James Hunter, of Crichton Dean & East Gordon - WHO WAS JAMES HUNTER OF CRICHTON DEAN AND EASTGORDON (1718-)

According to the Petition for Arms submitted to the Court of the Lord Lyon King of Arms, by The Reverend Edward Henry Thomas Gurney, Clerk in Holy Orders of the Church of England [26 January 1951], James Hunter of Crichton Dean and East Gordon was the Architect Royal for the Kingdom of Scotland. He is said to have been the eldest son of John Hunter of Crichton Dean and East Gordon, and to have been born in 1718. He is also said to have married in 1745 (actual date 30 December 1744), Jean Nisbet, daughter of James Nisbet of Palacecraig in the County of Lanark. [Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland, volume 38, page 55]

Burke’s Landed Gentry for Scotland (2001) concurred with the Reverend Edward, that James Hunter of Crichton Dean and East Gordon was the Architect Royal for the Kingdom of Scotland. Introducing new information, Burke’s Landed Gentry identified him as the son of John Hunter of Crichton Dean and East Gordon, by his wife Magdalen Burd (married on 19 December 1716), and said that he was born on 14 January 1718. Magdalen Burd, in turn, is said to be the daughter of Captain Edward Burd, younger of Foord, the son of Edward Burd of Foord by his wife Marion Hunter of Borrowstouness, Crichton Dean and East Gordon. Burke’s also says that he married Jean Nisbet on 14 January 1745 (The actual marriage date was 30 December 1744). [Burke’s Landed Gentry. Volume I. Kingdom of Scotland (2001), page 698]

The first thing that should be said is this. The man who married Jean Nisbet on 30 December 1744 (not 14 January 1745) was not James Hunter of Crichton Dean and East Gordon, and he was not the Architect Royal for Scotland. His name was certainly James Hunter, but he was a wright and burgess of Edinburgh, sometime Deacon of the Wrights of Edinburgh. On 2 August 1710 he was booked ‘prentice with George Campbell, wright in Edinburgh and burgess there, and so it is not possible that he could be the same person as the child who is said by Burke’s Land Gentry for Scotland (2001) to have been born on 14 January 1718 (For whom a birth or baptismal record of the same date cannot be identified in Scotland’s old parochial registers). The ‘prentice record of James Hunter, wright and burgess of Edinburgh, dated 2 August 1710, identifies his father as John Hunter, but this man was a tenant farmer at Gordon in Berwickshire, he was not the heritable proprietor of East Gordon there, or Crichton Dean in Midlothian. Moreover, John Hunter, tenant farmer at Gordon in Berwickshire, was already dead when his son was booked ‘prentice with George Campbell on 2 August 1710, and so he cannot possibly be the man who is said to have married Magdalen Burd on 19 December 1716.

All of the foregoing begs the question: Who was James Hunter of Crichton Dean and East Gordon?
If anyone has primary evidence, or any other information that might help answer this question I would be grateful if they would bring it forward to this discussion.

A link to James Hunter’s marriage record dated 30 December 1744 follows:

https://archive.org/details/registerofmarria35edin/page/270/mode/1up

A link to James Hunter’s ‘prentice record dated 2 August 1710 follows:

https://archive.org/details/scottishrecordso47scotuoft/page/44/mode...

A link to James Hunter’s burgess record dated 3 September 1718 follows:

https://archive.org/details/scottishrecordso46scotuoft/page/102/mod...