| Bethune of Balfour | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Motto | Debonnaire (Of good lineage) |
| Profile | |
| Region | Lowlands |
| District | Fife andAngus |
 | |
| Bethune of Balfour no longer has a chief, and is anarmigerous clan | |
| Historic seat | Balfour inMarkinch, Fife |
| Last Chief | Charles Congalton Bethune (1849-1923), 25th of Balfour |
Bethune of Balfour is an ancientScottish family who from about 1375 to 1888 werelairds of Balfour inFife, an estate in theLowlands parish ofMarkinch. Originating before the year 1000 in the town ofBéthune, then in thecounty of Flanders, over the centuries the pronunciation of the family name shifted from the original Frenchbay-tune to the Scotsbee-t'n, usually written Beaton. From about 1560, members of the family started using the French spelling again.
Bethune families originating in theScottish Highlands andScottish Islands are entirely separate lines.
In Flanders before the year 1000, towns with their castles were under the command of hereditary ruling families. One such family were theseigneurs ofBéthune in the province ofArtois, the first known being Robert I de Béthune, who lived from about 960 to 1037. In addition to ruling the town and castle of Béthune, where he founded the church of Saint-Barthélémy, he held ancestral lands outside the town and was hereditaryadvocatus or protector of theAbbey of Saint-Vaast inArras. While the main branch remained in Béthune until 1246, when the heiressMaud marriedGuy, Count of Flanders, junior branches acquired lands and raised families elsewhere in France as well as in Palestine, Cyprus, England, and Scotland.[1][2][3]
According to BishopJohn Leslie, there were members of the Bethune family in Scotland before 1093.[4] However the first surviving evidence is a century later, when around 1192 a charter ofLindores Abbey[5] mentions Robert de Bethune, probably Robert VI (died 1193) of the Artois family. Before 1210 the cartulary ofArbroath Abbey records a cleric John de Bethune. Around 1220 Robert de Bethune is mentioned in connection withSt Andrews Cathedral Priory and Sir David de Bethune, a knight, in another Arbroath document. From then on the names of clerics and knights called Bethune occur increasingly in Scottish records, mainly in the counties ofAngus, particularly at Ethiebeaton in the parish ofMonifieth and at Westhall in the parish ofMurroes, and also inFife, but it is not possible to link the scattered references into a coherent family tree. For that one has to wait until the knight Sir Alexander de Bethune who, according toHector Boece, in 1314 sat in theParliament of Scotland held atCambuskenneth and in 1332 died fighting for the Bruce legitimists against the Balliol rebels atDupplin Moor.[6] Tradition makes him the father of Robert, who in about 1345 married Janet, the heiress of Balfour. Their home was the castle of Balfour beside the RiverLeven, just south ofMilton of Balgonie.[7]
An alternative origin for the Bethunes of Balfour family was mentioned in the funeral oration delivered forArchbishop James Bethune in 1603, where their descent is traced from a member of the French family who went to Scotland around 1449 and married the heiress of Balfour.[8][1] The man in question is named as Jacques de Béthune, also known as Jacotin, whose father Jean died atAgincourt in 1415. No Scottish records bear out this assertion.
From the marriage of Robert Bethune to Janet Balfour, the castle and lands of Balfour descended in the male line until James Bethune, 15th of Balfour, who died as an exiledJacobite rebel in France in 1719.[9] Descent through females brought Balfour in 1836 to Eleanor, wife ofJohn Drinkwater, who both changed their last names to Bethune.[7] Their grandson, elder brother of GeneralEdward Cecil Bethune, sold Balfour in 1888 and it has since been demolished.
Over the 500 years that the family held Balfour, various junior branches sprang up and some are still extant.
Descended fromDavid Bethune, 1st of Creich (died 1505),Treasurer of Scotland, son of John Bethune, 5th of Balfour, but the male line ended with William Bethune, 9th of Creich (died 1670).[9]
Descended from James Bethune, 1st of Balfarg (died 1546), son of John Bethune, 6th of Balfour, and ending with his unmarried sonsJames Bethune, Archbishop of Glasgow,Andrew Bethune, and John Bethune, the latter two both serving as Master of the Royal Household forMary, Queen of Scots.[9]
Descended from CardinalDavid Bethune (died 1549), who had eight illegitimate children withMarion Ogilvy,[9] and their many living descendants include QueenElizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
Claiming descent from James Bethune, 6th of Creich (died 1618).[10]
Originating with Alexander Bethune, 1st of Langhermiston (died after 1641), son of Robert Bethune, 10th of Balfour, but ended with his son Alexander Bethune, 2nd of Langhermiston (died 1672).[9]
Beginning with Andrew Bethune, 1st of Blebo (died 1653), son of David Bethune, 11th of Balfour, and ending with Margaret Bethune whose relationship withSir William Sharp, 6th Baronet led to the subsequentBethune baronets, extinct in 1997 on the death ofSir Alexander Bethune, 10th Baronet.[9]
Originating with Robert Bethune, 1st of Bandon (died 1660), son of David Bethune, 11th of Balfour, and ending with the childless Ann Bethune (died 1785).[9][11]
Descending from William Bethune, 1st of Craigfoodie (died 1699), grandson of David Bethune, 11th of Balfour, whose eldest surviving son,John Bethune, 2nd of Craigfoodie, settled in England.[12] and whose male line continues.[13][14]
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Descended from James Bethune, 4th of Blebo (died 1709).
Descended from Catherine Bethune (died 1730), grand-daughter of David Bethune, 11th of Balfour (died 1635), and currently represented byJames Lindesay-Bethune, 16th Earl of Lindsay.[17]
Originally, the arms of the seigneurs of Béthune were those of the town they ruled, that isArgent, afessegules. When they became Advocati of the Abbey of Saint-Vaast, they adopted new arms suitable to their higher status, which wereBendsor, on afieldazure. After the marriage ofGuillaume II, seigneur de Béthune to the heiressMahaut de Dendermonde about 1190, at her request their eldest son changed his arms to those of her Dendermonde family. As it happened, these arms were the same as the old arms of Béthune,Argent, a fesse gules.[1][3]
When knights of the Bethune family started affixing their seals to documents in Scotland, they used the same fesse as their relations in France. Examples are Sir David de Bethune in 1286 and Sir Andrew de Bethune in 1292. Through marriage with the Balfour heiress, the Scottish family altered their arms toAzure, a fesse between threemascles or and this shield was then quartered with that of Balfour to produce the arms used by the Bethunes of Balfour from about 1350 to 1672. By a law that year, all Scottish arms had either to be matriculated by theCourt of the Lord Lyon or forfeited. Lyon then changed the ancient Bethune shield slightly toAzure, a fesse between threelozenges or. However, when Eleanor Bethune of Balfour matriculated her arms in 1837, Lyon changed them back to the originalAzure, a fesse between three mascles or. Her descendants have not since matriculated the arms.[18][7]
Junior branches of the Fife Bethunes used the family arms with slight variations, three sets being matriculated in 1672: Bethune of Bandon, Bethune of Blebo, and Bethune of Langhermiston who died out in the male line almost immediately. The arms of Bethune of Blebo descended to the Bethune Baronets, who have also died out in the male line, while the arms of Bethune of Bandon descended to the Bethunes of Craigfoodie, Rowfant, and Denne, who continue in the male line but have not matriculated the arms.[18]
In 1778 a book by the Reverend Thomas Whyte, minister ofLiberton, claimed that many families in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland called Bethune or Beaton originate with a Peter Bethune, said to be descended from the Bethunes of Balfour.[19] Nobody has yet produced any evidence for this link, which remains unproven and was almost certainly mistaken. Many of the people covered in his work were members of theBeaton medical kindred, an unrelated Scottish family commonly confused with the Bethunes of Balfour.
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