(The first 5 pages of the book) [THIS BOOK HAS BEEN REPUBLISHED BY THE FAMILY AND IS NOW AVAILABLE AT AMAZON.COM]

RECORDS OF THE

CLOSEBURN

KIRKPATRICKS

By

Major-General C. KIRKPATRICK, C.B., C.B.E.

Published 1953.

Edited and transcribed by John P. Kirkpatrick

Illustrations, Pictures located where possible and inserted.

Copyright Ó 2000 John P. Kirkpatrick

CONTENTS

Forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Traditional origin of the Closeburn family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

The Closeburn family records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Earliest recorded history of Closeburn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Early history of the Torthorwald branch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

The period of King Robert the Bruce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Some family relationships after Bannockburn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Caerlaverock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

The succession continued . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Closeburn Castle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

The last of the Torthorwald and Ross Kirkpatricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

The Baronetcy of Closeburn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Appendix I. Genealogical tables of the Kirkpatricks of Closeburn. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Appendix II. Our own family story. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Appendix IIa. Captain A.W. Beauchamp Proctor, V.C., D.S.O., M.C., D.F.C. . . . . . . . . 93

Table of connections between Closeburn, Isle of Wight and Conheath Kirkpatricks. . . . 93

Appendix III. Heraldry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Appendix IV. Coat of arms of Kirkpatrick of Closeburn (Nisbet's Heraldic Plates). . . . . 98

Appendix V. Collateral branches of Closeburn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Appendix VI. Closeburn and the Empress Eugenie of France. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102

Appendix VII. In the days of "John Company". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117

Addendum. An explanation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120

Appendix VIII. Paper read to the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Antiquarian Society

on 18th December, 1953. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

FOREWARD.

I have written this book for two reasons.

The first, the obvious one, mentioned in the preface, is to leave some coherent record of our history for my descendants.

The second reason is the need to correct some erroneous statements concerning the Closeburn family history made by writers who obviously have not had access to family records which I refer to in these pages.

I had written the major portion of this book and included an early chapter dealing with this matter, when I found a long article entitled "The Early Kirkpatricks" published in July, 1953, which demanded a much fuller reply.

I then decided it was best to allow this history to stand as already reproduced; to complete it and to reserve a fuller comment and criticism for the end of this book, as an Addendum and Appendix VIII.

The history left without the above introductory notes, thus contains some allusions to matters, which later form the subject of comment, so requiring some mention here.

Briefly these are:-

1. The fundamental errors made in the report of the Historical M.S.S. Commission for Scotland, 1881, Vol. XV regarding the Closeburn Kirkpatricks, where it was stated that:-

(a) The Kirkpatrick traditions have connected this family with Nithsdale at an earlier date than is warranted by Charter evidence.

(b) All the Closeburn Charters were lost in the fire of 1748.

2. Articles written thereafter have stated that the claim of the Closeburn Kirkpatricks to be the main line of the family is wrong.

That there was a senior branch of Kirkpatricks in Annandale, which died out at the close of the 15th Century, whereupon the Closeburn Kirkpatricks adopted the traditions and motto which rightly belonged to the extinct senior stem of the Kirkpatrick family.

These statements, amounting to a negation of the traditions and history of the Kirkpatricks of Closeburn as maintained by the family, and set fourth in this book, cannot be left unchallenged or unexplained and I have been at some pains to discover the origin of these misrepresentations.

Bearing this in mind, the reader will, I think, read, with the more interest, the story as it unfolds, and make his own judgement thereon.

PREFACE

I have always been much interested in our family history, but, until I retired from the army in 1935, I had not the leisure to devote to its study.

I now find myself left as the sole male representative, of my generation of the branch of the Closeburn family descended from my great grandfather Sir James Kirkpatrick, the 4th Baronet of Closeburn, Dumfriesshire.

Consequently I have come into possession of, or have had access to, a considerable number of important family documents which have remained uncollated, while the history of Closeburn has not been written up in this family since 1858. The present head of the family is Sir James Kirkpatrick, the 10th Baronet, who is resident in Kenya.

I have felt it my duty therefore to try and bring the history up to date, by referring to these and other available records in this country, for the benefit of my children and grandchildren, who have a long line of ancestors to be proud of, because of their unfailing loyalty to King and Country through the centuries.

That story needs to be told, and to do so, I must first explain the relationships of our branch of Closeburn.

My great grandfather, Sir James Kirkpatrick the 4th Baronet, who died in 1804 had two sons. The oldest Thomas, succeeded his father as 5th Baronet, becoming Sheriff of Dumfries.

The second son, Roger, Collector of Cess for the county of Dumfries, was my grandfather.

He married Lilias, daughter of Robert Anderson of Stroquham. By her he had four sons and two daughters.

The eldest son, James, my father, became Deputy Surgeon General in the Honourable East India Company's Service, and he died in 1890.

My mother was Margaret Proctor, daughter of William Proctor of Co. Kilkenny, Ireland and Drooge Vlei, South Africa; Formerly Lietenant in H.M. 21st Light Dragoons.

My parents had five sons and five daughters, I alone survive as youngest of that family.

Only one of my father's three brothers married, Roger, whose wife was Isabella Kirkpatrick of the Isle of Wight branch.

They had three sons and two daughters and all of these died unmarried.

Isabella Kirkpatrick's father and mother were curiously enough, both Kirkpatricks.

Her father, Joseph Kirkpatrick of St. Cross, Isle of Wight, was descended from a younger son of the 1st Baronet.

Her mother, Maria Manuela Kirkpatrick of the Conheath branch of Kirkpatricks. The latter married the Conte de Teba and Montijo, and was mother of the Empress Eugenie of France, married to Napoleon III. (This is the second, and later, connection of the Empress with our family.)

I am neither an antiquarian nor a historian, and to read the secrets of the distant past, such scientists, while looking to tradition, must have expert knowledge to decipher the old Latin charters and records, besides the crabbed English writing of even the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. They must be able to evaluate Heraldic signs, and have access to family records, as well as to public documents.

There are many traps for the unwary.

Lacking all qualifications therefore as a historical writer, I count myself lucky in my task of collating these notes, to have some extraneous and expert support for the history I shall tell of my ancestors.

Of tradition, Lord Hailes, an eminent historian of the late eighteenth century wrote:-

"There are some facts which may be termed the land marks of history, by which men have been wont to conduct themselves -

He who removes them, or endeavours to place them in a different point of view, is considered by all parties as a pragmatic and dangerous innovator"

Elsewhere someone has written:-

"Tradition is a term for the kind of fact most easily dismissed in argument, and yet has the most decisive influence in the affairs of men".

The Kirkpatricks have strong traditions handed down through the centuries.

With regard to heraldic signs. I have been privileged to be able to consult Sir Frances Grant K.C.V.O. as regards our family. His forty seven years distinguished service at the Lyon Court, as Keeper of the Records, and later as Lord Lyon King of Arms for Scotland from 1929 to 1945, have gained for him the reputation of being the greatest living authority on Scottish Heraldry.

As producer, with Andrew Ross, of "Nisbets' Heraldic Plates", in 1892, he wrote the account therein, of the Kirkpatricks of Closeburn. These plates were prepared by Alexander Nisbet in 1696, for incorporation in his great work "The system of Heraldry", But expense of production at that time prevented their then being used. It was only in 1722 that the book's first edition was published, without the plaster, which were later produced, as related.

Sir James Fergusson in "Lowland Lairds" has this to say of Nisbet, who lived in 1657 - 1725.

"Nisbet has been authoritively described as the ablest and most scientific writer on heraldry in the English language.

In his preface to 'The System of Heraldry', he writes:-

'the original design of heraldry is not merely to show pageantry - but to distinguish persons and families - to represent heroic achievements of our ancestors - to trace the origin of noble and ancient families, and to perpetuate their memory - to distinguish the different branches descended from the same families, etc'.

"This is a testimony to Nisbets' earnestness in his work.