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).