The Barony of Clackmannan

1609 – 1642 Sir Robert Bruce - 9th Baron of Clackmannan

Inherited the Barony of Clackmannan after the death of his father. Died around 1642.

Barony passed from father to son

1642 – 1663 Sir Robert Bruce - 10th Baron of Clackmannan

Received a charter for Easter Kennet and other lands in June 1642. His son George Bruce served as a Major in the Army. His son William Bruce served as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army & married Elizabeth the daughter of Robert Bruce of Wester Kennet (another branch of the family tree). His daughter Helen Bruce married into another branch of the family tree when she married Alexander Bruce 4th of Kinnard, who lived at Gaskenhall, Perthshire.

Below is an account of him and an issue he had with a payment of custom. "On the high ground which skirts the Carse of Gowrie to the north, near the village of Rait, once stood a fortified house called Gaskenhall. Only a bit of broken garden-wall and a few trees now indicate the site. Here lived, at the end of the sixteenth century, Robert Bruce of Clackmannan, chief of the family which had given Scotland a king three centuries before and described in the grave pages of Douglas's Baronage as a most respectable person, 'in high favour with King James VI., who conferred on him the honour of knighthood at the baptism of his son Prince Henry.' Let us see, from the actual doings of this knight, what sort of person he was. In August 1592, some goods belonging to Bruce, having to pass through Perth, were subjected to payment of custom by the magistrates, who, on payment being refused, seized them. Clackmannan sent a letter of remonstrance, threatening, if his goods were not restored, to make the Perth citizens suffer for it when they chanced to pass his house. This not being attended to, he attacked a party of citizens on their way from Dundee and despoiled them of their weapons; for in those days a party of quiet burghers passing through twenty miles of even this central and comparatively civilised district of Scotland, could not go unarmed. The only reply the laird got to a message offering the weapons back in exchange for his goods, was a visit from a company of Perth citizens, who destroyed a good deal of his growing corn with their horses. He came out to remonstrate, and an altercation ensuing, he was provoked to strike one of the aggressors with a pistol. He then seized the two chief men of the party, William Inglis and John Balsillie, and took them as prisoners into his house of Gaskenhall. That same night, a large party of the citizens of Perth, headed by the bailies and council, came out in arms to Gaskenhall, where, upon the morrow, before daylight, they sounded their drum, besieged the laird in his house, and discharged hagbuts and pistols in at the doors and windows, whereby a servant of his was wounded. At last setting fire to the house, they entered at the roof, set free their friends, and seized the laird, whom they 'transportit away with them ane certain space, barefooted and bare-legged, not suffering him to put on his awn claithes.' They likewise 'spulyit and took away with them his hail silver-wark, bedding, claithes, and all the plenishing of his house.'— P. C. B. This affair came before the king, who seems to have taken no step in the case beyond declaring both parties in the wrong and ordering the laird and the magistrates into divers prisons, there to lie at their own respective costs, until they should be subjected to an assize. A Perth chronicler states: 'They were thereafter agreed upon the town's large charges.' The agreement, however, does not seem to have been effectual, for, on the 28th of April 1593, as John Wilson and John Niven, with other citizens of Perth, were passing the Coble of Rhynd on their way to the market of St Andrews, they were beset by the laird, accompanied with nine horsemen and footmen, all well-armed. 'The said John Wilson and John Niven, being baith hurt and wounded in divers parts of their bodies, to the effusion of their blood in great quantity, the said laird and his accomplices maist shamefully tirrit them baith naked, and in maist barbarous and shameful manner scourgit them with horse bridles through the town of Abernethy, as if they had been thieves or heinous malefactors; [then] left the said John Niven lying there for dead, and took the said John Wilson, naked, as captive and prisoner away with them.' On the complaint of the magistrates of Perth, among whom was the afterwards famous Earl of Gowrie, acting as provost, the Laird of Clackmannan was charged to appear before the king, on pain of being denounced as a rebel in case of failure "The account was found on the Clan MacFarlane Genealogy Website.

Barony passed from father to son

1663 – 1674 Sir Henry Bruce - 11th Baron of Clackmannan

Inherited the Barony of Clackmannan after his father's death. In August 1668 he was issued a charter by King Charles II of the office of Sherrifdom & Forrestry of Clackmannan.

In December 1669 an Act of Parliament was made in the favour of Henry Bruce confirming the Lands & Barony of Clackmannan as well as the Land & Barony of Sauchie, the Lands of Gairdinkeir, twice weekly markets to be held in Clackmannan on Wednesdays and Saturday's, all tolls from the markets and mills of Clackmannan.

Also included in the Act were the Lands of Hallhill, Kairshill, Carloquhie, Grasmainston, Garthalow, Burkhill, Lindmill and Millands, Tullygarth, Pillarskeine, Morlemersyde, Craigorie, Kemling, East Park, Wester Kennet, Easter Kennet, Baxter's lands, Craighill, Hiltoun, Greivsaiker, with the right to hold a fair yearly in the said burgh on the 15th of June.

Further, the office of Sheriff and Forester of the Sheriffdom of Clackmannan, and all dues from the fair of St Bartholmew, to be held at Clackmannan in August yearly and all castles, towers, and manor houses.

Barony passed from father to son

References

• "Scotland Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XBK8-4HH : 11 February 2020), Elizabethe Halyburton in entry for George Bruce, 1633.
• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Feb 3 2017, 23:52:35 UTC
• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Jan 12 2019, 21:41:43 UTC

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References

• http://redbookofscotland.co.uk/bruce-of-clackmannan
• Family Records of the Bruces and the Cumyns: With an Historical Introduction ... By Mary Elizabeth Cumming Bruce. Page 281. GoogleBooks
• http://www.brucefamily.com/lineage.htm