J. W. Buchan and Rev. H. Paton. Published 1925-7.
This beautiful estate now comprises not only Rachan, but also Quarter, Whitslade, Wrae, the Duckpool, and Kirkhall. The present rental is £1652.
The original lands of Rachan lay on the south side of Holms Water between Glenholm Church and Biggar Water. Apparently they were rated at £12 of old extent (612 acres). None of the early writs is extant, and as the property originally was held of a subject superior, there is little information which can be given. John of Geddes, who lived in the beginning of the fifteenth century, is the earliest recorded proprietor. He was the son of Andrew of Geddes, and was a burgess of Peebles; he has already been referred to as the proprietor of Ladyurd. He founded a chaplainry in the Parish Church of Peebles, and among other endowments he granted (4th December, 1427) an annual rent of £3 6s. 8d., payable out of 'that fourth part of the land of Rauchan, which I, the said John, hold of the baron of Glenwyne in blench farm, for payment of a silver penny, if asked.' From that reference it would appear that the lands of Rachan were held by four proprietors, and this is corroborated by a roll of the Head Court of Peebles made up about 1510, in which four names are given for Rachan - William Porteous, Thomas or John Dickson, George of Geddes, and John of Geddes. These portioners all held, as pertinents of Rachan, shares in the lands of Glenhigton and Glencotho.
GEDDES OF RACHAN
John Geddes was succeeded by his son Charles, who was served heir to him on 8th May, 1467, in ten bovates of the lands of Thankerton, which had been granted to John by David Hay of Yester in 1435, with remainder to his brother George of Geddes. Charles was succeeded by his son John, and thereafter for ten generations there were Geddesses in Rachan. Charles Geddes, [George Geddes of Kittlehall, who may have been a son of Charles, became surety for a William Tweedie in connection with the judicial proceedings following on the murder of Lord Fleming, and in 1525 he petitioned the Lords of Council to be released from his engagement on the ground that he was a minor and 'may nocht nor suld nocilt be souerte'. His request was granted. In the petition it is stated that William Tweedie was 'ane scolar' and was innocent, 'considering ye tyme of ye committing of ye samin, he was at ye scule in Edinburghe'] great-grandson of the first John, succeeded to the lands as heir to his father, John, about 1500. He had a charter from King James V. on his own resignation dated 24th August, 1537, of all the property he then possessed - the £6 lands of Rachan, extending to one-half of the town and lands of Glenholm, the 20s. land of Glenhigton, the 40s. land of Glencotho (being one-half), a 15s. land in Whitslade, a 5s. land in Glenkirk, the superiority of the 40s. land of 'Smalehopis-Wester' (part of Cardon ), etc., with common pasturage in 'Quhummishope' (Holmshope). The holding was now direct of the Crown - the mid-superiority having been extinguished probably through the forfeiture of Douglas lands - for payment of a silver penny and sasine taken at Rachan was to be sufficient for the whole. Failing his own heirs male, the destination in the charter was to Patrick and Andrew successively, sons of the deceased John Geddes, who were probably brothers of Charles. He married Elizabeth Hunter (probably of the Polmood family), and died about 1560. In addition to his eldest son, William, he had -
Mr. Charles Geddes, who in 1553 had an annual rent of £20 from his father out of the lands of Glenholm.
Mungo Geddes, who witnessed a transaction at 'Cuttlehall' on 1st July, 1559.
James, who was present in 1560 at the sasine of his nephew Charles.
William Geddes, the eldest son, married before 1543 - Janet Baird, the younger daughter and co-heiress of John Baird of Posso. He was killed in 1558 by the Tweedies, and that was the beginning of a long feud with that family. There is no information about this murder other than an entry in the records of the Privy Council, according to which a respite was granted under the Privy Seal to James Tweedie of Drumelzier, James Tweedie of Fruid, Patrick, William, and John, his brothers, and Thomas Tweedie alias Long Tom, for the cruel slaughter of William Geddes, son and apparent heir of Charles Geddes of 'Cuthilhall.' Besides his eldest son, Charles, William Geddes had other five sons -
John, who was a portioner of Kirkurd and servitor to Sir Walter Scott of Kirkurd in 1589, married Margaret Cockburn, and dying in 1611, left a son James, who purchased Rachan from his cousin Charles.
George Geddes of Edmestoun, who was chamberlain of Biggar, 1590, married Esther Fleming, and had issue;
William, who in 1607 was heir to his brother George; Thomas, probably the tenant of Hearthstane in 1617 and James Geddes of Glencotho and Glenhigton, who married Margaret Veitch and had issue - William Geddes of Glencotho and others.
Charles, the eldest son of William, was served heir to his grandfather in 1560. He was an important man in his day in the county, and held the office of Coroner or Crowner of Tweeddale, which was conferred on him by James VI. on 21st February, 1577-8. There was open rivalry at this time between the Geddes family - and the Tweedies of Drumelzier, and the position was not a comfortable one for Charles Geddes, as Drumelzier marched with Rachan on the south, and Tweedie had retainers further up Helms Water, in Quarter, Cardon and Glenkirk. A feud with the Tweedies usually began and ended in bloodshed, for they had long ceased to regard as worthy of emulation the fine old family motto, handed down from some remote ancestor, of Thole and Think.
James Geddes of Glenhigton, [His wife, Margaret Veitch, was of the Dawyck family, and that itself was an offence to the Tweedies, between whom and the Veitclies there was bitter hatred. There is record of Charles Geddes having wadset to James Geddes the 40s. land of Glencotho and the 5s. land of Glenkirk, redeemable for a rose noble and also the lands of Glenhigton, redeemable for 600 merks.] above mentioned, a brother of Charles, fell a victim to the treachery of the Tweedies in Edinburgh on 29th December, 1592. A complaint was made to the Privy Council by the widow, Charles Geddes and the friends of the murdered man, against James Tweedie of Drumelzier and his associates, including Patrick Porteous of Hawkshaw and John Crichton of Quarter. The offenders were denounced and put to the horn, while James Tweedie was for some time in prison in Edinburgh Castle, from which lie was liberated in 1593, Sir Michael Balfour of Burley becoming his cautioner.
[The circumstances of this deliberate murder are given in the Privy Council records, and in addition to the murder of Williain Geddes in 1558 there had apparently been other outrages, for the complainers state that 'it is not unknawne how many slauchters have been cornmittit upon them by James Tuedy of Drummelzier and his friends.' On this occasion for 'the space of aucht days' Tweedie and his companions haunted the streets of Edinburgh watching for an opportunity to slay the laird of Glenhighton. On 29th December they found that he was 'in the Cowgait at David Lindsay's booth shoeing his horse, being altogether careless of his awne suretie,' and rushing out of the closes where they were hiding 'shamefullie, cruellie, and unhonestlie, with schottis of pistollettis murdereit and slew him behind his bak.']
In 1617 the minister of Glenholm complained to the Presbytery that his 'Session was dissolved through the misbehaviour of James Fraser, many ways offensive and slanderous, and through his (Fraser's) reset by Charles Geddes of Rachan, who detained him contrary to the ordinance of the Session.' Geddes was warned and admonished, but paid little heed, and the Presbytery could 'spy no sign of repentance' in him. He was threatened with excommunication, and it was about a year later before he promised to amend his ways.
Charles Geddes died about 1627, and was succeeded by his son Charles, who sold the lands the same year to his cousin, James Geddes of Kirkurd, who purchased from Thomas Porteous of Glenkirk in 1634 his share of Rachan, Glenhigton, and Glencotho, and thereafter the lands which were erected into a barony in 1677, share the history of Kirkurd until 1752.
In the beginning of the eighteenth century, James Geddes of Rachan and Kirkurd extended the family possessions in Glenholm. In 1712, by a contract of excambion dated 12th December, lie acquired from Alexander Murray, younger of Stanhope, the lands of Taylorlee on the east and west sides of Helms Water, lands called Langdale on the lower side of the road leading to Glenholm church, a five noble land lying in the Kirkmeadow, the meadowland between the minister's glebe and Quartercroft foot, and the whole lands which Alexander Murray had within the mill dams above Rachan Mill. In 1719 he purchased (disposition dated 14th April) from Alexander Murray a property called 'the fourth pairt of Rachan', which apparently included Rachan Mill. And in 1722 (disposition dated 12th March) he acquired from Alexander Murray the church lands of the parish called Kirkhall, which no doubt were in the vicinity of the church.
In 1730 James Geddes petitioned for a division of the common of Holmshope, which lay at the head of Helms Water and by decree dated 1736 was found entitled to 711 acres and 16 falls, of which 25 acres, 1 rood and 32 falls represented the proportion applicable to his share of the lands of Glenkirk. This extent of ground was practically all on the south side of Helms Water, at the head of the valley.
The dwelling-house of Rachan in the time of the Geddesses was called Kittlehall or Cuttlehall, a peel tower which was ruinous when Armstrong wrote in 1775. It was a structure, he says, 'of the same consequence with Wrae,' the ruins of which are still in existence. It is marked on Blaeu's map.
CARMICHAEL OF SKIRLING AND RACHAN
LOCH OF RACHAN
In 1752 all the Geddes lands in Glenholm, including Rachan, were purchased by John Carmichael of Skirling (afterwards fourth Earl of Hyndford) for £3,904 4s. 2d. He sold them in 1765 to James Loch, a writer in Edinburgh, who in 1774 conveyed them to John Loch, younger of Hawkshaw, in liferent, and William Loch, his eldest son, in fee. John Loch is referred to in Findlater's Agricultural Survey (1802) as progressive and alert in the management of his lands.
He introduced a breed of cows from Kyle, Ayrshire, which he thought highly of, and studied the diseases of sheep. He planted the trees at Rachan, which Findlater describes as a striking instance of beauty and utility 'disposed in all the wild irregularity of Nature.' In his time a small portion of ground on the north side of the Tweed near to the junction of Biggar Water was acquired from Andrew Hay of Drumelzier with the object of making the river serve as the boundary of the two estates. In all likelihood this ground, part of which was called the Sandbank, was the original course of the Tweed.
TWEEDIE OF RACHAN
William Loch died about 1841, and his testamentary trustees in 1844 sold Rachan, etc., for £17,500 to Thomas Tweedie of Quarter, who was already the proprietor of Quarter and Whitslade, the particulars of which will be given later.
The present house at Rachan, near the junction of Holms Water and Biggar Water, was built by Thomas Tweedie, and completed by his successor. The policy grounds, in which are two ornamental lakes, are beautifully laid out. There is another dwelling-house on the estate, Merlindale, overlooking the Tweed at that part where the road from Drumelzier crosses the river. It was also built by the Tweedies, and was formerly called Rachan Cottage.
Thomas Tweedie added to the estate in 1847 the lands of Wrae which he purchased from Walter Hunter of Polmood (Lord Forbes) for £3900, and in 1850 the small property of Duckpool, which he purchased from his brother, John Tweedie. He was a doctor by profession, and had a distinguished career in the service of the East India Company, in which he received a commission as surgeon in 1805, and from which he retired in 1844 with the rank of Physician-General. In addition to his purchases in Glenholm, he also acquired the lands of Glenrath and Castlehill in the parish of Manor, all these acquisitions in Peeblesshire involving, according to Dr. Chambers, an expenditure of £80,000. Thomas Tweedie, who had a middle name Stevenson, which he rarely used, took his part in the public life of the county, of which he was a Deputy-Lieutenant and a justice of the Peace. He died in 1855, survived by his wife, Benjamina, daughter of Charles Mackay, and a family of three sons and three daughters. The eldest son, James, succeeded.
James Tweedie, who held a commission as Lieutenant in the 80th Regiment, was, like his father, a Deputy-Lieutenant and a Justice of the Peace of the county. He was twice married - in 1858 to Jane, daughter of John White of Drumelzier and Netherurd, and then to Emma Charlotte, daughter of David Cunliffe of the Bengal Civil Service. By the second marriage he had a family. When the Caledonian Railway was formed (1864) the opportunity was taken of straightening a part of Biggar Water adjoining the Rachan policies, and for this purpose about five acres of land was acquired from the Company. In 1867 the tollhouse on the roadside was purchased from the Peeblesshire Road Trustees, and in 1869 a servitude pertaining to the lands of Rachan of casting peats on the moss of Glencotho was discharged in favour of the proprietor of that property, George Hope. Twenty years later James Tweedie fell into debt, with the result that his estates were sequestrated, and in 1890 he granted a conveyance for behoof of his creditors to John Ord Mackenzie and Harry Cheyne, Writers to the Signet, Edinburgh. These trustees sold the land by public roup in 1897 to the present proprietor, Mr. Henry Brown Marshall. He is the second son of James Marshall of Glenhove Lanarkshire.
MARSHALL OF RACHAN
Mr. Marshall, who married in 1885 Anna, daughter of Gerrit H. Rissik, M.D., of Utrecht, Holland, has considerably improved the house of Rachan and also the policy grounds. He takes a great interest in his estate, and the home farm at Whiterigg is noted for its Clydesdales and cattle. He is a prominent and active member of the County Council, of which he is Vice-Convener. For many years he has been a Deputy-Lieutenant and a Justice of the Peace of the county, and is now Vice-Lieutenant.
This information is reproduced from A History of Peeblesshire by J. W. Buchan and Rev. H. Paton, published in three volumes between 1925-7 by Jackson, Wylie and Co. of Glasgow. The original book includes many refences to the sources of the information, pedigrees and plates.
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