Lude; its Owners and the Robertson family ^[1]

This is not meant to be a ‘family’ tree in the conventional sense but sets out to illustrate the main line of descent as claimed by General William Robertson and his son Colonel James Robertson and how that line compared with the records of the actual owners of Lude.

Patrick held Lude from his father Duncan of Atholl and seems to have been the first to hold Lude as a single entity but with his father as his Feudal Superior. i.e, his father Duncan held Atholl which included Lude directly from the Crown.

The process of gaining a Crown Charter started by his father gave John Donaldson a Feudal title to Lude and with its erection into a Barony he became a middle ranking ‘Laird’.

In normal practice Lude would have been resigned by John Donaldson back into the hands of the King who would have then granted it to Patrick Ogilvy. However it was only five years after the death of James IV at Flodden and his son James V was only 6 years of age so James, the Archbishop of St Andrews and Chancellor of Scotland as one of the Regents represented the Crown in the process. What ever reason lay behind the transfer of the titles it is clear that John Donaldson's father was still alive at the time since his life rent of Lude was reserved. (NAS GD132/13). Scotland, just after Flodden, entered a period of uncertain times and it is possible that there was some sort of pre–emptive political motivation involved. It is curious that there do not seem to be any traditions within the Robertson family connecting them in any way with those who were on the field at Flodden.

The memorials to those buried in the Lude Vault at Kilmaveonaig Church start with Agnes Gordon as the wife of Alexander Robertson of Inchmagranoch in 1634 and of her son Alexander of Lude in 1639. By implication Alexander Robertson of Inchmagranoch having died in 1615, before that church became the main family burial vault, was buried somewhere else, either at the old Lude Church or closer to Inchmagranoch. All subsequent members of the family down to and including Colonel James A. Robertson were buried at Kilmaveonaig with the exception of Beatrix Graham, of whom there is no mention while Catherine Campbell is mentioned on the memorial list but as having been buried in the Breadalbane family vault at Finlarig.

According to the memorial stone to Alexander and his mother Agnes Gordon, Alexander was aged 80 when he died on the 3 February 1639. This would place his birth around 1559, which is very unlikely as the Lude papers are quite clear that he was the grandson of John Tarlochson and Beatrix Gardyne and their marriage had to have occurred after she was widowed from her first husband in 1547. However, if she had remarried quite soon after the death of her first husband and given her apparent proclivity for producing children the first son of that second marriage could have been born circa 1548 and would in turn under the Scots Law of the time, have been of marriageable age 14 years later in 1562 and a potential son by Agnes Gordon circa 1563. This would suggest an actual age for Alexander of 76 years rather than the 80 suggested on the memorial stone.

Their marriage contract was dated 20 July 1615, (NAS GD132/304). After the death of her husband Beatrix Graham remarried to the Tutor of Strowan.

The Feudal Superiority of Lude then continued in the hands of the Atholl family although in 1794 and again in 1804 General William Robertson of Lude made attempts to persuade the then Duke of Atholl to ‘sell’ the superiority to him. As the Lude estate was already in financial trouble the General was offering to exchange parts of his estate in return for the superiority, an offer that Atholl declined. The General then returned to engaging in minor legal actions against the Atholl Estate leading finally to an appeal in 1814 to the House of Lords at Westminster in London, which also failed. This was the final straw and due to the costs he was effectively bankrupt although despite rumours that Lude was to be put up for sale things staggered on until the General died and the estate went straight into receivership. (John, 7th Duke of Atholl, Chronicles of the Atholl and Tullibardine Families Volume IV, (1908), pp 140, 209 and 267; House of Lords Reports, 21 July 1814 in the Caledonian Mercury/London Gazette).

According to some Lude papers (still held in private hands), dating to some claims made in 1683 by John Robertson against his Tutor, the young Lude was just 6 years of age when his father Alexander died. His marriage contract with Margaret Farquharson was dated 5 July 1693 (NAS GD132/317).

James Robertson was born on the 23 September 1736 and was just 5 years old when his father died and only aged 9 when the 1745 Rebellion started. (OPR Births 334/00 00100106, Blair Atholl). His mother Charlotte Nairn, Lady Lude raised men from the estate for the Jacobite cause, most of whom deserted while on route to Edinburgh. Lady Lude also entertained the Prince at Lude with dancing to music on her fiddle. Following the failure of the Rebellion she was briefly arrested but the Lude Estate was not subject to forfeiture because technically its owner was the still to come of age heir. James Robertson married Margaret, the eldest daughter of the honourable Robert Mercer of Aldie at the home in Gorgie, Edinburgh belonging to the Countess Dowager of Dunmore on the 4 April 1758, (OPR Marriages 334/0000100338 Blair Atholl).

Married on the 19 July 1802 in Edinburgh, (OPR 685/0105300062).

Born at Lude on the 28 May 1803, (OPR Births 334/0000200282 Blair Atholl) and died in Edinburgh 1 September 1874, (Statutory Deaths 685/020504)