Wedderburn book > History

INTRODUCTION. li.
ye Innaturall Iniuries and wrangis he and his wife lies done to me." The introd.
present condition of the MS. of the Compt Bulk shows that one or two leaves
have been removed, and I think that my grandfather, jealous of any-
thing which he thought discreditable to the family, persuaded James Thomson
to destroy the original of this record of brotherly dissension. David died in
1632-34. He had married at Murroes in 1589"Matild Beaton, daughter of
James Beaton of Westhall, and by her had a large family of eleven children,
born 1590 — 1610. Of these, four were sons, David, James, Alexander, and
Henry, none of whom carried on their father's line. David and Alexander
both died before him, and, I believe, Henry (who is never named in the
burgh records) to have done the same. James entered the army, and served
both at home and abroad. He was living in 1642 and perhaps later, and
is said to have entered the service of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, and to
have been buried in the cathedral of Abo, in Swedish Finland. That he
left no issue seems clear both from the fact that the Dundee records contain
no reference to descendants of his, and because we find his father's house in
Dundee in the possession of the family of one of his married sisters in later
years. His sisters were Helen, married (a) in 1610 George Auchinlek, and (b) in
1621 James Ros ; Eufame, married (1610) James Sympsone; Matild ; Janet, died
in 1616; Katharen ; Isobell ; and Magdalen, married George English; in regard
to all of whom I have but little information.
The four younger sons of the old clerk can be briefly dealt with, as only
one of them, Robert, had issue, and his male line became
Robert, James, extinct on the death of his son. This Robert, who was a
William wedder- merchant in Dundee, died in 1593, and, though under thirty
oicfcierkf 50 * e years of age, had been three times married between 1589 and
1592. The fashion of the time seems to have favoured
immediate remarriage. His wives were Grissell Duncan, Elspet Lovell, and
Elspet Hering. Of these, the first and the last (who survived him and
married again) had no issue, but by the second, Robert had a daughter Helen
(married Andrew Boyd), who was living in 1655, and a son Alexander, who
was for many years a merchant and ship-owner in Dundee. He married Janet
Newton, and died in the latter part of 1652 leaving issue two daughters,
Helen, who married (a) William Gascoigne, (b) Bartholomew Belsone, English-
man, as he is constantly called, and Elizabeth, who became the wife of
William Gardyne, a goldsmith in Dundee.
James Wedderburn, the next brother of Robert, was also a Dundee
merchant, and is repeatedly named as burgess, bailie, kirk-
James master, and dean of gild. A feud between him and one
died 1644. James Rollok — a faint survival, perhaps, of the old difference
between the families — is mentioned in 1603. His house in the
Overgait of Dundee was still standing in 1877, identified by a panel (post,
p. 428) bearing his arms, initials, and the date 1642, but was rebuilt in that
year, when the arms were badly recut. He married Cristina Lovell, but by her,
who died in 1631, had no issue. James himself died in 1644, and was buried
in the Howff, at the foot of the old west wall. By his will, confirmed at
Brechin and still extant, he left various legacies to his nephews and nieces
and others, as well as a sum of four hundred merks for a silver basin for
the use of the kirk of Dundee, to be engraved with the names and arms of
himself and his late wife, and an inscription to be decided on by his great
nephew, Blackness. This basin, weighing three pounds and three ounces, was
given by his heir and executor, Alexander (son of Robert), to the kirk in
1646 for "the use and behailf of the sacrament of baptisme."
The fact of this nephew, Alexander (the son of his elder brother Robert),
being heir retoured to James, shows that at that date (1646) both James'
younger brothers had died without issue. Peter had, indeed, been twice