BIRTH | May 22 – Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle May 22, 2018–This day in 1859 was born Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes. He was born in Edinburgh, where he grew up and studied medicine (and where I was earlier this month). Sherlock has been called the most famous fictional character of the last two centuries, along with Dracula and James Bond. This reference is from Charles McDermid in a Back Story for the NY Times to which I have been unable to link (it is part of an emailed Newsletter). Excellent Britannica biography here. His website here. Wikipedia entry, also good. Doyle is often referred to as "Conan Doyle". But he was baptized at St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh–with "Arthur Ignatius Conan" as his given names and "Doyle" as his surname. Ignatius of Loyola is the anglicized name of the founder of the Jesuit Order. Doyle's second wife was known as Jean Conan Doyle rather than Jean Doyle. Doyle's parents were both Irish Catholic, though his father was born in England. His mother was the inspiration of his life and she was a great story-teller. Alas, his father, although from a family with some fame in the art world, suffered from alcoholism and in 1864 the family dispersed to different homes in Edinburgh with some respite in 1867 as the family came together again in an inadequate tenement flat. Doyle's father suffered from mental illness later in his life and died in 1893, in Dumfries. Fortunately Doyle's talent was spotted by wealthy uncles and a lodger. He was sent away to school at nine years of age to a school that fed to the Jesuit Stonyhurst College. From there in 1875-76, he was educated at another Jesuit school, Stella Matutina in Feldkirch, Austria. He later rejected the Catholic faith and became an agnostic and mystic. In 1876-1881, Doyle studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, including periods working in different locations in England including Warwickshire and Shropshire. During that time, he studied practical botany and started writing short stories. His earliest extant fiction was "The Haunted Grange of Goresthorpe", unsuccessfully submitted to Blackwood's Magazine. His first published piece, "The Mystery of Sasassa Valley", set in South Africa, was printed in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal in 1879. The same year, he published his first academic article, on a poison. After his graduation from Edinburgh University with a Bachelor of Medicine degree in 1881, he was ship's surgeon on the SS Mayumba during a voyage to the West African coast. He completed his advanced Doctor of Medicine degree on tabes dorsalis in 1885. He set up a medical practice in Southsea in June 1882, with less than £10 (about $1,500 today) in his pocket. It was not successful, giving Doyle ample time to write fiction. He also wrote several articles denouncing anti-vaccinators. In early 1891, Doyle attempted the study of ophthalmology in Vienna, but his German wasn't up to all the medical terms and he quit. Returned to London, Doyle opened a small office and consulting room at what is now 2 Upper Wimpole Street. He never had luck with finding patients, giving him the time to develop a story featuring a man named Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson. The novel, A Study in Scarlet, initially had no luck. Then, to Doyle's initial delight, the book was accepted by Ward Lock & Co. It was 20 November 1886, and the wonderful publisher gave Doyle £25 (about $4,000 today) for all rights.  The piece appeared a year later in the Beeton's Christmas Annual and received good reviews in Edinburgh. Holmes said the character was partly based on a former university teacher. Robert Louis Stevenson, also born in Edinburgh, was able, reading the story in Samoa, to recognize that a medical school professor was the basis of the Sherlock character. A sequel was commissioned, and The Sign of the Four appeared in Lippincott's Magazine in February 1890, under agreement with the Ward Lock company. By now, Doyle started to feel exploited by his wonderful publisher and left Ward Lock, sending his stories to the Strand Magazine. Tired of his creation, Doyle tried to discourage his new publisher from demanding more work and raised his fee for new work to a level intended to send them away. Alas, the new magazine promptly accepted. He therefore became one of the best-paid authors of his era.  In December 1893, he went so far as to finish off both Holmes and his arch-enemy Professor Moriarty, sending them both over  the Reichenbach Falls to their deaths in "The Final Problem". The public was outraged. They cancelled 20,000 subscriptions to the Strand Magazine.  He was after a few years prevailed upon to revive Holmes in 1901 in the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. In 1903, Doyle came back to a Holmes short story after a ten-year lapse, with "The Adventure of the Empty House". Doyle explains that Moriarty had indeed fallen to his death, but Holmes wanted privacy and only faked his death.  Doyle eventually accumulated 56 short stories—the last published in 1927—and four novels about Holmes. Doyle was knighted for a report he wrote on the Boer War. He showed a deep interest in the supernatural and helped popularize a famous garden fairies hoax of the early 20th century. He died of a heart attack in 1930.

EDINBURGH | Visit to The Lord Lyon

Coat of Arms of The Lord Lyon King of
Arms of Scotland.

Oxford, April 29, 2018–I was in Edinburgh earlier this week and visited the offices of The Lord Lyon King of Arms of Scotland.

The office is centrally located in Edinburgh, on West Register Street. 

Unlike most other countries where the heraldry authorities are private or nonprofit and honorific, the Scottish heraldry office was made part of the government. The heraldry code has the force of law in Scotland, and The Lord Lyon can prosecute, which is rare or unique in the world (South Africa can prevent use of a coat of arms).

Approach to the National Records of Scotland,
on West Register Street. There is construction.

The portrait in the lobby of The Lord Lyon is that of past Lord Lyon Sir Malcolm Rognvald Innes of Edingight KCVO WS FSA Scot. He held the post for 20 years, 1981-2001. The current Lord Lyon is the third since 2001.

He was born on May 25 in a year ending in 8. His portrait shows him in the tabard of The Lord Lyon. He is now Orkney Herald Extraordinary.

I had contacted The Lord Lyon's office to ask about the possibility that the stars in the Stars and Stripes were inspired, directly or indirectly, by the mullets in the Douglas or Murray (Moray) coats of arms.

Elizabeth Roads, Snawdoun Herald and Lyon Clerk at the Court of the Lord Lyon kindly responded to my query, wondering how I would associate with Scotland the Washington family, which prior to the emigration of two sons of Lawrence Washington lived in Sulgrave Manor, Northampton, way down south, not far from Oxford.

The National Records of Scotland.

I responded that the family originally lived in Washington on the River Wear, then part of the Palatine Principality and See of Durham, near Scotland. 

Before George Washington's ancestors were called Washington, they were Wessyngton, and before that Hertburn, after the places they resided, near what became the city of Newcastle. 

George Washington's Ancestors

The Ur-Washington was Sir William fitz Patrick de Hertburn, eldest son of Sir Patrick fitz Dolfin Raby and grandson of Dolfin fitz Uchtred. 

Sir Patrick fitz Dolfin Raby was born before 1136 at Hertburn, a younger son of Dolfin fitz Uchtred. Upon his marriage to Cecily de Offerton, he became known as Sir Patrick de Offerton and Le Hirsel. The Le Hirsel land lies on the north bank of the River Tweed two miles NW of Coldstream. He died c. 1190.

Sir William fitz Patrick de Hertburn was born c. 1150 in Hertburn, near Stockton-on-Tees (about halfway between Newcastle and York). He married twice, gaining Stockton lands with his first marriage and gaining royal relatives with his second marriage to Marjory (Margaret) de Huntingdon, Countess of Richmond. Sir William and Countess Margaret were close in age, although this was her third marriage.

Margaret's brothers were William the Lion, King of Scotland, and Malcolm IV, the Maiden King of Scotland. Her father was Henry, Earl of Northumberland and Huntingdon, and her paternal grandfather was David I, King of Scotland and saint. Her youngest brother, David Earl of Huntingdon, was ancestor of the de Bruce and Balliol families. Countess Margaret's four times great-grandparents were Beatrix, Queen of Scotland and Crinan the Thane. 

So Hertburn acquired new lands and noble connections  with his new bride. He assumed tenancy of the Wessyngton  lands from the Prince Bishop of Durham at a cost of four pounds per year. He had received the Wessyngton property in trade for his Stockton lands – a good move, since he was already heir to the lands at Offerton, just across the River Wear from Washington. Given his huge step up in status, Hertburn took on the name William de Wessyngton in 1183. He died c. 1190.

Sources for the above include: 1. Audrey Fletcher, Posting as Washington Lass 
2. Archaeology Data Service, UK, 1960 


Comments:

• Today The Hirsel is the seat of the Earls of Home, and the 14th Earl, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, was British Prime Minister in 1963-1964 when I was a student at Oxford – he contributed an article to a magazine I edited, Oxford Tory. I served as General Agent of the Oxford University Conservative Association when Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, now Baron Selkirk of Douglas, was President.
• George Washington's hero was General William Braddock of the Coldstream Guards. Together they attacked Fort Duquesne, which was renamed Pittsburgh, after Pitt the Elder, who was the patron of the war against the French in North America. Braddock gave Col. Washington his sash and Washington is shown wearing it in several portraits.

Visit to the office of The Lord Lyon in Edinburgh. L to R: (1) Snawdoun Herald and Lyon Clerk, Elizabeth Roads. (2) Portrait of Immediate past Lord Lyon, Sir Malcolm Rognvald Innes of Edingight KCVO WS FSA Scot, with a magnificent estoile above. (3) Your blogger with what seems to be a tiny coronet in chief.

Visit to The Lord Lyon

Snawdoun Herald again was kind enough to respond and wondered why a family so well-connected by marriage would wish to connect to the humbler (at the time) Douglas arms.

My answer is that the Washington coat of arms was not created until after the Battle of Crécy, by which time the Douglas family was ennobled and well established.

At this point there are so many clues and question marks that I am pausing in my quest. A good time to visit Snawdoun Herald and the office of The Lord Lyon!

Also see: My Visit to the College of Arms in London