page_title: Bankton House
section_title: Secular history
hierarchical_section_title: Bankton House / Secular history
caption_attribution_description: English: Monument to Colonel Gardiner
context_page_description: Bankton House is a late 17th-century house situated south of Prestonpans in East Lothian, Scotland. The house is located between the A1 road and the East Coast Main Line railway at grid reference NT394736.
context_section_description: Alexander Seton, 1st Viscount of Kingston, writing as early as 1687, relates that his grandfather, Robert, 1st Earl of Winton, provided the lands of "Hollistobe, vulgo Olivestob" to Alexander's uncle, Sir Thomas Seton, the 
  earl's fourth son. The 1st Earl of Winton died in 1603, and therefore the Setons must have owned Olivestob before 1603.
  Sir John Hamilton, a descendant of the Hamiltons of Boreland, bought Olivestob from Sir John Seton in 1624 and, on his death, left the house to his son William. In 1674, Captain Thomas Hamilton, younger brother of William, bought the estates. Later that year Thomas married Grizell Hamilton of Westport. Grizell's grandfather owned the nearby estate at Preston and was the brother of Thomas Hamilton, 1st Earl of Haddington. Captain Hamilton was previously in service in Sweden but on his return to Edinburgh as a merchant was promoted to Colonel in the Edinburgh Regiment. Colonel Hamilton's son James studied law at Leiden in Holland and was admitted as an advocate in 1708. He was later appointed Sheriff of Haddington by Queen Anne, a position he held until 1715.
  James Hamilton suffered serious debt problems and was forced to sell the estate in 1733 to Colonel James Gardiner, a distinguished army officer. Some confusion arises when the name was changed to Bankton but, according to Doddridge, Colonel Gardiner called his new home Bankton since he had received several letters from the officer addressed as Bankton.
  Colonel Gardiner was mortally wounded at the Battle of Prestonpans on 21 September 1745, within sight of his own home. He was leading a rear guard action of British troops against the Highland rebels of Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) when he was cut down. He died later that day at the manse of Tranent Parish Church less than a mile away.
  Following the death of Colonel Gardiner, the house was purchased by Andrew McDouall, an eminent Edinburgh advocate. Ten years later, in 1755, McDouall was elevated to the bench of the High Courts of Scotland, and assumed the name of Lord Bankton. On McDouall's death, he bequeathed money for the poor of Prestonpans. The house remained in the McDouall family into the 20th century, and a farm was administered from the house by tenants. A colliery was sunk just to the west of the house.
  In 1852, fire destroyed Bankton House. The house was restored, only to meet the same fate in 1966. It was a category A listed building before the 1966 fire and, in 1971, was described as a "non impressive ruin".
caption: Gardiner Monument erected in 1853 by Alexander Ritchie from public subscription
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