Family records of the Bruces and the Cumyns

364 BRUCES OF KINNAIRD.
Witnesses — Woodcockdale, and his son, John of Carribber, and Andrew Kerr,
writer, my father, and Robert Boyd, writer.
Of these, " Alexander," " John," and " James," all died young.
1696. David Hay died, and Helen married, in 1701, Robert Boyd, the family
lawyer, who appears to have managed the estate well, paid off encumbrances,
and to have left a considerable sum of money to her, and her son David, at his
death, in 1725. He had a brother, " Major Ninian Boyd," of the Scotch Greys,
who claimed his property, which, however, was secured by will to his step-son,
" David Bruce." Were they the descendants (as the names would denote) of
Ninian Bruce of Kinnaird's daughter, " Janet," who married Robert Boyd in
1587?
Mr Robert Boyd also, in concert with Judge Graham, preserved to the
ladies of the Callendar family some small remains of the confiscated estates of
the Earls of Levingstone and Linlithgow, as papers at Kinnaird attest. He was
also the guardian of the young Lord Forrester and his brothers, minors, who
then lived with their mother at Letham, as appears by their accounts, &c. &c,
at Kinnaird.
Alexander Bruce, Helen's father, died in 171 1, when he must have been a
very old man, as he was, with his brother, in 165 1, at the battle of Worcester
(see letter from King Charles II.), "and fought manfully in these wars ;" which
gives occasion to those who edited the life of Mr Robert Bruce to say, " his
descendants relapsed into Prelacy " — that is, they were ever loyal to their
anointed king, as Mr Robert ever had been, and spent their lives and fortune
in his service.
172S. Helen Bruce, " Ladye of Kinnaird," died; of her four sons only "David,"
the youngest, survived.
1. Helen, her eldest daughter, married "Counsellor Hamilton," "Wishaw's
brother;" and their only son, " William Gerard," better known as " Single-Speech
Hamilton," died unmarried. 2. Margaret, died unmarried. The daughters kept
their father's name of " Hay!'
David Bruce succeeded his mother, taking the name and arms of Bruce 01
Kinnaird only, as heir to his grandfather Alexander, in accordance with the
marriage-contract between Alexander and Helen Bruce of Clackmannan.