George Lauder of Bass (1597 - 1656)

Born 1597 in Tyninghame Manor, Haddingtonshire, Scotland.

Ancestors

Died 5 Mar 1656 at about age 59 in North Berwick, Haddingtonshire.

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Biography

The last Lauder of The Bass feudal baron and laird after 600 years. An only child.

An essay by Alexander Grant entitled "Extinction of Direct Male Lines" mentions that the Lauders were one of only 31% of the great families of the time of Robert the Bruce who survived in the direct male line beyond 1500.^[1]

In Lord Crawford's Armorial (c1600) are shown the Arms of Sir George Lauder of The Bass: Gules a griffin segreant within a double tressure flory counter-flory Argent.^[2]

In the Retours of Service, George Lauder of The Bass was retoured to his father, George Lauder of The Bass on 15th July, 1613.^[3] In the Kirk Session Book for Tynninghame on 1st February 1618, it is stated that within that parish the Laird of Bass (George Lauder) has 48.5 husbandlands (1,176 acres).^[4] In a charter dated 30 July 1614 Templelands in Hedderwick, North Berwick, Tyningham, and Morham, Haddingtonshire, are mentioned as being "possessed by the Lord of Bass".^[5]

This last George Lauder of The Bass appears very many times in the archives and appears to have been in financial difficulties from about 1620. The three years following Scotland endured one of the worst famines in memory. As a purely agricultural laird this had a devastating effect.

According to the Kirk Session books of Tyninghame The Lairds of The Bass, Waughton, and Scougall, were all present in church on 19th October 1617; and again on 3rd September 1620.^[6]

On 13th September 1620, the King's Advocate, with George Lauder of The Bass, Dame Isobel Hepburn Lady Bass his mother, and others, brought a successful action against Lady Carmichael and a number of her servants for trespass, assault, molestation and use of hagbuts. The Defendants were declared rebels.^[7]

Sir William Fraser mentions a charter dated 31st May 1621 by George Lauder of the Bass to Robert Lauder, son of the late George Lauder in Tynninghame, of certain acres in the lordship of Tynninghame. He describess the Bass family's armorial bearings [as represented by the seal] at that date to have been a shield bearing a griffin, rampant, surrounded by a double tressure flory and counter flory; crest, a gannet or solan goose: bearing the legend "Sigillum Georgii Lauder Baronis de Bass".^[8]

Sir Alexander Lauder of Haltoun [who was a surety for his relatives herein] persuaded the Privy Council to write to the King [James VI & 1st] in London in an attempt to get "the Laird of Bass [George Lauder] and his mother" [Isabella née Hepburn, Lady Bass], who were then staying at Court, to return home to attend to their shambolic financial affairs. The letter was dated 4th March 1624. Amongst the signatories was the Earl of Lauderdale.^[9]

On the 2nd December 1628 George Lauder of The Bass and his mother, represented by Alexander Hepburn in Edinburgh, petitioned the Lords of Secret Council for a Warrant that they not be prosecuted if they left their castle on The Bass and repaired to Edinburgh and anywhere else in the county in order to deal with their financial affairs and their creditors. Granted, until the 20th February following.^[10]

George Lauder of The Bass and his mother Isabella Hepburn petitioned the Privy Council for protection from their creditors on 31st July 1634.^[11]

On 10th January 1639, George Lauder of The Bass, and his mother Isobella Hepburne, Lady Bass, under pressure as Royalists, assigned the barony of Bass and a string of other properties to her brother Sir Patrick Hepburn of Waughton, a Covenanter.^[12] By this charter the greatest Lauder estates passed from them after nearly 600 years. There appears in the archives dated 15th September 1641, a Supplication by Sir Patrick Hepburn of Wauchtoun, knight, addressed to the King and the Estates of Parliament, in which he mentions that "he has lately acquired the right of the lands of Popell and Auld Haddington from the Laird of Bass."^[13]

George Lauder of The Bass was mentioned in a Haddingtonshire Sasine (Vol.32,fol 524) dated 4th March 1645. In an old 1613 Bible in the possession of Mr Bernie Regan there are mentions of "The Laird of the Bass, Mr George Lauder" plus a further entry which states "The Laird of the Bass died upon the 5th (hard to read) March in the year of God 1656 and was buried at North Berwick."

Sources

1. ↑ Essays on the Nobility of Medieval Scotland, edited by K.J.Stringer, John Donald publishers, Edinburgh, 1985, p.214. ISBN: 0-85976-113-4
2. ↑ Lord Crawford's Armorial edited by Alex Maxwell-Findlater, The heraldry Society of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2008, p.248-9. ISBN: 978-0-9525258-8-2.
3. ↑ Inquisitiones Generales, Edinburgh 1811.
4. ↑ The Churches of Saint Baldred by A.E.Ritchie, Edinburgh, 1880, p.168.
5. ↑ The Great Seal of Scotland.
6. ↑ The Churches of Saint Baldred by A.E.Ritchie, Edinburgh, 1880, pps: 166 &188.
7. ↑ The Registers of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol.xii, 1895.
8. ↑ Memorials of the Earls of Haddington by Sir William Fraser, Edinburgh, 1889, vol.1, p.xxxii, note 2.
9. ↑ The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland edited by David Masson, LL.D., Edinburgh, 1896, volume xiii, 1622-1625, pages 452/3.
10. ↑ Registrum Councilii Secreti, 1628-9, fol.67, cited in The Churches of St.Baldred by A.E.Ritchie, Edinburgh, 1880, pps: 56-8.
11. ↑ The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland Second Series, edited by P.Hume Brown, M.A.,LL.D., volume V, Edinburgh, 1904, p.655.
12. ↑ 'The Great Seal of Scotland no.1021, confirmed at Edinburgh 15th November 1641.
13. ↑ The Registers of the Privy Council of Scotland, 2nd series, 1638-1643, edited by P.Hume Brown, M.A.,LL.D., Edinburgh, 1906, p.481.