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

xlvL THE WEDDERBURN BOOK.
Introd. the Dundee records, he no doubt died yonngf. The only remaining son
Alexander, was educated at S. Andrew's, and admitted a
burgess of
AilxlndV
Dundee in 1600. He. like his father, was an
died i642-4a active merchant, and is named as owning goods arrivinfT at
the port of Dundee from Fhinders, Bordeaux, and Stockholm.
He died in 1642-43, having had issue by his wife, Barbara Anchinlek,' four
sons, Patrick, John, Andrew, and William, of whom the first two died
unmarried or without issue before Nov. 1640, when tiieir brother Andrew
was returned heir to them. William, who was admitted burgess of Dundee in
1640, went to sea, and would seem to have left no descendants, as here again
there is no reference to any such in the Dundee records. Andrew Wedderburn,
who was thus his father's only surviving son, and was heir to
^'^ ^'^'^ ^^'^^'^ brothers,
Wedd^bum.
was admitted a burgess of Dundee in
died 1683. 1634, and long traded there as a merchant. He was alsi on
several occasions "stentar," or collector of the duties, for the
burgh. Though twice married— (1) in 1643 to Eispet Fletcher, (2) in' 1604 to
Christian Duncan—he had no children. His second wife died in 1677-78,
8ome five years before her husband, whose death occurred in 1683-84.
So far the branches of the family with which I have dealt have been
those, the members of which were either occupied as merchants
Eecapltuiation. or shipowners or concerned with religion. It was, no doubt, the
couvenience of Dundee as a trading port that took thither from
Berwickshire the original settler of the name, and thus the earliest members
of the family connected with tlie burgh are all merchants.- In one branch
the two sons of John Wedderburn and Margaret Lindsay, became respectively
a distinguished doctor and a piominent bishop, wliile in another, that of
Pittormie, we find William W^edderburn of Pittenweem and Dundee, James of
Moonzie and his three sons, all of them ministers opposed to episcopacy.
But of all those mentioned up till now only one, John of Craigie, was bred
to what may be described as for long tiie hereditary profession of the family,
* When tlie Wedilerbuni raouutnents in the Howff of Dundee were being put in orJer in 1892, the
workmen came across a fragment of an old tombstone, the sculpture of which showed it to
belong to the first half of the seventeenth century. It consists of a framework enclosing a
passage from the Book of Job (x., 25-i!7) with the Aucl'.iiilck arms on the right-hand side. The
left-hand end of the stone is broken off, but if. as is p(w.sible, it bore the Wedderburn arms, the
stone was without doubt that of Aiesauder Wedderburn and CarKara Auchinlck. The peculiar
wording of the passage quoted follows the text of the Bishop's I'.ible of l.')72, except that the
Scottisii " thocht " is used for though. The exact condition of the fragment may be seen from
the following reprint of the passage, in which the words, etc., broken away are given in italics.
For T am sure that my redeemer liveth and
He sal rayse up at the leter day tliame that ly in
The tlie dust and thocht efter my skin the vmmea Thb
Wkdoerburn dtstrny this iody yet sal 1 sie God in my Acchinxek
Abms ?
and my eiea Arms.
Jiesche vhum 1 myself sal sie
sul beholde and none other for me thucbt my
rei/nes are coosumed vthiu me. Job 10 chapter
S5, 26, and 27.
The stone is now in the Dundee Museum, to which it was presented by Mr. Scrymgeour-
Wedderbnrn of Wedderburn.
occupation of the younger • The sons of good families in tra/le. and even as small shopkeepers, was
always exceetUngly common in Scotland until late iuU) the cigliteentb century, especially in
times of peace. "Sir Walter Scott puts into the mouth of King James himself a very graphic
account of the process by which the young .Scot j.ut hia pedigree and his blazon in his pocket
and set up hia U>otli ancl s.'ld liis ftutfi until the lucky day wheu he could cock hia beaver
once more with the Inj.it, and ftj-»ert the old prtten.«ion8 of the stock" (Wdlium /l/ackicood and
ki4 ioM». by .Mrs. Oliphaiil, lllackwoo.1. 1S97). The brother of one of the Lords Lindsay in the
sixtreiilb century wiia a " wntrlit " in Cup.ir, and in the eighteenth the heir of Dundaa of
Kiiiga-k kept a »li.'p in the I-iwn Market of Kdinburgh, while many of the lairds of Banff ami
AU-rdr