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from the south, when arriving upon the estate, at either boundary, he closed the blinds of hiscarriage until he had passed the fated territory ; and in the year 1792, sold the estate to theTrustees of Robert Gordon’s Hospital, in Aberdeen .
The late Sir Robert Barclay , K.C.B. , a distinguished officer in the service of the East India Company , was a cadet of the Towie family. He received, in 1816, an augmentation tohis arms, in commemoration of his services at the battle of “ Assaye.”
Robert Barclay , author of the Apology for the Quakers , was born at Gordonston, in theCounty of Moray, on the twenty-third December, 1648. His ancestors are traced back, byunquestionable documents, to Theobald de Berkeley, who lived in the reign of David the Firstof Scotland. David came to the throne in 1124, and was consequently the cotemporary ofHenry the First of England, son of William the Conqueror .
Alexander de Berkeley, the fourth in succession from Theobald, having obtained bymarriage, in 1351, the lands of Mathers, the family afterwards became designated by the appel-lation of De Berkeley of Mathers, until his great-grandson, also named Alexander, changed thepatronymic to the present mode of spelling Barclay . The eighth in descent from Alexander Barclay , was David, who sold his paternal estate of Mathers, after it had remained for centuriesin the family. The designation of Mathers was consequently lost; and, in 1648, on thepurchase of Ury by David, son of the last Barclay of Mathers, and father of Robert, the familyassumed that of Ury. This David Barclay of Ury, commonly called Colonel Barclay, wasborn at Kirktonhill, the seat of the Barclays of Mathers, in 1610. Early in life he became avolunteer in the army of Gustavus Adolphus , in which he rose to the rank of Major. On thebreaking out of the civil wars, he returned home, and became Colonel of a regiment of horse inthe royal army; but, on the success of Cromwell in Scotland , he lost his military employment,which he never subsequently resumed. In 1647, he married Catherine, the daughter of SirWilliam Gordon of Gordonston.
In requital of his attachment to the royal cause, he was, after the restoration, committeda prisoner to the Castle of Edinburgh , from whence he was liberated without any charge havingbeen brought against him. In this prison he met with John Swinton, who is said to haveconverted him to the religious principles of the Society of Friends , but he did not profess themopenly until some years after
Robert, the celebrated Apologist, studied at the Scotch College in Paris , of which hisuncle (son of the last Robert Barclay of Mathers) was then the Rector. After publishingvarious works, he died on the 3d October, 1690.
Gartly, so often mentioned in the above notice, is in the last state of ruin and dilapidation ;its mouldering walls have been assailed for the purpose of obtaining the materials for buildingand other purposes ; but the tough old masonry has resisted with a tenacity, occasioning somedoubt in the minds of the operators, as to the expediency of wasting time and misapplyinglabour in tearing it to pieces.
The Gartly family are said to have resided at one period chiefly in the Castle of Banff ,near to which town they had large estates. By the published “ Poll Book of Aberdeenshire,”