The above remained the complete list of subscriptions, and with the amount so Part V. subscribed (£141 13s.) the work of setting the ground in order was undertaken, after Chap. I. obtaining the necessary but readily accorded permission from the Town Council of Dundee. The following account of what was done is taken from an article on the subject, which appeared in the Dundee Advertiser of 11 Sept. 1893-"As the stones were nearly all beyond the hope of restoration, it was deemed most advisable to make arrangements merely to prevent their sinking beneath the surface and becoming defaced by overgrowing vegetation, and to erect a central stone with inscription declaring briefly the names of those buried there. Accordingly a trench was dug around the Wedderburn burying-place, and a strong foundation was laid, upon which a low coping has been built to mark off the bounds of the lairs. The coping forms an oblong enclosure, the eastern side of it being carried out so as to partly surround the pillar already referred to. The principal slab, which once bore an inscription (now quite illegible) to the memory of the Wedderburns of Kingennie, has been raised on a substructure of sarcophagus shape, made of Peterhead granite in the style of the finest Howff monuments of its period. On the polished granite panels in the four sides of this structure the following inscriptions have been graven—

THEIR SON ALEXANDER OF EASTER POWRIE SOMETIME PROVOST B. 1615 D. 1683
HIS SON ALEXANDER B. 1643, D. 1692.
AND HIS SON

ALEXANDER OF WEDDERBURN B. 1666, D. 1713

WHOSE SOLE SURVIVING CHILD

GRIZEL WEDDERBURN OF WEDDERBURN
B. 1705. D. 1778.

1 This is not quite accurate. The inscription was, it is said, originally to Alexander Wedderburn, first of Kingennie, and later to his grandson of Easter Powrie. See ante, pp. 412-13.

2 This is not a family motto, but was added to the panel in

death and his connection with the '45

allusion to the circumstances of Sir John's

Part V.

"In commending (continues the Advertiser) the members of the Wedderburn family Chap. I, for their successful effort to preserve the memory of their ancestors, we cannot forbear expressing the hope that others will be induced thereby to fulfil a similar duty to other illustrious men whose tombs have been suffered to fall into decay. . . . The noble example which the Wedderburns have set should stimulate others to follow in their footsteps."

PART V.

CHAPTER II.

THE ARMORIAL BEARINGS OF THE FAMILY.

Chap. II.

I propose in this chapter to put together the evidence which I have collected in Part V. regard to the armorial bearings of the family. This is of two kinds, viz. (a) the representation of the arms on impressions of old seals, sculptured stones, signet rings, etc., and (b) the documentary evidence provided by records of the family arms in old heraldic MS., or, later, in the matriculations of the Lyon College.

I shall begin by one catalogue of both these classes of evidence, arranged together in order of date, from which we shall be able, I think, to draw some definite conclusions as to various matters arising in connection with the subject.

(1) The seal of Walter de Wedderburn, 1296.

This is appended to the still extant Ragman Roll, dated in 1296, when, in common with numerous nobles and lesser barons, Walter de Wedderburn swore fealty to Edward I. It consists of a star of seven rays, and is lettered s' WALTI DE WED'BVRN.1

This, it will be at once noticed, bears no resemblance to the shield which was certainly that of the Forfarshire family at an early date (1464), and, if there was no other evidence, it would militate against the tradition of a close connection between the Berwickshire and the Forfarshire house. The next earliest seal known to me, however, whilst it leaves unexplained the difference between the arms of Walter de Wedderburn and all those borne by persons of the name in later years, establishes at once, so far as heraldic evidence can do so, a connection between the Wedderburns in Berwickshire in the fourteenth century and the Wedderburns whom we soon after find flourishing in Dundee. This is

(2) The seal of John de Wedderburn, 1364.

This is appended to an inquisition dated at Bonkyl on the vigil of S. Thomas (20 Dec.) 1364, which is among the Coldingham charters, of which an inventory is given in Raine's North Durham (App., p. 108). The document is quoted in the Introduction to this volume, but here we are only concerned with the seal of John de Wederburne, one of the members of the inquisition. This is reproduced in Raine's book (Woodcut, No. DCXX.), and shows a cheveron engrailed between three cinquefoils or roses pierced, with the letters SIG . . . WEDDIBURN still legible on the unbroken portion of the edge of the seal. The annexed cut is from a very slight tracing of the illustration in North Durham, but sufficiently gives the general character of the seal, which thus differs, as we shall see, from the arms of the Dundee family in 1464 only by reason of the cheveron being engrailed-a difference which may be due to the cadetcy of John de Wedderburn and personal to him and his direct descendants, if any.2

(3) The seal of David Wedderburn, 1464.

This is the earliest example of the arms of the Forfarshire house, known to have been now borne by them without substantial differences for over four hundred years, and no doubt in fact for a much longer period. It is attached to a document in the Wedderburn charter chest (S.W. 1), which must have come into the possession of the family in

1 See Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland preserved in H.M. Public Record Office, London. Ed. by Joseph Bain, H.M. General Register House, Edinburgh, 1884. Vol. ii., pp. 201 and 547. Appendix of Uncatalogued Seals (attached to the Ragman Roll). Tray ii., No. 272, 21st string. The above account of the seal of Walter of Wedderburn is taken from this volume. I have not examined the original seal. The roll is quoted in the Introduction.

The piercing of the cinquefoils is not, I think, due to intentional difference, but to the taste of the herald who designed the seal.

Part V.

1600 as one of the "evidents" or titles of the lands of Kingennie. This document is a Chap. II. small parchment retour of the inquest held at Kyrymoir (Kirriemuir) 16 April 1464, before some fourteen persons of importance, including a David Wedderburn, for the declaring of Marjorie de Straza wquhyn heir to her late sister Elizabeth in the lands of Kingennie and Carntoun in the barony of Athebetoun, within the regality of Kyrymoir, etc. Only three seals remain affixed to the document, and all three are much defaced,1 but of them that of David Wedderburne, though much broken, shows clearly the arms-a cheveron between three cinquefoilswhile the letters VRN are, I think, just decipherable. Of this seal I had an accurate sketch made, and of this a photographic reproduction is given here. The arms may be clearly seen, but the letters have not

the position of the salteurs, but no
and one in base as shown here.2

(a) 1502. "Argent, a cheveron between three saltires couped in chief and one in base, gules" (See copy of the MS. of Sir James Balfour, circ. 1630-54, in the possession of the Earl of Kinnoull, p. 20).

(b) Undated. "Or, a cheveron gules between four salteurs of the second" (See copy of Sir James Balfour's alphabetical list of Scottish surnames and arms in the Advocates' library.) This does not precisely fix doubt means the same as the first, viz., three in chief

+

Both these blazons are equally puzzling. Neither of them specify the place where the family designed "de eodem " in 1502 was located. It can hardly have been Berwickshire, for not only had the lands of Wedderburn there been long in possession of the Homes, but the arms borne by both Walter de Wedderburn in 1296 and John de Wedderburn in 1364 differ altogether from these blazons. Nor can it well be Forfarshire, not only because of an equally complete difference in the arms, but because the family there were not designed "of that ilk" till 1708. There was, no doubt, a family of the name in Aberdeenshire at an early date (see post, Part vi.), and there were some lands of Wedderburn in that county in 1600 (R.H. 1-7), but these then belonged to Gordons and Bissets, and there is nothing to show that they were ever owned by Wedderburns. On the contrary it is far more likely that the Wedderburns in Aberdeen came north from Forfar. Unfortunately I have found no examples of the armorial bearings of the north country Wedderburns, so that I cannot by that means either connect them with the Forfarshire family or treat them as an independent one. Thus all that can be done is to record these blazons, and leave others to solve the difficulty, either by fresh discovery or by suggesting some error in Balfour's MSS.

The other two are (a) the seal of John Wischard of Logy, or of David Wischard, for both are on the inquest. The arms are much defaced, but the word Vischart is quite clear, together with a letter O, probably the second letter of Johannes. (b) the seal of David Rossy of that ilk, cn which the arms are indistinguishable, but the letters SIGILLV' DAVIDIS ROS. . . quite clear.

2 I have not indicated the tinctures in this sketch.

(5) The seal of Robert Wedderburn, 1547.

This is attached to a charter (S.W. 12), dated 1 April 1547, by which Robert (son of James) Wedderburn (ante, p. 71) alienated certain property in Dundee to his namesake, Robert Wedderburn, grandfather of the first Wedderburn of Kingennie. This seal, which is in quite perfect condition, is reproduced here from a woodcut made from the original impression. It will be noticed that, like that of David Wedderburn, it shows no tinctures, but this is, I believe, the case with most early seals. As in the seal of David Wedderburn, the charges are clearly cinquefoils and not roses,' and the cheveron does not, as it does at a later period, bear any fleur-de-lys charged upon it.

Part V.
Chap. II

.P.W

71

This ring is of foreign and probably Venetian make. It is of engraved glass, with the charges shown in gold under the glass. The representation of it given here is reproduced from the engraving in J.W.'s printed memoir. It was formerly long in the possession of the family of Henry Wedderburn of Gosford (ante, p. 385), the widower of whose daughter (Captain Murray) gave it to Charles Wedderburn of Pearsie. By him it was given to J.W., and descended to his eldest son, by whom it was worn, and, unfortunately, broken. J.W. suggests that it belonged to Peter Wedderburn, brother of the first Kingennie, but if so the date and his initials must have put on at a very early age, as he cannot have been more than six or seven years old in 1571. More probably it belonged to his uncle Peter, who m. Margaret Kinloch (ante, p. 96), or to Patrick Wedderburn, son of Alexander W. and Isobel Anderson (see ante, p. 77).

A cinquefoil and rose are really distinct, the former being like a clover or strawberry leaf (the fraise of the Frasers), while the latter should be barbed "vert" and seeded "or." In careless drawing, however, they are apt to be confused, and there is a tendency to elaborate the cinquefoil into the rose.