John Bellenden (Lord Justice Clerk)

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Sir John Bellenden of Auchnole and Broughton (d. 1 October 1576), was, before 1544, Director of Chancery in Scotland, and was appointed Lord Justice Clerk on the 25 June 1547. He was also knighted before April 1544.

Sir John Bellenden was a Commissioner for the Treaty of Peace with Anna of Oldenburg, signed at Aberdeen 19 October 1556 confirmed by Mary Queen of Scots, 26 September 1557. He was present at the coronation of King James VI of Scotland in 1567.

Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet, writing in 1754, tells us that "Sir John made the conquests, and left his eldest son Sir Lewis a fair estate, viz. the barony of Broughton, Edinburgh, with the superiority of the Canongate and North Leith, having therein near two thousand vassals; the baronies of Auchnoul, Woodhouslie, Abbot's-grange, and many others. And to the eldest son of the third marriage he left the barony of Carlowrie, and Kilconquhar, Fife, and diverse lands about Brechin."

Sir John married thrice: (1) Marion (or Margaret) Scott, by whom he had three daughters. Two died young and the third, Marion (d.1604), married John Ramsay of the Dalhousie family. He remarried (2) by contract (signed by Queen Mary of Guise herself) dated 30 September 1554, Barbara, daughter of Sir Hugh Kennedy of Girvan Mains by his spouse Janet, daughter to John Stewart, 2nd Earl of Atholl. They had four sons and one daughter. He married lastly (3) 14 January 1565, Janet, daughter of Walter Seton of Touch. They had five sons and two daughters.

Of the children:

His eldest son and heir (by his 2nd wife) was: Sir Lewis Bellenden of Auchnole & Broughton, Lord Justice Clerk;

by his 2nd wife:

• Adam Bellenden, Bishop of Aberdeen;
• William Bellenden, Vicar of Kilconquhar;
• Thomas Bellenden of Kilconquhar, Fife, a Senator of the College of Justice (14 August 1591).

John's daughter

• Annabella, married before June 1599, as his second wife, Sir Alexander Lauder of Haltoun, Knt., Sheriff Principal of Edinburghshire.

[edit] References

• Historical Manuscripts Commission, 14th Report, Appendix Part III, The MSS of the Duke of Roxburghe, et al, p.6.
• The Scots' Peerage, by Sir James Balfour Paul, Edinburgh, 1905, vol.ii, p.64/5.
• Melrose Regality Records, edited by Charles S. Romanes, C.A., Edinburgh, 1917, vol.3, p.374/5.