While you are in Scotland, you may wish to visit places with Marjoribanks/Marchbanks connections, including the place from which the family originated, during your stay in the country. This list is designed to help. It starts in the City of Edinburgh itself, then moves round the compass points from east to northeast. Approximate journey times from Edinburgh are given.
EDINBURGH
The Regent’s Bridge, Waterloo Place
At the east end of Princes Street, this bridge across the ravine between Calton Hill and Princes Street to provide a fitting entrance to the city from London was built in 1815 – 1819, while Sir John Marjoribanks of Lees was Lord Provost. His name appears on the triumphal arch on the north side of the bridge. Good site for a photo!
Signet Library
Here, in Parliament Square on the Royal Mile, you can find records of Andrew Marjoribanks of that Ilk and his son, another Andrew, Writers to the Signet in the eighteenth century. There is also a fascinating MS by Charles Marjoribanks, M.P., son of Sir John, which gives a remarkable insight into not only his own life but the characters of his family members. The building is owned and run by the Society of Writers to the Signet, a society of Edinburgh lawyers.
City Chambers
In this beautiful Adam building on the Royal Mile you can see recorded on display panels the Marjoribanks who have been Lords Provost and holders of other city offices.
Colinton
This village, to the west of Edinburgh at the foot of the Pentland Hills, is now part of the city. The panelling in the village church, which nestles in a bend in the Water of Leith, is in memory of Rev Thomas Marjoribanks of that Ilk, minister here for many years in the early twentieth century. He is buried with his wife in the kirkyard. Also buried there are his son, Sir James Marjoribanks, and his wife.
Edinburgh Airport
At the west end of the main runway lie the ruins of Hallyards Castle, bought by the Marjoribanks family in 1696. Edward Marjoribanks of Hallyards was served heir to the Lees estate in Coldstream in the eighteenth century.
Ratho
Nothing now remains in this village about two miles southwest of the airport to show that Thomas Marjoribanks of Ratho, Mary Queen of Scots’ Lord Clerk Register, acquired the Ratho estate in 1540. It was sold by his great grandson John in 1614 who soon thereafter acquired the Balbardie estate in West Lothian (see below). Ratho is now a good centre to explore the newly re-opened Grand Union Canal linking Edinburgh, through the Falkirk Wheel, to the Forth & Clyde canal.
Regent Terrace
On Regent Terrace is the flat formerly occupied by Sir James and Lady (Sonya) Marjoribanks. Sir James was the diplomat who negotiated Britain’s entry into the EEC in 1973. He was the younger brother of the previous chief, William Marjoribanks of that Ilk. The flat is now occupied by Sir James’s daughter and her husband.
EAST LOTHIAN
These sites are 30 to 45 minutes’ drive east of Edinburgh
Prestonpans
Now surrounded by council housing in this town about six miles east of Edinburgh on the coast road sits Northfield House, an ‘A’ listed house dating from 1590, which was owned from 1609 by Joseph Marjoribanks, whose coat of arms, impaled with those of his wife Marion Simpson, adorns the door lintel. The house is in private hands.
North Berwick
Two miles southeast of the town lies Leuchie House. The estate was bought in 1701 by the Dalrymples from the family of Marjoribanks of Leuchie, progenitors of the Marjoribanks of Lees, Coldstream. Sir Hew Dalrymple built the present Leuchie House in 1779. It is now a respite home for multiple sclerosis sufferers and their carers.
Dunbar
Four miles southwest of the town lies the pretty village of Stenton, where there are many mementos in the parish church of Rev Thomas Marjoribanks of that Ilk, who moved here from Lochmaben in 1849, and his son George, who followed his father as minister of the parish. Between them, they ministered to the parish for seventy years. Thomas is buried in the kirkyard.
BERWICKSHIRE, SCOTTISH BORDERS
These sites are about an hour and a half’s drive southeast of Edinburgh
Chirnside
The parish church, about eight miles west of Berwick-upon-Tweed on the A6105, has really splendid heraldic memorials to Edward Marjoribanks, Lord Tweedmouth, and his wife Fanny, daughter of the Duke of Marlborough. Don’t miss the alabaster panel inside the church. A couple of miles south of Chirnside, on the back road between Hutton and Allanton, you can see the south gates of Hutton Castle, adorned with the heraldic bears of the Marjoribanks of Leuchie, placed there by Lord Tweedmouth when he owned the castle in the early 20th century.
Ladykirk
The parish church, built by James IV in 1498, contains many memorabilia, including a fine funeral hatchment, of David Robertson, Lord Marjoribanks. He was the fourth son of Sir John Marjoribanks of Lees and took his wife’s surname on marriage to the heiress of the Ladykirk estate. He was killed in a road accident six days after he had been ennobled as Lord Marjoribanks. As all his three sons had predeceased him, the title died with him. At the top of the hill up from the river Tweed a mile west of the church is a water fountain installed by Lady Marjoribanks for weary travelers entering Scotland.
Coldstream
On the approach from England on the A697 is a very tall column in memory of Charles Marjoribanks MP. Outside the parish church is a memorial recording the beneficence of Sir John Marjoribanks of Lees in laying on the town water supply. On the Tweed Green east of the Market Square is the Marjoribanks burial aisle. Just outside the aisle is a memorial to the Scots who fell at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. A mile northeast of Coldstream is the village of Lennel, where the kirkyard contains some interesting Marjoribanks graves, mainly ordinary tradesmen, thought to be descended from John (later Sir John) Marjoribanks in a liaison formed before his marriage.
Eccles
This village, five miles west of Coldstream on the B6461, was heavily settled by Marjoribanks (perhaps descended from one of the younger sons of Thomas Marjoribanks of Ratho) who owned several farms in the area in the 18th century. The Rowchester estate, later owned by a Marjoribanks descendant, two miles northwest of the village, included some of these farms, including Crumrig (the home of Major John Marjoribanks, British hero of the Battle of Eutaw Springs in the American Independence War). There is a handsome gravestone of James, their last known representative, in Eccles churchyard. Coincidentally, John (later Sir John) Marjoribanks owned Eccles House as his country residence before inheriting Lees at Coldstream.
DUMFRIESSHIRE, DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY
These sites are about a two hour drive south of Edinburgh
Moffat & Beattock, Annandale
There are many Marjoribanks/Marchbanks graves in the kirkyards of both the parish churches. The Marchbanks families in Prince Edward Island, Canada, emigrated from this area. If you want to find out where we all came from, then drive about two miles south of Beattock in Kirkpatrick Juxta parish and at grid reference NY 078 998 you’ll find the farm of Marchbank (originally spelt Marjoribanks) whence the family originated in the fifteenth century. The first known bearer of the name, Philip Marjoribanks ‘de eodem’ (of that ilk), witnessed a charter in 1485. Marchbank/Marjoribanks has not been owned by a Marjoribanks since the seventeenth century.
Lochmaben
Northeast of the village is the wee hamlet of Marjoriebanks (formerly called Bogle Hole), probably named after Rev Thomas Marjoribanks of that Ilk, minister of the parish in the mid nineteenth century (his name is spelt with an ‘e’ in the church records there).
WEST LOTHIAN
This site is about a 30-minute drive west of Edinburgh
Bathgate
Marjoribanks Street is named after Alexander Marjoribanks of Marjoribanks and Balbardie, feudal superior and later first Provost of the town. Balbardie House, built for him by Robert Adam in 1793, is now no more, but photographs and some plaster friezes survive in the Bennie Museum, Mansefield Street. The former grounds of the house are now the Balbardie Park of Peace, just north of the town, next to the Balbardie Park Golf Club. The gravestone of Alexander Marjoribanks of Marjoribanks and Balbardie and his numerous family is in the Old Kirkyard, Kirkton, on the eastern side of Bathgate.
Since 1844, Bathgate has held an annual parade to commemorate the founding of John Newland’s Academy. The procession, which will next be held in June 2009, follows a historical pageant commemorating the marriage of Marjory, daughter of Robert the Bruce, to Walter, the High Steward of Scotland. At its head is the Procession Banner, which pictures John Newland’s Academy and Alexander Marjoribanks of Balbardie, who fought to secure the town’s rightful claim to the money which John Newland had left for the people of Bathgate.
INVERCLYDE
This site is about an hour and a half drive west of Edinburgh.
Greenock
In the west end of Greenock, in Margaret Street, lies the residence of our current chief, Andrew Marjoribanks of that Ilk. Inside there are portraits of previous chiefs back to the seventeenth century. The house is privately owned.
STIRLINGSHIRE
This site is just over an hour’s drive northwest of Edinburgh
Thornhill
This village, 15 miles northwest of Stirling on the A873, was home in the 18th century to a Marjoribanks family, probably originally Covenanters who fled from the Battle of Bothwell Brig in 1679. They became prosperous farmers, but their last representative, John, went bankrupt; his house, Springfield, however, is still standing at a bend on the B road just north of the village. There is also a fine gravestone (of one of his daughters) in the churchyard. The family, now called Banks, spread and prospered in America.
INVERNESSSHIRE, HIGHLAND
The site is about a six-hour drive north of Edinburgh
Guisachan, Tomich
This highland estate in Glen Affric is an hour southwest of Inverness by the A832 & A831. It was where Sir Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks bred the first Golden Retrievers in the nineteenth century. The house is now roofless, but the heavily wooded countryside provides spectacular walking.
ABERDEENSHIRE
These sites are three to four hours’ drive northeast of Edinburgh
Methlick
The Haddo estate, home to the Gordons, Marquesses of Aberdeen and Temair, lies about 20 miles north of Aberdeen. In the grounds is a large stone coat of arms, showing the Gordon arms impaled with those of Marjoribanks of Leuchie. This commemorates Ishbel, sister of Edward Marjoribanks, Lord Tweedmouth, and her husband John Gordon, 1st Marquess. There are many memorabilia of the couple in the house, now owned by the National Trust for Scotland.
Turriff
Two miles west of Turriff on the B9025 in the lovely Deveron valley lies Kirklands of Forglen, the former manse where William Marjoribanks of that Ilk lived for twenty years towards the end of the twentieth century. He and his wife are buried in the nearby Forglen kirkyard.