Thomas Kirkpatrick

- 1700    Has more than 100 ancestors and 65 descendants in this family tree.

• Name	Thomas Kirkpatrick
  Gender	Male
  Death	1700
  Person ID	I240211	Geneagraphie
  Last Modified	14 Jun 2001

  
  

  Father	Robert Kirkpatrick   d. Yes, date unknown
  Mother	Grizzel Baillie   d. 1664
  Family ID	F98893	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Isabel Sandilands   d. 1672
  Marriage	1666
  The marriage contract is dated 25th April, 1666
  Children	+ 1. Thomas Kirkpatrick   d. 1720   2. Roger Kirkpatrick   d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F98886	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	14 Jun 2001

  
  

  Family 2	Sarah Fergusson   d. Yes, date unknown
  Marriage	Dec 1672
  their marriage contract is dated 7th December, 1672
  Family ID	F98888	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	14 Jun 2001

  
  

  Family 3	Grizzel Hamilton   d. Yes, date unknown
  Marriage	1686
  Family ID	F98890	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	14 Jun 2001

  
  

• Notes

  1st Baronet In 1671 Sir Thomas resettled his estates by charter ratified by Parliament, 1672, including the patronage of the united Kirks of Closeburn and Dalgarno, and in 1681, he obtained a Parliamentary grant of the rights of holding a weekly market on Monday, and two yearly fairs. "He supported," says Playfair, "the importance of his family with much splendour and hospitality, and continued true to the Crown and Mitre through the chamelion reigns of Charles and James. His efforts in the service of his country were so acceptable to the throne, that the latter monarch created him a Baronet, by patent dated at Whitehall, 26th March, 1685. It is reported that after the Revolution he had the offer of a Coronet, with the style and dignity of Earl of Closeburn; but he rejected the honour, doubtless for some good reason which is not over apparent to his posterity." It may appear at first sight inconsistent, that Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, a staunch supporter of the Stuarts, and rewarded by them with a Baronetey, should have had the offer of a Coronet from William the Third. But it should be borne in mind, that the family had had for more than a century been warm advocates of the Reformation, confirmed and strengthened by the marriage of Sir Roger Kirkpatrick with the Earl of Glencairne, one of the most strenuous supporters of the cause. The Barons of Closeburn, though by no means holding the opinions of the Cameronians and other wild fanatics, had often afforded shelter to the persecuted Covenanters, and had permitted them to lie hid in Creehope Linn, a wild dell in Closeburn, with a waterfall of 90 feet at the upper end, now much frequented for its romantic beauty. The readers of Old Mortality will remember that it is mentioned by Sir Walter Scott in his description of the visit of Morton to Balfour of Burley, in his wild retreat at the Black Linn. In the Introduction to that work, Sir Walter says, that old Mortality was a native of the parish of Closeburn, and his wife a domestic servant of Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick. Simpson in his Traditions of the Covenanters, relates that a party of troopers were one day sent to the mansion of Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, for the purpose of demanding his assistance in searching for Whigs in his woods. The woods and heights and linns and cottages of Closeburn furnished shelter for many a wanderer, and afforded ample scope for the strolling soldiery, who spread themselves abroad in quest of those who sought to maintain the privilege of worshipping God according to the dictates of their own consciences. Sir Thomas was obliged to comply with the demand, and accompanied the soldiers into the woods. In proceeding to the different localities, which were supposed to be resorted to as hiding places by the Covenanters, Sir Thomas pursued the nearer routes by the narrow footpaths that led through the woods, while the horsemen were obliged to take the more circuitous roads. In winding his way among the thick trees, Sir Thomas came upon a man fast asleep by the side of the path. The man was obviously one of the individuals whom the soldiers had come to seek, but the gentleman in whose way Providence had there placed him, had too much humanity to publish his discovery. Near the place where the man was sleeping on his grassy bed, under the guardianship of Him who never slumbers nor sleeps, was a quantity of newly cut brackens, which Sir Thomas turned over with his staff to cover the sleeping man from the prying eyes of the troopers. The action was observed by one of the horsemen, who cried out that the guide was doing something suspicious, but before any of the party had time to dismount and investigate the matter, Sir Thomas turned round, and in an indignant tone asked, if he could not be permitted to turn over the loose brackens and withered leaves of his own forest without permission, and so the matter ended and the man remained undiscovered. This anecdote (Simpson adds) shews the power which the military at that time assumed, and their insolence even to their superiors. Gentlemen and Commoners were treated alike by the lawless troopers who were let loose on an oppressed country. Sir Thomas had a confidential domestic servant, whom he employed to give warning to the Covenanters seeking shelter on his property, and for the protection thus afforded by the family they were endeared to the whole countryside. It is easy therefore to understand how, notwithstanding their attachment for the Stewart Dynasty, and their little sympathy with the excesses of the fanatics, they would shrink from abetting any attack on the reformed religion. Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, active, energetic, and decided, did nothing doubtfully; and when he saw the obstinacy of James, and the danger of the cause which he had so much at heart, when loyalty to a family was weighed against the claims of religion, he neither hesitated as to his decision, nor shrunk from the consequences, but threw himself warmly into the contest, which terminated so happily for his country, and his sacrifices and exertions were duly appreciated. In the month of June, 1691, he was by Act of Council appointed Lieut.-Colonel of Dumfriesshire Militia, and he represented the Shire of Dumfries in Parliament for several years. In these offices he was performing services suited to his station and useful to his country; in fact, the Coloneley of the Militia, may be said to be rather the continuation of services, than a new service. The Barons of Closeburn were never Borderers in the conventional acceptation of that term, they never encouraged Border outrages, they had much to lose and little to gain by such barbarisms; but in conjunction with other Barons, sometimes with and sometimes without a Commission from the Crown, they interfered to suppress raids and robberies, and he could feel no difficulty therefore in accepting a Commission in the Militia, which was established for the purpose of maintaining the peace of the country. But, on the other hand, it may be easily understood, that he felt a delicacy in accepting the personal reward of an Earldom, which might be misconstrued into his having for selfish objects assisted William against the Stuarts, who had so recently bestowed on him a Baronetey; and it is also tradition in the family, that he preferred remaining what his forefathers had been, a leader among the ancient gentry, rather than be lost as a new-made Peer. The right to use Supporters being now restricted to Peers and Knights of the Bath, a doubt may suggest itself as to the propriety of representing a Baron's arms with Supporters. But it was not as a Baronet that Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick and his descendants claim the right. They claim, as old Scottish Barons, who having from the earliest period used Supporters, protested against being compelled to discontinue, and were tacitly permitted to retain them. In the original grant of Baroneteies, their distinctive badge was represented on a Canton, and the Supporters within the Canton. But in Patents posterior to 1629, the whole of the clause relating to the Canton is omitted, and the Patentee is not allowed to carry one at all, but in lieu thereof, "Around his neck an orange tawny silk riband, whereon shall be pendant on an Escutcheon Arg. a Saltire, Az. Therein an Inescutcheon of the arms of Scotland, &c." The Badge is now suspended below the shield on a riband, not placed upon it. About this time a great and extraordinary change was taking place in the social, as well as political state of the country. The union of the two kingdoms had already produced considerable influence on many parts of Scotland, where, as in England generally, a long period of peace had wrought an immense revolution in the habits of all classes. Thousands who in former times would have scorned to seek a livelihood by mercantile pursuits, had settled quietly down to every variety of business, not merely to agriculture; but even the desk and the counting-house were no longer despised, when it was felt that something must be done, and it was seen that these opened a sure and often rapid path to fortune. Such pursuits were, however, utterly alien to the habits and feelings of the Borderer. Not only the habitual marauder, but the Chieftain who was accustomed to repress his outbreaks, looked upon war as more congenial than the pursuits of commerce. The pacification of all border feuds and predatory disturbances, had deprived the Borderer of his usual employment, and compelled him to abandon those exciting contests which formed the business and happiness of his life. But long habit had unfitted him to meet the change. For centuries he had lived in a state of wild independence of all rule, carrying on petty warfare with his neighbour at his own pleasure, without regard to king or law. Even up to the Revolution such outbreaks were not forgotten. We have seen that within less than half a century Closeburn had been sacked by the rebellious Governor of Carlisle. Yet lived there still who could remember well, How when a Border Chief his bugle blew, Field, heath, and forest, dingle, cliff, and dell, And solitary moor the signal knew, And fast the faithful clan around him drew, What time the warning note was keenly wound, What time aloft their kindred flew, While clamorous warpipes yelled the gathering sound, And while the Fiery Cross glanced like a meteor round. When we see the attractions of wild life, even in its humblest form, it may be easily understood how fascinating and rivetting was the life of a Scottish Bordered. But now this must all be given up, the charm was broken, and left nothing but trouble and regret behind. The lower classes found themselves sinking into hopeless poverty, and even the Chieftains discovered that the horde of retainers, which once constituted their strength and their pride, had now become their weakness and ruin. The necessity for some change had arrived. But what was to be done? Difficult under any circumstances, to the Borderer it appeared impossible. He saw nothing around him offering any chance of relief from the pressure under which he was irresistibly borne down. Under such circumstances emigration seems to be the only step that holds out the promise of escape. At first the idea of emigration is revolting. To abandon for ever the home of our youth and the haunts of our forefathers, is too painful to be looked upon as relief from difficulty; but by degrees the necessity is admitted, and many alleviating circumstances are discovered. When a man is driven to make a change in his habits, when he is compelled to do that which he has been unaccustomed, and for which he has entertained feelings of repugnance, he finds it easier to make the change away from his early associations, and out of sight of those who participate in these feelings; and when the experiment has been tried, and the emancipated sufferer has felt the benefit of the change, he urges those he left behind to hazard the trial, and the tide of emigration sets steadily in. And so it happened with the Scottish Borderer. Sometimes the whole family broke up the old establishment, and abandoned for ever the home of their ancestors. More frequently the young, and strong, and hopeful departed to seek their fortunes, leaving their elders to wither away in the places where they were too deeply rooted for transplantation - places to which they themselves fostered a lingering hope that they might one day return crowned with success. Sometimes, and more particularly in the higher families, a youth, more susceptible than the rest, started off, unbidden and unblessed, to escape from the hopelessness that was crushing his young energies, and presented himself as a candidate for employment in the merchant's counting-house. Not unfrequently the son who ventured to leave the paternal roof with such intention, was held to have degraded himself, to have lost caste; and while he fostered in his banishment the remembrance of that which was still the home of his dreams, he seldom returned to a place where he was no longer welcomed as a son. In a note appended to his notice of the first Baronet, Playfair says, 'It is a tradition that previous to the decease of any of the Kirkpatrick family, the person about to die beheld a swan upon the lake which formerly surrounded the Castle of Closeburn.' The last omen on record is said to have saddened the third nuptials of Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, the first Baronet. On the wedding day his son Roger went out of the castle, and chanced to turn his eyes towards the lake, descried the fatal bird. Returning into the hall overwhelmed with melancholy, his father rallied him on his desponding appearance, alleging a stepmother as the occasion of his sadness.' The young man only answered, 'Perhaps before long you also may be sorrowful,' and expired that very night. Playfair names Roger as the son in this legend, a curious inadvertence, since the note in which it occurs is appended to the paragraph in which it states, that Roger, then a mere child, lived afterwards at Alisland, and died a bachelor; whereupon Alisland, which was left to him by his father, reverted to his eldest brother Thomas, the second Baronet, who bequeathed it to his son William, whose son Charles took the name of Sharpe of Hoddam, and was father of Sir Walter Scott's friend, Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, author of the above ballad. Burke, in his Family Romance, gives the legend at much greater length, and says the name is variously given as James or Robert. Alisland, or Ellisland, in more recent times acquired a somewhat classic character as the residence of Burns, and the place where many of his poems were written. When the poet had made a little money, he had a fancy to become a farmer, and, seduced by the beauty of the situation, took a lease of Ellisland. Burns was delighted with his new abode, adjoining the grounds of Friars Carse, one of the loveliest spots in Nithsdale, separated only by the clear stream of the Nith from the holms and groves of Dalswinton, and commanding an extensive and charming view of the river winding between its woody banks. He little heeded the warning of his friend, who, in reply to his enthusiastic admiration, said, 'You have made a poet's choice, rather than a farmer's An observation which only too soon proved prophetic. In less than two years he writes to his brother: 'This farm has undone the enjoyment of myself. It is a rurnous affair on all hands.' But what could be expected of such a wild undertaking ? Of all employments farming is not only the most precarious, but that which depends most on the constant attention, exertion, and skill of the master. The farmer who hopes to thrive must be up early and late, and eat the bread of carefulness. If he does not hold the plough, he must watch the work. His gains depend on the careful accumulation of small things; the neglect of trifles is ruin. Hence the amateur often fails in spite of his superior intelligence and education, while the illiterate but plodding yeoman secures a competence. But what was the inevitable result when the hours which ought to have been spent among the cattle were engrossed in books and poetry; and still worse when time and money were wasted in extravagant debauchery. If we are to judge the poet by his writings, if the humorous but extravagant poem, ‘The Whistle,’ written at this time, is any clue to his mode of life, nothing could rescue him from speedy ruin. This poem, as appears by the following extracts, is the story of a contest which took place in the dining-room of Friars Carse, between Sir Robert Lawrie of Maxwelton, Robert Riddell, Esq. of Glenriddell, and Alexander Ferguson Esq. of Craigdarroch, for a bacchanalian Whistle, which had been won in the reign of James the Sixth from a Dane, a matchless champion of Bacchus, who had conquered the Bacchanalians of all foreign courts, but succumbed to the drinking powers of the ancestor of Robert Lawrie. The whistle had been subsequently lost to Walter, the ancestor of Robert Riddle, and the three gentlemen now met to contest the championship, Burns being the umpire, and the conqueror being he who last retained power to blow the whistle. I sing of a whistle, a whistle of worth, I sing of a whistle, the pride of the north, Was brought to the Court of our good Scottish King, And long with this whistle all Scotland shall ring. * * * * * Three joyous good fellows, with hearts clear of flaw, Craigdarroch, so famous for wit, worth, and law, And trusty Glenriddel, so skilled in old coins, And gallant Sir Robert, deep read in old wines. * * * * * To the board of Glenriddel our heroes repair, So noted for drowning of sorrow and care, But for wine and for welcome not more known to fame, Than the sense, wit, and taste of a sweet lovely dame. A bard was selected to witness the fray, And tell future ages the feats of the day- A bard who detested all sadness and spleen, And wished that Parnassus a vineyard had been. * * * * * Six bottles a-piece had well worn the night, When gallant Sir Robert, to finish the fight, Turned o’er in one bumper a bottle of red, And swore ‘twas the way that their ancestors did. Then worthy Glenriddel, so cautious and sage, No longer the warfare ungodly would rage; A high ruling Elder to wallow in wine! He left the foul business to folks less divine. The gallant Sir Robert fought hard to the end, But who can with fate and quart bumpers contend? Though fate said - a hero shall perish in light; So up rose bright Phœbus - and down fell the knight. Next up rose our bard like a prophet in drink, Craigdarroch, thou’lt soar when creation shall sink; But if thou would’st flourish immortal in rhyme, Come - one bottle more - and have at the sublime. * * * * * The bard drank bottle for bottle, and was quite disposed to take up the conqueror when the day dawned. The whistle is still kept as a curiosity, and was last in the possession of the Right Honourable R. Cutler Ferguson of Craigdarroch, M.P. Who can wonder that farming proved a failure, if this is a sample of life at Ellisland! What a curious picture does this scene portray, of a state of society happily long since passed away, when three gentlemen of station and education could enter upon such a contest, and engage the most popular bard of the day to blazon the achievement! And what a series of changes in border life does this short memoir disclose! - War and bloodshed, feuds and faction fights, forays and marauding expeditions, superstition, religious persecution, bacchanalian orgies! Who that was felt the blessings of Civilization, can regret the days of Barbarism, or sympathise with the cant that raves about the poetry of the older times, and sneers at modern Utilitarianism? Grove, in his Antiquities of Scotland, vol. 1, p. 146, says: Friars Carse in Nithsdale. Here was a cell dependent upon the rich Abbey of Melrose, which at the Reformation was granted by the Commendator to the Laird of Ellisland, a cadet of the Kirkpatricks of Closeburn. Under the head of traditions it may be remarked, that an estate was lost by the obstinacy of one of the Lords of Closeburn, who while at dinner would not allow his drawbridge to be lowered to admit the visit of his cousin, the Laird of Ross. It appears that the irate Laird desired the porter to tell his master, that by his refusal a better dinner had slipped away from his mouth than ever went into it; and rode on to Drumlanrig, where he altered his will, and instead of settling the estate of Ross on Kirkpatrick, according to his first intention, bequeathed it to his kinsman Douglas, ancestor of the Duke of Queensbury, whose title, Viscount Ross, is taken from this estate. In former times many precautions were taken towards security during meals. In ‘Orders for household servants first devised by John Harynton in 1566,’ is the following ordinance, ‘That the Courte gate be shutt eache meale, and not opened during dinner or supper without just cause, on pain the porter to forfet for everie time one penny.’ (Hist. Cumberland, p. 232.)