Thomas Dick Lauder
Encyclopedia
Board of Manufactures
During the Enlightenment and the industrial revolution, Scottish industrial policy was made by the Board of Trustees for Fisheries and Manufactures in Scotland, which sought to build an economy complementary, not competitive, with England...
(1839-), on the Herring Fisheries Board, at the Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts, and as Deputy Lieutenant
Deputy Lieutenant
In the United Kingdom, a Deputy Lieutenant is one of several deputies to the Lord Lieutenant of a lieutenancy area; an English ceremonial county, Welsh preserved county, Scottish lieutenancy area, or Northern Irish county borough or county....
of both counties of Moray and Haddington.
He was the only son of Sir Andrew Dick-Lauder, 6th Baronet, whom he succeeded in 1820.
Early life
Born in Edinburgh, Midlothian but baptised 8 days later at PencaitlandPencaitland
Pencaitland is a village in East Lothian, Scotland, about south-east of Edinburgh, south-west of Haddington, and east of Ormiston.The land where the village lies is said to have been granted by William the Lion to Calum Cormack in 1169, who gave the church, with the tithes and other property...
, East Lothian
East Lothian
East Lothian is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a lieutenancy Area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Scottish Borders and Midlothian. Its administrative centre is Haddington, although its largest town is Musselburgh....
, in early life he entered the army - 79th (The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders) Regiment of Foot, and although possessing Fountainhall (near Pencaitland), he afterwards took up his residence at his wife's home, 'Relugas' in Morayshire, where he remained till 1832 (selling it in 1836), when he removed to the Grange House,at Grange, Edinburgh until his death. On 8 February 1808 he married, on the banks of the Findhorn
Findhorn
Findhorn is a village in Moray, Scotland. It is located on the eastern shore of Findhorn Bay and immediately south of the Moray Firth. Findhorn is 3 miles northwest of Kinloss, and about 5 miles by road from Forres....
at Edinkillie, Moray
Moray
Moray is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland.- History :...
shire, Charles Anne (1785–1864), the only child and heiress of George Cumin of Relugas. By her he had two sons and eight daughters.
In 1839 Sir Thomas was appointed Secretary to the Board of Manufactures and Fisheries in Scotland, and also, immediately afterwards, Secretary to the Board of British White Herring Fishery.The duties of these Secretaryships he continued sedulously to discharge till interrupted by his last illness. He was for some time Secretary to the Royal Institution for the Encouragment of the Fine Arts, an office which he relinquished about two years before his death. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity, operating on a wholly independent and non-party-political basis and providing public benefit throughout Scotland...
, where he presented his paper on Parallel Roads of Glen Roy on 2 March 1818.
Politics
With his close friend Henry Thomas Cockburn, Lord Cockburn, Sir Thomas was an active LiberalLiberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
, and took a keen interest in politics. In 1832 he presiding over a huge meeting of some 30,000 people rallying in favour of the Reform Bill at St. Anne's Yards, the field immediately to the east of Holyroodhouse - said to be the largest ever political rally ever held in Scotland.
Works
Sir Thomas and his family were close friends of Sir Walter ScottWalter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
. His first contribution to Blackwood's Magazine
Blackwood's Magazine
Blackwood's Magazine was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by the publisher William Blackwood and was originally called the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine. The first number appeared in April 1817 under the editorship of Thomas Pringle and James Cleghorn...
in 1817, entitled Simon Roy, Gardener at Dunphail, was ascribed by some at first to Sir Walter Scott. His paper (1818) on The Parallel Roads of Glenroy, printed in vol. ix. of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity, operating on a wholly independent and non-party-political basis and providing public benefit throughout Scotland...
, first drew attention to the phenomenon in question.
In 1825 and 1827 he published two romances, Lochandhu and The Wolf of Badenoch
Badenoch
Badenoch is a traditional district which today forms part of Badenoch and Strathspey, an area of Highland Council, in Scotland, bounded on the north by the Monadhliath Mountains, on the east by the Cairngorms and Braemar, on the south by Atholl and the Grampians, and on the west by Lochaber...
. He became a frequent contributor to both Blackwood's and Tait's Magazines, and in 1830 he published An Account of the Great Floods in Morayshire in 1829 in the Province of Moray and adjoining Districts.
About this time he was befriended by the Sobieski Stuart brothers, eventual publishers, in 1842, of the disputed Vestiarium Scoticum. Lauder agreed to transcribe the famous Cromarty MS which remained in the possession of his family until 1936, when it was presented to the late Queen Mary
Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V....
. It is now in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
. With it is a letter in which the donor states that the book was 'given' to Sir Thomas "by the Sobieski-Stuart brothers, Ian and Charles Edward". Sir Thomas and Sir Walter Scott corresponded on this MS at length. A full transcript of the Cromarty MS can be found in Stewart & Thompson's book, Scotland's Forged Tartans, which deals mainly with the Vestiarium and their opinions on it.
Some subsequent works of Sir Thomas were Highland Rambles, with Long Tales to Shorten the Way (2 vols. 8 vo, 1837), Legendary Tales of the Highlands (3 vols. 12mo, 1841), Tour round the Coasts of Scotland (1842), and was asked by Queen Victoria to write the official history of her visit, entitled Memorial of the Royal Progress in Scotland (1843). Volume One of a Miscellany of Natural History, published in 1833, was also partly prepared by Lauder. An unfinished
Unfinished work
An unfinished work is creative work that has not been finished. Its creator may have chosen never to finish it or may have been prevented from doing so by circumstances outside of their control such as death. Such pieces are often the subject of speculation as to what the finished piece would have...
series of papers, written for Tait's Magazine shortly before his death, was published under the title Scottish Rivers, with a preface by John Brown, MD., in 1874.
Death
He died at Grange House, and was buried in the new Dick Lauder tomb in the new cemetery at Grange, Edinburgh.He was succeeded by his eldest son and heir, Sir John Dick-Lauder, 8th Baronet
Sir John Dick-Lauder, 8th Baronet
Sir John Dick Lauder of Fountainhall, 8th Baronet, , was a Deputy lieutenant and magistrate for Midlothian, and Justice of the Peace for Wigtownshire...
.
Lauder tartan
The Lauder tartan first appears, it would seem, about this time, in the Vestiarium ScoticumVestiarium Scoticum
The Vestiarium Scoticum was first published by William Tait of Edinburgh in a limited edition in 1842...
amongst the "bordour clanns". It can be found in The Tartans of the Clans and Septs of Scotland by W. & A.K.Johnston, Edinburgh, 1906.
Further reading
- The Peerage & Baronetage of the British Empire, by John Burke, 8th edition, London, 1845, volume 1, pps: 590/1.
- The Royal Families of England, Scotland, and Wales, with their Descendants, etc., by Messrs.,John and John Bernard Burke, London, 1851, vol.2, pedigree CLXXIII.
- The Scottish Nation, by William Anderson, Edinburgh, 1870, volume 2, pps: 632-3.
- The Grange of St.Giles, by J.Stewart Smith, Edinburgh, 1898.