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MORE MAXWELL HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The Story of the Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers
by George Macdonald-Frase
"The Steel Bonnets" chronicles the life of families who lived in the border region of England and Scotland during the 13th to 17th centuries. The lawless conditions gave rise to many instances of feuds, robbery, plunder and even murder. There are many references to the Maxwell families who lived in this region. "The Steel Bonnets" is available for sale through amazon.com , or may be obtained through inter-library loan.
ROWAN
The Maxwell Family plant badge
Nithsdale in southwestern Scotland, meaning "valley of the new river" was occupied by the Maxwells. The 10th Lord Maxwell became the Earl of Nithsdale when he surrendered the title of Morton, which had been given to them after the execution of the regent, Morton. There were apparently only 8 Earls of Nithsdale (they held the title less than a century - from 1620 to 1716), all Catholic, and whose support vacillated from the English to the Jacobites. The story of the rescue of the fifth Earl of Nithsdale, William, by his wife from the Tower of London the day before his execution is very well known. He had been jailed and sentenced to death for his part in the Jacobite rebellion. The Countess confused the guards with a 'flurry' of women attending her in to see her husband and departing with her. The guards paid no mind, apparently, to her final departure with the Earl disguised as a woman. They did not realize that one more woman came out of the room than had gone in.
The Earls of Nithsdale intermarried twice into the House of Traquair. Charles married Lady Mary Maxwell, who was the daughter of the 4th Earl of Nithsdale. A generation later, Catherine Stuart, daughter of the 6th Earl of Nithsdale, married the Earl of Traquair.
The sixth Earl of Nithsdale (son of the escaped Jacobite and of his enterprising Countess) married Catherine Stuart, daughter of the fourth Earl of Traquair (who himself had married a sister of the fifth Earl of Nithsdale, mentioned above). Through his marriage Traquair, the oldest inhabited house in Scotland, passed to the Maxwell-Stuarts when the direct line of Stuarts of Traquair died out in 1875 with the 99-year-old Lady Louisa Stuart, daughter of the seventh Earl of Traquair and sister of the eighth and last Earl.
Sept Names
Adair, Blackstock, Cardoness, Dinwiddie, Dinwoodie, Edgar, Farnham,
Herries, Kirk, Kirkland, Latimer, Latimore, Mackittrick, Maxton, Mescall,
Monreith, Moss, Nithdale, Paulk, Peacock, Pollock, Pollok, Polk, Sturgeon, Wardlaw
Maxwell, Dr William (1760 — 1834)
Second son of James Maxwell of Kirkconnell, he was educated at the Jesuit College at Dinant in France, and became a doctor. While on the Continent, he developed Republican opinions, becoming a member of the National Guard. In this capacity, he was present at the execution of Louis XVI, dipping his handkerchif in that unfortunate monarch's blood. In 1794, he returned to Scotland and settled in Dumfries, where he met Burns. Because of his Jacobin leanings, he was viewed with some suspicion by the authorities but his professional skill overcame these difficulties, and he eventually became a much respected practitioner. Maxwell attended Burns during his last illness, diagnosing the stabbing agonies of endocarditis as 'flying gout' and prescribing sea- bathing in country quarters and horseriding; 'cures' which probably hastened Burns's end. Shortly before his death, the poet presented Maxwell with his pair of Excise pistols, which are now in the Museum of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries. Jean Armour Burns called the son born to her on the day of her husband's funeral Maxwell, after the doctor, who attended her.
Together with Cunningham and Syme, Maxwell became one of the Trustees who collected money for a fund to ensuree that Burns's widow and children did not want.
Burns last son named after Dr. Maxwell, Burns's youngest child, born on the day of his father's funeral, and called Maxwell after the doctor who had attended both his father and mother. He is buried in the Mausoleum.
For more information on more Maxwells and Robert Burns see:
After being apprenticed to a joiner, Maxwell set up in business for himself, with the profits of which he bought back the family estate of Terraughty, previously sold because of financial difficulties. Later, he also bought Portrack, in the Parish of Holywood. By his second marriage, he came to own Munches. When Burns settled in Dumfriesshire, Maxwell was a well known county figure. For his 71st birthday, Burns wrote him an epistle, beginning 'Health to the Maxwells' Veteran Chief!'
In the second stanza Burns prophesied:
"This day thou metes threescore eleven,
And I can tell that bounteous Heaven.
(The second-sight, ye ken, is given
To ilka Poet)
On thee a tack o' seven times seven,
Will yet bestow it."
Bounteous Heaven certainly went some way towards fulfilling the poet's prophecy for
'teugh Jockie', as Burns called Maxwell in the first of Heron Election Ballads, lived to be 94.
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