Sir David Wemyss of Wemyss
Prior to 1296 -- circa 1330
Annabella Sinclair, 1st wife
Marjory Ramsay, 2nd wife
Sir David’s name appears on the Ragman Roll in 1296. He was summoned to attend King Edward to Flanders in 1297, but he must have joined for a time the ranks of the patriotic Scots, as at a later date he and his wife Marjory are referred to as rebels who have returned to their allegiance. He also confirmed and augmented his father’s grants to the Church of Soutra and was lord of the half lands of Lochore, acquired from Sir David Lochore. In 1319 Sir David was designated lieutenant of the King in the arbitration anent marches. The following year, in 1320, six years after the battle of Bannockburn Sir David was one of the eight earls and 45 barons of the realm who signed the letter to the Pope asserting the independence of Scotland. The celebrated Declaration of Arbroath was presented to Pop John XXII at the papal court in Avignon as part of a dramatic plea for the Pope to intervene in the bloody war England continued to wage against Scotland. The Declaration’s preamble has been referred to as “a masterpiece of propaganda urging the righteousness of the Scots cause. It told how the ancient Scots had made a wonderful Odyssey from Greater Scythia in Asia, through the Mediterranean and past the Pillars of Hercules to their present land. There they had defeated and absorbed the Picts before seeing off Angles, Danes, and Norsement, since when they had lived under a one hundred and thirteen kings of their own stock, a line unbroken by a single foreigner” (The Clans of Scotland, Micheil MacDonald, p 19) This was yet another example of how involved the Wemyss clan was in the turbulent history of Scotland. As a whole the declaration committed Robert the Bruce to continue the struggle for Scotland’s independence. However, the language used strongly suggested that those who signed it had not forgotten Bruce’s tendency to change sides when it suited him:
Yet if he should give up what he has begun, and agree to make us or our kingdom subject of the King of England, we should exert ourselves at once to drive him out as our enemy and a subverter of his own rights and ours, and make some other man who was well able to defend us as our King; for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any condition be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting for but for freedom and for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.
In July of 1328 Sir David received from King Robert Bruce a charter to himself and his wife Marjory, of the lands of Glassmonth, near Kinghorn.
Sir Michael Wemyss of Wemyss
1330 - 1342
Sir David had a son named Michael and during the stormy years after the death of King Robert I in 1329, Sir Michael fought in the battle of Halledown Hill. He was captured and carried prisoner to England where, in order to obtain his release, he swore fealty to the King of England, Edward the Third after Baliol had surrendered Scotland. For this he forfeited his estates in Scotland. Not much is known of the Wemyss Clan during the struggles among the nobles and the warfare along the English border for the Scottish throne after the death of King Robert. A charter is listed by David Wemyss of that ilk to David Wemyss, Knight, of the lands of Nether Cambronn, circa 1330. Also in 1330 the Laird entertained Randolph Earl of Moray, the Regent of Scotland in the castle at East Wemyss.
When Sir Michael died in about 1342 the estate of Wemyss were divided between his 3 daughters. His 2nd daughter married William Livingston of Drumy and remained in MacDuff Castle.
Sir John Wemyss of Kincaldrum, Reres, and Wemyss
Prior to 1372-1428
(first wife unknown)
Isabel Erskine of Inchmartin, 2nd wife
Christian Ogilvy(of Auchterhouse),3rd wife
Sir David had another son, Sir John Wemyss who received from King Robert Bruce a charter of the barony of Leuchars. Sir John also obtained form Sir Alexander Abernethy the lands of Kincaldrum. Sir John has a son David Wemyss of Kincaldrum, of whom no charter evidence has been found. He died before 1372 leaving a son Sir John Wemyss of Leuchars and Kincaldrum. This Sir John was the grandson of Sir John Wemyss of Kincaldrum and Reres, who was the second son of Sir David Wemyss, the Ambassador of Norway. Sir John Wemyss flourished in the latter half of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth as laird of Kincaldrum and Reres, and latterly of Wemyss. It is not known what part Sir John Wemyss took in the public affairs of his time. Scotland during the reigns of King Robert the Second and King Robert the Third was comparatively peaceful, and although the long truce with England was interrupted in 1334 by the French expedition under Sir John de Vienne, and by the foray in 1388, which ended in the battle of Otterburn, the southern parts of the kingdom rather than those north of the Forth were concerned in these events.
Sir John Wemyss is first named in a charter by King Robert the Second in 1372, as granting to Sir Andrew de Valoniis the half of the mill of Lochore, which seems to have descended from his great-grandfather, who was lord of the half lands of Lochore. The papers in the charter room of Wemyss Castle also include an Instrument of resignation by Sir David Weymss of all the lands which he held of Robert Styward, Earl of Fyf and Menteth, and Sir Alan of Erskyne, in favor of John of Wemyss, 1373-4. A Charter then by Robert Stewart, Earl of Fyf and Menteth, to John of Wemyss of the land of Tvlibree in Fyf, 1372-99. And also in 1374 Sir John obtained Reres, Mithil, and other lands from his kinsman, Sir David Wemyss. The knight, Sir David of Wemyss, who was sheriff of Fife between 1337 and 1359, resigned his land holding of the Earl of Fife to John de Wemyss, his cousin, the grandson of Michael and male heir.
Sir David Wemyss died in 1375 and in December of the same year his son Duncan entered into an agreement with John of Wemyss as follows: -- John Wemyss was to resign in the hands of the superiors the lands which he possessed, formerly belonging to Sir David Wemyss, and was to secure them to Duncan in terms of a separate agreement of entail. Duncan agreed to free the lands of Upper Cameron, and his annual rent from Methil, from the hands of the superiors, that they might be included in the entail. If he failed to do this, John was to free the lands at Duncan’s expense. Duncan was further to pay to John, each year for seven years, three and a half merks sterling, to be given to a chaplain for masses on behalf of Sir David. John Wemyss was to hold the lands of Wester Reres for ten years from Whitsunday 1377, with the whole lordship thereof, at a rent to be fixed by separate entail. At the end of the ten years, if Duncan could fully occupy the lands of Reres and Cameron, he should possess them; but if not, John was to continue in possession for nine years longer, Duncan undertaking to pay John’s expenditure for buildings on Reres, to the value of eighty merks, within four terms after his removal from the lands, probably by paying the feudal casualties due on his succession.
During the nineteen years Duncan was not only unable to occupy Reres, but was also obliged to resign it and all other lands he held or could claim as son and heir of the deceased Sir David Wemyss of Cameron. This he did in favor of his kinsman, now Sir John Wemyss, only stipulating that Sir John should give him the lands of Kilmany for his “sustentation” during life, he paying eight pennies yearly in name of rent. (Indebture, dated 10th June 1389)
Previous to this final transaction, however, Sir John Wemyss had been securing his title to his estates by obtaining charters from the various co-partners of the Wemyss, of the lands which he held under them. Indebture between Sir John of Glen and Margaret his wife, and Sir John of Wemyss and Isobel his wife, touching the lands held by Sir John of Glen in exchange for other lands from Sir John of Wemyss, between 1373 and 1428. Also on record is a Tack by Alan Erskyn of Inchemartyn, to Sir John of Wemyss, Knight, of the lands of Petlassy on 15 December 1386. Then in 1392 Sir John received a charter from the Crown for his consolidated lands. Among other privileges, King Robert the Third granted to Sir John Wemyss permission to build upon his lands of Reres in 1392. The king granted permission to build a castle with towers, to be of such strength and height as the owner deemed expedient. From Robertson’s Index page 138, Nos. 29, 37 we know that he commenced to build the fortress at once. Sir John selected as its site the site of the old castle of Reres belonging to the Earls of Fife, which was situated on the eastern brow of an eminence in the parish of Kilconquhar. Nothing has remained of the castle since prior to the late 1700’s. A mound to mark the spot on which it stood can still be found.
Sir John married Isabel Erskine, also of Wemyss, and the younger daughter of Isabel Inchmartin and Sir Alan Erskine. This was apparently Sir John’s second wife. In May 1400 Sir Alan Erskine, lord of Inchmartin, died, predeceased about a year before his wife. Immediately upon his death his daughters, Margaret and Isabel, were formally retoured heirs to their father and mother in their various lands, including their portion of Wemyss and other lands of Fifeshire. Then in 1403 Sir John obtained from King Robert III a charter of confirmation of all lands disposed to his grandfather by David. He also received letters of protection of King Robert III on May 24,1402.
In 1404 Sir John endowed the chapel of St. Mary of Reres with various lands and annual rents, partly from his barony of Leuchars and partly from the lands of Reres, including a large privilege of pasturage. In 1406 he granted a life rent lease of his lands of Wester or Wemyss-Tarvit to his kinsman Richard Inglis, at a yearly rental of twenty-six shillings and eightpence. At this time Sir John was residing at Reres. He appears at intervals during the next two years as a witness to charters by the Duke of Albany, then governor of Scotland. He also made several journeys to England in the years 1412 and 1413. One of his journeys included his engagement in negotiating for the release of King James the First, who was then in captivity.
Sir John appears in his later years as a patron of literature. Sir William Fraser states in his work Memorials of the Family of Wemyss of Wemyss, “Posterity owes him much for his patronage and encouragement of Andrew Wyntown, the well-known author of the rhyming chronicle, which was written at Sir John’s instance.” It was probably when Wyntown became prior of St Serf’s in Lochleven in 1395, that he was noticed by Sir John Wemyss, who, like his successors, may have had rights of bailiary over the river Leven. The family of Wyntown had for a long period been more or less intimately connected, as custodiers or otherwise, with the castle of Kildrummy, the chief stronghold of the earld om of Mar, and it is probable that it was owing to Sir John’s relationship with the Erakines, who claimed that earldom, that he thus took an interest in the prior of St. Serf’s. Much praise is due to the prior for the way in which he executed his task, and for the labour and pains bestowed upon it, but he has himself recorded that the original suggestion of the work came from Sir John Wemyss. The chronicler, when in his prologue he entreats the forbearance of his readers for the rudeness of his work, tells then that ---
---this tretys sympylly
I made at the instans of a larde
That had my serwys in his warde,
Schyr Jhone of the Wemys be rycht name,
Wyntown’s work, from whatever sources compiled, is generally admitted to be one of the most accurate, as it is one of the earliest histories of Scotland.
Besides the encouragement, which Sir John thus gave to learning, he continued his efforts to consolidate the estate of Wemyss in his own hands. He and his wife, Isabel, entered into a deed of concord with Robert Livingstone of Drumry in 1419.
It was at this time, around the year 1421 when Sir John is believed to have had the original castle at West Wemyss built. Prior to then he lived in his castle at Reres near Kilconquer. The Duke of Rothsay destroyed that castle on the King's orders. At the time of the original building of Wemyss Castle it consisted only of a single tower and small courtyard.
Then in 1424 Sir John was one of those Scottish barons who received safe-conducts to meet King James the First on his return from captivity in England.
In June 1427 Sir John made a document agreement with his son, and appears to have died within a year thereafter. His son Alexander of Wemyss became the ancestor of the family of Wemyss of Lathocar. Another son, Duncan of Wemyss was one of the hostages on the liberation of James I and in 1432 inherited his father’s lands of Leuchars and Reres.
Isabel carried to her husband Sir John, her share of Wemyss, with part of Inchmartin and other lands. On September 8, 1401 a retour of service of Margaret and Isabella, daughters of Lady Isabella of Inchmartyne, as heirs to their mother, in the lands of Auchlevin, and a half davach of Ardeyn was signed. Her eldest son, David Wemyss of Methil and Wemyss became her heir.
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The Earliest Wemyss 2
