When We Were Greers, Part XXX

by Glenn N. Holliman

To Capenoch, the Home of my 8th Great Grandfather

Approximately 20 miles north of Dumfries and five miles west of Thornhill, Scotland is the stately manor home of the Gladstone family.  Prior to their purchase of this hill top home near Pen point, a nearby village, another dwelling, one hundred or so yards further up the property, was the birthplace of James Grierson, born ca 1627 who in 1674 emigrated to Maryland.  The former house, long since destroyed, served as the site of a prominent family in the area, a branch of the Griersons, one of whom served as the Lord of Lag.

   

James Grier(son) married Anne Taylor in 1680 and fathered John Greer, Sr. before dying in 1688 along the Gunpowder River, Baltimore County, Maryland.  According to Donald Whyte, who in 1972 published Emigrants to the USA, James was transported as an indentured servant by Samuell Gibbons of Bristol, and arrived in Maryland in November 1674. 

The same information is carried also in  A History of the Origin of the Above Families (Greer) and Many of Their Descendants, 1954 by Robert M. Torrence, Baltimore, MD.  James was one of a number of children of Sir James of the Rock, born 1604.  Why one of his children ended an indentured servant must be a story into itself, and one we can see only through the fog of centuries.  Sir James of the Rock was my generation's 9th great grandmother and more on  him and others in another post.

 Above a detail of the Gladstone family seal on an exterior wall of the current Capenoch edifice.  Several generations of my Grierson grandfathers called this property their home in the 1600s.  These photographs were taken in June 2011.


We continue to explore Scotland and our family in the next post....