(134) Anderson of St. Germains and Bowerhouse

This branch of the Anderson family were established as clergymen and lawyers in Edinburgh and Perthshire from the 17th century, but only with David Anderson (1707-86) did they become prosperous enough to purchase country estates.  At the end of his life, he bought Inchyra (Perths.), which he bequeathed to his third son, John Anderson (1754-1814), who built a grand new house there, probably to the designs of James Gillespie Graham.  John's son, David Anderson Blair (1791-1853), was a member of the Scottish Faculty of Advocates but practised for part of his career in Ceylon. He probably let Inchyra while he was abroad, and later sold it, moving to The Firs, Holybourne (Hants) on his return to Britain.

The second son of David Anderson (1707-86), David Anderson (1750-1825), joined the East India Company's service and rose in its service under the patronage of his close friend, Warren Hastings. He returned from India in 1785 with a fortune of £50,000 which was more than sufficient to purchase the St. Germains estate in East Lothian and to remodel the house there.  St Germain's passed to his son, David Anderson (1791-1869) and grandson, Lt-Col. James Warren Hastings Anderson (1836-96), who sold it in 1874 and bought instead the more fashionably Baronial Bowerhouse near Dunbar. The childless David Murray Anderson (1867-1944), who inherited Bowerhouse, sold it in 1939.  His younger brother, Maj. Robert Warren Hastings Anderson (1875-1969) bought the modest but newly-built Northfield House, Colinsburgh (Fife) in 1911, which remains in the family.

St. Germains House, Longniddry, East Lothian

St Germains: south front, showing the early 18th century part of the house. The right-hand bow dates from c.1820.

The house stands on the site of a medieval hospital of the order of the Star of Bethlehem, which was said to be ruinous in 1496, but the earliest visible fabric dates from the early 18th century. This house was given a new seven-bay front range, no doubt after it was acquired by David Anderson in 1782. 

St Germain's: entrance front added after 1782. Image: James Denham. Licenced under this Creative Commons licence.

The north-facing entrance front has a rusticated ground floor and a central pediment, but the top-floor windows are too close to the roofline to be visually satisfactory, and the first-floor windows are slightly too large in proportion to those above and below. A further addition was made about 1820, when the full-height canted bay at the rear was added, and minor alterations were made by Dick, Peddie & McKay in 1910. In the 1950s, the house was divided into apartments, one of which now offers bed and breakfast accommodation.  West of the house there is a two storey stable block with a steep pediment, and in the grounds stands a cylindrical and battlemented dovecote.

Descent: sold 1780/82 to David Anderson (1750-1828); to son, David Anderson (1791-1869); to son, Lt-Col. James Warren Hastings Anderson (1836-96), who sold 1874 to Trustees of Charles Stewart Parker Tennent, who sold 1947 to J.E. Rennie; sold to J.N. Toothill, who divided the house into flats. In 1902 the house was let to a Mr. Brooks, who killed his wife and himself in the house.

Bowerhouse, Dunbar, East Lothian

Bowerhouse, Dunbar: the entrance front. Image: © Michael Oglethorpe.

A modest-sized two-storey Jacobethan mansion built by David Bryce (when he was still in William Burn's office) in 1835 for Maj-Gen. J. Carfrae of the East India Company. The house (sometimes called Bourhouse or Bower House) is built of fine pale Cullalo sandstone ashlar from Fife, which is intricately carved with great precision. The facades sport bay windows and straight and shaped gables as the main elements of a carefully and successfully balanced composition.  

Bowerhouse, Dunbar: the garden front with its two bay windows. Image: © Michael Oglethorpe.

The entrance porch forms the angle between the entrance and garden fronts.  The garden front, facing the view over a terrace, has two unequal canted single-storey bays with strapwork parapets. Adjoining the porch on the entrance front is a five-sided bay crowned with scrolled gables and a pointed roof.  The office wing beyond it is stepped forward and has a massive chimneystack.  All the windows have corner lugs with nailhead centres, and retain their original glazing of small panes.  The bold cornice incorporates concealed gutters, with internal rain conductors.

The five-windowed bay lights a long hall that penetrates the house, and which is flanked by the library and drawing room.  At the end is the dining room.  All the rooms have geometrically ribbed ceilings which shallow plain coves rather than an enriched cornice, and marble chimneypieces in a loosely French 18th century style, executed in black or liver-coloured stone. The main staircase, in a self-contained well, has an iron balustrade, and so does the adjoining service stair: the latter plainer but prettier.

There must have been an earlier house on the site, for the gardens contain an 18th century dovecote, walled garden and some contemporary urns. The stables, adjoining the office wing, and the lodge with carved bargeboards, are also by Bryce.

Descent: sold 1874 to James Warren Hastings Anderson (1836-96); to son, David Murray Anderson (1867-1944), who sold 1939...

Northfield House, Colinsburgh, Fife

Northfield House, Colinsburgh. 

The house was built as a doctor's surgery for Leonard Horner Bryson in 1905 and was acquired by the Andersons in 1911.  It remains in the family and has recently been restored; part of the building is now used as holiday accommodation.

Descent: sold 1911 to Maj. Robert Warren Hastings Anderson (1875-1969); to son, Donald Marshall Anderson (b. 1911); to daughter, Margaret Elizabeth (b. 1941), wife of James Vernon Aynscough.

Inchyra House, Perthshire

Inchyra House in 1994. Image: Nicholas Kingsley. Licenced under this Creative Commons licence.

An elegant and charming two-storey villa built about 1810 for John Anderson, an Edinburgh lawyer, probably to the designs of James Gillespie Graham. The entrance front consists of two storeys above a half-sunk basement and five widely-spaced bays, and is articulated with coupled giant pilasters at the ends and three-quarter round Roman Doric columns framing the centre.  The tripartite doorway has sidelights and a segmental-arched fanlight, and is echoed by a tripartite window above. The facade is given subtlety by the way the bases of the columns and pilasters are continued across the front as a band course below the ground floor windows, while the platband separating the first and second floors is woven through the giant columns and pilasters, increasingly the effect of depth and movement in the facade.

Inchyra House in 1994: the drawing room.

Inside, the richly decorated interiors are partly original and partly of 1956, when Gervase Beckett made alterations for Lord Inchyra. The large entrance hall has an original ceiling and chimneypiece, but the doorcases are of 1956.  The dining room has an original ceiling but the plaster wall panels are by Beckett, and the exceptional pine and gesso chimneypiece is late 18th century but was brought in during the 1950s.  

Inchyra House: detail of the dining room chimneypiece.

The central panel depicts Hope resting on an anchor while she contemplates a snarling crocodile.  Behind the entrance hall is the staircase hall, entirely of c.1810, with a simple flying stair, off which open short corridors leading to a D-shaped morning room, redecorated in 1956 but with another imported 18th century chimneypiece, and the library, formed from two smaller rooms in 1956, and with its east end marked off by a screen of Roman Doric columns.

Behind the house is a stable court, probably of c.1810, one corner of which was raised to a second storey in the 19th century to form a service house.  North of this is a steading built in 1877 for James Watson, and a farmhouse, probably of the same date.  West of the house is the early 19th century walled garden, and there is also a single-storey lodge to the south-west.

Descent: Isabel Blair, wife of Rev. Thomas Beatt sold 1785 to David Anderson (1707-86); to son, John Anderson (1754-1814); to son, David Anderson (later Blair) (d. 1853), who sold ?c.1836... David Watson (d. 1867) of Manchester; to son, Maj. James Watson (d. 1883 or 1892); to son, John Guthrie Watson (d. 1913)... sold 1955 to Frederick Robert Hoyer Millar (1900-89), 1st Baron Inchyra; to grandson, (Christian) James Charles Hoyer Millar (b. 1962), later 3rd Baron Inchyra.

The Anderson family of St. Germains, Bowerhouse and Northfield House, and of Inchyra House

Anderson, David (1707-86).  Only son of Andrew Anderson (1682-1733) of Edinburgh, writer to the signet, and his wife Margaret, daughter of Dr. Blair of Perth, born 1707. Apprenticed to William Veitch WS; writer to the signet, 1731; factor to the Earl of Wemyss.  He married, 5 November 1745, Mary (d. 1781), daughter of John Mitchelson of Middleton (Midlothian) and had issue:
(1) Francis Anderson (1748-1823) of Edinburgh, born 20 June 1748; apprenticed to his father; writer to the signet, 1773; succeeded his father as factor to the Earl of Wemyss; Deputy Auditor of Exchequer; married 1st, Miss Martin and had issue and 2nd, Jane Easton; died 27 April 1823;
(2) David Anderson (1750-1825) (q.v.);
(3) Mary Anderson (1752-1828), born 16 November 1752; died unmarried, 1828;
(4) John Anderson (1754-1814) (q.v.);
(5) Samuel Anderson (1756-1821) of Moredun (Midl.), born 1 October 1756; banker in Edinburgh; married, 1791, Jane, daughter of Sir James Hay of Haystoun, 4th bt.; died 27 March 1821;
(6) James Anderson (1757-1833), of Wilton Lodge, Hawick, born 28 October 1757; went to India in 1772 and saw much service in the Indian Army, being aide-de-camp to Warren Hastings; he joined his brother, David, at Scindia's Court, and succeeded him as Resident in 1785; resigned, 1786; married Catherine, daughter of Andrew Grant and grand-daughter of Lord Elchies, senator of the College of Justice, and had issue one daughter; died 3 October 1833;
(7) Andrew Anderson (1759-85), born 16 March 1759; died unmarried in 1785;
(8) Robert Anderson (1762-1831), born 28 February 1762; married 1st, 19 June 1794, Eleonora, daughter of Cornelius Elliot of Wolflee, and 2nd, 15 February 1810, Janet Harriet, daughter of David Stewart, provost of Edinburgh, but died without issue, 1831.
He lived at Stoneyhill. In 1786 he purchased the Inchyra estate, probably always intended as a home for third son.
He died 11 January 1786.

David Anderson,
by Sir Henry Raeburn

Anderson, David (1750-1825) of St. Germains.  Second son of David Anderson (1707-86) and his wife Mary, daughter of John Mitchelson of Middleton (Midl.), born 10 February 1750. Educated at Edinburgh High School. He went to India as a cadet in the East India Co.'s service in 1767 and became a revenue expert in the Bengal administration; as Ambassador to Mahadji Sindhia he negotiated the treaty of Salbai which ended the first Anglo-Maratha war, 1782; he retired 1785 and returned to England on the same ship as Warren Hastings, remaining his devoted friend until Hastings' death. As a result of private financial trading in India he returned a wealthy man, and in 1785 he estimate his fortune at £50,000. In 1785 he received the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh for his services in India. As DL for East Lothian he played a part in the suppression of an anti-militia revolt in Tranent in 1797. He married, 14 August 1788, Christian (d. 1824), daughter of Robert Findlay of Drummore and niece of Gen. Sir George Don, kt., Governor of Gibraltar, and had issue:
(1) David Anderson (1791-1869) (q.v.);
(2) Warren Hastings Anderson (1796-1875) of Beldornie Tower, Ryde (Isle of Wight), born 27 October 1796; married Mary, daughter of James Dewar of Vogrie and had issue four sons and three daughters; died 6 October 1875;
(3) Robert Anderson (b. & d. 1799), born 9 October and died in infancy, 12 November 1799;
(4) A daughter;
(5) A daughter;
(X1) Mary Anderson, baptised at Monghyr (India), 8 April 1775.
While still in India, he purchased the St. Germains estate in 1782 and on his return in 1785 he remodelled the house there.
He died 2/3 August 1825. His wife died in 1824.

Anderson, David (1791-1869) of St. Germains.  Eldest son of David Anderson (1750-1828) and his wife Christian, daughter of Robert Findlay of Drummore, born 10 June 1791. Educated at Edinburgh and Christ Church, Oxford (matriculated 1809); member of the Faculty of Advocates in Scotland, 1834; DL for East Lothian; a member of the Royal Company of Archers.  He married, 15 April 1828, Charlotte (d. 1868), daughter of Sir James Naesmyth of Posso, 3rd bt., and had issue:
(1) Eleonora Anne Anderson (1829-61), born 6 May 1829; married, 12 May 1858, Rev. Sir William Henry Gibson-Carmichael (1827-91), 10th bt. and had issue three sons and three daughters; died 6 January 1861;
(2) Charlotte Christina Anderson (1831-1916), born 3 February 1831; married, 18 November 1863, her cousin, Lt-Gen. David Anderson, son of Warren Hastings Anderson of Beldornie Tower, Ryde (Isle of Wight) and had issue two sons and three daughters;
(3) Mary Elizabeth Anderson (1832-36), born 23 February 1832; died young, 6 January 1836;
(4) David Murray Anderson (1834-60), born 27 February 1834; Lieutenant in Royal Navy; served in Black Sea area and was awarded Crimean Medal and Turkish Medal; died 16 September 1860;
(5) James Warren Hastings Anderson (1836-96) (q.v.);
(6) Julia Mary Anderson (1838-1922), born 21 May 1838; married, 1861, George Ballard (d. 1892) of the Indian Civil Service and had issue; died 7 July 1922;
(7) Anna Harriet Anderson (1841-91), born 13 November 1841; died unmarried, 17 June 1891.
He inherited the St. Germains estate from his father in 1825.
He died 14 April 1869. His wife died 31 January 1868.

Anderson, Lt-Col. James Warren Hastings (1836-96) of Bowerhouse. Second but only surviving son of David Anderson (1791-1869) and his wife Charlotte, daughter of Sir James Naesmyth of Posso, 3rd bt., born 18 July 1836. Educated at Royal Military College, Sandhurst; served with 69th Regiment and 87th Royal Irish Fusiliers; commanded Haddingtonshire Volunteers; DL for East Lothian.  He married, 14 March 1867, Christina (d. 1902), daughter of Thomas Sharp Mitchell-Innes of Phantassie (East Lothian) and had issue:
(1) David Murray Anderson (1867-1944) (q.v.);
(2) Charlotte Elinor Anderson (1870-1959), born 30 June 1870; died unmarried, 11 February 1959;
(3) Katharine Julia Anderson (1872-1958), born 17 April 1872; married, 14 February 1901, Alexander Harold Mitchell-Innes of Whitehall (Berwicks.) and had issue; died 9 August 1958;
(3) Robert Warren Hastings Anderson (1875-1969) (q.v.).
He inherited the St. Germains estate from his father in 1869 but sold it in 1874 and bought the Bowerhouse estate instead.
He died 10 July 1896. His widow died 8 February 1902.

Anderson, David Murray (1867-1944) of Bowerhouse. Elder son of Lt-Col. James Warren Hastings Anderson (1836-96) and his wife Christina, daughter of Thomas Sharp Mitchell-Innes, born 28 October 1867. Educated at Wellington and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; served as Capt. in 8th Royal Irish Hussars; member of the Royal Company of Archers; JP and DL for East Lothian.  He married, 12 February 1908, Alice Helen Mary JP (d. 1938), daughter of Rev. Edward Cheese, rector of Haughton-le-Skerne, but had no issue.
He inherited the Bowerhouse estate from his father in 1896 but sold it in 1939.
He died 29 April 1944. His wife died 3 November 1938.

Anderson, Maj. Robert Warren Hastings (1875-1969) of Northfield House. Younger son of Lt-Col. James Warren Hastings Anderson (1836-96) and his wife Christina, daughter of Thomas Sharp Mitchell-Innes, born 19 May 1875.  Educated at Wellington and Royal Military College, Sandhurst; served in Highland Light Infantry, 1894-1910 (Major) and was involved in occupation of Crete, 1898 and Boer War, 1899-1902 (mentioned in despatches); JP for Fife, 1913.  He married, 19 April 1906, Everilda Lucy (d. 1963), daughter of Col. Sir Thomas Horatio Marshall of Hartford Beach (Cheshire), and had issue:
(1) Donald Marshall Anderson (1911-2001) (q.v.).
He purchased Northfield House, Colinsburgh in 1911.
He died 29 August 1969. His wife died 21 October 1963.

Anderson, Lt-Col. Donald Marshall (1911-2001) of Northfield House.  Only child of Maj. Robert Warren Hastings Anderson (1875-1969) and his wife Everilda Lucy, daughter of Col. Sir Thomas Horatio Marshall of Hartford Beach (Cheshire), born 6 June 1911. Educated at Wellington and Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Served in Highland Light Infantry, 1931-58 and saw service in Italy, Palestine and Ghana.  He married, 18 February 1938, Elizabeth Georgiana (1912-99), daughter of Col. Hugh Stainton Poyntz of Winchester (Hants), and had issue:
(1) John Murray Anderson (b. 1939) of Wetheral (Cumbria), born 6 August 1939; educated at Strathallan School; married 1st, 10 May 1961 (div. 1978), Sheila Margaret, daughter of Howard Benjamin Smith of Bloxwich (Staffs) and had issue two sons and one daughter, and 2nd, 24 September 1984 (div.), Margaret Ann Harper, daughter of Richard Ernest Waterhouse; and 3rd [name unknown];
(2) Margaret Elizabeth Anderson (b. 1941) of Northfield House, born 8 January 1941; educated at Seymour Lodge, Crieff; married, 31 August 1961 (div. 1986), James Vernon Aynscough, son of James Geoffrey Aynscough of North Heads, Casterton (Westmorland) and had issue two sons and two daughters.
He inherited Northfield House from his father in 1969.
He died 8 November 2001.

John Anderson, by
Sir Henry Raeburn

Anderson, John (1754-1814) of Inchyra House.  Third son of David Anderson (1707-86) and his wife Mary, daughter of John Mitchelson of Middleton (Midl.), born 4/14 August 1754. Apprenticed to Samuel Mitchelson WS; writer to the signet, 1779; Commissioner of Supply for Perthshire. He married, 9 August 1784 at Blandfield, Edinburgh, his cousin, Janet (1765-1851), daughter of Samuel Mitchelson, WS, and had issue:
(1) Jane Anderson (c.1788-1866); married, 18 December 1815, Alexander Wood (1788-1864), Lord Wood and had issue three sons and two daughters; died 1866;

(2) David Anderson (later Blair) (c.1791-1853) (q.v.);

(3) Samuel Anderson (1791-1849); apprenticed to his father; writer to the signet, 1818 but later wine merchant; married 1st, 30 April 1824, Anne, daughter of James Milnes of Heatherwick House (East Lothian) and 2nd, 15 May 1833, Charlotte Wilkinson; died 11 July 1849;
(4) John Anderson (1799-1862), born 15 June 1799; apprenticed to Thomas Cranston WS; writer to the signet, 1824; married, 15 October 1833, Harriet, daughter of George Carr of Newcastle; died 4 May 1862;
(5) Francis Anderson (1804-55), born 19 August 1804; apprenticed to Thomas Cranston WS; writer to the signet, 1837; married, 24 October 1848 at St John's Chapel, Edinburgh, Henrietta Maria, daughter of Rev. Dr. Edward Law, British chaplain at St Petersburg; died 18 December 1855;
(6) James Anderson (b. 1806; fl. 1851); writer to the signet?; married Helen M. [surname unknown]; lived at 34 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh;
(7) Findlay Anderson (1807-84), born 4 February 1807; served with Indian Civil Service and retired to Inchyra Grange; JP for Perthshire; married 1st, 10 December 1840 at Weston-super-Mare (Somerset), Mary Charlotte, daughter of Lt-Col. C.M. Edwards of 1st Ceylon Regt., and 2nd, c.1845, Selina Harriet Walker (1824-1916) and had issue; died 15 November 1884;
(8) Mary Anderson; married, 15 September 1827, Col. Robert Pitman.
He inherited the Inchyra estate from his father in 1786 and built the present house there. His widow lived at 34 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh.
He died 18 June 1814 and was buried at Kinnoull (Perths.).  His widow died 18 May 1851.

Anderson (later Blair), David (c.1791-1853) of Inchyra House. Eldest son of John Anderson (1754-1814) and his wife Jane, daughter of Samuel Mitchelson, born about 1791. A member of the Scottish Faculty of Advocates; Commissioner of Supply for Perthshire. He took the additional name of Blair in 1814 in accordance with the terms by which his father had purchased the Inchyra estate in 1785. He appears from his will to have spent part of his working life as an advocate in Ceylon. He married, 4 October 1849 at St. Marylebone (Middx), Helena Hester (1804-71), daughter of Sir William Rough, kt., Acting Chief Justice of Ceylon, but died without issue.
He inherited Inchyra House from his father in 1814 but sold it (perhaps c.1836), and lived subsequently at The Firs, Holybourne, Hampshire.
He died 24 August 1853 and his will was proved 11 October 1853. His widow was buried 15 April 1871 at St Bartholomew, Hyde, Winchester (Hants).

Sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1972, pp. 22-23; Burke's Landed Gentry of the Kingdom of Scotland, 2001, pp. 17-18; C. McWilliam, The buildings of Scotland: Lothian, 1978, pp. 122-23, 421; J. Gifford, The buildings of Scotland: Perth & Kinross, 2007, pp. 422-23; S. Baker, The country houses, castles and mansions of East Lothian, 2009, p. 67.

Location of archives

Anderson, David (1750-1825): correspondence and papers, 1767-1822 [British Library, Add. MSS 45417–45441]; official correspondence, 1782-95 [British Library, Oriental & India Office collections, Home Misc. series]; correspondence with Warren Hastings [British Library, Add. MSS. 29117-94]

Coat of arms

Argent, a saltire engrailed sable between a crescent in chief and three mullets pierced of the field, two in fesse and one in base, gules.