A Family Affair: The Dundas Family of Arniston and the Military Survey of Scotland (1747–1755)

ABSTRACT

This paper is the result of extensive investigation of the archives of the Dundas family of Arniston, Midlothian. It uncovers significant roles played in the organization of David Watson and William Roy's Military Survey of Scotland (1747–1755) by successive generations of the Dundases and suggests that the introduction of Watson, an established military engineer, to the young civilian Roy, was facilitated by that family. The Dundases' patronage of the Military Survey encourages us to understand the project as a private-public partnership and supports contentions that Enlightenment mapping resulted from complex social networks straddling military and civilian life.

Cet article est le résultat d'une enquête approfondie dans les archives de la famille Dundas d'Arniston (Midlothian). Il révèle le rôle significatif joué par deux générations successives de Dundas dans l'organisation des levés topographiques militaires d'Ecosse par David Watson et William Roy, et suggère que l'introduction du jeune Roy, un civil, auprès de Watson, ingénieur militaire bien établi, fut facilitée par les Dundas. Le mécénat familial apporté aux levés militaires nous incite à comprendre le projet comme un partenariat public-privé et nous permet de soutenir que la cartographie des Lumières est le résultat de réseaux sociaux complexes rapprochant vie militaire et vie civile.

Dieser Beitrag ist das Ergebnis intensiver Studien in den Familienarchiven der Dundas von Arniston, Midlothian. Dabei konnte die hervorragende Rolle, die aufeinanderfolgende Generationen der Dundas in der Organisation von David Watsons und William Roys militärischer Landesaufnahme von Schottland (1747–1755) spielten, aufgeklärt werden. Die Quellen legen nahe, dass die Bekanntschaft von Watson, einem etablierten Genieoffizier, mit dem jungen Zivilisten Roy von den Dundas gefördert wurde. Die Unterstützung der militärischen Vermessung durch die Familie lässt das Projekt als eine Öffentlich-Private Partnerschaft erscheinen und stützt die Behauptung, dass Kartographie in der Aufklärung auf komplexen sozialen Netzwerken beruhte, die militärische und zivile Bereiche vereinigten.

Este artículo es el resultado de una investigación exhaustiva en los archivos de la familia Dundas de Arniston, Midlothian. Descubre los significativos roles desempeñados por generaciones sucesivas de Dundas en la organización de los levantamientos cartográficos militares de Escocia (1747–1755) hechos por David Watson y William Roy; y sugiere que la invitación a participar, hecha por Watson, un ingeniero militar establecido, al joven civil Roy, fue facilitada por los Dundas. El patrocinio de la familia en los levantamientos cartográficos militares nos ayuda a entender el proyecto como una asociación público-privada y apoya los argumentos de que la cartografía de la Ilustración fue el resultado de complejas redes sociales a caballo entre la vida militar y la civil.

KEYWORDS:

• Military Survey of Scotland
• Arniston
• patronage
• Enlightenment
• map making
• networks
• partnership
• national mapping
• Board of Ordnance
• 1745 Jacobite Rebellion
• David Dundas
• Henry Dundas
• Robert Dundas (1685–1753)
• Robert Dundas (1713–1787)
• William Dundas
• Ann Gordon
• Sir William Gordon
• John Hay (fourth marquess of Tweeddale)
• Colin Maclaurin
• William Roy
• David Watson

Notes

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. George Mark, For Publishing by Subscription, An Accurate Map or Geometrical Survey of the Shires, of Lothian, Tweddale, and Clydsdale (np, 1728), [1–2], cited in Charles W. J. Withers, ‘The social nature of map making in the Scottish Enlightenment, c.1682–c.1832’, Imago Mundi 54 (2002): 46–66 at 49–50.

2. Withers, ‘The social nature of map making’ (see note 1), 50.

3. Michael Fry, The Dundas Despotism (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1992); Mary Cosh, ‘The Adam family and Arniston’, Architectural History 27 (1984): 214–23. See also George W. T. Omond, The Arniston Memoirs: Three Centuries of a Scottish House 1571–1838 (Edinburgh, David Douglas, 1887).

4. Hugh Debbieg to Henry Seymour Conway, ‘Memorial’, The National Archives, London (hereafter TNA), CO 325/1, 197–200 at 198, 10 March 1766.

5. The principal secondary accounts of the Military Survey's history are given by Aaron Arrowsmith, Memoir Relative to the Construction of the Map of Scotland (London, Savage, 1809), 6–15; John Bonehill and Stephen Daniels eds, Paul Sandby: Picturing Britain (London, Royal Academy of Arts, 2009), 82–87; George Chalmers, Caledonia, 4 vols. (London, Cadell & Davies, 1807), 2: vi, 61–66; Jessica Christian, ‘Paul Sandby and the Military Survey of Scotland’, in Mapping the Landscape: Essays on Art and Cartography, ed. Nicholas Alfrey and Stephen Daniels (Nottingham, University of Nottingham, 1990), 18–22; Edwin Danson, Weighing the World: The Quest to Measure the Earth (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006), 59–67; Christopher Fleet and Kimberly C. Kowal, ‘Roy Military Survey Map of Scotland (1747–1755): mosaicing, geo-referencing, and web delivery’, e-Perimetron, 2:4 (2007): 194–208; Yolande Hodson, ‘William Roy and the Military Survey of Scotland’, in William Roy, The Great Map: The Military Survey of Scotland 1747–1755 (Edinburgh, Birlinn, 2007), 7–23; Robert Joseph Mallett, ‘The Military Survey of Scotland 1747–1755: An Analysis Utilising the Dual Concepts of Map and Content’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Sheffield, 1987); Andrew O'Dell, ‘A view of Scotland in the middle of the eighteenth century’, Scottish Geographical Magazine 69 (1953): 58–63; R. A. Skelton, ‘The Military Survey of Scotland 1747–1755’, Scottish Geographical Magazine 83 (1967): 5–16; Chris Tabraham, ‘The military context of the Military Survey’, in Roy, The Great Map (cited above), 24–35; G. Whittington and A. J. S. Gibson, The Military Survey of Scotland 1747–1755: A Critique (London, Historical Geography Research Group, 1986). None offers a satisfactory account of how and why Watson selected Roy to direct the map.

6. Withers, ‘Social nature of map making’ (see note 1), 46–66; Matthew Edney, ‘Mathematical cosmography and the social ideology of British cartography, 1780–1820’, Imago Mundi 46 (1994): 101–20.

7. Omond, Arniston Memoirs (see note 3), xxiii-xxxvi, 1–40.

8. Richard Scott, ‘Dundas, Robert, Lord Arniston (1685–1753)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (hereafter DNB), online ed., Oxford University Press, Sept 2004, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8257, accessed 12 Aug 2010.

9. J. A. Hamilton, ‘Dundas, Robert, Lord Arniston (1713–1787)’, rev. Michael Fry, DNB (see note 8), http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8258, accessed 12 Aug 2010.

10. Richard Scott, ‘Hay, John, fourth marquess of Tweeddale (1695–1762)’, DNB (see note 8), http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/12730, accessed 15 Aug 2010.

11. Omond, Arniston Memoirs (see note 3), 58. That juries have the option of returning a ‘not guilty’ verdict, rather than simply ‘proven’ or ‘not proven’, was Robert's innovation. See ‘Biographical Account of the Right Honourable Robert Dundas of Arniston … Read at a Meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Mar. 17 1788’, National Register of Archives in Scotland (hereafter NRAS) 3246, Vol. 21, p. 7.

12. Henry Cockburn, Memorials of His Time (Edinburgh, Robert Grant & Son, 1946), 48–49; cited in Fry, Dundas Despotism (see note 3), ix.

13. M. Fry, ‘Henry Dundas, first Viscount Melville (1742–1811), in DNB (see note 8), http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8260, accessed 03 October 2008.

14. ‘Biographical Account of the Right Honourable Robert Dundas of Arniston’ (see note 11), 19. See also Robert Dundas to Philip Yorke, first Earl of Hardwicke, BL, Add. MS 35447, fol. 129, 25 October 1750; cited in Fry, Dundas Despotism (see note 3), 5. And see Scots Magazine, Dec. 1787, p. 574, in Arniston Memoirs, Arniston House, Private Collection, 2: 26.

15. Many of the archive's estate maps have been omitted from the most recent catalogue but are included in NRAS 0077, under a subsection marked ‘Plans’. William Adam's survey is catalogued under ‘Portfolio. 18th century’.

16. These are catalogued in NRAS 0077 under ‘Plans’, subsection ‘Volume’. There are photostats of all the named surveys in the National Archives of Scotland (hereafter NAS), respectively RHP5246/3; RHP5246/2 (erroneously dated 1732); RHP5246/5; RHP5246/7; RHP5246/14; RHP5246/6; RHP5246/18.

17. These are listed in the most recent catalogue of the Dundas archives. The map of coal seams are in NRAS 3246, Bundle 252; Cooper's plan is in NRAS 3246, Bundle 249; Turnbull's measurement is contained in NRAS 3246, Bundle 205; and the architectural plans are in NRAS 3246, Bundle 286.

18. ‘Accounts, Discharges, Receipts’, NRAS 3246, Bundle 108, 16 January 1751 and 24 April 1751; Miscellaneous Papers, NRAS 3246, Bundle 120, 30 March 1759.

19. Accounts, Discharges, Receipts, NRAS 3246, Bundle 107, 22 September 1737.

20. ‘Journal of the Peregrinations both by Land and Water of Robert Dundas in the year 1772’, NRAS 3246, Bundle 173, 10 May 1772. Robert Dundas junior appears highly sensitive to the power of the prospect throughout his Journal: in the entries for 21 and 22 May 1772, he describes the view over Nottingham as ‘the prettiest Prospect ever I saw’, and a view over Derbyshire provoked the cry: ‘Now for the pencils of a Raphael or Titian to paint this beautiful landskip!’ In an entry on 10 May 1772, he referred to painters such as ‘Ramsay, West, Willison’ by name, and on 13 June 1772, he described the gardens at Sudbury Hall in Derbyshire in detail. Robert Dundas's ‘Journal of Lake District Travels 1775’, NRAS 3246, Bundle 174, Chapter 19, shows familiarity with standard topographical literature, such as that by ‘Mr Gray the Poet’.

21. Robert Dundas's ‘Journal of Lake District Travels 1775’, (see note 20), Chapter 29. For discussions of the comparison of a prospect to a ‘map’, see John Barrell, The Idea of Landscape and the Sense of Place, 1730–1840: An Approach to the Poetry of John Clare (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1972), 24–25. Robert Dundas senior had subscribed to James Thomson's poems, which are famous for their topographical descriptions and prospects (Receipts and Accounts 1686–1740, NRAS 3246, Bundle 106, 28 April 1729). Robert junior's sketches and maps can be found in ‘Journal of the Peregrinations both by Land and Water of Robert Dundas in the year 1772’ (see note 20), 15–19 May 1772.

22. ‘Receipts and Accounts 1686–1740’ (see note 21), 10 March 1729; ‘Personal and Household Account Book, 1733–44’, NRAS 3246, Vol. 49, p. 3, November 1734.

23. Andrew Mitchell to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1745’, NRAS 3246, Vol. 34, fols. 34–35, 20 and 22 August 1745. Mr ‘Senese’ was probably John Senex (bap. 1678–d.1740), geographer to Queen Anne and globemaker, whose widow continued his business until 1755.

24. Miscellaneous Papers, NRAS 3246, Bundle 117, fol. 1.

25. Robie Dundas's ‘Personal Accounts, 1738–55’, NRAS 3246, Vol. 51, fol. 22, 12 June 1741.

26. George Gibson, ‘Sketch of the History of Mathematics in Scotland to the End of the 18th Century’, Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society (Ser. 2), 1 (1928): 71–93 at 81.

27. Withers, ‘Social Nature of Mapmaking’ (see note 1), 49; Margaret Carr, ‘Charting the life of the man who mapped Orkney’, Orcadian, 19 September 2005; John Fleming, Robert Adam and His Circle (London, John Murray, 1962), 79–80; Tristram Clarke, ‘Short, James (1710–1768)’, DNB (see note 8), http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/25459, accessed 2 April 2010.

28. Matthew Edney, ‘British military education, mapmaking, and military ‘map-mindedness’ in the later Enlightenment’, Cartographic Journal, 31:1 (1994): 14–20.

29. ‘An Account of Cash, and Bills Paid Belonging to Ensn Dundas by Jos. Livingstone’, Miscellaneous Papers (see note 19), 28 January 1777.

30. Charles W. J. Withers, Placing the Enlightenment: Thinking Geographically about the Age of Reason (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2007), 180.

31. David Allan, ‘Group representing the children of Henry (Dundas), First Viscount Melville’, c.1785, in Charles W. J. Withers, Geography, Science and National Identity: Scotland since 1520 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001), 126. I am grateful to Stephen Daniels for drawing my attention to this portrait.

32. Robert Watson to Robert Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1655–1722’, NRAS 3246, Vol. 31, fol. 61, 27 January 1719. Letters from Robert Watson to Robert and Elizabeth Dundas on 15 December 1720 and 16 March 1721 describe how ‘Lordy [Robie's cousin Lord Bargany] & Roby and all the rest of your family continue in a perfect good state of health’, and convey messages from the children to their parents. (‘Letter Book 1655–1722’, fols. 90A and 101, 15 December 1720 and 16 March 1721.)

33. ‘Receipts and Accounts 1686–1740’ (see note 22), 10 August 1727.

34. Although Elizabeth Baigent suggests that David Watson was born in 1713 in her Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry (‘Watson, David (1713?–1761)’, DNB (see note 8), http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/ article/28834, accessed 12 August 2008), a document in the Dundas archives indicates instead that he was born on 29 June 1704 (‘Miscellaneous Papers 1615–1807’, NRAS 3246, Bundle 205).

35. Lockhart wrote to Robert Dundas asking that ‘Your Lo[rdshi]p will be so good as to order Mr Watson to keep this appointment better than the last wee made which will be most obliging to us all’. Lockhart added that ‘I have writ to Mr David Watson, but wee fear he'll not stir without Your Lo[rdshi]p[’s] positive orders’ (George Lockhart to Robert Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1655–1722’ (see note 32), fol. 92, [December 1720]).

36. Baigent, ‘Watson, David (1713?–1761)’ (see note 34).

37. David Watson to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1723–43’, NRAS 3246, Vol. 32, fol. 86, 24 December 1734.

38. Robert Dundas to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1723–43’ (see note 37), fol. 115, 1 November 1737.

39. Robert Dundas to Ann Gordon, NAS, GD235/9/2, fol. 85, 3 May 1742.

40. John Hay, fourth Marquess of Tweeddale, to Robert Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1723–43’ (see note 37), fol. 155, 25 November 1742.

41. Baigent, ‘Watson, David’ (see note 34).

42. ‘Rules Orders and Instructions for the future Government of the Office of Ordnance’, BL, Manuscripts, King's 70, p. 52, 1760. This contains the original warrant drawn up by Charles II in 1683, with ‘Additions and amendments to the foregoing instructions’ made occasionally until 1759; the volume was presented to George III in 1760 by Charles Frederick, Surveyor-General of the Ordnance. This particular instruction is reprinted in ‘Instructions to our Principal Engineer’, Royal Warrant of 1683, Appendix IV, in O. F. C. Hogg, The Royal Arsenal: Its Background, Origin, and Subsequent History (London, Oxford University Press, 1963).

43. David Watson to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1743–44’, NRAS 3246, Vol. 33, fol. 32, 22 June 1743; fol. 35, 5 July 1743; fol. 38, 31 August 1743; fol. 141, 15 May 1744; fol. 157, 15 September 1744. Robert Dundas to Ann Gordon, NAS, GD235/9/2, fol. 100, 14 July 1743. A copy of Watson's account of the Battle of Dettingen is in ‘Letter Book 1743–44’, fol. 33, 29 June 1743. Robie proved a disappointing correspondent (Watson commented sardonically that ‘Your Silence I think a very bad pretence for not troubling you sometimes with a Letter, to shew I am neither Jealous of Friendship, or unmindful of favours’), but an instruction from his wife to ‘offer my best comp[limen]ts to Mr Watson’ indicates he wrote back at least once (David Watson to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1743–44’, fol. 141, 15 May 1744; Henrietta Baillie to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1743–44’, fol. 142, 21 May 1744).

44. David Watson to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1743–44’ (see note 43), fol. 157, 15 September 1744.

45. E. G. R. Taylor, The Mathematical Practitioners of Hanoverian England 1714–1840 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1966), 220; Robie Dundas's ‘Personal Accounts 1738–55’ (see note 25), fol. 298, August 1754.

46. Robie Dundas to Andrew Mitchell, ‘Letter Book 1743–44’ (see note 43), fol. 170, 29 November 1744. Andrew Mitchell replied to Robie that ‘I have mentioned D. Watson & shall again put him in mind’ (‘Letter Book 1743–44’, fol. 173, 6 December 1744).

47. David Watson to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1745’ (see note 23), fol. 27, 20 May 1745.

48. Andrew Mitchell to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1745’ (see note 23), fol. 92, 14 November 1745.

49. David Watson to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1746–55’, NRAS 3246, Vol. 35, fol. 31, 25 February 1746. See also David Watson to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1746–55’, fol. 22, 1 February 1746. 14 February 1746, fol. 30: ‘D.B.’ informed Robie that ‘Mr Watson is extreamly Civill, in good Health, & very much in ye Duke's favours & very deservedly’.

50. David Watson to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1746–55’ (see note 49), fol. 32, 1 June 1746. These and subsequent letters described the hunt for the Young Pretender and ‘the destruction of the Ancient Seat of the Glengarry’ clan (see David Watson to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1746–55’, fol. 33, 14 July 1746; fol. 34, 7 July 1746; fol. 32, 1 June 1746).

51. David Watson to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1746–55’ (see note 49), fol. 34, 7 July 1746.

52. Rachel Hewitt, Map of a Nation: A Biography of the Ordnance Survey (London, Granta, 2010), xiii–xx, 12–13.

53. John Watson, ‘Memorial’, NRAS 3246, Bundle 89, fol. 6. There is a copy of this document in TNA, T1/486, fol. 2.

54. Elizabeth Baigent, ‘Roy, William (1726–1790)’, DNB (see note 8), http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/24236, accessed 13 Aug 2010. Principal accounts of Roy's life and achievements are given in Helen C. Adamson, William Roy 1726–1790: Pioneer of Roman Archaeology in Scotland (Glasgow, Glasgow Art Gallery & Museum, 1984); R. A. Gardiner, ‘William Roy, surveyor and antiquary’, Geographical Journal 143 (1977): 439–50; J. B. Harley and Gwynn Walters, ‘William Roy's maps, mathematical instruments, and library: the Christie's Sale of 1790’, Imago Mundi 29 (1977): 9–22; George MacDonald, ‘General William Roy and his “Military Antiquities of the Romans in North Britain”’, Archaeologica 68 (1917): 161–28; Yolande O'Donoghue, William Roy 1726–1790: Pioneer of the Ordnance Survey (London, British Museum Publications, 1977); Daniel Reid Rankin, ‘Notices of Major-General William Roy, from the parish registers of Carluke and other sources’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 9 (1872): 562–66.

55. See Jean-Pierre Martin and Anita McConnell, ‘Joining the observatories of Paris and Greenwich’, Notes & Records of the Royal Society 62 (2008): 355–72; Sven Widmalm, ‘Accuracy, rhetoric, and technology: the Paris–Greenwich triangulation, 1784–1788’, in The Quantifying Spirit in the Eighteenth Century, ed. T. Frängsmyr, J. L. Heilbron and Robin E. Rider (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1990), 179–206; Hewitt, Map of a Nation (see note 52), 66–92.

56. William Roy to George III, 24 May 1766, in Correspondence of King George the Third from 1760 to December 1783, ed. John Fortescue (London, Macmillan, 1927), 1: 330. Hodson (née O'Donoghue) has been instrumental in tracing a trajectory from Roy's earlier work to the Ordnance Survey: see especially O'Donoghue, William Roy 1726–1790 (note 54); and Hodson, ‘William Roy and the Military Survey of Scotland’ (note 5), 7–23.

57. The following historians of the Military Survey have suggested numerous different early career trajectories for William Roy, but none has been able to find evidence of military training prior to the Military Survey: Chalmers, Caledonia, 2: 64; Skelton, ‘The Military Survey of Scotland’, 16; Hodson, ‘William Roy and the Military Survey of Scotland’, 7 (all cited in note 5); Gardiner, ‘William Roy, Surveyor and Antiquary’: 439 (see note 54); and D. G. Moir, ed., The Early Maps of Scotland, 2 vols, 3rd ed. (Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Geographical Society, 1983), 1: 105.

58. Robert Dundas's uncle, John Sinclair, had married Martha Lockhart, who inherited from her father, John Lockhart, the lands of Castlehill around Cambusnethan House, a few miles to the west of Wishaw. Robert Dundas was close to Martha's son, his cousin John Lockhart, who took his mother's surname and inherited the lands of Castlehill (see letters from John Lockhart to Robert and Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1745’ (see note 23), fol. 123, 1 December 1745; fol. 156, 19 December 1745; fol. 162, 22 December 1745; ‘Letter Book 1746–55’ (see note 49), fol. 140, 9 April 1755). The main branch of the Lanarkshire Lockharts were based at Lee Castle, almost equidistant between Bonnington and Carluke. For accounts of the Lanarkshire Lockharts in the eighteenth century, see Simon Macdonald Lockhart, Seven Centuries: The History of the Lockharts of Lee and Carnwath (Carnwath, Angus Lockhart, 1976); George Lockhart, Letters of George Lockhart of Carnwath, ed. Daniel Szechi (Edinburgh, Scottish Historical Society, 1989); Daniel Szechi, George Lockhart of Carnwath 1689–1727: A Study in Jacobitism (East Lothian, Tuckwell Press, 2002).

59. Robert Dundas to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1723–43’ (see note 37), fol. 65, 13 December 1733.

60. Elizabeth Dundas to Robert Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1723–43’ (see note 37), fol. 64, 20 November 1733; Robert Dundas to Robie Dundas, fol. 69, 5 January 1734; Robert Dundas to Robie Dundas, fol. 70, 12 February 1734.

61. Robert Dundas to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1723–43’ (see note 37), fol. 70, 12 February 1734.

62. Shortly after Elizabeth's death, Ann wrote to Robert reminding him that ‘You once gave me Reason to Pretend some Tittle [sic.] to Your Heart’ and assured him that ‘I Intend to Pursue You wt so Much Friendship & Contempt Love and Indifference (Ann Gordon to Robert Dundas, NAS, GD235/9/2, fol. 75, 26 March [1734]).

63. Sir William inherited Hallcraig and Milton upon marrying Isobel Hamilton, the eldest daughter of Ursula Ralston and Sir John Hamilton. Sir John Hamilton foresaw that Sir William's principal estate, at Invergordon, in Ross and Cromarty, would pass to his eldest son; but that the substantial Hamilton debt—which was said to be ‘enough to exhaust a personal estate’—would also fall on the younger Gordon sons, potentially crippling them. He therefore decided to settle the Lanarkshire estates of Hallcraig and Milton on ‘the second son of Sir William Gordon’, and it was also stipulated that this second son should adopt ‘the name and arms of Hamilton.’ This entail was significantly complicated by the successive deaths of the eldest and third sons of Isobel Hamilton and Sir William Gordon. This had the effect of transferring the Lanarkshire estates in swift succession from the second son, John Gordon, on to the third, Alexander Gordon, and then to the fourth, Charles Hamilton Gordon. John Gordon was angry that, upon becoming the eldest surviving son, he lost ownership of the Lanarkshire estates, and he duly contested Charles Hamilton Gordon's right to Milton and Hallcraig, finally losing the case in 1747. See ‘Memorial for Mr. Charles Hamilton Gordon Advocate, against Sir John Gordon of Invergordon’, NAS, RH15/44/168, 9 November 1747; and ‘Pedigree and descent [of] Sir William Gordon of Invergordon’, in Arniston Journals and Letters, Arniston House, Private Collection, 1: frontispiece. J. M. Bulloch's The Families of Gordon of Invergordon, Newhall, also Ardoch … (Dingwall, Rosshire Printing and Publishing Co., 1906), 13–65, provides an account of the Gordons of Invergordon. Daniel Reid Rankin's ‘Notes for a history of Carluke 1870–1878’, Glasgow Manuscripts Library, MS Murray 153–55, 1: fols. 8, 11, describes the residents of the upper ward of Lanarkshire in the 1700s, including the Gordons’ proprietorship of Hallcraig and Milton.  Robert Dundas's father (Robert Dundas, first Lord Arniston (1650–1726)) first represented Sir William Gordon; in 1720 Robert himself became involved in the family's legal affairs and advised Sir William's feuding sons, John Gordon and Charles Hamilton Gordon. He also assisted Sir William after the Mississippi Company's 1721 crash (H. Gordon Slade, ‘Cluny Castle, Aberdeenshire’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries in Scotland 111 (1981): 458–59). Robert Dundas also acted for Sir William in February 1722 when he was made Sheriff of Ross-shire (see [John Ker, first duke of Roxburghe] to Robert Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1655–1722’ (note 32), fol. 136, 22 February 1722). The legal wrangling compelled Robert to make frequent trips to Milton and Hallcraig from the 1720s onwards (see letters from [Roxburghe] to Robert Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1655–1722’ (see note 32), fol. 124, 7 October 1721; fol. 133, 11 December 1721; fol. 136, 22 February 1722; fol. 137, 8 March 1722; fol. 141, 19 July 1722).

64. The Dundases’ accounts show expenses paid for travel to the Gordons’ estate at Invergordon (‘Personal and Household Account Book 1733–44’ (see note 22), April 1739). On 9 May [c.1740s], Robert reported that ‘all at Invergordon are well in health’ (Robert Dundas to Ann Gordon, NAS, GD235/9/2, fol. 105). Robert's professional involvement in the legal matters of the Lanarkshire Gordons continued (see letters between Robert Dundas and Ann Gordon, NAS, GD235/9/2, fol. 7, 11 Jan 1735; fol. 10, 16 Jan 1735; fol. 12, 14 Jan 1735; fol. 37, 11 March 1735; fol. 49, 12 February 1736; fol. 56, 16 March 1736; fol. 58, 13 March 1736; fol. 80, 30 April 1742. See also Robert Dundas to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1746–55’ (see note 49), fol. 60, 8 May 1748; fol. 73, 17 August 1749; fol. 105, 29 June 1753). Robert Dundas witnessed Charles Hamilton Gordon's petitions on 21 and 26 July 1733 (NAS, RH18/3/195). When Sir William Gordon died in 1742, Robert was in close contact with his two sons; this intimacy persisted until Robert's own death in 1753 (see Robert Dundas to Ann Gordon, NAS, GD235/9/2, fol. 80, 30 April 1742; and fol. 88, 20 May 1742). John Gordon and his wife Mary Weir entrusted Robert with new legal commissions, such as the management of Mary's annuity on 21 February 1739 (‘Bonds and Discharges’, NRAS 3246, Bundle 83, 21 February 1739). Furthermore, during the ’45 Rebellion, the husband and son of Ann's older sister Isobel Gordon (George Mackenzie, third Earl of Cromarty, and John Mackenzie, Lord Macleod), both declared for the Jacobites. After the two men's arrest and trial following the uprising's defeat, Robert was instrumental in securing their evasion of the death penalty (see Andrew Mitchell to Robert Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1746–55’ (see note 49), fol. 34A, 26 July 1746; John Gordon to George Mackenzie, NAS, GD235/8/13, fol. 16, 18 May 1747; see also letters from George and John Mackenzie to Ann Gordon, NAS, GD235/8/13, fol. 21, 6 Aug 1769; fol. 22, 17 Aug 1759; fol. 23, 27 May 1755; fol. 27, 7 May 1749).

65. See letters between Robie and Ann between 1736 and 1758 in NAS, GD235/9/6, for evidence of their mutual affection. He referred to her as ‘D[ea]r Sister’ in NAS, GD235/9/6, fol. 6, 25 September 1737. A memorial written by Ann (NAS, GD235/9/22) detailed her creation of ‘a well digested plan’ to accord greater priority to her stepson Robie than to her own children: a plan which led, in later life, to her feeling ‘reproached with a faillure of affection and due attention to my child[re]ns Interest’. Certainly Ann's son William Dundas wrote to Robie in 1755 that he felt his half-brother's wife Henny Baillie had been ‘like a Mother to him (‘Letter Book 1746–55’ (see note 49), fol. 156, 30 May 1755).  When Robie entered the legal profession, like his father and grandfather, he also took on some of the Gordons’ legal affairs, and even cut short a holiday in France in 1737 by ‘a few days’ to see his ‘old acquaintance’, Sir William Gordon (see Robert Dundas to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1723–45’ (see note 37), fol. 91, 4 August 1735; Robie Dundas to Ann Gordon, NAS, GD235/9/6, fol. 4, 15 February 1737. In the 1770s, after the death of Sir John Gordon's wife Mary Weir, Robie oversaw the transferral of her annuity to her widower (‘Bond and Discharges’ (see note 64)).  Once Ann's brother Charles Hamilton Gordon had inherited the estates of Hallcraig and Milton after Sir William's death, Robie and he came into mutual contact over Lanarkshire political affairs (see John Carmichael, third earl of Hyndford, to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1746–55’ (see note 49), fol. 103, 5 May 1753). A mutual acquaintance referred to Charles as Robie's ‘Friend’, but when Isobel Gordon's husband and son gave their support to the Young Pretender, Robie found himself somewhat tainted by the association with the Gordons (see John Lockhart to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book, Supplementary, 1746–1833’, NRAS 3246, Vol. 45, fol. 13, 13 April 1750. Andrew Mitchell to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1745’ (see note 23), fol. 116, 26 November 1745; Tweeddale to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1745’, fol. 120, 30 November 1745).  In the late 1770s, Ann's brother John, then in his seventies and widowed, proposed to one of Robie's daughters; after being soundly rejected, he wrote a lengthy apology (see John Gordon to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1756–79’, NRAS 3246, Vol. 36, fol. 124, 4 April 1777).

66. Around 1720, David Watson's older brother Robert Watson married Henrietta Baillie, the younger daughter of William Baillie of Lamington (see Robert Watson, ‘Bond of Provision Watson of Muirhouse to the Lady & Daughter 1723’, Miscellaneous Legal Papers, 1712–1840, NRAS 3246, Bundle 213, 28 June 1722; and Robert Watson to Robert Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1655–1722’ (note 32), fol. 93, [1720–21].)

67. Advertisement for ‘the Illustrious Matrimony of … Mr Robert Dundas younger of Arnistoun … [and] Lady Henrietta Carmichael alias Baillie’, ‘Letter Book 1723–43’ (see note 37), fol. 121, 16 October 1741.

68. John Gordon to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1746–55’ (see note 49), fol. 107, 10 September 1753. In 1746, Henny Baillie signed over many of her lands to Robie and requested that the debts contracted by her father and brother should be paid off from her own estate, rather than from Robie's impending inheritance. Before and after her death in 1755, Robie seems to have sold off many of Henny's lands in order to pay for the completion of extensive ‘improvements’ to Arniston (see Robie Dundas's ‘Bonds, 1745–58’, NRAS 3246, Bundle 90, 11 September 1755; and ‘Bonds regarding Thankerton and Covington in Lanarkshire, 1726–54’, NRAS 3246, Bundle 80; see also Althea Dundas Bekker, Arniston Remembered (Keyline, Kilsyth, nd), 16.)

69. ‘Miscellaneous Payments of Wages, 1738–51’, NRAS 3246, Vol. 53, see pp. 9, 122–24, 134–41, 150–54, 160–64. Robie later employed a ‘Keeper of my Children’, married to a ‘Plaisterer at Hamilton’ (‘Bonds and Discharges’, 1763 (see note 64)). See also ‘Factor's Accounts 1755–83’, NRAS 3246, Vol. 102, March 1756–57. In addition to Henny's extensive estates, Robie acquired lands in the parish of Pettinain, between Carmichael Wishaw (see Hyndford to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1746–55’ (note 49), fol. 82A, 29 December 1750.)  Robie Dundas also assisted individuals in the Lanarkshire region: in August 1746 he sent a local boy from Lanarkshire to Ann Gordon at Arniston and hoped she might help ‘make something of’ him (see Robie Dundas to Ann Gordon, NAS, GD235/9/2, fol. 12, 22 August 1746). He also played an influential role in the political life of the district: in December 1745, as the Jacobites retreated north during the rebellion, it seemed likely they would march through the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire. Robie was instrumental in rallying the Ward's inhabitants into a defence force to obstruct their passage over the Clyde (see the following in ‘Letter Book 1745’ (note 23): John Lockhart to [Robie] Dundas, fol. 123, 1 December 1745; Andrew Orr to Robie Dundas, fol. 145, 16 December 1745; John Smith to Robie Dundas, fol. 146, 16 December 1745; John Smith to Robie Dundas, fol. 153, 18 December 1745; John Lockhart to [Robie] Dundas, fol. 156, 19 December 1745; ‘To the Magistrates at Lanerk’, fol. 157, nd; John Lockhart to Robie Dundas, fol. 162, 22 December 1745; Robert Sinclair to Robie Dundas, fol. 163, 22 December 1745). In the event the rivers were too swollen, and the Jacobite army was forced to divert its course.

70. Robert Dundas wrote to Ann Gordon on 27 December 1742 from Bonnington, describing how ‘we are going just now to dine at Milnton with Charles [Hamilton Gordon]’ (NAS, GD235/9/2, fol. 87). He also stayed at Bonnington on 27 September 1747 (NAS, GD235/9/2, fol. 76).

71. John Carmichael, third earl of Hyndford, invited Robie to ‘an innondation [sic] of all the Little Land holders of the Lower part of the Shire’ (‘Letter Book 1746–55’ (see note 49), fol. 78A, 25 September 1750).

72. John Gordon to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1745’ (see note 23), fol. 96, 16 November 1745.

73. Will of John Roy, 24 November 1750, Lanark Commissary Court, CC14/5/17. Rankin described how John Roy Jr.’s name ‘occurs frequently in the sederunt of heritors, as acting for Sir William Gordon, and his son Mr. Charles Hamilton Gordon of Hallcraig and Milton, from 1739 onwards’ (Rankin, ‘Notices of Major-General William Roy’ (see note 54), 562–63.

74. Rankin, ‘Notices of Major-General William Roy’ (see note 54), 562–63. The Upper Ward of Lanarkshire was heavily populated with Lockharts: ‘Capt. Walter Lockhart’, who lived close to Hallcraig, witnessed William Roy's birth. Along with the Baillies and the Gordons, the Lockharts at Lee were the principal landowners of Lanarkshire (Rankin, ‘Notes for a history of Carluke’ (see note 63), 1: fol. 11).

75. Edward Laurence, The Duty and Office of a Land Steward (London: J. & J. Knapton, 1731), 78, 106.

76. William Roy's birth is shown on Carluke's Official Parish Register for 12 May 1726 (629/0010 0058: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk).

77. Daniel Reid Rankin, ‘Report of a recent examination of the Roman camp at Cleghorn … with notices of General Roy and his family’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 1 (1853): 145–49 at 148.

78. Arrowsmith, Memoir (see note 5), 7–8, describes Roy's methodology in constructing the Military Survey of Scotland. See also Christian, ‘Paul Sandby and the Military Survey of Scotland’ (note 5); and Hodson, ‘William Roy and the Military Survey of Scotland’ (note 5).

79. ‘Surveyor-General's Notes and Minutes’, TNA, WO 47/35, fol. 179, 27 March 1750.

80. David Watson's younger sister, Margaret (1705–1794), married an Edinburgh merchant called Robert Dundas (d. May 1768), who was the half-cousin of Robert Dundas of Arniston (they both shared the same grandfather, but had different grandmothers). Omond, Arniston Memoirs (see note 3), xxxii.

81. David Dundas to Robert Dundas, ‘William Dundas's Financial Papers’, NRAS 3246, Bundle 140, 2 February 1752.

82. A photostat of David Dundas's estate map of Arniston is in NAS, RHP5246/2 (it is erroneously dated 1732 in the catalogue, whereas it should be 1752). His sketch of Temple is held in ‘Arniston Memoirs: A Family Scrap Book’, Private Collection, Arniston House, 2: 58, 1752. See also ‘Discharge Mr Thomas Dundas to the Lord President 1752’, Miscellaneous Legal Papers 1712–1840 (see note 66), 19 March 1752.

83. Hodson, ‘William Roy and the Military Survey of Scotland’ (see note 5), 8.

84. ‘Estate Account Book of Robie Dundas, 1737–82’, NRAS 3246, Bundle 172, fols. 77, 89; ‘Arniston Estate Accounts and Rental’, NRAS 3246, Bundle 334. Unlike many other loans in the Dundases's accounts, these are not accompanied by Bonds detailing the terms of the loan and its repayment, perhaps suggesting they were gifts.

85. William Adair to Thomas Bradshaw [copy], ‘Account of Money Expended by Major-General David Watson on Account of a Survey made of Scotland … with related letters’, ‘Papers Mainly Relating to the Executry of Maj-Gen David Watson of Muirhouse’, NRAS 3246, Bundle 75, 23 April 1770. Further documents pertaining to the money expended on the Military Survey of Scotland, and the Watsons’ and Dundases’ attempts to reclaim it can be found in Bundle 75; and also in TNA, T1/486, fols. 1–4.

86. ‘Accompt Charge and Discharge between the Right Honourable Robert Dundas Lord President of the Court of Session, and William Adair Esquire of Palmall London, as Executors of Major General David Watson … ‘, ‘Papers Mainly Relating to the Executry of Maj-Gen David Watson of Muirhouse’ (see note 85).

87. This map is mentioned in Omond, The Arniston Memoirs (see note 3), 295, as ‘a beautifully executed map of the part of Midlothian lying between Dalkeith and Heriot,’ which had been ‘drawn by General Roy, and presented by him to President Dundas sometime about the year 1755’. It is listed in the earlier catalogue of the Dundases’ estate, under ‘Plans’, subsection ‘Volume’. There is a copy in NAS, RHP5246/1.

88. Watson made regular loans of £10 and £12 to the young man between 1743 and 1756. By 1758, the situation had become dire: on 28 January 1758, Watson wrote to Robie informing him that William had sent a debt collector to his house ‘Requiring Immediate Payment of a Debt of £60’ and ‘Acknowledging a Debt of £200, Contracted since in [th]e Welsh Fuzileers’. He predicted ‘Inevitable Ruin’ and successfully persuaded Robie to discharge William's debts (see ‘Miscellaneous Estate and Legal Papers’, NRAS 3246, Bundle 95, 1756; William Dundas to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1746–55’ (see note 49), fol. 172, 23 September 1755; and ‘William Dundas's Financial Papers’ (see note 81)).

89. ‘Bonds and Discharges’ (see note 64), 17 November 1763.

90. William Roy to Robie Dundas, ‘Miscellaneous Papers’ (see note 18), 14 March 1777; see also Francis Dundas to Robie Dundas, ‘Miscellaneous Papers’, 11 March 1777.

91. O'Dell, ‘A view of Scotland’ (see note 5), 58; Skelton, ‘The Military Survey of Scotland 1747–1755’ (see note 5), 10–11; Whittington and Gibson, The Military Survey of Scotland (see note 5), 12.

92. The Military Survey is catalogued under William Roy, ‘A Very Large and Highly Finished Colored Military Survey of the Kingdom of Scotland, Exclusive of the Islands, Undertaken by the Order of William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland … ’, 1747–1755, in King George III's Topographical Collection. The rough copy of the northern part carries the shelf mark BL, Maps K.Top.48.25.la., while the fair copy has the shelf mark BL, Maps CC.5.a.441. A reduced copy of the map bears the shelf mark BL, Maps K.Top.48.25-le.

93. Arrowsmith, Memoir (see note 5), 6.

94. John Watson, ‘Memorial’, NRAS 3246, Bundle 89, 6. There is a copy of this document in TNA, T1/486, 2.

95. See letters from Robert and Robie Dundas to Philip Yorke, first earl of Hardwicke, in BL, Add. MS 35446, fols. 178–79, 207–12, 220–21, 228–29, 270–71; BL, Add. MS 53447, fols. 9, 49–50, 112–13, 128–30, 157–58, 168–69, 180–81, 206—9, 317–18. See also David Watson to Robert Napier, TNA, SP 54/40/42, fol. 141, October 1749.

96. Robert Dundas to Philip Yorke, first earl of Hardwicke, BL, Add. MS 35446, fol. 28–29, 31 December 1747; ‘Instructions by the Commissioners for managing the forfeited Estates in Scotland annexed to the Crown’, NAS, E726/1 [July 1755].

97. [David Watson], ‘Some Observations concerning the Highlands of Scotland’, BL, Add. MS 35890, fol. 158–59 [September 1747].

98. Andrew Mitchell to Robie Dundas, ‘Letter Book 1745’ (see note 23), fol. 79, 7 November 1745.

99. William Anne Keppel, second earl of Albemarle, to Thomas Pelham Holles, first duke of Newcastle, TNA, SP 54/35, fol. 115, 2 Feb 1747; Robert Dundas to Philip Yorke, first earl of Hardwicke, BL, Add. MS 35446, fol. 229, 31 December 1747.

100. Margaret Steuart Calderwood was a characterful woman who managed her husband's estate at Polton and on one occasion travelled with her sons around Europe to see her exiled Jacobite brother. The Polton estate was not too far from the Dundases at Arniston and Sir John Clerk at Penicuik, and it is possible that William Roy met the Calderwoods while conducting the Military Survey. Later the Calderwoods and the Dundases would intermarry, when William Calderwood's grand-niece Lilias Calderwood-Durham would marry Robert Dundas, Robie Dundas's grandson. Margaret Steuart Calderwood's son William Calderwood would assist William Roy on the measurement of the Hounslow Heath baseline, during the Paris–Greenwich triangulation (see Margaret Steuart Calderwood, Letters and Journals of Mrs. Calderwood of Polton, ed. Alexander Fergusson (Edinburgh, David Douglas, 1884)). John Clerk of Penicuik was an extraordinary polymath, who employed the Military Survey's draughtsman, Paul Sandby, as a private tutor in painting for his son. He also led William Roy on a tour of his estate where he had recently found a Roman station, which was marked by ‘a tumulus, where several urns, filled with burnt bones, have been dug up’. Roy duly ‘pointed it out in his maps’ (see John Sinclair, The Statistical Account of Scotland, 21 vols (Edinburgh, William Creech, 1791–1799) 10: 286–87.