Wedderburn book > History

THE WEDDERBURN BOOK.
mtrod. Yet another reference to a person of the same name may also be to the
same individual. This is the papal dispensation in 1431 for the marriage
of "William of Widdenborne (Wedderburn) and Catherina de Stane (St.And),"
a sanction rendered necessary no doubt by some kinship between the spouses
which brought them within the prohibited degrees. 1 The bridegroom named
in this dispensation is, I make no doubt, the Will' Whedyrburn named as
one of an assize, to inquire into the lands of Broxholm and Butterden, co.
Berwick, in 1431, 2 and he may be the William of Wethirburn who, twenty
years later, 24 April 1452, witnesses a grant of lands in co. Berwick to
Patrick Dunbar (G.S.R. 4).
Such is all the information I have obtained relating to persons of the
name in the county of Berwick up to the middle of the
isobeii fifteenth century. In the sixteenth, I have but two references
1532-39. ' to the name. Of these, one is to a Dame Isobell Wedderburne,
one of several signatories, who, together with Euphemia Leslie,
prioress of Elcho, sign a tack (8 July 1532), and a precept (12 Sept. 1539),
in favour of John Swinton {The Swintons of that ilk, Charters
David 81, 83) ; while the other is to a David Wetherburne, who is
1573. honourably mentioned in a list (1573) of cattle stolen by the
Scots from the tenants of the Earl of Northumberland, as
having " lifted " sheep from persons at Houghton, Howyk, and Ellingham. 3
It would have been interesting to have discovered the exact connection of
these Wedderburns in co. Berwick with the family who from early in the fifteenth
century are known to have been prominent in the good town
The °f Dundee. But, apart from tradition, the evidence of connection
■^1>undee ms between them consists of the identity of a somewhat uncommon
1400—1500.' name and of the arms of the abovenamed John de Wedderburn
in 1364 with those which the members of the Forfarshire
house are found bearing a century later, and of the fact, indicative of a
change of county, that while, so far as we know, there is no record of
any such family of importance in the county of Berwick much after
1450, there is no doubt that at that date there was already established in
co. Forfar and chiefly at Dundee a large and rising family of the name.
The rise of the Dundee family seems immediately to follow the decline of
the Berwickshire house, and though tradition is, as we have seen, in error
in suggesting that the lands of Wedderburn first passed to the Homes by a
marriage in 1430-50, it may be correct in asserting that the male representative
of the Wedderburns of the Border travelled north and founded the family in
Dundee.
But, while no family of importance bearing the name is found in the
border county after the end of the fifteenth century, the name itself survived
and still survives there and in Northumberland. Thus we meet with a family
1 See again Raine's North Durham, p. 110, No. doxxxix : — " Peranibulatio inter t'ras de Brokhole k
Butterden. Hec panibulatio facta xiv Junij MCCCCXXSI int' t'ras de Brokholl & Nerwode
ex p'te una & t'ras de Butt'den ex p'te alt'a de consensu etc. P'oris & couentus de Coldyugham
& Georgij de Nelham p' istos subscriptos, p' dca ambulacione in magna assisa electos etc., vz
Pat'ciu de duubar, Patriciu Heryng, GeorgiQ Gram, Adam de Nesbit, John de Ray n ton, Hugone
de Spens, Pat'ciu de Nesbit, Ric' de Edyngton, Thorn' de lumysden de Fastacastell, Andr' de
Blakedyr, Will'm de Mardyrston, Joh' de Mandyrston, Thorn de Mandyrstou, Job Chyrnsid,
Ric' Sleyght de Culeyg, Will' Whedyrburn, Thorn' de Edyngton, Rob' de Edyugton, Patr' de
Edyngton, Joh'ems Spens de Dunbar, Gilb' Lumysden, & Thorn' de Lumysden de Cold'.
Thorn' Atkinson, Ric' de Wardlaw' & Joh' de Paxton qui quidili sup marchias pdictas terras
plenius aviseati dixerut, etc., & p iustis marchijs int' pdoas t'ras, etc., pambulauerunt, vz
ineipiendo ad quoddam vadum de Ey qd nuc dicif Halyford & sic deseeudendo & tenendc
semp p cursu aqne pdce nuc & in ppetuu vsq' ad exitum t'ras pdictas de Butyrden f'ta qd, etc.
(Eight armorial seals.)
2 See a list of Papal Dispensations from the Dataria, Vatican MS. Eugenius iv. cited in the Appendix
to vol. iv. of G.E.C.'s Complete Peerage.
3 See original list among the MSS. of the Duke of Northumberland, cited in vol. ii. of the History
of Northumberland, by Ed. Bateson. (A. Read & Co., Newcastle, 1895).