Craigluscar

Among the lost Durie lands are Rossend, Grange, Craigluscar and Scoonie.

John Durie of that Ilk had two younger sons. Andrew was the controversial, card-playing, foul-mouthed Royal Chaplain at Stirling and Abbot of Melrose, a position he probably obtained by fraud and which was removed from him in favour of the king’s infant son, but handsomely compensated, made a Lord of Session and erected Bishop of Galloway (Candid Casa). He died in 1558 of apoplexy at Protestant riots in Edinburgh.

He and his brother George had become Archdeacons at St Andrews thanks to their uncle, Archbishop James Beaton, and George also received preferment in becoming Abbot and Commendator of Dunfermline in 1526/27 (but not titular until 1539). He used this position, and the high offices of state that came his way, to enrich his family, including elder brother Robert Durie of that Ilk and his legitimated sons by his “wife” Katherine Sibbald, Peter and Henry. (Two other sons, George and John, became Jesuits.) Abbot George spent ,much of his time opposing Reform, and supporting the cause of Mary Queen of Scots. He spirited away the sacred relics of Saint Margaret and hid in France for most of the 1560s until he could return, senile and powerless, to die at Craigluscar ca. 1579. He was not, contrary to some reports, canonised as a saint.

However, Abbot George’s descendants proved to be better in character. The Craigluscar family were prudent stewards of their lands outside Dunfermline and produced a number of fine soldiers, administrators and scholars.

This is the line which produced our Chief, Andrew Durie of Durie.