(595) Berry of Tayfield

Berry of Tayfield

The story of this family begins with the unusually long-lived John Berry (1725-1817), whose origins seem to be rather obscure. He is said to have been born in Aberdeenshire but was in Fife by the 1760s. His first marriage was cut short by the death of his wife soon after giving birth to their first child, and when he married again, eight years later, it was to a representative of an ancient Fife family which had died out in the male line a couple of generations earlier. It is not known how he made money, but by 1787 he was possessed of sufficient means to buy some of the lands which his wife's family had enjoyed in earlier centuries at Newport-on-Tay, and to build a modest three-bay villa there, which he called Tayfield. His only son, William Berry (1774-1852), was apprenticed to Edinburgh lawyers and admitted a Writer to the Signet in 1798. A professional career probably filled William's time until his father's death, but after he came into possession of Tayfield he expanded the estate, was involved in commercial salmon fishing in the Tay, and developed theTay ferry. He also greatly enlarged Tayfield House, effectively creating the building that exists today. He did not marry until 1823, when he was nearly fifty, although he did then produce two sons and four daughters. His eldest son and successor was John Berry (1824-77), and since then the eldest son and heir of the family has been John or William, alternately, down to the present day. 

John and his brother Robert were both sent to university, with Robert going to Cambridge and then the Inner Temple before returning to Glasgow, where he eventually became Professor of Roman and Scots Law. John was admitted an advocate in 1849, but inherited the Tayfield estate only three years later. His eldest son and heir, William Berry (1864-1954) was sent to Eton and Cambridge, and maintained the family legal tradition, being admitted an advocate in 1889. Like several of his predecessors, he married late, in 1906, but tragically his wife died of peritonitis soon after giving birth to their only child. This was Dr. John Berry (1907-2002), a committed ecologist and nature conservationist, who held several important positions in the field during the course of his long life, and who was also Press Censor for Scotland during the Second World War. By his wife, the Hon. Bride Fremantle, daughter of Lord Cottesloe, he produced a daughter and two sons. The elder son, William Berry (b. 1939) returned to the family's traditional legal occupations, becoming the senior partner of a firm of Edinburgh solicitors, but also playing a full part in the public life of Scotland through active involvement in the national institutions and St Andrews' University. Dr Berry made over Tayfield to him in 1989 and moved into a house in the grounds, and in 2018 he built a new house in the grounds for his wife and himself, and made over Tayfield itself to his elder son, John Berry (b. 1976), who is an investment manager with an Edinburgh financial services firm.

Tayfield House, Newport, Fife

Tayfield House: north front, largely of 1788-90.  Image: © RCAHMS

The house began as a modest harled three bay villa of two storeys over a high basement, built in 1788-90 for John Berry (1725-1817), who had bought the estate in 1787. It was apparently designed by Robert Anderson, for drawings and specifications for the house are accompanied by a note entitled 'Explanation of the Plan by Robt. Anderson'. The character of the building is now evident only on the north side, where two curved bows survive. These originally had Venetian windows on the piano nobile, only one of which still exists in its original form. The new house was taxed on fourteen windows in 1791 and 1798.

William Berry inherited the estate in 1817 and in 1829-30 he brought in George Smith, then just establishing himself as an architect in Edinburgh, to double the depth of the house to the south, and to unify the sides behind a neo-Elizabethan veneer. The north front seems to have been largely exempted from the makeover, but the tops of the bows were decorated with fanciful gablets and a corbelled gable was inserted between them.

Tayfield House: view from the north-east. Image: Newport History Group. Some rights reserved.

The asymmetrical new south front is entirely Smith's work, and has a narrow gabled projecting bay faced in stone which contains the Tudor-arched front door under an oriel. Rather cleverly, the contrast with the harled walls, combined with the slight projection and the extra height of the gable means this has the same compositional impact as a projecting porch. To the left of this bay is a chimney stack corbelled out at roof level, and to the right a similarly corbelled gablet. On the west front, Smith provided gables and bay windows for both his addition and the older part of the house; the east front has another bay window on the new work but only a corbelled gablet on the older part.

Tayfield House: south-facing entrance front. Image: © RCAHMS

The interior of the house was almost entirely remodelled by Smith. A straight flight of stairs from the front door leads to the hall on the piano nobile, where the walls are decorated with plaster casts of the 16th century oak bosses carved with portraits in the King's Presence Chamber at Stirling Castle, and there are further plaster heads from the same source in the oak-grained library to the right of the hall. In the billiard room (which had been the 18th century drawing room and has more recently been a bedroom) is a large white marble chimneypiece of 1830. Smith's plain dining room, with a black marble chimneypiece, is in the south-west corner of the house. What had been the 18th century dining room, in the north-west corner, became the drawing room in 1830, when a second bay window was added on its west side, and it was given contemporary plasterwork with a deep frieze and a white marble chimneypiece.

Tayfield House: the grounds as shown on the 1st edition 6" Ordnance Survey map of 1854.

The grounds show evidence of early 19th century landscaping, although it is apparent that some of the planting and decorative features shown on the earliest Ordnance Survey plan of 1854 have been lost over the years, and a small part of the estate east of the policies was lost for the building of the A92 approach road to the Tay road bridge. Happily, the estate's two lodges survive: the South Lodge, probably by Smith, c.1830, with a broad canted front projection and stone canopies over the windows, and the pretty North Lodge by James Gillespie Graham, 1821, with broad eaves, a semi-octagonal end and lattice glazing.

Descent: built for John Berry (1725-1817); to son, William Berry (1774-1852); to son, John Berry (1824-77); to son, William Berry (1864-1954); to son, Dr. John Berry (1907-2002); to son, William Berry (b. 1939); to son, John Berry (b. 1976).

Berry family of Tayfield

Berry, John (1725-1817). Only son of William Berry (b. 1698) of Claymire, Alford (Aberdeens.), born 17 January 1725. He married 1st, 17 January 1761, Janet Fraser (1731-62), and 2nd, 1770, Isabella (1739-1807), daughter of Maj. Mungo Law of Pittillock (Fife), and granddaughter and representative of Magdalene Nairne, last of Sandfurd, and had issue:

(1.1) Elizabeth Berry (b. 1762), baptised at Leslie (Fife), 30 April 1762; married her cousin, Capt. John Smith of Forfar & Kincardine militia, and had issue at least one son and two daughters, who all died unmarried;

(2.1) Isabella Berry (1772-1838), born 7 May 1772; married, 11 December 1791 at Kirkcaldy (Fife), James Heggie of Pitlessie (Fife), and had issue one daughter; said to have died 25 March 1838;

(2.2) William Berry (1774-1852) (q.v.);

(2.3) Margaret Berry (1776-80?), born 17 May 1776; died young and was possibly the person of this name buried at Cupar (Fife), 17 March 1780;

(2.4) Agnes Berry (b. 1778), born 17 July 1778;

(2.5) John (f.) Berry (b. 1779), born 3 December and baptised 21 December 1779; married, 7 March 1806 at Forgan, Archibald Torry (b. 1778) of Edinburgh, cloth merchant, and had issue four sons and two daughters;

(2.6) Margaret Berry (1781-1864), born 17 September and baptised 24 September 1781; died unmarried, 15 April 1864 and was buried at Forgan with her parents;

(2.7) Sarah Craufurd Berry (1782-1880), born 18 October and baptised 30 October 1782; died unmarried and 97 on 9 April 1880, and was buried at Forgan with her parents.

In 1787 he purchased the lands of Tayfield, Wester Bogie, Prinlaws, Kinnaird and Innerdovat (Fife), some of which had belonged to his second wife's Nairne ancestors, and he built Tayfield House in 1788-90.

He died aged 92 on 14 October 1817. His first wife died 13 June 1762 and was buried in the Old Kirkyard at Leslie (Fife). His second wife died 11 June 1807.

Berry, William (1774-1852). Only son of John Berry (1725-1817) and his second wife, Isabella, daughter of Maj. Mungo Law of Pittillock (Fife), born 23 March and baptised at Abbotshall (Fife), 26 March 1774. Apprenticed to Laurence Hill WS and Harry Davidson WS, and subsequently admitted Writer to the Signet, 16 January 1798. He was chiefly responsible for the development of the Tay ferry at Newport-on-Tay, and was also a partner in a firm renting salmon fishing in the river Tay (Berry & Ball) which became bankrupt in 1824; he remained engaged in moves to improve the economics of salmon fishing for the rest of his life. He married, 20 September 1823, Isabella (1791-1877), daughter of Sir Robert Bruce-Henderson (1762-1833), 6th bt., of Fordell and Earslhall (Fife), and had issue:

(1) John Berry (1824-77) (q.v.);

(2) Robert Berry (1825-1903), born 18 November 1825; educated at Edinburgh Academy, Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1844; BA 1848; MA 1850), Glasgow University (MA 1851; LLD) and the Inner Temple (admitted 1847; called 1853); barrister-at-law; admitted an advocate in Scotland, 1 December 1863; Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1850-58; Professor of Roman and Scots Law at Glasgow University, 1867-87; Secretary to the Royal Commissions on the Scottish Universities, 1858-63, 1876-78; Sheriff Principal of Lanarkshire, 1886-1903; DL for City of Glasgow; married, 17 August 1864, Mary (d. 1917), daughter of John Miller WS of Stewartfield (Roxburghs.), and had issue two sons and three daughters; died 17 January 1903; will confirmed, 6 April 1903 (estate £117,277);

(3) Isabella Wilhelmina Berry (1827-1905), born 22 June 1827; married, 7 July 1852 at Forgan (Fife), John Purvis (c.1820-1909) of Kinaldy (Fife) and had issue; died 15 October 1905 and was buried at Dunino (Fife);

(4) Margaret Georgina Berry (1828-1906), born 26 June 1828; lived at Abercraig, Newport-on-Tay; died unmarried, 17 December 1906; will confirmed 3 May 1907 (estate £7,349);

(5) Frances Berry (1829-1900), born 25 December 1829; married, 17 January 1854 at St Cuthbert, Edinburgh, John Kirk WS (1820-89), director of HM Chancery for Scotland, 1873-89, and had issue at least six sons and two daughters; died 13 February 1900; will confirmed 20 October 1900 (estate £709);

(6) Sarah Berry (1832-78), born 14 February 1832; married, 19 April 1858 in Edinburgh, William Mudie Paton (1824-98) of Dundee, and had issue four sons and two daughters; died 23 March 1878.

He inherited the Tayfield estate from his father in 1817 and remodelled the house in 1829-30.

He died 9 December 1852. His widow died 27 January 1877.

Berry, John (1824-77). Elder son of William Berry (1774-1852) and his wife Isabella, daughter of Sir Robert Bruce-Henderson, bt., of Fordell and Earslhall (Fife), born 7 November 1824. Educated at Edinburgh Academy and Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities. Admitted an advocate, 14 July 1849. He married, 15 November 1858, Margaret Higgins (c.1831-1915), third daughter of John Burn-Murdoch of Neuck and Coldoch (Stirlings.), and had issue:

(1) Annie Maule Berry (1859-1956), born 6 October 1859; died unmarried aged 96 on 29 July 1956;

(2) Isabella Sybil Berry (1861-1939), born 8 July 1861; died unmarried, 4 February 1939;

(3) William Berry (1864-1954) (q.v.);

(4) John James Archibald Berry (1865-66), born 29 August 1865; died in infancy, 4 November 1866;

(5) Robert Alexander John Berry (1868-1960), born 22 April 1868; educated at Eton; JP for Fife; civil engineer with Madras and South Mahratta Railway, 1896-1913; served in First World War with Northumberland Fusiliers, 1914-18 (wounded 1916); lived at Chesterhill, Newport-on-Tay; married, 3 March 1902 at All Souls, Langham Place, Marylebone (Middx), Dorothy (1878-1952), daughter of Arthur Bryans of Woodmansterne (Surrey), tea broker; died aged 91 on 27 February 1960;

(6) Arthur Alexander Nairne Berry (1870-71), born 22 June 1870; died in infancy, 12 June 1871.

He inherited Tayfield House from his father in 1852.

He died 17 December 1877; his will was confirmed, 24 April 1878 (estate, £20,622). His widow died 8 August 1915; her will was confirmed, 12 October 1915 (estate £3,730).

Berry, William (1864-1954). Eldest son of John Berry (1824-77) and his wife Margaret Higgins, third daughter of John Burn-Murdoch of Neuck and Coldoch (Stirlings.), born 9 May 1864. Educated at Eton, Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1883; BA and LLB 1886) and the Inner Temple (admitted 1885). Admitted an advocate, 18 July 1889. JP and DL for Fife. Chairman of Fife War Pensions Committee, 1916-49; Chairman of Joint Disablement Committee for Central Scotland, 1917-23. Appointed OBE, 1920. He married, 24 July 1906, Wilhelmina (1880-1907), third daughter of Allan Graham Barns-Graham of Lymekilns and Craigallian, and had issue:

(1) John Berry (1907-2002) (q.v.).

He inherited Tayfield House from his father in 1877.

He died aged 89 on 18 April 1954 and was buried at Forgan (Fife). His wife died of peritonitis, 28 August 1907, and was also buried at Forgan, where they are commemorated by a headstone.

Berry, John (1907-2002). Only child of William Berry (1864-1954) and his wife Wilhelmina, third daughter of Allan Graham Barns-Graham of Lymekilns and Craigallian, born 5 August 1907. Despite suffering from dyslexia, he was educated at Eton, Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1929; MA 1931); and St Andrews University (PhD, 1935). A lifelong passionate nature conservationist, he was Director of the Salmon Fishery Board for Scotland, 1937-39 (Researcher, 1931-37); Senior Press Censor for Scotland, 1940-44; Biologist and Information Officer, North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board, 1944-49; Director of the Nature Conservancy for Scotland, 1949-67; Conservation and Fisheries Adviser, South of Scotland Electricity Board 1973-89; Vice-President of Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, 1959-2002; DL for Fife (from 1969); appointed CBE, 1968. Author of The Status and Distribution of Wild Geese and Wild Duck in Scotland (1939). He received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Dundee (LLD, 1970) and St. Andrews (DSc, 1991), and was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 1936. He married, 20 August 1936, Hon. Bride Faith Louisa (1910-2003), second daughter of Thomas Francis Fremantle (1862-1956), 3rd Baron Cottesloe, and had issue:

(1) Margaret Wilhelmina Berry (b. 1937), born 23 August 1937; married, 4 April 1962, Ronald Lindsay Alexander ARIBA, architect, second son of George Alexander of Edinburgh, and had issue one son and one daughter; living in 2018;

(2) William Berry (b. 1939) (q.v.);

(3) Peter Fremantle Berry (b. 1944), born 17 May 1944; educated at Eton and Lincoln College, Oxford (BA 1966; MA); with Harrisons and Crosfield plc, 1966-73; the Anglo-Indonesian Corporation plc, 1973-82 and Crown Agents Ltd from 1982-2007 (managing director, 1988 and later Chairman); director and later chairman of Thomas Tapling & Co., 1987-date; Kier Group plc, 1997-2007; Martin Currie Portfolio Investment Trust plc, 1999 (chairman, 2000); a trustee of the Charities Aid Foundation; appointed CMG, 1998 and received Japanese Order of the Rising Sun, 2008; Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; married, 26 February 1972, Paola, daughter of Giovanni Padovani, and had issue one son and two daughters; now living.

He inherited Tayfield House from his father in 1954, and made it over to his son in 1989.

He died in 2002. His widow died in 2003.

Berry, William (b. 1939). Elder son of Dr. John Berry (1907-2002) and his wife, the Hon. Bride Faith Louisa, second daughter of Thomas Francis Fremantle, 3rd Baron Cottesloe, born 26 September 1939. Educated at Eton, St. Andrews University (MA 1961) and Edinburgh University (LLB 1963). Solicitor and Writer to the Signet since 1965. Senior partner of Murray Beith Murray LLP (retired 2000), notary public, and director of several financial services companies. Depute Chairman of Edinburgh Festival Society, 1985-89; board member of Royal Botanic Garden (Edinburgh) and Museum of Scotland and many local charities; Senior Governor, 2002-07, and later Chancellor's Assessor, 2004-10, of St. Andrews University. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He married, 15 December 1973, Elizabeth Margery, only daughter of Sir Edward Redston Warner KCMG OBE of Blockley (Glos), and had issue:

(1) John Berry (b. 1976), born 22 February 1976; educated at Edinburgh University (MA) and Oxford Brookes University (MSc); investment manager with Baillie Gifford, Edinburgh; married, by 2007, Dr. Megan Louise Bastick (b. 1975), a lawyer working with security institutions to promote gender equality, and had issue two sons;

(2) Robert Edward Alexander Berry (b. 1978), born 15 July 1978; educated at Bristol University (BA 2001); married, by 2009, Catriona Campbell and had issue one son and one daughter.

He took over the Tayfield House estate from his father in 1989 and undertook a major restoration before moving into it in 1991. In 2018 he built a new house in the grounds of Tayfield House to which he moved on handing the estate over to his son John.

Now living. His wife is now living.

Principal sources

Burke's Landed Gentry, 1952, pp. 167-69; Burke's Landed Gentry of Scotland, 2001, pp. 64-66; Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 2003, pp. 919-20; J. Gifford, The buildings of Scotland: Fife, 1988, pp. 337-38; 

https://www.newportontayhistory.org.uk/people/tayfield-estate-1-the-estate-the-house-the-family

Location of archives

Berry of Tayfield: deeds and estate papers, 18th-19th cents [University of St Andrews Special Collections, msdep133]; legal papers of William Berry, 1785-1842 [University of St Andrews, Special Collections, msDA817.B4]. Additional deeds, estate and legal papers, personal correspondence, diaries and accounts remain in private custody [Enquiries to National Register of Archives for Scotland].

Coat of arms

Quarterly, 1st and 4th, vert a cross-crosslet argent (for Berry); 2nd and 3rd, per pale argent and sable, on a chaplet four mullets counter-changed (for Nairne).

Can you help?

• Can anyone provide portraits or photographs of the people whose names appear in bold above, for whom no image is currently shown?
• If anyone can offer further or more precise information or corrections to any part of this article I should be most grateful. I am always particularly pleased to hear from current owners or the descendants of families associated with a property who can supply information from their own research or personal knowledge for inclusion.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 12 January 2025.