CHALMER,
erroneously Chalmers, (Lat. de Camera,) a surname derived from
the office of ‘Camerarius regis,’ chamberlain of the king, held by
Herbertus, the first on record of the ancient Ayrshire family of Chalmer
of Gadgirth, latterly Gaitgirth, but at first spelled Galdgirth, the
girth of Galdus. This Herbertus was Camerarius Scotiae, or great
chamberlain of Scotland, in the reign of David the First, from 1124 to
1153. [Crawford’s officers of State.] He is witness to the grant
which King David made ‘ecclesiae sancti Kentigerni de Glasgow,’ of the
lands of Govan, which afterwards became an endowment for a prebend in
that cathedral church. Besides his lands in Ayrshire, which remained for
more than six hundred years in the family, he had also the barony of
Kinniel in Linlithgowshire, as appears from the first charter of these
lands to Sir David Hamilton, in the reign of David the Second, in which
it is expressed that they were to be held as freely as ‘quondam
Herbertus Camerarius Regis David’ held the same. In his old age this
Herbertus Camerarius took orders and became abbot of Kelso. [Nisbet’s
System of Heraldry, vol. ii. App. p. 20.] The name de Camera
from him was retained by the family down to the reign of James the
Fifth.
His son,
Reginaldus de Camera, (born before his father was in holy orders,) was
possessed of the barony of Gadgirth in the reign of William the Lion,
between 1165 and 1214, and as Nisbet remarks, assumed the name of de
Camera, as a surname, in the same manner as the family of the great
Stewards of Scotland assumed that of Stewart as a cognomen from the
office of their great progenitor. He is a frequent witness to the gifts
and donations made by Walter the High Steward, from his lands in Kyle,
in the neighbourhood of Gadgirth, to the monks of Paisley, when he
founded that monastery in 1160. this remote antiquity of the family is
farther established by a writ under the great seal of Scotland in 1609,
referred to by Nisbet, in which it is acknowledged by the crown that the
family of Chalmer had possessed the barony of Gadgirth for upwards of
five hundred years before that period. In consequence of several of the
earliest charters of the family having been lost, a chasm occurs in the
line of succession for about a hundred years or more, till about 1296,
when William de Camera, with others of the barons of Kyle, swore an
extorted allegiance to King Edward the First of England.
His son,
William de Camera, adhered to King David Bruce, even when his fortunes
were at the lowest ebb, and after that monarch’s release from his long
captivity in England, he was appointed in 1369, clerk-register and
justice-clerk north of the Forth, the kingdom at that time being divided
into two justiciary districts of north and south of that river. His son,
Reginald de Camera, besides the estate of Gadgirth, had a charter from
King Robert the Second of the lands of Craiginfeoch in Renfrewshire in
the year 1375, which, in 1507, were alienated to the Lord Sempill. In
the rolls of the county of Renfrew they were anciently called
Craiginfeoch-Chalmer, but afterwards they acquired the name of
Craiginfeoch-Sempill.
Sir John de
Camera of Gadgirth, the son of this Reginald, in several authentic
documents is called dominus or lord of Gadgirth, a designation which
infers that this family was considered at that time in the rank and
character among the proceres and magnates regni, or
greater barons of the kingdom, and as such to have had a hereditary
right to a seat in parliament. His son, also named John, dominus de
Gadgirth, was one of fifteen barons of Ayrshire, (his name appears first
on the list,) who were impannelled as a jury in a cause in 1417, in
which the burgh of Irvine laid claim to a piece of muir ground, which
was decided by their verdict in favour of the town. [Robertson’s
Ayrshire Families, vol. iii. p. 265.] He was one of the Scots
auxiliaries who, under the earls of Buchan and Douglas, went to France
in 1419, to the assistance of Charles the Seventh against the English.
At the battle of Verneuil, 17th August, 1424, gained by the
Scots, he highly distinguished himself, and in consequence had a
fleur de lis added to his coat of arms, held by a lion in his dexter
paw, which for some centuries afterwards was borne as their crest by the
family, instead of as previously a hawk volant, but the latter was in
the course of time revived. According to tradition this John de Camera
of Galdgirth was slain at the battle of the Herrings in France, before
1429. After that time, at least, his name is no more mentioned.
His son, Sir
John de Camera of Gadgirth, was very young at his father’s death, but
lived to a considerable age. He had the honour of knighthood conferred
upon him by King James the Third. In 1468, he received a charter
erecting the lands of Gadgirth and Culraith in Ayrshire, into one
barony. He sat as a baron in 1484, the date of the first parliament of
James the Fourth, as dominus de Gaitgirth, taking place and enrolment
‘inter dominum Ker et dominum Balcomie,’ two barons of great rank, that
is, after the one and before the other. He married dame Elizabeth
Hamilton, daughter of Sir James Hamilton of Cadzow, and sister of the
first Lord Hamilton, by whom he had a son, John, who succeeded him, and
a daughter, Marion, married William Dalrymple of Stair, ancestor of the
earls of Stair. It is stated in Douglas’ Peerage [Edited by Wood,
vol. ii. p. 520,] that “She was a lady of excellent worth and virtue,
and one of the Lollards of Kyle summoned in 1494 before the king’s
council on account of their heretical doctrines, but the magnanimity of
James the Fourth treated the charges with contempt, and the accused
persons were dismissed.”
The son, John
de Camera, married, in 1491, Marion Hay, daughter of Peter Hay pf
Menzean, brother of John Lord Hay of Yester, ancestor of the marquis of
Tweeddale, and had a son, James, and three daughters, who were all well
married. The son, James de Camera, on 1st October 1501, as
heir to his father, was infeft, on a precept of chancery, in the lands
of Culraith and Chalmerhouse, from which latter had sprung the
designation of that ilk. He married a daughter of Alexander Stewart of
Galston, brother of John first earl of Lennox and Darnley, by whom he
had a son Robert, and a daughter, Margaret, married to Robert Cunningham
of Cunninghamhead.
Robert de
Camera of Gadgirth, the son, by his wife, the daughter of Sir Hugh
Campbell of Loudoun, had two sons, James, of whom next paragraph, and
Andrew, styled of Nether Bruntshiels, and a daughter, Margaret, married
to Alan Cathcart of Carleton.
James Chalmer
of Gadgirth, the elder son, was a zealous reformer, and is described by
Archbishop Spottiswood, John Knox, and other ecclesiastical historians,
as one of the boldest of the leaders of the reformation in Scotland. In
1558, when the preachers were summoned to appear at Edinburgh, and in
consequence the professors of the reformed religion flocked in great
numbers to the capital on the day fixed, (the 19th of July,)
the bishop of St. Andrews and the priests procured a proclamation to be
made, that all who had come to the town without commandment or warrant,
should repair to the borders and remain there fifteen days. The bishop
of Galloway said in rhyme to the queen:
“Madame, because they are come without order,
I red you send them to the border.”
It happened that
those of the west country who supported the reformed religion had
arrived that same day in Edinburgh, and hearing of the proclamation,
they went in a body to the privy chamber, where the queen regent and the
bishops were, and complained of this strange proceeding of the priests;
on which the queen began to put in practice some of her usual craft,
when a zealous and bold man, as Calderwood calls him, James Chalmer of
Gadgirth, said, “Madam, you know that this is the malice of the javvels
(a term of reproach much in use in those days, supposed to have the same
meaning as jail birds) and of that bastard (meaning the bishop of St.
Andrews) that standeth by you. We vow to God we shall make a day of it.
They oppress us and our tenants, for feeding their idle bellies. They
trouble our preachers, and would murder them and us. Shall we suffer
this any longer? No, Madam, it shall not be so;” and thereupon every man
put on his steel bonnet. [Calderwood’s History, vol. i. p. 344.]
The queen regent found herself obliged to temporise. She denied all
knowledge of the proclamation, and forbade the bishops to trouble either
the professors or their preachers. The bishops were in consequence
obliged to adjourn the day of compearance till the first of September.
In May 1559, he was one of the barons of the west who hastened to the
relief of Perth, when the queen regent threatened to march against that
town with her French troops. In September 1562 he was among the barons
and gentlemen of Ayrshire who subscribed the famous bond at Ayr, for the
defence of the “holy Evangel,” and their own mutual protection, and in
July 1567, as a member of Assembly, he was one of the commissioners of
towns who signed the articles then agreed to, for the maintenance of the
authority of the young king, James the Sixth, the defence of the
reformed religion, and the utterly rooting out of popery in the realm.
He had several charters under the great seal in 1541 and 1548, of parts
of his estates both in the counties of Ayr and Wigton. John Knox, when
in the west, preached in Gadgirth castle, situated in the parish of
Coylton, and found, as did all the reforming ministers, a warm friend
and fearless defender in its possessor. He married Annabella, daughter
of Cunningham of Caprington, and had James, his son and successor, and
three daughters, the second of whom, Margaret, was married to James Boyd
of Trochrigg, archbishop of Glasgow, and was the mother of the famous
Dr. Robert Boyd of Trochrigg, principal of the university of Glasgow.
James Chalmer, the son, married Marion, daughter of John Fullarton of
Dreghorn, and had by her a son, James, and four daughters.
This latter
James Chalmer was infeft in the estate in 1580, as heir to his father.
By his wife Isabella, daughter of Sir Patrick Houston of that ilk, he
had, with three daughters, a son, James Chalmer of Gadgirth, who by
commission under the great seal, 8th September 1632, was by
King Charles the First made sheriff principal of Ayrshire, when the
crown acquired that heritable jurisdiction from the earl of Loudoun. In
1633, he was one of the representatives of Ayrshire in parliament. In
1641 he was conjoined with the earl of Cassillis and the laird of
Caprington as commissioners from the Scots parliament to Newcastle. In
the same year he and Sir William Mure of Rowallan were appointed
auditors of the accounts of the commissary-general. In 1643 he was a
commissioner of supply, and also one on the committee of management. In
1646 he was on the committee of war, and in 1649 he had a troop in
Colonel Robert Montgomery’s regiment of horse. By his wife Isabel,
daughter of John Blair of Blair, he had five sons and five daughters.
His sons were John, his successor; Reginald of Polquhairn; David of
Elsick in Galloway, Brice, and Robert.
His grandson,
John Chalmer of Gadgirth, was a member of the convention parliament in
1689, and in the same year of the first parliament of William and Mary.
He married Margaret, eldest daughter of Colonel James Montgomery of
Coilsfield, third son of the sixth earl of Eglinton, and, with three
daughters, had three sons, John, James, and Hugh. The latter, when
scarcely seventeen years of age, was killed at the battle of Malplaquet
in September 1709.
John, the
eldest son, at the age of sixteen entered the service of the United
Provinces as a volunteer in the regiment commanded by Lieutenant-general
George Hamilton, in which he afterwards obtained a captain’s commission.
In 1714, when a general reduction of the army took place, and that
regiment was disbanded, he was continued in the establishment of Great
Britain on half-pay till December 1726, when he got a command in the
seventh foot. Owing mainly to the great debts which had been incurred by
the family from their active adherence to the party of Charles the
First, and which were accumulated in subsequent years, adjudications
were carried on against the estate in 1692, and in April 1695, Hugh earl
of Loudoun, James Viscount Stair, and David Cunninghame of Milncraig
(afterwards Sir David), who seem to have been the curators during the
minority of Captain Chalmer, entered into a contract amongst themselves,
in which they allotted certain portions of the estate to each other, at
sixteen years’ purchase, for which they became bound to pay the
preferable debts affecting it. On his return home, however, Captain
Chalmer challenged the parties at law for thus parcelling out among
themselves the lands of his fathers, when he recovered part of them. He
died unmarried about 1740, when he was succeeded in that portion of the
estate which he retained possession of, by his three sisters, Mary,
Anna, and Elizabeth. Mary, the eldest, married the Rev. John Steel,
minister of Stair, but dying, at a very advanced age, without issue, she
left her portion of the estate to her husband; and he, marrying again,
had two daughters, the elder of whom married a Mr. Redfearn, who sold
his part of Gadgirth to Colonel Burnet, who had married the youngest
daughter; Anna the second daughter married Mr. Farquhar of Townhead of
Catrine, and had no issue. Elizabeth, the youngest, became the wife of
Mr. John Mure of yr, and had several children. Their eldest son was John
Mure Chalmer, W.S. On the death of his parents he obtained that portion
of the lands of Gadgirth which was his mother’s; and his aunt Anna
engaged in her lifetime to make over her share of the estate to him on
his assuming the family name. He married Miss E. Farquhar of Edinburgh,
and by her had a son George, and several other children.
George Chalmer,
Esq., the only son, first a lieutenant in the royal navy, afterwards an
advocate at the Madras bar, where he realized a considerable fortune,
married at Madras Elizabeth, daughter of Francis Latour, Esq. of that
presidency, by whom he had a son, Francis Day Chalmer, and two
daughters; Anne, married to John Jenkins, Esq. (brother of Dr. Jenkins,
master of Baliol, and vice-chancellor of the university of Oxford), and
Eliza, the wife of Robert Haig, Esq. of Viewpark, fourth son of James
Haig of Blairhill, county Perth, and Lochrin, county Edinburgh.
Francis Day
Chalmer, the 25th in direct descent of this ancient family,
major 7th dragoon guards, married 25th May 1833,
Sarah Mary Emily, daughter of James Robertson, Esq., captain of
engineers, Bengal army. This lady was the cousin and heiress of the late
Sir Gilbert Stirling of Mansfield, baronet, who left his estate of
Larbert, and his large personal fortune, to be invested in land to be
entailed on her heirs. Her eldest son, Gilbert Stirling Chalmer Stirling,
born 18th January 1843, will inherit these estates, and the
direct lineal representation of Herbertus de Camera, great chamberlain
of Scotland in the reign of David I., (1124-1153). The younger children
of Major Chalmer are; 2. Reginald, 3. George, 4. Francis; 1. Anne, 2.
Emily Eliza, 3. Catherine Frances, 4. Charlotte Amy Rachel.
