Name Sir Grierson, | Died December 29, 1733 | |
 | ||
Sir Robert Grierson, 1st Baronet (1655/56 – 29 December 1733) was a Scottish baronet.
Contents
Life
Sir Robert Grierson, known as "Auld Lagg", was born at the farm of Barquhar, the son of the 1st Tutor of Lag, William Grierson (c. 1626-after 6 December 1665), the Laird of Barquhar, Kirkcudbright, Scotland, and his wife, Margaret Douglas (b. c. 1633), the daughter of Sir James Douglas, of Mouswald, Dumfriesshire. In 1666, Robert Grierson succeeded his cousin as Laird of Lag** and he was for some years Steward of Kirkcudbright. In 1685 he was created a Baronet, of Lag, in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia, and awarded a pension. He is best remembered as a notorious persecutor of the Covenanters, particularly among the people of Galloway, and is still referred to as Cruel Lag. The character of Sir Robert Redgauntlet of Wandering Willie's tale in Sir Walter Scott's Redgauntlet is based on Grierson.
Death
Grierson of Lag was a byword for evil among the common Presbyterian folk in Annandale, who gravely asserted that he, like the other persecutors of the Covenanters, had intimate dealings with the devil, and that he was partly in hell before his death. It was said his saliva burnt holes where it fell, and his feet put into cold water made it boil. Lag died, aged 88, at his town house in Dumfries on 29 December 1733, and was buried two days later in Old Dunscore Churchyard, the cost of the funeral being £240 Scots. Legend has it that on the night he died a chariot surrounded by thunder clouds swept his soul away to hell. Another tells how the horses pulling his hearse to Dunscore’s old Kirkyard died of exhaustion on the way and a black raven flew down and settled on the coffin, flying away only at the moment of burial. Such myths may not be the stuff of scholarly history, but they vividly demonstrate the loathing and fear in which this man was held by those who were loyal to the National Covenant (1638 ) and the Solemn League and Covenant (1643 ) and who hoped, sometimes schemed and even at times took up arms against the Stuart monarchy to achieve religious freedom.
Family
Sir Robert Grierson of Lag and his wife, Lady Henrietta Douglas had six children known, viz.: