Guthrie

The lands known as Guthrie lie in Angus, and the family who took this as their name is one of the oldest in that county. The name’s origin is not known. There is a fable that the lands were named by an early Scots king after a fisherman ‘gut three’ fish to serve to his hungry monarch. A more likely origin lies in the Gaelic ‘gaothairach’, ‘windy place’. King William the Lion granted the lands of Gutherin to the Abbey of Arbroath around 1178. The family, who were royal falconers, subsequently purchased these lands. In 1299 the Laird of Guthrie was sent to France to invite Sir William Wallace to return to Scotland. The embassy was successful, and Guthrie landed with Wallace at Montrose

The early family charters are lost but it seems certain the family obtained the Barony of Guthrie by charter from David II. Alexander Guthrie of Guthrie witnessed a charter by Alexander Seaton, the lord of Gordon, to Lord Keith, in August 1442. In 1446 he acquired the lands of Kincaldrum near Forfar and became baillie of Forfar. Sir David Guthrie of Guthrie was armour bearer to the king and captain of the guard, later being appointed Lord Treasurer of Scotland in 1461. In 1468 he obtained a charter under the great seal to build a castle at Guthrie and this remained the residence of the chiefs until very recently. In 1473 he became Lord Chief Justice of Scotland. He greatly increased the family estates, and founded a collegiate church at Guthrie, the dedication of which was confirmed in a Papal Bull of 1479. His eldest son, Sir Alexander Guthrie, fell at Flodden in September 1513. The Guthries were quick to support the reformed religion, and in 1567 signed a bond upholding the authority of the infant King James VI against that of his mother, Queen Mary. At this time the Lairds of Guthrie were feuding with their neighbours, the Gardynes, and Alexander Guthrie was assassinated at Inverpeffer. The Guthries retaliated in like manner, ultimately being saved from the consequences of their action by a royal pardon granted in 1618. Alexander Guthrie was one of the twenty-five gentlemen pensioners and an early ceremonial bodyguard commanded ‘to attend the King’s Majesty at all times in his riding and passing to the fields’.

The estate then passed through cousins until, in 1636, John Guthrie, Bishop of Moray, became the eleventh chief. He had been ordained at Perth, and had become minister of St Giles in Edinburgh in 1621. In 1623 he was consecrated Bishop of Moray and took up residence at Spynie Castle, the palace of the bishopric. The king’s attempts to alter the style of worship in the Scottish Church eventually led to the outbreak of open hostilities, and in 1640 the bishop was forced to surrender his castle to forces under Colonel Monroe. He retired to his own estates of Guthrie, where he died in June 1643. His third son, Andrew Guthrie, fought with the great Montrose and was taken prisoner at the Battle of Philiphaugh. He was sentenced to death and beheaded by the Scottish guillotine, ‘the maiden’, at St Andrews in January 1646. His daughter, Bethia, married her kinsman, Francis Guthrie of Gagie, and thus the title and estates remained in the Guthrie family. James Guthrie, a scion of the chiefly house, was a Covenanter minister who became one of the movement’s early martyrs. Ordained the minister of Lauder in 1638, he moved to Stirling in 1649, where he preached openly against the king’s religious policies. He was in due course summoned before the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly, whose authority he challenged, and for this was stripped of his office. He continued, however, to preach with great zeal, until he was arrested in February 1661. The trial was a farce and its outcome predetermined: James Guthrie was sentenced to death and was executed in June 1661.

The Guthries of Halkerton were another branch of this family who held their barony by right of the office of royal falconers in Angus. The title and office were only relinquished in 1747 under the terms of the Heritable Jurisdictions Act of that year. John Douglas Guthrie of Guthrie served in the cavalry during the Egyptian campaign of 1882 and married Mary, daughter of Duncan Davidson of Tulloch. Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Guthrie of Guthrie, the last chief to live at Guthrie Castle, was born in 1886. A distinguished soldier, he commanded the 4th Battalion the Black Watch and was awarded the Military Cross. The present chief resides in England and Guthrie Castle has been sold.