DAUGHTERS OF GEORGE GRAEME

FOURTH BARON OF INCHBRAKIE

AND

MARGARET KEITH HIS WIFE

Margaret was married from the schoolroom, and Beatrice took two husbands in succession; both sisters married into the famous Clan of Robertson. Their parents had married in 1608, and the girls were (on the Distaff side), nieces of Sir Alexander Keith of Ludquhairn, and cousins of the fourth and fifth Earl Marischals. They grew up beside their brothers, John, and the celebrated Black Pate, and into their ears would be poured the hopes and high ambitions of the latter; ere he was freed from his tutors, the eldest sister was borne away in 1626 by her Highland lover.

The contract was signed in 1626 and Alexander Robertson, younger, of Struan, dowers her in her seventeenth year and all the lands of Struan, by consent of his father Robert, and his mother Agnes McDonald, Clan Reynald.

Space forbids details of this interesting race; as illustrious as it was marital, for interesting records of the Clan Donnachie, I would refer readers to Mr Rosach Clarke’s volumes and the "Marital Achievements of the Robertson’s", from which authorities I cull the brief statements below.

Royal blood was in their veins, for the Robertsons were descended from Duncan, King of Scotland.

In 1541 lands are confirmed to Robertson of Struan and Marioti McAne his wife, thus proving he was already owner of Dunalister. Struan had been granted to the Robertsons for the large numbers of wolves destroyed by them, which had become a terror in Northern Perthshire; when arms were also granted him of three wolves’ heads erased, in commemoration of the benefit he conferred.

In the charter chest of the Morays of Abercairny, there was in 1446 the triangular seal of "Robert, son of Duncan" Lord of Struan, appended to a deed; on it were the three wolves’ heads erased, supported by two Ratch hounds, surrounded by the above legend.

On the murder of King James I, the Laird of Strowan in particular, was fired with the desire to punish the instigators of the plot; raising a large body of his kinsmen and clan, he searched the woods and apprehended Robert Stewart, grandson and heir of the first Earl of Atholl, who was stated to be the contriver with Lord Robert Graham and others of the plot against the King’s life; these all suffered death for the murder.

Struan, for his "signall and eminent" service, received a charter under the Great Seal, incorporating all the lands of Struan into a barony and in addition, a peculiar distinction in heraldry only borne by four families in the kingdom; that of the Duke of Douglas, the Earl of Perth, the Lairds of Dundas and Struan. The Struans bear a wild man lying chained under their escutcheon of arms.

A good deal of hot blood was naturally engendered between the retainers of the two greatest landowners in that district – the Stewarts of Atholl and the Robertsons of Struan, and in 1530, Alexander of Struan being in dispute with Atholl regarding their marches, the former was killed by the retainers of the latter. As a set-off to this, in 1475 Atholl commanded the land forces sent by James the Third to subdue McDonald, Earl of Ross (of whom the Robertsons were descended), Lord of the Isles. The King in dispatching Stewart, used the words "Furth fortune and fill the fetters". The Stewarts succeeded in capturing the Lord of the Isles, by filling a small pool in a rock with honey and whisky, from which the latter drank feverishly, and was thus taken while asleep; ever since, the title of "Athole Brose" has been given to a mixture of meal and water, honey and milk. Atholl was rewarded by the lands of Cluny and the Atholl crest with the King’s words for motto.

Douglas tells us that the first Earl of Athole, son of Sir James Stewart the Black Knight of Lorn, had, by his second wife, Lady Eleanor Sinclair, who was the daughter of William, Earl of Orkney and Caithness, two sons and eight daughters; their fourth daughter, Isobel, married Alexander Robertson of Struan, and their fifth married his son, Donald Robertson, "Fiar of Strowan".

The "Atholl Chronicles," however, state that Duncan was the name of the "fiar" of Strowan, that he died before the marriage to Isobel, and his father thereupon married the young lady, and from that marriage sprang the Robertsons of Fascally, also that it was the fifth daughter of the Black Knight of Lorn married Robert, "fiar" of Strowan.

In 1590, when the great barons became surety for the good behaviour of their clan, Donald Robertson of Strowan gave his in 5000 pounds. I could give many more interesting records but space forbids, and enough has been said to show that the Laird of Inchbrakie had chosen a fit mate for his eldest daughter, who bore the blood of Earls of Montrose and Marischal in her veins.

In what a lovely Highland country lay her home. Just beyond Pitlochry you see before you Loch Tummel (with its fringes of silver birch and black fir, mirrored in its bosom) gleaming now in sunshine, and later darkened with the shadows of the moorland heights surrounding it, while the somber beauty of dark Schiehallion rises at the head of the loch; you will know that there lies the first tracts of the Struan land, while in a tiny island under Schiehallion’s shadow is still shown the stones of one of the fastnesses of the chiefs of Clan Donachie, where Robert the Bruce in his wandering was once securely sheltered.

But Tummel was only the outskirts of her home, for miles through wood and rushing streams where the trout and salmon lay low, through vale and hill, with hanging woods to right and left, the Struans held their sway, till in 1600 they claimed Rammoch all their own, and rested for a space, barred further progress by the "shepherds" rising across their path; those hills, who for centuries had gazed from afar with a solemn grandeur back on the crag Dunalister, the last resting-place of the Chiefs of the clan who, in dreamless sleep, are content that beyond and around them cluster the woods and lie the moors, the lochs and the rivers that they loved as only Highlanders can love, and that their dear ones coming back to weep them, are presently comforted and the tearful eyes are drawn onward over the peaceful strath to the fair bosom of the loch of Rammoch, and not resting there; gaze still onward and upward to the "hills whence cometh their help." Truly no grander spot can any favoured children of Scotland claim for their burial ground!

Ten years later the young husband is laid to rest there, and thought probably the widow lived principally with her son and his tutor (Donald Robertson, his uncle) she seems to have had a house of her own near Perth; this was probably arranged, because Donald was married to her sister and resided at the house of his nephew, whom he seems to have trained in all the loyal instincts of his own and his mother’s clan.

The widowed Margaret’s boy, Alexander, had been left to the care of Donald, his uncle and tutor, and at the age of nineteen "went out" in the Great Troubles, leading his clan for the Royal cause, thus giving great satisfaction to his uncle, "Black Pate" of Inchbrakie.

Alexander’s uncle, Donald Robertson, had, in 1640, made a closer connection with the Inchbrakies, by his marriage with Beatrice Graeme the Lady Lude, then a widow; and she and her own little son lived much at Struan, while her sister, Mrs Robertson of Struan, lived more at her house in Perth, and is often at Inchbrakie.

The fact was, Margaret, a widow at 27 years of age, was attractive enough to have many suitors, and a difficulty arose between herself and her father as to the choice of the favoured gentleman. For a time her submission to George Graeme’s wishes gave him hope that she would abide his decision, but Inchbrakie’s imprisonment in Edinburgh and frequent absence from home during the early years of the Great Troubles, gave greater opportunity to the man she favoured and Margaret was persuaded to ignore her father’s and mother’s advice.

I give the story shortly from a MS. Written by George Graeme, her father, being a copy he made of an appeal to be laid before the "Presbyterie" in Perth, desiring that that body would not permit her banns to be called with a certain Mr Alexander Balneaves, a minister holding a Kirk at Tibbermuir. The Laird explains that he received an offer of marriage from Colin Campbell, brother to the Laird of Glenurchie for his daughter Margaret, the widow of Robertson of Struan; he told his daughter of the fact, and bade her "keep herself indifferent" until he had made such conditions as were suitable to her; Margaret replied, "I will never do anything in the maiter of my marriage, but be your consent and advyse."

On her mother taking over this matter with her in th "Yaird of Inchbrakie", and remarking that she herself loved not the "hielands" for there were very few as dutiful to their wives as "persownes would have them to be," Margaret replied, "that need not maiter, I will never marie without my faither’s consent and yours."

On another occasion, when James Oliphant, brother to the Laird of Gask, came wooing Margaret, finding Margaret adverse to the union, Inchbrakie, with all care lest the matter should make a coldness between old friends and relations, like the Gasks and Graemes, put the matter aside for her, stating he would insist in nothing "concerning you bot to your ane will, and I houp you will follow my advyzse" in all things; to which Margaret gave her strong assurance. Inchbrakie goes on to make complaint that during his absence from home a certain Mr Alexander Balneaves, minister at Tibbermuit, gained complete influence over his daughter, and persuading her to "unfilial dewty", obtained a promise of marriage from the Lady Struan; since then all memory of her promises to her parents had left her, and she had "seemed to deny all truthes," as when last with her mother she "passed from some promise made be her the nicht before. ‘How now, maiden, I think ye have learned to lie’ quoth Margaret Keith; Lady Struan replied, ‘I cannot weed it I must lie.’" "If this be godly and Christian like conduct," wrote the indignant father to the Presbytery, "I leave it to your bossum’s guiding." He continued his complaint against the influence of Balneaves on Margaret Graeme by station that after this, she (who had taken a voluntary oath in the present of the Laird of Gorthie and the minister of Logiebride, Mr Omay, that without the consent of her father she would never marry Mr Balneaves) craved permission to suffer her to go to Tulliebelton to his son’s "wyffe who was then lying in childbed, to attend her," and that in a few days she would return; his answer was she could go where she pleased, for "I was persuaded she would keep the promise and oath she had made.

Margaret was escorted to Tulliebelton by her brother "Black Pate", and they rode by Moneydie where who should meet them "in the Knokheid" but her clerical lover, and in the church at Moneydie she told him of her oath and promise "and gave over all former proceedings in the matter of her marriage" until Inchbrakie’s consent could be obtained. Whether Alexander Balneaves was a true lover or not must be surmised; but if the former, he verified the proverb that all is fair in love and war! It is proved by witnesses that he was "so grievat that he was seen to depairt from her weeping," whilst "she thereafter did go to her brother’s house," and that Mr Balneaves that Saturday night rode in to Perth, and "a friend spearing at him" how he did, he replied, "as weel as ane man can be who is deceavit be his mistress," witnessed by Godeman of Williamstown and Woodend. On the morrow being Sunday, he stayed from the kirk, "feigning himself to be deidly sick," and having sent for Margaret Kinross, maid to Lady Struan, so impressed her with his fatal condition that, taking the minister’s horse, the woman rode with all speed to Tulliebelton, entreating Lady Struan to hurry to his side and give him some comfort ere he died.

In 1646 matters of etiquette were hard and fast, and Margaret’s visit to the sick minister gave her father deep offence; Mr Balneaves must have known he was placing the Lady Struan in an awkward position in the eyes of society, as censorious then, and more so than in the 20^th century. George Graeme’s petition for the moment takes more the form of a lecture as he warns the "Presbyterie" that the encouragement of such a course, and the overlooking of the slack doctrine preached by Balneaves, will much reflect on the reformed Kirk of Scotland. Inchbrakie further reminds the Brethren that their Moderator had already warned Mr Balneaves not to make any visit to the Lady’s house (and that even "these should be bot seldom") except in the hours between six in the morning (rather an early call for the most welcome of lovers!) and six in the evening; but notwithstanding such a command the minister almost "every nicht he soups in her house, staying on as it pleases him till nine or ten-o-clock.

"Black Pate" urged his father that as the contract was drawn up matters had gone too far to withhold his consent; so the banns were called, and apparently the Lady Struan became Mrs Balneaves, while no doubt her handsome dower added to her bridegroom’s worldly contentment! Our record of her goes no further than her second marriage.

Meanwhile her son Alexander, Laird of Struan, had grown to manhood, and coming down to visit his uncle "Black Pate" at Inchbrakie, found a wife at Mchany in Catherine Drummond, daughter of the first Sir Robert of Machany, granddaughter of the first Lord Madertie, and the first cousin to his aunt, the Lady Jean of Inchbrakie.

In time an only son Robert was born to them, but died before he reached man’s estate; their only daughter Anne married Hugh, son of Sir John McDonald.

Struan passed through the Great Troubles, proving a staunch ally of his uncles Donald and "Black Pate".

In an old MS record of 1662 we find the following: - "Robertsone, tutor of Struan, having the Laird, his nephew (who afterward, when he came to man’s estate and proved himself a most valiant and faithful subject to doe his Majestie service) under his tuition, did imploye his pupils estate whollis upon the King’s service, and did weill neir bring that familie to utter ruine for upon the first mention of the troubles in Scotland, he repaired unto his late Majestie into England, who was pleased to give him a commission and returned him to Scotland to attend his Majestie’s affairs ther, and never was there any business attempted for his Majestie in that kingdom, but wherein he did expose his personne and all his interests to all hazards, for the advancement of the same, and when non els did appeir for his Majestie, he intertined ane hundred men upon his own charges for the space of three years, still living in wood and mountains until Montros did undertake the war in Scotland; upon which expedition and upon all others that occurred since, he behaved himselve most valientlie and faithfullie for all his Majestie’s interests, for which beside his uther losses he was excommunicate by the church."

This proves that Margaret’s husband was dead at least three years before Montrose took up the affairs in Scotland.

By 1645 young Struan’s lands were forfeited by the Scotch Parliament in the name of his uncle; this partly was instrumental in saving them to the young laird.

In August 1675 we find Alexander of Struan, now 48 years of age, obtaining sasine of the lands of Trellich within the Lordship of Atholl, proceeding on a charter to John, Earl of Atholl; by this time Catherine Drummond his wife had died, and he was married again to Miss Marian Baillie, daughter of General Baillie of Torwood, and in 1678 the birth of a son and heir took place, in 1681 Alexander was once more retoured to all his lands.

The Retour commences with his being served heir to Alexander his father, and Margaret Graeme his wife, and ceases at Robertus Duncani his great great great great great great great grandfather. "Avis Tretavi sui qui obiit ad fidem et pacem saenissima principis Jacobi secundi regus Scotorum"; which we know was in the year 1446.

In 1688 Margaret Graeme’s son died, and he was succeeded by the son of his second wife Miss Baillie; he proved to be more than a chip of the old block. A born soldier, and what was even rarer in those days, a refined scholar, the boy bore all the loyal instincts of his race. We first hear of him in 1690, two years after his father’s death, when his mother, fearing that she may be left childless as well as widow, implores his guardians that they prevent the young laird "going out". He was at the University, St Andrews (the Alma Mater of the best Scotch blood of that day), when Dundee took the field. In spite of his mother’s remonstrances, he laid aside his books and hurried home to buckle on the sword. As Struan was Claverhouse’s headquarters, the gallant young soldier would be host to his hero, and was with him at Killiecrankie. What deep grief must have been his at the death of the gallant Dundee! He and his young cousin of Lude (doubly related through their two grandmothers of Inchbrakie), bore their part in the funeral when Claverhouse was laid to rest in the kirkyard of Old Blair. Attainder followed and heroism. We find him in 1715 and again in 1745, a leader and almost singular as taking part in three of the Jacobite wars.

But his camp life had either given him a distaste for marriage or no time to woo; the years between the periods he unsheathed his sword, found him at his pen, singing his heroes and their cause; after Prestonpans he returned to Rannoch in Johnnie Cope’s carriage!

In 1701 he also three some money into the insatiable maw of the Darien Scheme, and he died when nearly eighty years of age at Carrie Rannoch in 1749. Mr Murdoch tells us his picture, knife and fork are preserved in the Mansion of Croiscraig in that district.

Thus the direct male line of the Roberts of Struan ends in Margaret Graeme of Inchbrakie’s grandson.

Beatrice (the second daughter of George Graeme, fourth Laird of Inchbrakie) also married a Robertson, but of Lude. Her husband was of the House of Lude (or Lood, as it is spelt in the ancient writings) and a contemporaneous branch of the Struan family. Patrick of Lood received his charter from his father in 1358, and it remained in the family till 1821.

Beatrice, like her sister, soon became a widow, her husband, Alexander, died in 1639, and their little son was left to the guardianship of "Black Pate", his uncle. Too young to take a leading part in the Troubles, he was represented by his uncles John and Donald of Lude, whose influence assisted to rally the men of Atholl under "Black Pate" round the Banner of Montrose in 1644.

Later on his Uncle John held Blair Castle for Montrose, having been appointed keeper, and the boy himself was present with "Black Pate" at Tibbermuir, for which cause the house of Lude was afterwards burnt by Cromwell and a heavy find exacted.

The young laird was "out" in the 1745, when Prince Charlie honoured him by paying a visit to Lude.

The last Robertson who owned Lude, Colonel James Aexander Robertson, sold it to the McInroys; in 1861 he printed a volume relating to the lands, etc. owned by the Lude family.

Beatrice Graeme did not remain a widow long; one year later after Lude’s death she married (in 1640)Donald Robertson, uncle to the young Chief of Struan, who is her nephew, living under her husband’s tutelage, and joins his uncle "Black Pate" in the "Great Troubles" with his cousin Lude.

In an old MS a note states that there was second son born to George Graeme and Margaret Keith, called George; according to the invariable custom, when two boys were bron they were christened alternately Patrick and George, or George and Patrick. It is stated he died in France. The MS is called a "double of the genealogie of the sons and familie of Inchbrakie," and is undated, but the handwriting points to that of the fifth laird about the year 1680; the statement may therefore be accepted, but there are no further proofs at present of his existence.