An Away Day With the Fairies in Brechin

 Is there something odd about Brechin? No, obviously not. But is there something supernaturally strange about the burgh? Maybe.

I only ask after uncovering the folk tale related below, which features Brechin as the favoured destination of a fairy queen and her hapless mortal abductee. Enjoy the tale for itself. I will be asking questions afterwards.

Brechin c. 1833

   In the book Dunblane Traditions, by John Monteath, first published in 1835, we are given many quaint historical traditions of the south Perthshire town. Also included (and this was a general nineteenth century trend) were picturesque pen portraits of eccentric and amusing characters who formerly inhabited the locality.

   The subject of this story was an old tailor nicknamed the Black Laird, who stuck to his old manner of clothing (blue bonnets and hodden grey clothes) long after the nation had moved on. Before the incident we are going to relate, the Laird had suffered an unsolicited encounter with the Devil, but afterwards he was loathe to communicate what had happened. His next supernatural encounter was decribed by Monteath as follows:

The Laird had been at Alloa on a visit to a friend, who accompanied him in the evening so far as Menstry, when, after a parting gill, they separated—the Alloa tailor returning by the way he came, and the Laird by the Brae of Menstry, as the nearest way home. At a green brae, adjacent to the farm-house of Loss, the Laird saw, by the clear moonlight, a vast number of little women in green-gowns collecting ivingle-straes, which they tied in small bunches. The Laird observed them with attention, while he leaned on the beam of a pleuch, which by chance was there, with the sock and coulter in the fur, as it had just been left by the ploughman not an hour before.

When the pigmies had collected about a handful each of the wingle-straes, one of them, a bonny little kimmer, stepped a-side to the Laird, and bade him just do with the pleuch-heam as he would observe her do with the handful of wingle-straes, and he should have a good supper before he went home. The Laird promised obedience, and accordingly, when he saw the Fairy Queen get astride upon her bunch of wingle-straes, he mounted his plough-beam. The Queen then waved her wand, crying, "Brechin to the Brithal," and instantly the whole group. Laird and all, having repeated Brechin to the Brithal, ascended in the air on coursers fleet as the wind, and white as the driven snow. 

They soon arrived at Brechin, entered the sumptuous apartments by the key-holes, preceded by the Fairy Queen; where, invisible to all the guests, they fared of the very best and savoury viands, and drank of the most delicious and costly wines. Having liberally partaken of everything good at Brechin, the Queen waved her switch and cried out, "Cruinan to the Dance," when presently the whole re-passed the key-holes "like a sough o' wind," and found their coursers below them on the outside, panting
for the dance at Cruinan. 

Up again they got, high in the air, and were instantly on the wings of the wind, flying to the dance, but just as they had returned to the spot whence they started the Laird, highly elated with the success of the adventure, could not help exclaiming, "Weel done, Watson's auld Pleuch-beam!" which, unfortunately for the Laird, had the effect of undoing the charm, and leaving him astride on the identical auld pleuch-beam, and exactly in the same position he had been previous to the commencement of his flicht to Brechin. The pretty  green-coated fairies, at the same time, disappeared, leaving the Laird to plod his way homeward in the best manner he could—a task which, with his good supper and wine, he felt no difficulty in accomplishing. 

It was of no use hinting to the Laird, when he told this story, that the Menstry gill with the Alloa tailor might possibly have occasioned his jiicht to Brechin during a nap on Watson's auld pleuchheam— and that instead of an old plough he had, in all likelihood, ascended on a gill-stoup. " Na, na," the Laird would reply to any such as ventured to question the truth of his story—" I couldna be mista'en, and ye ken weel aneuch there's mony ane been carried awa' by the fairies, an' never heard o' mair—forbye Davy Rae's wife o' Tullibody, that was seen ridin' on a clud twenty years after she was stown frae her ain man's side, ae Halloween night when he was sleepin'.

Brechin c. 1774

    Leaving aside the veracity of the man's kidnapping, we might first of all wonder where the scene of the abduction was. A prime candidate is the Hill of Airthrey, a notorious fair knowe located to the west of Menstrie. This place features in several other folk tales, including one in which a farmer's wife was kidnapped by the fairies which lived in the hill. He only managed to free her, some time later, when he made a random, odd physical gesture which broke the fairy spell. In another story, a farmer named Davy Rae made a compact with the fairies on the hill to steal away his errant wife.

   But why was Brechin the destination for the fairy adventure, I wonder? Is there anything which specially links Dunblane with Brechin. Both of course were centres of early Christianity: Brechin possibly had a Pictish monastery which was replaced with Irish clerics, while Dunblane seems to have been founded as a British ecclesiastic site dedicated to St Blane. The austere order of Culdees may have been prominent in both places before regular Roman priests and monks took over the establishments. 

   That apart, the matter is a mystery. There may be some special piece of buried lore about the Good People inhabiting the Ancient City of Brechin, but if there is, the tradition is as elusive as the fairies themselves, and I've never heard of it!

Tales of the Whales - Part Four

   To look back on Dundee's whale fishing industry is to wipe away the soot from a dirty window and peer in at a long gone where where everything is different. Not only is the idea of whale hunting abhorrent to modern sensibilities, the attitudes of those involved in the trade are sometimes difficult to discern. When the fishery was at its height the burgh was an odd mix of high poverty, entrepreneurial energy and religious intensity.  A story in George Martin's Dundee Worthies (Dundee, 1934, pp. 127-8) exemplifies this. The Greenland area was flourishing for Dundee ships in the first part of the 19th century. One whaling ship owner was a well to do merchant who resided in a mansion in the Nethergate. One of his chief employees was John Duncan, who was perturbed when his master's vessel did not return to the Tay after a whaling expedition at the dame time as other local vessels. After some delay it finally appeared on a Sunday morning and John eagerly went to tell his employer. A servant said the family were at breakfast, but John insisted on interrupting with his news. 'Mr T,' he burst out. 'The Greenland has come in and is anchored in the roads. ' His boss upbraided him for relaying this matter of business on the Sabbath, then his commercial senses kicked in and he asked, 'John, my man, did ye hear is she was weel fished?'  John Duncan, however, said he would take his boss's initial advice and leave the matter until the Sabbath was done and walked out of the mansion without a further word.

   Another, slighter anecdote from Dundee Worthies demands attention. A Dundonian lad called Jimmy was a new recruit to the whalers and was given his first major responsibility of taking the ships' wheel. He was told to steer straight according to a particular star in the sky. After about an hour the Captain noted that the ship was not ploughing the depth of water it should have been in. He went on deck and accosted the recruit: 'Why the - didn't ye steer for the star as I told you?' And Jimmy replied, 'Och! I lost yon star, but I found anither!' (p. 152)

Previous Posts on Whaling

Tales of the Whales Part One

Tales of the Whales Part Two: The Rise of Dundee and Montrose

Tales of the Whales Part Three: Strangers Brought Home

Ochterlony's Account of the Shire of Forfar - Part Three

  This is the third part of John Ochterlony's Account of the Shire of Forfar, written around 1682, and gives a fascinating, if brief and selective, picture of the county of Angus in the period.

 Links to previous parts of this work are at the bottom of this post.

Idvie. — The Laird of Gardyne of that Ilk, formerly spoken of, hath the most part of the Baronie of Gairdyne, except the house and maines which belong to a gentleman of the name of Ruthvene. Baronie of Idvie to Sir John Wood of Bonnietoun. Pitmowes, belonging to John Ogilvy, a grand-child of a second son of the House of Airlie; a good house well planted, and lyes pleasantly on the water of Evenie. Mr Ballvaird, minister. In the Diocese of St Andrews; Archbishop, patrone.


Guthrie. — The most part of the parish belongs to the Laird of Guthrie of that Ilk, a very ancient gentleman, and chief of his name; his house is well planted, good yards and orchards, good land, well grassed, and lyes pleasantly on the head of the water of Lounane in Strathbegg; Pitmowea and Commissare Wisehart have some interest there. Garbuddo, a gentleman of the name of Erskine, a cadet of the  House of Dun, lyes at a great distance from the kirk, and had a chapple of their own, wherein the minister of Guthrie preached every third or fourth Sabbath-day, but is now ruinous. It is abundantly served of peat and turf, not only for their own use, but for the service of the whole countrey 
about; is a murish cold countrey, and at a great distance from all gentlemen's houses and kirks about it. Mr Strachan, minister. In the Diocese of Brechine; Guthrie, patrone.






Panbryde, alias St Brigid.—The whole parish, except the Barronie of Panbryd, which belongs to the Earl Soutbesk, appertaines to Earl Panmure, wherein stands the house of Panmure, new built, and, as is thought by many, except Halyruidhouse, the best house in the kingdome of Scotland, with delicate gardens, with high stone walls, extraordinare much planting, young and old; many great parks about the new and old house, with a great deal of planting about the old house ; brave hay meadows well ditched and hedged; and, in a word, is a most excellent, sweet, and delicate place. The familie is very ancient and honourable, and has been alwayes very great, and were reckoned, before they were nobilitat, the first Barons of the shyre. They have allwayes been very famous for the loyaltie and good service to their Princes. Patrick Earl Panmure, grandfather to the present Earl, having served King James the Sixth and King Charles the First, of blessed memorie, loyallic, faithfullie, and truelie, in the qualitie of Bed-Chamber man, was advanced by King Charles the First to the dignitie of ane Earl, and did continue in his service and duetie to his Sacred Majestic in all his solitudes and troubles,through all the parts of the kingdome, in tlie tyme of the Rebellione; and afterward in all places of liis confinement, and at the Isle of Weight, till the bloodie traitors who afterwards imbrued their hands in his sacred blood, thrust

him from his attendance, but was the last Scotsman that attende his Majestic. 

It is lykwayes known liow the late Earl, his sone, being a colonell of horse, behaved himself when this present King, his Majestic, was in Scotland, both at Dunbar, Inverkeithing, and other places, and how his estate was robbed and spoylt by the usurper's forces here, and he fyned in a vast soume of money, whereby he was forced to redeem his estate from forrfaultrie. The place is also famous for that great battle fought there betwixt the Scots and Danes, wherein the Scots obtained a great victorie, and is called the Battle of Panmure.

There was one of the Lords of Panmure killed at the famous battle of Harlaw, and most of all his name in his Prince's service against rebells and usurpers. Balmachie, belonging to a gentleman of the name of Carnegy, of the Familie of Southesk. Mr Maule, minister. In the Diocese of Brechine; Earl Panmure, patrone, and has newly re-edified his buriall-place with a chamber above, with a loft in the kirk, most sumptous and delicate, lie hath at Panmure a most excellent breed of horse and cattle.

Barrie. — It belongs to severall heritors. Earl Panmure hath ane interest therein, and the whole parish pay him feu, hath a Bailiery, and keeps Courts there, Woodhill, Kid, a pleasant place. Grange of Barrie, Watsone. Ravensbay, pertaining to the Laird of Gairdyne of that Ilk. Pitskellie, Alexander. Carnoustie to Mr Patrick Lyon, Advocat; the rest are but small heritors. It is ane excellent countrey, good cornes, and well grassed. It is famous for that great battle fought betwixt the Scots and Danes in the Links of Barrie, wherein the Scots obtained the victorie, with great slaughter of both Scots and Danes, which is to be seen at this day by the great heaps of stones casten together in great heapes in diverse places of that Links, which is said to be the buriall of the dead there slain. Those of the Danes who escaped the slauchter of that battle fled with their general Camus, and were overtaken by the Scots four myles from that place, and defeated: their general Camus being slaine upon the place, with many others. Camus 
with all the dead were buried tnere, and a great high stone cross erected upon him, which is still extant, and gives name to the place, being called Camustone, and the pillar, the Cross of Camustone; it belongcth to the Earl of Panmure.

Within these two or thrie yeares the Cross, by violence of wind and weather, did fall, which the Earl caused re-erect and fortifie against such hazard in tyme to come. The remainder of the Danes that escaped that battle fled north-ward, where they were overtaken by the Scots at a place in this shyre called Aberlemno, ten myles distant from Camus-one, and there beat, and all of them, either killed or taken ; and there it is probable some great man was killed, there being ane cross erected there, and called the Crosstoun of Aberlemno ; they have both of them some antique pictures and letters, so wome out with tyme, that they are not legible, or rather, the characters are not intelligible in thir tymes. Barrie lyes midway betwixt Dundie and Arbroth, six myles distant from either. Mr Carnegy, minister. In the Diocese of St Andrews; the King's Majestie, patrone.



ANCIENT FAMILIES IN THE SHYRE.


Noblemen. — Earls Strathmore, Southesk, Airlie, Panmure, Lord Gray. Gentlemen. — Lairds of Edzell, Dun, Pitcur, Pourie, Fotheringhame, Fintrie, Claverhouse, Innerrarritie, Bonnietoune, Ouchterlony of that Ilk, Gairdyne of that Ilk, Auchinleck of that Ilk, Grange, Durhame, Balmashanner, Guthrie of that Ilk,Baljordie, Balfour, Ogilvy, Strathmartine, Nevoy of that Ilk, Buthvene, Deuchar of that Ilk, Thometoune of that Ilk.

Many great families are extinct in this shyre within these few years, as Earls Buchan, Dundie, Crauford, Lords Spynie, Olyfant, besydes many considerable barrens and gentlemen, whose estates are purchased by privat persones, and by merchants and burgesses of the severall burghs of the shyre.

The shyre is aboundantlie furnished of all things necessaro for life, such abundance of comes and cattle, that the consumption within the countrey is not able to spend the sixth part thereof.

I will add no more for our Familie of Ouchterlony of that Ilk but what I have said in the generall description of some places we have and had concern in, but that I have ane accompt of the marriages of the Familie these fifteen generations, viz. 1st, Stewart of Rossyth, in Fytfe; 2d, Maull of Panmure; 3d,

Ogilvy of Lentrathene, predecessor to the Lords of Ogilvy; 4th, Gray, of the Lord Gray; 5th, Drummond of Stobhall, now Perth; 6th, Keith, Lord Marishall; 7th, Lyon, Lord Glames; 8th, Cunninghame of Barnes: 9th, Stewart of Innermeath; 10th, Olyphant, of the Lord Olyphant; 11th, Scrimgeor of Dudope; 12th, Beatoun of Westhall; 13th, Peirsone of Loclilands; 14th, Carnegy of Newgait; 15th, Maull, cousine-germane to the deceist Patrick Earl of Panmure. All these are daughters of the above written families. The lamilie is very ancient and very great, having above fourteen score clialders of victuall, which was a great estate in those days.

My grandfather told me he saw a letter from Sir William Wallace, Governour of Scotland, directed to his trustie and assured friend, the Laird of Ouchterlony of that Ilk, requiring him in all haste to repair to him, with his friends and servants, notwithstanding his pass was not out; which pass did bear allowing him to travaill from Cunningharaehead to Ouchtermergitie, now Balmadies, which was his place of residence, about his lawfull affairs, and to repair to him againe in a short tyme therein prescrived—"for its lyke," sayes he, "we will have use for you and other honest men in the countrey within a

short tyme ;"—and accordingly the Barns of Air were burnt shortly thereafter.

The letter and pass are both together. Probablie the Laird of Drum, who purchased the estate, hath these and other antiquities of our Familie; but they cannot be had for the present. The armes of our Familie are thus blazoned—bears Azure, a lyon rampant, Argent, within a border Gules entoure, of eight buckles Or above the shield, ane helmet mantled Gules and doubled Argent ; and on the torse for a crest, ane eagle displayed Azure, with ane escallope in hir beek Argent, and the

motto above the crest — deus mihi adjutor.

Part One

Part Two

The Ballad of Lord Spynie

Few people know much about the noble title of Spynie or those who bore that name. There were several Lord Spynie's in the late 16th and early 17th century, though the title went extinct after a few generations. It was held by a branch of the powerful Lindsay family who were powerfully represented in the county for several centuries.

The first Lord Spynie, Alexander Lindsay, was a sometime favourite of King James VI, though he fell out of favour with that mercurial monarch (more on this below). He was the fourth son of the 10th Earl of Crawford and also a grandson of the famous/infamous Cardinal Beaton, a pre-eminent prelate from Fife who spent much of his life in Angus.

His early career was fairly standard for a well-connected nobleman of the era and he became vice-chamberlain to the king. He was also embroiled in a complicated adultery involving the wife of Alan Leytoun, a laird from Fife. This lady, Helen Hunter, was also involved romantically, or at least carnally, with his brother, David Lindsay, 11th Earl of Crawford.

Lindsay's fortune was largely linked to his accompanying James VI on his marriage expedition to Denmark. Before the trip Lindsay was able to assist the king with a loan of 10,000 gold coins, financing the expedition and assuring his own advancement. The king promised him a peerage on their return to Scotland:

Sandie. Quhill (till) youre goode happe furnels me sum better occasion to recompense youre honest and faithfull service utterid be youre diligente and cairfulle attendance upon me, speciallie at this tyme, lett this assure you, in the inviolabill worde of youre awin prince and maister, that quhen Godd randeris me in Skotlande, I sall irrevocabilie, and with consent of parliament, erect you the temporalitie of Murraye in a temporall lordship, with all honours thereto appertaining, and left this serve for cure to your present disease. From the castle of Croneburg, quhare we are drinking and dryving our in the auld manner. J.R.” In fulfillment of this promise, and in acquittance of the 10,000 gold crowns lent to him, the king granted a charter of the lordship of Spynie, Kinnedder, Rafford, and other lands in the counties of Elgin, Banff, and Inverness, formerly belonging to the see of Moray, united into the free barony of Spynie, with the title of Baron Spynie, to Alexander Lindsay and his heirs and assignees, dated 6th May 1590.

   In 1590, Lindsay was accordingly made Lord Spynie, taking his title from lands near Elgin. Although his lands were in north and his family were largely located in Angus, he took as his principal seat Aberdour Castle in Fife, which came to him via his wife Jean Lyon. Jean was a daughter of the house of Glamis and Spynie was her third husband. She had achieved some nororiety by being implicated (by relatives of Angus) of her second husband's death, possibly involving poison or witchcraft. Given the climate of the times, she was lucky to escape death.

Aberdour Castle

   The relationship between young Lindsay and the king has been open to question by historians, with some thinking that Alexander was a lover of king James. This has never been proven, despite much innuendo and analysis and I stand guilty to a certain extent myself by not coming to any cast iron conclusion in my recent book on King James. It is true that the ruler almost certainly had male lovers when he took over the kingdom of England, most notably the Earl of Somerset and the Duke of Buckingham. His love life in Scotland is less clear. In his youth he was clearly besotted by his French relative Esme Stuart, but subsequent affairs (if there were any) were well disguised. 

   The Englishman Thomas Fowler reported in the late 1580s that the king was believed to be overly influenced by young men who slept in his chamber. Fowler said one such man, Alexander Lindsay, was ‘the king’s best beloved minion’. Another source states that Lindsay was ‘his nightly bed-fellow’, while Sir James Melville stated that Lindsay made other jealous because he was ‘in great favour with his Majesty, and sometimes his bedfellow’. 

   Physical proximity to the king of course was no guarantee that physical intercourse took place and we will never know if the two men were intimate. It has been argued that the fact that James pressed for Jean Lyon to marry hos favourite Lindsay is evidence that there was noting between the men. Yet the king provided the same matrimonial encouragement to other men he was almost certainly physically involved with.

   Lord Spynie's fall from grace with his majesty had nothing to do with his marriage, but an accusation that he was conspiring - or at least allied with - one of the king's most turbulent subjects, Francis Stewart, the Earl of Bothwell. The latter was a long-term thorn in the side of King James, and had threatened the monarch with violence in order to support his own ends. He would also, perhaps wrongly, be implicated in the North Berwick Witch trials at the end of the 16th century. Spynie sheltered Bothwell at his house at Aberdour and was accused of supporting this rebellious subject by another courtier. No official action was taken against Spynie and he remained a member of the privy council, but he lost the trust of the monarch.

  As well as Aberdour, Spynie maintained his lands in Angus, where his principal house was Kinblethmont in Inverkeillor parish. The house was severely damaged and ransacked in November 1602 by the Master of Ogilvy and his kinsmen as part of a long-running, though intermittent local feud between the Ogilvys and the Lindsays. (I detailed some of this inter-family violence in an earlier post here.) Luckily, Spynie and his wife had left the house two hours before the raid. 

 

Kinblethmont in the late 18th century

   Spynie's death, ironically, did not involve his kindred's traditional enemy, but members of his own immediate family. On 5 June 1607 he was at the foot of the stairs of his lodging in the High Street of Edinburgh and he witnessed a violent encounter between David Lindsay, 12th Earl of Crawford, and another David Lindsay, of Edzell. The latter was the son of Walter Lindsay of Balgavies who had been murdered by Crawford. Attempting to intervene between his relatives, Spynie was fatally stabbed by the laird of Edzell.

           The death of Spynie became the subject of the ballad bellow, which is one of the few genuinely old ballads which deal with people or themes which are associated with Angus. In true traditional fashion, the ballad mixes up the facts to make the story more entertaining. The ballad would have us believe that Spynie was a dastardly wooer who seduced and then abandoned his distant female relative, a daughter of the Lindsay house of Edzell. The lady's outraged brother then killed Spynie in Edinburgh and, to escape justice, fled to Glenmark Castle in Angus before fleeing even further north. Such a narrative is romantic nonsense.

Lord Spynie, ye may pu' the rose

an spare the lily flower,

when ye gae through the garden green

to woo in lady's bower;

an' ye pu' the lichtsome thyme,

an' leave the lonesome rue,

for lang an' sair will the lady mourn

that ye gae there to woo!

For ye will look an' talk of love,

And kindly kindly smile,

An' vow by grace and a' that's gude,

And lay the luving while.

'Tis sair to rob the bonnie bird

That makes you melodie. -

'Tis cruel to win a woman's luve, 

An' no' hae luve to gie!

I wadna hae your wilfu' hand

Though a' the earth were thine,

Ye've broken many a maiden's peace,

Ye've mair than broken mine.

I wadna hae your faithless heart,

'Tis no your ain to gie,

But gin ye ever think o' heaven,

O, ye maun think o' me!

 

Arms of the first Lord Spynie

  Spynie's eldest son Alexander fought in the Swedish army and later became an ally of Montrose. He died in 1657. George Lindsay, 3rd Lord Spynie, was a royalist adherent during the civil wars and died childless in 1671.

'The Ball O' Kirriemuir' - Did it Really Happen?

 Those among us who are not overly fond of hearing about orgies may not be pleased with further information about the notorious sexualised ballad 'The Ball o' Kirriemuir'. Earlier posts (see links below) suggested the song was based on an account of an actual erotic event in the village in the 1880s. But the origins seem to go back even further.

  The ballad below found its way into print in 1817, contained in The Flower of Caledonia, issued by Sanderson & Co in Edinburgh:

THE KIRRIEMUIR WEDDING

At Kirriemuir a wedding stood,

Upon a simmer's day;

And there was plenty mirth and fun,

And plenty sport and play.

CHORUS

Singing, go, girls, go,

And we'll hae anither tune,

And we'll ne'er dance sae young again,

Gin aince this night were done.

There were three score o' maidens gaed,

('Twas braw being there)

But only ain came hame again;

Judge ye an' that was fair.

There was twa into the barn,

an' twa into the byre, 

An' twa amang the pease strate,

I think they'll never tire.

There was twa ahint the pease stack,

An' twa amang the pease;

But ye could na see the barn-floor

For naked hips and thighs.

In came John Anderson,

Says he to his brother James,

'Will ye gang to the barn-floor

an' kiss the wanton queans?'

In came John Tait, the factor's man,

Says he, 'Well may ye thrive!'

But before he kissed his own true love,

He played we' ither five.

In came the minister's maid,

And she was warst o' a''

For she tint her muslin apron

Among the pease straw.

The lads they lost their knee-buckles,

The lasses their bucklin-kames;

But three score o' maidenheads

Played a crack at aince.

Now ilka lad has ta'en his lass,

An' he's convey'd her hame;

An' ilka lass says to her lad,

'Whan will ye do't again?'

   Derick Thomson considers songs such as these which celebrate events at 'penny weddings' date back to the 18th century, which is likely. There were other popular ballads in the same era which 'celebrated' the goings-on at such local community events, though it can be debated whether the innuendo was heightened for the sake of the readers or whether these weddings did often end up in riotous and promiscuous behaviour. (Other similar bawdy songs include 'Muirland Willie.') Margaret Dean-Smith notes similar printed examples in the late 17th century, which proves that such activities flourished even in the dour age of the Covenanters.

Sources

Thomas Crawford, ' "The Ball of Kirriemuir;" a nineteenth-century precursor,' Notes and Queries, vol. 11, issue 1, 1964, 28-29.

Thomas Crawford, Society and the Lyric: A Study of the Song Culture of Eighteenth-Century Scotland, Scottish Academic Press, 1979.

Margaret Dean-Smith, ' "The Ball of Kirriemuir", an earlier precursor,' Notes and Queries, vol. 11, issue 5, 1964, 190. 

Derick S. Thomson, 'Scottish Gaelic traditional songs from the 16th to the 18th century,' Sir John Rhys Memorial Lecture. 

Previous Related Posts

The Whit? Kirrimuir's Ball With Knobs On

Return to the Ball of Kirriemuir

The Deuchar Family - Swordsmen, Jacobites, Templars

   This post is an expansion on several previous pieces I wrote concerning the Angus family of Deuchar, who long inhabited the place of that name, being Deuchar of Deuchar, or Deuchar of that Ilk, as it used to be termed. This kindred were long in possession of a famous blade which served in many battles. The mansion house of Deuchar stands on the uplands of Fern parish and has a magnificent view of much of Strathmore and the Sidlaw Hills. It was built or remodelled by the penultimate Deuchar laird in the 18th century.  

     Deuchar and Deuchar Hill sit in the parish of Fern, north of Noranside, and feature in a rhyme about local places:

 

Deuchar sits on Deuchar Hill,

looking doon on Birnie Mill,

the Whirrock an the Whoggle,

the Burnroot an Ogle,

Quiechstrath an Turnafachie,

Waterhaughs an Drumlieharrie.

 

 

 

    As for the family of the name and their renowned weapon, the tale is told by the Rev. David Harris in the New Statistical Account of the parish of Fern in the mid 19th century:

Few families can establish such pretensions to antiquity as belong to the Deuchars, late of that Ilk. It might be almost regularly ascertained that the family inheritance had passed through a succession of lineal heirs, without increase or diminution, throughout a period of more than five hundred years. One of the ancestors of this family fell at Harlaw, and, as proof that he was not untouched with the spirit which marked the character of that bloody field, his sword was so firmly grasped in death, that it was necessary to cut away the hand before it could be severed from the sword. The sword, as a relique, is still in possession of the representative of the family, but the patrimony was alienated about eighteen years ago.

   The Deuchars, who boasted about being the oldest family in Angus, held on to their upland estate for around 800 years until representatives of the family sold up in the 19th century. The place-name Deuchar (or close variants) is also found in other parts of Scotland, including Banff, Stirlingshire. Deuchar Law in the Borders was formerly called Deuchar Rigg and there is a Deuchar in the parish of Yarrow, Selkirk, where there was a family named Deuchar of that Ilk recorded in 1478, some time after their Angus counterparts appeared. The meaning of the place/family name is obscure though one authority notes that the family name is 'curiously connected with the custody of relics'.

   Gershom Cummin in Forfarshire Illustrated (1843) states that the family acquired the grant of the land for killing a bear. This tradition may be a misreading of boar, which makes more sense in heraldic terms. The wild beast, whatever it was, was slain near the Coorthill or Coortford Bridge which spanned the Pass of the Noran Water around the year 1000. So Deuchar of Deuchar became a landed family. There is a confused, alternate tradition that Deuchar rose in the world because he took part in the Battle of Barry against the invading Danes in 1010. However, this can be easily discounted on the basis that this battle was entirely imaginary, though successive historians well into the 20th century gave credence to it. The author of the Baronage of Angus and the Mearns tried to square two possibly divergent traditions when he stated that the Deuchar was slain as he pursued some fleeing Northmen at Markhouse in Tannadice after the battle, despite this being many miles from Barry.


   It is said that Deuchar, who was with Keith at the Battle of Barry, was a man of gigantic stature, and of vast strength, having six fingers on each hand, and as many toes on each foot. While in pursuit of the Danes he fell by a stroke or thrust from some of the Northmen.

  The story that the Deuchars were sprung from the second son of Gilchrist, Celtic Earl of Angus, would seem to be false also since Gilchrist or Gille Críst died around 1206. The Deuchars in fact do not emerge out of the historical mist until the year 1369 when Sir Alexander Lindsay of Glenesk granted a charter of the lands of 'Deuhqwhyr' to William 'Deuhqwhir of that ilk,' as heir of his deceased father. The Deuchars were obliged to pay annually a pair of white gloves to the Lindsays as their feudal superiors.

   One of the family members, Cumming states, behaved heroically at the Battle of Harlaw in 1411, where a range of Lowland forces overcame Donald, Lord of the Isles. Among the casualties was William Deuchar (who had married a daughter of Sir Alexander Straiten, knight of Laurieston, who also fell in the battle). According to Cumming, Deuchar  'was found next morning by one of his servants among the slain, with his sword still in his hand, which was so much swollen that it was found impossible to detach it from the handle, he therefore cut off the hand at the wrist, and carried both home, and presented them to his master's lady.'

   Some Deuchars had migrated south to the burgh of Dundee by the late 15th century. We have notice of 'James of Duchir', a burgess who was punished for an obscure offence involving a legal connection with a foreigner. He was taken to the Market Cross and had the hand which he had signed the fraudulent document stricken through. Several years later he was cited as a debtor to another burgess. 

   The main estate of Deuchar was still being held under feudal terms  in the 17th century. In 1642 the Carnegies had replaced the Lindsays as the superiors of the territory, the Earl of Southesk being cited in a document as the possessor. By the late 17th century the Deuchars were paying rent of 15 shillings and 9 pence annually for the estate

   Details about the famous weapon, the Deuchar Sword which was wielded at Harlaw, are surrounded by legend. It was said to be the very weapon which the primitive Deuchar used to kill the wild boar and it bore the inscription:

Da Deuquhyre his swerde.

At Bannockburn I served the Brus,

Of quliilk the Inglis had na ryss.

 

     There are no known further traditions about which Deuchar of Deuchar may have fought alongside Robert Bruce in 1314.

    In 1585, Deuchar of that Ilk, along with other local lairds were in dispute with the bishop and chapter of Brechin regarding encroaching on the lands of the commonty of Brechin and it was legally decided the lairds were unlawfully encroaching on this land.

   The sword remained in the family until 1745, when it suffered an ignoble fate. According to Gershom Cumming, during the Jacobite uprising:

the neighbouring proprietor, the Laird of Easter Ogil, intending to join the Prince's forces, swore he would have the best horse in Deuchar's stable or the sword. To protect the sword it was buried in a cornstack ; and to the surprise of the family one morning, they saw the Laird of Ogil and his servant in the corn-yard, the stack thrown down, and the sword in his possession. It had at that period been in possession of the present George Deuchar's grandfather, and he used to report that he had seen the Laird of Ogil parading in the town of Brechin,with the sword trailing on the ground. The sword was then of great size, sharp on one side, and about an inch round the point. The Laird of Ogil, while it was in his possession, converted it into a two-edged sword, and reduced the length of the blade about a foot By some stratagem the Laird of Deuchar again got possession of the sword...

    The Deuchars had apparently turned Hanoverian during the '45 (or remained neutral) while probably professing to be Jacobites previously. There is some difference of opinion among local historians about who this dastardly Laird of Ogil was. Easter Ogil belonged to the Fenton family and then to a branch of the Lyons before the Grants gained the estate in the middle of the 18th century. It may have been one of the latter family who fell out with the Deuchars (or otherwise a Lyon). Whichever enemy stole it, the Deuchars eventually recovered the precious heirloom from the Castle of Coul, where it had been carelessly left by the thief. A variant tradition says the Deuchar family had to buy the iconic sword back.

 

The Final Deuchars  

The penultimate laird, George Deuchar of Deuchar, passed away on 20th January, 1802, aged 55. His wife, Elizabeth Peter, daughter of John Peter, Farmer, Woodwray, died at Easter Ogill, 27th February, 1823—lie interred in the family burial place, on the site of the old church of Fearn (the vault was within the old church until 1805) where their youngest son, James Deuchar of Demerara, erected a monument to their memory in 1826. The Deuchar estate was bought by the merchant James Marnie of Arbroath and Dundee in 1819 and was inherited by his daughters, Isabella and Charlotte Marnie. The property later passed to Thomas Thomson, whose wife was a Marnie.

   Did the famous ancient sword go abroad with the Deuchar descendants? One tale suggests that 'the last Laird of them [also called George Deuchar], before emigrating to Australia, left it with his relative,  Deuchar, seal engraver, Edinburgh, to be lodged in the principal armoury in the metropolis' (Historic Scenes in Forfarshire, p. 282.) So the weapon passed from George to Alexander Deuchar. The sword probably passed down to Alexander's daughter Lucenda (or Lucinda) Marshall Deuchar, who possessed many family papers and other relics. Another writer however states that the weapon later came into the possession of Captain Patrick Deuchar of Morninside, Edinburgh. Some modern commentators assert that the Deuchar Sword ended up in the now closed Angus Folk Museum at Glamis, a property of the National Trust for Scotland. 

   It is said that William Deuchar, younger brother of the last laird, carried some family papers (which would have given us more insight into the family's history) to Jamaica, where he died in 1822. William's youngest brother James, had further family documentation and he emigrated to Demerara in 1822. Later in the 19th century Alexander Warden, historian of the county, obtained some information about the family from David Deuchar, manager of the Caledonian Insurance Company.

    Alexander  Deuchar (father of Lucinda) was a prominent family member (discussed below). He claimed the chieftainship of the family, being the lineal descendant of the elder brother of David Deuchar of Nether Balgillo. The latter acquired the lands of Deuchar from his uncle, David Deuchar of that Ilk, who had no children. Andrew Jervise, author of Land of the Lindsays, states that the sword passed from David Deuchar, first seal engraver, to his son Alexander. Alexander was a notable character who deserves further attention.

 

Alexander Deuchar, the Templar Master

  

    
   Alexander Deuchar (1777-1844) was a prominent figure who sought to revive the supposed ancient Knights Templar chivalric tradition which was linked to Freemasonry. Alexander and his father descended from the branch of the Deuchars which occupied the lands of Bolshan in Angus. Professionally, Alexander was a seal engraver and Lyon Herald at the Court of the Lord Lyon, and so deeply involved in the heraldry of the nation.

   He was also deeply involved in the shadowy world of Scottish Freemasonry and apparently instrumental in reforming the order, emphasising its native roots. He possessed at one time the 17th century documents known as 'Saint Clair Charters' which purportedly gave legitimacy to the ancient roots of the order in Scotland. (These are now in the ownership of the Grand Lodge of Scotland).

   From obscure origins, Deuchar formed a breakaway organisation of Templars in the early 19th century which became the Grand Assembly of the Knights Templar in Edinburgh. Among the member and supporter of the new body was his brother David Deuchar, an officer in the 1st Regiment of Foot, The Royal Scots. In 1809, during the Peninsular War, David looted an altar cross from the Templar Church at the Castle of Tomar in Portugal which had been destroyed by the French and he brought this icon back to Scotland and presented it to the new body. The Templar organisation expanded and was opened to non-Masons, an innovation in such semi-secret societies.

   Alexander made himself the Grand Master of this Templar order in 1811 or 1812, apparently despite some opposition, and the group was popular for some time, though it became inactive around 1830. It was subsequently revived and merged in with other similar organisations.

   According to Jervise, the late 19th century descendant of Alexander was Patrick Deuchar, a merchant in Liverpool, who disputed the extinct and rather meaningless right to be recognised as 'Deuchar of Deuchar' with the son of John, brother of George Deuchar who sold the ancient Angus estate.

What happened to the iconic sword of the Deuchars? There seems to be no mention of it in the 20th or 21st centuries. The weapon below turned up in an auction in England several years ago and seems to have been the property of the Templar master Deuchar. It was described as having a 'wirebound leather hilt with pommel and quillions modelled as a skull and crossbones, the top brass mount on the leather scabbard engraved "Alexander Deuchar" - Mil Templi Scotiae" with his silver seal in case". The ceremonial weapon was 93.5 cm in length. Whether it was modelled to any extent on the ancestral sword of the Deuchars in unknown.

 

Other Deuchars

   

   Robert Deuchar (1831-1904) found success away from his ancestral homeland. One of three brothers from Angus who migrated south in the 1860s, he became a publican in Newcastle. By the turn of the century he owned outright 40 pubs in the region and also owned a large brewery in Edinburgh. His brewing empire Robert Deuchar Ltd. was eventually bought out by Newcastle Breweries in 1959. 

 

   A later prominent Deuchar was James Deuchar (1930-1993) was a Dundee born trumpeter and arranger who was first active in the 1950's and 1960s. He notably worked with prominent UK jazz stars like Johnny Dankworth and Tubby Hayes, though he was a front man also who released a number of recordings in his own name from the early fifties.

 

 

 

After freelance work mainly in London, often with European and American artists, he returned to Dundee in the mid 1970s.  He died in 1993, aged 63.

 

 

Further Reading

 

 

Cumming, Gershom, Forfarshire Illustrated (Dundee, 1843).

 

Edwards, David Herschell, Around the Ancient City (Brechin, 1887).

 

Jervise, Andrew, The Land of the Lindsays (2nd edn., Edinburgh, 1882).

 

Marshall, William, Historic Scenes in Forfarshire (Edinburgh, 1875).

 

Peter, David MacGregor, The Baronage of Angus and Mearns (Edinburgh, 1856).

 

Warden, Alexander, Angus or Forfarshire, vol. 5 (Dundee, 1885).

 

 

Áedán mac Gabráin and the Battle in Angus

  A subject I have returned to several times during the lifetime of this blog is the unresolved question of how Irish was the region now know as Angus during the Pictish period, prior to the 9th century.

   There are a few tantalising clues, but the facts about the Irish in the area compete hard against the unproven legends and neither side seems to win out completely against the other. Why do we know about the Irish presence in our region?  Angus the county, of course, bears a conspicuously Irish name, being named (probably) either after the king Angus mac Fergus or the people known as the Cenél nÓengusa. The mists of time have obscured all certainty about either of these theories. There are tales too that the great Irish warlord Nath-I fought in the province of Circinn (the Pictish name for Angus and the Mearns), though what he was doing here is unknown. Elsewhere I have written about the tale of the Irish hero driven out from his own land and who created a dynasty in the land of the Picts. His name was Conall Corc.

   The above stories took place in the twilight just before the advent of written history. Closer to true history perhaps are the events which took place in the late 6th century. I looked at these details again during research for my forthcoming book on the fierce warlord Áedán mac Gabráin, king of Dál Riata. (Available from Pen & Sword.)

 One of this king's known battles happened in Circenn, though we are wholly lacking any details about it. Further confusion involves the mention of a battle he fought against a presumably Pictish people or confederation known as the Miathi, which occurs in the Life of St Columba. This tribe was known to have been active in the area around Stirling, known as Manau, several hundred years earlier.

   Confusion abounds. Did they migrate north to Angus? Have all these battles been confused, or were they military skirmishes which happened as a prolonged campaign by the Scots of the west against the southern Picts? We can't know for sure. What did Áedán himself want in this region? From what we know of his other campaigns, he was not a ruler who primarily sought to expand his territory. However, he may have given his blessing to campaigns which were waged by his sons. One of his sons was named Gartnait and it has been convincingly argued that he was a king of the Picts. Áedán may have married a royal Pictish woman which gave Gartnait a claim to territory in the east.  The historian W.J. Watson, in his classic work History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland (1926), speculated that Áedán was the son of a woman whose father was the legendary hero named Brachan, who gave his name to Brechin in Angus. To bolster this claim, he derived the name of Gowrie, the area immediately to the west of Angus, from Áedán's father.

   The relationship between Áedán and the Picts may be even more intriguing if we consider him alongside the most renowned Pictish leader of the era, Bridei mac Maelchon. Bridei was based in northern Pictland and possibly ruled from a power centre near modern Inverness. It was here that the Irish cleric St Columba encountered him on more than one occasion. Although it was claimed by some sources that Columba converted the warlord to Christianity, the Irish sources do not admit this. Columba's contact was diplomatic, relating to the safety of Irish people in the far north, both fellow clerics and secular people who had been enslaved by the Picts. The record of his contact tells of ferocious ideological disagreement with the pagan powers at the epicentre of the Pictish establishment.

   The first time we hear about the nascent Irish kingdom of Áedán in a military sense, it is the flight of its warband under their king Gabráin, Áedán's father. Like him or not, Bridei was the primary power holder in the north of Britain. But did he hold sway in southern Pictland. There is a current emphasis among historians to assert the importance of northern Pictland, beyond the Grampians, over the southern territories. And yet, the truth may be more complex. These southern provinces, comprising Angus, much of Perthshire, Fife, and other regions, comprised much of the most fertile farming land in Scotland. Its resources were undoubtedly greater than the areas to the north. Greater resources signal greater power. 

   If Bridei did not control the south, he would have had aspirations to do so. A misplaced entry in the Irish Annals of Tigerach possibly gives us a clue about events in the land of the southern Picts. Under the year 752 there is a bald entry which says: 'The battle of Asreth in the land of Circenn, between Picts on both sides; and in it fell Bridei, Maelchon's son.' It has been convincingly argued that the entry has been misplaced by two 84-year Easter cycles and that it relates to a early battle in the early 580s. There was no Pictish king of the same name otherwise known in the mid 8th century.

  Bridei's opponent may have been an obscure Pictish leader known as Galam Cennaleth. The latter probably did not enjoy the victory, if it was his. Very soon the son of Áedán held sway over Circenn and the south. But was Áedán an ally or foe of the previously all-powerful Bridei. There is no knowing for sure. But it may be that the wily king of Dál Riata watched from afar in armed neutrality as the Picts fought themselves and then stepped in to conquer, as seems to have been his habit against enemies in Ireland.