Wardlaw

his name, which is found in several parts of Scotland, derives from ‘ward’ in the sense of a watch or guard, and ‘law’, a hill. The wardlaw was evidently an early lookout post. Wardlaw near Beauly was part of the lands of the Norman lord, John Bisset, perhaps as early as 1210. The Wardlaws held lands in Galloway and Fife but, for adherence to the claim of Balliol against Bruce for the crown of Scotland, they were forfeit. They later made peace with the triumphant Robert the Bruce, receiving lands in Roxburghshire and establishing their principal seat at Torry in Fife. Sir Henry Wardlaw of Torry married a niece of Walter, the High Steward of Scotland. His son, named after his mother’s illustrious uncle, became Bishop of Glasgow in 1367 and was created a cardinal by Pope Urban VI in 1381. He is buried in Glasgow Cathedral. His nephew, Henry Wardlaw, was also to become a bishop, and in 1410 he founded the University of St Andrews, obtaining a papal charter for it in 1413. The Wardlaws of Torry continued to prosper, and several prominent cadet families acquired substantial estates in their own right. Sir Henry Wardlaw, chamberlain to Queen Anne, wife of James VI, acquired the lands of Pitreavie at the beginning of the seventeenth century. He was created a Baronet of Nova Scotia in 1631. He built a splendid castle in the renaissance style which is still inhabited to this day. However, the Lairds of Pitreavie were not always known for their hospitality at the castle. When Highlanders, fleeing from Oliver Cromwell’s troops after the Battle of Inverkeithing in 1651, sought refuge at Pitreavie, they were driven off, and the laird himself is said to have thrown stones at them from his roof. Sir Henry, third Baronet, married a younger daughter of Halket of Pitfirrane, who was the authoress of a fine ballad relating the Battle of Largs in 1263. The ballad was for long thought to be a genuine product of antiquity and it was published at the private expense of Sir Gilbert Elliot in 1719. The true authorship was not disclosed for a further thirty years. The estates have passed from the family but the baronetcy survives. The Wardlaws of Gogarmount were to produce a number of distinguished lawyers in the nineteenth century. David Wardlaw of Gogarmount, Writer to the Signet, was a noted peerage lawyer who died in 1908. The first Wardlaw Laird of Gogarmount founded the Scottish Widows’ Fund, now one of the most prominent insurance investment companies in Europe.