Widnes Examiner. — 1882-07-22 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

THE DALRYMPLES.  I presume that the narrow Protestants who used to accuse ' me of hostility to the Reformation because I did not shrink from exposing the deeds of the time-serving Protestants in the reigns of Henry and Edward have long since found out their mistake. It may be that because I have endeavoured to do justice to such great Whig houses as the Cavendishes, Fitzwilliams, and Fitzinautices, some may yet be disposed to think that I am actuated by party prejudice in favour of the Whigs. Perhaps, in dealing with the Dalrymples, I may be able to remove such an impression. I know that men are sometimes actuated by an unconscious bias ; but because I am aware of that fact, I believe I have spoken favourably of the great Whig houses only in so far as they have really aided the popular cause by honest and disinterested service.  So far as the landed possessions of the Dalrymples are concerned, they are exclusively a Scottish family. In the new Domesday Book, the Earl of Stair is credited with the possession of 83,872 acres, with a rent-roll of £44,640. The Countess of Stair has also 19,266 acres, with a rent-roll of £13,616; and the trustees of the eighth Earl have 13,201 acres, with a rent-roll of £10,701. In all, the Dalrymple family have, in Wigtonshire alone, 82,666 acres, the total acreage of which county is but 288,960; so that they hold two-sevenths of the whole county. he origin of the Dalrymples is somewhat obscure. According to Burke, a certain William de Dalrymple acquired the lands of Stair Montgomery, in Ayrshire, by his marriage with an heiress of the Kennedys. These Dalrymples were among the first families of importance in Scotland who accepted the Protestant faith, for we find that as early as 1494 the wife of the son of this William de Dalrymple. was accused before the Council of James IV. of holding heretical doctrines. The charge was, however, dismissed. The great-grandson of this lady was one of the first who, about 1544, openly professed the doctrines of the Reformation.  The Dalrymples still hold considerable property in Ayrshire, at Stair, from which place they take their title, and elsewhere. Forty years ago, the estate of Bargany, which derived additional value from its coalpits and ironworks, was the property of Henrietta Dalrymple Hamilton, Duchess of Coigny, but the present Earl married the daughter of that lady, and thus has consolidated the property. The real founder of the family was James Dalrymple, a lawyer, who was a Lord of Session under Cromwell. He retained the office under Charles 11., ultimately. becoming President of the Court. Burnet describes him as "a man of very mild deportment, but a false and cunning man; a great perverter of justice, in which he had a very particular dexterity of giving some plausible colours to the greatest injustice." It was this Dalrymple who was first seated in Wigtonshire. Early in life he married a lady by whom he became possessed of certain lands in the parish of Old Luce in that county. A much larger portion of his acquisitions in Wigtonshire, however, was purely ecclesiastical property, which for a time was in the possession of the Earl of Casailis. Mr. Burton's account of the way in which Gilbert, Earl of Cassilis, became possessed of the lands of Glenluce Abbey is worth quoting. According to the family historian, Gilbert was "ane particular man and ane greedy man, and cared not how he gat land so that he could come by the same." He had his eye on a few of the estates of the Abbey of Glenluce, and had dealings with the Abbot about them. That Abbot, however, died before the writs were signed, "and then he dealt with ane monk of the same abbacy, wha could counterfeit the Abbot's hand writ and all the haill convent, and gat him to counterfeit their subscriptions. When this was done, fearing that the monk rnight make unpleasant revelations, he got a certain carl to 'stick' (stab, him, and then he got ane to accuse the earl of theft and hung him in Cronsgate, and so the lands of Glenluce were conquest." A pretty story of forgery and murder, is it not? I dare say not a few such tales woad have been told