of Haliburton of Newmains. With the great sept of Scott he was connected through a younger branch; but in right of his mother, he was heir of the Hahburtons, and though their lands were sold, their place of sepulture in Dryburgh Abbey remained as at least one spot which he could claim as an inheritance. To his grand- PREFACE. Vll uncle, the last owner of the lands of Newmains and Dryburgh, he was served heir by a jury, so that his representation of the family might be made legally secure. The "Memorials of the Haliburtons," a portion of the present volume, appeared under Sir Walter's editorship, in 1820, from the press of James Ballantyne & Co., in a thin quarto of sixty-seven pages. The impression, restricted to thirty copies, was intended for private circulation. In 1824, when Sir Walter began more systematically to inquire into the history of his ancestors, he printed thirty additional copies, accompanied by a preliminary notice, dated November of that year. Only a single copy of the second impression has been found ; it was presented by Sir Walter to Mr David Laing, the eminent antiquary, on account of his former copy having " lacked a title-page. Both impressions of the " Memorials were accompanied by an engraving of the Haliburton aisle at Dryburgh, from a sketch by Mr Skene of Eubislaw. That engraving has been reproduced as a frontispiece to the present volume. It represents the tombstone of John Hali- burton, Baron of Mertoun, who died in 1640. The aisle now contains the monumental sarcophagus of the greatest of the race, not a Haliburton, but a Scott—the immortal Author of " Waverley." In preparing these genealogical memoirs, I have to express my special obligations to Lord Henry Kerr ; to Mrs Maxwell Scott of Abbotsford, great-granddaughter of the illustrious novelist ; to Miss Anne Paitherford Scott, his niece ; and to Robert Scott, Esq. of Raeburn, his near kinsman. For many particulars respecting the novelist's maternal ancestors, I have been indebted to Daniel Eutherford Haldane, Esq., M.D., Edinburgh; the Eev. William Keith, vicar of Burham; the Eev. James Eussell, minister of Yarrow ; and to an accom- plished gentlewoman, whom I am not privileged to name. To William John O'Donnavan, Esq., LL.D., the eminent genealogist, I owe many important particulars respecting the families of Haliburton and Eutherford. On the whole, I am satisfied that the reader has no cause to be disappointed respecting either the copiousness or accuracy of my detaUs. CHAELES EOGEES. Grampian Lodge, Forest Hill, Surrey, February 1877. CONTENTS. -- PAGE Genealogical Memoies op the Family of Sir "Walter Scott, Bart., xi Memorials of the Halibuktons 1 Preliminary Notice 3 Declaration of the Persons within named, anent Muir- houselaw's Death, 7 The Coat-Armours of all the Families of the Name of Haliburton, 11 A Short History of the Haliburtons in Driburgh, . 25 Families of the Name of Haliburton, . .63 Index, 71 : GENEALOGICAL MEMOIRS, ETC., ETC. In the tenth century a branch of the Scots, a Galwegian clan, settled in the county of Peebles. UcMredus, filius Scoti, witnessed an inquisition respecting the possessions of the church of Glasgow, in the reign of Alexander I. He witnessed, in 1128, the foundation charter by David I. of the Abbey of Holyrood, and that of the Abbey of Selkirk in 1130. But the early pedigree of the House of Scott may be stated succinctly in the words of Sir Walter Scott. From a genealogical MS. in Sir Walter's handwriting, preserved by Lord Polwarth, we quote the following " I. Uchtred Eitz-Scott, or Filius Scott, who flourished at the court of King David I., and was witness to two charters granted by him to the Abbeys of Holyroodhouse and Sel- kirk, dated in the years 1128 and 1130. It is, however, believed that from the days of Kenneth III. the barony of Scotstoun, in Peeblesshire, had been possessed by the ances- tors of this Uchtred, who, being descended from Galwegian forefathers, were called Scots, Galloway being inhabited by the clan to whom that name properly belonged. " II. Eichard Scott, son of Uchtred, witnessed a charter " ; XU GENEALOGICAL MEMOIRS OF granted by the Bishop of St Andrews to the Abbey of Holy- roodhouse about the year 1158. " III. Eichard Scott, son of Eichard, who married Alicia, daughter of Henry de Molla, with whom he received lands in Eoxburghshire, in the reign of Alexander the Second. " IV. WiUiam Scott, son of Eichard, attended the court of Alexander the Second, and witnessed several of his charters. "V. Sir Eichard Scott, son of William, married the daughter and heiress of Murthockstone of that ilk, in the county of Lanark, by which marriage he acquired the pro- perty of Murthockstone, now called Murdieston. He then assumed into his arms ' the bend of Murdiestoun,' and dis- posed thereon his own paternal crescents and star.* He swore fealty to Edward I. in 1296, and died in 1320. "VI. Sir Michael Scott of Murthockstone, son of Sir Eichard and the heiress of Murthockstone, was a gallant warrior, who distinguished himself at the battle of Halidon Hill, 19th July 1333. He was one of the few who escaped the carnage of that disastrous day ; but he was slain in the unfortunate battle of Durham, thirteen years after." According to Sir Walter Scott, Sir Michael Scott of Mur- thockstone had two sons, the elder of whom carried on the family. John, the younger son, was ancestor of the Scotts of Harden. Eobert Scott, elder son of Sir Michael Scott, died before the 7th December 1389 ; his grandson, Eobert Scott, obtained, in 1420, the half-lands of Branxholm, and died in 1426. From James II. Sir Walter, the elder son of Eobert Scott, received extensive lands in acknowledgment of his * "An aged knight to danger steeled, With many a moss-trooper, came on And azure in a golden field, The stars and crescent graced his shield Without the bend of Murdieston. —Lay of the Last Minstrel. THE FAMILY OF SIK WALTER SCOTT, BART. XUl services in suppressing the rebellion of the Douglases in 1455. His elder son, Sir David Scott of Branxholm, sat in the Parliament of 1487, as " dominus de Buccleugh;" he died in March 1492. He enlarged and fortified Branxholm Castle, which Sir Walter Scott has portrayed so vividly in the " Lay of the Last Minstrel." In his estates. Sir David Scott of Branxholm was, in 1492, succeeded by his grandson, Sir Walter, who was present at the battle of Flodden, and died in 1516, leaving two sons, of whom Sir Walter, the elder, succeeded to the family estates. Sir Walter Scott of Branxholm and Buccleuch was warden of the west marches ; he attained celebrity for a daring though abortive attempt to rescue James V.