Barony of Stobo

Stobo is a title in the Baronage of Scotland which takes its name from Stobo in the Scottish Borders.

Stobo Castle, seat of the barony

The barony has played an important role in Scottish history for almost five centuries. It was closely associated with the rise and fall of Stuart power in Scotland, its granting or forfeiture being used by turns to reward or punish those loyal to the House of Stuart.[1]

Origins

The origins of the barony lie in the twelfth century, during the turbulent period before the emergence of the Scottish Marches; there being records of a de Stobhou family as early as 1174.[2]

By the fourteenth century, as part of the Scottish Middle March, the barony had come into the possession of the bishopric of Glasgow.

Since the creation of today’s barony in 1577, there has been a succession of thirty Barons of Stobo; the first of these being James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton,[3] one of the four Regents of Scotland during the minority of King James VI, later James I of England.[4]

Morton's possession of the barony was short-lived. He was executed in 1581 for his part in the murder of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, King Consort to Mary, Queen of Scots.[5]

The barony was re-granted in 1587 to Sir John Maitland, Lord Chancellor of Scotland, who in 1590 became 1st Lord Maitland of Thirlestane,[6] in recognition of his role in arranging the marriage of James VI to Anne of Denmark.[7] Maitland is generally considered the principal architect of Stuart rule during this period.[8]

History

Over the following century, ownership of the barony alternated between two competing sets of Stuart supporters: Maitland's descendants, the powerful Earls of Lauderdale,[9] chiefs of Clan Maitland and hereditary bearers of the National Flag of Scotland.[10] and the Dukes of Lennox and Richmond,[11] chiefs of the Clan Stewart of Darnley and favoured kinsmen of James I, Charles I and Charles II.[12][13]

In the wake of the Glorious Revolution, the barony passed to another family of staunch Stuart supporters, the Murrays of Stanhope; at which point in 1697 it was erected into a free barony by Crown Charter.[14]

The Murrays, wealthy baronets, were ruined by their support for the Jacobite cause, with Sir David Murray, 4th baronet, forfeiting both land and title for his role in the 1745 Rebellion, alongside many other prominent lowland Scots families.[15] Murray died in exile in 1770.[16][17]

Forfeiture

In 1767, Stobo was purchased out of forfeiture for £40,000, along with the baronetcy of Stanhope, by James Montgomery, Lord Advocate of Scotland, later Sir James Montgomery, 1st baronet.

In 1767, Montgomery also acquired a substantial and highly lucrative interest in the colonisation of Canada's Prince Edward Island;[18] an investment which funded his son, the 2nd baronet to build Stobo Castle between 1805-11 in place of an earlier fortified tower house.

The barony of Stobo remained in the possession of the Graham-Montgomery family until 1905[19] and then, in the possession of the Earls of Dysart until 1972.[20][21]

The seat of barony and its extent

The seat (“caput”) of the barony is Stobo Castle. The listed castle and its grounds have operated as a luxury spa hotel since the mid-1970s.[22]

The barony is situated in historic Peeblesshire, north of the River Tweed, and according to Bearhop's map of 1740, encompasses the lands of Stobo, West Dawyck, Easttoun and Westtoun, Dreva, and Muirburn.[23]

Present holder
Arms of Baron of Stobo

The Scottish Barony Register records the present Baron of Stobo as The Much Hon. William Jolly,[24] a member of the Convention of the Baronage of Scotland, an honourable body which ultimately traces its origins back to the fourteenth-century Declaration of Arbroath.

By law, the Baron's arms - Sable, an escutcheon Argent within an orle of eight mullets Or on the escutcheon a rose Gules barbed and seeded Vert, with Crest issuing from a crenellated coronet of five towers Or, a banner saltire Argent and Sable in pale two roses Gules and in fess two mullets Or - are recorded in the Court of the Lord Lyon's Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland.[25]

There is no clan associated with Stobo but a tartan design by Fiona Whitson was recorded in the Scottish Register of Tartans in 2017.[26]

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References
  1. Oliver Thomson, 'The Rises and Falls of the Royal Stewarts', History Press: Stroud, 2009
  2. David de Stobhou, 1174-1206: https://www.poms.ac.uk/record/factoid/25518/
  3. NAS.GD150.13789; GD40.1.739; RMS.IV.2727
  4. Amy Blakeway, Regency in Sixteenth-Century Scotland (Boydell Press: Woodbridge, 2015).
  5. Alison Weir, Mary Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley (Vintage: London, 2008).
  6. Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, vol. 5, nos. 1346, 1549.
  7. David Stevenson, Scotland's Last Royal Wedding: The Marriage of James VI and Anne of Denmark (John Donald: Edinburgh, 1997).
  8. Maurice Lee junior, John Maitland of Thirlestane and the Foundation of Stewart Despotism in Scotland, (Princeton University Press, 1959).
  9. RMS.XI.50
  10. Raymond Campbell Paterson, King Lauderdale: The Life of John Maitland, Second Earl and Only Duke of Lauderdale (John Donald: Edinburgh, 2003).
  11. RMS.VI.1457; RMS.IX.1990
  12. A. Steuart, 'Stewart, Duke of Lennox' in Sir James Balfour Paul, ed., The Scots Peerage, Vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1909), pp. 344-362.
  13. Francis Grant, "Lennox, Duke of Lennox" in Sir James Paul, ed., The Scots Peerage, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1909), pp. 363-371.
  14. National Records of Scotland, C2/74 161f-162f
  15. Murray Pittock, The Myth of the Jacobite Clans: The Jacobite Army in 1745 (Edinburgh University Press, 2009).
  16. James Walter Buchan, A History of Peeblesshire, vol. 3 (James, Wylie & Co.: Glasgow, 1925-7), p. 450.
  17. AH Millar, ed., A Selection of Scottish Forfeited Estates Papers (Scottish History Society, Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, 1909).
  18. J M Bumstead, 'Sir James Montgomery and Prince Edward Island, 1767-1803', Acadiensis, 7: 76-102, 1978
  19. NRS SIG1/123/9; CS218/48
  20. NAS.RS112.80.78
  21. Ann Matheson, 'Old Broughton, Drumelzier, Manor, Stobo and Tweedsmuir', Stenlake Publishing: Mauchline, 2014
  22. Stobo Castle https://www.stobocastle.co.uk
  23. "A Map of the Barony of Stobbo in the Sherreffdom of Peebles now Belonging to Charles Murray Esqr., with the Parks and Improvements made upon it by Sir Alexander Murray at Stanhope / the whole Accurately Survey'd by And. Bearhop. [1 of 1] - Charting the Nation".
  24. Scottish Barony Register SBR/3/104-107, 4 October 2016
  25. Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland, Court of the Lord Lyon, Edinburgh, 25th Page of 94th Volume, 29 October 2018
  26. Stobo Tartan https://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tartanDetails?ref=11842
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