A Baron's Tale cover 10/27/09 3:54 PM Page 1 P RESTOUNGRANGE P RESTOUNGRANGE ❖ A BARON’S TALE A BARON’S CUTHILL A Baron’s Tale £9.99 €15 $18 PRESS A Baron's Tale cover 10/27/09 3:54 PM Page 2 William Grant might well be an ardent upholder of The Union in Dr. Gordon Prestoungrange is the 14th 1745 as Baron of Prestoungrange, but his mistress Anne Stewart is Baron of Prestoungrange and Chairman of an equally ardent Jacobite. Together they survive the dangerous the Arts Festival. He spent most of his life as months when Bonnie Prince Charlie claims the British throne for a university management teacher latterly as his father winning a stunning victory close by William’s lands at Principal of the International Management Prestonpans. The aftermath of the ’45 finds Anne in exile with Centres [IMC] providing action learning their son James whilst William as Scotland’s Lord Advocate must programmes across the globe. He was also a prosecute her friends and as Union MP destroy the powers of Clan founding director in 1967 of the world’s Chiefs and his own as Baron. major academic management publisher, now William’s marital life at Prestoun Grange is calmly presided over known as EMERALD, which he led onto the by his artistic wife Griseldine, who necessarily enjoys herself in internet along with IMC as soon as that William’s frequent absence with the artists of Edinburgh. But she technology emerged. He is currently does not neglect the education or the need of fine marriages for Publisher of Burke’s Peerage and Gentry. their daughters thus eventually enabling William to establish male He came to stay in Prestonpans in 1997, entail for his estates with the Suttie family which lasts till 1997. In acquiring the Baronial lands from the Grant- that year William’s wish to discover how that entail fares is granted Suttie entail. He wanted to come to the Pans as he encounters the next and 14th Baron who is both ensuring the because his grandfather had once worked in town’s history is collated but also honoured, to Griseldine’s great Prestongrange Pit and his mother was born in delight, through the arts. Anne adds to the excitement when she Musselburgh. rejoins them to celebrate the return of Scotland’s own Parliament. Gordon and his wife Avril have two sons, Mathew, incoming By 2009, a spectacular history now brought up to date, it is the 15th Baron of Prestoungrange and Julian, Baron of Dolphinstoun turn of the 14th Baron to wonder how his entail might fare as he since 2000. He has a third son, Duncan, by his first wife Barbara. takes his leave! Together there are now seven grandchildren. He was educated at Reed’s School and Mander College Bedford before serving as Flying Officer in the Royal Air Force. He graduated from Reading University in Politics and Economics being Chairman of the Labour Club and Vice President of the Union there. He joined ICI Paints then Foote Cone and Belding as a marketing researcher, continuing with night school studies in management at what is now Thames Valley University, before joining Bradford University as Professor from 1967. He was subsequently Chairman of Doctoral Studies and Continuing Studies at Cranfield School of Management from 1972–1982. A Baron’s Tale Cuthill Press The Cuthill Press is the division of Prestoungrange University Press [PUP] that publishes novels and other works of fiction, including the factitious. It contrasts with the mainstream publications by PUP of non-fiction historical works in association with Burkes Peerage & Gentry. Cuthill Press nonetheless advances the same community mission as PUP, which is to honour our local history through all the creative arts for the socioeconomic regeneration of Prestonpans and vicinity. Such creativity potentially raises both the artist’s self esteem and that of the community at large and leads to the Hope and Ambition for Victory in life that Prince Charles Edward exemplified in the ’45. A Baron’s Tale from . Prestoungrange Cuthill Press First Published 2009 Copyright © 2009 Cuthill Press for Gordon Prestoungrange All rights reserved. Copyright under international and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any other form or by any other means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher and copyright holder. Within the UK, exceptions are allowed in respect of any fair dealing for the purpose of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. While the publisher makes every effort possible to publish full and correct information in this book, sometimes errors of omission or substance may occur. For this the publisher is most regretful, but hereby must disclaim any liability. ISBN 978-0-85011-078-4 Cuthill Press for Prestoungrange University Press Prestoungrange Arts Festival 227/229 High Street, Prestonpans East Lothian, Scotland EH32 9BE Front cover artwork by Andrew Crummy from contemporary portraits of Willliam Grant and Lady Susan Grant-Suttie Rear cover: The Petition submitted in 1746 by Robert Pryde and fellow miners Design & Typesetting by Chat Noir Design, France Printed & bound in Great Britain FOREWORD We have called this book a novel although it is perhaps a new genre – an autobiographical novel. It comes from the inter- changeable pens of long ago William Grant and my contemporary self, both in our time feudal Barons of Prestoungrange. William Grant was determined to establish a male entail for his 10,000 acre estate after his daughters had in turn enjoyed it. More than that as an early genealogist he ‘wished’ that he might one day find out how it all turned out. When would it end, and who would take up the feudal responsibilities when it did? Although as Scotland’s Lord Advocate in 1746 William saw to it that baronial powers were greatly trimmed, little did he expect that on my watch that estate would have withered to two acres and that feudalism would be abolished altogether in 2004. Since 2004 the Baron of Prestoungrange stands in law simply as ‘a dignity in the nobility of Scotland’ – whatever that might mean. This novel is William’s wish come true and he made sure he played a key part in writing it. The ‘Tale’ William and his wife Griseldine tell together in these pages until 1987 frequently and quite deliberately makes fiction out of fact and greatly embroiders that too. William probably had a mistress or two, but the Jacobite lady Anne he adores in these pages is our own confection. And we certainly have no evidence there was a son called James. Robert Pryde, who really did petition William as a collier in 1746 might well have subsequently worked for the Cadells after Prestongrange Pit closed – but we have no proof of that. Nevertheless, a direct descendant of Robert Pryde today, Sandra, greatly assisted me 5 . from Prestoungrange with information on his Petition in 1746 and her line of descent, although all her contemporary sequences relating to Robert described in these pages are entirely fictitious. However, where we cite the names of all other living persona- lities who have played a significant part in feudal Prestoungrange post 1997 on my watch, there is no fiction, only fact. We wanted to name them here because they are indeed jointly and severally responsible for what happened since William’s entail ended, and such achievements as there have been are their’s. Whilst is is always invidious so to do I must single out for my deepest personal thanks three who have been outstandingly talented and constant throughout – Sylvia Burgess, Anne Taylor and Andrew Crummy. Without them it could scarce have happened at all. There is another group of people also named and whose work is fact not fiction. They are the authors of the myriad historical studies completed in Prestonpans since 1997 that explored the history before that date led by Jim Forster, Jane Bonnar and Annmarie Allan. It is their work which enabled William to understand how his entail fared after his death in 1764 right through to 1997. It appears in two important books – Tales of the Pans and Prestonpans: a social and economic history across 1,000 years. *** There is no need for our readers to believe in ghosts or the baronial reincarnation we have employed here to enjoy the history of Prestonpans told through baronial eyes. But having the reincar- nated assistance of William and Griseldine, along with his factitious mistress Anne, and of Robert Pryde, has greatly aided me in its completion. It has meant that the town’s extraordinary 6 A Baron’s Tale history can be told as an autobiographical novel and I hope as such it will reach an even wider audience than our history has thus far through our murals, literature, music, theatre sculpture and poetry. We vowed from the outset to seek to use ‘all the arts’ to assist our town’s continuing socioeconomic regeneration in the 20th and 21st centuries and I hope that this novel can take its place alongside the art already accomplished in meeting that challenge. *** This novel is also my personal ‘Application for the Chiltern Hundreds’. When I retired in 1997 from my career as a university teacher to the remaining two acres of baronial lands, or rather seashore, I had no notion of what might transpire – any more than my illustrious predecessor William did for his entail. Avril and I resolved to enjoy a decade infeft and then to pass over the role to our older son Mathew.