The Clan History

DALMAHOY, a surname derived from the barony of that name in Mid Lothian. The first on record appears to have been Henry de Dalmahoy, who lived in the reign of Alexander the Third. His name occurs in the Ragman Roll as among the Scottish barons who swore fealty to Edward the First in 1296. Richard de Dalmahoy, the third of that ilk, is particularly named in the burrow's rolls in the reign of King Robert the Second, as a free baron of Lothian. His son, Thomas de Dalmahoy, is witness in a charter from Robert duke of Albany, to Alexander Lauder of Hatton, 17th December 1408. In 1435, among the gentlemen of inquest at serving William Lord Somerville, heir to his father Thomas, first lord of that name, was Sir Alexander Dalmahoy of that ilk. A descendant of his, also Alexander Dalmahoy of that ilk, was, on 26th February 1534, one of the assize on the trial of Lord Sempill and others, for the slaughter of Cunningham of Craigends and his servant, when they were all acquitted. On July 17, 1572, Alexander Dalmahoy of that ilk was on the assize of George Wilkie, portioner of Sauchtonhall, and Robert Wilkie his son, for treasonably intercommuning with the earl of Huntly, Kirkcaldy of Grange, Sir James Balfour of Pittenreich and others, within the town of Edinburgh, after their forfeiture in 1571. On 10th July 1579, the laird of Dalmahoy, William Dalmahoy, his brother, John Dalmahoy, his uncle and five others were indicted for besieging the house of Warriston in June 1578, then in the occupation of one William Somerville, but acquitted. In the forty-third General Assembly, which met at Edinburgh in October 1581, the laird of Dalmahoy was one of the twenty-four gentlemen to whom, with six ministers, was committed the consideration of the very important question as to how the temporal rights of the bishops were to be preserved, without prejudice to the king, when the office was abolished; on which, after due deliberation, they reported an overture, that for voting in parliament, assisting in council, commissioners from the General Assembly should supply the place of bishops, and as to their civil and criminal jurisdiction, the head bailiffs should exercise the same. On the 16th June, 1582, Dalmahoy of that ilk was one of the assize on the trial of George Hume of Spott, for being concerned in the murder of Henry Lord Darnley, in February 1666, when Hume was acquitted. He was also one of the jury summoned on the trial, May 26, 1586, of Mr. Archibald Douglas, parson of Glasgow and cousin of the Regent Morton, for the same crime, but not appearing he was fined in the sum of forty pounds.
The representative of this family in the reign of James the Sixth obtained by patent the hereditary office of under master of the royal household, which was confirmed by Charles the First, and the family were, in consequence, entitled to place one baton, gules, (as the principal master was entitled to two,) powdered with thistles of gold, and ensigned on the top with an imperial crown, wherein was set the royal crest of the kingdom, erect in pale behind the middle of the escutcheon of their arms.
In 1636, Sir Alexander Dalmahoy of that ilk, had a charter under the great seal of the lands and barony of Dalmahoy. By his wife, Marion, daughter of James Nesbit of Dean, he had, with four daughters, two sons; John, his heir, and William of Revelbridge, ancestor of the Dalmahoys of Revelbridge. The eldest daughter was married to Henry Trotter of Morton Hall; the second, to Stewart of Blackhall; the third to Alexander Swinton, Lord Mersington; and the fourth, Barbara, to Sir William Scott of Clerkinton, from which marriage descended the Scotts of Maleny, and the Blairs of Blair in Ayrshire.
The elder son, John Dalmahoy of that ilk, was created a baronet by Charles the Second, by patent to him and his heirs male general, dated 2d December 1679. He married twice, and had, by his first wife, Lilias Elphinston, a daughter, married to Watson of Saughton, and two sons, Alexander and Robert. the elder son, Sir Alexander Dalmahoy, second baronet, married Alicia, daughter of John Paterson, archbishop of Glasgow, and had, besides a daughter Margaret, wife of Alexander Campbell of Kinpont, two sons, Alexander, his heir, and William, father of Alexander Dalmahoy an eminent chemist in London.
The eldest son, Sir Alexander, third baronet, left by Elizabeth Cornwall his wife, a son and successor, Sir Alexander Dalmahoy, fourth baronet, an officer in the French service, and knight of St. Louis; on whose death, the title became extinct. The estate of Dalmahoy, about the middle of the seventeenth century, was purchased by the Dalrymples, from whom it was bought, about the middle of the eighteenth century, by James earl of Morton, and it now belongs to that noble family.