Transactions. 7 



coepta Dominus juverit frustra stniis moles superbas cedium." 

 Their son Robert married Jean Riddell, and their marriage stone 

 still exists. Anna Laurie was their daughter. He was created 

 a Baronet in 1685, Anna being tlien three years old. Their son 

 Walter married Jane Nisbet ; and their son Robert married 

 Christian Erskine, daughter of Charles Erskine of Alva, a Lord 

 of Session by the title of Lord Barjarg, and afterwards Lord 

 Justice Clerk. This marriage linked the family on to all kinds 

 of ancient fellows — Erskines, Mars, Murrays, &c., some of them 

 possibly worthy of no great praise, but playing a prominent part 

 in the history of the country. The son of Robert Laurie and 

 Christian Erskine was General Sir Robert Laurie, for 30 years 

 Member for this County. His wife v^as Elizabeth Ruthven, a 

 daughter of Lord Ruthven, and through her mother a grand- 

 daughter of the second Earl of Bute. They had two children, a 

 son. Admiral Sir Robert Laurie, who died in 1848, and a 

 daughter, my mother's mother, who married Mr Fector, of Dover. 

 The last survivor of that family died in 1892 at the age of 88, 

 and with her the name of Fector, or Veehter, as it was originally, 

 became extinct. I have said that in all its early generations the 

 family inhabiting the home of Annie Laurie remained purely 

 Scotch, but that has not been the case more recently. The 

 earliest members of the Laurie family appear to have been strong 

 adherents of the Reformation. I do not know about Stephen ; 

 he was possibly too much taken up with making money, and 

 investing it in the purchase of a large estate ; but his son, John, 

 was one of the Dumfriesshire Committee for advancing the 

 Covenanting cause, and in 1662 was fined £3600 Scots for not 

 conforming to the prelatical commands of Charles II. He had 

 married, however, Agnes Grierson, of the Lag family, possibly 

 not bad diplomacy in those dangerous times. He does not seem, 

 however, to have changed his opinions himself, but his son, 

 Robert, adopted the political principles of his mother's family, 

 and became one of the most active supporters of the King and 

 Claverhouse. In 1685 James II. created him a Baronet "for 

 his merits," and we know what that meant with the Popish King, 

 and shortly afterwards he justified the King's opinion of him by 

 sentencing William Smith to death, the son of one of his own 

 {■workmen, for refusing to betray the hiding places of the Cove- 

 fnanters. The inscription now to be read on his tombstone in 

 [Tynron Churchyard contains the words — " Douglas of Stenhouse, 



