Wedderburn book > History

HENRY AVEDDERBURN.
By his wife, Matilda Carncros, who survived him and married, secondly, Robert Part I.
Andersonof ! >imdee,he hadissue,inadditiontothethreesonsalreadynamed, two daughters: — Cna P- r -
1. Janet Wedderburn m, Thomas Nicholl, shipmaster. She is named with her ,
husband 13-27 Oct. 1551, when Mr. Robert Wedderburn and Gilbert Wedderburn,
two of her uncles, act as her procurators (D.B.R. 29 //), and again on 5 Nov. in that
year, when her stepfather, Robert Anderson, renounces for himself and his wife all
claim to the Murraygait lands of the late Henry Wedderburn in favour of Janet and
Margaret Wedderburn, his wife's daughters (ib. 30). There is a decree in her favour
and in that of her sister Margaret '-'2 Feb. 1552 (ib. 33). Her husband died before
28 April, 31 Oct. 1564, when there are resignations of North Murraygait and North
Cowgait lands bv "Thomas Nicholl, son and hair of the late Thomas Nicholl and
Janet Wedderburn, his relict" (D.P.B. 116. 118). She was living 17 March 1570
(ib. 147), but died before 18 July 1587 when her son is entered in an annual rent as
her heir (ib. 257). She is once more named 31 Oct. 1588, when the bailie goes to the
North Murraygait land of the late Henry AVedderburn and enters in half of it Thomas
Nicoll as son and heir of the late Janet Wedderburn, pursuant to a letter of demis-
sion made between her and the late Margaret Wedderburn, her sister (ib. 273).
2. Margaret Wedderburn in. Thomas Davidsoun, skipper. See above s. the account
of her sister. She was unmarried 22 Feb. 1552 (D.B.R. 33), but married some
years before 26 March 1561, as she is then named with her husband and is
designed "daughter and one of the heirs of the late Henry Wedderburn"
(D.P.B. 1 11), while on 6 Oct. 1562 she is mentioned asdeceased, her three daughters,
Isobell, Elizabeth, and Lucy Davidsoun being cognosced her heirs (D.B.R. 117).
Gilbert Wedderburn 1 [1510? — 1559] son of James Wedderburn and Janet Barry,
was admitted a burgess of Dundee as " the son of James AVedderburn " in 1 537 (D.L.B. 14).
He, like his elder brothers, seems to have been of a reforming spirit, as 12 July 1538 he is
named, among others, as lately accused of heresy (R.A.D. 7) and his lands and goods were
escheated for a time. Thus, on 8 Sept., in that year he obtained a gift under the Privy Seal of
his lands and goods "in the King's hands through his being convicted of heresy." 2 (R.P.S. 5.)
That his religious tendencies were not his only sources of trouble is shown by three other
mentions of him in the Privy Seal Register. Thus, 16 April 1543, his goods are again
escheated through his " being at the horn for the slaughter of David Rollok," one of his
co-burgesses. 3 Forthis act "committed on old feud and forethought felony, "he got a remission
6 April 1545, but meanwhile seems to have taken part in the death of another member of the
Rollok family, George Rollok, instead of going to the wars, as, 6 June 1544, he got another
remission for "remaining at home and absenting himself from the army" and for art
and part in the murder of George Rollok of Dundee (R.P.S. 9, 14, 16). Neither
his conviction for heresy nor his " being at the horn " for .homicide seem to have
mattered much to him, as we read of him a few years later as trading in Leith. In
1550 (Sept 23) Gilbert AVedderburn of Leith gets from the Earl of Arran a letter of safe
conduct, addressed to Edward VI, to enable him and others to pass with a ship to London to
buy merchandize (S.P. 8). He is occasionally named in the Dundee Records, e.g., 13 Oct.
1551, as procurator to his niece Janet; 27 July 1552 as having for some reason "tint"
his freedom; 2 Aug. 1553 as constituting James Lovell and others his procurators in Dun-
dee (D.B.R. 43 d) and 17 Jan., 26 Feb. 1554 he and John Wedderburn, indwellers in Leith, 4
are mentioned as creditors of one Richard Corbe of Dundee (ib. 29, 37, 49, 52). He seems
to have been living 4 June 1559, as in the will of David Wedderburn in Murraygait of that
date (D.P.B. 95), there is a reference to a payment by Gilbert, though no surname is added,
1 Synopsis of References. D.L.B 14 ; D.P.B. 95, 98, 123, 126 ; D.B.R. 29, 37, 43 d, 49, 52 ; R.P.S. 5. 9, 14,
16 ; R.A.D. 7, 51, 59 ; S.P. 8.
2 So in the Lord Treasurer's Accounts 1537-38, is " Item : the full composition of the escheat of the goods
of Gilbert Wedderburn and John Paterson, burgesses of Dundee, belonging to the Crown and sold
because they were convicted by the Courts of the Church of heretical offences.'' (Cited in Maclaren's
ed. of Thomson's Hist of Dundee, 1874, p. 47.)
3 The slaughter of David Rollok would seem to have been a family affair. David Wedderburn of Craigie
and the Murraygait, James Wedderburn (m. Janet Logan) and his son Robert are all also named in
the Register of the Privy Seal as having taken part in it, though Gilbert Wedderburn alone is concerned
in that of George. (R.P.S. 8, 9, 10-14. 16.)
4 In an entry of 17 Jan. 1554 (D.B.R. 49) Gilbert and John are described as " brether," indwellers in
Leith, but the word "brether" is erased, and the John Wedderburn is more probably the son of
Gilbert's elder brother James. John Wedderburn, his brother, was at this time an exile in England.
5 I have omitted to add this reference to him in my note of the document in vol. ii. (D.P.B. 95.)