John Brown of Priesthill ~ Covenanter: A devout Covenanter from Priesthill in Ayrshire who held illegal services at Priesthill; he was known as the Christian Carrier. In May 1685 John Graham of Claverhouse (Bonnie Dundee) with several troops came to the home of John Brown demanding of him an oath […]
John Blaw (born c1692) has gone down in history both for being a Jacobite in the 1745 rising, but also for taking part in a murder for which he was hanged. Blaw killed William Cairns a farmer in a Lamina inn on 4 September 1767. In the winter of 1745 […]
One of the many poets who underwent the Highland tour and visited Perthshire and the Hermitage was Thomas Gray. “THOMAS GRAY, English poet, the fifth and sole surviving child of Philip and Dorothy Gray, was born in London on the 26th of December 1716. His mother’s maiden name was Antrobus, […]
The polygraph which forms the basis of the modern-day lie-detector was developed by a Perthshire man, James Mackenzie of Scone. Mackenzie was a well-known surgeon and founder of the the important Institute of Clinical Research in St Andrews. Mackenzie attended Perth academy where he was a classmate of the biologist, […]
Saint Adomnán of Iona (627/8-704) who was an abbot of Iona and wrote an important biography of Saint Columba lived in the Innerwick end of Glenlyon (Perthshire) before he went to Iona. Saint Adomnán’s chapel was affected by a plague that arrived in the valley. This plague wiped out the […]
Robert Douglas (17 March 1611, Standingstone, Haddingtonshire, Scotland – 28 May 1662, Stockholm, Sweden), Count of Skenninge, Friherre of Skalby, was a Scottish-born Field Marshal (1657-62) in the Swedish army, and a commander in later stages of Thirty Years’ War. His father, Patrick Douglas, was the second son of William […]
“Henry Dundas was the complete 18th Century politician. he had few original ideas, even fewer ideals, but was an expert in the art of political manipulation. For over thirty years his powers in Scotland were almost complete and through the control of patronage he was able to deliver the votes […]
John Evelyn Barlas (1860 – 1914), pseudonym Evelyn Douglas, was an English poet and political activist (anarchist-communist) of the late nineteenth century. Born in Rangoon on 13 July 1860 to a family of merchants, Barlas was a direct descendent of Barlass (Kate Douglas) the 15th century Scots heroine. He was […]
In 1755 George Sandeman (1724-1803) feued about ten acres of land in the area known today as Springland for the establishment of a water-powered saw mill. George Sandeman came from a wealthy linen family, but nevertheless trained as a Wright (his furniture is well-known) and operated as a merchant in […]
William Wallace (1768- 1843) was born in Dysart in Fife. He attended a small private school before joining a public seminary. His father tutored him in arithmetic and after his father’s business failed, he was sent to Edinburgh as an apprentice bookbinder. Thereafter self-taught he spent hours on mathematics and […]
