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

xlviii. THE WEDDERBUllN BOOK.
The third son of old Robert Wedderburn and Janet Kyd was Robert,
who was for mnny years an active notary in Dundee. He
Robert "Wedder- was born in 154G, and was admitted a notary in 1.57-i after
iwS^fei^'^' ten years' study with Alexander Guthrie in Edinbur;,'b,
and seven with his own brother Alexander, then clerk of
Dundee. Soon after his admission he had to bring an action and get a
decree against one JIathew, for "mispresoning and blaspheming him," by
" allegeand and sayand that he had maid and gevine ai.e iustrunient to Robert
Rollok quhilk was fals "
; no doubt an important slander, as the notaries were
very jealous of their own and their predecessors' reputation. A century
later, in 1U77, James Wedderburn, then clerk of Dundee, summoned Thomas
Anderson for having used " rase base and opprobrious speeches against hiua
and his predecessors, saying that they had made false instruments without
ground or warrant, so taking away their good name," ami Anderson was
ordered to pay a fine, " sit down on his knees in court," and promise to never
60 offend again. Robert was admitted a burgess of Dundee in 15SS, and in
the next year was elected procurator fiscal and master of work tor the
building of the new school of the burgh. His life was evidently spent in
and about Dundee, where he died in Oct. 1611, his heir being Peter, the
son of his immediate elder brother. He had married in 1583 Margaret
Myln, and by her, who died before him, had issue four sons and two
daughters, viz., Robert, James, Robert, and Alexander, Janet, and Elizabeth.
The births of the tlrst three sons are recorded by him in one of his minute
books (post, vol. ii., p. 207) with a note of the signs of tiie zodiac under
which they were born. The fourth son, Alexander, lived till 1G07-9, and his
name sometimes occurs as witnessing documents 1605-7, but, like his brothers
and sisters, he died unmarried in his father's life.'
As a notary Robert's acti\ity is best witnessed by six large protocol
books and twelve small minute books in his hand, all of which are still
preserved in the charter room of the Dundee Town Ho\ise. From these we
get some insight into the extent ot his education. Following what seems to
have been a fa?hiou of the time, for the same is the case
Notarial with other such books, he used the first two or three pages of
Boo^°^ each of his protocul books as a sort of commonplace book.
Quotations from classical writers, from Ovid (a copy of whose
"Metamorphoses," in "very braw binding," passed from him to his nephew,
Davidj, from Cicero, Plutarch, Lucan, Claudian, and the Vulgate ;
quaint
proverbs, mottoes, and rhymes of various sorts are freely used. Inside the cover
of his first book he writes, for example, " Temperantia prorogat annos," " Dies
diem docet," " Nocte dieque leges si vis addiscere leges," " patior ut potiar,"
and a quotation from Lucan. The fecond book opens with more Latin
mottoes, such as "Quod fors fert ferendum est," " Bonum est: habere bonum
Domen,"' and quotations from Claudian, Cicero, Plato (in Latin), etc., together
with an English passage describing envy as " ane certane tre quha rute is
malice and illwill . . . quhais tlowris is mocking and divysioun," etc., while at
the end of the volume is a list of the " maist peralus and dangerous dayis in
the yeir," days on which no one should wed a wife, start on a journey, be seized
with illness, or begin any great piece of work—which shows that Robert's
scholarship did not prevent his superstition. I need not continue to enumerate
the different quotations in these books, a more detailed account of each of
which will be found in the second volume of this work. t..gether with extracts
from the protocols which they contain^ {Dimdee Protocol Books, pp. iOG scqq.,
These claldren may all have died in the plague, which was importc.1 to D.n I« fr..ra Knncc ia
1605, and ^J stUl raging in 160S. Ko leas than four thou^ud j.-r^-u. .1.^1 dunug ihi.
Sir *^"mamW^rderbl"ha^- decorated the cornice of a dining-r^m recent., bu.lt .t Mcr^I.th