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{{Short description|Scottish nobleman who persecuted Presbyterians in the 17th century}}
{{more citations needed|date=February 2017}}
{{Infobox peer
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|image = File:Old Dunscore Kirk and graveyard - Cruel Lag memorial.JPG|
|image_size = 200px
|caption = Cruel Lag's
|birth_date = 1657
|birth_place = Barquhar, Lochrutton parish, [[Kirkcudbrightshire]]
|death_date = {{death date and age|1733|12|29
|death_place = [[Dumfries]]
|resting_place = [[Dunscore Old Kirk]]
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|other_names = Cruel Lag, Auld Lag
|occupation = Justice of the Peace, Member of Parliament
|title = 1st Baronet, of Lag and [[Rockhall Tower|Rockhall]]
|alma_mater =
|party =
|spouse = Lady Henrietta Douglas
|children = [[Sir William Grierson, 2nd Baronet]], 8 others▼
|parents = William Grierson, Margaret Douglas
}}
'''Sir Robert Grierson, 1st Baronet'''
He is best remembered as a notorious persecutor of the [[Covenanters]], particularly among the people of [[Galloway]], and is still referred to
The character of Sir Robert Redgauntlet of "Wandering Willie's Tale" in [[Walter Scott|Sir Walter Scott's]] ''[[Redgauntlet]]'' is based on Grierson.
==Personal life==
Robert Grierson was born in 1655 at the farm of Barquhar, in Dumfries, Scotland.<ref>{{Citation |title=Ward, Sir Leslie (1851–1922) |date=7 February 2018 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.013.36735 |work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |pages=538 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.013.36735 |access-date=18 April 2022}}</ref> His parents were William Grierson (1626–1666), laird of Barquhar, [[Kirkcudbright]], Scotland, the 1st Tutor of Lag, and his wife, Margaret Douglas (b. 1633). His maternal grandfather was Sir James Douglas, of [[Mouswald]], [[Dumfriesshire]].
[[File:Garryhorn Farm - geograph.org.uk - 1084987.jpg|thumb|left|The farm of Garryhorn in [[Carsphairn]] 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 [[conventicle]]s.]]▼
The Griersons claimed descent from Malcolm MacGregor of [[Glen Orchy|Glenorchy. MacGregor]] was supposedly a key ally of [[Robert the Bruce]], resulting in claims that [[Henry II Sinclair, Earl of Orkney]], granted him the lands of Lag in Dumfriesshire in 1408.<ref name="dnb">Henderson, [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Grierson,_Robert_(DNB00) Grierson, Robert], Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 23</ref> 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.
Between the 1660s and 1680s the Stuart king [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] acted to suppress dissent among the militant [[Presbyterians]] of Galloway, who refused to conform to the king's authority and in several cases broke out into armed rebellion. The local [[heritor]]s were charged with enforcing this policy, and Lag, a Stuart loyalist and [[Scottish Episcopal Church|Episcopalian]], 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''".<ref name=dnb/> He subsequently assisted [[John Graham of Claverhouse]] 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 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.<ref name=dnb/> Most traditions make Grierson the presiding officer at the court that condemned the "[[Wigtown Martyrs]]", [[Margaret Wilson (Scottish martyr)|Margaret Wilson]] and Margaret McLachlan, in May 1685. ''A Cloud of Witnesses'', 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 [[Tongland]] Parish in February 1685, and David Halliday and George Short in [[Twynholm]] later in the year.▼
In 1666, Robert Grierson succeeded his cousin as laird of Lag and he acted as Steward of [[Kirkcudbright]] for a number of years.
On 21 September 1676, he married Henrietta Douglas (1657- 15 April 1736), daughter of Sir [[James Douglas, 2nd Earl of Queensberry]], and Lady Margaret Stewart, at Drumlanrig Castle<ref>{{Cite web |title=Adventures Await |url=https://www.drumlanrigcastle.co.uk/ |access-date=18 April 2022 |website=Drumlanrig Castle |language=en-GB}}</ref> in Dumfrieshire, Scotland.
Lady Henrietta's maternal grandparents were Sir [[John Stewart, 1st Earl of Traquair|John Stewart]], 1st Earl of Traquair, and Catharina Carnegie.
Robert and Henrietta had five children: William, James, John, Gilbert and Henrietta.<ref name=odnb>T. F. Henderson, Stuart W. McDonald (2004). [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/11577 Grierson, Sir Robert, first baronet (1655/6–1733)]. ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. {{doi|10.1093/ref:odnb/11577}} {{subscription required}}.</ref>
== Politics ==
Grierson sat as a Member of [[Parliament of Scotland|Parliament]] for [[Dumfriesshire (Parliament of Scotland constituency)|Dumfriesshire]] between 1678 and 1686.
▲[[File:Garryhorn Farm - geograph.org.uk - 1084987.jpg|thumb
▲Between the 1660s and 1680s the Stuart king [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] acted to suppress dissent among the militant [[Presbyterians]] of Galloway, who refused to conform to the king's authority and in several cases broke out into armed rebellion. The local [[heritor]]s were charged with enforcing this policy, and Lag, a Stuart loyalist and [[Scottish Episcopal Church|Episcopalian]], 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 "
In 1685, after the accession of King [[James II of England|James II and VII]], Grierson was created a Baronet, of Lag, in the [[Baronetage of Nova Scotia]], and awarded a pension.
Subsequent to the 1688 [[Glorious Revolution]], 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 [[William III of England|William III]], he remained under suspicion as a potential [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]] rebel and was imprisoned again several times during the 1690s.<ref name=dnb/> In 1696 he was charged with being involved with the coining of false money at his mansion, [[Rockhall Tower]], but it was eventually discovered that the house was merely being used for experiments in stamping [[linen]] with decorative patterns.<ref name=dnb/> 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
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 in the 1715 rebellion. It was noted that father and son had been "
==Death and posthumous legends==
[[File:View of the Lord of Lag's Tomb.JPG|thumb|right|Laird of Lag's Tomb, near Farthingwell]]
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 "
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 against the Stuart monarchy to achieve religious freedom.<ref>cf. e.g. Dane Love, "Scottish Covenanter Stories: Tales from the Killing Times",(Castle Douglas: Neil Wilson Publishing, 2000), ch.28, [Kindle DX version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com</ref> A satirical [[chapbook]] poem known as
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 commemorate Lag's deeds yearly in November by getting someone to dress as the "Laird of Lag", a "
==Arms==
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|escutcheon = Gules on a fess Or between three quadrangular locks (or fetterlocks) Argent a mullet Azure.
|crest = A lock as in the arms.
|motto = Hoc Securior
==References==
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[[Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia]]
[[Category:Members of the Convention of the Estates of Scotland 1678]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of Scotland
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of Scotland
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