And to be purchased, either directly or through any Bookseller, from OLIVER & BOYD, EDINBURGH; or E. PONSONBY, 116, GRAFTON STREET, DUBLIN. [Cd. 931.] Price 1s. 4d. 1902. THE MANUSCRIPTS OF COL. DAVID MILNE HOME OF WEDDERBURN. THE muniments of the family of Home of Wedderburn are very numerous and relate to lands in almost every part of Berwickshire, though a few affect lands in the county of Haddington. Some of them date from the time of King William the Lion. They chiefly illustrate the history and vicissitudes of the family of which Colonel Milne Home is now the lineal representative; but they are also full of interest as throwing light on the fortunes of many old families in the Merse, as well as other branches of the name and race of Home. The collection from which the following selection has been made is preserved partly at Paxton House, partly at Caldra, and partly at the chambers of the law-agents of the family in Edinburgh; and every facility and assistance have been afforded for making the inspection thorough and complete. For convenience of dealing with the Manuscripts here reported upon it has been judged expedient to classify them as follows:Charters and other documents relating to the family of Home of Wedderburn. I. II. Writs affecting lands originally belonging to the Priory of Coldingham. III. Writs relating to various lands and families. IV. Miscellaneous Writs and Manuscripts. Even this classification, however, does not strictly hold, for most of the papers and documents in the three last sections relate to the family of Home of Wedderburn also. But some such arrangement is necessary even though it relegates several of the most interesting discoveries, as the early Lamberton Charters (Nos. 495-500), to a somewhat remote part of this report. To ensure a better grasp of the documents reported upon in Section I, those more particularly relating to the family of Home of Wedderburn, it may be permissible here to give a brief sketch of the history of the family itself; and therewithall for convenience of reference to subdivide the section into periods. corresponding to the duration of the successive Lairdships. Wt. 13866 205386 A For centuries the Homes of Wedderburn were one of the most predominant families of the Merse. Scions of a warlike house and posted on the Borders as if for the very purpose of guarding the "in country" against the incursions of the auld inimeis of England" (which were so frequent that, as will be seen from some of the charters recorded, the payment of rent was a conditional matter affected by them), they were ever ready to adventure their lives in the fray, and indeed they had their full share of the fights and forays of the Border strife of old. Few of the older Lairds are known to have had any other deathbed than the battlefield, and their first funereal shroud was generally the banner under which they led their retainers to the fight, and which has come down to their descendants stained with their blood. The family of Home is supposed to have sprung from the old Saxon Earls of Dunbar and Northumbria. One of the Earls of Dunbar had a son to whom for some deed of prowess he gave the lands of Home in Berwickshire, and he with his descendants were known as "De Home," and adopted the surname. Home Castle is one of the most conspicuous of the fortalices in the Merse. This ancient stronghold, erected on an eminence which overlooks all the surrounding country, kept its eye, as it were, not only over the neighbouring lands but also on the sea-coast and across the Tweed into England for a long distance, and seemed to indicate that it was sentinel for interests far wider than its own. Here for long was the residence of the main line of the Home family, which early rose to eminence in the political life of Scotland, being enobled as Lords, and afterwards Earls, of Home; and it is still represented in the male line by the present Earl of Home. The Homes of Wedderburn are the oldest cadets of the family of Home. They may also be said to be the most prolific, more so even than the parent stem, both in offshoots and honours. Though the Lairds of Wedderburn themselves never attained higher than knightly rank, yet among their descendants are to be enumerated the Humes of Polwarth, enobled first as Lords Polwarth in 1690 and as Earls of Marchmont in 1697; the Homes of Manderston also, of whom a younger son, George Home of Spot, sometime Treasurer of Scotland, was enobled as Lord of Berwick, and afterwards as Earl of Dunbar; while of his two daughters and heiresses, the elder, Anne, was mother of the third Earl of Home, and the younger, Elizabeth, was wife of Theophilus Howard, Lord Walden, afterwards second Earl of Suffolk. From Wedderburn also descended the Homes of Blackadder, baronets of Nova Scotia, from whom Sir David Home, Lord Crossrig is derived; also Sir John Home of Renton, Lord Justice Clerk in the reign of King Charles the Second; the Homes of Castle Hume in Ireland, and other families and personages of distinction and note. The History of the House of Wedderburn written in Latin in 1611 by a son of the family, as he calls himself, David Hume of Godscroft, the brother of Sir George Home of Wedderburn, Comptroller to King James the Sixth, traces the fortunes of the family to the date mentioned. David Hume is better known by his monumental History of the House of Douglas and Angus, with which powerful family the Homes of Wedderburn were connected, both through Alison Douglas, the grandmother of David Hume, who was a sister of the Earl of Angus, and through earlier intermatrimonial relationships, and service. His history of his own family was printed, as it was written, in Latin, for the Abbotsford Club in 1839; the manuscript in the possession of the family being lent for that purpose. There are several translations of it known to exist in manuscript, but no English edition of this work has yet been given to the world. The first of the Homes of Wedderburn was David de Hum who in 1413 obtained the lands of Wedderburn from Archibald, fourth Earl of Douglas. They formed part of the estates of the Earl of March which on that Earl's forfeiture had been conferred on Douglas, to whom David de Hum had proved himself a faithful and devoted follower. The lands of Wedderburn were given to him in recognition of this, and so were also the lands of Bayardslands or Bardslands (see Nos. 1 and 2). When George Dunbar, Earl of March, was restored, he seems very willingly to have acquiesced in and confirmed these grants (No. 4). David de Hum was younger brother of Alexander Home of that Ilk, and the mutual attachment between them and the Earl of Douglas is illustrated by a story related by Godscroft. In 1424 when Douglas, who had been created Duke of Touraine in France, was about to sail for France with his retainers, among whom was David Home of Wedderburn, Alexander Home came to see him away. Douglas could not restrain his sorrow at parting and, embracing Home, said he had not thought that anything would have parted them. Well, then," said Home, reciprocating the like emotion, "nothing ever shall." He then sent back his brother David, lest in the event of a reverse both should fall, and no competent person be left to look after the affairs of their families; and himself accompanied Douglas to France, where at the battle of Verneuil both Douglas and he were slain. There does not appear to be any direct statement in charter evidence that Alexander Home of that Ilk and David Home of Wedderburn were brothers, but there seems no reason to doubt the fact, especially as in a crown charter by King James the Second in 1452 of the lands and barony of Home, in form of entail, David Home of Wedderburn is called to the succession immediately after the main line. The charter is granted to Alexander Home, son and heir apparent of Sir Alexander Home of that Ilk, with remainder to George, Patrick and Nicolas, the other sons of Sir Alexander, failing them to Thomas and George, brothers german of the said Sir Alexander, and their heirs male successively, failing them to David Home of Wedderburn and his heirs male, and finally to Patrick Home of Rethburn and his heirs. Sir David Home of Wedderburn is said to have tended carefully the interests of his brother who took his place in the French expedition; but he had a dispute with his son about the bailiary of Coldingham (No. 3). This office, however, the Laird of Wedderburn retained, with evident appreciation of his services |