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THE DUNBARS OF NORTHFIELD AND BOWERMADDEN

The estate of Northfield is in the parish of Wick.
The estate of Bowermadden is in the parish of Bower.

I. ROBERT DUNBAR OF MYRELAND, AND OF NORTHFIELD, BOWERMADDEN, AND LISTER, was second son of John Dunbar of Hempriggs and of Latheronwheel. Having succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his elder brother, Sir William of Hempriggs, he was styled Sir Robert of Northfield. In the Rebellion of 1715 he appeared with a party at the Cross of Wick, and drank the Chevalier's health.

He seems to have been twice married. In 1675 he married Mary, daughter of Patrick Sinclair of Ulbster. In 1708 he acquired Myreland and Quintfall from Lord Glenorchy; and about the same period Bowermadden and Belster were acquired by his son, Patrick. He died in 1742, and had four sons, and two, if not three, daughters: -

  1. Patrick, his successor, who was the last-named substitute in the entail of Hempriggs, executed by Sir William Dunbar, his uncle
  2. William
  3. James
  4. David
These three younger sons are named in the Ulbster entail, and were doubtless of their father's marriage to Ulbster's daughter. They are all supposed to have died young.

  1. Marjory, who married David Sinclair of Southdun
  2. A daughter, --, who married George Manson of Bridgend
In certain judicial proceedings in 1781 between Miss Katharine Sinclair of Southdun and George Manson Sinclair of Bridgend, it is stated, in reference to Miss Sinclair's father, David, and Bridgend's grandfather, George Manson, that a friendship which had existed from near neighbourhood came to be a closer connection "by intermarriages of two daughters of Sir Robert Dunbar". It is inferred that David Sinclair and George Manson each married one of Sir Robert's daughters, and of these, Marjory was the second wife of David Sinclair. The name of the other has not been ascertained, and reference is made to the notes on the Bridgend family for particulars regarding George Manson's marriages.

Sir Robert seems to have had a third daughter, for in "Fasti Eccles. Scot.", David Dunbar, minister of Olrig from 1735 to 1762, third son of John Dunbar of Kinsorth, married Mary Dunbar, who died in 1780, and their only son died in minority.

II. SIR PATRICK DUNBAR OF NORTHFIELD, BOWERMADDEN, AND LISTER, was twice married, first, in 1697, to Katharine, youngest daughter of William Sinclair of Dunbeath, by whom he had two sons, Robert and William. In 1708, William, in a disposition to the lands of Lister, in which his father was liferenter, and he was fiar, he is designed as "eldest son", and in 1758 his father was served heir in special to him ; and, secondly, in 1722, to Katharine, daughter of Joseph Brodie of Milntown, Morayshire, by whom he had two sons and three daughters: -

  1. John, born in 1727, who married his cousin, Marjory, daughter of David Sinclair of Southdun, and died without issue
  2. Patrick: born in 1733, died young
  1. Elizabeth, who succeeded her father
  2. Anne
  3. Henrietta, who died unmarried
III. ELIZABETH DUNBAR OF NORTHFIELD AND BOWERMADDEN, married James Sinclair of Durran, and had issue.

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