Sir Robert Rutherfurd (31 May 1719 – 13 February 1794) was a Scottish merchant who was made a Baron of the Russian Empire.
Early life
editRutherfurd was born on 31 May 1719. He was the fourth son of Sir John Rutherfurd of Rutherfurd and Edgerston, and his first wife, Elizabeth Cairncross, who married in 1710.[1] His father was the head of an old Roxburgh family.[2] Among his eighteen siblings were John Rutherfurd, MP for Roxburghshire, and Walter Rutherfurd, who moved to America and became a prominent merchant.[3]
His paternal grandparents were Thomas Rutherfurd of Teviotdale and Susannah (née Riddell) Rutherfurd,[1] and he was eleventh in descent from James Rutherfurd of Clan Rutherford, who was granted the manorial lands of Edgerston in 1492 by King James IV of Scotland.[4] His maternal grandfather was William Cairncross of West Langlee, Roxburghshire.[2]
Career
editRutherfurd was a merchant and lived in Italy for 40 years before returning to Scotland in 1777. While in Italy, he was the Russian agent at Livorno and Tuscany,[5] and had reportedly "made himself useful to Russia during her war with the Turks in 1770."[6]
He was created a Baron of Russia by Catherine the Great in 1768 and was presented by the Empress with a gold enameled box richly set with diamonds.[3]
Personal life
editRutherfurd bought back the family estate, Fairnington, in 1779.[3] The property had first been acquired by the Rutherfurds in 1647 from Francis Scott, 2nd Earl of Buccleuch.[6] On the estate, he built an octagonal summerhouse and observatory with piended roof surmounted by iron finial known as "Baron´s Folly" or "Down Law".[7]
Upon his death in 1794 without issue, he left his estate to his nephew, John Rutherfurd, an MP for Roxburghshire who married Mary Ann Leslie (the only child of Maj.-Gen. Alexander Leslie and a granddaughter of Alexander Leslie, 5th Earl of Leven).[8] On John's death without issue in 1834, the estate passed to Charles Rutherfurd, son of Maj. John Rutherfurd of Mossburnford (the son of Sir Robert's brother Thomas Rutherford). It later passed to Charles' brother Thomas.[6]
References
edit- ^ a b Browning, Charles Henry (1883). Americans of Royal Descent. Porter & Costes. p. 220. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
- ^ a b "RUTHERFURD, John (1712-58), of Edgerston, Roxburgh". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- ^ a b c Greene, Katherine Glass (2002). Winchester, Virginia And Its Beginnings, 1743-1814. Heritage Books. p. 371. ISBN 9780788420627. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
- ^ Morrison, George Austin (1906). History of Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York, 1756-1906. New York: Saint Andrew's Society of the State of NY. Retrieved 26 July 2019.
- ^ Rutherford, Anna Clay Zimmerman (1986). Genealogical History of the Rutherford Family. W.K. Rutherford. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
- ^ a b c Tancred, George (1899). The Annals of a Border Club (the Jedforest): And Biographical Notices of the Families Connected Therewith. T.S. Smail. p. 390. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
- ^ "Down Law, Baron's Folly". canmore.org.uk. Canmore. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
- ^ "RUTHERFURD, John (?1748-1834), of Edgerstone, Roxburgh". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 26 October 2022.