Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wedderburn, John (1704-1746)

752754Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 60 — Wedderburn, John (1704-1746)1899Thomas Finlayson Henderson

WEDDERBURN, Sir JOHN (1704–1746), bart., of Blackness, Jacobite, born on 4 Aug. 1704, eldest son of Sir Alexander Wedderburn, fourth baronet (cr. August 1704), by Katherine, daughter of John Scott, merchant, of Dundee, was taken prisoner at Culloden. Sir Alexander Wedderburn [q. v.] was his great-grandfather. His father had been deprived of the town clerkship of Dundee in 1717, and on his death in 1741 the family estates had to be sold, and the son lived in great poverty. According to Sir John's own account, he was seized by the rebels and compelled to join them by force; it was clearly proved that he had been concerned in levying excise for their use. He also joined the rebels as a soldier, was present at the battle of Falkirk, was seen on the retreat from Stirling, and in a return of rebel officers and soldiers—prisoners in Inverness, 19 April 1746—his name appears as Sir John Wedderburn of Elcho's lifeguards. He was found guilty of treason, and executed on Kennington Common on 28 Nov. 1746. His title and his estate of Blackness were forfeited. By Jean, eldest daughter of John Fullerton of that ilk, he had three surviving sons and four daughters. His eldest son, John, was father of David of Ballindean, who was created a baronet of the United Kingdom in 1803, and became postmaster-general of Scotland.

[Historical Papers relating to the Jacobite Period (New Spalding Club), 1896; List of Persons concerned in the Rebellion in 1745 (Scottish History Soc.), 1890; Douglas's Scottish Baronage, p. 282; Burke's Peerage and Baronetage; Webster's Genealogical Account of the Wedderburn Family (privately printed at Nantes), 1819.]

T. F. H.