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

This is the second part of the valuable Account of the Shire of Forfar written by the venerable John Ochterlony, an Angus laird of the late 17th century. As one of the earliest coherent accounts of the county, it contains much interesting detail. Due to Ochterlony's social standing the focus is naturally on mansion houses and their occupants, noble and otherwise.

The first part of the account can be read here.  The third part will be posted in the future.

Ochterlony's home, The Guynd

PRESBYTERIE OF BRECHIN, continued

Logie. — The chief heritor is the Laird of Logie, Scott, a gentleman of a good estate thereabout. Galraw, belongmg to Sir John Falconer, ane excellent new built house, with much old planting, and fyne yards, and salmond fishing.  Craigo, to Mr James Gamegy. All lying very pleasantly upon the south syde of North Esk. Mr Symsone, minister. In the Diocese of Brechine.

Dun. — The whole parish did formerly belong to the Lairds of Dun, as did the parish of Logie, and Barony of Arret. It is ane ancient and honourable familie. It is a great house, well planted, good yards and orchards. The situatione is pleasant, and extraordinare good land ; hath a large outer court, and the church on the south-east syde thereof, and the minister's manse hard by. It lyes on the north syde of South Esk, where he hath a good salmond fishing. Mr Lichtoune, minister. In the Diocese of Brechine; the Laird, patrone.

Montrose — Is a Royal Burgh, having a Provost, four Bailies, and a Dean of the Guild, and others. It is a very handsome well built toune, of considerable trade in all places abroad ; good houses all of stone, excellent large streets, a good tolbuith and church, good shipping of their own, a good shore 

at the toune, a myle within the river of South Esk ; but the entrie is very dangerous for strangers that know it not, by reason of a great bank of sand that lyeth before the mouth of the entrie, called Long Ennell, but that defect is supplied by getting pilots from the neighbouring fisher-towns of Ulishavene or Ferredene, who know it so well that they cannot mistake. It is a very cheap place of all things necessary except house rent, which is dear, by reason of the great distance they are from stones, and makes their building very dear ; yet, notwithstanding, they are constantly building both in the toune, and suburbs, which are at a considerable distance from the toune, in the Links, whore are their malthouses, and kills, and granaries for cornes, of thrie storeys high, and some more, and are increased to such a number, that in a short tyme it is thought they will equall, if not exceed, the toune in greatness. They are well appointed of flesches and fishes, which are extraordinare cheap in that place, and have them in great abundance of all sorts. They have a good public revenue, two wind-milnes, ane hospitale, with some mortificationes belonging to it ; they are mighty fyne burgesses, and delicate and painfull merchants. There have been men of great substance in that toune of a long time, and yet are, who have and are purchasing good estates in the countrey. The generalitie of the burgesses and merchants do very far exceed these in any other toune in the shyre. They have a good landward parish, and severall heritors therein, viz. Logic, Scot, before mentioned, who hath very good houses and yards in the toune; Kinnaber, Fullertoune, a pleasant place, lying on the south syde of North Esk, with salmond fishings ; Borrowfield, Talzeor ; Heatherwick, a new built fyne house, belonging to David Scott. Mr Lyell and Mr Neill, ministers. In the Diocese of Brechine ; the Toune, patrons.

Inchbraick, formerly belonging to Sir John Carnegie, a second son of the House of Southesk, now to Patrick Scott, son to James Scott of Logie, sometime Provost of Montross.  It is a great estate, excellent good land lying upon the south syd of the water of Southesk untill ye come to the mouth of the water, and then tumeth west the coast untill ye pass Ulishavene, a fishertoune of his. He hath ane other called Ferredene, and hath salmond fishings there. The river makes ane island betwixt Montross and Ferredene, where the kirk in old stood, and the whole parish is designed from the island, and is still the buriall place of the parish. They always wait the low water, and carries over their dead then, being almost dry on the south syd when it is low water. He hath thrie houses there, viz. Craig, Bossie, two excellent houses, rebuilt with excellent good yards, orchards, and planting. Craig hath ane excellent fountaine, with a large basone of hewen stone, whereunto water is conveyed by pypes of lead from a spring at a good distance.

Baldovie, a gentleman's house, of the name of Dundas ; farther up the south syde of South Esk, with a salmond fishing. Dunynald, belonging to Thomas Allerdyce, a second son of the House of Allerdyce of that Ilk in Memes. A good estate, and a fyne new built house, with good yards, where there is great plentie of excellent lymestone ; it lyes upon the coast, which all alongst from Montross is a rookie iron coast, and there is a large spacious bay, which makes a sure and saif road for any ships in a storm, called Lounane Houp. Mr Mathie, minister. In the Diocese of Brechin.

Marietoune. — That parish lyes upon the south syde of South Esk from Baldovie up to Kinnaird. There are therein Old Montross, formerly belonging to the Marquis of Montross, and is their title, now to the Earl of Middletoune, one of his Majestie's Secretaries of State, a pleasant place, good house, excellent yards and planting, delicate land; with a salmond fishing on the water Bonnietoune, belonging to Sir John Wood, ane ancient gentleman, and good estate, well planted, good yard, orchard, and dovecoat, and excellent good land. Dysart, Lyell, a good house, lyes on the coast be-west Dunynald, with a dovecoat. Mr Lindsay, minister. In the Diocese of Brechine ; Bishop thereof, patrone.

Kinnaird and Farnell. — Both these parishes belong entirely to the Earl of Southesk, without competition the fynest place, taking altogether, in the shyre ; a great house, excellent gardens, parks with fallow deer, orchards, hay meadows, wherein are extraordinare quantities of hay, very much planting, ane excellent breed of horse, cattle, and sheep, extraordinare good land. Famell is lykewayes ane extraordinare sweet place, delicat yards, and very much planting. My Lord is patrone of both, and are in the Diocese of Brechine. The familie is very ancient and honourable 

these six generations. In Queen Marie Regent, Queen Marie, King James the Sixth, King Charles the First, and his Majestie now reigning, they have been Officers of State and Privie Counsellors, and have all of them been verie famous for their loyaltie, and of late have suffered much upon that accompt, and have been honoured by having his present King's Majestic, his father, and grandfather, of blessed memorie, at their house of Kinnaird.

Upon the west syd of both parishes lyes that great and spacious forrest called Montroyment, belonging to his Lordship, and abounding in wyld foul and haires. 

PRESBYTERIE OF ARBROATH

The Presbetrie of Arbroth is divided into eleven parishes, viz. Kinnell, Innerkillor, Lounane, St Vigeans, Arbroth, Arbirlot, Carmylie, Idvie, Guthrie, Panbryd, Barrie.

Kinnell. — Most part of the parish belongs to Earl Southesk, being adjacent to Farnell and Kinnaird, with the house of Balshione, well planted with excellent fine yeards. Easter Braichie, belonging to Sir Francis Ogilvy of New Grange, a great-grandchild of the House of Airlie. Wester Braichie, a gentleman of a nigh relation of the House of Gray; both good houses, and well planted. Mr Thompsone, minister. In the Diocese of St Andrews; Archbishop, patrone.

Innerkillor. — Most part of the parish belongs to Earl Northesk, as the Barronies of Ethie and Bedcastle, with others. Ethie is the principal dwelling ; a very good house, laitly re-edified by John Earl of Ethie, grandfather to this present Earl, and who was a son of the House of Southesk, a noble, worthie, and loyall persone, who suffered much for his loyaltie, as was also his son the Earl Northesk, father to the present Earl. They have fyne yards, orchards, and park.

It lyes pleasantly on the coast be-west Lounnan Houp, formerly spoken to, and is very good land, and hath a fishertown belonging thereto called Auchmuthie, whereby they are abundantly served of all kind of fishes all seasons of the yeir. In the rocks of Ethie there engendereth ane excellent falcone yeirly. Abundance of sea-foul and kittiewaicks formerly spoken of. Reidcastle, ane old house upon the sea. King William, when he built the Abbey of Arbroth, dwelt there. Laird of Boysack, a grandchild of the House of Northesk, hath a good estate there, and a good house called Boysack, on the water of Lounan. The Laird of Bonnietoune hath a considerable interest in the parish. Breying-toun, belonging to Mr John Bait, minister, a gentleman of the House of Halgreen in the Memes. Lawtoune, to Gairdyne of that Ilk, a very ancient familie, and chief of his name. Mr Rait, minister. In the Diocese of St Andrews; Earl Panmure, patrone.

Lounane [Lunan]. — The most part of this parish belongs to the Earl of Northesk, called the Barony of Lounane. Innerlounane, belonging to Ogilvy, brother (of) Innerwarity. Ardbickie to John Mudie, a good new house, and good land. All that parish, Innerkiller, Kinnell, Idvie, Guthrie, and a part of Rescobie parish, are in Strathbegg. An extraordinary pleasant country on both sides of the water of Lounane. Mr Peddie, minister. In the Diocese of St Andrews; Earl Panmure, patrone.

St Vigeans lyeth about a myll above Arbroth, on the water thereof; ane old great kirk built upon ane high artificial mount, as is famed, by one Vigeanus, a religious man, and was canonized, and the church bears his name. Places in the parish are Innerpeffer, with a considerable interest, belonging to the Earl Panmure; a pleasant sweet place, lying upon the coast three myles be-west Arbroth; fyne yards, orchard, and planting, and although it be in St Vigeans, yet the whole parish of Arbirlot is interjected betwixt them. North Tarrie belonging to Earl Northesk, well planted with yards and orchards, lyeth on the east syde of the water of Brothock. Lethem, on the west syde of the said water, a pleasant place, with good yards, orchards, well planted, with a hay meadow, belonging to Sir John Wood of Bonnietoune. New Grange lying on the east syd of the said water, good yards, well planted, and pleasant meadows. Collestoune, presently purchased by Doctor Gordone, good house, planting, and meadows. Parkconnone, Bamsay; Gaimetoune, Ramsay; Muirhouse, belonging to the Laird of Guynd; Easter Seatowne, Crawford; Wester Seatowne, Guthrie; both lyeing together on the coast, good houses, yards, and planting, with a little park at the Easter Seatowne, the rocks whereof abound with sea calves, sea foull, and wyld pigeons. South Tarrie, Leslie, a fyne little house and yards, excellent ground, lyeing at the east syde of the toune of Arbroth. Hospitalfield, and Kirktoune, a pleasant place,  and good land, belonging to a gentleman of the name of Fraser, of the Familie of Philorth, where they gather abundance of that alga marina, wherewith they dung their land to their great advantage. Mr Strachane, minister. In the Diocese of St Andrews ; Earl Panmure, patrone.

Aberbrothock — Is a Burgh Boyall, hath a Provost, two Bailzies, whereof the Earl of Panmure hath the electioun of the first. It is a pleasant and sweet place, and excellent good land about it, built upon the east syd of the water of Brothock; they have a shore, some shipping, and a little small trade; it hath one long large street, and some by streets; it is tolerably well built, and hath some very good houses in it; but the beautie and decorement of the place in tymes past was that excellent fabrick and building of the Abbey thereof, built by King William, King of Scots, and endowed by him and others with great rents and revenues, and lyes buried there in a piece of very stately work built by himself for that purpose, and is a very stately piece of work of thrie storie high. The whole fabrick of the buriall-place is still entire as at first, and if it be not thrown downe, may continue so for many generations;the laigh storey is the buriall-place, and the second and third storeys were employed for keeping the chartours of the Monastrie. There is one lodging remaining yet entire; it had a most stately church, with two great steeples on the west end thereof;  most part of the church is ruined, but was the largest both for breadth and length it is thought in Scotland. There is much of the walls thereof as yet standing in many places; the tower thrie storie high is standing yet entire, and the roof on it; there was ane excellent roume, called the fish-hall, standing, with ane excellent oak roof; but that with much more of the building by the avarice of the town's people about there, were all broken down, and taken away.

There were, besyd the Cathedral Church, four chapples, viz. — St Thomas' Chappie, the Abbey being dedicat to St Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterburrie; it was richly furnished, and a gentleman told me he saw the verrie things in a chapple at Parish, and was told they were removed thither by the Monks of Arbroth the tyme of Reformartion, cxtraordinare rich, but of an antique fashione; Lady Chapple; St Ninian's Chappie. The Almes-house Chapple is now possest by James Philip of Almryclose,his house built of the stones thereof, and has all the apartments belonging thereto. The fabrick was great and excellent, having many fyne gardens and orchards, now converted to arable ground, about which is a high stone wall, and now by the King's gift belongs to the Bishop of Brechine. Hard by the towne upon the east syd is Newgait, belonging to a gentleman of the name of Camegy, of the Family of Southesk, a very good house and pleasant place; Almryclose is in the head of the towne, and good house and yards. Sundie Croft, a little interest belonging to a gentleman of the name of Peirsone, who is ancient, and withoutt debait chief of his name. Mr Carnegy, minister. In the Diocese of St Andrews; the King's Majestie, patrone.

Arbirlot. — Most part of the parish, with the house of Kellie, which formerly belonged to the Lairds of Ouchterlony of that Ilk, belongs now to Henry Maull, third brother to the present Earl Panmure, is a good and very great house, well -planted, and stands very pleasantly on the water of Eliot. The rest of the parochine belongs to the Earl Panmure, is excellent good ground, and lyes alongst the coast two or thrie myles. Mr M'Gill, minister. In the Diocese of St Andrews; the Earl of Panmure, patrone.

Carmyllie. — The most part of the parish belongs to the Earl of Panmure, with the house of Carmyllie. Oamegy, belonging to the Earl Southesk, and is the title of the eldest son of the Familie, is a good house, well grassed, a good moss, with ane excellent large park. Guynd, a good house, with yards and planting, lying upon the water of Eliot, belongs to John Ouchterlony, lineal successor, chief and representative of the ancient familie of Ouchterlony of that Ilk. Cononsyth, to a gentleman of the name of Bait, of the Familie of Hallgreen, in the Mernes. Mr Ouchterlony, last minister. Now vacant. Within the Diocese of Brechine; Earl Panmure, patrone.

The Bell Rock - Building the Inchcape Beacon

Time to revisit the Bell Rock as the last in depth blog on this was several years ago.  That article detailed the tradition that the rock was once home to a warning bell that the Abbot of Arbroath had placed there to warn of the reef's danger to passing shipping.  Robert Southey worked up the legend that a Dutch poet had cut down the bell and suffered death as a result.  (The post can be read here.)  Time now, I think, for little more sober history about the place, and in particular its beginnings.

The Name of the Rock

David Miller in Arbroath and its Abbey (1860, p. 244) states that the modern alternative name for the rock, Inchcape, is a distortion of older Inch-Scape. The word scape is  Scots term for a straw bee-hive, suggesting that the reef reminded early mariners of this shape.  By extension, it was latterly named Bell Rock because of this natural shape rather than the dubious legend that a bell was physically placed here.  Nevertheless, this story is by no means watertight either. 

Early History

   The following is gleaned from Alexander McBain's Arbroath Past and Present (1887).  A map published in France in 1583 shows the perilous sea route between the undertaken by King James V which led him from the Forth, via Orkney, to the Firth of Clyde and Galloway.  Accompanying the chart is a description of the features and dangers, including the following notice of the east coast, where we can recognise the names Fifeness, Redhead and Inchcape:

Entre Finismes et nommé Redde, xii mille à l'est sud estdu costé de la dicte pointe Redde, gist un danger appelé Inchkope.

The Building of the Lighthouse

  In the late 18th century the prevalence of wrecks along this part of the coast gave rise to serious considerations on building a lighthouse on the Bell Rock reef.  Other measures were employed as an interim.  In the year 1806 a Prussian vessel named the Tonge Gerret was purchased for use as a lightship here and had her name changed to Pharos.  This was the first lightship employed in Scotland. In practical terms the light vessel had been a wise choice. There had been a previous scheme put forward in 1799 by  gentleman of Leith to install four bells upon the rock as an auditory warning to shipping, but luckily this did not come to pass.

  To build the lighthouse, the engineer Robert Stevenson was engaged and made his first survey in 1800. On his first surveying visit to the rock evidence of its destructive power could be seen there. An assortment of washed up items was found: a bayonet, a shoe buckle, coins, a cannon ball, all evidence of wreckage. On a visit to the rock on 7th August 1807, Stevenson was accompanied by Peter Logan, a foreman builder, and five assistants.  They remained there for three days, drawing a survey chart for moorings and preparing for the workmen who would shortly arrive  The latter comprised a body of twenty-four men and departed for the rock the following week after a special kirk service.  The foundation was laid on Sunday 10th July 1808. The men lived on board a ship, the Smeaton, anchored to the rock.

      On one occasion the Smeaton broke free and left the full complement on the Bell Rock. They had two boats, but not all of them would have been able to fit into them. As they were pondering what to do, and amid rising panic, the Bell Rock pilot, a man named James Spink, appeared in his vessel and was able to rescue all the men.  His act earned him a pension from the Northern Lighthouse board.

   There were unfortunate accidents as the work proceeded. The first casualty was an eighteen year old sailor named James Scott.  He and  Thomas Macurich, the mate of the Smeaton, were in a boat making fast a hawser to a floating buoy. A loose chain suddenly caught the boat and upturned it Macurish managed to cling on to the boat, but the younger man was drowned. It was a further tragedy for the family as his father at the time was a prisoner of war being held by the French. 

   A second victim was killed ashore.  William Walker was employed in the yard at Arbroath, from where the materials were shipped for building the lighthouse. He was killed by an accident, though the details are sketchy.  More is known about the sad circumstances of the third death.  A young blacksmith named Charles Henderson was working with one other fitting up the light room under the direction of James Dove.  When Dove ordered both men to ascend one evening as light was fading, they playfully dashed to see who could get down first, but Henderson fell from the rope ladder into deep water and was never seen again.

  

   On 6th July 1810 the last course of the lighthouse was laid in the work yard and five guineas were rewarded to the work men to have a celebration drink and dance with their families.  Building operations were finished on the rock on 4th August. The commissioners for the Northern Lighthouse Board visited the lighthouse in the following January and the light soon went into permanent commission.  The total cost of building was £61, 331 9s 2d.

   

Ships Claimed by the Bell Rock Reef

   the new lighthouse obviously dramatically reduced the loss of life in an around the area.  On 28th May 1876 the schooner Ruby, of Dundee, was wrecked on the rock, but all the crew were saved.  A ship from Settin, the barque Ferdinand Brumm, carrying timber, went ashore on the bell rock. Again, thankfully, all the crew were saved. The ship was towed off the reef on 14th September, two days after the accident, and beached in West Ferry Bay.

   During World War I the light was, for the most part, switched off to avoid being used as a navigation mark by prowling German U boats. On 28th October HMS Argyll, a Royal Navy ship of the Devonshire class, ran aground on the rock in the early hours of the morning. A fire broke out and there was substantial damage to the hull, but luckily two other vessels were at hand. HMS Hornet and HMS Jackal managed to free the stricken ship without any single life being lost.

Internet Resources

http://www.bellrock.org.uk/ - A reference site for the Bell Rock lighthouse.

The Northern Lighthouse Board page about the lighthouse.

Some Sources

John Adam, Aberbrothock Illustrated (Arbroath, 1886).

J. M. McBain, Arbroath, Past and Present (Arbroath, 1887).

The Gude and Godlie Ballatis and the Wedderburn Brothers

 This post broadly concerns the 16th century Wedderburn family, and particularly those brothers of that ilk who were both authors and firebrands of the incoming reformed religion. Though relatively little known in Scotland and let alone in Dundee, their influence was considerable at one time. I will look briefly at the career of James Weddeburn the playwright in a future piece about the Playfield of Dundee. Also for the future is full consideration of the work known as The Complaynt of Scotland, which was probably authored by Robert Wedderburn. This post concentrates on the other Wedderburn siblings and their most famous literary production The Gude and Godlie Ballatis, which has thankfully survived, unlike the two plays we know were written by James Wedderburn.

  This is not place to give a full analysis of the Ballatis, and not am I the person best placed to provide that service. Therefore I offer you only a scant background of the Wedderburn boys themselves and a small slice of their compositions.

The Wedderburn Family and Dundee

 The Wedderburns are named after lands of that name in Berwickshire, most associated with the powerful Home family.  Some members of the kindred had migrated to Dundee and rose to prominence in the burgh from the early 15th century onward. There were several related families of Wedderburns in Dundee within a century and also a branch at Kingennie near Forfar.  For our purposes, the most important branch is that headed by James Wedderburn of the Wellgait in Dundee, who died in 1514. James's wife Janet Barry was the sister of the burgh's vicar, Master John Barry, a prominent figure who sat in the burgh council in the 1520s.  James and Janet  had five sons:  James, John, Robert, Henry, Gilbert.  The elder James had a brother also resident in the Wellgait named Walter, whose son William was a monk in Arbroath, which surely put his at odds against his cousins in Dundee later.

Dundee in the 17th century 

Several Black Sheep

   As with most families, there was one brother of the Dundee Weddeburns who did not follow the productive literary path of his siblings. The least celebrated of the Wedderburn brothers also seems to have had the darkest character.  Gilbert Wedderburn has his property escheated in 1538 after being convicted for heresy.  No surprise there as all his siblings displayed commitment to radical Protestant ideology before the onset of the Reformation.  Five years after that trouble he was declared an outlaw for killing a man named David Rollok, an act 'committed on old feud and felony'.  The following year he was named as 'remaining at home and absenting himself from the army' and also being guilty of slaughtering Gilbert Rollok.  Dundee being probably unsuitable for him as a residence, he settled in Leith and died there in 1559.

  Mention might be made here of a later Dundonian Wedderburn, John of Craigie, who was active in the late 16th century. A member of the legal profession, he disposed of the lands of Craigie in the east of Dundee and took service with the Earl of Crawford.  He was convicted in 1588 of wounding an Angus laird, David Gardyne. A burgess of Dundee, he was convicted in 1596 of killing Robert Lindsay of Balhall and also an Irishman named James Leitch. He fled south to England, where he boasted that he was a follower of the rebel Earl of Bothwell.  He is described in a letter from Ralph, Lord Eure to Lord Burghley in the following year as ' a Scottishe gentleman, called Mr John Wedderburn, disguised in mariner's apparel, and that of the meanest sort'. Eure had detained him, rightly, as a suspicious character.  He claimed to have been active in France on business of the king and stated that he was engaged in a conspiracy. His description was given as, 'of reasonable stature, verie square bodyed, bigg legged, one of two scarres on the hight of his foreheade...yellowe berded, the haire of his heade like unto white amber.' It was said he was 'cunning in state matters' and suspected that he had been engaged in 'more devilish practices than he revealeth'. He did not live to engage in further intrigues and was apparently dead within a few years.

(These details taken from The Wedderburn Book, Alexander Wedderburn, vol. I (1898), xlii.)

A Little Sport Besides the Religion

   It wasn't all ardent religious intensity and polemical writing for the Wedderburn brothers.  One of them at least slipped into the sporting annals of the nation by featuring in the following passage from Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie's 16th century History.  Robert Wedderburn was also in the Church; some writers think that Pitscottie meant him and not John, whom he names in his text.  But, whichever sibling is intended, the anecdote is a delightful glimpse into events in St Andrew in the year 1528 or 1529.

In this year there came an ambassador out of England, named Lord William Howard, and a bishop with him, to the number of three score horse, which were all the able men and waled men for all kind of games and pastimes, shouting, louping, running, wrestling,and casting of the stone; but they were well sayed ere they past out of Scotland, and that by their own provocation:  but ever they tint: till at last the Queen of Scotland, the King's mother, favoured the Englishmen, because she was the king of England's sister: and therefore she took an enterprise of archery upon the Englishmen's hands, contrary to her son the King, and any six in Scotland he would wale [pick], either gentlemen or yeomen, that the Englishmen would  shoot against them, either at pricks, revers, or butts, as the Scots pleased.  The King hearing this of his mother, was content and gart her pawn a hundred crowns, and a tun of wine, upon the Englishmen's hands; and he incontinent laid down as much for the Scottish men. The field and ground were chosen in St Andrews, and three landed men and three yeomen chosen to shoot against the Englishmen; to wit, David Wemyss of that ilk, David Arnot of that ilk, and Mr John Wedderburn, vicar of Dundee; the yeomen, John Thompson, in Leith, Steven Taburnea, with a piper called Alexander Bailie.  They shot very near, and worsted the Englishmen of the enterprise, and wan the hundred crowns and the tun of wine, which made the King very merry that his men wan the victory.

John Wedderburn and The Gude and Godlie Ballatis

  John Wedderburn was born around 1500 and was educated at St Andrews (at St Leonard's College, where most of the other brothers seem to have been educated also).  He became a chaplain in the church of St Mary at Dundee.  His was convicted of heresy in 1538, around the time his brother Gilbert was also having legal difficulties, and left Scotland for Wittenberg in Germany, imbibing the teachings of Luther while he was there.  Returning to Scotland in 1543, he was obliged to go to England in 1546 and there he died in 1556.

   David Calderwood (1575-1650) briefly described the Wedderburns in his History of the Kirk of Scotland .  According to him, John was initially reluctant to enter into religion, though whether this was due to the Catholic doctrine prevalent at the time, or a more general disinclination is unknown.  Calderwood states that he heard Luther and other reformers preach in Germany and he translated some of the latter's works into Scots.  Also, in a reference to his surviving work, 'He turned manie bawdie songs and rymes in godlie rymes.'

   The book named the Gude and Godlie Ballatis is almost certainly the work of John Wedderburn. The other brothers may have had some input also.  Robert is said to have provided some of the tunes for the metres provided, but there is no music printed in the text. The book does not survive in manuscript, but there have been various published versions, with differing titles.  The published titles include the Psalms of Dundee, the Psalms of Wedderburn, the Godlie and Spirituall Sangs. The editions were issued first during the Reformation and grew and changed as time went on.  It is a work containing both prose and verse and is valued both for the richness of its Scots language as well as being an important text on the religious development of the nation. The first surviving edition of the book is from 1567, though the ballads may have been in circulation in the early 1540s. When the famous preacher George Wishart was arrested in 1546 or 1547, John Knox reports that he sang the fifty-first psalm in Scottish metre.

   What did the book consist of? Apart from a metrical translation of the Psalms, the bulk of the text is popular songs composed in Scots to reaffirm the truth of the reformed religion and stigmatise the old Popish rule. Many of the ballads are translations of popular works from Germany, where the John had close links.  Others are renewed versions of popular secular songs which would have been in circulation in the mid 16th century in Dundee and elsewhere. The description given near the start of the 1567 edition advertises the intent of the author:

Ane Compendius Book of Godly and Spirituall Sangis out of Sundry parts of the Scripture with sundry other Ballats changet out of prophaine sangis for avoyding of sin and harlatry, with augmentation of sundrye gude and godly Ballates, etc., etc.

   Students of Scots vernacular and of the Reformation may find much to fascinate them in The Gude and Godlie Ballatis, but the more general reader will find the content not so east to digest in the modern age. I offer here one solitary entire example  from the work, not because of its intrinsic worth, but because of the story behind it. 'Welcum, Fortoun,' was the name of  a ballad banned by the general assembly in 1568 and it vanished for a full three hundred years before being found by the editor of the Scottish Text Society edition of the The Gude and Godlie Ballatis (1897). Why it should have been banned by the Kirk is something of a mystery, so its subject is mild by most standards.  However, it does exude a wholly earthly longing of a man for a woman and there are different theories about its origin, given by the Ballatis' editor, A. F. Mitchell.

Welcum, Fortoun, welcum againe,

The day and hour I may weill blis,

Thow hes exilit all my paine,

Quhilk to my hart greit plesour is.

For I may say, that few men may, 

Seing of paine I am drest, 

I haif obtenit all my pay,

The lufe of hir that I lufe best.

I knaw nane sic as scho is one,

Sa trew, sa kynde, sa luiffandlie,

Quhat suld I do, an scho war gone?

Allace! zit had I leuer die.

To me scho is baith trew and kynde,

Worthie it war scho had the praise,

For na disdaine in hir I find,

I pray to God I may hir pleis.

Quhen that I heir hir name exprest,

My hart for Ioy dois loup thairfoir,

Abufe all vther I lufe his best,

Unto I die, quhat wald scho moir?

   Is it John Wedderburn's heartfelt rhapsody for the mother of his children, or a more generalised tribute to secular love?  Possibly it might only be a reworking of something older still.  Wedderburn may have cleaned up a bawdier ballad that was circulating in the profane drinking dens of Dundee. Whichever it was, the ballad was transformed again into a sparking religious confection, beginning with these sacred words:

Welcum, Lord Christ, welcum, againe,

My ioy, my confort, and my blis, 

That culd me saif from Hellis paine, 

Bot onlie thow nane was, nor is.