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CARLYLE, Lord,
an extinct title in the peerage of Scotland, conferred in 1473 by King
James the Third, on Sir John Carlyle of Torthorwald, knight. The first of
this name in Scotland was one of the English colonists brought by Robert
de Brus into Annandale, when he obtained a grant of that district from
King David the Second. The surname appears to be local, and was probably
assumed from the town of Carlisle in Cumberland. In the reign of King
William the Lion, one Eudo de Carlyle was witness to a charter of
mortification, by Eustace de Vescy, of twenty shillings per annum out of
the mill of Sprouston to the monastery of Kelso, about 1207. Adam de
Carleolo had a charter of several lands in Annandale, from William de Brus,
who died in 1215. Gilbert de Carlyle was one of the Scottish barons who
swore fealty to King Edward the First in 1296. Sir William de Cairlyle
obtained in marriage the lady Margaret Bruce, one of the daughters of
Robert earl of Carrick, and sister of King Robert the Bruce, as appears by
a charter of that monarch to them of the lands of Crumanston, in which she
is designated “our dearest sister.” Their son, William Carlyle, obtained a
charter from Robert the First, under the name of William Karlo, the king’s
sister’s son, of the lands of Culyn, now Collin, in the county of
Dumfries. He also possessed the lands of Roucan in the vicinity. There are
now two villages bearing these names in the immediate neighbourhood of
Dumfries.
William Carleil
was one of the numerous train of knights and esquires, who attended the
princess Margaret of Scotland, daughter of James the First, into France,
on her marriage to Louis the dauphin, in 1436.
Sir John Carlyle
of Torthorwald, the first Lord Carlyle, was active in repelling the
invasion of the banished Douglases in 1455, when James earl of Douglas, at
the head of a considerable force, entered Scotland by the west marches,
and being met in Annandale by the earl of Angus, the lord Carlisle of
Torthorwald, Sir Adam Johnstone of Johnstone, and other barons, at the
head of their vassals, sustained a total defeat; Archibald, earl of Moray,
one of his brothers, was killed, and Hugh earl of Ormond, another of them,
was taken prisoner by Lord Carlyle and the laird of Johnstone, for which
service King James the Second granted to them the forty pound land of
Pettinain in Lanarkshire. He sat as Lord Carlyle of Torthorwald in the
parliament of November and December 1475. He was subsequently sent on an
embassy to France, and in recompense for the great expense attending it,
he had several grants from the crown in 1477. Among others he received a
charter of the lands of Drumcoll, forfeited by Alexander Boyd. On the
accession of James the Fourth these lands were claimed by the king, as
pertaining to him and his eldest son, and his successors, by letters of
annexation made of Drumcoll, perpetually to remain with the kings and
princes of Scotland, their sons, previous to the grant of the same to Lord
Carlyle, and on 19th January 1488-9 the lords auditors decreed
that the said lands of Drumcoll were the king’s property. His lordship
died before 22d December, 1509. He was twice married. By his first wife,
Janet, he had two sons, John and Robert, and a daughter, married to Simon
Carruthers of Monswald. His second wife, Margaret Douglas, widow of Sir
Edward Maxwell of Monreith, had also two sons to him, namely, John and
George. John, master of Carlyle, the eldest son, died before his father,
leaving a son, William, second Lord Carlyle, who was one of the three
persons invested with the honour of knighthood, 29th January
1487-8, when Alexander, second son of King James the Third, was created
duke of Ross. By Janet Maxwell, his wife, daughter of Robert Lord Maxwell,
he had two sons, James, third lord, and Michael, fourth lord Carlyle. The
latter signed the bond of association for the support of the authority of
King James the Sixth in 1567, and was the only peer signing it who could
not write his name. He was obliged, in consequence, to have recourse to
the assistance of a notary. Soon after, however, he joined Queen Mary’s
party, and entered into the association on her behalf, at Hamilton, 8th
May 1568. He had three sons, namely, William, master of Carlyle; Michael;
and Peter. His eldest son died in 1572, in the lifetime of his father,
leaving an only child, Elizabeth Carlyle, who married Sir James Douglas of
Parkhead, slain by Captain James Stewart, on the High Street of Edinburgh,
31st July, 1608. On the death of his eldest son, Lord Carlyle
granted a charter of alienation of the barony of Carlyle, &c., in favour
of Michael, his second son, dated at Torthorwald, 14th March,
1573, to which Adam Carlyle of Bridekirk, Alexander Carlyle his son, John
Carlyle of Brakenquhat, and Peter Carlyle, the third son of his lordship,
were witnesses. Of the family of Bridekirk, here mentioned, the late Dr.
Alexander Carlyle of Inveresk, a notice of whom follows, was the male
representative. The above settlement of the estate was set aside, after a
long litigation at a ruinous expense, and the barony of Carlyle was, on
the death of the fourth lord in 1580, found to belong to his
grand-daughter, Elizabeth, already mentioned, who thus succeeded to the
peerage, in her own right. A charter was granted to George Douglas, second
legitimate son of George Douglas of Parkhead, of the barony of Carlyle,
&c., in the counties of Dumfries and Lanark, dated on the last day of
February, 1594. It is supposed that he had acquired that estate from his
brother Sir James, who, as above stated, married the heiress of the title
and estates, and had three sons, Sir James, Archibald, and John, the two
latter of whom died without issue.
Sir James
Douglas, the eldest son, was, in right of his mother, created Lord Carlyle
of Torthorwald, in 1609. He married, first, Grizel, youngest daughter of
Sir John Gordon of Lochinvar, by whom, it is said, he had a son, William,
who sold his estate, and died abroad without issue; secondly, Anne
Saltonstall, and by her he had a son, James, baptized at Edinburgh, 2d
January 1621. According to Crawford, James, Lord Carlyle, resigned his
title in 1638, to William earl of Queensberry, who had acquired his
estate.
In 1730, William
Carlyle of Lochartur, in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, was served heir
to Michael, fourth Lord Carlyle, as descended from Michael, his second
lawful son. This William Carlyle died about 1757, and was succeeded by his
brother, Michael Carlyle of Lochartur, who, on his death, left his estate
to the heir-male of the family. By a decree of the House of Lords in 1770,
the heir-male was found to be George Carlyle, whose ancestor had settled
in Wales. In him also it was thought lay the right to the peerage; but
after dissipating his estate at Dumfries, in a few years he returned to
Wales. The Rev. Joseph D. Carlyle, professor of Arabic in Cambridge
university, who died in 1831, was understood to have been the next heir.
This surname has
acquired considerable literary lustre from its being borne by Thomas
Carlyle, a celebrated contemporary author, a native of Dumfries-shire.
CARLYLE, ALEXANDER,
D.D., an
accomplished presbyterian divine, son of the minister of Prestonpans, was
born January 26, 1722, and received his education at the universities of
Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Leyden. In 1745, when only 23 years of age, he
enrolled himself in a body of volunteers, raised in Edinburgh to defend
the city against the rebels, but which, on the approach of the Highland
army, was dissolved. He then retired to his father’s manse at Prestonpans,
and on the morning of the 21st September, witnessed from the
top of the village steeple the defeat of the royal army. Previously he had
been for a short time in the hands of a party of the Highlanders, but had
made his escape. He studied for the church, and, about 1748, was presented
to the parish of Inveresk, in the neighbourhood of Musselburgh, where he
remained 57 years. His talents as a preacher were of the highest order;
and in the General Assembly he long took an active and prominent part on
the moderate side. It was owing principally to his exertions that the
parochial clergy of Scotland were exempted from the house and window tax.
With this object in view he spent some time in London, and was introduced
at court where the elegance of his manners and the dignity of his
appearance, are said to have excited equal surprise and admiration. He was
intimate with all the celebrated men whose names have conferred lustre on
the literary history of the latter part of the eighteenth century, and
Smollett, in his ‘Humphrey Clinker,’ mentions that he owed to him his
introduction to the literary circles of Edinburgh. Being a particular
friend of Home, the author of Douglas, he was present at the first
representation of that tragedy, for which he was prosecuted before the
church courts, censured and admonished. It is even said that, in the first
private rehearsal, he forgot his character so far as to enact the part of
Old Norval. To Dr. Carlyle the world is indebted for the recovery of
Collins’ long lost ‘Ode on the Superstitions of the Highlands.’ The author
considered it the best of his poems, but he had kept no copy of it; and
Dr. Carlyle finding it accidentally among his papers, presented it to the
Royal Society of Edinburgh. It was printed in the first volume of their
Transactions. Dr. Carlyle left behind him a Memoir of his own Time, which,
though long promised, has not yet ben published. He died at Inveresk,
August 25, 1805, aged 84.
The only things
Dr. Carlyle published were, the Statistical Account of the Parish of
Inveresk, in Sir John Sinclair’s work; two detached sermons, the names of
which are subjoined; and two ironical pamphlets on the subject of the
tragedy of Douglas, both the latter, of course, anonymously. One of them
was entitled ‘An Ironical argument to prove that the tragedy of Douglas
ought to be publicly burnt by the hands of the hangman, Edinburgh,’ 1757,
8vo. pp. 24. He is also said to have written the prologue to Herminius and
Espasia, a tragedy, acted at Edinburgh, and published in 1754.
The titles of
his sermons are:–
The Tendency of
the Constitution of the Church of Scotland to form the Temper, Spirit, and
Character of her Ministers; a Sermon on Psalm xlviii. 12, 13. 1779, 12mo.
National
Depravity the Cause of National Calamities; a Fast Sermon, from Jerem. vi.
8. Edin. 1794, 8vo. |
