| Clan Sandilands | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Motto | Spero Meliora (I Hope for Better Things)[1] | ||
| Chief | |||
 | |||
| The Right Honourable James Andrew Douglas Sandilands | |||
| 15thLord Torphichen[1] | |||
| |||
Clan Sandilands is aScottish clan.[2] It is also considered asept of the largerClan Douglas.
The name Sandilands comes from lands by that name inClydesdale.[2] The family may have originally fled toScotland fromNorthumberland in the reign ofMalcolm III of Scotland.[2]
During theWars of Scottish Independence, Sir James de Sandilands distinguished himself in the wars against the English.[2] For his services he was rewarded with a royal charter to his lands byDavid II of Scotland.[2] He married Eleanor, the only daughter ofSir Archibald Douglas, Regent of Scotland.[2] James Sandilands received from his brother-in-law,William IV, Lord of Douglas the lands ofCalder inLothian.[2] In 1333 Sir James Sandilands was killed at theBattle of Halidon Hill.[2]
Sir James Sandilands' son also called James was one of the hostages sent toEngland forJames I of Scotland.[2] James Sandilands was only returned toScotland two years before his death.[2] He was the presumptive heir to the Douglas estates and should have inherited them on the death of theJames Douglas, 2nd Earl of Douglas.[2] However the estates went instead to George Douglas,Earl of Angus, Douglas's natural son.[2]
James Sandilands was succeeded by his son, John Sandilands.[2] The Clan Sandilands found themselves in opposition to theClan Douglas faction and were unshakeable in their loyalty toJames II of Scotland.[2] John Sandilands and his uncle were assassinated by Patrick Thornton upon the orders of the Douglas faction.[2] The Sandilands estates were then inherited by James Sandilands who married an heiress, Margaret Kinloch of Cruvie, and one of their sons, James Sandilands of Cruvie, established a branch of the clan that would later become theLords Abercrombie.[2]
Sir James Sandilands of Calder was a friend of the Protestant reformer,John Knox.[2] He was also preceptor of the powerful religious and military Order of theKnights of St John, whose headquarters were at thePriory of Torphichen inWest Lothian.[2]
When the Order was suppressed, he managed to obtain a grant of much of its lands on payment to the Crown of ten thousand crowns in gold and an annual rent of five hundred merks.[2] Previously, the preceptors had sat as peers in Parliament under the title of ‘Lord St. John of Torphichen’, an interesting case of a title belonging to an office and not hereditary in any one family.[2] Sir James kept his seat in Parliament, being createdLord Torphichen.[2] He died without issue, and the new title devolved on James, the grandson of his elder brother, who succeeded as second Lord Torphichen.[2]
The first Lord’s half-brother,Sir James Sandilands of Slamannan, was a Gentleman of the Bedchamber toJames VI of Scotland and later keeper ofBlackness Castle.[2] The second Lord had four sons.[2] John, the fourth Lord, although a supporter ofCharles I of England strongly advised against the plan known as the Engagement.[2] TheEngagers sought to invade England in 1648 to rescue the king, in return for certain conditions, after he had been handed over to Parliament by the Scots army.[2] However the plan ended in disaster.[2]
James Sandilands, 7th Lord Torphichen supported theTreaty of Union and took his seat in Parliament in 1704.[2] He served in the army on the Continent and returned to Scotland during theJacobite rising of 1715, in which he fought on the side of the British government at theBattle of Sheriffmuir.[2] He was appointed byGeorge I of Great Britain as one of the Commissioners of Police in 1722.[2]
James Sandiland's eldest son was wounded during the campaigns of theJacobite rising of 1745 fighting against the forces of the Jacobite,Charles Edward Stewart, theYoung Pretender.[2] Sandilands later died of consumption.[2] His second son was Walter Sandilands who had embarked upon a career in the law, succeeded to the title while sheriff of Midlothian.[2] The sheriff’s son, James Sandilands, was a colonel in theColdstream Guards and was elected a representative peer to theHouse of Lords from 1790 to 1800.[2] He was succeeded by his first cousin, another James, and it is from this James whom the present Lord Torphichen, who still lives at Calder, is lineally descended.[2]
The tartan associated with Sandilands is the Douglas tartan.
