Your Scottish & English Roots Together
Clan Kerr "Carr" or "Ker"
Clan Kerr i/kɛər/ is a Scottish clan whose origins lie in the Scottish Borders.
During the Middle Ages, it was one of the prominent border reiver clans along the present-day Anglo-Scottish border and played an important role in the history of the Border country of Scotland. The name Kerr is rendered in various forms such as Kerr, Ker, Carr, Carre, and Cares. The name stems from the Old Norse kjarr which means marsh dweller, and came to Scotland from Normandy, the French settlement of the Norsemen. Another variant is found on the west coast of Scotland, particularly on the Isle of Arran, taken from the Gaelic ciar, meaning dusky. Family tradition asserts the Norman origin for the chiefs comes from two brothers, Ralph and Robert (also called John your 17th Great-Grandfather), who came to Roxburgh from Lancashire, England. The two main branches of the Clan Kerr, the Kerrs of Ferniehurst and the Kerrs of Cessford, often feuded with each other. However, both Andrew Kerr of Ferniehurst and Andrew Kerr of Cessford were made Wardens of the Middle Marches, the first in 1502 and the latter after the Battle of Flodden in 1513. After Flodden, some of the Liddesdale clans put themselves under the Kerr of Ferniehurst's protection, but, in 1523, his castle was taken by the English after a protracted defense. |
Sir THOMAS 9th Baron of Ferniehurst Kerr "Carr"
Sir THOMAS 9th Baron of Ferniehurst, your 16th great-grandfather was born June 17, 1529 in Roxburghshire, Scotland, the oldest son of Sir John Kerr and Katherine Ker of Cessford.
He became Laird of Ferniehirst in 1562 at the beginning of the turmoil that surrounded Mary Queen of Scots return from France. Queen Mary’s House in Jedburgh was built by Sir Thomas Kerr for Mary Queen of Scots. The architecture is similar to Ferniehirst Castle and includes a left hand staircase typically found in houses and castles built by the Kerrs. He raised the Royal Standard for her in Dumfries, helping her and her husband Darnley to put down an insurrection by a group of her nobles (she won at the time but was forced into exile a few years later). Subsequently he sheltered her English supporters after the rising of the Northern Earls (1568) and rescued Lady Northumberland, stranded by illness in a Liddesdale outlaw’s hide-out. Representing ‘The Queen’s Party’ Thomas Kerr supported Kirkcaldy’s defence of Edinburgh Castle. Referred to as ‘The Lang Siege’ lasting from the summer of 1571 until May 1573 when 20 heavy guns on loan from Queen Elizabeth I of England arrived in Edinburgh. After a ten day bombardment the garrison finally surrendered to Queen Elizabeth of England, your step mother Chrissy's 2nd cousin. Thomas Kerr and Kirkaldy his father-in-law were immediately arrested by the Regent Morton, despite the agreed terms of their surrendering the castle. Sir Thomas was briefly jailed before going into exile abroad and his companion, Kirkaldy hanged. It is interesting that Sir Thomas Kerr’s personal papers, kept with him at Edinburgh Castle were confiscated, they were first given to William Drury the English commander and an inventory made of the contents. Afterwards the Earl of Angus took possession and the papers have never been seen again, only the inventory of land holdings and feifs still exist giving us an insight into the strength of the Laird of Ferniehirst at this time. A petition unsigned and undated now held at the British Library was prepared for Sir Thomas Kerr’s signature denouncing the Queen’s cause and acknowledging Morton as Regent. The petition would have been made shortly after the surrender of Edinburgh Castle and we find Sir Thomas obliged to seek refuge in France, Spain and Holland indicating his possible refusal to sign the document presented to him. Sir Thomas remained a loyal and undying supporter of the queen he welcomed home at Leith in 1561, playing a supporting role in many of her ill-fated campaigns. In October 1565 he was first noted in the royal limelight when he accompanied Darnley and the Queen to Dumfries to finally quell the insurrection of Moray and his supporters in the final episode of the ‘Chaseabout Raids’. On this occasion he raised the royal standard and the Queen placed herself under his immediate protection. On the 2nd May 1568 Sir Thomas was among those knights who joined the Queen at Hamilton following her escape from Loch Leven and on the 13th day of the same month. At the final battle of Langside Sir Thomas Kerr figured among the numbers of feudal barons who resisted the call for Mary to abdicate. In 1579 James VI granted Sir Thomas Kerr liberty to return and restored to him ‘all his lands and possession of his whole estate’ acknowledging that his loyalty to his Mother’s interests had been ‘his greatest crime’. There is a protection, dated 14 February 1579, to Sir Thomas Kerr, sometime of Ferniehirst, for two years after his return from France” In 1581 he was granted ‘ The Benefitt of Pacification dated 29 November 1581 and in that year he was elected Provost of Jedburgh at the King’s command.” It seems he incurred the wrath of the Royal Court over certain lands held by the Rutherfords and once more had to seek asylum on the continent. In November 1583 he received a full pardon from James VI under the Great Seal. Troubled times were far from over as Sir Thomas continued to represent one of the most powerful riding families in the Border Middle Marches, he was appointed Warden of the Marches on 13th November 1584 and in February 1585 the process to rid the country of this powerful and independent knight began. Elizabeth I of England, your step-mother Chrissy's cousin, who once described Sir Thomas Kerr ‘as ane greit enemie’ requested a meeting of March Wardens ‘for making mutual redress’, Sir Thomas representing the Scottish Middle Marches while Sir John Forster was the English Warden. On the 28th July 1585 the meeting took place at Windy Gyle at the eastern end of the middle marches. Sir Thomas was cast as the villain and Queen Elizabeth insisted he be arrested. James VI resisted the demands that Sir Thomas should be delivered into the hands of the English and instead had him taken to Aberdeen in November 1585 where he perished, imprisoned in the Tolbooth in February 1586. One year later on 6th February 1587 Mary Queen of Scots was executed at Fotheringay. From her English prison, Queen of Scots, Mary wrote to Sir Thomas, thanking him for his past services and encouraging him to keep up his loyalty. She seems to have taken a particular liking to his young son Andrew your 15th great-grandfather, the first Lord Jedburgh, and may have knighted him while still a child, for she asks in particular to be remembered to "Sir Andrew". |