Origins of the Clan

The first person by the name of Wedderburn to appear on record in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 is Wautier de Wederburn, who rendered homage to King Edward I of England

Edward I of England

Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...

 on the Ragman Rolls

Ragman Rolls

Ragman Rolls refers to the collection of instruments by which the nobility and gentry of Scotland subscribed allegiance to King Edward I of England, during the time between the Conference of Norham in May 1291 and the final award in favor of Baliol in November 1292; and again in 1296...

 in 1296. The lands of the Clan Wederburn lay in Berwickshire

Berwickshire

Berwickshire or the County of Berwick is a registration county, a committee area of the Scottish Borders Council, and a lieutenancy area of Scotland, on the border with England. The town after which it is named—Berwick-upon-Tweed—was lost by Scotland to England in 1482...

. References can also be found to John de Wedderburn living in 1364, and William de Wedderburn living between 1426 and 1452. However, the lands of Clan Wedderburn passed at an early date to the head family of Clan Home

Clan Home

The Homes are a Scottish family. They were a powerful force in medieval Lothian and the Borders. The chief of the name is David Douglas-Home, 15th Earl of Home.-Origins of the clan:...

.
Later the Wedderburn family seems to have settled in Forfarshire. By the year 1400, four distinct yet closely related Wedderburn families could be found in Dundee

Dundee

Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...

 and at Kingennie

Kingennie

Kingennie is a village in Angus, Scotland, two miles north of Monifieth. It is mostly known for the Forbes Of Kingennie holiday and golf resort....

 in Forfar.

17th Century

One of the Dundee families was that of James Wedderburn, whose three sons, James, John and Robert, were among the earliest Scottish Protestant reformers. They united to round the famous Guide and Godlie Ballads, otherwise known as the Wedderburn Psalms. From the eldest of these brothers descended James Wedderburn, Bishop of Dunblane in 1636, who, as the friend of Archbishop Laud and those responsible for introducing a new liturgy to the Church, was driven from Scotland in 1638. He retired to Canterbury, where he is buried in the cathedral. Two Dundee families are now extinct in the direct male line of Walter Wedderburn of Welgait and David Wedderburn, ancestor of the lairds of Craigie.

18th Century & Jacobite Risings

David wedderburn's grandson, Sir John Wedderburn supported the British Government. He entered the British Army, and married and died in 1723. He had sold Blackness Castle

Blackness Castle

Blackness Castle is a 15th century fortress, near the village of Blackness, Scotland, on the south shore of the Firth of Forth. It was built, probably on the site of an earlier fort, by Sir George Crichton in the 1440s. At this time, Blackness was the main port serving the Royal Burgh of...

 to his cousin, Sir Alexander, who also succeeded to the baronetcy.

However Alexander was deposed from the office of Clerk of Dundee for having Jacobite sympathies. His eldest son was also a Jacobite, and served as a volunteer in Lord Ogilvy’s

Clan Ogilvy

-Origins of the clan:The Ogilvys are one of the most distinguished families in Scotland and take their name from Gillebride the second son of Gille Chriosd, Celtic Earl of Angus...

 regiment at the Battle of Culloden

Battle of Culloden

The Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. Taking place on 16 April 1746, the battle pitted the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart against an army commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, loyal to the British government...

, where he was taken prisoner in 1746. He was convicted and executed for treason in 1746, when the baronetcy was forfeited. His eldest son, who was also at Culloden, survived and fled to Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

.

Sir David Wedderburn of Balindean, who was MP for Perth and Postmaster-General for Scotland, succeeded to the chiefship of the family, and in 1775 was created a baronet. Alexander Wedderburn, the great-grandson of the judge, Sir Peter Wedderburn of Gosford, became a distinguished lawyer in his own right, and Solicitor General for Scotland. He spoke against the Government’s policies in the American colonies, and predicted that they would break away from the British Empire. He was created Lord Loughborough in 1780 and Earl of Rosslyn

Earl of Rosslyn

Earl of Rosslyn is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1801 for Alexander Wedderburn, 1st Baron Loughborough, Lord Chancellor from 1793 to 1801, with special remainder to his nephew Sir James St Clair-Erskine, 6th Baronet...

 in 1801. He was succeeded in the earldom by his nephew, Sir James St Clair Erskine.

Clan Chief

The chiefship of the family is now held within the family of the Scrymgeour-Wedderburns, the Earls of Dundee

Earl of Dundee

Earl of Dundee is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1660 for John Scrymgeour, 3rd Viscount Dudhope. At his death in 1668, Duke of Lauderdale declared that the first Earl had no heirs-male, and had the crown seize all of his lands...

. By family arrangement, the chiefship of Wedderburn is held by the eldest son of the earl who is himself chief of the Clan Scrymgeour

Clan Scrymgeour

-Origins of the Clan:The name Scrymgeour is believed to derive from the Old English word 'skrymsher' which means 'swordsman'. The clan appears to have been well established in Fife long before their connection with the city of Dundee where the chiefs of the clan would later become the Earls of...

. When the Wedderburn chief succeeds to the earldom, the chiefship passes to his heir.

Castles

• Blackness Castle
  Blackness Castle
  Blackness Castle is a 15th century fortress, near the village of Blackness, Scotland, on the south shore of the Firth of Forth. It was built, probably on the site of an earlier fort, by Sir George Crichton in the 1440s. At this time, Blackness was the main port serving the Royal Burgh of...
  
   was owned by the Wedderburn family from the late 17th to early 18th century.

External links

• Peter Garwood: The Wedderburn Pages
• ElectricScotland.com: Clan Wedderburn
• MyClan: Wedderburn (retrieved from Internet Archive
  Internet Archive
  The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
  
  — MyClan web site no longer exists)