Sir Robert Grierson, 1st Baronet

Cruel Lag's memorial at the Old Kirk of Dunscore burial ground.

Lag's Tomb, Farthingwell

Lord of Lag's Tomb

Sir Robert Grierson, 1st Baronet (1655/56 – 29 December 1733) was a Scottish baronet.

Life

Sir Robert Grierson, known as "Auld Lagg", was born at the farm of Barquhar, the son of the 1st Tutor of Lag, William Grierson (c. 1626-after 6 December 1665), the Laird of Barquhar, Kirkcudbright, Scotland, and his wife, Margaret Douglas (b. c. 1633), the daughter of Sir James Douglas, of Mouswald, Dumfriesshire. In 1666, Robert Grierson succeeded his cousin as Laird of Lag** and he was for some years Steward of Kirkcudbright. In 1685 he was created a Baronet, of Lag, in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia, and awarded a pension. He is best remembered as a notorious persecutor of the Covenanters, particularly among the people of Galloway, and is still referred to as Cruel Lag. The character of Sir Robert Redgauntlet of Wandering Willie's tale in Sir Walter Scott's Redgauntlet is based on Grierson.

Death

Grierson of Lag was a byword for evil among the common Presbyterian folk in Annandale, who gravely asserted that he, like the other persecutors of the Covenanters, had intimate dealings with the devil, and that he was partly in hell before his death. It was said his saliva burnt holes where it fell, and his feet put into cold water made it boil. Lag died, aged 88, at his town house in Dumfries on 29 December 1733, and was buried two days later in Old Dunscore Churchyard, the cost of the funeral being £240 Scots. Legend has it that on the night he died a chariot surrounded by thunder clouds swept his soul away to hell. Another tells how the horses pulling his hearse to Dunscore’s old Kirkyard died of exhaustion on the way and a black raven flew down and settled on the coffin, flying away only at the moment of burial. Such myths may not be the stuff of scholarly history, but they vividly demonstrate the loathing and fear in which this man was held by those who were loyal to the National Covenant (1638 ) and the Solemn League and Covenant (1643 ) and who hoped, sometimes schemed and even at times took up arms against the Stuart monarchy to achieve religious freedom.^[1]

Family

Sir Robert Grierson of Lag and his wife, Lady Henrietta Douglas had six children known, viz.:

• Sir William Grierson, 2nd Baronet, born c. 1677, Rockall, Annary, Scotland (d. 1760), s.p., was captured with his younger brother, Sir Gilbert at the 1st Jacobite Rising in 1715.
• James Grierson (2nd son), of Capenoch, born c. 1679, Scotland (he died April 1721) and who married Elizabeth Ferguson (Protestant) before 1705, daughter of Ferguson of Isle. They lived at Laghall, parish of Troqueer beside Dumfries and had been suspect of having apostatized from the Protestant to the Popish religion several years before (1705). He attended for two year Scots' College in Douai, France. Their oldest surviving son was Sir Robert Grierson, 3rd Baronet, of Lag, born c. 1700, died childless in 1764. In 1715 James Grierson was involved in the 1715 Jacobite Uprising, & was imprisoned for "counterfeiting the coin & for forgeing stamps on paper.
• John Grierson (3rd son) of Dalgoner, born c. 1685, died 16 March 1730, "sometime apothecary in Carlisle",
• Sir Gilbert Grierson (youngest son), 4th Baronet, (Lawyer), born c. 1692, died on 7 February 1766 at Dalkeith, Midlothian, Scotland "Chamberlain in Dalkeith" and was Chamberlain to the Duke & Duchess of Buccleuch, c1722-1765.
• Henrietta Grierson, of Maxwellton, born c. 1688, wife of Sir Walter Laurie, 3rd Baronet of Maxwellton, born 3 May 1684, died 23 December 1731,
• unknown child Grierson b. c. 1691, d. c. 26 September 1691, buried in the Henderson Tomb in a Trof at Edinburgh, Scotland,
• Jane Grierson, she married Alexander Gordon, son of Robert Gordon, 1st of Esslemont and 12th of Hallhead and Isabella Byres, in 1735,
• (Surgeon Apothecary) Homer Grierson, born c1687, (illegitimate), married to Margaret LittleJohn,
• Sara Grierson, born c1690, (illegitimate), wife of Mr. Thomas ELDER, minister of Whithorn.

References

•  Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney, eds. (1890). "Grierson, Robert". Dictionary of National Biography. 23. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 
• Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990,
• Leigh Rayment's list of baronets
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). "^{article name needed}". The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne. 
• Grierson, David Alan, 1960 (aka Lyon): The Baronets of Lag & Rockhall.
• Robert Grierson, First Baronet (1655/6 – 1733)

External links

•  "Grierson, Robert". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.