CRAMOND,
a surname supposed to be derived from what is now the parish of that
name in the counties of Linlithgow and Edinburgh. There was an old
family Cramond of Auldbar in Forfarshire. In a charter of John de
Strathern, 1278, William de Cramond is designed clericus de Warderoba
domini regis. In the fifteenth century Catherine Cramond, daughter of
the proprietor of Auldbar, married Sir Thomas Maule, ancestor of the
Panmure family. This lady was his second wife. In 1575, James Cramond,
the then laird, sold the barony to Lord Glammis, in whose family it
continued till 1670, when Patrick, first earl of Strathmore, sold it
to Sir James Sinclair, who again sold it to Peter and James Young. In
1753 , it was purchased by William Chalmers of Hazlehead, the ancestor
of the family of Chalmers of Auldbar.
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CRAMOND,
a barony in the peerage of Scotland (now supposed extinct), one of the
very few which has been held by natives of England, having no
connexion whatever, either of blood, birth, or estate, with North
Britain. It was conferred, on the last day of 1628, by Charles the
First, on Elizabeth, the second wife of Sir Thomas Richardson, knight,
lord chief justice of the court of king’s bench the only instance, as
remarked by Crawford in his Peerage, of any female creation in the
Scottish Roll. Lady Cramond was the daughter of Sir Thomas Beaumont,
knight, of Stoughton Grange, Leicestershire, and had previously been
married to Sir John Ashburnham of Ashburnham in Sussex, knight, and by
him, who died 29th June 1620, ages twenty-nine, had several
children. Her eldest son, John, was the ancestor of the earls of
Ashburnham. Her second husband, Sir Thomas Richardson, the son of Dr.
Thomas Richardson, was born at Hardwick in Suffolk, 3d July 1569, and
died 4th February 1634. The peerage of Cramond was
conferred on his wife for her life, with remainder, as she had no
issue of her own, to the son of Sir Thomas, by his first wife,
(Ursula, daughter of John Southwell, of Barham Hall, Suffolk, by whom
he had one son and four daughters) and his heirs male; which failing
to the heirs male of his father. Collins, in his Baronetage (ed. 1771,
vol. ii. page 164) says, probably the reason why the title was not
granted to Sir Thomas himself was on account of his being a judge, it
being in those days unusual. Lady Cramond died 16th April
1651. Her second husband, Sir Thomas Richardson, distinguished himself
as an opponent of Laud, having issued an order against the ancient
custom of wakes, and directed every minister in England to read it in
his church. This was considered an encroachment on the ecclesiastical
authority by Laud, then bishop of Bath and Wells, and Richardson was
brought before the council, and so severely reprimanded that he came
out complaining that he had been almost choked by a pair of lawn
sleeves. This step was the means of the Book of Sports, which
afterwards proved so fatal to that intolerant prelate.
Sir Thomas’
son, also named Sir Thomas Richardson, died in 1642, aged forth-five.
He was twice married. By his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir
William Hewett, knight, he had, with other children, a son, Thomas,
Lord Cramond, who succeeded his stepmother in the title. He had also a
family by his second wife, Mary, widow of Sir Miles Sandys, knight.
The son, Thomas Richardson, Lord Cramond, elected member of parliament
for the county of Norfolk in 1660, married Anne, daughter of Sir
Richard Gorney, knight, lord mayor of London, and died 16th
May 1674. His eldest son, Henry Richardson, Lord Cramond, born in
1650, married Frances, daughter of Sir John Napier, baronet, of Luton
Hoo, widow of Sir Edward Barkham of Southacre in Norfolk. On his
death, 5th January 1701, he was succeeded by his brother
William Richardson, Lord Cramond, born 2d August 1654, married, first,
Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Edward Barkham, Esq., of Southacre,
and secondly, Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of James Daniel of
Norwich, goldsmith. The former had no issue, but by the latter his
lordship had a son and a daughter; William his heir; and Elizabeth,
heiress of her brother, married in 1735 to William Jermy, Esq., of
Bayfield in Norfolk. They sold Southacre Hall, the last remains of the
great Cramond property in Norfolk, to Sir Andrew Fountaine, knight.
Lord Cramond died 7th March 1719, and was succeeded by his
son William Richardson, Lord Cramond, born in 1714. He died,
unmarried, 28th July 1735, when the peerage is supposed to
have become extinct.
On this
peerage the lords of session, in their return to an order of the House
of Lords, dated 12th June 1739, remark that it does not
appear that any person ever sat or voted as Lord Cramond, or that any
one offered to vote at any election since the Union under that title,
but as the descendants of Sir Thomas Richardson, if any were, had
probably their residence in England, their not having claimed hitherto
can be no objection to their title if they can verify their right to
it.
