Kirkpatrick

The name of Kirkpatrick is common in Dumfriesshire, where it derives from a chapel dedicated to St Patrick in the parish of Closeburn. According to tradition, the family of Kirkpatrick of Closeburn have held lands in this dale since the ninth century. They appear in the twelfth century, when Ivone de Kirkpatrick witnessed a charter of the Bruce family. Alexander II granted a charter of confirmation to Ivone of his lands. Roger Kirkpatrick was one of the attendants of Robert the Bruce at Dumfries when he met and slew the Red Comyn. Kirkpatrick is said to have met the Bruce rushing out of the church exclaiming that he believed he had killed Comyn. Kirkpatrick drew his dagger with the words, ‘I’ll mak siccar’; the family motto and coat of arms allude to this story. In 1314 he was sent on an embassy with Sir Neil Campbell to England and in recompense the family received the lands of Redburgh. In 1355 Sir Roger Kirkpatrick distinguished himself by taking Caerlaverock and Dalswinton Castles from the English, thus preserving Nithsdale. He was murdered by his kinsman, Sir James Lindsay, in a private quarrel in 1357. The title passed through a nephew to Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, who had a charter of resignation to the baronies of Closeburn and Redburgh from Robert, Duke of Albany, in 1409. His grandson, another Sir Thomas, was taken prisoner at the Battle of Solway Moss in 1542. The estate again passed through a cousin and in 1685 Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, for his fidelity to the cause of Charles I, was created a Baronet of Nova Scotia. The mansion house built by the first Baronet was later destroyed by fire. Sir James, the fourth Baronet, sold the estate of Closeburn. William Kirkpatrick, a descendant of the Kirkpatricks of Conheath, was a merchant in Malaga in Spain, who married the eldest daughter of a Belgian baron. His great-granddaughter, Eugenie, became Empress of the French when she married Napoleon III.