Helenor St. Clair

The Scottish historical review. “Henry Ker of Graden.” Page 181- < Archive.Org >

4 Born,' to use his own words,2 * in the shire of Teviotdale in Scotland/ and having chad the misfortune to lose his father/ Archibald Ker of Graden, while still a child, Henry was reared under the guardianship of his mother Helenor, a daughter of Sir James St. Clair of Roslin, who ' brought him up a Roman Catholick, and sent him early into the Spanish Service.'

That Lady Graden should select the Spanish army for her son was natural enough, since she had kinsmen in that service, while her youngest brother, Thomas St. Clair, went shortly after to live in the Peninsula, where he had come in for a windfall of doubloons on ' the death of his brother-in-law, Captain Wachup.' 3 Thomas St. Clair was a ' St. Germains bird ' and as a Jacobite go-between unequalled. Lockhart of Carnwath commends him, in that capacity, to the old Chevalier at Avignon, as ' the cliverest fellow in Europe. . . . He knows all the ports in most countries, he has wayes peculiar to himself (of which he gave good proofs at Perth, 1715) in going about such errands ; he's zealouslie honest and as closs as a stone.'4

Comments

Death seen as 07/04/1699, which was her husband’s death date.

References

• "Scotland Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XY7F-R8W : 12 February 2020), Jeane Spotswood and James Sincklar in the christening entry for Healleane Sincklar, 17 Mar 1670, Lasswade, Midlothian, Scotland
• Leishman, J. F. “Henry Ker of Graden.” The Scottish Historical Review, vol. 5, no. 18, 1908, pp. 181–90. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25517942. Accessed 7 Nov. 2022.
• “Descendants of Henry Ker” < PDF >