I hope that this brief autobiographical history of my ancestors will add to the experience for those of you who visit Craigievar.
I would also like to acknowledge the contributions from my brother Ian, who provided all the chronological detail, to my great uncle Ewan, who added some of the more personal aspects and to the historian T.C. Smout.
Jamie Sempill, 21st Lord Sempill.
Craigievar castle is one of the most photographed castles in Scotland. Its fairy tale architectural features, and striking pink colouring, make it the picture perfect castle. It is the finest example of a Scottish baronial home. Uniquely, it is unaltered since it was completed in 1626.
Owned and managed by the National Trust of Scotland since 1965, it is now a major attraction for both local and overseas visitors. Whilst much is made of the (buildings’) architectural integrity and the contents of this baronial masterpiece, little is known about the family who built it, and who lived in it for over 300 years.
This is the story of the Forbes of Craigievar.
William Forbes of Menie and Craigievar, 1566-1627
The story begins in the late sixteenth century with William Forbes, younger brother of Patrick Forbes, Bishop of Aberdeen. They were descended from the Forbes of Corse, cousins to Lord Forbes, Chief of one of the most powerful families in the North East.
He (William) was fortunate to have been able to pursue his career as a merchant owing to the generosity of his brother Patrick, who provided the financial support needed to start trading. The story has it that after a few unsuccessful ventures, Patrick requested that William provide a guarantor. He responded that it would be “God Almighty, I have none other to offer” “Well brother”, replied the Bishop, “he is not be rejected. It is the first time such a security has been offered me, but may God Almighty, your Bondsman, prosper you”
William, nicknamed “Danzig Willie”, went on to make a substantial fortune as a merchant, trading timber in the Baltic.
He invested in land, and owned quite a few estates in eastern Scotland. In 1610 he bought the barony of Craigievar. It had belonged to the Mortimer family, who had been granted the lands by James 11 in 1457. The castle was a simple tower house, and William undertook a radical improvement. He was responsible for extending the height and adding more floors. The diversity of roofing and the addition of the corbellings and carvings were an extravagant gesture. The internal finish of the high quality plaster ceilings and the Royal Coat of Arms above the fire place, makes Craigievar one of the finest Tower Houses of its kind.
The purchase of the Barony elevated William into a position of power and influence. In 1603 he had married, Magaret Woodward, daughter of the Provost of Edinburgh. They had four sons and three daughters. He died in 1627 at the age of 61, leaving a substantial legacy.
During his life, he would have witnessed two events which were to have a dramatic impact on Scotland. The first was the rise of Presbyterianism in the late 1500s and the second was the creation of the United Kingdom in 1603, following the accession of James VI of Scotland to the throne of England. These two events were to shape the politics of the country over the next 150 years.
With the Royal court based in London the power in Scotland now lay with the nobility, many of whom had benefited from the advent of the new Presbyterian faith. Some had acquired the lands and tithes which had belonged to the monasteries and the Catholic Church, many of which had been destroyed. The nobles now had a vested interest in the Presbyterian faith, or to put it more bluntly, in ensuring that the Catholic Church did not return.
Ownership of land was what defined the nobility and the gentry. Baronies bestowed feudal power and responsibility.
Under feudal law, all landowners were vassals to the Crown. They held the land by heritable tenure from the Crown in whom was vested the ultimate ownership of all land. Thus as tenant in Chief, Danzig Willie was entitled to display the Royal Arms of the newly created United Kingdom, which sit above the fireplace in the hall. The huge armorial tablet is considered one of the finest surviving Achievements of its kind in Britain.
But what of those who lived on the lands of Craigievar?
In the 1600s approximately ninety percent of Scots lived on the land, and depended for their living on the productivity of the farms. They were overwhelmingly a rural people. The country had a population of no more than a million, spread across the nation. One half lived north of the River Tay and half of them lived in the Highlands.
The landscape was less ordered. No chequer board layout of fields, but more of the open moorland that we now see when driving through the hillier regions of the country. The capital city, Edinburgh, had a population of 12000.
Travel for most people was pretty well non-existent. A map of the period would be devoid of the roads that we know today. The country was criss crossed with tracks and paths most of which could not take a four wheeled cart. Transport was either by horse or foot. The inability to move large amounts of produce to a market, effectively constrained the rural population to what we now term “subsistence” farming. Each farmer would have his own small plot and would share common land with his neighbours. He would not have owned his strip of land, but would have been a tenant and would have had to pay rent, which at that time, could have been in kind.
Sir William Forbes, 1604-1648, 1st Baronet of Craigievar
William, Danzig Willie’s eldest son, had the advantage of inheriting the estates at the age of 24, including his father’s fortune. This enabled him in 1630 to purchase a Nova Scotia Barontecy.
This new order had been created to help raise much needed finance for the Crown. It was offered to ‘ knichts and gentlemen of cheife respect for the birth, place, or fortounes ’. In exchange for 2000 merks ( approx. £15000 in today's money) the recipient would receive 16000 acres in Nova Scotia along with the title. It is important to understand that these new baronetcies did not wield the same power as the old feudal baronies.
Around this time Sir William married Bathia, daughter of Sir Archibald Murray of Blackbarony, also a holder of a Nova Scotia Baronetcy. They had two sons and three daughters.
The next twenty years witnessed a period of dramatic political turmoil. In 1638 Following a clash with the Crown over the future of the Kirk, the Scots drew up a National Covenant, defending the new Kirk and rejecting any return to “popery”. This was supported by the majority of landowners, who feared a return of all pre-reformation Church lands and tithes to the Crown.
The Civil war which ensued, saw William, a staunch Covenanter, fighting against the Crown. He raised a troop of cavalry and was actively involved in the fight against Montrose, commander of the Royalist forces in Scotland. Although he was defeated by the Royalists at the both the battle of Alford and the siege of Aberdeen, he was fortunate that the Covenanters won the war, and Craigievar remained in family hands.
He became Sheriff of Aberdeen in 1647.
Sir John Forbes, 1636-1703, 2nd Baronet of Craigievar
His son, Red Sir John, who inherited the estate in 1648, at the age of 12, was considered a hard man. On matriculating his arms, he changed the motto from “Watch” to “Doe not waiken sleiping dogs.” This was changed back by his son, William. Each new successor has to matriculate his arms. This accounts for variations in design and mottos.
There is a local saying “I’m a Craigievar Man. Wha daur meddle wi’ me” that is attributed to him. It is said that he killed an intruder by throwing him out of a fourth floor window, he built a reputation as a tough, uncompromising, Baron.
He married Margaret Young of Auldbar (near Brechin), by whom he had nine sons and two daughters. It is worth observing that the wives rarely get a mention. However, the ability to bear children, especially the birth of male heirs was of considerable importance. The new baronetcies and most peerages could only be inherited by male heirs.
Red Sir John lived in politically turbulent times, and would have witnessed a series of major historical events. The Commonwealth of Oliver Cromwell from 1651 -1660. The Restoration of the Crown in 1660. The Glorious Revolution in 1688, and the economic disaster of the Darien scheme in the 1690s, the latter effectively, bankrupted Scotland. To what extent he was involved in any of these major events, we do not know. Suffice to say, he and Craigievar survived.
Red Sir John died in 1703, a few years before the Act of Union.
Sir William Forbes, 1660-1725, 3rd Baronet of Craigievar
Little is known about William, the 3rd Baronet. He was 43 when he inherited the Craigievar estates. He married Margaret Rose of Kilvarock, one of the leading families in Morayshire. They had seven sons and two daughters. Few of the children survived into adulthood. Margaret’s sister married Duncan Forbes of Culloden, who went on to become one of the most influential men in Scotland.
In his early twenties, William would have witnessed the clash between the English Parliament and the Crown over the succession and possible restoration of the Catholic faith, which ended in the Glorious Revolution and the accession to the throne of the Protestant leader of the stadholders of the Netherlands, William of Orange.
This event heralded the beginning of a sixty year period during which there were four Jacobite rebellions seeking to restore the Stuart dynasty to the throne. The 1715 uprising was led by the Earl of Mar, who started the uprising in Braemar. It would have been a major cause of concern to the family. Victory for the Stuarts could well have resulted in the Craigievar estate being forfeited.
Sir Arthur Forbes, 1709-1773, 4th Baronet of Craigievar
Arthur, who was the sixth son of Sir William, inherited the estate in 1725 at the age of 12. He became the MP for Aberdeenshire from 1732 until 1747. He was the first member of the family to take a seat in Westminster. He was a “Whig”, like his uncle, Duncan Forbes of Culloden, Lord President of the Court of Session, the highest legal authority in Scotland, and credited with retaining the loyalty of leading clan chiefs to the government during the 1745 Jacobite rebellion.
Sir Arthur married twice, and is father to five sons and six daughters. Parliamentary records reveal that the estate had an income of £728.00 per annum, but that it was burdened with a debt of £6184.00, which in today’s money would have been over £700,000. Between 1761- 64 he was Rector of Marischal College (Aberdeen University).
Sir William Forbes, 1755-1816, 5th Baronet of Craigievar
Like his grandfather, little is known about William, the 5th Baronet of Craigievar, who inherited aged 23. However, he is captured for prosperity by Raeburn, who painted his portrait together with that of his wife Sarah, daughter of the 12th Lord Sempill. These two magnificent paintings hang in Craigievar. They had four sons and 7daughters. During his life, he was fortunate to live through Scotland’s cultural golden age. This was the time of the Enlightenment and a time of peace.
William was responsible for drawing up a formidable Trust. It was registered in 1824. The primary purpose of the trust was to ensure that the lands and estates of Craigievar and Fintray could not be disposed of without the consent of the Trustees and their nominated successors.
The main reason for this was to prohibit the heirs from altering the substitution or succession that had been established. The objective was to prevent the estates from being inherited by a female, who most likely would marry, and, subsequently would forfeit the ownership of the estates to her husband. This law was eventually abolished in the 1880s.
Sir Arthur Forbes, 1784-1823, 6th Baronet of Craigievar
The next laird was Arthur. If possible, even less is recorded about his life. He was only 39 when he dies unmarried in Boulogne in 1823. He had been an officer in the 7th Hussars from 1801 to 1805. His short military career was uneventful. Three years after resigning his commission in 1808, the regiment became engaged in the Napoleonic war. It has to be assumed that Arthur returned to manage the estate.
This is a period of substantial change in the agricultural practises in Scotland. These changes effectively altered the relationship between the landowner and the tenant. According to T.C Smout (A history of the Scottish people 1560-1830) by 1830 Scotland had an agrarian society broken into sharply defined classes of capitalist farmers and landless labourers carrying on a sophisticated agricultural system based on the techniques of “English” husbandry.
Aberdeenshire, led by Archibald Grant of Moneymusk was at the forefront of these improvements, and it is highly likely that many of his neighbours would have followed suit. One of the big changes was the development of new settlements to replace the old farmtouns. Good examples are Cuminestown and Laurencekirk.
Sir John Forbes, 1785-1846, 7th Baronet of Craigievar
Arthur’s death resulted in his brother John inheriting the estates and baronetcy at the age of 38, this was indeed fortunate for the family, as Sir John had been a Judge in the East India Company and returned home with considerable wealth. He can be credited for not just repairing Craigievar, but retaining the integrity of the castle and not making any alterations or additions. Instead, he built an 18 bedroom mansion house at Fintray, which then became the main family home. He married Charlotte Elizabeth, daughter of the 17th Lord Forbes, by whom he had 2 sons and 6 daughters. In his will he splits the estate and leaves Corse to his youngest son James Ochonar Forbes. Today the Corse estate is still owned by his descendents.
Sir William Forbes 1836-1905, 8th Baronet of Craigievar & 17th Lord Sempill
He was 10 years old when he inherited the baronetcy and the estates of Fintray and Craigievar. In1884 at the age of 48 he also inherited the Sempill peerage, which could be passed down the female line of the family. The peerage was inherited through his grandmother Sarah Sempill (wife of Sir William Forbes 6th Bt.)
William was educated at Eton College and in 1855 at the age of 19 he enlisted in the Coldstream Guards. He served with the regiment in the Crimean war. In 1859 he became a captain in the 9th Aberdeenshire Rifle volunteers.
He had six elder sisters and one younger brother.
In 1858 (aged 22) he marries Caroline Louisa Forbes of Newe. Marriage only lasts 3 years. She is found guilty of adultery. There is issue. Katherine Charlotte Elizabeth Stewart born in 1861, who he disowns but later appears regularly in the press as Katherine Forbes-Sempill.
In 1862 he marries Frances Emily Abercrombie by whom he has seven children. She dies in 1887 (aged 52) at Bad Homburg in Prussia.
Reading through various press articles, it would seem that sometime after 1880 he and Frances moved to Bad Homburg, a highly fashionable resort, boasting a Spa and a Casino. Frances had a long term illness, which may account for the attraction of living by the Spa.
William went through a considerable sum of money, possibly as a result of gambling, which eventually came to a head in 1890. Correspondence between him and his son, John, show that such is the plight of the family finances that the Estate has to be placed in a Trust, effectively preventing William using the Estate as financial collateral.
However, William returns to live at Craigievar and then marries Mary Sherbrooke, whose family hailed from Gloucestershire. There were no children.
Amongst his various interests he established himself as a breeder of Aberdeen Angus. He retained his involvement in the military and was Colonel of the 4th battalion of the Gordon Highlanders. He also was actively involved in the Conservative cause in West Aberdeenshire and stood for parliament in 1880. According to his obituary, he was a great favourite with his tenants and was “an exceedingly kindly, hearty, genial, and hospital man.” He always wore Highland dress and was fluent in the local tongue (Doric). “Auld Sir Wally” was the epitome of the Highland Laird.
John Forbes- Sempill 1863-1934, 9th Baronet of Craigievar & 18th Lord Sempill
Like his father he was educated at Eton and also pursued a military career. Over a period of 30 years he served with the Gordon Highlanders, the Black Watch, The Lovat Scouts and the Cameron Highlanders. He gave distinguished service in Sudan, South Africa and France.
His finest achievement was raising and commanding the 8th battalion Black Watch in August 1914 as part of Lord Kitchener’s New Army. Badly wounded at the battle of Loos, he retired from active duty and recuperated at Fintray, which had been turned into a military hospital by his formidable wife, Gwendolen, who he had married in 1892. They had four children.
He became a Representative Peer of Scotland from January 1910 through till February 1934. This position was highly prized, as it provided a seat in the House of Lords, which, since the Act of Union in 1707, had restricted Scottish representation in the Upper House to 16 Peers.
Like his father before him, he was a dutiful Laird, and very popular with the tenants of the estate.
He was frequently kilted and was able to speak the Doric.
He was actively involved in the local community. As an elected member of the Aberdeen District Council (1907 – 1934) he served on the Road Board, the Police committee, the Property and the Works committee. He went on to become Chairman of the council. He was Deputy Lieutenant of the county, and a Justice of the Peace. All of these commitments would have kept him fully occupied and it raises the question as to how much time he was able to devote to managing the estate?
It is generally acknowledged that Gwendolen was the driving force behind the management of the Estate. John never hesitated to acknowledge her conspicuous success in bringing economic soundness to the estate. She was a gifted gardener and created a famous rock garden in the grounds of Fintray House.
Gwendolen was an ardent supporter of the Red Cross and undertook the transformation of Fintray House into a military hospital. She also purchased and equipped 5 ambulances for the war effort.
They were a highly respected couple, who were loved and respected by the local community and the tenants of the Estates.
William Forbes-Sempill 1893-1965, 10th Baronet of Craigievar & 19th Lord Sempill
The final laird of Craigievar was an altogether different character. Like his father and grandfather, he also went to Eton, but ran away when he was just 14 years old. At 15 he was an apprentice engineer at Rolls Royce in Derby.
At the outbreak of the First World War he joined the Royal Flying Corps, and by the end of the war, he had been elevated to the rank of Colonel. He went on to become a distinguished airman. His daring exploits made him a celebrity. He led a very successful mission to Japan in the early 1920’s to establish a naval air-arm for the Japanese Navy. He formed a long-standing friendship with the Japanese Imperial household and was ultimately awarded The Order of the Scared Treasure in 1961.
He flew countless solo missions in light planes, establishing various records. He was the first man to fly from John O’Groats to Lands End. He flew to Australia and back. He became President of the Royal Aeronautical Society and The Institution of Production Engineers. His main interest was the development of commercial aviation.
On his father’s death in 1935 he was selected as a Representative peer of Scotland and regularly attended the House of Lords.
His first marriage was to Eileen Lavery, daughter of Sir John Lavery, RA, who was a celebrated artist and one of the Glasgow Boys. She became an accomplished pilot. They had two daughters.
Eileen died in 1935, and in 1941 he married Cecilia Dunbar Kilburn. Three more daughters were born, all of whom are alive today. Cecilia was a renowned expert on Ceramics, part of her collection can be seen in the castle. She was responsible for the smooth transition of turning the castle from a family home into a National monument.
On his death in 1965, Craigievar and the surrounding policies were gifted to the National Trust of Scotland. The estates were inherited by John Forbes- Sempill, William’s cousin, who promptly sold them. The Forbes Baronetcy was inherited by his brother Ewan, and the Sempill peerage was inherited by his eldest daughter, Ann.
According to Sir Ewan Forbes, the eleventh Baronet, in his book The Auld’ Days, the story of Craigievar would not be complete without reference to a prophecy made by Sir William Forbes, the second Baronet of Craigievar. It is said that he swore an oath to the Lord, that if any of his sons or those who succeeded to the Baronetcy of Craigievar should forsake the Presbyterian faith and the Covenant, the lands of Craigievar would surely be taken from them.
This oath is reputed to have been taken by all his successors until William, the last resident laird, who converted to Catholicism in the 1930s.