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

INTRODUCTIOX.
Ixsii.
surviving male descendant in male line of Sir Peter, Lord Gosford. Sir John, Introd.
who died at Pitfirrane in 1793, was twice married, (I) in Feb. 1758 to
Elizabeth Fletcher, daughter of Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, Lord ]^Iiiton, by
whom (died Dec. 17-)8) he had an only child, Elizabeth, mariied to the
JJarquis de Lally Tollendal, a distinguished peer of France, who 8tronj,dv
denounced in the National Assembly of his country the atrocities of 17,S9.
The marquise survived him, and died in 18-50 at the age of ninety-two. Her
father married (2) Mary Hamilton, daughter of the Hon. John Hamilton, and
by her (died ISOS) had issue a numerous family of si.K sons and seven
daughters, who, with their half-sister and their parents, are all portrayed
engaged in dancing a reel in a picture at Pitfirrane, painted by David Allen
in 1777-81. Of this large family, however, sis daughters and three sons, Charles,
Henry, and Thomas, died unmarried. Of the sons that married, the male lines
of two, John and Alexander, are now e.xtinct. John Halkett was born in I7(j8,
admitted an advocate in 1789, and was for a time secretary to his cousin. Lord
Chancellor Loughborough. Later on he was governor of the Bahamas and of
the Island of Tobago, and, returning home, was for many vears
John H^kett, chief commissioner of West Indian accounts. He married (1)
di^ia52.' Anne Todd, who died s.p., and (2) Lady Katherine Douglas, by
whom he had live sons, of whom the eldest, who fell at Balaclava,
and the second, who was for many years rector of Little Bookham, co. Surrey,
both married, and each left issue an only surviving daughter. The other tiiree
sons of John Halkett died young or unmarried, so tiiat his descendants are
now limited to his two surviving grand-daughters, ^Irs. Robertson and iliss
Katherine Halkett.
Alexander Halkett, the younger brother of John, was born in 1773, and
entered the army, in which he remained till 1837 when he
Haiket't^^.aH., retired as general, on a distinguished service pension and as
Knight Commander of the Hanoverian Order. He died in
diSisIi'
1851,
leaving by his wife, Georgiana Sproule (died 1874j, four fons, one
only of whom married (but died s.p.), and a daughter, Mary Anna, who married
Alexander Leith of J'^reetield, co. Aberdeen, and had issue one daughter, Georgiana,
now of Freefield, who is the sole surviving descendant of her giandfatlier.
The fifth and sixth baronets of Gosford were the two elilest sons of .Sir John,
viz., Charles and Peter, the eldest of whom (born 17b'4') was in tlie
The Haiketta armv, and died unmarried in 1837, when he w;id succeeded by his
1764-1898*°^' younger brother, who had had a distinguished naval career, the
steps in which are noted in the account of him at p. 380. His
only son, John, succeeded him as seventh baronet in 1830, and was father of au
only surviving son, the present Sir Peter Arthur Halkett, who is, as I have said,
the last male descendant in male line of Sir Peter, Lord Gosford, ancestor
of the Wedderburns of Gosford and Halketts of Pitfirrane.
One other son, however, of old Sir Peter, Lord Gosford, has yet to l>e
Alexander
accounted for, although his male line is long since extinct This
WedderDura, is Lord Gosford's third son Alexander, who was born about IGtJU,
D^SI^born 1660, admitted an advocate in 1087, and taking part in support of the
died 1730. union with England in 1707, was appointed one of the commissioners
of excise. He died at Edinburgh in 1730, leaving issue by his wife
Ulary Daes (daughter of James Daes of Coldingknowes), whom he had married
in 1692, and who survived him, four daughters, of whom three marrici i;p'>st,
p. 397), and three sons, of whom the two younger—Alexander, collector of eici.-e
at Linlithgow, and James—both died unmarried, while the eldest,
Peter, Lord Peter, went to the bar in Edinburgh, and, after being lor somr
diedT?'"^^"' years secretary of excise, was in 1755 raised to the beucb under
the title of Lord ChesterhalL A high tribute to his character.