This Tree was compiled by one of the Canadian Balfours in the 1980s. It credibly traces the line from the King of Northumbria in 1040 to the Balfours in Ontario (left) and Edinburgh (bottom right).
In order to fit onto one sheet of paper, the Tree is very selective. For example, William Balfour, mentioned in the third line from the bottom-right of the Tree, had three sons, Frederick, Francis and William, but neither Frederick (who never married) nor William (who had no children) is shown. In many places, even sons who had children called Balfour are not mentioned. For example, Thomas Balfour, at the right of that same line, married Marjorie Lennie Drever and they had three children at Berriedale on Westray and three more in Edinburgh, as shown at http://genealogy.northern-skies.net/gray.php?number=257.
The name ‘Balfour’ was given to the family by the Earl of Fife, in Scotland, in 1253. There have been Balfours in Fife ever since, but this Tree focuses on those who lived on Westray. The first was Sir Gilbert Balfour in 1560. Family tradition has it that the move was ‘not of his choosing’, as he was the black sheep of the family.
Gilbert, born in 1521, was a younger son of Andrew Balfour of Munquhanny in Fife; Andrew’s wife, Janet, was a daughter of Sir Alexander Bruce of Earlshall. In 1546 Gilbert, along with two of his brothers, was implicated in the murder of Cardinal Beaton (pictured). Afterwards they were besieged in St Andrew's Castle and upon its surrender were sentenced to a period at the oar of a French galley. Their chaplain and partner in crime, the Reformer John Knox, later described the three as ‘men without God who had neither fear of God nor love of virtue’.
Gilbert married Margaret Bothwell, a sister of Adam Bothwell (1536-93), who became Bishop of Orkney in October 1559. Margaret was the daughter of Francis Bothwell and his wife Catherine Ballendine. Gilbert was in Orkney in October 1560 and through his brother-in-law, the Bishop of Orkney, acquired the feudal ownership of Noltland and several other areas of land on Westray in June 1560 (not 1567, as on the Tree) and began to build Noltland Castle.
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The castle was an astonishingly ambitious project. Clearly fearful of those whom he had upset, and knowing that his lifestyle would upset others in the future, he designed it with 71 gunloops in the walls, which were seven feet thick – far more gun holes than in any other Scottish castle. They commanded the approach to the castle from every direction, and the lower two floors had no windows or other weak points which could be breached by an attacker. It was designed to have two floors of grand mansion built on top of two floors of a heavily defended fortress. The main building work probably took place between 1560 and 1572, and there is archeological suggestion that the planned building was never wholly completed.
It is still there, but in ruins – see the cine film of it on this website, ‘Family – Balfour Family Holiday 1948, minute 4’. The Balfour family gave it into State care in 1911 and it is now maintained by Historic Scotland. Possible reasons why the castle is now in ruins are set out as an Appendix to these Comments, so as not to interrupt the narrative about Gilbert Balfour’s colourful life.
Going back to 1560, Gilbert apparently resided more at the Court in Edinburgh than on his Orkney estates for the next we hear of him he is Master of the Household of Mary Queen of Scots (pictured). When the Queen's unfortunate husband, Henry Lord Darnley, was murdered early in February 1567, Gilbert was reputed to have played a prominent part and prudently left the mainland for the security of the heavily-fortified Noltland Castle. Despite his guilt-by-association, he was now Sheriff of Orkney and Governor of Kirkwall Castle. He was noted for his quarrels with his brother-in-law, the Bishop, and his refusal to give the Earl of Bothwell, husband of the Queen, sanctuary in Kirkwall Castle when, as a refugee, he passed through Orkney in his flight to Denmark.
We next hear of him in Edinburgh in October 1571, in command of a hundred men loyal to Mary Queen of Scots and, in the following month, in charge an attempt to capture the island of Inchkeith. In April 1572 he led twenty cavaliers to capture Blackness Castle, on the River Forth, and held it on behalf of the Queen. When his patron Mary’s bid to regain the Scottish throne failed and she was arrested later in 1572, Gilbert he fled abroad and entered the military service of the King of Sweden. He seems to have chosen to live dangerously all his life, and when it was discovered that he was involved in a plot against the King of Sweden, he was executed for treason in August 1576, 55 years of age.
Gilbert’s only son, Archibald (1550-70), predeceased him, so his Westray estates passed to his great-nephew (not ‘nephew’, as on the Tree) Sir Michael Balfour of Garth and Noltland (Michael III). It would have gone to Michael III’s father, Michael II, who lived at Munquhanny in Fife, but he had died before Gilbert. Incidentally, Michael II was a descendant of King Robert the Bruce (pictured) through his mother, Janet Boswell of Balmuto. His wife was Mariota Adamson, daughter of Patrick, Archbishop of St. Andrews.
In 1593 Michael III married Margaret, daughter of Malcolm Sinclair of Quendale (Queensdale on the Tree) in Shetland. Margaret had come to Westray from Shetland with her brother George, a younger son of the Laird of Quendale who had obtained the estate of Bu’ of Rapness on Westray. Apparently Margaret came as his housekeeper, as George was unmarried at that time, and so met her future husband on Westray. Incidentally, back in 1588, her father, Malcolm Sinclair in Shetland, entertained the shipwrecked sailors of the El Gran Grifon, one of the flagships of the Spanish Amada, which was wrecked on the Fair Isle, until they were transported abroad.
Michael III and Margaret had two children, Patrick of Pharay and Noltland and Ursilla. The Tree says that she died in 1632 but that was the year in which she married. We’ll look at them in reverse order.
Patrick Balfour was already married at the time of his sister Ursilla’s wedding. For a spouse he chose Barbara Moodie, a daughter of Francis Moodie of Breckness and his first wife, Margaret Stewart of Graemsay. He was resident in Noltland Castle at the time his sister's marriage contract was signed. It is possible that Patrick and Barbara entertained the Marquis of Montrose (pictured) when he was in Orkney trying to recruit troops for his army. Certainly they were staunch royalists and in 1650 they gave refuge to some of Montrose's officers after his final defeat at Carbisdale.
Patrick died in 1664, leaving two sons, George and Patrick II. With them the Tree divides into two columns. The Canadian and Edinburgh Balfours are descended through Patrick II’s line, down the centre column of the Tree, but for the sake of completeness, there is a brief paragraph here about George’s line, which is down the left of the Tree.
Ursilla married James Fea. Her marriage contract is dated 17 June 1632. According to the custom of the time, on the evening of the contract being signed, Ursilla Balfour's feet were washed in a tub of wine. Later it was discovered that the servants had drunk the lot, not, they said, for love of the liquor but for love of the lady whose feet had been washed in it.
Michael Balfour III invited most of the Orkney gentry to his daughter's wedding. The feasting began in Noltland Castle on Martinmas day 1632. Unfortunately however, the winter storms came and for three months it was impossible for any boat to leave or approach the island. One by one, the cattle and sheep had to be sacrificed to feed the storm-bound guests, until almost the whole flock was eaten. One can picture the relief when at last the rough seas calmed sufficiently to allow the boats to depart and the Balfour family were left in peace once more. Tradition tells that this prolonged wedding feast caused Michael some financial difficulties and that he was forced to sell some land. On 8 June 1627, he had been sworn in as a commissioner to report on Westray and in 1635 he was still described ‘of Noltland’.
Patrick’s older son, George of Pharay, 1632-1706, was the last Balfour to live in Noltland Castle. In 1654 he married Marjorie Baikie (Blaikie on the Tree) and then, after her death in 1678, he married Mary Mackenzie, a daughter of Murdoch, Bishop of Orkney.
The son of George and Mary, John, did not stay on at Noltland Castle but took up residence at nearby Trenabie; John is described in the Tree as ‘The first Balfour of Trenabie’. The second Balfour to live there, William, did not enjoy peaceful possession of it because the Westray Balfours supported the Jacobite rebellion (pictured) in 1745 and were hunted down after the rebellion was crushed in 1746. When William refused to give himself up, Trenabie was burned to the ground. He and others hid in the Gentleman’s Cave shown on the cine film at minute 2, before crossing for greater safety to Caithness. Following the Indemnity Act of 1747, William returned from hiding in Caithness and with Trenabie in ashes he went to stay at Chalmersquoy (below) while Trenabie was rebuilt. He then lived in the new house until his death in 1786, and Balfours continued to occupy it until the last of the Trenabie line died in 1934. The Trenabie line from 1786 is not described here as it is not relevant to the Canadian or Edinburgh Balfours.
In 1672 Patrick’s younger son, Patrick II, born in 1647, married a 29-year old childless widow, Marie Monteith, four years older than himself. From 1676 they lived at Langskaill, still on Westray, but their son, George II, moved from there to Chalmersquoy, on the edge of Pierowall Village. This was the beginning of Balfour occupation of Chalmersquoy which lasted until 1959, when Barbara Elizabeth (below), the last Balfour to live on Westray, died in 1959, aged 78. Chalmersquoy was rebuilt several times, by generations of Balfours, and the present house features in the opening of the family holiday film mentioned above. It is now holiday accommodation, described under ‘Chalmersquoy, Westray’ on the web.
George II did not marry until about 1730, when he was over the age of fifty. He married Barbara Rendall – there had been Rendalls on Westray since 1490. They had ten children and the Tree (correctly but curiously) describes the Balfour occupation of Chalmersquoy coming down through George II’s youngest son, his seventh child, Murdoch (1752-1830). He married Jean Hewison, who was said to have been a descendant of a ship-wrecked Spanish sailor from the El Gran Grifon of 1588. Murdoch's sister Ann also married a Hewison called William. The Balfours of the late 18th and l9th centuries were often called the ‘Dons’ owing to the tradition of their Spanish blood. They were said to have black hair and unusually short necks.
Murdoch and Jean Balfour's only son, James, born in 1782, succeeded to Chalmersquoy, and from him it went to his son David. Little is known about this David, not even when he died as his name is not on the family tombstone in Pierowall Churchyard. His wife, Barbara Reid, died aged 80 on 2l June, 1912.
Chalmersquoy then passed to Barbara Elizabeth, at the extreme right of the Tree. The remainder of that line is not described here, except to mention the first record of Balfour of Westray emigration to the New World, to Jamaica and Manitoba.
Barbara Elizabeth, born in 1881, trained as a schoolteacher. She was a devout member of the Baptist Church, and was very proud of her family history. She taught for a time in Pierowall School. She succeeded to the farm of Chalmersquoy and lived there until shortly before her death in the Kirkwall County Home on 15 February 1959. Despite her delicate constitution she lived to the age of 78. She willed that her farm and goods be sold after her death and the money divided between her nieces and nephew in America and Jamaica. As mentioned, she was the last Balfour to live on Westray.
The line of greatest interest to the Balfours of Edinburgh is the third line from the bottom-right of the tree, the children of George Balfour (born 1815) and Janet Scott. George was the first Balfour to farm, as a tenant, Berridale, of which there is an aerial picture at ‘The History of Balfour+Manson’ under ‘Law’ on this website at page 3. Their fourth child, Sinclair or St. Clair Balfour, born in 1846, emigrated from Berridale to Hamilton, Ontario, and William, their sixth child, born in 1855, left for Glasgow and then Edinburgh. It is suggested that when William left, the family gave up the tenancy of Berridale. William Balfour’s early life is described in ‘The History of Balfour+Manson’ just mentioned, at pages 2 to 6. There is a picture at page 21 of it of William Balfour with St. Clair Balfour’s son –St. Clair II – outside Noltland Castle on Westray in 1929, with his wife and their son, St. Clair III. It was St. Clair II who invited Isobel Balfour and her two sons, Ian (the present writer) and William, to be his guests for the duration of the Second World War. That is described in Francis Balfour’s War Diary, on this website under ‘History’.
Today the surname Balfour is extinct in Westray, after continuing for close on four
hundred years. Nevertheless a good number of people can still claim at least a drop of Balfour blood. Most of the information for this Note comes from Westray Roots, Issue 39 of December 2000.
As mentioned, the last Balfour home on Westray is now a guesthouse. Isobel Balfour, who married Francis Balfour and who was Ian Balfour’s mother, was also brought up in a family home that has now been turned into a guesthouse. She was Isobel Ingram before her marriage. The Ingram family home was ‘Invertruin’, 416 Ferry Road, Edinburgh. Her father was an Edinburgh banker, John Alexander Ingram (1863-1938). He married Jessie Shaw, and they had four children, Alexander Ian (born 1894), Isobel Mackintosh (1896-1980), Elizabeth E. (1902-1993) and Muriel (1906-1952). It is a coincidence it too is now a guest-house, www.invertruin.co.uk/.
There are two clues as to when and why the castle may have fallen into disrepair. The Balfours who occupied it in 1650 were staunch Royalists, and, as mentioned above, they gave refuge in that year to some of Montrose's officers after his final defeat at Carbisdale. In retaliation, local Covenanting leaders under Captain John Pollock attacked the castle, apparently capturing it without difficulty despite its defensive armament, and set it on fire. The extent of the damage is not known.
After that, but still in the seventeenth century, a range of new buildings was added, enclosing a courtyard on the south side of the castle. Whatever the state of the main castle, these new buildings were still habitable in 1761, when Jerome Dennison of Noltland settled them on his wife, Helen Traill, as part of her marriage contract. It seems, however, that the main part of the castle was already in decline by the time the courtyard was built.
In addition to the courtyard being habitable in 1761, we know that other structures were erected outside the east and west walls of the courtyard in the eighteenth century, but there is no evidence of who occupied them – the last named resident of any part of the castle or environs is the 1761 marriage contract.
The final and complete ruination of the main building may have been in 1746. When Bonnie Prince Charlie attempted to gain the English throne in 1745, the Westray Balfours supported the Jacobite rebellion. They suffered severely for that after the rebellion was crushed in 1746. There were no Balfours living in Noltland Castle at that time, but their ‘seat’ at Trenabie was, as described above, burned to the ground. It is recorded that Noltland Castle was ‘damaged by fire again’ in 1746, presumably in retaliation for the current Laird’s political sympathies. This may have led to the castle itself being abandoned as a residence.
