Brilliant Lives
By John W. Arthur
Second edition
Published by the author in 2024
First published in Great Britain in 2016 by
John Donald, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd
Copyright © John W. Arthur 2016, 2024
All rights reserved
Contents of this Page
Family Tree 1 : The Early Clerks of Penicuik
Family Tree 2 : Succession of the Clerks of Penicuik and the
Maxwells of Middlebie
Family Tree 3 : The Maxwells of Middlebie, the Maxwells of Speddoch
and the Maxwell Lords
Family Tree 4a : The conection between the Baron and Major James Le Blanc
Family Tree 4b : The connections between the Baron,
John Napier and James Stirling
Family Tree 5: The Appleby Dacres and their connections with
the Cays and the Gilpins
Family Tree 6 : The Irvings of Newton and the Chancellors of Shieldhill
This excerpt is taken from John Clerk Maxwell’s draft family tree. The name Giles Mowbray should fill the blank box on the top right. She was the attendant of Mary Queen of Scots by whom the ‘Penicuik Jewels’ came into the Clerk family. She married Robert Smith of Cramond and their daughter Eligida, or Giles, Smith was said by Wilson (1891, pp. 150‒51) to be ‘Mary Gillies’. This may have been a misreading of ‘Smith Giles’ as written in the box.
From DGA: RGD56/13, 19th C, by courtesy of Dumfries and Galloway Libraries Information and Archives
and the connection to the Maxwell Lords and the Maxwells of Speddoch
John Clerk Maxwell had problems depicting the line of the Maxwell Lords as it was actually John 4th Lord Maxwell who married Agnes Stewart. The 5th, 6th and 7th Lords were all called Robert, but the 7th died an infant. Having gotten to John the 8th Lord, he made amendments as a result of missing out the 9th. The Middlebie line more or less fits the known facts, and the Speddoch line is at least consistent with the few fragments we have.
From DGA: RGD56/13, 19th C, by courtesy of Dumfries and Galloway Libraries Information and Archives
also known as ‘the Baron’, and Major James Le Blanc
Anne Houston’s brother, Sir Patrick Houston, went to Georgia in 1735 and became a major landowner near Savannah. His son John was mayor and twice state governor (Bulloch, 1919, p. 27). Elizabeth Houston had a brother Patrick and a younger sister Agnes who laid claim to the Major’s heritable property after Agnes Maxwell’s death.
James Stirling (1692‒1770 ) is remembered for his contributions to mathematics, but he also became a lead mine manager. Sir John Houston of Houston (d. 1609) was the eldest brother of Peter Houston of Western Southbarr, ancestor of John Houston or Huston of Western Southbarr who died about 1688 (Family Tree 4a). Curiously, Archibald Stirling was well known to the Irvings of Newton.
Dr Richard Gilpin was a well-known Puritan leader. His son William Gilpin of Scaleby Castle was a friend of the Baron. William’s grandson, Rev. William Gilpin, was ordained in 1746 by the Bishop of Carlisle, father of Catherine Fleming. Rev. Gilpin’s ‘picturesque’ concept influenced John Clerk of Eldin’s drawings. Dr. Jabez Cay’s brother John was the grandfather of John Cay (1727‒1782) who in 1756 married Frances Hodshon of Lintz and started thereby the Edinburgh Cay family to which James Clerk Maxwell’s mother belonged.
The line from Thomas Key of Newcastle down to the generation ofJohn Cay, Sheriff of Linlithgow, the last Cay to possess North Charlton (Bateson, 1895, pp. 297-300). Jabez Cay was the first owner of a moiety of North Charlton, and after his death his brother John obtained the whole estate by buying out the second moiety.
From Richard Hodgson, Mayor of Newcastle, down to the last of the line, Ralph, the father of Frances Hodshon who married John Cay. Those who were nuns (Bowden & Kelly, 2013) are marked with a
†.
Brilliant Lives 