stirling-1963-vol-1/05_047

Transcription

INTRODUCTION : GENERAL
Viscount of Kilsyth and Lord Campsie; during the 1715 rebellion, however, the Livingstones
of Kilsyth followed the senior branch of the family in supporting the cause of the Pretender,
and their estates and titles were subsequently forfeited. Other branches of the family in
Stirlingshire included the Livingstones of Haining (cf. No. 202), of Westquarter (cf. No. 396)
and of Dunipace (cf. No. 397).
Another family of note in eastern Stirlingshire was that of Bruce, the senior branch of
which was Bruce of Airth. ¹ The founder of this line was Alexander Bruce, second son of
Sir Robert de Brus of Clackmannan, who died before 1406. The family seems at first to have
been styled indifferently "of Stenhouse" and "of Airth" and it is uncertain which of these two
estates formed their principal seat. In the second half of the 16th century Sir Alexander Bruce
alienated a considerable amount of family property, while his grandson John sold the remainder
of the estate to the Earl of Linlithgow before 1620; Stenhouse, however, passed to John's
brother William in 1611. Airth was regained in the middle of the 17th century. but in the
absence of male heirs soon passed to the families of Elphinstone of Calderhall and of Dundas.
William Bruce, the founder of the house of Stenhouse, ² was created a baronet of Nova Scotia
in 1629. He built the mansion of Stenhouse (No. 200), where the family continued to reside
until recent years. The founder of the house of Bruce of Kinnaird ³ was Edward Bruce, third
son of Alexander Bruce of Stenhouse and Airth, who received a charter of the lands of Kinnaird
from the Abbot of Newbattle in 1499. At the end of the 16th century, however, Edward Bruce,
3rd of Kinnaird, being in embarrassed circumstances, sold the property to Sir Alexander
Bruce of Airth, who granted it to his second son, Robert, the founder of the second family of
Kinnaird. Robert Bruce became a minister of the Reformed Church and played an important
part in the ecclesiastical affairs of his time. On the death of Alexander Bruce in 1711, without
male heirs, the estate passed to his daughter Helen, from whom was descended James Bruce of
Kinnaird, the Abyssinian traveller. Among the other branches of the Bruce family in Stirling-
shire were those of Auchenbowie (No. 296), of Powfoulis (No. 304) and of Newton (No. 306).
The connection of the Elphinstone family ⁴ with Stirlingshire goes back to the early 14th
century, when John of Elphinstone acquired some property near Airth by his marriage with
Marjorie, heiress of Little Airth. About 1397 the lands of Pendreich, near Bridge of Allan,
were granted to Sir William Elphinstone by William Lindsay of the Byres, but the principal
seat of the family was at Elphinstone in East Lothian. Following the death of Alexander
Elphinstone in 1435, however, a dispute arose as to the succession, and the family estates were
eventually divided, those in East Lothian going to Agnes Elphinstone, the ancestress of the
Johnstones of Elphinstone, while the Stirlingshire property fell to Henry Elphinstone, Sir
Alexander's brother. Henry Elphinstone styled himself "of Pendreich", but in 1504, Sir John
Elphinstone, his grandson and successor, received a charter by which his estates in Stirlingshire
and Perthshire were erected into the barony of Elphinstone; this included the barony of
Airth ⁵ and the lands of Craigorth, now Craigforth, which he had previously received from
Patrick, Lord Lindsay of the Byres. In the early 16th century, Alexander Elphinstone, besides
greatly extending the family estates by the acquisition of lands in Aberdeenshire, also increased

1 Armstrong, W. Bruce, The Bruces of Airth and their Cadets, 12 ff.; The Scots Peerage, iii, 469.
2 Armstrong, W. Bruce, op. cit., 93 ff.
3 Ibid., 67 ff.
4 Fraser, W., The Lords Elphinstone of Elphinstone, passim.
5 Part of the lands of Airth, however, together with Airth Castle, were in the possession of the Bruces of Airth (supra).

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