Guthrie of Craigie
Meet the Guthries of Craigie
The Guthries of Craigie became one of the better-documented later Guthrie families of Angus. Their landed identity centered on Craigie, immediately east of Dundee, but their family story begins well before the Guthries became established proprietors there.
Working backward from the Craigie generations leads through a family of Dundee merchants and Church of Scotland ministers to St Andrews and, according to a corrected eighteenth-century pedigree, ultimately to the Guthries of Hiltoun. The surviving evidence is unusually rich in the later generations, but it does not support every part of the older ancestry equally.
The Craigie pedigree has changed. Earlier heraldic and published accounts attempted to connect this family rather directly with the ancient Guthries of Guthrie. In 1773, however, the Lyon Office—the Scottish heraldic authority responsible for recording and regulating arms—preserved a corrected pedigree for the Craigie family. That version traces the ancestry through William Guthrie of Hiltoun and Margaret Ogilvie, their son David Guthrie of Hiltoun and Christian Wemyss, and Charles Guthrie of St Andrews before reaching the later generations.
Source: Court of the Lord Lyon, corrected Craigie pedigree, 29 September 1773, p. 499, no. 45.
Independent records become especially strong with the St Andrews and ministerial generations. Patrick Guthrie of St Andrews, a goldsmith who married Margaret Raitt, was followed by family members who served in the ministry at Kinnell, Arbirlot and Dundee. Patrick’s great-grandson James Guthrie entered the merchant trade, served his apprenticeship at Stockholm, returned to Dundee, and married Christian Scott.
James and Christian stand at an important meeting point between traditional genealogy and modern genetic evidence. Two separately documented direct-male descendant lines from this couple have produced matching Y-DNA results in Guthrie Family Group 1A. That evidence strongly supports the shared paternal lineage from James and Christian forward, while the earlier descent through St Andrews and Hiltoun must still be judged from historical records and pedigree evidence.
Craigie itself entered the family’s history gradually rather than through a single simple transfer. An early 1704 reference to a “James Guthrie of Craigie” remains unresolved because it does not fit securely with the later family chronology. The documentary picture is firmer by 1729, when surviving sasine evidence places the family in relation to Craigie. Additional acquisitions and a succession of family members styled “of Craigie” then establish the estate as a long-standing family association.
Family at a Glance
The Craigie ancestry can now be divided into two evidentiary stages. The earliest connections are preserved by the corrected Lyon Office pedigree of 1773. Beginning with the St Andrews and ministerial generations, independent records increasingly confirm the descent. The family then reaches a second important evidence point with James Guthrie and Christian Scott, whose paternal line is also supported by Y-DNA.
Craigie in the Angus Landscape
Craigie was a place before it became a Guthrie territorial identity. Situated immediately east of Dundee, it lay within the same regional landscape in which the family’s ministers, merchants and later landholders lived and worked. By the eighteenth century, the name Craigie had become inseparable from this branch of the family.
The transition of Craigie into Guthrie hands was more complicated than a single neat change of ownership. Members of the Kyd family held interests in Craigie before the Guthries, while surviving evidence points to a developing Guthrie association during the early eighteenth century.
One reported 1704 reference concerning the Muir of Craigie apparently names a James Guthrie of Craigie alongside James Kyd. Because the underlying record has not yet been examined, that reference remains a clue rather than a secure starting date for Guthrie ownership.
By the time the landed Craigie succession was firmly established, James Guthrie, son of the Dundee merchant James Guthrie and Christian Scott, had become the principal figure identified as James Guthrie of Craigie. His descendants continued the territorial style through succeeding generations.
The evidence is therefore best read as a developing property relationship rather than forcing Craigie into a single acquisition date. The 1729 Kyd disposal presently provides the clearest documentary anchor for the transfer of substantial Craigie lands into the Guthrie family.
National Records of Scotland reference GD137/3167 concerns the disposal of the price of the lands of Craigie sold by James and George Kyd to James Guthrie. This provides an important documentary anchor for the transfer of Craigie interests into the Guthrie family and will be incorporated more fully into the property timeline below.
Source: NRS GD137/3167 , Account of the Disposal of the price of the lands of Craigie sold by James and George Kyds to James Guthrie, 1729.The Guthries of Craigie: Generation by Generation
The Craigie ancestry does not begin at Craigie. The corrected Lyon Office pedigree carries the family backward through Hiltoun and St Andrews before independent records begin to document the later ministers, merchants and landholders in increasing detail. Each generation below includes the wider family where the surviving evidence permits, not simply the child through whom the direct Craigie descent continued.
David Guthrie of Hiltoun — identified in the corrected Lyon pedigree as William’s son; married Christian Wemyss and continued the Craigie ancestry. Sources: Bamff Charters and Papers, no. 181, 1623; Court of the Lord Lyon, corrected Craigie pedigree, 29 Sep 1773, p. 499, no. 45.
The corrected pedigree identifies David Guthrie of Hiltoun as William’s son and names his wife as Christian Wemyss. This is also the generation at which the Craigie ancestry visibly intersects the wider Eassie & Hiltoun family reconstruction.
- Charles Guthrie of St Andrews — the corrected Lyon pedigree carries the Craigie ancestry through Charles and his wife Agnes Brown.
- John Guthrie of Eassie & Hiltoun — a contemporary 1544 record explicitly identifies John as son and heir of the deceased David Guthrie of Eassie. The documentary David is strongly identified with the David of Hiltoun in the corrected pedigree, but the 1544 record does not name John’s mother. John’s placement beneath David and Christian therefore belongs to the combined reconstruction, not to a single document naming both parents.
The next generation is Charles Guthrie of St Andrews and Agnes Brown. Their placement supplies the bridge between the territorial Hiltoun ancestry and the much better documented St Andrews family that follows.
- Patrick Guthrie — goldsmith and burgess of St Andrews; married Margaret Raitt.
No additional children of Charles and Agnes are presently identified in the working reconstruction.
Source: Court of the Lord Lyon, corrected Craigie pedigree, 29 Sep 1773, p. 499, no. 45.Patrick Guthrie was a goldsmith and substantial burgess of St Andrews. Surviving records associate him with property on the south side of the Marketgate, and he served as a baillie of St Andrews in 1601–1602.
His wife was Margaret Raitt. Their children formed a notably clerical family whose members appear in St Andrews, Angus, Dundee and Moray.
Key evidence: University of St Andrews Collections, B65/23/386c , 1596; St Andrews burgh records, B65/8 and B65/23, for Patrick’s civic and property activity; and Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ / Guthrie Research Sketches for the Patrick–Margaret family context.
- John Guthrie — later Bishop of Moray; married Nicholas Wood.
- James Guthrie — minister first at Kinnell and later Arbirlot; married Isabella Durie; ancestor of the Craigie line.
- William Guthrie — minister associated with St Andrews and later Elgin.
- Charles Guthrie — another son represented in the family reconstruction.
- Helen Guthrie — daughter of the family.
- Unidentified Guthrie woman — Fasti states that David Wood, Minister of Edzell, married “a sister of John Guthrie of that ilk.” If that John is Bishop John Guthrie, she belongs within this sibling group; her given name and direct parentage remain unconfirmed.
Patrick’s son John Guthrie rose through the Church of Scotland and became Bishop of Moray. His prominence later affected the way the ancestry of the Craigie family was described.
John married Nicholas Wood. Their documented family included sons and daughters whose descendants belonged to the later Guthries of Guthrie. He therefore represents an important collateral branch of this same St Andrews generation, even though the direct Craigie descent continued through his brother James.
The pedigree associated with the 1772 matriculation of the Craigie arms attempted to connect a Hiltoun ancestor with Bishop John in a way that does not agree with the corrected descent preserved the following year. In the corrected reconstruction, Bishop John belongs here: as a son of Patrick and brother of James, not as a brother of an earlier Guthrie of Hiltoun.
Sources: John Guthrie, Bishop of Moray — Guthrie Research Sketch ; Court of the Lord Lyon, original Craigie matriculation, 25 Sep 1772, Coats of Arms, vol. 1, p. 496Z, Record no. 1133; corrected pedigree, 29 Sep 1773, p. 499, no. 45.James Guthrie was born on 17 September 1590 and entered the ministry, serving first at Kinnell and later at Arbirlot. He married Isabella Durie on 12 July 1614.
Ministerial evidence identifies James as a son of Patrick Guthrie, goldsmith of St Andrews. His brother was the future John Guthrie, Bishop of Moray.
Key evidence: Craigie source collection ; Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ for James’s birth, ministry, parentage and marriage; Dundee Archives BRMS 3/DC/46 for the later diary of Rev. James Guthrie of Arbirlot.
- John Guthrie — minister of Arbirlot and later Dundee; married Isobel Lamb; continued the direct Craigie ancestry.
- Jane Guthrie — married James Phillip, Laird of Almericloss.
- James Guthrie — married Margaret Raitt of Conosyth.
- Unidentified son — described in later genealogical material as the “laird of Aldbar.” No contemporary record confirming his identity or possession of Aldbar has yet been located.
John Guthrie, born 13 August 1631, graduated M.A. from St Andrews in 1650. He became minister of Arbirlot and was translated to Dundee’s South Church in 1667.
He married Isobel Lamb. Their family can be followed through parish and ministerial records, while John’s probate material provides additional evidence after his death in 1686.
Key evidence: Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ and Dundee parish records for John’s education, ministry and family; NRS CC3/3/7, recorded 1688, for his testamentary estate.
- John Guthrie of Westhall — born 5 Apr 1664; merchant in Stockholm; testament dative and inventory recorded 31 Jan 1741 in the Brechin Commissary Court. Published accounts agree that Isobel was an eldest daughter and co-heiress, but disagree over the name of the second co-heiress: Margaret in the Macfarlane/Warden tradition and Ann in Nisbet. That discrepancy should remain open pending primary confirmation.
- Isobel Guthrie — baptized 27 Sep 1665.
- Margaret Guthrie — the current parish-register reconstruction gives a baptism on 10 Oct 1667; married Gilbert Guthrie; known children William and Margaret Guthrie. Fasti instead prints a birth date of 4 Oct 1666, so the original Dundee entry should be rechecked before either date is treated as finally resolved.
- James Guthrie — merchant in Stockholm and Dundee; married Christian Scott; continued the direct Craigie ancestry.
- Nicholas Guthrie — born 18 Jun 1672; died 24 Jun 1674.
- Robert Guthrie — born 22 Apr 1674.
- Ann Guthrie — born 7 Sep 1677.
- Alexander Guthrie — born 6 Jan 1678/79.
John’s son James Guthrie was sent away while young and served his apprenticeship in the merchant trade at Stockholm. His Houff monument records that after completing his apprenticeship he traded with many nations.
James married Christian Scott in Dundee in 1695. Dundee parish and family records identify one daughter and eight sons belonging to this couple. Most are documented through their own baptisms. Alexander’s own baptism has not yet been located, but his parentage is independently established in the baptismal records of his children.
Key evidence: Dundee Old Parish Registers, including marriage OPR 282/120/18 for James Guthrie and Christian Scott, 1695; Dundee baptismal registers for their children; and the Guthrie monument in the Howff of Dundee for James’s mercantile career, age at death and surviving family.
- Isobell Guthrie — born 2 Dec 1695; baptized 30 Dec 1695. No marriage has yet been identified. Her apparent absence from the family surviving James in 1710 may indicate an earlier death, but that remains an inference.
- John Guthrie — merchant; baptized 14 Jan 1697; married Ann Dempster on 28 May 1722. Their large Dundee family included James, Christian, George, Margaret, Bell/Isobel, another James, Elizabeth, Jean and John.
- James Guthrie — baptized 30 Mar 1698; married Elizabeth Gardyne; established the continuing landed Craigie line.
- Robert Guthrie — merchant; born 4 Jun 1699 and baptized 8 Jun; married Jean Fowler / Fuller in 1726. Their recorded children include Christian, James, Clara, Jean, Ann and Elizabeth.
- Thomas Guthrie — born 8 Oct 1700; baptized 10 Oct; apparently died unmarried.
- William Guthrie — born Apr 1702; baptized 22 Apr; apparently died unmarried.
- Patrick Guthrie — born and baptized 5 Oct 1704; married Agnes Foord in 1726. Their children included Jannet, Patrick, Barbara, Anna and James. This line provides the second documented direct-male GFG1A Y-DNA descent from James and Christian.
- Alexander Guthrie — merchant; married Elizabeth Moray in 1738. Although Alexander’s own baptism has not yet been located, the baptismal records of his children explicitly identify James Guthrie, merchant, as their grandfather, Christian Scott as their grandmother, and James Guthrie of Craigie as their uncle. Those contemporary family relationships directly establish Alexander as a son of James Guthrie and Christian Scott and brother of James Guthrie of Craigie. His currently assigned birth date of 20 Mar 1706 remains less certain than his parentage.
- Hendrie Guthrie — born 29 Apr 1707; apparently died unmarried.
The Houff monument states that James died in April 1710, aged 46, leaving Christian and seven sons surviving. Since eight sons are now represented in the reconstructed family, the inscription indicates that one of those sons had apparently died before James, although it does not identify which one.
James Guthrie, son of the merchant James and Christian Scott, was baptized in Dundee on 30 March 1698. He became the central figure in the establishment of the landed Guthrie family at Craigie.
He married Elizabeth Gardyne in Dundee in 1733. A marriage contract dated 13 December 1733 also survives in the Gardyne family material.
- Ann Guthrie — baptized 21 Oct 1734.
- Christian Guthrie — baptized 1 Mar 1736.
- Jean Guthrie — recorded among the children of the family.
- Emelia Guthrie — baptized 25 Jan 1739.
- James Guthrie — born 7 May 1740, baptized 15 May; married Amelia Murray and succeeded in the Craigie line.
- David Guthrie — baptized 18 Aug 1742.
- Lilias Guthrie — baptized 17 Jun 1744.
This was also the generation in which the family’s ancestry came under formal heraldic examination. An initial pedigree accompanied the 1772 matriculation of James’s arms; the following year the Lyon Office preserved the corrected pedigree dated 29 September 1773.
Heraldic sources: 25 Sep 1772 — Coats of Arms, vol. 1, p. 496Z, Record no. 1133, digital image at Scotland’s People; 29 Sep 1773 — corrected Lyon Office pedigree, p. 499, no. 45.
James died on 9 March 1788 and was buried at Dundee on 14 March.
Source: Dundee burial/parish record, 14 Mar 1788; death date 9 Mar 1788 as used in the Craigie family source reconstruction.
James Guthrie was born 7 May 1740 and baptized in Dundee on 15 May. He married Amelia Murray, daughter of the deceased Alexander Murray, merchant in Dundee, on 26 October 1767.
- James Guthrie — baptized 13 Aug 1768; later served in the Royal Navy.
- Alexander Murray Guthrie — baptized 10 Dec 1769; named by his father as his eldest son; married Margaret Makgill.
- Lilias Guthrie — baptized 9 Oct 1772.
- John Guthrie — baptized 2 Mar 1774; died young.
- Elizabeth Guthrie — baptized 28 Jun 1775.
- George Dempster Guthrie — baptized 22 Aug 1777; married Barbara Dunbar; later lived in India and became ancestor of one modern direct-male Craigie descent.
- Amelia Guthrie — baptized 21 Feb 1780.
- Henry Guthrie — baptized 13 Oct 1785; later associated with East India Company service.
- David Charles Guthrie — baptized 16 Jul 1788.
- John Guthrie — born 29 Dec 1790; baptized 3 Feb 1791; died young.
- Rose Mary Guthrie — baptized 1 Aug 1793.
James’s disposition of 26 May 1817 expressly names Alexander Murray Guthrie as “my eldest son” and refers to his spouse Amelia Murray or Guthrie. The document also provides for two unmarried daughters.
Source: disposition of James Guthrie of Craigie, 26 May 1817. The exact catalogue reference should be retained here when the original item is rechecked; no reference is invented in this audit.
Amelia died in 1824. James died on 14 January 1830, and his estate was subsequently recorded in the Dundee Sheriff Court proceedings of 1832.
Source: NRS SC45/31/1, Dundee Sheriff Court estate proceedings, 1832.
Alexander Murray Guthrie, baptized in Dundee on 10 December 1769, is expressly named in his father’s 1817 disposition as his eldest son. He married Margaret Makgill.
Sources: Dundee Old Parish Register, baptism 10 Dec 1769; disposition of James Guthrie of Craigie, 26 May 1817. NRS CS40/6/25, 23 Dec 1811, independently styles Alexander Murray Guthrie “younger of Craigie.”
The later estate proceedings refer to a Trust Disposition and Settlement by Alexander dated 26 August 1829. By the 1832 Dundee Sheriff Court proceedings relating to his father’s estate, Alexander was himself deceased and his trustees were involved.
Source basis: NRS SC45/31/1, Dundee Sheriff Court estate proceedings for James Guthrie of Craigie, 1832. These later proceedings underpin the reconstructed reference to Alexander Murray Guthrie’s Trust Disposition and Settlement dated 26 Aug 1829. The original 1829 instrument and any separate archival reference have not yet been identified.
From this point forward, the genealogy and the ownership history no longer follow exactly the same path. The later proprietors are therefore treated more clearly in the dedicated Craigie Succession section.
The 1772–1773 Lyon Office Pedigree
The Craigie ancestry preserved by the Lyon Office is especially valuable because it records not just a pedigree, but a pedigree correction. The descent recorded with James Guthrie of Craigie’s 1772 matriculation of arms was corrected the following year, leaving two versions that show exactly where the earlier account had compressed and misplaced generations.
The pedigree associated with the 1772 matriculation attempted to connect James Guthrie of Craigie with the older Guthrie family through a Guthrie of Hiltoun and John Guthrie, Bishop of Moray.
The problem is chronological and genealogical: Bishop John does not belong in that early Hiltoun generation.
Source: James Guthrie of Craigie, matriculation of arms, 25 Sep 1772, Coats of Arms, Vol. 1, p. 496Z, Record No. 1133; digital image at Scotland’s People.The following year the Lyon Office recorded that an error had been discovered in the descent and supplied a substantially fuller pedigree. The corrected account carries the Hiltoun ancestry back through William Guthrie of Hiltoun and Margaret Ogilvie, then through David and the St Andrews generations before reaching the later ministerial and Dundee merchant family.
Crucially, this version places John Guthrie, Bishop of Moray in the correct family generation: as a son of Patrick Guthrie and Margaret Raitt and brother of James Guthrie, minister of Kinnell and Arbirlot.
Source: Court of the Lord Lyon, corrected Craigie pedigree, 29 Sep 1773, p. 499, No. 45.Their sons included:
• John Guthrie, Bishop of Moray
• James Guthrie, Minister of Kinnell & Arbirlot — John’s brother and the ancestor through whom the Craigie descent continued. Source: Court of the Lord Lyon, corrected Craigie pedigree, 29 Sep 1773, p. 499, No. 45.
What the DNA Tells Us
Y-DNA gives the Craigie reconstruction a second kind of evidence: one that follows the direct paternal line rather than surviving paper records. For this family, the most important result is not a single tester. It is the agreement of two separately documented male-line descents from different sons of James Guthrie and Christian Scott.
Their son James Guthrie, baptized in Dundee in 1698, married Elizabeth Gardyne and became the principal Guthrie proprietor associated with Craigie.
A documented direct-male line from this son has produced a Y-DNA result assigned to Guthrie Family Group 1A.
GFG1A Y-DNA Source: Guthrie DNA Project, GFG1A Branch A — documented Y-DNA descent through James Guthrie of Craigie.Their son Patrick Guthrie, born in 1704, married Agnes Foord and established a separate direct-male descendant line.
A documented paternal descendant of Patrick also belongs to Guthrie Family Group 1A.
GFG1A Y-DNA Source: Guthrie DNA Project, GFG1A Branch A — documented Y-DNA descent through Patrick Guthrie.- The documented male-line descendants of James Guthrie of Craigie and Patrick Guthrie share the same underlying Guthrie paternal lineage.
- Once the two documentary pedigrees are established, the matching Y-DNA independently corroborates their placement within the same paternal family descending from James Guthrie, merchant, and Christian Scott.
- The Craigie paternal line belongs to Guthrie Family Group 1A.
- Because the two documented tested descents separate through sons James and Patrick, their shared paternal line reaches at least to their father, James Guthrie the merchant, assuming the documentary pedigrees are correct.
- It does not by itself prove that merchant James Guthrie was the son of Rev. John Guthrie. That relationship rests on documentary and monumental evidence.
- It does not independently establish the earlier descent through James the minister, Patrick the goldsmith, Charles of St Andrews, David of Hiltoun or William of Hiltoun.
- It cannot identify William Guthrie of Hiltoun’s father.
- A Y-DNA match demonstrates paternal biological relationship; the historical names, marriages and generation-by-generation connections must still be established through genealogy.
The Craigie Succession
Craigie had a history before the Guthries, and ownership of the estate did not always pass along the same line followed by the family pedigree. Keeping genealogy, estate ownership and the later rights of the feudal barony distinct makes the succession much easier to understand.
The Kyd family’s Craigie tenure was already well established by Patrick’s marriage generation. In 1655 Margaret Wedderburn and Patrick were infeft in a third of Craigie, and later records show additional Craigie interests held by Patrick.
Sources: The Wedderburn Book, Kyd of Craigie pedigree and sasine extracts; 1655 sasines settling Craigie rights on Patrick Kyd and Margaret Wedderburn.In 1675 Patrick resigned portions of Craigie to his brother William Kyd, subject to Patrick’s liferent and other conditions. William’s son James Kyd was then served heir to his father in 1677. Patrick himself was still alive in 1676 and died before November 1685, showing why the Kyd transition should not be reduced to a simple proprietor-to-proprietor date range.
Source: The Wedderburn Book, pp. 212–213 and associated Kyd of Craigie references; 1675 resignation/charter and 1677 service of heir.Son of James Guthrie, merchant, and Christian Scott; married Elizabeth Gardyne. The 1729 Kyd disposal provides the clearest surviving documentary marker for the transfer of Craigie lands into this Guthrie generation.
He continued to appear as James Guthrie of Craigie in later property and heraldic material.
Sources: NRS GD137/3167 , 1729; NRS GD137/1670 , 1740; Lyon Office matriculation/correction, 1772–1773.Son of James Guthrie and Elizabeth Gardyne; married Amelia Murray. He succeeded his father and remained associated with Craigie until his death on 14 January 1830.
Sources: View of the Political State of Scotland, 1788, naming James Guthrie of Craigie; family disposition, 26 May 1817; NRS SC45/31/1, Dundee Sheriff Court estate proceedings, 1832.James Guthrie, only son of Alexander Murray Guthrie and Margaret Makgill, became the next proprietor after the death of his grandfather in 1830. Later succession accounts record services of heir to his grandfather in 1846 and to his father in 1849. He died unmarried on 6 December 1866.
Sources: Angus and Mearns Directory, 1846, naming James Guthrie of Craigie; later Craigie succession accounts report services of heir dated 8 Apr 1846 and 11 Jan 1849. The original retour references should still be recovered.On the death of the unmarried James Guthrie, later succession accounts place Craigie with his Makgill kinsman George Makgill of Kemback. This was a collateral property succession rather than continuation through a son.
Source basis: later Craigie estate and genealogical accounts. The original deed or settlement by which George Makgill received Craigie has not yet been identified in this audit.James Alexander Guthrie, son of David Charles Guthrie and Jane Campbell Hunter, acquired Craigie from George Makgill in 1867. This was therefore a purchase within the wider kin network, not an automatic father-to-son succession.
Source basis: later Craigie estate accounts record the 1867 purchase from George Makgill; James Alexander had previously been served heir to his father in two farms of the lands of Craigie on 22 Jan 1860. Exact primary references for the 1867 conveyance remain to be recovered.Eldest son of James Alexander Guthrie and Elinor Stirling, David Charles Guthrie succeeded after his father’s death on 17 January 1873 and held the later Craigie estate line until his own death in 1918.
Sources: later family and landed-gentry accounts; parliamentary records independently document David Charles Guthrie (1861–1918).James Alexander Guthrie, son of David Charles Guthrie, continued the later Guthrie proprietorial succession associated with Craigie until 1932.
Source basis: later landed-family and Craigie succession accounts.The final named Guthrie holder included in this historical succession. He died in November 2003. Later barony accounts state that the separate baronial dignity remained within the Guthrie Family Estate until 2011.
Source basis: later Craigie/barony succession accounts for the 1932–2003 tenure and post-2003 estate holding.After David Charles Guthrie’s death, later barony records state that the separate dignity of the Barony of Craigie remained within the Guthrie Family Estate rather than immediately passing outside the family.
Source basis: later barony succession records. Under section 63 of the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 , the dignity of baron ceased to attach to the land and became transferable incorporeal heritable property.Later barony records report that in February 2011 the separate dignity of the Barony of Craigie was transferred by assignation from the Guthrie Family Estate to a holder outside the Guthrie family.
The transfer ended the Guthrie estate’s recorded holding of the baronial dignity. It did not, of course, affect the continuing genealogy of the Guthrie family.
Source basis: later Craigie barony succession accounts for the February 2011 assignation; statutory context: Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000, s.63 .For the historical Guthrie generations, this profile therefore uses the contemporary landed style “of Craigie”. Modern records may separately number holders of the Barony of Craigie, but that baronial numbering should not be imposed retroactively on the Guthrie family pedigree.
This should also not be confused with the much later peerage title Baron Guthrie of Craigiebank, which is entirely separate from the feudal Barony of Craigie. Legal source: Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000, s.63 . The Act preserved the dignity of baron but detached it from the land, making it transferable as incorporeal heritable property.
Craigie House: The Family Seat
For generations, Craigie House served as the principal residence associated with the Guthrie estate. The original house no longer survives, but nineteenth- and twentieth-century records preserve enough detail to trace its later history and changing use.
The Ordnance Survey Name Books for Forfarshire, 1857–1861 provide a particularly useful contemporary description because they distinguish the estate farmhouse from the principal residence.
The distinction is useful: Craigie could refer to the working farm or estate lands, while Craigie House was the principal residence.
Source: Ordnance Survey Name Books — Forfarshire (Angus), 1857–1861 , Dundee volumes; Craigie and Craigie House entries.What the Evidence Changes
The rebuilt Craigie profile does not simply add more names and dates. It changes the shape of the pedigree. Some relationships become stronger, some older assumptions disappear, and several questions become much more narrowly defined than they were before.
The strongest reconstruction no longer requires a direct leap from Craigie to the principal Guthries of Guthrie. Instead, the ancestry follows a recognizable historical path: Hiltoun → St Andrews → Angus ministry → Dundee commerce → Craigie.
That path explains why territorial names change from generation to generation. The family did not remain fixed to one estate. Its members served as burgesses, goldsmiths, ministers and merchants before one eighteenth-century branch consolidated a landed identity at Craigie.
It also explains why the corrected Lyon pedigree is so important. Rather than forcing every prominent Guthrie into a single ancient line, it preserves a sequence that increasingly agrees with records created during the lives of the later generations.
Family & Property Timeline
The history of the Craigie Guthries crosses several different settings: Hiltoun, St Andrews, the Angus ministry, Stockholm and Dundee commerce, and finally the lands of Craigie. This timeline brings the principal family, property and evidence milestones together in chronological order.
A John Guthrie of Hiltoun appears in contemporary records. He is an important chronological marker immediately before the generation in which the later pedigree places William, but no surviving record yet proves John as William’s father.
Source: RMS II, No. 2910 , 19 Jan 1505/06.A contemporary Brechin record dated 10 May 1518 identifies Alexander Ramsay and Joneta Guthre as spouses. The later 1623 Ramsay pedigree identifies Joneta as the legitimate daughter of William Guthrie of Hiltoun. The two sources strongly support the same couple but should not be treated as one document.
Sources: Bishopric of Brechin record, 10 May 1518; Bamff pedigree, No. 181, Mar 1623.The corrected Lyon pedigree carries the Craigie ancestry through David Guthrie of Hiltoun + Christian Wemyss to their son Charles Guthrie of St Andrews + Agnes Brown. Separately, NRS GD16/3/42 identifies John Guthrie as son and heir of the deceased David Guthrie of Eassie in 1544. That contemporary record does not name John’s mother.
Sources: Court of the Lord Lyon, corrected Craigie pedigree, 29 Sep 1773, p. 499, No. 45; NRS GD16/3/42 , 3 Nov 1544.Patrick Guthrie, husband of Margaret Raitt, was a St Andrews burgess and goldsmith. The later family reconstruction includes among their sons John Guthrie, Bishop of Moray and James Guthrie, minister of Kinnell and Arbirlot.
Source basis: St Andrews burgh and family records; Fasti Research Sketch — John Guthrie, Bishop of Moray ; corrected Lyon pedigree, 29 Sep 1773.Patrick’s son James Guthrie was born on 17 September 1590. He later entered the ministry, serving at Kinnell and Arbirlot, and became the direct ancestor of the Craigie line.
Source: Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ ; related ministerial records.St Andrews civic records show Patrick Guthrie serving as a baillie of the burgh, placing the goldsmith firmly within the town’s civic community.
Source: St Andrews burgh records, 1601–1602. Exact volume/page citation should be retained when the original burgh entry is next rechecked.James Guthrie married Isabella Durie. Their documented family included John Guthrie, later minister of Arbirlot and Dundee, through whom the direct Craigie ancestry continued.
Source: Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ , with parish and ministerial records.John Guthrie was born on 13 August 1631. He graduated M.A. from St Andrews in 1650, served as minister of Arbirlot, and was translated to Dundee’s South Church in 1667.
Sources: Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ ; later Dundee parish and testamentary evidence.John Guthrie married Isobel Lamb. Their recorded family included sons John and James, both later associated with Stockholm commerce.
Source basis: Dundee parish records and Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ ; NRS CC3/3/7 for John’s later testamentary estate.John Guthrie was translated to a ministerial charge in Dundee in 1667, establishing the immediate family in the town where the next merchant generations are documented.
Source: Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ .James’s Howff monument states that he died in April 1710 aged 46, pointing to a birth about 1663–64. It also records his Stockholm apprenticeship and later international trade. A separate 1669 baptism sometimes assigned to him remains an unresolved identity candidate.
Source: Guthrie monument in the Howff of Dundee. The monument’s age-at-death conflicts with the later 1669 baptismal identification, which remains unresolved.James Guthrie married Christian Scott in Dundee. Parish and family records identify one known daughter and eight sons. Two documented son-lines—through James and Patrick—are represented in GFG1A Y-DNA testing.
Sources: Dundee OPR 282/120/18, marriage, 1695; Dundee baptismal registers; Guthrie DNA Project — GFG1A Branch A .A record concerning the Muir of Craigie is reported to name a James Guthrie of Craigie alongside James Kyd. The identity of this James remains unresolved. The merchant James is chronologically possible, but the underlying record must be examined before that identification is adopted.
Source status: reported 1704 Muir of Craigie record. The original instrument has not yet been examined.The Howff monument records James’s death in April 1710, aged 46, and states that he left Christian and seven sons surviving. It also preserves his Stockholm apprenticeship and international mercantile career.
Source: Guthrie monument in the Howff of Dundee.NRS GD137/3167 concerns the disposal of the price of lands of Craigie sold by James and George Kyd to James Guthrie. This remains the clearest primary documentary marker presently identified for substantial Craigie lands passing into Guthrie hands.
Source: NRS GD137/3167 , 1729.James Guthrie married Elizabeth Gardyne in Dundee in 1733. Gardyne family material preserves a marriage contract dated 13 December 1733.
Sources: Dundee Old Parish Register for the marriage; Gardyne family material, marriage contract, 13 Dec 1733.James was born on 7 May 1740 and baptized in Dundee on 15 May. He later married Amelia Murray and succeeded his father in the Craigie family and estate line.
Source: Dundee Old Parish Register, baptism, 15 May 1740.NRS SIG1/72/14 records a signature concerning the lands of Craigie granted to James Guthrie, further documenting the family’s landed position.
Source: NRS SIG1/72/14, 6 Aug 1764.James Guthrie married Amelia Murray, daughter of the deceased Alexander Murray, merchant in Dundee. Their large family included Alexander Murray Guthrie and George Dempster Guthrie.
Source: Dundee Old Parish Register, marriage, 26 Oct 1767; Dundee baptismal registers for their children.James Guthrie of Craigie’s armorial matriculation was accompanied by an ancestral formulation that misplaced John Guthrie, Bishop of Moray in relation to the much earlier Hiltoun family.
Source: Court of the Lord Lyon, Coats of Arms, Vol. 1, p. 496Z, Record No. 1133, 25 Sep 1772.The Lyon Office recorded that an error had been discovered and supplied a corrected pedigree carrying the ancestry through William Guthrie of Hiltoun + Margaret Ogilvie, David, Charles, Patrick, the ministerial family and the Dundee merchant generation to Craigie. Bishop John was restored to the later Patrick-and-Margaret-Raitt generation.
Source: Court of the Lord Lyon, corrected Craigie pedigree, 29 Sep 1773, p. 499, No. 45.James Guthrie died on 9 March 1788 and was buried at Dundee on 14 March. His son James, husband of Amelia Murray, continued the Craigie family and estate line.
Source: Dundee burial/parish record, 14 Mar 1788; death date 9 Mar 1788 as retained in the Craigie family source reconstruction.James Guthrie’s disposition expressly identifies Alexander Murray Guthrie as “my eldest son” and refers to Amelia Murray or Guthrie, providing unusually direct evidence for this generation.
Source: disposition of James Guthrie of Craigie, 26 May 1817. The exact catalogue reference remains to be rechecked rather than invented.James Guthrie died on 14 January 1830. The later Dundee Sheriff Court proceedings concerning his estate were recorded in 1832. By then his eldest son Alexander Murray Guthrie was also deceased.
Source: NRS SC45/31/1, Dundee Sheriff Court estate proceedings, 1832.Craigie House and approximately 232 acres were offered for sale. Later evidence shows Craigie still associated with the Guthrie family, indicating that the proposed sale did not then remove the property from Guthrie ownership.
Source basis: later Craigie estate study for the 1831 sale offering; subsequent OS evidence confirms continuing Guthrie ownership. The original 1831 advertisement remains to be recovered.The OS Name Books describe Craigie House as a “rather elegant two story slated building” with offices and garden attached, belonging to James Guthrie Esq. They separately describe the working farm called Craigie.
Source: Ordnance Survey Name Books — Forfarshire (Angus), 1857–1861 .The unmarried James Guthrie of Craigie died on 6 December 1866. Later succession accounts place Craigie with his Makgill kinsman George Makgill of Kemback, marking a collateral property succession rather than a father-to-son inheritance.
Source basis: later Craigie estate and genealogical accounts. The original deed or settlement by which George Makgill received Craigie has not yet been identified.Later estate accounts record that James Alexander Guthrie acquired Craigie from George Makgill in 1867. This was a purchase within the wider kin network, not an automatic genealogical succession.
Source basis: later Craigie estate accounts. The primary 1867 conveyance remains a priority record to recover.Craigie House, its immediate grounds and associated property were sold. The building later passed into institutional and residential use.
Source basis: later Craigie estate history. The original 1911 sale particulars remain to be recovered.The former family residence operated as a private nursing home from the 1920s into the later 1940s. Dundee Corporation minutes independently confirm Craigie House Private Nursing Home in 1939–40.
Sources: later Craigie House history; Dundee Corporation minutes, 1939–1940 .Later estate history records a short period of workers’ accommodation associated with Jute Industries Ltd., followed in 1949 by Dundee Corporation use as a retirement home.
Source basis: later Craigie House and estate history.Later estate history records the demolition of Craigie House in 1983 after the building had become unsuitable for modern residential-care requirements.
Source basis: later Craigie House and estate history. A primary demolition or planning record has not yet been added to this profile.Following the death of the final named Guthrie holder included in this historical profile, later barony accounts state that the separate dignity of the Barony of Craigie remained within the Guthrie Family Estate.
Source basis: later Craigie barony succession accounts. Statutory context: Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000, s.63 .Later barony records report that in February 2011 the separate dignity of the Barony of Craigie was transferred by assignation from the Guthrie Family Estate to a holder outside the Guthrie family. The genealogy of the family itself, of course, continued.
Source basis: later Craigie barony succession accounts for the February 2011 assignation; statutory context: Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000, s.63 . The original 2011 deed of assignation has not been examined in this audit.Direct-male descendants of two documented sons of James Guthrie and Christian Scott—James of Craigie and Patrick Guthrie—belong to the same Guthrie Family Group 1A Y-DNA lineage. Once the paper pedigrees are established, the matching Y-DNA independently corroborates their shared paternal ancestry.
Source: Guthrie DNA Project — GFG1A Branch A .Questions Still Open
Much of the Craigie pedigree can now be followed through independent records, but several points remain unresolved. These questions are deliberately narrow: each identifies a specific gap where another contemporary record could materially strengthen—or change—the reconstruction.
This remains the most important unresolved relationship in the reconstructed Craigie ancestry.
Charles Guthrie + Agnes Brown form the least independently documented couple in the direct Craigie ancestry.
Later genealogical material sometimes attaches “of Collistoun” to Patrick Guthrie, goldsmith of St Andrews.
Fasti states that David Wood, Minister of Edzell, married “a sister of John Guthrie of that ilk.” The identity of that Guthrie woman remains unresolved.
A later genealogy attributes to James Guthrie + Isabella Durie an unidentified son described as the “laird of Aldbar.”
The 1704 reference concerning the Muir of Craigie could materially change how early the Guthrie association with the estate began.
The parentage of James is well supported, but his exact birth date remains unsettled.
The later history of Craigie House is fairly well documented, but its construction remains less certain.
The later Craigie succession is now clearer, but the decisive nineteenth-century conveyances have not yet been recovered in primary form.
- Find contemporary evidence identifying William Guthrie of Hiltoun’s father.
- Search St Andrews records for Charles Guthrie + Agnes Brown and a direct link to Patrick the goldsmith.
- Locate and examine the original 1704 Craigie record to identify the James Guthrie named there.
- Trace the earliest sources for “Patrick Guthrie of Collistoun” and the reported “laird of Aldbar.”
- Recover the primary records behind the 1846–1867 Craigie succession, especially the services of heir, the Makgill transfer, and the 1867 conveyance to James Alexander Guthrie.
Most Wanted Documents
Records That Could Strengthen the Craigie Reconstruction
The later Guthries of Craigie are unusually well documented, and recent research has resolved several major pedigree problems. The remaining gaps are concentrated in the family’s earlier Hiltoun and St Andrews ancestry, the first connection with Craigie, several collateral relationships, and parts of the nineteenth-century estate succession.
The records below are specific documentary targets. Each has the potential to answer a question that remains genuinely unresolved rather than simply adding another citation to a relationship already proved.
1. William Guthrie of Hiltoun — Identify His Father
The Question
Who was William Guthrie of Hiltoun’s father, and how does this particular Hiltoun family connect to the earlier documented Guthries associated with Hiltoun and Eassie?
Why This Matters
This is the earliest major gap in the corrected Craigie pedigree. Filling it could either connect the Craigie ancestry securely to an earlier Hiltoun generation or demonstrate that the eighteenth-century pedigree begins at the earliest point its compilers could actually prove.
What We Need
Earlier Hiltoun deeds should be searched for William as son, heir, spouse or witness. Special attention should be given to records immediately preceding the generation of William and Margaret Ogilvie, without assuming that William belongs to a particular earlier Hiltoun pedigree merely because the territorial designation is the same.
2. Charles Guthrie & Agnes Brown — Find the Contemporary Family Record
The Question
Can the Charles Guthrie–Agnes Brown generation, and their direct parent-child connection to Patrick the goldsmith, be established independently of the eighteenth-century pedigree?
Why This Matters
Patrick and the later St Andrews family are increasingly well documented. Charles and Agnes remain the weakest documentary bridge between that family and the earlier Hiltoun ancestry.
What We Need
Burgess records, protocol books, property transactions, kirk records, marriage material, testaments, apprenticeship documents or other St Andrews records naming Charles, Agnes and Patrick in the same family context.
3. Patrick Guthrie “of Collistoun” — Find the Earliest Source
The Question
Did Patrick possess or use a genuine territorial association with Colliston, or did “of Collistoun” arise later through pedigree confusion?
Why This Matters
The designation helped create older claims linking Bishop John to the independent Colliston landed succession. The Craigie reconstruction now places the Bishop securely within Patrick’s St Andrews family. What remains unresolved is the origin of the Collistoun label itself.
What We Need
Trace the wording backward through the Lyon pedigrees, printed genealogies and family manuscripts, then test it against contemporary St Andrews and Colliston property records.
4. Patrick Guthrie’s Unnamed Daughter — Identify the Wife of David Wood
The Question
Which Guthrie daughter married David Wood, and can she be documented as a child of Patrick Guthrie and Margaret Raitt?
Why This Matters
Although she does not affect the direct male Craigie succession, identifying her would complete an important collateral branch of the St Andrews family and could reveal additional records naming her parents and siblings.
What We Need
Search David Wood’s ministerial career, Edzell parish material, Wood family papers, marriage or baptismal records, testaments and St Andrews records for his wife.
5. The Reported “Laird of Aldbar” — Identify the Man and the Source
The Question
Was there actually a son of James Guthrie and Isabella Durie who possessed Aldbar, and if so, what was his name?
Why This Matters
The claim may preserve a genuine collateral Craigie connection—or it may represent another later pedigree error. Property records should be capable of distinguishing between the two.
What We Need
Identify the earliest version of the claim, then search Aldbar property records, sasines, retours, rentals and estate papers for a Guthrie proprietor during the appropriate period.
6. The Muir of Craigie — Examine the Original 26 February 1704 Town Council Act
The Question
Does the original 1704 act actually name a James Guthrie “of Craigie”, as some later summaries imply, or has the chronology of the later settlement been compressed or misread?
Why This Matters
The later James Guthrie who securely acquired Craigie was born in 1698 and was therefore only a child in 1704. If an adult James Guthrie was genuinely styled “of Craigie” in the original act, the family’s association with Craigie would require substantial reinterpretation. If not, one of the most persistent anomalies in the Craigie chronology disappears.
What We Need
A high-quality image and full transcription of the 26 February 1704 council entry, including every named party and the exact wording concerning ownership, possession or rights in the Muir.
Index to Dundee Town Council Minutes, 1699–1705 · Dundee City Archives
For comparison: NRS GD137/3167 — 1729 Craigie disposal .
7. James Guthrie, Merchant — Birth, Stockholm Apprenticeship and Parentage
The Question
Can James’s exact birth be established, can his Stockholm apprenticeship be recovered in its original form, and can the historical connection to Rev. John Guthrie be strengthened by a direct contemporary parent-child statement?
Why This Matters
James and Christian Scott are the point at which the later Craigie pedigree and the independent Y-DNA evidence converge. The DNA strongly corroborates the paternal line from James forward, but it does not by itself prove James’s earlier ancestry.
What We Need
Search Dundee and surrounding baptismal records for c.1663–64; examine the full testament of Rev. John Guthrie; and search Swedish merchant, apprenticeship and burgess records for James during his Stockholm period.
For Swedish records, search the Swedish National Archives — Search the Collections for James Guthrie and appropriate name variants in Stockholm.
8. Craigie House — Find Its Construction Record and Early Images
The Question
Which Craigie proprietor built the house known from the nineteenth-century record, and how much of it represented an earlier structure?
Why This Matters
The house became the visible seat of the later family, but the profile can currently describe its ownership more confidently than its architectural origins.
What We Need
Estate papers and building accounts should be compared with the 1831 sale offering, Ordnance Survey evidence, nineteenth-century maps and photographs, and the 1911 sale particulars.
9. Craigie Succession, 1846–1867 — Recover the Original Heir and Conveyance Records
The Question
Exactly how did legal ownership of Craigie pass through the nineteenth-century family, especially during the brief Makgill interval of 1866–1867?
Why This Matters
Recovering the legal documents would replace later narrative with the actual succession instruments and would clarify the distinction between genealogy, estate ownership and the separate baronial dignity.
What We Need
Full copies of both services of heir and the 1866–1867 settlement, disposition, assignation, sasine or other conveyancing documents, including their recitals of previous ownership.
NRS C22 — Register of Retours · Search the NRS Catalogue for the 1866–1867 conveyances
10. The 2011 Barony Assignation — Obtain the Original Deed
The Question
What exactly was assigned in 2011, and what wording did the deed use to describe the surviving baronial right?
Why This Matters
The deed would document the final stage of the profile’s baronial history without implying that the modern dignity carried ownership of Craigie House or the historic Craigie estate.
What We Need
A complete copy of the executed deed showing the assignor, description of the dignity, date, terms of transfer and any recital of earlier title.
Sources & Further Research
The Craigie reconstruction draws upon several different kinds of evidence: contemporary charters and property records, parish registers, ministerial biographies, testaments, monumental inscriptions, heraldic pedigrees and modern Y-DNA results. No single source establishes the entire descent. The strength of the reconstruction comes from comparing them.
- Coats of Arms, Vol. 1, p. 496Z · Record No. 1133 Court of the Lord Lyon — Matriculation of Arms, 25 September 1772 Initial armorial pedigree associated with James Guthrie of Craigie. Its ancestral wording placed John Guthrie, Bishop of Moray incorrectly in relation to the earlier Hiltoun ancestry. Digital image examined through Scotland’s People.
- p. 499 · No. 45 Court of the Lord Lyon — Corrected Pedigree, 29 September 1773 Records that an error had been discovered in the earlier descent. The corrected ancestry begins with William Guthrie of Hiltoun + Margaret Ogilvie and continues through David of Hiltoun, Charles of St Andrews, Patrick the goldsmith, the ministerial generations, James the Dundee/Stockholm merchant and James Guthrie of Craigie.
- Bamff Pedigree · No. 181 · March 1623 Ramsay of Bamff Pedigree Identifies Joneta Guthrie as the legitimate daughter of William Guthrie of Hiltoun. Her marriage to Alexander Ramsay is independently documented by a contemporary Brechin record dated 10 May 1518.
- RMS II, No. 2910 · 19 Jan 1505/06 John Guthrie of Hiltoun Contemporary evidence for a John Guthrie styled of Hiltoun immediately before William’s documented generation. It does not prove John as William’s father. View RMS Volume II Guthrie entries .
- Brechin record · 10 May 1518 Alexander Ramsay & Joneta Guthre Contemporary record identifying Alexander Ramsay and Joneta Guthre as spouses. When read with the 1623 Bamff pedigree, it independently anchors the daughter whom that later pedigree assigns to William of Hiltoun.
- NRS GD16/3/42 · 3 Nov 1544 John Guthrie, Son and Heir of the Deceased David Guthrie of Eassie Direct contemporary parentage evidence for John. This is important to the reconstructed branch point beside the Craigie pedigree, but the record does not name John’s mother. View NRS Chronological Index .
- GD137/3167 · 1729 Account of Disposal of the Price of the Lands of Craigie Records the lands of Craigie sold by James and George Kyd to James Guthrie. This is the clearest presently identified primary marker for the transfer of substantial Craigie property into Guthrie hands.
- GD137/1670 · 1740 Memorial Involving James Guthrie of Craigie Names James Guthrie of Craigie in a dispute involving a tenant, confirming the landed style in contemporary use.
- SIG1/72/14 · 6 August 1764 Signature of the Lands of Craigie Signature granted to James Guthrie for the lands of Craigie. NRS notes that signatures were the English draft warrants used for issuing the corresponding Latin charters.
- CC3/3/7 · recorded 1688 Testament of Rev. John Guthrie Brechin Commissary Court material relating to John Guthrie, minister of Dundee. His son John and daughter Isobel are associated with the administration of the estate.
- CC3/3/10 · 31 January 1741 Testament Dative & Inventory of John Guthrie of Westhall Provides evidence for the elder merchant son of Rev. John Guthrie and the family’s continuing Dundee/Stockholm commercial connections.
- SC45/31/1 · 1832 Dundee Sheriff Court Estate Proceedings Relates to the estate of James Guthrie of Craigie, died 14 January 1830. The proceedings also establish that his eldest son Alexander Murray Guthrie was deceased by 1832 and underpin the reconstructed reference to Alexander’s Trust Disposition and Settlement dated 26 August 1829. The original 1829 instrument has not yet been separately identified.
- Aberlemno Kirk Session Records — CH2/5 Useful for the historical relationship between Aberlemno and Aldbar, but not evidence that a Guthrie was laird of Aldbar.
- B65/8 St Andrews Burgh Court Records Include Patrick Guthrie’s activity as a baillie of St Andrews around 1601–1602.
- B65/23 · including B65/23/386c (1596) St Andrews Sasines & Notarial Material Records associated with Patrick Guthrie’s property interests, including tenements on the south side of the Marketgate. View B65/23/386c .
- St Andrews Protocol Books & Kirk Session Records Additional evidence for Patrick Guthrie as goldsmith, burgess and property holder. Kirk records also preserve his association with the manufacture of communion-token irons.
- James Guthrie — Minister of Kinnell & Arbirlot Identifies James, born 17 September 1590, as a son of Patrick Guthrie, goldsmith of St Andrews. James married Isabella Durie and became the ancestor through whom the Craigie line continued.
- John Guthrie — Minister of Arbirlot & Dundee Documents the clerical career of James’s son John, born 13 August 1631, educated at St Andrews and translated to Dundee in 1667.
- John Guthrie of Westhall & James Guthrie, Merchants Fasti, parish evidence and later testamentary material preserve the Stockholm commercial careers of Rev. John Guthrie’s sons, helping bridge the ministerial family to the Dundee merchant generation.
- John Guthrie, Bishop of Moray Ministerial and biographical evidence places Bishop John within Patrick Guthrie’s St Andrews family rather than in the earlier Hiltoun generation suggested by the 1772 armorial pedigree.
- Vol. V · p. 390 David Wood — Minister of Edzell States that David Wood married “a sister of John Guthrie of that ilk.” This is important evidence for the unidentified Guthrie woman, but it does not name her or directly identify her parents.
- Dundee Old Parish Registers Baptisms and marriages document the families of Rev. John Guthrie + Isobel Lamb, James Guthrie + Christian Scott, James Guthrie of Craigie + Elizabeth Gardyne and later generations. A key anchor is OPR 282/120/18, the 1695 marriage of James Guthrie and Christian Scott.
- Baptisms of the Children of Alexander Guthrie & Elizabeth Moray Particularly important because they identify James Guthrie, merchant, as grandfather, Christian Scott as grandmother, and James Guthrie of Craigie as uncle. These records establish Alexander’s parentage even though his own baptism has not yet been located.
- St Vigeans Parish Registers Include the 1726 marriage of Patrick Guthrie + Agnes Foord, the second son-line from James Guthrie and Christian Scott represented in GFG1A Y-DNA.
- James Thomson, The History of Dundee, 1874 Preserves a transcription of the Howff monument to James Guthrie, merchant. The inscription identifies his father as Mr John Guthrie, minister in Dundee; records his Stockholm apprenticeship and international trade; names his wife Christian Scott; and states that he died in April 1710 aged 46, leaving his wife and seven sons surviving.
- Ordnance Survey Name Books — Forfarshire, 1857–1861 Distinguish Craigie, the farm, from Craigie House, described as a “rather elegant two story slated building,” both then the property of James Guthrie Esq.
- Alexander Johnston Warden, Angus or Forfarshire, the Land and its People Important nineteenth-century local history for Craigie, the Kyd proprietors and the wider Angus landscape. Useful as a compiled source, but legal and genealogical claims are checked against contemporary records where possible.
- Alexander Wedderburn, The Wedderburn Book Supplies detailed Kyd of Craigie material, including sasine, family and property references that clarify why the seventeenth- century Kyd succession cannot be reduced to simple proprietor date ranges.
- The Red Book of Scotland Provides useful compiled marriage and family information, including the Gardyne and Murray connections. Dates derived from it are compared with original parish-register evidence where possible.
- Dennis F. Collins — Craigie Estate Studies Later Craigie histories attributed to Collins include The Demise of an Estate and the Growth of a Suburb — the Barony of Craigie and the study cited as The Barony of Craigie, The Demesne and Manor Farm of Craigie and Craigie House, Dundee. They are useful secondary sources for Craigie House and the later estate, but individual dates and conveyances should continue to be checked against original records.
- Guthrie DNA Project — Guthrie Family Group 1A Direct-male descendants through two documented sons of James Guthrie + Christian Scott— James Guthrie of Craigie and Patrick Guthrie—belong to the same paternal genetic group. View GFG1A Branch A .
- The Y-DNA evidence supports a shared paternal lineage but does not by itself establish the earlier documentary descent through the ministers, St Andrews family or Hiltoun generations.
- 1831 & 1911 Craigie Sale History Later estate studies report the 1831 offering of Craigie House with approximately 232 acres and the sale of Craigie House in 1911. The original sale advertisements or particulars have not yet been recovered and remain research targets.
- Angus and Mearns Directory, 1846 Independently names James Guthrie of Craigie during the nineteenth-century estate succession. Later accounts report services of heir in 1846 and 1849; the original retour references still need to be recovered.
- Dundee Corporation Minutes, 1939–1940 Independently record Craigie House Private Nursing Home under the Nursing Homes Registration (Scotland) Act 1938. View Dundee Corporation minutes .
- Later Craigie Succession & Barony Accounts Later accounts place Craigie with George Makgill after the unmarried James Guthrie died in 1866 and report its purchase by James Alexander Guthrie in 1867. They also report that after 2003 the separate baronial dignity remained with the Guthrie Family Estate until an assignation outside the family in February 2011. The original 1866–67 conveyances and 2011 deed of assignation have not yet been examined.
- Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 · s.63 Provides the legal context for the later baronial dignity: after abolition of feudal tenure, the dignity ceased to attach to the land and survived as transferable incorporeal heritable property. View section 63 .