74
RIDDELLS OF ROXBURGHSHIRE, SCOTLAND.
as domiciled at Riddell, long previous to the time they acquired it, and
mentions the date on the aisle of the old churchyard as being 1110. There
are memorials cut in the south wall, but they do not possess a sufficiently
antiquated character to represent a period so far back, though these figures
may have been re-cut in after times. There was an ancient church or
chapel on the Wester Lilliesleaf or Riddell estate, said to have stood near
an old ash-tree not far from the last gate leading from the Eastern
Lodge to the mansion-house, not far south from the old castle which stood
in the wood a little above where the old Lilliesleaf road to Selkirk passed.
At what period the ancient castle, which was probably a place of great
strength and security, was built, it would be impossible to say; but it
seems probable that the family erected it very soon after acquiring the
property in the twelfth century. It is also difficult to prove when the
present "Riddell House" superseded the old castle as a residence,
though it gives evidence of great antiquity. When the present proprietor
was preparing to enlarge the ancient house, he erected in the western side
of the old mansion, an antiquated stone with the Riddell arms on one
side of the shield, and what was supposed to be the arms of the Kerrs on
the other side, though the stars are not on a chevron according to the
regular cognizance. This stone is evidently about four hundred years
old, and represents an alliance between members of the families of Rid-
dell and Kerr, which actually occurred about that date. An arch was
discovered at the same time, that gave evidence of great antiquity,
especially the walls from their hardness, probably caused by using hot
lime, as was common in olden times. The aisle in the old church-yard,
which was not reserved when the property was sold, but which was
generously restored by the purchaser, was used as a burial-place for the
family very early, but how early there is no authority to prove. No doubt
they were buried somewhere on the estate from their first settlement,
probably at the first chapel, as bones have been dug up there in years past;
but in process of time the aisle came to be used, in fact when it was part
of the old church, which stood till 1771, the year of the erection of the
present one. The choir of the old church was just where the aisle of the
present one now stands. Whether this ancient church was the original one,
cannot be known; but it was evidently a pre-reformation one, and it was
thatched with broom, as was the custom in olden times. "It is to be
lamented," says one of the family in Scotland, "that at the sale of the fine
old place, the name of Riddell, which was given to it by the family after
themselves—a very unusual thing in the history of proprietors — had not
been changed, and a new name awarded, or the old one of Wester Lillies-
leaf restored. I have no doubt that the several distinguished branches of
the old family, whose ancestors for several centuries enjoyed an unmolested
and unbroken possession of the dear old place, find its name now a
source of melancholy and unpleasant reflection."
The widow of Sir John Riddell, the last family proprietor of Riddell,
who was born Oct. 25, 1778, died July 1, 1868, at the great age of ninety
years. She was a woman of great character, and highly respected for her
quiet manners and amiable deportment. She was descended from Sir
John Maisham, who had been called "the great Maisham of England.”
TWENTY-THIRD GENERATION.
Sir Walter-Buchanan Riddell (13), eldest son of John22 (11), suc-
ceeded to the baronetcy at the death of his father in 1819. He was born
