CHAPTER II

THE INGLISES OF LANGBYRES

THE Inglises of Auchindinny appear first as tenants, and afterwards as proprietors, of the farm of Langbyres, which adjoins the west side of Murdostoun in the parish of Shotts, Lanarkshire.

It had formed part of the barony of Bothwell, which the Douglases inherited from the Earls of Moray.¹ In 1455, when King James II. crushed the house of Douglas, the barony was forfeited, and was managed by James, Lord Hamilton, who in rendering his account of rents for 1478 includes the item, ‘Langbyre, Wyndyegis, Knochkublis, xx li.’ ²

In 1480 James III. granted to Stephen Lockhart, his esquire, afterwards Sir Stephen Lockhart of Cleghorn, a life-rent of twenty merks of the lands of Bothwell, including two merks of ‘Tota Lang Biris’. ³ At that time the ‘Lang Biris’ was let to Patrick Hommylton senior for 20s. money amid 20s. grassum, and ‘Westir Lange Biris’ to Agnes Martyn for 13s. 4d. money and a corresponding grassum.⁴ Three years later, on September 27, 1483, the grant was made absolute in favour of Stephen Lockhart and his heirs,⁵ and the lands formed part of the Cleghorn estates for a hundred and sixty years.

The first mention of the Inglises in connection with the place is found in the Lord High Treasurer’s accounts for 1543 ⁶ when John Inglis in Langbyres and James Kneland in

1 Exciuquer Rolls, ix. p. lxviii. ² lb., viii. 501. ³ lb., ix. 128. ⁴ lb., ix. 578.

⁵ R. M. S., 1424-1513, No. 1567. ⁶ Vol. viii. p. 212.

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6 THE INGLISES OF LANGBYRES

Swyntre had to pay £13, 6s. 8d. to redeem their movable goods, which had been escheated as a penalty for their absence from the ‘convention’ at Lochmaben in November of the previous year. This was the army which had been mustered by James v. to invade England and was routed at Solway Moss.

The next reference comes thirty-three years later, on June 10, 1576, when Patrick Inglis, mason, got from Mungo Lockhart of Cleghorn a nineteen years’ tack of Langbyres at a rent of eighteen merks, a boll of oats, and six fowls. ¹

In November 1627 John Inglis in Langbyres,’ presumably Patrick’s son, or grandson, obtained from James Lockhart and Alexander Lockhart of Cleghorn, his father, for a payment of 3400 merks, a feu charter ² of two merks of the lands of Langbyres and the one-merk land called Hornshill, as already occupied by him. The feu-duty was to be £8 Scots, with the usual services of attending the superior at ‘weapon~shawings’ and ‘ king’s raids weirs.’

The Lockharts were in difficulties at the time, and the charter required the consent of various appnisers and creditors. Ultimately in 1647 the superiority of Langbyres and Hornshill was sold by James Lockhart to William Weir of Stonebyres ; ³ and in 1810 it passed to a John Inglis of Verehills.⁴

When the Inglis family removed to Midlothian at the end of the seventeenth century Langbyres was let to tenants at a rent of 240 merks; from 1739 to 1853 it was occupied by four generations of the Clelands of Shaws, the rent being £26 until 1787, and afterwards £37, lOs. In 1866, after being in the Inghis family for more than three centuries, it was sold by Captain John Inglis to Mr. Robert Stewart of Murdostoun.

It was never more than a farm of some eighty acres, ⁵ lying

1 Acts and Decreets, vol. lxvi. fol. 152. 2 R. M. S., 1620-33, No. 1257.

³ R. M.S., 1634-51, No. 1790. 4 Greenshields, Parish of Lesmahagow, p. 82. ⁵Edinburgh Courant, July 7, 1779.

THE INGLISES OF LANGBYRES 7

round what is now Omoa station on the Caledonian Railway between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Langbyres proper and Hornshill are on the south side of the line Scarhill, a ‘ pertinent’ which first got a separate name in the titles about 1747, is to the north. There is a coal seam under the property, but it was not worked in the Inglises’ time. The district now has the unlovely features of a mining locality, and the farm buildings have been pulled down, the stones being used to build the east end of a row of cottages which stand at the south-east corner of Cleland Established Church.

Little or nothing is known of the Langbyres dynasty of Inglises beyond the facts of genealogy, which appear with tolerable completeness from the title-deeds and public records.

Patrick Inglis, the tenant of the farm, died in February 1589, and by his will,’ made at Langbyres the last day of the previous year, he divided his property between his widow, Agnes Robesoun, and his three sons, John, James, and Thomas.

John Inglis, the original feuar, was twice married; first, to Janet Waddell, who was alive in 1628, and by whom he had four sons—Patrick, James, John, and William; and secondly, to Margaret Rankine in Kinkaidzow, by whom he had a son, Robert, and two daughters, Agnes and Helen. He died in May 1649.

His will has the usual picturesque introduction: ²

‘At Langbyres the first day of May the zeir of God 1649 ₃eirs The qlk day I J_on Inglis in Langbyres, being sick and heavily diseased in bodie bot of perfect memorie, knowing nothing mair certane nor death and nothing mair uncertane nor the hor and tyme throf, doe hereby thrfoir make my testat and tre [latter] will as followes, whereby in the first I lieve my soull to God Almigtie believing tht the same shall be savet in and threw the bloode of Jesus Christ my blessed Savior and Redeamer:

¹Edinburgh Testarnents, July 15, 1589. ² Glasgow Testaments, May 23,1650

8 THE INGLISES OF LANGBYRES

He appointed his widow and her brother, Patrick Rankine in Kinkaidzow, his executors; and James Turner, portioner of Knownoble, and Patrick Inglis in Murdostoun tutors to his second family. He left his movable property to be divided equally among his six children other than Patrick, his eldest son, who had predeceased him before December 1644.

Patrick had married Agnes, daughter of Thomas White-law in Bothwellshiells, their marriage contract being dated September 13, 1628, and he left a son John, baptized on June 30, 1640,’ who succeeded to Langbyres on his grandfather’s death, under the guardianship of his uncle, James Inglis.²

This John Inglis was the first head of the family to adopt the law as a profession. He was admitted a notary public on July 20, 1661, and began by practising at Hamilton. Some time before 1680 he moved to Linlithigow, and acquired a considerable practice before the Sheriff Court there as a writer and notary.

He was twice married. His first wife, whom he married in April 1661, was Anna, daughter of David Hamilton of Auchtule, or Auchintool, in the parish of Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire.³ Her marriage portion was 2000 merks, but it seems never to have been fully paid.

David Hamilton was also laird of Letham, near Strathaven, Lanarkshire, and his family connection with this place goes back to 1520, when it was owned by Archibald Hamilton.⁴ Archibald died about 1543, and was succeeded by Andrew, his son,⁵ who married a Margaret Hamilton, and died in May 1571 ⁶ Andrew was followed by two more Andrews, his son and grandson,⁷ the last being the father of David.

1 Cambusnethan Register. 2 Inquisitiones de Tutela, No. 691.

³ Reg. of Deeds (Mackenzie), July 24, 1673; Lanarkshire Inhibitions, June 17, 1657.

⁴ Protocol Book of Gavin Ros (Scottish Record Soc.), Nos. 398, 680.

⁵ Treasurer’s Accounts, viii. 248, 347.

6 Edinburgh Testaments, February 6, 1580-81.

⁷ P. C.R., iii. 171 ; Sir Wm. Fraser, Chiefs of Colquhoun, 1. 229 ; Inquisitiones,

Lanark, No. 154.

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So far as is known, John Inglis had by his first wife only one child—John, the future laird of Auchindinny.

His second wife is a mere name—Joan Cunynghame—and it is not known whether they had children. Their marriage contract was dated June 27, 1678. ¹

He died in April 1685, leaving a burden of debt upon Langbyres, and his son took up the succession to his movable property only as creditor.²

1 P.R. S., Lanarkshire, July 2, 1678.

2 Edinburgh Testaments, February 2, 1713.