CORRIE,
a surname derived from a Gaelic word signifying a narrow glen. It is
the name of an old parish, (Conjoined in 1609 with Hutton), and of a
river and lochlet in the district of Annandale, Dumfries-shire. The
lands of Corrie, forming the southern division of the united parish of
Hutton and Corrie, were, in the twelfth century, held by a family,
vassals of Robert de Bruce, who, from them, took the surname of Corrie.
In the Ragman Roll is the name of Walter Corrie of this family.
In the 33d
year of David II., a grant was made to Robert de Corry (and his
spouse), son and heir of the late Thome de Torthorwald, “our kinsman
who died at the battle of Durham,” of the lands of Coulyn and Ruchane.
He had another grant of lands from the same monarch in the 40th
year of his reign. In the Rotuli Scotiae, is recorded in
1367-68, a safe conduct granted by Edward III. to “Robertus Corry de
Valle Annandiae de Scot. cum sex equitibus.”
Adam de
Corry is a witness to a charter of Confirmation by Robert, duke of
Albany in 1411.
The Corries
of that ilk and of Newby in Dumfries-shire are frequently mentioned in
the Public Records of the 15th and 16th
centuries. In the reign of James V., one of the Johnstones of
Annandale acquired the estate by marriage with the daughter and
heiress of Sir Thomas Corrie.
A branch of
the same family possessed the lands of Kelwood, in Dumfries-shire,
until the end of the 16th century, when they passed to the
Charteris family. In 1572, at the meeting of parliament at Edinburgh,
George Corry de Kelwood was one of the barons present.
Although the
ancient possessions of the family passed into other hands, the name
did not become extinct in Dumfries-shire. Early in last century, James
Corrie, Esq. of Speddoch, provost of Dumfries, son of John Corrie by
his wife Jean Paterson, sister of William Paterson, who planned the
Darien scheme, married Janet, daughter of Mr. Goldie of Craigmuir,
Kirkcudbright-shire, and left numerous descendants. Thomas Corrie,
Esq. of Shielston and Newton-Airds, for many years manager of the
British Linen Co. Bank, was his male representative.
James
Corrie’s brother, Joseph Corrie, Esq., proprietor of various lands in
Dumfries-shire, married a daughter of Judge Phipps, and his only
daughter, Sophia Corrie, married William Hope Weir, Esq. of Cragie
Hall.
From their
half brother, William Corrie of Redbank, are descended families of the
name, occupying a prominent rank among the citizens of London and
Liverpool;
Their sister
married the Rev. Mr. Ewart of Troqueer. One of her sons, Joseph, was
ambassador from the British Court at Berlin, and died at the early age
of 33. Another son, William, a merchant in Liverpool, was the father
of William Ewart, Esq., M.P. for the Dumfries district of Burghs. (See
EWART, surname of).
