Duncan Wemyss of Reres

https://archive.org/details/memorialsoffamil01fras/page/117/mode/1up

Page 58 - 60 of the text:

The children of Sir John Wemyss, so far as they have been ascer- tained, were —

I. Duncan Wemyss, who between 1398 and 1400 married Elizabeth Erskine, a daughter of Thomas Erskine of that ilk, and Joanna Keith his wife. With her he received from her father and mother a grant of the lands of Perthesk or Pirchock, and Ludcairn, in the shire of Aberdeen, and in the charter of conveyance he is described as Duncan of Wemyss, son and heir of Sir John of Wemyss, knight, lord of Leuchars- Wemyss.' As the charter in question was certainly gi-anted not later th;in 1400, and Duncan Wemyss was then the heir of Sir John Wemyss, it is clear he was older than his brother David, who afterwards inherited the lauds of Wemyss. As David in 1418, while his father and mother were still alive, describes himself as their son and apparent heir, in relation to his mother's lands," and as his elder brother Duncan was also then alive, it is evident that the family tradition referred to is substantially correct, and that Duncan Weniv.s.s, and probably other sons of Sir John Wemyss were tlie children of an earlier marriage, before his union with Isaht-l Erskine,' by whom he acquked her portion of Wemyss, wliich was inherited by her son David.

Besides the lands which Duncan Wemyss obtained witli his wife, he inherited on his father's death, if not provitK'd to them during Sir John's lifetime, the lands of llerrs, Leuchars- Wemyss, ^vith Logymurtho (Logie- Murdoch or Logie) and others, all in Fifeshire. It seems probable that he thus obtained the greater part of his father's own estate, possessed by him before his marriage with Isabel Erskine of Inchmartin. Little is on record regarding Duncan Wemyss, probably because in 1432, not long after his father's death, he went to England as one of the hostages for the ransom of King James the First. He is then described as Duncan Wemyss of Eeres. He was still in England in 1438, and probably died there.

Duncan Wemyss of Reres and Elizabeth Erskine, had a son,

Thomas, who, as son and heir of Duncan Wemyss, is a witness to charters by Sir Robert Erskine of that ilk, his uncle, in 1433 and 1437. He succeeded his father before 1443, and became, before 1466, Sir Thomas Wemyss of Reres, knight.