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

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IXTRODUCTION".
ixx^.
the post of col ector of excise for that couuty. Five years later, like both his mtrod.
elder brothers, lie espoused the Jacobite cause, and was present at Ciilloden
where he was fortunate enough to escape beiug taken prisoner. There is a
beautiful letter written by him to his wife the night before the battle of
which I have given a facsimile at p. 337 of this volume. After Cullodeu he
cODtmued his duties as collector, but probably had to give up the office as
his health failed in 1753, when he fell into a dropsy, which rendered him uuHt
for work. This and the expenses which his illue.ss entailed seem to have pres-^ed
him hard, which is, I think, the reason wiiy in the entail of Idvies in 1766
his name is omitted and those of his sons inserted in its place. It is interestiuT
to me to note that he took a considerable interest in genealiKry. He wrote a
history of his wife's f^tmily. which, according to J.W. (his "grandson and my .^randfather),
showed both assiduity and research. J.W.'s and my own iuchnatlou to
similar interests may thus be claimed as hereditary tastes. Thomas Wedderburn
died in 1771, and was buried in the churchyard at Cray, co. Inverufss. He
had married in 1740 Katharine Dunbar, daughter of Dunbar of Gran-^e, and
by her, who survived him and died at Ediuburgli in 181S at the great ^a''e of
ninety-seven, had issue three sous and five daughters. All the sons weur out
to Jamaica—Alexander in 17C0, John in 17G2, and James in 17(J8. The eldest
of them died there unmarried in 1770 ; the third, who was for soine years one
the wealthiest and most important persons in the island, where he owned the
estates of Trelawny and the Mint, was also unmarried and died in 1797, while
to the second, who alone of them married, I shall shortly return. Of their tive
sisters the eldest, Mary, went out to Queliec on a voyage of plea-sure
and there died ;
the two youngest, Robina and Thomasiua, fived with their
mother in Edinburgli, and predeceased her there in I79G-97 ; the tiiird, Elizabeth,
married and had issue, but her marriage had not the approval of lier family^
and I have not ascertained full details in regard to her children ; while the
second, Katharine, survived all her brothers and her sisters, and died in Fldiuburgh
in 1825. She suffered from almost total deafness, a complaint which has
been common to many of the descendants of her brother John.
John Wedderburn of Spring Garden, ultimately his father's only surviviuT
son, was born at Forres in 1743, and went out to Jamaica
^^*^" nineteen years of age.
bu^S^slfnng
He there acquired by twenty
Garden. years of perseverance a considerable projKTty, which was
dfed'ieS)^' increased by his marriage in 1782. Seven years later he
returned to Scotland, and was presented with the freedom of
Inverness. He at one time owned the estate of Liadertis, co. Forfar, which he
purchased in 1780, but sold again in 1801, owing to the successiou of his
eldest son to the vast and then valuable Jamaica estates of his brother,
James, who had died in 1797. He was also, for nearly twenty years, the senior
partner in the house of Wedderburn & Co., tiien iu the zenitli of its pros[)erity.
He died at Chigwell in Esses, where he had recently purchased a residence, in
1820, and was buried in London in a vault long smce bricked up, so that I
find no record of any inscription to his memory. J.W., however, in his M.S.
has left an eloquent tribute to his honour and integrity, his open character and
kindly heart. By his wife, Mary Wi.sdom Bedward (daughter and heiress of
George Bedward of Spring Garden, co. Westmoreland, Jamaica), who survived
him and died in 1835, he had issue two sons and four daut^hters. Of the latter,
the eldest, Elizabeth, married her cousin, Andrew Weddeiburn-Colviie, but died
s.p. a year later; the second, Mary, married the Rev. John \VelHngs, and had
a daughter; the third, Catharine, married Patrick Stirling of Kippendavie, and
had issue including a son John, who married the only child of hi.< mother's
sister, Mary ; and the fourth, Thomasina, died unmarried. Of the so:is, the
elder, James, for some years partner in the Wedderburn tirin, married Isiibella
Lyon and died in London in 1831, leaving issue an only child, John Kellermauu