Clan Haldane
Clan Haldane is a Lowland Scottish clan.
History
Origins of the Clan
It is believed that the name 'Haldane' originates from a phrase meaning 'Half-Dane'. It is an ancient Scottish name dating back to around the 12th century with the manor of Haldane being granted to the family around this time by William the Lion. A cadet branch of the family are reported to have settled in the area of Scotland known as Strathearn. The lands they acquired were part of the larger barony of Gleneagles.
Almer de Haldane was a Scottish noble whose signature is found on the Ragman Rolls of King Edward I of England in 1296.
14th Century & Wars of Scottish Independence
Almer de Haldane later sided with King Robert the Bruce of Scotland during the Wars of Scottish Independence against the English. The Haldane territory soon increased greatly when Sir Simon de Haldane married Matilda de Arnot. Sir Simon had already received the lands of Bardrill in Strathearn in 1312 but the union also gave him control of more land in the Earldom of Lennox.
15th Century
In 1482 Sir John Haldane, third of Gleneagles handed over lands in Perthshire, Stirlingshire and Fife to the Crown, turning this into the free barony of Gleneagles. Sir John was not intending to resign his property altogether as through his marriage to Agnes, daughter of Murdoch Menteith of Rusky he had a legitimate claim the earldom of Lennox. The title was contested between himself and John Stewart, Lord Darnley. The dispute appears to have come to a surprisingly amicable settlement for the time when, after a long legal battle Darnley retained the title and Sir John received a quarter of the lands.
16th Century & Anglo Scottish Wars
Sir James Haldane was Governor of Dunbar Castle. His son was responsible for erecting lands in Lennox and Perthshire that were not already part of Gleneagles into the barony of Haldane in 1508. However his son was killed when the Clan Haldane fought at the Battle of Flodden Field in 1513, part of the Anglo-Scottish Wars.
In 1585 Stirling Castle was under siege by supporters of the Earl of Angus and many other Protestant noblemen. The Haldanes were part of the force calling for the repealing of the banishment of these nobles. The chief of Haldanes brother was killed in battle along with William Stuart, colonel of the Royal Guard. He was reportedly shot by Sir William's servant.
17th Century & Civil War
The eleventh Laird, Chief Sir John Haldane was knighted by King Charles I in 1633. However during the Civil War supporterd the Covenanters. He was killed when he led the clan at the Battle of Dunbar (1650).
18th Century & Jacobite Uprisings
Throughout the 18th century and the Jacobite Uprisings the Clan Haldane supported the British Government.
General George Haldane, son of the sixteenth Laird was a professional soldier who led the clan against the French at the Battle of Dettingen in 1743 and the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745.
General George Haldane also led the clan in fighting against the Jacobites. During the 1745 to 1746 Jacobite rebellion he served under the Duke of Cumberland.
GEORGE COCKBURN HALDANE, 18th of GLENEAGLES (b. 1729 - d. 02.03.1799) married Bethia DUNDAS in 1766 (mcrt. 06/09.05.1766) daughter of THOMAS DUNDAS of FINGASK AND CARRONHILL. George Cockburn was the only son of Charles Cockburn of Sandybed by his wife Margaret Haldane (second daughter of John Haldane, 14th of Gleneagles by his second wife Helen Erskine), upon his succession to GLENEAGLES he took the name HALDANE for life. George Cockburn HALDANE had one surviving child by his marriage to BETHIA DUNDAS.
The child was christened JANET COCKBURN HALDANE, and as sole heiress, was widely known as MISS HALDANE OF GLENEAGLES (see Sir WALTER SCOTT, 1822). She married at Edinburgh, on the 9 January 1801, Captain Charles Dallas, of the ancient House of Dallas of Cantray, Budgate, St. Martin's & North Newton, (b. 1766-d. 1855) later Brigadier-General and last British East India Governor of St. Helena. The marriage was productive of seven children - four boys and three girls, all of whom travelled to St. Helena with Brigadier General Dallas and his Lady, where they lived first at Plantation House and then at Longwood, Napoleon's residence. The eldest son, CAPTAIN THOMAS DALLAS of the Bengal Army (b.1801; drowned at sea 1857) took HALDANE, the surname of his mother and his maternal grandmother, for life, though he never succeeded to GLENEAGLES.
Upon the death of GEORGE COCKBURN HALDANE on 2nd March 1799, the estate passed to his only son by his second marriage to MARGARET DRUMMOND, daughter of the 5th Viscout Strathallen. This son, GEORGE AUGUSTUS HALDANE, however, died unmarried on 26th October 1799, only months after the death of his father, the 18th of Gleneagles.
19th to 20th Century
GLENEAGLES then passed to a cousin of the COCKBURN-HALDANE'S, not to CAPTAIN THOMAS DALLAS HALDANE, grandson of the 18th of GLENEAGLES and eldest son of JANET HALDANE OF GLENEAGLES and BRIGADIER-GENERAL DALLAS. DALLAS-HALDANE had changed his surname, in all probability, in anticipation of the inheritance. He was later drowned at sea. His cousin, who received GLENEAGLES, was Adam Duncan of Camperdown, son of HELEN HALDANE, younger sister of the aforementioned MARGARET HALDANE who married CHARLES COCKBURN.
HELEN HALDANE (d. May 1777) married Alexander Duncan of Lundie and their son, Adam, succeeded to Gleneagles on the death of his cousin, George Augustus Haldane, in 1799. ADAM DUNCAN sold a great portion of the estate to pay debts and so the Gleneagles estate, once very large and prominent, fell to the small size remaining today.
The famous Admiral Adam Duncan, Viscount Duncan of Camperdown, a cousin of the eighteenth Haldane of Gleneagles inherited the lands in 1820 and his son who inherited his title in 1831 also took the surname Haldane. The Gleneagles estates returned to a Haldane, James Chinnery-Haldane in 1918 when the fourth Earl of Camperdown gave over his rights to these lands. One of his sons Broderick became a famous Portrait photographer, whilst his other son carried the chiefship until his death in 1994 when this passed to his nephew Martin.
Clan Chief
The current chief of Clan Haldane is Martin Haldane of Gleneagles.