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The Barony of Meldrum was originally the territory
of Auchineve and was granted to Philip de Phendarg in 1236 by the Abbot of
Arbroath during the reign of the Scottish King Alexander II. It is Sir Philip de
Fendarg, the son, who is believed to have first carried the title of Meldrum,
which was then spelt Melgdrum. A translation from the Gaelic of Meall Druim is:
the ridge on the hill, which is appropriate given that the house was built on the
only rocky outcrop on the highest point of the land.
The original tower house was
built around this time and forms the nucleus of all the later changes
from the
17th, 19th and 20th Centuries which leave the house as it stands today. The Meldrum family became powerful and great
landowners within the northeast of Scotland with properties including Drumoak and
Fyvie Castle, which came into the family when Alexander Meldrum of Meldrum
married the youngest daughter of Sir Henry Preston in 1433. Their son, George,
was to become an Ambassador to the Court of King Henry in England. William Meldrum, the
last of the male line of the Meldrums, only had two daughters and, with the
eldest married, it was Elizabeth, the youngest daughter, who was to inherit the
estate of Meldrum, whilst Drumoak and Fyvie remained with other branches of the
family.
Elizabeth's marriage to
Sir William Seton brought the
Seton family into ownership of the estate. William was the second son of Sir
Alexander Seton, 1st Lord Gordon, and brother of Alexander Seton
1st Earl of Huntly, however, William and his younger brother Henry were
both killed at the
Battle of Brechin on 18th May 1452. Their older brother, Alexander jr. (the Master
of Gordon) took the name of Gordon to
become 1st Earl Huntly. The estate of Meldrum passed to Sir William Seton's
son, and was then to remain in the Seton
family for a further 7 generations.
It was the offspring of these Seton's that
were to become Chancellors of Aberdeen, Chancellors of the St. Machar's
Catherdral and of the University of Aberdeen, Chamberlain's to the
Earl of Winton, the Earl's of Dunfermline and the Earl's of Huntly and progenitors of the Setons of Pittmedden, of Mounie, of Belhelvie
and others
as well as extend the Seton family lands throughout the north of Scotland.
The
direct line at Meldrum ended with
Sir Alexander Seton. His eldest son, also Alexander jr "fiar of
Meldrum", pre-deceased him in 1590,
leaving a daughter Elizabeth: Alexander jr. having been slain by James King of Barra,
whereby representation of the line passed to Alexander senior's
second son, John and then his third son William, respectively.
At the death of William, last Seton of Meldrum in 1635, the
male-line representation passed to the line of John Seton of
Lumphart and 1st of Mounie who's eldest son was William Seton of
Mounie, Menie and Udny.
When the direct Menie/Udny line ultimately failed in the person
of Captain Robert Seton (Captain of Blackness Castle) in the
mid-1700's, representation of the line then passed to William
Seton of Mounie/Udny's sons from his second marriage to Marjory
Innes of Cotts. These sons were also styled as "of Menie" and
who were involved with their Seton of Disblair-cousin's, Chamberlain's to the
Earls of Dunfermline at Fyvie Castle. Some members of these
family-lines emigrated to
Ulster, Ireland in the late 1600's, and later still, established branches in
Pennsylvania as well as in Nova Scotia - representative's of the House of Seton of Meldrum - spelt as Seeton.
The termination
of the direct male-line of the Seton's of Meldrum was due to a
long-standing feud which brought about the line demise. The Kings of Barra were long at feud with the Seton's
of Meldrum, which feud might have been expected to come to a close
towards the end of the 16th century when James King sold Barra to
the Seton's. But no; as late as 1615, Elizabeth Seton
pursued at law James King "sumtyme of Barra' and others for being
art and part in the slaughter of her father, Alexander, fiar of
Meldrum, 'with schottis of hagbuttis and muscattis, commited upon
the landis of Barra...' (the Braes of Bourtie).
What was the cause of all this enmity?
The passing of the castle of Barra to the Seton's being the
catalyst for the murder of Alexander Seton, heir of Meldrum.
Although the correspondence, litigation and documents
affecting the forfeiture of the Kings and of the Blackhalls of Barra are lost, or hidden in forgotten archives,
the fact of the forfeiture is abundantly proved after the event,
by documentary evidence, and the earliest indication of it to
hand, concerns the Kings of Barra.
The gratification of the Setons on the general results of the
forfeiture of the Blackhalls and Kings was, therefore, in all
probability considerable. This consummation was not, however,
reached without at least one very regrettable incident.
During the family animosities originated by these changes, there
appears to have been a rapprochement between the Blackhalls of
Barra, with whom Strachan of Tippertie (at one time the warder
of Blackhall) was associated, and the Setons, as against the
Kings. Among the very large number of Setons and their
adherents, for whom caution was taken, to secure immunity from
the animosity of the Kings, the names of Alexander Blackhall,
portioner of Barra, and of his brother, James Blackhall, are
found. These are the persons for whom, as we have seen,
Alexander Burnet of Leys became cautioner that they should not
molest the Kings.
The Blackhalls of Barra, then, seem to have made common cause
with the Setons against the Kings. It may be that in the
examination of some ancient charter now lost or hidden, it was
found that the lands alienated to the Blackhalls of Barra by the
head of the family of that Ilk (if, as I believe, we are
justified in assuming such a transaction took place) had again
been divided by the former and part sold to the ancestor of the
Kings. In this case the Kings might regard themselves as injured
by the Blackhalls of Barra, and the latter would find something
in common with the encroaching Setons. In any case, all these
precautions do not, unfortunately, seem to have been sufficient
to protect Alexander Seton, the heir apparent to Meldrum, from
the animosity of the ousted Kings, for, in 1596, William King,
still called of Barra, his brother David, and their accomplices,
slew him. (Davidson's Inverurie, p. 103.)
" The slaughter may have arisen," remarks Dr. Davidson, " in
some dispute about the transfer of land," and from what has now
been stated, this seems extremely probable. It is pleasant to
remember that the good name of an old family thus tarnished in a
private feud, under circumstances provocative of wrath, and in
an age when the rapier quickly left its scabbard, was redeemed
by the distinguished soldier already mentioned, who was the
brother of the perpetrators of this " slaughter," to call it by
no harsher name.
The forfeiture of the Blackhalls of Barra, if not
contemporaneous with, must have soon followed that of the Kings,
for, on the 31st of May, 1592, we find Alexander Burnet of Leys
became cautioner for a number of persons in 300 merks each,
among whom there appear "Alexander Blakhall in Leyis," "William
Blakhall in Leyis" and " Adam Blakhall in Leyis,"...
On the 24th of March, 1590, and in the 24th year of his reign
(that is, a few months before Alexander Blackhall of Barra
completed his negotiation with the Aberdonian Alexander
Blackhall of that Ilk), James VI. granted for good service to
Sir James Sandilands of Slamannan and his heirs and assigns half
the lands of Barroch (Barra), Westerhous, Phillas, Aschenheid,
Fuyrdailhous, sixth part of Petgovny, half the Mill of Bourty,
with the superiority of Muretoun, &c., the inheritance of which
(quarum hereditatem) James King, the fiar of Barra, resigned, as
did William King, his father, his life rent.
Whatever destiny
awaited the Blackhalls, whose case might require closer
investigation, it was apparently evident to the advisers of
James VI. that the Kings had forfeited their right to Barra.
Hence they appear to have been the first sufferers, in this
example of the feudal short-sightedness of those whom fate had
marked out for a more historic forfeiture a little later.
Sir
Alexander Seton,
senior's second son, John Seton of Meldrum,
then succeeded
to the Estate of Meldrum but died in
1619, with no offspring from his marriage to Lady Grisel Stewart, daughter of the
Earl of Atholl. And so it was Sir Alexander Seton's 3rd son William
Seton who inherited Meldrum, however, as William's marriage to Anne Crighton of Fendraught was
also childless, and he bequeathed the Estate to his brothers' daughter
Elizabeth in 1625 for her to inherit on his death, which occured
in 1635.
William Seton was
responsible for the addition of the stone staircase in 1625
thereby creating the new entrance at the top of the stairs after
blocking in the original archway to the internal courtyard. Also,
1628 saw the addition of the original stable block including the
central tower still prominent today with its feature of a
stone-carved Royal Coat of Arms on the northeast face, so placed
for the visit of King Charles I to Meldrum House that same year
The heiress of
Meldrum, Elizabeth
Seton, married John Urquhart of
Craigfintray, known as the Tutor of Cromarty in 1610. When she inherited
the Meldrum Estate in 1635 on William's death,
she passed the estate to her son Patrick Urquhart (she was the last
actual Seton
of Meldrum). The Meldrum Estate was then to remain
in the Urquhart family until 1898. It was during the Urquhart tenure in the
late 17th and early 18th Centuries that the house was extended with the addition of
two wings running parallel and eastwards, and a large joining wall connected these
wings to create a substantial courtyard mansion house to reflect the status of
the family at that time. There are four paintings dated 1772/73 that show the
house in this style and the size that it had become. It was James Urquhart
of Meldrum that commissioned Archibald Simpson to redesign the house in 1836 to
remove the "air of neglect" that had become noticeable.
Simpson's design took 3
years to complete and provided a Jacobean style mansion house of symmetrical
design in a large C shape, with grand Portico entrance and turreted pavilions
copying the Seton's work opposite, to
a total of 86 rooms. The last Urquhart Laird was Major Beauchamp Colclough
Urquhart who was killed at the Battle of Attbara in the Sudan on Good Friday 8th
April 1898. The estate then passed to his sister, Annie Isabella, who had
married her first cousin Garden Alexander Duff of Hatton.
Their son, Colonel
Garden Beauchamp Duff, was to become Laird of Hatton and Meldrum, and it was
Lady Doris Duff who commissioned W.L. Duncan to redesign the house in 1934. This
saw the removal of the turreted pavilion and a complete story of the main house
to leave the L shaped house of today.
Meldrum House Charters
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