John Eccles b 1575 and JANET CATHCART b 1578

John Eccles, born 1575 in Kildonan, Ayrshire, Scotland. He died 1597 in Kildonan, Ayrshire, Scotland, son of John Eccles and Mrs. John Eccles.  He married in 1598 in Kildonan, Ayrshire, Scotland  Janet Cathcart, born About 1576 in Carleton, Ayrshire, Scotland, daughter of John Cathcart and Helen Wallace.

Children of John Eccles and Janet Cathcart were as follows:

1. Gilbert Eccles, born 1602 in Kildonan, Ayrshire, Scotland; christened 4 Oct 1602; died 26 Jul 1694 in Shannock, Fermanagh, Ireland.
   

The Scottish Nation Cathcart

CATHCART, a surname supposed to be derived from Kerkert, or caer-cart, ‘the castle on the Cart,’ a river in Renfrewshire. Mr. Ramsay, in his ‘Sketches’ of that county, prefers the etymology Gaeth-cart, ‘the strait of Cart,’ the river at the parish of Cathcart running in a narrow channel. The surname was first assumed by the proprietors of the lands and barony of Kethcart in the reign of William the Lion, who succeeded to the crown in 1165.

CATHCART, earl of, a title in the peerage of the United Kingdom, possessed by a family of the same surname of great antiquity in the west of Scotland, conferred in 1814 on William, Lord Cathcart (a baron in the peerage of Scotland, date of creation 1447) for his military services. this noble family’s great ancestor, Rainaldus de Kethcart, as early as 1178, was witness to a charter by Alan, the son of Walter, ‘dapifer regis,’ of the patronage of the church of Kathcart, to the monastery of Paisley. William de Kethcart, his son, is witness to a charter, whereby Dungallus filius Christinin judicis de Levenax exchanged the lands of Knoc with the abbey of Paisley, for lands lying near Walkinshaw; to which Alan his son is also a witness, about 1199 of 1200. His son Alan de Cathcart appends his seal to a resignation made by the judge of Levenax to the abbot and convent of Paisley, of the lands of Culbethe in 1234. He is also witness to a charter, dated in 1240, of the great steward of Scotland to Sir Adam Fullarton of the lands of Fullarton, in the bailiary of Kyle. He had a daughter, Cecilia, married to John de Perthick; this lady made a donation to the monastery of Paisley of all her lands in the village of Rutherglen in 1262; and a son, William de Cathcart, one of the barons of Scotland who swore fealty to Edward the first in 1296.

Sir Alan de Cathcart, his son, was one of the patriotic barons who gave effectual aid to Robert the Bruce in maintaining the independence of Scotland. He was with Bruce at the battle of Loudonhill in 1307, when the English troops under the earl of Pembroke were defeated. The following year he formed one of a party of fifty horsemen under Edward Bruce, who, under cover of a thick mist, surprised on their march, fifteen hundred cavalry under John St. John in Galloway, attacked and dispersed them. The particulars of this recontre he related to Barbour, who thus describes him:

“A knight that then was on his rout, Worthy and wight, stalwart and stout, Courteous and fair, and of good fame, Sir Alan Cathcart was his name.”

On this Lord Hailes remarks, “It is pleasing to trace a family likeness in an ancient portrait.” [Annals of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 25, note.] He is designed dominus ejusdem in a donation which he made to the Domincans of Glasgow in 1336. By his wife, the sister of Sir Duncan Wallace of Sundrum, the fourth husband of Eleanor Bruce, countess of Carrick, he had a son, Alan de Cathcart, who succeeded him. On the death of Sir

Duncan Wallace about 1374, without issue, Alan de Cathcart, in right of his wife, inherited the baronies of Sundrum and Dalmellington in Ayrshire.

His son, Alan de Cathcart, dominus ejusdem, entered himself a hostage for King James the First in England in June 1424, in room of Malcolm Fleming. He died in 1440.

His grandson, Sir Alan de Cathcart, added largely to his paternal estate. In 1447 he redeemed several lands in Carrick from John Kennedy of Coyff, which had been mortgaged by Sir Alan de Cathcart his grandfather. The same year he was, by James the Second, raised to the Scots peerage by the title of Lord Cathcart. Hi obtained by charter the lands of Auchencruive and other lands in Ayrshire, 2d July 1465, and on 11th April 1481, he was sworn into the office of warden of the west marches, at Holyroodhouse. He had a grant from King James the Third of the custody of his majesty’s castle of Dundonald and of the lands thereof in Ayrshire, 13th December 1482. He also obtained the lands of Trabeath in King’s Kyle, then in the crown by the forfeiture of Lord Boyd, and in 1485, he was constituted master of the artillery. He died before 12th August 1499. By his wife, Janet Maxwell, he had four sons, and one daughter, namely Alan, master of Cathcart, who predeceased his father, leaving a son, John, second Lord Cathcart: David, who also died before his father; Hugh, ancestor of the Cathcarts of Trevor, and John of Gabryne. Helen, the daughter, married David Stewart of Craigiehall in the county of Linlithgow.

John, second Lord Cathcart, succeeded on the death of his grandfather. He had a charter to himself and Margaret Douglas, his wife, of the lands of Auchencruive, 12th August 1499, and other lands in Ayrshire, forfeited to the king, as steward of Scotland, for the alienation of the greater part of the same by the first Lord Cathcart, without his majesty’s consent, 6th March 1505. He died in December 1535. He married, first, Margaret, daughter of John Kennedy of Blairquhan, by whom he had a son, Alan, master of Cathcart; secondly, Margaret, daughter of William Douglas of Drumlanrig, and by her he had four sons and four daughter. Alan, master of Cathcart, and his two halfbrothers, Robert and John, were killed at Flodden. Robert married Margaret, daughter and heiress of Alan Cathcart of Carleton, and by her he had a son, Robert Cathcart, from whom are descended Sir John Andrew Cathcart of Carleton and Killochan castle, Ayrshire, baronet, (baronetcy conferred in 1703), and the Cathcarts of Genoch. The third son of the second marriage, David Cathcart, married Agnes, daughter of Sir George Crawford of Liffnorris, by whom he had Alan, his son and heir, who added to his paternal estate bye barony of Carbiston, by marrying Janet, daughter and heiress of William Cathcart of Carbiston. From him were descended Major James Cathcart of Carbiston, of the nineteenth regiment of light dragoons, who distinguished himself in the East Indies, and his brother, Captain Robert Cathcart, royal navy. The fourth son of the second marriage was Hugh, ancestor of the Cathcarts of Coiff, a family now extinct.

Alan, third Lord Cathcart, the son of Alan, master of Cathcart, by his second wife Margaret, daughter of Patrick Maxwell of Newark, succeeded his grandfather in 1535. He fell at the battle of Pinkie 10th September 1547. By Helen, his wife, eldest daughter of the second Lord Sempill, he had a son, Alan, fourth Lord Cathcart, and a daughter, Mariot, married to Gilbert Graham of Knockdolian in Carrick. About 1546 his lordship

sold his estate of Cathcart to his wife’s uncle, Gabriel Sempill of Ladymuir, younger son os the first Lord Sempill. In this branch of the Sempills the estate continued till the beginning of the eighteenth century, when it was sold to John Maxwell of Williamwood. In the end of the century it was disposed of in parcels. The castle and principal messuage were .acquired by James Hill, from whose representatives they were purchased by the tenth lord and first earl of Cathcart in 1801. Thus, after the lapse of two centuries and a half, this portion of the barony returned to the direct male heir of its ancient owners. The earl afterwards acquired another portion named Symshill.

Alan, fourth Lord Cathcart, was a zealous promoter of the Reformation, particularly in the west, where his influence was great. In 1562, when John Knox was preaching in Kyle, a bond was drawn up for the maintenance of the reformed religion, which was signed by many of the barons and gentlemen of Ayrshire, among whom Lord Cathcart’s name appears. In 1567 he entered into the bond of association for the defence of James the Sixth. At the battle of Langside, 13th May 1568, he fought at the head of his vassals, on the side of the regent Murray. A place is still pointed out on an eminence fully in view of the field of battle, and near the castle of Cathcart, where the unfortunate Mary anxiously awaited the result. In 1579 he was appointed master of the household, and on 28th January 1581, he subscribed the second confession of faith, commonly called the King’s Confession, which was signed by his majesty and his household with several others. During the regency of the earl of Morton he had several grants from the crown, which were afterwards resumed. His lordship died in 1618. He had married Margaret, daughter of John Wallace of Craigy, by whom he had a son, Alan, master of Cathcart, who died before his father in 1603, leaving by his wife, Isabel, daughter of Thomas Kennedy of Bargany, a son, Alan, fifth Lord Cathcart.

The fifth Lord Cathcart was served heir to his grandfather, 8th May 1619, and died on 18th August 1628. He married, first, Lady Margaret Stewart, eldest daughter of Francis earl of Bothwell, without issue; secondly, Jean, daughter of Sir Alexander Colquhoun of Luss, and by her had a son, Alan, sixth Lord Cathcart, born in 1628, the same year his father died. He is described as a nobleman of much goodness and probity, but does not seem to have taken any prominent part in public affairs. His attendance in parliament is mentioned in Balfour’s Annals, in the second session of the second triennial parliament, 23d June 1649, with the remark that “there were ten noblemen only present from the downsitting to this day, – often fewer, but never more.” He died 13th June 1709, in the eighty-first year of his age. He married Marion, eldest daughter of David Boswell of Auchinleck, and had three sons, namely, Alan, seventh lord; Hon. James; and Hon. David Cathcart, killed in the public service at the time of the Revolution.

Alan, seventh Lord Cathcart, born about 1647, was in his sixty-second year when he succeeded his father. He died in 1732, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. He married the Hon. Elizabeth Dalrymple, second daughter of James first Viscount Stair, the eminent lawyer, and had three sons and one daughter. Alan, the eldest son, perished at sea in August 1699, on his passage to Holland. Charles, the second son, became eighth Lord Cathcart; and James, the third son, a major in the army, was killed in a duel by Gordon

of Ardoch. The daughter, Hon. Margaret Cathcart, married Sir John Whitefoord of Blairquhan, baronet, and had issue.