A FAMILY HISTORY – SUBMITTED BY Mrs Deirdre Scrymgeour

This family history was prepared for Mrs Scrymgeour’s late husband Robin by a cousin and also has a link with the genealogy of Mrs Blyth Harvey who was mentioned in Skirmisher 20.

 

SCRIMGEOUR FAMILY HISTORY

Your grandfather Walter was born on 4th March 1852 and on 5th January 1880 married Elizabeth Marion Pardoe. They had 4 sons and 4 daughters, details of whom you will know. Walter was a partner in J & A Scrimgeour from 1879 until 1937, when I believe he died.

Walter was the youngest of the 5 children of John Shedden. Another of whom was my great grand-father Alexander (1835-82), who married Annie Esther Duguid and whose sons, in addition to numerous daughters, were Alexander Carron, my grandfather, and John Alexander who married Aunt Connie (Greig), whence Esther, Jock, Russell, etc. John Alexander was a partner and latterly senior partner from 1898 to 1925.

John Shedden (1796-1868) married Isabel MacKinlay and was himself the youngest son of James Scrimgeour (1747-1821) who married Janet Shedden in 1780. James Scrimgeour's father was also James and married Dorothy Hill but the records of this marriage are lost, as is any record of the previous generation. However, Dorothy Hill is said to have been the daughter of the Principal of St Andrews University, James is also said to have married the daughter of Cameron of Lochiel.

John Shedden had 3 elder brothers. The eldest, James, was killed in action in Portugal in 1811. Robert Shedden, the first stock broker, who believed himself to be the Standard Bearer, and William Wilson. The first 2 families died out at least in the male line, but from William Wilson descended the Reverend Ronald Cameron Scrimgeour and his son Major Geoffrey Scrimgeour DSO and the present James Cameron Scrimgeour who is the senior member of the family.

William Wilson was the first General Manager and subsequently the director of the Union Bank of London, which became part of NPB now National Westminster Bank.

The Standard Bearer claim by our family failed the court of claims for the coronation of Edward VII because the Hill and Cameron marriage could not be proved. In addition, because Ronald Cameron Scrimgeour claimed to be descended from a Scrimgeour in Argyll who was a clergyman before the reformation and thus could not be married and have legitimate heirs anyway. No one seems to have spotted this until they got into court.

The father of the present Earl of Dundee eventually secured all the rights before the House of Lords in 1952 and gave a cocktail party at Claridges to celebrate, which I believe your parents may have attended (As did Robin and Deirdre, a very memorable occasion it was).