Guthrie of Kingennie and Pitforthie

Identity and Overview

The Guthries of Kingennie and Pitforthie form one documented paternal lineage associated with two different Angus estates. Kingennie was the family’s earlier seat near Monifieth. Its sale in 1600 ended the Guthrie tenure there, but not the family line. In the following generation, James Guthrie—son of the last William Guthrie of Kingennie—became associated with Pitforthie near Brechin.

The earliest surviving Kingennie title presently identified is a charter dated 5 March 1478. It names William Guthrie as the son and heir apparent of Malcolm Guthrie of Dundee and Marion Strachan. Later charters and legal instruments trace the family through William Guthrie and Janet Arbuthnot, Ninian Guthrie and Katherine Moncrieff, and the succeeding Williams of Kingennie. In 1600, the last of these, William Guthrie and his wife Elizabeth Fethie, completed the sale of Kingennie to Alexander Wedderburn, clerk of Dundee.
(The Wedderburn Book — Kingennie Charters and 1600 Sale)

The transition to Pitforthie occurred through the family of Janet Lyon of Easter Ogil. Janet was first married to John Wemyss of Pitforthie, by whom she had two daughters, Catherine and Margaret Wemyss. A Brechin Commissary Court act dated 11 August 1630 identifies the deceased John Wemyss of Pitforthie and names Catherine and Margaret as his daughters. An early Lyon family genealogy reports that Janet subsequently married James Guthrie of Kingennie and that James acquired Pitforthie from his Wemyss stepdaughters. He was thereafter styled James Guthrie of Pitforthie.
(Brechin Commissary Court — NRS CC3/1/7)

James Guthrie and Janet Lyon established a large family at Pitforthie whose members became closely connected with the seventeenth-century Scottish Church. Their eldest son, William Guthrie, became minister of Fenwick and author of The Christian’s Great Interest. Alexander Guthrie served as minister of Stracathro, John Guthrie as minister of Tarbolton and Barnweil, and Robert Guthrie was licensed to preach although poor health prevented him from taking charge of a parish. Their daughter Margaret married Laurence Skinner, minister of Brechin, while their son David eventually received the formal grant of Pitforthie. These clerical careers and family connections are documented across multiple entries in Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ.

The Family at a Glance

• Earliest documented Kingennie charter: 5 March 1478
• Kingennie sold: 1600, to Alexander Wedderburn and Helen Ramsay
• Last Guthrie of Kingennie: William Guthrie, husband of Elizabeth Fethie
• Transition to Pitforthie: James Guthrie, son of William and Elizabeth
• James’s wife: Janet Lyon of Easter Ogil, widow of John Wemyss of Pitforthie
• Wemyss heiresses: Catherine and Margaret Wemyss
• Children presently identified for James and Janet: Eleven—six sons and five daughters
• Principal Pitforthie successor: David Guthrie, formally granted the lands in 1655
• Best-known family member: Rev. William Guthrie, minister of Fenwick

An Important Genealogical Distinction

No direct paternal-line connection between the Guthries of Kingennie and the Guthries of Guthrie has yet been proved. The Kingennie family must therefore not be presented as an established cadet branch of Guthrie of That Ilk.

A separate connection is reported through Janet Lyon. The early Genealogie of Ogil states that Janet’s mother was a daughter of Guthrie of That Ilk. If accurate, the children of James Guthrie and Janet Lyon possessed Guthrie-of-Guthrie ancestry through their maternal grandmother. That reported maternal descent must be distinguished from the still-unproved ancestry of the paternal Kingennie line.

This profile brings together evidence recovered from charters, legal records, testaments, parish registers, Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ, other Guthrie Genealogy Special Collections, and reliable early biographical sources. Throughout the profile, documented facts are distinguished from corroborated reconstruction, traditional pedigree, and unresolved hypothesis.

The connection between Kingennie and Pitforthie did not emerge from a record naming James Guthrie’s father outright. It was discovered by following the family of his wife, Janet Lyon. Research into the Lyons of Ogil led to the 1734 Genealogie of Ogil, which identifies James as a son of the Guthrie of Kingennie and records his marriage to Jean—elsewhere called Janet—Lyon. That clue provided the bridge between the established Pitforthie family and the earlier Guthries of Kingennie.

The Two Estates:
Kingennie and Pitforthie

Kingennie and Pitforthie were distinct estates in different parts of Angus. They did not pass together, nor was Pitforthie simply a new name for Kingennie. The connection between them was the Guthrie family itself: one generation relinquished Kingennie, while the next established a new territorial association with Pitforthie.

Kingennie

Kingennie lies near Monifieth, northeast of Dundee. Historical records use several spellings, including Kingany, Kinganie, Kynganie, and Kingenny. The Guthries were associated with the property from the fifteenth century until its sale in 1600.

The Kingennie titles describe more than an isolated farm. The 1600 conveyances included the lands and mains of Kingennie, its manor-place, orchards, mill, mill lands, and the adjoining property formerly called Carneton and later Crymbills of Kingennie. These details suggest a substantial working estate with residential, agricultural, and milling components.

A medieval castle site has also been recorded at Kingennie, but almost nothing is known about its appearance or history. The nineteenth-century Ordnance Survey Name Book preserves a local story supplied by the occupier of Kingennie Farm, who pointed out the supposed site of a structure called “Castle Guthrough.” The surveyors could find no other person who knew the name and therefore declined to place it on the map.

“Castle Guthrough” should consequently be treated as a local tradition rather than as the documented name of the Guthrie residence. No surviving illustration has been identified, and any attempt to reconstruct its appearance would be speculative.
(Ordnance Survey Name Book — Kingennie)
(Canmore — Kingennie Castle Site)

Pitforthie

Pitforthie lies northeast of Brechin. Seventeenth-century property records place it within the barony of Kethick and sheriffdom of Forfar. The principal spelling variants encountered in the records are Pitforthie and Pitforthy.

Like Kingennie, Pitforthie represented landed property rather than merely a single residence. The 1655 Great Seal grant describes lands, manor-places, teind sheaves, and other teinds belonging to the holding. Although no dependable image of the seventeenth-century house has been identified, the record confirms the presence of residential and agricultural property.

The name Pitforthie, however, did not always denote one undivided estate. Records refer separately to Over Pitforthie, Nether Pitforthie, Easter Pitforthie, and later the Mains of Pitforthie. Among the surviving examples are:

• James Guthrie of Over Pitforthie in the earlier seventeenth century;
• a 1666 tack involving a tenant in Easter Pitforthie;
• seventeenth-century references to Nether Pitforthie and Cottertown;
• a 1714 signature granting Over Pitforthie to Dr George Rait;
• a 1718 inventory of buildings at Nether Pitforthie; and
• later references to the farms of East Pitforthie and the Mains of Pitforthie.

These distinctions may explain some of the apparent overlap among people styled “of Pitforthie.” Two individuals could possess, occupy, or claim rights in different portions of the wider property without either necessarily controlling the whole. The exact relationship among these divisions can be established only by examining the original conveyances, sasines, rentals, and estate plans.

The Guthrie children associated with Pitforthie were baptized in the parish of Brechin. Their baptismal records establish the family’s connection with the Brechin church and community but should not be interpreted as stating that the baptisms occurred on the Pitforthie estate itself.

Selected property references: Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, vol. X, charter 450, 27 July 1655, p. 195; NRS GD45/18/1494, 28 February 1666; NRS GD45/16/2977, 27 September 1697; NRS SIG1/139/58, 22 June 1714; NRS SC5/75/2, Nether Pitforthie inventory, 1718.

The Family Between the Two Estates

The sale of Kingennie ended the Guthries’ possession of that property. It did not immediately establish them at Pitforthie.

Later Brechin legal records help bridge the gap. In 1610, a deed names Bessie Fethie, relict of the deceased William Guthrie in Ogil, with James Guthrie, their son. Records from 1612 identify Elizabeth Fethie, relict of the deceased William Guthrie sometime of Kingennie, together with James Guthrie, her son.

These entries establish that:

• Elizabeth or Bessie Fethie was the widow of William Guthrie, formerly of Kingennie.
• William was subsequently described as “in Ogil.”
• James Guthrie was their son.
• James belonged to the Kingennie family even though he did not inherit the Kingennie estate.

(Brechin Commissary Court — Register of Deeds, NRS CC3/9/3)

James’s later association with Pitforthie developed through his marriage to Janet Lyon, widow of John Wemyss of Pitforthie. The Wemyss property passed to John and Janet’s daughters, Catherine and Margaret Wemyss. According to the early Lyon family genealogy, James subsequently acquired Pitforthie from his stepdaughters and was thereafter styled James Guthrie of Pitforthie.

The family’s territorial progression can therefore be summarized as:

The Guthries of Kingennie
↓
Kingennie sold in 1600
↓
William Guthrie, afterward described as “in Ogil” and “sometime of Kingennie”
↓
James Guthrie, his son, married Janet Lyon
↓
James acquired Pitforthie from the Wemyss heiresses
↓
The Guthries of Pitforthie

This was not the relocation of an estate. It was the continuation of a documented family line through the loss of one property and the acquisition of another.

THE GUTHRIES OF KINGENNIE:
DOCUMENTARY FAMILY AND ESTATE HISTORY

The association between the Guthrie family and Kingennie is often dated to about 1464, when Malcolm Guthrie married Marjory Strachan or Strathauchin. A later history of Kingennie states that the property passed from William Strathauchin first to his daughter Elizabeth and then in 1464 to her sister Marjory. The surviving documentary title evidence, however, begins on 5 March 1478, when Archibald, Earl of Angus, granted a charter to William Guthrie, son and heir apparent of Malcolm Guthrie of Dundee, and Marion Strachan.

The descent from Malcolm Guthrie through the last Guthrie proprietor of Kingennie is supported by this charter inventory and later estate records. What has not been proved is that Malcolm belonged paternally to the principal Guthrie of Guthrie family. He should not presently be identified with Malcolm, natural son of David Guthrie of Guthrie and Kincaldrum, or described as the founder of a proven cadet branch of that house.

The First Generation at Kingennie:
Malcolm Guthrie and Marjory Strachan

Malcolm Guthrie
Died 24 November 1482
Spouse: Marjory or Marion Strachan/Strathauchin
Known child: William Guthrie

Malcolm was already active in Dundee by 16 August 1458, when a man of that name was constituted procurator for William Strathechyn, burgess of Dundee. His civic career included service as bailie in 1467, provost in 1470, bailie from 1472 through 1475, and bailie again in 1480. On 4 October 1479 he was selected as one of Dundee’s commissioners to Parliament.

He also served as custumar of Dundee from 6 July 1480 until his death on 24 November 1482. These offices place Malcolm securely among Dundee’s civic elite before the first surviving charter explicitly connecting his family with Kingennie.

A 1630 inventory of the Kingennie title deeds records a charter dated 5 March 1478 from Archibald, Earl of Angus, to Malcolm’s son and heir apparent, William Guthrie, and Marion Strachan. This is the earliest presently identified documentary title in which the Guthrie family appears in the Kingennie succession.

The Second Generation at Kingennie:
William Guthrie and Janet Arbuthnot

William Guthrie
Parents: Malcolm Guthrie and Marjory/Marion Strachan
Spouse: Janet Arbuthnot
Known child: Ninian Guthrie

William appears in the charter of 5 March 1478 as the son and heir apparent of Malcolm Guthrie of Dundee. A second Kingennie title, dated 5 December 1511, was granted by Archibald, Earl of Angus, to William Guthrie and Janet Arbuthnot, his wife.

The preservation of both instruments in the later inventory establishes the succession from Malcolm and Marjory Strachan to their son William and his wife Janet Arbuthnot. Their known successor was Ninian Guthrie.

The Third Generation at Kingennie:
Ninian Guthrie and Katherine Moncrief

Ninian Guthrie of Kingennie
Parents: William Guthrie and Janet Arbuthnot
Spouse: Katherine Moncrief
Known child: William Guthrie, slain about 1562

On 2 September 1529 the Crown granted Ninian Guthrie and his heirs the lands of Kingany and associated property, with a fourth part reserved in liferent to his wife, Katherine Moncrief. Ninian also appeared among the members of assize in records from 1538–39 and 1543.

He served as sheriff-depute of Angus in 1560 and again in 1578. Surviving Monifieth material places him within a network of local estate holders but also documents political and ecclesiastical divisions within the parish.

About 1562, Ninian’s son and heir, William Guthrie, was slain by Alexander Lauder of Omachie. A contract of assythment—an agreement providing compensation or satisfaction following a killing—was subsequently reached. The surviving discussion of the affair suggests that the killing remained part of a wider local conflict involving the Guthries, Lauders, Durhams, Ramsays, Lord Gray and the Earl of Morton.

Because his son had predeceased him, Ninian made a charter on 25 August 1580 in favor of his grandson William Guthrie. This was not the appearance of an unexplained additional Ninian or an administrator outside the direct succession. Ninian was the grandfather preserving the estate for the next heir after the violent death of his son.

On 12 April 1584 Ninian Guthrie of Kingennie was among those excluded from communion at Monifieth because he had not been reconciled with the kirk. This appears to have arisen from local, political and factional divisions as well as ecclesiastical discipline and should not be reduced to a simple statement that Ninian rejected the Reformed faith.

Ninian’s testament dative and inventory was confirmed in the Edinburgh Commissary Court on 10 January 1587.

The Fourth Generation at Kingennie:
William Guthrie and Marion Mauld

William Guthrie of Kingennie
Parents: Ninian Guthrie and Katherine Moncrief
Spouse: Marion Mauld/Maule
Known children: William Guthrie and Henry Guthrie
Died: about 1562, slain by Alexander Lauder of Omachie

This William was Ninian’s son and intended heir. His death explains why the estate passed through Ninian directly to a grandson.

The evidence identifies Marion Mauld as his widow and as the mother of the succeeding William. She remained involved in the estate for decades and was one of the parties consenting to the final sale of Kingennie in 1600.

A second son, Henry Guthrie, is also reported. The later histories of William and Henry beyond the Kingennie succession should remain separate unless further records establish their identities.

The Last Guthrie Proprietor at Kingennie:
William Guthrie and Elizabeth Fethie

William Guthrie of Kingennie
Parents: William Guthrie and Marion Mauld
Spouse: Elizabeth Fethie, married 21 August 1580 at Monifieth
Known children: James Guthrie and Jean Guthrie

Ninian Guthrie’s charter of 25 August 1580 named this William as his grandson. William married Elizabeth Fethie at Monifieth on 21 August 1580. A charter dated 19 March 1586 records William Guthrie of Kingennie granting rights to Elizabeth as his wife.

The later records show a gradual restructuring and eventual sale of the property:

• 8 June 1587: Sir James Scrymgeour of Dudhope and William Guthrie of Kingennie granted an annual rent from a Dundee tenement to David Wedderburn. The charter was confirmed on 15 July 1600.
• 5 February 1591/92: A sasine involving William Guthrie of Kingennie, Henry Maule of Skryne and Isabella Maule concerned an annual rent from the lands of Kingennie.
• 26 October 1592: David Wedderburn obtained the right of patronage of the chaplainry of St Thomas the Martyr from William Guthrie of Kingennie.
• 22–24 May 1596: William granted the portions called Crymbillis or Trumbillis of Kingennie to John Traill of Dundee, subject to a right of reversion.
• 21 April 1600: William and Elizabeth contracted with John Traill concerning the Mains of Kingennie.
• 6 September 1600: William, Elizabeth Fethie and William’s mother, Marion Mauld, contracted to sell Kingennie to Alexander Wedderburn, common clerk of Dundee, for 10,800 merks.
• 17 September 1600: William agreed not to sell other lands or dispose of the purchase money without the consent of the named relatives, creditors and advisers.
• 1 November 1600: A further contract placed the total accounting for Kingennie at 16,000 merks. Of this amount, 4,800 merks was allocated to clearing reversions and other charges upon the estate. The different figures therefore represent different parts of the same financial settlement rather than contradictory sale prices.
• 1 November 1600: William and the other interested parties renounced Kingennie in favor of Alexander Wedderburn and Helen Ramsay without a right of redemption. Elizabeth Fethie separately ratified the transaction. The lands, manor place, orchards, mill and associated property were resigned by delivery of staff and baton.
• 3–5 December 1600: William and Elizabeth issued discharges acknowledging payment. The Guthries and their tenants also consented to remove from the property.
• 15 December 1600: A sasine described William as heir to his late great-grandfather, another William Guthrie of Kingennie. This document helps confirm the generational title chain even though the sale was already being completed.
• 13 February 1601: Alexander Wedderburn brought an inhibition against William, preventing further dealings that might prejudice Wedderburn’s interest.
• 25 February 1609: A later legal action styled William as “sometime of Kinganie,” confirming that he no longer held the estate.

The 1600 transaction ended the Guthrie family’s possession of Kingennie, but it did not end the family. The records of the following decade identify William and Elizabeth’s son James and provide the documentary bridge to Pitforthie.

The Documentary Bridge from Kingennie to Pitforthie

A Brechin commissary deed recorded in 1610 names Henry Fethie of Muirhouse, Bessie Fethie—relict of the deceased William Guthrie in Ogil—and James Guthrie, their son.

Two Brechin deeds from 1612 make the identification more explicit. They name Elizabeth Fethie as relict of the deceased William Guthrie, sometime of Kingennie, and James Guthrie as her son. These records establish that James belonged to the final Kingennie family even though he could no longer inherit the estate that his parents had sold.

A Lyon family genealogy written before 1734 and published in 1870 gives the later family tradition. It states that the eldest daughter of James Lyon of Ogil married first a Wemyss of Pitforthie, by whom she had two daughters, and secondly James Guthrie, son of a Guthrie of Kingennie. James’s wife appears in contemporary and later records as Janet, Jonet or Jean Lyon.

The same Lyon genealogy credits James and his wife with five sons and three daughters. The Brechin baptismal registers and other evidence identify a larger family of eleven children. The Lyon account is valuable for the marriages and estate transition, but its abbreviated child count should not displace the contemporary parish records.

James acquired Pitforthie through transactions involving his wife’s Wemyss daughters, the heiresses of their father. His marriage provided the family connection, but the property should not be described as passing automatically to James merely through marriage. After the acquisition he was styled James Guthrie of Pitforthie.

The 1610 and 1612 deeds therefore provide the essential documentary bridge:

Malcolm Guthrie and Marjory Strachan → William Guthrie and Janet Arbuthnot → Ninian Guthrie and Katherine Moncrief → William Guthrie and Marion Mauld → William Guthrie and Elizabeth Fethie → James Guthrie of Pitforthie.

This establishes the paternal continuity between the documented Kingennie and Pitforthie families. It does not, by itself, establish a paternal descent from the principal Guthries of Guthrie. The reported connection to Guthrie of that Ilk presently comes through James’s wife, Janet Lyon, whose mother was said in the Lyon genealogy to have been a daughter of Guthrie of that Ilk.

Sources for the Kingennie Family

1. The Wedderburn Book, Alexander Wedderburn, 1898, vol. I, p. 127; vol. II, particularly entries 39, 51, 110–147, 167, 240, 291 and 50. These include the 1478 and 1511 title inventory, the 1580 and 1586 charters, the 1596 transactions, the 1600 sale instruments and the 1609 description of William as sometime of Kingennie.
2. Charters of the Abbey of Coupar Angus, Scottish History Society, Third Series, vol. XLI, vol. II, p. 81. This records Malcolm Guthrie’s civic activity, his 1458 appearance as procurator for William Strathechyn, and his service as custumar until his death in 1482.
3. City of Dundee: A Chronicle of the City’s Office Bearers and Alexander Hastie Millar’s Roll of Eminent Burgesses of Dundee, for Malcolm Guthrie’s offices as bailie and provost.
4. Alexander J. Warden, Angus or Forfarshire: The Land and People, vol. II, p. 198 and pp. 229–230, for Malcolm’s parliamentary commission and Ninian’s service as sheriff-depute.
5. Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, entry 832, dated 2 September 1529, for the grant to Ninian Guthrie and the liferent reserved to Katherine Moncrief.
6. Frank D. Bardgett, Monifieth Kirk Register, especially pp. 182 and 185–189, for the political and ecclesiastical setting, the killing of Ninian’s son, and Ninian’s exclusion from communion. The account references the underlying records RD1/5/384 and GD137/639.
7. Testament Dative and Inventory of Niniane Guthrie, Edinburgh Commissary Court, confirmed 10 January 1587, National Records of Scotland reference CC8/8/16.
8. Old Parish Register, Monifieth, marriage of William Guthrie and Elizabeth Fethie, 21 August 1580.
9. Protocol Books of the Town Clerks of Arbroath finding aid, entry dated 5 February 1591/92, for the Kingennie sasine and annual rent.
10. Register of Deeds of the Commissariot of Brechin, entries 118, 310 and 318, for the 1610 and 1612 records identifying James as the son of Elizabeth Fethie and the deceased William Guthrie, sometime of Kingennie.
11. William Lyon, Lyon of Ogil, published 1870 from an earlier family manuscript associated with a 1734 letter, p. 2, for Janet Lyon’s marriages and the Kingennie-to-Pitforthie family tradition.

James Guthrie and Janet Lyon:
From Kingennie to Pitforthie

The transition from Kingennie to Pitforthie centered upon James Guthrie, son of the final Guthrie proprietor of Kingennie, and his wife Janet Lyon. Their marriage joined the former Kingennie family to the Lyons of Easter Ogil and to the Wemyss inheritance at Pitforthie. The evidence suggests that James’s acquisition of Pitforthie was a gradual legal process rather than an immediate consequence of the marriage.

James Guthrie After Kingennie

James was a son of William Guthrie, sometime of Kingennie, and Elizabeth Fethie. The connection is stated directly in two 1612 entries in the Register of Deeds of the Commissariot of Brechin, which name Elizabeth as William’s widow and James as her son.

(NRS CC3/9/3, Register of Deeds of the Commissariot of Brechin, entries 310 and 318.)

Kingennie had already been sold by the time James reached adulthood. He therefore inherited the family identity but not its former landed seat. His marriage to Janet Lyon brought him into a different network of Angus families and eventually established the Guthries at Pitforthie.

Janet Lyon of Easter Ogil

Contemporary baptismal and legal records call James’s wife Jonat or Janet Lyon. The later Genealogie of Ogil uses the form Jean. These should be treated as variant forms for the same woman rather than as evidence of separate wives.

The Genealogie of Ogil identifies her as the eldest daughter of James Lyon, sixth laird of Easter Ogil, and an unnamed daughter of Guthrie of that Ilk. According to this account, Janet’s mother belonged to the principal Guthrie family.

This maternal connection must be stated precisely. The Kingennie family has not been proved to descend paternally from the Guthries of Guthrie. If the Genealogie of Ogil is correct, the children of James Guthrie and Janet Lyon descended from the Guthries of that Ilk through their maternal grandmother.

The Forfar sasine index independently identifies Janet Lyon as the spouse of James Guthrie of Over Pitforthie: Series 1, vol. VIII, p. 217; Series 2, vol. I, p. 88.

Janet Lyon’s First Marriage

Before her marriage to James Guthrie, Janet was married to John Wemyss of Pitforthie. They had two known daughters:

• Catherine Wemyss
• Margaret Wemyss

The Genealogie of Ogil reports that John Wemyss died without a son and that his two daughters inherited the Wemyss interest in Pitforthie. Janet subsequently married James Guthrie.

The identities of the daughters and their father are independently confirmed by the Act Book of the Commissariot of Brechin. On 11 August 1630, an edict appointed curators for “Catherine Wemyss and Margaret Wemyss, daughters of the deceased John Wemyss of Pitforthie.” Their named maternal relatives included William Lyon in Glenly, their uncle, and James Lyon, son of the deceased James Lyon of Easter Ogil.

(NRS CC3/1/7, Act Book of the Commissariot of Brechin, 11 August 1630.)

The appointment of curators shows that Catherine and Margaret’s legal interests were still being administered separately in 1630. It warns against assuming that James automatically acquired all of Pitforthie when he married their mother.

How Did James Acquire Pitforthie?

The Genealogie of Ogil states that James purchased the lands of Pitforthie from his Wemyss stepdaughters. That account probably preserves the basic means by which the property entered the Guthrie family, but the conveyance documenting the purchase has not yet been identified.

The dated records reveal a more complicated transition:

• By 1622, and certainly by the baptism of Barbara Guthrie in 1625, the Brechin parish register styled James “of Pitforthie.”
• In August 1630, Catherine and Margaret Wemyss were still under appointed curators.
• In May 1631, James was styled James Guthrie of Over Pitforthie.
• On 24 February 1637, John Mortimer, formerly of Craigievar, granted a charter to James Guthrie of Pitforthie.
• On 12 June 1646, James served as a juror at a general retour held in Forfar and was again designated James Guthrie of Pitforthie.

The 1637 reference appears in Registrum Episcopatus Brechinensis, vol. I, charter CLXXXVII. The 1646 retour is printed in Crawfurd Peerage: Minutes of Evidence, p. 233, General Retour no. 106.

The Forfar sasine index provides a broader trail for James:

• Series 1, vol. VIII, p. 217;
• Series 2, vol. I, pp. 88 and 355;
• Series 2, vol. III, p. 287;
• Series 2, vol. IV, p. 468;
• Series 2, vol. V, pp. 142, 142a, 142b, 143, 145, and 146; and
• Series 3, vol. V, p. 287.

Some of the later registrations may preserve retrospective references rather than transactions conducted during James’s lifetime. The index entries nevertheless identify a substantial body of original material that may eventually clarify the extent and legal development of his interest.

The use of Over Pitforthie is particularly important. Pitforthie contained distinguishable portions or holdings, and contemporary records also refer to Nether and Easter Pitforthie. James may initially have acquired or occupied one portion before assembling a more extensive interest.

The evidence therefore supports the family manuscript’s general statement that James purchased Pitforthie from his stepdaughters, but it does not establish the date, terms, or exact extent of the purchase. The commonly repeated date of “about 1620” should not be presented as a documented conveyance date.

James and Janet at Pitforthie

James and Janet were established in the parish of Brechin by the early 1620s. Their children’s baptisms were entered in the Brechin parish register, where James was regularly styled “of Pitforthie” and Janet was named as his spouse.

The family’s witnesses included members of the Lyon, Carnegie, Arbuthnot, Liddell, Fenton, and other locally prominent families. These baptismal witnesses demonstrate that the household was closely integrated into the landed, civic, and ecclesiastical community surrounding Brechin.

By the 1630s and 1640s, “James Guthrie of Pitforthie” was an established territorial designation. His participation in the 1646 retour at Forfar supplies particularly useful dated evidence that he was alive and using that style on 12 June 1646.

Ownership Confirmed Retrospectively

Whatever the precise sequence of the earlier transactions, James had obtained a heritable interest in Pitforthie by the time of his death. The clearest confirmation appears in the Great Seal grant of 27 July 1655.

That charter states that the lands of Pitforthie, including their manor-places and associated teinds, had pertained to the deceased James Guthrie of Pitforthie. It further records the later legal proceedings involving his eldest son William and the eventual grant to his son David.

(Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, vol. X, charter 450, 27 July 1655, p. 195.)

This retrospective statement proves James’s ownership more securely than the territorial style in the parish records alone.

Death and Testament

James died in 1650. His testament was recorded in the Commissariot of Brechin on 10 November 1650 under the designation James Guthrie of Pitforthie. The original testament should be consulted for any surviving inventory, debts, family references, or estate details that might further clarify the household and property succession.

(Brechin Parish Testaments; original record held by the National Records of Scotland.)

Janet Lyon’s death date has not yet been established.

The Transition in the Records

• 1612: James identified as the son of William Guthrie, sometime of Kingennie, and Elizabeth Fethie.
• By 1622–1625: James styled “of Pitforthie” in the Brechin baptismal register.
• 1630: Catherine and Margaret Wemyss, daughters of the deceased John Wemyss of Pitforthie, placed under curators.
• 1631: James styled “of Over Pitforthie.”
• 1637: Charter granted to James Guthrie of Pitforthie.
• 1646: James served as a juror at a general retour under the territorial designation “of Pitforthie.”
• 1650: Testament of James Guthrie of Pitforthie recorded at Brechin.
• 1655: Great Seal charter confirmed retrospectively that the lands had pertained to the deceased James.

The transition from Kingennie to Pitforthie is therefore well supported. What remains unresolved is not whether James became a proprietor of Pitforthie, but precisely when and through which conveyances he assembled his interest in the property.recisely when and through which conveyances he assembled his interest in the estate.

The First Generation at Pitforthie:
Children of James Guthrie and Janet Lyon

James Guthrie and Janet Lyon were the parents of at least eleven children. Nine appear in the baptismal register of Brechin, where their parents are variously styled James Guthrie of Over Pitforthie or Pitforthie and Jonat or Janet Lyon. Baptismal entries have not yet been identified for their eldest son William or their daughter Janet, but both are securely placed in the family by other evidence.

The later Genealogie of Ogil reports five sons and three daughters. Its account preserves valuable information about the children who survived or remained prominent within family memory, but its enumeration is incomplete. Comparison with the parish register produces a family of six sons and five daughters.

The Six Sons

Four of the six sons were educated for the ministry. William, Alexander, and John received parish appointments, while Robert was licensed but did not obtain a charge, reportedly because of persistent ill health.

William Guthrie, the eldest son, became minister of Fenwick and one of the best-known Scottish Covenanting ministers of the seventeenth century. The minister identified in the 1653 Pitforthie proceedings as serving at the New Kirk of Kilmarnock was this same Rev. William Guthrie. He married Agnes Campbell in August 1645. Although they had six children, only their daughters Agnes and Mary are presently known to have survived into adulthood. His life and ministry are treated separately in the biographical profile of Rev. William Guthrie.

Andrew Guthrie, baptized in 1622, disappears from the currently identified records. It has sometimes been assumed that he died young or before the settlement of Pitforthie upon David, but the absence of a later record does not establish either conclusion.

David Guthrie married Margaret Livingstone, eldest daughter of Patrick Livingstone of Muretoun. Their 1653 marriage contract identifies David as the second son of James Guthrie of Pitforthie. Six children—James, Patrick, William, Francis, Margaret, and Robert—have been identified from later family records. These children document the continuation of David’s immediate family, but their survival does not establish that they inherited Pitforthie.

Robert Guthrie pursued theological studies and was licensed to preach, but an early account states that his “tender constitution and numerous infirmities” prevented him from entering parish ministry. The sasine index identifies Robert as a son of James Guthrie at Series 2, vol. V, p. 146, and as a brother of David at Series 3, vol. I, p. 54. No secure evidence has yet been found for his marriage or death.

Alexander Guthrie earned his master’s degree at St Andrews in 1649 and was ordained minister of Stracathro and Dunlappie on 19 July 1655. He married Magdalen Carnegie, daughter of Alexander Carnegie of Cookston, and died in March 1662. A later testamentary proceeding dated February 1663 appears to have contributed to the frequently repeated but incorrect death year of 1663. Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ also calls Alexander the youngest son, but the Brechin register shows that his brother John was younger.

John Guthrie, the youngest son, became minister of Tarbolton and Barnweil. He was deprived of his charge in 1662 and later implicated in the aftermath of the Pentland Rising. Although condemned in 1667, he received a royal pardon. He died in 1669, leaving his widow, Mary Haldane, who was herself imprisoned in 1676 for attending a conventicle.

Clerical sources: Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ, vol. 3, pp. 75–76; vol. 5, pp. 376 and 418.

The Five Daughters

The daughters are less evenly documented, but the sasine index resolves one important identification that later accounts have frequently confused.

Janet Guthrie, the eldest known daughter, married Rev. William Rait. The Genealogie of Ogil describes him as minister at Brechin and afterward at Dundee, where he was admitted in 1662. The baptismal records of their children repeatedly identify their mother as Janet or Jonat Guthrie.

Janet’s husband was not the Rev. William Rait who served as minister of Monikie. That minister was their eldest son, also named William. Confusion between father and son appears to have produced the often-repeated description of Janet’s husband as minister of “Monikie and Dundee.”

Barbara Guthrie, baptized in 1625, has not yet been identified confidently in an adult record.

Nicholas Guthrie, baptized in 1626, was a daughter despite the modern tendency to interpret Nicholas exclusively as a masculine name. The Brechin register describes the child as a “maid bairn.” Her later history remains uncertain.

Margaret Guthrie married Rev. Laurence Skinner, minister of Brechin. Their daughter Margaret Skinner later married her cousin James Guthrie, eldest son of David Guthrie and Margaret Livingstone. That marriage reconnected two branches of the Pitforthie family in the following generation.

The Forfar sasine index identifies Margaret as a daughter of James Guthrie and spouse of Laurence Skinner at Series 2, vol. V, p. 145, and Series 3, vol. V, pp. 300 and 322.

Jean Guthrie, the youngest known child, married John Kinneir of Botheris. This identification is explicit in the Forfar sasine index:

• Series 2, vol. IV, p. 253;
• Series 2, vol. V, p. 143; and
• Series 3, vol. VI, p. 65.

The corresponding Kinneir entry identifies John Kinneir of Botheris and directs the reader to Jean Guthrie as his spouse.

Jean has frequently been misidentified as her eldest sister Janet and consequently listed as the wife of William Rait. The chronology already argued against that identification: the Raits’ first recorded child was baptized in August 1648, when Jean would have been only about twelve. The sasine entries now provide positive evidence for Jean’s actual marriage to John Kinneir.

Corrections to the Established Account

The combined evidence supports several amendments to the traditional family outline:

• James Guthrie and Janet Lyon had at least eleven children, rather than the eight reported in the later family manuscript.
• Their family comprised six sons and five daughters.
• Andrew Guthrie’s disappearance from later records does not prove that he died in childhood.
• Janet Guthrie married the elder Rev. William Rait, minister of Brechin and later Dundee.
• The Rev. William Rait who served at Monikie was Janet and William’s son.
• Jean Guthrie married John Kinneir of Botheris and was not William Rait’s wife.
• John, not Alexander, was the youngest son.
• Rev. Alexander Guthrie died in March 1662, rather than in 1663.
• David’s children continued his family line, but their existence does not prove that they inherited Pitforthie.

Principal evidence: Brechin Old Parish Register, parish 275; Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ, vols. 3 and 5; the 1734 Genealogie of Ogil; and the Index to the Particular Register of Sasines for the Sheriffdom of Forfar, vol. I, 1620–1700.

The Transfer of Pitforthie from William to David Guthrie

After James Guthrie’s death in 1650, his eldest son, Rev. William Guthrie, stood in the position of heir to Pitforthie. Later family and biographical accounts compress what followed into a simple statement that William made the estate over to his younger brother David so that he could devote himself to the ministry. The surviving legal record reveals a more complicated, debt-driven transaction.

William’s Position as Heir

As the eldest son, William was the person against whom claims involving his father’s heritable estate could be pursued. The 1655 Great Seal charter does not say that William had completed an ordinary succession to Pitforthie. Instead, it records that he had been charged to enter heir to the deceased James, his father.

A creditor could compel an heir to enter formally so that lands belonging to the deceased could be reached in satisfaction of debt. William’s appearance in the proceedings therefore identifies him as James’s heir, but it does not establish a period of uncomplicated possession as laird of the whole of Pitforthie.

The charter identifies William as minister at the New Kirk of Kilmarnock. This was the same Rev. William Guthrie who served as minister of Fenwick, wrote The Christian’s Great Interest, and married Agnes Campbell.

The Apprising of 1653

On 9 August 1653, the lands of Pitforthie were apprised from Rev. William Guthrie at the instance of Robert Arbuthnott, fiar of Findowrie. In seventeenth-century Scottish law, an apprising was a judicial process through which a creditor could obtain rights in a debtor’s heritable property following a legal valuation.

The debt recorded in the later charter amounted to 36,565 merks, together with the corresponding sheriff fee. The proceedings treated William both personally and as the son charged to enter heir to his deceased father.

The transaction was therefore not merely a voluntary conveyance from one brother to another. Pitforthie had become subject to judicial proceedings arising from a substantial debt associated with James Guthrie’s estate.

The Grant to David Guthrie, 1655

On 27 July 1655, the Protector granted the lands of Pitforthie to David Guthrie, identified explicitly as a lawful son of the deceased James Guthrie of Pitforthie. The grant included the lands, manor-places, teind sheaves, and other teinds within the barony of Kethick and sheriffdom of Forfar.

The charter states that these lands had formerly pertained to James and had been apprised from William in 1653. The decree obtained by Robert Arbuthnott was subsequently assigned to David. David received the property for himself, his heirs, and assignees, but subject to the legal reversion arising from the debt proceeding.

This charter establishes:

• that the lands had belonged to the deceased James Guthrie;
• that William was treated as the heir against whom the estate claim could be pursued;
• that Pitforthie was judicially apprised in 1653;
• that Robert Arbuthnott assigned the resulting decree to David; and
• that David received the formal grant in 1655.

It does not state that David inherited because Andrew was dead, that William relinquished the property solely to concentrate upon the ministry, or that David’s children later inherited the lands.

Source: Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, vol. X, charter 450, 27 July 1655, p. 195; underlying reference P.R. viii.17.

The Traditional Account Reconsidered

Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ states briefly that William made Pitforthie over to a younger brother. The Genealogie of Ogilsimilarly says that David purchased the property from his elder brother.

These accounts preserve the ultimate family result—David obtained Pitforthie during William’s lifetime—but omit the creditor’s action, the judicial apprising, Arbuthnott’s intervention, and the conditional nature of David’s title. “Purchased from his brother” may represent the way the transaction was remembered within the family rather than a complete description of its legal mechanism.

The documented sequence is:

1. James Guthrie died in 1650.
2. William, as eldest son, was charged to enter heir.
3. Pitforthie was apprised from William for debt on 9 August 1653.
4. Robert Arbuthnott’s decree was assigned to David.
5. David received the formal grant on 27 July 1655, subject to reversion.

William’s Continuing Interest

The 1655 grant should not be read as proof that William immediately severed every connection with Pitforthie. Robert Wodrow’s account of William’s last illness states that he travelled to Angus to settle affairs relating to “his estate of Pitforthy.” William died there on 10 October 1665.

Wodrow’s wording may reflect continuing legal, financial, familial, or redeemable rights rather than simple possession of the entire estate. It nevertheless shows that William’s relationship to Pitforthie was remembered as active or unresolved a decade after David’s grant.

The evidence therefore does not support describing William merely as a “titular laird.” His legal position was more substantial—and more complicated—than that phrase suggests.

David in Possession

The Register of Deeds identifies David Guthrie of Pitforthie in several transactions after the grant:

• bond recorded 22 July 1663, Durie Office, vol. VI, p. 442;
• bond recorded 5 February 1664, Durie Office, vol. VII, p. 600;
• discharge recorded 29 April 1664, Durie Office, vol. VIII, p. 234;
• bond recorded 1 June 1664, Durie Office, vol. VIII, p. 257; and
• bond recorded 29 November 1664, Durie Office, vol. IX, p. 289.

The Forfar sasine index also lists David of Pitforthie at:

• Series 3, vol. I, p. 54; and
• Series 3, vol. V, p. 285.

These entries confirm that David was actively designated “of Pitforthie” after the 1655 grant.

David’s Death Reconsidered

The date 23 October 1695, formerly repeated as David’s death date, cannot be retained. The Forfar sasine index identifies Margaret Livingstone as the relict of David Guthrie of Pitforthie at Series 3, vol. V, p. 285. That volume covers registrations from 6 February 1672 through 15 June 1675.

David was therefore dead by the transaction indexed at Series 3, vol. V, p. 285, and no later than 15 June 1675. The original sasine may provide a more precise terminus.

Margaret Livingstone appears as David’s relict and mother of James Guthrie, minister, at:

• Series 3, vol. V, p. 285;
• Series 3, vol. VIII, p. 550; and
• Series 3, vol. IX, p. 473.

The 1697 rental of the lands of Pitforthie consequently dates more than twenty years after David’s death—not approximately two years afterward, as previously inferred from the erroneous 1695 date.

The Raits and the Divided Property

The same sasine volume that identifies Margaret Livingstone as David’s relict also lists William Rait of Pitforthie at Series 3, vol. V, pp. 285 and 300. This places a William Rait under the Pitforthie designation by the period covered by that volume.

The index alone does not explain the precise transaction by which the Rait interest arose. It also does not justify the traditional claim that Pitforthie passed to William Rait through marriage to David’s sister Jean. Jean was not William Rait’s wife; she married John Kinneir of Botheris. William Rait’s Guthrie wife was the elder sister Janet.

The coexistence of references to David’s widow, a Guthrie minister, and William Rait within the same body of sasines may reflect a transfer in progress, distinct family rights, or possession of different portions of Pitforthie. The recurring distinctions among Over, Nether, Easter, and Mains of Pitforthie make it unsafe to treat every territorial designation as evidence of sole ownership of an undivided estate.

Later records document still more changes:

• a rental of the lands of Pitforthie in 1697;
• Over Pitforthie granted to Dr George Rait in 1714;
• buildings at Nether Pitforthie inventoried in 1718;
• a 1731 grant of the lands of Pitforthie to Alexander Ochterlony, his wife Elizabeth Tyrie, and their son Gilbert; and
• later descriptions of East Pitforthie and the Mains of Pitforthie as separate farms.

The later descent of each portion therefore requires reconstruction from the original deeds and sasines. It should not be reduced to a single unsupported statement that the entire estate passed by inheritance from David Guthrie to one of his children or through a supposed marriage between Jean Guthrie and William Rait.

The Next Generation at Pitforthie:
David Guthrie and Margaret Livingstone

David Guthrie, baptized at Brechin on 13 November 1627, was the second son of James Guthrie of Pitforthie and Janet Lyon. He became the principal landed representative of the next generation, although the legal record shows that his possession resulted from the 1653 apprising and 1655 grant rather than from a straightforward inheritance.

Marriage to Margaret Livingstone

David married Margaret Livingstone, eldest daughter of Patrick Livingstone of Muretoun. Their marriage contract, dated 1653, identifies the parties as:

David Guthrie, second son of James Guthrie of Pitforthie, and Margaret Livingstone, eldest daughter of Patrick Livingstone of Muretoun.

This is important contemporary evidence for David’s place within the family. It establishes that he was James’s second son, despite the presence in the baptismal register of an earlier son, Andrew. The designation may indicate that Andrew had died before 1653, had been excluded from the contemporary reckoning for some other reason, or that “second son” was being used with reference to the surviving or recognized sons. Without a death record or other explanatory document, Andrew’s fate remains unresolved.

Source: NRS GD188/24/8, marriage contract between David Guthrie and Margaret Livingstone, 1653.

David as a Landholder

David received the formal grant of Pitforthie on 27 July 1655. Subsequent records show him using the territorial designation “of Pitforthie.”

The Register of Deeds includes:

• a bond recorded 22 July 1663, Durie Office, vol. VI, p. 442;
• a bond recorded 5 February 1664, Durie Office, vol. VII, p. 600;
• a discharge recorded 29 April 1664, Durie Office, vol. VIII, p. 234;
• a bond recorded 1 June 1664, Durie Office, vol. VIII, p. 257; and
• a bond recorded 29 November 1664, Durie Office, vol. IX, p. 289.

In April and May 1663, David Guthrie of Pitforthie was also among the landed men nominated as possible curators for the twelve-year-old Margaret Scrymgeour, daughter of the deceased Major William Scrymgeour. His inclusion alongside members of the Ogilvie, Carnegie, Keith, and other established families places him within the local network of Angus landholders considered suitable for such a fiduciary responsibility.

Source: NRS GD137/1035, Extract Act of Curatory, 28 April–14 May 1663.

Robert Wodrow’s list of fines imposed in 1662 includes an unnamed “Guthrie of Pitforthie”, assessed at £600 Scots. David is the most likely identification because he had received the 1655 grant and was using the territorial designation during the following years. The entry does not give a first name, however, and should therefore be presented as a probable rather than certain reference to him.

The Children of David and Margaret

Six children have presently been identified for David Guthrie and Margaret Livingstone:

The Genealogie of Ogil says only that David had “several sons.” It identifies the eldest as Rev. James Guthrie and states that James then had only one brother living, named William. This does not mean that William was David’s only other son. It indicates only that the manuscript’s writer knew William to be the sole surviving brother at that particular time.

The records therefore document the continuation of David’s family through several children. They do not establish that those children inherited Pitforthie or that the estate descended among them as a single undivided property.

Rev. James Guthrie

David and Margaret’s eldest identified son, James Guthrie, was born at Brechin on 2 March 1653. He entered the ministry and served at Cambusnethan before his later association with the parishes of Guthrie and Carbuddo.

The Genealogie of Ogil calls him David’s eldest son and describes him as minister of Cambusnethan and afterward at Guthrie. His career is also documented in Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ.

James married Margaret Skinner, daughter of Rev. Laurence Skinner, minister of Brechin, and his wife Margaret Guthrie. The marriage created a close family reunion:

• David Guthrie and Margaret Guthrie were brother and sister, both children of James Guthrie of Pitforthie and Janet Lyon.
• David’s son James Guthrie and Margaret’s daughter Margaret Skinner were therefore first cousins.
• Their children descended twice from James Guthrie and Janet Lyon.

The Genealogie of Ogil explicitly recognizes this relationship by describing Margaret Skinner as the cousin of Rev. James Guthrie.

This marriage explains why the Skinner and Guthrie entries in the clerical records repeatedly intersect. It also provides a documented link between David’s branch and the family of his sister Margaret Guthrie.

Margaret Livingstone as David’s Relict

The Forfar sasine index later identifies Margaret Livingstone as:

relict of David Guthrie of Pitforthie, and mother of James Guthrie, minister.

Her entries appear at:

• Series 3, vol. V, p. 285;
• Series 3, vol. VIII, p. 550; and
• Series 3, vol. IX, p. 473.

These references independently confirm both her marriage to David and her relationship to their minister son James.

They also correct David’s previously reported death date. The designation relict means that David was already dead by the transaction indexed at Series 3, vol. V, p. 285. That volume covers registrations from 6 February 1672 through 15 June 1675. David must therefore have died no later than 15 June 1675 and possibly earlier within that date range.

You’re right. I mistakenly referred to a newly proposed subsection as though it already existed on your page.

The material belongs within the existing subsection:

Margaret Livingstone as David’s Relict

More precisely, it should replace the paragraph beginning:

The formerly reported date of 23 October 1695 should be removed…

That paragraph should be expanded to explain the 1695 testament and identify the cautioner properly:

The formerly reported death date of 23 October 1695 arose from the confirmation date of a testament recorded under David’s name. The original document shows that this was not David’s personal will and that 1695 was not his death year. It was a testament dative ad omissa, confirmed at Brechin on 23 October 1695, in which Alexander Jamieson, maltman in Brechin, acted as executor qua creditor to recover an old debt. The record contains no bequests, names no heirs, and provides no account of the inheritance of Pitforthie.

The customary death clause appears to place David’s death in the 1670s, but the month and final digit of the year were left blank. The testament therefore supplies no exact death date. The independent sasine evidence identifying Margaret Livingstone as David’s relict remains the basis for concluding that he had died before 15 June 1675.

The 1695 proceeding concerned a financial claim transferred to Jamieson immediately before his appointment as creditor-executor. The estate asset inventoried was itself an old debt owed to David Guthrie. The late confirmation therefore represents the recovery of an omitted estate asset, not a probate proceeding conducted soon after David’s death.

Mr James Guthrie, minister at Guthrie, acted as cautioner for Jamieson. He was David’s eldest son, Rev. James Guthrie, formerly minister of Cambusnethan and later minister of Guthrie and Carbuddo. (Not to be confused with Rev. James Guthrie, minister of Stirling, the Covenanter martyr executed in 1661.)

Margaret Livingstone is not mentioned in the testament. It consequently provides no evidence that she had died by 1695 or that her death prompted the creditor’s proceeding.

Did David’s Children Inherit Pitforthie?

No record presently examined proves that Pitforthie descended to one of David’s children. The existence of five sons does not itself establish an inheritance, and the later clerical career of his eldest son James does not demonstrate possession of the estate.

The Forfar sasine index lists:

• David Guthrie of Pitforthie at Series 3, vol. I, p. 54, and vol. V, p. 285;
• Margaret Livingstone, his relict, at Series 3, vol. V, p. 285; and
• William Rait of Pitforthie at Series 3, vol. V, pp. 285 and 300.

The appearance of these names within the same sasine volume may document a transfer, overlapping rights, different portions of Pitforthie, or a combination of those circumstances. The index cannot resolve the legal mechanism without examination of the original entries.

The 1697 rental of the lands of Pitforthie was created more than twenty years after David’s death. It should no longer be interpreted as evidence that the property was rented out approximately two years after his supposed death in 1695.

The family line unquestionably continued through David and Margaret’s children. The descent of the property, however, remains a separate question requiring the original sasines and deeds.

The Raits and the Later Descent of Pitforthie

The later history of Pitforthie cannot be represented as a simple descent from David Guthrie to one of his children. By the early 1670s, records associate William Rait with Pitforthie, while other documents show that Over, Nether, Easter, and the Mains of Pitforthie could be treated as distinguishable holdings.

The surviving evidence therefore points toward a period of divided or overlapping interests rather than one easily traced line of whole-estate inheritance.

William Rait and Janet Guthrie

Rev. William Rait married Janet Guthrie, eldest known daughter of James Guthrie of Pitforthie and Janet Lyon. The Genealogie of Ogil describes him as minister at Brechin and afterward at Dundee, where he was admitted in 1662. It calls him an eminent churchman and records his death in 1679.

This William must be distinguished from his eldest son, also Rev. William Rait, who became minister of Monikie. The two clerical careers have frequently been combined, producing the inaccurate description of Janet’s husband as minister of “Monikie and Dundee.”

The Rait family also included:

• Robert Rait, who succeeded his father in the Dundee ministry;
• Laurence Rait, a merchant who was lost at sea;
• a daughter who married John Scrymgeour of Kirktown;
• a daughter who married first Rev. John Campbell, minister of Tealing; and
• other children documented in the Dundee and Brechin registers.

Janet’s marriage to William Rait placed the Rait family within the immediate Pitforthie kinship network. It did not, by itself, make Janet an heiress to the estate or prove that Pitforthie passed to her husband through marriage.

Which William Rait Was “of Pitforthie”?

The Index to the Particular Register of Sasines for the Sheriffdom of Forfar lists:

William Rait of Pitforthie — Series 3, vol. V, pp. 285 and 300.

Series 3, volume V covers registrations from 6 February 1672 through 15 June 1675. This establishes a William Rait using the territorial designation “of Pitforthie” during that period.

The chronology makes Janet Guthrie’s husband a strong candidate. He was alive until 1679 and was already minister at Dundee. His adult son William, the future minister of Monikie, was also living, however, and the index entry alone does not distinguish definitively between father and son. The original sasines should identify the man through his clerical title, spouse, relatives, or other transaction details.

A heraldic source supplies additional evidence. A System of Heraldry records:

Mr William Rait of Pitforthie, descended of a second son of Halgreen.

It describes his arms as a gold field bearing a black engrailed cross with a hunting horn, an anchor for a crest, and the motto Meliora spero sequorque. The account cites the Lyon Register and is consistent with the armorial record assigned during the 1670s.

The heraldic entry confirms that a William Rait was recognized territorially as “of Pitforthie.” It does not explain whether he owned the whole estate, possessed one portion, held a wadset or other security, or acquired his interest through purchase, debt, or family arrangement.

No Documented Descent Through Jean Guthrie

Later pedigrees sometimes claim that William Rait acquired Pitforthie through marriage to Jean Guthrie, supposedly an heiress of the family. That account contains two separate problems.

First, William Rait’s wife was Janet Guthrie, the eldest known daughter—not her younger sister Jean.

Second, contemporary sasine evidence identifies Jean Guthrie as the spouse of John Kinneir of Botheris:

• Series 2, vol. IV, p. 253;
• Series 2, vol. V, p. 143; and
• Series 3, vol. VI, p. 65.

No identified record calls either Janet or Jean the heiress of Pitforthie. James and Janet Lyon had several sons, and David Guthrie had received the 1655 grant. The Rait interest must therefore be established through property records rather than inferred from the sex or birth order of William Rait’s wife.

Overlapping Guthrie and Rait References

The same sasine volume that lists William Rait of Pitforthie also contains several members of the Guthrie family:

• David Guthrie of Pitforthie — Series 3, vol. V, p. 285;
• Margaret Livingstone, relict of David Guthrie of Pitforthie and mother of James Guthrie, minister — Series 3, vol. V, p. 285;
• James Guthrie of Pitforthie — Series 3, vol. V, p. 287; and
• Margaret Guthrie, spouse of Laurence Skinner — Series 3, vol. V, pp. 300 and 322.

The references do not necessarily mean that all these people simultaneously possessed the same property. Sasines could record transfers, liferents, securities, family provisions, marriage arrangements, and retrospective descriptions of deceased proprietors.

Their close placement nevertheless suggests that the original entries may be directly related. Pages 285 through 300 should be among the first sasines consulted if the volume becomes accessible.

The 1691 Register of Deeds supplies another later family reference. It lists:

• Margaret Livingstone, relict of David Guthrie of Pitforthie; and
• James Guthrie, son of David Guthrie of Pitforthie.

Both point to Mackenzie Office, vol. LXVII, folio 1058. This deed may provide important information about the widow, her minister son, or the settlement of David’s affairs. It should not be assumed to involve ownership of Pitforthie until the original deed is examined.

Pitforthie Was Not One Indivisible Holding

The records increasingly demonstrate that the place-name encompassed several distinguishable properties.

Over Pitforthie appears in the earlier records of James Guthrie and Janet Lyon. It remained a separately named holding into the eighteenth century. On 22 June 1714, a signature granted the lands of Over Pitforthie to Dr George Rait.

Nether Pitforthie and Cottertown appear together in late seventeenth-century records connected with the wider Arbuthnott holdings. In 1718, an inventory was made of buildings at Nether Pitforthie among papers relating to properties administered for the Carnegie family of Pittarrow.

Easter Pitforthie appears in a tack dated 28 February 1666, granting Thomas Crystie in Easter Pitforthie part of the lands of Hauch and Hauchmoore in the lordship and parish of Brechin.

Later descriptions also distinguish East Pitforthie and the Mains of Pitforthie as surviving farms.

These names may represent geographic divisions, different tenancies, separately conveyed portions, or changing descriptions of related holdings. Until the underlying titles are compared, it is unsafe to assume that a person styled “of Pitforthie” possessed Over, Nether, Easter, Mains, and every associated property.

The 1697 Rental

A Rental of the Lands of Pitforthie, dated 27 September 1697, survives among the title papers of the Ramsay family, Earls of Dalhousie.

The existence of a rental shows that Pitforthie continued to be managed as income-producing land. Its placement within the Dalhousie papers may indicate a later Ramsay interest or simply the accumulation of an associated title document. The catalogue description does not identify the proprietor, tenants, acreage, or individual divisions included in the rental.

The original file could be especially valuable for determining:

• which portions were included under the general name Pitforthie;
• who owned or administered them in 1697;
• the names of tenants;
• the rents and agricultural divisions; and
• whether any Guthrie or Rait interest remained.

Source: NRS GD45/16/2977, Rental of the Lands of Pitforthie, 27 September 1697.

Over Pitforthie and Dr George Rait

On 22 June 1714, a signature was issued for the lands of Over Pitforthie in favor of Dr George Rait.

The record confirms that a member of the Rait family retained or acquired an interest in at least this specifically named portion. It does not identify Dr George’s relationship to Rev. William Rait or explain whether the grant represented succession, purchase, confirmation of an earlier right, or a new conveyance.

The designation Over Pitforthie is essential. The record should not be expanded into a claim that Dr George Rait received the entire historic Pitforthie estate.

Source: NRS SIG1/139/58, Signature of the lands of Over Pitforthie granted to Dr George Rait, 22 June 1714.

The Ochterlony Acquisition

By 29 November 1731, a signature granted the lands of Pitforthie to:

• Alexander Ochterlony;
• his wife, Elizabeth Tyrie; and
• their son, Gilbert Ochterlony.

This is the clearest presently identified evidence for the Ochterlony family’s legal association with Pitforthie.

Source: NRS SIG1/129/54, Signature of the lands of Pitforthie granted to Alexander Ochterlony, Elizabeth Tyrie, and Gilbert Ochterlony, 29 November 1731.

Later legal papers confirm the continuation of the designation. In 1750, proceedings included a petition by Gilbert Ochterlony of Pitforthie and answers for the children of Alexander Ochterlony of Pitforthie.

Source: NRS RH18/3/290, petition and answers concerning the Ochterlony family of Pitforthie, 29 November–12 December 1750.

Walter Kendall Watkins’s The Ochterloney Family of Scotland and Boston in New England, published in 1902, describes Alexander Ochterlony as laird of Pitforthy and states that his eldest son Gilbert was “of Newton Mill and Pitforthy.” Gilbert reportedly died without issue on 6 February 1786. The same account notes that the farms of East Pitforthie and the Mains of Pitforthie remained recognizable in Brechin parish.

The family history is a later secondary source, but its basic placement of Alexander and Gilbert at Pitforthie is supported by the 1731 signature and the 1750 legal proceedings.

What Can Be Concluded?

The currently identified records support the following cautious reconstruction:

1. David Guthrie held rights in Pitforthie under the 1655 grant and was styled “of Pitforthie” in subsequent records.
2. The incomplete death clause in the 1695 testament appears to place David’s death in the 1670s, while the sasine reference identifying Margaret Livingstone as his relict establishes that he was dead before 15 June 1675. The exact date remains unknown.
3. William Rait of Pitforthie appears in the same sasine volume, which covers registrations between 6 February 1672 and 15 June 1675.
4. No record yet proves that William acquired the property through inheritance from his Guthrie wife.
5. Distinct records for Over, Nether, Easter, and Mains of Pitforthie show that the wider property was divided or capable of separate treatment.
6. Dr George Rait received or confirmed rights in Over Pitforthie in 1714.
7. Alexander Ochterlony, Elizabeth Tyrie, and Gilbert Ochterlony received a formal grant of the lands of Pitforthie in 1731.
8. Gilbert Ochterlony was still styled “of Pitforthie” in legal proceedings of 1750.

The documentary evidence therefore confirms a Rait interest and a later Ochterlony title, but the precise conveyances connecting David Guthrie, William Rait, Dr George Rait, and Alexander Ochterlony remain to be recovered. The history should be presented as an evolving property reconstruction rather than a completed line of inheritance. Rait, Dr George Rait, and Alexander Ochterlony remain to be recovered. The history should be presented as an evolving property reconstruction rather than a completed line of inheritance.

Rev. William Guthrie, Minister of Fenwick

Rev. William Guthrie, born in 1620, was the eldest known son of James Guthrie of Pitforthie and Janet Lyon. No baptismal entry has been found for him, although the baptisms of most of his younger siblings appear in the Brechin parish register.

Education and Ministry

William graduated M.A. from the University of St Andrews on 5 June 1638 and subsequently studied theology under Samuel Rutherford. He was licensed to preach in 1642 and ordained as the first minister of Fenwick, also called the New Kirk of Kilmarnock, on 7 November 1644.

Older biographies describe Rev. James Guthrie, later minister of Stirling, as William’s cousin and early university mentor. Their association is well established, but the precise blood relationship has not been documented. It should not be used as proof that the Kingennie/Pitforthie family belonged to the male line of the Guthries of Guthrie.

William was deprived of his ministry on 24 July 1664 for refusing to conform to episcopacy. His best-known work, The Christian’s Great Interest, became one of the most widely circulated Scottish devotional works of its period.

Marriage and Children

William married Agnes Campbell in August 1645. She was a daughter of David Campbell of Skeldon in Ayrshire.

The Fenwick parish register documents six children. Its entries use several spellings of the surname, including Guthrie, Gutherie, and Gutrie.

Only Agnes and Mary survived their father, who died in 1665. Mary and Patrick Warner’s daughter Margaret Warner later married the church historian Rev. Robert Wodrow.

Source: Fenwick Old Parish Register, baptismal and death/burial entries for the children of Mr William Guthrie and Agnes Campbell.

William’s Legal Position at Pitforthie

William’s position as eldest son made him the person against whom claims involving his father’s heritable estate could be pursued. The 1655 Great Seal charter identifies him as:

Mr William Guthrie, minister at the New Kirk of Kilmarnock, for himself and as charged to enter heir to the deceased James, his father.

Pitforthie had been judicially apprised from William for debt on 9 August 1653. The resulting decree was assigned to his younger brother David, who received the formal grant in 1655 subject to legal reversion. William’s connection with Pitforthie should therefore not be described simply as a voluntary resignation of the estate so that he could concentrate upon the ministry.

Some later biographies state that Pitforthie returned to William after the death of his brother. That account cannot be correct: the independent evidence places David’s death in the 1670s, after William’s death in 1665. Robert Wodrow’s statement that William returned to Angus to settle matters relating to “his estate of Pitforthy” may instead reflect continuing financial, familial, or redeemable rights arising from the earlier proceedings.

Death at Brechin

During his final illness, William stayed at Brechin with his sister Margaret Guthrie and her husband, Rev. Laurence Skinner, minister of Brechin. He died there on 10 October 1665, aged about forty-five, and was buried in Brechin Cathedral beneath the Pitforthie family desk.

William’s death did not trigger a succession from David back to William or from William to the Raits. The later descent of the property must be reconstructed separately from the legal proceedings and divided Pitforthie holdings already discussed.

Principal evidence: Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ, vol. III, pp. 93–94; Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, vol. X, charter 450; Robert Wodrow’s additions to the memoir of William Guthrie; Fenwick parish registers; and the Guthrie of Kingennie/Pitforthie research page.

Andrew Guthrie
Son of James Guthrie and Janet Lyon

Andrew Guthrie, recorded as “Andro,” was baptized at Brechin on 8 February 1622, a son of James Guthrie of Pitforthie and Janet Lyon. Andro Lyon and Andro Milne were among the witnesses.

No later record has yet been identified confidently for Andrew. His death date, marital status, and possible descendants therefore remain unknown.

David Guthrie’s 1653 marriage contract describes David as the second son of James Guthrie of Pitforthie. Because Andrew had been baptized before David, this may indicate that Andrew had died or was no longer counted among the surviving or recognized sons by 1653. The wording does not establish what happened to him, however.

David’s receipt of Pitforthie likewise cannot be used as proof of Andrew’s death. The property reached David through the debt proceedings, judicial apprising, assignment, and 1655 grant—not through a straightforward succession in which every elder brother necessarily had to be deceased.

Andrew should therefore be recorded as:

• baptized 8 February 1622;
• living at that date;
• possibly deceased by 1653, but not proven; and
• with no presently identified spouse, children, or later career.

Principal evidence: Brechin Old Parish Register, baptism of Andro Guthrie, 8 February 1622; NRS GD188/24/8, marriage contract of David Guthrie and Margaret Livingstone, 1653.

Janet Guthrie and Rev. William Rait

Janet or Jonat Guthrie was the eldest known daughter of James Guthrie of Pitforthie and Janet Lyon. No baptismal entry has been found for her, but she was probably born during the early 1620s. She married Rev. William Rait, with the marriage traditionally dated to about 1646. Their first recorded child was baptized at Brechin in August 1648.

Rev. William Rait’s Clerical Career

William Rait was born about 1617, a son of Rev. James Rait, minister of Aberluthnott. He served as a regent at King’s College, Aberdeen, before entering the ministry. His appointments included:

• Aberluthnott in 1643;
• Brechin in 1644;
• Principal of King’s College, Aberdeen, in 1661; and
• Dundee from 1662 until his death in July 1679.

He must not be confused with his eldest son, also Rev. William Rait, baptized in 1651, who became minister of Monikie.

The Children of William Rait and Janet Guthrie

The parish registers identify Janet or Jonat Guthrie as the mother of the Rait children. Twelve children are presently documented:

Janet, Not Jean, Guthrie

Janet has frequently been replaced in modern pedigrees by her much younger sister Jean Guthrie, baptized in 1636. The parish records of the Rait children consistently identify their mother as Janet or Jonat Guthrie. The chronology also excludes Jean, who would have been only about twelve when the first Rait child was baptized.

Independent sasine evidence identifies Jean Guthrie as the spouse of John Kinneir of Botheris. Rev. William Rait’s wife was therefore Janet Guthrie, while Jean belonged to the separate Kinneir marriage.

The elder and younger ministers named William Rait must likewise remain separate:

• Janet’s husband served at Brechin and Dundee and died in 1679.
• Their son William served at Monikie.

Combining their careers produces the inaccurate description of Janet’s husband as minister of “Monikie and Dundee.”

The Rait Interest in Pitforthie

The Forfar sasine index identifies William Rait of Pitforthie in Series 3, volume V, pages 285 and 300. This confirms a Rait interest in Pitforthie during the period covered by that volume, 1672–1675.

It does not prove that Janet was an heiress, that William obtained the whole estate through their marriage, or that the property passed directly to him upon the death of one of Janet’s brothers. The legal mechanism and the particular portion of Pitforthie involved remain unresolved.

Janet’s own death date has not yet been identified.

Principal evidence: Brechin and Dundee Old Parish Registers; Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ; Index to the Particular Register of Sasines for the Sheriffdom of Forfar, vol. I; and the compiled Raits of Pitforthie account, checked against the parish-register evidence.

Nicholas Guthrie

Nicholas Guthrie, daughter of James Guthrie of Pitforthie and Janet Lyon, was baptized at Brechin on 2 March 1626.

In early Scotland, Nicholas was frequently—and in some families traditionally—used as a feminine given name. Christian followed a similar pattern. Both names have since gravitated toward masculine usage, which can lead modern researchers to misidentify women in early Scottish records.

Some modern family trees change her recorded name from Nicholas to Nicola, apparently to make her sex more obvious to present-day readers. That alteration should not be adopted unless it is also found in the primary records. The parish register calls her Nicholas and independently identifies her as a “maid bairn.” Preserving the recorded form demonstrates that Nicholas itself was used as a feminine name in early Scotland; it does not require modernization into Nicola.

No adult marriage, death, or property record has yet been connected confidently to her. The claim that Nicholas died before her brother William in 1665 is not supported by any presently identified record.

Nicholas should therefore be recorded as:

• baptized 2 March 1626 at Brechin;
• explicitly identified as female in the parish register; and
• of unknown later history.

Principal evidence: Brechin Old Parish Register, baptism of Nicholas Guthrie, 2 March 1626.

Rev. Robert Guthrie

Robert Guthrie, son of James Guthrie of Pitforthie and Janet Lyon, was baptized at Brechin on 4 March 1629.

Robert prepared for the ministry and was licensed to preach, but no evidence has been found that he was ordained or appointed to a parish. A later memoir of his brother William states that Robert had a delicate constitution, was unable to withstand the demands of ministerial life, and died at an early age.

The memoir establishes a tradition of poor health and early death, but it supplies no date or place of death. No marriage, children, testament, or independently documented clerical appointment has yet been identified for him.

Robert should therefore be recorded as:

• baptized 4 March 1629 at Brechin;
• licensed to preach but not known to have been ordained to a parish;
• reported by a later family biography to have suffered from poor health and died young; and
• with no presently identified spouse or descendants.

Principal evidence: Brechin Old Parish Register, baptism of Robert Guthrie, 4 March 1629; Memoirs of the Rev. William Guthrie.

Margaret Guthrie and Rev. Laurence Skinner

Margaret Guthrie, daughter of James Guthrie of Pitforthie and Janet Lyon, was baptized at Brechin on 22 May 1630.

She married Rev. Laurence Skinner, who had graduated M.A. from the University of St Andrews in 1637. He served as master of the Brechin Grammar School before becoming minister of Brechin. Their marriage had taken place by 1653, when their first recorded child was baptized.

Their Children

The Brechin parish register documents eight children:

The reuse of the name Catherine suggests that the first daughter of that name may have died before the second Catherine was baptized, although no death record has yet been cited.

The Cousin Marriage

Margaret and Laurence’s daughter Margaret Skinner married Rev. James Guthrie, eldest son of David Guthrie of Pitforthie and Margaret Livingstone.

The couple were first cousins:

• David Guthrie and Margaret Guthrie were brother and sister, children of James Guthrie and Janet Lyon.
• David’s son James Guthrie and Margaret’s daughter Margaret Skinner were therefore first cousins.
• Their children descended twice from James Guthrie of Pitforthie and Janet Lyon.

The Genealogie of Ogil explicitly describes Margaret Skinner as Rev. James Guthrie’s cousin.

Sasine Evidence

The Forfar sasine index identifies Margaret as a daughter of James Guthrie and spouse of Laurence Skinner at:

• Series 2, volume V, page 145; and
• Series 3, volume V, pages 300 and 322.

These entries provide independent legal confirmation of Margaret’s parentage and marriage.

The Skinner Connection to David’s Testament

A bond granted by David Guthrie to Laurence Skinner later formed the basis of the creditor’s proceeding recorded in David’s 1695 testament dative. Laurence assigned the claim to his son Rev. John Skinner, who subsequently transferred it to Alexander Jamieson.

The transaction illustrates the continuing financial as well as marital connections between the Guthrie and Skinner families. It does not indicate hostility between the two branches or establish that the debt affected the inheritance of Pitforthie.

Laurence Skinner died in 1691. Margaret’s death date has not yet been identified.

Principal evidence: Brechin Old Parish Register; Genealogie of Ogil; Index to the Particular Register of Sasines for the Sheriffdom of Forfar, vol. I; and David Guthrie’s testament dative ad omissa, Brechin Commissary Court, 23 October 1695.

Rev. Alexander Guthrie,
Minister of Stracathro

Alexander Guthrie, son of James Guthrie of Pitforthie and Janet Lyon, was baptized at Brechin on 22 March 1632.

He entered the ministry and was appointed to Stracathro, in the Presbytery of Brechin, where he served from 1655 until his death.

Marriage and Children

Alexander married Magdalen Carnegie, daughter of Alexander Carnegie of Cookston.

Alexander’s testament dative identifies Magdalen as his surviving spouse and names their four lawful children:

• Margaret Guthrie
• Janet Guthrie
• May Guthrie
• Alexander Guthrie

The testament records the daughter’s name as May, rather than Mary. Later identifications connecting May and Janet with members of the Lyon family should be verified from the corresponding marriage, sasine, or other contemporary records before being added.

Death and Testament Dative

The original testament resolves the discrepancy surrounding Alexander’s death year. Its opening identifies the deceased as:

umquhile Mr Alexander Guthrie, minister at Stracathro

It states that he died in the month of March 1662.

The record is a testament dative and inventory, not a personal will containing Alexander’s bequests. It was given up by his widow, Magdalen Carnegie, in the names of their children Margaret, Janet, May, and Alexander, who had been appointed executors dative to their deceased father.

The date 10 February 1663 belongs to the testament proceedings in the Brechin Commissary Court. It should not be used as Alexander’s death date. The document itself establishes that he had died approximately eleven months earlier, in March 1662.

Magdalen’s participation confirms that she survived Alexander and was acting on behalf of their children in administering his movable estate. Her own death date has not yet been established.

Alexander died at approximately thirty years of age after a ministry of only several years. His testament is nevertheless valuable genealogically because it directly confirms his widow and all four surviving children.

Principal evidence: Brechin Old Parish Register, baptism of Alexander Guthrie, 22 March 1632; Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ; and Testament Dative and Inventory of Mr Alexander Guthrie, minister at Stracathro, Brechin Commissary Court, CC3/3/6, images 565–566, dated 10 February 1663.ary Court and Register of Deeds references for Mr Alexander Guthrie and Magdalen Carnegie.

Rev. John Guthrie,
Minister of Tarbolton and Barnweil

John Guthrie, youngest son of James Guthrie of Pitforthie and Janet Lyon, was baptized at Brechin on 21 November 1633.

He graduated M.A. from the University of Glasgow in 1652 and was admitted minister of Tarbolton and Barnweil, Ayrshire, about 1658.

Ministry and Deprivation

John was deprived of his ministry by the Act of Parliament of 11 June 1662 and the Privy Council decree of 1 October 1662. He was subsequently accused of turbulent and seditious conduct on 14 July 1663.

He participated in the Pentland Rising of 1666, although illness reportedly prevented him from being present at the defeat at Rullion Green. He was indicted before the Justiciary Court on 15 August 1667, condemned to death, and then received a royal pardon on 1 October 1667.

His survival after the pardon is therefore established. His political and religious difficulties should not be interpreted as evidence that he had forfeited any inheritance from Pitforthie; David’s acquisition of that property had already occurred through the separate 1653–1655 debt proceedings.

Marriage and Family

John married Mary Haldane, who survived him. Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ records that Mary was imprisoned at Edinburgh on 6 November 1676 for attending a conventicle.

A son known as Major John Guthrie has been associated with the couple in later accounts. No baptismal, testamentary, or other contemporary record establishing that relationship has yet been cited, so he should remain a reported rather than fully documented child.

Death Date

Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ states that John died in 1669, aged about thirty-seven, but provides no exact date or place.

An Edinburgh record for the death of a John Guthrie on 30 August 1669 is chronologically compatible, but it does not contain enough identifying information to prove that the deceased was the former minister of Tarbolton. That date should not be assigned to him without corroboration.

The alternative year 1689, found in some later accounts, conflicts with Mary Haldane’s description as his widow in 1676 and should be rejected. The safest conclusion is that John died in 1669, with the precise date and place presently unknown.

Principal evidence: Brechin Old Parish Register, baptism of John Guthrie, 21 November 1633; Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ, vol. III, p. 75; Acts of Parliament and Privy Council records; Justiciary Court proceedings; and Wodrow’s History.

Jean Guthrie and John Kinneir of Botheris

Jean Guthrie, youngest known child of James Guthrie of Pitforthie and Janet Lyon, was baptized at Brechin on 5 July 1636.

She married John Kinneir of Botheris. The identification is explicit in the Index to the Particular Register of Sasines for the Sheriffdom of Forfar, which lists Jean as John’s spouse at:

• Series 2, volume IV, page 253;
• Series 2, volume V, page 143; and
• Series 3, volume VI, page 65.

The corresponding entry for John Kinneir of Botheris directs the reader to Jean Guthrie as his wife. These references provide positive contemporary evidence for her adult identity and marriage.

Not the Wife of Rev. William Rait

Jean has frequently been confused with her eldest sister Janet or Jonat Guthrie, wife of Rev. William Rait.

The chronology already argued against that identification. The first recorded child of William Rait and Janet Guthrie was baptized in August 1648, when Jean was only twelve years old. More importantly, the Rait children’s baptismal records consistently identify their mother as Janet or Jonat, while the sasine index independently identifies Jean as the spouse of John Kinneir.

The two sisters must therefore remain separate:

• Janet or Jonat Guthrie married Rev. William Rait.
• Jean Guthrie married John Kinneir of Botheris.

No children, death date, or further biographical details have yet been identified securely for Jean and John Kinneir.

Principal evidence: Brechin Old Parish Register, baptism of Jean Guthrie, 5 July 1636; Index to the Particular Register of Sasines for the Sheriffdom of Forfar, vol. I.

Rev. James Guthrie and Margaret Skinner

Rev. James Guthrie, eldest identified son of David Guthrie of Pitforthie and Margaret Livingstone, was born at Brechin on 2 March 1653.

He graduated M.A. from King’s College, Aberdeen, in 1670 and served as schoolmaster at Ruthven from 1675 until 1683. He was admitted minister of Cambusnethan in 1685 and became minister of Guthrie and Carbuddo in 1692, remaining there until 1715.

Marriage to Margaret Skinner

James married Margaret Skinner, born at Brechin on 15 August 1657, daughter of Rev. Laurence Skinner, minister of Brechin, and Margaret Guthrie.

James and Margaret were first cousins:

• David Guthrie and Margaret Guthrie were brother and sister, children of James Guthrie of Pitforthie and Janet Lyon.
• David’s son James and Margaret Guthrie’s daughter Margaret Skinner were therefore first cousins.
• Their children descended twice from James Guthrie of Pitforthie and Janet Lyon.

The Genealogie of Ogil explicitly describes Margaret Skinner as James Guthrie’s cousin.

Their Children

The later family account states that James and Margaret had seven sons and two daughters. Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæidentifies five of the sons:

• John Guthrie
• Laurence Guthrie
• David Guthrie
• William Guthrie
• Alexander Guthrie

The names of the remaining two sons and two daughters have not yet been established from the sources presently reviewed. Their descendants remain largely unreconstructed.

The 1695 Testament Dative

James appears in the 1695 testament dative of his father, David Guthrie. The record styles him:

Mr James Guthrie, minister at Guthrie

He acted as cautioner for Alexander Jamieson, the creditor-executor. The designation identifies him specifically as David’s minister son and distinguishes him from Rev. James Guthrie, minister of Stirling, who had been executed in 1661.

The testament does not call James heir to Pitforthie or state that he possessed the property. His appearance as cautioner documents his continuing involvement in his father’s outstanding affairs but does not establish a landed succession.

No Proven Inheritance of Pitforthie

James was the eldest identified son of David and Margaret, but no record presently examined styles him “of Pitforthie” or proves that he inherited the estate. His clerical career and his mother’s later designation as David’s relict document the continuation of the family, while the separate Rait references show that the property history had become more complicated.

James’s known career continued through 1715. His precise death date has not yet been identified.

Principal evidence: Brechin Old Parish Register; Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ; the Genealogie of Ogil; David Guthrie’s testament dative ad omissa, Brechin Commissary Court, 23 October 1695; and the Guthrie parish ministerial record.

The Succession and Later Descent of Pitforthie

William Guthrie’s Legal Position

Following the death of James Guthrie of Pitforthie in 1650, his eldest son, Rev. William Guthrie, minister of Fenwick, was the person whom creditors could charge to enter heir to his father.

This did not produce an uncomplicated landed succession. On 9 August 1653, Pitforthie was judicially apprised from William for a debt of 36,565 merks at the instance of Robert Arbuthnott, fiar of Fuddownsie. William was acting both for himself and as the person charged to enter heir to his deceased father.

William should not therefore be described as voluntarily resigning Pitforthie merely to concentrate upon the ministry. His legal position arose from his status as eldest son, but the transfer that followed resulted from debt proceedings.

David Guthrie’s Acquisition

The decree arising from the apprising was subsequently assigned to William’s younger brother David Guthrie. On 27 July 1655, the Protector granted David the lands of Pitforthie, manor-place, teinds, and associated rights. The grant remained subject to the legal right of reversion.

The documentary sequence was:

1. James Guthrie’s death;
2. William’s liability as the person charged to enter heir;
3. the 1653 judicial apprising for debt;
4. assignment of the resulting rights to David; and
5. the formal 1655 grant to David.

David’s acquisition was therefore neither a straightforward inheritance nor an ordinary purchase.

The position of their elder brother Andrew Guthrie, baptized in 1622, remains unresolved. David was described as James’s second son in his 1653 marriage contract, possibly indicating that Andrew was no longer living or recognized among the surviving sons. Andrew’s disappearance cannot, however, be inserted into the Pitforthie succession without further evidence.

David’s Death and Surviving Family

David married Margaret Livingstone, and their six documented children were baptized at Brechin between 1654 and 1660.

David died before 15 June 1675, by which date Margaret was described as his relict. The date 23 October 1695 does not represent his death. It belongs to a later testament dative ad omissa, raised to administer an omitted debt connected with his estate.

No record presently examined shows that any of David’s children inherited Pitforthie. His eldest son, Rev. James Guthrie, appears in the 1695 proceedings as minister at Guthrie and as cautioner for the creditor-executor, but he is not styled “of Pitforthie.”

The Rait Interest

The Forfar sasine index identifies William Rait of Pitforthie in records dating from 1672–1675. William was the husband of Janet or Jonat Guthrie, daughter of James Guthrie of Pitforthie and Janet Lyon.

These records confirm a Rait interest in Pitforthie during David Guthrie’s final years or immediately following his death. They do not establish that Janet was an heiress, that William inherited the entire estate through her, or that the property passed to him automatically upon the death of one of her brothers.

Pitforthie was divided or separately treated under descriptions including Over Pitforthie, Nether Pitforthie, Easter Pitforthie, and the Mains of Pitforthie. A person styled “of Pitforthie” may therefore have possessed a particular portion rather than every component of the former estate.

By 1714, Dr George Rait was associated with Over Pitforthie. The exact conveyances connecting William Rait with Dr George Rait and the particular portions held by each remain to be reconstructed.

The Ochterlony Possession

A 1731 property record associates Pitforthie with Alexander Ochterlony, Elizabeth Tyrie, and Gilbert Ochterlony. Alexander was subsequently styled “of Pitforthie” in his testament proceedings of 1737–1738, and Gilbert was styled “of Pitforthie” by 1750.

The surviving references establish later Ochterlony possession but do not yet provide a complete conveyancing chain from the Raits. Until the underlying deeds and sasines are examined, the transition should be presented as documented possession rather than a fully reconstructed inheritance.

The later history of Pitforthie was therefore not a simple descent from James to William, David, and then the Raits. It involved debt proceedings, rights of reversion, potentially divided holdings, and later transfers whose precise legal mechanisms remain partly unresolved.

Principal evidence: Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, vol. X, charter 450; Forfar Particular Register of Sasines and printed index; testament dative ad omissa of David Guthrie, Brechin Commissary Court, 23 October 1695; and later Rait and Ochterlony property and testament references.

READING and RESOURCES

MAP: Moll, Herman, 1745. ‘The Shire of Angus or Forfar” (Digital Repository: National Library of Scotland)

Map: Blaeu atlas Major 1662-5 Volume 6 – Angus Provincia Scotiae Live The Shire of Angus(Digital Repository: National Library of Scotland)

BOOK: Lyon, William, 1870. “Lyon of Ogil“ (Digital Repository: Family Search)
Copy of a Genealogical MS lent by Walter F Lyon,Esq. London in January 1869, the property of Mr John Lyon, of H.M. Ship ‘Eagle’, resident at Harley Lodge, Laughton, Cheshire,, “whole ancestor Sir Patrick Lyon Lord Cafe is mentioned. and who has a letter dated 1734 to Wm. Lyon, Advocate, from a Mr Ramsay, W.S., regarding the said papers, in which he states that they were written by William Lyon’s father.”

p.2 James Lyon succeeded his father sixth Laird of Ogil, and married a daughter of Guthrie of that Ilk, by whom he had two sons, James who succeeded, and William of Baldoukie, who died without issue and left considerably to ye family of Ogil by his death, and two daughters; the oldest, Jean, was married first to Weemes of Pitforthy, to whom she bore two daughters, and then to James Guthrie, son to __ Guthrie of Kingenny, to whom she bore five sons and three daughters, &c.; the 2nd daughter was married to __ Sinclaire, a Fife gentleman, but died issueless.

DOCUMENTS: Ordnance Survey Name Books / Forfarshire (Angus) OS Name Books, Volume 70 / OS1/14/70/11
Digital Repository: ScotlandsPlaces.gov
This survey is is the Parish of Monifieth at Kingennie, and the site of Kingennie Chapel.
Notes include Gaelic name origin of Kingennie: ceann gaineich (The Sand Head, or Hill)
“The occupier of Kingennie farm speaks about the site of a Castle which he says was called Castle Guthrough from which he traces the origin of the name Guthrie and points out the site in a field close to the farm steading, but no other person could be found who knew anything concerning this castle for which reason it has not been written.”

WEBSITE: Canmore – National Record of the Historic Environment
Site Name: Kingennie
Classification: Castle (Medieval)
Archeology Notes – See website

PUBLICATION: City of Dundee Scotland: A Chronicle of the City’s Office Bearers, Chambers, Regalia, Castles & Twin Cities
p.18 Chronological List of Baillies, Provosts and Lord Provosts
The minutes of the Town Council of Dundee which are still in existence do not bear an earlier date than 1552, but as the names of Provosts and Baillies were usually entered in the ‘Lockit-Book’ over every name of an admitted Burgess, it is thus possible to form a more complete historical list of Office Holders for the City. Where dates before 1482 omit any mention of a Provost, the name of the Principal Baillie has been listed.
See also: Millar, Alexander Hastie, 1887. Roll of Eminent Burgeses of Dundee listing the Provosts of Dundee, 1287-1887.

1398 – Robert de Guthry – Baillie
1403 – Robert de Guthry – Baillie
(In the exchequer Roll, the remark reads “Robert de Guthry was the sole Baillie present, the other billies died of the plague.”)
1456 – David Guthrie – Baillie
1467 – Malcolm Guthrie – Baillie
1470 – Malcolm Guthrie – Provost
1472-75 – Malcolm Guthrie – Baillie
1480 – Malcolm Guthrie – Baillie
1712-14 – Magister Henry Guthrie

BOOK: Warden, Alex J., 1871 “Angus or Forfarshire: The Land and People, descriptive and historical, Volume II“, Dundee, Charles Alexander & Co. Digital Repository: ElectricScotland
p.198 – 1479-October 4. Parliament held at Edinburgh. Representatives of Dundee and Forfar were present, and Malcolm Guthrie of Dundee was chosen one of the Commissioners. 

pp.229-230 – Chap III. Sheriffs-Depute, Before 1748
Includes:
1457 – David Guthrie of Kincaldrum, 7th Dec — H. Man. Com. 5 Rep. 622
1481 – Alexander Guthrie of Guthrie – Acta And 95
1560 – Ninian Guthrye of Kingenny – Reg. de Pan, p.309
1578 – Ninian Guthrye of Kingenny – Crawford Case, p.178

BOOK: Warden, Alex J, 1882. “Angus or Forfarshire: The Land and People, descriptive and historical, Volume III“
Dundee, Charles Alexander & Co. Digital Repository: Google Books.

p.29 – The Lands of Pitforthie…
Background info on Pitforthie and identification of its proprietors.
p.31 – “The family of Guthrie acquired a portion of Pitforthie in the early years of the seventeenth century, but we do not know the year. They were in possession some time before 1620. James Guthrie of Pitforthie is mentioned on 24th February, 1637, Reg. Ep. Br. p.230
William Guthrie, the eldest son of the Laird of Pitforthie, was born there in 1620. He studied divinity at St Andrews under the excellent Mr Samuel Rutherford, was licensed to preach in 1642, and ordained minister of Fenwick, in Ayrshire, in 1644. He was a faithful pastor, and when not engaged in his parochial duties, he attended the army as a chaplain in these “troublesome times.” He was the author of “The Christian’s Great Interest,” a well known and valuable work. On Restoration of Charles II, and the suppression of the Presbyterian form of worship and re-establishment of Episcopy, he was deprived of his living, and returned to Pitforthie, where family affairs required his presence. He succeeded to the property on the death of his father, but did not retain it long. He died at Brechin on 10th October, 1665.”
This page also includes mention of the Rait family taking over Pitforthie after the death of William Guthrie, but also misidentifies Rev William Rait as Rev James Rait.

BOOK: Publications of the Scottish History Society, Third Series, Volume XLI, Charters of the Abbey of Coupar Angus, Vol. II, 1389-1608
p.81 – CXLVIII – Notarial instrument recording that following on the proclamation of David Ogilvy of Tolmad, King’s sheriff, of royal letters enjoining Malcolm Guthrie, provost, and John Fotheringham, bailie of Dundee, to afford justice to the abbot and convent of Coupar in respect of the ownership of a tenement in that burgh, the said provost and bailie undertook to do so at the next head court after Christmas.

Malcolm guthre preposition Johannis fothringam unius balliuirum burgi de Dunde: Guthrie is not found elsewhere as provost. A man so named is constituted procurator of William Strathechyn, burgess of Dundee, in a charter dated at Dundee, 16 Aug., 1458 (Aberbrothoc, ii. 116) 

Malcom Guthrie appears as custumar of Dundee from 6 July 1480 (Exch. Rolls, ix, p.74) till his death on 24 Nov 1482 (ibid, ix. p.122)

WEBSITE:  Castle of Kingennie (Site of)
Kingennie is in the parish of Monifieth and the county of Angus.
Lat / long: 56.5045400, -2.8593897

BOOK: Malcolm, J. 1910. The Parish of Monifieth in Ancient and Modern Times with a History of the Landed Estates and Lives of Eminent Men, William Green and Sons, Edinburgh
Kingennie pp.324-334

“(William de Strathauchin’s) daughter Marjory married (circa 1464 Malcolm de Guthrie, who was also Provost of Dundee in 1467, 1470, 1472-5, and from 1480 they and their descendants occupied Kingennie until 1600, when the Wedderburns, who were related to the Guthries, succeeded them in occupation of the estate by purchasing the lands from William Guthrie. (The Wedderburn Book, vol. ii pp. 15-16)

BOOK: Registrum Magni Sigilli Regum Scotorum: The Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, A.D. 1306-1668 (Digital Repository: Archive.org)

p.84 – Year: 1526 – Entry 337 – (Translated to English) At Edinburgh, Oct. 4 The KING confirmed the charter of James Rynd de Cass, – [which, for a sum of money paid to him, he sold to WILLIAM ANDERSON, and MARGARET OLIPHER his spouse, – a sixth part of the lands of Lwmlethyne, by Job She is always busy, vie. Forfair : — Tenend. said WiL and Marg. and to the other of them living longer in conjoint infeudation, and to heirs begotten among them, failing whom, the heirs of the said Wil. to whomsoever, concerning the king: — Test. “WiL Seyr in Cragnatbro, Niniano Guthre, Job. Keill, D. David Lude, D. Alex. Galloway and M. David Roberti public notary, chaplains: – with the subseription of the said Jac.: – At Dunde, 29 Jul. 1526]: — Test, as in other charters, &c. 51

p.182 – Year: 1529 – Entry 832 – (Translated to English) At Edinburgh, 2 Sept. He granted to NINIAN GUTHRE, and his heirs, the lands of Kingany with Molondo, in the regality of Keryraure, vi. Forfarej – and KATHERINE MONCREIF his spouse, in life rent – a fourth part of the said lands &c.; — which Wil. Wod du Bonyntoun personally resigned: — Test, uf in other works &c. xxv. 19.

p.427 (Entry in a Footnote for 1538-39) Names of assize – Robert Maule of Panmure, Andrew Ogilvy of Duntrone, William Betoun of Westhall, Henry Ramsay of Ardowny, Henry Ramsay of Lawaris, M. John Auchinlek of Wodhall, Ninian Guthrie of Kingany, John Guthrie of Balnabreich, David Guthrie of Essex, M. Alexander Auchinlek, David Guthrie in Inverpeffer, James Natty, Joh. Piggat, Alexander Creichtoun in Crowdy, Alexander Ogilvy in Cany.

Definition: Assize – a court which sat at intervals to administer civil and criminal law.

p.695 (Entry in a Footnote for 1543) Names of Assize:– Walt. Scrymgeour of Glaswall, And. Ogilvy of Duntrone, Ninian Guthrie of Kingany, John Tempilman, David Anderson, Tho. Glenda, John Crak, John Robertsoun, Tho. Duncane, Robert Portar, Alex. Thorntoun, Rob. Crom, Morice Walker, Thomas Barry, Joh. Morgound.

p.705 – Year: 1544 – Entry 3009. (Translated to English) At Edinburgh, Apr. 19 EEGINA, when he had addressed letters to Archibald Hoge, the sheriff in this part, at the instance of John the abbot of Pasleto, they contained. that Job Charteris de Cutbilgurdy as surety for the entry of persons undersigned, in court at Edinburgh 30 Jan. 1543 to undergo laws (for the art and part of the siege by way of the governor and the lords &c. existing in his company, going out from the burgh of Dunde to the burgh of Perth for the pacification of the kingdom, lying in the siege in the war unfolded for their murders), incurred the following penalties, viz. for Job Maule of Panmure, Tho. Fothringham de Powry, Tho. Wentoun of Strathmartyne, . . . Bold de Pitkindie, 100 Pounds for also, for Gilb. Galichtlie 100 marks, for Gilb. Monorgund of the same, WiL Durham of Grange, … Guthre of Hiltoun, And. Gray in Dynnanad, Alex. Gray in Ballegarno, . . . Guthre de Kingany 100 lib. for also, for Job. Gray in Lochtoun 100 marks; and commanding to distrain. 

BOOK: Bardgett, Frank D., 1988. ‘Monifieth Kirk Register‘ Scottish Church History Society. (Digital Repository: Archive.org)

p.182 “Taking the 1573 list of elders as probably not unrepresentative of the first decade of the congregation, it appears that the kirk of Monifieth was managed by lairds from many of the major estates that comprised the parish.” … “Only Ninian Guthrie of Kingennie and Henry Ramsay of Laws played little part in the life of their parish church.” (See footnote 47 – Reasons for this are discussed later.)

p.185-186 “The apparent failure of the congregation of Monifieth to win over a greater proportion of the population of its parish may well have been due to the increasing alienation of two lairds from the hinterland: Ramsay of Laws and Guthrie of Kingennie. If William Durham of Grange had dominated the eldership of 1573, his successor and brother Robert (inherited 1574) was in an even stronger position in 1575. Yet the concentration of leadership in the hands of the lairds of Grange, Omachie, and Ardownie also marked a parochial division whose origin was personal and factional rather than religious. Robert Durham inherited with the Grange a claim to half of the estate of Laws; the dispute (which probably dated back to his father Alexander’s marriage) undoubtedly resulted in a cool relationship between the Durhams and the Ramsays of Laws. On the other hand, sometime around 1562 Alexander Lauder of Omachie had slain William, heir of Ninian Guthrie of Kingennie. Although a contract of assythment had been agreed, Kingennie remained outside the Durham-Lauder camp and, as a deputy-sheriff of Angus, he had allies of his own not so closely connected to the protestant establishment.” (See Footnote 62 – SRO, Reg. Deeds, RD1.5.384; Scrymgeour-Wedderburnn MSS., GD137.639. Kingennie’s principle “friend” was the sheriff of Angus, Lord Gray (of Foulis); Lauder’s was the Earl of Morton.”)

Definition: assythment – indemnification for injury; specifically the satisfaction formerly demandable by the family of a person slain but now superseded by damages recoverable by an action.

p.186 “The decade 1575-1585 saw a determined attempt by the dominant faction of the eldership to bring to heel the parish’s dissidents. On 3 March 1576/7, a series of morality prosecutions directed against them began that extended to 1584 and which a full arsenal of ecclesiastical sanction were to be employed.”
Three lawsuits were tied together: 
Adultery/Harlotry: Henry Ramsay, Laird of Laws, and Margaret Kinnaird, his “harlot” 
Adultery: Henry Guthrie of Laws and Marge Vatsoun (Watson)
Adultery: James Duncan servant to the Laird of Kingany and Isobele Duncan
“Margaret Watson was the first of the accused to seek reconciliation with the church. She promised obedience “in tyme cuming” on 12 April, and her child was baptized. Nevertheless, further summons was issued against all the accused on 19 April (1579).”

p.188-189 “Will the fall and arrest of the Earl of Morton on 31 December 1580, the climate of national affairs turned against those in the kirk advocating stricter discipline. No more was heard of the misconduct of Laws and the kirk session found its grip on the parish slipping from its hand. The final entry in the saga came on 12 April 1584. Among a long list of those excluded from the Communion held that day were Henry Ramsay of Laws with Janet Brady “his harlot”. Much more significantly, also excluded were: “Ninian Guthrie of Kingany and Gibhe Neill ar because they ar niche reconciles to yir kirk.”

WEBSITE: Parties in the Protocol Books of the Town Clerks of Arbroath (A Finding Aid)

1591/2/5 – Sasine – Wm Guthrie of Kynganie – Henry Maule port of Skryne, Isabella Maule his dtr – annual rent on lands of Kynganie

BOOK: Wedderburn, Alexander. 1898. ‘The Wedderburn Book, A History of the Wederburns in the Counties of Berwick and Forfar, designed of Wedderburn, Kingennie, Easter Powrie, Blackness, Balindean and Gosford; and their Younger Branches; Together with Some account of Other Families of the Name. 1296-1896. Volume I. The History. (Digital Repository: HathiTrust)

p.127 – The Purchase of Kingennie
“The lands of Kingennie (see footnote 3) were purchased by (Alexander Wedderburn) some nine years after his acquisition of Wester Gourdie. They were the property of William Guthrie and his wife Elizabeth Fethie, by whom, 21 April 1600, one John Traill, bailee in Dundee, was infeft in the Maynis (mains) of Kingennie (S.W. 121) which he then charged with an annual rent of eight bolls victual in favor of the clerk, who soon after agreed to buy the lands from the Guthries for 10,800 merls. The contract is dated 6 Sep 1600, and there is an obligation, 17 Sept, by Guthrie not to sell any of his lands or deal with the price of Kingennie without the consent of various persons, including the clerk. As in the case of Wester Gourdie, so in that of Kingennie, Wedderburn seems to have at once set about freeing the property from the charges upon it. Thus he redeems one annual rent, 20 Oct 1600; and pays off som arrears of another, 1 Nov. There is another contract between the Guthries and the clerk and his wife, Helen Ramsay, for the sale of Kingennie, in which the price is put at 16,000 merks in all, of which 4,800 is said to have gone in clearing off all charges. On the same day (1 Nov) the property is renounced by the vendors as sold “without redemption: Elizabeth Fethie, wife of the vendor, makes a judicial ratification of the contract; and the lands are resigned “by delivery of staff and baton” into the hands of William, Earl of Angus, the superior charters of them being granted to Wedderburn and his wife and their heirs by both Guthrie and the Earl, who subsequently, 25 Nov, made a gift of the nonentry mills and duties of the lands in favor of the clerk. There is a discharge to Wedderburn for the price, dated 3 Dec 1600, and another for a further 5,000 merks two days later. A notarial instrument declaratory of the consent of Guthrie and his tenants to remove from the lands is also dated 5 Dec, and on Dec 10 the clerk exercised his rights as owner by granting a tack of the mains to John Traill, already in occupation under William Guthrie.
Footnote 3: The lands of Kingennie had been held by the Earl of Angus in 1443 by William de Strathauchin from whom they passed first to his daughter Elizabeth and then in 1464 to her sister Marjorie, who married Malcolm of Guthre and had a son and heir William Guthrie, who married Janet Arbuthnot, and had a son Ninian, from whose grandson William (m. Elizabeth Fethie) the lands were bought in 1600 by Alexander Wedderburn.

BOOK: Wedderburn, Alexander, 1898. ‘The Wedderburn Book, A History of the Wederburns in the Counties of Berwick and Forfar, designed of Wedderburn, Kingennie, Easter Powrie, Blackness, Balindean and Gosford; and their Younger Branches; Together with Some account of Other Families of the Name. 1296-1896. Volume II. The Evidence. (Digital Repository: Electric Scotland)

INDEX:
i = found in Volume I – The History
ii = found in Volume II – The Evidence

p.8 – Entry 39 – Year: 1580. Aug 25 — Charter by Ninian Guthrie of Kingennie in favor of William Guthrie his grandson; witnessed by Mr Alexander Wedderburn, and Alexander and Robert W(edderburn) notaries.

p.9 – Entry 51 – Year: 1586. March 19 — Charter by William Guthrie of Kingennie to Elizabeth Fethie his wife & c. Written and witnessed by Mr Alexander Wedderburn. viii, iv, 16.

p.14 – Entry 110 – Year 1596. May 22-23 — Charter by William Guthrie of Kingany to John Traill of Dundee of the lands called the “Crymbillis” or “Trumbillis” of Kingany with tends, &c. Witnessed by Mr Alexander Wedderburn, town clerk of Dundee. vii, iv, 21, viii, xiv, 23.

p.14 – Entry 111 – Year 1596. May 24 — Reversion by John Trail to William Guthrie of the said lands &c. Witnessed by the said Mr Alexander W(edderburn). (Parchment) vii, iv, 22.

p.15 – Entry 121 – Year 1600. April 21. — Contract between William Guthre of Kingennie and Elizabeth Fethie his spouse, with consent of Henri Maull and Andrew Maull of Gouldie on one part, and John Traill, bailie of Dundee, on the other part (narrating two earlier contracts) by which the former parties agree to infeft Traill in the Maynis of Kingennie, &c. in feu firm, for 24 bolls vitual yearly. Dated at Dundee. (Three sheets in good state) vii, ii, 4.

p.15 – Entry 122 – Year 1600 (date wanting) — Renunciation by John Traill, burgess of Dundee, to Mr Alexander Wedderburn, common clerk of Dundee, of an annual rent of 8 bolls victual forth of the Maynis of Kingennie, which the granter had from William Guthre of Kingennie, under reversion for 460 merks, now redeemed by the said Mr A. W. (Conclusion and date wanting, one sheet, in fair state) vii, ii, 5

p.15 – Entry 123 – Year 1600 Sep 6 — Contract between Wm. Guthre of Kingany, Elizabeth Fethie, his spouse, and Marion Maud his mother, on the one part, and Mr Alexander Wedderburn Clerk of Dundee, on the other part, for the sale of the lands of Kingany to the latter for the sum of 10,800 merks. Signed at Dundee by the parties and witnesses. (scroll of two sheets, in fair state) vii, ii, 6.

p.15 – Entry 124 – Year 1600. Sep 17 — Obligation by William Guthre of Kingany not to sell any of his lands nor to dispose of the money received from Mr Alexander Wedderburn as the price of Kingany, without the advice and consent of Henry Fethie of Ballish, Henry Maull, portioner of Skryne, Andrew Maull of Gouldie, William Maull, burgess of Edinburgh, Henry Ramsay of Ardowny, and the said Mr Alexander Wedderburn. Signed at Monyfuith by all the parties. (one leaf fair.) vii, ii, 7

p.15 – Entry 125 – Year 1600. Oct 20 — Renunciation by Henry Maull, now of Skryne and Isobell Mauld his daughter to whom he was tutor, in favor of Mr Alex. Wedderburn common clerk of Dundee and “now heritable proprietor” of the lands of Kingennie, of an annual rent of 20 merks, forth of the said lands, which the said Mr. A. W. as assignee to William Guthre of Kingennie had redeemed for 200 merks. At the Skryne. Signed by Henry Maull. (English, parchment) viii, iii, 2.

p.15 – Entry 126 – Year 1600. Nov 1 — Discharge by Walter Graham of Calgary to Mr Alexander Wedderburn, clerk of Dundee, in name of William Guthrie of Kingany of £40 in payment of arrears of annual rent forth of the lands of Kingany. Dated at Dundee. vii, xi, 11

p.15 – Entry 127 – Year 1600. Nov 1 — Contract between William Guthrie of Kingany, Elizabeth Fethie his spouse, Marion Maud his mother, &c. on the one part, and Mr Alexander Wedderburn, clerk of Dundee, and Helen Ramsay his spouse, on the other, for the sale to the latter of the lands and mayns of Kingany, for which the said Mr Alexander becomes bound to pay 11,200 merks, which with 4,800 paid for clearing off reversions, makes 16,000 merks in all. Signed at Dundee. David Wedderburn is a witness. (Scroll of three sheets, in fair state) vii, ii, 8

p.16 – Entry 128 – Year: 1600. Nov 1 — Renunciation by William Guthre of Kingany, with consent of Elizabeth Fethie his spouse, Marion Mauld, and Henry Fethie of Ballisak, in favor of Mr Alexander Wedderburn, common clerk of Dundee, and Helen Ramsay his spouse, of the feu maill which they had bound themselves to pay for the lands of Kingany, with manor place, orchards, mill, mill lands and pedicle, before called Carneton, now Crymbills of Kingany, all of which were sold to the said Mr Alexander and his spouse heritably, without redemption. Dated at Dundee. (English, parchment) viii, iii, 3.

p.16 – Entry 129 – Year 1600. Nov 1 — Judicial ratification by the said Elizabeth Fethie of the said contract of sale of the lands of Kingany (see No.123), done in the chamber of the said Mr Alexander Wedderburn. (English, parchment) vii, iii, 4.

p.16 – Entry 130 – Year 1600. Nov 1 — Procuratory of resignation by William Guthre of Kingany, with consent (as in No. 128), & c. in favor of the said Mr. Alex. W. and Helen Ramsay his spouse, in conjunct fee, and their heirs, of the lands of Kingany by delivery of staff and baton in the hands of William, Earl of Angus. Dated at Dundee. Seal of William Guthre attached. (English, parchment) viii, iii, 5.

p.16 – Entry 131 – Year: 1600. Nov. 1 — Charter by the said William Guthre, with consent of his said wife and mother and others in favor of the said Mr Alexander Wedderburn and his wife in conjunct fee and they heirs procreate between them, whom failing, the heirs of the said Mr Alexander whatsoever, of the lands of Kingany, &c. for certain great sums of money, to hold of the granter in feu-ferme (the duty is not stated). Contains precept of saline and is dated at Dundee. (Latin, parchment; seal gone.) viii, iii, 6.

p.16 – Entry 132 – Year 1600. Nov 1 — Charter in similar terms to hold a me of the Earl of Angus. (Latin, parchment. Seal of Wm. Guthrie) vii, iii, 7.

p.16 – Entry 133 – Year 1600. Nov 4 — Renunciation by John Fethie lawful son of David F., brother german of the late Henry Fethie of Ballisak, to Wm. Guthrie of Kingany, of an annual rent of 40 merks forth of the lands &c of Kingany, now redeemed by payment of 400 merks. Dated at Dundee. David Wedderburn, burgess of Dundee, and Mr Alexander Wedderburn, clerk thereof, are witnesses, viii, iv, 29

p.16 – Entry 134 – Year 1600. Nov. 25 — Gift by William, Earl of Angus, to Mr Alexander Wedderburn, clerk of Dundee, of the nonentry mills and duties of the lands of Kingany, since the decease of the late Wm. Guthrie of Kingany, grandschir to William Guthrie, now of Kingany. Dated at Canongate. Witnessed by James Johnston of Westraw, James Fethie of Gwynde, & c. (Seal gone. English, parchment.) vii, iii, 8

p.16 – Entry 135 – Year 1600. Dec 3 — Discharge by William Guthrie of Kingany and Elizabeth Fethie his spouse to Mr Alexander Wedderburn, clerk of Dundee, for 11,200 merks in complete payment of 16,000 merks promised by the said Mr Alexander W. as the price of the lands of Kingany. Dated at Dundee. (English, parchment) vii, iii, 9

p.16 – Entry 137 – Year 1600. Dec 5 — Receipt by James Fethie to Mr Alexander Wedderburn common clerk of Dundee, on behalf of Mr William Guthrie of Kingany, for 5000 merks. Written by David Wedderburn, who signs as a witness, together with Mr William Graham of Claverhous. (one leaf, fair) vii, iii, 9

p.16 – Entry 138 – Year 1600. Dec 10 — Mains of Kingany (mentions investments formerly granted Wm Guthrie of Kingany to John Traill.)

p.17 – Entry 143 – Year 1600. Dec 13 — Contract between Mr Alexander Wedderburn, clerk of Dundee, and John Traill, burgess thereof, whereby the latter acknowledges the receipt from the former of 400 merks, due him by William Guthrie of Kingany, and renounces an annual rent of 8 bolls victual from the lands of Kingany, and agrees to conditions anent the redemption of the said lands for 4,400 merks. At Dundee. David Wedderburn burgess is a witness. 

p.17 – Entry 144 – Year 1600. Dec 13 — Renewal of a Reversion by John Traill, bailee of Dundee, in favor of William Guthrie of Kingany and Elizabeth Fethie his spouse, over the mains of Kingany for 4000 merks, payable within four days of any Whitsunday “beside the pulpit within the Lyttil East Kirk of Dundee” and dated 6 Oct. 1600 (viii, iii, 1) made in favor of Mr Alexander Wedderburn, now heritable proprietor of the lands of Kingany. Dated at Dundee. (English, parchment) viii, iii, 10.

p.17 – Entry 146 – Year 1600. Dec 15 — Sasine following on precept of clare constat by William, Earl of Angus, for infefting William Guthrie of Kingany in the lands of Kingany, Carneton, &c. as heir to the late William Guthrie of Kingany, his great-grandfather. The precept (viii, iv, 30) is dated at Canongate 25 Nov 1600, and has the seal of the Earl entire; the saline is dated 15 Dec at Dundee, and is witnessed by David and Robert Wedderburn; the notary also being Robert Wedderburn, who appends his docket. (parchment) viii, iv, 31.

p.17 – Entry 147 – Year 1601. Feb 13 — Inhibition by Mr Alex. Wedderburn, clerk of Dundee v. William Guthrie that he should not sell his lands in default of the complainer. Dated at Edinburgh. (one sheet. fair condition) viii, ii, 12

p.20 – Entry 167 – Year 1610. (date blank) — An inventory of the writs and evidence delivered by Mr Alexander Wedderburn, clerk of Dundee, of the lands of Kingennie, to be produced in the action by the Earl of Angus v. certain of his tenants. There are nine documents named beginning with a charter of Kingennie granted (1 Dec 1511) by Archibald, Earl of Angus, to William Guthrie and Janet Arbuthnot his wife, and including a saline (1600) under the hand of Robert Wedderburn, notary, and a charter by William Guthre to Alexander Wedderburn and Helen Ramsay his wife, and other titles of Kingennie down to 1610. (one sheet of paper) viii, ii, 20. 

p.30 – Entry 240 – Year: 1630 (date wanting)– “An inventor of the Chartouris of the Landis of Kingenny.”
This is a list of six charters of Kingennie:–
(a) Charter of alienation by Andrew Parker of Kingennie to William Strachan of Dundee, 20 Sep 1443
(b) Confirmation thereof by James, Earl of Angus, 7 Jan 1443-44
(c) Charter by George, Earl of Angus, to Elizabeth Inglis, spouse of William Strachan. Dated at Edinburgh, 21 Sep 1458
(d) Charter by Archibald, Earl of Angus, to William Guthrie, son and heir apparent of Malcolme Guthrie of Dundee, and Marion Strachan. Dated at Edinburgh, 5 March 1478.
(e) Charter by Archibald, Earl of Angus to William Guthrie and Janet Arbuthnot his wife, & c. Dated at Edinburgh, 5 Dec 1511.
(f) Charter of confirmatione by William, Earl of Angus, whereby he confirms a charter granted by Mr Alexander Wedderburn to his son Alexander Wedderburn. Dated at Edinburgh 12 June 1630.

p.180 – Entry 18 – (includes) The comet Buik also contains a large number of miscellaneous memoranda. …The mention of the books of his uncle (who is of course Robert the notary) . . .Thus it was no doubt for his work as a notary that he got, in kind, the fee mentioned in this entry:–
(c) The tent of September 1610. — In presence of Mr James Wedderburn, Mr John Dynmur, and David Rudy, telzeour in the house of William Guthre. The siad william proittit me a stick of fun grewgren silk quhdlk sold cost v lib grit within 7 or 8 oukis hereafter and owner entire his name coming from Flanderis for my consent to the aprobathione of his rychtia of his tenement. 

p.231 – Entry 291 – Year: 1592 Oct 26 — David Wedderburn, burgess, son to Alexander Wedderburn, deceased, clerk of Dundee, obtains the right of patronage of Saint Thomas’ chaplainry from William Guthrie of Kingany.

p.366 – Entry 60 – Year 1600. July 15 — Confirmed charter (8 June 1587) of sale by Sir James Scrymgeour of Dudope, constable and provost of Dundee, and William Guthrie of Kynganie, to David Wedderburn, burgess of Dundee, of an annual rent out of a tenement in the Cowgait. Witnessed by Mr Alexander Wedderburn, clerk.

p.402 – Entry 28 – Year 1600. July 15 — At Holyroodhouse. Precept for character of confirmation upon a charter by Sir James Scrymgeour of Dudope, Knight, Constable, and Provost of Dundee, and William Guthrie of Kinganie, two of the patrons of the chaplainry of St Thomas the Martyr, in the parish kirk of Dundee, founded of old by William Strathauchin, to David Wedderburne, burgess of Dundee, his heirs and assignees, of an annual rent of 18s out of a tenement of land pertaining to David Robiesone, lying in the south side of the Cowgate of Dundee. (LXXiV, 21)

p.468 – Entry 50 – Year: 1609. Feb. 25 — Action by Henry Fethie, Mr Alexander Wedderburn of Kinganie, and others, v. William Guthrie, sometime of Kinganie. (244, 19)

DOCUMENTS: TESTAMENT DATIVE and INVENTORY of NINIANE GUTHRIE – 10 Jan 1587 – Edinburgh Commissary Court – CC8/8/16 (Digital Repository: Scotland’sPeople)

DOCUMENTS: Old Parish Registers – Births and Baptisms (Digital Repository: Scotland’s People)
Andro Guthrie 8 Feb 1622 Brechin
Barbara Guthrie 1 Feb 1625 Brechin
Nicholas Guthrie 2 Mar 1626 Brechin
David Guthrie 3 Nov 1627 Brechin
Robert Guthrie 4 Mar 1629 Brechin
Margaret Guthrie 22 May 1630 Brechin
Alexander Guthrie 22 Mar 1632 Brechin
Jon. Guthrie 21 Nov 1633 Brechin
Jean Guthrie 5 Jul 1636 Brechin
Note that no OPR baptismal record has been found for eldest son William Guthrie. If James and Janet’s eldest daughter was indeed Janet/Jonet who married Rev William Raitt rather than youngest daughter Jean, her baptismal record is also missing. or unrecorded.

WEBSITE: Testaments & Wills for the City & Parish of Brechin, Angus (pre-1824)
David Guthrie of Pitforthy 23 Oct 1695
Elizabeth Guthrie – sometime spouse to the deceased David Guthrie of Seatown, and relict of David Edgar of Keithock 30 Oct 1723
Elspet Guthrie – spouse to Andrew Mylnie, in Balnabriche – 10 May 1630
James Guthrie of Pitforthie – T. 10 Nov 1650
Janet Guthrie – relict of George Mathis, maltman, citiner of Brechin – T. 8 Jan 1651
Captain John Guthrie – merchant in Brechin – 29 Sep 1687
Margaret Guthrie – spouse to Hercules Car, maltman, citiner of Brechin – 27 Nov 1635
‘T’ before the date indicates that the copy in the register is lost, but the original testament is extant.
See Also: Legal Records – Scotland’s People

WEBSITE: Parties in the Register of Deeds of the Commisariot of Brechin

118 – (1610) Henry Futhie of Muirhouse, Bessie Futhie relict of umqll Wm Guthrie in Ogill, James Guthrie their son, John Leiche cit Brechin – George Wright notar in Brechin

310 – (1612) Disposition Elizabeth Fethie relict of umqll Wm Guthrie sometime of Kingennie, James Guthrie their son – James Ramsay minister at Tannadice

318 – (1612) Indentor Elizabeth Fethie relict of umqll Wm Guthrie sometime of Kingennie, James Guthrie her son, James Ramsay minister at Tannadice – James Spens at the Walmylne of Ferne

WEBSITE: The Raitt Stuff
Section on The Rails of Pitforthie

BOOK: Rutherford, S and Bonar, A.A. 1891. Letters of Samuel Rutherford, Published by Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier. (Digital Repository: Google Books)

p. 652 A Letter to Rev. William Guthrie of Fenwick.
Included is a brief sketch:
“William Guthrie was born at Pitforthy, in the shire of Angus, in the year 1620. He was the eldest son of the Laird of Pitforthy, a cadet of the old family of Guthrie, and by his mother’s side was descended from the ancient house of Easter-Ogle. He attended the literary and philosophical classes at the University of St Andrews, and studied theology under Rutherford. On the 7th of November 1644, he was ordained minister of Fenwick. There he continued successfully to discharge his ministry till the 24th of July 1664, when for nonconformity, he was suspended from and discharged to exercise his ministry, and his church declared vacant, by order of Bishop Burnet. He died at Brechin on the 10th of October 1665. It may be mentioned here that William Guthrie of Fenwick was cousin to the famous James Guthrie, and was brought to Christ by Samuel Rutherford’s ministry at St. Andrews, being one of his first fruits there. (“Life” by Wodrow) It was he who wrote “The Trial of a Savin Interest in Christ” so well known.

Book: Guthrie, Rev. William, ‘The Christian’s Great Interest, in two parts: Part 1 – The Trial of a Saving Interest in Christ; Part II – The Way How to Attain It‘ (Digital Repository: Archive.org)

BOOK: Dunlop, Rev. William, ‘Memoirs of the Life and Character of Mr William Guthrie, Minister at Fenwick, by the Rev William Dunlop, with Additions by Rev. Robert Woodrow, and Rev. Robert Traill. (Digital Repository: Google Books)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: REV WILLIAM GUTHRIE (Digital Repository: Banner of Truth)

COAT of ARMS – Mr William Rait of Pitforthie – Obtained in 1672
National Records of Scotland – Coats of Arms Volume 1 page no. 402Z

BOOK: Stevenson, J.H. (1904) Registrum Magni Sigilli Regum Scotorum: The Register of the Great Seal of Scotland under the commonwealth, A.D. 1652-1659, Volume 8. (Digital Repository: Google Books)
450. (1655) Edinburgh, July 27.
THE PROTECTOR grants to DAVID GUTHRIE, lawful son to the deceased James Guthrie of Pitforthie, his heirs and assignees (subject to the legal reversion),–the lands of Pitforthie, manor-places, &c., thereof in the barony of Kethick and sheriffdom of Forfar, with the teind sheaves and other tends of the said lands; –which lands pertained to the said James Guthrie, and were on the 9th August 1653 apprised from Mr William Guthrie, minister at the new kirk of Kilmarnock, for himself and as charged to enter heir to the deceased James, his father, at the instance of Robert Arbuthnott, fiar of Fuddowsie (Findowrie?), in payment to him of 36,565 merks, with sheriff-fee corresponding thereto (at 12d. for ilk pound, conform to the Act of Parliament) to John Black, messenger, which decree the said Robert Arbuthnot assigned to the said David Guthrie :– with precept of saline. P.R. viii. 17.