Wedderburn book; a history of the Wedderburns in ... - waughfamily.ca

INTRODUCTION.
hvii.
James came to Dundee, Wedderburn was amon.cr those who rode out to meet introd.
him and drank at the Cross to his success, collected the excise
ttJefsT'" °^ ^''* behalf, and a few days later accepted James' appointment
of him as governor of the castle of Broiighty at tlie mouth of
the Tay. On the failure of the Jacobite arms, the town council of Dundee
were fearful of overlooking the conduct of their clerk. They appointed a
committee of inquiry and then consulted the Lord Justice Clerk, who declined
to advise them. Ultimately thev suggested that it was inconvenient that the
same person should be, what Wedderburn was, both clerk of Dundee and
sheriff clerk of Forfar, and on this ground, and also because he liad declined
to appear before them when summoned, deposed him from the
"^'^'^ "^ '^^'^^^ '" October 1716. They seem, however, to ft:om'\h'e°cier°k*
have
ship oi Dundee, doubted whether they had acted legally, as some months later,
9 April 1717, Wedderburn still declining to appear, tliey heard'
the evidence all over again, and also got a decree that tlieir deposition
of him was just and legal. Thus ended the ofBcial connection of the family
with the burgh of Dundee. The ex-clerk, however, still retained the book's
and papers which were in his custody, and declined to give them up, and,
although the town started a process and got a decreet for their delivery in
1718, it was not until 1742 that the then clerk was able to report that" he
had now got from Blackness the haill papers that were in his hands belonging
to the town." ileanwhile Wedderburn still remained both collector of excise
and sheriff-clerk of Forfar. I do not know when he retired from the latter
office, but have no reference to him as holding it later than 1720, when he
may have resigned it to his son, Robert, who sooner or later succeeded him in
it. I have already dealt with both his purchase of Blackness in 1718 and
with his succession as fourth baronet in 172.3. Up to this time his affairs were
evidently prosperous, but they did not long remain so. Possibly the price he
had paid for Blackness was beyond its value; possibly the failuie of delitors
of his own to meet their engagements was the cause of his ditlicullie?. But
whatever the cause, it is clear that, from 1733 on, his affaiis and those of
his son John became more and more involved, and in 1741 the estate of
Blackness, which he had struggled to keep in the family, iiad to be sold.
This Hiu-st have been a severe blow to his pride, whether as tlie head of his
house, or as a business man, who had always (as one of his grandsons writes)
been "remarkably correct in all his actions and in business." After the
sale of Blackness, he lived in Dundee, but did not survive for manv
years. In September 1744 he had a touch of fever, and soon after died and
was buried in the Howff. There are at Meredith portraits of him and his wife
by Sir John de Medina, of both of which engravings are given in this volume
(pp. 256-57). He had married at Dundee in 1G97 Katharine Scott (daugliter
of John Scott of Dundee), who is said to have brought him a "tocher of
'
£10,000 sterling, in those days a very considerable sum in Scotland. By her
(who survived him and died 1701-02) he had a large family of fifteen children,
of whom, however, four sons, James fborn 1093), John (1 7* 12),
The children Alexander (1703), and Alexander (1709), and tour daughters,
baroneT"'' Christian, Katharine (1711), Margaret, and Mary all died
young at various dates before 1723. From the youngest of
the remaining daughters, another Katharine, who married David Scrymgeour ot
Birkhill, descend the Scrymgeour-Weddeiburns of Wedderburn, with whom I
have already dealt, and from the three eldest of the four remaining tons.
John, fifth baronet of Blackness, Eobert of Pearsie, and Thomas of Cantm.
come the existing branches of the Blackness family. One other son, Alexander,
who died in 1790, never married, but is said to have had a romantic career,
and was for many years a well known figure in Dundee while of the two
;
other daughters one, Grisell, married James Graham of Meathie, co. Forlar.