From the Scottish Borders
Some British History
Some called it a time of brutal oppression and naked greed. The British Empire controlled 412 million people around the world and at one stage covered nearly one quarter of the Earth’s total land area, and the phrase “the empire on which the sun never sets” was often used to describe it because its expanse around the globe meant that the sun was always shining on at least one of its territories. The independence of the Thirteen Colonies in North America in 1783 after the American War of Independence caused Britain to lose some of its oldest and most populous colonies. British attention soon turned towards Asia, Africa, and the Pacific.
After the defeat of France in the Napoleonic Wars, Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th century, and the Industrial Revolution transformed Britain, and at the time of the Great Exhibition in 1851, the country was described as the “workshop of the world”. Thomas and Somerville Learmonth took a voyage to London that year and possibly had a look at the Great Exhibition. Dramatic population increase druing the 19th century, accompanied by rapid urbanization caused significant social and economic stress. Many people had been forced out of Scotland and Ireland, escaping from continued oppression and periodic famine and many of the formerly oppressed became themselves in the colonies, the imperial oppressors.
Wherever Britain tried to plant its flag, there was resistance (Richard Gott has written a book called Britain’s Empire – Resistance, Repression and Revolt – September 2011). One thing for sure, British history tells us that England and Scotland, were often fighting it out, and Ireland has also had a long history of discontent and after the War of Independence gained independence from Britain and created the Irish Free State, or Republic of Ireland.
When the people back in Britain heard how John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner had arrived in Australia and started organizing land deals with the aborigines, they must have been somewhat gobsmacked how white settlers could simply trek into the bush and mark out large parcels of land (640 acres or 1 square mile in size) that they then leased until they were in a position to purchase it. It is said that no body of men ever created so much wealth in so short a time, but resentment did grow against the squatters’ monopoly. Despite their dubious methods of ensuring their own success, the squatters had an enormous impact on Victoria’s early development.
It would have helped them immensely to have had connections with people ‘in the know’. Many of them retained close ties to their homeland, and many families retained properties in both Britain and Australia with many going back home and taking their fortune with them. Some hired managers or had their younger sons manage their valuable holdings, that had cost them as little as £1 per acre, on the undertaking that they made improvements.
When selectors came into conflict with the squatters, they often managed to circumvent the law with the use of dummy bidders as one example, and there was pressure on the squatters to release these tightly held lands and that finally caused the necessary changes to the law, and many properties were carved up for Soldier Settlement as well.
The young Learmonth brothers were the second and third born sons and were certainly lucky to have each other for moral support and companionship. Their ancestry tied in with the Border country of Scotland and England, an area where ‘Rievers’ or raiders wreaked havoc by committing robberies and where cattle raiding between Clans became a way of life in highland Perthshire in the 17th century, so quite similar to our so called Australian bushrangers who started off being mainly escaped convicts. The Clan system has been described as ‘tribal’ as they lived by the sword and perished by the sword, and it started dying out by the 18th century.
There were around two thousand bushrangers in action at one stage, until the capture of the Kelly Gang in 1880 led by the notorious steel plate wearing Ned, considered somewhat of a folk hero in this country, who was born in Beveridge, Victoria, to Irish parents. The Learmonths’ eldest brother John had become a doctor who had a medical practice back in Tasmania. Tasmania was described as a rugged island of temperate climate and was considered so similar to pre-industrial England in some ways, that it was referred to by some English colonists as ‘a Southern England’. Thomas and Somerville were certainly well travelled for their young age, and had now landed on their third continent, having previously been associated with Scotland and India.
They would probably have rarely questioned their father’s wishes, but I should think that it would have been a tough decision for him to send them to Port Phillip as teenagers, but strong family values and their faith bolstered their endeavour, even though it was such a dangerous undertaking at the time. Thomas Senior seemed quite happy to stay in Tasmania and visit his sons on the odd occasion, once they had laid claim to some of the best sheep country in Victoria.
Reference to The All-Time Richest Australian 200 Rich List by William D. Rubinstein in Association with BRW (2004).
The All-Time Richest Australians
NB If you don’t like to hear about people making it filthy rich, then I suggest you skip this bit.
The second and third owners had also bought properties during droughts with Sir Samuel Wilson buying out his brothers during the drought years up in the Wimmera region, and John Lang Currie settled for land around Camperdown which ended up producing ‘perfect’ wool according to the London wool buyers, and in a decade he was rivalling the Learmonth brothers. He had a flock of around six thousand sheep in 1846 and they had multiplied over five-fold by 1879. In 1870 the judges at the Skipton Show had said that the density of wool was unequalled in Victoria and his rams were even sent to South Africa and America.
He died in 1898 and left an impressive Estate worth £546,115 ($2.2 billion) and is listed at No. 106 of the second era (1850-99) in The All-Time Richest Australian 200 Rich List. Sir Alan Currie’s cousin was Dr. Lang who, like the Learmonths, also had ties with the border country of Scotland. The greatest amount of money was made by the diminutive Irishman, Sir Samuel Wilson though, who died in 1895 and is listed at No. 44 in The All-Time Richest Australian 200 Rich List with an Estate valued at £762,667 ($3.89 billion). His brother John had died seven years earlier in 1888, and he had also left a large Estate valued at £608,055 ($2.26 billion). It was therefore not surprising that quite a few of the Wilson offspring married into the appropriate class of English families themselves.
Sir Samuel McCaughey (knighted for his philanthropy during the Boer War), was Sir Samuel Wilson’s nephew, and departed this world owning 3,250,000 acres, leaving a huge Estate worth £1,752,532 ($2.38 billion). He died unmarried and became one of the greatest Australian philanthropists of his time and once even visited Louis Pasteur in France (without success) to find out from the great scientist a means of exterminating rabbits by bacterial means. Pasteur was apparently quite amazed at the size of the area that McCaughey wanted to eradicate these pesky rabbits from.
These clever pastoralists all carried out irrigation projects on their properties, and this subsequent increase and control over their water allowed them to breed large numbers of sheep, no doubt contributing to their great success as sheep farmers. It was said that once the springs, (aquifers) did break through at Larra, they kept on flowing, and the Camperdown area, like the area that included Ercildoune, was also described as being the “finest sheep country in the world.”
Somerville and Andrew didn’t miss out on being listed in The All-Time Richest Australian 200 Rich List either, with Somerville being listed at No. 53 in the New South Wales section of the second era under ‘Also-Rans’ with an estate worth £200,000, and Andrew at No. 43 in the Victorian section at 43 with an estate worth £210,237. It seems that in the beginning of their business affairs in the new colony that Thomas Learmonth Senior managed his sons’ financial situation from Tasmania, and the brothers stated that they didn’t draw out any wages for years. Thomas Junior was even quite surprised about how much money their father had put away safely for them and stated –
“This is a matter for which I desire specially to bless God.
I have thus been kept from spending money in folly and sin. And by working hard for it, I have learned to value it, not as in itself good, but I hope as the means of doing good – God grant that grace may be give me to be a faithful and wise steward”.
The ‘Dum Spiro Spero’ was found carved into the top of the archway.
And faithful and wise they must have been, and they listened to anyone who could advise them on how to improve their stock, so they ended up closely following the advice of both Thomas Shaw Senior and Junior, thereby importing the necessary livestock from their home country in order to keep improving their bloodlines. They were very interested in the acclimatization of many different animals and kept lamas, their cousins the alpacas, Indian Sambar and British fallow deer, and bred trout at Ercildoune. They were also instrumental in attempting to introduce fish from the Murray River region to the area, but it was reported that this venture didn’t succeed.
They won many prizes at the agricultural shows with their award-winning sheep, cattle and draught horses. The breeds they favoured were Scottish Clydesdale and Herefords but they also kept Jersey cattle and pigs.
Thomas the Rhymer
When the Earls of March and the Dunbar’s were the chief baronial families, the Learmonth’s family ancient seat, was Rhymer’s Tower (1210- to 1297) in Earlston, but it is believed to stand on the site of the castle originally built by Thomas Learmont when the town was called Erceldoune. Thomas was also known as the 13th century Scottish laird, reputed prophet and Scotland’s earliest poet and romancist, Thomas the Rhymer. Folklore states he was carried off by the Queen of Elfland and returned having gained the gift of prophecy as well as the inability to tell a lie.
Many of his prophecies came to fruition and won him wide celebrity, but the Scottish do love their folklore and are extremely superstitious at times, with quite a few stories interwoven with certain characters from a fairy kingdom. Thomas the Rhymer was said to have become more famous than any other prophet of the day, including Merlin and was also known as ‘Thomas de Ercildounson, son and heir of Thome Rymour de Ercildoun.”
Knights, Royal Connections, and Sadly a Couple of Beheadings
“The feast was spread in Ercildoune,
In Learmont’s high and ancient hall;
And there were knights of great renown,
And ladies laced in pall.”
The Learmonth name is found in many ancient manuscripts where some of the Learmonth’s were listed as knights, including Lord William Livingston of Callendar born in 1475, Sir John Learmonth of Balcomie born 1625 and Sir James Learmonth of Balcomie born 1670. Charles Learmonth born 1744 was noted as a sometime merchant in Edinburgh, and thereafter Lieutenant on board the ship Rising Sun belonging to the Company of Scotland. He was trading to Africa and the Indies, and the husband of Mrs. Colville Adam Livingstone Learmonth of their ancestral property Park Hall. Members of the Livingston family were raised to the peerage and the 1st Earl of Linlithgow and his wife Lady Eleanor, daughter of Andrew Hay, 8th Earl of Erroll, were entrusted by King James VI & I with the upbringing and education of his daughter Princess Elizabeth, who spent her early childhood at the Callendar House before moving to England and she later became Queen of Bohemia and Electress Palatine. There was an Earl of Callendar (1641) and an Earl of Newburgh (1660) and they all played an important part in the history of the area, but their hold on the lands came to an abrupt end in the 18th century when James Livingston, 5th Earl of Linlithgow and 4th Earl of Callander, was forced into exile abroad because he had sided with the “Old Pretender”, son of King James II of England (James VII of Scotland) in the Jacobite Rising of 1715. The Callendar Estates were forfeited by the York Buildings Company, and they leased the house back to the Earl’s daughter, Lady Anne Livingston, from 1724. Lady Anne gave hospitality to Bonnie Prince Charlie before the Battle of Falkirk in 1746, but after his defeat at Culloden, Lady Anne’s husband, the Earl of Kilmarnock, William Boyd, was beheaded for treason.
Some Royal Connections: The research by Tatiana Molchanova and Rex Learmonth states that the mother of the Scottish martyr George Wishart, (1513-1546) was a member of the Fife Learmonth family, who eventually became relatives of the Scottish Monarchy through their marriages. Alexander, 5th Lord Livingstone (1500-1553) was guardian of Mary, Queen of Scots, during her childhood and the children of Sir George Learmonth of Balcomie (1525-1585) were the fourth cousins of Mary Queen of Scots. The marriage agreement between Mary and the French Dauphin was signed at Callendar House. Sir John Learmonth of Balcomie (1560-1625) was Lady Diana’s twelfth-Great Grandfather.
Other famous Learmonths include Sir James Learmonth (1895-1967) who was called the father of modern neurosurgery and he was a personal doctor to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II during their visits to Scotland, and the Scottish composer George Learmonth Drysdale (1866-1909) who was called the Scottish Grieg. This combined Russian and Australian research was undertaken to shed more light on the Lermontov connection to the Learmonth family, and the Russian Lermontov family are officially the first Russian family of Scottish origins who now have their own registered tartan.
We had a lovely visit by some of these Russian descendants at Ercildoune on a really hot day, along with many members of the Australian Learmonth family, and planted silver birch trees with accompanying brass plaques to commemorate this special occasion. As for the Livingston, (now spelt without an ‘e’) branch of the family, Sir Andrew de Livingston, knight and noblemen, and Sheriff of Lanark in 1296, was one of the Scottish knights summoned by King Edward I in 1297 to attend his expedition to Flanders. He was killed the same year by the forces led by the great Scottish hero, Sir William Wallace.
In a power struggle for control over James II who was still just a boy, he and Sir William Chrichton, Governor of Edinburgh Castle, allegedly had William, described as a young, headstrong and powerful noble, and the 6th Earl of Douglas, and his brother David, executed at the infamous Black Dinner of 1440, as they were convinced that they had become enemies of the throne. One story is that they were lured to Edinburgh Castle for a celebratory banquet of reconciliation, and a head of a black bull was brought into the hall at the end of the feast. Under Scottish custom, this formality presaged the death of the principal guests at a dinner.
James II is alleged to have pleaded for the lives of his new friends to be spared, but in one report, they were (disturblingly) beheaded in front of the ten-year-old king. When James II came of age, and proceeded to establish control over the nobles, he apparently felt considerable attachment to his Livingston guardians. While Livingstons, Douglases and others were arrested and charged with high treason and executed, Sir Alexander Livingston and his son Sir James were released after a very brief imprisonment, with Sir James being raised by James II to the peerage of Scotland as the 1st Lord Livingston of Callendar in 1454.
Then following the demise of William, 6th Earl of Douglas and his brother, his great uncle James, known as James the Gross became the 7th Earl of Douglas after having connived at the execution of his nephew, thus inheriting the earldom and the Douglas Estates.
The Learmonth Name and St Andrews
Information from the My Clan: Learmonth is a name arising from lands in Berwickshire and the earliest family ‘of note,’ were the Learmonths of Ercildoun in the Merse, to which family Anderson attributes the early Scottish poet, Thomas the Rhymer. His prophecies were published in 1691. The family married into the Dairsies of Fife and thereby established the principal line of the family in that country. Sir James Learmonth of Dairsie was Master to the Household of James V, and provost of St. Andrews in 1446. The family also acquired the lands of Balcomie in Fife, and in 1604, Sir James Learmonth of Balcomie was one of the commissioners appointed to consider a possible political union with England. Alexander Learmonth was a prosperous merchant in Edinburgh and Leith.
The family acquired the estate of Park Hall in the early nineteenth century. They latterly assumed the compound surname of Livingston-Learmonth, (Livingston spelt with, and without the ‘e’), but still used the ancient Learmonth arms. There is still a substantial residential district of Edinburgh named after this family. (Provost = mayor.)
The historical town of St. Andrews is located on the east coast of Fife. It is well known for one of the most ancient Universities in Europe, and as the home of golf. King James VI of Scotland described Fife as a ‘beggar’s mantle fringed with gold’ – the golden fringe being the coast and its chain of little ports with their thriving fishing fleets and rich trading links with the Low Countries, that was said to be ironic given the much later development of farming on some of Scotland’s richest soil, and the minerals, notably coal, underneath. Wool, linen, coal and salt were all traded.
The Armorial Bearings
The Armorial Bearings of the Livingstone Learmonths of Parkhall, as registered in the Lyon Office, were: –
ARMS – Quarterly, first and fourth, Or, on a chevron, sable, three lozenges of the first, for Learmonth; second and third, Argent, a mascle, azure, between three gillyflowers slipped, gules, within a double tressure flory counterflory, vert, for Livingstone; all within a bordure, azure.
Crests – On the dexter side, a dove holding in his beak an olive branch, proper, for Learmonth. On the sinister side a dexter hand grasping a sabre proper for Livingstone.
Mottoes – Dum spiro, spero, for Learmonth – While I breathe I hope uncovered on the top of the arch in the entrance hallway at Ercildoune. Si possim, for Livingstone = If I may