Dunnichen - Family History

The Dempsters of Dunnichen and their cadets of Skibo may descend from the Dempsters of Balrownie or from the Dempsters of Inglismaldie, but neither of these conjectures can be proven. It is just as likely that they descended from any of a number of more minor (though probably inter-connected) Dempster families in Angus in the seventeenth century.

The definite part of their ancestry starts with George Dempster, a glover and burgess of Brechin in the middle part of the century. He had three (possibly four) sons, two of whom went into the ministry, whilst the third became a merchant in Montrose. Currently it seems likely that James Dempster, who was Secretary to Queen Mary of Modena (the wife of the deposed King James VII & II) was a fourth brother of the family.

George's eldest son, another George was Minister of Edzell and later of Newdosk until he was deposed for showing the Jacobite tendencies which were a characteristic of the family. His son, another George who is sometimes styled George Dempster of Kirktounhill was the author of a pamphlet of which three copies exist in the National Library of Scotland. In this pamphlet the younger George laments his orphaned state, promises to be good, and lambasts his two rich uncles, John and Alexander for their lack of interest in him. The younger George had obviously been a bit of a wastrel and had spent quite some time abroad, possibly at the Jacobite court. He appears to have had little sympathy from his uncles and mentions his planned move to "a neighbouring kingdom" - by which he presumably means England. Whether George can be fitted in as an ancestor to any of the English Dempster families which start to appear at this time will take considerable further research.

Returning to the two "evil uncles", the elder, John, had also joined the church. He was educated at St Andrews University and became minister of Brechin (and chaplain to the Episcopalian Bishop of Brechin) in 1665. In 1676 he transferred to Moniefieth. where he remained till 1702. In that year he was removed from the ministry for his refusal to pray for King William of Orange.

John Dempster may have been responsible at least in part for the sudden and considerable improvement in the family fortunes, as the office of minister in the troubled 1690s was the root of many Scottish landed families.

The reason for the importance of the minister of the kirk in the 1690s was the "Seven Bad Years" of harvest failure and general agricultural disaster. This led to ministers (who had ready cash through the collecting plate) being able to act as a source of loans to their impoverished flock, and to foreclose on many of them as things got worse.

Another way in which John improved the family fortunes was by a fortunate marriage. His wife was Anna Maule, whose first husband, Alexander Erskine had been steward to the Earl of Panmure. Anna was probably a grand-daughter of George Maule of Boath and thus a distant relative of the Earl of Panmure. The Panmure connection was to be important for the family's future.

John Dempster's eldest son, George was the member of the family who went on to found the Dunnichen branch, but so far no information has been discovered on the rest of his surviving family, three sons, John, Charles and Henry and a daughter, Mary. It is the appearance of a Charles in the family which is one of the reasons why it could be descended from the Balrownie branch, as that first name is not common in the Dempster family.

George Dempster of Dunnichen was a very successful merchant, corn dealer and banker in Dundee and combined these roles with that of factor to the Countess of Panmure (the Earl having been forfeited for his part in the 1715 rising. George himself was also suspected of being a Jacobite and the Dundee mob ransacked his premises because of this.

Notwithstanding his political problems, George was successful enough to be able to buy up a large number of farms and estates in Angus. These included Dunnichen, Burnside, Hillock, Newbigging, Restennet, Ethiebeaton, Laws, Wester Denhead, New Grange (now Letham Grange), Omachie and Galry. His wife, Margaret Rait also came from a family of ministers with Episcopalian and Jacobite leanings - her father was deposed as Minister of Monkie for being "out" in 1715.

I have a good deal less information about George and his family than about John Dempster's family. He and Margaret Rait had at least one son, John, who went into the family business but did not long outlive his father, dying in 1754, leaving a young son, George who became laird of Dunnichen at the age of 22.

More details of the career of "Honest George" Dempster of Dunnichen are given in the Famous and Infamous Dempsters section. He was an advocate, MP for 28 years and a keen reformer, introducing many agricultural improvements and also being partly responsible for the setting up of lighthouses round the coast.

George Dempster died childless in 1818. One of his estates, Skibo in Sutherland, which was later to find fame as the home of Andrew Carnegie, passed to his brother who founded the Skibo branch of the family, whilst the Angus estates passed to his sister Helen in what was to be the first of a series of inheritances in the female line throughout the 19^th century.

George's sister Helen had married a soldier of the Honourable East India Company (of which George was a director). At the time British India was run by a private company with it's own army separate from the government's forces. Helen's husband eventually reached the rank of general, and when she died, their only child, a daughter, Helen Burrington-Dempster inherited the Dunichen estate.

Helen Burrington-Dempster married Francis Hawkins, a son of the Bishop of Raphoe in Ireland and member of a distinguished Irish family whose original roots were in the west of England. In accordance with George Dempster's will, Helen took the surname Dempster as a condition of inheritance, becoming Helen Hawkins-Dempster.

Helen Hawkins-Dempster had three children. Her eldest son James Whitshed Hawkins dying before her, and her daughter Louisa becoming Countess of Kintore, a marriage which was to end in a messy divorce in 1840. Francis, the younger son will appear later

James Hawkins, who died in 1841, had married his cousin Charlotte Soper-Dempster of Skibo in 1831. They had five children, four of whom were to go on to inherit Dunnichen. The first to inherit was the only son, George Hawkins-Dempster who succeeded his grandmother at the age of 18 and died unmarried in Nice in 1875 at the age of 29. George was then foillowed by each of his sisters except the third, Gertrude who died when a child. These were Katherine Hawkins-Dempster, Lady Metcalfe of Chilton, the wife of Sir Theophilus Metcalfe, who died in 1911, Charlotte Hawkins-Dempster who died in 1914 and finally the youngest sister Helen Hawkins-Dempster who died in 1918.

On the death of Helen Hawkins-Dempster, the estate passed through the female line once more to a grandson of Francis Hawkins, Helen Hawkins-Dempster's younger son.

Francis Hawkins, was a Captain in the 89^th Foot. He and his wife, Jane Metcalfe had seven children, but both sons, Francis and Dudley had died without issue before the Dunnichen inheritance came their way. Dunnichen was eventually inherited by the son of his eldest daughter Constance, Colonel Reginald Hall-Dempster.

On the death of Reginald Hall-Dempster, the estate would have again passed through the female line as his only son George had been killed in World War I, but instead he sold the lands in 1921, the year before his death.

With the lands of Dunnichen gone, the requirement to use the surname Dempster as contained in the provisions made by George Dempster the MP lapsed, and Reginald Hall-Dempster's descendants no longer use the surname and thus pass out of the scope of this site. His daughter Dorothy married Charles Napier, the brother of Sir Joseph Napier of Merrion Square, 4th Baronet and their descendants can be found in Burkes or Debretts.

© James Dempster 1997