CLAN & FAMILY CARRUTHERS: The ‘Holmain Manuscript’ – Our family’s involvement in the history of Scottish Country Dancing.

What began as genuine query from our senior Genealogist, Laurie Caron in Canada relating to something called the Holmain Manuscript, led us on an exciting fact finding journey. The Manuscript is an ancient document relating to Scottish dance from Dumfriesshire, and the question was whether or not this was associated with our own chiefly line of Carruthers of Holmains. With the working hypothesis that it was, we started to look into it, based on the information sent by Laurie below.

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The manuscript itself, is listed in the Archives of the Records of the Royal Scottish Country Dancing Society in Edinburgh Scotland, as Item 844 – Holmain MS (Manuscript).

It is referenced as GB 3410 RSCDS-8-1-844 and is a manuscript in the form of an aide-memoire from the period 1710-30. It contains the abbreviated instruction for 12 country dances.

We are lucky that our Clan Commissioner for Australasia, Craig Carrothers Monument was a member of a Ceilidh Band back in the UK. As such he picked up the baton and through his personal research further information was found, which seemed to tie the manuscript directly to our family.

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Craig’s Research

During his investigations, Craig found reference to “….Sir George Ramsay who was killed in a duel in 1790 by Captain James Macrae of ‘Holmains’, a clansman of the “wild Macraes”. This appeared  in a preamble to a song called Alyth Burn:    

So armed with this snippet, the questions were who was Captain James Macrae of Holmains, why did he use the territorial designation of Holmains and was it the same as the estates of that name once owned by our family?

It seems that Captain James Macrae of Holmains was a notorious individual in the Restalrig district of Edinburgh, who also owned estates in Dumfriesshire ie Holmains. He was a retired officer in the Irish Carabiniers and a known duellist with a terrible temper and serious pride issues. At one point he challenged his friend Sir George Ramsay of Bamff to a duel on Musselburgh Links, with the surgeon Dr Benjamin Bell (1749 – 1806) in attendance. Macrae mortally wounded Ramsay, whereupon he fled to France and was tried and convicted in his absence. He died abroad in 1820.

According to the records, after the financial crisis which hit the Holmains Estate and John Carruthers 12th of that line in 1772 causing bankruptcy James Macrae bought Holmains. The loss of the estates was due to John 12th’s involvement and badly placed investment in the failed Douglas Heron Bank of Ayr. This led to the sale of Holmains to Macrae.

However, on 17th June 1884 Macrae’s son applied to the Court of Session in Edinburgh to sell part of the Holmains Estate to pay of mounting debts accumulated by his father.

This information gave us a direct link and clarification that ‘Holmain’ of manuscript fame, was in fact the Carruthers Holmains estate.

But how did it link with the history of Scottish Country Dancing?

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Further investigation by Craig showed that in Flett’s “The Scottish Country Dance: its origins and development 2”, there is again a mention of manuscript collections and one of these is called the ‘Holmain’.

Again, in a 1975 in a publication called “Northern Junket, Col 12, No.2”, it mentions the roots of country dancing in Scotland coming from the ‘Holmain’, which was found in something called the Holmain Charter chest…. containing a notebook with 6 dances…… interestingly, it was published by A.S Carruthers.

Of course Arthur Stanley Carruthers, plays a prominent role in the recorded history of the Carruthers family through his intensive genealogical and historical research of our name. It is through his work that we have a base line from which to investigate and we have to sincerely thank him for that.

But it doesn’t stop there as the ‘Holmain Manuscript’ seems to be quite famous in the world of Scottish Country Dancing, being referenced in quite a few other sources, one of which is relating to the ‘Birks of Abergeldie’.

In that source it states: ‘the usual meaning of the Scots word Birk is of a Birch Tree or a small wood of birch trees. In this case, the birks of Abergeldie (or Aberfeldie) is a place name in Perthshire Scotland (near where the Carruthers tartan is woven). The tune appears (in) the Northumbrian musician Henry Atkinsons’s 1694-5 music manuscript collection as Aber Geldy, in a notebook of country dances called the ‘Holmain Manuscript‘ (1710-50) and in Walshe’s ‘3rd Book of the Compleat Country Dancing-Master’.

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The added research by Laurie Canon

After Craig’s input, Laurie Canon sent us a piece of her own research, which cemented the historic link between the history of Scottish country dance and Carruthers of Holmains.

Her information came from the ‘Proceedings of the Society’ 1925, written by none other than Arthur Stanley Carruthers FSA Scot, co-author of the Records of the Carruthers Family with R C Reid.

It is headed ‘Some old Scottish dances’ and he states:

During the last six years I have been collecting records relating to several families of the name of Carruthers, and in connection with this I recently had the privilege, through the kindness of the present owner, the Rev. W. Mitchell-Carruthers, M.A., of Kingham Hill, Kingham, Oxfordshire, of looking through the Holmains Charter Chest. Amongst the many old charters, details of which were published in the Historical Manuscripts Commission’s Sixth Report, Appendix, and other documents relating to this l old Border family, I came across an old diary kept evidently by several persons, and having entries between, approximately, the years 1675 to 1750. The entries chiefly relate to births, deaths, and marriages, and there is ample proof of the interest taken in astrology at this date. Of greater interest to the general public, however, was a note-book, similar in size and shape to the present-day penny or twopenny note-book, containing six or seven pages, closely written, of instructions for dances. In this book there are also ” Rules for pronouncing ye French.”

A S Carruthers went on to say:

“On reading through these pages relating to the old dances of Scotland, it occurred to me that it would probably be of interest to the present generation to know of many dances, which I feel sure are now lost in antiquity, and also have details as to their execution“.

I have been unable to ascertain the date of the entries. One of the dances is called “The Old Way of Killie Crankie,” and it would seem therefore that they are not earlier than 1689. On the other hand the last of the male line of Carruthers of Holmains (John Carruthers 12th, 8th Baron, current chief’s 4 x great Grandfather) was born in 1731, and he had several children born from 1764 onwards. The writing does not seem to be that of the same person, though at first appearance it is very similar.

In my opinion the details as to the dances were noted some time about 1710 to 1720. (As such they would have been the children of John 12th’s Grandfather, George 10th)

George Carruthers 10th of Holmains, 6th Baron had a large family of children growing up about this time, and it would seem to me that possibly these instructions had been written for their benefit. This is purely suppositionary, however, and no definite date can be given.

A S Carruthers FSA Scot

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Therefore ‘Holmain’ Manuscript relates, without question, to Carruthers of Holmains

As we know, each Scottish family of note had a chest which contained important manuscripts, deeds etc, and Carruthers of Holmains were no different. Some of the contents of the Holmains Chest are held in the National Archives of Scotland, some are still held by the family.

As the manuscript was located in the Holmains Chest, there is definite cause to consider a major and historic link to Carruthers of Holmains. Whether written by a member of the family themselves or for an individual member or members of the family, we can’t be sure.

What we can be sure of is that George himself had 8 children; John, the eldest, Helen, William, Thomas, James, Margaret, Anne and George. We can further say that on those cold bleak Scottish nights or at the many parties held at Kirkwood, entertainment would well have included dances of this ilk.

So once again, what began as a simple query has led, through a joint and certainly an international effort, to uncover evidenced historical information relating to our family and more importantly, information that we were unaware of.

Through this research covering around 250 years, we can now say with certainty that Carruthers have played a definite part in the history of Scottish Country Dancing and we thank Craig and Laurie for this and their continued efforts.

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John Carruthers 12th of Holmains,8th Baron

Regarding John 12th being last of the male line which had existed unbroken from before 1320, this is true.

John 12th had 9 children; two boys, John, his heir who died young aged 7, and Robert who sadly also died in Bengal, India before him and 7 girls, Christian, Rachel, Susan, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Elisabeth and Henrietta. The chiefly line was therefore continued through the female line for one generation.

Although the chiefship lay dormant for 210 years with no one chosing to pick up the mantle, the male line, through John’s daughter Susan and her son Major General St Leger Carruthers was re instated and continues down to the current chief, Dr Peter Carruthers of Holmains.

The Major General’s son, the Rev William Mitchell Carruthers was granted arms in 1876 by the Lord Lyon. It is William’s son, Col Nigel Mitchell Carruthers of the British Army in India who is the grandfather of our current chief. Nigel’s eldest son Charles Nigel Simon Carruthers, and Peters father, was an officer in the Commandos during the second World War and allegedly was first off the ship with his men during the repatriation of Hong Kong.

As a prominent and highly respected land owning family, and chief of our Clan, there is no doubt that if John 12th had survived and not lost his fortune through a bad investment, he would most certainly have been a guest of George VI at his Grand Ball in Edinburgh. This could easily had led to three things:

1. A Carruthers tartan of our own from that period, as all in attendance were requested to wear theirs.
2. Not being chiefless, we would not have been incuded as a sept of the family of Bruce for what seems purely commercial reasons.
3. We would have still had our Estates, and possibly retained Kirkwood House as our Chiefly seat.

A nice and fanciful thought, but very plausible.

Promptus et Fidelis

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