Robert BAILLIE, of Jerviswood b. 1634 d. 1684 : British Roots

1634 - 1684

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Suffix of Jerviswood

Birth 1634 [1]

Robert Baillie of Jerviswood

c.1634 - 1684

Covenanter. Born in Lanarkshire. His father, an Edinburgh merchant, had acquired the estate of Jerviswood in South Lanarkshire in 1636 and the land around Mellerstain in the Scottish Borders in 1642. The young Baillie joined the James Scott, the Duke of Monmouth (1649-85), in London against King Charles II in an attempt to free the Scottish Presbyterian church from Royal interference. He was arrested for his involvement in the Rye House Plot against the King (1683) and tried, then hung, drawn and quartered in Edinburgh. Sections of his corpse were publicly displayed in Edinburgh, Jedburgh, Ayr and Glasgow and Lanark, although the people of the latter gave their part of the body a decent burial.

Baillie's son, George, married Lady Grizel, daughter of another Covenanter who later became the 1st Earl of Marchmont, and their descendants succeeded as Earl of Haddington in 1858.

Gender Male

_UID 40642E5D7C7B472B9CF60769459B60361027

Died 1684 [1]

Person ID I5332 British Roots

Last Modified 10 Dec 2009

Father George BAILLIE, b. Abt 1600, d. 1646

Family ID F1711 Group Sheet

Family a sister of Sir Archibald Johnston,Lord Warriston, d. Yes, date unknown

Children

>	1. George BAILLIE, of Jerviswood and Mellerstain, b. 1664, d. 1738

Family ID F1710 Group Sheet

Notes	BAILLIE, ROBERT (d. 1684), Scottish conspirator, known as Baillie of Jerviswood, was the son of George Baillie of St. John's Kirk, Lanarkshire. He incurred the resentment of the Scottish government by rescuing, in June 1676, his brother-in-law Kirkton, a Presbyterian minister who had illegally been seized and confined in a house by Carstairs, an informer. He was fined £500, remaining in prison for four months and then being liberated on paying one-half the fine to Carstairs. In despair at the state of his country he determined in 1683 to emigrate to South Carolina, but the plan came to nothing. The same year Baillie, with some of his friends, went to London and entered into communication with Monmouth, Russell and their party in order to obtain redress; and on the discovery of the Rye House Plot he was arrested. Questioned by the king himself he repudiated any knowledge of the conspiracy, but with striking truthfulness would not deny that he had been consulted with the view of an insurrection in Scotland. He was subsequently loaded with irons and sent back a prisoner to Scotland. Though there was no evidence whatever to support his connexion with the plot, he was fined £6000 and kept in close confinement. He was already in a languishing state when on the 23rd of December 1684 he was brought up again before the high court on the charge of treason. He was pronounced guilty on the following day and hanged the same afternoon at the market cross at Edinburgh with all the usual barbarities. His shocking treatment was long remembered as one of the worst crimes committed by the Stuart administration in Scotland. Bishop Burnet, who was his cousin, describes him as "in the presbyterian principles but ... a man of great piety and virtue, learned in the law, in mathematics and in languages." He married a sister of Sir Archibald Johnston, Lord Warriston, and left a son, George, who took refuge in Holland, afterwards returning with William III. and being restored to his estates. 1911_Encyclopaedia Britannica/Baillie,Robert_(Scottish_conspirator)"

Sources
[S490] Gazetteer for Scotland.