Wedderburn book > History

PKEVIOUS HISTOEIES OF THE FAMILY. 469
George Rollok), Elis (m. Thomas Duncan), and Grizell (m. James Anderson). 1 The descent Part v.
of the alleged younger sons, James (to whom J.W. attributes the Complaynt of Scotland) Cna P- lv -
and Thomas, is not traced, but the eldest brother is described as
IV. John Wedderburn of Croft, Vicar of Dundee, and named in charters of 1527
and 1533, and one of the Scottish archers in 1528. 2 J.W. seems under no difficulty as
regards the vicar marrying, though he does not say whom he married, and he gives him
as a son, David, who married Helen Lawson, and was (says J.W.) the father of two sons,
Robert (the grandfather of Kingennie), and another son, now called Harie, who entered
the army, served abroad 1570-71, and was buried in the Cathedral of Abo, in Finland,
leaving a daughter Elizabeth, who married Alexander Blyth aud died in 1643.
It would be difficult to have made more errors, for though most of the persons named
existed, their suggested places in the family are not proved, I think, in a single instance,
and in many cases can be disproved. There is no proof that the Alice who married Sir
David Home was heiress of Wedderburn, or that Walter had male heirs who failed, and no
ground for the suggestion that William had a son James who settled in Angus. I
know of nothing to show that any James Wedderburn was merchant and burgess
in Dundee, circ. 1413, or that the David of 1464 (S.W. 1) was his son, while the Elizabeth
who married Robert Murray was certainly not his daughter, as her parentage is well known
(ante, p. 20). James, who married Jauet Forrester, was one of the Gude and Godlie
Ballates triumvirate, and not their father (whose wife was Janet Barry), aud their names
were, as we know, James, John, and Robert, and not John, James, and Thomas. It was
not John but Robert who was Vicar of Dundee, and it is to Robert, not to .lames, that
the Complaynt of Scotland is to be attributed. There is nothing to show who were the
parents of Margaret, Elizabeth, and Grizell Wedderburn (ante, pp. 84-86), the only known
daughter of James Wedderburn and Janet Barry being Elizabeth, who married Robert
Ferquhar (ib., p. 6), but they had other sons whom J.W. does not name (ib., pp. 6-7).
David Wedderburn, who married Helen Lawson, was the son not of any John, but of
David Wedderburn, and had no sons called Robert or Harie. The parentage of Harie
Wedderburn (whose existence is proved, ante, p. 8) is, in fact, doubtful, but Elizabeth
AVedderburn, who married Alexander Blyth, was certainly not his daughter. And
although J.W. had succeeded in ascertaining the name of Kingennie's grandfather, Robert
Wedderburn, his process of " fitting in " everybody somewhere, led him into further errors.
" Elizabeth Guthrie " being named by David Wedderburn in his Compt Bulk as his
grandmother, J.W. at once assumes that this was on his father's side, whereas she was,
in fact, his mother's mother. So again Robert, the merchant, Richard in Elsignor, and
John in Padua, are now all made brothers of Kingennie's father, although none of them were
so related either to him or each other, while elsewhere Richard of Elsignor, who probably
died about 1590, is made to do duty again in a different capacity, that of fourth brother
to Kingennie, who had no brother of that name. In this generation also Robert, the
younger, who was a merchant (ante, p. Ill), is made a notary, his uncle, who was a notary,
having'been already identified with the merchant. Similarly, William, the youngest
brother, is identified with the minister in Dundee, 3 and his wife, Magdalene Wedderburn,
calmly stated to be the " only child of his uncle Robert," whereas the minister of Dundee
was the son of Alexander of Pittormie, 4 while his wife was one of the daughters of
Kingennie, and a somewhat distant cousin. Finally, James, the Bishop of Dunblane, now
appears as Kingennie's seventh brother, whereas he was, in fact, of quite other parentage
(see ante, p. 28), although Kingennie had, indeed, a fourth brother of the name, who
was a merchant in Dundee. As regards Kingennie's sisters J.W. is also in error. He
gives three, viz., Margaret, m. Peter Clayhills ; Janet, m. Alexander Piersone ; and
Katharine, m. William Duncan. Of these the first and last are correct (although all
mention of Katharine's second marriage is omitted), but the statement as to Janet is
founded on the fact that David AVedderburn in his Compt Bulk speaks of his
brother-in-law, Alexander Piersone, who had married a sister not of David himself but
of his wife.
1 See as to the Ballates and their authors, ante, p. 10 seqq, and as to the Complaynt of Scotland, ante,
p. 16 seqq.
3 See as to this, ante, p. 15.
2 J.W. further makes him the father of William, minister of Bethelnay, a total error.
4 In his printed book J.W. had rightly got on the track of a separate branch of the family at Pittormie,
although in the greatest confusion as to them. See ante, p. 465 n.