Robert Balfour, 5th Lord Balfour of Burleigh

Last updated

Robert Balfour, 5th Lord Balfour of Burleigh (buried 20 March 1757) was a Jacobite from the Burleigh family of the county of Kinross, remembered chiefly for a crime of passion that brought devastation to his family.

Biography

Balfour, when a youth fell in love with a woman far inferior in rank, much to the annoyance of the family. He was sent to travel abroad in the hope that he would forget his attachment. Before he set out he declared to his lady-love that if in his absence she married he would kill her husband. Notwithstanding the threat, she did marry a Henry Stenhouse, schoolmaster at Inverkeithing, acquainting him beforehand of the hazard. [1]

On Balfour's return his first inquiry was after the girl. On being informed of her marriage, on 9 April 1707 he proceeded on horseback with two attendants directly to the school at Inverkeithing, called Stenhouse out, deliberately shot him, wounding him in the shoulder, and quietly returned to Burleigh. [1] The schoolmaster lingered twelve days, and then died. Balfour was tried for the murder in the High Court of Justiciary on 4 August 1709. [1] The defence was ingenious, but inadequate; Balfour argued there had been no intent to kill, that the wound was merely to the arm and hence plainly designed to frighten or correct, and that the deceased had lived for several days after the being shot before dying of a 'fretful temper'. [2] Balfour was found guilty, and sentenced to be beheaded on 6 January 1709–10. But a few days prior to this he escaped from the Edinburgh Tolbooth by exchanging clothes with his sister, who resembled him. He skulked for some time in the neighbourhood of Burleigh, and is reputed to have concealed himself in a hollowed ash-tree [1] afterwards named "Burleigh's Hole". [2]

On the death of his father, in 1713, the title devolved on him. His next appearance was at the meeting of Jacobites at Lochmaben, 29 May 1714, when the Pretender's health was drunk, Lord Burleigh denouncing damnation against all who would not drink it. He engaged in the rebellion of 1715. For this he was in the same year attainted by Act of Parliament, and his estates, worth £697 per annum, [2] were forfeited to the crown.

Balfour's story is retold by writer Daniel Defoe in his 1724 Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain as part of the description of the town of Inverkeithing. Defoe asserts that the tragical story had been much talked about in England at the time. [3]

Balfour died, without issue, in 1757 and was buried at Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh. [4] The attainder was reversed in 1869 in favour of Alexander Bruce, 6th Lord Balfour of Burleigh. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Defoe</span> 17/18th-century English trader, writer and journalist

Daniel Defoe was an English novelist, journalist, merchant, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translations. He has been seen as one of the earliest proponents of the English novel, and helped to popularise the form in Britain with others such as Aphra Behn and Samuel Richardson. Defoe wrote many political tracts, was often in trouble with the authorities, and spent a period in prison. Intellectuals and political leaders paid attention to his fresh ideas and sometimes consulted him.

James Balfour, Lord Pittendreich (c. 1525–1583) was a Scottish legal writer, judge and politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inverkeithing</span> Town in Scotland

Inverkeithing is a coastal town, parish and historic Royal burgh in Fife, Scotland. The town lies on the north shore of the Firth of Forth, 9.5 miles northwest of Edinburgh city centre and 4 miles south of Dunfermline.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Molesworth, 3rd Viscount Molesworth</span> Anglo-Irish military officer

Field Marshal Richard Molesworth, 3rd Viscount Molesworth, PC (Ire) FRS, styled The Honourable Richard Molesworth from 1716 to 1726, was an Anglo-Irish military officer, politician and nobleman. He served with his regiment at the Battle of Blenheim before being appointed aide-de-camp to the Duke of Marlborough during the War of the Spanish Succession. During the Battle of Ramillies Molesworth offered Marlborough his own horse after Marlborough fell from the saddle. Molesworth then recovered his commander's charger and slipped away: by these actions he saved Marlborough's life. Molesworth went on Lieutenant of the Ordnance in Ireland and was wounded at the Battle of Preston during the Jacobite rising of 1715 before becoming Master-General of the Ordnance in Ireland and then Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Irish Army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lord Balfour of Burleigh</span> Title in the Peerage of Scotland

Lord Balfour of Burleigh, in the County of Kinross, is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1607 for Sir Michael Balfour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rob Roy MacGregor</span> Scottish outlaw (1671–1734)

Robert Roy MacGregor was a Jacobite Scottish outlaw, who later became a Scottish and Jacobite folk hero.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Bruce, 6th Lord Balfour of Burleigh</span> Scottish politician (1849–1921)

Alexander Hugh Bruce, 6th Lord Balfour of Burleigh, was a Scottish Unionist politician, banker and statesman, who took a leading part in the affairs of the Church of Scotland. He was Secretary for Scotland between 1895 and 1903.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Graham, 1st Duke of Montrose</span> 18th-century Scottish aristocrat

James Graham, 1st Duke and 4th Marquess of Montrose was a Scottish aristocratic statesman in the early eighteenth century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Erskine, Earl of Mar (1675–1732)</span> Scottish earl (1675–1732)

John Erskine, 23rd and 6th Earl of Mar and 1st Duke of Mar KT, was a Scottish nobleman and a key figure in the Jacobite movement. He held the title of the 23rd Earl of Mar from the earldom's first creation and was the sixth earl in its seventh creation. Erskine, often remembered for his political adaptability, navigated the complex and shifting landscape of early 18th-century British politics.

A Tour Thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain is an account of his travels by English author Daniel Defoe, first published in three volumes between 1724 and 1727. Other than Robinson Crusoe, Tour was Defoe's most popular and financially successful work during the eighteenth century. Pat Rogers notes that in Defoe's use of the "literary vehicle that could straddle the literal and the imaginative," "Nothing...anticipated Defoe's Tour". Thanks in part to his extensive travels and colourful background as a soldier, businessman, and spy, Defoe had "hit on the best blend of objective fact and personal commentary" in his descriptions of locations and trips around Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burleigh Castle</span> Tower house in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, UK

The remains of Burleigh Castle are located just outside the village of Milnathort, 1.5 miles north of Kinross, in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. The castle dates from the 15th and 16th centuries, and now sits beside the A911 road, opposite a 19th-century steading, recently adapted into housing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Bruce (architect)</span> Scottish architect (c. 1630–1710)

Sir William Bruce of Kinross, 1st Baronet, was a Scottish gentleman-architect, "the effective founder of classical architecture in Scotland," as Howard Colvin observes. As a key figure in introducing the Palladian style into Scotland, he has been compared to the pioneering English architects Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren, and to the contemporaneous introducers of French style in English domestic architecture, Hugh May and Sir Roger Pratt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clan Forbes</span> Highland Scottish clan

Clan Forbes is a Highland Scottish clan from Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Robert Balfour may refer to:

John Balfour, 3rd Lord Balfour of Burleigh was a Scottish nobleman. He was educated in France; and has been traditionally and erroneously styled Covenanter John Balfour, the Covenanter being John Balfour of Kinloch.

Robert Balfour, 2nd Lord Balfour of Burleigh was a Scottish military commander.

Robert Rollo, 4th Lord Rollo was a Scottish nobleman and Jacobite.

Robert Bruce of Kennet, Lord Kennet FRSE was a Scottish advocate, legal scholar and judge.

William Sutherland, 17th Earl of Sutherland, previously named William Gordon, 17th Earl of Sutherland,, was a Scottish politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1727 until 1733 when he succeeded to the peerage as Earl of Sutherland. He was chief of the Clan Sutherland, a Scottish clan of the Scottish Highlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Balfour of Kinloch</span> Scottish assassin (fl. 1663–1683)

John Balfour of Kinloch was the principal actor in the assassination of Archbishop Sharp in 1679. For this crime his estate was forfeited and a large reward offered for his capture. He fought at Drumclog and at Bothwell Bridge, and is said to have escaped to Holland, and to have there tendered his services to the Prince of Orange.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Sankey, Margaret D. (2004). "Balfour, Robert, fifth Lord Balfour of Burleigh (d. 1757), murderer and Jacobite sympathizer" . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1196. ISBN   978-0-19-861412-8 . Retrieved 11 August 2020.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. 1 2 3 Anderson, William (1867). The Scottish Nation, Volume 1. Edinburgh and London: A. Fullerton & Co. pp.  210.
  3. Daniel Defoe. "A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain by Daniel Defoe: Letter XIII: Northern Scotland: Part 1". www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  4. 1 2 Cokayne, George Edward (1887). Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct, Or Dormant. G. Bell & sons. p. 220. Retrieved 18 June 2018.

Wikisource-logo.svg This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : "Balfour, Robert (d.1757)". Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

Peerage of Scotland
Preceded by Lord Balfour of Burleigh
1713–1715
Forfeit
restored to Alexander Bruce in 1869