Clan Blackadder
Clan Blackadder | |||
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Motto | Courage Helps Fortune | ||
Profile | |||
Region | Scottish Lowlands | ||
District | Fife and Berwick-upon-Tweed | ||
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Clan Blackadder no longer has a chief, and is an armigerous clan | |||
Historic seat | Old Tulliallan Castle, Kincardine, Fife | ||
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Clan Blackadder is a Scottish clan. [citation needed] The clan historically held lands near the Anglo-Scottish border.
Clan status
Today Clan Blackadder does not have a
Name
The clan name is a territorial name derived from the lands of
According to a 1942 book on the Berwickshire dialect, the name was then pronounced ble-ke-TAR.[3]
Eminence in 1450–1518
Fife branch
A junior branch moved to Tulliallan in Fife and included Robert Blackadder, bishop and then in 1492 the first Archbishop of Glasgow, who added the eponymous crypt and aisle in Glasgow Cathedral.[4][5] The archbishop died while on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1508. The Fife branch were supporters of Clan Douglas. In 1471 the archbishop was also made Abbot of Melrose, not far from the main Blackadder lands.
Main branch
The Blackadders of that Ilk were
The family gained lands from James II of Scotland in reward for their deeds in repelling in English raids. In 1518 the family lost their Border lands by the forced marriages of the two heiresses of Robert Blackadder of that Ilk to the neighbouring Clan Home (pronounced "Hume"). This process became known as "the fraud of the Homes". According to the 19th-century historian William Anderson, the marriages were achieved in the following way.[1]
Andrew Blackadder followed the standard of Douglas at Flodden in 1513 and was slain along with two hundred gentlemen of that name on that disastrous field leaving a widow and two daughters, Beatrix and Margaret, who at the time were mere children. From the unprotected state of Robert’s daughters, the Homes of Wedderburn formed a design of seizing the lands of Blackadder. They began by cutting off all within their reach whose affinity was dreaded as an hereditary obstacle. They attacked Robert Blackadder, the Prior of Coldingham, and assassinated him. His brother, the Dean of Dunblane, shared the same fate. Various others were dispatched in like manner. They now assaulted the Castle of Blackadder where the widow and her two young daughters resided. The garrison refused to surrender but the Homes succeeded in obtaining possession of the fortress, seized the widow and her children, compelling them into forced marriages. The two daughters were contracted to younger sons, John and Robert Home in 1518, and, as they were only in their eighth year, they were confined in the Castle of Blackadder until they came of age.[7]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/BerwickshireTraditional.png/220px-BerwickshireTraditional.png)
This process was challenged by a Blackadder kinsman, Sir John Blackadder who held the lands of Tulliallan. He attempted to gain assistance from the Parliament, and also attempted to use force to regain the former Blackadder possessions. In March 1531, he was beheaded for the murder of the Abbot of Culross, in the dispute. Sir John Blackadder was succeeded by his brother Patrick, who also took action to regain the lands from the Homes. Anderson's version of events has Patrick ambushed and murdered by the Homes, while he was attempting to meet them and resolve the dispute.
By 1567 the dispute had died down, as the Tulliallan branch and the Homes of Wedderburn were allies of Mary, Queen of Scots on the losing side in the important Battle of Carberry Hill. After the battle Mary abdicated as queen.[8]
Subsequently, the Blackadders relinquished their claim to the Border lands, and in 1671 Sir John Home was created Baronet of Blackadder.[1] Some members of the clan continued to farm their lands as tenants of the Homes, and the last family burials at Edrom kirk were made in the 1980s.[9]
William Francis Blackadder played in the Scottish rugby team in 1938, and was awarded the DSO and OBE as an RAF ace in World War II.[10]
See also
- Blackadder baronets
- Blackadder (disambiguation)
- Blackadder House
- Elizabeth Blackadder
- Rosemary Blackadder
References
- ^ a b c d "Blackadder". My Clan (www.myclan.com). Archived from the original on 22 May 2006. Retrieved 24 December 2008.
- ISBN 0-203-99355-1.
- ^ Wittstein, P. The Phonology of a Berwickshire Dialect; (1942) Schuler SA, Zurich, p. 20.
- ^ "Glasgow Cathedral - A medieval cathedral with an active Christian congregation in the Church of Scotland". www.glasgowcathedral.org.uk. Archived from the original on 4 March 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
- ^ ABACUS, Scott Graham -. "TheGlasgowStory: Archbishop Blackadder's Seal". www.theglasgowstory.com. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
- ^ "Rev. John Blackadder, Prisoner of the Bass". Notes and queries. Oxford University Press. 1883. p. 50. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
- ^ Anderson, William (1877). The Scottish Nation. Vol. 1. London: A. Fullarton & co. p. 309.
- ^ See: The Historie of James the Sext
- ^ Archive of Erica Hunt, née Blackadder, at Edinburgh University Library Archived 26 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Battle of Britain London Monument - F/Lt. W F BLACKADDER". 12 June 2012. Archived from the original on 12 June 2012. Retrieved 15 April 2018.