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"ANTIQUARIAN GLEANINGS"

"PANMURE HOUSE
AND VICINITY"

From the Lamb Collection at Wellgate Library, Dundee - documents relating to the Panmure Estate and other items
in, and nearby, Monikie in Scotland.

POSSIBLY, ORIGINALLY WRITTEN AROUND 1850

Use your mouse to find 8 hotspots on this map

(Map - Circa 1930 showing part of the Panmure Estate.  The red-dotted line overwrites the original line on the map (where available) indicating the boundary between the former Parishes of Monikie (on the left) and Panbride (on the right). A larger version of the map is available HERE.

There are eight 'hotspots' on this map for you to find and follow links to other pages on this website.

Link to Dundee City Council Homepage The following articles are from item 224(24) of the 'Lamb Collection' held at the WELLGATE LIBRARY (Local History Department) in Dundee, Scotland.  The booklet consists of, what appears to be, old newspaper clippings which appear to have been affixed to an old, used, library returns book, or similar dating, from WWII.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to identify the original source of these writings, which were in a serialised form in the clippings.  After  conversation with staff at the library it seems reasonable to assume that the original article may have been produced in a limited circulation, possibly subscription, periodical, around 1850.  The clippings might arise from this original being reprinted in (possibly) The Dundee Courier & Argus newspaper some time after that date.
* The newspaper clippings have footnotes which refer or even contradict the original text and these have been reproduced in the appropriate position, coloured brown.

* Some text has been coloured red where it tends to give an indication of the date or timescale of the original writing.
If you can put more light on these publication matters the webmaster would appreciate your contribution.

(Please note that only a part of the Panmure Estate is situated in the former area of Monikie Parish.)


Under the heading of "ANTIQUARIAN GLEANINGS" reference is made to the following subjects, in order on this page, and/or to other pages on this site -

Some of the spelling and punctuation is not as it would be today, but if you spot a definite error, please advise.
The paragraph sizes are as the original !!


PANMURE HOUSE
AND VICINITY

This stately building, which has long been deserted as a residence by its noble owner, is situated towards the north side of the agricultural parish of Panbride, amid extensive plantations and beautiful lawns, which harmonize well with its solitary grandeur.  The house stands near the middle of a broad straight alley, which stretches from east to west about a mile in length, and formerly was shaded on each side by a double row of magnificent beeches, of more than a hundred and seventy years growth, having been planted, as is believed, by George the second Earl, after he had built the house.  Many of these matchless ornaments of the forest were felled before 1822, and we remember of seeing a cut of one of them, only twelve feet in length, which was a travelling load for four stout horses to draw.  The entrance front of the house is to the west, and commands a fine view of the "Testimonial," from which it is distant between one and two miles.  At the west end of the alley there is an elegant gateway, the rustic columns of which are finished off at the top with a large globe on each, formed into the escallope part of the armorial bearings of the family. On each side of the great gate there is a lesser one; and at the north side a small low crenellated square tower, for the residence of the gate-keeper, is placed, the whole being upon a fine grassy esplanade, on the east side of a beautiful and thickly wooded dell, at the bottom of which the burn of Monikie winds its murmuring course.  The house, as already intimated, was erected by George, the second Earl, who succeeded his father Patrick, the first Earl, in April 1671.  It stands near the site of the ancient castle of Panmure, of which some "ivy-mantled" vaults and other fragments remain; and from its situation the house at its erection took the name of Panmure house.

In December 1835, while some trenching operations were being carried on in one of the fields near the south side of the deer-park two subterranean caverns or outbuildings, of great extent and doubtless of remote antiquity, were discovered, each at only from two to three feet below the surface, and about three hundred yards apart.  The westernmost was built of large flat stones, and arched horizontally, of a very rude but strong construction.  Being nearly filled with mould, the accumulation of ages, it was found impossible to penetrate beyond a few yards, and hence its extent could not be ascertained.  The easternmost one was entirely filled with mould, and was conjectured to be less ancient than its neighbour.  Both were begun to be demolished for the sake of the stones, but this vandal-like procedure was stopped by a peremptory order from Lord Panmure, to whom the discovery and demolition was reported.  Though nothing more is known concerning these erections, it appears to us that they are of the same nature, and erected for a purpose similar to those at Balbeuchly, Tealing and other places.

Concerning the noble family of Panmure the Rev. Robert Edwards, the minister of Murroes, says in is Description of Angus, published in 1678, -
"The family of Panmure is among the most ancient in Angus, for Galfrid de Maule held all the lands of Panmure by charter from Edgar, King of Scotland, signed and sealed in the year 1072.  (This date is erroneous and should, perhaps, be read 1102 Edgar was the eldest son of Malcolm III., and should have succeeded his father who died in the year 1093, but owing to two usurpations, one by his illegitimate brother, and another by his paternal uncle, he did not ascend the throne till September 1097. He died in the year 1107.)  The second charter is from King David the first, Macduff, Earl of Fife, Gilchrist, Earl of Angus, and Gillebrid, Earl of Strathearn, being witnesses.  The third charter was signed by King William the first at the castle of Panmure, - and many succeeding charters are extant which confirm those three; hence this family, for many years back, was justly honoured as among the chief in Angus.  About one hundred and sixty years ago a Sir Robert Maule nobly fell in the service of his country at the battle of Harlaw.  (An error in point of time occurs here.  The battle of Harlaw was fought in the year 1411, which given 267 instead of 160 years before the time that Edwards wrote and published, and 439 before the the present year 1850.  The number of years 160 appears to have been a mis-print for 260.)

Among other famous knights of Scotland, as Boethius relates.  At length Sir Patrick Maule of Panmure, being one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber to James the VI, King of Great Britain and for many years after the death of that monarch continuing faithful to his son Charles, was by him created Earl of Panmure, Lord Maule, at Newcastle, August 3, 1646.  His eldest son, George Maule succeeded him as Earl, who married the Countess Jane Campbell, eldest daughter of the Earl of Lowdon, Chancellor of Scotland, by whom he had happy issue, viz., George, Mary, now Countess of Mar, James, Baron of Ballumbie, and Henry.  This Earl hath lately built a magnificent house, proportioned to his ample fortune, adjoining to the ancient castle of Panmure, and of the said name, as if it had been only a reparation; because it was in this old castle of Panmure that King William signed the Panmure charter to Peter de Maule in the year 1172.  Earl George being now dead, his eldest son George hath succeeded, who already gives proofs of a noble disposition when as yet his youth, which he hath spent in the cultivation of virtue, is scarce finished.  For the good of his country and the convenience of sailors, he has begun to build a harbour on his estate to the east of the mouth of Tay, . .  ( In a note to this passage, the Rev. Robert Traill, minister of Panbride, who translated and published Edwards' work in 1793, says, "This projected harbour was to have been built at East Haven in the parish of Panbride, but nothing more seems to have been the cause why the work did not go forward.  It was this nobleman, we believe, who feued to the Seamen Fraternity in Dundee the ground occupied by the "Lights of tay," at a ground-annual of five shillings.) . . .  where vessels are invited to take shelter when, by contrary winds, they are prevented from getting up the river.  This Earl hath married that ornament of her sex the Countess James Fleming, daughter of the Earl of Wigton.

"It is probable that this family of the Maules came from England for Sir Rodolphus de Maule, baron of Ruby (Raby) in Northumberland, was the inseparable companion of Malcolm III, (surnamed Canmore), King of Scotland, during the misfortunes of his youth while he as Prince of Scotland.  With this Price he came from England with 10,000 English, as a subsidy granted by Edward, King of England, for the purpose of reducing the usurper Macbeth to subjection, as Turgotus, Bishop of St Andrews, relates in his history.  Fordun also, in his History of Scotland, mentions the bravery of this Rodolphus de Maule at the siege of Alnwick (where Malcolm III. was killed).  Much about the same time Arnold was Kings' Constable on this side of the river Forth; and Edgar, the son of the above-mentioned Malcolm III, who, like his father, made an expedition from England with a subsidiary army to take possession of the Scottish sceptre, signed the first charted to Galfrid de Maule, proprietor of Panmure, in the second year of his reign.  What then is more evident than that some of the Maules who accompanied one or other of these Princes from England, were rewarded for their services in war with the lands of Panmure" thus far Edwards.

Sir Robert Douglas states the origin of the family differently, as well as how they acquired the barony of Panmure.  He says that the family de Valoniis, from whom the noble family of Panmure is maternally descended, came from Normandy with the Conqueror.  Philip de Valoniis, grandson of the first, came into Scotland in the reign of Malcolm IV., who succeeded his brother Malcolm in the year 1165, was a prisoner in England in 1174, this Philip was one of the hostages for the payment of his ransom at his liberation, for which good service the grateful monarch rewarded him with the manors of Panmure and Benvie about the year 1180.  (He was one of the witnesses to the charter of erection of the burgh of Ayr by William I, in which the king styles him "my treasurer".)  His daughter Lora married Henry de Baliol, chamberlain of Scotland, and grand-uncle of King John Baliol, with whom he got in dower the lands of Panlathie and Balbennie, both in the barony of Panmure and parish of Arbirlot.  His only son William de Valoniis had an only child, a daughter called Christian, who married Sir Peter de Maule, Knight.  Sir Peter gave other lands, probably in Lothian where his own estates lay, to the Chamberlain in exchange for those of Panlathie and Balbennie, which being near the castle, and on all sides surrounded by the barony of Panmure, was something of an anomaly in the distribution of territorial property.

The family de Maule is of very ancient standing in France.  They came into England with the Conqueror, and into Scotland with that "sore Saint to the Crown" but blessed Saint to the Church, David I. (grandfather of Malcolm IV. and William I.), who granted them lands in Lothian before the year 1130.  William de Maule accompanied that monarch to the battle of the "Standard", and received from him in requital of his services the barony of Fowlis-Easter, the church of which he granted to the Canons of the Priory of St Andrews, which was founded by his brother Alexander I., surnamed the Fierce, whom he succeeded.  (There would seem to be some mistake here, as the church of the parish of Fowlis Easter was built by a lady of the name of Gray in the year 1142, which family possessed the barony at that time; besides, the parish church of Fowlis Easter never was a pertinent of any superior ecclesiastical establishment whatever, neither Priory, Abbey, nor Cathedral, but always was an independent church until it was converted into a College or Provostry by the ancestor of the noble family of Gray, as may be ascertained by referring to any ecclesiologist who treats of the ancient church before the Reformation.  Perhaps Fowlis-Easter was printed by mistake for Fowlis-Wester.  Both parishes are in Perthshire; the former, which at one time formed part of Forfarshire, a few miles west of Dundee, as the latter is a few miles west of Perth.)  Sir Peter de Maule, fifth in descent from Guarin de Maule, who accompanied the Conqueror in the year 1066 from Normandy, married Christian de Valonis in or about the year 1224, with whom he got the baronies of Panmure and Benvie, which, as an only child, she possessed in her own right; and in right of his wife he succeeded to a considerable part of the extensive estates of the Valonis family in England, through default of an heir-male.  Sir Peter, with the concurrence of Lady Maule, granted the lands of Brax, in the barony of Panmure, to the Abbey of Arbroath in the year 1254. Sir William de Maule, his son and sixth in descent from Guarin, was High Sheriff of Angus at the death of Alexander III. in 1286.  His only brother, Sir Thomas, was governor of the Castle of Brechin, which fortress he gallantly maintained against all the forces of Edward I, of England, in the year 1303.  He was the only man who offered effectual resistance to the all but uninterrupted career of success of that unprincipled and ambitious monarch, the Napoleon of that age; but being mortally wounded in an attack on the castle by a missile projected from an engine, the garrison surrendered after a protracted siege of nineteen days.  Sir Walter de Maule, eighth in descent, disponed the lands of Carnegie within, and lying towards the north side of the barony of Panmure, to John de Bonhard, ancestor of the Earls of Southesk and Northesk.  He also disponed the lands of Balwissie in the same barony, to John Moneypennie of Scoonie; and granted those of Cairncorthy, with the chapel of Boath, and an annuity of two merks sterling out of the lands of Brax, to the Bishop of Brechin, all of which transactions were confirmed to the various donees by David II., by charter under the Great Seal dated 20th November 1359.  Sir Thomas Maule of Panmure fell at the battle of Harlaw, 25th July 1411, fighting on behalf of his sovereign against the rebel Donald, Lord of the Isles.  Sir Thomas, twelfth in descent from Guarin, founded and endowed a chapel in honour of the blessed Virgin at Panmure Castle in the year 1487.  He was twice married - his first lady was a daughter of the Earl of Crawford, and his second Catherine Cramond, a daughter of Cramond, baron of Auldbar.  Robert Maule, fifteenth in descent, was in great favour with James V., for faithful services done to him. He warmly opposed the match proposed in 1543 between our infant Queen Mary and Edward Prince of Wales, only son of Henry VIII., and her near relation, for which he was attacked in his own Castle of Panmure by the English, under the Protector Duke of Somerset in 1547.  He resolutely defended himself until being severely wounded he surrendered, and being sent prisoner to London he was confined in the Tower, but obtained his release in 1549.  His fourth son Henry had a son, or rather grandson (it does not appear clearly which) also called Henry, and designed of Melgund in the parish of Aberlemno, who was a colonel in the army, a learned antiquary, and author, or reputed author, of a 'History of the Picts' and a 'History of Scotland', the former having been several times printed, but the latter remains in MS. in, as is believed, the Advocates Library.  Thomas Maule, sixteenth in descent, was attached to the embassy of Bethune, Abbot of Arbroath, better known as the Cardinal Archbishop of St. Andrews, to France.  In 1541 he granted a charter of the lands of Skryne near Panbride, with twenty merks annually out of the barony of Panmure, to Elizabeth, one of the Cardinal's illegitimate daughters.  He married Margaret, daughter of Sir George Hallyburton of Pitcur, Knight, grandniece of the famous James Hallyburton, Provost of Dundee, by whom he had seven sons and one daughter.  His fifth son, Thomas, designed of Pitlivie, married Margaret, daughter of Leighton of Usan, near Montrose, and both jointly had a charter of half of the lands of Ardounie, in the parish of Monifieth, dated 20th March 1594.  From this gentleman the Irish branch of the family, designed of Killumney, is descended.  Patrick, seventeenth in descent, married Margaret, daughter of the celebrated John Erskine of Dun, Superintendent of Angus and Mearns.  His eldest daughter, Jean, married her cousin David Erskine of Dun, and his second daughter Barbara, married James Strachan of Carmyllie, the representative of an ancient family long designed of that barony, but now extinct.  Patrick, eighteenth in descent, was knighted, and was a gentleman of the bed-chamber to James VI.  He had a charter of the barony of Dounie, 5th March 1632, which would seem to be the time when that valuable tract of territory was annexed to Panmure.  He was also one of the gentlemen of the bed-chamber to Charles I., who appointed him keeper of the park and palace of Eltham (in Kent) and High Sheriff of Angus.  He had new charters of Panmure 1st December 1632, of the lordship of Brechin and Navar 15th October 1634, and of various other lands and baronies at different dates.  He purchased from the Earl of Dysart the Lordship and superiority of the Abbey of Arbroath, with the advocation or patronage of thirty-three parish churches that belonged to it at, and before, the Reformation, some of which however were at that period only chapelries, of which he had charters dated 28th November 1642.  On the 3rd August 1646 he was created Lord Maule of Brechin and Navar, and Earl of Panmure by Charles I.; and by Cromwells' Act of Grace and Pardon he was fined £10,000 sterling and his second son Henry, £2,500, for their loyalty to their unfortunate sovereign, which sums were afterwards modified to £4,000 for himself and £1,000 for his son.  His Lordship's eldest daughter Lady Jean, married David, second Earl of Northesk, when Lord Lower, being in the lifetime of his father John, the first Earl.  It is traditionally reported that Lord Northesk was an extensive purchaser of landed property, which was certainly true to a considerable extent, which in some way or other gave umbrage to Lord Panmure, and, in order to put a check to such purchases, his Lordship was advised to propose his daughter, who was of an extravagant disposition, literally a spendthrift, to Lord Northesk as a wife.  The marriage took place, and tradition adds that very few purchases on the part of the bridegroom occurred after it.  His Lordship was succeeded by his eldest son George, Lord Maule, second Earl and nineteenth in descent, who married Lady Jean Campbell, eldest daughter of John, first Earl of Loudoun.  Whilst only Lord Maule his Lordship narrowly escaped being taken prisoner at Alyth, with a number of the other wrangling covenanting Lords and preachers, who were surprised and captured by a detachment of General Monk's army a few days before he stormed Dundee on the 1st September 1651. His Lordship, who died in 1671, . .  (We have been unable to ascertain where his Lordship died, but that it was at some distance from Panmure, for the minute of Town Council of Dundee dated 18th April 1671, bears that the Magistrates and "neighbours," that is the burgesses, were invited to attend the funeral, and also liberty was requested and granted to entertain those invited to attend in the "councill house at outter tolbooth."  Another minute of Town Council, dated 9th May, bears that the remains of his Lordship were to be brought to the town that night, and were to lie in the vestry of the parish church till Friday, the day appointed for the funeral, the Provost was authorised to cause as many great guns to be fired that night and on the day of the funeral as he might think fit to show the sense they, on behalf of the community, entertained of his Lordship's character.  As the Council meetings in these times were generally held on Wednesday, it would thence appear that the body had lain in the vestry two nights and partly three days.  From the noisy demonstrations of respect that the discharging of the great guns implies, it may be inferred that the deceased Earl had been a benefactor to the town, like as his descendant the present noble Lord of Panmure is and has been.) . . . was the father of George the third Earl, of James the fourth Earl, and of the Honourable Henry Maule of Kelly. James the fourth Earl engaged in the rebellion of the Earl of Mar in 1715, for which piece of folly, like many others, he paid a high price, by being attainted and all his vast estates forfeited.  He married Lady Margaret, daughter of the Duke of Hamilton, by whom he had no issue. He died abroad in exile.  His next and younger brother, the Hon. Henry Maule of Kelly, also took part in the insurrection of 1715, and was at the battle of Sheriffmuir, where he saved the life of the Earl by taking him up on his back, after he was severely wounded, and carrying him from the field. Mr Maule afterwards made him peace with the Government, and resided at his castle of Kelly in the parish of Arbirlot, of which and the adjoining parish of Panbride on the west Lord Panmure is sole proprietor.  Mr. Maule was twice married. By his first wife, Lady Margaret Fleming, daughter of William, fifth Earl of Wigton, he had three sons and two daughters; and by his second wife Anne, second daughter of the Hon. Patrick Lindsay Crawford, he had five sons and one daughter, all of whom died unmarried except his eldest daughter Jean, who married George, Lord Ramsay, eldest son of William sixth Earl of Dalhousie.  Her Ladyship was grandmother of the present noble owner of the princely baronies of Panmure.  William the third and eldest surviving son of Mr. Maule of Kelly, and brother of Lady Ramsay, was a distinguished officer in the continental wars of George II., who highly esteemed him for his military abilities (George was too much a soldier to value any one for his reputation as a mere gentleman, his ideas, like a German hotch-potch, were too gross to relish or recognise refinement), and created him Lord Maule of Whitechurch (in East Lothian), and Earl of Panmure and Forth in the Peerage of Ireland, by patent dated 6th April 1743, with remainder to his brother, the Hon. John Maule of Inverkeilor, one of the Baronies of the Exchequer, but both being unmarried the honours became extinct at the death of the Earl on the 4th Jan. 1782.  Sixty-eight years, this present year 1850,  have elapsed since the death of this excellent nobleman, whose memory is still held in grateful remembrance, and many an anecdote of his benevolence is related by the descendants of those who were recipients of his bounty, though the reminiscences are not so vivid now as when first communicated to us by many of those who blessed the honoured name of him from whom they derived their worldly comforta.  (It is traditionally reported that on the day of his birth his father caused inquiries to be made through the parish if any other male child had been born that day.  The young healthy wife of a ploughman was found to have given birth to a boy, and forthwith she was installed into the office of nurse to the new-born heir.  As the boys grew up, a kindliness of feeling to each other grew up with them, such as always ought to be betwixt brethren, whether real or fostered brothers, who have been nourished by the same breast, and who have passed the years of infancy and childhood together.  They went together to the parish school, their studies and amusements were the same.  From school his Lordship went to college, and John (we regret having forgotten the remainder of his name, for being one of nature's order of nobility he was worthy of remembrance), his foster-brother, accompanied him as his attendant. He was also his faithful and unwearied companion during all his campaigns; and after returning home and settling at Panmure, it was the practice of John to fill the Earl's purse with money, rouse him betimes each morning, and ride out, John taking care that the route should be in the direction of the houses of the poorer tenants, the route being varied every morning.  Occasionally John would loiter behind his Lordship to inform himself of the amount he had given, and if it did not come up to his notion, he made up the odds from his own purse, and then would scold his Lordship for parsimony, and for being careless of the welfare of the poor, to which the Earl would quietly and meekly reply, that he should put more money in his purse, which of course was an injunction faithfully attended to, John being in point of fact controller of his Lordship's private Exchequer. His lordship was Colonel of the Scots Greys, a corps that performed a distinguished part at the celebrated battle of Minden, in which also the Colonel of a certain regiment of Black Hussars, with his men, acquired a reputation of another kind not quite so honourable.  It happened that at one time this Colonel visited the Earl at Panmure, and one fine summer day they had reached the west gate in course of their walk.  It so chanced that two way-worn soldiers were seated on the grassy esplanade, busily employed in ridding themselves of certain annoying intruders, when his Lordship asked them what they were doing.  The men looked up, and knowing both the Earl and his companion, replied, "Pursuing the enemy, my Lord."  "How do they stand?" again enquired the Earl. "O, my Lord," they answered, the Greys keep their ground as usual, but the Black Hussars flee like the devil."  This reply was too pointed to be agreeable to the Colonel, and so he felt, and so the Earl thought, for he blushed, gave, gave the men some money, and sent them to the butler to get refreshment.)  His Lordship was elected knight of the shire for the county of Forfar in 1735, and again at the general election in 1741, and sat for the county forty-seven years.  After retiring from the army and during the Parliamentary recesses, he passed much of his time at Panmure House and Brechin Castle alternately, in the practice of the most liberal hospitality, which his ample fortune enabled him to do, and at his death it was proudly said of him that none ever left his gate hungry, thirsty, or wanting money.  He purchased the family estates from the York-Buildings Water Company of London, who had taken a lease of them from the Crown after the forfeiture of Earl James, for a hundred years.  The sum paid was £49,157-18s-4d sterling, equal to £589,895-10s Scots.  This occurred in 1748, at which time there were seventy years of the lease unexpired.  At the time of the forfeiture in 1716 these estates produced annually £3456, exclusive of the rents paid in kind, - the highest rental among the numerous confiscations of that period.  His Lordship's grandnephew, the present Lord Panmure, succeeded at the death of his father the Earl of Dalhousie in 1787, in virtue of the settlements made in his favour by the Earl of Panmure in 1775.  The Scottish honours of the family lie under the attainder of 1718, the Irish honours are extinct, but the present noble descendant and representative of this most ancient and honourable family was created a Peer of the United Kingdom by William IV. in 1831, by the title of Baron Panmure of Brechin and Navar.  His Lordship was born in 1771, and consequently is, this present year of 1850, in the eightieth year of his age.  He claims the Scottish honours, which are also claimed it is said by Mr. Maule of Killumney, or some such name, the representative of the Irish branch of the family.  This Mr. Maule is a grandson or great-grandson of Mr. Maule of Killumney, who was a member of the London Water Works Company in York Buildings at the time of the feiture, and who took a sub-lease of the Panmure estates from the Company; and in pursuance of some claim, the nature of which does not clearly appear, his descendant made some curious pretensions to a part if not to the whole of the estates in 1818.  An action was raised, and we believe he obtained one decision in the Court of Session in his favour, which had the effect of putting him in possession of certain parts of some of the baronies, and of some of the rents of other parts; but this was of no long duration, for on the case being carried by appeal to the House of Lords, their Lordships reversed the decision.  The whole matter seemed to be of a very complicated nature; and though called up to be a witness to part of the proceedings in 1816, we must acknowledge inability to comprehend the character of the transaction.


PANMURE HOUSE AND VICINITY

PANBRIDE

PANBRIDE. - As a parochial district Panbride is of considerable antiquity, but not so the church as an edifice, which bears no marks either internally or externally of being of a date anterior to the era of the Reformation, if, indeed, it may be considered so old.  It consists of a long narrow body, plastered and cielded, and kept very neat and clean, an aisle on the back side, added by way of an after-thought when more accommodation became necessary, which has only the bare slates, without any kind of boarding for a ceiling, through which the sky can be seen without any great difficulty; but this was long ago, and now perhaps the fault may be remedied.  The family vault of Panmure is attached to the east end of the church, and to the north wall of the aisle the hatchment or funeral escutcheon of the late Earl is, or was, affixed, containing the family arms in the centre, and round the edge of the lozenge a border of sixteen other shields, containing the arms of as many family connections.

The ancient name of the parish appears to have been Ballinbride or Balnabride, shortened into Balbride, under which name it is sometimes mentioned in and before the fifteenth century.  The modern name is a corruption of Ballinbride by shortening it to Ba'nbride, from which the transition is easy to Panbride - Ballinbrlde, Ba'nbride, Panbride.  The church would seem to have been dedicated to the honour and memory of the ancient illustrious useless idler, the Scottish Saintess and Virgin Bridget, familiarly pronounced Bride, and the name extended to the parish.  In ancient times the church was a vicarage under the Abbey-Chapter of Arbroath, the Monks serving the cure either by one of their own body or by a resident Vicar-pensioner.  At what time and by whom it was granted to the Abbey do not seem to be certainly known, though, perhaps, the gift had been by some one or other of the old barons of Balbride, before that barony became the property of the barons of Panmure, whose representative, the Lord Panmure, is proprietor of the whole parish.

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the barony of Balbride, or Panbride, was the property of a family of the name of Boyes, or Boece, latinised Boethius, of which family the learned and famous historian and biographer Hector Boece was a member.  When William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen, founded the University of King's College at Old Aberdeen in the year 1494, he appointed this learned person, not less erudite than himself, the first Principal, brought him from Paris, where he was pursuing his studies, enjoying the friendship of Erasmus and the other celebrated luminaries of literature of that age, and installed him into the office.  After his appointment and inauguration as Principal, and succeeding to his paternal inheritance of Balbride, be is traditionally reported to have commenced, with concurrence of the barons of Panmure and Carmylie, the construction of a road, from Panbride to join the great road, such as it then was, from Dundee to Aberdeen, which at that time passed through the parishes of Monikie and Panbride, for Carmylie, as a parish, did not then exist , in fact, to join the present old road over the hills from Dundee to Montrose.  Some traces of an old road are discernible in the moor of Arbirlot, on the east side of Panmure, which bears the name of "Heckenbois Path," a corruption of Hector Boyes' Path; and also the farm of Hunter's Path on the north side of the same moor, and close to the plantations of the Guynd, at a ford in Elliot water, is said to have formerly been called Hector's Path."  The traces of the road in the moor are most distinct at a point between the two contiguous farms of Fallaws and Kellyfield.

An English tourist who travelled this way about, or soon after the beginning of the present century, and who published a quarto volume of his gleanings and ramblings, relates a ridiculously silly anecdote of the parish schoolmaster of Panbride.  He says that on the highway he joined company with a most important personage, who was no less than the Governor, nay, the imperial Autocrat of the whole parish, -mirabile! which he found was made out thus:
- His companion was schoolmaster of the parish, and in that capacity he governed the children (with the tawse of course), the children governed their mothers, and the mothers governed their husbands, -argal, as the gravedigger in Hamlet says, he was Governor of the parish.  The parish schoolmaster at that time was Mr. John Fitchet, a most respectable and most amiable man, who died since 1820 at the very venerable age of more than fourscore years, and one quite incapable of entertaining an utter stranger with such a silly deduction.

(Since the above was written we have had an opportunity of seeing once more, in a private library, the "Tourification of this Tourist, which has nothing beyond a number of good engravings to recommend it to notice.  It was published in 1806 under the assumed name of the "Rev. James Hall", who call himself an episcopal Clergyman and a native of Scotland.  He also calls the schoolmaster a "young man".  He must indeed have been a young, a very young man, but it appears to us that be must be a queer specimen of the genius Adolescence, who is over thirty years of age.)

There are some pretty fair specimens of "stone mason's poetry" in the Churchyard, some of which are transcribed, but as it would be too much to make an infliction of the whole on the reader, we will for the present be content with the following two examples :-
1.

Erected by Thomas Robertson and Magdalene Ramsay in Panbride, in memory of their son John, who died the first June 1822, aged six years and eight months.
"Affliction sore some time he bore,
Physician's skill was all in vain,
'Till God did please, then death did ease
Him of all trouble, grief, and pain."

These verses are quite hacknied; we have seen them in various shapes on more than forty monuments in different places, but the version here given is the best we have found.  In one instance, on a monument in the Old Cemetery in Dundee, the word 'Physician's" is oddly enough rendered Physictions.
2.

M.     J.S.     S.
A.    C.Y.     S.
 E.    1750.    S.
  J.                 S.
"In memory of Jacobs love
Unto his Rachel, now above,
A pillar of Stone we read he gave,
And Sett it up upon her grave;
The first and ancient to be seen
In genesis th' 35, and 19."

There is a slight error in the reference.  The verse is the twentieth, but as 20 would not rhyme with "seen," the sculptor has chosen a number less by one for the sake of the rhythm and euphony.

(We intend to close "Panmure House and Vicinity" in our next, with an account of Camus' Cross, and the Testimonial.)


PANMURE HOUSE AND VICINITY

CROSS OF CAMUS

Upon the summit of the ridge of the hills of Dounie, within the parish, and about a quarter of a mile south of the church of Monikie, and rather more than a mile west of Panmure House, the ancient Cross of Camus stands.  This monument is a real bona fide cross, formed of one stone, and is wholly covered over with sculptured figures and ornaments, the figures being these of angels and priests with their books, and a centaur.  On the west or obverse side, the upper compartment contains the figure, but much mutilated, of the Saviour, with the arms extended along the transverse limb of the cross, in the act of crucifixion, and the figure of an angel on each side kneeling in the posture of adoration.  Under this compartment there is a large figure of a centaur, and the lowest division is filled with a waving ornamental figure, neither inelegantly designed nor executed.  In the upper compartment on the reverse side the figure of a monk or priest is represented, with a book on the breast, and his head enveloped in a cowl, which, in regard to the size of the body, is about as proportional as sticking the head of a bullock on the top of a handstaff.  The two other compartments on this side are filled each with two priests carrying books on their breasts.  Gordon, in his Itinerarium Septentrionale,  published soon after the beginning of last century, calls these bas-reliefs "Egyptian mummy-like figures", and that part of the sculpture which represents the tonsure he calls a "bonnet".  The cowl on the head of the upper figure he calls a "glory", but such a glory was never represented either by the pencil of the painter nor the chisel of the sculptor.  The cross is about six feet in height above ground, the length of the transverse or cross limb about three feet and a half, the breadth of the standard and cross part about sixteen inches, and the thickness about six inches, and very prettily ornamented with volute-like figures.  This monument stands upon a small tumulus, within which the remains of Camus, the Danish general, were laid, according to ancient chronicle and local tradition, after the defeat of his army in the plains below at Barrie, by Malcolm II. in the year 1010.  Boece, and other chroniclers following him, relating the story of the Danish invasion and its consequences, says that after his defeat Camus fled to the north, with a view to escape to Moray, where some of his ships were stationed, but being pursued by Robert de Keith, the remote ancestor of the Earls Marischall, he overtook him, he killed him on the top of the hill of Dounie by hewing off a piece his skull.  Boece, in mentioning the erection of the cross at his grave, says, oddly enough, that it bears the picture, of those who slew him.  It is certainly strange that the historian, who was born at Dundee, and reared in his father's house at Panbride, within five miles of the place where the cross stands, should have been so ignorant, or stupid rather (if, as is however not likely, the fault does not belong to his translator), as to call the figures of angels and priests those of warriors engaged in mortal combat; and when he errs so egregiously  in a matter within his personal ken, what can be thought of his accuracy in other affairs of a more important kind?  The purist Latin that ever was written will never atone for distorted and perverted facts.  Sir John Bellenden, Archdeacon of Moray, translated Boece's chronicle, and published it in 1536, from which Hollinshed manufactured his English version.  Not having access to Bellenden we shall apply to Hollinshed, who published in 1574.  He says that "Camus perceiving the discomfiture to light upon his side, with a small company about him, thought to have escaped by flight unto the next mountains, but being pursued of his enemies he was slain by them ere he was got two miles from the place of the battle.  The place where he was slain is named after him unto this day, and called Camestone, where is an obelisk set up in memory of the thing, with his picture engraved therein, and likewise of those that slew him.  The principal slayer of Camus was one Keith".  (Some of our writers say that another chieftain disputed with Keith the honour of slaughtering the Danish general, and that high words passed between them, which coming to the ears of the King, "he," says one writer, " directed the disputants to decide the quarrel by single combat, and Keith having vanquished his adversary, the King dipped his three fingers in his blood, and passing them over the shield of Keith exclaimed 'Veritas Vincit', which bearing and motto continued to be the family arms until the extinction of the family." - Scottish Journal, II,  This monkish legend may be  believed or not, as the reader may be inclined, but he will remember that in the Gaelic-speaking days of Malcolm II., literature was not so much cultivated that even Kings could deliver themselves in Latin.)  After this the historian describes the defeat of those who escaped from Barrie, first at Aberlemno, and finally at Forres, where was made "such a cruel battle with them that not one Dane escaped their hands".

From Dr. Jamieson's edition of, and addition to, Slezer's Theatrum Scotię, published in 1812, we and that about the year 1610 the tumulus was opened by order of Sir Patrick Maule (afterwards created Earl of Panmure), in presence of himself and several other gentlemen, when a skeleton of gigantic proportions, a specimen of the frame-work of the dreaded Vikingur, was discovered in good preservation, nothing being imperfect but the skull, of which a part was wanting , which of course was concluded to be the piece sliced off by the battle-axe of the man with the "three strokes of blood".  The skull, with some of the bones was removed to Panmure Castle, but it is doubtful if these relics are in existence now; the remainder of the skeleton was covered up, and the cross re-erected in its place, where it still stands, "even unto this day'.

In the year 1818, according to the newspaper reports oft the time, several fragments of arms, among which was a steel how, were ploughed up in one of the fields of the farm of Pitskelly, which farm is part of the field of battle.  The bow was preserved by Mr. Kerr, tenant of the farm at the time it was found, and may still be in the possession of his family.  Tradition says that the small streamlet of Lochtay, which murmurs through the scene of strife, flowed three days with blood, which infers an extraordinary destruction of life.

The following stanzas are inserted, not from any merit they may be allowed to have, but merely because they relate to the battle of Barrie, or Carnoustie as it is sometimes called.

Wide o'er Barrie's burning sands,
Scandinavia's steel-clad bands,
Waving high their burnished brauds,
  Advancing, sure of victory.
Shall proud Loclin hope to reign,
Sovereign o' the hill and plain;
No - a grave he'll only gain,
  That, nae mair will Albyn gie.

Camus leads his mail'd array,
Glittering in the morning ray;
Hubba wings his fateful way,
  Flapping round th' echoing shore.
But royal Malcolm dauntless stands,
'Mid his firm devoted bands,
Wha dim the lustre o' their brands
  In reeking streams o' foemens's gore.

Paint the trembling foes recede,
Ruin hovers o'er ilk head;
Thousainds fa', and thousands bleed,
  'Neath Albyn's fierce avenging ire.
Scandinavia's dreams are fled,
Lochlin's pride in dust is laid;
Hopes o' empire a' are dead,
  On low-fa'n vanity's red pyre.

Some old writers, and some modern ones following in their track, speak of the Village of Camuston" as being near the Cross, but if there had ever been such a thing here as a village so called, it must have long ago disappeared as for more than half a century there has been nothing visible in the shape of a dwelling of any kind, but the ruined roofless shell of the farmhouse of the now abrogated farm of Camuston, which stands, if it still remains, near the west gate of Panmure House, about half a mile from the Cross; or it must be the eastern division of the scattered hamlets and small mailings or pendicles which are collectively known by the name of "Craigton or Monikie", and which extend from very near the church to beyond the site of the "Testimonial", occupying a space considerably more than half a mile in extent.

In passing to the Cross of Camus and the Testimonial we spent a short time the churchyard examining and poring over the memorials of the dead, but of the mementos, which are not very numerous, we only transcribed the two following,- the first for being one of the most unintelligible we have seen, and the second for being very little better.

1754
"Seeds die and rot, and then most fresh appiar;
 Sants bodies rise more orient than they were.
PB  AB  TB  RB  DB  JB  GB"

The stone which bears this having fallen down, the other aide and what it contained could not be examined.

"'Henry Paton in Craigtoun and Jean Petrie his wife, set up this stone in memory of two children, viz., Andrew, he died in 1767, aged 3 years, William in 1784, aged 8 years.
"Our voyage through life is past -
We've reached the happy shore
Where death-divided friends shall meet,
& part no more.
No blasting small pox rage,
No grief nor racking pain,
Assaults the little ones above -
They never more complain"

 


PANMURE HOUSE AND VICINITY

PANMURE TESTIMONIAL

This magnificent tribute of respect to that benevolent and excellent nobleman, Lord Panmure, was erected at the sole expense of his numerous tenantry in the year 1839.  The funds for the purpose were provided by subscription; and, in order that the poorest might have an opportunity of testifying their respect for the manifold virtues of their noble landlord, the smallest contribution was accepted; and hence the most humble can point to It with proud satisfaction, and tell his children, and through them his remote posterity, that he contributed to the erection of this memorial of gratitude.  The site of the column could not have been better selected in all the princely domains of Panmure.  It stands on the most elevated point of the hills of Dounie, three or four hundred yards to the west of the Cross of Camus, and commands an extensive prospect of large portions of five counties; and from a great distance seaward the "Live and Let Live" Testimonial is visible to the mariner "far, far at sea", as from its position it is now one of the most conspicuous land-marks on the east coast of Scotland.  When the subscription had so far advanced for the erection of this pillar, "to perpetuate", as it was not less beautifully than emphatically expressed, "to perpetuate the memory of a nobleman who, through a long life, has made the interests and comforts of his tenantry his sole and unwearied object", application was made to John Henderson, civil engineer, Edinburgh, for a suitable design.  This was given, and the work commenced, which has been completed now more than ten years; and may it long remain a monumental tribute of respectful gratitude to exalted worth, showing to the world a renown before which the blood-stained glories of the battle-field sink into utter insignificance.  The Testimonial consists of a broad lower basement of rustic work, sufficiently capacious to contain an apartment for the reception of visitors and accommodation for the keeper and his family; a quadrangular upper basement, the angles of which are flanked with open buttresses; and a colossal cylindrical column rising up into a balustrade, and surmounted by a lofty ornamental vase.  A stone pillar rises in the centre of the cylinder, and carries up to the top a lightning conductor in its interior, and a spiral stair on its exterior.  Within a niche in the visitor's room a marble bust of his Lordship, by Mr. John Steele of Edinburgh, is placed, and also an inscribed tablet relative to the design and object of the building.  The height of the column from the ground to the top is 105 feet.  From the south angle of the base, with the fine expanse of the bay, the East Neuk, and the grey towers of St. Andrews in front, the Old Steeple in Dundee on the right, and the Abbey of Arbroath on the left, both being about equidistant, can be seen by merely moving the eyes without turning the head.

Before leaving this subject we may add that, previously to and during the reign of Robert I. the barony of Dounie, a valuable tract of territory, was the property of Laurence, Lord of Abernethy, ancestor of the old Lords Salton, from whom the present noble family of Salton is descended.  At his death Laurence of Abernethy left three daughters, co-heiresses, who by marriage carried his large estates into other families, or rather by their marriages became the founders of other families.  One of these ladies was married to Sir David Lindsay, knight, ancestor of the Earls of Crawford, and other families of the name of Lindsay.  Through her the barony of Dounie, which was part of her tierce of the Abernethy estates, came into the family of Lindsay, but how long it remained with them, or who succeeded them in it before it became the property of the noble family of Panmure, as we have seen no record, we are unable to state; all that we know being that in the year 1608 the lands and barony of Dounie, including Ardestie, Balhungie, Dounieken, Cottown and Brewlands of Dounie, and others, were the property of the Earl of Crawford, and were acquired, as already mentioned, under the title Panmure, by Sir Patrick Maule of Panmure, knight, who had charters of the barony dated 5th March 1632.

On the neighbouring lands of Dunfin, which is commonly considered a corruption of Den-fiend, the Fiend's Den, though it would rather seem to signify the White Hill or Fort, there is a hollow which is generally supposed to have been the haunt of the cannibal "briggant" who, Lindsay of Pitscottie in his chronicle says, had the "execrable fashion of taking all the men and women he could get and killing and eating them, and the younger they were, esteemed them the more delicious."  It was indeed an execrable fashion, but the 'briggant', with all his family, who like himself fed on human flesh, was rooted out, being all deservedly slaughtered by the armed followers of the Earl of Angus, except a female infant, who was brought to Dundee, and there nursed and reared.  It is told of this girl, 'wench' as Pitscottie calls her, that as she grew up she could not forbear biting other children, and sucking the blood that issued from the wounds; neither were any of the means used to wean her from her blood-sucking propensity of any efficacy, until having attained womanhood she was publicly executed by burning at the market cross in the Seagate of Dundee, amid the execrations of the spectators, about the year 1470.

 

Panmure Estate.

More information about the Panmure Estate and its history, together with information about some notable buildings on the Estate, photographs, etc. can be seen above and elsewhere on this site, Panmure 1, Panmure 2, Panmure 3, Panmure 4, Panmure 5 Panmure 6, Panmure 7, Panmure 8 and Panmure 9.

You are advised to use the search engine, www.google.co.uk for more on this site and for related content on other sites. 

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Panmure Estate, Angus, Scotland

 

The Panmure Estate is sold-off in 2001 - read about it HERE.

Look at several photographs of the estate HERE.

More on the Maule Family on another local website, also at www.maulefamily.com .


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