A book of family records and personal reminiscences

William N. Plenderleath f.c. 1292

David Plenderleath of Peebles, f.c. 1548

(his grandson) Patrick Plenderleath, of Blyth, born about 1618.

David, of Blyth and Kailzie = Marson Livingstone M.P. for Peebleshire d. of Alex'r Livingstone b. 1646 d. 1705 of Saltcoats (was three times married) (1st wife) William Provost of Peebles 1685 John M.P. for Peebles 1669-70

David = Jean Gordon of Ellon of Blyth, Kailzie, & Glen. (2nd wife : the first, b. 1677 d. 1745 Helen Balfour, having 8 s.p.) 23 other children, viz: 7 by his first wife, M. Livingstone 3 by his second, Mary Geddes 7 by his third, Jounat Murray

David of Kailzie & Glen b. 1728 d. 1771 unm. Elizabeth = John Gourlay of Kincraig 5 others d. unm. John of Gen = Janet, d. of (Major R.A. Chief Justice b. 1734 d. 1817 Wm. Smith

William Smith b.& d. 1772 Janet Livingstone b. 1773 d. unm. 1835 William Smith Major 81st Regt b. 1776 d. 1863, s.p. Elizabeth Montague b. 1778 m. Thos. McCulloch Com.r R.N. d. 1850 (No descendants now living) Charles Lt. Col. 49th Regt. C.D. b. 1780 m. N.A. de Paiba d. 1854 John b. 1782 d. unm. 1811 David b. 1789 d. unm. 1852

David William b. and d. 1826 David William b. & d. 1827 Hannah-Janet b. and d. 1828 William Charles m.a. Reeta Alberhill and J.F. for Wilts. born 1831 m. Margaret Elizabeth Jane b. of Archd. Brathewaite Mary-Jones b. 1836 m. Charles V. m Temple d. 1782

Claude William Manners b. 1863 Margaret Edith de Paiba b. 1857 Maude Mary le Fleuvre b. 1859 Maria Irene Goulay b. 1870

Family Record and Personal Reminiscences

Most people like to know something about their ancestors. In the case of those who have attained high distinction in the world, this instinct is gratified by the records of history. Of the lives of many others published memoirs keep alive the remembrance : - interesting, very often, in the highest possible degree to their own families, but by no means equally so to such a wide circle of outsides as the compilers have fondly hoped. There remain however a large number of men who have held reputable positions in the world, and may have even not been altogether undistinguished in their own professions or neighbourhoods, but whose memory passes absolutely away before the the tomb has closed for half, or even a quarter of, a century upon theirs remains. How often I have wished, looking at the faces of those [...]able ancestors of ours whose portraits hang round my dining room, that I knew something more of them than is supplied by the mere list of their names in the family Bible - or rather, I should say, in the memoranda pages

which once formed a portion of that volume, but which my excellent father (by what has always appeared to me a great errour of judgement) removed to a loose case now lying in one of our old deed-boxes. " - sed omnes illacrymabiles " urgentur, ignotique longa "Noets, carent qina rats sacro"

It is with a view of making a beginning of what I would so much more glaly have had simply to continue, and of leaving behind me what will, I feel sure, be read by my descendants with interest a couple of hundred years hence, if the world, and my family, and the manuscript should last so long, that I take my pen in hand to compile such records of my ancestors as I can collect, and to supplement them by such reminiscences of my own as may seem in degree worthy of being rescued from oblivion.

The earliest home of our fanily was at Plenderleith in Roxburshire, N.B. which is spoken of in Blackwood's "Statistical Account Scotland" vol. III p. 278, as having been a hamlet of the parish of Oknam, 9 miles south-east of Ardburgh. It is exactly 3 miles from the English frontier. And the first member of the family of whom I can find any trace was William de Prendelath, who appears in Ragman's Roll+ as having sworm fealty to King Edward I of England, together with

+more correctly called "Ragman Roll" The name is said to be a corruption of the Latin heading of the Roll "De Regimins Scotiae."

a large number of his border neighbours, a.d. 1292. (See the Instrumenta Publica published at Edinburgh, in 1834 pp. 127-9)

Of the history of the residence of our family in this place there remains no record, so far as I have been able to discover; but there has been a tradition handed down amongst us that our removeal therefrom was owing to the house having been burned down. And I remember chancing to take up a copy of some old magazine in a friend's house, when quite a young man, and coming upon a tale of border life which mentioned this very house and its destruction by fire. I took down the name of the magazine and of the article, and wrote a line (through the editor) to the author, petitioning for further information but never got any reply. And then I found that, relying upon my letter being duly answered I had entirely omitted to preserve any note of the matter. I believed however that the periodical had been "Sharpe's London Magazine", and have since then twice searched through the pages of that not very long-lived publication in vain. I fear therefore that my memory must have deceived me in respect of the name of the magazine in question.

Plenderleith appears to possessed a church or chapel of its own, for the before-quoted statistical

account says that "the ruins of an old chapel at Plenderleath may still be seen, but its cemetery has ceased to be occupied as a place of interment." And in the deed of dissolution of the Abbey of Jedburg provision is made that "the minister serving the cure at the said kirk of Oknam for the time sall have and ressave for his [...] thrie chalderis victuell, halff bier, halff ait meile, gude and sufficient merchandice, with the haill vicarages off the said kirk of Oknam, and off the kirk off Prenderleithe, togidder with the man and gleib." (Instrumenta Publica, Vol. IV. pp. 638-9)

From Plenderleith our family appear to have migrated to Peebleshire. Nisbet in his Scottish Heraldry, Vol. I p. 393, says "There has been a family of this name, ancient burgesses, and landed men; in the town of Peebles. David Plenderleith, burgess of Peebles is invest in several lands there, in the year 1548; from whom is lineally descended David Plenderleith of Blyth, Advocate, whose father purchased the land at Blyth." The arms of the family are given by the same writer (ibid) as "rat, a cheveron between two trefoils, slipped in chief, and a flower-de-lies in base argent; crest a hand holding a scroll of paper : motto "Prompte & consulto". This blazon he gives on the authority of the Lyon Roll, which was a list of the arms of all Scottish ba-