WEDDERBURN, Sir Alexander (1610-75), of Blackness, Forfarshire.

The Wedderburns originated in Berwickshire, where they had owned land by the end of the thirteenth century, but by 1400 they had moved to the royal burgh of Dundee, and there were at least four families of the same name in the burgh by the second half of the fifteenth century. The most prominent of these became the Wedderburns of Kingennie, and it was from this branch that Alexander was descended. His grandfather, Alexander of Kingennie, was town clerk of Dundee in the late sixteenth century; his father, James Wedderburn (Alexander’s second son), was also clerk; and his uncles were also prominent businessmen in the burgh.17Wedderburn Bk. i. pp. xix-xx, xxvii, lvi, lx. Alexander Wedderburn’s wealth and connections brought him a privileged education and rapid civic promotion. He attended St Andrews University from the age of 15, was admitted burgess of Dundee when he was barely 21, then studied law at Edinburgh and was admitted notary in March 1633, shortly before his 23rd birthday, and a month later became town clerk of Dundee. By this time he was already a wealthy man, having inherited, on the death of his father in 1627 and of his uncle a year later, a large number of tenements and other properties within the burgh. He gained further financial assets and political connections in 1638, when he married a daughter of the provost of Dundee, James Fletcher.18Wedderburn Bk. i. 201-2, 210. Wedderburn seems to have matched his good fortune with genuine ability. When he attended the General Assembly of the Kirk with his new father-in-law in November 1638, he was accounted ‘one of the skillfullest of the burgh clerks’; he was appointed to the committee of estates in June 1640; and in the following winter he was one of the commissioners chosen to represent Scotland in the treaty of Ripon. His service in the commission seems to have impressed Charles I, who granted him £100 a year from the Dundee customs in 1642.19Wedderburn Bk. i. pp. lxi, 202-3.

During the 1640s Wedderburn was a moderate Covenanter, who apparently put the interests of Dundee – and his own prosperity – before any religious considerations in his political dealings. In 1644 he negotiated with the Scottish Parliament for a reduction on the money paid by the burgh towards the war in England and the quartering of troops at home.20Wedderburn Bk. i. 203. He may have attended Charles I at Newcastle in 1646, as he was knighted in the same year.21Wedderburn Bk. i. 2034n. In February 1647 he was one of the six commissioners sent to treat with the Long Parliament for the withdrawal of Scottish forces from England, and he went on to support the Engagement in 1648.22Wariston Diary, ii. 190. It was his political unreliability that prompted Oliver Cromwell*, when occupying Edinburgh after the failure of the Engagers’ campaign, to demand Wedderburn’s dismissal as town clerk – a demand which forced the Dundee council reluctantly to remove him on 19 December of that year.23Wedderburn Bk. i. 204. Wedderburn’s influence in Dundee does not seem to have been affected by this reverse. He still represented the burgh on the committee of estates in 1649-50, and with the arrival of Charles Stuart in 1650 he found his star once again in the ascendant. On 14 January 1651 Wedderburn was re-instated as town clerk on the direct instructions of the Scottish king, who praised his ‘good affection to us’.24Wedderburn Bk. i. 204-5. In the months that followed, Wedderburn was again active in national politics, sitting on the committee on the army, and being commissioned to raise victuals and provide arms and ammunition for the new army in April, and to oversee a voluntary loan raised by Dundee in May.25Govt. of Scot. under the Covenanters ed. D. Stevenson (Edinburgh, 1982), 112, 115, 134, 167, 172-3.

The sacking of Dundee by George Monck’s* soldiers in September 1651 had a disastrous affect on Wedderburn’s position, as he and his relatives had been the most important property owners and traders in the shattered town .26Charters of Dundee, 94-5. Wedderburn’s response was to try to make the best of the situation by working with the English government, perhaps mindful of his royalist past, and the consequent vulnerability of his properties, including the estate he had been carefully building up over the previous decade, at nearby Blackness. In January 1652 he was one of the commissioners sent to Edinburgh to treat for the recovery of the town’s revenues.27Wedderburn Bk. i. 205. In February he was chosen alongside the burgh treasurer, Robert Davidson, to represent the burgh in the union negotiations at Dalkeith; and although in the event Wedderburn did not attend the first round of discussions, he did go to England for further talks in August, apparently on the nomination of the convention of royal burghs, and he attended meetings in London until the very end of May 1653.28Wedderburn Bk. i. 206; Recs. Convention of Royal Burghs, 365; R. Landrum, ‘Recs. of Anglo-Scottish Union Negotiations, 1652-3’, Sc. Hist. Soc. Misc. xv. 197, 225, 240, 292-3. On his return to Scotland, Wedderburn was appointed assessment collector for Forfarshire.29Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLIII, f. 12. This was a position which would allow him to ease the burdens on Dundee, and there are indications that over the next few months he used his influence to gain abatements for the burgh and its neighbours and for the shire in general.30Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLV, unfol.: 29 Oct., 26 Dec. 1653, 9 Feb. 1654. It was this usefulness, as well as his prominence in Dundee, that perhaps secured Wedderburn election for the Forfar burghs in 1654. By this time he had also caught the eye of George Monck, now commander-in-chief in Scotland, who wrote to John Lambert* excusing Wedderburn’s delay in travelling to Westminster, ‘having some very urgent occasions which have detained him in Scotland’, and recommending him ‘as one who hath carried himself peaceably since the taking of Dundee’.31Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLVI, unfol.: 21 Sept. 1654. Although nothing is known of Wedderburn’s parliamentary activities, a letter from Dr Thomas Gleg of Dundee, written on 22 January 1655, indicates that he had indeed travelled to London during the session.32Wedderburn Bk. ii. 102-3.

During 1655 and 1656, Wedderburn continued to enjoy official favour. In April 1655 Monck intervened in his attempts to extract the money he had been owed by Lord Dudhope since 1650, ordering that Wedderburn should be allowed the usual benefits of creditors despite his former royalism, and lending his own weight to a favourable outcome when the case was decided by the sequestration commissioners.33Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLVI, unfol.: 6 and 19 Apr. 1655. Wedderburn had already agreed an annualrent payment from Dudhope in June 1654, but in the later 1650s he was able to take possession of a considerable part of the lord’s estates instead.34Reg. Gt. Seal Scot. 1652-9, p. 131; Wedderburn Bk. i. 208; ii. 42 During the mid-1650s, he continued to be a man of local importance, and in December 1655 he was appointed as assessment commissioner for Forfarshire as well as Dundee.35Acts Parl. Scot. vi. pt. 2, p. 840. On 15 August 1656 Wedderburn was again returned as MP for Forfar Burghs.36C219/45, unfol.; Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XXVIII, f. 65v. He received permission to travel to London on 2 September.37Worcester Coll. Oxf. Clarke MS XLVIII, unfol.: 2 Sept. 1656. This time, he did not delay his journey, and he was present in the commons on 18 September, when he was named to the committee of privileges.38CJ vii. 424b. He attended regularly during September and October, being appointed to the committees on the removal of wardship and tenures in Scotland, for Scottish affairs, and for trade.39CJ vii. 427b, 428b, 442a. These appointments suggest that he was diligent in pursuing Dundee’s interests, but also that he was obeying the instructions of the convention of royal burghs, which were sent to him before and during this session.40Recs. Convention of Royal Burghs, 429, 431-3, 438. His activities may also have pleased the government in Edinburgh, as in November he was one of those trusted to serve as commissioner for the security of the protector north of the border.41A. and O. The 1656 Parliament also allowed Wedderburn to pursue his own agenda, not least in securing the £100 which he and other deputies were still owed for their attendance in London during the union negotiations of 1652-3. Wedderburn was joined in his petitions to the protectoral council (in Nov. 1656 and Mar. 1657) by Sir James McDowell* of Garthland, and their case was supported by the Scottish councillor, John Swinton* of Swinton.42CSP Dom. 1656-7, pp. 175, 313. Despite his private association with McDowell and Swinton, who had links with the army interest, Wedderburn supported the kingship proposals championed by Lord Broghill (Roger Boyle*), and voted for the inclusion of the offer of the crown to Cromwell in the Humble Petition and Advice in March 1657.43Narrative of the Late Parliament (1657), 23 (E.935.5). When Wedderburn returned to Scotland in April, he carried with him a letter from Sir William Lockhart* of Lee to the duchess of Hamilton’s agents – an action that again suggests his closeness to the Scottish council.44NRS, GD 406/1/2536.

Wedderburn’s career after the spring of 1657 was less energetic. He was re-appointed as assessment commissioner in June 1657 and was active as a local justice of the peace in August of the same year, but he was not returned as MP for Forfar burghs in 1659 – the seat being taken by a carpet-bagger, Lawrence Oxburgh*.45A. and O.; NRS, JC26/22, ‘bundle 2’, no. 11. Instead, Wedderburn apparently concentrated on sorting out his acquisition of the Dudhope lands during 1658-9.46Wedderburn Bk. ii. 42. As the Restoration approached, Wedderburn swiftly rediscovered his royalist credentials, and a letter from the earl of Rothes concerning approaches to the king in early May 1660 suggests that Wedderburn had long been known as a supporter of the Stuart cause. As a result, during the early 1660s Wedderburn received favours from the new regime, including an act of the Scottish Parliament erecting his Blackness lands into a barony in 1662; and in 1664 he was re-granted the £100 annuity drawn from the Dundee customs which had lapsed at the coming of Cromwell.47Wedderburn Bk. i. 206-7. By the end of the decade, however, he began suffering from ‘frequent sicknesses’, and from 1670 he put his affairs in order, anticipating death. In 1670 he secured an act of the Scottish Parliament confirming his barony at Blackness, and in April 1671 he arranged for his second son, James, to become conjunct (or joint) clerk with him.48Wedderburn Book i. 207-8. In June 1672 he confirmed the sale of lands in Dundee to the master of the burgh hospital, which he had originally agreed before 1651 but the original documents had been ‘lost by reason of the common calamity at the storming of the said burgh by the English’ over 20 years before.49Charters of Dundee, 95-9. Wedderburn died in November 1675, leaving a widow, five sons and six daughters. His eldest son, Sir John Wedderburn, was the first baronet of Blackness.50Wedderburn Bk. i. p. liv.