One County Over - Charles Sharpe, RIP

This is a short post of a different kind. I do not usually burden readers with poetic effusions, but here I make an exception. I recently learned of the death of Dundee-born Charles Sharpe, long-time resident of Totnes in Devon, who, however, never forgot his early days in Dundee, particularly in Lochee. He also retained a keen interest in the wider hinterland of Angus where he roamed and where his ancestors came from. He was a teacher, educator, psychotherapist, and a worthy humanist, as can be seen by reading his still available blog, Leaving Dundee. (It can be seen here).

We never met and corresponded only intermittently about various topics concerning the 'mither country'. His comments were always encouraging, generous and intelligent. The Courier's notice of his death is: here

One County Over

I thought you were quiet, but never knew you had gone into the night,
An end of an Auld Sang as they truly say, entered into the long rest
at last in gentle Devon (while I labour still, one county over, in the Cornish clay.)

Like me, from Lochee, but a post war laddie, remembering your beginning,

son of the burgh that never left your bones and what's more  a humanist voice

alive to all causes, against injustice and blasted spirits.

No blighted tongue, no mere rememberer, 

but a connoisseur of what was best from the blessed homeland.

The Den of Fowlis

 The Den o' Fowlis, also termed Spinkie Den, lies several miles north-west of Dundee. Its common name spinkie comes from the profusion of primroses which flourish there. The small, enclosed ravine (covering a site of 20.4 acres) was made a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1984, due to the botanical interest. The trees here include oak, wych elm and ash, and there is a profusion of flowers, wild garlic, plus mosses and ferns.Some time in the late 1980s, when I visited it, the mini glen was looking particularly forlorn, with evidence of widespread tree felling. To me, it looked like an example of rural vandalism, but it may very well have been evidence only of a carefully managed and necessary act of conservation.

   Long established as a special hideaway, there is a tradition of revelers from the Dundee suburb of Lochee alighting here in the late 19th century, being led to the den by a fiddler. Beyond this bare, recorded fact, these long ago gatherings are lost in the mists of time.

Poems On The Den

   The two following poetic effusions from Victorian times hardly do the Den justice, but are included here for the hell of it. One is by the redoubtable McGonagall, though the other poem is hardly better.

The Den o’ Fowlis, William McGonagall (1882)

Beautiful Den o’ Fowlis, most charming to be seen
In the summer season, when your trees are green;
Especially in the bright and clear month of June,
When your flowers and shrubberies are in full bloom.
There visitors can enjoy themselves during the holidays,
And be shaded by the trees from the sun’s rays,
And admire the beautiful primroses that grow there;
And inhale their sweet perfume that fills the air.
There the little children sport and play,
Blythe and gay during the live-long summer day,
In its beautiful green and cool shady bowers,
Chasing the bee and butterfly, and pulling the flowers.
There the Minnows loup and play;
In the little rivulet all the day;
Right in the hollow of that fairy-like Den,
Together in little shoals of nine or ten
And the Mavis and Blackbird merrily sing,
Making the Den with their notes to ring;
From high noon till sunset at night,
Filling the visitor’s heart with delight.
Tis most lovely to see the trees arched overhead,
And the little rivulet rolling o’er its pebbly bed,
Ane near by is an old Meal Mill;
Likewise an old Church and Churchyard where the dead lie still.
The Den is always cool in the summer time,
Because it is so closely shaded from the sunshine,
By the spreading branches of the trees,
While the murmuring of the rivulet is heard on the night breeze.
It is a very magnificent spot the Den o’ Fowlis,
And where oft the wintry wind it howls,
Among its bare and leafless withered trees,
And with fear would almost make one’s heart to freeze.
To be walking through it on a dark wintry night,
Because the bare trees seem like spectres to your sight,
And everything around seems dark and drear,
And fills the timid mind with an undefinable fear.
But in the summer season it is most lovely to see;
With its fair flowers and romantic scenery,
Where the people can enjoy themselves all the day,
In the months of July, June, or May.
There the people can drink pure water when they are dry;
From the wells of spring water in the Den near by,
Which God has provided for his creatures in that lonely spot,
And such a blessing to the people shouldn’t be forgot.

Den of Fowlis, Patrick Cargill Guthrie from My Lost Love (London, 1865) 

Ah! Bonnie den, my weary heart
Oft wanders fond to thee;
The memory of thy sylvan groves,
How very dear to me.

Remembrance of thy beauty brings
No mixture sad of pain,
For then to me had Eden come
In pristine bliss again.
No clouds my pathway then had cross'd,
I walk'd in angel-joy,
My lusty pulses beating high -
The happy poet-boy!
The winding walks o'ershadow'd cool
By boughs of lovely green,
With footsteps firm I proudly trod,
Of fame assured, I ween.
The glad larks sang 'mong golden clouds,
The finch 'mong blushing bloom,
The mavis piped upon the thorn,
The linnet 'mong the broom.
The wild flowers flung their fragrance rich
To every passing breeze;
Upon the senses stealing came
The drowsy hum of bees.
Earth, sea, and air rejoicing free,
Glad anthems rolling high;
Within my soul a deep, deep joy -
Divinest melody!
What grand thoughts stirred my youthful soul,
What aspirations high;
What longing - wistful - tearful looks
Into futurity!
Ah! then throughout my silver veins, 
Flow'd swift in golden streams,
My warm, rich blood, imparting form,

And substance to my dreams.

Thanks to the reader who corrected me when I misidentified Balruddery Den as being an alternative name for the site. It lies some way to the west.  

Fowlis Castle and Kirk

 

   The parish of Fowlis lies on the Braes of the Carse of Gowrie, part of the southern slopes of the Sidlaw Hills, several miles north-west of Dundee. Fowlis joined to the neighbouring parish of Lundie to the north in 1618 and is notable for its castle, kirk and the beauty spot called the Den o' Fowlis. 

   There has been confusion as to whether the parish was part of  Angus or Perthshire. It has been in Angus since late 19th century boundary changes, but was historically a part of Perthshire. (However, the barony of Fowlis included part of neighbouring Liff which has always been in Angus and the parish was also represented in the Synod of Angus and the Mearns.)

   Like many places the name of Fowlis is unclear and there are two in central Scotland, our example (sometimes called Fowlis Easter) and Fowlis Wester in Perthshire. One older theory states that the place-name derives from a Norman knight  - the Knight of Feuilles - who migrated from Kent who was granted the land by King Malcolm Canmore in the 11th century. Another suggestion says it gets its name from a Gaelic word signifying 'deep valley', referring to the narrow Den in the vicinity. David Dorward derives the name from fo ghlais, meaning 'sub stream' or 'tributary'.

   There are no very early dates regarding the ownership of the lands before the dubious Norman association but we know that King David I granted Fowlis along with other lands to William Maule following the Battle of the Standard in 1138. The Maules of course loom large as prominent gentry throughout the county through the centuries. One of Maule's daughters married Roger Mortimer, Sheriff of Perthshire, and Fowlis passed through this family for several centuries until the end of the 14th century when the heiress named Janet married Sir Andrew Gray, seventh baron of Broxmouth, who founded the line of the Grays of Fowlis. 

Fowlis Kirk

   The kirk may originally have been built in the 12th century, but the present building may be on the site of a 14th century foundation  by Sir Andrew Gray, later Lord Grey, in the 15th century.  This was done in 1453. Renovation was carried out in the late Victorian era. There is a record of an earlier kirk of Fowlis  in 1180, when William of Maule made a gift of the church and the titles of certain lands to his nephew, Thomas of Maule, out of which he was bound to pay a merk yearly to the Canons of St Andrews. 

   The kirk, dedicated to St Marnoch, is reckoned to be the finest surviving small medieval place of worship in Scotland. It was a collegiate establishment, served by a group of ecclesiastics (provost and prebends) rather than a single priest or establishment. This arrangement allowed the founder and sponsoring family to have an ongoing spiritual body on site employed to look after their everlasting souls.  The building has a sumptuous and surprisingly ornate interior which probably survived the wrath of the Reformation mobs of Dundee and Perth (who destroyed Coupar Angus Abbey among ot her ecclesiastical sites) due to the place's association with Lord Gray who was a staunch Protestant. There was an order by the Synod of Fife on 6th May 1612 to destroy the religious decoration:

Item, it is statute and ordained that the paintrie quhilk is upon the pulpitt and ruid-laft, being monumentes of idolatrie, sal be obliterate be laying it over with grein colour. The minister with diligens to see the same exped.

   Thankfully, there are surviving later medieval decorations still left in the kirk. There are many ancient features inside the building. Most significant perhaps is the oak panel painting of the Crucifixion. It details a crowd of figures (including St John, Salome, the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene), plus horses,  and measures 13 feet by 5 foot 3 inches. A centurion points to a scroll which reads, 'Truly this was the Son of God.' There is also the figure of a High Priest (or possibly Herod) and the souls of the two condemned thieves issuing through their mouths, with the trees and hills of Jesusalem in the background. The painting  has been dated to around 1480 and show the influence of Bohemian and Cologne schools.

   There is another panel painting which may originally have been the altarpiece. It portrays Christ with St Catherine on the left; John the Baptist on the right. Below is the scene of the body of Christ being lowered into the tomb. The centre of the painting has been damaged. Other panels include one which probably originally decorated the rood loft and portrays a number of saints and apostles. 

 Further treasures include the 15th century oak doors, which were part of the rood screen, plus the rood loft which would have accommodated musicians. There is also a German bronze alms dish (dated 1487) which shows a scene of the Garden of Eden, with a German inscription reading 'I bide the time in quietness.'  Rather less elegant are the jougs, the neck collar used to confine miscreants, hanging on the wall by the north door. There is also the aumbry, or sacrament house, where the sacred vessels were stored. This is one of the finest ancient examples in Scotland. It portrays Christ holding the cross and a globe, an angel with a cross, plus several other angels.

 

   

   

Fowlis Castle and the Gray Family

   Fowlis Castle stands at the south of the village, near the head of the Den of Fowlis.It was the principal residence of the Grays until 1452 when they moved to Castle Huntly several miles away in the Case of Gowrie. After several centuries of dereliction it was allegedly used as a tavern and then utilised to house farm labourers in the 19th century and more recently has been fully restored as a private residence. There is a date stone of 1862 in the building, commemorating rebuilding by Sir Patrick Keith Murray in the Victorian period. It was largely constructed in its present form in the 17th century and was abandoned when the owners constructed the nearby House of Gray. There is a tradition that the castle was used by the English invader General Monck in the 17th century as stables for a cavalry force. The Grays sold the estate in 1669 to Sir William Murray of Ochtertyre and the Murrays removed to Ochtertyre House, Perthshire, in 1780. The castle was occupied by Jacobite forces in both 1715 and 1745. The Grahams of Fintry are supposed to have tenanted the building for some time also.

   The existing structure is called the Lady's Tower and is four storeys in height. The surviving building may represent most of the ancient south-west portion of the castle.  The more modern wing is on the north side. It was evidently a forerunner of this stronghold which hosted King James IV in 1497N(when he paid 14 shillings to a harpar there) and his ancestor James I in 1448. The brother of Queen Anna, the Duke of Holstein, dined here with Lord Gray in May 1598. 

   Although the Gray family had a sometimes tumultuous history, there are no recorded violent events associated with the castle except for one local tradition attached to the winding staircase of the stronghold. This staircase in the tower was supposedly the site of a murder in the 13th century when the Mortimer owner dispatched his own mother there. The tale seems to have been founded on a corruption of the surname, or a play on it: Morte du Mere.

The House of Gray

   The House of Gray stands rather forlornly several miles away from Fowlis Castle, in the parish of Benvie, where the Grays purchased land in 1713. It has been boarded up and semi-derelict for many decades. Plans to turn it into a hotel and various other things have been drawn up over the years, without result, though there is a current scheme to divide them building into dwellings. The mansion was built on the plans of Alexander McGill by John, 12th Lord Gray (b. 1716. Another source states it was begun by the 10th Lord Gray.). The principal dwelling of the family transferred to Kinfauns Castle at the western end of the Carse of Gowrie, which was built by Francis, 15th Lord Gray. 

   Invergowrie House, not far off, was the home of a son of the main Gray family. The new Dykes of Gray village has been built on the estate of the House of Gray.

   

   The estate was sold to John Ogilvie at the end of the First World War and he lived there until he died in 1936. The large house seems to have served as an orphanage for a short period subsequently before being left vacant. By the mid 1970s it was being used to house raspberries and cans associated with fruit growing.

The House of Gray

Return to the Ball of Kirriemuir

 

   This short piece is just a postscript to my previously published article on that most scurrilous of all songs 'The Ball o' Kirriemuir' (which can be found here). In that post I carefully skirted around the obscene content of the various versions of that ballad (and skirted is probably a good word to use in that context). The mystery surrounding the composition is multi faceted:  who composed it? is there an original version still to find? was it based on an actual, real life orgy? why so many different versions of it in circulation? 

   While reading a book by A.D. Hope which examines William Dunbar's poetic themes (A Midsummer Eve's Theme, Canberra, 1970), I stumbled across the following  quote which gives a possible origin story about The Ball. It was taken from an essay prefixed to the 1959 edition of Robert Burns' The Merry Muses of Caledonia. The essay was called 'Pornography and Bawdry in Literature and Society,' and the author is James Burke. 

This ballad-song developed from a twenty-verse work celebrating an actual event . . . Some thirty years ago [c. 1930] a local historian, in the Kirriemuir district, gave me this story of its origin. Around the 1880s a barn dance (harvest home or Kirn dance) was held in the barn of a neighbouring farm. On this occasion the young fellows gathered rose hips and removed the tiny yellow hirsute seeds. These were scattered on the earthen floor of the barn. The girls danced barefooted. Female drawers were not in general use but, where worn, were of the open crotch or 'free trade’ pattern. In the stour of the dance the small hip seeds lodged around the pudendal hair and set up a pubic and vaginal itch. In other words they constituted a powerful external aphrodisiac. In addition to this, some wag had added a modicum of Spanish fly to the punch bowl. A final touch was the placing of a divot, or sod of grass, in the well of the hanging kerosene lamp. This shortened the life of the illumination to coincide roughly with the time the internal and external aphrodisiacs became effective. The upshot was an orgy of major proportions and it was this orgy that was celebrated in the original Ball o’ Kirriemuir.

Is the theory true?  Who knows... answers on a postcard perhaps.

Forgotten Sons of Angus: Sir Peter Young, Tutor to The King

 Scholar and Tutor to James VI

Most people who know about the rather barren early years of King James VI of Scotland associate his teaching with the eminent but fearsome scholar George Buchanan. He was a man with little time for royalty and indeed he hated the king's mother Queen Mary. There was little warmth but much effective learning from Buchanan, even if the king ruefully remembered later in life that he had been forced to learn Latin almost before he could speak Scots. The rigid influence of Buchanan was mitigated to some extent by the secondary teacher, Peter Young of Dundee, who was a more sympathetic tutor to the orphaned monarch.

   Peter Young was born at Dundee on 15th August 1544, son of John Young, a burgess in both Dundee and Edinburgh. The family claimed descent from the Young family of Ochterlony. The Youngs were evident elsewhere in Angus, with one branch owning Aldbar Castle. One of the Dundee branch was William Young who lost his life at the battle of Glasclune in Strathmore in 1392. His mother Margaret belonged to the Scrymgeour family who were the hereditary constables of the burgh. Young was gifted academically and was encouraged in his studies by his parents.  He was sent abroad at the age of 18 and studied in Geneva under the renowned Theodore Beza, an associate of the reformer Calvin. Young's maternal uncle Henry Scrymgeour was also teaching at the University of Geneva.

   At the beginning of 1569 Young was appointed as secondary tutor to the young king by the regent the earl of Moray. By all accounts Young was highly regarded by the old and irascible Buchanan, despite the difference in their ages and temperaments. The duties in the royal castle of Stirling were evidently not onerous because Young is recorded as saying that he regarded his position of tutor as being more like a hobby than a job. He does not seem to have needed the job for financial reward since he had inherited land in Fife, Perth and Elgin. Young's first wife Elizabeth Gibb was a daughter or grand-daughter of Robert Gib, court jester of King James V. They married in 1577.

   As well as being the king's almoner until his death, Young was employed on various embassies and was involved in education.  He was also a member of the Privy Council. Young purchased the estate of Easter Seaton, part of the lands formerly owned by Arbroath Abbey, where the mansion house was built in 1583. The following decade he bought the nearby estate of Kinblethmont. Peter's youngest brother Alexander was doorkeeper of the inner bedchamber of King James VI. He died in Dundee soon after Christmas 1603.

  Some sources state that Young was sycophantic towards the king, but this is uncertain. In comparison with the nobles and great favourites at court, Young was not lavishly rewarded. One of the greatest payments to him was in September 1580 when the king gave him £2,000 , 'to buy sum pece of land and to plenishe the same to be a resting place to him hiswyff and bairnis in consideration of his lang trew and thankfull service'. Young played a conspicuous part in the embassy to Denmark to arrange for the king's marriage to Princess Anna. There is one negative incident associated with this venture, for the tutor wished to travel with the Earl Marischal, but the latter refused to go with him,  being 'perswaded,and it is true, that the sayd Peter will robbe him of all his honour, beinge an ambycyowse fellow, and aqaynted there, and specyally by his pryvy instruccyons'. There is some hint that the nobility resented him because of his relative lowly birth.  But King James remained grateful to Young throughout his life and regarded him with considerable fondness. He was knighted by the king at Whitehall in February 1605 and was given an annual pension of £300. Elizabeth Gibb died at Leith in 1595 and Young afterwards married Janet Murray, Lady Torphichen. Unfortunately she died in the same year. His third wife was Marjory Mavine.

Later Years as an Angus Laird. 

The Fight Against the Burgh of Forfar

  Although a wealthy man who was well-known and respected throughout Scotland and England, Young did have local troubles in his native region, particularly a long-standing feud with the authorities of Forfar which seems to have been caused by a dispute about the use of the forest of Mortreathmont, part of which Young had received as an inheritance from his father. There is a record of this dispute in the records of the Privy Council under the year 1607 of a complaint by Peter Young of Seton, that, upon 16th June last, the Provost and Baillie of Forfar had convocated the whole inhabitants of the said burgh to the number of 300 persons, who, all armed with corslets, jacks, steel bonnets, spears, halberts, lances, swords,  and other weapons, came 'with sound of drum' to that part of the common muir of [Montreathmont] which had been peaceably possessed by the complainer's predecessors past memory of man, and there, with spades and swords, 'cuttit and destroyit the haill turves and dovallis then cassin and win,' and chased Young's servants away. The provost Walter Lindsay and baillies were named and gave evidence. But the decision went against Young because the delegation from Forfar  stated they had merely gathered to ride and restore the historic marches or boundaries of the land belonging to the burgh. The quarrel continued however and in the following year the provost and baillies were bound over to keep the peace and not to harm Sir Peter Young, under the penalty of 500 marks each or 4000 marks collectively.

   Peter Young died at Easter Seaton on 7th January, 1528, and he was interred at St Vigeans.

   

Sir Peter Young aged 79

Progeny

Sir James Young was knighted and acquired land in Ulster. The third son, Peter, became a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to King Charles I and accompanied earl Spencer on a diplomatic mission to Sweden. He died aged 48 in 1631. Peter's twin brother Robert died even earlier, aged 37. He had been a tutor to a nobleman and had journeyed to the Holy Land. Patrick Young (d. 1652) was a distinguished scholar and became a rector and librarian to royalty. John Young became Dean of Winchester and chaplain to King James I. He acquired properties in Fife. Sir Peter also had four daughters, three of whom survived into adulthood. One of them remained in Angus after her wedding: Euphemia Young married Sir David Ogilvy of Clova.

Previous Posts on Forgotten Sons and Daughters of Angus

The Amazing Doctor Kinloch

Forgotten Sons: Alexander Gray

Forgotten Daughters of Angus - Clemintina Stirling Graham and Lady Pitlyal

Forgotten Sons: The First British Balloonist James Tytler

Forgotten Sons: The Strange Avenues of Hector Boece

(Not) Forgotten Sons - Captain William Kidd

Forgotten Sons - Moonlight of the West

Forgotten Sons - Captain Maule Ramsay and Right Wing Extremism

Forgotten Sons - In Search of Lewis Spence

Further Information On Fairs and Markets

 The old fairs and markets is a topic which I have returned to repeatedly (a bit like witchcraft, which I have also covered in many articles) as new information comes to my attention. Much of the information is fragmentary or otherwise incomplete, but it's all still interesting. Those who want to know more about the subject are advised to follow the links to previous posts at the bottom of this article.

   One of Dundee's principal fairs was Lady Mary's Fair.  George Martin in Dundee Worthies (1934, p. 163) describes this in the late 19th century as being 'A very miscellaneous collection of stalls...erected round the square [in the High Street] and in adjoining streets on which were displayed all sorts of wares.' Among the stall were many of the tinker variety, including the 'Umbrella Man' whose stall was beneath an enormous umbrella and who orated the virtue and economic value of all his wares: 'You may take it or leave it or go home without it, I won't take the ninety-ninth part of a farthing less than 2s. d.'

   Martin's 83 year old correspondent remembered the excitement of the Greemarket fair in the mid 19th century:

I sometimes visited the Greenmarket when I was a boy and I well remember the Lemon and Kali man who sold it at the prince of a ha'penny the tumbler 'or you can have it in the powder a penny an ounce, or two ounces for three ha'pence and a teaspoonful l makes a large tumbler. It's called the real American Lemonade and Kalie because it was first imported from America.'

   Among the side shows were test your strength machines, boxing booths, a boxing kangaroo, plus various physically disadvantaged adults advertised as 'freak shows'. There was also:

'Professor' Cottrill who performed marvellous aquatic feats among which was eating, smoking and sleeping under the water and the outstanding item of 60 or 70 shillings being thrown into the tank which the 'Professor' retrieved with his mouth. On one occasion he disgorged over £3 in shillings after he came to the surface.

   The fair seems to have declined around 1906 when local shopkeepers outbid stallholders and thus outbid their competition. The roots of Lady Mary's Fair are century old and was likely first held on 15th August, Old Style. A later fair, the Latter Mary Fair was brought it and held  on 8th September, Old Style. The original fair survived until the 1930s.

Picture of Lady Mary Fair, 1908, by W Borrie

   As a tail piece to this article I'm giving the words to the traditional song 'Rare's Hill', a ballad performed by Mark Black and others. The lyrics relate, of course, to Rere's Hill in Broughty Ferry and to the Lady Fair of Dundee:

Last year at Lady Mary's fair when I was in Dundee
I fell in with an old sweetheart, and he being on a spree
His company I did accept and with him I did go
But to my sad misfortune it proved my overthrow
We wandered east, we wandered west, we wandered through the lawn
He said he'd see me home that night, but home I never saw
He kept beside me all the while resolved to have his will
And by and by we lost our way at the back of Rare's Hill

And when we got to Rare's Hill, the laddie said to me
"We can't go home tonight, my dear, it's far too late, you'll see
But the night is warm and in my pouch, I've got another gill
So we can lie down here content at the back of Rare's Hill

For then he poured a nip a piece to quiet all alarm
When I awoke in the morning, we were locked in each other's arms
He handed me the bottle another glass to fill
And I drank his health in store o' wealth at the back of Rare's Hill

And then the lad, he said to me, "Oh lassie, do not mourn
For while I draw the breath of life, from you I'll never turn
If you will come to yonder town, my wedded wife to be
We'll be the happiest couple yet 'twas ever in Dundee"
Well, it's may I never prosper and may I never thrive
In anything I take in hand as long as I'm alive
If e'er I say I rue the day my laddie had his will
Success to Lady Mary's fair and the back of Rare's Hill


   (The ballad is also known as 'The Jilted Lover'. Notes on different modern renditions can be found in the following link: here.)

Previous Posts on Markets and Fairs

More About Markets and Fairs

The Angus Calendar - Revised List of Markets & Fairs

Fairs and Markets, Part Two

The Angus Calendar: Fairs and Markets part One

The Battle of Camperdown and Admiral Duncan

 

  The Battle of Camperdown looms large as one of the most significant military events connected with Angus, though of course it happened a considerable distance from Angus. The naval encounter in the North Sea between the British and Dutch fleets took place in 1797 and was an overwhelming victory for Admiral Adam Duncan over Dutch forces commanded by Jan de Winter. The British hero of the battle was an Angus man from the Sidlaws surrounded parish of Lundie to the north-west of Dundee. The second son of Alexander Duncan (d. 1777) and Helen Haldane, he was born on 1st July 1731 in the building which had been the mansion of the Stewarts of Grandtully in Dundee, adjacent to St Paul's Episcopal Cathedral. Duncan's family had been connected with the burgh of Dundee since the 16th century.  William Duncan, a surgeon, was dean of the guild of Dundee and died in 1608. The Duncans purchased the estate of Lundie in 1682 from Colin Campbell. Adam's father was a burgess and provost of the burgh. The family were firmly Hanoverian in sympathy and had been linked with the mercantile class of Dundee for generations. Provost Alexander Duncan, who died in 1696, was one of the most prominent members of the family.

Portrait of Admiral Duncan by Henri-Pierre Danloux

  Duncan joined the navy as a midshipman in 1746 and served aboard the frigate Shoreham for several years. He saw action at various engagements in the 1750s.  His service took him to North America, the Caribbean and also Africa. In 1777 he had married Henrietta, daughter of Robert Dundas of Arniston, Lord President of the Court of Session. They had two sons and five daughters.He commanded HMS Valiant, then returned home and there was a lull in  active service until 1778, when he was took over HMS Suffolk. By 1782 he was First Lord of the Admiralty, and in 1795, was made a full admiral and appointed commander -in-chief in the North Sea. His decisive win over the Dutch happened on 11 October 11, 1797. Even accounting for patriotic propaganda spread after the Battle of Camperdown, Duncan was admired both for his physical stature and his bravery. Standing at six foot four, he was allegedly handsome with it and even as a young lieutenant would attract crowds of admirers as he strolled through Chatham. His imposing bearing and personal courage assisted him to quell mutiny among sailors in 1797.

The Engagement at  Camperdown

   The campaign of the British fleet against the Dutch was really a proxy was against the French forces, since the Dutch state was a puppet power set up by France. As Commander-In-Chief of the North Seas, Duncan was ordered to blockade the Dutch fleet which was under the command of Admiral de Winter. After keeping the enemy penned in for eighteen weeks, Duncan had to return to Britain for refits and restocking provisions in his own vessels.  This gave the Dutch the opportunity to break out into open water, Duncan went to challenge him and met the Dutch about seven miles off the coast between the villages of Egmont and Camperdown. Duncan attacked with the fleet in two sections, led by himself and Vice Admiral Richard Onslow. The battle lasted for five hours until the large number of Dutch losses compelled de Winter to surrender and give up his sword of command to Duncan aboard his flag ship, the 'Venerable'. A measure of the ferocity of the engagement can be seen in the fact that the flag ship was hit by around 45 shots and was so badly damaged that she was almost unmanageable. Nine Dutch shops were sunk, others fled, and most were badly damaged. 

Rewards and Fame

   For his great victory, he was awarded a pension of £2,000 and created Baron Duncan of Lundie and    Viscount Duncan of Camperdown in October 1797.  He was given the freedom of the city of London and granted a large annual pension by the government. A thanksgiving service was held in St. Pauls Cathedral on 10th December, 1797, attended by royalty.  a statue of him was later installed in the cathedral. Lord Duncan carried in the procession the Dutch Admiral's flag, which he had won at Camperdown. Duncan was made freeman of the principal crafts of Dundee in January 1798, with the burgh of Dundee the previous year gifted him a piece of plate with the value of 100 guineas as a mark of esteem for his glorious naval victory of the previous year. Duncan was also awarded the Large Naval Gold Medal and given an annual pension of £3,000. He was created Viscount Duncan and Baron Lundie, a fact that caused his aunt to write to the Secretary of State for War, Henry Dundas, querying why he was not given the greater honour of an English earldom. That greater honour fell to the admiral's son Robert who was created Earl of Camperdown in 1831. (He died in 1859.) 

   Duncan was made Admiral of the White on 14 February, 1799 and remained as Commander-in-Chief in the North Seas until 1800. Military conflict ceased until 1804. Duncan went to London to offer his services again but on the way he had an attack of apoplexy and turned back home. On the return journey he had a second, fatal attack and died at Cornhill, Berwickshire, of 4 August 1804. He was buried in the kirkyard of Lundie. Henrietta and some of her children were buried in the Greyfriars, Edinburgh. There were commemorations of Duncan all around the world. An island in the Galapagos bore his name (though it is now called Pinzon Island) and Duncan's Cove in Canada remembers him. 

   Duncan was of course treated as a national British hero, but Scotland particularly honoured him. The word Camperdown became a mellifluous buzzword for a while. It became attached to everyday commodities. In Edinburgh (where Duncan had a town house in George Square) peddlers would cry in the street, 'Wha'll buy Camperdown salt?'  The estate of Lundie was renamed Camperdown  (which is now Camperdown Park) and part of the Dundee harbour was renamed Camperdown Dock half a century after his death. The other major local landmark to be named after the battle was the massive jute mill at Lochee, several miles east of the estate, and owned by the Cox Brothers, named Camperdown Works. In 1802, local dignitary George Dempster renamed St Causnan's Well at Dunnichen  as Camperdown Well. A statue of the admiral was erected in the High Street of Dundee on the 200th anniversary of the battle. Duncan did not spend many years on his own estates, either at Lundie or in Gleneagles. But he was well remembered personally in Angus for taking a close, benevolent interest in the nascent industrial village of Lochee, not far to the east of Lundie. He was remembered decades later by older people there for his nautical attire and his dignified courtesy.

Camperdown House and Previous Family Homes

   Camperdown House was built by Admiral Duncan's son Robert Duncan, designed by the Edinburgh architect William Burn, between the years 1824 and 1828. It replaced the previous family seat several miles away in Lundie. Lundie House, which dated from around 1540, and was built by Sir John Campbell (treasurer of King James V), was demolished. (The admiral's second son Henry died as a captain in the Royal Navy in 1835.) There is confusion in some sources about the identity and locations of Lundie Castle and Lundie House respectively. The former stood in the village and parish of that name some miles to the north-west of the later Camperdown House. Lundie House was located near Camperdown House. The family quit the old castle during the 18th century and moved to a more modern property, at first called Gourdie House, which was later named Lundie House.  This was only a little way west of its replacement, Camperdown House. Some remains of the castle were evident as late as 1830. The lion rampant figurehead of de Winter's ship the 'Vryheid' used to be displayed outdoors in an enclosure near Camperdown House.

  The park at Camperdown was designed by David Taylor, a forester. He and his son planted most of the trees there between 1805 and 1859. The third earl, also Robert, was the last member of the family to live in the mansion. His younger brother George  succeeded as 4th earl when he was 73 and died childless. The last member of the family who owned the house was a cousin, Georgiana Wilhelmina, Dowager Countess of Buckinghamshire, who died in the March 1937. The contents of the mansion were auctioned in 1941 and the house and estate was purchased by Dundee Corporation immediately after World War Two.