Members of the Balfour family have been resident in Westray from 1560 until 1959 when the last of the name died. The first of the family, Gilbert, was a younger son of Andrew Balfour of Munquhanny (Fife) and his wife, Janet, a daughter of Sir Alexander Bruce of Earlshall. From all accounts this Gilbert seems to have been one of those rare personalities who need the ever-present thrill of danger to sustain them through life.

In 1546 he, along with two of his brothers, was implicated in the murder of Cardinal Beaton. Afterwards they underwent the siege of St. Andrew's Castle and upon its surrender were sentenced to a period at the oar of a French galley. It is interesting to note that their chaplain and partner in crime, John Knox, later described the three Balfours as "men without God" who had "neither fear of God nor love of virtue further than their present commodity persuaded them".

Sir Gilbert, as he later became, married Margaret Bothwell, a daughter of Francis Bothwell and his wife Catherine Ballendine, and sister of Adam Bothwell (1536 - 1593) who became Bishop of Orkney in October 1559. Incidentally this Catherine was great-aunt of the first Ballendine of Stenness. In 1560 Gilbert obtained a feu of the following lands in Westray from his brother-in-law the Bishop. They were Kirbister, Noltland, Bakka, Fribo, Garth, Clett, Uea, Rackwick, Aikerness, and Mabak. Also included were Papa Westray, Pharay and some land in Stronsay. It must have been about this time he started building Noltland Castle. It is probable that Gilbert also obtained lands in Birsay as he is designed "of Birsay" on 11 October 1560 when he, along with his two younger brothers George and John, were present at the granting of sasine to Duncan Scollay and his wife. During the following year Gilbert and John were again on record. In 1566 John was Sheriff Deputy of Orkney.

Sir Gilbert probably resided more at the Court in Edinburgh than on his Orkney estates for the next we hear of him he had been honoured by the post of Master of the Household of Mary Queen of Scots. When the Queen's unfortunate husband Henry, Lord Darnley, was murdered early in February 1567, Gilbert was reputed to have played a prominent part. Later in the same year he returned to Orkney where he appears as Sheriff of Orkney and Governor of Kirkwall Castle. He was noted for his quarrels with his brother-in-law the Bishop, and his refusal to admit the refugee Earl of Bothwell, husband of the Queen, to the safety of Kirkwall Castle.

Noltland Castle

Lord Robert Stewart, afterwards Earl of Orkney, succeeded in 1568 in compelling Bishop Bothwell to give up his bishopric estates in exchange for the abbacy of Holyrood in Edinburgh. A little later his greedy eye must have fallen on the Balfour estate for the Parliament of 20 August 1571 found Sir Gilbert Balfour guilty of treason and his estates were forfeited. Two months later Gilbert was in command of a hundred men of the Queen's party in Edinburgh. In November 1571 he was in charge of an attempt to capture Inchkeith and in April 1572, at the head of twenty harquebusiers, he surprised Blackness Castle and held it on behalf of his ill-fated sovereign. Meantime, back in Orkney the privy council ordered Lord Robert Stewart to hand over the Castle of Noltland [1] to its rightful owner who by this time must have been relaxed from his forfeiture.

When Sir Gilbert's schemes finally collapsed with the defeat of his Royal mistress, he fled abroad to Sweden and entered the army. Here again his old love of intrigue and danger rose to the surface. He became involved in a plot against the King, was discovered, and paid with his life in August 1576. He was probably about 53 years of age. His only son Archibald was, by this time, dead and his Orkney estates passed to his nephew, Michael.

Sir Michael Balfour outlived his father, Michael, and in 1592 succeeded his grandfather to the estate of Munquhanny in Fife. He was a descendant of King Robert the Bruce through his mother Janet Boswell of Balmuto. His wife was Mariota Adamson, daughter of Patrick, Archbishop of St. Andrews. Sir Michael does not seem to have been any more popular than his uncle for on 23 December 1597 we read of a complaint against him and his sons by the leading isles folk. His sons were Sir Andrew Balfour of Strather and Munquhanny who married Mary Melville of Halhill in 1589, and d.s.p., and Michael Balfour of Garth in Westray.

In 1593 Michael married Margaret, daughter of Malcolm Sinclair of Quendale in Shetland. About this time George Sinclair, a younger son of the Laird of Quendale, obtained the estate of Bu of Rapness in Westray. No doubt Margaret came over with her brother, perhaps as a housekeeper before his marriage, and thus met her future husband. Malcolm Sinclair entertained the shipwrecked sailors of the "El Gran Grifon", one of the flagships of the Spanish Armada which was wrecked on the Fair Isle in 1588, before they were transported abroad. He must have spoken about this often to his family and George Sinclair may have been old enough to have remembered his father's unexpected and unusual guests.

Feet washed in wine

On 8 June 1627, Michael Balfour of Garth was sworn in as a commissioner to report on Westray. In 1635, he is designed "of Noltland". Michael and Margaret had two children [2], Patrick of Pharay and Ursilla. Ursilla married James Fea, younger (and later 3rd) of Clestrain. Her marriage contract is dated 17 June 1632. According to the custom of the time, on the evening of the contract being signed Ursilla Balfour's feet were washed in a tub of wine. Later it was discovered that the servants had drunk the lot, not for the love of the liquor, they said, but for the love of the lady whose feet had been washed in it! Obviously the Westray men were as keen for a dram three hundred years ago as they are now.

Michael Balfour invited most of the Orkney gentry to his daughter's wedding [3]. The feasting began on Martinmas Day, 1632. Unfortunately, the winter storms came and for three months it was impossible for any boat to leave or approach the island. One by one the cattle and sheep had to be sacrificed to feed the storm-bound guests, until almost every animal had been slaughtered. One can picture the relief, when at last the rough seas calmed sufficiently to allow the boats to depart, and the Balfour family were left in peace once more. Tradition tells us that this prolonged wedding feast caused Michael some financial difficulties and he was forced to sell some land.

Patrick Balfour was already married at the time of his sister's wedding. For a spouse he chose Barbara Moodie, a daughter of Francis Moodie of Breckness and his first wife Margaret Stewart of Graemsay. He was resident in Noltland Castle at the time his sister's marriage contract was signed. It as possible that Patrick and Barbara entertained the Marquis of Montrose when he visited Orkney trying to recruit troops for his army. Certainly they were staunch Royalists and in 1650 they gave refuge to some of Montrose's officers after his final defeat at Carbisdale. The local Covenanting leaders under Captain John Pollock attacked the castle and captured it without much difficulty. The fugitives were made prisoner and the castle was reputedly set on fire. In December 1659 Patrick was a witness at the baptism of Patrick, his brother-in-law Francis Moodie's eldest son.

French vessel

In 1664 he died, leaving four sons and two daughters[4]. His children were:

(1) George Balfour of Pharay who was the last Balfour to live in Noltland Castle. In 1654 he married Marjorie Baikie of Tankerness and after her death in 1678 he married Mary McKenzie, second daughter of Murdoch, Bishop of Orkney. A strange vessel believed to be French came ashore on 1 June 1691. Four days later George Balfour of Pharay along with George Traill of Holland, Papa Westray and their servants, sailed the ship to Kirkwall. She was still lying there three weeks later while the Counsel of Scotland decided whether she was a prize or not. It would be interesting to know what the final decision was. George had eight children [5], and when he died in 1706 he was succeeded by his second son William. His third son John was the first Balfour of Trenabie, and left the Trenabie estates to his nephew John Balfour [6], who married Elizabeth Traill of Tirlot and was the ancestor of the later Balfours of Balfour Castle in Shapinsay.

(2) John of Garth who married Janet Alexander but died the same year as his father without leaving any family.

(3) Robert of Clouster was described as younger in Westray in 1665. 

(4) Michael Balfour lived in Banks, Rousay. 

(5) Barbara was the eldest daughter. She married Nicol Moncrieff but was dead by 1665. 

(6) Janet Balfour married James Kinnaird of Burwick in August 1657.

Michael Balfour the fourth son [7], who lived in Rousay, was a merchant. I have been unable to find out very much about him and have no idea who his wife was. Perhaps anyone reading this may be able to supply the missing details. He appears on record on 5 August 1710 when he grants a bond of relief to a cautioner for his dead brother, George of Pharay. Michael had four children: 

(1) a son Patrick 

(2) a daughter Robina who married William Irvine 

(3) a daughter Rebecca who married Alexander Marwick. 

I have been unable to find out the name of the fourth child. Probably it was a daughter as daughters were only listed after all the sons had been recorded, and in this case the son Patrick is separated from the unknown child by the names of his two sisters. If it had not been for the afore-mentioned fact I might have considered the fourth child was a son called Robert, and indeed it could well be as among the Traill family correspondence is a letter to David Traill from a certain Robert Balfour in Bergen. The letter is undated but was evidently written before November 1729 when David Traill died. I have been unable to discover anything concerning this Robert's parentage and wonder if the late Hugh Marwick who printed his letter in "Merchant Lairds of Long Ago" was any more successful.

For a bride, Patrick decided on Marie Monteith, the second daughter of Patrick Monteith of Egilsay and his wife Marion Smythe, daughter of Patrick Smythe of Braco. Marie's great-grandfather, James Monteith, had come to Orkney as clerk to Lord Robert Stewart's wife, Dame Jean Kennedy. Along with her sisters Marjorie (who in 1665 married William Douglas, Chamberlain to the Earl of Morton, and Margaret who died unmarried in June 1678), she grew up in the mansion house of Hooan in Egilsay. About 1670 Marie married her cousin, William Monteith of Tuquoy who died in September 1674 leaving no children.

Two years later the twenty-nine year old widow married Patrick Balfour who was infeft in Langskaill, Westray, by his cousin George Balfour of Pharay on 27 March 1676. It would be interesting to know whether it was Marie's beauty, birth and breeding which made her, a childless widow, more acceptable to Patrick than a younger woman, or was it merely the weight of her money bags! Anyway we find them both granting obligation to James Young on 15 December 1677, and fourteen years later when Marie was over forty, they were "put to the horn" by William Traill, a merchant in Westray. I have only been able to find evidence of one son, George, in Westray, but there may have been more.

This George inherited Langskaill but may have parted with it as he was later described as "of Chalmersquoy". On 18 April 1706 he attests the testament of Mitchell Rendall of Breck, whose seat was the old mansion built in Pierowall before 1667 just above the original pier, the roofless walls of which still stand unchanged today. These Rendalls were found in Westray as early as 1490 but it was only during the seventeenth century that they made their fortune as merchants. later in life George married a Barbara Rendall who may have been a relative of Mitchell. The wedding couldn't have taken place much before 1730 when George was over 50 years old. Probably the officiating minister was Mr. William Blaw who is said to have hanged his cat for killing a mouse on Sunday, and who died in 1734. His successor, Mr. Andrew Cowan, married his daughter Jane, while his youngest daughter Marjorie married Thomas Traill of Tirlot. 

In 1733 the Stewarts of Brugh sold their Sanday lands to George Traill of Hobbister and made their permanent home at Cleat in Westray. There would have been old John Stewart and his second wife Janet Nesbit of North Ronaldsay, probably James Stewart his eldest surviving son whom he outlived, and certainly his son Archibald and his wife Isobel Balfour of Trenabie whose family were mostly born at Cleat. No doubt there was a certain amount of intercourse between the Stewarts, the Balfours of Trenabie and of Chalmersquoy, the Traills of Tirlot and the minister. Probably the well-to-do merchants such as Jerome Dennison and the Rendalls were also included.

I have discovered two children born to George and Barbara [8] before 1737. They were David who married Marjorie Smith and Catherine who married John Seatter. They both had large families but I have not managed to trace their descendants beyond 1800. The rest of the children were Jane born 1737, William born 1740, George born 1742, Thomas born 1744, Ann born 1746, John born 1749, and Murdock born 1752. Apart from John they all married and had family, but it is only Thomas and Murdock's descendants whom I have been able to trace down to the present time in Westray.

The rebellion of 1745 brought a touch of excitement and, no doubt, fear in Westray, when Benjamin Moodie of Melsetter landed in 1747 and started a course of personal revenge against all the lairds who had been unfortunate enough to cross his path in the past. Using their Jacobite sympathies as an excuse he proceeded to plunder and burn the mansions of Trenabie and Cleat despite the protests of the womenfolk and children. Archibald Stewart and William Balfour of Trenabie had already fled to the refuge of the cave now called the "Gentleman's Ha" [9] on the west coast. Moodie is said to have taken two men called Rendall, prisoners from the Brugh estate before he left the island. I do not know if George Balfour of Chalmersquoy was molested or not.

Strangely enough it was the youngest son Murdock who succeeded to Chalmersquoy. He married Jean Hewison who is said to have been a descendant of a shipwrecked Spanish sailor from the "El Gran Grifon" of 1588. Murdock's sister Ann also married a Hewison called William. The Balfours of the late 18th and 19th centuries were always called the "Dons" owing to the tradition of their Spanish blood. They were said all to have black hair and unusually short necks [10].

Murdock and Jean Balfour's only son was James, born in 1782. Jean the eldest daughter (1785 - 1841) married Balfour Hewison who may have been a son of her aunt Ann. They had four children [11] : Thomas born 1811, Jean born 1813, Ann born 1814, and Murdock born 1820. The second daughter Barbara Balfour, born August 1788, married John Logie, a tailor. Their daughter Jean, born 1825, married John Meil and was grandmother of Mrs. Jean Bews of Quoybirse, Westray, Mrs. Mary Drever, West Langskaill, Skelwick, and the late Mrs. Davina R Scott of Links. Jean's brother, Balfour Logie born 1829, married Barbara, daughter of Sir James Tait. They lived in London and Shetland and had three daughters - Barbara, Rose and Camy. Balfour Logie is said to have been ruined financially by his titled father-in-law.

The third daughter of Murdock of Chalmersquoy was born in 1791. Her name was Katherine and she seems to have died unmarried.

From letters in the Watt collection we see that the laird of Chalmersquoy in 1770 was in the habit of accepting smuggled brandy. Brugh and Tirlot seen to have been similarly engaged while Mr. Balfour of Trenabie was kept in ignorance, it being too well known where his sympathies lay. Orkney at this period was notorious for its smuggling, almost all the lairds being engaged in varying degrees in the trade.

Registrar of Jamaica

James Balfour of Chalmersquoy (born 1782) married Jean Rendall and had three of a family [12]. The daughter Ann (born 1812) married a Mr. William Reid and had issue: William Reid born 1840, James Reid born 1842 and Jean Reid born 1845. The eldest son Murdock seems to have died unmarried [13]. The youngest son David (born 1816) was his father's heir. His wife Barbara Reid may have been a sister of William Reid senior. She died aged 80 on 21 June 1912. I know nothing about David and Barbara, not even when he died as his name is not on the family tombstone [14] in Pierowall churchyard. It may have been he who renovated Chalmersquoy to its present form. I do know they had the following children [15] : 

(1) Rev. James, M.A. born 1 February 1858, died in U.S.A. 18 April 1900. 

(2) Hannah born 3 May 1859, lived at home most of her life and died on 24 April 1910. 

(3) David, born in the 1860s, emigrated and at one time was Registrar of Jamaica. He left one daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Hicks, a grandson Kenneth and granddaughter Mrs. Elizabeth Dodd. 

(4) John, born in the 1860s, went to America or Canada and left family. 

5) Thomas who died aged 52 years on 4 April 1922. 

(6) Murdock, born 1872, died at Chalmersquoy on 24 October 1917 aged 45. 

(7) Annie Jean, born 1875, was considered a beauty. She left Orkney on one occasion to be bridesmaid at somebody's wedding. There she unfortunately contracted measles which left her a semi-invalid for the rest of her life. She died aged 59 on 30 November 1934. 

(8) William, who also emigrated to Canada or USA. He may have left family. 

(9) Barbara Elizabeth, born 1881, trained as a schoolteacher. She was a devout member of the Baptist Church and was very proud of her family history. I believe she taught for a time at Pierowall School. She succeeded to the farm of Chalmersquoy and lived there until shortly before her death in the Kirkwall County Home on 15 February 1959. Despite her delicate constitution she lived to the advanced age of 78 years. Miss Balfour willed that her farm and goods be sold after her death and the money divided between her nieces and nephew in America and Jamaica. She was the last of the name in Westray.

Thomas Balfour of Uttersquoy

Now we must go back to Thomas Balfour (born 1744) son of George Balfour of Chalmersquoy and brother of Murdock. He was designated "of Uttersquoy" but that name is no longer in existence in Westray. I have no idea which farm this was. His wife was Elizabeth Sinclair (born 1754) a daughter of William Sinclair and his wife Ann Moncrieff of Houton, and a direct descendant of the first George Sinclair of Rapness. Their daughter Isobel (Tibbie) was born in 1771, son George in 1774, Barbara in 1777, Margaret in 1780, and Ann in 1786. Ann married a man called John Cosser rather late in life and seems to have left no family in Westray. The youngest son was William born in 1790. This William was a schoolmaster in Westray. He married twice. By his first wife Mary Seator, he had a daughter Elizabeth born in 1821 and a son Thomas born 1825. The latter seems to have died young. His second wife was Hannah Sinclair who owned the house called Greeno at Ha' breck, Pierowall. It was here he died of old age on 25 February 1870. His widow survived him for nearly 24 years, dying in 1894 aged 89 years.

Elizabeth Balfour did needlework for a living. On 12 March 1846 she married John Allan a master mason, the minister being the Rev. George Reid. Witnesses at the wedding were James Stewart, the laird of Brugh, and Mr. Nichol, Officer of the Fishery. No doubt it was John Allan himself who built their home, the big white house end-on to the sea at Broughton. Here they lived, had their children and died. The eldest daughter, Mary Seator Allan, married Henry Reid of Langskaill, emigrated, and left a family in America; Jean born in 1849, married Thomas Tulloch of Tifter and had a son; Thomas born in 1852 was a seaman. He drowned when his ship the "Julia" was lost off Auskerry in February 1895; he was never married. The next son William worked in a Westray shop. He died of TB, aged 23, in 1878. Elizabeth Balfour Allan was born in August 1857. She married James Scott, harbour master, as his first wife and was mother of the late James Scott of Links and the late Thomas A Scott of 8 Gill Pier. Elizabeth died in April 1906. John Allan married a girl called Betty Bain from Twiness and emigrated with his sister to U.S.A. He had sons, Thomas and Robert. The youngest daughter Georgina was an invalid. She died unmarried at her sister Elizabeth's house in 1905. John Allan's wife, Elizabeth Balfour, died in 1876. Her husband followed her two years later. They were both over 50.

Gill Pier

Now, once again, we must take a step back, to George Balfour (born 1774), oldest son of Thomas of Uttersquoy. Isobel Sinclair, his wife, may have been a sister of his brother William's second wife, Hannah. His daughter Elizabeth married David Hewison, a sailor, who died off Cape Horn in August 1857 aged 39. Elizabeth herself died in 1868 aged 49. They had three sons, James who died aged 24, David who survived to 1912, and Thomas who died aged 29 in Australia. None of them seems to have married. Elizabeth's brother George (born 1815) was the first Balfour of Berriedale. His wife Janet Scott came from Sanday. It is said that two other Scott girls from Sanday also married in Westray about this time. George and Janet had the following family [16]: George born 10 September 1842 died 4 April 1889; Barbara born 1844; Sinclair born 1846; James born 22 January 1847 died 8 May 1869;  William  born 17 March 1855 died 3 November 1939; Janet born 1857. It was either George or one of his sons who was responsible for the erection of Gill Pier. His son William married a girl from Rothesay and had three sons: Fred who went to India and fell victim of sunstroke; Francis a solicitor in Edinburgh, and William. William the father gave up Berriedale [17] and left Orkney. I believe his second wife was English. 

Today the surname Balfour is extinct in Westray, after continuing for close on 400 years. Nevertheless, a good number of people can still claim at least a drop of Balfour blood.