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The Wee Lairds of Balgrochan

Robert Turner (b. 1851, d. 1911) was a Scotsman who immigrated to Iowa and lived in Des Moines. He bought the Iowa Boiler Works from his uncle, William Turner, my great great grandfather. The history of Des Moines, published by S. J. Clarke Publishing Company of Chicago in 1911 includes his biography in volume 2, page 1129. The interesting biography states that "He was born at Burnt Island, in Fifeshire, Scotland ... a son of Robert and Margaret (White) Turner." Then it gets very interesting. "The father was the seventh generation bearing that name and was born in 1816 upon the farm in Fifeshire which had been presented to the first Robert Turner by the Duke of Bucclench for valor in the early wars of the Highland." Now I love local history and genealogy and a good mystery so I set out to sort through this and determine how much of this was true. The biography provided a lot of detail with names, places, and dates, that I didn't include here. They provided a basis for my research.

Robert, the subject of this article, was born in Burnt Island. But his father was not - he was born in Balgrochan, Campsie, Scotland. In fact, his father was the fourth in a descent of Robert Turners born at Balgrochan, the furthest back born in 1711 to William Turnor. Then the records run out. There was definitely a trend of sons being named Robert after their fathers. So seven generations of Robert Turners is plausible.

So the farm they lived on was Balgrochan, and it wasn't in Fifeshire, but instead west of there in Stirlingshire. But it had been in the family for years, even centuries. It turns out, they did own the land, which was quite unusual for that early period of Scotland. A book entitled, "The parish of Campsie" by John Cameron, published in 1892, and reprinted by Google, devotes a chapter to "The Eleven Ploughs of Balgrochan". Even though the book is written in English, the old Scottish terms and concepts make it hard for me to interpret. But in short, in 1630, Richard Turner became one of the Eleven Wee Lairds of Balgrochan when the Earl James Graham (Marquis of Montrose) "sold" a share of Balgrochan to him. To be more precise, the monarchy owned everything. The monarchy had granted Earl Graham (or his ancestors) Balgrochan, in exchange for various payments and services. Graham, in turn granted the eleven plots of land (ploughs), each around 100 acres, to the new lords of Balgrochan, including Richard Turner. Their primary service to Earl Graham was giving him money, which he needed badly after his army was defeated. But they "owned" the land as much as anybody could in Scotland. They were lords (lairds) of the land, but it wasn't much, so they became known as the "wee lairds".

So, there was quite a bit of truth to the biography.

Interestingly, Turner's land was called the "Temple of Balgrochan". There are several sites in Scotland with the name Temple, and they are thought to refer to past temples of the Knights Templar. Another mystery.

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