Tulliallan - History

History

The castle passed into the ownership of William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas ( (c. 1327–1384). Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas gifted the Tulliallan estate to the Edmiston family in 1402. In 1456 the gift was confirmed to Sir James Edmiston, great grandson of King James II of Scotland, by royal charter. Patrick Blackader, grandson of Cuthbert Blackader of Blackader Castle in Berwickshire, married Elizabeth Edmiston, daughter of Sir James. She brought the Tualliallen estate as her dowry.

A noted member of the Blackadder family of Tulliallan was Robert Blackadder, brother of Patrick Blackadder, Laird of Tulliallan. Robert Blackadder was Bishop of Aberdeen, Bishop of Glasgow from 1484 and then in 1492 the first Archbishop of Glasgow, who added the eponymous crypt and aisle in Glasgow Cathedral. The bishop sided with rebel nobles who defeated and killed King James III of Scotland in 1488 at the Battle of Sauchieburn. The archbishop died while on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1508.

One of the Lairds of Tulliallan, Sir John Blackadder, was beheaded in March 1531 for the murder of James Inglis, Abbot of Culross, in a dispute over land. He was succeeded at Tulliallan by his brother Patrick, who renewed a dispute against the Homes for the Blackadder family lands around Allanton in Berwickshire. Patrick was murdered in an ambush near Edinburgh, where he was to meet the Homes to try to resolve their differences. Following this the Blackadders made no further attempts to recover their ancestral estates. William Blackadder was among the supporters of Mary, Queen of Scots at the Battle of Carberry Hill (15 June 1567). He was arrested soon after and hanged in June, and his brother was hanged in September.

The last Blackadder to own Tulliallan was Sir John, born in 1596 and on 18 July 1626 created a knight baronet of Nova Scotia by King Charles I of England. His estate, with lime works, salt pans and other enterprises, yielded an income of 36,000 merks annually, but this was not enough to satisfy Sir John's expensive habits and he ran up debts far beyond his ability to pay. When his effects were seized he fled to the continent, and in 1642 seems to have been in the French service. He died in America in 1651. Sir John's wife, Elizabeth Graham, was the daughter of the Earl of Menteith. She had an annuity of 360 merks, and lived at Tulliallan until 1662. His son, Alexander, could not free the estate from the burden of debts that his father had contracted. The Court of Session ordered a judicial sale. In 1700 the estate was purchased by Colonel John Erskine, son of David Erskine, 4th Lord Cardross.

The celebrated covenanting preacher John Blackadder (1622-1685) was legally the heir to the Blackadder baronetcy, but did not claim the title.