BORTHWICK ABODES IN SCOTLAND

1700s

Selcoth, near Moffat. William Murray Borthwick was born at Selcoth in 1782.

Thank you Jack Murray!

Alexander Borthwick, Shepherd of Over-Menzion, 1787
When Jean Borthwick, daughter of John Borthwick and Elizabeth Dinwoodie, was baptised at Tweedsmuir in 1787 one of the witnesses was Alexander Borthwick, shepherd of Over-Menzion. Alexander was probably a brother of our John Borthwick. This photo of the now abandoned house at Over-Menzion was taken in 1999.

Jack notes that Alexander Borthwick must have lived in a fairly new house as the Montgomery Ledger of Leases (National Archives GD 293/2/26) records:

"Tack to Alexander Tweedie 1785 for Dreva, part of Drevashiel and Over Menzion in which it is agreed that a small house of two rooms is to be built at Over Menzion at the place to be agreed on by the parties, that Lord Chief Baron shall furnish lime and timber and pay the masons and that Alexander Tweedie shall furnish stone and sand, manufacture the timber and carry same and the lime and do everything else necessary to complete the house."

William Borthwick of Crookston, 1770, Edinburgh

A site setting out some of the history of the Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart, Edinburgh A.M.D.G.http://www.rc.net/standed/sacredheart/history.html states that:

"Several mansions with extensive grounds were built owned by......William Borthwick of Crookston, whose house built in 1770 still stands to this day, occupied by St Catherine's Convent, at the corner of Lauriston Place and Gardens. In 1850 it was known as Lauriston Lodge........ "

On 3 November 1852, Mrs Borthwick senior, of Crookston died at Lauriston Lodge, Edinburgh.

1857: At http://www.hrshowcase.com/maxwell/chpt_10.html can be found a letter written from Lauriston Lodge in 1857, not by a Borthwick but by a Maxwell.

However, it seems that this home has now been demolished. Does anyone have a picture of it?

Crookston House, Heriot, Scotland, 1816

According to Buildings of Scotland, Lothian, by Colin McWilliam:

"CROOKSTON HOUSE 7.5 km. NNW of Stow. The house of 1816 -19, five bays and two stories on a basement can still be seen on the south front. In 1860-64 it was heavily Jacobeanised by Brown & Wardrop forJohn Borthwick of Crookston. They added a large porch, 3 curly gables with a ballustrade between, and corner bartizan turrets which originally had ogee roofs. But they used the same materials (grey whin with sandstone dressings) and left the rusticated quoins on the ground floor level, even repeating them under the turrets of the new work at the rear. To the west they built a big classical conservatory with a Jacobean gabled ballroom behind, both linked to the house by a glazed passage: a strange composition but successful with the aid of a cast iron ballustrade across the whole affair, forming a terrace to the W. Some Georgian interiors survive. The staircase was recast with Jacobean woodwork and an armorial window of 1873. A modest Roman Doric chimneypiece was reused in the large drawing room, which has a curious hybrid ceiling; heavily square compartments (with tiny pendants) at the corners only, the deep members not crossing the whole span. The ballroom ceiling is quite classical, compartmented and coved. STONES: The two Celtic fragments with interlaced carving built into the rear of the house are said to hhave come from the ancient church of Borthwick. There is also a stone inscribed...JESUS FOR MY PORTIOUN. AS AL SUFICIENT TO CONTENT 161(?). To the N and S of the house two octagonal SUMMER HOUSES have been improvised, the former with 4 slim Roman Doric columns (formally attached to what?) and low relief marble jambs of c1800 used most unsuitably as lintels, the latter with 4 full columns of the same height."

Next page of photos (yet to be added)