Forfarshire and Kincardineshire

The shires of Forfar and Kincardine formed the area between the River Dee and the River Tay on the east coast of Scotland. Forfarshire was the larger of the two, and the more prosperous, as it included good farming areas and the mercantile centre of Dundee, although the northern half of the shire was mountainous, with the Braes of Angus forming the edge of the highland region. Atlas Scot. Hist. 27, 226. Kincardineshire was sandwiched between Forfar and the sea, with Aberdeenshire to the north, and in the 1650s it was assessed at less than a third of the rate expected from Forfarshire. A. and O. The shires were dominated by the same small group of lairds, including the Carnegies, Falconers, Grahams, Lyons, Ogilvies, Ramsays and Barclays, headed by three noble families: the Maules, earls of Panmure, the Carnegies, earls of Southesk, and the debt-laden Keiths, Earls Marischal. Young, Parliaments of Scot. ii. 794-5. The Keiths had been particularly strong in Kincardineshire, holding the royal castle of Dunottar, the barony of Urie and controlling the unfree burgh of Stonehaven, but in the late 1640s their interests in the shire had largely been sold off to Colonel David Barclay* of Urie.

The shires were not politically militant, and this lack of commitment to any side may have been influenced by their vulnerability, both to attacks from the highlands – as in 1644-5 when the army of James Graham, marquess of Montrose, crossed and re-crossed the shires – and to pressure from the covenanting heartlands south of the Tay. Atlas Scot. Hist. 141. The local gentry also seem to have been moderate in religious terms, and although in December 1650 the Forfar synod supported the resolutions of the General Assembly, and therefore disassociated itself from the radical Protesters of the south west of Scotland, local support for the rival Resolutioner faction was limited. D. Stevenson, Revolution and Counter-revolution, 195. With concerns at lawlessness in the highlands, and without strong religious motivation, the gentry were quick to cooperate with the English invaders in the early 1650s. From October 1651 the shires were used as a base for operations against the royalist forces under the earl of Balcarres and the marquess of Huntly, who still held the region around Inverness. The local response to this imposition was measured rather than violent. The gentry petitioned the senior officers for relief, and in return for their promise not to oppose the commonwealth, some units were withdrawn. In the following weeks, they participated in the meeting at St Andrews to discuss propositions to be sent to Parliament’s Scottish commissioners, and in February 1652 the shires’ responses to the tender of union were prompt, with Forfarshire in particular welcoming the re-establishment of formal government because of the threat of raids from the highlands. Dow, Cromwellian Scot. 24, 28, 44; Scot. and Commonwealth ed. Firth, 326, 331. The deputies sent to Dalkeith were all prominent local landowners: James Lord Carnegie (later 2nd earl of Southesk) and Sir Alexander Carnegie of Balnamoon for Forfarshire, and Sir Gilbert Ramsay of Balmain and David Falconer of Glenfarquhar for Kincardineshire. Cromwellian Union ed. Terry, 47-8; Young, Parliaments of Scot. ii. 794-5. Lord Carnegie and the laird of Glenfarquhar also went to London as deputies in the summer of 1652. NLS, MS 7032, f. 68.

The royalist rebellion led by the earl of Glencairn in 1653-4 saw a return of disorder to the shires. In January 1654 large numbers of royalist troops were reported in Angus and neighbouring Atholl, and later the government paid compensation to John Ogilvie of Balfour, Thomas Lindsay of Aberlenny and Colonel Henry Barclay for their losses in enemy raids during this period. Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke l, f. 6v; xlvi, unfol.: 1 Nov. 1654; xlvii, unfol.: 23 June 1655. John Lindsay of Edzell, who had been kidnapped for a time by the rebels, was allowed an abatement of his assessments, and the entire shire was awarded a reduction of £25 monthly in February 1654, while the remainder of the tax was to be collected in victuals rather than money. Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke xlv, unfol.: 8 and 9 Feb. 1654; xlvi, unfol.: 5 Jan. 1655; xlvii, unfol.: 26 June 1655. This rough treatment at the hands of Glencairn’s men, and the sympathetic response of the English, may have encouraged the local gentry to cleave still closer to the regime. By the summer of 1655 the laird of Edzell was serving as sheriff of Forfarshire, and in August of that year he was given the task of choosing nine men to form a committee for the shire to regulate assessments and other ‘burdens’. Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke xlvii, unfol.: 25 Aug. 1655. In this, he joined another local laird, Sir Alexander Wedderburn* of Blackness, who had been assessment collector for the two shires since 1653. Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke xliii, ff. 12, 21, 26. By March 1656 Edzell had been replaced as sheriff of Forfar by Colonel Ralph Cobbett, but the new sheriff of Kincardine was the former commissioner for the shire to the Scottish Parliament, Sir Robert Graham of Morfie. Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke xliii, f. 81v. The list of assessment commissioners appointed in December 1655 also suggests that the government expected a high degree of cooperation across the landowning classes. As well as those of proven loyalty, such as the lairds of Edzell, Blackness, Morfie, Balmain, Glenfarquhar, and David and Henry Barclay, those chosen included the earls of Southesk and Panmure and Lord Lyon. Acts Parl. Scot. vi. pt. 2, p. 840. The justices of the peace chosen for Kincardineshire in the new year of 1656 included Viscount Arbuthnot, the former parliamentary commissioner, Sir Alexander Carnegie of Pittarrow, John Barclay of Johnston, and the lairds of Morfie and Glenfarquhar, all of whom attended quarter sessions in the months that followed. Scot. and Protectorate ed. Firth, 313; NRS, JC26/23, ‘Bundle 2’, no. 1, and loose pprs. The Forfarshire list of magistrates is missing, but lairds such as Blackness and Balfour, Sir James Ogilvie of Newgrange and Peter Young of Seaton were evidently active on the commission. NRS, JC26/22, ‘bundle 2’, no. 11; JC26/23, ‘bundle 5’, no. 5; JC26/26, misc. bundles.

A high level of local participation also characterised the parliamentary elections in 1654, 1656 and 1659. On the first two occasions the Member returned was David Barclay of Urie, a scion of the Barclays of Mathers in Kincardineshire, who were historically connected with the Keiths and other major families of the region. Barclay was no doubt considered a suitable MP because of his influence with the administration as trustee for forfeited estates, and from 1655 he also served as agent for the gentry of Kincardineshire at London. Hist. of the Barclay Family ed. C.W. Barclay, H.F. Barclay and A. Wilson-Fox (3 vols. 1924-34), iii. 46, 49, 53, 56. The surviving indenture for the election of 13 August 1656 shows that this was a local affair, despite the presence of the governor of Dundee, Colonel Ralph Cobbett, as sheriff and presiding officer. The document is torn, but among the names that can be identified are those of George Lord Brechin (the son and heir of the earl of Panmure), David Lord Lyon, and known supporters of the regime, such as the lairds of Edzell, Blackness, Balmain and Pittarrow, and Colonel Henry Barclay. C219/45, unfol. The 1659 election saw the return of another nobleman reconciled to the Cromwellians, the earl of Linlithgow (James Livingston). Linlithgow was connected financially with the earl of Panmure and the Lyons of Glamis, and his role as cautioner of the earl of Kinghorne may have given him lands in the region, but the reasons for his candidacy remain uncertain. NRS, GD45/14/106-7.

The willingness of Forfar and Kincardine to work with the English invaders would continue after the fall of the protectorate. The commander-in-chief, George Monck*, clearly trusted the gentry in the winter of 1659-60, despite the continuing risk of incursions from the highlands. He authorised the local lairds of Forfarshire, headed by Lord Ogilvie, to raise troops to police the Braes of Angus, and in their promise to maintain order, written on 18 December 1659, the gentry specifically acknowledged that the ‘abatements in our assessments and our other public heavy burdens’ had encouraged them to remain loyal. NRS, GD16/50/73/5-6. After the Restoration, Forfar and Kincardine adapted to the new circumstances with equal ease, and past differences conveniently forgotten. In the elections for the 1661 Scottish Parliament, two of the four commissioners for the shires were men who had collaborated with the Cromwellian regime: Sir James Ogilvie of Newgrange and Sir Gilbert Ramsay of Balmain. Young, Parliaments of Scot. ii. 794-5. The Covenants were also tossed aside. There were very few local gentlemen fined for malignancy in 1662, and, compared with neighbouring Fife, there were very few prosecutions for attending conventicles later in the decade. Acts Parl. Scot. vii. 425-6; Atlas Scot. Hist. 395-7.