Continuing with our works on behalf of the Society. Last week we saw the superb investigative efforts of Gary Carruthers culminating in the locating of the arms of Sir Joseph Carruthers of Australia. This week, here is a similar blog I had been working.
My research was to locate the arms of Dr William C. Carruthers, a Scottish biologist of some renown. I was aware of a book plate of his, which I had come across a few years ago (see left), but was only made aware that he had been using arms in the early part of last year. Sadly, things were on hold due to the preparations for the gathering and the inauguration of the Chief in our ancestral home in Annan, Dumfriesshire 2024, both of which were a great success.
Who was Dr William C. Carruthers?
But who was William Carruthers, botanist, geologist and agriculturalist? William was born in Moffat in 1830, Dumfriesshire, Scotland and educated at Moffat Academy. He entered Edinburgh University in 1845 and to pay his own university education, he acted as a tutor and was still classed as a student in 1854. Not satisfied with his academic progress in one subject, he went on to further study, this time in Theology at New College, the historic home of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Divinity as he did consider entering the Church of Scotland as a minister.
However, although he followed his religious beliefs, it was noted that he had a great talent and love for the field of natural sciences and after much deliberation decided to specialise in natural history. This was to become his life’s’ work.
For a while he was a lecturer in botany at the New Veterinary College in Edinburgh and after briefly serving as assistant secretary to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he was named assistant in the botany department of the British Museum in 1859. He later succeeded J.J. Bennett as Keeper of Botany, being heavily involved in the move of the natural history sections of the British museum to their current location at Cromwell Rd, in South Kensington in 1881.
Carruthers also served as Consulting Botanist to the Royal Agricultural Society (1871-1910) and continued to act for them after his retirement from the Natural History Museum. During his time there, he aided greatly in the development of a seed-testing network as well as with working with grass choice for meadows and pastures, weeds and parasitic fungi. Through this, he established the London Botanical Laboratory and Seed Testing Station of the Royal Agricultural Society.
William was particularly interested in geology and had published numerous works in this field, including a paper on the geology of Moffat (1959). He combined his two passions through the study of palaeobotany (study of fossil plants and their evolutionary history) while also researching and working on the extinct tree genera Lepidodendron and Calamites, the family Lycopodiaceae (a family of vascular plants with about 400 species of clubmosses and firmosses) and the structure of fossil plant stems.
William however, never lost his love for the church and as an avid presbyterian he edited the church’s Children’s Messenger for 42 years, while also producing a considerable collection of works on Puritan history. In his later years, William Carruthers spent an increasing amount of time on such publications, sometimes at the expense of botanical research. This was possibly because he was out of sympathy with the Darwinian theories on botany. He once stated, ‘the facts of palaeontological botany are opposed to evolution‘. In 1886, as President of the Biological Section of the British (Science) Association, he gave an address that argued for the lack of evolution in plants based on comparisons of modern plants with those from Egyptian tombs.
Professionally, William was highly respected in his field being a Fellow of both the Royal Society (1871) and the Linnean Society (1861) the world’s oldest active biological society of which he was president of the latter between 1886 and 1890. He also served the Geologists Association of London as its president (1875-1876) and was president of the Royal Microscopical Society (1901).
His Doctorate (PhD) was conferred upon him by Uppsala University, the oldest university in Sweden in 1907, for his accumulative works and his work with the Linnean Society.
Carl Linnaeus, after whom the society is named was a student and professor of botany at Uppsala University in 1730 where he later and principal of the University. He formalised binominal nomenclature the modern system of naming organisms. and is known as the “father of modern taxonomy” (the naming, defining and classification of biological organisms based on shared characteristics).
William C. Carruthers died in 1922 at the age of 92 and is buried in the Borough of Bromley in London, the area in which he had spent the latter years of his life. His obituary was published in the journal Nature on June 17, 1922.
A mirror image of sorts.
Interestingly the life of our own Chief, Dr Peter Carruthers of Holmains mirrors, in part the life of William. Peter‘s‘ academic and professional life has led him along similar paths, having attained a doctorate in Biology and Agricultural Science and further post-graduate qualifications in Theology and Management. He is a member of the Royal Society of Biology and an Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Worcester. For years he was on the staff of the Centre of Agricultural Strategy at the University of Reading. Peter was co-founder and former chair of the Farm Crisis Network (now the Farming Community Network) and is currently a Director of a Christian charity that supports the rural church.
The Arms of William C. Carruthers
Continuing with the research into William’s use of heraldry, below is a rendition of his arms, which were after much research, finally located. What is interesting is the arms he had chosen to use, had not been used for many hundreds of years that we are aware of.
Above is the full complement of arms of William Carruthers, showing his name and ‘profession’ in Latin: Gulielmus Carruderus Pharmacochirugous Edinesis. The latin reads in English; William Carruthers and the last word of course is Edinburgh. I’m advised that Pharmacochirugous is possibly a madeup word in Latinus Scientificus (scientific Latin), as an attempt to encapsulate William’s professional and academic career.
However, it is far more likely a mistake and the printer, hearing the title ‘Dr’ William Carruthers presumed he was a medical doctor. In the UK the qualifications awarded to medical doctors on graduation are MB (Batchelor of Medicine) ChB (Batchelor of Surgery) ie Pharmaco-chirugous. Based on cost, it was obviously never changed.
The Arms of Carruthers of Isle
What makes these arms particularly interesting is that William, rather than differencing the Chiefly arms of Holmains as is the norm, he chose to use the arms of the cadet branch of Holmains, that of Carruthers of Isle. These arms were differenced from Holmains by adding a silver border/bordure. The line of Isle came off George 6th of Holmains’ son Simon Carruthers, 1st of Isle and his wife Margaret Irving.
The arms of Isle are recorded, as can be seen above as Gules (red), two chevrons engrailed between three fleurs de lis, within a border argent (silver). The border, as with the arms of Dormont, denotes a cadet line to Holmains. The crest was a cherub Proper, and the motto is recorded as Paratus et Fidelis (prepared and faithful), which is a play on the chiefly motto of Promptus et Fidelis (ready and faithful). Isle itself, was located in the parish of Dalton, in Annandale.
However, to ensure there was a difference, two engrailed chevronelles may have been used in William’s arms replacing the fuller, engrailed chevrons of Isle and in fact Holmains, but without the blazon this is not clear. We therefore believe that the arms he used were simply the arms of Carruthers of Isle, where he kept both their crest (cherub proper) and the motto (paratus et fidelis).We also know that the border was silver (argent) as used by Isle. We can say this with confidence, due to the lack of hatching on the rendition of William’s arms.
Hatching was a method of differentiating metals (silver and gold) and colours (red, black, blue, green and purple) when those colours could not be used. A coloured rendition of Williams arms is shown above and left.
William’s own line can be traced back to Woodhead – Woodfoot, a cadet line off the House of Mouswald. William himself was therefore not directly descended from the Holmains line of Carruthers. His line was continued through his sons, the eldest being Dr Samual William Carruthers MB ChB, MD, an anaesthetist, and his youngest son, John Benett Carruthers, FRSE, FLS, who followed in his father’s footsteps in agricultrural science.
However, regarding the arms William used, when Isle’s arms were designed and registered, Mouswald was recognised as having been extinct for well over 100 years (Last of the Mouswald line 1548, Lyons Act 1672) and Holmains had been seen as the chiefly line since 1548. This is reflected in the registration where there is a border/bordure around the Holmains arms, showing their dominance with Isle as the cadet line.
These days, all Scottish arms (the shield) will be differenced from the Chief’s arms, at least twice, in order to be accepted for registration.
James Carruthers of Isle
The only other recorded use of the Isle arms that I am aware of, was that of James Carruthers, who retained his family’s arms on his registration. He did this, along with his cousin John Carruthers 9th of Holmains, who in 1672 after the Lyons Act registered the Holmains arms we recognise today as belonging to our chief. This was the first time that all Scottish arms from the senior level of nobility to the lowliest esquire were assessed. Only those who were deemed worthy to bear arms were accepted by the heralds for registration. These were then added to the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings of Scotland, which is still maintained to this day by the Lord Lyon and his office.
James Carruthers was most certainly an important man in his day. His roles included Steward Depute of Annandale, a role which had been held by a couple of generations of Holmains before him, and as Factor (overseer/manager of lands and properties) to the Earl of Annandale himself, James Johnston. He was descended from the Holmains line through the House of Isle as previously stated. James’s arms are recorded as being Gules (red), two chevrons engrailed between three fleur de lis, within a border argent (silver). However, he chose to personalise his crest, while choosing to continue with the angelic tradition of Carruthers. James used a seraphim standing vested (clothed) Proper, rather than either the cherub Proper of Isle or a seraphim volant proper of Holmains. He did, however, keep the motto of his own family, the Carruthers of Isle, as Paratus et Fidelis (prepared and faithful).
Further, we do know through the records, that in 1666, John 3rd of Isle had an unknown brother living with him. After discussions with Gary Carruthers in Australia, we believe that the unknown brother, could well be James. The timings are right as James died in 1687, in Lesmahagow in Lanarkshire, where a few Carruthers had moved to.
If this is the case, and there is a high likelihood it is, it neatly ties James in, through his ancestry and his arms to the House of Holmains, showing without doubt, Isle being a senior cadet line.
As a society we keep delving into our past and that of our homeland, by using the excellent forensic skills of both our Clan historians and genealogists. We do this to ensure that all the facts printed by us are evidenced based. It is then accumulated under one banner and is being retained for future generations.
With the swathe of false information being perpetrated on the internet we feel that it is our duty, one given to us by our chief, to keep the bright light of truth burning with regards the ancient Carruthers name.
We hope you enjoy our efforts and will join and support the Society in our work.
William C Carruthers, ggrandson of David and Janet Johnstone, Woodhead Farm, through their son, James 1732-
his son Samuel 1799, father of William C Carruthers, the botantist
So, in Records of the Carruthers Family 1934 on page 29 the Genealogical Chart for the Isle shows for John, 3rd of the Isle having brothers Francis (mention Nov. 8, 1661) and Charles (also mentioned Nov. 8, 1661). James then is a probable additional brother? Was the Isle eventually acquired completely by Dormont family since in 1676 John 3rd of the Isle “disponed half of the 3-merk land of Isle to John Carruthers, natural brother to John Carruthers of Dormont”?
This is a fair point, however the lands of Isle were, as you saw subsumed in part by Dormont, but we are not aware that they took the whole estate. In fact, as far as we are aware, around the Dormont estate there are quite a few land owners with parcels of land once owned by Carruthers.