The Charteris Door in the National Museum of Scotland. Commissioned by Sir John Charteris, 10th of Amisfield and his wife Agnes Maxwell in 1600, and showing their arms quartered. It is supposed to depict Samson wrestling a lion, a metaphor perhaps for the then increasingly powerful Charteris lairds.
Introduction
The homeland of the Clan Charteris since at least the 1300s, when Sir Thomas Charteris of Amisfield was chief, has been Dumfriesshire. As we shall see, the nearness of the Charteris clan to the Border shaped our history for over half a millennium.
[NB – This history focuses on the Amisfield branch of the family, the chiefly branch. The Charterises of Kinfauns, in Perthshire, are the senior cadet line of the clan: their history will be added to this one in due course.]
The First Charterises
However, the history of the family in the Scottish Borders goes back much farther in time. One of the earliest records of the Charteris family in Scotland is a charter of 1174 to Kelso Abbey witnessed by a Robert de Carnoto. De Carnoto is the Latin form of the name Charteris; it is generally supposed that ‘de Carnoto’ indicates the Charterises, who are undoubtedly Norman, originally came from the French city of Chartes. We know the family originally had estates in Wiltshire, England. It is commonly supposed that they came to Scotland with David I, as part of what is known as the ‘Davidian Revolution’ (an interesting discussion of the Davidian Revolution can be found here).
The Wars of Independence
Andrew de Charteris signed the Ragman Roll in 1296, swearing fealty to the English king Edward I. He fought with William Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk in 1298. As a result, his lands, including ‘the castle of Amisfield and the land of Drumgree’, were forfeit and given to Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. In 1304, Andrew de Charteris again swore allegiance to Edward.
The Charterises supported Robert the Bruce against the Comyns. William Charteris was with Bruce when he killed John Comyn in Dumfries in 1306. Robert de Charteris, Andrew’s son, must have continued the fight against Edward, because in 1314 Edward declared that the Charteris lands near Aldredstone (modern-day Whiteparish) in Wiltshire were to be escheated due to Robert’s continued rebellion.
The Charteris family apparently continued to support the Bruce monarchy into the reign of David II. A Sir Thomas Charteris was Lord High Chancellor of Scotland in David’s reign. His parentage is uncertain. He was killed at the Battle of Neville’s Cross in County Durham in 1346.
From the Bruces to Flodden
The Charterises of Amisfield were fairly quiet through the early years of the House of Stewart.
After Flodden
The Charteris clan were apparently one of few in Southern Scotland who did not lose any of their gentry at Flodden.
John Charteris, 7th of Amisfield was Sheriff Depute of Dumfries and Steward Depute of Annandale in 1525. Otherwise, the most important detail of his life is that his second son, John Charteris of Windihills and Kelwood, was lay parson of Kirkmichael and his third son Andrew Charteris was parson. The lay parson was evidently responsible for collecting what was due to the parsonage. The problem was that the local clan, the Kirkpatricks of Kirkmichael were convinced that the parsonage should rightfully be theirs, and seem to have obstructed John Charteris of Windihills in his duty. This was the start of a rather nasty feud between the Charterises and the Kirkpatricks.
The feud reached its full intensity in 1526, the year in which John, the 7th laird, died, and the 8th laird, Robert Charteris, inherited. John, 7th laird, his sons Robert and John and, confusingly, the 7th laird John’s brother Robert, were all brought before the court on 20th March. The charge was having mutilated Sir Alexander Kirkpatrick of Kirkmichael and murdered his son and heir, Robert Kirkpatrick. With them were 39 others “including Gilbert and John Greir, brothers of the Lairds of Craufurdtoun and Ile” also allegedly involved in the murder. We know they gave the court a surety for their later attendance at the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, but we don’t know what the outcome of the trial was. We do know the Kirkpatricks provided surety on 29th March to answer counter allegations by John Charteris, 7th laird. It is possible the whole thing was chalked up to the pugilistic temperament of the Borderers and they were all packed off back to Nithsdale with a stern reprimand.
Robert, 8th of Amisfield, is famous for fighting the ‘last medieval duel’ in 1530 in the presence of James V on the Esplanade of Edinburgh Castle. His opponent was James Douglas, 7th of Drumlanrig, another Dumfriesshire laird. The duel is recorded in Lindsay’s Chronicles:
“Soone efter this thair was ane singular combatt betuixt the laird of Drumlanrige, and the laird of Hempsfeild, that provockit vtheris to the barrace, for certaine poyntis of treasoun, quhilk the on alleadgit vpoun the other. So when they entered vnder the castle wall of Edinburgh, Drumlanrige being sumquhat sandblind, and being in ane furie, so meikle the ware, that he knew not quhom he hat nor quhat he hatt; bot in the meantyme Hempsfeildis sword brak, and than the king cryed over the castle wall to the heraldis and men of armes to red thame. At that tyme thair was monie southland men appailled vtheris to the singular combat, befoir the king; for ane singular combat durst not be bot in his presence, or be his consent.”
[Trans: “Soon after, there was a single combat between the Laird of Drumlanrig and the Laird of Amisfield, that provoked others to the barras [the enclosure for the duel], for certain points of treason which the one alleged upon the other. So when they entered under the castle wall of Edinburgh, Drumlanrig being somewhat sandblind, and being in a fury, so much the worse, that he knew not whom he [called?] nor what he hit; but in the meantime Amisfield’s sword broke, and then the king cried over the castle wall to the heralds and men of arms to part them. At that time there was many Borderers challenged others to the single combat, before the king; for a single combat dares not but be in his presence, or by his consent.”]
His son, John Charteris, 9th of Amisfield, married Drumlanrig’s daughter Janet. This may have been an attempt to patch up the feud between the Drumlanrig Douglases and the Charteris clan. Also in 1552, John entered into a bond of mutual protection against the Grahams along with Robert, VIth Lord Maxwell (his first cousin twice removed), Alexander Stewart, Vth of Garlies (his first cousin three times removed), James Douglas, VIIth of Drumlanrig (his fifth cousin twice removed), John Gordon, Vth of Lochinvar (his fifth cousin once removed), John Maxwell, IVth Lord Herries of Terregles (his first cousin twice removed), John Grierson, VIth of Lag (his fifth cousin twice removed) and others. On 29 October 1569, he stood surety for Alexander Charteris ‘callit Sanct Mary’ and ‘Black Jock’ Charteris on pain of 2000 marks. He must have had difficulty with the regime of Regent Moray, because in the same year he was instructed to appear within 23 hours to be warded in Falkland Castle ‘thair to remane upoun his awin expenssis’.
The Three Sir Johns
Sir John Charteris, 10th of Amisfield made a good marriage. He married Agnes Maxwell, daughter of Johnny Maxwell, 4th Lord Herries. Johnny was a younger son of Robert Maxwell, 5th Lord Maxwell, chief of the clan. Lord Maxwell and his eldest son were frequently imprisoned in England and sometimes in Scotland. So, Johnny spent much of his young adulthood literally holding the fort at the Maxwells’ Caerlaverock Castle. Johnny was interesting as being all at once the son of a notorious reiver, a powerful local magnate and March Warden, and well connected with both the court of Mary Queen of Scots and good friends with her enemy, the reformer John Knox. He was also frequently in the pay of the English crown who wanted Caerlaverock for themselves.
The effect of this alliance on the Charterises, who already had Maxwell blood, was significant. They became embroiled in the Maxwells’ own feuds. In 1585, Sir John Johnstone was March Warden, and the Maxwells were unhappy. The previous year, there had been a bitter dispute over the election of a Johnstone as Provost of Dumfries, and the Maxwells had burned the Johnstones’ seat at Lochwood Tower and killed several of the clan. Allegedly, in the August of 1585, Maxwell had set up a gibbet in the centre of Dumfries as a threat to hang Johnstone and his followers if he wouldn’t give up Lochmaben castle to the Maxwells. At that stage, Sir John Charteris joined a raid on Johnstone lands:
“Maxwell was again proclaimed a rebel, but his half-brother, Robert, […] joined by Drumlanrig, Jardine, and Charteris made what the English Warden described as ‘a furious raid’ on the Johnstoun lands, ‘coming about 8 a.m. near to the house of Bonshaw, raised a great fire and burned the Bonshawside, and Todholes, with another farmhouse there called Dunberton, and in short they burned along the water of Dryfe, of Annan and of Milk as much as pertained to the Laird of Johnston, and committed the like outrages to all the friends and tenants of Johnston there, carrying away with them a great booty.’”
There is a tradition that the Charterises were at the Battle of Dryfe Sands in 1593, the bloody conclusion of the Johnstone-Maxwell feud. There does not appear to be any primary evidence supporting this conclusion. Nonetheless, the Johnstones’ allies the Grahams, who had already been trouble to the Maxwells and the Charterises, targeted Amisfield after the battle.
It was in 1600 that Sir John Charteris, 10th of Amisfield and Agnes Maxwell built Amisfield Tower, the traditional seat of the Charteris clan. The tower displays the arms of each of them, as does the Charteris Door, a carved oak door from the tower which is now in the National Museum of Scotland (an image of the door in the National Museum is shown at the top of this page).
Amisfield Tower. Plaques displaying Sir John and Agnes’s arms can be seen at 2nd floor level.
Sir John Charteris, 10th of Amisfield. was a trusted servant of King James VI and I. In 1605, he was knighted and also given an enormous grant of land around Dumfries, explicitly as reward for his service as a Border Commissioner.
Sir John Charteris, 11th of Amisfield built on his father’s achievements.
The Clan Charteris 