A Memorie of the Somervilles

James Somerville, the author of this abridged edition of "A Memorie of the Somervilles", was a beloved member of the Somerville family as well as a much loved and respected member of the Carnwath community. He wrote this edition in 1920, spending much time and effort to put it together in a more readable form. Several years after writing this edition, "Jimmy" passed away and was buried beside the family chapel at St. Mary's Aisle, Carnwath.

A Memorie of the Somervilles - By James Somerville

Introduction

As indicated by the title, the following work is the result and embodiment of an effort to give in an abridged form the substance of a quaint old family chronicle, entitled "The Memorie of the Somervilles."

Its preparation was first prompted in the mind of the writer by the fact that a number of notes relating to the history of the Somerville family, as recorded in "The Memorie", had been left to him by a friend. The present writer was thus led to take up the subject on his own account, and when the result of this labour had reached the dimensions of a considerable manuscript he happened to show it to some other friends, specially interested in the Somerville family, and was by them strongly urged to allow its publication. This is the reason for the appearance of the work in book form.

In such an introductory notice as the present it is desirable, first of all, to give some little account of the old family history on which this the following volume is mainly based. It was written by one of the later representatives of the family in the reign of Charles II, but not published until the early years of the nineteenth century (1815), when it made its appearance in two volumes.

These volumes are now so rare that they are only in the hands of a few, and so it comes to pass that the venerable chronicle is a closed book to the general public; and this circumstance had considerable weight with the present writer in giving his consent to the publication of his attempt to make the contents of "The Memorie" more interesting and more widely known than would be possible even if the extremely diffuse and laborious original work was more accessible than it actually is.

There is no attempt at or claim to literary merit on the part of the writer, but he is moved by an earnest desire to give a plain and accurate account of a family which has held a place in the affairs of the nation for nearly eight centuries. Its rise and decline should be interesting not only to all who bear the surname of Somerville, who are now scattered in all climes, but also to the local population and others interested in local tradition.

The doings of some of these old barons and lords, and the personal and domestic touches will appeal to the romantic side of most people, and the writer only wishes that readers may derive as much pleasure from the perusal of this small volume as he has had in preparing it.

It has already been hinted that "The Memorie.." is by no means free from glaring defects which tend to modify its value, and, in some degree, its trustworthiness. The noble author appears to have been a man of strong prejudices, and predispositions, relating to matters social, political and religious. In his treatment of family details dependent upon documentary evidence he also displayed a certain amount of carelessness in his reproduction of such items, and in the conclusions he drew therefrom for the purposes of his narrative. For these faults he has been severely taken to task in the pages of Vere-Irving and Murray's "History of the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire", and, what is of more direct concern to the present writer, these serious shortcomings have greatly increased his difficulties in compiling and collating the facts and circumstances of the successive biographies as they appear in the original narrative.

But, after all deficiencies have been duly discounted, much remains to the credit of the noble chronicler for his voluminous work. Living as he did in the days of the Restoration, he yet gives evidence of a sincere religious faith, unaffected reverence, and a high standard of moral conduct that were very far from being characteristic of that licentious age.

When we turn from the man to his book, we find that the narrative frequently comes into touch with the national life of the various periods covered by the family history, while our old Scottish Kings and other historical personages cross the little stage of his chronicle again and again.

Our literature has not failed to draw some inspiration from his pages. The tragic story of Sir John Herring forms the basis of Sir Walter Scott's striking though unfinished ballad of "The Grey Brother", and the same distinguished writer retells the quaing episode of the "Spears and Raxes" in his "Tales of a Grandfather".

Before bringing these introductory remarks to a close it may be desireable to touch upon a point of special interest, in connection with a venerable celebration, upon which "The Memorie" as it has come to us, fails to throw any definite light. The point to which we refer concerns the origin of the Red Hose Race; which has for centuries been run at Carnwath, and which has long been believed to have come into existence as an imperative condition contained in an ancient Somerville charter relating to the lands and Barony of Carnwath.

The reader will find at its proper place in the ensuing narrative some account of a change of tenure that was brought about by the instrumentality of Sir John of Quothquan. There is, however, an unfortunate gap in the narrative just at the point where it proceeds to give the detailed conditions of new tenure, owing to some defacement in the original manuscript.

Some writers, who may possibly have had access to other sources of information, aver that the missing passage in "The Memorie" contained the annual race for a pair of Red Hose, at Carnwath, and the other condition,--a weekly market or fair to be held on the Sabbath at the same place. This last condition is given below the gap already referred to. The later institution was forcibly abolished by the Scottish Church after the Reformation, but the former celebration was continued until quite recently, and has only been temporarily suspended owing to the recent Great War.

Having said enough by way of introduction, we now stand aside and allow the impatient reader to pass through the arched and turreted gateway into this old-world garden of family history and romance.

James Somerville

WestEnd

Carnwath, September, 1920.

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