Following on from our series of blogs on our run up to the Carruthers Gathering in Annan in August 24-25, and to ensure people are fully informed, the heading poses 2 questions who and why. Let us begin with the first part of the question first, the ‘Who’.
So who is Dr Peter Carruthers of Holmains?
Peter is very much a family man and very likeable and approachable. He retains a solid Christian background and belief and as such follows a set of good moral values. He is an intelligent man, very analytical and thorough in his approach to life and decision making, while retaining a good sense of humour. Peter is married to Judith, Madam of Holmains, a lovely individual and very supportive of Peter’s role and between them they have two children. Asher the son and ‘younger of Holmains‘ is a pilot for a commercial airline and involved in the Chief’s Heir’s Project run by Charles Lord Bruce, eldest son of the Earl of Elgin and heir to the hereditary chiefship of Bruce. His daughter Abigail also involved in the project is the younger of the two and is a researcher in genetics progressing her PhD at Glasgow University.
Peter himself was born in India as an only child to British parents overseas. Places such as India, Ceylon and Burma etc were therefore the focus of large British expat communities who worked and lived in south east Asia in the 1800’s and early to mid 1900’s and included many of our own.
The Chief’s grandfather was Col. Nigel L. Carruthers, 2x great grandson of John the 12th, last Chief of Carruthers prior to its dormancy. Nigel served as an officer in the British Army in India and his great uncle, Nigel’s elder brother, was the world-renowned British explorer, naturalist and cartographer, Alexander Douglas Carruthers.
Peter’s father began training as an engineer in Kilmarnock, Scotland, but when war broke out he volunteered for the forces. He became an officer in the Royal Marine Commandos during the Second World War (1939-1946) and was reputedly the first to lead his men on shore during the repatriation of Hong Kong. Having been involved in other campaigns during the war, happily his final command as an officer was just as Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945.
His mother, Molly had lived in Burma with her British parents and to escape the Japanese invasion of that country in 1942, took the treacherous Naga trail, also called the ‘Road of Death’ along with the remnants of the British forces This was not an easy route out of Burma into India and they were continually hounded by the Japanese who were after total destruction of civilians and troops alike. Although helped by the Naga people along the way and with fatigue, disease and starvation biting, many brave souls didn’t survive to tell the tale, thankfully Molly did and more importantly made it home.
Charles and Molly Carruthers were married in St Jude’s Church, South Kensington in London in 1951. Following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Col Nigel Carruthers of the British Army in India, and many other family members before him to include the parents of the Rev William Mitchell-Carruthers, after being emplyed by a British Tea Company, they moved back to India in 1954 to work.
Feeling they didn’t want to bring their child up in a foreign land, Charles and Molly returned home to the UK with their son, now 6 months old. Dr Carruthers known as Peter, spent both his childhood and his informative years in Britain where, having lived here throughout his adult life he was educated to doctorate level achieving a PhD as well as other post graduate qualifications.
As an agricultural scientist Peter has a background in agricultural research and education and rural policy and environmental education, with further qualifications in management and theology. For many years he was on the staff of the Centre for Agricultural Strategy at the University of Reading and reserched and lectured on the same. Subsequently, he was managing director of an independent consultancy organisation providing contract research in agriculture, environment and rural affairs, while also working with other organisations within the public and third sectors in the development of values-centred strategy and leadership.
Currently, he is Director of a Christian charity that supports the rural church and is a co-founder and former Chairman of Farm Crisis Network, now the Farming Community Network, an organisation & charity that supports farmers and families within the farming community in the UK. He is also is a member of the Royal Society of Biology and now retired from academia was made an Honorary University Fellow at the University of Exeter and an Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Worcester.
Interestingly and as an aside, Peter has within his line a famous British Major General, who became part of the British diplomatic corps and also has links through his cousins to the Jameson Irish Whiskey brand and distillery.
The brand was started by John Jameson, originally a lawyer from Alloa, Clackmannanshire in Scotland but founded the Jameson Distillary in Dublin in 1780. Prior to this, John married the eldest daughter of John Haig of Haig Scottish Whisky fame, distilled here in Scotland since the early 1720’s. Jameson himself had four sons who followed him into the distillary business. Andrew the fourth son, went into business in a small distillery in Wexford in south-east Ireland and was the grandfather of Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of wireless telegraphy. Marconi’s mother was Annie Jameson, Andrews daughter. Jameson’s are still considered the most important distilling family in the whole Ireland.
Further Peter’s 4x great grandfather John 12th of Holmains and 8th Baron married Charlotte, the second daughter of Sir Robert Laurie, Baronet of Maxwelton. Sir Robert was the nephew of Annie Laurie, immortalised in Scottish song from the poem by William Douglas of Dumfriesshire about his love for her. The tune was added in the early mid 1800’s by Alicia Scott.
Peter is quoted as saying; “The Carruthers are a unique and special family. There are many more of us in Scotland, the UK, and around the globe, than people realise! And over the centuries, we have had many distinguished family members, some known and some unsung, who have served their countries and contributed to human flourishing and the common good. It is therefore a great privilege and a sober responsibility, to have inherited the position of Chief of Carruthers, and I will do my best to lead and serve the family in our future together.”
Why is Dr Peter Carruthers of Holmains, our chief and not someone else?
Dealing with the second part of the question has partially been covered before but below we touch only on his right to inherit the title of Chief i.e the legal bit and the genealogy to support it.
Photo of Charter that was the kernal which began the House of Holmains estates dated 1361
Although some may claim and rightly so, that the jurisdiction of the Lord Lyon is retained through the rights of the British monarch only in all things dealing with Scottish heraldry, the laws of inheritance remain paramount and in any western country the follow a simeler pattern. What that means is that the matriculation (the right) to bear the arms of an ancestor, in the case the undifferenced arms of the Chief of Carruthers, must follow the law and be proven to do so.
Therefore to make a claim within the laws of Scottish inheritance, especially of a title ie Chief of a Name, the claim must be proven. This evidence must in turn pass muster with and be accepted by the Lord Lyon, a member of the Scottish judiciary and as such and in cases of this nature, be supported by solid genealogical evidence which in itself supersedes all else, to include a family gathering held either inside or outside of Scotland.
Therefore, if you are lets say a retired American truck driver, a Canadian banker or even a Scottish Lord you cannot simply claim that your are a Chief of a Scottish clan or family unless the evidence to inherit a title is a) recognised as such by the Lord Lyon and the British Crown and b) the inheritance laws are fully satisfied.
The title is in itself an accepted entity in Scots law and carries with it the legal right to use the undifferenced Chief’s arms of that clan or family through the auspices, and only through the auspices of the Lord Lyon here in Scotland. Therefore to attain legal recognition to a claim of being a Scottish Chief, the process is long and onerous which in turn requires much effort and time. This process is in place to ensure that the unscrupulous or uneducated with ego or agenda are not permitted to dilute the heritage and history of either the Scottish people or its diaspora for their own ends.
As such the inauguration of the Carruthers Chief in August 24025 in Annan, Scotland is a very important and historic occasion for our family and more so as it takes place on our ancestral lands.
So what evidence supports, in this case, the right to be called Chief of Carruthers?
Well, our own Chief’s proven and documented ancestry goes back as far as the records of our family goes along the chiefly line, and looking at it in depth it remains quite impressive. However for the sake of brevity, today we will deal with the salient points only in order to answer the second part of the question in the heading.
We accept that as a starting point William de Carruthers, in the reign of Alexander II (1214-1249), is the first recorded use of our name and he died circa 1245. We now also accept through our DNA research that he was the great grandfather of Thomas first of the House of Carruthers of Mouswald, considered our first chiefs, who received their charter from Robert the Bruce in 1320. The Barony of Mouswald continued until it became extinct in 1548 when the then Chief was killed in a border raid leaving no male heirs.
So then what, did the chiefly line die out?
As in all forms of inheritance the title goes to the closest living relative and in those days to a male heir. But what does the evidence actually say. Firstly it needs to be stated that Mouswald has been legally considered extinct since 1548 and as such moving to the closest male heir would be the norm. So who was the closest male heir? For that we need to look at the brothers of Thomas 1st of Mouswald. Thomas had three brothers; William, John and Nigel.
William, became 2nd of Mouswald after Thomas lost his title and lands having bent the knee to Edward III in 1334, possibly only to save his own life. Never the less, he was removed as Chief and head of the family. The youngest brother Sir Nigel was a knight of the realm and held the office of Chamberlain to the Regent. He was killed at the Battle of Durham fighting for his King and country on October 17, 1346, leaving no issue.
It is now accepted that John Carruthers, Thomas’s second younger brother and Kings Chancellor for Annandale was the progenitor (direct ancestor) of the House of Carruthers of Holmains. Therefore being the senior cadet line off Mouswald in 1548 the then head of the House of Holmains, John Carruthers 5th of Holmains took on the mantle of Chief. The Barony of Holmains continued until 1707 when, due to a financial disaster, the estates were lost. The then chief John 12th of Holmains and 8th Baron died in 1809 leaving no male heir and although his will stated that his inheritance would be through either the male or female line ie ‘of his body‘, no one took up the mantle of Chief. We now believe we know the reason that this happened. It therefore lay dormant for 210 years.
We then need to look at the line from John 12th of Holmains into the current era.
As lineage goes, the chiefly line continued through John 12th’s eldest daughter Christian, who died in 1859 without issue as all John’s sons died before their father. The line then went to her nephew John Carruthers-Wade who died in 1873, also without issue. However, he could not have taken on the mantle as the name Carruthers was not in dominance (ie Carruthers-Wade rather than Wade-Carruthers). He also died without issue, and the line continued through his first cousin the Rev William Mitchell-Carruthers who died in 1931.
The Rev. Carruthers was succeeded by his eldest son Alexander Douglas Carruthers, the explorer, who died in 1809 and was succeeded by his nephew Charles Nigel Simon Carruthers, who died in 1997 to be succeeded by his only son, Simon Peter Carruthers of Holmains (known as Peter). Peter’s lineage and right to be confirmed Chief have been fully analysed and proven which has led to the confirmation by the Lord Lyon in 2019 as Chief of the Name and Arms of Carruthers with supporters to his arms. Both reflecting his status in the eyes of the Crown. To that end, the lineage of our Chief is well charted and evidenced through the House of Holmains to the House of Mouswald and beyond to the origins of our name.
InauguratIon: An officially recognised Chief
On the 24th August 2024, in our ancestral lands in Annan, Dumfrieshire, Peter was inagurated as Chief of Carruthers with all the ancient pomp and ceremony and serenity that the preocess required. He recieved his Letters Patent from Sir Crispin Agnew of Lochnaw, Albany Herald Extraordinary, representative of the Lord Lyon King of Arms, whose authority comes from the Soveriegn. He was given his symbols of office from the Clan Shennachie, his blessing from a minister of the Church of Scotland, and exchanged oaths bfrom himself to the clan, the Shennachie representing the elders to the Chief and from the clan and family to the chief, pledging fealty and loyalty.
Dr George Carruthers, FSA Scot
Shannachie to the Chief
Non Sto Solus
