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DON,
a surname probably derived from the river of that name, as, according to
Camden, “rivers have imposed names to some men.” In the Anglo-Saxon, the
word Don (English Donne) or Dun, means a down, that is, a large open plain
or valley. It was the name of a family which, formerly possessed the lands
of Teith, in the stewartry of Monteith, Perthshire, a descendant of which,
Sir Alexander Don of Newton in Berwickshire, was, 2d June 1677, created a
baronet of Nova Scotia. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir James Don.
His second son was Sir Alexander Don of Rutherford, and his third son
Patrick Don of Altonburn.
Sir Alexander
Don of Newtondon, fifth baronet, married Lady Henriet Cunningham, sister
of the last earl of Glencairn, and had an only son, Alexander, and two
daughters, Elizabeth and Mary. These young ladies were unfortunately
drowned, June 12, 1795, with a companion (Miss Agnes Wilson, second
daughter of Dr. Wilson, physician in Kelso), while fording a brook near
their father’s mansion, which had been considerable swelled by sudden
rains. Sir Alexander’s son, Sir Alexander, sixth baronet, for some time
M.P. for Roxburghshire, was an intimate friend of Sir Walter Scott. He was
twice married, but by his first wife had no issue. By his second wife,
Grace, eldest daughter of John Stein, Esq., Edinburgh, for several years
M.P. for Bletchingley, he had a son and a daughter, and died in April
1826. She married, 2dly, General Sir James A. Hope Wallace, K.C.B. Sir
Alexander’s only son, Sir William Henry Don, 7th baronet, born
May 4, 1825, became a cornet 5th dragoon guards in 1844, and
was appointed extra aide-de-camp to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland. In
1845 he was made a lieutenant, but retired from the army in November of
the same year, and became an actor. He married 1st, in 1847,
Antonia, daughter of M. Lebrun of Hamburg; issue, a daughter. 2dly, in
1857, eldest daughter of John Sanders, Esq., London. Sir William is
representative on the female side of the earls of Glencairn. Memoirs of the Don Family in Angus
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