The Scottish Nation
Kirkpatrick
KIRKPATRICK, anciently sometimes spelled Kilpatrick, a surname derived from Cella Patricii, the church of Patrick, and the prefix of the name of no less than four parishes in Galloway.
The ancient family of Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, who possess a baronetcy, have, according to tradition, held lands in Nithsdale since the ninth century. In the reign of David I., (1124-1153), Yvo Kirkpatrick was witness to a charter of Robert Brus the competitor, lord of Annandale, and Eufemia, his wife, granting the fishing of Torduff to the monks of Holme Cultram. His grandson, also Yvo, obtained from Alexander II. a charter of confirmation of the lands of Kilosburn, [from Cella Osburni] which belonged formerly to his ancestors, dated 15th August 1232. In the Ragman Roll, among those mentioned as having, in 1296, sworn fealty to Edward I., are Stephen de Kilpatrick, and Roger de Kilpatrick, the latter supposed to be of the Torthorwald branch of the Kirkpatricks. These last afterwards took the name of Carlyle by marriage. Roger Kirkpatrick, successor of John, was one of the attendants of King Robert Bruce at Dumfries, when he met Comyn in the church of the Franciscans in that town, and it was he who, on Bruce’s rushing out, and expressing a doubt that he had killed the Red Comyn, despatched the latter, with the exclamation, “You doubt! Ise mak siccar,” (or sure,) which became the motto of his family, their crest being a hand holding a dagger, in pale, distilling drops of blood. In 1314 he was sent on an embassy to England, in company with Sir Neil Campbell, ancestor of the duke of Argyle. Roger’s son, Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, besides inheriting Closeburn, for his father’s signal services and his own to his sovereign and country, got the lands of Redburgh in the sheriffdom of Dumfries, as the charter of Robert Brus bears, dated at Lochmaben, 4th January in the 14th year of his reign.
In 1355, Sir Thomas’ son, Sir Roger, who remained faithful amidst the general defection of the nobles, distinguished himself by taking from the English the castle of Caerlaverock and Dalswinton, and thus preserved the whole territory of Nithsdale in allegiance to the Scottish crown. The historian, John Major, says he levelled the former with the ground. This however, could not be literally true, as he continued to reside in it till his assassination by his kinsman, Sir James Lindsay, in 1357. No known cause of quarrel existed between them, except that Kirkpatrick, as tradition records, had married a lady to whom Lindsay was greatly attached. Lindsay expiated his crime with his life, having been executed by order of David II. ‘The Murder of Caerlaverock’ is the subject of a very spirited ballad by the late Mr. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe. Sir Roger’s son, Winfred or Umfrey, in addition to the lands of Rebburgh, got those of Torthorwald, in the debateable district between Lower Nithsdale and Lower Annandale. The son, or grandson of the latter, Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, made a resignation of the baronies of Closeburn and Redburgh into the hands of Robert duke of Albany, earl of Fife, and governor of Scotland, for a new charter of Tailzie, to himself and his heirs male, dated at Ayr, 14th October 1409. He was succeeded by his brother, Roger Kirkpatrick, who was one of the gentlemen of inquest in serving William Lord Somerville heir to his father, Thomas Lord Somerville, before Sir Henry Preston of Craignillar, sheriff-principal and provost of Edinburgh, 10th June 1435, when he had on his seal, appended to the retour, the escutcheon of his arms, supported with two lions guardant, though afterwards the supporters were two talbots (Nisbet’s Heraldry, vol. i. p. 147). In 1348, his son, Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, was one of the conservators of the truce with England. His descendant, Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, knight, a gentleman of the privy chamber to James VI., obtained from that monarch a patent of free denizen within the kingdom of England in 1603, and died about 1628.
His great-grandson, Thomas Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, for his unshaken fidelity to Charles I., was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, 26th March 1685. His eldest son, Sir Thomas, second baronet, had four sons and a daughter. The eldest of these, Sir Thomas, third baronet, by his marriage with Susannah, daughter and heiress of James Grierson of Capenoch, brought that estate into the family. Of the ancient castle of Closeburn, a square tower about 50 feet high, consisting of a ground floor and three vaulted apartments, Grose has given a drawing in his ‘Antiquities of Scotland.’ The mansion-house, built by the first baronet, partly with the materials of the old residence, was burnt to the ground, through the carelessness of drunken servants, on the night of the 29th August, 1748, and all the family papers, portraits, plate, &c, therein consumed. He had eight children, and died in October 1771. His second and eldest surviving son, Sir James, fourth baronet, commenced in 1772 the limeworks both in Closeburn and Keir, which have proved most beneficial to the district. In 1783 he sold the estate of Closeburn to Mr. Menteth, and died 7th June 1804. His son, Sir Thomas, the fifth baronet, sheriff of Dumfries-shire, married Jane, daughter of Charles Sharpe, Esq. of Hoddam, and died in 1844, when his son, Sir Charles Sharpe Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, born in 1808, became sixth baronet.
The younger brother of the 3d baronet of Closeburn, William Kirkpatrick of Ellisland, married a daughter of Lord-justice-clerk Erskine. Their son Charles, succeeding to the estate of Hoddam, assumed the name of Sharpe, and was father of General Matthew Sharpe, M.P. for the Dumfries burghs, who died in 1841, and of the antiquary and wit, Mr. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe of Hoddam, who died in 1851. The latter drew up a chart of the family tree of the Kirkpatricks of Closeburn.
From a branch of the Kirkpatricks, styled of Conheath, is descended the empress Eugenié, consort of Napoleon III, of France. According to one account, this branch springs from Alexander Kirkpatrick of Kirkmichael, 2d son of the 3d Roger de Kirkpatrick of Closeburn; the barony of Conheath having been bestowed on him as the reward of his valour in making a captive of the 9th earl of Douglas at Burnswark in 1484. Another account grafts it on the main tree at a much more recent date. The Empress Eugenié’s great-great-grandfather joined the standard of the Pretender in 1745, and being taken prisoner, died on the scaffold. His son left Scotland, and settled at Ostend, whence the family emigrated to Spain.
About the middle of the 18th century, William Kirkpatrick, cousin-german of Sir James Kirkpatrick, baronet of Closeburn, was proprietor of the estate of Conheath, parish of Caerlaverock. The estate had originally been one of the numerous possessions of the Closeburn family, of which he was a cadet, but had passed out of their hands, and was repurchased by Mr. Kirkpatrick’s grandfather. Mr. Kirkpatrick himself had a very large family, the only remaining member of which, Miss Jane Forbes Kirkpatrick, residing at Nith Bank, Dumfries, who died Dec. 21, 1854, in his 89th year, was aunt of the countess de Montijo, the mother of the empress Eugenié. One of his sons, also named William Kirkpatrick, was for upwards of a quarter of a century a merchant in Malaga, and American consul in that city. He married Francisca, eldest daughter of Baron Grivignee, a Belgian, and had one son, who died early, and three daughters. Maria Kirkpatrick, the eldest, married Don Cipriano Palafox, then Count of Teba, a grandee of Spain of the first class, later, on the death of his elder brother, Count del Montijo, issue 2 daughters; the elder married the Duke of Berwick and Alba, and died in Sept. 1860, leaving 3 children; the younger, Eugenié Marie de Guzman, Countess of Teba, born at Grenada May 5, 1826, married January 29, 1853, Charles Louis Napoleon, (Napoleon III.,) Emperor of the French, issue, Napoleon, Prince Imperial, born March 16, 1856. William Kirkpatrick’s 2d daughter, Carlotta, married her cousin, Thomas Kirkpatrick of Ostend. The 3d daughter, Enriquetta, married the Count de Cabarrus, whose sister was the celebrated Madame Tallien.
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EMPRESS EUGENIE
A scion of the family settled at Malaga early in the present century as agent to a Scottish wine merchant, and was very useful to the commissariat department of the British army in the Peninsular War. He had three daughters, whose brilliant complexion and fair hair, as well as handsome fortunes, were the admiration of the Spanish dons, and among frequent visitors at his house was the Count de Teba, an impoverished nobleman of ancient lineage, who had served under the French and been frightfully injured by an explosion, which, it is said, had deprived him of a leg and an arm. Yet, in course of time, the second of the Miss Kirkpatricks became first the Countess de Teba, and a little later, on her husband succeeding to a distant relative’s title and estate, Countess de Montijo, better known as the mother of the ex-Empress of the French. Some difficulty was raised by the Spanish Court, on the ground that it was a mésalliance; but her father, who died insolvent, applied to the well known antiquary, Mr Kirkpatrick Sharpe, for the Kirkpatrick pedigree, and when it was handed over to the authorities who had a right to veto the marriage of a grandee it was considered sufficient proof of the lady’s noble blood. Another sister married a wine grower in Andalusia, and the third, an official employed in the Commissariat of the British army. The Count de Teba and Montijo died in 1823, after being separated from his wife, as is shown by a lawsuit, a few years later.
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Descendants of Alexander Kirkpatrick
An American Branch of the Family
Alexander Kirkpatrick was born in 1685 in Watties Neach, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. He removed with his family to Belfast, Ireland, after the birth of his son David, in the latter part of the reign of George I. Probably about the year 1725, that he might enjoy greater liberty of conscience and additional religious advantages. In the spring of 1736 he embarked at Belfast for America, and after a stormy passage of thirteen weeks landed at New Castle, Delaware. The passengers and crew were almost starved owing to the unexpected length of the passage. David, who was then twelve years old, speaking of this to a grandson in after years said: "The first thing I got to eat after we got on shore was corn, in the state which we call roasting ears, and without roasting or boiling I ate it till the milk of the corn ran down both sides of my mouth, and I have never eaten anything since that tasted sweeter." The narrative by the grandson; "They crossed the Delaware at Philadelphia, and wandered up through the State of New Jersey (which was partially settled) till they reached Boundbrook, and from that they went over the mountain. This incident he (the grandfather) used to tell me, and smile at -- they were all on foot -- there was no road other than the Indian path. In the path before them they saw a land tortoise, speckled, sticking up his head; and as they had heard of 'rattlesnakes', they thought that 'monster' must be 'one'; so they turned out in the woods and went away round leaving his 'torkleship' in full possession of the path. When they came to a spring of water at the side of what has since been called "Mine Brook," there they settled down, built a log house and went to work."
The spot was well chosen, about two miles west from the present site of Baskingridge in Somerset County, New Jersey. It embraced the southern slope of Round Mountain in a well-timbered region, with unfailing springs of pure water, the rich meadow-land through which Mine Brook runs with sufficient fall of water for a mill-seat, and with these material advantages, a charming picturesque view of the adjacent region. The spring of water is still there, marking the site of the original log house, and until within a few years could be seen the remains of the apple trees planted by Alexander Kirkpatrick and his sons. This improvement many of the early propriety leases required. In a lease of one hundred and thirty seven acres, (which it may be remarked with a minor portion of what the family eventually obtained by title in fee simple) granted November 23, 1747, to Alexander Kirkpatrick, he agrees "to plant an orchard of at least one apple tree for every six acres, all regular in one orchard, and to keep up the number planted and to keep the orchard in good fence."
Alexander Kirkpatrick died at Mine Brook, June 3, 1758, mentioning in his will, which was executed "in articulo mortis," his wife Elizabeth, his sons Andrew, David, and Alexander, his son-in-law Duncan McEowen, his youngest daughter Mary, and his grandson Alexander.
It is worthy of notice that when he came to America with his family he was accompanied by his brother Andrew. This brother Andrew had two sons, John and David, and two daughters, Martha, wife of Joseph Linn, and Elizabeth, wife of Stephen Roy, all of whom removed to Sussex County, and there remained.
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