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THE Gladstanes of Oldentime
from the Scottish Review
THE following article
professes to be a more complete outline of the family of the Gledstanes than
has yet been attempted by any one writer. Naturally it is very much
curtailed, and the fortunes of the principal branch alone are given in any
detail.
Half-way between Lanark and
Peebles lies the prosperous little town of Biggar, situated on an undulating
plain, girt by hills of rounded form, the lower heights being cultivated,
and the upper ones covered with heather or scrub. North of the town the
country is bleak, with trees sparsely scattered in the hollows, and the
fields of to-day would willingly revert to the moorland of ancient times,
when the kite could carry off its prey in safety to the rocky slopes of Bell
Craig or Coklaw Hill. This bleak and secluded upland was the cradle of the
race of the Gladstones, and here, four miles from Biggar, they built the
tower known as 'Gledstanes' or the 'kite's rock.' The original castle has
long since disappeared, but for over six hundred years there has been a
dwelling-place on this spot, and, though at present it is but a modern
farm-house, it bears the same name, and is surrounded by traces of older and
more important buildings.
The name of the tower became
the patronymic of its owners, and its purely Saxon character would lead to
the inference that the family was of Saxon origin. At first the name is met
with as de Gledestan (1296-1356) and de Gledstan, but from the local
peculiarity of adding an 's' to the end of words, it was soon changed to
Gledstanys or Gledstanes, along with other forms, a few of which will appear
in the subsequent pages. It is only since 1835, when John Gladstone of
Fasque, after-waids Sir John, obtained royal licence to drop the final
letter in his ' paternal name of Gladstones ' that it has become stereotyped
in its present best known shape.
For the earliest scene in the
history of the family, we must carry our minds back six hundred years, to a
time when peace and prosperity reigned in the district south of the Forth
and Clyde, and the War of Independence had only just begun. It may be
remembered that, when Edward I. had forced his victorious arms into Scotland
after the death of the Maid of Norway, he exacted homage from all the
important landholders of the realm. Among the names added to the Deed of
Homage or ' Ragman's Roll' at Berwick on August 28, 1296, is that of '
Herbert de Gledestan del counte de Lanark.' The only other trace of this man
is a seal of about the same date as the signature, which is also preserved
in the Record Office, London, but most probably he and his sons descended
from the peel tower on Bell Craig, to take part in the struggles for freedom
under Wallace and Robert Bruce. It may be that the friendship which
undoubtedly existed between this family and the Bruces caused one of the de
Gledstans to join that ill-fated company who, in 1330, started with Lord
James Douglas for the Holv Land in order to bury the heart of their royal
master in sacred soil. This is conjecture, but we know that shortly after
this date the Gledstanes were staunch retainers of the Earls of Douglas, and
a tradition exists that their shield bore originally an orle of martlets,
the bleeding head of a savage or Saracen being added to commemorate a feat
of arms in the Crusades. It is, therefore, by no means impossible that their
armorial bearings were adopted in memory of this expedition, just as the
Douglases henceforward bore a bleeding heart, and the Lockharts gained the
heart and padlock on their shield.
Probablv some Gledstanes
fought under the banner of Douglas in the disastrous battle of Neville's
Cross, for in 1346 William and Paterick de Gledstaines were obliged to renew
their homage, and are mentioned among those who delivered up to Edward III.
the Castle of Roxburgh and other Border fortresses.
The glimpses we get of this
William de Gledestanes, who must have been a son or grandson of Herbert, are
typical of the eventful history of the times. He is described in 1346 as of
Mintowe, in Teviotdale, and he seems to have made his principal residence on
the Borders rather than at the ancestral home in Lanarkshire. Both
properties were held from the first Earl of Douglas, and, ten years after he
had sworn loyalty to Edward III., William de Gledestanes accompanied his
over-lord to France in order to fight against the English. There he bore
himself so bravely that the Earl belted him a knight-banneret on the
battle-field of Poitiers, September 19, 1356. But any triumph that he may
have felt was to be of short duration. He was taken prisoner, and most
probably was in that sad procession of French captives who formed part of
the triumphal entry of the Black Prince into London on May 24, 1357. A
fortnight later he was committed to the Tower. A letter from Edward III.
still exists, dated Westminster, June 5th, 1357, in which the king commands
the Warden of the Tower to receive from John de Clifford ' William de
Gledestan, chivaler, a Scottish prisoner, and to keep him there.' The '
winged lion' (the device on his seal, and possibly the precursor of the
griffin rampant of the Gladstone crest) must once more have met his captive
king within the dreary walls of the White Tower, for David II. was not
released from captivity until November, 1357. In the following October Sir
William obtained his freedom, after promising 4 never to bear arms against
the King of England or his heirs, except in presence of the King of
Scotland, his sovereign liege, or in self-defence.' And he did not break his
knightly word.
The last years of his life
were spent in serving the Earl of Douglas as bailie for the barony of
Cavers, close to Hawick, and in suppressing the smuggling of wool over the
frontier at a time when the tripled duty on its export was being devoted to
the payment of the king's ransom. During 1360 and 1361, Sir William received
no less than £26 13s. 4d. from the Chamberlain of Scotland, ' pro custodia
lane super Marcbias.'
Our story is now almost
entirely confined to the northern side of the Borders. William, the son of
the knight, although designated miles, led a less eventful life than
his father, but the friendship with the Bruces remained, and, in 1305, David
II. granted him lands in the county of Peebles. He married Margaret Trumbil
or Turn bull, who seems to have belonged to the Turnbulls of Bedrule in
Teviotdale. Margaret was heiress to large possessions in Peebles, Selkirk
and Eoxburghshires, which she divided amongst her sons between 1390 and
1412.1 James, the eldest son, inherited from his
father Gledstanes in Lanarkshire, and the Teviotdale home in the parish of
Cavers near Hawick, known as Coklaw Castle, and from his mother, Hundles-hope
near to the town of Peebles. These three estates remained with the chief
branch of the family, which was henceforward known as Gledstanes of that Ilk
and Coklaw, although Gledstanes in Lanarkshire was soon to pass out of their
hands.
As Scotland had long been
devastated by war and was far poorer in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries than in the thirteenth, the buildings belonging to this period are
of the simplest kind, and Coklaw Castle consisted, no doubt, of nothing but
a square Norman keep surrounded by a wall enclosing a courtyard. Shortly
after its erection it was attacked by the Earl of Northumberland and his son
'Harry Hotspur.' This investment by the Percies occurred in 1403, and was
simply a ruse by means of which they proceeded ostensibly to take possession
of the lands of the Earl of Douglas in Teviotdale, which had been calmly
bestowed on them by Henry IV., whilst in reality they were secretly
conspiring with Douglas against the English king. Of course the sight of
Northumbrian soldiers carried dismay into the hearts of the dwellers in
Coklaw, but John Greenlaw, the squire of the absent laird, bravely refused
to yield and the tower remained in a state of siege. Meanwhile James
Gledystanes obtained help from the Scottish king, but, before he could reach
his house with the force provided for its defence, the Northumbrian army had
disappeared and Coklaw Castle stood intact 'in its native loneliness.'
All this time the Gledstanes
had been faithful adherents of the house of Douglas. In 1413 we find James
Gladstanes acting as bailie for the then Earl of Douglas, just as his
grandfather the ' chivaler,' had done more than fifty years before, but
until 1482 we can trace little more of Coklaw Castle and its owners. It was
a period of special difficulty. The pride and arrogance of the Douglases had
at last brought about their ruin, and, after the murder of the heads of the
house in 1455, James II. divided their vast possessions, part being retained
by the Crown, and part being given to loyal subjects. Gledstanes, with other
properties in Lanarkshire and Peebles, was granted to the fourth Earl of
Angus, but only came into possession of his son. We do not know who may have
been lairds of Coklaw at this time, but there is a Gorgon de Gledstanys of
Hundwellishop (Hundleshope) who died in 1456, when his property passed into
the king's ward, and a John de Gledstanys, who in 1463 witnessed the re tour
of the fifth Earl of Angus, better known as ' Bell the Cat.' This is
probably the father of Johannes Glad-stons of that Ilk and Coklaw, who from
1482 acted as bailie to the Earl of Angus, although the record of his doings
in Peebles proves that he must have made a bad magistrate.
Hundleshope, the Hope of the
Hound's Well, lay about a mile from Peebles, and had come to the Gledstanes,
as has already been stated, through Margaret Turnbull. It was a somewhat
bare possession, but was bordered to the north by the hills of Cademuir, a
ridge of pasture lands belonging to the burgh to which the burgesses of the
town had common rights. In 1482 John Gladstanes and Thomas Lowis of Manor
claimed part of these common lands, and even let them out to their tenants.
The matter was brought before the local court, and in 1505 and 1506
Gladstanes was prosecuted before the Lords of Council and prohibited from
further interference with the common. Twelve years later, on a Sunday in
June, he sent his household men and servants and 'cruelly dang and hurt
thair (the borough's) hirdis and servants that were kepand thair corne and
gudis within thair said propir lands, and left twa of them liand on the
field for deid, and honndit thair cattale furth of thair aeone grund.'
The same John Gledstanes was
a retainer of the Scots of Branxholme, who had received a portion of the
Douglas lands in Roxburghshire, and the Gledstanes became very closely
connected with these Scotts, who afterwards were created Earls of Buccleuch.
A quaint marriage contract exists, dated February 9th, 1519, in which John,
the grandson of the laird of Coklaw, is [betrothed by his father, James, to
a daughter of the second Sir Waltyr Scot of Branxhelm. ' The said Johanne
Gledstanis, zoungar,' shall marry either Jonet or Christiane Scot, and
'fail-zeand of than tua be ony mauer caus, ony vthir gentylwoman quhom it
sail plis the said Waltyr Scot, knicht, to mary the said Johanne Gledstanis,
zoungar, apon.' Waltyr Scot promises to pay 300 merks on the completion of
the marriage, and James Gledstanis agrees to give his son the £10 worth of
land of ' Hundilhillishop,' and £20 worth of land in Roxburghshire. The
marriage is to be at the command and pleasure of Waltyr Scot, and it is
arranged that, if Johanne Gledstanis dies and Coklaw comes to the 'airis
famail,] the eldest daughter shall marry John Scot of Branxhelm and Sir
Waltyr shall see to the marriages of the other daughters, provided he weds
them to gentlemen. The persons here spoken of were mere children, but such
contracts were not uncommon, and strangely enough these forced marriages did
not always turn out badly.
Until the Gledstanes threw In
their lot with these Scotts of Buccleuch they were a fairly law-abiding
race, but from this time forward they shared in the turbulent behaviour of
the Border lairds. The depredations at Hundleshope were repeated again and
again, resulting in the maiming and killing of cattle and the deaths of at
least two men. In 1561 the Johne Gledstanis of the marriage contract had to
appear before the Lords of Council to answer for the murders committed by
his son and his kinsmen. With his sureties, the Gledstanes of Colefurd and
Wyndington Hall (both in Roxburghshire) and their ally John Scott, he
offered £200 as compensation for the two lives. This offer was deemed
insufficient, and there the matter rested! As Professor Veitch remarks, '
the impotency of the law and the power of the individual in these terrible
times could not receive a stronger illustration.'
By the middle of the
sixteenth century we have to deal with a large and complicated clan, which
was established in the counties of Lanark, Roxburgh, and Dumfries, and in
the town of Dundee. In 1455, Herbert and Homer (Aymer) de Glendstanys became
deputy sheriffs of Dumfriesshire under Lord Maxwell, the Warden of the
Western Marches. Their descendants lived in Annan-dale, holding the
properties of Craigis and Overkelwod. Some members of this branch had
honourable positions in the city of Dumfries, and others were landowners in
the neighbouring counties of Kirkcudbright and Lanark. The Dumfriesshire
families were in close league with their cousins in Roxburghshire, and their
annals contain many reckless and turbulent incidents quite in keeping with
the refractory character of the western Borders. In Selkirk too there was a
wild group, 'servitors' of Robert. Scot, the goodman of Hanyng, whilst a
family of Gled-stons of a much more peaceable character had penetrated into
East Yorkshire, and before 1584 were living at Marton in Craven, where
Gledstone House still commemorates the former owners of the property.
Meanwhile the old house in
Lanarkshire had passed into other hands. It is probable that this took place
before 1488 and, therefore, shortly after the forfeiture of the Douglas
estates.3 Two small portions of the lands of
Gledstanes were, however, still held by members of the family. One of these
was the farmsteading of Arthurshiel which, in 1551, was inhabited by a '
cadet of Gladstanes of Gladstanes.' Of this property we shall speak later
on. The other portion known as Quothquan extended over twenty-six acres of
land, and belonged to John Gledstanes of that Ilk, LL'D., a man of an
entirely different stamp from any we have as yet met with. After being at
the University of St. Andrews, 1505-150G, he studied in France, and in 1534
was chosen as a man of ' gude conscience ' to be one of the newly appointed
advocates for such poor clients as could not afford to pay law charges. Ilis
stipend was £10 a year. ' My Lord Doctor, Mr. John Gladstanes' died in 1574,
beloved by his companions, and having filled satisfactorily the post of
Advocatns Pauperum as well as the higher offices of Lord of Sessions,
Procurator to the Judges, and Member of the Privv Council. His property
descended to his nephew, and remained in the family for at least three
generations more.
The second of these lairds of
Quothquan was an interesting personage, and also bore the name of John. He
was an attendant on one of the Scotch Heralds, had the magnificent title of
Ormonde Signifer. or Ormonde Pursuivant, and was entitled to wear a doublet
with collar and a coat of Damask ' paintit by painter's pincell with the
single escutcheone in metal. But his duties were somewhat onerous. In 1584
he was the bearer of the sentence of treason on the Earl of Angus; in 1590
he was commissioned to collect money from the burgh of Ayr, to refund Robert
Jamesoun for equipping the ship James Royall which had gone to Norway to
bring back James VI. and his Danish bride. The Pursuivant made many enemies,
and on six several occasions the Privy Council had to bind persons over to
do him no bodily injury.
But to return to the heads of
the clan! As long as frequent hostilities occurred between England and
Scotland the Borderers formed a valuable barrier against the enemy. But when
James VI. was desirous of maintaining peace with Queen Elizabeth lawlessness
could no longer be tolerated and a war of c^termina-tion was declared, the
Border lairds being forced to become answerable for the good behaviour of
each other and of the lands under their jurisdiction.
In 1561, the same year as
Johne Gledstanis had to answer for murders committed by his son at
Hundleshope, he and his neighbours, Kers, Rutherfurds. Scotts, etc., were
charged to appear before the Privy Council to give their advice • in materis
con-cernyng the weill of the Bordouris.' They made fair promises at the
time, but, as we may imagine, afterwards winked at 'stouths, reifs, and
other enormities,' and aided the escape of prescribed persons, for in a few
months time they were obliged to confess that they had contravened their
bond, and ' wer culpable of the pains contenit thairin.' But it was on
James, the son of this John, that the full weight of the law descended. His
name occurs more than thirty times in the Register of the Privy Council, and
his record from 1567 to 1608 is a succession of 'bands' against malefactors,
securities for this person or that, and punishments inflicted on himself for
broken promises. He was placed in ward in the Castle of Blackness, and fined
again and again to the appalling sum of £7000 (Scots ?). For payment of
these fines his goods were ordered to be seized, and he himself was
denounced rebel. Nevertheless, James Gledstonis of Cokkilaw continued to be
one of the most prominent 'landit men' in the south of Roxburghshire, and
was a power in his neighbourhood. Two incidents in his career must suffice,
but they are typical of the period.
It had been arranged that
from time to time ^Courts of Justice should be held by the united English
and Scottish Wardens for the peaceable settlement of Border difficulties.
Such a meeting took place in July, 1575, on the flat hill-top of Carter
Fell, close to the town of Hawick. Hundreds of armed men were in attendance,
the English chiefly carrying longbows and the Scotch firearms. An
interesting ballad of the day tells how the ' Raid of the Reidswyre ' began
with mutual sports and a sort of fair. Unfortunately some hasty words turned
the peaceful gathering into a skirmish, in which the Scots were victorious,
and the English fled ' with mony a shout and yell.' In this skirmish '
Little Gladstain, gude in need,' led the men of Hawick to the fray.
The second incident is a
proof of the habitual insecurity of life and property on the Borders. James
Gledstains seems to have had three brothers, John, William, and Walter. John
lived at the i steding' of Meikle Whytlaw, which had been bequeathed to him
by Sir Walter Scott. One night in August, 1580, 'certain Englische and
Scottis thevis' came to Mekle Quhitelaw and carried off some of John
Gledstanes' cattle. A party of over fifty men connected with the house of
Branxholme at once followed these thieves into England, but failed to
recover the cattle; and, in returning home through Liddesdale, they were set
upon by some of the moss-troopers of that valley, who had a grudge against
the laird of Coklaw and his companions. Walter Gledstanes was slain, and
more than a dozen of the party were wounded. James Gledstanes proceeded to
make complaint to the Privy Council, and the marauders were denounced as
rebels. This did not mend matters, for six weeks after the first attack, the
Elliots and Armstrongs of Liddesdale and others came to Quhitelaw, and '
thair thiftunslie, under silence of nicht, staw ane hundreth scheip
pertening to Johne Gledstanes, to his utter wrak and herschip.' They then
went on to a steading belonging to the laird of Coklaw, and csta, reft, and
awaytuke twenty ki and oxin and twa horse, with his puir tennentis haill
insight guides and plennissing' (entire household goods and farm
implements).
The eldest son of James
Gledstanes, also a James, took part in many lawless deeds, and in 1600 he
helped to murder the ' pundler ; of the provost and bailies of Peebles, who,
doubtless, was watching the fields to see that the corn was not injured or
stolen. After the death of this James, his widow, Beatrice Ker, Lady
Gladstanes, with three of her sons, headed a raid on Cade-muir, and
threatened some of the inhabitants, who ' were occupied in their lauchful
affairs upon their awin heritage.' But about this time Hundleshope passed to
a branch of the Scott family.
It is easy to understand that
men brought up in such wild surroundings, found life very tame when the
Union of the two kingdoms had been accomplished, and the Border counties had
become the middle shires of Great Britain. Many thousands of Scotchmen left
their homes early in the 17th century, and the mania for emigration
increased to an alarming extent after the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War.
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden had a Scotch brigade, and more than a hundred
Scotch officers in his army, one of whom was a Gledstanes. This Herbert
Gledstaines was born in Dumfries in the year 1600, and joined the Swedish
flag in Germany about 1640. In 1647 he was naturalized by the name of
Gladsten, and created a nobleman, with extensive properties in
Oestergottland and elsewhere. The fortunes of the Scandinavian Gladstens are
very interesting, for almost all the sons were professional soldiers. This
branch has lately been brought prominently forward in the public press in
connection with a correspondence between Mr. W. E. Gladstone and M. Du
Chaillu, but probably 1 the laborious search among the Genealogical Tablets
of the Swedish Nobility ' was made at the request of the writer of this
paper as early as 1891. The name became extinct in Sweden in 1761, but Carl
Gustaf, a great-grandson of Herbert Gladsten, had attached himself in 1725
to the Dutch East-India Company and had settled in the Moluccas, where he
was acting as member of the Political Council of Amboyna as late as 1750.
Three sons and three daughters being born to him on that island.
The Irish branch of the
family, who have had the good sense to retain the old spelling of the name,
are descended from another emigrant, Captain James Gledstanes, who took a
body of yeomen to the relief of Londonderry in the memorable siege of 1689.
But all the Gledstanes were
not men of war. At the beginning of the seventeenth century there was a
group in Edinburgh, most of whom were ' merchants.' One of these acquired a
beautiful house known as 'Thomas Gladstone's Land,' which is mentioned in
1634 in connection with one of the armed train-bands of the city. It stands
in the Lawn-market, and is a perfect and typical example of those
stone-fronted houses with outside stairs, which in the seventeenth century
helped to make High Street and Canongate the finest street in the world.5
We have now arrived at the
period when unhappily the fighting spirit found vent in the struggle between
Prelacy and Presbytery. It is not our intention to go into the question of
the Reformation movement in Scotland; suffice it to say that ferocious
intolerance soiled the reputation of each party in the religious war. The
Gledstanes in Dumfriesshire seem to have held to the faith of their
forefathers, and two of them suffered for appearing as witnesses against the
secret continuance of Popish practices. The Reformed Episcopal side was
vehemently represented by the son of a clerk in Dundee, Mr. George
Gladsteans, Archbishop of St. Andrews from 1G06 to 1615, or, as he is
described by his patron James VI., ' the Reverend Father in God, our trustie
and weilbeloved counsellor, primat and metropolitan of our kingdom/ But the
ascendancy of Episeopalianism was short lived, and in 1638 his son, Mr.
Alexander Glaidstanes, was deposed from his office as Archdeane of
Sanctandrois and was obliged to ' take exilement upon him' in England,
having left behind him his wife and small children. In 1662, his daughter
Nicolas obtained £100 of the stipend still owing to her late father.6
Among the Covenanters we find 1 ffrancis Gladstanes, ane leftetennent ' and
his brother Captain James Gladstanes who were killed at the battle of
Aulderne, May 14t.li, 1645, and the grandson of ffrancis Gladstains, who
died in Barbadoes about 1700, and who probably had been banished there as a
slave on the restoration of Charles II. Meanwhile Walter Gladstanes of
Coklaw, son of James and Beatrice (nee Iver), along with the Gledstanes of
Whytlaw and Todschawhaugh, attempted to keep their persons in favour by
serving in 1648 on a Committee of War, so that his Majesty's subjects '
might be kept in a dutiful obedience to the laws and public judicatories,
and in Christian unity among themselves; ' and in 1685, 1690, and 1704 we
find Gledstouns of that Ilk and ffrancis Glaiclstaanes of Whytlaw and Flex
among the Commissioners of Supply for Roxburghshire.
But the importance of the
whole family was now on the wane. By the middle of the eighteenth century
all tlje chief branches had become extinct. It is somewhat doubtful who
succeeded Walter at Cocklaw, but in 1672 there was a James Gladstains who
received a grant or confirmation of arms. This man died about 1707, when
Cocklaw descended to an heiress, Janet, who also died unmarried about 1734,
and the property was divided in 1741. In 1745 the laird of Whytlaw and Flex
was deprived of his lands for being an officer under Prince Charles ; and
all the other important proprietors of the name had already disappeared from
the County Valuation Roll of
Roxburghshire. The Gledstanes
of Overkelwod-Craig in Dumfriesshire ended in an heiress, Bessie, who
married Matthew Hairstanes before 1620, and those of Crocketford in
Kirkcudbrightshire died out about 1746.
There were, however, numerous
burgher and peasant families all over the Borders, who are traceable in
Burgh Books and Parish Registers, but at the present day their descendants
are to be found in the northern counties of England rather than in the
Lowlands of Scotland. That the Gladstones have again come into notice is due
to the fact that some of these peasants and hard-working burghers, were men
of the same forceful characteristics as their ancestors, men, too, who by
perseverance and rectitude were enabled to raise their sons to the social
position they had held in the past.
The Liverpool branch, headed
by Sir John, Baronet, and including the ex-Premier, alone attempts to
connect the Gladstones of to-day with the old home in Lanarkshire, by
tracing their descent from the 'cadet of Gladstanes of Gladstanes, who, in
1551, was laird of Arthurshiel. A link in the chain is missing. But there is
little doubt that all branches of the family may claim as their ancestor
that Herbert de Gledstan who swore fealty to Edward I., on August 28th,
1296.
Florence M. Gladstone. |
