Sir Robert Grierson, 1st Baronet

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Sir Robert Grierson, 1st Baronet (1657-29 December 1733), was a Scottish baronet.

Grierson was born at the farm of Barquhar, the son of William Grierson (c. 1626-after 6th December, 1665), of the farm of Barquhar, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, and his wife, Margaret Douglas (b. c. 1633), the daughter of Sir James Douglas, of Mouswald, Dumfriesshire. He was for some years Steward of Kirkcudbright and in 1685 he was created a Baronet, of Lag, in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia, and awarded a pension. He is best remembered as a notorious persecutor of the Covenanters, particularly among the people of Galloway, and is still referred to as Cruel Lag. The character of Sir Robert Redgauntlet of Wandering Willie's tale in Sir Walter Scott's Redgauntlet is based on Grierson.

Grierson had four sons and one daughter;

Sir William Grierson, 2nd Baronet
James Grierson (2nd Son), (he died April, 1721] and who married Elizabeth Ferguson. Their oldest surviving son was Sir Robert Grierson, 3rd Baronet, of Lag, who died childless in 1765.
Sir Gilbert Grierson, 4th Baronet, died in 1766
John Grierson of Dalgoner, died c. 1730, "sometime apothecary in Carlisle",
Henrietta Grierson, of Maxwellton, wife of Sir Walter Laurie, Baronet of Maxwellton

Grierson's body was buried at Dunscore Parish Church on 31 December 1733.

[edit] References

Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page
This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.