398 BURKE'S COLONIAL GENTRY. and comforted for so afflicting ane accident than accused, and that it was wholly owing to liis generals, who ought to have informed him of the posts of the several partys, which would have effectually pre- vented it."* II. John, of whom hereafter. III. Alexander, b 1672, d. in infancy. I. Janet, b. 1662; m., 1691, Patrick Graeme, of Inchbraikie, who was out- lawed, 1696, for his fatal quarrel with the master of RoUo, in 1691. Grraeme had a full remission granted to him in 1720. Their grandson, Captain Patrick Graeme, of the 73rd Eegi- ment, Scotch Brigade, of the Dutch Army, in which he served during tlie whole of the Seven Years War, s. as eighth laird of Inchbraikie. II. Joana, b. 1665. III. Margaret, b. 1666. ir. Isabelle, b. 1669. V. Elizabeth, b. 1670; m. Walter Bu- chanan, of Wester Spittlehau. TI. Annabella, b. 1673 ; made a will in favour of her grand nephew Johu, son of Hugh Pearson. Til. Anna, b. 1674. James Pearson d. in 1694, and was s. in Kip- penross by his second son, John Peaeson, of Kippenross, b. 1667, who m. Jean, daughter of the first Sir Patrick Threipland, bart., the royalist, and widow of Alexander Linton of Pittendreich (a fellow victim with James Pearson through Lochiell's mistake in the Argyll EebelUon), and had issue, I. James, d. young, 7th April, 1711. II. Hugh, of whom presently. I. Jean, b. 1702; m. "Mr." William Somerville. II. Hellen, b. 1703 ; m. her cousin- gernian. Captain Patrick Graeme, at Orchill (see Burke's Landed Gentry, ed. 1849), and had one daughter, Helen, who m. George Eobertsou, of Faskally, co. Perth. John Pearson became noted throughout his part of Scotland, for his gigantic size and for his hospitality and good-fellowship, according to the customs of the day (see Scotland and Scotsmen in the ISth Century, E-AMSAT OF Ochtertyke). Hugh Peabson, of Kippenross, executed service to his father, 5th January, 1722. He took great interest in his property, and planted, in 1742, the Beech Walk, along the banks of Allan Water, reputed to be the first walk of the kind artificially made in Scotland (see Woods, Forests and Ustates of Perthshire, Huntee). The surpassing beauty of the property is attested in the Letters of Thomas Erskine of Linlathen (p. 8) . Erskine spent niucli of his boyhood there. At Albano, on the road to Eome, he noted
- Baihaldy's Memoirs of LochieU, p. 219.
an evergreen oak as large as the " Kippenross Tree." This refers to the sycamore, acer- pseudo-platanus, which went by the name of the " Big Tree of Kippenross," in the time of Chaeles II. This tree was planted a.d. 1400, as shown by some old estate papers. Its girth, where the branches separate, was 27 feet 4 inches ; and the branches spread to a width of 114 feet. In Loudon's Arboretum et Fructicetum Britaimicmn, this sycamore is stated to be the largest of its kind in Britain. A di-awing of it (taken before it was damaged by lightning, in 1827) is shown in Fittler's Scotia Depicta, Plate XX. Hugh Pearson m. 6th March, 1743, Mistress Agnes Gibb, daughter and co-heiress (with her sister Catherine) of the deceased William Gibb, chirurgeon, Edinburgh, and had issue two sons, I. John, b. 15th December, 1743; executed service to his father, 11th June, 1751, and 29th January, 1755 ; d. nnm. II. William. The second son, William Peaeson, Esq. of Kippenross, h. 27th January, 1750, executed service to his brother, 11th March, 1772, and m. 25th September, 1775, Jane, only daughter of Sir James Campbell, of Aberuchill and Kilbride, 4th baronet (see Campbell op Kilbetde), by Margaret, his first wife, daughter and heiress of Captain William Conductor Ball, of Hatton Garden, London, land com- missioner for Scotland. In 1778, being then 28 years of age, William Pearson parted with Kippenross to the adjoining proprietor, John Stirling of Kippendavie, and the con- joined property is now known as Kippen- davie. The legal arrangements of transfer were completed 9th February, 1781, when " John Stii'ling of Kippendavie was seized in the barony of Kippenross under life-rent superiority of William Pearson of Kippenross, of parts of the said barony." The boundaries of the barony were Allan Water on the south, Sheriffmuir on the north, Dunblane "village on the west, and the Brook of Old Wherry on the east. Dean Pearson's house of Kijipen- ross, or Kippencrosse (said to have been so named after one of the four crosses of St, Blane, anciently known as Kippen Cross, White Cross, Anchor's Cross, and Cross Capley) , was burnt down in William Pearson's time. He built the commencement of the present substantial mansion house of Kippen- ross, which has been much added to by the present owner. Colonel Stirling, whose father, John Stirling of Kippendavie, acquired a wide reputation from his connection with railway enterprise. William Pearson had issue, I. Hugh, commander E.N., of whom hereafter. II. John, b. 1783 ; d. at Westbush, Inveresk, 8th August, 1807. III. James, b. 1787, was nominated to a cadetship in the Hon. E.I.Co.'s service by Lord Leven and Melville, a cousin
