Wedderburn book > History

PREVIOUS HISTORIES OF THE FAMILY. 467
. The last section of the book, consisting of notes on the armorial bearings of the Part v,
different families from which Wedderburns have taken their wives, with some few c ^ a P- Iv -
additional notes on such families, has already been made use of at the close of the chapter
on the arms of the family (ante, p. 43C seqg).
Such — apart from J.W.'s MS. memoir, to which I shall refer later — has been the
family history easily available from 1824 until now, and continually accepted as accurate
by historians of Angus and Dundee. Thus it is practically reprinted in Warden's Angus
or Forfarshire, and is largely made use of in Mr. A. H. Millar's Roll of Eminent
Burgesses of Dundee 1 Quite recently in an appendix to the (1898) edition of the Gude
and Godlie Ballates for the Scottish Text Society, entitled " The Kinship of the Wedder-
burns in Angus," Professor Mitchell has reprinted several portions of Douglas' account,
although he was good enough to include also some notes which I sent him as his book was
passing through the press. 2
Mr. Millar's Roll of Eminent Burgesses deserves especial mention by me, because the
existence of these volumes is largely due to it. It was on becoming possessed of his
volume that I communicated with him, and was made aware of the mass of material in the
Dundee town-house. That his own book should repeat the errors of Douglas and of J.W.
is not surprising, as he was entitled to regard them as authorities. Now and again,
however, he has made additional suggestions which are not tenable, and his identification
of the different persons of the name admitted as burgesses is often, in my view, clearly
wrong. Thus the James, junior, admitted in 1514, is according to him the son of James,
and not, as I think, the son of Robert, and he follows Douglas in speaking of John (son of
James Wedderburn and Janet Barry) as " the first of a succession of Wedderburns who
held the office of town clerk of Dundee for nearly a century and a half." This is both an
error, for no John Wedderburn is shown to have been clerk, and an under-statement, for
the Wedderburns' successive tenure of the office lasted over a century and a half,
accurately 162 years, 1556-57 — 1718. He also suggests that the Robert admitted in 1535
may be the Vicar of Dundee and brother of James Wedderburn, junior, whereas he is
quite certainly the son of James Wedderburn and Janet Logan ; and once more, he definitely
speaks of " William, son and heir of David," admitted in the same year, as first cousin to
John, the supposed clerk, David being made another brother of James, junior, — on what
evidence I cannot imagine.
So again accepting Douglas' statement that David Wedderburn, who married Helen
Lawson, was the son of John, he endeavours to correct his assertion that he was the father
of Kingennie, by pointing out that as Kingennie was clearly the son of Alexander, the
old clerk, and Janet Myln, it follows that it was Kingennie's father and not Kingennie
himself who was the son of David. Mr. Millar also repeats Douglas' mistaken statement
that James, the Bishop, and his brother, John of Moravia, were brothers of Kingennie, an
error common to every historian of the family up till now. He also assigns 1633 as the
date of the death of Kingennie's second son, James, the name of whose wife he gives as
Mary — in place of Margaret — Goldman. David of the Compt Buih, who is not known
to Douglas, is also placed as Kingennie's fourth son, instead of as his immediate and but
slightly younger brother. Mr. Millar's account of later members of the family, admitted
to the freedom of Dundee, viz., Sir Peter, Lord Gosford 3 , and his three eldest sons ;
Alexander, fourth of Kingennie; and, lastly, Sir David Wedderburn (1813) are more
accurate, if incomplete.
In his recent (1898) edition of David Wedderburn' s Compt Buih, the proof sheets of
which he was good enough to send me, he has gone into much more detail, and I believe
the statements as to members of the family in that volume to be correct.
1 A sketch fouuded on it was also supplied by J.W. to Burke's Baronetage in 1829 (J.W. 119), and never
corrected until about 1885 when I sent one according with his MS. volumes, but still full of errors.
I hope to get this amended after the publication of the present work.
2 See also Alexander Maxwell's two Histories of Dundee, in which there are various references to
the Wedderburns, as well as Professor Mitchell's earlier and less elaborate volume The Wedderburns
and their Work (Blackwood, 1867).
3 He says, however, that Sir Peter was born about 1610 and took his degree at S. Andrew's in 1630,
These dates are in each case some six years too early. Mr. Millar also speaks of Sir Peter's eldest
son, John, dying vitd patris in 1678. This is an error, as he died in 1688, nine years after his
father.