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commemorate Lag's deeds yearly in
November by getting someone to dress as the "Laird of Lag", a "beast as hideous as the ingenuity of the performer intrusted with the part could make it" and which was used to frighten the children of the household. The conventional "beast" walked on all fours and had a long snout made from a large wooden kitchen
308:, granted him the lands of Lag in Dumfriesshire in 1408. There is no evidence to support such a claim and those Griersons who have undergone Y-DNA testing do not share any relevant markers with the MacGregors. Griersons carry the Haplogroup R-M222+ which has now been refined to R-FGC4125. Descent from the MacGregors is a genetic impossibility.
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In 1713 Lag handed over his estates to his eldest son, William, in return for a life rent. The two subsequently fell out over Lag's request to sell some of the property, though the resulting legal cases had the unintended effect of protecting the estates from forfeiture after
William became involved
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a reputation, at least among subsequent martyrologists, of having a particularly contemptuous attitude towards those before the courts, and of invariably denying his victims' requests for a prayer before punishment. Most traditions make
Grierson the presiding officer at the court that condemned the "
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in policing the south-west of the country. As a commissioner for
Galloway he was given control of one of the military courts set up to try rebellious Covenanters, and in this capacity was responsible for several executions of those refusing to take the oaths of loyalty to the monarch; he also gained
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claimed that the story regarding the horses was in fact true, and that his grand-uncle Sir Thomas
Kirkpatrick, a nephew of Lag's, had both attended the funeral and supplied the horses which subsequently died. Whereas the Presbyterian martyrologists had listed the names of those shot at the hands of
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Grierson of Lag was a byword for evil among the common
Presbyterian folk in Annandale, who gravely asserted that he, like the other persecutors of the Covenanters, had intimate dealings with the devil, and that he was "partly in hell" before his death, in evidence of which they told that his saliva
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Grierson eventually entered folk memory, and was the subject of a strange custom recorded in
Galloway and Dumfriesshire in the 19th century. Alexander Fergusson, who published a biographical sketch of him in 1886, recalled that as late as the 1840s some families, including Fergusson's own, used to
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Such stories may not be the stuff of scholarly history, but they vividly demonstrate the loathing and fear in which this man was held by those who were loyal to the
National Covenant (1638) and the Solemn League and Covenant (1643) and who hoped, sometimes schemed and even at times took up arms
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Lag's men, the tales that grew up after his death became more lurid, and in later years locals pointed out a spot on
Halliday Hill, near Lag Tower, where the Laird was said to have rolled Covenanters downhill in a barrel filled with spikes.
450:, both by blood and by marriage, probably served to protect them to some extent. Although Lag lived on unmolested in semi-retirement he remained feared and reviled by Covenanters: the writer Patrick Walker (c.1666-1745) in his
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in the 1715 rebellion. It was noted that father and son had been "thoroughly reunited by the common cause of retrieving their property", and Lag was eventually able to transfer the estates back to
William in 1725.
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burnt holes where it fell, and his feet put into cold water made it boil. Lag died, aged 77, at his town house in Dumfries on 31 December 1733. He was buried two days later in the Grierson family burial plot in
383:, proved a particularly energetic supporter. In 1678 he made his own tenants sign a bond in which they agreed not to attend illegal conventicles or to commune with "vagrant preachers". He subsequently assisted
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503:, with which the performer would "smell out Covenanters under the sideboard and other likely places": Fergusson said that anything "more striking, not to say appalling, to young minds can hardly be imagined".
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with decorative patterns. For much of the remainder of his life Lag's fortunes were seriously impacted by fines, and he took no further part in the politics of the period. He continued to serve as a
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poem known as "Lag's Elegy", in which the Devil lamented the death of Lag, his "champion brave", was extremely popular in southern Scotland for around fifty years after his death.
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and permitted his sons to become involved in the 1715 Jacobite Rising. However, the family's status never came under real threat as their connections with the influential
426:, Lag was arrested in May 1689 as a supporter of the old Stuart regime. Although he obtained his release on a substantial bail, and continued to receive his pension from
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parish, one of the lands belonging to Grierson of Lag's estate, and which was used by him and his dragoons as a base from which to conduct their searches for illegal
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cf. e.g. Dane Love, "Scottish Covenanter Stories: Tales from the Killing Times",(Castle Douglas: Neil Wilson Publishing, 2000), ch.28, . Retrieved from Amazon.com
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rebel and was imprisoned again several times during the 1690s. In 1696 he was charged with being involved with the coining of false money at his mansion,
400:, the principal martyrology of the time, charged him with command of the troop of dragoons that shot John Bell of Whiteside along with four others in
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Robert Grierson was born in 1655 at the farm of Barquhar, in Dumfries, Scotland. His parents were William Grierson (1626–1666), laird of Barquhar,
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of Galloway, who refused to conform to the king's authority and in several cases broke out into armed rebellion. The local
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A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire (Volume 1)
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Gules on a fess Or between three quadrangular locks (or fetterlocks) Argent a mullet Azure.
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On 21 September 1676, he married Henrietta Douglas (1657- 15 April 1736), daughter of Sir
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In 1666, Robert Grierson succeeded his cousin as laird of Lag and he acted as Steward of
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Robert and Henrietta had five children: William, James, John, Gilbert and Henrietta.
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were charged with enforcing this policy, and Lag, a Stuart loyalist and
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The character of Sir Robert Redgauntlet of "Wandering Willie's Tale" in
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burial ground, erected in 1897 by his descendant Sir Alexander Grierson.
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against the Stuart monarchy to achieve religious freedom. A satirical
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Some remarkable passages of the life and death of Mr. Alexander Peden
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GRIERSON (GRIER), William (bef.1688-1760), of Rockhall, Lag, Dumfries
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Scottish nobleman who persecuted Presbyterians in the 17th century
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Video and narration - Dunscore Churchyard and Sir Robert Grierson
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Parish in February 1685, and David Halliday and George Short in
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
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Members of the Convention of the Estates of Scotland 1678
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The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715
570:, Oxford University Press, p. 538, 7 February 2018,
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Video and narration of Cruel Lag and the Wigtown Martyrs
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Video and narration of Sir Robert Grierson and Lag Tower
609:, Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 23
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The Griersons claimed descent from Malcolm MacGregor of
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He is best remembered as a notorious persecutor of the
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811:(1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990,
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Letters from and to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq
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645:Grierson, Sir Robert, first baronet (1655/6–1733)
512:Coat of arms of Sir Robert Grierson, 1st Baronet
452:Remarkable Passages of the Life and Death of Mr.
415:, Grierson was created a Baronet, of Lag, in the
329:, 1st Earl of Traquair, and Catharina Carnegie.
325:Lady Henrietta's maternal grandparents were Sir
246:of Lag (1655 – 31 December 1733) was a Scottish
980:Members of the Parliament of Scotland 1685–1686
975:Members of the Parliament of Scotland 1681–1682
860:Robert Grierson, First Baronet (1655/6 – 1733)
803:. Vol. 23. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
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430:, he remained under suspicion as a potential
371:acted to suppress dissent among the militant
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807:Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors).
643:T. F. Henderson, Stuart W. McDonald (2004).
367:Between the 1660s and 1680s the Stuart king
903:. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
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237:Justice of the Peace, Member of Parliament
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965:Baronets in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia
111:Learn how and when to remove this message
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649:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
568:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
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320:James Douglas, 2nd Earl of Queensberry
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49:adding citations to reliable sources
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651:. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
257:, particularly among the people of
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229:William Grierson, Margaret Douglas
60:"Sir Robert Grierson, 1st Baronet"
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306:Henry II Sinclair, Earl of Orkney
900:Dictionary of National Biography
809:Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage
800:Dictionary of National Biography
244:Sir Robert Grierson, 1st Baronet
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564:"Ward, Sir Leslie (1851–1922)"
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300:was supposedly a key ally of
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465:Death and posthumous legends
340:Grierson sat as a Member of
147:Cruel Lag's memorial at the
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484:Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe
385:John Graham of Claverhouse
127:Sir Robert Grierson of Lag
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417:Baronetage of Nova Scotia
355:The farm of Garryhorn in
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894:"Grierson, Robert"
831:The Nuttall Encyclopædia
794:"Grierson, Robert"
315:for a number of years.
133:1st Baronet, of Lag and
740:Fergusson, 1886, p. 167
660:(subscription required)
480:Old Dunscore Churchyard
422:Subsequent to the 1688
348:between 1678 and 1686.
761:Fergusson, 1886, p. 11
657:10.1093/ref:odnb/11577
529:A lock as in the arms.
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221:Lady Henrietta Douglas
749:Fergusson, 1886, p. 7
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444:Justice of the peace
398:A Cloud of Witnesses
298:Glenorchy. MacGregor
250:from Dumfriesshire.
149:Old Kirk of Dunscore
45:improve this article
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448:Duke of Queensberry
424:Glorious Revolution
408:later in the year.
160:Cruel Lag, Auld Lag
620:"Adventures Await"
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266:Sir Walter Scott's
173:Kirkcudbrightshire
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38:verification
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960:1733 deaths
955:1655 births
826:Wood, James
789:Lee, Sidney
605:Henderson,
428:William III
270:Redgauntlet
255:Covenanters
208:Nationality
949:Categories
931:1685–1733
550:References
532:Escutcheon
369:Charles II
357:Carsphairn
342:Parliament
234:Occupation
71:newspapers
928:(of Lag)
218:Spouse(s)
689:Walker,
629:18 April
581:18 April
493:chapbook
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406:Twynholm
402:Tongland
377:heritors
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226:Parents
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