The
Ancient History of the Distinguished Surname Riddell
The
chronicles of England, though sometimes shrouded by the mists of time,
reveal the early records of the name Riddell as a Norman surname, which
ranks as one of the oldest. The history of the name is interwoven into
the colourful fabric as an intrinsic part of the history of Britain.
Careful
research by professional analysts using such ancient manuscripts as the
Domesday Book (compiled in 1086 by William the Conqueror), the Ragman Rolls,
the Wace poem, the Honour Roll of the Battel Abbey, The Curia Regis, Pipe
Rolls, the Falaise Roll, tax records, baptismals, family genealogies, and
local parish and church records, shows the first record of the name Riddell
was found in Northumberland where they were seated from very early times
and were granted lands by Duke William of Normandy, their liege Lord ,for
their distinguished assistance at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 A.D. Many
alternate spellings of the name were found. They were typically linked
to a common root, usually one of the Norman nobles at the Battle of Hastings.
Your name, Riddell occurred in many references, and from time to time,
the surname included the spellings of Riddell, Riddle, Riddall, Riddells,
Ridel and many more. Scribes recorded and spelled the name as it sounded.
It was not unlikely that a person would be born with one spelling, married
with another, and buried with a headstone, which showed another. All three
spellings related to the same person. Sometimes preferences for different
spelling variations either came from a division of the family, or had religious
reasons, or sometimes patriotic reasons. The family name Riddell is believed
to be descended originally from the Norman race. They were commonly believed
to be of French origin but were, more accurately, of Viking origin. The
Vikings landed in the Orkneys and Northern Scotland about the year 870
A.D., under their Chief, Stirgud the Stout. Later under their Jarl, Thorfinn
Rollo, they invaded France about 940 A.D. The French King, Charles the
Simple, after Rollo laid siege to Paris, finally conceded defeat and granted
northern France to Rollo. Rollo became the first Duke of Normandy, the
territory of the North Men. Duke William, who invaded and defeated England
in 1066,was descended from the first Duke Rollo of Normandy. Duke William
took a census of most of England.
THE
HOUSE OF RIDDELL
I
proceed to give a brief account of the Riddells of that ilk and their branches,
a house of even greater antiquity than those of Douglas, Scott, and Kerr,
though not so historically eminent. They seldom mixed themselves up with
the contentions and forays of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
and until covenanting times they were not very publicly known, though at
that period two members of the family were noted for their defence of civil
and religious liberty. I shall first mention the rise of the Riddells in
this country. They sprung from MONSIEUR RIDEL, who was a companion of William
the Conqueror, and whose name appears with many other chieftains on the
roll of Battel Abbey-the earliest record of the Normans-a table containing
the names at one time suspended in the abbey with the following inscription,
viz. :-
“ Dicitur
a bello, bellum locus hic, quis bello Angligenae victi, sunt hic
in morte relictis, Martyris in Christi festo cecidere Colixti, Sexagenus
erat sextus millessimus annus Cum pereunt Angli, stella monstrante cometa.”
Battel
Abbey, which is a memorial of one of the greatest achievements in English
history, was built on the extensive plain of Heathfield, a little to the
north of Hastings, in fulfillment of a pledge given by the great Norman,
prior to the battle which gained for him the crown of England. William
had been named by Edward the Confessor, the last of the Saxon line, his
successor, though Edgar Atheling was the next legitimate heir, and Harold
had usurped the throne. But the battle of Hastings settled the point, and
William, who there defeated Harold, was made king, having been crowned
at Westminster in little more than two months after his arrival in England.
In Normandy the Riddells were a family of note, some members having joined
a party of their fellow-countrymen-a most extraordinary and chivalrous
people-who invaded Italy and eventually Sicily. Of these doubtless were
Goffridus and Regnaldus Ridel, brothers-the first of whom figured there
so very anciently as Duke of Gaeta in 1072, and the latter as Count de
Ponte Carvo in 1093. Goffridus was a common Christian name in various families
of Ridel in these early times, and the surname is precisely the same, the
second d and the second l being additions in after times.
My
late kinsman, John Riddell, the best antiquary that Scotland has had for
many a day, found from Norman records proof of the existence of Gulfridus
and Roger Riddell, posessors of estates in Normandy towards the end of
the thirteenth century; and also two great stocks of the name in France,
classed among its magnates there, being well allied, and designed of Baijerae
in the thirteenth century, terminating in an heir-female. William bestowed
on his Riddell follower considerable landed property in England, and his
descendants became celebrated, and one or two of them held high official
appointments. An alliance by marriage was formed between them and the Bassits,
a very old English family, lately represented by my old friend, John Bassit
of Tohidy, who used at one time to come to Tweedside, where he rented Lord
Polwarth’s fishing water. One of the English Riddells married Geva,
the daughter of the Earl of Chester, one of whose descendants was Maud
or Matilda, wife of David, Earl of Huntingdon, a maternal ancestrix of
the Bruce. Although the family were so prosperous in England some of its
members emigrated to Scotland early in the twelth century with David I,
when Prince of Cumberland, who was a great colonizer. Gervasius was the
elder, and he was a great favourite of the prince, who appointed him in
1116 High Sheriff of Roxburghshire-the earliest on record. He must have
been a constant attendant on royalty, for he is a frequent witness to crown
charters, and especially to that celebrated commission for enquiring into
the revenues of the Church of Glasgow in 1116, one of the most ancient
Scotch records. Gervasius married and had family; a son Hugh is supposed
to have been the ancestor of the Riddells of Cranston Riddell in Midlothian.
His wife, Christiana de Soulis, was a donor to Jedburgh monastery, and
Gervasius when advanced in life, assumed the ecclesiastical garb, and died
at Jedburgh in the odour of sanctity. This was in accordance with a prevailing
custom, namely, that those who had led a secular, and often a licentious
and sinful life, sought to atone for the past by dying in a monastery.
This was a practice followed by many whose lifes had been peaceful and
blameless. So great in these days was the reverence for religion, although
a religion tainted with error. Walter Ridel accompanied Gervasius in the
suite of Prince David, and though younger doubtless, was not Gervasius’s
son, as some writers erroneously say. He was probably a brother or near
relative. Like his kinsman, Walter enjoyed the friendship and patronage
of Royalty. He too was also a witness to crown and other charters of importance,
but that to himself from David I, of the lands of Wester-Lilliesleaf, &c.,
eclipsed them all, being the most ancient charter from a King to a Layman.
The charter, which was dated between 1125 and 1153 included Whittun near
the Cheviots, the lands to be held of the crown “ per servitium unius
militis sicut unus baronum meorum vicinorum suorum,” &c. This
ancient document became so frail that it was “ legally “ copied
at Jedburgh about three hundred and seventy years ago, and the lands granted
by it continued in the family for upwards of six hundred years without
an entail, a fact highly honourable to all members through whom they were
handed down. Nisbet, the antiquary and herald, who flourished early last
century, drew the copy. Besides this ancient charter, there was a bull
from the Pope Adrian IV., nearly as old, confirming the properties vested
in Walter to his brother and heir AUSKITTEL, Walter having no issue. The
bull must have been granted between 1154 and 1159, when Adrian was Pope,
but the precise date is not given. Indeed in ancient Bulls the year was
sedom mentioned. It runs: - “ Adrianus Episcopus, servus servorum
Dei, Auskittel Riddell militi, salutem et Apostolicum Benedictionem, sub
Beati Petri et nostri protectione suscepimus specialiter ea quae Walterus
de Riddell testamentum suum ante obitum suum faciens tibi nosciter reliquisse,
viz., villas de Wituness, Lilisclive, Braehebe, et cetera bona a quibuscunque
tibi juste colate, nos authoritate sedis Apostolicae integre confirmamus.
Datum Beneventi Septimo ides Aprilis.” There is another Bull from
the Pope who succeeded Adrian to the same Sir Auskittel, and both documents,
along with that formerly mentioned, were seen by Mr Nisbet. The third laird
was Walter, son of Sir Auskittel, which is proved by the las named Bull.
He married and had two sons, one of whom was Patrick, his heir, and Ralph,
supposed to be the ancestor of the Northumberland Riddells, a highly respectable
family of the Roman Catholic faith.* Patrick became the fourth Laird, and
was knighted like his grandfather Sir Auskittel. Ater succeeding to his
estates he made donations to the Abbey of Melrose, and to the monks serving
God there. Sir Auskittel was a witness to a charter of confirmation granted
to the monks of Kelso in 1159 by Malcolm lV., the grandson of David l.
Sir Patrick’s son, Walter, the fith laird, succeeded him, and seems
to have been a pious Churchman, for he not only confirmed his father’s
donations to the convent of Melrose, but gave many benefactions himself,
not only to the monks of melrose, but to those of Kelso. His mother, Margaret
De Vesci, also confirmed her husband, Sir Patrick Riddell’s donations
to Melrose. Miss De Vesci was, I believe, of the then Border family of
whom was among the number of the feudal lords appointed to enforce the
observance of Magna Charta and who married a daughter of William the lion,
King of Scotland, brother of Malcolm the IVth., so surnamed from having
introduced the lion as the armorial bearing of scotland, and from this
emblem the head of the Heralds’ Office in Edinburgh is called “ Lion
King at Arms.” Walter, the fifth laird, now before us, had a brother
William, who got part of Whittun on his marriage with Matilda Corbett,
probably of the Makerstoun family of that name, very ancient proprietors,
but it returned to the head of the family, as they had no issue. Walter
having left two sons, William and Patrick, the former succeeded, viz.,
William, who, like his grandfather, had the honour of knighthood conferred
upon him. He was the six laird. William’s succession is proved by
a charter to Melrose Abbey, by which it appears there was a donation to
the convent by Isabella: -” Uxor Wilhelmi de Riddell de alia bovata
terrae in territorio de Whittun quam pater meus Wilhelmus, parsona de Hunam,
emit a Ganfredo Coco”-the deed being made “pro salute animae
Domini Patricii de Riddell, and Walter, filii ejus, et Wilhelmi, sponsi
mei.”* Five members of the family, which proves four successive descents,
witness it. I pass over some of the next lairds, as I hardly know how to
place them, antiquaries having misstated and miscalled several; but there
are two before Quintin, next to be taken up, respecting whom and his successors
who follow there is no doubt. The two I refer to were clearly before Quintin’s
time, and were named Richard and Sir Robert, both of whom are proved by
documents in the charter chest at Fleurs. Richard was a witness to two
charters to John Ker of Auldtounburn, dated respectively in 1357 and 1358.
This John Ker came from the forest of Selkirk, and was the first ancestor
of the Cessford or ducal family of Roxburgh, who aquired land in roxburghshire.
Sir robert riddell, on the other hand, was a witness to a charter to kelso
abbey of land in Mow, and was cautioner for Mowe of mains, who was a hostage
in england on account of border disturbances. While these charters throw
light upon two Riddell ancestors well down their tree, the first to John
Ker of Auldtounburn indicates the planting of the roxburgh tree at a much
later period. Quentin, now to be noticed, is a new name in the family,
and from whence derived I have not been able to make out, though a name
of a saint in the Roman calender. He was the first designed of that ilk
or de eodum, as far as the charters extant shows. He was assuredly in possion
in 1421, when a court of inquisition was held, and the Lilliesleaf lands
were then called Riddell, though even after that date Lilliesleaf, no doubt
an old and favourite name, crops up sometimes. Their own surname, however,
had been regularly and officially given to the Lilliesleaf property (Whitton
continuing as originally), deriving the baronial character from the tenure
of the first charter by David I. to Walter, and hence the origin of the
local name Riddell, as denoting an estate, that previously was not Scotch
or known in Scotland. The distinguished knightly and baronial family of
Riddell of Cranston Riddell, with the later adjunct was the first, and
at a far earlier date designed of riddell, similarly giving their name
to their barony, which likewise held of the crown, as the descendants of
Hugh, supposed to be the son of the sheriff, Gervasius riddell. This gave
them an earlier position than the Lilliesleaf Riddells; but in little more
than two centuries their male line became extinct, and the heir of the
las proprietor, Isabella Rydel, dead in 1357, was a john murray. Quintin
was followed by his son, whose name is not given; but his grandson, who
inherited, was James, who was indisputably laird of riddell and whittun
in 1493, and had a brother Thomas, who is particularly mentioned, and a
son John, who succeeded his father in 1510. He had two sisters, both of
whom married Scotts. There had been a previous marriage with the Scotts,
as the widow of one of the Riddells, supposed to be a Ker of Fernilie,
married a Harden. John granted a precept for infefting Patrick Earl Bothwell
in a part of some lands at Lilliesleaf in 1534, which he held of the laird
of Riddell. John died in 1542, and was followed by George. This George
is particularly mentioned in a legal transaction upon record affecting
him, and left Walter, his successor, who married mariotte, daughter of
Hoppringle of smailholm, and had a son, Andrew, and two daughters, one
of whom married Thomas Ker of Cavers and nether Howden. Walter was old
when he died, and his son Andrew was served heir in 1592, obtaining a charter
in 1595. Andrew was a man of much importance, and having acquired Haining
from the Scotts, the first possessors of it, held large territorial possessions,
and was called the Baron of Riddell. Though lordly in his position, he
was a man of humility, for he was offered a baronetcy, which he declined.
He did not, however, prevent his eldest son, John, who was a person of
considerable talent, accepting the honour, which was conferred on the 14th
of May 1628, about three years after the institution of the order in Scotland.
Andrew must have married first his cousin, Miss Pringle, daughter of James
Pringle of Gallowshiells and Smailholm, and after her death he was united
to Violet Douglas of Pumpherston, West-Lothian. He had a large family of
sons and daughters his eldest son, Sir John, being by his first wife. Other
sons and some time ago i found a stone in the Abbey burying-ground at Jedburgh
in memory of Jean Riddell, daughter of Andrew, born 1600, and died 1660.
She is commemorated thus-
“ Here
lies a religious and virtuous gentlewoman, Jean Riddell, daughter of Sir
Andrew Riddell of that ilk, who died in the year of God, MDCLX., and of
her age 60.
She
lived a holy life,
To Christ resigned her breath.
Her soul is now with God,
Triumphing over death !”
Andrew
had, by Violet Douglas, his second wife, a favourite son called Andrew,
on whom he settled Haining, which continued in this branch of the family
till early last century, when it was sold to the second son of Pringle
of Clifton. Andrew of Haining married a Stewart of Traquair, and dying
young, his widow married secondly Sir Willian Douglas, ancestor of the
Marquis of Queensberry. His son and successor, John Riddell of Haining,
was Sheriff Principal, and M.P. for Selkirkshire, and his grand-daughter,
Magdalene Riddell, who married David Erskine of Dun, after succeeding to
Haining, sold it, and the marquis of Ailsa, as the heir of the Erskines,
now represents the Riddell’s of Haining. But to return to Andrew,
the Baron of Riddell, I would state that his tombstone in the aisle of
Riddell gives his death in 1632, at the age of eighty-two. His second wife
erected an additional stone to his memory, and there is also a stone to
the memory of Andrew Haining, whose life was “short but good,” and
with the exception of a more ancient stone, with a recommendation to pray
for the soul, though no name is to be seen, there is no other memorial
in the old aisle, which was once the choir of the ancient church, superseded
by the present in 1771, over a century ago. One of Andrew’s other
sons was ancestor of the Riddells of Muselee. His daughters married respectively
Rutherford of Edgerston; Robert Ker, brother of Sir Thomas of Cavers; John
Baillie, ancestor, I believe, of the Baillies of Mellerstain; and Sir John
Scott of Goldielands, while the pious Jean, already commemorated, lived
in single blessedness. Sir John, first Baronet of Riddell, married Miss
Murray of Blackbarony, which brought the family further high connections,
and had four sons and one daughter. Three of his sons went abroad, two
were captains in the Dutch service, while another, William, a youth of
great spirit, was knighted at an early age, and was appointed Governor
of Desborough, in Holland. His only daughter, by his wife, Miss Murray,
married Sir Thomas Ker of Cavers, and by a second wife, the widow of the
Honourable James Douglas, Commendator of Melrose Abbey, Sir John Riddell
had another daughter. He was succeeded in 1636 by his eldest son, Sir Walter,
who was knighted, like one of his younger brothers, in his father’s
lifetime. He married a very pious woman, Janet Rigg, the daughter of a
worthy and godly man, William Rigg of Aithernie, Fife, by whom he had five
sons and two daughters. Janet Rigg, Lady Riddell, was not only pious but
accomplished, and her father was a man of high principle and character,
and moreover, extremely wealthy. Mr Rigg was fined £50,000 Scots
for opposing the introduction of the five articles at Perth, by James VI,
and also suffered imprisonment in Blackness Castle. His sister, the aunt
of Lady Riddell, Miss Catherine Rigg, who married Douglas of Cavers, was
the celebrated Covenanter, and the ladies were descendants of Dr John Row
of Perth, John Knox’s coadjutor. Two of Sir Walter’s younger
sons were ancestors of the Riddells of Glenriddell and Granton severally,
respecting whom I shall have a good deal to say-especially about the latter-afterwards.
His daughters married respectively a brother of Sir William Scott of Mertoun,
and son of Auld Wat, the freebooter of Harden, and the Rev. Gabriel Semple
of Jedburgh, a zealous Covenanter and field preacher at one time. His eldest
son, John as third Baronet. He is called in the family Sir John Bluebeard,
because he had four wives, not of course at once, like Brigham Young. His
wives were-1st, Miss Scott of Harden; 2d, Miss Morrison, Prestongrange;
3d, Miss Swinton, Swinton; and fourth, Mrs Watt, formerly Miss Hepburn,
married first to Mr Watt of Rosehill, and after his decease, to Sir John
Riddell. Sir John, inheriting his mother’s religious zeal, became
a zealous Covenanter, and suffered imprisonment for his defence of civil
and religious liberty, and his nonconformity. He sat in several parliaments
for the county of Roxburgh. He got a remission from the king in 1687, and
he died in 1700, a very short time after his fourth marriage. His son,
Sir Walter, succeeded; from whom I directly descend. He married Miss Watt
of Rosehill, a daughter of his stepmother, and had several sons and daughters.
His eldest son, John, who predeceased him, was an advocate, very clever
and highly accomplished. His second son, Walter, succeeded. His third was
Thomas of Camieston. His sixth, Robert, was minister of Lilliesleaf from
1736 to 1760, and married his relative, one of the Granton Riddells. His
only daughter, Jane, married John Carre of Cavers. Sir Walter was a very
godly man, the piety of his grandmother and father having been imbibed
by him. He did some eccentric things, however. When his son was preaching
he is said to have stopped him, when, as Sir Walter thought, he was not
stating the terms of the gospel correctly, or at any rate saying something
which he disapproved of, telling him, “ Robert, that won’t
do.” He was recommended to stop so many people coming upon his property,
but his answer was, “the earth is the Lord’s.” In his
time the public road passed close to the back of Riddell House, and I daresay
its nearness to the kind-hearted Baronet’s mansion induced a good
many “seekers,” as beggars in his time were called, to visit
him. His eldest son John, having predeceased him, his second son, Walter,
inherited, and became fifth Baronet. He was in early life a merchant at
Eyemouth, probably a dealer in fish and spirits, brandy being in no doubt
largely imported there and married a daughter of Mr Turnbull of Houndwood,
near Eyemouth. It was a runaway marriage, but the lady had neither money
nor rank. The rank was on his side, though from his being a trader at Eyemouth,
the Turnbulls might have looked down upon him then. Sir Walter Riddells
eldest son, Walter, died about ten years before his father. His second
succeeded him, while two of his younger sons were respectively a soldier
and a sailor, James, a Lieutenant-colonel in the Dutch service, and Thomas
of Bessborough, a captain in the naval service of the late east India company.
General Henry James Riddell, Knight of Hanover, and commander of the forces
in Scotland, who died a few years ago, was the latter’s son. John
succeeded as sixth Baronet. Being second son he was shipped off to Curacoa,
where he was a merchant, but coming home before his father’s death,
married Miss Buchanan, eventually an heiress, but he only survived his
succession to Riddell about three years. He left three sons-the youngest
of whom was the late sir John, who was posthumous. All three sons were
Baronets in turn. The eldest, Sir Walter, a delicate youth, died just about
the time of his majority. The second, Sir James, who was a lieutenant in
one of the guards, was drowned while bathing in the river Brunswick, aged
nineteen, and the third, who finally inherited, was the late, Sir John,
ninth Baronet, known to many still alive. He was a man of the most polished
manners, and had a commanding address. He was a precocious agriculturalist-far
too much so for his time, and his experiments, successful as regards the
ultimate improvement of the property, ended in his ruin, and entailed distress
upon many of his dependants and others. But in spite of his being the cause
of loss to many families, his name is still respected. Sir john Buchanan
Riddell, who was member of parliament for the Selkirk Burghs, died in April
1819, aged fifty-one, leaving by his wife, Lady Frances Riddell, daughter
of the Earl of Romney, three sons and five daughters, a son having been
born some months after his death.
Before
closing my remarks on the far-descended Riddells, I would for a few minutes
draw your attention to their ancient seat:-
Ancient Riddells’ fair domain
Where Aill, from mountains freed,
Down from the lakes did raving come;
Each wave was crested with tawny foam
Like the mane of a chestnut steed.”
Sir
Walter Scott Has a note in connection with first of the foregoing lines,
highly complimentary to the ancient seat, though I must respectfully
differ, however bold it may appear to do so, with the illustrious author
of the “Lay of the Last Minstrel.” He endeavours to establish
the family as being domiciled at Riddell long previous to the time they
acquired it, though that period is quite far enough back, as you have
heard, to show their antiquity, and to entitle the great minstrel to
call them “ancient Riddell.” As I have told you they acquired
the property under the designation of Wester-Lilliesleaf in the reign
of David I., not long prior to 1153, and having held it till 1823, they
were in possession for the lengthened period of six hundred and seventy
years. It was not called Riddell for along time after their first occupancy,
though they at length called it after themselves, an unusual occurrence
in the history of landed families, who generally took their name from
their lands instead of giving it to them. The earliest date mentioned
by Sir Walter Scott is 727, and he alludes to the year on the aisle of
Lilliesleaf church-yard, as being 1110. No doubt these memorials are
to be seen on the south wall, but they do not possess a sufficiently
antiquated character to represent such a far back period, though it is
true they may have been fresh cut in aftertimes. But be that as it may,
I cannot appropriate the date as attaching to my ancestors, as the first
did not get possession for some years after. As moreover, there was an
ancient church or chapel on the Wester Lilliesleaf or Riddell estate,
said to have stood at or near the old Ash tree, not far from the last
gate leading from the Easter-Lodge to the mansion-house, not a great
way south from the old castle which stood in the wood a little above
where the old Lillieleaf road to Selkirk passed. At what period the old
castle, which probably was a place of great strength and security, was
built it is quite impossible to say, but it is probable that the family
erected it soon after acquiring the property in the twelfth century.
It is also difficult to say when the present mansion superseded the old
castle as a residence, though it gives evidence of great antiquity also.
On the occasion of the present respected proprietor preparing for the
addition he erected in the western side of the mansion, an old stone
with the Riddell arms on one side of the shield, and what I suppose to
be the Carre arms on the other, though the stars are not on a chevron
according to the heraldic cognizance of that family. If I am right in
the interpretation of the stone, I think I may state its date to be at
the close of the fifteenth century, when a Riddell of Riddell married
a Ker, who survived her husband, and afterwards married a Scott of Harden.
The stone may therefore be nearly 400 years old, and besides it, an arch
was discovered giving evidence of antiquity, as the walls also did, from
their hardness, caused no doubt by hot lime having been used, as was
frequently the case in olden times. With reference to the aisle in the
churchyard which was not reserved when the estate was sold, but which
was generously restored to the old family by the kindness of Mr Sprot,
it is impossible to say when it was first used by the Riddells. No doubt
they were buried on the property in early times, probably at the chapel,
where bones have been known to have been dug up, but in process of time
the aisle would no doubt be used, in fact when it was part of the old
castle which stood till 1771, the year of the erection of the present
one, having just completed its cemetery. I have evidence of the place
of burial being in the choir of the old church, which I apprehend is
just where the aisle now stands. Whether the church was the original
one, I cannot say, but it was no doubt a pre-reformation one, and it
was thatched with broom, as was the custom in mediaeval times.